Citizen Groups Claim VICTORY Against TVA!!!!!!!!!

Here’s the article-------http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/24/tva-may-shutter-aging-coal-fired-plants/?local

August 20,2009 TVA board meeting link http://www.tva.gov/abouttva/board/index.htm#820

Today it was reported that at TVA's board meeting on August 20, 2009 that TVA will most likely be closing down at least two coal burning power plants including Rogersville, TN and Widow's Creek, Alabama. This is such good news and a victory for United Mountain Defense, Mountain Justice, and Three Rivers Earth First! that have all been shining light on TVA's dirty little secrets, their coal burning power plant fleet. As I type this TVA has been buying up property around Widow's Creek to provide a safety buffer around the coal ash piles and gypsum ponds. They are also supposedly digging giant holes around the Rogersville Power Plant for some unknown reason. These closure actions are unprecedented in the history of the struggle against coal burning power plants and specifically against TVA. TVA has caved to public pressure and is closing down their old coal burners. As the largest purchaser of coal in the country TVA is a trend setter and we will continue to push for the conversion of ALL of TVA's dirty power plants to clean safe renewable energy. For now let us celebrate but also keep up the pressure as our protests are obviously working.....

Within our grassroots struggle for justice, clear and measurable victories are not always apparent and plentiful. As keepers of the long term agenda and volunteers of the earth, our labor is continuous but often overlooked. Not today. Never in the history of this struggle has a coal- fired power plant been stopped, not in the permit process, but in the peak of its life span.

From the number one purchaser of coal in North America, this means thousands of tons of coal that would have been ripped from the mountains of central Appalachia will not be. This means billions of dollars that would have been wired into the pockets of Coal Executives will not be. This means millions of gallons of coal ash and slurry that would have been generated over the next decades will not be.

This means the long standing campaign against the Tennessee Valley Authority by United Mountain Defense, Three Rivers Earth First!, and Mountain Justice has been not only valuable, but priceless. The hours spent in public hearing, submitting complaints, spreading awareness, writing press releases, making signs, planning actions, chanting, singing, crying, demanding, and pleading, were not in vain. They were in victory!!