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How Mass. plans to cut emissions and curb climate change in the next decade

Solar panels on the roof of a building in Amesbury. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Solar panels on the roof of a building in Amesbury. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Massachusetts is legally required to dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions over the next few decades. By 2050, the state needs to achieve "net-zero" emissions, and getting there will be no easy task. It will involve dozens of programs, policies and other moving parts — all of which must be deployed simultaneously.

To make sure the state is on track, the 2021 climate law required that the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs establish interim goals for 2025 and 2030, as well a plan for how to reach them.

In June 2022, the state came out with the "Clean Energy and Climate Plan," which outlines both statewide targets, as well as specific targets for five sectors: transportation, buildings, electricity, natural lands and a catch-all category that includes industrial activities and leaking natural gas pipelines.

Here are the highlights:

Statewide Targets

The state’s goal is to zero out planet-warming emissions by 2050. Using 1990 emissions levels as a baseline, the new climate plan sets overall reduction targets of 33% by 2025 and 50% by 2030.

For context, in 2020, state emissions were down 31.4% from 1990 levels. However, the pandemic halted much of the region's economy, so that figure may not be the best indicator of the state’s progress.

A Red Line train at South Station. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
A Red Line train at South Station. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Transportation

Transportation accounts for 37% of greenhouse gases in the state, making it the single largest source of emissions — not to mention the other impacts gasoline-powered vehicles have on air quality.

The plan calls for the state to reduce transportation-related emissions 18% by 2025 and 34% by 2030. To meet these goals, Massachusetts will have to replace gasoline and diesel-power vehicles with electric ones and reduce the overall number of miles residents drive annually.

Electric vehicles

By 2025, the state says we need 200,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on the road and 15,000 public charging stations. By 2030, Massachusetts needs 900,000 EVs on the road and 75,000 public charging stations. With just over 69,000 EVs on the road in 2023, we have a long way to go.

The state proposes offering rebates at the point of sale and creating programs to help lower-income residents buy new and used electric cars. The plan also calls for building fast-chargers throughout the state and making them easy to use for people who don’t have driveways.

Beyond personal passenger vehicles, the state said it will prioritize electrifying public buses and school buses, especially ones that operate in environmental justice neighborhoods.

Driving less

According to the state, the number of miles Massachusetts residents put on their cars annually has increased from 48.9 billion in 1990 to 61.1 billion in 2019. (2020 was a different story, thanks to the pandemic.)

Reversing this trend will require providing reliable and safe alternatives to travel by car, such as boosting public transit options, more walkable and bikeable streets, and more e-bikes. It will also require municipalities to build more housing near public transportation, which could require updates to zoning laws.

Solar panels on the rooftops of passive house buildings at the Hillside Center. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Solar panels on the rooftops of passive house buildings at the Hillside Center. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Buildings

Heating buildings with gas and oil accounts for 27% of statewide emissions. To meet the goals laid out in the plan — 28% below 1990 levels by 2025 and 47% by 2030 — the state laid out two strategies: improving the energy efficiency of buildings and replacing fossil fuel heating systems with electric heat pumps.

Energy efficiency

The plan says Massachusetts residents need to retrofit about 10% of all homes by 2025, a process that involves better insulation, sealing off air leaks, replacing windows and installing electric heating and cooling systems. To help homeowners afford these upgrades, the state proposed expanding Mass Save’s incentive programs and creating new programs to help lower-income residents.

Heat pumps

The state plan calls for the "widespread deployment" of heat pumps to warm and cool buildings. Though it stops short of setting a target for the number of units it hopes to install, a draft of its "Clean Energy and Climate Plan" released in early 2022 suggested we'd need hundreds of thousands of units installed by the end of the decade.

Ramping up won't be easy, and the new plan outlined several possible programs and regulations that could help. These include:

  • Launching a public awareness campaign to teach residents about heat pumps, retrofits and available incentives or financing programs.
  • Exploring new financing options to help people afford the switch and any related electrical or duct work.
  • Creating regulations that help utilities get on board with these changes.
  • Supporting technological innovation and job training programs. Right now, one of the hardest parts about switching to a heat pump is finding installers.
  • Establishing building performance standards that would gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, similar to what Boston did for large buildings in 2021.
  • Finalizing an optional green building code for construction that cities and towns can adopt. For more on that, read our explainer.

The state-appointed Commission on Clean Heat published a report in November 2022 with more specific recommendations for how the state can reduce emissions from the building sector.

Powerlines in Medway. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Powerlines in Medway. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Electricity

Greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power system comprise another 20% of total emissions in Massachusetts. And using 1990 emissions levels as a baseline, the plan says the state must reduce emissions 53% by 2025 and 70% by 2030.

The good news is the state has already made a lot of progress in this sector; Massachusetts has halved emissions since 1990 thanks in large part to coal and oil-fired plants that have closed and energy efficiency programs. But there’s a lot left to do to meet our goals, namely:

  • Decarbonize the grid, i.e. get electricity from renewables and other non-carbon emitting sources, instead of from natural gas and oil-fired power plants.
  • Increase the amount of electricity we produce or procure to meet future demand. (The power for all those heat pumps and EVs has to come from somewhere!)

To achieve both of these things, the state recommends continuing to contract for more offshore wind power, putting up more solar panels and importing more hydroelectric power from Canada.

But just generating the power isn’t enough. The electricity needs to get to where people use it. And that will require building new transmission and distribution lines, something that is never easy, and usually quite fraught, in New England. To give one example, a proposed transmission line through Maine that would allow Massachusetts to import hydroelectric power from Quebec faced a several-year delay after voters in Maine rejected the project. The project is moving forward now after a legal ruling in the company's favor, though the cost has ballooned.

Other programs and policies currently in place, like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — a mandatory carbon cap-and-trade program  and state requirements that utilities purchase ever-increasing amounts of renewable energy, will help too.

The Weymouth gas compressor station. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
The Weymouth natural gas compressor station. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Industrial sources, gas pipelines, solid waste and other non-energy sources

When it comes to reducing planet-warming emissions, those created by this sort of catch-all sector might not always be top of mind. But they’re important and currently comprise about 10% of statewide emissions.

Using 1990 emissions levels as a baseline, the new plan sets a target of a 34% reduction by 2025 and 48% by 2030. It also offers more specific goals for certain sub-sectors.

Historical greenhouse gas emissions and targets. (Courtesy of The Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs)
Historical greenhouse gas emissions and targets. (Courtesy of The Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs)

To achieve these goals, the report says the state needs to do several things:

  • Tighten regulations around hydrofluorocarbon gases, which are used in many cooling processes. New federal standards for HFCs should go a long way toward helping the state reduce these emissions, the plan says.
  • “Explore additional ways to reduce” methane leaks in natural gas infrastructure.
  • Set tighter emission standards for solid waste incinerators while also working to reduce the amount of garbage created in the state.
A wetland restoration project in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
A wetland restoration project in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Natural and working lands

With a 2050 mandate to achieve net-zero emissions, the state needs to trap carbon dioxide from the air and store it somewhere. With no commercially viable technology available to do this, the works falls on Mother Nature.

"Natural and working lands" refers to farm and ranch lands, forests, grasslands, freshwater and riparian systems, wetlands, coastal and estuarine areas, watersheds, parks, urban and community forests, trails and other open spaces.

Though natural lands have been a net carbon sink, the plan calls for finding even more ways to sequester carbon. Using 1990 emission levels as a baseline, the state aims to further slash emissions in this sector another 19% by 2025 and 25% by 2030.

​To this end, the state plans to:

  • Permanently conserve 63,400 more acres of undeveloped land and water in the state by 2025, and 167,000 acres by 2030. (Currently, 1.4 million acres has permanent protection.)
  • Help farmers manage their soil so it traps more carbon in the land.
  • Find ways to incentivize private landowners to adopt “climate smart management practices,” which could include preserving forested land and promoting sustainable timber harvests.
  • Plant at least 5,000 acres of new trees by 2025 and 16,000 acres by 2030, with an emphasis on urban areas and land near rivers, lakes and other water bodies.
  • Make it easier for wetland restoration projects to get permitted.
A breakdown of natural and working lands in Massachusetts. (Courtesy of the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs)
A breakdown of natural and working lands in Massachusetts. (Courtesy of the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs)

Other big takeaways

Emphasis on equity and environmental justice

The report devoted an entire chapter to equity and environmental justice, noting that every action the state takes should center these concerns.

For example, as the state builds out new electrical infrastructure, it must prevent lower income neighborhoods and communities of color from bearing a disproportionate burden. At the same time, it must make sure these communities benefit from the energy transition with better air quality and more green spaces, new avenues for accessing clean transportation and heat, as well as economic development opportunities.

Emphasis on individual actions

The state can't meet the emissions targets through policies and investments alone, the report points out. A lot rides on people's choices about how they heat their homes and power their vehicles.

To help encourage people to make climate-friendly decisions, the report says the state must design new and generous incentives and programs.

Emphasis on collaboration

Many of the necessary changes require local permits or even zoning changes, so working with communities to build support for new clean energy infrastructure, transmission lines and housing will be crucial. Also important will be collaboration with the other New England states and the federal government on developing clean energy policy and projects.

What will this cost?

The state stops short of giving an overall price tag to the policies outlined in the report. It does, however, estimates that meeting the 2025 and 2030 emissions targets could create 22,000 new good-paying jobs and save the average household $400 a year in utility bills.

This article was originally published on July 05, 2022.

Related:

Headshot of Miriam Wasser

Miriam Wasser Senior Reporter, Climate and Environment
Miriam Wasser is a reporter with WBUR's climate and environment team.

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