New Hampshire
- Bow residents push back on possible data center. Granite Shore Power, which owns the shuttered Merrimack Station, asked federal regulators to discuss connecting a 350-megawatt project to the grid. Residents from Bow and neighboring towns overwhelmingly opposed the idea at a selectboard meeting Tuesday. Sources: Concord Monitor (link) and NHPR (background). concordmonitorctpublic
- NH port authority head resigns. Richard Hartley, a Coast Guard veteran hired to lead the state’s port authority in 2025, resigned abruptly Thursday, and the Pease Development Authority gave no explanation. Source: NHPR (link). nhpr
- Support jumps for small-lot single-family homes. About 74% of Granite Staters back allowing smaller lots in parts of every town, up from 59% in 2025, while 93% of zoning codes currently bar single-family homes on lots under one acre. Source: New Hampshire Bulletin (link). newhampshirebulletin
Maine
- Heating oil nears record highs. The state average hit $5.77 a gallon on Sept. 14, up 74% from a year ago and close to the 2022 record of $5.92. Sen. Susan Collins is pushing for federal heating aid to go out sooner. Sources: Portland Press Herald (link) and The Maine Wire (link). yahoothemainewire
- Westbrook’s Vertical Harvest foreclosure dismissed. The hydroponic farm faced foreclosure on more than $8 million in C-PACE energy financing. The case was dismissed after the company brought its past-due debt current. Sources: Portland Press Herald (original, dismissal) and The Maine Wire (link). pressheraldthemainewire
- Pingree leads governor’s race fundraising. Democrat Hannah Pingree raised more than $1.2 million between July 15 and Sept. 15, giving her a sizable edge over Bobby Charles and independent Rick Bennett with six weeks to go. Source: Bangor Daily News (link). bangordailynews
Vermont
- Jason Eaton convicted in 2023 Burlington shooting. A jury rejected his insanity defense and found him guilty of three counts of attempted second-degree murder after two hours of deliberation. He will be sentenced later. Sources: Vermont Public (link) and VTDigger (link). vermontpublic
- Laid-off St. Albans Creamery workers face loss of health coverage. Teamsters Local 597 asked a court to force Dairy Farmers of America to keep contributing to health insurance while the plant, closed Aug. 17, stays shuttered. Coverage is set to expire at the end of the month. Source: VTDigger (link). vtdigger
- Vermont Yankee decommissioning nearly complete. Almost all of the $602 million decommissioning trust fund has been spent, and the reactor building is gone from the Vernon site. Source: VTDigger, from the Brattleboro Reformer (link). vtdigger
