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NATURAL GAS: National Grid will lift a moratorium, pay $36 million in penalties and begin hooking up new customers in the New York City area to end a standoff with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (Politico)
ALSO:
• The deal does not end the dispute between the company and state over an undersea pipeline the utility says is needed to serve additional customers. (City & State)
• Brookline, Massachusetts’ recent vote to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings signals an important shift in local climate action as New England increasingly finds itself at a home-heating crossroads. (E&E News)
• Liquified natural gas has been exported out of a Pennsylvania port since spring of 2018 with most of it headed to Japan. (WHYY)
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EFFICIENCY: Norway offers Massachusetts a potential model as the state contemplates how it can raise its already high commitment to energy efficiency. (Energy News Network)
GRID:
• The head of ISO-New England says it’s challenging to balance its clean energy and low-costs objectives, and that a carbon price would help. (Utility Dive)
• New York’s grid operator considers and then abandons a proposal to limit press coverage of its early deliberations after a press report is published. (Politico)
OFFSHORE WIND:
• New Jersey establishes a stakeholder panel that includes the fishing industry to advise it as it pursues a goal to power 3 million homes with offshore wind by 2035. (WHYY)
• Vineyard Wind gives a Massachusetts port city $50,000 to study how it could accommodate an influx of vessels during offshore wind construction. (Southcoasttoday)
SOLAR: Maine Gov. Janet Mills today will unveil new solar panels at the governor’s mansion and sign an executive order to make state buildings more energy efficient. (WGME)
BIOMASS: Vermont encourages wood burning to replace oil heat but the fuel has its own set of climate and environmental impacts. (InsideClimate News)
NUCLEAR: The owner of the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York and the company that wants to decommission it ask federal regulators for a license transfer as the units prepare to close in early 2021. (Power Engineering)
OIL & GAS: The bankrupt oil refinery in Philadelphia damaged by a June explosion asks a court permission for $2.5 million in executive bonuses as it completes a sale of the facility. (Reuters)
POWER PLANTS: A New York investment firm completes its purchase of a power plant at a closed Maine lumber mill. (Bangor Daily News)
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ACTIVISM: Climate activists in Rhode Island continue a campaign against Chase bank urging it to stop its investments in fossil fuel industries. (ecoRI)
COMMENTARY:
• Sierra Club and other environmental groups lobby New Jersey legislators to pass a bill to support electric vehicle adoption. (news release)
• A transportation advocate in Massachusetts says a multi-state plan to cap motor vehicle emissions can have the same success as a similar program has had with power plant emissions. (Eagle-Tribune)