* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Monday, June 2, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Why Starz Entertainment Stock Soared Today – The Motley Fool

    Unpacking the Surge: What Fueled Starz Entertainment’s Stock Explosion Today!

    Unveiling the Enigmatic: First Looks at Destruction and Puck in ‘The Sandman

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Mavs CEO holds firm on new arena, entertainment district in Dallas – Dallas News

    Mavs CEO Stands Strong on Vision for New Arena and Entertainment District in Dallas

    Entertainment: On Your Marks, Get Set, Beer Run! – Urban Milwaukee

    Get Ready to Race: The Ultimate Beer Run Experience Awaits!

    Rachel Guttman Launches Entertainment Law Firm Gutt Law, PLLC [Exclusive] – MusicRow.com

    Rachel Guttman Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Law Firm: Gutt Law, PLLC!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    This giant microwave may change the future of war – MIT Technology Review

    Revolutionizing Warfare: The Impact of a Game-Changing Giant Microwave

    Bajeed Pattan Joins Forbes Technology Council as Innovation Leader – PRWeb

    Bajeed Pattan Takes the Helm as Innovation Leader at Forbes Technology Council!

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Drone technology demo in Cambria County showcases future of lifesaving medical deliveries – local21news.com

    Revolutionizing Healthcare: Drone Technology Takes Flight for Lifesaving Medical Deliveries in Cambria County

    Revolutionary Harvesting Technology Promises to Slash CAR-T Manufacturing Costs!

    Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism – International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – ICCT

    Unplugged: The Surge of Anti-Technology Extremism

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Why Starz Entertainment Stock Soared Today – The Motley Fool

    Unpacking the Surge: What Fueled Starz Entertainment’s Stock Explosion Today!

    Unveiling the Enigmatic: First Looks at Destruction and Puck in ‘The Sandman

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Mavs CEO holds firm on new arena, entertainment district in Dallas – Dallas News

    Mavs CEO Stands Strong on Vision for New Arena and Entertainment District in Dallas

    Entertainment: On Your Marks, Get Set, Beer Run! – Urban Milwaukee

    Get Ready to Race: The Ultimate Beer Run Experience Awaits!

    Rachel Guttman Launches Entertainment Law Firm Gutt Law, PLLC [Exclusive] – MusicRow.com

    Rachel Guttman Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Law Firm: Gutt Law, PLLC!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    This giant microwave may change the future of war – MIT Technology Review

    Revolutionizing Warfare: The Impact of a Game-Changing Giant Microwave

    Bajeed Pattan Joins Forbes Technology Council as Innovation Leader – PRWeb

    Bajeed Pattan Takes the Helm as Innovation Leader at Forbes Technology Council!

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Drone technology demo in Cambria County showcases future of lifesaving medical deliveries – local21news.com

    Revolutionizing Healthcare: Drone Technology Takes Flight for Lifesaving Medical Deliveries in Cambria County

    Revolutionary Harvesting Technology Promises to Slash CAR-T Manufacturing Costs!

    Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism – International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – ICCT

    Unplugged: The Surge of Anti-Technology Extremism

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Connecticut bans utilities from billing customers for lobbying efforts

July 4, 2023
in Science
Connecticut bans utilities from billing customers for lobbying efforts
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Last week, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed a law to prohibit the state’s investor-owned utilities from charging customers for lobbying expenses and other efforts to sway political outcomes. The new law marks the third comprehensive effort by a state to prevent utilities from using consumers’ monthly bills to fund political efforts, following a similar law passed in Colorado in May and a law that Maine Governor Janet Mills signed in late June. 

Across the country, utilities spend money collected from their customers — known as ratepayers — to block climate action and pressure policymakers to let them hike up energy bills. Connecticut’s new law bans utilities from charging customers for trade association dues, donations to political advocacy nonprofits that seek to influence elections, public relations expenses, and fees for consultants and lawyers hired by utilities to argue for rate increases. 

Researchers at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society found that utilities in Connecticut spend more on lobbying than any other sector in the state. State utilities have also actively opposed climate policies including expanding local renewable energy programs and rooftop solar. Eversource, the state’s largest investor-owned utility, spent over $300,000 in lobbying during the first quarter of 2023 alone. 

While it’s not uncommon for companies to spend money on lobbying efforts, utilities are unique because they operate as monopoly providers of gas and electricity. That means, in the absence of laws like Connecticut and Maine’s, customers could be effectively forced to pay for political efforts they may not agree with. 

“The utilities are often working against the state’s climate and energy policies,” said Shannon Laun, vice president and director of the advocacy group Conservation Law Foundation’s Connecticut chapter. “It’s entirely appropriate to prevent the utilities from recovering those costs from ratepayers when they might actually be working against ratepayer interests.”

High voltage transmission towers in Houston, Texas.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Federal and state regulations already prohibit utilities from collecting money from customers to fund political operations. But existing rules are “riddled with loopholes” and seldom enforced, David Pomerantz of the utility watchdog Energy and Policy Institute told Grist in May. 

Last year, a report by the London-based think tank InfluenceMap found that close to half of the 25 largest investor-owned utilities in the U.S. are actively working to slow the transition to clean energy through lobbying, advertising, and funding political campaigns. 

In one particularly high-profile scandal, the utility company FirstEnergy bribed former Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder with $60 million to pass a 2019 law that spent billions to bail out nuclear and coal-fired power plants, halved the renewable power utilities were required to buy, and eliminated energy efficiency requirements. A subsequent audit by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency that oversees the transmission and sale of electricity and gas, found that FirstEnergy charged ratepayers tens of millions for funds used to bribe officials.

A few other states, including New York and Minnesota, have passed laws to address the issue of utilities using ratepayer funds for lobbying, but none are as comprehensive as the legislation passed recently in Colorado, Connecticut, and Maine. 

Compared to Colorado’s law, which primarily focused on activities influencing legislative outcomes, the new Connecticut law uses a broader definition of lobbying to include efforts to influence administrative actions by executive agencies, like the state commissions that oversee utilities. Connecticut’s law also goes one step further than Colorado by asking utilities to provide an itemized list of all political expenditures each year. 

Matt Kasper, deputy director at Energy and Policy Institute, emphasized that Connecticut’s annual reporting requirement also extends to political expenses charged to utilities by their parent companies, providing greater “transparency not just at the subsidiary level but also at the holding company level.” That’s important because parent companies sometimes pool together customer funds from various subsidiary utilities to boost lobbying efforts. In the Ohio corruption scandal, for example, FirstEnergy pulled money from subsidiaries across five different states to fund its bribery scheme.

The bill passed in Maine also requires an annual itemized report for political expenditures. Like Connecticut, Maine’s new bill defines lobbying to include efforts directed at both the legislative and executive branches. It also bans utilities from recovering the costs of trade association dues, donations to political groups and nonprofits, and public relations campaigns from customers. 

Connecticut’s new law is part of a broader statewide push to hold utilities accountable for rising energy costs and climate inaction. Connecticut is the only state besides Hawai’i to have begun implementing a performance-based regulation system, which sets utilities’ profits according to reliability, affordability, and emissions reduction standards set by the state, rather than capital expenditures. 

“We have among the highest electricity costs in the continental U.S., and especially for lower-income residents of the state, that’s just a really high energy burden,” Laun told Grist. “Legislators have been hearing from their constituents, ‘What can you guys do to change things and to increase accountability for the utilities?’”

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Grist – https://grist.org/politics/connecticut-bans-utilities-from-billing-customers-for-lobbying-efforts/

Tags: Connecticutscienceutilities
Previous Post

Kerry Washington Shared the Ingredient That ‘Transformed’ Her Eczema-Prone Skin

Next Post

Inadequate energy intake affects female athletes

Statewide Hawaii high school surfing closer with passage of funding bill – Spectrum News

Surf’s Up: Hawaii High School Surfing Program Secures Funding Boost!

June 1, 2025
Precision ecology for targeted conservation action – Nature

Unlocking Targeted Conservation: The Power of Precision Ecology

June 1, 2025
Climate scientists are hosting a 100-hour YouTube livestream in response to Trump’s research funding cuts – Space

Climate scientists are hosting a 100-hour YouTube livestream in response to Trump’s research funding cuts – Space

June 1, 2025
YouTube Science Star Derek Muller Confronts PFAS “Forever Chemicals”—In His Own Blood – Scientific American

YouTube Science Sensation Derek Muller Takes on PFAS “Forever Chemicals” Found in His Own Blood!

June 1, 2025
The 17 Recipes We Can’t Wait To Make This June – Yahoo

17 Must-Try Recipes to Savor This June!

June 1, 2025
Blaze, Duke, Lockett, Rademacher headline men’s freestyle champions at U20 World Team Trials – USA Wrestling

Rising Stars Shine: Blaze, Duke, Lockett, and Rademacher Claim Victory at U20 Men’s Freestyle Championships!

June 1, 2025
Looking Back at the Good Old Days of Growth Under Biden – Bloomberg.com

Looking Back at the Good Old Days of Growth Under Biden – Bloomberg.com

June 1, 2025
Why Starz Entertainment Stock Soared Today – The Motley Fool

Unpacking the Surge: What Fueled Starz Entertainment’s Stock Explosion Today!

June 1, 2025
White House acknowledges problems in RFK Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report – AP News

White House Admits Flaws in RFK Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report

June 1, 2025
N.Y. landlords, lawmakers to face off over expanding upstate rent control – Spectrum News

Showdown Ahead: N.Y. Landlords and Lawmakers Clash Over Expanding Rent Control Upstate!

June 1, 2025

Categories

Archives

June 2025
MTWTFSS
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30 
« May    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (657)
  • Economy (672)
  • Entertainment (21,578)
  • General (15,254)
  • Health (9,714)
  • Lifestyle (674)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (673)
  • Politics (680)
  • Science (15,892)
  • Sports (21,177)
  • Technology (15,659)
  • World (660)

Recent News

Statewide Hawaii high school surfing closer with passage of funding bill – Spectrum News

Surf’s Up: Hawaii High School Surfing Program Secures Funding Boost!

June 1, 2025
Precision ecology for targeted conservation action – Nature

Unlocking Targeted Conservation: The Power of Precision Ecology

June 1, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version