Day: March 16, 2023

A Congress member’s staff sought help from EPA’s East Palestine hotline after being stonewalled by state officials

Read the full story at Grid.

Call logs of train derailment hotline reveal confusion and unheeded early warnings from scientists about dioxin risk.

Biden to declare huge national monument in Nevada, honoring tribes

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

President Biden will designate a sacred tribal site in southern Nevada as a national monument in the coming days, according to two people briefed on the decision, creating the largest protected area of his presidency yet.

Biden will sign a proclamation putting hundreds of thousands of acres around Spirit Mountain — known as Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE-kwah-may) in Mojave — off limits to development under the 1906 Antiquities Act, the two individuals said. Theyspoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans are not yet public.

The move would rank as Biden’s most consequential act of land conservation so far, and it would fulfill a promise the president made to tribal leaders more than 100 days ago.

Webinar: States Energy Storage Policy: Best Practices for Decarbonization

Mar 23, 2023, noon CDT
Register here.

Decarbonization of electricity generation is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and scaling up energy storage deployment is key to achieving state decarbonization goals. Yet the most effective approaches to energy storage policymaking are far from clear. A new report by Sandia National Laboratories and the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) summarizes findings from a 2022 survey of states leading in decarbonization goals and programs. The report, States Energy Storage Policy: Best Practices for Decarbonization, also summarizes findings from a 2022 survey of energy storage developers, and provides a deep dive into energy storage policymaking in several key states. In this webinar, report authors from CESA and Sandia will present their findings.

Panelists:

  • Will McNamara, Sandia National Laboratories
  • Todd Olinsky-Paul, Clean Energy States Alliance
  • Gabe Epstein, Clean Energy States Alliance (moderator)

This webinar is a presentation of the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP). ESTAP is a federal-state funding and information sharing project that aims to accelerate the deployment of electrical energy storage technologies in the US. ESTAP is funded by the US Department of Energy Office of Electricity under the direction of Dr. Imre Gyuk; managed by Sandia National Laboratories; and administered by the Clean Energy States Alliance.

Public listening sessions to inform the 2023-2028 Federal STEM Strategic Plan

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) will host a series of virtual listening sessions to inform the development of the 2023- 2028 Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Strategic Plan. As part of a robust public engagement plan, OSTP encourages input from all interested parties, including students, teachers, administrators, parents, researchers, employers, and others to provide information and perspectives on the challenges faced by – and within – the STEM ecosystem in the United States and solutions that might be implemented by the U.S. Government.

Format: Each listening session will focus on one aspect of the STEM ecosystem. The last session aims to include speakers unable to attend any of the earlier sessions and as such, will cover each of the five areas covered in the previous sessions. Registration is required to attend sessions.

If you would like to provide information in addition to or in lieu of your participation in the listening session, you may send a brief message to this public email address, stemstrategy@ostp.eop.gov.

The IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute will be facilitating and moderating the meeting on OSTP’s behalf. The meeting will be recorded and participation implies consent for OSTP to capture your name, voice, and likeness, and anything you say may be recorded and transcribed for OSTP use.

The six upcoming listening sessions will be as follows:

DOE offers $750M to help drive clean hydrogen production costs down 60% by 2026

Read the full story at Utility Dive.

The U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday it is offering $750 million for research, development and demonstration efforts to slash the cost of clean hydrogen.

The funding is part of a $1.5 billion effort to advance electrolysis technologies and improve manufacturing and recycling capabilities for hydrogen and fuel cells.The Biden administration aims to cut the cost of hydrogen produced from emissions-free electricity to $1 per kilogram within a decade, down from around $5/kg today.

The just-released funding opportunity specifically aims to improve the efficiency, increase the durability and cut the cost of producing clean hydrogen from water using electrolyzers to less than $2/kg by 2026.

Filling the hole Silicon Valley Bank left in the climate tech ecosystem

Read the full story from The Hill.

The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) played a critical role in the climate tech industry, particularly for early-stage companies. The bank’s recent collapse will be felt even though its depositors will get their money back, as announced by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Still, one can expect some project investments to be delayed and the financial costs to startups to rise as a new risk appetite emerges. An important silver lining should be that more banks may eventually get more comfortable with supporting climate tech, which can help grow this funding “ecosystem” considerably and eventually lead to more investment.

Mormon church to make massive water contribution to Great Salt Lake

Read the full story at The Hill.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to part with a massive amount of water to help replenish the dwindling Great Salt Lake.

The Salt Lake City-based institution, one of the wealthiest organizations in Utah, will be donating more than 5,700 water shares that it holds in the North Point Consolidated Irrigation Company to the state.

The donated water, which was historically used for agricultural purposes, is thought to be the largest-ever permanent water contribution to benefit the lake, Utah’s Department of Natural Resources announced on Wednesday.

Webinar: eProject Builder Greenhouse Gas Calculation Tool

Mar 22, 2023, 1 pm CDT
Register here.

This training will educate attendees on how to use the eProject Builder (ePB) greenhouse gas (GHG) calculation tool to develop estimates of project GHG emissions and to compare different project scenarios’ potential GHG emissions impacts.

This tool provides federal agencies with a straightforward, user-friendly way to estimate the annual GHG emissions impacts of proposed projects, incorporating the estimated project energy savings and information from EPA’s Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGrid).

Attendees will learn which data inputs are required and how to complete the ePB data template inputs to develop the GHG calculations. They will also learn how to enter savings for various energy and fuel types, and how those entries impact Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions impacts.

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) recently released the new GHG calculation tool in the ePB project data template.

This tool was developed to support federal agencies’ need to report GHG impacts of energy projects and decarbonize the energy use of their buildings and meet several federal mandates and targets, including helping to meet the net-zero emissions goals of Executive Order 14057, Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs through Federal Sustainability.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

  • Identify key federal reporting requirements for ESPC, UESC and direct-funded energy retrofit projects, for which this GHG tool will be relevant.
     
  • Receive an overview of the ePB system and project template relevant to being able to use the GHG tool.
     
  • Recognize which project data inputs are required for developing the GHG calculations in the ePB project data template.
     
  • Identify how to complete the ePB project data template for various energy and fuel types and how to complete the GHG tool using either the ePB non-calculating template or the ePB calculating template.
     
  • Identify how to enter fuel savings data for purchased vs. self-produced steam and chilled water—and how those relate to Scope 1 and 2 emissions; Identify the correct eGrid region for the ECM- or project-level information provided.
     
  • Complete an example scenario that compares a “business as usual” project with a project designed to reduce GHGs (e.g., with a fuel-switching measure)—and compare the impacts on price, energy and cost savings and GHG emissions between the two scenarios.
     
  • Learn about future planned updates to the ePB GHG calculation feature.

EPA issues final rule cutting interstate smog

Read the full story at The Hill.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday morning announced finalized new rules on interstate air pollution, regulating downwind interstate pollution.

The latest “Good Neighbor” rule will affect nitrogen oxide pollution that is a key ingredient in smog from facilities in 23 states. On a call with reporters, EPA Administrator Michael Regan estimated about 80 million people in the U.S. live in areas downwind of smog pollution.

There are multiple routes to net-zero aviation, but check for tradeoffs before getting on board

Read the full story from Anthropocene Magazine.

Producing biofuels for sustainable aviation could require up to 1.2 million sq. miles of cropland—about 20% of the total area now under cultivation.