Massachusetts is in the course of an vitality disaster. It’s not due to world markets or seasonal chilly snaps. It’s due to poor management and disastrous vitality coverage, with Governor Maura Healey main the cost. As vitality payments soar, voters in 2026 ought to take a more in-depth take a look at who’s accountable, and extra importantly, who gives a greater approach ahead.
Gov. Healey has proudly touted her function blocking pure fuel pipelines throughout the Commonwealth. “I used to be the Lawyer Normal who stopped the pipelines,” she boasted, as if reducing off entry to a essential vitality supply is one thing to rejoice. It’s one factor to placed on a efficiency to advance your ambitions for larger workplace. It’s one other while you obtain that larger workplace and have actual duties of defending the grid and stopping skyrocketing prices.
Sadly, as governor, Healey made the error of appointing Rebecca Tepper to be Secretary of Power and Environmental Affairs. With a far-left ally of inexperienced teams like Tepper main the cost, Gov. Healey signed an government order demanding a full transition away from pure fuel which is utilized by roughly half the state’s properties for heating.
The outcome? Massachusetts residents now pay 36% extra for electrical energy than the nationwide common. That’s not an accident. It’s the direct results of intentional political selections that prioritized ideology over affordability and reliability. As ISO New England President and CEO Gordon van Welie — who oversees the operation of New England’s electrical energy system and transmission strains — stated in his testimony to Congress, “The bodily constraints on the fuel pipeline infrastructure drive fuel costs larger” and due to this fact larger “electrical energy costs.”
When vitality turns into unreliable and unaffordable, working households, the poor, and minority communities are hardest hit. A latest report from the left-of-center assume tank the Progressive Coverage Institute examined the impression of anti-energy insurance policies from Healey and the inexperienced left on low-earning Black and Latino households. The research discovered that these weak communities bear the best prices for these insurance policies. To place it plainly: “Power poverty is actual, and regressive vitality coverage makes it worse.” Excessive utility payments are a tax on essentially the most weak.
In the meantime, Tepper has turn out to be a political albatross round Gov. Healey’s neck. In a latest listening to on skyrocketing vitality payments, Tepper refused to say the state ought to assist increasing pure fuel infrastructure to decrease costs. Even Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul — no average herself — has expressed willingness to work with the Trump administration to permit extra pure fuel pipelines. She has pivoted her messaging away from the vitality transition to specializing in reliability and affordability.
Just a few years in the past Charlie Baker was one of the vital standard governors within the nation, and was re-elected with bipartisan assist. Massachusetts voters have proven they’re prepared to vote Republican on the state degree if the candidate is pragmatic and targeted on getting issues accomplished.
And the political winds could also be shifting. A number of polls present Healey’s approval scores falling, with voters expressing rising frustration over excessive housing prices, controversial immigration insurance policies, and sure — skyrocketing vitality payments. A ballot by UMass Amherst revealed clear dissatisfaction together with her dealing with of key points. One other survey from the Fiscal Alliance Basis confirmed widespread opposition to her vitality insurance policies, tax hikes, and lack of fiscal accountability.
If the state continues down the present path — shutting off entry to home vitality, demonizing pure fuel, and embracing unrealistic mandates — it is going to solely deepen the disaster. When properties can’t be heated affordably, when companies pay sky-high utility payments, and when overseas international locations fill the hole left by blocked pipelines, it’s a coverage failure with actual human prices. Due to Tepper, this can be a report Gov. Healey must defend.
The nation ought to maintain its eye on the 2026 gubernatorial race. As a result of what occurs in Massachusetts is a preview of the nationwide debate: Are we going to place vitality coverage within the arms of ideologues like Tepper, or are we going to belief leaders who prioritize affordability, reliability, and American vitality?
Daniel Turner is the Govt Director of Energy the Future, a nationwide nonprofit that advocates for American vitality staff.
