Tennessee Valley Authority

See also: VAT

The Tennessee Valley Authority or VAT is an American company in charge of navigation, control of the risings, electrical production and economic development of the valley of the river Tennessee.

Created in 1933, its territory covers most of the Tennessee, of great portions of the Alabama and the the Mississippi, and certain areas of the Georgia, the Kentucky, the North Carolina and the Virginia.

History

At the beginning of the Years 1930, the valley of Tennessee was a miserable area: unemployment was very high, and the farmers gained little, because the grounds were exhausted and eroded by a too intensive culture and a forestry development.

The VAT was created the May 18th 1933 by the president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, within the framework of the New Deal. Its role was multiple: to produce electricity and to ensure the navigability of the river in order to attract industries, to restore the ecological balance of the valley, to improve the agricultural productivity, etc Moreover, this project required an important labor, from where a very beneficial impact on employment.

Many hydroelectric stoppings were built on Tennessee in the Années 1930 and 1940, the effort of war increasing the demand for energy. At the end of the war, the VAT was the first producer of electricity of the country. 1  050 km of inland waterways had been arranged on Tennessee. The forests had been replanted; the methods of culture had improved.

In the Years 1950 and 1960, the VAT diversified its electrical production to face important a Economic growth in the valley: it built thermo plants with the coal, then nuclear plants: Browns Ferry, Sequoyah and Watts Bar.

In the Years 1970 and 1980, the prices of electricity were multiplied by five following the oil crises. The VAT engaged in programs of reduction of the costs and energy saving. Since, the reduction of the costs and the reduction of pollution are in the center of the concerns of the VAT.

Related article

External bond

  • Site of the VAT

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