RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.RGGI seeks views on minimum requirements for trade with non-member states
By Ben Garside, Carbon Pulse.
RGGI has opened a consultation on what other US states need to do in order to trade with the regional cap-and-trade market under the Clean Power Plan.
While RGGI was designed to be open-ended to allow other states to join the power generation cap-and-trade system, its regulators are now seeking views on what minimum requirements would need to be met to allow trade with states not initially willing to join.
Such provisions are envisaged by the federal government under the CPP, for which the vast majority of the 47 states facing targets are considering using carbon markets to meet their goals from 2022.
Iowa backs Renewable Fuel Standard extension
By Biofuels International.
The Iowa Senate passed a bipartisan resolution calling on the US Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), President Obama and the next president of the US to continue to support the renewable fuels standard (RFS) through to 2022 in order to encourage American energy production and to strengthen rural communities.
The resolution calls the RFS one of the simple most successful energy policies in US history and notes the program represents a congressional promise to American biofuel producers, farmers, communities and investors that biofuel blend levels will increase each year.
The resolution serves as a reminder of the benefits of the RFS to the state of Iowa in terms of economic output and the preservation of Iowa’s agricultural way of life, according to US ethanol trade body Growth Energy.
Gas goes green as suppliers opt for carbon neutral sources
By Miles Brignall, The Guardian.
Many of us have signed up with energy companies that offer 100% renewable electricity, so why not switch to a gas tariff that also promises to be carbon neutral? Energy firm Good Energy is hoping to tempt green households to do exactly that. This week the Chippenham-based firm started offering a domestic gas tariff that will allow customers to claim their gas usage produces no overall net carbon.
Launched to coincide with the Paris climate change agreement signing yesterday, Good Energy’s “green gas” tariff will include 6% biomethane, produced in the UK from organic matter including manure and even sewage. The move makes it the latest supplier to offer green gas – produced from the 300 or so anaerobic digesters dotted around the UK, a small number of which directly feed the biogas they produce into the national grid.
Good Energy says the overwhelming majority of its 39,000 gas customers will be automatically moved to the tariff. Other emissions produced by customers will be offset through carbon-reduction schemes that support local communities in Malawi, Vietnam and Nepal.
Apple's New Headquarters Will Run on Solar Energy and Biogas Fuel Cells: Exclusive Photos
By Ruth Reader, Tech.Mic.
Apple is doubling down on alternative energy at its new headquarters. In a updated environmental report, the company says the site will run entirely on solar energy and biogas fuel cells.
Where is all that energy coming from? The new campus will get 16 megawatts of power from rooftop solar panels, some of which will be affixed to the top of its two on-campus parking structures.
Parking structures on Apple's new campus. The one on the right features the solar panels.
In addition to solar power, the new headquarters will be powered by 4 megawatts of energy from biogas fuel cells, which turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. Between the onsite solar panels and the fuel cells, it should be able to generate approximately 75% of the energy it needs during peak day time hours to run its campus, according to an Apple representative. The company will get its remaining power from First Solar, a California solar farm. In 2015, Apple struck a $848 million deal with First Solar for 130 megawatts of power, Bloomberg reported.
This controversial carbon proposal could be the key to success for the world’s new climate agreement
By Chelsea Harvey, The Washington Post.
As people around the world gather to celebrate Earth Day, world leaders have convened New York this morning to sign a landmark agreementaimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions and keeping global climate change in check. And as discussions intensify around the agreement’s likelihood of success, a growing number of experts are arguing that carbon pricing — a controversial economic method intended to cut down on emissions — may be the key.
On Thursday, a group of world leaders came forward with an ambitious new vision statement calling for the world to double the extent of global emissions covered under carbon pricing schemes by the year 2020 — and quadruple it within the next decade.
Oregon Makes $6 Million Available for Alt-Fuel Fleet Projects
By NGT Staff.
The Oregon Department of Energy is making available up to $6 million of tax credits to fund alternative fuel vehicle fleet projects and vehicles. The tax credits can be applied to fleets replacing or converting at least two vehicles to alternative fuels, as well as alternative fuel infrastructure projects, such as electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and compressed natural gas (CNG) stations.
Ontario likely to miss 2030 emissions target by half, report says
By Adrian Morrow, The Globe and Mail.
Ontario’s upcoming cap-and-trade system will likely cut greenhouse gas emissions by less than half of the province’s 2030 target, a new economic analysis has found.
The report, by ICF International for the Ontario Energy Association, suggests the government will have to introduce significantly more greenhouse gas-fighting measures if it hopes to reach its planned reductions.
Ontario emissions currently sit about 6 per cent below 1990 levels, and the government has promised to slash those to 15 per cent by 2020, 37 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050.
Top Republican takes aim at EPA rules at budget hearing
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) criticized several Environmental Protection Agency rules during a Wednesday hearing, indicating lawmakers may consider targeting them in spending bills for the agency this year.
During a hearing of a Senate subcommittee overseeing EPA funding, panel chairwoman Murkowski took aim the agency’s clean water rule, a proposed methane regulation and a funding request for implementing a climate change rule, all of which are major EPA priorities.
"There is a concern that rather than focusing on its core mission of attending to and cleaning up the environment, the agency is pumping out rule after rule that are based on questionable legal authority," Murkowski said Wednesday at a hearing with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
Ontario government to invoke closure on cap-and-trade bill after PC filibuster
By Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press.
TORONTO -- Environment Minister Glen Murray warns Ontario industries could be hurt by the Progressive Conservatives' efforts to delay legislation that would create a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The government decided to invoke closure to wrap up committee hearings by May 2 on the bill designed to combat climate change, "the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced," said Murray.
The Tories asked for 20-minute breaks twice an hour and used other tactics to slow the committee's work to a crawl, but the government needs the bill passed this spring so it can start selling carbon credits to companies in January.
DeKalb unveils public natural gas fueling station
By Dionne Kinch, Atlanta Journal Constitution.
DeKalb County officials in partnership with Atlanta Gas Light recently commemorate the opening of the second county-owned compressed natural gas public fueling station located at the DeKalb County Sanitation Division, Central Transfer Station, 3720 Leroy Scott Dr.
“The new station serves both the public and the county’s growing CNG sanitation fleet, and it uses landfill gas from the county’s own facility as a supply source. Using landfill gas reduces the carbon footprint of the refuse vehicles by 90 percent, and it completes a circle of converting trash to energy that is then used to fuel the same trucks that haul refuse to the landfill,” said Bryan Batson, president of Atlanta Gas Light.
The station comprises two fueling lanes, with three standard capacity and one high capacity fuel dispensers, and is open 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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