Maryland Senate overrides Gov. Hogan's veto of energy bill, raising renewables goal

By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.

Dive Brief:

• Lawmakers in the Maryland Senate voted 32-13 to expand the state's renewable energy target, overriding Gov. Larry Hogan (R)'s veto of the measure in May of last year.
• The Senate's vote followed on a similar move in the House of Delegates earlier this week. The Baltimore Sun points out that the Democratic majority legislature has overridden a veto on several issues, ranging from felons' rights to how hotel taxes are collected.
• The law will raise Maryland's renewable portfolio standard from 20% to 25% by 2020, a decision environmentalists immediately cheered. 

Dive Insight:

Largely along party lines, Maryland lawmakers looked past increased electric bills and voted to boost the amount of carbon-free energy utilities in the state provide customers. In response, Hogan took to Facebook and posted a list of Senators who voted in favor, urging constituents to complain.

"It will be an additional charge on your energy bill each month to pay for overly expensive solar and wind energy credits, the majority of which are created by companies outside of Maryland," he wrote.

Last year, Maryland electric suppliers needed renewable energy credits for 15.9% of their supply, with a goal of 20% by 2022. Now, utilities must reach 25% by 2020. The bill also raises the solar carve-out to 2.5% by 2020, creating incentives for roughly 1,300 MW of new clean energy.

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Heartland Biogas, Weld County file competing injunctions

By Tyler Silvy, Greeley Tribune.

A legal battle between Weld County and a renewable energy company continues to work its way through U.S. District Court, with both sides asking the judge to use force in their favor. 

Heartland Biogas, which breaks down various waste materials to create natural gas, has been under fire for more than a year, with dozens of neighbors filing about 400 odor-related complaints. 

When the Board of Weld County Commissioners on Dec. 28 suspended Heartland’s special use permit for a variety of alleged violations, including odor, the company sued. Heartland continued to operate on Weld County Road 49 near LaSalle in violation of the commissioners’ order. Late Thursday, company officials said in an email, they had stopped operating.

In Heartland’s lawsuit, filed the same day as the resolution, the company’s lawyers paint a dramatic picture of commissioners hostile to Heartland and its “constitutional rights,” and irrationally bent on destroying the company. 

A judge rejected the company’s request for a temporary restraining order, and now the judge must decide on a preliminary injunction. In both cases, Heartland is asking the judge to allow the company to stay open until the case works its way through the legal system. It says shutting down will cost it millions of dollars and millions more each month it doesn’t operate.

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California Air Resources Board Forges Ahead With 2030 Scoping Plan

By Tara Kaushik, Holland & Knight, via Mondaq.com.

On Jan. 20, 2017, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released an updated Scoping Plan to reduce state greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Under the state's climate change law known as Assembly Bill (AB) 32, CARB is required to produce a scoping plan every five years. The proposed plan has the potential to impact the state's cap and trade program and carbon markets for the long term.

The proposed plan outlines options to meet California's aggressive goals to reduce GHGs by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The State codified the 40 percent goal in legislation enacted last year (Senate Bill 32). The proposed plan would extend the state's cap-and-trade program — in which CARB auctions off emissions allowances to refiners, utilities and other GHG sources as the emissions cap gradually declines — to cover the years 2020 to 2030. The proposed plan would extend the cap-and-trade program and newly require oil refineries to reduce their GHGs by 20 percent.

The proposed plan also incorporates the state's updated Renewable Portfolio Standard requiring utilities to procure 50 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. It also raises the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and aims to reduce emissions of methane and hydrofluorocarbons by 40 percent from 2013 levels by 2030 and emissions of black carbon by 50 percent from 2013 levels.

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Scott Pruitt, Trump’s E.P.A. Pick, Is Approved by Senate Committee

By Carol Davenport, The New York Times.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans pressed forward on Thursday with the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, suspending the Environment and Public Works Committee’s rules to approve the cabinet pick despite a Democratic boycott.

The 11-0 vote sends the nomination to the full Senate, where Mr. Pruitt will most likely be approved next week.

The move was one of several to break the logjam on Mr. Trump’s incoming team. Party line votes in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Budget Committee also advanced the nomination of Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina to be the White House budget director, despite deep concerns among Democrats — and some Republicans — over his tightfisted spending record.

Senators on Thursday teed up what could be a week of rapid-fire confirmations, taking procedural votes to move forward with the nominations of Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be attorney general, Representative Tom Price of Georgia to be secretary of health and human services, and Steven T. Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary.

Those confirmation votes are expected to come early next week, after a white-knuckled vote on the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be education secretary. With two Republican senators opposing Ms. DeVos, her confirmation hangs by a single vote. In a procedural quirk, Mr. Sessions’s confirmation vote is scheduled after that of Ms. DeVos so he can vote “yes” before he leaves the Senate.

Mr. Mulvaney and Mr. Pruitt also appeared headed for confirmation next week.

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The biogas sector has built itself a wide base. Now, it’s time for the industry to build upon these successes

By Tim Portz, Biomass Magazine.

The biogas sector has built itself a wide base. Now, it’s time for the industry to build upon these successes, share them broadly with the investment community, find and win new industry champions, and go vertical.

In a sweeping overview of activity and construction currently underway in the biogas sector, the article that serves as the foundation for this issue—completely dedicated to biogas production and use—specifically mentions 26 different projects. That same article identifies 24 different service and technology providers making vital contributions to these projects. Setting aside only the installation of small-scale biomass thermal, I can say, without even looking, that the biogas segment can boast the largest roster of under-development and under-construction projects within the broader biomass-to-energy space.

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Democrats boycott controversial EPA nominee Scott Pruitt’s committee confirmation vote

By Brady Dennis, Chris Mooney and David Weigel, The Washington Post.

Even as Republican senators pushed President Trump’s treasury and health and human services nominees through committees Wednesday despite Democratic-blocking tactics, Democrats failed to show up for a planned vote on Environmental Protection Agency nominee Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma.

“I have been informed that no Democrats will be in attendance,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. “It is a disappointing turn of events.”

While Democrats stayed away from the hearing room, their staff distributed an amendment from ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.) that would add new standards requiring nominees to submit more financial information. Republicans, meanwhile, took turns describing how unreasonable they felt the Democrats had been in asking more than 1,000 follow-up questions after Pruitt’s Jan. 18 hearing.

“I got exhausted just listening to the questions,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V). “Disagreement with a nominee’s position is not a reason to boycott a hearing.”

Each Republican member of the committee made a statement, throwing Democrats’ previous comments about obstruction back at them, though no Democrat was present to hear.

“I ask my Democratic colleagues: Will they take the blame for an EPA that is not fully informational?” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). “God forbid we have an environmental crisis.”

As one after another lawmaker spoke, a GOP aide displayed a chart designed to show how quickly past EPA nominees had been confirmed. Notably missing from it, however, was President Barack Obama’s second EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy. Nominated in March 2013, she was not confirmed until July of that year — and at one point, committee Republicans boycotted a meeting to demand that McCarthy answer more questions.

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SoCalGas and CR&R Environmental Announce Construction of Pipeline to Provide Carbon-Neutral Renewable Natural Gas

By PR Newswire, via Yahoo Finance.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and waste management company CR&R Environmental today announced they broke ground on construction of an eight-inch pipeline that will bring carbon-neutral renewable natural gas into the SoCalGas distribution system for the first time.

The connecting pipeline, funded by CR&R Environmental, will reach approximately 1.4 miles from an existing SoCalGas pipeline to a new CR&R anaerobic digestion facility in Perris, California slated to be complete this spring. Renewable natural gas from the digestion facility will be designated specifically to power CR&R's fleet of approximately 900 waste hauling trucks.

"Bringing renewable gas into our pipeline system is a big step forward for SoCalGas and for California," said Lisa Alexander, SoCalGas' vice president, customer solutions and communications.  "Using our pipeline infrastructure to distribute this carbon-neutral fuel will help to slow climate change and meet state goals for increasing use of renewable fuels. We see this de-carbonization of our pipeline system as the way of the future."

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Filling up with natural gas: Vehicles running on clean fuel should not run in the shade of electric

By Matthew Godlewski, The Washington Times.

During last year’s presidential campaign, Donald Trump showed his commitment to America’s energy future and a belief in its innovative spirit.

Appointing Scott Pruitt and Rick Perry to top energy-related posts in his Cabinet underscores his commitment to meeting that pledge, because these experts already know that clean-burning natural gas is a true transportation innovation. The natural gas vehicle industry is bullish on these choices, and strongly encourages the Senate to confirm them soon.

Mr. Pruitt, as attorney general of Oklahoma, saw firsthand how quickly natural gas became so popular that it outpaced other forms of energy. He’ll be a great administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Under Gov. Perry’s leadership, Texas drove development of the wind, solar and natural gas industries. He signed legislation creating the “Texas Triangle,” which established a natural gas vehicle clean transportation corridor between the major population centers in the state. Air quality has improved and today this corridor is the backbone of a strong natural gas vehicle industry. Mr. Perry knows how to streamline decision-making and is an excellent choice as energy secretary.

One can witness this same kind of forward thinking and innovation at the Cummins Engine Plant in Rocky Mount, N.C. It’s where the revolutionary Cummins Westport “Near Zero” natural gas engine is built, which reduces harmful nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent from the current EPA standard. No other transportation fuel delivers such performance.

And millions more Americans will benefit as cities across the United States keep turning to clean-burning natural gas for public transportation. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, is using heavy-duty, American-made, natural gas engines to power buses that are among the cleanest in the world.

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Maryland House overrides Hogan in favor of renewable energy

By Pamela Wood, The Baltimore Sun. 

The House of Delegates on Tuesday took the first step to reverse Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of a renewable energy bill, voting 88-51 to overturn it.

The state Senate plans to vote Thursday. To override a governor's veto, three-fifths of the Senate must join the House in voting to do so.

Delegates debated the merits of the bill for about an hour. It would require a greater portion of the electricity sold in Maryland to come from renewable sources, such as solar power and wind power.

Republicans said the bill would put an unnecessary financial burden on residents and businesses. Democrats countered that the state needs to increase the use of renewable energy to fight climate change and improve air quality.

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Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse issued a statement saying that delegates who voted for the override are "out of touch."

"For years, Marylanders have made it clear that they are sick and tired of these kinds of rate increases — hopefully our good Senators won't turn a deaf ear to their calls like their colleagues in the House just did," Chasse said.

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GOP senator ‘concerned’ about EPA pick's history of suing the agency

By Timothy Cama, The Hill.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is “concerned” about the number of lawsuits President Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed against the agency he may soon run. 

Collins is the first Republican senator to come out publicly with concerns about Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

“I am concerned, based on the meeting I had with Scott Pruitt, about the number of times he has sued the very agency that he has now been tapped to lead,” Collins told Maine Public.

Pruitt’s record of repeatedly suing the EPA during President Obama’s tenure is a sticking point for Democrats, who argue it shows that he opposes the agency’s core missions.

He sued the Obama administration EPA 14 times to get regulations overturned and won court decision in one case.

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