COAL: The 410 MW Indian River Generating Station, Delaware’s last coal-fired plant, may stay online beyond its previously announced 2022 closure date because grid upgrades needed to ensure reliability won’t wrap up until at least 2026. (Delaware Business Times)

BIOMASS: Several Massachusetts state lawmakers support two bills that would redefine biomass energy production as an unclean power source, revoking eligibility of such facilities for state subsidies. (WBUR)

WIND: A group representing the commercial fishing industry petitions a federal appeals court to review the U.S. government’s approval of Vineyard Wind 1, arguing responsible agencies didn’t sufficiently consider industry impacts. (WBUR)

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Voters in a northern New Jersey town will decide whether to establish a community choice aggregation program now that a state judge has approved the validity of signatures supporting a ballot referendum. (New Jersey Globe)

OIL & GAS: Communities across Massachusetts’ Merrimack Valley commemorate the third anniversary of a series of explosions and fires caused by over-pressurized Columbia Gas lines that killed a man, seriously injured over a dozen people and displaced an additional 8,000. (MassLive, NBC Boston)

SOLAR:
• A coastal Rhode Island town’s energy committee considers how to increase local adoption of solar. (ecoRI)
• The largest municipal solar array in Pennsylvania has come online: a 15 MW project whose output is completely dedicated to the south-central city of Chamsbersburg. (news release)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Maine’s Mount Desert Island High School is now the first in the state to use an electric school bus, which was almost entirely paid for via Volkswagen settlement funds. (News Center Maine)
• A Pittsburgh manufacturing company announces it has created its first battery-electric freight train, which it says can reduce fuel consumption by about a tenth when paired with diesel engines. (WESA)

GRID: New York regulators want the state’s utilities to suggest new transmission projects to help reach the state’s decarbonization goals, particularly from southwest, northern and Albany-area companies. (Utility Dive)

GEOTHERMAL: A Rhode Island church installs a geothermal heating and cooling system, which church leaders praise for being environmentally friendly, quiet, “invisible and all underground.” (Westerly Sun)

COMMENTARY: A Pennsylvania lawmaker representing Philadelphia argues city residents are paying too much for their energy needs, but moving to clean energy sources and working on climate resiliency projects can help reduce that burden. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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Bridget Reed Morawski

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.