Timeline August 12, 2009
Comment on Visalia Times Delta article
August 12, 2009
Editor
Visalia Times Delta
August 12, 2009
The news brief, “TVA plans dry coal ash storage sites” is, as they might say, the tip of the “ashberg”. It was the catastrophic bursting of a coal ash pond wall that suddenly thrust TVA into national radar range.
Most people around here have no idea what the TVA is or what it does and they are not alone. I have asked many people in Visalia if they knew about the TVA; only a handful have even heard of it mostly from old high school text books.
Visalians should be so lucky to have someone to complain to in electricity production and transmission matters. Some are upset over the routing of a major transmission line and a final decision on it will not be made until all of the issues of concern are thoroughly aired in public hearings.
Not so for the 8 million people in TVA’s 80,000 square-mile territory. There are no okay’s of a public service commission, no input from governors and mayors or other elected officials in seven Southeastern states. When TVA says, “discussion over”, it is over. No appeal to any other higher authority.
You see, TVA is a federal government agency gone wild and its history is so blighted with mismanagements, illegal land swaps and pure negligence as in the Kingston dam breach disaster that its dissolution is long overdue.
I’ve written much about the TVA while living here in Visalia thanks to the Internet. Those interested in knowing more about the TVA easily can find it on the web.
My site, http://norsworthyopinion.com is almost totally devoted to the TVA over about five or six years. My latest article is http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvaactionplannow.aspx
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
http://norsworthyopinion.com