Does blame for the city of Nashville’s ice storm response go beyond the Nashville Electric Service?
That’s among the questions our panel of two Republicans and two Democrats considered this week on Nashville in Focus.
Nashville’s public utility, its CEO and board members have been widely criticized in the wake of a snow and ice storm that left 230-thousand NES account holders without power. That amounts to 50-percent of the utility’s customer base.
NES initially had only about two hundred in-house power line workers committed to making repairs. At the same time, Middle Tennessee Electric — a neighboring power system — had more than a hundred more linesmen attacking a considerably smaller number of outages.
NES initially had only about two hundred in-house power line workers committed to making repairs. At the same time, Middle Tennessee Electric — a neighboring power system — had more than a hundred more linesmen attacking a considerably smaller number of outages.
After initially complimenting NES and its response, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell flipped the script days later, criticizing the NES response and its communication efforts. The mayor subsequently appointed a special commission via an executive order to investigate the city’s response. That followed calls from the public and various state lawmakers to fire Nashville Electric Service CEO Teresa Broyles-Alpin and replace the utility’s board of directors. The names behind those calls include state Representative Cameron Sexton, a Crossville Republican who serves as speaker of the Tennessee House and U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor.
