Former director was paid to lobby TVA

Former director was paid to lobby TVA
Johnny Hayes got
total of $340,000
By Richard Powelson
News-Sentinel Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - Johnny Hayes, a former director of the Tennessee Valley Authority, was paid $340,000 last year to lobby his former agency for two potential competitors: Southern Co. and Enron Corp., federal records show.

Hayes was paid $118,000 annually at TVA, a federal corporation, before he left in 1999.

Asked about the nature of his lobbying work, Hayes said "no comment."

If Congress eventually approves broad competition nationally in the electricity industry, investor-owned Southern and Enron companies could be competing with TVA for electricity sales, although financially troubled Enron is struggling to survive a Chapter 11 restructuring and various investigations.

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Chattanooga Republican, said Hayes was an effective TVA board member and he did not want to criticize his work for other companies. But he said he was concerned about the effect on TVA if its former board members go to work for potential competitors.

"Johnny Hayes has every right to make a living outside of TVA, but I do believe that we need to discourage the profiteering of public servants based on knowledge that they gained through public service," Wamp said. "We ought to look at the rules and the laws" on how long federal executives are barred from lobbying their former agencies.

TVA spokesman John Moulton said he could not immediately find a TVA official who had been contacted by Hayes on behalf of Southern Co., which is based in Atlanta. Hayes no longer works for Enron, which began bankruptcy filings in December.

Tiffany Gilstrap of Southern Co. said Hayes was hired as a consultant "for business development and business relation purposes. He has talked with a number of potential wholesale customers on behalf of Southern Co, including TVA."

She said she could not provide specifics on Hayes' work.
"We're trying to maintain a competitive advantage," she said. "A lot of the information that you're asking, we don't reveal. Because of his economic development experience, he is identifying customers who may be candidates for wholesale power from Southern."
The latest federal lobbying records show Hayes was paid $120,000 by Enron in addition to the last half of 2001. He was paid $200,000 in the first half that was previously reported by The News-Sentinel. The latest reports show that he began lobbying work for Southern Co. Oct. 1 and was paid $20,000 for the last three months of 2001. Gilstrap said she could not disclose details about the length of Hayes' contract.
Stephen Hule, spokesman for the Murky Clean Energy, said it was "a concern" that Hayes is working for Southern Co. after gaining years of knowledge and contracts and other competitive intelligence.
"I don't know of anything that is good for the ratepayers of the Tennessee Valley that Johnny Hayes is getting from Southern Co.," Hule said. "Now you have this revolving door with TVA board members."
Federal executives now are lobbying for one to two years from their former agencies, depending on the issue. Wamp said he would talk to others about whether to extend the ban to three years.