EnviroPolitics Blog

Pennsylvania House Sends Bipartisan Legislation to Expand Battery Storage to the Senate

H.B. 2380 would require electric utilities to set targets and procure grid-stabilizing battery storage as part of their resource planning

HARRISBURG, PA – Today, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed legislation that would require electric utilities to set targets for and procure 3.5 GWs of battery storage.

“The nor’easter in September was a good reminder that you prepare for a storm before it hits, not after. The same goes for the electric grid. Battery storage gives Pennsylvania a way to put energy in reserve when it’s plentiful, so it’s ready when demand spikes. That flexibility can help keep the grid reliable, make better use of the infrastructure we already have and keep costs down for consumers,” said Chris D’Agostino, Pennsylvania Principal at the trade association Advanced Energy United.

Acccording to Advanced Energy United:

Battery storage can help reduce the need for additional generation and infrastructure to serve a limited number of peak-demand hours. By shifting electricity use across hours, storage can help utilities better manage system demand, improve grid flexibility and defer costly transmission and distribution upgrades.
Batteries promote affordability, potentially saving $397 million in grid costs, translating to an extra $29 per household per year.
Energy storage reduces blackouts and brownouts: In Texas, the risk of grid emergencies during the summer peak fell from 16 to 1 percent over the course of a year due to increased battery storage deployment

The legislation now heads to the Pennsylvania Senate for consideration.

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Green groups sue Trump over eased vehicle fuel economy rules

By The Associated Press, Updated: 6:11 AM CDT Oct 4, 2026

A group of environmental organizations sued the Trump administration on Friday over its recent relaxation of key vehicle fuel economy rules, a decision that the group says will make vehicles less efficient, contribute to more pollution and increase gas consumption.

Related video: Trump touts G7 plan to release oil and diesel reserves to address high prices

On Monday, the Trump administration lowered Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards that set out how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. The announcement was made as the Trump administration negotiated with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait on a typical day, and the fight over its control has sent energy prices soaring across the globe.

The environmental groups filed the petition for review Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals against Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Jonathan Morrison, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the rules.

“We’re taking the Trump administration to court for this reckless rollback that prioritizes Big Oil and automaker profits over American families,” Katherine Garcia, director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All program, said in a statement. “It is unlawful for Trump to turn back the clock on fuel-efficient cars, forcing drivers to waste more money on gas and communities to breathe toxic air.”

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Law Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Public Citizen, along with the Sierra Club, filed the suit.

You can’t see the forest for the trees, so cut them down

By Jeff Tittel, Jersey Vindicator, Oct 2, 2026

New Jersey has come up with a strange new conservation philosophy: destroy the forest to save it.

The state says it wants to restore Atlantic white cedar in the Pinelands. That goal is important. Atlantic white cedar forests are disappearing, threatened by sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion, altered hydrology, deer browsing, and a long history of logging and development. New Jersey once had roughly 115,000 acres of Atlantic white cedar; today, fewer than 25,000 acres remain.

But if the answer to losing forests is to bring in heavy equipment, clear-cut public forests and use herbicides, we need to ask a very basic question: At what point does restoration start looking an awful lot like destruction?

This is a clear-cut problem

The New Jersey Forest Service’s Atlantic White Cedar Restoration Project is a massive effort: a $20 million, 10-year program intended to restore about 10,000 acres. The money comes from natural resource damage settlements involving groundwater pollution. The state says the project will help restore cedar forests, protect water resources, and increase climate resilience.

But public money recovered because polluters damaged New Jersey’s natural resources should be used with extraordinary care. It should not become a blank check for industrial-style forestry on public lands.

The Pinelands were preserved for future generations. They were not preserved so that commercial logging interests could treat public forests like a timber farm.

Read more here

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Senate permitting bill could greatly expand power lines and clean energy

The U.S. transmission grid isn’t growing fast enough to meet surging electricity demand. Fast-tracking transmission upgrades could change that.

By Jeff St. John, Canary Media, 30 September 2026

Two transmission towers on dry-grass hilll with blue sky and moon visible behind — (George Rose/Getty Images)

The U.S. Senate energy permitting bill unveiled Wednesday could streamline the buildout of high-voltage power lines across the country, potentially delivering billions of dollars in electricity cost savings and dramatically improving the power system’s reliability over the coming decade — if Congress manages to pass it into law.

So say grid experts digging into the transmission grid policy directives contained in the text of the long-awaited bipartisan reform package. The bill would order the country’s regional grid operators and utilities to streamline how power lines are planned and permitted. It would require the use of advanced transmission technologies that can expand the capacity of new and existing grids.

It would give state and federal regulators tighter oversight over less efficient local transmission planning. And it would require grid operators and utilities to coordinate grid buildouts to enable more new power plants, solar and wind farms, batteries, and other resources to serve growing demand for electricity.

“If Congress wanted to expand and de-congest the nation’s transmission grid, these are the policy changes that can get that done,” said Rob Gramlich, president of consultancy Grid Strategies and a longtime proponent of transmission grid reform. “It is very likely that this bill, if passed, would reduce consumer utility bills over time as the transmission system expands and access to low-cost generation improves.”

That view is backed up by analysis commissioned by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a nonprofit research organization, which studied the impact of the bill’s reforms on four major grid regions — from the mid-Atlantic coast to the California border — that provide electricity to more than half the country.

Read more here

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New York looks to start catching up to California and Texas on big battery storage

The state stepped in with a market-based contract in hopes of jump-starting the big battery construction that has so far proved elusive.

Aerial shot on diagonal of a fou-unit battery storage site — A battery storage facility in North Patchogue, New York (John Paraskevas/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

By Julian Spector, Canary Media, Sept 28, 2026

New York set an ambitious goal to eliminate fossil-fueled electricity by 2040. Doing so will almost certainly require widespread adoption of batteries to store renewable generation and make it available on demand, thereby reducing the need for fossil-fueled “peaker” plants. Yet the state has seen hardly any large-scale battery construction to date.

As of March, New York state contained just 80 megawatts of operational “bulk” storage, plus around 335 MW of small-scale batteries. That’s a far cry from the state’s goal of installing 1,500 MW by 2025, though officials claimed success by factoring in not-yet-built projects that had been awarded or contracted.

Now, New York is taking its biggest step yet to unlock the widespread grid storage that states like California and Texas have been enjoying for several years.

Eight grid battery projects won state contracts last week, which collectively will add 950 MW of non-emitting, on-demand power by 2030. That’s meaningful progress toward the state’s goal of 6 gigawatts by 2030. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority plans to run two more solicitations like this one to accelerate the momentum.

Read the full story here

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NJ’s Clean Water Action Working to Green-Up Congress

NEW JERSEY – Clean Water Action, a national organization with an active presence in the Garden State since 1982, is working in pivotal mid-term federal races across the country to both retain what it calls “pro-environmental champions” like Congressman Frank Pallone (CD6-NJ), as well as flip seats in Congress to be pro-environment with challenger candidates like Rebecca Bennett (CD7-NJ).

New Jersey has long led the way in setting a high bar for environmental and public health safeguards, says Amy Goldsmith, Clean Water Action’s NJ Director.

“This has resulted in the adoption of federal policies like the Superfund for toxic site cleanups, stricter drinking water standards, and so much more. Over the last two years, our accomplishments have been eroded by draconian federal rollbacks in policy, funding and staff, “she said.

“Changing the make-up and voices in Congress is one of the best ways to slow down the dismantlement of vital agencies, like the US Environmental Protection Agency, and erosion of democracy as we know it in this country. Our ability to do this starts with exercising our voting rights – knowing how, when and where to vote, Goldsmith said.

“This summer was a wake-up call for action – extreme heat, flash floods, loss of lives, homes, and businesses left no part of the state untouched by devastation.”We are in an economic and environmental crisis that will only intensify over time and with greater frequency, she said. “Sending a strong pro-environmental majority from our NJ delegation to Washington is one way of helping to turn the tide of national policy towards protecting, not abandoning, our struggling families and economy. Becoming informed about NJ’s congressional candidates is key to making the right choices at the ballot box.”

Goldsmith said her organization is supporting nine congressional candidates from New Jersey, including: US Senator Cory Booker, Herb Conaway MD (CD3), Frank Pallone (CD6), Rebecca Bennett (CD7), Robert Menendez Jr. (CD8), Nellie Pou (CD9), LaMonica McIver (CD10), Analilia Mejia (CD11), and Dr. Adam Hamawy (CD12).

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