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Study finds coal trains add significant amount of PM2.5 pollution in urban areas

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Coal trains and terminal operations add a significant amount of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) pollution to urban areas—more so than other freight or passenger trains— according to a study conducted in Richmond, California, by the University of California, Davis. The results indicate coal trains add on average 8.32

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California Energy Commission approves $8M grant for H2 fueling station at Port of Long Beach

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The California Energy Commission approved an $8-million grant to Equilon Enterprises—a fully owned subsidiary of Shell Oil—to develop a high-capacity hydrogen fueling station to service and promote the expansion of zero-emission fuel cell electric Class 8 drayage trucks at the Port of Long Beach.

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INCITE supercomputing grants awarded to 56 projects; sustainable energy to next-gen materials

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Among 2016 INCITE award recipients: Martin Berzins of the University of Utah received 351 million core hours to study ultra super critical coal boilers, leading to improved efficiency and new designs for safer next-generation coal boilers.

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Upper atmosphere facilitates changes that let mercury enter food chain

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Seth Lyman, now with Utah State University’s Energy Dynamics Laboratory, is lead author of a paper documenting the research published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

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Stanford launches major new natural gas research initiative

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Compared with burning coal, natural gas emits about half the carbon dioxide and substantially less soot, mercury and sulfur. The Natural Gas Initiative has begun funding early stage, exploratory research, following a “seed grant” model used by Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy, one of NGI’s hosting organizations.

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Study concludes that NG leakage higher than reflected in inventories; transportation fuel climate benefits questioned

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In contrast to the “green light” for coal-to-NG substitution for power generation, the authors suggest that climate benefits from vehicle fuel substitution are uncertain (gasoline, light-duty) or improbable (diesel, heavy-duty). Modeling has shown climate benefits from coal to NG switching for power generation over all time periods (i.e.,

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Perspective: Regional Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Programs May be the Solution

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Cap-and-trade was first tried on a significant scale twenty years ago under the first Bush administration as a way to address the problem of airborne sulfur dioxide pollution–widely known as acid rain–from coal-burning power plants in the eastern United States. Sources: Large electric generators. Coverage: 28% of CO 2 emissions.

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