Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Power Marketing Administration Reform Act of 1999, a bill to require that the Federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) sell electricity at market rates and recover all costs. Mr. President, in 1935 only 15 percent of rural Americans had access to electricity. President Roosevelt's administration established the PMAs to sell power to rural Americans below market rates because so many rural areas could not afford to install the transmission and generation equipment required to provide electricity. Commencement of the massive public works projects such as TVA filled a desperate need for jobs during the Depression years and brought electricity to the many areas of our country which lacked access to this most basic amenity of modern life. The PMAs served an essential function in lifting our nation out of the Depression, Mr. President, but that time has passed. Sixty years after its inception, public power is less expensive and more accessible than ever before. The discounted rates provided by public power are a benefit which goes to a relatively few recipients at a tremendous expense to the American taxpayer. Nearly 60 percent of Federal sales go to just four states: Tennessee, Alabama, Washington, and Oregon. PMAs have failed to recover their operating costs for too long, and it is taxpayers who bear the cost of the discrepancy between cost of generation and consumer rates.”