Boston may require large new buildings to be net-zero

EFFICIENCY: Boston is moving forward with plans to require net-zero energy consumption in large new building construction. (Energy News Network)

UTILITIES:
• New Jersey’s largest utility and state regulators reach a tentative agreement on a $700 million smart meter rollout plan with timing and customer charges still to be worked out. (NJ Spotlight)
• Most Pennsylvania utilities have held off on disconnecting customers who are behind on bills despite a state-imposed moratorium expiring in the fall. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

TRANSPORTATION: Massachusetts joins California in banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars after 2035. (CNET.com)

CLIMATE: Massachusetts legislators on Monday sent a landmark climate bill that rewrites emissions and clean energy targets first enacted in 2008 to Gov. Charlie Baker. (WBUR)

SOLAR: A climate law passed in Massachusetts exempts residential and small commercial solar systems from property taxes but requires larger projects to pay taxes or reach payment agreements with their host communities. (CommonWealth Magazine)

NUCLEAR: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs a first-in-the-nation law that allows communities to collect taxes on spent nuclear fuel. (Bloomberg Law, subscription required)

NATURAL GAS: A proposed liquified natural gas export terminal in New Jersey poses a challenge to the incoming Biden administration as environmental and labor supporters are on opposite sides of the project. (Washington Post)

PEOPLE: New congressional Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York City adds another progressive voice to the Democratic caucus that supports the Green New Deal. (E&E News, subscription required)

POWER PLANTS: NRG proposes replacing two aging natural gas generators in central Connecticut with a new and more efficient plant using the same fuel. (CT Examiner)

COMMENTARY:
• An energy advisor says while nuclear power advocates are quick to extoll its carbon-free benefits, they must also account for its other consequences like radioactive waste. (NJ Spotlight)
• An environmental writer praises Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island for signing on to the Transportation Climate Initiative and urges other Northeastern states to follow suit. (WBUR)
• A Pennsylvania activist says the national platform Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has earned after the election should be used to warn of the dangers of fracking in the western Pennsylvania town where he’s from. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Academics and researchers say biomass should be excluded as a clean energy source eligible for subsidies from Massachusetts. (CommonWealth Magazine)

Bill is a freelance journalist based outside Albany, New York. As a former New England correspondent for RTO Insider, he has written about energy for newspapers, magazines and other publications for more than 20 years. He has an extensive career in trade publications and newspapers, mostly focused on the utility sector, covering such issues as restructuring, renewable energy and consumer affairs. Bill covers Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire and also compiles the Northeast Energy News daily email digest.