New Report: Cool Solutions to Reduce Global Warming Pollution in Massachusetts

Despite a troubling lack of progress in several areas (including, sadly, baseball), Massachusetts has made significant strides to reduce global warming pollution. As we document in our new report, Cool Solutions, an array of new technologies and emerging societal trends provide the Commonwealth with the opportunity to achieve a 45 percent cut in emissions by 2030, putting Massachusetts on track to meet its long-term emission reduction targets.

A lot has happened since 2008.

When Massachusetts adopted the Global Warming Solutions Act seven years ago last week – committing the state to an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (compared with 1990 levels) by 2050 – the iPhone was a year old, the Northeast’s regional cap-and-trade program for power plants was just getting ready to be launched, and Wall Street had yet to crash. Natural gas was expensive, solar power was rare, and the Red Sox were defending World Series champions.

Fast forward to today. Despite a troubling lack of progress in several areas (including, sadly, baseball), Massachusetts has made significant strides to reduce global warming pollution. As we document in our new report, Cool Solutions, an array of new technologies and emerging societal trends provide the Commonwealth with the opportunity to achieve a 45 percent cut in emissions by 2030, putting Massachusetts on track to meet its long-term emission reduction targets.

Our new report identifies 10 potential “game changers” that could play a significant role in helping Massachusetts to get there:

  • Continuing the state’s rapid growth in solar power;
  • Taking advantage of Massachusetts’ immense offshore wind resources;
  • Using energy storage to smooth the integration of large amounts of homegrown renewable energy into the region’s electricity grid;
  • Using new tools – including LED lighting and intelligent, IT-enabled energy management technologies – to improve energy efficiency ;
  • Shifting more homes and businesses to renewable energy for heating and cooling;
  • Building more zero-net energy buildings;
  • Capitalizing on recent growth in demand for walkable, urban living to promote smart growth;
  • Reinventing the state’s public transportation systems;
  • Integrating “shared-use” mobility modes into the state’s transportation network; and
  • Rapidly expanding the number of electric vehicles on Massachusetts’ roads.

Many of the tools that will undergird the next wave of decarbonization of Massachusetts’ economy – from the “Internet of things” to solar power to electric vehicles – were barely on the radar screen seven years ago. Their emergence provides Massachusetts with a golden opportunity to take leadership in the fight against global warming – if we are creative enough and bold enough to seize that opportunity.

Unfortunately, as our report also documents, creativity and boldness haven’t always carried the day in Massachusetts’ efforts to address global warming. Key policies from the state’s earlier (2010) climate plan – especially in the transportation sector – remain unimplemented, and, as the Global Warming Solutions Project documented last year (PDF), the Commonwealth is not currently on track to hit its interim goal of reducing emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. At the same time, proposals to expand capacity for natural gas deliveries into the region threaten to undercut the state’s momentum toward a clean energy future and cause lasting damage to the state’s long-term emission reduction efforts.  

The “game changers” we identified in Cool Solutions have immense potential to cut carbon emissions and rebuild Massachusetts’ economy on a sustainable foundation, but there is little time to waste in making them happen. Expansion of public transportation, construction of offshore wind farms, and shifts in development patterns all require long lead times. The 15 years between now and 2030 will pass in the blink of an eye, meaning that every decision we make from now on – including the opportunities we allow to pass by – will determine whether Massachusetts will ultimately succeed in meeting our obligation to take action against global warming.

Time and again, Massachusetts has taken bold leadership in protecting the environment. Global warming should be no exception. The technologies and policy tools now exist to enable Massachusetts to make great progress. The time has come to lead.

Authors

Tony Dutzik

Associate Director and Senior Policy Analyst, Frontier Group

Tony Dutzik is associate director and senior policy analyst with Frontier Group. His research and ideas on climate, energy and transportation policy have helped shape public policy debates across the U.S., and have earned coverage in media outlets from the New York Times to National Public Radio. A former journalist, Tony lives and works in Boston.