To amend the Tennessee Valley Authority Act to provide for further transparency of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Steve Cohen
D-TN | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Cohen (for himself and Mr. Burchett) introduced the following …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The TVA IRP Act requires the Tennessee Valley Authority to create a new Office of Public Participation and fundamentally reform how the public can participate in TVA's long-term energy planning. Currently, TVA develops its integrated resource plan (which determines what power plants to build, keep, or retire over the next 20 years) largely internally. This bill mandates formal public engagement processes similar to those used by state public utility commissions, including the right to intervene, conduct discovery, submit testimony, and participate in evidentiary hearings.
Who Benefits and How
Ratepayers and residents in TVA's seven-state service area (Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia) benefit by gaining meaningful input into decisions that affect their electricity rates and local environment. Environmental and clean energy advocacy groups benefit from formal intervention rights that allow them to challenge TVA's assumptions and advocate for renewable energy alternatives. Renewable energy developers and distributed energy companies benefit from requirements that TVA must "fairly evaluate" their technologies against traditional power sources and publish the modeling assumptions behind planning decisions.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Tennessee Valley Authority faces significant new administrative costs and procedural requirements. TVA must hire staff for the new Office of Public Participation (with hiring controlled by the Board, not management), respond to discovery requests within 15 days, hold evidentiary hearings, and publish modeling assumptions 100 days before releasing draft plans. This adds time and expense to the planning process. Fossil fuel power generators may face increased scrutiny since the bill adds "public health impacts," "extreme weather risk," and "resilience" as mandatory planning factors, potentially disadvantaging coal and gas plants in comparative analysis.
Key Provisions
- Creates an Office of Public Participation within TVA with Board-controlled hiring
- Establishes formal intervention rights for the public in integrated resource planning
- Requires 100-day public comment period before draft IRP release
- Mandates 15-day response deadline for discovery requests from intervenors
- Requires evidentiary hearings presided over by the TVA Board
- Adds resilience, extreme weather risk, and public health impacts as required IRP considerations
- Requires TVA to publish modeling assumptions and show how public input informed the final plan
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Establishes an Office of Public Participation within the Tennessee Valley Authority to increase transparency and facilitate meaningful public engagement in TVA's integrated resource planning process, including opportunities for intervention, discovery, testimony, and evidentiary hearings.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Increase public accountability and transparency of TVA by establishing formal mechanisms for public input in energy planning decisions, including legally-mandated comment periods, discovery processes, and evidentiary hearings."
Likely Beneficiaries
- Ratepayers and consumers in the TVA service area (7 states)
- Environmental and consumer advocacy groups
- Local communities affected by TVA energy planning decisions
- Public interest organizations seeking to influence energy policy
Likely Burden Bearers
- Tennessee Valley Authority (administrative costs of new office and processes)
- TVA staff (new procedural requirements and response deadlines)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_board"
- → TVA Board of Directors
- "the_office"
- → Office of Public Participation
- "the_authority"
- → Tennessee Valley Authority
- "the_corporation"
- → Tennessee Valley Authority
- "the_board"
- → TVA Board of Directors
- "the_authority"
- → Tennessee Valley Authority
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A member of the public participating in the integrated resource planning process through the formal intervention process established by this Act.
A long-term energy planning document drafted pursuant to section 113 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (16 U.S.C. 831m-1) that includes sales forecasts, transmission investments, resource portfolios, and sensitivity analysis.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology