Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today wrote to Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Jeffrey Lyash about plans to transition away from coal-fired electricity generation by building a new fossil gas plant, which would require the construction of a new gas pipeline. Congressman Cohen urged a re-thinking of the plan and an increased focus on clean, renewable energy.
The letter reads in part:
“Building new gas capacity as a ‘bridge’ to integrating renewables is a misleading and long-debunked argument. We have domestic technology and, importantly, understand how to integrate renewable energy into the grid immediately. Other utility companies are doing just that. Expanding fossil fuel generation would further entrench TVA into decades of volatile, unreliable, and hazardous fossil fuels that would not only delay the agency’s long overdue transition to 100% carbon-emission free electricity but also harm TVA’s 10 million customers who already experience some of the highest electricity bills in the nation...
“With growing pressure to transition to clean, renewable energy and advance domestic energy independence, it is imperative that TVA reconsider its proposed methane gas replacement for the Cumberland Fossil Plant and prioritize investments in energy efficiency, solar, wind and storage. I urge you to immediately retire TVA’s inefficient and unreliable coal plants and replace them with energy efficiency, distributed and well-sited large-scale solar, storage, and wind to achieve fossil fuel-free energy by 2030.”
Original source can be found here.
