The Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee was supposed to be shutting down after years of federal pollution citations, until the same federal government pledged more than $46 million to keep its coal units burning, and it is one of at least three funded plants with a record of violations

The Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee was supposed to be closing. Its operator had absorbed a multibillion-dollar pollution settlement, federal regulators had cited the plant again in 2017 and 2023, and a fine grit still settles onto cars and porches in th…