(Illustration by Round Icons on Unsplash)

IT’S ON FRONT PAGES and in speeches. It’s at dinner tables and in living rooms. The word is “affordability,” and there’s a good reason it’s everywhere. Too many residents of the Commonwealth feel the cost-of-living squeeze and struggle to keep up with tighter family budgets.

Eight out of ten Massachusetts residents are concerned about their utility bills. In fact, energy affordability ranks as the top household concern in the Bay State, where average electricity bills consistently rank among the highest in the country. For families already making trade-offs between groceries, rent, and health care, energy has become another painful expense.

State leaders are responding with urgency, proposing measures like bill credits, delayed collections, and one-time relief payouts. At the center of the current discussion is the Massachusetts House version of an energy affordability bill, which includes a troubling provision to cut $1 billion from Mass Save, the statewide energy efficiency rebate program. This proposed cut is about 22 percent of the program’s current three-year budget, but its negative impact would likely be larger. By the time a bill takes effect, much of the 2025-2027 funding will already be committed, forcing the reduction to come from a much smaller pool of program funding.

The desire to address legitimate affordability concerns may be well-intentioned, but too many proposed solutions are paid for by raiding the very programs that have done the most to keep energy bills down for decades: energy efficiency programs.

Affordability isn’t a short-term problem. Families and businesses need lower energy bills that stay low over the long-term. That’s what efficiency delivers.

There are many factors driving current energy costs—distribution is one of them. In Massachusetts, distribution charges for the state’s largest utility customers have risen by roughly 50 percent since 2019. Electricity customers in Massachusetts pay twice the US average on monthly electric bills, with residential rates around 80 percent higher than the national average.

Reducing energy efficiency funding in the name of affordability would be more than illogical; it would be catastrophic. Remove energy efficiency, and people will end up paying more each month for power.

Durable affordability doesn’t come from eliminating the very thing that drives it. Cutting energy efficiency to lower bills is like heating your home by burning your blankets.

Put down the matches. Energy efficiency programs work. VEIC, the nonprofit I lead focused on energy efficiency, knows this firsthand through our work helping the Commonwealth evaluate new program models and accelerate heat pump adoption in New England.

Efficiency programs reduce energy bills. They improve access to weatherization, efficient appliances, and heat pumps, delivering durable savings that show up on bills month after month. By lowering bills and electricity use, they reduce strain on the grid. They delay or even eliminate the need to build expensive new power plants, transmission lines, and distribution infrastructure. They increase flexibility, allowing utilities to manage peak loads while balancing supply and demand at a far lower cost.

These benefits are not theoretical. A new analysis from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy found that efficiency programs can cut electricity use by 8 percent at less than half the cost of generating electricity from even the cheapest new gas power plant. On top of that, it found the US now has enough load flexibility potential to offset one to two times the most aggressive projections for demand growth.

This isn’t a niche climate tool; it’s the lowest-cost energy resource we have. It’s the workhorse that’s been saving people money for decades. Efficiency has kept electricity use nearly flat for 40 years, saving customers roughly $800 billion in the process.

Acadia Center found that energy efficiency programs in Massachusetts delivered $34 billion in lifetime benefits between 2012 and 2023, returning more than $3.50 for every $1 invested. Those savings are more than real—they show up in real-time.

Consider a recent Massachusetts cold snap, during which grid demand topped 20,100 megawatt hours and wholesale electricity prices surged to $520 per megawatt hour. Energy efficiency reduced demand by 2,081 megawatts, saving taxpayers over $1 million in avoided costs— relief that translates into warmer homes, lower monthly bills, and real breathing room for families and businesses.

Clearly, customers understand durable savings. Public support for energy efficiency is overwhelming—81 percent of Americans support rebates and tax incentives for efficiency improvements. It’s also bipartisan, with 90 percent of voters calling efficiency an “important” energy solution for our country.

In 2024, Mass Save expanded its moderate-income eligibility to include more households in need of support. The result? A 200 percent increase in program participation.

The danger now is that states, under political pressure to act quickly, will trade away their best tool to reliably lower bills over time. Bill credits and rate freezes may help the most vulnerable, but when they are funded by cutting efficiency, the benefits are short-lived. These initiatives simply kick the can down the road—along with even higher costs. Connecticut learned the hard way, giving away $100 million in appropriated funds as temporary relief. The rate hikes that followed all but erased any short-term savings.

Affordability is not just a slogan. It is the outcome of smart, sustained investment in upgrades that reduce energy use and household bills.

States face a choice. They can chase short-term relief and make the next energy crisis worse, or they can protect funding for what works. Families and businesses can’t afford to be misled. They need a proven solution that delivers true, lasting affordability through lower bills.

Rebecca Foster is CEO of VEIC, a Vermont-based clean energy nonprofit that’s delivered high-impact energy solutions focused on innovation and affordability in New England and beyond since 1986.