Country Music Star Rich’s Pressure Campaign Helped Save Tennessee County from TVA’s Eminent Domain
- source
- Just The News
- headline
- Country Music Star Rich's Pressure Campaign Helped Save Tennessee County from TVA's Eminent Domain
- byline
- Steven Richards
- date
- September 3, 2025
- url
- https://justthenews.com/government/local/country-music-stars-pressure-campaign-helped-save-tennessee-county-tvas-eminent
- also ran
- Tennessee Star, September 4, 2025
- archive
- (none — no Internet Archive capture found at retrieval)
- retrieved
- 2026-08-17
- provenance note
- Captured via automated fetch and rendered to text. Treat quotes as accurate-but-unverified until checked against the live page or an archived HTML copy.
- why saved
- TVA eminent domain, story one of two. Cheatham County, ~Sept 2025, John Rich. Pairs with the Gallatin/Gregory Farm story (Feb 2026) as the two eminent-domain fights that put TVA under public pressure while the Meta buildout proceeded.
Download the original file · 2025-09-03-justthenews-john-rich-tva-cheatham-eminent-domain.txt
Country music artist John Rich mobilized local opposition to stop the Tennessee Valley Authority's plan to construct a 900-megawatt natural gas facility in Cheatham County, his hometown. The proposed project would have displaced approximately 500 residences and consumed 6,000 acres of farmland. Cheatham County, home to over 41,000 residents, has a median family income of $57,562 and an 8.1% poverty rate. The planned power plant threatened five school districts and the county's primary water supply. Rich became involved after meeting with residents who reported armed federal agents conducting property surveys. He described witnessing videos of agents approaching landowners: "They come rolling up on an old lady's farm about 10 cars deep, and out of the cars come out men wearing bullet-proof vests, loaded weapons." Rich characterized the scenario as violating property rights, stating: "total disregard for her autonomy, or her or her land that had been in her family." When TVA officials visited Rich's Nashville residence, he delivered an ultimatum: "You got two weeks to get out of Cheatham County. And if you don't, I'm going to write a song." The TVA officially abandoned the project in summer 2025, including plans for 14 wind turbines and pipelines through protected waterways. County Mayor Kerry McCarver acknowledged Rich's pivotal role, stating: "things really started to turn obviously, when John Rich got involved." Rich subsequently composed "The Devil and the TVA," which became a top-ten country download. He credited President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' involvement in the TVA's reversal. Congress established the TVA in 1933 during the Great Depression to address poverty, flooding, and electricity shortages across the Tennessee Valley region. The agency possesses broad eminent domain authority to acquire property through purchase, lease, or condemnation if voluntary sale proves impossible. Federal courts have consistently upheld these powers throughout the agency's history.