Poll: 83% of Massachusetts Residents Want Choice In Electric Provider

In advance of legislative hearings today on calls from the Massachusetts Attorney General to terminate residential retail electric choice (see story here), CleanChoice Energy announced that a new poll shows that Massachusetts residents "overwhelmingly" want to be able to choose their energy supplier, choose clean energy, and want more renewable energy in the Massachusetts power system.

The poll commissioned by CleanChoice Energy was conducted by SurveyUSA and interviewed 550 Massachusetts adults who rent or own their home, pay their utility bills, and have at least some input on the household choice of their utility company.

CleanChoice said that the poll showed:

• 84% of Massachusetts residents want to be able to choose clean, renewable energy as a source for their home.

• 83% of Bay Staters want to be able to choose who provides their electricity.

• 74% of Massachusetts residents would be interested in 100% of their electricity being renewable energy if provided the option.

• 81% of residents want the right to choose an alternative provider even if their city or town has selected a provider through a municipal aggregation program.

• Bay State residents overwhelmingly support the Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) model for clean energy delivery (77%), more than rooftop solar (48%) and other home efficiency products and smart thermostats (68%).

Survey results can be found here.

CleanChoice Energy said, "The new polling bolsters the case that Massachusetts consumers are supportive of electricity supply options provided by Renewable Energy Supply Companies (RESCOs). The ability to choose clean energy is largely available to Bay State customers today because of the retail electricity market. Without the retail electricity market, hundreds of thousands of customers would not be empowered to choose their fuel mix. While the retail market also includes municipal aggregations, 78% of municipal aggregations do not offer 100% renewable energy as the default option. Other methods to choose clean energy include solar panels (accessible to only a small fraction homeowners) and community solar which is limited by the availability of projects."