TRANSPORTATION: A new report from Johns Hopkins University finds Baltimore’s low-income communities of color are the largest users of the regional public transit system yet face the most transit-related inequities, including the highest levels of vehicle emissions. (news release)

ALSO: In Maine, Portland partners with Lewiston to study a passenger rail connection between their cities and Auburn, which declined to fund the analysis. (Sun Journal)

GRID:
• Several First Nation tribes fight the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission project in Maine because the hydropower the transmission line would funnel comes from a utility they say commits “cultural genocide” in Canada. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Massachusetts warns a fight between two developers could delay New England Clean Energy Connect from bringing hydropower to the state if federal regulators don’t make a decision soon. (E&E News, subscription)
• A New Hampshire legislative committee discusses whether small-scale energy producers should receive credits for helping reduce transmission costs. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
• New York’s utility commission says that although prices will probably be higher this year, there will be enough natural gas and electricity to meet the state’s needs this winter. (Reuters)
• Construction on a newly announced battery storage system in Staten Island’s Grymes Hill neighborhood is expected to wrap up in 2022. (Crain’s New York Business, subscription)

CLIMATE:
• New York City’s Council passes a bill requiring the mayor’s office to develop a climate resiliency plan by September 2022, in addition to a roadmap detailing how the city will tackle climate-exacerbated issues like severe flooding. (WNYC)
• Pennsylvania’s Northeast and Southeast regions are more vulnerable to heavy storms and flooding and subsequently experience more climate-related events than the rest of the state. (Axios Philadelphia)

WIND: Ørsted plans to build an almost $20 million operations and maintenance facility in West Ocean City, Maryland, as part of the company’s plans to turn the town into an offshore wind development hub. (Salisbury Daily Times)

GAS:
• New Hampshire’s Liberty Utilities wants the state utility regulator to approve a proposed 20-year contract with Tennessee Gas Pipeline that would increase the company’s current natural gas capacity by up to 25%. (NH Business Review)
• Even though New Jersey just reduced state gasoline taxes by about 16%, observers say drivers won’t likely notice any change on their receipt because of other pricing considerations. (NJ.com)
• A Baltimore utility becomes the first in Maryland allowed to use renewable natural gas in its regular gas distribution channels. (Daily Record, subscription)

COAL: A Philadelphia-based environmental filmmaker turns his lens toward Pennsylvania’s Little Conemaugh River, documenting how coal mining pollution ruined the waterway. (WHYY)

CLEAN ENERGY:
• U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine expresses skepticism that the country can reach President Biden’s annual renewable energy growth targets, pointing to the slow pace of bringing projects online in his state. (Utility Dive)
• Connecticut’s final integrated resource plan finds the state has more than one option to develop a carbon-free power supply by 2040. (RTO Insider, subscription)

SOLAR: A new 3 MW solar array comes online to service a Pittsburgh-area municipal utility’s wastewater treatment plant. (PV Magazine)

Bridget is a freelance reporter and newsletter writer based in the Washington, D.C., area. She compiles the Northeast Energy News digest. Bridget primarily writes about energy, conservation and the environment. Originally from Philadelphia, she graduated from Emerson College in 2015 with a degree in journalism and a minor in environmental studies. When she isn’t working on a story, she’s normally on a northern Maine lake or traveling abroad to practice her Spanish language skills.