Where the bill stands now

Both chambers have passed the bill. On July 1 the Senate passed its version 32–8, replacing the House text with the Ways & Means redraft (S.3143). The engrossed Senate copy is now S.3166.

Our three floor amendments were not adopted. All three C&I problems are still in the Senate text, word for word.

On July 16 the conference committee was named: Sens. Barrett, Creem, and Tarr for the Senate; Reps. Cusack, Michlewitz, and Jones for the House. These six will negotiate one final bill. That conference report then gets an up-or-down vote in each chamber. No amendments are allowed at that point. Negotiations can run through the rest of 2026, but positions harden early.

The conference report is the last place these fixes can happen. The six people writing it are listed below, with phone numbers and emails.

The six people writing the final bill

Appointed July 16. Every fix we’re asking for runs through these offices. Call them. Email them. Be brief and specific.

All offices: Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02133. Contact information verified July 21, 2026.

The Bill: Why It Was Written

H.5175 was drafted to address real problems in the residential electricity market: variable-rate contracts that spike without warning, aggressive door-to-door enrollment, and households locked into deals they didn’t understand. Those are legitimate consumer protection concerns.

What’s Still Wrong With It

The Senate-passed text, S.3166, still does not cleanly separate residential operators from those serving commercial and industrial (C&I) customers. Three provisions reach companies that have nothing to do with residential problems.

1. A $1 million bond on C&I-only suppliers and brokers

The engrossed Senate text keeps the bond on companies that never touch a residential customer: “energy marketers and suppliers whose license to serve is limited to commercial and industrial customers and does not include residential customers, the bond amount shall equal $1,000,000 per retail license” (S.3166, lines 1407–1409).

“Energy marketers and suppliers” reaches energy brokers through the marketer definition. Brokers never take title to the load and never hold customer money, and most independent broker shops cannot capitalize a $1 million surety bond. This provision alone would clear out the broker channel that runs competitive procurement for Massachusetts businesses and towns.

A bond exists to backstop residential consumers. C&I customers negotiate their own contracts. This is cost with no consumer-protection payoff.

2. The $5 million residential bond can still catch brokers

The $5 million bond applies to “each energy marketer of residential electrical generation services or other supplier of such services” (lines 1402–1403), set per retail license or per parent company. “Energy marketer” is defined broadly enough to sweep in brokers, not just the companies that actually sell power to homes.

3. A backdoor residential mandate

The Senate text says every supplier except a municipal aggregation supplier “must list at least 1 product available to residential customers” on the state comparison website (lines 1875–1877).

Read literally, a C&I-only supplier can’t comply without getting a residential license and serving homes. It either forces us into residential or leaves us out of compliance for a market we don’t touch.

Here’s the frustrating part. The Senate already drew the right line once: the engrossed text explicitly carves out brokers and consultants “acting on behalf of customers that are directly compensated by the customer” from the marketer rules (lines 1416–1418). The conference committee just needs to draw that same line two more times.

How This Impacts Your Electricity Costs and Choices

• Higher costs. A bond on C&I suppliers and brokers pushes capital costs into commercial rates or pushes bidders out. Fewer bidders means less price pressure. You pay more.
• Less competition. Most specialty suppliers and independent brokers cannot capitalize a bond they shouldn’t owe in the first place. When they exit, businesses, towns, and nonprofits lose the competitive bids that drive savings.
• Less product choice. Competitive suppliers offer fixed rates, blended products, block and index, demand response, and load management. Default utility service offers none of these.
• Fewer renewable options. Competitive suppliers are the primary source of voluntary green energy products for businesses and municipalities. Utilities do not compete on renewable content.
• Loss of broker advisory. Energy brokers analyze usage, run competitive procurements, and negotiate contracts. Bond them out and businesses navigate the market alone.
• Community Choice Aggregations at risk. CCAs depend on competitive suppliers. Thin out that supplier base and CCAs lose the bidders they need to serve their communities.

The Easy Fix: Three Changes to the Conference Report

The lead ask is blunt: remove the $1 million bond on non-residential suppliers and brokers entirely. Not reduced. Not capped. Not phased in. Struck from the conference report. Fixes 2 and 3 then tie the remaining obligations to a residential license, the line Chapter 164 already draws. All three edit the Senate-passed text, S.3166, the version now on the conference table. Every residential protection in the bill stays intact.

All three fixes edit the Senate bill, S.3166, not the House text: bond language at lines 1402–1413 and listing mandate at lines 1874–1877.

What These Fixes Protect

• Chamber members and businesses that procure electricity through competitive brokers
• Towns and municipal aggregations, also known as CCAs, that rely on competitive suppliers for community programs
• Nonprofits that use competitive supply to manage operating costs
• Energy brokers and advisors whose entire practice is C&I, not residential door-to-door
• Future C&I-only suppliers who would enter Massachusetts if the regulatory pathway is clear

What Does Not Change

• Every residential consumer protection in the bill stays intact
• The $5M bond still applies to every supplier licensed for residential service
• Municipal opt-out authority, which the Senate bill already limits to residential customers, is untouched for residential suppliers

What You Can Do Right Now

Contact the six conferees directly this week. Their phone numbers and emails are in the cards above. Start with the two chairs, Sen. Barrett and Rep. Cusack. Then call your own State Senator and Representative and ask them to weigh in with the conferees. Find yours at malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator.

Prepared by Gridwealth Electric | Retail electricity supplier licensed in MA & RI | C&I and municipal aggregation customers