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OFFSHORE WIND: An offshore wind developer tables a planned wind farm after Connecticut failed to join Massachusetts and Rhode Island in agreeing to buy power from the project. (WBUR)
ALSO:
CLIMATE:
FOSSIL FUELS: Neighbors of a former refinery site in Philadelphia worry about the potential environmental and health impacts of plans for a warehouse and life sciences complex and liquefied natural gas and butane storage. (Inside Climate News)
TRANSMISSION: Maryland legislators have at least four bills in the works to modify or stop a widely opposed transmission line through the state — a plan that has drawn state policymakers’ attention away from other energy and climate issues this year. (WBAL, Maryland Matters)
GRID: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro files a federal complaint against PJM, arguing that the grid operator’s market rules are “currently failing” and will result in soaring electricity prices. (Reuters)
TRANSPORTATION: New York’s plan to impose an extra toll on drivers in some parts of Manhattan is set to go into effect this weekend despite a pending legal challenge from New Jersey. (Gothamist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
UTILITIES: A Spanish energy company purchases the parent company of electric utilities in Connecticut, Maine, and New York in a $2.5 billion deal that critics say will reduce transparency and accountability. (Maine Public)
STORAGE: Maine recommends that the state public utilities commission procure 200 MW of battery capacity to manage storage and deployment of solar and wind power and avoid costly grid upgrades. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
OIL & GAS: Oil and gas companies move to expand pipelines across Virginia as the rapidly growing number of data centers strain energy demand and existing infrastructure. (Virginia Mercury)
ALSO:
TRANSITION: A Texas electric cooperative will convert a coal-fired power plant into a solar and battery facility, aided by more than $1.4 billion in federal funding to support clean energy and maintain rural jobs. (Texas Tribune)
GRID: The private company that oversees Puerto Rico’s power grid announces it’s restored power for 98% of its 1.47 million customers after a blackout knocked out power across the island on New Year’s Eve. (Associated Press)
SOLAR:
WIND:
COAL:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Virginia lawmaker will again introduce a bill to establish funding incentives for companies to build electric vehicle charging stations in rural parts of Virginia. (Cardinal News)
OVERSIGHT: A clean energy nonprofit sues Georgia regulators for allegedly violating an open records law after the state fails to turn over public records from a state board member who the group claims used her personal email and cellphone for public business. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
CLIMATE: A family’s experience with Hurricane Helene and its aftermath illustrates how climate-exacerbated extreme weather disproportionately affects undocumented residents. (NPR)
UTILITIES:
POLITICS:
COMMENTARY: A Virginia legislative commission’s report confirms the booming data center sector will triple power demand over the next 15 years, threatening not just the state’s emission reduction goals, but its ability to produce that much power even without them, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)
OIL & GAS: An Arizona county votes to reverse its zoning designation that cleared the way for a proposed natural gas peaker plant near homes following stiff opposition from residents and advocates. (Arizona Republic)
PUBLIC LANDS: The Biden administration proposes banning new oil and gas and geothermal development on 264,000 acres of federal land in the Ruby Mountains in Nevada. (news release)
UTILITIES:
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CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. EPA greenlights a developer’s proposal to inject and sequester captured carbon in a southern California oil field. (Californian)
POLITICS: Wyoming’s Freedom Caucus-dominated legislature prepares to consider legislation relating to nuclear waste, enhanced oil production, coal severance taxes and utility wildfire liability limits. (WyoFile)
TRANSITION: A nonpartisan research firm finds complex federal grant applications hinder Wyoming coal communities’ ability to access energy transition funds. (Inside Climate News)
CLEAN ENERGY: A study finds clean energy-generated power exceeded California’s electricity demand during a record-breaking 98 of 116 days last spring and summer without experiencing significant outages. (Electrek)
EMISSIONS: Colorado regulators consider proposed rules aimed at curbing landfills’ methane emissions. (CPR)
The last time President Donald Trump took office, Illinois had just passed the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), creating an ambitious renewable electricity mandate, solar incentive programs, green job training and equity provisions to propel the state’s clean energy economy.
That progress is offering both a blueprint and a source of hope for Illinois clean energy and environmental justice advocates as they try to keep the state’s clean energy transition on track during a second Trump presidency.
“The state policy is designed to be responsive to a lack of federal climate leadership, to the need for Illinois to step up into a position of climate leadership,” said Vote Solar deputy Midwest program director John Delurey, who added that since the 2024 election “I’m at the point where I can channel my existential dread into state-based action.”
Illinois lawmakers expanded on FEJA with the Climate & Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) in 2021, and advocates expect another state energy bill in 2025 to prioritize energy storage and otherwise further clean energy goals, including planning for the mandatory closing of almost all fossil fuel generation by 2035.
“With CEJA we’ve mapped out an ambitious climate plan, and we’re in a strong position to further those goals even under a Trump administration,” said Madeline Semanisin, Midwest equitable building decarbonization advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “This is not the first Trump administration. States and cities are more prepared this time to accelerate initiatives at the state and city level.”
That’s not to say the state won’t be affected by a president who is hostile toward clean energy policy. Several federal tax credits and grants that have helped accelerate progress in Illinois could be at risk under Trump, and a rollback of federal environmental regulations or enforcement could prolong pollution from coal ash, power plants and other sources.
James Gignac, Union of Concerned Scientists lead Midwest senior policy manager for the Climate & Energy program, said he thinks of the state’s clean energy outlook in terms of headwinds and tailwinds, which will continue to shift based on economic and political factors beyond the state’s control.
“States for many years have not been able to rely on the federal government for climate action, whether due to politics or the Supreme Court,” Gignac said. “The election results will make it harder to achieve the goals that Illinois has established. It doesn’t fundamentally change the energy policy path that the state is on, it just makes it even more urgent that state legislators pass additional policies.”
Federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other federal programs have helped Illinois and individual cities and counties carry out their clean energy goals. Illinois was awarded more than $430 million in a Climate Pollution Reduction Grant for implementation of the state’s goals on industrial decarbonization, clean energy, clean transportation and freight, climate-smart agriculture, and building energy efficiency.
Illinois was also awarded $156 million in federal Solar for All funds to bolster solar and equity goals including workforce training, residential solar deployment, and community engagement.
Illinois advocates and experts said they expect federal funds that have already been awarded to be paid out, and they don’t expect the Trump administration and Republican-dominated Congress to make major changes to the IRA or infrastructure law, especially given the financial impact those laws have had in Republican-dominated areas.
“We have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars for small businesses and farmers” paid out through the federal Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), not to mention federal IRA funds, that “overall are benefitting Republican districts” during the Biden administration, noted Angela Xu, Illinois Environmental Council municipal engagement manager.
Even if new federal funding windfalls are not available in the future, advocates say the funds awarded during the Biden administration will have lasting impact, combined with state-level programs and funding sources that will continue, and market forces that are making clean energy increasingly competitive.
“President-elect Trump has indicated his intention to roll back IRA programs, but keep in mind that when President Trump was elected last time, he and the Republican-led Senate and House were hellbent publicly on rolling back Obamacare, and that didn’t happen,” said Environmental Law & Policy Center executive director Howard Learner.
“The IRA has supported smart, sensible renewable energy development in red states and blue and purple states,” he added. “There’s no question if President Trump tries to cut back and constrain the IRA, it will have some impact on the pace of renewable energy development and other climate change solutions. On the other hand, it’s very hard to keep better technology from growing. When new technologies come to the market and they are better and cleaner and economically sensible, they tend to accelerate and capture more market share.”
Illinois Shines, the program creating lucrative Renewable Energy Credits for distributed solar, is funded through ratepayer payments — so it is not dependent on federal funding. That doesn’t mean it is immune from federal action, since the federal Investment Tax Credit and the global solar market influence the viability of projects in Illinois.
“There are levers they can pull, through an act of Congress they can change the ITC, which is an important part of the value stack for renewables,” said Delurey, of Trump and his allies in Congress. “And they could deploy tariffs which make the landscape a lot more complicated. The U.S., thanks to the IRA, is making its way towards onshoring and bringing a lot of manufacturing back stateside, but we’re not quite there yet.”
If the tax credit is reduced or solar panels get more expensive because of tariffs, Illinois’s incentives “would probably have to be adjusted accordingly,” Delurey said, with bigger incentives for each project.
“It would just mean fewer megawatts and kilowatts in Illinois. We’d still be deploying solar, but it is sensitive to the price of clean energy.”
Advocates agree that the Biden administration’s Justice 40 mandate, that 40% of the benefits of many federal climate and other programs go to disadvantaged communities, is likely to be ended or ignored by the Trump administration.
Lower-income and marginalized communities could also be affected by understaffing, delays or rollbacks in federal programs like LIHEAP, which provides energy bill assistance, and energy efficiency rebates for low-income households.
“We can put things in state legislation that supports these communities,” including in the Illinois energy bill being drafted for introduction in 2025, Semanisin said. “Justice 40 is a framework we can incorporate in state legislation as well, to prioritize people who have been historically underserved.”
During his first administration, Trump made significant rollbacks to coal plant wastewater protections, and to the 2015 federal rules governing the storage and cleanup of coal ash. Both are big issues in Illinois, where eight coal plants are still operating, and coal ash is stored in 76 ponds, landfills and other sites, according to an Earthjustice analysis.
Earthjustice senior attorney Jenny Cassel said experts anticipate Trump will again try to weaken the Clean Water Act and coal ash protections. Meanwhile it’s likely the EPA under his administration will do little to enforce the coal ash regulations, which was largely the case before the Biden administration made coal ash a priority.
Illinois passed its own state coal ash rules in 2019, after lobbying by activists who wanted to make sure the rules were at least as strong as federal rules and covered legacy ponds not included in federal rules at the time. In 2024, the federal rules were expanded to cover legacy ponds as well as historic ash and coal ash landfills, but that provision is being challenged in federal court. The state rules do not cover ash historically dumped or scattered around, and they also do not cover inactive coal ash landfills.
Meanwhile the implementation of the Illinois coal ash law has been extremely slow. The law requires each site to get an operating permit with pollution limits that can then be enforced, but so far only two permits at one coal plant site have been issued, Cassel said.
“We keep hearing excuse after excuse” from the Illinois EPA that issues the permits, Cassel said. “‘We don’t have enough people, they’re tied up in administrative hearings, conditions are changing,’ every dog-ate-my-homework excuse in the book.”
“At the federal level, there’s any number of potential ways they could attempt to roll back the [coal ash] rules, or weaken areas that haven’t been fully defined,” she added. “That’s certainly what they did in round one. Illinois will really have to step up into the vacuum of protectiveness we expect at the federal level.”
Chicago — site of the 2024 Democratic National Convention — has long been a target of Trump’s ire, and Chicago officials during his last administration and today are outspoken about countering Trump’s agenda.
Chief Sustainability Officer Angela Tovar said the city will continue its work on solar, electric vehicles and building decarbonization, as well as centering environmental justice in planning, zoning and enforcement decisions.
“So much of everyone’s local regulations hinge on things like the Clean Air Act and federal standards; there is going to be this question of federal preemption, what home-rule authority do we have?” Tovar said. “Those are still outstanding questions. Every rollback will present its own set of challenges for cities and states. What I am at least grateful for in being in the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago is we do have such robust climate leadership at the state and local level.”
The city’s environmental justice ordinance requires a holistic look at pollution — from traffic and other sources — when industrial development is proposed. That could help protect communities even if federal pollution limits are relaxed. The city has also launched an interdepartmental environmental justice working group, involving “every department that touches air, land and water,” as Tovar said.
The city program Green Homes Chicago funds energy efficiency upgrades for qualifying single- and multi-family homes, which could help fill the gap if federal home rebates are reduced, Tovar noted. Chicago Recovery Plan funding from federal pandemic relief and city bond issuances could help compensate for any funding that might be lost if IRA is undermined, she added.
“The role of cities and states becomes even increasingly more important right now,” Tovar said. “We have an ability to really demonstrate leadership in this moment. For cities like Chicago that have already made some progress, it’s up to us to ensure we’re sharing best practices and working together to really create those safeguards and fortify basic environmental and health protections at a local level. We’re certainly going to maintain our commitment, make sure we are rolling out our programs, and unwavering in our pursuit of environmental justice.”
NATURAL GAS: Bans on new natural gas hookups are moving ahead in states including Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York, despite a national wave of resistance to legal prohibitions on the fuel. (E&E News)
CLEAN ENERGY:
TRANSMISSION: The process of approving a much-contested 70-mile transmission line through three Maryland counties could take up to two years as opponents are likely to leave “no stone left unturned” in their attempts to stop the plan. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
OFFSHORE WIND:
STORAGE: Some 30 planned battery farms are pending in Connecticut with the potential to add more than 4.3 GW of energy storage capacity to the grid. (Darien Times)
BIOFUEL: Creating sustainable biofuel could be a possible use of kelp grown by Connecticut’s expanding seaweed farming industry, as growers look for more markets for the marine plants. (CT Mirror)
SOLAR: Five new community solar projects come online in Maine, adding to the soaring number of such projects built since the state created a subsidy to boost their development. (Bangor Daily News, subscription)
GEOTHERMAL: Plans to expand a networked geothermal system in Massachusetts and build a new project in Vermont are among five plans splitting $35 million in federal funding for geothermal projects. (Energy News Network)
GRID:
UTILITIES: National Grid agrees to a $1 million settlement for not following proper procedures in the lead-up to natural gas-fueled house explosion in New York last year. (WSYR)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle maker Canoo announces furloughs for 82 employees in Oklahoma as it looks for additional funding, which could lead to the company being forced to repay $1 million in state job creation incentives. (Oklahoman, Frontier)
GRID:
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
WIND: Two Texas residents ask the state’s top court to review a ruling that found they lacked standing to challenge a neighboring wind farm’s more than $10 million tax break. (Bloomberg, subscription)
NUCLEAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Tennessee receives a perfect score on its emergency preparedness evaluation. (WBIR)
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department unveils plans to conduct environmental reviews for proposed hydrogen hubs in Appalachia, California and the Northwest. (E&E News, subscription)
CLIMATE:
UTILITIES: The New Orleans City Council approves the sale of the city’s natural gas distribution system to a private equity firm, prompting concerns about rising bills and how the sale might shield the company from local regulation and pressure to decarbonize. (NOLA.com, DeSmog)
OIL & GAS: Bans on new natural gas hookups are moving ahead in states including Colorado, Massachusetts, and New York, despite recent political and legal setbacks for the policies. (E&E News)
ALSO:
RENEWABLES:
GEOTHERMAL: Equity-focused nonprofitscommunity groups in Chicago and BostonMassachusetts are among five recipients receiving a share of $35 million in recently announced federal funding for geothermal projects. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
WIND:
NUCLEAR: Ohio environmental advocates fear that a bill defining nuclear energy as “green” could be used to water down policies and divert funding from renewable energy projects in the future. (Energy News Network)
COMMENTARY: The increasing economic competitiveness of renewables with fossil fuels has a cleantech entrepreneur feeling optimistic about clean energy development over the next four years. (Canary Media)
Two community-based geothermal pilot projects, each led by equity-focused nonprofits, have advanced to the second phase of funding through a U.S. Department of Energy program.
Blacks in Green, a community organization based in Chicago, and Home Energy Efficiency Team, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting an equitable transition to clean energy, were included last week in a set of five projects across the country that have been awarded a total of more than $35 million from the DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office to implement geothermal installations.
The five project teams advancing to the next phase of the DOE project were among a cohort of 11 projects participating in the initial phase of the program, where coalitions selected project sites, assessed geothermal resource and permitting needs, conducted feasibility analysis and local engagement, and identified workforce and training needs. The selected projects’ range of sizes, technologies, and innovations will provide potential templates for other communities considering implementing geothermal systems.
Three of the five projects are located in urban or suburban areas; two are in rural communities. The other three recipients are the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan; the University of Oklahoma, for a project in the town of Shawnee; and GTI Energy, for a project in Hinesburg, Vermont.
Blacks in Green, located in West Woodlawn, a predominantly Black community on Chicago’s South Side, serves as the lead for a coalition which was awarded $9.9 million for its Sustainable Chicago Geothermal pilot. Other coalition partners are the City of Chicago, University of Illinois, The Accelerate Group, Citizens Utility Board, Climate Jobs Illinois, dbHMS, GeoExchange, and Illinois AFL-CIO.
The pilot, also located in West Woodlawn, utilizes alleys to circumvent the need for vast open plots for subterranean loop fields that form the heart of a geothermal array. Locating the bulk of geothermal loop lines in alleyways also sidesteps the underground congestion of existing utility infrastructure typically located underneath city streets.
It’s among an assortment of elements in the Sustainable Square Mile approach that advances BIG’s vision for energy justice through clean energy and microgrid/VPP systems owned and managed by the community, said Naomi Davis, BIG’s founder and CEO.
“BIG launched in 2007 with a goal of increasing household income and community resilience against the harms of climate crisis at neighborhood scale using the new green economy — so we’re grateful for this chance to make it manifest,” Davis said in a news release.
Along with installation of the needed infrastructure within the multiblock footprint, year two of the West Woodlawn project will focus on community outreach and job programs. Once construction is complete, the geothermal system will provide heating and cooling, not to mention lower utility bills, for potentially more than 200 households.
“The Sustainable Chicago Geothermal project will be a transformational investment in the West Woodlawn community. The effort to eliminate harmful emissions from homes and businesses, while lowering energy burden, has proven to be a community-wide challenge, and requires a community-wide solution,” said Andrew Barbeau, president of The Accelerate Group and principal investigator of the Blacks in Green project, in a news release.
The need to reconstruct the alleyways after installation of the geothermal array also presents the opportunity to replace asphalt or concrete with permeable pavers. This would work to promote climate resiliency through mitigation of urban flooding, a persistent occurrence in many of Chicago’s South and West Side communities, said Nuri Madina, the director of Sustainable Square Mile, who serves as point person for the pilot.
“All of our programs are designed to create multiple benefits,” Madina told the Energy News Network in September.
Home Energy Efficiency Team, commonly referred to by the acronym HEET, in partnership with Eversource Energy; the city of Framingham, Massachusetts; and engineering consultant Salas O’Brien; was awarded $7.8 million toward construction of a utility-based,community-scale geothermal system.
“We are honored to receive this funding from the DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office as part of the Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling initiative, and to show how geothermal energy networks can be interconnected to increase efficiency, build resilience, and decarbonize at the scale and speed we need to achieve our climate goals,” said Zeyneb Magavi, executive director for HEET, in a news release.
The proposed plans by HEET and its partners would connect to the first Framingham geothermal network, which was commissioned earlier this year. Once approved by the state Department of Public Utilities and upon completion, it would represent the first utility-owned community geothermal network to connect to an adjacent operational loop, establishing guidelines for the interconnection and growth of geothermal networks.
“This innovative project not only showcases Framingham’s commitment to sustainable energy solutions but also sets a precedent for other communities across the nation. By harnessing the natural heat from the earth, we are taking a significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and promoting renewable energy sources. Our collaboration with HEET and Eversource exemplifies the power of partnerships in driving forward clean energy initiatives,” said Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky in a news release.
The HEET-led program operates on the principle that utility-scale geothermal systems could operate on a billing model similar to that of natural gas or electrical utilities, and ultimately replace them, Magavi told the Energy News Network in October 2022.
“So instead of feeding natural gas into these buildings, we could feed geothermal water,” Magavi said. “And then we could meter that and sell that. It’s no different than when you pay your water bill.”
Ohio environmental advocates are questioning the intent of a pending state law that would add nuclear power to the state’s legal definition of “green” energy.
House Bill 308’s sponsors say the legislation is meant to signal that Ohio is open for business when it comes to nuclear power research and development, but critics warn the language could have broader implications in the future.
“Legislators don’t just put something into the code unless it has meaning and purpose and value,” said Megan Hunter, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups challenging a similar 2022 state law that classified natural gas as a “green” energy source. “Why would you do this if it has no impact or meaning or effect?”
Critics fear the language could be used to greenwash power plants or divert public funding from renewable energy projects, though the bill’s sponsors deny that motive.
“It doesn’t promise any incentives or anything beyond simply placing nuclear under the category of green energy in the Ohio Revised Code,” said state Rep. Sean Brennan, a Democrat from Parma who co-sponsored the nuclear legislation with Republican state Rep. Dick Stein of Norwalk.
The General Assembly passed the nuclear legislation on Dec. 11. As of Thursday it was awaiting Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature.
Brennan said the question of why the language should be in a law instead of just a resolution didn’t come up in discussions with Stein, who initially asked him to cosponsor the bill.
Stein said the legislation is “about sending a signal to the market that Ohio wants to be a partner and won’t be an impediment,” in contrast to other states that don’t want nuclear energy. He said he hopes it will help attract jobs and federal funding, building on last year’s creation of a state nuclear development authority.
Stein would not speculate on follow-up steps lawmakers might take, saying his term in the House of Representatives ends this month.
Ohio does not currently have state incentives or policy preferences for “green” energy. The state’s renewable energy standard essentially ended in 2019 as a result of House Bill 6, the coal and nuclear bailout law at the heart of the state’s ongoing corruption scandal. Opponents testifying against the current legislation, though, said they worry the definition will be used to water down future clean energy policies.
“HB 308 will enable the manipulation of public funds into private, corporate hands,” said Pat Marida, a coordinator for the Ohio Nuclear-Free Network, in her December 13 testimony. Also, she said, “there is nothing ‘green’ about nuclear power,” referring to radioactive waste, which continues to be stored at power plant sites.
Future state programs might offer funding or other advantages for projects that meet the state’s definition of “green” energy, for example. And even if the definition doesn’t open doors to new government funding, it could provide cover to private companies that want to count gas and nuclear energy toward their climate or clean energy targets, another advocate warned.
“Insidiously, it does potentially become important,” said Nathan Alley, conservation manager for the Sierra Club of Ohio. Many companies have adopted clean energy goals, he noted. “This might telegraph to them that they could invest in nuclear energy and achieve the same climate and/or energy goals as if they invest in solar or wind.”
Ohio lawmakers aren’t the only ones who want to define natural gas and nuclear power as “green energy.” Model legislation finalized by the American Legislative Exchange Council this fall does the same thing. ALEC is a Koch-linked group that has long opposed renewable energy and actions to address climate change.
ALEC’s model bill would have its definition “apply to all programs in the state that fund any ‘green energy’ or ‘clean energy’ initiatives.” Another model ALEC bill would define nuclear energy as “clean energy” and put it on a par with renewable energy.
A coalition of environmental groups is currently challenging House Bill 507, Ohio’s 2022 law that labeled natural gas as “green energy,” arguing in court that the way in which it was passed violated the state constitution. The groups say last-minute amendments violated provisions that require bills to deal with a single subject – the initial two-page bill dealt with chickens – and call for at least three hearings in each house of the General Assembly where lawmakers can hear testimony from supporters and opponents.
That lawsuit has been briefed and is currently awaiting a decision from Judge Kimberly Cocroft at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. HB 308 should not affect that case, said Hunter and Alley.
As with HB 507, though, lawmakers added last-minute amendments to HB 308. One of those would extend lease terms for drilling under state park and wildlife areas from three years to five years. That was unacceptable to Brennan, who voted against the Senate amendments when it came back to the Ohio House.
Still, he supports what he views as the main purpose of the legislation: attracting more nuclear power to Ohio. In his view, solar and wind won’t be enough to meet growing energy demands while shifting away from fossil fuels in order to address climate change. “I believe nuclear is going to be hugely important for our energy independence, and hopefully Ohio will become an exporter of electricity in the future.”
Hunter wasn’t surprised that lawmakers made last-minute amendments to the bill. For her, it shows the importance of the ongoing litigation over HB 507.
“Those constitutional protections are there for a reason,” she said. “And seeing the General Assembly have blatant disregard for them again and again harms Ohioans. It deprives them of these constitutional rights.”
CLIMATE: An environmental group says Vermont will fall short of its 2025 climate targets, and says officials used faulty modeling to determine the state was on track. (VT Digger)
ALSO: As states prepare to defend climate policy from anticipated Trump administration rollbacks, newly elected Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s reliance on fossil fuel industry campaign donations suggests the state will largely stay on the sidelines. (Capital & Main)
GRID: Six New England states are teaming up to push the region’s grid operator to advance transmission projects throughout the region, believed to be the first collaboration of its kind in the country. (Boston Globe, subscription)
CLEAN ENERGY:
BUILDINGS:
UTILITIES: Another credit agency downgrades its rating for Avangrid’s natural gas utilities in Connecticut, citing a “challenged regulatory environment.” (CT News Junkie)
OVERSIGHT: Some New York lawmakers are seeking more transparency from the state’s Energy Research and Development Authority, in part to help the public better understand how clean energy policies might impact rates. (Spectrum News 1)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSPORTATION: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says New Jersey officials are acting in bad faith by refusing to accept transit revenue from New York City’s congestion pricing plan in exchange for dropping a lawsuit. (Streetsblog)
SOLAR: A 229 MW solar project in western New York has begun operation. (PV Magazine)
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