National Fuel CEO David F. Smith made $7.1 million last year, or roughly $3,550 per hour. Meanwhile, low-income Western New Yorkers must choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table. This needs to change.
The National Fuel Accountability Coalition has come together to build a community partnership with National Fuel. The coalition aims to fight for justice for low income and working people who are forced to make tough choices because of unaffordable gas bills that result from houses without basic insulation. National Fuel benefits off this crisis and we strive to make them a part of the solution through a community partnership.
We are calling on National Fuel to invest in weatherization for the people in our region who need it most, for state representatives to mandate community reinvestment by the utility company, for community oversight of the Public Service Commission, and for a long term plan for a community controlled green alternative to National Fuel.
Greetings! I’m a big believer in weatherization and in helping the impoverished. I also agree that major companies should partner with their communities. So I tip my hat to you for those values. However, it seems to me that it is more productive if the partnership between the company and the community is a win-win, that is, if both the community and the company benefits from the partnership. In fact, that’s what a true partnership is. Getting National Fuel to weatherize homes in impoverished communities is not in their own interests – so why would they want to enter such a partnership? Consider this possibility; what if National Fuel were to partner with and outside company to bring a whole new company to Buffalo which would create jobs and bring money into our city, a company that would make money for National Fuel? More jobs and more money in our area means more tax revenue, and greater tax revenue means more money for social programs. Myself and a friend of mine have been quietly working to get National Fuel to partner with a new company, currently in Denver, to build a new plant here in Buffalo. The company (Standard Alcohol Company of AmericaI) makes a fuel alternative called Envirolene because it is better for the environment than gasoline or ethanol. I’m trying to think of a way this goal could be combined with the need for weatherization, and I don’t know what that is yet, but I’ll research that. In the mean time, it seems that the companies who would benefit from weatherization would be the contractors who do the weatherization work, and the real estate folks who are looking for ways to make houses more valuable.
Fred
Thank you for this information! I used it for my diploma thesis =)