To the editor:
Gov. Maura Healey’s biggest political vulnerability heading into 2026 is the cost of living. She can blunt it by backing a new natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale to Massachusetts.
Recent election-winning candidates across the country from moderates Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherill to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani show one thing: Voters care most about affordability, and that will be true in Massachusetts in 2026.
Her prospective Republican challengers know their only path to a statewide upset is affordability. That’s why they run ads attacking her on costs rather than each other — and they’re right. Home prices keep soaring, insurance premiums are spiking with climate risk, and Massachusetts has the third-highest retail electricity prices in the country, according to the EIA.
Energy is where the governor’s climate record and the affordability crisis collide. Despite decades of mandates, about 80% of the state’s electricity still comes from natural-gas plants that rely heavily on gas delivered through the constrained Algonquin pipeline system.
When demand surges on very cold or very hot days, that pipeline cannot deliver enough gas.
The resulting local shortage sends prices soaring, and climate change is making those extremes more frequent. More pipeline capacity from nearby Marcellus fields would ease the bottleneck and bring down prices for Massachusetts households and businesses.
Two obstacles stand in the way. The first is the state’s environmental lobby, whose unrealistic guidance has left us with both a fossil-heavy grid and some of the highest power prices in America. The second is Healey’s own history: As attorney general in 2015 she helped stop new gas pipelines.
But that was 2015. Things have changed. Ten years ago, she could not have foreseen the prospect of a second Trump administration blocking solar and wind projects or worsening cost-of-living pressures with sweeping tariffs. When the facts change, changing one’s mind isn’t a flip-flop; it’s leadership.
Gov. Healey should take this issue off the table in 2026 by backing expanded pipeline capacity now, providing near-term relief to working families while building the political support needed to deliver a zero-carbon grid over the long run.
Sincerely,
Nick Ward
Marblehead
