EnviroPolitics Blog

Could water be the future of fuel?

A new generation of fuels could power planes and ships without warming the planet.

By Nicolás Rivero and Emily Wright, The Washington Post

CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. — The tangle of pipes at this industrial plant doesn’t stand out in this city built around the carbon-heavy business of pumping oil and refining it into fuel for planes, ships, trucks and cars.

But this plant produces fuel from a different source, one that doesn’t belch greenhouse pollution: hydrogen. Specifically, hydrogen made from water using renewable electricity, also known as green hydrogen.

This process could represent the biggest change in how fuel for planes, ships, trains and trucks is made since the first internal combustion engine fired up in the 19th century. In his 1874 science fiction novel “The Mysterious Island,” Jules Verne predicted that “water will be the coal of the future.” This plant, one of the first in the world to transform water into fuel, shows what that looks like on the ground today.

Turning hydrogen into liquid fuel could help slash planet-warming pollution from heavy vehicles, cutting a key source of emissions that contribute to climate change. But to fulfill that promise, companies will have to build massive numbers of wind turbines and solar panels to power the energy-hungry process. Regulators will have to make sure hydrogen production doesn’t siphon green energy that could go towards cleaning up other sources of global warming gases, such as homes or factories.

Read the full story here

Related news stories:
Hydrogen’s benefits and considerations (U.S. Dept of Energy)
The pros and cons of hydrogen emery (Energy Tracker – Asia)

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Could water be the future of fuel? Read More »

Vote this fall could help launch Japan’s offshore wind industry

Wind turbines near New Brighton, England. According to the International Energy Agency, Japan could produce over 900% of its energy demand with offshore wind alone. — According to the International Energy Agency, Japan could produce over 900% of its energy demand with offshore wind

BY ERIC MARGOLIS, The Japan Times

One would only need to look at a map to understand the potential offshore wind has for a country like Japan. Now, the government is eyeing moves to truly harness it.

Time may have run out in the just-completed session of parliament for a new legislative amendment that promised to provide a major boost for Japan’s sputtering wind industry by opening up vast amounts of marine territory for offshore turbines, but the bill’s next chance at passage could come as soon as this fall.

That would be no small matter, with wind power advocates saying that the amendment could spur development of an industry that many believe is Japan’s best chance at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Currently, Japan isn’t close to being on track to meet its ambitious 2050 goal, or its fiscal 2030 target of a 46% greenhouse gas reduction from 2013 levels. Fossil fuels still consist of 69% of the nation’s power mix, with renewables making up just 24%, putting it far behind many European countries.

Slow policymaking and opposition from big power companies have helped delay the transition to renewables.

Read the full story here

Vote this fall could help launch Japan’s offshore wind industry Read More »

Cargo ship Dali departs Baltimore leaving bridge disaster in its wake

Related news coverage:
Dali cargo ship arrives in Norfolk for repairs (WUSA 9)
Biden seeks $3.1B more to rebuild Key Bridge (WBAL-TV)

Cargo ship Dali departs Baltimore leaving bridge disaster in its wake Read More »

Supreme Court guts a key environmental precedent

By Jacob Knutson, Axios

The Supreme Court on Friday curtailed the executive branch’s ability to interpret laws it’s charged with implementing, giving the judiciary more say in what federal agencies can do.

Why it matters: The landmark 6-3 ruling along ideological lines overturns the court’s 40-year-old “Chevron deference” doctrine. It could make it harder for executive agencies to tackle a wide array of policy areas, including environmental and health regulations and labor and employment laws.

Driving the news: Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the opinion of the court, argued Chevron “defies the command of” the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs federal administrative agencies.

He said it “requires a court to ignore, not follow, ‘the reading the court would have reached had it exercised its independent judgment as required by the APA.'”
Further, he said it “is misguided” because “agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.”

Roberts noted the court’s decision did not call into question prior cases that relied on Chevron, including holdings pertaining to the Clean Air Act, because they “are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology.”

Read the full story here

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EnviroPolitics Events Calendar

What could court’s decision in Looper mean for regulated communities?

EnviroPolitics Events Calendar Read More »

NJBIA Appeals DEP’s Environmental Justice Rulemaking

The New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) has filed an amicus brief in the Appellate Division of Superior Court in support of appeals seeking to invalidate the Department of Environmental Protection’s environmental justice rulemaking, arguing it has caused chaos and creates more problems than it cures.

While not seeking to prevent implementation of the law, the NJBIA is asking the court to “carefully review the deep flaws in this proposal and, having done so, reject the rule not for all time, but as presently written.”

The brief was filed June 17 on behalf of NJBIA by attorneys Angelo Genova and Kenneth Sheehan, of the Genova Burns law firm, in support of businesses and labor groups that are appealing the DEP’s implementation of the law, which allows permits to be denied for facilities located in what the DEP deems to be overburdened communities.

Read the full story here

NJBIA Appeals DEP’s Environmental Justice Rulemaking Read More »

Could water be the future of fuel?

A new generation of fuels could power planes and ships without warming the planet.

Vote this fall could help launch Japan’s offshore wind industry

Cargo ship Dali departs Baltimore leaving bridge disaster in its wake

Supreme Court guts a key environmental precedent

EnviroPolitics Events Calendar

What could court’s decision in Looper mean for regulated communities?

NJBIA Appeals DEP’s Environmental Justice Rulemaking

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