March 11, 2025 • 39 mins
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced her plan for lowering energy bills for residents. Part of her plan includes a $50 credit residents will see on their April electric bills. Dan discussed the governor’s plan, and we heard about how you’re cutting back if at all. How are you tackling the cost of your energy bill?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's nice time with Dan Ray. I'm telling you easy
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, I thank my guess, David Irvin for his time
last hour. He's a good guest. I hope you enjoyed
the conversation as much as I did. And I thank
Dave from San Antonio calling in. David just a little
bit late and we had to get to the newscast.
So i'd like to talk about with your permission, I'd
like to talk about the efforts yesterday by Governor Healy.
(00:31):
She's outlined a plan to reduce energy bills here in Massachusetts.
I have some strong feelings on this. I suspect some
of you do as well. I like most of you
have watched energy bills go up, certainly, and I'm a
(00:52):
little perplexed by it, as I'm sure some of you
are as well. You know, you look at your energy
bill and in ever source customer, and I think they're
a legitimate organization. I don't think that they're stealing money
from me or anything, but I do think that when
you look at the bill and you look at all
of the various charges, some of which are well, I
(01:17):
don't know what they all mean to be really honest
with you. There's a distribution charge, there's a customer charge.
There's a transition charge. There's a transmission charge. There's a
net meter recovery search charge. There's a revenue decoupling charge.
There's a distributed solar charge. There's a renewable energy charge.
(01:39):
There's an energy efficiency charge. There's an electric vehicle program.
I don't have an electric vehicle. I don't know why
I should be paying for an electric vehicle. Now. Again,
there's a correlation in just picking electric bills on the
(02:00):
amount of electricity that you use in any given month
and the you know, obviously it's the same way with
gas bills. But the governor yesterday held a news conference
and she was talking about I guess a couple of
(02:22):
one time only fifty dollars charges. And I wasn't at
the press conference. I used to cover those sorts of events.
I don't anymore. But I heard the press conference and
I listened to what she had to say, and I
came away maybe a little more confused than I would
(02:44):
have expected to be. And I'd love to get your reaction.
It seems to me that this is an issue that
the Heally administration is behind in my opinion. Let me Rob,
if you can, I want you to queue up cut
number thirty six. Clearly the revolt that people felt in
(03:11):
the last couple of months. Now, look, we had a
colder than usual winter that means people were using more energy.
At the same time, the Department of Public Utilities, it's
a three member panel, voted in I guess it was
late October to give the energy providers an increase, and
(03:37):
now they didn't know what the weather was going to be.
But it was a healthy increase and it turns out
to be healthy bills for all of us. So this
was the governor yesterday trying to prove that she's relevant
in this and I think she's a little late to
the party. And let's hear what she had to say.
(03:59):
This is the governor yesterday cut number thirty six acknowledging
that this fifty dollars credit, which a lot of people
aren't going to really understand, is it much compared to
what people are paying Cut thirty.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Six, Rob, here's what I wanted to tell you. A
few weeks ago, I told the Department of Public Utilities
to act to lower costs. After we pushed on that,
we got a ten percent cut for gas bills in
March and in April. We are glad about that. Okay,
so people are going to see ten percent off starting
(04:36):
March and April, but we're not stopping there. I also
wanted to announce today, as part of our energy Affordability Agenda,
a few things.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
First, we want to put cash back in.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
People's pockets, some immediate relief. So on April, in your
electric bill, you will now be getting a credit back
of fifty dollars. I know that's not a ton of
money compared to what people have been paying, but it
is some. It is something, and every dollar counts.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Okay, now this is you heard what the governor said.
Let me just tell you what happened. What happened was
the governor wanted the Department of Public Utilities to act,
and what the governors who were appointed, and I believe
(05:25):
at this point she has appointed two of the members
of the Department of Public Utilities and her predecessor, Governor Baker,
had appointed one. They told the various energy companies to
reduce the bills by five percent. The governor asked the
(05:50):
DPU to act. Her DPU told the energy companies to
reduce the bills by five percent. The energy companies turned
around and said, wait a second, we won't reduce them
by five percent, We'll reduce them by ten percent. So
the energy companies were in effect tougher on themselves than
(06:14):
our Department of Public Utilities was on them. Think about it.
I mean, it's like if you went to your boss
and said, I want a two percent raise. Boss, I
haven't had a raise in a five years. I want
a two percent raise, and the boss said, you got it.
That makes you happy. I'm happy. The boss then said,
(06:35):
you know, I would have given you a ten percent raise,
where this was crazy. So the governor said, she you
characterized that pretty easily. She says, we got a ten
percent cut. Well, that ten percent cut was actually twice
what her own Department of Utilities was asking the energy
(06:56):
providers to do. Now, the bottom line is this is
something that the administration should have been in front of,
all the politicians should have been in front of. And
there are reasons for this. I mean, there's been a
lot of money. All this money that we're going to
(07:19):
get back. The fifty dollars for each customer, okay, each bill, uh,
these fifty dollars are supposed to offset surging energy costs.
Now the governed amidst fifty dollars isn't enough, Okay, where
does that money come from? According to Matt Stout and
The Boston Globe, state officials said that every electric residential
(07:40):
customer in Massachusetts served by either Eversource National Group or UNITIL.
That you were me okay, well, because this you know,
most five percent of the people get their electricity in
Massachusetts from Eversource National Grid or UNITIL. There are a
few communities that have their own election power sources. We'll
(08:03):
get the credit. This total is about one hundred and
twenty five million dollars, which the state would cover. So
the fifty dollars that you're going to get from ever
Source National Grid of UNITIL will be covered by the state,
according to The Boston Globe, using compliance payment funds from
(08:23):
utilities now. Healy framed the credit as one component of
a longer term and still forming planner administration pursuing to
peer back energy costs for residents. Well that plan should
have been in place last year. The cost of the
(08:45):
of the new discount would be shouldered by all customers
through rates that would need approval from the Department of
Public Utilities. That's kind of interesting, a little bit of
a spread the wealth there. According to a state senator,
this is not the governor. According to state senator, redistribution
(09:10):
distributing costs is fair and important in terms of providing
some people cost relief, but it's also important to figure
out how to take down the overall cost of decarbonizing.
This is what the problem is. The Massachusets Department of
Public Utilities approved increases of ten thirty percent last fall
in gas bills for the six month heating season, in
(09:33):
part because of rising costs associated with the state's mass
Save energy efficiency program and gas pipeline replacement projects. The
fact of the matter is that this state has fought
against gas pipeline more gas pipelines coming in here. A
lot of the you know, so called energy conservation organizations
(09:54):
have fought against that, and now this winter, you know,
the chickens kind of came home to roost. Fact of
the matter is, we need oil, we need gas, we
need natural gas, we need nuclear. Offshore wind is not
going to do it for us, despite what John Carrey says,
(10:15):
and solar is not going to do it for us
here in Massachusetts. Solim my help during a couple of
months during the year. So what I want to do
is open up the phone lines and find out from you.
Are you happy with the governor that at least she's
trying better late than never? Or do you feel she's
just kind of late to the party. And who do
(10:38):
you blame for this? Do you blame government? Do you
blame the politicians on Beacon Hill who seem to have
been asleep at the switch, the DPU Department of Public
Utilities who gave out these increases. They probably figure we're
going to have another mile winter. If I were Governor Healy,
I would ask for the resignation of all three members
(11:01):
of the Department of Public Utilities. I don't know if
she has an enter power to fire them, but I
would ask for their resignation, and I would find three
consumer advocates to replace them on the Department of Public Utilities.
Love to hear your ideas or your suggestions, because guess what,
we're just going to come back around about nine months
(11:21):
from now, believe it or not, nine months from now,
it'll be getting cold in Massachusetts again. Those hearings, those
DPU hearings last fall when the utility companies went in
looking for maybe necessary increases. Where was the coverage. There
wasn't any coverage at all. We cover fires, and I'm
(11:43):
not talking about necessarily just WBZ. I'm talking about the
television stations the newspapers. Newspapers probably do a better job
of it, but these are the decisions that actually impact you.
So the decisions were made in late mid to late
October at the Department of Public Utilities. They're the ones
who are responsible for what you're paying this January, February,
(12:05):
and March. And you probably watched a lot of newscasts
last fall, television newscasts where they showed you car accidents,
house fires, uh you know, ducks being rescued off of
ponds or whatever. But they didn't. I ideare anyone to
find me a television story on any of the major
(12:26):
local TV stations here that dealt with that. Those hearings,
the DPU hearings, they were important and they were missed.
So who do you blame? Six thirty six, one, seven, nine, three,
one ten thirty Love to hear what your bill is.
I'm not going to tell you what my bill is
because it's pretty depressing, but I'd love to hear what
yours is mine is much more than it was a
(12:47):
year ago. I live in the same house. I try
to control electricity. I certainly try to control I am
very budget conscious, and even as budget conscious as I am,
and as budget conscious as I was, it cost me
more money every month this winter, and the fifty dollars
(13:07):
that the Governor's gonna get us it's not going to
make me whole again. As I say, Governor, if you're listening,
ask for the resignations of those three DPU commissioners. They
missed it last October. They failed you, and more importantly, Governor,
they failed the residents of Massachusetts. Back on Nightside right
after this.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
All right, let's go to the phones and we can
share information and perspective. And I don't have all the
answers here, so I'm hoping that many of you have
perspectives that you can either agree, disagree, or add another
element to the conversation. Let's go first to Paul and Attleborough.
Paul first this hour a Nightside, go to head Paul.
How you doing, Hi, good sir, how you doing what's up?
(13:58):
All right?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
U uh, I agree with the on the government's out
of this at a step with what's going on in
the government and other commission that's there and uh it's
uh the uh you know, it started off with everybody
complained about the gas pills, but in general with the
(14:19):
way the green energy policy going on with everybody there
incentives that they're having is just with this heat pump
technology to departmentize this, and they're expensive. Electricity is money,
you know, not getting the oil filled up, but you
own the antility company owns your owns you, you know,
(14:41):
and they don't.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Tell you a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I get. I get every month this pitch from uh
some solar energy company. I get, you know, I'm on
some sort of a mailing list and I get, you know,
dear consumer, do you want safe, clean energy? And you
know you read all about it and it said sign
this back and you can become Well, I've looked at it.
(15:04):
It's much more expensive. It might be cleaner. I don't
know if it is, but I know it's much more
expensive and I'm not interested personally. It's spending you know,
thirty percent more for my energy bills so I can
walk around and virtue signal and say well I'm getting
my energy from solar and win, you know, and I
just know that stuff away.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah. Well, back in twenty twenty two they ordered National
Grid to give away solar projects. You guys, they never
spent enough money out of that and sent the money
you're talking about on the charges. Yes, they're supposed to
provide availability for people to get solar. I took antage
(15:48):
of that and I got solar on my house in
that prom and this peer obviously being cold, but usually
buying April for us to November. I don't have an
election paid in the paid during the winter, and it's
so so.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
The summer so so. Solar panels are good for you, right, Yeah,
what would have it cost? What would have it cost
you to have installed those solar panels on your arse?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I had done it myself. Your problem probably twenty eight
thousand dollars. I've seen subsistent. I'm actually a building inspector.
I'm seeing permits coming in in the forty eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Okay, what did you pay under the program that you
took advantage of it and there's nothing wrong?
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yeah, you made.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, which is which is great for you, And and look,
the program existed. But somehow that program got funded, and
I assume it got funded on the backs of all.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
The residents all those little charges said you see, yeah,
you know, and I just basically recuperated all the years
that I paid my electric goal and paid a pack.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, well, I'm happy for you, okay. And and and
for people who can afford twenty eight or thirty thousand
dollars for solar panels, how long did they You didn't
pay anything for the solar panels, so you started saving
money right away. But for somebody, let's say here in Massachusetts,
on a normal sized house, who spent thirty thousand dollars
(17:31):
on solar panels, how long would it take them to
recoup that that capitalize?
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Probably from the best information I received, probably at about
ten years. Ten years now I weren't the panels, So
about twenty to twenty five.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Years, okay, which is good, which is good.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But remember you're paying.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
You're paying in year one with money that is valued
in year one. The money if you had taken that money,
let's say that twenty eight thousand dollars and invested it
in a good, you know market fund, you know, some
some sort of fund that twenty eight thousand dollars probably
(18:17):
would grow to at least I'm guessing forty thousand dollars
over a ten year period. So when you calculate what
does it cost you to recover that money that you
that you would have laid out hypothetically in year one,
you got to think about not just recovery the twenty eight,
but you got to figure out what you're going to
to recover the forty realistically.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
If you get my job, Yeah, I knew you.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Know so well, I'm I'm happy for you, and I'm
happy that you took you know, I did one of
those energy surveys and I got a little bit of
insulation in my house if the program was there. Took
advantage of it. But it's it's a little unfair in
the sense that people like you and me, who were
(19:01):
smart enough and aware of what's going on, we take
advantage of it, and poor people who don't take advantage
of it, or people who don't own houses and are
renting they're paying energy, yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah, landlords who don't care about the tenants. All they
care about is they're right.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
You bet you a lot of them. You got it, Paul.
Thank you for calling in and thank you for explaining
to us how that worked. I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Oh, prom Dan, I was one of the guys that
got missed over there when the you had this they
ordered the last week.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, oh you got missed, you said.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Or yeah, I was online with when you had the
state order last week. So I decided to call you
earlier time to get on here.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Oh thank you. Yeah, well right, we ran out. We
ran out of time, Paul. It is always good to
call early. Great example, and they got you got six minutes,
and you provided valuable information to my audience, which is
what the best I can get out of any caller.
Thank you, Paul.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Continue to call you, agree, Dan, goodbye.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You Here comes the news at the bottom of the hour.
I have the only line that is open right now
is six months. I have two at six, one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty. If you call now, we'll get
you in, and we'll get you in before eleven o'clock,
I promise. Coming up next week. Got Sandy is in
West Roxbury. I got Chris and Canton and Jeane and Everett,
and I got room for you at six, one, seven, two, five, four,
(20:28):
ten thirty. Who do you blame for this depicle of
higher energy bills? I don't blame the companies, to be
really honest with you, I blame the DPU commissioners who
should be asked to resign by the governor. Agree or disagree.
Coming back on Nightside, It's Nightside with Dan Ray on
(20:49):
w Boston's news radio. Back to the phones we go.
Let me go to Sandy in West Roxbury. Sandy, you're
next on Nightside.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
Welcome, Thank you. I think we made a mistake. Now
I could be wrong. I've been wrong before.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Mistakes. Go ahead.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
We're not getting ten percent off. What they're doing is
down stilling. So they're taking some percent off now. Then
they're going to charge us the extra ten percent during
the summer months with interest. Yes, so I'm not getting
anything off. We're not geting anything back. We're going to
end up paying more because of the interest we.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Have to pay. Thank you for that clarification. And yeah,
uh that's Sandy. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
Anything I sent to today?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Did I see what I sent you?
Speaker 6 (21:46):
A list of the charges?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yes, I'm looking at charging them. Well, I'm looking at YouTube.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
Claim to get somebody to explain them, you know, because
I didn't. We're paying for all kinds of things, like you,
I'm paying for electric vehicles. I don't have one on paying.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Let me just let me just let me just read.
I read the list earlier. But for those who do
not know what we're talking about, we had you get
a charge your your generation service charge. That's the supplier charge, okay,
and that is the amount of money that you pay
for your uh, for your for your killer watts okay uh.
(22:28):
And then you you have a generation service charge based
upon the amount of killer watt hours that you use.
Then you have a distribution charge, you have a customer charge,
you have a transition charge, you have a transmission charge.
Speaker 7 (22:50):
Breathing charge.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Wasn't there a breathing charge in this?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I think so? Yeah. Right. Then there's a net meter
recovery search charge. There's a recovery a revenue decouple.
Speaker 8 (23:00):
In charge, and that's gage distributed solar charge. There's a
renewable energy charge energy efficiency charge. By the way, the
energy efficiency charge is thirty six dollars and eighty seven cents.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, ridiculous on my bill that that's a big number.
And nine Yeah, there's the then does the electrical vehicle program.
I don't know what all these.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Means garbage if they take money from us, and you know,
they don't advertise the problems at the rewards program like
that man was talking about. They don't advertise it well.
And it doesn't like I looked into that myself, and
I have too many trees, so I couldn't use it
anyway ever, And you know, it's just not fair that
(23:51):
they and as to who should go, they should all go.
They don't care about that's at all. I mean Mayo
Woo and her city council, so they are the first
thing they did with the both themselves an automatic ten
percent raise every year. And look at the policeman and
the firemen fighting and by people I shouldn't say fire man,
but you know, fighting for a two and three percent
raise every year. And if you have a fight you didn't,
(24:14):
I'm able and she'll come and put it out for you.
I mean, it's just they don't care about us.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
There's no question they don't care about us, and they
particularly don't care about the people like you and me
who were paying our taxes and have lived here for
a long time. They are much more concerned about you
know again the new folks who have arrived because they
look at them as potential new voters, were kind of
(24:42):
are onto their their activities. You know. Just ah, it's tough,
it's it's a tough world. We find ourselves in Sandy,
and we got to start voting some of these people out.
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 6 (24:56):
And West Rock Spury used to be the go to places.
What rocks to be back to, you would win. Now
nobody wants Struck to be vote because can you see
who publicans and they say why about other? So nobody
want vote.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
You see who West Roxby elects. I'm talking about that
they erect They elected Kendra Laura the crash crash Kendra. Uh.
That's unbelievable, unbelieved. But you know what, that's a story
for another night. People if they don't if they don't
participate in the political process, they only have themselves to blame. Sandy.
(25:36):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
I know. I wish see, I don't care how they vote.
Just get us up to a ninety voting right, that's
the most important thing, you know, so we feel like
we're effectual.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Nobody feels that now, pretty ineffectual at this point. Thanks Sandy.
Uh And by the way, your your email to me
is what prompted this hour of of programming tonight. So
I want you to know you helped me. Uh. I
decide that. I said, well, I got to do something
with they's news conference just because of your heab.
Speaker 6 (26:04):
I think you should give me something.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I'll give you. I'll give you fifty that the normal
production fee is, which, of course nothing. Thank you, Sandy,
talk to you soon.
Speaker 6 (26:15):
Thank you great.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Let me go to Chris in Canton. Chris, you're next
on night side. Who do you blame, if anyone, for
your for your your energy bills.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
Honestly, I have to blame the voters. I think, whether
we realize it or not, I think this is what
we're voting for. Sandy. Highlight of the deferral piece that
I wanted to kind of make a point of. But
are you familiar with Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan
for twenty fifty.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I'm probably not as familiar as I should be, So
what what?
Speaker 9 (26:52):
I'll be depressed after this, But let's hear it in
a nutshell, the state, in various agencies decided that by
the year twenty fifty we should have no more natural gas,
and so.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
There's a whole page on the state's website that talks
about it, and it links to a variety of bills
that have been passed and bills that are upcoming, and effectively,
all of these things are driving these massive increases in
utilities that we're seeing. And I think our elected officials
want this for whatever reason, and I think that they're
(27:29):
encouraging the DPU to push through these humongous increases so
that the utilities will go along with it and they
can still make whatever they want to make while they're
you know, shifting away from natural gas and towards or
electricity or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I think you're absolutely right, and I think that there
is a political agenda and people have made a decision
that we got to get rid of fossil fuels. It's
all dealing with, you know, climate change, and people are asleep.
It's like we're relying upon solar and wind. Look at
what happened with that. There's that wind well, there's that
(28:10):
wind farm off the coast, and there's there's been all
sorts of accidents out there. We have no idea what
that's doing to the fishing community. There's some real serious
issues with that solar. Relying on solar energy here in
New England in the winter time is a joke.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
Yeah, I can. I can confirm a lot of the
numbers that Paul had thrown out earlier. I paid for
my own solar, and when I paid for solar in
twenty nineteen, they were estimating my savings based on about
twenty one and a half cents to kill a water
hour out the door with all of the different things
(28:49):
added up, and it's it's about fifty percent higher than
that now, So okay, you know, it depends on a
lot of things. Obviously you can change your supplier and
this and that, but those delivery charges have been going
up like crazy, and well, they.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Want to take away they want to take away our
option on suppliers. Look, I try to look at that
mass website as much as I can and make sure
that I'm always, you know, paying as little as I
had as I possibly can. But they want to That
was was heralded when it came in as a wonderful innovation,
(29:31):
which it was, and now they want to get rid
of it.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
Well, and it almost doesn't matter. I mean, how does
your supply versus your delivery breakdown. You know, if you
look at the gas some of the bills are absurd.
I know that that's sort of a different subject from
the electricity, but you know, I think some of it
also goes back to something you talked about a couple
(29:55):
hours ago, where you said that JFK could never get
elected as a Democrat nowadays. Yeah, I have some elderly
family members who are convinced they're still Democrats, but everything
they complain about makes them sound like they're conservatives and
they're complaining about the people they vote for.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Well, I would also say this, find me any Democrat,
any Democrat in America today, meaning elected official, who will
mouth the words that President Kennedy spoke on January twentieth,
nineteen sixty one, ask not what your country can do
for you, but ask what you can do for your country.
Speaker 7 (30:34):
I'm all in favor of term limits, Dan, Well, Joe.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I mean, is do you think Bernie Sanders would would say,
ask not what your country country could do for you?
Of course not. There's none of them that would do
that anyway. I compe always Chris, one of my better callers.
Thank you so much for joining us appreciate it.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
All right, thank you for bringing up the subject. I
appreciate it. Having good night, right.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I think it's an important sub I think it's a
very important subject. I hope some of you think it's important.
I got some wide open lines six one seven, two,
five four ten thirty, six one seven nine three one
ten thirty. This is an issue that affixed each and
every one of us. If you're living out in the
woods without utility, and you're out there with a fire,
(31:19):
uh oh, a candlelight, this doesn't affect you. But if
you live in Massachusetts in a home that has any
form of energy, this fundamentally affects you. Uh. And the
discussion we're having tonight is important for you and for
everyone in this audience in Massachusetts, and for that matter,
in other states as well. So feel free to join
(31:42):
the call, join the conversation. Give us a call six
one seven, two five four to ten thirty or six
one seven nine three one ten thirty. My name is
Dan Ray. We're coming right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
night Sights to yours. I'm WBZ the News d.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
All right, we're going back to the phones. We're talking
about energy costs in Massachusetts and Gene joins US. Gene
you were next on Nightside.
Speaker 10 (32:09):
Welcome, Hi, jan Thank you very much for talking about this.
It's disgusting. It's disgusting. I am inundated with these bills, okay,
and it's coming out of my food budget. I'll tell
you the truth. I can't do it. I have I
have a five hundred and forty five dollars gas bill
(32:31):
right here from December to January. I have my next
bill January twenty first to February, which is is well,
that's my electric I'm sorry. This gas bill here was
the more recent one, and.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Me the numbers, Okay, they're expensive. That's all you need
to do.
Speaker 10 (32:57):
Tell me there oh yeah, no, yeah, no yeah, and
and and the you know, guess and electric. I mean,
they're they're inundating us. And you know, the governor should
have known this was happening, and she should have been
right on this. They're out of touch. A whole Massachusetts
government is state government is out of touch watching for us.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
No one, no one. Governor Healy appointed two of these
three DPU commissioners even after the crisis occurred. When the
governor said to the DPU commissioners, you got to work
a deal, uh and and get the get these numbers down.
They told the the gas and the and the electric companies,
(33:42):
drop your rates by five percent, and the company said,
we'll drop them by ten. She should, she should ask
for the resignation of those DPU commissioners immediately. I don't
know what those DPU commissioners make, but I'm sure they
make a lot of money and they probably are pretty influential.
Get them out of there. They they dropped the ball
(34:06):
last October in my opinion.
Speaker 10 (34:08):
And the other thing, I'm wondering if people have been
hearing about them wanting to change all the meters gas
and electric.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
They do that every three years.
Speaker 10 (34:20):
Let me, I've heard a bunch of people say that
they have contacted them and said they want to change
the means. I'm just curious that hasn't. Let me explain it.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
To you, change gene. If you would listen to me,
I would explain it to you. Okay, gas meters, by
law have to be changed every seven years. How do
I know that? Because I got a call from National
Grid about two months ago and set up an appointment
and my gas meter was changed about two weeks ago.
Speaker 10 (34:50):
That's the law, so home, I know that. I was
just curious.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So therefore, when seven years comes around and you and
I have to change I gas meter, that's not a
new law, you know. I mean, there's nothing new about that. Geane.
I thank you for your callers always. You soon have
a great night. Let me go to Steven in West Roxbury. Steven,
you're gonna wrap the hour for us, Go right ahead.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Well that sounds good, Dan, on my first time call
up my light my life. I'm a lifetime resident of
the City of Boston and I'm a forty year employee
of the Boston Police Debarmin, and I have to retire this.
I have to retire this year. And I've never called
before because I never got that angry. But when I
(35:34):
got my two fuel bills because I switched from oil
to natural gas a couple of years ago, and now
I get the gas bill and I don't know the
exact figure, but whatever the gas was two hundred, I
paid double on the delivery charge. I go, delivery charge.
I'm going, what is the delivery charge? It comes through
the same pipe. And then somebody told me, well, it's
(35:56):
the fund. The mass save program. And then today I'm
watching a gully hilly. Somebody asked her, Well, if we
don't find the math, say, she goes, well, your bills
will be fourteen percent higher. I'll take the fourteen percent
because my bills are one hundred percent higher.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Now, yeah, well, you know, in the same way I'm
looking Steven, I'm looking at my bill and the uh,
the the delivery charge is almost as high as the
actual gas charge. I said, it makes no sense to me.
It makes no sense, and I.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Make I think I make a decent wage. I'm not
complaining about that. But if I'm having a hard time
with it, what about the clerk at Roach Brothers or
something like that. I go, it's unbelievable, no question.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
I'm just looking at just for comparative purposes, just for
the fun of it. Here, I am used less electricity
this month than I did a year ago in February. Okay,
my bill having using using less electricity in terms of
you know, killowatt hours and all of that. My bill
(37:07):
for February is sixty percent higher this year when I
used less electricity. So where's the DPU, where's the governor?
Where are the politicians of Peacon Hill. They could care less.
They could care less. We've got to start voting some
of these people out of office and get some new
blood up there. It's a simple as that.
Speaker 5 (37:27):
That's that, that's our power right there.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Well, we take it to exercise it. Unfortunately, we need
to exercise it.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
I mean, I know, I agree. If you if you're not,
you're not voting your care complain. And I just can't believe.
Like that other person said in West Roxbury, you mentioned
that who we voted here for, and I was kind
of talking my neighbors. I go, it's going to be crazy.
I said, they're totally not helping us.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
You know, they're hurting you, They're hurting your community. You
look at the bike lanes on Center Street. Why do
you have bike lanes on Center Street? Elections have consequences.
You know probably better than anybody.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
I'm out there and they tell us every day that
check the bike lanes, make sure people aren't flocking them.
And I go, I don't see, don't worry about them
being blocked because I could count maybe one bike at Daddy.
And then when we went to these meetings, the mayor's
people and other city officials were saying, well, the bike
lanes will slow down traffic. I go. Isn't the bike
(38:25):
lane for bikeers? We can do other things to slow
down the traffic. And what they did now they changed
the lights to go to stop quicker. So now two
or three cas get through and you're sitting I know,
going going home from West Roxbury police stations down syn
the street. What used to take me ten minutes takes twenty.
(38:46):
And are they worried about the gas I'm burning and
the pollution I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
No, nope, no it doesn't fit into that specific narrative,
but it fits into a different narrative, Steve, Steve, thank
you very much for calling. First time calling, a great call,
lots passion.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
You're gonna start calling you.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
I want you to be a regular caller. And I
mean that seriously because your voice is important to me
and it should wake some people up, not only in
West Roxbury but right across the region. Thank you, my friend.
That was a great call.
Speaker 5 (39:13):
All right, Thanks here, and then I will call you.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Again and I'll see you someday and roach brothers and
come over and say hello.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
The last time I saw you, I just ran into
it and I recognize you you were getting gas at
that gas ye speedway. Yeah right, saw you there. I'm
gonna come over and say hi, but I said, you
gotta you're getting gas, you want to get home.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I'm a friendly guy. Always come over and say hi.
Trust me. Okay, thanks, you got to you soon. Have
a great night. We'll take a quick break here on nights.
I back right after the eleven. Let's stick with this topic.
Fill the phone lines up back after this
It's nice time with Dan Ray. I'm telling you easy
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, I thank my guess, David Irvin for his time
last hour. He's a good guest. I hope you enjoyed
the conversation as much as I did. And I thank
Dave from San Antonio calling in. David just a little
bit late and we had to get to the newscast.
So i'd like to talk about with your permission, I'd
like to talk about the efforts yesterday by Governor Healy.
(00:31):
She's outlined a plan to reduce energy bills here in Massachusetts.
I have some strong feelings on this. I suspect some
of you do as well. I like most of you
have watched energy bills go up, certainly, and I'm a
(00:52):
little perplexed by it, as I'm sure some of you
are as well. You know, you look at your energy
bill and in ever source customer, and I think they're
a legitimate organization. I don't think that they're stealing money
from me or anything, but I do think that when
you look at the bill and you look at all
of the various charges, some of which are well, I
(01:17):
don't know what they all mean to be really honest
with you. There's a distribution charge, there's a customer charge.
There's a transition charge. There's a transmission charge. There's a
net meter recovery search charge. There's a revenue decoupling charge.
There's a distributed solar charge. There's a renewable energy charge.
(01:39):
There's an energy efficiency charge. There's an electric vehicle program.
I don't have an electric vehicle. I don't know why
I should be paying for an electric vehicle. Now. Again,
there's a correlation in just picking electric bills on the
(02:00):
amount of electricity that you use in any given month
and the you know, obviously it's the same way with
gas bills. But the governor yesterday held a news conference
and she was talking about I guess a couple of
(02:22):
one time only fifty dollars charges. And I wasn't at
the press conference. I used to cover those sorts of events.
I don't anymore. But I heard the press conference and
I listened to what she had to say, and I
came away maybe a little more confused than I would
(02:44):
have expected to be. And I'd love to get your reaction.
It seems to me that this is an issue that
the Heally administration is behind in my opinion. Let me Rob,
if you can, I want you to queue up cut
number thirty six. Clearly the revolt that people felt in
(03:11):
the last couple of months. Now, look, we had a
colder than usual winter that means people were using more energy.
At the same time, the Department of Public Utilities, it's
a three member panel, voted in I guess it was
late October to give the energy providers an increase, and
(03:37):
now they didn't know what the weather was going to be.
But it was a healthy increase and it turns out
to be healthy bills for all of us. So this
was the governor yesterday trying to prove that she's relevant
in this and I think she's a little late to
the party. And let's hear what she had to say.
(03:59):
This is the governor yesterday cut number thirty six acknowledging
that this fifty dollars credit, which a lot of people
aren't going to really understand, is it much compared to
what people are paying Cut thirty.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Six, Rob, here's what I wanted to tell you. A
few weeks ago, I told the Department of Public Utilities
to act to lower costs. After we pushed on that,
we got a ten percent cut for gas bills in
March and in April. We are glad about that. Okay,
so people are going to see ten percent off starting
(04:36):
March and April, but we're not stopping there. I also
wanted to announce today, as part of our energy Affordability Agenda,
a few things.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
First, we want to put cash back in.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
People's pockets, some immediate relief. So on April, in your
electric bill, you will now be getting a credit back
of fifty dollars. I know that's not a ton of
money compared to what people have been paying, but it
is some. It is something, and every dollar counts.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Okay, now this is you heard what the governor said.
Let me just tell you what happened. What happened was
the governor wanted the Department of Public Utilities to act,
and what the governors who were appointed, and I believe
(05:25):
at this point she has appointed two of the members
of the Department of Public Utilities and her predecessor, Governor Baker,
had appointed one. They told the various energy companies to
reduce the bills by five percent. The governor asked the
(05:50):
DPU to act. Her DPU told the energy companies to
reduce the bills by five percent. The energy companies turned
around and said, wait a second, we won't reduce them
by five percent, We'll reduce them by ten percent. So
the energy companies were in effect tougher on themselves than
(06:14):
our Department of Public Utilities was on them. Think about it.
I mean, it's like if you went to your boss
and said, I want a two percent raise. Boss, I
haven't had a raise in a five years. I want
a two percent raise, and the boss said, you got it.
That makes you happy. I'm happy. The boss then said,
(06:35):
you know, I would have given you a ten percent raise,
where this was crazy. So the governor said, she you
characterized that pretty easily. She says, we got a ten
percent cut. Well, that ten percent cut was actually twice
what her own Department of Utilities was asking the energy
(06:56):
providers to do. Now, the bottom line is this is
something that the administration should have been in front of,
all the politicians should have been in front of. And
there are reasons for this. I mean, there's been a
lot of money. All this money that we're going to
(07:19):
get back. The fifty dollars for each customer, okay, each bill, uh,
these fifty dollars are supposed to offset surging energy costs.
Now the governed amidst fifty dollars isn't enough, Okay, where
does that money come from? According to Matt Stout and
The Boston Globe, state officials said that every electric residential
(07:40):
customer in Massachusetts served by either Eversource National Group or UNITIL.
That you were me okay, well, because this you know,
most five percent of the people get their electricity in
Massachusetts from Eversource National Grid or UNITIL. There are a
few communities that have their own election power sources. We'll
(08:03):
get the credit. This total is about one hundred and
twenty five million dollars, which the state would cover. So
the fifty dollars that you're going to get from ever
Source National Grid of UNITIL will be covered by the state,
according to The Boston Globe, using compliance payment funds from
(08:23):
utilities now. Healy framed the credit as one component of
a longer term and still forming planner administration pursuing to
peer back energy costs for residents. Well that plan should
have been in place last year. The cost of the
(08:45):
of the new discount would be shouldered by all customers
through rates that would need approval from the Department of
Public Utilities. That's kind of interesting, a little bit of
a spread the wealth there. According to a state senator,
this is not the governor. According to state senator, redistribution
(09:10):
distributing costs is fair and important in terms of providing
some people cost relief, but it's also important to figure
out how to take down the overall cost of decarbonizing.
This is what the problem is. The Massachusets Department of
Public Utilities approved increases of ten thirty percent last fall
in gas bills for the six month heating season, in
(09:33):
part because of rising costs associated with the state's mass
Save energy efficiency program and gas pipeline replacement projects. The
fact of the matter is that this state has fought
against gas pipeline more gas pipelines coming in here. A
lot of the you know, so called energy conservation organizations
(09:54):
have fought against that, and now this winter, you know,
the chickens kind of came home to roost. Fact of
the matter is, we need oil, we need gas, we
need natural gas, we need nuclear. Offshore wind is not
going to do it for us, despite what John Carrey says,
(10:15):
and solar is not going to do it for us
here in Massachusetts. Solim my help during a couple of
months during the year. So what I want to do
is open up the phone lines and find out from you.
Are you happy with the governor that at least she's
trying better late than never? Or do you feel she's
just kind of late to the party. And who do
(10:38):
you blame for this? Do you blame government? Do you
blame the politicians on Beacon Hill who seem to have
been asleep at the switch, the DPU Department of Public
Utilities who gave out these increases. They probably figure we're
going to have another mile winter. If I were Governor Healy,
I would ask for the resignation of all three members
(11:01):
of the Department of Public Utilities. I don't know if
she has an enter power to fire them, but I
would ask for their resignation, and I would find three
consumer advocates to replace them on the Department of Public Utilities.
Love to hear your ideas or your suggestions, because guess what,
we're just going to come back around about nine months
(11:21):
from now, believe it or not, nine months from now,
it'll be getting cold in Massachusetts again. Those hearings, those
DPU hearings last fall when the utility companies went in
looking for maybe necessary increases. Where was the coverage. There
wasn't any coverage at all. We cover fires, and I'm
(11:43):
not talking about necessarily just WBZ. I'm talking about the
television stations the newspapers. Newspapers probably do a better job
of it, but these are the decisions that actually impact you.
So the decisions were made in late mid to late
October at the Department of Public Utilities. They're the ones
who are responsible for what you're paying this January, February,
(12:05):
and March. And you probably watched a lot of newscasts
last fall, television newscasts where they showed you car accidents,
house fires, uh you know, ducks being rescued off of
ponds or whatever. But they didn't. I ideare anyone to
find me a television story on any of the major
(12:26):
local TV stations here that dealt with that. Those hearings,
the DPU hearings, they were important and they were missed.
So who do you blame? Six thirty six, one, seven, nine, three,
one ten thirty Love to hear what your bill is.
I'm not going to tell you what my bill is
because it's pretty depressing, but I'd love to hear what
yours is mine is much more than it was a
(12:47):
year ago. I live in the same house. I try
to control electricity. I certainly try to control I am
very budget conscious, and even as budget conscious as I am,
and as budget conscious as I was, it cost me
more money every month this winter, and the fifty dollars
(13:07):
that the Governor's gonna get us it's not going to
make me whole again. As I say, Governor, if you're listening,
ask for the resignations of those three DPU commissioners. They
missed it last October. They failed you, and more importantly, Governor,
they failed the residents of Massachusetts. Back on Nightside right
after this.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
All right, let's go to the phones and we can
share information and perspective. And I don't have all the
answers here, so I'm hoping that many of you have
perspectives that you can either agree, disagree, or add another
element to the conversation. Let's go first to Paul and Attleborough.
Paul first this hour a Nightside, go to head Paul.
How you doing, Hi, good sir, how you doing what's up?
(13:58):
All right?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
U uh, I agree with the on the government's out
of this at a step with what's going on in
the government and other commission that's there and uh it's
uh the uh you know, it started off with everybody
complained about the gas pills, but in general with the
(14:19):
way the green energy policy going on with everybody there
incentives that they're having is just with this heat pump
technology to departmentize this, and they're expensive. Electricity is money,
you know, not getting the oil filled up, but you
own the antility company owns your owns you, you know,
(14:41):
and they don't.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Tell you a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I get. I get every month this pitch from uh
some solar energy company. I get, you know, I'm on
some sort of a mailing list and I get, you know,
dear consumer, do you want safe, clean energy? And you
know you read all about it and it said sign
this back and you can become Well, I've looked at it.
(15:04):
It's much more expensive. It might be cleaner. I don't
know if it is, but I know it's much more
expensive and I'm not interested personally. It's spending you know,
thirty percent more for my energy bills so I can
walk around and virtue signal and say well I'm getting
my energy from solar and win, you know, and I
just know that stuff away.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah. Well, back in twenty twenty two they ordered National
Grid to give away solar projects. You guys, they never
spent enough money out of that and sent the money
you're talking about on the charges. Yes, they're supposed to
provide availability for people to get solar. I took antage
(15:48):
of that and I got solar on my house in
that prom and this peer obviously being cold, but usually
buying April for us to November. I don't have an
election paid in the paid during the winter, and it's
so so.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
The summer so so. Solar panels are good for you, right, Yeah,
what would have it cost? What would have it cost
you to have installed those solar panels on your arse?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I had done it myself. Your problem probably twenty eight
thousand dollars. I've seen subsistent. I'm actually a building inspector.
I'm seeing permits coming in in the forty eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Okay, what did you pay under the program that you
took advantage of it and there's nothing wrong?
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yeah, you made.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, which is which is great for you, And and look,
the program existed. But somehow that program got funded, and
I assume it got funded on the backs of all.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
The residents all those little charges said you see, yeah,
you know, and I just basically recuperated all the years
that I paid my electric goal and paid a pack.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, well, I'm happy for you, okay. And and and
for people who can afford twenty eight or thirty thousand
dollars for solar panels, how long did they You didn't
pay anything for the solar panels, so you started saving
money right away. But for somebody, let's say here in Massachusetts,
on a normal sized house, who spent thirty thousand dollars
(17:31):
on solar panels, how long would it take them to
recoup that that capitalize?
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Probably from the best information I received, probably at about
ten years. Ten years now I weren't the panels, So
about twenty to twenty five.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Years, okay, which is good, which is good.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But remember you're paying.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
You're paying in year one with money that is valued
in year one. The money if you had taken that money,
let's say that twenty eight thousand dollars and invested it
in a good, you know market fund, you know, some
some sort of fund that twenty eight thousand dollars probably
(18:17):
would grow to at least I'm guessing forty thousand dollars
over a ten year period. So when you calculate what
does it cost you to recover that money that you
that you would have laid out hypothetically in year one,
you got to think about not just recovery the twenty eight,
but you got to figure out what you're going to
to recover the forty realistically.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
If you get my job, Yeah, I knew you.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Know so well, I'm I'm happy for you, and I'm
happy that you took you know, I did one of
those energy surveys and I got a little bit of
insulation in my house if the program was there. Took
advantage of it. But it's it's a little unfair in
the sense that people like you and me, who were
(19:01):
smart enough and aware of what's going on, we take
advantage of it, and poor people who don't take advantage
of it, or people who don't own houses and are
renting they're paying energy, yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah, landlords who don't care about the tenants. All they
care about is they're right.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
You bet you a lot of them. You got it, Paul.
Thank you for calling in and thank you for explaining
to us how that worked. I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Oh, prom Dan, I was one of the guys that
got missed over there when the you had this they
ordered the last week.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, oh you got missed, you said.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Or yeah, I was online with when you had the
state order last week. So I decided to call you
earlier time to get on here.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Oh thank you. Yeah, well right, we ran out. We
ran out of time, Paul. It is always good to
call early. Great example, and they got you got six minutes,
and you provided valuable information to my audience, which is
what the best I can get out of any caller.
Thank you, Paul.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Continue to call you, agree, Dan, goodbye.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You Here comes the news at the bottom of the hour.
I have the only line that is open right now
is six months. I have two at six, one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty. If you call now, we'll get
you in, and we'll get you in before eleven o'clock,
I promise. Coming up next week. Got Sandy is in
West Roxbury. I got Chris and Canton and Jeane and Everett,
and I got room for you at six, one, seven, two, five, four,
(20:28):
ten thirty. Who do you blame for this depicle of
higher energy bills? I don't blame the companies, to be
really honest with you, I blame the DPU commissioners who
should be asked to resign by the governor. Agree or disagree.
Coming back on Nightside, It's Nightside with Dan Ray on
(20:49):
w Boston's news radio. Back to the phones we go.
Let me go to Sandy in West Roxbury. Sandy, you're
next on Nightside.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
Welcome, Thank you. I think we made a mistake. Now
I could be wrong. I've been wrong before.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Mistakes. Go ahead.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
We're not getting ten percent off. What they're doing is
down stilling. So they're taking some percent off now. Then
they're going to charge us the extra ten percent during
the summer months with interest. Yes, so I'm not getting
anything off. We're not geting anything back. We're going to
end up paying more because of the interest we.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Have to pay. Thank you for that clarification. And yeah,
uh that's Sandy. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
Anything I sent to today?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Did I see what I sent you?
Speaker 6 (21:46):
A list of the charges?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yes, I'm looking at charging them. Well, I'm looking at YouTube.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
Claim to get somebody to explain them, you know, because
I didn't. We're paying for all kinds of things, like you,
I'm paying for electric vehicles. I don't have one on paying.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Let me just let me just let me just read.
I read the list earlier. But for those who do
not know what we're talking about, we had you get
a charge your your generation service charge. That's the supplier charge, okay,
and that is the amount of money that you pay
for your uh, for your for your killer watts okay uh.
(22:28):
And then you you have a generation service charge based
upon the amount of killer watt hours that you use.
Then you have a distribution charge, you have a customer charge,
you have a transition charge, you have a transmission charge.
Speaker 7 (22:50):
Breathing charge.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Wasn't there a breathing charge in this?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I think so? Yeah. Right. Then there's a net meter
recovery search charge. There's a recovery a revenue decouple.
Speaker 8 (23:00):
In charge, and that's gage distributed solar charge. There's a
renewable energy charge energy efficiency charge. By the way, the
energy efficiency charge is thirty six dollars and eighty seven cents.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, ridiculous on my bill that that's a big number.
And nine Yeah, there's the then does the electrical vehicle program.
I don't know what all these.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Means garbage if they take money from us, and you know,
they don't advertise the problems at the rewards program like
that man was talking about. They don't advertise it well.
And it doesn't like I looked into that myself, and
I have too many trees, so I couldn't use it
anyway ever, And you know, it's just not fair that
(23:51):
they and as to who should go, they should all go.
They don't care about that's at all. I mean Mayo
Woo and her city council, so they are the first
thing they did with the both themselves an automatic ten
percent raise every year. And look at the policeman and
the firemen fighting and by people I shouldn't say fire man,
but you know, fighting for a two and three percent
raise every year. And if you have a fight you didn't,
(24:14):
I'm able and she'll come and put it out for you.
I mean, it's just they don't care about us.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
There's no question they don't care about us, and they
particularly don't care about the people like you and me
who were paying our taxes and have lived here for
a long time. They are much more concerned about you
know again the new folks who have arrived because they
look at them as potential new voters, were kind of
(24:42):
are onto their their activities. You know. Just ah, it's tough,
it's it's a tough world. We find ourselves in Sandy,
and we got to start voting some of these people out.
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 6 (24:56):
And West Rock Spury used to be the go to places.
What rocks to be back to, you would win. Now
nobody wants Struck to be vote because can you see
who publicans and they say why about other? So nobody
want vote.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
You see who West Roxby elects. I'm talking about that
they erect They elected Kendra Laura the crash crash Kendra. Uh.
That's unbelievable, unbelieved. But you know what, that's a story
for another night. People if they don't if they don't
participate in the political process, they only have themselves to blame. Sandy.
(25:36):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
I know. I wish see, I don't care how they vote.
Just get us up to a ninety voting right, that's
the most important thing, you know, so we feel like
we're effectual.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Nobody feels that now, pretty ineffectual at this point. Thanks Sandy.
Uh And by the way, your your email to me
is what prompted this hour of of programming tonight. So
I want you to know you helped me. Uh. I
decide that. I said, well, I got to do something
with they's news conference just because of your heab.
Speaker 6 (26:04):
I think you should give me something.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I'll give you. I'll give you fifty that the normal
production fee is, which, of course nothing. Thank you, Sandy,
talk to you soon.
Speaker 6 (26:15):
Thank you great.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Let me go to Chris in Canton. Chris, you're next
on night side. Who do you blame, if anyone, for
your for your your energy bills.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
Honestly, I have to blame the voters. I think, whether
we realize it or not, I think this is what
we're voting for. Sandy. Highlight of the deferral piece that
I wanted to kind of make a point of. But
are you familiar with Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan
for twenty fifty.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I'm probably not as familiar as I should be, So
what what?
Speaker 9 (26:52):
I'll be depressed after this, But let's hear it in
a nutshell, the state, in various agencies decided that by
the year twenty fifty we should have no more natural gas,
and so.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
There's a whole page on the state's website that talks
about it, and it links to a variety of bills
that have been passed and bills that are upcoming, and effectively,
all of these things are driving these massive increases in
utilities that we're seeing. And I think our elected officials
want this for whatever reason, and I think that they're
(27:29):
encouraging the DPU to push through these humongous increases so
that the utilities will go along with it and they
can still make whatever they want to make while they're
you know, shifting away from natural gas and towards or
electricity or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I think you're absolutely right, and I think that there
is a political agenda and people have made a decision
that we got to get rid of fossil fuels. It's
all dealing with, you know, climate change, and people are asleep.
It's like we're relying upon solar and wind. Look at
what happened with that. There's that wind well, there's that
(28:10):
wind farm off the coast, and there's there's been all
sorts of accidents out there. We have no idea what
that's doing to the fishing community. There's some real serious
issues with that solar. Relying on solar energy here in
New England in the winter time is a joke.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
Yeah, I can. I can confirm a lot of the
numbers that Paul had thrown out earlier. I paid for
my own solar, and when I paid for solar in
twenty nineteen, they were estimating my savings based on about
twenty one and a half cents to kill a water
hour out the door with all of the different things
(28:49):
added up, and it's it's about fifty percent higher than
that now, So okay, you know, it depends on a
lot of things. Obviously you can change your supplier and
this and that, but those delivery charges have been going
up like crazy, and well, they.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Want to take away they want to take away our
option on suppliers. Look, I try to look at that
mass website as much as I can and make sure
that I'm always, you know, paying as little as I
had as I possibly can. But they want to That
was was heralded when it came in as a wonderful innovation,
(29:31):
which it was, and now they want to get rid
of it.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
Well, and it almost doesn't matter. I mean, how does
your supply versus your delivery breakdown. You know, if you
look at the gas some of the bills are absurd.
I know that that's sort of a different subject from
the electricity, but you know, I think some of it
also goes back to something you talked about a couple
(29:55):
hours ago, where you said that JFK could never get
elected as a Democrat nowadays. Yeah, I have some elderly
family members who are convinced they're still Democrats, but everything
they complain about makes them sound like they're conservatives and
they're complaining about the people they vote for.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Well, I would also say this, find me any Democrat,
any Democrat in America today, meaning elected official, who will
mouth the words that President Kennedy spoke on January twentieth,
nineteen sixty one, ask not what your country can do
for you, but ask what you can do for your country.
Speaker 7 (30:34):
I'm all in favor of term limits, Dan, Well, Joe.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I mean, is do you think Bernie Sanders would would say,
ask not what your country country could do for you?
Of course not. There's none of them that would do
that anyway. I compe always Chris, one of my better callers.
Thank you so much for joining us appreciate it.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
All right, thank you for bringing up the subject. I
appreciate it. Having good night, right.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I think it's an important sub I think it's a
very important subject. I hope some of you think it's important.
I got some wide open lines six one seven, two,
five four ten thirty, six one seven nine three one
ten thirty. This is an issue that affixed each and
every one of us. If you're living out in the
woods without utility, and you're out there with a fire,
(31:19):
uh oh, a candlelight, this doesn't affect you. But if
you live in Massachusetts in a home that has any
form of energy, this fundamentally affects you. Uh. And the
discussion we're having tonight is important for you and for
everyone in this audience in Massachusetts, and for that matter,
in other states as well. So feel free to join
(31:42):
the call, join the conversation. Give us a call six
one seven, two five four to ten thirty or six
one seven nine three one ten thirty. My name is
Dan Ray. We're coming right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
night Sights to yours. I'm WBZ the News d.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
All right, we're going back to the phones. We're talking
about energy costs in Massachusetts and Gene joins US. Gene
you were next on Nightside.
Speaker 10 (32:09):
Welcome, Hi, jan Thank you very much for talking about this.
It's disgusting. It's disgusting. I am inundated with these bills, okay,
and it's coming out of my food budget. I'll tell
you the truth. I can't do it. I have I
have a five hundred and forty five dollars gas bill
(32:31):
right here from December to January. I have my next
bill January twenty first to February, which is is well,
that's my electric I'm sorry. This gas bill here was
the more recent one, and.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Me the numbers, Okay, they're expensive. That's all you need
to do.
Speaker 10 (32:57):
Tell me there oh yeah, no, yeah, no yeah, and
and and the you know, guess and electric. I mean,
they're they're inundating us. And you know, the governor should
have known this was happening, and she should have been
right on this. They're out of touch. A whole Massachusetts
government is state government is out of touch watching for us.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
No one, no one. Governor Healy appointed two of these
three DPU commissioners even after the crisis occurred. When the
governor said to the DPU commissioners, you got to work
a deal, uh and and get the get these numbers down.
They told the the gas and the and the electric companies,
(33:42):
drop your rates by five percent, and the company said,
we'll drop them by ten. She should, she should ask
for the resignation of those DPU commissioners immediately. I don't
know what those DPU commissioners make, but I'm sure they
make a lot of money and they probably are pretty influential.
Get them out of there. They they dropped the ball
(34:06):
last October in my opinion.
Speaker 10 (34:08):
And the other thing, I'm wondering if people have been
hearing about them wanting to change all the meters gas
and electric.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
They do that every three years.
Speaker 10 (34:20):
Let me, I've heard a bunch of people say that
they have contacted them and said they want to change
the means. I'm just curious that hasn't. Let me explain it.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
To you, change gene. If you would listen to me,
I would explain it to you. Okay, gas meters, by
law have to be changed every seven years. How do
I know that? Because I got a call from National
Grid about two months ago and set up an appointment
and my gas meter was changed about two weeks ago.
Speaker 10 (34:50):
That's the law, so home, I know that. I was
just curious.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So therefore, when seven years comes around and you and
I have to change I gas meter, that's not a
new law, you know. I mean, there's nothing new about that. Geane.
I thank you for your callers always. You soon have
a great night. Let me go to Steven in West Roxbury. Steven,
you're gonna wrap the hour for us, Go right ahead.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Well that sounds good, Dan, on my first time call
up my light my life. I'm a lifetime resident of
the City of Boston and I'm a forty year employee
of the Boston Police Debarmin, and I have to retire this.
I have to retire this year. And I've never called
before because I never got that angry. But when I
(35:34):
got my two fuel bills because I switched from oil
to natural gas a couple of years ago, and now
I get the gas bill and I don't know the
exact figure, but whatever the gas was two hundred, I
paid double on the delivery charge. I go, delivery charge.
I'm going, what is the delivery charge? It comes through
the same pipe. And then somebody told me, well, it's
(35:56):
the fund. The mass save program. And then today I'm
watching a gully hilly. Somebody asked her, Well, if we
don't find the math, say, she goes, well, your bills
will be fourteen percent higher. I'll take the fourteen percent
because my bills are one hundred percent higher.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Now, yeah, well, you know, in the same way I'm
looking Steven, I'm looking at my bill and the uh,
the the delivery charge is almost as high as the
actual gas charge. I said, it makes no sense to me.
It makes no sense, and I.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Make I think I make a decent wage. I'm not
complaining about that. But if I'm having a hard time
with it, what about the clerk at Roach Brothers or
something like that. I go, it's unbelievable, no question.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
I'm just looking at just for comparative purposes, just for
the fun of it. Here, I am used less electricity
this month than I did a year ago in February. Okay,
my bill having using using less electricity in terms of
you know, killowatt hours and all of that. My bill
(37:07):
for February is sixty percent higher this year when I
used less electricity. So where's the DPU, where's the governor?
Where are the politicians of Peacon Hill. They could care less.
They could care less. We've got to start voting some
of these people out of office and get some new
blood up there. It's a simple as that.
Speaker 5 (37:27):
That's that, that's our power right there.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Well, we take it to exercise it. Unfortunately, we need
to exercise it.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
I mean, I know, I agree. If you if you're not,
you're not voting your care complain. And I just can't believe.
Like that other person said in West Roxbury, you mentioned
that who we voted here for, and I was kind
of talking my neighbors. I go, it's going to be crazy.
I said, they're totally not helping us.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
You know, they're hurting you, They're hurting your community. You
look at the bike lanes on Center Street. Why do
you have bike lanes on Center Street? Elections have consequences.
You know probably better than anybody.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
I'm out there and they tell us every day that
check the bike lanes, make sure people aren't flocking them.
And I go, I don't see, don't worry about them
being blocked because I could count maybe one bike at Daddy.
And then when we went to these meetings, the mayor's
people and other city officials were saying, well, the bike
lanes will slow down traffic. I go. Isn't the bike
(38:25):
lane for bikeers? We can do other things to slow
down the traffic. And what they did now they changed
the lights to go to stop quicker. So now two
or three cas get through and you're sitting I know,
going going home from West Roxbury police stations down syn
the street. What used to take me ten minutes takes twenty.
(38:46):
And are they worried about the gas I'm burning and
the pollution I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
No, nope, no it doesn't fit into that specific narrative,
but it fits into a different narrative, Steve, Steve, thank
you very much for calling. First time calling, a great call,
lots passion.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
You're gonna start calling you.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
I want you to be a regular caller. And I
mean that seriously because your voice is important to me
and it should wake some people up, not only in
West Roxbury but right across the region. Thank you, my friend.
That was a great call.
Speaker 5 (39:13):
All right, Thanks here, and then I will call you.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Again and I'll see you someday and roach brothers and
come over and say hello.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
The last time I saw you, I just ran into
it and I recognize you you were getting gas at
that gas ye speedway. Yeah right, saw you there. I'm
gonna come over and say hi, but I said, you
gotta you're getting gas, you want to get home.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I'm a friendly guy. Always come over and say hi.
Trust me. Okay, thanks, you got to you soon. Have
a great night. We'll take a quick break here on nights.
I back right after the eleven. Let's stick with this topic.
Fill the phone lines up back after this
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