MA Attorney General Urging Reverse Of Eversource Rate Hike

Attorney General Maura Healey is asking the Department of Public Utilities to reverse the recent Eversource rate hike to instead lower the rate by more than $74 million dollars, the AG announced on Wednesday.

AG Healey’s Office, in a filing on Wednesday, urged the DPU to recalculate Eversource’s rates to reflect the coming reduction of the federal corporate tax from 35 to 21 percent. By doing so, said the attorney general's office, the department can ensure that Eversource and other utilities do not receive a major windfall at the expense of customers and their corporate savings instead go to Massachusetts’ residents.

“Under this tax bill, Eversource and other utility companies are getting a major tax break, paid for by the American people,” said AG Healey in a statement. “We’re taking this action to ensure that the companies use these corporate savings to lower rates for Massachusetts customers instead of lining their own pockets.”

There are 30,526 Eversource customers in Framingham, 17,197 in Natick, 7,037 and 5,611 in Wayland.

The federal Tax Cut and Jobs Act passed this week, and it lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent on Feb. 1, which the attorney general said is the same day Eversource effects its $220 million rate hike. Since the DPU approved this rate hike last month based on the utility company paying the higher federal tax rate, AG Healey is urging the DPU to lower the rates customers will have to pay to reflect the lower tax rate.

The AG’s Office determined, according to the announcement, that the new federal law should result in a $50 million decrease from existing rates for NStar Electric customers and a 50 percent reduction in the rate hike for Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO) customers to $13 million (instead of $25 million).

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