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NOTE TO READERS: This newsletter has been updated to correct the numbers for MidAmerican Energy’s resource plan.
BIOENERGY: As livestock producers tap federal climate funds to build biodigesters, advocates point to the threat that expanding feedlot operations pose to water quality, and call on the EPA to use its emergency authority to address nitrate pollution. (Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa Capital Dispatch)
UTILITIES:
NUCLEAR: The CEO of Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative says the utility is “absolutely interested” in returning to nuclear power, suggesting smaller nuclear plants could be viable in the next 5-6 years. (Wisconsin State Journal)
GRID:
PIPELINES: A fossil-fuel backed organization has been mailing “weird” newspapers to North Dakota households criticizing years-old pipeline protests ahead of upcoming hearings for developer Energy Transfer’s lawsuit against Greenpeace. (Floodlight / North Dakota News Cooperative)
EQUITY:
NATURAL GAS: A Missouri utility says it is waiting for guidance from regulators on how to design its recently approved $900 million natural gas plant to operate in extreme cold. (KSDK)
WIND: An Iowa community college will decommission its 2.5 MW wind turbine due to age and maintenance needs, a year after the school closed its energy production program. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
MATERIALS: The U.S. EPA has increased air monitoring around a Missouri battery recycling facility that caught fire last week, and says pollution has not exceeded harmful levels since the initial blaze. (Missouri Independent)
FINANCE: Michigan launches a new business accelerator to help lenders access federal climate funds. (Crain’s Detroit Business, subscription)
WIND: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee greenlights the proposed Horse Heaven Hills wind facility in the southern part of the state and urges regulators to streamline turbine permitting, saying it is essential to meeting “urgent clean energy needs.” (Seattle Times)
UTILITIES:
GRID:
CLEAN ENERGY:
CLIMATE:
OIL & GAS: A judge orders a New Mexico oil and gas operator to pay the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Tribe and federal government more than $3.55 million in lost royalties after she submitted fraudulent drilling production records. (news release)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Denver Police Department adds 27 electric bicycles to its patrol fleet. (KDVR)
POLITICS: Colorado advocates say Chevron’s support for an election-reform ballot measure is aimed at increasing corporate influence in politics and electing candidates weak on environmental policy. (CPR)
COMMENTARY:
North Carolina regulators on Friday accepted Duke Energy’s controversial plan for curbing carbon pollution, a blueprint that ramps up renewable energy and ratchets down coal power but also includes 9 gigawatts of new plants that burn natural gas.
The biennial plan is mandated under a 2021 state law, which requires Duke to zero out its climate-warming emissions by midcentury and cut them 70% by the end of the decade.
The timing of the order from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, two months ahead of schedule, caught many advocates by surprise. But its content did not: it hewed closely to a settlement deal Duke reached this summer with a trade group for the renewable energy industry; Walmart; and Public Staff, the state-sanctioned ratepayer advocate.
But critics were dismayed by regulators’ abdication of the 2030 deadline. The ruling said Duke no longer needed a plan to make the reductions by decade’s end, instead telling it to “pursue ‘all reasonable steps’ to achieve the [70%] target by the earliest possible date.”
“Major step back on climate,” Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy,” wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, adding, “for those that say it couldn’t be done, Duke had a 67% reduction by 2030 in its 2020 [long-range plan.] The utility industry generally, and Duke in particular, has had opportunity after opportunity to do better. They chose not to, and here we are.”
And while many observers say the three large gas plants approved in the near-term carbon plan are better than the five originally proposed by Duke, detractors note the facilities still could run afoul of rules finalized this spring by the Biden-Harris administration.
“Duke’s plan isn’t even compliant with the latest EPA regulations related to greenhouse gas pollution,” David Rogers, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement.
Concerns about the Biden-Harris rules, along with doubt that the natural gas plants could be converted to burn carbon-free hydrogen, appeared not to persuade regulators.
“The Commission acknowledges that there are uncertainties and risks associated with new natural gas-fired generation resources, but this is true of all resources,” the panel wrote.
On the contrary, regulators believe Duke can make use of gas plants after the state’s 2050 zero-carbon deadline, even if clean hydrogen doesn’t pan out.
“Accordingly,” the panel said, “the Commission determines that a 35-year anticipated useful life of new natural gas-fired generation and its assumed capital costs are reasonable for planning purposes.”
The greenlight for the gas infrastructure is not absolute, commissioners emphasized in their order, since Duke still must obtain a separate permit for the facilities. But advocates still bemoaned the anticipated impact on customers.
“This order leaves the door open for Duke Energy to stall on carbon compliance in order to develop additional resources, like natural gas, that largely benefit their shareholders over ratepayers,” Matt Abele, the executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, said via text message.
Still, Abele and other advocates acknowledged the plan’s upsides, including its increase in renewables like solar and batteries. The 2022 plan limited those resources to about 1 gigawatt per year; this year’s version increases the short-term annual addition to about 1.7 gigawatts.
Regulators’ decision to bless 2.4 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2034 and call for Duke to complete an “Acquisition Request for Information” by next summer also drew measured praise.
“This order is an overall positive step for offshore wind,” Karly Lohan, North Carolina program manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition, said in an email, adding, “we still need to see Duke move with urgency and administer the [request for information] as soon as possible.”
With regulators required to approve a new carbon-reduction plan for Duke every two years, advocates are already looking ahead to next year, when the process begins anew.
“Proceedings in 2025 present another chance to get North Carolina back on track to achieving the carbon reduction goals as directed by state law,” Will Scott, Environmental Defense Fund’s director of Southeast climate and clean energy, said in a statement.
“By accelerating offshore wind and solar, the Commission could still set a course for meaningful emissions reductions from the power sector that are fueling the effects of climate change, including dangerous and expensive storms like Hurricane Helene.”
And like Scott, David Neal, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, isn’t giving up on the state’s 2030 carbon-reduction deadline, the commission’s latest order notwithstanding.
“We’ll continue to push for the clean energy future that North Carolinians deserve and that state law and federal carbon pollution limits mandate,” he said in a statement.
Nearly a year after Massachusetts regulators laid out a vision for the state’s evolution from natural gas distribution to clean energy use, lawmakers are coalescing around legislation that would start converting principles into policy.
The wide-ranging climate bill includes several provisions that would allow utilities to explore alternatives to gas and empower regulators to place more limits on the expansion and continuation of natural gas infrastructure, changes that supporters say are critical to a successful transition away from fossil fuels.
“This bill is a major first step in empowering [regulators] to do something rather than just rubber stamping the utilities’ plans,” said Lisa Cunningham, co-founder of ZeroCarbonMA.
Natural gas is currently the primary heating source for half the homes in Massachusetts, a number that needs to drop if the state is going to meet its ambitious climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, advocates and state leaders say. In 2020, the state department of public utilities opened an investigation into the role natural gas utilities would play in the transition to cleaner energy. In December 2023, the department issued a lengthy order concluding that the state must move “beyond gas” and outlining a broad framework for making the shift.
Lawmakers attempted to start turning these general ideas into binding law earlier this year, but the legislative session closed at the end of July before the Senate and House reconciled the differences between their versions of a climate bill. Legislators returned to work this fall and hammered out an agreement, and the Senate passed the resulting bill last month. The House speaker has said the body will vote when it returns to formal session later this year. The bill is generally expected to pass and be signed into law.
“A lot of people were skeptical we’d get a bill at all, but I’m happy with where this bill ended up,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate nonprofit Acadia Center. “It shows a step toward that needed urgency.”
At the heart of the bill’s energy transition provisions is a change to the definition of a natural gas utility that allows the companies to also provide geothermal power. Networked geothermal — systems that draw heat from the earth and deliver it to a group of buildings — is widely seen as a promising alternative to natural gas, and both National Grid and Eversource have pilot projects in the works. However, current law prevents the utilities from pursuing such projects without specific authorization from regulators. The climate bill would remove this barrier, making it easier for gas companies to explore new approaches to business.
“The gas utilities deeply need a new business model that can help them step into the future,” said Audrey Schulman, founder of climate solutions incubator HEETlabs. “That allows them to potentially evolve.”
This definition change supports other provisions aimed at slowing the expansion of natural gas use in the state. The bill would end the requirement that natural gas utilities provide service to any customer in their service area who requests it, with few exceptions. Under the new law, utilities could decline these requests when other alternatives are available.
The bill would also allow regulators to consider the impact of emissions when deciding whether to approve requests to expand natural gas service into new communities. In 2023, the state approved a request to bring gas service to the central Massachusetts town of Douglas. Regulators at the time noted that the decision works against the state’s goal of phasing out natural gas, but said the law gave them no choice but to approve the plan. Provisions in the climate bill would untie regulators’ hands in such cases in the future.
“The [Department of Public Utilities] can consider the public interest, including climate, it doesn’t have to say yes to more gas service,” said Amy Boyd Rabin, vice president of policy at the Environmental League of Massachusetts. And the inclusion of geothermal in gas utilities’ definition means “now there’s also something else to offer the customers.”
Another major element of the bill would reform the state’s Gas System Enhancement Plans program, which encourages utilities to repair or replace pipes in the state’s aging and leak-prone natural gas distribution system. Clean energy advocates have often argued that these plans are problematic, investing billions of ratepayer dollars into shoring up a system that is increasingly obsolete. The climate bill would allow utilities to choose to retire segments of pipe rather than fixing them.
“For the first time ever they are able to look at a pipe and say, ‘You know what, this is not worth the cost,’” Murray said. “We don’t want ratepayers shouldering the burden for a lot of stuff that’s not going to be useful in five to 10 years.”
Environmental advocates praised the bill’s gas provisions, and are already focusing on what more there is to be done. Several would have liked to see a more aggressive phasing out of Gas System Enhancement Plans, with a specific end date. Others champion an expansion of a pilot program that allows cities and towns to ban fossil fuel use in new construction and major renovations.
“There is no reason why communities that want to enact this via home rule petition should be restricted from enacting the will of their constituents,” Cunningham said.
In the meantime, advocates are ready to see the climate bill turning into reality.
“There’s a lot of good stuff in there that will do a lot of good for the commonwealth,” Boyd Rabin says.
ELECTRIFICATION: Maine’s whole-home heat pump rebate program picks up speed after it replaced a previous incentive that was not having the hoped-for impact on fossil fuel use. (Maine Public)
TRANSPORTATION:
EMISSIONS: Business groups and utilities object to a potential carbon market program in Maryland, claiming the system would increase energy bills and hurt the state’s economy. (E&E News, subscription)
GAS: Natural gas pipeline operators in Maine seek to raise their prices, likely increasing the cost of gas service and electricity for consumers. (Portland Press Herald)
CLIMATE:
GRID: Long-duration batteries, small modular nuclear reactors, and synthetic natural gas could all help the New England grid maintain reliability as the region transitions to more variable renewable energy sources like solar and wind, according to a report from ISO New England. (RTO Insider, subscription)
RENEWABLE ENERGY: Maryland lawmakers and advocates push to remove trash incineration from the state’s definition of renewable energy, noting how often these facilities are located in low-income neighborhoods. (Inside Climate News)
UTILITIES: Eversource kicks off deployment of smart meters throughout its Massachusetts territory, allowing consumers to better monitor and manage their power consumption, the company says. (news release)
OFFSHORE WIND: U.S. offshore wind executives worry about the future of the industry if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. (Reuters)
COMMENTARY: A proposed natural gas pipeline from New Jersey to Massachusetts is unnecessary as offshore wind and heat pump adoption gain steam in Massachusetts, an environmental advocate argues. (CommonWealth Beacon)
GRID: The Tennessee Valley Authority’s board considers a 150 MW power arrangement for Elon Musk’s supercomputer project in Memphis, Tennessee, which is currently using gas turbines and has prompted opposition from its neighbors. (Commercial Appeal, New York Times)
CARBON CAPTURE: Occidental Petroleum nears completion of a direct-air carbon capture facility in Texas that would be the first large-scale facility to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air; the company plans to build dozens more. (Houston Chronicle)
SOLAR:
STORAGE: Georgia Power asks state regulators to approve its plan to build 500 MW of battery storage at four sites. (Capitol Beat News Service)
PIPELINES: A federal court agrees to hear arguments over a 32-mile pipeline in Tennessee to supply a gas-fired power plant that’s part of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to replace its coal plants with gas. (Tennessee Lookout)
OIL & GAS:
WIND:
NUCLEAR: A growing number of South Carolina environmentalists embrace the prospect of nuclear power as a source of carbon-free energy. (Charleston City Paper)
OVERSIGHT: A flood of companies disclosing their use of toxic chemicals in the fallout from Hurricane Helene exposes a tangled web of federal disclosure laws and regulatory holes that let them hide those details. (The Lever)
POLITICS:
UTILITIES:
COMMENTARY: The presidential election is causing uncertainty in North Carolina’s clean energy economy as companies move to “de-risk” by slowing projects and waiting to see who wins, write the president and vice president of a climate-focused startup. (Raleigh News & Observer)
EFFICIENCY: Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania lead the country in passive house adoption, but these highly energy-efficient homes remain out of reach for many in the middle class. (Washington Post)
ALSO:
TRANSPORTATION: New Jersey and New York ports receive $400 million in federal funding to electrify a ferry fleet and cargo handling equipment, provide plug-in power for ships in port, and help truck drivers get zero-emissions vehicles. (NJ Spotlight News)
FOSSIL FUELS: Northampton becomes the 10th Massachusetts municipality — and the only one in the western part of the state — authorized to ban fossil fuels in new construction as part of a pilot program. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
NUCLEAR: Plans to revive the Three Mile Island plant, once synonymous with disaster, highlight the country’s shifting attitudes toward nuclear power. (New York Times)
POLITICS: The future of fracking in Pennsylvania is central to the two major presidential candidates’ pitches to voters in the important swing state. (TribLIVE)
TRANSMISSION: A Maryland state senator plans to propose legislation to delay the construction of a proposed 70-mile transmission line through the state. (Fox Baltimore)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: More than $80 million in federal and state grants help Maryland expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure, particularly in underserved communities. (Southern Maryland Online)
GAS: A plant converting the methane from landfill emissions into natural gas opens in Pennsylvania, and could produce enough energy to heat 39,000 homes each year, developers say. (Republican Herald)
COMMENTARY:
SOLAR: A Kentucky nonprofit is building net-zero homes with energy efficient construction and rooftop solar panels to lower energy costs for low-income residents, including in a housing development for survivors of the state’s 2022 floods. (Kentucky Lantern)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OIL & GAS:
WIND: An emerging Texas wind company cites “fast-growing demand” for renewable energy from oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin as they move to decarbonize and upgrade power to their growing operations. (CleanTechnica)
STORAGE: Dominion Energy proposes a liquified natural gas storage facility in southern Virginia, while another company is leasing 85 acres in an industrial park for a lithium-ion battery storage facility. (Virginia Business)
EMISSIONS: Two Georgia military bases are at the forefront of the armed forces’ push to reduce emissions and counter climate change, including one that’s been described as the Defense Department’s “first net-zero energy base.” (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)
BIOGAS:
NUCLEAR: Amazon signs an agreement with Dominion Energy to research the use of small modular nuclear reactors at an existing Virginia nuclear power plant. (Virginia Business)
CLIMATE:
GRID: Georgia officials schedule an open house to discuss a company’s plans to build a new transmission line. (WSAV)
UTILITIES: Southern Company is partnering with the Atlantic magazine’s marketing research team to discuss the energy transition in what an expert calls “nothing more than a propaganda effort.” (DeSmog)
POLITICS: West Virginia U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito say the energy industry is headed in the right direction as it moves toward renewables and new technology while also producing more fossil fuels. (WV Metro News)
COMMENTARY: South Carolina-owned utility Santee Cooper should modulate its proposed rate increase with carve-outs that incentivize energy efficiency and renewables, writes a climate advocate. (Post and Courier)
TRANSPORTATION: California regulators partner with a commercial airline trade group in an effort to increase the availability of sustainable aviation fuels. (Associated Press)
ALSO:
HYDROGEN: The U.S. EPA awards Hawaii $59.2 million for hydrogen-fueled tractors and a fueling station at shipping ports. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, subscription)
SOLAR:
WIND: Oregon officials invite the public to help develop an “offshore wind energy roadmap” after widespread opposition to proposed development along the state’s southern coast prompted a federal agency to cancel a lease sale. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
CLEAN ENERGY: Wyoming lawmakers kill legislation that would have restricted the use of eminent domain to acquire land for utility-scale carbon capture, wind and solar projects, worrying it could hamper enhanced oil recovery plans. (Cowboy State Daily)
EFFICIENCY: The Biden administration awards Colorado’s weatherization assistance program $7.6 million for electric heat pumps and efficiency upgrades for low-income residents. (Colorado Newsline)
UTILITIES:
GRID: The Western Area Power Administration’s Sierra Nevada branch plans to join the California grid operator’s day-ahead regional power market. (RTO insider, subscription)
URANIUM: A firm looks to reopen a long-shuttered uranium mill in Utah even as federal agencies continue to clean up Cold War-era processing facilities in the state. (Salt Lake Tribune)
ELECTRIFICATION: Washington state advocates argue a ballot measure aimed at preemptively banning restrictions on natural gas hookups or appliances would raise utility rates by as much as $150 annually. (Center Square)
Work headed by an Ohio waste-to-energy company to make plastic from biodigester byproducts is among seven projects recently selected for federal grants to develop new ways to use captured carbon dioxide.
The grants aim to advance the federal government’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to address ongoing climate change.
Quasar Energy Group, headquartered south of Cleveland in Independence, designs and builds anaerobic digesters, in which bacteria break down manure, food waste, or other organic materials. Methane is the systems’ main gas output and can be used to power generators or heat buildings, among other uses.
But anaerobic digesters also produce carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas which has fewer commercial uses. Customers today include fertilizer manufacturers, oil and gas companies, and food and beverage makers. But those markets are tiny compared to the amount of CO₂ scientists think will need to be removed from industrial emissions, or even pulled from the atmosphere, to deal with climate change.
There’s a limit to how much carbon dioxide will be able to be stored in the ground, and community opposition to pipelines is another barrier to Midwest carbon capture plans. Using the carbon in products — such as cement or plastics — can be a useful alternative, especially if it displaces other fossil fuel inputs.
On Oct. 9, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management announced funding for seven projects aimed at commercializing new approaches to incorporating carbon dioxide into products. The selections are aimed at hard-to-decarbonize sectors, said Ian Rowe, division director for carbon dioxide conversion at DOE’s office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.
“There’s not going to be a non-carbon solution for those needs in the future, but we should make them from more sustainable forms of carbon,” Rowe said. “And carbon dioxide represents a feedstock that you can use.”
Ohio is already a leader in plastics production that relies heavily on the fossil fuel industry. Hundreds of companies across the state play a role in manufacturing or the supply chain. And midstream processing provides a ready supply of natural gas feedstocks from the Utica shale play.
Quasar Energy’s team designed its process for making plastic so it will work well with biodigesters. Basically, the project will use lipids from algae as a feedstock for a type of polyurethane. Liquid effluent from the biodigester could help grow the algae and supply nutrients for it, such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
Carbon dioxide from the biogester’s gas would be another ingredient in the process. The project team estimates the process could cut carbon dioxide emissions at least 25%, compared to current technology for making the plastic.
The process already works on a bench-scale level in the lab, said Tao Dong, a chemical engineer with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, who is also working on the project. Other team members named in the group’s grant application to DOE include Caixia “Ellen” Wan at the University of Missouri, Xumeng Ge at Quasar, and Ashton Zeller, director of research at Algix.
Costs are an important factor for the Quasar team’s project or any other products aimed at displacing those made from fossil fuel sources. Those costs include expenses for “cleaning up” the biodigester gas to separate methane from carbon dioxide. But a chunk of that expense also can be allocated to the separated methane, which has its own value for energy, either for on-site use or for sale for use elsewhere.
In other words, using the gas for making the plastic and for energy helps the economics for both uses, versus just flaring the gas into the atmosphere.
“Our process can be cost-effective,” said Yebo Li, Quasar’s chief innovation and science officer.
The plastic made from the process also has an advantage from being a non-isocyanate polyurethane, said Mel Kurtz, president of Quasar. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration links isocyanates to various health problems, and some are potential carcinogens. So, a polyurethane plastic that doesn’t have them should reduce risks for workers at factories who would then use the material to manufacture products, such as shoes or other items.
“If [farms] can add another revenue stream, that can improve the economics” for biodigesters on farms, said Andy Olsen, a senior policy advocate for the Environmental Law & Policy Center, whose work focuses on energy issues relating to agriculture and is not part of the project team.
It’s also important to make sure staff are properly trained to use and maintain the equipment properly, Olsen added, noting potential problems with leaked gases. Others question whether emissions offsets from some biodigesters have been overstated.
The Quasar project team still faces hurdles. Work under the grant will focus on identifying and addressing risks so the technology can be scaled up.
One challenge will be maintaining algae ponds over time to provide the lipids for the process. Another will be optimizing the process for making them into small chemical building blocks called monomers and then assembling them into polymers, which are the plastic. Maintaining the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over time also will be important.
Other Midwest grant recipients include LanzaTech, an Illinois sustainable fuels company, and Washington University in St. Louis, which will develop a low-carbon process to convert carbon dioxide to high-quality carbon nanotubes. Those will be tested for use as anodes for lithium-ion batteries.
Whether these and other carbon management projects can scale up quickly enough for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 is a big question, said Rowe at DOE.
The energy source for the production process will also make a big difference, Rowe said. Algae can make their own food with carbon dioxide and sunlight. But it takes energy to maintain the ponds throughout the year. The equipment to process the algae and then make the lipids and biodigesters’ carbon dioxide into polyurethane also needs energy.
“Carbon management strategies go hand in hand with an increased deployment of cheap clean electricity. So, a lot of these won’t work without the other,” Rowe said. On the flip side, “if that energy does not come from clean sources, you’ve just produced something that is worse for the environment than if you dug it up and just used fossil carbon.”
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