Last winter, dramatic increases in heating bills hammered many household budgets in Massachusetts. Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday she wants to prevent similar spikes this year.
With a chill hanging in the air from a weekend nor’easter, Healey called for the state’s utility regulators to analyze each line of consumers’ gas and electric bills to find charges that can be removed or reduced.
Healey told reporters that this would be the first time such a review has been conducted.
“Every dollar has to be justified,” she said. “If there isn’t a real customer benefit there, it should come off the bill.”
The governor requested the review in a Tuesday letter to the Department of Public Utilities. She also asked the agency’s three commissioners to be creative in helping customers manage their bills and to carefully scrutinize proposed hikes in utility rates.
Rebecca Tepper, the state’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, said infrastructure and supply costs drive the increases in gas and electricity prices. She said the review will also look “at the utilities and how they’re spending money on infrastructure.”
Members of the Healey administration plan to be in Fall River Tuesday evening to testify at a DPU hearing into gas rate increases proposed by Liberty Utilities.
Liberty has estimated that the new rates would raise average monthly bills for the typical home heating customer by $57, or 37% in their Fall River and North Attleboro service areas, and by $64, or 55%, in their Blackstone service area.
Healey’s call for a review of utility costs comes as energy affordability legislation she filed in May is still under review on Beacon Hill.
While awaiting action on that proposal, the governor told DPU commissioners that their department “must continue to act aggressively and use its existing authorities to help customers with their bills.”
Asked if a review of charges could be completed quickly enough to make a difference on bills this coming winter, Healey described the task as “something they’ve got to get after right away.”
“I mean, everybody knows what we’re dealing with,” she said. “This is not just a Massachusetts issue. It’s a problem throughout the Northeast, and we’ve just got to act with incredible urgency to do everything we can to lower costs.”
