TVA Chairman stepping down

Former Sundquist ECD commissioner returning to private sector

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Bill Baxter

Bill Baxter, the last full-time chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, has resigned from the federal utility's board of directors.

Baxter was appointed to the board of the TVA by President George W. Bush in 2001, becoming chairman in 2005.

Prior to his appointment to the TVA, Baxter was commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development for Gov. Don Sundquist.

Baxter was chairman and chief executive officer of his family's business, Holston Gases Inc., a distributor of industrial gases headquartered in Knoxville, before joining the Sundquist administration in 1997.

In a resignation statement, Baxter says that he is "returning to the private sector," although he is still listed as chairman of Holston Gases according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Congress restructured the TVA in 2006 in a legislative package pushed through by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, making the board a part-time, nine member panel with directors serving five-year terms. Previously, the board consisted of a three member panel that served nine-year terms.

Although Baxter had nearly five years remaining on a term he was appointed to prior to congressional restructuring, he was an advocate of the changes made to the organization. In his resignation he states, "I have self-limited my term to five years in the spirit of the legislation modernizing the governance structure of TVA."

The departure of Baxter will likely set off a power struggle among U.S. Senators hoping to have Bush appoint a resident of their state to replace him.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby (R) has long fumed publicly over what he considers an inordinate number of Tennesseans that have governed the utility that serves residents of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Before Baxter resigned, six of the nine members were residents of Tennessee, including Dennis Bottorff of Nashville.