In June, Eversource completed a geothermal system in Framingham, Massachusetts, that provides heating and cooling for an entire neighborhood, including public housing residents, by tapping low-temperature thermal heat from underground wells. It was the first geothermal system ever built by a gas utility. More than that, it’s a demonstration project that could chart a new course for the industry by transitioning off gas while preserving jobs.

On Dec. 3, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed legislation allowing gas utilities to move beyond pilot projects by granting them permission to provide geothermal heating and cooling as an alternative to gas throughout their service areas. Seven other states have recently passed similar legislation, and countries across central Asia could soon build similar projects.

Long before Magavi set out to transform an industry, she renovated her home. A physicist and public health researcher, Magavi quickly realized that a ground source heat pump would not only be the most efficient way to heat and cool the home, it would also be one of the cleanest.

Ground source heat pumps pull heat from water in pipes circulating below ground, where temperatures are a steady 55 degrees. In summer the system runs in reverse, pulling heat from the building to cool it down. They work the same way as air source heat pumps or air conditioners but are more efficient due to the steady underground temperatures they draw from. Like air source heat pumps, they run on electricity; no gas or oil burning is required.

The system’s high efficiency would translate to lower utility bills. But the upfront costs, including drilling a well several hundred feet into the earth, were prohibitively expensive. She talked to her neighbors to see if anyone else wanted to put in a similar system, which might bring down the drilling costs for everyone, but there were no takers. She reluctantly went with a high-efficiency gas heating system instead.

While Eversource was the first gas utility to build a networked geothermal heating and cooling system, a near-identical low temperature, interconnected heat-pump system was built nearly two decades earlier at Colorado Mesa University. Mesa County in western Colorado, where the university is located, voted roughly 2-1 for President-elect Donald Trump in each of the past three presidential elections.

Colorado Mesa’s geothermal system, which started with just three buildings and has grown steadily over the years, has saved the school more than $15 million in fuel costs since 2008, according to Cary Smith, a former oil and gas developer who designed the system.

Smith, who has advised HEET on geothermal, said there’s no reason similar systems wouldn’t work on the East Coast.