In an effort to tackle sky-high energy costs, which likely will reach even new heights in the upcoming summer months, Gov. Maura Healey has proposed multiple changes and new initiatives for how energy is bought, financed, and billed.
Healey, during an appearance in Leominster Tuesday, said she’s filed new legislation aimed at lowering costs and bringing new energy products into the state market.
According to the governor, if the proposal becomes law, it could save Bay State families upwards of $10 billion over the next 10 years.
How exactly the governor arrived at that figure remains somewhat of a mystery, just like the charges on those monthly energy bills.
Among Healey’s cost-saving proposals: removing or drastically reducing charges that have nothing to do with consumption, like fees to subsidize energy-efficiency programs, in addition to increasing accountability of utilities, and making it easier to enlist advanced nuclear energy technologies to the grid.
“This legislation is going to give us tools that we need to create more accountability for our utilities and maximize every single rate payer dollar,’’ Healey said in announcing the proposed bill.
The governor, however, did not specifically indicate how these initiatives would total up to $10 billion in savings.
This legislation builds on Healey’s nascent energy-affordability push, begun in March. That included a $50 credit on electricity bills for residential customers, and establishing a discount rate for moderate-income customers, along with expanding the existing discounts for lower-income customers.
Her administration said at the time those steps should save ratepayers nearly $6 billion.
Healey’s plan to lower energy costs didn’t mention what role clean-energy sources would play, or if increasing natural gas supplies represents an element of her cost-cutting mix.
Healey’s proposals generally elicited a positive response, with a few exceptions.
“This legislation demonstrates a thoughtful effort to balance clean energy goals with economic considerations, offering potential tools to help Massachusetts businesses manage energy costs and support infrastructure modernization,’’ said Rebecca Davis, chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, which represents large employers in the state.
But even her supporters noted Healey’s announcement lacked concrete details, and as was previously mentioned, didn’t address the lack of energy infrastructure, specifically the limited capacity of natural gas pipelines.
Anger and frustration over efforts to marginalize this abundant energy source hit a nerve with the state’s residential customers this past winter, many of whom saw their bills increase from 10% to 30% year over year.
Many in the business community have pushed the state to be more open to expanding pipelines. Climate advocates, meanwhile, argue that investing in more gas infrastructure now would be a poor use of money, since the state is trying to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by essentially eliminating climate-warming emissions with renewable energy sources by 2050.
Healey wouldn’t be the first blue-state governor to have a natural gas epiphany.
In New York, where regulators played a key role in initially killing a plan to pipe natural gas from the shale fields of western Pennsylvania to population centers across the Northeast, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, spoke with Trump in March about the possibility of reviving it.
And in Connecticut, which has aggressive goals for moving its power grid off fossil fuels, Gov. Ned Lamont, also a Democrat, has met with senior Trump administration officials about bringing more gas into his state.
Even the plurality of Healey’s constituents want more natural gas.
In a poll conducted in March by Advantage Inc. for the Fiscal Alliance Foundation, 47% of respondents supported expanding natural gas pipelines, while 37% backed full commitment to renewables.
Even a majority of independent voters polled — 53% — said they want more pipelines.
To get to $10 billion in cost savings, Healey’s bill targets the main culprit of utility-bill padding: Mass Save, the ironically named utility-run energy efficiency program, mainly funded by a surcharge on ratepayer bills.
Healey’s legislation would authorize the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to use new methods, such as borrowing, to finance investments and energy-saving programs to decrease the upfront burden on ratepayers. The bill also seeks to cut administrative costs.
Healey countered criticism that her bill focuses too narrowly on short-term cost savings, telling reporters that it not only focuses on energy infrastructure, siting, and permitting, but also addresses long-term costs.
One example, Energy Ready Zones, would allow the state to build out utility infrastructure as needed to support housing and economic development.
“All this stuff works to, over the long term, bring more energy into the Northeast,’’ she said. “The bill will get us more quickly to where we need to go, which is all about lowering costs for people.’’
In the short term, Healey’s bill should produce savings by simply not making ratepayers subsidize the state’s long-range clean-energy goals.
The other cost-saving measures amount to a wish list of utility transparency and the use of a novel nuclear power niche searching for a practical application.
With the preference of this presidential administration for fossil fuel expansion and clean-energy contraction, it’s difficult to see how Healey’s $10 billion in cost savings will come from the current energy mix.
