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Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.What are the 'real' numbers behind landfilled waste tonnage and landfill gas emissions?
By Arlene Karidis, Waste Dive.
States across the country are scrambling to reach lofty waste diversion rates in response to an EPA call to action to do so. They are setting specific diversion-from-landfill targets and developing calculated waste management practices to reach their end goals. But there's one big problem: many may not know where they’re starting from.
Numbers identifying landfilled waste vary radically depending on where those stats come from. But no matter whose numbers you look at, a common industry consensus is that the EPA’s figures are off—by a good bit. Debra Kantner, an environmental engineer at the Environmental Research and Education Fund (EREF), said, "We see real-life scenarios where states are using the underestimated EPA figures to inform their waste management decisions."
A Columbia University study published in BioCycle reported 269.8 tons of MSW were landfilled in 2011, while EPA estimates were 132.4 tons—a gaping 103% difference.
Cuts Loom for Connecticut's Lauded Cap-and-Trade Emissions Program
By Patrick Skahill, WNPR.
Money set aside for energy-efficiency projects could soon get slashed as state legislators work to close a large budget deficit.
The proposed cut passed out of the legislature's finance committee last week and looks to divert $22 million from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, into the state's general fund.
Currently, that cash is earmarked for efficiency, renewable, and non-carbon energy projects.
Conservative groups step up fight against energy tax breaks in FAA bill
By Melanie Zanona, The Hill.
Conservative groups that oppose a proposal to include energy tax breaks in the long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration are vowing to take their fight to the House if the Senate moves ahead.
Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners said Monday that if the Senate ends up attaching energy tax provisions to the FAA bill, the organizations will ratchet up pressure on lawmakers across the Capitol to oppose the language or pass a clean-extension of FAA.
"If the Senate isn't going to do anything to stop this, we're going to put pressure wont he House," Andy Koenig, senior policy advisor at Freedom Partners, said on a press call. "The House is under no obligation to take up a bunch of energy subsidies if they don't want to."
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.
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