GAS: A New Hampshire law that bars restrictions on natural gas hookups prevents local governments from mandating climate-friendly construction, like requiring electric heating and appliances. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• Although the public has known for decades about carcinogenic waste buried along a Pennsylvania pipeline, clean-up efforts continue with no projected end date. (Penn Live)
• New York’s consideration of a hydrogen and carbon capture program could set a national precedent, some clean energy proponents say; other advocates question whether the technologies are truly as clean as marketed. (E&E News, subscription)
• Climate advocates applaud projects New York officials announced during Climate Week, but caution that further progress is needed on cryptocurrency mining and new fossil fuel facility permits. (The River)

GRID:
• Numerous New York utilities implore a federal appeals court not to upend an earlier order allowing them to avoid $1.6 billion in grid costs associated with a transmission line mainly benefiting New Jersey. (Law360, subscription)
• A Maine newspaper outlines what voters should know ahead of the November ballot initiative on the Central Maine Power transmission corridor. (Bangor Daily News)

CLIMATE:
• In Pennsylvania, a Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission board member declines to vote on a transportation infrastructure plan he says inadequately addresses climate change. (WHYY)
• A New Hampshire city considers how to rebuild an aging elementary school and get its energy use to be as net-zero as possible, but much of the design can’t be nailed down until pivotal questions are addressed. (Concord Monitor)
• Amid global climate protests this week, youth activists across the region, including in Boston and New Hampshire, urge climate action. (Boston Globe, New Hampshire Public Radio)
• New York City’s climate and sustainability director discusses the city’s greenhouse gas emission reduction plans on a local podcast. (Gotham Gazette)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Public showcases of dozens of electric vehicle models were held in Schenectady, New York, and Bennington, Vermont, to highlight the technology’s benefits and drawbacks. (Daily Gazette, Bennington Banner)
• Although supporters of New York City’s congestion pricing plans point to the environmental benefits, New Jersey drivers say the costs will be “obscene.” (CBS New York)
• Multimodal transportation advocates say bringing the Transportation & Climate Initiative to Connecticut could help alleviate rising bicyclist and pedestrian deaths. (New Haven Register)

HYDROELECTRIC: State officials and nonprofits work together to remove unused, under-managed Vermont dams that could harm fish populations, impede recreation and potentially threaten nearby homes. (Valley News)

CARBON SEQUESTRATION:
• A Maine task force examines how to encourage both small- and large-scale landowners to protect their “carbon sponge” forests. (Portland Press-Herald)
• A Colby College film highlights the work of one person using natural regeneration to fight climate change on over 100,000 acres of Maine forestland. (Outside)

CLEAN ENERGY: Over 28,000 heat pumps were installed in Maine last year, putting the state roughly three-tenths of the way to its goal of 100,000 new heat pumps by 2025. (WABI)

SOLAR: A southern Maine town’s nonprofit homeless shelter subscribes to a small community solar program. (news release)

COMMENTARY: Climate change is no longer an abstract problem in New Jersey, and climate inaction poses the greatest threat to the state, according to New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy and other New Jersey climate council members. (NJ.com)