Projo praises Patrick

E-mail campaigns 
Providence Journal on Saturday, October 1, 2005

Massachusetts Electric, an electricity-distribution company that serves 1.2 million customers, in 168 of the state's communities, recently requested permission to raise its rates 28 percent, beginning Nov. 1. Other Massachusetts power-distribution companies -- such as NSTAR, with more than 1.3 million customers, in more than 100 eastern-Massachusetts communities -- are expected to follow suit.

That's why we praise Massachusetts state Rep. Matthew Patrick (D.-Falmouth) for filing House Bill 4299. It would raise energy-conservation standards in various appliances sold in the state, including gas and oil furnaces and boilers.

The companies blame the need for increased prices on shortages of natural gas and oil. These shortages are due in part to the recent Gulf of Mexico hurricanes, but they are also due to the continuing problem of inadequate fuel supplies in the Northeast.

Conserving energy in New England is no longer a simple matter of individual preference. Energy -- its production, its consumption, its financial and social consequences -- has become a community affair.

Every wasted gallon of gasoline, every needlessly used kilowatt-hour of electricity, costs not just the heedless consumer but the community at large. When there is only so much electricity or gasoline to go around, unnecessary consumption by one individual pushes the price up for all the rest of us.

That's why we praise Massachusetts state Rep. Matthew Patrick (D.-Falmouth) for filing House Bill 4299. It would raise energy-conservation standards in various appliances sold in the state, including gas and oil furnaces and boilers. Mr. Patrick says that his bill would make Massachusetts the first state to place energy-efficiency requirements on every heating system sold.

In conserving fossil-fuel supplies, the bill would mean cost savings for all of us, not just those who buy energy-efficient heating systems. And as the older, less efficient heating systems wore out and were replaced by ones of greater efficiency, the whole region would benefit from the cleaner air and water that would result.

Representative Patrick's bill has passed the Massachusetts House unanimously. With such strong support, it would normally be expected to breeze through the Senate.

But here's the hitch: Lobbyists have entered the fray. They found out about the bill only a few days before the House vote -- giving them just enough time to send around an e-mail filled with misleading information.

Signed by Don Davis, of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (but bearing the e-mail address of Martin W. Fisher, of the Boston law firm Tevnan & Tevnan), the misleading e-mail asserts: "The pending Massachusetts measure was developed by national advocacy groups without consultation by affected manufacturers, consumer groups, or input by economic experts."

Says Representative Patrick: "This bill has undergone hearings for the past three years, and nobody was excluded from the process."

The e-mail also says that "federal action pre-empts the Commonwealth from enacting legislation." Mr. Patrick says: "Federal law specifically enables states to enact higher standards for appliances and heating systems and apply for a waiver."

Fortunately, Mr. Patrick found out about the misinformation in time to correct the record for his colleagues in the House. He got his unanimous vote on what we would call no-brainer legislation.

But you have to wonder: What are people like Don Davis and Martin W. Fisher up to? Why the communication by e-mail? Isn't this meant to be a public discussion of a very important public matter? And how far will they get in trying to muddy the record before the Massachusetts Senate votes on the matter?

Who pays these guys to do this backroom stuff, anyway?