In the wake of last month’s elections, one thing is clear: affordability is on the ballot. A poll released days later by the University of Massachusetts Amherst affirmed as much, with one in five respondents rating their own economic situation as “poor” and housing emerging as the most important issue facing Massachusetts.

Yet while Massachusetts families struggle to make ends meet, Eversource’s CEO is boasting record quarterly earnings, driven by revenue collected from recent rate hikes. As we head into winter and heating bills climb, our leaders on Beacon Hill should stop quibbling about distant 2030 climate goals and instead focus on the root causes of rising energy costs today: runaway utility infrastructure spending, corporate greed, and an over-reliance on methane gas.

Across the country, elected leaders are tackling affordability head-on.

In New York City, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani built his campaign around lowering the cost of living, from the lunch rush to the cost of rent. In New Jersey, where residents struggle with similar energy dilemmas as those facing Massachusetts, Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill won handily by pledging to declare a state of emergency and freeze utility bills. In Georgia, the data center capital of the country, fed-up voters elected two pro-renewables candidates to the statewide Public Service Commission.

Meanwhile, here in Massachusetts, Gov. Healey has put forward an energy affordability agenda, with her proposed legislation promising to result in $10 billion in savings. Legislators have similarly offered bills that will help bring energy costs down further by helping municipalities quickly deploy low-cost solar, ensuring new buildings use the latest energy efficiency standards, expanding the use of geothermal energy to heat our homes and buildings, and banning utilities from charging ratepayers for corporate travel, political activity, and advertising expenses.

These solutions point to the reality we’re facing today: Better equipment and cheaper energy sources are critical to achieving that affordable energy future. And in 2025, as the index for natural gas is rising at nearly four times the rate of inflation, highly efficient electric alternatives like heat pumps powered by clean energy are how we bring down energy bills across Massachusetts.

Knee-jerk reactions to double down on methane gas will set up Massachusetts families for more, not less, economic hardship. Not only has the price of methane gas risen to be the main source behind recent rate hike requests from Eversource and National Grid, but years of unchecked infrastructure spending has caused delivery charges to rise 20 percent each year since 2014.

This isn’t just happening in Massachusetts: in 2024, two-thirds of the average gas bill nationwide went to delivery charges, and accelerated gas pipeline replacement spending is the main culprit. According to the American Gas Association, gas pipeline spending hit $49.1 billion in 2023, up 50 percent from the year prior.

All this spending has sent utility corporate profits into the stratosphere, with Eversource’s electric side alone posting a $367 million profit for third quarter earnings. Eversource’s CEO, Joe Nolan, in 2023 took in almost $19 million from our bills and ranks among the highest paid utility executives in the country.

Massachusetts has the tools to turn this around. Just as the Fair Share Amendment created free lunch in public schools and closed the MBTA’s operating budget gap by putting a tax on millionaires, Massachusetts can tap into excess corporate profits to create long-term solutions to bring down the cost of energy for working families.