2025 City Awake: Roundtable Discussion with Secretary Rebecca Tepper

Rebecca Tepper has served as the Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs since her appointment by Governor Maura Healey in 2023. Secretary Tepper oversees the agencies charged with facilitating the clean energy transition, improving resilience to climate change, safeguarding Massachusetts’ natural resources, and providing access to the outdoors. In this role, she successfully brokered a compromise to speed up clean energy siting and permitting practices, established new programs to protect communities from inland and coastal flooding, boosted investment in Massachusetts’ climatetech and offshore wind industries, and significantly strengthened regional ties to advance New England’s energy independence. Throughout these efforts, she’s led with an environmental justice lens and a focus on lowering costs for Massachusetts residents and businesses.

Previously, Tepper was the Chief of the Energy and Environment Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, where she focused on keeping ratepayer costs down, protecting strong federal environmental protections, and advocating for innovative regulatory frameworks to affordably transition away from fossil fuels. She also served as General Counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and Director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board. Before entering state government in 2009, Tepper worked in the private sector for 15 years as a Partner at Rubin and Rudman, LLP. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin/Madison and Boston University Law School. She lives in Lexington with her husband and twin boys.