| 053 | Enviormental Leader | 2009-03-06 |
WASHINGTON - Two U.S. senators have filed a resolution calling on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to immediately review and inspect all coal ash ponds across the country and to regulate coal combustion waste.
The proposal by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Thomas Carper, D-Del., also calls on the Tennessee Valley Authority to "meet the intentions of Congress and be ’a national leader in technological innovation, low-cost power, and environmental stewardship.’"
Washington wants TVA to be an environmental leader. But is it actually possible for the largest public utility company (TVA) to become a responsible leader while producing cheap energy? Or is TVA condemned, like GM, to extinction?
I live in Nashville, the heart of TVA country, and I wouldn’t call our city an environmental leader. There are the rumbles of the birth of environmental efforts in the city but no cutting edge measures being adopted. The codes and policies of Nashville and the surrounding counties promote growth, sprawl, and spending not living small, conserving, or the environment. Going green requires changing lifestyles and the populace/voters don’t seem ready.
Nashville is in the state of Tennessee, a part of the United States, and a part of the planet Earth. and none could be called environmental leaders. Is it any wonder our world is in dire straits - we the people have not yet learned to live in harmony with the land. If Al Gore is right we must change our ways now in order for the planet to survive. We, as defined as all mankind, are killing Earth.
Is it any wonder the TVA is not an environmental leader? We, the people of the world, do not demand more from the utility. We want cheap electricity so that we can use all that we want. We want to use and be users. We want to take all that is entitled to us, use it all and any our neighbors have to spare. We want to live in the day, not for tomorrow, and leave a sasquatch size footprint. Forget the coal ash spill, just give us cheap electricity.
Is it any wonder the TVA is not an environmental leader? Not hardly.
link: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/mar/05/senators-call-tva-be-environmental-leader/?partner=RSS