BUILDINGS: After hitting a heat pump installation goal early, Maine ups the ante and pledges to install 175,000 more heat pumps by 2027. (WMTW, Portland Press Herald)
ALSO: Carroll County, Maryland, considers forming an energy efficiency strategy program to find ways to reduce emissions and save money at municipal facilities. (Carroll County Times)
PIPELINES: Massachusetts sends Eversource back to the drawing board after finding the utility’s draft environmental impact report over a planned Springfield-Longmeadow secondary gas line doesn’t comply with state law and lacks enough research and outreach. (MassLive)
TRANSIT:
• New Jersey sues a federal agency for what it characterizes as an incomplete, inadequate environmental and social review of New York City’s planned traffic congestion toll, a policy some say could hurt New Jersey commuters. (Reuters)
• Some Boston-area residents say unpredictable service make them unlikely to use the public transit system, a major hurdle to achieving climate goals for both the city and state. (Boston Globe)
• Some Pittsburgh residents question whether the nearly $300 million projected cost of a bus rapid transit system would be better spent elsewhere. (Pittsburgh City Paper)
FLOODING: Vermont environmentalists say recent devastating floods should spur restoration and protection efforts for wetlands, which can help act as a sponge amid excess precipitation. (NBC News)
SOLAR: As Chesapeake Bay states install increasingly more solar power, experts call for better study of how solar panel rainwater runoff impacts the watershed. (Bay Journal)
OFFSHORE WIND: The controversial Jones Act — which requires American-made vessels to transport cargo within the U.S. — is helping the Philly Shipyard participate in the burgeoning regional offshore wind economy by building sector-specific vessels. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• New York City officials locate dozens of unlicensed e-bike batteries at a charging hub operated by Grubhub and JOCO, which say the issues are misunderstandings they intend to clarify. (The City)
• A Long Island, New York, town plans to install two dozen new electric vehicle chargers once it amends its local laws around their use. (Newsday)
• E-scooters are banned in Pennsylvania, leaving an e-scooter company in limbo after its contract to operate in Pittsburgh expires. (Next Pittsburgh)
CLIMATE:
• Vulnerable populations in New Hampshire’s urban areas struggle to cope with the rising heat index without many options for relief. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
• Officials in southern New Jersey warn that a toxic blue-green algae bloom is proliferating in an area pond, a deadly problem exacerbated in part by global warming and fertilizer use. (WHYY)
COMMENTARY: An editorial board suggests that Northeast states, including New Jersey, were too quick to adopt offshore wind development and neglected to do so in a cost-effective way. (Press of Atlantic City)
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