Boston — A tariff on electric bills that would help underwrite natural gas pipeline construction across the state – and perhaps in neighboring states — is being fought by environmental groups, and by Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, which has said the state doesn’t even need the gas.
Still, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration is paving the way for Eversource and National Grid to pursue what may amount to $8 billion in total charges to ratepayers to fund Spectra’s Access Northeast (ANE) pipeline project.
While the issue has gone to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, activists across the state are trying to draw attention to what they say is an end run by a popular and business-friendly Republican governor, and a massive pipeline corporation out for a profit on the backs of the public and the environment.
Sheffield resident and filmmaker Ben Hillman, of Ben Hillman & Company, made the short video about the situation, called Down the Tubes, part of a digital campaign launched mid-month by 350Mass For A Better Future, with support from activists Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben and Lawrence Lessig. Down the Tubes was produced by Big Tentacle, Hillman’s political communications arm. Big Tentacle has for years “worked on causes ranging from shutting down the Shoreham nuclear power plant to defeating Scott Brown,” according to a 350Mass statement. Click on link below to view the video.
Fighting the tariff will take serious muscle and money, given that last October the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) issued an order allowing electric utilities to contract with a pipeline company for gas capacity and charge ratepayers, according to environmental lawyer and Edge correspondent Mary Douglas. Douglas said the DPU’s action was challenged by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), which filed an appeal in the Judicial Supreme Court.
Another potential issue, according to Douglas, is whether Massachusetts electric rate payers should be asked to underwrite a natural gas pipeline in other states, such as Connecticut and Rhode Island, which Spectra’s Access Northeast pipeline traverses. She found the tariff to be of “dubious” legality, both in its creation and in its execution.
Liquid natural gas company Engie is also appealing the order, Douglas told the Edge.
The court has not yet issued its ruling.
Attorney General spokesperson Chloe Gotsis told the Edge Healey’s office has been consistently opposed to electric customers footing the bill for pipelines.
The Baker administration, however, thinks the proposed contracts with electric companies will reduce costs to ratepayers.
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs spokesman Peter Lorenz told the Edge “The Baker-Polito Administration continues to focus on diversifying the Commonwealth’s energy portfolio and reducing costs for all ratepayers through a balanced approach of renewable energy investments that includes securing additional hydroelectric power, increasing energy efficiency and expanding natural gas capacity along existing routes through continued regional efforts.”
Activists are trying to draw attention to the tax, something that has received less attention than other pipeline construction issues.
In a press release from 350Mass spokesperson Katherine Anderson wrote: “Statewide climate coalition Mass Power Forward and other pipeline tax opponents lobbied the state legislature to pass a pipeline tax ban amendment on the major energy bill voted on this month. In the end the pipeline tax ban amendment was set aside, so the Baker administration is free to move forward.”
Anderson told the Edge 350Mass is escalating its campaign with a July 14 march along the length of Spectra’s projects, and through communities in the path of Spectra’s Access Northeast pipeline route. Anderson said communities on the path will be “directly harmed by environmental degradation, natural gas explosions, and installation of compressor stations.” She said the tax is also bad for the Massachusetts economy with money flowing to out of state companies, and at the same time “setting us up for export, which means less stable pricing.”
The 43-mile march will begin July 14 and end at the Statehouse on July 18, where the organization will ask Baker take a stand against the tax, and to meet with activists and constituents.
“Baker may think he can hide behind the administrators and agencies he appoints to do his dirty work, like the Department of Public Utilities and Energy Secretary Matthew Beaton,” said 350Mass’ Craig Altemose. “We want to give Baker fair warning that responsibility for his absurd, climate-disrupting pipeline surcharge rests squarely on his shoulders.”
Activists say Baker is trying, in the wake of targeted campaign contributions, to sneak the costs onto consumer’s bills. “Most people don’t yet know about Baker’s pipeline tax,” said Ivett Hernandez of the economic justice organization, Neighbor to Neighbor. “Given the pipeline tax’s costs to families, especially those already struggling to pay the bills, the governor has a lot to lose from a successful public awareness campaign,”
“Given the focus on the Legislature as state lawmakers debate the energy bill, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Baker’s utility regulators green-lighted the pipeline tax in the first place,” Altemose said. “Baker appoints and supervises them, so their actions are essentially his actions.”
“Baker’s pipeline tax doesn’t appear to help ratepayers or the climate, but it’s certainly a sweet deal for utilities and fossil fuel companies,” Altemose said.
The Baker administration has denied it “plays favorites.”
For more information about the pipeline tax: https://350mass.betterfutureproject.org/
https://www.consumersforsensibleenergy.org/
For interactive pipeline maps, go to: https://www.nofrackedgasinmass.org/
