South Fork wind farm now sending power to New York

OFFSHORE WIND: Although the majority of turbines are still under construction, the South Fork wind farm off Long Island is now sending power to the grid. (Newsday)

ALSO:

• Vessel availability and a controversial federal shipping regulation are emerging as significant driving factors in the cancelation of the Ocean Wind project. (Reason)
• A new floating wind power turbine is being tested in the waters off of New Bedford, Massachusetts. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Connecticut Democrats struggle to reconcile the environmental benefits of phasing out gas-fueled vehicles with the financial cost, while also noting their errors in promoting a proposed electric vehicle regulation. (CT Mirror)
• Critics want Massachusetts to spend federal funds faster for electric vehicle charger improvements. (Boston Globe)

GEOTHERMAL: Dandelion Energy no longer plans to retrofit Long Island, New York homes hooked up to fossil fuel heating systems to instead use geothermal; the company will still work on new construction. (Newsday)

GRID: Massachusetts’ latest signed budget lets state utilities raise rates to pay for the additional costs incurred during the build-out of the New England Clean Energy Connect hydroelectricity transmission line. (Associated Press)

GAS: New York almost ran out of natural gas last year during Winter Storm Elliott, according to a new federal regulators’ report. (Times Union)

UTILITIES: Eversource Energy says performance-based ratemaking in Connecticut could ​“work out well” but that the overall regulatory environment ​“seems overly punitive” to the utility. (Utility Dive)

CLEAN ENERGY: Maine grants three organizations $1.3 million to split to expand the state’s clean energy economy, including a clean energy incubator. (WABI, Portland Press Herald)

BUILDINGS:

• A Vermont town’s energy committee creates a tracking tool to analyze carbon emissions and identify energy efficiency and carbon neutrality opportunities. (Bennington Banner)
• A Delaware nonprofit kicks off a new program to help small-to-mid-size commercial buildings in disadvantaged communities undertake energy efficiency measures. (news release)

COMMENTARY: A marine scientist writes that the migration of fiddler crabs to the Gulf of Maine is evidence that climate change is already disrupting the East Coast’s ecosystems. (The Conversation)