The letter the TVA sent Trump rejecting his demand to fire its CEO
EXCLUSIVE: Via a FOIA request, I got a copy of the letter I described in previous reporting.
Last month, I broke news in The Atlantic that the White House had threatened to fire the rest of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors if the three remaining members didn’t fire the federally-owned utility’s chief executive within 24 hours.
Sources inside the TVA interpreted the Trump administration’s move as the first step to lay the groundwork for at least a partial privatization of the nation’s largest public utility, a goal Republicans since Barry Goldwater have pursued.
Since my story published on July 15, the reporting united unusual bedfellows in protest against the potential selling off of any of the TVA: The IBEW and IAM industrial unions launched petitions to oppose the privatization, and green groups such as the Sierra Club put out similar statements.
In my story, I described a letter the TVA board sent to the White House, balking at the order and explaining why firing CEO Don Moul ran counter to the law and the utility’s interests. A source had sent me the letter’s text, but I had not received the official document. After the magazine story published, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the TVA to get the original letter. Last week, the TVA granted my request.
In the 687-word letter addressed to McKenna Skeeters, the special assistant to the president for personnel who communicated Trump’s demand, TVA Board Chair Bill Renick said the White House had provided “no substantive reason to terminate Mr. Moul.”
“Accordingly, we cannot ask Mr. Moul to resign, when doing so is contrary to our understanding of the needs of TVA and the nation, and forcing TVA to make another change at CEO would simply cause additional chaos and unpredictability at a time when our focus should be on responding to the energy emergency,” the letter reads.
The Trump administration’s plans for the TVA remain unclear. Trump ultimately pulled back on his threat to disband the board. Days after the TVA board rejected his request, Trump named another member to one of its open seats. On Monday, as I reported for Latitude Media, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued a statement praising the TVA’s decision to sign the first power purchase agreement in U.S. history between a utility and a next-generation nuclear company.
You can read the full letter below by downloading the PDF or reviewing the text I reprinted in full:
Subject: Response to Your Inquiry the Morning
Email- [REDACTED]
Ms. Skeeters,
This letter responds to your request from the White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), on behalf of Sergio Gor. Specifically, you asked me, as Chair to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board of Directors (or the full TVA Board), to ask for the resignation of TVA’s current Chief Executive Officer, Don Moul, via electronic letter. As explained below, we, the three remaining members of the TVA Board of Directors, cannot request Mr. Moul’s resignation because, in our view, doing so would be contrary to TVA’s ability to implement President Trump’s vision of unleashing American energy and achieving American energy dominance.
The Board selected Mr. Moul to serve as CEO on March 25, 2025, when it was last guided by a quorum. The Board made its decision to appoint Mr. Moul to the highest executive position in TVA to ensure that TVA embarks on an aggressive policy of energy dominance that involves all fuel types: coal, natural gas, nuclear, advanced nuclear, hydro, pumped storage, and economic renewables. Mr. Moul’s past leadership position as TVA’s Chief Operating Officer, and prior experience leading Nextera’s and FirstEnergy’s nuclear programs made him extremely well qualified to advance TVA’s objectives of responsibly developing new nuclear technologies, and leading TVA (and the nation) in bringing new technologies online while also investing in existing technologies to meet the increasing energy needs of the Tennessee Valley.
Mr. Moul has done nothing in the past 105 days to indicate that he is unfit to fill the role of CEO. To the contrary, Mr. Moul, among other things, has decisively directed TVA to reconsider its coal retirement strategy and develop working relationships with numerous new nuclear technology companies to find ways that TVA can continue to unleash American energy and lead the future of advanced nuclear. He has also continued to drive TVA’s investment in 6,200 MW of new generation assets, which mostly includes natural gas generation, to support the growing needs of TVA’s seven-state region.
In other words, Mr. Moul’s direction is the same direction established by President Trump and his administration. Members of this Board are aligned with the President’s direction—while at least one member is aligned based on party affiliation and voting records, all three Board members are aligned with the direction established by President Trump for American Made energy independence and dominance. Mr. Moul, on behalf of this Board, is actively carrying out that direction. Therefore, there is no principled reason to request his resignation, and the White House PPO has provided no substantive reason to terminate Mr. Moul. (b) (6)
Accordingly, we cannot ask Mr. Moul to resign, when doing so is contrary to our understanding of the needs of TVA and the nation, and forcing TVA to make another change at CEO would simply cause additional chaos and unpredictability at a time when our focus should be on responding to the energy emergency. Moreover, it is questionable whether this Board would have the ability to appoint a permanent replacement if Mr. Moul retired, yet this company needs stability and clarity to achieve the objectives established by the Administration. We would be glad to discuss our reasoning with members of the Administration, and we would invite a discussion with [you] as to why this Board received the request it did from this morning.
We leave you with this last note—the TVA was formed in 1933 and, for the past 92 years, has provided reliable, affordable, and resilient electricity to an ever-growing population of individuals and businesses in primarily Republican states—Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. We have also managed the Tennessee River system and its tributaries. TVA has not received annual appropriations to support its power program since 1959, and it stopped receiving appropriations to support the river system in 1999. Still, TVA’s customers have some of the best electricity rates in the region and country, with impressively high reliability. We are proud of TVA’s history and its mission of service, and we hope that it continues as the model of public power for decades to come.
Bill Renick
PROGRAMMING NOTES: Aside from the story I wrote for Latitude Media on Kairos Power’s deal with the TVA this week, I also published one of the first stories on Friday about the Treasury Department’s long-awaited guidance on tax credits for wind and solar.
Over at Canary Media, I published a feature on China’s gaining ground on exporting green steel to Europe while the U.S. abandons its efforts.
This editions soundtrack is “Da Du Dah,” a lush and extremely catchy new track by the London-based R&B-funk septet Kokoroko.
Signing off from a crisp and sunny Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where local politicians are fighting to keep the U.S. military from shutting down the Harbor Defense Museum on the Fort Hamilton base, calling it a “disservice to history.”