Abolishing TVA - a tribute to Ronald Reagan
April 6, 2010
In my own small way, I think I carry the spark of Ronald Reagan when he was fired by GE for remarks he made about the TVA when hosting the GE Theater in 1962 and Barry Goldwater for his comments about abolishing the TVA.
Here is Reagan’s statement (from Wikipedia):
“"A Time for Choosing"[2] October 27, 1964
“One such considered above criticism, sacred as motherhood, is TVA. This program started as a flood control project; the Tennessee Valley was periodically ravaged by destructive floods. The Army Engineers set out to solve this problem. They said that it was possible that once in 500 years there could be a total capacity flood that would inundate some 600,000 acres (2,400 km2). Well, the engineers fixed that. They made a permanent lake which inundated a million acres (4,000 km²). This solved the problem of floods, but the annual interest on the TVA debt is five times as great as the annual flood damage they sought to correct. Of course, you will point out that TVA gets electric power from the impounded waters, and this is true, but today 85 percent of TVA's electricity is generated in coal burning steam plants. Now perhaps you'll charge that I'm overlooking the navigable waterway that was created, providing cheap barge traffic, but the bulk of the freight barged on that waterway is coal being shipped to the TVA steam plants, and the cost of maintaining that channel each year would pay for shipping all of the coal by rail, and there would be money left over.”
That speech of nearly 50 years ago resonates even today; Reagan’s prescience shined as brightly as his view of the “Shining City upon a Hill” he believed America should be.
Dropping down a few notches to today’s reality of a TVA that has gone completely out of control, a federal agency that has far exceeded any vision of Roosevelt’s regional planning; it is time for principle to outweigh personal preferences, for this federal agency to stop sucking the economic lifeblood from a vast region.
Yes, it is a time that more proof becomes unnecessary that the federal government cannot run private industry type projects, that TVA now stands as the poster child of failed federal intervention in millions of people’s lives and proof that it is a usurper of sovereign rights of states.
I did not intend for my website to extend to its present length when I started writing about the TVA some 7 or 8 years ago nor did I expect it would take up as much writing space as I have given it.
But TVA did become my passion through my experiences in the federal government and many years in private enterprise. And while I never saw an end-time of the TVA or of my writings which, incidentally, are far greater than any contemporary writings extant, I never would have gotten this far without the support of many present and retired TVA employees and others who saw through TVA’s veil of deceit and who wanted their views known. I became their trusted vehicle of dissent. And to them I say a hearty thank you.
But before you begin to think this a swan song – perish the thought. I have several articles in the works; here are some of them.
A response to David Mould’s condescending reply to a Knoxville News Sentinel editorial; my attempts to get information from TVA about the “Green Power Switch” that I believe to be fraudulent; comments on previous reports from GAO, the CBO and others and more comments from my correspondents.
Ernest Norsworthy
P.S.
I am forever indebted to the in-kind support Reagan gave me in my congressional campaign against Larry McDonald.
EN