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Gov. Maura Healey’s sweeping energy affordability bill received a largely positive reception from lawmakers at a nearly six-hour hearing on Wednesday, but even lawmakers who lauded the proposal had some concerns.
Healey unveiled the bill in May in response to a winter that saw sharp increases in natural gas bills across the state. The legislation aims to reduce certain charges on energy bills, keep unnecessary costs from being passed to ratepayers, and expand the state’s authority to explore new nuclear power technologies.
After a cold winter that had residents across the state struggling to make ends meet, Healey’s aim is to lower rate payer bills while still moving forward on the state’s mandated climate goals. She faces a challenging balancing act as the Trump administration pulls federal funding from climate efforts and takes aim at offshore wind – a potentially abundant source of clean energy for Massachusetts.
Sen. Michael Barrett of Lexington, the chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy who was the driving force behind the climate law which passed in November 2024, said that he was “impressed with the sheer intelligence and ingenuity of the fine print” of the bill.
But he also questioned whether Healey’s plan to allow the Department of Public Utilities to authorize utility companies to issue bonds to fund Mass Save would cost ratepayers more in the long run. “We would move from pay-as-you-go to an alternative that requires the payment of interest on long-term bonds,” said Barrett. “One would think that would be an additional financing cost, and that over the entire cost of the useful life of the project, more dollars might wind up being spent either by our taxpayers or by our ratepayers.” |
