RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.States ask EPA for help on climate rule plans
By Devin Henry
More than a dozen states have asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give them more information on how to form implementation plans for the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants.
The rule — the Clean Power Plan — has been stayed by the Supreme Court while litigation against it proceeds. But states are still able to form plans to implement the carbon reduction goals set out in the rule, and fourteen sent EPA Acting Assistant Administrator Janet McCabe a letter on Thursday asking for guidance on how to do that.
"The final resolution of this litigation is uncertain,” the states wrote. “However, having more information about how states might comply with the Clean Power Plan should it be upheld will better inform state engagement and agency decision-making.”
San Diego Firm Looking into New Alternative Fuel for Heavy Trucks
By Megan Greenwalt, Waste 360.
San Diego-based Oberon Fuels has been developing a new alternative fuel for the heavy duty trucking industry. Called dimethyl ether (DME), the fuel is clean-burning and non-toxic with diesel-like performance and handling properties similar to that of propane. As the first company to produce fuel-grade DME in North America, Oberon is hoping to bring this fuel, made from natural gas or biogas, to the solid waste hauling market.
With no commercial or passenger vehicles with DME-capable engines and no network of fueling stations, Oberon, led by President Rebecca Boudreaux, has developed partnerships with automakers Volvo and Ford to develop DME engines, and has led the certification process for the fuel with the EPA, state of California, Department of Energy and ASTM.
DTE Energy puts safety first; earns award from American Gas Association
Via PRNewswire.
DTE Energy received the 2015 American Gas Association's (AGA) Safety Achievement Award for excellence in employee safety.
The award recognizes companies that have the lowest number of injuries and illnesses as measured by the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
The American Gas Association criteria also require award-winning companies to have lower-than-industry-average injury rates.
California Bill Seeks to Advance Renewable NatGas Use
By Richard Nemec, NGI's Daily Gas Price Index.
A bill in the California legislature (AB 2773) that would open up the wider use of renewable natural gas (RNG) in alternative fuel vehicles moved out of its first committee in the lower house Assembly earlier this month.
The bill would eliminate current roadblocks to transporting RNG in natural gas pipelines.
RNG, or biomethane, can allow for a cleaner version of compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be used increasingly by fleet operators (see Daily GPI, March 30), but most RNG produced in California has to be used onsite for electric generation because of existing restrictions on the co-mingling of biomethane with natural gas in the state's pipeline infrastructure. AB 2273 seeks to change that.
Cane industry to create own source of fuel
By Emily Smith, Daily Mercury.
New technology that could eliminate the need for fossil fuels in the sugar industry will be tested in Mackay over the next three years.
Queensland University of Technology Associate Professor Ian O'Hara will speak at the Australian Society of Cane Technologists conference today about the new project, which could enable the industry to generate its own fuel source.
The idea is to take cane trash and bagasse and use it to create biogas, and then biomethane.
Eastern Pennsylvania natural gas consumers enrolling in RNG offer
By Katie Fletcher, Biomass Magazine.
At the beginning of 2016, The Energy Co-op, an independently-owned, local, nonprofit energy supplier, launched a renewable natural gas (RNG) product to residential consumers in the Philadelphia Electric Co. natural gas territory to offset their pipeline gas consumption.
When customers enroll in RNG they continue to use pipeline natural gas, however, The Energy Co-op purchases renewable natural gas credits (RNGCs) generated from the Lanchester Landfill in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The patent-pending RNGCs the cooperative developed enable a monetary value to be added to the environmental benefits of using landfill gas, incentivizing landfill operators to distribute RNG to local businesses as a sustainable alternative to fracked gas, according to The Energy Co-op. The gas produced at the landfill is refined and piped to nearby businesses and has the potential to serve up to 10,000 households annually.
Clean Energy Marches On, Despite Policy Setback, Says EPA Head
By Katie Fehrenbacher, Fortune.
Don’t worry about the stay in the controversial Clean Power Plan, the energy transition is happening
The shift to cleaner energy in the U.S. is still going strong despite a decision by regulators todelay a controversial plan to curb power plant emissions.
That was the reassuring message of Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who said on Wednesday that technological innovation is leading a dramatic change in how electricity is generated. The fact that coal burning plants are temporarily getting a reprieve from the Clean Power Plan, which was put on hold by the Supreme Court earlier this year amid legal challenges, has done little to stop the march toward cleaner energy like solar and wind, she told a room full of solar tech employees in Silicon Valley.
EPA’s Final Rule on New Sources of Methane Coming ‘Soon’
By Jack Fitzpatrick, Morning Consult.
The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of finalizing its proposed rule regulating methane emissions from new facilities, an administration official said Wednesday, although further details were scarce.
The Obama administration is taking several paths forward in its fight against methane emissions. On Wednesday, administration officials responded to criticism of overlapping red tape, and hesitantly offered hints as to how and when the patchwork of regulations will come together.
There are multiple rules on tap by the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management. EPA’s rule for new methane sources will be the first out of the gate. It is collecting data on a separate rule to regulate emissions from existing facilities.
Pipeline Safety Bill Unanimously Approved by House Energy Committee
By Charlie Passut, NGI's Daily Gas Price Index.
After tweaking a controversial section on emergency orders, the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee unanimously approved a pipeline safety bill to reauthorize the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act for five years, beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2017.
The bill, also known as the Pipeline Safety Act of 2016, is HR 5050. House lawmakers must now merge two individual bills in the chamber before taking the combined bill to the floor for a final vote.
"Pipeline safety is something that we should all take seriously and it's been a priority of mine since I became chairman following the spill in southwest Michigan that impacted the Kalamazoo River," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the E&C chairman. "While an accident can happen in an instant, the damage takes years to fix, underscoring the need for strong safety laws."
EPA advances state incentives despite hold on climate rule
By Timothy Cama, The Hill.
The Obama administration is moving forward with a state incentive program related to its contentious climate change rule, even though the regulation itself is on hold.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday sent a proposal with details of the program to the White House Office of Management and Budget for its review, the final step before the program can be formally proposed to the public.
The Clean Energy Incentive Program is designed as the carrot to the Clean Power Plan's stick. The EPA is planning to give states credit for establishing certain renewable energy or energy-efficiency projects before the Clean Power Plan would take effect and require changes to reduce power companies' greenhouse gas emissions.
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