RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Poll says Two-thirds of Canadians approve of Ottawa’s climate regulations
By Shawn McCarthy, The Globe and Mail.
OTTAWA - Nearly two-thirds of Canadians want the Liberal government to proceed with climate regulations, including carbon pricing, regardless of a new direction on the environment from U.S. President Donald Trump, a new Nanos Research poll says.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna met this week with the European climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, and the two ministers said they remain committed to meeting the targets of the Paris climate agreement, even as Mr. Trump lays plans to reverse greenhouse-gas-reduction regulations passed by his predecessor Barack Obama.
By Shawn McCarthy, The Globe and Mail.
OTTAWA - Nearly two-thirds of Canadians want the Liberal government to proceed with climate regulations, including carbon pricing, regardless of a new direction on the environment from U.S. President Donald Trump, a new Nanos Research poll says.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna met this week with the European climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, and the two ministers said they remain committed to meeting the targets of the Paris climate agreement, even as Mr. Trump lays plans to reverse greenhouse-gas-reduction regulations passed by his predecessor Barack Obama.
Some Canadian business leaders and conservative politicians have urged the governments to slow or stop the implementation of the federal-provincial climate plan reached in December, arguing additional costs from environmental regulations will erode Canada’s ability to compete with U.S. companies that benefit from the Republican administration’s approach.
In a poll of 1,000 Canadians conducted for The Globe and Mail this week, Nanos Research found 48 per cent “support” and 17 per cent “somewhat support” the government of Canada’s plan to institute new climate regulations even if it is out of step with Mr. Trump’s approach. One-third of respondents said they are opposed (22 per cent) or somewhat opposed (11 per cent).
The margin of error for the survey is 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
More broadly, some 77 per cent of those responding to the survey said it would be unacceptable or somewhat unacceptable for the Canadian government to align its policies with the Trump administration in cases where the two countries diverge, Nanos said.
New EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Is Balking at Trump’s Big Budget Cuts
By Eric Pianin, via Yahoo Finance.
It was no surprise that former Environmental Protection Agency director Gina McCarthy reacted with shock and outrage to reports that the Trump administration budget office had proposed slashing her former agency’s budget by 25 per cent, jettisoning scores of vital environmental quality programs and climate change research in the process.
“I think people have to realize that this budget proposal that is being put on the table would take staffing levels at EPA down to where they were 40 years ago,” she said Wednesday on MSNBC. “This is really not about [Trump administration disagreement] on climate anymore. This is an attack on the agency.”
By Eric Pianin, via Yahoo Finance.
It was no surprise that former Environmental Protection Agency director Gina McCarthy reacted with shock and outrage to reports that the Trump administration budget office had proposed slashing her former agency’s budget by 25 per cent, jettisoning scores of vital environmental quality programs and climate change research in the process.
“I think people have to realize that this budget proposal that is being put on the table would take staffing levels at EPA down to where they were 40 years ago,” she said Wednesday on MSNBC. “This is really not about [Trump administration disagreement] on climate anymore. This is an attack on the agency.”
As state attorney general, Pruitt was closely aligned with the oil and gas industry and sued the EPA at least 14 times in recent years, challenging the agencies legal authority to regulate mercury pollution, smog and carbon emissions. A cache of 6,000 emails released last week as part of a law suit in Oklahoma showed that Pruitt carefully coordinated his efforts to thwart the Obama administration’s climate change initiatives with high level energy and utility company officials. In some cases, industry lawyers drafted letters for him to send to federal regulators.
Pruitt said during his Senate confirmation hearings that he did not believe climate change was a "hoax,” as Trump once insisted. However, he did argue that climate change needed more study and more debate, despite the huge body of existing research linking greenhouse gas emissions to global warming and rising sea levels.
EU Patent Obtained on Super Single-Celled Organisms for Biomethane Production
By Alexander Stark, Process Worldwide.
Electrochaea has successfully patented a strain of microorganisms specially developed for efficient biocatalytic methane production. The patent for the EU was recently validated in Denmark, where Electrochaea has been operating the world's first biological methanation plant with a power uptake of one megawatt, since 2016.
EPA set to reconsider car emissions standards set under the Obama administration
By Mike Spector and Amy Harder, MarketWatch.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is near reversing an Obama administration decision to lock in future stringent vehicle fuel-economy and emission standards after auto makers lobbied the agency’s new chief to reopen a review of the regulations, said people familiar with the matter.
Because of an all-time high waiver credit value paired with strong advanced RIN prices, renewable natural gas could fetch $35/MMBtu in 2017.
By Susan Olson, BioCycle Magazine.
Since 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has mandated the blending of renewable fuels into the motor vehicle transportation supply under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Renewable natural gas to compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) is playing a growing role in satisfying the fuels mandate. This article explores how renewable natural gas (RNG) works within the RFS from a demand and economic viewpoint.
By Susan Olson, BioCycle Magazine.
Since 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has mandated the blending of renewable fuels into the motor vehicle transportation supply under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Renewable natural gas to compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) is playing a growing role in satisfying the fuels mandate. This article explores how renewable natural gas (RNG) works within the RFS from a demand and economic viewpoint.
The RFS is a part of the Clean Air Act, specifically the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which was congressionally enacted under the Bush administration in 2007. Refiners and importers of petroleum-based fuels are obligated parties under RFS, which requires a percentage of refined transportation fuels to be blended with renewable fuels. These obligated parties are regulated entities that must demonstrate compliance with the blending requirements.
Each year, the EPA sets the renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for specific types of renewable fuels for obligated parties to meet. There is an overall renewable fuel RVO, and nested within that is a specific carve out for advanced biofuels as shown in Figure 1. Within that advanced biofuel RVO are further sub-requirements for volumes of biomass-based diesel and cellulosic-based biofuels.
Corn ethanol qualifies for D6 RIN generation, which may be used for the total renewable fuel mandate but not the advanced categories. Some refiners comply with the total renewable fuel mandate by blending ethanol with gasoline and retaining the RIN while others comply by purchasing separated RINs rather than blending. Some refiners use a mix of those activities.
The currency of RFS compliance is the Renewable Identification Number (RIN), which is a credit generated for one ethanol equivalent gallon of renewable fuel. RINs are generated by renewable fuel producers and importers based on production, import or sale of renewable fuels. RINs travel with the physical fuel until it is blended into the transportation supply. A RIN may then be retired by its obligated party owner, or separated and sold as its own environmental credit commodity, ultimately being purchased by an obligated party who needs it to prove that it is meeting its mandate. For 2017, the mandate for total renewable fuel is 15 billion gallons more than the advanced mandate. The 15 billion gallons will be fulfilled mostly by ethanol. There is a daily RIN trade although some days are more active than others.
Senate votes to confirm former Texas governor Rick Perry as energy secretary
By Steven Mufson, The Washington Post.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry won confirmation Thursday as President Trump’s energy secretary. Now comes the hard part.
The Senate voted 62 to 37 Thursday afternoon to confirm Perry as energy secretary, brushing aside his onetime vow to abolish the department.
By Steven Mufson, The Washington Post.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry won confirmation Thursday as President Trump’s energy secretary. Now comes the hard part.
The Senate voted 62 to 37 Thursday afternoon to confirm Perry as energy secretary, brushing aside his onetime vow to abolish the department.
The genial Republican drew less fire from Democrats during his confirmation process than other Trump nominees, but Perry now faces many of the same tough issues over regulations, the department’s activities to slow climate change and potentially deep cuts in manpower and spending.
As Texas governor, Perry presided over a boom in all kinds of energy production, including wind power and shale drilling. Many of his supporters cited that record as evidence that he could help a similarly wide variety of energy interests.
But Perry’s foes criticized his tepid acknowledgment of climate change, his strong ties to his state’s oil and gas industry, and his lack of experience with the department’s main budgetary area, the maintenance of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. And they wondered whether he will be able to protect the department’s national laboratories and other scientific research against those who would slash the budget.
Walden & Upton Urge President Trump to Swiftly Fill FERC Vacancies
WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Subcommittee on Energy Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) today sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to fill the existing vacancies at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
How Exactly Will Pruitt Kill Clean Power Plan?
By Andrew Childers, Bloomberg BNA.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has sentenced the Clean Power Plan to death. Now it’s only a matter of determining the method of execution.
President Donald Trump could sign an executive order this week directing the Environmental Protection Agency to walk back the Obama administration’s signature climate rule, which Pruitt as Oklahoma attorney general had opposed. Repealing the Clean Power Plan, a lengthy process sure to invite legal challenges from environmentalists, is the first shot in a broader effort to undo the Obama administration’s efforts to address climate change.
By Andrew Childers, Bloomberg BNA.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has sentenced the Clean Power Plan to death. Now it’s only a matter of determining the method of execution.
President Donald Trump could sign an executive order this week directing the Environmental Protection Agency to walk back the Obama administration’s signature climate rule, which Pruitt as Oklahoma attorney general had opposed. Repealing the Clean Power Plan, a lengthy process sure to invite legal challenges from environmentalists, is the first shot in a broader effort to undo the Obama administration’s efforts to address climate change.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Pruitt said the EPA would abide by the power that Congress expressly delegated, mirroring arguments he’s previously made against the regulation.
“We have to send a message across the country that we’re going to provide certainty by living within the framework Congress has passed,” he said. “So we’re going to see regulations rolled back that aren’t consistent with that—[Waters of the U.S.], Clean Power Plan, the methane rule.”
California Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León Advocates Reform & Market Certainty in Statement on Cap and Trade Auction Results
SACRAMENTO – California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) issued the following statement in reaction to today’s quarterly cap and trade auction results:
“Today’s anemic auction results demonstrate that the state’s landmark cap and trade program is in need of reform and the kind of market certainty that only the Legislature and Governor can provide via statute. We need a program that both reduces pollution and provides stable funding to clean up climate emissions.
California’s cap and trade auction another washout
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee.
February’s quarterly auction of carbon dioxide emission allowances under California’s cap and trade program was another financial washout for the state.
Results for last week’s auction were posted Wednesday morning, revealing that just 16.5 percent of the 74.8 million metric tons of emission allowances were sold at the floor price of $13.57 per ton.
By Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee.
February’s quarterly auction of carbon dioxide emission allowances under California’s cap and trade program was another financial washout for the state.
Results for last week’s auction were posted Wednesday morning, revealing that just 16.5 percent of the 74.8 million metric tons of emission allowances were sold at the floor price of $13.57 per ton.
The state auctions emission allowances to polluters and speculators as part of its program to reduce greenhouse gases. The proceeds are supposed to be spent on public programs to slow climate change.
February’s auction is being closely watched by market analysts because the last three quarterly auctions in 2016 posted sub-par results.
Almost all of February’s proceeds went either to California’s utilities, who sell allowances they receive free from the Air Resources Board, or the Canadian province of Quebec, which offers emission allowances through California. Both are first in line when auction proceeds are apportioned.
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