McDuffie's record shows who his true friends are: DC’s for-profit utilities, not DC residents

During his time on the Council, Kenyan McDuffie took five times more private meetings with Pepco than any other CM (2 times more than all of them combined) and consistently promoted Pepco- and Washington Gas-friendly amendments to DC law.

Sierra Club DC PAC and Safe & Affordable DC issued the following joint statement:

Washington, DC – Labor unions and affordable energy advocates are sounding the alarm about details of Kenyan McDuffie’s backdoor dealings with utility companies. As hundreds of thousands of DC residents are staring at some of the highest gas and electricity bills of their lives, voters are learning that Kenyan McDuffie had five times more contact with Pepco than any other member of the Council, received thousands in campaign contributions from Pepco, its lobbyists, and its officials; and consistently voted for giveaways to Pepco while he was on the DC Council.

The facts are stark. According to the District of Columbia’s Board of Ethics and Government Affairs (BEGA), which requires disclosure of communications between lobbyists and Councilmembers, since 2018 and his January 9, 2026 resignation from the council, McDuffie had five times more disclosed contacts with Pepco’s lobbyists than any other member of the Council. And since 2018, according to DC campaign finance records, McDuffie has taken $4,870.36 from Pepco, Pepco lobbyists, and Pepco officials.

“These revelations paint a disturbing picture: DC residents are facing sky-high utility bills, and the man charged with oversight, Kenyan McDuffie, kept a cozy relationship for years with DC’s for-profit utilities, Pepco and Washington Gas,” said David Whitehead, Sierra Club DC PAC Co-Chair. “If that was true while McDuffie was councilmember, I’m not sure why we should trust things to become magically better if he were elected Mayor, a job with even more power and influence on utilities policy.”

In November 2018, McDuffie made last-minute changes to the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018, which required the city’s energy come from renewable sources by 2032. Two of McDuffie’s revisions deeply worried clean energy advocates because they benefited Pepco at the expense of DC residents. These included undercutting DC’s independently-run energy efficiency programs, potentially allowing Pepco to charge customers twice for the same energy efficiency investments. McDuffie also stripped out a provision that would require Pepco to purchase renewable energy through long-term contracts, an approach that, while a burden to Pepco, was expected to deliver substantial savings to DC customers based on their use in other jurisdictions.

In June 2015, McDuffie voted in support of Councilmember Bonds’ last-minute budget amendment that killed a study to evaluate the feasibility and savings of a local municipal power utility. Instead, study funding was diverted to programs more favorable to Pepco.

“Union members across our eight wards can’t afford to have Kenyan McDuffie as Mayor,” said Jos Williams, Chair of Safe & Affordable DC and the former president of the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO. “We need a mayor who will stand up to utility companies when they try to jack up rates. McDuffie was asleep at the wheel when he was meant to oversee this exact issue. All the while, he was meeting with Pepco lobbyists and taking money from them for his campaigns.”

McDuffie’s cozy relationship with DC’s for-profit utility monopolies extends beyond Pepco. In 2023, Washington Gas lobbyists worked to undermine a bill to ensure DC’s government buildings use and benefit from clean energy. Reporting revealed that lobbyists came to McDuffie with last-minute amendments to undermine the bill, and that McDuffie worked behind the scenes to promote the company's goals. He ultimately did not introduce the amendment after a reported phone call with Councilmember Mary Cheh, in which she told him it would be a “futile act,” and that he “could choose bonafides to the company if he wanted to do that, but it wouldn’t go anywhere.” McDuffie’s former chief of staff was a lobbyist for Washington Gas at the time, and still lobbies for utilities today.

“The good news is that Janeese Lewis George is fiercely independent and has shown time and again that she’ll do the hard work, stand up to corporate overreach, and fight for DC residents,” said Matt Gravatt, Sierra Club DC PAC Co-Chair. “We all have a choice to make in June, and knowing how enmeshed McDuffie has been with Pepco and Washington Gas, and how little he did to hold utilities accountable when it mattered most, should make it all the clearer who our next Mayor should be.”

###

PAID FOR BY SIERRA CLUB DC PAC, 50 F STREET NW, SUITE 800. MATTHEW GRAVATT, TREASURER. A COPY OF OUR REPORT IS FILED WITH THE DIRECTOR OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BOARD OF ELECTIONS.

PAID FOR BY SAFE AND AFFORDABLE DC, 901 K ST. NW SUITE 200, WASHINGTON, DC 20001, KELSEY GARNATZ, TREASURER. TOP FIVE CONTRIBUTORS: WORKERS VOTE, 32BJ UNITED AMERICAN DREAM FUND, BALTIMORE WASHINGTON CONSTRUCTION AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES LABORERS PAC. A COPY OF OUR REPORT IS FILED WITH THE DIRECTOR OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BOARD OF ELECTIONS.