Energy Exchange

How to stop worrying about gas prices for good: Act quickly to fully decarbonize the economy

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 10, 2022

By: Katelyn Roedner Sutter and Michael Colvin

This past summer, Californians have been hit hard by inflation: rising food costs, utility bills and nowhere more obviously than at the gas pump. The cost to fill up a tank has many potential causes and lots of experts are weighing in — see here, here and here. Regardless of the cause, those with the tightest budgets are being hit hardest.

Last week, Gov. Newsom called a special session of the legislature to address high gas prices, and the state began sending direct rebates to Californians to help provide some immediate relief. In the longer term, we need to remember that while sending checks is helpful, the lasting solution to ending this gas price madness is a swift transition to a 100% clean economy.

Posted in California, Climate, Electric Vehicles / Comments are closed

Research shows gathering pipelines in the Permian Basin leaking 14 times more methane than officials estimate

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 4, 2022

Methane plume detected on a gathering pipeline during 2021 survey.

By Erin Murphy and Jevan Yu

Methane emissions from natural gas gathering pipelines in the U.S. Permian Basin are at least 14 times greater than Environmental Protection Agency national inventory estimates, according to new peer-reviewed research from EDF, Stanford University and the University of Arizona. Gathering lines transport unprocessed gas from well sites to processing facilities and vary widely in size and pressure, with diameters ranging from two inches to as large as 30 inches. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with over 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and this new research indicates the importance of finding and fixing pipeline methane leaks to mitigate the climate crisis.

Posted in Air Quality, BLM Methane, General, Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas, PermianMAP / Comments are closed

The Advanced Clean Fleets rule explained

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 3, 2022

By Lauren Navarro and Tom Cackette

Update 4/11/23: This blog has been amended to incorporate changes to the proposed ACF rule made by CARB staff.

The Advanced Clean Fleets rule is a requirement for medium- and heavy-duty fleets to purchase an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks. The ACF will complement the previously adopted Advanced Clean Trucks regulation requiring manufacturers to sell ZEV trucks and school buses. At the end of March, the Environmental Protection Agency granted California’s request for a Clean Air Act preemption waiver for the ACT, effectively granting support to this life-saving clean trucks rule, and paving the way for the California Air Resources Board to adopt the ACF.

Posted in California, Electric Vehicles / Comments are closed

EPA must protect California’s life-saving clean truck rules

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 3, 2022

By Larissa Koehler and Alice Henderson

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency is hearing from scientists, mothers, healthcare professionals, public health and environmental advocates – including EDF – and many others who submitted comments in support of California clean truck standards.

As EPA works toward finalizing federal heavy-duty emission standards proposed earlier this year, the agency has been accepting public comment on its notices considering Clean Air Act preemption waivers for California clean truck standards, including the Advanced Clean Trucks and Heavy-Duty Omnibus NOx (low-NOx) standards. Several other states have already adopted these standards in recent years to reduce health-harming pollution from new freight trucks and buses. The ACT requires an increasing percentage of new trucks and buses to be zero-emission through 2035, while the low-NOx standards aim to reduce nitrogen oxides from new diesel trucks.

Taken together, these protections will prevent almost 5,000 premature deaths, save California billions of dollars in health care costs and create thousands of new jobs by 2035. But the Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association — a trade group of the nation’s largest engine manufacturers, including Volvo and Daimler — has opposed these safeguards at the state and federal level, and is now challenging in court California’s ability to implement the low-NOx emission standards.

Posted in Air Quality, California, Electric Vehicles / Comments are closed

Creating data to support communities on the front lines of oil and gas production in the U.S.

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 22, 2022

By Jeremy Proville and Kate Roberts

This week we published a new study that combines locations of active oil and gas wells with census tract data in a way that helps us better understand the characteristics of the communities living near them. Our findings support what environmental justice groups have been voicing for years: in many counties across America, people who have been historically marginalized — communities of color, older Americans, children and people living under the federal poverty line — often live near wells in greater proportions than the other groups that make up the rest of their local county.

In addition to publishing these data with our study, we also used it to develop an interactive tool, which users can access to explore how each of 13 different demographic groups relate to oil and gas wells across all U.S. counties.

Posted in Air Quality, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

New Jersey BPU must help natural gas utilities comply with state’s Global Warming Response Act

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 8, 2022

By Ted Kelly

The need to replace South Jersey’s leaking and leak-prone pipelines while planning to move New Jersey’s energy system away from fossil fuels became major news today when the Board of Public Utilities approved a settlement for the utility to address leaks in the gas system. South Jersey Gas is now one of the first utilities in the U.S. to commit to developing a plan to transition away from polluting energy sources and protect communities at high risk of methane pollution.

South Jersey Gas, state consumer advocates and regulators agreed on a way for the utility to use a data-informed approach to detect and repair or replace the biggest leaks and most at-risk pipelines in its jurisdiction. At the same time, South Jersey Gas will submit a plan, called the Climate Oriented Business Plan, which will outline how its business will evolve to meet federal and state decarbonization requirements in the long-term. This includes the selection of investments that comply with New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act, which requires the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 80% by 2050 with an interim goal of 50% by 2030.

Posted in Natural Gas, New Jersey / Comments are closed