If the Tennessee Valley Authority bent any further backward trying to please President Donald Trump, it would fall.
But the federal utility “has gone in a very stupid, very bad direction,” the president said Wednesday in the first remarks he’s made about the federal utility in his second term.
TVA, since Trump became president, has said it will keep two coal plants running beyond their previously scheduled closings, has hired a chief executive officer at slightly more than half the previous chief executive’s salary, has backed away from renewable energy as a priority, has ditched its diversity, equity and inclusion goals and has begun operating with four board members nominated by the president.
Apparently, though, like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, it “can’t get no respect” from the president.
In a White House ceremony Wednesday supporting the coal industry, which Trump said during his first term that he would revive as a major energy source, he did announce that TVA planned to keep running its Cumberland and Kingston coal plants.