Watch Now: National Fuel President Donna DeCarolis

🎥 Oct 15, 2021 📺 The Buffalo News ⏱ 0m 👁 211 views

National Fuel President Donna L.DeCarolis talks about innovation in the energy sector.

About Donna Decarolis

Donna DeCarolis, president of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, has been active in community and policy discussions regarding energy in Western New York. In a December 2024 interview, she stated that proposals to allow the discontinuation of gas service to existing customers were "a bad proposal" and said her company advocated for customers to be able to keep their gas service. She argued that policies pushing electrification mandates "don't make sense" for Western New York, noting that the grid would need to be "quadrupled" to electrify heat. DeCarolis has promoted a website called "betterplannobans.com" to raise awareness about energy policy proposals, saying she believes "the average consumer doesn't know what's being proposed." DeCarolis has also highlighted the company's investments in system modernization and its work on emerging energy technologies. In a 2022 interview, she described the energy sector as undergoing a transition and said National Fuel engineers are working on making systems "hydrogen ready" and exploring renewable natural gas and carbon capture. She has emphasized the company's community involvement, including a program called "Days of Doing" that offers employees a paid day off for volunteer work. DeCarolis serves on the board of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which she called "the gold standard of chambers" in the region.

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Transcript (1 segments)

Donna Decarolis0:00

Talk about innovation. Five years ago, I would never have thought we would be talking today about things like hydrogen, renewable natural gas, carbon capture and storage. I think it's really an exciting time to be in the energy business, because we are going to be undergoing a transition here in New York, and I'm sure in many other states and nationwide. It's really a good time to be an engineer at National Fuel because we're working on making our systems hydrogen ready, learning more about how to manage hydrogen blending for industrial uses, renewable natural gas, and carbon capture and storage. These are all things that our own engineers are working on, and we're also working with nationwide consortiums to find ways to leverage resources to accelerate the technologies we need to meet the state's goals.