Massachusetts could lose almost $5 billion in federal climate funding

CLIMATE: Nearly $5 billion in funding for electric school buses, solar panels for low-income residents, grid modernization, and other climate, energy, and environment projects in Massachusetts is at risk from President Trump’s now-paused federal spending freeze. (Boston Globe)

ALSO:

• New York state is not delaying its plans to implement a cap-and-invest system to lower carbon emissions, despite the absence of the program from the governor’s budget proposal, a state environmental official says. (Spectrum News)
• A Vermont city rolls out a comprehensive climate action plan, though municipal officials acknowledge it will take ​“creativity” to fund the ambitious strategies. (NBC 5)

GRID: Grid operator PJM and Pennsylvania state officials agree to lower the maximum price generators can bid to provide power in the future, protecting consumers from expected surging prices in the next capacity auction. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

ALSO: Energy company Calpine intends to sell power plants totaling 3.5 GW in capacity in PJM territory to ease concerns that the company’s acquisition by Constellation Energy will not create enough market power to move electricity prices. (Utility Dive)

CLEAN ENERGY: Maryland’s renewable energy policies have actually slowed the growth of clean power sources in the state while funneling money to out-of-state developers, an environmental advocacy group says. (Inside Climate News)

DECARBONIZATION:

• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology considers competing proposals for heating its campus with thermal energy networks as the university attempts to eliminate fossil fuel heating by 2050. (Inside Climate News)
• A New Jersey oat milk production facility looks for ways to reduce its use of natural gas, helping break new ground in an industry in which heat from fossil fuels has long been essential. (Canary Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Republican state lawmakers in New York push a bill that would allow cities and towns to opt out of a mandate to buy only electric school buses by 2027. (Times Union)
• A bikeshare company pulls out of a Vermont county, saying it is no longer financially feasible to provide its e-bike service to the region. (VT Digger)

SOLAR:

• A renewable energy investment company has secured more than $950 million in financing for the completion of a 500-MW solar development in New York that will be the state’s largest. (Renews.biz)
• A Maine utility pushes back against a plan to install solar panels on more than 200 homes on a Passamaquoddy tribal reservation, saying the project would shift costs onto other ratepayers. (Maine Public)

NUCLEAR: Talen Energy asks a U.S. appeals court to look at a ruling by federal regulators denying the company’s request to sell more power to an Amazon data center co-located with a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. (Reuters)

TRANSMISSION: Residents of a leafy Delaware village fight back against a utility proposal to replace seven transmission towers, saying the plan would require the clear-cutting of trees and the disruption of residential property. (WHYY)