[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1006-E1007]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




TRIBUTE TO LAST FULL-TIME CHAIRMAN OF TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY BOARD, 
                            GLENN McCULLOUGH

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 2005

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, Glenn McCullough steps down today as the 
12th and last full-time Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority 
Board.
  I have worked with thousands of people during my years in Congress., 
Chairman McCullough has been one of the kindest and most honorable with 
whom I have had the privilege to work.
  Glenn McCullough, in my opinion, has been an outstanding Chairman for 
TVA. He has had the extremely difficult job of attempting to balance 
all kinds of competing interests, and he has done the job well.
  He has done great things for the environment and the employees at TVA 
while still remembering that many TVA ratepayers and low-income people 
also need help, too.
  Chairman McCullough is a man of high integrity who should be 
remembered as one of the finest Chairman TVA has ever had. He has 
worked as hard as possible for the people of the Valley, and this 
Nation is a better place today because of his service.
  I would like to call to the attention of my colleagues and other 
readers of the Record the following article from the May 16 edition of 
the Knoxville News Sentinel.

 Departing Chairman Says Utility Still Faces Financial, Environmental 
                               Challenges

                         (By Duncan Mansfield)

       Departing Chairman Glenn McCullough said the Tennessee 
     Valley Authority is stronger than when he arrived in 1999, 
     but the nation's largest public utility still faces 
     financial, environmental and competitive challenges.
       Tougher soot and smog requirements on coal-fired power 
     plants could cost TVA $4 billion to $5 billion beyond the $6 
     billion it has already spent or committed for pollution 
     controls.
       Rising fuel prices for its fleet of fossil plants, gas 
     turbines and nuclear stations could force further cost-
     cutting and a likely electric rate increase that would affect 
     some 8.5 million people receiving TVA power in Tennessee and 
     six surrounding states.
       Yet as McCullough nears the end of his term on Wednesday, 
     May 18, as the 12th and final full-time chairman in the 72-
     year history of TVA, he remains optimistic about TVA's 
     future.
       ``I think TVA will continue to be a high performer,'' 
     McCullough told The Associated Press in a recent interview in 
     his 12th floor office at TVA headquarters in Knoxville.
       McCullough, 50 was mayor of his hometown of Tupelo, Miss.--
     TVA's first member city--when he was appointed to an 
     unexpired term on the three-member TVA board in 1999 by 
     President Clinton. In 2001, President Bush elevated 
     McCullough, backed by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent 
     Lott, R-Miss., to chairman.
       During his tenure, TVA changed its Tennessee River 
     watershed plan to improve recreational use, set rising peak-
     power demand records, adopted a rate increase in 2003 to pay 
     for coal plant pollution controls and developed the first 
     commercial wind farm in the Southeast.
       TVA also reduced a nearly $28 billion long-term debt by 
     $1.8 billion. In doing so, the agency eliminated hundreds of 
     jobs and put one of its twin headquarters towers in Knoxville 
     up for sale as surplus. The tower sale is pending, and the 
     payroll stands at 12,700--compared to more than 30,000 in the 
     1980s.
       The self-financing government agency with a $7 billion 
     budget also took heat over extravagant travel and 
     entertainment spending by executives but moved quickly to 
     crack down with new internal policies.
       However, McCullough said the boldest actions were the 2001 
     write-off of $3.4 billion in

[[Page E1007]]

     non-producing assets, including three unfinished nuclear 
     reactors, and the $1.8 billion decision to restart a 
     mothballed reactor at the Browns Ferry station in Alabama by 
     2007.
       ``It was a good business decision, not an easy one,'' he 
     said of the write-offs, while the gamble on the Browns Ferry 
     reactor--60 percent complete--could pay off in meeting 
     baseload demand through 2014.
       ``All of those things kind of roll off the tongue, but I 
     tell you, there are thousands of people that did their job 
     better so that TVA could have record generation and record 
     clean air and record economic growth and record debt 
     reduction,'' McCullough said.
       Looking ahead, McCullough said a rate increase, which has 
     become rare in recent years at TVA, seems inevitable because 
     of rising fuel costs that can't be controlled.
       ``I think the future board will have to determine what 
     rates need to be and when adjustments are necessary,'' he 
     said. ``I don't know how much, and I don't know when.''
       McCullough doesn't know if he will be on an expanded part-
     time board that is being created after he leaves. Senate 
     Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., pushed the board 
     restructuring to make the group more open and responsive. The 
     White House has yet to name nominees.
       McCullough sees plenty of opportunities and challenges 
     ahead for them.
       TVA is working with two national consortiums studying 
     designs and licensing for the next generation of nuclear 
     plants, while TVA assesses the feasibility of using its 
     unfinished Bellefonte nuclear plant in Alabama as a possible 
     project site.
       Meanwhile, TVA continues to review efficiencies and costs 
     of new ``clean coal'' technologies for its fossil fleet. 
     McCullough believes coal and nuclear should remain the 
     foundation of TVA's power system.
       ``We are also looking at the business model,'' McCullough 
     said. ``There could be some opportunities for TVA to do joint 
     ventures with perhaps other utilities or other entities that 
     make good business sense.''
       He cited TVA's deal set up a few years ago to buy power 
     from the Red Hills Power Plant and Mississippi Lignite Mining 
     Co. near Ackerman, Miss., as an example of a successful joint 
     venture.
       Meanwhile, growing private and commercial development along 
     the Tennessee River continues to stir resentment among the 
     families of former residents displaced by TVA's hydroelectric 
     dam projects in the 1930s and '40s.
       McCullough is sympathetic to a point. ``Land in the valley 
     is almost sacred. That is a characteristic of the South that 
     I am frankly proud of--`Don't mess with the land.' I 
     understand that,'' he said.
       ``But if you look on the TVA seal, you see the words 
     `Progress Through Resource Development,' '' he said. ``And 
     you can't make progress without some development.''
       McCullough said he is looking forward to going home to 
     Tupelo and spending time with his wife, Laura, and two 
     teenage sons, and weighing his career options.
       More low-key than his predecessors, McCullough said being 
     chairman of TVA, like being mayor of Tupelo, was ``a 
     wonderful opportunity to make a positive difference.''
       ``I didn't ask to come to TVA, and I didn't ask to be 
     chairman. But I was asked to do this job, and it was a unique 
     opportunity,'' he said. ``If you get it right, if you make 
     good decisions and fulfill the mission of TVA, then the 
     people of the valley can be better off for generations to 
     come. And that can be satisfying.''
    




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