Utility CEO pay surges amid higher profits, customer struggles Investor-owned utilities paid their CEOs $622 million in 2025, lowering the bar for bonuses while customers struggled to afford bills.

exelon (pepco's parent company) paid their ceo $15.6 million in 2025, a nearly $1 million dollar increase from 2024, despite not meeting their customer satisfaction performance threshold. read more about who is profiting off your utility bill in our latest report: energyandpolicy.org/utility-ceo-...

Utility CEO pay surges amid higher profits, customer struggles Investor-owned utilities paid their CEOs $622 million in 2025, lowering the bar for bonuses while customers struggled to afford bills.

Electricity bills are rising, customers are struggling, but guess who is doing just fine?

FERC rejects reform, leaves customers paying for utility trade associations FERC kept rules letting utilities pass trade association political costs onto customers. Congress can step in to solve the issue.

Federal energy regulators voted yesterday to keep accounting rules in place that allow monopoly utilities to charge customers for trade association activities - rejecting calls from a diverse coalition to protect customers from these expenses. energyandpolicy.org/ferc-rejecti...

In a new analysis that is surprising to...? Two incumbent candidates for the AL PSC received the majority of their donations from three PACs that get a sizable amount of their money from utility-related interests. Read it here: energyandpolicy.org/utility-link...

Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government’s attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise.

The 2019 ProPublica TurboTax investigation never gets old

Gas Industry Front Group Targets Democrats in Pennsylvania - Inside Climate News The industry group pays politicians to convince voters that natural gas is the “most affordable and reliable energy source.”

The Trump rollback of federal climate policy has made state battles more key for the fossil fuel industry. Enter "Natural Allies," an industry group in Pennsylvania that sell its pro-gas message to Democrats. By @kiley.bsky.social @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/1104202...

Khan vs. Cutter: A Tale of Two Careers - The American Prospect It was the age of corruption, and maybe, it was also the age of integrity.

Lina Khan is running a think tank & training center on economic policy at Columbia.
Stephanie Cutter, top Obama & Biden aide, became a policy adviser for Kalshi.
The former proves that government officials cashing out (like the latter) is not preordained.
From @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social:

Earl Sweatshirt, Mike, and Sideshow Are Proving That Rap Doesn’t Need to Have a Chosen One Recent albums from the indie rap heroes gracefully toe the line between humility and divinity

went long on the new Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and Sideshow albums in relation to how they subvert hip-hop's chosen one motif--while still outrapping the competition--for @hearingthingsco.bsky.social www.hearingthings.co/earl-sweatsh...

AEP CEO's compensation could hit $36.6M, topping region's highest-paid public company leader - Columbus Business First AEP CEO Bill Fehrman’s total compensation in his first full year totaled nearly $11 million more than Central Ohio’s highest-paid leader at a public company.

At a time when affordability concerns + rising energy costs are foremost on the minds of consumers, AEP reports that total compensation for its CEO Bill Fehrman could reach $36.6M for 2025, his first full year on the job www.bizjournals.com/columbus/new...

1/ My first story as a @propublica.org climate reporter:

I discovered that the Trump appointee in charge of rewriting methane rules at the EPA was – just four years ago – an unnamed author of an oil industry response to those same rules.

His name isn't in the document itself, but…

When utilities ask to raise rates, customers pay the legal fees. A bill in Mass. would change that Lawmakers are considering legislation that would prohibit utilities from passing on rate case expenses to their customers. Instead, the utility would foot the bill, taking the money out of its shareho...

When your utility asks state regulators to let them raise rates, they often hire expensive consultants and outside lawyers to help them make their case.

Then you, the ratepayer, foot the bill.
www.wbur.org/news/2026/04... @wbur.org #energysky

After Intense Lobbying, Carney Allows Gas-Powered Data Centres in Alberta Energy firm pushed federal officials to scale back clean-electricity rules tied to AI sector by Taylor C. Noakes Updated 11:46, Mar. 27, 2026 | Published 6:30, Mar. 27, 2026

he Alberta electricity company Capital Power, which is developing a new, large artificial intelligence data centre in the province powered by natural gas, lobbied the federal Mark Carney government dozens of times in 2025 to eliminate clean-energy regulations, DeSmog has learned. These regulations were subsequently dropped from a fossil fuel accord that the prime minister signed with the Government of Alberta this past November, allowing new, large data centres fuelled by gas turbines to proceed. “We’ve got a new paradigm that allows us to look at growth capital” for Canadian gas-powered AI projects, Capital Power chief executive officer Avik Dey said in reaction to the Carney government announcing it would suspend the regulations.

The term “data centre” appears at least twenty-five times in notes from Capital Power’s interactions with the federal government, while the term “emissions” appears seventeen times, and “clean-energy regulations” and “net zero” appear each at least fourteen times.

The AI boom is itself driving a massive development of gas-power generation: over 1,000 gigawatts worldwide, a quarter of which is in the United States. Though AI data centres can be powered by any form of electricity, the gas industry has marketed gas power as cheap, efficient, and reliable.

What a stunning demonstration of how data centre development is directly and materially boosting fossil fuels. After ferocious lobbying the Carney government caved and killed off environmental rules to allow fossil gas power plants to be built for data centres:

thewalrus.ca/after-intens...

Centrists: Better Things Aren’t Possible - The American Prospect Third Way’s strategy session for Democratic moderates lacked any vision other than a hatred for progressives.

Why is Third Way is spending so much time and energy attacking Hasan Piker?

Because they have absolutely no compelling vision for Democratic governance after Trump.

Oddisee & Heno. Announce New Album 'From Takoma With Love': Hear 'MIMS' The veteran rapper/producer Oddisee has been making beautiful music for a very long time now. Last year, he released an EP called En Route. Next month, he’ll team up with Heno., a relatively new rappe...

@mynameisheno.bsky.social and @oddiseemusic.bsky.social announce collaborative album 'From Takoma With Love'; hear "MIMS"

Four portraits of Minnesota residents inside and outside their homes. From left to right: A woman in a hijab, an older woman wearing a red whistle, an elderly couple in winter coats standing in the snow, and a woman wearing a buttoned-up cardigan and dark blue jeans.

The news has moved on, but ICE is still in Minneapolis.

My neighbors are still patrolling streets, driving strangers to work, and providing aid. As a photojournalist at @propublica.org, I wanted to know: What do they look like in their daily lives?

So I picked up my camera 👇

Sanders pitches bill to block data centers as populists seize on AI fears The legislation would pause the construction of new facilities until Congress passes regulations on artificial intelligence.

Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation today to block the construction of new data centers until lawmakers enact regulations on AI, laying down a marker on the populist left as Washington confronts public skepticism of the new technology.

Power Bills Are Soaring. So Are Utility Profits. Americans Pay The Price. Investor-owned utilities pocketed $244 billion in profit off ratepayer bills between 2021-2024

"For most Americans, when they pay their electric bill every month, a big chunk of that bill – probably bigger than they think – is going to their utility’s corporate profits," @davidpomerantz.bsky.social told @silviomarcacci.bsky.social: thepowerline.substack.com/p/power-bill... 🔌💡

In an Election Decided by Acreage, Data Centers Are Shifting the Balance of Power With developers buying up large swathes of land in the Salt River Project service area, its governance is less certain than ever.

New from @jeva.bsky.social: The Salt River Project utility board has started early voting, but what happens when voting rights are decided by land acreage, Turning Point enters the chat, and data centers could throw the balance of power on its head?

heatmap.news/energy/salt-...

New York hip-hop experimentalist Elucid: ‘I like the harmony of the city. Everybody’s got a little solo’ From a pocket of Zen in the Dream House installation, the rapper/producer talks about channelling the city’s perpetual din, whether solo or with Billy Woods as Armand Hammer

New York hip-hop experimentalist Elucid: ‘I like the harmony of the city. Everybody’s got a little solo’

Welcome to Utility Watch: Let's Talk Utility Profits Politicians of both parties are honing in on utility profits in their plans to lower voters’ electric bills. That's smart. It’s good policy and good politics.

I started [gulp] a substack. It’s called Utility Watch, and will feature @energyandpolicy.org's research, with opinions and analysis from me. My first post is on utility profits, and why the politicians increasingly going after them are smart to do so. utilitywatch.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

Last week, I wrote about the DC Court of Appeals' ruling that tossed out the approval of the latest Pepco rate hikes.

On Friday, a motion was filed to the DC Public Service Commission's (PSC) to restore rates to what they were before this rate hike, & issue a refund to customers.

The Kids Trump Sent to ICE’s Dilley Detention Center ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of...

Some children in Dilley were so distraught they cut themselves or talked about suicide, parents told ProPublica.

They said kids lost their appetites after finding worms and mold on their food, had trouble sleeping, and were constantly sick.

This week NARUC held its winter meeting — where regulators, commissioners and - let’s be honest, a lot of utility lobbyists - come together to talk shop. But as you may have seen in an exposé by @harpers.bsky.social, there are also some extracurricular things that happen, too.

SRP landowner games 2024 race to elect preferred candidate One Maricopa County, Arizona, landowner appears to have gamed the land-based voting rules of Salt River Project in a way that enabled him to almost single-handedly decide the outcome of an election fo...

The Salt River Project (an AZ utility) has a land ownership-based voting system to elect to their board. Public records show that a landowner converted almost 240 acres from an LLC to a trust juuust in time to vote all of those acres in the 2024 election. https://bit.ly/4qykvTL

Republican bill targeting D.C. could create tax season chaos It’s the second year in a row that Congress could throw a wrench into D.C.’s budget.

If you're a D.C. resident, be aware: Paying your taxes this year could be total chaos. Why? Republicans in Congress are again trying to mess with the city's local budget and finances, something they know little about: 51st.news/republican-b...

washington dc! at songbyrd

brilliant. loved the reporting on the 454 show, definitely someone who comes to mind for me in these conversations. planning to see him in a couple weeks

Monocultural Rap Stardom is Dead—And That's OK What does it mean to be a rap star in 2026? Some thoughts on rap’s current standing in the mainstream and the genre’s health in the post-social media era.

I went long on the latest round of Hip-Hop Is Dead discourse--no more superstars, rap not charting that one time, blog-era stars hogging space/attention--and how, despite all that, rap continues to thrive in the margins for @hearingthingsco.bsky.social

Michigan loophole makes it difficult to track utilities’ donations to politicians Revelation comes as a first-in-the-nation citizen’s ballot initiative to ban donations by utilities picks up steam

Got a whiff of some fishy Michigan campaign finance reports so we dug in and stumbled upon a huge reporting loophole that prevents the public from seeing exactly how, and how much, cash flows from DTE Energy and Consumers Energy to lawmakers www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin What’s really behind your soaring utility bills

Americans are paying record-high utility bills, and it’s not just inflation or extreme weather. A new @harpers.bsky.social investigation by @nickbowlin.bsky.social lays out how utilities, regulators, and Wall Street work together to lock in rising costs for customers. harpers.org/archive/2026...