Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) says George Minter, the company’s regional vice president of external affairs and environmental policy, was recently named “Renewable Natural Gas Champion” by Los Angeles-based nonprofit Climate Resolve.
According to SoCalGas, Climate Resolve lauded Minter’s efforts to increase the use of renewable natural gas (RNG) to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in a way that benefits all people, including low-income families. Minter was honored at Climate Resolve’s annual Coolest in LA Gala.
“I am honored to accept this award from Climate Resolve,” says Minter. “To truly achieve carbon neutrality, California must capture the methane emissions from waste sources. A path to carbon neutrality that includes renewable natural gas will also be two to three times more cost effective than an all-electric solution. This is something I wholeheartedly believe in, and I will continue to try to educate the public, my peers and those in government about this concept so that together, all of us in California can reach our climate goals.”
“George was an early adopter of the renewable natural gas vision. He realized before many how important RNG is in our efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,” says Sharon Tomkins, vice president of customer solutions and strategy at SoCalGas. “George has largely helped to shape our company vision on RNG and has been instrumental in educating so many on the use of renewable natural gas and its importance to California’s efforts to reduce climate impacts.”
Recently, SoCalGas announced a plan to replace 20% of its traditional natural gas supply with RNG by 2030. To kick-start the plan, the utility will pursue regulatory authority to implement a broad RNG procurement program with a goal of replacing 5% of its natural gas supply with RNG by 2022.
SoCalGas notes it has been working to accelerate the further development of RNG projects in California. In 2018, RNG produced in the state began flowing into SoCalGas pipelines for the first time, from an anaerobic digester built and operated by waste hauling company CR&R. In January, Calgren, a biofuel producer, began flowing RNG into the SoCalGas system from a dairy digester pipeline cluster.
