Gov. Maura Healey deflects blame for soaring electric bills, as new report points to Massachusetts policies for high costs

Tim Dunn, Boston Herald on Nov 19, 2025

Published in News & Features

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BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is rejecting the argument that her opposition to two gas pipelines coming to Massachusetts is a contributing factor to soaring energy costs.

Following an event at the State House Wednesday, the Herald asked Healey about her placing the blame on President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products for increases in housing and energy costs.

The Herald also asked the governor if she thought her stoppage of two gas pipelines to the Bay State back when she was attorney general could be a contributing factor.

“Well, first of all, I didn’t do that,” Healey responded, before going on to criticize Trump’s tariffs. “His tariffs on aluminum and steel increase our energy costs because aluminum, steel, these are products that go into building an energy infrastructure to support the kind of work we need to do to lower energy costs here and across this country. So, President Trump needs to stop playing around with things because at the end of the day people are hurting.”

During Healey’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign, she bragged about blocking gas pipelines.

“Remember, I stopped two gas pipelines from coming into this state,” the then-attorney general said in 2022 on WBUR, before going on to say she opposes building new gas infrastructure in Massachusetts.

Healey’s words come as a new report, released by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation, found that state-mandated climate and energy programs are to blame for the sharp rise in electric bills in Massachusetts.

Fiscal Alliance Foundation Executive Director Paul Craney said Healey’s stoppage of natural gas pipelines as attorney general, combined with climate mandates supported by her as governor, are the driving forces behind soaring electric costs.

“She proudly boasted about that, about her shutting down of natural gas and shutting down any expansion of natural gas and shutting down the infrastructure of natural gas. So, it’s her own words,” Craney told the Herald. “As attorney general, she stopped the flow of reliable, inexpensive natural gas into the region that would have benefited us now. This shouldn’t come as any surprise. Its not like they’re unaware of it. This was part of their plan.”

The report — Massachusetts Electric Costs: The Real Source of the Problem, authored by energy policy analyst Lisa Linowes and released by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation — found that policy surcharges included in electric rates have quadrupled since 2014, bringing the average monthly household electric bill from $113 in 2014 to a whopping $204 in early 2025.

That’s nearly double the rate of inflation. In the same period, costs tied to renewable mandates, carbon programs, and energy-efficiency surcharges grew from $15 to $59 per month.

The report says these policy surcharges now account for nearly one-third of every dollar on residential electric bills.

“Ratepayers are now spending $4 billion in Massachusetts on those policies. So, not how much it costs to generate electricity, how much it costs to distribute it or deliver it to customers. We’re just talking about the policies that the State House has tacked into the bills of ratepayers,” said Craney.

The report says solar incentives, renewable mandates, and energy-efficiency surcharges account for the steepest cost increases.

Craney says programs like the Renewable Portfolio Standard, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and efficiency programs, like MassSave, cost Massachusetts ratepayers about $4.4 billion annually.

The report highlights a 13.1% increase in Massachusetts electric bills since 2014 that are directly attributed to state energy policies. The costs of producing the energy and delivering it went up by a mere 3.6% in that same period of time.

“So, when you ask ‘Why is my bill so high?’ A lot of people are asking this. And the politicians and the climate activists will blame profits and energy infrastructure. But, really it’s these policies that lawmakers, the governor and the climate activists are pushing,” Craney added.

The release of the Foundation’s report comes just weeks after Healey called on state regulators to “slash” unnecessary charges from utility bills and accelerate solar expansion across the Commonwealth, something Craney says will only keep electric rates on the rise.

The report also comes just days after the Massachusetts House decided not to pursue a bill (H. 4744), filed by state Rep. Mark Cusak, D-Braintree, that seeks to weaken the state’s 2030 climate mandate. Climate activists are against the bill, saying it would represent a “significant step backward for both affordability and climate progress.”

The Foundation’s report also calls on state leaders to publish annual cost-and-performance reports for every major energy program and to coordinate across New England to “ensure ratepayers see genuine value for the billions collected in the name of decarbonization.”

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