LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern
California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced it is for the first
time dispensing California-produced renewable natural gas
(RNG) at many of the natural gas fueling stations it operates
across the state. The utility recently began purchasing RNG from
Pixley-based Calgren Dairy Fuels
(Calgren), which captures the greenhouse gas-producing manure from
dairy farms and turns it into RNG, a renewable fuel. SoCalGas has
dispensed 100% RNG from out-of-state sources at its fueling
stations for a year. Calgren's facility is part of a rapidly
growing biomethane industry in California and is currently the largest dairy
biogas operation in the U.S.
Photos of the fueling stations and Calgren's dairy digester
facility are available here. A video demonstrating RNG's
ability to reduce California's
transportation emissions is available here.
"With the right incentives in place, RNG has significant
opportunity to help the state move toward carbon-neutrality in not
only the transportation sector but in many areas where traditional
natural gas is now used."
"RNG is an important tool in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
which cause climate change, and we're looking forward to major
growth in production of this renewable fuel in California," said Jawaad Malik, SoCalGas vice president of gas
acquisition. "With the right incentives in place, RNG has
significant opportunity to help the state move toward
carbon-neutrality in not only the transportation sector but in many
areas where traditional natural gas is now used."
"Calgren is excited to be one of the leading production
facilities in the U.S., which will eventually capture the waste of
more than 132,000 cows from at least 18 dairies," said Lyle Schlyer, president of Calgren. "Using
the methane captured from dairy waste for transportation fuel is
good for the environment because it not only keeps methane from
escaping to the air, it allows us to replace traditional natural
gas with a renewable version, and it reduces pollution from diesel
truck engines."
RNG is produced when methane, a greenhouse gas that occurs
naturally when organic waste breaks down, is captured and upgraded
to pipeline standards rather than being released into the air.
Organic waste sources such as dairy farms, landfills, sewage, food
waste, and dead forest trees create about 80% of all methane
emissions in California. Capturing
this methane and converting it to RNG rapidly reduces greenhouse
gas emissions. In California, a
2016 law requires a 40% reduction of methane emissions from waste
sources, with provisions to deliver that energy to customers.
Production of the fuel has accelerated quickly in California, supported by state incentive
programs seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from trucking
and dairy farms. In just the next three and a half years, at
least 160 RNG production facilities will be online in California to serve the transportation fuel
sector, producing more than 15.8 million therms of carbon-negative
RNG every year and replacing about 119 million gallons of diesel
fuel. That's enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
over 3.4 million tons every year, the equivalent of taking more
than 730,000 cars off the road.
Renewable natural gas trucks currently displace about 150
million gallons of diesel fuel in California. By increasing RNG trucks by ten
times and decreasing diesel trucks by half, California could cut NOx emissions by 200 tons
and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons.
In addition, California
recently enacted legislation that expands the definition of
renewable natural gas to include organic waste such as dead trees,
agricultural waste and vegetation removed for wildfire mitigation
which is typically converted to RNG by non-combustion thermal
conversion. The new legislation has a twin benefit of helping
to manage wildfires with reduced debris and also lowering
greenhouse gas emissions.
To help expand the growth and use of RNG, SoCalGas has proposed
a service that would give its customers the option to purchase a
portion of their natural gas from renewable sources, just as
millions of people can opt to purchase renewable electricity today.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued
a draft ruling authorizing such a service, which is expected to be
voted on by the end of the year.
Investment in RNG is also growing beyond California. Oregon recently enacted legislation allowing
its natural gas utilities to purchase RNG on behalf of its
customers, with the goal of replacing 15% of traditional natural
gas with RNG by 2030. Virginia-based Dominion Energy has
committed to investing in enough RNG projects to make its gas
infrastructure net-zero carbon by 2040. In 20 years, enough
RNG could be available in the U.S. to replace about 90% of the
nation's current residential natural gas consumption, according to
a recent study by ICF.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los
Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution
utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers
affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable gas service
to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square miles of
Central and Southern California, where more than 90 percent of
residents use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking, drying
clothes or other uses. Gas delivered through the company's
pipelines also plays a key role in providing electricity to
Californians— about 45 percent of electric power
generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.
SoCalGas' vision is to be the cleanest gas utility
in North America, delivering affordable and increasingly
renewable energy to its customers. In support of that vision,
SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20 percent of its traditional
natural gas supply with renewable gas by 2030. Renewable
natural gas is made from waste created by dairy farms, landfills
and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to
investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills
affordable for our customers. From 2014 through 2018, the company
invested nearly $6.5 billion to upgrade and modernize its
pipeline system to enhance safety and reliability. SoCalGas is a
subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy
services holding company based in San Diego. For more
information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with
SoCalGas
on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas)
and Facebook.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socalgas-now-dispensing-california-produced-renewable-natural-gas-at-its-vehicle-fueling-stations-for-the-first-time-301163218.html
SOURCE Southern California Gas Company