Maura Healey taps Rebecca Tepper as energy and environment secretary

Rebecca Tepper, currently the chief of the energy and environment bureau in the attorney general’s office, will continue working under Maura Healey in the new year, joining the incoming governor’s Cabinet as secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

As EEA secretary, Tepper will oversee the state’s six environmental, natural resource and energy regulatory agencies, and oversee the Healey administration’s work to electrify buildings and transportation systems as part of an effort to keep Massachusetts on a path to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Tepper joined the attorney general’s office in 2015 as head of the energy and environment bureau’s energy and telecommunications division, then took over as the full bureau’s chief in early 2021.

In her current position, Tepper serves as Healey’s chief advisor on energy and environmental policy — a role that she will continue to fulfill as a Cabinet secretary.

“In my time working with Rebecca, I’ve known her to be a strong leader who cares deeply about our environment and also understands the great opportunity before us to partner with our workforce and businesses to drive our clean energy revolution and preserve our beautiful natural resources,” Healey said in a statement. “She’s smart, experienced and committed to the cause, and I know that she will be a consensus builder and deliver the results we so urgently need.”

Tepper will work closely with Melissa Hoffer, who Healey and Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Driscoll tapped earlier this month to be the state’s first climate chief, to deliver on the state’s climate commitments.

The two climate and environmental policy leads will work toward cleaner and greener energy, while also putting their heads together on creating “a climate corridor of innovation, technology and investment across the state,” a press release from Healey’s team said.

Just last week, Gov. Charlie Baker’s outgoing administration laid out a new emission reduction plan for Healey’s incoming team that calls for all of the state’s more than 5 million light-duty vehicles to run on electric power instead of fossil fuels, 80% of Massachusetts homes to be heated and cooled with electric heat pumps, and the statewide electrical infrastructure to be able to handle more than double the current load, all by 2050.

The 2050 plan, which the Baker administration released on its way out the door of state government, seeks to formalize and expand a range of tactics already in play, leaning heavily on electrifying the transportation and building sectors and expanding clean energy sources such as offshore wind.

As a state, Massachusetts has committed to achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of 33% by 2025, 50% by 2030, 75% by 2040 and at least 85% by 2050, all compared to the baseline of 1990 emissions. Massachusetts was required to reduce carbon emissions by at least 25% from the 1990 baseline by 2020 and the Baker administration determined that 2020 emissions were actually 31.4% below the 1990 level.

Healey’s personal climate goals coming into office include achieving 100 percent clean electricity supply by 2030 and electrifying public transportation with clean power by 2040, according to her campaign page.

Before starting her work in Healey’s office, Tepper served four years as general counsel for the Department of Public Utilities regulating utility companies, and implementing and enforcing the state’s clean energy policies, according to her LinkedIn profile. As director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board from 2009 through 2011, Tepper adjudicated petitions to construct energy infrastructure such as transmission lines, gas pipelines and electric generating facilities, her LinkedIn says.

“I’m honored to be chosen as EEA Secretary by Gov.-elect Healey and Lt. Gov.-elect Driscoll,” Tepper said. “The challenge of this moment is not lost on me — we have enormous work to do to deliver relief to Massachusetts residents and businesses who are struggling with rising energy bills and aggressively move forward on our climate goals. Our transition to a clean energy economy will create good paying, sustainable jobs and deliver health, environmental and equity benefits to all Massachusetts residents.”