Climate Roundup: Private Utilities Tout Renewable Gas Opportunities

As the California Air Resources Board begins to develop a concrete plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent from their 1990 level by 2030, three major utilities are pitching the promise of renewable natural gas, as well as power to gas, technologies.

The utilities outlined the potential of the technologies in comments to the Air Board last month in response to the agency’s request for ideas on how to meet the ambitious 40 percent reduction goal.

San Diego Gas & Electric and SoCal Gas State Regulatory Affairs Manager Tamara Rasberry cited two developments that point to a potentially rosy future for gas utilities in a decarbonized world.

First, she noted that a new heavy-duty natural gas powered engine developed by Cummins Corp. could be used in trucks to move them toward the zero emissions level for smog-forming pollutants, particularly nitrogen oxides. If new trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles that use the engines were fueled with renewable natural gas— for instance, methane from dairies or landfills—they could also achieve near zero carbon emissions.

But in a high tech twist, she pointed to three solar-powered power-to-gas pilot projects SoCal Gas is developing. The projects involve using power from solar panels to run electrolyzers, which create hydrogen gas from water. At one of the projects, according to Rasberry, the hydrogen is to be fed into a bioreactor that will turn it into methane that either could be used to fuel up natural gas vehicles or injected into the natural gas pipeline system for general use by the utility’s customers.

The hydrogen produced also could be stored and fed into fuel cells when the sun isn’t shining to make electricity, essentially making the technology serve as an energy storage method.

Pacific Gas & Electric in comments to the Air Board played up the role of its natural gas operation.

Renewable natural gas “certainly has the potential to serve as a pathway for California to achieve its climate goals,” wrote Claire Halbrook, PG&E state agency relations climate policy principal. She noted, however, that when it comes to power to gas “a number of issues related to cost effectiveness, technology, operation, and financing still need to be addressed on a significant scale.”

She pointed out that cost-effectiveness continues to be an issue with using methane from landfills, dairies, and other biomass sources. She urged the Air Board to begin using some of the proceeds of its carbon cap-and-trade program to fund research and development and demonstration projects to help realize the promise of both the technologies. * * * * *

Goldman Sachs committed Nov. 2 to investing $150 billion in solar and wind energy, and also building energy efficiency by 2025.

That far exceeds its 2012 clean energy investment target of $40 billion.

“We are leveraging the talents of our people and the breadth of our businesses to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon future and promote sustainable economic growth,” said Kyung-Ah Park, head of Goldman Sachs Environmental Markets.

The Rainforest Action Network, which has campaigned to pressure Goldman Sachs and other banks to divest from fossil fuels, had mixed reactions.

“It is encouraging that the new Environmental Policy Framework from Goldman Sachs acknowledges the bank’s responsibility to address climate change,” said Ben Collins, Rainforest Action Network senior research campaigner. However, he criticized the firm for continuing to finance new coal mines and fossil-fired power plants. “With the Paris climate summit just weeks away, it’s past time for the bank to end its financing for coal, period.”

Earlier, divestment pressure by the Rainforest Action Network led Citigroup and Bank of America to announce they were working to reduce their global credit exposure by limiting financing and investments in the coal industry. * * * * *

A strong majority of African Americans support action on climate change, including the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, according to a national poll released Nov. 4.

The poll, sponsored by Green for All and the Natural Resources Defense Council, found that 83 percent of African Americans back the Clean Power Plan’s standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power industry 30 percent by 2030.

In addition, 67 percent of the African Americans surveyed said that action should be taken to reduce the threat of global warming. Two-thirds said that more renewable energy will create new jobs and 57 percent said it could lower energy bills. —Elizabeth McCarthy & William J. Kelly