Lawsuit brings into the open TVA's role as polluter

[flashl]

Tennessean
By ANNE PAINE • Staff Writer • August 2, 2008

There's nothing like a trial to get a look at a large agency and its records that otherwise can be difficult to see.

The lawsuit the state of North Carolina hit the Tennessee Valley Authority with to try to make it reduce air pollution wafting into that state has shone a rather large spotlight on the independent federal electricity producer.

What emerged over the 12 days of testimony included:

• A picture of the Nashville area sitting in an epicenter of TVA air pollution from coal-burning power plants

• An agency that has balked at tougher environmental regulations, and summoned a major critic of clean-air standards to testify on its behalf

• An agency that's never been taken to court by the nation's environmental watchdog agency for violations it said it found, but one that has sued the watchdog.

North Carolina filed its case in 2006, asking a federal court to make TVA reduce pollution from its coal-burning power plants, which are mostly in Tennessee, by 2013.