The nation’s biggest public utility just doubled down on coal, gas, and nuclear
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- TVA's draft Integrated Resource Plan through 2050 reverses an earlier, limited emphasis on renewables and instead prioritizes nuclear, gas, and coal, reflecting policy shifts under the Trump administration that eliminated renewable incentives, reshuffled the utility's leadership, and lifted EPA restrictions on coal emissions.
- The utility expects no more than 5 gigawatts of new utility-scale solar — down from up to 20 gigawatts in the 2025 draft — and has excluded wind entirely, because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 requires solar projects to break ground by 2027 to qualify for federal tax incentives.
- TVA now plans to retain its coal fleet through 2039, may nearly double its previous estimated gas investment to as much as 26 gigawatts, and is pursuing license extensions for its three nuclear plants to manage what it calls reliability needs.
- Data centers already account for up to 20 percent of TVA's industrial load and are expected to double by 2030; the utility is exploring a dedicated rate for these operations, which it identifies as a core driver of the new plan.
- Trump fired three TVA board members last year, triggering a nine-month quorum loss that stalled the IRP; CEO Don Moul stepped down and was replaced by Mike Skaggs, the former vice president of operations at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, before three new board members were appointed over the winter.
- The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Appalachian Voices, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club, sent a June 25 letter to TVA leadership threatening a Clean Air Act lawsuit over permits for the new gas plant next to the Cumberland Fossil Plant.
- TVA is accepting public comment on the latest IRP through July 22, with a final recommendation expected August 6.
- Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis analyst Dennis Wamstead warned that keeping coal-fired plants open for political reasons doesn't change their economics: 'Those plants are no longer economic and increasingly unreliable.'
Why it matters: TVA's 10 million ratepayers across seven states could be locked into decades of costlier, higher-emissions power if the utility keeps uneconomic coal and gas plants running to serve data centers whose load is projected to double by 2030. Wamstead's warning that those plants are 'no longer economic and increasingly unreliable' pits the utility's financial health against its new political directives — with ratepayers holding the bag either way.
