TRANSIT: A Washington, D.C., city council advances legislation to make public bus routes free — a plan the mayor questions given the city’s system is co-funded and used by Virginians and Marylanders. (DCist)
ALSO: The transit agency of Washington, D.C., issued a budget plan this week that includes low-income subway rider discounts, but hikes overall fares by roughly 5%. (Washington Post)
OIL & GAS:
• A new tracker highlights the sites in Pennsylvania where fracking waste contains a persistent, bioaccumulative class of chemicals linked to numerous health problems. (Daily Climate)
• Two fracking services companies are dismissed from a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania man over property value and health issues he connects to nearby fracking; three other defendants are still being sued. (Indiana Gazette)
CLEAN ENERGY:
• The city council of Springfield, Massachusetts, votes to allow the city to begin a community choice clean energy aggregation program. (Mass Live)
• A former national climate advisor and a top official in Massachusetts governor-elect Maura Healey’s transition team says she is committed to an equitable clean energy transition. (Mass Live)
SOLAR:
• A developer sues a Pennsylvania township over a recently adopted solar ordinance it says wasn’t enacted through the proper channels and targeted toward their own solar installation plans. (News-Item)
• A Maine transit official acknowledges the agency should’ve communicated better with Augusta residents and council members while planning a 15-acre solar installation along the town’s highway exits. (Portland Press Herald)
• Some residents of Wilder, Vermont, push back on plans to clear-cut some forestland to install a 4.13 MW solar array. (Valley News)
• New York’s governor signs into law a new fund aiming to protect agricultural plots and farmlands from solar development. (Spectrum News)
• A retail energy provider can proceed with construction of its 4 MW community solar project in upstate New York, separately wrapping up the interconnection review for a separate 6 MW facility in the state. (news release)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• New Haven, Connecticut, officials question whether the city should use federal pandemic funds to buy non-electric police and fire vehicles given local impacts from the climate and air quality crises. (New Haven Independent)
• Buffalo, New York, firefighters receive new gear that will help extinguish fires from the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. (WKBW)
UTILITIES: Although some question whether the utility needs to raise rates, a Connecticut news outlet notes Eversource’s Connecticut operations are the least profitable part of its service territory. (New Haven Register)
GRID: The National Transportation Safety Board publishes a preliminary report on the events that led to a small plane crashing into Maryland power lines last month, causing a widespread outage. (DCist)
CLIMATE: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Delaware researchers will study how to mitigate and adapt to climate change’s impacts on the Inland Bays. (WHYY)
OFFSHORE WIND: Maine’s energy agency grants almost $270,000 to its state university to launch an offshore wind industry training program for undergraduates. (news release)
EFFICIENCY: A national efficiency nonprofit calls Maine the “most-improved state” in 2022 for energy efficiency in its annual report card, with Massachusetts overall ranked second. (WGME, CommonWealth Magazine)
More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West
View this campaign in your browser.