RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.NGV Coalition to Host Workshop on Natural Gas Port Trucks
By Lauren Tyler, NGTNews.
The California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition and the California Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership are hosting a workshop on Tuesday, April 25 to discuss today’s natural gas trucks operating at California ports.
As reported, the event will take place at Banning’s Landing at 100 E. Water St., in Wilmington, Calif., from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Clean Fleet Profile: Utah Waste Management Company Touts CNG Trucks
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
Aiming to reduce vehicle emissions and promote sustainability in the Salt Lake Valley, the Wasatch Front Waste & Recycling District (WFWRD) in Utah has fully transitioned its residential collection truck fleet away from diesel fuel to be powered, instead, by compressed natural gas (CNG).
Serving the unincorporated areas of Salt Lake County and the cities of Taylorsville, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Herriman, and portions of Murray and Sandy, the WFWRD currently operates 46 residential side-load collection trucks and two front loaders that, as of August 2016, all run on natural gas fuel.
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
Aiming to reduce vehicle emissions and promote sustainability in the Salt Lake Valley, the Wasatch Front Waste & Recycling District (WFWRD) in Utah has fully transitioned its residential collection truck fleet away from diesel fuel to be powered, instead, by compressed natural gas (CNG).
Serving the unincorporated areas of Salt Lake County and the cities of Taylorsville, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Herriman, and portions of Murray and Sandy, the WFWRD currently operates 46 residential side-load collection trucks and two front loaders that, as of August 2016, all run on natural gas fuel.
As noted, the trucks are all built on the Peterbilt 320 chassis, with the majority featuring 11.9-liter ISX-G Cummins motors and either Agility or NextGen CNG systems.
According to Pam Roberts, executive director of the WFWRD, the company chose to shift to CNG despite the vehicles’ higher price tag in order to dramatically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and to save on fuel costs over the long term.
“We started the transition to CNG in [December] 2011 because we wanted to do the right thing for our environment and save money for the residents we serve,” she says. “It was quite a commitment, since CNG garbage trucks cost $30,000 more than diesel trucks. We definitely took into account that garbage trucks generally get 2 miles per gallon, no matter what type of fuel we use.”
EPA Seeks Public Comment on Existing Regulations for Repeal, Replacement or Modification
By The National Law Review.
On April 13, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is seeking comments from the public on existing regulations that the Agency should consider repealing, replacing, or modifying. 82 Fed. Reg. 17793 (Apr. 13, 2017). EPA issued the Request for Comment in response to the February 2017 Executive Order issued by President Trump, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” that seeks “to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens on the American people.”
As required by the EO, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt formed an EPA Regulatory Reform Task Force to carry out the Administration’s regulatory reform agenda at EPA. The Task Force is led by a Regulatory Reform Officer, EPA Senior Counsel and Associate Administrator for Policy Samantha Dravis, and it includes the Agency’s Chief of Staff, Ryan Jackson, among others.
New Surrey, BC facility to turn organic waste into natural gas
By USGasVehicles.com.
The Canadian City of Surrey, British Columbia, is set to open a new biofuel processing facility, the first of its kind in North America. The facility will process the City’s organic waste into a 100 per cent renewable natural gas (RNG).
Idaho Power pitches sales agreement with landfill energy project
By Twin Falls Times-News, via MagicValley.com.
BURLEY — Idaho Power Co. has made an offer on the energy produced by Southern Idaho Solid Waste District’s planned landfill gas-to-energy project at Milner Butte Landfill.
The power company has asked the Public Utilities Commission to approve a 20-year contract and purchase price agreement beginning in October 2018. CAFCO Idaho Refuse Management LLC will sell output from the 5-megawatt project at the landfill west of Burley.
Stratford, Ontario city council votes to consider energy recovery facility that would convert organic waste to biogas
By Megan Stacey, Stratford Beacon Herald.
Kitchen scraps could soon be making the City of Stratford some serious dough.
Potential plans to construct a facility that would turn organic waste into renewable natural gas came before city council earlier this week. In a unanimous decision, councillors gave the city the green light to enter into an informal partnership with two agencies to look at building a facility that would produce renewable natural gas.
By Megan Stacey, Stratford Beacon Herald.
Kitchen scraps could soon be making the City of Stratford some serious dough.
Potential plans to construct a facility that would turn organic waste into renewable natural gas came before city council earlier this week. In a unanimous decision, councillors gave the city the green light to enter into an informal partnership with two agencies to look at building a facility that would produce renewable natural gas.
“This is an interesting project. It's a partnership between the city, the Ontario Clean Water Agency...and General Electric Water and Process Technologies,” director of infrastructure and development services Ed Dujlovic said at the council meeting.
Organic waste would be converted to biogas, which could then be “cleaned” and purchased by Union Gas.
“It's GE technology that they actually have working in England, it's a process called hydrolysis where they take organics, use the anaerobic digester that we already have, and increase the efficiency of creating methane gas. From that, they can clean it, and put that back into the natural gas system,” explained Dujlovic.
Environmental regulations that are impacting companies and municipalities make this type of facility a real area of focus, he added.
Oregon Senate committee agrees cap and trade needs more work
By Pete Danko, Portland Business Journal.
While the Oregon Senate committee working on climate legislation moved a cap-and-trade bill forward on Wednesday, even supporters say the measure isn't ready for full Senate consideration.
“This is not a bill that in its current form is ready for the floor,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, who backs creation of a carbon cap and market in Oregon. “But it is ready for ongoing conversation."
By Pete Danko, Portland Business Journal.
While the Oregon Senate committee working on climate legislation moved a cap-and-trade bill forward on Wednesday, even supporters say the measure isn't ready for full Senate consideration.
“This is not a bill that in its current form is ready for the floor,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, who backs creation of a carbon cap and market in Oregon. “But it is ready for ongoing conversation.”
The committee voted unanimously to send the complex and potentially far-reaching Senate Bill 557 to the Rules Committee, but only after Republicans insisted that it move forward without recommendation for passage.
“We can’t recommend something we haven’t totally worked out,” Sen. Alan Olsen said. His fellow Republican on the committee Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr. agreed.
LaGrange, GA Considers LFG Deal with Savannah Energy
By Alicia Hill, LaGrange Daily News.
LaGRANGE – Less than an hour after returning from a walk through at Great Wolf Lodge, LaGrange City Council began its regular work session with discussion on another major project that is in the works for the city.
This time instead of harnessing the power (and funds) of out-of-town visitors, the city hopes to use the power of the gas generated by the LaGrange landfill to bring additional income into the city.
LaGrange has had a program to extract and use landfill gas for several years, but over time the equipment has required more and more repairs. So, when a global leader in energy services contacted the city asking to take over using their own funding, officials took the proposal very seriously.
Critics of Pruitt Emerge on the Right Over E.P.A. Finding He Won’t Fight
By Coral Davenport, New York Times.
WASHINGTON — When President Trump chose the Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, his mission was clear: Carry out Mr. Trump’s campaign vows to radically reduce the size and scope of the agency and take apart President Barack Obama’s ambitious climate change policies.
In his first weeks on the job, Mr. Pruitt drew glowing praise from foes of Mr. Obama’s agenda against global warming, as he moved to roll back its centerpiece, known as the Clean Power Plan, and expressed agreement with those who said the E.P.A. should be eliminated. His actions and statements have galvanized protests from environmentalists and others on the left.
By Coral Davenport, New York Times.
WASHINGTON — When President Trump chose the Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, his mission was clear: Carry out Mr. Trump’s campaign vows to radically reduce the size and scope of the agency and take apart President Barack Obama’s ambitious climate change policies.
In his first weeks on the job, Mr. Pruitt drew glowing praise from foes of Mr. Obama’s agenda against global warming, as he moved to roll back its centerpiece, known as the Clean Power Plan, and expressed agreement with those who said the E.P.A. should be eliminated. His actions and statements have galvanized protests from environmentalists and others on the left.
But now a growing chorus of critics on the other end of the political spectrum say Mr. Pruitt has not gone far enough. In particular, they are angry that he has refused to challenge a landmark agency determination known as the endangerment finding, which provides the legal basis for Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan and other global warming policies.
These critics say that Mr. Pruitt is hacking only at the branches of current climate policy. They want him to pull it out by the roots.
“The endangerment finding must be redone, or all of this is for naught,” said Steven J. Milloy, who runs a website, JunkScience.com, aimed at debunking the established science of human-caused climate change, and who worked on the Trump administration’s E.P.A. transition team.
SEaB to provide onsite anaerobic digestion system for US naval base
By Sandra Sassow, Bioenergy Insight Magazine.
SEaB Energy has won a contract to supply the State of California Energy Commission with Flexibuster, an innovative waste-to-energy system.
The agreement comes as part of a four year research programme into sustainable energy generation from food waste. The project aims to “demonstrate and evaluate environmentally and economically sustainable food waste biomass to electricity systems”.
Flexibuster is Southampton, UK, based SEaB Energy’s innovative decentralised anaerobic digestion system. Converting food waste to biogas, anaerobic digestion facilities are generally large scale and centralised. Although they enable energy recovery and reduce GHG emissions through processing food waste, they require the expensive and carbon emitting transportation of the food waste from its point of origin to the AD facility. Flexibuster, however, is a de-centralised and onsite solution, removing the need for waste transportation.
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