FINANCE:
• Maine becomes the first state to pass legislation requiring state divestment from fossil fuel companies. (Grist)
• The Maine House advances bipartisan legislation to bar foreign-owned companies from spending money on referendum campaigns after a Canadian company funded a fight against a transmission project last year. (Bangor Daily News)

SOLAR:
• Hycate Energy proposes building a $500 million, 500 MW solar facility near Rochester, New York — a project that, if successful, would be among the largest in the state. (pv magazine)
• As it considers a six-month solar moratorium, an upstate New York town board hears from a farmer who needs a solar facility to stay in business and residents who oppose new development. (Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)
• Residents of a southern Maine town authorize leasing land at the local airport to a developer for a 5 MW solar array. (Times Record)

CLIMATE: Maryland officials admit the state severely underestimated methane emissions from its municipal landfills over the past 15 years, making the sites a larger source of the gas than the state’s natural gas and agricultural industries. (Baltimore Sun)

GRID: The New York Power Authority opens up a $615 million portion of an upstate transmission line as it aims to decongest the flow of greener power to the state’s energy-hungry south. (Times-Union)

OFFSHORE WIND: New York’s utility regulator wants the state’s energy development agency to examine the viability of installing wind turbines on Lakes Erie and Ontario. (WKBW)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Biddeford, Maine, auto repair shop converts a 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle into an all-electric car. (WMTW 8)

NATURAL GAS:
• A New Jersey county commissioners board decides not to issue a resolution against construction of a natural gas compressor station — and faces immediate criticism from local activists. (Daily Record)
• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear an eminent domain appeal brought by private landowners against a UGI Corp. subsidiary, which they say seized their subsurface rights when it formed a buffer zone around an underground gas storage facility. (Law360, subscription)

UTILITIES: New Jersey extends its utility shut-off moratorium to Jan. 1, 2022, as state agencies determine how to address accumulated arrearages. (NJ Spotlight)

RENEWABLES: A Rhode Island town requests proposals for solar or wind energy projects on two local brownfields and, separately, seeks an at least 20-year virtual net metering agreement. (The Valley Breeze)

COMMENTARY:
• Two Connecticut River Conservancy river stewards claim two hydroelectric companies seeking relicensing of their dams insufficiently studied how they’d affect traditional cultural practices of Indigenous tribes in the area. (MassLive)
• A Maine state legislator argues the referendum question related to the future of the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line needs to be broken down into three separate questions. (Portland Press-Herald)

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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.