PHOTO: Underneath this stretch of Garland Road in Newton Centre is an old gas pipe that had City Councilors talking about electrifying the whole street. Photo by Bryan McGonigle
On Jan. 1, the city’s electrification ordinance took effect, mandating complete electrification of newly constructed buildings and buildings undergoing extensive renovations, with a few exceptions.
Now, a discussion about a gas line replacement request has the City Council considering whether to re-power whole streets with electrification.
“I guess I should say right off the bat that I am generally opposed to approving them in terms of our climate goals and that I don’t think we should be adding more gas lines if we can help it,” City Councilor Andrea Kelley said at Monday night’s City Council meeting. “However, there are some caveats here. Our Law Department takes the view that we have no standing to deny them.”
The Law Department has confirmed that the City Council can’t arbitrarily reject grant-of-location requests. The Council can only reject them or put conditions on approval if there are safety concerns with the proposed work such as close proximity to other underground infrastructure or issues with excavation safety.
Kelley and others are looking for ways to have streets possibly put into a pilot program for electrification as the city works to comply with the state’s 2050 climate action goals.
Out with the old…
There’s an old gas main underneath the area of Beacon Street in Newton Centre near Newton Cemetery, which services several streets nearby. The request includes about 600 feet of plastic pipe under Garland Road—from Beacon Street to Brentwood Avenue—to replace cast iron pipes that were installed nearly a century ago (1928).
The pipe replacement is part of the company’s Distribution Integrity Management Plan to address hazards caused by old and leaky pipes. National Grid says the pipes in question are “high-risk,” and old cast iron is prone to leaks, so they should be replaced this year.
Susan Albright, chair of the Public Facilities Committee, said there was a rumor that National Grid was looking to put hydrogen pipelines in to replace the gas lines, but a spokesperson for National Grid told her there was no plan to do that.
…In with the new?
It’s unclear if National Grid intends to phase out its gas line replacement (and install an alternative) in Massachusetts, but Albright noted that National Grid will file a Climate Compliance plan on April 1 with a roadmap to help reach the nation’s climate goals by 2050.
The Public Facilities Committee voted to approve the Beacon Street area request, four in favor and two opposed (with one abstention).
But Kelley offered an amendment to put the Garland Road section on the road to electrification after Garland Road residents who had electrified their homes showed up at the committee’s last meeting asking if their whole street could be electrified.
“This little area is a hotbed of environmental green concern in Ward 6,” Kelley said. “And one of the topics that came up was, ‘What if we look for sites to do electrification pilots?’ And this is one of the streets that might be very well-suited to that.”
The National Grid request only covers part of Garland Road—from Beacon Street to Brentwood Avenue—and the rest of Garland from Brentwood to Homer Street is not set to be replaced this year. That section is in the company’s 2026-2030 replacement plan.
“So, I’m not sure that this really fits the criteria of immediate risk,” Kelley said.
Kelley offered an amendment to delete the Garland Road part of the request and consider an electrification pilot for Garland Road.
But Albright said the Law Department determined the city can’t legally deny the gas line replacements based on wanting alternative fuels.
Piping down
Albright added that she and Newton Director of Sustainability Ann Berwick have been meeting with representatives from National Grid and Eversource since last summer to discuss a possible pilot program that would abandon gas pipes in favor of electrification on designated streets.
There’s no funding with such a pilot program yet, Albright added, so homeowners would bear the burden of paying for electrifying their homes.
Discussions about which streets to include have not included Garland Road. But Albright said a representative from National Grid, Amy Smith, offered to meet with Garland Road residents to talk about electrification before the next construction season ends.
“It’s up to us to… make sure that the Garland Road folks meet with National Grid to discuss this and understand the costs involved in this transformation,” Albright said, recommending the Council approve all of the gas line replacement requests in the meantime.
The cost of electrification of a single home is typically between $20,000 and $50,000, she added.
What if individual homeowners don’t want to electrify their homes? Or what if individual homeowners want to electrify but also stay connected to a gas line for backup?
New state law allows municipalities to overrule individual homeowners with electrification.
“One person no longer has the right to gas,” Albright said. “In other words, you can’t say ‘I have a gas line on my street—I have a right to gas.’ It could be that if one person was a hold out, they [National Grid] could still do this anyway.”
And that hold-out homeowner would have to pay to electrify their home, despite not wanting to do it, she said.
The City Council ended up rejecting Kelley’s amendment (14 no, seven yes, three absent) and approving the entire National Grid request (15 yes, six no, three absent), with a plan to discuss electrification of streets at a future meeting.
In the meantime, Albright said, a National Grid representative has agreed to meet with Garland Road residents to discuss possible electrification for part, or all, of that street as well as grants the company may be able to apply for to get the price tag down for them.