A Keystone Dam and Georgia’s New Ocean - Southern Water, Southern Power - page 67

for navigation below Augusta” as well as “produce hydroelectric power for industrial pur-
poses and rural electrification.” 27 The dam might also conserve enough water to save the
region from future electrical shortages such as those caused in part by the severe 1925 and
1941 droughts. Finally, the Corps and its congressional enablers considered the dam “the
keystone”—the first of nearly a dozen dams in a coordinated project that might reorganize
the valley's water, people, and economy. 28
There was clearly support for the federally financed Clarks Hill multiple-purpose pro-
ject, but a vocal minority of industrial and corporate interest groups initially maintained
an aggressive oppositional stance. Georgia Power Company executives—and others from
their Savannah River Electric Company subsidiary—soon changed their tune and opposed
the federal project by 1944. Furthermore, company spokesmen ignited a firestorm after
launching a campaign promoting private enterprise in an effort to sink the public energy,
navigation, and flood control project. The energy company had held its first license to build
at Clarks Hill between 1926 and 1932, but in a rare and unprecedented move it surrendered
the license during the Great Depression when it could no longer afford to move the project
forward and the Corps presented a viable plan to do so. 29 The Georgia Power Company
publicly floated the idea of reapplying for a second Federal Power Commission license
in 1939 but found little support among Augusta's leaders and dropped the idea. 30 But in
1946, the Georgia Power Company again announced plans to reapply for a second license.
With depression and wartime sacrifice nearly behind the nation, the Georgia Power Com-
pany wanted to revive its version of capitalism—or, as critics would claim, a natural mono-
poly—through a private Clarks Hill project. After more than a decade's worth of battles
with the TVA, companies like Georgia Power took the emerging postwar period as a mo-
ment to reassert their definition of free-market fundamentals as private power companies
did elsewhere. 31 The Georgia Power Company—the most successful New South water and
energy project builder in the Savannah River basin—received ample assistance in its quest
to reclaim the Sun Belt's water, energy, consumers, and commercial future.
To fight these battles and push back against the Democratic Party's leadership, the com-
pany enlisted supporters around the state to rally for a return to the early twentieth century's
private energy and water model. Georgia newspaper editors channeled Georgia Power's
message in a coordinated campaign opposing federal projects like Clarks Hill. House edit-
orial boards harped on the same themes of private enterprise and favored taxpaying devel-
opment over tax-spending and tax-exempt public projects. 32 Many opponents to the Corps'
plan argued that if private industry wanted to spend the money, the state should enable it
to do so and then collect taxes. “We,” the Milledgeville Union-Recorder 's editorial board
stated, “very definitely believe private capital should have its right to exercise free en-
terprise, the same kind of pioneering spirit that built this country into the greatest nation
the world has ever known.” Milledgeville was the Piedmont town near the Georgia Power