US utility pledges more transparency after lack of notice it empowered CEO to make plant decisions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The nation’s largest public utility vowed Thursday to be more transparent after taking months to disclose that a general budget vote by its board of directors last year also gave the CEO the final decision on several proposed natural gas plants.
The Tennessee Valley Authority board announced the transparency changes during its quarterly meeting in Nashville. The decision followed an August meeting in which the federal utility’s board of directors cast the budget vote, quietly giving President and CEO Jeff Lyash the final say on the projects, which include replacing the aging coal-fired Kingston Fossil Plant with a natural gas plant.
The public only learned about these provisions when documents containing specific details were released several months later, some through public records requests, said Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The decision contrasted with a more publicized vote in May 2023, when the board, with a new majority elected by President Joe Biden, took back final decision-making authority over the Kingston plant. Lyash had been given authority for Kingston and the natural gas switch at Cumberland Fossil Plant, both in Tennessee, when the majority board was elected by former President Donald Trump.
“One of the changes that the chairman asked me to do, which I can, is to take the resolutions, the very things that are voted on by the board, and make those resolutions publicly available, and put them up quickly after the meeting to set up the website. Lyash told the Associated Press.
Board member Michelle Moore, who was absent but had a statement read on her behalf, said some decisions are better delegated to the CEO because they span years and multiple board cycles, but others require board decisions because of “exceptional, regional and even national significance. .” Additionally, Lyash said the board provides oversight when the CEO is the decision maker.
TVA’s plans to open more natural gas plants have drawn the ire of advocates who want to take an aggressive move away from fossil fuels and toward solar power and other renewable energy sources. They note that even with six of the nine board members appointed by Biden, TVA is not on track to meet the Biden administration’s goal of eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 in an effort to limit the effects of climate change. Several of its proposals for new natural gas plants have drawn criticism from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including a warning that the Kingston project’s environmental assessment does not comply with federal law.
Trey Bussey, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the transparency changes should have happened “before TVA decided to spend billions of dollars on new gas plants and pipelines — and not after,” adding that the board could still block gas plant construction to prevent. In April, the law center said it had recently discovered that the board had returned decision-making authority to the CEO.
Although TVA has not embraced renewables, the utility still says the majority of its energy is carbon-free, as 42% comes from nuclear and another 9% from hydropower. Purchased wind and solar energy make up another 4% of the energy portfolio. The utility currently produces 1 megawatt of its own solar energy and has 20 megawatts of battery storage. The Kingston project includes an additional 3-4 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts of battery storage. TVA estimates that the new gas plant will produce 1.68 million metric tons (1.52 million metric tons) of greenhouse gases per year, noting that this is a steep drop from Kingston’s current emissions.
TVA says its energy mix was 55% last fiscal year, with a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The utility has said it plans to build 10,000 megawatts of solar by 2035. Solar energy targets have presented some problems, including the supply chain. issues, interest rates and land costs, Lyash said.
As the region’s population grows and TVA looks to add power plants, the utility also says it has a goal of reducing consumption by 30% over the next decade through energy efficiency and demand response programs.
TVA provides power to 10 million people in seven southern states.