Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, sharply criticized Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell over his decision to appoint former Governor Phil Bredesen to chair the city’s 2026 Winter Storm Response Commission tasked with studying Nashville Electric Service’s (NES) preparation and response to Winter Storm Fern, calling the move an “absurd conflict of interest.”
On Tuesday, O’Connell announced that Bredesen will chair the commission, despite the former governor being the co-founder of green energy company Silicon Ranch, which actively does business with NES.
O’Connell has since denied that Bredesen’s appointment to the commission is a conflict of interest, telling The Star that the commission has no authority over NES.
Pappert, during an appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, argued that the optics of Bredesen’s appointment to the commission alone could undermine public confidence in the review process.
“When he left office, Phil Bredesen happened to go found a company called Silicon Ranch, which by the way is in the middle of a business deal with NES to provide them electricity,” Pappert said. “It just seems like an absurd conflict of interest to me.”
He went on to argue that even if the commission lacks formal authority over NES, the optics of having a chairman whose company does business with the utility could undermine public trust in the review.
“I don’t think that it’s something that you can overcome by putting an asterisk in the final reports and just stating this conflict for all people to see. It’s going to undermine the credibility of the commission and whatever they come up with,” Pappert said.
He also suggested the appointment could be politically motivated, speculating that aligning with a former governor may be intended to project “managerial experience.”
“The only thing I can think insofar as what he was thinking is, well, let’s get some former governors,” Pappert said. “Maybe we can find a Republican to round out the numbers and then everybody will assume that these guys have some managerial experience and some intelligence.”
“I think Freddie O’Connell…is completely motivated by politics. What is the most expedient and beneficial path? Perhaps aligning himself with the former governor is going to distract from the hatred he’s getting from some of his moderate constituents as well as his far left constituents,” he added.
Ultimately, Pappert maintained that Bredesen’s leadership of the commission risks overshadowing its work before it begins.
“It’s a very interesting selection for a commission that is not even going to have its report ready for a year,” he said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Phil Bredesen” by Phil Bredesen.
