Does Vineyard Wind need Connecticut to launch 1.2 GW project?

WIND: Vineyard Wind’s chief executive officer implies their 1.2 GW proposed offshore wind project won’t move forward unless Connecticut buys 400 MW of power Massachusetts didn’t purchase. (CommonWealth Beacon)

ALSO:

• The 126 MW Downeast onshore wind project in Maine’s Washington County will take delivery of a large turbine transformer this week, resulting in transportation-related traffic disruptions. (Bangor Daily News)
• Equinor orders 54 wind turbines from Vestas for its 810 MW Empire Wind 1 offshore project in New York. (news release)

TRANSIT:

• Lawyers for New York’s governor try to toss out two lawsuits seeking the implementation of the Manhattan congestion tolling plan by claiming she can’t be forced to end her indefinite pause since it’s technically not a final agency decision. (Streetsblog)
• Exhaust from a traffic-congested stretch of Washington, D.C., is polluting the adjacent historically Black neighborhood; a recent study finds Black Americans are more likely to suffer from fine particulate matter air pollution compared to others. (Inside Climate News)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• In Brookfield, Connecticut, local officials fight plans to expand a natural gas compressor station for the Iroquois pipeline around a residential and school zone, pointing to new research highlighting the project’s health risks. (News Times)
• Environmental justice activists are shocked to see driller EQT, which has faced over 2,000 environmental violations, selected for federal environmental justice funding for monitoring at some of its Pennsylvania facilities. (EHN)
• A Pittsburgh-area town sues driller EQT to demand clean water, alleging a frack-out instigated by the firm polluted their water sources. (Public Source)
• In Maryland, community activists witness a large coal dust cloud being stirred up by rail maintenance equipment at the CSX Curtis Bay facility, expressing dismay that pollutants are still becoming airborne. (Baltimore Brew)

GRID:

• PJM Interconnection asks federal energy regulators to let it strike energy efficiency measures from its reliability pricing model, aligning with an independent monitor’s recommendation that energy efficiency can’t be a capacity resource. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• New York’s grid operator says it still faces a capacity shortfall by 2034 but that the gap isn’t as severe as its staff believed going into a July presentation. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Maryland lawmakers say some residents living near the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project are seeing suspicious requests to buy their properties. (Baltimore Sun)

HYDROPOWER: Federal officials are granting roughly $5 million to New Hampshire for hydroelectric facility upgrades, repairs and up/​downstream wildlife corridors. (NHPR)

SOLAR: New York City solar-and-storage developer AMS Renewable Energy acquires a solar construction firm based upstate in Oswego. (news release)

POLICY: Rudy Wynter, the departing president of National Grid New York, discusses the state’s energy goals and changes in the utility business over her three decades with the company. (E&E News, subscription)