Preview Newsletter
ET ACC PM 10/6/15
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(ACC Blog) MacArthur Foundation declares nanotechnologist a Genius
Oct 6, 2015 | American Chemistry Matters
By American Chemistry
Each year the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation selects between 20 and 40 individuals to receive one of the McArthur Foundation Fellowships, which are better known as “genius grants.” -
(ACC Mention) Vadxx joins Plastics-to-Fuel and Petrochemistry Alliance
Oct 6, 2015 | Renewable Energy From Wastes
The Plastics-to-Fuel and Petrochemistry Alliance (PFPA) of the American Chemistry Council, Washington, has announced Vadxx Energy will become its newest member. -
(ACC Mention) Pittsfield committee chilly to ban on foam food containers
Oct 6, 2015 | The Berkshire Eagle
By Jim Therrien
Prospects for an ordinance to ban expanded polystyrene foam food containers appear dire after the City Council's Ordinance and Rules Committee voted 3-2 to recommend filing the measure. -
(ACC Mention) Styrofoam Ban To Go To Pittsfield Council Without Subcommittee Support
Oct 6, 2015 | iBerkshires
By Andy McKeever
A City Council subcommittee has voted against instituting a ban on polystyrene containers. -
(ACC Mention) Unlikely group urges Senate to act on 'window' for TSCA bill
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Pearson
Hoping to clear what one lawmaker called a "stalemate" on bringing a bipartisan chemical safety bill to the Senate floor, supporters this morning rolled out a broad coalition of supporters in a bid to show the effort had gone too far to stall now. -
'Stalemate' over LWCF-TSCA push
Oct 6, 2015 | Politico Pro
By Eric Woolf
BURR TO QUEEN'S KNIGHT 3, STALEMATE: Sen. Richard Burr says the Senate is in “sort of a stalemate” over his effort to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund by amending bipartisan legislation updating the Toxic Substances Control Act. -
Hoeven lifts his hold on TSCA amid talks on oil export ban
Oct 6, 2015 | Politico Pro - Whiteboards
By DARREN GOODE
Sen. John Hoeven said he isn’t holding up Senate debate on the Toxic Substances Control Act because prospects are improving for a vote later this year on lifting the crude oil export ban. -
Senators dismiss tying conservation fund to chemical reform
Oct 6, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Senators pushing for an overhaul of federal chemical safety laws are dismissing a push to link the measure to one reviving a lapsed conservation fund. -
Responding to Joe Nocera’s Column
Oct 6, 2015 | Safer Chemicals, Safer Families
By Andy Igrejas
It looks as though the Senate is likely to vote on TSCA reform this week and the propaganda machine is in full swing. -
California agency proposes candidate chemical criteria corrections
Oct 6, 2015 | Chemical Watch
California's Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) has issued proposed amendments to its candidate chemicals identification criteria. These aim to correct or update three citations. -
Vermont delays decision on chemical reporting rule
Oct 6, 2015 | Chemical Watch
Vermont has extended the review period of a proposed rule to implement its chemical reporting programme for children's products, amid concerns from industry stakeholders (CW 22 September 2015). -
Scientists produce non-toxic flame retardant
Oct 6, 2015 | Consumer Affairs
By Mark Huffman
After horrific fires involving home furnishings and clothing, manufacturers began adding flame retardants to fabric. It was effective at reducing fires, but there was just one problem: the chemicals used to prevent material from catching fire were often toxic. -
DOE cold case shows limits of U.S.-China cyber cooperation
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
In January 2013, Department of Energy computer files began trickling through suspicious Brazilian and Ukrainian networks. -
Friendly hackers break into a utility and make a point
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
When a group of hackers penetrated the Snohomish County Public Utility District in Washington state seven months ago, they had inside help. -
Texas plant restarts 1 week after explosion
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
A Pasadena, Texas, chemical plant where four workers were burned in an explosion last week will resume operating even though little has been disclosed about how the facility will ensure safety. -
Advocates see new argument to supplant climate claims
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Many in the natural gas industry make a talking point of the fuel's lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with coal, highlighting its role as a low-carbon energy source, but advocates would do well to call attention to an entirely different attribute, according to an industry booster. -
Coal emits twice the climate pollution of LNG -- industry study
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Exporting U.S.-sourced natural gas to distant markets to produce electricity is environmentally preferable to burning coal in those same countries, according to an industry-backed study that considered a wide range of technology and resource scenarios to reach its sweeping conclusion. -
Gas exports drive new projects in South Texas
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
Energy firms are breathing new life into natural gas transportation deals in the Eagle Ford Shale as export projects drive interest. -
Rig count takes a dramatic plunge
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
A swift drop in active rig deployment in the U.S. oil patch may signal an attitude shift within the industry and indicate further drops to come, investment bank analysts say. -
Momentum Waning for Bipartisan Energy Action
Oct 6, 2015 | Roll Call
By Ed Felker
Republicans in the House and Senate have succeeded in pushing bills to overhaul the nation’s energy laws through two committees, setting up potential floor votes in their drive to revamp energy policy for the first time since 2007. -
Derailment interrupts service on Amtrak's D.C.-Vermont line
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
Amtrak's Vermonter train, which links Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, Vt., faces at least several days of service disruptions following yesterday's partial derailment in a heavily wooded section of central Vermont. -
The Latest: Diesel Fuel Disappeared After Vermont Derailment
Oct 7, 2015 | The New York Times
By The Associated Press
The latest on the derailment of an Amtrak train in Vermont (all times local): 4:35 p.m. The Vermont governor's office says about 900 gallons of diesel fuel remains unaccounted for following the derailment of an Amtrak train. -
Cooking-oil train derails in N.J.
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
Three train cars hauling cooking oil ran off the tracks in northern New Jersey yesterday morning. -
Lawmakers seek to extend deadline for Positive Train Control
Oct 6, 2015 | Safety and Health
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is proposing to extend the Dec. 31 deadline for railroads to implement Positive Train Control technology – an integrated system for controlling train movements, including emergency braking.
Industry and Association News
Chemical Management News
Chemical Security News
Energy and Environment News
Transportation News
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(ACC Blog) MacArthur Foundation declares nanotechnologist a Genius
Oct 6, 2015 | American Chemistry Matters
By American Chemistry
Each year the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation selects between 20 and 40 individuals to receive one of the McArthur Foundation Fellowships, which are better known as “genius grants.” The honor is awarded to individuals working in any field, who “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work” and are citizens or residents of the United States.
Based on the 24 Fellows selected this year, geniuses can be choreographers, biologists, economists, set designers, chemists, educators, photographers, musical composers – and even puppeteers.
Geniuses also work in nanotechnology.
This year, the foundation honored an inorganic chemist at the University of California, Berkeley – Peidong Yang – noting that “his advances in the science of nanomaterials are opening new horizons for tackling the global challenge of clean, renewable energy sources.”
Yang created a synthetic leaf that uses the same ingredients as photosynthesis – water, sunlight and carbon dioxide – to produce liquid fuels like methane, butane and acetate with the help of semiconductor nanowires. And like nature’s photosynthesis, this process also releases oxygen into the air.
These nanowires, similar to normal electrical wires except for their size – 100 to 1,000 times thinner than a human hair – have a variety of fascinating properties, including that they are extremely capable at capturing solar energy.
While the technology is still several years from being commercially viable, it represents an important step on the road to creating a carbon-neutral and sustainable fuel system.
Jay West, manager of the American Chemistry Council’s Nanotechnology Panel, says that the Panel’s main objective is to promote the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology – in projects like that of Yang and many others.
ACC’s Nanotechnology Panel works to advance good product stewardship practices among nanomaterial producers and users. The Panel regularly supports and participates in partnerships with universities, regulatory agencies and other organizations to identify and communicate best practices concerning the responsible development and use of nanotechnology.
To learn more about ACC’s Nanotechnology Panel and its mission visit its website athttp://nanotechnology.americanchemistry.com or contact Jay West at Jay_West@americanchemistry.com.
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(ACC Mention) Vadxx joins Plastics-to-Fuel and Petrochemistry Alliance
Oct 6, 2015 | Renewable Energy From Wastes
The Plastics-to-Fuel and Petrochemistry Alliance (PFPA) of the American Chemistry Council, Washington, has announced Vadxx Energy will become its newest member. Cleveland-based Vadxx—which plans to start up its first commercial facility in Akron, Ohio, in the coming months—joins Agilyx, Cynar Plc, and RES Polyflow as the alliance’s core member technology providers.
“Vadxx is excited to join the Alliance in its work to educate policymakers, communities and others about the important benefits of these new technologies,” says Vadxx CEO Jim Garrett. “In addition to creating valuable fuels and chemical feedstocks, plastics-to-fuel technologies can help divert non-recycled plastics from landfills and lower greenhouse gas emissions.”
Formerly, the Plastics-to-Oil Technologies Alliance, the PFPA recently modified its name to reflect the wide range of versatile technologies and products offered by its membership. These include liquid fuels such as diesel and naphtha, crude oil for conversion to fuels or chemicals, and waxes, lubes and other valuable products.
Since forming in 2014, the group also has been joined by three associate members, Sealed Air, Americas Styrenics, and Tetra Tech.
“More businesses, governments and communities are looking to value creation as a new paradigm for managing post-use materials,” says Michael Dungan, chairman of the PFPA and director of sales and marketing for RES Polyflow. “The diverse and expanding group of technologies available to convert non-recycled plastics into fuels and other valuable products provides a range of solutions to help communities sustainably manage more of their post-use resources.” -
(ACC Mention) Pittsfield committee chilly to ban on foam food containers
Oct 6, 2015 | The Berkshire Eagle
By Jim Therrien
Prospects for an ordinance to ban expanded polystyrene foam food containers appear dire after the City Council's Ordinance and Rules Committee voted 3-2 to recommend filing the measure.
The split vote on Monday followed several statements in favor of the ban and counterclaims from industry representatives.
Rinaldo Del Gallo proposed a ban similar to those in effect in Great Barrington, Amherst and other communities in December 2012. But progress toward a council vote was slowed after the Ordinance and Rules Committee asked for a recommendation from the Green Commission and actively sought input from businesses likely to be affected by a ban.
Committee member and council President Melissa Mazzeo made the motion to recommend to the full council that the petition be filed, which would effectively kill it unless that or another proposal is resubmitted.
"I don't think Pittsfield is ready for this," Mazzeo said, adding that the state Legislature has been considering a statewide ban and she would rather postpone action here until that has a chance to be acted on.
The city should keep the conversation going, she said, but wait for the state to enact a law and then decide whether to add local provisions to that. At this point, Mazzeo said, she will vote against a ban.
The full council meets next on Oct. 13. 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There are four proposed bills before the Legislature that propose regulation or study of polystyrene products. House bill H-2066(https://malegislature.gov/Bills/189/House/H2066) would regulate both expanded polystyrene foam containers and the harder surfaced polystyrene drink or other containers.
Del Gallo said his proposal focuses only on the disposable, light, crumbly foam products used for prepared or take-out foods but not typical market foam packaging used for uncooked meats, poultry or fish. It also would not cover building materials.
"I too would like to see what the state is doing," Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi said. But he added that, in his view, "this is taking a choice away. I don't think any business should have the choice [of food containers] taken away from them."
Ward 5 Councilor Jonathan Lothrop, while not actively supporting the ban, said the alleged health risks from foam food containers and the effects foam waste on the environment are proper topics for the council to consider.
Lothrop said he would oppose the motion to file.
"Let's just get this to the council and have a vote on it," he said. "It has been here [before the committee] long enough."
In voting, Councilor at large Kathleen Amuso agreed with Lothrop, although she also said she'd like to get an update on what the Legislature might do in regard to a statewide ban.
Del Gallo, a local attorney, said the two main reasons communities enact a ban are that the material is a suspected carcinogen, based on studies, and that "it is beyond dispute that it doesn't break down in the environment."
Traces of the foam material can be found throughout the environment, he said, including in fish and wildlife, and in humans as well.
He added that communities that have enacted foam container bans have seen smooth transitions to the use of other containers, in part because many restaurants and stores are already using other containers, such as paper or cardboard products.
Consumers are now wary of foam containers and are dictating that trend, especially in upscale restaurants, Lothrop said.
Matt Fisher, representing Dart Container Corp., which manufactures the products, said polystyrene containers are a "legitimate, regulated product" and have been for many years. He added the material is regulated by the Federal Drug Administration.
"I have faith in our government and the science as it stands," Fisher said.
He also argued that a ban "is ultimately a tax" in the form of higher cost containers.
Representing the American Chemical Council in the region, attorney Stephen Rosario said that while chemistry can sometimes sound upsetting to people, "there is chemistry in absolutely everything." Foam products, he said, "are very heavily regulated" and have been approved for use.
But Charles Lake, of Cairo, N.Y., said he suffered severe health issues that took eight years for doctors to diagnose, after he worked as a trucker hauling polystyrene products and other materials. Grease in foods and citric acid, for example, break down the foam surface when foods are placed in a container and contaminate it, he said.
Tim Wright said he holds a doctorate in chemistry and once worked in the plastics industry before leaving to become a medical ultrasound technician. He said the foam containers are a poor material for recycling or reprocessing, unlike harder plastics, and they are believed to emit hazardous chemicals when incinerated.
Anything that is not recyclable, said Jeff Turner, "is like stealing from future generations. There is no reason to do it."
The Green Commission in March unanimously recommended to the Ordinance and Rules Committee that the city enact a ban. Commissioner Nancy Nylen said Monday that the trend is toward communities enacting such bans, and she recommended that Pittsfield "be a leader on this."
She said there are a growing number of alternatives to foam containers and the proposal would allow ample time for businesses to comply with the change.
Committee Chairman Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell asked Del Gallo if the ban would cover school lunchrooms. The attorney said it is unclear as the ban is based on the one enacted in Amherst and he would have to research that point.
But he added that details of the ordinance as drafted could be changed by the council. He said "subjecting children" to the material "is not advisable," but he would rather see something enacted than for the proposal to be rejected entirely.
The ordinance as drafted would be enforced by the Board of Health as part of its regular inspections of food service establishments, and it would involve an escalating system of fines.
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(ACC Mention) Styrofoam Ban To Go To Pittsfield Council Without Subcommittee Support
Oct 6, 2015 | iBerkshires
By Andy McKeever
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A City Council subcommittee has voted against instituting a ban on polystyrene containers. The ban on what is better known as Styrofoam is eyed to extend only to restaurant to-go containers. Proponents and opponents have argued over the matter for more than two years through a number of commissions. The matter will finally go before the City Council. The ordinance has received endorsement from the Green Commission. But with a 3-2 vote, the City Council's Ordinance and Rules subcommittee filed the petition. Now it will be up to the full council to determine the fate of the proposed law. "Let's just get it to the full council and have a full discussion," said Ward 5 Councilor Jonathan Lothrop, who along with Councilor at Large Kathleen Amuso voted against filing the petition. For Lothrop, the issues of litter and health exceeds the impacts the ban will have on businesses. He said the trend is of companies moving away from the containers and there have been a number of products throughout the years that were OK at the time but then found to be hazardous - such as polychlorinated biphenyls and leaded gasoline. He said it is up to communities to ban hazardous materials and the federal and state governments will follow. Council President Melissa Mazzeo, however, said Massachusetts is already considering a statewide ban and the city should wait for that. "It may come to become a statewide ban or a federal ban," Mazzeo said. "I didn't really want to sit down and say we are going to ban it. You hear so many different sides." Mazzeo said businesses and residents are smart enough to make their own decisions. Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi said ultimately a ban would restrict businesses from choosing a product, which could be detrimental to those small companies that would be force to buy more expensive materials. "It is taking a choice away and to me, that is something that shouldn't be taken away," Morandi said. "I don't think any business should have a choice taken away from them. If they don't want to use Styrofoam then they don't have to." That sentiment is what attorney Matthew Fisher, who represents the Dart Container Corp., told the committee. "This is ultimately a tax. It will ban a product," Fisher said, reminding the committee that polystyrene is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Steven Rosario of the American Chemical Council said manufacturers of the product are under scrutiny from 14 different federal agencies as well as numerous state and local agencies. Polystyrene go through the same level of scrutiny as all of the alternatives. But federal approval doesn't mean much for Charles Lake. Lake spent two years as a truck driver transporting the containers. He suffered with a series of health issues including several strokes. Doctors couldn't figure it out. Eight years later, the cause was narrowed down to the carcinogenic chemicals in polystyrene, he said. "I ended up being poisoned and it took doctors eight years to figure out it was from the Styrofoam," Lake said. "It is no good for our health. It is no good for children. It is something that needs to be done away with."Lake said when acidic or hot foods are in the containers, the chemicals begin to break down and soak into food, providing more harm to those ingesting the food. Resident Tim Wright added that the product is bad for the environment because it isn't recyclable.Jeff Turner said switching to alternatives doesn't cost businesses that much and will protect the environment. "Anything we use that can't be recycled is stealing from future generations," Turner said. Given the health and environmental concerns, the Green Commission approved the ban. Nancy Nilan called on the city to be "leaders" in the state by banning the product.Councilors Kathleen Amuso and Melissa Mazzeo agreed they'd like the state to do something but disagreed on whether or not the petition should be filed with no action locally.However, Mazzeo said that the petition before the council was "too restrictive and too inconsistent." She said the public conversation about it should help guide decisions and eventually the state will answer the questions through its process, with legislation already filed. "I think having the conversation we've been having in the community and across the country are pushing people in the direction of coming up with new products or recycling," Mazzeo said. "I don't think it is something we should do right now. It is way too restrictive. It is inconsistent." One restriction under debate is a clause banning restaurants from using "non-biodegradable" materials for containers, which would expand beyond Styrofoam. Rinaldo Del Gallo, who submitted the petition, said if that was a hold up, it could be removed. "I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good," Del Gallo said. Meanwhile, subcommittee Chairman Christopher Connell said where the ban isn't restrictive concerns him. It doesn't include schools because they would not be considered a food establishment. Nor are there restrictions on building materials. Connell said if the concerns were about health, then the schools should be the focus. Del Gallo agrees that the containers shouldn't be used in schools or in building supplies. But, he limited his petition knowing there'd be backlash. "I picked what I picked for political reasons," Del Gallo said. The petition was primarily aimed as an environmental one, he said. Del Gallo protested being cut off from speaking on the petition on Monday, saying at a previous meeting the opponents of the ban were allowed to speak at length on the subject. Del Gallo was granted only three minutes, but councilors did follow up with some questions.
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(ACC Mention) Unlikely group urges Senate to act on 'window' for TSCA bill
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Pearson
Hoping to clear what one lawmaker called a "stalemate" on bringing a bipartisan chemical safety bill to the Senate floor, supporters this morning rolled out a broad coalition of supporters in a bid to show the effort had gone too far to stall now.
Should the logjam clear, the Senate has a "window" to consider it as soon as Thursday, said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who introduced S. 697, the "Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act," earlier this year with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) staff have held "a number of meetings" to discuss how to bring the bill to the floor in the past few weeks, Udall said.
At a news conference outside the Capitol building this morning, Bonnie Lautenberg, the widow of the late New Jersey senator the bill is named for, warned that lawmakers who block the bill's progress are "holding up the health and safety of our children."
It was an unlikely group, including lawmakers who have been on opposing sides of a variety of other energy and environmental issues. But the senators said there were many reasons for politicians of all stripes to push for the plan.
"What you see before you really says it all," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) speaks today at a Capitol Hill news conference in favor of a bill that would reform the nation's chemical laws. He is joined by a bipartisan coalition of bill supporters including (left to right) Sen. David Vitter (R-La.); Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.); Bonnie Lautenberg, widow of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.); and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). Photo by Sam Pearson.
It wasn't easy to reach this point, said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and it involved considerable political risk by Udall to take a stand on an issue that is contentious among his colleagues. That led to criticism of Udall after the bill's introduction -- including from some of his traditional supporters -- that the legislation was too favorable to the chemical industry (E&E Daily, April 28).
"Prometheus was chained to a rock and had his liver eaten every day by an eagle," Whitehouse said, "and sometimes I think the suffering of Tom Udall as he brought this through those early stages was Promethean."
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) had talked to many skeptics who thought the idea of Toxic Substances Control Act reform would never find bipartisan support.
"That will happen when pigs fly," Carper said someone told him. "Let the record show, we were just walking over here from the Hart Building. ... I looked over toward the Capitol, and we saw a formation of pigs flying."
Listed as a participant in the news conference, Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council -- which has made TSCA reform one of its top lobbying priorities this year -- watched from the audience instead.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he thought the prospect of TSCA reform was fueling job growth in the chemical industry, which would mean more investment in the United States. That would help his home state's natural gas industry, the main feedstock for petrochemical production, Inhofe said.
None of this will happen if two lawmakers -- Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire -- fail to back down from a vow to object to floor consideration of S. 697 without a promise of a vote on an amendment to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which expired earlier this month, advocates said.
Burr said yesterday he thought the TSCA bill was a good vehicle to secure reauthorization of LWCF, which he said should never have been allowed to lapse (E&E Daily, Oct. 6). But "as soon as you open it up to amendments, then you open it up to 100 amendments," Udall said.
Though his group is a strong supporter of LWCF, National Wildlife Federation President Collin O'Mara said Ayotte and Burr had picked the wrong strategy to protect the fund.
"The two deserve to pass, but they deserve to pass separately," O'Mara said.
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'Stalemate' over LWCF-TSCA push
Oct 6, 2015 | Politico Pro
By Eric Woolf
BURR TO QUEEN'S KNIGHT 3, STALEMATE: Sen. Richard Burr says the Senate is in “sort of a stalemate” over his effort to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund by amending bipartisan legislation updating the Toxic Substances Control Act. Burr acknowledged he is blocking quick consideration of the TSCA update until he secures an LWCF vote, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) announced through a spokeswoman that she was joining the effort. Both are up for re-election next year.
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“I’ll allow it to the floor if it’s open for amendment, even if it’s limited to one amendment,” Burr said yesterday, adding that his colleagues have “known for months” that an LWCF was the price of his cooperation. TSCA reform has more than 60 supporters on board, enough to clear a filibuster, but it remains unlikely it would come up without a unanimous consent agreement to limit the number of amendments that could be considered. A Senate aide told ME the most likely result of Burr’s efforts to tie LWCF to TSCA would be that neither item gets a vote. Meanwhile, TSCA supporters will appear at a Capitol Hill press conference today in an effort to drum up support.
— Multiple bottlenecks await the LWCF: The decades old program, whose authorization expired last week, seems to have ample support in the Senate, including a permanent re-authorization in the Cantwell-Murkowski bill currently begging for floor time. But even with backing from members of both parties, it must still overcome likely objections from Utah Sen. Mike Lee and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz. In his book, "A Time for Truth," Cruz described how he and Lee were sympatico on numerous issues, including a desire to sell off all non-parks federal land to pay off the debt. A Lee aide said he was not involved in any discussions around LWCF and TSCA; Cruz's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the House, Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop doesn't want to put a straight-forward reauthorization on the agenda. A spokeswoman tells ME he does plan a bill of his own that changes the fund, but not for a month or two. The spokeswoman did say to expect it before year end.
We'd all like to be dead like LWCF is dead: With the LWCF's authorization expired, it can no longer take in the oil and gas revenues it used to fund land purchases. But approximately $20 billion is still in its bank account, and if Congress keeps appropriating approximately $300 million of that a year, as it has been, the fund will have about 60 years to draw it down — unless Congress puts the money to other uses. LWCF fund supporters hope to reauthorize the fund soon, the program is still up and running on the back of that fat stash.
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Hoeven lifts his hold on TSCA amid talks on oil export ban
Oct 6, 2015 | Politico Pro - Whiteboards
By DARREN GOODE
Sen. John Hoeven said he isn’t holding up Senate debate on the Toxic Substances Control Act because prospects are improving for a vote later this year on lifting the crude oil export ban.
“As long as leadership is working with us to get it passed within a reasonable time frame, like between now and year end, that’s what I’m after,” the North Dakota Republican told POLITICO today. “It doesn’t have to be [on] TSCA. And right now leadership is working with us.”
Hoeven did initially have a hold on the TSCA bill to force a vote on lifting the oil export ban, and he still calling for Senate leaders to allow a vote on it as an amendment.
But the last real impasse preventing Senate debate and approval of the TSCA bill, which has filibuster-proof support, are objections by at least two Republican cosponsors, Richard Burr and Kelly Ayotte, to bringing it up without a promise to take up the now-expired Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Bipartisan backers of the TSCA bill are expected to discuss the bill on the Senate floor this afternoon, and may try to bring it up then by unanimous consent. But Burr said Monday night that there was still a “stalemate.”
Another Republican who has helped lead the effort to extend or reauthorize the LWCF, Sen. Susan Collins, said she does not object to bringing up the TSCA bill.
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Senators dismiss tying conservation fund to chemical reform
Oct 6, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Senators pushing for an overhaul of federal chemical safety laws are dismissing a push to link the measure to one reviving a lapsed conservation fund.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said a pair of Republican senators will have to find a different way to bring a renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to the floor rather than blocking a chemical bill they hope to attach it to.
Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) are stopping the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill from hitting the Senate floor unless they get a vote on the LWCF as well. On Monday, Burr told Politico, “I’ll allow it to the floor if it’s open for amendment, even if it’s limited to one amendment.”
But Inhofe said TSCA isn’t the right vehicle for the measure.
“It’s not a germane amendment,” he said after a press conference plugging TSCA on Thursday. “They need to find something else for their amendment and I think they will.”
Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a lead TSCA sponsor, agreed.
“I think he wants a vote [on LWCF], and he should get a vote, and we’re going to work with him on that,” Udall said. “We’re going to try to work through this so we can get the bill to the floor as it is.”
Backers of the TSCA bill secured their 60th co-sponsor last week, setting up an effort to soon push the legislation through the Senate, with Udall suggesting a window as early as this Thursday.
A varied group of senators and interest groups — ranging from the Environmental Defense Fund to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — rallied outside the Capitol to promote the bill on Tuesday.
But Burr and others, still stinging from seeing the LWCF’s authorization lapse last week, want to tie the two popular provisions together into one package.
Burr is a co-sponsor of the TSCA bill and Udall said he supports an extension of the conservation fund. But Udall said Tuesday that linking them together could end up sinking the chemical legislation.
“The thing that happens: As soon as you open up one amendment, then you’ve opened it up to 100 amendments,” he said.
“You’ve seen that happen many times around here, where as soon as you get to that point, you don’t get a bill. And I think all of us want to see a bill.”
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Responding to Joe Nocera’s Column
Oct 6, 2015 | Safer Chemicals, Safer Families
By Andy Igrejas
It looks as though the Senate is likely to vote on TSCA reform this week and the propaganda machine is in full swing. Yesterday, I took a call from New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, thinking he was writing about the legislation and what the issues were. I didn’t realize he was actually writing a column about us, instigated, as he admits, by his “old friend” at the Environmental Defense Fund’s affiliate. The column is flat wrong, but it also provides an opportunity to talk about where we are and what’s at stake.
First, why now?
Last week, word leaked out in the trade press that Senators McConnell, Inhofe and Boxer had reached an agreement to bring TSCA reform to the floor. (We’ve been opposed to this bill, as most of you know, though we have lauded progress when its been made.) Under the agreement, Senator Boxer would drop her threat to filibuster, a right she planned to exercise, in exchange for changes to the bill (though she would not be voting for the bill). Senator Boxer’s improvements have not been made public, but they are expected to be in the area of preserving some state authority on chemicals.Separately, Senators Markey (D-MA) and Durbin (D-IL) announced on Friday that they had also negotiated a number of changes to the legislation in exchange for their support of the bill. Again, because a new version of the bill has not been made public, we can’t yet judge the details. The changes, as described by the Senators, all sound positive.
Assuming the reports are accurate, the Senate bill will likely have been improved in key ways, including more money for EPA and less preemption of states. That’s the good news.
But according to the reports, there will also be bad news. The legislation will likely continue to contain a number of problematic provisions, including preempting states in the absence of federal action, making it harder for EPA to regulate chemicals in imported products, and numerous other special interest doo-dads and distractions that take away from the purpose of reform.
Our message to the Senate, and to our supporters to bring to the Senate, is to keep these problems on the table as problems that must be solved in the next round, which would normally be a conference committee with the House. The House bill avoids the problems of the Udall-Vitter bill (though it has some of its own). Senators who have signed on to the Senate bill already, we hope, can support strengthening it in conference. Senators who do not support the bill can express their opposition, but also their hope that these issues will be addressed in conference, producing a final package that they would then be able to support.
This is hardly an unreasonable, wildly obstructionist stance, especially by Washington standards. We’re pointing out deficits in a piece of legislation and calling for them to be fixed as part of the official process, which isn’t over. Outrageous!
So back to that Nocera column, given the stance I outlined above, why the need for an attack piece on us and the rest of the health and environmental community, at this moment? The bill has the votes. The next steps in the process are pretty clear. The reason is that EDF sees the Senate bill as “theirs” and they are marketing themselves and trying to differentiate their brand. The House legislation, which in many ways is a more real compromise, disrupts that marketing. Nocera didn’t even know about the House bill until I pointed it out to him, and it gets a mere parenthetical, dutiful comment. But it is the version of TSCA reform that already passed the House in June by a vote of 398 to 1. If the article was actually about the value of compromise, you’d think Nocera would have noticed this bill, or made it the feature of the story. Why was that bill less controversial than the Senate bill has been?
The answer is that it represented the kind of rational process of compromise and legislation that Nocera says he supports. Chairman John Shimkus of Illinois, a conservative Republican, and Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, an environmental champion, learned from the stalemate that the Vitter-Udall legislation had produced in the previous year. They decided to write a new bill from scratch that focused on the essentials of reform for both sides. Most of the fundamentals of reform from a public health point of view were included. Most of the industry’s fundamentals, including expansion of preemption, were also included. Most of the over-reaching special interest provisions in the Senate bill were excluded, something which took real political will and even courage on the part of both legislators. (The bill does have shortcomings too, which we have said should be addressed.)
Each of the things we’re highlighting as problems in the Senate bill, which so angers Nocera, is not in this broad, bipartisan House bill. For example, it does not roll back EPA’s ability to intercept toxic chemicals in imported products. Most people would think chemical reform should make it easier for EPA to do that, right? The House bill provides for preemption, in fact, but only when EPA has actually acted on a chemical or declared it safe. The Senate bill, in contrast, preempts states before EPA has acted, potentially delaying needed policy interventions. The Senate bill has a potential loophole for “low priority” chemicals that get set aside without a full safety review. It’s not in the House bill. Finally, the Senate bill, as exhaustively detailedby our colleague Bob Sussman, who held senior positions at EPA, makes EPA do a ton of new work that would distract from the business of testing and regulating chemicals. It makes EPA rewrite policies and guidance through costly rule makings, for example, in areas where it already has plenty of policy and guidance. Some in the chemical industry want this extra bite at the apple. The House bill does not give it to them. The bill is also widely viewed to be more clearly drafted and less prone to litigation.
I pointed out this substantive contrast with the House bill to Nocera, but apparently he wasn’t interested in the substance. He had already decided on his one-sided approach and just needed a quote. But the substance is exactly the point. Will people be protected? In an age of limited government, shouldn’t we focus as much of EPA’s limited resources as possible on the core tasks of protecting people?But the substance is exactly the point. Will people be protected? In an age of limited government, shouldn’t we focus as much of EPA’s limited resources as possible on the core tasks of protecting people?
And this gets to my last point where Nocera is flatly wrong. EDF supposedly “rolled up their sleeves” on the bill, making it better, while the rest of us just opposed. In fact, EDF merely lost their shirt requiring a very broad coalition to roll up our sleeves. The bill EDF negotiated and endorsed did not containany of the fundamentals of reform. It did not establish a health-based standard. It did not protect vulnerable populations. It rolled back EPA’s authority over new chemicals. It blocked states not just from enacting their own rules, but even from co-enforcing federal chemical rules. The list goes on and on. It did not reflect any of the principles EDF itself had enunciated for years. And yet, EDF was very proud of the bill, even insisting that the initial criticism raised by others could jeopardize their carefully crafted compromise. Once the smoke cleared and the broader public interest community reviewed the bill, experts and organizations quickly rallied to put the substance of the debate front and center and we’ve been doing so every since.
The good news, therefore, is that this is, in most ways, no longer “EDF’s bill.” It has improved in spite of the cover that EDF provided for the bill, and precisely because of constructive, substantive opposition. The broader constellation of health and environmental experts can take some credit for getting the bill closer to a shape where it could really help people. But there is still critical work to do. The process isn’t over.
Finally, we have never criticized EDF publicly until now, and would not, but for Nocera’s column, because it is widely understood that EDF agreed to the original bill in error. That’s an open secret in Washington and it can happen to anyone.
There is no political imperative for Fred Krupp (EDF’s director) and Dominique Browning to launch this attack through Nocera, as they apparently did. That means they did it to grab credit, differentiate their “brand,” and rewrite history in the process, all at the expense of further improving the legislation to better protect public health and the environment. That lacks integrity.
Tomorrow or the next day, whenever the new version of the legislation is made public, we will go back to our usual program of focusing on what is actually in the legislation and how to make it better. I hope you’ll join us.
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California agency proposes candidate chemical criteria corrections
Oct 6, 2015 | Chemical Watch
California's Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) has issued proposed amendments to its candidate chemicals identification criteria. These aim to correct or update three citations.
Two proposed modifications aim to correct “original drafting errors”. These would affect references to endocrine disrupting chemicals and substances with persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) and very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) properties covered by the EU candidate list of substances of very high concern (SVHCs).
The correction of the endocrine disruptor reference would result in the listing of three additional substances not already captured by other candidate chemical identifying criteria, according to the DTSC. These are:4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenol, ethoxylated;4-nonylphenol, branched and linear; and4-nonylphenol, branched and linear, ethoxylated.
A proposed update to reflect the publication of a more recent edition of the Report on Carcinogens – as well as the proposed PBT correction – would not result in the addition of new substances to the candidate chemical list, said the DTSC.
Two substances not currently listed on the DTSC candidate chemical list have been proposed for listing as SVHCs in the EU on the grounds of vPvB properties:UV-327; andUV-350.
DCHP, a phthalate also under consideration for SVHC designation due to endocrine-disrupting properties, is already a candidate chemical in California (CW 7 September 2015).
Candidate chemicals listed by the agency are evaluated for potential prioritisation under the state's Safer Consumer Products programme (CW 17 April 2015).
Comments on the proposed amendments will be accepted until 16 November.
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Vermont delays decision on chemical reporting rule
Oct 6, 2015 | Chemical Watch
Vermont has extended the review period of a proposed rule to implement its chemical reporting programme for children's products, amid concerns from industry stakeholders (CW 22 September 2015).
The state's Legislative Council of Administrative Rules' (LCAR) 45-day review is set to expire on 9 October.
A spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health – the agency that drafted the proposed rule – said that they have requested that the LCAR extend its review period “in order for the department to consider next steps”.
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Scientists produce non-toxic flame retardant
Oct 6, 2015 | Consumer Affairs
By Mark Huffman
After horrific fires involving home furnishings and clothing, manufacturers began adding flame retardants to fabric. It was effective at reducing fires, but there was just one problem: the chemicals used to prevent material from catching fire were often toxic.
Some of the earliest flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), were outlawed in the U.S. in 1977. Some of the chemical compounds that took their place are now getting close scientific scrutiny.Naturally occurring material
Scientists at the University of Texas (UT) have developed a flame retardant from naturally occurring material found in some marine mussels. They believe the material could give manufacturers a way to prevent fires while keeping toxic chemicals out of the environment.
Flame retardants are widely used in manufacturing, especially in furniture. These chemicals are added to foams found in mattresses, sofas, car upholstery, and many other consumer products.
Scientists have found that once the flame retardant chemicals are embedded into the foam, they don't stay there. Over time they can be released into the air and environment.
In some states environmental activists are putting pressure on legislature to ban some flame retardants, especially the ones containing brominated compounds (BRFs), a mix of human-made chemicals thought to pose a risk to public health.Polydopamine coating
A team of UT researchers, led by engineering associate professor Christopher Ellison, found that a synthetic coating of polydopamine — made from the natural compound dopamine — is highly effective when used as a water-applied flame retardant for polyurethane foam.
Dopamine is found in humans and animals and facilitates signals in the brain and other parts of the body. The researchers believe their dopamine-based nanocoating would work just as well as the chemicals that activists find objectionable.
“Since polydopamine is natural and already present in animals, this question of toxicity immediately goes away,” Ellison said. “We believe polydopamine could cheaply and easily replace the flame retardants found in many of the products that we use every day, making these products safer for both children and adults.”67% reduction in peak heat
The scientists say a smaller amount of polydopamine works just as well, or better, than current flame retardants. It leads to a 67% reduction in peak heat release rate, a measure of fire intensity and imminent danger to building occupants or firefighters.
In fact, they say the natural flame retardant’s ability to reduce a fire’s intensity is about 20% better than existing chemical-based flame retardants commonly used today.
As many discoveries are, this one came about by accident. The UT researchers were experimenting with synthetic polydopamaine for health purposes, including as a cancer drug delivery system, when they observed its flame reduction properties.
To the team members' surprise, they didn't even have to change the structure of the polydopamine from its natural form to use it as a flame retardant. The substance was coated onto the interior and exterior surfaces of the polyurethane foam by simply dipping it into a water solution of dopamine for several days.
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DOE cold case shows limits of U.S.-China cyber cooperation
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
In January 2013, Department of Energy computer files began trickling through suspicious Brazilian and Ukrainian networks.
By the time the agency caught on to the intrusion, hackers had stolen over 200 gigabytes of data -- enough to fill an average laptop at the time.
The attackers made off with information from hundreds of employees' security clearance forms, as well as documents from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal.
In the days following the breach, agency officials made the investigation their top priority. They cut off Internet traffic at affected offices, called in a Microsoft cyber response team and forced workers to change their passwords. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security became involved. The White House convened a meeting with then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and other unnamed participants, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
But the case hit a snag when the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General suggested chasing the hackers back to their suspected home base: China. The response to the hack, which a DOE privacy manager later called "confusing, frustrating and disorganized," highlights sharp limits to Sino-American cyber cooperation. Experts say a new cybersecurity deal between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama won't lay to rest old suspicions or spying habits.'Out of their depth'
The cybersecurity framework Obama and Xi agreed to last month was aimed at stopping state-backed cyber espionage for economic gain.
The two leaders didn't mention recent data breaches in the U.S. government, such as a cyberattack on the Office of Personnel Management that exfiltrated sensitive background files on more than 21 million federal workers (E&E Daily, July 10).
Senior Obama administration officials have not publicly accused the Chinese government of being behind the OPM hack, despite hinting at Beijing's role.
U.S. officials also hesitated to blame China following the January 2013 cyberattack on DOE networks, documents show.
When the agency's Office of Inspector General suggested sending a formal request to China for help in finding the hackers, the Justice Department declined the case "due to the political nature of the location of actors," the OIG wrote in a closing memorandum.
"This looks like an OIG who was out of their depth," James Andrew Lewis, a senior fellow and program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an email, adding that "it becomes a counter-espionage issue, where IGs don't usually play and aren't informed."
The fact that the White House asked Napolitano to get involved "suggests they took [the case] seriously," Lewis said, "but just didn't bother asking the Chinese to cooperate in investigating their own [People's Liberation Army] spies."
Representatives from the Justice and Energy departments did not respond to requests for comment on the case, and a spokeswoman for the FBI's Cleveland division could not confirm or deny the office's involvement.
It's clear from OIG's summary that U.S. officials weren't sure what to make of a bombshell report delivered by private cybersecurity firm Mandiant on Feb. 19, just a few weeks after the investigation began. Researchers from Mandiant were able to trace a series of cyberattacks on U.S. government and private-sector targets back to Unit 61398 in China's People's Liberation Army (EnergyWire, Dec. 22, 2014).
"It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating from China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat the threat effectively," Dan McWhorter, the company's managing director of threat intelligence, said at the time. (Mandiant has since been acquired by cybersecurity firm FireEye.)
Mandiant's APT1 report drew a scathing response from Chinese officials, who denied any wrongdoing and maintain the government's innocence to this day.
Meanwhile, the unprecedented findings also gave pause to the U.S. government investigators pursuing the DOE case.
"A meeting is necessarcy [sic] to determine the path of this case due to the public release of Mandiant's report attributing intrusions to China," the OIG noted.IP versus NatSec
The Justice Department would go on to accuse five Chinese Army officers of spying on U.S. companies, unsealing indictments against the individuals last year and scrawling their names and likenesses on "Wanted" posters.
The U.S. government suspected those military hackers stole trade secrets that were later fed to Chinese companies, in addition to conducting cyber espionage for noneconomic, national security purposes.
The latest deal's limitations stem from its focus on the former activity, according to Robert Cattanach, co-chairman of the cybersecurity practice group at law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
In the framework, Obama and Xi agreed to end "cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors."
The heads of state also pledged to provide "timely responses" to requests for information and assistance surrounding hacking investigations.
Cattanach said the framework's omissions are telling. "The U.S. clearly signaled that it was still fine for China to do whatever it wished in the area of national security cyberespionage -- and the subtext there is, because we're doing it, too," he said.
Problems come up right away, however, due to the fact that "it's not at all clear where the dividing line is between 'acceptable' cyber hacking and 'unacceptable' cyber hacking," he said.
"I would not suggest to anybody that, 'Oh, we can let our guard down now'" that a deal has been announced, he said. "The notion that you have some very skilled hackers right now sort of attached to Chinese government, who are just going to shut down their operations, is very naïve."
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Friendly hackers break into a utility and make a point
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
When a group of hackers penetrated the Snohomish County Public Utility District in Washington state seven months ago, they had inside help.
Some employees of the state's largest PUD opened an email cleverly disguised as work-related, and unsuspectingly downloaded an attack payload.
This particular nightmare scenario in the electric utility sector did no damage. The "attackers" were from select cybersecurity elements of the Washington state National Guard, including a top executive at Microsoft Corp. and other experts. They had been invited by the utility to try to break into Snohomish's system to test its defenses.
"I wanted them break in," said Benjamin Beberness, the Snohomish PUD's chief information officer. "I didn't tell them how." And break in they did, in 22 minutes, added Jessica Matlock, Snohomish director of government relations.
Acknowledging that a cyberattack broke through is normally the last thing a utility would admit, but Snohomish did so to demonstrate the serious consequences for the electric power sector if its own employees neglect cyberthreats.
The critical importance of employee cyber awareness is a headline recommendation in a new cybersecurity defense primer issued by Snohomish, the Washington National Guard, and other government and private-sector members of the ad hoc Energy Sector Cybersecurity Working Group.
The publication, the "Cybersecurity Guide for Critical Infrastructure for the State of Washington," is aimed particularly at smaller utilities and municipal and cooperative electricity utilities that lack the staff and resources to invest in layers of costly cyberdefenses.
"We wanted to see if disparate players could come together and do something for small- and medium-sized utilities," said Gordon Matlock, cyber practice lead at Bridge Partners Consulting, a member of the group and Jessica Matlock's husband.
For them, enlisting their own employees as the first line of defense is both essential and free, said Anita Decker, executive director of the Northwest Public Power Association, also a working group member. Her organization provides training and other services to nearly 150 consumer-owned utilities in that region. "This has really pulled out the key things that small utilities can walk through, in a much simpler manner," Decker said of the guide.
"People do take it very, very seriously," she said of her organization's members. "But it's not that everybody is at the same level" of preparedness.
"If you are a small co-op who has someone maybe watching your firewall once in a while, you are definitely someone we want to reach," Beberness said. "It's not supposed to be a silver bullet, by any means, but it lets them know what resources are available to them."
The guide seeks to summarize and simplify the cybersecurity framework of defense strategies issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
It includes top-level questions for executives and managers, such as: "Who in my organization is responsible for cybersecurity?" "What are the rules that govern my use of company resources?" "Does my organization have a policy on bringing personal devices into the workplace?"
Other questions challenge managers and employees about their cyber awareness. "What am I allowed to connect to my company's system?"
"Basically, safety is part of every work process and people do not think about it as something separate from getting the job done. Cybersecurity should be treated the same way," the guide advises.
"What that document tries to do is take the NIST framework and break it down into small enough chunks, so that a smaller organization could get some understanding of where their gaps are," said Lt. Col. Thomas Muehleisen, chief cyber planner for the Washington Military Department. "Then they can decide to make investments in programs or people."
"You can do some easy things, like two-step passwords, training your employees, monitoring your contractors and consultants, instead of shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars" for the latest advanced defense program, Gordon Matlock said. "Reach out, coordinate and collaborate with others with similar challenges. Find the information-sharing groups in your region. These don't cost a penny."
The guide's advice to focus first on point-of-entry threats is exactly right, said Miles Keogh, director of grants and research at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Keogh and his colleagues issued a cybersecurity primer and checklist of key questions that state regulators should consider when reviewing utilities' cyberdefense preparedness.
"The human element is almost free," Keogh said. "It costs effectively nothing to have well-trained users. What we find is that the nation-state actors' assured penetration techniques start with phishing or spear phishing" to trick insiders into clicking on links with hidden attack software. Such attacks "account for the enormous majority of initial penetration," he said.Baiting the hook
That was the case in the Snohomish PUD exploit. It grew out of a relationship between the utility and the Washington National Guard's cybersecurity units during two cybersecurity summits sponsored by the Snohomish PUD and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and other participants over the past two years. The summits were the foundation for the guide's development, Muehleisen said.
The Guard units draw on technically trained members of Air and Army units, and cyber experts from the state's technology companies who have enlisted in the state Guard unit. The latter group includes Russ McRee, director of security response and investigations for Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group. McRee and cyberdefense developer Billy Rios were key contributors to the design of the Snohomish intrusion, Muehleisen said.
Rios, founder of WhiteScope cybersecurity resource firm, is a major in the Washington Air National Guard. "We do this for a living," he said of the civilians on the National Guard team that did the cyber probe of Snohomish.
The team was invited to try to break through the utility's outer firewall defenses. Once they had shown the ability to get through, they could continue to go after defenses on a smart grid test unit at Snohomish, which replicates its operating system. That allowed the attack team to dig deeper into vulnerabilities without exposing the actual control system, Beberness said.
"They didn't go through the firewall," he added. "They could have spent days trying that. It was so much easier to send out a phishing email and get in the back door."
Beberness said of the email, "Let's say, it was enticing and appealing to people to click on the link."
Rios said, "This is a benefit of an elite team. We demonstrated to them we could do a lot of crazy things" inside the utility's system. Neither he nor Beberness would add any details. Muehleisen said he has had to turn down other utilities that want the Guard unit to have a go at their systems. "The Guard is an extremely finite resource," he said. Future penetration tests will have to be justified as a training or emergency response exercise and meet the governor's priority list, he said. Other utilities should turn to the cyber guide, he added.
"At the end of the day, we got to tell them about all the things we discovered," Rios said. The team "hammered home" that a utility cannot allow its control system to be exposed by a single failure point, he said. "We could sit at the same table and talk about what they could do to get the best bang for the buck."
If smaller utilities limit their cyberdefense investments to low-end actions, could they create a weak link that could pose a wide threat to the power grid?
The Western Interconnection grid network links all utilities west of the Rocky Mountains, large and small. Utility regulators point to the Southwest power blackout of September 2011 as an example of an outage that cascaded because of operating and planning failures among adjoining utilities of varying sizes.
Decker said small utilities aren't thought of as priority targets. "They aren't typically going to generate that cascading outage." However, she added, "If somebody wants to practice on the small folks before something large happens, there are a lot of them."
Rios said not enough is known about how a successful breach at one utility, regardless of its size, might impact the larger grid. "We need to ask ourselves -- the leadership, the policymakers -- what these utilities really mean to us. Is it OK that they are barely scraping by with the bare minimum" of cyberdefenses? "We have some theoretical understanding" of the question, he added. "But we don't have enough data to understand what that really means."
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Texas plant restarts 1 week after explosion
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
A Pasadena, Texas, chemical plant where four workers were burned in an explosion last week will resume operating even though little has been disclosed about how the facility will ensure safety.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration "released the Pasadena facility to resume operation," SunEdison spokesman Gordon Handelsman said.
OSHA, though, has no authority to shut a plant down. And safety experts say it takes well longer than a week to determine the root cause of a chemical safety incident.
SunEdison said in a report to Harris County's pollution control agency it believed the explosion resulted from a release of silane gas, which it uses to produce silicon wafers for electronics and the solar industry. OSHA cited the company for several workplace safety violations in 2011.
"You can replace a valve and have the confidence to start up again," said Shakeel Kadri, executive director of the Center for Chemical Process Safety, "but if you've had multiple issues with leaking valves, it can be a false confidence" (Collette/Dempsey, Houston Chronicle, Oct. 5). -- SP
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Advocates see new argument to supplant climate claims
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Many in the natural gas industry make a talking point of the fuel's lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with coal, highlighting its role as a low-carbon energy source, but advocates would do well to call attention to an entirely different attribute, according to an industry booster.
"The strategic advantage of natural gas that distinguishes it from other fossil fuels is what it does for air quality," Timothy Egan, president and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association, said yesterday at the North American Gas Forum in Washington, D.C.
Egan said focusing on the carbon emissions advantage of natural gas makes the industry "one of the bad guys," keeping it in a basket with coal and oil as one of the fossil fuels contributing to global climate change.
"One of the things about the carbon story is, you talk about CO2 [and] you talk about hydrocarbons [and] you sort of bundle them together," he said.
Moving the discussion to center on air quality does more to highlight the pluses of natural gas while avoiding associations with climate change, he suggested.
Natural gas has advantages over other energy sources in terms of nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, particulate matter and mercury emissions, Egan noted, making for a compelling story around air quality.
That issue is especially significant in the developing world, he noted, where coal electrification is underway and the health impacts of poor air quality are more in evidence. The air quality and human health advantages of natural gas are stark when it is compared with fuels like wood for cooking inside the home, he noted.
Egan said energy poverty can be a talking point for the natural gas industry -- both in the developing world, where the poor often lack access to clean and safe fuel sources, and even in wealthy England, where last winter the high cost of natural gas led many people to struggle with paying their utility bills.
Energy poverty arguments are even relevant in the northeastern United States, he suggested, where natural gas costs can run much higher than elsewhere in the country and lead to bill shock, though he acknowledged that in much of the United States, prices are low enough that the issue doesn't resonate.
Egan said the International Gas Union has already inched toward the air quality argument. Information on the group's website, for example, illustrates improvements to Toronto's air quality since 2009 that the group says stem from a major coal phaseout program.
The American Gas Association, which represents the U.S. industry within the International Gas Union and just started a three-year term leading the international group, is on board with the air quality message, according to AGA spokesman Jake Rubin.
"Air quality is one of the IGU's advocacy priorities during our three-year term," Rubin said. "We are preparing a report ... which will highlight four megacities around the world where natural gas has improved air quality. For example, in New York, converting from heating oil to natural gas had reduced harmful emissions."
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Coal emits twice the climate pollution of LNG -- industry study
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Exporting U.S.-sourced natural gas to distant markets to produce electricity is environmentally preferable to burning coal in those same countries, according to an industry-backed study that considered a wide range of technology and resource scenarios to reach its sweeping conclusion.
The study, carried out by Siemens subsidiary Pace Global Energy Services and sponsored by the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, conducted life-cycle assessments for coal and LNG that looked at resource extraction, transport and combustion for both fuels, and also considered emissions associated with liquefaction and regasification for natural gas.
The upshot? "Even under the most extreme scenario, power produced from coal in these markets gives off almost twice the emissions as U.S.-produced LNG," according to CLNG spokesman Casey O'Shea.
The study assumed that natural gas originated in a typical Texas gas play using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling before being piped to a U.S. Gulf Coast export facility for liquefaction. It considered potential exports to China, India, Germany, Japan and South Korea.
It represented uncertainty in greenhouse gas emissions during production and processing with scenarios for "high" and "low" emission cases, included several options to power the liquefaction process, and considered natural gas combustion choices ranging from typical existing equipment to advanced technologies that would be employed in new energy facilities.
For the coal analysis, the study considered combustion efficiencies ranging from existing coal-fired power plants in a given market to cutting-edge technologies. For the three markets that rely heavily on domestic coal, it reflected domestic coal use, while for the markets that typically import coal, it used relevant emissions data.
On the whole, the study found that the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions from both power options come during the fuel combustion stage -- accounting for between 67 and 74 percent of LNG's greenhouse gas emissions, and between 77 and 79 percent of coal's greenhouse gas emissions.
For the most extreme example of an efficient coal-fired power plant compared with a high-emissions LNG export scenario, the study found that coal would emit 92 percent more greenhouse gases than LNG use on a life-cycle basis. An existing, lower-tech coal combustion process accounts for more than 139 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the high-emissions LNG scenario, it found, while the most extreme coal scenario could account for 194 percent more greenhouse gases than the cleanest LNG.
During a presentation at the North American Gas Forum yesterday hosted by Energy Dialogues LLC, study author Jay Balasubramanian said the research is similar to studies carried out by the National Energy Technology Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University, but provides more granularity into the results of particular resource and technology decisions.
For its estimates of "fugitive emissions," or gas leaks in the upstream production and natural gas gathering systems, it takes data from U.S. EPA. Balasubramanian said his team sought to use the most conservative available data for its estimates, using the higher end of fugitive emissions rates and adopting other worst-case assumptions.
The NETL study, carried out for the Department of Energy, was criticized by some environmentalists when it came out last year for using low-end leakage rates and otherwise adopting rosy assumptions that painted natural gas exports in the best possible light. Some environmentalists argue that potential LNG buyers would be better off, from a climate perspective, sticking with coal-fired power until non-fossil alternatives are available (Greenwire, June 10, 2014).
To LNG boosters, the new study knocks down those criticisms.
"Over the last two decades, natural gas has played an increasingly important role in helping the United States to cut our greenhouse gas emissions," CLNG's O'Shea said. "What this new report demonstrates is that U.S. natural gas exports can similarly reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally."
But Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association, said the study underestimates the technology gains on the way with coal.
"What seems to be missing is a recognition that the big developing countries will still be using mostly coal and that with low-emission, high-efficiency technologies that are widely available in Asia today, new coal plants can reduce CO2 by 25 percent -- making them also far more ready for [carbon capture and sequestration] -- as well as remove virtually all of the conventional pollutants," Popovich said.
"Put another way, the coal train has left the station from the global perspective," he added. "So the urgent need is to step up R&D [research and development] for advanced coal technology deployment since coal will be used irrespective of gas, LNG exports [and environmental] objections."
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Gas exports drive new projects in South Texas
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
Energy firms are breathing new life into natural gas transportation deals in the Eagle Ford Shale as export projects drive interest.
Yesterday, NextEra Energy Partners LP announced that it has finalized its purchase of NET Midstream, a private company. NextEra also announced new financing arrangements and its purchase of an Ontario wind farm.
The acquisition of NET Midstream was valued at approximately $2.1 billion.
A major holder of renewable energy assets, NextEra has now significantly increased its control of natural gas infrastructure in Texas. A mixed oil and gas play, initially horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing activity in the Eagle Ford was focused more intensely on natural gas until gas prices fell and oil prices rose, prompting firms to move rigs north to more oily shale formations.
In its announcement, NextEra made no secret of what drove its interest in expanding its Texas natural gas holdings: growing exports to Mexico.
"The NET Mexico Pipeline, the largest pipeline in the portfolio, provides a critical source of natural gas transportation for low-cost, U.S.-sourced shale gas to Mexico under a 20-year ship-or-pay contract," the company said.
The $2.1 billion deal could be swiftly followed by $300 million worth of expansions in the seven-pipeline network.
Two other companies announced a separate Eagle Ford gas pipeline deal yesterday.
Sanchez Energy Corp. and Targa Resources Partners LP said they will be forming a joint venture to build a natural gas processing plant near Catarina, Texas, in the heart of the Eagle Ford gas window and close to the border with Mexico. Sanchez said it will spend $115 million for a 50 percent stake in the new plant and other high-pressure natural-gas-gathering pipelines.
Mexico was also cited as part of the inspiration for that deal.
Aside from efficiency gains, "the joint ventures are expected to also improve our access to end markets, including the developing Mexico and global LNG [liquefied natural gas] markets," Sanchez representatives said.
Mexico's recently concluded power-sector reform aims in part to wean the country off expensive and aging oil-fueled power generation in favor of more natural-gas-fired power. The plan moves Mexico toward large increases in imports of natural gas from Texas. Import infrastructure in Mexico may expand from 3 billion cubic feet per year to 5 billion cubic feet in just a few years as a result of the reforms and rising demand for gas south of the border.
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Rig count takes a dramatic plunge
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
A swift drop in active rig deployment in the U.S. oil patch may signal an attitude shift within the industry and indicate further drops to come, investment bank analysts say.
Last week, the oil field services firm Baker Hughes Inc. reported oil and gas companies operating in the United States pulled 29 more rigs from service compared with a week prior. Twenty-four rigs were taken off onshore shale projects.
This bodes well for prices moving forward, say analysts at Deutsche Bank AG. The rig count report is also "suggestive in our view of further reductions in count over the coming weeks," analysts Lucas Herrmann and Tom Robinson said in a note to clients.
They estimate that the loss of 24 rigs, the largest single drop in recent weeks, may eventually equate to 150,000 barrels per day of oil production capacity lost in 2016 had the decline not occurred. Deutsche Bank now estimates that in 2016, the U.S. average daily oil production will decline by about 600,000 barrels per day, a figure well above a quote estimate by the International Energy Agency.
Once the decline sets in, the analysts think U.S. oil production will basically flatten in 2017.
The analysts interpret the quicker rig drop rate seen last week as evidence that oil companies are less interested in growth and are shifting instead to shore up existing cash flow. Firms may also be adjusting their planning on an assumption of average prices of $50 per barrel in 2016, rather than the guidance of $60 to $65 per barrel for North American crude prices that some market analysts have offered.
"Reality has set in that this scenario is going to be the outlook for most producers, with defense more important to preserve balance sheet strength and liquidity leading to production declines through next year," wrote Robinson and Herrmann.
Yesterday, oil prices rallied after officials announced a tentative agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration had been negotiating with several Pacific Rim countries. International Brent oil prices seemed to be trending back to $50 per barrel at press time.
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Momentum Waning for Bipartisan Energy Action
Oct 6, 2015 | Roll Call
By Ed Felker
Republicans in the House and Senate have succeeded in pushing bills to overhaul the nation’s energy laws through two committees, setting up potential floor votes in their drive to revamp energy policy for the first time since 2007.
Yet serious divides have appeared among the bipartisan group of lawmakers who came together to draft the House bill, lowering the odds that the Republican-led 114th Congress will craft legislation that President Barack Obama would be willing to sign into law.
Such an outcome would extend the partisan standoff that pits fossil fuel advocates in the GOP, who want to spur more oil and gas production, against Democrats who agree with the president that any major legislation must address climate change.
Complicating the landscape is the Republican push to lift the ban on oil exports over objections by the administration and Democrats in both chambers.
The House was to vote by the end of this week on an export ban repeal bill ( HR 702) by Rep. Joe L. Barton, R-Texas, that has the support of the Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. He is seen as the leading candidate to replace departing Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.
Two measures in the Senate to lift the ban have also failed to win much Democratic support. A repeal bill, with offshore drilling and state royalty revenue provisions (S 2011) was reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in July, but no Democrats on the panel voted for it.
Another repeal bill (S 1372) by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., was reported out of the Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee last week. She was the only Democrat to vote for it, however.
Republicans added language to the bill to stop the international agreement with Iran over its nuclear program until that nation pays victims who have won court judgments over terrorism attacks.
Demise Predicted
That led Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to predict the bill would not advance any further, and that any oil export legislation would have to be attached to appropriations language in December, when the current stopgap authority runs out.
A White House spokesman said last week the administration sees no need for repeal legislation, and would not support passage of the Heitkamp bill — a statement that threw a shadow over prospects to repeal the ban legislatively while Obama is in office.
The drama over oil exports come as Republicans in the House last week made clear they will push ahead with their pro-fossil fuels energy agenda, even if that means passing their policy bill on the floor with little Democratic backing.
The Energy and Commerce Committee reported out its policy measure, the Architecture of Abundance bill (HR 8), with just three Democrats voting in favor. They withdrew their support after last-minute changes drove a wedge between them and Republicans.
“It’s a bad sign for energy legislation writ large, it’s a bad sign for crude oil exports,” said Kevin Book, managing partner of analysis firm CleanView Energy Partners, of the vote in the committee.
Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and ranking Democrat Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey wrote a draft of the bill over the summer under an agreement to bring a measure to the committee that would win support from both sides of the aisle.
The draft bill focused primarily on energy efficiency, pipelines and coordination with Canada and Mexico, with changes to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
It was approved by the committee’s energy panel by voice vote, though Democrats cautioned more compromises were needed to get their support.
That halting support evaporated over Republican insistence that the bill brought to the full committee include language to repeal a 2030 deadline for federal buildings to use non-fossil fuel energy.
They also objected to requirements that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prepare electricity reliability impact studies on major Environmental Protection Agency regulations, which they contend would undermine Obama’s climate agenda.
Coal Support
Another controversial GOP addition would require FERC to analyze regional energy capacity markets, which ensure adequate reserves during high-demand periods, and make recommendations to ensure financial support for plants that can run full time, which are also known as baseload power sources.
Democrats said the language is intended to prop up coal and nuclear power over renewables.
Upton said he was optimistic the bill could be revised via amendments on the House floor and in talks with the Senate to yield legislation the president could sign. Pallone, however, scoffed at that stance, arguing the bill was changed in ways Obama would not accept.
That vote came barely a week after Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, unveiled an energy bill (S 2089) they intend to push on the Senate floor — one that sharply clashes with Republican priorities.
The bill touches key Democratic political must-haves: it would seek to curb U.S. greenhouse gas emissions though extensions of tax breaks for renewable energy, while repealing billions of dollars in annual tax incentives for the oil industry.
Ending those tax breaks is something Obama has sought unsuccessfully in his annual budget proposals.
The Democratic bill contrasts with the more modest energy legislation (S 2012) reported out of Senate Energy in July on an 18-4 vote, with eight Democrats voting for it.
That bill permanently reauthorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund and focused on provisions to advance energy efficiency and streamline Energy Department consideration of liquefied natural gas export applications. It also contained a provision to repeal the zero-carbon requirement for federal buildings by 2030.
Ranking committee member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the broader Democratic energy bill represents the agenda for her side when the committee bill hits the floor, but also for the next Congress.
She and Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are waiting for the chance to get their bill brought up for votes by the full Senate, but there appears to be a wait ahead. The Senate is expected to take up other bills first, while working toward a final fiscal 2016 spending deal by Dec. 11, when the current stopgap continuing resolution law expires.
The lack of strong Democratic backing for the House Energy and Commerce bill appears to complicate the outlook for energy legislation getting to Obama, Cantwell said, but her first objective is to get her committee’s bipartisan bill brought up on the floor.
“We’d love to see the Senate move to some floor time on energy, because we’ve got a bipartisan package out. To me that would be a good start, so we don’t really even have to worry about them for the moment,” Cantwell said of the House.
Yet Book downplayed the chances any bill — either the bipartisan policy bill or an oil exports bill — will get to Obama, given the partisan amendments energy legislation typically draws on the Senate floor, and the 2016 elections.
“If you can get it out of the Senate, assuming you could get through the Senate floor with the partisan contention yet to come, you still have to fight your way through the House and all that’s there,” he said of the Senate bipartisan bill.
“I wouldn’t give zero percent chance of bipartisan legislation, but a comprehensive bill with all that it attracts, is going to be difficult,” Book added. “And a bill that opens crude exports, which is becoming increasingly a Republican cause celebre, is also going to be difficult, because for Democrats who are trying to win back the Senate, they have very little incentive to do anything before the election.”
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Derailment interrupts service on Amtrak's D.C.-Vermont line
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
Amtrak's Vermonter train, which links Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, Vt., faces at least several days of service disruptions following yesterday's partial derailment in a heavily wooded section of central Vermont.
With National Transportation Safety Board investigators having signed off on moving the train cars, "we anticipate it will take at least a couple of days to get the track cleared," Scott Coriell, a spokesman for Gov. Peter Shumlin (D), said in an email, adding that the track will then need to be rebuilt.
The train, bound for Washington, was carrying 98 passengers and four crew members when the locomotive and four cars jumped the tracks at around 10:30 a.m. after hitting a rock slide, according to a report in VTDigger.org, an online news outlet. Seven people were taken to the hospital but were all released later in the day, Amtrak spokeswoman Chelsea Kopta said today in an email.
She referred questions about service restoration to the track's owner, New England Central Railroad, a part of Connecticut-based Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Managers at New England Central could not be reached for comment this morning, but the derailment site is in a rural area that could be difficult to reach, said Christopher Parker, executive director of the Vermont Rail Action Network, an advocacy group.
Amtrak is meanwhile offering bus service between Springfield, Mass., and stops farther north in Massachusetts and Vermont on the Vermonter's route.
The train, which travels once a day in each direction between Washington and St. Albans, ranks among the smallest of Amtrak's 29 state-supported lines, statistics indicate. From October through July, for example, the Vermonter's ridership amounted to about 77,500 out of a total of almost 12.2 million for the state-supported network, according to the latest monthly report posted on Amtrak's website.
Yesterday's mishap came almost five months after an Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia killed eight people. The cause of that accident remains under investigation.
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The Latest: Diesel Fuel Disappeared After Vermont Derailment
Oct 7, 2015 | The New York Times
By The Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. — The latest on the derailment of an Amtrak train in Vermont (all times local): ___ 4:35 p.m. The Vermont governor's office says about 900 gallons of diesel fuel remains unaccounted for following the derailment of an Amtrak train. But hazardous materials experts say they have not detected any sheen on the water in the small stream below where the locomotive that was pulling the Amtrak Vermonter on Monday came to rest. The locomotive was carrying about 1,300 gallons of diesel fuel. A fuel leak was plugged shortly after it was detected and the tanks were then pumped out. It's unclear how much of the missing 900 gallons escaped and how much is caught in the fuel tank. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources is continuing to monitoring the situation. ___ 4:25 p.m. The head of Amtrak says special fences are used to protect railroad tracks from rock slides in some parts of the country. But CEO Joseph Boardman says it's unclear if the mechanisms could have prevented a derailment that injured seven people in Vermont on Monday. The fences are installed in known rockslide areas and are designed to send signals if they are hit with debris, Boardman said Tuesday. Boardman said slide fences are used in parts of New York, but Vermont transportation officials said it's not believed that any are in the state. Boardman says the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the derailment. He says once investigators have officially determined the cause they could make recommendations for preventing similar derailments in the future. ___ Noon The head of Amtrak says all those injured when a passenger train hit a rock in Vermont are out of the hospital. Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman made the comments Tuesday, one day after the derailment in Northfield, about 15 miles south of Montpelier, sent the locomotive and a passenger coach down an embankment. Boardman and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin say heavy equipment is on the site to clear the tracks. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting the investigation into the cause. It's hoped the line can be reopened to Amtrak by the weekend. Meanwhile, Amtrak passengers in Vermont are being carried by bus to and from Springfield, Massachusetts.
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Cooking-oil train derails in N.J.
Oct 6, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
Three train cars hauling cooking oil ran off the tracks in northern New Jersey yesterday morning.
The cars remained upright after derailing in Englewood, N.J., and no rapeseed oil was spilled. No injuries were reported, and fire Lt. David Haenelt described the accident as "minor."
CSX, the owner of the Northern Branch tracks where the derailment occurred, is investigating the incident, spokesman Rob Doolittle said. The line is lightly used, he said, so other rail traffic has not been affected.
The company's nearby River Line is often used for transporting hazardous materials, and several fiery derailments have occurred on the line (EnergyWire, May 6, 2014).
"The public is at risk when a derailment occurs, regardless of whether the materials are hazardous or not," Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R) said while expressing concern about the derailment (Diduch/Zehawi/Koloff, Bergen [N.J.] Record, Oct. 5). -- BTP
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Lawmakers seek to extend deadline for Positive Train Control
Oct 6, 2015 | Safety and Health
Washington – A bipartisan group of lawmakers is proposing to extend the Dec. 31 deadline for railroads to implement Positive Train Control technology – an integrated system for controlling train movements, including emergency braking.
Introduced Sept. 30 by members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act (H.R. 3651) would extend the deadline for full implementation to the end of 2018.
Most railroads will miss the current PTC deadline because of costs and technological glitches, federal officials testified earlier this year. The Federal Railroad Administration said it would penalize railroads for missing the deadline unless instructed otherwise by Congress.
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said a deadline extension is necessary.
“Completion of the Positive Train Control mandate by the end of the year is not achievable, and extending the deadline is essential to preventing significant disruptions of both passenger and freight rail service across the country,” Shuster said in a press release. “Railroads must implement this important but complicated safety technology in a responsible manner, and we need to give them the necessary time to do so.”
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