July262009
The Opposition
Today I attended the anti-TVA rally and march in downtown Knoxville. It was organized by Mountain Justice and United Mountain Defense, two groups committed to clean air and water in the Appalachians. The demonstration had two main messages: end mountaintop removal mining and clean up the Kingston ash spill. (The TVA is the biggest buyer of coal obtained from mountaintop removal in America.) Mountain Justice and UMD see both mountaintop removal and the spill as parts of what they term “the death cycle of coal.”
As you might imagine from the evil TVA smokestack puppets that were part of the march, UMD is pretty unequivocal in its opposition to the TVA. From their website:
“As a federal organization they [TVA] were created to serve the public (with a board of directors appointed by the US president), but have morphed into a private, profit-seeking corporation.”
The TVA isn’t exactly a private corporation; its board is still appointed by the president. Instead, they occupy a legal grey area that’s somewhere between a government organization and a private company. Also, a lot of people would say that the problem with the TVA is not that it’s profit-seeking, but that it’s too focused on providing power at the lowest rate possible, which has been its mandate for the past seventy years. As others have pointed out, low rates can have high costs.
The rally started in Market Square, strategically placed in front of the twin TVA buildings that loom over downtown Knoxville (although I have to wonder if anyone was in them today, a Sunday). There were several speeches about air quality, the effects of coal mining on future generations, and the power of civic action, from Tennessee residents, a slam poet, and a UT professor. Local musicians played traditional music and protest songs. But most affecting by far was an unscripted statement from a resident of Harriman, TN, who lives next door to the spilled coal sludge.
Speaking about how ash in the air and water has marred the life of his grandmother (who he lives with), his emotion was visible. He likened the desolate scene by the Emory River to Hiroshima after the bomb. He also pointed something pretty shocking that I hadn’t heard before: when people displaced by the ash spill were compensated for their land by the TVA, they had to sign an agreement that effectively releases the TVA from responsibility for any of their future medical problems.
Then came the giant puppets and the march started.
About one hundred people made their way through downtown Knoxville (which is pretty small) for half an hour, then finished up back in front of the TVA buildings. The climax of the event was supposed to be “an act of civil disobedience” in which a few volunteers would plant themselves on TVA property, in front of the TVA buildings. The event organizers had carefully planned how to deal with the subsequent arrests and legal proceedings. They even had lawyers ready. But then the civil disobedience was cancelled. As one organizer explained to me, the event had been really positive thus far and getting some people arrested would spoil the mood. So the rally wrapped up with one or two more speeches and a few more songs.
