TREE-HUGGING MISINFORMATION CONTINUES FROM NES!
Nashville Electric Service (NES) is facing continuing scrutiny and political pressure over its tree-trimming practices and budget after the severe January 2026 ice storm left hundreds of thousands without power and in below-freezing temperatures for over a week.
NES’s CEO, Teresa Broyles-Aplin, continues to insist that the utility has not cut its tree-trimming budget, saying it has increased every year and that approximately $21.6 million is budgeted for the current year.
The facts tell a different story!
2023: $21.2 million spent
2024: $13.8 million spent (a $7.5 million decrease in operating expenses attributed to tree trimming)
2025: $14.2 million spent
NES says the discrepancy came from a change in vendors, resulting in “more favorable pricing” and lower costs per mile trimmed, not a reduction in the allocated budget itself. But an internal audit from late 2025 had flagged vegetation management as a “high risk” for causing prolonged outages. The most recent storm has intensified the debate, with critics pointing out that NES’s 2025 spending was far below the national average of $27 million for utilities, and well below Memphis’ budget for tree management.
The NES CEO now says they will reevaluate their approach to “saving trees”. Too little too late?
CAN NES LOBBY ITS WAY OUT OF SCRUTINY AND ACCOUNTABILITY?
NES has reportedly hired new lobbyists to help shield it from calls for firings and significant reforms from Tennessee legislative leaders in the wake of its ice storm failures. Nashville signed a multi-year $219,000 a year deal to retain Butler Snow earlier this year.
As TriStar Daily pointed out at the time, the primary lobbyists at Butler Snow are all activist Democrats, despite the fact that Tennessee has a Republican governor, and the legislature has supermajorities of Republicans in both the state House and state Senate.
Just another scheme to shuffle taxpayer money into the pockets of leftist Democrat lobbyists by Democrat Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell. Any bets on which Democrat led lobbying firm is being retained by NES???
WHO DOES GOVERNOR BILL LEE HAVE SCREEN HIS POLITICAL APPOINTEES? Governor Lee has been criticized for being a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and for surrounding himself with top advisors who have long records of being Democrats. So his recent appointment of Knoxville attorney Rachel Hurt to the Tennessee Court of Appeals has again raised eyebrows among conservatives. She is an excellent attorney and former President of the Knoxville Bar Association. Her legal credentials are not in question, but her lack of conservative values definitely are.
Her consistent campaign donations to Democrats over the past decade, including donations to Hillary Clinton, and an absence of any significant donations to conservative Republicans, justifiably raises questions about her values, judgment and partisan leanings, along with Governor Lee’s.
With the prospect that Governor Lee will have the opportunity to appoint a US Senate replacement for Marsha Blackburn should she win the Governor’s office in November, conservatives in Tennessee and in the Trump White House are already expressing concerns about the fact that Lee is unlikely to choose a reliable conservative to represent the deeply red state of Tennessee in the Senate. Trump already has enough troubles with RINOs in the Senate blocking his legislative agenda without Bill Lee appointing yet another obstructionist faux conservative to replace Blackburn. Based upon Lee’s track record of appointments, it is certainly a legitimate concern.
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