AFFORDABILITY: New York utility regulators consider a massive bailout for small businesses and residential homes whose unpaid utility bills have ballooned to $2.3 billion throughout the pandemic. (Syracuse.com)
ALSO:
• Connecticut’s investor-owned utilities testify before state regulators over allegations they violated the state’s pandemic-related utility service shut-off ban. (News 12)
• ConEd wants state regulators to allow it to spend $65 million to upgrade a liquefied natural gas facility, which would be rolled into $1.4 billion in new utility spending covered by ratepayers through bill hikes. (New York Focus/Times Union)
OFFSHORE WIND:
• A New Jersey environmental group calls on the federal government to provide them with more than 45 days to review and respond to a 1,400-page draft environmental impact statement for the first major offshore wind farm off the state’s southern coast. (NJ Spotlight)
• Rhode Island announces a federally funded offshore wind industry certificate program aimed at high schoolers. (Providence Business News)
EQUITY: A wealthy New York City neighborhood is considered disadvantaged by the state because of high pollution levels and an industrial history, underscoring the difficulty of categorizing environmental justice communities as intended. (E&E News)
GRID: The $180 million Empire State power line, running between New York’s Erie and Niagara counties, is now in service; officials tout its usefulness for transmitting renewable energy to urban centers. (Buffalo News)
BUILDINGS:
• A new legislative proposal could make New Jersey the latest state to codify obstructions to building electrification and fossil fuel heating system bans. (Huffington Post)
• Income-eligible Vermonters can access new state incentives that will cover 75% of home weatherization projects. (news release)
CLIMATE:
• Dangerously high temperatures are expected nationwide this week, including in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., while half of New Hampshire is facing a moderate drought. (NY Daily News, New Hampshire Public Radio)
• Connecticut’s insect population has dramatically fallen in recent decades, in part due to climate change making it too hot for species that need a cooler habitat. (Hartford Courant)
• Through a new $2.5 million program, New York City is giving inflatable dams to high-flood-risk homes to bolster against sudden, intense rainfall. (Bloomberg)
• A Boston news outlet explains why the historic Plymouth Rock cannot be used to gauge how severely sea levels have risen. (Boston.com)
• At a northern New York museum, a new exhibit highlights local voices and efforts to mitigate the climate crisis, aiming to provide residents with hope for change. (NNY360)
TRANSIT: New express trains have been added to several major Connecticut commuting lines, despite stagnant returning ridership figures. (CT Mirror)
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