Federal funds jumpstart New Hampshire climate plan

CLIMATE: New Hampshire plans to use $3 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act to create a new climate action plan, 14 years after developing but failing to act on its previous plan. (Energy News Network)

ALSO: Philadelphians who can’t afford air conditioning and live in ​“heat island” neighborhoods struggled to stay cool last week as wildfire smoke made it unsafe to open their windows. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

EFFICIENCY:
• Massachusetts climate advocates and city and state officials push back against a report arguing net-zero building codes could make new homes unaffordable, saying the study failed to account for energy savings and incentives. (Boston Globe)
• A northern Vermont village unveils 24 new all-electric affordable apartments, with efficient measures meant to keep utility costs low. (News & Citizen)

UTILITIES:
• Public utility commissioners who decide whether states get their power from renewables and fossil fuels and make rate decisions are overwhelmingly White and male, and few have environmental backgrounds, a pair of studies find. (Energy News Network)
• Connecticut’s governor signs a law to bar investor-owned utilities from using customer revenue for lobbying and other political expenses. (Grist)
• Philadelphia advocates push electric utility PECO to buy renewable power and meet with stakeholders as it prepares for its next power procurement. (WHYY)

OFFSHORE WIND:
• Connecticut will contribute another $30 million to redevelop the New London State Pier as an offshore wind hub, bringing the originally $93 million project’s price tag to $309 million. (CT Examiner)
• New Jersey lawmakers narrowly opt to let wind developer Ørsted keep federal tax incentives for its Ocean Wind I project that the company otherwise would have had to return to ratepayers. (Associated Press)
• New Jersey-based offshore wind developer Atlantic Shores asks state lawmakers for incentives similar to Ørsted’s. (Associated Press)

SOLAR:
• Developers look to build a 150 MW solar array — one of New York’s largest — outside Ithaca. (Ithaca Times)
• A 1 MW solar farm opens on a former landfill in Norway, Maine, a day after lawmakers debated curtailing the state’s solar subsidies. (Bangor Daily News)

FOSSIL FUELS:
• Queens public housing residents hear from the new owner of the nearby gas- and oil-powered Ravenswood Generating Station about plans to replace one of its generating units with offshore wind next year. (Gothamist)
• Hartford, Connecticut, residents raise concerns about plans to route a gas pipeline under a public high school to serve the University of Hartford. (Hartford Courant)

BIOFUELS: Attorneys general from five Northeast states are among a coalition planning to sue the U.S. EPA over insufficient emissions standards for wood-burning stoves. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• The Connecticut Green Bank’s funding of waste-to-energy projects constitutes greenwashing, writes the leader of the state’s Sierra Club chapter. (CTMirror)
• A Maine youth climate advocate calls for better funding of state agencies that guard natural resources and promote clean energy adoption. (Central Maine)
• After a poll shows many Marylanders are hesitant to switch to electric vehicles, an architect argues the state is addressing affordability and charging concerns. (Maryland Matters)