Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is calling on the state DPU to “prioritize affordability over company profits” as Bay Staters voice sharp opposition to the agency’s order for a 5% gas reduction deferral which they say is a “slap in the face.”

Campbell has called on the Department of Public Utilities to “implement immediate and long-term rate relief measures Massachusetts ratepayers are burdened with ‘sky-high gas and electric bills.’”

The AG sent a letter to the agency on Friday, a day after commissioners ordered the state’s six natural gas companies to reduce energy bills by at least 5% for the rest of the “peak season,” in March and April.

In the eyes of Campbell, scores of lawmakers and thousands of Bay Staters, a shortfall of the order is that costs will be deferred to the “off-peak season,” meaning ratepayers will have to shoulder the load during the warmer months.

In her letter, Campbell requested the companies “defer such costs without carrying charges so that customers’ repayments are not inflated due to the compounding of interest.”

“This request, if implemented,” Campbell wrote, “will ensure that the Companies shoulder a small portion of this winter’s high energy cost burden that they are asking, instead, to be shouldered entirely by their customers.

“Gas customers understandably have reacted with outrage to recent hikes in their gas bills,” the AG wrote, “specifically to the delivery charge component of those bills, which includes a multitude of charges that not only escalate based on gas usage but also are impossible to understand for most customers.”

Campbell’s letter also came after residents and lawmakers mounted their calls for her to get involved in addressing the gas rates that have risen through the roof during a bitterly cold winter and after the DPU had approved substantial rate increases last fall.

State Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, sent a letter to the AG on Friday, requesting an investigation into “energy rate structures to determine whether affordability for consumers is being properly protected.”

Montigny called the deferral a “slap in the face of consumers.’

“Consumers have seen their bills rise hundreds of dollars,” he said in a statement, “and the response is to give them a few bucks off their next two bills, which will be paid a few months later. This isn’t a serious response to the price gouging that has occurred.”

State Rep. Michael Chaisson, a Republican representing Foxboro, Mansfield and Norton, echoed Montigny’s concerns, calling the DPU’s order “nothing more than a tactic to delay real relief while families continue to suffer.”

“This is NOT a solution,” Chaisson said in a Facebook post, “and I can’t understand how the Governor and her team can even pretend it is. We won’t back down. We’ll continue to fight and make it crystal clear that this isn’t enough and will not be accepted.

Under the order, utility companies must file their proposals to reduce energy bills by 5 p.m. Monday, with the changes slated to take effect March 1. A 5% reduction on a monthly bill of $300 would represent savings of $15.

DPU also ordered the gas companies “to accelerate efforts to promote budget billing programs for residential customers, which allow customers to spread their total energy costs evenly over time.” DPU is also considering longer-term changes to make energy bills more affordable, as companies now figure out how to restructure their expenses.

DPU approved rate hikes of 20% to 30% for Eversource and 11% to 13% for National Grid last November.

Eversource officials have attributed “higher natural gas usage, resulting from the colder temperatures” and an expansion in state environmental-legislative initiatives as the main causes.

In her letter Friday, Campbell pointed out how delivery charges have surged, and the “primary drivers” of the increases are tied to state environmental initiatives including Mass Save, a program supporting Massachusetts’ “statutorily-required greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.”

The Healey administration approved a 25% budget increase for Mass Save last October, and Eversource spokesperson William Hinkle has said that 60% of the delivery cost hike is because of that jump.

Last Sunday, Gov. Maura Healey ordered the DPU to “proactively identify ways to reduce future price volatility for natural gas customers and make rate changes more transparent and predictable,” similar to what she claimed the agency did just two years ago to address a spike in electricity costs.

Critics have said the “steep price increases” are driven by the governor’s hostility toward natural gas.

Elijah DeSousa, who created the Facebook advocacy group “Citizens Against Eversource,” said he wonders why electricity costs are mostly left out of the picture. In a video of an interview with WBZ Channel 4 that he posted on YouTube, DeSousa said he’s hearing from residents who are “upset” electricity costs aren’t being mentioned in the discussion.

“I think it’s because they understand that those heavy green initiatives are attached to electricity at a much higher level,” he said, “and they know that shaking that cage is really going to rattle some things in their pockets and in their donors’ pockets.”

More than 12,000 residents have signed DeSousa’s petition to “halt and reverse Eversource’s rate and delivery hikes, eliminate extortive public interest charges, demand economic reevaluation, legislative transparency and inquiry.”