Welcome back.
Massachusetts’ two US Senators are sticking with opponents of the Weymouth compressor station. This week they sent a letter to FERC chairman Chatterjee requesting a new assessment the certificate of public convenience and necessity. Their argument is simple – nearly all of the potential customers that the compressor would serve have dropped out. Remaining ones have stated publicly that the compressor is unnecessary.
On climate, a new UN report details the dangers of completing all the fossil fuel production projects currently underway. We include links to the article and the actual report. The alternative to producing all that fossil fuel is to drive hard on clean energy, clean transportation, and energy storage.
There’s been interesting news in what we call the regional energy chess game. In particular, ISO-New England is the subject of a couple articles critical of how they manage capacity, and pointing out that they could do a better job incentivizing the transition to renewable energy.
We found reports of protests against a huge natural gas power plant under construction in New York’s Hudson Valley. The article illuminates what a difference just a few years has made in our thinking about natural gas as a “bridge” fuel versus identifying it as a dangerous and toxic obstruction to our clean energy future. More broadly in the fossil fuel industry, we see the Bureau of Land Management having second thoughts about the legality of recent oil and gas leases on federal lands. And a play by the coal industry to promote its product as a source of rare earth elements.
— The NFGiM Team
WEYMOUTH COMPRESSOR STATION
U.S. senators call for 11th-hour review of compressor station proposal
By Jessica Trufant, The Patriot Ledger
November 20, 2019
WEYMOUTH — Massachusetts’ two U.S. senators are pushing federal energy regulators to hold off on issuing their final approval for a 7,700-horsepower natural gas compressor station and reconsider whether the project is necessary.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey sent a letter to Neil Chatterjee, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, on Wednesday asking that the commission reject a request from gas company Enbridge to start construction of the compressor station, and instead reopen its decision to issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the project.
In its [2017] decision, the commission said the project is justified because five local distribution companies, two manufacturing companies and a municipal utility have contracted for the gas that would come from the Atlantic Bridge project.
But two companies that had signed on to ship natural gas made available through the Atlantic Bridge project have withdrawn and assigned their rights to the gas to National Grid, which has stated it does not need the compressor station to deliver the gas. Several other project shippers have said the compressor station is not necessary for their use of the increased capacity.
“There is to be a high bar for public convenience and necessity when the proposed facility will also be posing a serious risk of inconvenience and harm to the surrounding public,” the letter from Warren and Markey reads. “Based on this new information illustrating the lack of need for the Weymouth compressor station, FERC should reject the request for a Notice to Proceed and reexamine its issuance of the certificate of public convenience and necessity.”
» Read article
» More on Weymouth compressor station
CLIMATE
Here’s What Will Happen to Climate if Every Planned Fossil Fuel Project Goes Ahead
By Carly Cassella, ScienceAlert.com
November 21, 2019
As the world races to mitigate a climate crisis, too many nations are having their cake and eating it too. If nothing is done to curb the global extraction of fossil fuels, commitments to the Paris agreement and other national goals will mean very little.
In just ten years, the United Nations estimates the world will produce 50 percent more oil, gas and coal than is necessary to keep temperatures below 2°C, and there will be 120 percent more fossil fuel production than we can have if we want to limit warming to 1.5°C.
“Indeed, though many governments plan to decrease their emissions, they are signalling the opposite when it comes to fossil fuel production, with plans and projections for expansion,” reads a recent report from the UN Environmental Program (UNEP).
» Read article
» Read UNEP Production Gap 2019 Report
» More on climate
CLEAN ENERGY ALTERNATIVES
Road to 100: How one man’s mission to power his hometown by wind created a Northwest Missouri boon
By Catherine Morehouse, Utility Dive
November 21, 2019
Chamberlain has helped bring a number of projects to wind-heavy northwestern Missouri, generating $6 million annually in tax benefits for Atchison County, adding dozens of jobs and giving landowners predictable annual lease payments at a time when heightened floods and storms can devastate an agricultural community.
Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh made fun of the town in a July 2008 episode, after the city had made headlines. But Chamberlain said Limbaugh’s key punchline was something the city never claimed.
“Rock Port has the capacity to produce more energy in a year than they use. Does it happen on a daily basis? Absolutely not. Does it happen on a weekly or monthly basis? No,” he said.
When the wind doesn’t blow, the local co-op that manages Rock Port and other Missouri cities’ electricity demand and production pulls power from traditional sources. In Missouri, that could easily be coal, which makes up the majority of the state’s power.
“But it doesn’t negate the fact that a very, very significant majority of our power comes from renewable resources and any of that renewable that we don’t use, we’re providing to somewhere else,” said Chamberlain. “So that was the point that Mr. Limbaugh did not understand. And he didn’t ever call and ask me. He just thought that we were so stupid that when the wind wasn’t blowing, we couldn’t watch TV.”
» Read article
Can America’s First Floating Wind Farm Help Open Deeper Water to Clean Energy?
The floating turbines off Maine’s coast could be operational by 2022. The technology could be a model for other states with deep waters, and deep local opposition.
By Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News
November 20, 2019
The state with perhaps the greatest untapped potential for harnessing its ocean breezes for electricity could soon have turbines spinning off its coast after years of political resistance.
It’s a small project—up to two offshore wind turbines serving as many as 9,000 homes—but it would blaze a new trail: If all goes as planned, in 2022, Aqua Ventus will become the first floating offshore wind farm in the nation.
» Read article
New money: Green banks and green bonds are bringing billions to utilities for the energy transition
The financial mechanisms are bringing investors to renewables and distributed energy as utilities, co-ops and munis move away from uneconomic legacy assets.
By Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive
November 19, 2019
Hundreds of billions of dollars in untapped new money can finance the U.S. power system’s transition away from legacy fossil assets to renewables and distributed generation.
Utilities like Duke Energy and Xcel Energy have issued billions in green bonds to fund renewables development. Green banks in New York, Connecticut and other states are backing investments in distributed resources and energy efficiency. It appears much more institutional money wants in on the green opportunity.
» Read article
» More on clean energy
CLEAN TRANSPORTATION
California to Stop Buying From Automakers That Backed Trump on Emissions
By Coral Davenport, New York Times
November 18, 2019
California’s government has hit back at automakers that sided with President Trump over the state on fuel efficiency standards, saying Sacramento will halt all purchases of new vehicles from General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and other automakers that backed stripping California of its authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.
The ban, which the California governor, Gavin Newsom, plans to implement in January 2020, is the latest shot in the intensifying battle over climate change between Mr. Trump and the state, which he appears to relish antagonizing.
“Carmakers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the losing end of California’s buying power,” Governor Newsom said in a statement on Monday.
» Read article
» More on clean transportation
ENERGY STORAGE
Can concentrated solar power act as energy storage? DOE wants to know more
By Matthew Bandyk, Utility Dive
November 19, 2019
The DOE wants information from industry, academia, laboratories and other stakeholders on “accelerating the commercialization of [supercritical carbon dioxide] power cycles that are appropriate for near-term integration with [CSP]” with a focus on “near-term commercial deployment,” according to a notice published in the Nov. 19 Federal Register.
CSP, in which a field of mirrors concentrate the sun’s rays onto a central point like a “power tower” to generate tremendous amounts of heat, can be paired with insulated tanks that absorb the thermal energy. Like a battery, that energy can be deployed at a later time, including at night when there is no PV solar energy.
» Blog editor’s note: CSP kills birds – incinerating them if they fly into the concentrated energy near boiler towers. They are often in pursuit of insects that have been drawn toward the towers’ bright light. This is an example of complex environmental costs associated with any energy source.
» Read article
In search for cheaper, longer energy storage, mountain gravity could eventually top lithium-ion
By Matthew Bandyk, Utility Dive
November 12, 2019
Mountain gravity energy storage could be a viable way to store electricity for longer durations and at larger scales than lithium-ion battery storage can, according to a study recently published in the academic journal Energy.
The researchers propose that a motorized system similar to a ski lift could pull containers full of sand to a crane at the top of a mountain. The sand can then be sent back down the mountain propelled only by the force of gravity, generating electricity in the process.
The basic concept is similar to a gravity storage technology proposed by the Swiss company Energy Vault, which recently received a greater than $100 million equity investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund. That technology generates electricity through gravity by lowering concrete blocks in a tower.
Lithium-ion battery storage is the fastest-growing storage type and utilities across the U.S. have procured battery storage as a way to back up intermittent renewable energy. But the length of time that they can deploy energy — typically four hours or shorter for — may not be long enough for the greater and greater amounts of solar and wind resources needed to come online to meet emissions reductions goals.
» Read article
» Read the study
» More on energy storage
REGIONAL ENERGY CHESS GAME
PJM, NYISO and ISO-NE pay $1.4B annually for excess capacity: Report
By Iulia Gheorghiu, Utility Dive
November 22, 2019
PJM Interconnection, New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) and ISO-New England (ISO-NE) retain more control over resource adequacy than the states in their service areas, leading to higher reserve margins and higher capacity market prices, which favor incumbent assets, according to a paper published by Grid Strategies on Thursday.
The report, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Sustainable FERC Project, estimated approximately $1.4 billion per year in total is wasted by the Northeast regional transmission operators and independent system operators by securing a combined 34.7 GW of excess capacity.
» Read article
» Read Grid Strategies report
Sanders, Warren join fellow senators in urging New England to speed clean energy transition
Robert Walton, Utility Dive
November 20, 2019
The group of lawmakers pointed to recent market rule changes and specifically noted the ISO’s Competitive Auctions with Sponsored Policy Resources (CASPR), a program designed to prevent state subsidized resources from depressing capacity prices.
The officials, including Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., say the CASPR program forces state-sponsored renewable energy to “wait for incumbent fossil fuel generators to retire before these clean resources can enter the capacity market.”
They were also critical of the ISO’s Inventoried Energy Program, which they say will force consumers to pay millions of dollars to existing power plants with on-site fuel supplies, such as oil, coal or liquefied natural gas. Greentech Media reports the program could mean New England consumers spend $150 million more per year on energy.
» Read article
» Read letter
» More about regional energy
POWER PLANTS
Citing Latest Climate Science, Nearly 30 Arrested Protesting New Natural Gas Plant in New York’s Hudson Valley
By Justin Nobel, DeSmog Blog
November 19, 2019
On Saturday, November 16, 29 people were arrested in a rally at a massive natural gas-fired power plant, the Cricket Valley Energy Center, that is being constructed in a picturesque rural valley of farms and forests near the New York-Connecticut border, about 80 miles north of New York City.
“This is my first arrestable action, I am definitely excited,” said 18-year-old Lucinda Carroll, who wore thick mittens and numerous layers to brace against the sub-freezing cold and was one of 10 people chained to a neon green and yellow tractor.
“With each new report that comes out, and each new article that comes out I get angrier and angrier,” said Carroll, a student at nearby Vassar College. “I’ve spent plenty of time going to marches and rallies, I think at some point you have to take a leap of faith.”
» Read article
» More about power plants
FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY NEWS
U.S. Suspends More Oil and Gas Leases Over What Could Be a Widespread Problem
Fossil Fuel leases totaling hundreds of thousands of acres have been suspended as courts rule against the BLM for ignoring climate impact.
By Nicholas Kusnetz, Inside Climate News
November 17, 2019
The Trump administration’s relentless push to expand fossil fuel production on federal lands is hitting a new snag: its own refusal to consider the climate impacts of development.
The federal Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office in September voluntarily suspended 130 oil and gas leases after advocacy groups sued, arguing that BLM hadn’t adequately assessed the greenhouse gas emissions associated with drilling and extraction on those leases as required by law.
The move was unusual because BLM suspended the leases on its own, without waiting for a court to rule.
Some environmental advocates say it could indicate a larger problem for the bureau.
» Read article
Creating a New Market for Coal in the Push to Mine ‘Critical Minerals’ for National Security
By Laura Peterson, DeSmog Blog
November 15, 2019
With the backing of the mining industry and anti-regulatory groups, the Trump administration has been seeking to expand mining on public lands and further loosen environmental rules under the banner of weaning the United States off importing minerals deemed “critical” to national security.
This move may have particular implications for the struggling U.S. coal industry and its promoters, which have begun rallying behind efforts to extract some of these so-called “critical minerals” from coal and its by-products.
In 2017, President Trump issued an executive order demanding “recommendations to streamline permitting and review processes” for “critical minerals.” The current government list of critical minerals includes a group of rare earth elements often abundant in the waste materials from mining coal and hardrock minerals like phosphate, as well as in the coal ash produced from burning coal. But while the technology to pull these elements from such mining waste is not yet economically viable and can generate its own toxic pollutants, some see the push for it as a guise for justifying further mining.
“You’ll never make money at it,” said Kevin Ashley, a retired mining engineer and former energy policy advisor. “It’s an academic exercise that allows some people to say, ‘This is why we need to continue mining coal; so we can produce more coal ash.’”
» Read article
» More on fossil fuels
» Learn more about Pipeline projects
» Learn more about other proposed energy infrastructure
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No Fracked Gas in Mass 