NY Renews Calls on National Grid to Leave Fossil Fuel Front Group “New Yorkers for Affordable Energy”
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***: May 5, 2023
Contact: Marie Scarles, marie@nyrenews.org, (646) 389-8429
Web: @NYRenews | www.nyrenews.org
NY Renews Calls on National Grid to Leave Fossil Fuel Front Group
“New Yorkers for Affordable Energy”
The multi-pronged campaign includes an ad spend in Politico’s NY Playbook, an organizational sign-on letter, grassroots social media activation, and more
New York State – The NY Renews coalition, representing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers statewide, launched a multi-pronged push against National Grid, calling on them to:
Stop spreading disinformation, including false data, about New York’s nation-leading climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the state’s climate plan, and numerous bills that address the climate crisis, and to
Drop out of and desist from participating in the fossil fuel front group New Yorkers for Affordable Energy (NYFAE).
The campaign includes ads that will run in Politico’s NY Playbook newsletter and a public-facing petition with grassroots social media activation starting Monday, May 8th; an organizational sign-on letter with nearly a hundred signatories; and a legislative briefing featuring Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, and Anshul Gupta of the Climate Reality Project, “Fossil Fuel Industry Gaslighting.” (Here is a link to the briefing, and here are the slides.)
National Grid is currently seeking rate hikes of more than 16% while enlisting its customer base to unwittingly fight NY’s climate law via email and robo calls.
“National Grid continues to lie about gas capacity issues so they can keep building toxic infrastructure that hits the wallets of already overburdened ratepayers. At the same time they push for hikes to our bills, National Grid funds fossil fuel front groups like New Yorkers for Affordable Energy which scare New Yorkers with lies and misinformation,” said Kim Fraczek, Director of Sane Energy Project. “Advocates work diligently to scrape together funds to hire engineers, health experts, attorneys, and scientists to counter false claims by National Grid, to demonstrate that the fracked gas they hustle is toxic, and to show that their attempts to skirt our climate law is illegal. National Grid uses its well-funded PR operation to undermine our health, safety, and democracy. It’s time for Governor Hochul and the Public Service Commission to stop letting this rogue corporation profit off regular New Yorkers.”
"How soon they forget," said Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progress Coalition. "A few short years ago National Grid tried holding New York State hostage by halting all new gas hookups unless it got a new pipeline. It took a $36 million fine and the threat of losing its operating license to make it back down. It takes a lot of chutzpah for it to come before the PSC and ask for a rate increase now. National Grid's tactics on gas hookups threw development into chaos and took a big bite out of Long Island's economy. Trying to squeeze Long Island ratepayers now adds insult to injury. Their cost of living is already 50% higher than the national average, and rate hikes make it worse. Many Long Islanders are already in debt because of their electric bills. Instead of pushing them even higher, how about limiting the compensation for some of National Grid's highest-paid executives?"
“National Grid is both greenwashing and gaslighting,” said Marc Weiss, NY Renews steering committee member. “On the one hand, the company says it's concerned about climate change and they want to do their part to address it. But most of what they propose — replacing fracked gas with so-called renewable natural gas and hydrogen — would violate the CLCPA. Why would we trust a company that's helped create the climate crisis to help solve it? At the same time, they underwrite ad campaigns by their front group, so-called New Yorkers for Affordable Energy, pushing all kinds of scare stories that the climate law will deprive New Yorkers of ‘affordability, reliability and choice.’ As we’ve seen with skyrocketing utility bills that have slammed working families, affordability is the last thing they care about. If they really want to solve the climate crisis, they should stop the disinformation campaign and come up with a new business model that shifts us off of fossil fuels, the way the auto companies are doing.”
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NY Renews is a coalition of more than 360 environmental justice, community, faith, labor, and multi-issue organizations fighting for just climate policy for New Yorkers. We are the force behind the nation's most aggressive climate law, the NY State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, enacted in 2019.The Climate, Jobs & Justice Package is the next step in our fight for climate justice in New York.