Exercise Caution When Considering Clean Line

The Association of Tennessee Valley Governments (ATVG) is an advocate for TVA and the local governments that reside in the Tennessee Valley region.  ATVG represents the nearly 1,000 local governments that reside within the seven-state TVA region. They represent local governments in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.  There is strength in numbers. Collectively, they are over nine million people strong.

The Association of Tennessee Valley Governments has urged the Tennessee Regulatory Authority to "...exercise caution as it considers the application of Clean Line Energy Partners, LLC, for a certificate of public  convenience and necessity to operate as a public utility with powers of eminent domain within the State of Tennessee..."

One more strike against Clean Line, and this time it's coming from seven states that Clean Line has targeted as potential customers for its Plains & Eastern Clean Line.

On August 1, the ATVG made the following resolution, to be forwarded to the United States Department of Energy, the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, the Tennessee  Congressional delegation, the Governor of Tennessee, and the TVA Board of Directors:

Whereas, the Association of Tennessee Valley Governments (ATVG) represents local governments within more than 200 Tennessee Valley River Region Counties which closely monitor issues associated with the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA); and

Whereas, TVA's mission focuses on providing low cost, reliable electricity, environmental stewardship and economic development to the people of the Tennessee Valley; and

Whereas, the TVA Act of 1933 mandates that TVA provide power to its customers at the lowest feasible cost; and

Whereas, TVA is currently evaluating a proposal to purchase a large amount of wind generated electrical power from the Oklahoma panhandle from Clean Line Energy Partners, LLC, and transport It 700 miles using a single high voltage direct current transmission line that will bypass the existing network of power
lines to Memphis, Tennessee; and

Whereas, such a partnership between Clean Line and TVA would likely transport wealth outside the Tennessee Valley to the detriment of the nine million residents of the Valley; and

Whereas, TVA has stated that electricity demand in the Tennessee Valley is not expected to return to 2007 levels until 2020; and

Whereas, the nation's power grid is a complex, interconnected network of generating plants,
transmission lines and distribution facilities; and

Whereas, bypassing the grid to purchase electricity from such a long distance away increases security threats by providing additional exposure for natural or malicious events due to the extreme distance between generation and point of use without needed network redundancy; and

Whereas, wind is an intermittent power source that lacks the dispatch capability of other resources and does not eliminate the need for base load or dispatchable power plants like other more dependable resources such as nuclear, natural gas, coal and hydropower; and

Whereas, the number of property parcels and property owners that may be negatively affected by eminent domain as a result of the construction of this proposed 700 mile transition line is unknown;

now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the Association of Tennessee Valley Governments (ATVG), that we strongly encourage the Tennessee Regulatory Authority to exercise caution as it considers the application of Clean Line Energy Partners, LLC, for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to operate as a
public utility with powers of eminent domain within the State of Tennessee until it is proven that its proposal meets TVA's obligation to provide reliable power to its customers at the lowest feasible cost.

The ATVG recognizes the security, reliability and economic drawbacks of importing unreliable wind energy hundreds of miles, considerable price considerations aside.  ATVG has also heard the message of the Clean Line opposition groups loud and clear -- eminent domain for Clean Line's projects is just plain WRONG!

Bravo, ATVG!  And congratulations to the thousands of hard working grassroots activists across the midwest who remain resolute on their path to victory!