RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Dem senator to push 100 percent clean energy bill
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
A Democratic senator says he will introduce a bill setting a lofty clean energy goal for the United States.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Friday he will introduce a bill this fall to require 100 percent clean energy production in the United States by 2050.
Merkley announced the goal at a Netroots Nation event during a panel discussion with, among others, Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist and donor who has asked candidates to commit to producing 50 percent clean energy by 2030, a goal enshrined in the Democratic Party's 2016 platform.
EPA updates methane requirements for landfills
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
Under new rules announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday, solid waste landfill operators must begin capturing methane emissions from their sites at levels one-third lower than current standards permit.
The rule, finalized Friday after being proposed a year ago next month, updates 20-year-old standards for methane emissions at landfills.
The new standards will reduce landfill emissions by up to 334,000 tons a year by 2025 and produce climate benefits worth $512 million annually by then, the EPA announced.
Clean Power Plan Saves Nearly $40 Billion On Health, Too
By Sandy Dechert, Clean Technica
Air quality improvements associated with policies such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan go a long way toward mitigating climate change—but do you know that they also directly lower human healthcare costs? About 17,000 people die every year as a result of generating electric power. Many more suffer premature death and illnesses such as heart attacks, respiratory problems, and cardiovascular illnesses.
Fossil fuel use makes up about 31% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and mostly produces carbon dioxide. As well as cutting CO2 emissions, the Clean Power Plan simultaneously decreases sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and soot emissions (tiny particles that can harm the heart and lungs). Once these emissions have been reduced, the large reductions in our huge health deficit will be widespread and occur nearly immediately, a recent study from Harvard has concluded.
Ontario Government to Consult on Post-2020 Cap and Trade Program Design
By David Stephens, Aird & Berlis LLP, via Lexology.
Very recently, Minister Murray sent a letter to interested stakeholders indicating that consultations will start soon to “inform post-2020 cap and trade program design.” This follows closely on the heels of the unveiling of the Ontario Government’s Climate Change Action Plan (discussed here) which outlines the measures it will take in the years up to 2020 to reduce GHG emissions and transition the province to a low-carbon economy.
The Climate Change Action Plan includes spending of more than $8 billion to achieve a reduction in GHG emissions of 8.9 million tonnes by 2020. Of course, the GHG reduction commitments made by the Ontario Government continue beyond that date. Indeed, the target in future years is even more ambitious (reductions from 1990 emissions levels of 15 per cent in 2020 to 37 per cent in 2030). The expectation is that the cap and trade program will continue beyond 2020 and will evolve to enable these increasing GHG reduction goals to be reached.
Refiners press EPA to switch RFS biofuels 'point of obligation'
By Jonathan H. Harsch, Agri-Pulse.
In comments to the EPA, CVR Energy, which owns merchant refineries in Kansas and Oklahoma, charges the agency with “failure to remove the market constraints that are preventing more renewable fuel from being blended.”
Independent merchant refiners are primarily small-to-medium-sized operations. The majority of the fuels produced at these operations are distributed through a third-party pipeline where the refiner has no control of its fuels once in the pipeline.
As the battle continues over whether EPA should raise or lower its annual Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volume requirements for blending ethanol and biodiesel into the nation's transportation fuel supply, CVR and several other petroleum refiners insist that the best way for EPA to increase biofuels use is to “correct the fundamental flaw in its regulations.”
Health Risks of Multiple Air Pollutants Examined by EPA
By Pat Rizzuto, Bloomberg BNA.
The Environmental Protection Agency is developing an approach to understand the health risks posed by mixtures of different air pollutants.
Barbara Buckley, a toxicologist working in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment, described during a July 12 webinar a conceptual approach the agency is developing to assess mixtures of air pollutants.
Buckley said the Adverse Outcome Pathway approach the EPA is exploring is at the research stage; information would be used to identify additional studies that could address critical data gaps. The approach, however, marks an important shift in the agency from a single-pollutant at a time approach to assessing multiple pollutants in the air people breathe, she said.
What You Need to Know about the Proposed Revisions to Cap and Trade
By Allison Smith, JDSupra.
Late Tuesday, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) released draft amendments to the state’s cap and trade regulation, including revisions to the current program in place through 2020, an extension of the program through 2030, and setting the stage for continued emissions reductions under the program through 2050. ARB’s proposed amendments come in the middle of a recent milieu of uncertainty: pending litigation challenging the legality of the existing program, an opinionfrom Legislative Counsel that ARB lacks authority under AB 32 to continue cap and trade past 2020, unprecedented weak demand at the most recent allowance auction, and legislation to establish a statutory emissions reductions mandate for 2030 still in process this session. With all of these balls in the air, ARB has doubled down and drafted regulations dropping the program’s emissions cap from 334.2 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2e in 2020 to 200.5 MMT in 2030, with major elements of the cap and trade regulation continuing in effect past 2020 to achieve the emissions reductions.
Energy Storage Would Get U.S. Tax Credits in Bipartisan Bill
By Chris Martin, Bloomberg Politics.
Energy storage would gain access to the same tax incentives that helped make renewable energy the biggest new source of electricity in the U.S. last year under a bill introduced in the Senate.
Batteries like the lithium-ion ones in phones and electric vehicles would be eligible for the tax incentives when connected to the utility grid at homes and businesses under a bill introduced Tuesday by Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich from New Mexico. The bill has eight co-sponsors including Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, according to a statement.
California Energy Commission to Award $4M for Natural Gas Vehicle R&D
By NGT Staff.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has released a grant funding opportunity to provide up to $4 million for projects that support the research and development (R&D) of heavy-duty off-road vehicles powered by conventional or renewable natural gas.
According to the solicitation’s introduction, “Projects should incorporate advanced low-emission engine technology currently available for heavy-duty on-road vehicles. Existing advanced natural gas engine technologies could be adapted to provide this market segment with a natural gas engine option capable of exceeding current, Tier 4, emission regulations while simultaneously meeting the performance needs of off-road applications.”
IKEA to Increase Investment in biogass-powered Fuel Cells with Plans for Systems to Generate Renewable Energy
Via BusinessWire.
IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, today announced it is furthering its renewable commitment with plans for biogas-powered fuel cell systems at four more of its California stores. A year ago, IKEA completed installation of such a project at IKEA Emeryville, one of the Swedish company’s two San Francisco-area stores. IKEA now plans to expand its fuel cell portfolio to 1.3 MW with a system at its other San Francisco-area store (in East Palo Alto), as well as three stores in Southern California (Costa Mesa, Covina and San Diego). Pending permits, the fuel cells will be installed, commissioned and operational by this Fall, 2016, complementing solar arrays already atop each of the four stores.
“Based on the success of the system installed last year in Emeryville, we are excited about further increasing our renewable portfolio with four more fuel cell projects,” explained IKEA U.S. president Lars Petersson. “Fuel cells represent another way we can contribute to our goal of generating renewable energy equal to the amount of power we consume worldwide.”
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