by Dan Haley
1/25/2012

Last week state Rep. Dan Winslow (@danwinslow) tweeted an interesting bit of Massachusetts legal trivia: "Just learned a little known quirk: by MA statute, the state AG's third term in office is uncompensated. Think Martha will stay? #mapoli."
 

The Patrick Admin's $4B Ego Trip

Anyhow, AG Coakley provided further fodder for that particular rumor mill at an appearance this morning before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, where she renewed and enhanced her recent broadside against the Patrick Administration's signature environmental legislation.

Recall that in November the Attorney General made waves when her office released a report estimating that the Green Communities Act, signed into law in 2008 by Governor Patrick, will cost Massachusetts consumers approximately $4 billion dollars over the next four years to implement.

Here's the State House News (via the Herald) on Coakley's speech this morning:

Attorney General Martha Coakley called Wednesday for competitive bidding for energy contracts and an end to "sweetheart deals currently offered to utility companies," which she said were inflating consumers’ energy bills.

"Put another way, I believe the commonwealth can continue to go green, but we can still leave some green in your pockets," she said to business officials at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast at downtown Boston’s Intercontinental Hotel.

Coakley said she hoped to take a fresh look at the state’s Green Communities Act, a 2008 law that requires utility companies to purchase a small percentage of their power from renewable sources. The act includes a provision governing direct negotiations between utility companies and power suppliers, essentially sanctioning no-bid deals. She also reiterated concerns that the law would cost Massachusetts consumers $4 billion over the next four years.

Coakley’s remarks drew an immediate rebuke from Ian Bowles, the former state secretary of energy and environmental affairs, who called Coakley’s assessment of the Green Communities Act "shameless grandstanding" intended to mislead about the actual impact of the law, which he said had saved consumers $9 billion. Bowles, who initially took to Twitter to level his critique, also said the assessment of the costs is "remarkably misleading."

"It’s shamelessly misleading to talk about costs without talking about benefits," he said. "Our electricity costs are down by 40 percent. The cost of electricity is down by 40 percent since the act was passed. It’s the biggest energy efficiency program in the country. None of this is in dispute."