Floating offshore wind farm suspends plans

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

OFFSHORE WIND

• Developers of a planned floating offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine have asked to suspend negotiations with state regulators, citing ​“recent shifts in the energy landscape.” (Maine Public)

TRANSMISSION

• A federal judge allows construction to proceed on a 145-mile transmission line through Maine, against the objections of environmental groups that argued the approval process failed to rigorously assess the potential impact on forest ecosystems. (Portland Press Herald)

• Grid operator ISO New England releases a request for proposals to build transmission infrastructure that connects anticipated onshore wind projects in northern Maine to more demand-intensive southern parts of the region. (Utility Dive)

TRANSPORTATION

• President Trump’s attempts to terminate New York’s congestion pricing program is part of a pattern of targeting green transportation initiatives in Democrat-led states. (Grist)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Maine residents could see the price of home heating oil increase by as much as 30 cents per gallon and gas prices rise by 20 cents per gallon if Trump’s tariffs go into effect as planned today. (Bangor Daily News)

• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hasn’t taken adequate steps to protect residents from the health impacts of natural gas fracking, despite laying out an eight-part plan to address the problem when he was attorney general, a Pittsburgh environmental organization says. (Inside Climate News)

NUCLEAR

• Vermont Gov. Phil Scott starts conversations with other New England governors about whether small modular nuclear reactors could be used to meet the region’s power needs with no carbon emissions and lower costs. (VT Digger)

GEOTHERMAL

• The Rochester, New York, city council approves a plan to study the possibility of creating a major geothermal field along a 1.5-mile stretch of land where a highway is being removed and redevelopment is planned. (WXXI)

UTILITIES

• Central Maine Power launches an initiative using specialized vehicles, drones, and artificial intelligence to assess more than 24,000 miles of streetside distribution lines, allowing the utility to better plan needed repairs and improvements. (WMTW)

SOLAR

• Scranton, Pennsylvania, officials approve the city’s first commercial solar farm, a 3.2 MW installation that could be operational by late 2026. (The Times-Tribune)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• The U.S. EPA’s revocation of a permit for the Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm suggests the agency is increasing its leverage over the industry, and anti-wind groups are looking to work that power shift in their favor, Clare Fieseler reports.

• GoogleX spinout Dandelion Energy and homebuilder Lennar partner to build ground-source geothermal heat pumps in more than 1,500 new Colorado homes over the next two years, Jeff. St. John reports.