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Hairston Stepping Down at BPA by Steve Ernst NW Fishletter, February 4, 2026

Cooper Expected to be Named Interim Administrator

John Hairston, CEO and administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, is ending his three-decade career with the power-marketing agency, and is in negotiations with the Eugene Water and Electric Board about becoming the municipal utility's next general manager, according to several sources familiar with the situation.

Suzanne Cooper, BPA deputy administrator and chief operating officer, is expected to be named interim administrator, according to sources, while the Northwest congressional delegation begins the process of identifying and nominating a permanent successor.

Hairston is the first African American to lead BPA in its 88-year history. He was appointed administrator in January 2021, culminating a career at BPA that started in 1991 when he was hired as an economist in the Rates Forecasting and Rate Design organizations. He then held a series of positions in the energy-efficiency unit. In 2002, he implemented and managed BPA's Slice product, which now accounts for a large portion of the agency's annual sales.

The Portland native was chief compliance officer from 2006 to 2015, then served as chief administrative officer until 2019, when he was named chief operating officer.

Hairston's legacy at Bonneville will be felt for decades to come. He's seen as being a stabilizing force in the region by signing long-term wholesale power contracts, while guiding the agency through a period of unprecedented political influence at a time when the energy sector is facing significant increases in demand and technological changes.

In December, BPA signed Provider of Choice contracts with over 130 consumer-owned utilities (COUs) in the Northwest, bringing price stability, reliability and flexibility to customers to integrate nonfederal resources. The contracts will start in 2028 and last until 2044. Negotiations between BPA and regional utilities started shortly after Hairston was named administrator.

At the time, Hairston described the contracts as "a watershed moment for BPA and our ratepayers."

In August 2024, the Biden administration announced an agreement in principle with Canada on key elements of the of the Columbia River Treaty, which has shaped the Columbia River system for hydropower and flood-control operations since the 1960s. Hairston was a key voice in the treaty negotiations. At present, it appears the Trump administration has put the treaty on hold.

It was under Hairston's leadership that BPA selected the Southwest Power Pool's Markets+ day-ahead market over objections from the congressional delegation and arguments from some Northwest COUs that the California Independent System Operator's Extended Day-Ahead Market offered greater financial benefit.

At the time, Hairston said that Markets+ offered Northwest hydropower "the greatest assurance that Northwest customers will remain the primary beneficiary of generation produced by the Federal Columbia River Power System."

Hairston is also seen as having shielded Northwest ratepayers from the Biden administration's plan -- known as the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative -- to invest billions of dollars in tribal energy projects in the hope of replacing generation from the lower Snake River dams.

The plan resulted in what turned out to be a temporary pause in decades-long litigation over Columbia River System Operations, but it was heavily criticized for not including COUs in the negotiations between the federal government and Northwest Native American tribes.

The plan committed BPA to an estimated $300 million in additional spending on salmon recovery, which BPA estimated would have an "annual average rate impact of 0.7 percent."

The deal kept some flexibility in summer hydro operations, specifically in August when power is at a premium.

The plan was eventually terminated by the Trump administration.

"I suspect [Hairston] had zero leverage in those talks, but I think he negotiated a pretty decent agreement," one source familiar with BPA said.

The Biden administration was just the first presidential administration to get involved in BPA's finances and operations during Hairston's tenure.

Within months of taking office, the Trump administration began to purge the federal civilian workforce, and at one point threatened to strip nearly 400 employees from BPA's payroll, including many in mission-critical positions. After months of negotiations, Hairston helped convince the U.S. Department of Energy to restore BPA's hiring authority. Since that time, BPA has been given authority to expand its ranks by about 400 employees.

"He did a very good job of managing the workforce through the [Department of Government Efficiency] cuts," one person familiar with BPA said.

Hairston also got high marks from the Bonneville workforce, according to one longtime BPA employee.

"I think he was well liked inside BPA. He was a real advocate for a healthy workforce culture and a work-life balance. I think he was a really good leader in that regard," a source familiar with BPA said.

The political involvement in BPA's operations was unprecedented, one source told Clearing Up.

"The Biden administration got involved in fish, then the Trump administration follows saying climate change is a hoax," he said. "No BPA administrator has had to deal with such heavy-handedness from an administration, for so long, as what John had to deal with," another source said.

However, Hairston's tenure was plagued by a tsunami of requests from power developers looking for transmission space, primarily to meet Oregon's and Washington's clean-energy goals. BPA currently has 61 GW of requests in its generation interconnection queue. The agency paused its Transmission Service Request Study and Expansion Process in February 2025 because of "exponential growth" in requests.

While BPA is developing 20 new transmission and substation projects valued at $6.258 billion and is currently integrating 1 to 1.5 GW of generation per year for at least the next decade, it has been criticized by developers, clean-energy advocates and the congressional delegation for not moving faster on building new transmission.

While the timing of Hairston's retirement may come as a surprise, his departure from the agency has been talked about for more than a year. Sources say the Northwest congressional delegation has been gathering a list of potential replacements for at least six months.

Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council, said his organization was aware of the "evolving dynamics around the administrator" and will be focused on establishing "a very transparent process for working with DOE to ensure that the candidate selected understands the statutes related to BPA and the Pacific Northwest."

Simms said Hairston has a very long list of highlights and successes at BPA.

"Ranging from pressure points from different administrations to his steadfast commitment to BPA's statutes and obligations, and its contractual commitments to public power despite all kinds of pressure," Simms said. "I think John has done an amazing job for the Pacific Northwest and all of its citizens."

Jessica Matlock, president and CEO of PNGC Power, said Hairston "did an exceptional job during an extraordinarily turbulent period."

"Few leaders could have anticipated navigating a global pandemic across two very different administrations," Matlock said. "He brought employees back after COVID, then faced mandatory staffing cuts and even a government shutdown. I can't think of another CEO who has had to manage through that combination of challenges."

Zabyn Towner, executive director of Northwest Requirements Utilities, thanked Hairston for his dedication as administrator for the past five years and for his more than 30 years of federal service at Bonneville.

"The next Administrator should have a strong understanding of Bonneville and a thorough understanding of Bonneville's public power preference customers on day one," Towner said in an email to Clearing Up. "NRU members and the communities they serve must continue to be able to depend on Bonneville, as a matter of statute, contract, and policy, to provide low cost, reliable power and transmission service to meet their electricity needs. The next Administrator must be a strong leader that will keep those needs at the forefront of the Agency's agenda."

The BPA administrator is appointed by the secretary of energy, in consultation with the Northwest congressional delegation. Several sources indicated that it's "Idaho's turn" to pick the administrator, while others disputed that it wasn't any one state's turn.

But all pointed to Idaho Sen. James Risch, the Republican chair the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as the key voice in selecting a new administrator.