Overview
- The Environment and Public Works Committee heard from John Mitchell Graves, Larry Jeffrey Hagood, Randall E. Jones and Arthur L. Graham for seats on the TVA Board.
- TVA projects roughly 26 gigawatts of new baseload capacity over the next decade, and most nominees identified nuclear power as the leading option to meet that need.
- Arthur L. Graham urged validating the demand forecast, and Randall E. Jones said he wants to add more carbon-free resources alongside nuclear.
- Senators pressed the surge in demand from data centers, and nominees said costs should not shift to ratepayers, suggesting tools such as bonds or requiring data centers to finance or supply their own power.
- All nominees opposed privatizing TVA and offered mixed commitments on a 2050 net-zero target and coal plant retirements, as Chair Shelley Moore Capito set written-question deadlines for Friday and said she will seek unanimous-consent confirmation.