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Efficient electric equipment, powered by clean sources, is the answer to the energy affordability crunch
Vick Mohanka, CommonWealth Beacon
December 6, 2025
IN THE WAKE of last month’s elections, one thing is clear: affordability is on the ballot. A poll released days later by the University of Massachusetts Amherst affirmed as much, with one in five respondents rating their own economic situation as “poor” and housing emerging as the most important issue facing Massachusetts.
Yet while Massachusetts families struggle to make ends meet, Eversource’s CEO is boasting record quarterly earnings, driven by revenue collected from recent rate hikes. As we head into winter and heating bills climb, our leaders on Beacon Hill should stop quibbling about distant 2030 climate goals and instead focus on the root causes of rising energy costs today: runaway utility infrastructure spending, corporate greed, and an over-reliance on methane gas.
Across the country, elected leaders are tackling affordability head-on.
In New York City, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani built his campaign around lowering the cost of living, from the lunch rush to the cost of rent. In New Jersey, where residents struggle with similar energy dilemmas as those facing Massachusetts, Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill won handily by pledging to declare a state of emergency and freeze utility bills. In Georgia, the data center capital of the country, fed-up voters elected two pro-renewables candidates to the statewide Public Service Commission.
Meanwhile, here in Massachusetts, Gov. Healey has put forward an energy affordability agenda, with her proposed legislation promising to result in $10 billion in savings. Legislators have similarly offered bills that will help bring energy costs down further by helping municipalities quickly deploy low-cost solar, ensuring new buildings use the latest energy efficiency standards, expanding the use of geothermal energy to heat our homes and buildings, and banning utilities from charging ratepayers for corporate travel, political activity, and advertising expenses.
These solutions point to the reality we’re facing today: Better equipment and cheaper energy sources are critical to achieving that affordable energy future. And in 2025, as the index for natural gas is rising at nearly four times the rate of inflation, highly efficient electric alternatives like heat pumps powered by clean energy are how we bring down energy bills across Massachusetts.
Knee-jerk reactions to double down on methane gas will set up Massachusetts families for more, not less, economic hardship. Not only has the price of methane gas risen to be the main source behind recent rate hike requests from Eversource and National Grid, but years of unchecked infrastructure spending has caused delivery charges to rise 20 percent each year since 2014.
This isn’t just happening in Massachusetts: in 2024, two-thirds of the average gas bill nationwide went to delivery charges, and accelerated gas pipeline replacement spending is the main culprit. According to the American Gas Association, gas pipeline spending hit $49.1 billion in 2023, up 50 percent from the year prior.
All this spending has sent utility corporate profits into the stratosphere, with Eversource’s electric side alone posting a $367 million profit for third quarter earnings. Eversource’s CEO, Joe Nolan, in 2023 took in almost $19 million from our bills and ranks among the highest paid utility executives in the country.
Massachusetts has the tools to turn this around. Just as the Fair Share Amendment created free lunch in public schools and closed the MBTA’s operating budget gap by putting a tax on millionaires, Massachusetts can tap into excess corporate profits to create long-term solutions to bring down the cost of energy for working families.
Our leaders should invest in solutions that ensure our low-income households don’t pay more than they deserve to get the latest, most efficient electric equipment, and landlords should be required to make their properties more affordable for renters by investing in energy efficiency and highly efficient heat pumps.
There are already bright spots. All-electric building codes are spurring an affordable housing boom in Lexington. Boston’s decades-old steam loop is transitioning to highly efficient heat pumps powered by thermal energy from the Charles River, allowing hundreds of buildings to access cheap, clean heat. Thanks to the Department of Public Utilities, heat pump owners can expect to see more than $500 in savings this winter, and solar, wind, and batteries are driving down energy prices. And late last month, the DPU pushed back on Eversource’s 17 percent rate hike request, resulting in $45 million in savings for 303,000 customers.
Our climate commitments are starting to crack down on utility overspending as well. This past spring, the DPU made an initial ruling to rein in gas utility pipeline spending, a move that is expected to cut the gas system enhancement plan, or GSEP, surcharge on utility bills by 17 percent. The department also proposed ending line extension allowances, an outdated practice that has allowed gas utilities to pass on the cost of adding new customers to its system to existing customers, a fee that costs ratepayers up to $160 million each year.
As we head into colder weather and people grapple with higher and higher energy bills, the biggest tool our elected officials can use to help build a more affordable Massachusetts is efficient electric equipment powered by clean energy. It’s time they use it.
Vick Mohanka is chapter director of the Sierra Club Massachusetts.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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