IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, Massachusetts has the chance to solve a longstanding energy justice problem. Legislation to end third-party electric supply for residential customers passed the Massachusetts Senate, but was not included in the climate bill passed by the House of Representatives. Now, it’s up to the conference committee to enact legislation that safeguards the health of all Massachusetts residents and protects environmental justice communities from exorbitant electric bills.
In 1997, the Massachusetts electric market was restructured to allow private companies – so-called “third-party electric suppliers” – to sell electricity directly to residential consumers. Thus began an era of cold calls, door knocks, and mailings promising “clean energy” that “saves money.”
Time after time, those claims have proven false.
Third-party electric suppliers substantially increase the cost of household electric bills over the long term, and households are far more likely to enter contracts with third party suppliers if they are low-income. Third-party supplier contracts provide no meaningful benefit to low-income families or to the environment. The industry’s model relies on low-quality renewable energy certificates that do not protect the climate. Their only impact has been to increase costs for families.
Third-party energy suppliers are not to be confused with municipal aggregation programs, which bring enormous benefit to the citizens of the Commonwealth. Municipal aggregation programs allow cities and towns to bargain on behalf of their residents to procure reliable, sustainable electricity at below market rates. They reduce electric costs for families, decrease carbon emissions, reduce air pollution, and save lives. About 150 municipal aggregation plans are now in operation from Cape Cod to the Berkshires. We strongly recommend them.
As physicians, we share responsibility for the health and welfare of our communities. That’s why we are advocating for legislative action to eliminate third-party energy supply for residential customers in Massachusetts. Ending residential third-party energy supply will protect low-income families from the financial harm and poor health outcomes that stem from exorbitant energy costs.
Energy affordability is fundamental to health. At Boston Medical Center (BMC), where one of us (Dr. Goldman) works as a primary care physician, all patients in the primary care clinics are screened for social factors that can impact health. In this screening, BMC asks patients if they have difficulty paying for utilities. Why? Because people can’t run medical devices such as nebulizers, CPAP, or home dialysis machines if they can’t pay their electric bills. Without affordable electricity, people can’t keep their homes cool in the summer or keep food in their refrigerators. It’s not possible for someone to stay healthy if they can’t keep the lights on.
BMC Health System recently launched Clean Power Prescription. In this new program, co-founded by one of us (Dr. Goldman), the Health System uses electric credits generated by a solar array on BMC’s campus to decrease the cost of the electric bills of patients who cannot afford utility payments. Some of these patients carry utility debts of thousands of dollars. Those with the largest debts commonly have contracts with third-party suppliers. Most of them didn’t even know that they were receiving energy from a third-party supplier until this was discovered in the BMC screening, and they seek our assistance in exiting the contracts.
The harms caused by the third-party electric supply industry go beyond unfair pricing. Because third-party energy suppliers have preyed on the low-income community under the guise of providing “clean energy,” families worry that any opportunity related to clean energy may be a scam. As a result, many are hesitant to participate in legitimate programs like municipal aggregation programs or Mass Save’s income-eligible program. This represents a major setback for our state climate goals.
The bottom line is that third-party energy suppliers overprice a basic necessity for the poorest and sickest in our state while sowing confusion and mistrust about our urgent need for a clean, decarbonized economy. Leadership in the House of Representatives contends that better regulation can address this problem. We respectfully disagree. We have reviewed the evidence and come to the conclusion that no amount of regulation will solve it. Our state agencies cannot feasibly enforce the complex regulations relating to this industry, and the industry’s track record shows that they have no respect for the law. The only way to protect our patients and all low-income residents from third-party suppliers is to ban them from the residential market.
The 1997 energy market restructuring was designed with good intentions, but the reality has been widespread financial harm to environmental justice communities. It is now up to the Legislature to protect citizens of the Commonwealth from predatory third-party suppliers, all of which are out-of-state companies. We also call on the environmental activism community in Massachusetts to prioritize this issue. Eliminating third-party electric supply for residential customers is a straightforward way to protect vulnerable individuals and families, improve their health, reduce air pollution, and take a step toward meeting our climate and environmental justice goals.
Dr. Anna Goldman is a primary care physician and medical director of climate and sustainability at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Philip Landrigan is the director of the program for global public health and the common ogod at Boston College. Dr. Jim Recht is a Lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Caren Solomon is associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
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