We have expanded the list of climate policies we assess company engagement with to incorporate land-use related policy, referring to legislative or regulatory measures to enhance and protect ecosystems and land where carbon is being stored. Assessments under this category are currently underweighted in terms of their contribution to the overall company metrics. This weighting will be progressively increased over the next 6 months.
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
Climate Lobbying Overview: The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) appears to have broadly mixed to negative engagement on climate change policy and lobbying. While NGSA’s top-line messaging appears to be positive, its engagement with climate-related regulations and its position on the energy transition appears to be negative. NGSA actively lobbies the US government for policies in favor of fossil gas infrastructure.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: NGSA has positive top-line positions on climate change policies. On its corporate website, the NGSA accepts that GHG emissions from fossil fuels contribute to climate change. In its website, when accessed in June 2022, it has stated support for a net-zero economy by 2050 and supports the Paris Agreement, including US participation in the agreement. Since 2019, NGSA has consistently advocated for carbon pricing, although its support for carbon pricing as a government regulation appear mixed. For instance, in its submission to the US Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in April 2022, NGS supported carbon pricing as a form of climate regulation. However, in its August 2021 comment submission to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NGSA clarified its support for carbon pricing by advocating for market-based and ‘fuel neutral’ approaches to climate regulation.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: The NGSA appears to be mixed in its engagement with climate-related regulations. The association appears to recognize the need to address methane emissions from fossil gas as evident in a tweet from June 2021, and in September 2021, NGSA stated support for direct regulation of methane in a joint-letter from API to the US Committee on Environment and Public Works. However, a report from Gizmodo from January 2021 revealed that the NGSA actively petitioned the Department of Energy to introduce rules that will allow less efficient heaters and furnaces to continue to be sold.
Positioning on Energy Transition: NGSA appear to be advocating for the long-term role for fossil gas in the energy mix, and appear to oppose policies that would aid the decarbonization of the economy. As per the corporate website, accessed in June 2022, NGSA believes that fossil gas should partner renewable energy in the future energy mix and reinforces the continued need for fossil gas and fossil gas infrastructure in Twitter.
NGSA actively advocates for fossil gas infrastructure to the various department of US federal government. In April 2022, NGSA’s response to CEQ on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration (CCUS) Guidance, supported fossil gas infrastructure permitting, citing that pipelines will be needed for enabling CCUS technology. In April 2022, NGSA co-write a letter to the FERC opposing the proposal to include GHG considerations in fossil gas infrastructure permitting process. Further, in February 2022, NGSA CEO Dena Wiggins wrote a letter to the US President advocating for the expansion of domestic fossil gas infrastructure in response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. This message was reinforced in another letter to the US President in March where NGSA CEO advocated for “expedited approval” of fossil gas pipelines, storage and LNG projects, and the increased production of fossil gas in the US.