Thanks to Ed Young for pointing to the mass.gov site titled "Energy Switch Massachusetts". My understanding is that it was originally set up to facilitate shopping by price, and it may be useful for that (at least if you monitor your alternate supplier for subsequent rate hikes).
However, its column describing the amount of "Renewable Energy" should not be relied upon if you are trying to compare the relative environmental benefit of alternative suppliers. That is because it fails to distinguish between (1) Class 1 RECs as defined by MA law (buying them gets more renewable generation sources built) and (2) other RECs such as so-called "Texas wind" (buying them, in contrast, and has essentially no real-world effect, other than you just got fooled into giving someone else your money). This is essentially the same problem as the misleading adverting from Clean Choice Energy and their ilk. If you want your payments for electricity to reduce emissions of global-warming gases, you should make sure you are paying for Class 1 RECs. 1) You can be assured of doing that when you participate in the Lincoln Green Energy Choice program. 2) If you currently are with an alternative supplier, such as one of those listed on the "Energy Switch Massachusetts" website, we welcome you switching to the Lincoln Green Energy Choice program at any time. (Check whether your supplier will penalize you for leaving early.) 3) If you have friends outside of Lioncoln who don't have our great program available to them, you can recommend them to Green Energy Consumer Alliance (https://www.greenenergyconsumers.org/greenpowered), which allows anyone to "green" their electricity by buying Class 1 RECs. - Paul Shorb
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