Environment

A Nashville landfill, not operated by BFI. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Controversial Murfreesboro landfill loses court fight to expand

BY: - September 12, 2023

Owners of Middle Tennessee’s biggest landfill lost a legal bid to expand their site by nearly 100 acres, with a court ruling on Friday that regional officials had correctly followed the rules in rejecting the plan. The order from Judge Russell Perkins brings to a close a two-year legal fight in Davidson County Chancery Court […]

Trace Creek in Dickson County, Tenn. (Photo: Submitted)

Dickson County utility settles suit over sewage pollution

BY: - September 9, 2023

A public utility in Dickson County has settled a lawsuit brought by environmental groups over sewage pollution found in a small stream that flows to the Harpeth River, a key source of drinking water and recreation in Middle Tennessee. The agreement between the state regulators, the Water Authority of Dickson County and the Harpeth Conservancy […]

New federal dashboard tracks heat-related health emergencies

BY: - September 5, 2023

Nearly one in four Tennessee counties is experiencing higher-than-average number of heat-related health emergencies, according to new federal dashboard that maps emergency medical services responses to heat-related illnesses. Launched last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Climate Change and Health Equity and the Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic […]

A Nashville landfill, not operated by BFI. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Appeals court rules against Waste Management, Inc. in Nashville landfill expansion

BY: - September 1, 2023

A publicly-traded company’s bid to expand its landfill in a historically Black Nashville neighborhood has suffered another — and perhaps fatal — legal setback. The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s decision to deny the proposed expansion of the Southern Service Landfill in the Bordeaux neighborhood.  The landfill’s corporate owner is […]

Southern Services Landfill in Nashville's Bordeaux community. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Dispute over Murfreesboro’s Middle Point Landfill goes to court

BY: - August 25, 2023

A years-long dispute over the future of Middle Point Landfill landed in a Nashville courtroom on Thursday, where lawyers for the Murfreesboro mega-dump are appealing a regional board’s decision to deny its expansion plans. The fate of the landfill has implications far beyond Rutherford County. The 207-acre site currently accepts trash from one-third of all […]

A pumping station in Dickson County at the site of a 1992 gas line rupture. A proposed pipeline running through Ashland City, Tenn. would originate in the Dickson County town of White Bluff. (Photo: John Partipilo

Cheatham County elected officials join fight against proposed TVA plant

BY: - July 20, 2023

Elected officials are joining a community fight in Cheatham County against a proposed new Tennessee Valley Authority gas-fired power plant, which is slated to be built on 285 acres of mostly forested land that lies in close proximity to a local drinking water source. The Ashland City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of […]

Warnings posted in Dickson County near Tennessee Gas Pipeline property. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Environmental groups sue Tennessee Valley Authority over proposed new power plant

BY: - June 16, 2023

A trio of environmental groups has filed suit against the Tennessee Valley Authority, claiming the utility violated federal law by failing to properly evaluate climate, environmental and financial impacts of a proposed new gas-fired plant in Cumberland City, Tenn. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Nashville federal court, also claims that TVA quietly inked a […]

Coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authorities Kingston Fossil Plant Dec. 29, 2008 in Harriman, Tenn., after the dyke at left broke Dec. 22, 2008, unleashing a billion gallon flood of toxic sludge into the Emory River. (Photo: Greenpeace USA)

Jacobs Engineering settles Kingston coal ash case

BY: - May 23, 2023

After 10 years of litigation, workers who were forced to work without personal protection to clean up the Tennessee Valley Authority’s massive coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant in 2008 have reached a settlement in the case. TVA’s disaster clean-up contractor Jacobs Engineering posted a one-line notice Monday on its website affirming that […]

Democrats eager to speed construction of renewable energy projects and Republicans who complain about the burdens of federal permitting on development are looking for reforms. But there doesn’t seem to be enough time to tie proposals to the push to extend the debt limit. (Getty Image)

Overhaul federal permitting as part of the debt limit deal? Not as easy as it sounds.

BY: - May 19, 2023

Congressional leaders negotiating a deal to avoid a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt are talking about including an overhaul of how the federal government reviews projects for their environmental impact. There is bipartisan support for changes to the lengthy environmental approval process among climate-minded Democrats eager to speed construction of renewable energy projects, as […]

A coal-fired power plant in Romeoville, Illinois. The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a new rule to regulate fossil fuel power plant carbon dioxide. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

EPA again proposes power plant carbon rules

BY: - May 18, 2023

The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the U.S. Clean Air Act, was also tossed by a federal court. […]

Wind turbines rise up above farmland on the outskirts of the state capital on Nov. 19, 2013 near Middleton, Wisconsin. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Rural electric co-ops to get $10.7B in USDA funds for clean energy grants, loans

BY: - May 16, 2023

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin to administer two loan and grant programs worth nearly $11 billion to boost clean energy systems in rural areas, administration officials said Tuesday. Congress approved the federal spending — $9.7 billion for a grant and loan program the department is calling the New Empowering Rural America program, or […]

Aerial of the TVA plant in Kingsport Tennessee, Kingsport. on the Clinch River. An ash dam spill on December 22 2008 resulted in a major environmental issue for the area. (Photo: Karen Kasmauski for Getty Images)

Environmental groups pan TVA proposal to replace Kingston coal plant with natural gas facility

BY: - May 16, 2023

The Tennessee Valley Authority released a draft proposal on Friday that calls for replacing its Kingston coal-fired plant with a natural-gas facility, a move to swap one fossil fuel for another that disappointed but did not surprise critics who have long pressed the nation’s largest utility to make the transition to clean energy. The utility’s […]