"The Transportation and Climate Initiative — a cap-and-trade program covering cars in three Northeastern states and the District of Columbia — was abandoned last week after Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) pulled the plug on the program."
"When lobster prices rose this year, it provided a boost for Zach Piper, a 27-year-old lobsterman who earns his living on Maine’s Frenchman Bay with 800 traps and a 31-foot boat named Overtime."
"The challenge to a $1 billion New England transmission line is raising concerns about how the region’s largest state will now reach its clean energy targets, underscoring the obstacles facing large infrastructure critical for renewables and President Biden’s decarbonization efforts."
"Late Wednesday night, the city of Ithaca, N.Y., voted to electrify and decarbonize its buildings. It’s the first such initiative of its kind in the country."
"The $1 billion, 145-mile-long transmission line project from Avangrid Inc. had secured permits, survived years of legal challenges, and fulfilled the White House’s national clean energy goals. On Tuesday, about 60% Maine voters didn’t see what was in it for them and rejected the partially built project."
"New research shows that methane emissions in the Boston area were six times higher than previously estimated. That could make the greenhouse effect of natural gas “equivalent to coal.”"
While climate change is certainly a global phenomenon, conflicts over addressing it often turn on local concerns. Case in point: Community bans on the use of the fossil fuel methane (aka natural gas), which has in turn prompted some states to ban the bans themselves. The latest TipSheet explains the bans and how they play into the climate change debate, plus story ideas and resources.
"The Canadian conglomerate that owns most of the dams in Maine has sued the state over the high-stakes battle over the future of four dams on the lower section of the Kennebec River and the survival of Atlantic salmon in the United States."
"The recipe sounds simple: Improve drainage. Use plants, tanks and barriers to slow water. But it takes money and cooperation."
"Construction on a 145-mile (233-kilometer) electricity transmission corridor in western Maine can continue while litigation proceeds over a 1-mile section that was leased by the state, a state Supreme Court justice ruled."
