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NEW: EEI, the trade association for investor-owned electric utilities, held a political boot camp for executives in December. Materials reveal an industry that appears to perceive itself as under siege from policies aiming to speed up decarbonization. https://www.energyandpolicy.org/eei-campaign-institute/ 1/10
“We really want to educate and campaign-ready our companies and our executives and that’s what we’re doing at the Campaign Institute,” an EEI executive said of the event in a promo video. 2/10 https://vimeo.com/326599709/be1f18fa26
An EEI operative laid out a list of challenges facing the sector, including efforts to transition away from gas use in buildings, opposition to gas pipelines, moves toward wholesale markets in the West and Carolinas, and municipalization efforts. 3/10
EEI held up two companies as case studies for effective political operations - FirstEnergy and APS - despite both having become paragons of utility corruption and controversy in recent years. 4/10
“A team effort won the day,” a FirstEnergy lobbyist boasted of the utility's campaign for HB 6, which bailed out coal and nuclear plants. FirstEnergy stock plummeted in July when prosecutors charged a corruption scheme centering on the legislation. 5/10 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7046852-Bailey-FirstEnergy-Campaign-Institute.html
“The best advocacy campaign can quickly derail into a legal and public relations nightmare if you don’t comply with the law,” a description of another session at the training camp said, with prescience into the coming Ohio tempest. 6/10 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7046928-Agenda-Campaign-Institute.html#document/p3/a578374
Speaker notes to a presentation from APS lobbyist Jessica Pacheco and ex-CEO Don Brandt bashed the media: “They need a villain — and too often it is us. The standard approach is anti-corporation.” 7/10 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7046863-Pacheco-APS-Campaign-Institute.html#document/p5/a578332
Pacheco said that APS beat a clean energy ballot initiative in 2018 by convincing voters that it would cost too much. But by early 2020, a new APS CEO committed to nearly the same clean energy targets, and said the company would meet them affordably. 8/10
EEI’s posture appears out of step with the demands of ESG investors – one fund just divested from Southern Co. over its anti-climate advocacy, echoing calls by other large asset managers for utilities to align their advocacy with the Paris Agreement. 9/10 https://www.ft.com/content/00af52b7-381c-4a5d-91f1-3b3d4ce04256
EEI held the event at Georgetown University and the training featured presentations from university faculty. EEI described it as a “partnership.” Georgetown announced earlier this year that it plans to divest from public securities of fossil fuel companies. 10/10
Bonus tweet: APS' new CEO, Jeff Guldner, has cultivated a reputation as a reformer. But Guldner took the reins in Nov. 2019, so Pacheco presented under his watch. Guldner said he had a "heavy heart" over Pacheco's departure when he announced it last week. https://twitter.com/brahmresnik/status/1296576999457136640
