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”?
That places entirely too much on the hope meter. The problem is the government. An administration that now has taken over or is in the process of nationalizing large chunks of American free-enterprise is guaranteed to impede the progress of entrepreneurial America.
FDR tried to prove that more government is better and he utterly failed, delaying pulling out of the Great Depression by at least four years. Dictating new and liberty-stealing New Deal programs, most of which later were ruled unconstitutional, does not mean they will not be tried again.
Because of a perceived mandate, this administration is convinced that more government, not less government is the answer to our economic ills. Plenty of examples abound and all have failed unless, of course, a socialist-style government is preferred.
Immediately after the Kingston disaster, I recommended that the TVA not be in control of the massive cleanup, the intricate dealings with an ailing community because TVA is not capable of thinking but one way – how does it first benefit the TVA, everything and everyone else next.
For proof, the EPA has now taken over. I do not expect the EPA to be a compassionate hand-holder but they should at least be more objective.
What does all this mean to the TVA? First, it is disastrous, not of the Kingston kind, but of the power kind. At last, there is oversight of the TVA by other than the Congress, the government body with the failed charge to look into TVA’s many disastrous management mistakes.
The first substantial blow to TVA’s huge ego was when a federal judge in North Carolina and a Tennessee agency required the TVA to conform to strict cleanup rules.
And now, the federal government fighting between itself makes the TVA yield to yet another set of detailed and onerous rules. One of the stipulations in the Order is that TVA agrees not to sue the EPA!
TVA’s true colors were shown when they pleaded to a judge to exempt them from litigation regarding the Kingston site, a plea that was not permitted in the NC case.
Faced with billions of extra costs, the TVA is really between a rock and a hard place of its own making.
What to do? I have recommended on numerous occasions that the TVA be dissolved and that production facilities be sold to the highest bidder in several lots to assure that all pieces are disposed of, no hanging facilities remaining.
If desirable, some of TVA’s current responsibilities such as weed control could remain with the agency or transferred to other appropriate federal or state agencies.
Since the TVA still is involved in significant litigation, the present legal staff should be retained until all the cases are substantially closed.
TVA has about $25 billion in bonded indebtedness and the proceeds of the sale of TVA’s assets should first go to the bondholders, the remainder, if any, should go to the ratepayers of TVA electricity. If sales of assets do not cover the debt, the bondholders would be the losers since the federal government specifically does not back up TVA bonds or TVA debt.
In no instance should the ratepayers be assessed for any remaining costs incurred by the TVA for any reason, e.g., remaining litigation costs.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy should prepare the necessary documents for the dissolution of the TVA and if present income to the TVA does not cover operating costs, DOE should be prepared to assume all of TVA’s remaining responsibilities and liabilities.
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
http://norsworthyopinion.com