Massachusetts House Democrats are preparing to advance on Thursday a sweeping energy bill, Beacon Hill’s long-awaited legislative response to a clamoring for action from residents to tame soaring electric and gas prices.

Lawmakers are set to vote on legislation that would slash $1 billion from Mass Save, the state’s energy efficiency initiative that offers home weatherization and heat pump installations at low or no cost. The program has been caught up in the state’s affordability crisis because it’s funded by a charge on utility bills.

And in a further sign of just how far out of favor the program has fallen, the package put forth by House Democratic leadership would require the inspector general to conduct a review of Mass Save by July 1, 2027, according to a bill summary obtained by CommonWealth Beacon.

House Ways and Means chair Aaron Michlewitz said in an interview that President Trump’s moves to halt offshore wind permits and slash tax credits for electric vehicles and energy efficiency programs is forcing ratepayers in Massachusetts to shoulder too much of the financial burden for the clean energy transition.

“One thing that we heard extensively from members and from a lot of folks in the general public is concerns related to the efficiencies of how the program was being run, from a marketing standpoint, from an administrative standpoint,” Michlewitz said. “We’re not getting rid of it. We’re just taking a pause, taking a step back on the financial commitments that the ratepayers are giving to Mass Save and allowing us to get under the hood a little bit and see how it can be run in a more efficient manner, using the inspector general as a tool to allow us to do so.”

Gov. Maura Healey filed the bill, which she said will save ratepayers $13.7 billion over 10 years, in May in response to an outcry last winter over high electric and gas bills.

The fact that the House waited until now to vote on the bill could mean that the only relief ratepayers get this winter is Healey’s plan to spend $180 million to subsidize 15 percent of ratepayers’ electric bills in February and March. Under that plan, most of the utilities will also defer an additional 10 percent of electric bills and 10 percent of gas bills to be collected over the rest of the year.

The House’s revision of the bill, which is projected to save ratepayers nearly $9 billion over a decade, would also reduce payments to solar energy producers, expand the state’s authority to procure more energy, and return 70 percent of utility compliance payments to ratepayers for the next three years. Many of those provisions mirror Healey’s initial proposal, including another that removes barriers for nuclear energy by repealing a current requirement for voters to approve of any new nuclear power plant.

The measure would also raise the limit on the amount of solar that municipalities can deploy and require the utilities to provide discounted rates for low-income customers.

Even if the House passes the energy bill, it still might take months before it would take effect. The bill would head straight into the hands of Sen. Michael Barrett, a Democrat and climate hawk who chairs that chamber’s telecommunications, utilities, and energy committee, and then go through what could be an arduous conference committee to reconcile differences between the House and Senate, before reaching Healey’s desk.

The legislation has thrust Beacon Hill’s Democratic supermajority into a fierce debate. Rep. Mark Cusack, the Democrat who chairs the House energy panel, rewrote Healey’s package and advanced a version in November that would have weakened the state’s 2030 climate targets and cut the amount of clean power that utilities must purchase — a move first reported by CommonWealth Beacon.