Colorado Lawmakers Looking to Elevate Renewable Natural Gas across State

State Sen, Kerry Donovan of Vail has been in the news lately. She has been managing a working ranch near Edwards and the Vail Honeywagon trash collection service. She believes that RNG (renewable natural gas) can be generated from animal and human waste. In the last legislative session, she voted for a bill mandating that large utilities get a certain percentage of their energy from renewable natural gas. Named as Adopt Renewable Natural Gas Standard (SB20-150), the bill was passed by Senate 24-10 before the session all of a sudden came to an end owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Donovan is not the only one in the ranching business. Apart from her, Don Coram of Montrose also mentions his occupation as a rancher apart from the mining business he is involved in. The RNG standard bill is in place to capture methane from a number of operations including agriculture, landfill, coal mines, natural coal beds, and waste-water treatment plans. Excess renewable energy will also be used in order to generate hydrogen as a key fuel source. According to the primary democratic sponsor Sen, Chris Hensen of Denver, the bill will be back and he hopes that it will make it through the house controlled by the Democrats. Once passed, the bill would compel Xcel Energy which happens to the largest utility in the state as well as Black Hill Energy which is large enough to qualify too.

RNG or renewable natural gas is produced by capturing methane from a number of natural sources as well as manmade sources rather than releasing that into the atmosphere or flaring it. Biogas upgradation companies across the globe find the idea quite interesting.

You must know that methane is 25 percent more potent as compared to CO2; however, it doesn’t stay in the atmosphere for a long time. According to Donovan, the price of wind and solar coming down will make these sources the main focus in the state. As we can see coal’s use in electricity generation has slashed from 76 percent to 44 percent during the span of 20 years. Donovan says that the state will need to be more creative than it is to achieve its goal of 100 percent electricity generation by 2040.

The natural gas industry which has been dominant in the state’s western slope has withdrawn its market share from coal with an increasing number of power plants being converted to gas. And yes we have to take into consideration methane leakage as well. Capturing and utilizing methane for electricity or transport fuel will also put fewer burdens on the climate.

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