House climate bill is a huge step backward MUST READ!

 

        BELOW ARE 2 ARTICLES ADDRESSING THE PROPOSALS THAT WOULD 

        REDUCE/ELIMINATE CLEAN ENERGY LEGISLATION -- PLEASE READ TO 

        INFORM YOURSELVES & CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO OPPOSE 

        THESE CHANGES DICTATED BY THE INDUSTRY! 

      

        I call your attention to these excerpts: 

Our lawmakers must be clear on what’s really driving high energy costs: it’s not clean energy. It’s fossil fuels, gas infrastructure, and aging transmission systems.  

In 2023 alone, Massachusetts consumers spent $20 billion on energy in their homes and businesses. Programs like Mass Save delivered over $34 billion in savings between 2012 and 2023 and generated more than $3 for every $1 invested. The program is the only tool we have that actively reduces energy burden for all of us, including low- and moderate-income households that are hardest hit by rising energy costs. 

Mass Save has weatherized 350,000 homes (including 70,000 low-income homes), created nearly 76,000 jobs, and saved the equivalent output of five power plants. Even if you’ve never used it directly, you’ve benefited from lower wholesale energy prices because your neighbors did. These are real savings in people’s wallets.  

Only a year earlier, when the region’s peak electricity demand reached 18,300 megawatts on January 17, 2024, emissions averaged about 85 metric tons per minute most of the day. Why? Because natural gas was available. In a single year, a 10 percent increase in electricity usage drove up emissions by 60 percent.  

With ratepayer-funded rebates encouraging installation of up to 500,000 heat pumps—which cost between $20,000 to $30,000 apiece—adding stress to our already overburdened electricity grid, the problem will only get worse and more expensive.  

As bad as this all sounds—and it is bad—Gov. Healey is smart to leave all options on the table.   

COMMONWEALTH BEACON          

COMMONWEALTH BEACON

POSTED IN ITS ENTIRETY HERE: 

MIDDLEBORO REVIEW AND SO ON