Since restructuring in 1997, Massachusetts IOUs no longer generate electricity. IOUs only distribute electricity to end-users and, just like many Munis, IOUs purchase their electricity wholesale from power plants (or middlemen).

Compared with IOUs, Munis generally offer:

• improved reliability ( fewer outages ),

• lower electricity rates :

  	in 2006, munis in Massachusetts charged on average $62 for 500 kWh per month; for the same electricity, NStar charged $103 and National Grid charged $80, respectively 67% and 29% more than munis
  	15 Boston-area Munis charged residential customers 24% less than NStar and 10% less for businesses and municipal buildings over the past 12 years
  	average Muni residential rates in Massachusetts were 9.9 cents/kWh in 2003, 16% less than IOU rates of 11.8 cents/kWh
  	in the summer of 2001, a typical Lexington resident paid $137 per month to NStar, but a Concord Muni customer paid $94 for the same power, 31% less than NStar charged
  	almost all Massachusetts Munis charged residents much less than IOUs in 2004 and in 2005

• responsiveness to local priorities (for example, urban development, beautification, using clean energy, or placing wires underground ).

  
  The Marblehead Muni placed utility wires underground (Left: before - Right: after)

  
  NStar breaks the State law when double poles are around for more than 90 days

• better customer service : faster response to questions and complaints, quicker resolution of problems

State law (MGL Chapter 164) allows a city or town to create a Muni by acquiring the distribution equipment from the incumbent IOU at a fair price. But Chapter 164 needs clarification for that option to become truly feasible. No Massachusetts community has formed a Muni since 1926 (when Fort Devens closed in the 1990s, the Army-owned distribution system was converted into a partial Muni, a special situation).

In 2002, 8 legislators filed bill H1468 to provide the necessary clarification. The Boston Globe called the bill "A promising bill [...that] would restore some power to the consumer". Like most bills in their first legislative session, H1468 was not enacted during the 2003-04 session after it became part of a broader electricity bill which itself did not move forward.

In the 2005-06 legislative session, 40 legislators refiled the legislation as Bill H3294 to clarify our State law. Representative Jay Kaufman was the chief sponsor. After a public hearing on September 20, 2005 before the Legislature's Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, a Boston Globe editorial said about H3294 that "Municipal power companies can and do outperform the big power brokers. [...] local communities should be allowed to seek the best deal for their customers -- the taxpayers." But the Joint Committee killed Bill H3294 and Bill H4204 by sending them to "study" in March 2006. (Bill H4204, a Lexington "home rule petition", would have allowed the Town of Lexington alone to form a Muni following the same process as in Bill H3294.)

In January 2007, 53 State legislators led by Representative Jay Kaufman, refiled the legislation, now known as Bill H3319, "an act relative to the establishment of municipal lighting authorities."

Bill H3319 is co-sponsored by 41 Representatives out of 160 (Geraldo Alicea, Cory Atkins, Bruce Ayers, Ruth Balser, William Brownsberger, Jennifer Callahan, Robert Coughlin, Viriato DeMacedo, James Eldridge, John Fernandes, Michael Festa, Jennifer Flanagan, William Galvin, Susan Gifford, Anne Gobi, Denis Guyer, Lida Harkins, Bradford Hill, Brian Joyce, Louis Kafka, Jay Kaufman, Thomas Kennedy, Kay Khan, Robert Koczera, Peter Koutoujian, David Linsky, Elizabeth Malia, James Marzilli, Charles Murphy, Harold Naughton, Robert Nyman, Matthew Patrick, Sarah Peake, Denise Provost, John Scibak, Carl Sciortino, Frank Smizik, Thomas Stanley, Ellen Story, Timothy Toomey and Alice Wolf), and by 12 Senators out of 40 (Cynthia Creem, Susan Fargo, Robert Havern, Patricia Jehlen, Michael Knapik, Richard Moore, Robert O'Leary, Pamela Resor, Richard Ross, James Timilty, Steven Tolman and Susan Tucker).

Several organizations (including Massachusetts Municipal Association, Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, MASSPIRG, the Mass Climate Action Network, and the Cape Light Compact) have endorsed this legislation.

The legislation is also endorsed by 143 of Massachusetts's 351 cities and towns (directly, or through the Cape Light Compact or the Franklin Regional Council of Governments) representing 63% of the population served by IOUs in Massachusetts. By individual IOU, these 143 cities and towns account for 90% of the population served by NStar, 44% of the population served by National Grid, 40% of the population served by Western Mass Electric and 85% of the population served by Unitil in Massachusetts.

Bill H3319 gives the option to form up to 3 Munis per year, creating for the first time in Massachusetts a form of competition in the distribution of electricity. This will lead IOUs to improve their service, lower their rates and become more responsive to local needs everywhere in the State, even if very few new Munis are created. As a result, all Massachusetts residents and businesses will benefit from H3319.

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