RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Hydrogen fuel-station finder app launched by Air Liquide
By Stephen Edelstein, Green Car Reports.
Electric-car drivers can rely on several different locator apps to find nearby public charging stations as they travel.
While only a handful of public hydrogen fueling stations are operational at the moment, drivers of fuel-cell cars now have their own station-tracking app as well.
Hydrogen-infrastructure company Air Liquide launched the new app over the weekend, as part of the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day event to promote fuel-cell vehicles.
BIO analysis finds no link between blend wall, RIN price spike
By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization recently released a white paper that analyzes U.S. EPA data, challenging the widely accepted assumption that the blend wall caused the 2013 spike in renewable identification number (RIN) prices.
The white paper, titled “The Myth of High RIN Prices as Proof of the Blend Wall,” analyzes data recently released by the EPA on renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance between 2010 and 2013, which is the last year for which complete compliance data is currently available.
“The success of the renewable fuel standard has become distorted by the myth that U.S. refiners have encountered an unbreakable blend wall,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section. “Oil refiners, their champions in Congress, and even EPA have proposed changes to the RFS program based on this myth. Yet these changes to the RFS are aimed at solving a problem that never existed."
Canada to have carbon-cutting measures beyond pricing: minister
By Ethan Lou and Alistair Bell, Reuters.
Canada's federal government and its provinces have agreed they need emissions-cutting measures beyond the minimum price on carbon unveiled last week, and the government will announce those measures in the fall, a senior minister said on Sunday.
Speaking on the CTV broadcaster's "Question Period" politics talk show, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said the measures may include regulating energy efficiency in housing.
Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took power last November promising to do more to protect the environment, and last Wednesday Parliament ratified the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions.
Four New California Cap and Trade Bills Fund Programs
By BBK Law.
$900 million in appropriations for fiscal year 2016-17
With California’s cap and trade program suffering from legal challenges, decreasing auction revenue and general criticism of the program’s effectiveness, Gov. Brown signed several bills in Sept. that will help fund state and local programs and projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Budget Committee bills Senate Bill 859 and Assembly Bill 1613, and AB 2722 (Burke, D-Inglewood) directed $900 million in cap and trade revenues to various California agencies and programs. AB 1550 (Gomez, D-Los Angeles) increases the amount of cap and trade auction proceeds that must go to projects benefitting disadvantaged communities. These appropriations should provide significant financial opportunities for local agencies and businesses with environmental projects and programs in need of funding.
Hoosier Energy starts up landfill gas-to-electricity project in Illinois
By Renewable Energy from Waste.
The utility firm Hoosier Energy, Bloomington, Indiana, has started up its latest landfill methane generation facility in Rockford, Illinois. The station is located at Advance Disposal’s landfill in Davis Junction, Illinois. The engines are presently being tested and synched to Hoosier’s grid. The company expects to be producing power onto the grid sometime by the middle to the end of this November.
The 16-megawatt Orchard Hills Generation Station is able to convert landfill gas into electricity.
U.S. EPA Approves State Implementation Plan revisions submitted by Washington State
Via Federal Register.
SUMMARY:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving State Implementation Plan revisions submitted by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) on July 11, 2016. The revisions update the incorporation by reference of federal provisions cited in Ecology's general air quality regulations. The revisions also reflect changes to the primary and secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, promulgated since Ecology's last update. Ecology also made minor corrections to typographical errors and non-substantive edits for clarity, such as standardizing the citation format.
EPA Draft Rule Introduces BioIntermediates into the RFS; Considers Several Biogas-to-Electric Vehicle RIN Approaches
By Erin Voegele, Ethanol Producer Magazine.
On Oct. 3, the U.S. EPA released its proposed Renewable Enhancement and Growth Support rule, which aims to enhance the renewable fuel standard (RFS) program and related fuel regulations to support the growth of ethanol and other renewable fuels.
The proposal includes an updated regulatory structure to allow biofuels producers to partially process feedstock at one facility and convert the resulting material into fuels at another using existing pathways. It also updates fuel regulations to allow expanded availability of high-ethanol fuel blends for use in flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) and includes new feedstock approvals for cellulosic biofuels produced from short-rotation poplar and willow, cellulosic diesel produced from compressing of cellulosic feedstocks and petroleum, and renewable diesel and biodiesel produced from non-cellulosic portions of separated food waste. In addition, the EPA said it is seeking comments on a variety of other issues, including renewable identification number (RIN) generation for renewable electricity used as transportation fuel and requirements for facilities that could use carbon capture and storage (CCS) to reduce carbon in the production of renewable fuels in the future.
View the draft rule HERE...
What's at Stake for the Climate in the 2016 Election? Everything
By Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News.
Following the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the gulf between the candidates has never seemed deeper, perhaps most alarmingly so on climate change.
The election shapes up as the most significant possible choice when it comes to climate policy. Clinton, though not committed to a swift transition away from fossil fuels, vows to build on the climate policies of the Obama administration and live up to U.S. commitments to the Paris accord. Trump, in contrast, pledges to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency and "cancel" the Paris agreement.
More fundamentally, the election is a choice between one candidate who accepts the global scientific and political consensus on the causes and cures for climate change, and one who rejects both.
Apple Enters Agreement with Denmark University for new Biogas R&D Partnership
By Patently Apple.
Last February Apple officially announced a €1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centers in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The facilities were planned to be located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark's central Jutland. Apple noted that the centers would power Apple's online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe. Today the Copenhagen Post reports today that "Apple has followed up on its promise last year to build a data center in Denmark with an ambitious agreement with the University of Aarhus on a new biogas research and development partnership."
In addition, we now know that beyond the general area of "central Jutland" Apple's facility was built in Foulum, a small town of about 100 households outside of Viborg where Aarhus University's agricultural research facilities are located.
A look at Congress' to-do list for this year and next
By Associated Press, Herald Tribune.
A look at Congress' to-do list for the lame-duck session that begins Nov. 14 and for 2017, when a new Congress will convene and a new president will take office.
LAME DUCK
-Government spending
A continuing resolution signed into law Thursday by President Barack Obama extends government funding through Dec. 9, forcing Congress to act by then or face a government shutdown. Only one of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the 2016 fiscal year has been completed.
-Flint water crisis.
Advocates for helping Flint, Michigan, address its lead-tainted water crisis have won $220 million in a Senate-passed water projects bill and less in the House version. GOP leaders, facing a logjam on this week's stopgap spending bill, have offered concrete assurances that lawmakers will take care of Flint.
Don’t miss an update—join our weekly newsletter below.