Tag: Blue Oval City

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Expert Sees BlueOval Project as Opportunity for Housing Approval Reform

Ford BlueOval City, photographed while under construction in April 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Ford Motor Company’s BlueOval City, a project that was announced in 2021 as a part of an investment in electric vehicles and sustainable manufacturing, is expected to bring both new jobs and residents to Western Tennessee in 2025. As a result, housing experts are urging the state to examine residential approval processes in the area.

With the planned expenditure of $5.6 billion, the project is expected to create 6,000 jobs for Tennesseans in Haywood County. The University of Memphis recently received a grant to explore transportation challenges ahead of the project’s opening, examining public transit systems such as fixed-line buses, on-demand micro transit, and more.

Information from the United States Census Bureau said as of July 1, 2023, Haywood County had 8,274 housing units for a population estimate of 17,328. Close to 60 percent of these houses were occupied by homeowners.

A policy brief published by Charles Gardner and George Dean is filled with recommendations for the state’s housing market. It noted that housing prices in the state are on the rise, with many middle-class buyers not being able to keep up with the market. In Memphis specifically, renting has become a more viable option for those seeking housing due to prices increasing drastically in 2021.

“A main contributor to this shortage of affordable housing is the challenge of obtaining subdivision approvals and final permits for both single-family and multifamily housing,” the brief said. “The current housing crisis obligates Tennessee’s policymakers to examine the means for speeding up housing production. One approach is through targeted reforms that streamline the land use approvals process. “

The census reported that as of 2023 Haywood county had 17 building permits. Gardner explained that the state doesn’t strictly regulate building and zoning, leaving those who give out these permits with a lot of freedom. As a result, these permits can take a long time, with no guarantee of approval. He added that Tennessee’s procedure of common law writ of certiorari is “archaic and not well understood.”

To remedy this, Gardner makes several recommendations to streamline the decision-making process and to improve transparency by basing the approvals of solid evidence as opposed to influence from local government. 

The brief criticizes Tennessee Vested Property Rights Acts, stating that it has “plagued” the state for decades. Under the doctrine of vested, developers can rely on the zoning laws that were in place when they applied for a project. He mentioned that since the 1935 zoning law doesn’t mention these rights, which can result in the courts getting involved or local officials making decisions.

“In Tennessee, it is not uncommon for public backlash or objections from local officials to arise after a building permit is issued,” the brief said. “Often, those who object to the project quickly introduce a bill to the city council to change the underlying base zoning in a way that renders the construction noncompliant. Typically, these new zoning regulations are adopted much more quickly than the permittee can finish a substantial part of the construction.”

The Tennessee General Assembly recognized this and enacted the Vested Property Rights Act of 2014 which guarantees that a developer’s building permit or project approval will have guidelines and rules that will stay in place for a number of years.

While this addressed a key issue, the policy brief recommends amending the act so that development rights are protected when plans are submitted as opposed to when they are issued. They also ask that zoning rules don’t change “in a manner that reduces development potential.”

In addition to this, Gardner and Dean recommended reforming variances and conditional use permits, replacing the writ of certiorari, and boosting board member trainings.

The entire brief can be read here.

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Land Deal Could Create New State Forest, Protect Memphis Water Supply

Tennessee is working to purchase 5,477 acres of forest land near Grand Junction from the Hobart Ames Foundation. The land is part of the Wolf River watershed. (Photo: Wolf River Conservancy)

About 60 miles east of Memphis near the Mississippi line, verdant hardwood trees and ecologically exceptional streams weave through thousands of acres of rolling hills.

The land is home to a diverse array of aquatic and terrestrial life, decades-old archaeological sites and a watershed that feeds into the aquifer where hundreds of thousands of Memphians source their drinking water.

If all goes to plan, 5,477 acres of this land will soon become Tennessee’s newest state forest, securing its preservation for posterity.

The land is a portion of the 18,400-acre historic Ames Plantation, a privately owned tract in Fayette and Hardeman Counties amassed by Massachusetts industrialist Hobart Ames in the early 1900s.

For the last several decades, the Hobart Ames Foundation has partnered with the University of Tennessee’s AgResearch and Education Center to maintain and study the land and its history. The university’s website calls the center “an 18,400-acre laboratory” home to an archaeology field school, vet school, forestry camp, tree research nursery, row crop research fields and more.

When the roughly 5,500-acre portion of forest hit the market around early 2023, Tennessee’s forestry division rushed to piece together funding to buy it.

Deal cobbled together at ‘breakneck speed’

Work toward the purchase was already underway when State Forester Heather Slayton was appointed to her role this January. After calling her staff to inform them of her new title, “my second act was to call the Hobart Ames Foundation to let them know that we were hustling to get this project off the ground,” she said. “In the relative scheme of forest legacy projects, it was breakneck speed.”

A man paddles down the main stem of the Wolf River in West Tennessee. (Photo: Wolf River Conservancy)

The land was only on the market for a short time before the Hobart Ames Foundation agreed to remove it and allow the state “a little bit of time” to patch together the funds to “keep it protected and conserved in perpetuity,” Slayton said.

News of the project surfaced in August when the state Department of Agriculture brought an approval request to a State Building Commission subcommittee, warning that the land “will be under immediate threat of development if sold to a third party.”

The forest is located near Grand Junction, about 30 miles south of Ford’s new BlueOval City electric vehicle manufacturing plant.

“This tract is important and irreplaceable as it maintains the longest continuous research tree nursery in the country. It also contains one of the best examples of long-term, well-managed bottomland hardwood forest in West Tennessee,” the request states.

Slayton said an initial $16.9 million to secure the purchase will come from Tennessee’s Heritage Conservation Trust Fund, in addition to about $1.5 million in state wetland funding and help from other state agencies. Tennessee’s Division of Forestry applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Legacy Program, which helps keep working forests kept intact. The program would cover 75 percent of the total $22.5 million purchase price, with state funds making up the remaining 25 percent. If the federal grant is approved, the plan is to repay the Heritage Conservation Trust Fund’s contribution, she said. Including additional costs, the total worth of the project is around $24.3 million, Slayton said.

The total worth of the project is around $24.3 million.

The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit conservation group, will act as an intermediary to purchase the land from the Hobart Ames Foundation and sign over the contract to the state.

Zachary Lesch-Huie, Tennessee state director for The Conservation Fund, said the land is valuable for a multitude of reasons. It contains a major part of the upper fork of the Wolf River, which feeds the aquifer system responsible for Memphis’ water supply. It’s home to several species prioritized by Tennessee for protection, and features an “outstanding” forest habitat. There’s potential for future recreational and educational opportunities there, including hunting, river access, hiking, and continued archeological research on more than 40 historical sites on the property.

The purchase is not yet final — Lesch-Huie said the process is going well but could take several more weeks, barring any unforeseen snags. He said he credits the land’s excellent condition to the stewardship of the Hobart Ames Foundation and the University of Tennessee.

“I also want to give credit to … the Hobart Ames Foundation, because their willingness to even do this important deal for the state of Tennessee is what this (project) hinges on,” he said. “All these conservation deals rely on a willing landowner, and they are that.”

The University of Tennessee declined to comment on the pending deal, and the Hobart Ames Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

Once the sale is complete, the University of Tennessee will continue to manage the property alongside the state and continue its tree nursery research project.

“The information that comes out of the research for tree genetics and how to produce healthier, more resilient trees helps the forests of all the rest of the State of Tennessee as well,” Slayton said.

Safeguarding the Wolf River and Memphis drinking water

The north fork of the Wolf River flows through this portion of bottomland forest — essentially a river swamp or forested wetland — on the Ames property. It meets the Wolf River in Moscow, Tennessee, and the Wolf River then flows into the Mississippi River at Mud Island, north of Downtown Memphis.

Wetlands are really integral to protecting and providing clean water, so this system helps to do that for about 2.8 million people downstream in the city of Memphis area and the surrounding counties.

– Heather Slayton, Tennessee State Forester

Memphis is the largest city in the country that relies fully on ground water, according to the University of Memphis.

Ryan Hall, director of land conservation at the Wolf River Conservancy, said the entire tract of forest land lies within an aquifer recharge zone for the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Rainwater is slowly filtered through layers of sand, purifying the water. Natural sand aquifers are separated by thick clay that protects water from contaminants, according to the University of Memphis. But thinning clay and breaks in its surface in several areas throughout Shelby County pose ongoing pollution concerns.

Ford megasite atop ‘recharge zone’ for underregulated Memphis Sands aquifer 

Tennessee Lookout

“Wetlands are really integral to protecting and providing clean water, so this system helps to do that for about 2.8 million people downstream in the city of Memphis area and the surrounding counties,” Slayton said. “So just being able to protect that wetland function of creating clean water for those people is really, really special.”

The Wolf River Conservancy aims to preserve the Wolf River watershed as a natural resource and provide conservation education. The organization is working to build a Wolf River Greenway trail through Memphis. The group has acted as supporters and advocates of transforming this land into a new state forest, Hall said.

“(The property) has been stewarded well for a long time, and now we know it’s going to be stewarded well in perpetuity, so that peace of mind is just — the Wolf River Conservancy and all of our volunteers, donors, we’re very grateful that this is happening,” he said.

A rich cultural site

The Ames property was one of several large plantations located in the area in the 1800s, Slayton said.

“This particular forest block and the larger Ames property has a very rich cultural history of enslaved people in this part of Tennessee,” she said.

The University of Tennessee, in partnership with the Hobart Ames Foundation, has done extensive research on the property, identifying historical artifacts and tracing ancestors who lived there.

The greater Ames property features the Ames Manor, a cabin, and the remains of multiple 19th-century buildings, including houses, stores, churches, schools, cotton gins, and the quarters of enslaved people, according to the university. There are 26 known cemeteries on the property, including up to six burial grounds for enslaved people, some of which have more than 100 graves.

“That’s another part of this project that’s super exciting: keeping it in public ownership so we can protect the cultural significance of the property,” Slayton said.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.

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U of M To Address Transportation Challenges For Ford’s Blue Oval City

Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company

The University of Memphis has been chosen to further explore transportation challenges for Stanton, Tennessee, as the city prepares to become the destination for Ford’s Blue Oval City.

An announcement from Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) said the university, along with civil engineering professor Sabya Mishra, will receive $75,000 to “study the transportation challenges facing Ford’s future Blue Oval City employees.” 

Blue Oval City is a project that was announced in 2021 by Ford Motor Company as a part of its investment in electric vehicles and sustainable manufacturing. The planned expenditure of $5.6 billion marks the largest investment in the company’s history, with the goal of creating the “next-generation electric truck” from Ford.

“The site spans six square miles and will be among the largest auto manufacturing facilities in U.S. history. It will encompass vehicle assembly, battery production, and a supplier park in a vertically integrated ecosystem,” the company said.

Ford said the project  will create approximately 6,000 jobs for West Tennesseeans.

This grant comes from the National Science Foundation as a part of the Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage One project. Officials said the initiative provides a closer look at “efficient public transit systems” by examining things such as fixed-line buses, on-demand micro-transit, and more.

The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) said CIVIC’s purpose is to bridge the gap between “essential resources and services and community needs.”

“By addressing priorities at the local scale that are relevant across the U.S., CIVIC is laying the foundation for a broader and more fluid exchange of research and technology capabilities and civic priorities through joint partnerships involving civic partners and the research community,” NSF said.  “CIVIC funds projects that pilot state-of-the-art solutions to community challenges over 12 months.”

According to the abstract for the project, researchers plan on  developing a  “multi-modal transit system for Blue Oval City..”

Researchers said they will improve public transportation for prospective workers by using a mix of regular-sized buses and smaller ones. They will utilize on-demand transit to ensure on-time performance.

The university said it will create models using artificial intelligence (AI) to address the “high volumes of employee trips and create service zones with optimal pick-up and drop-off locations.” They will also work to make sure this initiative “incentivizes ridership and ensures social equity.”

Cohen said the project is crucial for the future success of Blue Oval City and it’s workforce. “I congratulate the University and Dr. Mishra for being awarded this prestigious grant for such forward-thinking and innovative research. Benefiting our entire region,” Cohen said.

According to NSF, the program will begin October 1, with an estimated end date of March 31, 2025.

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Developers, Seeking to Gain from BlueOval City Building Boom, Push for Weaker Wetland Rules

Ford BlueOval City, photographed while under construction in April 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

A high-stakes battle over the future of Tennessee’s wetlands has been playing out behind closed doors in recent weeks, with developers and environmental groups furiously lobbying on opposite sides of a bill to drastically roll back regulations.

The bill by Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) would limit state oversight over more than 430,000 acres of Tennessee wetlands. That’s more than half of the state’s critical ecosystems, which serve as a bulwark against floods and droughts, replenish aquifers and are prized by hunters, anglers and nature lovers.

Environmental groups warn that the proposed bill, if enacted by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, could inflict irreparable harm on future generations.

“The proposed legislation favors the interests of developers over the safety of future flood victims and pocketbooks of Tennessee taxpayers,” said George Nolan, senior attorney and director of the Southern Environmental Law Center in Tennessee.

“Once a developer fills and paves over a wetland, it is gone forever. This is no time to repeal laws that have protected our wetlands for the last 50 years,” he said.

Vaughan called the measure an overdue check on red tape that costs developers time and money; he has denied weakened wetland regulation could lead to increased flooding.

The proposed legislation favors the interests of developers over the safety of future flood victims and pocketbooks of Tennessee taxpayers.

– George Nolan, Southern Environmental Law Center

He has accused state environmental regulators of “bureaucratic overreach” and “unnecessary inflation on the cost of construction” and pointed to the urgent need for relief from regulation given a building boom in the region he represents, where a new Ford plant is going up in Stanton just 40 miles from the offices of Township Properties, Vaughan’s real estate and development company.

“My district is one that is different from a lot of other people’s districts. We’re in the path of growth,” Vaughan told lawmakers.

Lee’s office did not respond to a question about whether he supports the bill.

West Tennessee Where Wetlands Abound.

There is perhaps nowhere else in the state where tensions between fast-tracking development and protecting wetlands are higher than West Tennessee.

BlueOval City, Ford Motor Co.’s $5.6 billion electric truck plant, has spurred a land rush in the region, with developers buying up properties, designing subdivisions and erecting apartment complexes at a fast clip ahead of its 2025 planned opening.

Restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores are springing up to accommodate an expected 11 percent increase in population by 2045 in the 21-county region surrounding the plant — making it the fastest-growing area in Tennessee.

West Tennessee counties also have some of the largest shares of wetlands that would lose protections under Vaughan’s bill.

The bill targets so-called “isolated wetlands” that have no obvious surface connection to a river or lake. Wetlands, however, rarely stand alone, often containing hidden underground connections to aquifers or waterways.

The 10 Tennessee counties with the largest share of at-risk “isolated” wetlands are located in West Tennessee, within commuting distance of the Ford plant.

Haywood County, where the plant is located, has more than 57,319 acres of wetlands that could lose protections under Vaughan’s bill — nearly 17 percent of all land area in the county, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife National Wetlands Inventory compiled by the Southern Environmental Law Center.

In Shelby County, where Vaughan is based, 35,482 wetland acres are at risk — 7 percent of the county’s total land area.

The region also lies atop the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the primary water supply for urban and rural communities, and farmers in west Tennessee. Wetlands serve to recharge and filter water that supplies the aquifer.

“This is such a unique moment in west Tennessee history,” said Sarah Houston, executive director of the Memphis advocacy group Protect Our Aquifers, noting projected growth data that shows population increases of 200,000 or more in the next two decades.

“But when you’re removing protections for wetlands, you’re cutting out that deep recharge potential for all the water supply West Tennessee relies on,” she said.

Vaughn’s business among those to profit from building boom.

Developers who wish to fill in, build on or otherwise disturb wetlands must first apply for a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or TDEC, which can approve or reject the plans.

The process can prove costly; companies must hire lawyers, hydrologists and other experts before filing a permit. And if they get one, TDEC can require developers to pay expensive mitigation fees for disturbing wetlands — potentially adding tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to construction costs. The fees are used to preserve wetlands elsewhere, balancing out what is lost by a single project. The process can add months, or more, to construction timelines.

Vaughan has spoken openly about ongoing frustrations in his own business to comply with the state rules, describing TDEC regulators as overzealous in defining marshy or muddy lands that are created by tractor ruts or runoff as wetlands.

State records show that Vaughan as recently as December received state notice that a project he is spearheading contains two wetlands: one at 1.42 acres and another at 1.51 acres.

Given the presence of wetlands, “any alterations to jurisdictional streams, wetlands, or open water features may only be performed under coverage of, and conformance to, a valid aquatic resource alteration permit,” the Dec. 8 letter from TDEC to Vaughan said.

The project, a 130-acre site of the proposed new headquarters for Thompson Machinery, Vaughan’s client, will have to incur costly remediation fees should its permit to build atop wetlands be approved by TDEC.

It’s one of multiple development projects that Vaughan has been affiliated with that have butted into TDEC wetland regulations in recent years.

PAC money flows in from west Tennessee.

Vaughan also represented Memphis-based Crews Development in 2019 when the company received a notice of violation for draining and filling in a wetland without permission.

Vaughan did not respond to questions from the Lookout, including whether his sponsorship of the bill presents a conflict of interest.

He is not alone among developers in the region who are seeking favorable legislation during a period of rapid growth.

West Tennessee construction companies and real estate firms have spent big on a new political action committee formed in 2022 to influence legislative policy. The little-known Build Tennessee PAC spent $186,000 in the six months before the start of this year’s legislative session, the fourth largest spender over that period, according to campaign finance records analyzed by the Lookout.

Keith Grant, a  prominent Collierville developer listed as Build Tennessee’s contact, did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more: Connecting the dots between Tenn. home builders and bill to deregulate construction on wetlands 

The measure also has gained the backing of influential statewide groups, including the Tennessee Farm Bureau, the Home Builders Association of Tennessee, Associated Builders and Contractors and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce.

Bradley Jackson, president and CEO of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, said last week the legislation — which Vaughan recently amended to make distinctions between different types of wetlands — represents a fair and balanced approach.

Jackson said the chamber convened a working group of five trade organizations last summer that concluded Tennessee’s wetland regulations need adjustment. “We feel this deal strikes a really good middle group. It provides the business community with consistency and certainty. We can ensure we’re being compliant,” Jackson said.

Vaughan offers ‘compromise’ amendment; environmental groups say it leaves wetlands unprotected.

The legislation is scheduled to be heard Wednesday in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, with an amendendment that makes distinctions between wetlands.

The amendment would allow developers to build on “low-quality” wetlands and up to four acres of “moderate” isolated wetlands without seeking state permission.

Environmental groups say the proposal continues to place large pieces of Tennessee wetlands at risk.

Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville. (Photo: John Partipilo)

“Vaughan’s current amendment is not a compromise as it requires no mitigation for low-quality wetlands regardless of size and no mitigation for large swaths of moderate-quality wetlands,” Grace Stranch, chief executive officer of the Harpeth Conservancy said. “The development resulting from those huge carveouts will likely cause increased flooding, a decline in water quality, higher water bills, and aquifer recharge problems.”

The measure has also drawn pushback from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

“We at TDEC fear the proposal could result in greater back-end costs,” Gregory Young, the agency’s deputy commissioner, told lawmakers earlier this month.

Alex Pellom, chief of staff for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, cautioned the bill could lead to more flooding; the state has already suffered its wettest years in history since 2019, leading to devastating floods, billions of dollars in property damage and loss of life.

“We continue to work with the sponsor to discuss potential solutions,” Eric Ward, a TDEC spokesperson, said last week.

A Supreme Court decision limits federal oversight.

Vaughan’s bill was introduced on the heels of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that narrowed federal protections of wetlands, leaving it up to states to set their own rules.

The court concluded that only wetlands that have a surface water connection to rivers, lakes and oceans fall under federal oversight and are subject to Clean Water Act regulations.

There is little debate in the stormwater community about the value of wetlands as key instruments of maintaining water quality and mitigating damaging flooding.

– Aaron Rogge, Tennessee Storm Water Association

The majority of Tennessee’s wetlands — 432,850 out of  the state’s 787,000 acres of wetlands in the state — do not have a surface connection to a water source, according to TDEC. It is these wetlands Vaughan is seeking to remove from state oversight and protection.

“This is going to be a major change to the way that the state manages its water resources, and likely one that we’ll look back on as a product of our current political climate,” said Aaron Rogge, a Nashville-based civil engineer who is also the current president of the Tennessee Stormwater Association.

“There is little debate in the stormwater community about the value of wetlands as key instruments of maintaining water quality and mitigating damaging flooding; in fact, many cities and counties choose to actively construct wetlands to manage their runoff,” he said.

Tennessee is not alone in targeting wetland regulation after the high court’s decision, according to Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation.

Legislatures in Illinois, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado are considering expanding wetland protections in light of the court’s decision while Indiana is among states considering a developer-backed bill similar to Vaughan’s.

“It’s a very fluid situation,” Murphy said. “In a lot of ways, it mirrors the politics of a state. But as you get down to state-level realities of what’s being lost, people are seeing what unregulated development means and often that means that their special places get paved over.”

Reporter Adam Friedman contributed to this story.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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Sun Block: Memphis’ Hard Road to More Solar Power

Vaclav Volrab | Dreamstime.com

Blue Oval City, the planned automotive assembly plant operated by Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation, supercharged local imaginations. Jobs, business, and money — sure — but this project could allow West Tennessee to be a rugged, “built-Ford-tough” cowboy from the past and Captain Planet for the future at the same time.

The project proves Ford Motor Co. is dead serious about that marriage of ideas. The 1,500-acre campus will cost $5.6 billion to build, the biggest manufacturing investment in the company’s history. The planned megacampus in Haywood County is the first Ford will build “in more than a generation.”

This bold pivot to electric vehicles was a hard-to-miss shift in the wind. It’s a massive bet that customers still want the mythical, American self-reliance projected by its iconic F-150 truck — but they also want it without the gas-guzzling, planet-choking, tailpipe fog of most cars made in the last 100 years.

The moment was bold enough that Ford CEO Bill Ford told reporters, “We’re on the cusp of a revolution,” one that would help “build a better future for America.” It doesn’t stop at trucks.

“The all-new megacampus just outside of Memphis, called Blue Oval City, aspires to have 100 percent renewable energy, zero waste to landfill, and reusing every drop of water, to ensure our planet is in it for the long haul,” Ford Motor Co. tweeted at the time.

But if nothing changes, and without help from other programs, the all-electric F-150 Lightnings that roll off the line here first will be ready for antique Tennessee license plates by the time that plant is powered entirely by renewable energy. Blue Oval City sits squarely in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) service area, and that power provider says it won’t be carbon-neutral until 2050, about 25 years after the Ford plant is expected to open.   

If TVA’s power mix remains the same, that cutting-edge factory — and those Earth-saving trucks — will be charged with a mix heavy with nuclear power, coal, and natural gas. Only 14 percent of TVA’s power-generation portfolio is renewable, including hydroelectric (11 percent), wind and solar (3 percent), and some energy-efficiency programs (1 percent). But TVA says their Green Invest turnkey solar program “can help businesses like Ford achieve their sustainability goals using 100 percent renewable energy.” TVA says it leads its Southeastern peers with a generation portfolio that is already 63 percent carbon-free.

Throughout the Tennessee River Valley, major corporations, big Tennessee companies, cities, counties, and more have publicly stated environmental goals. They all want to reduce waste and reduce their carbon footprints, meaning they want less reliance on fossil fuels and more on renewables, like wind and solar.

TVA knows this, according to internal documents, and considers it a threat to its bottom line, one it means to fix. If this sounds off, U.S. House members thought so, too, enough to launch an investigation into TVA’s business practices on renewables.

Joined at the Hip on Climate Change
Memphis and Shelby County’s climate goals around renewable energy will depend much on TVA, and some say that could be problematic.

Greenhouse gas emissions from energy accounted for nearly half (46 percent) of all of the Memphis area’s total emissions, according to the latest environmental inventory taken back in 2016 for the Memphis Area Climate Action Plan adopted in 2019. Energy emissions include those in buildings: houses, apartments, stores, salons, banks, museums, restaurants, warehouses, factories, and more. The rest were emissions from two other major categories: transportation (52 percent) and waste (like landfills and wastewater treatment) at 12 percent.

The climate plan — approved by the Memphis City Council, the Shelby County Commission, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris — commits these governments to developing renewable energy generation at key facilities (like solar panels on government buildings) and/or buying renewables through energy certificates, green tariff products, and participating in community shared solar projects.

But those are details. The plan and, therefore, everyone who approved it, agreed on one thing: “grid decarbonization — or increasing the carbon-free energy sources in our electric supply — has the greatest impact on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in our community.” They all agreed, too, that there was little they could do about it.

“As noted in the discussion of community-wide education targets, a large portion of these 2020 reductions are expected as a result of actions outside local control,” reads the plan, “for example, TVA’s planned increase in carbon-free energy sources in their energy portfolio.”

To see just how closely the city’s goals are dependent on TVA, consider their timelines to carbon-free energy. The Memphis Area Climate Action Plan calls for the electric grid to be 80 percent carbon-free by 2035. So do TVA’s plans. (Even though President Joe Biden’s climate goals want totally carbon-free energy by 2035.) Memphis-area leaders want a completely carbon-free electric grid by 2050. So does TVA.

A mix of solar and wind projects helped the TVA to reduce carbon emissions by 63 percent from 2005 to 2020. But solar leads the way in the Southeast, and TVA says it’ll be mainly solar projects that will aid it in its future reductions.

But environmental watchdog groups claim TVA has thrown up roadblocks to solar projects, especially for homeowners and business owners, to protect its finances. The reasons are complicated, but one thing is clear to Maggie Shober, research director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE).

“TVA is behind,” Shober said on solar energy. “TVA is behind the Southeast, and the Southeast is behind the rest of the country.”

However, TVA says it is now building the “energy system of the future,” which aspires to net-zero emissions by 2050 and to add 10,000 megawatts of solar.

Where Do We Stand?
When it comes to solar, Tennessee (with about 390 megawatts of solar capacity) ranks third to last in the Southeast, ahead of only Mississippi (362 megawatts) and Alabama (319 megawatts). Florida leads the region with 7,765 megawatts of solar capacity, followed by North Carolina (7,460 megawatts) and Georgia (3,444 megawatts). All of this is according to late-2021 figures from the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Among power providers in the Southeast with more than 500,000 customers, TVA ranks 10th of 13 on solar watts per customer, according to SACE’s annual “Solar in the Southeast” report. The Southeast average of watts per customer is 423 watts. TVA provides 105 solar watts per customer, according to the report. The highest is North Carolina’s Duke Energy with 1,952 solar watts per customer. The lowest is Tampa, Florida’s Seminole Electric Co-Op, providing only 45 solar watts per customer.   

Among TVA’s biggest Tennessee customers, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) ranks second for solar watts per customer. MLGW offers 66 solar watts per customer, only slightly behind Nashville Electric Service, offering 67 solar watts per customer. These figures fall below the Southeast average of 423 solar watts per customer and the TVA average of 90 watts per customer hour.

So, Tennessee ranks near the bottom on solar. TVA ranks near the bottom on solar. And MLGW ranks below TVA’s average for access to solar power.

“TVA will be quadrupling solar capacity by 2024, yet continues to trail the other large utility systems in the Southeast,” reads the SACE report. “By 2024, SACE projects TVA to reach the 2020 region average.”

Winds Don’t Blow
In 2010, Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners answered a call from the U.S. Department of Energy for a new project to modernize the country’s electric transmission structure, increase domestic energy sources, support new jobs, and do it all without taxpayer money. Clean Line proposed a $2.5 billion, 700-mile-long transmission line from Oklahoma to end at a connector near Millington. 

If the deal was done, 3,500 megawatts of clean wind power from Oklahoma and Texas would have pumped through Memphis and into the TVA service area and beyond starting in 2020. But it wasn’t. So, it’s not. And TVA was the deal-breaker.

The connector project alone was valued at $259 million. It had broad support here from government, civic, and business groups. It was even supported by the Memphis and Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) with $23.3 million in tax breaks, which the group said would yield $37.1 million in benefits back to the community.

Then-Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Maryville) opposed the project, claiming the power was unreliable and that, over decades, it would increase TVA rates. Then-Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland (R-Millington) fired back at Alexander, a fellow Republican, claiming the project would be a financial boon for the area and that Alexander “put his own agenda ahead of what’s best for West Tennessee.”

For TVA, though, the clean-energy deal got down to economics. After nearly seven years of study — with the company spending money to move the project forward — TVA said it didn’t really need any extra power, no matter the source.

Bill Johnson, TVA president at the time, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2017, “We’re looking at a power demand in the future that is flat, or declining slightly, so we don’t anticipate needing major additions to power generation for a decade or more.”

While TVA said the move did not make financial sense at the time, it welcomed Clean Line to come back with a new proposal. They did not. The company withdrew its proposal at the end of 2017 and sold the land for the project to NextEra Energy, the world’s largest utility company, to divert more wind power to the Southwest.

Environmentalists blasted TVA’s “thanks, but no thanks” on the wind-energy project. Others, like Alexander, celebrated it as a solid example of financial stewardship. Either way, it remains TVA’s highest-profile example of saying “thanks, but no thanks” to renewables, especially ones it does not own.  

A Rate-Making Rubik’s Cube
While the Clean Line dismissal was a high-dollar, high-profile deal conducted largely in public, some say TVA is still blocking renewables, especially solar, in a smaller, more complicated way. But it’s a way that directly affects and involves its customers.

In 2018, TVA approved a “grid access fee.” With it, TVA charges MLGW the fee to use its electricity grid and 7,000 miles of transmission lines. If demand for TVA’s power will stay the same or go down in the future, as former TVA CEO Johnson said in 2017, then that means fewer dollars for TVA as expenses rise. Fixed fees, like the grid access charge, ensure a steadier stream of dollars, instead of the up-and-down whims of market demand. 

The Sierra Club explained grid access fees this way: “TVA’s board of directors today approved a mandatory fixed fee that will force customers to pay more on their electric bill before they even flip a switch.”

MLGW spokeswoman Stacey Greenberg said the utility, TVA’s largest customer, paid $59.1 million in grid access fees in the 2021 fiscal year. When asked if those fees were passed on to MLGW customers, Greenberg said, “As stated in the response to the first question, the change was a revenue neutral change at the system level and MLGW did not change the fixed or variable portions of any retail rates.” After press time, Greenberg clarified that the fees are passed on to MLGW customers. She said the average residential customer pays about $6.24 each year for the grid access fee.

So, what does this have to do with solar? These fees will remain the same no matter how much solar you sell back to the grid. Solar advocates say these fees undercut savings on electric bills and, therefore, cut the amount of clean, renewable solar power that businesses and homeowners will install on their buildings.

But in 2018, TVA said solar projects for specific sites were not fair and that its current energy prices “over-incentivize consumer installation of [distributed energy sources like solar] leading to uneconomic results for the people of the Valley as a whole.”

“Over the next decade, forecasted load is expected to be flat or declining, resulting in little need for new energy sources,” according to a 2018 TVA report. “At the same time, consumer interest in renewable energy continues to rise. The imbalance created by uneconomic [on-site solar projects] investment means that costs are shifted to consumers throughout the Valley who cannot afford [on-site solar projects] or otherwise choose not to invest in [on-site solar projects].”

But it came to light that dissing these solar projects was about more than economic justice for TVA. A Freedom of Information Act request by SACE found an internal TVA PowerPoint presentation. It claimed that distributed energy resources (like solar panels on homes or businesses) present “a threat to our business model.”   

“Essentially all ‘normal’ large commercial customers would benefit economically from some amount of on-site solar installations,” reads the PowerPoint published by SACE.

The presentation then listed several major corporations with renewable energy goals, companies like McDonald’s, Walmart, Amazon, Cargill, FedEx, Google, Unilever, Hilton, and more. TVA identified its customers with renewable goals. If they met their goals on renewables, the utility projected losses of up to $500 million. If they passed the grid access fees, “the number of economic [solar] installations decrease by [about] 40 percent.”

It wasn’t until January 2022 that all of it caught the attention of members of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Four ranking Democrats on the committee issued a letter to TVA president and CEO Jeff Lyash that month. They sought an explanation of TVA’s rate changes and whether they “were intended to interfere with the deployment of distributed energy resources.” The group also wanted “an explanation for TVA’s comparative underinvestment in solar and wind generation.”

“TVA has also interfered with the adoption of renewable energy by its commercial and residential customers,” reads the letter. “TVA has also permitted local power companies to impose new fees on distributed solar generation in order to lessen the potential decrease in TVA load that may occur through the adoption of [behind the meter] generation.”

In a February 22nd letter to the House committee, TVA said, “The 2018 rate change that included the grid access charge (GAC) better reflects the wholesale cost of energy and recognizes the value of the grid’s reliability and associated costs. The primary objectives of the 2018 rate change were to continue to improve the alignment of wholesale rates with their underlying costs to serve and to facilitate measured, managed changes in LPCs’ [local power company’s] retail rate structures.”

TVA says it will achieve its clean-energy goals, especially the 10,000 megawatts of added solar, in a way that will not “put the financial burden on other consumers while maintaining our 100 percent reliable delivery of electricity to Memphis and Shelby County.”

“Reliable electricity is extremely important, not only for homes and businesses in our region but also for attracting jobs and industry,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said in a statement last week. “While other regions like Texas had blackouts and failing power grids in the last two February storms, TVA’s delivery of power to Memphis remained intact. And we’re doing all this while holding wholesale power rates steady for a third year in a row, with a commitment in our strategic plan to maintain rates for the next decade.”

Power and Water
Another way TVA could block renewables, according to an ongoing lawsuit, is through the length of TVA’s new contracts. These 20-year contracts replace previous seven-year contracts, enough for plaintiffs in the suit to call them “never-ending.” The plaintiffs — Protect Our Aquifer (POA), Alabama Center for Sustainable Energy, and Appalachian Voices — say these long-term contracts lock customers in and lock out other providers who may be less reliant on fossil fuels than TVA.

“There are growing calls in the Tennessee Valley for cheaper, cleaner, and renewable power options — but the Tennessee Valley Authority is able to ignore these demands through the use of its long-term agreement program,” said Southern Environmental Law Center Tennessee Office director Amanda Garcia. “These contracts automatically renew each year and require 20-years notice to terminate, making it practically impossible for local power companies to leave TVA. By locking its customers into these never-ending contracts, TVA is able to bankroll new fossil fuel plants and slow-walk its transition to clean energy solutions — like solar and wind power, energy efficiency, and battery storage technology — that are effective, affordable, and available right now.”

As for the public’s interest, POA executive director Sarah Houston said TVA’s new natural-gas-power Allen Combined Cycle Plant is a threat to the sustainability of the Memphis area’s drinking water. That plant used 653 million gallons of water in 2020, according to a report in The Commercial Appeal, to cool its turbines.

That water comes from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, albeit delivered from the Davis and Allen well fields a few miles from the gas plant. While the pumping is not directly next to the toxic coal ash pits, Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator and lobbyist with the Tennessee Sierra Club, said drawing water there could still bring toxic elements into the aquifer. In general, though, Houston said, “with renewables, you have a lot less local water use and water impact compared to frack-gas plants and coal plants.”

In August 2021, United States District Judge Thomas Parker dismissed TVA’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

“The LTP was developed in collaboration with local power companies, and 146 of them have voluntarily signed the contract implementing it,” TVA said in a statement. “TVA disagrees with the allegations and will appropriately reply through the court.”

Big Decision
All of this comes in the backdrop of MLGW’s historic decision on whether or not to break with TVA and find another power provider. In its search, MLGW makes it clear it wants more solar power, too.

MLGW’s request for proposals says it’s looking for someone to install 1,000 megawatts of solar power, divided equally between two facilities in North Memphis and South Memphis. 

As MLGW’s search goes on, the path to more renewable energy for Memphians is still unclear, but with a commitment to more solar power, the sun may still shine on a more renewable, less fossil-fuel-dependent future. 

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News The Fly-By

Protect Our Aquifer Teams Up With NASA For Aquifer Study

NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement satellite will soon begin to image parts of 12 West Tennessee counties. (Photo: NASA)

Satellites from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will soon point their cameras at West Tennessee to better understand and protect the area’s drinking water.

Protect Our Aquifer (POA) teamed up with NASA for a research project starting this month to monitor the recharge zones of the Memphis Sand Aquifer. The project is part of NASA’s DEVELOP program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to address environmental and public policy issues through Earth observations around the world.

NASA will employ its Global Precipitation Measurement satellite, another tool from the International Space Station, and more to study the recharge zone, which spans 12 West Tennessee counties. The study hopes to find “hot spots,” where more water enters the recharge zone, and, then, to protect those hot spots.

These areas are important to a water system that supports more than 1 million people and industries, companies, and farms. These zones are where rainfall directly replenishes the aquifer.

“We have a valuable collection of remote sensing acquisitions, and we are excited to use this data over the Memphis Sand Aquifer to guide stakeholders,” said project adviser Kerry Cawse-Nicholson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The study will last five months, and findings are due this summer.

We caught up with POA executive director Sarah Houston to talk about the project. How do they hope to use the information and how could it inform development in the region, especially around Ford Motor Co.’s Blue Oval City to built be close to these recharge zones?

Memphis Flyer: How did this collaboration with NASA come about?

Sarah Houston: It was actually through a Rhodes College graduate Erica Carcelen [project manager for the NASA DEVELOP program]. She had heard of Protect Our Aquifer and our work and is now working at NASA full-time. She reached out to us to apply for a program that pairs new hires with NASA with seasoned scientists to do really applied science research projects to take a lot of this information and available tools and apply it to a community need.

What do you hope to learn?

We are hoping that we can get a sense of these new technologies that can be applied to understand the aquifer system, not only for this study but future studies. This is the first time these satellite tools have been used for a study like this here.

We are hoping to get a sense of where our recharge zone hot spots are. Where the sands come to the surface, that’s where our water supply is being sustainably replenished.

We don’t want to pave over the recharge zone. So, we’re hoping to find specific areas that are our hot spots where more rainfall is directly re-entering the system compared to others. Those areas, we know, are very important for our water sustainability portfolio.

How do you hope to use the information?

This is going to be helpful, not only as Ford actually develops their property, but it will also be informative for the broader region as we start to see more development, like suburbs coming up. If there are areas that are really important to recharge, could those be conserved? So, how do we still grow the region sustainably and use best management practices as we’re building out these communities?

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“Pork Report” Aims at Blue Oval City, “Tennessee On Me”

Credit: Ford Motor Co.

Blue Oval City, Governor Bill Lee’s free money to tourists, and Shelby County Schools’ high-priced air purifiers all made the 2021 “Pork Report,” the annual review of wasteful government spending.

The Nashville-based Beacon Center, a non-partisan, free-market think tank, issues the report each year. Its new Pork Report marks the 16th year the agency has taken aim at what it considers wasteful government spending in Tennessee. Last year, the report took aim at a $2.3 million taxpayer grant for an AutoZone expansion and a $4.2 million grant to produce the now-cancelled Bluff City Law television show.

“From no-bid contracts in Nashville to giving away kayaks in Johnson City, there is no shortage of government waste and abuse in this year’s Pork Report,” said Mark Cunningham, Beacon’s vice president of strategy and communications. “While this report is meant to be lighthearted, it’s important to highlight how the state and local governments have misused and abused our tax dollars this year and shows that government waste is a bipartisan problem.”

Blue Oval City, the $5-billion proposed Ford plant in West Tennessee, topped the report this year with what will be a $1 billion “handout” from Tennessee taxpayers.

“After legislators already allocated more than $189 million to make the 4,100 acre site shovel-ready, the state called a special session to give another half billion dollars to Ford Motor Co., along with nearly $400 million more for infrastructure, legal fees, and the formation of a Megasite Authority, meaning taxpayers will have ponied up over $1 billion, more than double the state budget for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, to lure the Mustang automaker to the state,” reads the report.

In July, Lee worried that tourists weren’t visiting Tennessee on Covid concerns. To prove that the Volunteer State was ready to party, Lee put his money (well, our money) where his mouth is. He launched the national “Tennessee On Me” campaign that gave away 10,000 free airline vouchers to Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, and Knoxville with the purchase of a 2-night stay at hotels here. However, many did not like the program’s $2.5 million price tag.

”Government shouldn’t attempt to revive an industry with handouts, particularly when those handouts would go primarily to out-of-state residents and could only be spent on a select few cities, airlines, and hotels,” reads the Pork Report.

The Beacon Center also targeted a Shelby County Schools program to improve air quality. The system got $25 million from state funds for a contract awarded to Global Plasma Solutions for air purifiers. A lawsuit filed on the contract claimed the company’s product weren’t proven and that the company preys on those “desperate to clean the air by using deceptive marketing tactics,” according to the report.

”According to county leaders, taxpayers should not be worried about the cost because the money didn’t come from the general fund or other local dollars, but rather from Covid-19 relief money,” reads the report. “Clearly, the county doesn’t realize taxpayer money comes from taxpayer pockets, whether or not it’s first rerouted through Washington, D.C.”

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The Number: Cost of TN Special Session on Ford

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Lawmakers Approve $884M Ford Incentive Package for West TN

(Credit: Ford Motor Co.)

State lawmakers approved an $884 million incentive package to bring Ford Motor Co. to West Tennessee on Wednesday with votes wrapping up a special session in Nashville. 

The incentive package will bring a $5.6 billion investment to Haywood County. The 4,100-acre site — now called the Memphis Regional Megasite — will be renamed Blue Oval City, a nod to Ford’s iconic logo. On 3,600-acres of the massive site, Ford will build its electric F-150 trucks and SK Innovation will build batteries and other electronic components. 

The factories will bring 5,800 jobs to West Tennessee, the largest job announcement in Tennessee history. Tennessee officials competed with those in 15 other states for the project. State Sen. Ed Jackson (R-Jackson) was told Ford said Tennessee’s site and incentive package was “heads and shoulders above the rest.”

“This is the most important and life-changing bill,” Jackson told senators during a Wednesday floor speech. “It will be generational and positive change for. … all of West Tennessee.”

More than $383 million of the incentive package will be used by the state to build roads, infrastructure, and even a trade school on the site. The rest — $500 million — will be given to Ford as a grant. 

However, Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) explained that “we’re not writing a $500 million check and giving it to them.” As Ford spends money to build its facility, the state will reimburse them for the costs, up to $500 million. The agreement includes clawbacks, too. So, if Ford does create the amount of jobs it promises, they’ll lose some of the money given to them. All of it, Watson said, was a way to ensure Ford completes its commitments to the state. 

All of the money will come from state surplus funds. Jackson explained the state now has about $2 billion in surplus finding and, thus, “has the money to finance this.” With that, he reminded anyone watching that no taxes will be raised to fund the project. Instead, he said, the project will generate far more in taxes than it will cost the state up front. 

Lawmakers predict the project will add $22.4 million directly to state coffers each year. It is expected to grow the gross state product by $3.5 billion each year. In the two-to-three-year construction phase of building Blue Oval City, it is expected to yield $178 million in state taxes. 

Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) said he found a recurring theme as he scrolled through the state economic development website. Wilson, Cumberland, Williamson, Davidson, Hamilton, Murray, Knox, and Sumner Counties were “coming up time and again” for new projects or expansions. 

“West Tennessee, it’s your time,” Bell said. 

No gathering of lawmakers in Nashville would be complete, however, without off-the-wall comments that border on bad taste. As senators gave congratulations after the vote, Sen. Frank Nicely (R-Strawberry Plains) rose to say once his grandson asked him if the South really lost what Nicely called the “the war between the states.” Nicely told his grandson, “it’s too early to tell,” he said. 

“When I compare their Northern cities with our Southern cities, and their debt loads to our debt -free states and all these great companies like Ford and Smith & Wesson coming down South, I think I can tell my grandson the war between the states is going on and we’re winning.”  

The incentive package got three “no” votes in the Senate and four in the House. 

A House GOP bill on Covid precautions did not move past the committee stage, as no Senator sponsored the legislation in the upper house. Lawmakers will gather again next week in another special session to focus on Covid issues.  

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

General Assembly to Tackle Megasite, Codify Covid Matters

House Speaker Cameron Sexton (Twitter)

The special session of the Tennessee General Assembly opened Monday, October 18th, to undertake to formulate and expedite the requirements for the eventual establishment of the Ford Motor Company enterprise, aka Blue Oval City, at the Memphis Regional Megasite.

Several bills have been introduced in this regard:

— HB8001, (William Lamberth, R-Portland) and SB8001 (Jack Johnson, R-Franklin): This bill amends the prior definition of the Megasite.

— HB8002, (Lamberth) and SB8002 (Johnson): The bill will secure funding for the site’s first-year startup.

— HB8003, (Rusty Grills, R-Newbern): The bill attempts to guarantee that workers at the site be protected from work penalties relating to their vaccination history, or lack of it.

The Senate is keeping its regular committees in place for the special session, but House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) is appointing special panels to hear the Ford incentive bills and other legislation. Here are the special House committees: Commerce Chair: Nathan Vaughan (R-Memphis); Health and Safety Chair: Brian Terry (R-Murfreesboro); Finance, Ways, and Means Chair: Patsy Hazelwood (R-Signal Mountain); Calendar and Rules Chair: Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville). 

Sexton also announced that legislation will be taken up that will, among other things, “establish uniform standards regarding facial coverings, vaccinations, and other restrictions relative to COVID-19; to address the enforcement and use of state funds by public and private entities for restrictions relative to COVID-19; to address adverse actions against an employee based on an employee’s vaccination status; to address the federal government’s commandeering of public and private resources relative to COVID-19; and to address the federal government’s penalizing, or taxation of, citizens of this state through enforcement of restrictions relative to COVID-19 …”