Congress stiffs solar, wind wins modest tax-deal victory

Despite months of intense lobbying, the solar industry comes up empty-handed in end-of-year spending legislation.

Lawmakers agreed on funding, but not clean energy tax credits.
Lawmakers agreed on funding, but not clean energy tax credits.

EMMA FOEHRINGER MERCHANT reports for gtm

After months of lobbying, the clean energy industry secured minimal tax credit extensions in the $1.37 trillion end-of-year deal U.S. lawmakers eked out this week to fund the government in 2020.

Of the possible extensions that may have been stuffed into the spending bill, wind was the only winner, and the industry secured just one extra year of incentives. 

If the full deal wins congressional passage, as is expected, wind developers can now qualify for the production tax credit through 2020 — a year longer than anticipated. Developers qualifying projects in 2020 will receive 60 percent of the PTC if they bring those projects online by the end of 2024. Projects qualified in 2019 will still receive only 40 percent of the incentive.

That will benefit onshore wind developers at a time when their market would otherwise be under pressure. However, offshore wind developers, who typically opt for the Investment Tax Credit, would not get the same boost.

Meanwhile, lawmakers left solar— the industry that most aggressively fought for an extension of its ITC — and electric vehicles out of the deal. Storage, which lawmakers had sought incentives for in legislation like the November GREEN Act, will continue without credits. 

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Celebrate: New York is a 2 GW solar state. Enough. Back to work on 4GW

Image: Daroga Power

Tim Sylvia reports for PV Magazine

What was billed as the opening of the state’s newest community solar project became a monumental day in New York solar history. The installation, a 6.12 MW project developed by ForeFront Power in Mechanicville, put New York at over 2 GW of solar installed. The Empire State has now become the 9th in the country to have more than 2 GW of solar capacity installed.

The milestone also keeps New York on track to achieve the statewide target of installing 6 GW of solar by 2025.

“Solar energy is a vital part of New York’s Green New Deal strategy to transition to a clean energy future, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. “The success of this initiative demonstrates we are on the path to meeting our nation-leading climate goals, and our clean energy agenda is spurring economic growth and jobs while leaving this planet cleaner and greener for generations to come.”

New York is in an especially interesting spot as it positions itself as a national solar leader. While nearly every state within the “2 GW installed” club is home to massive utility-scale projects, New York’s greatest potential lies in distributed generation. The state has no shortage when it comes to rooftops, a resource that is currently being used to develop a a 316 MW / 2528 MWh (that’s 8 hours) energy storage facility (pdf). Furthermore, a study done by City University of New York early in the decade found that 66.4% of all rooftops in New York city were suitable for solar installations, totaling well over 5 GW in capacity.

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Massive fire rips through portions of Bayshore Recycling in Woodbridge, NJ

Kathy Chang reports for centraljersey.com

KEASBEY – Fire officials were still on the scene of a massive six-alarm fire at the Bayshore Recycling Center on Crow Mills Road on the morning of Dec. 17, according to John Hagerty, director of communications for Woodbridge Township.

“The fire started in the cardboard recycling area of the facility,” he said, adding the fire then spread to the single-stream area, a separate facility, which has since collapsed. The fire also damaged the corporate office.

 NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J.

The Keasbey Fire Department is the lead agency handling the fire investigation. The fire call came in around 12:20 p.m. on Dec. 16. Hagerty said the mayor’s office was notified around 12:33 p.m. Smoke from the fire could be seen from the Driscoll Bridge and Garden State Parkway.

Multiple fire agencies assisted in the fire including all nine fire districts in all sections of Woodbridge, Perth Amboy, South Amboy and Sayreville. Hagerty said the New York City Fire Department sent two fireboats to assist from the Arthur Kill.

There were no injuries reported and the Woodbridge Department of Public Works facility, which is next to the Bayshore Recycling Center, was not damaged, Hagerty said.

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‘Dirty dirt’ bill to put phony soils recyclers out of business sent to NJ Gov. Murphy

After years of delay, Legislature unanimously passes a bill requiring soil and fill recyclers to register for licenses, adds more background checks for employees

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

It took nearly a decade, but a long battle to close loopholes to keep criminal elements out of the recycling industry has finally been passed by the Legislature.

The legislation (A-4267) was drafted in the wake of a 2011 report from the State Commission on Investigation, which indicated that widespread dumping of contaminated debris and toxic-tainted soil across New Jersey had been standard practice for years.

The bill, which kicked around in the Legislature for years, would expand the number of people in the sector who would have to submit more stringent background checks if they wanted to participate in an industry that dumps soil and recycling materials in New Jersey.

The Assembly passed the bill, sending it to the governor in a near-unanimous vote (75-0-1) that belied its past history. There was no debate on the bill.

Driving out bad actors

In the past, the measure had been held up over concerns from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the recycling sector about expanding the scope of a tough licensing law designed to drive the mob and criminal elements out of the solid- and hazardous-waste industries.

The original SCI report, amplified by other studies, documented schemes in which contaminated fill and construction debris were dumped as clean fill. In one case, a so-called dirt broker dumped tons of contaminated soil and debris in Old Bridge, polluting portions of Raritan Bay.

“These unscrupulous dirt brokers are dumping contaminated soil all over the environment,’’ said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The illicit dumping has continued to recent days, according to advocates.

In Vernon, a property owner created an illegal dump in his backyard that resulted in a 75-foot pile of toxic debris. In October, a judge ordered the property owner’s assets and bank accounts be frozen to pay for the cleanup.

“There are bad actors contaminating our environment with debris containing cancer-causing agents and they are able to do so by passing off themselves as recyclers who are not currently subject to the same oversight,’’ said Assemblyman Hal Wirths (R-Sussex), a sponsor. “They are literally doing dirty work and we’ve got to clean things up.’’

Assemblyman John McKeon, a Democrat from Essex County and another sponsor, agreed.  “Solid waste operators out of New York are showing up in our state because they know they can get away with almost anything and their continued illegal activity poses an incredible threat to our residents,’’ he said.

Under the bill, soil- and fill-recycling businesses have 90 days from date of enactment to apply to the DEP for a temporary registration. They must apply for a license for soil and fill within 270 days. It also requires more background checks for more employees in the solid-waste industry.

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Goldman Sachs Adopts Strongest Fossil Finance Policy by a Major U.S. Bank

Bank Rules Out Thermal Coal and Arctic Oil Projects, Commits to Exit Coal Mining

By LAUREL SUTHERLIN, Rainforest Action Network
December 15, 2019

San Francisco– Goldman Sachs today announced the strongest fossil finance restrictions of any major U.S. bank, though it still lags behind its leading global competitors. It also remains far from alignment with what is needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Goldman Sachs has ruled out direct finance for new or expanding thermal coal mines and coal-fired power plant projects worldwide, as well as direct finance for new Arctic oil exploration and production. The policy makes explicit mention of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The bank has also committed to a phase-out of financing for significant thermal coal mining companies that do not have a diversification strategy.

With this policy revision, Goldman Sachs becomes the first major U.S. bank to establish explicit restrictions on financing for any part of the oil and gas sector. It is also the first major U.S. bank to rule out direct finance for thermal coal mines and plants worldwide. This is a crucial step forward, as other U.S. bank coal finance restrictions have geographic loopholes.

While other major U.S. banks have committed to reducing credit exposure to coal mining, their approach restricts only lending, ignoring the large amounts of capital the banks facilitate for the coal industry from the underwriting of issuances of stocks and bonds. Goldman Sachs’s new policy tightens the screw on thermal coal by (1) including underwriting, and (2) explicitly committing to phase-out, not just reduction.

Jason Opeña Disterhoft, Climate and Energy Senior Campaigner at Rainforest Action Network (RAN), issued the following statement on RAN’s behalf.

“By ruling out direct finance for Arctic oil exploration and production, Goldman has established the first no-go zone for a major U.S. bank in the oil and gas sector. Goldman Sachs’s updated policy shows that U.S. banks can draw red lines on oil and gas, and now other major U.S. banks, especially JPMorgan Chase –– the world’s worst banker of fossil fuels by a wide margin –– must improve on what Goldman has done.

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U.N. climate talks end with hard feelings, few results, new doubts about global unity

Brady Dennis and Chico Harlan, Washington Post

MADRID — Global climate talks lurched to an end here Sunday with finger-pointing, accusations of failure and fresh doubts about the world’s collective resolve to slow the warming of the planet — at a moment when scientists say time is running out for humans to avert steadily worsening climate disasters.

After more than two weeks of negotiations, punctuated by raucous protests and constant reminders about the need to move faster, bleary-eyed negotiators barely mustered enthusiasm for the compromise they had patched together, while raising grievances about the many issues that remain unresolved.

At a gathering where the mantra “Time for Action” was plastered throughout the hallways and on the walls, the negotiators failed to achieve their primary goals. Central among them: convincing the world’s largest carbon-emitting countries to pledge to tackle climate change more aggressively beginning in 2020.

“We are not satisfied,” the chair of the meeting, Chilean Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt said. “The agreements reached by the parties are not enough.”

Delegates from nearly 200 nations wrestled for more than 40 hours past their planned deadline — making these the longest in the 25-year history of these talks — even as workers broke down parts of the sprawling conference hall, food vendors closed and all but the most essential negotiators went home.

Extreme climate change has arrived in America

As officials scrambled to finalize a complex set of rules to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord, a handful of larger-emitting countries squared off again and again against smaller, more vulnerable countries. In particular, negotiators came to loggerheads while crafting rules around a fair and transparent global carbon trading system, and pushed the issue to next year. Fights also dragged on about how to provide funding to poorer nations already coping with rising seas, crippling droughts and other consequences of climate change.AD

The painstaking pace of the talks stood in contrast to the mass demonstrations and vehement pleas from young activists, some of whom staged protests inside the conference hall and accused world leaders of neglecting the most significant challenge facing humanity.

“This is the biggest disconnect between this process and what’s going on in the real world that I’ve seen,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has been attending climate talks since the early 1990s.

“You have the science crystal on where we need to go. You have the youth and others stepping up around the world in the streets pressing for action,” he said. “It’s like we’re in a sealed vacuum chamber in here, and no one is perceiving what is happening out there — what the science says and what people are demanding.”AD

Sunday’s outcome underscored how international divisions and a lack of momentum threaten the effort to limit the warming of the Earth to dangerous levels, only four years after the Paris agreement produced a moment of global solidarity.

“The can-do spirit that birthed the Paris Agreement feels like a distant memory today,” Helen Mountford, vice president for climate and economics at the World Resources Institute, said in a statement Sunday.

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Related news stories:
U.N. Climate Talks End With Big Polluters Blocking Stronger Action
COP25: Longest climate talks end with a compromise deal

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