Much of this influence peddling happens far from the public’s eye, advocates say. Last year the company spent nearly $200,000 on lobbying in Massachusetts. The utility paid its lobbyists a little over $94,000 for the first six months of 2020, with $72,000 doled out to Joyce & LeBretton.
Four of them are the utility’s in-house lobbyists and two work for the lobbying firm Joyce & LeBretton. National Grid has employed a total of six lobbyists in Massachusetts thus far this year. The Department of Public Utilities said the rare audit was necessary to examine “potential management problems through to the highest levels of the organization.”
The company’s anti-renewables lobbying comes despite state utility regulators’ order last fall of an investigation of National Grid’s management over its delaying of interconnecting a substantial amount of solar power under Massachusetts’ target for solar development known as the SMART program. And it calls into question the logic of having for-profit entities – who pursue short term gain when we desperately need long term thinking – run public utilities.” “These are government sanctioned monopolies that are using the funds they collect against our future. “It’s reprehensible for utilities to use ratepayer money to lobby against their ratepayers’ interests,” said Craig Altemose, Executive Director of 350 Mass Action. The utility’s continued opposition to renewable measures in the legislature raises the ire of clean energy advocates. National Grid did not respond to the Energy and Policy Institute’s request for comment. While both the Dykema and Haddad bills did not clear committee as stand-alone bills, they were eventually folded in late July as amendments into a sweeping Senate climate bill, “An Act setting next-generation climate policy,” the final details of which are now being hammered in negotiations between both chambers.Īdditionally, National Grid lobbied this year in opposition to another bill by Representative Haddad enhancing the offshore wind industry by increasing the megawatts of wind energy procured by Massachusetts and reforming the state’s offshore wind procurement process by removing utilities from the selection committee that awards power supply bids.
NATIONAL GRID MA INSTALL
Representative Patricia Haddad’s House Bill 2866, “An Act relative to net metering for on-site renewable energy facilities,” would especially help small and medium businesses install solar. National Grid – a UK-based utility that sells electricity and gas to 20 million customers in New York and New England – also lobbied this year against a Massachusetts bill that seeks to exempt larger solar energy producers from the net metering cap. Garcia noted that nearly 40 percent of housing units in the state are renter-occupied, which means that more than 1 million Massachusetts households face barriers to installing rooftop solar under current policies. “Finding ways to broaden solar’s reach is important for the many among us that haven’t had access to the technology’s direct benefits,” said Paula Garcia, an energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, during a hearing on the bill last summer. Representative Carolyn Dykema’s House Bill 2843, “An Act removing barriers to solar for low-income communities,” looks to provide “equitable access to all Massachusetts ratepayers, including low-income ratepayers.” According to Dykema, the bill will lower administrative barriers for low-income solar net metering projects by changing the process through which credits are allocated to customers, and ensure that information about solar programs are provided in a readily accessible manner, including in non-English speaking communities. One of bills National Grid opposed will make solar more accessible to lower income residents. In the first half of 2020, the company fought measures to enhance both solar and wind energy in the state.
Electric and gas utility National Grid lobbied in opposition to legislation aimed at promoting renewable energy in Massachusetts, recent lobbying reports show.
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