Photo by Jahhid Fitrah Alamsyah on Unsplash

MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS HAVE some of the highest energy rates in the country, and costs are trending the wrong way. Since 2018, residential electricity prices have increased by 41 percent, and natural gas prices for home heating bills have increased 62 percent, costing an average family an additional $623 per year.

A new study published by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation has found that building the proposed Project Beacon natural gas pipeline expansion project could help Massachusetts families and businesses save $367 million in heating and electric bills during an average winter.

Proposed by Enbridge, Project Beacon would add about 300 million cubic feet of natural gas capacity per day—roughly enough to meet the winter needs of 840,000 homes, or more than half of Massachusetts residential gas accounts. The project would not break new ground either but would instead accomplish the upgrade by increasing the size of the existing pipeline and adding more compression along the line.

This additional gas capacity would save Massachusetts residential customers $184 million per winter, on average, across both natural gas and power savings, according to the report written by Always On Energy Research. This means the average family would save $72 per winter on natural gas heating costs and $23 per winter in lower electricity costs, for total savings of $95 during an average winter.

These savings dwarf the costs. The report estimated the pipeline would cost households $19 per winter, representing an average net savings of $76 per winter, meaning it would provide $5 in average household savings for every dollar spent on the pipeline, a return that any asset manager would be eager to achieve.

Small businesses would also save $163 million per winter. The study found the average commercial account would save $792 per winter against a cost of $170, a net gain of $622. For a neighborhood restaurant, a dry cleaner, or a family-run shop, that’s real money: a part-time shift, a piece of equipment, or a reason not to raise prices.

These figures represent the average per-winter savings, but the savings would be substantially higher during colder winters, with household savings reaching $173 in a winter like 2025–26, which included Winter Storm Fern, and lower during mild winters, like 2023–24, when residential customers could expect to save only $43.

Savings are larger during the coldest winter periods because this is when natural gas demand is highest. A majority of Massachusetts homes are heated with natural gas, and natural gas is the largest source of electricity in the state. While demand rises as the mercury dips, the supply of natural gas is constrained by the size of the pipeline, much like Uber prices surge during periods of high demand. By upgrading the size of the pipeline, more gas can flow to homes, businesses, and power plants, potentially reducing the overall cost of the surge in prices.

While Project Beacon will reduce heating and electric bills for customers, it is not a miracle worker that can completely undo the effects of costly energy policies enacted on Beacon Hill. US Energy Information Administration data show that higher natural gas prices have accounted for only a small portion of rising home-heating bills.

Of the $623 increase in annual home heating bills since 2018, approximately $88 came from higher fuel costs, while distribution, policy, and other non-fuel charges account for roughly $535. This means that Project Beacon’s estimated $53 in net gas savings ($72 in savings minus $19 in costs) could offset roughly 60 percent of the increase attributable to fuel costs in an average winter.

However, other cost drivers, such as Mass Save, which adds roughly $200 to $325 per year to a typical household’s natural gas bill, according to rates compiled by state Sen. Will Brownsberger, will need to be reformed to bring further energy-cost relief to Massachusetts families and businesses.

Even the Healey administration is finding it increasingly difficult to ignore Massachusetts’s need for additional natural gas capacity. Last week, the governor called on the Trump administration to expedite its review of Enbridge’s RARE project, a smaller expansion of the same Algonquin pipeline system that would add roughly 75 million cubic feet of natural gas capacity per day.

Healey said the project would lower costs for 600,000 customers and urged federal officials to move quickly so consumers could realize the savings. That same logic should apply to Project Beacon, which would add roughly four times as much capacity and, according to our study, deliver far greater savings to Massachusetts ratepayers.

Project Beacon is not a choice between building infrastructure and protecting ratepayers. The numbers in the report suggest that building the infrastructure is the best way to protect ratepayers.

Paul Craney is the executive director of the Fiscal Alliance Foundation. Isaac Orr is the vice president of research at Always On Energy Research