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ADVERTORIAL | Pepco’s Commitment to Our Customers and the Climate
Bold action needed to reduce the emissions, build resilience
Climate change poses a threat to all our communities. From coastal towns and riverfront communities, to urban centers and suburban neighborhoods, the frequency and severity of storms, heat waves, droughts and wildfires is increasing. Among the other extremes of the year 2020, it was also one of the two hottest years on record, tying with 2016. The need to take bold action to both reduce the emissions that drive climate change and build resilience for an unpredictable future is critical and Pepco is committed to doing its part.
As the local electricity provider for the District of Columbia, we are connected to our customers and communities by more than just wires and recognize the role we can and must play in helping to drive actions with positive climate impact. And, while Pepco does not own power plants, we know there are actions we can take to reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of our own operations, including our buildings, fleet and grid, and help our customers and communities do the same.
Pepco supports the District’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and recently launched a Climate Change Commitment aligned with this effort. Pepco’s Climate Change Commitment includes more than 20 actions to help combat the climate crisis and drive its own greenhouse gas emissions down by 70 percent over the next five years.
“Climate change is real, and we are seeing its many effects today,” notes Melissa Lavinson, senior vice president of Governmental and External Affairs for Pepco Holdings. “We need to take action now to ensure a clean and healthy environment for our families, our communities and future generations. And, for Pepco, it all starts with building a smarter, stronger and cleaner energy system and providing climate solutions that benefit all Washingtonians.”
The company is also exploring solutions as an energy delivery company that provides products and services to customers to enable them to take action to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint; and as a community partner that can enable programs and initiatives to help reduce energy use, build resilience and advance clean energy technologies, like local solar, electrified transportation and battery storage.
Pepco is making land and roof space available for community solar projects to benefit limited-income customers and help the District meet its local solar goals. And, Pepco itself will switch to 100 percent clean and renewable electricity for electricity consumed in its own buildings and convert to energy-efficient lighting across its District properties by the end of 2025.
To encourage all District residents to use energy more efficiently and drive down emissions in the built environment, Pepco collaborated with the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment, the DC Sustainable Energy Utility, the District Government and more than 20 environmental, business and community groups to launch #ReduceEnergyUseDC to inspire residents to save energy, save money and help flight climate change.
Pepco will also take action to create systemic changes to energy consumption and cultivate long-lasting consumer behaviors through a suite of energy efficiency programs that will be proposed to and considered by the DC Public Service Commission in 2021.
At the same time, Pepco is building out the infrastructure necessary to support greater electrification of taxis, rideshare vehicles, buses, and other vehicles in the District. Pepco, itself, will electrify half of its own passenger and medium-duty fleet by 2030. The company also offers EV charging rates to its District customers and will support an innovative pilot to electrify food trucks.
“Local energy delivery companies like Pepco are in the position to tackle climate change on a number of fronts, but we can’t do it alone,” says Lavinson. “Developing a unified approach to solve climate problems equitably, effectively and expeditiously is among the biggest challenges we face. By being a good partner and building a smarter, stronger and cleaner electric grid, we know we can be an important part of the change, and create good paying jobs for District residents, while expanding business opportunities for local businesses in the process.”
As 2021 progresses, Pepco will be making similar commitments for its Maryland operations, customers, and communities. It will be building from existing initiatives such as EVSmart, which enables electrified transportation, its award winning EmpowerMD energy efficiency programs, which helps customers save energy and money, its pending Smart Streetlights proposal and its Sustainable Community Grants program.
For more information on Pepco’s Climate Change Commitment and to track how the company is progressing toward it’s climate goals, visit: pepco.com/Climate.
Local
Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
Rayceen Pendarvis to moderate Dupont Underground panel on Sunday
LGBTQ groups in D.C. and elsewhere plan to use Black History Month as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Black lives and experiences.
Team Rayceen Productions has no specific events planned, but co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis will attend many functions around D.C. this month.
Pendarvis, a longtime voice in the LGBTQ community in D.C. will be moderating a panel at Dupont Underground on Sunday. The event, “Every (Body) Wants to Be a Showgirl,” will feature art from Black burlesque artists from around the country. Pendarvis on Feb. 23 will attend the showing of multimedia play at the Lincoln Theatre that commemorates the life of James Baldwin.
Equality Virginia plans to prioritize Black voices through a weekly online series, and community-based story telling. The online digital series will center Black LGBTQ voices, specifically trailblazers and activists, and contemporary Black queer and transgender people.
Narissa Rahaman, Equality Virginia’s executive director, stressed the importance of the Black queer community to the overall Pride movement, and said “Equality Virginia is proud to center those voices in our work this month and beyond.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, which hosts Pride events in D.C., has an alliance with the Center for Black Equity, which brings Black Pride to D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. The National LGBTQ Task Force has no specific Black History Month events planned, but plans to participate in online collaborations.
Cathy Renna, the Task Force’s director of communications, told the Washington Blade the organization remains committed to uplifting Black voices. “Our priority is keeping this at the forefront everyday,” she said.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is also hosting a series of Black History Month events.
The D.C. Public Library earlier this year launched “Freedom and Resistance,” an exhibition that celebrates Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain on display until the middle of March at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St., N.W.
District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
Case remains under investigation and ‘further charges’ could come
D.C. police announced on Feb. 9 that they had arrested two days earlier on Feb. 7 a Germantown, Md., man on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation after the man allegedly assaulted a gay man at 14th and Q Streets, N.W., while using “homophobic slurs.”
But D.C. Superior Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which prosecutes D.C. violent crime cases, charged the arrested man only with simple assault without a hate crime designation.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for the reason why the hate crime designation was dropped, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office provided this response: “We continue to investigate this matter and make no mistake: should the evidence call for further charges, we will not hesitate to charge them.”
In a statement announcing the arrest in this case, D.C. police stated, “On Saturday, February 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and continued walking,” the statement says.
“The suspect assaulted the victim and used homophobic slurs,” the police statement continues. “The suspect was apprehended by responding officers.”
It adds that 26-year-old Dean Edmundson of Germantown, Md. “was arrested and charged with Simple Assault (Hate/Bias).” The statement also adds, “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crime Act of 1989, penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against individuals based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and homelessness can be enhanced by a court upon conviction by one and a half times greater than the penalty of the underlying crime.
Prosecutors in the past both in D.C. and other states have said they sometimes decide not to include a hate crime designation in assault cases if they don’t think the evidence is sufficient to obtain a conviction by a jury. In some instances, prosecutors have said they were concerned that a skeptical jury might decide to find a defendant not guilty of the underlying assault charge if they did not believe a motive of hate was involved.
A more detailed arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police in Superior Court appears to support the charge of a hate crime designation.
“The victim stated that they refused to High-Five Defendant Edmondson, which, upon that happening, Defendant Edmondson started walking behind both the victim and witness, calling the victim, “bald, ugly, and gay,” the arrest affidavit states.
“The victim stated that upon being called that, Defendant Edmundson pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push,” the affidavit continues. “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay,” it says.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
Darren Pasha claims action is linked to his criticism of Pride organizers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb. 6 partially approved an anti-stalking order against a local LGBTQ activist requested last October by the Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based LGBTQ group that organizes the city’s annual Pride events.
The ruling by Judge Robert D. Okun requires former Capital Pride volunteer Darren Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, board members, and volunteers until the time of a follow up court hearing he scheduled for April 17.
In his ruling at the Feb. 6 hearing, which was virtual rather than held in-person at the courthouse, Okun said he had changed the distance that Capital Pride had requested for the stay-away, anti-stalking order from 200 yards to 100 feet. The court records show that the judge also denied a motion filed earlier by Pasha, who did not attend the hearing, to “quash” the Capital Pride civil case against him.
Pasha told the Washington Blade he suffered an injury and damaged his mobile phone by falling off his scooter on the city’s snow-covered streets that prevented him from calling in to join the Feb. 6 court hearing.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him by Capital Pride, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
The Capital Pride complaint initially filed in court on Oct. 27, 2025, includes an 18-page legal brief outlining its allegations against Pasha and an additional 167-page addendum of “supporting exhibits” that includes multiple statements by witnesses whose names are blacked out.
“Over the past year, Defendant Darren Pasha (“DSP”) has engaged in a sustained, and escalating course of conduct directed at CPA, including repeated and unwanted contact, harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior targeting CPA staff, board members, volunteers, and affiliates,” the Capital Pride complaint states.
In his initial 16-page response to the complaint, Pasha says the Capital Pride complaint appears to be a form of retaliation against him for a dispute he has had with the organization and its then president, Ashley Smith, last year.
“It is evident that the document is replete with false, misleading, and unsubstantiated assertions,” he said of the complaint.
Smith, who has since resigned from his role as board president, did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment at the time the Capital Pride court complaint was filed against Pasha.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos and the attorney representing the group in its legal action against Pasha, Nick Harrison, did not immediately respond to a Blade request for comment on the judge’s Feb. 6 ruling.
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Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
