John Rich, the country music artist, released his new song, “The Devil And The TVA,” describing the plight of how landowners in Cheatham County, TN fought and stopped a controversial 900-megawatt methane gas plant being proposed by the giant federal utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
He released the song on August 29th, after the TVA made their decision to shelve the project. One of the main factors leading to the decision that it was no longer their “preferred alternative,” was that Rich began interviewing landowners and sending the videos to his friend President Trump. “These are your people, President Trump,” Rich said. “This county voted for you – 75%. These are your people; tell the TVA to find another spot.”
Rich also communicated with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins who responded to Rich in a tweet: “On it.” Secretary Rollins and her agency have been helping landowners on multiple issues all across the country ever since taking office. It’s nice to have government and government officials finally working for American citizens rather than against them.
This whole saga began in 2018, when the TVA purchased a wooded 285-acre site in Cheatham County to build the new 14 turbine power plant and a lithium battery storage facility to power about half a million customers. The Cheatham plant was to replace the coal-fired Cumberland Fossil Plant scheduled for retirement in 2028. That plant is now being reevaluated for longer use.
In addition to the huge facility, they needed a 12-mile natural gas pipeline and up to 45 miles of transmission lines to the project that would have destroyed hundreds of family-owned farms and their private property.
The TVA was created in 1933 by Congress under the New Deal, and has a long history of utilizing eminent domain. Over the past several decades, the TVA has displaced over 125,000 landowners and residents, leading the county landowners to fear this would be their fate.
In fact, the TVA had already filed lawsuits against two landowners who refused access for land surveys, used as the initial phase for eminent domain proceedings. An 88‑year‑old Tennessee woman confronted by representatives of the Tennessee Valley Authority when they came to survey her land said: “you think you own something, you don’t own nothin.” Apparently, this left a lasting impression on Rich.
Just like that 88-year old, the landowners of Cheatham County felt they were up against a Goliath, but then Rich jumped in. Cheatham County Mayor Kerry McCarver said: “They (the TVA) don’t answer to the county level. They don’t answer to the state level.” “At the federal level, the congress should be putting some guidelines and bumper guards in there to control them…They are not held accountable by anyone, and that is the root of the problem.”
Rich said “The fix to this is simple…pick some of the 293,000 acres you people already own, TVA, and put it there.”
Another reason the Trump administration got the attention of the TVA is the President nominates and fires board members of the federal TVA. He has already fired Biden’s nominees and has nominated three to replace them, but they are waiting on confirmation from the Senate. It takes five out of the 10 board members to have a quorum, but currently, there are only three. Having the president’s attention with this power and having John Rich on your side is a sure way of getting Cheatham County what they wanted.
Go to this AP story to read more.
