Democrats in Maine tend to follow Massachsetts Democrats. Stop the Surcharge on Electric bills to Fund Efficiency Maine Trust
Refund RGGI Money Back to Maine Ratepayers too
Massachusetts House passes landmark energy bill with deep cuts to Mass Save, sending it to Senate
Jordan Wolman, CommonWealth Beacon
February 26, 2026
HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE passed a major energy bill that aims to cut rising utility costs that have inflamed an affordability crisis in the state but would also pull back on the clean energy transition.
Lawmakers, who were plunged into months of debate that exposed divisions within the Democratic supermajority, ultimately advanced on Thursday a $1 billion cut to an energy efficiency program known as Mass Save, which is funded by ratepayers through a charge on utility bills. The measure cleared the House by a 128-27 vote in a marathon session that stretched past 10 p.m.
The cut to Mass Save is primarily aimed at its administrative, marketing, and advertising budget, and the bill orders an inspector general report on the program that would be due next year – provisions that generated the most contention among lawmakers on the House floor.
“We're also in a major affordability crisis right now, and this bill is targeting bringing money back to our constituents that are hurting right now,” House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz told reporters before the vote. “And we feel that this is an appropriate place to be putting a pause, maybe taking a little bit step back, and letting the program grow long term, while also allowing some money to go back directly into the pockets of our constituents.”
The legislation comes after Gov. Maura Healey, who has fashioned herself as an “all of the above” supporter on energy, filed her package last May in response to consumer outrage over high utility bills.
Ratepayers are all but guaranteed to see minimal relief this winter, since the House only just passed the measure, with the exception of a plan that Healey unveiled earlier this year to cover or defer some gas and electric costs in February and March. New England’s grid operator just this week reported that January wholesale electricity prices spiked to their highest levels in more than a decade, while natural gas prices increased 43 percent and carbon emissions jumped 24 percent from a year prior.
https://commonwealthbeacon.org/energy/house-passes-landmark-energy-...
Chris Lisinski contributed to this report.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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