RNG NEWS
IGS opens compressed natural gas station at Rumpke
By USGasVehicles.com.
IGS CNG Services and Rumpke Waste & Recycling partnered to build a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station at Rumpke's Columbus location on Fields Avenue.
The station began operating on August 7, 2017. Rumpke enlisted IGS CNG Services to build, own and operate a private time-fill station for its fleet of 48 CNG waste and recycling trucks.
"Our trucks play a critical role in providing essential services for more than 300,000 residences and businesses in Central Ohio," said Andrew Rumpke, area president at Rumpke. "As Rumpke continues adding CNG trucks to our fleet, we recognize the need for an on-site CNG station."
Phoenix Aims for New Business Program to Buoy Waste Diversion
By Cheryl McMullen, Waste 360.
The city of Phoenix set some ambitious waste reduction goals in 2013, including achieving a diversion rate of 40 percent by 2020 and reaching zero waste by 2050. In the years since it has launched several initiatives to achieve those goals. The most recent push includes the launch of the Green Business Leader Program, which aims to encourage businesses to establish recycling and waste diversion programs.
So far, 30 businesses including coffee shops, restaurants and law firms to retailers like Whole Foods and manufacturers like McNeilus Truck & Manufacturing, Inc., an Oshkosh Corp., are now certified Green Business Leaders.
By Cheryl McMullen, Waste 360.
The city of Phoenix set some ambitious waste reduction goals in 2013, including achieving a diversion rate of 40 percent by 2020 and reaching zero waste by 2050. In the years since it has launched several initiatives to achieve those goals. The most recent push includes the launch of the Green Business Leader Program, which aims to encourage businesses to establish recycling and waste diversion programs.
So far, 30 businesses including coffee shops, restaurants and law firms to retailers like Whole Foods and manufacturers like McNeilus Truck & Manufacturing, Inc., an Oshkosh Corp., are now certified Green Business Leaders.
While the city’s public works department handles collection and disposal of solid waste and recyclables for more than 350,000 households and some small multi-family units, thanks to a decades-old ordinance, city does not provide solid waste collection service to commercial or industrial establishments or to any building with more than 30 multifamily dwelling units. Some environmental groups and residents of multifamily buildings hope to persuade the city to change the law. In the meant time, the city has put forth the green business program to encourage commercial recycling, and to recognize businesses establishing policies and practices for waste diversion.
Excluding public and private businesses, makes it difficult to gauge how much those companies and large multifamily buildings are recycling, as they are not required by law to report diversion rates. Still, Joe Giudice, the city’s assistant public works director, estimates the city has a 20 percent diversion rate and as programs and efforts continue to build and grow, he expects the diversion rate to improve.
Republic Services Highlights Renewable Natural Gas Use in Latest Sustainability Report
By Waste 360 Staff.
Republic Services Inc. released its newest Sustainability Report, which details advancements the company has made in areas such as fuel efficiency and use of renewable fuel sources, emissions reductions, improvements in recycling and other operational highlights.
“Our customers count on us for simple solutions, the highest reliability and environmental responsibility,” Republic President and CEO Don Slager said in a statement. “Whether it’s helping a customer turn an idea into a sustainable program in Alabama, converting brownfields in Massachusetts into sources for renewable energy or recovering value from exploration and production waste in Texas, we’re enabling greater resourcefulness across America. We’re proud to lead by example, doing what’s best for our customers and our Blue Planet.
As part of its Blue Planet sustainability platform, Republic has set several sustainability goals and continues to make headway on all of them.
California Lawmakers Begin Push for 100% Clean Energy by 2045
By James Rainey, NBC News.
California could solidify its position as a global leader on the issue of climate change in the coming weeks, when the state Legislature considers a bill that would push for the state to obtain all its electricity from renewable sources by 2045.
Hawaii is the only other state in America to have committed to that ambitious goal, but the 50th state is 1/15 the size of California and is home to just 3.5 percent as many people.
By James Rainey, NBC News.
California could solidify its position as a global leader on the issue of climate change in the coming weeks, when the state Legislature considers a bill that would push for the state to obtain all its electricity from renewable sources by 2045.
Hawaii is the only other state in America to have committed to that ambitious goal, but the 50th state is 1/15 the size of California and is home to just 3.5 percent as many people.
If lawmakers approve Senate Bill 100 before the end of their session in September, it would make California the biggest economy on earth committed to getting 100 percent of its power from wind, solar and other clean alternatives.
The sponsor of the legislation, State Senate President Kevin de Leon, began the push for the bill with a telephone press conference Wednesday. The Los Angeles Democrat called S.B. 100 “a wonderful opportunity to reduce our greenhouse gases, clean our air up and put people to work.”
Plans to limit coal and petroleum-powered electricity led to pitched battles in the state capitol just a few years ago. But the new proposal is expected to have a better than 50-50 chance of passage because of the legislature’s big Democratic majorities and the fact that previous carbon reduction goals have been met ahead of schedule.
Study: Human-made fossil methane emission levels larger than previously believed
Via Science Daily.
A team of researchers spent seven weeks in Antarctica collecting and studying 2,000-pound samples of glacial ice cores that date back nearly 12,000 years. The ancient air trapped within the ice revealed surprising new data about methane that may help inform today's policymakers as they consider ways to reduce global warming.
Special Report: Refiner Valero's behind the scenes campaign to change U.S. biofuels mandates
By Chris Prentice, Reuters.
(Reuters) - U.S. biofuels regulations, which mandate mixing corn-based ethanol into gasoline, have lately drawn together a diverse cast of political opponents.
They include an upstart gas station owners' trade group, a former Obama administration environmental adviser and billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns a refiner and served as U.S. President Donald Trump's special advisor on business regulation - until he resigned Friday amid allegations of a conflict of interest.
By Chris Prentice, Reuters.
(Reuters) - U.S. biofuels regulations, which mandate mixing corn-based ethanol into gasoline, have lately drawn together a diverse cast of political opponents.
They include an upstart gas station owners' trade group, a former Obama administration environmental adviser and billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns a refiner and served as U.S. President Donald Trump's special advisor on business regulation - until he resigned Friday amid allegations of a conflict of interest.
Even the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), a leading biofuels industry group, recently dropped its opposition to policy changes sought by this ad hoc coalition.
These players would seem to have few shared interests, but they share one key connection – close ties to Valero Energy Corp. (VLO.N), America's largest oil refiner.
As part of an extensive behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign, Valero played a key role in bringing these people and groups together around a policy proposal that could save the refiner hundreds of millions of dollars each year in regulatory costs, according to two former Valero executives with knowledge of the firms' lobbying strategy.
Roeslein Alternative Energy Project Advancing in Missouri
"Officials touted the endeavor’s ability to reach goals that covered the creation of renewable energy, economic expansion and restoration of adjacent prairie."
By Ray Scherer, News-Press Now.
A new biogas production plant based out of northern Missouri continues to make steady progress.
It’s been slightly more than a year since the first volumes of biogas processed from hog manure were injected into a pipeline. Roeslein Alternative Energy, based in St. Louis, built a $120 million anaerobic digestion plant just north of Albany.
"Officials touted the endeavor’s ability to reach goals that covered the creation of renewable energy, economic expansion and restoration of adjacent prairie."
By Ray Scherer, News-Press Now.
A new biogas production plant based out of northern Missouri continues to make steady progress.
It’s been slightly more than a year since the first volumes of biogas processed from hog manure were injected into a pipeline. Roeslein Alternative Energy, based in St. Louis, built a $120 million anaerobic digestion plant just north of Albany.
Officials touted the endeavor’s ability to reach goals that covered the creation of renewable energy, economic expansion and restoration of adjacent prairie.
Owner Rudi Roeslein had said earlier the effort also presents an opportunity to return the area to its former prairie status, growing native grasses that can be transformed into alternative fuel. He said the outcome also would carry improvements for the environment and a broader habitat for wildlife. Renewed prairie grass would enrich the soil and clean local water resources.
Pacific Standard: How Cuts to DOE's Biofuels Research Would Hurt the Planet and Our Economy
By Michael White, Pacific Standard.
Biofuels can reduce emissions, benefit American corporations, and create jobs. But slashing the budget of the Bioenergy Technologies Office effectively eliminates those possibilities.
With each new report that describes the ballooning effects of human-caused climate change it becomes harder to deny that we urgently need to decarbonize our society. This task is daunting, but achievable. However, as Congress and the Trump administration take deliberate steps to slow our transition to renewable, non-fossil fuel energy, this task is about to become much more difficult. In its budget request for 2018, the Trump administration has proposed a crippling 70 percent cut to the Department of Energy's $2 billion budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Congressional appropriators in the House of Representatives have proposed a slightly less crippling 53 percent cut.
By Michael White, Pacific Standard.
Biofuels can reduce emissions, benefit American corporations, and create jobs. But slashing the budget of the Bioenergy Technologies Office effectively eliminates those possibilities.
With each new report that describes the ballooning effects of human-caused climate change it becomes harder to deny that we urgently need to decarbonize our society. This task is daunting, but achievable. However, as Congress and the Trump administration take deliberate steps to slow our transition to renewable, non-fossil fuel energy, this task is about to become much more difficult. In its budget request for 2018, the Trump administration has proposed a crippling 70 percent cut to the Department of Energy's $2 billion budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Congressional appropriators in the House of Representatives have proposed a slightly less crippling 53 percent cut.
These cuts would scale back federal efforts to foster the development of wind and solar energy, in line with President Donald Trump's campaign promise to bring back coal industry jobs. This would slow, but not stop our transition to wind and solar power—because their cost is at last low enough to out-compete fossil fuel energy in many states. But another type of renewable energy—one that is absolutely essential to ending our reliance on fossil fuels—is much more vulnerable to budget cuts: biofuels. The Trump administration's proposed cuts to biofuels research and development would stifle the country's participation in a nascent industry that's crucial to the future of our planet.
Even if we all switched to driving Teslas tomorrow, liquid fuels would still be necessary to power our planes, ships, and trucks—modes of transport that aren't going electric any time soon. To completely end our need to draw oil from the ground and burn it, we must develop renewable, low-carbon, and economically competitive alternatives to diesel and jet fuel. The Department of Energy plays a critical role in this, by supporting the development of the technology and infrastructure needed to build a truly green biofuels industry. Much of that support comes from the department's Bioenergy Technologies Office. The Trump administration proposes to cut the office's budget by 75 percent.
California cap-and-trade program gets a shot in the arm with strong permit auction results
By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times.
month after a bruising political battle to extend California’s cap-and-trade program, the state received a big vote of confidence in the policy’s future.
Cap and trade requires oil refineries, food processors and other facilities to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, and state regulators auction off the permits several times a year.
By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times.
A month after a bruising political battle to extend California’s cap-and-trade program, the state received a big vote of confidence in the policy’s future.
Cap and trade requires oil refineries, food processors and other facilities to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, and state regulators auction off the permits several times a year.
During August’s auction, every emission permit offered by the state was sold, and prices reached their highest level since the program launched five years ago.
The auction results, announced Tuesday, were the first since Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation continuing cap and trade until 2030, erasing some of the political and legal uncertainty that had dogged the program.
Biofuel and Biogas Innovators Unite for Stronger Cellulosic Targets
In a display of unity, the nation’s leading advocates for advanced liquid and gasified biofuels urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stand by the president’s commitment to driving investment in the next generation of homegrown fuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The letter was signed by leaders of the Coalition for Renewable National Gas, Advanced Biofuels Business Council, American Biogas Council, and Biotechnology Innovation Organization. They urged EPA Administrator Pruitt to reverse course on a proposal that would undercut “the next American manufacturing wave” by “looking backwards” in setting 2018 goals and issuing waiver credits that suppress demand for cellulosic fuels.
The leaders noted that, “The RFS is a proven tool for promoting growth. And notwithstanding volatile global oil prices and RFS policy uncertainty, the United States remains poised to lead the world in the development and commercial deployment of the most innovative fuels in the world. These cutting-edge projects are being developed in many of the same rural areas that produce clean, American-made biofuels today.”
View the Full Letter HERE.