In July, after 26 months of organizing, thousands of petition signatures, packed county commission meetings, and countless hours of testimony, the campaign opposing the Tennessee Valley Authority’s proposed methane gas plant in Cheatham County was successful. As the Decarbonization Advocacy Coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and one of the organizers on this campaign, I had fought for exactly this outcome — no gas plant, no pipeline, no industrial complex carved from Tennessee farmland. TVA’s announcement that they were abandoning the project is a welcome reprieve in today’s world of backtracking clean energy wins and rug-pulling on clean energy policy. The victory we’d worked so hard for had finally arrived.
The Fight That United a Community
The Cheatham County campaign began like so many grassroots environmental fights — with residents who simply refused to become a sacrifice zone. When TVA announced plans for a massive 900+ megawatt gas plant on Lockertsville Road, complete with a new pipeline and up to 45 miles of high-voltage transmission lines, the community pushed back with everything they had.
Preserve Cheatham County formed almost overnight, bringing together an unlikely coalition of organic homesteaders and generational farmers, environmental advocates and property rights defenders, young families and longtime residents. Their message transcended typical political divides: protect our farmland, defend our property rights, safeguard our water, and resist unnecessary industrial development and government overreach that would primarily serve energy-hungry data centers and AI operations — not local homes and businesses.
For the next two years, this coalition organized town halls that drew hundreds; they submitted hundreds of public comments to TVA hearings; they raised funds for legal challenges; they lobbied everyone from county commissioners to congressional representatives. Ultimately, the work they did together turned obscure utility proceedings into front-page news.
County commissioners passed resolutions opposing the project. Local media framed the story as a classic David-versus-Goliath tale. Legal challenges were being prepared to target TVA’s rushed processes and eminent domain procedures. The community built exactly the kind of broad-based, sustained pressure campaign that can move mountains.
When Power Really Speaks
Then, in late May, country music star John Rich, who has ties to Cheatham County and connections in the Trump White House, posted a tweet condemning the project. John Rich proceeded to wage war against TVA on social media and talk radio shows, and got the attention of cabinet secretaries in the Trump administration. Ultimately, John Rich claimed to have received a phone call from the President himself, and within three days of the phone call, TVA announced it was no longer pursuing the Lockertsville Road site.
TVA offered no direct credit to Rich’s intervention, but the timing was impossible to ignore. Two years of democratic organizing had finally broken into the national spotlight – and once celebrity influence entered the picture, TVA folded almost overnight.
A Complex Interplay Between Grassroots Democracy & Celebrity Influence
This project was and is very personal to me. As a leader in Preserve Cheatham County, a community member, a mother, and now a professional advocate and activist, I truly dedicated my professional and personal time to this issue over 2+ years. And I’m relieved the plant is dead. The people of Cheatham County deserved to win this fight. Their arguments were sound, their organizing was impressive, and their cause was just. Without that organizing, there wouldn’t have been a groundswell for John Rich to amplify. He didn’t create the outrage – he tapped into it. The countless hours of volunteer work and sleepless nights – if overshadowed in the public eye by celebrity and fame – were still the impetus that made this victory possible at all. And while they should have been enough on their own, and rural communities shouldn’t have to depend on the fortune of celebrity attention to have their voices respected, this instance, like so many others in our country today, crested to victory only after someone famous happened to tweet about it.
The circumstances surrounding this aspect of the campaign’s victory are obviously troubling for me as an activist and raise some serious concerns about the ways power works in our country. In a functioning system, sustained community engagement, thorough public input processes, and elected representatives responding to their constituents should carry more weight than celebrity social media activity. When they don’t, we’re not just failing one community in Tennessee, we’re undermining the basic premise that ordinary citizens can meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their lives — and rural communities shouldn’t be forced to sacrifice their land and health so that distant corporations can power their AI server farms and cryptocurrency mines.
TVA’s behavior throughout this process — from their pattern of secrecy I’ve documented repeatedly, to their willingness to cut land deals before completing environmental reviews – exemplifies how powerful utilities treat public engagement as a box to check rather than a voice to heed. The Cheatham County story reflects a broader crisis in environmental decision-making, where industry access and celebrity influence consistently trump community voice.
But the bottom line is that the real grassroots work beneath the celebrity influence is the only reason the star power succeeded and the true reason that TVA’s plans for a polluting and unjust gas plant are no longer moving forward. That doesn’t erase the imbalance, but it is critical to recognize as we reflect on this huge win and the nuances surrounding it.
What’s Next?
The gas plant may be gone from Cheatham County, but TVA’s massive methane gas expansion continues across the Tennessee Valley. Other communities are facing similar fights, often with fewer resources and no famous neighbors tweeting on their behalf.
Our communities deserve a TVA that operates transparently, respects public input, and prioritizes community needs over corporate profits. We deserve elected officials who respond to sustained organizing rather than social media buzz. Most fundamentally, we deserve a democracy where collective action by ordinary citizens carries real weight, regardless of politically connected celebrities and back-room conversations.
The Cheatham County story shows us both the promise and the peril of today’s energy debates. Grassroots organizing created a victory worth celebrating, but the fight shouldn’t have required celebrity intervention to succeed. If TVA is serious about its mission, it must center communities, not corporations, and build an energy future that protects communities, farmland, water, and health. Until that happens, Cheatham County’s win is the beginning of a much larger fight across the Valley.
