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Teru Talk News

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

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Recommended Reading:

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Waste to energy conversion technology (Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy 2013)

 
 

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Teru Talk is an online publication of JDMT, Inc with the goal of opening the dialogue and providing current news and commentary on issues and successes associated with waste conversion to renewable energy, biofuels and other bio-based products for resource recovery.

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The Teru Talk Newsletter is published weekly or more or less frequently, primarily depending on what is going on in the world of waste conversion or ours.