CLIMATE: As the Gulf of Maine warms faster than much of the rest of the ocean, some Maine fishing industry workers turn to kelp farming to both make a profit and sequester carbon. (Fast Company)

ALSO:
• Mindful of rising sea levels and increasing floods, a team of Maryland researchers sets out to find the “tipping point” when groves of coastal trees become ghost forests. (Bay Journal)
• Climate change worries Massachusetts residents, but not more than fuel costs, the economy, taxes or other hot-button issues, according to the results of a new poll sponsored by the Barr Foundation. (WBUR)
• The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area already sees some meteorological effects from the warming climate, like significant upticks in tornadoes. (CBS Pittsburgh)

BUILDINGS:
• A 60-story skyscraper planned for New York City is set to be the metropolis’ largest completely electric building. (CNN)
• In a state where roughly 7% of homes warmed with heating oil don’t have insurance for spills, Massachusetts state senators pass a bill mandating such coverage within a homeowner’s property insurance. (North of Boston Media Group)
• A Maine company turns low-quality lumber byproducts into wood-fiber insulation, which they say can essentially sequester carbon into buildings. (Maine Public)
• Some New York lawmakers push to power the state capital’s buildings with renewable energy sources after decades of using coal, oil or trash to do so. (WXXI)

GAS:
• National Grid wants to meet Massachusetts’ decarbonization goals mainly by switching to renewable natural gas, but a clean energy advocacy group calls that plan “a false solution” to the climate crisis. (WBUR)
• A Pennsylvania lawmaker says a fracker’s proposal to take millions of gallons of water from a creek and one of its tributaries should be rejected because of insufficient environmental protections. (TribLive)

GRID:
• Parts of Pennsylvania and New York were inundated with snow overnight; as of 6:45 this morning, around 53,000 and 172,000 utility customers had respectively lost power in each state. (New York Times, Times Union, PowerOutage.US)
• In Washington, D.C., Gallaudet University plans to install a solar-focused microgrid to reduce the campus’ carbon emissions and improve resilience and reliability. (Washington Business Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• New Hampshire regulators agree to allow utilities to temporarily but heavily discount their electric vehicle charging demand rates to encourage further charging infrastructure construction. (PV Magazine)
• A central Vermont town considers the pros and cons of transitioning to electric for their police fleet. (Rutland Herald)
• Councilmembers of a northern New Jersey township examine potential locations for new municipal electric vehicle chargers. (New Jersey Hills)

SOLAR:
• Rhode Island legislators consider a bill to stop net-metering projects from being developed in “conservation opportunity areas,” but solar industry stakeholders push back on using that specific definition. (ecoRI)
• Construction of Vermont’s largest solar canopy wraps up in the parking lot of a brewery-taproom. (news release)
• Erie, Pennsylvania, considers a rooftop solar installation for a firehouse to power most of its needs. (Erie Times-News)

UTILITIES:
• A new report finds many of the country’s largest investor-owned utilities don’t support climate mitigation regulations, but New Jersey’s bigger utilities generally back such policies. (NJ Spotlight)
• Officials with Con Edison and New York City record vastly different numbers of stray voltage incidents, which can kill or injure pets and humans. (The City)

AFFORDABILITY:
• Connecticut regulators investigate whether the state’s investor-owned utilities acted appropriately by collecting back bills amid pandemic protection policies. (CT Post)
• Climate activists argue against suspending New York’s gas tax to help drivers save on fuel costs when the state wants to discourage driving in general. (lohud.com)

CLEAN ENERGY: New York City offers an online portal to show residents how much progress the city has made toward its clean energy goals. (Gothamist)

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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.