Almost 18 months after being nominated, none of President Joe Biden’s six nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority board have been confirmed, including the chief of staff to former Vice-President Al Gore.
Now, TVA could face a loss of a quorum on the board as the nation’s largest public utility is set to make critical decisions on carbon reduction steps to combat climate change.
Biden’s nominees include Beth Geer, who has worked with Gore for more than 30 years, Robert Klein, Michelle Moore, Adam Wade White, William Rennick and Joe Ritch.
Geer has run into political roadblocks in the confirmation process after Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst criticized a one-word tweet — “hideous” — Geer made in response to Ernst’s GOP rebuttal to then-President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union speech.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which conducted a confirmation hearing on Geer and three other nominees in April, has scheduled a business meeting next Tuesday to vote to recommend Geer’s nomination to the full U.S. Senate. The five other nominees were previously endorsed by the Senate panel but are still awaiting a Senate confirmation vote.