May 21, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 85 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL EDITORIAL URGING TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY'S CEO TO FIX COAL ASH PROBLEM; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 85
(Extensions of Remarks - May 21, 2019)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E646-E647] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL EDITORIAL URGING TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY'S CEO TO FIX COAL ASH PROBLEM ______ HON. TIM BURCHETT of tennessee in the house of representatives Tuesday, May 21, 2019 Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I would like to include in the Record an editorial submitted to the Knoxville News Sentinel addressing the Tennessee Valley Authority's new CEO, Jeff Lyash, urging him to fix the current coal ash problem. I am also including a resolution introduced by Tennessee State Senator [[Page E647]] Ken Yager calling for the TVA to make all board meetings open to the public. [From Knoxville News Sentinel, on Apr. 14, 2019] An Open Letter to TVA's New CEO: You Need to be the Leader Your Predecessor Was Not, Here's How (Unauthored Editorial) Welcome to Tennessee, Mr. Lyash. No doubt you had a busy first week as the new CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. And what a responsibility! You lead the nation's first and largest regional planning and economic development agency owned and operated by the federal government. You provide power for some 10 million people, and you employ thousands in our state. You've taken over an organization whose history and legacy are revolutionary and inspiring. Few organizations have transformed the lives of so many people, across so many generations. And we know you believe deeply in this mission, a mission derived from decades of service to improving the lives of the people of the Tennessee Valley. This is what has brought you to Knoxville. Which is why today we challenge you to be the leader your predecessor was not. We challenge you to launch a fully independent and transparent investigation of safety and workplace practices that occurred in the aftermath of the massive Kingston coal ash spill and cleanup--not just the TVA's own practices, but those of every one of the contractors and subcontractors it employs. We've reported extensively about the workers who have died, and the hundreds of others who are sick, after their exposure to the toxic ash. Learn from the mistakes of the past and demand accountability. We challenge you to commit to a top-to-bottom review and overhaul of workplace safety at every power plant you operate. Last week we reported about workers at two Tennessee plants who are exposed to fly ash dust and flue gas without masks or respirators. We challenge you to review your relationship with Jacobs Engineering. Although the case goes on, a federal jury already found Jacobs breached its contract with the TVA and its duty to ensure the health of cleanup workers. Yet you're still doing hundreds of millions of dollars of business with the company. We challenge you to hire an independent consultant to radically remake your internal reporting and whistle-blowing procedures and make sure they are accessible to your contractors as well. Your people are adamant no one should fear workplace retaliation, yet your workers are coming to us because they don't trust TVA. We challenge you to rid the agency of double-speak and misdirection--where it's culturally acceptable to mislead the public, as Bill Johnson did when he said that the EPA, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and OSHA were on site daily during the Kingston cleanup. Today at the TVA it's acceptable for your official spokesman to recraft this as mere hyperbole. Finally, we challenge you to visit your employees in the field. Talk to them. Not with an entourage, not with a phalanx of handlers who will hand-select the ones who'll say the ``right'' things to you. You need to hear the truth. You need to visit sick men in hospitals and listen to their stories. You need to sit down in the lunchroom with truck drivers who are around fly ash all day. You need to walk through the plant, see things yourself. And then you need to do the right thing. ____ Senate Joint Resolution No. 192 By Senators Yager, Kurita, and Representative Powers A Resolution to express support for the enactment of legislation that requires all board committee meetings of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors to be open to the public. Whereas, established in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power companies, serving ten million people in parts of seven southeastern states; and Whereas, TVA also provides flood control, navigation, and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation; and Whereas, Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett has introduced the Tennessee Valley Authority Transparency Act of 2019, legislation to require that committee meetings and subcommittee meetings of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors be transparent and open to the public; and Whereas, the bill would amend the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 Section 2(g)(2) to include a provision on transparency that would require meetings of the TVA Board to be held in public, properly noticed, and with minutes and summaries of each meeting made available; and Whereas, it is vitally important to the citizens of Tennessee that TVA, as an entity created and protected by Congress, should conduct their business in the open and be as transparent as possible: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate of the One Hundred Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, The House of Representatives concurring, That we strongly support the passage of the Tennessee Valley Authority Transparency Act of 2019; and be it further Resolved, That an appropriate copy of this resolution be prepared and transmitted to the Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, and each member of Tennessee's delegation to the United States Congress. ____________________