This week in buildings, industry and land decarbonization news, NetZero Insider’s Jon Lamson wrote about a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that found while electrifying heat will lead to higher power bills, it will save money overall. Consumers’ total energy spend for their homes is now generally split between electricity and natural gas or heating oil. A major part of the savings comes from efficiency upgrades to homes, but the cost of serving what gas demand remains is also expected to fall.

Lamson also has the details on a Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities proposal that would end the practice of spreading the cost of new natural gas hookups across local delivery companies’ customer base. The rule is meant to align gas utility practices with the state’s decarbonization law. Utilities could still spread hookup costs to the rest of their ratebase if they expect to recover those costs from the new customers. 

Grist posted a story about how Illinois and other large blue states like California and New York are unlikely to meet their 2030 climate goals. While the federal government is not aligned with their policies for the next four years at least, such states are where all the policy action for decarbonization is going to be for now. The states might be a year or two late on their goals, but the piece quotes an NRDC staffer as saying the trend of declining emissions is more important. 

Some state policies continue to move forward, with another Grist piece (originally published in Canary Media) highlighting North Carolina’s launch of statewide electrification incentives. The Energy Saver North Carolina program was launched last month and includes $208 million in federal funding to help low- and moderate-income homeowners improve efficiency, including electrification. 

Finally, a pair of pieces looks into President Donald Trump’s efforts to implement Republicans’ anti-efficiency standard policies. The Verge looks into Trump’s goal of “making America incandescent again” by rolling back Biden-era efficiency standards for lightbulbs that favor LEDs. Unsurprisingly, Trump plans to use executive orders to roll back the standards, and some of his earliest orders announced the intent to rollback standards, as CNET pointed out in its article on the effort. The trouble for Trump is the governing law has anti-backsliding provisions that would require new legislation from Congress to get around. 

Read on for other stories in this week’s Intelligence Report: