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.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Donna Decarolis's recent appearances.
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Transcript (1 segments)
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Donna Decarolis0:00
My name is Donna Decarolis. I'm president of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation and I'm a board member of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. The leadership at the partnership does an excellent job at advocating on key issues, and they do it in a number of ways. They do it by convening Western New York decision makers, they do it by convening key influencers, and they also just do it by bringing people together and discussing the issues. One of the great things the partnership does and the leadership at the partnership is they convene Western New York elected officials and talk about the issues. They're very credible when they do this because they have the people in the room that really understand the details of the issues. In my case, I'm focused on energy, I'm focused on economic development for our region. There could be other issues whether it's workforce development, DEI initiatives, things that of course our company is interested in, but it's not what I'm doing every single day. So this way we can work together and we can also speak with one voice when it's important on some key issues. The Buffalo Niagara Partnership is just a premier organization. It's the premier chamber in our region. It represents companies that employ roughly a quarter of a million people in our region. We're members of many small chambers, but the Buffalo Niagara Partnership is really the gold standard of chambers. The credibility that they bring to conversations. The other thing that the BNP does really, really well is advocacy for its membership, speaking on behalf of a broad group of members where when we try to do it on our own, it's just not as impactful as when an organization with the respect and credibility that the BNP has garnered over all these years can do it.
