UTILITIES: Despite spending billions to improve resiliency since Superstorm Sandy, 1.4 million New Jersey utility customers were left without power by last week’s Tropical Storm Isaias. (NJ Spotlight)

ALSO:
• A string of financial and operational successes ends spectacularly for Eversource as Tropical Storm Isaias leaves 800,000 Connecticut residents without power and a slow response prompts a state investigation. (CT Mirror)
• New York will hold a joint legislative hearing on the “response failures” of the state’s utilities to power outages caused by the storm. (news release)

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EFFICIENCY: Efficiency Maine expanded its LED program for public schools just as the coronavirus pandemic struck, so many districts have taken advantage of empty buildings to upgrade systems and employ out-of-work contractors. (Energy News Network)

OFFSHORE WIND: A new report finds lower costs and fewer environmental impacts if New York connects its offshore wind projects with an integrated transmission system. (North American Windpower)

TRANSPORTATION:
• A Pennsylvania company will test its battery-powered locomotive in a pilot project of a hybrid electric-diesel train in California. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• New Jersey receives a nearly $15 million federal grant to retrofit a garage to accommodate an electric bus fleet. (NJ.com)

EMISSIONS:
• New York City is under pressure to prove its building emissions law can work as other cities look to its implementation and building owners balk at costs. (Bloomberg Law)
• An ad-hoc New Hampshire Emissions Commission of government and private sector leaders meets for the first time to discuss the effects of air pollution on public health. (NHPR)
• Pennsylvania officials say there is a “special focus” on a county that is highly dependent on coal mining and coal-fired generation as the state intends to join a regional emission reduction compact. (Indiana Gazette)

NATURAL GAS: COVID-19 exacerbates underlying problems in natural gas markets as landowners who used to receive large monthly royalties see their payments drop. (CBS News) 

POLITICS: The future of New York City’s peaker plants could be affected by the arrival of new climate-conscious state legislators this fall. (HuffPost)

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PIPELINES: Two constables working as private security for the Mariner East pipeline in Pennsylvania want charges against them dismissed as they say state law allows them to work outside of the judicial system. (Daily Local News) 

COMMENTARY:
• The CEO of the transmission company seeking to build a power line to import Canadian hydropower says it has responded to public concerns about the project. (CentralMaine.com)
• The head of a Connecticut non-profit energy buying consortium says recent power bill increases show the deficiencies in the regional grid’s capacity market that prevents renewable energy from greater participation. (Hartford Courant)