Melanie Fizer, a journalist and professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, sued the Tennessee Valley Authority for violating the Freedom of Information Act, a federal law that gives citizens access to federal agency information. I'm suing. document.
Fizer, a former interim news director at UT's NPR affiliate radio station WUOT, first requested access to documents related to TVA's secret financial incentives for virtual currency companies in April 2023.
She was investigating a cryptocurrency mining operation, a huge computer system that consumes electricity but doesn't create many jobs.
Digital currencies like Bitcoin must be “mined” by large networks of computers that solve complex calculations to create coins and verify transactions. A Knox News investigation found in 2022 that landmines are popping up around East Tennessee, attracted by cheap power and loose zoning regulations. Landmines are noisy and often unpopular with nearby residents.
For reporting purposes, Pfizer wanted to know what incentives TVA gave a company called BitDeer in 2018 to build a mine at 5101 S. National Drive in East Knoxville.
The company used 9.4% of the Knoxville Public Utilities Commission's total electricity in 2023, but had only 30 employees, Pfizer reported. Last year, TVA stopped granting grants to crypto companies because they were of little benefit to the local economy.
Pfizer's report, published by WUOT in February, did not include details of incentives the federal utility gave Bitdeer as part of its economic development mission because TVA did not provide the requested information. Ta. Ms. Fizer appeals TVA's decision to withhold records from her and ultimately provide heavily redacted documents nearly a year before her article was published. did.
In April, as a last resort, she filed legal action against TVA, enlisting the help of attorney Paul McAdoo of the Reporters Committee for a Free Press. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, alleges that TVA maintains “extensive secrecy” regarding its financial incentive grants, in violation of federal law.
TVA withheld key information about Bitdeer's incentives, citing competition with other economic development agencies to attract companies and the privacy of Bitdeer employees. The lawsuit argues that this information should not be exempt and that it is in the public's interest to know how TVA attracts certain companies.
On July 30, Bitdeer filed a motion with TVA to join the lawsuit, alleging that TVA failed to adequately represent its interests. In response, McAdoo argued that his company's interests were the same as TVA's, and that Bitdea's participation in the lawsuit would cause “unreasonable delay and prejudice” to Pfizer.
McAdoo just won a records lawsuit against TVA on behalf of Memphis journalist Mark Perschia. In September 2023, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer ordered TVA to release the salaries of four regional vice presidents, but the utility was allowed to redact their names. Mr. Perschia disclosed his salary in the Tennessee Lookout report.
Mr. Pfizer and Mr. McAdoo declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. The case is scheduled to be tried without a jury in November 2025. According to the Department of Justice, nearly all FOIA cases are resolved by pretrial summary judgment because there is little dispute over the facts.
FOIA requests and lawsuits are no stranger to TVA
TVA spokesman Scott Fiedler said in a statement to Knox News that TVA takes its FOIA compliance obligations seriously, but declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
“TVA is a transparent organization and strictly adheres to FOIA guidelines in order to share information and keep the public informed about our actions,” Fiedler said.
Records requests are common for federally owned government agencies, which are among the few electric utilities subject to FOIA. Environmental groups and elected officials have long lamented the lack of transparency in TVA's planning process and limited salary disclosure.
According to the latest FOIA annual report, TVA processed 177 records requests from October 2022 to September 2023. Of the 177 requests, 8 were rejected outright.
Litigation over FOIA requests is a familiar occurrence for Federal Power Company, the nation's largest public utility, serving 10 million customers throughout Tennessee and parts of six neighboring states.
Since 2019, TVA has defended 11 FOIA lawsuits, five of which are ongoing. Five lawsuits have been filed so far in 2024, the most in recent years. TVA spent $123,498 on records-related litigation in its most recent fiscal year.
Federal law allows for nine exceptions for denying records requests. To date, the most common reason for TVA to deny a request is to protect communications protected by trade secrets, personal privacy, or legal privilege. All three companies are involved in legal battles with Pfizer.
The backlog of FOIA requests will rise to more than 200,000 by 2022 as federal agencies struggle to respond to requests in a timely manner, according to a report released in March by the Government Accountability Office. has reached.
TVA's headquarters and FOIA office are both located in Knoxville.
Environmental groups have four FOIA lawsuits underway with TVA
Any member of the public, organization, or advocacy group, not just journalists or news organizations, can request records from federal agencies.
The Nashville-based Southern Environmental Law Center filed its fourth consecutive FOIA lawsuit against TVA earlier this year on behalf of climate change groups Appalachian Voices, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club. A spokeswoman for the law center said the four lawsuits “represent a small fraction of the number of unanswered FOIA requests.”
A series of lawsuits seeks documents related to TVA's construction of a multibillion-dollar 7,000-megawatt natural gas plant, enough to generate electricity for about 4 million homes. While natural gas emits 50% to 60% less carbon than coal, fossil fuels are unpopular with environmental groups.
TVA signs advance contracts with pipeline operators before getting public input on gas plants. This includes a gas power plant planned to replace the Kingston coal-fired power plant, which is the subject of a separate Southern Environmental Law Center lawsuit against TVA filed Oct. 10.
In its FOIA lawsuit, the Southern Environmental Law Center wants to see not only the research TVA conducted to justify the gas expansion, but also communications between TVA and the pipeline company.
Like many records cases, the four cases brought by the law center could drag on for years.
“Unfortunately, we must litigate to make these documents available to people across the Valley so they can understand these important decisions that affect everyone. Trey Bassey, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, told Knox News.
“This kind of information should be made public from the beginning.”
Daniel Dassault is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone number 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.
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