Nashville Electric Service (NES), under the leadership of CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin since 2022, cut the amount it spent on contracted vegetation management services (tree trimming) by more than $7 million in 2024, reducing one of the nation’s top 11 municipal electric utility companies spending on tree trimming to far below the national average.
In its 2024 annual report, NES showed that a significant reduction in the amount of money spent on contracted tree trimming services helped lead to a 6 percent decrease in the municipally owned utility company’s expenses.
According to a table of expenses, NES cut its spending on contracted tree and grass trimming services by about $7.4 million in total, reducing it from $21.3 million in 2023 to $13.9 million in 2024.
NES continued the trend last year, according to its report for 2025. That report reflects only a modest, 3 percent increase in contracted tree trimming services, bringing the annual expense to $14.3 million.
With a reported 470,000 customers, NES spent a little more than $30 per customer on tree trimming in 2025. This is significantly less than the comparably sized Memphis Light Gas and Water (420,000 customers), which spent $35 million on tree trimming in 2025, a little more than $83 per customer. The American Public Power Association reported in 2024 the average utility company spent $27 million annually on vegetation management, almost twice the $14.3 million NES spent on tree trimming in 2025.
The significant drop in spending on vegetation management by NES in 2024 came during the same year that Hurricane Beryl struck the southeastern part of the United States, including Texas, where an analysis of spending on tree trimming by utility companies found spending on vegetation management per customer ranged from about $10 to roughly $63. Those companies which invested more per customer appeared to fare better following the devastating storm.
The reduction in spending on contracted tree trimming services occurred only one year before Broyles-Aplin said during an interview that NES prioritized preserving Nashville’s “tree canopy” when cutting branches.
“We care about the canopy. We have to live here too,” she said during an August appearance on NewsChannel 5. “I don’t want us out destroying the canopy.”
Broyles-Aplin explained, “We do species specific trimming… We take a lot of pride in making sure that we are cutting the trees in a healthy fashion.”
While the company reduced its investment in vegetation management that year, the company’s Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) report for that year revealed that it increased its focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and held a total of 102 DEI training sessions by early 2024.
NES appears to have continued this commitment into 2026, as the agenda for an NES board meeting last week recommended approval for an extension to a contract for a DEI consultant.
In its Saturday afternoon update, NES confirmed more than 51,000 of its 470,000 customers were still without power. There have been five reported deaths since the storm swept through Nashville.
Also on Saturday, NES released a schedule which indicated that many parts of Nashville are not expected to have power restored until Sunday, February 8, 2026, a full two weeks after the widespread outages began.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Teresa Broyles-Aplin” and “Tree Cleanup” by NES.
Looks like they didn’t hire those women like I see in the Grainger commercials.
Her salary should be trimmed……….to ZERO.
they are concerned with DEI and cutting spending, not on reliable power generation.
anyone could have seen this coming.
but nothing will change.
DEI = Didn’t Earn It
Totally unacceptable and the case of the vast power outages!
1 Read the bios of the NES leadership and board on the NES website. All sound accomplished in their field but as per their bio, none have any experience in overseeing an electric utility. Even if the board’s composition is a product of a DEI mindset, has NES not produced any women or minorities who could have served in leadership backed by a record of accomplishment within the utility?
2 The Biden Administration passed the 370 billion dollar “Inflation Reduction Act,” which Biden later said was actually more about energy usage. Regardless of one’s disposition on the bill, can anyone site a way the 370 billion dollars of our tax money has changed the way they use energy? Can anyone site a way the billions spent improved the meeting of their energy needs?
I seem to remember a similar learning experience
for NES 1994. Electricity was out for two weeks for many people. This is a great example of bureaucrats being ill equipped to manage important life and death matters. When tree canopy is more important we have a problem.
Nashville’s complete government operation WOKE RETARDS! Worst public schools in Tennessee, worse NFL team in American,, criminally high property taxes, NES a complete failure and a mentally handicap ex (being nice) z mayor. Yea it’s “the it city” . I think a couple of letters were left of “it”.
You are so right. City after city and state after state, everything the democrats touch turns to you know what.
not to worry. mother nature has taken care of your canopy.