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After setbacks to adopting electric vehicle sales targets in Maine and Connecticut, New England clean transportation advocates are regrouping with a focus on charging infrastructure and consumer education.
Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection voted 4-2 on March 20 against adopting California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rules, which would have required electric or plug-in hybrids to make up 82% of new vehicle sales in the state by model year 2032.
Board members initially signaled support for the proposal, which came from a citizen petition last spring, before their first planned vote was delayed by a severe storm in December.
Last November, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, pulled a comparable proposal from legislative consideration after it was not expected to have the votes to pass.
Neither state had opted to consider California’s Advanced Clean Trucks standard, which sets similar targets for heavy-duty vehicle sales.
Maine and Connecticut are among more than a dozen states that have had earlier versions of California’s clean car standards on the books for years. Both states have also prioritized transportation emissions, the region’s biggest contributor to global warming, in their climate plans.
Some advocates fear progress in this sector will stall in these states until they adopt the updated California rules. They say debate over the standards was clouded by false and misleading claims, often pushed by fossil fuel industry groups, that have ramped up as part of the 2024 presidential campaign.
“It was really an attempt to confuse and agitate consumers, and unfortunately it was successful,” said Charles Rothenberger, the climate and energy attorney at the Connecticut nonprofit Save the Sound.
Even if Connecticut or Maine successfully revisits adopting the California rules next year, it would likely push implementation out to model year 2029 at the earliest, advocates said.
States that don’t use the new California standards will default to federal rules for reducing vehicle emissions. These rules were just overhauled but have a slower timeline than California’s, designed to accommodate states with lower EV sales rates than in much of New England, Rothenberger said.
“Standards that really cater to the laggards when it comes to EV adoption are really not beneficial to states that are well ahead of that curve,” he said. “I fear that it will lead to us losing ground to states that continue with the California standards,” such as Massachusetts and New York, Rothenberger added.
This could mean less choice and supply for both new and used electric vehicles as carmakers focus on those other states, he said.
In the meantime, Connecticut EV advocates are backing a bill in the General Assembly to allow state bonds for charging infrastructure and EV incentives and create an Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council to work with utility regulators on system planning, among other provisions.
Peter LaFond, the Maine program director for the Acadia Center, a regional nonprofit, said the delay in adopting California’s rules provides time for combating misconceptions and for utilizing increasing state and federal funds for charging infrastructure.
“Every month that goes by, I think there’ll be more and more chargers, and once there are, I think people will see the clear advantages,” LaFond said. “(EVs and plug-in hybrids) lower the carbon footprint and they’re less expensive to operate, and the cold doesn’t present as much of a challenge as the misinformation would have you believe. I think education is going to be a big part of this.”
Scott Vlaun, the executive director of the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy, a nonprofit in the small western Maine town of Norway, said he sees a snowball effect of EV acceptance in his region.
“It’s happening, it’s just not happening fast enough,” Vlaun said. “This is the future, and if Maine doesn’t get its share, then … we’re going to be kind of stuck — in, especially rural Maine — with people driving beat-up, old, inefficient cars, and it’s not good for anybody.”
CEBE has led a push for a large public EV charger network in and around Norway, which Vlaun said has helped make EVs and hybrids a more common sight everywhere from Main Street to nearby ski resorts.
“We do this annual EV expo, and if you get people driving an F-150 Lightning, or a Chevy Bolt, depending on what their needs are, they get it,” he said. “So much of the misinformation — it’s almost comical, because it’s obvious that these people have never gotten behind the wheel of an electric car.”
Vlaun was speaking from his own EV parked at a public charger outside CEBE’s office, having just driven back from a meeting in Portland, Maine, about an hour away. He said he would have liked to take a train or bus instead of driving, but doesn’t have an easy option for doing so.
“We don’t see electric cars as a one-to-one replacement for gas cars,” he said. “We see electric vehicles as an interim step and a better solution to individual transportation than gas-powered vehicles — not the answer to the world’s transportation problems by any stretch.”
Advocates in Connecticut agreed that encouraging cleaner public transit, more walkable cities and less driving overall is as much or more important to reducing transportation emissions as EV adoption.
Those emissions are linked to disproportionate asthma rates, low school test scores and other adverse public health ripple effects in Connecticut, said Dr. Mark Mitchell, the co-chair of the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
“The people who have the least ability to afford cars and to drive suffer the most from the pollution caused by cars, and so we need to change that — we need to invest in public transportation and making cities walkable and bikeable,” he said. “We’re not going to get rid of cars… but we should make sure that the cars that drive through our communities are as clean as possible, as quickly as possible.”
Mitchell said he lives in an especially low-income part of Hartford, the state capital — one of the lowest-income cities on the East Coast, with a mostly Black and Latino population. Mitchell said many of his neighbors don’t drive at all and can’t afford new cars, so they don’t yet “see themselves in EVs.”
“But that’s not the point,” he said. “The point is that they’re very concerned about asthma, they’re very concerned about ADHD, they’re very concerned about school test scores.”
EV adoption across the state is one solution to those problems, he said.
Jayson Velazquez, the Acadia Center’s Hartford-based climate and energy justice policy associate, used the term “through-emissions” to describe pollution from diesel trucks and other vehicles that traverse low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in Connecticut’s cities en route to nearby highways.
Unlike those vehicles and their non-local drivers, Velazquez said, “the lasting health effects that come from that pollution don’t just get up and go.”
Despite concerns about misinformation, advocates acknowledged that they share certain concerns with opponents of the California rules — such as affordability, charging access, the sustainability of minerals mining to build batteries, and strain on the power grid from increasing EV use.
“There are real issues,” said Mitchell. “We do need to build up the infrastructure, both the charging infrastructure and the electric grid. … But until we set goals, we don’t know how quickly we need to do that. And it’s much easier to put things off if you don’t have a goal.”
MINING: The U.S. Energy Department conditionally agrees to loan more than $2 billion to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine under development in northern Nevada. (Associated Press)
ALSO:
BATTERIES: Hawaii lawmakers consider legislation aimed at encouraging or requiring automakers to recycle spent electric vehicle batteries. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
CLIMATE: An analysis predicts California cannot meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals by 2030 unless it triples efforts to slash carbon emissions, attributing the backslide to a post-pandemic surge in driving and electricity demand. (Los Angeles Times)
WIND: Oregon regulators seek public input on a proposed 300 MW wind facility in the northeastern part of the state. (East Oregonian)
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CLEAN ENERGY:
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FOSSIL FUELS: A Utah researcher predicts the state’s coal, oil and natural gas production will continue to climb in the near future even as new hydrogen, geothermal and solar facilities come online. (Deseret News)
UTILITIES: San Diego public power advocates predict establishing a municipal utility would cost $3.5 billion, but current utility SDG&E estimates it could amount to nearly three times as much. (San Diego Union-Tribune, subscription)
NUCLEAR:
STORAGE: A battery company that powers cars made by Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW has become the latest front in the conflict between China and the U.S. after Duke Energy says it will stop using the batteries after concerns over their use on a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. (Guardian)
ALSO: A Texas-based clean-energy and battery developer is working on a tool for grid batteries to measure the cleanliness of emissions, which could appeal to projects with clients bound by strict carbon-accounting standards. (Canary Media)
GRID: Southeast utilities are juicing their near-term forecasts for power demand amid the construction of data centers, cryptocurrency operations, marijuana farms and electric vehicle factories. (Floodlight)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
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SOLAR: A Florida utility announces a 2-acre solar facility on a pond, which it claims is the largest floating solar array in the U.S. (Solar Industry)
OIL & GAS: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm receives a frosty welcome at a Houston energy conference because of the Biden administration’s pause on approving permits for liquified natural gas export terminals. (Houston Chronicle)
EFFICIENCY:
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A report by Virginia officials finds the numerous programs to assist low-income residents with energy bills fall short of need. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
CLIMATE: Texas’ historic wildfires were triggered by malfunctioning electrical infrastructure and amplified by climate change, providing a possible glimpse of the future as state officials continue to resist regulations on the oil and gas industry. (Sierra)
EMISSIONS: A new report finds Louisiana, Texas and other states have significantly subsidized plastics manufacturers, only for those plants to repeatedly violate air pollution rules into vulnerable neighborhoods primarily occupied by people of color. (DeSmog)
OVERSIGHT: Florida lawmakers pass numerous bills to override existing city and county ordinances, including one to prevent local governments from mandating heat-exposure protections for outdoor workers. (WLRN, Inside Climate News)
MINING: Georgia moves closer to approving a titanium mine just outside the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, amping up an already raging fight over protecting America’s largest intact blackwater swamp. (Washington Post)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A new Biden administration plan aims to build electric semi-truck chargers along high-traffic sections of highway across the country, largely in the Northeast, on the West Coast, and in Texas. (The Hill)
ALSO:
POLITICS: President Biden’s proposed 2025 federal budget includes more funding for community energy programs, transmission planning and permitting, and offshore wind siting and construction, among other clean energy programs. (Utility Dive)
CLIMATE:
GRID:
FINANCE: The U.S. EPA prepares to announce $20 billion for nonprofits to expand lending for climate and clean energy projects in low-income communities. (Politico)
UTILITIES: Over 1,000 victims of last year’s deadly Maui wildfires plan to sue Hawaiian Electric and other entities, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked the blaze. (Hawaii News Now)
MATERIALS: The closure of three U.S. aluminum manufacturing plants could threaten the transition to clean energy and electrification, experts say. (E&E News)
ELECTRIFICATION: Colorado restaurants say switching from natural gas to electric induction stoves and ovens has improved their food quality and the kitchen atmosphere. (Rocky Mountain PBS)
CARBON CAPTURE: A North Dakota electric cooperative is betting a $2 billion carbon capture project will allow a coal-fired power plant to comply with Minnesota law, but critics say the plan is absurdly complicated and expensive compared to alternatives. (MPR News)
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BIOFUELS: California advocates call on the state to overhaul its low-carbon fuel standard program to support and fund electric vehicles and charging infrastructure rather than biofuels. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS: U.S. Coast Guard officials say an oil sheen spotted off southern California’s coast last week may have emanated from a natural seep on the ocean floor. (ABC News)
COAL:
SOLAR: New Mexico’s Supreme Court rejects investor-owned utilities’ bid to loosen the state’s community solar program’s rules. (Albuquerque Journal)
GRID: Federal regulators approve new rules allowing California’s grid operator to participate in an extended day-ahead power market once it goes live. (RTO Insider, subscription)
CLEAN ENERGY: A California power agency awards cities in the northern part of the state $11.5 million to help fund clean energy-related projects. (Daily Journal)
CLIMATE: The U.S. Energy Department awards five New Mexico startups over $6 million to research, develop and scale up climate technology. (news release)
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This story was originally published by Canary Media.
One of California’s marquee programs for cleaning up transportation emissions is at a crossroads. Decisions made in the next few months could set the decade-and-a-half-old Low Carbon Fuel Standard on one of two very different paths.
One path, favored by fossil fuel and renewable natural gas interests, would lock in a market scheme that currently extracts billions of dollars per year from Californians at the pump and subsidizes crop-based and cow-manure-derived biofuels.
That would be a disaster, according to environmental advocates, who point to a growing body of scientific evidence showing that this approach, if extended until 2045 as proposed, would cause these biofuels to grow at a scale that would harm the climate and the environment.
The other path, proposed by environmental groups, transportation-decarbonization analysts and climate and energy researchers, would limit the scope of unsustainable biofuels in the program, and instead reorient it to support what experts agree should be California’s primary clean transportation pathway: electric vehicles.
To date, roughly 80 percent of LCFS funding has gone to combustion biofuels rather than electric vehicles. That’s simply incompatible with the state’s EV ambitions and needs, said Adrian Martinez, deputy managing attorney of nonprofit advocacy group Earthjustice — and the imperative to reduce emissions from transportation, which account for nearly 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“We’ve got to eliminate our reliance on combustion,” he said, but “the program as designed will continue to provide lucrative incentives for combustible fuels well into the future.”
The regulator in charge of the LCFS program — and this high-stakes decision — is the California Air Resources Board. CARB’s board, which comprises 14 voting members, 12 appointed by the governor and two by the state legislature, holds a host of responsibilities around California’s energy transition. Those include shaping the state’s nation-leading EV policy, as well as determining its broad plans for achieving long-term greenhouse-gas reduction goals.
Critics say the LCFS program’s increasing support for biofuels is in direct contrast to both the EV targets and the climate goals also overseen by CARB — and that the program has been captured by deep-pocketed industries trying to greenwash the continued use of combustion fuels.
CARB has a chance to reform the program with an upcoming vote, initially set for this month, but now postponed to an undetermined future date. But its pathway to fixing the problems that plague LCFS is murky and messy at best.
Right now, the staff managing the LCFS program hasn’t given CARB board members an opportunity to pick a climate- and EV-friendly alternative. Instead, a December staff proposal provides only one option for the board to vote on later this year: a set of policies that Earthjustice forecasts would direct $27 billion over the coming decade toward biofuels and worsen effects on the climate, the environment and the prices that Californians pay at the pump.
CARB does have another option, however — an alternative proposal laid out by CARB’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, created to advise the board on environmental-justice issues.
That proposal would cap the fast-growing share of crop-based renewable diesel flooding the state. It would also end the unusual structure that now allows biogas produced by dairy farm manure to offset a much higher amount of carbon emissions than any other source of alternative fuels.
And, importantly, it would make the core of the program — its carbon-offset marketplace — function in a much healthier way, proponents say. A torrent of cheap, polluting renewable diesel and dairy farm biogas credits have dragged down the price that LCFS credits can fetch for avoiding emissions, diluting the incentive to deploy new climate technologies and sapping what could be a key funding source for EV infrastructure in the state.
“The stakes are very, very high,” Martinez said. “That’s why you see so much attention focused on this — and a very broad and diverse coalition that is pushing for more systemic change to the program, versus more modest tweaks that will really just keep this market owned and dominated by fossil fuel interests.”
California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard was born out of AB 32, the 2006 law that created the state’s carbon cap-and-trade market. Much like carbon markets, LCFS is meant to make companies pay for their carbon emissions by buying credits from technologies that reduce carbon emissions.
The program requires all fossil fuels refined and sold in California to meet increasingly stringent carbon-intensity targets. In practice, fossil fuel producers have to buy a bunch of LCFS credits from low-carbon transit sources operating in the state in order to comply. The goal is to create a system that taxes planet-warming fossil fuels to fund cleaner transportation alternatives.
But the LCFS has strayed from its initial focus on vehicle electrification and “advanced” non-crop-based biofuels to become “a swag bag for venture capitalists, big oil, big agriculture, and big gas, increasingly coming at the expense of low- and moderate-income Californians.” That’s how Jim Duffy, a 13-year veteran of the agency who served as branch chief of the LCFS program from 2019 to 2020 and retired in 2022, described the evolution of the program in comments filed with CARB.
Under the LCFS regulation adopted in 2009, dairy-manure-to-biogas projects did not receive special treatment compared to other sources of methane such as landfills and sewage treatment plants, Duffy wrote. Similarly, diesel fuels made from crops like soybeans were considered “only marginally better than fossil diesel.”
But in the years since, “the LCFS was revised to provide additional and unnecessary support to landfills and first-generation crop-based biofuels” and “to mitigate the methane problem created by the dairy industry itself,” Duffy wrote — despite the fact that evidence increasingly suggests that both sources harm the planet far more than they benefit it.
The result has been an increasing share of LCFS credits being supplied by renewable diesel and dairy-generated biogas.
CARB has justified these shifts with analysis indicating they will yield net positive climate impacts.
“The proposed amendments now under consideration will directly increase the program benefits in the most burdened communities, by reducing the carbon across the supply chain for fuels sold in California, as well as improving public health for fuels sold in California,” CARB spokesperson Dave Clegern said in an email to Canary Media. He cited data from CARB staff’s analysis of its proposal indicating that, by 2045, its plan will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 25,586 tons, cut greenhouse gas emissions by 560 million metric tons and yield public-health cost savings of nearly $5 billion.
But critics say the agency is failing to account for the full scope of climate harms that will be caused by its continued emphasis on biofuels.
They warn that the sheer scale of California’s program — totaling some $4 billion per year — is driving investment in the wrong transportation alternatives. The consequences are dire, they say — not just within the state, but across the country and around the world.
Take renewable diesel, a fuel made from fats and oils processed to be identical to fossil diesel fuel. The U.S. increased production of the fuel by 400% between 2019 and 2022, and it is set to double it again this year, according to Jeremy Martin, senior scientist and director of fuels policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Unlike ethanol and biodiesel, which can only partially replace gasoline and diesel, renewable diesel has “no limit on how much can be blended,” Martin said. It could theoretically completely replace diesel fuel for trucks, buses and other vehicles. And California’s LCFS offers credits on top of the federal incentives the fuel receives, making the state the primary target of renewable diesel producers across the country.
As a result, the share of renewable diesel as a percentage of total diesel fuel use has skyrocketed in California compared to the rest of the U.S., as the chart below shows.
In a September meeting, Steven Cliff, CARB’s executive officer, highlighted a milestone for the LCFS program: As of mid-2023, California had “more than half of our diesel demand being met by non-petroleum-based diesel alternatives. This is a direct result of the LCFS program, and it’s bringing real climate and air-quality benefits to the state.”
In Martin’s view, that milestone is not a win, but a warning. It indicates that renewable diesel is “flooding the LCFS, drowning the policy — and it doesn’t make sense” on climate or environmental terms.
Once the demand for renewable diesel outgrows the supply of waste oils and other non-crop feedstocks that can be used to make the fuel in genuinely climate-friendly ways, it becomes highly likely that it will cause more greenhouse gas emissions than it will displace. Critics like Martin argue that demand has now reached this point, though it’s a contested question.
This additional demand for crop oils could mostly serve “to expand the cultivation of palm oil to replace the soybean and other oils made into fuel,” the Union of Concerned Scientists argued in comments to CARB. That, in turn, is likely to lead to more rapid deforestation in nations that produce large amounts of these crops, such as Brazil and Indonesia — an outcome that would cause far greater climate harms than whatever emissions reductions result from replacing fossil diesel.
To stop this, the Union of Concerned Scientists and other groups want CARB to set a limit on how much renewable diesel can receive LCFS credits. CARB staff’s proposal declines to set such a cap, citing renewable diesel’s climate and health benefits.
But CARB’s methodology is out of step with the latest science, according to multiple groups studying these issues. The Union of Concerned Scientists, for its part, says CARB’s analysis is “based on inaccurate claims of climate and air-quality benefits and associated health outcomes.”
In a recent comparison of five different models for evaluating the climate impacts of crop-based biofuels, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that only CARB’s own model shows a positive carbon-reduction impact.
And while the agency has a proposal to limit deforestation harms by setting “sustainability guidelines” for crops being used for renewable diesel, it applies only to feedstocks grown in the U.S., Martin noted. That’s a problem: California is on pace to consume 10 percent of global soybean oil supplies for renewable diesel, meaning a significant amount of the crop oil produced for the program will be grown under conditions CARB cannot police, he said.
Given that reality, Martin said, “If California declines to act — if they say, ‘This is evidence of success; look how little fossil diesel we’re using’” by replacing it with renewable diesel, “then, in fact, California is giving its support to a fuel that we know is unsustainable at these volumes.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration reportedly plans to give automakers more time to meet its ambitious tailpipe emissions rules meant to speed electric vehicle adoption. (New York Times)
POLITICS: Republican policy advisers detail how President Trump will reverse the Biden administration’s progress on clean energy deployment and regulating fossil fuels if the Republican wins this year’s election — as Democrats rush to protect Biden’s progress. (Reuters, Politico)
FINANCE: More financial firms back out of climate commitments, saying the promises could expose them to legal challenges. (New York Times)
OVERSIGHT: Federal energy regulators approve new cold weather reliability standards for grid operators and affirm they’ll continue reviewing liquefied natural gas export applications despite the Biden administration’s pause. (Utility Dive)
STORAGE: Federal regulators deny proposed pumped hydropower storage projects’ permits on the Navajo Nation and establish a new policy of not issuing preliminary permits for projects on tribal land if the tribe opposes it. (KUNC)
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GRID:
SOLAR: Texas’ massive solar buildout is accelerating the transition to renewables in other states like South Carolina, where companies are using power purchase agreements and renewable energy certificates to source solar power from Texas. (CleanTechnica)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A Philadelphia family’s poor health and anxiety after living next to a former refinery has led to what psychologists are calling environmental trauma, an increasing mental health concern. (Inside Climate News)
EMISSIONS: Michigan environmental groups criticize DTE Energy’s voluntary carbon offset program for natural gas customers as a marketing ploy and a way for the company to profit with business as usual. (Michigan Public)
COMMENTARY: Southern officials who cut their teeth on coal remain stubbornly committed to fossil fuels in the form of natural gas, resulting in a plan to build the South’s largest gas pipeline in more than a decade, writes a columnist. (New York Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A new poll suggests over half of New Jersey residents don’t think they’ll buy an electric vehicle, even though most agreed it would improve health and air quality, fearing personal and statewide economic consequences. (New Jersey Monitor, Asbury Park Press)
FUNDING:
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Although construction is years away for a massive wind power and transmission line project proposed for northern Maine, clean energy workforce development programs are already stepping up. (Mainebiz)
FLOODS: Parts of Boston, including Long Wharf, saw notable flooding yesterday as a nor’easter blew through southern New England, reviving conversation around potential nature-based and human-built mitigation strategies. (Boston Globe, NBC Boston)
TRANSIT: In the face of vehicle traffic issues, Rhode Island officials give $160,000 to East Providence to help the city create a bike and pedestrian master plan that builds on two existing, popular paths. (ecoRI)
EMISSIONS: New York City councilmembers discuss a proposed bill to force cruise ships to plug into onshore power rather than use onboard diesel engines while docked in the city. (Gothamist)
CLIMATE:
BUILDINGS: Efficiency Maine and the town of Brunswick strike a deal to offer better terms on energy efficiency loans to local businesses. (Times Record)
GRID: The rise of electric vehicles could threaten power grid reliability without better collaboration between utilities and charging station companies, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warns. (Utility Dive)
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CLEAN ENERGY: More than half of the investments directly tied to incentives from two major federal infrastructure laws are flowing to Republican-led states, while the rest is split among Democratic and swing states, an analysis finds. (CNN)
OIL & GAS:
OVERSIGHT: President Biden’s allies are anxious for the administration to finalize long-awaited environmental and emissions rules as this year’s election approaches. (E&E News)
TRANSPORTATION: Environmental justice advocates call for a moratorium on expanding highways, saying they disproportionately affect nearby communities of color through displacement and pollution. (Washington Post)
WIND: Virginia lawmakers delay until 2025 consideration of a bill to allow entities other than Dominion Energy to build offshore wind facilities, rewarding the utility’s intense lobbying against the bill and disappointing clean energy advocates. (Energy News Network)
PIPELINES: A lawyer for six landowners along the Mountain Valley Pipeline says they’ll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a judge dismisses their suit challenging the pipeline’s use of eminent domain to build on their property. (Cardinal News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Chicago-area regional government agency offers communities a blueprint for upgrading electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: A southeastern Michigan consortium receives a $60 million federal grant to advance research into electric vehicle batteries. (Michigan Public)
UTILITIES: A grid expert says Xcel Energy’s proposal to switch Minnesota customers from fixed to variable rates would be an outlier nationally because of the major gap between peak and off-hour rates. (Star Tribune)
PIPELINES: South Dakota lawmakers advance three bills that would give landowners more rights and compensation when dealing with pipeline developers, from surveying to eminent domain cases. (South Dakota Searchlight)
GRID:
CLEAN ENERGY: Clean energy groups criticize Xcel Energy’s long-term energy plan that calls for 2,200 MW of new natural gas peaking plants and keeps three waste-to-energy plants operating for a decade after their planned retirements. (Utility Dive)
HYDROELECTRIC: Michigan utility Consumers Energy plans to seek proposals this month for 13 hydroelectric dams it hopes to sell. (MLive)
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