RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.California Needs a Strategy for Sustainable Natural Gas
By Joel Levin, Huffington Post.
Combustion of natural gas is responsible for a quarter of California's carbon emissions. If we are going to achieve the 80 percent reduction in emissions proposed by state legislators in S.B. 32, we will need to think clearly about the role that natural gas plays now and the role that we envision for it in the future.
Natural gas today is primarily -- but not exclusively -- a fossil fuel. It mainly comes from fossil carbon stored in the earth's crust, just like coal and petroleum. It is used for electricity generation and also for heating our homes and hot water, cooking our food, and to generate heat for various manufacturing processes. However, gas is different from other fossil fuels in three important ways.
First, gas is not just a fossil fuel. Natural gas can also come from biogas, created from the decay of organic waste products in landfills, and from waste water, animal manure, and agricultural waste.
Police agencies can save fuel, reduce emissions, save money by 'going green'
By Joe Koenig, Chicago Tribune.
Law enforcement agencies are often the largest consumers of fuel in municipal fleets. Police fleets at both the state and local levels can reduce fuel costs and improve their environmental footprint by using alternative fuels.
Today, in an effort to assist police agencies to improve fuel efficiency, three Clean Cities coalitions from the Midwest region teamed up with Advanced VTech of Buffalo Grove to host a Police Alternative Fuel Summit. Chicago Area Clean Cities, South Shore Clean Cities (Northern Indiana), and Wisconsin Clean Cities hosted the summit at Advanced VTech's vehicle care facilities. The summit focused on the use of alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG) and propane to power police vehicles.
Tax Day Update: 2015 Inflation Adjustments and Prices for Energy Credits Released by IRS
By Jordan Collins, JD Supra Business Advisor.
Just in time for tax day – but 14 days behind the Congressional deadline – the IRS released the statutorily required calculations to determine the value of the Section 45 Production Tax Credit (“PTC”) credit amount in 2015, and whether or not a phase-out of the calculation would be required.
The PTC has historically been the primary incentive for the wind industry, but a number of other clean energy technologies are also eligible for the credit.
According to the IRS’s determination, the PTC will remain at 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour in 2015 for qualified facilities utilizing the following technologies:
US Energy Excise Tax Proposed Legislative Changes
By Jay Buchman, Michael Hirschfeld, Michael Lehmann, JD Supra Business Advisor.
Federal excise taxes imposed on natural gas, propane and other alternative fuels can significantly add to their cost and can create a disincentive to their use compared with more traditional fuels such as diesel and gasoline, with the deterrent effect depending upon the level of such taxes. Legislation has recently been introduced in Congress that if enacted will serve to (i) reduce the excise taxes imposed on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and propane and (ii) make related changes to tax credits that are available to reduce these excise taxes. Such changes could affect the energy industry by benefitting the LNG and propane sector while simultaneously harming their competitor fuels such as diesel and gasoline. Congress will now undertake the difficult balancing act of determining if these proposed changes should be adopted wholesale, modified or rejected.
Status Review of California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard
By UC Davis.
This issue reviews LCFS compliance metrics from 2011 through 2014: credits and deficits generated and transport fuel energy (Section 1), fuel carbon intensity (Section 2), and credit trading and prices (Section 3). We take a special look at California in-state biofuel production and consumption (Section 4), and revisit fuel price impacts of the LCFS and the Cap-and-Trade Program, and interactive effects of the two (Section 5). We also briefly summarize the proposed changes in the LCFS re-adoption (Section 6).
Portland treatment plant to produce renewable natural gas
By City of Portland, Biomass Magazine.
The Portland City Council has approved a contract for final design of a facility at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant to convert biogas into compressed natural gas vehicle fuel. Biogas is a byproduct of solids treatment. This project would allow the plant to re-use nearly all of the 600 million cubic feet of biogas it produces annually.
Former Obama Economic Adviser Calls for Shift in Biofuels Mandate
By Amy Harder, The Wall Street Journal.
A former White House economic adviser is calling for changes to a 2005 law mandating increased use of alternative fuels in the nation’s transportation supply, adding a key voice to a growing chorus of people who say the policy is not working.
In a report published Thursday, Harvard University professor Jim Stock, who served on President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2013 and 2014, proposes several reforms to the biofuels mandate, known as the renewable fuel standard, including some requiring congressional approval.
EPA Strikes Deal With Oil Industry Groups Over Renewable Fuel Standard
By Angela Neville, Texas Lawyer.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tried to avoid adding fuel to the fire in connection with a lawsuit filed against it in March by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. The two oil industry trade associations alleged that the federal agency failed to meet the congressionally mandated Renewable Fuel Standard deadlines.
The complaint alleged that the EPA had violated a nondiscretionary duty under the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §7545(o)(3)(B), to establish renewable fuel obligations applicable to the calendar years 2014 and 2015 and to approve or disapprove plaintiffs' petition to waive in part for calendar year 2014 the renewable fuel volumes established by 42 U.S.C. §7545(o)(2).
The EPA recently reached a settlement with the two plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The proposed consent decree, filed on April 10 with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, establishes the following schedule for issuing RFSs for 2014 and 2015: by June 1, the agency will propose volume requirements for 2015; and by Nov. 30, the EPA will finalize volume requirements for 2014 and 2015 and resolve a pending waiver petition for 2014, according to Jennifer Colaizzi, press officer at the EPA's Office of Public Affairs.
CA Low Carbon Fuel Standard Credit Trading Activity Reports
By California Air Resources Board.
This page provides information regarding ARB's Low Carbon Fuel Standard credit trading activity, including information on recent credit transfers volumes, credit prices and price trends. The following schedule has been established for monthly release of this information:
Credit trading activity reports will be posted on the second Tuesday of every month.
Santa Monica Lawmaker Pushes For Renewable Natural Gas
By Hector Gonzalez, Santa Monica Lookout.
A bill by Santa Monica-area state Sen. Ben Allen that requires sellers of natural gas to switch to greener products has passed a key committee, his office announced.
Senate Bill (SB) 687 passed the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee last week on a vote of 7 to 3. It now goes to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee for a hearing on April 29.
“California is a leader in efforts to combat climate change, but our gas usage has been left out of the equation until now,” said Allen, D-Santa Monica. “
This legislation aims to reduce the harmful impact the natural gas sector, which is a major contributor to global warming, by shifting to more clean and green forms of gas that are readily available.”
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