TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Sep 2, 2022

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) cannot escape a judicial injunction by rebranding a controversial tree-cutting policy. The court had previously barred TVA from carrying out its “15-foot rule,” a policy that allowed the utility to cut down private landowners’ trees simply because those trees might one day grow tall enough to interfere with power lines. TVA claimed the injunction was no longer necessary because it had scrapped the rule and replaced it with a new policy — dubbed “alternative C Condition-based Control Strategy.” The court rejected that argument. “A closer look … reveals that Alternative C is likely just a differently packaged version of the 15-foot rule,” the court stated. Tennessee Lookout has the story.