Coal is the curse of a small Pennsylvania town

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Northeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

COAL

• A small Pennsylvania town founded for coal mining is on the verge of collapse under the pressure of noxious, smoldering underground fires; pollution; and economic challenges: ​“Once the town’s benefactor, coal has become its curse.” (Morning Call)

STORAGE

• A 2.8-gigawatt-hour battery system in development outside Boston could help alleviate some of the pressure on a grid that badly needs new transmission infrastructure. (Canary Media)

BUILDINGS

• Residential co-op buildings in New York City find themselves choosing between making costly upgrades in accordance with a municipal law aiming to cut carbon emissions from buildings and paying hefty fines for noncompliance. (City & State New York)

• If New York City buildings decarbonize as planned, it could massively disrupt utilities’ business model and lead to ​“unacceptably high” prices for those customers who continue to use natural gas. (Inside Climate News)

• Houses of worship across Connecticut are turning to energy efficiency measures, solar panels, heat pumps, and batteries to lower the cost of heating their aging and often historic buildings. (WGBH)

OFFSHORE WIND

• A judge dismisses US Wind’s counterclaims filed in response to the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke permits for the company’s planned offshore wind project off Delaware and Maryland. (Delaware Public Media)

• Offshore wind backers are positioning the projects as a way to keep energy more affordable amid ongoing worries about escalating utility bills. (E&E News)

UTILITIES

• Eversource defends its 2025 profits — which were roughly double those of the previous year — by noting that it took significant losses in 2024 and was ​“substantially underearning” before last year. (Boston Herald)

AFFORDABILITY

• Just a fraction of eligible customers are enrolling in New York state’s energy assistance program despite new rules that went into effect last month expanding access to the discounts. (Gothamist)

• The town of Bow, New Hampshire, weighs whether to become the first town to withdraw from the state’s community power coalition amid worries that the aggregation program is becoming too expensive. (Concord Monitor)

NUCLEAR

• At a public meeting with federal regulators, Pennsylvania residents express support for plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, though a handful share worries about the safety of the facility and the disposal of nuclear waste. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

DATA CENTERS

• An upstate New York town bans data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations in response to concerns about electricity demand, water use, and noise pollution. (Ithaca Voice)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Energy company NRG buys New York City’s largest power plant, a facility run mostly on natural gas, raising questions about the future of the former owner’s plan to turn the site into a clean energy hub. (Heatmap)