RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Renewable sources of heat will qualify for incentives under new Mass. law
By: Jon Chesto, Managing Editor, Print-Boston Business Journal
Massachusetts’ generous incentives spurred a wave of solar panel construction that has made this state one of the hottest places for solar electricity in the country.
We might soon see the same type of success with renewable heating devices and technologies, now that the Legislature has added “renewable thermal” to the state’s official list of favored energy sources.
Policy makers and regulators have focused their attention on renewable electricity projects for years. But they have done very little to encourage projects that use renewable energy for heating or cooling.
Propane made with renewable process for the first time
By Adam Vaughan, The Guardian.
A gas which can power cars and heat homes has been made using a renewable process for the first time.
Propane, which makes up the bulk component of liquefied natural gas (LPG), has previously only ever been produced from fossil fuels.
But a team of scientists at Imperial College in London has successfully demonstrated that they can make propane from...
New Hampshire Releases 10-Year Renewable Energy Strategy
By Sam Evans-Brown, NHPR.
At the tail-end of the section that opens New Hampshire’s ten-year energy strategy, released Tuesday, there are three paragraphs that acknowledge the issue which has been dominating the regional energy conversation.
In a statement Governor Maggie Hassan called these “concrete ways to help reduce energy costs, create jobs, protect our natural resources and improve reliability and diversity.”
Air Liquide opens its first hydrogen filling station for the general public in the Netherlands
Press Release.
On September 3, 2014, Air Liquide inaugurated its first hydrogen filling station in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in the presence of the Secretary of State of the Dutch Ministry of Transport and the Environment.
This station will be the first Air Liquide hydrogen filling station located in the Netherlands. It has the capacity to refuel fifty cars per day. One hydrogen full tank, which takes under five minutes to achieve, will give Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles a range of 500 – 600 km.
Landfill donates CNG vehicle
By Daily World.
Keeping Opelousas and the parish clean will get a little cheaper because of two donated vehicles from the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District. The trucks include a new, environmentally friendly and cost-effective option — they are powered by compressed natural gas, or CNG.
That fuel comes at a discount because it is a byproduct of the parish landfill in the Beggs community. Solid Waste is converting waste methane captured from its landfill into CNG equal to about 250 gallons of gasoline a day. District officials say more capacity is possible.
Nation’s largest anaerobic digestion firm endorses biogas opportunities roadmap
By Agri-View
DVO, Inc., the nation’s largest designer of anaerobic digestion systems, announced its support for the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap, a report issued earlier this month by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Energy and Environmental Protection Agency.
“We are encouraged by the very existence of this Roadmap,” said Steve Dvorak, president of DVO. “It will help educate government agencies, the dairy industry and the public on the numerous economic and environmental benefits of anaerobic digestion.”
Waste-to-Energy Could Supply 12% of US Electricity
By Environmental Leader.
If all of the municipal solid waste (MSW) that is currently put into landfills each year in the US were diverted to waste-to-energy (WTE) power plants, it could generate enough electricityto supply 12 percent of the US total, according to a study conducted by the Earth Engineering Center (EEC) of Columbia University.
According to the study, this shift also could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 123 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.
California bill to delay cap-and-trade expansion finished for year
By Jeremy B. White, Sacramento Bee
Avoiding an election-year legislative debate over how California’s cap-and-trade program could affect gasoline prices, the leader of the state Senate has sidelined a bill that would have delayed a key aspect of California’s landmark emissions law.
Several years have passed since California enacted AB 32, a 2006 law meant to reduce heat-trapping emissions and which requires industries to purchase permits for the carbon they pump into the air. But transportation fuelssuch as gasoline have not yet come under the program. That is scheduled to change in January, prompting moderate Democrats and an oil industry-funded campaign to warn about a spike in prices and argue for a delay.
Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno, warned that the change would hurt residents of inland districts where unemployment hovers above the state average and long commutes are commonplace. His Assembly Bill 69 would have delayed bringing transportation fuels under the cap-and-trade program. Numerous moderate Democrats signed a letter supporting the concept.
Consumers can’t afford a delay in cap-and-trade
By Shannon Baker-Branstetter, Special to the Sacramento Bee.
There’s no harm in “honest discussion” about fuels, as The Sacramento Bee says in its editorial,“Pump prices will rise, and Senate should air details” (Aug. 17). But honesty involves getting the premise right – and honesty isn’t what the oil industry is offering. The question isn’t one of how much gas prices are going to go up. In fact, Assembly Bill 32 is written so that oil companies need not increase prices at all. If they do, that is something they are choosing to do.
Microsoft Leaves ALEC Amid Split Over Renewables
By Ari Natter, Bloomberg.
Microsoft Corp. has left the American Legislative Exchange Council because of concerns about the lobbying group's opposition to renewable energy, a coalition of activist investor groups said.
“Microsoft is a leader on carbon issues—in 2012, it committed to becoming carbon neutral, and is one of the largest corporate purchasers of renewable energy,” the Boston-based groups said in a news release. “Thus, we believe that its affiliation with ALEC, which is actively fighting policies that promote renewable energy, was incongruous. In addition, there were numerous other ALEC actions that conflicted directly with Microsoft's values.”
Arlington, Va.-based ALEC has drafted model legislation for use in state legislatures to roll back renewable fuel standards across the country. Its members include ExxonMobil Corp., Peabody Energy Inc., American Electric Power Co. and Koch Industries Inc., according to the Checks and Balances Project, a nonprofit watchdog group that supports the use of clean energy.
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