Edison Electric Institute

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is a trade association that represents monopoly investor-owned utilities. At $96 million in 2023, the D.C.-based trade group is largely funded through payments that utilities recover from their customers’ monthly bills. EEI is an inherently political trade group that advocates and lobbies on behalf of its utility members. EEI was involved in a campaign to aggressively work to sow doubt about climate science. Former President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette was briefly the President and CEO of EEI until he resigned from the role in October 2024, less than a year after he took the position. 

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Utility-funded Republican and Democratic groups try to leverage rising utility bills in New Jersey’s race for governor

Investor-owned utilities and utility industry groups have made nearly $2 million in cash and in-kind contributions this year to the Republican Governors Association and Democratic Governors Association, amid an election cycle where both groups have tried to make political hay out of rising electricity bills in New Jersey’s race for governor.  The Republican Governors Association...

Utilities and fossil fuel industry support proposed Trump administration air pollution rollbacks

Utilities, fossil fuel companies, and aligned groups filed public comments last month supporting a pair of Trump administration proposals to repeal EPA limits on harmful emissions of air pollution and greenhouse gases from power plants.   One of the Trump administration’s proposals would reverse a Biden-era EPA rule that strengthened Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS),...

Utilities Quietly Walk Back Commitments to Diverse Hiring, Social Justice

After spending the past half-decade scaling up efforts to diversify their workforces and suppliers as well as making and touting donations to social justice organizations, corporate utilities across the U.S. have begun to water down or abandon their commitments to promote diversity within their businesses and better serve communities of color. The retreat coincides with...

Several utilities donate to Trump inauguration committee

Monopoly utilities NextEra Energy, Sempra, Southern Company, and Washington Gas were among the donors to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration.  The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, Inc., received large checks from a variety of corporations including those throughout the fossil fuel industry and several large investor-owned monopoly utilities, according to the committee’s recent filings with the...

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