LINCOLN, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 21, 2024--
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and Liz Elliott, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Director, recently announced a new renewable energy facility at the Bluff Road Landfill, 6001 Bluff Road, that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by turning methane gas emitted by landfill waste into renewable natural gas (RNG).
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A partnership between the City of Lincoln and Sparq Renewables will help protect Lincoln’s air quality while increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Lincoln’s landfill operations. The landfill biogas facility, one of Mayor Gaylor Baird’s 13 priority pillar projects, will also advance the City’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals outlined in its Climate Action Plan.
“By changing a harmful waste product into a valuable and marketable asset, we will increase the efficiency of Lincoln’s landfill operations, reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance our community’s top-ranked air quality,” Mayor Gaylor Baird said. “Our landfill biogas project is an effort that makes dollars and sense.”
Sparq Renewables of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma will finance, build, and operate the renewable natural gas facility on the west side of the landfill. The project will cost an estimated nearly $50 million and is expected to begin in December, with a completion date of winter 2026.
The landfill produces 1,500 standard cubic feet of methane per minute, which is the equivalent of four megawatts of electricity – enough to power 4,300 houses per year.
The City will receive a percentage of the proceeds from Sparq’s RNG sales. Over the course of the 25-year agreement, the City expects to generate more than $96 million in RNG sales.
Joining Mayor Gaylor Baird at the news conference were Liz Elliott, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Director; Norman Herrera, Sparq Renewables CEO; Kim Morrow, Lincoln Chief Sustainability Officer and City Council member Tom Beckius.
In addition to capturing and transforming greenhouse gases into products like vehicle fuel, Elliott said, the biogas facility will help subsidize landfill maintenance.
“We are pioneering the way in showing how sustainability innovations can drive both economic and environmental progress, reduce emissions, contribute to a healthier city and planet, and generate revenue for reinvestment back into the important waste management services we provide to Lincoln community members,” Elliott said.
Morrow said reducing emissions from landfills is one of the most impactful steps the City can take toward achieving its climate and sustainability goals. Over the lifetime of the project, she said, the developer estimates it will reduce emissions equivalent to the consumption of 92 million gallons of gasoline.
“This project’s combined benefits – reducing methane emissions, replacing non-renewable energy sources, and improving air quality – will contribute to a cleaner, healthier community for years to come,” Morrow said. “Much like our biogas capture project at the wastewater treatment facility, we’re embracing a forward-looking solution that addresses multiple challenges in a sustainable way.”
Herrera said the biogas facility will bring Lincoln avenues of revenue generation from not only renewable natural gas but a possible future in CO2 markets, hydrogen, and sustainable aviation fuels among other uses of landfill gas.
“There is a significant demand for renewable natural gas, and I am grateful for the city’s dedication and foresight to bringing the biogas landfill project to life to proactively reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also creating economic benefits to Lincoln and surrounding communities,” Herrera said.
Beckius said the landfill biogas facility will benefit all residents of Lincoln.
“This partnership between the City of Lincoln and Sparq Renewables will help protect Lincoln’s air quality while increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Lincoln’s landfill operations,” Beckius said.
City Council member Tom Beckius, Lincoln Mayor Gaylor Baird, Liz Elliott, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Director, Kim Morrow, Lincoln Chief Sustainability Officer and Norman Herrera, Sparq Renewables CEO (Photo: Business Wire)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Two lawsuits about transgender girl athletes — one challenging a state ban at schools and the other on the right to protest transgender athletes’ participation on girls teams — were the subject of hearings in federal court in New Hampshire on Thursday.
The first case is about two transgender teen girls, one who played soccer on the girls team this fall and another who plans to participate on the track team this winter.
A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the teens can try out for and play on girls school sports teams. The order only applies to those two individuals for now as they seek to overturn the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act on behalf of all transgender girl students in New Hampshire.
Lawyers for the teens said in court Thursday they hoped the matter could go to trial and be resolved before the start of the next school year in September. They said the teens’ school districts and others in the state have asked for guidance regarding the statute. Lawyers for the state said they needed more time to prepare.
Judge Talesha Saint-Marc suggested the timing of the trial was ambitious and asked that both sides talk further about scheduling.
The law, signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in July, bans transgender athletes in grades 5 to 12 from teams that align with their gender identity. It requires schools to designate all teams as either girls, boys or coed, with eligibility determined based on students’ birth certificates “or other evidence.”
Sununu had said it “ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions.” About half of states have adopted similar measures.
In the second case Thursday, a judge heard from parties involved in a school district dispute in Bow over a decision to bar parents from wearing pink wristbands with “XX” — representing the female chromosomes — at a girls high school soccer game in September. The parents sued the district.
Parker Tirrell, one of the transgender girls challenging the state ban on participation, was playing on the opposing team that day.
The district issued no-trespass orders banning two parents from school grounds because they wore the wristbands. Those orders have since expired, but at issue Thursday was whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to wear the wristbands and carry signs at upcoming school events, including basketball games, swim meets and a music concert, while the case proceeds.
“They’re self-censoring, with good reason because they’ve been censored before, and defendants say they’re going to do it again,” said the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Endel Kolde. He pointed at a court document in which school district officials said they are justified in viewing the wristbands as targeting transgender students in general, regardless of whether such students were present at the events.
“This is viewpoint discrimination, and it’s very clear they’re proud of it,” he said.
Kolde initially conceded that a school district can limit speech “to some degree” in order to protect children from harassment, but he stopped short of agreeing with the judge’s claim that yelling “transgender students out” at a particular player would be subject to such regulation.
“It might be,” he said.
“I’m trying to get you to concede the obvious,” Judge Steven McAuliffe said.
“It’s less than obvious to me,” Kolde said.
The first witness was plaintiff Kyle Fellers, who said he purchased the pink wristbands thinking his daughter and her teammates would wear them, but ended up wearing one himself after they declined. After being told to leave the game, he stood in the parking lot with a sign that said “Protect women’s sports for female athletes.”
“I wanted to support women’s sports and I believed what was going on was a travesty,” he said.
His attorney played video recorded by a town police officer showing his interactions with Fellers at the game, including Fellers calling school officials “cowards” and “Nazis.” Under questioning by his attorney, Fellers said had no problem with transgender people outside of the issue of their participation in sports.
School district officials said they acted appropriately.
The district “properly exercised its duty to protect Parker Tirrell from intimidation and harassment during the game,” it said in a court document.
It also said it issued reasonable sanctions” against the two parents “for conduct they knew violated the school’s policies governing athletic events.”
FILE — Two teens challenging New Hampshire's new law banning transgender girls from girls' sports teams, Parker Tirrell, third from left, and Iris Turmelle, sixth from left, pose with their families and attorneys in Concord, N.H., Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer, File)
