TVA cancels July meeting, so groups hold own 'bash'

Thursday, July 27, 1995

The Knoxville News-Sentinel

TVA cancels July meeting, so groups hold own 'bash'
Critics rip agency over Watts Bar
By Jerry Dean
News-Sentinel staff writer

The TVA board, faced with a slack four-item agenda, opted to cancel its July meeting. So TVA critics — especially those critical of its controversial Watts Bar nuclear plant — obligingly held one for them on Wednesday.

Environmentalists, meeting at Market Square, conducted the "public listening" portion of a board meeting, complete with speakers who addressed empty chairs, reserved for the three TVA directors.

As Knoxville police patrol units stood between the speakers and TVA office towers, representatives of We the People Inc., Katuah Earth First, the Foundation for Global Sustainability, the Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition and Tennessee Student Environmental Action Coalition chastised TVA and its directors for a half hour. They alleged:

• That TVA threw good money after bad in completing the first unit of its Watts Bar nuclear plant.
• That Watts Bar often has been cited for hazards and poses a health threat, once it becomes operational.
• That TVA's Energy Vision 2025 long-range plan ignored Watts Bar and provided Valley ratepayers few alternatives to reliance on nuclear power and polluting fossil fuel plants. The Integrated Resource Plan final draft was published Wednesday. Environmentalists had planned to address aspects of the plan they considered insufficient during the board meeting.
• That the TVA Board had proven unresponsive by canceling its July meeting.

Stephen Smith of the Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition said TVA has shown "lack of clear leadership," and he urged citizens to work to "reclaim TVA for the Tennessee Valley."

James P. Riccio, attorney for the Critical Mass Energy Project, called TVA "the greatest managerial disaster" and added that TVA's 25-year plan ignored "the $10 billion Watts Bar question." Riccio said the agency's $26 billion debt, largely a result of rising nuclear costs, "places the debt on the backs of Valley ratepayers" while TVA spends $3.4 million to lease a corporate plane for 10 years of executive travel.

Beth Zilbert called TVA's IRP "useless" and said omission of Watts Bar discussion made it "not worth the paper it was written on."

She urged that Watts Bar testing be halted and that the plant become a museum, commemorating "an end to the history of nuclear power."

"The people don't want Watts Bar," she said. "How many times does (TVA Chairman Craven) Crowell have to hear that?"

John Johnson, spokesman for Katuah Earth First, called TVA directors "cowards, afraid to face public criticism" for canceling the board meeting. He called TVA "an undemocratic bureaucracy" and labeled its projects "the biggest boondoggle the country's ever seen."

He said TVA should be "reclaimed to benefit Tennessee Valley citizens and the ecosystem."

Myles Jakubowski of Cookeville urged TVA to "show leadership" in an era when "the power industry is in upheaval." He called the IRP "a waste of the intelligence and creativity of the 16,500 TVA employees," and he urged Crowell to "stop dumping $1 million a day down a hole that you hope some day to make radioactive" at Watts Bar.

TVA protester Maggie Kalen peers over a banner Wednesday during a rally of environmentalists on Market Square. The empty chairs symbolize the absence of TVA Directors William Kennoy, Craven Crowell and Johnny Hayes. The banner reads: "Stop Watts Bar."