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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Bridget Reed Morawski

Bridget is a freelance reporter and newsletter writer based in the Washington, D.C., area. She compiles the Northeast Energy News digest. Bridget primarily writes about energy, conservation and the environment. Originally from Philadelphia, she graduated from Emerson College in 2015 with a degree in journalism and a minor in environmental studies. When she isn’t working on a story, she’s normally on a northern Maine lake or traveling abroad to practice her Spanish language skills.