Energy Exchange

Permian a litmus test for oil and gas industry’s methane targets

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 4, 2018

This blog was co-authored by Jon Goldstein and Colin Leyden.

What may be becoming the world’s largest oil field may also be the world’s largest test for the oil and gas industry’s commitments to setting targets for driving down methane emissions.

Several major oil and gas producers, including BP and XTO, have announced strategies in recent months to limit methane emissions. And several more including Shell, Pemex and Statoil have committed to a near-zero methane future and announced plans to release reduction targets this fall.

Posted in Air Quality, Methane, Natural Gas, Texas / Tagged New Mexico | Comments are closed

Closing the information gap on Texans’ energy burdens

By Sarah Ryan / Published: May 3, 2018

As summer approaches in Texas, it may be hard to recall that just this January, temperatures hovered at or below freezing for as long as 64 straight hours. Texans used the most electricity ever over the course of one hour, setting a record in energy use as people reached for their thermostats and cranked the heat. For some in the state, however, this was simply not an option.

People in the lowest income brackets regularly have to choose between keeping their homes at a comfortable temperature and other everyday necessities, like putting food on the table – especially in a state like Texas with extreme temperatures. Low-income households that heat with electricity spend four times more on utility bills, as a percent of their income, compared to the average American. This “energy burden” (the percent of a person’s income spent on energy) highlights the devastating reality that many people face, as well as presents an opportunity for cleaner, smarter energy to help lower electricity bills.

Enter the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, or TEPRI, a nonprofit organization seeking to first understand the burden that energy costs place on low-income households, and then propose practical, equitable solutions. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is proudly partnering with TEPRI to advance this mission, starting with conducting a sociodemographic study to provide a detailed understanding of Texans with low incomes and their relationship to energy. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Energy Equity, Texas / Comments are closed

New York breathes easier as plans emerge for electrification, starting with new city buses

By Rory Christian / Published: May 3, 2018

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, operator of the largest bus fleet in the United States, recently announced a plan to adopt a zero-emissions electric vehicle (EV) fleet by 2040. This news is a welcome breath of fresh air. Transitioning away from diesel-fueled buses will improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers in numerous ways. But the question remains: Why will it take more than 20 years?

The deadline is likely a result of the MTA’s need to determine how best to integrate EVs into their current operations while maintaining, and improving, quality of service. There are a myriad of logistical and operational aspects to consider before making a full transition. These considerations will be identified during the agency’s bus pilot, scheduled to start with 10 EV buses this year and planning to expand to 60 buses within the next three years. Read More »

Posted in Air Quality, Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, New York / Read 2 Responses

American people speak loud and clear on Zinke’s proposal to gut the BLM methane rule

By Dan Grossman / Published: May 3, 2018

Over the past months more than 400,000 Americans weighed in on a proposal by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to gut the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Methane and Natural Gas Waste Prevention Rule. And more than 98 percent of the comments received urged BLM to keep the strong rule in place to force oil and gas operators to crack down on waste and pollution when profiting from the public’s natural resources. Now that’s a landslide!

Posted in BLM Methane, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

New study answers the question, ‘What is grid resilience?’

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 2, 2018

By Rama Zakaria, Michael Panfil

Whether or not our electric grid is “resilient,” and what if anything should be done to make the grid more resilient, has been a topic of intense scrutiny in the past year.

The stakes in this debate reached new dimensions last fall with a highly controversial proposal by Sec. Rick Perry and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which claimed that the resilience of the electric grid is threatened by the premature retirement of uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. DOE’s flawed proposal – to bail out these plants through a profit-guarantee mechanism – was considered and unanimously rejected in January by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency charged with overseeing our nation’s electric grid. DOE’s proposal, in short, was an incredibly bad idea.

When FERC dismissed DOE’s proposal it opened a new proceeding, asking a series of questions around the topic of grid resilience.

A Customer-focused Framework for Electric System Resilience, a new report authored by Alison Silverstein and Grid Strategies, aims to answer these questions. The report, commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council, recommends a customer-centric framework for evaluating electric system resilience and concludes that the most effective resilience solutions center upon the wires connecting the grid: distribution, and to a lesser extent transmission. By contrast, generation-related solutions – like keeping dirty coal and uneconomic nuclear plants online past their retirement dates – are the least effective for improving resilience. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Electricity Pricing, FirstEnergy, Grid Modernization, Market resilience, Utility Business Models / Comments are closed

Four ways California utilities can make a big dent in reducing methane emissions

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 2, 2018

This blog was co-authored by Tim O’Connor and Ellison Folk, an Environmental Attorney at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger.

California utilities finally have a set of plans to cut methane leakage from the state’s natural gas pipelines. This is good news, but there are still a handful of improvements that could help make the state’s gas pipelines leak even less.

Methane leakage is a serious environmental and safety issue that afflicts the entire natural gas supply chain. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that must be reduced if California is to reach is ambitious climate goals.

Even before the Aliso Canyon disaster attracted national attention, California passed a groundbreaking law (SB 1371) requiring public utilities to reduce natural gas emissions. Last June, the California Public Utilities Commissioned ruled utilities must adopt plans that implement 26 best practices (See Appendix B) to reduce methane emissions.

Posted in California, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed