Energy Exchange

An all-inclusive way to look at energy transition in New Jersey

By EDF Blogs / Bio / Published: April 11, 2022

New Jersey, like many other states, has been hard at work developing a strategy to drastically reduce its own climate impact. The state’s residents are already experiencing more than their share of climate change. With 130 miles of coastline, including population centers near much-loved beaches, more frequent extreme weather events are an existential threat to the state.

The state’s Energy Master Plan identifies and coordinates efforts, in various parts of the economy, to achieve a sustainable pathway to substantial decarbonization by 2050. But a new study, proposed by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, that seeks to estimate the financial impact of these efforts to eliminate fossil fuels on gas and electric utility customers, is infected with methodological flaws and faulty assumptions that would put it out of step with the state’s energy and climate policy.

Also posted in Clean Energy, New Jersey / Language: English / Comments are closed

California policymakers want feedback on how to make it easier to finance electric trucks, buses

By Lauren Navarro / Bio / Published: March 9, 2022

Update: The California Air Resources Board is hosting a public work group meeting on May 4 at 1:00pm PST to discuss the new Proposed Zero Emission Loan Pilot within the Truck Loan Assistance Program. Stakeholder input is needed to determine how loans should work under SB372. There will be future meetings on other elements of SB372 to come. Please click here for more information.

Last year the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 372, an important new bill that will help finance the next generation of zero-emission trucks. The law directs the California Air Resources Board and the California Pollution Control Financing Authority in the State Treasurer’s Office to offer financial and non-financial tools to help owners of medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses pay for the costs of replacing their diesel-fueled fleets with cleaner, ZEV alternatives.

This bill is meant to bring key stakeholders to the table — environmental justice groups, truck manufacturers, fleets, financiers, nonprofit organizations and others — to find the solutions that will work for fleets to transition to zero-emission MHD vehicles.

Based on conversations EDF had with fleets, financiers and others, about what they need to invest in ZEV trucks, we discovered that it is critical to bring stakeholders to the table in order to find out what works, recognizing that multiple options are needed, because when it comes to fleets, one size does not fit all.

Also posted in Air Quality, California, Electric Vehicles / Language: English / Comments are closed

New Rystad cost analysis makes case for EPA to end routine flaring in final methane rule

By EDF Blogs / Bio / Published: February 28, 2022

By Jon Goldstein and Grace Weatherall

Reducing the amount of methane emitted from oil and gas infrastructure is among the cheapest and simplest solutions we have to reduce global warming quickly while protecting public health. The Environmental Protection Agency is in the midst of developing rules to curb these emissions from oil and gas producers across the country.

A new analysis commissioned by EDF and conducted by Rystad Energy makes it clear that eliminating routine flaring — a major source of rogue emissions — should be part of EPA’s methane rulemaking.

Though there are valid safety reasons for some minimal flaring, most of it occurs via routine flaring — when oil producers simply don’t have a place to put the natural gas that emerges from the ground during oil production and simply burn it off. More than $1 billion of natural gas is wasted at flares every year, driving unnecessary and harmful climate and local air pollution — including methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas — when natural gas is not fully burned.

Rystad’s report includes two key findings that should inform EPA’s rulemaking.

Also posted in Air Quality, Colorado, Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas, New Mexico, Texas / Language: English / Comments are closed

To tackle natural gas waste on federal and tribal lands, the Biden administration must end routine venting and flaring

By EDF Blogs / Bio / Published: February 17, 2022

By Jon Goldstein and Ben Tettlebaum

With responsibility over one-eighth of the nation’s landmass, the Bureau of Land Management has a lot of important jobs. Chief among them is ensuring federal and tribal lands — and the minerals beneath them — are wisely and responsibly managed on behalf of the public, including U.S. taxpayers and tribal citizens.

But avoidable venting and flaring of natural gas from these lands emit harmful pollutants that have significant public health impacts, especially on communities living near oil and gas fields. What’s more, this damaging practice severely exacerbates the climate crisis and, estimates show, wastes $400 million worth of gas every year.

That’s why a broad coalition of 65 environmental, conservation, tribal, business, faith and agricultural groups called on BLM in a letter late last month to follow the lead of states like Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico and ban routine venting and flaring of natural gas.

Also posted in BLM Methane, Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas, New Mexico, Wyoming / Language: English / Comments are closed

Texas grid reform report card is in, and it isn’t good

By Colin Leyden / Bio / Published: February 15, 2022

Following the historic and crippling grid failure caused by Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, the state of Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott and a bipartisan collection of elected leaders — pledged to ensure such a catastrophic disaster would never happen again.

The state Legislature, already in session, launched a series of hearings to find causes and culprits. Several organizations and energy experts provided state leaders suggestions and guidance; EDF was one of them. Our detailed report to the Legislature, issued in February 2021, recommended eight specific areas on which the state’s examination should focus.

Following the Legislature’s modest action, Gov. Abbott famously exclaimed, “Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.”

A look back at what’s actually been done so far to strengthen the grid, however, tells a very different story. Comparing the state’s action against EDF’s suggestions reveals a remarkably lackluster response to the biggest failure of state infrastructure and oversight in recent memory.

As we prepare to recognize the first anniversary of the grid failure, EDF graded the state’s response against our eight core recommendations.

Also posted in Texas / Language: English / Comments are closed

Smart charging should be integral part of a national EV charging network

By Pamela MacDougall / Published: January 20, 2022

Electric trucks are coming, and they’re coming fast. Just before 2021 drew to a close, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts joined California, Oregon and Washington to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission trucks with the adoption of the Advanced Clean Truck program. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, securing up to $67 billion in direct investment in zero-emission trucks and buses, as well as several critical tax credits to support the purchase and production of zero-emission trucks. And more than 150 truck fleets are either operating zero-emission trucks or have trucks on order.

Also posted in California, Electric Vehicles, New Jersey, New York / Language: English / Comments are closed