A leading advocate for green power in the Southeast is calling on the Tennessee Valley Authority to operate a carbon-free grid by the end of this decade.

Evoking TVA’s roots as part of the 1930s New Deal effort to lift the mid-South out of poverty, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) Executive Director Stephen Smith said Wednesday that TVA could become a “leader in the national effort to reduce carbon.”

Speaking at a press conference, Smith said while TVA has yielded “a lot a positive change” over nearly 90 years, the agency is now “without a clear mission.”

He said TVA’s federal corporation status could make it integral to President Biden’s plans to slash carbon emissions and shore up the country’s infrastructure.

In addition to its existing hydroelectric assets and pumped storage facility, TVA is “blessed” with solar potential and positioned near transmission networks, Smith said.

“We think that all of these together make TVA uniquely poised to be a utility leader,” he said. “We believe TVA has enormous untapped potential in energy efficiency and demand-side management.”

The 2030 plan “is broad and ambitious, but also achievable,” SACE Director of Utility Reform Maggie Shober said.

Smith said TVA could become a key player in delivering wind energy from the Great Plains to load centers in the East. He said that while TVA has been retiring its aging coal fleet, it is largely replacing it with natural gas generation.

“They still have one of the oldest operating coal fleets in the country,” Shober said. “Several of these [coal] plants are 1950s vintage.”

Shober said the transition to zero-carbon sources could bring sorely needed jobs to the mid-South.

“It could make the region that much more attractive to businesses and workforces,” she said.

‘These Jobs Versus Those Jobs’

Smith said the perception that the region is losing coal industry jobs to the clean energy transition is largely an illusion.

“There is not a robust coal industry in this region. … And the coal industry is largely dead in Tennessee,” he said, noting that much of TVA’s coal supply comes from the Powder River Basin in the West.

Shober said that much of TVA’s natural gas supply is delivered from Texas.

“We’ve got through energy transitions in the past, and there are displacements,” Smith said. “You know, there were people who used to make buggy whips. …

“I think there are things we need to do generationally, so we don’t leave generational environmental debt,” he said. “Change can be difficult, but it’s necessary, especially when we have the technology.”

Coal workers can be retrained in some instances, he said. “I’m not saying be insensitive to folks, but the benefits will far outweigh the costs.

“You do have to look at it from a broader view and just not ‘these jobs’ versus ‘those jobs,’” Shober said.

Shober said that while SACE was not prescribing a pathway to zero-carbon energy, any such effort would not involve building “new fossil generation in the 2020s.”

Gas-fired generation is not a guaranteed low-cost option, Smith said. The Biden administration could enact carbon pricing that would increase the cost of TVA’s power supply, forcing the agency to see “the writing on the wall.”

“It’s our thought that innovation and incentives will do the majority of this. But I do believe that for those who resist innovation, there will be penalties involved,” Smith said. “We’re hoping that as an extension of the administration, the TVA is tasked with a mission to move forward.”

Shober said potential federal tax benefits could help reduce TVA’s costs for going zero-carbon.

Smith said a federal clean energy standard would correct the “market failure” of not recognizing the societal benefits of clean energy.

“It’s absolutely critical that we get on with the task of decarbonizing the grid,” Smith said.

Opposition to TVA’s Proposed Gas Plants

Meanwhile, TVA has proposed more gas-fired plants to replace its shuttered coal units. The agency in February released an environmental assessment outlining plans for 1.5 GW of new gas generation. That includes the addition of three new combustion turbines totaling 750 MW apiece at the Paradise combined cycle plant in Kentucky and the Colbert combustion turbine plant in Alabama.

Clean energy groups are uniting in opposition to the moves.

In public comments issued last month, SACE, Sierra Club, Energy Alabama and others called TVA’s plant proposals incompatible with Biden’s goal for net-zero emissions in the power sector by 2035.

The groups said TVA failed to analyze alternatives, including energy efficiency, demand response programs or renewable energy, at a time when it should be winding down use of fossil fuels. They said that by proposing more thermal generation and exacerbating the climate crisis, TVA “shirks its obligation to rapidly decarbonize and achieve environmental justice, flouting a presidential mandate.”

“The decision by TVA to replace one fossil fuel with another locks the utility into gas for decades,” the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Keith Johnston said in a release. “TVA did not properly consider other energy resources, such as energy efficiency, renewables and demand response programs, that could alleviate this need for more fossil fuels.”

Energy Alabama COO Daniel Tait said TVA is “home to some of the highest energy burdens — measured by the proportion of income spent on energy — in the country.”

“TVA’s failure to even consider energy efficiency, renewable resources or demand response will exacerbate the problem rather than solve it,” he said.

Shober said TVA “must get serious about modernizing its infrastructure rather than doubling down on the infrastructure of the last century.”

TVA spokesperson Malinda Hunter countered that TVA is already an “industry leader in carbon reduction” and said the agency has so far reduced its emissions 60% from 2005 levels.

She said that while TVA aspires to reach net-zero emissions, it’s focused on a 70% reduction by 2030 and “and a path to [an] 80% reduction or more” on an indeterminate timeline.

“As we make progress towards achieving these goals, it’s important that we continue to balance high reliability and low energy costs. … Continued progress towards net-zero emissions will require continued investment in technologies in addition to nuclear, solar, wind and hydro,” Hunter said in an email to NetZero Insider. “We see gas as a bridging strategy — a way to continue to add renewables and support the needs of the system while new technologies are developed. As one of the nation’s largest electricity providers, we are committed to being part of the solution and to working with others to solve this important challenge.”