The Tennessee Valley Authority refused to release information about its grants to cryptocurrency companies. It is now fighting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from a journalist and University of Tennessee professor over it.

The Knoxville News Sentinel published a story by Daniel Dassow about the lawsuit on Oct. 29. The story also details how TVA has faced numerous other FOIA lawsuits for refusing to release information such as salaries of its executives and its studies to justify a new gas plant in Kingston.

TVA is a federal agency subject to FOIA laws

TVA is a federal agency created in 1933 as a way to provide electricity and flood control to rural communities along the Tennessee River and its tributaries. It has the right to generate and sell wholesale power in Tennessee and parts of six bordering states.

Melanie Faizer is a journalism professor at the University of Tennessee and a former interim news director at UT’s NPR member radio station. She began investigating cryptocurrency mining operations that had begun to proliferate in East Tennessee for a news story.

Cryptocurrency mining involves a network of computers that solve complex calculations to create coins, like Bitcoins, and verify transactions. They take a lot of electricity, and in 2023, one such operation, Bitdeer, used 9.4% of the Knoxville Utilities Board’s electricity, according to Faizer’s reporting.

TVA refuses to release amount of cryptocurrency economic development grant

TVA gave Bitdeer an economic development grant to build its cryptocurrency facility in East Knoxville in 2018 but said the amount was confidential. Bitdeer is not a large employer with only 30 employees in Knoxville, according to Faizer’s reporting.

In February, Fazier published a story, “The rise of crypto mines in the South raises concerns for the electric grid, rates” using some information received by TVA, but lacking information about TVA’s economic development incentive agreement.  In April, she filed the FOIA lawsuit. She is represented by Paul McAdoo who is part of the Local Legal Initiative for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The lawsuit asserts that TVA maintains “pervasive secrecy” around its economic incentive deals, violating the Freedom of Information Act. It asserts that TVA’s reliance on exemptions on trade secrets and the privacy of Bitdeer’s employees are inappropriate and that the public would benefit from knowing how much TVA gives to companies to help attract them to its region.

Don’t expect the lawsuit to wrap up soon. It’s scheduled for a jury in November 2025.

For its part, TVA told the Knoxville News Sentinel that “TVA is a transparent organization.”