New Jersey utility wants to overhaul gas pipelines

OIL & GAS: PSE&G wants New Jersey utility regulators to approve a $2.54 billion project to replace its aging pipelines, which the utility says would help it mitigate methane leaks and use renewable natural gas and hydrogen. (NJ Spotlight)

CLIMATE:
• The New Jersey legislature sends a bill to the governor’s desk that would require landlords and real estate agents to disclose whether a property has flooded or it’s located in a 100- or 500-year floodplain. (Gothamist)
• A Maine nonprofit kicks off a new, free program to train state residents to become ​“climate ambassadors” who spur climate action in their communities. (Sun Journal)

POLICY: Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s first budget includes $181 million for capital investments in Boston’s transit system and $543.6 million to help the state’s energy and environment office hire 240 new staff members. (WBUR)

BUILDINGS:
• Voters in Burlington, Vermont, will soon decide whether to begin charging a carbon pollution impact fee to incentivize developers to construct new buildings with renewable heat sources. (Seven Days)
• Vermont’s governor says he’s concerned about the upfront cost of a home heating emissions bill on low-income and rural residents. (WCAX)

SOLAR: An energy developer had planned to construct a 5 MW solar array in Searsport, Maine, but has to reduce the farm to 1.2 MW because of local grid constraints. (Republican Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• New Jersey car dealers say the vehicle electrification movement will require them to make around $150 million in collective investments to sell and service such vehicles. (NJ Spotlight)
• Philadelphia’s transit agency plans to spend $17 million on 10 fuel-cell electric buses powered by compressed hydrogen gas. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

GRID:
• The Rochester, New York, battery recycling center that received a $375 million federal loan is one part of the country’s plan to source enough lithium for vehicle and other electrification plans. (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)
• Few new wind, solar and energy storage projects that have inked contracts in New York have decided to pay transmission upgrade costs and begin construction. (Politico)

TRANSIT:
• A new study finds it would cost around $782 million to build a commuter rail line from Boston to Manchester, New Hampshire, with over half covered by federal transportation grants. (WMUR)
• Rhode Island climate and bicycling advocates decry the possible reappointment of a transportation department head they say is stuck in a 1960’s mindset. (Boston Globe)
• Four Maine businesses will share a $1.6 million grant to pay for electric vehicle ridesharing, vanpools and other transit options for their employees. (Spectrum News)

WORKFORCE:
• Tesla ends an electric vehicle servicing program at a New York community college because the school no longer had physical space for the program. (Newsday)
• In New Hampshire, pending legislation seeks to develop education centers and determine the workforce needed to support the Gulf of Maine’s offshore wind industry. (New Hampshire Bulletin)