RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.UPS invests $100 million in compressed natural gas
By Renewable Energy from Waste Staff.
UPS, Altanta, announced plans to build an additional 12 compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations and add 380 new CNG tractors to its growing alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet. The CNG fueling stations and vehicle purchases totaling $100 million are part of UPS’s ongoing commitment to diversify its fuel sources and reduce its environmental impact.
“At UPS, we own our fleet and our infrastructure. That allows us to invest for the long-term, rather than planning around near-term fluctuations in fuel pricing,” says Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president global engineering and sustainability. “CNG is part of a broad investment in a variety of alternative fuel vehicles. Taken together, all of our alternative fuel vehicles represent 6% of the more than 100,000 UPS global fleet, and have driven a 10% annual reduction in use of conventional fuel.”
UPS is working to meet its goal of logging one billion miles with its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet by the end of 2017, using a rolling laboratory approach to determine the right alternative fuel solutions to meet the unique needs of route-specific driving environments.
Farm to fleets: Manure helps Chicago startup build natural gas network
By Ally Marotti, Chicago Tribune.
Chicago startup AmpCNG launched at a farm in northwest Indiana that converted cow manure to renewable natural gas.
Nearly five years later, that manure from Fair Oaks Farm is still a core part of the West Loop-based startup’s business. But its reach has grown. It now owns and operates 19 compressed natural gas, or CNG, stations in eight states, fueling the increasing number of vehicles that operate on the resource.
“You can fuel from Chicago to Miami with the network we’ve got in place,” said Grant Zimmerman, who was named CEO of AmpCNG on Thursday, replacing Nate Laurell, now executive chairman of the board.
Ohio's new clean energy ballot initiative sparks concern among utilities
By Krysti Shallenberger, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
- A clean energy ballot initiative in Ohio seeks voters' approval to greenlight $14.3 billion in bonds to be issued over 11 years to fund renewable energy projects, energy storage options and other energy infrastucture.
- Ohio's Attorney General Mike DeWine approved the intiative's language, recognizing it had garnered the minimum required 1,000 signatures necessary to land a spot on the ballot. The initiative proposes an amendment to the Ohio Constitution.
- The bonds would be controlled by the Ohio Energy Initiative Commission, an Ohio-based organization that's incorporated as a limited liability corporation in Delaware, SNL Energy reports.
EPA: US Climate Plan Also Addressing Agricultural Methane Emissions
By Karen Boman, Rigzone.
The Obama administration’s Climate Action Plan will not only target reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, but methane emissions from agriculture as well.
Results of a recently published study indicate that farming, not hydraulic fracturing, was behind the rise of methane emissions since 2007. Rigzone reached out to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to see what role that methane emissions from agriculture could be playing in U.S. methane emissions.
Agricultural activity in the United States accounts for about one-quarter of total U.S. methane emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told Rigzone in an email statement. According to the EPA’s website, methane emissions from natural gas and petroleum systems account for 29 percent of U.S. methane emissions.
House hearing on RFS fails to include input from biofuel industry
By Erin Voegele, Ethanol Producer Magazine.
On March 16, subcommittees of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the U.S. EPA’s management of the renewable fuel standard (RFS). The ethanol industry has criticized the event for failing to include testimony from a representative of the biofuels industry.
Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality; John DeCicco, a research professor with the University of Michigan Energy Institute; Kelly Stone, a policy analyst with ActionAid USA; Wallace Tyner, James and Lois Ackerman Professor at Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics; and Nicolas Loris, Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, offered testimony at the hearing.
During the nearly two hour event, Grundler was asked about future RFS standards. “I am not in a position to speculate what 2017, 2018, or 2019 standards will be,” he said. “That will be up to the administrator. We are doing the analysis right now for the 2017 volumes.”
Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland Could Save the US Climate Plan
By Tim McDonnell, Wired.
On Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama announced he will nominate Merrick Garland to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, on the Supreme Court.
Garland, who is currently chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, has an excruciating path to confirmation. He faces entrenched opposition from Senate Republicans, who have vowed to block anyone Obama appoints to the seat. As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer put it, “Garland is a political sacrificial lamb for the White House.”
But if Garland is somehow confirmed, one of his first big cases could determine the fate of Obama’s signature climate change policy.
Republicans worry about eventual EPA control of ethanol mandate
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee raised concerns Wednesday about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) potential eventual control over the federal ethanol fuel mandate.
Congress has provided the EPA with statutory blending requirements until 2022, at which time the Renewable Fuel Standard continues and the agency can set the levels on its own.
Republicans — many of whom oppose the mandate — said Wednesday they’re confused about what the EPA will do when the agency is in control of setting the amount of ethanol refiners blend into their gasoline supplies.
First-of-its-kind renewable biomethane fuelling station opens in UK
By Bioenergy Insight Magazine.
CNG Fuels, in partnership with the national grid, has unveiled a new filling station in the UK allowing vehicles to fill up on renewable compressed natural gas (CNG) directly from the high-pressure local transmission system.
The new facility is the first of its kind in the UK, according to CNG Fuels, and boasts a high-pressure connection delivered by national grid.
The station is capable of refuelling more than 500 heavy-duty trucks per day, and it will be accessible around the clock, 365 days a year.
Harvest Power Backs Out Of Landfill Lease
By Michael L. Rausch, Cape News.
A site lease and development agreement between the Town of Bourne and Harvest Power of Waltham has been terminated.
Harvest Power notified Integrated Solid Waste Management director Daniel T. Barrett in a letter dated Monday, March 14, of its decision to pull the plug on the proposed project at the Bourne landfill.
In his termination letter, Harvest Power manager Christian G. Kasper said that the company was choosing to exercise its option to back away from the site lease and development agreement because of an inability to secure a power purchase agreement with Eversource.
Oregon governor signs bill to expand RPS, phase out coal
By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.
On March 11, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed legislation that doubles the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) while eliminating coal from Oregon’s energy sources. The measure also provides incentives for energy efficiency, small- and community-scale renewable energy projects, and some existing biomass energy plants.
"Knowing how important it is to Oregonians to act on climate change, a wide range of stakeholders came to the table around Oregonians' investments in coal and renewable energy," Brown said. "Working together, they found a path to best equip our state with the energy resource mix of the future. Now, Oregon will be less reliant on fossil fuels and shift our focus to clean energy. I'm proud to sign a bill that moves Oregon forward, together with the shared values of current and future generations."
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