Sherwood v. Tennessee Valley Authority

OPINION

PAUL MALONEY, Chief District Judge.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provides electric power to consumers in seven states across the Southeast. In order to reliably deliver that power, TVA maintains the vegetation under and around its power line structures. Historically, TVA has-removed all trees directly under its power lines, but did not cut down all of the trees in what TVA called buffer or border zones, the edges of the easements TVA possesses. In 2012, several of the plaintiffs received notices that TVA would be removing dozens of tall, mature trees from the easements over…