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03/28/2024 07:56 PM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20210&cosponId=36406
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: October 26, 2021 10:28 AM
From: Senator Gene Yaw and Sen. Scott Martin
To: All Senate members
Subject: Renewable Natural Gas Legislation
 
The Commonwealth has made great strides reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions having already met the reduction targets that were set out in President Obama’s Clean Power Program.
 
We have the opportunity to make further reductions in methane emissions in the transportation sector, assist our agriculture community and other industrial sectors such as municipal wastewater treatment facilities with waste streams that produce methane, which is a more potent GHG than carbon. 
 
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s 2021 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, the transportation sector accounts for 24% of the total GHG emissions in the Commonwealth.  Included in a report from Stifel Equity, released in March of this year, Argonne National Labs concluded that RNG provides an 85% reduction in GHG relative to displaced diesel fuel on a lifecycle basis.
 
In the near future, Senator Martin and I will be introducing legislation that amends the existing Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant Program to create a new definition of low carbon fuels that will include renewable natural gas and set target amounts of low carbon fuel sold in Pennsylvania. (RNG)  RNG is a clean waste-derived fuel that is safe to use in all the same applications as natural gas, including as a transportation fuel for school buses, transit systems, garbage trucks and many other applications. 
 
By promoting the beneficial reuse of existing animal manure, wastewater sludge, garbage, and food waste and generating renewable natural gas (RNG) we are helping our farmers, wastewater treatment facilities, landfill operators and others create a business stream and protect the environment at the same time.  Estimates suggest that existing Pennsylvania sources could produce 229 Bcf of RNG annually.   This existing organic material will greatly benefit the environment in our communities.
 
Our legislation does not create a new bureaucracy or increase the size of the program, but provides another tool in our toolbox to address this multi-faceted issue.  We hope that you will join us in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation.
 



Introduced as SB1339