By Savanna Elizabeth
What the proposed cut to Mass Save means for renters in Greater Boston, and why you have more say than you think.
If you rent your home in Greater Boston, here is something worth knowing:
For about fifteen years, a charge on your electric and gas bill has funded a statewide program called Mass Save. You have been paying into it but, like most renters, are still in the dark as to how this program directly benefits your household. Mass Save has reduced electricity demand by roughly 28% since 2016. This program has led to the improved infrastructure and energy efficiency of businesses and homes throughout Massachusetts. According to the Acadia Center, Mass Save has averaged a $3 return for every $1 invested.
So why is there discussion of a $1 billion cut to the program, given all the good it has done, and how does this impact you as a renter?
I’m here to inform you that steps are being taken to fix the problem; to give back to the people most taken from.
This program is finally starting to change and though we are far from satisfied, the current bill being presented on Beacon Hill could make or break our progress. According to the LISC, the proposed cut will jeopardize access for over 40,000 new and renovated affordable housing units and it will drive up electricity costs for residents undermining the progress made thus far to housing infrastructure, stability, and savings for renters like you.
Qualified renters who would be able to access moderate-income program offerings, which have historically been available only to homeowners, are being taken out of the conversation once again. The cut effectively eliminates this historic expansion before renters can benefit from it.
Why this cut lands hardest on renters.
Mass Save pays for the things that actually lower a home's energy bills: insulation, sealing up drafts, heat pumps and for years that money flowed mostly to homeowners because the bigger upgrades needed approval from your landlord.
If the $1 billion budget cut is approved, you, like many other renters, will continue to pay the charge without benefiting from the service.
The current 2025 to 2027 Mass Save plan was the first real attempt to fix that. It named 21 Designated Equity Communities (DEC), including Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Malden, Quincy and Revere, where any renter can get weatherization at no cost, regardless of income. It opened up offers that used to be for homeowners only, and added protections so a landlord cannot raise your rent because of the upgrades made on the property.
So here is the problem.
The bill known as H.5175 would cut $1 billion from that exact three-year budget. Because so much of the plan would already be spent by the time the cut takes effect, it would slice the program's remaining funding by close to half. The renter-focused pieces, the outreach and the equity communities, are the newest and the most exposed.
They are the first things a cut this deep would reach; the first to be removed from the roster; the first to be deprived of this service before it even comes to fruition.
This is not an abstract budget story - It is the difference between a program built with renters in mind and one that goes back to leaving you out, right after you spent fifteen years paying into it.
The honest other side.
You deserve the full picture and a part of what our mission here is at the Sierra Club is to inform you of what’s going on and empower you to make your own based decisions.
The H.5175 bill being presented on Beacon Hill aims to return money to ratepayers that energy suppliers have been sitting on, strengthens protections against third-party suppliers that have overcharged people for years, and pushes the state toward cleaner, cheaper power.
Much of this bill is genuinely aimed at giving something back to people it has long been taken from and that is what makes the $1 Billion Mass Save cut so frustrating!
It is one major step backward inside a bill that is otherwise moving forward. We are nowhere near secure on energy costs. At first glance, a lower monthly bill seems okay. On the surface, it would appear that the budget cut may do some real good.
That being said, Mass Save provides something the cut cannot. State analysts found that, if maintained, $1 billion in efficiency spending returns roughly $1.1 billion in benefits.
For a renter whose unit actually gets those upgrades, that is not a few dollars once. It is a steady path towards long term savings.
The cut trades a small, short refund for durable long term savings that are finally within reach. It's the difference between saving $12 a month (averaged from a $300 bill) for the period the bill is in place (currently estimated at around 1.5 to 2 more years), and a weatherized, protected home with efficient sources of energy and decreased bills and output of energy for many years to come.
What you can do.
None of this means you are powerless, in fact it means the opposite.
H.5175 has passed the House and now sits with the Senate, which has not finished its version. We are within the window where what renters like you and me say still shapes the outcome.
Two real things, today.
- Book your no-cost Mass Save Home Energy Assessment. You can do this as a renter without asking your landlord, and you walk away with free energy-saving items and a plan.
- Tell your state senator that you are a renter who has done your due diligence and does not want the Mass Save program to be cut.
You do not need to be an expert or an environmentalist. You just need to be someone who pays the bill, someone who has been paying the bill and who rightfully wants to benefit from it.
You have been paying into this program for years.
Do not let the power company decide what is meant for you.
We have a long way to go.
The renter protections in the current plan say a landlord cannot raise your rent because of the upgrades, but how long that protection lasts is not something a renter can easily find out.
On top of that, the Senate has not said when it will release its own version of this bill, which means the moment that decides Mass Save's future could arrive with little warning.
Maybe none of that is on purpose, but the effect is the same either way - when the timeline is unclear and the fine print is buried, renters are the ones left guessing, and people who are guessing tend to stay quiet until it is too late to matter.
That is exactly why we have to act now; waiting and trusting that things will swing in our favor is not a solution.
We need to be paying attention now, asking the questions out loud, and planning to speak the moment the Senate moves.
We have the power, not the other way around.
Stand with long term change and steps in the right direction.
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