American utility company
The
Tennessee Valley Authority
(
TVA
) is a
federally owned
electric utility
corporation
in the
United States
. TVA's service area covers all of
Tennessee
, portions of
Alabama
,
Mississippi
, and
Kentucky
, and small areas of
Georgia
,
North Carolina
, and
Virginia
. While owned by the
federal government
, TVA receives no taxpayer funding and operates similarly to a private for-profit company. It is headquartered in
Knoxville, Tennessee
, and is the sixth-largest power supplier and largest public utility in the country.
[3]
[4]
The TVA was created by
Congress
in 1933 as part of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
's
New Deal
. Its initial purpose was to provide
navigation
,
flood control
,
electricity generation
,
fertilizer
manufacturing,
regional planning
, and
economic development
to the
Tennessee Valley
, a region that had suffered from lack of infrastructure and even more extensive poverty during the
Great Depression
than other regions of the nation. TVA was envisioned both as a power supplier and a regional economic development agency that would work to help modernize the region's economy and society. It later evolved primarily into an electric utility.
It was the first large regional planning agency of the U.S. federal government, and remains the largest.
Under the leadership of
David E. Lilienthal
, the TVA also became the global model for the United States' later efforts to help modernize
agrarian societies
in the
developing world
.
[6]
[7]
The TVA historically has been documented as a success in its efforts to modernize the Tennessee Valley and helping to recruit new employment opportunities to the region. Historians have criticized its use of
eminent domain
and the
displacement
of over 125,000 Tennessee Valley residents to build the agency's infrastructure projects.
[8]
[9]
[10]
Operation
[
edit
]
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a government-owned
corporation
created by
U.S. Code Title 16
, Chapter 12A, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933. It was initially founded as an agency to provide general
economic development
to the region through power generation, flood control, navigation assistance, fertilizer manufacturing, and agricultural development. Since the Depression years, it has developed primarily into a power utility. Despite its shares being owned by the federal government, TVA operates like a private corporation, and receives no taxpayer funding.
[11]
The TVA Act authorizes the company to use
eminent domain
.
[12]
TVA provides electricity to approximately ten million people through a diverse portfolio that includes
nuclear
,
coal-fired
,
natural gas
-fired,
hydroelectric
, and
renewable
generation. TVA sells its power to 153 local power utilities, 58 direct-serve industrial and institutional customers, 7 federal installations, and 12 area utilities.
[13]
In addition to power generation, TVA provides flood control with its 29 hydroelectric dams. Resulting lakes and other areas also allow for recreational activities. The TVA also provides navigation and land management along rivers within its region of operation, which is the fifth-largest river system in the United States, and assists governments and private companies on economic development projects.
[11]
TVA's headquarters are located in
Downtown Knoxville
, with large administrative offices in
Chattanooga
(training/development; supplier relations; power generation and transmission) and
Nashville
(economic development) in Tennessee and
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
. TVA's headquarters were housed in the
Old Customs House
in Knoxville from 1936 until 1976, when the current complex opened. The building is now operated as a museum and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
.
[14]
The Tennessee Valley Authority Police is the primary
law enforcement agency
for the company. Initially part of the TVA, in 1994 the TVA Police was authorized as a
federal law enforcement agency
.
Board of directors
[
edit
]
The Tennessee Valley Authority is governed by a nine-member part-time board of directors, nominated by the
president of the United States
and confirmed by the
Senate
.
[1]
A minimum of seven of the directors are required to be residents of TVA's service area. The members select the chair from their number, and serve five-year terms.
[a]
They receive annual stipends of $45,000 ($50,000 for the chair). The board members choose the TVA's
chief executive officer
.
[15]
When their terms expire, directors may remain on the board until the end of the current congressional session (typically in December) or until their successors take office, whichever comes first.
[11]
Power generation
[
edit
]
Power stations
[
edit
]
With a generating capacity of approximately 35 gigawatts (GW), TVA has the sixth highest generation capacity of any utility company in the United States and the third largest
nuclear power
fleet, with seven units at three
sites
.
[3]
[16]
In addition, they also operate four
coal-fired power plants
, 29
hydroelectric
dams, nine simple-cycle
natural gas
combustion turbine
plants, nine
combined cycle
gas plants, 1
pumped storage
hydroelectric plant, 1
wind
energy site, and 14
solar energy
sites.
[17]
In fiscal year 2020, nuclear generation made up about 41% of TVA's total energy production, natural gas 26%, coal 14%, hydroelectric 13%, and wind and solar 3%.
[17]
TVA purchases about 15% of the power it sells from other power producers, which includes power from combined cycle natural gas plants, coal plants, and wind installations, and other renewables.
[18]
The cost of Purchased Power is part of the "Fuel Cost Adjustment" (FCA) charge that is separate from the TVA Rate. In addition, the
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
is the only facility in the country to industrially produce
tritium
, which is used by the
National Nuclear Security Administration
for
nuclear weapons
, where it is used to supercharge and boost the explosive yield of the
U.S. nuclear arsenal
.
[19]
Electric transmission
[
edit
]
TVA owns and operates its own
electric grid
, which consists of approximately 16,200 miles (26,100 km) of lines, one of the largest grids in the United States. This grid is part of the
Eastern Interconnection
of the
North American power transmission grid
, and is under the jurisdiction of the
SERC Reliability Corporation
.
[20]
Like most North American utilities, TVA uses a maximum transmission voltage of 500 kilovolts (kV), with lines carrying this voltage using
bundled conductors
with three conductors per phase. The vast majority of TVA's transmission lines carry 161 kV, with the company also operating a number of sub-transmission lines with voltages of 69 kV and 46kV. They also operate a small number of 115kV and 230kV lines in Alabama and Georgia that connect to
Southern Company
lines of the same voltage.
[21]
[22]
Recreation
[
edit
]
TVA has conveyed approximately 485,420 acres (1,964.4 km
2
) of property for recreation and preservation purposes including public parks, public access areas and roadside parks, wildlife refuges, national parks and forests, and other camps and recreation areas, comprising approximately 759 different sites.
[23]
Currently, TVA manages approximately 293,000 acres (1,190 km
2
) of Federally-owned land for public use. These lands are managed as either TVA Natural Areas or TVA Day-Use Recreation Areas. Natural Areas are smaller, ecologically or historically significant areas set aside for conservation, with some areas including hiking and walking trails. Day-Use Recreation Areas comprise approximately 80 different locations throughout the Tennessee Valley largely concentrated on or near TVA reservoirs that include water access points, campgrounds, hiking trails, fishing piers, and equestrian facilities.
[24]
[25]
Economic development
[
edit
]
TVA operates an
economic development organization
that works with companies and economic development agencies throughout the Tennessee Valley to create jobs via private investments. They also work with businesses to help them choose locations for facilities and expand existing facilities. Services provided include assistance with site selection, employee recruitment and training, and research.
[26]
A total of seven sites throughout the Valley are certified by TVA as
megasites
, which contain a minimum of 1,000 acres (4.0 km
2
), and have access to an
Interstate Highway
and the potential for rail service, and environmental impact study, and contain or have the potential to contain direct-serve industrial customers.
[27]
History
[
edit
]
Background
[
edit
]
In the late 19th century, the
Army Corps of Engineers
first recognized a number of potential dam sites along the Tennessee River for electricity generation and navigation improvements.
The
National Defense Act of 1916
, signed into law by President
Woodrow Wilson
, authorized the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
, for the purpose of producing nitrates for ammunition.
During the 1920s and the 1930s, Americans began to support the idea of
public ownership of utilities
, particularly hydroelectric power facilities. Many believed privately owned power companies were charging too much for power, did not employ fair operating practices, and were subject to abuse by their owners, utility holding companies, at the expense of consumers.
[
citation needed
]
The concept of government-owned generation facilities selling to publicly owned distribution utilities was controversial, and remains so today.
[29]
The private sector practice of forming utility holding companies had resulted in them controlling 94 percent of generation by 1921, and they were essentially unregulated. In an effort to change this, Congress and Roosevelt enacted the
Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
(PUHCA).
[30]
During his 1932 presidential campaign,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
expressed his belief that private utilities had "selfish purposes" and said, "Never shall the federal government part with its sovereignty or with its control of its power resources while I'm President of the United States."
U.S. Senator
George W. Norris
of
Nebraska
also distrusted private utility companies, and in 1920 blocked a proposal from industrialist
Henry Ford
to build a private dam and create a utility to modernize the Tennessee Valley.
[31]
In 1930, Norris sponsored the
Muscle Shoals Bill
, which would have built a federal dam in the valley, but it was vetoed by President
Herbert Hoover
, who believed it to be
socialistic
.
[32]
The idea behind the Muscle Shoals project became a core part of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
's
New Deal
program that created the Tennessee Valley Authority.
[33]
Even by Depression standards, the Tennessee Valley was in dire economic straits in 1933. Thirty percent of the population was affected by
malaria
. The average income in the rural areas was $639 per year (equivalent to $11,947 in 2024),
[34]
with some families surviving on as little as $100 per year (equivalent to $1,870 in 2023).
[34]
Much of the land had been exhausted by poor farming practices, and the soil was
eroded
and depleted.
Crop yields
had fallen, reducing farm incomes. The best timber had been cut, and 10% of forests were lost to fires each year.
[29]
Founding and early history
[
edit
]
President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
signed the
Tennessee Valley Authority Act
(ch. 32,
Pub. L.
Tooltip Public Law (United States)
73?17
, 48
Stat.
58
, enacted
May 18, 1933
, codified as amended at
16 U.S.C.
§ 831
, et seq.), creating the TVA. The agency was initially tasked with modernizing the region, using experts and electricity to combat human and
economic
problems.
[35]
TVA developed fertilizers, and taught farmers ways to improve crop yields.
[36]
In addition, it helped replant forests, control
forest fires
, and improve habitats for fish and wildlife.
The Authority hired many of the area's unemployed for a variety of jobs: they conducted
conservation
,
economic development
, and
social programs
. For instance, a
library
service was instituted for this area. The professional staff at headquarters were generally composed of experts from outside the region. By 1934, TVA employed more than 9,000 people.
[37]
The workers were classified by the usual racial and gender lines of the region, which limited opportunities for minorities and women. TVA hired a few
African Americans
, generally restricted for janitorial or other low-level positions. TVA recognized
labor unions
; its skilled and semi-skilled blue collar employees were unionized, a breakthrough in an area known for corporations hostile to miners' and textile workers' unions. Women were excluded from construction work.
Many local landowners were suspicious of government agencies, but TVA successfully introduced new agricultural methods into traditional farming communities by blending in and finding local champions. Tennessee farmers often rejected advice from TVA officials, so the officials had to find leaders in the communities and convince them that
crop rotation
and the judicious application of fertilizers could restore soil fertility.
[38]
Once they had convinced the leaders, the rest followed.
[36]
TVA immediately embarked on the construction of several hydroelectric dams, with the first,
Norris Dam
in upper
East Tennessee
, breaking ground on October 1, 1933. These facilities, designed with the intent of also controlling floods, greatly improved the lives of farmers and rural residents, making their lives easier and farms in the Tennessee Valley more productive. They also provided new employment opportunities to the poverty-stricken regions in the Valley. At the same time, however, they required the
displacement
of more than 125,000 valley residents or roughly 15,000 families,
[8]
as well as some cemeteries and small towns, which caused some to oppose the projects, especially in rural areas.
[9]
[39]
The projects also inundated several
Native American
archaeological sites, and graves were reinterred at new locations, along with new tombstones.
The available electricity attracted new industries to the region, including
textile
mills
, providing desperately needed jobs, many of which were filled by women.
[41]
A few regions of the Tennessee Valley did not receive electricity until the late 1940s and early 1950s, however. TVA was one of the first federal
hydropower
agencies, and was quickly hailed as a success. While most of the nation's major hydropower systems are federally managed today, other attempts to create similar regional corporate agencies have failed. The most notable was the proposed Columbia Valley Authority for the
Columbia River
in the
Pacific Northwest
, which was modeled off of TVA, but did not gain approval.
World War II
[
edit
]
In order to provide the power for essential industries during
World War II
, TVA engaged in one of the largest hydropower construction programs ever undertaken in the U.S. This was especially important for the energy-intensive
aluminum
industry, which was used in airplanes and munitions.
By early 1942, when the effort reached its peak, 12 hydroelectric plants and one coal-fired steam plant were under construction at the same time, and design and construction employment reached a total of 28,000. In its first eleven years, TVA constructed a total of 16 hydroelectric dams. During the war, the agency also provided 60% of the elemental
phosphorus
used in munitions, produced maps of approximately 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km
2
) of foreign territory using
aerial reconnaissance
, and provided mobile housing for war workers.
[37]
The largest project of this period was the
Fontana Dam
. After negotiations led by then-Vice President
Harry Truman
, TVA purchased the land from Nantahala Power and Light, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Alcoa
, and built Fontana Dam. Also in 1942, TVA's first coal-fired plant, the 267-megawatt
Watts Bar Steam Plant
, began operation.
[44]
The government originally intended the electricity generated from Fontana to be used by
Alcoa
factories for the war effort. However, the abundance of TVA power was one of the major factors in the decision by the U.S. Army to locate
uranium enrichment
facilities in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
, for the world's first
atomic bombs
.
This was part of an effort codenamed the
Manhattan Project
.
[47]
[48]
Increasing power demand
[
edit
]
By the end of World War II, TVA had completed a 650-mile (1,050 km) navigation channel the length of the Tennessee River and had become the nation's largest electricity supplier.
Even so, the demand for electricity was outstripping TVA's capacity to produce power from
hydroelectric
dams, and so TVA began to construct additional coal-fired plants. Political interference kept TVA from securing additional federal appropriations to do so, so it sought the authority to issue bonds.
Several of TVA's coal-fired plants, including
Johnsonville
,
Widows Creek
,
Shawnee
,
Kingston
,
Gallatin
, and
John Sevier
, began operations in the 1950s.
[51]
In 1955 coal surpassed hydroelectricity as TVA's top generating source.
[52]
On August 6, 1959, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
signed into law an amendment to the TVA act, making the agency self-financing.
[53]
During the 1950s, TVA's generating capacity nearly quadrupled.
[21]
The 1960s were years of further unprecedented economic growth in the Tennessee Valley. Capacity growth during this time slowed, but ultimately increased 56% between 1960 and 1970.
[21]
To handle a projected future increase in electrical consumption, TVA began constructing 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines, the first of which was placed into service on May 15, 1965.
[21]
Electric rates were among the nation's lowest during this time and stayed low as TVA brought larger, more efficient generating units into service. Plants completed during this time included
Paradise
,
Bull Run
, and
Nickajack Dam
.
[21]
Expecting the Valley's electric power needs to continue to grow, TVA began building
nuclear power plants
in 1966 as a new source of power.
[54]
The following year, TVA began work on the construction of
Tellico Dam
, which had been initially conceived in the 1930s and would later become its most controversial project.
[55]
[56]
[57]
Financial problems, Tellico Dam, and restructuring
[
edit
]
During the 1970s significant changes occurred in the economy of the Tennessee Valley and the nation, prompted by energy crises in
1973
and
1979
and accelerating fuel costs throughout the decade. The average cost of electricity in the Tennessee Valley increased fivefold from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. TVA's first nuclear reactor,
Browns Ferry Unit 1
, began commercial operation on August 1, 1974.
[60]
Between 1970 and 1974, TVA set out to construct a total of 17 nuclear reactors, due to a projection of further rapid increase in power demand.
[61]
However, in the 1980s, it became increasingly evident that the agency had vastly overestimated the Valley's future energy needs, and rapid increases in construction costs and new regulations following the
Three Mile Island accident
posed additional obstacles to this undertaking.
[62]
[63]
In 1981, the board voted to defer the
Phipps Bend
plant, as well as to slow down construction on all other projects.
[64]
The
Hartsville
and
Yellow Creek
plants were cancelled in 1984 and
Bellefonte
in 1988.
[61]
Citing safety concerns, all of TVAs five operating nuclear reactors were indefinitely shut down in 1985.
[62]
[65]
Construction of the
Tellico Dam
raised political and environmental concerns, as laws had changed since early development in the valley. Scientists and other researchers had become more aware of the massive environmental effects of the dams and new lakes, and worried about preserving habitats and species. The Tellico Dam project was initially delayed because of
concern over
the
snail darter
, a small
ray-finned fish
which had been discovered in the Little Tennessee River in 1973 and listed as an
endangered species
two years later.
[66]
A lawsuit was filed under the
Endangered Species Act
and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the snail darter in
Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill
in 1978.
[67]
The project's main motive was to support recreational and tourism development, unlike earlier dams constructed by TVA. Land acquired by eminent domain for the Tellico Dam and its reservoir that encountered minimal inundation was sold to private developers for the construction of present-day
Tellico Village
, a
planned retirement community
.
[68]
The inflation crises of the 1970s and early 1980s, combined with the cancellation of several of the planned nuclear plants put the agency in deep financial trouble.
[69]
In an effort to restructure and improve efficiency and financial stability, TVA began shifting towards a more corporate environment in the latter 1980s.
[70]
Marvin Travis Runyon
, a former corporate executive in the
automotive industry
, became chairman of the TVA in January 1988, and pledged to stabilize the agency financially. During his four-year term he worked to reduce management layers, and reduced overhead costs by more than 30%, which required thousands of workers to be laid off and many operations transferred to private contractors. These moves resulted in cumulative savings and efficiency improvements of $1.8 billion (equivalent to $3.51 billion in 2023
[34]
).
[69]
[70]
His tenure also saw three of the agency's five nuclear reactors return to service,
[71]
[72]
and the institution of a rate freeze that continued for ten years.
[73]
Early 1990s to late 2010s
[
edit
]
As the electric-utility industry moved toward restructuring and
deregulation
, TVA began preparing for competition. It cut operating costs by nearly $800 million a year, reduced its workforce by more than half, increased the generating capacity of its plants, and developed a plan to meet the energy needs of the Tennessee Valley through 2020.
[74]
In 1992 work resumed on
Watts Bar Unit 1
, and the reactor began operation in May 1996.
[75]
[76]
This was the last commercial nuclear reactor in the United States to begin operation in the 20th century.
[77]
In 2002, TVA began work to restart
Browns Ferry Unit 1
, the last of TVA's reactors that had been mothballed in 1985. This unit returned to service in 2007. In 2004, TVA implemented recommendations from the Reservoir Operations Study (ROS) on how it operates the Tennessee River system. The following year, the company announced its intention to construct an
Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor
at its Bellefonte site in Alabama, filing the necessary applications in November 2007. This proposal was gradually trimmed over the following years, and essentially voided by 2016.
[63]
[78]
In October 2007, construction resumed on
Watts Bar Unit 2
.
[79]
which began commercial operation in October 2016. Watts Bar Unit 2 was the first new nuclear reactor to enter service in the United States in the 21st century.
[80]
On December 22, 2008, an earthen dike impounding a
coal ash
pond
at TVA's
Kingston Fossil Plant
failed,
releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m
3
) of coal ash slurry
across 300 acres (1.2 km
2
) of land and into two tributaries of the Tennessee River. The spill, of which cleanup was completed in 2015 at a cost of more than $1 billion, was the largest industrial spill in United States history, and considered one of the worst
environmental disasters
of all time.
[81]
[82]
A 2009 report by engineering firm
AECOM
found a number of inadequate design factors of the ash pond were responsible for the spill,
[83]
and in August 2012, TVA was found liable for the disaster by the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
.
[84]
The initial spill resulted in no injuries or deaths, but several of the employees of an engineering firm hired by TVA to clean up the spill developed illnesses, some of which were fatal, and in November 2018, a federal jury ruled that the contractor did not properly inform the workers about the dangers of exposure to coal ash and had failed to provide them with necessary personal protective equipment.
[85]
[81]
In 2009, to gain more access to sustainable, green energy, TVA signed 20-year
power purchase agreements
with Maryland-based CVP Renewable Energy Co. and Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC for electricity generated by wind farms.
[86]
In April 2011, TVA reached an agreement with the
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), four state governments, and three environmental groups to drastically reduce pollution and carbon emissions.
[87]
Under the terms of the agreement, TVA was required to retire at least 18 of its 59 coal-fired units by the end of 2018, and install scrubbers in several others or convert them to make them cleaner, at a cost of $25 billion, by 2021.
[87]
As a result, TVA closed several of its coal-fired power plants in the 2010s, converting some to natural gas. These include John Sevier in 2012, Shawnee Unit 10 in 2014, Widows Creek in 2015, Colbert in 2016, Johnsonville and Paradise Units 1 and 2 in 2017, Allen in 2018, and Paradise Unit 3 in 2020.
[88]
Recent history
[
edit
]
In 2018, TVA opened a new cybersecurity center in its downtown Chattanooga Office Complex. More than 20 Information Technology specialists monitor emails, Twitter feeds and network activity for cybersecurity threats and threats to grid security. Across TVA's digital platform, two billion activities occur each day. The center is staffed 24 hours a day to spot any threats to TVA's 16,000 miles of transmission lines.
[90]
Given continued economic pressure on the coal industry, the TVA board defied President
Donald Trump
and voted in February 2019 to close two aging coal plants, Paradise Unit 3 and Bull Run. TVA chief executive
Bill Johnson
said the decision was not about coal, per se, but rather "about keeping rates as low as feasible". They stated that decommissioning the two plants would reduce its carbon output by about 4.4% annually.
[91]
TVA announced in April 2021 plans to completely phase out coal power by 2035.
[92]
The following month, the board voted to consider replacing almost all of their operating coal facilities with combined-cycle gas plants. Such plants considered for gas plant redevelopment include the Cumberland, Gallatin, Shawnee, and Kingston facilities.
[93]
In early February 2020, TVA awarded an outside company,
Framatome
, several multi-million-dollar contracts for work across the company's nuclear reactor fleet.
[94]
This includes fuel for the
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant
, fuel handling equipment upgrades across the fleet and
steam generator
replacements at the
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
. Framatome will provide its state-of-the-art ATRIUM 11 fuel for the three
boiling water reactors
at
Browns Ferry
. This contract makes TVA the third U.S. utility to switch to the ATRIUM 11 fuel design.
[94]
On August 3, 2020, President Trump fired the TVA chairman and another board member, saying they were overpaid and had
outsourced
200 high-tech jobs. The move came after U.S. Tech Workers, a nonprofit that works to limit visas given to foreign technology workers, criticized the TVA for laying off its own workers and replacing them with contractors using foreign workers with
H-1B visas
.
[95]
Citing its aspiration to reach net-zero carbon emissions in 2050, the TVA Board voted to approve an advanced approach of nuclear energy technology with an estimated $200 million investment, known as the New Nuclear Program (NNP) in February 2022. This would promote the construction of new nuclear power facilities, particularly
small modular reactors
, with the first facility being constructed in partnership with
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
at the
Clinch River Nuclear Site
in
Oak Ridge
.
[89]
[96]
On December 23, 2022, TVA had several hours of
rolling blackouts
due to the
late December 2022 North American winter storm
.
[97]
As many as 24,000
Nashville Electric Service
customers were without power, with thousands more from smaller distributors affected as well.
[98]
[99]
Criticism and controversies
[
edit
]
Allegations of federal government overreach
[
edit
]
TVA was heralded by
New Dealers
and the
New Deal Coalition
not only as a successful economic development program for a depressed area but also as a democratic nation-building effort overseas because of its alleged
grassroots
inclusiveness as articulated by director
David E. Lilienthal
. However, the TVA was controversial early on, as some believed its creation was an overreach by the federal government.
Supporters of TVA note that the agency's management of the Tennessee River system without appropriated federal funding saves federal taxpayers millions of dollars annually. Opponents, such as Dean Russell in
The TVA Idea,
in addition to condemning the project as being
socialistic
, argued that TVA created a "hidden loss" by preventing the creation of "factories and jobs that would have come into existence if the government had allowed the taxpayers to spend their money as they wished".
Defenders note that TVA remains overwhelmingly popular in Tennessee among
conservatives
and
liberals
alike.
[101]
Business historian
Thomas McCraw
concludes that Roosevelt "rescued the [power] industry from its own abuses" but "he might have done this much with a great deal less agitation and ill will".
[102]
New Dealers hoped to build numerous other federal utility corporations around the country but were defeated by lobbyist and
1940
Republican
presidential nominee
Wendell Willkie
and the
conservative coalition
in Congress. The valley authority model did not replace the limited-purpose water programs of the
Bureau of Reclamation
and the
Army Corps of Engineers
.
However, it has been shown that in river policy, the strength of opposing interest groups also mattered.
[103]
The TVA bill was able to attain passage because reformers like Norris skillfully coordinated action at potential choke points and weakened the already disorganized opponents among the electric power industry lobbyists.
[29]
In 1936, after regrouping, opposing river lobbyists and members of congress who were part of the conservative coalition took advantage of the New Dealers' spending mood by expanding the Army Corps' flood control program. They also helped defeat further valley authorities, the most promising of the New Deal water policy reforms.
[103]
When
Democrats
after 1945 began proclaiming the Tennessee Valley Authority as a model for countries in the
developing world
to follow, conservative critics charged that it was a top-heavy, centralized,
technocratic
venture that displaced locals and did so in insensitive ways. Thus, when the program was used as the basis for modernization programs in various parts of the third world during the
Cold War
, such as in the
Mekong Delta
in
Vietnam
, its failure brought a backlash of cynicism toward modernization programs that has persisted.
[6]
In 1953, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
referred to the TVA as an example of "creeping socialism".
[104]
[105]
The following year, then-film actor and later 40th President
Ronald Reagan
began hosting
General Electric Theater
, which was sponsored by
General Electric
(GE). He was fired in 1962 after publicly referring to the TVA, which was a major customer for GE turbines, as one of the problems of "big government".
[106]
Some claim that Reagan was instead fired due to a criminal antitrust investigation involving him and the
Screen Actors Guild
.
[107]
However, Reagan was only interviewed; nobody was actually charged with anything in the investigation.
[108]
[109]
In 1963, U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate
Barry Goldwater
was quoted in a
Saturday Evening Post
article by
Stewart Alsop
as saying, "You know, I think we ought to sell TVA." He had called for the sale to private companies of particular parts of the Authority, including its fertilizer production and steam-generation facilities, because "it would be better operated and would be of more benefit for more people if it were part of private industry."
[110]
Goldwater's quotation was used against him in a TV ad by
Doyle Dane Bernbach
for then-President
Lyndon B. Johnson
's
1964 campaign
, which depicted an auction taking place atop a dam and promised that Johnson would not sell TVA.
[111]
Legal challenges
[
edit
]
The TVA has faced multiple constitutional challenges. The
United States Supreme Court
ruled TVA to be constitutional in
Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority
(297 U.S. 288) in 1936.
[112]
The Court noted that
regulating commerce among the states
includes regulation of streams and that controlling floods is required for keeping streams navigable; it also upheld the constitutionality of the TVA under the
War Powers Clause
, seeing its activities as a means of assuring the electric supply for the manufacture of munitions in the event of war.
[113]
The argument before the court was that electricity generation was a by-product of navigation and flood control and therefore could be considered constitutional. The CEO of the
Tennessee Electric Power Company
(TEPCO),
Jo Conn Guild
, was vehemently opposed to the creation of TVA, and with the help of attorney
Wendell Willkie
, challenged the constitutionality of the TVA Act in federal court. The
U.S. Supreme Court
again upheld the TVA Act, however, in its 1939 decision
Tennessee Electric Power Company v. TVA
. On August 16, 1939, TEPCO was forced to sell its assets, including
Hales Bar Dam
, Ocoee Dams
1
and
2
,
Blue Ridge Dam
and
Great Falls Dam
to TVA for $78 million (equivalent to $1.34 billion in 2023
[34]
).
[114]
Discrimination
[
edit
]
In 1981 the TVA Board of Directors broke with previous tradition and took a hard line against white-collar unions during contract negotiations. As a result, a
class action suit
was filed in 1984 in U.S. District Court charging the agency with sex discrimination under
Title VII
of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
based on the large number of women in one of the pay grades negatively impacted by the new contract.
[115]
TVA reached an out-of-court settlement in 1987, in which they agreed to contract modifications and paid the group $5 million (equivalent to $11.5 million in 2023
[34]
), but denied wrongdoing.
[116]
Eminent domain and resident removal
[
edit
]
The historically significant town of
Bean Station, Tennessee
was among the largest of communities inundated by the TVA with nearly 90% of its population removed by eminent domain or federal lawsuits for the construction of
Cherokee Dam
.
[117]
TVA has received criticism throughout its entire history for what some have perceived as excessive use of its authority of
eminent domain
and an unwillingness to compromise with landowners. All of TVA's hydroelectric projects were made possible through the use of eminent domain,
[118]
[119]
and displaced more than 125,000 Tennessee Valley residents.
[8]
Residents who initially refused to sell their land were often forced to do so via
court orders
and lawsuits.
[120]
[118]
Many of these projects also inundated historic
Native American
sites and early
Colonial
-era settlements.
[121]
[122]
[123]
Historians have claimed that the TVA forced residents to sell their property at values less than the
fair market value
, and indirectly destabilized the real estate market for farmland.
[39]
Some displaced residents committed suicide, unable to bear the events.
[9]
On some occasions, land that TVA had acquired through eminent domain that was expected to be flooded by reservoirs was not flooded, and was instead given away to private developers.
[124]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
The 1960 film
Wild River
, directed by
Elia Kazan
, tells the story about a family forced to relocate from their land, which has been owned by their ancestors for generations, after TVA plans to construct a dam which will flood it. While fictional, the film depicts the real-life experiences of many people forced to give up their land to TVA to make way for hydroelectric projects, and was mostly inspired by the removal of families for the Norris Dam project.
[39]
[125]
The 1970
James Dickey
novel
Deliverance
and its 1972
film adaptation
focuses on four
Atlanta
businessmen taking a canoeing trip down a river that is being impounded by an electric utility, nodding to the TVA's early and controversial hydroelectric projects.
[126]
The 1984
Mark Rydell
film
The River
focuses on an
East Tennessee
family being confronted by the loss of their ancestral farm from the inundation of a nearby river by an electric utility. The film, shot on farmland near the
Holston River
in
Hawkins County
, utilized flooding practical effects provided by the TVA.
[127]
In the 2000 film
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
, the family home of the protagonist, played by
George Clooney
, is flooded by a reservoir constructed by the TVA. This plays a central role in the pacing of the film and the broader Depression-era Mississippi context of the narrative.
[128]
"
Song of the South
" by
country
and
Southern rock
band
Alabama
features the lyrics "Papa got a job with the TVA" following the lyrics "Well momma got sick and daddy got down, The county got the farm and they moved to town" expressing the hardships and changes that southerners faced during the post recession era.
[129]
The TVA and its impact on the region are featured in the
Drive-By Truckers
' songs "TVA" and "Uncle Frank". In "TVA", the singer reflects on time spent with family members and a girlfriend at
Wilson Dam
. In "Uncle Frank", the lyrics tell the story of an unnamed hydroelectric dam being built, and the effects on the community that would become flooded upon its completion. In 2012,
Jason Isbell
released a solo cover of "TVA".
[130]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
When their terms expire, directors may remain on the board until the end of the current congressional session (typically in December) or until their successors take office, whichever comes first.
References
[
edit
]
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a
b
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.
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ISSN
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Bibliography
[
edit
]
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External links
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