The People’s TVA Hearing
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) talks a good game about being a public power entity, but they simply are not walking the walk. The TVA Board has stopped accepting public comments at its meetings and public listening sessions – thereby eliminating the opportunity for the people TVA serves to make our voices heard!
We won’t stand for our voices to be silenced. Alongside our partners, we are hosted our own virtual public hearing on Wednesday, August 4: The People’s TVA Hearing! TVA leadership has gone dark because they think they can get away with it. Our hearing showed them that’s not true, and showed them what real public power should look like.
There are so many urgent and important issues impacting all of us in the Tennessee Valley right now, from TVA’s plans to replace retired coal plants with new fossil gas plants to lingering issues with coal ash storage and disposal to the urgent need to move to 100% clean energy by 2030, and of course the TVA’s continued lack of meaningful public participation. Maybe we just expect better from the largest public utility in the entire country that serves approximately 10 million people, but we think it’s unacceptable that TVA’s leadership is insulating themselves from the public they serve by preventing customers from speaking directly to them.
The People’s TVA Hearing included community members from across the Tennessee Valley, advocates, experts, and featured:
- Public comment session for people to make their voices heard (comments will be delivered to the TVA Board and made available online for the public to see and uplift)
- Expert speakers on a variety of topics
- Facilitated breakout sessions for real dialogue and discussion about our visions and values and the changes we want to see when it comes to TVA and our energy future
Learn more about how you can get involved at RenewTN.org.