Topics: natural gas, EPA, Carbon Emissions, clean air act, power plant emissions, coal, obama
In November the EPA announed it would not be able to finalize on the RFS volumes for biofuels until 2015. The 2014 and 2015 volumes will be set soon,, in theory. But there has been a lot of stress out there in the industry over the fact that the delay will essentially mean refiners and producers need to be retroactively compliant with the volumes the EPA sets.
The biofuels industry is pushing for an increase in biofuel requirements, to 18.15 billion gallons. This is probably not happening, but the uncertainty overall has had a serious impact on bio producers, many of whom have scaled operations way back over 2014 as compared to 2013.
Topics: Biodiesel, EPA Mandate, EPA, RFS
How will the 2014 Midterm Election results cause a shift in the Energy Agenda?
Topics: US Crude Exports, EPA, Keystone XL, Carbon Emissions, Election Results
We talked before about the White House's proposed new regulations on Methane emissions, which came on the heels of the Administration supporting increased natural gas exports in response to the Russia/Ukraine debacle. Well the EPA whitepapers have come out now outlining proposed changes on each of the industries involved - you can check those out here: EPA Methane Whitepapers
The Admin proposed changes cite the Agricultural sector as the largest methane producer, followed by Nat Gas. The difference however, is changes proposed for Agriculture are "voluntary" versus regulatory changes for the Nat Gas sector. As usual, environmental groups cheered and said too little too late, while the industry said given it's in their financial best interest to control leakage (their main source of environmental methane), new regulations are an uneccessary burden.
As we said before, it's hard not to infer from the timing that increasing regulations on methane is at least in part due to environmental and consumer backlash on exports over environmental and supply/pricing concerns. However, given that exporting should increase revenue greatly for the industry it's a pretty savvy time to introduce regulations that may be costly.
On the consumer side, news has been breaking recently on the number of gas leaks in communities. In the wake of several explosions, there has been some digging into just how big a problem neighborhood leaks may be, and the news is not good. Some estimates (including a Boston University Study) peg the number of neighborhood leaks in the City of Boston alone at over 3400, and over 20,000 statewide. (You can read the Boston Globe article on the BU Study here: "Boston Riddled with Mostly Small Natural Gas Leaks" )
The issue with these leaks goes beyond the obvious safety and environmental concerns as well. Gas that escapes en route to the consumer is paid for by the consumer. Its estimated that Massachusetts ratepayers are paying an average of $39 million dollars a year for leaked gas ($640 million-1.5 Billion from 2000-2011 according to a study by Senator Ed Markey's Office)
Topics: natural gas, EPA, methane, gas leaks
Grassy Hillsides plowed into crop rows. Millions of acres of conservation land converted to corn fields. Fertilizer runoff polluting lakes and streams. All to produce a "green" fuel source.... Or that's the picture painted by an AP article slash expose anyway.
Topics: E85, Ethanol, EPA Mandate, RINs, Biofuels, EPA, Blend Wall, RFS
The EPA has announced it will release the final rule on the Tier 3 gasoline standard by February of this coming year, after revising the timeline due to the volume of responses received. The standard is set to be in effect by 2017, with the stated purpose of reducing harmful vehicle emissions and pollution generated by cars and light duty trucks by dropping the sulfur content of gasoline from its present 30 parts per million down to 10 parts per million. (If you recall, Tier 2 dropped gasolines sulfur content from 300 PPM to the current 30PPM)
Topics: EPA Mandate, Refinery Closures, EPA, Tier 3 Gasoline Standard, Gasoline Supply Crunch
Interesting timing - yesterday I linked to my article in Oil & Energy Magazine giving an overview of the state of the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry and the EPA's mandate that 2012 production hits 8.65 million gallons per the 2011 Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). I mentioned that critics argued that commercial production of Cellulosic remains at low enough levels that many argue they cannot possibly hit the target set by the EPA, despite steps forward that have been made in production.
Topics: Biofuels, Cellulosic Ethanol, EPA, API