TRANSPORTATION: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pauses development of the proposed $2 billion monorail to connect New York City with LaGuardia Airport following criticism over potential environmental and community impacts. (NBC New York)
ALSO:
• NJ Transit secures contracts with nearly three-fifths of the rail unions that keep trains running on time, but is still negotiating with eight unions. (NJ Advance Media)
• Baltimore County, Maryland’s first free public transit method opens, providing circulator buses in the Towson area intended to alleviate traffic. (CBS Baltimore)
UTILITIES: Maine’s highest court rules Central Maine Power acted reasonably when it issued disconnection notices last winter after a moratorium on such memos ended. (Portland Press-Herald)
GRID:
• Newly released documents show the New England Clean Energy Connect developer’s parent company has already spent over $350 million on the project and acknowledge legal challenges could cost them $67 million in construction delays. (Portland Press-Herald)
• Even if the New England Clean Energy Connect project succeeds and brings hydropower from Canada to Massachusetts, New England will still need a lot more renewable energy to meet its decarbonization goals. (Bangor Daily News)
• After malfunctioning in April, an important transmission line in Long Island is back online and will be upgraded in fall 2022. (Newsday)
SOLAR:
• Several towns in New York’s Niagara County promise to continue fighting local solar development after a state supreme court judge denied their petition related to a state energy siting office’s handling of a 100 MW solar array. (Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)
• Two energy developers plan to bring 13 new solar farms to Maine that would generate a cumulative 44 MW. (Portland Press-Herald)
• In Vermont, construction workers break ground on a 29,000-panel solar array at Middlebury College that school officials say will generate nearly a third of its renewable energy. (WCAX)
GAS:
• Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro plans today to announce he’s running for governor on the Democratic ticket; observers think he’ll campaign as a reformer after fighting the state’s fossil fuel industry over environmental crimes. (E&E News)
• A New Haven, Connecticut, planning commission decides a public meeting should be held over whether to ban gas-powered leaf blowers over environmental and noise concerns. (New Haven Independent)
WIND: New England’s burgeoning offshore wind industry is poised to offer good-paying jobs to workers across the region, but long-term jobs in the sector are rarer than short-term construction roles. (WBUR/E&E News)