OIL & GAS: A 1.24 GW natural gas-fired power plant will no longer be built at an old rail yard in Pennsylvania’s Clinton County amid environmentalists’ legal efforts to stop it. (Penn Live Patriot-News)
ALSO:
• Pennsylvania contends with the difficulty of disposing of hundreds of millions of gallons of fracking wastewater generated every year, while industry claims that much of the wastewater is properly recycled. (Inside Climate News)
• With legislation filed in Pennsylvania that would end a moratorium on new drilling leases in certain state forests, the debate continues as to whether the economic benefits of fracking outweigh the risks. (Bay Journal)
BUILDINGS:
• Boston adopts an optional, more stringent state building code for new construction and major renovations, encouraging energy efficiency or green energy projects and making it harder to install gas infrastructure. (Boston Globe)
• A new bill would make New York procure the power needed for government buildings in Albany from renewable sources, with one lawmaker noting that the state shouldn’t impose strict regulations on the public that it can’t fulfill itself. (Times Union)
• Lexington becomes the first town in Massachusetts to comply with a new state law mandating more dense residential zoning along routes serviced by Boston’s transit agency. (Boston Globe)
OFFSHORE WIND: Two research centers partner to understand how jet stream interference could impede offshore wind production and mitigate the impact. (E&E News, subscription)
GRID:
• New Jersey’s utility regulators approve a 500 kV power line that will cut across the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, but it will still need further state and federal permits. (New Jersey Herald)
• PJM Interconnection will impose over $1.8 billion worth of penalties against generators that didn’t perform during this past December’s winter storm. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• The availability of an electricity supplier market in Maine has not resulted in lower rates for consumers who choose their own provider, according to the state public advocate’s latest report. (WGME)
SOLAR: Some Pennsylvania lawmakers introduce a bill that would pay for the installation of solar generation equipment for K-12 school districts and colleges, as well as pay for project assessments. (Indiana Gazette)
CLIMATE: The group convened by Pennsylvania’s governor to craft a statewide climate action plan privately met last week, but few details about their progress or even their members have emerged. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Amid a number of fires tied to faulty lithium-ion batteries in New York City, several private companies say they’re taking steps to ensure contract workers use reliable batteries. (Gothamist)
• A northern New Hampshire public transit agency is the first in the state to purchase electric vehicles for its fleet. (WMUR)
• In New York, five Long Island municipalities are due to receive roughly $865,000 from the state to add 45 electric vehicle charging stations. (Newsday)
• An outdoor equipment store in Bangor, Maine, starts selling completely electric tractors that can do six hours of work on an eight-hour charge. (WABI)
UTILITIES:
• A New Hampshire town files a complaint against Eversource with state regulators, claiming the utility didn’t comply with part of the state’s community power law that requires it to provide information about such programs. (NHPR)
• A Delaware judge decides state utility regulators need to explain why they approved a rate hike that was explicitly designed to fund Delmarva Power & Light’s pension plan and employee benefits. (Cape Gazette)
EFFICIENCY: After two years of work, Concord, New Hampshire, has converted all of its streetlights to LEDs, an effort that should save the city over $700,000 over the next decade on its power bills. (Concord Monitor)
More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West