Solar developer goes dark, leaving rooftop projects unfinished

SOLAR: A solar energy developer has apparently abandoned work on numerous home rooftop projects in a Massachusetts town, which residents claim has bilked them of thousands of dollars. (WCVB)

ALSO:
• Chautauqua County, New York, officials grant either final or preliminary authorization to issue tax breaks to five solar farms cumulatively generating over 20 MW. (Buffalo News)
• The board of a northern New York village hears progress on the seven separate solar farms under development in their jurisdiction, ranging from 4 MW to 240 MW. (NNY360)
• A workforce training program in Philadelphia teaches young people how to install solar panels as training for jobs in the clean energy economy. (WHYY)

POLITICS: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the reality of the climate crisis has ​“begun to pierce the partisan reality,” helping usher in clean energy and transportation investments and projects. (E&E News)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Toll and gas tax revenues are at 95% of their pre-pandemic levels in Massachusetts, indicating that sky-high gas prices aren’t shifting demand to public transit. (Commonwealth Magazine)
• Quick rental electric scooters may soon zip down the streets of Exeter, New Hampshire, with local officials seemingly tempted to allow a micro-mobility company to begin operations there. (Portsmouth Herald)
• Manchester, New Hampshire, will soon offer public bus rides to connect recreationalists with parks within 30 miles of the city. (New Hampshire Public Radio)
• Transit advocates want Massachusetts to update their definition of an e-bike and the related regulatory framework to help expand their use across the state. (Mass Live)

PIPELINES: Chesapeake Utilities says pre-construction work is almost complete for a roughly 6-mile-long pipeline expansion project near the seaside towns of Fenwick Island, Delaware, and Ocean City, Maryland. (Delaware Business Times)

AFFORDABILITY: Finding two Avangrid subsidiaries didn’t abide by advertising regulations, Connecticut utility regulators approve a settlement that’ll provide $3 million in additional residential utility bill assistance funds. (CT Post)

CLIMATE: Organizers behind a heat island mitigation project in Chelsea, Massachusetts, are making sidewalk, street and rooftop improvements to bring down the temperature. (WBUR)

UTILITIES:
• Maine utilities will now need to undergo a new integrated grid planning process every five years to help support the state’s climate goals, among other new service regulations outlined in a newly passed law. (Utility Dive)
• New Hampshire regulators consider whether to make public the details of a proposed deal to allow Eversource to buy all the poles it shares with a telecommunications utility that hasn’t helped pay vegetation management bills. (New Hampshire Public Radio)

NUCLEAR: Some Plymouth, Massachusetts, residents are critical of a federal nuclear regulatory proposal they say would reduce oversight of decommissioning the Pilgrim nuclear plant. (Cape Cod Times)

CLEAN ENERGY: A new project organized by 20 Maine businesses seeks to help small businesses transition to renewable energy. (Maine Public)