US utility pledges more transparency after lack of notice it empowered CEO to make plant decisions

The nation's largest public utility on Thursday pledged to be more transparent after it took months to disclose that a general budget vote by its board last year also gave the CEO the final decision over several proposed natural gas power plants.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's board announced the transparency changes during its quarterly meeting in Nashville. The decision followed an August meeting in which the federal utility's board cast the budget vote that quietly gave President and CEO Jeff Lyash the final say over the projects, including the replacement of the aging coal-fired Kingston Fossil Plant with a natural gas plant.

The public didn't find out about those provisions until documents with specific details were released several months later, some via public records request, said Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The decision stood in contrast to a more publicized vote in May 2023 when the board, with a new majority selected by President Joe Biden, took back the final decision-making authority on the Kingston plant. Lyash had been granted the authority for Kingston and the natural gas switch at Cumberland Fossil Plant, both in Tennessee, when the board had a majority picked by former President Donald Trump.

“One of the changes the chair asked me if I would do, which I can, is to take the resolutions, precisely what is being voted by the board, and make those resolutions publicly available, get them on the website rapidly after the meeting,” Lyash told The Associated Press.

Board member Michelle Moore, who was absent but had a statement read on her behalf, said some decisions are better delegated to the CEO because they span years and multiple board cycles, but others