House Ways and Means Committee favorably voted for a 100+ page energy bill. The most important part of the bill is a $1 Billion cut to the state’s nation-leading energy efficiency program, Mass Save. This cut would be devastating to the program and to people in Massachusetts.
By Sierra Club Massachusetts
Sam Lambert is the Deputy Chapter Director of Sierra Club Massachusetts and resident of Lynn, MA
Vick Mohanka is Chapter Director of Sierra Club Massachusetts and resident of Cambridge, MA
With rising energy bills, significant changes to national energy policy – like halting offshore wind projects, attempting to site more coal plants and fossil fuel pipelines, and exporting natural gas resources – Massachusetts politicians see energy policy as an important priority that needs to be addressed. While it’s true that people need relief from high energy bills, it is pretty much impossible to deliver lower bills while maintaining the broken utility business model that puts profits over people. This creates a difficult political position for decisionmakers in the state who so far have not been willing to take on big corporate interests in order to make energy bills affordable. We saw the Governor take some relatively drastic measures last year with a cut to the state’s Mass Save program and diverting Alternative Compliance Payments yet bills continue to skyrocket. If the Governor’s changes failed to noticeably affect household costs, how can we expect the same proposal from the House to do anything different?
What happened on Beacon Hill:
You can read our blog that we released when the House Ways and Means Committee favorably voted for the 100+ page bill. Overall, this was a big victory for grassroots activists who were able to fight to remove almost all the objectionable sections of the Energy Committee draft. The most important part of the bill is a $1 Billion cut to the state’s nation-leading energy efficiency program, Mass Save. This cut would be devastating to the program and to people in Massachusetts.
Throughout the week that the bill was released, with extremely short timeframes (the bill was released on a Tuesday, amendments were due on Wednesday, and the floor vote was on Thursday), we were able to file a number of amendments on issues like utility profits, restoring Mass Save funding, protecting consumers from data centers, stopping gas pipeline expansion, and sending more funding to environmental justice communities. Only the amendment on data centers survived.
There has been valid criticism of Mass Save programs over the years, with shared costs seeming to benefit a few customers. While the reality is that energy efficiency benefits us all by reducing harmful peaks in energy demand, especially for communities in range of expensive and polluting peaker plants, there have been targeted investments in outreach to working class, immigrant, and renter communities in Massachusetts in the 2025-2027 plan. Designated Equity Communities, 21 cities and towns that include Salem and Lynn, have benefited from focused high-intensity, local and multilingual outreach efforts. Just as we have begun to see progress towards our demands for equity, the program is being put at risk for savings that according to House Speaker Mariano “is not going to help much at all”.
We applaud lawmakers like Representative Manny Cruz who took the time to listen to his constituents, including our members and supporters. He stood up and joined just 16 other lawmakers to vote yes on Representative Uyterhoeven’s amendment to protect Mass Save funding. Protecting Mass Save funding not only improves efficiency at the building level, reduces reliance on polluting peaker plants across the Commonwealth, but provides career pathways to good-paying jobs in weatherization and energy efficiency, benefiting young and under-employed neighbors throughout the North Shore. We thank you, Representative Cruz.
While the amendment failed and the $1 Billion cuts to Mass Save remain in the House version of this bill, we are not done fighting. The Senate will be releasing their version sometime this Spring and we are ready to engage, to defend the many wins advocates have fought so tirelessly for and to protect the future of the Mass Save program. Are you ready?