Trump fires 3rd TVA board member since March

The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors is now down to just three members. 

President Donald Trump fired member Beth Geer on Tuesday without citing a reason for the termination. 

Geer is the chief of staff to former vice president Al Gore and was nominated to the board by former president Joe Biden. 

Geer is the third board member to be ousted by Trump since March. Trump fired Michelle Moore in March and the former chair Joe Ritch in April. 

Courtesy John Todd Waterman

Former TVA board member Beth Geer has been the chief of staff for former Vice President Al Gore since 2012.

During Trump’s first administration, the president also fired two board members after TVA decided to outsource labor overseas. That decision was subsequently reversed. Trump was also openly critical of the salary of former CEO Jeff Lyash, who announced his retirement shortly after Trump was elected. 

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The nine-person board is the main regulator for the utility, though it has not challenged TVA’s major decisions in recent years — and has repeatedly, ceded power to the CEO to make decisions on new gas plants, which is a type of fossil fuel infrastructure that burns fracked methane.

Caroline Eggers WPLN News

The Tennessee Valley Authority has been rapidly expanding its system of gas plants, which use fracked methane to produce electricity.

The board needs at least five seats filled to take official action. Each member is nominated by U.S. presidents and confirmed by the Senate. Trump has not nominated any candidates to the board. 

Since Trump took office, the federal utility has submitted the nation’s first construction permit application for a small modular reactor, a type of nuclear plant. The new CEO, Don Moul, has also suggested prolonging the retirement of TVA’s coal plants.