The CEO of the largest federal utility is leaving after President Donald Trump pitched a dramatic pay cut to the position, a move that could complicate the search for a replacement.
Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Don Moul, a longtime TVA employee tapped to serve as CEO in April 2025, notified the utility’s board of directors Friday that he plans to resign on July 1. The announcement comes weeks after Trump proposed capping TVA staff salaries at $500,000.
The salary cap, if approved by the board, would cut the income of over 200 employees. For Moul, it would amount to an over 90 percent pay cut.
“This may seem like a fiscally responsible move, but it will have long-term deleterious effects,” conservative political consultant Craig Shirley wrote in a recent op-ed for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. “While the TVA is a government corporation, it does not compete against other government agencies like the Department of Energy or Agriculture. Its competitors are the biggest, most profitable utilities in the country.”
