RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Spending deal to lift oil export ban
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
Lawmakers have agreed to lift the four-decade-old ban on crude oil exports as part of a spending and tax package announced by congressional leadership on Tuesday night, according to a GOP lawmaker.
In exchange, Republicans agreed to extend a series of expired or expiring renewable energy tax breaks. Both the wind production tax credit and the solar investment tax credit won five-year extensions in the tax and spending package unveiled on Tuesday, the GOP lawmaker said.
Lifting the crude oil ban was a key goal for Republicans, who have said American oil producers should have expanded access to the international market at a time of low prices and new competition from Iranian oil.
SCS Engineers Awarded Contract by Pinellas County for Environmental Consulting and Construction Services
By PRweb.
The Pinellas Board of County Commissioners has hired SCS Engineers to manage its side slope closure project at the Bridgeway Acres Landfill. SCS will also provide construction quality assurance, construction contract administration services, and geosynthetic materials conformance and field test services.
When portions of a waste site are closed special skills are provided by SCS’s environmental engineers to control leachate formation and landfill gas. The stability of the cover system is ruled by the shearing resistance that develops at the interfaces of various components of the cover systems. The slope angle, slope length, surface roughness of the geomembrane and tensile strength of the veneer reinforcement influence the stability of slopes. The impact of seepage forces also affects long-term stability and safety. The County has chosen to use a geomembrane cover, which with the conformance and in-place testing along with proper installation help to secure the longevity and stability of the slopes in the closed portions of the landfill.
WA State Dollars Flowing To Clean Energy Start-Ups Spurs Debate
By Austin Jenkins, KUOW.org.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee has made clean energy a signature issue of his administration. But some state clean energy grant money is flowing to startup companies staffed by former top state officials.
That’s fueled a larger debate about the value of spending state dollars on emerging technology.
Mukilteo, Washington-based UniEnergy Technologies makes batteries -- giant batteries that can store-up energy from the electric grid.
Climate Accord Could Provide Economic Assist As Utilities Reshape Power Generation Portfolios
By Ken Silverstein, Forbes.
The COP21 climate accord is likely to add momentum to a realignment occurring in energy markets. While the trend toward a lower carbon future has long been underway, market participants have a bit more certainty now that 187 nations have signed on.
The winners and losers are conspicuous: coal producers will get hit the hardest as national governments speed up the shift to cleaner fuels. Natural gas and renewables, meanwhile, can expect exponential growth. And with that, major makers of power generators smell the potential.
“I’m partial to natural gas,” says Joe Mastrangelo, chief executive of GE Power Systems, at the PowerGen conference in Las Vegas last week. “But we can sell anything: wind, solar, offshore wind, nuclear and even large coal plants. Right now, gas is hot and we are forecasting 50 percent growth” around the world.
Hoyer: Dems will 'strongly oppose' tax extenders package
By Mike Lillis, The Hill.
House Democratic leaders are voicing fierce opposition to an enormous tax-break package expected to be unveiled Tuesday.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the Democratic whip, said the proposal is too big and expensive and is one "we ought to strongly oppose."
"It would undermine the deficit, creating a larger debt. It would undermine tax reform, taking off the table [a number] of the things that would b included in a tax reform bill. ...And lastly it would substantially undermine our investments in growing our economy and creating jobs," Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol.
Consumer’s guide to generators & engines
By Curt Harler, Renewable Energy from Waste.
Running a generator for a waste conversion process is like hiking in the woods. If you have a good map and know where you are going, the trek will be a pleasant experience. Blunder blindly into the forest and there are many a big bad wolf out there to get you.
Whether municipal or private, the investment in a generation system represents a huge capital outlay. Getting the most out of a system involves a host of issues—most of which can be engineered properly if they are defined ahead of time.
Depending on the source material and the required output, there are different approaches and degrees of difficulty to generate fuel economically.
VIDEO: Food Waste from COP21 Talks Used for Biogas Production
By Ben Messenger, Waste Management World.
When any large group comes together to work on a project on the scale of the recent COP21 climate talks held in Paris, they have to eat. Unfortunately the inevitable consequence of that is food waste. Voice of America has published a video looking at what happened to the huge quantities generated by delegates to the talks.
The 40,000 people attending the talks were fed by six restaurants. The result? Over one tonne of food waste to dispose of every day.
To process the food waste from the talks specialist firm Moulinot uses an anaerobic digestion facility to produce biogas for energy generation.
Is this the week for extenders?
By Bernie Becker, with help from Brian Faler, Politico.
THIS IS THE WEEK. RIGHT?: Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but it looks like we don’t have any breakthroughs yet on the big deal to make temporary tax provisions permanent. Talks continued over the weekend, and tax writers and congressional leaders will continue to hash it out as the House and the Senate seek a year-end spending deal.
There’s a hope among some negotiators that they can wrap up the tax side of negotiations as soon as tonight. But it remains unclear whether Congress will land on the big deal, or the two-year extension of the expired tax breaks. And remember this: There’s no guarantee that lawmakers will beat their new next deadline for funding the government, Wednesday — meaning that the end game for Washington remains unclear less than two weeks before Christmas.
Read more...
NREL’s 2014 Data Book features bioenergy statistics
By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released its 2014 Data Book, showcasing increased use of renewable energy. According to the report, renewables accounted for approximately 11.1 percent of U.S. energy production in 2014. U.S. energy production totaled approximately 87 quadrillion Btu (quad) in 2014, with renewables accounting for 9.7 quad of that amount.
Natural gas accounted for 35 percent of U.S. energy production in 2014, with coal accounting for 23.3 percent. Crude oil accounted for 21 percent and nuclear accounted for 9.6 percent.
Biomass accounted for 5.6 percent of energy production, followed by hydropower at 2.8 percent, wind at 2 percent, solar at 0.5 percent and geothermal at 0.3 percent.
This Week: Oil export ban teeters in Congress
By Timothy Cama, The Hill.
Congress is focused on passing legislation to fund the federal government and renew tax policies, two measures that could have a sweeping impact on the energy sector.
The current government funding measure runs through Wednesday, leaving lawmakers with a tight timeline for action as they also seek to extend certain tax policies and incentives before the holidays.
Republicans have been pushing to insert a provision into one of the bills that would lift the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil from the United States, the top priority for the oil industry.
But in return, Democrats want to renew a tax credit for renewable energy on a long-term basis, or see other green energy measures included.
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