Energy News
RI sues 34 oil companies for contaminating groundwater with MTBE
Providence Journal | Posted on September 7, 2016The state has filed suit in federal court against nearly three dozen oil companies for contaminating groundwater with the gasoline additive MTBE that was used to boost engine performance until it was banned in Rhode Island in 2007. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin and the Department of Environmental Management seeks to recover the cleanup costs associated with MTBE, methyl tertiary butyl ether, which has leaked from underground storage tanks and contaminated groundwater supplies and soils in Rhode Island. The most notable case was the contamination of drinking water in Burrillville, which resulted in the closure of wells in 2001. Despite the state ban in 2007, new instances of contamination continue to be found in Rhode Island because MTBE persists in the environment, according to the lawsuit.
Oil downturn ripples through city finances in New Mexico
CNBC | Posted on September 7, 2016Hard times are turning more worrisome for cities and small towns in the heart of New Mexico oil and natural gas territory as state officials contemplate reclaiming dollars pledged to local construction projects to help fill a budget gap. New Mexico is confronting a $458 million budget shortfall this fiscal year because of weak prices in the oil and natural gas sectors and slow growth in other areas of the economy. State finance and legislative officials have begun compiling a list of incomplete public works projects that might be deauthorized. City governments in oil country, meanwhile, are contending with deficits of their own linked to plunging gross receipts taxes on sales and business services.
Clean Energy Jobs Are Exploding in America.
Green Tech Media | Posted on September 7, 2016The solar industry alone has created one out of every 80 jobs in the United States since the Great Recession. When including wind, LED lighting, and other clean energy categories, that number could be close to one in 33. For the solar industry, a majority of these new employment opportunities are blue-collar construction and manufacturing jobs that pay an average of $21 per hour -- far higher than the $16 per hour non-union manufacturing jobs that South Carolina was touting later in that episode. In fact, the solar industry has hired more veterans than anyone else, retrained coal workers, and even provided a soft landing for oil and gas workers who have lost their jobs. The vast majority of solar and wind workers are trained in less than six months because their previous work experience and training is completely transferrable. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "wind technician" is the fastest-growing job category.
Judge grants partial stop on North Dakota pipeline work
Toledo Blade | Posted on September 7, 2016An American Indian tribe succeeded in getting a federal judge to temporarily stop construction on some, but not all, of a portion of a $3.8 billion four-state oil pipeline, but their broader request still hangs in the balance. U .S. District Judge James Boasberg said today that work will temporarily stop between North Dakota’s State Highway 1806 and 20 miles east of Lake Oahe, but will continue west of the highway because he believes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction on private land. It wasn’t immediately clear how long of a stretch on which work will stop. He also said he’ll rule on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s challenge of federal regulators’ decision to grant permits to the Texas-based operators of Dakota Access pipeline, which will cross North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, by the end of Friday.
State cooperation on Clean Power Plan could lead to fewer coal plant closures, PJM says
Dayton Business Journal | Posted on September 7, 2016Thirteen states could lose fewer coal-fired power plants and reduce costs if they work together to comply with a major federal clean-power rule, according to a new report. PJM Interconnection, the power grid operator that handles electric flow in Ohio, Pennsylvania and parts of 11 other states, analyzed the impact of the Clean Power Plan in a lengthy report released last week.
Grid study finds new transmission could further cut costs, emissions
Midwest Energy News | Posted on September 7, 2016A recent study highlighting the renewable energy capacity of the eastern power grid found adding new transmission capacity can help further cut costs and emissions. In a recent report, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found the grid serving the eastern half of the U.S. is technically capable of integrating enough wind and solar power into the system to meet 30 percent of the region's yearly energy needs. But one major obstacle to the large-scale use of renewables remains: getting the best wind resource from the Midwest to the East, where the power is needed.
Kansas panel tightens fracking waste limits in effort to prevent earthquakes
The Wichita Eagle | Posted on September 5, 2016In its continuing effort to settle the shaky ground, a divided Kansas Corporation Commission on Tuesday expanded restrictions on underground injection of oilfield wastewater linked to the spate of earthquakes over the past four years. The new rules put stricter limits on the volume of wastewater that can be dumped down disposal wells around the most seismically sensitive areas of Harper and Sumner counties. Tuesday’s order also expands the area where underground disposal is restricted. Reduced injection rates are being credited with a reduction in the magnitude and frequency of human-perceptible quakes on the Kansas side of the Oklahoma border. Most of the quakes now being felt in the Wichita area are originating in Oklahoma.
Iowa-The Most Impressive State for Clean Energy
Slate | Posted on September 5, 2016In the highly public race among states trying to get the most electricity from clean and renewable sources, it’s not surprising who’s making the most noise. Hawaii—environmentally sensitive islands without access to fossil fuels—has been the most aggressive,passing a law last year that will require its utilities to get 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045. Liberal coastal bastions led by charismatic governors aren’t far behind. In 2015 California passed a law requiring 50 percent renewables by 2030. And New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pushed hard for green initiatives, said last month that it would aim to get to 50 percent by 2030. These goals, while laudable, are distant. Meanwhile, as is often the case, the most impressive work is happening more quietly in the middle of the country, by state bureaucrats and softer-spoken utility executives. One of the states that’s had the most success getting the most electricity from renewable sources is neither an island nor a coastal liberal bastion. It’s Iowa. Iowa has been one of the epicenters of America’s long-running wind boom. In 2008, about 4 percent of Iowa’s electricity generation came from wind. But so many wind farms have been built in the state that in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “wind provided 31.3% of Iowa’s total electricity generation in 2015, a larger share than any other state.
Enbridge Energy Partners Shelves Sandpiper Pipeline Project
Wall Street Journal | Posted on September 5, 2016Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge Inc.’s Enbridge Energy Partners LP is calling off for now plans for a 616-mile pipeline that was intended to carry crude oil from North Dakota to Wisconsin, citing the recent drop in oil prices. Houston-based Enbridge Energy Partners said it had determined it doesn’t need the additional pipeline capacity and, therefore, was putting the $2.6 billion Sandpiper project on hold until oil production in North Dakota “recovers sufficiently to support development of new pipeline capacity,” which, it said, won’t happen within its current five-year plan based on current projections.
St1 preparing to deliver first Cellunolix® ethanol plant using forest industry residues
Biofuels Digest | Posted on September 1, 2016In Finland, St1 is preparing to deliver the first Cellunolix® ethanol plant using forest industry residues as feedstock to North European Bio Tech. The project is under construction in Kajaani and is expected to come online before the end of 2016. Recently a letter of intent was signed for a similar facility in in Follum, Norway. In its H1 2016 financial reporting, the company said net sales were up by a half million euros over the same period in 2015.