Watch as the smokestacks at TVA’s Bull Run Fossil Plant are imploded
Watch a video of the two smokestacks imploding at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bull Run Fossil Plant from the Melton Lake Greenway on June 28, 2025.
A Nashville businessman and major GOP booster has been nominated for a seat on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board for the second time in under a year.
President Donald Trump is once again asking the U.S. Senate to confirm Lee Beaman to a spot leading TVA, the nation’s largest public utility. Beaman was nominated last summer to fill a seat left vacant after Trump fired board Chair Joe Ritch. Trump then fired two other members of the board, stripping it of the five-member-minimum quorum needed to conduct regular business.
Gridlock persisted for months until the Senate in December confirmed four men – Arthur Graham, Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood and Randall Jones – to seats on the board.
Trump nominated Beaman on July 1, at the same time that he put forward Graves and Hagood, both Tennesseans. But Beaman received a separate hearing held later from the others in a key Senate committee. A spokesperson for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works said at the time Beaman had not submitted necessary paperwork in time for the earlier hearing.
Beaman, who has donated to political groups supporting Trump as well as to Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers during his hearing over his personal and political ties .
While the committee set a second hearing on Beaman’s nomination, near the start of that meeting senators opted to defer his nomination.
At the beginning of 2026, the nomination was returned to the president, who had to start the process over again.
This story will be updated.
Mariah Franklin reports on technology and energy for Knox News. Email: [email protected]. Signal: mariahfranklin.01
