All posts by Matt Kasper

Matt Kasper is the Deputy Director at the Energy and Policy Institute. He focuses on defending policies that further the development of clean energy sources. He also focuses on the companies and their front groups that obstruct policy solutions to global warming. Before joining the Energy and Policy Institute in 2014, Matt was a research assistant at the Center for American Progress where he worked on various state and local policy issues.

Consumers Energy contributed $43.5 million over four years to Citizens for Energizing Michigan’s Economy

But that’s not what Citizens for Energizing Michigan’s Economy reports on their IRS 990 - so where’s the money?

/ June 7, 2018
Consumers Energy wind turbine
Entergy confirms actors were paid to support New Orleans power plant

Hawthorn Group, PR firm behind paid actors scandal in New Orleans, has long record of being paid by utilities to lie to the public

Entergy hired the Hawthorn Group to create "grassroots support" for its proposed natural gas power plant

/ May 10, 2018

A growing trend: West Virginia candidates sign pledge to refuse utility contributions

Seven candidates running for the West Virginia House of Delegates this year have recently signed a pledge to not take campaign donations from monopoly utilities. The pledge, titled “Represent Us,...

/ May 7, 2018

Michigan Utility Executives and Employees Increasing Political Contributions

An Energy and Policy Institute analysis of Michigan Secretary of State campaign data from 2007 through the first four months of 2018 identified at least $6.5 million in contributions from...

/ April 27, 2018

Emails shed light on discussions lobbyists for grid operator PJM Interconnection had with federal and state policymakers

The grid operator that coordinates the wholesale electricity markets in the U.S. Midwest has been lobbying for and against varying efforts to prop up uneconomic coal and nuclear plants in...

/ April 16, 2018

Soaring Pipeline Profits May Be Driving DTE Energy’s Proposed New Gas Plant; Creates Conflict of Interest

Flawed models suggest the company is prioritizing its gas subsidiary over the public interest

/ March 26, 2018

Indiana lawmaker with history of receiving gifts from utilities, sponsoring utility-friendly legislation, now to join commission that regulates them

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced last week that he selected State Representative Dave Ober (R-Albion), chair of the House Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications and frequent recipient of utility...

/ March 25, 2018

Illinois utilities and executives continue to pour money into the attorney general campaign

With just a few weeks before the Illinois primary, ComEd, Exelon, and other utilities have increased their donations to several attorney general candidates, particularly Democratic candidates Kwame Raoul and Jesse Ruiz....

/ March 1, 2018

Utility Industry Contributing Millions to National Political Party Groups

Over $3 million in contributions to certain IRS 527 political organizations in 2017. More than $36 million over the past decade.

/ February 26, 2018