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Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Hopes fade in Congress for energy reform
By Devin Henry and Timothy Cama - The Hill.
Hopes are fading that Congress can pass a broad energy bill before the year ends.
Leaders of energy committees in the House and Senate made it a top priority this session to pass the first major energy overhaul since 2007.
By setting their sights low and avoiding hot-button issues that could sink bipartisan action, they thought it was possible to get a bill through an often-dysfunctional Congress, even in an election year.
City seeks $9.4m upgrade of wastewater plant to make methane
By Craig Fox, Watertown Daily Times.
WATERTOWN — The city may pursue a $9.4 million project to overhaul Watertown’s wastewater treatment plant and turn its sludge into methane gas — even if it cannot obtain a state grant that would pay for the brunt of it.
Last week, the City Council approved issuing a $9 million bond to help pay for the first two phases of the project.
Meanwhile, Water Superintendent Michael J. Sligar is submitting a grant application by Friday to pursue as much as 25 percent of its cost.
It looks like House v. Senate over ITC expansion
By Mark Drajem, Bloomberg Government.
Are those snow clouds on the horizon for the FAA/ITC deal? Senate negotiators haven’t yet tied up their negotiations to extend the investment tax credit to fuel cells, geothermal projects and other types of energy projects as part of the FAA reauthorization bill, but already it’s garnering blowback from House Republicans. Sen. Ron Wyden says that he and Sen. Orrin Hatch are looking to finalize their energy tax package for a vote next week. Still, it’s Congress, so no deal is final until, well, it’s final. Hatch, for what it’s worth, says he’s “trying to stay out of it.” And the tax provisions may not be limited to the ITC: It may also include a tax credit for carbon capture projects, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp told Bloomberg BNA’s Ari Natter.
But getting support for any of these tax breaks in the House may be tougher. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is circulating a letter asking her colleagues to oppose the proposed ITC expansion. The ITC was limited to solar projects in the omnibus deal, and it should stay that way, she said. “Congress took time to consider this issue in December and decided that these renewable energy tax extenders were not in the best interest of the country,” she writes in a letter provided to Catherine Traywick. So far, 10 members have signed onto the letter, and it will be given to other lawmakers next week before being delivered to House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster. Shuster would lead negotiations with the Senate on the broad FAA reauthorization bill.
PSB Approves Construction Of Renewable Natural Gas Plant On Salisbury Farm
By Melody Bodette, Vermont Public Radio.
The Vermont Public Service Board has approved the construction of a renewable natural gas facility on a dairy farm in Salisbury.
Lincoln Renewable Natural Gas had filed for a certificate of public good to build the plant on the Goodrich Farm in Salisbury. The plant will process cow manure in a methane digester to create bio-methane gas that can be used in place of natural gas, and will be the first of its kind in Vermont.
The gas will be used by Middlebury College, and will also feed into Vermont Gas System’s pipeline when it is extended to Addison County.
Survey shows 84% in UK want Green Gas in the home
A survey conducted for Biomethane Day 2106, has shown that a huge 84% of people in the UK would like to switch to using green gas in their homes.
Biomethane is a renewable gas, often called green gas, which can be made from energy crops, food waste, sewage sludges and or residues from food manufacture.
Biomethane Day 2016, organised by the Renewable Energy Association (REA) on April 20th, will show how the UK now leads the world in green gas production. In the UK, green gas injected into the gas grid has been used for industry and transport, but is now also available to domestic consumers in their homes.
Pork council asks N.C. appeals court to reverse swine-gas ruling
By John Downey, Charlotte Business Journal.
The N.C. Pork Council has asked the state's Court of Appeals to reverse regulators' ruling that biogas created from swine waste in Missouri and Oklahoma can count as North Carolina-based renewable energy credits for Duke Energy.
Environmental Groups Ask EPA to Prevent Diesel Pollution that is Affecting Dozens of Communities
By Robert Baldwin III, Huffington Post Politics.
WASHINGTON — Environmental groups are asking Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy to take actions to reduce toxic diesel exhaust pollution near ports, rail yards and highways, which they said disproportionately hurts blacks and Latinos.
The Moving Forward Network, a national alliance of more than 40 local and national environmental organizations, urged the EPA administrator in a meeting on Tuesday to create a special committee to identify ways to curb pollution from freight facilities before the Obama administration leaves office. They also asked EPA to encourage zero-emission technology for heavy duty trucks.
Environmental activists call the areas around freight facilities “diesel death zones,” and say minorities are disproportionately affected. The fine particles in emissionsfrom diesel trucks, trains and ships can cause lung diseases, worsen conditions like asthma or bronchitis, and lead to thousands of premature deaths every year. A 2011 National Institutes of Health study found that the number of black and Hispanic people living near 43 harbors was almost double their representation in the overall U.S. population.
Airport security package gets thumbs-up from Senate
By Martine Powers with help from Heather Caygle, Lauren Gardner, Annie Snider, and Esther Whieldon, Politico.
04/08/16 - MOVING RIGHT ALONG: Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey’s proposal for secondary cockpit barriers got a quick thumbs-up from the Senate on Thursday, along with a few other smaller items, just before a three-day pause in the action. There's still plenty of work left on the FAA reauthorization bill for next week — a slew of amendments, a bipartisan agreement on an energy tax package — but Sen. John Thune seemed pleased with the bill’s progress so far. “We think it’s a good start,” he told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
NOW HERE’S THE REAL QUESTION: If the Senate’s FAA bill (H.R. 636) is proceeding all hunky-dory, with a bundle of anti-terrorism security provisions to boot, will that be an impetus for the folks on the House side to pass aviation reauthorization, even without air traffic control privatization? “I think the House is probably going to want to act,” Thune said, when asked this question by our own Heather Caygle. “And I think all the good policy that has been included in this bill with respect to security will make it more attractive for them to act, and hopefully they will — irrespective of how that issue gets resolved or sorted out out there — move something that will incorporate a lot of these provisions or similar provisions that we could actually get to the president."
Missouri project ‘a new level’ in manure biogas production
By Karen Uhlenhuth, Midwest Energy News.
This summer, one of the country's largest producers of biogas from animal manure is expected to begin operations in northwest Missouri.
It's a large-scale example of technology that has been slow to take off in the United States, but new federal policy may be changing that.
In 2013, St. Louis-based Roeslein Alternative Energy reached an agreement with pork giant Smithfield Foods to build and operate a system to capture and purify methane from the manure produced by about two million pigs. Smithfield's confinement barns comprise one of the largest hog-feeding facilities in the country, according to Roeslein.
Gaz Métro Welcomes Québec's New Energy Policy 2030
By CNW, Montreal Gazette.
MONTRÉAL, April 7, 2016 - Gaz Métro welcomes Québec's new Energy Policy 2030, unveiled today by Québec Premier Philippe Couillard, accompanied by Pierre Arcand (Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Minister responsible for the Northern Plan and Minister responsible for the Côte-Nord region), Dominique Anglade (Minister of Economy, Science and Innovation and Minister responsible for the Digital Strategy), David Heurtel (Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change), and Geoffrey Kelley (Minister responsible for Native Affairs). "We welcome the vision the government is putting forward in this 'energy of transition' policy to enable us to meet the challenges facing our society by advocating the development of a lower-carbon economy. The government can count on Gaz Métro's collaboration in the implementation of this new policy," said Sophie Brochu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gaz Métro.
With its proven expertise and leadership in energy efficiency, with the use of natural gas instead of higher-emission energy sources—particularly in the industrial, heavy freight and marine transport sectors—and thanks to its ongoing development of its renewable energy portfolio, Gaz Métro is already deploying solutions that meet the energy imperatives of today and tomorrow. The new policy will make it possible to step up the deployment of these initiatives, for example by encouraging the production and distribution of renewable natural gas (biomethane), by improving the Écocamionnage Program, fostering the acquisition of natural gas vehicles and by promoting the use of natural gas as fuel through the deployment of natural gas fuelling points in Quebec.
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