Public Citizen Files Complaint vs. PJM Over What It Terms "Contributions" To Party Governors Assoc.
February 21,2018
Public Citizen, Inc. filed a complaint at FERC against PJM alleging that, "Public Citizen has identified at least $456,500 in campaign contributions made by PJM Interconnection to political action committees for the purpose of financing partisan electoral politics that have not been disclosed to FERC or PJM’s stakeholders."
Public Citizen states in the complaint, "To ensure just and reasonable rates and compliance with prior Commission precedent, FERC must require PJM to itemize and disclose all political-related spending, including campaign contributions and lobbying expenses, and clearly document which political expenses are funded through filed rates. If PJM is financing partisan political activities through its filed rate, than such funding is unjust and unreasonable."
Specifically, Public Citizen states in the complaint, "Public Citizen has identified at least $456,500 in campaign contributions made by PJM Interconnection to two Political Action Committees: the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association."
In a statement to RetailEnergyX.com, PJM stated, "PJM has acted in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. The payments to the two Governors’ Associations were annual business council membership fees that allow PJM to provide input and participate in policy summits on energy industry topics that could impact PJM’s members. Those payments were not intended to support any political campaign. PJM’s external affairs and communications costs, including these memberships, are collected through PJM’s filed stated rates consistent with FERC’s order authorizing these costs to be collected from ISO-RTO members. PJM operates as a profit neutral organization for which educating and informing are essential to our FERC-defined functions."