TVA timeline Part 1

TVA timeline 2009 (Part 1 of 2 parts)

January 3, 2010

While TVA began the year 2009 in worse condition than it had ever been, the ensuing months proved things could get even worse. Here is a timeline of significant events surrounding TVA, its 8 1/2 million consumers, major industrial users, TVA’s 158 distributors and TVA’s ever shifting base beginning with that fateful December 22, 2008…

Timeline December 23, 2008

TVA – shoveling out TVA management

Below is the 8K statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission signed by Kimberly Greene, CFO of the TVA dated December 23, 2008. A closer look at the statement reveals just how closemouthed the TVA is and always has been.

There never is a mea culpa from the TVA; the blame is always placed on something, somewhere else. Lately TVA blamed their problems on the drought, fuel prices or “bad weather”. Typically, TVA now blames the rain and freezing weather. TVA admitting to anything they may have done or not done is not in their lexicon.

In this disaster (TVA calls it an “incident”), their entire discussion in the report to the SEC is about ash and an ash slide. To an uninformed TVA bond buyer, that might not seem to be much of a big deal; ash? Everyone knows that ash typically is easily airborne but this resulting “ash slide”, umm, did a little damage, but no one was hurt. Next “incident”.

“Item 8.01 Other Events.

Sometime after midnight on December 22, 2008, a retention wall for an ash-containment area at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant (“KFP”), located near Kingston, Tennessee collapsed. The resulting ash slide impacted an area of approximately 250 acres to 400 acres on the north side of the plant. There were no reported injuries but approximately 15 homes were directly affected. The ash slide also interrupted utilities to nearby residents, blocked a local roadway, and a rail spur serving the site. The Environmental Protection Agency has been notified of the incident, and TVA is working with state and local agencies to respond to the situation and assist affected residents.

TVA is investigating the cause of the incident.

TVA currently has no estimates on the costs associated with this incident, nor sufficient information to reasonably develop such estimates.

With its nine units, KFP is one of the larger TVA fossil plants. It generates 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to supply the needs of about 670,000 homes in the Tennessee Valley. KFP is currently able to operate.

KFP is located on the Emory River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, and steps are being taken to reduce the movement of ash downstream on the Tennessee River. There are no expected impacts to other TVA facilities which are located on, and draw their cooling water from, the Tennessee River.

For information on this incident, go to http://www.tva.com/emergency/ashslide_kingston.htm.”

Here’s what the TVA did not tell you: The breach of the earthen dam at the Kingston plant was, is, a

disaster of several magnitudes, not merely an “ash slide”.

· “Sometime after midnight on December 22, 2008…” the TVA

report says, and it shows just how sloppy the TVA is in

reporting*, after all, the steam plant units usually are operational

24/7, didn’t someone there immediately know about the breach?

What time was it? One eyewitness homeowner reported a

horrendous noise, tornado-like. Did anyone in the control

room notice anything different? The map locator more

appropriately would be Harriman, TN, which was not

mentioned in the TVA report to the SEC.

· TVA leaves the door open to a lesser impact on the area by

stating “The ash slide impacted an area of approximately 250

acres to 400 acres…” This is so broad an estimate as to be

meaningless, but it does confuse and obfuscate. The gunk

reportedly is 5' to 6' thick.

· “Approximately 15 homes were directly affected” which is so

vague, again, and leaves more questions. Confuse and

obfuscate, a TVA criterion.

· The ash slide “interrupted utilities” to residents, blocked a local

roadway, and a rail spur serving the site. (Ital. furnished) That,

perhaps, is the most significant event in the continuing

operation of the Kingston plants. Reports are that about a “two-

week supply of coal” is on site. Of course, coal and tons and

tons of it, are critical to the operation of these electricity

producers. This is a disaster site and it is not at all likely that

the railroad track will again become operational in fourteen

days.

· EPA has been notified; so? Is it possible the EPA will have

to study the site carefully, and, as some have suggested, turn it

into a Superfund site? That might even call for shutting down

the entire site including electricity production for a long period.

It seems to me that if the TVA were to be perfectly honest with

the people, it would tell of that possibility.

· “Steps are being taken to reduce the movement of the ash

downstream on the Tennessee River”. With the Genie out of

the bottle, it will not be possible to rid the waters of the

Kingston ash; much of it will settle to river bottoms and will stay

there to be released bit by bit.

· TVA does not mention anything about the toxicity of the ash but

it is known to contain some toxic materials. Shouldn’t the TVA

tell the people what TVA already knows about the ash and

how it might affect drinking water supplies? It’s not just about

some dead fish.

· Hopefully with this most recent TVA fiasco, TVA’s days of

confusion and obfuscation are over. All Americans have the

right to know what is going on inside the TVA because the

TVA is the federal government. Every move they make affects

us one way or another.

· Some financial reports to the SEC have been in the past (going back to 2006) grossly in error, one report was off by over $200,000,000. Along with several other reporting mistakes, these and the former are now supposedly correct to the SEC.

Timeline December 27, 2008

Presidential prerogatives – forget TVA

December 27, 2008

Executive Orders of the President can and have had a pushing forward effect of an exiting administration which may block or thwart an incoming president all without the benefit of congressional action.

For example, President Bush issued EO 13406 which narrowed the meaning in the Constitution of “taking property” more closely to the founder’s original intent. The Tennessee Valley Authority had grossly misinterpreted that clause until EO 13406 was issued. TVA was the usurper of the right of the people to not expect the federal government to compete in the market place. TVA gleefully did this often and was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in land sales and questionable land swaps. In addition, TVA is anti-competitive in the marketplace of electricity sales.

It would be reasonable for an incoming administration to put more meat on the bones of EO 13406 rather than trying to undo it.

Americans are undergoing a crisis of government credibility caused by the failure of several administrations to check the illegal piling up of debt in the trillions of dollars through federal government guarantees of worthless Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac paper.

Failure of the government to quell these loans has precipitated a world financial crisis the depth of which has not been reached.

In a much smaller but comparable way, the federal government has failed to stanch the flow of borrowed money by the Tennessee Valley Authority now at $25 billion with promises by TVA management to far exceed its statutory borrowing limit of $30 billion.

TVA, whose financing already is on the brink of collapse, has resorted to a one-year “bridge loan” of one billion dollars from the Bank of America. Not only is this outrageous, it is deceitful if not illegal for the federal government to borrow money from a private, stock-held banking source while propping up other financial institutions with a $700 billion “bailout”.

TVA’s books show assets well exceeding their debt but these probably are greatly overestimated based on TVA’s known experience to squeeze dollars the way they want them. Most of the coal-fired plants are over 50 years old and many of them may have reached their useful life. About 60% of TVA generated power comes from these plants.

Though not known until actual liquidation, a more reasonable estimate of TVA assets is probably no more than $15 or $20 billion if that much. Balance of the debt would inure to TVA bondholders or to the “ratepayers” since the federal government does not even guarantee its own money obligations of the TVA.

The TVA has muddled through mismanagement after mismanagement greatly underperforming its charge in the original 1933 legislation. Instead of being the innovator and facilitator of new and breakthrough technology, TVA lags behind the utility industry in every major area and has defaulted on its obligations in other areas.

One of the causes of TVA’s misguided ways is its system of performance bonuses. I have plenty of anecdotal evidence of where TVA either cut corners in maintenance or its failure to perform under duress for fear of affecting bonus amounts.

The failure of an earthen dam at the coal-fired Kingston Plant in Tennessee December 22, 2008, is an apt and recent exhibition of TVA’s dilatory actions. The dam blowout is of monumental proportions.

TVA’s 8K report to the Securities and Exchange Commission of this “incident” is so watered down as to be yet another confusing and ambiguous TVA statement. It seems clear the TVA does not want to rattle bondholders’ chains. My estimate is that this gross negligence of the TVA will cost a billion dollars over time with long years of litigation ahead.

This approach would help re-build America’s industrial base and reverse the decline in job exportation. Americans can do it “better, faster, and cheaper” if the government stands aside to let Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” go to work.

Timeline January 5, 2009

On TVA dissolution, some suggestions

January 5, 2009

Suggestions on developing the

Dissolution Plan

For the

Tennessee Valley Authority

White Paper

Ernest Norsworthy

December 2006

Now that the TVA land policy dust is somewhat settled don’t believe for a second it was just “we listened, we heard” from the more than 5000 comments received that convinced the TVA to adopt a comprehensive and permanent land policy. Presidential Executive Order 13406 clearly states that all federal agencies, including the TVA, must not sell or lease acquired property for private uses. More...

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVAdissolution.aspx

Timeline January 10, 2009

TVA’s structure needs replacing, not repairing

January 10, 2009

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses, and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again

It is easy for me to say “I told you so” about the TVA but is hard to understand why the many millions affected by every action of the TVA still are not outraged by its dissembling, its obvious major management blunders - until now. More...

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvastructure.aspx

Timeline January 12, 2009

Will the real U.S. Government please stand up?

January 12, 2009

A battle royal went on in the Senate’s hearing on the Tennessee Valley Authority Thursday, January 8, 2009. What was it all about? After all, it is the same federal government (I think) that showed itself off so badly. The TVA on one side, a federal government agency, and on the other side, well, it was the same federal government. And they both lost.

http://norsworthyopinion.com/realusgovernment.aspx More...

Timeline January 15, 2009

TVA – is it Republican or Democrat?

January 15, 2009

The best question is why partisan politics should be involved at all in the supply of electricity. TVA began in 1933 as part of FDR’s plethora of government programs, New Deal, they were called. Some argue these government interventions actually delayed the recovery from the Great Depression. Many of them were ruled unconstitutional in the 1930s but a constitutional ruling was never made on the TVA. One is needed now.

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVAisitrepublicanordemocrat20090115.aspx More...

Timeline January 18, 2009

TVA – FES or FES?

January 18, 2009

Some things simply are black or white and not shades of gray. It is clear from our founding documents and the writings of our founding fathers that the newly created U.S. Government would be a free enterprise society and not a federal enterprise society.

And that is why from the very start of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 that its grayness has managed only to be a confusing, contradictory and very costly “enterprise” in the federal system. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvafesorfes20090118.aspx

Timeline January 21, 2009

TVA’s pattern of deceit, delay and dissembling . . .

January 21, 2009

Look no further than the recent ruling against the TVA in the pollution suit brought by North Carolina. TVA’s seeming partial victory by not having more of their coal-fired plants come under the court’s edict (four of the eleven did) opens a Pandora’s Box of many other suits from the states of Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee itself. Estimated cost: One billion dollars. But hey, Tom Kilgore can proclaim a “savings” of $3 to $5 billion by not having to bring the other seven coal-fired plants up to minimum healthy air standards. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvaspatternofdeceit.aspx

Timeline January 25, 2009

TVA’s noose getting tighter and tighter

January 25, 2009

When, if ever, would it be appropriate to display a hangman’s noose at the Tennessee Valley Authority? You probably would think, never. Unfortunately, it is true that the TVA apparently condoned it when a TVA employee was presented with one in his work desk. TVA has taken no action against it. The intimidation was so shocking, so debasing to this TVA employee that he resigned his job and retired early for fear that the intimidation would carry over to his family. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVAnoose01252009.aspx

Timeline February 1, 2009

TVA’s 70 year-old wish has come true

February 1, 2009

The more I delve into and learn about the Tennessee Valley Authority, the stronger I am convinced that the TVA, a parallel federal government, is an abomination and makes a travesty of the U.S. Constitution. Yes, the TVA likely will appeal the part of the North Carolina air pollution suit they lost because of their stated belief that they are above the law of the people, that they have discretionary powers as well as sovereign immunity, the taking of private property by eminent domain. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVA70yearslater020109.aspx

Timeline February 9, 2009

TVA’s head-rolling for Kingston disaster – not!

February 9, 2009

The Tennessee Valley Authority fiefdom style of organization which consists of cross-responsibilities, muddled lines of authority has now been “reorganized” according to TVA’s statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 9, 2009. The heading of that section of SEC’s report seems to ask for information on the “Departure of Directors or Certain Officers” among other things. (See below Item 5.02 of the SEC report.)

What the TVA reports, however, appears to be nothing more than the shuffling of deck chairs, nobody has been thrown overboard. Typically, that is the way in the federal government, nobody ever gets fired. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvasheadrolling020909.aspx

Timeline February 14, 2009

FDR’s TVA – can BHO top it?

February 14, 2009

If you want to see a current-day result of FDR’s New Deal, look no farther than the Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA. Yes, after 75 years and outliving most of FDR’s alphabet soup federal agencies TVA whimpers along and perhaps is the worst living example of a bad Depression era policy gone terribly wrong.

I speak from years of researching the TVA and its ramifications from its constitutionality (never settled by the Supreme Court) to its anti-competition (a corporation in sheep’s clothing with the power of the federal government). Then they called it creeping socialism. It wasn’t creeping; it was and is the nationalization of a large part of the South’s electricity production. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/fdrstvacanbhotopit.aspx

Timeline February 20, 2009

Seven reasons TVA will not be privatized

February 20, 2009

As matters beyond their ken continue to crash down on the Tennessee Valley Authority and the White House daily confirms its real intent to nationalize everything in sight, it is becoming startlingly clear that it is ridiculous to believe the Obama administration would even think about reducing or eliminating a federal agency. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/sevenreasonsTVAwillnotbeprivatized.aspx

Timeline March 4, 2009

How TVA tackles Fraud Waste and Abuse (FW&A)

March 4, 2009

This may be the Tennessee Valley Authority’s “perfect storm” propelling its more speedy demise. The confluence of the Kingston dam disaster and now an audit report revealing a ballooning of purchases of “small business items” of $75 million much of it improperly spent by TVA employees. This alone demands an immediate change in management, TVA’s CEO Tom Kilgore and his seven-member board.

Irresponsible management at several levels in TVA continues to put the spotlight on the long-term corrupt “TVA culture”. Leaders at TVA over and over have been called on the carpet with none of the punitive action normally taken by private industry or even in the military. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVAfraudwasteandabuse.aspx

Timeline March 7, 2009

One President, two federal governments? (TVA is the other one)

March 7, 2009

Unbelievably, for 75 years we have had parallel federal governments, one based on the U.S. Constitution and the other pulled from thin air in 1933 as part of FDR’s New Deal. Many of his programs were ruled unconstitutional; while there have been Supreme Court judgments on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) none have ruled specifically on TVA’s constitutionality.

The TVA is one-of-a-kind in American history. Incredibly, it has been given the powers of the “main” federal government while receiving supra powers in its own legislation. For example, the TVA board of now seven part-time directors sets their own rules that cannot be changed by any other arm of government - state, federal or local - without an act of Congress. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/onepresidenttwofederalgovernments.aspx

Timeline March 14, 2009

TVA – Peck’s Bad Boy?

March 14, 2009

“Repeat offender” could be an apt classification of the Tennessee Valley Authority since 1933. But TVA is still running loose, spreading mayhem, and spending money it does not have or cannot even borrow at a reasonable rate.

It’s not just mischief TVA plays as in the fictional character Peck; TVA impacts without much congressional oversight the daily lives of millions of people in TVA’s vast 80,000 square-mile territory. TVA is a monopoly with rights no other federal agency has. TVA makes its own rules and then enforces them. More...

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvapecksbadboy.aspx

Timeline March 18, 2009

TVA – Sen. Alexander says TVA can change own rules

March 18, 2009

More cities and towns are concerned about their sources of electricity. The TVA, blundering along, is about as unpredictable as a spring shower and never seems to come up smelling like a rose.

There’s this dam, you see, over in Greene County, TN that used to produce hydroelectricity but hasn’t done that since the 1970s. Edgy commissioners now want to try something different, something that may attract worldwide attention as a tourist attraction – a 75-foot waterwheel at the site, the world’s tallest, and to assure the community of a steady source of electric power. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvasenalexandersaystvacanchangeownrules.aspx

Timeline March 19, 2009

TVA OIG points up many management weaknesses

March 19, 2009

Not quite six months into TVA’s FY 2009, their Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has ponderously but not timely revealed many more reasons the TVA is ill-managed. The preponderance of their reports and other evidence strongly suggest that it is past time the TVA should be dissolved.

Medical Benefit Plan Administrator

The latest has to do with TVA’s administration of their own special health care program. For instance, (OIG) “found TVA had potentially been overbilled up to an estimated $473,024” in a report that covered two years starting January 1, 2006. Management of a tight ship would never condone such loose accounting. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvaoigpointsupmanymanagementweaknesses.aspx

Timeline March 25, 2009

TVA – the polliwog swimming in a trillion dollar toxic pond

March 25, 2009

It’s uncanny how much the national financial crisis and TVA’s financial crisis parallel. Both were caused by unwise decisions many years ago; spending like there was no tomorrow and, simply, both trying to milk the system for all its worth.

A liberal view of the world says “we deserve it, we deserve homeownership just like other Americans” and so the lending institutions responded to congressional pressures by selling mortgages to millions of people who qualified even with “no job, no money and no income”. But then that paper was sold as AAA-rated when basically it was a worthless pile of paper now known as “toxic assets”, an oxymoronic phrase. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVAthepolliwogswimminginatrilliondollartoxicpond.aspx

Timeline March 29, 2009

TVA Sequoyah twin-reactors automatic shutdown

March 29, 2009

Ho hum, just another day at the old nuclear power plant over at Sequoyah; not much happens around there. Oh yes, there was one small “event” that just happened. Unit 1 and Unit 2 shut down all by themselves!

Okay, okay, they put out an awful lot of electricity and when something goes wrong at the other end that electricity backs up in those power lines very fast. We humans can’t react fast enough so it was all automatic.

That’s the kind of attitude that comes out of the TVA when something big happens. Minimize it, minimize it, and minimize it until that bad news goes away. That’s been TVA’s modus operandi for decades. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvasequoyahtwinreactorsautomaticshutdown.aspx

Timeline April 9, 2009

TVA – anachronism of the past?

April 9, 2009

Some things are past fixing, past bringing up to speed in today’s fast moving technological world. Building on sand castles is as fruitless as trying to hold back the tide which washes it all away. To build on a better future we need a better model, one that the past at least has shown us what not to do.

Acquiescing to a federal culture has changed Southern culture with all its charm, politeness, honorableness and entrepreneurship into a harsh, domineering ward-state since the 1930s. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvaanachronismofthepast.aspx

Timeline April 20, 2009

On TVA – Will the real Attorneys General please stand up?

April 20, 2009

Attorney General Roy Cooper blazed the trail for them, fought the TVA monolith who believed that it was immune from prosecution of merely being a “public nuisance”.

A very bad mis-read by TVA. Now a federal judge agreed with North Carolina’s Cooper that, indeed, TVA’s pollution was causing sickness and premature deaths of NC citizens and ruled so in January. It took three years before this judgment was reached. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/willrealAGspleasestandup.aspx

Timeline April 21, 2009

Obama’s “budget cuts”

April 21, 2009

When “Slick Willie” came to town with his slack-jawed “aw shucks” hayseed demeanor and after first disbelieving he actually had been elected to our highest office, I offered the speculation that he wouldn’t last, maybe not through the first four years.

Wrong. And now comes the still wet-behind-the-ears pretender, The One, who after shocking us all with his trillions of debt dollars wants to “cut spending” by $100 million in 90 days. That was the charge given to cabinet members yesterday. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/obamasbudgetcuts.aspx

Timeline April 28, 2009

A “Stress Test” for the TVA?

April 28, 2009

“The government's latest lifeline for major banks, announced Monday, has one main qualification: A bank has to essentially fail the stress test, which is meant to determine if it could survive a worse-than-expected decline in the economy. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/stresstestfortva.aspx

Timeline May 2, 2009

While coal is king, water holds the crown

May 2, 2009

What a refreshingly readable article, “Bound to Burn”, by Manhattan Institute’s Peter Huber. Regardless of the “side” of his strong arguments one takes they still must be debated premised on logical thinking. See

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_carbon.html

So much that emanates from American society today in striving for answers, “out there, some where”, is so overwhelming that the Utopianites may never see it any other way. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/whilecoaliskingwaterholdsthecrown.aspx

Timeline May 4, 2009

TVA’s Bellefonte still carries ghost label

May 4, 2009

With declining sales and skyrocketing costs (there, I’ve said it anyway, “sales” implies a “profit” somewhere and TVA is not supposed to make a profit), it was a wise move for TVA to be replaced in the drive for two new-concept Westinghouse reactors at Bellefonte.

No doubt that TVA has been the laggard in moving forward with the NuStart design concept thereby dragging down the whole consortium of nuclear interests. TVA is (was) supposed to have the “flexibility” of a corporation with the power of the federal government to move quickly in the marketplace, the very marketplace it is trying to displace. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvasbellefontestillcarriesghostlabel.aspx

Timeline May 9, 2009

TVA still “fishing” for ways to spend money

May 9, 2009

Holy Cow! The cash is still flowing at TVA for fun and games on Memorial Day. It’s the “annual” TVA East Tennessee Bass Tournament.

Lots of fun on the taxpayers’ dime. Wonder what the boys in West Tennessee think about those cash prizes? They’d have to drive a long way to join in on the frivolities. First they’d have to be a TVA employee, TVA retiree or a TVA contractor. I can see how the contractors would like to jump in the TVA boats. (I’d recommend a red and white Lucky Thirteen lure). More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvastillfishingforwaystospendmoney.aspx

Timeline May 12, 2009

TVA about to sing swan song about Life on Swan Pond

May 12, 2009

As the dust settles on the far horizon after the EPA stampede has passed through, what happens now?

You may be assured it will not be fast because that is not in the genes of the federal government, most governments, actually.

For those who look to the government for salvation, for the answers to all our problems, please look again. TVA, a federal government agency, could not handle it and now we expect yet another federal agency to come in behind the first one and play “cleanup”? More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvaabouttosingswansongaboutlifeonswanpond.aspx

Timeline May 20, 2009

TVA – FDR’s Folly

May 20, 2009

Everyone hopes to leave some kind of legacy of past good deeds that some day might be remembered.

Unfortunately, the legacy of FDR’s folly, the TVA, will haunt his remembrances forever. You might say that the apex of that folly is with us today. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvafdrsfolly.aspx

Timeline May 21, 2009

Anda Ray’s TVA

May 21, 2009

The TVA PR machine begins. How better way to start with a picture of an attractive female who looks so assuring, so motherly?

Anda Ray may be the last competent staffer in the TVA. Her article is compassionate, more so than to the degree TVA usually shows compassion (none). More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/andaraystva.aspx

Timeline May 23, 2009

TVA’s brier patch mentality

May 23, 2009

Oh Golly, Miss Molly! This is TVA at its best. Magnanimously TVA wants to pay for a PR program for Roane County because of TVA’s own Kingston “catastrophe”. I believe it really is for TVA to hope to ameliorate charges of their possible criminal negligence.

Does any thinking person believe this would be only for Roane County, Tennessee? And why should Roane County taxpayers pay for the PR? TVA already has a huge in-house PR organization. Uncle Remus’ Mr. Rabbit pleaded with Mr. Fox not to throw him in the brier patch.* More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvasbrierpatchmentality.aspx

Timeline May 25, 2009

TVA belt tightening not on table?

May 25, 2009

Mike Duncan, former Republican National Committee head, takes over as chairman of the TVA board dropping his first gavel on June 4 in faraway Young Harris, Georgia.

It should be a very quiet meeting since it is distanced from TVA’s headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee, away from all of the demands now pressing TVA’s very existence.

The basic matters though, should encompass several areas including board membership, agency staffing and financial concerns. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvabelttightening.aspx

Timeline May 28, 2009

TVA debacles unending – now its pension fund deficit

May 28, 2009

Everyone has heard about the huge TVARS pension fund shortage. I use the word shortage because it also is another word for stealing. And that is what the TVA has done to the pension account for some 35,000 TVA employees and retirees and their families, they have stolen from it.

The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors clearly should be held personally liable for the shortage in that fund. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvadebaclesunendingnowitspensionfunddeficit.aspx

Timeline June 1, 2009

“Comments by ErnestNorsworthy”

June 1, 2009

Below are several posts made to the Knoxville News Sentinel in May 2009. One of them refers to the impossibility in my view of the federal government’s ability to share its assets with anyone. That assertion will be made false when the federal government in an unprecedented move soon takes over as the principal owner of an investor-owned private business, General Motors. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/commentsbyernestnorsworthy.aspx

Timeline June 3, 2009

TVA faces another Congressional hearing

June 3, 2009

In a craftily worded statement before a congressional committee today, John M. Thomas III, Vice President and Controller, Tennessee Valley Authority, said, “TVA is facing some significant financial and operational challenges that are expected to impact this year’s financial performance and the year ahead.”

To Mr. Thomas goes the “Understatement of the Year” award. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvafacesanothercongressionalhearing.aspx

Timeline June 5, 2009

TVA’s Kilgore shuns Congressional hearing?

June 5, 2009

In an intended or unintended snub to Subcommittee Chairman Eddie Bernice Johnson (Tex-D), the TVA was represented by a lower level official to report and respond to their questions June 3 in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the mostly Democratic panel did not offer much in the way of questions to John M. Thomas III, a TVA vice president, because TVA CEO Tom Kilgore wasn’t there. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvaskilgoreshunscongressionalhearing.aspx

Timeline June 7, 2009

When TVA dumps, everybody else jumps

June 7, 2009

When you’re dealing with a large, multibillion dollar federal agency that doesn’t hesitate to throw its weight (and money) around, what is about to happen to Perry County Alabama shouldn’t be too surprising. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/whentvadumpseverybodyelsejumps.aspx

Timeline June 8, 2009

TVA land swaps – “have I got a deal for you!”

June 8, 2009

TVA has a long and sordid history of preferential land deals and it was thought that Executive Order 13406 would solve that problem. But the TVA in its machinations of interpretive powers has seen it differently.

Here’s the clear language of EO 13406, the operative sections. Nothing prohibits a federal agency from: More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/tvalandswaps.aspx

Timeline June 24, 2009

TVA hangman’s noose still potent in workplace

June 24, 2009

I have heard from numbers of former TVA workers in the past five years but none a more heart rending and disappointing story coming from the federal government. He relates some of his tale below. I hope everyone stops a moment to read it. There is more, much more.

http://norsworthyopinion.com/TVAhangmansnoosestillpotentinworkplace.aspx

Timeline June 25, 2009

Cause of TVA’s Kingston ash dam break mystery of the universe

June 25, 2009

So the great mystery lingers. Like the decades it took to find the “root cause” of the sinking of the Titanic ultimately caused by the kind of steel and its assembly in the dry dock, the TVA mystery eventually will be solved.

http://norsworthyopinion.com/causeoftvaskingstonashdambreakmysteryoftheuniverse.aspx

Timeline July 8, 2009

Hear ye, hear ye! Time for TVA dissolution

July 8, 2009

Declaration of Independence from the TVA

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the people of the Tennessee Valley Authority Territory to dissolve the political bands required by the amended U.S. Constitution who are entitled to a decent respect to the opinions of the residents therein, that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. More…

http://norsworthyopinion.com/hearyehearyetimefortvadissolution.aspx

End of Part 1 of 2 parts TVA timeline 2009.

Ernest Norsworthy

emnorsworthy@earthlink.net

Opinions Opinions Opinions

Contemporary Conservative Commentary and Constructive Criticism

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