Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), independent U.S. government corporate agency, created in 1933 by act of Congress; it is responsible for the integrated development of the Tennessee River basin. The history of TVA began in the early 1920s, when Senator George William Norris sponsored a plan to have the government take over and operate Wilson Dam and other installations that had been built by the government for national defense purposes during World War I at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. However, legislation to this effect was vetoed in 1928 and in 1931 by Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. The 1933 TVA Act, redrafted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, went far beyond the earlier proposals and launched the federal government into a vast scheme of regional planning and development—an undertaking that became the model for similar river projects.

The establishment of the TVA marked the first time that an agency was directed to address the total resource development needs of a major region. TVA was instructed to take on the problems presented by devastating floods, badly eroded lands, a deficient economy, and a steady outmigration—all in one unified development effort. The act provided for the integrated development of the whole Tennessee River basin, an area of about 41,000 sq mi (106,200 sq km) that covers parts of seven states. The TVA is governed by a three-person board of directors. The fact that its main offices are located in the region, rather than in Washington, D.C., allows the TVA to maintain a close working relationship with the people of the region.

Facets and Activities of the TVA

In 1998 the TVA generated more electricity than any other U.S. utility, supplying 8 million residents. The most noteworthy feature of TVA is the system of multipurpose dams and reservoirs that have contributed greatly to the economic life of the area. There are some 50 dams in the hydroelectric system with an installed capacity in excess of 6 million kW. To meet the growing demand for power over and above the hydroelectric capacity of the system, the TVA began in 1940 to construct steam-generating facilities. By the late 1990s, 62% of the TVA's installed capacity was provided by coal-burning steam plants.

Steadily mounting power demands encouraged TVA to add nuclear power plants in the early 1970s. Design and management flaws and a 1975 accident at Browns Ferry resulted in plant closures and construction delays, but by 1996 three facilties (Watts Bar, Sequoyah, and Browns Ferry) were open and operating.

Electric power from all sources is allocated with a view to promoting the widest possible use of electricity throughout the area—with local municipalities, state and federal agencies, and farmer cooperatives receiving priority over private utility companies and industries. The availability of low-cost electricity has attracted large numbers of businesses and industries to the area, and a 630-mi (1,014-km) navigation channel extending from the mouth of the Tennessee River to Knoxville, Tenn., has been responsible for an enormous increase in river traffic, chiefly in coal, construction material, grain, petroleum, chemicals, and forest products.

Other TVA activities, carried out in cooperation with local authorities, include land conservation; environmental research; tree planting; malaria control; the development of fish, wildlife, and mineral resources; social and educational programs; and the establishment of recreational facilities along the banks of its reservoirs, including the Land Between the Lakes, in W Kentucky and W Tennessee.

Financing the TVA

Throughout much of the history of the TVA, opponents of the authority have argued that it is too costly and that government should not compete with private enterprise. In 1959, Congress authorized the TVA to issue bonds and notes to be used in financing needed additions to power system capacity. The power system became self-financing and by the early 1990s had paid back more than $2.5 billion into the U.S. Treasury. Congressional funding of the TVA's nonpower programs was phased out in the late 1990s, leaving it totally self-supporting.

The TVA Today

By the 1960s many of the regional problems of underdevelopment had been overcome, per capita income had increased dramatically, and rapid outmigration had ended. However, the TVA continues to seek ways to make the largely rural area an attractive alternative to overcrowded cities. In the late 1960s and early 70s the TVA began to place greater emphasis on environmental protection as industrialization and rising living standards resulted in greater demands on the environment. In the conflict between economic and environmental objectives the TVA sought a suitable balance, particularly in its power program. Despite the TVA's environmental protection efforts, the agency has been criticized principally by environmental groups. Controversial issues have involved construction of the Tellico Dam and Reservoir on the Little Tennessee River, the nuclear power program, and the TVA's purchase of pollution credits from Wisconsin Power and Light in 1992.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, self-sustaining public corporation established in 1921 by the states of New York and New Jersey to administer the activities of the New York-New Jersey port area, which has a waterfront of c.900 mi (1,450 km) lying in both states. In 1917 the governors of New York and New Jersey appointed a bistate commission to study the problem of coordinating port and harbor development for the two states as a whole in an attempt to resolve the many disputes between the states concerning such matters as boundaries, marine police jurisdiction, and freight rates. Out of this group's recommendations grew the idea for the authority, and in 1921 a compact was signed (the Port Compact) that defined a single Port District and provided for its administration by a Port Authority that was to coordinate terminal, transportation, and other facilities of commerce. Originally called the Port of New York Authority, the name was changed in 1972 to reflect the joint administration of the port.

The authority consists of 12 unsalaried commissioners, 6 appointed by the governor of each state. Since the commissioners constitute agents of the state, their instructions take the form of legislative mandates. The work of the commissioners, in addition to administration, includes development, construction, operation, and protection of the Port District. The authority finances its activities from income such as tolls and charges and by selling revenue bonds in the public market.

The authority has been so successful that it has set a pattern in administration. It has given to the inhabitants of the Port District a modern and efficient network of bridges, tunnels, and terminal facilities without adding to the burden of the New York or New Jersey taxpayers. Among its projects have been the refinancing of the Holland Tunnel and the construction of the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, marine terminals in Newark and Elizabeth, and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson RR, known as PATH. The agency also administers numerous facilities, including the New York City airports and Newark International Airport, and built the former World Trade Center complex.

Although business in the New York and New Jersey harbors suffered during the 1970s and 80s from the overall decrease in U.S. exports and the loss of customers to competitors in the South and in Canada, by 1985 the volume of exports in containerized cargo began to rise steadily as a result of the authority's commitment to investing in new technology and its shift to a more agressive business and marketing policy that included improved relationships with the government and with shipping and manufacturing companies.

Palestinian Authority (PA) or Palestinian National Authority, interim self-government body responsible for areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Palestinian control. The PA was authorized by the Oslo Accords (1993) and subsequent Palestinian agreements with Israel, and was established in 1994. As now constituted the PA includes a president, prime minister and cabinet, a legislative council, and security forces.

In 1994 Yasir Arafat, the leader of Al Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was a party to the Oslo Accords, appointed an interim 19-member Palestinian National Authority, under his direction, to administer Palestinian affairs in the areas of self-rule. Under a 1995 accord, self-rule was extended over a two-year period to all major Arab cities and villages in the West Bank, except East Jerusalem.

In 1996 the first Palestinian Legislative Council was elected, with 88 members chosen from the West Bank and Gaza, and Arafat was elected by popular vote as president of the PA. In the first legislative council, Al Fatah, the dominant group in the PLO, had a majority of the seats. Agreements with Israel in the late 1990s gradually increased the area of the West Bank under PA control.

Negotiations with Israel in 2000 proved unfruitful, and widespread violence erupted in the West Bank and Gaza in the fall after the Israeli politician Ariel Sharon visited the Haram esh-Sherif (or Temple Mount) in Jerusalem. Efforts to resume to talks were subsequently mainly unsuccessful, stymied by mutual distrust and a cycle of fighting and violence, including suicide bombings by Palestinians and Israeli attacks on PA facilities and reoccupation of Palestinian territory. The continuing growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which nearly doubled in population from 1992 to 2001, also proved a major irritant to Arabs and stumbling block to peace.

In Mar., 2003, the legislative council established the post of prime minister, effectively reducing Arafat's powers as president. The appointment to that post of Mahmoud Abbas—regarded as more moderate than Arafat—and the acceptance by Palestinians and Israelis of the internationally supported "road map for peace" led to a brief reduction in violence and new talks, but the cycle of attacks and reprisals soon resumed. Abbas resigned, and Ahmad Qurei was appointed to succeed him, but Qurei, like Abbas, clashed with Arafat over control of the security forces.

Following Arafat's death in 2004, Rawhi Fattouh became interim Palestinian president until Abbas, who had succeeded Arafat as PLO chairman, was elected president of the PA in 2005. Abbas and Sharon (now Israel's prime minister) subsequently agreed to a truce, and in Mar., 2005, Israeli forces began handing over control of Jericho and other West Bank towns to the Palestinian Authority. Subsequent violence, however, halted and reversed the process.

In 2005 Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip, and a few settlements in the N West Bank were also evacuated. In the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, Hamas won a majority of the seats in a victory that in part was a rejection of the corruption and failures associated with Al Fatah. The formation of a Hamas government, led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, and Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist led to tensions with President Abbas and the cutoff both of much Western aid and taxes and duties collected for the PA by Israel, creating a financial crisis. There was also jockeying for the control and allegiance of PA security forces between the president and Hamas political leaders.

When Hamas guerrillas captured an Israel soldier in June, 2006, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and arrested several dozen PA leaders, mainly Hamas politicians, in the West Bank. The politically unsettled situation between Hamas and Al Fatah continued into early 2007, when they agreed to form a national unity government; the tensions between the two groups at times erupted into violence. The 2007 power-sharing agreement did not restore U.S. and EU direct aid to the PA, as Hamas continued to refuse to recognize Israel.

Subsequent clashes in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Al Fatah led in June to Hamas's seizing control of the territory. Abbas accused Hamas of an attempted coup, dismissed the government, and appointed an emergency government headed by a former finance minister. The United States, Israel, and others subsequently released aid and other funds to the new government. The PA was effectively divided into two territories and two governments as a result of the event, with Hamas in control in Gaza and Al Fatah in the West Bank.

U.S. government agency established in 1933 to control floods, improve navigation, and generate electrical power along the Tennessee River and its tributaries. The TVA is a public corporation governed by a board of directors. It has jurisdiction over the entire basin of the river, which covers parts of seven states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Created by Congress as one of the major public-works projects of the New Deal, the TVA built a system of dams to control the region's chronic flooding, deepened the channel to improve navigation, and encouraged the development of port facilities along the river. The projects greatly increased traffic on the river and provided cheap electricity, spurring the industrial development of what had been a chronically depressed regional economy. Seealso Public Works Administration.

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