Two years ago, Massachusetts regulators created a framework for phasing out the use of natural gas in buildings — a groundbreaking move for the state’s decarbonization efforts. Today, however, momentum has slowed as gas companies clash with lawmakers, regulators, and advocates on a fundamental question: Are utilities legally obligated to provide gas service to any consumer who wants it?
The debate may seem arcane, but at stake is the speed and scope of Massachusetts’ clean energy transition — and one of the nation’s first major attempts at a managed shift away from gas.
National Grid, Eversource, and other gas utilities say the answer is a resounding yes. The ability of residents and businesses to choose gas service is a “fundamental right,” said Eversource spokesperson Olessa Stepanova: “We cannot force them off that service.”
On the other side of the argument, advocates contend that safeguarding public health and fighting climate change are urgent benefits that outweigh individual customers’ personal preferences for one kind of fuel. The obligation, in their view, is to provide functional heating — not a specific source. The utilities, they say, are looking for ways to delay an inevitable upheaval in their industry rather than collaborating on a smooth transition.
“They see this as an existential threat to their business model, and they are digging in. They’re not at the table,” said James Van Nostrand, who chaired the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities when it issued the 2023 order, and who is now policy director at The Future of Heat Initiative.
Massachusetts has long been a leader in pushing for a transition away from using natural gas and other fossil fuels to heat buildings and to fuel stoves and dryers.
In October 2020, the state was one of the first in the nation to launch a “Future of Gas” investigation, a process examining how gas companies can play a role in the clean energy transition and what that should look like. In December 2023, the state Department of Public Utilities wrapped up the investigation with a 137-page report that spelled out a clear vision of stopping the expansion of gas service and decommissioning some portions of the infrastructure, but largely left it to lawmakers, regulators, and utilities to enact the principles outlined.
The future laid out in the document goes like this: Rather than automatically investing in new gas infrastructure or replacing aging pipes, utilities will look for opportunities to deploy “non-gas pipeline alternatives” — like geothermal networks, air-source heat pumps, energy efficiency, or demand response — that can meet customers’ needs. Gas utilities will proactively coordinate with electric utilities to ensure the poles and wires can accommodate, say, switching dozens of houses in an area to heat pumps. The order also calls for utilities to undertake demonstration projects to test out the process of transitioning neighborhood-scale portions of the gas system to electrified heat or thermal networks.
The order called for gas utilities to submit plans detailing how they would assess whether an area could be equally or better served by a non-gas option. They did so in April 2025, but there is a catch: Utilities insist that they need customers to agree to participate in any such alternatives.
“It’s very hard to accomplish any decommissioning if you have to have that 100% buy-in from all the customers,” Van Nostrand said.
At the heart of the utilities’ argument is the legal concept of “obligation to serve.” The idea, a common principle in utilities regulation, is that a gas utility can’t just cut off customers it is already serving; if you want to keep gas, you get to. Requiring customers to modify their equipment would infringe on their constitutional property rights, the gas utilities argue.