FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 28, 2012
CONTACT:
Jenna
Garland, Sierra Club, (404) 281-6398
Louise Gorenflo, (931) 484-2633
In Push for Transparency, Sierra Club Files Freedom of
Information Act Suit Against TVA
Group Launches Online Ad Campaign to Push for Affordable Solutions
KNOXVILLE, TN – In an effort to push the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) to operate with transparency and concern for ratepayers before it stops
taking public comments on its proposal to spend over a billion dollars to
overhaul its aging Gallatin coal plant, the Sierra Club has filed a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against TVA.
TVA has announced that it will not take any public comments on the
project after November 30, but has failed to provide the public with critical
environmental and safety information on its plans. Those plans involve
constructing 150-foot tall ash landfalls in wetlands next to Old Hickory Lake.
Sierra Club’s lawsuit, which the Club filed as a last resort, seeks to bring
those plans into the open before it is too late. In addition to public outreach
efforts, Sierra Club has purchased significant online
ad coverage on three local newspaper websites, calling on TVA to prioritize
twenty-first century clean energy solutions, and not waste billions on an aging
coal plant.
“TVA wants to spend more than one billion dollars to keep
an aging, obsolete coal plant running,” says Louise Gorenflo, lead volunteer
with Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Tennessee. “To add insult to injury,
TVA officials are trying to limit public comment so they can plow forward with
their expensive and dangerous plan. We’re taking these steps now to ensure that
TVA can’t make billion-dollar decisions without public input. TVA continues to
act like an incandescent utility in a fluorescent world.”
TVA has fought public oversight of its plans. TVA
officials initially offered only thirty days for members of the public and
ratepayers to comment on their plan. A public outcry from citizens’
organizations across the state resulted in a 14-day extension of the comment
period, but TVA is still refusing to provide the information the public needs
to be fully informed, and has announced that it does not see any reason to hold
a public hearing to allow concerned residents to speak out.
“Now that TVA has announced that Bill Johnson, former CEO
of Progress Energy, will take the helm in Tennessee, we hope to see a real
change of attitude,” said Vanessa Pierce, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal
Campaign in the Eastern Region. “TVA has an obligation to its ratepayers and
the people who live in the Tennessee Valley. Rate hike after rate hike – with
no real investment in the clean energy future – is no longer acceptable. TVA
has the opportunity to phase out an obsolete and polluting coal plant in favor
of energy efficiency. The right choice is clear.”
In August, Sierra Club partnered with Synapse Energy
Economics, a leading analysis firm, to
release a report demonstrating that TVA’s older coal plants, especially the
Gallatin plant, are no longer economic to operate. Spending more than one
billion dollars to modernize the plant to meet Clean Air Act standards will
increase costs for decades. According to the report, a modest energy efficiency
savings program could reduce energy consumption enough to phase out the
Gallatin coal plant, saving money for TVA ratepayers over the long term. TVA’s
own analysis shows that a yearly energy savings goal of 1.2% is both achievable
and sufficient to phase out the use of the Gallatin plant.
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