MASSACHUSETTS GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS increased for the fourth year in a row in 2015, but state officials are forecasting a downturn when numbers are crunched for 2016, according to an email sent out by the Baker administration.
State law mandates that emissions reach a target of 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Data lag by several years, but the numbers suggest the state has been going the wrong way the last few years, with emissions falling to 72 million tons in 2012 before rising in 2013 and 2014 and hitting 76.3 million tons in 2015.
The 2015 number was 19.2 percent below 1990 levels, which was not as good as 2014 (21.5 percent below) or 2013 (19.7 percent). Officials are forecasting emission levels to be 20.8 percent below 1990 levels in 2016.
Meet the Author
Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
In the email, the Baker administration said it is pursuing a number of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but some of them are unlikely to come along in time for 2020. A transmission line to import large amounts of hydro-electricity is not expected to be done until the end of 2022, and an initial procurement of offshore wind power is not expected to come on line until 2021.
C.J. Chapman, a spokesperson for the Mass Coalition for Sustainable Energy, which favors building a new natural gas pipeline into the region, said the numbers support the group’s cause.
“We need to come to grips with the fact that burning huge amounts of oil, coal and Russian imported LNG is a major reason we are not meeting our climate goals,” he said in a statement. “Moving forward, we are going to need to get serious about the electrification of our vehicle fleet and doing more to reduce emissions in the building sector. Those important actions will certainly put more stress on our electrical grid, which the independent grid operator has said is in danger of being forced into controlled rolling blackouts in the near future. The path forward for Massachusetts and New England will require a comprehensive approach that includes both renewables and additional natural gas infrastructure.”
SHARE
