President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated four new members for the the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, filling all but one of the vacancies on the nine-member governing board for America’s biggest publicly owned utility.
The White House picks were all white men, most of whom are business executives, and come from four of the seven Southeastern states served by TVA.
Jeff Smith, the deputy lab director for operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was named to one of the five-year terms open on the board. While at ORNL – the nation’s biggest federal research lab – Smith has led a $400 million modernization effort that has given rise to more new construction at the Oak Ridge facilities at any time since the Manhattan Project.
Smith earned immediate praise from both of the Republican senators in Tennessee, which comprises more than two-thirds of TVA’s total service region.
Jeff SmithU.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called Smith “an outstanding choice” to serve on the TVA board.