TVA looks at options, braces for GAO report

TVA looks at options,
braces for GAO report
By Tom Charlier
The Commercial Appeal

TVA officials on Wednesday
looked at energy options for the
future, but today their atten-
tion will turn to a report that's
expected to focus on troubles of
the present at the huge utility.
General Accounting Office
staff members are slated to
brief Tennessee Valley Author-
ity officials on a draft report
they've produced on the utility.
The report won't be made pub-
lic for several weeks, but TVA
chairman Craven Crowell has
said it likely will conclude that
the agency's debt is too high
and its rates artificially low.
GAO officials declined to
comment on the report's con-
tent Wednesday. "I always
urge people to read our reports
before speculating on them,"
spokesman Cleve Corlett said.
On Wednesday, TVA re-
leased the preliminary draft of
a plan called Energy Vision
2020.
The document reflects the
findings of a lengthy study of
TVA's energy options for the
next 25 years. It will be re-
viewed by a citizens group
before a revised draft is pro-
duced for scrutiny at public
meetings in Memphis and else-
where.
The early draft calls for con-
verting the unfinished Belle-
fonte Nuclear Plant near Hol-
lywood, Ala., into a gas-burning
facility.
The conversion project will
undergo further study. In the
meantime, the plan calls for the
second unit at Watts Bar Nu-
clear Plant near Spring City,
Tenn., to remain in deferred
status.
But Stephen Smith, executive
director of the Tennessee Val-
ley Energy Reform Coalition
and a member of a citizens
group that reviewed the utili-
ty's energy planning process,
criticized not only the content
of the TVA document but the
way it was released.
Smith said the plan is soft on
energy-efficiency and ducks
important questions about
TVA's troubled nuclear pro-
gram.