Proposed Mass Save Cuts Will Increase Customer Bills and Carbon Pollution

BOSTON – Massachusetts’ Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has announced a $500 million cut to the proposed budget for the Mass Save energy efficiency program—a program that is key to saving utility customers money. This is $500 million dollars that could have been used to reduce the amount of gas and electricity customers must buy from the utilities to heat their homes and keep the lights on. Make no mistake: it is a win for corporate utility profits and a loss for utility customers.  

At this moment, the gas utilities are asking the DPU to make customers pay hundreds of millions of dollars to replace pipes in the obsolete gas pipeline system which will be abandoned in just a few short decades. On the backs of ratepayers, this past year Eversource spent more than $1 billion on pipelines it will simply abandon in the dirt, helping profits in its gas business surge 29% percent.

“Energy efficiency programs like Mass Save are not responsible for the recent surge in energy rates,” said Vick Mohanka, Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter Director. “The rising and volatile price of gas is to blame. We urge the Governor, the DPU, and the legislature to stand firm in their resolve to protect customers' bills. Our leaders must protect the Mass Save program going forward, defend Massachusetts' customers from expensive utility profit margins, costly corporate expenses, and unnecessary mega-projects, and reject the gas utilities’ plans to bury our hard-earned money in the ground.”