02/10/2026
🚨Project Beacon Deserves Same Urgency Gov. Healey Is Seeking for Smaller RARE Expansion
📢Project Beacon would add four times as much natural gas capacity, but Governor has yet to commit her support
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance responded to Governor Maura Healey’s letter urging the Trump administration to speed federal review of the Algonquin pipeline’s RARE expansion, pointing out that the Governor is weighing in on a smaller project already moving through the regulatory process while remaining silent on the much larger proposed Project Beacon expansion.
“Governor Healey seems to have finally discovered that more natural gas supply is good for Massachusetts ratepayers. So where is that support for the much larger Project Beacon?” said Paul Diego Craney, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. “The project she is pushing Washington to accelerate would increase Algonquin capacity by about 2 percent. Project Beacon would increase it by roughly 10 percent. If more natural gas means lower costs, why stop at 2 percent?”
The RARE project would add approximately 75 million cubic feet per day of natural gas capacity to the Algonquin system. The project is already advancing through the regulatory process, with FERC beginning its pre-filing environmental review earlier this year. Project Beacon, by comparison, proposes adding 300 million cubic feet per day, approximately four times as much additional capacity.
Last week, the Fiscal Alliance Foundation released a study by Always On Energy Research estimating that Project Beacon could save Massachusetts ratepayers an average of $367 million per winter across natural gas and electricity costs. The study estimates the project could increase Algonquin transmission capacity by roughly 10 percent and provide approximately $76 in net winter savings for a typical gas-heated household.
MassFiscal is calling on Governor Healey to publicly state whether she supports Project Beacon and explain whether she believes the larger 300 MMcf/d expansion should receive the same urgency she is now requesting for RARE.
“Governor Healey has now made the case that additional natural gas supply can lower costs and deserves urgent federal attention,” said Craney. “MassFiscal is calling on her to tell Massachusetts ratepayers plainly whether she supports Project Beacon’s 300 MMcf/d expansion. If she does not, she should explain why a project four times larger does not merit the same consideration.”
