Court dismisses suits against truck GHG rules

  • Market: Emissions
  • 04/27/15

A federal court has dismissed lawsuits seeking to overturn Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on 24 April turned away the lawsuits, saying the trucking and fuel companies that challenged the regulations lacked legal standing.

Two parties in the lawsuits, the California Trucking Association and a construction company, could not show that a successful challenge would address their alleged harm of having to pay more for new trucks. The two challenged only EPA's GHG rules and not the linked fuel economy standards issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which would have a nearly identical effect on new trucks.

"Even were we to vacate the EPA standards, the NHTSA standards would still increase the price of vehicles. Accordingly, the California petitioners cannot demonstrate either that EPA's standards cause their purported injury or that a favorable decision by this court would redress it."

The association and construction company had claimed EPA violated the Clean Air Act by failing to submit the GHG rules to its Science Advisory Board for review.

The regulations, finalized in 2011, call for up to a 20pc reduction in fuel use by medium- and heavy-duty trucks over model years 2014-18. Heavy-duty vehicles account for about 12pc of US oil consumption and 6pc of GHG emissions.

The court also dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by POP Diesel, a company that promotes the use of vegetable oil in diesel fuel. The court said it lacked jurisdiction over the company's challenge to the NHTSA regulations and lacked standing to challenge the EPA rules.

A new round of GHG and fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, such as delivery trucks and tractor-trailers, is under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

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Green growth a focus for Azerbaijan: Cop 29 president

London, 14 March (Argus) — "Green growth is a priority for Azerbaijan", although the country will continue to deliver gas to customers, president-designate of the UN Cop 29 climate summit Mukhtar Babayev said at the Financial Times Climate Capital Live conference today. Azerbaijan is an oil and gas producer, and a member of the Opec+ alliance. Cop 29 is set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11-22 November. "We will continue to deliver the gas to our customers", but at the same time will pursue a "green agenda", Babayev said. Azerbaijan plans to export "over 24bn m³" of gas in 2024, with half of planned deliveries this year earmarked for Europe, energy minister Parviz Shahbazov said earlier this year. Azerbaijan is a "vulnerable country" in terms of climate change, Babayev said, noting water shortages and land degradation. "Azerbaijan has already turned the economy to the green direction", he added. Azerbaijan's state-owned Socar in late December said that it would establish a unit, Socar Green, to focus on driving the country's renewable energy portfolio. The country has a goal to produce 30pc of its power needs from renewable sources by 2030. And Azerbaijan may "reconsider possibly" updating its nationally determined contribution (NDC) — or climate plan — according to Babayev. He emphasised that Cop 29 was a chance for all countries to announce "upgraded NDCs", although the next round of updates under the five-yearly cycle is not due until Cop 30, in 2025. Cop 30 will take place in Brazil. Azerbaijan under its current NDC has set a target to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40pc by 2050, from a baseline year of 1990, contingent to international financial support and technology transfer. Earlier this month, Azerbaijan joined the Global Methane Pledge group of countries that have promised to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas (GHG) by 30pc by 2030. "Climate finance is one of the priorities" for Cop 29, Babayev said. The Cop 29 team has "already started to negotiate with different financial institutes, countries… trying to prepare ourselves to start the negotiations on the text", he added. The topic of climate finance is likely to take centre stage at this year's Cop, as countries must decide on a new finance goal . By Georgia Gratton Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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Q&A: LNG-to-H2 a pragmatic path to decarbonise shipping


03/14/24
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03/14/24

Q&A: LNG-to-H2 a pragmatic path to decarbonise shipping

Singapore, 14 March (Argus) — Australian project developer Pilbara Clean Fuels (PCF) and marine fuels firm Oceania Marine Energy are working with classification society RINA on an "end-to-end" low-carbon LNG production and marine bunkering project at Port Hedland in Western Australia that provides a path to zero emissions for the adoption of LNG as a marine fuel. Argus spoke to RINA technical director Antonios Trakakis and head of decarbonisation and innovation Jan-Paul de Wilde, as well as PCF managing director Robert Malabar, about their project and the overall outlook for maritime decarbonisation on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Maritime 2024 conference and exhibition in Singapore. Edited highlights follow. RINA is developing a concept for a new dry-bulk ship design with an innovative LNG marine fuel system involving pre-combustion carbon removal and hydrogen production for the Pilbara to Asia dry-bulk trade route. Why have you chosen to pursue this technology to meet upcoming International Maritime Organisation (IMO) targets? Trakakis: In shipping, what we've been always trying to do is find solutions based on what we have on hand. In our solution we start with LNG, which offers an immediate reduction in GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions. We have arrived at an innovative ship design running on LNG which achieves 10pc less fuel consumption compared to the state of the art dual-fuelled ship of today, which is substantial. And yet at less cost, so we do more with less. The [IMO] regulation does not invite us to invest in green fuel to find which green fuel we're going to choose. The regulation requires from us to start immediately the reduction of CO2 emissions. If you run on LNG, if you leave aside the methane slip, on a tank-to-wake basis then the GHG savings of LNG are 26-27pc compared with fuel oil. Malabar: Switching to LNG from fuel oil gets you compliant with IMO's requirements to 2030-35. So why do anything more immediately? How does your design provide a pathway for achieving deeper GHG emissions cuts beyond 2035? Malabar: Combining low-carbon LNG with onboard hydrogen production through steam methane reforming and carbon capture provides a pathway for dry bulk shipping to comply with IMO 2023 GHG regulations, and also achieve a path to the IMO net zero by 2050 target. We would gradually add blue hydrogen produced onboard to the fuel mix of the vessel. Our design comes with flexibility. If the trajectory [of the IMO GHG reduction targets] does change then the proportion of hydrogen fuel can be increased earlier. Trakakis: Our technique employs pre-combustion carbon capture, in that we break the molecule of methane, we preserve the carbon atom as CO2 which we then liquefy and store onboard for disposal onshore, then we use the hydrogen directly onboard as a fuel. So our process is a carbon capture technique. We're the first ones to introduce and this has been introduced now in a ship design, and we hope soon to see ships built with this. But we want to stress that the use of hydrogen production onboard is not needed before 2035. Has there been interest in your vessel design from others in the industry? Trakakis: We have confirmed interest from a prominent Greek owner Maran Dry, Angelicoussis Group and we see that this concept has been adopted by Chinese yards and South Korean yards, with a lot of interest from Chinese yards especially. We hope that by June we'll have the design of many bulk carriers and tankers. What are your thoughts on some of the other alternative marine fuels being pursued like green methanol and green ammonia? Trakakis: For us, there is not enough green energy to justify the hype in green fuels [e-fuels like ammonia and methanol]. There is also not the will to sustain the cost of green fuels, which will be the most expensive solution. 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03/14/24
News
03/14/24

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