Press Release  Governor Healey and Attorney General Campbell Oppose Transmission Utilities’ Profit Proposal

BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell are opposing the transmission utilities’ request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a major increase in profits. 

“This proposal to drive up utility profits is outrageous,” said Governor Healey. “At a time when consumers are hurting and we are working hard to lower electricity bills, transmission owners are requesting a significant increase in their base return on equity, the profits they earn on transmission investment in the region. Transmission costs are one of the fastest growing components of our electricity bills, and this request will push transmission rates even higher. We will continue to fight excessive utility profits to protect families and businesses and lower people’s bills.” 

“As FERC recently determined in Opinion 594, transmission owners have collected an unjust and unreasonable ROE from Massachusetts ratepayers for more than a decade, placing an undue burden on electric consumers,” said Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. “Despite Massachusetts’s ongoing energy affordability crisis, transmission owners filed a petition requesting a base ROE of 11.39% in another attempt to avoid application of FERC’s recent order and gouge excessive profits from ratepayers. As the Commonwealth’s Ratepayer Advocate, I stand ready to oppose this petition, just as I have opposed the transmission owners’ attempt to delay, or even stay, the sizable refunds they were ordered to pay to Massachusetts consumers.”

New England transmission utilities filed a proposal with FERC on Thursday requesting an increase in their base return on equity (ROE) percentage from 9.57%, the rate FERC just recently ordered in a March 19 decision, to 11.39% for transmission investment in the New England region. In this March decision, FERC ordered the transmission utilities to cut their allowed ROE and issue more than $1 billion in refunds to customers, after years of advocacy by the Attorney General’s Office under both Healey and Campbell.

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