Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
40, October 7,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
There's
an old saw common to
Politics and Media: You
know you are doing your job
when you irritate as many
people as you please.
Judging by recent
reactions, BOY, are we
doing our job! The Teru
Talk mantra is to "Incite
Dialogue about all matters
related to Waste Conversion
for Resource Recovery."
Some of our dear readers
really got all "Incited"
about last week's
admittedly rather brutal
Trash Talk. Hurray - It's
Working!
OK, quit
snickering: this is
serious. Good people spend
an inordinate amount of
time, energy, and $$$
developing legislative bill
language, trying hard to
say precisely what they
want to happen. Therein
rests the problem, with the
difference between
Precision and Accuracy. You
can work real hard and hit
your forehead on Precisely
the same place on that
door-sill every time, but
you won't make it through
that door if your aim is
not Accurate.
So goes
the sordid story of
California Waste Conversion
Legislation. We are trying
to construct a New World
wherein clean technology of
all sorts can be utilized
to convert crud to goods,
but that New World is
repeatedly being layered on
top of unstable legal
ground. This dates back to
2002, when California was
in a distracted frenzy to
get the Renewables Energy
Portfolio (RPS) into law.
Eight days after the RPS
language of Senate Bill
(SB) 1078 and its
implementing arm SB 1038
were brought before the
legislative body, another
bill was quietly pushed
through the legislature:
Assembly Bill 2770, the
so-called Solid Waste:
Conversion Technology
bill.
Talk
about Bad Legislative
Sausage! This was a
carefully constructed suite
of scientifically
inaccurate, illogical, and
down-right unfair criteria,
and any new attempt to help
along waste conversion that
does not first eliminate
the prior damage simply
obfuscates the problem. In
my humble opinion, LA
County-sponsored Senate
Bill 804 fell into that
particular trap.
Take a
few minutes to read Carlos
Ruiz' rebuttal to
our Trash Talk in
support of Senate Bill
804 that Los Angeles
County sponsored. On its
own, the bill seems as
sound as any of
California's curiously
imprecise legislation.
Then to ensure a real
headache without that
door-sill exercise, read
my Legislative
Analysis comparing
SB 1078, SB 1038, and AB
2770.
By the
way, we muffed it last week
reporting that SB 1126 had
yet to be signed; SB 1126
was presented to the
Governor on the 20th and
signed the following
weekend, but the Gov's log
of signed bills wasn't
updated until the following
Monday morning (too late
for us). SB 804 was
enrolled and presented to
Governor Brown at 2:00 pm
on September 23th. By all
we can see, the Gov has yet
to decide, thumbs up or
thumbs down. In truth, the
two were competing bills,
each approaching the topic
of clean waste conversion
from different
perspectives, and lots of
folks lined up behind one
or the other. Taken with a
good dose of background,
however, I still believe
that the precise language
of Assembly Bill 1126 and
Senate Bill 804 both miss
the proverbial
door.
Hey
Rube!
Thing is, it is real hard to
tell if our dear readers read
our rag for Entertainment, for
Business or both. We appreciate
the feedback, friendly or not,
so if you too have an opinion,
SAY
SO.
The
Week's Extra Reading
AB 1126
referenced in last week's Trash
Talk was signed on Saturday,
Sep 28th, the day before our
newsletter was written. We were
wrong. We said it wasn't
signed. Not only that, we have
been
taken to
task
by
Los Angeles County's
Carlos Ruiz for our Trash
Talk on the
bill.
This Week's Top Story
RES Polyflow
Concludes Successful Demo of
Waste Plastic-To-Oil
Conversion
Ohio based RES Polyflow has
announced that the
demonstration of the company’s
patented energy recovery
technology has successfully
concluded with results that
meet or exceed expectations.
10/04/2013
The
Week's News
NOTE:
If you are using IE10 and our
website isn't loading as
smoothly as you would like or
the page jumps when you click
on a link to go to a certain
news item, just change to
"compatibility view" and all
will be
fine.
Lockheed
Martin, Concord Blue Agree
to Advance Waste Conversion
Globally
Maryland based Lockheed Martin
and California based Concord
Blue USA, Inc, have reached an
agreement to offer an advanced
waste conversion system to
address waste disposal, energy
security, and climate control
issues.
10/04/2013
BlueFire
Renewables Expands Fulton
Facility for New Revenue
Stream
California based BlueFire
Renewables has announced plans
to integrate a wood pellet
production plant into its
proposed waste to ethanol
facility in Fulton,
Mississippi.
10/03/2013
Ormat 5MW
Recovered Energy Plant to
Power eBay's Utah Data
Center
Nevada based Ormat
Technologies, Inc through its
wholly owned subsidiary has
entered into an agreement with
eBay Inc for development of a
five-megawatt (MW) Recovered
Energy Generation (REG) power
plant at eBay’s new Salt Lake
City, Utah based data center.
10/03/2013
UK Green
Investment Bank Invests £11m
in Welsh Bioenergy Plant
Upgrades
The United Kingdom's (UK) Green
Investment Bank (GIB) has
announced a £11m investment by
its fund, managed by
Greensphere Capital LLP
(Greensphere), to purchase and
upgrade an operational biomass
plant in Port Talbot, Wales.
10/03/2013
CIFAR
Conference on Managing
Energy, Water, Waste in Food
Processing
The California Institute of
Food and Agricultural Research
(CIFAR) will be holding a
conference on October 10, 2013
at the University of
California, Davis (UC Davis)
campus that will address
"Managing Energy, Water and
By-products for Profitability
in Food and Beverage
Processing."
10/02/2013
SARTA
Schedules Sacramento
CleanStart/AgStart Showcases
for Oct
16th
The Sacramento Regional
Technology Alliance (SARTA) is
presenting the 7th annual
CleanStart Showcase on
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 at
the McClellan Conference Center
to focus on the Sacramento,
California region clean tech
sector.
09/30/2013
Europlasma
Completes Conciliation and
Resumes Trading with New
Funding
French company Europlasma has
announced that its five month
conciliation procedure was
ratified by the court on
September 9, 2013, and public
trading resumed today.
09/30/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
11/01/2013: Comments to AB
32 Scoping Plan Discussion
Draft
The California Air Resources
Board (CARB) has scheduled a
public workshop on October 15,
2013 at 1:00 pm for the the
2013 Updated AB 32 Scoping Plan
(Discussion Draft).
10/05/2013
Due
10/25/2013: Comments to ACR
on Methodology for Biochar
Projects
The American Carbon Registry
(ACR), a non-profit enterprise
of Winrock International, is
requesting comments from its
members, project proponents,
and other interested parties on
a new Methodology for
Biochar Projects.
10/05/2013
Due
10/25/2013: Comments to CEC
Draft Guidelines for School
Energy
Projects
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) is hosting a
series of public meetings to
present draft guidelines and is
seeking comments about the
Draft California Clean Energy
Jobs Act Program.
10/04/2013
|
