New Sierra Club Report: JEA Failing on Clean Energy Transition

JACKSONVILLE, Fla - Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) has received its third consecutive "F" grade, according to the Sierra Club's 2025 Dirty Truth Report. This year, the utility's grade increased three points from a four, its lowest ever score, in 2024 to a still abysmal seven out of 100. Despite claiming to embrace a "brighter energy future," JEA is keeping Jacksonville in the dark ages by further tying residents to high-cost coal units and new pricey gas projects.

The annual Dirty Truth Reportgrades 75 utilities across the country on their plans to retire coal plants by 2030, not build new gas plants through 2035, and transition to clean energy through 2035. The report shows that, while customers' electricity bills are rapidly increasing, JEA is overwhelmingly failing to plan a transition to local, affordable, and reliable clean energy.

See Interactive Webpage to Track and Compare Dirty Truth Scores.

Despite the economic and health costs passed on to Jacksonville families, JEA plans to indefinitely continue operating two expensive and polluting coal-fired units at their Northside Generating Station. Retiring the Northside coal units would save JEA customers up to $500 million over 12 years. The change will also drastically lower health-harming emissions in local communities, preventing 112 asthma attacks annually.

While failing to protect customers from expensive coal, JEA has also approved plans for a $1.57 billion new gas plantat the site of the former St. Johns River Power Park.

"JEA has time and time again shown its allegiance to high-polluting, high-cost fossil fuel power," said Suzanne Sapp, Sierra Club Senior Campaign Organizer. "These volatile energy sources threaten public health and skyrocket our energy bill. Instead of continuing to burn expensive coal into the future, JEA can take advantage of solar incentives now and retire Northside's aging coal units. Doing so would cut energy bills for Jacksonville families and put our city on track to a sustainable, affordable energy future."

"It is alarming that for the first time since 2021, utilities are regressing on their clean energy transition," said Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender. "By adding more gas and keeping costly coal plants online, utility companies are ignoring renewable energy-the cheapest form of energy-and forcing their customers to pay more. As energy costs rise and extreme weather becomes more frequent, now is the time to phase out polluting, volatile, expensive fossil fuels and invest in stable, reliable, and affordable, clean energy."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.