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Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Kasich vetoes bill to weaken clean energy mandate
Gov. John Kasich (R) bucked Ohio's GOP state legislature Tuesday by vetoing a bill that would have weakened the state’s clean energy requirements for power companies.
Kasich, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination this year, rejected the bill that sought to make clean-energy purchase mandates that have been in place since 2008 optional for two years.
The rules are nearing the end of a two-year freeze that was instituted in 2014.
By Timothy Cama, The Hill.
Gov. John Kasich (R) bucked Ohio's GOP state legislature Tuesday by vetoing a bill that would have weakened the state’s clean energy requirements for power companies.
Kasich, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination this year, rejected the bill that sought to make clean-energy purchase mandates that have been in place since 2008 optional for two years.
The rules are nearing the end of a two-year freeze that was instituted in 2014.
In his veto message, the governor credited Ohio’s clean energy law with increasing the public’s access to diverse sources of energy, but he offered to work with legislators to find ways to make energy more affordable.
“Ohio workers cannot afford to take a step backward from the economic gains that we have made in recent years, however, and arbitrarily limiting Ohio’s energy generation options amounts to self-inflicted damage to both our state’s near- and long-term economic competitiveness,” he wrote.
Kasich had threatened to veto the bill, which is supported by many business groups, including Ohio’s Chamber of Commerce, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Congress opens with an ambitious Republican agenda for the Trump era
By Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times.
Republican-controlled Congress opens Tuesday with the most sweeping conservative agenda in decades, providing Donald Trump ample room to gut the Affordable Care Act, slash corporate tax rates and undo Obama-era environmental regulations.
The House is almost certain to reelect Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) as its first order of business, dispensing with the messy political infighting that has hobbled Republicans in the past.
And the Senate will swiftly begin vetting the president-elect’s most controversial Cabinet picks, ready to confirm some when Trump is inaugurated as president on Jan. 20.
By Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times.
Republican-controlled Congress opens Tuesday with the most sweeping conservative agenda in decades, providing Donald Trump ample room to gut the Affordable Care Act, slash corporate tax rates and undo Obama-era environmental regulations.
The House is almost certain to reelect Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) as its first order of business, dispensing with the messy political infighting that has hobbled Republicans in the past.
And the Senate will swiftly begin vetting the president-elect’s most controversial Cabinet picks, ready to confirm some when Trump is inaugurated as president on Jan. 20.
Yet Republicans remain at odds on some high-profile issues — such as how aggressively to investigate Russian hacking in the 2016 election — and how to fulfill other big-ticket promises, such as replacing Obamacare.
A forgotten mortgage stimulus program that was passed by Obama to help the middle class Americans reduce their monthly payments by as much as $4,264 each year.
Despite firm Republican control of both the White House and Congress, the internal disputes have left them without a clear plan yet for Trump’s first 100 days, or an endgame for the two years of the 115th Congress.
Trump’s often shifting views on major issues will test relations with GOP’s leaders on Capitol Hill, and his willingness to skirt ideological rigidity gives incoming Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco an opening to influence and shape the president’s evolving agenda.
President Obama will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Democrats bracing for their new role, not just as the minority party, but as the main roadblock preventing Trump from dismantling the healthcare law and other parts of the Obama agenda.
Biogas facility in Oklahoma upgraded to produce renewable natural gas
By Renewable Energy from Waste Staff.
High Plains Bioenergy (HPB), Shawnee Mission, Kansas, a subsidiary of Shawnee Mission, Kansas-based Seaboard Foods, recently announced plans to upgrade its anaerobic digestion-derived biogas to renewable natural gas using an Essen, Germany-based Carbotech pressure swing adsorption system from Bioferm Energy Systems/Viessmann Group, Madison, Wisconsin.
Located in Guymon, Oklahoma, HPB’s facility currently fuels boilers with the biogas created from the anaerobic digestion of food processing pork waste, but has identified gas upgrading and natural gas grid injection as a better alternative biogas end-use to enable the highest possible return.
By Renewable Energy from Waste Staff.
High Plains Bioenergy (HPB), Shawnee Mission, Kansas, a subsidiary of Shawnee Mission, Kansas-based Seaboard Foods, recently announced plans to upgrade its anaerobic digestion-derived biogas to renewable natural gas using an Essen, Germany-based Carbotech pressure swing adsorption system from Bioferm Energy Systems/Viessmann Group, Madison, Wisconsin.
Located in Guymon, Oklahoma, HPB’s facility currently fuels boilers with the biogas created from the anaerobic digestion of food processing pork waste, but has identified gas upgrading and natural gas grid injection as a better alternative biogas end-use to enable the highest possible return.
“One strategic element of our business model is an emphasis on identifying opportunities which result in economic as well as environmental benefits through the use of Seaboard Foods’ various waste streams. After a long and comprehensive vetting process, we have decided to partner with Bioferm on this project. Their commitment to cutting-edge technology and unmatched output gas specifications were among the many reasons for our decision,” says Gene Binder, director of sales and business development at HPB.
Bioferm’s installation in Guymon will consist of a complete, integrated gas upgrading system—from biogas filtration, to biogas compression, through upgrading to natural gas pipeline quality requirements and treatment of off gas—including a performance guarantee and comprehensive control system for the whole package.
How the Illinois energy reform 'fixed' the state's RPS, promising a renewables boom
By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive.
Among the provisions of the sweeping energy legislation just passed in Illinois are reforms that aim to fix the state’s renewable portfolio standard and that could revive renewable energy development, which has been dormant in the state for several years.
The changes could bring $12 billion to $15 billion in private renewable energy investment into Illinois and could “jump start the solar industry” there, says Andrew Barbeau, senior clean energy consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund.
By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive.
Among the provisions of the sweeping energy legislation just passed in Illinois are reforms that aim to fix the state’s renewable portfolio standard and that could revive renewable energy development, which has been dormant in the state for several years.
The changes could bring $12 billion to $15 billion in private renewable energy investment into Illinois and could “jump start the solar industry” there, says Andrew Barbeau, senior clean energy consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund.
The centerpiece of the legislation, the Future Energy Jobs Bill (SB 2814), is a $235 million a year, 10-year bailout of Exelon’s Clinton and Quad City nuclear power plants, but the law also includes provisions for energy efficiency and $750 million targeted for low income programs, as well as changes to the RPS.
The RPS target itself has not changed. It still requires investor-owned electric utilities and alternative retail electric suppliers (ARES) to source 25% of eligible retail electricity sales from renewable energy by 2025 and exempts electric cooperatives and municipal utilities from RPS requirements. But the legislation provides a fix for funding mechanisms that in the past had brought the state’s RPS program to a standstill.
The law streamlines funding for RPS compliance projects and puts the state’s utilities in the center of the payment stream, collecting and retaining the funds until they are needed. That alone is a big improvement over the past plan.
Carl Icahn's refinery shares soar after Trump taps him to slash regulations
by Chris Isidore, CNN Money.
Shares of a small oil refining company controlled by Carl Icahn soared 10.5% Thursday after Icahn was tapped by President-elect Trump to advise his administration on how to cut government regulations.
Icahn owns an 82% stake in the firm CVR Energy (CVI), and saw a gain of nearly $160 million on paper the day after the announcement. His CVR investment makes up about 7% of the portfolio of Icahn Associates Holding, one of his his investment firms.
by Chris Isidore, CNN Money.
Icahn owns an 82% stake in the firm CVR Energy (CVI), and saw a gain of nearly $160 million on paper the day after the announcement. His CVR investment makes up about 7% of the portfolio of Icahn Associates Holding, one of his his investment firms.
Shares of Icahn's publicly traded hedge fund, Icahn Enterprises (IEP), also jumped on the news. They rose 7.5% and lifted the value of Icahn's own shares in the firm by $569 million. Icahn Enterprises and CVR were each up nearly 1% Friday.
The stock gains are an indicator of the possible conflicts of interest that could occur when a hedge fund manager such as Icahn has a role in advising what regulations should stay and which should go.
Icahn has been leading the debate against Environment Protection Agency regulations that essentially require small, independent refineries like CVR to buy EPA credits that are created when ethanol is blended into gasoline. CVR Energy reported paying $58 million for those credits in the third quarter alone, eating into its profits. Those credits, which are traded on Wall Street, fell about 11% in trading Thursday while CVR's shares climbed, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
Waste Management Fleet Now Surpasses 5,000 NGVs
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
Waste Management (WM), a Houston-based provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America, has released its 2016 Sustainability Report, titled “Leading Change,” which highlights the company’s progress toward making recycling sustainable and reducing the company’s greenhouse-gas (GHG) footprint.
As part of its efforts to improve emissions reduction, WM now operates more than 5,000 natural gas vehicles in North America, demonstrating the viability of natural gas as a transportation fuel.
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
Waste Management (WM), a Houston-based provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America, has released its 2016 Sustainability Report, titled “Leading Change,” which highlights the company’s progress toward making recycling sustainable and reducing the company’s greenhouse-gas (GHG) footprint.
As part of its efforts to improve emissions reduction, WM now operates more than 5,000 natural gas vehicles in North America, demonstrating the viability of natural gas as a transportation fuel.
“One of our primary strategies for reducing emissions is to transfer our fleet of 18,500 collection vehicles from diesel to cleaner-burning natural gas,” the company says in the report. “In fact, we’ve been a pioneer in natural gas since the early 1990s. Today, we have more than 5,000 natural gas collection trucks on the road, which makes us the largest private vocational heavy-duty fleet user of natural gas in the nation.
“We continue to expand this fleet, with up to 90 percent of new trucks purchased in 2015 running on compressed natural gas. For every diesel truck replaced with natural gas, we reduce our use of diesel fuel by an average of 8,000 gallons annually and GHG emissions by 22 metric tons per year, which equates to a 21 percent GHG emissions reduction per truck.
Plug and play anaerobic digestion takes your waste and turns it into biogas
By Anmar Frangoul, CNBC News.
The amount of food we waste is astonishing.
Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted every single year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
By Anmar Frangoul, CNBC News.
The amount of food we waste is astonishing.
Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted every single year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
For some, turning this abundance of waste into something other than landfill is fast becoming a key component in the battle to make our planet a more sustainable place to live.
London based bio-bean, for example, has industrialized the process of taking waste coffee grounds, recycling them and turning them into "advanced biofuels and biochemicals."
At U.K. based SEaB Energy, they are using compact anaerobic digestion systems in shipping containers to turn organic waste into energy in the form of biogas, which is used to fuel a combined heat and power (CHP) engine. This CHP engine then provides electricity and heat.
UK renewable energy sector gives thumbs up to Renewable Heat Incentive reform
The UK renewable energy industry has reacted positively to the government’s renewable heat incentive (RHI) scheme plans.
Changes to the scheme were proposed in a public consultation in March. At that time, the renewable heat industry was deeply concerned that the revised tariffs would result in a steep fall in the deployment of many renewable heat technologies. Proposed tariff reductions of 45% for parts of the biomass heat sector, for example, were projected by the Government to lead to a 98% drop in installations.
By Bioenergy Insight.
The UK renewable energy industry has reacted positively to the government’s renewable heat incentive (RHI) scheme plans.
Changes to the scheme were proposed in a public consultation in March. At that time, the renewable heat industry was deeply concerned that the revised tariffs would result in a steep fall in the deployment of many renewable heat technologies. Proposed tariff reductions of 45% for parts of the biomass heat sector, for example, were projected by the Government to lead to a 98% drop in installations.
Other technologies, such as solar thermal, were to be removed from the RHI altogether. The proposals resulted in significant outcry from sectors of the renewables industry.
The REA’s analysis of the Government’s finalised scheme, released last week, indicates that the reformed Renewable Heat Incentive moves the UK closer to meeting its legally binding 2020 renewable heat target. However, there will be certain key sectors which may struggle, including biogas and non-domestic biomass boilers.
ADBA chief executive Charlotte Morton said: “It’s great to see that the new ministers in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) remain committed to decarbonising heat in the UK and continuing to support the UK’s burgeoning green gas industry.
“We are pleased to see that tariff levels have been reset – this should support higher levels of deployment. We do not believe, however, that the restrictions on feedstock for new plants, which could have unintended consequences, are justified.
"The introduction of tariff guarantees is extremely welcome and we will continue to work with the UK Government and with our members to ensure the UK AD industry keeps growing and reaches its full potential – for example by calling for urgent action on food waste collections in England.
“Biomethane and biogas have been real success stories from the RHI, and the continuation of this scheme will allow the UK AD industry to build upon its success to date, decarbonising heat without any changes for the consumer.”
Gas Technology Institute Among DOE Grant Recipients
Via U.S. Department of Energy.
WASHINGTON – Today, the Energy Department (DOE) announced $18 million in support of five projects for research, development, and demonstration of innovative plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) and direct injection propane engine technologies, as well as community-based projects to accelerate the adoption of light, medium and heavy duty vehicles that operate on fuels such as biodiesel, electricity, E85, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane.
Public investment in advanced, energy efficient transportation technologies and systems will improve our nation’s energy security, support energy independence, reduce transportation emissions, and strengthen U.S. economic competiveness. The projects selected today will accelerate the development and adoption of alternative fuel technologies, and support pioneering deployments of market-ready vehicles and alternative fuels.
Michigan Calls For 15% Renewable Electricity By 2021
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
- Lawmakers in Michigan's House and Senate yesterday reached a bipartisan compromise to overhaul the state's energy marketplace, raising the renewable energy standard from 10% to 15%, protecting retail net metering and keeping its limited retail choice program alive.
- Clean energy advocates praised the final decision, which did not include provisions they believed would have hurt the state's nascent solar market.
- The 11th-hour compromise was shepherded by Michigan Gov., Rick Snyder (R), who said the "landmark" legislation will give consumers more control over their energy, save them millions and protect the state's environment.
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
- Lawmakers in Michigan's House and Senate yesterday reached a bipartisan compromise to overhaul the state's energy marketplace, raising the renewable energy standard from 10% to 15%, protecting retail net metering and keeping its limited retail choice program alive.
- Clean energy advocates praised the final decision, which did not include provisions they believed would have hurt the state's nascent solar market.
- The 11th-hour compromise was shepherded by Michigan Gov., Rick Snyder (R), who said the "landmark" legislation will give consumers more control over their energy, save them millions and protect the state's environment.
Dive Insight:
Michigan lawmakers went down to the wire but finally passed the much-anticipated bill at the close of the legislative session — a day after 19 hours of negotiations appeared to leave the plan in a precarious position.
"We now have a statewide energy policy that will save Michigan residents millions of dollars on their electric bills, alleviate concerns about having enough capacity to power the daily activities of 10 million people and find new ways to use our existing energy grid more efficiently," Snyder said in a statement. "This policy also allows for more consumer choice in our growing market.
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