Executive salaries, fossil fuel opposition and transparency: Understanding TVA’s meetings in Nashville this week

Lipscomb University looked like it had a political delegation on its campus this week.  

Parking lots at the George Shinn Event Center overflowed with black SUVs. Police officers surrounded the premises, rifled through bags and confiscated water bottles. A dog sniffed for bombs.

But the caravan belonged to an electric utility. 

The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors met at the college in Nashville twice this week to conduct their routine quarterly business. There was a stark contrast between the two meetings — and what the public asked the board to do versus what the board did. 

On Thursday, during its regular meeting, the board passed new rules that reduce the maximum potential compensation for CEOs. Last year, Jeff Lyash made $10.5 million while managing TVA, and most of his salary came from various bonuses. The new rules reduce the maximum amount of some of those bonuses by 25%. 

What would be even more beneficial to Tennessee Valley residents, one expert suggested, would be changing what actions and metrics executives are being rewarded for. 

“The board could toss out bonuses that prolong TVA’s reliance on fossil fuels and introduce new metrics geared towards advancing renewable energy, environmental justice and energy resilience,” said Gaby Sarri-Tobar, the energy justice campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. 

Courtesy John Todd Waterman

Tennessee residents and climate activists attended a public feedback session for the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on May 8, 2024.

Sarri-Tobar authored a report last month that found, since 2020, the top six executives at TVA collectively made about $3 million from bonuses tied to decisions to build new gas plants. 

More: TVA executives made $90 million since 2020 while pushing fossil fuels. Your electricity bill paid them. | WPLN News

Also on Thursday, the TVA board approved a new policy to publish resolutions online one week after passing them as opposed to three months later. That change follows a recent WPLN investigation on how the board delegated decision-making authority on the Kingston methane gas project to Lyash last August without informing the public at the time. 

Both changes are positive utility reforms, Sarri-Tobar said. 

But the board did not take any actions this week that would result in TVA reducing its climate or public health impacts. 

Community members, activists demand a fossil-free future

On Wednesday, the board hosted a public feedback session. While thunder rumbled between notifications of flash flooding and tornado watches, residents discussed the primary intensifier of extreme weather: fossil fuels. 

“There’s no secret to how we can end global warming. Stop burning fossil fuels,” said Paul Klein, a climate activist from Memphis. 

Many folks drove in from Ashland City or Cheatham County, where TVA has designs for a new methane gas plant and pipeline — one of eight projects planned by the federal utility this decade. 

“There’s no amount of money that can be made that it’s worth causing this damage to those kids,” said resident Angela Moore. 

Courtesy John Todd Waterman

Cheatham County resident Angela Moore gave a tearful speech during a public feedback session for the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on May 8, 2024.

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben traveled from Vermont to publicly comment on TVA’s fossil fuel expansion.  

“This is one of the most important set of decisions being made about this country’s energy future,” McKibben said. 

As most places embrace renewables, McKibben said, TVA clings to the past. 

In 2024, renewables, batteries and nuclear will represent 96% of all new power capacity constructed nationally. The remaining capacity additions will be gas, according to an analysis by the U.S. Energy and Information Administration. The analysis did not include TVA’s planned gas additions in New Johnsonville — if included, TVA would represent about one-fifth of all new gas this year.

“In California, this spring, they’ve been producing more than 100% of the energy that they need most days with renewable energy,” McKibben said. “At night, when the sun goes down, batteries have become the biggest source of power in the grid. Bigger than nuclear plants. Bigger than gas-fired plants.”

Transitioning to a future where renewables and batteries are the only new energy sources being built is possible, and the TVA Board could implement policy changes to help make that happen.

TVA has not wavered in its plans to build out fossil fuel infrastructure even as community members, officials and other federal agencies have opposed it. During the listening session on Wednesday, which is capped to a maximum of two hours, multiple industry representatives promoted fossil fuels.