RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Here's the No. 1 Problem With Renewable Energy Financing
By Robert Hackett, Fortune.
Predicting growth in the renewable energy sector can be problematic. With continuous stops and starts from a policy perspective, and the unpredictable pace of technological advancement, it’s hard for financiers to know how—or when—their investments will pan out.
“First off the most important thing in the capital markets is a level of certainty,” Chris Buddin, head of Goldman Sachs’ clean technology and renewables group, said at Fortune’s Brainstorm E energy conference on Tuesday
“When there are peaks and valleys of when we think there’s going to be credits or subsidies or incentives, you can’t make long-term decisions” Buddin told the audience in Carlsbad, Calif. He mentioned the investment tax credit passed by Congress at the end of last year as an example of this kind of unpredictability. The program, which passed just as an earlier version was set to sunset, gives solar companies a 30% tax credit on the price of solar installations for another five years.
A $3.3 trillion industry must change drastically if we want to save Earth — and it's not fossil fuels
By Sarah Kramer, Tech Insider.
If the world is going to fight climate change, it's not just fossil fuels we need to worry about.
According to a new study, we'll have to get very clever about our food supply.
In a study published Tuesday in the journal Global Change Biology, scientists suggest that greenhouse gases emitted by global agriculture will have to be cut — and drastically, perhaps five times as much as current reductions call for.
This marks the first calculation of precisely how much the agricultural sector will need to reduce its output of potent heat-trapping gases like methane (which is far worse than carbon dioxide) in order to satisfy the Paris Agreement on climate change.
California’s glut of cap-and-trade allowances may cut revenue
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee, via Fresno Bee.
When California extended its “cap-and-trade” program of curbing carbon emissions to automotive fuels, starting this year, it was projected to generate hundreds of billions in new revenue dollars.
Prior to extension, the state’s quarterly auction of emission allowances was generating well under $1 billion a year, but applying them to fuels would, it was believed, more than double that revenue stream to over $2 billion.
California motorists burn about 15 billion gallons of fuel each year – and consumption is rising again after years of slow decline. Requiring refiners to buy emission credits, either in the Air Resources Board’s auctions or in the secondary market, would, it was believed, add about a dime to each of those gallons, most of which would show up in auction proceeds.
Winners and losers of Ontario’s climate-change plan
By Shawn McCarthy and Richard Blackwell, The Globe and Mail.
Renewable energy companies see tremendous opportunity in Ontario’s climate-change plan, though skeptics question whether the proposed incentives and regulations will achieve the government’s goals and will impose costs that are unacceptable to voters.
The $7-billion plan – outlined in a document leaked to The Globe and Mail – would provide incentives for energy retrofits and fuel switching; change building codes to require energy-efficiency improvements and phase out fossil-fuel use in new homes; and mandate a 5-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels.
China Will Start the World's Largest Carbon Trading Market
By John Fialka, ClimateWire, via Scientific American.
When it comes to learning about emissions trading, China has had a leg up.
The world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases has spent 15 years scouting the globe to learn from the mistakes of other nations and find the best ways to build a trading system of its own, which could become the world's largest.
One of China's earliest mentors was Dan Dudek, an agricultural economist and vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) who, early in his career, got into an argument with its president, Fred Krupp, over whether China might be a big piece of the puzzle the group was exploring: Was there a way to use economics, rather than politics and regulations, to shift the world's businesses away from polluting the environment toward protecting it and to reward low-cost innovations that do that?
EPA Help on Clean Power Plan is Legal, Cruden Says
By Brian Dabbs, Bloomberg BNA.
The Environment Protection Agency's ongoing assistance to states with Clean Power Plan implementation is likely fully compliant with the law, John Cruden, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said Thursday.
Clean Power Plan to get unanticipated en banc review
By Jonathan Adler, Washington Post.
Monday, acting on its own initiative, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announced that it would hear challenges to the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan sitting en banc. As per the court’s order, the challenges will be heard by the full court in September. A three-judge panel had been scheduled to hear arguments June 2.
White House OMB reviewing EPA rule to amend RFS program
By Erin Voegele, Ethanol Producer Magazine.
The U.S. EPA delivered a proposed rule to amend the renewable fuel standard (RFS) to the White House Office of Management and Budget on May 10. The rule is titled “Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support Rule.”
Information published by the EPA explains the rule aims to make numerous changes to promote the production of renewable fuels. First, it would make several changes to the RFS program, resolving outstanding issues and providing clarification on certain RFS requirements.
In addition, the rule will propose to allow for feedstocks partially converted at a facility other than a renewable fuel’s production plant to be fully converted to into finished fuel at a renewable fuel production facility. The partially converted feedstocks are referred to as biointermediate feedstocks.
EPA finalizes methane rules for new oil and gas facilities
By Gavin Bade, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday finalized rules to limit methane emissions from new and heavily modified oil and gas facilities, as well as initiating a rulemaking process for existing facilities.
- The rules are part of a push from the Obama administration to cut methane emissions 40-45% from 2012 levels by 2025. Methane is a greenhouse gas with global warming potential over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.
- The regulations will not affect most electric utilities directly, though some have invested in natural gas production and transport. They are likely to have an impact on the price of natural gas, the nation's single largest generation fuel.
Potrero Hills Landfill begins conversion of landfill gas to bioenergy in California
By Bioenergy Insight Magazine.
Potrero Hills Energy Producers, a partnership between DTE Biomass Energy and Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, has started generating electricity from landfill gas.
This clean source of electricity comes from a newly constructed renewable energy facility at the Potrero Hills Landfill in Suisun City, California.
DTE Biomass Energy, the developer and operator of the project, declared commercial operation of the 8MW facility at the landfill, which is operated by Waste Connections, bases in The Woodlands, Texas.
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