Stakeholders say gas climate compliance plans lack numeric targets; obligation to serve clouds neighborhood electrification

Senators and witnesses at a Senate Committee on Climate Change and Global Warming hearing said the climate compliance plans filed April 1 by Massachusetts' gas utilities fall short of the DPU's expectation that companies provide clear, quantitative road maps for how they will help the Commonwealth meet sector emission sublimits.

The plans were required under the DPU’s Future of Gas docket (No. 2080) to show how each local distribution company (LDC) would contribute to greenhouse‑gas reductions while continuing to meet customer needs "safely, reliably, affordably and equitably," DPU Chair Jamie Van Nostrand reminded the committee.

Attorney General Mary Gardner, who litigated the GSEP cases and is participating in the CCP dockets, told senators the filings are largely aggregations of other dockets and do not show how the combined measures would meet the building‑sector sublimits. "The CCPs do not provide a detailed analysis showing how these efforts taken together will help the Commonwealth meet its goal of net‑zero by 2050," Gardner said. She and other witnesses said the plans provide limited detail on scope‑3 emissions — the gas…