TVA pays $15,000 monthly fee to utilities coalition

TV A pays $15,000 monthly fee to utilities coalition
By Richard Powelson
News-Sentinel Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - TVA 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, the former Republican committee chairman from Mississippi.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in Knoxville criticized the federal agency's participation in a group that is lobbying the Bush Administration and fighting efforts to reduce air pollution from coal-fired power plants.

"This is a very sad commentary on TVA's commitment to clean air," alliance spokesman Stephen Smith said. Smith said he did not see how TVA could prevent its payments from being used for lobbying.

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

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

TVA spokesman John Moulton 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.

Harris said the federal agency 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 and sulfur dioxide by 6 percent since 1999. Both pollutants worsen respiratory problems for many people and interact with the atmosphere to produce acid rain, which damages plants and water life.

In late 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency claimed 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 claimed it was just doing routine maintenance.

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

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

Scott Segal, a spokesman for the coalition of utilities, said it has about 10 power producers as members, including TVA and the Southern Co. He said a law firm is keeping TVA's payments separate from lobbying expenses.