For at least the last seven years, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has tried to shed its image as a disinfo-spreading fossil fuel lobby shop by another name (utility industry trade group), but all that's probably for naught given its new CEO.
That’s not to say that EEI has been particularly successful at greenwashing the industry lately anyway. Last July, the trade group was namechecked in a New York Times op-ed about how utility customers are paying to block clean energy, in part through groups like EEI. Then earlier this month, HEATED dedicated a whole column to EEI's duplicity, reporting on Leah Stokes' findings that EEI touted carbon capture — right up until the latest EPA regulations require it, at which point the trade group suddenly decided that it's not ready for prime time. It’s the same story for hydrogen as a replacement for methane-fired power plants, something EEI's claiming isn't ready, even as its own members begin making investments that indicate otherwise.
And sure enough, the utility lobby submitted comments to the EPA staunchly opposing the latest climate regulations, trotting out the tried-and-(un)true classics of anti-regulatory rhetoric. While we could get into the details, there's really no need.
Because EEI's longtime CEO Tom Kuhn is stepping down this year. And his replacement is the most obvious indication yet that EEI isn't working in good faith to advance the clean energy transition, and is instead a fossil fuel industry lobby shop.
The new CEO is not a clean power executive, or an uninteresting energy wonk, or anyone who will be even remotely credible when trying to pretend that EEI isn't an energy disinfo operation. It’s climate denier Dan Brouillette, who is the president of methane gas company Sempra (the company that ghost wrote itself letters of support on behalf of Louisiana officials), a former Ford VP and auto industry lobbyist, and the Secretary of the Energy Department under President Donald Trump.
"Any shred of credibility EEI had is now gone," Evergreen Action responded. "Find your utility company here and urge them to publicly distance themselves from [EEI] and its anti-climate leadership."