U.S. Grid Operator Fires Back at Group Over Political Payments

(Bloomberg) -- The biggest power grid operator in the U.S. has come under fire for making contributions to political groups in Washington. Its response: Those were membership fees.

The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen filed a complaint on Tuesday with federal regulators about $456,500 worth of ratepayer money that, it said, grid manager PJM Interconnection LLC used to make campaign contributions to Republican and Democratic governors associations. PJM shot back, saying the payments were actually made to cover membership fees that allowed it to participate in energy-related policy summits.

“Those payments were not intended to support any political campaign,” PJM said in a statement. The grid operator, responsible for keeping the lights on to 65 million people in more than a dozen states from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, added that the payments complied with laws and regulations.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is collecting comments on the complaint until March 12.

--With assistance from Tim Loh

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Cunningham in New York at scunningha10@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Margot Habiby

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