The measure would add paperwork for some residents while leaving the rules unchanged for others, as legislators question how the state targets efficiency benefits.
A technician uses a hose to blow insulation into an attic. (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Massachusetts has made meaningful strides in recent years to get its robust energy-efficiency incentives into the hands of lower-income households who need them most.
Now, a provision tucked into a pending energy bill could undermine that progress, environmental justice advocates say, by making certain benefits more difficult to access — but only for moderate-income households in some of the state’s most disadvantaged communities.
Under current rules, low-income and moderate-income households, including owners of rental properties with up to four units, anywhere in the state can get free weatherization from the efficiency program Mass Save without doing any paperwork to confirm their earnings. Weatherization can cut annual energy costs by hundreds of dollars — enough to pay for a medical bill or new shoes for the kids. So the program’s planners decided that cutting down on administrative barriers would make it easier to get services to residents who have paid into the program for years but historically taken less advantage of the benefits.
To that end, Mass Save went a step further last year, creating 21 “designated equity communities” — places with low average earnings and high renter populations — where anybody can get free weatherization without having to verify their income. That includes owners of rental properties with five or more units, which were previously ineligible. Rental units have long been underserved by Mass Save, as tenants don’t have the authority to make changes to the building, and landlords have little incentive to do so if they aren’t paying the utility bills.
The energy bill provision somewhat confusingly targets only moderate-income households in those equity communities. It would force just those families to submit income-verification paperwork to receive free weatherization, even as their counterparts elsewhere continue to enjoy the exemption.
An example: If the measure were to become law, a four-person household in the designated equity community of Lawrence earning $200,000 would be eligible for free weatherization services without income verification, while a neighboring family of the same size with an income of $90,000 would be required to submit pay stubs and tax documents to receive the same benefit. Up the street in the more affluent town of Andover, a household making that same $90,000 could skip the income-verification paperwork.
This specific, lopsided impact was probably not the goal of the provision, but instead the result of legislators trying to address concerns about an extremely complicated program while also juggling dozens of other measures in the 100-plus-page Senate and House versions of the bill, stakeholders on both sides of the issue said. Though the current language will likely change, the debate at its heart remains: How were the qualifications for those designated equity communities determined, and is it fair to make some benefits more easily available in these places but not in others?
Massachusetts has long been hailed as one of the top states for energy-efficiency programming, with Mass Save offering benefits like home energy audits, rebates on energy-efficient appliances, and weatherization. Though all utility customers pay to fund these services, the program has historically struggled to get participation from some lower-income households and rental properties.
In recent years, Mass Save has focused on increasing its reach in these populations. In 2024, the program began exempting moderate-income residents statewide from having to prove their earnings in order to access free weatherization services, an exception already available to low-income individuals.
So far, the strategy seems to be working: In 2023, Mass Save completed about 700 weatherization projects for moderate-income households; in 2025, that number jumped to more than 8,200, according to Mary Wambui, an affordable housing asset manager for the nonprofit Planning Office for Urban Affairs and a co-chair of the equity working group within the advisory council that drafts Massachusetts’ energy-efficiency plans.
“Removing as many barriers as possible is critical to closing the equity gap,” said Mark Kresowik, senior policy director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “Massachusetts has been doing a tremendous job.”
Skeptics of these equity efforts, however, argue that there should have been a transparent legislative process for establishing and defining designated equity communities. Some towns with lower average incomes, for example, did not have enough renters to meet the efficiency advisory council’s threshold for inclusion. A public debate would have allowed discussion about the criteria used to define the list — and whether it is fair for such a list to exist at all. Does it make sense, they ask, for high-income homes to get free services just because they fall within one of these communities?
Supporters of the equity community designation, however, note that the list was approved by state utility regulators as part of a public process. What is truly unfair, they say, is that lower-income customers and renters haven’t received the same level of benefit from Mass Save despite being the ones who could most benefit from weatherization. It is worth providing free benefits for some higher-income households if the result is lower energy bills for residents that could really use the help, advocates say.
“Why are we so concerned about communities that are rightfully owed by this program?” Wambui said. “This has been very, very disturbing.”
The House and Senate are still hammering out the differences between their versions of the legislation. They aim to release a final iteration of the bill this fall.
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Sarah Shemkus is a reporter at Canary Media who is based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and covers New England.