Lawmakers, AGs support US Wind project

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OFFSHORE WIND

• A U.S. senator and a Congressman from Maryland and the Delaware attorney general join the voices supporting the planned US Wind development against opposition from the Trump administration, the town of Ocean City, and local businesses and fishermen. (WYPR, Baltimore Sun)

NATURAL GAS

• Pennsylvania’s Republican attorney general files charges against a fracking company he says contaminated drinking water in eight counties. (WHYY)

• City councilors in Newport, Rhode Island, express skepticism about supporting a proposed moratorium on new natural gas hookups on the island it occupies with two other towns whose leaders have voted against the idea. (ecoRI)

• Advocates sue the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for issuing a certificate to a planned natural gas pipeline into New York, arguing the body had no authority to ​“resurrect this dead and abandoned project.” (E&E News)

• Meanwhile, advocates in New York argue the revived proposal would still violate water quality standards, as it did when it was rejected in 2018, 2019, and 2020. (SILive.com)

• Advocates ask why Pennsylvania environmental regulators have declined to hold a public hearing on a permit application for a gas-fired power plant that was one of the state’s largest carbon emitters in 2024. (Allegheny Front)

AFFORDABILITY

• Massachusetts will use $13 million in leftover federal funds from last year to help low-income residents pay for heating for four or five weeks, while this year’s heating assistance program is delayed by the federal shutdown. (WGBH)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A New Jersey county puts 10 new electric school buses on the road and installs five charging stations, using $1.6 million in federal funding. (news release)

SOLAR

• A New Jersey city launches a community solar program allowing residents to buy power from a solar installation built on a remediated superfund site. (My Central Jersey)

GRID

• New Hampshire state legislators are split on a bill that would deregulate the energy-intensive cryptocurrency industry. (New Hampshire Bulletin)

COMMENTARY

• U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s investigation into the possible health dangers posed by offshore wind turbines is nothing more than a ​“fishing expedition” by an administration with a grudge against wind energy, a major newspaper editorial board says. (Washington Post)

NEW FROM CANARY

• The loophole that could give clean heat a boost under Trump — Jeff St. John

• Europe’s flagship green-steel project gets a financial lifeline — Alexander C. Kaufman

• Do offshore wind farms kill bats? Trump cut research into the question. — Clare Fieseler

• The key elections to watch for energy and climate — Kathryn Krawczyk

• Illinois lawmakers just passed another big clean-energy bill — Kari Lydersen