Valley Pathways Study Stakeholder Working Group Meeting 4

August 23, 2023

TVA and the Baker School for Public Policy and Public Affairs were pleased to welcome our Valley Pathways Study stakeholders to the fourth meeting of the Stakeholder Working Group on August 23, held virtually via Webex. Stakeholders and core team members attended the meeting to provide further feedback on the project progress to date as well as to discuss the draft and structure of the Roadmap Report, which is in development.

The fourth stakeholder meeting was relatively short and sweet, focused primarily on presenting the proposed structure of the draft report and receiving feedback from attending stakeholders. Laura Duncan, TVA’s Valley Pathways Study Project Lead, welcomed the group and provided a quick update on the project status, including highlights such as the beginning of TVA’s pilot projects in the Valley with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Candy Kelly, a Senior Manager of Resource Strategy at TVA, then provided an overview of TVA’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which is occurring in tandem with the Valley Pathways Study and is scheduled to be published during the summer of 2024. The project team then covered updates to model scenarios that incorporated feedback from the last stakeholder working group, including a scenario that combined the three original proposed scenarios as well as several adjustments to modeling assumptions.

The bulk of the meeting focused on the proposed structure for the report draft. Juliette Juillerat, a managing consultant at Guidehouse, walked the group through the draft outline which, at a high level, has the following structure:

• Introduction/Background
• Scenario development and modeling
• Sector-specific strategies to achieving Net-Zero by 2050
• Proposed implementation actions

During this presentation, several stakeholders raised questions about key progress metrics and who would be responsible for monitoring implementation plans after the report is published. The project team acknowledged that these were important considerations that were still being discussed and invited stakeholders to brainstorm their own ideas and present them during the next stakeholder meeting, where stakeholders will be invited to provide feedback on the draft report as well as other topics that have been raised in the past, such as tracking metrics.

After concluding the overview of the draft report, stakeholders participated in a whiteboard exercise, which offered an interactive platform to provide draft report feedback on questions such as “What would you organize differently?” and “Are there any topics that should be emphasized more?” The group discussed a wide spread of topics, but common themes included:

• The necessity of engagement across all parts of the Valley, including industrial and agriculture associations, local and state politicians, as well as community groups.
• Emphasis that action is necessary and that the Study should effectively illustrate the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the net-zero scenarios.
• Key performance indicators, which will be covered in more detail in the next stakeholder meeting, with important metrics including GDP growth, total CO2e abated, base values such as housing stock and vehicle miles traveled, and equity indicators.

Next Steps

There will be two more Stakeholder Working Group meetings spread out over the course of 2023, with the next one scheduled for September 19-20 in Nashville. Between meetings, the project team will focus on finishing a draft report for review by stakeholders and continue discussions on tracking metrics and KPIs.

The project team welcomes the voice of the general public as well! Be sure to join our mailing list to stay up to date on the happenings (including upcoming public webinars), and leave a public comment if you’d like to weigh in on the Study or have any questions.

Stay tuned for more updates as the Valley Pathways Study progresses!

What is a Pathways Study?

A Pathways Study uses scenario-based analysis to compare several possible visions of the future to help determine the timing, scale and effects of achieving greenhouse gas limits.

Learn more.

Join the Study

Please visit the Valley Pathways Study page at the UT Baker School to join the study mailing list and share your feedback on the preliminary findings report.