November 28, 2009
Abolish the TVA and the collective malfeasance
Here's how the government gives the bum's rush to an accountability for its derelictions:
TVA is seeking immunity from lawsuits under the premise that it’s a federal agency.
That's the TVA's much tried, though not always successful, reflexive creep toward the shadows of the government protection racket, beyond the reaches of common law. I highlighted other examples of the TVA using the strategy toward the end of a post made last January, a short two weeks after the TVA's negligence spilled up and down the Emory River for all to see.
Oak Ridge lawyer Mike Ritter, one of many attorneys who represent clients suing TVA because of the disaster, said the lawsuits are stalled until a judge makes a ruling on the immunity claim.
[...]
TVA said it’s seeking immunity to protect the ratepayers.
That last bit is true, and that's the tragedy of forced collectivization. The TVA is a government imposed monopoly, meaning there is no freedom of choice for the region's electricity users, other than to leave the seven state region in which the utility operates, or do without electricity. The TVA's main source of income is from those captive ratepayers, so when the TVA is negligent, as it often is, it is the captive ratepayers who are on the hook for it. There are no owners to be held liable, only "stewards" of the "company", and employees, none of whom, seemingly, can be held liable beyond their own consciences, as I've noted before.
If the TVA were privately owned, or a public corporation with shareholders competing in a free market, it would be the owners or shareholders who would have to parlay their competence against the necessity of offering a product or service that people could choose to do without by taking their business up the road. Negligence on the scale of the Emory River ash spill would put serious hurting on a private company, and rightfully so, and probably be a boon to some competitor less prone to destroying people's homes and property, again, rightfully so.
Under the current regimen, the honest citizen is put in the untenable position of being able to hold the TVA accountable only by punishing himself. It's an outrage.
The TVA should be cut up into little pieces and sold off to the highest bidders.
