President Obama Thursday advanced three nominations for the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He nominated Tommy Beaudreau, who currently serves as acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management, to be assistant secretary for Interior’s policy, management and budget. He also nominated Neil Kornze to be director of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Kornze has been senior advisor at BLM since 2011. Obama also nominatedThomas A. Burke to be assistant administrator for research and development at the EPA. Burke currently is the associate dean for public health practice and training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a position he has held since 2008.

Dan Lonergan, a member of the Tenaska Capital Management LLC (TCM) investment committee and Tenaska board of stakeholders, has been promoted to CEO effective Dec. 1. Lonergan, who has more than 25 years of experience in the energy and power industries in finance, strategic planning, business development, financial reporting and administration, joined Tenaska in 1997 as a vice president in the finance division. He will replace Paul Smith, who will relinquish the CEO role but will continue to serve as a senior managing director of TCM, chairman of the TCM investment committee, vice chairman of Tenaska Energy and as a member of the Tenaska board of stakeholders. Smith and Lonergan were instrumental in founding TCM in 2002.

Calpine Corp. President and COO Thad Hill will become CEO when incumbent Jack Fusco becomes executive chairman after the annual shareholders meeting in May. Calpine reported improved 3Q2013 earnings in which net income was $268 million, compared to $215 million for the same period last year, for the operator of one of the nation’s largest electric generation fleets and the largest network of natural gas-fired generation plants in the nation. Fusco and Hill have led Calpine since it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early 2008 (see Daily GPI, Feb. 4, 2008).