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| Overall Assessment |
Comment |
Score |
| Comprehensive |
Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. provides extensive, concrete detail on every facet of its climate-policy advocacy, demonstrating a very high level of transparency. It names numerous specific measures it has worked on, including New Jersey’s “Zero Emission Certificate” legislation, its “Clean Energy Future – Energy Efficiency II” filing before the NJ Board of Public Utilities, participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and federal proposals such as a “production tax credit for existing merchant nuclear generation,” a “federal price on carbon,” and the “Nuclear Production Tax Credit” and “Wind Production/Investment Tax Credit.” The company is equally clear about how and where it lobbies: it undertakes “broad stakeholder outreach,” submits formal filings to the NJBPU, belongs to industry coalitions like the CEO Climate Dialogue, and has “engaged directly with the White House, Executive branch, US Senators and Members of the House of Representatives,” as well as New Jersey state officials and regulators. Finally, PSEG spells out the outcomes it seeks, backing “economy-wide GHG emission reductions of 80% or more by 2050,” advocating for “a federal price on carbon whether through a cap and trade system, carbon tax or other approach,” seeking economic support to keep the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants operating, and requesting approval for a three-year, $1 billion energy-efficiency programme expected to “reduce CO2 emissions by 8 million metric tons.” This level of specificity about the policies involved, the channels used and the precise legislative or regulatory changes desired reflects comprehensive disclosure of its climate-related lobbying activities.
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4
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| Overall Assessment |
Comment |
Score |
| Strong |
Public Service Enterprise Group discloses a defined governance structure that explicitly covers both direct and indirect climate-related lobbying. The company states that “Our climate lobbying and advocacy efforts are managed by the federal and state governmental affairs teams and led by the Senior Vice President, Corporate Citizenship,” and that “on an annual basis, the leadership within Corporate Citizenship provides a report to the GNS Committee of the Board that encompasses lobbying activity and spending,” indicating clear managerial responsibility and board-level oversight. For indirect lobbying, PSEG describes a structured approach to address misalignment with trade bodies: “If needed, dissenting from association positions, including not providing formal company participation or endorsement,” and adds that “a climate-alignment review of the trade associations listed in our 2022 Political Contributions Report is provided in the Appendix.” This demonstrates an active process to monitor and seek alignment of industry-association positions with the company’s climate objectives. The company further commits to transparency by “ask[ing] trade associations to provide links to their political spending reports, if available, which we will begin providing with our Jan 2024 report.” However, while PSEG asserts that its direct lobbying is “aligned with public policy objectives that support the modernization of our energy infrastructure… and deliver cleaner energy,” it does not disclose detailed criteria or a formal methodology for assessing that alignment, nor does it reference any third-party audit of its lobbying practices. Overall, the presence of named oversight, an annual reporting cycle to the board, and a documented mechanism to manage trade-association misalignment indicate strong governance, but the absence of a publicly available, comprehensive climate-lobbying audit and limited detail on how direct lobbying alignment is evaluated suggest room for further transparency and rigor.
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3
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