RNG NEWS
Waterloo, Ont. launches animal waste-to-power pilot project
By The Canadian Press Staff.
WATERLOO, Ont. — The Ontario city best known for headquartering BlackBerry may soon be known for an entirely different commodity – dog poop.
Waterloo will soon be the home of a pilot program that will turn dog waste into energy, using a process called anaerobic digestion that happens when organic waste breaks down in an environment without oxygen.
The city’s mayor, Dave Jaworsky, said this is one the first times this sort of program, which he jokingly calls “poop power”, will be implemented in a Canadian city.
By The Canadian Press Staff.
WATERLOO, Ont. — The Ontario city best known for headquartering BlackBerry may soon be known for an entirely different commodity – dog poop.
Waterloo will soon be the home of a pilot program that will turn dog waste into energy, using a process called anaerobic digestion that happens when organic waste breaks down in an environment without oxygen.
The city’s mayor, Dave Jaworsky, said this is one the first times this sort of program, which he jokingly calls “poop power”, will be implemented in a Canadian city.
Jaworsky said it’s eco-friendly and should help curb the amount of litter produced by the city of about 100,000 people.
“It’s actually a big issue, dog waste. If you look at our municipal litter bins … it’s 40 to 80% dog waste,” he said, adding that the city collects about 115,000 kilograms of trash every year.
He said the process for harvesting dog waste and turning it into power is fairly simple – and it’s not entirely new.
“In rural townships, this isn’t an uncommon technique to deal with manure and that kind of thing,” he says. “So, it’s really just bringing the rural technology to the urban environment.”
California Senate Leader Introduces 100% Clean Energy Measure
SACRAMENTO – California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) on Tuesday introduced Senate Bill 100, The California Clean Energy Act of 2017, which puts the state on the path to 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2045.
VIDEO: Press Conference: California Senate Leader Introduces 100 Percent Clean Energy Measure
SACRAMENTO – California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) on Tuesday introduced Senate Bill 100, The California Clean Energy Act of 2017, which puts the state on the path to 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2045.
VIDEO: Press Conference: California Senate Leader Introduces 100 Percent Clean Energy Measure
“California’s experience over the last decade offers hard evidence that we can dramatically expand clean energy while also growing our economy and putting people to work,” Senator de León said. “This measure will ensure that California remains the world’s clean energy superpower and that we lead the nation in addressing the threat of climate change.”
VIDEO: 100% Clean Energy Equals Jobs https://youtu.be/7Zeu3yXuGCg
VIDEO: 100% Clean Energy: We Can Get There https://youtu.be/9AYRADZkkqs
BILL SUMMARY
SB 100, the California Clean Energy Act of 2017 does all of the following:
- Establishes an overall state target of 100% clean energy for California by 2045 by directing the CA Public Utilities Commission, CA Energy Commission, and Air Resources Board to adopt policies and requirements to achieve total reliance on renewable energy and zero carbon resources by that date.
New Study Shows Renewable Natural Gas in Transportation Can Create Up to 130,000 Jobs and Generate Nearly $14 Billion in Economic Benefits for California
NEWS RELEASE
Converting Waste to Power Trucks Will Fuel California’s Economy
LONG BEACH, Calif., May 1, 2017—A new jobs study reveals that deploying trucks fueled by renewable natural gas could create up to 130,000 new jobs and add $14 billion to California’s economy. The ‘RNG Jobs Report’ examines the economic potential of fueling heavy-duty trucks with renewable natural gas produced in California, instead of being powered by petroleum-based diesel. The study was released jointly today by the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) and the California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition (CNGVC) at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, the nation’s largest alternative, clean-fleet trade show.
A switch to renewable natural gas trucks could quickly help California achieve its air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change-related goals, the two coalitions say. More than 95 percent of the trucks on California roads currently use petroleum-based diesel fuel and are a major source of particulate, nitrogen oxide (NOx) and GHG emissions. In Southern California, the heavy-duty trucking sector is the single largest source of NOx emissions, which combine with other pollutants to form both ground-level ozone and fine particulates, also known as PM2.5. Those pollutants are responsible for a wide range of health impacts from exacerbating asthma to premature deaths. In fact, the ports and related goods-movement activity emit more than 35 percent of all smog-forming pollutants in the region.
View the full press release HERE...
Fortistar Avoided Over 2.1 Million Tons of GHG emissions in 2016
From Business Wire, via Yahoo Finance.
Today, Fortistar, who investments in energy sources primarily focused on the transitioning to a zero-carbon economy, announced that it avoided 2.125 million tons of GHG emissions in 2016. That’s the equivalent of driving from New York City to Los Angeles almost six times.
The company builds, owns and operates natural gas cogeneration facilities, landfill gas to energy and biomass electreic generating plants and CNG fueling stations throughout the United States and Canada.
From Business Wire, via Yahoo Finance.
Fortistar, who investments in energy sources primarily focused on the transitioning to a zero-carbon economy, announced that it avoided 2.125 million tons of GHG emissions in 2016. That’s the equivalent of driving from New York City to Los Angeles almost six times.
The company builds, owns and operates natural gas cogeneration facilities, landfill gas to energy and biomass electreic generating plants and CNG fueling stations throughout the United States and Canada.
“For nearly 30 years, Fortistar has been focused on the transition to lower carbon energy sources. We believe strongly that sustainable energy generation done right makes financial sense—for private companies, municipalities and for federal agencies,” said Mark Comora, President, Fortistar. “In the private sector, we’ve helped CEOs, CFOs and Chief Sustainability Officers understand that there are cleaner, healthier and cheaper alternatives to gas or diesel to fuel their fleets. With government agencies and municipalities, we’ve created a path for them to turn trash into an asset—clean renewable energy. We believe that this is the right thing to do and have proven that it benefits the bottom line of our customers.”
For more than three decades, Fortistar has built, invested in, owned, and managed an unparalleled portfolio of low-carbon energy initiatives in the United States and Canada.
Hawaii Gas Co. to Recycle Biogas Produced at Sewage Plant
By Associated Press.
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu officials say they are moving forward with plans to sell biogas produced at the city's sewage plant to Hawaii Gas Co.
By Associated Press.
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu officials say they are moving forward with plans to sell biogas produced at the city's sewage plant to Hawaii Gas Co.
The gas company says it plans to spend about $5 million on equipment to clean the sewage plant's biogas before adding it into their pipelines. It also wants to construct approximately one mile (1.61 kilometer) of new pipeline to connect its purification system to the company's existing synthetic natural gas pipeline.
Hawaii Gas would buy gas from the city at $2 a therm, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported Monday. Currently, the gas company purchases gas at about $1.75 per therm.
Biogas is fuel comprised of about 60 percent methane and 40 percent carbon dioxide, which the Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant had been capturing and burning off.
NW Natural Charts a Green-energy Path that Includes Renewable Natural Gas
By Steve Law, Portland Tribune.
At a time when President Donald Trump is forcing the federal government to disregard the threat from climate change, NW Natural is charting a strategy to achieve what it calls "aggressive greenhouse gas reductions."
The Portland-based utility's plan lays out how a company that sells fossil fuel can do its part to avert dramatic global warming — largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
In briefings last week, NW Natural unveiled a game plan to voluntarily slash carbon emissions from that sector 30 percent by 2035, compared to 2015 levels.
By Steve Law, Portland Tribune.
At a time when President Donald Trump is forcing the federal government to disregard the threat from climate change, NW Natural is charting a strategy to achieve what it calls "aggressive greenhouse gas reductions."
The Portland-based utility's plan lays out how a company that sells fossil fuel can do its part to avert dramatic global warming — largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
In briefings last week, NW Natural unveiled a game plan to voluntarily slash carbon emissions from that sector 30 percent by 2035, compared to 2015 levels.
"We believe there is a climate imperative," said Kim Heiting, NW Natural's chief marketing officer and vice president for communications, releasing what the utility calls its "low-carbon pathway."
Beyond 2035, Heiting said, the company realizes it has to go much further down the road to "deep de-carbonization."
The low-carbon pathway emerged from NW Natural's latest round of strategic planning completed in September, Heiting said. Though the strategy has the support of the corporation's board of directors, it only went public last week, when the utility briefed the Oregon Public Utility Commission, environment groups and other stakeholders.
It's unclear what the plan would do to customer energy prices. But now they're at historically low levels thanks to efficiency gains achieved by fracking techniques to extract natural gas. Fracking causes earthquakes and soils the land and water, and so far those impacts aren't factored into the low price of the energy.
Last week's announcement that NW Natural is working with Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services to produce usable gas as a byproduct from the city's sewage treatment plant is a sign of things to come.
Trump's tax reform outline inspires opposition over climate, clean energy
By John Siciliano, Washington Examiner.
The debate about overhauling the tax code won't be immune from the fight over President Trump's environmental and climate change policies, activist groups said Wednesday.
The groups are preparing for a major protest this weekend against Trump's environmental policies, which now include the president's tax reform plan.
Billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer blasted Trump's tax reform blueprint announced Wednesday as a dangerous proposal that he hopes will be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.
By John Siciliano, Washington Examiner.
The debate about overhauling the tax code won't be immune from the fight over President Trump's environmental and climate change policies, activist groups said Wednesday.
The groups are preparing for a major protest this weekend against Trump's environmental policies, which now include the president's tax reform plan.
Billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer blasted Trump's tax reform blueprint announced Wednesday as a dangerous proposal that he hopes will be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.
"Trump's corporate tax giveaway would worsen the dangerous imbalance in an economy already rigged in favor of the wealthy and the powerful," Steyer said.
The tax principles, announced by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, don't mention climate change or renewable energy, which would be expected. But most environmental and activist groups in the last year have broadened their attacks on Trump to include advocating for the poor and middle class.
"Congress must reject Trump's corporate tax giveaway and fight for a fair tax reform designed to strengthen the middle class, spur innovation, and grow our economy," he said. "We need a tax code that puts the needs of struggling American families before the limitless appetites of business owners and employers."
However, the environmental group Friends of the Earth response to the tax reform proposal pointed out how it would benefit "big business cronies" at the expense of the environment as a "reverse Robin Hood" plan.
GOP Lawmakers Praise Trump Tax Outline Despite Differences
By Tara Jeffries, Morning Consult.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday released the core tenets of the White House tax agenda, sketching a general outline that leaves room for many more details, but already shows deviation from the House Republican blueprint.
House and Senate GOP leaders and top tax-writers applauded the principles. They “will serve as critical guideposts for Congress and the administration as we work together to overhaul the American tax system,” according to a joint statement Wednesday from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
By Tara Jeffries, Morning Consult.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday released the core tenets of the White House tax agenda, sketching a general outline that leaves room for many more details, but already shows deviation from the House Republican blueprint.
House and Senate GOP leaders and top tax-writers applauded the principles. They “will serve as critical guideposts for Congress and the administration as we work together to overhaul the American tax system,” according to a joint statement Wednesday from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
Gaps between proposed rates on businesses and individuals still separate the White House principles from the House GOP blueprint. Trump’s agenda, unveiled in a White House briefing Wednesday afternoon, would lower the corporate tax from 35 percent to 15 percent and apply that rate to “pass-through” businesses, too. The House GOP plan would tax corporations at 20 percent, and pass-throughs — businesses taxed through their owners’ individual returns — at 25 percent.
Trump’s plan whittles the seven current tax brackets down to three, at rates of 35, 25, and 10 percent, while the House GOP plan would tax individuals at 33, 25, and 12 percent rates. The current top individual tax rate is 39.6 percent. The plan would include a “territorial” tax system, but eschews the border adjustment proposal, a key revenue raiser at the heart of the House GOP plan. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier Wednesday that the administration is discussing potential revisions to that measure.
“We are moving as quickly as we can” on moving legislation forward, Mnuchin said at the White House briefing Wednesday.
Plan Proceeds to Develop Landfill Gas Facility at Mexico City's Largest Former Landfill
By Mexico Daily News.
A plan to build a biogas plant on the site of Bordo Poniente, formerly Mexico City’s largest landfill site, is set to go ahead, says city Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera.
The dump was closed in late 2011 in an effort to make the city’s waste management system greener and a concession for methane plant was granted in November 2012.
However, the project was delayed for several reasons, including project modifications, economic uncertainty, devaluation of the peso and the range of permissions that needed to be obtained.
By Mexico News Daily.
A plan to build a biogas plant on the site of Bordo Poniente, formerly Mexico City’s largest landfill site, is set to go ahead, says city Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera.
The dump was closed in late 2011 in an effort to make the city’s waste management system greener and a concession for methane plant was granted in November 2012.
However, the project was delayed for several reasons, including project modifications, economic uncertainty, devaluation of the peso and the range of permissions that needed to be obtained.
Mancera stated that the project was “put at risk” because “investment became more complicated and more difficult to structure.”
These obstacles have now been overcome.
The plant will harvest methane gas produced by 70 million tonnes of trash, generating 508 gigawatts of energy per year. The electricity will be used to power the capital’s 517,000 streetlights and 1,700 public buildings.
Five bioenergy projects awarded funds from DOE pilot program
By Anna Simet, Biomass Magazine.
The U.S. DOE has awarded funding to 38 projects for which small businesses will team up with national lab researchers through the DOE’s Small Business Vouchers pilot program.
The intent of the SBV program is to facilitate access to DOE national labs for American small businesses, enabling them to tap into the intellectual and technical resources needed to overcome critical technology challenges for their advanced energy products, and gain a global competitive advantage, according to the DOE.