ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New York City’s transit agency wants to transition to only battery-powered buses by 2040, but says a utility commission-approved plan to provide time-of-use charging rates won’t make charging affordable enough. (City Limits)
ALSO: Dysfunctional electric vehicle chargers in Maine are listed on charging network maps, a problem that makes it difficult to attract new drivers and promote electric vehicle-aided tourism. (Bangor Daily News)
CLEAN ENERGY:
• Pennsylvania’s top court begins hearing arguments over whether the governor needed the state legislature to authorize Pennsylvania’s entrance into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (Associated Press)
• New York utility commissioners order the state to consider what non-renewable energy sources may be needed to achieve emissions reduction goals. (New York Focus)
• Two Pennsylvania environmental advocates detail the ways national debt ceiling negotiations imperil clean energy action in their state. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
• U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, discusses the role of clean energy in job creation and climate mitigation at the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners. (VermontBiz)
SOLAR:
• Roughly 20% of New York’s energy demand was fulfilled with solar energy for about an hour on May 18, an amount grid operator NYISO calls a record-setting output. (Reuters)
• A Pennsylvania legislative committee advances legislation to help pay to construct solar arrays at certain educational facilities, like K-12 public schools. (Penn Live)
• A western New York town receives just under $100,000 in state funds to help it evaluate the location of a proposed 125 MW solar farm. (Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)
HYDROPOWER: Hydro-Québec no longer enjoys a power surplus, but the utility’s chief financial officer says it will continue to honor its contracts with Massachusetts.
WIND: GE Vernova will hire 200 people and spend $50 million to install a new assembly line and retool its Schenectady, New York, onshore wind turbine component manufacturing facility. (news release, Times Union)
GAS: Baltimore’s gas utility faces criticism from residents in several historic neighborhoods over new, required equipment on their homes’ facades, a change they believe is unattractive, unsafe and unneeded. (Baltimore Sun)
GRID: With the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line in service, there would be less energy adequacy risk on the regional grid during extreme weather regardless of whether the Everett Marine Terminal is in use, according to early results of a joint study by New England’s grid operator and the Electric Power Research Institute. (RTO Insider, subscription)
CLIMATE:
• A new Climate Central report describes how northern New Jersey and coastal New York have both seen an extra 10 fire weather days since 1973. (WHYY)
• As southern Maine communities develop climate action plans, Kennebunkport conducts a survey of residents and finds 77% are “very or extremely concerned” about climate change’s impact on the town. (Portsmouth Herald)
• A climate scientist explains that New Hampshire’s climate could look more like that of Pennsylvania or Maryland by the end of the century amid warming temperatures. (WMUR)
• In Rhode Island, a nearly $500,000 federal grant will help fund a review of potential rising sea level mitigation measures for an industrial, low-lying portion of the Providence River’s shoreline. (Providence Journal)
UTILITIES: State officials push an upcoming hearing on whether to resume government control of the Long Island Power Authority until September. (Daily Energy Insider)
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