Southern Environmental Law Center v. Tennessee Valley Authority

The federal district court for the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled that redacted provisions of contracts between the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and a pipeline company were exempt from FOIA disclosure. The court determined that these provisions fell under the exemption for commercial or financial information, as they pertained to rates, terms, pricing, and business strategy—information the defendants asserted was sensitive and proprietary. Furthermore, the court found that TVA had not reformulated the pipeline company’s information in a manner that would constitute TVA’s own analysis, meaning the exemption remained applicable. Finally, the court concluded that the defendants had demonstrated that disclosing the redacted contract provisions would cause competitive harm to their commercial or financial interests. As a result, TVA satisfied its burden under FOIA to withhold the contested information.

Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) seeking to compel full disclosure of information about TVA’s contracts with gas companies regarding planned methane infrastructure projects. SELC contended that TVA improperly redacted large portions of the two contracts it provided, claiming that FOIA’s Exemptions 4 and 5 applied. Exemption 4 permits withholding of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.” Exemption 5 authorizes withholding of “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters that would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.” SELC alleged that the redacted contractual provisions contained information needed for SELC “to continue to fully participate in public decision-making processes about TVA’s power generation decisions, and to determine whether TVA has complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in connection with its plan to build new gas plants.”