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92-757: NiSource was founded in 1912 as the Northern Indiana Public Service Company , which merged with several other companies to become the Columbia Gas and Electric Corporation . Under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 , Columbia was forced to reorganize its subsidiaries and eventually spun off its electric utilities, becoming the Columbia Gas System . In 2000, NiSource merged with Columbia Energy Group, but in 2015, NiSource

184-452: A 200-page report that called for the elimination of "evil practices and conditions" in the industry that its investigation had uncovered. In its November 1934 summary, the FTC documented the "propaganda" war waged against the public power movement dating back at least to 1919. In fact, the industry's own annual proceedings clearly document that its campaign against public power had been active since

276-523: A fine of $ 53 million, in addition to a $ 143 million settlement with residents and businesses, $ 83 million paid to municipalities, undisclosed amounts paid for injuries and one death, and direct spending on replacing damaged pipelines and appliances. NiSource agreed to sell its Massachusetts gas business to competitor Eversource , at a loss compared to what it paid to acquire Columbia Gas. Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 ( PUHCA ), also known as

368-679: A global phenomenon with most of Europe and regions of the United States in support of mixed economies . The National Electric Light Association and its member companies organized the largest U.S. Public Relations campaign of the 1920s. The campaign had two goals: to stigmatize public ownership on the one hand while promoting the rapid consolidation of the private sector into a few giant multi-tiered holding companies. The nearly 2,000 cities that had public systems, led by Nebraska Senator George W. Norris , Montana Senator Thomas J. Walsh and Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot were able to pass

460-442: A new substation across the street, and configuring a new 115 kV line from South Agawam to Southwick using a combination of both new and old line segments of the former 115 kV path between Agawam and North Bloomfield. The new Cadwell and Fairmont switching stations allowed a number of three-terminal 115 kV lines to be broken up into two-terminal lines. Finally, the project allowed a problematic underground 115 kV transmission path through

552-639: A profit of $ 1.4 billion across those three years. Public Campaign's data is aggregated for all years and does not show annual data. Public Campaign further lambasted NiSource for increasing executive pay by 33% to $ 11.2 million in 2010 for its top five executives. One rule NiSource, among other companies, benefited from was a bonus depreciation rule that lowered the federal tax expense. NiSource responded by stating: "This law, enacted by Congress, encouraged companies like NiSource to accelerate capital investments to spur economic recovery by permitting portions of these investments to be deducted at an accelerated rate. Only

644-676: A report he commissioned by the National Power Policy Committee . This report became the template for the PUHCA. The political battle over its passage was one of the bitterest of the New Deal , and was followed by eleven years of legal appeals by holding companies led by the Electric Bond and Share Company , which finally completed its breakup in 1961. On August 26, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed

736-405: A single integrated system serving a limited geographic area. Another purpose of the PUHCA was to keep utility holding companies engaged in regulated businesses from also engaging in unregulated businesses. The act was based on the conclusions and recommendations of the 1928-35 Federal Trade Commission investigation of the electric industry. On March 12, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt released

828-522: A stand-alone publicly traded company. Each NiSource shareholder at the time of the separation received one share of Columbia Pipeline Group for each share of NiSource. The separation of Columbia Pipeline Group included Columbia Gas Transmission, Columbia Gulf Transmission, Columbia Midstream Group, its ownership in Columbia Pipeline Partners (NYSE: CPPL), and other natural gas pipeline, storage and midstream holdings. In January 2019,

920-515: A total system operating net capability of more than 3,000 megawatts. NiSource has had a climate change policy in place since 2009. In 2015, NiSource was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability—North America Index for the second year in a row and for the ninth time since 1999. NiSource operates seven local utilities in its service region: On July 1, 2015, NiSource separated Columbia Pipeline Group (NYSE: CPGX) into

1012-531: A year from being completed, with ongoing financial studies and work on the natural gas industry still incomplete. However, on January 25, three days before the FTC released segment 73A of the 94 volume investigation to the US Senate, covering its financial recommendations on electric holding companies, the massive Associated Gas & Electric (AG&E) holding company placed its first large attack advertisement in major newspapers. The FTC on January 28 released

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1104-761: Is a publicly traded , Fortune 500 energy company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut , and Boston, Massachusetts , with several regulated subsidiaries offering retail electricity, natural gas service and water service to approximately 4 million customers in Connecticut , Massachusetts , and New Hampshire . Following its 2012 merger with Boston-based NSTAR , Northeast Utilities had more than 4,270 circuit miles of electric transmission lines, 72,000 pole miles of distribution lines, and 6,459 miles of natural gas pipeline in New England . On February 2, 2015,

1196-464: Is also New Hampshire's largest electric utility, serving over 500,000 customers, including homes and businesses, in 211 cities and towns throughout the state. Furthermore, Eversource is a major energy distributor to 1.7 million customers across Massachusetts, including over 1.4 million electric customers in 140 communities and over 300,000 natural gas customers in 51 communities. The Rocky River Power Company, formed in 1905 by J. Henry Roraback , became

1288-958: Is reviewing the findings, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to open an investigation on the matter, and both the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and the Massachusetts Public Utilities Department are launching inquiries of their own. On Feb. 27, 2018, FERC announced their investigation “revealed no evidence of anticompetitive withholding of natural gas pipeline capacity on Algonquin Gas Transmission by New England shippers.” It said that following an extensive review Commission staff “determined that EDF’s study

1380-592: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law, repealing PUHCA. The repeal became effective on February 8, 2006. It was replaced by a set of laws called the "Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005", which gave the FERC a limited role in allocating the costs of multi-state electric utility holding companies to individual operating subsidiaries. There were consumer, environmental, union and credit rating agency objections to

1472-563: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was releasing monthly reports to the Senate on its investigation of the electric industry. On November 15, 1934, the FTC released segment 71A of its 94-volume investigation that summarized the decades-old "propaganda" war against the general public and supporters of municipal ownership of electric facilities. There was little coverage of the FTC's ongoing public hearings or monthly reports by

1564-750: The Northfield Mountain hydroelectric facility ) were transferred to Northeast Generation. In 2001, NU sold the assets and operations of its subsidiary, the Holyoke Water Power Company, to the City of Holyoke including the HWP electrical distribution system and customer base and all generation with the exception of the Mt. Tom coal-fired power plant which NU retained. The city's municipal gas and electric department assumed responsibility for

1656-484: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression . By 1932, eight of the largest utility holding companies controlled 73 percent of the investor-owned electric industry. Their complex, highly leveraged , corporate structures were very difficult for individual states to regulate. The New Deal 's agenda would face its biggest legislative fight over the passage of the PUHCA. Since March 1928,

1748-528: The Wheeler-Rayburn Act , was a US federal law giving the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to regulate, license, and break up electric utility holding companies . It limited holding company operations to a single state , thus subjecting them to effective state regulation. It also broke up any holding companies with more than two tiers, forcing divestitures so that each became

1840-536: The 1890s. In 1906, the National Electric Light Association's "co-operation" campaign was established in part to monitor and counter the nationwide public ownership movement. An integral part of the industry's co-operation campaign was its friendly public relations strategy with the nation's press. The result was that the FTC investigation did not appear to be newsworthy. The FTC exposed the industry's nationwide propaganda campaign in

1932-472: The 1928 Senate Resolution 83 which directed the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a detailed investigation of the industry's finances and propaganda war waged against publicly owned utilities. That seven-year investigation took on special meaning following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 as the early phase of the investigation showed large scale corruption hidden within the six to ten layered pyramid holding company structures that concentrated financial power in

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2024-413: The 48 state commissions openly sided with the electric industry during public hearings on the bill. In other words, the investigation documented that the electric industry had set up a personal relationship with the owners and editorial boards of the news industry and so were given tens of thousands of free editorial pieces monthly. In many cases, the industry's own press services distributed content, which

2116-562: The Connecticut Light and Power Company in 1917. Eversource predecessor Northeast Utilities (NU) was formed on July 1, 1966, under CEO Lelan Sillin , with the merger of the Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P, formed in 1917), Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO, formed in 1886), and the Hartford Electric Light Company (HELCO, formed in 1878) under a single parent company, creating

2208-636: The Democratic Governors Association in 2016, and payments made to trade associations that were used for lobbying or other political activities in excess of $ 135,000. In Massachusetts, Attorney General Maura Healey testified in March, 2017 before the DPU urging it to deny Eversource's proposed $ 300 million rate increase. In her testimony, she challenged the need for Eversource's rate increase, noting NSTAR's and WMECo's high returns over

2300-700: The District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Electric Bond and Share Company and fourteen other holding companies. All other lawsuits against the SEC were dismissed except for one which was decided in favor of the SEC – in the case of Public Utility Investing Corporation. v. Utilities Power and Light Corporation. (82 F. 2d. 21, C. C. A., 4th, 1936) where the court found the act of registering did not do any irreparable damage to

2392-513: The FTC's electric investigation, to lead the NPPC review. The article disclosed all of the administration's legislative plan two months before the NPPC or the FTC had released their reports or recommendations on the electric industry. On January 4, 1935, Roosevelt announced his plan to regulate the electric industry in his Second State of the Union Address . The FTC's investigation was still

2484-656: The Federal Power Commission was replaced by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)). As a result, when a state utility commission regulated a utility in a particular state, the rate payers of that state would pay only the share of any common service company expenses associated with that state's electric company allocated to it under SEC-approved formulas to prevent a holding company from double recovery of its expenses when it operates in more than one state. Because

2576-529: The House investigating committee located Hopson first and then used its subpoena to protect him from the Senate investigation but let Hopson promote the industry side. It was later disclosed that Representative Conner's brother had been given $ 25,000 by the industry, and the other members of the committee were eventually able to block the chair's attempt to protect Hopson by putting him under house arrest and then immediately releasing him, which would have by law blocked

2668-415: The House of Representatives pulled the dreaded Section 2 of the house bill. The campaign rhetoric against the law became so extreme that lobbyists were even claiming that Roosevelt was planning on taking over the industry. Even bringing in opposition to the bill from the country's public utility commissioners, but there was a mistake: just a couple of towns in the country show up as the source for almost all of

2760-547: The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on Thursday approved a much-reduced rate hike for Eversource Energy that will allow it to charge its Massachusetts electric customers tens of millions of dollars more a year. On December 20, 2017, Attorney General Maura Healey appealed the DPU ruling in the Eversource rate case, specifically the DPU's approval of a costly 10 percent shareholder return, one of

2852-585: The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee voted unanimously to deny Eversource's controversial Northern Pass project a permit, leaving the future of the project, and $ 1.6 billion of Eversource's Transmission Rate Base Growth Projections in doubt. On July 26, 2019, Eversource Energy announced that it was giving up Northern Pass after the New Hampshire Supreme Court rejected its appeal and sided with

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2944-554: The New Hampshire generation fleet was approved by the state's Public Utilities Commission on November 29, 2017, and completed on January 10, 2018. In June 2017 Eversource announced its merger with Aquarion Water Company for $ 1.675 billion. Aquarion would become a fully owned subsidiary and retain its own name, adding 300 employees and 230,000 customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In December 2017,

3036-432: The SEC strictly enforced the divestiture provision of PUHCA in its proceedings and ordered divestiture of all corporate holdings except for a single integrated electric system, the affected holding companies filed voluntary divesture plans. As a result, by 1948, holding companies had voluntarily divested themselves of assets worth approximately $ 12 billion and the number of subsidiaries controlled by affected holding companies

3128-430: The SEC's 1936 annual report, the agency adopted 7 new rules and 11 forms that electric companies were required to fill out when registering as all were required to do by December 31, 1935. By this June 1936, only 65 companies had registered while an additional 375 had requested exemptions. By December 7, 1935, forty-five lawsuits on behalf of more than 100 companies had been filed in 13 different U.S. District Courts across

3220-603: The SEC, which would then conduct administrative proceedings to limit each holding company to ownership of a single integrated electric system (with certain exceptions) through the divestiture of the securities of other public utility and unrelated companies. The Act also authorized the SEC to flatten the corporate structure of utilities to remove unnecessary corporate layers. Individual operating utility companies could centralize certain business operations into central Service Companies, but all Service Companies would be subject to SEC and Federal Power Commission regulation. (In 1977,

3312-507: The SEC. While Eversource reported that its electric transmission earnings were up 80 percent in Q2 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is now investigating the utility for having transmission rates that appear to be “unjust, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory or preferential”. Meanwhile, the potential for rooftop solar to prevent the need for new transmission lines is growing and Eversource wants to cap rooftop solar growth in

3404-452: The Senate from getting him. The scandal gave Roosevelt and other supporters of the bill the power to sway the House back into a revote, which finally passed by a vote of 222–112 on August 24. Hopson was eventually convicted of stealing $ 20 million from Associated Gas & Electric ratepayers. The so-called "Death Sentence" clause survived – the most expensive lobbying campaigns of the 20th century had failed. Talk of legal challenges were in

3496-514: The Southern Group and the Electric Bond and Share Company were all financed by Morgan Stanley, with Wall Street having financial influence over nearly 80% of the country's electric industry. The Act required the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve a holding company engaging in a non-utility business and such businesses to be kept separate from the utility's regulated business. Holding companies were required to register with

3588-684: The White Mountains. This 180- to 190-mile line, projected to carry 1,200 megawatts, would have carried electricity to approximately one million homes. The issue of buying hydropower from Hydro-Québec had been an issue during the Massachusetts gubernatorial election of 2010 . In November 2015, the Sierra Club of New Hampshire also expressed opposition for the new line, saying that it would not only benefit Connecticut and Massachusetts residents more than those in New Hampshire, but also

3680-523: The bill into law. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 repealed the PUHCA. The passage of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act was the climax to the thirty-year nationwide fight between public vs. private development of electricity in the United States. Other societal issues like the postal service, public roads, schools, social security, national health insurance, and public ownership of electric generation were part of

3772-491: The bitterest legislative fights in history. Senator Wheeler's version of the legislation was submitted to the Senate's Interstate Commerce Committee, which held public hearings were held, and amendments were voted on and passed by a vote of 14–2 on May 13. The bill passed the full Senate by a vote of 56 to 32 on June 11. However, Representative Rayburn faced a full-scale war. Representatives were being blasted by millions of letters and hundreds of thousands of telegrams demanding

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3864-533: The city of Springfield that was vulnerable to thermal overloads to be removed from service by breaking it in half at the middle. The underground lines now function solely to supply the distribution load served out of the Breckwood substation in Springfield. A previously proposed costly project that would have replaced the underground cables is no longer necessary. On November 20, 2013, cutover of 115 kV lines to

3956-445: The company and all its subsidiaries rebranded themselves as " Eversource Energy ". The stock symbol changed on February 19, 2015, from "NU" to "ES". Before its rebranding, the company operated six main subsidiaries: Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P), Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSNH), Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO), Yankee Gas Services Company (Yankee Gas), NSTAR Electric, and NSTAR Gas. NSTAR itself

4048-582: The company announced that it would accelerate retirement of its five coal-fired units, and focus on " renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind energy , along with battery storage technology," as part of an initiative titled "Your Energy, Your Future", with a goal of "reducing carbon emissions by more than 90 percent by 2028." In December 2011, the progressive activist group Public Campaign criticized NiSource for spending $ 1.83 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008–2010, instead getting $ 227 million in tax rebates, despite making

4140-562: The company divested all of the generating assets of WMECO and CL&P per requirements of the Massachusetts and Connecticut legislation. The company retained some of these assets by transferring them to a new subsidiary called Northeast Generation which functioned as a competitive supplier and sold the other assets entirely: WMECO's West Springfield Generating Station and several related hydroelectric and fossil fuel generating units were sold to Con Edison, while other assets (most notably

4232-666: The company had essentially completed the divestiture of its competitive businesses. In 2006, NU decided to sell the generating units it had earlier retained in the 1999 divestiture as competitive suppliers and shut down its competitive generation business units. The Northeast Generation assets, including Mount Tom Station and Northfield Mountain, were all sold to Energy Capital Partners . PSNH continued to operate regulated hydroelectric and fossil fuel generation assets to serve its default/basic service customers who did not choose an alternative competitive supplier. In October 2010, Northeast Utilities announced that it would merge with NSTAR ,

4324-610: The company signed on a joint venture with Hydro-Québec and NSTAR to build a new high-voltage direct current (HVDC) line from Windsor, Quebec (connecting with the Quebec grid ) to a location in Franklin, New Hampshire . It was projected that the line would either run in an existing right-of-way adjacent to the HVDC line that runs through New Hampshire, or it would connect to a right-of-way in northern New Hampshire that would run through

4416-530: The company. On March 28, 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the SEC and the Public Utilities Act of 1935, giving it full authority to enforce the Act. Within 3 months 142 holding companies had registered with the SEC that made up 51 separate public utility systems, comprising 524 individual holding and 1,524 sub-holding and operating companies. An example of the dramatic impacts the law had

4508-602: The concern of the flooding of boreal forests during the construction of Hydro-Québec's dams in northern Quebec, disputes with the Innu First Nations, and the effects of tourism and the environment within the White Mountain National Forest . On January 25, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Baker selected this "Northern Pass Transmission" (NPT) project as the winner for a clean energy procurement RFP. However, days later on February 1, 2018,

4600-638: The country's 32nd president. His initial years in office included large public works projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority , Bonneville Power Administration and California's Central Valley Project . These were all massive, federally funded water and power projects that put tens of thousands of people to work. The most important of these projects was the Rural Electrification Administration that finally brought electricity to rural America which

4692-506: The country's conservative news media, but that would soon change. On November 20, 1934, the Associated Press released a detailed story about Roosevelt's National Power Policy Committee (NPPC). Roosevelt set up the NPPC on July 29, 1934, to review and report on the FTC's massive electric industry investigation. Roosevelt picked Securities and Exchange Commissioner and former judge Robert E. Healy , who had also been in charge of

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4784-434: The country's first radio network from AT&T and became NBC in 1926. The FTC investigation produced thousands of pages of testimony on how the country's electric industry successfully enlisted the support of the press across the country with its strategy of dangling advertising dollars and submitted vast quantities of anonymous materials to it for publication. The country's mostly conservative press had become allies with

4876-484: The country. On this same day, the U.S. Attorney General and the SEC's General Counsel made a motion before the U.S. Supreme Court to stay all of the above lawsuits until the Supreme Court could determine the validity of PUHCA with the case Securities and Exchange Commission v, Electric Bond and Share Company. On November 26, 1935, the SEC, pursuant to its express authority under Section 18 of the Act, brought suit in

4968-728: The day for others to use that capacity. Those orders had the effect of driving up wholesale prices for natural gas during peak winter heating periods and in turn increasing the costs of electricity generated by gas-fired power plants. The two utilities “engaged in behavior that would tend to have the largest impact on prices,” said N. Jonathan Peress, a senior director at the New York-based environmental group. “That implies they knew their efforts would have some sort of pricing impact that would provide them with some commercial benefit.” Representatives for both utilities denied they did anything improper. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey

5060-414: The defeat of the legislation, and the industry lined up allies that produced many expert witnesses during hearings. At the same time, an army of unregistered lobbyists stormed the doors of representatives as the country's print media was bombarded with major ads and editorials opposing the legislation. On July 2, newspaper headlines across the country blared that Roosevelt and his "Death Clause" had lost as

5152-608: The divestiture was the General Motors nationwide streetcar dismantlement . Through the years, the utility industry and would-be owners of utilities lobbied Congress heavily to repeal PUHCA, claiming that it was outdated. For example, in 1989, Standley H. Hoch, CEO of General Public Utilities (GPU) had two mandates as leader: trim management and lower costs, and fight to repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. On August 8, 2005,

5244-532: The electric utilities were regulated. By investing directly in transit firms, the electric companies were " cash cows " even in the Great Depression and were able to increase the basis of their limited return on investment. The result of the provision was the divestiture of utility-owned electric streetcar companies, which were then acquired by various parties and very often dismantled to be replaced by buses or trackless trolleys . The largest fallout of

5336-547: The fake telegrams, which had been partially burned. Other major issues from claims by senators that their phones had been wired tapped by electric companies, the FTC's report of extensive tax evasion even to bribery surfaced during the Black Committee lobbying investigation. The Black Committee's aggressive use of tactics often used against less powerful citizens is still used as an historic example by conservatives of government abuse. In an even more dramatic fashion,

5428-556: The first new multi-state public utility holding company since the enactment of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 . In 1967, Holyoke Water Power Company (HWP) (formed in 1859) joined the NU System. Public Service Company of New Hampshire ( PSNH , formed in 1926), a private company at the time, declared bankruptcy in January 1988 due to problems obtaining a license for the completed Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant . and in 1992

5520-477: The generators and absorbed the HWP distribution customer base. Between 2000 and 2002 due to state laws, NU divested WMECO, CL&P, and PSNH's nuclear generating assets which consisted of their stakes in the Seabrook , Millstone , and Vermont Yankee stations. In November 2005, the company announced it would sell its unregulated competitive businesses, including generation and energy services. In November 2006

5612-557: The hands of a few. In June 1932, the Middle West Utility empire, one of the largest electric holding companies operating in 39 U.S. states went bankrupt, destroying the life savings of hundreds of thousands of small investors across the east and mid-west. New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt , who was a public power supporter campaigned on the issue of reforming the electric industry and won election as

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5704-425: The highest rates allowed by an electric distribution company regulator in the last five years. On January 30, 2018, Massachusetts Rep. Thomas Golden and Sen. Michael Barrett held an Oversight Hearing on the DPU's decision to approve Eversource's proposal to include a demand charge as part of a monthly minimum reliability contribution on net metering customers. Rep. Golden accused the utility of purposefully making

5796-511: The industry in its goal to stigmatize the municipal ownership community as un-American. Going back to the 1907-13 period when the entire country shifted from municipal to state regulation of the electric industry with the creation of state agencies known as Public utilities commissions , this shift that favored private companies should have been framed as a regressive shift in favor of the "power trust" as big electric companies were commonly referred to or "city vs. state" power politics. However, that

5888-597: The industry's own words to censor any negative coverage or history related to its activities, including the manipulation of the nation's textbook and radio industries. For example, MH Aylesworth, the first president of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was also the executive director of the National Electric Light Association from 1921 to 1926. It was General Electric that founded the Radio Corporation of America , which purchased

5980-427: The last few years. Referencing NSTAR's 2015 return of more than 13 percent, Attorney General Healey told the DPU that “[l]ast year, no state public utility commission in the country allowed a return that high.” Between 2010 and 2015, Eversource's shareholders of common stock received a cumulative total return (including quarterly dividends and the change in the market price per share) of 89 percent. On November 30, 2017,

6072-599: The legislation. AG&E was found to be behind an estimated 250,000 fake telegrams that impersonated citizens who had no knowledge that their names had been attached to telegrams. Hearings documented the destruction of electric companies data in a desperate attempt to cover up the fake movement's millions of letters and telegrams in which even the Western Union offices that had launched the tens of thousands of telegrams accidentally had its records deleted against company policy. Western Union eventually tracked down 97,000 of

6164-607: The local and national newspapers then reprinted without acknowledging the source. The same relationship with the press would then be used to frame the battle to stop the bill by terrifying the country's small investors with their "death sentence" clause, which the press repeated from then onward. On February 6, 1935, 9 days after the Federal Trade Commission released its conclusions and recommendations from its six-year probe, Senator Wheeler (SB 1725) and Rep. Rayburn (HR 5423) introduced legislation that became one of

6256-610: The major electric and gas provider in Greater Boston , with the resulting company retaining the Northeast Utilities name for the next several years. After government approvals, the deal closed in April 2012. In 2015 the company (now known as Eversource) agreed to sell all of its New Hampshire generation assets in the same manner it sold its assets in Massachusetts and Connecticut between 2000 and 2006. The sale of

6348-403: The merger was completed after government approval. In 2016, Eversource started joint ventures for wind farm developments with Ørsted . In 2023, Eversource announced it would sell off its equity in these projects ( Bay State Wind , South Fork Wind , Revolution Wind , and Sunrise Wind ) at an expected loss of $ 200 million. Eversource Energy has participated in a number of projects to improve

6440-571: The new Fairmont Switching Station was complete, marking substantial completion of the GSRP. Eversource has taken action to support the use of electric vehicles . Starting in 2018, the company began spending $ 45 million over five years to install over 400 electric vehicle charging stations in Massachusetts. The project is part of the company's Grid Modernization plan. The company has switched much of its power source from coal to natural gas , wind, hydroelectricity and solar power. As Northeast Utilities,

6532-549: The new charges "as confusing as possible." He said, "Let me tell you something gentlemen, I'm not happy how this was rolled out. I'm not happy with the lack of information my office has received." Golden, co-chairman of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, helped write the 2016 law that permits utilities to levy a new minimum monthly charge, and he told Eversource executives they were making it "extremely, extremely difficult" for him to continue to support them in

6624-435: The new law. The 2005 Act had many provisions that applied to just electric subsidiaries to the exclusion of natural gas subsidiaries of holding companies. On December 8, 2005, FERC recommended that Congress amend the 2005 Act to give FERC cost allocation authority over gas subsidiaries, and greater enforcement authority over gas subsidiaries, but Congress has not acted on FERC's request. Eversource Eversource Energy

6716-737: The news the day congress passed the Wheeler-Rayburn legislation. On September 24, the Edison Electric Institute went into court challenging PUHCA's constitutionality. According to the Associated Press, on October 2 The Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint charging the National Electrical Manufacturers Association of New York and 16 member manufacturers with “unlawful combination, conspiracy and agreement to restrain competition.” The same day, another suit against PUHCA

6808-625: The other south to North Bloomfield, Connecticut. The new 345 kV corridor added a new strong interface between Massachusetts and Connecticut. The project also involved rebuilding all of the 115 kV lines along the transmission corridor between South Agawam and Ludlow to increase their capacities, building a new 115 kV transmission substation in East Springfield (Cadwell), replacing the Fairmont 115 kV transmission substation in Chicopee with

6900-480: The policy. In 2017, an environmental group accused Eversource and Avangrid of driving up electric, gas rates over several winters by buying up shipment capacity on a major pipeline that they ultimately did not use. The Environmental Defense Fund said both utilities routinely reserved big deliveries of natural gas on the Algonquin pipeline system for frigid days, but then sharply reduced those orders too late in

6992-415: The reliability of the power grid in southwest Connecticut. The first project was construction of the $ 350 million 345 kilovolt Bethel–Norwalk transmission line through the western part of the state, and was constructed entirely by the company when it was still known as Northeast Utilities. With United Illuminating , an upgrade to the 69-mile (112 km), 345 kilovolt Middletown-Norwalk transmission line

7084-578: The state. In 2015, Eversource fought the rooftop solar industry and supported anti-solar policies. In Massachusetts, they staffed the State House with lobbyists in order to end legislation promoting growth of the solar industry. During the 2015 legislative session in New Hampshire, Eversource opposed an increase to the state's solar net metering cap. New Hampshire's cap is lower than all neighboring states. Eversource disclosed on its website politically related organization expenditures of $ 110,000 to

7176-403: The telegrams sent to Congress. The same day that the clause was pulled, the Senate organized a new committee to look into the lobbying. Alabama Senator Hugo Black was placed in charge of the investigating committee, and the House also opened a special committee, which was led by an industry supporter who used his time to attack the president. The Black Committee quickly got to the bottom of what

7268-515: The timing of the deductions was changed, and not the amount that could be deducted. This means our income tax expense will likely be higher in the future." On September 13, 2018, 80 homes in Andover, Massachusetts , Lawrence, Massachusetts , and North Andover, Massachusetts , simultaneously exploded and caught fire due to issues with gas lines owned by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts , a subsidiary of NiSource. At least 25 people were injured and one

7360-492: Was a fake nationwide campaign orchestrated by the electric industry to make it look like there was real public opposition to the legislation. On August 8, Black went on nationwide radio prime time to describe the $ 5 million (now the equivalent of $ 93 million) war mounted against the legislation. He also pointed the finger at the head of AG&E, Howard C. Hopson , who was subpoenaed by the committee but had yet to be found. His nearly-bankrupt company had spent over $ 700,000 opposing

7452-452: Was based on the work done by the NPPC. The committee was made up of federal agencies, led by Robert E. Healy who oversaw the 1928-35 Federal Trade Commission 's 63,000-page electric investigation . On February 6, 1935, the Wheeler-Rayburn bill was introduced by Senator Wheeler (S 1725) and Representative Rayburn (HR 5423). It was one of several New Deal trust-busting and securities regulation initiatives that were enacted following

7544-488: Was documented with the Columbia Gas & Electric Corporation case where the capital represented by the common stock was reduced from $ 194,349,005.62 to $ 12,304,282.00 a total of $ 182,044,723.62 by the elimination of the corrupting holding company structures. In 1940, congressional investigations of brokerage firms, insurance companies and their relationship to the electric industry exposed that Middle South Utilities,

7636-555: Was energized in 2009 at a cost of $ 900 million. In 2013, the Greater Springfield Reliability Project, a component of the ongoing New England East-West Solution, was energized at a cost of $ 795 million. The project addressed numerous reliability issues with the Springfield, MA area's 115 kV transmission system by constructing two new 345 kV lines to the Agawam substation; one line north to Ludlow and

7728-653: Was filed in United States District Court of Maryland for trustees of the American States Public Service Co. With the President Roosevelt signing Wheeler-Rayburn bill into law on August 26, 1935, the Securities and Exchange Commission began the process of preparing for carrying out the two main parts (Title I & II) of the law now called the Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935. As stated in

7820-584: Was flawed and led to incorrect conclusions about the alleged withholding.” A class-action lawsuit filed on November 14, 2017, against Avangrid, Inc. and Eversource Energy claims the two companies caused electricity consumers to incur overcharges of $ 3.6 billion in a years-long scheme that impacted six states and affected 14.7 million people. The lawsuit states that 7.1 million retail electricity customers and an overall population of 14.7 million people have been affected by Eversource and Avangrid's “unique monopoly” spanning at least from 2013 to 2016. On June 10, 2019,

7912-406: Was killed; residents from parts of three towns had to be evacuated for a few days and electricity service turned off until the area was inspected for gas. Gas service to 8,600 customers was disrupted, in some cases for months. Columbia Gas admitted that maintenance workers mishandled sensors that monitored gas line pressure, and pled guilty to violating the federal Pipeline Safety Act. The company paid

8004-573: Was merged into Northeast Utilities. In 1999, Con Edison and Northeast Utilities entered negotiations that would have created one of the largest utilities in the United States. However, Con Edison backed out of the merger in 2001 after Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal threatened lawsuits to block it. Legislation passed in the late 1990s deregulated the electricity market in New England and required regulated utilities to divest generating stations to competitive suppliers. In 1999

8096-466: Was not how the conservative press framed the struggle or what its advertising client the electric industry wanted. The shift from municipal to state regulatory oversight also represents one of the largest examples of regulatory capture known as the complexity of the electricity industry combined with the model laws passed between 1907 and 1913 resulted in commissions made up almost entirely of former industry professionals. That bias became evident when 46 of

8188-587: Was reduced from 1,983 to 303. An important provision prohibited sales of goods or services between holding company affiliates at a profit. These rules prevented the utilities from increasing their cost-based regulated rates by artificially marking up the prices paid by the utility operating companies above what the central purchasing affiliate paid. One noticeable impact of this provision was on electric streetcars . Most electric streetcar companies were private companies, owned by electric utility holding companies. The streetcar companies were generally unregulated while

8280-413: Was shunned by the country's urban-based electric industry as there was no profit to be made. As the Federal Trade Commission's seven-year investigation was starting to wind up, Roosevelt formed the National Power Policy Committee (NPPC) to make sense of the investigation and its recommendations. The PUHCA was originally requested by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his Second State of the Union Address and

8372-874: Was spun off from Columbia Pipeline Group . The next year, Columbia Pipeline Group was acquired by TransCanada Corporation , while the Columbia Gas distribution companies remained with Nisource. NiSource's natural gas utilities provide domestically produced supplies of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers via nearly 60,000 miles of pipeline and related facilities in six states: Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. NiSource provides electric energy to nearly 500,000 customers, all located in northern Indiana. NiSource's electric operations include power generation, transmission and local distribution, as well as wholesale and electric transmission transactions. NiSource uses both traditional and renewable generation sources, including natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, and coal generated supplies, providing

8464-450: Was the product of corporate mergers, and included the former Boston Edison Company, Cambridge Electric Light Company, Commonwealth Electric Company, Commonwealth Gas, and Cambridge Gas Company. All now currently operate under the Eversource name. Eversource remains Connecticut's largest electric utility, serving more than 1.2 million residential, municipal, commercial and industrial customers in approximately 149 cities and towns. Eversource

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