Northeast Energy News is one of five regional services published by the Energy News Network. Today’s edition was compiled by Bridget Reed Morawski.
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Editor’s note: A council overseeing Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources does not have staff or a budget. An item in yesterday’s newsletter misstated that fact.
SOLAR: A New York siting board approves a 280 MW solar facility, co-located with 20 MW of battery storage, in the western part of the state. (Buffalo News)
GAS:
• New York budget negotiators have reportedly dropped what would have been the country’s first state-level gas heating ban for new buildings. (The River)
• New York’s grid operator receives and posts generator deactivation notices from the operators of roughly 156 MW of fossil fuel-fired units to comply with a state regulation targeting peakers. (S&P Global)
• A New York advocacy group points to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie as largely responsible for holding the state back from executing a gas heating ban for new buildings. (Popular Information)
• A southeastern Pennsylvania utility wants to raise its residential gas distribution rate by 13%. (Bucks County Courier Times)
EFFICIENCY: New York needs to weatherize and electrify a huge number of buildings every year to make a dent in its emissions profile, but several hurdles prevent low-income residents from making swaps at home. (New York Focus)
CLIMATE:
• Vermont’s first emissions reduction milestone is in 2025, but while the state has made progress, it still doesn’t know how much it’s emitting. (VT Digger)
• As some Pennsylvania lawmakers fight the state’s entrance into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, states already participating in the program consider its future and efficacy. (E&E News)
• Rhode Island’s General Assembly considers two bills that would establish a benchmark for building-related emissions and widen the number of state-used or -owned buildings following certain efficiency standards. (ecoRI)
ENVIRONMENT: In Maine, a legislative push to enshrine a right to clean air and water in the state constitution fails to secure the support of two-thirds of the state House. (Maine Public Radio)
GRID:
• No Brooklyn residents filed public comments regarding a proposed offshore wind transmission line that would connect the offshore Empire Wind 1 farm to the New York City borough. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• In New York City, some community and environmental leaders call on the state utility regulator to approve two transmission projects to decarbonize the city’s power supply. (NY1)
• National Grid sells around 200 acres of Massachusetts land abutting an existing protected natural area, once earmarked for a transmission corridor, to a local conservation group. (State House News Service)
TRANSIT:
• New Jersey will receive nearly $835 million in transportation funds from the federal infrastructure bill, although specific projects haven’t been identified. (NJ Advance Media)
• Boston plans to invest $7 million on 20 battery-powered school buses — roughly 3% of the entire fleet — and fully electrify the rest by 2030. (Boston Herald)
• Local officials in Washington, D.C., say the redesign of a central commercial corridor intended to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists will be done in the fall. (Washington Post)
• Infrastructure projects at a Connecticut train station have improved accessibility and more than doubled the number of weekday and weekend trains passing through. (New Haven Register)
WIND: A New Hampshire judge denies a motion for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by some Portsmouth residents over a nearby operating wind turbine, which they claim is a nuisance. (Newport Daily News)
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