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Massachusetts residents pay 34 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, the second-highest rate in the country, compared with about 12 cents in much of the nation. Maura Healey’s long record of opposing affordable energy sources is a major reason families are paying so much each month.
In 2022, Healey said she had stopped two gas pipelines from entering the state. Those pipelines would have added supply to a region that now has some of the nation’s highest prices. Her campaign website that year called for electrifying everything, including gas furnaces, oil-fired boilers, water heaters, and gas stoves in homes and businesses, and said cities and towns should be able to ban gas in new construction. Healey has told families what she would take away without explaining how they are supposed to afford the replacements.
A 2025 MIT study found that stringent building energy codes in Massachusetts are contributing to higher home prices and a smaller housing supply. Homes built under the Stretch Energy Code sold at a 4 percent premium compared with conventional homes. Healey praised updates to that code in 2023 as a step toward the state’s clean energy transition. In a state that ranks last in building permits per capita, that choice made homes more expensive to build.
Healey has also supported expanding MassSave, which has driven up costs for ratepayers. Residents reported steep jumps in their energy bills in the winter of 2025, largely because of higher delivery charges attributed to the program. MassSave funds efficient electric appliances, weatherization upgrades, and other climate-related priorities through those charges. As of 2024, mandatory efficiency charges added roughly $200 a year to the average residential electric bill and about $150 a year to the average gas bill. Families had no vote on the charge and cannot opt out.
After 20 years and billions of tax dollars, renewables supply only about 6 percent of the state’s total energy. Vineyard Wind, a centerpiece of the state’s clean energy plan, is inefficient and harmful to the ocean environment. Healey is asking families to pay more for a strategy that has delivered far less than promised.
Mike Minogue’s plan for energy:
- Invest in safe, clean, and reliable energy that lowers monthly costs
- Build new natural gas pipelines to bring affordable energy into the state
- Expand nuclear power, including the Seabrook plant, which supplies about 20 percent of the region’s electricity, and evaluate new modular nuclear options
- Pursue access to electricity from Canada to add supply and bring prices down
From the press office of Mike Minogue.
