Environment

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 […]

The property is now home to four Superfund sites, a designation given by the federal government to property containing hazardous substances harmful to human health for generations to come. 

Landfill developer sues Marshall/Maury County over denial of project on Monsanto site

BY: - May 12, 2023

A months-long battle over plans to establish a regional trash disposal facility on a federal Superfund site in Maury County that sits alongside the Duck River has now landed in court. Remedial Holdings filed suit Wednesday against the Marshall/Maury Municipal Solid Waste Planning Region Board, which in April rejected the company’s application to expand a […]

One analysis of Southern Company, which owns the dominant utilities in Alabama and Georgia, found that it could have saved its customers $1.5 billion between 2015 and 2020 if it was in a wholesale market that required it to operate its coal plants from lowest cost to highest and imported cheaper electricity from elsewhere. Georgia Power is aiming to shut down its coal-fired power plants by 2028, except for Plant Bowen, which won’t close until 2035. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)

In the Southeast, where big utilities rule, calls for a real power market persist

BY: - May 8, 2023

A report prepared for the South Carolina state legislature and released on April 28 determined that a range of electric market and transmission reforms — including creating a new independent organization to run the electric grid or joining an existing one — would bring  “substantial benefits” for customers, potentially as much as $362 million a […]

Murfreesboro Shane McFarland, photographed by John Partipilo at a 2021 meeting with officials from Middle Point Landfill.

Murfreesboro takes steps to divert trash from landfills into new energy-producing venture

BY: - May 5, 2023

In the midst of prolonged legal disputes with owners of a regional landfill in Rutherford County, Murfreesboro is moving forward with plans to divert its household waste to a new venture that promises to turn trash into energy. The Murfreesboro City Council on Thursday approved the latest step in its partnership with WasteAway, which has […]

Despite a rash of shooting attacks against electric substations last year, regulators are not recommending new physical security requirements. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

After shootings, regulator doesn’t recommend additional substation security standards

BY: - April 21, 2023

The organization in charge of setting and enforcing reliability standards for the U.S. electric grid isn’t recommending new physical security requirements for thousands of electric substations following a rash of shooting attacks that have knocked out power in parts of several states. Jim Robb, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, told the Federal […]

A gas flare from a petroleum refinery in Norco, Louisiana. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

EPA sued over failure to set, update pollution limits 

BY: - April 14, 2023

More than a dozen environmental groups are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to set water pollution limits for some industrial contaminants as well as its reluctance to update decades-old standards for others, arguing that the agency’s inaction amounts to a “free pass to pollute” for hundreds of chemical and fertilizer plants, […]

Former Rep. Justin Jones, D-Memphis, concludes his defense prior to the House of Representatives voting to expel him on partisan lines. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Federal judge temporarily blocks new Biden WOTUS rule in two dozen states

BY: - April 13, 2023

A federal judge in North Dakota on Wednesday blocked in 24 states the Biden administration’s newly effective definition of waters that can be regulated under the Clean Water Act. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, a George W. Bush appointee on retired status in the North Dakota District, issued a preliminary injunction in a case two […]