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Climate activists and legislators in Massachusetts are pushing a series of bills aimed at stopping further expansions of the natural gas system in the state.
The proposed legislation attempts to build on a groundbreaking order late last year that set the explicit policy goal of transitioning the state from natural gas. The bills include measures to prohibit the construction of more pipelines, stop expansion of service into new cities and towns, and encourage the growth of utility-scale networked geothermal projects.
“The order said they need legislative changes to fully implement their directives,” said Jess Nahigian, state political director for the Massachusetts Sierra Club. “We need to see something out of the legislature this year that moves us towards meeting our legal reductions mandates.”
Massachusetts has set a goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050. A considerable obstacle, however, is the prevalence of natural gas as a heating source: More than half the homes in the state use natural gas as their primary heating fuel. So in 2020, state regulators launched an investigation into the future of natural gas in the state and what utilities’ role would be in the transition from fossil fuels.
After two and a half years of filings, arguments, and deliberation, the state released an order in December 2023 that many hailed as transformational for its clear vision of transitioning from natural gas and holding utilities accountable for reducing emissions. The document laid out a set of principles to guide the process, leaving utilities, regulators, and legislators to build out the specifics.
That’s what some lawmakers are pushing for with the current slate of bills.
House Bill 3237 would stop utilities from bringing natural gas into municipalities that don’t already have service. While most cities and towns are already served by gas pipelines, several dozen, largely in central and western Massachusetts, are still without service. The bill would also prohibit state regulators from approving proposals to build new pipelines to import more natural gas until at least 2026.
Another bill proposed in both the House (H.3203) and Senate (S.2105) contains measures to facilitate home electrification and the development of utility-scale networked geothermal, systems that use thermal energy below the earth’s surface to heat and cool buildings. The legislation redefines a “gas company” as an entity that provides either natural gas or thermal energy, and specifies that the companies’ legal obligation to provide service can be met by natural gas, or alternatives such as heat pumps or networked geothermal.
The legislation would also create a fund that could be used to help low- and moderate-income residents switch from gas to electric appliances. The fund could also pay to retrain gas utility workers to build and maintain geothermal pipes and infrastructure, creating more secure employment for these workers during the transition away from natural gas.
“That way they can gradually transition to this new system while not being laid off, while still being able to feed their families,” said Audrey Schulman, co-founder of HEET, a nonprofit that champions networked geothermal developments.
A third bill, H.3227, would allow any city or town to prohibit fossil fuel use in new construction or major renovations. A 2022 clean energy law created a pilot program allowing these bans in 10 municipalities that had previously voted for the policy. Several additional cities and towns, however, came forward after the law was passed, expressing interest in enacting such rules. Climate activists have long argued these communities — and any additional municipalities that vote for the measure — should be allowed to enact their own bans.
Supporters of these bills point to the environmental impacts of burning less fossil fuel, but also make an economic argument in favor of restricting the growth of gas. The economics of gas companies’ current course of action just doesn’t make sense, advocates argue. Any new infrastructure built now — when the state has explicitly declared a move away from natural gas — is likely to become unneeded or underused long before the normal end of its lifespan. Ratepayers would be left continuing to pay for an obsolescent system.
“Should we be building this infrastructure now that, as we transition off of gas, will be a stranded asset in the ground?” asked Cathy Kristofferson, board member of the Pipeline Awareness Network of the Northeast.
At the same time, the utilities recently filed their grid modernization plans, seeking approval to pass on about $2.4 billion in costs to consumers. While these plans are necessary to make the grid ready for the electrified future, they will inevitably increase costs for consumers, said Sen. Michael Barrett, co-chair of the Senate telecommunications, utilities, and energy committee. It makes sense to take steps to keep natural gas costs in check, he said.
“You do that by making sure that new pipes that take 30 years to pay off don’t go into the ground unless they’re absolutely necessary,” Barrett said. “If you’re going to maximize the electric system you should minimize the gas system. There’s a nice balance there.”
Some, however, argue the push against natural gas is going too far, too fast. Many homebuyers prefer gas for both cooking and hearing, said Emerson Clauss III, a board member and past president of the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Massachusetts. Though some studies have found minimal cost increases, Clauss says many association members find all-electric homes considerably more expensive to build than houses with gas hook-ups. As the state grapples with a serious housing shortage, new policies should not make it more expensive to build homes, Clauss said.
“I don’t know how we resolve our housing crisis without some good planning and options — and that’s what they’re taking off the table,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have to get people into housing they can afford.”
Advocates generally expect provisions from these individual bills to be wrapped into an omnibus climate bill. Sen. President Karen Spilka at the end of April declared plans for the Senate to tackle a major, comprehensive climate bill, led by Barrett and majority leader Cynthia Creem, before the session closes at the end of July.
“I hope large parts will make it into any omnibus bill,” Schulman said. “This is the time.”
OIL & GAS: The U.S. EPA is reportedly considering tougher emissions rules for new gas power plants ahead of their expected final release this month — a contrast with other Biden administration environmental rules that have generally been weakened after their initial proposal. (Washington Post)
ALSO:
CLEAN ENERGY: Renewable energy generation breaks records across the U.S., including in Texas, where wind energy and solar are toppling coal generation, and New England, which set an emissions-free power generation record in March. (E&E News, subscription; Houston Chronicle, Concord Monitor)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The nation’s first fully battery-powered tugboat is set to begin operating from California’s Port of San Diego later this spring. (Canary Media)
PIPELINES:
OFFSHORE WIND: The demise of several Northeast offshore wind projects last year sent Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer into a lobbying frenzy that resulted in a modified tax credit to benefit developers and the approval of new projects. (E&E News)
GRID:
COAL: The Army Corps of Engineers says it should be able to open a limited-access channel by the end of the month to access Baltimore’s port, through which a notable chunk of the country’s coal exports pass. (Daily Record)
SOLAR: Indigenous advocates protest a proposed solar development in central Washington state, saying it threatens cultural resources. (High Country News)
COMMENTARY:
PIPELINES: South Dakota ethanol companies offered meals, swag, and other perks to busloads of people to influence lawmakers on carbon pipeline legislation last month, raising legal and ethical questions from critics. (Argus Leader)
ALSO:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Purdue University partners with an Indiana agency and the private sector to build the country’s first highway segment that could wirelessly charge electric vehicles as they travel. (Indianapolis Star)
BATTERIES:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES: AEP Ohio residential customers will pay about $10 more per month in higher transmission fees while those same rates for businesses and large industrial users will go down. (Columbus Dispatch)
NUCLEAR: Momentum is building behind nuclear energy in Michigan as lawmakers seek to support the industry, regulators study the benefits and risks, and top state and federal officials plan to reopen a shuttered plant. (Michigan Advance)
GRID:
COMMENTARY: A University of Kansas doctoral student says boosting energy efficiency in rental housing would deliver environmental, economic and social benefits. (Kansas Reflector)
TRANSPORTATION: The Biden administration announces a new rule that aims to ensure 25% of all new long-haul trucks and 40% of medium-duty trucks are zero-emission by 2032, earning praise from environmental groups but concern from truck and engine manufacturers. (New York Times, NPR)
ALSO:
POWER PLANTS:
CLIMATE:
CLEAN ENERGY: A new report ranks Illinois best in the country for state policy that supports community ownership of clean energy, while most states earn failing grades. (Canary Media)
GRID: Software and smart meters are unlocking new potential for price-based demand response, using variable rates to change customer behavior. (Utility Dive)
OIL & GAS: Hundreds of people attend a public hearing in Colorado to debate proposed legislation to ban oil and gas drilling in the state by 2030. (CBS News)
NUCLEAR: A court vacates a company’s license to develop an interim spent nuclear reactor fuel repository in southeastern New Mexico, saying federal regulators lacked authority to issue the permit. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
OFFSHORE WIND:
When I think about manufacturing and heavy industry, macaroni doesn’t usually come to mind.
But just like cement producers and glass manufacturers, factories that make Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Kraft mac and cheese and other name-brand foods have a big carbon footprint. And that’s why they’re among manufacturers set to split $6.3 billion of newly awarded federal funding for 33 emissions-reducing projects.
Ten Kraft Heinz factories will use their funding to decarbonize their process heat systems using electric heat pumps and boilers, and install solar panels, biogas boilers, and energy storage to power it. A paper facility will implement a new technology that can improve the energy efficiency of the papermaking process. And iron and steel facilities will integrate hydrogen into their projects, among other projects at chemical, metal, and concrete producers.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the projects are all meant to develop “replicable” and “scalable” technology that can eventually be implemented at manufacturing facilities around the world.
Also in federal clean energy funding this week: $475 million will go toward building solar and energy storage systems at former Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia coal mines, as well as gold and copper mines in other states.
— Kathryn Krawczyk
🚦 Yellow light for clean cars: The U.S. EPA proposes a slower phase-in of strict tailpipe pollution limits than it suggested last year, likely driving more hybrid vehicle sales but still setting up electric vehicles to make up the majority of car sales by 2032. (Politico, E&E News)
⚡️ Unlocking geothermal’s potential: Geothermal power could help plug solar and wind power’s intermittency gaps, but experts say first scientists and developers need to unlock next-generation technologies that make it easier and cheaper to harness the earth’s heat. (Canary Media)
🔥 Another gas health impact: Flaring and venting of natural gas in the U.S. causes about two premature deaths each day and costs the economy about $7.4 billion annually in lost work time and other health effects, a peer-reviewed study finds. (Inside Climate News)
🔌 A crack in the code: The International Code Council omits stronger pro-electrification measures from its building code guidelines, rejecting its own expert recommendations and siding with gas utility and furnace manufacturing trade groups. (HuffPost)
🏭 Clean energy’s foil: The U.S. aluminum industry is declining even as demand for the material grows, posing a challenge for domestic production of solar panels, wind turbines and other clean energy components. (Canary Media)
🏠 Not easy being green: Two climate reporters share how they moved their house off natural gas, installing an electric heat pump, water heater and appliances. (Grist)
🌎 Chamber of climate inaction: Microsoft, Pfizer and more of the country’s biggest companies are quietly opposing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as it fights federal climate action and environmental disclosure rules. (E&E News)
POLLUTION: Colorado lawmakers introduce legislation that would tighten new greenhouse gas emissions rules for large industrial sites and expand the state’s air quality regulatory board. (CPR)
ALSO: Utah lawmakers introduce legislation aimed at making it easier for the state to flout federal pollution regulations. (Salt Lake Tribune, subscription)
CLEAN ENERGY:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES: A Colorado electric cooperative predicts it will obtain 90% of its power from renewable sources by 2025. (Vail Daily)
OIL & GAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Oregon lawmakers advance a bill that would ban people under 16 years old from riding electric bicycles. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
BATTERIES: The first phase of a $1 billion lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility under construction in Arizona is expected to employ about 1,250 people when it is completed later this year. (Arizona Republic)
CLIMATE: Montana advocates, residents and businesses urge regulators to consider the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in gas and electric utility regulation. (Daily Montanan)
GEOTHERMAL: Energy startup Fervo secures $244 million in financing to support its 400 MW enhanced geothermal facility under construction in western Utah. (news release)
COMMENTARY:
CARBON CAPTURE: A Bill Gates-backed startup plans to begin production at what it says will be the world’s largest carbon removal plant this week, where it will collect woody biomass from area paper mills and convert it into bricks to be stored underground. (E&E News)
ALSO: West Virginia lawmakers advance a bill to shift control of the permitting of carbon capture wells from the U.S. EPA to the state. (WV News)
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
EMISSIONS: A judge denies a motion by Virginia’s attorney general to throw out a lawsuit by an energy conservation group that seeks to block the state’s withdrawal from a regional carbon market. (Roanoke Times)
OVERSIGHT: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry appoints a new leader for the state agency that oversees coastal restoration and hurricane protection, while also considering whether to merge that agency with the energy and natural resources department to make it easier for oil and gas companies to operate. (Louisiana Illuminator, NOLA.com)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
PIPELINES: A federal judge blocks a company’s attempt to condemn and transfer property for a Texas pipeline before talking to landowners it’s so far been unable to reach. (Texas Public Radio)
GRID:
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The U.S. EPA holds listening sessions to “ground-truth” its efforts in Richmond, Virginia, and other environmentally stressed communities as President Biden nears the end of his first term. (Inside Climate News)
EFFICIENCY: North Carolina officials confirm the state applied for federal efficiency and appliance rebates, which should be available to residents later this year. (Winston-Salem Journal)
COMMENTARY: News that Alabama Power is entering negotiations with the U.S. EPA to remove and recycle tons of coal ash could be good news for 300 square miles of “America’s Amazon” downstream from a coal-fired power plant, writes an opinion contributor. (New York Times)
OIL & GAS: The federal Bureau of Land Management abandons work on a resource management plan ten years in the making that would guide oil and gas development in northwestern New Mexico’s Chaco region, baffling conservationists and the industry alike. (Capital & Main)
ALSO:
MINING:
UTILITIES: An Oregon county joins winemakers’ lawsuit against Pacific Power for its alleged role in sparking the 2020 Labor Day wildfires. (KOIN)
ELECTRIFICATION: Colorado residents accuse Xcel Energy of hampering efforts to electrify their homes and disconnect from natural gas service. (Daily Camera)
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Oregon receives $1.27 million in federal funding to develop electric vehicle charging infrastructure in underserved communities. (KPIC 4)
CLIMATE:
POLITICS: Republican Utah lawmakers establish an “environmental stewardship” caucus that emphasizes the importance of fossil fuels. (Deseret News)
POLICY: A majority of Maryland voters want the state to be tougher on oil and gas companies by making them pay for climate-related infrastructure upgrades, a new poll finds. (Maryland Matters)
ALSO: New Hampshire’s lack of resources for local, county and state officials to put together successful grant applications may be why it recently missed out on funds for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (NHPR)
GRID: Federal energy regulators approve new reforms proposed by PJM Interconnection to improve reliability by changing the grid operator’s resource adequacy risk modeling and capacity accreditation processes. (Utility Dive)
GAS:
OFFSHORE WIND: Federal ocean energy officials kick off a public comment period for the draft environmental assessment of the Beacon Wind project. (North American Wind Power)
FLOODS: Some New Jersey towns along the Passaic River experience frequent flooding, but climate resiliency projects that could alleviate the issue come with large price tags. (Gothamist)
BUILDINGS: A Massachusetts historical society’s museum receives net-zero certification after installing a solar array. (Berkshire Eagle)
CLIMATE:
AFFORDABILITY: Maine lawmakers may extend a soon-to-expire electric bill assistance program that helps low-income ratepayers make timely payments in exchange for bill forgiveness. (Portland Press Herald)
OIL & GAS: Climate advocates say planned export liquefied natural gas export terminals could negate the Biden administration’s promised efforts to crack down on methane emissions. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
CLIMATE: The Biden administration touts $1 trillion in climate achievements over the last three years — a number with unclear sourcing that far exceeds the $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act. (E&E News)
GEOTHERMAL: Colleges across the northern U.S. are building geothermal systems equipped with ground-source heat pumps to heat and cool buildings without emissions. (New York Times)
ELECTRIFICATION: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to introduce an ordinance this week that would ban natural gas hookups in new buildings and homes, a climate strategy facing pushback from a powerful local union. (Sun-Times)
MINING: An Arkansas town that was once dotted with oil wells sees familiarity in Exxon Mobil and other companies’ plans to explore lithium production in the area. (Grist)
GRID:
PIPELINES: A forthcoming U.S. Justice Department brief will show the Biden administration’s view on how a 1977 energy treaty with Canada affects efforts to shut down the Line 5 pipeline in Michigan. (Canadian Press)
EFFICIENCY:
SOLAR: Solar installations for houses of worship became more appealing under the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which allows them to directly claim tax credits. (Interlochen Public Radio)
POLICY: Connecticut lawmakers were unable to pass most of the provisions outlined in major climate bills in 2023, despite extreme weather and regional policy progress. (CT Mirror)
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