SOLAR: A medical device manufacturer plans to install Massachusetts’ largest rooftop solar array — 16,000 panels totaling 6.7 MW — on its distribution center in Uxbridge. (MassLive)
ALSO:
• Nelnet Renewable Energy and six banks invested $11.9 million in a portfolio of solar projects throughout Rhode Island and New York. (news release)
• A Cape Cod town sets a meeting to discuss a potential zone change that could allow a solar farm to be built on a 100-year-old golf course. (Cape Cod Times)
• A renewables developer energizes its 587 kW solar project at a Connecticut retirement community. (news release)
• A Vermont couple shares how their bee-friendly solar array coincides with their initiative to restore pollinator habitats. (Seven Days)
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TRANSPORTATION:
• New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission votes to stop issuing new for-hire licenses to electric vehicles, reversing a previous regulation that only allowed new licenses to go to electric cars and crushing a proposed all-electric competitor to Uber and Lyft. (MarketWatch)
• Newton, Massachusetts electric vehicle advocates say the city has a long way to go to fully adopt electric vehicles, while green transportation backers also call for electrifying Newton’s regional rail station and building up bike and pedestrian infrastructure. (Boston Globe)
CLIMATE:
• Rhode Island’s Senate votes to have the state join the region’s Transportation and Climate Initiative, giving it new legs after Connecticut failed to agree to join. (Providence Journal)
• More than half of Pennsylvanians say the state should “definitely” or “probably” do more to combat climate change and its impacts, a poll shows. (State Impact Pennsylvania)
UTILITIES:
• New York state launches an investigation into National Grid’s downstate gas operations after five of the utility’s former managers were hit with federal bribery charges. (Utility Dive)
• The Maryland Public Service Commission allocates $83 million to utilities to reduce overdue bills accumulated during the pandemic. (Cumberland Times-News)
• The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approves a rate increase for PECO’s gas division that’s nearly half of what the provider requested. (WFMZ)
NATURAL GAS: The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company defends a proposed gas peaker plant in Peabody at a town meeting. (Patch)
OFFSHORE WIND:
• A video simulation shows what offshore wind turbines off the Long Island and New Jersey coast could look like from shore. (CBS New York)
• An Ørsted executive, along with public policy and wind power experts, discusses how offshore wind fits into New Jersey’s economic and climate goals. (NJ Spotlight)
GRID: Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. announces a longtime leader with experience modernizing the grid will lead Narragansett Electric Co. after PPL finalizes its purchase of the power company. (Providence Business News)
HYDROPOWER: Fish advocacy groups say Atlantic salmon suffered harsh injuries during repairs to a Maine dam as they seek to have dams in the lower Kennebec River removed. (Portland Press Herald)
COMMENTARY:
• Federal lawmakers should consider a gas tax increase, which would benefit Maine’s roads and bridges more than an electric vehicle fee, an editorial board writes. (Bangor Daily News)
• Pennsylvania needs to close a loophole in its draft methane rule and shut down its high-emitting, low-producing natural gas wells, an engineering and public policy professor argues. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
• A Rhode Island renewable energy advocate praises the state’s pledge to decarbonize its electricity by 2030 and calls on the state to continue leading the clean energy transition. (Providence Journal)