There was no mention of that story in the authority’s announcement that it would accept the Energy Department grant and spend $48 million more on improvements. Oklahoma Watch reported that the cash injection would give the plant several more years of operation.
“Extending the useful life of Unit 2 represents the most cost-effective solution for GRDA, compared to new-build generation alternatives,” Dan Sullivan, the authority’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “This grant allows us to leverage existing infrastructure to continue providing affordable, reliable energy to GRDA customers into the future.”
Meanwhile, Duke Energy proposed in a December 2025 submission retire Roxboro’s coal units by 2034. Norton said that hasn’t changed and the grant will maintain reliability and keep costs down as the utility invests in future projects.
When TVA outlined its plans to phase out the 50-year-old Cumberland plant, noted “environmental, economic and reliability risks” in all its coal facilities. To keep Cumberland running, the utility said“would still produce relatively large amounts of air pollutants.”
The federally owned utility changed course after Trump. replaced four TVA board members in 2025. TVA Chief Financial Officer Tom Rice praised “beautiful, clean coal” at a board meeting in February, echoing Trump’s signature energy slogan.
Shober of the Southern Clean Energy Alliance criticized the decision as “a tit-for-tat vendetta” that will cause “severe harm to TVA customers, the people who live in the Tennessee Valley.”
Fiedler, the TVA spokesman, said the Trump administration’s coal push aligns with TVA’s reliability goals.
In January, TVA estimated that maintaining the plant to current regulatory standards would require an investment of $738 million, according to internal documents obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center through a public records request and reviewed by Inside Climate News. This is more than six times the project listed in the federal grant announcement. Still, the board said the move would ultimately save money.
King of the Southern Environmental Law Center doubts that. He said TVA’s plan for Cumberland means its customers will have to “foot the bill for projects many of them didn’t want.”
Sellers, the environmental history professor, said the Trump administration’s willingness to invest in the plants is “making pollution great again.”
“We’re going to pay the price for that,” he said. “Certainly, the people who live next to those plants are going to pay the price for that first and hardest.”
This article originally appeared on Insider climate newsa nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization covering climate, energy and the environment. Subscribe to their newsletter here.
