Why Biofuels and Hydrogen Are Key to Our Zero Carbon Future
Cascadia needs to move heavy vehicles and industry off fossil fuels. Meet the people inventing life after diesel.
Peter Fairley is an award-winning journalist based in Victoria and San Francisco, whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, NewScientist, Hakai Magazine, Technology Review, the Atlantic, Nature and elsewhere. SHARES The Parkland refinery in Burnaby is changing its diet. Designed to convert Canadian petroleum and bitumen into jet fuel, gasoline, diesel and other fuels, it meets BC’s clean fuel standard by increasingly blending in renewable feedstocks.
Photo via Alamy. [Editor’s note: This is the latest in a year-long occasional series of articles produced by InvestigateWest in partnership with The Tyee and other news organizations exploring what it will take to shift the Cascadia region to a zero-carbon economy, and is supported in part by the Fund for Investigativ
Renewable diesel also yields far less carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that drive climate change.
Destructive wildfire seasons inspired Titan’s shift to renewable diesel a year ago, after a fire devastated Phoenix, Oregon, five miles from one of the firm’s terminals. “Doing nothing is not a course of action,” is how Titan’s owner Keith Wilson described his visceral response.
Wilson knew climate change was stoking Cascadia’s fires, and that diesel vehicles produce over a third of Oregon’s transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuels cut Titan’s petroleum diesel consumption by 93% and cut its carbon footprint by over two-thirds.
InvestigateWest: Cascadia needs stronger clean-fuels push sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
×
It was an old apple orchard. Now it could be the future of clean hydrogen energy in Washington state. By Hal Bernton and James Bruggers, Hal Bernton and James Bruggers, The Seattle Times
Published: April 19, 2021, 6:05am
Share:
EAST WENATCHEE, Douglas County On warm spring days, when the Columbia River is swollen with snowmelt, hydropower generation soars at times when demand may be weak. Markets tank, and sending water through dam turbines can be a money-losing proposition.
In a quest to end these red-ink power sales, the Douglas County Public Utility District is making a $20 million investment in a new, clean energy business.
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley weekly climate, energy news roundup: April 17
Published Saturday, Apr. 17, 2021, 9:34 pm
Join AFP s 100,000+ followers on Facebook
Purchase a subscription to AFP
Subscribe to AFP podcasts on iTunes and Spotify
News, press releases, letters to the editor: augustafreepress2@gmail.com
The Weekly Roundup of Climate and Energy News for the week ending April 17 follows. Please forward the Roundup to anyone you think might be interested. For an archive of prior posts, visit the CAAV website.
Politics and Policy
Biden proposed $14Bn for initiatives to fight climate change in his 2022 budget. 300+ businesses and investors called on his administration to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. A new series of briefs by RMI provides insights into how to get there. An international energy company executives’ panel said the move to renewable energy is unstoppable, although investments in nuclear power, ca