Discover the Latest News and Initiatives for a Sustainable Future

SOLAR: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice vetoes a bill that would have extended electric utilities’ ability to buy or build solar projects beyond 2025, calling the legislation a threat to the state’s coal industry. (Dominion Post)

‍

ALSO:

• Louisville, Kentucky’s mayor announces a program offering discounted solar installations for area residents and small businesses. (Louisville Public Media)
• At a packed public meeting, rural Virginia residents express fears and sadness about living near a proposed solar project, which local officials say could provide an important source of revenue for the shrinking county. (WTVR)
• Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina are among the states awarded $2 million federal grants this week to fund efforts to improve planning, siting, and permitting for large-scale renewable energy facilities. (news release)
• Duke Energy Progress seeks permission from South Carolina regulators to build a 76 MW solar project next to an existing nuclear power plant. (Daily Energy Insider)

‍

STORAGE: A company seeking to build pumped-hydro energy storage on old coal mining sites received $81 million in federal funding last week to develop a project in Kentucky that could deliver 287 MW of power for up to 8 hours. (Canary Media)

‍

OFFSHORE WIND: A coalition led by a climate-denial think tank files a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of a Virginia offshore wind project, under the guise of protecting endangered whales. (Public Radio East)

‍

OIL & GAS:

• U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s reception at a Houston energy conference last week highlighted the gulf between the Biden administration and the oil and gas industry on liquified natural gas exports. (Inside Climate Change)
• At a regional energy conference, Texas oil and gas leaders fret about the lack of young people interested in pursuing careers in the industry. (KLTV)

‍

PIPELINES: Virginia regulators fine the Mountain Valley Pipeline $34,000 for another round of environmental violations, including damaging a wetland and dumping blast debris into a stream. (Roanoke Times)

‍

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A company that supplies electric vehicle batteries to BMW announces it will invest an additional $1.5 billion into a planned South Carolina factory and create an additional 1,080 jobs. (The State)
• An auto repair franchise opens its first-ever electric vehicle service center in South Carolina to serve a growing number of drivers in the region with hybrid or plug-in vehicles. (Spectrum News 1)
• A company shows off a solar-powered, unmanned airplane that it’s been testing in southern Mississippi and says will eventually be able to fly continuously for 90 days or longer using only energy from the sun. (NOLA.com)

‍

NUCLEAR: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants to explore the potential of small nuclear reactors to provide on-demand power to the state’s grid. (Texas Tribune)

‍

COAL:

• A Kentucky bill headed to the governor’s desk would create a state commission to oversee coal plant closures, adding a layer of oversight that opponents say is designed to make it harder to retire coal plants. (Daily Energy Insider)
• At an annual West Virginia coal mining conference, officials say the industry has a future even if coal is no longer used for generating electricity. (MetroNews)

‍

COMMENTARY: A former South Carolina utility regulator says he resigned this month to speak out about pending legislation that would drastically change oversight of investor-owned utilities by green-lighting a proposed natural gas plant despite many unanswered questions. (Post and Courier)

‍

COAL: New Hampshire’s Granite Shore Power will shut down its last coal-fired power plants in 2025 and 2028, replacing them with solar, battery storage, and other clean energy and marking the end of coal in New England. (New Hampshire Bulletin)

‍

OFFSHORE WIND:

• Four developers bid to build offshore wind projects off the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island coasts, including two bids from Avangrid and SouthCoast Wind that are essentially rebids of recently retracted projects. (CT Mirror, Rhode Island Current)
• The proposed wind farms envision a prominent role for Massachusetts’ New Bedford marine terminal. (New Bedford Current)
• An offshore wind training center at New Jersey’s Atlantic Cape Community College will begin offering courses next month. (Press of Atlantic City)

‍

UTILITIES: Hundreds of Massachusetts residents say they’ve unknowingly or mistakenly signed up to receive power from a competitive energy supplier after being promised rate savings, only to receive shockingly high bills months later. (Boston Globe/WBUR)

‍

TRANSPORTATION: The New York City MTA board grants final approval to a congestion pricing plan aimed at curbing emissions and encouraging public transit use. (Gothamist)

‍

SOLAR:

• Schools, government offices and other institutional buildings around Greensburg, Pennsylvania, could save about $19.3 million on power bills over 25 years if they installed solar panels, and the New Kensington area could save about $45 million, a Pittsburgh nonprofit finds. (TribLive)
• A planned solar array at Maine’s Knox County airport is indefinitely delayed as the company hired to build it deals with unpaid bills for a separate project. (Bangor Daily News)
• Waterville, Maine’s town board recommends rezoning a parcel of land for a solar farm, though it still needs further approval. (Morning Sentinel)
• A solar developer appeals a Rhode Island zoning board’s rejection of its plan to buy 150 acres of woods and build a solar farm, continuing a 2-year fight over the project. (Hummel Report)

‍

BIOFUEL: A $91 million contract to supply New York City’s heavy-duty vehicles with renewable diesel went to a company whose CEO has donated to the mayor’s campaign, despite never having secured more than a $7 million contract before, and other questionable business practices. (The City)

‍

BUILDINGS: Amherst, Massachusetts, breaks ground on a new elementary school that will be equipped with heat pumps, solar panels and efficiency measures, making it the town’s first net-zero building. (Amherst Indy)

‍

COMMENTARY: A Maine bill would give regulators the power to make sure utility profits line up with their performance and alignment with renewable power goals, a clean energy advocate writes. (National Resources Council of Maine)

‍

CLEAN ENERGY: A new report ranks Illinois best in the country for state policy that supports community ownership of clean energy, while most states earn failing grades. (Canary Media)

‍

PIPELINES:

• Iowa House lawmakers pass a bill that would allow landowners to challenge eminent domain requests from carbon pipeline developers in court. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
• A carbon pipeline developer has submitted nearly 2,000 pages of additional information on ways to address North Dakota regulators’ concerns as the project is up for reconsideration. (Bismarck Tribune)

‍

COAL: A federal judge criticizes Ameren for drawn-out legal proceedings involving remedies for a Missouri coal plant that repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

‍

RENEWABLES:

• A $50,000 Farm Bureau donation to a ballot initiative seeking to overturn Michigan’s new renewable energy siting law angers some members who say the group is acting against their interests. (Planet Detroit)
• Onsite wind and solar installations help an Iowa farm meet nearly all of its power needs from renewables. (We Are Iowa)
• Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Nebraska to announce $124 million in federal Inflation Reduction Act funding to help farms and ranches install renewable energy. (KETV)

‍

OIL & GAS: An Ohio agency has investigated 26 oil and gas incidents over the past five years in a single county, and more than 1,500 incidents statewide over the same period. (Athens County Independent)

‍

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Electric vehicles’ share of new car purchases in Minnesota jumped from 3.5% in 2022 to 5.4% in 2023, which still lags behind the national rate. (Star Tribune)
• More than two years after Congress allocated $7.5 billion to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the country, just seven stations have been built in four states. (Washington Post)
• Minnesota regulators approve Xcel Energy’s $44.5 million plan to eliminate barriers to electric vehicle charging, a fraction of the company’s previous $330 million plan. (E&E News, subscription)

‍

BIOFUELS: Minnesota biofuel advocates are still waiting on the Biden administration’s analysis of which fuel stocks could capture lucrative tax credits to produce sustainable jet fuel. (Star Tribune)

‍

EFFICIENCY: At a stop in Madison, Wisconsin, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and residents tout the benefits of energy efficiency and federal clean energy investments. (Wisconsin Examiner)

‍

COMMENTARY: Former Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan abandons his populist brand as a spokesperson for big oil and gas companies that are opposed to halting liquefied natural gas exports, a Sierra Club leader writes. (Columbus Dispatch)

‍

Two bills that would expand the public’s access to shared solar in Virginia are awaiting a signature from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Shared solar is a program in which solar developers allow people who may be unable to install solar panels on their property to pay a subscription fee to receive energy from their facility. The facilities must generate no more than five megawatts.

The program was created for Dominion Energy customers in 2022 to give property owners whose roofs are unsuitable to hold panels, or who reside on lots that don’t garner enough sunlight to produce electricity, the option of using renewable energy.

But the program was limited to just 150 megawatts of electricity and required a minimum bill charge to cover the costs for distribution and transmission services; low-income subscribers were exempt from paying.

As a result, two years since the program was created, only low-income subscribers have signed up for the program.

This year’s bills would increase the number of projects allowable under the shared solar program in Dominion territory, and also add measures that could lower the minimum charge. A separate bill would create a shared solar program in Appalachian Power Company territory throughout Southwest Virginia.

Del. Rip Sullivan, who carried this year’s bill to change the Dominion program, said the initial iteration of the shared solar program brought “ solar developers who were not in Virginia into Virginia,” which created job and improved access to renewable energy sources in the state. Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, carried the companion to Sullivan’s bill, and the measure to start Appalachian Power’s program.

In his 2022 energy plan, Youngkin called for removing barriers to smaller solar projects being spread throughout the grid, “including shared solar.”

“The Governor is closely reviewing the legislation and budget language sent to his desk,” Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez said. “As stated in the All-American, All-of-the-Above Energy Plan, he believes in commonsense energy policy, including flexibility in our laws and regulations to meet the accelerated energy demands of Virginians and foster innovative energy solutions.”

‍

‘Incremental progress’

‍

According to filings with Dominion’s regulators at the State Corporation Commission, Dominion’s shared solar program reached capacity in May of last year.

The commission is allowed to expand the program by an additional 50 megawatts, once determining at least 30% of them, or 45 megawatts, have been claimed by low-income customers. But a case with regulators to decide that expansion is still pending.

Originally, this year’s bills would have expanded the program to allow for far more megawatts equal to 10% of Dominion’s peak load, but they were scaled back, allowing the program to increase to 200 megawatts. There’s also an opportunity for an additional energy boost.

Once they determine that customers have subscribed to 90% of that 200 megawatts, the commission can expand the program by an additional 150 megawatts, according to the legislation, with up to half of that expansion serving low-income customers.

“Where we ended up, we view it as incremental progress to continuing to move the market forward,” said Charlie Coggeshall, mid-atlantic regional director of the Coalition for Community Solar Access, a group that advocates for shared solar use. “It was a lot of negotiating to find a place where we were comfortable. It says a lot that we achieved a major compromise.”

The other change the bill would bring to the Dominion program is language that orders the SCC to “calculate the benefits of shared solar to the electric grid and to the Commonwealth and deduct such benefits from other costs,” to determine the minimum bill.

As it stands now, the minimum bill — typically $55.10 — is necessary, Dominion says, to cover the cost of the grid’s distribution and transmission services to deliver electricity from the shared solar facilities that may be miles away from the user.

Without the minimum bill, the shared solar subscribers see reductions in their bill from using renewable energy while other customers pay to maintain the grid, the utility has argued.

But that typical $55.10 amount is a barrier to people subscribing to shared solar since it will negate any possible energy savings, said Southern Environmental Law Center staff attorney Josephus Allmond, unless affluent people have the means for it, which is “certainly not the majority of Virginians.”

The bill also includes language to conduct an analysis of other benefits, including the renewable energy credits, or RECs, that the solar project developers will have to give to Dominion, which must purchase them to meet renewable energy portfolio standards in the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

A report from CSSA released ahead of the session found that the utility and ratepayers could see savings from an expanded shared solar program, in part, by reducing the need to build new generation sources.

“Also, solar energy produces few externalities like cancer, pollution, climate change,” Surovell said. “All those benefits need to be calculated into reducing the minimum bill.”

Though the bill passed out of the legislature, some opposition came from some lawmakers, like Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, who argued the new minimum bill calculation is “still shifting to the rate base benefits that are just impossible to quantify,” such as climate change.

Katharine Bond, Dominion vice president for public policy & state affairs, said in testimony on earlier versions of the bill the utility had a concern over seeing the projects in the first trench of the program getting completed before expanding it. But in a Feb. 9 Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, Bond stated the utility’s support for the bill, noting that the bill had language stating the SCC will determine shared solar participants ”pay their fare share and minimize the cost shift to non-participating customers.”

A workgroup to determine the amount and form of incentives for shared solar projects that can be built on rooftops, or on previously disturbed lands like former coal mines called brownfields is another provision that emerged this session. Bills separate from Sullivan and Surovell’s that would expand those incentives are now awaiting signature from the governor.

“We think these small projects are just what we should be looking at more to preserve prime farmland and forestland,” said Allmond in committee testimony.

‍

A new Appalachian Power program

‍

The separate bill from Surovell creates an entirely new program for Appalachian Power Company with a cap of 50 megawatts.

Peter Anderson, director of state energy policy at the environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices, echoed sentiments similar to Coggeshall in response to the bill’s passage.

“People in Southwest Virginia have already waited too long for access to shared solar, and the establishment of a program will provide proof of concept and something to build on,” Anderson said.

There will be a minimum bill in the Appalachian Power program, the amount of which the SCC will have to determine as it does with the Dominion program ,while including the new calculations. But one difference with the APCo program is that low-income customers are not exempt from that cost and will instead receive a 10% discount.

“We would have preferred a larger program and a minimum bill exemption in the new APCo program to really signal that every Virginian can benefit from these smaller, distributed solar facilities,” Anderson said. His group is aware of a number of APCo customers who are interested in the program, he said, as well as at least one nonprofit that will consider a subscription and local governments who have spoken up about the program.

Without the low-income exemption, Coggeshall said, “it just places all pressure on the minimum bill proceeding” to determine if subscribing is a viable option for participants, but his group is still excited by the progress.

Appalachian Power is “pleased” with the bill, utility spokeswoman Teresa Hall stated, adding the cost shifting was a concern for the company.

“The minimum bill is critical to ensure that shared solar participants pay for their share of the grid, so that these costs aren’t shifted to other ratepayers,” said Hall. “Ultimately, if the costs of clean energy initiatives aren’t fairly distributed we will not be able to achieve our goals.”

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

‍

OFFSHORE WIND: Federal ocean energy officials officially designate a 32 GW wind energy area in the Gulf of Maine that is 80% smaller than what was first marked as a potential leasing area and excludes fishing and lobstering areas. (Maine Public)

‍

ALSO:

• Maine Governor Janet Mills’ administration proposes a bill to let construction occur in coastal sand dunes, a measure that would ease development of Sears Island into a floating offshore wind hub despite conservationists’ concerns. (Portland Press Herald)
• Maine’s offshore wind industry has transitioned from enjoying widespread bipartisan backing a decade ago to becoming a contentious political issue with mixed support. (Bangor Daily News)
• Federal ocean energy regulators kick off the environmental impact statement process for the 157-turbine Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind farm off the New Jersey and New York coasts. (news release)
• New Jersey officials express optimism and excitement over the state’s offshore wind future at a recent energy conference at Rowan University, touting a recent solicitation round for revitalizing efforts. (NJ Biz)

‍

SOLAR:

• Federal energy regulators essentially punt the Bear Ridge Solar project, a proposed 100 MW solar farm in New York’s Niagara County, from the state’s interconnection queue by rejecting an exemption waiver for two grid interconnection tariff requirements. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Developers begin tree clearing for a 15 MW solar field at a Deptford, New Jersey, site that seems undeveloped but actually requires environmental remediation from decades of use as a pig farm and unauthorized landfill. (42 Freeway)
• Voters in Bow, New Hampshire, vote to authorize development of the state’s largest solar development, an array distributed across multiple municipal buildings. (Concord Monitor)
• Researchers studying blueberry production under a 4 MW solar farm in Rockport, Maine, find that the array’s configuration “makes farming difficult and constricts blueberry production” but hope results will guide further investigations. (Maine Monitor)
• Developers of a 2.47 MW community solar project in Maryland say installation should only take nine weeks and use less acreage because of its uncommon mounting system. (PV Magazine)
• Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna University uses grazing sheep for vegetation management at the college’s solar array. (Yale Climate Connections)

‍

GRID:

• PJM Interconnection warns it could lose over 33 GW of power before 2030 because of capacity market price drops and another 19.6 GW over regulatory retirement deadlines, a concern it says could raise consumer prices. (E&E News, subscription)
• New York’s grid operator explains at an operating committee meeting that this past winter was one of its mildest ever, in terms of temperatures, gas prices and power demand. (RTO Insider, subscription)

‍

FOSSIL FUELS: A fatal Pittsburgh-area home explosion reopens emotional wounds for a nearby town where six people died in a separate gas-related explosion last year. (Trib Live)

‍

TRANSIT: As Philadelphia’s transit agency considers significant regional rail cuts that threaten the independence of disadvantaged seniors along the city’s northwest Chestnut Hill line. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

‍

WORKFORCE: Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island labor leaders hold a joint conference to push for better wages and working standards within offshore wind projects. (CT Examiner)

‍

COMMENTARY: A New Jersey editorial board questions whether the state’s governor is getting in his own way of driving electric vehicle adoption. (Star Ledger)

‍

SOLAR: Indiana’s utility-scale solar market rebounds from supply chain issues and interconnection delays with its strongest year yet in 2023. (WFYI)

‍

UTILITIES: ComEd and Ameren Illinois file scaled back infrastructure spending plans after regulators rejected previous proposals to align with the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. (Capitol News Illinois)

‍

NUCLEAR: A Minnesota nuclear plant is back to full power after an outage dragged on for nearly two months longer than expected and drew questions from state officials. (Star Tribune)

‍

PIPELINES:

• North Dakota regulators reject a county’s request to reconsider a recent finding that the state supersedes local authority on pipeline siting issues. (KXNET)
• New South Dakota laws create landowner protections during pipeline survey work and easement restrictions for carbon pipelines while allowing state regulators to overrule local officials on permitting. (KELO)

‍

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An Indiana Congress member wants the Biden administration to investigate the potential security risks of U.S. reliance on Chinese-made electric vehicles and battery components. (E&E News)

‍

OHIO: An Ohio disciplinary board says the state’s former top utility regulator, who faces state and federal corruption charges, violated attorney ethics rules in his relationship with FirstEnergy. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)

‍

WIND: A new study finds wind turbines have a negligible effect on property values, and the negative impact on homes close to wind turbines disappears within a decade. (CNN)

‍

CLEAN ENERGY: Advocates urge the Biden administration to encourage manufacturers to revitalize domestic aluminum production to support the clean energy transition. (Canary Media)

‍

FOSSIL FUELS: The National Park Service and a regional foundation announce that national parks around Lake Superior have begun efforts to transition park operations off fossil fuels. (Michigan Advance)

‍

CLIMATE: The $10 million allocated to fund Minneapolis’ climate action plan includes $4.7 million for energy efficiency in buildings and $1.4 million for workforce training. (Minnesota Daily)

‍

CLEAN TECH: A state-funded program in Minnesota is providing seed funding for clean energy startups to scale their technologies and help make the state economically competitive. (Star Tribune)

‍

COMMENTARY: The executive director of the Sierra Club says the Line 5 pipeline trespasses on tribal land and is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. (Sun-Times)

‍

COAL: The Intermountain Power Agency urges Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to veto legislation that would force the agency to sell its coal plant to the state to keep it operating beyond its scheduled retirement date, saying it could provoke a federal backlash. (Salt Lake Tribune)

‍

TRANSPORTATION: Colorado researchers find electric scooters are the most efficient means of commuting for limiting life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. (Colorado Sun)

‍

UTILITIES: New Mexico’s Supreme Court upholds regulators’ denial of a utility’s bid that would have allowed it to collect $5.2 million from ratepayers for exceeding mandated renewable energy targets. (Las Cruces Bulletin)

‍

SOLAR: A food manufacturing company installs solar-powered microgrids at six of its California bakeries expected to offset about 20% of the facilities’ energy use. (Deli Market News)

‍

CLEAN ENERGY: Washington state local officials urge the U.S. Energy Department to add clean industrial facilities and energy storage to its plans to develop solar at the Hanford nuclear site. (The Chronicle)

‍

HYDROPOWER: An advocacy group’s study finds four Northwest hydropower dams targeted for removal emit 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent of methane annually, casting doubt on claims they provide clean energy. (E&E News, subscription; news release)

‍

ENERGY STORAGE: A national lab identifies 1,800 sites in Alaska suitable for closed-loop pumped hydropower energy storage facilities. (news release)

‍

OIL & GAS:

• A California lawmaker introduces legislation that would require oil and gas companies to develop plans to plug some 40,000 idle wells, prioritizing those near vulnerable communities. (Santa Barbara Independent)
• Six Western states join 18 others in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the U.S. EPA’s new rule limiting methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, claiming it is an attack on the industry. (Public Radio Tulsa)
• The Biden administration allocates $55 million to tribal nations to identify, plug and clean up abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells on their lands. (news release)

‍

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Los Angeles County receives $6 million in state funding to install 300 public electric vehicle chargers in underserved neighborhoods in East Los Angeles. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• California awards a company $3 million to pair a fleet of electric school buses with vehicle-to-grid technology, enabling their batteries to export power back to the grid. (news release)
• Tesla and a former Black employee reach a settlement in a long-running racial discrimination suit against the company, but disclose no details. (Associated Press)

‍

NUCLEAR:

• A Bill Gates-backed firm says it could begin construction of an advanced nuclear reactor in a Wyoming coal town as soon as this June. (Oil Price)
• A Wyoming coal-mining equipment manufacturer launches a nuclear micro-reactor startup, bolstering the state’s status as a focal point for the technology. (Cowboy State Daily)

‍

BIOFUELS: A Hawaii biofuel company expands its feedstock crops and considers developing a second refinery. (Hawaii Public Radio)

‍

COMMENTARY: A former U.S. lawmaker urges Washington state regulators to help tackle climate change by expediting solar and wind development rather than hampering clean power based on faulty science. (Seattle Times)

‍

POLICY: As Vermont lawmakers consider requiring most utilities to procure only renewable electricity by 2030, a new analysis finds the clean energy switch will cost ratepayers between $150 million and $450 million, or less than half of what a state agency previously estimated. (VT Digger)

‍

EMISSIONS: The mayor of Burlington, Vermont, says the city has notched notable emissions reductions since 2018: 18% from the transportation and thermal sectors and 19% in buildings. (WCAX)

‍

BUILDINGS:

• Vermont saw mixed success encouraging residents to install heat pumps and other upgrades in damaged homes after devastating floods last summer, but advocates, utilities and state agencies are revisiting those residents to work on long-term, climate-minded rebuilds. (Energy News Network)
• State officials, real estate leaders and nonprofit policy wonks discuss the extreme challenge and reward of decarbonizing the building sector at an Independent Power Producers of New York conference. (RTO Insider, subscription)

‍

WIND: A Pennsylvania legislative committee advances a bill to form a framework for the state to build up a Lake Erie wind industry. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

‍

GRID: New England’s power grid may still see resource adequacy problems even if it makes annual transmission investments of $1 billion through 2050 to keep up with clean power adoption, ISO New England reports. (Utility Dive)

‍

UTILITIES:

• The chief executive officer of the Long Island Power Authority will leave his post at the end of May — a sensitive time for the agency given the ongoing push to end its operations agreement with PSEG Long Island. (Long Island Business News, Newsday)
• A new analysis finds 150,000 Westchester, New York, homes have paid $48 million more than the standard rate since the start of a community power aggregation two years ago — but the program’s leader claims the report is “cherry-picking” its results. (Rockland/Westchester Journal News)

‍

BIOENERGY: A New York firm buys a Maine biowaste-to-power plant that was built less than a decade ago, planning to refit the facility to produce methane gas. (Mainebiz, Reuters)

‍

SOLAR:

• Grid operators across the Northeast detail how the total solar eclipse in April will reduce solar resource generation, with New York’s grid operator expecting thousands of megawatts fewer than typically seen on a clear day. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Neither Tesla nor state officials will reveal who made the solar panels on the roof of the company’s Buffalo, New York, solar panel component manufacturing plant, calling it a “trade secret,” even though they don’t look like Tesla products. (Investigative Post)
• An energy developer considers a parcel of farmland for a 1.66 MW solar array in South Windsor, Connecticut, along the border with a town currently embroiled in anti-solar sentiment. (New Haven Register)

‍

NUCLEAR:

• Federal nuclear regulators express skepticism that NextEra Energy’s plan to reduce staff at the Seabrook Station won’t impact safety, asking for more evidence. (In-Depth NH)
• New York’s emissions have risen since the Indian Point nuclear plant closed in 2021, with fossil fuels, not clean energy resources, used to fill the power generation gap left behind. (The Guardian)

‍

CLIMATE:

• Sea Isle City, New Jersey, has shed its reputation for poor flood management over the past three decades, rising to become one of only two cities in the state to achieve a Class 3 status in a FEMA rating system. (Smart Cities Dive)
• In Maine, allergy season is now a week longer in Portland and Presque Isle than it was in 1970, intensifying the health risk for children, according to a new report. (Bangor Daily News)

‍

TRANSIT: Washington, D.C., prepares to roll out the first application round for its e-bike voucher program, reserved for in-need communities like those enrolled in food assistance like SNAP. (Axios DC)

‍

SOLAR: An Arizona utility brings a 260 MW solar project and the state’s largest battery energy storage installation online to power a Phoenix-area Google data center. (Energy Storage News)

‍

ALSO:

• Conservation groups urge the federal Bureau of Land Management to reject a proposed 400 MW solar installation in southern Nevada, saying it would destroy Mojave desert tortoise habitat. (E&E News, subscription)
• The Biden administration launches a pilot program in New Mexico and two other states aiming to expand community solar access to low-income households. (news release)

‍

UTILITIES:

• California lawmakers look to repeal or alter a 2022 law requiring utilities to create income-based fixed charge rate structures, saying current proposals would raise electricity costs for all income levels and discourage electrification. (Utility Dive)
• New Mexico’s Supreme Court annuls a $10,000 penalty regulators levied against the state’s largest utility for failing to disclose information on a proposed merger. (NM Political Report)

‍

CLIMATE:

• Washington environmental justice advocates push back on a proposal to link the state’s carbon cap-and-trade program with California’s and Quebec’s, saying it could benefit polluters more than at-risk communities. (High Country News)
• Montana regulators seek public input on a proposed rule that would require them to consider climate change’s health and environmental impacts in their decisions. (Montana Daily Standard)

‍

ELECTRIFICATION: A southern Nevada county seeks a $500 million federal grant to support heat pump installations, efficiency upgrades and other climate-friendly improvements for low-income households. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

‍

OIL & GAS:

• New Mexico regulators fine an oil and gas company more than $2 million for failing to report and clean up wastewater spills at two Permian Basin well sites. (NM Political Report)
• Wyoming regulators find two creeks polluted by decades of oilfield discharges are “impaired” and unable to sustain aquatic life, but have no plans to address the contamination. (WyoFile)
• Four Western states join 16 others seeking to defend the U.S. EPA’s new oil and gas methane rule against a lawsuit brought by Republican-led states.   (news release)
• California’s oil and gas industry urges regulators to delay implementation of new petroleum market reporting requirements aimed at tackling price gouging, claiming they could raise gasoline prices. (E&E News, subscription)

‍

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Automaker Stellantis agrees to comply with California’s strict auto emissions standards requiring that 68% of light-duty vehicle sales be zero-emission or plug-in hybrid by 2030. (Associated Press)

‍

‍COAL: Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signs legislation directing state and federal funds toward cleaning up abandoned coal mines. (Wyoming Public Radio)

‍

CARBON CAPTURE: A startup announces plans to build a direct air carbon capture facility in Wyoming using its relatively-low cost technology. (Heatmap)

‍

GEOTHERMAL: Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers from Nevada, Idaho and Utah introduce federal legislation aimed at encouraging geothermal energy development by streamlining the permitting process. (news release)

‍

LITHIUM: A company proposing a direct-lithium extraction project in southeastern Utah expects its pilot processing facility to come online this spring. (Moab Times-Independent)

‍

SOLAR: Federal officials will spend $475 million to fund five clean energy projects on current or former mining lands across the country, including $90 million for Pennsylvania’s Clearfield County, where a former coal mining area is slated to become a 402 MW solar field. (news release, electrek, WHYY)

‍

ALSO:

• A developer will sell two community solar projects totalling 10 MW within Delmarva Power & Light’s territory to a Brookfield investment firm subsidiary. (news release)
• A developer hosts an open house to educate residents of New York’s St. Lawrence County about a proposed 60 MW solar farm slated for operations by December 2027. (WWNY)
• A small group of neighbors of a 2 MW solar array on New York’s Long Island fear the facility will be too close to homes and impact the local ecosystem. (Newsday)

‍

OFFSHORE WIND:

• A Maryland lawmaker wants to change the law to allow the state to buy or sell energy credits from developers whose planned offshore wind projects are technically in Virginian or North Carolinian waters. (Cecil Daily)
• The U.S. Coast Guard solicits public comments on the location of temporary safety zones off the Rhode Island coast during the Revolution Wind construction period. (news release)

‍

POLICY: Pennsylvania’s governor is going to need Republican buy-in to form his newly proposed Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative alternative. (Spotlight PA)

‍

GRID: In Connecticut, United Illuminating plans to build a replacement to the Pequonnock substation five feet above federal 100-year flood estimates and further from the shore to avoid storm outages. (News 12)

‍

BUILDINGS:

• Vermont’s governor expresses concern that state residents can’t handle the cost of the updated renewable energy standard state legislators are considering. (WAMC)
• A Burlington-based climate reporter writes about his family’s journey to electrify their home, starting with heat pump installation. Grist)

‍

HYDROGEN: A Delaware newspaper recounts what is currently known about  the development of the Mid Atlantic Hydrogen Hub, although few firm details are available. (Delaware News Journal)

‍

UTILITIES: If New York legislators can’t pass a bill to arrange a vote on whether to transition the Long Island Power Authority into a fully public utility, contracted operator PSEG might have its deal extended. (Newsday)

‍

CLIMATE: Philadelphia’s Drexel University launches a new research center focused on policymaking that protects city dwellers from the health and equity impacts of climate change. (WHYY)

‍

COMMENTARY: A founding faculty member of Syracuse University’s energy program writes New York will need a massive amount of lithium to reach its energy storage and electric vehicle adoption goals, though there’s no real strategy to recycle the material. (Syracuse.com)

‍