Though the City Council, including myself, voted against Councilor Giovanni Recupero’s order directing Acting City Manager Ned Keefe to study whether Chelsea could build and operate its own power plant (for reasons detailed during Monday’s session), the underlying concern that prompted Recupero to file the order deserves serious consideration by our community.
There is no question that electric power costs have risen dramatically in recent years. Just in the final months of 2014, both National Grid and NSTAR (now Eversource) announced substantial rate increases for their customers. The past winter saw NSTAR customers paying more for electricity than at any point since Massachusetts deregulated its electric market in 1998.
Such increases hit low-income households particularly hard—a significant portion of Chelsea’s population falls into this category. Residents across Chelsea and the nation already face mounting challenges: food prices climbing, wages stagnating, and quality full-time employment remaining scarce.
Many Chelsea residents likely wonder: what is driving these electricity rate increases? The answer lies in federal policy decisions, particularly those made by President Barack Obama’s administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Since 2008, the EPA has implemented extensive regulations that smaller coal-fired power plants struggle to meet. When the EPA’s Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) take effect in June, approximately 85 plants nationwide are projected to shut down because compliance costs would be prohibitive. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that EPA regulations will lead to the closure of 60 gigawatts of electrical capacity by 2020. These plant closures, undertaken to address climate change, have directly contributed to rising electricity costs affecting Chelsea families.
Adding insult to injury, the President and EPA granted General Electric a waiver exempting it from the very regulations that have forced other plants to close across the country—a decision that appears driven by cronyism.
Permitting a major corporation with vast financial resources and extensive lobbying power to help craft regulations eliminating competitors while securing its own exemption contradicts free market principles. Monopolies allow companies to charge whatever prices they wish, harming consumers. By allowing government and large corporations to use regulations to eliminate competition and drive up energy costs, we have enabled the price increases harming our families. No household should face choosing between rent and electricity because of corrupt, crony capitalism and backroom dealings.
I call on all Chelsea residents to demand accountability and change, or we will condemn our children and grandchildren to a world where only the wealthy and politically connected can afford electricity.