Current:Home > ContactMass. Court Bans Electricity Rate Hikes to Fund Gas Pipeline Projects -Excel Wealth Summit
Mass. Court Bans Electricity Rate Hikes to Fund Gas Pipeline Projects
FinLogic FinLogic Quantitative Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-09 21:28:34
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down a controversial “pipeline tax” that would have allowed electric utilities in the state to raise rates to pay for natural gas pipeline projects.
The decision is a setback for pipeline company Spectra Energy and its proposed Access Northeast project, which would have significantly increased the flow of natural gas along an existing pipeline from New Jersey to eastern Massachusetts.
The ruling comes on the heels of several other favorable developments for renewable energy. In May, the same court upheld the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act, which mandates an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation on Aug. 8 that requires local utilities to get 1,600 megawatts of their combined electricity from offshore wind farms by 2027.
“I think it’s a potentially historic turning point,” David Ismay, an attorney with Conservation Law Foundation, a Massachusetts based environmental advocacy organization, said of the combined rulings and legislation. Ismay was the lead attorney for CLF, one of two parties that filed suit against the state’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU), which had initially allowed a rate increase to pay for the $3 billion project.
“I think it’s a shot across the bow of the fossil fuel industry,” Ismay said. “If they are smart, they are waking up and thinking how they can get into offshore wind.”
Spectra Energy said the decision will cost state taxpayers in the long run.
“While the Court’s decision is certainly a setback, we will reevaluate our path forward and remain committed to working with the New England states to provide the infrastructure so urgently needed for electric consumers,” Spectra spokesperson Creighton Welch said in a statement. “This decision leaves Massachusetts and New England in a precarious position without sufficient gas capacity for electric generation during cold winters. The lack of gas infrastructure cost electric consumers $2.5 billion dollars during the Polar Vortex winter of 2013 and 2014.”
Massachusetts’ attorney general Maura Healey concluded in a report published in November that the added capacity is not needed to meet electricity generation needs.
Healey argued in favor of Conservation Law Foundation in their suit against the DPU.
This week’s ruling by the court declared it unlawful for Massachusetts to require residential electricity customers to finance the construction of gas pipelines by private companies, which the DPU had previously allowed.
The decision only affects funding from electricity ratepayers in Massachusetts and not funding for the project from other states. But Massachusetts’ ratepayers were projected to provide about half the project’s revenue, according to DPU filings.
“I don’t see how this project goes forward,” Ismay said.
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Paige Bueckers vs. Hannah Hidalgo highlights women's basketball games to watch
- 'Actual human skull' found in Goodwill donation box believed to be 'historic,' not a crime
- Rihanna and A$AP Rocky's Newborn Baby's Name and Sex Revealed
- Officers shoot and kill ‘agitated’ man in coastal Oregon city, police say
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa
- EU rebukes its representative in Austria over ‘blood money’ comment on Russian gas imports
- DOJ slams New Jersey over COVID deaths at veterans homes, residents still at high risk
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Alabama deputy fatally shot dispatch supervisor before killing himself, sheriff says
Ranking
- 'We're reborn!' Gazans express joy at returning home to north
- How to Watch the 2023 MTV VMAs on TV and Online
- Protestors cause lengthy delay during Coco Gauff-Karolina Muchova US Open semifinal match
- South Korea’s Yoon meets Indonesian leader to deepen economic, defense ties
- House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
- When is Apple event 2023? How to watch livestream, date, start time, what to expect
- What to know about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial so far, and what’s ahead
- Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition defeats a no-confidence motion against the health minister
Recommendation
Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
Latest sighting of fugitive killer in Pennsylvania spurs closure of popular botanical garden
Wynn Resorts to settle sexual harassment inaction claim from 9 female salon workers
Why beautiful sadness — in music, in art — evokes a special pleasure
Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
Maren Morris Seemingly Shades Jason Aldean's Controversial Small Town Song in New Teaser
Former British police officers admit they sent racist messages about Duchess Meghan, others
Police search a huge London park for a terrorism suspect who escaped from prison