Massachusetts launches commission to cut building emissions, heating fuel use

Massachusetts launched a 2022 process to identify building decarbonization strategies as part of its expanding efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from the state's homes and businesses.

The state on Jan. 12 swore in members of the new Commission on Clean Heat. Over the year, the commission will develop policy recommendations and a framework for reducing building sector emissions.

In a Jan. 12 news release, Gov. Charlie Baker and administration officials stressed the diversity of board members, who represent utilities; environmental and affordable housing groups; health care organizations; and the building design, construction and real estate industries. Still, the administration said policies developed by the commission would "seek to sustainably reduce the use of heating fuels."

That focus could build on recent moves toward building electrification in Massachusetts — which is among the top states for residential and commercial gas use — and create a more challenging environment for gas utilities.

"While we move forward with accelerating the aggressive deployment of energy efficiency and heat pumps, this first-in-the-nation commission on clean heat will identify the next generation of cost-effective and equitable policies that yield deep building sector decarbonization across the Commonwealth," Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Patrick Woodcock said in the release.

Building heating generates nearly one-third of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, and those emissions must fall in order to meet legally mandated emissions reductions goals, according to Baker's September 2021 executive order establishing the Commission on Clean Heat.

The 2021 climate law requires Massachusetts to cut emissions below 1990 levels by 50% by 2030 and 75% by 2040 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

In July 2021, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides established new greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals through the three-year Mass Save Plan, a collaborative energy efficiency program among Massachusetts electric and gas utilities. The Baker administration expects the 2022-2024 program to achieve the goals by increasing annual building retrofits and weatherization, investing in existing building electrification and scaling back incentives for fossil fuel heating, provided the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, or DPU, approves the plan.

In October 2021, the state's Energy Efficiency Advisory Council approved a new Three-Year Energy Efficiency Plan geared toward aligning the 2022-2024 program with state climate goals and increasing program participation in environmental justice communities.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources is also developing a highly efficient stretch energy code that could allow local governments to mandate building electrification. More than 20 Massachusetts towns and cities have sought that authority. Building electrification has the support of Attorney General Maura Healey, who prompted the DPU to launch a review of natural gas' role in the future energy mix.

Judy Chang, Undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions at the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, will chair the Commission on Clean Heat, which must deliver policy recommendations to Baker by Nov. 30, 2022. An interagency Building Decarbonization Task Force, composed of executive branch subject-matter experts, will support the commission's work.