Massachusetts legislature to vote on compromise climate bill

CLIMATE: Massachusetts legislators vote today on a compromise climate bill, which may incorporate aspects of two earlier bills focused on topics including construction sector fossil fuel use. (CommonWealth Magazine)

ALSO:
• President Joe Biden visited a Massachusetts site formerly home to one of the dirtiest coal plants in New England, announcing climate mitigation plans that didn’t live up to some activists’ expectations. (WAMC, ABC News)
• A Maine town gives residents composting bins upcycled from lobster traps to help decrease food waste and associated methane emissions in landfills. (The Forecaster)
• University of Maine researchers experiment with wood-based 3D printing in the hopes of mitigating the state’s affordable housing and climate crises by creating cheap and recyclable net-zero homes. (Maine Public Radio)

GAS:
• In Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County Council overrides a veto from the county executive on a bill banning new fracking projects in public parks. (Pittsburgh City Paper)
• A southwestern Pennsylvania hamlet struggles to stay hydrated and hygienic while waiting for water quality test results after fracking fluids entered a nearby abandoned well. (Public Source)

OFFSHORE WIND:
• Construction of New York’s Port of Albany offshore wind turbine manufacturing facility, which still needs permits, is months behind schedule. (Times Union)
• Fishing industry advocates say they’re against fast-tracking Gulf of Maine offshore wind development over potential impacts on the ocean, fish stocks and their industry. (Cape Cod Times)

GRID:
• Numerous municipalities in two Hudson River-adjacent counties worry that laying the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line along the river will harm the water system. (Daily Freeman)
• Maine environmental protection officials start a two-day hearing on an appeal of a permit previously granted to the developers of the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line. (News Center Maine)

SOLAR:
• In New York, a Rockland County solar array on state lands that never generated power is dismantled. (CBS New York)
• Commercial operations begin on a 2.3 MW solar farm on a former landfill in northern New Jersey. (news release)
• A northern Vermont town issues a request for proposals for a 3.5-acre solar array. (news release)
• Construction wraps up on a combined 490 kW solar farm across two school district buildings in a coastal New Jersey town. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Providing the only public electric vehicle chargers in town, the University of Maine at Orono brings its total number to 35 after it installs four new stations. (Bangor Daily News)