 As planned , the dam would have produced roughly 34 terawatt hours annually , nearly 50 times the total energy use for the entire state of Alaska in 1960 ( 700 gigawatt hours ) . Gruening , in particular , believed that the dam would have an effect similar to that of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s , with cheap electricity providing the economic basis of the region . Dam proponents also suggested that the electricity might be transmitted to the rest of the United States , lowering utility prices in those states by increasing the amount of available power . Anthony <unk> , a salmon biologist employed by Yukon Power for America , claimed that one day , " a housewife in Phoenix or L.A. will fry her eggs at breakfast with electricity generated on the far @-@ off Yukon . " 
