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KNOXVILLE — In a startling about-face, the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on Wednesday voted unanimously to reverse plans to decommission two aging coal-fired power plants in Tennessee.

The board’s decision represents a dramatic departure from a utilitywide effort to move away from coal as an energy source.

Climate activists panned the board vote as a sop to the fossil-fuel industry and an abdication of the massive public utility’s statutory responsibility to the public.

The decision during the board’s meeting in Hopkinsville, Ky., applies to the Cumberland and Kingston fossil plants, both of which were to be replaced with natural-gas plants. The utility will continue planned natural-gas upgrades but will still fire the coal plants, which were both set to be decommissioned by 2028.

The site of the 70-year-old Kingston plant in Roane County was also supposed to be home to a solar array and other alternative-energy sources. A 2008 coal-ash slurry spill at the Kingston facility devastated a wide swath of adjacent property and the Emory and Clinch river watersheds. The Cumberland plant is situated near Clarksville in Middle Tennessee.

The Bull Run coal plant in Claxton near Oak Ridge was taken offline in 2023. Its locally iconic stacks were demolished in 2025. Last month, TVA announced a multimillion-dollar fusion energy research complex at the site in cooperation with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and Knoxville-based Type One Energy.

The board’s decision on the Kingston and Cumberland facilities represents a dramatic departure from a utilitywide effort to move on from coal and shutter coal-fired boilers in favor, largely, of natural gas. 

Burning coal and other fossil fuels releases large amounts of sulfates, nitrates and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and worsens a greenhouse effect that drives global temperature increases. Fine particles are also a threat to respiratory health. TVA has long operated costly emissions-control technologies at its coal plants.

-Compass Knox

TVA’s Cumberland Fossil Plant near Clarksville is the subject of a suit filed by environmental groups, including Appalachian Voices and Southern Environmental Law Center.  Tennessee Valley Authority

SELC, others file suit in hopes of dissuading TVA from future fossil options

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

CLARKSVILLE — On behalf of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, the Southern Environmental Law Center asked TVA to prepare a supplemental environmental statement to address concerns with TVA’s draft environmental impact statement, which details the agency’s plans to retire the Cumberland Fossil Plant.

The Cumberland Fossil Plant, about 22 miles southwest of Clarksville, is TVA’s largest coal-fired power station and was built between 1968 and 1973. TVA plans to retire each unit of the two-unit, coal-fired steam-generation plant separately: one unit no later than 2030, and the second unit no later than 2033. But the plant will need to be replaced, and TVA is currently considering three alternatives to fossil fuel, including natural gas and solar energy, according to its draft EIS.

(Tennessee Valley Authority already plans to close down the Knoxville-area Bull Run fossil plant in Claxton next year).