RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.EPA set to release ozone rule this week
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to release a contentious new rule limiting surface-level ozone pollution.
The agency has proposed tightening the current standard on ozone from 75 parts per billion to 65 or 70 parts per billion.
Regulators say they need to raise the standards to help the environment and improve public health. But the proposal has drawn scorn and bitter opposition from Republicans and business groups, who say the rule will be prohibitively expensive and lead to billions of dollars in compliance costs.
New Democratic Party's cap-and-trade system would let provinces opt out
By Margo McDiarmid and Trinh Theresa Do, CBC News.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair today announced further details of his plan to create a national system to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
"I will make Canada the global leader in the fight against climate change," he said to supporters during a town hall meeting in Toronto.
The NDP has already promised, during campaigning for the Oct. 19 federal election, that it will establish a national cap-and-trade system to make big polluters reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It aims to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.
Pork industry wants Duke Energy to use NC swine waste at plants
By Taft Wireback, Greensboro News & Record.
Duke Energy has stirred controversy in North Carolina’s hog industry with plans to burn biogas from out-of-state swine waste at its Dan River and Buck power plants.
The N.C. Pork Council wants state officials to squelch the Charlotte-based utility’s plan to rely on hog waste from the Midwest to meet the requirements of a state law calling on electric companies to use small amounts of swine-based fuel in their operations.
North Carolina has an abundance of its own hog waste, and the utility should be required to tap those sources in meeting the state standard, said Angie Maier, director of policy development and communication for the hog-industry council that’s headquartered in Raleigh.
Use of clean energy by 1.3 billion people can save $ 27 billion: NGO Climate Group
By PTI, The Economic Times.
NEW DELHI: Non-profit organisation Climate Group today said the use of clean energy like solar power by 1.3 billion people without electricity across the world could save them $ 27 billion.
"The Climate Group calculates that if the innovative business and finance model identified by the project was scaled up to cover all the 1.3 billion people in the world who currently have no access to electricity, the world's poor would be $27 billion better off," the organisation said in a press r ..
According to the Global Off-grid Lighting Association's estimates, they currently spend an estimated $30 billion per year buying kerosene for lighting purposes. However, lighting bills from solar micro-grids, home lighting systems and hand-held lighting systems are known to be over 90 per cent cheaper.
Walmart, Nike, Starbucks commit to 100% clean energy
By Katie Fehrenbacher, Fortune.
A handful of some of the largest U.S. companies including Walmart, Nike, Starbucks, and Salesforce have committed to buying clean energy that comes from solar and wind.
The nine mostly Fortune 500 companies took a pledge on Wednesday to join what’s called the “RE100,” a campaign created by the non-profit advocacy organization The Climate Group and environmental data company CDP. The announcement coincided with Climate Week NYC, a week-long event in New York focused on climate change, organized by The Climate Group.
The companies, which also include Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, plan to buy clean energy to reduce corporate carbon emissions, as well as align their corporate image with the environment.
Denver Zoo ditches plans to convert elephant dung for electricity
By Bruce Finley and Kirk Mitchell, The Denver Post.
The Denver Zoo has halted plans for an innovative biomass gasification system that would have turned animal waste into energy — at least for now.
Zoo officials attributed the decision largely to a question of resources and money. They and prominent supporters acknowledged Friday that the system still faced a significant hurdle: getting the thing to work.
The zoo's announcement left room for an outside partner to revive the plans by helping with costs and know-how. But officials made clear that the gasification system would not operate on the zoo's campus, as had been planned.
House speaker John Boehner to resign after battle with conservatives
By Sabrina Saddiqui, Ben Jacobs, and Tom McCarthy, The Guardian.
John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, will resign from Congress next month, he announced on Friday, in a stunning move that follows intense pressure from conservatives in the House.
The top Republican on Capitol Hill announced his resignation at a party meeting on Friday morning and later confirmed in a statement that he will step down on 30 October. It brings to a close a career spanning nearly three decades, and a four-year speakership that has been marked by Republican infighting following the party’s taking control of the chamber in 2011.
While addressing the media on Friday afternoon, a tearful Boehner cast his decision as one designed to protect the institution of Congress.
“I’m doing this today for the right reasons,” Boehner said. “And the right things will happen as a result.”
EPA, Foreign Regulators Crack Down on Emissions Over Cheating Revelation
By Amy Harder and Jason Chow, The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. regulators on Friday joined with governments in Europe and South America in pledging more emissions testing of diesel cars in real-world driving conditions, in the wake of revelations Volkswagen AG manipulated pollution checks.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a letter to auto manufacturers, said it plans to road-test vehicles, rather than primarily rely on statements from auto makers and some laboratory testing. The agency also indicated it would check for the presence of software designed to trick emissions testing.
Its plans comes on the heels of similar pledges by European, Brazilian and other regulators this week to step up emissions testing or launched probes to determine whether there are widespread violations of exhaust-pollution rules in the auto industry.
California air regulators order 10 percent carbon emissions cut for all fuel sold in state
By Judy Lin, Associated Press.
ACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators on Friday restored ambitious rules to cut transportation fuel emissions 10 percent within 5 years, a decision that gives Gov. Jerry Brown a boost for his climate change agenda.
The rules further strengthen California's toughest-in-the-nation carbon emissions standards, but oil producers warn the changes could drive up costs for consumers at the gas pump.
The changes are expected to add a few cents a gallon to the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel in the state that already has some of the highest gas prices in the nation. The state estimates a typical commuter will pay an extra $20 to $24 in 2017, increasing to $52 to $56 in 2020.
"We are on a path to reduce our dependence on petroleum and this program is a key piece of that action," Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, said ahead of the vote.
Federal lawsuit challenging Oregon's clean fuels program dismissed
By Saul Hubbard, The Register-Guard.
A federal lawsuit aimed at blocking the implementation of Oregon’s controversial low-carbon fuel standard has been dismissed.
The lawsuit, filed by three national industry groups representing oil and trucking companies, claimed that the fuel standard, known as the “clean fuels” program, violated the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause by discriminating against out-of-state fuel and biofuel companies. It also claimed the program is pre-empted by the federal Clean Air Act.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene dismissed all those arguments in a decision released Thursday.
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