Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Tennessee Deputy Director Michael Lotfi has suggested Republican leaders in the Tennessee General Assembly “take over” the Nashville Electric Service (NES) Board of Directors amid the utility’s ongoing power outage crisis following Winter Storm Fern, arguing that governance failures and policy priorities contributed to widespread outages and prolonged restoration timelines.
In a Sunday post on X, Lotfi criticized the current structure of the NES board, which is appointed by Nashville’s mayor and confirmed by the Metro Council, despite the utility serving customers beyond Davidson County.
It's time for the Republicans in Tennessee state government to take over @NESpower's board. It makes absolutely no sense that NES has a monopoly, not only over Nashville, but also 6 Republican counties that touch Nashville and yet only the radical left-wing Mayor @freddieoconnell…
— Michael Lotfi (@MichaelLotfi) February 1, 2026
NES provides electricity to roughly 470,000 customers, including residents in six surrounding counties.
Noting this, Lotfi said, “It makes absolutely no sense that NES has a monopoly, not only over Nashville, but also 6 Republican counties that touch Nashville and yet only the radical left-wing Mayor [Freddie O’Connell] and his radical left-wing Nashville City Council have total control the board, which represents the 10th largest public utility in the country.”
Lotfi went on to call for a restructuring of the board to include at least one representative from each county served by NES and for the state legislature and governor to have a role in overseeing how the regional utility operates and who sits on its board.
He also accused current leadership of prioritizing what he described as “DEI and green energy” initiatives over core infrastructure reliability, alleging that those priorities contributed to “gross mismanagement” in wake of the storm.
“It’s time for the Republicans in Tennessee state government to take over [NES’] board,” Lotfi said.
Lotfi’s post was amplified by U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02), who said, “Sounds like a plan!”
Conservative political pundit Robby Starbuck also agreed with Lotfi’s assessment, saying, “We must take NES over and replace the woke execs with sane, focused people who actually live and breathe the power business.”
Reporting by The Tennessee Star into NES amid the outages has shed light on the utility’s leadership priorities under CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin.
In August 2025, Broyles-Aplin said the utility employed a restrained, species-specific approach to tree trimming to preserve Nashville’s urban tree canopy, stating she did not want crews “out destroying the canopy.”
Further, The Star reported that under Broyles-Aplin’s leadership, NES cut the amount it spent on contracted tree trimming services by more than $7 million in 2024.
NES has also expanded its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives during Broyles-Aplin’s time as CEO, conducting more than 100 DEI training sessions in 2024 and continuing contracts with DEI consultants.
On Saturday, NES released a schedule which indicated that many parts of Nashville are not expected to have power restored until Sunday, February 8, 2026, a full two weeks after the widespread outages began.
As of Sunday evening, nearly 30,000 NES customers reported outages, the utility’s website showed.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Nashville Electric Service Power Wire Fire” by Nashville Electric Service.
