Revenue and Expense Data for TVA's Wind Power Plant

The following information was requested under the Freedom of Information Act on April 7, 2002.

Revenue and expense data for the wind power plant, from construction to current date.

The following response was released by TVA on December 2, 2002. It was a flat refusal to provide the requested information.

"We are withholding this information pursuant to the Government confidential commercial privilege incorporated within exemption 5 of the FOIA. We do not publish revenue and expense information at the plant level because public disclosure of this information would place TVA at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace."

TVA apparently refers to the following portion of 18CFR § 1301.7(a):

(5) Inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a private party in litigation with TVA, including without limitation records relating to control and accounting for special nuclear material and to the physical security plans for the protection of TVA’s nuclear facilities;

If a submitter has any objection to disclosure, it is required to submit a detailed written statement. The statement must specify all grounds for withholding any portion of the information under any exemption of the FOIA and, in the case of Exemption 4, it must show why the information is a trade secret or commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential.

Quote of the moment

Look you, Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter.... To begin: there’s Aries, or the Ram—lecherous dog, he begets us; then, Taurus, or the Bull—he bumps us the first thing; then Gemini, or the Twins—that is, Virtue and Vice; we try to reach Virtue, when lo! comes Cancer the Crab, and drags us back; and here, going from Virtue, Leo, a roaring Lion, lies in the path—he gives a few fierce bites and surly dabs with his paw; we escape, and hail Virgo, the virgin! that’s our first love; we marry and think to be happy for aye, when pop comes Libra, or the Scales—happiness weighed and found wanting; and while we are very sad about that, Lord! how we suddenly jump, as Scorpio, or the Scorpion, stings us in rear; we are curing the wound, when whang come the arrows all round; Sagittarius, or the Archer, is amusing himself. As we pluck out the shafts, stand aside! here’s the battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat; full tilt, he comes rushing, and headlong we are tossed; when Aquarius, or the Waterbearer, pours out his whole deluge and drowns us; and, to wind up, with Pisces, or the Fishes, we sleep.

~ Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Stubb, in Moby Dick, ch. 99 (1851). ~

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Disclaimer Fine Print: This site is personal, and is independent of TVA or any other organization. Use of the abbreviation "TVA" is purely for descriptive purposes (for example, to distinguish from wind power plants on Buffalo Ridge in Minnesota). No endorsement, no approval, and no involvement by TVA is implied.

How are the finances at TVA's Wind Power Plant?

Is it making money?

TVA won't say

January 5, 2003