On Monday, those of us who were working to defeat a proposal in the Mass. House of Representatives that would roll back our climate commitments and decimate Mass Save were thrilled to learn that the House decided to postpone action on the bill pending further review by the House Ways and Means Committee.

As reported in the Commonwealth Beacon, Aaron Michlewitz, the House Ways and Means Chairman said, “Some of the rollback pieces on the 2030 numbers have gotten a lot of interest, a lot of energy behind it, no pun intended there... We are certainly wanting to focus on affordability and not necessarily on things of that nature” (meaning emissions deadlines).  

Rightfully so, there is a lot of attention everywhere on energy costs, and pressure is on legislators to offer some relief to consumers. Our position has been that the focus should be on the root causes of high energy costs, such as: 

• Our overdependence on natural gas, the price for which has been high because so much gas is being exported in the form of liquified natural gas (LNG).
• Increased expenses charged by investor-owned gas utilities for rebuilding and maintaining a gas network that is larger than necessary to meet future needs. An excellent essay on this by James Van Nostrand in Monday’s Boston Globe explains the issue clearly. 
• Investments in the electricity grid made by investor-owned utilities and passed onto ratepayers are also increasing faster than the rate of inflation. Again, this is about the cost of delivering energy, not supplying or saving it.  

The bill approved by the House Energy Committee would increase our dependence on fossil fuels while slashing support for clean energy and the efficiency programs that save us all money. As one person told me, “they are trying to frame Mass Save.” 

Those of us who are climate advocates were quite fearful that the bill would nonetheless get approved by the full House this week. But Green Energy Consumers and literally dozens of like-minded organizations rallied in opposition. In my 26 years as executive director here, I have not seen such a strong response. If you called or wrote to your state representative expressing outrage, you deserve to feel good. It is really unusual for a bill approved by a committee to stall like this in Ways and Means. 

But if we are playing in a multi-game series, we have won just the first game. We have not yet won the series. Don’t pop the cork on the champagne bottle. Expect the House to come out with another bill in 2026, hopefully with a much different approach. The State Senate has an equal role in this, and while we anticipate they will do the right thing, we should not take anything for granted. Governor Healey put out her energy affordability legislation earlier this session and would like to sign a bill as soon as possible.  Green Energy Consumers Alliance wants an energy affordability bill, too – doesn’t everyone? We just want it done right, and we will do our best to contribute. We will let you know when it’s game time again.