Nashville, Tenn. – The largest public utility in the country promoted one of its senior executives to CEO on Monday, which puts Don Moul in charge of the Tennessee Valley authority, since President Donald Trump has chosen renewed attention in the federal entity.
The public services company announced that its Board elected Moul as president and executive director to replace Jeff Lyash, who said in January that he would. retire no later than September. The measure occurs less than a week after Trump eliminated one of the members of the Board of the Public Services Company without indicating why. With the dismissal of Michelle Moore, a designated president Joe Biden, the Board currently has five members and four vacancies.
The dismissal of the Board and the hiring of the CEO occurs after the two Republican senators of Tennessee urged the officials to opt for “an interim CEO reliable by the president” before hiring someone in the long term.
Moul has served as Executive Vice President of TVA and operations director since June 2021. In a press release that announces his selection, TVA focused partly on Moul’s leadership in the progress of nuclear energy technologies and his experience as a licensed senior reactor operator. Start in the new role on April 9.
“TVA needs a firm hand at this time,” Moul said in the press release. “I will develop the impulse that Jeff and our team have created, making sure that we continue to invest in a new generation, strengthen our network and improve the reliability of the system.”
Earlier this month, US Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty wrote a guest column arguing that the TVA board was clorting a project that seeks to build a small modular reactor with studies and obstacles.
Blackburn and Hagerty also said that hiring an CEO from the inside would renounce the opportunity to recruit a “high quality leader” from outside the public services company, which provides energy to 10 million people in seven southern states.
In part, Nuclear Energy Defenders I have asked for its expansion to help meet the demand of companies to feed their artificial intelligence technologies, and do it without carbon emissions that accelerate climate change.
Stephen Smith, executive director of the South Alliance of Clean Energy, described the opinion article of Blackburn and Hagerty “reckless interference”. He said they do not understand the “risk of hurrying nuclear technology before it is ready for stellar schedule both economically and in security.”
Clean energy defenders have also criticized TVA’s decision to replace several of their coal plants that age with Another fossil fuel, natural gas.
Trump put TVA and outgoing CEO Lyash in the hot seat in his first mandate.
In 2020, Trump dismissed to the former president of the Board of TVA and another member of the Board And led to TVA to reverse the course on the hiring of foreign labor for information technology work.
He also requested the replacement of LYASH and the payment of the position to limit to $ 500,000.
In response, TVA has pointed out that the CEO pays ranges in the lower quartile of the electricity industry. The total compensation of LYASH exceeded $ 10.5 million in the 2024 Budget Year, including several pension incentives and value for millions of dollars. In addition, the public services company has emphasized that it does not receive money from federal taxpayers and, instead, electricity clients finance.
A TVA spokesman said that Lyash’s retirement was not related to the current administration or politics and that Lyash had begun to speak with the members of the TVA Board last fall on considering retirement.
