With the adjournment of the 111th Congress in December, the Tennessee Valley Authority lost its only Alabama board member.
Howard A. Thrailkill, a 71-year-old retired businessman from Huntsville, Ala., ended more than four years on the TVA board on Dec. 22. A former president of Adtran and corporate vice president of Motorola, Thrailkill was appointed by President George W. Bush. He was the first Alabama resident to serve on the board of the 77-year-old federal utility.
Thrailkill’s term expired in May, but the TVA Act permitted him to continue to serve as a director until the end of the congressional session.
The Obama administration, which nominated four new TVA board members in 2009, has not named a successor to Thrailkill.
U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., put a hold on other TVA nominees at one point and has complained that Alabama, with 14 percent of TVA’s service territory, doesn’t have any representation on the nine-member board.