Press Release: 6/30/2026
Beacon Hill’s Energy Shell Game is Getting Worse
The Massachusetts Senate is preparing to debate S. 3143, its latest energy bill, on Wednesday and the amendments filed so far show exactly why MassFiscal members need to stay engaged.
Beacon Hill claims this bill is about lowering costs.
But when you look closely, S. 3143 continues the same energy shell game that helped make Massachusetts so expensive in the first place: lawmakers impose mandates, utilities are forced to carry them out, and ratepayers end up paying for it through their monthly gas and electric bills.
That is not affordability.
It shifts costs off the state budget and in some cases developers, and onto your utility bill.
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Some of the amendments filed to S. 3143 would make this already flawed bill even worse.
Amendment 112, filed by Senator Dylan Fernandes, would move the proposed additional 10 gigawatt offshore wind procurement target up from 2040 to 2035. Amendment 167, also filed by Senator Fernandes, would create a new $10 million Offshore Wind Pre-Development and Project Acceleration Fund. Amendment 125, filed by Senator Julian Cyr, would expand state co-investment for offshore wind interconnection costs, including support for onshore real estate tied to those projects. These are costs and risks not currently paid for by taxpayers, but could be if this provision makes it through.
In plain English, Beacon Hill wants to keep giving offshore wind special treatment, even as these projects continue to require subsidies, new contract flexibility, new taxpayer funded support, and ratepayer backing.
At some point, policymakers need to ask the obvious question: if offshore wind only works with federal subsidies, state subsidies, contract renegotiations, permit extensions, and risk shifted onto taxpayers and ratepayers, do the economics really work at all?
This is exactly the wrong direction for Massachusetts.
Families and businesses are already paying some of the highest energy costs in the country. Instead of putting ratepayers first, too many on Beacon Hill are trying to keep their preferred energy projects alive no matter how expensive they become.
There are better amendments on the table.
Amendment 152, filed by Senator Kelly Dooner, would require the Department of Public Utilities and the Department of Energy Resources to identify natural gas supply and delivery constraints and develop recommendations to increase capacity. That is the kind of reliability and cost-effective discussion Massachusetts should be having.
Amendment 156, also filed by Senator Dooner, would protect consumer energy choice by barring government agencies, municipalities, and gas companies from forcing existing customers off natural gas service, denying gas service solely for emissions-reduction reasons, banning lawful gas appliances, or requiring electrification.
Amendment 119, filed by Senator Ryan Fattman, would convert Massachusetts’ statewide and sector-specific greenhouse gas emissions limits from binding legal requirements into nonbinding policy goals. Amendment 149, filed by Senator Dooner, moves in a similar direction by downgrading emissions limits to planning goals and restricting agencies and municipalities from imposing costs solely to meet those limits.
Those are the kinds of reforms Beacon Hill should be pursuing.
Any serious effort to reduce energy costs must address wasteful spending in the Mass Save program, begin unwinding burdensome Net Zero mandates that end up baked into your utility bills, and embrace affordable, reliable energy sources like natural gas and nuclear power.
Unfortunately, S. 3143 mostly continues the same failed approach: more mandates, more bureaucracy, more hidden costs, and more risk for ratepayers.
Massachusetts families and businesses cannot afford more of the same.
Please take a moment today to tell the Senate and Governor Healey to oppose S. 3143 and support an energy policy focused on affordability and reliability from common sense sources like natural gas and nuclear power.
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Thank you for standing with us.