Perhaps nowhere in Massachusetts are the tensions associated with moving away from natural gas for heating our homes and buildings more pronounced than in the state’s 10 communities that have pledged to go “fossil fuel free.”

In Acton, Aquinnah, Arlington, Brookline, Cambridge, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Newton, and Northampton, after weathering “agita” on the part of former governor Charlie Baker and initial legal blows to the effort, municipal officials secured state approval to adopt policies that ban fossil fuel hookups in most new construction and major renovations. Those communities are now on the front lines of what is essentially an experiment to see if they can tangibly kickstart a complicated transition off natural gas and meet local climate targets, while not scaring away developers with higher costs and new burdensome red tape.

But as these municipalities are quickly finding out, moving off gas for new buildings doesn’t preclude the utilities from needing to spend tens of millions of dollars each year upgrading the existing gas system by replacing pipes and ensuring the residents and businesses in those cities and towns currently served by gas stay on gas.

Eversource and National Grid, the two largest gas companies serving the state, have collectively spent about $100 million on the gas system in nine of those 10 communities, roughly since they adopted their fossil fuel-free ordinances. The bulk of the spending has been to replace leaky pipes, according to utility filings with state regulators analyzed by CommonWealth Beacon. Another $50 million is expected to be spent in those municipalities this year.

Regulators approved those costs, which are collected from ratepayers on an expedited basis, through the state’s Gas System Enhancement Plan, a program enacted in 2014 that is intended to incentivize gas companies to more quickly fix leaks in their gas pipes that emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in order to cut pollution and maintain the system’s safety.

The program has led to real leak reductions: At the end of 2024, the last year of available data, gas companies reported a total of 9,000 leaks in the system, compared with nearly 21,000 a decade earlier, according to DPU data.

But GSEP is now under heavy scrutiny for ballooning spending that has delivered few additional benefits at a time when Massachusetts residents are confronting soaring gas and electric bills. The program accounts for 8 to 11 percent of gas customers’ charges, capital spending that is driving up residential gas bills despite a decline in the amount of gas actually being used. The gas companies spent a record $814 million through GSEP in 2024 – a nearly 40 percent increase from the year prior despite replacing slightly fewer miles of leak-prone pipe than 2023.

Beacon Hill, in its quest to slash energy bills, is now weighing a proposal advanced by the Senate to end the program altogether by 2030.

Nothing about the fossil fuel free policies adopted in the 10 communities precludes the gas companies from investing money in the current sprawling network of 21,000 miles of pipe across Massachusetts and obtaining approval from the Department of Public Utilities to recover costs associated with that work. But the contrast is generating tensions around how far and fast the state is willing to go to transition off natural gas for heating and cooking in buildings, which accounts for 36 percent of emissions in Massachusetts, as the state pushes to cut pollution 85 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2050.

David Morgan, Arlington’s environmental planner, said that there’s an “important role” for GSEP to play in fixing leaks and maintaining a safe gas system. But now, he said, it’s taken on a life of its own – raising costs for consumers and stifling the state’s clean energy transition.

“We want to see something that is effective and meets our climate action plan goals,” Morgan said.

More Context

• AG Campbell: Mass. gas companies need to overhaul their climate plans – or face penalties (April 2026)
• New report: Gas utilities spent record amount replacing leaky pipes in 2024 (January 2026)