City and state officials grab shovels for the Prospect Place groundbreaking; one of the housing projects that features alternative energy sources instead of fossil fuels.
Reminder Publishing photo by Ryan Feyre
NORTHAMPTON — The state’s Department of Energy Resources announced last week that Northampton became the 10th and final community to join the state’s Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program.
According to the announcement from the DER, the program enables cities and towns to adopt and amend general or zoning ordinances or bylaws to require new building construction or major renovation projects to be fossil fuel-free.
In its own announcement to the public, the city said its inclusion in the program “underscores Northampton’s leadership in climate action and sustainable urban planning and recognizes the city’s commitment to a future free of fossil fuels in new buildings and major renovations.”
“Northampton is honored to join the state’s Fossil Fuel Free Demonstration Program, marking a milestone for Western Massachusetts in the transition to sustainable building practices,” said Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra in a statement. “This program builds on our community and the state’s commitments to climate action. We are ready to share our experiences and learn alongside other pioneering cities as we all work toward a greener, renewable commonwealth.”
Benjamin Weil, Northampton’s director of the Climate Action and Project Administration Department, said that the program essentially formalizes what Northampton has been doing all along with its clean energy initiatives, like approving the Massachusetts Municipal Opt-in Specialized Stretch Energy Code, which the City Council did last year: https://tinyurl.com/3jjv8b3y.
“It essentially gives the city a waiver to that allows them to write an ordinance that requires new construction and major renovations to operate fossil-fuel free,” Weil said in an interview about the pilot program. “Now, de facto, that’s the case already in Northampton to a large degree because of the gas moratorium and because of the Opt-in [Specialized] Stretch [Energy] Code.”
To qualify for this program, municipalities in the state needed to demonstrate that they met affordable housing supply requirements and that they have already shown a commitment to pursuing a carbon neutral future.
The program is essentially the offspring of a state law implemented in 2022 called “An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind, which required DOER to establish a demonstration project that allows 10 municipalities to adopt general or zoning ordinances or by-laws that require new building construction or major renovation projects to be fossil fuel free.
According to the state, Northampton joins Arlington, Lexington, Brookline, Acton, Concord, Cambridge, Lincoln, Newton and Aquinnah as the 10 communities in the program. West Tisbury also submitted a home rule petition to join the program but withdrew, which allowed Northampton to beat out Somerville, the other community to submit an application, for that final spot.
Weil said Northampton’s inclusion in the program is a huge deal because it shows the city has demonstrated a long history of pushing for more environmentally sound projects at every level.
“It shows that we have the resources to back it up and the experience to back it up,” Weil said. “They identified Northampton as a progressive city that could do it.”
Weil added that it is important to note the fact that Northampton is the only community in the program served by National Grid electric, as opposed to Eversource, which serves the other nine communities.
He said the inclusion of Northampton allows the state to take better stock of what communities have as they approach their goal of phasing out fossil fuels statewide by 2050.
“If you only have eastern Mass. building stock and eastern Mass. electric grid, then you’re not going to know what it’s like out in Western Mass, where we have different architecture and different kind of transmission system for electricity,” Weil said. “It’s a good opportunity in this case for say National Grid to see what, how do we have to invest in the grid that’s going to be serving Northampton to deal with not just maybe more electricity, but also different peaks.”
In a statement to the public, DOER Commissioner Elizabeth Mahoney said that Northampton was chosen because the state wanted achieve regional equity in the state.
“We’re pleased to welcome Northampton to the fossil fuel-free pilot program, alongside nine other communities,” Mahoney said. “As the pilot gets started, we encourage all communities interested in lowering emissions and energy costs to adopt the specialized energy stretch code to ensure new buildings are equipped with heat pumps and other electric appliances.”
Northampton has already set goals of carbon neutrality in city operations by 2030 and citywide net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The city recently conducted a groundbreaking ceremony in September for the creation of 60 affordable units at 737 Bridge Road, which will feature all-electric systems powered by alternative energy sources thanks to grants from the state.
