Igniting a spark

How HEATED's journalism continues to move the needle.

U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse, who joined a campaign to pressure electric utilities to leave the American Gas Association last month. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Hi everyone! I’m on vacation this week, so in lieu of the usual rage-inducing hard news, I thought I’d share a story about how our journalism is slowly but surely moving the needle.

It begins last summer, when Eversource—a major power utility—announced it was leaving the American Gas Association (AGA), a major fossil fuel trade group, over differences in opinion about climate change.

This was huge news, because the AGA plays an enormous role in delaying climate progress. Every year, the AGA spends millions obstructing climate policy and spreading climate misinformation—millions that come directly from consumer payments to AGA’s power utility members, like Eversource.

Eversource leaving the AGA meant the AGA would have less money, and therefore less power, to obstruct climate policy in the future. But I wondered: Did it have to stop there? If Eversource could work up the guts to leave AGA over climate principles, then why couldn’t other major electric utilities do the same?

I decided the best path forward was to ask. I identified four major electric utilities who publicly claim to care about climate change—Con Ed, National Grid, PG&E, and Xcel—and posed two questions: If you care about climate change so much, then why are you still members of AGA? And given Eversource’s departure, will you consider leaving too?

We published a newsletter with their responses and non-responses in August. Then, in September, we heard that activist readers had taken up the cause. Inspired by HEATED’s reporting, they decided to start a pressure campaign against PG&E to leave the AGA. And over time, they got 20 environmental organizations—including national groups like Earthjustice and Public Citizen—to join the call.

Fast forward to the present, and the activists’ effort is now expanding to the national level, with the support of two U.S. Senators.

On April 10, Senate Budget Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) joined the Gas Leaks Project to launch a new campaign called “Ditch the AGA.” During the press conference, Markey called on power utilities across the U.S. to “follow Eversource’s lead and break ties with the AGA.”

“Americans are already paying the price of climate change,” Markey said. “They shouldn’t have to pay the salaries of those who are fueling it.”

Central to the new campaign is a website that encourages concerned citizens to find out whether their utility is an American Gas Association member. If it is, the website directs users to a form where they can pressure their local officials to demand that the utility cut ties.

I think we’re often misled to believe that the only way journalism is valuable is if it immediately leads to an injustice righted. But that’s not how it works most of the time. Most of the time, journalism provides value by igniting a spark in citizens to become more involved in their democracy. I think that’s what our August story did—and what I’m always striving for HEATED to do.

This is one of the reasons I’m so committed to the 100 percent reader-funded business model: because I believe it’s the best way to ensure we’re always motivated solely by what readers need. The more readers who join our funding community, the more journalism we can do. The more journalism we can do, the more sparks we’ll ignite.

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Catch of the Day: If you subscribe for any reason, subscribe to soothe Pookie, this woeful pop submitted by reader Shaun.

Pookie worries that climate change’s disproportionate affect on the ocean ecosystem will reduce the number of tiny shorebirds that he loves to chase on the northwestern California coast.

Don’t worry Pookie!

Want to see your furry (or non-furry!) friend in HEATED? It might take a little while, but we WILL get to yours eventually! Just send a picture and some words to catchoftheday@heated.world.