Five New England governors will gather in Connecticut Thursday to discuss curbing energy prices by increasing natural gas capacity.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says he's willing to try almost anything to boost energy supply. That includes bringing in hydropower from Canada and investing in new natural gas pipelines. And Baker pointed out to Boston Herald Radio that past efforts to increase supply failed.
"What ended up happening was the New England region ended up purchasing oil and coal on the spot market, and paying a very high price for it to meet the regional demand," Baker said. "So not only were you paying a lot more for your energy than you should have been paying, you were paying for dirtier sources of energy than the traditional ones that we had been talking about, that we didn't do the work on."
Last year, then-Gov. Deval Patrick's administration put the brakes on a New England-wide plan to subsidize more natural gas pipeline capacity, saying more research was needed. Then, just before Baker took office, Patrick released a report confirming the need for more pipelines.
