There was no mention of that history in the authority’s announcement that it would take the Energy Department grant and spend $48 million more on upgrades. Oklahoma Watch reported that the cash infusion would give the plant several more years of operation.

“Extending the life of Unit 2 represents the most cost-effective solution for GRDA, as compared to new-build generation alternatives,” Dan Sullivan, the authority’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This grant allows us to leverage existing infrastructure to continue to deliver affordable and reliable power to GRDA customers in the future.”

Duke Energy, meanwhile, proposed in a December 2025 filing to retire Roxboro’s coal units by 2034. Norton said that has not changed and the grant will maintain reliability while keeping costs down as the utility invests in future projects.

When TVA outlined its plans to phase out the 50-year-old Cumberland plant, it noted “environmental, economic, and reliability risks” across its coal facilities. Keeping Cumberland running, the utility said, would “continue to produce relatively large quantities of air pollutants.”

The utility, which is federally owned, reversed course after Trump replaced four TVA board members in 2025. TVA’s chief financial officer, Tom Rice, praised “beautiful, clean coal” in a February board meeting, echoing Trump’s trademark energy slogan.

Shober, with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, criticized the decision as “a tit-for-tat payback” that will do “serious damage and harm to TVA’s customers, the people that live in the Tennessee Valley.”

Fiedler, the TVA spokesman, said the Trump administration’s coal push aligns with TVA’s reliability goals.

In January, TVA estimated that maintaining the plant to current regulatory standards would require a $738 million investment, according to internal documents obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center through a public records request and reviewed by Inside Climate News. That’s more than six times the project listed on the federal grant announcement. Still, the board asserted that the move would ultimately save money.

King, with the Southern Environmental Law Center, doubts that. She said TVA’s plan for Cumberland means its customers will have to “foot the bill for projects that many of them didn’t want.”

Sellers, the environmental history professor, said the Trump administration’s willingness to invest in the plants is “making pollution great again.”

“We’re going to pay the price for that,” he said. “Certainly, the people living next door to those plants, they’re going to pay the price for that first and most severely.”

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.