Heidi Alexander: “today I come to the floor to express my opposition once again to the possibility that the Tennessee Valley…”

“today I come to the floor to express my opposition once again to the possibility that the Tennessee Valley Authority--the TVA, as we call it--might raise our electric bills and waste more than $1 billion buying electricity the region does not need by agreeing to purchase power from the Clean Line Energy Partners' proposed Plains & Eastern wind power transmission project. Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of TVA's decisions and also to ensure that TVA is fulfilling its missions, as defined by the TVA Act. Although TVA does not receive any Federal funding from Congress, TVA is a Federal corporation, and its board members are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the committees responsible for the oversight of TVA, have held hearings to discuss TVA's budget and policies. So as a U.S. Senator, today I am here to exercise my oversight responsibilities on TVA. Clean Line Energy Partners, a Texas-based company, is proposing to build giant, unsightly transmission towers from Oklahoma, through Arkansas, to Tennessee--known as the Plains & Eastern Clean Line--to carry comparatively more expensive, less reliable electricity to Tennessee and other Southeastern States. For the first time ever, Federal eminent domain will be used over the objection of the State of Arkansas and both of Arkansas's U.S.…”