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ELECTIONS: Rhode Island voters approve a $53 million green economy bond bill, which includes $15 million to help develop the Port of Davisville into an offshore wind hub. (Rhode Island Current)
ALSO: Control of the Pennsylvania state House and Senate is still up in the air as of this morning; if Democrats hold on to the House majority and flip the Senate, which is unlikely, it could be good news for Gov. Josh Shapiro’s plans for a carbon cap-and-trade system. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An unexpected surge in electric vehicle sales in Maine has drained the state’s $3.5 million incentive fund, though low-income buyers are still eligible for rebates. (Maine Public)
OFFSHORE WIND: Turbine blades spotted in transit off the Massachusetts coast are part of a plan to strengthen some of Vineyard Wind’s turbines, after a blade broke and fell into the water in July. (New Bedford Standard-Times)
TRANSMISSION: Preliminary work has begun along the path of a 70-mile transmission line in Maryland, even as opposition remains high and opponents say they will continue to fight the project. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
NUCLEAR: The owner of Three Mile Island forges ahead with plans to reopen the plant and sell power to Microsoft, following federal regulators’ rejection last week of another plan to colocate a data center at a nuclear plant. (Utility Dive)
GRID: In central Massachusetts, National Grid gets approval for new and upgraded substations and power lines intended to accommodate greater use of solar and energy storage. (Worcester Telegram and Gazette)
SOLAR: In western Massachusetts, a growing number of agrivoltaic projects showcase the commercial potential of installing solar panels on active farmland. (Christian Science Monitor)
COMMENTARY: New York’s plan to require increasing electric truck sales promises significant health benefits, particularly in low-income communities of color, and should not be delayed despite vocal opposition, says an environmental justice advocate. (Streetsblog NYC)
ELECTION: Washington voters reject a ballot measure that would have repealed the state’s landmark 2021 cap-and-invest program. (Washington State Standard)
ALSO:
GRID:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A California startup runs a low-speed demonstration of its solar-powered electric vehicle. (PV Magazine)
NUCLEAR: Xcel Energy officials consider deploying small modular nuclear reactors in Colorado to replace fossil fuel generation and meet expected long-term power demand growth. (Aurora Sentinel)
BIOFUELS: A firm begins construction on a California facility designed to convert landfill gas to pipeline-grade methane fuel. (news release)
MICROGRIDS: California officials look to improve a state-funded program aimed at developing clean energy-powered microgrids on tribal land. (RTO Insider, subscription)
CLIMATE: Oregon researchers work to develop seaweed-based cattle feed designed to reduce livestock’s methane emissions. (OPB)
COMMENTARY: A Colorado county commissioner says a $2.5 billion federal grant will help Tri-State Generation transition away from coal, curb planet-warming emissions and reduce utility bills. (Colorado Sun)
EMISSIONS: Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation in New England dropped 4% last year, due to mild weather, lower natural gas prices, and increases in solar and wind energy, the region’s grid operator reports. (Maine Public)
EFFICIENCY: Massachusetts utilities submit their latest three-year energy efficiency plan for regulatory approval, with the goal of installing heat pumps in more than 119,000 homes and creating $13.7 billion in benefits for consumers. (Utility Dive)
GRID:
FOSSIL FUELS: Despite burgeoning power demands from cryptocurrency and AI operations, New York state may have built its last fossil fuel power plant, some clean energy advocates say. (New York Focus)
OFFSHORE WIND:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Vermont electric aircraft startup tops $1 billion in equity capital, but questions remain about the climate benefits of the technology. (Canary Media)
SOLAR:
COMMENTARY: New York should delay implementation of rules requiring more electric truck sales to allow charging infrastructure and technology to improve, says a spokesperson for the retail lumber industry. (Long Island Press)
UTILITIES: North Carolina regulators approve Duke Energy’s long-term resource plan, which ramps up renewable energy and retires the utility’s final coal plants, but also includes 9 GW of new natural gas-fired power and gives up on the state-mandated goal of cutting emissions 70% by 2030. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
SOLAR: New solar installations in North Carolina fell 40% from last year after Duke Energy lowered the rate it pays for rooftop solar, but longtime installers remain optimistic because of new home battery incentives. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle startup Canoo furloughs 30 workers in Oklahoma as it struggles to raise capital, and company officials report it might have to “terminate or significantly curtail” its operations there. (Tulsa World)
WIND: Members of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma say they’re worried about potential environmental and property value impacts from a proposed 100-turbine wind farm. (KOKI)
PIPELINES: Anti-pipeline activists who spent the last decade fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline turn their efforts to blocking a 26-mile project in Virginia that’s part of a broader Southeast expansion. (WVTF)
STORAGE: A startup receives $20 million in federal funding to build a Texas factory for containers that hold used electric vehicle batteries that can be assembled for stationary energy storage. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS:
GRID: A Tennessee man faces federal charges for allegedly planning to damage an electrical substation in Nashville with a drone armed with explosives. (CNN)
CLIMATE:
POLITICS: Virginia Congress members call for reauthorization of the landmark 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, which funded abandoned mine land restoration, accelerated the energy transition and paid for transportation projects. (Virginia Mercury)
COMMENTARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority owes an apology to the families of more than 50 workers who helped clean up the utility’s 2008 coal-ash spill in Tennessee and have since died from illnesses related to their exposure, writes a columnist. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
LEGISLATION: Massachusetts lawmakers consider a climate bill that aims to slow the expansion of natural gas and authorizes gas utilities to offer networked geothermal services. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: The bill would also streamline the process of siting and permitting for renewable energy infrastructure, boost deployment of electric vehicle chargers, and support increased energy storage. (WBUR)
SOLAR: Maine officials plan new fees for large-scale solar installations on certain undeveloped land — measures that developers say could make utility-scale solar projects all but impossible. (The Maine Monitor)
GAS: A Pennsylvania community looks to increase the allowable distance between fracking operations and homes, with advocates citing adverse health effects associated with these sites. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
NUCLEAR: Federal regulators reject a request to let Amazon Web Services expand a data center co-located with a Pennsylvania nuclear plant, saying the increased energy use could cause reliability concerns. (RTO Insider, subscription)
GRID: A Maryland utility plans to use a $50 million federal grant to install 11 MW of battery storage capacity and enable additional solar, storage, and electric vehicle charging projects. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
EFFICIENCY: Rebates for heat pumps, induction stoves, and other energy efficiency measures are expected to be available in New Hampshire by summer 2025, after delays in receiving $70 million in federal funding for the program. (NHPR)
TECHNOLOGY: A Massachusetts start-up promises a clean and affordable way to extract lithium — an essential metal for making electric car batteries — from underground brine. (The Boston Globe)
WIND: The rules governing transportation of wind turbine parts in New York pose a serious obstacle to reaching the state’s goals for onshore wind production, advocates and industry insiders say. (Gothamist)
MICROGRIDS: A New York City utility tests a microgrid combining solar panels, an onsite battery, and electric school buses that can send power to the grid during off hours. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Delaware plans to use $21 million in state and federal funds to install electric vehicle chargers along busy highway corridors. (Delaware Business Times)
POLITICS: Maine’s plans to develop an offshore wind hub are a central issue in a state legislative race that could signal the area’s level of support for the industry. (Bangor Daily News, subscription)
NOTE TO READERS: This newsletter has been updated to correct the numbers for MidAmerican Energy’s resource plan.
BIOENERGY: As livestock producers tap federal climate funds to build biodigesters, advocates point to the threat that expanding feedlot operations pose to water quality, and call on the EPA to use its emergency authority to address nitrate pollution. (Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa Capital Dispatch)
UTILITIES:
NUCLEAR: The CEO of Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative says the utility is “absolutely interested” in returning to nuclear power, suggesting smaller nuclear plants could be viable in the next 5-6 years. (Wisconsin State Journal)
GRID:
PIPELINES: A fossil-fuel backed organization has been mailing “weird” newspapers to North Dakota households criticizing years-old pipeline protests ahead of upcoming hearings for developer Energy Transfer’s lawsuit against Greenpeace. (Floodlight / North Dakota News Cooperative)
EQUITY:
NATURAL GAS: A Missouri utility says it is waiting for guidance from regulators on how to design its recently approved $900 million natural gas plant to operate in extreme cold. (KSDK)
WIND: An Iowa community college will decommission its 2.5 MW wind turbine due to age and maintenance needs, a year after the school closed its energy production program. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
MATERIALS: The U.S. EPA has increased air monitoring around a Missouri battery recycling facility that caught fire last week, and says pollution has not exceeded harmful levels since the initial blaze. (Missouri Independent)
FINANCE: Michigan launches a new business accelerator to help lenders access federal climate funds. (Crain’s Detroit Business, subscription)
WIND: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee greenlights the proposed Horse Heaven Hills wind facility in the southern part of the state and urges regulators to streamline turbine permitting, saying it is essential to meeting “urgent clean energy needs.” (Seattle Times)
UTILITIES:
GRID:
CLEAN ENERGY:
CLIMATE:
OIL & GAS: A judge orders a New Mexico oil and gas operator to pay the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Tribe and federal government more than $3.55 million in lost royalties after she submitted fraudulent drilling production records. (news release)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Denver Police Department adds 27 electric bicycles to its patrol fleet. (KDVR)
POLITICS: Colorado advocates say Chevron’s support for an election-reform ballot measure is aimed at increasing corporate influence in politics and electing candidates weak on environmental policy. (CPR)
COMMENTARY:
North Carolina regulators on Friday accepted Duke Energy’s controversial plan for curbing carbon pollution, a blueprint that ramps up renewable energy and ratchets down coal power but also includes 9 gigawatts of new plants that burn natural gas.
The biennial plan is mandated under a 2021 state law, which requires Duke to zero out its climate-warming emissions by midcentury and cut them 70% by the end of the decade.
The timing of the order from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, two months ahead of schedule, caught many advocates by surprise. But its content did not: it hewed closely to a settlement deal Duke reached this summer with a trade group for the renewable energy industry; Walmart; and Public Staff, the state-sanctioned ratepayer advocate.
But critics were dismayed by regulators’ abdication of the 2030 deadline. The ruling said Duke no longer needed a plan to make the reductions by decade’s end, instead telling it to “pursue ‘all reasonable steps’ to achieve the [70%] target by the earliest possible date.”
“Major step back on climate,” Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy,” wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, adding, “for those that say it couldn’t be done, Duke had a 67% reduction by 2030 in its 2020 [long-range plan.] The utility industry generally, and Duke in particular, has had opportunity after opportunity to do better. They chose not to, and here we are.”
And while many observers say the three large gas plants approved in the near-term carbon plan are better than the five originally proposed by Duke, detractors note the facilities still could run afoul of rules finalized this spring by the Biden-Harris administration.
“Duke’s plan isn’t even compliant with the latest EPA regulations related to greenhouse gas pollution,” David Rogers, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement.
Concerns about the Biden-Harris rules, along with doubt that the natural gas plants could be converted to burn carbon-free hydrogen, appeared not to persuade regulators.
“The Commission acknowledges that there are uncertainties and risks associated with new natural gas-fired generation resources, but this is true of all resources,” the panel wrote.
On the contrary, regulators believe Duke can make use of gas plants after the state’s 2050 zero-carbon deadline, even if clean hydrogen doesn’t pan out.
“Accordingly,” the panel said, “the Commission determines that a 35-year anticipated useful life of new natural gas-fired generation and its assumed capital costs are reasonable for planning purposes.”
The greenlight for the gas infrastructure is not absolute, commissioners emphasized in their order, since Duke still must obtain a separate permit for the facilities. But advocates still bemoaned the anticipated impact on customers.
“This order leaves the door open for Duke Energy to stall on carbon compliance in order to develop additional resources, like natural gas, that largely benefit their shareholders over ratepayers,” Matt Abele, the executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, said via text message.
Still, Abele and other advocates acknowledged the plan’s upsides, including its increase in renewables like solar and batteries. The 2022 plan limited those resources to about 1 gigawatt per year; this year’s version increases the short-term annual addition to about 1.7 gigawatts.
Regulators’ decision to bless 2.4 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2034 and call for Duke to complete an “Acquisition Request for Information” by next summer also drew measured praise.
“This order is an overall positive step for offshore wind,” Karly Lohan, North Carolina program manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition, said in an email, adding, “we still need to see Duke move with urgency and administer the [request for information] as soon as possible.”
With regulators required to approve a new carbon-reduction plan for Duke every two years, advocates are already looking ahead to next year, when the process begins anew.
“Proceedings in 2025 present another chance to get North Carolina back on track to achieving the carbon reduction goals as directed by state law,” Will Scott, Environmental Defense Fund’s director of Southeast climate and clean energy, said in a statement.
“By accelerating offshore wind and solar, the Commission could still set a course for meaningful emissions reductions from the power sector that are fueling the effects of climate change, including dangerous and expensive storms like Hurricane Helene.”
And like Scott, David Neal, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, isn’t giving up on the state’s 2030 carbon-reduction deadline, the commission’s latest order notwithstanding.
“We’ll continue to push for the clean energy future that North Carolinians deserve and that state law and federal carbon pollution limits mandate,” he said in a statement.
Nearly a year after Massachusetts regulators laid out a vision for the state’s evolution from natural gas distribution to clean energy use, lawmakers are coalescing around legislation that would start converting principles into policy.
The wide-ranging climate bill includes several provisions that would allow utilities to explore alternatives to gas and empower regulators to place more limits on the expansion and continuation of natural gas infrastructure, changes that supporters say are critical to a successful transition away from fossil fuels.
“This bill is a major first step in empowering [regulators] to do something rather than just rubber stamping the utilities’ plans,” said Lisa Cunningham, co-founder of ZeroCarbonMA.
Natural gas is currently the primary heating source for half the homes in Massachusetts, a number that needs to drop if the state is going to meet its ambitious climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, advocates and state leaders say. In 2020, the state department of public utilities opened an investigation into the role natural gas utilities would play in the transition to cleaner energy. In December 2023, the department issued a lengthy order concluding that the state must move “beyond gas” and outlining a broad framework for making the shift.
Lawmakers attempted to start turning these general ideas into binding law earlier this year, but the legislative session closed at the end of July before the Senate and House reconciled the differences between their versions of a climate bill. Legislators returned to work this fall and hammered out an agreement, and the Senate passed the resulting bill last month. The House speaker has said the body will vote when it returns to formal session later this year. The bill is generally expected to pass and be signed into law.
“A lot of people were skeptical we’d get a bill at all, but I’m happy with where this bill ended up,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate nonprofit Acadia Center. “It shows a step toward that needed urgency.”
At the heart of the bill’s energy transition provisions is a change to the definition of a natural gas utility that allows the companies to also provide geothermal power. Networked geothermal — systems that draw heat from the earth and deliver it to a group of buildings — is widely seen as a promising alternative to natural gas, and both National Grid and Eversource have pilot projects in the works. However, current law prevents the utilities from pursuing such projects without specific authorization from regulators. The climate bill would remove this barrier, making it easier for gas companies to explore new approaches to business.
“The gas utilities deeply need a new business model that can help them step into the future,” said Audrey Schulman, founder of climate solutions incubator HEETlabs. “That allows them to potentially evolve.”
This definition change supports other provisions aimed at slowing the expansion of natural gas use in the state. The bill would end the requirement that natural gas utilities provide service to any customer in their service area who requests it, with few exceptions. Under the new law, utilities could decline these requests when other alternatives are available.
The bill would also allow regulators to consider the impact of emissions when deciding whether to approve requests to expand natural gas service into new communities. In 2023, the state approved a request to bring gas service to the central Massachusetts town of Douglas. Regulators at the time noted that the decision works against the state’s goal of phasing out natural gas, but said the law gave them no choice but to approve the plan. Provisions in the climate bill would untie regulators’ hands in such cases in the future.
“The [Department of Public Utilities] can consider the public interest, including climate, it doesn’t have to say yes to more gas service,” said Amy Boyd Rabin, vice president of policy at the Environmental League of Massachusetts. And the inclusion of geothermal in gas utilities’ definition means “now there’s also something else to offer the customers.”
Another major element of the bill would reform the state’s Gas System Enhancement Plans program, which encourages utilities to repair or replace pipes in the state’s aging and leak-prone natural gas distribution system. Clean energy advocates have often argued that these plans are problematic, investing billions of ratepayer dollars into shoring up a system that is increasingly obsolete. The climate bill would allow utilities to choose to retire segments of pipe rather than fixing them.
“For the first time ever they are able to look at a pipe and say, ‘You know what, this is not worth the cost,’” Murray said. “We don’t want ratepayers shouldering the burden for a lot of stuff that’s not going to be useful in five to 10 years.”
Environmental advocates praised the bill’s gas provisions, and are already focusing on what more there is to be done. Several would have liked to see a more aggressive phasing out of Gas System Enhancement Plans, with a specific end date. Others champion an expansion of a pilot program that allows cities and towns to ban fossil fuel use in new construction and major renovations.
“There is no reason why communities that want to enact this via home rule petition should be restricted from enacting the will of their constituents,” Cunningham said.
In the meantime, advocates are ready to see the climate bill turning into reality.
“There’s a lot of good stuff in there that will do a lot of good for the commonwealth,” Boyd Rabin says.
ELECTRIFICATION: Maine’s whole-home heat pump rebate program picks up speed after it replaced a previous incentive that was not having the hoped-for impact on fossil fuel use. (Maine Public)
TRANSPORTATION:
EMISSIONS: Business groups and utilities object to a potential carbon market program in Maryland, claiming the system would increase energy bills and hurt the state’s economy. (E&E News, subscription)
GAS: Natural gas pipeline operators in Maine seek to raise their prices, likely increasing the cost of gas service and electricity for consumers. (Portland Press Herald)
CLIMATE:
GRID: Long-duration batteries, small modular nuclear reactors, and synthetic natural gas could all help the New England grid maintain reliability as the region transitions to more variable renewable energy sources like solar and wind, according to a report from ISO New England. (RTO Insider, subscription)
RENEWABLE ENERGY: Maryland lawmakers and advocates push to remove trash incineration from the state’s definition of renewable energy, noting how often these facilities are located in low-income neighborhoods. (Inside Climate News)
UTILITIES: Eversource kicks off deployment of smart meters throughout its Massachusetts territory, allowing consumers to better monitor and manage their power consumption, the company says. (news release)
OFFSHORE WIND: U.S. offshore wind executives worry about the future of the industry if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. (Reuters)
COMMENTARY: A proposed natural gas pipeline from New Jersey to Massachusetts is unnecessary as offshore wind and heat pump adoption gain steam in Massachusetts, an environmental advocate argues. (CommonWealth Beacon)
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