Cutting clean energy won’t lower New England utility bills, advocates say

A growing chorus of New England state officials — and not just Republicans — is calling for cuts to clean energy programs in an attempt to rein in high electric bills.

These efforts are underway everywhere from Maine, where legislators are trying to repeal incentives for rooftop and community solar, to deep-blue Massachusetts, where regulators recently slashed $500 million from a proposed energy-efficiency plan.

The irony, clean energy advocates say, is that many of the investments under threat contribute relatively little to customers’ monthly bills and save everyone money in the long run.

“They see these programs as some sort of addition that’s being put on their bill that they don’t see the effects of,” said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation for climate nonprofit Acadia Center. ​“Cutting these programs will not really save us money, and it will actually end up costing us more money in the long term.”

To read the full article from Canary Media, click here.