New Deal Accomplishment: 10 million Americans received affordable electricity through TVA in 2025


Above: Construction work at the Douglas Dam, part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Sevier County, Tennessee, 1942. TVA was created in 1933 by FDR and the New Deal Congress, in order to control flooding, mitigate soil erosion, and produce affordable electricity; and also to improve the economic situation for the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley area. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer, Farm Security Administration, courtesy of the Library of Congress.


Above: A TVA locomotive, to assist in construction and operations. Unknown photographer, scanned from a personal collection.


Above: The hydro-electric Douglas Dam, on the French Broad River, still providing affordable electricity 83 years later. It is one of 29 hydro-electric dams operated by TVA, 17 of which were built between 1933 and 1945 (see: Robert D. Leighninger Jr., Long-Range Public Investment: The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal, The University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 112). Photo from TVA.


Above: A 2023 map showing "TVA's Service Area and Power Generation Assets." Image from TVA and Wikimedia Commons.


Above: A WPA poster, promoting the WPA production of Power, a play about public vs. private ownership of electric utilities. TVA and other New Deal electric initiatives (like the Rural Electrification Administration, REA) were considered triumphs over investor-owned utilities that were hesitant, unwilling, or simply unable to provide affordable power to rural areas. In Power, a man complains that he doesn't have the money to pay for the poles and wires needed to bring electricity to his farm. The manager of a private utility replies, "I'm sorry, Mr. Parker, but that's the way we operate. I'm afraid I can't do a thing for you." Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.


Above: This booklet, ca. 1954, explains how TVA ended up helping the private sector, despite the hyperbolic fears of "communism" and "socialism" that public ownership of utilities--or, for that matter, public ownership of just about anything--always conjures up. The booklet highlights increased manufacturing (higher than the national average); higher consumer spending; better transportation of goods along the Tennessee River (thanks to the TVA's dams, locks, and river-deepening); recreation (think tourism business); orders for materials to create TVA infrastructure; improved agriculture; and, ironically, increased business for private utilities. Image scanned from a private copy.


Above: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 491, working out of Camp TVA-19, building a pavilion near Norris Lake, Tennessee - one of the many pavilions they built across the nation, many still in use today. Nearly 200 CCC camps were located in the TVA area. Company 491's projects included soil erosion control, reforestation, fire control (e.g., construction of firebreaks, lookout towers, truck trails, and telephone lines), firefighting, and the development of picnic areas. Photo from: Civilian Conservation Corps, Official Annual, District C, Fourth Corps Area (Direct Advertising Company, 1937), used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: Endless millions of Americans created (and still create today) endless millions of memories in campgrounds, parks, and other recreational areas around TVA. This photo comes from the TVA brochure, "Recreation on TVA lakes," ca. 1966 edition. Image scanned from a personal copy.


Above: "Recreation on TVA Lakes," ca. 1972 edition. Today, TVA offers areas for fishing, boating, whitewater rafting, live music, hunting, hiking, camping, and more. Image scanned from a personal copy.


Above: An old postcard of Norris Dam, part of the TVA system, published by the Asheville Post Card Co., Asheville, North Carolina. Image used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

The Colossal and Enduring Legacy of the New Deal's TVA

In the play Power (see WPA poster above), Jean Thomas's TVA Song is included, and the lyrics read in part: "All up and down the valley, they heard the glad alarm; the Government means business, it's working like a charm."

Later, Pete Seeger wrote a song about TVA that included: "Where once private power said it couldn’t be done, you can see farm lights twinkling, you can hear high lines hum; Fertilizer and science are reclaiming the soil, and REA co-ops help lighten the toil."

Today, TVA is still working like a charm (albeit with room for improvement), supplying affordable electricity--lower rates than investor-owned utilities--to 10 million people across Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia.

There are, of course, persistent pressures to privatize TVA, since a for-profit model--centered on rate increases--would make owners and shareholders wealthy. See, for example: "Privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority Would Increase Costs and Hurt Reliability," Economic Policy Institute, June 4, 2015; and "At public hearing, Knoxville residents push back on privatization of Tennessee Valley Authority: Comments come after threats to nation’s largest public utility by President Donald Trump," Tennessee Lookout, August 26, 2025.

TVA was built on the principles of public ownership of power (the common good), affordable electricity, and democracy. Let's keep it that way.

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