By Itai Vardi on October 16, 2025
Legislation being considered in Massachusetts would spare customers of Liberty Utilities, which is currently seeking a significant rate hike, hundreds of thousands of dollars, an analysis by the Energy and Policy Institute has found.
Liberty Utilities, a gas utility with just over 60,000 customers in southeastern Massachusetts, is asking the state Department of Public Utilities to approve a 55.5% rate increase, on average, across all customers on a total bill basis. The proposed increase is far higher than typical rate hikes, and Liberty serves some of the most economically disadvantaged residents in Massachusetts. The company’s last rate case was in 2015.
Some customers in North Attleboro and Fall River would experience a monthly bill increase of approximately $78.86 (an approximate 37.0% increase in current rates) if the full rate hike is approved by regulators. Low-income residential customers in the area would be hit hard as well, experiencing a monthly bill increase of approximately $59.15 (a 37.0% increase), while low-income residential non-heating customers would experience a monthly bill increase of approximately $33.38, a staggering 80.9% increase.
Fall River has amongst the lowest median income per capita in the entire state at less than half the state average.
Currently, more than 1 in every 6 of Liberty’s residential customers (17%) are behind on paying their gas bills.
Removing Political Costs
Legislation introduced by State Senator Cynthia Creem and Representatives Steven Owens and Jennifer Armini this session would prohibit utilities from using ratepayer money for political, advocacy, and lavish expenses, which are unnecessary for the provision of safe and reliable service.
The bill prohibits utilities from charging their customers for lobbying; institutional or good will advertising, which is primarily designed to improve the image of the utility or the industry; litigation to influence, modify, or repeal existing federal, state or local regulations, legislation or ordinances; tax penalties or fines issued against a utility; travel, lodging, entertainment, gifts or food and beverage expenses for a utility’s board of directors and officers; aircraft for a utility’s board of directors; and investor relations.
The bill also prohibits utilities from using customer money to pay for attendance in contested proceedings conducted before the DPU, including rate case advocacy.
The legislation requires the state’s utilities to disclose those expenses annually and penalizes them for violations.
Portions of the legislation have been incorporated into Governor Maura Healey’s proposed package of utility affordability legislation.
Significant Savings
An analysis by EPI has found that in its current rate case, Liberty Utilities is seeking to recover from its customers some of the costs that would be prohibited by the utility accountability legislation. They include the following expenses:
Rate case expenses, which are the costs for the utility to submit its rate increase proposal to its regulator = $1,911,870 (to be recovered over the next 5 years, with a yearly recovery of $382,374). Over a third of those costs are for legal expenses.
Payments to trade associations and business groups = $124,376 ($112,414 industry + $11,962 non-industry)
Advertising = $24,884 (EPI removed over $19,000 in costs from an original sum submitted by Liberty as the utility marked them as “Regulatory Only” ads)
Investor Relations = $59,926
Board of Directors expenses = $82,901 (which Liberty says consist of “fees, benefits, and meeting costs”)
Together, these expenses total $674,461, on an annual basis.
With a total customer base of 60,976 (as of January 1, 2025), that would amount to over $11.06 in savings per customer, on average, per year.
Reached for comment, a Liberty Utilities spokesperson said via email: “As a matter of Company policy, Liberty does not comment on issues pertaining to on-going litigation. The Company is generally aware of the ongoing legislation you reference but has no additional comment regarding that legislation at this time.”
States Curbing Political Spending
If Massachusetts passes the accountability legislation, it would join a growing number of states who have taken similar action to rein in utility political cost recovery from customers. Most recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed such a bill into law this week. California joins Connecticut, Maine, and Colorado as states that have prohibited utilities from recovering expenses similarly to what legislators have proposed in Massachusetts.
Other states have passed laws prohibiting the recovery of narrower political costs such as lobbying and trade association dues, including New Hampshire, New York, and Maryland.
In states that have had such laws on the books for a number of years, customers are already seeing significant savings. According to an analysis by EPI, Connecticut’s ratepayers have been spared from paying up to $10 million since the state passed its accountability law in 2023.
