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