February 19, 2009: Sign on to the Green New DealPosted February 13, 2009, 3:27 pm
Below you will find a letter to President Obama and the board
and president of TVA as well as the provisions of the Green New
Deal, a plan to restructure and evolve TVA.
This document will be sent to the TVA board today and possibly hand-delivered
to them at their board meeting in Knoxville tomorrow.
There will be a press conference outside TVA headquarters in Knoxville
on March 13th for the Green New Deal to be signed by TVA.
This will coincide with the Mountain Justice Spring Break march on TVA,
so hopefully lots of folks will be there.
Between now and the March march/press conference, we want as many groups
and organizations as possible to sign this letter voicing their support
for the signing of the Green New Deal.
If your group wants to sign on, please send an e-mail to truth@mountainjustice.org.
THANK YOU
To President Barack Obama, President/CEO of Tennessee Valley Authority, Board
of Directors of Tennessee Valley Authority:
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created as part of the New Deal
in the midst of a historic economic depression. Now is the time, in the midst
of our current economic challenge, to create a Green New Deal and beginning
with the restructuring and evolution of TVA. When TVA was created, it provided
critically needed employment for tens of thousands of Americans; this restructuring
will be no less important.
TVA currently plans to expand its generating capacity by building nuclear
reactors. Alternatively, efficiency projects and wind power are less expensive
and employ far more people; developing cost effective, efficient, and renewable
energy must be an element of the Green New Deal. Coal consumption is dirty,
pollutes the water with ash and slurry spills and mercury, destroys our mountains
and watersheds with strip mining, puts citizens out of work with mechanization,
and drastically changes the climate with carbon dioxide, and we must move away
from it. Currently, less than 1% of TVA electricity derives from green sources.
The Green New Deal elevates this to 100% as quickly as possible. We can achieve
this by working together.
Although officials may be concerned that implementing this plan will require
rate increases, we believe that people will prefer higher electricity bills
over the financial expenses and medical issues resulting from dirty power sources.
Once renewable energy systems are in place, prices should drop drastically
since the fuel is free and produces absolute minimal waste. We will be able
to say goodbye to the many costs of extraction and transportation of fuel and
waste inherent with coal and nuclear.
A critical aspect of the Green New Deal is reducing demand for electricity
by motivating customers to consume less. Now more than ever, in this time of
economic hardship, we need those in power to encourage people to conserve electricity
by offering incentives and suggestions on how to do so. Energy efficiency is
vital for us to stop turning our planet and communities into a wasteland.
And finally, embedded in the Green New Deal is a plan for TVA to provide enhanced
relief to the survivors of the Kingston coal ash disaster. TVA is not living
up to its responsibility to assist those individuals and communities impacted.
We invite TVA's Board and CEO, as well as President Obama, to sign the Green
New Deal at a public press conference on Friday, March 13 at eleven o'clock
a.m. on Market Square, in front of TVA's headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee.
We are more than open to discussing the elements of the Green New Deal. Please
e-mail us at truth@mountainjustice.org or engage in a conversation with us
at the March press conference.
President Obama, now is the perfect time to restructure TVA. With four board
positions opening to new appointments this year, you can set the standard for
how this administration responds to financial, community, and human needs in
the time of a quickly changing environment.
We look forward to your reply. Please confirm your attendance to this event.
Respectfully submitted,
Mountain Justice
www.mountainjustice.org
GREEN NEW DEAL
The Tennessee Valley Authority hereby agrees to:
1) Immediately stop purchasing coal extracted by mountaintop removal or any
other destructive form of surface mining
2) Generate 50% of all electricity with green, renewable sources by 2012,
and 100% by 2015 with, but not limited to:
- Efficiency projects
- Wind power
- Solar power
- Tips and incentives for consumers to use less electricity
3) Ensure that all green jobs created to implement this plan go to the areas
with the most poverty, including, but not limited to, the coal mining areas
of Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia
4) Immediately cease plans to strip mine the Royal Blue Wildlife Management
Area for coal
5) Immediately cease plans to complete five nuclear reactors at Bellefonte
in Alabama and Watts Bar in Tennessee
6) Decentralize the power grid 100% by 2050 by using incentives to encourage
on-site generation of power for homes, businesses, churches and government
buildings
7) Reduce demand for electricity by offering incentives and tips for consuming
less to all TVA customers
8) Ban new coal ash ponds and create, and publicly present, a plan to make
existing ponds safer, including warning systems for all residents likely to
be affected by additional impoundment failures
9) Establish a citizen advisory board with voting power for all TVA operations
SIGNATURE OF APPROVAL
I, _________________on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, agree on
_____/_____/_____ to commit fully and faithfully to each of the above listed
demands and policies of the Green New Deal.
WITNESSES
___________________ _____/____/____
___________________ _____/____/____
DISASTER RELIEF FOR KINGSTON COAL ASH DISASTER SURVIVORS
The Tennessee Valley Authority hereby agrees to:
1) Evacuate all impacted residents justified with medical notices to housing
of equal or superior to that of which they had before the coal ash disaster
2) Arrange for long-term water, air, and health monitoring of people and wildlife,
both downstream and upstream, of the coal ash spill site
3) Provide safe drinking water to those whose water has been negatively impacted
by the spill
4) Request that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classify coal ash
as a hazardous material
5) Purchase the property of impacted residents of the coal ash spill, who
wish to be financially reimbursed, at a fair price
6) Pay restitution for human suffering resulting from the ash pond failure
SIGNATURE OF APPROVAL
I, ____________________ on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, agree
on ____/____/_____ to commit fully and faithfully to each of the above listed
demands and policies of the Disaster Relief for Kingston Ash Disaster Survivors.
WITNESSES
___________________ ____/____/____
___________________ ____/____/____
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