Rhode Island clean heat subsidies haven’t gone to low-income residents

BUILDINGS: Rhode Island’s clean heat program has so far dispersed heat pump subsidies to dozens of residential applicants, but none for low-income residents or commercial entities, despite reported interest. (ecoRI)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A top Connecticut Democrat says some state lawmakers will meet next week to discuss legislative solutions to fears around a gasoline-fueled car ban. (Associated Press)
• In Rhode Island, the Providence Public School District has begun using four electric school buses to shuttle students. (Providence Journal)

GRID:

• New York utility regulators authorize $1.4 billion to support a transmission project that will build or upgrade power lines underground and underwater in the New York City area. (T&D World)
• Over half of the power lines that comprise northern New York’s Smart Path Connect transmission project have been energized. (NNY360)
• Six developers have plans to bring battery energy storage systems to Staten Island. (SI Live)

WORKFORCE:

• Two Pittsburgh-area firms — an energy-efficient glass maker and an electric motor and transformer company — collectively receive about $26 million in federal clean energy funds to expand manufacturing. (Trib Live)
• A PSEG Long Island lineworker files a discrimination suit against the company and its predecessor, National Grid, for allegedly allowing over two decades of racial discrimination and harassment. (Newsday)
• A panel of business and energy leaders and researchers discusses if Maine is making progress toward a green economy and workforce. (Maine Morning Star)

CLIMATE:

• Massachusetts’ governor unveils a new but undetailed coastal resilience strategy to help dozens of seaside communities collaborate on climate adaptation and mitigation. (Boston Globe)
• The head of the nation’s oldest land trust discusses how preserving Massachusetts’ open space is vital to solving the climate crisis. (Boston Globe)

WIND: New York’s energy siting board allows the developer of a 340 MW wind farm to modify its existing site permit to lower the total number of turbines on-site. (Reuters)

SOLAR:

• Over 2 GW of community solar projects have now been installed in New York, according to the state governor’s office. (news release)
• Developers complete a 2.8 MW community solar project on a former landfill in Old Bridge, New Jersey. (news release)

GAS:

• The Cambridge, Massachusetts, city council may institute a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers a year earlier than previously announced. (Boston Herald)
• In New Jersey, multiple federal and state agencies begin investigating the source of small oil spills along the coastal Long Branch and Monmouth Beach areas. (NJ Advance Media)