CEOs of US’s top energy firms received average pay raise of $12.3m

The Guardian -   The US’s top utilities’ CEOs enjoyed a 16% pay raise last year – to an average of $12.3m – even as consumers shoulder the pain from high bills spurred by continuing inflation, the Iran war and datacenter growth, a new review of industry financial documents shows.

Utility bills are up as much as 40% in some regions since 2021, and, nationwide, utilities shut off power to customers 13m times last year, federal data shows.

Amid the difficulties, CEO pay increased at 38 of 51 top utilities, industry watchdog Energy and Policy Institute (EPI) found in its review of companies’ financial records.

EPI also detailed how some executives received pay raises despite failing to meet performance standards, including for outages. Many executives were also provided private jets, condominiums and other perks for which customers often paid the costs.

.The issues “feel unjust at face value”, said Jonathan Kim, a research associate with EPI, who authored the report. “It’s the idea that we should be footing the bill for these people’s grotesquely large salaries,” Kim added.