Blackburn, Hagerty call for interim TVA CEO in possible Trump shakeup: ‘Clean up this mess’

• Sens. Blackburn and Hagerty of Tennessee wrote an opinion piece calling for a new interim CEO at the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• They wrote that the utility’s board lacks the “talent, experience, and gravitas” to build the first small modular reactor in the U.S.
• Trump fired TVA board members in his first term and could do it again in a bid to fast-track new nuclear development under his watch.
• The senators did not mention there are three board vacancies at TVA they could help fill.

President Donald Trump’s norms-busting disruption of the federal government should extend to the Tennessee Valley Authority in the name of new nuclear energy, Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said in a fiery op-ed calling for new leadership at the utility.

Trump, who during his first term fired two members of the TVA Board of Directors and called for CEO Jeff Lyash to be fired, has not focused on the Knoxville-based federal utility so far in his second term.

Lyash announced he would retire later this year, leaving the search for a new CEO up to a six-person board selected by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Tennessee’s senators called for a new interim CEO and criticized the board for the slow pace of small modular reactor development, a technology they said was critical to ensuring the U.S. can power artificial intelligence and win a race with China.

The TVA board “lacks the talent, experience, and gravitas to meet a challenge that clearly requires visionary industrial leaders,” Blackburn and Hagerty wrote in a joint op-ed on March 20 in POWER Magazine, a publication focused on the global electricity market.

TVA secured the nation’s first early site permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a small modular reactor in 2019 and plans to submit a construction permit this year. The board has approved $350 million for the project at the Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge.

But the senators said the board had “focused on the diversity of its executives ahead of job creation” and had “fallen victim to paralysis by analysis” on new nuclear technologies.

They called for an interim CEO to be appointed to “clean up this mess” but did not say whether the new leader would be appointed by the board or by the Trump administration. The president appoints board members, and the Senate confirms them. The TVA board selects and confirms new CEOs.

”TVA needs an interim CEO and a makeover of its Board,” Hagerty said in a post on X promoting the op-ed.

The offices of Blackburn and Hagerty have not responded to questions from Knox News, including how an interim CEO would be appointed.

Trump could fire TVA board members again

What people are saying: “It seems apparent that this administration will not let the new CEO be selected by a TVA board that is completely appointed by the previous president,” said Mike Arms, executive director of the Association of Tennessee Valley Governments and a former longtime TVA leader.

Can Trump fire the TVA board?: The TVA board serves at the pleasure of the president, and Trump could fire all of them and nominate new board members to be confirmed by the Senate. The board already has three vacancies. Blackburn and Hagerty did not mention this process, or their potentially outsized role in it, in the op-ed.

Trump has shown his willingness to take over boards, notably at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, where he fired board members and installed himself as board chair.

More: Trump, who blasted TVA his first term, can replace its entire board: What it means for you

Echo of the past: TVA has not had an interim CEO, but it has been the focus of federal cuts in the past. President Ronald Reagan, who had floated the idea of privatizing TVA, appointed Marvin Runyon as chairman of the utility in 1988.

Runyon, a former auto executive, had a personal mission to prove “that you could run a government agency as effectively as a private business.” He cut TVA’s staff nearly in half, gaining the nickname “Carvin’ Marvin,” and held electric rates steady after decades of rate hikes.

Congress changed TVA’s leadership model in 2005 away from a general manager and a full-time board with three members to a CEO and a part-time board with nine members. The TVA board approved two rate hikes totaling nearly 10% in 2023 and 2024.

More: TVA already had DOGE. Meet the ‘Enterprise Transformation Office’ slashing utility’s costs

Union leader supports large nuclear: “I’m hoping that Senator Blackburn and Hagerty carry the torch for TVA and write a bill next week to put the funding out there not only to try one of these (small modular reactors), but we’d love to see TVA go back to Bellefonte,” Brent Hall, vice president of the 10th district for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, told Knox News.

TVA began building two reactors at the Bellefonte site in northeast Alabama before halting construction in 1988. The utility is open to building new large reactors at Bellefonte, CEO Jeff Lyash told Knox News.

TVA’s three nuclear plants each have gigawatt-scale reactors, which can power around 650,000 homes. Labor unions, which cover more than half of TVA’s workforce, prize the plants for their many high-paying jobs.

More: As TVA brings employees back to office, one group never left: Union workers running plants

Blackburn, Hagerty leave context out of TVA op-ed

No mention of debt limit: TVA executives have said repeatedly that Congress will need to raise the utility’s debt limit, which has been $30 billion since 1979, to enable the utility to spread out the cost of small modular reactors and other new plants. Blackburn and Hagerty did not mention raising the debt limit as a way to keep nuclear costs from landing on ratepayers.

The utility is self-funded through electricity sales and does not receive taxpayer funding for its operations. It made $12.3 billion in revenue during the 2024 fiscal year.

TVA has around $20 billion in debt and plans to spend $16 billion in the next few years on new plants and reliability upgrades. The first TVA small modular reactor in Oak Ridge could cost around $5.4 billion, according to data in the utility’s long-term plan.

More: They’re smaller, cheaper, but still cost billions. How can TVA fund new nuclear reactors?

A repetitive suggestion?: Blackburn and Hagerty called on a new interim TVA CEO to seek funding from a Department of Energy small modular reactor program. They did not mention two pertinent details: that the funding came from legislation passed under President Biden and that TVA already applied for the funding in January.

“We are looking for all funding sources, both public and private, because we can’t develop this technology and affect our ratepayers,” TVA spokesperson Scott Fiedler told Knox News.

The senators also pushed for an interim TVA CEO to “immediately” file a construction application for small modular reactors with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but did not discuss efforts to lower the regulatory burden on the industry.

More: TVA-led team applies for $800M federal grant for Clinch River small nuclear reactors

Diversity, you say?: Blackburn and Hagerty did not provide any details to back up their claim that the TVA board had focused too much on the diversity of executives, and their offices have not provided more detail.

“You will have to reach out to the Senators about what they mean by the diversity comment,” Fiedler told Knox News in an email. “I need more context.”

Are you a current or former federal employee with a story to tell? Contact Daniel Dassow, a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy, at daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com or on Signal @danieldassow.24.

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