In an article published in the Oct. 23 print edition and online, titled “NSTAR’s monopoly in Boston utilities nearly inescapable, advocacy groups say,” Patrick Mehr, spokesman for the Massachusetts Alliance for Municipal Electric Choice, was quoted as saying there is no way to be an upstart gas and electric distributor because no one can compete with NSTAR.
Mehr was misquoted because he was only referring to electric distributors and not gas distributors. As a group, MAMEC only addresses the problems with electricity choice, not gas
Mehr was also quoted as saying that MAMEC supports passing legislation that would make it easier for towns and cities to create their own municipal gas and electric distributors.
This is also a misquote because of the reasons stated above, and anything to do with municipal gas distributors should have been taken out of the quote.
As a result, the headline of the article was misleading, as Mehr only addresses one utility — electricity — and not “utilities” plural.
To address these problems, the correct changes for these quotes have been made online and the online headline has been changed to “NSTAR’s monopoly in Boston’s electric services inescapable, advocacy groups say.”
In addition, the article cited NSTAR as the only natural gas and electricity provider in Boston. This is incorrect. NSTAR provides electricity for all of Boston, but is not the only company that provides gas to the city’s residents.
These changes have also been made online.
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