When Congress returns to Washington this week, members will face a new and potentially critical chapter in the ongoing story of efforts to deregulate the nation's electric utilities.

Efforts will be made to pass deregulation, a goal that sounds good in theory but could wind up being very bad in practice for Tennessee Valley ratepayers. The push now underway could lead to higher rates for folks in the Tennessee Valley and not serve TVA well at all.

That's why it may be wisest to make sure that NO deregulation bill passes Congress this year. Freeing up an industry from regulation can have good effects, such as better service and lower prices. But if it is not done right, the process can have exactly the OPPOSITE result - much higher prices and much less service. If you have any doubt about that, just ask folks in Chattanooga. When air service was deregulated 20 years ago, all we heard were "rosy scenarios" of cheaper airfares and more frequent flights. But, in fact Chattanooga suffered from higher fares and much less service and was hit harder than just about any other place in the nation.       

So we need to be very careful about how we go about deregulating the electricity industry.

First, I want to commend my colleague, Congressman Ed Bryant of Tennessee's 7th District for the excellent and hard work he has done with folks in the Tennessee Valley to come up with deregulation bill that is designed to protect Valley residents from high rates. His efforts have been very helpful. But, unfortunately, other legislation is being circulated that would be devastating to TVA.

One very damaging approach is being pushed by U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky. I have great respect for Sen. Bunning, but his bill could be very harmful to the ratepayers of the Tennessee Valley. Here is just one reason. The bill would quickly take down the "fence" that has prevented private utilities from operating in TVA's service area. But it would make it very difficult to remove the "fence" that keeps TVA from operating more freely outside its traditional service area. Within two years of passage of this bill, TVA could lose up to 25 percent of its customer base. In order to make up for that loss of revenue, TVA would have to raise its rates steeply on the customers who were left. That's just one example of many that should make this bill unacceptable to the ratepayers in the Tennessee Valley.

And there are other forces at work that can spell only bad news for the folks who are served by TVA. It may very well be that the excellent work done by Congressman Bryant is "the high water mark" and is as good as it's going to get for TVA and its customers this year. So I am prepared to work against any so-called deregulation bill this year unless - as appears very unlikely - the bill can take into account the legitimate needs of folks in the Tennessee Valley.

The move to deregulate the electricity industry poses great challenges for all of us who represent the Tennessee Valley. We must work together regardless of political party. Words like "Republican" and "Democrat" and "liberal" and "conservative" have nothing to do with this struggle. We must restore the unity in the valley delegation that has served our citizens so well for the nearly 70 years TVA has been in existence.

If we approach this issue wisely and together, we can help make sure that the Tennessee Valley of the 21st Century is a place of prosperity, progress and family-wage jobs for all its people. Recently, I appeared with the Tennessee's State Historian, Wilma Dykeman, in a discussion of ventures such as the regional economic development Summits we have held since 1995. Ms. Dykeman observed that the efforts we are making today are ushering in a new and exciting era in very much the same way that the work of the folks who founded TVA 70 years ago began a new, even revolutionary, era of prosperity for the Tennessee Valley.

If those of us who are entrusted with responsibility in the first years of the 21st Century meet our challenges with the unity, wisdom and sense of purpose that guided our predecessors in the 1930s, the entire valley will be a winner.

We must make sure that happens.