Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a New Deal agency created to generate electric power and control floods in a seven-U.S.-state region around the Tennessee River Valley. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act creating the TVA on May 18, 1933. The agency still exists.

Related Topics:
New Deal - Agency - Electric power - Flood - U.S. - Tennessee River - Franklin D. Roosevelt - May 18 - 1933

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The Authority, whose headquarters lies in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a government-owned corporation that competes with private power companies. There is some controversy surrounding the TVA, as government-owned means of production is a statist concept. Controversy has been a feature of the TVA since its inception.

Related Topics:
Knoxville, Tennessee - Statist

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During the 1920s and the Great Depression years the public of the USA became disenchanted with privately owned power and began to support the concept of Government ownership of utilities, particularly hydroelectric power facilities.

Related Topics:
1920s - Great Depression - Power - Utilities - Hydroelectric

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The concept of Government owned generation facilities selling to publicly owned distribution utilities was a controversial political issue.

Related Topics:
Generation - Distribution

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Many believed that the privately owned power companies did not employ fair operating practices and were subject to abuse by their owners, utility holding companies, at the expense of consumers.

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By forming utility holding companies, the private sector controlled 94% of generation by 1921, and was in fact, unregulated because the States could not regulate interstate holding companies. (This situation gave rise to Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA)).

Related Topics:
1921 - Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935

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On the other hand there were many who believed that the Government should not enter the electricity generation business because they believed the Government was exploiting hydroelectric sites.

Related Topics:
Electricity generation - Hydroelectric

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In the years following the Great Depression, the US Congress took steps to alleviate the plight of the farmers and the unemployed and one of those steps was the development of Federally owned power. One of the major schemes was established on the Tennessee River under the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933. Under this law the Federal Government provided electric power to States, counties, municipalities and nonprofit cooperatives. It was a part of the Federal initiatives to provide navigation, flood control, strategic materials for national defense, electric power, relief of unemployment and improvement of living conditions in rural areas. The TVA was more than just a power supplier.

Related Topics:
US Congress - Federal Government - Cooperatives - Navigation - Flood control

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In its power supply role it was given authority to enter into long term (20 years) contracts for the sale of power to government agencies and private entities. It can also construct electric power transmission lines to areas not otherwise supplied and establish rules and regulations for electricity retailing and distribution. The TVA is both supplier and regulator.

Related Topics:
Electric power transmission - Electricity retailing - Distribution - Regulator

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