Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
31, July 30,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Cap & Trade will kill
our Business! Cap &
Trade will save our
Business! People are all
over the map on
California's proposed Cap
& Trade program. What
IS this thing, of which we
speak? Well, it was set up
to clear the air, not to
save the economy, very
"Californian" if you ask
me. This law sets limits on
greenhouse gas emissions
from big Industry sources,
establishing a Cap on those
emissions beyond which it's
gonna cost Big Time. But as
usual, if you've got enough
money … you can Trade
(read: Buy) credits so you
can go right on spewing
forth toxic emissions. The
whole game relies on a
swarm of data on emissions
required to be submitted
annually to the state from
major sources, and the Unit
of Measure is One Ton of
Carbon Dioxide. You see, in
the Old Days, Gold was the
standard, something you
paid to hoard. Now, Carbon
is the key, and the Global
Economy is shifting so we
pay to get rid of it.
Pretty nifty new monetary
system,
eh?
And as usual, California
wants to be the first horse
out of the national gate to
trade Carbon Credits. The
Cap & Trade program
appears to have been
enacted to set the bar for
global Climate Control or
at least regional, rather
than as anything the state
may want or need. But wait:
what happens if you are NOT
a coal plant, or a
diesel-burner? Below that
established Cap, within
whatever emissions
"allowances" you've been
graced, you can count
carbon you don't
emit, and you can
sell them. Those are
the Credits! If you are a
renewable electricity
generation station, you get
WAY more credits. OK: I get
it - Same song, different
verse: fossil energy bad,
renewable energy
good.
But remember, this Carbon
Trading thing is happening
globally, so shame on you
if you just go someplace
else to spew. That's where
this thing called "Leakage"
comes into play that
everyone will be learning
more about at today's Air
Board workshop. I think the
basic idea is pretty cool,
but then it IS a California
regulation, and therefore
quite subject to Overkill.
The concept of greenhouse
gas emissions Leakage goes
like this: you don't get
Brownie Points for avoiding
emissions in California by
simply relying on others to
do the things that spit out
the Carbon, outside
of the state.
See?
Hey! I bet this same
Emissions Leakage concept
could be applied to
shipping the stuff
segregated from the waste
stream to Mexico and China
to get it processed as the
last step in Recycling! Is
it really possible that a
California regulation is
intentionally set up to
favor in-state
business over long-distance
commerce? How unlike the
Golden
State.
Hey
Rube!
Once again,
the California state agency
programs are trying to run over
each other, protecting us from
ourselves. The Public Utilities
Commission and the Energy
Commission, CalRecycle and the
Air Board all have a piece of
this AB 32 instigated Climate
Change thing, and they aren't
necessarily keeping a good eye
on whether or how the jumbled
regulatory actions fit
together. The Renewable
Portfolio Standard's guidelines
are being revised, CalRecycle's
got Mandatory Commercial
Recycling to implement, and the
Air Board is concocting both
the Low Carbon Fuel Standard
AND this Cap & Trade
program. No wonder we Public
Citizens don't really
understand … but then, we only
have to try to make a
living.
The
Week's News
SoCal Waste
Management Forum Annual
Conference & Exhibit,
Nov 7,
2012
The Southern California Waste
Management Forum (SCWMF or "The
Forum") will hold its Annual
Conference & Exhibit on
Wednesday, November 7, 2012, at
the Sheraton Fairplex Hotel and
Conference Center in Pomona,
California.
07/29/2012
Inerjys
Partners with Hydro-Québec’s
Research Institute
IREQ
The Montreal,
Canada based clean tech
growth-equity fund Inerjys has
announced a strategic
partnership with the regional
Canadian utility Hydro-Québec’s
research institute, IREQ.
07/28/2012
Ontario's
Atikokan Generating Station
Converts from Coal to
Biomass
The Ontario,
Canada government has announced
an agreement to convert the
coal-fired Atikokan Generating
Station to a 200 megawatt
biomass fueled power generation
facility. 07/28/2012
JBI Receives
NYSDEC Approval to Double
Plastic2Oil Processing
Rate
Canadian-based
JBI, Inc. has announced that
the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation
(NYSDEC) has approved a
modification to the company's
Solid Waste Management Permit
for operating its Plastic2Oil®,
or "P2O" technology.
07/28/2012
KiOR's
Blendstock 5 Receives EPA
Renewable Gasoline Part 79
Registration
Texas based
biofuel company KiOR has
announced that the US
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has approved federal
registration of the company's
Blendstock 5 Renewable Gasoline
product under Title 40 of the
Code of Federal regulations,
Part 79 (40 CFR Part 79).
07/27/2012
7th Annual
California Bioresources
Alliance Symposium, Sept
11-12,
2012
Co-sponsors
University of California (UC)
Davis Extension and the US
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) have jointly announced
that on-line registration has
opened for the California
Bioresources Alliance (CBA)
Symposium. This year's timely
topic is "Renewable Energy from
Organic Residuals."
07/27/2012
US DOE
Webinars Scheduled on
Biomass and Biofuels
Development
The US
Department of Energy (DOE) has
announced a series of free
webinars, two of which address
biomass and biofuels
development.
07/26/2012
Idaho
National Lab Orders Two
Algae Harvester Systems from
OriginOil
Los Angeles
Based OriginOil has announced
receipt of two purchase orders
from the US Department of
Energy's (DOE) Idaho National
Laboratories (INL).
07/26/2012
300kW Liquid
Waste to MagneGas Refinery
To Be Installed in
Mexico
Florida based
MagneGas has announced that
Clear Sky Energy S.A. de C.V.
(CES) has agreed to purchase a
300 kilowatt (kW) liquid waste
to fuel gas refinery system for
installation in its facilities
in Monterrey, Mexico at a cost
of $2.7 million.
07/26/2012
Viridor
Signs Contract for Glasgow
Recycling and Renewable
Energy
Centre
The United
Kingdom's waste management
giant Viridor announced signing
a 25 year residual waste
contract with the city council
of Glasgow, Scotland.
07/26/2012
SynGest and
MATHESON Partner for
BioAmmonia and BioUrea
Plants
MATHESON and
SynGest Inc have announced that
the two companies intend to
enter into a strategic
agreement in which MATHESON
will exclusively supply 100% of
the oxygen and nitrogen for
SynGest’s worldwide BioAmmonia
and BioUrea projects.
07/25/2012
BioAmber &
Evonik Partner for
Sustainable Chemicals from
Bio-Succinic
Acid
Minnesota
based bio-sourced chemical
company BioAmber, Inc has
announced a long-term
partnership with the German
firm Evonik Industries for the
cooperative development and
manufacture of catalysts.
07/25/2012
Nexterra
Biomass Gasification Plant
at ORNL Starts Full
Commercial
Operation
Canadian
gasification firm Nexterra has
announced that its biomass
gasification system at the
Department of Energy's (DOE)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) has been tested and
declared ready for full
commercial operation.
07/25/2012
DataONE
Launches Database Portal for
Earth Science Data
Exploration
Data
Observation for Network Earth
(DataONE), has announced the
launch of its database portal
with release of the inaugural
environmental data search
engine interface ONEMercury.
ONEMercury is a data query
technology "capable of
providing researchers access to
globally distributed networked
data from a single point of
discovery."
07/24/2012
City of Palo
Alto Seeks Interest in
Proposed Organic Waste
Conversion
Facility
The City of
Palo Alto, California (City)
has released a survey
requesting information from
waste conversion companies for
development of an Energy /
Compost facility to utilize
food waste, green waste and /
or biosolids.
07/24/2012
ARB
Schedules Cap-and-Trade
Technical Workshop on
Emissions
Leakage
The California
Air Resources Board (ARB) has
released Notice of a technical
workshop scheduled for July 30,
2012 to address emissions
leakage research and a proposal
to monitor for emissions
leakage related to the
Cap-and-Trade Program.
07/24/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
08/15/2012: Proposals to
WAPA for REC Sale and
Transfer
The Western
Area Power Administration
(WAPA) has released a Request
for Proposals (RFP) seeking to
purchase renewable energy
credits (REC), on behalf of a
number of federal agencies.
07/28/2012
Due
08/17/2012: Comments to CEC
on Electric Program
Investment
Charge
The California
Energy Commission (CEC) has
posted notices of two two-day
staff workshops to seek input
from experts, stakeholders, and
the general public on the first
triennial investment plan for
the Electric Program Investment
Charge (Docket #12-EPIC-01).
07/25/2012
|
