Healey orders regulators to scour gas, electric bills for ways to lower charges

With the winter heating season quickly approaching, Gov. Maura Healey ordered the state's utilities regulators Tuesday to start combing through gas and electric bill charges line by line to reduce or remove any that don't provide a benefit to ratepayers.

"We've just got to act with just incredible urgency to do everything we can to lower costs," she said. "Every dollar has to be justified. If there isn't a real customer benefit there, it should come off the bill."

The order to the Department of Public Utilities, delivered in a letter Tuesday, calls for the department to "review each and every charge that customers are currently paying to determine whether the charge can be eliminated, reduced or its impact mitigated." Healey also instructed the DPU to "rigorously review" the rate increases proposed by utilities "to avoid unnecessary spending and drive down costs."

Energy bills soared for many Bay Staters last winter, exacerbating chronic cost-of-living pressures for residents and businesses that already pay some of the highest energy prices in the country and calling attention to the state clean energy and climate mandates some say are driving elevated costs. Healey already shaved $50 off April electricity bills and in March announced a series of executive actions designed to spur savings of nearly $6 billion over the next five years.

Healey did not attach a timeline to her order and did not directly answer when asked if she expects that DPU would be able to take action in time to influence this winter's heating bills.

In her letter to the DPU, the governor also urged the department to hasten its proceedings that will make it easier and faster for solar projects to connect to the grid so that developers can take advantage of federal investment tax credits before they expire at the end of the year.

"Massachusetts ratepayers cannot afford to lose out on the cheapest and fastest energy that can get built," Healey said.