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.
The judge said the seven other plants were too far away to determine whether or not they were affecting the air in North Carolina. But the judge’s proclamation screamed of what he did not say, that is, that those other seven plants are injuring the health of millions of people in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia.
In his ruling on January 13, Judge Lacy Thornburg said, in part, “(B)ased on the totality of the evidence, the Court finds that, at a minimum, there is an increased risk of incidences of premature mortality in the general public associated with (particulate matter) exposure” (to North Carolina citizens.) He didn’t say it, but the same applies to those in the proximity of the seven coal-fired plants.
And further, “As with the Widows Creek plant in Alabama, TVA’s failure to speedily install readily available pollution control technology is not, and has not been, reasonable conduct under the circumstances.”
North Carolina and TVA must bear their own attorneys’ fees and costs, he said.
There are two main points here, the first is that it is absolutely ludicrous for a federal court to be handling a case against a federal government agency, presumably both of which are part of the same federal government. Secondly, TVA, following a familiar pattern, fights tooth and nail to subvert the health of American citizens. Instead of being a leader in the use of best technology available to snuff out the pollutants that are harmful to human life, TVA takes a foot-dragging, obstinate position of not carrying out the improvements until required – not by local outcries, state insistence or even state laws that TVA fights. No, it has taken a federal court to do it.
It is interesting that the TVA is taking the same foot-dragging obstinacy into a decision of whether or not to appeal the North Carolina case. Just “considering their options”.
That itself is an outrageous position of the TVA. Obviously, TVA is again putting their cost above the health and safety of American citizens.
The TVA spends precious little time bothering with the media (they hate having to deal directly with the people), and the monolith maintains a stoicism and aloofness that clearly shows an arrogance of power.
Behind all of its feigned cost consciousness is the core problem of the TVA – it is bonus driven; the more production at the least cost equals more bonus money. This culture pervades the entire TVA; a particularly galling fact is that it is part of the federal government.
When TVA takes the least-cost alternative as they reportedly did in the Kingston disaster, disaster can and did result. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of similar cutting of corners by TVA management. And in defense of TVA’s North Carolina suit, their CEO Tom Kilgore said, "Tennessee hasn't chosen to go after North Carolina because the wind does blow this way, too, I'm not trying to get Tennessee to do that. We're just going to defend ourselves." (Chattanooga Times Free Press 7/14/08). Now there’s a good example of confusing obfuscation, of trying to point the finger away from TVA.
And further quoting Tom Kilgore from the same article, "We think North Carolina is wrong because we're not polluting their state any more than they pollute their own state.” Aside from being irrelevant to the case, it hardly reflects the best interest of Americans in all states; not representative of a federal employee protecting those interests.
“TVA spokesman John Moulton said the federal utility complies with all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules and (TVA) questions whether one state should be able to regulate a government agency in another state.” (Chattanooga Times Free Press 7/14/08, ital. supplied)
That should say reams about the TVA philosophy – it leaves one to wonder if TVA believes that it alone has that right.
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
http://norsworthyopinion.com