GOV. MAURA HEALEY unveiled a new energy affordability legislation package on Tuesday, which she said will bring down energy costs by more than $10 billion over the next decade, but consumer advocates and environmentalists criticized the plan, saying it didn’t go far enough to rein in energy companies that pass along gas infrastructure costs to consumers. 

The legislation – which comes in response to a winter with sky-high heating bills across the state – would take a series of steps to bring more energy onto the grid faster and empower the Department of Public Utilities to remove certain charges from energy bills. It would also allow the department to cap the amount of month-to-month bill increases, make changes to streamline the state’s energy efficiency program, and reform the competitive supply market to protect customers from third-party electric suppliers who have come under fire for predatory marketing and major price hikes.  

“I believe that this legislation is going to give us the tools that we need to create more accountability for our utilities and maximize every single ratepayer dollar,” said Healey, at a press conference announcing the legislation in Leominster. “We need to make sure that [for] every single dollar that’s paid in … we’re getting the most out of that, and we have to make sure that you’re not stuck paying for corporate investments that don’t help you either.” 

An unusually cold winter caused heating bills to balloon this winter, and there was an outcry about energy affordability in the state. Funded entirely through surcharges on ratepayers, Mass Save, the state’s energy efficiency program, made up the biggest portion of the rate increase. 

The legislation follows the energy affordability agenda that Healey announced in March, which gave electric customers a $50 credit on their April bills and sought to bring ratepayers around $6 billion in savings over the next five years. Healey said that the $10 billion in savings over the next 10 years will be in addition to that. Officials also announced a $500 million reduction in the Mass Save budget over the next three years, a move which environmentalists called “short-sighted.” 

Healey is seeking to expand the state’s authority to procure energy and allow the state to explore adding new nuclear power technologies to the grid at a time when the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada, a major supplier of hydroelectricity to the United States, have injected uncertainty in the marketplace. 

This legislation would repeal a 1982 law that mandates that any proposed nuclear facility receive approval through a statewide ballot. 

“We rely on energy coming in from other places,” said Healey.  “That’s why the solar arrays are important. That’s why wind off our shores is really important. It’s why we’re fighting hard to make sure that we work as Northeast states with Canada to make sure that hydro is flowing. It’s why we, in this legislation, are opening up to new forms [like] nuclear.” 

Caitlin Peale Sloan of the Conservation Law Foundation said that the bill did not go far enough to tackle the problem of energy affordability. She said that “bolder steps to rein in excessive utility spending on costly infrastructure projects and corporate profits” are necessary. 

“It doesn’t address arguably the most important cost drivers we’re facing in the energy system,” said Sloan on a LinkedIn post.  

Vickash Mohanka, the head of the Massachusetts Sierra Club, said his group wanted to see more limits on expansion of the gas system and curbing of utility companies’ profit margins. 

“The bill stops short of doing what is needed to deliver on the promise of sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy in Massachusetts,” Mohanka said in a statement. “The current system puts utility profits over the interests of everyday people. That must change. There is no energy reform without addressing reckless overspending and exploitative profit margins.” 

Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the Acadia Center, a non-profit research and advocacy organization dedicated to combatting climate change, said that he applauds Healey for not compromising the green energy transition in the name of energy affordability. 

“I appreciate that there are no, what I like to call, ‘false solutions’ in there,” said Murray. “There’s no ‘Hey, let’s pursue a new gas pipeline or at least look at that,’ because we know that probably will do nothing to reduce costs.” 

The new legislation would reduce the value of net metering credits – credits that solar energy system owners can use to offset their energy costs. The state has one of the highest net metering rates, and this can lead to higher costs of electricity for non-solar customers. This move would affect non-residential solar facilities and save $380 million, according to the Healey administration.  

Healey is also proposing to phase out a program – the Alternative Portfolio Standard Program – that provided incentives to businesses and local governments to install “alternative energy systems” that don’t have to be renewable but must contribute to the state’s clean energy goals by increasing energy efficiency. Eligible technologies include air source heat pumps, solar thermal systems, and a system to burn woody biomass like wood pellets. The ending of this program is meant to save ratepayers $870 million over 10 years. 

Healey’s new legislation also seeks to reduce administrative costs and streamline the program administration for Mass Save. It would allow the DPU to authorize utility companies to issue bonds to fund part of the program.  

Earlier this month, the DPU ordered utility companies to spend less money from ratepayer bills on repairing natural gas infrastructure through the Gas System Enhancement Plan, or GSEP. The GSEP program allows utility companies to submit annual plans to gas pipeline infrastructure and recover the costs through ratepayers, which the DPU then approves. The program was created to encourage utility companies to fix aging or leaky gas pipes but it has led to “exorbitant costs for ratepayers” as spending for the program has increased by an average of 12 percent every year since 2015, according to the attorney general’s office.  

The DPU’s order reduces the amount of money that utilities can spend every year, institutes a more rigorous oversight process to prioritize more severe gas leaks, and creates incentives for non-pipeline alternatives like installing electric heat pumps. The agency said that this should save ratepayers money.