How utility companies lobby in New England
Public records show that investor-owned utilities have opposed a range of clean energy measures this year, along with protections for captured consumers (Part 2)
A few weeks ago, I promised a follow up to my post about spending on political lobbying from utility companies in New England. The story this spawned — focused on Massachusetts, but largely true for the rest of the region — was published by The Lever yesterday. The article outlines efforts by the utility industry to oppose clean energy legislation, the implications this has on climate policy in the state, and how utilities are responding to a shifting political landscape. If you’re interested, I encourage you to check it out:
In today’s newsletter, I’ve aggregated the lobbying disclosures I found in reporting this story to provide a larger snapshot of what these companies are pushing for and against (using revenue generated from captured customers).
The basic takeaway? This year, New England utilities have opposed a variety of laws promoting distributed clean energy resources like rooftop solar (along with a host of other climate measures, including financing for clean energy), along with legislation protecting ratepayers and increasing public participation in regulatory processes.
Meanwhile, they’ve supported laws promoting heating fuels and alternatives to traditional natural gas, which would allow them to continue to profit off of their existing gas infrastructure, despite the pressures of the climate crisis. Utilities also generally supported offshore wind, which is largely compatible with the electric utility business model.
The major constraint to understanding here is that laws around lobbying disclosures vary greatly between states, but in general are quite weak. Only two states in New England, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, require lobbyists to report what bills they lobbied for and against. In Massachusetts, many lobbyists skirt this requirement by simply registering all of their lobbying activity as neutral.
Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont don’t require lobbyists to report the bills they have worked. Maine does require them to report specific bills, but not what they supported or opposed.
Despite these difficulties, the lobbying data from Massachusetts and Rhode Island can serve as a decent snapshot into the slimy and covert inner workings of the utility political influence machine.
Before we get deep into the weeds of the lobbying disclosures, I wanted to highlight one interesting finding that I came across in my research: the PPL Corporation, which recently acquired National Grid’s Rhode Island gas and electricity utility assets, has registered $40,000 in spending on lobbying this year. The majority of this money ($25k) has gone towards employing former speaker of the Rhode Island House William J. Murphy as a lobbyist. Murphy served the House speaker from 2003 to 2010.
However, the PPL Corporation has not reported lobbying on any specific bills, public bodies, or elected officials. If their disclosures are accurate, it is beyond me what they are paying Murphy to do.
Apropos of nothing, the state’s Public Utilities Commission recently approved a nearly 50% increase in the electricity rates charged by PPL.
From the lobbying info that I could find, here’s how the utilities lobbied in these states, along with how much they spent on lobbying over the first half of this year.
Massachusetts — Eversource ($180,000)
Reported 461 of 464 lobbying instances this year as neutral, over 99%.
Oppose:
Senate Bill 9 — An Act creating a next-generation roadmap for Massachusetts climate policy
Support:
House Bill 2191 — An Act relative to Massachusetts Solar Access Law
House Bill 3330 — An Act relative to renewable energy
Massachusetts — National Grid ($138,768)
Oppose:
House Bill 4025 – An Act authorizing an investigation into public ownership of public utilities
House Bill 3271 – An Act to protect consumers from predatory electric supplier practices
House Bill 3274 – An Act relative to fairness in energy billing
Senate Amendment 2842 – An Act Driving Climate Policy Forward
Senate Bill 2180 – An Act supporting solar energy deployment in the Commonwealth
Senate Bill 2188 – An Act reforming the department of public utilities' proceedings for gas pipelines
House Bill 3339 – An Act relative to fair and stable electricity
House Bill 4449 – An Act supporting solar distribution
Senate Bill 2143 – An Act protecting consumers from unreasonable utility rate increases
Senate Bill 2148 – An Act relative to the future of heat in the Commonwealth
Senate Bill 2166 – An Act relative to ensuring gas safety and consumer fairness
House Bill 3357 – An Act ensuring rate payer and community representation in utility company regulatory proceedings
Senate Bill 2231 – An Act relative to green financing
House Bill 3319 – An Act to enable net metering for on-site solar energy
Senate Bill 2179 – An Act relative to eliminating gas leaks
House Bill 3352 – An Act relative to electric ratepayer protections
Senate Bill 501 – An Act promoting sustainable development and infrastructure, economic security, and fiscal responsibility with respect to climate risks
Support
House Bill 3347 – An Act promoting zero-emission vehicles
House Bill 4700 – An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2023 for the maintenance of the departments, boards, commissions, institutions, and certain activities of the Commonwealth, for interest, sinking fund, and serial bond requirements, and for certain permanent improvements
House Bill 3255 – An Act to promote electric vehicle fleets by 2035
Senate Bill 2227 – An Act to expand offshore wind development in the Commonwealth
House Bill 3310 – An Act to provide for the investment in and expansion of the offshore wind industry in the Commonwealth
House Bill 3321 – An Act codifying the electric vehicle consumer rebate program
House Bill 3368 – An Act codifying the electric vehicle consumer rebate program
House Bill 3328 – An Act relative to energy storage
House Bill 4081 – An Act relative to expansion of home heating fuels
Senate Bill 2915 – An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2023 for the maintenance of the departments, boards, commissions, institutions, and certain activities of the Commonwealth, for interest, sinking fund, and serial bond requirements, and for certain permanent improvements
House Bill 3309 – An Act relative to advanced metering infrastructure in the Commonwealth
House Bill 2 – Governor's fiscal 2023 annual appropriations
House Bill 4864 – An Act relative to economic development
Massachusetts — Berkshire Gas Company ($21,600)
44 instances of lobbying, all registered as neutral
Massachusetts — Liberty Utilities ($36,000)
10 instances of lobbying, 8 registered as neutral
Support
House Bill 4081 — An act relative to the expansion of renewable heating fuels and renewable thermal heating
House Order 3887 — Order relative to a legislative review of renewable heating fuels
Massachusetts — Unitil ($62,418)
25 instances of lobbying, all registered as neutral
Rhode Island — National Grid ($14,000)
National Grid sold their utility holdings in the state to the PPL Corporation this May.
Oppose
H6662 — “Increases the maximum aggregate amount of community remote net-metering systems from 30 MW to 60 MW and requires the allocation of a minimum of 35% of the generated power to low- or moderate-income households commencing July 1, 2021.”
H7123 — “Making Appropriations For The Support Of The State For The Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2023”
H7229 — “Requires an electric utility company to bury power lines for all residential customers who have experienced ninety-six (96) or more consecutive hours of power outage, unless the outage was caused by the resident.”
H7333 — “Does not limit install of net metering system based on 3 years prior, and would also credit consumer for energy not used.”
H7373 — “Amends the definition of net metering to remove the three year average annual consumption in determining eligibility of the generating system”
H7475 — “Requires all public utilities to maintain a customer service facility within the state to perform services such as addressing customer inquiries and accepting bill payments.”
H7529 — “Limits a rate increase by any gas distribution company to the lesser of five and one-half percent (5.5%) annually or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U).”
H7530 — “Creates an income-sensitive tiered subsidy program to ensure that home energy utility costs are affordable for eligible low-income households.”
H7971 — “Amends the affordable clean energy security act and the long-term contracting standard for renewable energy.”
H8028 — “Modifies the application process for interconnection projects to require greater transparency/greater clarity through an 8 member committee and independent ombudsman with prospective application.”
H8147 — “Increases the membership of the energy facility siting board from three (3) to five (5) members and would revise the process of energy facility siting to mandate inclusion and participation of the public and cities and towns.”
H7604 — “Amends the formula used to reimburse a utility facility or company for the cost of relocation necessitated by highway construction.”
S2182 — “Creates an income-sensitive tiered subsidy program to ensure that home energy utility costs are affordable for eligible low-income households.”
S2276 — “Requires that electrical distribution companies submit a time of use rate plan to the PUC setting forth high and on-demand times. The time of use rate plans are to be implemented on or before January 1, 2023.”
S2583 — “Amends the affordable clean energy security act and the long-term contracting standard for renewable energy.”
S2689 — “Modifies the application process for interconnection projects to require greater transparency/greater clarity through an 8 member committee and independent ombudsman with prospective application.”
S2771 — “Amends the formula used to reimburse a utility facility or company for the cost of relocation necessitated by highway construction.”
Rhode Island — PPL Corporation ($40,000)
No listed lobbying instances of any kind.
Climate News Roundup
Connecticut
Though climate change may have delivered a death blow to the hopes of repopulating the Connecticut River with Atlantic salmon, one former regulator presses on in his efforts, using the story of the river’s salmon as a cautionary tale for younger generations (Delaney Dryfoos — Inside Climate News)
Maine
Maine’s Public Utilities Commission has ordered eclectic utilities to offer lower rates for customers utilizing clean energy technologies like heat pumps and electric vehicles (Christian Wade — The Center Square)
Massachusetts
Researchers convened at Harvard University last week to discuss climate misinformation spread by the fossil fuel industry (Dharna Noor — Boston Globe)
Community advocates and local politicians are opposing a $64 million gas pipeline proposed by Eversource from Longmeadow to Springfield (Ben Hillman — Big Tentacle)
Our Revolution Massachusetts is organizing against an Eversource powerline project in Western Massachusetts, which the nonprofit says would clearcut of a 200-foot-wide corridor of mature trees
New Hampshire
A recently released study by the New Hampshire Department of Energy found that net-metering programs for distributed renewable energy resources (like rooftop solar) significantly lower electricity costs for those that utilize them, while having minimal impacts on other customers (Mara Hoplamazian — NHPR)
New Hampshire stakeholders met last week to discuss the future of offshore wind and related opportunities in the state (Paul Briand — NH Business Review)
Rhode Island
RIPTA is reducing bus services, citing a shortage in labor (Brian Amaral — Boston Globe)
Climate change is threatening old graveyards in Rhode Island and beyond (Colleen Cronin — ecoRI)
Vermont
Vermont is developing new regulations promoting electric vehicles in the state (Abagael Giles, Mitch Wertlieb — VPR)
Green Mountain Power is adding new battery facilities to nearly double the utility’s storage capacity (Emma Cotton — VTDigger)