Groups urge Senate to oppose punitive natural gas tax On September 7, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and 130 energy, manufacturing, business and labor trade organizations across the natural gas and oil supply chain sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works opposing legislation that would place a fee on methane. The parties explained that the proposal is a “pay-for” that “could jeopardize affordable and reliable energy with likely little reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions” and that cost- effective regulation is a better approach. ****************************************************
Federal Court vacates Trump Era Navigable Waters Protection Rule In its August 30 decision, an Arizona federal court determined that the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) contained serious errors and noted that an agency action is arbitrary and capricious if it directly conflicts with the conclusions of its own experts. The NWPR was vacated and remanded to the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to propose a new rule. The Biden Administration will work to develop a definition of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) that can withstand scientific and political challenges.
What is Renewable Natural Gas?
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is a term used to describe biogas that has been upgraded for use in place of fossil natural gas. The biogas used to produce RNG comes from a variety of sources, including municipal solid waste landfills, digesters at water resource recovery facilities (wastewater treatment plants), livestock farms, food production facilities and organic waste management operations. As a substitute for natural gas, RNG has many end uses: • in thermal applications, • to generate electricity, • for vehicle fuel or • as a bio-product feedstock. Landfill and Agriculture RNG Projects in the United States (2005-2020)
percent, depending on the source of the feedstock, and must go through a series of steps to be converted into RNG. Treatment includes removing moisture, carbon dioxide (CO2) and trace level contaminants (including siloxanes, volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and hydrogen sulfide), as well as reducing the nitrogen and oxygen content. Once upgraded, the gas has a methane content of 90 percent or greater. Typically, RNG injected into a natural gas pipeline has a methane content between 96 and 98 percent. • Local air quality benefits Replacing traditional diesel or gasoline with RNG can significantly reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, resulting in local air quality benefits. RNG is comprised primarily of methane; compared to fossil natural gas, RNG contains zero to very low levels of constituents, such as ethane, propane, butane, pentane or other trace hydrocarbons. • Greenhouse gas emission reductions RNG projects capture and recover methane produced at a landfill or anaerobic digestion (AD) facility. Methane has a global warming potential more than 25 times greater than CO2 and a relatively short (12-year) atmospheric life, so reducing these emissions can achieve near-term beneficial impacts in mitigating global climate change. For facilities that are not already required to mitigate such emissions, an RNG project can reduce methane emissions significantly. Source: US EPA. Read more about RNG in EPA’s resource An Overview of Renewable Natural Gas from Biogas.
RNG can be used locally at the site where the gas is created or it can be injected into natural gas transmission or distribution pipelines. Raw biogas has a methane content between 45 and 65
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