NY sued over delayed congestion plan

COURTS: New York faces a lawsuit brought by transit and environmental advocates over the governor’s allegedly illegal and unconstitutional decision to block the Manhattan traffic congestion tolling plan from going into effect. (Associated Press)

FOSSIL FUELS: New Jersey’s governor pushes back on criticism over his administration’s preliminary approval of a fourth gas-fired power plant in an environmentally overburdened community, saying it’s needed to prevent sewage leaks during power outages. (NJ Spotlight)

WIND: A federal safety agency says it intends to complete a ​“comprehensive and independent investigation” into the blade that snapped off a Vineyard Wind turbine and into the ocean last week. (State House News Service)

BUILDINGS:

• In Vermont, a draft report by the utility commission finds that the state might have to spend up to $17.3 billion to achieve the goals laid out in the Affordable Heat Act but achieve net benefits of $3.6 billion. (WCAX)
• A Vermont dairy farm finishes building new net-zero homes for its on-site worker accommodations using $200,000 in grants. (WCAX)

EMISSIONS:

• A state agency’s new emissions analysis finds that Vermont had its lowest emissions in 2021 since 1990, a trend the agency says is attributable to more heat pumps and electric vehicles, in addition to increased telework and less driving. (VT Digger)
• Although Maryland is cheering its federal funding award of $130 million for climate projects, that amount is less than a third of what state agencies wanted and comes as officials are already grappling with budget problems. (Maryland Matters)

TRANSIT: Boston’s transit agency votes to undertake a $54 million project to switch to battery-electric trains on one of its commuter rail lines; the first train is expected on the tracks by early 2028. (WCVB)

SOLAR:

• Rhode Island’s largest capped landfill solar project, a 6.9 MW installation in Bristol, is now online. (news release)
• Two developers plan to partner on two community solar projects totaling 9 MW in two Delaware counties. (news release)

REGULATION: Connecticut’s governor pushes a utility regulator whose term has expired into announcing a January retirement and appoints a replacement who will begin in August. (CT Mirror)

GRID:

• Baltimore Gas & Electric partners with solar-and-storage developer Sunrun to demonstrate bidirectional electric vehicle charging’s applications for grid support using Ford F-150 Lightning trucks. (Utility Dive)
• Maine utility regulators set their priorities for a decade-long grid planning process, stipulating that utilities and stakeholders need to find ways to invest in storm resilience without high costs. (Portland Press Herald)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An engineering firm installs two public EV charging stations at its Burlington, Vermont, office using state funds. (news release)