There’s lots of excellent stories to read this week, so I’ll just jump into it:

Local & state

• The state elections with climate policies at stake (Living on Earth)

• What a homemade air quality monitor taught me about environmental justice (Greater Greater Washington)

• As the mayor of tiny Enfield, North Carolina, Mondale Robinson has huge clean energy ambitions. He’s partnering with other small towns to make it happen (Canary Media)

• Battery powered regional transit trains? Coming to the Boston area (Grist)

• A new gas line or cash to electrify? California lets households choose (Canary)

• The Commanders’ energy plans for RFK stadium, to allow it to add a natural gas-burning plant, are already raising alarms (The 51st)

Electricity & the grid

• Eleanor Beshai, 70, keeps the air conditioning off as long as she can on hot days and uses only the lights she needs. Monthly electric bills for her Worcester, Massachusetts, home still sometimes top $500. Less than 2,000 feet away, across narrow Lake Quinsigamond, Dave Katz, 71, is less concerned about his power bill. It averages about $130 a month, he said, even though his home — in the neighboring town of Shrewsbury — is slightly larger than Beshai’s. In hot summer months, when the AC is running high, it reaches $150 to $160. What’s happening here? (Bloomberg, gift link)

• At Southern University, Power Outages Are Turning College Life Into a Daily Struggle (Capital B)

Data Centers

• Inside Ohio’s Revolt Against Data Centers (Matter/Inside Climate News)

• New Jersey data center fined $1.1m after visual investigation showed dozens of unpermitted generators. It’s still running (for now) (Floodlight)

• Data centers do use lots and lots of water. But maybe not from where or how you think (Georgia Public Broadcasting)

International

• Exxon, Occidental and Diamondback are among those touting efforts to end routine gas flaring, but their flames keep spewing pollution around the world, including in this Texas residential community (The Examination/Bloomberg - gift link)

• The “BYD effect”: EV sales in Australia are surging, up to 25% of all new sales (The Guardian)

• A Surge in US Solar Exports Helps Cuba Keep Some of Its Lights On (Bloomberg)

Elsewhere

This story about DARPA’s push to developed freeze-dried, ultra portable blood replacements to help battlefield infusions is the second feature I’ve fact-checked for MIT Technical Review.