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FirstEnergy and AEP nonetheless spending huge on lobbying

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FirstEnergy and AEP nonetheless spending huge on lobbying



Ohio utilities are nonetheless backing candidates or lobbying for legislative actions that might subsidize fossil fuels or gradual the expansion of renewable vitality, in line with their newest filings.

Ohio’s vitality corporations have lengthy been energetic within the political enviornment. And whereas non-election years are likely to contain a lot decrease ranges of marketing campaign contributions, lobbying nonetheless continues on a number of fronts.

Earlier this 12 months, FirstEnergy President and CEO Steve Strah announced that the corporate’s “approach to political and legislative engagement and advocacy … will be much more limited than it has been in the past,” and that there could be “additional oversight and significantly more robust disclosure.”

Indeed, spending by the FirstEnergy Corp. Political Action Committee this 12 months truly reveals up as a adverse quantity on Federal Election Commission filings. From January via May, FirstEnergy’s PAC voided a number of marketing campaign donation checks from 2020. The committee’s marketing campaign donations drew heightened consideration final 12 months after the federal authorities launched its grievance alleging corruption on the coronary heart of Ohio’s nuclear and coal bailout legislation, House Bill 6.

Nonetheless, FirstEnergy reported spending half one million {dollars} on congressional lobbying throughout the third quarter of 2021. And its year-to-date filings via Sept. 30 reveal congressional lobbying spending of roughly $1.5 million.

In some ways, FirstEnergy remains to be clinging to “the way they did business 50 years ago,“ said Ashley Brown, a former Ohio public utilities commissioner who now heads the Harvard Electricity Policy Group. “That’s part of why they’re just a lobbying firm with a utility sideline.”

“The reported expenses [for congressional lobbying] include a variety of items, including salaries for FirstEnergy employees that are registered lobbyists, leases for company offices in Washington, expenditures for outside firms and travel,” mentioned firm spokesperson Mark Durbin.

FirstEnergy’s lobbying is particularly important this 12 months “because the company made a big deal about how it has dialed back its political spending, including a freeze on PAC contributions, in response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s bribery investigation,” mentioned Dave Anderson, coverage and communications supervisor for the Energy & Policy Institute.

So far, FirstEnergy’s congressional lobbying spending for 2021 seems to be on monitor with the $1.9 million spent for congressional lobbying in 2020 and the $1.Eight million spent in 2019.

Amounts reported by FirstEnergy from 2011 via 2018 ranged from roughly $1.Eight million to $2.Eight million per 12 months. Those numbers don’t replicate quantities reported by outdoors corporations for FirstEnergy, in case the quantities had already been counted in FirstEnergy’s personal experiences.

Other utilities’ spending

While FirstEnergy’s PAC has dialed again marketing campaign donations this 12 months, political motion committees for American Electric Power, Duke Energy and AES have donated to some Ohio candidates’ campaigns, albeit at a lot decrease ranges than could be anticipated in a significant election 12 months.

Filings for the Dayton Power and Light Company Responsible Citizenship Fund via June confirmed spending of $1,000 every on marketing campaign funds for 10 Ohio lawmakers, all Republicans. Among them are Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee members Rob McColley, Bill Reineke, Matt Dolan, Bob Peterson and Jerry Cirino. McColley and Reineke have been major sponsors of Senate Bill 52, which erects new siting hurdles for photo voltaic and wind initiatives.
Campaigns for Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman and his cousin, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Vice-Chair Stephen Huffman, additionally obtained assist from the PAC.

In June, the political motion committee for guardian firm AES Corporation gave $1,000 every to campaigns for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Dayton-area congressional Rep. Mike Turner.

The Duke Energy Corporation Political Action Committee has made tons of of expenditures throughout a number of states since January, together with donations to campaigns for greater than two dozen Ohioans. Among them are McColley, Sen. Matt Huffman, Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, and HB 6 co-sponsor Rep. Shane Wilkin. Wilkin can be the sponsor of HB 317, which might ax electrical safety plans however nonetheless permit invoice riders, whereas holding HB 6’s coal plant subsidies and eradicating authority for vitality effectivity packages. Manchin’s marketing campaign committee obtained a donation as properly.

The American Electric Power Committee for Responsible Government spent cash on congressional campaigns for longtime coal lobbyist Mike Carey and former clean-energy-freeze supporter Troy Balderson, each Republicans. Manchin’s marketing campaign obtained cash as properly.

Manchin performed a significant function within the bipartisan infrastructure deal that was handed on Nov. 5. However, he has resisted extra sweeping laws to cope with local weather change, whereas additionally thwarting efforts in Congress to assure voting rights.

Back in 2016, Manchin had additionally referred to as federal regulators, urging them to reject challenges to coal and nuclear bailouts for AEP and FirstEnergy. Some of what the businesses needed on the time wound up in HB 6.

AEP and its associates reported spending greater than $5.1 million on congressional lobbying this 12 months via Sept. 30. The complete for 2020 was greater than $7.Eight million, and the quantity for 2019 was $8.1 million.

It’s unclear why AEP’s stage of congressional lobbying has been persistently increased than FirstEnergy’s for the previous decade.

Positions on clear vitality?

Issues on which AEP engaged in lobbying throughout this 12 months’s third quarter embody payments for the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, budgeting and reconciliation laws, and appropriations for the federal departments coping with the atmosphere and pure assets. Also on the checklist is funding for low- and zero-emission autos.

“AEP has a successful track record of reducing emissions and advancing clean energy, and we have made commitments to continue that progress,” mentioned spokesperson Tammy Ridout. She famous the corporate’s dedication to extend renewable era from 19% at the moment to 50% of its complete capability by 2030. The firm has additionally offered or retired practically 13,500 MW of coal-fueled era, she mentioned. Those gross sales embody some crops for which AEP sought bailouts lower than a decade in the past.

AEP has supported necessary clear vitality proposals within the Clean Energy Innovation and Deployment Act of 2021 and the Clean Energy Future Through Innovation Act of 2021, Ridout mentioned.

“Our customers, investors and other stakeholders expect that we are moving as quickly as possible to a clean energy future, and we are pursuing that goal,” Ridout mentioned. “It’s critical to our customers and the economy that we make this clean energy transition in a way that ensures electricity remains reliable and affordable.”

At the state stage, although, AEP Ohio’s president and chief working officer, Marc Reitter, testified earlier than Ohio lawmakers final month, urging them to maintain HB 6’s coal plant subsidies for 2 1950s-era coal crops. Representatives of Duke Energy Ohio and AES Ohio supplied related testimony.

FirstEnergy’s lobbying in Congress has targeted on the bipartisan infrastructure framework, grid modernization, clear vitality points, and different issues, together with payments with provisions for each renewable vitality and carbon seize know-how from coal crops. 

Spokesperson Durbin didn’t element FirstEnergy’s place on renewable vitality and carbon seize provisions in particular payments.

“We continue to review and have discussions about the proposed federal infrastructure and energy legislation,” Durbin mentioned. “While we support efforts to reduce GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions, we are analyzing how the various proposals could affect our customers and our operations, especially regarding affordability and reliability impacts.”

The $1 trillion infrastructure invoice handed on Nov. 5 contains provisions for vitality effectivity, electrical autos, and grid modernization, which may advance a transition to scrub vitality, in addition to funding for transportation and local weather change resilience. Environment America, the United States Public Interest Research Group, the Reimagine Appalachia coalition and different environmental advocates have applauded these provisions.

But the invoice additionally authorizes $6 billion for noncompetitive nuclear energy crops. Other provisions present funding for carbon seize know-how from fossil fuels, with an eye fixed towards its widespread adoption. The Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Friends of the Earth launched a report this summer time, displaying that the then-proposed subsidies for nuclear energy could be dearer than renewable vitality and will in truth delay the expansion of renewable vitality.

And an Oct. 7 report from the Ohio River Valley Institute concluded that widespread adoption of carbon seize would value far more than different applied sciences, akin to renewable vitality and storage.

Not the entire story 

A evaluate of PAC spending and congressional lobbyist filings doesn’t inform the entire story about utilities’ political spending, mentioned Brown on the Harvard Electricity Policy Group. Specifically, “it doesn’t tell you the dark money contributions.”

Indeed, most cash within the HB 6 scandal didn’t come straight from corporations or their PACs. Rather, the majority went to darkish cash teams from different organizations that obtained cash straight or not directly from FirstEnergy and its present or former associates. Additional cash got here to darkish cash teams from organizations that obtained funds from AEP, Murray Energy (now referred to as American Consolidated Natural Resources), and others.

FirstEnergy’s settlement with the federal authorities now requires some disclosures of its giving to sure nonprofits and to entities “known by FirstEnergy to be operating for the benefit of a public official, either directly or indirectly.”

However, which may nonetheless go away some wiggle room, particularly on issues-focused organizations. Those provisions additionally don’t apply to different utility corporations.

Multiple layers of nonprofits and darkish cash organizations can work like Russian nesting dolls, hiding the final word supply of cash. Dark cash teams additionally might be like whack-a-moles: Once the function of 1 is unveiled, it could wind down operations, letting one other group pop up.

For years, for instance, AEP gave cash to a nonprofit group referred to as Empowering Ohio’s Economy, which in flip gave some cash to Generation Now, a darkish cash group that has pled responsible within the HB 6 legal case. AEP disclosed in June that it had gotten a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, despite the fact that the corporate mentioned it believed its participation within the HB 6 course of was moral and lawful.

Late final 12 months, Empowering Ohio’s Economy disclosed that it had begun winding down operations and had given $2 million to Open Road Path. That nonprofit group additionally operates underneath Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. And each teams have very related mission statements.

Whether AEP will assist the brand new group sooner or later is unclear, and teams like Open Road Path aren’t required to reveal their donors. Meanwhile, no matter Open Road Path might have carried out with the $2 million it obtained from Empowering Ohio’s Economy final 12 months gained’t be identified for at the least a month or extra.

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