Energy Exchange

A 100% clean transportation future requires smart electricity pricing for trucks and buses

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 13, 2020

By Elizabeth B. Stein and Beia Spiller

Zero-emission solutions for trucks and buses have arrived. But converting fleets from fossil fuels to electricity requires more than new vehicles and chargers. It will require smart electricity pricing to ensure that new demand from these power-hungry vehicles doesn’t break the grid, and that costs remain manageable for fleet owners, utilities and all customers.

Making good use of the grid at times when it would otherwise be underutilized keeps electric rates low for all customers. For passenger vehicles that are charged at homes, pricing structures that encourage charging when demand is low and clean electricity is plentiful have produced great results for car owners, the electric system and the planet.

Getting similar win-win-win outcomes for trucks and buses will be more complex, though achievable with the right policies and rate structures.

Posted in California, Electric Vehicles / Comments are closed

Electrifying trucks and buses is an opportunity for lasting change, one we can’t afford to miss

By Jason Mathers / Published: July 6, 2020

The U.S. is still struggling to contain the spread of COVID-19 and quantify the human and economic consequences of this historic tragedy. But already, leaders are contemplating how we’ll restore our economies. Will we rebuild a replica of what we had, or will we invest in ideas that will make society more resilient, healthier, cleaner and more equitable?

The transportation sector is on the cusp of massive change, and one segment within it is ripe for reinvention: medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. These include everything from semi-trucks and delivery vans, to city buses and garbage trucks — the overwhelming majority of which are powered by diesel engines.

Electrifying this segment was an opportunity for lasting change before the COVID-19 economic crash. Now that countries are considering where to invest to rebuild their economies, it’s an opportunity we can’t afford to miss.

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

Three things California should do to prepare for more electric trucks and buses

By Larissa Koehler / Published: June 29, 2020

California is moving fast to replace dirty, gas-guzzling heavy-duty vehicles with cleaner, electric choices as a way to combat air pollution and climate change.

Both fleets and electric utilities need to rethink the way they build the charging stations needed to power these vehicles. Charging stations should be as affordable as possible, and help electric vehicles integrate more renewable energy into the grid. The California Public Utilities Commission is working with stakeholders to set out key guidelines, targets and metrics to reach those goals. This process, known as the Transportation Electrification Framework, is unquestionably a step in the right direction, but in order to maximize its impact there are some key things the CPUC should keep in mind.

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

Now is not the time to pump the brakes on fleet electrification

By Sarah Ryan / Published: June 22, 2020

The coupled economic impacts of the pandemic and global oil crisis are expected to hit passenger electric vehicle sales hard, with a recent Bloomberg analysis predicting an 18% drop in sales this year. But many commercial fleets and state policymakers are continuing to push forward on their plans to electrify trucks and buses, even in these uncertain times.

We are seeing proof of this across the zero-emission vehicles market. In order to meet their long-term climate commitments as well as near-term policy requirements, fleet operators are continuing to accelerate their investments in electrification.

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

Big step back: Changes in new EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory mask methane emissions

By David Lyon / Published: April 28, 2020

For years, experts have urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to improve the way it estimates methane emissions from the oil and gas sector to reflect major advances in the peer-reviewed scientific understanding of how much methane is escaping from each link in the industry’s complex supply chain. Bringing agency methods into line with this science would yeild better, more accurate accounting, and it would almost certainly show that actual emissions are much higher than previously indicated.

Instead, EPA has gone in the exact opposite direction, making a million metric tons of methane pollution disappear from the books with the stroke of a methodological pen.

The EPA’s latest inventory released this month, incorporated data from a new study for the gathering segment, but this study uses “bottom-up” measurements that scientists say are likely to systematically underestimate emissions rather than incorporate “top-down” approaches that rely on atmospheric science, and which extensive research has shown to be far more accurate.

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

It’s time for the Texas Railroad Commission to curb flaring to prevent waste, protect property rights

By Scott Anderson / Published: April 22, 2020

This piece originally appeared in the Houston Chronicle

The Texas Railroad Commission has a unique chance to save the state’s oil and gas industry from one of its own worst habits — setting fire to over 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year, transforming a valuable asset into waste and pollution with zero benefit to anyone. Now, as commissioners eye production cuts in response to collapsing oil prices, they also have an opportunity to stem the profligate practice known as flaring.

The measure under consideration is called proration. Last used in the 1970s, it allows the commission to set a monthly production ceiling equal to market demand, with shares allocated among the state’s producers based on a variety of factors. Often described as a way to raise prices by limiting supply, authority for proration actually comes from the commission’s statutory obligation to prevent the waste of natural resources and protect property rights.

Flaring, of course, is the very definition of waste. Since 2013, operators in Texas have burned off roughly a trillion cubic feet of natural gas — enough to meet the yearly needs of every Texas home three times over. In 2019, Permian operators alone flared almost 300 billion cubic feet of gas, sending over a million dollars a day up in smoke.

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