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Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.SoCalGas Helps Fleet Owners Put New Near-Zero Emissions Natural Gas Trucks on the Road
These new trucks can reduce smog-forming emissions by 90 percent
LOS ANGELES, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced efforts to help California fleets get more drivers behind the wheel of new near-zero emissions heavy-duty natural gas trucks. The effort was part of a $21 million Prop 1B incentive pool administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). SoCalGas representatives provided assistance on 400 Prop 1B applications throughout its service territory. If all these applications are accepted and receive funding, SoCalGas customers will replace at least 400 diesel trucks with near-zero natural gas trucks. Replacing 400 diesel trucks with near-zero natural gas trucks is the equivalent of taking more than 22,000 passenger cars off the road.
The Prop 1B Program is intended to reduce diesel air pollution from goods movement operations and achieve the earliest possible health risk reduction in nearby communities. Fleet owners seeking to replace diesel trucks may be eligible for up to $100,000 towards the purchase of a new natural gas truck.
These new trucks can reduce smog-forming emissions by 90 percent
LOS ANGELES, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced efforts to help California fleets get more drivers behind the wheel of new near-zero emissions heavy-duty natural gas trucks. The effort was part of a $21 million Prop 1B incentive pool administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). SoCalGas representatives provided assistance on 400 Prop 1B applications throughout its service territory. If all these applications are accepted and receive funding, SoCalGas customers will replace at least 400 diesel trucks with near-zero natural gas trucks. Replacing 400 diesel trucks with near-zero natural gas trucks is the equivalent of taking more than 22,000 passenger cars off the road.
The Prop 1B Program is intended to reduce diesel air pollution from goods movement operations and achieve the earliest possible health risk reduction in nearby communities. Fleet owners seeking to replace diesel trucks may be eligible for up to $100,000 towards the purchase of a new natural gas truck.
"SCAQMD is appreciative of SoCalGas' efforts to help reduce harmful diesel emissions to help clean the air in the Southland," said SCAQMD Executive Office Wayne Nastri. "Through technology advancement programs, industry, partnerships, and incentive programs, we will continue to make substantial progress to reduce air pollution."
"Our Clean Transportation team has spent years cultivating relationships with fleet owners and truck drivers," said Yuri Freedman, senior director of business development at SoCalGas. "We are pleased to do our part to help bring more near-zero, heavy-duty trucks to California's transportation sector. These natural gas trucks are available today and will immediately contribute to achieving the South Coast Air Basin's air quality goals, giving our communities a healthier environment to live in."
For the SCAQMD solicitation, SoCalGas customers submitted more than 150 applications, with many of these requests coming from fleets smaller than 10 trucks. These dependable, clean trucks cut smog-forming emissions by more than 90 percent compared to the cleanest heavy-duty diesel trucks on the road today. When these near-zero natural gas trucks are fueled by renewable natural gas, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are reduced by 80 percent. Already, 60 percent of natural gas fleets in Californiaare fueled with renewable natural gas and this number is expected to climb to about 90 percent by the end of this year.
The SCAQMD solicitation is one of many incentive programs SoCalGas customers used in 2017. More than 225 applications were submitted to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and San Diego Air Pollution Control District from SoCalGas customers. This demand far exceeded the $14 million in available incentive funding.
The transportation sector is responsible for about 40 percent of California's GHG emissions and more than 80 percent of the state's NOx, or smog-forming, emissions. Making the switch from diesel to near-zero natural gas trucks is vital to achieving the state's GHG reduction goals and cleaning the air around California's transportation corridors.
While the current Prop 1B pool solicitation is now closed, there is another incentive pool available through the SCAQMD. The Carl Moyer incentive program is open to fleets that operate in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties from now until June 5. Additionally, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District recently established a new grant incentive option for its Truck Voucher Program that would replace existing heavy-duty trucks with the cleanest, ultra-low NOx 12-Liter truck available.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest natural gas distribution utility in the United States, providing clean, safe, affordable and reliable natural gas service to 21.7 million customers in Central and Southern California. Its service territory spans 22,000 square miles from Fresno to the Mexican border, reaching more than 550 communities through 5.9 million meters and 101,000 miles of pipeline. More than 90 percent of Southern California single-family home residents use natural gas for home heat and hot water. In addition, natural gas plays a key role in providing electricity to Californians—about 60 percent of electric power generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.
SoCalGas has served communities in California for 150 years and is committed to being a leader in the region's clean energy future. The company is working to accelerate the use of renewable natural gas, a carbon-neutral or carbon-negative fuel created by capturing and conditioning greenhouse gas emissions from farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego. For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.
EPA plan to prevent use of studies without public data could harm clean air regulations
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is working on a proposal to end the agency's use of "secret science" — research studies where the underlying data is not publicly available, according to E&E News. That could have significant implications on the analysis behind many federal regulations.
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is working on a proposal to end the agency's use of "secret science" — research studies where the underlying data is not publicly available, according to E&E News. That could have significant implications on the analysis behind many federal regulations.
The EPA is currently working to rewrite the Clean Power Plan, and Pruitt's proposed change could limit the research used to analyze the rule's costs and benefits.
Proponents of the change argue that if research is to be used in making federal policy, then the data should be public. But the rule would limit the use of some large and significant studies, where data has been kept private to protect patient confidentiality.
Ameresco’s Senior Project Developer Jim Bier Inducted into Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) Hall of Flame
Jim Bier recognized as a mainstay of the industry, providing quality LFG development of beneficial-use projects, and leading advancement of the industry
Jim Bier recognized as a mainstay of the industry, providing quality LFG development of beneficial-use projects, and leading advancement of the industry
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE:AMRC), a leading energy efficiency and renewable energycompany, today announced that at the 41st annual LFG Symposium in Denver this month, Ameresco’s Senior Project Developer Jim Bier was inducted into SWANA’s Hall of Flame. Mr. Bier was recognized and introduced by this year’s Distinguished Individual Achievement Award winner and former colleague, Tom Bilgri, Manager of LFG Engineering Services for Cornerstone Environmental Group, a Tetra Tech Company.
Since its inception in 1977, the SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America) Landfill Gas Division’s Hall of Flame has inducted only 70 people, which have included many pioneers of the landfill gas (LFG) industry. Since the 1970s, SWANA has grown from a fledging organization into the world’s most prestigious solid waste industry association with over 10,000 members.
Culver City transportation gets greener thanks to garbage turned into RNG
What do dairy farms, landfills, and giant heaps of decaying food have in common? Culver City’s big green buses, which are getting even greener and running cleaner thanks to all that dirty waste.
In the coming months the city will begin using renewable natural gas, or RNG, to fuel its already low-emission natural gas fleet including its buses, trash trucks, and utility vehicles.
By Hub-LA.
By Hub-LA.
What do dairy farms, landfills, and giant heaps of decaying food have in common? Culver City’s big green buses, which are getting even greener and running cleaner thanks to all that dirty waste.
In the coming months the city will begin using renewable natural gas, or RNG, to fuel its already low-emission natural gas fleet including its buses, trash trucks, and utility vehicles.
Transportation director Art Ida announced the decision to incorporate RNG last year and the transition will be complete by summer. The fleet has run solely on compressed natural gas since 2004, but he acknowledged that the fuel still has sustainability problems.
“One of the comments about … getting [compressed natural gas],” he said. “Is fracking and going down and digging.”
Traditionally, natural gas has been harvested from underground geologic formations often trapped in layers of rock through a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It involves injecting water, chemicals, and other material at extremely high pressure into the deposit to fracture the rock and release the gas.
Congress Passes Omnibus Spending Bill, Ignores Proposed Cuts to Clean Energy Research
The omnibus spending bill contains funding increases for clean energy research.
By Umair Irfan, Vox.
The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that passed Friday morning and averted a government shutdown increases spending on clean energy and keeps the Environmental Protection Agency funded at current levels.
That’s despite the White House suggestion that Congress cut EPA’s budget by one-thirdand make drastic reductions in clean energy research.
10-day comment period on PES settlement agreement closes March 26
The public comment period opened March 16 after publication in the Federal Register on the proposed consent decree and environmental settlement agreement lodged by the U.S. Department of Justice with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in the PES Holdings bankruptcy case.
By Ron Kotrba, Biomass Magazine.
By Ron Kotrba, Biomass Magazine.
The public comment period opened March 16 after publication in the Federal Register on the proposed consent decree and environmental settlement agreement lodged by the U.S. Department of Justice with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in the PES Holdings bankruptcy case.
According to the Federal Register publication, the U.S. filed this settlement agreement with PES Holdings LLC on behalf of the U.S. EPA to resolve a dispute about the obligations and liabilities of the bankrupt oil refiner and related parties under the Renewable Fuel Standard program, which requires refiners to blend renewable fuels into gasoline or diesel fuel or obtain renewable identification numbers (RINs) to meet renewable volume obligations (RVOs).
Scientists Say California Can Aim Higher On Clean Fuels
OAKLAND, Calif. (March 21, 2018)—California can reduce carbon emissions by more than 70 million metric tons by 2030, akin to taking 15 million gasoline-powered cars off the road in one year, by adopting a higher target for its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), according to “California's Clean Fuel Future: Assessing Achievable Fuel Carbon Intensity Reductions Through 2030,” an analysis released today by the UK-based research firm Cerulogy.
The standard, adopted in 2009 by the California Air Resources Board requires petroleum refineries and fuel importers to reduce the carbon intensity of the fuels they sell in California. Carbon intensity is a measure of the global warming emissions per unit of fuel over the fuel’s life cycle. The LCFS currently requires a gradual reduction in carbon intensity of 10 percent by 2020 relative to 2010. Refineries and fuel importers can reduce carbon intensity by either selling fuels that have lower carbon intensity or by purchasing credits generated by sellers of lower-carbon fuels, like electricity, renewable natural gas, ethanol, biodiesel or renewable diesel.
Massive spending deal clinched despite Trump’s misgivings
Lawmakers will have to move quickly to avoid a shutdown on Friday night.
Congressional leaders on Wednesday night formally unveiled a mammoth spending bill that would deliver the largest funding boost to federal agencies in years — but with a tight 48-hour margin to pass it.
By HEATHER CAYGLE, BURGESS EVERETT, RACHAEL BADE and SARAH FERRIS, Politico.
Biofuel benefits at stake as GOP questions extenders
Biofuel producers find themselves in a discomforting, but all-too-familiar, situation again this year. Valuable tax incentives have been allowed to expire once again, and Republican tax writers are openly questioning whether those and other lapsed tax breaks should be allowed to die.
By Vern Buchanan, AgriPulse.
Perdue: Trump administration backing off efforts to make major changes to renewable fuel standard program
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled on Tuesday that the Trump administration was backing off efforts to make major changes to the nation’s biofuels program and may leave it to lawmakers to settle the divisive issue instead.
By Jarret Renshaw, Reuters.
By Jarret Renshaw, Reuters.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled on Tuesday that the Trump administration was backing off efforts to make major changes to the nation’s biofuels program and may leave it to lawmakers to settle the divisive issue instead.
The White House spent the last few weeks trying to negotiate a heated dispute between the corn and oil industries, key constituencies for President Donald Trump, over the future of the Renewable Fuel Program - a regulation that requires refiners to blend increasing volumes of biofuels like ethanol into the nation’s fuel.
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