TVA interim chairman wants to ‘keep momentum going’
The White House announced Thursday that the president will designate the Knoxville businessman as “first among equals” on the TVA Board of Directors pending the appointment of additional members to an expanded part-time board that will choose its own chairman.
The appointment follows the end of Chairman Glenn McCullough’s term on May 18, which left Baxter, a Bush appointee to the board in 2001, and Skila Harris, a Clinton appointee, as the only sitting members of the federal utility’s full-time governing body.
“My personal hope was that on May 19 we would have had seven new people to swear in, but the process has taken longer — as it usually does in the federal government,” said Baxter, 51, who served as economic commissioner under former Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist.
Baxter now hopes those new members will be in place by Oct. 1, when TVA begins its new fiscal year. Meanwhile, he and Harris will carry on business as usual, delaying matters only when they can’t agree and want a larger quorum to decide.
“Clearly we would all prefer for this interim period to be as short as possible,” he said. “But in the meantime, I think it is healthy to have clear leadership and keep the momentum going. Don’t put anything on hold, don’t drift. We have a lot of important work to do this summer and Skila and I are committed to getting that done.”
Baxter and Harris will be considering a fiscal 2006 budget on July 22 that includes TVA’s first proposed electric rate increase since 2003 to offset higher fuel prices. Baxter and Harris said TVA’s ability to continue to reduce operating and maintenance costs will factor into their decision.
The rate proposal would raise residential bills $3.50 to $6.50 a month for the 8.5 million people receiving TVA electricity in Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
At that same meeting, Baxter and Harris may also vote on whether to accept a large land swap at Nickajack Lake for a development proposed by Chattanooga developer John Thornton. The deal has pitted economic interests against preservation concerns.
In a letter, Gov. Phil Bredesen urged TVA to give “serious consideration to the approval of this proposal, assuming of course that it … passes your internal review mechanisms.”
Bredesen press secretary Lydia Lenker said the governor consulted state environmental regulators before sending the letter. “He showed no special treatment or any favoritism” to Thornton, she said.
Baxter wouldn’t say how he would vote, but did praise the Thornton proposal for offering to give TVA more property than he would take. “The overarching principal (should be) that there will be no net loss of public lands and it is environmentally responsible,” he said.
Baxter said he doesn’t know who will be the new appointees to the expanded board — a move pushed by U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to make TVA’s management structure more like a corporation guided by a chief executive officer.
“I am like everybody else, I have heard a lot of names,” he said. “The names that have been discussed are topflight, excellent business folks, industry folks, people with experience and expertise that can be valuable to TVA. And that is encouraging.”
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