Choice Is A Good Thing!

My mother gave me sound advice: It is always best to have more choices than none! Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is at it again. She has filed legislation that would bar competitive suppliers from contracting with new residential customers after January 1, 2020. It would shut down the residential competitive electric supply market. Her reasoning is that because those consumers, according to an article in the Commonwealth Magazine, overpaid their electric bills by $76 million between July 2017 and June 2018, they cannot be trusted to make sound financial decisions.

On the surface, who can argue that Ms. Healey is doing the right thing to protect consumers from paying unnecessarily higher rates? There are suppliers who take advantage of consumers with teaser rates that balloon and/or have contract terms that change from a fixed to a variable rate at the end of the term. However, there are responsible consumers who properly manage their agreements. Like what we do at Neighborhood Energy with our commercial and industrial clients, these agreements often result in outperforming the utility default rate. Shutting down choice is not the answer: it hurts those who manage the process and the progression may shut down choice for commercial and industrial consumers. Let’s take a look at the Legislation and oppose it if it removes our choice. After all, have our mothers ever given us bad advice?

Your Friendly Neighborhood Energy