Arrogance and Greed of the Pipeline Tax
On August 17, 2016, we were thrilled to learn that the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court ruled that taxing electricity ratepayers to finance a natural gas (read – fracked methane) pipeline was illegal according to the 1997 Electric Restructuring Act. We saw the scheme, jointly proposed by Spectra, Eversource, and National Grid, and strongly backed by the Baker Administration and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, as being awful for consumers and the environment. Spectra Energy is the pipeline project developer. Eversource and National Grid are investor-owned regulated monopoly utilities, that combined have a 60% financial stake in Access Northeast.