RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.White House sets meeting with senators on biofuels next week: sources
(Reuters) - The Trump administration has invited a group of U.S. senators to the White House early next week to discuss biofuels policy, the latest in a series of such meetings aimed at helping refiners cope with the Renewable Fuel Standard, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
By Jarrett Renshaw.
In North Carolina, Hog Waste Is Becoming A Streamlined Fuel Source
By James Morrison, NPR.
In late March, a project in eastern North Carolina revealed the potential to turn every hog farm in the state into a source of renewable natural gas, or what's known as swine biogas.
Biogas typically refers to methane created by the breakdown of organic matter. It can be made from food scraps, decomposing plants and animal waste. Swine biogas is methane that comes from hog waste.
NGV Measures Advance in Pennsylvania, Eastern Canada
By Richard Nemec, NGI Daily Gas Price Index.
Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada, have gotten a boost to advance natural gas vehicle (NGV) fleets and fueling stations.
The Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants (AFIG) program of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved more than $1.6 million to support 19 projects using natural gas and other alternative fuels, such as propane and biodiesel.
States Sue The EPA To Protect Obama-Era Fuel Efficiency Standards
By Camila Domonoske, NPR.
A coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, is suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its plan to change vehicle efficiency standards. The states are asking a court to review the EPA's proposed actions, arguing that they violate the Clean Air Act.
"We're not looking to pick a fight with the Trump administration, but when the stakes are this high for our families' health and our economic prosperity, we have a responsibility to do what is necessary to defend them," California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said.
GAIN Clean Fuel and BioResource Development announce the start-up of a renewable natural gas production facility in Dubuque, Iowa
Via Digital Journal.
GAIN Clean Fuel and BioResource Development (BRD) announce the start-up of a renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility located at Water and Resource Recovery Center in Dubuque, Iowa. The state-of-the-art facility will transform biomethane produced at the wastewater treatment plant into premium, usable RNG for the transportation fuels market.
BRD developed the project and implemented the technology to process and clean up biogases at the facility that will then be injected into the Black Hills Energy natural gas distribution system. GAIN Clean Fuel will direct and manage all downstream activities related to providing its customers with an environmentally-safe renewable energy source.
Reuters Exclusive: U.S. EPA grants biofuels waiver to billionaire Icahn's oil refinery
By Jarrett Renshaw & Chris Prentice, Reuters.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted a financial hardship waiver to an oil refinery owned by billionaire Carl Icahn, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, exempting the Oklahoma facility from requirements under a federal biofuels law, according to two industry sources briefed on the matter.
California bill to facilitate pipeline integration of RNG clears committee
By Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, via Biomass Magazine.
A proposed bill sponsored by the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) that seeks to accelerate the production and integration of green gas into California’s natural gas supply passed out of the State Assembly’s Utilities and Energy Committee today.
AB 3187, introduced by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord), would help to decrease the cost of interconnecting in-state production facilities that should be developed to capture and convert methane from California’s diverted organic materials, livestock and agricultural waste, landfills and wastewater treatment facilities into renewable natural gas (RNG, biomethane).
Rallying for RNG
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas’s Marcus Gillette discusses the organization, its goals and progress in expanding the production and use of RNG in North America.
By Anna Simet, Biomass Magazine.
Tell us about the inception of the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, its mission and vision.
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (‘RNG Coalition’ for short) serves as the public policy advocate and education platform for the renewable natural Gas industry in North America.
In 2011, co-founders Johannes Escudero and David Cox were working in respective roles in and around the California state legislature. They came across a small clean energy industry with enormous potential that was being unintentionally impeded from growth in a market that was in need of more renewable fuel solutions.
Opus 12 & SoCalGas simplify conversion of CO2 into storable renewable energy
By Maurice Smith, JWN.
Opus 12 and Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) have demonstrated a new process to convert the carbon dioxide in raw biogas to methane in a single electrochemical step, a critical improvement in the science of upgrading biogas to pipeline quality natural gas, and a simpler method of converting excess renewable electricity into storable natural gas.
The research is part of SoCalGas' development of technologies known as power-to-gas (P2G), a method of storing excess renewable energy. Because gases can be easily stored for long periods of time using existing infrastructure, power-to-gas technology has distinct advantages over storing renewable electricity in batteries.
The Northeast US has a carbon-trading system. It is boosting, not hurting, state economies.
RGGI is a net economic benefit for every state involved.
When climate hawks fantasize about climate policy, they tend to imagine a sweeping, economy-wide carbon tax, set at a high and rising rate. But as a political strategy, this hasn’t much worked; political restraints have meant that no such tax has emerged in the real world.
But there is another political strategy, far more popular among actual policymakers. It goes something like this: The wise course is to start with a relatively low carbon price, targeted at sectors amenable to carbon reductions, and spend the revenue from it on things that clearly benefit the public.
By David Roberts, Vox.
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