After striking out on its bid to secure sustainability grant funding from the federal government, Tennessee is searching for other funding sources to power the state’s first comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tennessee sought $95 million for community-scale electric vehicle, solar energy and composting projects in addition to a $393 million coalition grant to boost existing Tennessee Valley Authority energy efficiency programs across the southern states served by the utility company.
But Tennessee and its coalition partners — Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Bowling Green metro area — came away empty-handed.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the 25 winners of a total $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants on July 22. Competition for the funding, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, was steep. The EPA received grant applications totaling $33 billion from 300 entities.
dioxide equivalent emissions, accounting for 39% of the state’s total. Courtesy of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
The grantees span 30 state, local and tribal entities and funding will support “community-driven solutions to the climate crisis,” including initiatives to reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice and accelerate the transition to clean energy, according to the EPA.
Entities were allowed to submit up to two applications: one individual application and one with a coalition of states or cities. Tennessee submitted both.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) led a coalition requesting $393 million to put toward existing Tennessee Valley Authority energy efficiency programs across Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and the Bowling Green metro area. As the coalition’s lead agency, TDEC would have received the grant funds and passed them to TVA to further its programs.
The money would have been divided among several projects:
- $268 million for commercial and industrial lighting programs
- $80 million for residential energy efficiency and weatherization programs for low-income and disadvantaged communities
- $45 million for commercial and industrial energy efficiency programs
EPA planning grant spurred Tennessee’s first statewide emissions plan
The EPA announced the program in Spring 2023, issuing smaller, non-competitive grants to states and cities to inventory their biggest greenhouse gas sources and identify ways to reduce emissions and pollution. Tennessee received a $3 million planning grant, while the Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville metro areas each received $1 million.
With this funding, TDEC set out to craft the first comprehensive emissions reduction strategy in the state’s history. (Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis and Chattanooga each have some form of their own sustainability plan).
Tennessee’s approach, called the Tennessee Volunteer Emission Reduction Strategy, centers on incentives and voluntary participation in contrast to emissions mandates imposed by some other states.
Tennessee filed the first EPA-required report, a Priority Climate Action Plan cataloguing the state’s biggest greenhouse gas contributors, in March. It revealed transportation as the sector with the highest emissions (making up 39% of the state’s total), followed by electricity generation (22%) and industry (20%). Commercial and residential buildings account for about 8.6% of emissions in Tennessee, according to the report.
The report identified several “priority measures” to immediately begin slashing greenhouse gas emissions, including:
- Incentives for energy efficiency measures and lighting in commercial and industrial buildings
- Weatherization programs for residential buildings
- Upgrades for electricity distribution
- Protections for forests and sustainable land use practices
- Programs to expand state and local electric vehicle fleets and charging stations
- Waste reduction and diversion programs
- Increasing renewable energy generation
When it comes to sustainability, Tennessee has room to grow. The state consumes about four times more energy than it produces, and residents ranked eighth-highest in energy use per capita in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. TVA, which owns more than 90% of the state’s electricity generating capacity, has faced continued criticism from environmental groups for its lack of solar power advancement compared to its peers.
“Despite several utility-scale projects from TVA going into service, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi still have a lot of catching up to do,” a July report released by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy states. “They all fall far short of other Southeast states … Unfortunately, the slow solar growth from TVA and other utilities operating in these states make it difficult to keep pace with the rest of the region.”
While TDEC continues to collect public feedback and work with partners to craft a final Comprehensive Climate Action Plan due to the EPA in 2025, it’s not clear where the state will source the money to put its sustainability initiatives into action.
“While TDEC was disappointed to find out it will not receive federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) funding to directly implement measures outlined within Tennessee’s priority plan, TDEC continues to evaluate and apply for alternative sources of funding that could support emissions-reducing activities,” spokesperson Eric Ward wrote in an email to Tennessee Lookout.
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