National Energy & Fuels Institute "NEFI" Heating Industry Reduces GHG Emissions

Energy industry leaders attending the Industry Summit VII on August 22, 2025, unanimously ratified the Boston Resolution, a set of principles that will guide interactions with legislators, media, and the public regarding intelligent, actionable, and attainable building decarbonization.

Specifically, the Resolution calls on government policies to:

Protect consumer choice – allowing homeowners to select heating systems based on their family’s needs and budgets.
Account for full lifecycle emissions – not just point-of-use – ensuring a complete and accurate environmental assessment to avoid shifting rather than reducing emissions
Encourage use of renewable liquid fuels – as immediate, cost-effective, and scalable solutions to reduce emissions while utilizing existing infrastructure.
Recognize the time value of carbon reduction – prioritizing immediate emissions reduction through renewable liquid heating fuels over electrification powered via a non-renewable electric grid.
Prioritize affordability – for vulnerable communities, seniors, and rural Americans unable to bear the burden of higher electric bills and conversion costs.
Maintain energy reliability – heeding warnings from grid operators about system constraints and ensuring the U.S. sustains a grid robust enough to win the global race for AI.
Prioritize residential energy efficiency – low-hanging fruit for both environmental performance and lower consumer energy bills.
Support family businesses – preserving thousands of good-paying American jobs.
Embrace innovation – avoiding prescriptive electrification policies that discourage development and deployment of more effective and affordable solutions.
Be flexible and adaptive – accounting for differences in climates, energy resources, infrastructure, and economic conditions and embracing realistic implementation goals.

In 2019, association executives, business owners, and other leaders of the liquid heating fuels industry gathered for the first Industry Summit and committed to voluntarily reduce consumer use and greenhouse gas emissions by deploying more efficient heating systems and cleaner burning fuels when they ratified what came to be known as the Providence Resolution.

The Boston Resolution has been hailed as the successor to the Providence Resolution. The political landscape, economy, and consumer sentiment has changed in the years since the first Summit, buffeted by governmental policies which threaten to exacerbate inflation and limit consumer choice. These changes have also brought opportunity to the liquid fuels industry to build on its successes and adapt to new realities.

As states in New England and throughout the country attempt to force residential electrification, putting vulnerable families at risk and threatening regional energy security and reliability, they often ignore the more immediate and lower cost solutions outlined in the Boston Resolution. For example, when combined with a modern high-efficiency heating system, renewable liquid heating fuels – a blend of heating oil and biodiesel or renewable diesel – can deliver over 80% lifecycle greenhouse gas reductions. It also supports farmers and rural economies, and tens of thousands of rewarding careers in the agriculture, biofuel, and home energy sectors.

The resolution has been submitted to regional, state, and local heating fuel associations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, to establish a unified industry voice for engagement with policymakers at all levels of government.

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Boston Resolution
Press Release