PIPELINES: A Pennsylvania appeals court rules that state regulators do not have to release calculations of a potential blast zone for the Mariner East pipeline, citing confidential security rules. (StateImpact Pennsylvania)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Vermont program to help low-income residents buy fuel-efficient vehicles is off to a slow start after it was delayed for months by the pandemic. (Energy News Network)

FRACKING:
• As fracking becomes an election issue in Pennsylvania, the industry is burdened by high debts and unpopular outside of drilling areas. (Vox)
• A Pennsylvania town denies a zoning permit extension for a fracking driller that wants to extract natural gas from underneath a U.S. Steel plant outside Pittsburgh. (StateImpact Pennsylvania)

UTILITIES:
• Connecticut Attorney General William Tong asks regulators to order utility reimbursements to customers who lost food and medicine during an extended power outage after Tropical Storm Isaias. (E&E News, subscription)
• A report shows electricity usage in New Hampshire increased during the spring pandemic shutdown as residential demand more than offset lower usage at industrial and commercial sites. (Concord Monitor)

OFFSHORE WIND: The new CEO of Orsted’s U.S. operations says he expects the company to employ 1,000 by the end of the decade. (Greentech Media)

BIOMASS: A Vermont town drops plans for a biomass plant in part due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (Brattleboro Reformer)

HYDROPOWER: An environmental group seeks an order from Maine officials to shut down a hydropower dam over fish kills. (Ellsworth American)

SOLAR: The first dual-use solar farm in Massachusetts opens with solar panels placed high enough for crops to be grown underneath and between the rows. (news release)

POLITICS: Stark contrasts in climate policy exist between incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu and challenger Mark Feltes in New Hampshire. (NHPR)

COMMENTARY: Environmental attorneys say it is “hard to overstate how transformative” New York’s 2019 climate law will be as some of its first benchmarks in creating its plan come due. (Bloomberg)

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Bill Opalka

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.