RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Landfills Close the Loop–Repurposing Landfill Gas for the Trash Business
By Arlene Karidis, Waste 360.
Landfill owners are joining the growing alternative fuel movement by using compressed natural gas (CNG), a cleaner, cheaper alternative to diesel, to run their heavy-duty trucks, and there’s likely no industry this transition is a more natural fit for. Those in the disposal business have resources to make the fuels themselves—landfill gas (LFG), created from the tonnage of waste decomposing on their sites.
Generation of alternative gas is one more LFG application a few big players like Republic Services and Waste Management have added to their portfolio rather than to simply flare it and release it into the atmosphere.
But it’s not as simple as collecting LFG, funneling it into the trucks and running them. Technology to clean it is expensive; there are infrastructure issues to work out; and while for now CNG is cheaper than diesel, markets fluctuate.
Governor Brown Signs SB 32 / AB 197, Extends California Climate Programs to 2030
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 8, 2016
SACRAMENTO, CA - Today, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 32 and AB 197 into law extending the authorization for the state's climate programs (LCFS; Cap & Trade) to 2030.
"The LCFS is here to stay and renewable natural gas will continue to be one of its major success stories," said RNG Coalition Executive Director Johannes Escudero.
"We commend Governor Brown, Senator Pavley, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, and the California Legislature for their leadership to assure clean air, green jobs, and low carbon fuel options throughout California for decades to come."
Earlier this summer reports emerged that California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard was at risk of major reform or even elimination. The RNG Coalition responded.
"We are better organized as an industry than we've ever been - and the results speak for themselves," said RNG Coalition Chairman Evan Williams, who attended the bill signing on behalf of the RNG Coalition upon invitation from the Governor's Office.
Throughout July and August, the RNG Coalition worked with other clean fuel groups and environmental advocates to defend the LCFS and extend the climate programs from 2020 to 2030.
"Above all, the RNG Coalition focused on protecting and promoting RNG in California. We knew that the best things we could do for the industry was restore LCFS market stability and secure that stability long term," said David Cox, Operations Director for the RNG Coalition.
"On behalf of the RNG industry, suppliers of ultra-clean RNG transportation fuel, we recognize Gov. Brown and California's lawmakers for their dedication to a healthy and robust market for RNG. Passage of these bills quickly restored stability to LCFS credit prices, and has cemented Gov. Brown's, Senator Pavley's, and Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia's legacies as forward-thinking policy leaders."
RNG Coalition Receives Praise, Thanks for Advocacy & Leadership
TO: RNG Coalition
FROM: Martha Aceves-Guzman, Deputy Legislative Secretary, Office of Governor Jerry Brown
“I’ve been reflecting on the accomplishments from this year and what made the difference from last year. There is no doubt that the (LCFS) coalition made all the difference (or at least a HUGE part). Without the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, we would not have gotten SB 32/AB 197.
It was excellent to finally have folks we can strategize with on how to work with the members. Next year will be equally critical as we take on cap and trade and continue to defend the LCFS...Thank you!”
TO: RNG Coalition
FROM: Carlos Gonzalez, Policy Director, Office of Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, Chair of Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy (JEDE)
“Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia and myself want to personally thank you for your work on the passage of AB 197 and SB 32. This has been a historical accomplishment as we are reducing greenhouse gasses and creating an avenue for a greener business friendly California. Your leadership and guidance during the last couple of critical weeks of session made AB 197 and SB 32 possible. We look forward to continue our relationship with the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas... Thanks.”
About the RNG Coalition.
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas represents the RNG industry in North America. We advocate for the development and deployment of RNG so that present and future generations will have access to domestic, renewable, clean fuel and energy supply.
How Garbage Trucks Can Drive a Green Future
By Robert B. Catell and Joanna D. Underwood, The New York Times.
The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York has set clear, aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that would make the city a national leader in mitigating climate change. But other decisions now in the works could prevent the city from meeting them.
In the wake of last year’s Paris climate agreement, the mayor announced plans to cut emissions from activities controlled by the city government by 80 percent by 2050. Mr. de Blasio’s pledge included cutting emissions from the city’s vehicle fleets by 50 percent by 2025, and by 80 percent by 2035.
Halving emissions in less than a decade requires immediate, concerted action. But the Department of Sanitation — the city agency with the highest vehicle fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions — plans to buy 340 new refuse trucks this year, with at least 300 powered by diesel engines. That would lock in high diesel emissions for the seven-year service life of these trucks — and put the 2025 emissions goal out of reach.
EPA and DOT Finalize Greenhouse Gas and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy-Duty Trucks
8/16/2016
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) jointly finalized standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that will improve fuel efficiency and cut carbon pollution, while bolstering energy security and spurring manufacturing innovation. The final phase two standards were called for by President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, and respond to the President’s directive in early 2014 to develop new standards that run into the next decade.
The final phase two program promotes a new generation of cleaner, more fuel-efficient trucks by encouraging the wider application of currently available technologies and the development of new and advanced cost-effective technologies through model year 2027. The final standards are expected to lower CO2 emissions by approximately 1.1 billion metric tons, save vehicle owners fuel costs of about $170 billion, and reduce oil consumption by up to two billion barrels over the lifetime of the vehicles sold under the program. Overall, the program will provide $230 billion in net benefits to society, including benefits to our climate and the public health of Americans. These benefits outweigh costs by about an 8-to-1 ratio.
California regulators holding cap-and-trade auction as lawmakers consider next steps on climate change
By Chris Megerian and Melanie Mason, Los Angeles Times.
As lawmakers debate the future of California's climate programs, they'll be keeping an eye on new developments with the state's cap-and-trade program.
Regulators are holding their regularly scheduled auction Tuesday, an opportunity for companies to bid on the permits necessary to emit greenhouse gases in the state. During the last auction in May, demand for permits dropped, evidence of the legal and political uncertainty surrounding cap-and-trade.
Mexico announces launch of cap-and-trade pilot program
By Natalie Schachar, Reuters.
Mexico will launch a year-long simulation of a cap-and-trade program in November, Mexican officials said on Monday, in a test run for a national carbon market expected to launch in 2018.
The pilot program will involve the voluntary participation of up to 60 companies, giving them a chance to adapt to a forthcoming carbon credit system in which polluters will be obligated to offset emissions with tradeable certificates.
"When we have mechanisms that facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gases, we're implicitly reducing pollution," Mexico's deputy minister for environmental policy and planning, Rodolfo Lacy, said at an event in Mexico City.
Ameresco, City of Phoenix to develop largest wastewater biogas-to-energy facility in US
By Clean Tech Business Review.
Ameresco and the City of Phoenix have unveiled plans to develop a wastewater biogas-to-energy facility in Arizona, US.
Renewable energy firm Ameresco will design, construct, own, operate and maintain the facility, which will be built at the City of Phoenix-operated 91st Ave Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).
The Sub-Regional Operating Group (SROG), consisting of Phoenix, Glendale, Mesa, Scottsdale, and Tempe, own the WWTP.
Small Digesters Could Expand the Technology’s Use
By Philip Gruber, Lancaster Farming.
Small-scale methane digesters could help more dairy farmers take advantage of a technology that so far has mostly been available to the largest farms.
As with large digesters, making each unit cost-effective is the top challenge for small digesters, said Stephanie Lansing, a University of Maryland ecological engineering professor.
The waste-to-energy digesters use microbes to break down manure. The methane produced can be converted to electricity.
California legislators consider reducing methane emissions from gassy cows
By Gabrielle Karol, KXTV abc10.
Everyone poops – and burps and farts. When cows do it, though, it’s a problem, and California is looking for cows to cut back.
A proposed strategy from the California Air Resources Board seeks to reduce methane emissions from the dairy industry by more than 40 percent by 2030. The dairy and livestock industry creates half of California’s methane emissions. Breaking it down further, half of those emissions come from cows’ belching and passing gas, while the other half comes from manure management.
Two California senate bills moving through the legislature would require the Air Resources Board to start putting in place strategies to achieve this reduction in methane and other greenhouse gases. But many dairy producers are pushing back, arguing that the mandated reductions would be unachievable.
Turns out wind and solar have a secret friend: Natural gas
By Chris Mooney, The Washington Post.
We’re at a time of deeply ambitious plans for clean energy growth. Two of the U.S.’s largest states by population, California and New York, have both mandated that power companies get fully 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by the year 2030.
Only, there’s a problem: Because of the particular nature of clean energy sources like solar and wind, you can’t simply add them to the grid in large volumes and think that’s the end of the story. Rather, because these sources of electricity generation are “intermittent” — solar fluctuates with weather and the daily cycle, wind fluctuates with the wind — there has to be some means of continuing to provide electricity even when they go dark. And the more renewables you have, the bigger this problem can be.
Now, a new study suggests that at least so far, solving that problem has ironically involved more fossil fuels — and more particularly, installing a large number of fast-ramping natural gas plants, which can fill in quickly whenever renewable generation slips.
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