TVA’s Shift from Empowering Communities to Seizing Farmlands

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was founded during the Great Depression to bring affordable electricity and economic uplift to rural communities. However, in recent years, TVA has shifted its focus towards methane gas plants, sacrificing its original mission in pursuit of profit.

The proposed methane gas plant in Cheatham County highlights TVA’s disregard for local communities, as they push forward with environmentally harmful projects and aggressive land acquisition tactics, threatening the very people the utility was created to serve.

TVA was not just a power utility; it was a lifeline for the rural communities in the Valley, a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity.

The Great Depression seems like eons ago, but it really wasn’t all that long ago. Some of our parents and grandparents lived through it, and it was one of the toughest eras in the Tennessee Valley’s history. Amidst this hardship, TVA was born as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933. TVA’s mission was clear and noble: to improve the quality of life for the region’s inhabitants through flood control, reforestation, and the generation of affordable electricity for rural communities. TVA brought light where there was darkness, hope where there was despair, and progress where there was stagnation. For decades, TVA remained a beacon of public service, transforming the Tennessee Valley into a thriving and electrified region. It built dams, controlled flooding, and brought power to thousands of farms, homes and families.

However, over the years, TVA has strayed from this original mission. Today, it is the largest public power utility in the United States, and its priorities have shifted. TVA is now heavily focused on the development of methane gas plants, a move incentivized by the multi-million dollar salary structures of its executives. The proposed 900 megawatt methane gas plant on a farm in Cheatham County is a stark example of this shift. 

This shift comes with significant environmental and social costs: methane gas plants emit harmful pollutants, contribute to climate change, and often disproportionately impact low-wealth communities and communities of color. 

Secrecy-Shrouded Planning Process

TVA quietly purchased the 286-acre farm in rural Cheatham County where it plans to build the gas plant during the pandemic when everyone was preoccupied with the novel threat of Covid-19. The area is predominantly agricultural, and the property purchased by TVA is zoned agricultural. When word got out that TVA bought the farm, the county mayor was stonewalled when seeking answers. The only response he could get from TVA was the site would be for “future use” and likely some sort of solar support.

Three years later, TVA published the first publicly available information about its intention to build a 75 acre methane gas plant in an obscure announcement in the Federal Register, which is a publication by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Although this is a public document, it’s not something the general public – or any community members – would typicall follow to see the publication. Not one person from TVA reached out to the County Mayor, members of the County Commission, or even adjoining and adjacent landowners to inform them of their plans to build the plant. Neighbors and local community members learned of TVA’s plans through a non-profit environmental organization, not from TVA, only days before TVA held the first public meeting about the project. Adding to the secrecy, TVA failed to disclose the physical location of the property in the Federal Register announcement, simply saying it would be on “TVA owned property” in Ashland City, “along Sycamore Creek,” and many people assumed it was near the dam at Cheatham Lake (the Cheatham County dam is owned and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, not TVA).

TVA unveiled its gas plans for the county at a public open house in Ashland City on June 21, 2023, at a meeting space where they expected attendance of 25 community members. TVA proclaims they want public engagement. They claim they value and consider the opinions and comments from the general public, yet their open house meeting was scheduled to take place after the comment period would close.

The number of attendees at that June 21 meeting varies depending who you talk to, but it’s estimated that over 300 people showed up. The room was lined like a cattle corral with professional poster board presentations and specialized experts, and the place was packed wall to wall with concerned citizens trying to get answers. There was a seemingly endless line snaking around the parking lot with more waiting to get in. 

Cheatham Community Overcomes TVA’s Roadblocks To Participation

Shortly after the open house, dozens of community members met and began organizing a local community group now known as Preserve Cheatham County, which grew to over 2,000 members within a year. Community members quickly mobilized against the threat and worked with local officials to pass a Cheatham County resolution opposing the methane gas plant and the related pipeline and demanding an extension of the comment period. Very few in the Cheatham County community knew what NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act)  was, what a comment period was, what a scoping report was, what an EIS (environmental impact statement) was. This was all new and horrific and quite frankly, offensive that TVA simply came into a community, without any warning, without any communication to local elected officials, without any regard to local zoning, and is trying to do whatever they want. 

More Questions Than Answers

The June 21 open house resulted in far more questions than answers, and community members demanded the TVA return for a public town hall to directly face the community. After months of negotiation, they agreed to return, and TVA secured the Cheatham County Middle School for the town hall on February 13, 2024. Organizers with Preserve Cheatham County urged TVA to ensure a format that was inclusive and allowed community members to ask questions and receive answers in real time. Once again, TVA underestimated the concern and blocked off half of the gymnasium for poster boards instead of participants, leaving dozens of citizens standing against the wall and sitting on the floor. 

TVA Pressing Ahead, Brushing Off Community Concerns

After all the opposition and all of TVA’s assurances that county members are being heard, just a few months later, TVA is pressuring landowners with threats of condemnation to access private property for field surveys for up to 45 miles of new high voltage transmission lines to support the new methane gas plant, signing secret deals to contract out miles of new gas pipelines, and planning to commandeer even more farmland for access roads and construction pathways. In the TVA Board of Directors meeting in Florence, AL last month, they even announced plans to purchase turbines for the plant before doing due diligence in considering alternatives, conducting environmental reviews, or officially approving the plant. Landowners who have resisted TVA’s badgering for property access are now being sued in Federal Court. This aggressive approach completely disregards the concerns and opposition of local residents. It not only threatens the environment, but also undermines the very communities the TVA was created to serve.

Ratepayers Bear The Costs 

Energy generation is undeniably complex, but the financial burden of the proposed multi-billion-dollar, decades-long methane gas expansion is placed directly on the backs of the people. Every month, ratepayers are footing the bill. Recently, TVA’s Board of Directors approved two consecutive rate hikes within a single year to help cover the massive expenses of their gas plant expansions. This rapid push for more methane gas plants unfairly shifts enormous financial risks onto ratepayers, leading to higher utility bills and locking in decades of pollution. Meanwhile TVA’s position in recent years has been blocking customers from lowering their bills through rooftop solar, rejecting buying incredibly low cost clean wind energy, and consistently lagging in deployment of low cost solar energy. This is a far cry from the TVA’s original mission of providing affordable electricity to rural communities.

The TVA’s antiquated bias toward methane gas poses significant environmental risks. We know methane, the main component of methane gas, is a potent greenhouse gas, and its production and use contribute to climate change. The environmental degradation caused by these plants, including upstream contamination where the gas is fracked and transported, increases air, water and soil pollution, and further harms the communities that the TVA was meant to protect.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, as part of the federal government, is the President’s flagship utility. Instead of destroying farmlands and greenspaces and pocketing the profits from these harmful projects, TVA should be investing in rooftop and community solar, pursuing distributed energy resources, and assisting rural communities with agrivoltaics. By integrating solar power with agricultural activities, TVA can support local economies like Cheatham County, promote energy independence, and protect the environment, all while staying true to its foundational goals.

These sustainable energy solutions are available now. They’re reliable now. They’re resilient now. And they’re affordable now.

Not only would renewables reduce environmental impacts now, but they also better align with the TVA’s original mission: to help  farmers. Just last year, TVA started turning the tide on energy efficiency. After years of underinvestment and neglect, TVA announced a $1.5 billion investment into energy efficiency over 4 years, which will help invest in peoples’ homes and businesses and lower their bills. We need to see TVA make these same kinds of strides on lowering people’s energy costs through renewable and clean energy.

Not Just NIMBY

It’s easy to label the opposition to the proposed methane gas plant in Cheatham County as a classic case of “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY). But this fight isn’t just about protecting local property or preserving the pristine beauty of rural Tennessee. This is about government overreach and an abuse of power by an unregulated monopoly sanctioned by the federal government. TVA’s plans in Cheatham County are just one piece of the company’s larger effort to build the nation’s largest expansion of polluting fossil fuel power capacity in the entire nation this decade.

Altogether, TVA is in the process of adding eight separate methane gas plants across its system while at the same time slow walking solar energy that would lower people’s bills and reduce pollution. 

Cheatham County Mayor, Kerry McCarver said it best, “There is no way on earth that the county would ever approve to put something like that there. And because they are TVA, they feel like they can do it and just push us aside. And I think tonight, the voice was very loud that we are not going to be pushed aside that easily.” And resistance to TVA’s backwards plans isn’t limited to local residents in Cheatham County. It is shared by concerned citizens from across the Tennessee Valley. People from Memphis to Chattanooga, Knoxville to Huntsville, are speaking out against TVA’s plans – not just for the sake of Cheatham County, but for the future of our entire region. These communities see the bigger picture: TVA, a public utility, has a responsibility to be good stewards of the land and lead in the clean energy transition. Yet, instead of investing in sustainable, renewable energy sources, TVA is doubling down on risky and outdated fossil fuel projects. This isn’t just a gamble with the environment – it’s a financial risk that ratepayers from across the Valley will have to shoulder as evidenced by the two recent rate increases approved by the TVA Board of Directors. 

People all over the Tennessee Valley want to see TVA become a clean energy leader, not a laggard. They want to see their hard-earned money going toward projects that build a sustainable future, not locking them into decades of dependency on more fossil fuels. The opposition to this gas plant isn’t just about Cheatham County – it’s about demanding better for all of us.

Look To Your Roots

As we reflect on the history of power generation in the Tennessee Valley, it’s important to remember the TVA’s roots. TVA was created to serve the people, to uplift rural communities, and to protect the environment. It’s time for the TVA to return to these core values, stop the gas build out, and to prioritize sustainable and equitable energy solutions.