TVA needs to return to its roots, journalist opines

The recent coal-ash slurry spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's steam plant in Kingston, Tenn., highlights the need to bring the Depression-spawned federal utility back to its research and environmental roots, writes Tom Eblen of the Lexington Herald-Leader, who covered TVA in his days as a reporter in the Southeast.

Former TVA Chairman S. David Freeman told Eblen, "We taught the rest of the nation about flood plain management. We had a civil-service system before the [rest of the] federal government had one. TVA was the fertilizer research center for the whole world, and we developed all kinds of fertilizers. We taught soil conservation to the farmers." But in the 1980s, Congress eliminated many if not most of TVA's non-power programs. "The power part of the system was the tail," Freeman said. "I think what happened over the years was the tail became the dog."

Eblen asks, "What if TVA were tasked with developing renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, or demonstrating new technologies to solve environmental problems? If such a thing as “clean coal” technology really exists, why not have TVA show how it could work?" Sounds logical to us. (Read more)