RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Applied LNG, BP Energy reach biogas agreement
By Applied LNG.
Applied LNG announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase biomethane (biogas) from BP Energy Co.
BP Energy will supply Applied LNG with biogas from waste landfill sites, which produce methane as a byproduct. Applied LNG will use this biogas to produce LNG in its liquefaction facility in Topock, Arizona, that will be sold to the transportation fuel market.
Canadian Gas Association Fully Supports new Tax Treatment for LNG Facilities
By Oil & Gas News.
The Canadian Gas Association (CGA) welcomes the announcement that the Government of Canada intends to establish new Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) rates to help support investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Canada.
The Federal Government announced that it intends to establish a capital cost allowance rate of 30 per cent for equipment used in natural gas liquefaction and 10 per cent for buildings at a facility that liquefies natural gas. This investment support will be available for capital assets acquired after February 19, 2015, and before 2025.
State prepares to Readopt Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
By Debra Kahn, E&E.
Proposed amendments to the first-in-the-nation regulation would tweak the compliance targets through 2020 and adjust emissions scores for various fuels, as well as set the program on course to extend to 2030. That raised industry's ire at a California Air Resources Board hearing yesterday in Sacramento.
The standard is intended to reduce the carbon content of fuels by 10 percent by 2020. Fuel producers and importers have to either adjust the blend of fuels they offer to reach the target or buy emissions credits in a state-created system. In addition to California, Oregon and Washington state are considering similar policies.
Natural gas trucking fleet could benefit economy, but has mixed environmental effects
By Kate Kerlin, UC Davis.
Switching from diesel fuel to natural gas may hold advantages for the nation’s heavy-duty trucking fleet, but more needs to be done to reach the full environmental benefits, according to a report released today from the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and Rice University.
With the so-called “shale revolution,” the recent emergence of natural gas as an abundant, inexpensive fuel in the United States has raised the possibility of a larger shift in the level of natural gas used in transportation. The report examines the economic and environmental viability of such a shift, and whether it could enable a transition to lower carbon transport fuels.
“On a resilience basis, an energy security basis, and on an economic basis, there can be advantages to switching to natural gas in key locations,” said lead author Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director for Energy and Sustainability at UC Davis and an affiliate at ITS-Davis.
Renewable Energy makeover clears House Committee
By John Herrick, Vermont Digger.
A proposed remake of the state’s renewable energy program cleared its first major hurdle Tuesday with broad support from a panel of lawmakers.
After three weeks of deliberation, the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee voted 10-1 to pass H.40, a bill requiring utilities to sell renewable power and incentivize fossil fuel consumption reductions by their customers.
Special report on renewable energy plan.
This bill aims to avoid a potential rate increase under Vermont’s current program and reduce greenhouse gas emissions coming from all energy sectors, including heating and transportation.
Why the power grid of the future is in California and New York
By Matthew Crosby and Dan Cross-Call, RMI Outlet.
In The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell popularized the process—first described by Everett Rogers—by which innovative ideas, policies, and products start with a small but influential minority of early adopters and then spread rapidly to a much wider segment of the market. The planning and design of the electric grid could be at just such a tipping point, with New York and California leading the chargeon how to integrate significantly higher amounts of distributed energy resources (DERs) onto a grid historically built around centralized assets like large power plants.
Regenis, DVO partner on California AD plant
By Staff, Renewable Energy from Waste.
A project that seeks to convert waste generated at dairy farms into biogas in California’s Central Valley has been commissioned. The Calgren Ethanol Biodigester, located in Pixley, California, will bring together a two-stage mixed plug flow digester, designed by Wisconsin-based DVO Inc. and built by Regenis, Ferndale, Washington, the largest builder of digesters in the western United States.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) invested $4.6 million in the project.
Maine watching other states on thermal energy credits
By Darren Fishell, BDN Maine.
As other New England states add incentives for heating systems that use renewable energy sources, Maine’s top energy official said he’s taking a wait-and-see approach.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire have both added thermal energy to their renewable portfolio standards, which in Maine provides a subsidized market for electricity generators using renewable power.
Renewables advocates in the Northeast point to heating as a prime area of opportunity in the region’s cold climates. Patrick Woodcock, head of the Governor’s Energy Office, said during a Jan. 21 forum in Hallowell he thinks adding thermal energy “could have huge benefits.”
CA Climate Leadership: Golden State Standard (50-50-50)
By Senator Kevin de Leon, California State Senate.
Join the RNG Coalition in following and supporting California's Climate Leadership.
Watch the press conference by RNG Coalition friend and Senate President Kevin de Leon about SB 32 and SB 350 (the Golden State Standard) introduced, among other measures, to spur innovation and investment in a sustainable California, by setting the following goals for 2030:
50% reduction in petroleum use;
50% utility power coming from renewable energy;
50% increase in energy efficiency in existing buildings.
Energy efficiency is B.C.’s key to kicking fossil fuel economic crutch
By Peter Ladner, Business Vancouver.
The current slump in oil prices is a reminder that surprises are never far away, and that our most fervent beliefs about energy just might need some fracking.
For starters, does it make sense to keep pinning our provincial and federal economic future on oil and gas extraction? Even though the oil and gas industry is still a relatively small piece of the Canadian economy, its spinoff benefits, geographical positioning and corporate and political influence have vaulted it to the top of our political agenda as the place to focus to keep our economy growing.
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