Dear Friend,

Since October of last year, my staff and I have been talking to colleagues and a small army of stakeholders about the best ways to bring down monthly gas and electric bills here in Massachusetts.

I'm pleased that the State Senate is set to debate next week a comprehensive plan to do just that. This is a big bill. Some of the most promising ideas are outlined below.

If you have thoughts, please be in touch and let me know.

I also wanted to share some news coverage of the legislation -- see articles below from The Boston Globe, Commonwealth Beacon, and State House News Service.

Looking forward to next week's debate.

Sen. Mike Barrett

The Boston Globe: "A sweeping Senate energy bill pledges billions in savings, while protecting Mass Save"

It’s an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach, said Senator Michael Barrett, who authored the bill. “You don’t really know for certain which of these tools will be used by future governors to benefit people. . . . There’s a lot here that a governor and a legislature could do if they really intend to do it, and we hope to give them a very big toolbox.”

The Senate bill hinges on two key ideas, he said: while the state can’t control the price of energy, it can help consumers use less; and Massachusetts does need to build more energy infrastructure — but only what it needs, and not a pipeline or power line more.



The bill also hastens the end of a program that incentivizes utilities to replace leaky gas pipelines, requires electric utilities to consolidate legal proceedings, and adds new rate reforms.

Commonwealth Beacon: "Senate energy bill seeks to end contentious gas pipe replacement program"

One of the most explosive provisions of the bill is one that would end the Gas System Enhancement Program (GSEP) altogether by 2030 — a move likely to draw blowback from the state’s utilities and unions.

Regulators at the Department of Public Utilities have started to crack down on GSEP, too, limiting how much money the utilities are able to recover from ratepayers through the program. The DPU lowered the amount of money that the gas companies can collect from ratepayers through GSEP from a high of 3 percent down to 2 percent this year.

“What the Senate does, in effect, is pick up where the DPU leaves off and continues the same downward progression to zero by the end of 2030,” Sen. Michael Barrett, a Democrat who leads the chamber’s energy committee, said in an interview. “The companies have taken a sweetener and decided that they really, really like [it], and that they can liberally redefine even their routine replacements to be GSEP replacements and earn a little extra money at ratepayer expense.”

State House News: "Senator sees $14 billion in savings with latest energy policy overhaul"

Senate leaders framed their bill as a hunt for "pockets of overspending and overcharging that in some cases are legacies of past policies that have exhausted their usefulness" within the utilities in what they said is a sharper turn against the companies than the House took.

Sen. Michael Barrett, the primary architect of the bill but not a member of Ways and Means, told reporters the legislation tackles "a number of issues involving the gas and electric utilities" because "that is where the money is." He also made clear that he sees value in investing, particularly in energy efficiency programs.

"We represent constituents who want manageable bills and affordable bills today, but they also want manageable and affordable bills tomorrow. They're not dumb, they know that investing $1 today is worthwhile if it'll yield sufficient savings two weeks from now, two years from now, down the road. They're interested in saving money today, but saving money next year too," the Lexington Democrat said. "They're interested in their family's futures, and not just their family's present. So we don't assume for a moment that constituents are only interested in immediate relief. They're interested in total relief and in total savings."