Enviro Groups React to Prez Obama’s Climate Speech

Joanna Schroeder

“Yes this is hard, but there should be no question that the United States of America is stepping up to the plate. We recognize our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to combat it. We will do our part,” said U.S. President Barack Obama during the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit that is taking place this week in New York.

During his speech he pledged to put forth a proposal to continue combating climate change beyond 2020 as well as committed to addressing the serious and growing impacts of climate change that the poorest and most vulnerable around the world are already facing. In addition, he took responsibility for America’s role in climate change.

“As I sat in the audience today, I heard President Obama demonstrate the kind of climate leadership the world needs. He made it clear the U.S. is serious about fighting climate change through major cuts to our carbon pollution and other greenhouse gas emissions,” said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRCD) after the speech. “He promised to help communities around the world become more resilient and speed their development of clean energy. And he challenged other nations to step up their climate actions by promising a commitment to our own. This was a message of hope — hope that together we can head off the worst damages from climate change and leave our children a healthier world.”

Jennifer Morgan, director, Climate and Energy Programs for the World Resources Institute welcomed the President Obama’s clear focus and personal commitment. “I am encouraged by President Obama’s promise to put forth an ambitious post-2020 climate commitment early next year. Strong signals that the United States is decarbonizing its economy will set the stage for a successful outcome at the climate negotiations next year. As growing evidence shows, investing in a low-carbon economy creates jobs, reduces air pollution and improves people’s lives. The United States now must build on the importance progress made in recent years.”

It has been five years since the last climate summit in Copenhagen and the next summit will take place next year in Paris. Obama noted that scientists have learned a great deal more about climate change in the past few years and that they will continue to learn more. He also stressed that climate change is happening and action will mean survival.

“As the President made clear, we don’t have the luxury to act as though climate change isn’t happening,” continued Morgan. “For the most vulnerable communities, taking action now is a matter of survival. The good news is that we have the technology and techniques in hand to both shift to the low carbon economy and build resilience to climate impacts. President Obama’s announcement today is a key step in putting those tools to use. Better and more information about climate impacts is one of our most powerful tools to combat climate change. The President has signaled his commitment to ensure everyone around the world has access to the data they need to anticipate and protect themselves from the consequences of global warming.”
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Clean Energy, Climate Change, Environment, politics

$8B Green Energy Plan Proposed for LA

Joanna Schroeder

Pathfinder Renewable Wind Energy, Magnum Energy, Dresser-Rand and Duke-American Transmission have jointly proposed a $8 billion green energy plan that would bring large amounts of renewable power to the Los Angeles, California area by 2023. The companies will formerly submit their proposal to the Southern California Public Power Authority by early 2015.

If accepted, the project would require construction of one of America’s largest wind farms in Wyoming, one of the world’s biggest energy storage facilities in Utah, and a new 525-mile electric transmission line connecting the two sites. The proposed project would generate more than twice the amount of electricity produced by the giant 1930s-era hydroelectric dam in Nevada – 9.2 million megawatt-hours per year vs. 3.9 million megawatt-hours.

“This project would be the 21st century’s Hoover Dam – a landmark of the clean energy revolution,” said Jeff Meyer, managing partner of Pathfinder Renewable Wind Energy.

A key component of the project is a massive underground energy storage facility that would yield 1,200 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the output of a large nuclear power plant and enough to serve an estimated 1.2 million L.A.-area homes. According to the proposal, the underground energy storage facility would help solve one of renewable energy’s biggest challenges – its intermittency. Wind farms produce no electricity when there’s no wind; solar farms produce no electricity when there’s no sun.

Linking the wind farm to the energy storage facility would enable the wind farm to function largely like a traditional coal, nuclear or natural gas power plant – capable of reliably delivering large amounts of electricity whenever needed, based on customer demand.

The energy storage facility also would reduce the need for L.A.-area utilities to build expensive backup power plants and power lines to serve customers on days when there’s no wind, at night when there’s no sunlight, and during other periods when traditional wind and solar farms are unable to produce electricity.

According to the plan, Duke-American Transmission would build a $2.6-billion, 525-mile, high-voltage electric transmission line that would transport the Wyoming wind farm’s electricity to the Utah energy storage facility. From there, using an existing 490-mile transmission line – traversing Utah, Nevada and California- electricity would be transmitted from the Utah energy storage facility to the Los Angeles area.

Electricity, Renewable Energy, Video, Wind

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFIowa biodiesel producers and soybean farmers will host Governor Terry Branstad, Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds and U.S. Senate hopeful Joni Ernst at an Renewable Energy Group (REG) biodiesel plants September 25, 2014. The Iowa Biodiesel Board and REG will give them and other invited guests a tour of the REG Newton facility, which employs 25 Iowans. Industry representatives have also planned a private meeting with Ernst. Grant Kimberley, IBB executive director, said discussions of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard are likely to dominate.
  • On September 19, 2014 Alstom’s next-generation Haliade 150-6MW offshore wind turbine, installed just off the Ostend coast at Belgium’s Belwind facility, produced its very first kWh. The assembly and the tests conducted have so far helped to optimise the turbine’s installation and commissioning procedures at sea. Tests will continue in order to confirm how the machine behaves within a maritime setting, and to fine-tune operation and maintenance procedures. The Haliade should obtain final certification in the last quarter of 2014.
  • HelioSage Energy has announced the sale of a 40 megawatt AC (MW) solar PV project to Duke Energy. The project, known as the Elm City Solar Facility, is presently under development in Elm City, North Carolina. When commissioned, it will be one of the largest solar PV facilities east of the Mississippi and will be owned and operated by Duke Energy.
  • Sol Luna Solar is the headline sponsor of the Albuquerque Solar Fiesta. The event, produced by the New Mexico Solar Energy Association, will be held on September 27, 2014 at the CNM Albuquerque Campus, Workforce Training Center. The event will run from 10am – 5pm. The event includes vendor exhibits focusing on practical uses of renewable energy, energy efficiency, active and passive solar home design, green building and other sustainable living practices.
Bioenergy Bytes

EPA Inaction on RFS Increasing GHG Emissions

Joanna Schroeder

According to a new white paper, inaction by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on finalizing the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rules is increasing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equal to 4.4 million additional cars on American roads. The paper, published by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) updated earlier estimates of GHG emissions due to the proposal to reduce biofuel use during 2014.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section, said, “During the U.N. Climate Summit this week, the Obama administration is sure to promote the regulatory actions it has taken to reduce climate change emissions from stationary sources such as power plants. But regulatory inaction on the RFS has opened the door to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.”

BIO logo“Last November, EPA proposed a steep reduction in the use of biofuels in order to avoid hitting the so-called blend wall – a proposal the administration still has not finalized,” continued Erickson. “What the agency failed to consider is that demand for transportation fuel has been increasing – the United States is now using several billion gallons more gasoline and diesel than projected. The so-called blend wall is an invention of the oil industry and has simply been a red herring.”

In March 2014, Erickson and coauthors published the study, “Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Proposed Changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard Through 2022.” That study demonstrated that if EPA reduced biofuel use under the RFS, as the agency proposed in November 2013, the U.S. would experience an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and forego an achievable decrease in emissions.

In the updated white paper uses new data on transportation fuel demand for 2013 and 2014. The U.S. is now projected to use 2 billion gallons more gasoline and 0.5 billion gallons more diesel in 2014 than previously projected.

Erickson concluded, “The administration must finalize the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard using a methodology based on biofuel production and continue the program’s successful support for commercialization of advanced and cellulosic biofuels. The renewable fuel industry has already created hundreds of thousands of good jobs and boosted economic growth.”

BIO, biofuels, EPA, RFS

Black Oak Wind Farm Looking for Investors

Joanna Schroeder

The first community owned wind farm in New York is looking for investors. Black Oak Wind Farm, LLC has opened a new equity investment round for New York residents and companies to join the existing investors in owning the wind farm. The project will consists of 7 turbines located on a ridge in Enfield, New York.

Black Oak Wind Farm LogoAn AA credit rating institution is purchasing all the power output from the project for ten years. The project was awarded a ten-year contract with NYSERDA for its Renewable Energy Credits and qualifies for the Federal Investment Tax Credit. Black Oak has protected itself against the financial risk caused by wind variability through the use of an innovative risk management product offered by Nephila Capital, in partnership with REsurety.

Project Manager Marguerite Wells is leading the project. Her vision for community ownership stems from the fact that most wind farms don’t allow local residents to invest in the projects they live among. “I asked myself a long time ago…if wind farms are profitable then why shouldn’t they be owned by regular local people instead? I quickly learned that wind farm financing is extremely complex, and although community ownership is a common model in Europe, there are few such projects here in the U.S.”

One similar project is South Dakota Wind Partners, a 7-turbine wind farm owned by 614 South Dakotans. Val-Add Service Corporation, the financial consultants who developed that project, are members of the Black Oak team, as is Juhl Energy, based in Pipestone, MN. The PPA was negotiated by Altenex; GE will be providing the turbines (1.7-100’s) and the O&M services. Tetra Tech Construction, based in Gloversville, NY will build the project; COD is expected Fall 2015.

The current round is open only to accredited investors in the State of New York, with another round opening this fall for non-accredited investors.

Electricity, Renewable Energy, Wind

Bugs Way Ahead in Biomass-to-Energy Production

John Davis

termite1While scientists have been working for years to come up with the best ways to break down biomass for energy production, termites perfected the technique more than 30 million years ago. A new study from the University of Copenhagen and the Beijing Genomics Institute show that termites have been able to use fungus and gut bacteria contributing enzymes for final digestion.

Fungus-farming termites are dominant plant decomposers in (sub)tropical Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where they in some areas decompose up to 90% of all dead plant material. They achieve near-complete plant decomposition through intricate multi-stage cooperation between the Termitomyces fungi and gut bacteria, with the termites managing these symbionts by providing gut compartments and nest infrastructure. Researchers at the Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen and Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI, China) discovered this by analyzing plant decomposition genes in the first genome sequencing of a fungus-farming termite and its fungal crop, and bacterial gut communities.

“While we have so far focused on the fungus that feeds the termites, it is now clear that termite gut bacteria play a major role in giving the symbiosis its high efficiency”, says Associate Professor Michael Poulsen, who spearheaded the work.

Experts believe there could be implications for large-scale industrial bioreactors being developed today.

biomass

IncBio to Put in Biodiesel Plant in Greece

John Davis

incbiologoPortugal-based IncBio will put in an 8,000MT/year biodiesel plant in Greece. The company specializing in fully automated industrial ultrasonic biodiesel plants signed a deal with SPA Renewables S.A, a company specializing in turning waste cooking oil into biodiesel, for the refinery in Corinth, Greece.

This will be one of the most advanced and efficient transesterification plants in the world, based on IncBio’s technology parameters: small footprint, low cost and high efficiency, through the use of technology which is both innovative and widely proven in biodiesel production plants globally.

IncBio expects to complete the plant in February 2015 and looks for it to be the beginning of more projects in Greece.

Biodiesel, International

Orrie Swayze: EPA is Destroying Grain Prices

Joanna Schroeder

Orrie Swayze, from Wilmont, South Dakota is a long-time ethanol advocate and has been involved with the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) since its inception more than 20 years ago. He has been following the progress of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) writing of the final 2014 final rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard and as a retired farmer, he is not happy with their direction. While no one knows what the renewable volume obligations will be for obligated parties this year (yes, the EPA is way behind should be releases the proposed rule for 2015 in November) there is grave concern among the renewable fuels industry that volumes will be lower than mandated by the law and from years past.

orrieSwayze is speaking out. “The EPA deceitfully created E10 blend wall destroys free enterprise’s role deciding corn prices because it locks a potential new five billion bushel demand for corn out of the market,” he says. “Free enterprise cannot play a legitimate role in corn and auto fuels markets when EPA’s dishonest policies limit ethanol’s auto fuels market participation to ten percent. Countering free enterprise principles EPA picks gasoline as auto fuels market winner by deceitfully claiming high octane E30 is illegal to use in and damages standard auto engines.”

He notes that unlike gasoline, ethanol does not contain or emit harmful tailpipe emissions that are particularity harmful to children and the elderly. “Therefore it isn’t Clean Air Act defined tampering or illegal, as EPA alleges, to fuel standard autos with E30 because it decreases known human carcinogenic tailpipe/evaporative emissions 30 percent,” explains Swayze.

“Importantly, auto companies urgently request EPA to raise minimum gasoline octane levels,” he continues. “Autos endorse ethanol’s high octane E30 but ridicule low octane E15. E15 cannot provide E30’s air cooling turbocharging effect and 93 ‘safe’ octane that’s required for optimized, efficient high compression engines. Engines autos need to be competitive in international markets plus meet 2017 café standards.”

South Dakota farmers have a deep experience of producing corn and ethanol with the state producing nearly a billion bushels of corn plus a billion bushels of ethanol each year. “We all have hit EPA’s fraudulent blend wall evidenced by a dollar plus lower tumbling corn prices and necessarily all grain/ethanol prices,” says Swayze. “The economic impact of government’s war on E30 use in standard autos creating the e10 blend wall will obviously extort several billion dollars annually from SD’s economy alone.”

Swayze concluded, “Incredibly state government, corn and ethanol organizations assure the blend wall stands firm today: They irresponsibly agree with EPA’s big oil sponsored fabrications that built the blend wall: E30 is illegal to use in and damages standard auto engines.” He is asking corn growers associations and ag associations to stand firm on ethanol and be more proactive in fighting Big Oil who is perpetuating myths about ethanol.

biofuels, corn, EPA, Ethanol, RFS

Impact of Ethanol Mandates on Fuel Prices Nill

Joanna Schroeder

Professors Sebastien Pouliot and Bruce A. Babcock with Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) have released a new paper, “Impact of Ethanol Mandates on Fuel Prices When Ethanol and Gasoline are Imperfect Substitutes“. The authors note papers that consider the two transportation fuels “equal” have been of limited use in informing current policy debates because the short-to-medium-run reality is one of sets restrictions on how ethanol can be consumed in the U.S.

Mandate Impacts on GasThe authors’ objective of the paper was to improve understanding of how these restrictions change the findings of existing studies. The paper estimated the impacts of higher ethanol mandates using a open-economy, partial equilibrium model of gasoline, ethanol and blending whereby motorists buy one of two fuels: E10, which is a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline, or E85 which is a high ethanol blend. The model is calibrated to recent data to provide current estimates.

Mandate Impacts on EthanolThe authors find that the effects of increasing ethanol mandates that are physically feasible to meet on the price of E10 are close to zero. In other words, White House fears of higher RIN prices due to higher gas prices are unfounded. The report also shows the impact of the size of the corn harvest on E10 prices is much larger than the effects of mandates. However, increased mandates can have a large effect on the price of E85 if the mandates are increased to levels that approach consumption capacity. These findings show that concerns about the consumer price of fuel do not justify a reduction ethanol mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The 2014 RFS rule is currently under review with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Research, RFS, RINS

Drought, Fires Hurting Sugarcane Harvest in Brazil

Joanna Schroeder

A severe drought has hit São Paulo, Brazil and has severely affected the production of sugarcane in the state. Estimates of the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) show the lose around 15 percent or almost 40 million tons of sugarcane. Another factor in crop loss has been accidental fires due to the dry conditions. This comes at a time when the country is looking to increase its national ethanol mandate to 27 percent ethanol fuel blend.

The low rainfall seen throughout this year has increased outbreaks of fires not only in the areas of cultivation of sugarcane but also in areas planted with other crops, pastures and vegetation cover. Sugarcane plantsInformation collected by the Environmental Police and other state government agencies show that by the beginning of September had already been recorded 2,981 fire outbreaks and forest fires in São Paulo – that number is 140 percent higher than the same period of 2013.

Fires are often erroneously attributed to sugarcane producers due to the process of burning straw. However, UNICA points out that since 2007 the sector has been given the Green Protocol, established voluntarily by the state government of São Paulo to end burning.

“The productive sector has made a huge effort to accelerate the end of the use of fire and significantly exceeded expected to reduce the use of controlled burning in detrash of cane sugar schedule,” said Elizabeth Farina, UNICA president.

The drought has caused people to raise concern over raising the country’s ethanol mandate but no decision has yet been made to increase, decrease or keep the mandate in tact as is.

advanced biofuels, Brazil, Ethanol, UNICA