New Deal Electricity for Texas

Above: Morris Cooke, head of the New Deal's Rural Electrification Administration, approves electricity funding for rural areas in Texas and six other states, November 4, 1935. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The New Deal powered Texas

As Texas is currently experiencing an energy crisis, due to its philosophical rejection of "big government," it's worth remembering how the New Deal (i.e., big government) powered the lone star state.

According to the Texas State Historical Association, the New Deal's Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was instrumental in modernizing the power grid of Texas in the middle decades of the 20th century:

"By January 1, 1965, the REA borrowers and investor-owned utilities had more than reversed the statistics on rural electrification - instead of only 2 percent of Texas farms with electricity, there were only 2 percent without electricity. By 1966 REA loans had financed seventy-seven distribution systems in Texas (seventy-six cooperatives and the Rural Electric Division of Bryan) and two generation and transmission cooperatives. Together, these systems operated more than 165,000 miles of line reaching into all but ten Texas counties." 

The WPA helped Texas too, building or improving 183 utility plants, including those producing electricity (Final Report of the WPA Program, 1935-43, 1947, pp. 132 and 136).

Also, the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funds for about 25 large-scale electricity projects in Texas (see graphic below).

This type of work proves that there is nothing wrong with "big government," as long as that big government is truly of, by, and for the people... and NOT for those who seek to monopolize, nor for those who would crush the common good for the sake of of personal profit.

Above: PWA-funded electric power projects in Texas and across the United States. Image from America Builds: The Record of PWA, 1939.

Above: The New Deal's PWA funded the construction of the Red Bluff Dam, 1934-1937. The dam is located near Pecos, Texas, and still provides electricity (and farm irrigation water) for Texans today. Image from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 21, 1937 edition, and used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.