The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the North Carolina Republican-controlled General Assembly has earmarked the first $2.24 million of a $11.2 million settlement with the TVA for the agriculture department, and that most of the initial funds may be spent in the eastern part of the state.

The settlement "of a lawsuit over pollution produced by Tennessee Valley Authority power plants" is supposed to "increase energy efficiency and reduce pollution in Western North Carolina [but] could go to farms in the eastern part of the state," the ACT reports. "The agreements says North Carolina should look first to spend the money in WNC, the region that has been hit the hardest by emissions from TVA plants, but allows its use elsewhere in the state."

"But the Republican-controlled House ... approved a budget provision that would give control of the first of five planned payments from TVA — $2.24 million — to the Department of Agriculture, an independent agency headed by Republican Steve Troxler. ...the move would probably mean the mountains would see less of the money."

The ACT further notes, "All but two of the 15 members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural and Economic Resources hail from rural areas or small towns in the eastern half of the state."