Federal Appellate Court Decision in Environmental Defense Fund et al., Plaintiffs Appellees, v. Tennessee Valley Authority et al., Defendants-Appellants, No. 74-1139

Federal Appellate Court decision in the case of EDF v. TVA, upholding the lower court\u27s decision in favor of TVA, allowing the construction of the Tellico Dam to go forward. This decision was published in West\u27s Federal Reporter at 492 F.2d 466 (1974)

The blameworthiness of health and safety rule violations

Man-made disasters usually lead to the tightening of safety regulations, because rule breaking is seen as a major cause of them. This reaction is based on the presumptions that the safety rules are good and that the rule-breakers are wrong. The reasons the personnel of a coke factory gave for breaking rules raise doubt about the tenability of these presumptions. It is unlikely that this result would have been achieved on the basis of a disaster evaluation or High-Reliability Theory. In both approaches, knowledge of the consequences of human conduct hinders an unprejudiced judgement about the blameworthiness of rule breaking