Kenyan McDuffie doesn’t want you looking at his record on utilities. Here it is, in full.
Sierra Club DC PAC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2025
Contact: David Whitehead, Co-Chair, david.whitehead@sierraclub.org, 202-417-6752
Kenyan McDuffie doesn’t want you looking at his record on utilities. Here it is, in full.
In just over a month, DC voters will start voting for their next mayor, all while paying some of the highest utility bills of their lives. Profits for DC’s corporate utilities are skyrocketing while more and more residents struggle to pay the bills.
Only one mayoral candidate held a leadership role over DC’s utilities sector in the last decade: Kenyan McDuffie. To help voters understand McDuffie’s exact role in contributing to DC’s record-high utility bills, the Sierra Club DC PAC published the facts and a detailed record on how McDuffie’s inaction and cozy relationships with utility lobbyists have forced DC residents to face higher bills at www.factcheckkenyan.com.
“Kenyan McDuffie’s record on the DC Council makes one thing clear: Kenyan McDuffie works harder for the corporate utilities jacking up our bills than he does for the people of DC. Time and again, McDuffie turned a blind eye to skyrocketing rates and failed to fulfil his responsibility as an overseer, all while taking thousands in campaign contributions from lobbyists and utility executives, meeting behind closed doors, and undermining legislation to expand clean energy and lower costs for DC residents when Pepco and Washington Gas asked him to,” said Matt Gravatt, co-chair of Sierra Club DC PAC “On the Council, McDuffie showed DC he puts the interest of for-profit utilities first. There is no doubt he’ll do the same as DC mayor -- DC just can’t afford Kenyan McDuffie as mayor.”
DC residents are paying utility bills that are higher than ever before, all while utilities are making more in profit than at any time in the last four years. Before resigning from the DC Council, Kenyan McDuffie chaired the committee charged with overseeing the DC Public Service Commission (PSC), the agency that approves utility rates. McDuffie was responsible for oversight, something he said he did ‘vigorously’.
During his “vigorous” oversight, there were demonstrable problems at the PSC — even members of the PSC itself were raising the alarm about for-profit utilities unjustly raising rates. In his dissent to the PSC’s approval of a multi-year rate hike in November of 2024, PSC Commissioner Richard Beverly wrote: “I can’t see the process in this case as anything other than a regulatory trainwreck that unreasonably promotes Pepco’s interest at the expense of ratepayers.” Beverly went on to summarize the justification for the rate hike as “because Pepco said so.”
McDuffie was chair of the DC Council committee charged with oversight of the PSC at the time this rate hike was approved -- this blistering dissent should have set off alarm bells for any reasonable overseer, especially a ‘vigorous’ as McDuffie claims to be. McDuffie did next to nothing. This same rate hike has since been vacated by a court, which said the PSC failed to do proper due diligence.
This isn’t unique, rate hike after rate hike was passed on to DC residents, approved by the PSC while McDuffie failed to meaningfully oversee the agency. All the while, public records demonstrate McDuffie’s close relationships with for-profit utilities: McDuffie took thousands in campaign donations, and his office was a revolving door, with his top advisors hired as corporate utility lobbyists.
Voters have the chance now to review the facts at www.factcheckkenayn.com. McDuffie has a long record of acting in the best interests of for-profit utilities rather than DC residents.
“DC is facing uncertain times, and residents are looking for a mayor who will be in our corner,” said David Whitehead, co-chair of Sierra Club DC PAC. “When it comes to our pocketbooks and utilities, Janeese Lewis George has a multi-point plan to tackle our skyrocketing bills with both local and regional action. McDuffie, on the other hand, had eight years to fight costs and hold utility companies accountable. Instead:
McDuffie was asleep at the wheel while our local commission approved rate hike after rate hike, some without proper due diligence,
McDuffie chose to move amendments and legislation that benefited Pepco and Washington Gas, often at the request of these corporations and their lobbyists,
McDuffie never wrote a single bill tackling costs for DC residents — maybe not surprising given his documented close ties to corporate utility lobbyists and executives.
Utilities have a clear favorite candidate for mayor this year, but DC residents can’t afford a Mayor McDuffie.”
The 2026 election is the most consequential shake-up of DC leadership in over a decade. The next Mayor can act boldly and swiftly on issues pertaining to the climate and affordability for DC residents, or they can choose to favor their friends, former staff members, and for-profit supporters. The record makes it clear: Janeese Lewis George consistently stands up for DC residents, and Kenyan McDuffie acts in the interest of large corporations and utilities that profit while DC residents suffer.
DC voters should check all the facts before voting this year at www.factcheckkenyan.com.
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Paid for by Sierra Club DC PAC, 50 F Street NW, Suite 800. Matthew Gravatt, Treasurer. Top five contributors: Sierra Club, Baltimore-DC Metro Building and Construction Trades Council. A copy of our report is filed with the Director of Campaign Finance of the District of Columbia Board of Elections.