Shuler group, TVA swap land

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler traded waterfront property with the TVA this summer.

The Waynesville Democrat is a partner in a development group that traded roughly equal sized stretches of waterfront property in Tennessee with the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to Knoxvillebiz.com.

The deal has attracted attention because Shuler sits on a committee that exercises oversight over TVA, a government-run public utility. TVA officials approved the deal in June.

The land acquired by Shuler's group likely will be used for a community dock and boat ramp for a development they're building.

Shuler's office and TVA officials say he wasn't involved in negotiating the deal, and Shuler has had conflicts with the agency on environmental issues:

During a 2007 hearing, he asked the agency how it would reduce air pollution that enters the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from TVA power plants. Kilgore, told the legislator that TVA planned to install a new scrubber at its plant in Rogersville.

Shuler also helped lead opposition to the Road to Nowhere, a long-delayed road through the national park that had been proposed to replace a thoroughfare that was flooded by the creation of TVA's Fontana Dam in the 1940s. The road now has been scrapped in favor of a monetary settlement for Swain County, N.C.

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Call it what you will, but the land swaps and trades of land for the benefit of developers are not over, the TVA still is doing underhanded land deals which clearly are in opposition to the requirements of Executive Order 13406. That EO requires that no public property be used for anything but for public purposes such as for roads, hospitals and other public uses. It does not permit private development, which clearly is involved in the Shuler consortium deal. Shuler stands to profit a bundle from it.

Congressman Shuler appears to have broken federal law by being involved in the “swapping” of federal land under the control of the TVA, a federal agency.

If he did not see the implications of his position in congress, i.e., being on a TVA oversight committee, his judgment is highly questionable. If he knew there might be an appearance of a conflict of interest in the land deal, he should have otherwise disposed of his interest in it and to have publically stated his position to remove any doubts about his credibility, his involvement in it.

TVA has a long history of being involved in shady land deals some of which have been very profitable to the agency. The TVA is not supposed to take another’s property, dispose of it and come out the richer or to enrich other private interests. EO 13406 was to have stopped this kind of underhanded dealing by the TVA.

Congressman Shuler himself should call for a congressional hearing on the matter if for no other reason than to try to clear his name, which at this point is being besmirched. The Attorney General of the U.S. also should launch a criminal investigation to determine if federal laws were broken.

It is no wonder congressional approval ratings are below ten percent. The pattern is clear: Go to congress to serve the people as a hardworking representative and voila! come out a millionaire.

Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net

For other comments, see http://norsworthyopinion.com

Shuler group, TVA swap land

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