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Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Clean Power Plan sees diverse support in court filings, including utilities
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
- A wide range of groups filed briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in support of the Clean Power Plan last week, including utilities, clean energy companies and tech giants, EnergyWire reports.
- More than 200 current and former lawmakers, most of them Democrats, have filed an amicus brief arguing the CPP, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector 32% by 2030, is consistent with the Clean Air Act.
- Among large corporations supporting the rule are: Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, Ikea, Mars Inc. (the candy maker), and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. A handful of investor-owned utilities are also supporting the rule.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon back EPA on Clean Power Plan
By Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge.
Tech giants are gathering in support of the Obama administration's contested plan to shift the US toward clean energy. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon joined together to file a court brief on Friday, describing their reasons for supporting the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. "Delaying action on climate change will be costly in economic and human terms, while accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy will produce multiple benefits with regard to sustainable economic growth, public health, resilience to natural disasters, and the health of the global environment," the brief says.
The Clean Power Plan intends to cut carbon pollution 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Accomplishing this will require more than just deployment of renewable energy sources; states will likely have to make their existing coal-fire plants more efficient, or else reduce their usage of them. The rules are currently being challenged in court by 27 states. In February, they were put on hold by the Supreme Court, signaling that the court — as it was then composed — may be leaning in the plaintiffs' direction.
New Reports Show Significant Consumer Savings from California Climate Policies
By Alex Jackson, National Resources Defense Council.
For decades now, the principal argument against taking action to mitigate climate change is that we can’t afford it. While this narrative has always distorted the truth relative to the costs of inaction (what we truly can’t afford), it is seized on time and again by the fossil fuel industry and their political allies to thwart progress on climate – even in a state like California that is leading the way.
But in assessing the impact of California’s climate initiatives under the banner of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), now a decade into implementation, two new studies definitively put that notion to rest.
The first, released yesterday by Consumers Union (the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports), looks at the cumulative impact of California’s climate policies on household transportation costs. The key finding? Even after accounting for industry compliance costs, California households are projected to save up to $1,500 annually by 2030 thanks to lower annual fuel bills, and low-income households will experience the largest savings (as a share of income). The key reason? As the researchers, ICF International, put it – “focusing exclusively on vehicle and fuel pricing…can be misleading. Ultimately, consumer expenditures on travel are a function of vehicle and fuel pricing, as well as parameters such as vehicle efficiency and vehicle miles traveled.”
Michigan County Seeing Good Results in Using Septic Waste at Landfill
By Megan Greenwalt, Waste 360
Smiths Creek Landfill in St. Clair County, Mich., has been utilizing a unique approach to managing municipal solid waste (MSW) by using human fecal waste from residential septic tanks to eliminate waste and create energy, and hoping to change the way MSW is managed in the U.S.
Together with legislative, regulatory, and industry partners, in 2008 St. Clair County launched a full‐scale bioreactor landfill Research, Development, and Demonstration Project (RDDP). Leveraging the environmental engineering expertise of the county’s consultant CTI and Associates Inc., the county launched the RDDP to become the first septage bioreactor landfill in the United States.
CTI and Associates Inc. based in Novi, Mich., determined that injecting septic waste into the landfill would significantly speed up the decomposition of the waste, allowing the landfill to remain in service for much longer.
Report finds that clean energy employs 2.5 million in U.S.
By Anmar Frangoul, CNBC News.
The clean energy industry in the U.S. employs over 2.5 million people, according to new analysis released by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a nonpartisan business group.
The findings in a report, "Clean Jobs America", show that the energy efficiency sector employs 1.9 million Americans, with other sectors such as solar and wind accounting for 299,000 and 77,000 workers respectively.
"In a short amount of time, clean energy has become a huge part of our workforce and our economy," Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, said in a statement.
How yard waste would boost methane energy
By Jessica Gill, WOWT News.
OMAHA, Neb. -- It is a subject that gets Omaha residents riled up: waste collection. The very idea of ending Omaha's popular Oma-Gro compost program has avid gardeners up in arms. The yard waste that becomes Oma-Gro could be directed instead of an alternative source of energy.
The alternative is more gas, or methane, which is already used to power several thousand homes across the metro. The process has been around since 2002. But waste management is suggesting the city put more yard waste into the landfill, creating more renewable energy. It’s the only facility in the state that can turn trash into energy.
OPPD’s Tim Yager said the process is not the least expensive way to do it, but it’s nowhere near the highest cost generator either.
Opposition drops their Oregon Clean Fuels fight
By Taylor W. Anderson, The Bulletin.
SALEM — While the battle against a state biofuels program won’t end entirely, a cluster of oil companies and interest groups angling for a fight to repeal the policy during the November election said Thursday it’s giving up.
The surrender ends a yearslong fight against Oregon’s low-carbon fuel standard, also known as Clean Fuels because it aims to slightly lower greenhouse gas emissions through new requirements for fuel sold in Oregon.
The decision by the Oregon Fuels Association to withdraw three ballot measures that would water down or repeal the program is a win for environmental groups that lobbied Democratic lawmakers to use their majorities last year and green light it.
Public voices Campbell County landfill concerns at hearing
By Ashlie Walter, The News & Advance.
RUSTBURG — Amid a chorus of complaints from neighbors and attention during this year’s General Assembly session, the Region 2000 Services Authority passed a key benchmark Monday in its promise to address the stench emanating from the regional landfill in Campbell County.
Dozens of residents turned out for a specially called public hearing about a nearly $1 million plan to install a gas collection system at the Livestock Road facility to mitigate odor.
The authority wants to fast-track the initiative, as allowed under the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, which gives localities and contractors some leeway to partner in construction projects.
Close of Scientific Advisory Board Meeting Brings No Further Ruling on Biomass
By EESI.
On April 1, the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board concluded its quality review meeting to assess the draft report of the Framework for Assessing Biogenic CO2 Emissions from Stationary Sources. At the close of the meeting, despite years of discussion and debate on the issue, it seemed that the group of forestry experts remained at an impasse as to how to advance a comprehensive biogenic carbon accounting framework to the EPA. If the meeting had finalized the Framework, the draft report would have been sent to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy for final approval. The Framework has implications for biomass’ use as a compliance strategy under the Clean Power Plan, as well as other environmental regulations.
Establishing an Emissions ‘Factor’ for Biomass
In 2011, EPA tasked the independent Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with finalizing key concepts for emissions associated with the use of biomass feedstocks to produce electricity (including wastes from forestry, agriculture, organics, manure, landfills, and waste water treatment plants). The SAB's concept for the Framework is to establish a factor for carbon emissions associated with the entire lifecycle of biomass feedstocks, including the growth, harvest, and processing of the biomass.
In the 2010 Tailoring Rule, EPA decided to treat biogenic and fossil CO2 source emissions at the power plant smoke stack the same. Therefore, for biomass use to comply with environmental regulations, a complex accounting framework must be established to verify that the use of a particular biomass feedstock will reduce net CO2 emissions. When finalized, the Framework will guide the use of biomass in all environmental regulations.
Montauk Energy's Gas-to-electricity plant debuts at Irvine's Bowerman Landfill
By Matt Morrison, Los Angeles Times.
The proverbial link between trash and treasure has evolved into a symbiotic relationship between energy and efficiency with the coming of a renewable-energy power plant to Irvine's Bowerman Landfill.
The Bowerman Power Project went into operation this week, converting methane gas, a byproduct of landfill trash, into enough electricity to power 26,000 homes.
With Bowerman joining the Olinda Landfill in Brea and the Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano as a renewable-energy site, all of Orange County's major waste-disposal facilities now have gas-to-electricity plants.
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