(The editorialists write "That a Democratic president would consider selling off one of the enduring legacies of a president beloved by Democrats, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is stunning." It's a little less stunning when you recall that Obama also proposes cuts for Social Security, another valuable public inheritance from the FDR administration & Democratic Congress. -- Scott McLarty, Green Party Media Coordinator)
Editorial: Privatizing TVA bad idea for region and whole nation
By NEWS SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD (Knoxville, Tennessee)
President Barack Obama on Wednesday released his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for the next fiscal year, prompting criticism from both the left and the right. And some head-scratching in the seven states served by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Obama administration plans to conduct a “strategic review” of TVA to determine whether all or part of the federal corporation should be sold to the private sector. The proposal is part of the administration’s Creating a 21st Century Government initiative, which focuses on cutting waste, streamlining agencies and other reforms.
We do not need a strategic review to know the privatization of TVA — which is more than just a utility — is not in the best interests of its 9 million customers or the American public as a whole. This is not the first time a privatization proposal has been floated, and it is still bad idea.
Congress created TVA as a government-owned corporation in 1933 as part of the New Deal. That a Democratic president would consider selling off one of the enduring legacies of a president beloved by Democrats, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is stunning.
TVA has a five-fold mission: to provide affordable electricity, economic and agricultural development, environmental stewardship, river system management and technological innovation. And it does all that without costing taxpayers a penny because all its revenues come from energy sales.
TVA is best known as a utility, operating 11 coal-fired power plants, three nuclear plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, a pumped-storage facility and a wind farm.
But TVA does so much more.
Low utility rates help attract businesses to the region, but TVA also is active in ways that private utilities are not. TVA runs an industrial megasite development program, loan funds to support economic expansion, business incubators and more. TVA’s economic development mission, one of the reasons it was established, is incomplete. Tennessee ranks among the lowest states in terms of its gross domestic product, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Mississippi is dead last, with Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky doing only a little better.
Without TVA as a leading economic development agency, the region would be doing even worse. TVA claims its economic development efforts have helped to create or retain more than 300,000 jobs and $32 billion in business investment in the region just since 2005.
Over the years, TVA has had its share of environmental setbacks, most notably the Kingston coal ash spill in 2008. But TVA is installing pollution controls on aging power plants and is changing the storage method for coal ash. TVA also has a robust green power initiative and energy efficiency programs.
The management of the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries is an important TVA function that a private power company would not perform. TVA operates 49 dams with flood control, navigation and water quality in mind, balancing commercial water traffic, recreation and power generation needs.
TVA also is a laboratory for new technologies. The corporation has an agreement to develop modular nuclear reactors, which promise to provide the next generation of atomic power production. Integrating electric vehicle charging stations into the power network and using smart grid technologies benefit customers as well as the environment.
TVA has made mistakes over the years, as any organization will do over eight decades, but in general has helped improve the quality of life throughout the region. Residents of the Tennessee Valley would be poorer, literally and figuratively, without it. TVA might turn 80 years old this year, but it has not outlived its usefulness.
The Obama administration should focus its energies on improving other portions of the bureaucracy in its Creating a 21st Century Government initiative and let TVA continue to serve this region in the future.
© 2013, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Editorial: Privatizing TVA bad idea for region and whole nation
By NEWS SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD (Knoxville, Tennessee)
President Barack Obama on Wednesday released his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for the next fiscal year, prompting criticism from both the left and the right. And some head-scratching in the seven states served by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Obama administration plans to conduct a “strategic review” of TVA to determine whether all or part of the federal corporation should be sold to the private sector. The proposal is part of the administration’s Creating a 21st Century Government initiative, which focuses on cutting waste, streamlining agencies and other reforms.
We do not need a strategic review to know the privatization of TVA — which is more than just a utility — is not in the best interests of its 9 million customers or the American public as a whole. This is not the first time a privatization proposal has been floated, and it is still bad idea.
Congress created TVA as a government-owned corporation in 1933 as part of the New Deal. That a Democratic president would consider selling off one of the enduring legacies of a president beloved by Democrats, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is stunning.
TVA has a five-fold mission: to provide affordable electricity, economic and agricultural development, environmental stewardship, river system management and technological innovation. And it does all that without costing taxpayers a penny because all its revenues come from energy sales.
TVA is best known as a utility, operating 11 coal-fired power plants, three nuclear plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, a pumped-storage facility and a wind farm.
But TVA does so much more.
Low utility rates help attract businesses to the region, but TVA also is active in ways that private utilities are not. TVA runs an industrial megasite development program, loan funds to support economic expansion, business incubators and more. TVA’s economic development mission, one of the reasons it was established, is incomplete. Tennessee ranks among the lowest states in terms of its gross domestic product, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Mississippi is dead last, with Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky doing only a little better.
Without TVA as a leading economic development agency, the region would be doing even worse. TVA claims its economic development efforts have helped to create or retain more than 300,000 jobs and $32 billion in business investment in the region just since 2005.
Over the years, TVA has had its share of environmental setbacks, most notably the Kingston coal ash spill in 2008. But TVA is installing pollution controls on aging power plants and is changing the storage method for coal ash. TVA also has a robust green power initiative and energy efficiency programs.
The management of the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries is an important TVA function that a private power company would not perform. TVA operates 49 dams with flood control, navigation and water quality in mind, balancing commercial water traffic, recreation and power generation needs.
TVA also is a laboratory for new technologies. The corporation has an agreement to develop modular nuclear reactors, which promise to provide the next generation of atomic power production. Integrating electric vehicle charging stations into the power network and using smart grid technologies benefit customers as well as the environment.
TVA has made mistakes over the years, as any organization will do over eight decades, but in general has helped improve the quality of life throughout the region. Residents of the Tennessee Valley would be poorer, literally and figuratively, without it. TVA might turn 80 years old this year, but it has not outlived its usefulness.
The Obama administration should focus its energies on improving other portions of the bureaucracy in its Creating a 21st Century Government initiative and let TVA continue to serve this region in the future.
© 2013, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
