Court Opinion

ID: 9466093
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:05:42.226607+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:32.780775
License: Public Domain

CELEBREZZE, Circuit Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
First, I interpret the relevant statute, 16 U.S.C. § 831c(i) & (j), to limit TVA’s ability to condemn land for power houses to points along the Tennessee River or its tributaries. I believe this is the clear import of the statutory language and we should not stretch its meaning in this case.
Second, I do not believe it is appropriate to apply to this case the rule that a court should give great weight to a consistent statutory interpretation by an agency charged with the statute’s administration. All of the cases cited in the majority opinion for this proposition concern federal administrative agencies which have been given some degree of discretion in administering federal policy. The TVA, on the other hand, is a federally owned corporation which exists for the purpose of supplying electricity and other related functions. The statute in question here is not one that the TVA has been given discretion to administer. Rather, the statute is the TVA’s enabling provision that sets forth the scope of its powers. I do not believe a court should defer to an agency’s interpretation of what statutory authority has been given to it by Congress.
Third, while the majority seeks to distinguish TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 98 S.Ct. *1492279, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978), aff’g 549 F.2d 1064 (6th Cir.1977), it seems to me that they ignore the teaching of Hill that appropriations of funds by Congress cannot serve to amend or repeal other Congressional enactments. The fact that Congress has appropriated funds for the Hartsville nuclear plant is just as irrelevant here as was the appropriation of funds for the Tellico Dam at issue in Hill. See 437 U.S. at 189-93, 98 S.Ct. 2279.
Fourth, this court’s prior decisions in United States ex rel. TVA v. Easement and Right of Way, 375 F.2d 120 (6th Cir.1967), and Illinois Central R.R. Co. v. TVA, 445 F.2d 308 (6th Cir.1971), do not control this case and need not be overruled in order to reverse the district court. The former dealt with power transmission lines and the latter concerned a coal conveyor belt. Neither dealt with the issue at hand, viz., whether the TVA can build a power house at a point not along the Tennessee River or its tributaries. I believe it cannot.
I would reverse and remand with directions to grant the injunction.