General Coverage

 

Energy Secretary Heads To Europe On Natural-Gas Exports Push. According to Axios, “Energy Secretary Rick Perry is heading to Eastern Europe next week to make a series of announcements, including a new liquified natural-gas deal with Poland, according to an Energy Department official. Why it matters: Perry’s trip, which includes Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and Czech Republic, comes as the Trump administration is seeking to balance its conflicting goals of protectionist trade policies and American energy exports. Show less The details: Liquified natural gas will be a big focus of the trip, but Perry is also expected to push American cooperation on nuclear energy, cybersecurity and coal. His trip includes a tour of a Ukrainian power plant that received a shipment of U.S. coal last summer. Administration officials, including Perry and President Trump himself, have emphasized that European countries should lessen their dependence on Russian natural gas. The U.S., along with Poland, have criticized construction of an underwater natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. Germany has supported the project. Reality check: Countries and companies will almost always choose the cheapest natural gas, which is often Russia for much of Europe, given the cost of liquefying and shipping American gas overseas. Asia has been America’s bigger customer.” [Axios, 10/31/18 (=)]

 

County Halts Drilling Permits Due To Ballot Measure. According to E&E News, “A Colorado county won’t issue new permits for oil and gas drilling because of a pending ballot proposal that would restrict new wells. The Adams County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve the temporary moratorium for unincorporated areas through November. They are concerned that there would be a rush of new applications if Proposition 112 is approved by voters because there would be a delay until it would take effect. Prop 112 would require wells on private property to be at least 2,500 feet from homes and schools. Regulators say that would close over 4 of every 5 non-federal acres to drilling. The number of drilling permit applications is up dramatically statewide from last year.” [E&E News, 11/1/18 (=)]

 

EAB Raises Bar For Battery Storage As BACT For Natural Gas Power Plants. According to Inside EPA, “A recent ruling from EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) raises the bar for environmentalists’ effort to establish battery storage as best available control technology (BACT) in Clean Air Act permits for natural gas-fired power plants, an environmentalist says, because it says the technology first needs to be in proven use. The board’s unanimous Oct. 23 decision finds that battery storage is not a technically feasible alternative to what environmentalists say are higher-emitting peak power-boosting ‘duct burners,’ and the broad ruling makes it harder for advocates to push battery storage as BACT in other air permit challenges, the source says. EAB defers to the gas plant’s use of duct burners, which the source says lets ‘polluters’ define BACT. ‘This is obviously backwards,’ the source says of the ruling, but it is unclear whether the environmental groups that filed the EAB case will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. EAB in its decision in In re: Palmdale Energy LLC, Palmdale Energy Project says its rejection of battery storage at a California gas-fired utility was a site-specific decision, and that supporters of the technology can push for it qualifying as BACT in future permits for other facilities. However, the ruling sets a high hurdle for environmentalists to prove that the technology is in use at an existing facility. Battery technology is considered key to helping integrate large amounts of intermittent renewables to help achieve very large greenhouse gas cuts in the power sector.” [Inside EPA, 10/31/18 (=)]

 

ICF: Natural Gas Infrastructure Resilient To Storms, But Improvements Can Be Made. According to Utility Dive, “A report prepared for Southern California Gas by consulting firm ICF examined the resilience of natural gas infrastructure in disasters and recommended utilities sub-divide their gas systems so that when service isolation is necessary it can be done on a more granular level. The analysis, made public Tuesday, finds natural gas is a boon to energy resiliency, in part because much of the infrastructure is underground, but also points out the need for greater communication and data analysis to monitor threats and identify any pipeline leak vulnerabilities. SoCalGas released the report as the California wildfire season intensifies — a period that has proven deadly and devastating in recent years and forced some electric utilities to talk of bankruptcy.” [Utility Dive, 10/31/18 (=)]

 

 

 

 

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