On December 6, 2023, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued Order 20-80. The Order changes the Commonwealth’s existing natural gas regulatory program to one that limits the amount that local natural gas utilities can recover. Effectively, this mandates the decommissioning of the existing natural gas system and a shift to electric heating in residences.
This ruling builds on Massachusetts’ 2021 climate law. The 2021 law seeks to displace hydrocarbon fuels with the use of electricity in order to lower the amount of CO2 emissions produced in the Commonwealth. The 2021 law requires a 28% reduction in emissions by 2025 compared to 1990 levels and a 47% reduction by 2030.
Currently, residential and commercial emissions are 18% below those of 1990.
In 2021, Massachusetts generated 56.1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions from the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels. This is down 34.6% from the peak of 85 million in 1997.
Critical to this decline has been the displacement of coal-powered electricity generation by natural gas. In 2005, coal accounted for 30% of in-state generation. The last Massachusetts coal-fired plant was shut down in 2018. By 2022, natural gas dominated Massachusetts electricity generation, accounting for 70.8% of the total.
From the EPRINC Chart of the Week archive.