In her annual State of the State address, Governor Maura Healey said she’s fighting for energy affordability for Bay State residents. Unfortunately for the governor, her policies contributed to Massachusetts’s electricity crisis.
According to new polling from Independent Women, 85% of Massachusetts women say they’re paying more for their electricity bills, compared to five years ago. A majority of them—50%—blame state politicians, like Governor Healey, for misleading them about the effectiveness and true costs of green energy policies.
Of all the New England states, Massachusetts adopted aggressive climate policies to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. Massachusetts’ decarbonization plans, not oil and gas companies or federal policies, are to blame for inviting energy insecurity and higher energy costs. Congress gave states near-exclusive power under the Federal Power Act to set energy policies, including green mandates. Unsurprisingly, Massachusetts adopted radical climate mandates to drive a transition to 100% renewable energy, ban gas-powered cars and implement energy-efficiency standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over 20 years.
Between 2019 and 2024, electricity prices in Massachusetts soared 30.4%—the fifth most expensive electricity rates in the U.S. The average household paid $176.02 per month in utility bills as of March, or 18% higher than the national average.
Affordability is complicating climate politics in the Bay State. Last November, Rep. Mark Cusack, chair of the House Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, countered Governor Healey’s energy un-affordability plan. His bill to make Massachusetts’ 2030 emissions target non-binding, cut funding for clean energy programs, and mitigate the impact of climate policies on utility bills passed the House of Representatives last month.
Much to Governor Healey’s dismay, there is no green energy transition happening in the Bay State. Our Commonwealth primarily runs on natural gas (64%), while 25% of net-electricity generation comes from solar. During Winter Storm Fern, it was petroleum oil and natural gas—not renewables—that kept our lights on and houses warm.
If leaders in Boston don’t revisit climate policies, our state and region would see energy costs balloon $815 billion through 2050. But there is a solution to our electricity woes—building and approving new natural gas and nuclear energy projects over expensive, unreliable offshore wind and solar projects. A new report from Always On Energy Research and a coalition of Northeastern think tanks, “Alternatives to New England’s Energy Affordability Crisis,” argues this strategy will save New Englanders—including Bay Staters—$700 billion in energy costs.
Energy inflation is decreasing nationally thanks to abundance policies. But if Massachusetts doubles down on costly climate-first policies, we will continue to suffer from higher costs and energy insecurity. This is unsustainable.
Let’s clear the air—Governor Healey’s’ Energy Affordability Agenda is failing to deliver cheaper energy costs and risks making our electric grid unreliable.
Offering a yearly $50 electric bill credit and encouraging residents to go solar and install heat pumps won’t stop our electricity crisis. If the governor truly cared about energy affordability, she’d reconsider clean energy mandates and embrace reliable energy sources instead.