transportation
How fossil fuels won round one of North Carolina’s Volkswagen settlement payout
Legislative politics, industry influence, and financial pressures from an aging bus fleet helped shape spending.
electric buses
Virginia advocates see room to improve on Dominion’s electric school bus plan
An alternative proposal would provide money for a massive diesel-to-electric conversion across the state.
transportation
In Kansas, federal money helps make the case to test electric transit buses
Wichita, Kansas, next month will become the state’s first city to roll out electric buses, with Topeka on track to follow it.
VW settlement
Nebraska steers VW money to ‘clean diesel’ school bus subsidies
Clean air advocates say the state should be spending more of its settlement money on electric vehicle infrastructure.
Chicago
Intrigue continues around plans for shuttered Chicago coal plant site
The property owner acknowledged that diesel-fired peaker plants could continue operating on the site even after redevelopment. More than six years after the celebrated closure of the Fisk coal plant in Chicago, residents are unhappy with plans for the site that include a logistics hub and the possibility of diesel-fired peaker plants continuing to operate there. NRG Energy, which acquired the site from previous owner Midwest Generation after the plant closed, has sold it to a real estate company specializing in logistics, the office of local alderman Danny Solis told the media outlet Block Club Chicago. The company has an agreement with Hilco Redevelopment Partners to “explore the potential for redevelopment of the Fisk site,” NRG spokesman David Knox told the Energy News Network, and he said the peakers could continue to operate even if the site is redeveloped. Hilco last year purchased the site of the other shuttered Chicago coal plant, Crawford, in the nearby Little Village neighborhood.