Energy Exchange

Texas awards $8 million in state incentives for electric trucks

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has awarded $8.2 million in state incentives to help companies operating in Texas purchase 51 electric trucks.

The announcement is a win for communities, the climate and the companies who secured the historic funding opportunity. The announced funds should signal to companies across the country that clean fleet investments are now part of the package of economic incentives that make Texas such an attractive place to do business.

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Also posted in Electric Vehicles, Texas / Comments are closed

With beneficial electrification plans, the Illinois Commerce Commission takes a step towards reducing harmful emissions

By Larissa Koehler and Brian Urbaszewski

Today, the Illinois Commerce Commission issued a final order approving beneficial electrification plans from the state’s two biggest utilities — Commonwealth Edison and Ameren. The transportation-focused plans, directed by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, are critical to decarbonizing the transportation sector in Illinois.

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Also posted in Electric Vehicles, Illinois / Comments are closed

Trust, but verify: How Colorado must lead as latest methane rulemaking advances

By Nini Gu

Colorado’s oil and gas regulators face an important decision that will determine whether the state can continue to successfully cut methane emissions and reach its statutory climate targets.

In 2021, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission adopted a rule that limits how much greenhouse gas can be emitted per barrel of oil and gas produced. However, the 2021 GHG intensity rule left open the critical question of how oil and gas operators can demonstrate that their emissions comply with the new standard.

Allowing companies to determine for themselves how to measure and report emissions without strong guidance and a requirement to use direct measurement data threatens to undermine the intensity standard and set a bad precedent for other jurisdictions — in the U.S. and abroad — that are looking to implement performance-based standards.

Fortunately, the Air Pollution Control Division is now undertaking a GHG Intensity Verification rulemaking to address this glaring omission, offering the opportunity to create a program based on best-available science and grounded in real and meaningful outcomes.

This GHG Intensity Verification Rule must be accurate, reliable and capable of directly quantifying the volume of real-world methane emissions so Colorado can make informed decisions to protect communities and the climate.

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Also posted in Air Quality, Climate, Colorado, Gas to Clean / Comments are closed

The building blocks are in place for a strong Advanced Clean Fleets rule in California

By Lauren Navarro & Pamela MacDougall

California air regulators are currently considering adoption of the Advanced Clean Fleets rule — a purchase requirement for medium and heavy-duty fleets to adopt an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks. This rule has the potential to be transformative.

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Also posted in California, Electric Vehicles, General / Comments are closed

The power grid and disinformation

Texans know better than to believe the lies. But, whenever severe weather strikes the state and the isolated electric grid is imperiled, they’re always fed them: “Green energy” is offered up as the ultimate scapegoat, facts be damned.

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Also posted in General, Grid Modernization, Natural Gas, Regional Grid, Texas / Comments are closed

Houston workshop lays foundation for the road to ZEV trucks

Last month, EDF co-hosted a workshop in Houston on the state of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles in Texas. Partnering with Evolve, the Houston-Galveston Area Council and Port Houston, we met at the NRG Center with dozens of industry experts, government officials, fleet managers and drivers to talk about the economic and environmental opportunities that transitioning to zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles offers for Texas. At the end of the workshop, participants were able to enjoy a ride-along with the latest Nikola ZEV truck.

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Also posted in Air Quality, Electric Vehicles, Texas / Comments are closed