Energy Exchange

Turning Lemons into Lemonade: How Two Companies are Turning Your Trash into Low Carbon Fuel

By Tim O'Connor / Published: April 7, 2014

By Tim O’Connor and Chloe Looker

EDF’s Innovators Series profiles companies and people across California with bold solutions to reduce carbon pollution and help the state meet the goal of AB 32. Each addition to the series will profile a different solution, focused on the development of new technology and ideas.

Modern society makes a lot of garbage. The decomposition of organic material from garbage in landfills releases methane gas, a potent global warming pollutant.

At the same time, the modern transportation system is powered mostly by fossil fuels and also releases global warming and toxic air pollution. Today, two companies are turning rotting lemons (garbage) into lemonade (low carbon fuels for cars and trucks), and are showing that AB 32 creates a powerful incentive for new ideas and innovations.

Although the ultimate solution to the problem of waste generation and pollution from landfills must include reduction of waste going into the landfills, the fact of the matter is landfills aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Read More »

Posted in General / Comments are closed

Clean Energy Conferences Roundup: April 2014

By EDF Blogs / Published: April 2, 2014

Source: National Retail Federation Flickr

Thousands of clean energy conferences are held every year across the United States. A quick Google search revealed over 1.5 million results for 2014 alone. That’s why, starting this month, in an effort to save our readers time, the Energy Exchange will be endeavoring to round up a monthly list of some of the top clean energy conferences around the country. Our list includes conferences at which experts from the EDF Clean Energy Program will be speaking, plus additional events that we think our readers may benefit from marking on their calendars.

Top clean energy conferences featuring EDF experts in April:

April 2-4: Wall St. Journal ECO:nomics, Santa Barbara, CA
Speaker: Fred Krupp, President

Each year, top CEOs and investors, pioneering entrepreneurs, environmental experts, and policy makers convene at ECO:nomics to discuss and debate the most critical issues facing leaders who are driving change at the intersection of business and the environment. Experts from a diverse range of industries will debunk myths and uncover new opportunities through dynamic interviews led by senior editors from The Wall Street Journal. Topics range from America’s game-changing natural gas boom to China’s globally significant energy appetite to the range of potential power sources of tomorrow.

Women in Power: Leading the Way to a Clean Energy Economy

By Lauren Faber / Published: March 28, 2014

This is the first in a series of posts about leading women in the power, environmental science, advocacy, policy, and business sectors.

Pull back the curtain on climate leadership, and you’ll see women in power. From the author of the country’s leading clean car standards, to the top administrator of the most ambitious climate policy in the nation (California’s AB32), to the scientists and entrepreneurs developing and deploying the advanced technologies driving the nation’s low-carbon economy, women are taking charge of the clean energy sector like never before.

Women have always been on the frontlines of our country’s toughest environmental challenges — including Rachel Carson, who galvanized the country with her exposé of pesticides in Silent Spring, and Hazel Johnson, the ‘Mother of the Environmental Justice Movement,’ who fought against toxic dumping in her own Southeast Chicago community.

But women have not always dominated the energy sector. Read More »

Posted in General / Read 1 Response

Latest EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory May Not Reflect Full Scope of Oil and Gas Emissions

By David Lyon / Published: March 13, 2014

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released its draft inventory of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Reporting 2012 data, the inventory estimates methane emissions coming from natural gas and petroleum systems at around 7.6 million metric tons – that’s enough natural gas to provide energy to over 7 million homes annually. This new estimate when compared with last year’s report, which estimates emissions for the 2011 calendar year, shows overall methane emissions from natural gas and petroleum systems are 1.2 percent lower. Although this seems like good news, the new data is no cause for complacency, as it’s important to understand the cause of the changes which requires closer examination.

The draft inventory introduces some new methodological changes that reduce estimated emissions from previous years. The primary change was driven by the way EPA estimates emissions from gas well completions and workovers, the steps that follow hydraulic fracturing and clear liquids and sand from the well before production begins. Read More »

Also posted in Air Quality, Climate, Methane, Natural Gas / Read 1 Response

Critical Decision Expected Tomorrow in Colorado on Clean Air Rule

By Dan Grossman / Published: February 23, 2014

Day 4 of the ongoing hearings on a groundbreaking proposal to reduce air and climate pollution from oil and gas operations in Colorado saw Team EDF pushing back on claims opposition groups have made to try to weaken the proposal.

Leading companies Noble, Anadarko, Encana and DCP also put on strong cases, using their own operational data to show the proposal is cost effective. They should be lauded for their leadership, as should local governments and conservation groups that brought strong analytics to the hearings.

If the proposal is adopted without being weakened, it will eliminate more than 90,000 tons of smog-forming VOCs annually (the same amount produced by all the cars and trucks in Colorado) and more than 100,000 tons of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.

Also posted in Air Quality, Climate, Colorado, Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged Climate, climate change, Colorado, environment, fracking, Methane, Natural Gas | Read 3 Responses

COGA and CPA Fight Common-sense Methane Regulation

By Dan Grossman / Published: February 21, 2014

Industry trade groups – the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) and the Colorado Petroleum Association (CPA) – came out swinging against methane regulation in the third day of hearings on a groundbreaking proposal to reduce air and climate pollution coming from oil and gas operations.

And some wild swinging it was!

They acknowledged that we need to reduce methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. But they said studies are showing different results about how much methane is being leaked and vented and that we shouldn’t regulate methane until we know exactly how much is escaping.

Also posted in Climate, Colorado, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed