ACTIVISM: A climate justice activist and supporter of the Green New Deal who became the unlikely state senator of a deep red district in rural Maine says face-to-face conversations with voters helped overcome political division. (The Nation)

OIL & GAS:
• The cleanup begins for a closed 150-year-old refinery site in Philadelphia that will take a decade and, at this scale, has no precedent. (Reuters)
• New Jersey’s top environmental official recuses himself from review of a liquified natural gas export terminal as he represented the developer as a private attorney before his current position. (NJ Spotlight)

OFFSHORE WIND:
• An organization of shoreline residents in New Jersey says a wind farm off Atlantic City should be moved to 35 miles offshore instead of the planned 15. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• The developer of the project applies to state environmental officials to begin testing of the ocean floor of how it could support undersea cables. (Press of Atlantic City)
• A broad cross-section of stakeholders support the South Fork offshore wind project off Long Island at a federal hearing. (RTO Insider, subscription required)

EFFICIENCY:
• An efficiency trade organization says if Washington, D.C. was a state, it would have led the nation in green building construction last year. (WTOP)
It’s not yet clear whether a proposal by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow building owners to buy renewable energy credits in lieu of efficiency improvements will clear the state legislature. (E&E News, subscription)

TRANSMISSION: Tourism business owners are wary of the Clean Energy Connect power line traversing through western Maine as the first poles for the project are erected. (CentralMaine.com)

POLITICS: A freshman Democratic U.S. representative from New York heads an energy subcommittee and wants to incorporate environmental justice into the committee’s agenda. (E&E News, subscription required)

UTILITIES: Opponents of a New Hampshire bill intended to streamline community choice programs for municipalities say it would instead complicate the process. (NHPR)

WASTE-TO-ENERGY:
• Residents and elected officials organize in opposition to a proposed medical waste facility in Rhode Island that would produce renewable fuels. (WJAR)
• The owner of a waste-to-energy plant in Maine sees an opportunity to collaborate with a nearby and now-shuttered facility that uses the same process reopens later this year. (Bangor Daily News)

COMMENTARY:
• A community solar advocate says Central Maine Power’s imposition of high interconnection fees, then an apparent reversal, still leaves several unanswered questions that warrant investigation. (Bangor Daily News)
• A Maryland county official says state authorization of community choice aggregation would be a meaningful step to allow local governments to address the climate crisis. (Maryland Matters)

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.