Editing Eversource Energy (section)

== Rate hikes and solar charges ==
In Massachusetts, Attorney General [[Maura Healey]] testified in March, 2017 before the DPU urging it to deny Eversource's proposed $300 million rate increase. In her testimony,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2017/ag-healey-testifies-deny-eversource-rate-increase.html|title=AG Healey Testifies Against Eversource Rate Increase|date=2017-03-24|work=Attorney General of Massachusetts|access-date=2017-06-24|language=en|archive-date=2017-06-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615113349/http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2017/ag-healey-testifies-deny-eversource-rate-increase.html|url-status=live}}</ref> she challenged the need for Eversource's rate increase, noting NSTAR's and WMECo's high returns over the last few years. Referencing NSTAR's 2015 return of more than 13 percent, Attorney General Healey told the DPU that “[l]ast year, no state public utility commission in the country allowed a return that high.” Between 2010 and 2015, Eversource's shareholders of common stock received a cumulative total return (including quarterly dividends and the change in the market price per share) of 89 percent.

On November 30, 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on Thursday approved a much-reduced rate hike<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/11/30/mass-officials-approve-eversource-rate-hike/gujPfvGU0uGKX6yKiHNa7N/story.html|title=Mass. officials approve Eversource rate hike - The Boston Globe|work=BostonGlobe.com|access-date=2018-02-11|archive-date=2018-02-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212084712/https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/11/30/mass-officials-approve-eversource-rate-hike/gujPfvGU0uGKX6yKiHNa7N/story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> for Eversource Energy that will allow it to charge its Massachusetts electric customers tens of millions of dollars more a year. On December 20, 2017, Attorney General Maura Healey appealed the DPU ruling in the Eversource rate case, specifically the DPU's approval of a costly 10 percent shareholder return, one of the highest rates allowed by an electric distribution company regulator in the last five years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-appeals-eversource-rate-case-decision|title=AG Healey Appeals Eversource Rate Case Decision|work=Mass.gov|access-date=2018-02-11|language=en|archive-date=2018-02-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210013156/https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-appeals-eversource-rate-case-decision|url-status=live}}</ref>

On January 30, 2018, Massachusetts Rep. [[Thomas Golden Jr.|Thomas Golden]] and Sen. [[Michael J. Barrett|Michael Barrett]] held an Oversight Hearing on the DPU's decision to approve Eversource's proposal to include a demand charge as part of a monthly minimum reliability contribution on net metering customers. Rep. Golden accused the utility of purposefully making the new charges "as confusing as possible." He said, "Let me tell you something gentlemen, I'm not happy how this was rolled out. I'm not happy with the lack of information my office has received." Golden, co-chairman of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, helped write the 2016 law that permits utilities to levy a new minimum monthly charge, and he told Eversource executives they were making it "extremely, extremely difficult" for him to continue to support them in the policy.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_31633713/frustration-grows-over-eversource-solar-charge|title=Golden, Barrett upset over Eversource solar charge|access-date=2018-02-11|archive-date=2018-02-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212005239/http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_31633713/frustration-grows-over-eversource-solar-charge|url-status=live}}</ref>