Four environmental groups Wednesday called for a federal investigation of newly uncovered records that show the Tennessee Valley Authority paid $3 million of ratepayer money to support organizations that have lobbied to oppose or limit some air pollution regulations in the past.
TVA insists none of the membership dues paid to the trade associations involved funding litigation or lobbying efforts by the organizations against stricter environmental rules or regulations. The federal utility, which is prohibited from lobbying Congress on public policy issues, contends that the money paid to such groups as the Utility Air Regulatory Group, the Edison Electric Institute and the Nuclear Energy Institute were for informational and technical support, not influencing public policy.
"Our agreements with these various groups prevented any funding that TVA provided for either lobbying or litigation purposes," TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said. "In fact, these groups did not lobby or litigate on TVA's behalf or in our name while we were associated with them."
Hopson TVA joined with other investor-owned utilities in the trade groups for technical support and information sharing on best practices in the industry "and by learning from other utilities we can save our ratepayers money because TVA was not having to solely fund all the benefits we got from these collective efforts."
But Daniel Tait, director of Energy Alabama who obtained records of TVA payments to the groups through a 2019 lawsuit filed on behalf of the Energy and Policy Institute, said his records request uncovered hundreds of emails, calendar invitations, budget documents, and billing details about payments from TVA to the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth.
"The records clearly indicate that TVA staff members did sign off on the use of funds that were non-technical and that were lobbying or litigation type expenses," Tate said.
Until its demise more than two years ago, the Utility Air Regulatory Group (URAG) was a coalition of utilities including TVA that was involved in more than 200 lawsuits, including challenges to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act regulations.
TVA CEO Jeff Lyash told Congress in a 2019 letter that the utility had contributed $7.3 million to the Utility Air Regulatory Group since 2001. But Lyash said the funds were not used to lobby or sue on behalf of TVA, which would require explicit board approval.
Hopson said the $3 million for the work done relating to one of UARG's committees from 2015-2018 was paid by all utility members in the trade group, not just TVA as the environmental groups allege. Hopson said "the vast majority" of the payments to the law firm were related to legal advice and help in interpreting proposed rules, not litigation.
"Some of the confusion may be related to TVA employee Don Houston's role as co-chair of the UARG's Non-Attainment Committee during the time the invoices were processed," Hopson said. "When Mr. Houston approved the invoices, he was doing so in his capacity as the UARG committee co-chair" and any lobbying or litigation expenses would not have used TVA funds.
In response to part of the records request about TVA's support for URAG, TVA claimed records could be withheld because they were confidential commercial information. However, the Energy and Policy Institute challenged TVA's partial denial of its records request, and the parties reached an agreement earlier this year for TVA to release some of the relevant documents.
"Customers throughout the Tennessee Valley have been forced to pay for one arm of the federal government to take legal action against another arm of the federal government," said Tait, chief operating officer of Energy Alabama. "It's asinine and TVA would be better served investing in carbon-free technology like energy efficiency and renewable energy. Rather than leading the way in cleaning up the energy sector, TVA is funding outside organizations actively fighting the renewable energy transition."
Bri Knisley, the Tennessee campaign coordinator at Appalachian Voices, said TVA's inspector general needs to investigate how TVA's funds were spent by the outside agencies.
"Workers who cleaned up the Kingston spill in 2008 are still suffering and dying from their exposure to TVA's toxic coal ash,"Knisley said. "It's shameful that after more than a decade of this suffering, TVA chose to spend more than $3 million of ratepayer money to fund a group that fights policies that protect our clean air and public health."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.