Maryland public advocate: gas spending hurts climate goals, low-income households

GAS: Maryland’s public advocate says the utilities in the state are spending, on average, over $700 million a year on gas infrastructure, a practice that is making it harder for the state to hit its climate goals and reduce costs for low-income households. (Inside Climate News)

EMISSIONS:

• Massachusetts’ top environmental officer rejects the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Hanscom Airport expansion, citing contradictory climate data, among other concerns. (Boston Globe)
• The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked a federal rule that would’ve helped improve summertime smog and air quality concerns in Connecticut, New York and elsewhere in the Northeast from emissions originating in other states. (CT Mirror)

GRID:

• Rhode Island’s governor signs into law a new series of battery storage targets, with an overall goal of installing 600 MW before 2034. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• The developer of a grid upgrade project in Maryland involving 70 new miles of power lines says they may need to invoke eminent domain to get the job done if negotiations don’t pan out. (Fox 45)

TECH: In Maryland, Johns Hopkins University plans to significantly expand its renewable energy technology lab using a state grant, focusing on carbon management, energy storage, grid optimization and wind power. (news release)

SOLAR:

• A New Jersey legislative committee unanimously advances a bill to allow solar projects of between 2 MW and 20 MW to connect to their local utility’s grid without sitting in the grid operator’s interconnection queue. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• A group of developers bring a 7 MW community solar project located on a New York landfill into commercial operation. (news release)
• The Delaware Army National Guard’s armory installed solar panels last year, but some recent grid upgrades are now allowing it to push power to the grid. (Coastal Point)
• Some residents of Unity, Pennsylvania, share concerns about a solar project proposed for 34 acres of agricultural land, including potential noise. (Trib Live)
• The New Jersey Economic Development Authority is receiving loans worth $10.5 million from a state clean energy program to help expand the state’s solar capacity. (news release)

GEOTHERMAL: A Salem, Massachusetts, church signs with a renewable energy company to study the feasibility of generating geothermal energy. (Salem News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New electric vehicle registration fees will soon come into effect in Vermont, helping replace revenue from gasoline taxes. (NBC 5)

EFFICIENCY: Federal agriculture officials send over $1.26 million to 17 small Vermont and New Hampshire businesses through its rural energy clean energy grant program. (news release)

HEAT: In Washington, D.C., a lower-income neighborhood with many children and elderly folks struggles to deal with the heat island effect, magnified in their community because of a lack of trees and many impervious surfaces. (Washington Post)