Elaine, thank you for speaking out! You have listed some excellent things to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (drive less, drive electric/hybrid cars, fly less, etc.) Some of these are hard for a Town to legally restrict, but can be addressed by state and federal policy (e.g., rebates to encourage buying EVs, and eventually prohibiting the purchase of non-EVs). The Lincoln Green Energy Committee is trying to help by, for example, sharing information about how fun EVs are to drive, rebates, etc. (browse around at LincolnGreenEnergy.org) and by investigating where we could put public charging stations for EVs.
Regarding costs to build all-electric homes, the state Dep. of Energy Resources has recently done a study on this. (You can find it at https://www.mass.gov/doc/residential-stretch-code-costs-and-benefits-case-studies/download .) They compared the cost of space heating, space cooling, and water heating equipment done all-electric for a new 5-bedroom, 4,000 sq. ft. house to the gas-based alternative allowed in the base building code. They found the electric versions are slightly less expensive (about $350 less, in their example; see page 2 of the PDF). Nevertheless, there is some cultural inertia in the home builder community, where many are more comfortable just building as they always have done. So I believe that statewide and other mandates to make that community adjust more quickly are necessary and appropriate here, to get the great technology that is now available applied to new homes ASAP. - Paul Shorb
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