Massachusetts Governor Healey Bragged ‘I Stopped Two Gas Pipelines’

Whatever your viewpoint on fossil fuels, solar farms and wind turbines, many Massachusetts residents are shivering through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in years, and some are having a tough time paying to heat their homes.

Adding to the misery are high inflation, rising food costs and increasing rents. It's no wonder folks are a bit cranky these days, and the people are demanding answers from the utility companies and their elected officials.

Roughly half of Massachusetts households (about 1.4 million) use natural gas for heating. Natural gas is the primary heating fuel in Massachusetts.

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In December 2023, the administration of Governor Maura Healey ordered a transition away from natural gas and set a goal of making Massachusetts carbon-neutral by 2050. This has come with a cost.

As a candidate for governor in October 2022, then-Attorney General Maura Healey bragged, "Remember, I stopped two gas pipelines from coming into this state."

As a result, enough natural gas is not piped into Massachusetts to meet the need forcing a reliance on expensive imported LNG.

The Northeast Gas Association says, "Short-term volatility reflecting delivery constraints during periods of high demand and cold weather do occur, especially in regional markets."

"The Northeast region, for instance, remains among the most price-sensitive markets in the country, reflecting its pipeline constraints," the Association says.

Massachusetts energy providers have been forced to help pay the cost of the Commonwealth's conversion to new energy sources, costs that have been passed on to consumers in the form of fees and surcharges.

The CommonWealth Beacon wrote in 2015, "A study commissioned by Attorney General Maura Healey indicates new natural gas pipelines are not needed because the region's power grid will face no 'reliability deficiency' through 2030."

Healey stated, "This study demonstrates that a much more cost-effective solution is to embrace energy efficiency and demand response programs that protect ratepayers and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Can we quote you on that, Governor?

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Gov. Healey sent over the following statement:

“As Attorney General, Governor Healey successfully argued that the people of Massachusetts should not be footing the bill for two new natural gas pipelines. Once the companies learned that they were going to have to pay for the pipelines without passing the costs onto consumers, they withdrew their proposal. Governor Healey has always stood up for the ratepayers of Massachusetts.”