4 days ago
Healey energy bill gets bump from municipal officials
BOSTON (SHNS) – Local government officials got an earful from residents as energy bills soared this winter, and many of those municipalities echoed and amplified those concerns to state leaders. So when the governor's new energy affordability legislation came up at the Local Government Advisory Commission on Tuesday, local officials said they felt like they had been heard.
'It's really nice to see this on a front burner,' Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove said. She said her city and others this winter 'asked for [the state's] help and attention, and we are so grateful to see this energy affordability agenda and the legislation filed last month to help tackle these challenges.'
In a push to save ratepayers $10 billion over a decade, Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation (H 4144) last month to eliminate or reduce energy bill charges, make nuts-and-bolts changes to electricity procurement and supply practices, impose reforms to the competitive electric supply industry, and allow Massachusetts to explore new nuclear energy technologies.
The governor's focus on energy costs comes after a winter that saw energy bills rise sharply, exacerbating chronic cost-of-living pressures for Massachusetts residents and businesses that already pay some of the highest energy prices in the country.
'Municipalities deal with cost challenges just like our residents and businesses do,' Gove said. 'And we know we are at a moment where energy costs in particular are causing stress and concern for customers and ratepayers across the commonwealth.'
Healey's office broadly detailed where it expects to find the at least $10 billion in savings over a 10-year period, identifying 'Getting Costs Off Bills' (about $6.9 billion in savings), 'Creating Accountability' ($2.5 billion), and 'Supporting the Customer' ($900 million) as main buckets of savings. The bill is now before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, which has not yet announced a hearing for it.
The bill would require the Department of Public Utilities to review and reform all charges on energy bills, and establish a cap on month-to-month bill increases. It would allow Massachusetts to procure energy directly, which would eliminate fees the state pays utilities for entering into those contracts, and also seeks to reduce the value of net metering credits for new and large solar hookups or other facilities that transfer energy back to the grid in exchange for a bill credit.
The governor's legislation seeks to phase out the Alternative Portfolio Standard program, which incentivizes technologies like natural-gas-fired combined heat and power facilities, fuel cells, biofuels, and heat pumps, by 2028. It also would grant utilities the ability to finance the Mass Save efficiency program, Electric Sector Modernization Plans, storm response, and other programs by issuing rate reduction bonds to securitize costs.
After Executive Director of Energy Transformation Melissa Lavinson and Undersecretary of Energy Mike Judge walked through the bill, Acton Town Manager John Mangiaratti said he thinks process of linking new energy projects to the grid is an area in need of greater attention to help residents, businesses and municipalities.
'Here in Acton, we have a pretty cool energy coaching program where we have volunteers work with residents and businesses and help them navigate different ways to make clean energy choices in their buildings. We also have had a lot of success with clean energy projects, solar, for example. But the timelines that we're experiencing continues to be an obstacle that we'd like to try to find a way to overcome,' he said. 'When a project that we have planned out takes sometimes a year longer than we thought because of the interconnection delays, it really changes the finances and causes some savings that people, that the city or the town was counting on to not be there, and it disincentivizes communities from wanting to do these types of projects.'
During her rundown of bill details, Lavinson talked about a part of the governor's legislation that would require utilities to provide 'flexible interconnection solutions,' which she said 'should help reduce customer costs and timelines to interconnect, and won't cost any other customers to do that.'
Gove said she and other mayors support the state's desire to transition towards cleaner energy and emphasized Tuesday that cities and towns 'are simultaneously working towards our own individual climate and clean energy goals.' She mentioned her city's efforts to support electric vehicles, in keeping with its history as home to S.R. Bailey & Company, which built some of the first electric vehicles there from 1905 to 1916.
'We're grateful for your continued work to review existing policies and charges to lower lower costs for residents on the whole,' she said. 'Cities and towns are doing this work of addressing affordability every day, and know that the residents across the common a Commonwealth will appreciate the results of this larger statewide effort.'
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