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ANCHORAGE LIGHTS THE WAY LEADERBOARD SERIES SPONSORED BY CRESCENT ELECTRIC SUPPLY CO.
9 HOW TO PREVENT AND KILL DEVELOPMENT: ON PURPOSE AND BY ACCIDENT 15 EPA CONTINUES TRANSFORMATION UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION 21 RED COUNTY, BLUE CITY WORK TOGETHER ON CLIMATE RESILIENCE
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contents
VOLUME 26 January 2018
How to Prevent and Kill Development: On Purpose and by Accident
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cover story
ANCHORAGE LIGHTS THE WAY
9
Future Shock: Will Better Batteries Dim Electric Utilities’ Prospects?
12
EPA Continues Transformation Under Trump Administration
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Organic Growth: More Farms Transitioning in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin
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Red County, Blue City Work Together on Climate Resilience
21
Chattanooga’s Takeout Taken In
24
Overcoming the Biggest Biogas Market Challenges
27
19
Pharmaceuticals & Personal Care Products Impact Aquatic Life
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
The Best of Sustainable City Network is a quarterly magazine highlighting the most popular articles posted on sCityNetwork.com, an online trade publication that serves government, education and healthcare institutions in all 50 U.S. states and the provinces of Canada. The magazine is available in print or as a digital download at www.sCityNetwork.com/bestof. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sustainable City Network or WoodwardBizMedia. SUBSCRIPTIONS Contact 563.588.4492; info@scitynetwork.com www.sCityNetwork.com
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Sustainable City Network magazine is produced by WoodwardBizMedia, a division of Woodward Communications, Inc. GROUP PUBLISHER Karen Ruden PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Randy Rodgers
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LED Streetlights in the City of Anchorage
BUSINESS MANAGER Kathy Goetzinger CONTRIBUTING WRITERS New Energy Update Caleb Powell, TDEC Julianne Couch Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies John Kruse, TH Media S&P Global Ratings CREATIVE DESIGN Eric Faramus Cover Photo: Wayne Johnson, Anchorage Municipal Power & Light (foreground), and Ingimage (background) Unless otherwise noted, all images used throughout © 2018 Ingimage, all rights reserved. Sustainable City Network 801 Bluff Street Dubuque, Iowa 52001 Visit Us On The Web sCityNetwork.com Printed on recycled paper
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Free 1-Hour Webinar – Jan. 25, 2018 Join us Jan. 25 for a free 1-hour webinar featuring Gary Agron, division manager of engineering at Municipal Light & Power in Anchorage, Alaska. He’ll provide an overview of the city’s project to replace 4,000 streetlights with LED fixtures and solid-state controls. Agron will be joined by Mark Wilbur of GE Wireless Control Systems, who’ll answer technical questions about the system. Learn more at http://sCityNetwork.com/Streetlights
from the editor Randy Rodgers Publisher & Executive Editor SUSTAINABLE CITY NETWORK www.sCityNetwork.com 801 Bluff Street Dubuque, IA 52001 563.588.3853 randy@scitynetwork.com
OUR MISSION “To make U.S. cities more sustainable through quality and well-organized information.”
Welcome to Sustainable City Network Magazine – the Best of sCityNetwork.com! This quarterly magazine is a compilation of the most popular articles on our web site and in our email newsletter, the InBox, which is delivered to more than 40,000 leaders in government, education and healthcare across the U.S. and Canada. Sustainable City Network produces advertiser-supported, non-partisan articles, webinars, trade shows and white papers that provide local institutions with quality, organized and timely information about sustainability projects, plans and best practices. This magazine is another way we fulfill our mission. In this issue, we continue our Leaderboard series by showcasing the city of Anchorage, Alaska and its 2017 conversion of 4,000 streetlights from high pressure sodium (HPS) to light emitting diode (LED). Along with the lights, which are 50 percent more energy efficient than the older technology, Anchorage also invested in a wireless control network that allows for even more savings and many other benefits. In our cover story, Gary Agron, division manager of engineering at Municipal Light & Power in Anchorage, will step you through the planning and implementation process and describe many of the benefits that go beyond savings in energy and maintenance, delving into the fascinating world of the “internet of things” (IoT). Agron will be joined by Mark Wilbur from GE Wireless Control Systems when we host a free 1-hour webinar on Jan. 25 to go into even more detail. Register or download the recording afterwards at sCityNetwork.com/streetlights. In other top stories: Two state economic development professionals share insight into “how to prevent and kill development, on purpose and by accident,” particularly in small, rural communities. As funny as that sounds, they point out some serious issues that cause some community leaders to be their own worst enemies. Also, on page 12, you’ll learn how the latest battery technology is impacting the electric power industry, and which states will be most affected. Other articles in this issue focus on big changes at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the increase in the number of organic farms in three Midwestern states; the impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on aquatic life; how conservatives and liberals are working together in the Kansas City area; an expanded curbside recycling program in Chattanooga, Tenn.; and how to overcome the biggest challenges in the biogas market. The articles in this magazine have been selected by our readers. We’ve packaged them together in this convenient magazine format, available as a digital download or in print at sCityNetwork.com/Bestof. We hope you find value inside.
Loyd Ray Farms Waste to Energy Project, Boonville, NC Unison Solutions Inc., based in Dubuque, Iowa is proud to be part of the team at this commercial swine facility. At the site in North Carolina, waste from over 8,000 hogs housed at the farm is placed in covered lagoons. The system designed and manufactured by Unison Solutions, removes moisture and impurities from the biogas so it is a suitable fuel for the turbine. More than 50,000 ft3 of biogas is produced per day and used as fuel for a turbine that produces 65 kW of electricity. Learn more about it at www.unisonsolutions.com [3]
LEADERBOARD SERIES SPONSORED BY: CRESCENT ELECTRIC SUPPLY CO.
ANCHORAGE LIGHTS THE WAY 4,000 LED STREETLIGHTS SAVE MORE THAN ENERGY BY RANDY RODGERS PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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“...our parks department knows there’s nobody out on their trails in the winter between midnight and 5 a.m., so they can dim all those lights down to 30 percent during those hours and save a lot of energy.” LED streetlights have been around for a while, but the communities that have made the conversion from older technologies in recent years are discovering a plethora of benefits that go well beyond saving millions of dollars on energy and maintenance.
GARY AGRON is division manager of engineering at Municipal Light & Power in Anchorage, Alaska.
MARK WILBUR is solutions architect at GE Wireless Control Systems.
With wireless mobile controls, automated management features and the ability to add a variety of high-tech sensors and other devices to individual nodes, these definitely aren’t your father’s streetlights. The Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska might be in the “land of the midnight sun,” but when late December rolls around, daylight lasts for less than 5 hours and the city’s streetlights put in extra duty. In 2017, Anchorage replaced close to 4,000 highpressure sodium (HPS) streetlights with the latest light emitting diode (LED) fixtures. The fixtures are on a wireless, networked control system, and so far, things are looking bright.
Gary Agron, division manager of engineering at Municipal Light & Power (ML&P) in Anchorage, said when someone reported that a light had burned out, the first thing staff had to do was go through GIS records to figure out who owned the light – not an easy task when there are at least 11 possibilities, including the city’s park, transit, and street maintenance departments, as well as state agencies, two adjacent utilities, the Alaska Railroad, and others. Only then, could the appropriate agency be dispatched to repair the light. Now, not only can Agron tell you how many lights ML&P owns, but with a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a mobile device, he can tell you exactly where each light is located, which agency is responsible for it, whether it’s on or off, its intensity, how much energy it’s
consuming and the fixture’s “health status.” And, operators can control individual lights or selected groups of fixtures within seconds. “Let’s say the SWAT team wants to turn off a bunch of lights in a neighborhood where they’re going to do an operation,” Agron said. While law enforcement has been known to literally shoot out the lights when they wanted an area to go dark, “now all they have to do is call us and I can remotely access my light grid and go click, click, click, and all those lights go off,” Agron said. In another example, Agron said, if authorities are looking for a lost child, the brightness of the lights in a specific neighborhood could potentially be turned up to assist in the search. The LED lights are using about half the energy of the equivalent HPS lights they replaced. With the ability to set up automated controls and adjust the timing and intensity of the lights, these new lights could save up to an additional 35 percent, Agron said. “For example, our parks department knows there’s nobody out on their trails in the winter between midnight and 5 a.m., so they can dim all those lights down to 30 percent during those hours and save a lot of energy. The same goes for their golf course, where people go cross-country skiing in the winter. Nobody’s out there at midnight. Why have those lights on all the time?” Another example Agron cited is the Port of Anchorage. Security lights can be turned on when there are trucks and equipment moving containers in and out, and turned down or off when no port operations are in progress. In all, the municipality expects to save at least $400,000 per year on energy and maintenance, and reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 2,000 metric tons of CO2 annually – the same effect as taking 1,800 cars off the road or powering 1,900 homes. As a result, the $3.4 million system will pay for itself in less than nine years, he said. When it came time to replace the municipality’s streetlights, ML&P’s vision was to meet what Agron called “the four S’s.” The new lights had to provide savings, improve safety, be sustainable, and they had to be “smart.” When Agron’s team proposed an eight-year project that would gradually implement the conversion, the municipality [5]
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Photos: Wayne Johnson
SPONSORED BY: CRESCENT ELECTRIC SUPPLY CO.
■■ Before
■■ After
These old high-pressure sodium streetlights, which Anchorage replaced in 2017, have a yellow glow and create more “light pollution” than the new LED lights in the photo on the right.
Note how the new LED streetlights focus almost all their light on the street, with very little illumination of the surrounding areas, and almost no light pollution escaping into the night sky.
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wanted to reap all the benefits in one year instead. It was a big job, but about 4,000 streetlights along 110 miles of city streets and trails have now been replaced, Agron said.
At a future date, Agron said, the municipality and other agencies in the city could potentially use the ML&P streetlight poles to provide numerous other services in specific locations, including: • “Small cell” capability, which would allow local telephone carriers to fill gaps in cell-phone service by installing short-range antennas on selected streetlight poles.
Photo: Wayne Johnson
Anchorage looked at a variety of LED fixtures and control systems before settling on the GE LightGrid Outdoor Wireless Control System, which Agron said was also selected by the cities of San Diego, Montreal, Honolulu, Hillsboro, Redmond and Oceanside. The lights carry a 10-year warranty and have a 15-year life expectancy. They have been cold-weather tested and are compliant with the back-lighting, up-lighting and glare specifications of the International Dark-Sky Association, which works to reduce “light pollution” in urban areas. “People in Alaska like to see the Northern Lights,” Agron said. “So, that was important to us.”
Anchorage posted a Frequently Asked Questions page on the city’s web site and took advantage of coverage in the local media.
• Special cameras that monitor parking spaces, which can feed an online service that helps drivers find available parking. • Equipment that measures the depth of snow to help dispatch plows and sand trucks.
Because the light produced by LEDs has different properties ■■ A Closer Look Municipal Light & Power lineman Nicholas Smith, left, gives Anchorage Mayor Ethan than those of traditional Berkowitz a closer look at one of the city’s new LED streetlights during a press streetlights, Agron said • Acoustic sensors that report conference announcing the installation of about 4,000 new fixtures. communication with the the location of gunshots being public is critical to address fired. some citizen concerns. The public reaction to the new LEDs is overwhelmingly positive, he Agron said some of these optional features could represent revenue said, but his department has received some complaints since the opportunities for the municipality, which could lease what he called installation began. The most common objection is that the new “vertical real estate” on the streetlight poles, further defraying the lights look brighter than the old lights. A few residents complained cost of the streetlights. These devices can easily be moved, so in that the LED fixtures shined unwanted light into some places, or the case of gunshot detection, for example, “you can put them in no longer illuminated spaces adjacent to roads and sidewalks. One the neighborhoods that you think have the most crime or the highest homeowner, for example, was concerned because he could no longer amount of shootings, and when things change those devices can be see the moose in his yard. In some cases, these concerns could be moved at any time.” addressed by adjusting a light’s intensity, timing or adding a back shield. Agron will be the featured presenter in a free 1-hour webinar hosted by Sustainable City Network on Jan. 25. He’ll be joined by Mark Wilbur Others worried that LED lights might create health hazards or that of GE Wireless Control Systems, who’ll answer technical questions the control nodes contained camera equipment to spy on them. Many about the LED streetlight system. Register to attend the live event or of these concerns can be dispelled through a public information download the recording at http://sCityNetwork.com/streetlights. n campaign prior to and during the implementation, Agron said. [7]
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How to Prevent and Kill Development: On Purpose and by Accident Rural Community Leaders Can Be Their Own Worst Enemies BY JULIANNE COUCH
Public/private partnerships can make a positive difference for communities trying to encourage development or redevelopment, particularly in their downtowns.
JEFF GEERTS is a special projects manager at Iowa Economic Development Authority.
JIM THOMPSON is a business specialist for the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Main Street Iowa program.
But sometimes apathy — exacerbated by public officials who are popular but not good at their jobs, or city staff who want to be in charge of policy — get in the way. That was the message of Jeff Geerts and Jim Thompson at the Growing Sustainable Communities Conference held recently in Dubuque, Iowa. Geerts is a special projects manager at Iowa Economic Development Authority. His colleague, Jim Thompson, is a business specialist for IEDA’s Main Street Iowa program. Thompson said problems like these contribute to what he and Geerts call “killing development on purpose and by accident.”
Geerts said it’s important to reflect on how a community can choose an approach to development that stays true to its values. When a downtown building is taken down, for example as part of a derelict building program, “it is amazing how many pocket park projects there are that come in to replace it. These are missed opportunities for economic development,” he said. Geerts gave a definition of sustainability he finds particularly useful. “Sustainability isn’t just about being green, or environmental, or economically feasible, or community minded. Sustainability is about creating the kind of community and lifestyle that can thrive even
during hardship and times of change. If the economy goes sour, will our community thrive? If climate changes our weather patterns, will we be able to accommodate the change without losing what makes us a community?” Geerts wants communities to consider whether they are the type to tear down old buildings, or to develop or redevelop them for modern usage, while retaining the charm of the past that makes people want to live there. “Is there a preservation ethic/motto or are they a teardown kind of town? It is important to get people loving their towns and demonstrating that through their actions.” One way for town leaders to decide on their identity is to consider the 20th Century economic development approaches that are now symbols of the past. Choices such as trying to lure manufacturing jobs, thinking at the locally-based level, offering incentives, infrastructure and job training to entice development — these assume that people move to where the jobs are. But the reality, Geerts explained, is that there are fewer manufacturing firms out there to chase. Another type of business that communities chase are known as “footloose industries.” These companies move every few years whenever they get a better offer from elsewhere. They do have some positive characteristics, such as not causing as much pollution as traditional manufacturing, creating final products that are small and easy to transport, using skilled workers, and only requiring the sort of electricity that is readily available. However, the growth in this type of industry is leveling off. “Also,we don’t want to chase them because they might not stick around,” Geerts explained. Thompson described the “new paradigm” that has taken the place of the 20th Century model. He said people first look for amenities they desire, and then find a job when they get to that place. “People work where they have to, live where they choose to,” Thompson said. “People choose your town because you’ve got it together.” The lesson he draws from this is straightforward but may be counter-intuitive to some. “Job creation does not necessarily lead to population growth. Capital investment in equipment does not necessarily tie to greater job creation.”
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Photo: IEDA
Sustainable City Network Magazine
■■ Demolition by Neglect
Demolition by neglect happens every day. Communities should make sure their policies and economic development incentives don’t contain barriers that drive developers away.
The 21st Century approach, Thompson said, is to distinguish between economic development and community economic development. Thompson and Geerts agreed it is important to lure people into communities, which means attracting, retaining, and developing talent. Community economic development is predicated on quality of services, is amenity-based and assumes jobs move to where there are people. The result is a sustainable, attractive community where people want to live and where development downtown and elsewhere can succeed. “People want school quality and safe, livable communities. People feel safer when there are more people on the street and there is less crime and grime,” Thompson said. Thompson noted that in many areas of the country housing is one of the biggest issues slowing down development, especially in rural areas. Number two is workforce development. He said it is time to forget about developing categories of housing that will attract young singles, or retired people, or families. Regardless of life-phase, almost [ 10 ]
everyone wants housing that is safe, affordable, with safe areas for pedestrians, located in mixed use areas with plenty of green space. “We need to create all the types of housing people want, and people will move there. Millennials and young professionals want the same things as baby boomers and empty nesters. It is time to get over labels.” Thompson described the key components of what is known as primacy of place. These include arts, culture, tourism, community design, community collaboration for educational excellence, community well-being, good municipal governance and community readiness for change “If city government is getting in the way of development, that needs to change. That goes double for state government,” he said. Thompson detailed some top priorities within a roadmap for growth that communities should consider.
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These include collaborating with non-traditional partners, developing a strategic mindset and action, considering whether thinking regionally rather than only locally will add value, and assessing whether policies match stated priorities. There should be a resiliency mindset and meaningful community conversations taking place. Thompson and Geerts want communities to succeed with their community economic development. One place to start is understanding the point of view of various players. For example, what do planners say about economic development? A short list is that you should involve economic development staff in the development review process. Be aware of what incentives your city offers. Adopt a customer service orientation to development review; utilize a mapping system of available sites; know what industries your community is trying to attract and create policies, plans and codes that are supportive of economic development.
on an acre of land, someone from out of town buys it, and that’s were economic development ends. But when you develop within city limits, appropriate housing creates a domino effect. When an older person moves out of a farm house into appropriate housing, for example, a new family can take that farm house and appreciate that extra space, and the older person has a residence more suited to their needs. Thompson and Geerts agreed that demolition by neglect happens every day. In addition, sometimes projects languish because of unsuitable policies. For example, one Iowa community hoped to do infill development on a town square. But, city parking requirements for a certain number of spaces per business meant they’d need to buy an extra lot just for parking, so the developer did not carry out the project. A more sensible idea would be instead of a parking minimum, have parking maximums, Thompson said, or shared parking. He said in some communities, “public works and street departments are driving what we do, limiting appropriate downtown housing just because somebody might have to push snow 12 times a year.”
“If city government is getting in the way of development, that needs to change. That goes double for state government”
On the other side of the coin are suggestions economic development professionals have for planners. These include promoting and emphasizing infrastructure, enhancing the sustainable economic development capacity of your city, increasing the productivity of existing establishments, and increasing entrepreneurial activity. There is also the matter of what developers say about communities. This includes knowing whether a city or community will fight for a certain neighborhood, whether it has a plan for redevelopment, whether it has incentives in place for development, and is not swayed by a vocal minority in opposition to development. According to Thompson and Geerts, developers want to go where government appreciates their contribution to the economy and values local ownership. Thompson said communities should develop comprehensive plans and actually use them. “If it is not a good plan, get a good one.” Good can be defined by whether existing regulations, policies and vision support the plan. In addition, by whether the community supports the plan. Geerts said downtown revitalization funds can be used to rehab facades of downtown buildings. He said there has been “phenomenal results,” but that in recent times there have been fewer applications for these funds. He explained the value of these projects in terms of “positive peer pressure.” He said anything that reduces the obsolescence factor of old buildings means that everybody wins. He compared community economic development within a downtown to housing on the town’s fringes. “When you are building McMansions
Policies and incentives for community economic development include making sure there are no barriers in codes, ordinances or policies. At the same time, they need to prohibit undesirable actions and incentivize positive actions. There needs to be a level playing field, with policies that reflect community visions goals and a budget that reflects community priorities. Thompson and Geerts described a list of “tools and surgical instruments” that can be used to help communities with economic development suited to the 21st Century model of not waiting for a “white knight” developer to do everything for them, and pay for it, too. A few of these incentives include urban renewal, tax increment financing, housing abatement, energy incentives, and historic districts. Useful policies include business retention and expansion, defined and multi-department inclusive development processes, and schools that offer business training. Regardless of which method a community uses to define itself and how it wants to remain a place people choose to live, Geerts and Thompson said the reality is that “not making a decision is a decision.” n Julianne Couch is the author of The Small-Town Midwest: Resilience and Hope in the Twenty-First Century (University of Iowa Press).
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
Future Shock: Will Better Batteries Dim Electric Utilities’ Prospects? Technologies Converge to Disrupt Power Industry BY S&P GLOBAL RATINGS
Imagine a fantasy world where solar roofs or panels efficiently and cheaply generate electricity to be stored for weeks in a customer’s diminutive and low-cost battery. Such a world would have little need for a centralized, fully integrated (generation, transmission, and distribution) electric utility, relying instead on self-sustaining battery-combined “distributed generation” systems. This scenario could emerge as companies and governments continue to invest billions in battery technology and as several technologies converge to advance research and development efforts. In S&P Global Ratings’ view, this combined effect could pose an increasing risk to the U.S. regulated utility industry beginning in the next decade and beyond.
Our long-term view incorporates our assumptions that a breakthrough in battery technology remains years away, possibly more than the next decade. Furthermore, even after a technological breakthrough, battery adoption may be somewhat slower compared to other technological breakthroughs. This resistance reflects society’s dependence on quality and reliable electricity and our expectation that individuals -- risk averse to power outages caused by technical failures -- would be less likely to adopt early and completely. Also, it is possible that utilities may modify their business model, forestalling such competition. On these premises, we believe the risk to the utility industry is more than 10 years away.
Chart: S&P Global Ratings
Technological advances have undone many established industries, often at a pace much faster than expected. Fewer than 10 years ago we all read the morning newspaper, listened to our favorite music on a CD, occasionally used a public pay phone, and rented our favorite movie on a VHS tape from a video store. Technology has changed many industries, and often when change starts the pace of transformation only quickens. This only adds to the uncertainty and difficulties of trying to precisely predict when a technological breakthrough will transform an entire industry. ■■ Most Vulnerable States
Utilities most vulnerable to a battery technological breakthrough would be fully integrated utilities located in areas with aboveaverage sun strength, serving customers with above-average incomes.
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Battery Technology Will Improve While today we remain far and possibly decades away from a battery technological breakthrough that stores energy for weeks at a time, the odds of a future major battery improvement are ever increasing. This reflects the rising research and development costs that companies and government entities are investing in addition to the diverse projects they’re undertaking to advance batteries and energy storage. A few of the diverse projects and investments include:
• Saft Groupe S.A., a French pure-play manufacturer of batteries, increased its R&D by about 16 percent annually from 2011-2015. • Coslight Technology International Group Ltd., a pure-play battery manufacturer in China, has increased its R&D costs by 67 percent annually since 2012. • The U.S. Department of Energy continues to invest about $80 million annually in energy storage technology, including batteries. While the lithium-ion battery, which essentially moves lithium-cobalt oxide between the positive and negative electrodes as the means of generating electricity, is the predominant battery type used today, researchers are developing many other technologies that could ultimately be cheaper and more effective than the lithium-ion battery. The end result may provide customers with an affordable, efficient, and portable way to store energy for weeks.
Chart: S&P Global Ratings
• Tesla Inc. increased its research and development (R&D) costs by more than 40 percent annually since 2010. The company’s approximate $5 billion investment in its lithium-ion battery Gigafactory, which is currently under construction, has the potential to further reduce the cost of this battery type through advancements and improved efficiencies in both battery production and capability. Additionally, the company is building the largest battery project to date with capacity of about 100 MW.
• Industry leaders, including Panasonic Corp. (Japan), Johnson Controls Inc. (U.S.), and LG Chem Ltd. (South Korea) collectively continue to invest billions in the battery industry.
■■ Most Vulnerable Utilities
Based on the states identified, there are 14 U.S. utilities that we think could face increased risk if there was a battery technological breakthrough. Although this list includes all three of California’s large electric utilities, these utilities have been proactive in managing their generation supply commitments, moving their utilities closer to a T&D-only model.
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
New battery technologies could come in the form of: • Advanced hydrogen-bromine flow batteries. These batteries rely on chemical reactants to store energy in external tanks, permitting larger amounts to be stored at a lower cost than lithium-ion batteries. • Lithium-air batteries. These batteries draw in oxygen from the outside air to create a chemical reaction with the battery’s lithium during the discharging cycle, releasing the oxygen during the charging cycle. • Molten metal batteries. These are liquid batteries that heat metal to about 900 degrees and can store energy at a low cost. • Saltwater batteries. These are nontoxic batteries that use a concentrated saline solution as its electrolyte. • Sodium-ion batteries. These batteries could perform at the same standards as today’s lithium-ion batteries but at a significantly lower cost. • Zinc-air batteries. These batteries are currently limited to delivering low levels of power over long periods of time. However, by integrating new chemistry, they have the potential to deliver high levels of power. Industries Are Converging We expect that industries will converge around battery technology. One such convergence is evident in electric car company Tesla’s acquisition of rooftop solar company SolarCity Corp. in 2016. Electric cars run on batteries, and solar-generated electricity is most effective when its excess generation energy is stored and used at a later time when solar cannot generate electricity. While solar generation is a green renewable energy, harnessing the power of the sun, it has an inherent weakness in that it is intermittent power, only fully effective during sunlight hours on non-cloudy days. To offset this deficiency, excess solar generation must be stored in batteries to be used later. This is exactly Tesla’s strategy of joining the solar panel or solar roof with a battery to maximize its efficiency and usage. The union of these two seemingly disparate companies — and other such mergers in the future — will likely result in all-out efforts to optimize battery technology. A second convergence around battery technology is U.K. vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson Ltd.’s announcement that it will invest about $1.4 billion on battery development. This again demonstrates that different industries are converging and investing around a possible battery technological breakthrough.
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Who Will Be The Utility Survivors And Thrivers? Even if there is a technological breakthrough in batteries, resulting in reduced prospects for regulated utilities, we don’t expect all utilities will necessarily face the same risks. First, utilities will have time to adapt to this new reality, and we expect that the better management teams will reduce risk by gradually decreasing the size of their generation portfolio, investing in battery solutions, or other advanced technologies, reducing their operations and maintenance costs. This will drive down their cost to deliver electricity, marketing the utility as an affordable and reliable competitor to the new distributed generation system. Secondly, we think transmission and distribution (T&D)-only utilities will be less affected. Even with a battery technological breakthrough, most customers would prefer to pay a competitively priced monthly fee to have the utility as a backup in the event of a very cloudy month or a mishap with the battery. Our lives today are so dependent on electricity that few would be willing to risk the potential consequences of living, even for a short while, without electricity. Generally risk-averse U.S. households conservatively maintaining a competitively priced backup for their power would be similar to the story of the significantly less critical landline phone. Despite wireless phones being extremely popular for nearly two decades, nearly 50% of U.S. households have retained their landline phone. Utilities most vulnerable to a battery technological breakthrough would be fully integrated utilities located in areas with above-average sun strength, serving customers with above-average incomes. These utilities would initially be most susceptible to declines in electricity sales given the desire of customers in sunny areas to take advantage of this improved power source and their ability to afford the steep upfront costs of installing an enhanced distributed generation system. Based on the states identified, there are 14 U.S. utilities that we think could face increased risk if there was a battery technological breakthrough (see table). Although this list includes all three of California’s large electric utilities, these utilities have been proactive in managing their generation supply commitments, moving their utilities closer to a T&D-only model. While we think a disruptive technological breakthrough that will threaten the electric industry’s business model is more than a decade away, the risk of this occurring over the long term is real. We’ll continue to evaluate this risk and how other changes will affect the electric utility industry. Certainly, the electric utility industry has provided lowcost, reliable electricity for more than 100 years, a service that has underpinned U.S. economic growth during this time. However, it is hard to imagine that by 2037 the electric utility industry will still deliver power in the same way it does today. n■
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EPA Continues Transformation Under Trump Administration While Axing Pollution Regs, Pruitt Restricts Membership on Advisory Boards BY RANDY RODGERS, PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its “final report” on how it plans to implement President Trump’s executive order curbing environmental regulations in order to promote energy production and economic growth. Required by law to issue a request for public comments when considering changes to environmental regulations, the EPA reported receiving more than 460,000 comments, including a record-breaking 63,346 individual responses. “These general themes included a need for streamlining complex permitting programs, restoring EPA’s coregulatory relationship with the states, increasing transparency pertaining to the economic impact of agency actions, and enhancing EPA’s understanding of the entities it regulates,” according to the report.
not affiliated with private companies - from serving as an adviser. But he has no similar plan to bar scientists and consultants working for corporations that have a financial interest in EPA decisions. The move has environmental groups up in arms. “Pruitt’s purge has a single goal: get rid of scientists who tell us the facts about threats to our environment and health,” said Jennifer Sass, senior scientist in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Health program. “There’s a reason he won’t apply the same limits to scientists funded by corporate polluters. Now the only scientists on Pruitt’s good list will be those with funding from polluters supporting Trump’s agenda to make America toxic again.” Sass said these recent steps by the EPA are widely seen as a continuation of the Trump Administration’s effort to dismantle environmental protections in deference to corporate profits and job creation in the chemical, coal and oil industries.
“EPA is committed to President Trump’s agenda,” said Administrator Scott Pruitt in announcing the report. “We can be both pro-jobs and proenvironment. At EPA, that means we are working to curb unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens that do not serve the American people, while continuing to partner with states, tribes and stakeholders to protect our air, land and water.” But just who qualifies as a “stakeholder” is now up for renewed debate as Pruitt in late October announced plans to exclude certain scientists from serving on EPA science panels and advisory boards. As reported by the Washington Post, the unprecedented move will bar any researcher who receives EPA grant money – typically academic scientists
As early as December 2016, when then President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Pruitt as administrator of the EPA, Trump was promising to target the agency’s restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution and other environmental hazards. ■■ EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt
In February 2017, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the 14th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission he had staunchly opposed for decades. As attorney general, Pruitt established Oklahoma’s first “federalism unit” to combat unwarranted regulation and overreach by the federal government, elevating him to national prominence in what he called “the EPA’s job-killing war on coal.” In that capacity, Pruitt sued the EPA at least 14 times.
In a post on his campaign’s Facebook page, Trump laid out his rationale for making sweeping changes to the mission and focus of the agency: “For too long, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy [ 15 ]
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agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs, while also undermining our incredible farmers and many other businesses and industries at every turn. As my EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, the highly respected Attorney General from the state of Oklahoma, will reverse this trend and restore the EPA’s essential mission of keeping our air and our water clean and safe,” Trump said.
Pruitt shares Trump’s rejection of the scientific consensus that human activities are a primary contributor to climate change. In early 2017, the new administration removed the EPA’s climate change web site, which has existed since the 1990’s...
Pruitt was quoted as saying, “The American people are tired of seeing billions of dollars drained from our economy due to unnecessary EPA regulations, and I intend to run this agency in a way that fosters both responsible protection of the environment and freedom for American businesses.” As Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Pruitt established the state’s first “federalism unit” to combat unwarranted regulation and overreach by the federal government, elevating him to national prominence in what he called “the EPA’s job-killing war on coal.” Pruitt shares Trump’s rejection of the scientific consensus that human activities are a primary contributor to climate change. In early 2017, the new administration removed the EPA’s climate change web site, which has existed since the 1990’s, although an archived version of the site is still accessible. On March 28, President Trump signed Executive Order 13783 “promoting clean and safe development of the United States’ vast energy resources, while at the same time avoiding regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth and prevent job creation,” according to an EPA press release announcing its latest report. To that end, Section 2 of EO 13783 required an immediate review of “all agency actions that potentially burden the safe, efficient development of domestic energy resources.” Section 2 required the heads of agencies to review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any similar agency actions that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy resources. The EPA report discusses nine actions on energy-related regulations covered by Trump’s order, including the following four initiatives EPA plans to undertake to implement the order:
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1. New Source Review reform – EPA is establishing an NSR Reform Task Force to review and simplify the NSR application and permit process. 2. National Ambient Air Quality Standards reform – EPA plans to use the newly formed Ozone Cooperative Compliance Task Force to review administrative options to meaningfully improve air quality as it relates to ozone. EPA will also work to streamline the approval of state air pollution plans, and eliminate EPA’s backlog of state pollution plans.
3. Robust Evaluations of the Employment Effects of EPA regulations – Regulations impose high costs on American workers, particularly in the energy sector. Five environmental statutes state that EPA conduct continuing evaluations of potential shifts in employment that may result from implementation of these statutes. The agency historically has not conducted these assessments. EPA intends to conduct these evaluations consistent with the statutes. 4. Reestablishing the Smart Sectors Program – EPA recently relaunched the Smart Sectors program to re-examine how it engages with American businesses to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens, while protecting human health and the environment. As one of the other key agencies charged with regulating the nation’s energy industry, the Department of Energy also announced its recommended initiatives under EO 13783. “From our review, we have identified several hurdles to domestic energy development and use, and offered recommendations to eliminate those burdens,” said Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. These recommendations are to: 1. Streamline natural gas exports; 2. Review national laboratory policies; 3. Review National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations; and 4. Review the DOE Appliance Standards Program. n■
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Organic Growth: More Farms Transitioning in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin Iowa Sees 42% Increase from 2008-2015 BY JOHN KRUSE, TH MEDIA
CASCADE, Iowa — Kim and Marvin Lynch’s dairy farm in Cascade was certified as organic in 2009, but the process wasn’t easy.
KATE MENDENHALL is managing director of Iowa Organic Association.
The Lynches had to discontinue using fertilizers, insecticides and synthetic herbicides in the fields of their thirdgeneration farm for three years before it could be certified. Their cows could no longer be given a regular regimen of antibiotics.
“It’s definitely more labor-intensive. It’s also more financially stable,” she said. “Our only regret is that we didn’t do it earlier.” The Lynches are part of a growing trend in the tri-state area of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Iowa experienced a 42 percent increase in the number of organic farms from 2008 to 2015 — the most recent year for which data is available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There were 674 such farms in 2015, but that still only constituted about 0.7 percent of farms in the state. In that same time frame, the number of organic farms in Wisconsin grew from 994 to 1,205, a 38 percent increase, and in Illinois the count went from 162 to 196, a 20 percent increase. Kate Mendenhall, managing director of Iowa Organic Association, said the sharp increase in demand for organic products is driving the trend. “Consumers are definitely driving the market,” she said. “There’s a huge demand for organic products, and we’re not filling that demand locally.” The process of transitioning to organic certification is challenging, and organic farms must be evaluated every year in order to maintain that certification. But more and more farmers are making the change to reap the benefits of offering organic fare, Mendenhall said.
IGraphic: Mike Day, TH Media
Kim Lynch said the transition was challenging, but since then, her family’s farm has flourished.
“We’re seeing all sectors growing,” she said. “A lot of farmers are seeing the benefits that come with going organic, and they want to make that change.” John Ihm gained organic certification for his farm in Lancaster, Wis., in 2005. For him, selling organic milk was far more financially stable. “We have prices set throughout the year,” he said. “I know what it’s going to sell for, and it usually sells for a lot more than conventional milk.” Joseph Ross, of Dubuque, Iowa, transitioned his farm in 2007, growing barley, wheat and corn. He said the move was partly spurred by financial reasons, but he also was attracted by organic’s reputation as healthy and environmentally friendly. “It’s a type of farming that you feel good about doing,” he said. “You know that you’re delivering a good product.” [ 17 ]
Photo: Dave Kettering, TH Media
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■■ Harvest Begins
Organic farmer Marvin Lynch chops corn in this field near Cascade, Iowa.
But Ross noted that not every “organic” product meets the same standards.
Ihm said he believes more farms will transition to organic as they continue to see the success of existing operations.
Due to the high demand in the U.S., many organic products are imported from other countries. Ross said those countries often don’t have as strict of a certification process as the U.S.
“They’re seeing other organic guys be successful,” he said. “For them, organic just seems like the best way to stay afloat.” n
Mendenhall said that, as the number of U.S. organic farms increases, it could lessen the reliance on foreign imports.
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Reprinted with permission from the Telegraph Herald.
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Pharmaceuticals & Personal Care Products Impact Aquatic Life Toxicity Tests Often Ignore Ecological Side Effects BY THE CARY INSTITUTE OF ECOSYSTEM STUDIES
MILLBROOK, N.Y. -- Traditional toxicity testing underestimates the risk that pharmaceutical and personal care product pollution poses to freshwater ecosystems. Criteria that account for ecological disruption – not just organism death – are needed to protect surface waters, which are under pressure from a growing population and escalating synthetic chemical use. So reports a new study published recently in Elementa. Wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove the chemicals found in pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Instead, these chemicals enter waterways where their effects on aquatic ecosystems are largely unknown.
For example, when exposed to antidepressants, fish exhibit altered feeding behavior and can become more aggressive. SSRIs have been found to make tadpoles more susceptible to predation. Antidepressants and amphetamines can alter the timing of aquatic insect emergence. Erinn Richmond, a Ph.D. candidate in the Water Studies Centre at Monash University and lead author on the study notes, “The bottom line is that even at low doses, PPCPs have the potential to disrupt the ecology of a system, leading to broader environmental consequences. Many of these compounds are pseudo-persistent – because we are constantly adding them to our rivers and streams – but there are few studies on how they impact aquatic ecosystems.”
Photo: Sylvia Lee.
Emma Rosi, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and coauthor on the study explains, “Some 15 years ago, a
landmark study found pharmaceuticals and personal care products in 80 percent of streams sampled across the U.S. Additional research confirmed similar patterns globally. The majority of these compounds are understudied, unregulated, and/or deemed ‘low risk.’ Yet there is a growing body of knowledge that PPCPs disrupt aquatic ecosystems, even at low concentrations.”
■■ Sampling Pharmaceuticals
As part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, researchers collect stream samples to assess pharmaceutical pollution.
To assess toxicity, chemical compounds are evaluated with an ‘LC50’ test. Organisms of a single species are exposed to increasingly high concentrations of a substance until 50 percent of the experimental ‘population’ dies. This concentration is used to set environmentally acceptable limits. “Single-organism lethality does not account for the diversity of species in nature, bioaccumulation, or non-lethal but disruptive [ 19 ]
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Traditional toxicology tests do not account for the effects of compounds mixing. The reality is that PPCPs rarely appear singly in the environment. Consider the lengthy ingredient list on products like toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, ibuprofen, or antihistamines. This synthetic chemical cocktail flows into waterways, where the compounds are free to interact in ways that were never tested in a lab.
Photo: Erinn Richmond
impacts that compromise ecosystems,” explains co-author A.J. Reisinger of the University of Florida, Gainesville.
■■ Artificial Stream
The Artificial Stream Facility at the Cary Institute is used to study the ecological consequences of PPCP pollution.
Rosi explains, “If you went to your doctor and mentioned that you were taking 30 different drugs, your doctor would likely tell you to stop. And yet, this is what’s happening in the environment. The bugs, fish, plants, and algae – they are all exposed to this mixture of drugs and we don’t know the impacts. We should think about how pharmaceuticals disrupt ecosystems, not just whether they kill things.” The concept of ecologically disrupting compounds mirrors that of endocrine disruptors. Take for example bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in plastic products which can act as a hormone in the human body. If someone consumed BPA, it would take a large amount of the compound for it to be lethal. However, even in low concentrations, it can interfere with the function of the endocrine system and cause adverse health effects. John Kelly, a co-author from Loyola University Chicago, explains, “Like endocrine disruptors, which impact the human body in low, non-lethal concentrations, we argue that low but persistent concentrations of ecological disruptors cause significant, yet not immediately lethal, effects in the environment.”
The paper’s authors outline the need for testing that takes into account PPCPs’ potential to disrupt ecological processes across multiple components of aquatic ecosystems. One way to do this is by adding low concentrations of pharmaceuticals to artificial stream communities which include algae, bacteria, and insects – an approach which Rosi and collaborators already employ. [ 20 ]
Rosi explains, “We monitor the system for any changes. We’re not looking to see if all the bugs die, but do they emerge sooner? Does the bacterial community look significantly different? Does the rate of photosynthesis change? Those things are signs of ecological disruption.” While this testing is key to better understanding the ecological effects of PPCPs, with so many different chemicals entering the environment, it would be impossible to test and regulate them all. Instead, Rosi says, “We need to focus on the source. Chemicals that we use in our everyday lives enter the waste stream, which is not treated sufficiently. There is a dire need to support our wastewater infrastructure and treatment facilities. Reducing use of products containing these compounds is also important.” Richmond concludes: “We want scientists and funding agencies to undertake research focusing on the effects of PPCPs in aquatic environments and the extent to which these substances disrupt ecological processes. Ultimately, we hope that a greater scientific understanding of this issue will lead to increased public awareness of the need to keep these compounds out of our ecosystems.” n■ Richmond, E. K., Grace, M. R., Kelly, J. J., Reisinger, A. J., Rosi, E. J., & Walters, D. M. (2017). Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are ecological disrupting compounds (EcoDC). Elem Sci Anth, 5, 66. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.252
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Red County, Blue City Work Together on Climate Resilience Kansas City Area Works Across the Aisle to Get Things Done BY JULIANNE COUCH
The Greater Kansas City area is known for the state line that divides its two metropolitan parts between Kansas and Missouri. There are many other borders: county lines, city limits and political stripes. It’s the latter that makes action around climate resilience seem insurmountable at times, but a coalition has come together to develop a strategy. JASMIN MOORE is sustainability manager for Johnson County, Kansas.
Jasmin Moore, sustainability manager for Johnson County, Kansas, and Dennis Murphey, chief environmental officer for Kansas City, Mo., said at the recent Growing Sustainable Communities Conference in Dubuque, Iowa, that they’ve been able to work across the aisle to identify available tools and leverage existing resources and programs to advance climate resilience in their two very different, but adjacent jurisdictions.
Johnson County is both the most populous and wealthiest county in the state of Kansas, with school districts that rank among the top in the nation. It is also highly white, conservative and Republican. Several counties comprise Kansas City, Mo., the most populous of which is Jackson County. This area struggles with poverty and school districts that have trouble remaining certified. Its population is diverse and progressive, and mostly votes Democratic. DENNIS MURPHEY is chief environmental officer for Kansas City, Mo.
Combined, these two areas comprise about half of the two-millionperson metropolitan area. Within the framework of these two very different political climates, Murphey explained, the language around climate change differs. For example, he uses the term “climate change” when speaking with city officials and community members. That same term makes residents
of Johnson County uncomfortable, according to Moore. She has to pick language that doesn’t evoke images of human-caused disaster. Her county officials and residents are more comfortable talking about “extreme weather patterns.” In the end, Moore and Murphey agree that for now, language matters less than developing a plan for dealing with all the ways a rapidly changing climate affect people in their area, particularly those who are most vulnerable to disruption. The governments of Johnson County, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., began their collaboration in 2013 when they worked with a consultant to help them use the same protocols and metrics to discuss climate change, which Murphey called “very beneficial.” Then in 2014, they partnered with the Mid America Regional Council, at the request of the Department of Energy, to be designated a Climate Action Champion. According to its website, the Climate Action Champions Initiative supports local and tribal government climate actions by targeting federal support to accelerate greenhouse gas emission reductions and climate resilience in Champion communities across the U.S. Its “champions” represent a diverse group of communities so that lessons learned have national applicability – providing replicable models for both communities demonstrating continued climate leadership and underserved communities seeking to scale their climate action. In 2015 the two governmental entities took part in the Sustainable Communities leadership academy, sharing ideas with 10 other communities and regions represented at the event. Murphey said they discussed looking at “the economic impacts of climate change and the reasons to work at making the economic case for a climate resilience strategy.” Murphey called this event a “launching point” to talk with climatologists about anticipated impacts of extreme weather trends and think about those things regionally. One result of thinking regionally was the document Climate in the Heartland: Historical Data and Future Projections for the Heartland Regional Network. It was prepared for the Heartland Regional Network of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network and published in 2015.
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Murphey said that report led to a general framework for a regional climate resilience strategy, which he called a “30,000-foot view approach in our metro areas to use as a launching point for climate resiliency plans.”
Guiding their discussions were two other publications by the Risky Business Project, which Murphey recommends as resources: Risky Business: The Economic Risks of Climate ■■ KC Resiliency Rally Resilient KC, a community wide effort to build a trauma aware and resilient community in the Greater Kansas City area, recently held a Change in the United Resiliency Rally at Arrowhead Stadium. More than 50 local agencies and groups that provide services connected to mental and physical States, and Risky Business: health participated. Heat in the Heartland. According to the project website: “The mission of events, longer periods of drought in between. For example, in August the Risky Business Project is to quantify the economic risks to the Kansas City saw record rainfall, creek flooding, water rescues, and U.S. from unmitigated climate change.” The first report “highlighted businesses losing the desire to rebuild after recurrent flooding. Murphey these risks across every region of the country, with a focus on three said that the report predicts Kansas City will continue to see warmer sectors: agriculture, energy demand, and coastal infrastructure. We temperatures. Not just record highs but record high lows. “That means also looked at overarching issues such as changes in labor productivity, less night cooling so people who have trouble affording air conditioning heat-related mortality, and crime. The follow-up report “zeros in on the bills are disproportionally impacted, which stresses them out even Midwest and offers a first step toward defining the range of potential more,” Murphey said. economic consequences to this particular region if we continue on our current greenhouse gas emissions pathway. Compared to Kansas City, Mo.’s straight forward approach to climate discussions, Johnson County’s had a more tentative feel. Moore said, Another recommended resource is Climate Look Report: A Better Choice “Before the recession, Johnson County did a lot of sustainability work for Climate Analysis, which was prepared specifically for Kansas but referred to it as sending out ‘green teams.’ They did innovative City, Mo. It concludes that individuals should expect a slight increase things because they could afford to and it was the right thing to do.” in average rainfall in different patterns, more intense storm water She explained that in the early 2000s, before she began working [ 22 ]
Photo: Oscar Monterroso
Building from work of the two governments, partnerships spanned the metro area, including Kansas City Power and Light, stakeholders in public health, emergency management, water management and people from various neighborhoods. There were “conversations discussing extreme weather in the KC area, looking at it from a system-based approach, knowing all things are interconnected,” Murphey said.
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there, they had built some momentum around sustainability and had commissioned a greenhouse gas inventory and energy audits. There had been support internally for sustainability efforts. When the recession hit, the influence of the Koch brothers in Johnson County made itself felt, Moore said. Johnson County had a sustainability director but Moore said that person was told not to talk publicly about climate change but to focus internally on the incoming energy conservation block grant stimulus money, which was important and time consuming. Five years later that person moved to a different position and Moore returned to her native Kansas City area to take the job.
Moore said the strategy includes resilience principals, action steps, planning opportunities, and goals and strategies around the areas of transportation, energy, water, ecosystems and public health.
“There had not been a lot of community education around climate or sustainability,” she said. She developed a definition of sustainability to use in Johnson County, at every meeting or event she attended: “The responsible management of resources to meet our environmental, economic and human needs of today and for generations to come.”
In conservative Johnson County, Moore said, “We don’t talk about climate change, we talk about extreme weather. We use different language to talk about the same results.” Her county is working to weave equity into climate resilience, making sure not to lose track of low status communities. Although Johnson County is affluent there is poverty, but it is more spread out and harder to see compared to Kansas City, Mo.
Moore realizes this definition can mean many things, “from managing resources, to tax dollars, to having a high quality of life in our community.” She said she uses the definition because “it helps to break down barriers.” Another thing Moore did when she took her position with Johnson County was to move the greenhouse gas measurement plan into action. She connected with Murphey through the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. Because they operated just across a state line in the same metro area they decided to work together, to use the same methodology so they could aggregate their data, among other advantages. One result of their efforts is that in 2017 the Mid America Regional Council board of directors, composed of elected officials and representatives from across the region, formally adopted the Regional Climate Resilience Strategy. “This group represents a wide political landscape so it was quite an achievement,” Murphey said.
Murphey noted the strategies that help make communities more resilient to climate change — such as planting trees and growing food — also mitigate the pace of climate change. “For people for whom the concept of climate change is so outside what they think about, this gives them the opportunity to connect with people because the actions of resilience hits them right at home” he said.
“There is no red line,” Moore said. “We’re looking to find hidden poverty and discrimination so when climate change events happen, we can know where they are, and be there to provide assistance.” Moore said community cohesion and connectedness are essential to surviving disasters, so building neighborhood relationships is important. “We’re one region with a dividing state line, which doesn’t matter that much. Residents don’t care about the line. If the city fails, the region is failing. Our approach is a system based, joint approach. Kansas City can be the greenest city in the world, but if Johnson County works to undo it all, nobody wants to come to that place — there will be an economic development impact, a community impact, a quality of life impact. We want to stay a community of choice.” n Julianne Couch is the author of Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy.
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Chattanooga’s Takeout Taken In City Expands Curbside Collection to Include Takeout Packaging BY CALEB POWELL, TDEC
With busy households ordering takeout more than ever, municipalities are seeing a rapid escalation in the volume of foodservice packaging in their waste streams. Now, with new technology and education, many communities are finding ways to route cups, pizza boxes and paper bags away from the landfill and into the recycling system.
Discussions about best practices and how to overcome obstacles were needed in order to make a change. End markets, material recovery facility (MRF) requirements, and a community’s recycling culture are all variables in getting residential curbside recycling programs to accept foodservice packaging. When asked why Chattanooga was chosen for this initiative, Lynn Dyer, president of FPI, said, “The appropriate MRF and end markets were present. In our efforts to get more paper and plastic foodservice
Photo: Foodservice Packaging Institute
In Chattanooga, Tenn., the city has partnered with its local recycling facility to begin collecting these items in its curbside recycling program. Residents are now able to recycle more kinds of waste than ever before, with new acceptable items that include takeout packaging such as paper and plastic cups and containers, pizza and sandwich boxes, and paper bags.
The Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) is the trade association for the North American foodservice packaging industry and has spent five years on extensive research to truly understand the tangible and alleged barriers to getting more foodservice packaging recycled.
■■ Chattanooga Team
At an event to kick off its program to accept foodservice packaging in its curbside recycling program, personnel from the city of Chattanooga were joined by officials from the Foodservice Packaging Institute and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC).
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Photo: Foodservice Packaging Institute
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■■ Launching the Program
Lynn M. Dyer, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, and Chattanooga City Councilman Ken Smith cut a ribbon to signify the launch of an initiative to accept foodservice packaging in the city’s curbside recycling program.
packaging recycled (or composted), we’ve been doing outreach to numerous cities. Chattanooga and their MRF, WestRock, both saw the value of adding these new materials to their residential curbside recycling program, which made for a terrific community partnership.”
of an initiative to help make Chattanooga more accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability. Organizers said this was another great way to get citizens on board with the new program and to teach them what can and cannot be recycled.
FPI helped the city of Chattanooga launch an outreach campaign to update residents on the new materials that could now be accepted and how to properly prepare them for the recycling process. The city and FPI co-hosted a recycling expansion kickoff event and ribbon cutting in September to promote the initiative.
“The city of Chattanooga is excited about our partnership with the Foodservice Packaging Institute,” said Kimberly Smith, recycling coordinator for the city of Chattanooga. “We’re proud to be able to provide our citizens with another item they can recycle at curbside.” She said the public reaction has been positive and the city is continuing to look for items it can add to the curbside recycling list.”
Councilman Ken Smith spoke at the event, which was attended by personnel from WestRock, Orange Grove Center, the city of Chattanooga, and many other organizations that deal with solid waste and recycling. Jeanette Eigelsbach, director of Scenic Cities Beautiful, gave a short demonstration of how to prep the new recyclables before they are thrown in the bins. Later that month, FPI had a booth set up at Chattanooga’s 13th Annual GOFest, a celebration at the Chattanooga Zoo that is part
The rule for recycling foodservice packaging is fairly simple: all pulp fiber drink carriers, plastic takeout containers, and paper plates need to be clean and free of food particles before they can be tossed in the curbside receptacles. Since these materials get mixed in with other recycled materials in the single-stream process, it is important for them to be clean and empty. Food waste needs to be washed out of all [ 25 ]
Photo: City of Chattanooga
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■■ Community Outreach
Star Wars costumes help draw attention to the city of Chattanooga’s expanded curbside recycling program, which now accepts foodservice packaging.
packaging to reduce the chance of contaminating the other recyclables. This allows the MRFs to still bale all of their like materials together, creating a feasible operation and allowing for foodservice packaging to be used in the recovery process. MRFs are tasked with adding foodservice packaging to existing material bale types because there is simply not enough to create bales explicitly for those items. The poly and clay coated carton board used for cold and hot beverage cups are some of the more challenging materials when recycling foodservice packaging. Some mills have the capability of processing bales with the extra foodservice packaging mixed in. Chattanooga’s MRF has the proper end markets and mill available to facilitate these additives, making it the perfect city to pilot this type of program.
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With proper education and technology, every city can follow in Chattanooga’s footsteps to try to reclaim a higher percentage of limited resources. Public/private partnerships help make that possible. Experts say recovered fiber from foodservice packaging represents a huge untapped potential in the industry. Approximately 3 million tons of foodservice packaging is produced each year in the U.S. and, with the right preparation, it can be diverted from landfills. n■ Caleb Powell is an Environmental Specialist with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Office of Sustainable Practices.
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Overcoming the Biggest Biogas Market Challenges How California’s Biogas Market is Going to be Fixed… and When BY NEW ENERGY UPDATE
Editor’s Note
The following is an excerpt from a white paper produced by New Energy Update (formally known as Renewable Waste Intelligence).
TIM OLSON is a senior policy adviser on transportation-related topics for the California Energy Commission.
PAUL RELIS is senior vice president of CR&R, an environmental services company that provides recycling and waste services to 40 cities in Southern California.
California’s biogas market could be at a turning point in 2018 as regulatory bodies push to eliminate current barriers facing project developers.
The regulation affecting dairy farms will not be in place until 2024 at the earliest. In the meantime, California is channeling money into the dairy industry to encourage development of on-site methane recovery, for use in either electricity production or transportation.
“We’re getting successes in ones and twos and tens of projects, and we need a couple of hundred, 500, a thousand,” said Tim Olson, a senior policy adviser on transportation-related topics for the California Energy Commission, a state government agency.
The methane could be worth up to $8 a gallon in credits from the U.S. Federal Renewable Fuel Standard and California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) schemes, Olson said.
“We’re looking for evolution and growth in the market,” he commented. Olson said California was “on the verge of pretty massive growth” in biofuel production, but that the market was still very much dependent on intervention in the form of targets and investment of seed money to help spur expansion to hundreds of projects.
Nevertheless, the California Energy Commission expects various business models to evolve in response to the methane opportunity. Smaller dairies might cluster together to jointly fund methane recovery plants, for example. Alternatively, dairy producers could team up with other players looking to exploit biofuels. There are 100 or so wastewater treatment plants in the state that could be interested, for example.
California is studying new waste-related regulations to support moves to a lowercarbon economy, he said. One of the areas under review concerns short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon.
Methane is between 26 and 85 times more intense than CO2 as a greenhouse gas pollutant, which has forced the Californian administration to set out separate policies to combat it. Specifically, by 2030 the administration is seeking to reduce short-lived climate pollutants by 50 percent below 2003 levels. Dairy farms account for about half of all methane emissions in the state, and are due to become a major target for the policy. California is the biggest dairy producer in the U.S., with close to 1,400 farms. “There’s potential legislation which means if you don’t act we’re going to force you to act,” said Olson.
An issue still to be resolved is how long these credits, and the value they offer, will remain available to the market. “We’re wrestling with how do you make that credit long term,” said Olson.
An Added Boost In addition, landfill sites face policy moves to divert 75 percent of their waste towards biofuel production by 2020. The policy could enter law after 2022, said Olson, giving an added boost to the biofuels market. In the meantime, the biggest opportunity for project developers is in liquid biofuels. “We’re deploying money into biofuel production plants, fueling infrastructure, electric charging infrastructure, vehicle demonstrations for new, nonpetroleum- fueled vehicles and manufacturing incentives for a whole range of things,” Olson said. This support adds up to $100 million a year, he said, and is authorized through to 2024. Although typically, Olson said, “when we deploy money we’re doing it in conjunction with a private firm.” The California Energy Commission does not intend to cover the cost of “every single project,” said Olson. “It’s really seed money to get projects started. We do it in a co-funded way with a private firm or group of private firms.” The Commission expects to see mostly private money supporting the replication of early projects. [ 27 ]
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And it sees renewable biogas as being used predominantly for natural gas displacement in transport, “which is a small market in the U.S.,” Olson said, perhaps representing 1 percent or 2 percent of the total transportation fuel volume in California today.
In June 2017, regulators held a workshop in Sacramento to discuss scaling up biofuels production and “replicate early successes,” Olson said.
Growing Every Year
The focus will likely be on transportation, since the carve-out for biogasbased electricity in California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard is rather modest, at 2 percent of total supply.
The market is growing every year, though, driven somewhat by federal regulations but mostly by state legislation. “This is heavily dependent on government intervention,” Olson said. Californian public policy relating to renewable biogas has two main objectives. The primary one is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Related to this is a reduction in reliance on petroleum fuels. The state has numerous laws to help fulfill these objectives. One is a cap-and-trade program, similar in design to the Kyoto Protocol, which gives free allowances to greenhouse gas polluters but also has a cap above which the polluter must pay. This is viewed as being friendlier to industry than simply imposing a carbon tax. In California, the cap is ratcheted down every year and the program is authorized through to 2020, with possible plans for extension to 2030. The program targets the petroleum sector and electric generation, along with large greenhouse gas polluters such as cement factories and food processors. Polluters can choose to reduce their emissions in a variety of ways, from improving efficiency to using biofuels alongside traditional fuels to reduce the carbon intensity of petroleum products. A separate scheme, the LCFS, targets fuels rather than polluters. The LCFS aims to achieve a 10 percent reduction in carbon intensity across all fuels in California by 2020. Like the cap-and-trade program, the LCFS works on a ratcheting scale, having started at 0.25 percent and currently standing at 3.5 percent. The LCFS has the potential to create significant demand for biofuels, since it puts a value on fuels with a carbon intensity below that of petroleum, which has around 100 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoule (g CO2 e/MJ) per gallon. Substituting petroleum with alternatives such as natural gas or corn ethanol can reduce the carbon intensity by amounts in the region of 20 to 25 g CO2 e/ MJ, but with biofuels polluters can achieve negative values. The LCFS, which has been in operation for more than a decade, assigns monetary credits to these carbon intensities, so they can be traded on private markets and used to deliver revenues that help polluters shift to lower-carbon fuels. However, the LCFS has come under fire because it rewards Californian and out-of-state providers equally, without accounting for the fact that California has one of the highest gas network interconnection costs in the U.S. Olson said policymakers were determined to address such concerns. “We’ve learned a lot,” he said. “There are some things that work, that we want to continue. Others we’ve had to adjust on the way.” [ 28 ]
Focus on Transportation
If selected in auction, biogas providers with under 3 MW of generation capacity could benefit from this carve-out with a 20-year fixed-price contract, which would likely be attractive to investors. Transportation fuel production, however, could offer four to five times as much revenue, said Olson, albeit without the security of a longterm contract. Policy makers are currently looking at ways of achieving minimum 10-year contracts for transportation fuel, he said. Another challenge lawmakers need to address is that, even though natural gas is about $0.30 per gallon cheaper than diesel, most fleet owners are reluctant to switch to gas because the vehicles are between $35,000 and $50,000 more expensive. The California Energy Commission, among other state agencies, provides funds to help cover the difference, but the support has yet to result in widespread biogas offtake agreements needed to attract investors. To deliver market stability, policymakers are considering three options: setting a floor price for the LCFS credit, imposing a renewable gas standard for California, or introducing a multi-year procurement requirement for utilities. State agencies will likely be compelled by legislation to decide on the exact policy or policies by mid-2018, said Olson. A solution is needed because the Californian biofuels market is caught in a chicken-and-egg situation. Strengthening Commitment to Biofuels Policymakers and investors alike are wary of strengthening their commitment to biofuels before there is widespread evidence that projects will work commercially. This evidence, in turn, is slow in coming because of lingering challenges that projects face in terms of regulation and investment. Olson said government subsidies might be able to achieve a 5 percent to 10 percent market penetration of biofuels, beyond which private capital would need to carry the brunt of investment. The biofuels sector benefits from low technology risk, Olson stated, but is still lacking the 17 percent to 18 percent return on investment levels needed to attract investors. Long-term contracts could help change that, which is why the authorities are now focusing on this issue.
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“We think the ingredients are there,” Olson said. “The solution is being debated [and] if we do nothing, we have a big problem related to climate impacts.” And already, some Californian fleet owners, including FedEx and UPS, are showing a significant commitment to biofuels.
Optimized to Use Green Waste
This is good news: the Californian Energy Commission expects that once gas-powered vehicle orders surpass around 3,000 units a year then there could be cost reductions that would hasten market growth.
CR&R did not have to worry about availability of feedstock as it has long-term waste disposal contracts with several South Californian municipalities.
But Paul Relis, senior vice president of CR&R, an environmental services company that provides recycling and waste services to 40 cities in Southern California, said that for now there are still significant obstacles facing biofuel project development in the state. The company has invested $45 million in a plant that will help cut short-lived climate pollutants by substituting diesel with renewable biogas that has “close to zero emissions,” Relis said. The biogas project was about 20 percent supported through grants and consists of four phases, each aiming to process 80,000 tons of organic waste. The first two phases of the project were complete as of late 2017.
Nevertheless, “offering recycling of organics in this context was viewed as an added service,” he said, which meant CR&R had to increase its charges by several dollars a month.
CR&R is aiming to connect its biogas plant to the natural gas grid in the near future. This will allow the company to inject fuel into the gas network and match it with withdrawals from various fleet locations around the CR&R service area.
The prime technology provider, Eisenmann, had not built a project of this size before, and the plant had to be optimized to use municipal green waste, an unusual feedstock.
This was a lot of money in the highly competitive Californian municipal waste sector, he said. “Cities had to be convinced this was a worthwhile expenditure for their ratepayers,” Relis said. “Fortunately for us, the storyline was good enough.” So far, 13 cities have signed up to the scheme. In return, they get 100 percent recycling of organics and clean-fueled trucks hauling waste. Relis said moves to divert waste from landfill would help companies such as CR&R overcome the fact that tipping costs are currently well below those of recycling.
Renewable biogas production is expected to cover 60 trucks. It has not been an easy endeavor to get off the ground, though. “This project has been 10 years in the making,” said Relis. “I would call that a challenge in itself.”
The plant will also be the first in California to test Rule 30, which requires biogas injected into the state’s natural gas system to have a 90 percent heating value. Meeting this requirement costs about $1.2 million, Relis said. “We feel it’s a questionable requirement,” he said.
He said the company spent “many years” identifying the right platform and then assembling a team of technology vendors and gas upgrade system providers.
As California steps up efforts to encourage biofuels, it remains to be seen whether other developers will face similar roadblocks. For example, the California Public Utilities Commission is now studying whether to relax Rule 30. “Unfortunately, with our time-frame we couldn’t benefit,” said Relis.n
After that, it took three years to get the project started. “The timeframes involved are quite significant,” Relis noted.
Photo: New Energy Update
Part of the delay may have been down to the scale of the CR&R plant, which Relis said was “unprecedented.”
■■ Biogas Credits
In the near term, methane produced by California biogas operations could be worth up to $8 a gallon in credits from the U.S. Federal Renewable Fuel Standard and California Low Carbon Fuel Standard schemes, according to the California Energy Commission.
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