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Ohio solar project listening sessions seek to boost projects’ chances for success
Solar developers are hoping that listening to local communities in Ohio early in the design stage will boost their chances for success before state regulators. “We are really invested in and committed to being good neighbors,” said Lindsey Workman, community affairs manager for Vesper Energy. The company held three meet-and-greet sessions in Greene County this spring for its proposed Aviation Energy Center project, in addition to earlier meetings with trustees for several townships.
Counting trucks, demanding change: Chicago project aims to quantify heavy-duty vehicle impacts
On June 7, 2023, exactly 2,206 large trucks and buses passed through the intersection of Kedzie Avenue and 31st Street in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. That’s an average of 1.5 heavy-duty vehicles per minute — much more in the morning and afternoon — rumbling through this crossroads in a dense, residential neighborhood near multiple parks and schools.
In Twin Cities and beyond, district energy systems see pressure to cut carbon emissions
The operators of the decades-old energy systems that heat and cool buildings in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul have ambitious plans underway to reduce emissions. The mostly hidden networks of insulated pipes connected to centralized heating and cooling equipment are known as district energy systems. They’ve long been championed as an energy efficient way to heat and cool campuses or downtowns, especially in cooler climates.
N.C.’s ratepayer advocate: Duke Energy ‘failed’ to consider incentives that would cut costs & enable more clean energy
Duke Energy’s plan to zero out its carbon pollution all but ignores a federal loan program that could save ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars and enable more clean energy, the state’s ratepayer advocate said in recent filings. And since the loans run out in September 2026, state...
Minnesota highway projects will need to consider climate impacts in planning
The recent expansion of a groundbreaking transportation law in Minnesota means all major highway projects in the state will soon be scrutinized for their impact on climate emissions. A year ago, the state legislature made headlines with a new law requiring the state transportation department and the Twin Cities’ regional...
Massachusetts is expanding its pathbreaking vehicle fleet electrification program
Massachusetts is in the process of tripling the size of its first-in-the-nation vehicle fleet electrification program following a recent influx of federal money. “We are really looking at the barriers, the challenges, the things that we need to figure out to get decarbonization to happen at scale,” said Emily Reichert, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
Data centers offer energy peril and promise, with the Midwest increasingly in the crosshairs
Southeastern Wisconsin and the Chicago area are emerging as major players in the national data center explosion, most notably with Microsoft’s $3.3 billion planned data complex near Racine, Wisconsin. Clean energy advocates in the region say data centers pose both a risk and an opportunity, as they can put...
Federal climate funds to help Ohio cities slash emissions from wastewater operations
Biogas projects at wastewater plants serving Columbus and Cincinnati will offset roughly 50,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas annually, according to city officials. The Columbus Department of Public Utilities estimates biogas cogeneration projects for its Southerly and Jackson Pike plants will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 34,000 and 13,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, respectively. That’s the equivalent of taking 10,100 passenger vehicles off the road, said Robert Priestas, administrator for the department’s division of sewers and drains.
A Chicago advocate builds climate resilience, one green space at a time
Annamaria Leon was initially enchanted by the lush greenery of Douglass Park and the handsome greystone homes of North Lawndale, located on Chicago’s West Side. But it wasn’t until after she moved into the greystone she first rented and would eventually purchase that she realized what lay beneath the surface of the stunning architecture of the neighborhood and its showplace park: the ravages of decades of redlining, disinvestment and racial unrest.
Despite millions spent on service upgrades, Ohio utilities still miss reliability marks
Last year was the eighth in a row that at least one of Ohio’s regulated electric utilities failed to meet one or both company-specific reliability standards set by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Companies providing service to a majority of Ohio ratepayers also missed one of their marks...
Groups urge N.C. regulators to push Duke Energy on solar and wind, pump the brakes on new gas
It’s become a biannual tradition. Since 2021, when North Carolina adopted a law requiring Duke Energy to zero out its carbon pollution, advocates have spent every other year poring over the company’s plans for supplying this state of 11 million with clean electricity. As of late last month,...
Study: Minorities ‘systematically’ underrepresented in US petrochemical workforce
This country’s heaviest polluters also rely on a workforce that disproportionately fails to fill good-paying jobs with people of color who are more likely to be affected by their emissions, according to a new study. The research, from Tulane University’s Environmental Law Clinic — currently under peer review —...
Illinois passed ‘strongest standards in the nation’ on carbon sequestration, but advocates say more work is needed
Illinois’s carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration law passed May 26 is being described as among the nation’s strictest. It is only the second carbon dioxide pipeline moratorium in the U.S., after California, and it creates a significant permitting process once the moratorium is lifted. But landowners and advocates...
Massachusetts advocates say proposed statewide energy efficiency plan falls short on equity
Massachusetts environmental justice advocates say the $5 billion statewide energy efficiency plan that could take effect next year needs to do even more to reach low-income residents, renters, and other populations who have traditionally received fewer benefits. The plan, which will guide efficiency programming from 2025 through 2027, outlines wide-ranging...
Charlottesville, Virginia, shows how small cities can take a lead on zero-emissions public transit
By gradually nudging aside its diesel buses, Charlottesville’s transit agency is punching above its weight. The city of 45,000 at the edge of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains is matching the likes of larger counterparts in New York, Chicago and San Diego with a carbon-curbing proposal to convert to a zero-emission public transit fleet by 2040. By then, its routes will be served by electric buses.
As sprawl threatens farmland, proposed Maine rules single out just one competing land use: solar
Solar developers will pay a premium to build projects on prime farmland under new rules in the works in Maine. The state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is drafting the rules based on a 2023 law that authorized it to collect extra fees from developers whose projects impact at least 5 acres of “high-value agricultural soils,” which regulators will define in rulemaking underway this summer.
Sunrun CEO says utilities’ ‘slow and no’ culture gets in the way of energy innovation
As president and CEO of Green Mountain Power in Vermont, Mary Powell developed the first utility partnership with Tesla to attach residential Powerwall batteries to the grid, providing backup clean power for the utility when needed. Customers could earn money by essentially filling the batteries at night and dispatching them during the day, Powell explained in a 2016 interview with Energy News Network.
Massachusetts to recharge solar programs for low-income residents with $156M federal grant
A $156 million federal grant is expected to fund a transformative investment in residential solar for low-income households in Massachusetts, advocates and officials say. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All program awarded Massachusetts the money for its plans to provide zero-interest loans, financial subsidies, and technical assistance to solar projects benefiting low-income households and public housing facilities. The state’s proposal was largely designed to take advantage of existing programs and resources to maximize the impact of federal funding.
Community solar developers look to artificial intelligence to help manage subscribers and advance equity
An ongoing billing snafu in ComEd territory in northern Illinois has some solar companies bracing for turbulence. When the problem is remedied, community solar subscribers will see a backlog of credits on their utility bills, but also accumulated charges for participating in the project. It’s the kind of surprise that can sour customers on community solar and cause them to unsubscribe from a project.
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