BUILDINGS: A Massachusetts program that funds new school buildings doesn’t stipulate the use of climate-friendly alternatives to fossil fuel heating and power, an exception to state policy that advocates say dents climate progress. (Boston Globe)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• EVgo electric vehicle chargers across Massachusetts and southern Maine were out of service over Memorial Day weekend, a critical failure for a major travel holiday. (WBUR, Bangor Daily News)
• Vermont plans to develop a utility pilot program that will subsidize the cost of going electric for drivers who use more than 1,000 gallons of gasoline per year. (E&E News, subscription)
• Several central New York school districts have used $6.25 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to purchase 17 electric school buses. (Times Union)
• A Pittsburgh-area school district launches a pilot to examine whether swapping out fossil fuel buses in favor of battery electric buses makes sense for their area. (Tribune Live)
GAS: In Pennsylvania, natural gas production volume and new well numbers both saw year-over-year declines in the first quarter of 2023. (Pittsburgh Business Times)
WIND: PSEG completes the sale of its stake in Ocean Wind I to Ørsted, which now owns the entire project itself; the sale was announced in January. (news release, NJ Spotlight)
TRANSPORTATION: Maryland’s transportation secretary says he doesn’t have “a lot of faith” that the Purple Line light-rail project — set to connect several Maryland cities in the Washington, D.C., suburbs — will be completed on time. (WTOP)
PIPELINES: Williams Natural Gas plans to clear a new path to install a new, almost 14-mile pipeline loop in Pennsylvania’s Monroe County. (Times News)
GRID:
• Numerous Portsmouth, Rhode Island, residents attend a town council meeting to implore officials to stop an offshore wind power cable from being laid in their town, citing coastline harm and ocean industrialization. (Newport Daily News)
• New Jersey utility regulators deny Ocean City’s request to disallow Ocean Wind LLC from laying a transmission cable through the company’s favored route to the site of its future wind farm. (NJ.com)
CLIMATE:
• Southeastern Canadian wildfires continue to create poor air quality across the Northeast, with poor air quality alerts stretching to Delaware and Vermont. (CBS News, WHYY, WCAX)
• Little snow and rainfall this past winter and spring in the Philadelphia area portend above-average temperatures in the city this summer. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
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