A major federally owned electrical utility is threatening that it may cut off its services to areas where companies are cultivating or selling marijuana, regardless of state law.<\/p>\n
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) released a statement about its federal obligations while cannabis remains illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, days after the governor of Mississippi signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state<\/a>. TVA is a main supplier of electricity to the state\u2019s northern region.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a complex and evolving issue\u2014and one we\u2019ve been following closely,\u201d TVA said in the statement, which was first reported<\/a> by The Daily Journal. \u201cWe respect the role of state government in making these decisions, but as a federal agency, TVA is required to comply with federal statutes.\u201d<\/p>\n The federal utility company argued that while it is under contract to provide wholesale services to local power companies, which are regulated at the state level, federal law means that its \u201cresources and funds may not be purposely used to facilitate activity that potentially violates federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGiven this important point, TVA will not direct any federal resources or funds to the cultivation and\/or distribution of marijuana,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The utility said its employees will report to management if they find that a local power company is using TVA services to provide electricity to state-legal cannabis businesses, and management \u201cwill make a determination regarding our reporting obligations to agencies that may have proper jurisdiction to enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act.\u201d<\/p>\n TVA put out this statement last week saying it cannot use any \u201cfederal resources\u201d for the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, including for legal medicinal use on some states. But the statement is very technical and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. pic.twitter.com\/WkDLCHtz9g<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Taylor Vance (@TaylorVanceDJ) February 7, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n In other words, TVA said it intends to essentially serve as a federal narc as state markets come online within its contractual jurisdiction.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), an ally to the cannabis reform movement in Congress, pushed back against the federal energy company\u2019s stance, telling Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that medical marijuana \u201chas been legalized in the majority of our states generally by the people\u2019s votes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTVA should not discriminate against legal businesses that need utilities,\u201d the congressman said. \u201cTVA needs all the business they could get as their rates are way too high already and many want to leave TVA.\u201d<\/p>\n In the TVA statement, the utility further said that its decision \u201cis based on our assessment of our obligations on this complex issue,\u201d and it has \u201creached out to and are working with other federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to ensure that our actions are consistent with applicable federal requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBased on that outreach, if TVA must take additional action, we will communicate any changes to our policy to our customers as soon as possible,\u201d it said. \u201cIn the meantime, we will also closely monitor actions and further guidance from Congress that could further inform TVA\u2019s position.\u201d<\/p>\n A federal rider continually approved by Congress since 2014 prevents the Department of Justice from spending money to interfere with the implementation of state medical cannabis laws, but it doesn\u2019t affect TVA or any federal agencies outside of the department.<\/p>\n In addition to TVA, there are four other electric utilities. It\u2019s unclear if any of those other federal utilities have made similar statements or taken reporting actions against cannabis businesses that operate in accordance with state laws.<\/p>\n Read the TVA statement<\/a> on its marijuana policy below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Veteran Marijuana Lobbyist Launches New \u2018BOWL PAC\u2019 To Fight For Legalization And Elect Pro-Reform Politicians<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Federal Power Utility Threatens To Shut Off The Lights On Marijuana Businesses After Mississippi Legalizes Medical Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A major federally owned electrical utility is threatening that it may cut off its services to areas where companies are cultivating or selling marijuana, regardless of state law. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) released a statement about its federal obligations while cannabis remains illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, daysContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52789,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52788\/revisions\/52789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Federal Power Utility Threatens To Shut Off The Lights On Marijuana Businesses After Mississippi Legalizes Medical Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"