The Tennessee Valley Authority recently made headlines and prompted hundreds of SMART members to write letters to their senators. Why? Reports that the Trump administration was considering privatizing the public power utility.
Privatization would have an extremely negative impact on working families and SMART members in the region. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) creates good, union jobs for SMART members and working people every year, putting sheet metal workers on the job during construction projects and employing members and our neighbors year-round who operate one of the most successful public power utilities in the world. Privatizing or dismantling the TVA would have put those jobs at risk — and raised electricity prices for members and families in the region.
What is public power?
The TVA is unique in the United States. Created as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal — at a time when investor-owned utilities were refusing to invest in the South, then the poorest part of the country — it is a power provider owned by the federal government. That means its purpose for existing is to provide reliable, affordable power to the Americans that it serves, not to make money for shareholders or Wall Street. While private, for-profit corporations’ obligation is to those shareholders, the TVA answers to the American people.
Some facts about the TVA:
- For more than nine decades, the TVA has provided good service and affordable electricity to tens of millions of people across seven states in the South.
- The TVA does not receive any tax dollars; in delivering energy to millions of Americans and 800,000 businesses, the provider is self-funded.
- The TVA is the nation’s largest provider of public power.
The problem with private utilities
Working Americans everywhere deserve to be able to keep the lights on. In 2026, it’s hard to imagine the cost of electricity or gas rising more than the rate of inflation, which is already squeezing American families. But that’s exactly what has been happening.
Private power companies — also known as investor-owned utilities — provide 70% of the electricity in the United States, according to the American Prospect, which also reported in February 2025: “These private utilities have increased residential electricity rates over the past three years at a rate 49 percent higher than inflation. Over the same period, publicly owned utilities have increased their rates 44 percent less than inflation.”
It’s worth repeating: Private utilities raised their prices even higher than needed to keep up with inflation. Public power providers, which exist not to make profit but to provide power for the American people, didn’t even come close to matching inflation with their rate increases.
SMART members power the power
The TVA is one of the largest employers across the Tennessee Valley — including the contractors that help the authority continually grow and evolve to serve its customers. Construction projects at the TVA include not only those related to upgrading power plants and other facilities — such as a Clean Air Project expansion that put members of SMART Locals 177, 4, 5, 33, 40, 46, 48, 73, 88, 214 and 218 on the job — but also those focused on managing the Tennessee River. Plus, there’s the day-to-day work of ensuring the TVA continues to function. All told, the TVA supports tens of thousands of union jobs.
The authority benefits unions and local communities in other ways, too. In August 2025, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the TVA and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced the creation of the Forever Family Apprentice Partnership. This initiative will provide former foster youth with career pathways to the union construction and energy industries — helping Americans find fulfilling careers and strengthening unions like SMART.
Protect the TVA
The TVA is run as a government corporation by a nine-member board of directors, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Congress and the White House have rarely interfered with the board throughout its history.
In early 2025, President Trump fired three board members, leaving just three out of nine to govern the TVA. At the time, the Atlantic reported that President Trump pressured the remaining TVA board members to fire its CEO, Don Moul, or risk being replaced — with some on the board concerned that the president was looking to advance the privatization of the TVA.
Privatization would have threatened union jobs and the affordable energy prices that working families rely on, which is why SMART worked to make sure that didn’t happen. Union officers and staff engaged politicians at all levels, and members sent hundreds of letters to their senators, urging them to protect the public power utility.
In October, when the president nominated new members to the board, each nominee committed to keeping the TVA a public utility during U.S. Senate committee hearings. Those commitments are great news for SMART members, year-round TVA employees and people and businesses in the Tennessee Valley.
While full confirmation of the nominees is still pending at the time of writing, SMART will continue working to make sure the TVA stays public, protecting the millions of jobs and the affordable electricity that the utility provides. From the federal government to statehouses, from legislative allies to on-the-ground action, SMART will keep fighting for members and working families.