Ad campaign targets utilities in brewing energy debate
With an expansion of solar incentives bottled up in committee and a battle over a comprehensive new state energy policy looming this spring, the Environmental League of Massachusetts Action Fund plans to launch a $25,000 ad campaign targeting the influence of the utilities in shaping the energy debate.
"The state's big utilities are too powerful and distorting the debate at the State House with their army of hired guns and lobbyists," George Bachrach, president of the ELM Action Fund, said. "Until now, no one would publicly stand up to the big utilities, refute their million dollar ad campaigns and call them out."
The first ads began running Friday in the Boston Globe print and online editions, and digitally in MASSterlist, the State House News Service Roundup and other publications.
The Environmental League last year promised to ramp up its political activity, and set up a super PAC to target lawmakers with the lowest environmental ratings on the group's "Dirty Dozen" scorecard.
The ad challenges what ELM considers a misleading, and profit-protecting position of the utilities that Massachusetts should address is energy capacity needs with more natural gas and additional pipeline capacity.
"They make big bucks building massive, multi-state gas pipelines and rake in more and more from our utility bills while misleading policymakers about the cost of renewable energy and the thousands of local jobs we could reap from new industries in renewable energy," Bachrach said.
The league said legislation that would lift the cap on incentives for solar power sold by customers back to the grid stalled in the House last year "under direct pressure" from the utilities.
The House approved a solar net metering before its winter recess in November, and secret conference committee talks with the Senate over a compromise bill have stalled since then.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, in a speech to the House late last month, said energy is an issue that "cries out for a solution."
"This year, the House will pass legislation that will promote resource diversity and cleaner energy, contain costs and ensure that we maintain a reliable electric grid," DeLeo said. "While the concepts are complex, at its core this bill will be about supporting our constituents as the Commonwealth continues to grow and compete in a dynamic economy."
Telecommunications, Energy and Utilities Chairman Rep. Thomas Golden said the full energy bill might not be ready until at least March.
With New England increasingly dependent on natural gas and the region moving to a "hybrid fleet" featuring more renewable power generators, power prices and system reliability are directly tied into the ability to move lower-priced gas supplies through pipelines and into the region, energy grid operators reported last week.
Gordon van Welie, president and chief executive officer of ISO New England Inc., told reporters during a "State of the Grid" conference call that natural gas-fired power plants produced 49 percent of the electricity generated in New England in 2015, but the system is stuck in a "precarious position" in the winter when natural gas demand rises from power plants and residential and commercial heating customers.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments