The Consumers Energy Alliance, an organization that claims to represent consumer interests but that is made up almost entirely of energy production companies and energy-intensive industrial companies, released a poll purporting to show strong support across the region for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
However, CEA has a history of fraudulently representing public support for its clients’ energy projects. CEA sent 347 letters to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) supportive of a pipeline proposed by Nexus Gas Transmission, using the names of local residents, including an Ohio man who has been dead since 1998, according to a group of Ohio property owners who asked the postal inspection service and FERC to conduct a criminal review of CEA in September 2016.
In 2014, Consumer Energy Alliance was caught submitting a fraudulent petition which attacked net metering and defended utility companies’ fixed-rate increase proposals in Wisconsin. CEA submitted names of 2,500 state residents that “supported” the utilities’ proposals. It was revealed that certain people on the CEA petition were in fact against the proposal. The PSC then dismissed the petition saying it would not be included in the record.
The manner in which this poll was conducted and the wording of the questions has raised concerns, yet again, that the results do not truly represent the views of citizens in these three states…especially those in the areas most impacted by the project.
Additional information about the poll from each state can be found below.
North Carolina:
Virginia:
West Virginia