NiSource Inc

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Direct Lobbying Transparency

Overall Assessment	Comment	Score
Strong	NiSource provides a solid level of visibility into its climate-related public-policy activity. It explicitly cites several identifiable measures it has worked on, including the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the state-level Virginia Energy Innovation Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse-gas reporting framework, as well as broader methane-emission regulations, showing it is willing to name specific legislative or regulatory instruments rather than only speaking in generalities. On how it seeks to influence policy, the company discloses that it employs “registered lobbyists and external consulting firms” across six states and Washington, D.C., works through its Governmental Affairs office in Washington, belongs to trade bodies such as the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association, and “plans to engage EPA through industry groups to recommend improvements to the existing reporting framework,” giving readers multiple examples of both direct and indirect channels and at least one clearly identified target (the EPA). NiSource is most detailed about what it wants from policymakers: it backs federal climate legislation that “recognizes that greenhouse gas reduction targets must be applicable to all sources of greenhouse gas and be realistically achievable,” “protects against undue increases in energy costs to any particular regions or groups of consumers,” and “promotes policies and practices that result in the continued efficient use of natural gas by all customers,” and it seeks “improvements to the existing [EPA] reporting framework.” These articulated positions and rationales demonstrate clarity about the outcomes the company is seeking. While the disclosures stop short of consistently naming every policymaker engaged or spelling out the precise tactics used in each instance, they still offer a strong overall picture of NiSource’s climate-policy lobbying objectives, avenues, and focal laws and regulations.	3

Lobbying Governance

Overall Assessment	Comment	Score
Moderate	NiSource has established a structured governance framework for lobbying through its NiSource Political Spending Policy, which “describes our governance process and approach to political contributions and expenditures” and is “administered by the NiSource Vice President, Federal Government Affairs, Environmental, and Sustainability, and reviewed at least once every three years.” The Board’s Environmental, Social, Nominating and Governance Committee “oversees political spending and policy review,” while senior management “reviews and approves corporate political spending recommendations and conducts reporting reviews before contributions are made.” The policy also affirms that “lobbying activities are tied to items that affect the company’s ability to deliver customer, environmental, and economic benefits.” However, we found no evidence of any formal procedure for aligning NiSource’s direct or indirect lobbying through its trade associations with its climate policy or for assessing and addressing potential conflicts between association positions and its climate goals.	2