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Not a day passed between the end of Bill Johnson's tenure as president of the Tennessee Valley Authority and Johnson's appointment Thursday as general manager of Pacific Gas & Electric, the troubled California public service that was shaken by two destructive fires. partly by its equipment.
In January, PG & E filed for Chapter 11 protection against bankruptcy, saying it could not afford the tens of billions of dollars in forest fire costs. The company said Johnson's appointment – along with the installation of ten board members from the worlds of finance, utilities and federal regulation – would help the vendor "face energy challenges in the future." constant evolution of California ".
Johnson, 65, whose $ 6 million compensation has made him the highest paid federal employee, has extensive experience in highly political management, which will also be needed in his new position. More than half of Johnson's incentive compensation will be related to security performance.
[California’s energy challenge: How — and whether — to save PG&E, a utility that could face monumental fire liabilities]
In the Tennessee Valley Authority, he reduced the agency's spending and debt by $ 3.5 billion, including the elimination of 3,000 jobs. He chaired the ongoing elimination of the coal from the TVA fleet and defended the agency's decision to withdraw an aging coal-fired power station even after President Trump asked TVA in a tweet to keep it open. Attorney for nuclear power, Johnson is also an advocate for the authority of a state like California to set his own goals.
"I spent six years at TVA, one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal experiences," Johnson told Washington Post. "Most people remember school but do not really know what it's like."
Like the Green New Deal, which Johnson has described as "ambitious," the original version has been integrated into the economic agenda.
"The old New Deal arrived at a different time," said Johnson, "while the country was on the verge of disaster, his idea was to put the country back to work, and its goals were more concrete and achievable: dams, parks, highways. "He paused." Maybe they are similar. "
Johnson's mandate to TVA was as much about dismantling as it was about construction. The agency, which serves customers in seven US states, used 60 percent of its coal-fired power generation in 2005 and 17 percent by the end of the year. Johnson said that it was a simple matter of costs and that the agency's aging coal plants should be shut down even if there are still one or two.
[TVA defies Trump, votes to shut down two aging coal-fired power plants]
He added that the VAT plan provided for the decommissioning of several coal-fired power plants and the construction of utility solar power plants and natural gas-fired power plants that could be commissioned quickly, if necessary, to help intermittent solar power plants. .
Johnson oversaw the addition of a gigawatt of solar power and 1,400 megawatts of wind. TVA's carbon emissions have declined by about 50% over the past decade, largely in the Johnson era.
The agency's dependence on coal is due to the fact that "we have invested a lot of money in these plants and that they have all the modern equipment, but that the future will depend on gas". -he declares.
"I'm in the camp saying we need to do something to fight climate change," he said. "I think the question is how long will this transition take from gas to gas. I do not think it's a decade. I think everything is going in the right direction, but I think the question is whether it's fast enough. "
He said California does not tax carbon dioxide emissions but makes these costs an integral part of electricity tariffs. "I live in the south," said Johnson, who was formerly Managing Director of Progress Energy. "I am a person with state rights. I think that if you live in a state that wants to do it, that's what you should do. "
PG & E, with 24,000 employees and 16 million customers, faces legal and operational challenges. California wants the utility to continue to meet the ambitious renewable energy portfolio standards, which would promote the use of solar and wind energy. Yet some of the California utility contracts exceed free market levels and a bankruptcy judge could order renegotiation.
[California fire officials find PG&E not responsible for deadly Tubbs Fire in 2017]
While California launched a plan to shut down its two nuclear reactors, Johnson said he was a proponent of nuclear, adding that companies needed to learn how to build reactors within their budget.
"I am a long-time pro-nuclear person. I am actually in favor of the consumer and the environment, which leads me to be pro-nuclear. If you really think climate is a problem, you can not do it without nuclear power. "
But considering the huge cost overruns and the abandonment of two South Carolina reactor projects, "you have to be someone very brave," Johnson said. Even the half-finished nuclear reactor commissioned by TVA cost $ 4.7 billion, well beyond the $ 2.5 billion estimate.
"We are not doing enough engineering before entering the field," he said. "So we tend to have problems during construction. In this country we have lost a lot of our ability to build big projects. Could this country build the Hoover Dam today? I do not think we could. We lost a lot of that ability. "
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