California’s happy cows are already a source for meat and milk. But we may soon be turning to them for transportation fuel too.

By Nannette Miranda

SACRAMENTO, CA (KGO) — Energy experts met in Sacramento for the first biomethane summit. The idea is to harness methane gas from cattle waste. It’s something many California dairy farmers want to learn more about.

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California’s happy cows are already a source for meat and milk. But we may soon be turning to them for transportation fuel too.
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Top experts in biomethane met in Sacramento for the first ever national summit on the topic, talking about taking cow waste, harnessing the methane it emits and turning it into natural gas to power vehicles.

“This is extremely exciting, and this is really a budding industry here in California. It’s just getting started with tremendous potential,” said Biomethane Summit Organizer Erik Neandross.

It could be the future for California’s ailing dairy farms which have seen milk prices and profits drop lately.

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U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu today announced more than $204 million in Recovery Act funding to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in ten states. Under DOE’s State Energy Program (SEP), states have proposed statewide plans that prioritize energy savings, create or retain jobs, increase the use of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative is part of the Obama Administration’s national strategy to support job growth, while making a historic down payment on clean energy and conservation.

“This funding will provide an important boost for state economies, help to put Americans back to work and move us toward energy independence,” said Secretary Chu. “It reflects our commitment to support innovative state and local strategies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy while insisting that taxpayer dollars be spent responsibly.”

The following states are receiving 40% of their total SEP funding authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington.

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The last feature story in OPBs energy series “The Switch” is, quite literally, about the end - waste.

Some Oregon farms are turning waste into an energy source called “biogas.”

The state estimates biogas weighs in at a competitive market rate of only a few cents per kilowatt hour. But as Rob Manning reports, the costs, complications, and the benefits, can vary, based on the kind of waste you’re using.

What’s a hamburger, like this one, on the grill at Mike’s Drive-in in Portland, have to do with energy, and climate change?

A lot, actually.

Cows burp and poop, a lot. That produces a lot of the gas, methane. Scientists say that methane is at least twenty times as intense a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.

But methane also flows into many Oregon homes as the prime ingredient in natural gas.

This summer, the state’s largest dairy near Boardman began work on a project to turn troublesome cow methane into usable power.

With the help of the utility, Northwest Natural, the Three Mile Canyon Dairy will soon run one of the state’s largest biodigesters to create biogas.

Bill Edmonds is with Northwest Natural.

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Valerie Davis
EnviroMedia Social Marketing
Green Canary Sustainability Consulting

The Federal Trade Commission in mid-June charged three companies, Kmart Corp., Tender Corp. and Dyna-E International, with making false and unsubstantiated claims that their paper products were “biodegradable.”

Kmart and Tender agreed to administrative settlements in the cases against them, while the case against Dyna-E will be litigated. The FTC made this announcement in testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in a hearing titled, “It’s Too Easy Being Green: Defining Fair Green Marketing Practices.”

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Officials in hundreds of cities across the country are scrambling to find ways to spend billions of federal dollars that could make their carbon footprint smaller. Driven by tight deadlines, they need projects that create jobs, promote efficiency and fight global warming. In the process, they are learning that the impending cloudburst of federal cash can be both a “godsend” and a headache.

The looming release of $3.2 billion in new climate-related block grants stands to spark an energy-saving revolution in tiny towns like Wahpeton, N.D. And it promises to thrust emission-belching metropolises into a cleaner trajectory. But the sudden flow of federal funding is raising questions about whether many of these communities are really ready for it.

Some 1,000 cities and counties have direct access to the new entitlement account, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. They have until June 25 to submit plans, but that’s a challenge, because most haven’t received federal grants for energy projects before.

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LAKELAND — An interest in energy efficiency sparked renovations at the Lakeland Electric administration building that are powering cost savings.

The city of Lakeland, which owns the utility company, is on track to generate about $138,000 annually in energy savings after making $1.2 million in upgrades to the 20-year-old structure, said Richard Baker, facilities manager for Lakeland Public Works. The city has projected a return on energy savings of more than $2.3 million over 20 years.

Similar work now is under way at Lakeland City Hall.

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Florida’s clean energy economy grew 7.9 percent between 1998 and 2007, according to a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The study found that the Sunshine State was among the top 10 for jobs in America’s clean energy economy – and the only state in the nation with its own cap-and-trade policy, helping to create market demand for clean energy generation.

Last June, Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a bill enacting several new energy and climate change policies. The policies include the Florida Climate Protection Act, which authorizes the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop an electric-utility greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program.

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The Cleantech-Capital.net Web portal is set to launch in July to connect green companies with global cleantech investors. The portal is designed to generate investor leads and inquiries for cleantech companies raising capital across all areas of the investor spectrum, from angel and venture capitalist funding to major project finance and infrastructure funding. Cleantech-Capital.net touts a pre-established investor network with more than 2,000 cleantech investors.

Cleantech opportunities are published at the Web site and are collated into a monthly venture report, which is emailed to a global network of registered cleantech investors. The company says it’s free to join the investor network and there is no charge to add an opportunity to the report. Submissions will be checked and edited before they are released to the public under a “no name” reference number basis.

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Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming. It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year - more than the all present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan’s thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year.

Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: ‘Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters … bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability’.

If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states:

* 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases
* 20m more people will fall into poverty
* 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change.

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies . ‘Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030. ‘.

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Baker & McKenzie is delighted to announce the launch of the world’s first online service for climate change law. Published by CCH and written by lawyers from across the Baker & McKenzie global network, the Global Climate Change Law Guide provide a unique information tool for those trading in carbon products, managing climate change-related risks, and implementing and managing climate change programmes.

Baker & McKenzie has brought together climate change experts from across the globe to author the Guide. Jurisdictions covered in the initial launch, live as of 16 October 2008, include Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. China and Japan will be added in November and further countries, including Canada and New Zealand, will be added in 2009.

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