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.
Luckily, no one has been seriously injured by the exploding torrent of sludge from TVA’s Kingston plant in Tennessee and the lesser one just three weeks later from the Widows Creek plant in Alabama. Jumping to the conclusion that all of TVA’s sludge ponds place humans in harm’s way would, I think, be incorrect.
What would be true, however, is a darker reason why TVA is so unresponsive, so reticent to acknowledge, much less admit, to the error of its management ways.
I think I know why and as usual it is rooted in money. TVA operates on a bonus system, that is, production quotas must be met to obtain the highest bonus amounts. Everything TVA does is based on high production at the least possible cost. And many times maintenance goes lacking or delayed to the point of exhaustion of the equipment. TVA parrots “safety first” slogans but apparently does not practice it. I have been told by former TVA employees of instances where management’s main desire to maintain its bonus status was done at the expense of endangerment to some TVA employees.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) who somewhat timidly found that TVA’s Widows Creek coal-fired plant was leaking fumes badly, fined the TVA $100,000 for not reporting it. I am not sure whether TVA ever paid that fine; it would not be surprising if they had not because of their tactic to push back, to delay any kind of remedial action.
Since TVA is the federal government, it should be appalling to every American citizen how badly and with disdain the TVA has betrayed our trust putting the public and many of its own employees in harms way just to squeeze out more bonus money. The Kingston disaster clearly is an example of that.
But the TVA has another card to play that perhaps is strongest of all and that is how the TVA annually doles out its payments (“bribes”) in lieu of taxes to state and local governments in seven Southeastern states. Here’s how it works: TVA’s model is based on electricity production, the more that is used in TVA’s 80,000 square-mile territory the more that is rebated to those state and local communities to the tune of 5% of gross sales per year. Without debating whether these communities are being shortchanged (they are) it is a fact that TVA’s “free” no strings money filters through political handouts in state and local governments. Slush funds, as Gov. Bob Riley puts it. That money is politically powerful and useful.
In the Kingston dam break three-weeks ago local and county officials were downplaying its severity. There’s a quid pro quo there I believe. Some would call it hush money.
Sometimes the TVA money wends its way into laughable results. Alabama legislators have decided that it is unfair for “dry” counties not receiving taxes from liquor sales to receive some of the “free” TVA money instead. What otherwise would be taxes on liquor sales magically becomes a quid pro quo between electricity not taxed in North Alabama and liquor taxes not received by dry counties. Strangely, TVA even pays money to Illinois out of the payments (“bribes”) in lieu of taxes money.
A potential industrial manufacturer complained to me that he was very uncertain about establishing a plant in Mississippi because he could not get a straight answer from the TVA about electricity rates. The loss of jobs and other revenues lost to Mississippi far outweigh TVA’s poor response to a potential new manufacturer in the state. Many of TVA’s “proprietary” excuses are nothing more than a cover up of TVA’s inefficiencies.
Un-breaking a sludge pond dike is like the large cannon in the nursery rhyme (Humpty Dumpty wasn’t an egg) it could not be repaired and replaced on a fortress wall and the town surrendered. Now is the time for the government to admit it has a faulty cannon and that it never again should be returned to service.
To see some of my recommendations on how to dissolve the TVA, see http://norsworthyopinion.com
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net