Pennsylvania groups call for fracking action

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FOSSIL FUELS

• Environmental groups call for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers to take eight actions a grand jury recommended five years ago to protect public health and the environment against fracking, including identifying what chemicals companies use and increasing the distance between natural gas wells and homes. (Inside Climate News)

• Republican New York lawmakers urge Gov. Kathy Hochul not to sign recently passed legislation to shift the cost of new natural gas connections within 100 feet of a pipeline from utility companies to customers, which they say would force too many people to rely on an already-stressed electric grid. (WENY)

NUCLEAR

• A New York lawmaker calls for additional nuclear power development in his district, already home to three reactors, after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her intention to build another power plant in the state. (WTEN)

RENEWABLES

• The New York town of Chautauqua and village of Mayville approve moratoriums on wind energy and battery storage systems, respectively, as they move to update their comprehensive plan. (Post-Journal, Heatmap)

FEDERAL CUTS

• A coalition of local governments, tribes, and nonprofit groups sues the U.S. EPA over cuts to federal environmental justice and climate justice grants in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and eight other states. (States Newsroom)

GRID

• A group of about 60 Maryland homeowners appeal a federal court’s decision to allow utility workers to go on private property to survey land for the proposed 67-mile Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project transmission line, which they argue places an undue burden on rural residents for the benefit of data centers in neighboring Virginia. (Maryland Matters)

• A New York court upholds a 2022 state law that requires electric utilities to reimburse customers for long storm-related outages and prevents them from cost recovery later. (Times Union)

• Virtual power plant platform Leap and utility National Grid announce plans to expand a virtual power plant program in Massachusetts. (news release)

POLITICS

• Environmental groups blame the New York Assembly and top Democrat Speaker Carl Heastie for completing the 2025 session without passing key climate and environmental bills, including measures to cut packaging waste, transition homes from fossil fuels, and ban toxic ​“forever chemicals.” (New York Focus)

POLLUTION

• Vermont scrambles to defend its Climate Superfund Act to hold major fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change after the Trump administration sues to block enforcement of the law and a similar one in New York, setting the stage for a long, costly court battle. (Inside Climate News)

COMMENTARY

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call to build a new power plant in the state comes after the 2021 closure of another nuclear power plant that provided about a quarter of New York City’s energy needs, writes an editorial board. (New York Daily News)

• Congress shouldn’t roll back federal clean energy incentives, which have created at least 100,700 jobs for skilled and often unionized workers in Pennsylvania, write the leaders of the Pennsylvania State Building & Construction Trades Council and Keystone Contractors Association. (The Citizens’ Voice)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• Denmark and Djibouti top the list of the 10 countries that rely the most heavily on wind and solar power, Dan McCarthy reports.

• A development in an Austin, Texas, suburb includes a geothermal system that taps underground heat to warm and cool its buildings, and plans to connect it to as many as 7,500 planned homes, Terry L. Jones reports.