Chatt TFP: Reactions to recent departure of TVA boss Moul
neillh...@earthlink.net
Officials react to TVA CEO departure: ‘Don’t think he could survive’
13 hours, 24 minutes ago by Daniel Dassow | Updated April 6, 2026 at 8:34 p.m.
Gift Article
Staff file photo by Matt Hamilton/ President Donald Trump took aim at TVA this year, authoring a memo calling for a salary cap of $500,000 at the federal agency.
Leaders across Tennessee may disagree on whether Don Moul should have been CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, but they agree on one thing: His brief time leading the nation's largest public utility got off to a rocky start.
Moul will retire July 1, a little more than a year into the job, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported over the weekend.
Five days before Moul accepted the job offer from the TVA board of directors in March 2025, the two U.S. senators from Tennessee co-wrote an opinion piece calling for an interim CEO from outside TVA who was trusted by President Donald Trump.
Moul became the non-interim CEO from inside TVA, and every indication suggests he was not personally trusted by Trump. The president fired two board members in the days after the board elevated Moul from chief operating officer to CEO, stripping the new executive of enough directors to approve his new initiatives.
The political situation for Moul seemed to get more tense as time went on. A White House official tried unsuccessfully to pressure the TVA board to demand Moul's resignation in July. One day after the board declined to oust Moul, TVA made another kind of concession, abandoning plans to build a natural gas power plant opposed by country musician and Trump ally John Rich.
Officials react to TVA CEO departure
TVA / TVA CEO Don Moul will leave the role around a year after he became the chief executive of the nation's largest public utility.
1 / 5
Then in February, Trump blasted TVA at a packed pro-coal event at the White House with Moul in the audience, saying he would make the CEO's life miserable.
Moul, 61, was selected by a board whose members had all been appointed by former President Joe Biden. Trump has fired several other Biden appointees across the federal government, but only the TVA board carries the power to dismiss a CEO from the utility. The former Biden-appointed board chair resigned abruptly in February.
(READ MORE: Five things to watch as TVA follows Trump 'energy dominance' agenda)
The vote of no confidence from U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, R-Tennessee, and Trump's comments about TVA were two major strikes against Moul, said Mike Arms, executive director of the Association of Tennessee Valley Governments.
"I think Don was at the wrong place at the wrong time," Arms, a former TVA engineer and executive staffer, said in a phone call. "He's probably thinking, the best thing for me and this agency is to move on."
Blackburn welcomed the news of Moul's retirement, which she said opens an opportunity to bring in a leader who will fast-track new nuclear development. TVA could get approval this year from the federal government to build a first-of-its-kind small modular reactor, after Trump ordered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up the process.
"His departure will be a good thing for TVA, and I am hopeful the new Trump-appointed board of directors will choose a CEO equipped to lead the nation in next-generation nuclear," Blackburn said in an emailed statement.
Moul is a nuclear engineer and reactor operator by training and has worked to position TVA as a national leader in new nuclear development. During his time as CEO, TVA became the first U.S. utility to apply to build a small modular reactor and landed a $400 million federal grant for the effort.
TVA is a government agency that makes its own money, to the tune of nearly $14 billion last year, and functions in many ways like a private corporation. Moul is the fourth CEO since Congress created the position at the New Deal agency two decades ago.
The position comes with automatic public scrutiny because it's the highest-paid job in the federal government. Moul's target compensation for his first full fiscal year as CEO was $6 million, compared to former CEO Jeff Lyash's $10.5 million pay package.
Executive pay trended in the right direction under Moul, said Doug Peters, CEO of the Chattanooga-based Tennessee Valley Public Power Association. The association's members are the 153 local utilities that buy wholesale power from TVA and distribute it to 10 million people.
"For him to remain as focused as he did and keep TVA moving in the right direction, which I think almost every member would agree with, then I think you have to say Don did a good job," Peters said by phone.
Moul's decision to retire came nearly a month after Trump signed a memo pushing the TVA board to set a $500,000 compensation limit for all roles at the utility. The memo expanded Trump's criticism of the CEO's compensation into a directive that would directly cut pay for around 230 employees, the Times Free Press has reported. The board has 90 days from the March 11 memo to consider adopting it, though several officials have questioned if TVA could retain top industry talent under the limit.
FROM THE START
Moul was at a disadvantage from the beginning of his time as CEO because the board did not meet to deliberate his selection to the standards of Washington, said U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville.
"He was behind the eight ball from day one," Burchett said in a phone call. "I just don't think he could survive."
The TVA board now has a majority of four members appointed by Trump, though the nomination of one Trump nominee, businessman Lee Beaman of Nashville, is in limbo as a Senate committee waits for a hearing. Three seats sit vacant on the nine-person panel.
The board will make the decision over who to hire as the next CEO, whether in an interim capacity or not. During his first term, Trump became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to dismiss a TVA board member. He has fired three in his second term without publicly saying why.
"The president has a different management style than I believe folks at TVA are used to," Burchett said. "I look forward to what the future holds for the valley."
TVA did not include details on Moul's retirement benefits package in the official announcement of his retirement on Monday. His retirement benefits were worth more than $5.6 million as of Sept. 30, according to TVA's most recent financial statement.
If Moul follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, Lyash, he may join the board of a private, investor-owned utility. Every TVA CEO has come to the agency from private utilities, which tend to pay their executives and their board members more.
Lyash joined the board at Virginia-based Dominion Energy a few months after leaving TVA. The Dominion board members made between $285,000 and $355,000 in compensation and stock awards in 2024.
The timing of Moul's departure around his fifth anniversary as a TVA executive likely means he has accrued long-term benefits.
"I suspect he'll land in a very nice spot," Burchett said. "I suspect his contract has laid him in a very good position. Most people could make $5 million or $6 million in one year and live very comfortably off that the rest of their lives."
As Tennessee's top leaders in Congress, Blackburn and Hagerty play a major role in recommending TVA board members to the White House for nomination. TVA generates electricity for nearly all of Tennessee and parts of six neighboring states, a seven-state service territory often called the "Tennessee Valley," because it traces the Tennessee River.
New leadership at TVA should grow Tennessee's lead on new nuclear energy, Hagerty said in an emailed statement.
"President Trump has articulated a clear goal of American energy independence," Hagerty said. "I look forward to working with President Trump's TVA leadership to expand Tennessee's lead in nuclear energy as we support the rapid growth in demand that Tennessee's booming economy so clearly requires."
SUPPORT FOR MOUL
Under Moul, TVA invested billions of dollars to build new power plants while keeping the utility's debt well below its $30 billion legal limit. The former chief operating officer retained the responsibilities of the No. 2 role when he became CEO.
One key constituency that has supported Moul through his time at TVA are the labor unions that represent more than half of the utility's employees. After the White House tried to get the board to call for Moul's resignation, labor unions raised the alarm that the Trump administration may try to privatize TVA. The second Trump administration has not renewed a push to sell off TVA assets.
Curtis Sharpe, international vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Tenth District, said it has been an honor to work with Moul. The union represents around 2,800 of TVA's roughly 10,600 employees.
(READ MORE: TVA eligible for valuable tax credit on Alabama hydro plant)
"The TVA board of directors will be hard-pressed to find a leader of his caliber and character," Sharpe said in an email. "Recently, it seems that some elected officials have made TVA into somewhat of a political football, and that is never a good thing for our members or the TVA customers."
The utility performed well with Moul at the helm, said Mitch Graves, the interim chair of the TVA board.
"Under his leadership, TVA has had strong operational and financial performance delivering reliable, affordable, American energy that helps communities across our seven states prosper," Graves said in an emailed statement.
TVA is headquartered in Knoxville and employs around 3,000 people in Chattanooga, its largest operations base.
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at dda...@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.
Enjoyed this article? Gift it to a friend below.
Gift Article
Daniel Dassow is a business reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He earned degrees in English and religious studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2023, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Beacon. He previously worked as a tech and energy reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel. He is the youngest of six siblings. Contact him at 423-757-6318 or dda...@timesfreepress.com.