The Clean Heat Standard Takes Away Your Energy Choice

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Speak up for a balanced, responsible energy plan in Massachusetts.

Our company has worked hard to ensure your family stays safe and warm on the coldest New England nights while minimizing your home’s carbon footprint.

Unfortunately, lawmakers in Boston are ignoring the environmental value of traditional home heating sources and pursuing a reckless, expensive plan to electrify everything in Massachusetts homes and businesses. Their plan is called the Clean Heat Standard. It could dramatically impact your family’s comfort and budget.

What is the Clean Heat Standard?

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is working on rulemaking plans for a Clean Heat Standard that will:

  • Impose new financial obligations on providers of propane, heating oil and other traditional heating fuels, artificially inflating the energy prices for consumers.

  • Force home heating companies to convert customers to electric heating or face steep penalties.

  • Create an incredible strain on the electric grid — increasing the likelihood of blackouts during periods of extreme cold.

  • Exclude proven clean energy choices in Massachusetts.

What does the Clean Heat Standard mean to your family?

Do you have an efficient oil or gas-fired heating system? The Clean Heat Standard is designed to force you to give it up in favor of electric heat pumps. It is a narrow, reckless path that places massive burdens on Bay State families.

For a start, whole-home heat pump conversions can cost upwards of $20,000-$30,000. And you can expect your price troubles to get worse after that, as ISO-New England reported record-high electricity prices in 2022.

Heat pumps struggle to maintain home comfort in sustained freezing temperatures. When Massachusetts ran a heat pump rebate program from 2014 to 2019, over nine in ten households that took part still held onto their gas and oil equipment for heat in the winter.

The Clean Heat Standard will vastly increase winter electricity demand in Massachusetts. ISO-New England has repeatedly warned of reliability concerns during severe weather conditions. We’ve already seen the grave consequences of grid failures during extreme winter weather — most recently in December 2022, when a blizzard interrupted power in Buffalo and throughout upstate New York, leading to dozens of deaths.

The Clean Heat Standard ignores decarbonization strategies working TODAY!

Boston’s electrification plans take away your right to choose existing clean energy solutions, including the products we proudly deliver.

Our Bioheat® fuel, a blend of ultra-low sulfur heating oil and organic biodiesel, can be used in oil furnaces and boilers without modification. The Northeast’s annual Bioheat use avoids more than 1.5 million tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to removing 320,000 vehicles from the road or the emissions from annual energy use by 180,000 homes!

Propane, too, offers an eco-friendly solution for home heating, hot water and a range of home appliances. Propane’s carbon intensity is approximately 20% lower than Massachusetts grid electricity’s. It also emits zero methane and virtually no particulate matter.

These fuels power some of the most efficient heating and hot water systems around. They’re lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts and across the U.S. today!