Ratepayer revolt: Has the affordability debate soured Mass. on climate commitments?

When House Democrats first floated a plan to take the teeth out of the state’s next big deadline for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, Gov. Maura Healey did not have much to say about it.

Instead, she wanted to talk about reducing household electricity and gas costs.

“The conversation has changed. A lot of people are less likely to bring up climate on their own,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts state director for the Acadia Center, a climate advocacy organization. “Affordability, as anyone who pays attention to this stuff can see, has become the name of the game.”

Murray, the Acadia Center leader, said energy affordability is an important topic that deserves legislative attention. But the problem, he thinks, comes when policymakers “assign blame” for high costs and in doing so target programs that are only one factor among many.

He argued the Mass Save cut pursued by the House would “utterly devastate and probably break the program.”

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