The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has promised to renegotiate energy delivery rates with oil and gas companies after Mass. Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 and several state legislators penned letters decrying residents’ surging heating bills.
Eversource and National Grid — the state’s largest energy providers — announced major energy rate hikes last fall for the peak winter months of 23 percent and 30 percent, respectively. The increases affected residents during January, Massachusetts’ coldest month, even when usage rates remained constant, sparking outrage among residents.
Eighty state legislators signed a letter to DPU chair Jamie Van Nostrand Friday urging a price revision. DPU pledged to revisit the delivery rates Monday after Healey wrote an additional letter Sunday, echoing the legislators’ concerns.
“While the DPU cannot control all the drivers, you and the gas utilities have an obligation to do all you can to help consumers reduce bills and avoid future large, unanticipated price spikes like this,” Healey wrote.
The Sunday letter, written by 22 state senators, urged the DPU to “hold Eversource accountable” and limit what they called a “free rein to impose unpredictable and excessive financial burdens on ratepayers.”
DPU spokesperson Alanna Kelly wrote in a statement that the department “will respond soon” to the letters and will be “working directly with the gas companies over the coming days to pursue revisions to their delivery rates to provide relief as soon as possible for their customers.”
State Representative Mike L. Connolly said his constituents began to report the unusually high heating bills in the last few weeks, describing it as a “brewing crisis” in an interview with The Crimson.
“It has gained velocity, it seems, and has really reached a crisis point where everyone I know who has a gas bill is freaking out,” Connolly said.
Ilan Levy, a Cambridge resident, said the unexpected financial toll has been extreme.
“Most people can’t afford to go from a bill of $150 to a $300 bill for three months in a row. That’s a huge hit to the budget, right?” Levy said.
“It’s pretty crazy that the Department of Utility, which is supposed to manage those rates so that there is no substantial increase on a yearly basis, accepted such a substantial increase in September,” Levy added.
In a statement to The Crimson, Eversource spokesperson William Hinkle wrote that 60 percent of the delivery cost hike, announced in October, was due to an increase in contributions to the Mass Save sustainability program. A smaller fraction of the increase — 7 percent — was due to safety upgrades to the distribution infrastructure.
Mass Save is a state-mandated program, funded by energy efficiency charges added to gas and electric bills, to incentivize residents to switch to electric heating and cut back energy use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Healey’s administration approved a 25 percent budget increase for Mass Save in October, which she said “will take Mass Save to the next level.” But Eversource, one of six companies participating in the program, said the Mass Save expansion — combined with colder weather and greater heating demands — was to blame for the rate hikes.
“It’s important to note that even if customers do not raise their thermostats, more energy is used to maintain the same temperature setting in colder weather,” Hinkle said.
In their letters this week, state legislators defended the Mass Save program, and argued that gas utilities should focus more on getting customers into its preexisting programs that can help them reduce costs.
“By participating in Mass Save, customers can save thousands of dollars in energy costs by making their homes less drafty and more energy efficient,” Healey wrote in her letter.
Connolly also disagreed that higher contributions to the Mass Save program were at the root of the issue.
“It’s my opinion that this claim has been overblown by conservatives, you know, by folks who typically look to scapegoat sustainability programs,” he said. “I think Eversource and utilities themselves, they’ve been very quick to point the finger at Mass Save and at sustainability.”
“We as policymakers have to really examine more stringently whether or not Eversource is ripping us off,” Connolly said.
But the raise is sure to put pressure on the state’s green energy incentive structure.
“If higher sustainability means that we are going to be squeezed by money, and that we’re not going to be able to afford energy, how sustainable is that?” Levy said.
“They’re telling us that it’s to be sustainable,” he added. “In the end of the day, that’s a lot of BS.”
—Staff writer Stephanie Dragoi can be reached at stephanie.dragoi@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Thamini Vijeyasingam can be reached at thamini.vijeyasingam@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @vijeyasingam.