SACE: TVA must also wean itself off natural gas and nuclear reliance

As previously reported by Hellbender Press, Tennessee Valley Authority plans to shut down its five remaining coal plants by 2050 and pursue a carbon-neutral future.

TVA board members spoke favorably of the decision at its regular meeting on Thursday.

“TVA CEO Jeff Lyash shared a vision of how TVA will continue to support the Valley for years to come with a commitment to sustainability. The board also endorsed a strategic focus on decarbonization and a commitment to providing a reliable, low-cost energy supply as TVA moves into the future,” according to a statement released Thursday by TVA.

“TVA leadership issued a Strategic Intent and Guiding Principles document to provide direction for developing business strategies that provide reliable, resilient, low-cost and clean energy to the region. View the Executive Summary of the document.

“TVA’s new Carbon Report outlines TVA’s commitment and path to reduce carbon in the coming years without compromising the reliability and low rates the Valley has come to expect. The report outlines TVA’s leadership today in carbon reduction, our plan to achieve 70 percent reduction by 2030, our path to 80 percent reduction by 2035 and our aspiration to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050.”

Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy generally lauded TVA’s sustainability mission, but released the following detailed response Thursday afternoon:

“The agency’s intentions fall far short of the Biden Administration’s goal of decarbonizing the nation’s electric grid by 2035, a timeframe recommended by scientists to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Joy Grissom (left) and Gerry Moll pose for a photograph with their collection of rescued native plants at Knoxville Botanical Gardens.  Photos by Anna Lawrence/Hellbender Press  

Joy Grissom and Gerry Moll: Preserving East Tennessee’s natural heritage with shovels and wheelbarrows

If there’s a massive ecological disturbance in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?

The Knoxville Native Plant Rescue Squad, of course. 

Joy Grissom and Gerry Moll spent the past six years identifying, digging, hauling and muscling native East Tennessee plants to salvation from construction, grading and logging sites.

The duo has saved thousands of plants and their communities from certain demise. They have plucked plants to safety from areas ranging from a 170-acre logging operation in Cocke County to relatively small commercial developments in Knox County.

NYT: EPA plans stricter regulation of HFC emissions

Hydrofluorocarbons were used on an industrial scale to replace ozone layer-destroying chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration, cooling and other applications, but they turned out to be a powerful driver of climate change. Scientists estimate HFCs are 1,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of their cimate-change role.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists continue research into zero-emission refrigerant technologies. 

According to Times reporting: “In proposing a new regulation, Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said the agency aimed to reduce the production and importation of hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years.”

“Our intelligence and flexibility as a society will be tested as the financial and industrial giants all figure out what they’re going to do.”

The Tennessee Valley Authority intends to phase out its aging fleet of coal plants by 2035, potentially replacing the age-old carbon-rich power source with increased use of natural gas and refreshed, concentrated supplies of nuclear energy as the vast utility moves to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan emerged Wednesday, about a month after the Biden administration called on the U.S. power sector to eliminate pollutants linked to climate change by 2035.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is the largest public provider of electricity in the United States. It provides wholesale power to every major municipal provider in Tennessee, as well as other metropolitan areas and smaller utility districts and cooperatives within its seven-state service area.

CItizen Times: Roan Mountain donation will protect vast stretches of forest in Roan Highlands

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney donated 7,500 acres to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, an area described by an Asheville Citizen-Times reporter as “A high-elevation hideaway for birds, bears and salamanders, a massive piece of Western North Carolina’s famous mountains left unmarred, and a refuge for rare species in the face of climate change...

Mayor wants green for green; some otherwise supportive city residents already aren’t pleased with some initiatives.

KNOXVILLE — Mayor Indya Kincannon’s proposed Knoxville 2020-2021 budget commits some $30 million to reduce city climate impacts, expand its use of renewable energy, invest in urban forest preservation and outdoor recreation assets and improve bus and bicycle travel in communities across the city. The budget also provides money for revitalization of the Burlington District, a historic pedestrian center of Black commerce in East Knoxville.

The city’s net budget is $384 million, which includes a $253 million operating fund.

The budget is just a recommendation to City Council at this point. 

This photo provided by Ijams Nature Center is an example of the plethora of weird things removed from the Tennessee River and its tributaries during the annual River Rescue held March 27. 

Mattresses, rocking horse and plastic shed among the stranger items retrieved from area waterways

Volunteers removed 31,000 pounds from the Tennessee River and its watersheds on March 27 during the 32nd annual Ijams River Rescue despite a storm system that dropped several inches of heavy rain on the area.

The rain dissuaded some of the 717 volunteers signed up for the river rescue, but nearly 500 people still joined together to collect trash from 32 sites. Their nasty haul included 919 bags of garbage and 82 tires, according to a release from Ijams Nature Center. 

The heavy rain actually worked out somewhat in organizers’ favor, as debris and flotsam were flushed from tributaries into the main stem of the river.

“Heavy rain always means more trash because the rising waters wash everything downstream and into the Tennessee River,” Ijams Volunteer Coordinator Madelyn Collins said in the news release. “We are so appreciative to everyone who braved the storms and did the work while they could. It was amazing how much volunteers accomplished in such a short time.”

One lucky participant found a $50 bill; other unusual items removed from the river included a toilet, a recliner, mattresses, a rocking horse, plastic shed and a baby stroller.

“The takeaway from this year’s event—and every other cleanup this community does—is that we need to be more careful about how we dispose of trash and recyclables. If you don’t put it where it belongs, it ends up in our water.”

Tennessee Valley Authority; city of Knoxville Stormwater Engineering; Bio Plumbing, LLC; First Horizon Foundation; Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency; WestRock CP, LLC; Genera, Inc.; Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union; Waste Connections of Tennessee Inc.; CAC AmeriCorps; and the Water Quality Forum sponsored, supported or participated in the annual cleanup.

There are lots of ways to show your affection for our planet on Thursday, which marks the 51st annual observance of Earth Day.

You can stay at home and plant a tree; donate to your favorite environmental charity; join a virtual event; or clean up your block.

Or, unlike last year, you can join other like-minded individuals at socially-distanced observances and trash cleanups, and even drink some beer and get in a good jog with a purpose.

Here's a sampling of Earth Day celebrations in East Tennessee, some of which will occur Thursday and some of which will stretch into the weekend. If you'd like to include an event, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

• Hellbender Press editor and publisher Thomas Fraser will join several featured speakers during the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center Earth Day 2021 Celebration. The virtual event runs from 6-8 p.m. Thursday and will include poetry, music and networking opportunities. You can register here. You can also view the Narrow Ridge Earth Day celebration on its Facebook page. 

• Infinite Light Center will host an Earth Day ceremony at First Creek Park in Old North Knoxville at 11 a.m. Thursday, followed by lunch and music. Attendees are asked to bring a musical instrument, folding chair, and an individual lunch. Participants can also bring personal items to include in a mandala made with natural objects found in the park.

• Knoxville skaters and others are invited to come out and clean up the area around the Tyson Park skatepark at 6 p.m. Thursday. A skate session will follow.

• Keep Knoxville Beautiful will host a fun run along Sutherland Avenue to clean up litter along the roadway beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday. Enjoy a brew from Albright Grove Brewing Company after the event.

• Seven Islands State Birding Park will offer a science program for home-school students from 1-3 p.m. Thursday. The program will include basic ecology lessons and crafts. Register here.

• The annual Running for the Bears 5k begins at at 10 p.m. Friday at Nantahala Outdoor Center in Gatlinburg. Proceeds from the race benefit Friends of the Smokies and black bear preservation efforts.

• Greensteps and WaterWays in Chattanooga will host a Citico Creek cleanup from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday.

• Green Steps and North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy organized a cleanup of North Chickamauga Creek from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturday. There are a range of other Earth Day events in the Chattanooga area.

$20 million per mile: TDOT opens virtual-only comment on highly controversial roadway

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has opened a virtual-only public comment period for the controversial Pellissippi Parkway extension, which would slice through the remaining rural areas of Blount County and move urban expansion and increased traffic flow ever closer to the Great Smoky Mountains, one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth.

The public comment period began April 15 and will last until April 25. The project has generated controversy and lawsuits for at least two decades, but TDOT decided the comment period should be held virtually for only two weeks because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The project encompasses about four miles and will cost nearly $100 million. Opponents of the parkway say the extension is a waste of money and will destroy rural landscapes and wildlife habitat and pollute aquatic resources.

Here's a link to a story about the Pellissippi Parkway extension published in February by Hellbender Press.

According to The Daily Times,  which reported the public hearings on April 19:

“'The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the department to look for alternate ways to engage and interact with the public,' TDOT spokesman Mark Nagi said in a video introducing the presentation, framed as a somewhat awkward-to-navigate virtual reality room.”

According to the TDOT website:

“The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will host a Virtual Design public meeting from April 15, 2021, to April 29, 2021, to gather public input on the proposed project in Blount County on SR-162 Ext. (Pellissippi Parkway), from SR-33 to SR-73 (US-321).”

NYT: Ancient Native American rock carvings vandalized in Chattahoochee National Forest

From the “this is why we can’t have nice things” file: Vandals violated ancient and sacred Cherokee and Creek art with scratches and paint in the Track Rock Gap area of Chattahoochee and Oconee national forests.

“It’s one of the most significant rock art sites in the Southeastern United States and the only such site located on public land in Georgia,” according to a National Forest Service Facebook post, the NYT reported. That post was later removed by the forest service, which cited the ongoing criminal investigation.

The rock carvings date to 800 A.D. The vandalism occurred at some point in 2020 or early this year. 

There are at least 100 Native American petroglyphs in the north Georgia national forests. Some of the more prominent sites are fenced but allow people to view the ancient art.

Also from the Times report:

The Cherokee Tribal Heritage Preservation Office said in a statement that the Eastern Band of Cherokee people were “sad and frustrated” to learn of the vandalism.

“They are special sites for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and for all people as part of the Heritage of this region,” the statement said. “Whether through ignorance or malice — the result is irreparable damage to a unique site that connects us directly to the people of the past.”