Mass. voters hold Trump, utilities most responsible for high energy costs, new poll finds

September 30, 2026

By Jordan Wolman

During an election year defined by affordability, voters aren’t directing their greatest outrage at Gov. Maura Healey for at least one of the central challenges confronting the state: spiraling energy costs.

Instead, 32 percent of likely voters are pointing the finger at President Trump, and 28 percent say gas and electric utility companies are most to blame for the energy affordability crisis enveloping the state. Just 13 percent of respondents said the governor is most responsible for energy costs that have soared in recent years, according to a new CommonWealth Beacon/MassINC Polling Group survey (Toplines | Crosstabs).

The findings, from 800 likely voters across Massachusetts surveyed earlier this month, aren’t necessarily surprising. Trump’s poll numbers have cratered in the Bay State — and he continues to flounder here. And the utility companies are the ones, after all, with their names on the monthly bills that customers receive.

But Healey’s ability to evade the bulk of the blame with voters for high energy costs is notable as she seeks reelection this fall, given how energy issues have proven stubborn, dogging much of her first term.

Massachusetts residents pay double the national average for electricity. And energy affordability is the top household concern in Massachusetts, business groups found in their own poll earlier this year — which was released just after the Iran war started.

The numbers reflect the fact that much of the electorate understands that energy markets are global, said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association. Trump has directly impacted the landscape, Dolan added, noting that the president canceled offshore wind leases, to cut funding for solar projects, and launched hostilities with Iran, which has sent oil prices skyrocketing.

“Massachusetts and New England have been uniquely impacted by the fact that this president, who holds himself out as energy dominance and energy abundance, has pointedly gone after some of the energy sources that this region is trying to expand, and so that dissonance, coupled with the run-up in global energy prices, points the focus on the president,” Dolan said.

Massachusetts has adopted some of the country’s most ambitious climate commitments, aiming to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Just 9 percent of respondents said, though, that clean energy programs bear the brunt of the blame for high energy costs, ticking up to 16 percent among Republican voters.

That finding provides color to the larger backdrop, in which House Democrats advanced a measure earlier this year that would cut $1 billion from Mass Save, the state’s energy efficiency program funded by a charge on ratepayers’ bills, believing it to be an effective way to save customers money on energy costs. And it’s one of the few levers Beacon Hill can immediately pull to immediately lower energy bills.

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