MAMEC is the umbrella organization of municipalities and organizations supporting legislation to facilitate the formation of new municipal electric utilities in Massachusetts. This legislation will provide a choice to municipalities, their residents and businesses with respect to electricity distribution.

Compared with Massachusetts investor-owned utilities (such as NStar), municipal electric utilities generally offer:

• lower electricity rates: Boston-area munis charged households an average of 24% less than NStar rates over the past 12 years

  

• improved reliability: fewer power outages, shorter outages

• greater responsiveness to local priorities: using clean energy, relocating facilities, maintaining the visual quality of the community, undergrounding the system

  
       Lexington Today (NStar)                Lexington with a Muni?

  

• better customer service: faster response to questions and complaints, quicker resolution of problems

A State law dating back to early in the last century allows a city or town to create a municipal electric utility by acquiring the distribution equipment from the investor-owned utility at a fair price. But no new municipal electric utility has been formed in Massachusetts since 1926. The wording of the law is outdated and vague, and must be clarified to allow communities to exercise the rights they have in principle.

40 legislators filed bill H3294 to clarify our State law and make it possible to form new municipal electric utilities in Massachusetts.

Bill H3294 will restore competition in the distribution of electricity. Even if very few new municipal electric utilities are created, the investor-owned utilities will be aware of the need to keep their customers satisfied, which they have not needed to worry about for many decades. This pressure will encourage them to improve service, reduce rates and become more responsive to local needs everywhere, benefiting all Massachusetts residents and businesses. NStar and Mass Electric (part of National Grid) receive low customer satisfaction ratings in JD Power's nationwide surveys of electric utilities:

2005 ranking (nationwide)	Rating by Residential customers	Rating by Business customers
# utilities ranked	78	53
NStar rank	75th out of 78	44th out of 53
National Grid rank	55th out of 78	42nd out of 53

Please join MAMEC's efforts to get H3294 enacted: sign up and write to your State legislators in support of H3294.