The Trump administration has awarded $46 million to extend the life of the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee, a coal-fired facility that was slated for closure by 2028 after repeated environmental violations. The plant is one of at least three among 12 receiving Department of Energy grants that have been cited for breaking the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act in recent years, according to an Inside Climate News analysis.
A reversal of retirement plans
The Tennessee Valley Authority had planned to shut down Cumberland's units in 2026 and 2028 following a history of pollution problems. In 2011, TVA settled a multibillion-dollar lawsuit for failing to install pollution controls a decade earlier, and the plant was cited for more air-pollution violations in 2017 and 2023. But after President Donald Trump replaced four TVA board members, the agency reversed course in February, and the federal grant now aims to keep the plant running longer.
Other violators receive funding
Two other grant recipients have similar records. The Grand River Energy Center in Oklahoma and the Roxboro Steam Electric Plant in North Carolina have both been cited for environmental violations, including releasing wastewater with excess pollutants, over the past decade. Critics argue that subsidizing these plants undermines efforts to shift to cleaner energy.
Local and health concerns
Angie Mummaw, a local organizer living near the Cumberland plant, called the grant a "slap in the face," saying it moves backward from investing in clean energy. Maggie Shober of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy warned that extending coal operations accelerates climate change. Studies have linked coal-plant air pollution to early deaths, with one estimating that Cumberland's fine particles contributed to 1,000 deaths from 1999 to 2020, reaching as far as New York and Massachusetts.