What are TVA’s plans?
An interesting tidbit from yesterday’s North Carolina v. TVA trial:
At one point during Tuesday’s hearing, federal judge Lacy Thornburg cleared the courtroom of reporters and others not part of the lawsuit so Staudt could testify about details of TVA’s plans, which include possible closing of one or more coal-fired plants.
TVA attorney Frank Lancaster said confidentiality [...]
Clash of the titans
The epic court battle between North Carolina and TVA over air pollution begins today.
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No nukes, redux
The anti-nuclear power movement is slowly awakening from a long sleep now that some are urging nuclear power plants as the panacea to global warming.
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TVA’s hot water problem
Environmentalists want more info before signing off on TVA’s request to release more warm water back into the Tennessee River.
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Susan Williams still waiting
It seems the Senate last night did add one new member to the TVA Board, but Knoxville Republican Susan Williams continues to be left hanging.
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TVA plays catch-up
Comparing TVA’s performance to other utilities in issues of efficiency and green power:
TVA, once one of the most conservation-oriented utilities in the country, abandoned its innovative ways in the 1980s and is only now returning to a major focus on energy efficiency.
As a result of the decades-long lag, Tennesseans use more residential electricity per person [...]
UPDATED: Lamar Alexander’s get-tough strategy
He’s decided to get tough with the Democrats on this issue of lon-unapproved TVA nominees (including Knoxvillian Susan Williams) by blocking an appoinyment to something called “The Institute of Peace” (can anyone tell me what that is?)
Alexander has blocked an appointment to the Institute of Peace in an attempt to force Reid to allow reappointment [...]
TVA Board’s only Democrat is leaving
And then there were six: Skila Harris, currently the TVA Board’s only Democrat, has announced she’s resigning.
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Green Power Switch - a dumb idea?
Tonight’s First Friday festivities in Downtown Knoxville will offer a big push to promote TVA’s Green Power Switch program, and get people signed up.
But increasingly, folks are asking whether signing up for these Green Power programs through local utilities is actually helping achieve the goal of increasing use of environmentally friendly energy sources:
a friend [...]
Read More..>>Sen. Alexander is seriously annoyed
Via ACK:
Sen. Alexander sounds pretty dang irritated with the Dems about the hold-up in two nominations to the TVA Board: Bishop William H. Graves and Knoxvillian Susan Richardson Williams.
In unusually blunt language for a senator, Alexander, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, demanded in a letter that Graves’ renomination, pending since last July, be [...]
Read More..>>10 Things You May Not Know About…Susan Richardson Williams
Next up in our “10 Things” series here at Knoxville Talks Is Susan Richardson Williams, who once again this year made the list as one of Tennessee’s “Power 100,” coming in at #89:
“…quasi-member of TVA board due to Congressional failure to re-appoint her when term expired. As such, despite President Bush’s re-nomination, Williams is not [...]
TVA wants YOU!
TVA is seeking lots pf public input in developing new clean energy initiatives. Skeptics say they’ve heard this dog and pony show from TVA before, but the optimists among us dare to hope perhaps a new era of clean energy leadership and innovation really is dawning at TVA:
The meetings will focus on TVA’s plans for [...]
TVA official goes non-profit
Via The Nashville Post:
Southeast Community Capital has added a former Tennessee Valley Authority official to its ranks.
Amy Bunton, who oversaw existing business and industry initiatives and economic development loans at TVA, will focus on investor development and entrepreneurial economic development strategies for SCC. She also will manage the Tennessee Rural Opportunity Fund for the Nashville-based [...]
TVA’s schizophrenic approach
One blogger (and this appears to be a new blog) takes TVA to task for what he sees as too much flip-flopping:
… first it was dam building and flood control with a little fertilizing on the side, then it forgot about hydro (likely dam sites were fewer) and it morphed into coal and other-fired generator [...]
Read More..>>TVA: Isn’t it ironic?
Michael Silence makes an amusing observation from today’s meeting of TVA directors. The topic of the meeting was conservation:
I’ve just come from a two-hour meeting of the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors… It was then I noticed that the board’s agenda and all other documents floating around the board room were each printed on [...]
Coal-fired plants on trial
A judge has ruled that the N.C. Attorney General’s case against TVA can go to trial:
Cooper’s lawsuit claims that the utility hasn’t done enough to reduce the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and soot carried by winds across the mountains into North Carolina from 11 coal-fired power plants in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.
The pollutants cause [...]
Drought goes nuclear
The uber-drought we’ve been experiencing in the southeast is now having a notable impact on nuclear power plants:
Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water [...]
