Preview Newsletter
acc am september 3
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(ACC Mentioned) INSIGHT: Chemicals Production Growth Weak in July
Sep 2, 2015 | ICIS News
By Nigel Davis
Chemicals growth globally is under pressure and shows signs of further contraction. Former fast-growing economies have slowed markedly and while the US stands out as beacon of (economic) growth, that growth has been below trend and looks increasingly uncertain in a troubled world. -
Big Retailers Are (Finally) Beginning to “Mind the Store”
Sep 2, 2015 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Mike Schade
It’s been a banner year for the Mind the Store campaign. We have been challenging the nation’s biggest retailers to tackle the most toxic chemicals in the everyday products they carry. -
EU Biocides-Approved Supplier List Takes Effect
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Companies that sell insect and vermin repellents, wood preservatives or other biocidal products can from now on only legally be on the European Union market if they source their products or substances from a supplier on an updated list published by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Sept. 2. -
EU Calls for Comments on Hazardous Substances in Electronics
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Commission is calling for input through Oct. 16 on the renewal or amendment of a number of exemptions from the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS Directive, 2011/65/EU), which prohibits six hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment sold in the bloc. -
Harvard Receives EPA Grant to Study Chemicals
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Harvard is the latest university to receive a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to study the ecological effects of manufactured chemicals. The EPA announced Sept. 1 that it awarded a $651,708 grant to Harvard's School of Public Health to fund a study that attempts to quantify how combinations of multiple chemicals interact and affect the environment. -
(ACC Mentioned) CB&I Signs on to Do Early Engineering for Louisiana Chemical Plant
Sep 2, 2015 | Fuel Fix
By Jordan Blum
CB&I has won the contract to perform early engineering and services work for a petrochemical plant a U.S.-Korean joint venture is planning in Louisiana. -
Energy Journal: U.S. Report Finds Benefits of Oil Exports
| The Wall Street Journal
By Christopher Harder
U.S. gasoline prices wouldn’t go up–and could even go down–if the country ends its four-decade ban on oil exports, a U.S.Energy Information Administration study says, Amy Harder and Christian Berthelsen of The Wall Street Journal report. The study is expected to provide momentum to efforts by the oil industry to end the ban and tap higher-priced foreign buyers. -
Oil Export Bill Set to Move in House
Sep 3, 2015 | Mark Drajem and Ari Natter
Congress is set to begin consideration of a measure to lift the decades-old ban on U.S. crude exports after a government study concluded the move wouldn't raise gasoline prices for consumers, people familiar with the plan said. -
Letter to the Editor: Fracking Isn’t Very Durable
Sep 3, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Jane Twitmyer
Counting on the natural gas revolution for energy may be betting on a revolution that’s not very durable. Petroleum engineers at the University of Texas found that Marcellus shale production could peak in five years and then quickly tail off. -
Christie Asks EPA to Stay Carbon Rule
Sep 3, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillen
New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie is the latest official to ask EPA to stay its power plant carbon rule, calling it a "fundamentally flawed plan" that goes far beyond federal authority. -
New Jersey Seeks Stay on Clean Power Plan
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
New Jersey on Sept. 2 asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an administrative stay and reconsideration of the Clean Power Plan, saying the rule places an unfair burden on the state and is an overreach of federal power. -
EPA Touts Multipollutant Air Planning 'Window' But States Call For Clarity
Sep 3, 2015 | InsideEPA
By David LaRoss
EPA is urging state air officials to take advantage of a unique upcoming “window” in which to craft long-desired “multipollutant” air plans that address a slew of states' Clean Air Act duties at once, though states are seeking clarity on whether they can craft one overall plan and other options to streamline the process. -
Rubio Calls for End to Oil Export Restrictions
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment
Lifting the 40-year-old restrictions on exporting crude oil is “one of the first things I will do as president,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Republican presidential contender, said in remarks previewing an energy policy speech planned for late Sept. 2. -
Rubio Sticks to Tried and True GOP Energy Policy
Sep 3, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Darren Goode
Sen. Marco Rubio traveled to the Oklahoma oil patch Wednesday, delivering a speech that kept him firmly in the mainstream of Republican presidential candidates by calling for more oil production and less oversight from Washington. -
Coal Industry's Worst Days May Be Behind
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Mario Parker
While 2015 has been a disastrous year for U.S. coal, the worst days may be just about over. -
Bring Arctic Oil to the Climate-Change Table
| The Hill - Congress Blog
By Victoria Herrmann
This week, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit the American Arctic. Over three days, he will tour Alaska on a campaign to promote aggressive climate action and raise awareness of the devastating effects environmental shifts have had at the top of the world. -
In Rural Alaska, Obama Works to Speed Renewable Energy Revolution
Sep 3, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Juliet Eilperin
The White House announced Wednesday that it would launch a $4 million initiative to speed the development of renewable energy in remote Alaskan communities, part of a package of new programs aimed at reducing fossil fuel use and countering climate impacts in the region of the world that is warming the fastest. -
ConocoPhillips, Gazprom Support Climate Deal: Survey
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrea Vittorio
ConocoPhillips Co. and Gazprom are among about a dozen fossil fuel producers that back a global deal on climate change, according to survey results released Sept. 2 by the nonprofit CDP. -
World Bank Official Optimistic on Paris Climate Deal
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
A World Bank official said Sept. 2 she is optimistic that nearly 200 nations will reach agreement in Paris on what she called a “universal” climate deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but cautioned that it is too early to know whether it will be ambitious enough. -
International Efforts to Cut Carbon Pollution Not Enough: Report
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alex Nussbaum
Pledges from dozens of nations to rein in carbon emissions aren't enough so far to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to four European research centers. -
CRS: Iranian Oil Exports Possible Immediately
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
“Significant quantities” of Iranian oil will likely hit the market immediately if sanctions against the country are suspended, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service said in a new report. -
Big Cities Scramble to be Prepared for an Oil Train Disaster
Sep 3, 2015 | AP
By Michael Rubinkam and Geoff Mulvihill
They rumble past schools, homes and businesses in dozens of cities around the country - 100-car trains loaded with crude oil from the Upper Midwest.
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(ACC Mentioned) INSIGHT: Chemicals Production Growth Weak in July
Sep 2, 2015 | ICIS News
By Nigel Davis
Chemicals growth globally is under pressure and shows signs of further contraction. Former fast-growing economies have slowed markedly and while the US stands out as beacon of (economic) growth, that growth has been below trend and looks increasingly uncertain in a troubled world.
Chemicals growth looked shaky in July, the latest data show. Capacity utilisation slipped by 0.3 percentage points to 81.9%, the American Chemistry Council said last week. “This is off from 82.4% last July and is still below the long-term (1987-2014) average of 90.9%,” it added.
The ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index, its Global CPRI, has been re-based to 2012 and now shows cumulative growth of 7.8% to date. That is hardly encouraging but reflects sluggish global economic growth over the past three years.
The Global CPRI is said to have entered the third quarter of 2015 “on a soft note” with the headline index rising just 0.1% on a three month moving average basis. That helps to flatten out sharp peaks and troughs in the monthly data. The performance was comparable in June, the ACC said, and marks the slowest pace this year.
Year on year on a three month moving average basis the index was up 3.8% in July with growth in all regions of the world apart from Latin America where the cutback in production appears to have slowed. Nationally, however, output this year has dropped in Japan and South Korea as well as in Sweden.
Chemicals production growth has slowed markedly in China and has slowed in the US but Europe generally has picked up. The three month moving average chemicals production growth rate was 4.0% year on year in western Europe in July. It was 8.2% in central and eastern Europe – 13.4% in Russia.
“Chemical production in North America has generally been on an upward trend since December 2008 but the pace of growth has been very slow,” the ACC said.
“In the US, production of basic chemicals rose with weakness in plastic resins, synthetic rubber and manufactured fibres offset by gains in inorganic chemicals and bulk petrochemicals and organic intermediates. Production of US specialty chemicals rose in July, with strength centred in coatings."
This chemicals type breakdown is informative. US producers are making more plastics. The output of the major plastics in the US was up 7.0% year on year in July and was up 3.8% in the year to date.
Chlorine production was up 4.3% year on year with a chlorine industry operating rate of 90% - caustic soda output was up 3.0%.
Earlier last month the ACC released data on US speciality chemicals markets which showed volume growth moderating somewhat in July, driven down largely by the contracting market for oilfield chemicals, for mining chemicals, pigments, plasticizers, plastics additives and paper additives. Year earlier comparison, even for some of the faster growing segments, have been moderating.
Looking back to the 2008/09 crash it is clear that the most cyclical chemical industry segments have led the recovery although it is the pressure on growth in these segments that currently is so marked. “During July, results were mixed, with production of inorganic chemicals, plastic resins and coatings increasing while other segments declined or were flat,” said the ACC.
The data show petrochemicals production improving slightly since April but plastics output growth contracting month to month. Synthetic rubber output has been relatively flat by around 4% higher than over the same periods of 2014.
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Big Retailers Are (Finally) Beginning to “Mind the Store”
Sep 2, 2015 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Mike Schade
It’s been a banner year for the Mind the Store campaign. We have been challenging the nation’s biggest retailers to tackle the most toxic chemicals in the everyday products they carry.
And guess what—thanks to your help and support— they are listening up!
Let’s just take a look at some of these major Mind the Store campaign victories in recent months…In March, Ashley Furniture, the nation’s largest furniture retailer, announced a timeframe for eliminating toxic flame retardants in furniture, after we launched a public campaign.In early April, after nearly two years of campaigning, we revealed how Walgreens has finally committed to developing a chemicals policy, which they will be announcing in the coming months! Our partners across the country, from Texas to Connecticut, called on Walgreens it’s time to “spring into action”.After a year of behind the scenes meetings and research, in April we announced that the world’s largest home improvement retailer, Home Depot, is phasing out added phthalates in flooring by the end of the year. Check out the story in the NY Times.In April, we released a report by HealthyStuff.org that showed other big retailers like Lowe’s were lagging behind Home Depot and selling vinyl flooring laden with phthalates. We called on #2 and #3 home improvement chains Lowe’s and Menards to also ban phthalates in flooring, and we won in April and July with both retailers committing to eliminate phthalates by the end of 2015! Walmart and Target, have both been making meaningful progress to implement and expand their chemicals policies
You can bet we have plans up our sleeves to leverage these victories and continue our momentum in the months to come.
Over the past month we have sent letters to top retailers urging them to join the market movement away from toxic phthalates in flooring and flame retardants in furniture. We can’t wait to update you on the progress we’re making with these brands.
And for those retailers that continue to drag their feet, we’ll be out there in the streets and on social media and at their headquarters holding them accountable and telling them it’s time to “mind the store.”
Stay tuned for how you can get involved in the next stages of the campaign in the weeks to come, and in the meantime pat yourself on the back for the work that you’ve done to help us get big retailers to clean up their supply chain!
Together we can! Join the Mind the Store movement today!
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EU Biocides-Approved Supplier List Takes Effect
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Companies that sell insect and vermin repellents, wood preservatives or other biocidal products can from now on only legally be on the European Union market if they source their products or substances from a supplier on an updated list published by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Sept. 2.The EU's 2012 Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR, 528/2012/EU) created the so-called Article 95 listof approved suppliers of biocidal products and substances, with a cut-off date of Sept. 1, by which companies had to be on the list to continue supplying the EU market (238 DEN A-10, 12/11/14).The list includes companies that have submitted a dossier for authorization of a biocidal substance or that have a letter of access to a dossier submitted by another company. The list is intended to prevent companies selling biocidal products in the EU without sharing the authorization costs.Companies can apply to ECHA to join the list at any time, and the chemicals agency said it will update the list monthly. ECHA published Sept. 2 a breakdown of 21 pending applications by companies and groups of companies to join the Article 95 list. -
EU Calls for Comments on Hazardous Substances in Electronics
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Commission is calling for input through Oct. 16 on the renewal or amendment of a number of exemptions from the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS Directive, 2011/65/EU), which prohibits six hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment sold in the bloc.The RoHS Directive bans lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, and polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers above a threshold of 0.1 percent by weight in electrical and electronic goods in the EU. The law also bans cadmium above a threshold of 0.01 percent.The consultation, published Aug. 21, requests any comments on 29 renewals or modifications of existing exemptions listed in Annex III of RoHS. The exemptions relate to a range of uses of mercury in lighting equipment, lead in alloys and solders, cadmium in electrical contacts, and hexavalent chromium as an anticorrosion agent.RoHS exemptions can be granted if there is no viable alternative to use of one of the prohibited substances in a specific application. The commission, the EU's executive arm, publishes calls for public input on exemptions irregularly, with two to four consultations held annually since 2010.If renewed, the exemptions will remain valid for up to five years. -
Harvard Receives EPA Grant to Study Chemicals
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Harvard is the latest university to receive a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to study the ecological effects of manufactured chemicals. The EPA announced Sept. 1 that it awarded a $651,708 grant to Harvard's School of Public Health to fund a study that attempts to quantify how combinations of multiple chemicals interact and affect the environment. The grant comes from the EPA's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, which funds research on improving chemical evaluation. The agency had previously awarded nearly $4 million in STAR grants to Michigan State University, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Oregon State University, Texas Tech University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Additionally, the EPA awarded nearly $2 million in Small Business Innovation Research funds on Sept. 1 to 19 companies developing green technology. Each company will receive a contract of up to $100,000 to help them develop their products, with the possibility of another $300,000 contract in the future to help with commercialization.
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(ACC Mentioned) CB&I Signs on to Do Early Engineering for Louisiana Chemical Plant
Sep 2, 2015 | Fuel Fix
By Jordan Blum
CB&I has won the contract to perform early engineering and services work for a petrochemical plant a U.S.-Korean joint venture is planning in Louisiana.
South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Corp. and Atlanta-based Axiall Corp. finalized the agreements in June on their LACC joint venture to build an ethane cracker plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The cracker would make ethylene, which is the primary building block of most plastics. The plant would produce about 1 million metric tons of ethylene a year.
CB&I, which is domiciled in the Netherlands but operates out of The Woodlands, is the first major contractor brought on board.
There are $147 billion in petrochemical and manufacturing projects underway or planned in the U.S. through 2023, according to the American Chemistry Council, most of which are in Texas and Louisiana. The companies are not releasing project and contract costs, but new ethane crackers typically are multibillion-dollar projects.
“CB&I has worked closely with Axiall Corporation and Lotte Chemical to develop this project from the beginning,” said Patrick Mullen, president of CB&I’s engineering and construction operating group, in a prepared statement. “We are pleased to affirm our relationship with both companies and look forward to supporting this important initiative.”
A final investment decision on moving forward with the project is still expected by the end of the year. CB&I said the project would use its latest ethylene technology, including its highly selective SRT cracking heaters.
The companies did not respond Wednesday to additional requests for comment and information.
If the project moves forward as planned, Lotte Chemical said it also will build a monoethylene glycol plant next to the cracker, but without Axiall’s involvement. Monoethylene glycol is a raw material used to make everything from polyester resins to antifreeze and coolants.
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Energy Journal: U.S. Report Finds Benefits of Oil Exports
| The Wall Street Journal
By Christopher Harder
U.S. gasoline prices wouldn’t go up–and could even go down–if the country ends its four-decade ban on oil exports, a U.S.Energy Information Administration study says, Amy Harder and Christian Berthelsen of The Wall Street Journal report. The study is expected to provide momentum to efforts by the oil industry to end the ban and tap higher-priced foreign buyers.
Oil companies have urged Congress to support lifting the ban to eliminate market distortions and stimulate the U.S. economy. The study says ending the restriction would encourage oil companies to produce more crude as they try to gain from higher overseas prices, which in turn would press global prices lower if foreign producers don’t reduce their own output. Most U.S. retail gasoline prices are based on the global benchmark instead of the national one.
The U.S. also may be able to produce more natural gas if it increases the use of drilling techniques that apply large-scale versions of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The operation extends the lateral portions of wells by thousands of feet and pumps them full of enormous volumes of sand, chemicals and water to flush out more hydrocarbons.
Meanwhile, U.S. factory activity grew in August at its slowest pace in more than two years, in part because manufacturers tied to the energy industry have been suffering as oil prices have fallen, the Journal’s Eric Morath reports. But cheaper oil and a global slump in commodities costs are also benefiting many U.S. manufacturers.
CANADA SHOWS PLIGHT OF RICH RESOURCE-DEPENDENT COUNTRIES
As Canada reports that its economy contracted for a second straight quarter, it is a reminder of how China’s slowing growth may shape the coming years for resource-dependent rich countries such as Australia, which posted its slowest quarterly growth in four years. Low prices for crude oil and base metals have eroded Canadian business investment and exports, and gross domestic product fell 0.5% on an annualized basis in the second quarter. The first-quarter decline in GDP was revised to a 0.8% drop from an earlier estimate of a 0.6% contraction.
Crude ranks as Canada’s top export and commodities in total make up about 17% of its economy. The oil-price collapse and recent market turmoil have pushed its dollar down to 11-year lows against that of the U.S.
Still, the contraction may not qualify as an outright recession, but rather a technical recession,which is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the Financial Post reports.
MARKETS
Oil prices sank for the second session in a row in London trade on Wednesday, continuing to pare gains from Monday’s strong rally as disappointing manufacturing data out of the U.S. and China reminded the market of the fragility of the global economy.
Market expectations that the weekly U.S. Energy Information Administration report later Wednesday will confirm higher inventories in the U.S. added to the downward pressure.
The global benchmark, Brent crude, was trading down 0.7% at $49.23 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange for October delivery. West Texas Intermediate for delivery in October on the New York Mercantile Exchange exchanged hands at $44.79 a barrel, down 1.4%, at 0744 GMT.Read our latest market report at wsj.com.
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Oil Export Bill Set to Move in House
Sep 3, 2015 | Mark Drajem and Ari Natter
Congress is set to begin consideration of a measure to lift the decades-old ban on U.S. crude exports after a government study concluded the move wouldn't raise gasoline prices for consumers, people familiar with the plan said.A panel in the House of Representatives is planning to vote on a measure to lift the ban, which dates back to the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, as early as next week, according to three lobbyists working on the matter, who asked not to be named because the markup hasn't been announced yet.The full House may vote on it later in September, leaving ahead the more difficult task of gaining enough support for repeal in the Senate, they said. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill to lift the ban on crude oil exports in late July (147 DEN A-5, 7/31/15).Repealing the ban has gained new potency as hydraulic fracturing has triggered a boom in domestic oil production, making the U.S. the world's top producer. Oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. have called for its end, while some refiners say that lifting the ban would lead them to pay more for crude.“What we've seen is a shift in the views of policymakers and the American public,” said Louis Finkel, executive vice president for government affairs at the Washington-based American Petroleum Institute, an industry group that supports lifting the ban. “Every day that goes by, bipartisan support for this grows.”A spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said he didn't have any scheduling information to share. The committee hasn't announced a subcommittee markup on the measure.Economic AnalysesOil companies including Continental Resources Inc. and ConocoPhillips have spent a year pressing Congress to change the export policy. They have bandied about a series of economic analyses concluding that ending the restrictions won't mean a spike in gasoline prices for consumers.The latest report came Sept. 1 from the Energy Information Administration, the last in a series of analyses from the independent government agency. It said that lifting the ban would boost U.S. production and cut the spread between domestic and global light crude, while gasoline prices at the pump would either be unchanged or slightly lower (170 DEN A-3, 9/2/15). -
Letter to the Editor: Fracking Isn’t Very Durable
Sep 3, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Jane Twitmyer
Regarding the Aug. 29 Metro article “A charged debate”:
Counting on the natural gas revolution for energy may be betting on a revolution that’s not very durable. Petroleum engineers at the University of Texas found that Marcellus shale production could peak in five years and then quickly tail off. They found that pattern in shale well production data everywhere.
The well-drilling process in shale rock was recently banned in New York . Fracking requires 2 million to 10 million gallons of freshwater per well, has caused groundwater contamination and has produced earthquakes when itstoxic wastewater is re-injected into old wells.
Maryland has an offshore wind potential twice its electricity use and a surfeit of solar possibilities. A 156-megawatt solar farm in Colorado just won a 25-year contract, beating other power sources, including gas. More gas plants in Prince George’s County would be risky and potentially expensive.
Jane Twitmyer, Roseland, Va.
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Christie Asks EPA to Stay Carbon Rule
Sep 3, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillen
New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie is the latest official to ask EPA to stay its power plant carbon rule, calling it a "fundamentally flawed plan" that goes far beyond federal authority.
In a letter sent today, Christie's environmental regulator, Bob Martin, asks EPA to put an administrative stay on its rule and then to formally reconsider it. At least 16 other states and an industry group have already asked EPA to stay its own rule, something the administration has indicated it will not do.
"The Clean Power Plan is yet another example of the Obama Administration inappropriately reaching far beyond its legal authority to implement more onerous and more burdensome regulations on businesses and state governments alike," Christie said in a statement.
He also dinged the rule for not taking into account New Jersey's progress to date, and noted the state has one of the lowest carbon emissions rates in the U.S. The state gets about half its power from nuclear.
A spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection did not immediately return questions about whether the state plans to join the eventual lawsuits against the rule.
Several states and companies have already asked a federal court to block the rule as well.
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New Jersey Seeks Stay on Clean Power Plan
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
New Jersey on Sept. 2 asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an administrative stay and reconsideration of the Clean Power Plan, saying the rule places an unfair burden on the state and is an overreach of federal power. In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin called the plan an “unprecedented regulatory overreach” that is “uncommonly cumbersome, difficult and costly to implement” and “riddled with vague, ambiguous and uncertain provisions.” In awritten statement issued by the New Jersey DEP Sept. 2, Gov. Chris Christie (R) called the rule a “fundamentally flawed plan that threatens the progress we've already made in developing clean and renewable energy in New Jersey.” In the same news release, Richard S. Mroz, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, was quoted as saying the plan could “threaten the reliability of the electric grid, leading to brownouts and rolling blackouts and ultimately higher electricity costs.” The letter to McCarthy is available at http://www.nj.gov/dep/111d/docs/njdep-111-d-cover-letter-to-epa-admin-stay-reconsideration-request.pdf.
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EPA Touts Multipollutant Air Planning 'Window' But States Call For Clarity
Sep 3, 2015 | InsideEPA
By David LaRoss
EPA is urging state air officials to take advantage of a unique upcoming “window” in which to craft long-desired “multipollutant” air plans that address a slew of states' Clean Air Act duties at once, though states are seeking clarity on whether they can craft one overall plan and other options to streamline the process.
“We have been asked what we can do to align these things better, and I think there is a window coming up like we have not seen before,” EPA Office of Air Quality Planning & Standards (OAQPS) Director Steve Page told the Environmental Council of the States' (ECOS) air panel during ECOS' fall meeting here Aug. 31.
Multipollutant planning has for years been a goal of many states who say the current process for writing state implementation plans (SIPs) for complying with agency air programs is too burdensome and time-consuming. For example, states must develop individual SIPs for attaining each of the six federal national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), even if some of the pollution control strategies in those plans could potentially overlap.
Looming EPA mandates are increasing the pressure on states, which have long struggled with existing SIP duties at a time of ever-decreasing budgets. The agency is poised to decide by Oct. 1 whether to tighten its ozone NAAQS, which would could trigger a requirement to craft new SIPs on how states will attain a stricter standard.
Separately states are facing a first-time requirement to develop compliance plans similar to SIPs for the agency's recently finalized greenhouse gas (GHG) existing source performance standards (ESPS) for power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan and issued alongside a related GHG regulation for future power plants.
Peter Tsirigotis, OAQPS' director of sector policies and programs said at the ECOS meeting that with the array of rules coming into effect in succession, when states decide how to craft their ESPS compliance plans, “you're not making these decisions purely in the context of the Clean Power Plan. . . . Looking to see how you align your decisions with other programs that you have to achieve reductions in -- that's going to be key.”
Michael Koerber, associate policy director for EPA's OAQPS, told officials at the ECOS meeting, “If you don't do multipollutant planning over the next few years, you're going to have some problems.”
EPA air officials said at the meeting the agency has timed compliance periods for the ESPS, NAAQS and theregional haze program to coincide in order to facilitate such planning. The haze program requires states to craft SIPs to cut air pollution and improve visibility in national parks and wilderness areas, but state air officials have criticized the program for a massive backlog in SIPs, with a 2018 deadline for the next round of haze SIPs looming.
Pending Rulemakings
After the meeting, Page told Inside EPA that the judicial Oct. 1 deadline for EPA to take final action on its proposal to tighten the ozone NAAQS also falls into that framework. EPA has proposed tightening the 2008 ozone limit of 75 parts per billion (ppb) down to a standard within the range of 65 to 70 ppb.
The various deadlines for states to craft their compliance strategies for the ESPS, NAAQS and haze program create the window of opportunity for multipollutant planning between 2016 and 2018, EPA officials said.
Agency air officials at the meeting said the window includes deadlines for crafting SIPs and for EPA to designate areas as in nonattainment with NAAQS or other air quality targets.
“Even though some of the SIP submission dates are a little bit later in this decade, the nonattainment designations are going to happen earlier, within that window,” Koerber said.
The 2016-18 window follows EPA's Aug. 3 release of the final ESPS, which set a September 2016 deadline for submitting initial compliance plans, with final plans due in late 2018.
Meanwhile, the agency on Aug. 10 finalized its rule for how states should implement its 2010 sulfur dioxide (SO2) NAAQS, adopting a 2,000 tons per year threshold that will trigger a duty for states to either monitor or use computer modeling to assess an emission source's SO2 output in new implementation plans.
And the next round of SIPs for the regional haze program, which aims to cut haze-forming emissions in order to restore visibility in national parks and wilderness areas, is due in 2018.
Finally, implementation deadlines for a new ozone NAAQS are unclear since the final rule is still under White House pre-publication review, but if EPA finalizes its proposal to tighten the standard, it would trigger a new round of nonattainment designations and SIP mandates.
Koerber said during ECOS' air committee meeting that the power plant GHG rules and the SO2 standard “are likely to be the two biggest factors that will drive reductions from this sector.”
States' Questions
Despite EPA touting the potential for multipollutant planning, one source says the agency has not provided details on how much leeway states will get to balance their competing commitments under the Clean Air Act, or if they will be allowed to submit integrated SIPs for the multiple rules rather than one SIP for each rule.
“The idea that they tried to time the requirement of your SIP to coordinate a little bit better with the other priority pollutants at least looks like a good effort on their part, but I still wonder how we're going to do that. Are we going to submit multiple SIPs? Can we get one approval for multiple things? We just don't know yet,” the source says.
Whether the agency as part of a multipollutant strategy would allow a state to sacrifice reductions in one pollutant for better controls on another -- for instance, installing SO2 controls at power plants that are known to allow higher emissions of GHGs -- is likewise an issue that remains unclear, the source adds.
The source says states are hoping to get more information from the agency at future meetings on air rule implementation, starting with the 2015 State Environmental Protection meeting (STEP) scheduled for Oct. 21 in Washington, D.C. “STEP is where we're going to try and unpack this,” the official says.
Speaking to Inside EPA, Page said EPA will continue to tout the opportunity for multipollutant planning, but did not address the possibility of integrated SIPs or other mechanisms to facilitate such plans.
EPA meanwhile is working toward a deadline of the end of 2017 to clear its SIP backlog, under the terms of an Oct. 1, 2013, commitment the agency made with ECOS and the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) in January 2014. ECOS, NACAA and EPA officials worked together on trying to devise ways to streamline the SIP process following complaints from states about a lengthy and complicated process.
States say that the SIP planning requirements are increasingly burdensome at a time of shrinking resources, and EPA's own resource limits mean it is has limited ability to quickly review SIPs.
On the broader issue of multipollutant planning, EPA staff in 2010 were divided over the best method to define such an approach to regulating emissions between one approach of focusing on emission sources and another that focuses on pollutant mixtures that produce adverse health outcomes.
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Rubio Calls for End to Oil Export Restrictions
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment
Lifting the 40-year-old restrictions on exporting crude oil is “one of the first things I will do as president,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Republican presidential contender, said in remarks previewing an energy policy speech planned for late Sept. 2. “This ban is a perfect example of just how outdated Washington has become,” Rubio said prior to his speech before energy leaders at the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association in Oklahoma City. Rubio also pledged to stop the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan and to allow states to regulate energy production within their own borders.
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Rubio Sticks to Tried and True GOP Energy Policy
Sep 3, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Darren Goode
Sen. Marco Rubio traveled to the Oklahoma oil patch Wednesday, delivering a speech that kept him firmly in the mainstream of Republican presidential candidates by calling for more oil production and less oversight from Washington.
Rubio and other major candidates are still promising to delve into more detailed positions on energy, but so far the Republicans have avoided any intraparty squabling by hailing the boom in U.S. oil and gas production, railing on Obama administration regulations, and calling for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
"There are a lot of policy areas where you get a lot of big fractures in the party, but there is a very significant degree of agreement amongst the GOP candidates on how to deal with energy issues," said Jeremy Carl, director of research at Stanford University's Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy who has informally advised several candidates.That could change as the field of 17 GOP presidential primary candidates shrinks in the coming months — and amid the sharp swings in oil prices that have hammered the energy industry and ahead of the December international Paris climate change talks.
"You will see some more fireworks," Carl predicted.
Rubio's remarks Wednesday were intended as a teaser ahead of a more comprehensive energy plan he'll roll out in the fall. That's likely to come as other major GOP contenders, including fellow Floridian Jeb Bush, lay out their visions for the U.S. energy industry.
But so far, energy issues haven't gotten much attention in the GOP primary, and the issue was barely mentioned during the first GOP presidential debates. Instead, candidates appear to be laying out their conservative bona fides.
“You’ve got to get to the semifinalists,” said Linda Stuntz, a former George H.W. Bush deputy Energy secretary and adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
Stuntz, who is not affiliated with any of the 2016 candidates, said the conventional positions may evolve once the battle for the party’s base has subsided. “It’s still so early [and] if you don’t have the right answer on some of these things, it could hurt you,” she said. “So it’s the safe place to be right now.”
In fact, some of those with strong early poll numbers — including Donald Trump and Ben Carson — haven’t said anything substantive at all on energy policy.
One potential wildcard in the race is Bush. The former Florida governor has yet to detail his energy platform, and he is being courted by a small group of wealthy, green-minded Republican donors as the candidate who may be able to push the GOP towards a greener 2016 party platform. Though he's relished the opportunities to denounce EPA regulations, Bush has nonetheless taken one of the more moderate stances on climate change in the GOP field and had a history of working with Democrats on the environment as Florida’s governor.
Bush has so far echoed all the other GOP candidates in calling for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, but he turned some heads in off-the-cuff remark suggesting that all energy subsidies, whether for oil or wind and solar, be scrapped.
“If that’s what he meant, that would be fairly provocative and perhaps a hint of things to come to distinguish himself from the field,” Stuntz said.
Bush's call could be a tack toward the right, reminiscent of the way Romney veered away from the more centrist positions he'd taken while serving as Massachusetts' governor to an oil-heavy agenda influenced by his campaign’s senior energy advisor, Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm.
Hamm, who has so far kept a low profile in the race and not yet endorsed a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, attended Rubio’s speech Wednesday, a Continental Resources spokeswoman said. Hamm has helped lead an effort among independent oil producers to lift the U.S. oil export ban, which remains his top domestic policy priority and a position most, if not all, of the GOP presidential candidates share.
Rubio's speech on Wednesday made him the third GOP candidate to address the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association this year, and he checked off all the usual conservative energy boxes, including promising to end the ban on crude oil exports, bashing EPA and calling for overturning federal hydraulic fracturing controls.
“Washington continues to lean on the notion that handing out subsidies to favored companies while imposing new mandates and taxes on others is the way to seize our energy potential,” Rubio said. He promised to “immediately stop this massive regulations” and vowed he would “pursue a sweeping overhaul of the regulatory system to make sure costs and benefits of new rules are accurately accounted for” and governments and industries can meet timelines.
“The days of arbitrary, damaging rules like the Clean Power Plan and the so-called Waters of the U.S. mandate will come to an end,” he said, citing two major EPA rules.
And Rubio threw a few jabs at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s support of EPA climate regulations and her green energy platform, which has tried to paint Republican candidates as espousing outdated policies and views.
“Unfortunately, what we hear from Hillary Clinton are more of the same ideas from yesterday — and that’s when she speaks up on the issue at all,” Rubio said.
Carl is advising GOP candidates to counter Clinton's attempts to use climate science to paint the party as backwards by stressing that Democrats have selectively ignored the studies that show hydraulic fracturing is safe to continue spurring the recent natural gas production boom as part of a broader message centered on energy innovation and possibilities. "It’s a great innovation story and also a good public-private model," Carl said. Another angle that may play more prominently is touting the North American energy community - not just buildling Keystone XL and use of Canadian oil but also major reforms in Mexico's oil sector, Carl said.
Ted Cruz also addressed the Oklahoma independent oil group last month and Scott Walker spoke there in May -- though both events were private speeches that were closed to media.
Cruz has introduced a bill with Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) that would strip away EPA's greenhouse gas rules and other regulations, leave fracking regulations in the hands of states, build Keystone XL and phase out the renewable fuels mandate in five years.
Bush and Rubio have also called for an end to the pro-ethanol Renewable Fuel Standard despite its popularity in the crucial early caucus state of Iowa, though there are differences in the GOP field over how to wind it down.
Right before he officially announced his candidacy for the White House, Sen. Rand Paul co-sponsored a bill this spring with Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that would make it easier for higher blends of ethanol to be used for fuel in the summer, a move aimed at catering to Iowa without compromising Paul’s free-market ideology.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has called for lifting the oil export ban and limiting federal environmental oversight to an “umbrella organization” and shifting the vast majority of oversight to the states.
Like with Romney, positions by some of the others in the 2016 GOP presidential field that strayed from the standard conservative playbook were taken before official candidacies were announced. In 2008 when he was speaker of the Florida House, Rubio called for the state to be an early adopter of an “inevitable” federal cap-and-trade program, and called on the state’s environmental agency to design a cap and trade or carbon tax program.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich in February asked for higher taxes on the oil and natural gas industry that has emerged in the state in recent years, but was rejected by the state’s Republican-led Legislature.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — who has called on Republicans to adopt a greener platform in 2016 but sits at the bottom of polls — has had to defend his conservative credentials in explaining his past work with Democrats in a failed effort to get Congress to approve a cap-and-trade and energy strategy in 2009 and 2010.
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Coal Industry's Worst Days May Be Behind
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Mario Parker
While 2015 has been a disastrous year for U.S. coal, the worst days may be just about over.
Coal's share of electricity generation fell to 30 percent in April, when the fuel for the first time ceded its crown as the primary source for power generation to natural gas. That's about as much as its market share can shrink unless the power grid's updated and more gas pipelines get built, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said.Grid infrastructure constraints may help coal regain some of its lost market share from gas.The U.S. coal industry has been ravaged by the lower demand. Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and Walter Energy Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Shares of Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Coal Inc., two of America's largest coal producers, have been decimated.“We believe grid inflexibility makes reducing coal's share below this level difficult until more is spent on the grid, pipelines and more gas power plants,” John Bridges and Anant Inani, analysts at JPMorgan in New York, said in a report.Coal may even see slight increases in demand before President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan takes effect in 2022, according to JPMorgan. Under the plan, coal will account for more than a quarter of power demand, trailing gas at 33 percent, the Environmental Protection Agency said Aug. 3.“It's reasonable to assume that once the U.S. gas market begins to balance, and the gas price picks up, that coal's market share will recover to the mid or even high 30's percent prior to” the law's implementation, the analysts said. The law also must withstand legal challenges.The upcoming shoulder season, the period from late September through November during which power demand ebbs, will serve as a barometer for whether coal will drop below the 30 percent threshold, Ted O'Brien, chief executive officer of Doyle Trading Consultants in New York, said Sept. 1.“For summer and winter months,” O'Brien said, “we're not going to fall anywhere near that level.” -
Bring Arctic Oil to the Climate-Change Table
| The Hill - Congress Blog
By Victoria Herrmann
This week, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit the American Arctic. Over three days, he will tour Alaska on a campaign to promote aggressive climate action and raise awareness of the devastating effects environmental shifts have had at the top of the world.
As his first major visit to the state, Obama’s schedule is crowded. Starting Monday, he met with tribal leaders in Anchorage, hiked to the receding Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, and traveled to two rural Alaska communities to see firsthand the overwhelming impacts of coastal erosion.
Back-dropped against heavy criticism that the federal government has excluded Alaskans in Arctic policy making, Obama’s visit is a strong message on the importance of inclusivity in the climate change conversation. And yet, despite his efforts to engage a wide variety of local representatives, one key stakeholder remains absent in the official agenda: oil.
Offering the petroleum industry an invitation to discuss climate change mitigation and adaptation in a region that is melting because of their business model is counterintuitive and controversial. But it is essential.
Aptly put by John P. Holdren, senior adviser to Obama on science and technology and part of the president’s delegation to Alaska this week, “We might wish for an instantaneous transformation that was drastically less reliant on oil and gas and coal, or at least that used technologies for oil and gas and coal that reduced greatly the emissions associated with that, but we don’t live in a magical world.”
A long-term, enthusiastic vision for a world based primarily on renewable resources is important in the fight against climate change. But so too is the acknowledgement that de-carbonizing the global economy will not happen over night. Even with the stark drop in oil prices and the potential for a global climate deal, oil will continue to play a major role in both international energy supplies and domestic economies in the short and medium-term.
Alaska is no exception to this reality. As America’s third largest oil-producing state, it extracts just under 400,000 barrels of crude oil each day – a number that could significantly increase in the decades to come as Shell begins its exploratory drilling offshore in the Chukchi Sea. Locally, the oil and gas industry accounts for one-third of all Alaskan jobs and generates over 85 percent of the state’s revenue. That revenue supports education programs, social services, and a significant annual dividend to every eligible state resident upon which many Alaskan families have come to rely.
In many ways inviting, or demanding, Arctic oil producers to be a part of building a sustainable future is just as important as including Native leaders and fisherman whose lives petroleum production activities intimately influence. Oil’s role in Alaska is not merely economic – it has provided a strong societal safety net for America’s northernmost citizens for the past half-century. And it should continue to support Alaskans as they simultaneously transform the state into one that is drastically less reliant on oil and adapt to a rapidly warming environment.
By bringing oil companies operating in Alaska to the climate change table, President Obama and Alaskan stakeholders can compel them to prioritize investment in infrastructure and construction projects that support resilient communities and sustainable development. For example, Arctic oil producers could be required to provide financial resources and technical expertise to initiatives like the Remote Community Renewable Energy Partnership, a joint research project between the Departments of Interior and Energy to integrate wind power into Alaska’s diesel microgrids.
Beyond supporting mitigation through renewable energy innovations, oil companies could partner with the state and national government to offer assistance to communities in need of climate change-induced relocation. Currently, 31 Alaskan villages face an imminent threat of destruction from erosion and flooding. At least 12 have decided to relocate, in part or entirely, to safer ground to avoid total collapse. Moving an entire community to a safer location mere miles away can cost anywhere from $80 to upwards of $250 million – a task that could be partially supported by industry revenue and development investment.
The transition to a sustainable future will not be instantaneous. The steps in between today and tomorrow, including those of renewable Arctic energy grids and community relocation, will inevitably happen in an economic structure still heavily dependent on petroleum revenues.
In his weekly address on the eve of his Alaska trip, Obama recognized, “that there are Americans who are concerned about oil companies drilling in environmentally sensitive waters,” and added, “I share people’s concerns about off-shore drilling.”
But to truly address climate change adaptation and mitigation in the northern-most reaches of the United States, Obama must demand those causing it to be part of building its solution.
Hermann is U.S. director of the Arctic Institute.
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In Rural Alaska, Obama Works to Speed Renewable Energy Revolution
Sep 3, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Juliet Eilperin
The White House announced Wednesday that it would launch a $4 million initiative to speed the development of renewable energy in remote Alaskan communities, part of a package of new programs aimed at reducing fossil fuel use and countering climate impacts in the region of the world that is warming the fastest.
Speaking to a packed gym at Kotzebue Middle High School, Obama said it and other communities such as Kodiak Island could cut carbon emissions and improve their budgets by launching new renewable energy projects.
“So people are saving money, and helping the environment,” he said.
The issue of high-cost energy is an acute one in this area of Alaska, where shipping in diesel and gas by barge means residents pay far more to power their homes and run their vehicles than Americans in the lower 48.
Vernon Adams Sr., vice chair of the tribal government council in the small village of Noatak, said the enormous transportation costs made it imperative they figure out new ways to cut fuel costs.
“We’d like all the help we can get to get our fuel in a safe manner and enjoy a little of our spending money, rather than spending it on the high cost of fuel,” Adams said.
[We live in the tiny Arctic village President Obama is visiting this week. Life here is extreme.]
Alaskans paid an average price of 18.12 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity in 2013, according to federal data — second only to New York and Hawaii — but in this part of Alaska, residents pay at least 40 cents a kilowatt hour, even after receiving a state subsidy aimed at making energy costs more equitable across Alaska.
The renewable energy funding was one of several initiatives the administration unveiled Wednesday under the umbrella of helping tribal and rural communities cope with climate change and other challenges. White House officials said the Denali Commission, an independent federal agency since 1998, would serve as the federal coordinator for building climate resilience in rural Alaska, and would provide $2 million to support voluntary relocation efforts for vulnerable villages.
The Agriculture Department said Wednesday that it will provide $17.6 million to bolster health operations in more than a dozen communities, as well as $240,000 to improve water and sewage treatment operations in rural Alaska.
White House senior adviser Brian Deese told reporters the administration was committed to protecting tribal members’ way of life.
“Alaskan Natives have been living in this land and with this way of life for thousands of years. These traditions and ways of live are … important to our country, important to the state and they are Americans,” Deese said, adding that officials are working to determine “because of changes in climate, what can we do to make sure that these traditions and way of life are not lost forever.”
Still, several tribal leaders who gathered in Kotzebue, which will be the last stop on President Obama’s three-day tour of Alaska, said they expected more from the federal government given the peril their communities now face.
Kivalina tribal government council President Millie Hawley, whose 400-person town stretches eight miles along a gravel spit, has sought federal funding for both an evacuation road and a complete relocation of the village. She noted that in 2004, the town lost at least 70 feet from the side that borders the Chukchi Sea, and changing weather has made the resources villagers depend on less predictable.
Moving to a major city or different area in Alaska, Hawley said, would devastate the community. “You’re asking us to not be a people anymore,” she said. “The land and the resources of our land make us a people.”
A total relocation of Buckland would cost roughly $100 million; even building the evacuation road would cost roughly $15 million.
Percy Ballot, tribal government council president of Buckland, said of the $2 million funding announcement: “We appreciate that, we really do, but we’re going to need more money than that. … If you could, please, pass the message on.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) noted in an interview that the president has pledged to provide $3 billion to help people in developing countries overseas cope with climate impacts, but rural Alaskans face many of the same challenges..
In some places, “there is no running water, there are no sanitation facilities. That puts you in Third World status,” Murkowski said. “He’s willing to pledge the money for developing countries. But there’s a saying that charity begins at home. We don’t want to forget.”
Still, Kotzebue is also a model for how rural communities can chart a new energy trajectory. In this small town 32 miles north of the Arctic Circle, officials have begun a major effort to cut their use of high-cost diesel by launching wind and solar projects.
The Kotzebue Electric Association has established 19 wind turbine towers, each 250 feet tall, roughly four miles from town. They now provide 20 percent of Kotzebue’s electricity and save it 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel a year. The association also manages wind projects for neighboring communities: Buckland dedicated two 100-kilowatt turbines in August, and Deering will be commissioning a 100-kilowatt turbine in October.
[Alaska’s quest to power remote villages — and how it could spread clean energy worldwide]
“We are very pleased to see the president’s focus on rural energy solutions,” said Brad Reeve, the association’s general manager. “Accelerating Rural Alaska’s integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar will increase the sustainability of all Arctic communities.”
The Northwest Arctic Borough, which helps govern not just Kotzebue but also 10 smaller surrounding communities, has also provided a grant to expand solar power in the region and to help run their water and sewer services. The grant has established a 20-KW project in Kotzebue and 10-KW solar projects in nine of the surrounding villages.
Microgrids proliferate in Alaska because its rural communities are so far-flung. Alaska boasts more than 200 of them, according to Navigant Research, more than any other state. But diesel energy remains dominant: Only 70 of the microgrids have renewable power as part of their supply.
“Isolated Alaskan villages provide a perfect template for developing practical, “smart” renewable energy systems than can largely replace dirty, expensive diesel power,” said David Hayes, who helped lead the Interior Department’s Arctic strategy as deputy secretary during Obama’s first term and is now a visiting law professor at Stanford University. “Marshaling U.S. technology to develop lower-cost, replicable, small-scale systems could dramatically improve the quality of life for villagers in Alaska and around the world.”
Before heading to Kotzebue, Obama traveled to Dillingham in southwest Alaska, where he met with fishing operators and spoke of the need to protect the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Noting that he had barred oil and gas production in the region’s Bristol Bay, he said it “represents not just a critical way of life that has to be preserved, but it also represents one of the most important natural resources that the United States has.”
“And by the way, that fish jerky, outstanding,” he said, prompting laughter. “So I strongly recommend it.”
Steven Mufson contributed to this report.
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ConocoPhillips, Gazprom Support Climate Deal: Survey
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrea Vittorio
ConocoPhillips Co. and Gazprom are among about a dozen fossil fuel producers that back a global deal on climate change, according to survey resultsreleased Sept. 2 by the nonprofit CDP.CDP, which on behalf of investors collects climate disclosures from more than 2,000 companies across various sectors, had asked whether each company's board of directors would support an international agreement seeking to limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels, the maximum level advised by scientists.The question was added to CDP's annual questionnaire for 2015 to gauge business sentiment before negotiators from nearly 200 nations meet at a year-end United Nations summit in Paris in hopes of signing a global deal to fight climate change.Out of 28 energy firms that publicly disclosed their responses, 13 said their boards would support a global deal. Another eight said they have no opinion on the issue, and the remaining seven did not answer the question.None of them answered no to the question, despite scientific research showing the majority of fossil fuel reserves would have to remain in the ground to avert the worst impacts of climate change, CDP said.CDP's Executive Chairman Paul Dickinson told Bloomberg BNA that the fact that none of these carbon-intensive companies—which together account for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions—oppose a global climate deal “helps explain why hundreds of other companies that are far less exposed [to climate change] are also pretty much 8 to 1 in favor.”Across sectors, 806 companies, or about 35 percent of those surveyed, told CDP they support a climate agreement. Only 111 companies, or 5 percent, said no. But most of the companies did not offer an answer or an opinion on the question.Negotiators Should Pay AttentionCDP said the non-responses suggest either a lack of clarity around the board's position or that some companies are not treating the climate talks as a priority.When asked whether companies that did not respond were afraid to say no outright, Dickinson said “a company that is actually opposing government action to protect the public maybe should be afraid of the consequences of that behavior.”“We're at a very key moment in history, where governments are putting in place actions to protect citizens from dangerous climate change,” he said. So avoiding saying no to climate policy, “might start off as fear…but it might turn into enlightened self-interest,” he said.Dickinson added that negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week to work on the wording of the climate deal should be paying attention to the message businesses are sending them (168 DEN A-2, 8/31/15).“They should pay very clear attention to the consensus from businesses around the world,” he said. “Businesses are expecting an agreement and supporting 8 to 1 an agreement that keeps us below 2 degrees.”Even though the deal negotiators are writing is not expected to achieve the 2-degree target that the world's governments have been talking about for years, Dickinson said businesses should still show their support for it because “many governments will legislate for what business wants.”“And they want to stay below 2 degrees,” he said. -
World Bank Official Optimistic on Paris Climate Deal
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
A World Bank official said Sept. 2 she is optimistic that nearly 200 nations will reach agreement in Paris on what she called a “universal” climate deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but cautioned that it is too early to know whether it will be ambitious enough.“Everything is in place for a deal to be struck in Paris,” Rachel Kyte, the World Bank Group's vice president and special envoy for climate change, said at a climate forum held at the bank.Kyte noted that the U.S., China, the European Union and other emitters responsible for well over half of global emissions have submitted pledges for addressing their emissions ahead of the United Nations talks in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.Negotiators at the meeting, officially the 21st Conference of the Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-21), will be seeking a legally binding and universal agreement covering all nations.“The question, I think, is how strong a deal it's going to be,” Kyte said.Four Broad ComponentsThe accord, which would be the first under which developed and developing nations alike agree to address climate change and would enter into force in 2020, will likely include four broad components, Kyte said.The components are:• the text of the deal, which is the focus of talks continuing this week in Bonn;• a collection of nation-by-nation pledges to address emissions, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions;• a finance package under which industrialized nations are to pledge climate aid to vulnerable developing nations; and• an “action agenda” outlining private-sector actions to be pledged in Paris.“I think there will be a deal, but the question really now is the level of ambition [and] the strength of that deal, and that's politics—not science,” Kyte said.Progress at Bonn TalksNegotiators reconvened in Bonn for Aug. 31-Sept. 4 talks aimed at whittling down what many view as a still-too-cumbersome negotiating text, given the Paris negotiations are less than three months away.The Bonn talks appeared to be making some headway on at least one issue this week—whether to include a long-term goal in the agreement that would pledge nations to decarbonize their economies, perhaps by midcentury. Other options include a pledge for a “complete” or “near” phaseout of fossil fuels by 2050 or a call for “net zero emissions” over the same period (170 DEN A-5, 9/2/15).Negotiators have one more round of talks in late October to push for more consensus on the draft text before COP-21 opens in Paris on Nov. 30. The final preparatory talks run from Oct. 19-23, also in Bonn. -
International Efforts to Cut Carbon Pollution Not Enough: Report
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alex Nussbaum
Pledges from dozens of nations to rein in carbon emissions aren't enough so far to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to four European research centers.Plans submitted by China, the U.S., the European Union and other top polluters won't limit global warming to the 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) threshold that scientists have recommended, the Climate Action Tracker coalition said in a report Sept. 2.Diplomats are meeting in Bonn this week to continue working on the landmark climate change deal that more than 190 nations expect to complete in Paris late this year. At the heart of the pact are plans from individual nations to control their own greenhouse gas pollution. Those efforts won't be nearly enough, researchers said in one of the first major analyses of the pledges submitted to date. Hitting a lower, 1.5 degree Celsius target, as some scientists have urged, looks even less likely.“It is clear that if the Paris meeting locks in present climate commitments for 2030, holding warming below 2 degrees Celsius could essentially become infeasible, and 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond reach,” Bill Hare, chief executive officer of Potsdam, Germany-based Climate Analytics, one of the four research centers, said in a statement. The national pledges “need to be considerably strengthened.”Deeper CutsNations must either ramp up their emissions promises before Paris or reach an agreement that ensures they will be required to come back with deeper cuts in the future, researchers said. Participants in the United Nations talks have acknowledged the Paris pledges won't be enough on their own. A major goal of the talks, they said, is to come up with a system that requires countries to make deeper contributions over time.So far, countries accounting for about two-thirds of greenhouse pollution have filed plans with the UN. China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has pledged to peak its emissions by about 2030, while the U.S. is aiming for a 28 percent reduction by 2025. The 28-member EU is planning to curb emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030.The shortfall is partly due to “inadequate” plans from Russia and Canada, two of the top 10 emitters, according to Louise Jeffery of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Ten other nations accounting for almost a fifth of global emissions, led by India, Brazil, Iran and Indonesia, have yet to submit their proposals.“In most cases” the countries that have submitted proposals, officially known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, don't have policies in place to reach their goals, researchers said. The exceptions are the EU and China.“Most governments that have already submitted an INDC need to review their targets in light of the global goal and, in most cases, will need to strengthen them,” said Niklas Hoehne, a founding partner of the NewClimate Institute. “Those still working on their targets need to ensure they aim as high as possible.” -
CRS: Iranian Oil Exports Possible Immediately
Sep 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
“Significant quantities” of Iranian oil will likely hit the market immediately if sanctions against the country are suspended, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service said in a new report.“Iran reportedly has about 30 million-50 million barrels of oil stored, and therefore available for immediate release onto the market,” the report said.Iranian energy officials have estimated the country could double its oil exports from the current 1.1 million barrel a day level within about six months after sanctions are lifted, according to the CRS. Congressional PriorityA nuclear agreement with Iran that would result in sanctions on the countries energy sector—including limits on oil exports—being suspended upon implementation is expected to be one of Congress's first priorities when it returns from the summer recess the week of Sept. 7.According to the Energy Information Administration, Iranian oil production could increase 700,000 barrels per day by the end of 2016 and reduce international crude oil prices between $5 and $15 a barrel if Iranian oil is allowed into the world market.Ammunition for U.S. Exports The prospect of more Iranian oil exports being allowed has given backers of lifting the U.S. ban on the export of most crude oil new ammunition.“Once oil sanctions on Iran are lifted, [the] deal will soon put America's oil producers at a competitive disadvantage on the global marketplace,” the Independent Petroleum Association of America said in a statement earlier this summer. “As soon as Iran is permitted to export its surplus oil on the world market, why can't we allow our own companies to do the same with their American-made surplus of crude oil?”The Washington-based trade group represents companies such as companies such as Whiting Petroleum Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. -
Big Cities Scramble to be Prepared for an Oil Train Disaster
Sep 3, 2015 | AP
By Michael Rubinkam and Geoff Mulvihill
They rumble past schools, homes and businesses in dozens of cities around the country - 100-car trains loaded with crude oil from the Upper Midwest.
While railroads have long carried hazardous materials through congested urban areas, cities are now scrambling to formulate emergency plans and to train firefighters amid the latest safety threat: a fiftyfold increase in crude shipments that critics say has put millions of people living or working near the tracks at heightened risk of derailment, fire and explosion.
After a series of fiery crashes, The Associated Press conducted a survey of nearly a dozen big cities that, collectively, see thousands of tank cars each week, revealing a patchwork of preparedness. Some have plans specifically for oil trains; others do not. Some fire departments have trained for an oil train disaster; others say they're planning on it. Some cities are sitting on huge quantities of fire-suppressing foam, others report much smaller stockpiles.
The AP surveyed emergency management departments in Chicago; Philadelphia; Seattle; Cleveland; Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Pittsburgh; New Orleans; Sacramento, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Buffalo, New York. The responses show emergency planning remains a work in progress even as crude has become one of the nation's most common hazardous materials transported by rail. Railroads carried some 500,000 carloads last year, up from 9,500 in 2008.
"There could be a huge loss of life if we have a derailment, spill and fire next to a heavily populated area or event," said Wayne Senter, executive director of the Washington state association of fire chiefs. "That's what keeps us up at night."
The oil comes from North Dakota's prolific Bakken Shale, an underground rock formation where fracking and horizontal drilling have allowed energy companies to tap previously inaccessible reserves.
The production boom has made oil trains a daily fact of life in places like Philadelphia, where they roll past major hospitals, including one for children. In Seattle, they snake by sports stadiums used by the Seahawks and Mariners before entering a 110-year-old tunnel under downtown. In Chicago, they're a stone's throw from large apartment buildings, a busy expressway and the White Sox's ballpark.
Before the rise of shale oil and the ethanol industry, hazardous materials were typically shipped in just a handful of cars in trains that hauled a variety of products. But the trains now passing through cities consist entirely of tank cars filled with flammable crude. These so-called unit trains offer increased efficiency but magnify the risk that hazardous materials will be involved in a derailment.
That has led some residents and emergency management experts to worry it's just a matter of time before a catastrophic derailment in a city, where, according to a 2014 U.S. Department of Transportation analysis, a severe accident could kill more than 200 people and cause $6 billion in damage.
Two summers ago, an oil-train derailment, explosion and fire showed the power of such a disaster in even a small town, when part of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, was leveled and 47 people died. There have been at least six oil-train derailments in lightly populated areas of the U.S. and Canada so far this year, most resulting in fires but none in deaths.
With several trains rumbling past his Chicago home each day, Tony Phillips is keenly aware of the threat.
"If it happened here, we would be toast," said the 77-year-old painter, who lives with his wife in a converted 19th-century factory in the Pilsen neighborhood that shudders when one of the mile-long trains rattles past.
Phillips knows the chances of a crash right outside his bedroom window are remote. Nevertheless, when he hears the trains go by, "it gives me a little shiver," he said. "It's like a ghost coming along with this tremendous potential for destruction."
Cities have responded with varying levels of urgency. Milwaukee, for example, provided basic training in crude-by-rail shipments and accidents to more than 800 firefighters, sent its hazmat team to Colorado for advanced training on oil-train accident response and meets regularly with railroad officials. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, says it has not yet conducted training exercises or met with railroad officials but will do so once its oil-train emergency plan is complete.
On the federal level, new rules aim to reduce the chances of a catastrophic derailment by lowering speed limits in cities, ordering railroads to install electronic braking systems and requiring a phase-in of stronger tank cars beginning in 2018.
The oil industry has challenged some rules in court while critics say the standards don't go far enough, lamenting that tens of thousands of older, rupture-prone tank cars will remain on the tracks for years to come.
Some residents and activists also complain about a lack of transparency from the railroads, which have fought to keep details about oil-train routing and frequency from the public, citing competitive and security concerns. The federal government agreed in May to end its requirement that railroads notify states about large shipments of crude, but quickly reversed course amid a public backlash.
The rail industry says it shares the information with those who need it - local first responders. And, by and large, cities told the AP they work closely with railroads on emergency preparedness, getting information on cargoes and routing, and taking part in tabletop simulations and live training exercises.
Thousands of firefighters have traveled on the industry's dime to an Association of American Railroads training facility near Pueblo, Colorado, where tank cars are set ablaze for practice. Thousands more practice diagnosing leaking tank cars at free hazardous materials workshops the industry holds around the country.
"Our industry has recognized the concern that's been expressed about moving this product. We've been doing increased operational reviews, we've slowed down our trains, we've increased track safety technology and track inspections, as well as really stepping up preparedness and training with first responders," said Ed Greenberg, spokesman for the railroad association.
Overall, the industry's safety record has improved. Freight-train derailments have been cut nearly in half since 2004, with the number falling to 1,210 last year from 2,350 a decade earlier, according to federal statistics.
"The industry does not want derailments," said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart. "That's the bottom line."
But fiery crashes involving oil trains has heightened concern. Politicians and activists from Minnesota to New Jersey are calling for the trains to be rerouted away from densely populated areas. Activists in Philadelphia question whether the city has adequately communicated its evacuation plans with residents who would have to leave quickly after an accident.
Jessica Nixon said she never would have bought her south Philadelphia rowhouse had she known oil trains would rumble past at all hours of the day and night. She's thought about moving, but "how would I sell my house?"
"I am concerned for my own safety, as well as my neighbors'," said Nixon, 30, who lives three doors down from a 1.2-mile-long railroad bridge and chatted with a reporter as an oil train chugged by.
Not far from Nixon's home lies a massive oil refinery that has turned Philadelphia into one of the nation's top destinations for North Dakota crude. The trains taking it there come within feet of downtown office buildings and fancy condominium complexes, as well as rowhouse neighborhoods, schools, parks and small businesses. They run parallel to the Schuylkill River, which supplies half the city's drinking water.
Hundreds of thousands of people live within the half-mile evacuation zone that federal officials recommend if there's a catastrophic derailment. The city has avoided disaster, but a January 2014 derailment on a bridge - in which six cars filled with crude leaned precariously over the Schuylkill - highlighted the risk.
"I am confident in our ability to handle a big disaster, but I do not dismiss that a major crude oil accident could be quite destructive," Samantha Phillips, Philadelphia's director of emergency management, said in an email.
That's because if an oil train derails, ruptures and explodes, much of the damage is already done before emergency responders even get the call, noted Donald Kunkle, executive director of the Pennsylvania Fire & Emergency Services Institute.
"If you have a catastrophic failure of a tank car in an urban area," he said, "it's going to be a difficult day no matter how effective the fire response is."
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jason Keyser in Chicago; P. Solomon Banda in Pueblo, Colorado; Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska.
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