RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Republic Services Expands CNG-Powered Fleet in Phoenix
By PR Newswire.
Republic Services announced today the addition of four Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) solid waste collection trucks to its fleet serving customers throughout the greater Phoenix area. The CNG trucks replace older diesel-powered trucks, and bring the total number of natural gas vehicles operated by Republic Services throughout Arizona to 34.
"Natural gas-powered collection trucks run cleaner and quieter, providing our customers and the communities we serve with a top-notch level of customer service and minimal impact on the environment," said Alberto Guardado, area president of Republic Services. "This CNG fleet expansion represents a significant investment in cleaner, safer and more efficient vehicles in our local Phoenix Metro area."
Republic Services operates a natural gas fueling station at its Lower Buckeye location to support its expanding Phoenix-based CNG fleet. 19% of Republic's fleet serving the greater Phoenix metropolitan area is now powered by the domestic fuel source. Republic operates a total of 178 collection trucks within the Phoenix area and 280 collection trucks statewide.
Overnight Energy: Senate moves to halt Obama’s climate rules
By Timothy Cama and Devin Henry, The Hill.
SENATE VOTES DOWN CLIMATE RULES: The Senate voted Tuesday to overturn President Obama's carbon dioxide limits for power plants, the key piece of his climate change agenda.
In a pair of votes, senators passed resolutions under the Congressional Review Act to stop the regulations for existing power plants and for new ones.
Less than two weeks before the United Nations climate deal negotiations in Paris, the GOP wanted to send a strong message that they disagree with the rules, which represent the main pillar of what Obama is contributing to the international deal.
Constellation and LA Sanitation Start Construction on Biogas-Fueled Cogeneration Plant
By Business Wire.
LOS ANGELES - Constellation, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, and LA Sanitation today announced the start of construction of a 25-megawatt (net) biogas-fueled cogeneration plant, which will supply 100 percent of the steam and electricity produced to power LA Sanitation’s Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilmember Mike Bonin, and representatives from LA Sanitation and Constellation attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the Hyperion site to mark the occasion.
The cogeneration plant is expected to generate more than 173 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and supply up to 70,000 pounds per hour of steam, using the methane captured through Hyperion’s sewage treatment process as its fuel source.
“At LA Sanitation, we are committed to protecting public health and our environment,” said LA Sanitation Director, Enrique C. Zaldivar, P.E. “Keeping our commitment means continually improving and finding innovative new ways to meet the sustainability goals that Mayor Garcetti has set for the entire city. Today's groundbreaking brings us closer to fulfilling our pledge to the people of Los Angeles.”
EPA chief: ‘we will prevail’ in power plant lawsuits
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
The Obama administration’s top environmental regulator predicted new, broad power plant regulations will hold up despite a series of lawsuits against them.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy said that regulators knew that implementing its Clean Power Plan, a rule designed to cut emissions from power plants, “was not going to be an effort without controversy.”
The Clean Power Plan, which looks to cut power sector emissions by 32 percent by 2030, is the cornerstone of Obama's climate change agenda. Since the EPA finalized the regulation, more than half the states and scores of interest groups and businesses have sued against it, arguing regulators overstepped their bounds in issuing the rule.
Hoeven vows to block EPA climate rules in omnibus
By John Siciliano, Washington Examiner.
The Republican chairman of a Senate appropriations subcommittee is vowing to take the fight to block President Obama's climate change regulations to an omnibus spending bill slated to be taken up next month.
"I am also looking to block [the climate rules] in the omnibus appropriations bill that Congress will take up in the coming weeks," said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., while speaking on the Senate floor ahead of a vote on a resolution to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. Hoeven is the chairman of the appropriations committee's homeland security subcommittee and also serves on the Senate energy committee.
The Clean Power Plan places states on the hook to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and is the centerpiece of the president's climate change agenda. The plan is also the linchpin in the administration's strategy to reach a global deal on emissions reductions at a United Nations conference in Paris Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
House panel to take up anti-climate rule resolutions Wednesday
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to advance two resolutions to block the Clean Power Plan after the White House announced President Obama would veto similar measures in the Senate.
The committee took opening statements Tuesday on two resolutions that would block greenhouse gas emissions limits on new and existing power plants. The Republican-dominated panel is expected to pass the resolutions and send them to the full House at a meeting Wednesday morning.
Using the Congressional Review Act, the resolutions would be a mostly symbolic measure to stop Obama's signature environmental regulation. The White House announced Tuesday afternoon Obama would veto Senate resolutions aiming to do the same thing, and it's unlikely either chamber would muster the two-thirds vote needed to override a veto.
Extenders time
By Bernie Becker, with help from Elena Chiriboga and Toby Eckert, Politico.
MOST WONDERFUL TIME: Ah, mid-November — when people start complaining that the holiday season is starting way too early again, and that the U.S. tax code should give businesses and individuals more certainty by ending the stop-and-start extenders cycle.
Lawmakers are still discussing what this year’s extenders package will look like, and they’re starting to get bombarded by various interest groups wanting to make sure they’re taken care of.
Charitable groups, for instance, have made their priority for the extenders package expanding the provision allowing tax-free donations from IRAs and flattening the excise tax on foundations, according to people with knowledge of the pitch. (The latter measure isn’t actually an expiring provision but was included in a set of charitable extenders passed by the House.
House passes short-term highway patch
By Keith Laing and Cristina Marcos.
The House approved a measure by voice vote on Monday to extend federal transportation funding for two weeks in an effort to prevent a highway-funding shutdown.
The measure would extend federal transportation spending — currently set to expire on Friday — until Dec. 4. The Senate is expected to quickly take the patch up at the end of this week to prevent an interruption in the nation's infrastructure projects.
Lawmakers are hoping the latest temporary highway funding patch will provide time for them to finish work on a long-sought multiyear infrastructure bill.
Landfills turn trash into energy in Wake County, NC
By Liz Horton, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham.
Deep in the piles of trash at our area landfills lies a potent greenhouse gas: Methane.
Its global warming potential is 25 times greater than carbon dioxide alone. But if used in the right way, methane can also be converted into renewable energy.
That's exactly what John Roberson, head of Wake County Waste Services, is doing in Apex.
Casella New York Landfill Expansion on Track for December Delivery
By Megan Greenwalt, Waste 360.
To continue the reduction in odor permeating the Ontario County landfill in New York, Casella Waste Systems Inc. received permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) to expand gas collection at the landfill.
According to the NYDEC, the landfill is located on routes 5 and 20 in the town of Seneca, Ontario County, N.Y., which is a mixed solid waste landfill accepting non-hazardous solid waste.
The NYDEC states on its website that the landfill expansion would consist of two stages, which would cover approximately 16 acres around the northern and western boundaries of the landfill, and the Eastern, which would cover approximately 27.5 acres to the east, including the existing soil borrow area.
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