Preview Newsletter
ACC AM Dec 25
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Environmentalists Demand Flame Retardant's Health Studies Deemed CBI
Dec 24, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Maria Hegstad
Environmentalists are pressing EPA to release information about a flame retardant they believe EPA improperly declared confidential business information (CBI) and did not publicly release, and are also urging the agency to extend the deadline for public comments on a group of flame retardants the agency wishes to assess to allow for review... -
Chemical Safety for Christmas
Dec 24, 2015 | Environmental Defense Fund (in Care2)
By Jack Pratt
This Christmas, my wife gave me a shopping mission: find out which rug we can safely buy for our 2-year-old son. We knew he would love to play with his toy cars on a rug with images of a racetrack or city roads. We also knew that rugs can contain harmful chemicals. Fortunately, I thought, I work with scientists who might provide some sage... -
PHMSA Issues Safety Alert on Hoverboards
Dec 24, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The nation's hazmat transport regulator issued a safety alert today that urged shippers to properly prepare for transport hoverboards that contain lithium batteries, which can be an ignition source for fires or explode. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released its alert after its investigators intercepted... -
PHMSA Issues Alert on Shipping Hoverboards
Dec 24, 2015 | Occupational Health & Safety
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a safety alert Dec. 24 identifying safety concerns with the transport of hoverboards containing lithium batteries. The alert includes shipping guidance, after PHMSA investigators intercepted 32 cargo containers filled with hoverboards containing lithium batteries... -
Greens Release Video Of Massive California Methane Leak
Dec 24, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Environmentalists have published new footage of a major natural gas leak pumping methane into the atmosphere in Southern California. The footage, released Wednesday by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), uses an infrared camera to show the “massive scale of pollution flowing from the ruptured underground gas well”... -
Why 2015 May Be Remembered As A Transformative Year For How We Get Energy
Dec 24, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
The United States is on track to shut down a record amount of coal-fired power plants in 2015. At the same time, it has installed a record amount of new solar energy capacity. The past year, in other words, hints at a historic transition for the U.S. energy sector. From dramatic price plunges for oil and natural gas to the significant emergence of... -
ECOS Urges EPA To Fund Inspection Training Programs
Dec 24, 2015 | InsideEPA
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), representing many state environment agencies, is urging EPA to direct some fiscal year 2016 funding to the Regional Compliance Training Associations that support in-person training programs for inspectors instead of EPA's existing strategy of funding online training for states inspectors. -
Efficiency Standards Quietly Lead to Billions of Energy Bill Savings for Consumers
Dec 24, 2015 | The Energy Collective
By Lauren Urbanek
While most consumers and business owners probably don't think much about the importance of appliance energy efficiency standards in their day-to-day lives, the work done this year to make sure our equipment doesn't waste energy (and increase utility bills) will generate financial and environmental benefits well into the future.
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Environmentalists Demand Flame Retardant's Health Studies Deemed CBI
Dec 24, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Maria Hegstad
Environmentalists are pressing EPA to release information about a flame retardant they believe EPA improperly declared confidential business information (CBI) and did not publicly release, and are also urging the agency to extend the deadline for public comments on a group of flame retardants the agency wishes to assess to allow for review of the data once released.
Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) say in Dec. 11 comments that they welcome EPA's efforts to characterize the risks posed by the brominated phthalates cluster of flame retardants (BPC), as many of these chemicals are heavily used in consumer products, leading to widespread human exposures.
But the groups say they are “greatly hampered in our ability to provide meaningful comments on the BPC Assessment due to the fact that at least two sets of important documents related to this cluster are not in the public domain.”
EPA released last August draft problem formulation and initial assessment documents for three clusters of flame retardant chemicals, identifying areas for future reviews. At the same time, the agency released a data needs assessment for a fourth flame retardant cluster, BPC, used in polyurethane foam products, after finding it currently lacks adequate information to support a risk assessment. The agency accepted comments and information on that cluster through Dec. 16.
The effort is part of EPA's novel risk assessment program seeking to more strictly regulate existing chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has already prompted the agency to weigh restrictions on several substances.
The groups ask that EPA extend the comment deadline to 45 days after EPA releases what they call “critical documents related to this cluster,” some of which they say EPA inappropriately classified as CBI. Two of the seven chemicals that EPA included in the BPC are not named in EPA's August 2015 data needs document, instead described as Confidential A and Confidential B.
The environmentalists point to a 2012 Chemtura submission cited in EPA's document, describing a chemical called tetrabromobenzoate (TBB). The document indicates Chemtura provided EPA a set of confidential studies, which the groups argue are clearly health and safety studies.
“As you know, TSCA section 14(b) does not allow health and safety studies, or data from health and safety studies, to be claimed as CBI,” the groups write. “Accordingly, there is no legal basis for withholding these studies from the public, and EPA should never have accepted Chemtura’s CBI designation in the first place.”
The environmentalists also point to a Dec. 7 memo by EPA staff and posted in the BPC electronic docket that identified by pre-manufacture notice (PMN) number two chemicals in the BPC cluster that had previously been unidentified.
“In doing so, it acknowledged that any CBI claim is no longer valid,” the groups write. “Based on these PMN numbers, we determined that the chemical previously called Confidential A, which is PMN P-04-0404, was the subject of a TSCA section 5(e) Consent Order in 2004. We request that the Consent Order and studies performed in conjunction with that Order be posted to the Docket given their relevance to this Assessment.”
Earthjustice and NRDC's request is supported by the Environmental Defense Fund in a separate letter.
Chemutra's Comments
Chemtura, however, protests in its comments to EPA what it says is EPA's “interest for new testing on individual components” of the BPC, arguing the agency previously determined that it was most appropriate to test a mixture of TBB and tetrabromophthlate (TBPH) and that those studies conducted by Chemtura show the chemicals are safe to use.
EPA in its data needs document writes that “TBPH and TBB have been selected as the index chemicals for this cluster,” and notes that the chemicals are components of two flame retardant products, Firemaster 550 and Firemaster BZ-54. Both chemicals have been detected in monitoring studies “in various media including sludge, sediment, indoor dust and biota,” the document states. “Frequent detection of TBPH and TBB in these media provides evidence of release and transport of TBPH and TBB into the environment and suggests an increasing potential for exposure. Some data show exposures to TBPH and TBB to remote species (e.g. seals and sea birds) indicating the occurrence of global release and transport.”
Chemtura says testing these chemicals separately is concerning because the “TBB/TBPH mixture was originally agreed as the most appropriate test substance with EPA; TBB manufactured by Chemtura is only produced as part of a reaction product mixture with TBPH.”
Additionally, a thorough PMN testing protocol was conducted over many years for TBB/TBPH mixtures, and “[e]xposure level of the most sensitive endpoint for the mixture in indoor environments is at least three orders of magnitude lower than derived no effect level for humans,” the company says. And the results of a series of studies to assess environmental fate and toxicity of TBB indicated the level of exposure that could cause an unfavorable effect in humans is much higher than what a person encounters in the real world,” the company says. Chemtura says it is working to calculate a benchmark dose, which is often the basis for a quantitative risk estimation, and that “benchmark dose calculation will be shared with EPA upon completion.”
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Dec 24, 2015 | Environmental Defense Fund (in Care2)
By Jack Pratt
This Christmas, my wife gave me a shopping mission: find out which rug we can safely buy for our 2-year-old son. We knew he would love to play with his toy cars on a rug with images of a racetrack or city roads. We also knew that rugs can contain harmful chemicals. Fortunately, I thought, I work with scientists who might provide some sage advice on what to avoid. Unfortunately the consensus was I’m out of luck: there is no surefire secret to safe shopping.
There are a bunch of concerning chemicals my colleagues thought likely to turn up on rugs. Off the top of their heads, the experts rattled off the possibilities—formaldehyde in adhesives, PFCs in stain-resistant coatings, perchlorate in an anti-static treatment. Oh, and there are probably others that we don’t even know about. What if I washed the rug? That might help, one said, or that might make it worse, another offered. Great.
This isn’t idle water-cooler conversation. Americans are exposed to thousands of chemicals and scientists increasingly link some widely-used chemicals to significant health problems. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, perchlorate is an endocrine-disruptor, PFCs are tied to a host of health problems including asthma and reproductive impairments. There are many other chemicals that we know little about, but some likely have their own issues.
Of particular concern to me is that children are especially at risk. As one of our experts Sarah Vogel says, “Children are not simply little people.” Rather they are developing as they grow and hence more vulnerable to the impacts of endocrine disruptors and other toxic chemicals. Kids also spend more time on the floor, put objects in their mouth and, of course, are smaller—a smaller dose can have a greater impact on little bodies.
So here’s where I’m left: even with a small team of scientists by my side, I cannot confidently shop for Christmas gifts without toxic chemicals. Holiday shopping shouldn’t put our kids at risk. Unfortunately, toxic chemicals are allowed to be sold in large part because our primary chemical safety law is badly broken. Passed when I was a kid myself, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) does not provide the tools necessary to establish the safety of common chemicals, or to restrict the ones scientists know to be harmful.
Fortunately, in a welcome Christmas surprise, this month the Senate passed a bill to strengthen the law. The Lautenberg Act, sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall and 60 other Senators, passed by a unanimous voice vote. Most of us would view the bill’s provisions as simple common-sense, including requiring safety reviews for all new and existing chemicals, giving EPA authority it can use to require testing of chemicals, removing the obstacles that have stymied past attempts to restrict harmful chemicals and explicitly requiring protection of the most vulnerable among us, including small children.
If Udall’s bill becomes law, it could have a real impact on my holiday shopping. EPA could impose restrictions that keep harmful chemicals out of my toddler’s rug, his toys and elsewhere in our home. Even the chemicals in rugs and toys imported from places like China would need to pass muster. Our government would also be charged with making sure companies don’t simply switch from using one bad chemical to developing another that is just as bad or less studied—under the Lautenberg Act new chemicals would have to clear a safety bar before they’re allowed on the market.
Earlier in the year, the House passed its own bill, and in 2016 both chambers must reconcile their bills before sending it to the president for signature. Legislators need to make sure the bill stays strong through that process, so that the new law is able to restore the confidence we all deserve that the products we buy don’t put our health at risk. I’m no Grinch; I went ahead and bought the safest seeming rug I could find, figuring alternative gift ideas wouldn’t fare any better. But I already know what I want for Christmas in 2016: a stronger chemical safety law. Happily, it’s now within reach.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/chemical-safety-for-christmas.html#ixzz3vJtMm7Ta -
PHMSA Issues Safety Alert on Hoverboards
Dec 24, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The nation's hazmat transport regulator issued a safety alert today that urged shippers to properly prepare for transport hoverboards that contain lithium batteries, which can be an ignition source for fires or explode.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released its alert after its investigators intercepted more than 30 cargo containers of these hoverboards containing lithium batteries that it found were inappropriately prepared for shipment. The agency warned that violating related cargo shipment requirements can lead to significant civil penalties and potential criminal liability.
The alert builds on the rapidly increasing public and private sector concerns related to the movement and general safety of hoverboards with lithium batteries. In December alone, the Consumer Product Safety Commission launched an investigation into the safety of these toys, several major airlines such as Delta Air Lines banned them from their aircraft and Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) urged the Energy Department to research the lithium batteries contained in the boards.
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PHMSA Issues Alert on Shipping Hoverboards
Dec 24, 2015 | Occupational Health & Safety
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a safety alert Dec. 24 identifying safety concerns with the transport of hoverboards containing lithium batteries. The alert includes shipping guidance, after PHMSA investigators intercepted 32 cargo containers filled with hoverboards containing lithium batteries that were improperly prepared for shipment of a hazardous material, according to the agency. Similar problems were identified by British border authorities after thousands of hoverboards were seized upon entry into Scotland earlier this month.
"Hoverboards are among the top gifts of the 2015 holiday season, and DOT is working to ensure that hoverboards containing lithium batteries are safely transported," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
According to PHMSA, investigation of the intercepted cargo containers found that more than 80 percent of the shippers were unable to produce valid test reports to prove the lithium batteries had been properly manufactured and packaged to maintain integrity during transport. "It's critical that lithium batteries are packaged and transported according to the correct specifications because, under certain conditions, they can generate heat, catch on fire, and explode during transportation," said PHMSA Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez. "PHMSA is conducting a complete and through investigation to ensure that hoverboards containing lithium batteries are transported in accordance with federal hazardous materials regulations."
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Greens Release Video Of Massive California Methane Leak
Dec 24, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Environmentalists have published new footage of a major natural gas leak pumping methane into the atmosphere in Southern California.
The footage, released Wednesday by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), uses an infrared camera to show the “massive scale of pollution flowing from the ruptured underground gas well” near Los Angeles, EDF said in a blog post.The leak, at an Aliso Canyon facility owned by Southern California Gas Co., is spewing gas at a rate of about 110,000 pounds per hour. It’s sent millions of pounds of methane into the atmosphere since it was discovered in October.
The cause of the leak is unknown, and California officials told The Washington Post this week that they don’t know when it will be sealed.
Methane is the primary component of natural gas, and its impact on climate change is potent — up to 25 times that of carbon dioxide. The leak has led to the evacuation of about 1,500 homes, The Post reported, and EDF said thousands of others have considered relocation.
The leak has promoted greens to call for strict environmental rules at oil and gas facilities and the closure of the storage facilities in Aliso Canyon.
“Events of this size are rare, but major leakage across the oil and gas supply chain is not,” Tim O’Connor, the director of EDF’s California Oil and Gas Program, said in a statement.
“Regardless of what the future holds for the Aliso Canyon storage field, this is one reason why strong rules are needed to require that oil and gas companies closely monitor for and manage methane leaks.”
SoCalGas told California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) last week that it would “execute all possible efforts” to plug the leak, The Post reported, including drilling a relief well and injecting a solution to try sealing the breach.
“SoCalGas recognized the impact this incident is having on the environment,” company President Dennis Arriola wrote in a letter to Brown.
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Why 2015 May Be Remembered As A Transformative Year For How We Get Energy
Dec 24, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
The United States is on track to shut down a record amount of coal-fired power plants in 2015. At the same time, it has installed a record amount of new solar energy capacity.
The past year, in other words, hints at a historic transition for the U.S. energy sector. From dramatic price plunges for oil and natural gas to the significant emergence of industrial batteries for energy storage, 2015 was on a momentous course even before the world came together in Paris to agree on steps to reduce global warming.
While it’s not always a simple story, the overall tenor of these changes is clear — Americans are moving into a world that will get less of its energy from fossil fuels, that will embrace clean or low emission sources of electricity and that will write this into policy.
The change didn’t begin in 2015 — and won’t happen overnight. Nor is it really marked by any single development – but rather, by a whole range of them. Just consider these developments this year:
Coal is loaded into a truck at the Jim Bridger Mine outside Point of the Rocks, Wyo., last year. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart, file)A turn away from coal. If there is one energy sector that received seemingly uninterrupted bad news in 2015, it was coal. From the Clean Power Plan in the United States — which will privilege natural gas and renewables — to plans in the United Kingdom to “close all unabated coal-fired power stations” by 2025, this energy source will struggle in a new world of international climate concerns.
It’s expected that by the end of 2015 in the United States, there will have been a record number of coal plant retirements.
According to government data, 11 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants “had already dropped offline through September 2015, with an additional 4.4GW scheduled to disconnect in the fourth quarter,” said Colleen Regan, senior analyst for North American power at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “This brings the total for 2014 up to 14.4GW, far above the previous record of 9.3GW lost in 2012.”
And it’s not just clean energy concerns driving coal down. Extremely low natural gas prices have meant that for several months this year in the United States, gas has actually supplanted coal as our number one source of electricity. As of the end of September, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal had generated 34.4 percent of U.S. electricity in 2015, and natural gas had generated 32.1 percent — almost neck-and-neck.
The future suggests more of the same. A medium-term market report (looking out to 2020) for the global coal sector recently released by the International Energy Agency summarizes the turn. It predicts considerably lower coal demand in the future in the United States and European Union, suggests that the “golden age of coal in China seems to be over,” and overall suggests only India and southeast Asian nations will see coal demand grow in the future.
Indeed, China — the world’s top coal user — recently announced a “green dispatch” system that would privilege the use of renewable energy sources on its grid.
“The series of factors pushing coal prices down has been astonishing,” notes the report, ranging from climate and environmental policies across the world to very low natural gas prices. The growth of coal demand stopped in 2014 after increasing for many years, the report finds, and a continued “downward trend in global coal consumption in 2015 is likely.”
The maturation of wind and solar. Meanwhile, 2015 underscored that wind and solar are not only generating an ever-larger percentage of U.S. electricity, but that this will continue out to 2020 and likely well beyond it – and not just here but across the globe.
In the United States, solar likely will see record installations in 2015 — some 7.4 gigawatts’ worth of capacity, according to GTM Research. Having just secured a much coveted extension of the 30 percent investment tax credit, solar may reach 100 gigawatts worth of installations by 2020 and provide 3.5 percent of U.S. power, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
In the past few years, U.S. solar has emerged as a kind of triple threat, as utility-scale installations are now very nearly matched by individual homeowner rooftop installations, even as corporations and businesses are also installing plenty of panels of their own. And the fourth wave is still only beginning — community or “shared” solar, which will extend availability to renters, members of condo buildings and many others.
Wind, meanwhile, just hit 70 gigawatts installed this year and is already providing about five percent of total U.S. electricity. “We’re now at a 66 percent cost decline in the price utilities are paying for wind energy since 2009,” said Michael Goggin, senior director of research at the American Wind Energy Association. Goggin believes the industry is on course to fulfill the Department of Energy’s vision of getting 20 percent of U.S. electricity from wind by 2030.
Other parts of the world are rushing in the same direction. This year African leaders announced plans to install 300 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, which is nearly double the total energy capacity installed on the entire continent. India has set plans for 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022, and the International Energy Agency now forecasts that renewables will be energy’s single biggest growth sector out to 2020 – largely in developing countries — and see 700 gigawatts of total added capacity.
A “breakout” for energy storage. At the same time, a key “enabling technology” that may further enhance our ability to use solar began to seem truly viable this year.
It has long been a mantra that because “electricity cannot be stored in large quantities,” as the North American Electric Reliability Corp. puts it, the amount of electricity generated and the amount used on the grid must stay in “constant balance.” But 2015 is the year where this may cease to really be true — because it has been a banner year for the emergence of energy storage, especially when it comes to the use of large, grid-scale batteries.
Energy storage drew massive public attention back in April when Tesla announced its new home battery, the Powerwall. Less visible has been the much greater growth of energy storage on the electric grid. Just last week AES announced plans to buy a gigawatt-hour worth of batteries for use on the grid. GTM Research’s Ravi Manghani has declared that “2015 is turning out to be a breakout year for the U.S. energy storage market,” with triple the deployments seen in 2014.
Utility firms are adding large batteries to the grid in key places because there are myriad benefits from doing so — including potentially replacing natural gas “peaker plants” that are used to ramp up very quickly at times of high demand. Batteries, it turns out, can potentially do that, too.
Most important, storage means that in the future, energy originally generated from solar installations may not have to be used immediately. It could be saved for later — used even at night. This is critical for enabling the further growth of solar because it helps to get around one of its key limitations — that it is intermittent, due to weather and the simple rotation of the Earth.
The launch of global and domestic climate policy. The growth of renewables and the decline of coal aren’t happening by accident — they are being buoyed by a sense that the world must move in this direction, due to climate change. That sense was made official early this month in Paris as 195 nations agreed to steadily cut their emissions with the goal of keeping the planet’s warming not only considerably lower than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but perhaps even as low as 1.5 degrees C.
This is probably the single most transformative energy development of 2015, because it provides a global policy signal that the world will shift, as rapidly as possible, toward lower-emitting forms of energy. In effect, it assures the future of wind and solar even as it provides the starkest “writing on the wall” for coal, as Michael Liebreich, advisory board chairman of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, has put it.
And it probably wouldn’t have been possible had not the United States also released a domestic policy, in the form of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, to cut emissions from the largest source — the electricity sector. The plan doesn’t even kick in until 2022, by which time measures like the Paris agreement and newly extended tax breaks for wind and solar will likely have already spurred along a considerable clean energy transition (and perhaps as much as doubled the percentage of U.S. electricity that comes from these sources).
Along with Paris, the Clean Power Plan shifts the debate. The question is no longer about whether action will be taken — it already has been – but about how rapid and effective it will be.
The possible decoupling of economic growth from emissions. There were also tantalizing signs in 2015 that the world is learning how to grow economies without spewing an ever larger amount of carbon pollution at the same time.
Examining 2014 data earlier this year, the International Energy Agency found that global carbon dioxide emissions from the use of energy did not grow last year. It marked “the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in emissions of the greenhouse gas that was not tied to an economic downturn,” the agency said.
And then just this month, scientists published the finding that in 2015, emissions may have actually ticked down slightly in comparison to 2014 levels, even though, again, there was no global recession.
It’s important to be cautious here – many scientists think that emissions have not yet peaked for good and suspect they’ll keep going up as electrification reaches more people in nations like India, and much of that power still comes from traditional sources like coal. Nevertheless, it was a tantalizing hint that growth is possible without worsening the state of the planet.
Dramatically low oil and natural gas prices. There was one other major energy trend worth noting this year — incredibly low prices for both oil and natural gas.
Cheap natural gas contributes to the decline of coal, and emits only about half as much carbon dioxide when burned. Yet the stark plunge in oil prices, from over $100 per barrel little more than a year ago to around $ 36 per barrel today, likely works to undermine progress in another key sector: transportation, which contributes nearly 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning.
While electric vehicles have grown in popularity, they still comprise a relatively tiny percentage of all vehicles in the United States. The story of renewable fuels or biofuels is even more disheartening, especially in the United States, where mounting controversy has plagued the Renewable Fuels Standard and long-awaited cellulosic ethanol remains a tiny fraction of our overall fuel supply. Meanwhile, low oil prices — and correspondingly low gasoline prices — mean that in the first nine months of this year, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, levels of gasoline consumption actually shot up three percent.
Overall, this confirms a common mantra in the climate arena — it’s going to be harder to transition the transportation sector than it will be to transition the electricity sector, principally because powering something that moves (like a car or plane) without energy-dense fossil fuels is a lot tougher than powering something that stays put. And cheap gasoline only makes it tougher to bring on such a change.
The fact remains that humans will be using coal, oil, and gasoline for a long time. As a result, it could be quite the planetary photo finish when it comes to whether we actually stay under that global target of 2 degrees Celsius.
Nonetheless, 2015 marked a key moment in the shift toward a new way of doing things in the energy world, and the consequences will unfold over the course of the entire century.
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ECOS Urges EPA To Fund Inspection Training Programs
Dec 24, 2015 | InsideEPA
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), representing many state environment agencies, is urging EPA to direct some fiscal year 2016 funding to the Regional Compliance Training Associations that support in-person training programs for inspectors instead of EPA's existing strategy of funding online training for states inspectors.
In a Dec. 21 letter to EPA, ECOS President and Colorado environment chief Martha Rudolph says that funding for the associations' training programs, which comes from federal grants, enforcement settlements, tuition payments and state dues, is shrinking. Rudolph urges EPA to directly fund the associations or negotiate “other approaches” to bolster their finances.
“Today, all of these funding streams are shrinking, to the extent that all four of the Associations are experiencing long-term funding shortages and are in various stages of winding down their operations. . . . This makes early 2016 an excellent time for ECOS and EPA to meet to discuss the future of inspector training and how we might support the Associations and the work they do through sustained federal funding and/or other approaches,” Rudolph writes.
The letter is addressed to acting EPA Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg and Assistant Administrator For Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Cynthia Giles. It says that of the four training associations, the Northeast branch has already dismissed its staff and director, while the Midwest association is planning to do so in 2016.
Rudolph continues that EPA should reconsider its 2012 decision to direct its grant funding for inspector training to online programs available nationwide rather than the four regional associations.
“While we agree that distance learning is important to reduce costs, it does not fully replace the benefits of in-person training that historically has been provided by the Associations. The Associations offered the benefit of discrete locations to which inspectors could travel for their training,” Rudolph writes.
However, EPA is preparing to decrease its support for site inspections through the “Next Generation” compliance framework, which aims to overhaul environmental enforcement to rely less on site inspections to force compliance, and more on advanced monitoring, electronic reporting and self-implementing rules.
EPA cites evidence that it is cutting inspections in its Dec. 16 FY15 enforcement report, noting that inspections declined to 15,400 from the 15,600 conducted in the prior year. “As EPA’s budget has declined, the total number of inspections has declined as well. EPA continues to pursue additional means of gathering information about facility compliance, to supplement our on the ground inspections,” the report said.
But Rudolph counters in her letter that even if EPA is relying less on inspections under the new framework, allowing the associations to die off entirely would have severe consequences.
“We understand that choices must be made to balance budgets and ensure funding to continue important work while addressing new challenges. However, we cannot embark on new initiatives and maintain excellence in current work if we do not continue to retain and train skilled, knowledgeable, and professional staff. Inspection and enforcement are key elements of our programs and will be compromised without the availability of the Associations,” she writes.
The letter notes a long-standing ECOS resolution opposing the 2012 funding shift that says "environmental protection objectives" rely on states' capacity to perform environmental compliance work and enforcement, and notes the importance of training enforcement staff. The associations have traditionally provided states with "invaluable, specialized environmental compliance and enforcement training,” it says.
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Efficiency Standards Quietly Lead to Billions of Energy Bill Savings for Consumers
Dec 24, 2015 | The Energy Collective
By Lauren Urbanek
While most consumers and business owners probably don't think much about the importance of appliance energy efficiency standards in their day-to-day lives, the work done this year to make sure our equipment doesn't waste energy (and increase utility bills) will generate financial and environmental benefits well into the future.
The appliance standard program has been quietly chugging away for decades, saving billions of dollars and cutting pollution. 2015 was no exception: DOE continued to make progress on rulemakings for many product categories. A lot of this work was behind the scenes - negotiated rulemakings, work on test procedures, and data notices - but we are already starting to reap the benefits.
Just last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) formally adopted an efficiency standard for commercial
rooftop units (air conditioners, heat pumps, and warm air furnaces) that will lead to the largest-ever energy and pollution savings from any single energy-saving rule. This standard is important not just for its historic savings levels and its contribution to President Obama's goal of reducing carbon by 3 billion tons by 2030 through standards finalized during his administration, but also because it was agreed to through a negotiated process that involved DOE, manufacturers, and consumer and efficiency advocates.As of this time last year, DOE had finalized seven energy efficiency standards. While just four rules have been finalized to date this year, DOE's focus has been on negotiating standards for six product categories: the rooftop units, fans, walk-in coolers and freezers, residential air conditioners, pool pumps, and miscellaneous refrigeration equipment. NRDC was an active participant in all of these rulemakings except for miscellaneous refrigeration category.
Why standards?
Consumers can't tell from the outside whether an appliance or piece of equipment will guzzle more energy than another. Standards ensure a minimum level of energy efficiency, which means utility bill savings and reduces the need to burn fossil fuels to generate energy that would be wasted by inefficient equipment.
Today's typical new refrigerator uses one-quarter the energy than in 1973--despite offering 20 percent more storage capacity and being available at half the retail cost. Compared to their energy use in 1990, household appliances have significant efficiency gains: new clothes washers use 70 percent less energy; new dishwashers use more than 40 percent less energy; and new air conditioners use about 50 percent less energy. Standards implemented since 1987 saved American consumers $60 billion on their utility bills in 2014 alone, and have helped the United States avoid emissions of 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in that timeframe, which is equivalent to the annual carbon pollution from nearly 500 million automobiles.
More on Negotiated Rulemakings
DOE's standard rulemaking process involves the publication of DOE's analysis at several stages throughout the process - through requests for information, notices of data availability and proposed rules - with stakeholder comment at each step, This process works well and has been leading to energy savings for decades. Recently, DOE has begun to conduct negotiated rulemakings for some products, in which DOE convenes a committee of representatives of affected parties to negotiate a rule. The negotiation process thus allows DOE to engage in sustained and direct conversations with affected parties (industry, efficiency advocates, etc.) as it develops it analysis and drafts a regulation, allowing for additional iterations, better understanding of technical issues and the analysis on all sides of the table, and the opportunity for creative solutions. Stakeholders can also negotiate privately among themselves and then present DOE with a proposal, which has worked well for a variety of products.
Challenges
While the standards program has been wildly successful in the 28 years it has been in existence, it faced its share of Congressional challenges in 2015. My colleague Elizabeth Noll outlines in her blog the attempts by some members of Congress to repeal all state and federal efficiency standards for appliances and equipment. Equally as troubling were the more targeted attempts by House Republicans to block progress on DOE's energy efficiency standards for furnaces, ceiling fans, and light bulbs. Thanks in large part to the leadership of House and Senate Democrats and the White House, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at DOE saw a slight bump in funding for FY2016 and efficiency standards were protected for all products except light bulbs.
Looking Ahead
We're gearing up for a busy 2016 for efficiency standards. We'll continue to participate in negotiations for residential air conditioners and pool pumps, and we'll continue to offer comments through DOE's standard rulemaking procedure. We also expect DOE to release a variety of final standards for products ranging from commercial and industrial pumps to battery chargers. Given the Obama administration's continued commitment to finalizing 20 new and updated standards before the president leaves office in January 2017, next year may prove to be the best one yet for appliance and equipment standards.
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