TVA Pursues Multiple Methane Gas Power Plants and Pipelines

The Tennessee Valley Authority is planning the biggest methane gas buildout of any utility this decade. TVA has proposed nine new gas power plants since 2020, and the three largest of them — Kingston, Cumberland and Cheatham — would each involve new pipelines to be constructed by multibillion-dollar pipeline corporations. 

The 122-mile Ridgeline Pipeline would be built and operated by East Tennessee Natural Gas LLC, owned by Enbridge Inc. The pipeline would feed a new gas plant that TVA is planning outside of Kingston, Tennessee, to replace its retiring Kingston coal plant. Ridgeline would cross eight Tennessee counties and cross waterways over 400 times. Construction on the Ridgeline pipeline could start as soon as this year. Appalachian Voices, the organization that publishes this newspaper, has appealed the air permit issued for the gas plant’s construction by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and is part of a separate legal challenge to TVA’s decision to replace the Kingston coal units with a new methane gas plant.

The Cumberland and Cheatham pipelines, and the gas plants they would feed, are all part of TVA’s plan to replace its retiring Cumberland coal plant. TVA has contracted with Kinder Morgan to construct these pipelines. 

Construction has begun on the Cumberland pipeline, and Appalachian Voices is involved in a legal challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s issuance of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the project. Appalachian Voices is also part of a lawsuit challenging TVA’s compliance with the environmental review process for the new gas plant in Cumberland City.

The Cheatham project timeline isn’t clear. TVA hasn’t finalized the environmental review and decision-making process required by federal law. Meanwhile, significant community opposition in Cheatham County has drawn attention from officials in the Trump administration. 

Community advocates argue that these gas projects aren’t necessary because there are more affordable, cleaner and safer ways to generate power that don’t pollute air, threaten water or take residents’ land for pipeline companies to profit from.