of the tva flag of the tva tva towers tva s headquarters in downtown knoxville overlooking the tennessee river type government owned independent corporation industry electric utility founded may 18 1933 headquarters knoxville tennessee u.s. key people bill johnson ceo revenue 11.56 billion usd fy 2013 ending september 30 2013 operating income 1.453 billion usd fy 2013 net income 271 million usd fy 2013 website tva.gov the tennessee valley authority tva is a federally owned corporation in the united states created by congressional charter on may 18 1933 to provide navigation flood control electricity generation fertilizer manufacturing and economic development to the tennessee valley a region particularly affected by the great depression . the enterprise was a result of the efforts of senator george w. norris of nebraska . tva was envisioned not only as a provider but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region s economy and society . t.v.a. s service area covers most of tennessee portions of alabama mississippi and kentucky and small slices of georgia north carolina and virginia . it was the first large regional planning agency of the federal government and remains the largest . under the leadership of david lilienthal mr. t.v.a. t.v.a. became a model for america s governmental efforts to seek in assisting the modernization of agrarian societies in the developing world . 1 contents 1 overview 2 history 2.1 muscle shoals controversy 1920 1932 2.2 1930s 2.3 employment policy 2.4 1940s 2.5 1950s 2.6 1960s 2.7 1970s and 1980s 2.8 1990s 2.9 2000s 3 facilities 3.1 dams and hydroelectric facilities 3.2 fossil fuel plants 3.3 nuclear power plants 3.4 joint facilities 3.5 renewable generation 3.6 electric transmission 3.7 administration 3.8 recreation 4 criticism 5 see also 6 references 7 bibliography 8 external links overview edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message tva electricity sign at franklin d. roosevelt presidential library and museum in hyde park new york president franklin delano roosevelt signed the tennessee valley authority act ch . 32 48 stat . 58 codified as amended at 16 u.s.c. 831 et seq. creating the tva . president franklin d. roosevelt signs the tva act during the 1920s and the great depression years americans began to support the idea of public ownership of utilities particularly hydroelectric power facilities . the concept of government owned generation facilities selling to publicly owned distribution utilities was controversial and remains so today . 2 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 . during his presidential campaign roosevelt claimed 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 . by forming utility holding companies the private sector controlled 94 percent of generation by 1921 essentially unregulated . this gave rise to the public utility holding company act of 1935 p.u.h.c.a. . many private companies in the tennessee valley were bought by the federal government . others shut down unable to compete with the t.v.a. government regulations were also passed to prevent competition with t.v.a. on the other hand there were economic libertarians who believed the government should not participate in the electricity generation business fearing government ownership would lead to the misuse of hydroelectric sites citation needed dubious discuss . t.v.a. was one of the first federal hydropower agencies and today most of the nation s major hydropower systems are federally managed . other attempts to create t.v.a. like regional agencies have failed such as a proposed columbia valley authority for the columbia river in the pacific northwest . wilson dam completed in 1924 was the first dam under the authority of tva created in 1933 . regional power consumers may benefit from lower cost electricity supplied from t.v.a. s network of 29 power producing hydropower facilities . supporters of tva though 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 socialist 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 is overwhelmingly popular in tennessee among conservatives and liberals alike as barry goldwater discovered in 1964 when he proposed selling the agency . 3 the supreme court of the united states ruled tva to be constitutional in ashwander v. tennessee valley authority 297 u.s. 288 1936 . 4 the court noted that regulating commerce among the states includes regulation of streams and that controlling floods is required for keeping streams navigable . the war powers also authorized the project . the argument before the court was that electricity generation was a by product of navigation and flood control and therefore could be considered constitutional . history edit muscle shoals controversy 1920 1932 edit in the 1920s a major battle erupted over building an electric power system in the tennessee valley based on the world war i federal dam at muscle shoals alabama . it would generate electricity and produce fertilizer . 5 senator george norris of nebraska blocked a proposal from henry ford in 1920 to use the dam to modernize the valley . norris deeply distrusted privately owned utility companies . he did get congress to pass the muscle shoals bill but it was vetoed as socialistic by president herbert hoover in 1931 . the idea behind the muscle shoals bill in 1933 became a core part of the new deal s tva . 6 1930s edit a carpenter wearing a contractor s employee badge at work during the 1942 construction of the douglas dam in east tennessee . even by depression standards the tennessee valley was economically dismal in 1933 . thirty percent of the population was affected by malaria and the average income was only 639 per year with some families surviving on as little as 100 per year . much of the land had been farmed too hard for too long eroding and depleting the soil . crop yields had fallen along with farm incomes . the best timber had been cut with another 10 % of forests being burnt each year . 7 tva was designed to modernize the region using experts and electricity to combat human and economic problems . 8 tva developed fertilizers taught farmers ways to improve crop yields and helped replant forests control forest fires and improve habitat for fish and wildlife . the most dramatic change in valley life came from tva generated electricity . electric lights and modern home appliances made life easier and farms more productive . electricity also drew industries into the region providing desperately needed jobs . tva s first board l to r harcourt morgan arthur e. morgan and david lilienthal none of this was easy . the development of the dams displaced more than 15 000 families . this created anti tva sentiment in some rural communities . citation needed 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 . a tennessee farmer would not take advice from an official in a suit and tie so tva officials had to find leaders in the communities and convince them that crop rotation and the judicious application of fertilizers could restore soil fertility . once they had convinced the leaders the rest followed . at its inception tva was based in muscle shoals alabama but later moved its headquarters to knoxville tennessee where they remain today . at one point tva s headquarters were housed in the old federal customs house at the corner of clinch avenue and market street . the building is now a museum . 9 employment policy edit the authority hired many area unemployed to conduct conservation economic development and social programs such as a library service that operated for the surrounding area . the professional staff headquarters was composed of experts from outside the region . the workers were categorized by the usual racial and gender lines of the day . tva hired a few african americans 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 . tva s cheap electricity attracted textile mills to the area and they hired mostly women as workers . 10 1940s edit the douglas dam early in its construction in 1942 . during world war ii the u.s. needed greater aluminum supplies to build airplanes . aluminum plants required huge amounts of electricity . to provide the power tva engaged in one of the largest hydropower construction programs ever undertaken in the u.s. by early in 1942 when the effort reached its peak 12 hydroelectric plants and one steam plant were under construction at the same time and design and construction employment reached a total of 28 000 . the largest project of this period was the fontana dam . after negotiations led by vice president harry truman i want aluminum . i don t care if i get it from alcoa or al capone . tva purchased the land from nantahala power and light a wholly owned subsidiary of alcoa and built fontana dam . the government originally intended the electricity generated from fontana to be used by alcoa factories . by the time the dam generated power in early 1945 the electricity was directed to another purpose in addition to aluminum manufacturing as tva also provided much of the electricity needed for uranium enrichment at oak ridge tennessee as required for the manhattan project and the making of the atomic bomb . 1950s edit by the end of the war tva had completed a 650 mile 1050 kilometer 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 . political interference kept tva from securing additional federal appropriations to build coal fired plants so it sought the authority to issue bonds . congress passed legislation in 1959 to make the tva power system self financing and from that point on it would pay its own way . 1960s edit the 1960s were years of unprecedented economic growth in the tennessee valley . electric rates were among the nation s lowest and stayed low as tva brought larger more efficient generating units into service . expecting the valley s electric power needs to continue to grow tva began building nuclear reactors as a new source of cheap power . during this decade and the 1970s tva was engaged in what was up to that time its most controversial project the tellico dam project . the project was initially conceived in the 1940s but not completed until 1979 . 1970s and 1980s edit significant changes occurred in the economy of the tennessee valley and the nation prompted by an international oil embargo in 1973 and accelerating fuel costs later in the decade . the average cost of electricity in the tennessee valley increased fivefold from the early 1970s to the early 1980s . tva canceled the construction of 12 nuclear power plants