MASSACHUSETTS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS Secretary Rebecca Tepper is juggling a lot these days: the looming winter and memories of last year’s seasonal spike of gas bills, a federal crackdown on clean energy projects, implementation of the state’s wonky new climate law meant to speed up siting and permitting of green power facilities, and the rise in energy demand.  

Oh, and a trip to Canada. 

Tepper shared in an interview with CommonWealth Beacon that she took a previously unreported trip up to Nova Scotia last month to meet with officials to discuss how Massachusetts can potentially tap into Canadian offshore wind, much in the way the state will soon have access to 1,200 megawatts of hydropower from Quebec.  

What’s more, Gov. Maura Healey will be in Canada in a few weeks, too, with other New England governors for a not-yet-public forum to discuss energy, in addition to other issues, said Tepper, who spoke on the sidelines of the ClimateBeacon conference in Boston. 

And despite the federal rollbacks on clean energy funding and wind permitting that jeopardize Massachusetts’s climate targets, Tepper said that delaying those goals is “not our focus right now.” She also defended the Mass Save energy efficiency program, which was cut earlier this year and has been attacked as an unnecessary driver of high utility bills.  

This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

COMMONWEALTH BEACON: The governor last week asked DPU to review all charges on bills. One of the most concrete things the state can do right now to avoid higher energy costs is for the DPU to reject the rate hike requests pending from the utilities. Would you personally like to see the DPU reject those requests? 

REBECCA TEPPER: The governor asked the DPU to look at all the rates and charges. They’re there, in front of them now, and they have to do their process. It’s an adjudicatory process, and they’ll make a decision. But overall, last year, when the weather was very cold, we made some changes. Those changes are going to be reflected on the bills this winter.  

CWB: With the current federal environment, additional offshore wind seemingly stalled and even solar declining last year, do you think Massachusetts should be delaying the climate goals it has adopted?  

TEPPER: Clean energy is the way that we’re going to be powering the future. So regardless of any of that, we need to be bringing more clean energy into the state. We’re really focused on making sure that we can work with our regional colleagues and procure – we’re trying to unlock some energy up in Maine. What makes it so unique is that all the states have agreed ahead of time how we’re going to pay for it. With transmission, it’s always about how you’re going to pay for it. So that’s going to unlock this wind that we all have been dying to get from Maine. And we’ve got procurements going on with Connecticut. We’re really all working together to make sure that we have more supply coming in.  

The governor has talked about an “all of the above” approach, and that means we’re all working together to look at new nuclear, to look at where we are with gas, to look at where we’re going with geothermal. So it’s all about bringing all the energy in, primarily to reduce costs. 

CWB: So you don’t see a need to adjust or push back any of the climate targets. 

TEPPER: It’s not our focus right now. The biggest driver of [utility] bills is about transmission and distribution. It’s about infrastructure. So our energy affordability bill is really focused on that part of [consumers’ energy] bills. That’s what’s going up the fastest.  

CWB: On solar, why does the administration propose cutting net-metering rates in your energy affordability legislation? Does that send mixed messages on how much and how fast the state wants to increase solar deployment? 

TEPPER: One of the goals is to get some charges off the bill. We’re trying to lower costs, and we have one of the highest net-metering costs in the country. This is a forward-looking thing, and it would be specifically for large facilities. So you and your house, you’re still net-metering. I’m still net-metering. And it’s not getting rid of it, it’s lowering it to make it more consistent with what it is in the rest of the country. 

CWB: Do you think that the Mass Save program should be cut any further than it already has been? 

TEPPER: Last year, the DPU did reduce some of the cost of Mass Save, and those costs will be reflected in this year’s bills. Mass Save is an extremely valuable and important program and has saved customers millions and millions of dollars. I think what people sometimes forget about energy efficiency is it’s not just beneficial for the people who are doing it. It’s beneficial for all of us. When you go and look at ISO New England’s charts showing the amount of electricity that we did not use and how much money we saved because we didn’t have to build more transmission, we didn’t have to build more generation, that’s all coming from people using less electricity. It’s worth a lot of money for us to encourage people to use things efficiently. It’s a really successful program.  

CWB: On clean energy, do you have anything more to say about the state’s thinking around importing Canadian wind or building more wind itself, either onshore or in state waters?  

TEPPER: The governor is actually going to Canada with all the regional governors in a couple weeks. We have a good relationship with Canada. I went to Nova Scotia last month to talk to them about what they’re doing with wind. There could be some partnerships there. We’re about ready to put on this New England Clean Energy Connect project [that imports Canadian hydropower], which started with conversations many years ago, that turned into a real project. And so that’s where we’re exploring.  

The New England governors and Canadian premiers have a conference every year. And this time it’s in Newfoundland and Labrador. Some of the issues that are on the table is how can we share energy and how can we share energy costs? 

CWB: I do need to ask you, after the Cabinet went through a resignation last week, if you are comfortable in your role? Do you have any plans to leave or change your role? 

TEPPER: I have had the privilege of working with Gov. Healey for many years, and I’m excited to continue to work with Gov. Healey. It’s a real privilege. I have no immediate plans on leaving.