Several Memphis environmental groups want to know what firms are bidding to supply the city’s electricity, but Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) said (again) they don’t have to share the information and won’t until the time is right.
MLGW is in the midst of picking a power provider, either staying with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) or selecting a new company. The local utility is now the largest customer of the TVA and has been with the authority for more than 80 years. The idea to move away from TVA has been around for a long time, but last year MLGW formally began a process to possibly find other suppliers with a request for proposals.
Bids came back from nearly 20 companies, but when Sam Hardiman, a Commercial Appeal reporter, asked for company names earlier this year, MLGW declined to provide them, citing state law that says MLGW can keep the company names and their proposals secret.
The laws in question say MLGW can hold the records until recommendations for awarding the contract are submitted by staff to the MLGW board. MLGW said Friday it would adhere to that process.
But several Memphis groups asked MLGW to see the proposals again this week. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) asked for the records in a Thursday letter to MLGW on behalf of the Sierra Club, Memphis Community Against Pollution, and Protect Our Aquifer, known collectively in the letter as “Community Groups.” The decision is a big one, the letter says, and the public should know who is involved.
”Community Groups — and the Memphis community generally — lack access to crucially important information related to the more than 20 bids MLGW has received in response to the [requests for proposals]. Shutting the community out of the process is profoundly concerning in light of the significance of MLGW’s impending decision.”
In a Friday statement, MLGW again refused to provide that information.
”In accordance with state law and MLGW policy, the proposals received in response to those [requests for proposals] “shall not be open for public inspection’ until notices of an intent to award are issued,” the utility said. “Once recommendations for award are submitted by MLGW staff to the MLGW Board regarding an RFP, all proposals submitted in response to that RFP will be available to the public for inspection, except to the extent that any information included in those proposals is protected in accordance with federal and state law for proprietary and system security proposes.
”Members of the public will have further opportunities to provide comments and input as recommendations are considered by the MLGW Board and the Memphis City Council.”
MLGW said public input was “instrumental” in completing its integrated resource plan to decide what sources of power it wanted to use. SELC’s letter agreed and urged that MLGW be as transparent as possible in its current proposal process.
The SELC was concerned that by keeping the other contenders secret, TVA’s incumbent status would be given an “unfair advantage” with the public. It noted that group members have received emails from TVA touting its proposal, read multiple news stories about it, and even saw ”TVA’s high-visibility co-sponsorship with MLGW to provide drinking water at the Beale Street Music Festival.”
SELC asked MLGW to make a decision on sharing the records within a week.
