Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
U.S. Senate confirms Bill Renick to serve on TVA board of directors
By Taylor Vance
JACKSON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Bill Renick, a former state legislator and mayor of Ashland, to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Board of Directors.
Senators took up Renick’s nomination alongside a batch of other federal nominations, and no lawmaker voiced any opposition to the nominees. The longtime public servant's nomination makes him the only Mississippian to serve on the TVA's leadership board.
Renick told the Daily Journal that he is honored President Joe Biden nominated him to the nine-member board and thanked Mississippi’s two U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, for supporting him throughout the confirmation process.
“It’s just a real honor for a person like me from a small town like Ashalnd to serve on the board for the largest public utility in the United States,” Renick said.
Renick is currently the chairman of the Commission on the Future of Northeast Mississippi. He has also served as the workforce division director at Three Rivers Planning and Development District in Pontotoc.
Renick has an extensive career in public service. He has served on the Ashland Board of Aldermen and has been the chief of staff to former Lt. Gov. Eddie Briggs and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Wicker, a Republican from Tupelo, praised Renick’s bipartisan history in a committee hearing earlier this year and gave his nomination a “ringing endorsement.”
“Having managed a campaign statewide as a Republican, having been a chief of staff as a Republican, and a chief of staff as a Democrat, we need more bipartisanship like Bill Renick can deliver,” Wicker said.
The TVA is the largest public utility supplier in the nation, which services wholesale electricity to municipalities and electric cooperatives. The overwhelming majority of municipalities in Northeast Mississippi receive power from TVA.