A federal appeals court has unanimously overturned a district court decision in favor of North Carolina?s clean-air lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority. The judges concluded, properly, that allowing a state to pursue dubious claims of environmental harm against a utility in another state encroaches on federal regulatory authority and could cause significant problems with uncertainty and fairness.
The John Locke Foundation has long questioned the factual and legal basis for Attorney General Roy Cooper?s lawsuit against the TVA. For example, a 2008 report by Roy Cordato and Joel Schwartz took a critical look at Cooper’s assertions about the costs and benefits of the proposed emissions rules, concluding that ?the actual benefits of the TVA power plant emission reductions will at
best be only a tiny fraction of the amount claimed by the Attorney
General?s experts.?
Carolina Journal has followed the case closely, as well, reporting in 2009 about a draft report that the state?s Division of Air Quality scrapped after realizing that it undercut Cooper’s case.
Check Carolina Journal Online tomorrow morning for a David Bass report on the appeals court decision.
