Maryland adopts Advanced Clean Trucks rule

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Maryland is now officially the tenth state to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, phasing in zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles between model year 2027 and 2035. (news release)

GRID:

• A substation failure causes a brief power outage in New York City that left some people stuck in elevators; smoke could be seen billowing from the Con Edison site. (CBS New York, New York Times)
• Rhode Island coastal regulators approve the underwater transmission line sending power to the mainland from the SouthCoast Wind project, even as developers seek new power purchase agreements for that facility. (Rhode Island Current)

OFFSHORE WIND:

• Residents of Coeymans, New York, push back against plans to expand an offshore wind manufacturing site to residentially zoned land along the Hudson River. (CBS Albany)
• An Ørsted executive says the developer was ​“probably … too optimistic on some things” while planning its two now-canceled New Jersey offshore wind farms. (CBS News)
• In reaction to those firms’ previously canceled contracts, Massachusetts’ latest offshore wind procurement asks developers to outline their prior defaults and provide much higher security deposits. (CommonWealth Magazine)

SOLAR:

• An executive with the New York grid operator says the state now has over 5 GW of behind-the-meter solar, a little more than halfway to its goal of 10 GW of distributed solar capacity by 2030. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Developers of a solar farm in Ithaca, New York, ask the city for a tax break worth just under $30,000. (Ithaca Voice)
• A developer says operations have begun at its two new community solar arrays in Lancaster, New York. (news release)

COAL: Residents of Baltimore’s Curtis Bay community want Maryland not to renew a rail company’s air permit because of the neighborhood pollution caused by its coal dust pile. (Baltimore Sun)

FINANCE: A Washington, D.C. property assessed clean energy loan program surpasses $100 million in financed projects following the close of a $6.1 million financing of efficiency and renewable energy measures at a Georgetown hotel. (news release)

AFFORDABILITY: Eversource proposes a significant electric supply rate drop that should reduce power bills by around 35% starting in February. (WMUR)

CLIMATE: In Maine, some Portland residents say plans to cut down trees to expand a surface parking lot at the airport are entirely out-of-step with the region’s climate goals. (Portland Press Herald, Maine Public Radio)