Vermont lawmakers eye climate change ​“superfund”

POLICY: As Vermonters struggle to pay for climate-related disasters, many state representatives are supporting legislation to make the fossil fuel industry pay into a climate change ​“superfund.” (WCAX, VT Digger)

ALSO: Connecticut has begun offering payments to help environmental justice and ratepayer groups participate in utility regulatory proceedings, but nonprofits say the program is only the first step toward encouraging more diverse participation. (Energy News Network)

PIPELINES:

• In New York, a new state law is behind 13 utility pilot projects that will replace fossil fuel pipelines with infrastructure to support geothermal heat pump systems. (Canary Media)
• Environmentalists implore Connecticut energy officials to deny permits for a proposed gas pipeline expansion in the state, calling it at odds with the state’s climate policy. (Hartford Courant)
• Pennsylvania’s pipeline investment program grants just over $552,000 to install gas lines to a Lycoming County mixed-use redevelopment project. (news release)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• PJM Interconnection asks Talen Energy to enter into a reliability-must-run contract for its oil-fired generator in the Baltimore area, a deal that if signed would keep the generator online for three years beyond the company’s plans. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• LS Power will purchase a 810 MW combined cycle gas-fired power plant in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a facility within PJM Interconnection’s territory. (news release)

BUILDINGS:

• Decarbonizing Boston’s buildings via grand policy gestures has proven difficult for the city’s mayor, leading her to rethink the approach and focus on smaller city code tweaks. (Boston Globe)
• The Westford, Massachusetts, board will soon decide whether to adopt a stricter state building energy code to help meet the town’s net-zero emissions goal. (Westford CAT)
• Dozens of homeowners in Barre, Vermont, wait for state or local officials to take responsibility for buying out their homes deemed uninhabitable by landslides caused by last summer’s floods. (VT Digger)

CLIMATE:

• Some southern Maine coastal communities lost as much as 30 feet of dunes during the winter storms of the past week, leaving them more vulnerable to rising sea levels. (Bangor Daily News)
• With ​“historic coastal damage due to astronomic high tides,” many New Hampshire and southern Maine towns face immense flood recovery needs. (Portsmouth Herald)

OFFSHORE WIND: Two small New York businesses — an efficiency component manufacturer for coal plants and an ironworks — describe how the offshore wind development push benefits them, as well as the workforce development challenges of working offshore. (RTO Insider, subscription)

CLEAN ENERGY: Sunderland, Vermont, becomes the southern half of the state’s first ​“green procurement town,” meaning it plans to opt for carbon-free alternatives for equipment, services and power. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: In Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, an armored truck company receives about $1.3 million in state-directed Volkswagen settlement funds to replace six diesel trucks with battery-electric models and install charging infrastructure. (Lehigh Valley Live, news release)