 Logo of the TVA  Flag of the TVA | |
 .jpg)  From top down and left to right: TVA's twin tower administrative headquarters inKnoxville, TVA's power operations headquarters inChattanooga, and a map of TVA's service area and facilities | |
| Company type | State-owned enterprise |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electric utility |
| Founded | May 18, 1933 (1933-05-18) |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Knoxville, Tennessee,U.S. |
Key people | |
| Revenue |  US$12.05 billion (2023) |
| US$0.5 billion (2023) | |
| Owner | Federal government of the United States |
| Website | tva.com |
TheTennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is afederally-ownedelectric utilitycorporation in theUnited States. TVA's service area covers all ofTennessee, portions ofAlabama,Mississippi, andKentucky, and small areas ofGeorgia,North Carolina, andVirginia. While owned by thefederal government, TVA receives no taxpayer funding and operates similarly to a private for-profit company. It is headquartered inKnoxville, Tennessee, and is the sixth-largest power supplier and largest public utility in the country.[1][2]
The TVA was created byCongress in 1933 as part of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal. Its initial purpose was to providenavigation,flood control,electricity generation,fertilizer manufacturing,regional planning, andeconomic development to theTennessee Valley, a region that had suffered from lack of infrastructure and even more extensive poverty during theGreat 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.[3] It was the first large regional planning agency of the U.S. federal government, and remains the largest.
Under the leadership ofDavid E. Lilienthal, the TVA also became the global model for the United States' later efforts to help modernizeagrarian societies in thedeveloping world.[4][5] 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 ofeminent domain and thedisplacement of over 125,000 Tennessee Valley residents to build the agency's infrastructure projects.[6][7][8]
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a government-ownedcorporation created byU.S. Code Title 16, Chapter 12A, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933. It was initially founded as an agency to provide generaleconomic 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.[9] The TVA Act authorizes the company to useeminent domain.[10]
TVA provides electricity to approximately ten million people through a diverse portfolio that includesnuclear,coal-fired,natural gas-fired,hydroelectric, andrenewable generation. TVA sells its power to 153 local power utilities, 58 direct-serve industrial and institutional customers, 7 federal installations, and 12 area utilities.[11] 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.[9]
TVA's headquarters are located inDowntown Knoxville, with large administrative offices inChattanooga (training/development; supplier relations; power generation and transmission) andNashville (economic development) in Tennessee andMuscle Shoals, Alabama. TVA's headquarters were housed in theOld 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 theNational Register of Historic Places.[12]
The Tennessee Valley Authority Police is the primarylaw enforcement agency for the company. Initially part of the TVA, in 1994 the TVA Police was authorized as afederal law enforcement agency.[citation needed]
The Tennessee Valley Authority is governed by a nine-member part-time board of directors, nominated by thepresident of the United States and confirmed by theSenate.[13] 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'schief executive officer.[14] 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.[9]
The current board members as of June 10, 2025[update]:
| Position | Name | State | Appointed by | Sworn in | Term expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | William J. Renick | Mississippi | Joe Biden | January 4, 2023 | May 18, 2027 |
| Member | Robert P. Klein | Tennessee | Joe Biden | January 4, 2023 | May 18, 2026 |
| Member | Adam Wade White | Georgia | Joe Biden | January 4, 2023 | May 18, 2027 |
| Member | Vacant | May 18, 2025 | |||
| Member | Vacant | May 18, 2026 | |||
| Member | Vacant | May 18, 2027 | |||
| Member | Vacant | May 18, 2028 | |||
| Member | Vacant | May 18, 2029 | |||
| Member | Vacant | May 18, 2029 |
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 largestnuclear power fleet, with seven units at threesites.[1][15] In addition, it also operates fourcoal-fired power plants, 29hydroelectric dams, nine simple-cyclenatural gascombustion turbine plants, ninecombined cycle gas plants, 1pumped storage hydroelectric plant, 1wind energy site, and 14solar energy sites.[16] 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%.[16] 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.[17] The cost of Purchased Power is part of the "Fuel Cost Adjustment" (FCA) charge that is separate from the TVA Rate. In addition, theWatts Bar Nuclear Plant is the only facility in the country to industrially producetritium, which is used by theNational Nuclear Security Administration fornuclear weapons, where it is used to supercharge and boost the explosive yield of theU.S. nuclear arsenal.[18]
TVA owns and operates its ownelectric 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 theEastern Interconnection of theNorth American power transmission grid, and is under the jurisdiction of theSERC Reliability Corporation.[19] Like most North American utilities, TVA uses a maximum transmission voltage of 500 kilovolts (kV), with lines carrying this voltage usingbundled 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 toSouthern Company lines of the same voltage.[20][21]
TVA has conveyed approximately 485,420 acres (1,964.4 km2) 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.[22]
Currently, TVA manages approximately 293,000 acres (1,190 km2) 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.[23][24]
TVA operates aneconomic 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.[25] A total of seven sites throughout the Valley are certified by TVA asmegasites, which contain a minimum of 1,000 acres (4.0 km2), and have access to anInterstate Highway and the potential for rail service, and environmental impact study, and contain or have the potential to contain direct-serve industrial customers.[26]
Although Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union was not directly affiliated with the Tennessee Valley Authority, it was established in 1934 as one of the Authority’s earliest economic efforts.[citation needed]
In the late 19th century, theArmy Corps of Engineers first recognized a number of potential dam sites along the Tennessee River for electricity generation and navigation improvements.[27] TheNational Defense Act of 1916, signed into law by PresidentWoodrow Wilson, authorized the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River inMuscle Shoals, Alabama, for the purpose of producing nitrates for ammunition; that dam was completed in 1924. During the 1920s and the 1930s, Americans began to support the idea ofpublic 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.[28] 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 thePublic Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA).[29]
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. SenatorGeorge W. Norris ofNebraska also distrusted private utility companies, and in 1920 blocked a proposal from industrialistHenry Ford to build a private dam and create a utility to modernize the Tennessee Valley.[30] In 1930, Norris sponsored theMuscle Shoals Bill, which would have built a federal dam in the valley, but it was vetoed by PresidentHerbert Hoover, who believed it to besocialistic.[31]
The idea behind the Muscle Shoals project became a core part of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal program that created the Tennessee Valley Authority.[32]
Even by Depression standards, the Tennessee Valley was in dire economic straits in 1933. Thirty percent of the population was affected bymalaria. The average income in the rural areas was $639 per year (equivalent to $12,260 in 2024),[33] with some families surviving on as little as $100 per year (equivalent to $1,919 in 2024).[33]
Much of the land had been exhausted by poor farming practices, and the soil waseroded 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.[28]
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PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt signed theTennessee Valley Authority Act (ch. 32,Pub. L. 73–17, 48 Stat. 58, enactedMay 18, 1933, codified as amended at16 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 andeconomic problems.[34] TVA developed fertilizers, and taught farmers ways to improve crop yields.[35] In addition, it helped replant forests, controlforest fires, and improve habitats for fish and wildlife.
The Authority hired many of the area's unemployed for a variety of jobs: they conductedconservation,economic development, andsocial programs. For instance, alibrary 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.[36] The workers were classified by the usual racial and gender lines of the region, which limited opportunities for minorities and women. TVA hired a fewAfrican Americans, generally restricted for janitorial or other low-level positions. TVA recognizedlabor 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. With the goal of providing further economic relief to TVA employees, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union was formed. In 1934, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union established a place for TVA employees to store their money when the Great Depression shuttered many traditional banks.
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 thatcrop rotation and the judicious application of fertilizers could restore soil fertility.[37] Once they had convinced the leaders, the rest followed.[35]
TVA immediately embarked on the construction of several hydroelectric dams, with the first,Norris Dam in upperEast 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 thedisplacement of more than 125,000 valley residents or roughly 15,000 families,[6] as well as some cemeteries and small towns, which caused some to oppose the projects, especially in rural areas.[7][38] The projects also inundated severalNative American archaeological sites, and graves were reinterred at new locations, along with new tombstones.[39][40]
The available electricity attracted new industries to the region, includingtextilemills, providing desperately needed jobs, many of which were filled by women.[3][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 federalhydropower 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 theColumbia River in thePacific Northwest, which was modeled on the TVA, but did not gain approval.[42]
In order to provide the power for essential industries duringWorld 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-intensivealuminum industry, which was used in airplanes and munitions.[43] 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 elementalphosphorus used in munitions, produced maps of approximately 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2) of foreign territory usingaerial reconnaissance, and provided mobile housing for war workers.[36]
The largest project of this period was theFontana Dam. After negotiations led by then-Vice PresidentHarry Truman, TVA purchased the land from Nantahala Power and Light, a wholly owned subsidiary ofAlcoa, and built Fontana Dam. Also in 1942, TVA's first coal-fired plant, the 267-megawattWatts Bar Steam Plant, began operation.[44] The government originally intended the electricity generated from Fontana to be used byAlcoa 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 locateuranium enrichment facilities inOak Ridge, Tennessee, for the world's firstatomic bombs.[45][46] This was part of an effort codenamed theManhattan Project.[47][48]
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.[49] Even so, the demand for electricity was outstripping TVA's capacity to produce power fromhydroelectric 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.[50] Several of TVA's coal-fired plants, includingJohnsonville,Widows Creek,Shawnee,Kingston,Gallatin, andJohn Sevier, began operations in the 1950s.[51] In 1955 coal surpassed hydroelectricity as TVA's top generating source.[52] On August 6, 1959, PresidentDwight 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.[20]
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.[20] 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.[20] 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 includedParadise,Bull Run, andNickajack Dam.[20] Expecting the Valley's electric power needs to continue to grow, TVA began buildingnuclear power plants in 1966 as a new source of power.[54] The following year, TVA began work on the construction ofTellico Dam, which had been initially conceived in the 1930s and would later become its most controversial project.[55][56][57]
During the 1970s significant changes occurred in the economy of the Tennessee Valley and the nation, prompted by energy crises in1973 and1979 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 theThree Mile Island accident posed additional obstacles to this undertaking.[62][63] In 1981, the board voted to defer thePhipps Bend plant, as well as to slow down construction on all other projects.[64] TheHartsville andYellow Creek plants were cancelled in 1984 andBellefonte in 1988.[61] Citing safety concerns, all of TVAs five operating nuclear reactors were indefinitely shut down in 1985 with the two at Sequoyah coming back online three years later and Browns Ferry's three reactors coming back online in 1991, 1995 and 2007.[62][65]
Construction of theTellico 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 ofconcern over thesnail darter, a smallray-finned fish which had been discovered in the Little Tennessee River in 1973 and listed as anendangered species two years later.[66] A lawsuit was filed under theEndangered Species Act and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the snail darter inTennessee 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-dayTellico Village, aplanned 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 theautomotive 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 $3.6 billion in 2024[33]).[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]
As the electric-utility industry moved toward restructuring andderegulation, 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 onWatts 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 restartBrowns 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 anAdvanced 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 onWatts 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 acoal ashpond at TVA'sKingston Fossil Plant failed,releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal ash slurry across 300 acres (1.2 km2) 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 worstenvironmental disasters of all time.[81][82] A 2009 report by engineering firmAECOM 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 theU.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,[40] 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-yearpower 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 theEnvironmental 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]
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 PresidentDonald Trump and voted in February 2019 to close two aging coal plants, Paradise Unit 3 and Bull Run. TVA chief executiveBill 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 theBrowns Ferry Nuclear Plant, fuel handling equipment upgrades across the fleet andsteam generator replacements at theWatts Bar Nuclear Plant. Framatome will provide its state-of-the-art ATRIUM 11 fuel for the threeboiling water reactors atBrowns 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 hadoutsourced 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 withH-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, particularlysmall modular reactors, with the first facility being constructed in partnership withOak Ridge National Laboratory at theClinch River Nuclear Site inOak Ridge.[89][96]
On December 23, 2022, TVA had several hours ofrolling blackouts due to thelate December 2022 North American winter storm.[97] As many as 24,000Nashville Electric Service customers were without power, with thousands more from smaller distributors affected as well.[98][99]
TVA was heralded byNew Dealers and theNew 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 allegedgrassroots inclusiveness as articulated by directorDavid 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 inThe TVA Idea, in addition to condemning the project as beingsocialistic, 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".[100] Defenders note that TVA remains overwhelmingly popular in Tennessee amongconservatives andliberals alike.[101]Business historianThomas 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 and1940Republican presidential nomineeWendell Willkie and theconservative coalition in Congress. The valley authority model did not replace the limited-purpose water programs of theBureau of Reclamation and theArmy 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.[28] 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] WhenDemocrats after 1945 began proclaiming the Tennessee Valley Authority as a model for countries in thedeveloping 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 theCold War, such as in theMekong Delta inVietnam, its failure brought a backlash of cynicism toward modernization programs that has persisted.[4]
In 1953, PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower referred to the TVA as an example of "creeping socialism".[104][105] The following year, then-film actor and later 40th PresidentRonald Reagan began hostingGeneral Electric Theater, which was sponsored byGeneral 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 theScreen 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 candidateBarry Goldwater was quoted in aSaturday Evening Post article byStewart 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 byDoyle Dane Bernbach for then-PresidentLyndon B. Johnson's1964 campaign, which depicted an auction taking place atop a dam and promised that Johnson would not sell TVA.[111]
The TVA has faced multiple constitutional challenges. TheUnited States Supreme Court ruled TVA to be constitutional inAshwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority (297 U.S. 288) in 1936.[112] The Court noted thatregulating 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 theWar 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 theTennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCO),Jo Conn Guild, was vehemently opposed to the creation of TVA, and with the help of attorneyWendell Willkie, challenged the constitutionality of the TVA Act in federal court. TheU.S. Supreme Court again upheld the TVA Act, however, in its 1939 decisionTennessee Electric Power Company v. TVA. On August 16, 1939, TEPCO was forced to sell its assets, includingHales Bar Dam, Ocoee Dams1 and2,Blue Ridge Dam andGreat Falls Dam to TVA for $78 million (equivalent to $1.38 billion in 2024[33]).[114]
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, aclass action suit was filed in 1984 in U.S. District Court charging the agency with sex discrimination underTitle VII of theCivil 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 $11.8 million in 2024[33]), but denied wrongdoing.[116]
The TVA has received criticism throughout its entire history for what some have perceived as excessive use of its authority ofeminent domain and an unwillingness to compromise with landowners. All of the TVA's hydroelectric projects were made possible through the use of eminent domain,[118][119] and displaced more than 125,000 Tennessee Valley residents.[6] Residents who initially refused to sell their land were often forced to do so viacourt orders and lawsuits.[120][118] Many of these projects also inundated historicNative American sites and earlyColonial-era settlements.[121][122][123] Historians have claimed that the TVA forced residents to sell their property at values less than thefair market value, and indirectly destabilized the real estate market for farmland.[38] Some displaced residents committed suicide, unable to bear the events.[7] On some occasions, land that the 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]
The TVA CEO Jeff Lyash’s total compensation of $10,500,000 in 2024 has generated much criticism.[125][126]
Comic book writer and artistWalt Simonson attributed the TVA to his naming of theTime Variance Authority, a fictional organization in theMarvel Comics in the 1980s' run ofThe Mighty Thor comic book series, and inMarvel Studios'Marvel Cinematic Universe in the television seriesLoki and the 2024 filmDeadpool & Wolverine. Simonson, who was born and briefly lived in Knoxville, cited stories by his father who worked for the TVA as a soil scientist about their role in economic development of the Tennessee Valley region, citing them as an inspiration for the fictional organization.[127]
The 1960 filmWild River, directed byElia 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.[38][128]
The 1970James Dickey novelDeliverance and its 1972film adaptation focuses on fourAtlanta 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.[129] The 1984Mark Rydell filmThe River focuses on anEast 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 theHolston River inHawkins County, utilized flooding practical effects provided by the TVA.[130] In the 2000 filmO Brother, Where Art Thou?, the family home of the protagonist, played byGeorge 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.[131]
"Song of the South" bycountry andSouthern rock bandAlabama 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.[132] The TVA and its impact on the region are featured in theDrive-By Truckers' songs "TVA" and "Uncle Frank". In "TVA", the singer reflects on time spent with family members and a girlfriend atWilson 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".[133]
Over the past fifty years the agency has had many opportunities to learn from its mistakes. Since 1933, over 125,000 residents have been displaced from their homesteads by TVA dam construction projects.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)In 1962, GE, concerned that Reagan's conservative politics made him a liability, fired him for criticizing the Tennessee Valley Authority as an example of 'big government.'
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