TRANSPORTATION: New Jersey’s Rate Counsel says the state’s electricity customers should not pay for building out electric vehicle charging infrastructure that will be operated by a competitive market. (NJ Spotlight)
SUSTAINABILITY: Engineered wood, which has lower carbon emissions than other construction techniques, has become a more common material in large-scale projects in New England over the past three years. (Energy News Network)
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CLIMATE: The head of the Massachusetts energy department says the state remains committed to its efficiency and clean energy goals during the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (WBUR)
OFFSHORE WIND: A federal regulator says despite an office shutdown caused by COVID-19, a wider study of the Vineyard Wind project is still expected to be finished by December. (National Fisherman)
PIPELINES:
• Environmental leaders challenge a New Jersey decision to allow construction to continue at a pipeline project during the coronavirus-ordered shutdown of non-essential services. (Burlington County Times)
• Two environmental groups sue federal regulators over approval of a natural gas pipeline as they say a recent court ruling provides an opportunity for more vigorous review of the project’s climate impacts. (E&E News, subscription required)
OIL & GAS: A developer receives an environmental permit from state officials for an oil and gas wastewater well in western Pennsylvania but is not sure when or if the facility would be built. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
TECHNOLOGY: A technology council and a major utility team up to offer a challenge grant for a promising clean technology startup in New Jersey. (ROI-NJ.com)
EMISSIONS: Allegheny College becomes the first college in Pennsylvania to become carbon neutral. (GoErie.com)
BIOMASS: Projects to increase efficiency and operations in biomass facilities in Maine and Vermont are among the grant recipients of a U.S. Forest Service innovations program. (Biomass Magazine)
COMMENTARY:
• An environmental coalition is suing federal regulators over a ruling on capacity market pricing that now undercuts the states’ ability to set clean energy policies. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• An environmental activist says the same collaboration on display in confronting the coronavirus pandemic must be channeled to meet climate goals set out in New York’s aggressive clean energy commitments. (Syracuse.com)
• Representatives of minority owned businesses in New Jersey say a state overhaul of energy efficiency commitments must include African-American and Hispanic workers and business owners. (TapInto.net)
• The League of Conservation Voters says the New Jersey Energy Master Plan is a way to counter the worst effects of climate change as the state marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. (Asbury Park Press)