BOSTON—With
home heating and electricity prices expected to skyrocket this winter,
the Senate passed a bill today that would cut utility bills for
customers throughout the state, by making common appliances more
energy-efficient. The Senate’s action marks a crucial step toward
passage of the bill into law. Environmental and consumer advocates
hailed the bill’s passage as a major step forward for Massachusetts.
“This
bill is good for consumers, good for business, and good for the
environment,” said Frank Gorke, Energy Advocate for the Massachusetts
Public Interest Research Group, or MASSPIRG. “All of the legislators
involved deserve thanks for their foresight and leadership in passing
this important energy- and money-saving measure, especially Senator
Robert O’Leary, Committee Chairman Michael Morrissey, Senate President
Robert Travaglini, Majority Leader Frederick Berry, and Majority Whip
Joan Menard.”
The
House passed the bill four weeks ago, and a final version of the bill
is expected to reach the Governor’s desk shortly. The bill will make
home furnaces and boilers, laptop power cords, and several other
products more energy efficient, cutting energy bills in the
commonwealth by about $1 billion between now and 2030. The bill would
also reduce the looming threat of brownouts and blackouts by lowering
demand on the electricity grid, and has support from two of the
region’s biggest utilities, Massachusetts Electric and KeySpan.
"We
have the technology to waste less energy, and it is time to put it into
place," said Senator O'Leary, the legislation's sponsor. "Some of the
common appliances in our homes and businesses waste up to 90 percent of
the energy they draw from power plants. That waste means we are paying
higher bills than we have to. This legislation offers enormous
environmental and economic benefits to the citizens of the Commonwealth
by taking the relatively painless step of promoting energy efficiency
standards."
Currently
there are federal efficiency standards for a number of products on the
market, like refrigerators and residential air conditioners. But the
federal standard-setting program at the U.S. Department of Energy has
fallen more than a decade behind key legal deadlines, so several states
are taking the lead and passing bills that would set state appliance
efficiency standards to guarantee residents will save money on their
electricity bills.
“Senator
O’Leary, Chairman Morrissey, and Senate President Tavaglini, along with
all the other supporters of the bill, deserve great thanks for this
important move to address the energy crisis,” added Gorke.
