Sens. Cantwell, Alexander say Administration plan to sell federal transmission lines will end in higher electric bills
The Trump Administration made enemies of U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) this week when it introduced a proposal to sell federal transmission assets.
Those assets, currently a part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Power Marketing Administrations (PMA), would be sold off to the highest bidder. Whoever won that bidding would be negligible in the senators’ view, however — the consumer would lose regardless.
“The Trump Administration’s proposal to privatize BPA is a terrible idea,” Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said. “Replacing cheap cost-based power with more expensive energy is bad for consumers and bad for business. Our cheap hydro system has been the backbone of our economy for decades, allowing many industries to flourish because of low electricity rates. This is a bad idea that has been soundly rejected before and will be again.”
The proposal is part of an administration plan to reorganize federal agencies, as linked to an executive order signed by the president last year. Cantwell and Alexander have both previously written to Donald Trump asking that he reconsider selling these assets.
“TVA’s continued success and ability to provide low-cost power is vital to the TVA region’s families and businesses,” Alexander said. “This looney idea of selling TVA and TVA’s transmission lines seems to keep popping up regardless of who is president, and each of those proposals have all been soundly rejected by Congress. When President Obama proposed selling TVA in 2013, all it did was undermine TVA’s credit, raise interest rates on TVA’s debt and threaten to increase electric bills for 9 million ratepayers. TVA has among the lowest power rates in the country which, along with its reliability, help bring numerous new businesses to the region.”
