U.S. natural gas utilities are looking at renewable natural gas and hydrogen as the gas ban and electrification movement expands.
UGI Corp., in its bid to become a leader in low-carbon energy and renewable natural gas, or RNG, continued to expand its renewable natural gas strategy. The company executed an interconnection agreement with a large northeast Pennsylvania landfill gas developer. The interconnect will be the largest RNG supply point in the U.S. once it is fully operational, UGI executives said on a Feb. 4 quarterly earnings conference call.
The project will process the landfill's waste gas into a pipeline-quality fossil fuel alternative, giving UGI's Pennsylvania gas utility a source of RNG to deliver through its distribution system.
During its own fiscal first-quarter earnings call on the same day, St. Louis-based Spire Inc. said it is looking at RNG, carbon offsets and hydrogen, among other options, to realize the company's emissions reduction goals and its targets for long-term earnings growth. Spire determined that its primary means of achieving its targeted 53% reduction in methane emissions by 2025 from 2005 levels is investing in upgrades of the utility's natural gas distribution infrastructure.
Atmos Energy Corp. is also seeking to secure more RNG supplies. The Dallas-based utility operator has started assessing more than 20 RNG opportunities in its eight-state footprint, according to Atmos President and CEO Kevin Akers. The company also intended to work with regulators and other stakeholders to develop frameworks that will help bring commercially viable RNG to market, Akers said during a Feb. 3 quarterly conference call.
More than a year after California cities began restricting gas use in new buildings, there are no signs of gas bans cropping up in Atmos territories, Akers said. Atmos continues to work through its stakeholder engagement strategy to communicate the value of gas service to cities and state legislators, the CEO said, noting that the company is working with industry associations and peer utilities to monitor state legislation to prohibit gas bans. Two states where Atmos operates — Tennessee and Louisiana — passed such laws in 2020. Lawmakers have introduced bills in at least four other states where Atmos operates.
Denver will take steps to ensure that new homes and buildings are all-electric in the coming years. The move marks the Mile High City's planned transition away from gas heating. City and county climate officials announced the policy in a blueprint released Jan. 26 to achieve net-zero emissions from energy for Denver's new building stock. In the plan, Denver's Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency committed to updating the building code in a way that will drive electrification in new homes and commercial real estate over the next decade.
The plan made Denver the latest U.S. city to pursue universal all-electric construction. Dozens of California communities have adopted electrification ordinances since 2019, and efforts are underway to restrict new natural gas hookups in Massachusetts, Seattle and New York City.
Seattle has decided to restrict natural gas use in new multifamily homes and commercial buildings, a move that will require much of the city's future construction to rely on electric power for heating. The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Feb. 1 to adopt the gas restrictions along with a suite of other green building measures as part of its latest energy code update. The vote advanced long-sought efforts to require all-electric construction in Seattle and made it one of the largest U.S. cities to have adopted electrification requirements.
