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Editorial: Utility offers tips to help customers absorb rate payback

State Rep. Kimberly Ferguson
State Rep. Kimberly Ferguson
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Ever sensitive to the financial burden it exacts, Eversource, one of the state’s three major utilities, has issued a PSA, urging its customers to take pre-emptive measures to mitigate energy costs as we enter the summer months.

This comes as consumers are still recovering from the financial shocks of those winter heating bills, caused by increased usage of natural gas.

The utility said it sent out this alert because energy use actually increases with summer’s higher temperatures.

Massachusetts customers, on average, use 40% more electricity in the summer due to increased use of air conditioners, fans, and other appliances.

And even if the cost of electricity itself decreases, increased usage during the summer can still result in higher overall bills.

The utility advises implementing these simple energy-saving measures:

• Keep blinds closed during the day;

• Ensure vents are not blocked;

• Consider shifting appliance usage to cooler parts of the day;

• Use ceiling fans at a higher speed in a counterclockwise direction.

Of course, there’s another reason Eversource — likely soon followed up by National Grid and Unitil — offered this heads-up, one that it intentionally omitted.

In the face of those soaring winter energy bills, the Department of Public Utilities in February demanded a 5% rate cut from utility companies.

But feeling the heat from constituents over those winter energy bills, Gov. Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell demanded the DPU and energy companies do more to mitigate this cost burden.

The governor released a statement, which said in part: “This is not good enough. Massachusetts residents are struggling with these high costs – the utilities need to go deeper than 5 percent and deferrals.”

The conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance said Beacon Hill has been part of the problem by implementing clean-energy mandates that those soaring energy bills help subsidize.

The governor did trim the budget for clean energy initiatives, which should result in lower energy bills.

However, utility customers remain on the hook for the amount of their energy bills written off last winter.

As the governor alluded to in her statement, in the fine print of the ordered rate cut, the DPU said the gas companies could later recoup the cost with interest.

Elijah DeSousa, founder of Citizens Against Eversource, a group with more than 20,000 followers, expressed his organization’s outrage of the rate cut bait and switch.

“They’re not giving us an outright rebate; we have to pay it back in a couple of months and they’re hitting us with interest; they’re not doing anything except more lip service,” said DeSousa.

So, utility customers, it’s in the fine print that we really see why Eversource issued that summer energy-cost warning.

Rep plays shame game for brain-injury victims

If logic doesn’t succeed, how about a dose of embarrassment?

That’s the Rx state Rep. Kimberly Ferguson tried in her attempt to convince a legislative panel on the merits of insurance coverage for treatment of acquired brain injuries.

Testifying on the issue before the Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, the Holden Republican, frustrated by previous failed attempts to pass this measure, tried a new approach: shame.

“One last thing I’ll leave you with: The state of Arkansas, in March, just passed a comprehensive (cognitive rehabilitation therapy) bill. And if Arkansas can do it, I’m absolutely positive Massachusetts will be doing it soon,” Ferguson said, drawing chuckles from the committee and attendees.

It should be noted that in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of states with the best health-care systems, Massachusetts ranked second, trailing only Hawaii.

As for Arkansas, it ranked behind 46 of the 50 states.

But somehow, a state ranked 47th, literally near the bottom of the health-care barrel, apparently acted on a neglected therapeutic need that this Legislature has consistently resisted.

The legislation Ferguson championed (H 1151 / S 742) would extend Group Insurance Commission and commercial health insurance coverage for cognitive rehabilitation therapy to people with an acquired brain injury, which Ferguson said could range from a severe concussion to a traumatic brain injury sustained in a car crash.

Ferguson said expanding access to cognitive rehab therapy in cases of acquired brain injury was one of the unanimously-supported recommendations of the state’s Brain Injury Commission that dates back to at least fiscal 2011.

That group’s 2021 report indicated the Center for Health Information and Analysis analyzed a previous version of Ferguson’s bill and found the impact on the typical member’s monthly health insurance premium would be between 1 cent and 19 cents, or an average cost of 8 cents per month.

This initiative has cleared the Financial Services Committee in the last four legislative sessions, and has twice been reported favorably out of the Health Care Financing Committee, according to a committee bill summary.

But it has yet to reach the floor for consideration in either branch.

Lobbying pressure opposed to offering this benefit has come primarily from the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, warning it would raise costs for consumers and small businesses.

Lawmakers, if you’re still unsure what course to take, perhaps you should seek guidance from your colleagues in Arkansas — that beacon of medical and health-care excellence.

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