A conservation group has sued the Tennessee Valley Authority over its contributions to trade associations and industry groups.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), arguing those contributions are a misuse of ratepayer funds, said it’s inappropriate for TVA to make payments worth millions to Edison Electric Institute, the Energy and Wildlife Action Coalition and other groups. The CBD characterized the two as “anti-environmental advocacy groups” and said TVA is violating First Amendment rights by forcing customers to fund the organizations when they only serve the utility’s interest. It said ratepayer’s unwitting contributions amount to political speech.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in the Eastern District of Tennessee. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), Alabama Center for Sustainable Energy, Appalachian Voices, Solar United Neighbors, and Sowing Justice joined CBD in the filing.
The groups said EEI and the Energy and Wildlife Action Coalition “litigate and lobby to delay the critical transition to clean energy, hamper efforts to combat the climate emergency and deny protections to imperiled wildlife.” Since 2015, TVA has paid annual dues of about $500,000 to EEI, which CBD said lobbies against decarbonization.
The conservation group also said TVA invoices reveal that dues to Utility Water Act Group, Utility Solid Waste Activities Group and the now-defunct Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG) were partially billed for “influencing legislation.” The utility-backed groups fund law firms that lobby against environmental legislation, though not explicitly on TVA’s behalf.
TVA has paid about $7.3 million since 2001 to the UARG, which was dissolved in 2019. It also currently pays more than $100,000 annually for membership in the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group and has paid about $200,000 for services in 2018 to the Utility Water Act Group, which opposes Clean Water Act protections.
During a 2019 congressional probe of UARG by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, TVA CEO Jeff Lyash was asked to explain TVA’s involvement with the group. He said UARG membership helped the agency “understand, plan for, and comply with highly technical and complex regulations” associated with the Clean Air Act.
But CBD said the disbanded group’s sole function was to “undermine regulations designed to protect human health and the environment.” It said TVA’s membership violated its own environmental stewardship mandate.
CBD took exception to unspecified amounts paid to the Nuclear Energy Institute. TVA has not publicly released how much it contributes to NEI.
The lawsuit also seeks to compel TVA to respond to CBD’s early 2020 petition outlining the same spending concerns. CBD said TVA has not addressed the petition beyond insisting its payments are appropriate.
“As the nation’s largest public power provider and a federal agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority needs to demonstrate leadership by halting the financing of groups propping up the fossil fuel economy,” Howard Crystal, legal director of CBD’s Energy Justice program, said in a release. “Instead, it funds these groups to do its dirty work while it moves forward with building new fossil gas plants. TVA can and must do better.”
The agency is facing mounting pressure to commit to a quicker decarbonization timeline than its current 2050 goal. (See Green Groups Pressure TVA on Open Meetings, Decarbonization.)
“TVA is unique in the power industry in that environmental stewardship and economic development are codified in the agency’s founding mission,” Maggie Shober, SACE’ s director of utility reform, said. “It is imperative that the largest public power utility operate with accountability and transparency, stop funding anti-environment and anti-green jobs work, and invest in clean energy that will support the health of the Valley and the people who depend on it.”
TVA spokesperson Ashton Davies said the organization had not been officially served with the lawsuit as of Friday.
“As a federal agency, TVA is prohibited from participating in lobbying activities, and the TVA Board has directed that any dues, membership fees, or financial contributions paid to external organizations not be used for purposes inconsistent with TVA’s statutory mission or legal obligations,” Davies said in a statement to RTO Insider. “Like other major utilities, TVA’s membership in a diverse array of external organizations allows TVA access to specialized expertise and analysis that directly benefits all of our customers at a cost significantly lower than if TVA were to undertake such work alone.”
CBD has a separate petition in front of FERC seeking to amend the commission’s Uniform System of Accounts so that utilities’ payments to trade and advocacy groups aren’t recoverable from ratepayers. It says the change would compel utilities to “either demonstrate how funding these groups is in the public interest or provide this funding from shareholders rather than ratepayers.”
