Harriman, Tennessee — On Thursday, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club, sued the Tennessee Valley Authority for violating the Clean Air Act and putting public health at risk by building its new Kingston Gas Plant, which TVA plans to operate alongside its 70-year-old Kingston Coal Plant, before receiving the required air permit or evaluating the impacts of the two plants’ combined emissions.

The ongoing violation is the result of TVA’s reckless decision to go back on its promise to close the Kingston coal plant, which is one of the utility’s dirtiest, least reliable, and most expensive power plants, as well as the site of a devastating coal ash spill in 2008. Instead of following through with its commitment to shutter the decrepit facility, TVA abruptly reversed course earlier this year and decided to continue running the coal plant even after the gas plant is complete. The federal utility said in a now-deleted post on social media that it plans to run its Kingston and Cumberland coal plants “forever.”

Operating both its coal and gas plants at the Kingston site will cause a significant increase in emissions requiring a “major” source permit, but TVA barreled ahead with construction of the new gas plant without that required permit. The federal utility’s actions are a clear violation of the Clean Air Act.

“The Tennessee Valley Authority’s bait-and-switch is an obvious attempt to sidestep federally required pollution limits that would better protect families in East Tennessee from dangerous air pollution,” Southern Environmental Law Center Staff Attorney Delaney King said.

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