RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.UPS To Add More Than 6,000 Vehicles To Its Natural Gas Fleet
UPS (NYSE: UPS) today announced plans to purchase more than 6,000 natural gas-powered trucks beginning in 2020 and running through 2022. This three-year commitment represents a $450M investment in expanding the company’s alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicle fleet as well as supporting infrastructure.
The new vehicles will be equipped with compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel systems provided under an exclusive agreement with Agility Fuel Solutions, a business of Hexagon Composites. The investment in CNG fuel systems expands UPS’s relationship with Agility Fuel Solutions and supports UPS’s fleet sustainability efforts. It will help reduce UPS’s carbon footprint and is expected to have a positive influence on national CNG market growth. The CNG fleet expansion also provides additional capacity for expanding the use of renewable natural gas (RNG).
By Global Newswire
Argonne National Laboratory Releases GREET 2019 Models
The Argonne National Laboratory’s Systems Assessment Center is pleased to announce the 2019 release of the suite of GREET Models. Please read Summary of Expansions and Updates in GREET® 2019 (1.00MB pdf) for more details on updates in this version.
By Argonne National Laboratory
US Voters Show Strong Support for Renewable Fuel Standard
A new nationwide US survey conducted by Morning Consult has found strong support for ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Support for the latter has reached its highest level since the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) began polling on RFS support in 2016.
The survey additionally found that registered voters opposed the Trump administration’s exemptions of oil refineries from renewable fuel blending obligations by a margin of almost two to one.
By Biofuels International
Oregon's Largest Diary Producing RNG
A thousand miles separates Threemile Canyon Farms in Eastern Oregon, surrounded by high desert and sagebrush, from the crowded freeways of Los Angeles.
Though they might seem like distant strangers, the mega-dairy and the megalopolis are about to be connected by a most unexpected resource — cow manure.
Threemile Canyon Farms is Oregon’s largest dairy with 68,340 cattle, including 33,000 milking cows. In 2012, the farm built an anaerobic digester to capture methane emissions from all that manure. It has since used the gas to generate electricity, which it sells to the interstate utility PacifiCorp.
By East Oregonian
Bloom Energy and EnergyPower to Supply Renewable Energy From India’s BioWaste
Bloom Energy and EnergyPower, today announced a joint effort to deploy an integrated solution for supplying clean, reliable power to local Indian businesses. Once complete, this project will be Bloom’s first commercial scale on-site biogas to electricity project in India.
EnergyPower will be deploying a new agricultural and municipal waste digester combined with Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell technology to deliver reliable, renewable power to customers in the Shirala district, Maharashtra. Anaerobic digesters will be used to breakdown and clean biowaste to produce biomethane, which will fuel Bloom Energy Servers. The project will have a tremendous environmental impact, as methane is 25 times more potent in the atmosphere than CO2 emissions.
By Business Wire
SoCalGas Applauds More Than 100 Local Governments in Southern California that Pass Resolutions in Support of Balanced Energy Policies
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today applauded the more than 100 local governments across Southern California, representing approximately 6.75 million Californians, that have passed resolutions in support of affordable and balanced strategies to reduce emissions from buildings and that call on state policymakers to preserve consumers' ability to choose either natural gas or electric appliances for their homes and businesses. These resolutions were passed in response to concerns state policymakers are taking steps to prohibit the use of natural gas in new buildings. State energy regulators are actively considering calls for new regulations that would eliminate natural gas use in new buildings and have also proposed programs that would result in existing natural gas customers paying for all-electric retrofits to existing homes.
"It is amazing to me that state regulators are seriously considering transitioning California to run on a single energy source," said Steve Tye, Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Diamond Bar. "Policymakers should be advocating for and focused on a diverse portfolio of clean energy sources like solar, wind and renewable natural gas. I am proud that our city council unanimously passed a resolution calling for such a policy."
By PR Newswire
EPA Announces Supplemental Notice for 2020 RFS to Address Small Refinery Exemptions
Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue issued the following statements after President Donald J. Trump successfully negotiated an agreement on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS):
“President Trump’s leadership has led to an agreement that continues to promote domestic ethanol and biodiesel production, supporting our Nation’s farmers and providing greater energy security,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Today’s agreement is the latest in a series of steps we have taken to expand domestic energy production and improve the RFS program that will result in sustained biofuel production to help American farmers."
By EPA Press Office
Element Markets Renewable Energy’s Agreement with Monarch Bioenergy extended for Five Additional Years
Element Markets Renewable Energy (EMRE) has been awarded a five-year contract by Monarch Bioenergy (Monarch)—a joint venture between Smithfield Foods, Inc. and Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE). The contract names EMRE as the exclusive marketer for the renewable natural gas (RNG) produced at Monarch’s biomethane production facilities in northern Missouri. Monarch converts hog manure collected from Smithfield Hog Production farms in that state into RNG, while simultaneously delivering ecological services and developing wildlife habitat. Through this joint venture, all Smithfield company-owned finishing farms in Missouri will have the infrastructure to produce RNG, resulting in approximately 1.3 million dekatherms annually once complete, which is the equivalent to eliminating 130,000 gasoline vehicles from the road.
“At Smithfield, our carbon reduction and renewable energy efforts play a powerful role in helping us feed the world’s growing population in a responsible way,” said Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of Smithfield Renewables and hog production environmental affairs for Smithfield Foods. “But we know that we can’t do it alone, and we look to partner with other industry leaders such as RAE and EMRE. This agreement is an example of how collaboration can create both business value and a more sustainable supply chain.”
By Element Markets
Trump Officials Agree on Plan to Boost Ethanol, Biodiesel
The Trump administration has agreed to a new plan for boosting renewable fuels and offsetting waivers exempting oil refineries from mandates to use them, according to three people familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity before a formal announcement.
The tentative agreement, which follows weeks of negotiations, would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to offset those waivers in response to criticism from industry advocates and Midwestern politicians that the exemptions have hurt demand for corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel.
By Jennifer A Dlouhy, Mario Parker, and Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg
Fortistar Celebrates 20 Years of Supplying Sustainable Power to the City of San Diego & U.S. Marine Corps
Fortistar and TruStar Energy, two of the nation’s leaders in renewable natural gas (RNG) production and compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel supply, know that a landfill is more than just a landfill—it is an opportunity to provide a valuable environmental service, is a revenue-generating resource and can power thousands of homes, businesses and vehicles. That is the case at the Miramar Landfill where, for more than 20 years, Fortistar has supplied clean, sustainable and reliable electricity to the City of San Diego and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Fortistar and its affiliate, TruStar Energy, will be celebrating this milestone as a corporate sponsor at the MCAS Miramar Air Show on Sept. 27, 2019.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), landfills are the third largest source of human-related methane gas emissions in the U.S. These methane gas emissions from landfills represent an opportunity to capture and generate a significant energy resource.
By Business Wire
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