FRACKING: A new Harvard study finds elevated levels of radiation downwind of fracking sites, with the largest increases found in Pennsylvania and Ohio. (Reuters)

CLIMATE: New Jersey is rewriting regulations that would require developers to include a “climate impact analysis” to include future risk potential caused by rising seas and storms. (NJ Spotlight)

POWER PLANTS:
• The New York Power Authority and an environmental coalition agree to assess how six natural gas peaker plants can transition to clean energy and storage while maintaining reliability. (Solar Power World)
• A Maryland-based power plant developer and operator with most of its 5.3 GW of generation assets in the Northeast is sold to an Israeli company. (RTO Insider, subscription required)
• A New Jersey town passes a resolution recommending the closure of a 1,229 MW gas-fired power plant and urges the city where it is located to follow suit. (Hudson Reporter)

UTILITIES: Vermont regulators say a moratorium on utility disconnections ends Thursday but a state fund to assist financially stressed customers is largely untapped. (VT Digger)

MARKETING: A federal class-action lawsuit in Maine against an electricity marketer nears settlement while a state probe of the company remains active. (Portland Press Herald)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A new New Jersey law that gives environmental justice communities a say in the siting of polluting facilities is seen as the toughest of its kind in the country. (Waste360)

OIL & GAS: Local officials praise a “new beginning” as Eversource officially takes over 300,000 natural gas customers of Columbia Gas after that company was forced to leave Massachusetts in the aftermath of a fatal explosion. (Eagle-Tribune)

OFFSHORE WIND: Shell and its offshore wind development partner seek to retrain some of the 9,000 workers to be laid off by the oil giant to jobs at the Mayflower Wind project in Massachusetts. (reNEWS)

SOLAR:
• A new report assesses the solar potential in each state that exists along interstate highway corridors and interchanges. (PV Magazine)
• A New Jersey town is set to unveil a 1.5 MW solar array at its former landfill. (New Jersey Herald) 

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Bill Opalka

Bill is a freelance journalist based outside Albany, New York. As a former New England correspondent for RTO Insider, he has written about energy for newspapers, magazines and other publications for more than 20 years. He has an extensive career in trade publications and newspapers, mostly focused on the utility sector, covering such issues as restructuring, renewable energy and consumer affairs. Bill covers Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire and also compiles the Northeast Energy News daily email digest.