NY pension fund to sell ExxonMobil shares, still hold $500M

FINANCE: New York’s comptroller says the state’s largest public pension fund will restrict and sell off active investments in ExxonMobil but will still hold $500 million of the firm’s shares via index funds. (Inside Climate News)

GRID:

• Environmentalists and consumer advocates join state utility regulators within the PJM Interconnection and Midcontinent Independent System Operator calling for the grid operators to improve their long-term interregional transmission planning efforts. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• New York regulators approve Orange & Rockland Utilities’ plan to reduce transmission overload by developing a new underground power line between Nanuet and West Nyack. (Patch)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• In Maine, South Portland’s council rejects a power plant’s ordinance waiver request to add 40,000 gallons of waterfront oil tank storage to meet the grid operator’s black-start resource standard. (The Forecaster)
• National Fuel alleges in court that two former employees and several vendors defrauded the utility via inauthentic parts it used on a New York gas compressor station that malfunctioned and caused the facility to shut down. (Buffalo News)
• Pennsylvania groups write to the state’s governor decrying the continued reliance of fossil fuels over renewable energy sources in his 10-year economic development plan. (Bay Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Roughly 12% of New York City’s Uber and Lyft vehicles are now electric, according to a lawsuit filed by the Taxi Workers Alliance. (NYDN)

NUCLEAR: New Jersey regulators end a subsidy offering for the state’s two nuclear plant operators as the companies skip the state’s offering and instead work to get federal subsidies. (RTO Insider, subscription)

AFFORDABILITY:

• New York utility regulators approve $200 million in one-time power and gas bill credits that are only set to cover a small amount of one bill for most customers. (news release)
• Maine’s public advocate says electric customers in the state paid around $80 million more for power with ​“competitive” providers between 2016 and 2022 than if they had used the standard offer rate. (Portland Press Herald)
• Eversource wants Connecticut utility regulators to let it raise power rates by almost 19%, or roughly $38 more every month, for its Connecticut Light & Power customers. (CT Mirror)
• New Hampshire’s consumer advocate asks the state to pause the start of community power programs in three towns because Eversource’s standard offer rate will be cheaper than the towns’. (Concord Monitor, NHPR)

TRANSIT: A New Jersey legislative committee advances a bill requiring micromobility users to carry liability insurance, even though that form of coverage doesn’t exist and advocates say such a policy may impede progress on vehicle independence and reducing emissions. (Streetsblog)

SOLAR: Maryland utility regulators schedule a second public hearing for a proposed 268-acre solar farm in coastal Wicomico county. (WBOC)