Maine utility notches solar generation milestone

SOLAR: A northern Maine community of around 11,400 homes and businesses was able to run on only solar power last week for about 12 cumulative hours, a first-ever occurrence for utility Versant. (Maine Public Radio)

OFFSHORE WIND: New Hampshire lawmakers and business leaders want state energy officials to take a more active role in encouraging offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine compared to the ​“market-based approach” to electricity decarbonization being used. (NHPR)

GRID:

• PJM Interconnection and Midcontinent Independent System Operator tell stakeholders that they will for the first time work together to identify near-term transmission upgrades to transfer power between their networks. (Utility Dive)
• More Connecticut towns are banning or restricting the use of gas-powered landscaping equipment, although some have faced backlash for trying. (New Haven Register)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A Maryland oversight agency says the state’s electric vehicle incentive programs have lost too much money to go on, recommending the five-year pilot be discontinued. (E&E News, subscription)
• As the legislative session comes to an end, Connecticut lawmakers fail to take a vote on forming a committee to study a transition to electric vehicles. (CT Mirror)

TRANSPORTATION:

• One compliance deadline has already passed and another looms for Massachusetts’ transit-oriented development law, and two communities are already considered to be out of compliance. (WBUR)
• A Connecticut environmental board warns that warming climate conditions are leading to poor air quality, recommending more mass transit and electric vehicle use to help reduce per-capita emissions. (New Haven Register)

GAS: A Connecticut county’s farm bureau wants the state to support more anaerobic digesters on farms to turn wasted food into electricity, heat and fertilizer. (CT News Junkie)

CLIMATE:

• New data-gathering efforts and tools highlight how New York City’s most marginalized neighborhoods are also the least able to mitigate or adapt to local climate impacts. (New York Times)
• A federal judge denies a request by several major oil industry corporations to move New York City’s lawsuit seeking compensation for climate change out of state court. (E&E News, subscription)

UTILITIES: A consortium of four southeast Pennsylvania counties signs a five-year deal with a retail energy supplier to help them purchase more renewable power. (WHYY)

HYDROPOWER: Both federal- and state-level public comment periods are open this summer as the lengthy relicensing process draws closer to an end for three hydropower dams in Massachusetts’ Franklin County. (Mass Live)

TIDAL: Federal energy regulators grant an eight-year license to a nonprofit firm to test out tidal energy turbines in the Cape Cod Canal. (Cape Cod Times)

COMMENTARY: The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s former president encourages Marylanders to ditch gas-powered landscaping equipment to reduce emissions and noise pollution. (Baltimore Sun)