Trump plan would study sale of federal utility’s assets

By JONATHAN MATTISE
Associated Press

– U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander today released the following statement on the proposal in the president’s budget to sell the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) transmission lines:

“This looney idea of selling TVA’s transmission lines seems to keep popping up regardless of who is president. It has zero chance of becoming law. When President Obama proposed this in 2013, all it did was undermine TVA’s credit, raise interest rates on its debt, and threaten to increase electric bills for 9 million Tennessee Valley ratepayers.”

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan suggests studying whether the nation’s largest public utility should sell its transmission assets, which Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander calls “a looney idea” with “zero chance of becoming law.”

Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Jim Hopson said Monday the TVA will work with the Office of Management and Budget to help everyone understand the full implications of the proposal.

TVA CEO Bill Johnson said congressional action would be required.

The plan’s outline says federal ownership of these assets can result in sub-optimal investment decisions and create risk for taxpayers.

Alexander opposed then-President Barack Obama’s similar, failed 2013 plan.

Alexander said that 2013 proposal undermined TVA’s credit, raised interest rates on its debt and threatened to increase electric bills for 9 million customers in seven Southern states.

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U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the proposal in the Trump administration’s budget to sell the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) transmission lines.

“While it is important to remember that TVA has not received any taxpayer funding since 1999 and has taken positive steps in recent years to pay down its debt, as I’ve said before, I think it’s valuable to evaluate from time to time reforms that could cause TVA to function more effectively for Tennessee taxpayers and ratepayers,” said Corker. “That said, at the end of the day, selling TVA is a very unlikely outcome.”