Press Release: 7/21/2025

Governor Healey's Energy Bill: The good, the bad, and the missing

 



July 18, 2025



By Jess Nahigian



Massachusetts has a proud legacy of climate leadership, thanks to bold policies passed every single legislative session to drive forward our needed transition to clean energy. And last year, we did it again with a massive win: a landmark climate omnibus bill thanks to environmental advocates across the state.



Now, we’re at a crossroads.



The “Big Beautiful Bill” in DC has gutted the country’s most important climate legislation ever passed, the Inflation Reduction Act, cutting thousands of jobs across the country. Meanwhile, Mother Nature herself is attacking back, bombarding us with regular 90+ degree days, flooding, and extreme weather. As our wildlife and communities struggle to adapt, there has never been a clearer moment for Massachusetts leadership to claim its Revolutionary history by showing the country and the world what is possible.



Enter Governor Healey’s energy bill, which was written in response to an exceptionally cold winter that resulted in high energy bills. 



While the governor’s bill included some smart, quick fixes, it sidestepped the fundamental question driving our debate about energy affordability - who is this system designed to benefit? Industries or people?



On June 25th, advocates and industry professionals alike squashed into a jam-packed hearing room for five hours of testimony to debate that question. The small hearing room reflected the legislature’s underestimation of the public’s interest in this issue.



Now, the Massachusetts State House has a critical opportunity to put people before industry interests by amending the bill before the end of August.



Below is a quick tool to take action, additional resources, a link to Sierra Club’s submitted testimony, and our analysis of key bill sections.



How you can make an impact:



The Massachusetts State House has a critical opportunity to put people before industry interests by amending the governor’s energy bill before the end of August.

➡️ Please take a moment to show the urgency of clean energy and affordability by sending a letter to your legislator. 



 



Additional Resources:



📝 Sierra Club Massachusetts’ testimony on H.4144

✅ Mass Power Forward’s priorities at the June 25th hearing



 



Analysis of Key Bill Sections:



THE GOOD:




  • Removes unnecessary and sometimes polluting charges: eliminates the remaining state subsidies for woody biomass generation; removes the alternative portfolio standard (an incentive for non-renewable, non-fossil fuel energy); clarifies prohibitions on ratepayer funding towards lobbying and advertising with penalties if utilities don’t comply

     

  • Labor protections: Ensures geothermal is union-built; requires the gas utilities to develop just transition plans; requires peace agreements for public renewable/transmission projects and energy networks funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center

     

  • Health and safety protections: Prohibits shutoffs when the temperature is over 85 degrees for 3 consecutive days

    Rate reform: Tees up larger rate reform options, including a fixed charge and a review of the current rate structure; introduces new discount rates.

     

  • Bringing new renewables online: creates a new procurement program run by the state, including for 10GW of offshore wind by 2040; takes steps toward addressing challenges of interconnecting to the grid; encourages new geothermal by allowing gas utilities and third parties to own and operate geothermal and allowing utilities to propose new loops outside their existing territories

     

  • Cost controls for transmission and distribution projects: Adds oversight to transmission and electric distribution project costs

     

  • Innovative financing of building decarbonization: Creates a new program that will allow people to pay for home energy improvements through their utility bills



 



THE BAD:




  • Half measures on reining in residential competitive electric suppliers: The bill eliminates some harmful products, expands licensure requirements, increases consumer protections, and increases oversight, but stops short of altogether banning suppliers, who have proven to be immune to consumer safety regulations.

     

  • Allowing limited uses for “renewable” natural gas: Allows gas companies to deliver “renewable” natural gas from landfills and digesters to commercial and industrial customers as long as no costs are covered by ratepayers. It’s a nice idea, but “renewable” natural gas, another form of methane (that is not renewable) and an unproven technology, has been the for-profit utility corporation’s excuse to maintain pipelines as usual. As the bill is written, it’s hard to imagine an example where gases would travel from, say, a digester to a customer in pipelines that weren’t paid for by the public, so the intent is unclear.

     

  • Changes to net metering: While some changes make sense, such as making net metering a permanent program and lowering net metering for larger projects that don’t need it, this is in the “bad” category because it dramatically lowers the net metering rate for any new projects over 25kW, which could have a significant impact on new commercial solar projects.

     

  • Making it easier to build new nuclear: Removes a statutory prohibition on new nuclear. The state claims this will support “modern” nuclear technologies, such as Small Modular Reactors, even though they share many of the same issues as traditional reactors—including waste management, cost overruns, and project delays.

     



THE MIXED:




  • Securitization: Allows the utilities to issue bonds to fund the energy transition with minimal oversight. This will, theoretically, reduce bills and allow utilities to invest in projects with high up-front costs. It will also guarantee a return on all utility investments without a simultaneous profit reduction, bringing into question continuing high rates of return if they are no longer needed to attract investment.

     

  • Requiring utility audits every five years with recommendations: This language comes with no penalties or enforcement mechanism.

     

  • Adjustments to Mass Save: The bill will make adjustments to our state’s largest decarbonization and efficiency program, like removing the gas utilities as administrators and requiring a new database of rebates and incentives. But it does not go far enough. It fails to address serious equity disparities, and it does not remove the electric utilities as administrators. Mass Save must transform into a full one-stop shop that is independent of the utilities, which are at odds with technologies like solar that cut into their ability to build new infrastructure (and make money.)

     



THE MISSING:




  • Any cost reforms to prevent the overall expansion of our gas system, which, across all categories, cost ratepayers $1.5B in 2023.

     

  • Protection from the explosive growth of data centers for ratepayers, communities, and the environment.

     

  • Lowering high utility profits, which recent analyses have argued are far out of line with what is just and reasonable.