Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 11/20/15
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(ACC Mentioned) PP Market is 'Outright Short of Resin'
Nov 20, 2015 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
North American prices for polypropylene resin reversed course and headed back up in October — while PVC and PET prices continued trending down, and prices for polyethylene and polystyrene took the month off. -
EPA Plans to Classify Hundreds of Additional Chemicals as Safe
Nov 20, 2015 | Chem Info
By Andy Szal
U.S. environmental regulators plan to add at least 100 chemicals to its database of substances deemed safe in each of the next several years. -
US EPA Withdraws Snurs for Three Substances
Nov 20, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA is withdrawing significant new use rules (Snurs) for three of the 30 substances it issued last month under direct final rulemaking procedures (CW 2 October 2015). -
Agencies in the Dark on Private Cybersecurity Progress -- GAO
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Federal agencies are supposed to keep tabs on the cybersecurity of U.S. critical infrastructure, but many departments aren't quite up to the task, the Government Accountability Office has found. -
Massive Grid Attack Exercise Tests Response
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
A simulated widespread enemy attack on the North American electric power network this week created a disaster scenario, challenging grid operators to repel coordinated cyber intrusions and assaults on grid installations by heavily armed terrorist squads and rogue drones. -
Feinberg at RailTrends: Don't Wait to Activate PTC
Nov 20, 2015 | Progressive Railroading
Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg, speaking yesterday at the annualRailTrends® conference in New York City, reiterated her advice to railroads that they aim to activate positive train control (PTC) technology on their networks no later than the end of 2018. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Finalizes New Boiler Emission Standards
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
U.S. EPA published final emissions standards today for industrial boilers, with some changes to maximum achievable control technology (MACT) provisions related to definitions of boiler startup and shutdown periods, carbon monoxide limits, and other issues. -
Obama Admin Updates Sweeping Regulatory Agenda
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Manuel Quiñones
The Obama administration has released updated timelines for a wide array of regulatory actions, including efforts for states to comply with greenhouse gas reductions. -
RGGI Weighs Trading CO2 With More States Under Clean Power Plan
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative -- a cap-and-trade program among nine New England and Mid-Atlantic states -- is considering whether to expand or trade carbon allowances with states outside its system as part of U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan. -
Jeff Goldblum Mocks 'Selfish, Reptilian' Opponents of Obama Climate Rule
Nov 20, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Actors Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley, Jr., are featured in a new video from a green group mocking industry opposition to President Obama’s climate change rule. -
Obama: Paris Climate Deal Will be Only a Beginning
Nov 20, 2015 | Politico Pro - Whiteboards
By Andrew Restuccia
President Barack Obama said today that he is "optimistic" that nearly 200 nations will reach a new international climate change deal in Paris next month, though he acknowledged whatever gets agreed there will be only a start on the global effort. -
GOP Vows to Deny Obama Climate Funds in Bid to Derail Paris Talks
Nov 20, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Republicans are taking aim at a new “Green Climate Fund,” as they look to weaken President Obama’s hand in global climate talks later this month.
Industry and Association News
Chemical Management News
Chemical Security News
Transportation News
Energy and Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) PP Market is 'Outright Short of Resin'
Nov 20, 2015 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
North American prices for polypropylene resin reversed course and headed back up in October — while PVC and PET prices continued trending down, and prices for polyethylene and polystyrene took the month off.
The PP hike averaged 3 cents per pound and was driven in part by reduced production at a major PP plant operated by LyondellBasell Industries. Houston-based LBI — the region’s largest PP maker — declared force majeure on PP on Oct. 7, two days after a power outage hit the firm’s plant in Bayport, Texas. The plant has annual production capacity of almost 1.6 billion pounds.
The outage has limited the availability of PP throughout North America. The PP market “isn’t tight — it’s outright short of resin,” a PP buyer in the Midwest U.S. told Plastics News.
The October increase reverses a trend that had seen regional PP prices fall for three straight months, and four times in the last five. Even with the increase, regional PP prices are down a net of 15 cents per pound so far in 2015.
The PP demand picture has been more positive, with North American sales up almost 5 percent through August, according to the American Chemistry Council. Domestic growth of 5.5 percent was lessened by an almost 14 percent drop in export sales during that nine-month period.
At last month’s Global Plastics Summit 2015 conference in Chicago, PP market analyst Joel Morales said that the oil price crash in the second half of 2014 has led to accelerated PP growth by lowering prices for that resin.
“Low prices stimulated demand, and that resulted in higher margins,” said Morales, who’s with GPS co-host IHS Chemical in Houston. He added that North American PP operating rates should be above 90 percent through 2020.
No new PP capacity is expected in the region until Formosa Plastics Corp. USA brings on almost 1 billion pounds in Texas. As a result, Morales said, PP imports will be needed to meet new demand.
While PP prices headed up, PVC and PET continued in the opposite direction, each falling 1 cent per pound, due in part to lower seasonal demand.
It’s the third straight 1-cent drop for PVC in the region. Sales of the material typically slow down as cooler temperatures slow construction, PVC’s largest end market. Prices now are down a net of 2 cents per pound so far in 2015.
Some domestic PVC end markets have fared well in 2015 in spite of overall softness in demand. Sales of PVC into wire and cable in the region have grown more than 7 percent in the nine-month period, while sales into siding and related uses are up more than 4 percent.
Regional PET bottle resin prices also notched a 1-cent downturn in October. Prices for that material now have fallen for three consecutive months. The 1-cent October drop followed declines of 4 cents in August and 3 cents in September.
PET bottle resin prices now are down a net of 2 cents per pound so far in 2015. The market continues to struggle with resin overcapacity and with reduced demands for carbonated soft drinks, its largest end market.
At GPS 2015, IHS analyst Tison Keel said that the global PET field remains awash in excess capacity. North American PET has been oversupplied since 2012, and the Asian PET market had been oversupplied for several years before that, he explained. The result is a 70 percent global operating rate which Keel described as “not attractive.”
“The market will continue to be challenged unless it takes shutdowns of PET capacity,” he added. “It will have to happen — it’s irrational not to take it out.”
Between 650 million and 1 billion pounds of PET capacity could exit North America after 2016, he said. Another 330 million to 550 million pounds of PET resin capacity in the region could be converted to fiber.
Flat October pricing for both PE and PS gave producers a welcome respite from recent price drops. All grades of HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE had slid 4 cents per pound in September, while PS took a dizzying 9-cent dive.
IHS analyst Nick Vafiadis said at GPS 2015 that the North American PE industry “is on the cusp of change” with more than 10 billion pounds of new capacity scheduled between now and the end of 2017.
“If you’re a seller, you’re going to see increased competition, more capacity chasing demand and price and margin pressure,” he said. “If you’re a buyer, you’re going to see more supply options, increased competition and increased quality demands.”
In the near-term, regional PE prices should be flat through the end of 2015, Vafiadis added, with tight production and higher feedstock costs making a 3-cent-per-pound price hike likely in March. But with new capacity coming on in the second quarter, prices may fall as much as 5 cents.
The mixed bag of October results for North American commodity resins comes after two straight months where all five materials — PE, PP, PVC, PS and PET — fell in price. On the broader feedstock front, crude oil prices have remained less than robust. Per-barrel prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude had fallen to less than $43 in late trading Nov. 11.
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EPA Plans to Classify Hundreds of Additional Chemicals as Safe
Nov 20, 2015 | Chem Info
By Andy Szal
U.S. environmental regulators plan to add at least 100 chemicals to its database of substances deemed safe in each of the next several years.
Emma Lavoie, a toxicologist for the Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program, told a conference in Virginia last week that the 100-chemical threshold "is our base for the next few years" and that the review could expand to some 300 chemicals annually, according to Chemical Watch.
The EPA began its Safer Chemical Ingredients List in 2012. Products that include those chemicals can be affixed with the agency's Safer Choice label for environmentally-friendly products.
Some 1,600 products currently include the Safer Choice label, which was rebranded in March to replace the Design for the Environment program.
The EPA's list currently includes about 725 chemicals and is updated several times throughout the year.
EPA officials also said that the agency eventually hopes to include toxicological information and enable third-party submission of data for review under the Safer Choice program. -
US EPA Withdraws Snurs for Three Substances
Nov 20, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA is withdrawing significant new use rules (Snurs) for three of the 30 substances it issued last month under direct final rulemaking procedures (CW 2 October 2015).
The action follows the receipt of notices of intent to file adverse comments regarding:
isocyanate prepolymer (generic);
methylene diisocyanate polymer with diols and triols (generic); and
polymer of isophorone diisocyanate and amine-terminated propoxylatedpolyol (generic).
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Agencies in the Dark on Private Cybersecurity Progress -- GAO
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Federal agencies are supposed to keep tabs on the cybersecurity of U.S. critical infrastructure, but many departments aren't quite up to the task, the Government Accountability Office has found.
In an 82-page review published yesterday, GAO credited the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Health and Human Services with setting baseline cyber performance metrics for assessing progress in the sectors they oversee. But other agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security and Transportation, are largely unable to track how private infrastructure owners are keeping up with cyberthreats to key systems, GAO concluded.
"We found that many of these sector-specific agencies have not identified performance metrics in order to ... measure or gauge the progress of their actions, and the actual security posture of their sectors," said Greg Wilshusen, a director in GAO's information technology team who led the report.
The majority of critical computer networks, such as those underpinning the electric grid or oil and gas pipelines, fall in private hands across the United States. That poses challenges for federal agencies who have a stake in securing the networks but may lack direct authority over them.
GAO lauded efforts to boost cooperation between the public and private sectors, including information-sharing initiatives and nonbinding cyber standards set through the Commerce Department. The watchdog pointed out, however, that voluntary partnerships can't offer a holistic view of an industry's cyber readiness.
"The federal government and private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure are working to try to manage and mitigate [cyber] risk," Wilshusen said in a Q&A posted alongside yesterday's report. "But until effective measures and monitoring capabilities are established, we don't know the effectiveness of those efforts."
He cited a "significant" risk of a debilitating cyberattack on U.S. energy or other critical infrastructure systems.
DHS, the go-to agency for the chemical, manufacturing, and nuclear sectors, among others, concurred with GAO's recommendations while highlighting the fine line between setting cyber benchmarks and setting regulations.
"It is important to point out that the Department does not maintain the authority to impose metric requirements on the private sector," DHS said in its response to GAO's findings. The agency also said that developing a unified set of performance metrics for the eight critical infrastructure sectors under its purview "would be infeasible given the unique landscape of each sector and the dynamic threat environment."
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Massive Grid Attack Exercise Tests Response
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
A simulated widespread enemy attack on the North American electric power network this week created a disaster scenario, challenging grid operators to repel coordinated cyber intrusions and assaults on grid installations by heavily armed terrorist squads and rogue drones.
Under this practice scenario meant to point to any major vulnerabilities, millions of Americans were facing long-term power outages in a nationwide crisis.
"It breaks the system pretty severely," said Gerry Cauley, president and chief executive of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which designed and ran the GridEx III exercise.
Some 350 utilities, government agencies and other organizations, and an estimated 10,000 participants were engaged Wednesday in the non-public training exercise, playing out the "war game" scenarios on secured Internet channels. A second exercise required industry chief executives and federal agency leaders to arrange transfers of massive spare grid transformers around the country to replace units destroyed in the "attacks."
In a briefing for reporters, Cauley did not pinpoint any major problems requiring immediate new responses. He said a detailed report on lessons learned could be ready in January.
The exercise indicated that despite accelerating investments in new grid defenses, a worst-case attack could leave parts or all of some cities temporarily uninhabitable. However, an event of such magnitude would take a coordinated physical and cyber attack on a scale that would be "very rare and very difficult," Cauley said.
"There were very serious events occurring in a simulated fashion on the grid, including attacks; cyberattacks on corporate computers and systems; attacks on communications systems; infiltration of control systems, relays and controls in substations and power plants; as well as physical attacks in terms of explosive and shooting," Cauley said.Paris attacks excluded
Cauley said the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday were intentionally not built into the exercise. "We are acutely aware" of the Paris attacks "and the heightened urgency around that," Cauley said. No particular attacker was identified in GridEx III, he added. "It's not pinning this on any particular actor, but it is broad-based, [with] hundreds of points of attack on the grid. So it's obviously very big and very coordinated."
Tom Fanning, chief executive of Southern Co. and head of a utility industry leadership group that meets with federal counterparts on grid threats, said high-level communications with the government began immediately following the Paris attacks, wholly apart from the NERC exercise.
The industry group -- the Electricity Sub-sector Coordinating Council -- was activated Friday evening, he told reporters, joining Cauley in the briefing. "We followed through the weekend with detailed interaction with the government," he said.
"People should understand that the government is on top of these issues in a very serious, detailed manner," Fanning said. "Throughout the weekend, the government was all over this," he said of the events in Paris. "You should be very proud of the response by the government," contrary to some of the criticism it receives, he added.
While not detailing how the simulated attacks were structured, Cauley said that the cyber assaults were designed to simulate not only disrupted communications between key nodes on the grid but also cyber manipulation of controls that would damage or destroy essential machinery and equipment.
"As a practical matter, it is very, very, very difficult to carry out [such attacks] in the field given the separation of control systems from the public-facing Internet and the protections that are put in place," he said.
"We don't want to say it can't happen. We have included that in the exercise as a very challenging set of circumstances," he added, "but it would be very rare and very difficult. We just want to be prepared."
A controversial study in 2013 by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff found that a successful physical attack on relatively small number of strategically located high-voltage transformer substations could cause widespread outages. FERC subsequently added mandatory physical defense preparations to existing cybersecurity requirements for grid operators.
GridEx III did not test the FERC scenario, participants said. "While there is a national scenario [underlying GridEx III], it gives ultimate flexibility to utilities to determine what cyber and physical attacks it wants to impose on their players," said Brian Harrell, a director of Navigant Consulting's energy practice and a former NERC grid cybersecurity official.Teamwork tested
The exercise tested teamwork among utilities, federal agencies and local law enforcement, which has suffered in certain instances because of communications gaps and incomplete planning, according to experts. Despite repeated attempts, Congress has not been able to agree on legislation to strengthen threat information sharing.
The second day of the exercise yesterday centered on industry and government collaboration in restoring electrical service. "We get an opportunity to demonstrate the working partnership we have established and the ... trust we've built between industry and government," Cauley said.
"This GridEx exercise is an opportunity for our federal partners to interact with industry and hopefully test communications channels, push information products, and evaluate how to better get key information into the hands of grid operators," Navigant's Harrell said in an email comment.
The industry wants more and better sharing and analysis of threat information. It remains to be seen how well government agencies can respond, he added. "Cybersecurity response and information sharing with federal partners continues to be a learning process."
Cauley said that communications issues have improved over the past two years, but he added, "it's always striving to get to the next level because I don't think we are declaring a victory."
"We are going to find ways to work effectively together," said Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.
Fanning said that collaboration "is going to be a never-ending saga."
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Feinberg at RailTrends: Don't Wait to Activate PTC
Nov 20, 2015 | Progressive Railroading
Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg, speaking yesterday at the annualRailTrends® conference in New York City, reiterated her advice to railroads that they aim to activate positive train control (PTC) technology on their networks no later than the end of 2018.
One of several prominent speakers to address the two-day conference hosted by Progressive Railroading, Feinberg told the gathering that the public more than ever is holding the rail industry accountable for operating safely.
She acknowledged the rapid advancement of technology in the rail industry in recent years, with PTC being the most significant development.
"I appreciate the work that the rail industry has done to implement this technology and we [the FRA] remain your partner in implementation," Feinberg said in prepared remarks, which were issued by the Federal Railroad Administration.
She noted that while many railroad executives were relieved to have Congress extend the deadline for PTC implementation from the end of this year to the end of 2018 — or 2020 under special circumstances — the FRA wants railroads to get the technology operating as soon as possible.
"The best path forward to serve the public, to serve shareholders, and to serve the Congress is to make 2018 the goal, to make every effort to get there, and to reevaluate as necessary as the Congress intended," she said. "Do not aim for 2020. Do not assume that the Congress will give in and provide another extension."
The FRA will do its part as a "regulator and partner" to help railroads work toward implementation "and to take enforcement actions as necessary," Feinberg said.
Yesterday was the first day of the RailTrends 2015 conference. To see who is slated to speak today, follow this link.
Meanwhile, in a letter sent this week to freight and commuter railroads, Feinberg warned that the FRA will "aggressively enforce" the new PTC deadline. In the letter, which was obtained and reported yesterday by The Chicago Tribune, Feinberg said railroads must submit revised PTC implementation plans to the FRA by Jan. 27.
Those plans must spell out in detail the railroads' schedules for activating their PTC systems by Dec. 31, 2018. If they fail to file their reports on time, the law allows the FRA to start fining them at least $5,000 per day. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Finalizes New Boiler Emission Standards
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
U.S. EPA published final emissions standards today for industrial boilers, with some changes to maximum achievable control technology (MACT) provisions related to definitions of boiler startup and shutdown periods, carbon monoxide limits, and other issues.
Most of the changes are "very similar" to those included in a proposed notice of reconsideration released early this year, the agency said in the final rule published in today'sFederal Register. It said the regulations also include changes to clarify "applicability and implementation issues" raised by public commenters.
The rules, dating back to 2011, have been controversial and litigious; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments Dec. 3 on legal challenges filed by the American Forest and Paper Association, the American Chemistry Council, and U.S. Sugar Corp.
The petitions for reconsideration had come from both industry and environmental groups.
With a January compliance deadline looming, "we're pleased that the final Boiler MACT reconsideration rule has been completed and addresses many of the issues we asked EPA to consider, particularly around how to safely and quickly start-up and shutdown our boilers while preventing damage to control equipment," Donna Harman, president and CEO of the forest and paper association, said in a statement on the final rule.
Sanjay Narayan, a managing attorney in the Sierra Club's environmental law program, offered a more critical take.
By EPA's own record, many boiler units "have achieved much lower emissions" than EPA has prescribed in the rule, Narayan said in a phone interview this morning. The agency, he said, "is failing to require the outdated units to catch up with the best performers."
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Obama Admin Updates Sweeping Regulatory Agenda
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Greenwire
By Manuel Quiñones
The Obama administration has released updated timelines for a wide array of regulatory actions, including efforts for states to comply with greenhouse gas reductions.
Agencies will also tackle numerous air pollution standards, drilling and mining regulations, water and agriculture rules and chemical restrictions.
U.S. EPA plans to release its final model of carbon trading schemes for complying with the Clean Power Plan in August, said the latest version of the unified regulatory agenda.
The Clean Power Plan requires states to put in place plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. The agency's trading models published in October are meant to guide states as they design those plans.
A state implementation plan that adheres to the model trading rules would likely be approved, EPA has said.
The agency's proposal contains two types of models: One for achieving rate-based CO2 reductions from power plants and one for achieving CO2 emission caps. The agency is allowing states to choose either method of compliance for the Clean Power Plan.
EPA has also proposed a federal implementation plan for states that do not submit their own plans, as several opponents of the Clean Power Plan have threatened. But the agency did not issue a timeline for releasing that final federal plan.
EPA has indicated that it will only finalize FIPs for individual states when states definitely say they won't comply or submit plans that are noncompliant.
EPA is also aiming to finalize its regulations to cut methane and volatile organic compounds from the oil and gas sector in 2016, said the regulatory agenda. Along with the Clean Power Plan, the rules are a key part of the Obama administration's climate vision.Air pollution, DOE
On the air front, EPA plans to issue final revisions to its "exceptional events" rule next August after releasing a notice of proposed rulemaking earlier this month.
The proposal is getting close attention in light of the agency's new 70-parts-per-billion standard for ground-level ozone; the agency has said that the exceptional events rule could be a tool for addressing high levels of background ozone not due to local human activity.
EPA has also set an August time frame for a final rule on its interstate ozone transport regulations. A final rule on its review of the national ambient air quality standards for lead is scheduled for June.
The agency also plans to put out a proposal next month for cost consideration in setting mercury and air toxics standards. EPA intends to follow up with release of a final rule in May.
The Department of Energy is planning to move ahead on energy efficiency rules or energy conservation standards for a range of appliances, including central conditioners and heat pumps, small electric motors, portable air conditioners, general service lamps, residential dishwashers, ceiling fans, chargers and dedicated-purpose pool pumps.
It also plans to move to a final rule on energy conservation standards for residential non-weatherized gas furnaces, which has divided many efficiency and industry stakeholders (Greenwire, July 14, 2015).
President Obama has pledged to cut carbon emissions 3 billion tons by 2030 through final energy efficiency standards on appliances and federal buildings, and has only completed standards covering about 2 billion of those tons.Interior, Forest Service
The Bureau of Land Management plans to release a proposed rule as early as next month to curb the venting and flaring of natural gas from drilling projects on public lands. The rule seeks to prevent the waste of publicly owned minerals and maximize revenue for taxpayers.
BLM plans to propose a rule by next spring requiring that applications for drilling permits be filed electronically, a move that aims to expedite the review and approval process for new and modified wells.
By next March, the agency is set to release a proposed rule that could result in higher royalty and rental fees charged to companies that produce oil and gas on public lands, as well as higher bond payments and civil penalties for violations.
BLM as soon as this month is scheduled to release a proposed rule that would amend its land-use planning process. The regulation would "improve the ability of BLM [to] plan better and respond more readily to conditions locally and on a broader scale," according to a description on the White House Office of Management and Budget website.
Also, by the end of the year, BLM is aiming to release a final rule providing a competitive bidding process for solar and wind development rights on BLM lands.
Interior's offshore bureaus have two big final rules on the horizon.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement in early 2016 will likely release its final rule governing the design, manufacture and repair of blowout preventers and other well specifications designed to prevent a repeat of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Around the same time, BSEE along with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is set to release a final rule governing oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters. The rule will provide a regulatory road map for future exploration, even as global oil and gas companies have recently pulled out of the U.S. Arctic.
Both the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service are due to release rules tightening oversight of oil and gas development within their boundaries. While drilling is not common at national parks and wildlife refuges, the agencies must provide reasonable access for companies to drill into privately owned minerals below the federally owned surface.
FWS is scheduled to release a proposed rule as early as next month, and NPS has a final rule due early next summer.
The Forest Service next April is set to release a proposed directive with the Small Business Administration that would affect the small business timber set-aside program, which is designed to protect market access for small forest products manufacturers.
The directive "would better reflect the current timber sale program, make the recomputation process as fair as possible, and simplify the process by which market share is determined," according to OMB.
The Forest Service is also scheduled by next March to issue a final directive governing the issuance of permits for commercial filming and photography in wilderness areas.Coal and mining
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is planning to finalize its stream protection rule -- one of the most controversial administration actions affecting coal -- by next August. The agency is currently considering comments on proposed language.
OSMRE says it will finalize two rules this month, one dealing with the temporary cessation of mining operations and another with making sure companies pay for regulatory oversight. The latter would apply only to states and tribes where the agency has direct supervision.
A proposed rule to regulate blasting at strip coal mines could come next February along with a proposal to oversee the placement of coal ash in old mines, and a dam safety rule may emerge next April.
The Office of Natural Resources Revenue may finish a rule to overhaul coal valuation by early next year, along with a less controversial action to update leasing rules to conform with the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
At BLM, regulators may finish a proposal by next April boosting the royalty rate for highwall mining. The timeline of a measure to address methane emissions from coal mines on federal lands remains to be determined.
EPA may complete rulemaking to boost oversight of uranium mining and milling operations by next April. A related proposal to protect groundwater from in-situ leach uranium extraction could be complete by Dec. 2016.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration is weighing comments on a proposal to protect workers from mining equipment and is collecting information on potential rules on diesel emissions and refuge alternatives.
MSHA may propose a rule to protect workers from respirable silica by next April. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration may also issue its final rule on silica by next February.Water policy
With several major water rules finalized in the past year -- namely the Waters of the U.S. rule and new limits for toxic discharges from coal-fired power plants -- EPA's water office is now preparing to tackle the next tier of issues before the Obama administration heads for the exits.
Before the end of the year, the office plans to put out proposals for updating small suburbs' stormwater permits and set monitoring standards for as many as 30 contaminants that currently aren't tracked by drinking water systems.
A settlement agreement the agency reached with environmental groups earlier this year mandates the stormwater permit update (E&ENews PM, Sept. 16). New drinking water monitoring standards are required every five years under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Among its efforts next year, the water office is preparing to issue new selenium standards for California's San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region, said the regulatory agenda.
The Bay Delta region's soils naturally have elevated levels of selenium, but agricultural drainage and other processes can concentrate it. Meanwhile, the toxic chemical accumulates in animals as it works its way up the food chain. In the 1980s, thousands of birds in the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge died or were born without limbs after nesting in ponds of contaminated irrigation runoff.
When EPA issued new, numeric water quality standards for the state of California in 2000, itpromised the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service that it would take a closer look at the selenium issue and later revise the standards to better protect wildlife.
That closer look -- in the form of a report from the U.S. Geological Survey -- was completed in December 2010, and now the agency is moving forward with revisions of the selenium standards.Agriculture
The Agriculture Department will continue to implement its programs from the 2014 farm bill through 2016, including a consolidated conservation easement program and two initiatives that offer financial and technical support to farmers to adopt conservation practices on private lands.
The final Agricultural Conservation Easement Program rule is set for April 2016. The final Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Stewardship Program rules are both slated for March 2016.
USDA will also finalize a contentious regulation to tighten the definition of growers who are "actively engaged" in farming, in an effort to narrow the scope of those eligible to receive government subsidies. The actively engaged final rule is set for the end of this year.
The National Organic Program within USDA is set to finalize standards for pet food, beekeeping products and farmed fish next spring. A notice of proposed rulemaking for organic pet food guidelines is set for April 2016, with a final rule possible by next November.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service will release an aquaculture proposed rule this month, according to the agenda, with a final rule set for July of next year. Some environmental groups, like the Center for Food Safety, have criticized the rulemaking, saying that farmed fish, by its nature, cannot conform to the standards of sustainability upheld by the National Organic Program (Greenwire, Oct. 21, 2014).
The Agricultural Marketing Service will also issue two final rules in May for beekeeping products and for the raising of livestock for dairy products, an effort to level the playing field in the organic milk industry.
EPA expects to release a final rule next October to revise the certification program for applicators of restricted-use pesticides, the class of agricultural pest controls that pose the greatest risk to human health. The proposal is intended to reduce the risk of harm from misapplying the pesticides and regulate the use of the chemicals consistently across states.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's position limits rule, written to curb excessive speculation in commodity markets like agriculture and energy, is expected to be finalized by the end of this year and go into effect next February.Chemicals
EPA is still working to propose banning two different chemicals under a rarely employed section of the Toxic Substances Control Act.
EPA plans to unveil its proposals by March 2016 under Section 6 of the law -- the same section the agency used in a failed attempt to ban asbestos in 1991 -- to restrict the use of trichloroethylene, or TCE; N-Methylpyrrolidone, or NMP; and methylene chloride. EPA had previously planned to release its proposals by January.
The agency again pushed back the timeline to finalize its rule on formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products. It now expects to release a final rule by May, a delay from its previous estimate of this month.
The administration is delaying a proposed rule to require companies making nanoscale materials to give EPA certain information meant to help the agency learn more about the chemicals. EPA now expects to finalize the requirement by October 2016. Its earlier estimate was June 2016.
The agency expects to finalize by February simplified training program requirements for companies that remove lead paint. It also effectively scrapped issuing a controversial proposal to require public and commercial buildings to follow certain lead abatement regulations that currently applies only to homes.
EPA previously said it would not issue a notice of proposed rulemaking until August 2016, but has decided to delay that to April 2017, well after a new administration has taken office.
The agenda pushes back a proposal from September to November to update EPA's risk management program from September to November. However, the agency had already said it didn't expect to publish a proposed rule until early 2016 (Greenwire, Nov. 17).
EPA plans to finalize a rule to prevent hazardous waste disposal of pharmaceuticals by September 2016. The agency released its proposal in September (Greenwire, Sept. 1).
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is still working on banning additional phthalates, plasticizers linked to health problems, in children's products and child care articles.
The Department of Homeland Security has effectively abandoned a rule to regulate the sale and transfer of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The agency had previously planned to complete the rule earlier this year. The next step is "undetermined," the agency now says, with no estimated date given.
DHS also plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to update the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program by July 2016.
Congress and regulatory officials have scrutinized ammonium nitrate in the wake of the 2013 fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, where a cache of the fertilizer in a wooden warehouse killed 15 people. Despite the interest, regulatory agencies have done little to change companies' legal obligations for handling the product.
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RGGI Weighs Trading CO2 With More States Under Clean Power Plan
Nov 20, 2015 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative -- a cap-and-trade program among nine New England and Mid-Atlantic states -- is considering whether to expand or trade carbon allowances with states outside its system as part of U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan.
But RGGI is on track to exceed EPA's targets for the region, and some environmental advocates worry that trading with more states could undermine RGGI's own intensive carbon emissions goals and erode the program's integrity.
At a stakeholder meeting earlier this week, representatives from the Acadia Center -- a New England-based climate change nonprofit -- said trading with states that have less stringent goals could flood the RGGI market with allowances and bring down carbon prices, while essentially raising the carbon footprint of the system.
"We see a whole lot of benefit in moving toward a national trading program ... the larger the trading program, the greater the opportunity for low-cost emissions reductions," policy analyst Jordan Stutt explained after the meeting. "It seems like there's also some risk involved in committing to trading with [other states]."
Neighboring Virginia, for example, is expected to meet its goal with relative ease and might not be a good trading partner, said Stutt's colleague Peter Shattuck, director of the Acadia Center clean energy initiative.
Stutt suggested RGGI take a "wait-and-see approach" until after the first couple of years of the compliance period, which begins in 2022, and then restructure to name specific trading partners or become "trade-ready" and swap allowances with any states using a similar system for EPA compliance.
When RGGI first started operating, allowances were too inexpensive until states agreed on a tougher emissions cap, he said.
"Our concern is that the same factors that led to that oversupply in RGGI will be repeated" by those budding markets under the Clean Power Plan, Stutt said.
On the other side of the debate, Calpine Corp. -- which generates power from Texas to the Northeast -- says RGGI would be "stepping over a big opportunity" if it refused to trade with states that it has encouraged for years to pursue cap and trade. Even if other states have laxer carbon budgets, RGGI states would still be achieving their own, and the entire system would have to adhere to a collective emissions limit, said Derek Furstenwerth, senior director of environmental services at Calpine. They would be helping to achieve national goals, rather than just regional goals, he added.
Josh Berman, a staff attorney for the Sierra Club, said the dialogue was illuminating and his organization needs to have more internal conversations about what position to take.
"Sierra Club would have real concerns about trading without there being some safeguards about comparable stringency," Berman noted, adding, "Our bottom line here is ensuring we're getting the maximum amount of climate protection out of this rule."More trading = cheaper power bills?
Grid experts suggest bigger carbon trading markets will yield cheaper allowances for sale to generators that fall short of their targets. That could mean lower power bills for consumers in most states.
But because RGGI has strict goals, the region might have a higher cost per ton of CO2 than other states, Stutt said. States that haven't pursued carbon reductions will have more "low-hanging fruit," or lower-cost options to decarbonizing, he added.
It's impossible to predict the cost effects of merging RGGI's trading market with others, Stutt said. Still, at a National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners meeting in Austin, Texas, earlier this month, state electric regulators from as far away as Arkansas were already questioning how RGGI's decisions might affect trading options.
RGGI is requesting written comments by Dec. 4 and will meet again to discuss them in late January or early February in either Delaware or Maryland.
Lois New, a RGGI representative from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, said RGGI states are leaning toward continuing to use mass-based trading to cap carbon emissions from existing and new power plants.
On paper, RGGI would meet EPA's goals. But for the past several years, the program has allowed more emissions than are spelled out in its budget. That's because allowance costs have climbed high enough to trigger a release of additional allowances from a "cost containment reserve," an additional store of allowances beyond the cap.
If that continues to happen, RGGI would not meet the Clean Power Plan goals for the region, New explained.
RGGI states could still choose to aim for stricter standards than EPA has proposed, essentially replacing EPA's targets with their own.
RGGI could also decide only to trade with states that meet certain conditions. At the meeting in New York on Tuesday, stakeholders said the most important concern is that trading not allow carbon leakage.
States trading with RGGI would likely have to agree to cap emissions from existing and new sources of power. Otherwise, RGGI states would worry that new generators would locate in states outside the RGGI system and raise overall emissions.
Berman said the Sierra Club might also suggest that new trading partners must auction allowances, rather than just distributing them to generators, which could be a "windfall" for generators. RGGI states auction their allowances and spend the revenues mostly on energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, although some proceeds have been used for other purposes.
RGGI could also ask states that want to work with its system to aim for tougher goals than EPA has set, but that could be a nonstarter politically. "Ultimately we just want to make sure there are safeguards in place if there is going to be trading with other states," Berman said.
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Jeff Goldblum Mocks 'Selfish, Reptilian' Opponents of Obama Climate Rule
Nov 20, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Actors Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley, Jr., are featured in a new video from a green group mocking industry opposition to President Obama’s climate change rule.
The web video, produced by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and comedy video website Funny or Die, depicts nine utility executives who are angry about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carbon limits for power plants.
“People are convinced our coal-fired power plants are killing people and the planet,” Begley, who plays the group’s leader, tells them. “And now the EPA wants to put their clean-air safeguards on us.”
The group brings in “The Fixer,” played by Goldblum, who Begley promises will make the rules go away.
Instead, Goldblum says the regulations are easily to comply with, a top talking point from green groups like LCV.
“They’re providing flexibility and time to make these cuts so you can optimize your reductions while still providing reliable electricity for everyone,” Goldblum tells them, a statement that they immediately dismiss.
“What I’m saying is that it makes sense,” he continues. “The fact that you’re objecting to these very simple and reasonable asks feels to me like you might be some of the worst, most execrable, selfish, reptilian nincompoops with whom I’ve ever had the distinct displeasure of working.”
The video was released Thursday amid efforts in the Senate and House to overturn the EPA’s power plant rules, led by Republicans.
“LCV is releasing this video on the heels of the cynical and purely symbolic Senate votes this week to try to block the Clean Power Plan,” LCV President Gene Karpinski said in a statement. “It calls attention to how ridiculous the arguments against the Clean Power Plan really are.”
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Obama: Paris Climate Deal Will be Only a Beginning
Nov 20, 2015 | Politico Pro - Whiteboards
By Andrew Restuccia
President Barack Obama said today that he is "optimistic" that nearly 200 nations will reach a new international climate change deal in Paris next month, though he acknowledged whatever gets agreed there will be only a start on the global effort.
"It won't be as strong initially as it needs to be eventually, but if we start now and everybody agrees that this is important ... then I'm confident that we'll be able to solve the problem," the president said during a town hall meeting in Malaysia, according to a transcript of his remarks.
Diplomats are on track to finalize an agreement that enshrines countries' domestic climate change plans, but the details of the deal remain unclear amid lingering tension between rich and poor nations on a raft of issues.
The United States and other countries are hoping the final deal includes measures that encourage countries to increase the ambition of their domestic climate change plans in the coming years. The collective measures set to be folded into the agreement will not do enough on their own to keep the increase in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius, the level scientists say is the threshold for preventing catastrophic climate change.
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GOP Vows to Deny Obama Climate Funds in Bid to Derail Paris Talks
Nov 20, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Republicans are taking aim at a new “Green Climate Fund,” as they look to weaken President Obama’s hand in global climate talks later this month.
The pot of money, a $3 billion climate change pledge the president’s administration made last year, is something officials hope to bring to the negotiating table at United Nations summit in Paris.But Republicans — hostile to the climate talks and bent on doing whatever they can to derail a deal in Paris next month — say they’re going to deny Obama the first tranche of money he hopes to inject into the fund.
“We pledge that Congress will not allow U.S. taxpayer dollars to go to the Green Climate Fund until the forthcoming international climate agreement is submitted to the Senate for its constitutional advice and consent,” 37 Republican senators wrote in a letter to Obama on Thursday.
The fund, a pool of public and private money, is meant to help poorer nations prepare for climate change.
A Senate appropriations bill cleared the way for the first portion of American funding earlier this year, but Republicans committed this week to blocking it in a final budget deal.
“When it comes to the financing: I know a lot of people over there, the 192 countries, assume that Americans are going to line up and joyfully pay $3 billion into this fund,” said Sen. James Inhofe, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. “But that’s not going to happen.”Republicans have looked to throw up obstacles in Obama’s path toward a climate accord, but they do not have a clear way to block it. Unless a deal is deemed to be a treaty requiring Senate ratification, it won’t come before lawmakers for a vote.
But the climate fund, something developing nations have long wanted as part of the climate talks, might give Republicans some leverage — or at least allow them to send a signal to the world about their opposition to a final climate deal.
“It’s important to make clear, I think, to the rest of the world that as these climate talks approach, that Congress has the power of the purse,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said this week.
In his 2016 budget request, Obama asked lawmakers to provide $500 million for the fund, but House and Senate appropriators have given him nothing. Congress has yet to finalize its 2016 spending plan, though the deadline to do so — Dec. 11 — is the last day of the U.N.’s climate talks, symmetry that may give Republicans a chance to complicate the process.
Earlier this year, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) inserted a provision into a Senate appropriations bill giving the State Department the right to contribute to the Green Climate Fund using its own budget, without prior congressional approval.
That amendment won bipartisan support in committee, but it must now survive funding negotiations ahead of a looming deadline.
“I think the position taken by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which was a bipartisan vote to provide funds, is the right position and I hope it will prevail in conference,” Merkley said on Thursday.
An Obama administration official said that the White House is “monitoring” the status of the fund in spending negotiations.
International climate negotiators launched the Green Climate Fund in 2009 with the goal of providing $100 billion a year in financing for poor countries by 2020. U.N. administrators funded its first round of projects earlier this month, providing $168 million for infrastructure upgrades, wetland improvements and other proposals in South America, Africa and Asia.
Merkley said the fund is designed to show that developed world — which has emitted most of the greenhouse gases driving climate change — is committed to addressing the problem now by supporting poorer countries’ efforts to convert to clean energy or otherwise contain the impact of climate change.
“The financing is important because the nations that are very poor, that are seeing these consequences, are saying well, we’re going to get involved now, but help us take on these consequences that weren’t of our making,” he said. “You all were the primary causers, help us out with the real problems we’re having.”Developing countries have said the fund is critical to a climate deal in Paris.
“It’s a very large part of their negotiating positions,” said Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard University Project on Climate Agreements. “They will hold out — the developing countries will hold out — on anything they can, such as the $100 billion, to get as much money as they can.”
But Stavins said Republican threats against the fund likely won’t push countries away from the negotiating table.
And even if Republicans can block federal financing for the Green Climate Fund, he said, it won’t doom a climate accord. Other countries have contributed funding, the private sector is pitching in heavily, and the centerpiece of any deal would be countries’ carbon emission reduction goals — not funding.
Either way, Democrats on Capitol Hill say they’re confident Republicans will back down from their threats against the fund.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Thursday that she expects Republicans won’t have the will to back out of commitments the U.S. has made to an international project that is already moving forward.
“It’s already in progress, and it would have to be a herculean effort for Republicans to stop it,” she said. “It’s already in existence, the fund. It would be really difficult to try and take us back.”
But top Republicans — looking for whatever leverage they can find on a climate accord — have promised to hold out.
“Congress will weigh in on whatever comes out of the Paris climate talks, and the money that the president has requested as part of his budget,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said at a GOP leadership press conference this week. “Congress will have a say.”
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