RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Legislative Package Could Boost Alternative Fuels in Washington State
By NGT News.
A bipartisan group of Washington state senators recently outlined a comprehensive energy plan, which includes some bills that would help encourage the use of alternative fuels in the region.
State Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, unveiled the plan alongside Sens. Maralyn Chase, D-Shoreline; Curtis King, R-Yakima; Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick; Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch; and Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee.
Although not the main bill of the senators' initiative, S.B.5325 would establish the Clean Fuel Vehicle Incentives Act. According to related documents, S.B.5325 would provide a sales and use tax exemption in an effort to increase sales of alternative fuel commercial vehicles in Washington by 10% by 2026.
Landfills Leading the Charge, Not Trailing the Pack, on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By Sharon Kneiss, Waste360.
Peter Anderson says he wants to do triage on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, but in his rambling haste to perform surgery on landfills he offers an inaccurate diagnosis.
So let’s perform an actual triage. The waste and recycling industry realizes that landfills are a source of methane. We continue to work tirelessly to build on decades of innovations that have dramatically reduced those emissions while also adding valuable production to our country’s renewable energy portfolio.
In fact, landfills are among the best performers in methane reductions since the EPA began tracking this data in 1990
Washington State Takes Next Step on Clean Fuels Standard
By Simon Mui, the Energy Collective.
Washington's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) took another step recently by releasing a discussion document about a state Clean Fuels Standard (CFS) for public input and comments.
The documents released show that the oil industry and petroleum-based transportation fuels are the largest source of carbon pollution in the state - over 40% - but that a wide range of alternative fuel sources could significantly reduce that pollution while attracting additional clean fuel investments and companies to the state.
E3 releases report on decarbonizing pipeline gas in California
By Katie Fletcher, Biomass Magazine.
Energy and Environmental Economics Inc., or E3, released a study in January commissioned by Southern California Gas. The study investigates the potential role decarbonized pipeline gas and existing gas pipeline infrastructure can have in California to help meet the state’s 2050 greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals.
The study concludes that a technology pathway for decarbonized gas could feasibly meet the GHG emission reduction goals, and may even be easier to implement in some sectors. According to the report, “By 2050 traditional uses of oil and natural gas, including transportation fuels, water and space heating, and industrial boilers and process heating, will need to be mostly, if not fully, decarbonized.”
The study approaches the issue by looking at two “technology pathway” scenarios. The electrification scenario is where most energy end uses are electrified and powered by renewable electricity by 2050. The second scenario is mixed, where both electricity and decarbonized gas play significant roles in the state’s energy supply. In this scenario decarbonized gas replaces existing natural gas demand and fuels heavy-duty vehicles, but renewable energy is used to produce electricity and to power most light-duty vehicles.
In order to identify realistic sources of decarbonized gas, the study identifies three energy carriers for decarbonized gas, each with different primary energy sources: biogas, hydrogen and synthetic natural gas (SNG).
Municipalities Playing A Leading Role In U.S. Renewable Energy Development
By Dino Barajas, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP for JD Supra.
In an ever-changing, evolving global economy, renewable energy developers and investors are looking for the panacea that encourages continued economic growth and revitalizes new project development in the United States’ renewable energy sector. As investor-owned utilities (IOUs) achieve required state renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) levels, their willingness to seek even more power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy projects appears to be declining.
Additionally, corporate off-takers have become more discerning in who they are willing to contract with for their renewable energy off-take requirements. The combined pressures of fewer PPAs in the market and increased demands imposed by potential off-takers has made the U.S. quite a competitive renewable energy market. The present transitional market phase has created challenges for both power producers and integrators. For the U.S. to continue progress towards scalable levels of renewable energy deployment, near term solutions must be implemented during this time of market uncertainty.
Washington State GOP want Renewables Law Changed
By Bill Peters, Argus Media.
Washington state Senate Republicans want to revise the state's renewable energy standard to encourage utilities to pay for carbon reductions in the transportation sector as part of a larger package of energy legislation.
Their main bill is SB 5735, which would amend the state's renewable energy mandate to allow utilities to comply through investments in non-electricity sector programs that cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Other proposals include tax incentives for alternative fuel vehicles and small modular nuclear reactors.
The package exemplifies the Republicans' vision for environmental policies, which is that "we are about carrots, not sticks" or raising taxes, state senator Doug Ericksen (R) said.
Inslee a student of California’s carbon-cap lessons
By Hal Bernton, Seattle Times.
California has the nation’s most ambitious system to reduce carbon emissions. It’s the model for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s carbon-reduction legislation in this state.
On a balmy winter day, a tanker truck pulls up to a Rotten Robbie service station to deliver a load of gasoline that, once consumed by cars and trucks, will release more than 60 tons of carbon dioxide.
Ever since the invention of the internal-combustion engine, the atmosphere has been a free dumping ground for this greenhouse-gas pollution.
Not anymore in California.
With climate change on the California Legislature’s agenda, utilities ‘making the rounds’
By David Siders, Sacramento Bee.
Soon after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed expanding greenhouse gas reduction policies in his State of the State address, California’s influential utilities praised Brown’s agenda but moved quietly to craft a version that could be easier for them to meet.
The effort, outlined by the utilities in talks with lawmakers, state regulators and interest groups – including at a private gathering in Napa last week – focuses on a proposal by Brown to increase to 50 percent from one-third the proportion of electricity California derives from such renewable sources as wind and solar.
Instead of including the 50 percent target in the state’s existing regulatory framework, the utilities argue, California should require increased carbon reduction through other, more flexible means. They say other approaches could cost less while still achieving environmental goals.
Green Jobs, Renewable Energy Pledged by New Statewide Coalition
By Casey Cora, DNA Info.
Getting union presidents, energy company CEOs, construction guys, the mayor, pastors and environmental policy wonks in the same room isn't easy.
It is, however, "unusual, unique, valuable and important," said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.
Data and Tools to Better Evaluate Biogas Potential
By Amanda Bilek, Biomass Magazine.
Biogas projects come in all shapes and sizes and are implemented across a variety of industrial, municipal and agricultural applications. For a biogas project, there is no “one size fits all”. The variety of biogas feedstock sources and end-use applications sets it apart from other biomass project configurations. However, the variations among operational and potential biogas projects make it difficult to adequately access the resource potential for this underutilized renewable energy resource. Individual states are taking the lead to better evaluate and assess potential biogas projects.
In the past year, the state of Iowa has worked to assess their biogas resource. I recently participated in a webinar where the Iowa Biogas Assessment Model was profiled. The model is an online, GIS, interactive map where a user can click on different layers of data to study the biogas resource or conduct an initial screen of where a potential project could be sited based on feedstock and infrastructure availability within a certain geography. IBAM was developed by EcoEngineers under contract with the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The tool is available at www.ecoengineers.us/ibam.
Don’t miss an update—join our weekly newsletter below.