Following the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) release of its 2025 draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), Evergreen Action Power Sector Senior Policy Lead Charles Harper released the following statement:

“TVA’s draft Integrated Resource Plan represents a failure of leadership at a time when we should be fully investing in our clean energy future, not deepening our reliance on expensive fossil fuels. Several scenarios in TVA’s draft plan would build up to 19 gigawatts of new gas power plants—the largest gas buildout in the country—at a time when the rest of the U.S. is shifting toward clean, affordable energy. Furthering its reliance on gas plants would increase electricity bills unnecessarily, lock communities in the South into decades of pollution, and extend its shameful legacy of environmental injustice since Black and low-income communities living in TVA’s footprint will bear the brunt of the pollution. 

“TVA should conduct a robust public hearing process that invites outside modeling. Independent analysis, as is the norm in IRPs across the country, would show that TVA has already approved more gas than it needs and shouldn’t invest in even more expensive gas plants when clean, affordable, and reliable alternatives are available. In its final IRP, TVA must do better and plan for a scenario that prioritizes the people and communities it serves.”

Evergreen has long called for TVA to align itself with our national climate goals, break away from its reliance on fossil fuels, and provide more reliable, cost-effective, and equitable energy to its ratepayers. You can read more here.

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