Posted on 02/02/2026 7:28:31 AM PST by Twotone
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is gunning for the Nashville Electric Service (NES) as thousands of Nashville residents remain without power — more than a week after Winter Storm Fern wreaked havoc on the area — and some may not see their power restored for another ten days.
Blackburn argued that NES had had spent more time focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives than on the kind of preparation that could have helped them manage a massive winter storm more efficiently.
“The Nashville Electric Service held 102 DEI-related training sessions by the end of 2024. They should’ve been using those resources to trim trees and bury utilities. This is what happens when companies put woke politics over the needs of the people they serve,” she posted on Sunday.
Blackburn also sent a letter directly to NES demanding answers regarding the still unfolding situation in her home state — as well as a detailed plan explaining how the company planned to prevent anything similar from happening again.
“The failure to adequately prepare for Winter Storm Fern is precisely the reason line crews are working overtime and citizens are clearing limbs and debris at great risk to their own safety to help friends and neighbors,” Blackburn wrote in the letter. “This disruption (crew members in the field) are working to correct reflects a failure of leadership and planning, one that could have been mitigated with thoughtful preparation ahead of the storm. You owe your customers transparency, accountability, and a clear explanation of how this breakdown occurred and how you will prevent this from happening in the future.”
Blackburn gave NES a deadline of February 2 and laid out six key questions she wanted addressed. She posted the letter itself on X, adding, “By failing to properly prepare for Winter Storm Fern, @NESpower put Tennesseans in harm’s way. NES owes its customers transparency, accountability, and a clear explanation for why thousands of people remain without power. I’m demanding answers to ensure this can’t happen again.”
“According to reporting by The Tennessean, experienced linemen offered to aid with storm recovery, but Nashville Electric Service declined the offer, stating it already had sufficient resources. Why did NES turn down that offer for additional personnel during a widespread outage of this magnitude?” “Given the lessons learned from past devastating storms, such as Nashville’s 1994 ice storm, why was NES not adequately prepared for Winter Storm Fern, despite ample warning and clear historical precedent?” “Forecasts warned days in advance that this would be a generational severe weather event. Why were recovery operations and service restoration plans not fully prepared and mobilized ahead of time?” “Why has there been such inconsistency in power restoration updates, with many customers being told their power has been restored when it has not, particularly given NES’s acknowledgment that it recently implemented a new outage notification and tracking system?” “Residents in some areas have been told they may be without power for up to two weeks. How does NES consider that timeline acceptable, especially for residents who rely on electricity for life-sustaining medical equipment and other critical needs?” “Due to extended outages, many residents had no choice but to seek temporary lodging. Will NES be reimbursing customers for expenses incurred during this period?”
NES responded to Blackburn’s letter on Saturday, and the Tennessee Senator posted that letter as well — and said that their answers were not good enough.
“@NESPower’s response to my letter is entirely insufficient. The company refused to take any accountability and is forcing Tennesseans to wait another week for full restoration of power. This is unacceptable. Whoever is responsible for this breakdown should be fired,” she said.
In the letter, NES explained that half of the people in their entire service area (about 230,000) had lost power when the storm first hit, and that power had been restored to all but 44,000 of them. The remaining homes without power, NES assured Blackburn, would be back online within another week.
But some individual cases may prove to be more difficult, as one local investigative reporter described a situation currently affecting a viewer who had written him: “Wow! From viewer regarding Nashville Electric Service issue: ‘We can’t report an outage at a single residence after others around us have been restored. We report it, and the system immediately responds that it has been restored. Neighbors have power, but we have not due to a line down in the back yard. If it doesn’t stay on the NES list as needing repair, we may never get power restored. We have been in our house for 6+ days without power, like the rest of Nashville. It’s 38-40 degrees in the house. We run a generator intermittently, and we are doing better than most. But to not be able to reliably report an outage is absurd.'”
Blackburn made it clear on Sunday that she was frustrated with the leadership at NES, not the rank and file employees.
“The linemen who are on the ground making repairs and working in the frigid temperatures to restore power are the unsung heroes of the response to this horrible winter storm. So grateful for these men and women,” she said.
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The problem with hydrocarbon energy, including hydrocarbons used to make electricity, is never the physical science. The problem is always the political science.
We have the problem here in SC because VA runs our power by the Casino Governor’s work.
You won’t freeze to death in Florida when the power goes out.
Good for MB. I’m hardly a fan of hers, but this situation has the power (no pun intended) to get the attention of low-IQ people. They used electricity, too. They just have to decide if they like electricity more than they hate Trump. Gina be interesting.
“You won’t freeze to death in Florida when the power goes out.”
It was 56 degrees this morning in my Florida house. I’m running the heat for about 10 minutes at a time to warm the air. The concrete is too massive to cheaply warm up.
I just went outside to check the temperature. Birds were using my sun-drenched front bushes to try to warm up.
Perhaps I will be able to open the front windows by 1pm so I can suck in warmer air by using my kitchen fan.
“properly prepare for Winter Storm Fern”
It is my understanding that ice covered branches and trees can and do knock out power lines.
Here in Florida, FPL has been having contractors cut back trees along highways and streets for a few years now.
Here in Florida, there was a massive wind that lasted about 24 hours that came from the north.
The wind is now light, but it is still coming from the north.
Here in Florida, there was a massive wind that lasted about 24 hours that came from the north.
Up here in NE Florida it has been near 25 each of the past two mornings. My electric meter looks like a pinwheel. The wind has been a constant NW for the past 3 days or more so even though we are near the ocean (temp 60) we get no relief. Someone told me when I lived in N. Texas where it got very cold and I commented about it: Boy don’t you know there are only two fence posts between you and canada!
My landscaping is gone for sure even though it was covered. So, yes you can freeze to death in Florida, just depends on if you live in tropical Florida or not.
When we had the ice storm back in the early 90s It was out for two weeks.
I live in Anderson County, Tn in the northeastern part of the state. I lost power at 6:00am after the storm hit earlier that morning and had power restored within 12 hours as did all but maybe 10 customers. Clinton Utilities Board since the 1993 blizzard has maintained a policy of tree trimming potential problems. In this terrain it’s quite an undertaking as we are a mixture of valley, ridges, and Mountains. A company can do quite a bit to lessen the impact but ice storms next to a tornado are unpredictable. We didn’t get an Ice Storm Warning until about an hour before it hit. Blackburn’s idea of burying utilities underground is not wise. Utility Primary voltage going into the transformer for the customer is roughly 8000 volts. Overhead is a lot safer and visable.
Playing good offense.
Political “science”
FTFY
I’ve priced undergrounding a 1/2 mile or so on a street in a major commercial area / entry to the city, as part of a beautification effort. It’s incredibly expensive!
We didn’t do it.
.
This is how you win. You point out the failure of liberal thinking where it hurts the citizens. Bravo!
wy69
Us too in Alabama. (Assuming you're talking about what we call the 1993 blizzard.) One thing I remember about those days is what the weather was like when the snow quit falling: it was sunny most days. Even though it was still very cold and the snow stayed on the ground a long time (long to us Alabamians).
That's one reason I decided a few years ago to go with decentralized solar. I realized that almost every time it's blazing hot in the summer or freezing cold in the winter, it's also bright and sunny. Not always, but almost always. Or another way to put it, the times I have to run my HVAC the most (read: when I need the most power) are the times I'd have the most free power through solar. Since I put on solar almost 5 years ago it's snowed only a few times and only small amounts. But it takes just a smooth brush with a long handle (like the brush for washing the roof of a car) and sometimes a ladder and I brush the snow off and get free power again. The grid hasn't gone down in the winter since I added solar (the times it has gone down was for just a few hours, and my home has power). And on the snowy days we pull from the grid some, but if the grid had been down we'd get by without the grid if we toned down our power consumption to survival mode like with a backup generator. (i.e. no getting in the hot tub, hold off on washing and drying clothes, etc. until either the solar batteries are fully charged or the grid is back up.)
I keep reading about Nashville but Mississippi still has almost twice as many without power and I haven’t heard a word about them.
Where I live and most of East Tennessee you're also dealing with a lot of big rocks. If a trencher or backhoe were to snag an underground primary the outcome may not be good. The down time of the line may be much longer as well.
Nashville has a long history of ice storms and extended outages. Back in the early 1950's my dad was a Southern Bell phone company lineman. In about 1952 a bad ice storm hit Nashville and dad along with a convoy of other linemen from Knoxville were sent to Nashville to help restore service. He said it took about two days to get there and that was long before Interstate 40.
I do know that utility Mutual Aid used to be the backbone in responses and faster restore time. This storm this time hit several states including Louisiana. That means manpower likely stretched about as far as it can be stretched.
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