I recently learned a rumor ... and found it to be true! A while back, we bought land in Cheatham County. We were looking for that rural spot just outside of town. That quiet dusty cul-de-sac where you hear cows in the morning and coyotes in the evening. The kind of land that makes me dream of sheep and solar panels.

Around the time we found the perfect spot, some friends of mine were trying to start a renewable energy cooperative in Tennessee. They wanted to keep energy dollars local and build a more resilient local economy. They wanted to give local communities democratic control of their energy, and even support local farms and other businesses by diversifying their income streams or reducing their expenses. They especially wanted to help poor people by creating projects that reduced lower income folks’ electric bills, or providing opportunities to accrue equity through cooperative ownership. And some, I assume, were concerned with environmental outcomes.

This cooperative effort faced significant challenges in large part due to the nature of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and more broadly by federal policy impacts on the energy policy ecosystem in Tennessee. (If you’d like to learn more, look up the differences between “regulated” and “deregulated energy markets.”) See, that rumor I heard is that the TVA is planning a fossil fuel transmission line and methane power plant in Tennessee—even in Cheatham County. 

As someone who shares the many of the concerns of my circle of friends, I cannot believe that the TVA, which is a federally created private monopoly, would continue to invest in projects with none of those other positive benefits that distributed cooperative renewable energy assets can provide.

I implore our legislators in state and federal governments, who represent working people in an effort to create jobs across the state, distribute energy democracy through cooperative ownership, or require a federally created monopoly to at least comply with federal commitments reaffirmed in the Paris Agreement. 

Rethink the TVA Act with an eye to this outcome. Rethink the state and federal relationship in the energy sector.

State representatives and senators, we have an opportunity to protect our local communities from shocks in energy markets. Distributed renewable energy helps us “get ahead of this thing,” regardless of what happens in Ukraine and Russia, or the European Union and the Securities Exchange Commission. We have an opportunity to cultivate renewable energy cooperatives at any scale, making local economies more resilient.

The TVA could be a cooperative tool to empower local communities to be self-sufficient and self-determinate. An overhaul is necessary to reorient the TVA to its original purpose and take things a step further. And when the TVA has done its work, the federal government should step back.

The noble purpose of the TVA — to catalyze economic development in an entire region — is as necessary today as it was when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the TVA Act in 1933. Yet the ownership structure which served to get us here will not continue to serve us.

We lag significantly behind deregulated markets in renewable energy jobs and localizing energy dollars. In order to continue catalyzing economic development in the southeast region, the TVA’s incentives must be corrected through legislation. Congress should reward markets that enhance grid security, energy resilience, local economic development, and self-sufficiency.

The TVA is not living up to its purpose. I for one veto this outcome. I for one want to see distributed renewable energy projects across Tennessee, giving local communities control. I for one would demand a Tennessee electricity grid owned, operated, and governed by Tennesseans – not by the Federal government or outside investors. All in favor, say “Aye.”