Last week in Memphis, PACE Executive Director Lance Brown addressed black legislators from across the nation as part of the 37th Annual Legislative Conference of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. The conference was held from December 11 – 14 with a theme of “Progress: Moving Our States Forward Through Policy Action.”

Brown served on a six-person panel that discussed “The New Energy Economy,” ranging from the development of new fuels to the future of electrical generation to ongoing advances in the vehicle marketplace. Joining Brown on the panel were Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, Vice President of Corporate Public Affairs for Duke Energy; Herman Morris, City Attorney for Memphis; Robert Wimmer, Director of Energy & Environmental Research and Technical & Regulatory Affairs for Toyota; Herbert Hilliard, Vice Chairman of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority; and Paul Phelan, Government Relations Manager for the Western District of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“The National Black Caucus of State Legislators is to be commended for making energy issues a vital part of the discussion at its legislative conference,” explains Brown. “It was clear from the questions and comments made by legislators from across the country that developing smart energy policy is on the minds of our state lawmakers.”

PACE’s presentation focused on the need for the U.S. to enter the new energy economy with a balanced portfolio of energy technologies that offers reliability and affordability to American homes and businesses. With abundant reserves of natural gas, ongoing efforts to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, underdevelopment of the nation’s nuclear power and hydroelectric capacity, and new energy efficiency technologies, the U.S. has a chance to be energy secure and to keep power rates competitive with other developing nations.

View PACE’s Presentation Here

According to new information made available by the Alabama Coal Association, a number of groups that formally participated in hearings held by the Alabama Public Service Commission also took millions from an anti-coal group out of California. New information disclosed by the Energy Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, show that the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Alabama Environmental Council, the Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Air Pollution, and Alabama Arise accepted more than $3 million from the Energy Foundation.

Throughout the course of 2013, PACE formally participated in hearings held by the Alabama Public Service Commission that considered various matters regarding Mobile Gas, Alabama Power, and Alagasco. The groups receiving funding from the Energy Foundation also participated in the hearings, claiming to be concerned about the rates being paid by customers of Alabama’s regulated utilities. However, both before and during the hearings, the Energy Foundation was paying the groups to “accelerate retirement of coal-fired power plants in the Southeast” and to “advance clean energy policies in Alabama.”

“The fact is that various groups claimed for months to be looking out for the interests of Alabama consumers and have now been exposed taking millions out of California to shut down power plants,” says PACE Executive Director Lance Brown. “They continually denied that their fight was about coal, but the records tell a different story. To me, that is a shocking breach of the public trust.”

The Alabama Coal Association has also called on members of Alabama’s congressional delegation to investigate whether two of the groups, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, used taxpayer dollars to pursue the shutdown of power plants.

More information on this developing story can be found by clicking here.