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(ACC Mentioned) Fiberglass Finally Formaldehyde Free
Oct 30, 2015 | Treehugger
By Lloyd Alter
The use of fiberglass insulation has long been controversial among green builders, with one of the main objections being the formaldehyde based binder that held it all together in batts. Of course the industry and the American Chemistry Council will tell you that it is all perfectly natural, that it doesn't get through the drywall and the finishes and even that it "contributes to a sustainable future for wood products" by gluing wood chips together into particleboard. -
California to List Wood Preservative under Prop 65
Oct 30, 2015 | Chemical Watch
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) intends to add pentachlorophenol and by-products of its synthesis (complex mixture) to its Proposition 65 list of substances known to the state to cause cancer. -
GPS Vulnerabilities Could Open Grid to Hacks -- DHS Report
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr and Blaze Sobczak
A newly disclosed government report warns that the power grid may become more vulnerable to hacking attacks on the Global Positioning System as grid operators expand the use of advanced monitors that depend on GPS signals. -
Nuclear Plant Cybersecurity Reporting Rule Coming Monday
Oct 30, 2015 | PoliticoPro Whiteboard
By Darius Dixon
Next spring, nuclear plants will be required to notify safety regulators of cyberattacks on their systems within eight hours, according to a regulation being published Monday. -
ASLRRA Notes Progress of 45G Tax Credit Bill; Obama Signs PTC Extension
Oct 30, 2015 | Progressive Railroading
The proposed Short Line Railroad Rehabilitation Investment Act has advanced in the Senate, as the bill to extend the 45G tax credit picked up a majority of sponsors, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) announced today. -
EPA Poised To Unveil Revised ‘Exceptional Events’ Air Policy In November
Oct 30, 2015 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA is on track to release in November a proposed rule and white paper revising parts of its “exceptional events” policy that allows states to claim Clean Air Act waivers for some air pollution associated with unplanned, uncontrollable emissions such as those caused by wildfires or naturally occurring “background” ozone, sources say. -
Senate Foes of Obama Rule Deploying 2-Pronged Attack Next Week
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E Daily
By Annie Snider and Geof Koss
Senate opponents of the Obama administration's major water rule are preparing to launch a pair of legislative attacks beginning next week. -
McCarthy Brimming with Optimism on Power Plan, WOTUS
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E Daily
By Josh Kurtz
U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy gave a gathering of 300 Maryland environmentalists and their supporters an upbeat guided tour of her agency's top priorities last night, expressing optimism that even the most controversial among the efforts would clear all legal and political hurdles. -
McConnell Sets up Senate Fight on Obama Water Oversight Rule
Oct 30, 2015 | The Hill - Floor Action
By Jordain Carney
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is prepping the Senate for a fight over a controversial water regulation from the Obama administration. -
Senators May Make a Paris Appearance
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jean Chemnick
Combatants on either side of the Senate climate wars say they plan to make a quick trip to the much-anticipated U.N. climate talks that start one month from today in the French capital.
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(ACC Mentioned) Fiberglass Finally Formaldehyde Free
Oct 30, 2015 | Treehugger
By Lloyd Alter
The use of fiberglass insulation has long been controversial among green builders, with one of the main objections being the formaldehyde based binder that held it all together in batts. Of course the industry and the American Chemistry Council will tell you that it is all perfectly natural, that it doesn't get through the drywall and the finishes and even that it "contributes to a sustainable future for wood products" by gluing wood chips together into particleboard. But in fact, it is a toxicant and a carcinogen, and the green builders have been pushing back for years.
Now, according to Jim Vallette of Healthy Building News, "As of October 2015, every fiberglass insulation company in the United States and Canada has phased out the use of formaldehyde-based binders in lightweight residential products."
This is great news for a number of reasons. First and most importantly, it means we will have healthier houses. I have written that as houses get tighter, it becomes more important that everything in them be healthy and safe. "The fact of the matter is, this stuff shouldn't be in your house. It is a carcinogen at higher doses, and the housing industry is building boxes that seem to be designed to concentrate it. "
But the other great thing is that it shows that the green building industry has the power to effect change. Jim Vallette describes the history:
The signal from the green building community grew brighter. The Living Building Challenge's Red List, introduced in 2007, banned the use of products with added formaldehyde, and was gaining traction. Our Pharos Project database launched in 2009, and disclosed the binders used in most insulation on the market. A month later, Perkins + Will, a national leader in green building design, introduced its own precautionary list, including formaldehyde.
The market received the signals and changed. In late 2008, Knauf Insulation released its EcoBatt fiberglass insulation. CertainTeed began producing its formaldehyde-free Sustainable Insulation in 2010 for both residential and commercial/industrial applications. And in 2011, Owens Corning launched its formaldehyde-free EcoTouch brand.
He notes that "A well-informed marketplace, not federal or state environmental regulation, drove this change." That, groups like the Healthy Building Network that informed that marketplace. They should be proud.
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California to List Wood Preservative under Prop 65
Oct 30, 2015 | Chemical Watch
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) intends to add pentachlorophenol and by-products of its synthesis (complex mixture) to its Proposition 65 list of substances known to the state to cause cancer.
The proposed listing relies on the 2014 National Toxicology Program (NTP) Report on Carcinogens which concluded that the substance is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” based on sufficient evidence of its carcinogenicity from studies with experimental animals.
The complex mixture of pentachlorophenol is used as a preservative in heavy-duty wood, in such applications as construction, utility poles, and fence posts. Non-wood biocidal uses have been restricted since 1987.
Pentachlorophenol and several of its common by-products, including hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, have already been listed under Prop 65.
The deadline for comments is 30 November.
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GPS Vulnerabilities Could Open Grid to Hacks -- DHS Report
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr and Blaze Sobczak
A newly disclosed government report warns that the power grid may become more vulnerable to hacking attacks on the Global Positioning System as grid operators expand the use of advanced monitors that depend on GPS signals.
The report by the Department of Homeland Security noted that timing signals transmitted from GPS system satellites are crucial inputs to synchrophasor systems that track operating conditions on the grid in millisecond intervals. Nearly 2,000 of the systems were installed on the North American grid as of the end of last year. Most of the rollout was funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The GPS signals used by the grid, the aircraft industry, financial markets and other civilian sectors, are vulnerable to attack, according to the DHS report, written in November 2012. The report was released under the Freedom of Information Act and published by the noncommercial Governmentattic.org website.
Successful attacks could including jamming to interrupt transmissions between satellites and ground receivers and "spoofing," which delivers bogus data to ground receivers.
Attacks could disable or render useless the advanced grid-monitoring systems called phasor measurement units (PMUs). The time signals from atomic clocks in GPS satellites allow grid operators to assemble operating data from many PMUs to get a wide-angle view of grid conditions. Interfering with sychrophasor data could deny grid operators the most accurate data on voltages, frequencies and generator alignments, all of which must be closely controlled at all times.
"The Energy Sector depends on GPS for providing electrical power system reliability and grid efficiency, synchronizing services among power networks, and finding malfunctions within transmission networks," according to the report, "National Risk Assessment -- Risks to U.S. Critical Infrastructure from Global Positioning System Disturbances."
"The electricity subsector currently has sufficient redundancies in place to withstand most GPS disruptions, although spoofing attacks against multiple targets could cause significant service outages. However, as the electricity subsector becomes increasingly reliant on phasor measurement units (PMUs) as part of the smart grid evolution, vulnerability to GPS disruption could increase," the DHS report said.
The GPS system is vulnerable, "but there is not vulnerability of the grid as yet," said Alison Silverstein, project manager of the North American SynchroPhasor Initiative, a technology collaboration among the power industry, the North American Electric Reliability Corp., academics and the Department of Energy.
Utilities have multiple ways to collect the time signals that PMUs require, Silverstein said. "Secondly, and more immediately," she said, "no grid operating entity is as yet [solely] using synchrophasor technology for mission-critical operations." If PMU data were cut off because of a hacking attack, operators would still have older data analysis and estimating systems to represent real-time grid conditions, she added.
The GPS issue "is not going to bring down the grid anytime soon," she said.
Synchrophasor technology collects and reports grid data 100 times faster than older technologies, officials say. "Had synchrophasor data been available 10 years ago, the massive Aug. 14, 2003, Northeast blackout probably could have been averted," Silverstein said in a 2013 interview. "They could have seen problems growing on the Ohio grid at least an hour or more before the blackout occurred," she said. "A whole lot of pain could be averted." She was one of three staff directors of the U.S.-Canada task force that investigated the outage.
If jamming causes a PMU to deliver erroneous measurements, such as power frequency reading, power flow calculations based on the PMU would also be in error. "This could cause overheating to some elements of the grid in the affected area, such as overloaded lines or overloaded transformers. If the device is used for adaptive protection, in the case of a fault, coordination of the protection system could be disrupted and backup protection might operate to isolate the fault before the local protection device operates," the DHS report said.North Korean attack
DHS noted that from 2010 through 2012, "North Korea jammed GPS signals in South Korea numerous times for periods that lasted between 4 and 16 days, disrupting GPS receivers in many cell towers in addition to over one thousand aircraft and hundreds of ships.
"It is difficult to assess fully the nature, intent, and source of threats to the GPS signal -- particularly disruptions affecting critical infrastructure -- partly because the United States does not have a nationally integrated capability to detect, identify, and locate GPS service interruptions. However, most user-reported interference events are not malicious. Government testing, equipment malfunctions, software updates, and other issues have the potential to increase the severity or duration of an event. ...
"Natural phenomena like geomagnetic storms can also create wide-scale degradations depending on their severity. Producing wide-scale degradation through jamming may require nation-state capabilities, but the power needed to broaden such jamming impacts would also expose the jamming source to identification and interdiction more quickly," DHS said.
Industry experts who reviewed the issue with DHS officials agreed that outages are unlikely because of the redundancy in the grid.
The experts were divided on the effects of an attack with multiple, intermittent jammers, which would be difficult to identify, locate and disable, "thus enabling effects to persist for up to or more than 30 days." Most experts (who were not identified in the report) thought the impact on power delivery would be isolated, although some thought there could be "widespread degradation" of service, resulting in isolated outages.
A 2012 report by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Coherent Navigation, a San Mateo, Calif., firm, concluded that "GPS and GPS-dependent systems are significantly more vulnerable than previously thought." The team ran intrusion tests on common GPS equipment, concluding, "The overall landscape of GPS vulnerabilities is startling." The report also proposed advanced defensive strategies to protect GPS systems.
"Low-end" GPS receivers rely on simple software, the researchers said. But high-end systems, including Internet-linked servers, are significantly more complex. "We show the software stack [in such servers] can be compromised, in some cases remotely," the team said. "Since GPS receivers are typically treated as devices, not computers, such vulnerabilities are likely to go unpatched, and represent a serious vulnerability in critical applications."
They added, "Higher-level software and systems routinely treat GPS navigation solutions as trusted inputs." That can permit GPS attacks to flow up to dependent software on systems that rely on GPS signals. The researchers said they showed that the date function of PMUs used in the "smart grid" can be permanently desynchronized.
Jane's Intelligence Review reported in March that while military-grade GPS systems are "generally far more resilient than the unencrypted devices used by civilians," terrorist groups and criminal organizations are seeking to gain technological capabilities to expand attack capabilities.
Silverstein said the threats to the grid are recognized. "We are recommending that no system use GPS alone" as a source of critical data "because of the vulnerabilities," she said. Grid operators should have redundant sources of time signals in case the GPS signal is lost or corrupted, she added. "More and more designers of systems are building in alternative timing methods," she said.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's regulations on cybersecurity do not deal specifically with protections of synchrophasors from attacks on GPS systems.
Some members of Congress have been pressing federal agencies to develop a backup system for the GPS network. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said at a hearing in July that the need for backup has been recognized since 2001.
"This is a very significant national security issue," said Garamendi, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, "and cannot be delayed any longer."
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Nuclear Plant Cybersecurity Reporting Rule Coming Monday
Oct 30, 2015 | PoliticoPro Whiteboard
By Darius Dixon
Next spring, nuclear plants will be required to notify safety regulators of cyberattacks on their systems within eight hours, according to a regulation being published Monday.
Nuclear plants already have to maintain cybersecurity programs for their safety-related computer and communications systems. But the current system of reporting a cyberintrusion with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is voluntary.
The new final rule requires one-, four- and eight-hour reporting, depending on the severity of the security breach. If a safety-, security- or emergency preparedness-related system has been “adversely impacted” at a plant, operators will need to tell the NRC. A breach that “could have” had impacted important systems will need to be flagged within four hours while an intelligence gathering infiltration will have to be registered in eight hours.
Regulators considered sticking to the voluntary system, which helped the NRC identify certain cybersecurity-related events that might have had a negative impact on its licensees, such as software updates containing malware. But along with other voluntary aspects of the current process, there was no requirement for timely reporting of an incident, an aspect the agency says can be “instrumental in the NRC’s ability to respond to cybersecurity-related events.”
The NRC is requiring only those cybersecurity events associated with actual or potential adverse impacts to be reported.
Compliance with the rule is set for 180 days from publication, April 30, 2016.
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ASLRRA Notes Progress of 45G Tax Credit Bill; Obama Signs PTC Extension
Oct 30, 2015 | Progressive Railroading
The proposed Short Line Railroad Rehabilitation Investment Act has advanced in the Senate, as the bill to extend the 45G tax credit picked up a majority of sponsors, theAmerican Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) announced today.
The Senate bill (S.637), which would allow short lines to earn tax credits for infrastructure investment, now has 51 senators signed on to sponsor the bill. The House legislation (H.R. 721) secured a majority of 218 co-sponsors several months ago. The House bill currently has 246 sponsors, ASLRRA officials said in a press release.
Under the legislation's terms, a short line must invest $1 for every 50 cents in credit up to a credit cap equivalent to $3,500 per mile of track.
"The 45G credit is a bipartisan effort which allows small railroads to invest more of what they earn into our rail infrastructure. Both of these bills now have among the highest number of co-sponsors of all the tax bills introduced in this Session of Congress," said ASLRRA Chairman Ed McKechnie. "These investments will allow our short lines to continue to growth their business, serve their customers and grow the American economy."
The tax credit, which had been in place since 2005, expired Dec. 31, 2014.
Meanwhile, President Obama yesterday signed into law H.R. 3819, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2015, the president's press secretary announced.
The bill features a short-term extension of federal funding of surface transportation programs, and extends the deadline for railroads to implement positive train control (PTC) technology by three years to Dec. 31, 2018, and until 2020 under certain circumstances.
Surface transportation funding was set to expire Oct. 29. The previous PTC deadline was Dec. 31 of this year. -
EPA Poised To Unveil Revised ‘Exceptional Events’ Air Policy In November
Oct 30, 2015 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA is on track to release in November a proposed rule and white paper revising parts of its “exceptional events” policy that allows states to claim Clean Air Act waivers for some air pollution associated with unplanned, uncontrollable emissions such as those caused by wildfires or naturally occurring “background” ozone, sources say.
The policy updates could be vital for states looking for all possible options to help them attain EPA’s recently tightened ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 70 parts per billion. Some Western states fear that high levels of background ozone and emissions of ozone-forming pollutants from exceptional events -- which can also include dust storms -- might make it impossible to attain the NAAQS without air law exemptions.
EPA’s exceptional events policy aims to help states by allowing them to discount air pollution associated with such events from counting toward their NAAQS compliance. But the program has been mired in years of controversy, with states saying the process for winning a waiver is too complicated and subject to long delays.
States say that EPA regions have also been inconsistent in how they define, for example, how much evidence is sufficient to show what historical baseline pollution levels are -- a factor in claiming an exceptional event.
The agency on Oct. 8 sent for White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) review a proposed rule to revise its treatment of emissions data influenced by exceptional events. EPA says it intends to “streamline” the rule and provide clarification of certain key terms.
The agency then on Oct. 15 sent for OMB review a notice that will provide supplemental guidance on implementing the exceptional events policy.
EPA is further working on a white paper on a related topic, background ozone that results from natural causes or foreign pollution that local regulators cannot control, state air officials say.
While EPA in its final ozone NAAQS rule released Oct. 1 says it does not expect background ozone to compromise attainment of its new 70 ppb NAAQS, the agency says that the revised exceptional events policy will be one tool available to states in the event of high ozone episodes they cannot control.
States' Experience
One Western state source predicts that EPA will likely release its white paper, and possibly its proposed revisions to the exceptional events rule, ahead of a meeting of air regulators from Western states being hosted Nov. 4-5 in Scottsdale, AZ, by the Western States Air Resources Council.
Both the policy and white paper are major policy priorities for Western states, where altitude and weather conditions combine to produce peak background ozone levels that can approach 70 ppb.
EPA officials acknowledge, however, that states’ experiences in using the exceptional events policy to help meet other NAAQS -- chiefly those for particulate matter -- have been mixed.
EPA official Lorie Schmidt on an Oct. 15 conference call hosted by the Environmental Law Institute said that “we recognize that states have been unhappy with the way” the policy has worked so far.
“People will be more interested in using exceptional events” exemptions after the policy revision, Schmidt said, and regulators may need to do so more than they have for past NAAQS.
EPA’s white paper on background ozone, meanwhile, will form the basis of discussion at a forthcoming unscheduled public event on the topic, the agency said at the time of unveiling the new ozone limit.
Industry organizations, however, remain skeptical that the exceptional events policy can provide states with relief from high background ozone.
Without regulatory exemptions, states face being designated “nonattainment” for the ozone standard, which means they must impose costly pollution controls on industry or curb industrial expansion. However, if the main causes of high ozone are beyond regulators’ control, attainment becomes impossible, some fear.
For example, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), representing the electric generating sector, says in a Sept. 25 document supplied to EPA air officials that current “relief mechanisms,” including exceptional events, “are untested and unable to provide relief to these areas.”
EPA also has policies in place to provide regulatory exemptions for areas experiencing “rural” pollutant transport that have no sources of their own to regulate, and also for areas experiencing high pollution from international sources. These policies are unlikely to be sufficient, EEI says.
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Senate Foes of Obama Rule Deploying 2-Pronged Attack Next Week
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E Daily
By Annie Snider and Geof Koss
Senate opponents of the Obama administration's major water rule are preparing to launch a pair of legislative attacks beginning next week.
Both are essentially guaranteed to be shot down by Senate Democrats or President Obama, but the maneuvers would force presidential candidates and senators up for re-election to go on record on a politically contentious issue. And if any lawmakers flip positions from previous votes, it could alter the momentum around efforts to block the rule through the end-of-the-year funding bill.
Driving the action is the looming deadline for a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act filed by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
The CRA requires only 50 votes to pass a resolution of disapproval, as opposed to the 60 votes normally necessary to move legislation through the upper chamber. But those special procedures are only available for the first 60 days of session after a rule is issued, and 52 days have now passed on the water rule.
Ernst has gotten enough signatures on a petition to bring the resolution directly to the floor, and it is now sitting on the Senate calendar (E&ENews PM, Oct. 28).
But a CRA resolution of disapproval is a blunt tool, allowing lawmakers only an up or down vote on a regulation.
Many critics of the water rule would much rather have a say in how the federal government goes about addressing the confusion around the Clean Water Act's scope that prompted the rule in the first place.
To that end, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has crafted a measure, S. 1140, that would set new criteria for any future rule defining the scope of the foundational water law.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) early this morning filed cloture on the bill, teeing it up for a key test vote Tuesday afternoon.
"All of us agree that my bill is actually the best way to go with it," Barrasso said in an interview yesterday. "It puts it back on the administration to come up with a rule that fits within what we line out, which protects the main waterways of the United States but also protects prairie potholes and farmers and ranchers and small-business owners."
Barrasso said that the plan is to first try to bring his measure to the floor. But with it unlikely to secure the 60 necessary votes, the chamber could then turn to the CRA resolution.
But either measure is apt to draw a swift veto from Obama, who has repeatedly vowed to squash any legislation that would kill his water rule.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over EPA, said that doesn't mean it's not worth the effort.
"I'm one that says, look, we need to keep these issues up front and center because people in my state are talking about them," she said yesterday. "They want to see us engage on them."
Murkowski also noted that opposition to the water rule comes from both sides of the aisle. Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) co-sponsored Barrasso's measure, and Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are also signed on.
But with neither bill likely to go into effect, Lowell Rothschild, senior counsel at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, speculated that the maneuvers may primarily be aimed at election politics instead.
Agricultural groups, which hold powerful sway in key early presidential primary states, have been some of the most staunch opponents of the water rule.
"We are almost within a year of the election, and this remains a very polarizing issue, and it's easy campaign fodder," Rothschild said.
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McCarthy Brimming with Optimism on Power Plan, WOTUS
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E Daily
By Josh Kurtz
U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy gave a gathering of 300 Maryland environmentalists and their supporters an upbeat guided tour of her agency's top priorities last night, expressing optimism that even the most controversial among the efforts would clear all legal and political hurdles.
In a quick and quick-witted speech to a fundraising dinner of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, McCarthy repeatedly expressed pride in the rules and regulations her agency has devised in recent months to combat air and water pollution and climate change. She exhorted the audience of environmental activists, state and local lawmakers and conservation donors to serve as EPA's partners and advocates.
"I want you to leave here positive about the world and what we're trying to build here," McCarthy said.
From the Clean Power Plan to the Waters of the U.S. rule to everything in between, McCarthy gave a point-by-point update of EPA's work in just 15 minutes. She briefly discussed the challenges her agency is facing in a GOP-controlled Congress, noting that five of the six governors she worked for before joining the Obama administration were Republicans who, in contrast to many Republicans in Washington, D.C., favored environmental action.
"I never met a Republican before I came to Washington," she joked, adding that it's easy to talk to all Americans, regardless of their party affiliation, about environmental stewardship -- even if their political representatives are reluctant to do so.
"The environment is a core value in the United States of America," McCarthy asserted.
She continued by criticizing policymakers who say they must choose between protecting the environment and stoking the economy.
"We do not balance the environment and the economy in the United States of America," McCarthy said. "The environment is a foundation of a growing economy. ... I don't balance a thing. We don't balance a thing."
McCarthy then spotlighted key EPA initiatives:The new ozone standard, which some environmental groups have criticized as not stringent enough, "will protect our kids," she said. And she insisted that the rule was written "within the law" and will withstand all legal scrutiny. But she seemed to give a nod to the agency's green critics when she said, "Every time we pass a rule, we could do better."On the Waters of the U.S. rule, which increases the number of waterways that are covered by the Clean Water Act, "we will beat back the legal challenges one by one," McCarthy vowed. She also joked to the crowd of Chesapeake Bay defenders: "I know none of you has ever seen water. It's a new concept for you."EPA's new emissions rules for heavy-duty vehicles, which were proposed this year and will be finalized in 2016, "will result in 1 billion metric tons of reduced carbon pollution," she said.The new Worker Protection Standard, designed to protect farmworkers from pesticides and other environmental hazards, is proof, McCarthy said, that EPA is a public health agency as much as it is an environmental agency. McCarthy said she was pleased to "join hands with the farmworkers union" despite criticism from certain agricultural interests. "It is probably one of the proudest moments I've ever had because there were years when I was not allowed to eat grapes," she said.She described EPA's new mercury rule as a key piece of the agency's environmental justice platform and said she was excited to work to strengthen international rules combating hydrofluorocarbons, which she called "perhaps the most successful international treaty ever."McCarthy touted the actions of U.S. negotiators leading up to international climate talks later this year in Paris. "Paris is where it's at, folks," she said. "We're going to make Paris a huge success." A key component of the U.S. commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is EPA's Clean Power Plan, which McCarthy called "the biggest step America has ever taken to fight climate change."And McCarthy said the agency's work is not done, even with just 15 months left in the Obama administration. She promised more action to combat methane emissions and called stormwater protection "the next frontier."
McCarthy said that with such an activist agenda, criticism comes with the territory.
"Rest assured, there are critics, because rest assured, there always will be when you're trying to do a good thing," she said.
But she expressed optimism that the administration's goals were built to last.
"As far as I know," she said, "we are on a roll, folks."
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McConnell Sets up Senate Fight on Obama Water Oversight Rule
Oct 30, 2015 | The Hill - Floor Action
By Jordain Carney
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is prepping the Senate for a fight over a controversial water regulation from the Obama administration. The Kentucky Republican scheduled a procedural vote on whether to proceed to legislation from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) for Tuesday afternoon. The maneuvering came after a late night of votes on a two-year budget agreement. The proposal would require the administration to try again on crafting regulations to define the federal government's oversight of streams, wetlands and other waterways. It also provides the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with specific instructions and a deadline for how to write the new rule. The EPA's Waters of the United States rule has gained fierce pushback from Republicans and some Democrats, who argue that it's an overextension that would allow the agency to add ditches and puddles to its jurisdiction. Barrasso's proposal has gained the support of 43 Republican senators, as well as three Democrats — Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.). However, Barrasso will need 60 votes to overcome Tuesday's procedural hurdle. Introducing the legislation earlier this year, the Wyoming Republican said it would give the EPA direction to help it write "a reasonable rule that will truly protect America's navigable waterways and adjacent wetlands." The Senate could also turn to a separate proposal from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) that would use the Congressional Review Act — a procedural tactic to streamline blocking regulations — to overturn the EPA regulation. Forty-nine senators, all Republicans, have officially backed the proposal, which would also need to be passed by the House and signed by President Obama.
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Senators May Make a Paris Appearance
Oct 30, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jean Chemnick
Combatants on either side of the Senate climate wars say they plan to make a quick trip to the much-anticipated U.N. climate talks that start one month from today in the French capital.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is considering reprising his 2009 appearance at the last climate talks "Super Bowl" in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he frequently says he acted as a "one-man truth squad," warning delegates that the United States would not enact cap-and-trade legislation as the Obama administration promised.
And members of an informal Senate working group on climate change helmed by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) are also mulling a trip. Whitehouse spokesman Seth Larson said his boss is "definitely aiming to be there, but nothing is set in stone."
Stopgap legislation to fund the federal government runs out on Dec. 11, the day the Paris conference is officially scheduled to wrap up. It is likely that any members of Congress who attend the conference will do so during the first week to return for critical votes.
The administration, meanwhile, is using these final weeks to raise expectations for an agreement out of Paris that President Obama can claim as part of his legacy.
Secretary of State John Kerry penned a column yesterday in the Financial Times calling on the world to "grab" its chance in Paris.
He credited the United States with helping to persuade 150 countries to put forward post-2020 emissions reduction pledges ahead of the conference. And he called on parties meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, next week to begin moving the ball on emissions reduction by adopting an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer that would phase out climate-forcing chemicals.
"If we can reach an agreement on HFCs [hydrofluorocarbons] in Dubai, we will lay the groundwork for even greater co-operation toward a successful outcome in Paris -- and our planet will be better off for it," Kerry wrote.
Obama is likely to attend the conference, though the White House has not made an announcement. It put out a blog post today touting a new U.N. report that shows the aggregate emissions cuts promised by countries ahead of Paris would significantly curb projected warming, though not as much as scientists have said is necessary (ClimateWire, Oct. 30).
"Like other global challenges, climate change won't be solved all at once," said Paul Bodnar, senior director for energy and climate change on the National Security Council. But he added that an ambitious Paris agreement would be a "turning point," showing that cooperation on climate change is possible, and would encourage stronger action in the future.
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