New Jersey advances clean energy data center bill

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Northeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

CLEAN ENERGY

• A New Jersey legislative committee advances a bill that would require AI data centers to be powered by new, clean energy. (NorthJersey.com)

• New York offers grants of up to $1 million to projects that demonstrate the potential of new clean energy or energy efficiency technologies in existing buildings. (Utility Dive)

STORAGE

• Brooklyn residents respond with anger and worries about fire safety as they discover plans underway to install battery storage facilities in vacant storefronts. (CBS New York)

FEDERAL FUNDING

• Commercial fishermen in Maine and beyond say the Trump administration’s funding freezes and threatened budget cuts will make it difficult for them to transition away from old diesel engines and inefficient cooling equipment. (Associated Press)

• The Pennsylvania legislature begins the process of voting to accept $156 million in federal funding to support solar projects at 12,000 homes across the state. (Allegheny Front)

GRID

• Utility regulators, consumer advocates, and energy companies oppose PJM’s plan to set a minimum price on its next two capacity auctions, saying the move will cost ratepayers money and undermine confidence in energy markets. (Utility Dive)

NUCLEAR

• The owners of the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island will take questions from the public about the environmental impacts of the plan to restart a reactor at the shuttered site. (WITF)

ELECTRIFICATION

• Connecticut lawmakers consider a bill that would ban gas-powered leaf blowers as of 2029, with supporters saying the machines have the ​“dirtiest engine still in legal use,” while New York legislators look at measures that would create a rebate program for electric landscaping equipment. (Connecticut Public, Newsday)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• Three years after Russia invaded Ukraine and set off an energy crisis in Europe, Julian Spector examines how far the continent went in phasing out fossil fuels altogether.

• Indiana legislators are considering multiple bills to promote modular nuclear reactors, including one that would let utilities charge ratepayers for projects that may never be built, Kari Lydersen reports.