Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is blaming a mischievous “gremlin” at the White House for a bad policy in President Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget that would sell off the electric transmission assets of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a large public power utility, in his state.
“There is a thing called TVA, which is in Tennessee, and there’s some gremlin over in the Office of Management and Budget, and for every president, somehow, this gremlin makes his way through the floor and gets into some budget proposal to sell either Bonneville or TVA, the transmission assets,” Alexander said in questioning Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday.
Alexander is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, which is hashing out what stays or goes in Perry’s Energy Department budget request for fiscal 2019.
“My hope would be that somebody would find that gremlin and lock him in a closet [and] that the administration would focus its administration on other issues,” Alexander said.
He did not require Perry to respond. Prior to his gremlin remarks, lawmakers from Washington and Oregon slammed him on the proposed sale which would also include selling off the transmission assets of the Northwest’s Bonneville Power Authority.
Perry said he got the message loud and clear.
The senators mentioned that a two-day lobbying campaign by the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association drove home the point that selling off the power authority’s assets would be a serious mistake.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said the utility cooperatives were in his office asking why the administration wants to “sell us out” by selling an important rural electric asset, calling it the “most horrific idea” that should be taken off the table and forgotten.
He said the Northwest delegation will do everything in their power to block the sale if the administration pursues this idea.
Perry said the proposal was meant to begin a conversation.
“It’s a bad idea,” Merkley responded.
