Massachusetts is in the midst of an power disaster. It’s not due to world markets or seasonal chilly snaps. It’s due to poor management and disastrous power coverage, with Governor Maura Healey main the cost. As power payments soar, voters in 2026 ought to take a more in-depth take a look at who’s accountable, and extra importantly, who affords a greater means ahead.
Gov. Healey has proudly touted her function blocking pure gasoline pipelines throughout the Commonwealth. “I used to be the Legal professional Basic who stopped the pipelines,” she boasted, as if slicing off entry to a essential power supply is one thing to have a good time. It’s one factor to placed on a efficiency to advance your ambitions for increased workplace. It’s one other once you obtain that increased workplace and have actual obligations of defending the grid and stopping skyrocketing prices.
Sadly, as governor, Healey made the error of appointing Rebecca Tepper to be Secretary of Vitality 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 gasoline which is utilized by roughly half the state’s properties for heating.
The end result? 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 decisions 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 traces — mentioned in his testimony to Congress, “The bodily constraints on the gasoline pipeline infrastructure drive gasoline costs increased” and due to this fact increased “electrical energy costs.”
When power 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 affect of anti-energy insurance policies from Healey and the inexperienced left on low-earning Black and Latino households. The examine discovered that these weak communities bear the best prices for these insurance policies. To place it plainly: “Vitality poverty is actual, and regressive power coverage makes it worse.” Excessive utility payments are a tax on essentially the most weak.
In the meantime, Tepper has develop into a political albatross round Gov. Healey’s neck. In a latest listening to on skyrocketing power payments, Tepper refused to say the state ought to assist increasing pure gasoline infrastructure to decrease costs. Even Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul — no reasonable herself — has expressed willingness to work with the Trump administration to permit extra pure gasoline pipelines. She has pivoted her messaging away from the power transition to specializing in reliability and affordability.
Just a few years in the past Charlie Baker was probably the most common governors within the nation, and was re-elected with bipartisan assist. Massachusetts voters have proven they’re prepared to vote Republican on the state stage if the candidate is pragmatic and targeted on getting issues completed.
And the political winds could also be shifting. A number of polls present Healey’s approval rankings falling, with voters expressing rising frustration over excessive housing prices, controversial immigration insurance policies, and sure — skyrocketing power 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 power insurance policies, tax hikes, and lack of fiscal accountability.
If the state continues down the present path — shutting off entry to home power, demonizing pure gasoline, and embracing unrealistic mandates — it can solely deepen the disaster. When properties can’t be heated affordably, when companies pay sky-high utility payments, and when international nations fill the hole left by blocked pipelines, it’s a coverage failure with actual human prices. Because of Tepper, this can be a document Gov. Healey should 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 power coverage within the arms of ideologues like Tepper, or are we going to belief leaders who prioritize affordability, reliability, and American power?
Daniel Turner is the Government Director of Energy the Future, a nationwide nonprofit that advocates for American power staff.
