Take Home points

• Maura Healey announced temporary energy bill credits / deferral as energy reform
• These proposals are a gimmick
• The state will defer 15% of energy costs until the warmer months May – September
• At least a portion of the deferred payments will then be recovered by the ratepayers with the possibility of interest charges if the utility companies elect to do so
• The money being used for these deferrals will come from Alternative Compliance Payment Fund. The utility companies have paid into a fund for not having full compliance with the Net Zero mandate schedule.   Guess where that money came from?  This fund will be used for the deferrals
  • Therefore, ratepayers money has been used to create a fund which will be used for the deferrals, which you will need to pay back possibly with interest.
• There is no opt-in or opt-out for this program.  We will all be charged
• 25% of Electric bills will be deferred ;  10% of gas bills    
• The utility companies stated that they will charge a 6.75% interest rate on bills to be repaid in the summer months 
• This policy which has been proposed by Maura Healey has not yet been put into policy
  • The Department of Energy will make a decision shortly and are now taking citizen feedback
  • PLEASE CALL THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND DEFEAT THIS PROPOSAL
    • 617-305-3500

---

After Governor Maura Healey’s State of the Commonwealth address, one thing is clear. The administration is trying to sell temporary bill credits as meaningful energy reform.

The Boston Herald editorial board has already called it out.

Their message was simple. A deferral is not a deal. Temporary relief is not a solution.

Under the governor’s plan, electric bills will appear lower in February and March, but those costs do not disappear. Utilities have already confirmed that a portion of the so-called relief will be recovered from ratepayers later this year, potentially with interest.
In other words, families are being asked to pay the same bills later while also covering summer cooling costs.

That is not savings. It’s cost shifting. Potentially costing ratepayers even more if interest is charged.

The administration is also using money from the Alternative Compliance Payment (ACP) fund to create the appearance of relief. That fund exists only because of Massachusetts NetZero climate emission reduction mandates. When utilities cannot meet renewable energy requirements, they pay penalties into the fund, and those penalties are passed directly onto ratepayers. So yes, Healey is proposing to use your own money to temporarily relieve your bills. If you’re interested in how ACP’s work, you can read more about them on page 12 and 13 of a Fiscal Alliance Foundation 2023 energy study. 

The bottom line is there is no new money here. There is no structural cost reduction.

Ratepayers already paid these charges. Now Beacon Hill is redistributing them temporarily and calling it affordability.

Even more misleading is the claim of a 25 percent electric bill reduction. Only a portion of that comes from recycled ACP balances. The rest is a deferral that customers must repay later. Nothing about this lowers the actual cost of producing or delivering energy in Massachusetts or complying with the layers of costly NetZero climate emission reduction mandates.

What it does do is delay the political consequences.

For years, state leaders have blocked reliable energy infrastructure, voted for rigid climate mandates, and stacked policy driven charges onto monthly utility bills. These decisions are the reason Massachusetts now faces some of the highest electricity and heating costs in the nation.

Last night’s speech did not confront that reality.

Instead of reforming the policies driving prices higher, the administration offered a short-term reprieve to get them through election season and avoided the hard conversation entirely. Families struggling with housing costs, food prices, taxes, and energy bills deserve better than accounting maneuvers and election year messaging. Real energy affordability means addressing supply, repealing NetZero climate mandate driven costs, and fixing the policies that created this crisis in the first place.

MassFiscal will continue pressing Beacon Hill to stop shifting costs and start delivering real reform.

If you would like to send an email into the State House to your lawmakers and the Governor telling them to repeal the NetZero climate mandate, please take our Call to Action.

Link to Call to Action – No More Climate Taxes

Once you take our Call to Action, please forward this email to your likeminded friends and post the link to your social media pages.

Thank you for standing with us,

Paul F. Gangi
Program Director
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance