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EFFICIENCY: St. Louis is the first large Midwest city with building performance standards that will reach initial deadlines this year and determine whether building owners are penalized for noncompliance. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS: Ohio’s new General Assembly leaders signal an interest in taking up energy-related policies in the new session, including making it easier to drill for gas in the state. (Ohio Capital Journal)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Missouri lawmakers are set to consider legislation that would allow gas utilities to base customer rates on projected expenses rather than actual costs, which critics say could increase bills. (Missouri Independent)
BIOGAS: An Illinois natural gas provider is now operating its first renewable gas interconnection in the state at a facility that produces biogas from methane and carbon dioxide from landfill waste. (Pipeline and Gas Journal)
OVERSIGHT: North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong names the director of business for the state’s Public Service Commission to fill a vacancy on the regulatory board. (North Dakota Monitor)
BIOFUELS: A Missouri agency invests $3.4 million on fuel distribution upgrades to expand the availability of higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel. (KMZU)
COMMENTARY: Big tech companies should be required to shoulder the costs of new generation to power their data centers so that costs aren’t shifted on to utility ratepayers, an economist and author writes. (Utility Dive)
MANUFACTURING: U.S. clean energy manufacturing rapidly expanded over the past four years as factories emerged to produce solar panels, batteries and electric cars, though the growth trajectory is less certain going forward under President-elect Trump. (Canary Media)
BUILDINGS: Major U.S. cities are leading the way on decarbonizing large buildings by instituting performance standards that require owners to submit energy usage data and gradually improve their performance. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Pentagon announces plans to blacklist Chinese company CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker and a key partner of Tesla and Ford. (Washington Post)
GRID:
NUCLEAR: Nuclear power has suffered in the face of high-profile disasters but has a chance to make a comeback as leaders recognize its ability to generate clean, reliable energy, an environmental journalist says. (Grist)
SOLAR:
OFFSHORE WIND: The fishing industry has been a consistent opponent of offshore wind, but developers in Massachusetts have paid $8 million to local fishermen to do safety and security work for the Vineyard Wind project. (New Bedford Light)
COMMENTARY: Big tech companies should be required to shoulder the costs of new generation to power their data centers so that costs aren’t shifted on to utility ratepayers, an economist and author writes. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The U.S. Transportation Department awards California $122.9 million to build electric vehicle charging facilities and hydrogen fueling stations. (Sacramento Bee)
CLIMATE:
SOLAR:
GRID:
UTILITIES: Southern California utilities warn customers of potential public safety power shutoffs as unusually severe winds and dry conditions grip the region. (Mercury News)
TRANSPORTATION: California Gov. Gavin Newsom touts progress on and plans for high-speed rail between Los Angeles and the Bay Area in advance of expected attacks on the project from the incoming Trump administration. (Los Angeles Times)
COAL: Utah environmental groups worry a state plan to create “inland ports” to spur economic development will lead to an idled coal mine’s revival. (KSL)
POLLUTION: Southern California environmental justice advocates push back on a proposed biofuel terminal, saying diesel pollution from shipping trucks would harm the neighboring community. (NBC San Diego)
A planned 325-megawatt battery energy storage system at a key location on New England’s power grid could boost Connecticut’s access to carbon-free power — but only if it can overcome complicated legal and political barriers.
An Israeli firm, Sunflower Sustainable Investments, filed an application in October for the project with the Connecticut Siting Council, which has regulatory authority over the siting of power facilities.
The $200 million project, called Windham Energy Center, would be located on a largely undeveloped 63-acre site in Killingly, Connecticut, that was slated for construction of a fossil fuel power plant a few years ago. There is existing electric transmission infrastructure immediately adjacent to the site, and the project will connect to the grid via a 345-kilovolt transmission line.
A spokesman for Windham Energy, Jonathan Milley, said the location is ideal for a battery facility.
“If you look at the topology of the New England grid, this is at the intersection of the Millstone nuclear power plant and Brayton Point,” in Somerset, Massachusetts, where approved offshore wind projects will eventually be connected to the grid, Milley said. “This nodal location will at certain times of the day and under certain conditions have some of the lowest cost energy available to it on the grid.”
The project would consist of lithium-ion batteries installed in racks in prefabricated containers, and a switching station operated by Eversource to connect them to the transmission line. The equipment would be located within 20 acres of the total project site.
But the project is currently hung up by an administrative roadblock. That’s because in 2019, the siting council approved an application from NTE Energy to build a 650-megawatt natural gas plant on a portion of the same property.
That project, which ran into a storm of opposition from environmental advocates, was never built, and NTE Energy has since dissolved. But nevertheless, on Nov. 8, the siting council’s executive director, Melanie Bachman, notified Windham Energy that it is “premature” for the body to review their application because the Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need previously issued to NTE still exists.
The certificate has not been surrendered to the council, she said. And it will otherwise only be void if construction on the gas plant has not been completed by September 28, 2026.
Windham Energy has asked the council to declare the certificate no longer valid, noting that NTE Energy no longer exists nor holds an option to purchase the property, and that its energy supply agreement with regional grid operator ISO-New England was also revoked in 2022.
Milley said battery storage is needed to complement the state’s offshore wind goals; the batteries can store surplus energy from wind sources when production is high, and then dispatch it to the grid when it is needed. In 2021, state lawmakers set a goal of at least 1,000 megawatts of energy storage deployment by December 31, 2030.
“If there’s a developer willing to build what the state is looking for and not asking for anything else, it doesn’t seem like asking too much for the council to nullify an existing certificate for an entity that doesn’t exist,” Milley said.
For now, counsel for Windham Energy has sent a letter by certified mail to Stephanie Clarkson, who they say is the last known contact for NTE Energy, asking her to “advise whether the Certificate issued to NTE should be an impediment” to their proposed project.
The town of Killingly has requested party status in the hearings before the siting council.
In a letter to Windham Energy following a meeting with the developers, Town Council chair Jason Alexander and vice chair Tammy Wakefield raised concerns about the potential for fire at the facility, pointing to a recent fire at a battery storage facility in New York, and asked how they would prevent a similar event.
Three battery storage projects caught fire in New York in 2023, prompting Gov. Kathy Hochul to convene a working group to draft updates to the state’s fire code to improve safety and emergency preparedness in the planning of such projects.
Other towns in Connecticut have also raised concerns about fires for much smaller battery storage projects proposed by Key Capture Energy, of Albany, New York.
Milley says town officials are “right to ask these questions,” and he is focused on addressing their concerns. He noted that Windham plans to use lithium iron phosphate batteries, a type of lithium battery he says is much less prone to fire.
“The element in the battery is iron, which doesn’t burn,” he said.
However, he added, Windham fully intends to work with town and state fire authorities to develop a response plan “whether it’s a strict requirement or not.”
In the meantime, Windham Energy has filed a motion with the siting council to reopen the docket concerning NTE Energy so that it might modify its decision and revoke the earlier issued certificate.
The council is expected to take up that motion during its Feb. 6 meeting.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The inclusion of heat pumps in newer electric vehicle models is among the improvements helping to boost battery performance during cold weather, as experts say winter charging concerns have been overblown. (Inside Climate News)
ALSO: Major proposed battery plants across Michigan have been scaled back or face local opposition as automakers scale back production targets. (Crain’s Detroit, subscription)
EFFICIENCY:
PIPELINES: A carbon pipeline developer asks a South Dakota regulator to recuse herself from the company’s permit application because of an alleged conflict of interest, though the regulator says there is no legal conflict. (South Dakota Searchlight)
GRID: MISO’s recently approved transmission buildout calls for six projects in Wisconsin totaling $4.1 billion in new investment. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
NUCLEAR: 2025 could be a pivotal year for a shuttered southwestern Michigan nuclear plant as federal regulators plan to issue a final decision on its restart by the end of July. (Michigan Public)
SOLAR: Northern Michigan GOP lawmakers call for the firing of state officials involved with a natural resources agency’s plan to clear cut and lease 420 acres of forest land for a solar project. (Detroit News)
FOSSIL FUELS: Experts speculate that spiking energy demand from artificial intelligence and data centers could deliver the Trump administration a political victory by boosting the consumption of fossil fuels. (E&E News)
BIOMASS: A Minnesota nonprofit says it has devised a way of burning wood and biomass that produces biochar and prevents carbon emissions from being released during the process. (Pioneer Press)
COAL:
UTILITIES: MidAmerican Energy asks South Dakota regulators to recover more than $500,000 in costs stemming from a 2024 flooding event that damaged gas infrastructure. (KTIV)
FOSSIL FUELS: President Biden bans the sale of new federal drilling leases off much of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but experts say the order is unlikely to slow production as it leaves out the western Gulf, where production is at an all-time high. (E&E News)
ALSO:
HYDROGEN:
POLITICS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSPORTATION: The first congestion pricing plan in the United States goes into effect in Manhattan after a judge declines New Jersey’s request to halt the program at the last minute. (New York Times)
EFFICIENCY: Republican-led states challenge new federal energy efficiency standards for residential construction, saying they would increase homebuilder costs and exceed Congress’ authority. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
BIOFUELS: Advocates urge Massachusetts policymakers not to lean too heavily on biofuels in their plans to decarbonize the state’s heating systems, saying there are too many questions about the possible impacts. (Energy News Network)
OVERSIGHT: Montana’s Supreme Court finds state regulators and NorthWestern Energy skirted environmental laws by failing to account for a proposed natural gas plant’s potential greenhouse gas emissions, but allows the now-operational facility to continue running. (Daily Montanan)
OIL & GAS:
MINING:
SOLAR: Nevada regulators direct NV Energy to incorporate additional benefits of distributed solar and storage into its resource plans, drawing praise from the clean energy industry and advocates. (news release)
GRID: A Colorado study finds major transmission expansions are necessary to realize the solar generating potential of the rural San Luis Valley in the southern part of the state. (Alamosa Citizen)
UTILITIES: Pacific Gas & Electric say reduced operating costs and a federal loan should help the utility stabilize or even lower California customers’ bills in 2025 (Sacramento Bee)
STORAGE: California’s grid operators plan to keep the existing natural gas fleet online even though increasing battery storage capacity is displacing some fossil fuel generation. (RTO Insider, subscription)
COMMENTARY:
Environmental and community advocates in Massachusetts argue that making too much room for biofuels in a pending state plan to decarbonize heating systems would slow the transition from fossil fuels and cause more pollution than a plan that prioritizes electric heat pumps.
As the state works on the creation of a Clean Heat Standard, a report released last month by Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility raises questions about the effects using biodiesel in fuel-oil heating systems could have on air quality and public health, saying there is not enough information available about the pollutants released in the process.
Advocates say there is no such uncertainty about electric heat pumps, which create no direct emissions and should therefore be heavily favored in the new state policy.
“We absolutely think the thumb should be on the scale of electrification,” said Larry Chretien, executive director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance. “If they give credit to biofuels, it ought to be conditional.”
Oil heating is much more prevalent in the Northeast than in the rest of the country. In Massachusetts, 22% of households are heated with oil, as compared to less than 5% nationwide. Moving homes and businesses off oil heat, therefore, is an important element of the state’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, which sets a target of reducing emissions from heating by 93% from 1990 levels in that timeframe.
The process of developing a Clean Heat Standard began when then-Gov. Charlie Baker convened the Commission on Clean Heat in 2021. In 2022, the board recommended the creation of the standard, which was also included in the state’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2050, released later that year. A stakeholder process began in 2023, and in the fall of that year the state released a draft framework for the standard that included the expectation of issuing credits for some biofuel use.
The program is expected to require gas utilities and importers of heating oil and propane to provide an increasing proportion of clean heating services like home heat pumps, networked geothermal, and other options, or buy credits from other parties that have implemented these solutions.
Whether the other options that qualify as clean heat will include biofuels — fuels derived from renewable, organic sources — has been a matter of contention since the idea for the system was first raised.
Climate advocates have tended to oppose the inclusion of much, if any, biofuel in the standard. Though biodiesel creates lower lifetime greenhouse gas emissions than its conventional counterpart, the recent Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility report contends that there are many unanswered questions about how burning biodiesel impacts public health.
“Given the sheer amount of doubt, there’s more research that should clearly be done before these fuels are subsidized by the state government,” said report author Carrie Katan, who also works as a Massachusetts policy advocate for the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, but compiled the report as an independent contractor for the physicians group.
The physicians’ report notes a study by Trinity Consulting Group that found significant health benefits to switching from fossil diesel to biodiesel for building heating. The physicians’ report, however, questions the methodology used in that study, claiming it cherrypicks data and fails to cite sources.
Katan’s report also notes that the health impacts of biofuels can vary widely depending on the organic matter used to create them, and points out that most of the research on burning biofuels is focused on the transportation sector.
Climate advocates also argue that embracing biofuels in a Clean Heat Standard would unnecessarily prolong the transition to electric heat pumps while encouraging the continued burning of fossil heating oil. Typically, a heating oil customer using biodiesel receives a blend that is no more than 20% biofuel. Providing credit for that fraction of biofuel would therefore improve the economics of the entire heating oil system, contrary to the overall emissions reduction goals of the policy, Chretien said.
“We’re trying to create a system that is rewarding steps towards greenhouse gas reduction,” he said.
Advocates of biofuels, however, say they are confident that existing science makes a solid case for the health and environmental benefits of biodiesel.
“There’s a decades-long body of work showing the overall benefits to public health of biofuels, specifically biodiesel,” said Floyd Vergara, a consultant for Clean Fuels Alliance America, a national trade association representing the biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel industries.
Vergara, who was involved in the Trinity Consulting study, called out in the physicians’ report, also defended the methodologies and sourcing of that paper.
Further, he said, though biodiesel is typically limited to 20% in current blends, it is quite possible to run a heating system entirely on biofuel, with just a few tweaks to the equipment. These conversions could yield immediate reductions in emissions, he said, rather than waiting for the slower process of replacing thousands of heating oil systems with electric heat pumps.
The difference could be particularly acute in low-income or other traditionally disadvantaged neighborhoods, where many residents can not afford to make the switch to heat pumps, he said.
“You’re getting those benefits immediately, and you’re getting them while the states are pursuing zero-emissions technologies,” he said.
State environmental regulators expect to release a full draft of the clean heat standard for public comment sometime this winter.
NUCLEAR: Maryland-based Constellation Energy signs a $1 billion deal to provide nuclear power and energy efficiency services to 13 federal agencies, marking the first time the U.S. has used a major energy purchase to support nuclear power as a clean energy source. (Reuters)
ALSO: An energy company threatens to sue federal regulators for denying its proposal to expand an Amazon data center located at a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. (E&E News, subscription)
CLIMATE:
OFFSHORE WIND:
EFFICIENCY: Massachusetts’ newest energy efficiency plan targets rental properties, covering the entire cost of weatherization in some cities and protecting tenants against rent hikes intended to pay for more efficient heating equipment. (Boston Globe)
SOLAR:
FRACKING: Scientists find contamination in freshwater mussels consistent with the chemical signatures of wastewater produced by fracking in western Pennsylvania. (Inside Climate News)
TRANSPORTATION: A New Jersey judge agrees to hear a request for a last-minute restraining order against New York’s plan to impose a congestion price on cars entering parts of Manhattan starting this weekend. (4 New York)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Hearing from building owners concerned about the risk of fire from indoor e-bike charging, New York City expands an initiative allowing multifamily buildings to apply for sidewalk space to install charging cabinets. (Streetsblog)
CLEAN ENERGY: A University of Maryland researcher receives $7.8 million to develop and test a system that uses fermented ocean microbes to power marine sensing devices for scientific or national security applications. (Maryland Today)
COAL: The private equity firms that now own a large, polluting Ohio coal plant say in regulatory filings that the facility “will continue to operate for so long as they are legally able to do so on an economic basis.” (Ohio Capital Journal)
SOLAR:
NUCLEAR:
UTILITIES: Xcel Energy customers will see a temporary 5.2% electric rate hike in 2025 as the utility requests a larger increase to help pay for grid improvements and its transition off fossil fuels. (Star Tribune)
CLEAN ENERGY: The $700 billion in tax credits expected from the Inflation Reduction Act will motivate $2 trillion in private investment and produce trillions of dollars in net benefits, according to a study commissioned by the American Clean Power Association. (Utility Dive)
PIPELINES:
POWER PLANTS: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs a bill creating long-term tax incentives for large data centers, including for facilities built on former power plant properties. (Michigan Advance)
EFFICIENCY: While federal tax rebates for residential heat pumps may go away under the Trump administration, both red and blue states could continue incentive programs based on their popularity, experts say. (MPR News)
COMMENTARY: The head of Indiana’s recently created green bank says the organization will provide low-cost financing for small clean energy projects and help ease energy cost pressures amid rising inflation. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
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