FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 16, 2025
Contact:
Jason Brown
Communications Manager
jbrown@buildingdecarb.org
(917) 548-445
Statement on the Release of NESCAUM’s Multistate Action Plan:
Accelerating the Transition to Zero-Emission Residential Buildings
Strategies in NESCAUM’s New Action Plan Would Make it Easier for People to
Upgrade Their Homes with Modern, Energy-Efficient, Zero-Emission Heat Pumps
BOSTON – The Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), today announced that it has released a roadmap titled “Multistate Action Plan: Accelerating the Transition to Zero-Emission Residential Buildings,” that offers states strategic recommendations on how to accelerate people’s adoption of modern, energy-efficient, zero-emission home heating equipment such as heat pumps.
NESCAUM also announced today that Washington has joined California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia in signing onto a February 2024 agreement that sets a shared goal for heat pumps to meet at least 65% of residential-scale heating, air conditioning, and water heating sales by 2030 and 90% by 2040 across these states.
Matt Casale, Managing Director of States & Regions at the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC), provided the following statement in response to the release of NESCAUM’s announcement:
“This new NESCAUM Action Plan provides practical solutions to states seeking to lower their residents’ utility bills, protect their residents from extreme hot weather events, and curb the emission of pollution that harms their residents’ health and contributes to climate change.
Modern heat pumps are typically at least 2.5 times more efficient than furnaces, emit zero pollution, reduce people’s exposure to volatile fossil-fuel prices, and can help stabilize electric rates by enabling utilities to spread their fixed electric system costs across a higher volume of electricity sales. According to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) directory, they can also cool homes up to 24% more efficiently than air conditioners, which might account for why, in a recent survey, 9 out of 10 heat pump owners said they would recommend heat pumps to others.
When people upgrade their homes with heat pumps, everyone wins—residents save money, fewer people suffer from asthma or other health problems caused by pollution, and states expand their clean energy economies while lowering their greenhouse gas emissions.
Every day, more people are recognizing the benefits delivered by heat pumps, which is why heat pumps are out-selling gas furnaces across the nation.
Growing demand for heat pumps provides even more reason for states to consider implementing the recommendations found in the NESCAUM Action Plan. The sooner every home in the U.S. has a heat pump, the sooner we all can relax and appreciate the economic, health, and climate benefits of heat pumps in homes that, thanks to them, are cozy on bitter winter nights and cool during summer heat waves.”
###
ABOUT THE BUILDING DECARBONIZATION COALITION
The Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC) aligns critical stakeholders on a path to transform the nation’s buildings through clean energy, using policy, research, market development, and public engagement. The BDC and its members are charting the course to eliminate fossil fuels in buildings to improve people’s health, cut climate and air pollution, prioritize high-road jobs, and ensure that our communities are more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Learn more at www.buildingdecarb.org.