Eversource, the biggest energy utility company in New England, has split from the American Gas Association in order to “focus on decarbonization,” WBUR reports. “Citing decarbonization, I think, is about as diplomatic as [Eversource is] going get to saying that AGA’s climate policies weren’t aligned with theirs,” Charlie Spatz, a researcher with the Energy Policy Institute, told WBUR. “It’s a pretty clear way to say ‘it’s a climate thing’ without saying it.”
Though Eversource publicly stated its decision to leave the AGA was “not necessarily based on an incompatibility with the AGA” — a group with a long history of actively undermining climate action and undermining climate science — utility experts called the Eversource move unprecedented and said the split could augur future utility splits from the group, similar to utilities’ exodus from the trade group formerly known as the American Coalition of Clean Coal Electricity.
“[The American Gas Association] has been on the front lines of delaying the clean energy transition,” UC-Santa Barbara professor Leah Stokes told WBUR. “To have a gas utility wake up and say, ‘You know what? We don’t want to be part of the problem anymore. We want to be part of the solution’ — that’s a really hopeful trend.” (WBUR)