On July 26, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit set aside an injunction that would have required four of TVA’s coal-fired power plants in Alabama and Tennessee to install environmental controls costing between $1-$3 billion. In a
34-page opinion, the Fourth Circuit unanimously concluded that the district court’s injunction “compromised principles of federalism by applying North Carolina law extraterritorially to TVA plants located in Alabama and Tennessee.”
Kevin Newsom, who chairs BABC’s
appellate litigation group, argued the case for the State of Alabama, which intervened (in support of TVA) to protect its sovereign interests. BABC associate
Brian Vines assisted in briefing the case. TVA was very well represented by in-house counsel Harriet Cooper.