I've posted a number of times about the coming wave of efforts to reduce or eliminate GHG emissions from buildings. Notwithstanding Washington's current intransigence, the electric sector is now decarbonizing. With that under way, attention next focused on the transportation sector. That's moving along with efforts in California and the northeast and mid-Atlantic states pursuing the Transportation Climate Initiative.
However, it's very clear that addressing the electric sector and the transportation sector still isn't going to be enough. Buildings are next. And now the little state that could, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is getting into the game. Governor Gina Raimondo has issued an Executive Order requiring Heating Sector Transformation to Ensure Reliability and Protect Against Climate Change. Although the Order does not require promulgation of regulations with limits on GHG emissions from the heating sector, it's difficult to imagine the "transformation" that the Governor seeks without regulatory limits on GHG emissions.
The Department of Public Utilities and the Office of Energy Resources are directed to make recommendations on the transformation by April 22, 2020. Time will tell. As transformations go, eliminating GHG emissions from buildings will be fairly major!
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