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.

Southern Company CEO and Edison Electric Institute Chairman Tom Fanning’s Climate Change Denial

In the month since Tom Fanning, the CEO of Southern Company and current chairman of the Edison Electric Institute, said that carbon dioxide was not a primary contributor to global...

/ April 30, 2017

On ABC’s “This Week” Scott Pruitt Cites the Success of the EPA and Clean Air Act to Undo Them

It is a bitter irony that Scott Pruitt cites the Clean Air Act success story to justify the Trump administration’s attacks on clean air and water safeguards

/ March 27, 2017

New DOE Chief of Staff, Brian McCormack, Played Critical Role in EEI’s Rooftop Solar Campaign

Brian McCormack, most recently of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), will become Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s chief of staff, reports confirmed yesterday. Previously, McCormack was EEI’s vice president of political and...

/ March 14, 2017

Legislation Advances to Allow Xcel Energy to Build Natural Gas Plant that Bypasses Usual Regulatory Review

On February 2, the Minnesota Senate Committee on Energy and Utilities Finance and Policy voted 7-2 in favor of giving Xcel Energy the certainty to build a 780-megawatt natural gas...

/ February 8, 2017

Report: Natural Gas Prices and Utility Infrastructure Spending Have High Impact on Bills; Solar Negligible

In the utility industry’s effort to slow the growth of rooftop solar across the country, electric companies and their trade association, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), have based their campaign on...

/ February 6, 2017

Donald Trump Has Nominated Oklahoma AG Pruitt, ALEC and Fossil Fuel Industry Ally, To Lead EPA

"We have an EPA that is engaged in rulemaking, proposed rulemaking, that seeks to exert itself in a way that the statute doesn’t authorize at all."

/ December 8, 2016

Where is the National Black Chamber of Commerce getting its money to attack solar power in Florida? And is it breaking the law?

National Black Chamber of Commerce contributed money to Consumers for Smart Solar through a lobbying arm of the organization that was revoked by the IRS

/ November 4, 2016

UPDATED: Florida Professional Firefighters Reverse Endorsement of Amendment 1

Pressure from "hundreds, if not thousands" of members persuades firefighters' union to reverse support for anti-solar Amendment 1.

/ November 1, 2016

First Episode of ‘Years of Living Dangerously’ Focuses on Solar Energy and Amendment 1 in Florida

'SNL' castmember Cecily Strong travels to Nevada and Florida to investigate the latest solar controversies between power companies and their customers.

/ October 28, 2016

Florida Power Companies Continue To Spend Money Supporting Amendment 1 To Limit Solar

Florida's four largest power companies have contributed over $20 million to the Consumers for Smart Solar campaign, also called Amendment 1.

/ October 28, 2016