New Hampshire transmission line proposal gets federal boost

GRID: Federal energy officials grant $1.3 billion to three transmission line projects, including National Grid’s planned 1.2 GW Twin States Clean Energy Link, which will bring Canadian hydropower to New England’s grid via New Hampshire. (NHPR)

ALSO:

• A New York City newspaper examines the progress of battery energy storage system development on Staten Island after much ado during the proposal and approval stages. (SI Live)
• Federal energy regulators allow ISO New England to consider energy storage projects as transmission-only assets, meaning they won’t compete in the markets or have an outsized influence on wholesale prices. (Utility Dive)

OFFSHORE WIND:

• Connecticut opens up a 2 GW request for offshore wind proposals that contains provisions to help developers overcome potential macroeconomic financial challenges. (Utility Dive)
• BP books a $540 million pre-tax impairment on its New York offshore wind projects after failing to renegotiate its contracts. (Recharge News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Several Maryland counties want to buy electric ferries to help commuters bypass the traffic-clogged Chesapeake Bay Bridge, but an economic protection law known as the Jones Act is thwarting their plans. (E&E News)
• Maryland’s Anne Arundel County issues a request for proposals to develop enough electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support its planned 1,600-vehicle fleet conversion. (Daily Record)
• A Pittsburgh-area steel operation swaps two diesel-powered locomotives in favor of battery-operated models. (Trib Live)
• A central Pennsylvania towing company discusses its investment into fire suppression technology, equipment and training as it envisions more electric vehicles coming to its yard. (WITF)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• A group of University of Pennsylvania students file a complaint with the state’s attorney general alleging the college’s fossil fuel investments are illegal because of its nonprofit status. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• An environmental research center’s new study finds that using gas-powered landscaping equipment for an hour creates roughly the same amount of pollution as driving hundreds of miles in a standard car in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. (Penn Live Patriot-News, NBC Boston)
• Federal environmental regulators issue fines and settle legal cases against several corporations — including Wawa — in New Jersey and New York over their alleged failure to maintain and operate underground petroleum storage tanks. (news release)

UTILITIES: As legislators discussed making Long Island Power Authority a wholly public power utility, a top executive with the organization hired to operate LIPA privately met with New York’s governor and other high-up officials. (Newsday)

GEOTHERMAL: Long Island homeowners share how they handled the high upfront cost of installing a geothermal heating and cooling system and how they’ve benefited from it. (Newsday)

BUILDINGS:

• New York creates a heat recovery program to distribute $12 million to projects that reuse building heat to save energy and reduce fossil fuel use. (news release)
• Massachusetts community advocates outline steps they say the state needs to take to protect those who are now exposed to more floods and extreme precipitation. (WHDH)

TRANSIT: Transit decarbonization advocates criticize Rhode Island’s carbon reduction plan, which mostly looks at highway improvement projects, as insufficient to the scale of the crisis. (Rhode Island Current)

SOLAR: Looking to cut down on costs, retirement communities like this one in Falmouth, Maine, are increasingly turning to solar. (Next Avenue)