Environmental groups sue to block 32-mile natural gas pipeline to Cumberland power plant
Environmental groups are suing to stop the construction of a 32-mile natural gas pipeline to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Cumberland power plant.
The pipeline, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved in January, would cut through Dickson, Houston and Stewart counties to reach the plant in Cumberland City. TVA announced last January that it is transitioning the facility from coal to a gas-fired plant.
The Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, are suing the commission in the federal appeals court in Washington to try to stop the pipeline. The lawsuit was filed on Monday.
“FERC’s decision to greenlight this project ignored the harm the pipeline and gas plant would inflict on Middle Tennessee and beyond,” SELC senior attorney Spencer Gall said in a news release. “FERC is supposed to safeguard the public interest, not rubberstamp unnecessary pipeline projects that will harm our communities, hurt the climate, and contribute to higher power bills.”
The groups say that the pipeline would cut through dozens of streams in Middle Tennessee and that Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., owned by Houston pipeline giant Kinder Morgan and set to build the project, plans to use explosives to blast through streambeds to lay the pipeline.
The groups also expressed concern about the amount of methane that these sorts of pipelines leak and the possibility of explosions in the pipelines and their terminal destinations.
“FERC can’t weigh the climate impact of this pipeline until FERC knows how much carbon and methane pollution is really on the ledger,” said Cris Corley, chair of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, in the news release. "Upstream, downstream — it’s all connected."
Kinder Morgan declined to comment for this story.
TVA's announcement about switching from coal to natural gas came after a nearly two-year environmental review process in which environmental groups, the U.S. Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency criticized TVA for not meaningfully exploring other options, such as renewables, like solar.
TVA estimated that the switch to natural gas would cut carbon emissions by up to 60%.
FERC, in its approval of the pipeline, acknowledged that construction of the pipeline and new gas-fired units at the plant would disproportionately impact people already overburdened with existing pollution sources.
The pipeline will connect the plant to an existing line in Dickson County.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Groups sue to block Middle Tennessee natural gas pipeline
