Re “Healey aims to contain soaring utility costs” (A1, May 14):
I am grateful to Governor Maura Healey for her recent initiative to lower energy costs for Massachusetts residents while resisting pressure to build more gas pipelines — a false solution to our energy challenges.
It is Massachusetts’ overbuilt gas system that has created an affordability crisis. Each year, gas utilities spend $1.5 billion on capital projects in the Commonwealth. This spending, inflated by the Gas System Enhancement Program, has driven up delivery charges on customer gas bills 15 to 20 percent annually for the last 10 years.
Not surprisingly, gas companies that profit from capital spending do not want to change the status quo. Attorney General Andrea Campbell noted in a brief submitted to the Department of Public Utilities in March that companies have failed to adequately consider alternatives to gas.
Fortunately, a recent order by the Department of Public Utilities reins in gas companies’ spending by requiring them to look at non-pipeline alternatives and to prioritize the most cost-effective solution to address leak-prone pipes.
Gas companies have put three of the Commonwealth’s critical priorities on a collision course: energy affordability, climate mandates, and the mounting cost of the crumbling gas system. The Healey administration is wise to push back.
Lise Olney
Wellesley
Governor Healey’s energy bill takes steps in the right direction to address rising costs, but sidesteps one of the biggest cost drivers: gas pipeline spending. Massachusetts households are being crushed by rising energy bills, and utilities are still allowed to profit from outdated, unnecessary pipeline projects. A recent Department of Public Utilities order to limit pipeline cost recovery is a welcome start.
It’s a broken system that rewards utilities for spending more. And families are the ones footing the bill. We can’t solve the affordability crisis or meet our climate goals without cutting this wasteful pipeline spending.
Kelsey Kelter
Cambridge