RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.How the Democratic and Republican party platforms stack up on climate change, Iran and more key issues
By Melanie Mason and Chris Megerian, The Los Angeles Times.
The party platforms of Democrats and Republicans, finalized ahead of their respective conventions this month, reflect the stark divide between the parties, on both foreign affairs and domestic social issues.
Here’s a rundown of where the parties land on key topics:
Climate change
Democrats describe climate change as a “real and urgent threat,” and they call for setting a price on greenhouse gas emissions. “Climate change is too important to wait for climate deniers and defeatists in Congress to start listening to science,” and government officials must take any steps they can to reduce pollution, the platform says. It calls for the country to generate half of its electricity from clean sources in the next decade and for cleaner transportation fuels, more public transit and a tax code that creates incentives for renewable energy.
Alberta on track to having Canada’s most aggressive carbon pricing system by 2020, eclipsing even B.C.
By Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press.
OTTAWA — Move over, British Columbia: Canada’s oilpatch next door in Alberta is on track to have Canada’s most aggressive carbon pricing system by 2020.
That’s the conclusion of a new study that compares the coverage of various carbon taxes and cap-and-trade schemes in four provinces that have all embraced market-based approaches to cutting emissions of greenhouse gases.
The report from Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, an independent, non-partisan research body, comes as a federal-provincial working group is wrestling with ways to co-ordinate a new pan-Canadian price on carbon emissions.
Hawaiian Electric pulls back from LNG deal in failed merger fallout
By EUCI Energize Weekly.
Following the rejection of a proposed merger between Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) parent company Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) and NextEra Energy, HECO has officially withdrawn its application to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada, even though importing LNG was a major component of its official long-term power supply plan now before regulators.
HECO officials announced last week that it would drop out of a LNG contract with Fortis Hawaii Energy Inc., citing the July 18 termination of the proposed $4.3 billion buyout of HEI. The company also said it would withdraw applications to upgrade its Kahe Power Plant in west Oahu using the imported LNG fuel.
Natural-Gas Vehicles Will Lower Emissions
Natural gas is much better suited for pickups and other large vehicles than electrification.
By Harvey Lamm, VNG, in The Wall Street Journal.
“Regulators Defend Fuel Standards” (U.S. News, July 19) notes the growing tension between consumer desires for larger, less fuel-efficient light trucks and ambitious automotive emissions and efficiency targets set by the Environmental Protection Agency. There is a proven but unfortunately overlooked solution to this problem: fueling light trucks with natural gas. Natural gas is much better suited for pickups and other large vehicles than electrification and conventional natural gas can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 20%. Even better, greenhouse-gas emissions can be reduced by 90% or more with renewable natural gas captured from landfills or dairy farms, which is already providing over half of natural gas-vehicle fueling in California today.
Waste may equal energy in West Virginia's Monongalia County
By Ben Conley, The Dominion Post.
MORGANTOWN — Is a facility capable of transforming municipal solid waste into an energy source feasible in Monongalia County?
The Monongalia County Solid Waste Authority (MCSWA) has set out to answer that question — with more than a little help from environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies.
Milwaukee Approves Plan for Second Landfill Gas Facility
By Don Behm, The Journal Sentinal.
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District will spend $14.1 million in the next two years to build storm sewers and complete two storm water storage basins, as part of a flood control plan for the 30th St. industrial corridor north of W. Capitol Drive.
Super Excavators Inc. of Menomonee Falls will build more than one mile of new storm sewers to connect the two basins east of the Canadian Pacific Railway to existing storm sewers, under a contract approved Monday by the district's commission. Super Excavators was the low bidder among three companies competing for the work.
The City of Milwaukee will reimburse MMSD an estimated $8.5 million for costs of installing 5,400 feet of storm sewers, officials said.
U.S. EPA Moves to Regulate Climate-warming Airliner Pollution
By Michael Biesecker, Associated Press, via U.S. News & World Report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government has found that jet engine exhaust is adding to climate change and endangering human health, and needs to be regulated.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it will use its authority under the Clean Air Act to impose limits on aircraft emissions.
Jet engines spew significant amounts of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, into the upper atmosphere, where they trap heat from the sun. But proposed rules such as imposing fuel-efficiency standards have faced stiff opposition from aircraft makers and commercial airlines.
What Happens to the Clean Power Plan Under Clinton or Trump?
By Jack Fitzpatrick, Morning Consult.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are miles apart on the greenhouse gas-cutting Clean Power Plan. She’s for it. He’s against it. No matter the polarized rhetoric, the plan’s future is much more convoluted than “live or die,” in part because its fate lies in the hands of the courts.
Outside observers and attorneys involved in the lawsuit say the federal government’s actions on greenhouse gases could go in a few different directions, depending on the outcome of the election and an eventual likely high court ruling.
Supporters of the plan, meanwhile, are debating two alternate routes a Clinton administration could take if the plan is struck down.
Stop & Shop turning food waste into energy
By Katrina Koerting, Newstimes.
About 95 tons of over-ripe bananas, pre-made sandwiches, dead flowers and other food waste that can’t be sold or donated are avoiding the landfill and instead being converted to energy using cutting-edge technology.
The waste is collected daily from all Stop & Shop stores in Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as most of the company’s Massachusetts locations.
It is then converted to energy and compost at a new green facility next to the New England distribution center in Freetown, Mass., using a process called anaerobic digestion.
Clean energy advocates urge DNC to ban fracking, promote renewable fuels
By Jon Hurdle, NPR State Impact.
Thousands of campaigners for clean energy marched through the center of Philadelphia on the eve of the Democratic National Convention on Sunday, urging the party to adopt policies that would ban fracking and promote the use of renewable energy.
In an event that mixed national politics with local opposition to specific energy projects, some demonstrators called on the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, to step up her support for renewable energy, while others – many of them backers of Clinton’s former rival, Senator Bernie Sanders — vowed never to support Clinton even if that increased the chances of the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, becoming president.
Carrying signs such as “NeverHillary – Bernie or Bust” and “Fracking is Not a Bridge – Are You Listening Hillary?” demonstrators marched from City Hall down Market Street to Independence Mall on a sweltering day, in a peaceful but noisy event that called on state and national authorities to ban fracking and associated activities including pipelines and oil trains.
Don’t miss an update—join our weekly newsletter below.