"Leaked Docs: Gas Industry Secretly Fights Electrification"

"In public, Eversource Energy likes to tout its carbon neutrality goals and its investments in offshore wind.

But officials from New England's largest utility struck a different tone during an industry presentation in mid-March. Instead of advocating for lower emissions, company officials outlined a defensive strategy for preserving the use of natural gas for years to come.

Natural gas is 'in for [the] fight of it's life,' said one slide presented at the meeting and obtained by E&E News. It also called for a lobbying campaign, saying that 'everyone needs to contact legislators in favor of NG.' Another slide asked how the industry could 'take advantage of power outage fear' to bolster gas's fortunes.

Eversource is identified in the presentation materials as the co-leader of a national 'Consortium to Combat Electrification,' run out of the Energy Solutions Center, a trade group based in Washington. The slides identified 14 other utilities involved in the effort and said the group's mission was to 'create effective, customizable marketing materials to fight the electrification/anti-natural gas movement.'"

Benjamin Storrow reports for E&E News May 3, 2021.

Source: E&E News, 05/04/2021