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Utility CEOs received $3.2 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2022
| From | Energy and Policy Institute <[email protected]> |
| Subject | Utility CEOs received $3.2 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2022 |
| Date | July 6, 2023 12:04 PM |
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** Utility CEOs received $3.2 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2022 ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By Joe Smyth on Jul 05, 2023 11:54 pm
Investor-owned electric and gas utilities paid their CEOs $3.2 billion between 2017 and 2022, according to corporate data reviewed by the Energy and Policy Institute.
CEOs for the 57 companies reviewed for this analysis received more than $578 million in 2022. Total utility CEO compensation declined from last year ([link removed]) , as it did for most other major US companies. Large portions of CEO compensation depend on company stock prices, which fell in 2022 for most companies. “The decline marks the first time in a decade that compensation for top executives at the biggest U.S. companies didn’t reach new highs,” the Wall Street Journal reported ([link removed]) .
** Top paid CEOs led utilities implicated in scandals
------------------------------------------------------------
The highest paid utility CEO in 2022 was NextEra Energy’s James Robo, whose compensation totaled $40.4 million after retiring in July 2022. The company also paid incoming CEO John Ketchum $17.4 million in 2022, for a total of $57.8 million to both CEOs during the year.
Exelon CEO Christopher Crane received the second highest compensation at $30 million, while Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning received $24 million.
All three of those top paid utility CEOs retired during the last year, and all three oversaw utilities whose subsidiaries have recently been implicated in high-profile scandals. NextEra subsidiary Florida Power & Light paid millions of dollars to consultants who helped to run spoiler candidates ([link removed]) in Florida State Senate elections. Exelon subsidiary ComEd agreed ([link removed]) to pay $200 million three years ago to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a years-long bribery scheme as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. A federal jury recently found ([link removed]) four former ComEd executives and associates
guilty for bribery, record falsification, and conspiring to influence and reward the former Speaker of the Illinois House to assist with favorable utility legislation. A long-time consultant for Alabama Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, conducted ([link removed]) surveillance ([link removed]) of Tom Fanning “to influence corporate decision making and succession planning for his own benefit and at the direction of executives of Alabama Power Company,” according ([link removed]) to a court filing by a former employee of the consultancy.
Exelon CEO Chris Crane’s $30 million compensation reflects ([link removed].) a $4.2 million deduction to account for its subsidiary’s $200 million fine in the corruption case. Exelon’s proxy statement ([link removed]) notes: “The independent directors believe this adjustment is appropriate because Mr. Crane was serving as CEO of Exelon, Commonwealth Edison’s parent, at the time the conduct described in Commonwealth Edison’s deferred prosecution agreement occurred. More generally, the independent directors believe this adjustment is consistent with Exelon’s commitment to CEO accountability for all aspects of the Company’s performance and is supportive of its strong culture of ethics and compliance.” Despite the deduction, Crane’s compensation
in 2022 was about twice the $15 million he received in previous years.
Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy, who retired in January 2023, “signed an exit agreement that includes a multi-year “claw back on compensation” if there is a finding of “any legal wrongdoing,” the Florida Times-Union reported ([link removed]) .
** Some regulators and policymakers seek to limit how much ratepayers are charged for utility CEO compensation
------------------------------------------------------------
Last month, Minnesota Public Utility Commission Chair Katie Sieben reduced how much Minnesota ratepayers will be charged to pay for the compensation of Xcel Energy’s top executives. During a June 1 hearing in the utility’s rate case, Chair Sieben explained the motion:
“In the highest cases, ratepayers pay in excess of $1 million dollars a year for Xcel’s two highest paid executives. So my new language limits the amount of money recoverable from ratepayers of the top 10 highest paid executives to $150,000/year. Which, as people know from last week, is now pretty close to what the Governor of Minnesota makes. Shareholders can still decide to compensate Xcel’s executives above the $150,000/year cap, but ratepayers and their bills should not.”
IFRAME: [1][link removed]
Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) · Minnesota PUC Limits How Much Ratepayers Are Charged For Utility Executive Compensation ([link removed])
Chair Sieben explained that the move “Draws support from extensive public comment in the record about excessive compensation for top executives,” and also said “I think there needs to be further work done here in the future.”
The five Minnesota PUC Commissioners unanimously agreed to Chair Sieben’s motion.
In March, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported ([link removed]) : “Michigan lawmakers criticized profits and executive compensation at DTE Energy for a second straight week Thursday, demanding to know why the utility struggles with reliability while charging high rates to customers.”
During a March 23 hearing of the Michigan Senate Energy and Environment Committee, State Senator Sue Shink questioned DTE Electric President Trevor Lauer about the company’s profits and CEO compensation as ratepayers dealt with extended outages.
“We’ve talked about the profits, about $1 billion of profits were posted during the ice storm outage. Your CEO makes over $10 million a year. You recently put in a request to the MPSC for the largest rate increase in state history, about $622 million. DTE Energy has increased rates four times in the last five years, totalling over $800 million in increases, and we’re still having regular outages.”
IFRAME: [2][link removed]
Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) · Michigan State Senator Questions DTE Energy ([link removed])
Michigan legislators again questioned the $10 million compensation DTE Energy paid to CEO Gerardo Norcia in 2022 during a June 28 hearing ([link removed]) held by the House Energy, Communications, and Technology Committee. One member contrasted Norcia’s pay with the experience of his constituents, who are DTE customers. Bridge Michigan reported ([link removed]) :
During the committee meeting, Rep. Mike McFall, D-Hazel Park, pointed out that Norcia made $10 million last year.
“I have people that can barely pay their bills, and you’re asking for such a large rate increase,” McFall said. “How do I explain to residents in my district, who can barely pay their bills now and can’t always count on their service, that type of rate increase?”
In April, the Ohio Consumers Counsel urged the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to expand its investigations into FirstEnergy’s multi-million dollar bribery schemes to include payments to FirstEnergy executives implicated in the bribery scandal. The Ohio Consumers Counsel, a state agency that represents Ohio ratepayers, explained ([link removed]) :
New information has revealed that, while the bribery scheme was in progress, FirstEnergy paid over $100 million to the executives who were fired or “separated” for their roles in the bribery scheme. This issue alone begs the question of how much of this executive compensation did Ohio consumers pay in the rates FirstEnergy was charging?
The Public Utilities Commission has not yet ruled on the request, because the PUCO stayed its investigations into FirstEnergy ([link removed]) at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Last year, an audit by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission highlighted ([link removed]) that FirstEnergy failed to claw back the compensation paid to CEO Charles Jones, after he was implicated in the utility’s bribery scandal. FirstEnergylater announced ([link removed]) that it was trying to claw back $56 million in compensation from Jones, but to date those efforts have not succeeded.
** CEO compensation for 57 investor-owned electric and gas utility companies
------------------------------------------------------------
IFRAME: [3][link removed]
The Details tab shows compensation for each CEO in each of the six years, sorted by 2022 compensation; the Totals tab is sorted by total CEO compensation during the six year period. Both tabs list the parent company, and show utility subsidiaries in parentheses.
** Notes on the data
------------------------------------------------------------
This analysis is focused on the compensation paid to the CEOs of 57 investor-owned electric and gas utility companies, during the six year period between 2017 and 2022. It includes the compensation paid only to the CEOs of the parent companies of the investor-owned utilities; it does not include compensation paid to the CEOs of those companies’ subsidiaries, nor does it include compensation paid to the companies’ other top executives. It also does not include compensation paid to the CEOs of non-profit utilities, such as electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
When utilities had more than one CEO during the five-year period, we showed compensation for each CEO, which sometimes includes payments to two people in the same year. For incoming CEOs that were promoted from within the company, data for their compensation for their first year as CEO may include compensation they received that year in their earlier position, because corporate filings typically do not distinguish between the compensation they received for each position.
Data are from summary compensation tables published in companies’ 14A proxy statement or 10-K forms, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ([link removed]) (SEC), or those forms’ equivalents for companies headquartered in countries other than the US.
EPI included in our analysis nearly all of the investor-owned electric utilities that are members of the Edison Electric Institute ([link removed]) (EEI), and investor-owned gas utilities that are represented on the American Gas Association (AGA) board of directors ([link removed]) . EEI is the trade association for investor-owned electric utilities in the US, and AGA is the trade association for investor-owned gas utilities in the US; several utility companies (or their subsidiaries) are members of both trade associations. A few EEI and AGA member companies are not included in this analysis, because their ownership structures do not require them to report this data to the SEC. We removed one utility that was included in an earlier analysis, South Jersey Industries, because it was purchased and no longer reports executive compensation to the SEC.
** Further Reading
------------------------------------------------------------
Utility CEOs received $2.7 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2021 ([link removed])
Pollution Payday: analysis of executive compensation and incentives of the largest U.S. investor-owned utilities ([link removed])
The post Utility CEOs received $3.2 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2022 ([link removed]) appeared first on Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) .
References
1. [link removed]
2. [link removed]
3. [link removed]
Read in browser » ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed]
** Recent Articles:
------------------------------------------------------------
** Gas industry dark money group’s influence seen in Ohio budget bill ([link removed])
** FirstEnergy front group paid convicted lobbyist Matthew Borges’ firm to attack Cleveland Public Power ([link removed])
** FirstEnergy dark money payments included over $550,000 for ‘consumers’ group’s campaign against Cleveland Public Power ([link removed])
** Maine becomes third state this year to pass legislation prohibiting utilities from charging ratepayers for political activities ([link removed])
** Connecticut passes bill prohibiting utilities from charging ratepayers for political activities ([link removed]
============================================================
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** Twitter ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2023 Energy and Policy Institute, All rights reserved.
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Our mailing address is:
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P.O. Box 170399
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or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
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Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
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------------------------------------------------------------
By Joe Smyth on Jul 05, 2023 11:54 pm
Investor-owned electric and gas utilities paid their CEOs $3.2 billion between 2017 and 2022, according to corporate data reviewed by the Energy and Policy Institute.
CEOs for the 57 companies reviewed for this analysis received more than $578 million in 2022. Total utility CEO compensation declined from last year ([link removed]) , as it did for most other major US companies. Large portions of CEO compensation depend on company stock prices, which fell in 2022 for most companies. “The decline marks the first time in a decade that compensation for top executives at the biggest U.S. companies didn’t reach new highs,” the Wall Street Journal reported ([link removed]) .
** Top paid CEOs led utilities implicated in scandals
------------------------------------------------------------
The highest paid utility CEO in 2022 was NextEra Energy’s James Robo, whose compensation totaled $40.4 million after retiring in July 2022. The company also paid incoming CEO John Ketchum $17.4 million in 2022, for a total of $57.8 million to both CEOs during the year.
Exelon CEO Christopher Crane received the second highest compensation at $30 million, while Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning received $24 million.
All three of those top paid utility CEOs retired during the last year, and all three oversaw utilities whose subsidiaries have recently been implicated in high-profile scandals. NextEra subsidiary Florida Power & Light paid millions of dollars to consultants who helped to run spoiler candidates ([link removed]) in Florida State Senate elections. Exelon subsidiary ComEd agreed ([link removed]) to pay $200 million three years ago to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a years-long bribery scheme as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. A federal jury recently found ([link removed]) four former ComEd executives and associates
guilty for bribery, record falsification, and conspiring to influence and reward the former Speaker of the Illinois House to assist with favorable utility legislation. A long-time consultant for Alabama Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, conducted ([link removed]) surveillance ([link removed]) of Tom Fanning “to influence corporate decision making and succession planning for his own benefit and at the direction of executives of Alabama Power Company,” according ([link removed]) to a court filing by a former employee of the consultancy.
Exelon CEO Chris Crane’s $30 million compensation reflects ([link removed].) a $4.2 million deduction to account for its subsidiary’s $200 million fine in the corruption case. Exelon’s proxy statement ([link removed]) notes: “The independent directors believe this adjustment is appropriate because Mr. Crane was serving as CEO of Exelon, Commonwealth Edison’s parent, at the time the conduct described in Commonwealth Edison’s deferred prosecution agreement occurred. More generally, the independent directors believe this adjustment is consistent with Exelon’s commitment to CEO accountability for all aspects of the Company’s performance and is supportive of its strong culture of ethics and compliance.” Despite the deduction, Crane’s compensation
in 2022 was about twice the $15 million he received in previous years.
Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy, who retired in January 2023, “signed an exit agreement that includes a multi-year “claw back on compensation” if there is a finding of “any legal wrongdoing,” the Florida Times-Union reported ([link removed]) .
** Some regulators and policymakers seek to limit how much ratepayers are charged for utility CEO compensation
------------------------------------------------------------
Last month, Minnesota Public Utility Commission Chair Katie Sieben reduced how much Minnesota ratepayers will be charged to pay for the compensation of Xcel Energy’s top executives. During a June 1 hearing in the utility’s rate case, Chair Sieben explained the motion:
“In the highest cases, ratepayers pay in excess of $1 million dollars a year for Xcel’s two highest paid executives. So my new language limits the amount of money recoverable from ratepayers of the top 10 highest paid executives to $150,000/year. Which, as people know from last week, is now pretty close to what the Governor of Minnesota makes. Shareholders can still decide to compensate Xcel’s executives above the $150,000/year cap, but ratepayers and their bills should not.”
IFRAME: [1][link removed]
Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) · Minnesota PUC Limits How Much Ratepayers Are Charged For Utility Executive Compensation ([link removed])
Chair Sieben explained that the move “Draws support from extensive public comment in the record about excessive compensation for top executives,” and also said “I think there needs to be further work done here in the future.”
The five Minnesota PUC Commissioners unanimously agreed to Chair Sieben’s motion.
In March, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported ([link removed]) : “Michigan lawmakers criticized profits and executive compensation at DTE Energy for a second straight week Thursday, demanding to know why the utility struggles with reliability while charging high rates to customers.”
During a March 23 hearing of the Michigan Senate Energy and Environment Committee, State Senator Sue Shink questioned DTE Electric President Trevor Lauer about the company’s profits and CEO compensation as ratepayers dealt with extended outages.
“We’ve talked about the profits, about $1 billion of profits were posted during the ice storm outage. Your CEO makes over $10 million a year. You recently put in a request to the MPSC for the largest rate increase in state history, about $622 million. DTE Energy has increased rates four times in the last five years, totalling over $800 million in increases, and we’re still having regular outages.”
IFRAME: [2][link removed]
Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) · Michigan State Senator Questions DTE Energy ([link removed])
Michigan legislators again questioned the $10 million compensation DTE Energy paid to CEO Gerardo Norcia in 2022 during a June 28 hearing ([link removed]) held by the House Energy, Communications, and Technology Committee. One member contrasted Norcia’s pay with the experience of his constituents, who are DTE customers. Bridge Michigan reported ([link removed]) :
During the committee meeting, Rep. Mike McFall, D-Hazel Park, pointed out that Norcia made $10 million last year.
“I have people that can barely pay their bills, and you’re asking for such a large rate increase,” McFall said. “How do I explain to residents in my district, who can barely pay their bills now and can’t always count on their service, that type of rate increase?”
In April, the Ohio Consumers Counsel urged the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to expand its investigations into FirstEnergy’s multi-million dollar bribery schemes to include payments to FirstEnergy executives implicated in the bribery scandal. The Ohio Consumers Counsel, a state agency that represents Ohio ratepayers, explained ([link removed]) :
New information has revealed that, while the bribery scheme was in progress, FirstEnergy paid over $100 million to the executives who were fired or “separated” for their roles in the bribery scheme. This issue alone begs the question of how much of this executive compensation did Ohio consumers pay in the rates FirstEnergy was charging?
The Public Utilities Commission has not yet ruled on the request, because the PUCO stayed its investigations into FirstEnergy ([link removed]) at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Last year, an audit by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission highlighted ([link removed]) that FirstEnergy failed to claw back the compensation paid to CEO Charles Jones, after he was implicated in the utility’s bribery scandal. FirstEnergylater announced ([link removed]) that it was trying to claw back $56 million in compensation from Jones, but to date those efforts have not succeeded.
** CEO compensation for 57 investor-owned electric and gas utility companies
------------------------------------------------------------
IFRAME: [3][link removed]
The Details tab shows compensation for each CEO in each of the six years, sorted by 2022 compensation; the Totals tab is sorted by total CEO compensation during the six year period. Both tabs list the parent company, and show utility subsidiaries in parentheses.
** Notes on the data
------------------------------------------------------------
This analysis is focused on the compensation paid to the CEOs of 57 investor-owned electric and gas utility companies, during the six year period between 2017 and 2022. It includes the compensation paid only to the CEOs of the parent companies of the investor-owned utilities; it does not include compensation paid to the CEOs of those companies’ subsidiaries, nor does it include compensation paid to the companies’ other top executives. It also does not include compensation paid to the CEOs of non-profit utilities, such as electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
When utilities had more than one CEO during the five-year period, we showed compensation for each CEO, which sometimes includes payments to two people in the same year. For incoming CEOs that were promoted from within the company, data for their compensation for their first year as CEO may include compensation they received that year in their earlier position, because corporate filings typically do not distinguish between the compensation they received for each position.
Data are from summary compensation tables published in companies’ 14A proxy statement or 10-K forms, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ([link removed]) (SEC), or those forms’ equivalents for companies headquartered in countries other than the US.
EPI included in our analysis nearly all of the investor-owned electric utilities that are members of the Edison Electric Institute ([link removed]) (EEI), and investor-owned gas utilities that are represented on the American Gas Association (AGA) board of directors ([link removed]) . EEI is the trade association for investor-owned electric utilities in the US, and AGA is the trade association for investor-owned gas utilities in the US; several utility companies (or their subsidiaries) are members of both trade associations. A few EEI and AGA member companies are not included in this analysis, because their ownership structures do not require them to report this data to the SEC. We removed one utility that was included in an earlier analysis, South Jersey Industries, because it was purchased and no longer reports executive compensation to the SEC.
** Further Reading
------------------------------------------------------------
Utility CEOs received $2.7 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2021 ([link removed])
Pollution Payday: analysis of executive compensation and incentives of the largest U.S. investor-owned utilities ([link removed])
The post Utility CEOs received $3.2 billion in executive compensation from 2017 – 2022 ([link removed]) appeared first on Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) .
References
1. [link removed]
2. [link removed]
3. [link removed]
Read in browser » ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed]
** Recent Articles:
------------------------------------------------------------
** Gas industry dark money group’s influence seen in Ohio budget bill ([link removed])
** FirstEnergy front group paid convicted lobbyist Matthew Borges’ firm to attack Cleveland Public Power ([link removed])
** FirstEnergy dark money payments included over $550,000 for ‘consumers’ group’s campaign against Cleveland Public Power ([link removed])
** Maine becomes third state this year to pass legislation prohibiting utilities from charging ratepayers for political activities ([link removed])
** Connecticut passes bill prohibiting utilities from charging ratepayers for political activities ([link removed]
============================================================
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2023 Energy and Policy Institute, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website via our Contact Us page.
Our mailing address is:
Energy and Policy Institute
P.O. Box 170399
San Francisco, CA 94117
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]
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