On Tuesday, June 25, the Mass. State Senate passed, by a vote of 38-2, An Act Upgrading the Grid and Protecting Consumers. We appreciate the Senate’s good work. They’re doing the right thing for consumers by banning retail electricity suppliers. They’re supporting EV adoption. And they are authorizing the Department of Public Utilities to regulate gas utilities in alignment with our climate mandates.

The Highlights

An Act Upgrading the Grid and Protecting Consumers would: 

• Ban “competitive electric suppliers," which cost Massachusetts consumers more than $577 million over the past eight years, according to a report from the state attorney general's office. This has been a priority for Green Energy Consumers Alliance and one hundred other organizations from across the Commonwealth.  
• Support electric vehicle (EV) adoption by prohibiting condo boards and similar associations from restricting people from installing EV charging, making it easier for municipalities to procure electric school buses, directing the Department of Public Utilities to investigate how to make on-street charging easier, funding the state's EV rebate program through 2027, and directing the MBTA to plan the electrification of all commuter rail lines.
• Speed up the siting process for solar, wind, storage, and other clean energy projects by setting 15-month permitting deadlines for large projects, and 12-month deadlines for small projects. 

• Expand the ability for gas companies to meet their customer's heating needs through non-gas alternatives, like network geothermal heat pumps.  

• Direct the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to consider greenhouse gas emissions when considering expanding access to new gas consumers or gas service and when expanding or replacing gas pipelines. 

• Expand the bottle bill, adding noncarbonated beverages, wine and spirits to the list of containers eligible for a bottle deposit, increasing the deposit amount from five cents to ten cents. Small alcohol bottles, known as “nips,” would also be included in the deposit program. 

While we support all of the above provisions, the Section 101 which directs the DPU to regulate gas utilities with climate targets in mind is the one that would move the needle the most on the Commonwealth’s emissions over time. Reforming our gas utility laws to account for climate change has been one of our legislative priorities and that of 70 plus organizations that have signed onto the Clean Heat Platform. 

Attention Turns to the House of Representatives

Obviously, for a bill to become law, it needs to pass both the Senate and House and be signed by the governor. We expect that an energy bill will be released by the House in the next week or so and be voted on by the full House on or about July 10. Furthermore, we expect that the legislature will essentially end their session by the end of July. In other words, if a climate bill is not passed within the month, we will have to wait until the next session in 2025. 

We sense that the House bill will likely include provisions regarding the siting of energy infrastructure and increasing the adoption of electric vehicles. Back in April, we wrote about the House committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy made recommendations to pass several good energy bills on a wide range of items that could appear in an overall climate bill.  

Nonetheless, we are concerned that unless state representatives hear more from their constituents, the important changes to the way the DPU regulates gas utilities will not be included. This is important because if the House does pass a climate bill, the House and Senate will establish a conference committee to iron out differences between their respective bills. For those concerned about the climate crisis, the closer that the House’s language on gas policy gets to what we see in the Senate bill, the better.  

It is worth noting that earlier in this legislative session, many members of the House, listed below, co-sponsored the Future of Clean Heat bill which was the basis for the Senate bill’s gas utility reform.  This indicates strong support and provides some grounds for optimism. We are hopeful that these members will work to make gas utility reform a part of the House climate bill.