Since both chambers of the Massachusetts legislature passed their energy bills, there has been a lot of focus on the differences between the two bills and where the House and/or Senate bill would harm our ability to fight climate change. That scrutiny is warranted. Our view is that both bills contain many good policies and that it would be a shame if lawmakers did not pass an energy bill this session and had to start the process over again in January.
Massachusetts created the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS) back in 2008 to subsidize several technologies and actions, which, in theory, are supposed to help the Commonwealth reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. One might think of it as a strange cousin of the more sensible Renewable Portfolio Standard, which drives wind and solar development. In practice, the APS likely makes little to no impact on the state’s emissions because most of its subsidies go to natural gas-burning combined heat and power systems and biofuels, both technologies with negative to unclear impacts on emissions.
Recently, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey proposed legislation to temporarily waive state taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline. According to the Governor's press release, this “gas tax holiday” would cost the Commonwealth $120 million over a two-month period. We understand the temptation to offer constituents some bill relief – especially with an election just a month away. But Green Energy Consumers is not running for office and, for what it’s worth, we have these comments:
Data centers use a lot of power. So much power, in fact, that new data center load has increased electricity prices in PJM (a regional power grid operator that covers a territory from Delaware to Chicago) by tens of billions of dollars.
There’s a lot at stake in the negotiations between the Massachusetts House and Senate over energy affordability legislation. Each branch has passed its own version, and now three members from each side are meeting to reconcile differences in a conference committee. It is expected that they will come out with one final product before Election Day in November. We have written a lot about the bills each side has passed, as well as the affordability offered by Governor Maura Healey in the spring of 2025.
When an investor-owned utility, like National Grid or Eversource, builds an electric substation or makes some other infrastructure investment, it takes on debt to do so and then pays off that debt over time through revenue raised from ratepayers' bills. Before it is paid off, utilities use a mix of low-interest bonds and more expensive equity funding from their shareholders to finance their debt. This use of high-cost equity financing sends money to utility shareholders (which encourages people to invest in the utilities) but burdens ratepayers with higher bills.
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) recently proposed changes to the structure of the Massachusetts rebate program for electric vehicles (EVs), MOR-EV. You can share your feedback on the proposed changes with DOER in writing or by attending a virtual or in-person public hearing. Here are all the details!
Some electric vehicle (EV) owners in Massachusetts with eligible vehicles will soon be able to receive compensation for plugging in their EVs and sending electricity back to the grid. The process of sending electricity back to the grid from your EV, also known as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), can help EV drivers earn extra money from their vehicles while reducing stress on the grid during peak energy demand days. This V2G opportunity will be administered through electric utility companies National Grid and Eversource through their ConnectedSolutions program.
On Friday, July 31, Governor Healey held a press conference announcing that she had sent a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate about her priorities for energy legislation. The House and Senate have each passed energy bills and have recently formed a conference committee to hash out differences. Their work may take several weeks as there are dozens of issues to resolve. In this context, the governor’s letter could be a significant factor, and we think it’s worth a few minutes of your time.
We’ve recently made some promotions! We’ve never had this many at once, so we’ll announce them together.
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