Environmental League of Massachusetts targets power utilities like Eversource in ad campaign

The Environmental League of Massachusetts ad (ELM)

Print Email

By Gintautas Dumcius | gdumcius@masslive.com
Follow on Twitter
on February 05, 2016 at 6:00 AM, updated February 05, 2016 at 6:09 AM

50 shares

Energy & Environment

• Baker commits $15 million to deliver clean energy to low- and middle-income residents
• ISO New England: Natural gas pipeline constraints threaten grid reliability
• California Gov. Jerry Brown welcomes Massachusetts to global climate pact
• National Grid seeks Massachusetts DPU approval of gas pipeline capacity contracts
• Tennessee Gas seeks 'pre-condemnation' access for pipeline surveys as 408 Massachusetts landowners resist

BOSTON – The Environmental League of Massachusetts is starting an ad campaign on Friday that takes aim at power utilities like Eversource.

The group has vowed to take an aggressive new tack on Beacon Hill as energy issues dominate discussions among Massachusetts legislators. Later this year, the group plans to unveil a list of "Dirty Dozen" legislators who receive low rankings on the ELM scorecard.

The money for the two-week ad campaign comes from ELM's action fund, the political arm. The action fund has a budget of $250,000, most of which has been raised, according to the group.
The ad campaign announced Friday will cost about $25,000 "to ensure maximum exposure to legislators and decision-makers," according to the group. The ads are meant to draw readers to a website that claims the utilities are attempting to block energy reform efforts.

ELM is buying space in the Boston Globe's newspaper and online edition, and in the free weekly round-up put out by the State House News Service, an independent wire service that covers politics and policy on and off Beacon Hill. The ads will also run in MASSterList, a daily morning newsletter focused on politics.

The ad charges that utilities have an "army of lobbyists deciding your energy bills" for the next three decades.

George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of MassachusettsGintautas Dumcius/MassLive.com 

"They make big bucks building massive, multi-state gas pipelines and rake in more and more from our utility bills while misleading policymakers about the cost of renewable energy and the thousands of local jobs we could reap from new industries in renewable energy," George Bachrach, the head of the Environmental League of Massachusetts and a former state senator, said in a statement.

"The utilities are marching us back to the fossil fuel age and standing in the way of progress – all to stifle competition," he added. "We've had enough."

The power utilities have pushed back on critics, saying the clean energy industry has its own lobbyists and is looking to add to the energy costs hitting consumers and businesses.