TVA's rising rates driving away industry giants

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Arkansas-St. John's Live Blog

Formed in 1933 under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to spur economic development during the Great Depression era, the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority for decades has been known for providing some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation.

That gave the Tennessee Valley an edge in recruiting large, power-hungry industries such as chemical, steel and aluminum, bringing such giants as Du Pont, Alcoa, Eastman and others to Tennessee, with the accompanying thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs.

But steep increases in TVA's industrial power rates over the past few years have now made the Tennessee Valley uncompetitive when it comes to attracting or keeping companies that depend heavily on electricity, threatening job growth and economic development, critics of the big federal utility say.

Read more from our news partners at The Tennessean.

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