Edison Electric Institute
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) was founded in 1933 and describes itself as "the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electrical companies" and says it represents "approximately 70 percent of the U.S. power industry." It also says it has "more than 80 international electric companies as affiliate members and nearly 200 industry suppliers and related organizations as associate members."[1]
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Documents written by or referencing this person or organization are contained in the Anti-Environmental Archive, launched by Greenpeace on Earth Day, 2015. The archive contains 3,500 documents, some 27,000 pages, covering 350 organizations and individuals. The current archive includes mainly documents collected in the late 1980s through the early 2000s by The Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR), an organization that tracked the rise of the so called "Wise Use" movement in the 1990s during the Clinton presidency. Access the index to the Anti-Environmental Archives here.
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Contents
Lobbying
According to figures compiled by the Center for Responsible Government, EEI spent $10.5 million for lobbying Congress in 2009 after spending $7.5 million in 2008. The top issues on which EEI lobbied were Energy & Nuclear Power, Utilities, Environment & Superfund, Taxes, and Clean Air & Water, according to the CRG.[2]
Attempts to Slow the Growth of Residential Solar Systems
The growth of residential solar systems is viewed as a threat to the utility industry's profits, according to the Washington Post, which obtained documents from a 2012 retreat hosted by EEI:
- The utility industry’s playbook for slowing the growth of residential solar is laid out in a few frames of the computer slide show [...] Despite a bland title—“Facing the Challenges of a Distribution System in Transition”—the Edison document portrays solar systems as a serious, long-term threat to the survival of traditional electricity providers. [...]
- The document, provided to The Washington Post by the Energy & Policy Institute, called for a campaign of “focused outreach” targeting key groups that could influence the debate: state legislatures, regulatory agencies and sympathetic consumer-advocacy groups.
- Two-and-a-half years later, evidence of the “action plan” envisioned by Edison officials can be seen in states across the country. Legislation to make net metering illegal or more costly has been introduced in nearly two dozen state houses since 2013. Some of the proposals were virtual copies of model legislation drafted two years ago by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a nonprofit organization with financial ties to billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.[3]
Opposing Renewable Energy Targets
The New York Times reported on December 14, 2007 that EEI led the lobbying opposition to a provision in a federal energy bill that would have required utilities nationwide to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. EEI implemented an extensive lobbying campaign against the provision, warning Republican Senators and the White House that the bill would cause sharp increases in electric rates. The provision was eventually stripped out of the bill, and a weaker version without renewable energy requirements passed the Senate on Thursday, December 13, 2007 by a margin of 86-8. [4]
Clean Water Restoration Act Opposition
In October 2007, the EEI set up a website, www.protectmywater.org, for a group called the "Water Advocacy Coalition."[5] The site presents arguments against the proposed Clean Water Restoration Act, a bill (S.787) introduced by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) intended to clarify which bodies of water are subject to federal regulation under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (commonly known as the Clean Water Act). The bill states that the government's ability to keep pollution out of the nation's waters "has been undermined by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159 (January 9, 2001) and Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715 (June 19, 2006), which have resulted in confusion, permitting delays, increased costs, litigation, and reduced protections for waters of the United States."[6]
Funding
In its 2007 contributions report Xcel Energy disclosed that it contributed $700,296 to EEI.[7]
Personnel
- Karen R. Obenshain, Director of Fuels, Technology and Commercial Policy
- Lewis Hay III - vice chair
Contact
Edison Electric Institute
701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-2696
Phone 202-508-5000
Web site: http://www.eei.org/
Articles and Resources
Related SourceWatch Articles
External Resources
External Articles
- Pamela M. Prah, "Govs' parties to fund 2010 races," Stateline.org, September 3, 2008.
- Center for Energy Workforce Development, "Center for Energy Workforce Development Partners with U.S. Army Reserve to Help Prepare Soldiers for Careers in the Energy Industry," Press release via PR Newswire, March 20, 2009.
References
- ↑ Edison Electric Institute website [1].
- ↑ Information found by search March 8, 2010, at Center for Responsible Government website [2].
- ↑ Joby Warrick, "Utilities wage campaign against rooftop solar," Washington Post, March 7, 2015.
- ↑ John M. Broder, "Industry Flexes Muscle, Weaker Energy Bill Passes", New York Times, Washington section. December 14, 2007.
- ↑ WhoIs information found March 8, 2010, at http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=protectmywater.org&type=domain
- ↑ Search of bill information for S.787 at http://thomas.loc.gov/.
- ↑ Xcel Energy, "Xcel Energy’s 2007 Political Contributions Report", Xcel Energy website, January 29, 2008.
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