Audit Concludes TVA Exercised Preferential Option for the Wealthy

The Tennessee Valley Authority gave a few wealthy and influential people greater access to shorelines to dock their big boats than they gave the masses.

One of those wealthy and influential individuals was Heath Shuler, who could also pull some strings on a congressional subcommittee that oversees TVA:

an entity with ties to Shuler - a former University of Tennessee football star and Washington Redskins quarterback - received approval for a transaction that provided 145 feet of water-access rights along the shoreline of Watts Bar Reservoir in Roane County.

That entity, The Cove at Blackberry Ridge LLC, agreed to relinquish 150 feet of water-access rights in Rhea County and also provide about $15,000 for a bank stabilization project at a different location on Watts Bar Reservoir.

Investors in The Cove at Blackberry Ridge included Shuler, who was formerly a member of the House transportation committee's Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. That subcommittee is one of two congressional panels that provide formal oversight of TVA.

TVA may be giving the rich and famous special treatment, but they're giving the poor the shaft.