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Hoover Dam works because they had a narrow Channel between high canyon walls to build between and accumulate a high water head. Same with Glen Canyon dam upstream. Neither the Mississippi nor the Ohio has any terrain remotely like it, so a dam on either would be a small marginal affair, and not worth the disruption of freight traffic.

Neither the Mississippi nor the Ohio has any terrain remotely like it, so a dam on either would be a small marginal affair, and not worth the disruption of freight traffic.

You are thinking about it incorrectly. You don't put a damn in the middle of the river like Hoover. LOL. The damns go in tributaries and feeder rivers. There are over 700 damns along the Mississippi today. Many of them already produce electricity. But the environmental wackos have the "sky is falling" disease when any technology starts to show promise.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2014/08/22/hydroelectric-power-damaging-world-rivers-study-shows/#18aca41b1588

I am all for "fossil fuels first". It's proven and efficient and our infrastructure supports it. In fact, I'd like to see about 20 nuclear power plants built in the country. That is the most efficient power we can get. The point I was making is that the Erff luvers who drone on about 100% renewable don't want an abundance of energy. Hydro power is the best we can do that fits their stated agenda. But they have killed that when the technology started to get in a place to make it more viable in places other than Hoover or Niagara.