TVA board nominees set for Senate hearing

A year after being nominated to help direct America’s biggest public power utlity, the nominees for the Tennessee Valley Authority board of dircectors will go before a Senate panel next week for their confirmation hearings in Washington D.C.

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on President Biden’s nominees for the TVA board and the utility’s Inspector General.

Last April, President Joe Biden nominated for the TVA board Beth Geer, the chief of staff for former Vice President Al Gore who now serves on Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s sustainability advisory committee; Robert Klein, of Chattanooga, a retired union official with International Brotherhood of Electric Workers; and Michelle Moore, of Washington, the founder of Groundswell, a nonprofit that helps community solar projects; and Kimberly Lewis, the CEO of ProjectXYZ and the first Black woman elected as chair of the Huntsville, Alabama, Chamber of Commerce.

Lewis later decided to run for state office and withdrew her nomination. Ben Wagner has been nominated to serve as TVA’s Inspector General.

Geer, Klein, Moore and Wagner will appear before the Senate subcommittee at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday for their confirmation hearings and the full U.S. Senate will vote on their nominations later.

TVA, which serves about 10 million persons in parts of seven southeastern states, is governed by a 9-member board that is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. TVA’s part-time directors serve five year years.