Posted on October 5, 2023
Massachusetts regulators allow SouthCoast wind to terminate its offshore wind project power purchase agreement and rebid with a higher cost in a future auction, meaning the state has lost two-thirds of the offshore wind output it had in its pipeline.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
- Vermont officials celebrate the grand opening of fast-growing Beta Technologies’ large-scale electric plane manufacturing facility near Burlington, which is expected to create around 300 aircraft per year by 2027. (Burlington Free Press, VT Digger)
- New Jersey utility regulators grant $12.7 million to help build electric vehicle charging stations at 405 new locations. (RTO Insider, subscription)
POLICY:
- Advisors to the governor of Pennsylvania say the state should utilize a cap-and-invest model for emissions reduction, but didn’t say if the state should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (Inside Climate News)
- The Business Council of New York State begins pushing the state to transition to a clean energy economy while avoiding “significant unintended consequences” like higher energy prices or grid reliability concerns. (Times Union)
SOLAR:
- A new report finds Massachusetts’ solar generation gains have destroyed swathes of forest and farmland, but says the state can preserve most of these lands while meeting its solar goal by tweaking incentives and utilizing more developed or degraded spaces. (WBUR)
- New York officials are seeking a developer to help it construct a build-ready, 12 MW solar array on a former mine in St. Lawrence County. (news release)
- A 6.2 MW solar project with battery storage on a former Massachusetts golf course sees delays from weather and supply chain issues. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
TRANSIT:
- New York City’s transit agency has yet to fully protect the subway system from the harms of climate change, according to an audit by the state comptroller. (Gothamist)
- Activists say Massachusetts’ governor should stop plans to expand a public airfield to accommodate more private jets, which can be up to 20 times more polluting than commercial airliners, over climate concerns. (CommonWealth Magazine)
FOSSIL FUELS:
- Rhode Island regulators allow a liquefied natural gas facility to provide back-up heating for Aquidneck Island this winter, extending a temporary waiver that has been granted annually since 2019. (PBN)
- New Jersey gas distribution utilities say the state is too focused on building electrification and aren’t giving enough consideration to other building decarbonization concepts that their industry could provide. (S&P Global)
- The majority of food scraps collected via New York City’s new, voluntary program are due to become unfracked natural gas, not compost — an outcome some observers question is the best use of the organic materials. (Inside Climate News)
GRID:
- Convergent Energy plans to bring a 3 MW battery storage system online by 2024 to help stabilize a Massachusetts municipal power utility’s energy costs. (Renewable Energy World)
- Roughly $6.6 million in federal energy grants will go to New Hampshire to upgrade the state’s power grid to increase resilience during extreme weather.
