RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.EPA recognizes SC Johnson, GM for use of 'green power' from landfills
By Cole Rosengren, Waste Dive.
Dive Brief:
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized two companies for their use of renewable energy from landfills as part of the 16th annual Green Power Leadership Awards in San Francisco.
- SC Johnson won an Excellence in Green Power Award for producing 44% of its U.S. electricity from renewable sources, including 16 kWh of electricity from a landfill gas-to-energy system which it owns and operates in Wisconsin.
- General Motors (GM) won a Direct Project Engagement Award for generating more than half of the Orion Assembly Plant's from an on-site landfill gas system in Michigan.
New study to characterize methane emissions from natural gas compressor stations
By Anne Ju Manning, Source.
Natural gas, a clean-burning fuel, has significant potential as a “bridge fuel” on a path to a sustainable energy future. However, its climate benefits are highly dependent upon the emission rate of methane from the nation’s vast natural gas infrastructure.
Colorado State University, home to some of the world’s top researchers on methane emissions, will lead a major project to analyze emissions from a specific part of the natural gas supply chain: compressor stations. The new project will help scientists develop a more complete picture of overall emissions.
Methane is the primary component of natural gas and a powerful greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 84 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. Although atmospheric methane originates from many sources, no industry has received more scrutiny for emissions than the natural gas sector. Significant quantities of methane are emitted from its million-plus miles of pipeline, half million wells, and thousands of gathering, processing, transmission, storage and distribution facilities.
Task Force Urges Safety Reforms for Natural Gas Storage Fields
By Rebecca Smith, The Wall Street Journal.
Federal officials on Tuesday called for a sweeping safety overhaul of more than 400 underground natural gas storage fields in the U.S., following a massive leak last year at a facility near Los Angeles.
The report by the Interagency Task Force on Natural Gas Storage Safety recommended 44 measures to bolster the safety and soundness of natural gas storage fields in 30 states that fall under federal jurisdiction.
It was prompted by a massive and protracted gas leak in October 2015 at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field northwest of Los Angeles, which released more than 90,000 metric tons of methane and forced the relocation of thousands of households from the nearby community of Porter Ranch.
RNG in California: Leadership, Market Certainty
By the conclusion of California’s 2015-‘16 legislative session at the end of August, amid a flurry of uncertainty and opposition, the state legislature passed SB 32, which extends the LCFS and cap-and-trade compliance programs beyond 2020 to 2030.
By Marcus Gillette, Biomass Magazine.
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, in solidarity with like-minded clean energy, renewable fuels, organized labor and environmental advocates.
By the conclusion of California’s 2015-‘16 legislative session at the end of August, amid a flurry of uncertainty and opposition, the state legislature passed SB 32. The bill effectively extends the LCFS and cap-and-trade compliance programs beyond 2020 to 2030. "The LCFS as a compliance program and market driver is here to stay and renewable natural gas will continue to be one of its major success stories,” said Johannes Escudero, RNG Coalition CEO and executive director. “We commend Gov. Brown, Sen. Pavley, Assemblymember E. 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.”
N.J. Considering Food Waste-to-Energy Legislation
By Tom Johnson, NJ.com.
The food waste from a local supermarket, restaurant, or catering hall could end up being the fuel that serves a source of renewable energy for New Jersey.
That's the goal of a bill moving through the Legislature, which would require large generators of garbage to separate and recycle food waste with the aim of converting it to energy.
The bill (S-771), approved by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee last week, would encourage composting and building more food-waste-to-energy facilities in the state.
Cummins Westport Begins Production of ISL G Near Zero Nat-Gas Engine
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
Cummins Westport Inc. has announced that production of the ISL G Near Zero (NZ) NOx natural gas engine has officially commenced and orders are now being processed.
According to the company, the ISL G NZ is the first mid-range engine in North America to receive emission certification from both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Air Resources Board (ARB) in California to meet the optional 0.02 g/bhp-hr NZ NOx Emissions standards eight years in advance of the 2023 California NZ NOx schedule, contributing to California Clean Air initiatives.
As previously reported, exhaust emissions of the ISL G NZ are 90% lower than the current EPA and ARB NOx limit and also meet the 2017 EPA greenhouse-gas (GHG) emission requirements.
President Clinton, President Trump: What Do They Mean for Fuel?
By Samantha Oller, Senior Editor/Fuels, CSP Magazine.
Two words that describe the 2016 presidential election: low energy.
Despite the passionate and at-times colorful conversation on immigration, national security and jobs, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump have spent relatively little time discussing energy policy.
“Energy issues are not the first things out of their mouths—that’s a little disconcerting,” says Paige Anderson, director of government relations for NACS, Alexandria, Va. Energy used to be one of the top issues presidential candidates targeted in previous campaigns, says Anderson. Finding details on the candidates’ energy policy is a challenge in itself. At Clinton’s campaign page, energy is part of a wider discussion on climate change, and at Trump’s, it is part of a multibulleted economic proposal.
World's biggest defence company builds plant to make energy from landfill
By Lynda Delacey, Forbes
Lockheed Martin is making progress with its plan to be a global player in the clean energy market. Last month, executives at Lockheed Martin's Owego, New York plant cut the ribbon on a new self-sustaining bioenergy system that is helping power the facility, converting 3,560 tons of waste per year into electricity.
The waste-to-energy plant at Lockheed Martin, Owego, New York.(Credit: Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin spokesperson Michael Friedman told New Atlas the company hopes that in time the system will provide a clean, scalable answer to the world's landfill and clean electricity problems.
While converting bio-waste into energy is not new, incineration is still the most popular way of achieving this. The problem is, using fire as a step in the process creates serious emission problems, especially in countries that are already struggling with air pollution.
California city uses RIN credits to repair roads
By REW Staff.
A city in California is using its Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits generated by creating biofuel from organic waste to repair its roads, a report by the Manteca Bulletin says.
Manteca, California, has identified street repair as a legitimate expense for cost recovery in municipal garbage rates with the reason that one of the heaviest trucks that goes down most residential streets in the city is a municipal solid waste truck, the report says. But the proposed rate hike “suspends” the charge. In order to fund the road repairs, the city will funnel the money it receives from oil companies from the sale of RIN credits.
According to the report, RINs are credits that oil companies purchase to meet a federally mandated percentage of biofuel in their fuel production.
FedEx, Clean Energy Fuels opens CNG fueling station in Oklahoma City
By REW Staff, Renewable Energy from Waste.
The leaders of FedEx Corp, Memphis, Tennessee, Clean Energy Fuels Corp., Newport Beach, California, and the state of Oklahoma officially opened a compressed natural gas (CNG) station in Oklahoma City that will allow more than 100 FedEx Freight Class 8 trucks to use fast-fueling as well as time-fueling. Clean Energy also announced that it expects to supply the station with its Redeem renewable natural gas (RNG) vehicle fuel in the near future.
“As one of the largest logistics companies in the world, FedEx does its homework when charting a new course and their decision to open up a major CNG fueling center was no different,” says Andrew J. Littlefair, CEO and president of Clean Energy. “Led by Fred’s [Smith, CEO and chairman at FedEx] vision, the company has always had a commitment to operate on the highest sustainable level. Transitioning a portion of FedEx Freight’s fleet to a fuel that will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions is another example of their leadership.”
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