Does your house have gas heat? Under a controversial energy bill proposal, there’s a chance it could go electric.

1 October 2026

It’s a small measure, barely a paragraph, that the Massachusetts Senate tucked inside its 170-page energy bill, allowing utilities to sever gas service to a neighborhood if most people there want to go electric for heat instead.

The intention is legal authorization to end natural gas when just a few customers don’t want to make the shift, to avoid leaving pipes in the ground for just a handful of homes or businesses.

But to some in the business sector, this seemingly small proposal marks the start down a slippery slope toward state-directed shutoffs of natural gas in favor of electric heat all over the state. Forcing such a switch, business leaders argue, hits gas customers with expensive conversion costs — plus there’s no guarantee that monthly bills would be less expensive over the long run.

Is someone going to knock on your door, to take away your gas heat? Probably not, at least not anytime soon.

But the paragraph represents the latest flashpoint in a much broader debate over how much of a role natural gas should continue to play here. Local politicians have ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions from buildings’ heating and cooling systems. But those lofty ideals are running up against an ever-increasing fury among consumers and businesses over their rising bills.

This particular issue revolves around the state’s “obligation to serve” requirement that has long blocked utilities from ending service to existing gas customers without their consent. And though short in length, the legislative language in question has emerged as a major sticking point in conference committee negotiations this fall between the House and Senate over their dueling energy bills.

Such a dispute might not derail the whole thing. But it can certainly get in the way, as these things can do when two lead negotiators take starkly different views.

As Representative Mark Cusack and Senator Mike Barrett begin their negotiations, the sides seem far apart. The two co-chairs of the Legislature’s energy committee know there are other differences between the House and Senate bills, legislation ostensibly aimed at “energy affordability” to address voter discontent. Most notably, the House, under Cusack’s direction, would pare back the Mass Save home-efficiency program. Meanwhile, the Senate’s version, led by Barrett, phases out a pricey gas-pipe replacement initiative known as GSEP.

Both of these dueling ideas offer real savings, but adding up to maybe only several bucks each month for the typical home. Most people might not even notice.

The language addressing utilities’ obligation to serve is embedded in the Senate’s GSEP section. Essentially, if a utility determines a gas pipe needs replacing for a particular neighborhood, but most homeowners want to convert to electric heat, the holdouts could be forced to convert too. (The measure does require that another “safe, reliable and affordable” source of heat, presumably electric, is available, as determined by state regulators.)

The business community is sounding the alarm. Jon Hurst, head of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, says ending up with no energy bill at all is a better outcome than passing the Senate’s, given the anger from consumers and small businesses about utility bills lately. The “Big Four” — the Mass.

Business Roundtable, Greater Boston Chamber, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, and Mass. Taxpayers Foundation — told conferees it eliminates customers’ choice while forcing them onto another energy source (electricity) with supply constraints.

As Bill Ryan, spokesman for the business group-funded Mass Coalition for Sustainable Energy, puts it: “This is a ‘tip of the iceberg’ type of thing” toward ending natural gas service in Massachusetts. His group estimates billions in added costs over time, for everything from furnace replacements to electrical upgrades.

With natural gas plants still providing much of our electricity, environmental groups argue that it’s time to get more serious about moving off fossil fuels. State law, after all, requires carbon emissions to be all but eliminated in Massachusetts by 2050.

At Environmental League of Massachusetts, Amy Boyd Rabin says inaction on the GSEP issue will only increase utility profits amid overspending on antiquated gas networks, without providing necessary rate relief.

And the Conservation Law Foundation’s Caitlin Peale Sloan called the warnings from business groups “a self-serving story peddled by the utilities” to defend a program that pads their profits at the expense of families and businesses exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices.

The Legislature’s 2024 energy law included language that allows the Department of Public Utilities to consider greenhouse gas emissions as a reason for rejecting a petition for natural gas supply, if electricity or geothermal energy is available for heat instead. However, utilities then argued they still have an obligation to serve all existing gas customers, even if that law could prevent service for future ones.

Barrett says the Senate’s new language — that paragraph in the sprawling energy bill — doesn’t represent the end of natural gas delivery as we know it, despite the doomsday scenarios pushed by, as he puts it, “apologists for fossil

fuels.” Instead, it’s an attempt to provide flexibility for neighborhoods in which most, but not all, residents want to make the switch to electric. Without this language, Barrett says the holdouts could result in ratepayers supporting electric-system upgrades and pipe replacements for a dwindling number of gas customers, making the energy system more expensive for everyone.

Better state law is needed, he adds, to allow communities to selectively decommission sections of their gas networks. That’s why, he says, the Senate supports this clarifying language. In the end, the DPU would still have the final say in determining whether affected customers have access to an affordable alternative.

Sure, this is a contentious issue. But Barrett says the main debate is around the pace at which we transition off fossil fuels, not about the fundamental need to do so eventually. Some communities want to move faster than others.

The environmental advocates see this as a small but meaningful step toward moving more people to cleaner forms of energy. The business lobbyists, though, see one more way to chip away at access to natural gas — and a potentially expensive one at that.

Resolving that conflict won’t be easy. But it could prove crucial to getting the Legislature’s latest energy bill over the finish line.

Boston Globe/Jon Chesto

Notes from NEHPBA: As a follow-up to Jon Chesto's Globe piece about the Senate bill, we wanted to share with you some takeaways:

Customers “could be forced to” give up their gas heat because of the Senate bill. Chesto writes that a small paragraph in the 170-page Senate bill would give regulators the authority to direct utilities to terminate gas service that customers want to keep.
Long-held customer protections for energy choice would be weakened. As the piece explains, the Senate bill would “sever gas service” for existing customers by ending the so-called “obligation to serve” natural gas customers. These protections have long prevented the termination of gas service without customer consent.
“Billions in added costs” could be added to ratepayer bills. Jon shares MCSE’s estimate, without any pushback, that the furnace and appliance replacements and electrical upgrades necessitated by the Senate bill will dramatically drive costs up over time. As a reminder, we estimate these costs to be as much as $27 billion annually and $230 billion by 2040 — adding another $1,000 to ratepayers’ monthly bills.
The business community’s concerns about the Senate bill are broad and explicit. In addition to the MCSE, the article notes that the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Greater Boston Chamber, and Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation have voiced the same concerns about how the Senate bill “eliminates customer choice.” It also notes that Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst considers “no energy bill at all is a better outcome” than passing the Senate bill.

We urge you to read the whole article if you have not already — it is excellent, very timely and explores concerns that haven't gotten a lot of air time to this point.

Our message to conferees remains clear: An energy affordability bill should lower costs and preserve customer choice. The final bill should exclude the Senate language allowing gas service to be terminated over a customer’s objection.

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