Bill > H2748

This bill aims to provide immediate relief to electricity customers, referred to as ratepayers, by establishing new funding mechanisms for energy efficiency programs run by Municipal Lighting Plants (MLPs), which are publicly owned utilities that provide electricity to their communities. Specifically, it mandates that costs associated with these energy efficiency and demand side management programs will be funded, without needing further legislative approval, from money generated by cap and trade pollution control programs, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) allowance trading mechanism. RGGI is a cooperative effort among several states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The funds will be distributed to MLPs based on their share of statewide electricity sales, with at least 80% of the allocated amounts returned to the MLPs to implement these programs. MLPs can choose to administer these programs through specific entities like the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company or Energy New England LLC, and they must report on how these funds are spent. Importantly, MLPs have the option to opt out of participating in these additional funds and the associated program requirements. The bill also allows for RGGI funds to be used for certain greenhouse gas-reducing projects that may not currently be covered by existing energy efficiency programs, such as customer gas line upgrades and submetering. Finally, it caps the costs to ratepayers for compliance with specific sections of Chapter 25A, meaning customers will not be charged for these costs once they use 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in a month.