THE FUTURE OF GAS

Massachusetts has strong mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

We can’t meet these targets while continuing to heat our homes and buildings with “natural” gas or methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

In 2020, the state attorney general asked the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to investigate the role of gas companies in meeting state climate goals. 

The DPU turned this responsibility over to the gas companies themselves to assess what they call The Future of Gas, an unofficial, but important process that went on for two years.

The final reports from the Future of Gas are based on flawed assumptions and analysis that do not move the gas companies to clean heat. There is no genuine attempt to meet climate goals.  

  • The plans keep us hooked on gas. They perpetuate use of the current gas infrastructure and ramp up investments in an unsafe fossil-based system. 

  • The plans don’t cut methane emissions. The plans claim reductions by using out-of-date estimates and ignoring scientific measurements of methane.

  • The plans rely on “renewable” gases, so-called by the gas industry. Hydrogen, biomethane, and synthetic gas are just methane by another name. All of them damage the climate and can increase ratepayer costs by up to 15 times. 

  • No changes are made to the Gas System Enhancement Plan. The plans continue a $600 million/year investment in gas pipe replacement, totaling $42 billion by 2039. 

  • Ratepayer values are not addressed. There’s no plan for worker transition, environmental justice, public health, or safety. 

  • The plans only dabble in climate solutions. Although some include energy efficiency, targeted electrification, and GeoGrids, these are minor components that take a backseat to staying on gas.

E3, the consulting company hired by the utilities, has done similar work for other states and gas companies.

Does E3 always conclude that burning gas is emissions free?

Read an analysis of earlier E3 reports for other clients. Thank you to Martyn Roetter, D.Phil (Physics) Oxon

Watch key moments below from the Massachusetts Senate hearing on the Future of Gas, held by Senator Cynthia Creem, Chair of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change.

The process was flawed from the get-go.

“I’m here to ask you to be heroes for my little kids and for all of us who need legislative action to stop these dangerous plans. . . and enable real climate solutions.

Our future is electric. For safe, sustainable heating and air conditioning, our buildings need heat pumps.”


Cora Weissbourd, Brookline Mothers Out Front 


Total investments in the gas system will be $40 billion—far more than the Big Dig.

“The Gas System Enhancement Plan has been a stealth player in 20-80, but it could not be more foundational to five of the eight pathways modeled by the consultants . . .”


Dorie Seavey, Research Climate Economist


Gas company plans are based on troubling inaccuracies.

“I’m going to focus on six inaccuracies that we found . . . “

Vermont Representative Gabrielle Stebbins, Managing Consultant, Energy Futures Group


Hydrogen is far a worse and more polluting greenhouse gas than methane.

“There’s no way [hydrogen] should ever go in a pipeline. Its role should be as energy storage, for when we have surplus renewable energy for either moderate to long term storage.”


Bob Howarth, Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology, Cornell University

Let’s make sure our future is powered by truly clean energy, not gas.

Call or email your state representative and senator.
Your calls and messages pushed the legislature to require the DPU to review the future of gas through a normal adjudicatory hearing process. But that process is also controlled by the utilities.

Ask your legislators to rethink energy governance—planning, ownership, operations, and evaluation—as well as who sits on the DPU.

Learn More—Read the Testimony

A Renewable Future for Heating and Cooling

1: Cora Weissbourd, Brookline Mothers Out Front 

2: Amy Boyd, Director of Policy, Acadia Center

3: Jamal Lewis, Director of Policy Partnerships and Equitable Electrification, Rewiring America

Gas System Enhancement Plans and Methane Measurement)

4: Dorie Seavey, Applied Economist 

5: Mark Kleinginna, Penn State and ex-gas utility executive

6: Maryanne Sargent, Boston University

Looking to the Future and the 20-80 Process

7: Rebecca Tepper, Attorney General’s Office, testimony not available

8: Gabrielle Stebbins, Managing Consultant, Energy Futures Group, 

    and Member of the Vermont House of Representatives. 

9: Mike Walsh, Decarbonization and Energy Strategist 

10: Sherri Billimoria, Manager in the Carbon-Free Buildings Program, Rocky Mountain Institute 

Pros and Cons of Proposed Net Zero Strategies

11: Audrey Schulman, Founder and Co-Executive Director, HEET 

12: Caitlin Peale Sloan, Vice President, Conservation Law Foundation 

13: Bob Howarth, Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology, Cornell University, written testimony not available

14: Ben Butterworth, Senior Manager of Climate and Energy Analysis, Acadia Center 

Achieving a Just Transition

15: Sadia Jiminian-Tejeda, Merrimack Valley activist  

16: John Buonopane, President, United Steelworkers Local 12012, written testimony not available. 

17: Jennifer Bosco, Staff Attorney, National Consumer Law Center