Dr. Marilyn Brown has the background to promote energy solutions in the Southeast and nationwide. So why are U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker opposing her nomination to TVA Board of Directors?

Appalachian Voices applauds President Obama’s decision to re-nominate Marilyn Brown, a longtime advocate for energy efficiency, to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors. The president’s move was criticized by Tennessee senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who had been pushing for a nominee more friendly to “economic development” in the Tennessee Valley.

Dr. Brown has done a great service to the southeastern United States by serving on the TVA Board since 2010. A veteran of Oak Ridge National Laboratories, she has a long and distinguished career promoting solutions that help move America’s energy policy forward.

Brown was a co-lead of the “Scenarios for a Clean Energy Future” report, which was a groundbreaking look at the potential costs and benefits of cleaner energy alternatives. Other reports led by Brown have focused on the unharnessed economic potential for energy efficiency, industrial energy efficiency, metropolitan carbon footprints, and reviving manufacturing with federal cogeneration policy.

She is currently the director of the Climate And Energy Policy Laboratory at Georgia Tech, which researchs global energy security, clean energy employment, energy efficiency, climate change mitigation, renewable energy policies and trends in the American South, smart grid policies, and demand response. Brown was also cofounder of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors.

The strength of her background is tremendous. Her expertise on clean energy and energy efficiency in the south is unparalleled. The economic and social need for TVA to focus on these more sustainable energy sources is urgent. Senator Alexander and Senator Corker are both reasonable men, who have a history of pursuing a balanced approach on energy issues, while staying true to their conservative principles. We urge them both to drop their opposition to the re-nomination of Dr. Marilyn Brown to the TVA Board of Directors.

Because The Cheapest Energy is the Energy we Don’t Need to Make.

TVA is the largest federally owned corporate electric utility in the nation, serving parts of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia, and the vast majority of Tennessee. They operate 11 coal-fired power plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, 14 gas plants, several smaller solar facilities, a 29 MW wind farm, and three nuclear power plants, among other things.