By Kennedy Maize
Disarray dominates the leadership at two important federal government energy agencies–the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Tennessee Valley Authority — a result of the Trump administration’s sloppy mismanagement.
On Tuesday (July 29) Republican NRC Commissioner Annie Caputo abruptly announced her resignation a year ahead of the end of her term. She said she will depart immediately after on-again, off-again David Wright is formally sworn in as a new commissioner and chairman, avoiding leaving the NRC without a quorum.
Caputo, who Trump appointed to the commission by Trump in his first go-round and Biden reappointed, told a surprised staff that “time has come for me to more fully focus on my family. It has been my honor and privilege to serve as a commissioner, contributing to the work of the agency. I have decided to resign from the Commission, effective upon the swearing in of my colleague David Wright.”
Trump appointed veteran South Carolina utility regulator Wright to the NRC twice, in May 2017 and again in January 2020. Trump named him chairman this January 20, replacing Democrat Christopher Hanson. Trump then fired Hanson without cause, technically illegal, in June and Hanson left the commission without a fight.
Wright’s appointment expired on June 30, and the White House was slow to renominate him, so he was not a commissioner as his renomination was pending in the Senate. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the nomination on July 9 and the Senate gave full approval on Monday by a vote of 50-39. His swearing in awaits paperwork at the NRC and is expected momentarily.
With Wright’s return and Caputo’s departure, the NRC is in familiar territory, with two Democratic members, Bradley Crowell and Matthew Marzano, and two GOP vacancies.
On Wednesday, perhaps to deflect attention from the Caputo move, the White House announced it is nominating Ho Nieh, Southern Nuclear vice president of nuclear affairs, currently on loan to the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, to fill Hanson’s unexpired seat, which runs until June 30, 2009. Nieh is a 20-year veteran of the NRC staff where he served as director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation among other positions. He was also chief of staff for Commissioner William Ostendorff, who served on the NRC from 2010 to 2016.
The reaction to Caputo’s resignation and its impact on the NRC was multi-directional. Nuclear industry observer Alexander Kaufman, writing in Mother Jones, commented, “The upheaval now is a sign of how the new administration has politicized an agency that was once an oasis of bipartisan consensus.” He quoted consultant Mark Nelson of Radiant Energy Group, “Caputo apparently resigned rather than be compromised by politics of NRC independence destruction.”
The pro-nuclear Breakthrough Institute’s nuclear director Adam Stein said, “Caputo’s departure is a loss for the NRC and a setback for efforts to reform the agency and assure expeditious licensing of innovative advanced nuclear technology. She has been a clear voice for change at the NRC, willing to challenge the status quo in ways that her colleagues have not.”
In an email exchange, founding NRC Commissioner Victor Gilinsky told The Quad Report, “She’s a true-blue nuke but actually knows something and is personable. The time for a commission is over. You want someone in charge whose neck you can wring if something bad happens.”
In the same exchange, former Commissioner Peter Bradford said, “In the mid-70s, when the promotional side had the upper hand, resignations were a station on nuclear power’s cross. Should it be a surprise that they’re showing up during the renaissance too, albeit not yet resignations of conscience…? If the past is a guide, it’s when nuclear power seems most invincible that the seeds of its next downfall are sprouting vigorously under the soil.”
In Tennessee, TVA Chief Nuclear Officer Tim Rausch on July 14 announced he will leave the giant federal power agency, the nation’s sixth largest power supplier, before March. The agency has seven reactors at three sites. TVA’s 32 GW of generating capacity (2023 data) consists of 42% nuclear, 31% gas, 14% coal, 9% hydro, and 4% wind and solar.
Rausch joined TVA in 2018 with 30 years of experience in nuclear power. His immediate prior position was running Talen Energy’s 2,700-MW Susquehanna plant in eastern Pennsylvania since 2009.
3B Media, a multi-station radio company in the state, reported that Rausch’s exit “follows a challenging year for TVA’s nuclear program, characterized by unexpected outages at all three plants, which likely strained operations and drew scrutiny to the agency’s performance.”
It also follows months of turmoil and conflict between the politically powerful power agency and the White House. The TVA board of directors has been operating without a quorum since April, after Trump fired four board members, including the chairman, leaving the 9-member board with only four members.
At the same time, TVA chief executive officer Jeff Lyash retired April 9. He had been TVA’s president and CEO since April 2019. Trump tried to fire Lyash during his first administration, complaining of Lyash’s $10 million annual salary. Lyash announced his retirement on Jan. 31, 11 days after Trump’s second inauguration.
The TVA board, which still had the ability to act at that time, promoted TVA’s chief operating officer Don Moul as the new CEO. He has a base annual salary of $1.2 million, but an unstated additional amount in non-salary compensation, such as retirement benefits.
On July 1, Trump nominated four replacements to the TVA board: Lee Beaman, Mitch Graves and Jeff Hagood, all from Tennessee, and Randall Jones of Alabama. Those appointments have made no progress. The Senate is moving slowly on all nominations, with a growing queue. Republicans have accused Democrats of slow rolling nominations.
According to the Center for Presidential Transition, “The average time to confirm a president’s nominee has nearly quadrupled during the last six administrations.”
Republican Majority Leader John Thune has said he’s looking at ways to speed up nominations, but it’s not an easy task. CBS news noted that “any single senator can effectively stall the path to swift confirmation.”
In the meantime, the White House may be gunning for new TVA CEO Moul. Writing in The Atlantic, Kaufman wrote that on July 14, the “White House delivered an ultimatum on a call with the TVA’s board of directors, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told me. The command was stark: Fire the utility’s CEO, Don Moul, or prepare to be fired.”
The board refused and, in a letter Kaufman obtained, said Moul and TVA had been following “President Trump’s vision of unleashing American energy and achieving American energy dominance.”
The latest TVA twist has raised concerns that the administration may be reviving a long-simmering threat of privatizing the public power agency that many conservatives have long loved to hate. The Chattanooga Times Free Press headlined, “TVA rallies as MAGA figures raise idea of privatization.”
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