Science funding cuts hit more than 100 climate projects

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FEDERAL ACTION

• The Trump administration’s campaign to slash National Science Foundation grants has eliminated funding for more than 100 climate-related research projects, with Harvard hit particularly hard, a new analysis finds. (MIT Technology Review)

INDUSTRY

• President Trump celebrates the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, but the terms of the deal are still opaque, and could extend the life of existing dirty, coal-fired blast furnaces. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Concerned residents rally against a proposal to reopen a landfill in western Pennsylvania, citing fears that the facility could accept toxic and radioactive waste from the state’s oil and gas industry. (Inside Climate News)

• A Delaware refinery dealing with a boiler malfunction continues to release toxic sulfur dioxide, but the chemical does not yet pose a public health risk, state health officials say. (WHYY)

GRID

• New Jersey state lawmakers approve a bill calling for a study of the impact data centers could have on the demand for and costs of electricity in the state. (NorthJersey.com)

• New Jersey Democratic state senators advance a measure calling for an investigation into grid operator PJM, which they say has been too slow to connect new renewable projects to the grid, leading to lower supply and higher prices. (New Jersey Monitor)

• New York grid operator NYISO supports the repowering of aging fossil fuel power plants to address looming reliability concerns as the growth of demand outstrips increases in new generation. (E&E News)

OFFSHORE WIND

• Offshore wind opponents gather in Dover, Delaware, to speak out against a bill that would override a county-level rejection of an electrical substation needed to connect the planned U.S. Wind development to the grid. (Coast TV)

STORAGE

• Vermont’s largest utility seeks approval for a plan to install 1,200 residential batteries in some of the state’s most remote areas where increasingly severe weather has caused more power outages. (Vermont Public)

TRANSIT

• Maryland launches incentive programs to pay drivers $5 a day for carpooling or up to $500 a month for leasing an SUV or van to drive larger numbers of commuters. (Baltimore Banner)

HYDRO

• New England’s largest hydropower company begins planning to modernize its portfolio, which includes some facilities that have been in operation for more than 100 years. (Worcester Business Journal)

NEW FROM CANARY

• A recently passed Ohio law forbids settlements in the closure of ​“base load” power plants, like one that advocates say pushed utility American Electric Power to speed up its closure of six coal plants a decade ago, Kathiann M. Kowalski reports.

• Republicans’ budget bill threatens Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, which have led to at least 21,000 jobs in Virginia, many of them in Republican congressional districts, Charles Paullin reports for Inside Climate News.