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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was established in May, 1933. The program was a bold one created by the federal government to bring electricity to the rural south at the beginning of the New Deal programs. The authority was responsible for creating 49 dams in seven states. Through the TVA the investment in the program extended beyond the creation of dams. Over the years the program has grown and adapted. Today TVA is one of the top power producers in the United States.

In May 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt had just taken office. Roosevelt was the person who strongly pushed for the TVA. He believed that the only way to bring the country out of the Great Depression was to set up infrastructure. His solution was to create programs …show more content…

Electricity was provided through privately owned and operated companies. These companies thought that to run power lines out to rural places would cost too much money. They also thought that the farmers would be too poor to pay for the electricity, so they would have spent all the money to run the lines for nothing. Roosevelt felt it was important that people that live in rural places have the same accessibility to electricity as people in cities. The electricity could be used for lights, stoves, and other things to make everyday life a little easier. After the TVA was put in place, in 1939, 25% of people in rural towns had electricity.

People supported the TVA because it helped the region and the nation in the middle of the Great Depression. It was set up so that the payments for electricity go to the state in which the power was produced even though it’s a government program. This way the states and the consumers benefited from the program. The program was part of the New Deal, a collection of programs to help the country out of the Great Depression. Programs included things on infrastructure, and in the end the program changed the Tennessee River Valley dramatically and helped the area to take part in the 20th …show more content…

The dams are a very important part of the TVA, producing the electricity that is sold to the distributors. They also create a large percent of the jobs and they had made many lakes that the surrounding areas flourish off of. People who worked on the TVA dams had to take special tests to see what they are qualified to do. These tests were made in cooperation with the United States Civil Service Commission. Jobs in the construction of the dams were temporary, so the workers were trained to do other jobs. “During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938, approximately 8,000 job training meetings were held with an attendance of 63,071, and 4,034 adult education meetings drew an attendance of

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