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The Tennessee Valley Authority is planning a gas plant and pipeline project in Kingston.

Tennessee residents, over many years, will pay for it.

But should they?

The fossil fuel project is not a good investment, economically or morally, according to Nashville’s political leaders.

Mayor John Cooper’s office formally opposed the Kingston project this week in written comments to TVA, citing long-term economic risks, climate change and the viability of clean alternatives.

“If we are to ask our city’s residents to pay for a major investment in replacing (Kingston), it should be in renewables and storage,” the office wrote. “TVA needs to serve as a leader in addressing the existential threat of climate change.”

In Kingston, a town about 30 minutes west of Knoxville and the site of the nation’s worst coal ash spill, TVA is planning to replace its old coal plant with 1.5 gigawatts of methane gas facilities, including one traditional gas plant and 16 peaker plants, a small solar farm — about .2% of the total project — and a storage facility.

The project will also include a 122-mile pipeline, which the mayor’s office said, as it did in comments on TVA’s 1.5-GW Cumberland gas project, would “stand as a stark symbol that TVA is doubling down on the fuels that have led to our climate crisis.”

‘Nashvillians on the hook to pay for further pollution’

TVA calls the project the “best overall solution to provide low-cost, reliable energy to the TVA power system.”

In the past decade, major blackouts, including TVA’s Arctic incident in December, have been challenging the narrative that gas is reliable. Gas accounts for a disproportionate share of power outages in the U.S., Bloomberg reported last week.

TVA has not shared the Kingston project costs yet, but the TVA Board has approved $3.5 billion for both the Kingston and Cumberland projects, according to TVA’s latest 10-K filing.

Gas could become more expensive soon. In May, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that would require large gas plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or have 30% hydrogen use by 2035 — or close early.

“The lifespan of the proposed plants undermines any cost-based argument made by the TVA,” the mayor’s office comments read. “Leaving Nashvillians on the hook to pay for further pollution is unacceptable.”

Wind and solar are cost-competitive with gas. From a climate perspective, gas is much more expensive than renewable options. For the Kingston project, the total social costs of greenhouse gas emissions for gas would be about $6 billion more than for solar, based on one of TVA’s own calculations. But, given that TVA cites the American Gas Association for the estimated climate pollution released by fracking and pipelines and not the latest science, the climate cost is likely much higher.

NES Board says TVA’s gas plans threaten business

The Nashville Electric Service board has also publicly opposed the Kingston project. The board submitted comments last week asking TVA to focus on renewables to make Nashville more competitive with other big American cities.

The board emphasized concerns for business since most companies are considering local energy in their environmental, social and governance, or ESG, portfolios.

“The lack of clean, renewable energy places NES and the Nashville region at a competitive business disadvantage in attracting more businesses to the Middle Tennessee area,” the board wrote.

Vanderbilt University and the Metro Nashville government, NES’ largest industrial and government customers, have been able to hit sustainability targets because of “100 percent customer investment,” but smaller business customers “without significant resources do not have the choice or option to consume environmentally sustainable power,” the board wrote.

TVA power is nearly 50% fossil fuels

In 2022, nearly half of TVA’s power came from fossil fuels.

TVA has proposed about 4 GW of new gas in the past year, between the Cumberland, Kingston and Cheatham projects. The three pipelines required for these projects equate to more than half the length of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 300-mile project that was recently approved through a congressional deal following significant pushback.

The utility is also currently constructing another 2 GW of gas at its sites in New Johnsonville; Paradise, Ky.; and Colbert, Ala.

Together, the gas projects are equivalent to more than 15% of the utility’s current capacity of 38 GW.

An informant in the prosecution of two brothers from a Utah polygamous sect made overtures to Utah politicians, including Attorney General Sean Reyes, according to a new court filing and interviews.

The informant, identified for the first time in court papers as Santiago Garcia, was employed by the two brothers — Jacob and Isaiah Kingston — who are now accused of fraud and money laundering.

Isaiah Kingston’s lawyer, in a motion filed on New Year’s Eve, accuses Garcia of shady and sometimes illicit dealings, including embezzling from the Kingstons’ company and giving money and favors to politicians.

Garcia-Reyes reference (p. 10)

View the entire document with DocumentCloud

The only politician the filing names is Reyes, though the motion doesn’t say Utah’s attorney general actually took anything. Reyes campaign consultant Alan Crooks said Garcia never contributed to Reyes.

Garcia “did offer to do fundraisers,” Crooks said Tuesday, “but we chose not to do any fundraisers with him.”

Utah’s campaign disclosure website lists no contributions from Garcia.

Jacob and Isaiah Kingston ran Washakie Renewable Energy, which promoted itself as a manufacturer and seller of biofuels. For a stretch in 2014 and 2015, Washakie was one of Utah’s highest-profile businesses. It advertised at Utah Jazz home games and on game broadcasts.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges Washakie made almost no biofuel and instead bought and sold products and fabricated papers to collect a tax rebate from the federal government. Prosecutors have alleged the fraud amounted to almost $511 million, with the money going to the purchase of property in Turkey, among other things.

Court filings and hearings have discussed a government informant who duped Jacob Kingston into sending incriminating messages about trying to bribe or intimidate witnesses and prosecutors. The motion filed on New Year’s Eve is the first to identify that witness as Garcia. He was once an executive at a Washakie subsidiary called United Fuel Supply.

The new motion is aimed at getting Isaiah Kingston out of jail until his trial. His lawyer, Scott C. Williams, who filed the motion, wrote that Garcia was fired from Washakie for embezzling and is cooperating with the government to get immunity for his crimes.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Williams called Garcia an unsavory character whom prosecutors are relying upon to prosecute Isaiah Kingston and keep him in jail until trial. The motion argues the Justice Department probably knows more about Garcia’s misdealings but has not yet provided those records to the defense.

“Our point is the government is not giving all the information,” Williams said. “It’s cherry-picking what looks bad” for Isaiah Kingston.

Williams said prosecutors have provided him screenshots of telephone text messages between Garcia and Reyes and between Garcia and Crooks. Some of those messages included invitations from Garcia for Reyes to travel to Texas and Florida for campaign fundraisers. Garcia worked in both states as part of his job with United Fuel Supply.

Williams clarified Tuesday he is not accusing Reyes of any wrongdoing; the attorney included the mention of the attorney general in an effort to show how it was normal for Garcia to be communicating with government officials, and Jacob and Isaiah Kingston might not have realized Garcia was suggesting bribery or intimidation of them.

Williams declined to provide the screenshots Tuesday, citing prohibitions imposed by the judge in the case.

Garcia could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Representatives of the Justice Department did not return calls seeking comment.

Isaiah Kingston was Washakie’s chief financial officer. Yet Williams’ motion contends his client was far less involved in the company and its finances than his brother was and was not responsible for the alleged money laundering.

Jacob Kingston is charged with 25 counts of filing false returns with the IRS and money laundering. Isaiah Kingston is charged with six counts of money laundering. They belong to the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group, which believes in polygamy.

Another co-defendant, Lev Aslan Dermen, commonly known as Levon Termendzhyan, has been indicted on four counts of money laundering.

Jacob and Isaiah Kingston, their companies and family members donated a total of $50,985 to Reyes during 2014 and 2015, according to campaign records. Reyes placed those contributions into an escrow account after federal agents raided Washakie offices in 2016. Crooks has said the money will remain in escrow until the outcome of the federal cases against the brothers and their businesses.

Crooks said Tuesday he recalled Jacob Kingston introducing him to Garcia, perhaps in 2014. The Reyes campaign opted not to hold fundraisers or work with Garcia, Crooks said.

Then, sometime after Elizabeth Elena Laguna-Salgado disappeared from Provo in April 2015, Garcia called Crooks again, Crooks said Tuesday. Garcia offered to help investigators make contacts in Provo’s Latino community as well as in Mexico, Crooks said.

Garcia never called back with such information, Crooks said. Laguna-Salgado’s body was found in May 2018 in Hobble Creek Canyon. Police believe she as the victim of a homicide. No arrests have been made.

As for the investigation into the Kingston brothers or Washakie, Crooks said neither he nor Reyes has been questioned by federal investigators.

“They don’t have any reason to get a hold of us, to be honest,” Crooks said.

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SALT LAKE CITY — Amid increased enforcement efforts in the region, the U.S. Department of Labor assessed nearly $17,000 in penalties to a Salt Lake City-based restaurant supply company connected to the polygamous Kingston sect that was in violation of child labor laws, the department announced Tuesday.

A federal investigation found Specialty Consulting Services LLC — operating as Standard Restaurant Supply — allowed 22 employees between the ages of 14 and 15 to work as many as 46 hours per workweek and to begin work after midnight, both of which are illegal practices under child labor laws, specifically the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The investigation also found that Standard Restaurant Supply "failed to keep accurate time records including the date of birth for one minor-aged employee," another violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act's recordkeeping provision.

In response to the investigation, the division assessed $16,595 in penalties "to resolve the child labor violations."

A year ago, the division's Southwest Region released a reminder to Salt Lake City-area employers reiterating the importance of complying with federal child labor laws and said that it would be "stepping up its efforts to identify child labor violations in the Salt Lake City area."

"We urge employers in the region to gain a full understanding of child labor regulations and ensure they are abiding by the law, or they should be prepared to face costly consequences," Kevin Hunt, Wage and Hour Division district director in Salt Lake City, said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the labor department announced that Utah soda and dessert shop Sodalicious violated federal child labor laws at its Midvale, Orem, Provo and South Jordan locations.

"The division determined that Sodalicious allowed 14 and 15-year-old employees to work past 7 p.m. when school was in session, after 9 p.m. during summer months and more than 3 hours on a school day at four of its Utah locations," the department said in a release.

"Employers like Sodalicious are legally responsible for knowing and complying with federal child labor laws and making sure their employment practices do not jeopardize the safety of young workers or interfere with their education," Betty Campbell, Wage and Hour southwest regional administrator, said in a statement.

In response to the Sodalicious locations violating the fair labor act, the division assessed the company with $13,946 in penalties to resolve the infractions.

The latest investigations by the labor department come after it was revealed in December that 11 Crumbl Cookie locations, including four in Utah (Bountiful, Centerville, Layton and Ogden locations), were in violation of child labor laws.

"Minors as young as 14 and 15 years old not only worked beyond permitted hours but more than half of them were employed in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act by being allowed to work long shifts often exceeding eight hours," Hunt said.

Founded in 1980, Specialty Consulting Services LLC has nine locations throughout Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

The company's Better Business Bureau profile lists Ellery Kingston as the president of Standard Restaurant Supply. A 2003 blog post, written by Ellery Kingston, on the Davis County Cooperative Society, a northern Utah polygamous sect often referred to as "the Kingstons" by outsiders, also mentions the company.

In September, 10 plaintiffs, mostly women, filed a 109-page lawsuit against 24 identified and 20 unidentified members of "the Order" — another moniker of the Kingston polygamous sect — alleging rampant abuse and exploitation.

The federal department's Wage and Hour Division in 2022 found more than 3,800 minors employed in violation of child labor laws in the U.S. — an increase of 37% over the previous year, according to the data.

"Our investigators continue to see an increase in child labor violations in several industries. We will take vigorous action whenever we discover young workers' safety and well-being are being jeopardized by employers who fail to follow the law," Hunt added.

Standard Restaurant Supply didn't respond to requests for comment from KSL.com.

| Updated: 3:29 p.m.

Prosecutors have indicted two more members of a polygamous family — this time the wife of one defendant and the mother of two defendants — in what prosecutors have called a $511 million fraud using biodiesel tax credits.

A prosecutor also explained for the first time how the U.S. Department of Justice believes fraud at Washakie Renewable Energy is related to the Kingston Group, also known as the Davis County Cooperative Society. In federal court Tuesday, Richard M. Rolwing, a special assistant U.S. attorney, said one of the new defendants, Rachel Ann Kingston, was helping two of her sons forge documents and commit fraud to benefit her husband, John Daniel Kingston.

He is one of the top men in the sect, though he has not been charged with any crimes in the case.

Rolwing said John Daniel Kingston “has some amorphous stewardship over Washakie Renewable Energy.”

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sally Kingston, the wife of Jacob Kingston, leaves the federal courthouse, after a hearing for Jacob and Isaiah Kingston on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rachel Ann Kingston, mother of Isaiah Kingston, leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing for defendants Jacob and Isaiah Kingston on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018.

The new indictment describes how, in 2013, Washakie transferred $6.2 million to the Kingston Group’s incorporated church or businesses operated by church members. An account controlled by the sect then returned $4.5 million to Washakie.

For now, the five defendants are the three men charged in August: brothers Jacob and Isaiah Kingston, the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, respectively, of Washakie Renewable Energy; one of the business associates, Lev Dermen; and the two women whose indictments were unsealed Tuesday, Rachel Kingston, 63, and Sally Louise Kingston, the 41-year-old wife of Jacob Kingston.

Rachel Kingston, 63, was charged with five counts alleging fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The charges could amount to 60 years in prison. She is the mother of Jacob and Isaiah Kingston.

Sally Kingston is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of money laundering. She faces up to 40 years in prison. The two women surrendered over the weekend but were not booked into jail. They appeared in Salt Lake City’s federal court with an attorney Tuesday morning for an arraignment.

Rolwing wanted the women to post a $10 million bond — the same amount Jacob Kingston has offered to leave jail pending trial — and sought to bolster his argument by explaining prosecutors’ view of the case to Judge Paul Warner.

While Jacob Kingston might have been the public face of Washakie and the most culpable, Rolwing said, his mother drafted forms to submit to the federal government and showed others how to file false information. The move would have allowed the company to collect tax credits on biodiesel it did not actually produce.

The judge opted to let the women remain free without a bond, though they need to surrender their passports, wear ankle monitors and remain in Utah.

Businesses owned by Kingston Group members are often considered to be consecrated to the sect. Revenues typically go into a church account. The sect will then return what money the business needs for operating expenses.

Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Polygamist John Daniel Kingston, left, in attendance at a memorial for the victims of a flash flood. The memorial was held in Maxwell Park in Hildale, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015.

John Daniel Kingston did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. He was jailed for beating his daughter into unconsciousness in 1998 after the girl, then 16, ran away from an arranged marriage to her uncle. John Daniel Kingston, who according to court testimony once had 14 wives, was on hand in 2011, when his sons held an open house at the Washakie production plant in Plymouth near Interstate 15 and the Idaho line.

Rolwing also referenced a 2016 federal raid on Washakie offices in South Salt Lake that prosecutors have alleged the defendants knew about in advance. Rolwing said Rachel Kingston told other employees there was mold in the offices and sent them home while she destroyed evidence before IRS and FBI agents arrived.

Rolwing said some computer hard drives remain missing, though federal agents were available to recover emails and other data on a backup server. It still hasn’t been explained how anyone at Washakie would have known about the raid.

New indictments were not a surprise. In a December hearing, federal prosecutors disclosed they planned to indict new defendants by mid-January.

But the hearing Tuesday ended days of behind-the-scenes legal wrangling. Motions, apparently filed by the Kingston Group and member businesses, were sealed, and the entire court docket for the prosecutions was sealed from public view Thursday — a rare event in Utah’s federal court. The motions, the new indictment and the docket were all unsealed Tuesday morning before the hearing.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kingston brothers Isaiah (left) and Jacob co-own WRE or Washakie Renewable Energy, which produces 10 milion gallons of biofuel. The largest biodiesel producer in Utah, Washakie held an open house in Plymouth on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, to showcase its new production facility.

The new indictments arrive as the three original defendants are challenging their detentions and the cases against them. Jacob Kingston has filed a motion for pretrial release and offered to post $10 million in bail.

His brother Isaiah Kingston asserts he has medical problems that have caused him to lose weight while being held in the Weber County jail.

Both he and Dermen have pushed for prosecutors to accelerate the disclosure of evidence so the cases can move to trial. For now, all three men remain in jail. Their trials are scheduled for May.

Washakie Renewable Energy promoted itself as a manufacturer and seller of biofuels. For a stretch in 2014 and 2015, Washakie was one of Utah’s highest-profile businesses. It advertised at Utah Jazz home games and on game broadcasts.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges Washakie made almost no biofuel and instead bought and sold products and fabricated papers to collect a tax rebate from the federal government. Prosecutors have alleged the fraud amounted to almost $511 million, with the money going to the purchase of property in Turkey, among other things.

The new indictment charges Jacob Kingston with 43 counts of filing false returns with the IRS, money laundering, threatening a witness and obstruction of justice. Isaiah Kingston is charged with 19 such counts.

Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, has been indicted on 10 counts of fraud and money laundering.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (KUTV) — A former staffer at Vanguard Academy in West Valley City told our Beyond The Books investigative unit, that every day at the school was stranger than the day before.

"There was something that was weird to me,” the former teacher, who did not want to be identified, told us. “I noticed everyone was very similar, the other teachers, all the kids,” says the teacher who worked for the school during 2015-2016 year, Vanguard, inaugural year.

The teacher says she was troubled by a story from one of the students who, although only 16 years old, admitted that she was already married and living with a man. The teacher said the student would often ask the teacher, the mother of two children, what it was like to be pregnant.

"She stopped coming to school after December,” said the teacher, who assumed she went on to have her child.

The teacher said the students would talk about sisters and brothers who she said looked nothing alike. The teacher said one day a colleague explained why the school seemed so different to her.

He just said, I think his exact words were, ‘You know this is run by polygamists right?'

I was like, ‘oh, that makes sense,’” she said.

Beyond The Books research reveals Vanguard Academy’s student body is made up of a small number of families, most prominent among them are the Kingstons. The Kingston name is tied to the powerful and secretive polygamist group known as “The Order.” Beyond The Books has obtained a yearbook from the school’s first year of operation.

Of the 200 students in attendance, 44 them — or 22 percent — had the last name Kingston. Beyond The Books also discovered that at least five of Vanguard’s eight board members and four teachers have links to the Kingston polygamist family.

Charter schools are public schools funded by taxpayer money and must follow all state and federal civil right laws. Since 2017, Vanguard has received $17 million from Utah taxpayers. Vanguard maintains it does not deliberately exclude any students. Vanguard said it also follows all state laws and regulations. The school uses a state-approved lottery system that selects applicants who have applied for the school. The lottery does, however, give preference to the children of the school's founders, school board members, and siblings of kids who are already enrolled.

Beyond The Books broached the subject with the Vanguard’s director, Suzanne Owen.

CHRIS JONES: There is a large polygamist population at the school and that is the reason that so many siblings crowd out minorities and other white students from attending your school.

SUZANNE OWEN: Vanguard is a public charter school, we do not have an affiliation with any other kind of religious or belief system.

CJ: That’s 22 percent of the student population being from one surname, is that just a coincidence?

SO: I had not looked at the data in that way.

CJ: But it doesn’t take a data scientist to realize that there’s one surname that sort of appears on the rolls.

SO: We don’t discriminate.

In addition to the student body, Beyond The Books also had questions about the companies that do business with the school. We found that unraveling the mysterious web of businesses with ties to the Kingston group to be nearly impossible. Then we uncovered a 2003 lawsuit filed against the family.

It identifies 200 Kingston members and the businesses they run. From this lawsuit and help from former Kingston group member Jeremy Tucker, we identified at least seven different companies associated with the Kingstons. These companies have been paid more than $1.6 million since the school's first year.

Kingston Linked Companies Doing Business With Vanguard

In addition, Vanguard had paid nearly $2 million to a private school linked to the Kingstons called “Ensign Learning Center." Ensign, located across the street from Vanguard Academy, appears to own the building, and Vanguard pays rent to Ensign.

Owen said the school has legally followed the state’s strict bidding process, known as a Request For Proposal or RFP.

"We do all of the RFP procedures,” Owen said.

The former Vanguard staffer said, as a taxpayer, the questions about spending at Vanguard concern her, but as a parent, what worries her more is fear that some students may have been turned away.

"It’s just anybody outside their group, I think if I wanted to apply for my kids to go there I don’t think they would get in," she said.