The Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors began its quarterly meeting a day early Tuesday in Tupelo, Mississippi to take time to hear from the public before today's regular board meeting.
The move was pushed by outgoing TVA Director Eric Satz, who urged the panel in August to move the public listening session a day earlier to encourage a more informal and timely exchange with members of the public. Satz, an appointee of former President Obama, is at his last board meeting today before his term ends. Satz test of the public listening session was greeted with skepticism by many of the advocates who regularly come to TVA board meetings to offer their opinions.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Conservatives for Energy Freedom, the NAACP, Pearl Walker with the Memphis Coalition of Concerned Citizens, and Energy Alabama all boycotted Tuesday's public listening session, claiming it was "inconvenient for many concerned residents to reach in the relatively remote town of Tupelo" during the middle of a weekday, and chided TVA for not live streaming the public comments as the board has previously done when the listening sessions occur immediately before the board meetings.
"This so-called 'listening session' has gone from bad to worse and is further evidence that TVA is continuing to operate in a non public-power mode, with worsening anti-democratic, closed-door behavior," said Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and a spokesman for the coalition. "We had hoped that the modifications to the listening sessions would create more interaction and communication with board members and leadership, but this timing and structure is an attempt to further hinder the conversation as opposed to broadening it.
Bonnie Swinford, organizing representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign in Tennessee, urged TVA to "revoke this ill-considered decision and to commit to being more accessible to the public going forward."
In its announcement of the new approach to the public listening session, TVA said having the public input a day before the board meeting will "allow directors additional time to consider the valuable input and opinions offered by the public before making decisions."
TVA is America's biggest government-owned electric utility and is governed by a 9-member, part-time board appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
President Trump has appointed Memphis attorney John Ryder, who has served as general counsel to the Republican National Committee, to replace Satz, who previously served in the Obama White House. The U.S. Senate is expected to take up Ryder's nomination in its lame duck session by the end of the year.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.