In March of 2025, Gov. Maura Healey unveiled her Energy Affordability Agenda that promised to lower energy bills for state residents by $220 million and save electric and gas customers $5.8 billion over the coming years. Electric customers were promised a $50 credit off their bills, and state regulators lowered gas bills by $95 million. The governor pledged to design a new moderate-income discount rate and expand discount rates for lower-income customers.
In October of 2025, before this winter’s deep-freeze, the governor declared: “Energy bills are already way too high for Massachusetts residents and businesses.” Healey directed the Department of Public Utilities to expedite new solar construction before the White House ends federal solar tax credits.
Eversource replied: “We are laser-focused on affordability for our customers.” Unfortunately, electric customers don’t have lasers to heat their homes. My January 2026 Eversource bill was $169 for 29.7 kilowatt hours per day. Three years earlier, my bill was $93.27, for 11kWh per day.
The situation with natural gas is just as bad. Berkshire Gas holds a monopoly, just like Eversource. BG in 2014 announced a self-imposed moratorium on new customers in Deerfield, Greenfield, Montague and Whately, as a political message to the state that BG was facing “severely constrained deliverability” because their Tennessee Gas/Kinder Morgan pipeline was rejected. The moratorium was expanded in 2015 to Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield and Sunderland.
In November of 2025, BG filed a petition to increase its gas distribution rates by $22.2 million. The company said customers on average would see a 21.6% rate hike. Gas customers won’t feel this rate increase until October of 2026, while the state reviews the company’s rate filing. The first of three public hearings on the BG rates was held on Jan. 29 in Greenfield.
In Massachusetts, according to the 2024 U.S. Census, natural gas is the number one fuel used by 1,472,791 households (52%), followed by electricity used by 578,927 households (20.5%), and third, fuel oil/kerosene used by 572,376 households (20.2%). Solar ranks the eighth most used fuel used by 9,004 households (.3%).
A solar roof for my home did not work for a variety of reasons. I bought a heat pump for my kitchen. I lowered my bill slightly by buying a small share of a solar project in Montague, changing my electric supplier from Eversource to First Point Power, and using Eversource’s new heat pump rate. But oil is my primary heat source.
Oil is not regulated by the state. Pre-buying oil in the summer is a gamble. I researched state and national oil databases. The Massachusetts state report admitted: “Because energy markets and weather can change quickly, the estimates in this report are best used as guidance and not as exact predictions.” Our winter freeze has forced households to use more fuel. Last summer, the National Weather Service expected winter to be about 1% warmer than 2025: “Most Massachusetts households will likely use the same or slightly less energy for heating compared to last winter.” The U.S. Energy Information Administration expected wholesale energy prices to be lower this winter than last year. America’s expeditions into Venezuelan, Ukrainian and Iranian oil politics hasn’t stabilized oil supplies.
I bought $3,000 worth of oil in early September, choosing a fixed price contract at $2.97 per gallon. But I waited too late to lock in, and the best I could get was a fluctuating price with 17 cents off contract price. My February delivery price spiked to $3.41 per gallon, 19% over my October rate. My pre-payment runs out this month. Massachusetts needs discounted oil rate regulations.
Greenfield is one of more than 300 “municipal aggregators” in the state. All these cities and towns should begin talking to state lawmakers and their electric company about developing a “virtual power plant” (VPP) off-the-grid, networking neighborhoods with rooftop solar and storage battery end users, aggregating local power for local people, while shaving demand off the peak power plants. I wrote about VPPs on May 1, 2024. Legislation filed by state Sen. Paul Mark (S2301) to expedite municipalities to pursue local grid projects, has been parked in a study package (S2774) in the Senate Rules committee. It needs to find a vehicle to move forward this spring.
We need a citizen’s “political laser” to cut the ice on Beacon Hill. Off-the-grid municipal aggregations should be allowed as an alternative to large solar and battery storage installations on unsuitable rural farmlands or forests. Let’s stop feeding Boston’s electric demand and corporate AI data centers. Local conservation is our greenest energy.
Al Norman lives in Greenfield.