Burning Coal, Burning Cash

Tennessee spent a net $1.21 billion on imported coal in 2008, importing over 99 percent of the coal used by its power plants. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the primary purchaser of these imports, with the Cumberland plant identified as the state's most import-dependent facility. To reduce this economic drain, the document suggests adopting an energy efficiency resource standard and a renewable electricity standard, noting that wind, solar, small-scale hydropower, and biomass could technically meet up to 60 percent of the state's 2008 power demand.

• In 2008, Tennessee imported more than 99 percent of the coal used by its power plants, resulting in a net expenditure of $1.21 billion on imported coal.
• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) purchases nearly all of the state's imported coal, with the Cumberland plant in Cumberland City spending $314 million in 2008, making it the most import-dependent facility in the state and the fourteenth-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions among coal plants in the US.
• Tennessee ranks highly in coal import dependence: it spent the 5th most on net imports per person ($194), the 6th most relative to gross state product (0.48 percent), and the 8th most in total net imports ($1.21 billion).

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2010). Burning Coal, Burning Cash. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/UCS-BCBC-factsheet-Tennessee.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Burning Coal, Burning Cash. 2010. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/UCS-BCBC-factsheet-Tennessee.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Burning Coal, Burning Cash |date=May 2010 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/UCS-BCBC-factsheet-Tennessee.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2010burning, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Burning Coal, Burning Cash}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2010}, month = may, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/UCS-BCBC-factsheet-Tennessee.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }