Massachusetts is moving away from natural gas as a home heating fuel on two regulatory fronts. Gas supplies the heat for 51% of the state’s homeowners and is a multi-billion-dollar business for the local gas distribution companies. Two state agencies are looking at how to diminish gas use.
The Bay State move is part of a significant trend. Inside Climate News reported, “Massachusetts is the first state to take such a clear step to phase out natural gas, but it likely won’t be the last. At least 11 other states (California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington) as well as Washington, D.C., have ongoing regulatory cases that are exploring the future of natural gas.”
The state utility regulator, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU), Dec. 6 issued a long-term rulemaking (Order 20-80) that will effectively discourage gas “local distribution companies (LDCs)” from new gas heating installations in favor of electricity, with a goal of achieving “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions from home heating by 2050. Under the new policy, according to a DPU press release, the agency is “imposing a new requirement that LDCs evaluate whether non-gas alternatives are available that would make additional investment in gas infrastructure unnecessary. This requirement will only apply to new infrastructure.”
In addition, “Noting that the LDCs currently each have their own mechanism for calculating the cost of line extension, Order 20-80 calls for a new standardized mechanism, which will be explored in future proceedings.” Also, LDCs will no longer be able to recover costs for the promotion of natural gas use.
Starting in 2025, the LDC’s every five years must file “climate compliance plans” coordinated with the Massachusetts electric utilities outlining “how the LDCs intend to transition to clean energy….”
Mass DPU Chairman James van Nostrand said, “As Massachusetts moves towards net zero emissions by 2050, the DPU must develop a regulatory structure for the gas sector befitting that requirement.”
At the same time as the DPU was moving the commonwealth away from new gas heating, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Dec. 8 held a public technical session on a proposed “clean heat standard” (CHS) to encourage current gas customers to move away from natural gas, propane, and oil for home heating. As a DEP paper describes it, the clean heat standard would create a market for moving away from fossil heating fuels in favor of electricity, particularly through electric heat pumps.
A DEP briefing paper explains, “Like other environmental standards that use marketable credits, the CHS will be used to reduce GHG emissions from building heat, with a focus on encouraging electrification and energy efficiency. The standard would require obligated parties to demonstrate a reduction in emissions by deploying applicable clean technologies or purchasing clean heat credits from 3 parties that have successfully implemented solutions.”
The DEP paper says, “Like other environmental standards that use marketable credits, the CHS will be used to reduce GHG emissions from building heat, with a focus on encouraging electrification and energy efficiency. The standard would require obligated parties to demonstrate a reduction in emissions by deploying applicable clean technologies or purchasing clean heat credits from 3 parties that have successfully implemented solutions. The standard encourages competition while reducing emissions, minimizing homeowner transaction costs, and sharing the burden of the transition widely and equitably.”
The analysis adds, “The CHS concept builds on the many successful energy and environmental ‘standards’ that use marketable credits to support and document the use of clean energy technologies, such as MassDEP’s Clean Energy Standard (CES), California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), and the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The common element that defines these standards is that they require energy suppliers to demonstrate the deployment of specified types and quantities of clean energy by implementing clean energy themselves or purchasing credits.”
The Boston-based Conservation Law Center commented on the clean heat standard, “Under a well-designed program, fuel companies and gas utilities could transition some customers to cleaner heating options, like a geothermal network using heat pumps to capture the natural heat generated underground by the earth. They could also pay another company to help customers weatherize their homes or install heat pumps.”
–Kennedy Maize
To subscribe to The Quad Report – it’s free — use the email address and type “subscribe” in the subject line.