News

Keep TVA money in mountains, petition says

By Bill Moss, Published: August 1, 2012

A Democratic House candidate from Polk County is rallying support for a petition to ensure that money from a TVA settlement be spent in Western North Carolina.

George Alley, the Democratic nominee for the state House seat representing Transylvania, Polk and the southernmost precincts of Henderson County, started the online petition asking that $11.2 million the TVA will pay to settle a lawsuit over air pollution be spent in the 16 westernmost counties of North Carolina.
During budget negotiations in the Legislature, the TVA settlement funds was moved to the N.C. Department of Agriculture and the N.C. Biofuels Center and "are at risk of being spent in other parts of the state," says the petition, which has gathered 545 signatures online. The money should be targeted "towards the region most affected by the original emissions — Western North Carolina."
State Sen. Tom Apodaca said the WNC delegation had already gotten assurances that that will happen. Apodaca and Reps. Tim Moffitt, R-Asheville, and Chuck McGrady, R-Hendersonville, worked on the appropriations issue. Apodaca said he spoke to budget writers.
"They promised us we would receive those monies in Western North Carolina," he said. "We're probably going to use that for DuPont State Forest."
Under the agreement, the TVA settlement money can be used for energy efficiency, pollution mitigation and carbon dioxide reduction.