ArcLight Capital Partners

ArcLight Capital Partners (ArcLight) is an energy-focused investment firm with about $10 billion in AUM, and is one the US’ largest power suppliers, according to the company’s 2023 ESG Report. The company claims to be an investor in sustainable infrastructure, however, it received a D on the scorecard.

As of the end of July 2024, the firm’s portfolio included 17 fossil fuel companies invested in both upstream extraction and coal-fired power plants. Notably, ArcLight is a co-investor (with Blackstone) in the General J.M. Gavin (Gavin) coal plant in Ohio, which was the ninth top emitting power plant in the country in 2022, according to the most recently available EPA emissions data, and the deadliest coal plant in the nation as of 2023, according to research by Sierra Club. ArcLight’s power infrastructure subsidiary AlphaGen manages 21 power plants, which are predominantly gas-fired. PECR research found that 81 percent of the company’s energy portfolio companies invest in fossil fuels.

Read the Full Report and View 2024 Scorecard

ArcLight only partially met one of the 2024 Demand metrics through its incomplete disclosure of financed emissions. The company’s 2023 ESG report discloses self-reported emissions from portfolio companies of ArcLight Energy Partners Fund VII (“Fund VII”), which closed at $3.7 billion in commitments in 2020,79 down from $5.6 billion in commitments to the predecessor fund in 2015. The company only reported 2.98 million metric tons of CO2e of financed emissions from Fund VII investments in 2022. This reporting paints a rosy but incomplete picture at best. The PECR emissions analysis of ArcLight found the company responsible for over an estimated 54 million metric tons of CO2e annually from its coal-fired power plants and upstream alone. This figure excludes its downstream gas-fired power plants and some midstream sector investments.