Utility savings bill generating energy on eve of House vote
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2026…..House Speaker Ron Mariano has not completely given up hope on the state’s 2030 emissions reduction goals, as his chamber prepares to take up a bill that is generating mixed public opinions and leaves those targets untouched.
Environmental and climate activists are expressing concern over the bill’s proposed bite out of Mass Save.
While “there’s a lot to like in this bill,” director of state program implementation at the Acadia Center, Kyle Murray, said, “The cuts to Mass Save are this big beacon that is really, really distressing to see.”
“$1 billion out of the budget — it says it’s focused on administration and marketing. There is not a billion dollars in those departments that’s going to be there in the last year of the program,” Murray said. The cut would “devastate” Mass Save and have “significant spillover” into other parts of the program outside of the aforementioned departments, he added.
“People have focused on the costs quite a bit, but not on the benefits. From 2016 to 2024, without Mass Save, on purely electric and gas supply and infrastructure costs, we would have had to pay $16 billion dollars, if Mass Save didn’t exist,” Murray continued. “We spent $8 billion on Mass Save during that period. That’s a benefit that’s on every ratepayer.”