Is Trump’s $1 billion wind lease deal even legal?

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.

WIND

• Experts raise questions about the legality of the Trump administration’s deal to pay TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion to give up its offshore wind leases. (Canary Media)

• More than a decade after the first attempts to build wind farms in northern Maine fizzled out, a new effort may have a better chance of succeeding with the support of five of the six New England states. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• Legislatures in all six New England states consider allowing residents to install DIY solar kits that plug into a standard home outlet and produce about enough power to run a refrigerator. (Canary Media)

CLIMATE

• Maine legislators back off plans to create a climate ​“superfund” that would make fossil fuel companies pay for damages caused by climate change, instead proposing to calculate how much greenhouse gas emissions have cost the state over the past 20 years. (Maine Public)

• Even as Vermont falls behind on its climate mandates, state lawmakers are unlikely to pass any emissions-reduction legislation this session in the face of a probable veto from Republican Gov. Phil Scott. (VTDigger)

• New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani stays pointedly quiet about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed rollbacks of the state’s signature climate law. (New York Focus)

NUCLEAR

• New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) issues an executive order requiring the state energy department to produce a nuclear roadmap, contending that building more nuclear capacity in the state would lower long-term energy costs for residents. (New Hampshire Bulletin)

CLIMATETECH

• Federal funding cuts could threaten Massachusetts’ goal of becoming a global hub for climatetech innovation. (WBUR)

AFFORDABILITY

• Environmental advocates, utilities, and businesses argue that a proposed plan to save consumers money by slashing funding for Maryland’s energy efficiency programs would only increase costs in the long run. (E&E News)

• Heating oil prices in Maine, where roughly half of residents use the fuel to warm their homes, top $5 for the first time in years, a 41% increase since the war in Iran began. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority acknowledge that the agency will almost certainly miss its deadlines for converting its fleet of 1,100 buses to electric vehicles because of supply constraints and cutbacks in federal funding. (CommonWealth Beacon)

• As many as seven electric buses in Delaware’s public transit fleet are sitting idle due to difficulties in finding needed replacement parts after the state’s previous supplier filed for bankruptcy. (Delaware Live)

GRID

• New York state lawmakers consider a bill that would require utilities and regulators to create virtual power plant programs to alleviate strain on the grid. (Utility Dive)

• Grid operator ISO New England rules out four of the six proposals it received for building transmission infrastructure to better carry power from the north of Maine to the rest of the region. (RTO Insider)

NEW FROM CANARY

• The world built more solar and wind than ever in 2025 — Ysabelle Kempe

• Virginia set to enact a flurry of laws boosting cleaner, cheaper power — Elizabeth Ouzts

• Crusoe taps not one but two novel battery technologies for AI buildout — Julian Spector