• Get Engaged
• We Want to Hear from You!
• Support the Drought and PFAS Bills
• Specialized Building Energy Code in Stow
• Induction Stoves - a Safer and Easier Way to Cook

The Energize Stow newsletter strives to provide you with practical information you can use to make Stow a more sustainable community. We would love to hear from you about what you would be interested in reading or learning about. Please email us at GreenAdvisory@stow-ma.gov with your ideas. Thank you!

There are two bills working their way through the state legislature that are of particular interest to Stow residents.  Sustainable Stow supports both bills. The first deals with the issue of managing water during a drought which will impact well owners and the second deals with PFAS which a number of Stow residents have found in their wells.  

Drought Bill

S.586 and H.1003 (An Act Relative to Maintaining Adequate Water Supplies through Effect Drought Management), the bill establishes a task force that will 1) create a drought management plan, 2) create and maintain a map identifying drought restricted areas and 3) monitor drought conditions in the state. The Secretary of Emergency Management and the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs will co-chair the task force. In the case of a drought, the secretaries will have the authority to order water conservation measures, including limits on nonessential outdoor water use, based on the severity of drought in designated regions to protect public health, safety or the environment. These water conservation measures apply to all water users within a drought region unless otherwise determined by the secretary with prior notice to the task force. This means well users of our town must comply.  

Status:  The Senate bill was reported out of committee and is now in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The House bill is still in the Environment and Natural Resource Committee with a reporting date of the end of this year. 

Ask:  Send an email to thank Senator Jamie Eldridge (james.eldridge@masenate.gov) for his sponsorship and continued support. Ask if there is anything you can do to help move the bill forward.  

PFAS Bill

S.1504 and H.2450, An Act to Protect Massachusetts Public Health from PFAS, is being discussed in the Joint Committee on Public Health.  This bill is sponsored by our representative Kate Hogan.  It will establish a Remediation Trust Fund administered by the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.  

Of particular interest to us in Stow, is that grants can be awarded to Boards of Health to mitigate the impacts of PFAS contamination for private well owners. Specifically, Boards of Health can establish rebate and grant programs for the reimbursement of private well users and owners for the costs of private well water sampling, installation, and operation and maintenance of PFAS treatment systems. 

Status. In the Joint Committee on Public Health.  

Ask: Send an email to our Representative Kate Hogan (Kate.Hogan@mahouse.gov) to thank her for her sponsorship of the bill and ask if there is anything you can do to move the bill out of committee. 

Specialized Building Energy Code in Stow

Building heating represents a substantial cost for most homes, municipal, and commercial buildings in Stow. Heating with fossil fuels can also be a source of unhealthy indoor air pollutants as well as a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In fact, a greenhouse gas inventory of Stow showed using fuel oil, natural gas, or propane for building heating and hot water is responsible for over 40% of total town GHG emissions.

Buildings in Stow, including homes and municipal buildings are making steady progress in reducing heating costs and GHG emissions through energy efficiency measures such as insulation and air sealing and by retrofitting some or all of the building heating requirements to use electric heat pumps. However, large new housing developments are planned for Stow over the next several years and it is important that this new construction not add to our townwide GHG emissions.

As a result of the state’s 2021 climate legislation, a new building energy code was introduced called the Specialized Energy Code. The goal of the Specialized Energy Code is to ensure energy efficient new construction and help achieve the state’s greenhouse gas emissions limits. The Code is opt-in and Stow was the 16^th community in the state to adopt it at the spring town meeting in 2023. The Code went into effect in Stow in January 2024. As of the start of 2025, there are 55 communities which have adopted the Code. For Stow, the Specialized Code is part of the town’s overall energy and climate goals as described in the Stow Climate Action Plan and adopted by the Select Board.  

While the use of fossil fuels such as fuel oil, natural gas, or propane, is not prohibited for new construction under the Specialized Code, it is discouraged through a number of provisions. These provisions are intended to ensure the building is energy efficient, offsets the GHG emissions of a new building using fossil fuels, and prepares the building for the future removal of fossil fuel appliances. The impact is to increase construction costs as compared to all-electric construction. The builder is also disqualified from receiving incentives from our utility available for all-electric new construction. 

Stow is particularly well suited for fossil fuel free new construction having both among lowest cost and cleanest electricity in the state. Not only will all-electric new construction benefit the builder, it will also benefit the homeowner, and the town as a whole. The estimated savings for heating a new all-electric home as compared to a propane heated home is about $1,000 per year. And for the town, the greenhouse gas reduction is about 5,000 pounds of CO2 per year.

Going forward, new constructions statewide will not use fossil fuels. There are ten communities that have banned the use of fossil fuels for new construction. Prospective home buyers will expect new homes to be fossil fuel free to avoid the future cost of retrofitting to all-electric.

Stow strongly encourages developers to build all-electric new housing.

Induction Stoves - A Safer and Easier Way to Cook

Gas ranges were once considered the appliance of choice for serious cooks. But no longer. Many restaurants are converting to induction cooking. Home cooks are too. They find it a safer, more efficient and a healthier option (see Interview on NPR). So why? 

You have more control of cooking. With induction you have almost instantaneous control over the cooking temperature, unlike the old electric resistance ‘coil type’ cooktops. You also have much more precise, temperature control, for tasks from boiling water quickly to slowly steaming rice. Finally, you have a flat, easy to clean cooktop surface.  

It is safer. With induction cooking there are no open flames, unburned gas or other harmful combustion byproducts in your living space. An induction cooktop does not heat the cooking surface, instead it heats the cookware directly. Since natural gas cooktops leak methane even when off as measured in several studies (Gas Leaks Explained), people with respiratory issues such as asthma may benefit substantially by removing this source of indoor air pollution from their home.

It is more efficient. Since you control the temperature of the cookware directly, you can very quickly change the cooking temperature. Since you are heating the cookware directly, induction is more efficient, using somewhat less energy than an electric resistance cooktop, and much less energy than a gas cooktop. This higher efficiency translates into both lower energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions. 

But questions remain.  

• What about cookware? The cookware must be magnetic. To test your existing cookware, you simply obtain a (typically free) cookware testing magnet from an appliance store or use any household magnet like a refrigerator magnet. If it sticks to the bottom, the cookware will work on an induction cooktop. There are many types of induction-compatible cookware, it doesn’t need to be cast iron or necessarily heavy. Much of your existing cookware may work. Also, there are adapter plates available for non-magnetic cookware. Just note that the results with these types of plates vary. 

• Power Requirements. One needs to be aware of the power requirements of an induction stove particularly if it is replacing a gas stove. An induction stove requires 240 volts and a dedicated circuit breaker. This could potentially add significant additional cost. You will need to check with an electrician.  

• A potential concern. Since induction cooktops use a magnetic field to heat cookware, those with pacemakers should check with their doctor, since there appears to be a variety of medical opinions regarding safe practices.

If you are interested in learning more, consider borrowing an induction plate from Randall Library. You can try it out for free and see for yourself.