U..S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-TN, speaks to his home state’s delegation during the Feb. 26-28 APPA Legislative Rally in Washington, D.C.
Several of TVPPA’s municipal members spent Feb. 26-28 in the halls of Congress, voicing their disapproval of President Trump’s proposal to sell TVA’s transmission system.
In meetings with congressional delegations from across the Valley, the message from TVPPA’s members was clear – ratepayers have long since paid for those facilities, so selling to a private concern would only raise electric rates and force those consumers to pay twice for those assets. TVPPA’s members were in Washington, D.C., for the American Public Power Association (APPA) Legislative Rally.
The proposal to sell TVA transmission assets is part of the President’s 2018 budget, which also proposes sale of the transmission assets of power marketing administrations (PMAs) in the northwest.
While opposing these proposals, municipal spokesmen urged the Valley delegation to communicate to the Trump administration their broad support for TVA and the Valley’s public-power business model.
This isn’t the first time that similar proposals have popped up in Presidential budgets. The Obama administration’s FY 2014 and FY2015 budget requests contained language recommending the partial or total divestiture of TVA.
None of the proposals have gained any traction in Congress.