75 years of TVA: Reaping the benefits

Virginia Behel's first routine of the day includes turning on the TV, plugging in the coffee maker and pouring a bowl of Special K with fruit and yogurt.

Her husband, R.L., has already been up for half an hour and leaves to feed the cattle and do other farm chores. Behel makes up the bed, collects the clothes hamper and puts in a load of laundry, some days two.

All the while, the TV, which won't be turned off until the end of the evening, provides background noise for a house that sometimes seems too quiet now that her four boys are grown men with their own families.

Turning off the TV is a simple way she could lower her energy bill, which was $278 in April.

"That was a cheap one," said Behel, who lives on a cattle farm in Greenhill.

Behel and others who live in the Tennessee Valley are reaping the benefits of what is the primary focus for the present-day Tennessee Valley Authority: providing electricity to its more than 8 million consumers in seven states.

That $278 bill would be more than doubled if the Behels lived in many other states. There are few states where it might be a little less, but that's a rarity.

TVA, which celebrated its 75th anniversary Sunday, has electricity rates that are among the lowest in the nation. That fact is often overlooked by Shoals residents who have grown up and lived their entire lives in the area.

Most longtime Shoals residents also take for granted, at least at times, the role TVA plays in keeping the Tennessee River at consistent levels and the recreation opportunities provided as a result.

And the federal utility also has been a viable partner in economic development projects in recent years, helping to attract major industry to the Shoals.

TVA's influence touches other areas of Tennessee Valley life these days, but it's the electricity provided by the agency that remains the most important contribution.

TVA faces the challenge of increasing costs to produce electricity. In April, the public utility increased its wholesale rate 7 percent, an increase typically handed down to the consumer. As summer approaches, that cost will affect local residents who are dependent on energy intensive air-conditioning.

As the Behels go back and forth with the thermostat - she likes it set at 72 degrees; he sets it to a cooler 68 - Behel laments about the cost of energy and the difficulty of conserving it.

"When you're used to having everything right at your fingertips, it's tough to conserve," Behel said.

In northwest Alabama, three monuments illustrate TVA's present energy production: the neoclassical-style Wilson hydro-electric dam, the stark smokestacks of the Colbert steam plant near Tuscumbia and the thermometer-shaped tower at Browns Ferry nuclear plant near Athens.

The majority of TVA's electricity, 60 percent, comes from its coal-fired plants. Nuclear plants generate about 30 percent and hydroelectric dams produce the remaining 10 percent.

TVA's electricity rate for residents is 22 percent less than the national average, according to a 2007 survey from the Energy Information Administration.

According to TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore, there are two main reasons for this lower cost: diverse energy sources from which the utility can draw power and TVA's nonprofit status means revenues don't get doled out to shareholders.

"Because of that diverse power source and being a not-for-profit, we've been able to keep our rates very low," Kilgore said. "Even though we've had recent rate increases, our rates are still lower than most people in the country."

Residents in Connecticut who used as many kilowatt hours as the Behels did in April would see a $627 bill. In Idaho, the state with the lowest electrical costs, their bill would have been $68 less in April.

Virginia Behel expressed surprise at the difference.

"At our age, I don't know if we could afford it if (electricity rates go) much higher," the 62-year-old said. "We would survive, but it would be hard; we would have to cut back on a lot of stuff."

Despite the what-if scenarios, she thinks her electrical costs are outrageous.

Part of that cost may involve quantity: Residents in the southeast that TVA covers consume the most energy in the nation. States including Alabama and Tennessee consume on average nearly double the electricity per household (1,193 kwh) compared to the nation's most thrifty consumers - New Englanders - according to 2001 Energy Information Administration data.

Another facet of TVA that has had a lasting impact is its transformation of the Tennessee River from a fluctuating force of nature to connected lakes bookmarked by hydroelectric dams.

Willson Jenkins, a member of the Muscle Shoals Sailing Club, is one of many sailors who take to the nearby lakes.

"TVA has done a good job (overseeing) a usable navigable river for sailboats," said Jenkins, who last sailed across Wilson and Wheeler lakes to Decatur, a four-hour trip.

The sailing seasons run from April to June, then September to November. During the hot summer months, the 29-year boating veteran takes advantage of night sailing.

Fishing enthusiasts also use the lakes and river system, famous for its crappie, catfish and world-record small mouth bass. Area lakes, in fact, have earned the tag of "Smallmouth Capital of the World" and have lured dozens of national fishing tournaments to the Shoals.

"It would be a different world if it hadn't been for TVA," said Roger Stegall, a professional angler.

One possible concern for fishermen is fluctuating water levels, but TVA doesn't change the Tennessee River levels more than 5 feet through the year, Stegall said.

The benefit is that the structures underwater don't rot out, said Stegall, who has observed underwater stumps that remain from the 1930s and 1940s when the river system was being constructed.

Though TVA is mainly known as a utility company, one of its mandates remains economic development - job creation from new industries or expansion of existing industries.

"A big part of what we bring to the table with TVA is our competitive, reliable electric power. There are some companies that come to the area because TVA has a strong power system," said Craig Linhoss, an economic developer with TVA who covers an eight-county region that includes Lauderdale and Colbert.

The Shoals has recently transitioned to a diversified economy that includes an automotive part supplier, railcar and tissue manufacturing plants and a national call center.

TVA has had a part in bringing such industries to the area. Barton Riverfront Industrial Park in Colbert County, west of Tuscumbia, has river access that helped attract SCA Tissue and National Alabama railcar operations. Between the two, more than 2,000 jobs have been created.

Often behind the scenes, TVA preps communities for industrial recruitment. It offers low-interest loans to prospects and incentive programs that can save companies money. The agency also can produce mock drawings of industrial buildings, Linhoss said.

TVA also has established its first megasite in Alabama, which is in Limestone County and includes 2,010 acres and is touted as a lure for the automotive industry.

But not every story is one of success.

There are powerful political voices in the state and on Capitol Hill who say TVA hasn't done enough for economic development and has, in some cases, actually blocked development from coming to north Alabama.

"TVA seems to have an economic development model that's in much need of being redesigned, recited in terms of today's realities," said U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Alabama, co-chairman of the TVA Caucus.

Cramer, who represents the Shoals, announced in March that he would not seek re-election after 18 years in Congress.

The caucus is made up of senators and representatives from the seven-state TVA region. Cramer vowed to have the caucus take a more active role in the oversight of TVA.

"I've struggled to understand TVA in my entire 18 years (in Congress)," Cramer said. "I have sometimes, the hard way, been successful with TVA and sometimes it seemed that TVA was a bureaucracy that was its own worse enemy."

When Cramer became co-chairman of the caucus, he said he would "rattle TVA's cage." He said he believed that because TVA no longer received congressional appropriations, TVA officials felt "they don't have to answer to Congress," Cramer said at the time of his election to co-chairmanship of the caucus.

Cramer and others blamed TVA for stopping a German steelmaker from considering a site along the Tennessee River in Lawrence County.

In 2006, steelmaker Thyssen-Krupp narrowed its in-state search to build its $4.2 billion plant, with an estimated work force of 2,700, to Mobile and Lawrence County.

TVA's board had recently switched from three to nine members and the board put a moratorium on decisions about TVA policies on how land was to be used along the Tennessee River.

Thyssen-Krupp was unable to get guarantees to river access from TVA, crucial for the company's shipping of raw materials from Brazil. Mobile's location on the Gulf Coast means it had a better shipping site, and TVA's land-use moratorium took Lawrence County out of the running altogether.

Kilgore, TVA's chief executive officer, reflected on the issue nearly two years later.

"That project did get caught in the land moratorium," he said. "That was difficult for us, but in everything we did, we couldn't see making an exception for that one instance until we got the policy developed."

TVA's land-use policy also stopped a proposed retail development for Veterans Park in Florence. The park land, which is owned by TVA and leased to Florence under a recreational easement, is part of a tourism package developed under the partnership of local governments and the Retirement Systems of Alabama. The development brought the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail courses to Colbert County and the four-star Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa to Florence. Part of that project is to include an attraction in Veterans Park.

A shopping complex with Bass Pro Shops as an anchor was considered for Veterans Park. In December 2006, however, the newly expanded TVA board adopted a land-management policy that protects TVA shoreline property from residential and commercial development. A recreational development for Veterans Park has not been proposed.

"(The board) decided, and I agree with them, that putting big (retail) boxes on the riverfront is probably not a good use of riverfront property," Kilgore said. "A big box doesn't need water access; let's be candid here."

RSA Chief Executive Officer David Bronner said that instead of dealing with a private utility company that focuses on selling power, TVA's mission is more esoteric, with a public persona of helping people rather than growing the bottom line.

Bronner characterized TVA as an over-studious, cumbersome bureaucracy that is littered with red tape and lacks aggressiveness in economic development.

"Instead of helping and being out there recruiting, they're sitting there waiting for someone to knock on their door," Bronner said. "It's the difference between a salesman knocking on your door and another salesman sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring."

Bronner was initially interested in building the Robert Trent Jones golf courses on the TVA Reservation in Muscle Shoals, which overlooks the Tennessee River. The request was denied and the courses were built elsewhere.

"We would have gotten more help from Alabama Power than we ever would have gotten from TVA," Bronner said.

Kilgore said the utility prioritizes economic development behind energy production and the environment.

"I don't necessarily consider us to be the prime engine in economic development; that's the role of the state," Kilgore said.

Cramer said north Alabama has adapted to being a part of TVA.

"TVA being the huge bureaucracy that it was, it just didn't move quickly, and we learned to move quickly in north Alabama. I think, without meaning to, they did take us for granted," Cramer said.

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@timesdaily.com.