The Globe’s explanation of high energy bills downplays the central cause: Massachusetts’ own policy mandates (“Add-ons fuel jolt to energy charges: Political goals, costly projects power high rates,” Page A1, Dec. 7). These state-imposed surcharges are now the largest and fastest-growing costs on the utility bill — far bigger than anything driven by utilities.

Take Mass Save. The Globe cites a $2.69 “benefit” to residents for every dollar spent, but those benefits fail to lower bills for customers who don’t take advantage of the program. What customers actually pay are Mass Save surcharges, which everyone funds whether they participate or not. If the program truly reduced system costs, rates would be falling in aggregate. They aren’t.

By our calculation, the cost of these state policies — including the Renewable Portfolio Standard, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, long-term renewable contracts, solar subsidies, and Mass Save — now exceeds $4 billion a year. None of this originates with utilities.

The article also frames rising transmission and distribution charges as possible “gold-plating,” or “adding bells and whistles” to otherwise necessary projects, even though the Globe quotes Eversource’s Doug Horton as saying these upgrades “enable everything the Commonwealth wants to do.” ISO-New England confirms that grid expansion is required to meet state electrification and clean-energy mandates.

Rates will not fall until Massachusetts stops layering new mandates onto utility bills and decides which policies should be funded elsewhere. Until then, bills will continue to rise — the structure guarantees it.

Laurie Belsito

Policy director

The Fiscal Alliance Foundation

Boston

Lisa Linowes

Independent energy policy analyst

Lyman, N.H.

Linowes is the author of “Massachusetts Electricity Costs: The Real Source of the Problem,” a Fiscal Alliance Foundation white paper. She also co-chairs the Wildlife, Energy and Community Coalition.