Avangrid accuses CT utility chair of breaking neutrality rules

UTILITIES: Avangrid says the chair of Connecticut’s utility commission should be removed from a rate case involving two of its gas companies, accusing the regulator of breaking neutrality rules. (Hartford Courant)

ALSO:

• Some New York lawmakers want utility commission reforms after the agency’s current policies resulted in a full approval of Central Hudson Gas & Electric’s rate hike proposal, despite calls for no raise at all. (Daily Freeman)
• Maine utility Versant Power wants the ability to report high energy demand to police to help track down illegal marijuana grow houses that have cropped up in the state, but privacy experts believe utilities have a duty to protect customer privacy. (Bangor Daily News)

RENEWABLE POWER: In an up-to-$2.5 billion deal, New York City-based LS Power plans to buy over 3 GW of operational renewable energy assets and 8 GW of under-development capacity from Algonquin Power & Utilities, after an activist investor pushed Algonquin to do so. (Power Magazine, Bloomberg)

WIND:

• A US Wind subsidiary has its proposed substation in Delaware’s Sussex County approved, but some nearby residents use a related public hearing to air grievances about the parent company’s offshore wind development. (Cape Gazette)
• Vineyard Wind says it has a game plan for cleaning up a broken wind turbine blade, but hasn’t shared a timeline of when construction and power operations will resume. (Boston Globe)
• Maine has reopened part of Route 1 following an 11-hour closure after a wind turbine blade got stuck on a bridge while being transported. (WCVB)
• Ørsted says some fishing and boating activities may be impacted from September to December by its work laying power cables for the Revolution Wind project. (Providence Journal)

TRANSIT: New York lawmakers say they aren’t aware of any conversations with the state’s governor about replacing funds that would’ve been generated by the Manhattan traffic congestion tolling plan, despite her saying her office is working on it. (New York Focus)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• Two people were killed in a Bel Air, Maryland, house explosion over the weekend, including a Baltimore Gas & Electric worker; firefighters and utility workers had already been en route to the scene because of gas odor reports. (Washington Post)
• A judge orders Chevron executives to testify in court in a case brought by a private property owner who says drilling on his land has ruined his health. (WTAE)

BUILDINGS:

• Vermont’s public service department says it should have an idea of what it would cost to fully implement a clean heat standard by the end of August. (VT Digger)
• Many HVAC systems in the cooling centers of Maryland’s Carroll County can’t keep up with extreme heat. (Baltimore Sun)

WORKFORCE: Maryland kicks off a $9.2 million competitive pilot grant program to help colleges and universities shift toward renewable power and train the clean energy workforce. (news release)

COMMENTARY: As New England faces more days of extreme heat, a Boston columnist questions if the region’s residents can become as hardy against heat as they are against blizzards and extreme cold. (Boston Globe)