TVA joins coalition paying ex-GOP leader as lobbyist

TVA joins coalition paying
ex-GOP leader as lobbyist

By Richard Powelson
Knoxville News-Sentinel

WASHINGTON —The Tennessee Valley Authority is paying $15,000 a month to a new coalition of utilities that hired the lobbying firm employing the former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

But TVA board members Glenn McCullough Jr. and Skila Harris said TVA's payments are going toward technical studies by the group and not lobbying expenses of Haley Barbour, former RNC chairman from Mississippi.

A utility watchdog group, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in Knoxville, criticized TVA's participation in a group that is lobbying the Bush administration and fighting federal efforts to reduce harmful air pollution from coal-fired power plants run by TVA and other utilities.

"This is a very sad commentary on TVA's commitment to clean air," said alliance spokesman Stephen Smith.

Smith said he did not see how TVA could prevent its payments from being used for lobbying the Bush administration.

TVA provided a copy of a letter it wrote to the utility coalition, named the National Electric Reliability Coordinating Council in Washington, which specifies "TVA's membership dues . . . shall not be used for legislative lobbying."

TVA's contribution of $15,000 a month since April 1 is more than 10 percent of the coalition's $135,000 monthly budget, the letter said.

Spokesman John Moulton of TVA said the technical studies to be done by experts for the coalition members would look at whether additional federal proposals to reduce air pollution are excessive and unwarranted and could force some power plants to stop operating. "In other words," Moulton said, "would it be more economical to close them down?"

Harris said TVA is committed to reducing pollution from its coal-fired plants and has been adding expensive control systems to cut smog-producing nitrogen oxides by 20 percent since 1999 and sulfur dioxide by 6 percent in the same period. Both pollutants worsen respiratory problems for many Americans and interact with the atmosphere to produce acid rain, which damages plants and water life.

In late 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency charged that TVA had been violating the Clean Air Act by significantly modernizing its old coal-fired power plants while not meeting clean air standards for newer plants. TVA said it was doing routine maintenance on its plants.

EPA issued an administrative order against TVA to require additional pollution controls, and TVA has challenged the order in a pending lawsuit in federal court.

TVA alleged last year under chairman Craven Crowell that EPA's order could cost the agency more than $1 billion to comply and force a 14-percent rate increase.