Twenty years ago, Congress transformed the Tennessee Valley Authority by amending the TVA Act to make leadership at the nation’s largest public electricity provider more closely resemble that of a private company.
In 2006, TVA got its first nine-member board of directors to set policy, its first CEO to execute that policy and filed its first annual financial report with the U.S. government.
Since then, the federally owned utility has slashed its carbon emissions by restarting a nuclear reactor, finishing construction of another nuclear reactor and closing six coal-fired power plants.
(READ MORE: TVA rallies as MAGA figures raise idea of privatization)
It has contended with the thorny question of how much to pay its CEO, a number that has been criticized by federal officials up to the president. It has fended off proposals from presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump to sell off its assets. And it has seen five board members fired by Trump across his two terms.