Climate Mitigation Actions for Massachusetts Municipal Officials

I’ve been meaning to lay out all the actions I should be pushing for in Whitman as a member of the Board of Selectmen, and after getting “reminders” from the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment and a summer of climate disasters I decided to publish it all for my fellow municipal officials. Major change needs to come from the state and federal level, but impacts are felt on the local level with heat waves, droughts, storm surge, flooding, power outages, etc. That means local officials have a responsibility to act now to reduce the likelihood of these events in the future.

Massachusetts offers tons of incentives for municipalities to drastically reduce their carbon footprint by mitigating emissions as well as incentives to build resilient cities by adapting to a changing climate. They’re spread across agencies, utilities, laws, and some things that we’re just supposed to know. If you have local elected officials who care about the changing climate, ask them if they’re taking the following actions. This is not meant to be all encompassing and due to the disaggregated nature of these programs I’m sure there are things I’ve missed. Contact me if you know of any other actions or programs that should be included.

The Basics

Every city and town should at least be designated a Green Community. When the program launched there were some barriers to joining, but most criteria are just considered best practice today. It makes available grants geared toward energy conservation and especially energy cost savings. 280 Massachusetts municipalities participate now, but that still leaves a bunch turning down free money. These grants can be used for a lot of the other recommendations I’m going to make.

The modern equivalent of Green Communities is the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program. Created by executive order the EOEEA offers Planning Grants for cities and towns to join and develop an MVP Plan. Action grants are available thereafter to address the identified risks. This has also been widely adopted in just the first four years with 328 communities participating so far. Many of these grants can be used toward future climate planning and mitigation efforts.

Buildings and Efficiency

Every town should adopt the statewide stretch energy code, and 296 have. Most probably adopted it as a criteria for joining Green Communities. An opt-in Net Zero Stretch code is currently under development, passed as part of the 2021 “Act creating a next-generation roadmap for Massachusetts climate policy”(2021 Climate Law). When that is released by the DOER towns serious about climate policy should adopt it.  

For municipal buildings there is no need to wait for building code changes. New schools and municipal buildings should be built to net-zero standards. Existing buildings should undergo LED lighting retrofits and insulation upgrades (Green Communities grant eligible) to reduce the existing building energy use. You can even talk about painting the roof white to reflect more sunlight and reduce the cooling load. When building utilities need to be replaced an electric option should be used. That means heat pumps to replace both air conditioning and heating, heat pump water heaters to replace fossil fuel water heaters, and induction stoves to replace gas stoves. The aim should be to electrify everything and stop burning fossil fuels within municipal buildings. Pass a policy or include electric replacements in your facilities plan.

For zoning changes the town should build more transit-oriented housing. That means dense development near public transit, something that the MBTA Communities legislation will require to remain eligible for MassWorks, Housing Choice, and other grant programs. Massachusetts 40R zoning is ideal for this but any dense overlay zoning would work. EEA Planning Assistance Grants can help develop those. You should also consider general density improvements such as Accessory Dwelling Units, reduced or eliminated parking minimums, and more walking and biking infrastructure.

The biggest remaining component is residents’ building efficiency. You should run a series of outreach efforts to promote these transitions to electrify everything. MassSave is the most well-known program, but the MassCEC previously had the HeatSmart program, MAPC has Accelerating Climate Resiliency, and many towns run their own building efficiency outreach programs.

Energy Usage

Has your town converted the streetlights to LED? Changing from high pressure sodium to LED results in an enormous energy savings, an increase in visibility, and generally reduced maintenance costs. There was a DOER / MAPC program that ran until 2020 which would fund a portion of that conversion. Check to see if it returns, but the annual energy savings alone make this worthwhile.

Part of achieving “net-zero” is building out local generation. That will help reduce transmission losses, energy losses from sending electricity over long distances. It should be easier to build wind and solar in your town, and as of right renewable siting is another Green Communities criteria. Zoning laws should be changed to make this easy, particularly for solar which can be deployed everywhere quickly. Many towns have added municipal solar panels to school rooftops or on old landfills to offset their own electricity usage. A change in the 2021 Climate Law enables municipalities to net meter their solar generation, as any homeowner already does. To encourage more solar in general the Solarize Mass program, through MassCEC and the DOER, was used to aggregate homeowners to bid more competitively for their solar projects. That’s something a municipality could organize on its own. The 2021 Climate Law also enables electric utilities to operate solar projects in municipalities at high risk of climate change, with preference given to environmental justice populations.

To decarbonize residents’ electricity a governing body can consider Municipal Choice Aggregation. In Massachusetts’ deregulated energy market every consumer can choose who they purchase their electricity from. Municipal aggregation allows the town to change the community’s “default” provider. Many communities have been using this program to add a required percentage of clean energy to their aggregated purchase. For example, Newton has a standard offering of 80% renewable electricity, with options for individual customers to go up or down. Residents always have the option of going back to their old electric utility or finding a third option.

Something that isn’t currently widespread but soon could be is demand response. This is currently available for homeowners and businesses from major electric providers. The idea is that during peak demand instead of calling for gas peaker plants to turn on utilities can ask their customers to reduce their electric load or draw power from distributed batteries. If you have a smart thermostat or Tesla Powerwall, you may already participate in this at home. I expect utilities to develop programs like ConnectedSolutions for municipalities. Larger cities may hire an energy manager to already do this, but for the hundreds of cities and towns with a dozen buildings there is huge opportunity here in the future.

Waste reduction is often overlooked when considering climate change, but it is impactful. Certainly, require recycling; if you have curbside pickup don’t collect trash unless the recycling bin is also out. If you have a transfer station, make recycling free and “pay as you throw” for trash. Require businesses and multifamily units to recycle. Develop a food waste diversion program for schools, and pilot curbside composting for residents. Reduce or prohibit single use plastic bags, polystyrene containers, and water bottles.

Transportation

Reducing the climate footprint in transportation is mostly intuitive. Start by electrifying your municipal fleet. The MassEVIP Fleet Vehicle grants and Green Communities grants are great for this. Leading communities in this area are also purchasing electric school busses. For departments where battery electric vehicles are not yet feasible, you should be purchasing hybrid electric vehicles. I’m thinking police, fire, and public works until the electric truck and SUV revolution begins. But for now, there’s no reason the Building Commissioner can’t be driving a Chevy Bolt, or the Fire Chief can’t be driving a Model Y. I even expect Ford to start releasing Police Interceptor versions of the Mustang Mach-E before they electrify the Explorer. Get this into your capital improvement plan.

You should also be building out public car charging. In municipal lots this can be done with MassEVIP grants and with grants from your electric utility. For businesses this could be a zoning requirement that new parking lots over a certain size must have EV charging. It is also common to give preferential parking to electric vehicles to further incentivize adoption.

Getting cars off the road by encouraging more biking, walking, telecommuting, and public transit should not be overlooked. Provide shuttles from the train station to downtown. Add bike lanes on busy roads and add bike racks to municipal buildings. Upgrade your sidewalks or build them out in neighborhoods that don’t have them. Programs such as Complete Streets or Shared Streets and Spaces can provide grants in this area. Cars are expensive, and difficult for people with certain disabilities, so alternate transportation infrastructure is an equity issue as well.

 

That’s my first pass at this and being from Whitman my mindset is very Boston suburb centric. I tried to stick to things that are easy, achievable, and incentivized. Obviously, some communities are attempting to ban new fossil fuel infrastructure which is admirable but according to the Attorney General is in conflict with the state utility law. I’m sure they’ll find a legal path eventually, but in the meantime the average city councilor or select board member should make sure they’ve at least taken the actions I’ve outlined above.

Justin Evans