BUILDINGS: In the Maryland suburbs of D.C., the Montgomery County Council passes a bill requiring an all-electric building standard for most new buildings, major renovations and additions starting in 2027. (DCist)
ALSO:
• Many D.C. councilmembers support a proposal to let the city create social housing, largely on subway-adjacent properties to mitigate transit emissions. (Washington Post)
• A Delaware startup raises a $3 million seed round to commercialize its building emissions capture technology. (PHLINNO)
GRID:
• In rural Vermont, Green Mountain Power uses solar-powered microgrids to electrify remote villages during power outages as part of its “resiliency zone” initiative. (Energy News Network)
• Maine’s top court decides the lease allowing a controversial transmission line to cross public land is valid, answering a key question but not determining whether project construction can continue. (Portland Press Herald)
• A Massachusetts energy board votes to allow Eversource to skip more than a dozen environmental permits to build a much-derided East Boston substation in a climate-vulnerable neighborhood. (Boston Globe)
CLIMATE:
• In Massachusetts, a climate tech incubator and an environmental justice group partner to boost climate change-fighting startups led by people of color. (Energy News Network)
• Warming ocean temperatures are enabling sea turtles to travel out of their geographic range, with some getting trapped in the Cape Cod Bay and becoming hypothermic. (WBUR)
• With fall seemingly slipping away between summer and winter weather in the Northeast, experts pin part of the problem on climate change. (Yahoo News)
SOLAR: A research station supporting New Jersey’s agrivoltaics study is scheduled to wrap up construction by April, but the state is already almost a year behind the legislative timeline to implement rules around agrivoltaic projects. (RTO Insider, subscription)
TRANSIT:
• Transit advocates consider what it looks like for Massachusetts’ governor-elect to fulfill her campaign promises around turning Boston’s commuter rail into a “fully realized regional rail system.” (Streetsblog)
• New Jersey transit experts and officials consider whether hydrogen fuel cell buses could serve longer routes, reserving electric buses for shorter inner city routes. (NJ Advance Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A new National Grid study says government officials and utilities across its New York and Massachusetts service territory need to expedite charger deployment to meet peak electric vehicle travel demand. (RTO Insider, subscription)
OIL & GAS:
• Pennsylvania environmental regulators meet today to vote on emergency emissions reduction measures for the oil and gas industry in time to meet a federal deadline that would restrict highway funding. (StateImpact Pennsylvania)
• A gas driller pleads no-contest in a Pennsylvanian county court on criminal charges stemming from drinking water contamination over ten years ago. (Wall Street Journal)
• Pennsylvania’s governor-elect pushed for fracking reform as attorney general and his campaign rhetoric suggested he’d continue that effort, but his support for a hydrogen hub and the state’s political realities suggest drilling will continue unimpeded. (Public Source)
NUCLEAR: The company decommissioning Massachusetts’ Pilgrim nuclear plant announces it will seek permission to discharge treated, radioactive wastewater into the Cape Cod Bay. (CAI)
CRYPTOMINING: With a two-year moratorium on new fossil-fueled cryptomining permits in place in New York, environmental groups say they will now focus their energies on closing the two largest gas-powered mining sites in the state. (Times Union)
UTILITIES: As New York considers whether to turn the Long Island Power Authority into a completely public entity, leaders of PSEG Long Island — the utility’s grid manager — push to keep managing LIPA. (Newsday)
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