UTILITIES: PSEG rethinks its emissions reduction target, now ambitiously aiming to hit net-zero by 2030 instead of 2050. (Reuters)
ALSO: A judge sets trial and jury selection dates for the trial of five former Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative officials facing conspiracy corruption charges related to alleged luxury travel. (The Day)
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GRID: A bill with the potential to spur clean energy development and eliminate grid inefficiencies in a rural Maine county disconnected from the New England grid lands on the desk of Gov. Janet Mills. (Bangor Daily News)
OFFSHORE WIND:
• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, backs a bill seeking to ensure that states adjacent to new offshore wind development receive some of the money from lease sales. (New Hampshire Public Radio)
• A New Jersey bill limiting local control over onshore transmission infrastructure for offshore wind farms passes the state legislature and is likely to receive Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature. (NJ.com)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The transit authority of Washington, D.C., decides to shift its entire bus fleet to zero-emissions vehicles by 2045. (The Washington Post)
• Plans are underway to install 18 public electric vehicle chargers and a battery storage system on an otherwise unused Brooklyn lot, touted as the first such combined project in New York City. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• A southern Maine transit service receives a $1.22 million federal grant to purchase two on-route chargers for its electric buses, allowing the transportation provider to take two diesel buses off the roads. (News Center Maine)
• A Pennsylvania lawmaker introduces a federal bill requiring electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners to pay a fee to fund highway and road repairs. (WGAL)
• Delaware extends its electric vehicle rebate program through June 30, 2022. (news release)
PIPELINES: In New Jersey, environmentalists and neighbors of a proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion protested against the project before a county meeting, where labor unionists also appeared to support it on the basis of job creation. (New Jersey Herald)
CLIMATE:
• A long-abandoned office building in New Haven, Connecticut, is converted into what it says is the first net-zero hotel in the country, complete with ground-level and rooftop solar panels. (New Haven Independent)
• A former elected official and Rhode Island Chapter of the Sierra Club leader pleads no contest to several charges related to alleged embezzlement and campaign finance violations. (The NonProfit Times)