Multiple electric utilities have waged a clandestine campaignover the past 3 years to funnel about $17 million through twoWashington, D.C. front groups in an effort to stall electricrestructuring legislation in the House Commerce Committee’s Energyand Power subcommittee, the Washington Post reported last week.

Secret memos given to the Post by deregulation advocates, reveala utility-funded, “grass roots” lobbying effort to attack keycongressmen on their home turf through radio ads directinglisteners to call “1-800-BAD-BILL” and through phone banksconnecting angry residents to congressional offices.

The effort was started in 1995 by the law firm of Ryan,Phillips, Utrecht & MacKinnon, which enlisted several existingutility clients and soon thereafter brought in nine others. Theutilities paid between $300,000 and $700,000 a year to fund theeffort, the Post reported. The main corporate sponsors includedCarolina Power & Light, Florida Power & Light, TexasUtilities, Commonwealth Edison, Reliant Energy, First Energy,Consumers Energy, Teco and Union Electric.

Two front groups, the conservative Citizens for State Power andthe union-affiliated Electric Utility Shareholders Alliance, wereused for a lobbying effort dubbed “The Project,” which was createdto bottle up electric restructuring in the subcommittee. TheProject was run by law firm partner Jeffery MacKinnon, a former topaide to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the House subcommittee,and Tim Ridley, a former Democratic staff member in Congress whonow runs a firm specializing in “grass roots” lobbying campaigns.The Project included more than 50 “mobilizations” in congressionaldistricts.

The utilities’ stealth campaign is one reason electricrestructuring has been stalled although one partial deregulationbill made it to the full committee level last fall, the Post noted.Commerce Chairman Thomas J. Bliley Jr., a Virginia Republican, is astaunch industry critic who is determined to move a bill. The Postquoted memos describing meetings in Washington where utilitylobbyists and consultants shaped strategies for stopping Bliley.”The number one goal of ‘The Project’ has always been to bottlenecklegislation,” said one memo. The participants also spoke of theneed to “demonize” the federal agency that regulates utilities andto use debates about nuclear power as “a highly provocative wedgeissue” to destabilize legislative adversaries, according to thePost.

Rocco Canonica

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