TVA must address its history of environmental injustice | Opinion

Pearl Walker and Michael Malcom
·4 min read
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Today the Tennessee Valley Authority’s two stakeholder groups will convene to discuss a critically important issue: environmental justice issues in the Tennessee Valley. This is timely considering the multitude of crises hitting TVA customers, especially those of color and low wealth, including the agency’s gas buildout, coal ash disposal and rising energy costs. Though a step in the right direction, what this joint meeting really brings into focus is that this nearly century-old utility is out of touch with the needs and demands of its customers. The Regional Energy Resource Council does not have a representative from an environmental justice community, or even someone who does primarily environmental justice-focused work.

TVA has long claimed its mission to make life better for the people of the Tennessee Valley. In the past that may have been the case – for some. However, no public relations campaign or callback to the good old days can conceal the agency’s shortcomings and mismanagement, especially as the impacts of TVA’s energy decisions continue to fall disproportionately on communities of color and those of low wealth.

Protestors Barbara Hickey and David Linge, from left, attend the Kingston coal ash disaster memorial, which remembered 51 workers who died between the Dec. 22, 2008, spill and December 2020.
Protestors Barbara Hickey and David Linge, from left, attend the Kingston coal ash disaster memorial, which remembered 51 workers who died between the Dec. 22, 2008, spill and December 2020.

Just 17 years ago, TVA was in the news when Kingston was inundated by more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge, the nation’s largest industrial disaster. As a result of TVA’s negligence, over 50 cleanup workers have since died, suffering health complications from handling radioactive waste that TVA and its contractor, Jacobs Engineering, allegedly deemed safe to handle.

Tragedy struck again when TVA and its hired consultant then dumped that waste in the Black community of Uniontown, Alabama. These communities had absolutely no say in the matter and are now dealing with the toxic impacts of this decision. We’ve seen this pattern time and time again when TVA and the industry at large plow through communities. This crisis will only get worse should TVA continue to neglect communities like ours in the decision-making process.

We are seeing this play out in real time as TVA trucks 3.2 million cubic yards – that’s 21 football fields – of coal ash to a landfill in Southwest Memphis. This disingenuous considering TVA is advocating for Memphis, its biggest customer, to sign a never-ending contract.

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TVA’s failing environmental justice record doesn’t end with coal ash. Like many utilities across the country, TVA is largely fossil-fueled and delaying the transition to a resilient, renewable and just energy future. In fact, it is planning the second-largest fossil gas buildout of any utility over the next few years.

The reality is that TVA customers experience some of the highest energy burdens in the country – in some places more than seven times higher than the national average.

Many TVA customers – especially those of color and low wealth – have disproportionately borne the burden of fossil fuel pollution, climate disasters, shutoffs and high energy costs. This is making our homes all but unlivable. TVA needs to prioritize community input and safety through the proper remediation of coal ash sites.

It’s time TVA starts caring a little bit more about improving OUR quality of life – those of us on the front lines of its pollution. TVA must take a good, hard look at all energy decisions on the table and reconsider its fossil fuel dependence.

Environmental justice needs to be foundational to how TVA does business. It should start by following the lead of other federal agencies and create an office of environmental justice. Such an office would be tasked with protecting communities overburdened and underserved by TVA, those who are harmed first and worst by the agency’s energy decisions and the climate emergency.

TVA should model this office on the framework of energy democracy with an emphasis on meaningful public participation. The agency should promote fair and equal involvement of all people at every step of the decision-making process. Bottom line: this office cannot be out of touch; it must engage directly with the community on an ongoing basis.

TVA’s business-as-usual approach doesn’t work for those most affected by their decisions. We need a profound change, and the company's staff, board and CEO must urgently redress its track record of environmental injustice with a new mission focused on equity, energy democracy and a swift transition to resilient, renewable energy.

Pearl Walker is chair of the Environmental Justice Committee with the Memphis Chapter of the NAACP. The Rev. Michael Malcom is executive director of the People’s Justice Council and Alabama Interfaith Power & Light.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Opinion: TVA must address its history of environmental injustice