ALSO: New York City will use a $15 million federal grant to install 600 level-2 curbside chargers throughout the city, although some criticize the plan for permanently taking away street space for other non-private car uses. (amNY, Streetsblog)

POLITICS: Maryland’s election this fall for a U.S. Senate seat could make or break federal climate action. (Inside Climate News)

RENEWABLE POWER: 

• In New York, Republican state senators introduce legislation to delay state climate law deadlines by a decade, prevent power plants from closing before replacements are online and study whether a nuclear plant should be reopened. (WSKG)
• Commissioners of Pennsylvania’s Cambria County update the local property assessed clean energy program to include air quality projects. (Tribune-Democrat)

GEOTHERMAL: A geothermal pilot project in Massachusetts is a rare example of gas companies and environmental activists partnering together for climate action. (Christian Science Monitor)

AFFORDABILITY: 

• Maine utility regulators will expand on an earlier study of time-of-use rates, focusing on what the best time frames and specific rates could be. (Portland Press Herald)
• Some New Jersey lawmakers are calling for hearings examining the state’s utility regulation practices as customers report high bills, while other industry observers chalk the problem up to a fossil fuel-heavy grid and a hot summer. (NJ Spotlight)
• Starting in the new year, third-party energy companies in Maryland will no longer be able to charge customers more than what the incumbent utility charges. (WMAR)

GRID: 

• The network of smart energy devices in New England helped shave hundreds of megawatts off peak demand on a single day this summer, highlighting the usefulness of virtual power plants. (WBUR)
• A Connecticut council allows Eversource Energy to continue work on a substation and nearby power lines on Sundays to help catch up after weather delays. (Patch)

BUILDINGS: 

• New Jersey will form a new revolving loan fund to help with energy efficiency upgrades at government buildings, museums, parks, hospitals, schools, jails and transit centers, using $2.4 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. (news release)
• Some new architectural projects in Massachusetts showcase the creativity architects need to achieve major embodied carbon reductions in their designs. (Boston Globe)
• A New York school district has begun construction of $20 million in clean energy and energy efficiency projects at eight buildings, including solar carports, building envelope improvements and LED bulb installations. (news release)

TRANSPORTATION: 

• To plug an estimated $3 million budget gap, Vermont’s largest public transit agency wants to slash its bus services by a quarter. (VT Digger)
• In Maryland, a Baltimore County decision to rezone a Lutherville property for single-family housing serves as the first real challenge to the state’s  transit-oriented development laws. (Baltimore Sun)

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ALSO: 

• The U.S. Department of Transportation awards the Oneida Indian Nation $12.8 million to install 52 electric vehicle fast chargers along Interstate 90 in New York. (State of Politics)
• While electric vehicles save drivers money, a new report finds those savings are the smallest in Massachusetts. (Boston Globe)

GRID: 

• A National Grid plan to upgrade and build new transmission infrastructure across New York is set to cost more than $4 billion, but even more projects will be needed to address electrification and increased demand. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• A Vermont state agency begins seeking applicants for its grant program offering  municipalities up to $500,000 to implement their energy resilience plans. (news release)

SOLAR: 

• In Maryland, a developer begins building a 2.9 MW community solar project in Fulton that is expected to be operational in the first half of 2025. (Daily Record)
• A solar developer partners with a family farm in New York to graze sheep at a 3.6 MW array in Constable. (news release)

NUCLEAR: The company decommissioning the Pilgrim nuclear power plant appeals the state decision that it cannot dump one million gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Cape Cod Bay. (Cape Cod Times)

UTILITIES: Cape Light Compact wants the state to allow it to expand its energy efficiency program amid high demand for electrification. (CapeCod.com)

AFFORDABILITY: 

• Connecticut Republicans call for a special session of the state legislature to address utility bills; Democrats say they are pandering to voters with a plan that doesn’t make sense. (CT Mirror) 
• Pennsylvania utility PECO wants to raise power delivery rates just before an expected capacity price hike, but businesses, consumer advocates and state agencies are trying to trim the sought-after increase. (Billy Penn)

TRANSPORTATION: Philadelphia’s transit agency shows off the components of its transportation emissions reduction plan at a zero-emission bus conference hosted in the city, its first time on the East Coast. (WHYY)

COMMENTARY: 

• A senior policy director with Maine Conservation Voters writes how the Inflation Reduction Act has “made it more feasible than ever to develop large-scale renewable energy projects” needed to reach the state’s renewable energy goal. (Portland Press Herald)
• In New Jersey, the Garden State Institute’s president describes the financial and planning lessons that the state’s offshore wind projects can learn from the recent Nantucket turbine failure. (Daily Record)

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ALSO: The Portsmouth LNG facility’s five-year extension stops short of the permanent license sought by Rhode Island Energy. (Rhode Island Current)

SOLAR: 

• A Northeast solar developer says it will bring just under 20 MW of dual-use projects and almost 20 MWh of storage online in Massachusetts by the end of the year. (news release)
• A 2 MW solar project in Palmer, Massachusetts, uses taller, hardier structures to allow for a herd of Angus beef cattle to roam and graze under them. (Mass Live)
• The town supervisor of Clymer, New York, says he expects a decision on a 5 MW community solar project to be made by October, despite delayed votes on the matter since July. (Corry Journal)
• East Bloomfield, New York, grants a special use permit for a 6.41 MW community solar project. (news release)

GRID: 

• Eversource’s transmission line rebuild proposal in New Hampshire could cost Maine ratepayers $32 million, even though less than 8% of the line needs to be replaced. (Portland Press Herald)
• Some NYSEG customers say they’ve seen exponentially higher utility bills since the company installed smart meters at their homes, despite little demand increase or on-site solar panels. (WKBW)
• NYSEG touts its installation of over 700,000 smart meters for its electric and gas customers across upstate New York. (news release)

WIND: 

• More Pennsylvania wind projects are getting old enough to be worth repowering using turbines with more generation capacity, an easier process than pushing through a new project but one with complications nonetheless. (Clean Technica)
• In Rhode Island, a Newport council member seeks to schedule a public forum for offshore wind opponents to explain their point of view following an event where opponents “disrupted” the question-and-answer period and another at which a “brief but chaotic verbal al­tercation” occurred. (WUN, Newport This Week)

BATTERIES: An overnight fire at a New York City electric scooter store sends a firefighter to the hospital, the second time a lithium-ion battery fire had broken out at the same shop. (NYDN)

COMMENTARY: 

• A Maine activist writes that while an official analysis comparing the cost of developing either Mack Point or Sears Island for an offshore wind hub hasn’t been done yet, “the cost of destroying Sears Island’s 100 acres of forests and wetlands to test 10-12 turbines that could fail is incalculable.” (Portland Press Herald)
• A Consumer Energy Alliance executive argues that Massachusetts can achieve status as a long-term clean energy powerhouse if it maintains a reassuring regulatory and investment environment needed for more projects. (CommonWealth Beacon)

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ALSO: Some New Yorkers worry about the impact heavy rains will have this hurricane season on the city’s subway system, recalling station evacuations and floods that have occurred despite the city’s resilience efforts. (The City)

WIND: 

• The council of Fenwick Island, Delaware, considers joining a lawsuit brought by Ocean City, Maryland, officials that aims to cancel federal approval of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project. (WBOC)
• Federal ocean energy officials say they’re working to develop the next wind auction for plots off the coast of Delaware and Maryland. (E&E News, subscription)

SOLAR: 

• In Maine, solar development incentives for farmers dealing with chemical land contamination are one tool helping impacted farms maintain an income, although some affected land is precluded from energy projects because of conservation easements and other barriers. (Bloomberg Law)
• A Pennsylvania township’s zoning board rejects a conditional land use approval request sought by the developers of a proposed 46-acre solar project. (WVIZ)

GRID: 

• ISO New England says its current revenue structures may need to be updated to sufficiently pay dispatchable generation resources for the grid benefits they provide. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• New York’s grid operator says it’s undertaking a new proactive proceeding to identify new energy demand sources and the grid upgrades needed to fulfill them. (news release)

COAL: Two top coal producers, Arch Resources and Consol Energy, plan to merge to form Core Natural Resources, which will be based out of the Pittsburgh suburb where Consol currently has its headquarters. (Associated Press)

NUCLEAR: In Massachusetts, the firm decommissioning the Pilgrim nuclear plant claims the state has no right to stop it from discharging radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay. (WBUR)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Rhode Island startup wants more boaters to swap their gas-guzzling outboard engines for their quiet, battery-powered models. (Boston Globe)

RENEWABLE POWER: New York’s energy research agency grants almost $200,000 to the Finger Lakes village of Montour Falls for a small solar array, an electric truck and other renewable investments. (Finger Lakes 1)

AFFORDABILITY: Some Connecticut ratepayers are arguing for a boycott of the public benefits charge amid rising utility bills. (Hartford Courant)

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FOSSIL FUELS: A Bitcoin miner in upstate New York sues the state after being denied an air permit renewal for the gas plant powering its operations. (Gothamist)

SOLAR: 

• A new compensation proposal for net metering generators is the subject of several hearings this week by New Hampshire utility regulators. (NHPR)
• A Connecticut solar developer finishes two community solar projects in Maine that have 12.6 MW of collective capacity. (news release)
• New Hampshire utility Unitil breaks ground on the state’s largest solar project, an over 11,000-panel array set to power roughly 1,200 homes. (WMUR)

BATTERIES: A Hydro-Québec subsidiary says its first utility-scale battery energy and storage system in the U.S., a 3 MW facility in Troy, Vermont, is now operational. (news release)

BUILDINGS: New York’s governor is “facing pressure on all sides” amid final rulemaking that aims to set emissions standards for refrigerants in commercial refrigerators, residential heat pumps and chillers over the next decade. (E&E News, subscription)

BIOENERGY: In Pennsylvania, a renewable natural gas plant at a Bethlehem landfill officially opens, with enough capacity to heat 14,000 homes. (Lehigh Valley News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• A convenience store in Pennsylvania’s Beaver County will host the area’s next electric vehicle charging station, with project developers receiving roughly $627,000 in National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure grants for the work. (The Times)
• A New York school district schedules a public meeting to hear concerns ahead of a public vote on its electric school bus transition plan. (WGRZ)
• A new AAA Northeast survey finds that only around 14% of respondents in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island “definitely” want their next vehicle to be electric, while 42% are “not interested at all.” (PBN)

AFFORDABILITY: Connecticut’s U.S. House delegation wants the state’s utility commission to help alleviate financial pressure on residential ratepayers facing high utility bills. (Hartford Courant)

POLITICS: A New Hampshire newspaper details how the state’s four gubernatorial candidates have described their future climate and energy policies. (New Hampshire Bulletin)

COMMENTARY: 

• A Baltimore columnist writes that companies looking to use electric ferries to increase tourism along the Eastern Shore should think bigger and make them a viable commuting option. (Baltimore Sun)
• A southwestern Pennsylvania transit nonprofit’s deputy director explains how switching from the state’s “ridiculous” mileage self-reporting tax process for electric vehicle drivers to a flat registration fee is a sign of good bipartisanship governance. (Trib Live)

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