Nashville, Tennessee — On Monday, the biggest public utility in the country made one of its top leaders CEO. Don Moul will now be in charge of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is getting more attention from President Trump.
The company said that Moul had been chosen by the board to take over as president and CEO from Jeff Lyash, who had said in January that he would be leaving the job by September. This comes less than a week after Trump fired a board member of the energy company without saying why. Since Michelle Moore, who was hired by former President Joe Biden, was fired, the board now has five members and four open seats.
After Tennessee’s two Republican senators told officials to choose “an interim CEO trusted by the president” before choosing someone long-term, the board was fired and a new CEO was hired.
Since June 2021, Moul has been the executive vice president and chief operating officer of TVA. TVA said in a news release that Moul was chosen that he had led the way in improving nuclear energy technologies and had a lot of experience as a qualified senior reactor operator. On April 9, he starts his new job.
Moul said in the news release, “TVA needs a steady hand right now.” “I will continue the momentum that Jeff and our team have built by making sure we keep investing in new generation, strengthening our grid, and making the system more reliable.”
This month, U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty wrote a guest piece in which they said the TVA board was putting too many studies and problems in the way of a project to build a small modular reactor.
Blackburn and Hagerty also said that if the utility hired a CEO from within, it would miss the chance to hire a “top-quality leader” from outside the company. The utility serves 10 million people in seven Southern states.
Supporters of nuclear energy have called for it to be expanded so that companies can get the power they need for their AI technologies without releasing carbon into the air, which speeds up climate change.
Stephen Smith, who runs the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said that Blackburn and Hagerty’s op-ed was “reckless interference.” He said they don’t know the “risk of rushing nuclear technology before it’s ready for prime time, both economically and safety-wise.”
People who support clean energy have also said that TVA’s choice to replace some of its old coal plants with natural gas plants that use dirty fuels is wrong.
Trump put TVA and Lyash, the CEO who was leaving, in a tough spot during his first term.
In 2020, Trump fired the former head of the TVA board and another board member. This made TVA change its mind about hiring foreign workers for IT jobs.
He also said Lyash should be replaced and the salary for the job should be set at $500,000.
To this end, TVA has said that the CEO’s pay is among the lowest in the power business. Lyash made more than $10.5 million in the 2024 budget year. This included millions of dollars in salary and performance-based pay. The utility has also made it clear that it does not get money from the federal government. Instead, it is paid for by people who use energy.
Someone from TVA said that Lyash’s decision to retire had nothing to do with the current government or politics. The person also said that Lyash had started talking to TVA board members about retirement last fall.
