WIND: A Massachusetts agency authorizes a combined 1.6 GW of offshore wind contracts, despite warnings from developers that the Commonwealth Wind project cannot be financed and built under the current agreements. (State House News Service)
ALSO:
• Several Massachusetts utilities set to procure power from the Commonwealth Wind project encourage state officials to approve the agreements as written. (CommonWealth Magazine)
• A Massachusetts agency says it makes sense for state residents to cover 40% of the cost to build a 1 GW northern Maine onshore wind project because it will benefit them. (State House News Service)
• Federal officials approved the South Fork offshore wind farm despite government scientists warning it would threaten a regional cod species. (Bloomberg)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• New York adopts an advanced clean cars rule that requires all passenger cars and trucks sold in New York state to be zero-emission starting in 2035 and edits pollution standards for gas-powered cars between 2026 and 2034. (Times Union)
• New York City sanitation officials say electric garbage trucks aren’t yet powerful enough to plow snow for more than four hours. (Gothamist)
• Maryland’s climate commission recommends the state provide low-interest loans to cover the cost of purchasing zero-emission vehicles, noting that current financial incentives aren’t enough. (WYPR)
• Massachusetts’ transportation agency forms a “high-performance unit” within its ranks to advance electric vehicle charging infrastructure installations. (Sentinel & Enterprise)
GRID:
• New York’s governor releases a roadmap to install 6 GW of energy storage capacity in about seven years, which would cover roughly one-fifth of the state’s total peak power demand. (news release)
• ISO New England relied on oil to generate up to 40% of its power demand at times during cold weather on December 24th. (Bloomberg)
• Two New Hampshire residents cheer the performance of their solar-plus-storage installations during a recent winter storm that knocked out power across the state. (Concord Monitor)
• National Grid says the recent blizzard that buried Buffalo, New York, was unprecedented and required “unique solutions” to restore power; homes and businesses that lost power for at least 72 hours are eligible for perishable food and medication reimbursements. (Buffalo News)
• Eversource says its New Hampshire crews deployed a new “rapid pole” technology to replace broken poles during recent widespread outages. (WMUR)
CLIMATE:
• Climate change and outdated septic systems are fueling algae blooms in Cape Cod, but fixing the problem has a price tag in the billions. (New York Times)
• Scientists explain how intense winter weather like the blizzard that killed over two dozen people around Buffalo, New York, over the holidays could worsen as the world warms. (USA Today)
• Although tapping time usually begins in February or March, warming winters allow some Vermont sugarers to start maple sap production in mid-December. (VT Digger)
• A Rhode Island hospital — one of the state’s largest greenhouse gas emitters — has yet to disclose its 2021 emissions to federal environmental officials. (ecoRI)
OIL & GAS: A New Year’s Day gas explosion destroys several homes and injures multiple people in a northeast Philadelphia neighborhood. (CBS Philadelphia)
AFFORDABILITY: Officials in Connecticut and Massachusetts virtually convene today to find power procurement strategies to make power bills less expensive in 2023. (News-Times)
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