GRID: The Maine Ethics Commission continues to hide the identity of two political consulting firms under investigation over their involvement with a nonprofit fighting the Central Maine Power transmission line that is alleged to actually be a political action committee. (Portland Press Herald)

UTILITIES:
• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy approves $250 million in utility assistance for residents whose earnings are less than 120% of their area’s median income. (Hudson Reporter)
• New York Power Authority and several academic and federal partners will study how the climate crisis will impact the utility’s operations and physical generation and transmission infrastructure. (news release)

SOLAR:
• A Maine city temporarily bans development of solar farms 15,000 square feet or larger as officials try to mitigate residential aesthetic concerns, but a local developer says the industry can alleviate those concerns without a moratorium. (Kennebec Journal)
• Officials in a Midcoast Maine town look into solar subscription plans to cover their municipal energy usage, deciding that building a solar array doesn’t make sense for the town’s needs. (Times Record)

WIND: A Massachusetts university has been granted hundreds of thousands of dollars to support its offshore wind certificate program meant to help diversify the workforce needed to support the industry. (MassLive)

HYDROGEN: As gas utilities nationwide look to decarbonize their pipelines in the long term through hydrogen projects, a New Jersey utility may soon be the first to directly inject green hydrogen into its gas distribution system. (S&P Global Market Intelligence)

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Recently passed Rhode Island legislation allows the Block Island Utility District and Pascoag Utility District to set their own net metering program caps. (Block Island Times)

TRANSPORTATION: Candidates for a Connecticut senate seat debate the merits of the Transportation and Climate Initiative and offer differing solutions for congestion and traffic noise concerns. (Greenwich Free Press)

COMMENTARY: A Massachusetts forester argues that while air quality is indeed bad in Springfield, opponents of biomass can’t blame the energy source for the problem considering no such facilities exist in the city. (Greenfield Recorder)

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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.