Wright: Worrying about climate change is ​“silly”

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Northeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

WIND

• U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright defends the decision to block work on Revolution Wind by inaccurately saying offshore wind increases electricity prices and that concerns about climate change are ​“silly.” (New York Times)

• Wright also says there are active discussions ongoing about the fate of Revolution Wind behind the scenes. (Bloomberg)

• US Wind, the company behind a planned wind farm off Delaware and Maryland, argues in a court filing that the federal plan to rescind permits for the project is part of its larger goal to ​“kill outright” offshore wind. (Spotlight Delaware)

BUILDINGS

• New York awards $28 million to projects that will demonstrate how to make older housing units energy efficient and electrification-ready, an initiative expected to impact 130,000 housing units and spark $150 million in private investment. (Fingerlakes1)

• A Massachusetts town advances plans to build a new high school equipped with 4.8 megawatts of solar capacity, a battery storage system, and hybrid air-source and ground-source heat pumps for heating and cooling. (Lexington Observer)

NUCLEAR

• Keeping New York’s four existing nuclear reactors online until 2050 would save the state $50 billion in energy costs, a new Brattle Group report finds. (RTO Insider)

SOLAR

• A developer tables plans for a project once expected to be the largest solar installation in Massachusetts, pointing to what it says are restrictive town bylaws and insufficient state subsidies. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

• A Connecticut city pushes plans to build solar panels on five schools in an attempt to get the projects moving in time to claim federal tax incentives before they are eliminated next year. (CTPost)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• The number of EVs on the road in Vermont has increased 41% in the past year, with one in eight new cars registered running on electricity. (Bennington Banner)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The borough president of Staten Island, a Trump-backed Republican, declares his opposition to the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project, citing concerns that construction could pollute the waters of nearby Raritan Bay. (La Voce di New York)

AFFORDABILITY

• New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill’s plan to freeze electricity rates would be very difficult to achieve without costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars delaying infrastructure investments, or inflating future energy bills. (New Jersey Monitor)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Fervo, Sage Geosystems tap energy giants to scale next-gen geothermal — Maria Gallucci

• Can utilities replace power lines with solar and batteries in remote areas? — Jeff St. John