Massachusetts and Energy Affordability: Three Priorities for 2026
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The affordability crisis is more than a political talking point: for too many families across the United States, it is a lived experience that follows them each and every day. Working families are faced with impossible choices, trying to stretch their budget to cover the essentials, and too often, coming up short. The impacts can be perilous—like when households are forced to keep their homes at unsafe temperatures during heat waves or winter storms due to the high cost of energy.
Nationwide, average residential electricity prices increased 27% between 2019 and 2024, according to a recent study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
In Massachusetts, electricity prices have increased by 50 percent over the last decade. Many factors have driven the increases, including inflation, but an aging grid, coupled with the state’s over-reliance on methane gas to generate electricity, have played a key role in the high prices that residential users must pay. Utility driven transmission and distribution upgrades have contributed an increase of more than 50 percent in distribution charges and more than 70 percent in transmission charges from Eversource and National Grid over the last six years, according to analysis by the Boston Globe.
And, with more than 50 percent of Massachusetts’and the region’s) electricity coming from burning gas, the Commonwealth’s exposure to gas price volatility has been maximized.
To tackle this energy affordability crisis, state legislators are considering different mechanisms to drive down energy costs. Unfortunately, the latest bill from the House energy committee includes harmful provisions that would slow climate action and clean energy progress.
Extreme heat and winter spikes in electricity demand are clear reminders that climate action needs to be at the center of any discussion on changes to the state’s energy system, including around energy affordability. And clean energy like solar, wind, and energy efficiency is often the lowest-cost option. In addition, Massachusetts has an enormous solar and offshore wind potential to generate electricity without incurring in additional fuel costs. State policy must reflect that.
The bill is now going through review at the House Committee on Ways and Means. While there is a range of policies and programs that could help with driving energy costs down, here are three areas that the legislature must prioritize to effectively protect the pockets, health and wellbeing of their constituents, now and in years to come.
Distributed energy resources (DERs) like rooftop solar reduce energy bills by lowering “peak demand,” minimizing the need for expensive transmission and distribution investments, and reducing wholesale electricity prices. In fact, during a 100oF peak event in June 2025, a study from Acadia Center found, distributed solar systems located on the customer’s side of the utility meter saved consumers at least $8.2 million on one of the most expensive days of the year for the grid. DERs also make our power system more reliable and displace polluting fossil fuel generation.
Energy efficiency and electrification are also key for reducing costs for homes and businesses and reducing fossil fuel pollution. For example, the state energy efficiency program (Mass Save) has helped residents save more than $34 billion in energy bills between 2012 and 2023.
The energy affordability bill should strengthen state support for rooftop solar, energy storage, efficiency, and electrification, particularly in underserved communities where affordability and resilience can have the biggest impact.
Sustained, explicit, and enforceable actions to cut our dependence on fossil fuels have never been more important. Massachusetts has thoughtful science-driven climate goals in place, and should be a leader in meeting them, especially as the federal government abdicates their responsibilities. Any attempt to back-slide from those commitments would be a shameful step in the wrong direction.
We cannot afford false narratives that attempt to bury the scientific evidence of the impacts and economic costs of climate change and lock us into higher costs through continued fossil fuel dependence. The state is already over-reliant on methane gas, a fuel with high price volatility. Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity also exacerbates days of extreme heat which triggers more consumption resulting in more expensive electricity.
And the impact of this dependence goes beyond energy prices. Extreme weather disasters in Massachusetts aggravated by climate change have already cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Being bold about our climate trajectory is essential to advancing the state’s clean energy economy, improving public health, and protecting us from worsening climate impacts. Indeed, research conducted by Potential Energy Coalition among more than 15,000 Americans found people were decisively in favor of taking climate action (66 percent) and advancing the clean energy transition (71 percent).
Planned data centers could require new electric grid infrastructure and thousands of megawatts in additional power plant capacity in the state, an increase of almost 25 percent. Yet the state has no policies in place to protect Massachusetts ratepayers from the costs associated with such projects.
A recent study from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that utility ratepayers in seven states served by the regional transmission organization PJM were passed more than $4.3 billion for data center-related transmission projects, with billions more still to come.
Any energy affordability bill should require data centers to pay the costs of their electricity demands and protect communities from bearing the burden of hosting dirty gas and diesel plants that put their health at risk, including by requiring that generation for data centers be additional and carbon-free.
Dear legislators, please cut through the noise and reject false choices between affordability on the one hand and clean energy and climate action on the other. Decades of data prove they are inseparable: Mass Save’s efficiency programs, distributed solar deployment, and other renewable energy development aren’t obstacles to affordability; they’re the foundation of it.
Sustained and enforceable actions to advance the state’s decarbonization requirements protect us from expensive worsening climate impacts. And protections for consumers from data centers will ensure that ratepayers don’t pay higher energy costs to meet data centers demand, and that residents’ public health is prioritized by not allowing dirty fossil-fuel generation to power data centers.
I’m counting on you to ensure real affordability now, and in the years to come.
Your voice can make a difference.