President Obama Touts Clean Energy on Earth Day
On Earth Day, President Obama marked the occasion by delivering an in-depth speech on clean energy jobs and technologies and the response to climate change. The speech focused primarily on renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the president noted the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on the growth of those technologies in the U.S. Obama announced the publication of a rule for leasing areas on the Outer Continental Shelf for offshore wind power facilities (see the separate article below). He delivered the speech at Trinity Structural Towers, a company that manufactures steel towers for wind turbines. The company’s manufacturing plant in Newton, Iowa, revitalized a former Maytag plant and created new "green jobs" in Newton, serving as a symbol of what the president called "a new era of energy exploration in America."
"Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy," he said. "The choice we face is between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc across the landscape, or we can create jobs working to prevent its worst effects. We can hand over the jobs of the 21st century to our competitors, or we can confront what countries in Europe and Asia have already recognized as both a challenge and an opportunity: The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy." See the full text of the speech on the White House Web site.
Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis commemorated Earth Day by preparing an op-ed article on green jobs and energy independence, which was published in six major newspapers. Referring to renewable energy as "the growth industry of the 21st century," the article emphasized that "rather than sending billions overseas to pay for these new and developing energy technologies, President Obama believes we should invest those dollars here in American jobs and innovation." It also noted that a clean energy economy could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and begin to make the U.S. truly energy independent, concluding that "that’s not just an economic and environmental imperative, it’s also a national security imperative." See the op-ed article on the White House Web site.
DOE Offers $300 Million in Recovery Act Funds for Clean Cities Program
On Earth Day, Vice President Joe Biden announced $300 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for state and local governments and transit authorities to expand the nation’s fleet of clean vehicles and the fueling infrastructure necessary to support them.
The Clean Cities Alternative Fuel and Advanced Technology Vehicles Pilot Program will support at least 30 projects involving alternative fuels or advanced vehicles. Technologies eligible to be funded include various light- and heavy-duty vehicles, including hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydraulic hybrid, electric, fuel cell, and compressed natural gas. In addition, projects can support refueling infrastructure for alternative fuels, including biofuels and natural gas. Other efforts eligible for funds include public awareness campaigns and training programs on alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles and infrastructure. The program requires a 50% cost share from participants.
The vice president announced the funding during a visit to a Landover, Maryland, maintenance and training facility of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. Better known as simply "Metro," the authority provides transit services to the metropolitan area in and around Washington, D.C. The authority has a fleet of 1,500 buses, including 74 hybrid-electric buses and 461 that run on compressed natural gas, and Metro plans to have nearly 500 more hybrid-electric buses by 2012.
Vice President Biden was joined at the event by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who last year committed to convert the entire Maryland Transit Administration bus fleet to hybrid-electric buses by 2014. Maryland has already accelerated its purchase of hybrid-electric buses with the help of Recovery Act funds. See the DOE press release.
Interior Department Sets Rules for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects
President Obama announced on Earth Day that the U.S. Department of the Interior has finalized a framework for renewable energy jobs and production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
The framework establishes a program to grant leases, easements, and rights-of-way for orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible renewable energy development activities on the OCS, including siting and construction of offshore wind facilities. The program also establishes methods for sharing revenues generated from OCS renewable energy projects with adjacent coastal states.
The framework will enhance partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies and tribal governments to assist in maximizing the economic and ecological benefits of OCS renewable energy development. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 granted the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) the authority to regulate renewable energy development on the OCS. See the MMS press release and the final regulations (PDF 1.6 MB).
The MMS regulations were released just days after two NY utilities announced their collaboration on an offshore wind plant. Con Edison, which serves New York City and most of Westchester County, has teamed up with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to advance the proposed LIPA-Con Edison Offshore Wind Farm project.
The proposed wind facility will be located about 13 miles off the south shore of the Rockaway Peninsula, which forms the southern boundary of the Borough of Queens in New York City. The project will be designed for a capacity of 350 megawatts, with the ability to double its capacity in the future.
To develop the project, the utilities are forming a wind collaborative comprised of state and municipal entities interested in supporting the project or buying power from it, with the near-term goal of issuing a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for the project by the end of this year. The utilities have already signed up the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The project is based on a feasibility study conducted by the two utilities. See the LIPA press release and the feasibility study (PDF 153 KB).
NYPA, a nonprofit power supplier owned by the state, is also involved in offshore wind in the Great Lakes. On Earth Day, the NYPA released a RFEI for wind projects with capacities of at least 120 MW, located in the New York State waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. That’s the first step for the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project, an initiative supported by NYPA, NYSERDA, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, National Grid, state and local environmental organizations, wind power developers, and the University of Buffalo.
NYPA also intends to issue a request for proposals (RFP) by the end of April to examine technical issues related to the viability of such projects. If the results of those efforts are promising, they could lead to an RFP to develop an actual offshore wind power facility. Note that the facility would not be located in federal waters, so it will not require the involvement of the Interior Department. See the NYPA press release and the RFEI.
DOE Launches the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
President Obama announced the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) as part of a sweeping announcement about federal investment in R&D and science education.
ARPA-E is a new DOE organization modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the defense agency that gave us the Internet, the Global Positioning System (GPS), and many other technological breakthroughs. ARPA-E was recommended by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and was authorized by Congress in 2007, but it received its first funding of $400 million via the ARRA. Read the president’s speech, which was delivered at the NAS annual meeting.
ARPA-E will fund energy technology projects that translate scientific discoveries and cutting-edge inventions into technological innovations, and it will also accelerate technological advances in high-risk areas that industry is not likely to pursue independently.
It will not fund improvements to existing technologies; this research will continue to be supported through existing DOE programs, such as those of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. ARPA-E’s mission will be to develop new energy technologies that offer significant progress toward reducing imported energy; reducing energy-related emissions; and improving energy efficiency. See the White House fact sheet.
To launch ARPA-E, DOE issued the first Funding Opportunity Announcement for the new agency, offering a total of $150 million, with individual awards of $500,000 to $20 million. As one sign of the change in approach, applicants are initially asked to submit only 8-page "concept papers" that briefly outline the technical concept; applicants that make the first cut will be invited to submit full applications.
DOE anticipates awarding grants, cooperative agreements, or Technology Investment Agreements, with the latter two most likely because of the need for substantial interaction between ARPA-E and the awardees. Concept papers can be submitted to DOE from May 12 through June 2. The full solicitation can be found by searching the public opportunities on the FedConnect Web site for reference number DE-FOA-0000065. The solicitation is also posted on the DOE Web site (PDF 264 KB).
DOE to Invest $777 million in 46 New Energy Frontier Research Centers
The White House announced that the DOE Office of Science will invest $777 million over the next five years in 46 new Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs). The EFRCs will be established at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms across the nation, drawing in part on funds provided by the Recovery Act, while also depending on future Congressional appropriations.
20 EFRCs will focus on renewable and carbon-neutral energy sources, including solar energy, biofuels, advanced nuclear energy, and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide. Six EFRCs will pursue energy efficiency technologies, including solid-state lighting, superconductivity, and clean and efficient combustion, while another six EFRCs will focus on energy storage, including electrical energy storage and hydrogen storage. 14 EFRCs will be dedicated to cross-cutting science, including catalysis and materials that perform in extreme environments. The EFRCs will be located in 36 states, plus the District of Columbia. See the White House fact sheet and the award announcement on the DOE Office of Science Web site.
California Adopts a Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted a regulation last week that aims to achieve a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from California’s transportation fuels by 2020. The new Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) is aimed not at reducing the total amount of fuel consumed, but rather the GHG emissions associated with each gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel sold, or associated with the equivalent amount of substitute fuel sold. The shorthand expression for this goal is a 10% reduction in the GHG intensity of the fuels.
Meeting the Standard is expected to account for almost 10% of total GHG emissions reductions needed to meet the state’s mandate of reducing its total GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. A number of other measures related to fuel economy, mass transit, and reducing vehicle use will further cut the state’s GHG emissions from transportation.
The Standard is mainly intended to diversify the state’s transportation fuels and boost the market for alternative-fuel vehicles. It will apply to major suppliers of transportation fuels, each of which will be required to achieve a specified GHG intensity for the fuels it sells each year.
Fuel providers that achieve lower GHG intensities will generate credits, which can be sold to fuel providers that fail to meet their specified GHG intensity. In addition, non-traditional suppliers of clean fuels, such as electric utilities or biogas producers, can "opt-in" to the program and earn credits for their sales of low-carbon transportation fuels. This allows the LCFS to provide incentives for electric vehicles and other alternative-fuel vehicles.
The LCFS takes effect in 2010 for reporting purposes, but compliance isn’t mandatory until 2011. The standard aims to encourage new fuel technologies by placing most of the GHG intensity reductions near the end. For instance, the GHG intensity drops by only 5% by 2017, then drops another 5% in the final three years.
The technically difficult part of the LCFS is its attempt to account for the "life-cycle" GHG emissions of all fuels. For biofuels, that includes such factors as the emissions associated with the fertilizer used for the crop; the energy used to grow, harvest, and transport the crop; the energy used to convert that crop into fuel; and the energy used to deliver that fuel to market. The LCFS includes standard values for fuels produced by different pathways, including 11 different pathways for ethanol produced from corn, but it seems to neglect such options as using landfill gas or manure to power a corn ethanol refinery.
However, the LCFS does provide a process for fuel providers to petition for the use of different GHG intensities for their specific fuels. The LCFS also attempts to account for GHG emissions associated with land use changes caused by growing corn and sugarcane, an approach that corn ethanol producers have taken issue with. See the CARB press release, the full regulation (PDF 1.2 MB), and the response from the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol trade group.
NOAA: Two Major Greenhouse Gases Continued to Rise in 2008
The concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere of two major greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2008, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The concentration of carbon dioxide increased by 2.1 parts per million (ppm), reaching 386 ppm, suggesting an increase of 16.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide. The pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide was 280 ppm back in the 1800s, and many climate scientists are calling for not allowing the total concentration of greenhouse gases to exceed the equivalent of 450 ppm of carbon dioxide.
Methane concentrations also rose in 2008 for the second consecutive year, with the recent uptick following a 10-year lull. Methane concentrations increased by 4.4 parts per billion (ppb), reaching 1,788 ppb, or 1.788 ppm. That’s equivalent to an additional 12.2 million tons of methane in Earth’s atmosphere. As a greenhouse gas, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. See the NOAA press release.
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Kevin Eber is the Editor of EREE Network News, a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
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