Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Utility Trade Association Needs To Come Clean On Lobbying Efforts

Clean Technica: Your local power company pays big bucks to buy political influence at the state and federal level. Its interests do not always align with yours, but in almost every state, utilities are a major political force to be reckoned with. Beyond their own lobbying efforts, they often pay even more to have someone else do the lobbying for them.

Enter the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), an industry think tank that has lobbied for America’s investor-owned utilities at the state and federal level since 1933. In 2012, EEI spent nearly $14 million lobbying the federal government and contributed $785,885 to federal candidates. That money, incidentally, is coming from the power bills we all have to pay each month. While most of their membership and dues information isn’t public, a few examples include:

Read article