UTILITIES: New Mexico’s utility commission rejects the merger of a local utility with Connecticut-based Avangrid, with at least one commissioner citing the company’s performance in New England and its past regulatory fines of over $60 million. (NM Political Report)
ALSO: Experts with the Rhode Island attorney general’s office say the sale of National Grid utility Narragansett Electric Company shouldn’t be approved because the new parent company may not be able to meet the state’s climate goals. (Boston Globe)
GRID: A row of businesses in a coastal New York town haven’t had power since Hurricane Ida swept through in September, in part because Con Edison only last week filed the permit it needs to begin work on a line under a state-owned street. (News 12 Connecticut)
OIL & GAS:
• National Grid says it believes no more than 20 gallons of coal tar oil spilled into the Seekonk River last week, but it’s hard to determine how much escaped from containment. (Boston Globe)
• A Massachusetts environmental protection public hearing on the Pittsfield peaker plant’s air quality permit attracted around two dozen state officials, residents and other stakeholders opposing the facility’s ongoing use. (iBerkshires)
TRANSPORTATION:
• Boston’s transit agency is cancelling around one in every 20 trips because of a bus and trolley driver shortage, and a local business leader says a waiver should be granted allowing the agency to use private bus drivers. (Commonwealth Magazine)
• A report by New York City’s transit agency finds implementing congestion pricing should reduce traffic even more than previously presumed. (Streetsblog NYC)
• A New Hampshire planning commission, seeking to take advantage of federal infrastructure funds, wants more public comments on a draft regional corridor transportation plan. (Concord Monitor)
CLIMATE:
• A Massachusetts state legislator introduces a bill that would convert 412,000 acres of watershed and forestland into parkland, which would prevent logging, leasing, or selling the land in a bid to harness the carbon storage of those woods. (WBUR)
• The Vermont Climate Council’s interim climate action plan was supposed to not overburden the state’s vulnerable communities, but a council member says outreach to those residents was difficult because of the pandemic and strict deadlines. (Seven Days)
• A Maryland county intends to hire at least eight new sustainability or environmental resource employees in two new offices to help the area reach climate goals. (Frederick News-Post)
WIND: New York’s grid operator broke its wind generation record twice in an evening during the past week. (Observer)
NUCLEAR: PG&E’s chief nuclear officer and senior vice president of generation will retire Dec. 31 after 37 years with the utility. (news release)
REGULATORS:
• New Hampshire’s state executive council approves its first energy department commissioner, former gubernatorial policy director Jared Chicoine, and a new utility commissioner, Pradip Chattopadhyay. (New Hampshire Public Radio)
• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoes the creation of a utility consumer advocacy office, calling it redundant given other consumer advocacy roles in state government. (City & State/New York Focus)
NET-ZERO: A Rhode Island coalition of environmental and labor groups wants the state to use federal funds to turn public schools into net-zero facilities, but their own researchers say such an overhaul would cost $2.5 billion. (Providence Journal)
SOLAR: In Maine, a Kennebec Valley town decides to approve the lease for a solar farm to be built on several acres of land at the local airfield. (Morning Sentinel)