Hundreds Of MA Residents Demand Energy Efficiency Reforms
Sept. 22 saw a confluence of over 300 people from every corner of Massachusetts at Our Lady of Lourdes church hall in Jamaica Plain. After a summer filled with actions designed to highlight inequities in the state’s $1.4 billion home energy efficiency programs, the high-spirited crowd was in a mood for results.
Large banners around the hall showed the groups and areas represented. The largest (and rowdiest) delegations included Chelsea Collaborative from Chelsea, Alliance to Develop Power in Western Mass, Coalition Against Poverty/Coalition for Social Justice in the Southeast, and New England United for Justice, mainly representing the metro Boston area. But delegations arrived from areas as culturally and economically diverse as Salem, Milton, Brocton, Worcester, Lynn, Chicopee, and Boston’s Chinatown, as well as from trade unions, like the Carpenters, who are allied with the Green Justice Coalition.
The Green Communities Act of 2008 requires utility companies to collect energy efficiency fees from every ratepayer on every monthly bill. This money, which is projected to total well over $1 billion over the three years of the program, is meant to help pay for measures like efficient appliances and lighting in the homes of all ratepayers, as well as window sealing, insulation and other weatherization work.
However, from direct outreach all over the state through our member groups, GJC has identified several problems with this system. First, even though low-to-moderate income working-class folks are paying into the system, the vast majority we have spoken with did not even know about these programs, let alone have the funds to pay for the 25% share that comes out-of-pocket. They do not have equal access to the program, and are essentially subsidizing wealthier residents.
The GJC has asked for several reforms to this system, and they will be considered along with other proposals by the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) in October and November. This Council was set up by the Green Communities Act to run the efficiency programs, and its upcoming meetings will decide what changes are made, if any, to the system.
Among the GJC’s suggestions are a sliding scale for working-class residents, where the closer to the bottom of the scale they were, the larger the subsidy they would receive, while wealthier residents receive a slightly smaller subsidy. Another suggestion is to provide funding for groups like GJC members to conduct direct outreach about the programs, bridging language and trust barriers which the current methods of outreach cannot cross. A third suggestion is to collect basic data on which communities are having this work done in their homes, and where the jobs which are being created by all this weatherization work are going.
Several members of the EEAC and other utility company reps were present this evening, and the raucous crowd seemed to make a strong impression on them. At one point, event MC Mimi Ramos asked anyone whose utilities had been shut off, or who had lost a job, or lost a home to foreclosure or eviction in the past year to stand up, and well over half the room rose to their feet. This sobering reality is the kind of fact missed in obscure policy discussions, so it was especially impactful ahead of key decision-making about issues which will make a difference to people all across Massachusetts.
