Energy storage policy evolving in California
California Energy Commission (CEC) program manager describes work

In the big picture, the CEC is set to deliver a draft report this fall for Gov. Jerry Brown and stakeholders on near-term energy options and possible policy choices for California, which has become a crucible of sorts for these issues. The interest in California’s process and policies is widespread, of course, because that state’s challenges and solutions may well be coming soon to a theater near you.

Avtar Bining’s (program manager for energy storage) piece of that report will be his latest CEC assignment, energy storage: the attributes of various media, their applications, proximity to commercialization, costs, etc.

Bining shared his own view, which may or may not be reflected in the upcoming report, that a “mix-and-match” approach—using energy storage where it is the best and most cost-effective solution—makes the most sense. He was careful to note that utilities, on the one hand, want to maintain the flexibility to determine the best and most cost-effective solutions, while vendors point out that mandates could produce economies of scale, lower costs and higher uptake.

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first published week of:   07/11/2011

Environmentalists: EPA overstated coal ash benefits

The Obama administration has greatly overstated the possible economic benefits of recycling toxic coal ash, a move that is delaying -- and could possibly scuttle altogether -- tougher regulations on the handling and disposal of power plant wastes, according to a report from a coalition of environmental groups.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering the new rules in the wake of the December 2008 collapse of a coal-ash impoundment in Tennessee and growing citizen concern about similar dumps around the nation.

Industry officials and some within the White House are concerned about one possible approach, in which EPA would label coal-ash a “hazardous waste” to be fully regulated under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Opponents say this path would hurt the market for reuse of coal ash in products like cement and wallboard. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is among those who have complained to the EPA about the potential impacts.

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first published week of:   01/10/2011

EPA lists California's polluted waters

The number of polluted rivers, streams, and lakes in California increased 170 percent from 2006 to 2010. According to a list the state water resources board submitted October 11 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the state’s 3 million acres of lakes, bays, and wetlands are either not meeting water quality goals, or need a pollution cleanup plan. The most common contaminants in these waterways are pesticides, bacteria, metals, and nutrients. The list will enable officials to develop cleanup plans. Among the trends revealed by the assessment were that many more beaches showed unsafe bacteria levels, pollutants in fish have increased, and the amount of waterways contaminated with pesticides also increased.

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first published week of:   10/17/2011

EPA proposes Fracking Rules

When it comes to understanding the ebb and flow of U.S. energy policy, most insiders will acknowledge that natural gas has a lead. But with that bravado must come a bit of compliance — namely in the form of new environmental regs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new rules for natural gas explorers. That is, those entities that produce shale-gas must reduce their smog-related emissions by 95 percent. But the EPA says that would be done by using proven technologies that can capture natural gas that currently escapes into the air — gas that would be made available for sale.

Environmental groups are calling the proposal a fair deal, meaning that the capture of the gas would eliminate not just volatile organic compounds that make up smog but also those involving methane, as a byproduct. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is much more potent than carbon. The oil and gas industry is said to release 40 percent of all U.S. methane emissions, which is the largest single source, says EPA.

EPA goes on to say that the forced capture of the gas that would ordinarily escape will result in an additional $30 million annually in sales for the gas industry — more than enough to compensate the developers. The regs would apply to the more than 25,000 wells that are “fractured” with sand, water and chemicals to ply loose the shale–gas. Simply, the EPA would add new rules for storage tanks and transmission pipelines so as to try and make them leak–proof.

Details Here

first published week of:   08/08/2011

EPA releases plans of utilities

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released plans developed by FirstEnergy Corp. and 14 other electric utilities describing what steps will be taken to make coal ash impoundments safer. The Akron utility, in an April 10 report, outlined plans to maintain and monitor the dam on Little Blue Run on the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border where it stores coal ash and slurry sludge wastes from its coal-fired Bruce Mansfield Power Station in Shippingport, Pa.

The report, prepared by GAI Consultants Inc., earned the utility approval from the EPA for FirstEnergy’s plan, said company spokesman Mark Durbin.

The so-called action plans filed by the utilities are a response to the EPA’s final assessment reports on the structural integrity of the impoundments that the agency made public last May.

What was released on Friday covers action plans for 37 impoundments at 15 facilities. The agency also released assessment reports on the structural integrity of 69 additional impoundments at 20 facilities.

Details Here

first published week of:   02/14/2011

EPA study says hydraulic fracturing likely contaminated drinking water in Wyoming town

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced December 8 it suspects hydraulic fracturing in a shallow natural gas well in Wyoming contaminated a town’s drinking water. After 3 years of study, the agency concluded chemicals found in the aquifer and in individual wells were consistent with those used in hydraulic fracturing. The agency issued a report that will be open for public comment and scientific review. If it is finalized with the same conclusions, it could provide the first documented case where “fracking” contaminated groundwater. Though there have been incidents in which "“flowback” water used in a well was improperly handled, the industry has countered criticisms by saying there had not been a documented case where the process itself caused contamination. The EPA study in Pavillion, Wyoming, began in 2008 after residents complained their water smelled and tasted bad. The residents lived near a gas field controlled by Encana, a Canadian energy company. According to the EPA, the agency constructed two monitoring wells to sample water in the aquifer. “EPA’s analysis of samples taken from the agency’s deep monitoring wells in the aquifer indicates detection of synthetic chemicals, like glycols and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards, and high methane levels,” the agency said in a statement.

Details Here

first published week of:   12/12/2011

Volume 31

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