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ACC AM Feb 25
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Output Up in January, All Regions Gain
Feb 24, 2016 | Nasdaq
The U.S. chemical industry kicked off the year on a positive note with production rising in January on higher output across all seven chemical producing regions - according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC"). The Washington, DC-based chemical industry trade group said that... -
(ACC Mentioned) 5 Ways To Store Food Without Plastic
Feb 24, 2016 | The Huffington Post - Living Blog
By Meghan Telpner
Plastic wrap, plastic storage containers and plastic baggies of every shape and size line the shelves in our grocery stores -- in some cases, plastic food storage can take up half an aisle! I swear, plastic food containers are a scourge to our society. If I weren't so tired from my fun-full days, I might even be kept up at night knowing that the makers... -
Seven Chemicals May Cause Human Cancer, WHO Agency Says
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified seven widely used chemicals as either probably or possibly carcinogenic to people, the agency announced Feb. 24. Albemarle Corp., BASF, the Dow Chemical Co. and the Dow Corning Corp. are just a few of the U.S. and European chemical manufacturers that produce some of these... -
California Study Finds PBDEs Levels Lower in Breast Milk
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
Levels of polybrominated diphenly eithers (PBDEs) found in breast milk of California women have dropped dramatically since the state's 2008 ban on the manufacture and sale of products with the flame retardant, according to a study by state scientists. The biomonitoring study compared levels of PBDEs... -
California Agency Credits Legislation for PBDE Decrease
Feb 25, 2016 | Chemical Watch
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has credited a decrease in PBDEs in women’s breast milk to legislative action against flame retardants. -
Flame Retardant Levels Drop In Breast Milk Of California Women, Study Finds
Feb 24, 2016 | The Sacramento Bee
By Edward Ortiz
A new state study suggests the amount of flame retardants found in the breast milk of Northern California women declined significantly over about a decade, possibly as a result of a 2003 state ban on the toxic chemicals. The results announced Wednesday by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found that the amount... -
Class Action Filed Over PFOA Contamination in N.Y.
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Gerald B. Silverman
Residents of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., filed a class action lawsuitFeb. 24 in federal court against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., seeking damages for contamination of their water supply with perfluorooctanoic acid (Baker v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., N.D.N.Y., docket number unavailable... -
“Big Data” Comes to Chemical Testing – How to Ensure More is Better
Feb 24, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Jonathan Choi
The beginning of this century will no doubt be known for a lot of things. In the biological sciences, I predict it’ll be known for big data. It’s hard to wrap your head around just how far we’ve come already. -
Research: Microplastics in Rivers Despite Treatment
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
Thousands and perhaps millions of tiny shards of plastic that are less than 5 millimeters wide are entering urban rivers in Illinois every day after eluding capture at wastewater treatment plants, according to research by Chicago-based Loyola University. Released Feb. 24 by the American Geophysical Union, the unpublished findings... -
REACH Enforcement Project Finds High Level of Compliance in EU
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
A coordinated enforcement project involving 18 countries turned up only three breaches of decisions taken under the European Union's REACH regulation to phase out two hazardous substances, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) said Feb. 24. The project, which took place from March 2014 through December 2015, involved 421 inspections... -
Amtrak Protests Move To Prioritize Freight Trains
Feb 24, 2016 | The Hill - Transportation
By Keith Laing
The panel of federal regulators that oversees operations on the nation’s railways is moving to prioritize freight trains over passenger rail systems such as Amtrak. The proposal, from the Surface Transportation Board, would reverse a current federal mandate that requires freight railways to give preference to Amtrak on tracks that are shared between... -
McCarthy: EPA Underestimated Methane From Oil and Gas
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Nushin Huq and Andrew Childers
The Environmental Protection Agency has been “substantially” underestimating emissions of methane from the oil and natural gas sector, and that could drive new agency regulations going forward, Administrator Gina McCarthy said Feb. 24 in Houston. The EPA's most recent draft greenhouse gases inventory, released Feb. 22, revealed... -
Decline of Power Plant Emissions Likely Without EPA Limits
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
Carbon pollution from the U.S. power sector will likely continue to fall sharply through 2025 with or without Obama administration carbon pollution limits recently put on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court, an analyst said Feb. 24. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the sector would total nearly 2.08 billion metric tons in 2025 if the high... -
‘Conservative' for States to Develop Power Plans: White House
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
Preparing to comply with the Clean Power Plan would be the “conservative” option for states and communities seeking the environmental benefits despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to halt the rule's implementation, a White House official said Feb. 24. Rohan Patel, special assistant to the president, told participants at a Sierra Club... -
States Cite ESPS Stay In Bid For Supreme Court To Halt EPA Utility MACT
Feb 25, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Stuart Parker
A coalition of 20 states is urging the Supreme Court to stay implementation of EPA's utility air toxics rule, citing the high court's recent decision to halt the agency's greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for existing power plants and highlighting concerns about federal appellate rulings that remand litigated rules to EPA but leave them in place during remand. -
20 States Ask Supreme Court to Stay EPA Mercury Rule
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Patrick Ambrosio
A coalition of 20 states led by Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay implementation of a multibillion-dollar rule to limit mercury emissions from power plants, a development that attorneys said will test the high court's willingness to provide petitioners with administrative relief from environmental regulation... -
Roberts Wants EPA Response On Request To Block Mercury Rule
Feb 24, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillén
Chief Justice John Roberts today asked EPA to respond to the request from 20 states to block the agency’s power plant mercury rule. EPA's response is due March 2 by 4 p.m., according to a court spokeswoman. Roberts handles petitions from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, though he may pass the request on to the full court. -
Flint Deal Paves Way for Senate Action on Energy Bill
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Laura Curtis
A deal announced Feb. 24 that would steer federal funding to help Flint, Mich., fix its lead-tainted drinking water system paves the way for the U.S. Senate to resume debate on broad energy legislation. The energy measure (S. 2012) had been stalled by a dispute over sending aid to city, where residents have been using... -
Lawmakers Vetting Deal For Aid, Reviving Energy Bill
Feb 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Geof Koss, Tiffany Stecker and George Cahlink
Senate leaders are seeking an agreement to bring bipartisan energy legislation back to the floor and help communities like Flint, Mich., with water infrastructure needs. Votes could come as soon as tomorrow, key senators said this afternoon. Lawmakers filed the Flint deal as an amendment to ... -
EPA Ends Recordkeeping Requirements for Pollutant
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Businesses will no longer be subject to recordkeeping and reporting requirements under the Clean Air Act related to the use of t-butyl acetate, which is used as a solvent in paints, inks and adhesives. The agency, in a final rule scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Feb. 25, will remove all recordkeeping, inventory, emissions... -
Bicameral Hearings Mull Unfunded Mandates, Costs of EPA Regs
Feb 25, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Hannah Hess
New and proposed rules from U.S. EPA got a double dose of scrutiny yesterday from panels on both sides of the Capitol. -
EPA Won't Cut Carbon Using International Provision -- Ex-Counsel
Feb 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
U.S. EPA is unlikely in the short term to embark on a rulemaking to create a greenhouse gas program under the Clean Air Act's international section, a former key player in the agency's climate push said today. Some legal scholars have argued that the agency should consider using that section while the Clean Power Plan ...
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Output Up in January, All Regions Gain
Feb 24, 2016 | Nasdaq
The U.S. chemical industry kicked off the year on a positive note with production rising in January on higher output across all seven chemical producing regions - according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").
The Washington, DC-based chemical industry trade group said that the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index ("CPRI") moved up 0.5% for the reported month following a revised 0.4% increase a month ago. The U.S. CPRI, which is measured using a three-month moving average, was created by Moore Economics to track chemical production in seven regions nationwide. It is comparable to the Federal Reserve's industrial production index for chemicals.
Per the ACC, activity for the U.S. manufacturing sector - the largest consumer of chemical products - remained flat for the fourth consecutive month in January. The sector is a major driver for the chemical industry which touches around 96% of manufactured goods.
Within the manufacturing sector, production rose in several chemistry end-user markets in January including food and beverages, fabricated metal products, computers, semiconductors, rubber products, structural panels, and textile products.
The January reading showed a rise in chemical output across all regions. Production in the Gulf Coast, where key building block materials are produced, rose 0.7% on a monthly comparison basis in the reported month. Production also went up 0.6% across Midwest, Ohio Valley and Northeast while both Mid-Atlantic and Southeast logged a 0.5% gain. Output also rose 0.4% in West Coast.
By segments, chemical production was mixed in the reported month. Gains across plastic resins, organic chemicals, consumer products, chlor-alkalis, other inorganics, and other specialties were neutralized by lower production of manufactured fibers, fertilizers, pesticides, coatings, adhesives and industrial gases.
Overall chemical production went up 2.4% year over year in January with all regions notching up gains.
The U.S. chemical industry, a more than $800 billion enterprise, is heavily linked to the overall condition of the nation's economy. It has been consistently leading the U.S. economy's business cycle due to its early position in the supply chain. The industry is clawing its way back after being roiled by the global economic crisis.
The ACC envisions national chemical production to rise 2.9% in 20Array6 and 4.4% in 20Array7. The trade group also sees the momentum to continue through the second half of the decade on the heels of new capital investments and capacity additions. Moreover, the ACC expects the domestic chemical industry to grow at a faster clip than the overall U.S. economy during that period.
The shale gas bounty and abundant supply of natural gas liquids has been a huge driving force behind chemical investment on plants and equipment in the country and have provided the U.S. petrochemicals producers a compelling cost advantage over their global counterparts. The ACC expects this competitiveness to drive new capital investment in the country.
The shale boom has made the U.S. an attractive investment hotspot and incentivized a number of chemical companies to pump in billions of dollars to ramp up capacity in the country. Chemical makers including Dow Chemical DOW , LyondellBasell Industries LYB , Eastman Chemical EMN , Celanese CE and Westlake Chemical WLK are investing heavily on shale gas-linked projects to take advantage of ample natural gas supplies.
Per ACC, over 26Array new chemical projects have been announced by chemical makers (worth more than $Array58 billion) since 20Array0 to take advantage of ample natural gas supplies. New capacity is expected to provide a significant boost to chemical production as these investments come on stream in the coming years.
While the chemical industry is still feeling the bite of slowdown in China, sluggishness in some parts of Europe, soft agriculture market fundamentals and impacts of the oil price slump and a stronger dollar, the industry's recovery momentum is expected to continue in 20Array6, aided by healthy momentum in the automotive space, positive trends across the construction markets and significant shale-linked capital investment.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/us-chemical-output-up-in-january-all-regions-gain-cm584366#ixzz41AXbVCqI -
(ACC Mentioned) 5 Ways To Store Food Without Plastic
Feb 24, 2016 | The Huffington Post - Living Blog
By Meghan Telpner
Plastic wrap, plastic storage containers and plastic baggies of every shape and size line the shelves in our grocery stores -- in some cases, plastic food storage can take up half an aisle! I swear, plastic food containers are a scourge to our society. If I weren't so tired from my fun-full days, I might even be kept up at night knowing that the makers of the most popular brand of plastic wrap and plastic food storage containers were once my clients in my life working in advertising.
Plastics have invaded our lives to the extent that we feel we can't survive without them -- but the risks to our plastic consumption far outweigh the benefit of convenience. Plastics threaten our endocrine systems and hormonal health, the environment, our oceans and marine life.
According to this NPR article, Americans recycle at the lamentable rate of 34.5 per cent and recycle plastic packaging at the even measlier rate of 14 per cent. So the majority of that food packaging is ending up in landfills, or on the street as litter, where it may eventually get swept into the ocean. There, our wrappers and cans and cups become a much bigger problem -- a direct threat to marine life that may ingest it and die.
In addition to the environmental impact, plastics also post a threat to our health.
All plastics are marked with an identification coding system. This is the number surrounded by arrows usually on the bottom.BPA-Free Isn't The Answer
Get to know the number 7 (polycarbonate) really well.
These are the plastics that tend to be very hard and clear, almost tricking us into thinking they're solid, stable and glass-like. These guys often have BPA in them and include things like food-storage containers, water bottles and plastic tableware. You'll also find this stuff in the lining of tin cans including canned fruits and vegetables, soda, beans and lentils. The more acidic the food in the can, such as tomatoes, the more leaching that happens.
There was big noise made about five years as mothers discovered that BPA, a hormone disrupting chemical found in soothers, baby bottles and toys was -- well -- present in soothers, baby bottles and toys. This was largely removed from these items.
Here's the issue though: the chemical being used to replace BPA in plastic might actually be worse. A groundbreaking new study has linked the BPA alternative to disruption in brain activity, causing hyperactivity.
The problem, as outlined by the study, is that "[a] lot of the alternative chemicals have not been adequately tested because they don't have to be," said lead author Deborah Kurrasch. "A compound is considered safe (by the Food and Drug Administration) until proven otherwise." The American Chemistry Council of course is questioning the validity of the study. They also spent millions trying to dispute the BPA legislation, proclaiming it safe, until they lost and then changed their tune on that one too.Better Than Plastic
We can do better than plastic. Much better.
Fortunately, there are a ton of ways we can store food without plastic. This costs less in the long run, keeps food a little more free of a little more chemicals, keeps less waste in the landfills, rivers, lakes and oceans and of course, is much more beautiful! Here are some of my favourite environmentally-friendly, health-supportive food storage methods.
1. Mason Jars
These reusable storage jars come in a wide variety of sizes and are inexpensive to buy at your local hardware store. If you want to save some cash, you can also thoroughly clean and reuse glass jars from food you've purchased
Mason jars are great for storing anything and everything -- soups, broths, salad dressings, grains and flours, smoothies and juices, herbs and spices, nuts and seeds, herbal tinctures. They're also a good choice for storing chopped veggies you've prepped in advance for the week. If you're on the go, packing your meals in mason jars is certainly heavier than plastic containers or baggies, but think of it as your weight-bearing exercise for the day.
2. Glass Food Storage Containers
If the shape of mason jars doesn't suit your eating style, take your lunch in glass food storage containers instead. I love the Wean Green containers pictured above. These are typically appropriate for items like salads, sandwiches, burgers, wraps, roasted veggies, cooked grains, and other meals that are easier to grab and eat straight from the container. They're also a good choice if you're packing your child's lunch, as many of these containers have brightly coloured snap-on lids that are easy for kids to remove. They are also made of tempered glass, which renders them shatter proof and also dishwasher safe for easy clean-up. Of course, you can also use glass food containers for storing your leftovers or any other odds and sods!
3. Beeswax Wraps
This is my favourite alternative to plastic wrap. Reusable wraps made of beeswax like these from Abeego are an incredibly versatile tool for storing and transporting food. Similar to plastic wrap, you can use beeswax wraps to cover foods like half-cut onions and avocados (or any other fruit or veg), tent them over bowls for storage, or make pockets with them to carry snacks, sandwiches and baked goods. Beeswax wraps are very mold-able, so you can just warm them with your hands to help them adhere around a bowl or your food.
These are a great option for people who like to use plastic wrap or aluminum foil to take food on the go - it's just as easy to wrap your food in beeswax, and you receive the same lightweight benefits. Then all you need to do is wash them and they are ready to use again.
4. Stainless Steel Containers
Stainless steel food containers are another lightweight, eco-friendly alternative for storing food. You can purchase them in many different sizes, and there are also leak-proof, insulated and bento box-style options. Stainless steel is practical and durable, especially if you are concerned about glass containers breaking. It can take a lot of wear and tear! Just ensure you buy 100 per cent food grade stainless steel containers, not aluminum.
5. Reusable Snack and Sandwich Bags
If you want the flexibility of plastic baggies without using plastic, opt for reusable snack and sandwich bags. These are another great lunch box option, as they can be used for dry items like baked goods and trail mix as well as fresh fruits and veggies. Choose brands that offer organic, non-toxic fabrics -- and it's an extra bonus if they're machine washable.
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Seven Chemicals May Cause Human Cancer, WHO Agency Says
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified seven widely used chemicals as either probably or possibly carcinogenic to people, the agency announced Feb. 24.
Albemarle Corp., BASF, the Dow Chemical Co. and the Dow Corning Corp. are just a few of the U.S. and European chemical manufacturers that produce some of these chemicals, many of which are high production volume compounds, meaning they are manufactured in volumes of 1 million pounds or more per year.
IARC's conclusions about the hazards chemicals pose can affect how chemicals are labeled and the safety information that must be provided to workers.
The agency's conclusions on these seven chemicals, reached during a Feb. 2-9 meeting of 24 scientists from eight countries, were published online in the Lancet Feb. 23. IARC is part of the World Health Organization.
Seven Chemicals
The seven chemicals IARC classified, are:
• dimethylformamide (CAS No. 68-12-2), which is a solvent used in many industrial processes including to make polymer fibers, surface coatings, films and pharmaceuticals. IARC classified dimethylformamide as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (group 2A), based on limited evidence in people that it causes testicular cancer and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals;
• 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (CAS No. 149-30-4), which is used to make natural and synthetic rubber. IARC classified 2-mercaptobenzothiazole as probably carcinogenic to humans based on limited human evidence that it causes urinary bladder cancer and sufficient evidence in experimental animals;
• hydrazine (CAS No. 302-01-2), which is used to make other chemicals including rocket fuel and water treatment products. IARC classified hydrazine as probably carcinogenic to people based on limited evidence it causes human lung cancer and sufficient evidence in experimental animals;
• tetrabromobisphenol A (CAS No. 79-94-7), a flame retardant classified by a majority of IARC's expert panel as probably carcinogenic to people based on sufficient evidence in experimental animals and strong biological activity or “mechanistic” evidence;
• 1-bromopropane (CAS No. 106-94-5), a solvent used to clean optical equipment, electronics, metals and other materials and also is used in spray adhesives, which IARC classified as possibly carcinogenic to people (group 2B) based on sufficient evidence in experimental animals;
• 3-chloro-2-methylpropene (CAS No. 563-47-3), which is used in the production of plastics and organic chemicals and, in some countries (but not the U.S.), as an insecticide and fumigant. IARC classified it as possibly carcinogenic to people based on sufficient evidence in experimental animals; and
• dimethyl-p-toluidine (CAS No. 99-97-8), a hardening agent in dental and bone adhesives, an ingredient in industrial glues, and an intermediate in making dyes and pesticides. IARC also classified dimethyl-p-toluidine as possibly carcinogenic to people based on sufficient evidence in experimental animals.
Dimethylformamide
IARC reviewed dimethylformamide in 1999 and concluded it wasn't classifiable as to its human carcinogenicity.
The human evidence IARC's panel reviewed included studies of workers repairing fighter aircraft and leather tannery workers.
BASF Corp., Dupont and Evonik Corp. are among the chemical manufacturers with U.S. facilities that reported a national production volume of 49.5 million pounds to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2011, the most recent year for which such data are available.
European manufacturers, including BASF SE, Sigma-Aldrich Co. Ltd. and Syngenta Ltd., were among the companies that registered it under REACH (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals) as being made in or imported into European Economic Area in a range between 10,000 metric tons to 100,000 metric tons a year (22 million to 220 million pounds).
2-Mercaptobenzothiazole
The February review of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole is the first time IARC has classified that chemical.
Exposure to 2-mercaptobenzothiazole occurs in the rubber and tire-manufacturing industry and can occur to the general public through dermal contact with rubber-containing products including crumb rubber on playgrounds, IARC said.
IARC's panel examined worker studies including one from a U.S. chemical plant where workers were found four times more likely to die from bladder cancer with the risk increasing with exposure.
Lanxess Corp. and Parchem Fine & Specialty Chemicals are among the companies with U.S. facilities that told the EPA they made between 500,000 pounds and 1 million pounds of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole in the U.S. in 2011 or imported it into this country.
Lanxess N.V. and Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. are among the European registrants of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, which they registered in the production range of 1,000 metric tons to 10,000 metric tons annually (2.2 million and 22 million pounds).
Hydrazine
IARC classified hydrazine as possibly carcinogenic to humans in 1999.
Hydrazine also is classified by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.
Workers are the primary population that may be exposed to hydrazine, IARC said. The scientific panel that reviewed the chemical examined the results of studies on rocket test workers.
The Bayer Group, Lanxess Corp. and Arkema Inc. were among the companies with U.S. facilities that reported a national production volume in the U.S. of 12.6 million pounds in 2011.
Arkema France, Aievus DS GmbH and Lanxess Deutschland GmbH were among the European companies that registered hydrazine as being produced in volume range of 1,000 metric tons and 10,000 metric tons annually.
Tetrabromobisphenol A
IARC has not previously classified tetrabromobisphenol A.
The flame retardant is widely detected around the world and workers as well as the general public including babies and young children are exposed, the agency said.
The results of experimental animal, rather than human, studies combined with information about how the flame retardant interacts with human hormones and other parts of the body, formed the basis of the IARC panel's conclusion.
Albemarle Corp., ICL-IP America Inc. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) Innovative Plastics are among the companies that reported a 2011 tetrabromobisphenol A national production volume of 119.8 million pounds, according to the EPA.
Albemarle Europe SPRL, Blue Cube Netherlands and Chemtura are among the European companies that have registered the flame retardant under REACH in an annual volume ranging between 1,000 metric tons and 10,000 metric tons (2.2 million pounds and 22 million pounds).
1-Bromopropane
IARC had not previously evaluated 1-bromopropane.
In 2014, however, the solvent was classified as reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' “13th Report on Carcinogens”(192 DEN A-1, 10/3/14).
An IARC advisory group recommended the agency review 1-bromopropane due to concerns including that spray application could cause high occupational exposures, the advisers said in an April 2014 report to the agency.
The EPA has approved 1-bromopropane's use as a substitute for certain applications of ozone-depleting chemicals such as methyl chloroform.
Albemarle, the Dow Chemical Co. and ICL-IP America Inc. are among the companies with U.S. facilities that made 15.3 million pounds of 1-bromopropane in the U.S. in 2011 or imported the chemical into the country that year.
Albemarle Corp., Chemtura Manufacturing UK Ltd. and ICL-IP are among the European companies that have registered 1-bromopropane as being made in or imported into the European Economic Area in an annual volume ranging between 1,000 and 10,000 metric tons.
Dimethyl-p-toluidine: Glue, Bone Cement
IARC has not previously evaluated dimethyl-p-toluidine, but was urged to do so because its medical and dental uses could result in prolonged exposures.
Aceto Corp., Charkit Chemical Corp. and Cook Composites & Polymers Co. were among the companies with U.S. facilities that told the EPA they had a national production volume ranging between 1 million and 10 million pounds in 2011.
Sustainability Support Services (Europe) AB registered the chemical under REACH as having a 10 metric to 100 metric tons (22,046 pounds to 220,460 pounds) annual production volume.
3-Chloro-2-methylpropene
IARC reviewed 3-chloro-2-methylpropene in 1995 and concluded it was not classifiable as to its potential to cause cancer in people.
The U.S. “Report on Carcinogens”, however, has classified 3-chloro-2-methylpropene as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen since 1989.
IARC's advisers urged the agency to review 3-chloro-2-methylpropene because it is used as a fumigant in some countries, although according to the U.S. carcinogens report it is not registered as a pesticide.
3-chloro-2-methylpropene is primarily used to make other chemicals including pesticides such as carbofuran, the report said.
Dow Corning Corp. and U.S. Amines Ltd. are the only U.S. chemical manufacturers the EPA has listed as having made 3-chloro-2-methylpropene in 2011. The EPA withheld the chemicals national production volume to protect confidential business information.
The chemical has not yet been registered under REACH.
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California Study Finds PBDEs Levels Lower in Breast Milk
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
Levels of polybrominated diphenly eithers (PBDEs) found in breast milk of California women have dropped dramatically since the state's 2008 ban on the manufacture and sale of products with the flame retardant, according to a study by state scientists.
The biomonitoring study compared levels of PBDEs in breast milk from 66 first-time mothers recruited at the Women's Health and Birth Center in Santa Rose between 2009 and 2012 with results of similar study conducted in 24 California communities between 2003 and 2005.
California's Department of Toxic Substances Control's Environmental Chemistry Laboratory in Berkeley conducted the study, which found a 39 percent decline of PBDEs in breast milk collected after a law phased out the use of the flame retardant, Myrto Petreas, the supervising research scientist, told reporters in conference call.
Still, other findings in the study show that nearly 30 percent of breastfed babies are exposed to levels of PDBEs above the Environmental Protection Agency's reference dose, Petreas said.
The result supports findings in an earlier study, also by the DTSC laboratory, showing a similar drop in PBDE levels in the blood of San Francisco women, Petreas said.
“This is wonderful news,” DTSC Director Barbara Lee said. “It shows regulatory” interventions do work. “It also underscores the importance of biomonitoring studies.”
DTSC Deputy Director Meredith Williams said the findings also illustrate the potential benefits of the department's Safer Consumer Products program, which seeks to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in products.
The human health impacts of exposure to PBDEs are still being studied, California Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Secretary for Science and Health Gina Solomon said. Animal studies show effects on the brain and interactions with the thyroid, she said.
“These PBDE chemicals are extremely persistent in our bodies and the environment,” Solomon said.
Legislation enacted in 2003, A.B. 302, imposed the ban on PBDEs. A dozen other states have adopted similar bans, the DTSC said.
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California Agency Credits Legislation for PBDE Decrease
Feb 25, 2016 | Chemical Watch
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has credited a decrease in PBDEs in women’s breast milk to legislative action against flame retardants.
Findings from a recent DTSC study show a 39% decrease in polybrominated diphenyl ethers in women’s breast milk. This follows the passage of legislation in 2003 (Act 302) phasing out their use.
Meredith Williams, head of the state’s Safer Consumer Products (SCP) programme, says the study “demonstrates that we can make a difference with legislative and regulatory action”.
“The statutory action to ban PBDEs had a direct result in lowering the amount of PBDEs we’re seeing in women’s bodies”, says Dr Williams.
Barbara Lee, DTSC director, adds: “It shows that by taking action on harmful chemicals in consumer products we can reduce our uptake of those chemicals and better protect public health.”
In a press conference announcing the study’s findings, the DTSC staff highlighted the importance of continuing similar biomonitoring studies to track the effectiveness of regulatory action, and to identify declines and increases of chemicals in the population to inform future regulatory activity.
Biomonitoring California is conducting studies measuring more than 30 substances, including:bisphenol A;parabens;perfluorochemicals (PFCs);phthalates; andpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
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Flame Retardant Levels Drop In Breast Milk Of California Women, Study Finds
Feb 24, 2016 | The Sacramento Bee
By Edward Ortiz
A new state study suggests the amount of flame retardants found in the breast milk of Northern California women declined significantly over about a decade, possibly as a result of a 2003 state ban on the toxic chemicals.
The results announced Wednesday by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found that the amount of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs, found in the breast milk of one group of first-time mothers was 39 percent less than the amount found in a larger sample of previously studied first-time mothers.
Researchers examined 66 women recruited for observation at the Women’s Health and Birth Center in Santa Rosa between 2009 and 2012. The study compared the results to PBDE levels found in a group of 82 first-time mothers from a previous department study conducted in 24 California communities between 2003 and 2005.
A 2003 state bill banned the use of PBDEs in products sold in California, prompting a dozen other states to adopt their own bans. Until then, the chemical had been commonly used in clothing, carpeting and furniture foam.
“This study shows that regulatory and public health intervention works,” said department director Barbara Lee. “The new findings underscore the importance of biomonitoring studies, and highlight the concrete benefits of product reformulation.”
Studies show exposure to PBDEs can impair hormonal function and the neural development of young children.
The chemicals were used in furniture foam after the state adopted a flammability standard in 1975 that required all foam and other products to withstand 12-second exposure to an open flame. California was the first state to adopt the standard, prompting furniture makers to use flame retardants in products sold nationwide.
Regulators later found that flame retardants were being released into the environment as household dust. Exposure to that dust, in turn, can lead to the retardants accumulating in people’s bodies.
PBDEs remain persistent in homes statewide, especially with the average lifetime of furniture stretching to 30 years. A 2008 study published in Environmental Science & Technology found that Californians had double the amount of toxic flame retardants in their blood compared to the national average.
A 2013 University of California, San Francisco, study found a 65 percent drop in the average levels of PBDEs in pregnant women's bloodstreams between 2008 and 2011.
Despite the declines, the newest study found that vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and children, continue to be exposed to PBDEs. The study also found that, despite declining levels, all breastfed babies were exposed to PBDEs, with 30 percent of those exposed to high levels.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article62345647.html#storylink=cpy -
Class Action Filed Over PFOA Contamination in N.Y.
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Gerald B. Silverman
Residents of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., filed a class action lawsuitFeb. 24 in federal court against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., seeking damages for contamination of their water supply with perfluorooctanoic acid (Baker v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., N.D.N.Y., docket number unavailable, 2/24/16).
The lawsuit alleges that the two companies are responsible for contaminating the municipal drinking water supply and private wells in the village located 35 miles northeast of Albany.
The lawsuit opens a new front for the companies, which already are facing potential liability under the state Superfund law and have been meeting with state officials to discuss remedial work. Saint-Gobain also has provided bottled water and funded a water filtration system.
Saint-Gobain operates a manufacturing plant in Hoosick Falls, as did Honeywell's predecessor, Allied-Signal Inc.. Both companies were named by New York as potentially responsible parties for remediation of a number of sites under the state Superfund law (30 DEN A-1, 2/16/16).
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York by the New York City firm Weitz & Luxenberg, alleges claims of negligence, public nuisance, trespass and strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity.
Punitive Damages
The four plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages and monetary damages in connection with the contamination of their properties with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The suit said the exact size of the class would be ascertained in discovery, but the two subclasses include those who receive water from the municipal water supply and those who receive it from private wells.
The suit also seeks additional testing, installation of permanent water filtration systems and remedial steps to clean up the contamination.
“While Saint-Gobain has acted quickly and openly since learning of the presence of PFOA in the drinking water supply in the Village of Hoosick Falls, we respect the right of individuals to pursue their claims in a court of law,” Dina Silver Pokedoff, a spokeswoman for the company, told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail.
“Saint-Gobain has, and will continue to work with the local, state and federal agencies to investigate the source of the PFOA in the drinking water,” she said. “Saint-Gobain, as a member of this community and the largest employer, remains committed to funding clean drinking water—from providing bottled water for the community and most recently, through funding the installation of a temporary water filtration system, which should be fully online in the coming days.”
The company has also agreed to fund a long-term filtration system in the village, she said.
Honeywell Reviewing
Victoria Streitfeld, a spokeswoman for Honeywell, said the company has also offered assistance for a program for private wells “that complements the testing being offered by public agencies and the work done by Saint-Gobain.”
“Honeywell is doing a review to understand the historic operations by our predecessor, Allied Signal Laminated Systems Inc., which operated in Hoosick Falls between 1986 and 1996,” Streitfeld told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail. “After selling the business in 1996, Allied Signal Laminated Systems conducted several site investigations and received ‘no further action’ letters from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.”
“Regulations did not require testing for PFOA at the time,” she said. “Although we do not have complete information, it appears that operations at several of these facilities used polytetrafluoroethylene that may have contained PFOA as an additive or ingredient in the manufacture of fabric, films and tapes.”
PFOA Used in Making Cookware
PFOA is a chemical used in the manufacture of non-stick cookware and other consumer products that resist heat and repel oil, grease and water. It was detected in the Hoosick water supply in 2014 at levels that exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards, and the state Department of Health has determined that Hoosick residents should not use the water for drinking or cooking (see related story).
The lawsuit said the companies “negligently, recklessly, and/or intentionally failed to properly control, apply, use and/or dispose of PFOA Solution and/or other waste containing PFOA, such that defendants proximately caused contaminants to enter, invade, intrude upon and injure the right of plaintiffs and the private water subclass to possess their property.”
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“Big Data” Comes to Chemical Testing – How to Ensure More is Better
Feb 24, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Jonathan Choi
The beginning of this century will no doubt be known for a lot of things. In the biological sciences, I predict it’ll be known for big data. It’s hard to wrap your head around just how far we’ve come already. For example, the data chips that sing “happy birthday” to your loved ones in those horrendously overpriced cards have more computing power than the Allies did in 1945. When I first started using computers, the 5.4” floppy disk was being replaced by the new 256Kb 3.5” disk. Now in Korea, you can get 1 GB per second internet speeds for $20 a month. That’s around 4000 floppy disks of data per second for about as much as I spend every week at the burrito place down the street.
In the biological sciences, we’ve seen an explosion of new ways to generate, collect, analyze, and store data. We’re photographing the world’s biodiversity and sharing it with crowdsourced taxonomists. We’re creating adatabase of the genomes of the world’s organisms. We’re mapping chemical exposures (our exposome), inventorying the microbes that live in our guts (our microbiome), ripping apart cells and sequencing every bit of messenger RNA that floats around inside (our transcriptome), and much more.
So, it’s not too surprising that regulatory agencies like EPA are pushing their own efforts to amass large quantities of data to help meet their missions. EPA has the unenviable task of reviewing tens of thousands of chemicals currently on the market with little health and safety data, on top of hundreds of new chemicals banging at its door each year. As we have written on numerous occasions, the agency clearly needs a better lawthat gives it greater authority to get the data it needs to effectively evaluate and manage chemical risks. But, given the information abyss in which we operate, we could definitely stand to adopt new testing approaches that generate at least screening level data on chemicals faster.
Toward this end, EPA has developed a program called ToxCast (short for Toxicity foreCaster) which we’vediscussed before. In short, ToxCast is a high-throughput screening program that couples automated testing of 1000s of chemicals across 100s of tests (or assays) with powerful data processing and management capabilities. It presents a remarkable opportunity to generate information on many chemicals in a fraction of the time typical of traditional toxicity testing and in a manner that has the potential to provide deeper biological insight. The aim, at least initially, is to predict whether a chemical may lead or contribute to a negative health effect and therefore help prioritize where the agency should focus its attention. A good thing!
While this is all very exciting, it’s vitally important to continuously examine ToxCast to identify its strengths as well as weaknesses so that 1) we understand what types of decisions can and can’t be made using the data and 2) we can identify opportunities to make the program stronger.
That’s why a recent article in Environmental Health Perspectives caught our eye. A team of researchers led by investigators at the University of California-Irvine examined 21 chemicals that ToxCast indicated interact with a protein receptor called PPARγ, which, among other metabolic processes, is involved in adipogenesis–the development of fat cells from stem cells. More specifically, the researchers evaluated these 21 chemicals using their own set of tests to identify chemical interactions with the PPARγ receptor. In their own tests, 5 of the 21 chemicals stimulated PPARγ activity, 3 blocked the activity of PPARγ, and the rest were inactive.
In a separate evaluation, the researchers sought to compare the output of a ToxCast-based prediction model (ToxPi, short for Toxicology Priority Index) for adipogenesis that the investigators developed. Only 7 of the 17 chemicals that ToxPi predicted to be adipogenic were positive in the researchers’ own assays. At the same time, 2 of the 7 ToxPi compounds predicted to be negative for adipogenesis were positive in their assays. When the investigators re-ran this evaluation using a refinement of the data designed to weed out false positive chemicals all of the false positives fell off. But, so did all of the true positives.
There were other curious observations. For example, the researchers found a lack of agreement across different ToxCast assays that tested for the same endpoint (e.g., PPARγ activation), with some yielding positive and others yielding negative results. When they used ToxCast assays to look at RXR, a different receptor involved in adipogenesis, they found chemicals that activated one variant (RXRβ), but not another (RXRα). The authors suggested that this was biologically implausible, because there are no compounds known to bind to one but not the other receptor variant.
Obviously, the findings raise some questions, and the study authors provide a couple possible reasons for the disparate correlations they observed. They suggest that the ToxCast assays currently available for examining adipogenesis may not be the best for the job. They also suggest a need to identify and cull out poorly performing assays and identify and add higher-performing screens to the testing battery.
Is the whole ToxCast effort a waste of time, then? No. The authors note that ToxCast shows more predictive ability in other areas of biology. But the authors’ perspective is that it appears to be seriously underperforming in identifying compounds that could interfere with normal adipogenesis.
For its part, the agency seems open to improving its testing methodologies. For example, EPA just launched a new challenge to better reflect human metabolism in its testing program. We believe that this initiative is important, given that, for a number of compounds, it’s what the chemical breaks down into and not the chemical itself that drives toxicity.
At the bigger picture level, it’s fantastic to see a group of university researchers exploring the ToxCast data. As EDF has advocated for years, it is essential that this type of engagement and collaboration with the broader academic research community occur. Such engagement represents one of the most effective ways to advance predictive toxicology and simultaneously build confidence in the agency’s efforts. Here at EDF we look forward to a future of new chemical testing approaches that ultimately work to protect human health.
(Oh one more note: A former EDFer thought to write a blog of this study as well. You can check it out here:http://bit.ly/1PZAmIl).
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Research: Microplastics in Rivers Despite Treatment
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
Thousands and perhaps millions of tiny shards of plastic that are less than 5 millimeters wide are entering urban rivers in Illinois every day after eluding capture at wastewater treatment plants, according to research by Chicago-based Loyola University.
Released Feb. 24 by the American Geophysical Union, the unpublished findings by assistant professor Timothy Hoellein and his team show that wastewater treatment plants were a source of microplastics in 80 percent of the 10 urban rivers examined in northern Illinois, “regardless of the size of the river or the size and type of wastewater treatment plant.”
An aquatic ecologist by training, Hoellein estimates that between 15,000 and 4.5 million pieces of microplastics enter those rivers every day from each of the 10 wastewater treatment plants that treated the effluent prior to discharge. This is despite the fact that 90 percent of microplastics are being captured by wastewater treatment.
He told the American Geophysical Union that the findings are significant because rivers are a source of drinking water for many communities and also serve as habitat for wildlife. Fish and other aquatic life ingest the microplastics, which then make their way up the food chain where they may be consumed by humans, according to Hoellein.
The Loyola researcher told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 24 that his research was guided by the hypothesis that the quantity of microplastics downstream from the plant is directly proportional to the amount of wastewater discharged into the rivers.
“When we looked at a stream close to the O'Hare airport in Chicago, the concentration of microplastics was higher because the stream was mostly wastewater,” he said.
Hoellein and his team examined wastewater influent, effluent and the sludge left after treatment. He attributed the wide variability in microplastic quantities to the size of the river that he and his team studied. The microplastics included microbead spheres, clothing fibers, pellets and fragments of larger plastic pieces.
Downstream from the wastewater treatment plants, Hoellein detected greater concentrations of microbeads, fibers and other microplastics. The finding reaffirmed work on microplastics in the Great Lakes by Sherri Mason, an environmental chemistry professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia.
Between 2012 and 2014, Mason and her team, which included 5 Gyres Research Director Marcus Eriksen, trawled the Great Lakes uncovering 7,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer in Lake Superior and Lake Huron, 17,000 pieces in Lake Michigan, 46,000 in Lake Erie, and 248,000 in Lake Ontario. Of those amounts, the team identified 75 percent on average as microplastics.
Some of those microplastics—microbeads in personal care products—are to be phased out starting July 1, 2017, under a new federal law (248 DEN A-1, 12/29/15).
Tiny Plastic Pieces Home to Bacteria
Hoellein's research found that in each river, the tiny plastic particles that escaped the wastewater treatment plants were home to bacterial communities that were more likely to be harmful, such as pseudomonas and campylobacter, than the bacteria commonly found in the rivers.
He cautioned though that it is unclear whether these harmful bacteria are instrumental in breaking down the mostly polyethylene-based microplastics or whether they are breeding grounds for pathogens.
Hoellein said he hopes to publish his research, which is undergoing peer review.
Mason told Bloomberg BNA that Hoellein's findings were much in line with what she has found in her nationwide study of microplastics in the effluent of 13 wastewater treatment plants in states including New York, Minnesota, Ohio and California.
Her research uncovered an average of 4 million pieces of microplastic in wastewater effluent, but like Hoellein she too came across a wide variability in numbers. She also found that the treatment process does capture up to 90 percent of microplastics, but as Hoellein told the American Geophysical Union, wastewater treatment plants aren't designed to filter out such small particles, although they do a great job of treating waste to eliminate pathogens, some chemicals and nutrients. She said the focus of her research was to confirm that microplastics are indeed being released in huge quantities by wastewater plants despite treatment.
Mason is in the process of having her research paper peer reviewed by the journal Environmental Science and Technology, as is Hoellein, who plans to present his findings Feb. 25 at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting that runs Feb. 21-25 in New Orleans.
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REACH Enforcement Project Finds High Level of Compliance in EU
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
A coordinated enforcement project involving 18 countries turned up only three breaches of decisions taken under the European Union's REACH regulation to phase out two hazardous substances, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) said Feb. 24.
The project, which took place from March 2014 through December 2015, involved 421 inspections of companies to ensure their compliance with bans on musk xylene and 4,4’-diamoniodiphenylmethane (MDA), the marketing and use of which were prohibited in the EU as of Aug. 21, 2014.
The substances were among the first to be listed in Annex XIV of REACH (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals), meaning that they can be used in the EU only if specific continued-use authorizations are issued. Musk xylene is used as a fragrance in cleaning products and MDA is used to make polyurethane foams .
ECHA said no authorizations had been requested for the substances. A small number of companies continue to use and sell the substances in the EU, however, for uses that are exempted from the REACH authorization requirements, such as for scientific research, according to an ECHA report on the enforcement project.
The three breaches were all for continued sale or use without authorization of musk xylene. In two cases, the breaches resulted in fines, the chemicals agency said.
ECHA told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 24 that the enforcement project targeted companies that were likely to have been involved in the sale or use of the substances.
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Amtrak Protests Move To Prioritize Freight Trains
Feb 24, 2016 | The Hill - Transportation
By Keith Laing
The panel of federal regulators that oversees operations on the nation’s railways is moving to prioritize freight trains over passenger rail systems such as Amtrak.
The proposal, from the Surface Transportation Board, would reverse a current federal mandate that requires freight railways to give preference to Amtrak on tracks that are shared between passenger and freight trains.
The surface transportation panel has said the mandate to prioritize passenger trains was not spelled out in federal law, although it has been enforced since Amtrak was established in the 1970s. "The law requires that '[e]xcept in an emergency, intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation provided by or for Amtrak has preference over freight transportation in using a rail line, junction, or crossing … However, 'preference' is not defined by statute," the panel said in a notice of its proposed policy change.
The surface transportation board is now proposing a change to a system where railroads that own tracks shared between passenger and freight trains are able to make more nuanced operational decisions.
"Currently, we do not view the preference requirement as absolute," the panel said. "In other words, a host rail carrier need not resolve every individual dispatching decision between freight and passenger movements in favor of the passenger train. Under this view of preference, the Board would take a systemic, global approach in determining whether a host carrier has granted the intercity passenger trains preference."
Amtrak and passenger rail groups have complained that the proposal would violate a long-standing federal mandate and result in delays for passengers on long-distance and commuter trains.
The company said the proposal "ignores the clear, plain and unambiguous words of the statute" in comments that were submitted to the panel.
"The language of [federal law] is clear and unambiguous. Amtrak trains are entitled to preference over freight transportation except in an emergency," the company said.
"Any deviation from this clear and plainly-stated obligation requires the host railroad to apply for relief from its statutory obligation, and to sustain its burden of proving that granting preference to Amtrak trains would materially lessen the quality of freight transportation to shippers," the company continued.
Passenger advocacy groups agreed, saying the proposal to eliminate the preference for Amtrak trains on shared tracks "will change how intercity passenger services like Amtrak will be treated by host railroads, which have legal obligations to give passenger trains right of way."
"The right of preference for passenger rail was established approximately 30 years ago by Congress, and has been reaffirmed by lawmakers ever since," National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) President Jim Mathews said.
"The law was first written so host railroads — rescued by taxpayers in 1970 when Amtrak was created to relieve hosts of running passenger trains — had to give passenger trains preference unless they could win an exemption," he continued. "This was done by proving preference for passenger trains would 'materially lessen the quality of transportation provided to freight shippers.'”
The surface transportation board has said that eliminating the preference mandate for passenger trains would boost the efficiency of the nation's overall rail system.
"A requirement of absolute preference might not, in the long run, promote efficient passenger service," the panel said in its notice of the proposed change.
"Due to increased traffic density, the rail operating environment has become more complex since Congress first established a preference requirement in 1973," the notice continued. "This environment requires complex decision-making by the host carriers’ dispatchers. Past rail service crises, such as that during the late 1990s, have demonstrated that congestion at one location can adversely affect the rail network at large."
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McCarthy: EPA Underestimated Methane From Oil and Gas
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Nushin Huq and Andrew Childers
The Environmental Protection Agency has been “substantially” underestimating emissions of methane from the oil and natural gas sector, and that could drive new agency regulations going forward, Administrator Gina McCarthy said Feb. 24 in Houston.
The EPA's most recent draft greenhouse gases inventory, released Feb. 22, revealed substantially higher levels of methane emissions from all parts of the energy sector, from storage to pipelines, McCarthy said during IHS' CERAWeek conference.
“So be on the lookout for more on this to come soon because this is something we're not going to ignore,” McCarthy said.
However, McCarthy stopped short of saying whether the EPA would propose methane standards for existing oil and gas operations, something environmental advocates have pressed the agency to do.
More Potent Than Carbon Dioxide
The U.S. emitted 636.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of methane in 2013, according to the draft inventory (35 DEN A-2, 2/23/16).
Methane is a short-lived pollutant that is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide on a 100-year scale, according to the EPA, and it accounted for 9.5 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2013.
New information on methane emissions based on data from a variety of sources such as government agencies, industry and academic researchers presents a more accurate picture of U.S. emissions, which may spur the EPA to take additional steps to regulate the pollutant, McCarthy said.
“So the bottom line is—the data confirm that we can and must do more on methane,” she said. “It has always been EPA's job to follow where the science and data lead us. So that's exactly what we plan to do moving forward.”
EPA Improves Measurements
The EPA in its most recent inventory increased its estimates of methane emissions from past years based on its updated data. So now the EPA inventory reflects that the U.S. emitted 647.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents of methane in 2012, rather than 567.3 million metric tons as previously reported, a 14 percent increase.
The updates come after the Environmental Defense Fund, Colorado State University and others issued a series of reports on the oil and gas sector that found emissions were significantly higher than previously thought (140 DEN A-6, 7/22/15).
In the latest draft greenhouse gas inventory, the EPA acknowledged the work researchers have done to improve data collection on methane.
“EPA has engaged with researchers on how remote sensing, ambient measurement, and inverse modeling techniques for greenhouse gas emissions could assist in improving the understanding of inventory estimates,” the draft inventory said.
Despite the revisions, the oil and gas industry said no new regulations will be needed.
“If you look at the trajectory for greenhouse gas emissions, they've been going down now for some time,” Jack Gerard, president of American Petroleum Institute, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 24. “So we ask, why are you regulating something we are managing? If the trajectory of those emissions is continuing to diminish, why would you spend all the time to potentially freeze technology in place and add more cost to delay to industry. Let the marketplace advance and continue to improve.”
EPA Readying Rules
The EPA has taken steps toward directly regulating methane emissions for the first time, proposing standards for new oil and gas systems (RIN 2060-AS30) as well as for new and existing landfills (RIN 2060-AM08 and RIN 2060-AS23). The final rules are expected this summer.
Oil and gas wells and landfills are among the largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions in the U.S., trailing only enteric fermentation from cattle, according to the EPA's inventory.
“The proposed standards present a commonsense way to make sure that as the natural gas industry continues to grow, we're doing what we can to reduce methane pollution,” McCarthy said. “And the proposed standards are cost-effective by design. They're built to reduce pollution that's fueling climate change while supporting responsible energy development at the same time.”
McCarthy told reporters after her speech that the most recent methane data show emissions from sources the EPA was not even aware of previously, such as emissions from cleaning pipelines. She added that the number of storage tanks is much higher than previously estimated.
“There are pneumatics we didn't even knew existed,” McCarthy said.
The EPA in 2012 had declined to directly regulate methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector in performance standards for the industry. Instead, the EPA said emission limits for volatile organic compounds would produce significant reductions in methane as well.
While environmental groups have praised the EPA for proposing methane standards for new and modified oil and gas wells, they also pressed the agency to do more and regulate existing wells, the largest source of emissions for the sector.
“We're at the point now where nothing should stop us from moving forward with a regulatory proposal. We have the data,” Matt Watson, associate vice president for the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate and Energy Program, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 24.
Conrad Schneider, advocacy director for the Clean Air Task Force, said the EPA should be able to propose standards for existing oil and gas wells in the time the Obama administration has remaining.
“We think the record in the proposal they have on new sources, modified sources provides all the information they actually need. They just need to extend those to existing sources,” he told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 24.
Voluntary Reductions Sought
Voluntary cooperation on emission reductions has not been productive with the oil and gas industry compared to other industries, such as utilities and mining. The EPA in July 2015 issued its “methane challenge” to oil and natural gas companies, encouraging them to take voluntary measures to curb emissions of the pollutant. The challenge asks companies to set methane reduction targets that would be reported to the EPA through the annual greenhouse gas reporting requirements (142 DEN A-1, 7/24/15).
As a new regulator of the oil and gas industry, the EPA is still learning about the sector, McCarthy said.
“There's a lot of players,” McCarthy told reporters. “They are very diverse.”
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Decline of Power Plant Emissions Likely Without EPA Limits
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
Carbon pollution from the U.S. power sector will likely continue to fall sharply through 2025 with or without Obama administration carbon pollution limits recently put on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court, an analyst said Feb. 24.
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the sector would total nearly 2.08 billion metric tons in 2025 if the high court ultimately decides to overturn the power sector limits, according to John Larsen, director of the Rhodium Group, a private analytical research firm.
But Larsen characterized that as a relatively modest impact compared to a scenario in which the carbon limits were untouched by the court and were then fully implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency. That scenario would bring the power sector's total down to nearly 1.76 billion tons in 2025, he said.
Larsen, a former official with the Department of Energy, spoke at a forum held by the New America think tank and the Center for Climate & Energy Solutions.
The impact of leaving the EPA limits in place is so small—slightly more than 300 million metric tons—largely because of other positive trends projected to reduce emissions that have little to do with the regulations, he said. According to Larsen, two big factors are declining costs of solar and wind energy, which he said will only continue to fall, and the five year-extension of solar investment and wind production tax credits included in the omnibus funding bill enacted last December.
The Supreme Court Feb. 9 issued a 5–4 decision staying the Clean Power Plan until it can be fully litigated (27 DEN A-1, 2/10/16).
‘Within Striking Distance.'
The Rhodium Group is one of several analysts to project the U.S. will likely to fall short of the pledge it put forth in 2014 ahead of the 2015 global climate accord reached in Paris last December.
A Rhodium report issued in January projected that the U.S. is on target to at least be “within striking distance” of fulfilling the pledge it made to the Paris deal. The U.S. pledged to cut its total greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels.
Larsen said his group's analysis found that aggressive implementation of all the current Obama administration climate rules would yield a 19 percent cut in U.S. emissions by 2025, assuming implementation not only of the Clean Power Plan for power plants but also aggressive implementation of proposed rules including methane limits for landfills and coal mines on public lands.
The group's January analysis included an even more optimistic scenario under which there were unforeseen advances in technological development, where the U.S. could make as much as a 23 percent reduction by that date, still leaving a 220 million to 350 million metric ton gap and still short of the 26 percent to 28 percent Paris goal.
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‘Conservative' for States to Develop Power Plans: White House
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
Preparing to comply with the Clean Power Plan would be the “conservative” option for states and communities seeking the environmental benefits despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to halt the rule's implementation, a White House official said Feb. 24.
Rohan Patel, special assistant to the president, told participants at a Sierra Club symposium on the impact of climate change on the African American community that communities should seize “organizing opportunities” such as the Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary Clean Energy Incentive Program, which rewards states for early investment in wind and solar power generation and demand-side energy efficiency measures in low-income areas as part of the Clean Power Plan compliance strategies, even though the rule has been halted.
The Clean Power Plan (RIN 2060-AR33) sets caps on carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector in each state, which would be implemented by state regulators.
Speaking at the same event, Leslie Fields, director of the Sierra Club's Environmental Justice & Community Partnerships Program, urged community advocates to push states to continue crafting state plans because, following Justice Antonin Scalia's death, the Clean Power Plan is more likely to be upheld, she said. The more work states complete now, the stronger the plans will be, Fields said.
“We are very confident that we are going to win,” Fields said.
The Clean Power Plan is being challenged in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by 27 states and several utility and industry groups (West Virginia v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1363, 2/23/16).
Before the appellate court could hear oral argument in the litigation, however, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed implementation of the rule. Some observers believe Scalia's subsequent death improves the odds it will survive judicial scrutiny (West Virginia v. EPA, U.S., No. 15A773, order issued, 2/9/16; 31 DEN A-3, 2/17/16).
Cap and Trade Weighed
Additionally, Fields said her group would be watching for how cap and trade ultimately plays into the Clean Power Plan. Cap and trade has been a major concern of environmental justice groups, which fear that vulnerable populations could see emissions in their communities stay the same or potentially increase (14 DEN A-8, 1/22/16).
“We're the sacrifice for the gain of the greater good,” said Beverly Wright, founding director for the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice,.
Fields said her group has advocated adding limitations such as spatial restrictions for when credits can be bought and used under any cap-and-trade compliance options for the rule.
Advocates Urged to Speak Out
Symposium participants urged environmental justice advocates to speak out to debunk what they called inaccurate portrayals of how the rule would affect vulnerable populations made by groups such as the National Black Chamber of Commerce.
The Black Chamber and others have come under fire for alleging that the Clean Power Plan would have a negative impact on environmental justice communities. For example, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia filed a friend of the court brief in D.C. Circuit Feb. 23 opposing the EPA rule, alleging that the Clean Power Plan violates the White House's Executive Order 12,898 because the “EPA fails to consider the burdens of significantly higher electric bills on these communities, which have real world environmental and health consequences.”
“It gets to me,” Patel said in response.
“These folks have been advocating against everything that matters to vulnerable populations and all of the sudden they're worried about whether or not black folks may be impacted by a policy proposal, a plan that specifically is tailored [to protect] communities of color,” Patel said. “The politics of it are interesting.”
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States Cite ESPS Stay In Bid For Supreme Court To Halt EPA Utility MACT
Feb 25, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Stuart Parker
A coalition of 20 states is urging the Supreme Court to stay implementation of EPA's utility air toxics rule, citing the high court's recent decision to halt the agency's greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for existing power plants and highlighting concerns about federal appellate rulings that remand litigated rules to EPA but leave them in place during remand.
One environmentalist, however, notes that the high court could have vacated the air toxics rule when it heard litigation over the policy last year -- and did not. The source also says that the decision to block the GHG rule, known as the Clean Power Plan (CPP), should not be seen as a sign the court would block the air toxics rule.
“It's obvious that the state filing was driven by opportunistic greed following the still-shocking decision by five justices to stay the Clean Power Plan. I don't know anyone that sincerely believes there are five justices on the Supreme Court now willing to stay” the air toxics rule, the source says of the states' new request to block the rule. The source also says the death of Justice Antonin Scalia means critics of the rule lack the votes for vacatur.
The states opposing the mercury and air toxics rule (MATS), also known as the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standard, want the eight justices to halt the rule pending what they say will be a fresh request for the Supreme Court to weigh in on the regulation. The Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling in Michigan v. EPA last June faulted the agency for not considering costs in its initial decision that the rule was “appropriate and necessary.”
The high court sent litigation over the rule back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which had previously issued a 2-1 ruling in 2014 in White Stallion Energy Center LLC v. EPA that broadly upheld the rule. On remand, critics of the rule said the Michigan ruling required the D.C. Circuit to vacate the entire MACT because the justices had undermined the initial determination the agency used to justify the regulation.
EPA countered that the court should remand the rule and leave it in place while it works on crafting an assessment of costs as part of the finding that the rule is appropriate and necessary under the Clean Air Act. The agency issued the proposed finding on Dec. 1, and the D.C. Circuit sided with EPA and remanded the rule Dec. 15.
The agency has said that it plans to finalize the cost finding by April 16 -- the date by which many power plants with a one-year compliance deadline extension must finally comply with the MACT rule.
Stay Request
But the coalition of 20 states in a Feb. 23 filing with the Supreme Court wants the court to quickly block the rule. “Unless this Court stays or enjoins further operation of the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule, this Court's recent decision in Michigan v. EPA will be thwarted.”
The high court in Michigan “held that the Clean Air Act requires EPA to consider costs before it may regulate power plants -- that is, before it may impose any rule, including the Mercury Rule. Yet the Rule remains in effect, even though EPA has never fulfilled this precondition and so has never acquired the authority to regulate.”
The states say they want the stay to take effect immediately while they craft a petition for a writ of certiorari that will ask the Supreme Court to vacate the utility MACT entirely.
“A stay or injunction is appropriate because this Court has already held that the finding on which the Rule rests is unlawful and beyond EPA's statutory authority,” the states say. Hence one prerequisite for a court stay of a rule -- likelihood of success on the merits -- has already been met, they claim.
“Just two weeks ago this Court correctly granted a stay of an EPA rule [the CPP] before the rule had undergone judicial review, presumably because this Court recognized that there was a strong likelihood that the rule was likely to be held to be unlawful and in excess of the agency's authority,” the states say, citing the unprecedented stay issued in West Virginia v. EPA that halted the power plant GHG rule. “A stay is even more warranted here,after this Court has reviewed EPA's finding authorizing the Mercury Rule” and found it unlawful.
Compliance Costs
EPA's supporters have questioned recent pushes to block or scrap the utility MACT, noting that many power companies have either shuttered power plants or installed pollution controls to comply with the rule.
The states in their filings say that the billions of dollars already spent in implementation costs may not be recoverable, but the rule is still costing industry and states some $158 million annually in monitoring, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, which is on top of the costs of operating the pollution controls.
They claim that these costs by themselves are greater than the claimed benefits of the rule for air toxics reduction, which EPA valued at $4 million to $6 million in its original cost-benefit analysis developed for the MACT rule in 2011. The agency in its proposed cost review claims billions of dollars in additional “co-benefits” of reducing fine particulate matter (PM2.5), but industry and state critics reject this as flawed because PM2.5 is not a “hazardous air pollutant” targeted by the rule. The co-benefits issue is likely to reemerge in possible litigation over EPA's final “supplemental” appropriate and necessary finding, and the Supreme Court in Michigan avoided ruling on the issue.
It is “inequitable to leave an unauthorized regulation in place with the effect of law,” the states say. “The D.C. Circuit disregarded these points, based on a doctrine that it has developed, which this court has never approved, of allowing agency actions to be remanded without vacatur under certain circumstances,” they say.
The states say the D.C. Circuit developed a test in Allied-Signal v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a 1993 case, in which the court considers whether to vacate based on the seriousness of the agency action's deficiencies, and “the disruptive consequences of an interim change that may itself be changed.”
The states concede the D.C. Circuit has applied this test for years. One example is the remand of EPA's Clean Air Interstate Rule emissions trading program, which the D.C. Circuit remanded without vacatur pending a replacement rule.
However, the D.C. Circuit has misapplied the Allied-Signal test for the MACT, the states argue. Their forthcoming petition for a writ of certiorari will explain “why the Allied-Signal test cannot be used to allow 'remand without vacatur' in situations like this one. In short, the test runs contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act and principles of administrative law when it allows a reviewing court to leave an unauthorized rule in place.”
Divided Court
Despite the states' push, supporters of the utility MACT say the death of Justice Scalia -- who authored the majority opinion in Michigan -- means the court is evenly split between liberals and conservatives, and a 4-4 decision would allow the D.C. Circuit's decisions to stand. “The States’ move is premature and wrongheaded. The Supreme Court chose not to stop the rule but, instead, to require EPA to explain it. The agency should be given a chance to comply with the Supreme Court’s order,” said Earthjustice attorney James Pew in a Feb. 23 statement.
Another environmentalist says the coalition of states' move “is not surprising but I see little likelihood of success now. 4-4 is not a win for them. The window of opportunity has closed.”
The first environmentalist says, “I think the maneuver will fail. First, the Supreme Court could have vacated MATS when it last heard the case. It did not. The opinion was written in classic fashion to result in a remand to the agency, with an invitation for EPA analysis and consideration whether it remains appropriate and necessary to regulate power plants under section 112 standards after considering cost. The D.C. Circuit understood the Supreme Court's opinion perfectly in that regard.”
Second, “on the merits of the request to stay or vacate MATS, the D.C. Circuit rejected those appeals squarely. There is zero reason to believe Chief Justice Roberts or a Supreme Court majority will decide differently.”
Also, drawing on the recent experience of the CPP stay that Chief Justice John Roberts shepherded through the high court, the source says, “Roberts seems highly unlikely to render a final judgment to stay the rule by himself, unless he rejects the request. That remains a distinct possibility. If he does decide and rule against EPA (highly improbable), that decision can be appealed by EPA to the full court. There does not appear to be a majority of justices willing to uphold such a stay. If Roberts decides to refer the appeal to the full court without deciding the issue himself, again, there does not appear to be a majority of justices willing to grant the requested stay.”
Further, EPA is close to issuing a final appropriate and necessary finding, and MACT opponents will be able to challenge that action once final, reducing the incentive for the high court to get involved, the source says.
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20 States Ask Supreme Court to Stay EPA Mercury Rule
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Patrick Ambrosio
A coalition of 20 states led by Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay implementation of a multibillion-dollar rule to limit mercury emissions from power plants, a development that attorneys said will test the high court's willingness to provide petitioners with administrative relief from environmental regulation (Michigan v. EPA, U.S., No. 15A886, 2/23/16).
In an application filed Feb. 23 and docketed Feb. 24, the states say such a stay is appropriate because the court already has decided the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Air Act when it failed to consider costs in making a finding that it was “appropriate and necessary” to regulate those emissions. That finding triggered a Clean Air Act requirement that the agency promulgate emissions standards, a rulemaking process that resulted in the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
Chief Justice John Roberts has asked the EPA to respond to the stay application by March 2, according to the online docket for the case. An EPA spokeswoman declined to comment on the stay application.
MATS Rule Remanded
In a June 2015 decision authored by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court found the “appropriate and necessary” finding to be legally flawed and remanded the MATS rule to the D.C. Circuit (Michigan v. EPA, 135 S. Ct. 2699, 2015 BL 207163, 80 ERC 1577 (2015); 125 DEN A-1, 6/30/15).
In December, the D.C. Circuit opted to leave the MATS rule (RIN 2060–AP52, RIN 2060-AR31) in place while the EPA addresses the Supreme Court's ruling in Michigan v. EPA, a process the agency expects to complete by mid-April (White Stallion Energy Ctr. LLC v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 12-1100, 12/15/15.
The states said in their application that absent Supreme Court action, the court's Michigan v. EPA holding that the Clean Air Act requires costs to be considered before the agency may regulate power plants would be “thwarted.”
“This is an unmistakable example of agency over-reach,” the states said. “An executive agency strayed far beyond the limited authority the legislative branch gave it and, then when this court corrected the agency's error, the EPA requested on remand that the unauthorized, unlawful regulation should be left in place to have the force of law.”
Clean Power Plan Stay Cited
The states argued that a stay of the MATS rule is even more warranted than the Supreme Court stay issued Feb. 9 on implementation of the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's carbon dioxide standards for power plants (West Virginia v. EPA, U.S., No. 15A773, 2/9/16).
The states said the high court presumably halted implementation of the Clean Power Plan (RIN 2060-AR33) because there was a “strong likelihood” that the rule will be found to be illegal. By contrast, the Supreme Court has reviewed the “appropriate and necessary” finding that authorized promulgation of the MATS rule and found it to be unlawful, the states said.
Thomas Lorenzen, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP, told Bloomberg BNA that the states' stay application will be closely watched because of the insight it could provide on the Supreme Court's willingness to routinely consider such requests. While granting a stay has always been within the Supreme Court's authority, petitioners typically haven't applied for such action because it has been understood to be extraordinary relief.
“The question has to be: Will the court consider that relief in cases that don't necessarily rise to the level of the Clean Power Plan in terms of uniqueness?” Lorenzen said. “I don't think the Supreme Court will want to send a signal that it will grant this sort of relief routinely.”
Jim Rubin, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, told Bloomberg BNA that he did not believe Chief Justice Roberts would want to make a practice out of granting such stay requests, though Rubin acknowledged that he was skeptical the Clean Power Plan stay request would be granted.
Rubin noted that the context of the court's review in the MATS case is different from the Clean Power Plan case. While the justices had little time to get into the merits of the arguments against the Clean Power Plan, the court has already reviewed MATS and found problems with the agency's rulemaking process, he said.
Also, Rubin said, the Supreme Court's decision in Michigan v. EPA did not question the EPA's authority to regulate power plant emissions under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, while opponents of the Clean Power Plan are challenging the EPA's authority to promulgate that rule under Section 111.
Court Had Chance to Vacate
James Pew, an Earthjustice attorney who represented the Sierra Club and other intervening environmental groups in the MATS litigation, told Bloomberg BNA that the Supreme Court shouldn't want such stay requests to be “the new normal” because it would “open the floodgates” on premature administrative motions. The court will have to question where they want to “draw the line” on such requests, he said.
Pew, who was skeptical of the arguments raised by the states in support of the stay, noted that petitioners had asked the Supreme Court to vacate the MATS rule upon its initial review of the regulation in Michigan v. EPA. The court declined that request, instead leaving the status of the rule in the hands of the D.C. Circuit. That court's decision to leave the rule in place allowed the regulation to continue to result in positive health benefits, including avoiding thousands of deaths tied to air toxics exposure, Pew said.
Lorenzen said the Supreme Court did have the authority to vacate the MATS rule back in 2015, but he said that would have been an unusual decision by the court. It is typical for the Supreme Court to remand litigation to a lower court to determine the status of rules, he said.
Scalia Was Critic of Rule
Both Lorenzen and Rubin cited the Feb. 13 death of Scalia as a factor that could affect the court's handling of the MATS rule stay request.
Lorenzen said while opponents of EPA regulation were recently able to convince five justices to grant a stay of the Clean Power Plan, it is unclear how the states will be able to convince five justices to stay the MATS rule without Scalia on the court.
Scalia was the most outspoken critic of the MATS rule during oral arguments and authored the Michigan v. EPA opinion, Rubin noted. During oral arguments, Scalia described the EPA's interpretation of the phrase “appropriate and necessary” as a “silly way to read” that Clean Air Act language (58 DEN A-1, 3/26/15).
It is within the authority of Chief Justice Roberts to make the stay decision himself, although he opted to circulate among the full court the decision on the Clean Power Plan stay. Rubin noted that Roberts, who voted in the majority in Michigan v. EPA, was critical of other aspect's of the MATS rule. This included the EPA's use of “co-benefits”—or counting multiple benefits from controlling a given pollutant—in its cost-benefit analysis that supported the regulation.
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Roberts Wants EPA Response On Request To Block Mercury Rule
Feb 24, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillén
Chief Justice John Roberts today asked EPA to respond to the request from 20 states to block the agency’s power plant mercury rule.
EPA's response is due March 2 by 4 p.m., according to a court spokeswoman. Roberts handles petitions from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, though he may pass the request on to the full court.
Michigan and other states on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to stay the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, despite the D.C. Circuit’s decision in December to keep it in place while EPA fixes the problem identified by the Supreme Court last summer. The states noted the high court's recent stay of the Clean Power Plan.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said this morning that she is "not concerned" by the request. The current 4-4 split on the issue caused by Justice Antonin Scalia's death means the states would have to convince one of the liberal justices who sided with EPA last year to switch sides to obtain a stay.
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Flint Deal Paves Way for Senate Action on Energy Bill
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Laura Curtis
A deal announced Feb. 24 that would steer federal funding to help Flint, Mich., fix its lead-tainted drinking water system paves the way for the U.S. Senate to resume debate on broad energy legislation.
The energy measure (S. 2012) had been stalled by a dispute over sending aid to city, where residents have been using water contaminated by lead since the city switched its supply system. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said they had reached a compromise Feb. 24.
“I think this might end up solving our problem,” Inhofe told reporters. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have agreed to pass legislation by unanimous consent and were asking senators if they object, Inhofe said.
“I feel pretty optimistic that we'll go ahead and do it,” Inhofe said.
Under the deal, after consideration of the energy bill, the Senate would vote on the Flint aid package as an amendment to stand-alone legislation (H.R. 4470) that would strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to notify the public when lead levels in drinking water violate federal standards, according to a unanimous consent request that was sent to Senate offices and obtained by Bloomberg BNA.
Amendments Are Expected
The deal would allow the Senate to resume action on the broadest energy legislation to come before the chamber in years, and as many as 38 amendments—30 by voice vote and eight roll call measures—are expected to be called up to the bill, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said.
Among the amendments that would receive a stand-alone vote, according to the unanimous consent request, is a measure by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would increase the amount of money coastal states receive from government royalties tied to oil and gas drilling.
Specifically, the amendment by Cassidy would lift a revenue-sharing cap set at $500 million for Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to $999 million from 2027 to 2031, according to a summary. The amendment also would establish revenue sharing for Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia starting in 2027.
The bipartisan 424-page energy bill, backed by Murkowski and the panel's top Democrat, Maria Cantwell of Washington, would encourage efficiency upgrades of schools and speed up licensing of hydroelectric power projects among other provisions.
The legislation also aims to accelerate the government's review of proposed liquefied natural gas exports by requiring the Energy Department to decide on those projects within 45 days of completion of an environmental review.
If passed, negotiators would work to develop a compromise blending the Senate measure with a separate bill passed by the House last year.
Compromise Addresses Infrastructure Broadly
The Flint compromise goes beyond the Michigan city's plight and would tackle broader water infrastructure issues nationwide, Stabenow said. Flint and other communities with tainted water supplies would be able to apply for loans to fix them.
“One of the things we've found through all of this is the number of communities and states that have serious water infrastructure issues,” Stabenow told reporters. “We're working with our Republican colleagues to address a broader range of needs.”
The compromise would dole out $100 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and a $70 million credit subsidy from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, according to a summary provided by an Inhofe spokeswoman. The deal also would provide $50 million for national use.
It would be paid for using a $250 million rescission from an Energy Department advanced vehicle technology loans program, which Stabenow previously objected to, calling the use of funds “a complete insult” (23 DEN A-3, 2/4/16).
“We have done this in a way that we think is responsible and positive,” Stabenow said when asked about her change in position. “We found a compromise to be able to address current applications” to make sure they will continue.
Although it is less than the $280 million Stabenow had been seeking, the senator said the funding agreement “does what we need.”
During nearly two weeks of debate in late January and early February, the Senate adopted some 32 amendments to the energy bill before progress stalled over the Flint dispute.
Debates on fossil fuels, climate change and other environmental matters have derailed other major energy bills in recent years. The last time Congress passed sweeping energy legislation was in 2007, and, before that, 2005.
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Lawmakers Vetting Deal For Aid, Reviving Energy Bill
Feb 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Geof Koss, Tiffany Stecker and George Cahlink
Senate leaders are seeking an agreement to bring bipartisan energy legislation back to the floor and help communities like Flint, Mich., with water infrastructure needs. Votes could come as soon as tomorrow, key senators said this afternoon.
Lawmakers filed the Flint deal as an amendment to the energy bill, S. 2012. But leaders are also seeking broad agreement to consider the measure as an amendment to House-passed legislation, H.R. 4470, imposing new notification requirements for drinking water contaminants.
Emerging from a closed-door luncheon of Senate Republicans, Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) was bullish that a final agreement was within reach.
"I feel pretty optimistic that we'll go ahead and do it, strip it out, probably have the vote on energy first and then come back to this as a freestanding bill," Inhofe told reporters.
He hashed out the language with Michigan Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters (Greenwire, Feb. 24).
Disagreement over aid for Flint and other communities sidetracked the energy debate earlier this month. Today, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) called the conversations a "pathway to passage" for S. 2012, which includes attaching about 30 amendments by voice vote.
However, he cautioned that moving forward through unanimous consent, key for quick Senate action, would require acceptance by all 100 senators, "so you know what that means." Any one member can throw a wrench into the works.
During the GOP lunch, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she spoke to her GOP colleagues about "what we're hoping for for a process, and there were a couple good questions."
She told reporters, "I said, 'Please hurry up and take a look at it quickly, because we'd like to get this consent locked down so we can finish up an energy bill and get beyond some of the other hang-ups.'"
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said during a brief interview: "If we can get agreement to get votes, then we can proceed to the energy bill and probably a separate bill on Flint."
Hoeven said he was undecided on the proposed deal and cautioned about a possible clash with budgetary rules. "This is really the first time people at lunch have had the chance to hear about it," Hoeven said.
Inhofe said it remained unclear whether there were 60 votes for the Flint plan to sail through the Senate if a member decided to object.
"Now, it might not pass," he said. "And if it doesn't, my conscience is clear. We've offered something that will solve the problem."
Inhofe said he urged his colleagues to support the agreement. "I always try to stress to people, and I did in there, that now and then you'll have an issue that rises above what would normally be your behavioral pattern," he said.
"This did. When I first heard about this, and I checked to see if it was really right, when you think about the kids with lead and all that, and I thought, nothing is happening."
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she would support the plan. "I live in a state that had a huge water issue; if we can have availability to these funds, which is what the plan is, it's not earmarked specifically for Flint, I can go with it," she said this afternoon. Aid details
The bipartisan deal backed by 10 senators would help Flint overhaul its public drinking water system following widespread lead contamination.
Lawmakers want to pay for the $220 million package by taking money from Department of Energy Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loans issued after fiscal 2020.
The alliance behind the agreement includes Stabenow and Peters; Inhofe and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.); Ohio Sens. Rob Portman (R) and Sherrod Brown (D); Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin (D) and Mark Kirk (R); North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr (R); and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed (D).
The package would hand out $70 million in credit subsidies to communities through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act fund, a mechanism passed in the 2014 Water Resources Reform and Development Act to provide loans for large water projects.
The deal includes $100 million for U.S. EPA's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Money would be available to states that receive a federal emergency declaration because of a public health threat from lead exposure.
Another $17.5 million would go to the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a health registry for localities with lead contamination in their public water systems.
And $30 million would be equally divided among the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Health and Human Services to support children contaminated with lead, and prevent exposure to children and pregnant women.
Another $2.5 million would go to create an advisory committee to review federal efforts related to lead poisoning programming, research and services.
The package also includes a number of policy provisions, such as requiring EPA to notify the public of lead contamination within 15 days of a violation. Similar language is already in the House-passed bill (E&ENews PM, Feb. 10).
The measure would allow communities under an emergency declaration because of lead to use Drinking Water SRF loans to forgive outstanding debt on previous loans. It would also waive a 20 percent limit on the amount of SRF funds that can be used to forgive the debt.
The agreement calls for EPA's Office of Inspector General and the attorney general to report to Congress on the ongoing investigations into the Flint water crisis. House action
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) lauded progress in the Senate this afternoon. "This is sort of the art of the possible," he said. "I would like to see more."
Inhofe noted the deal would likely have to pass the House as a stand-alone measure, but Kildee said he was optimistic nonetheless.
"What seemed to be an impossibility a few weeks ago, getting a Flint package through the House, seems to be possible now," he said.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said he was considering ways of selling a deal in his chamber. "I am trying to be creative in getting something that would pass the test," he said.
Calling it a first step, Upton said he expected a large increase in funding for community water infrastructure projects in the fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill.
Upton also said one or two of his panel's subcommittees would hold a hearing in the next week or so on Flint. He said the focus would be on how to move forward from the water crisis rather than assign blame.
Upton said he had no plans to call Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) to testify, noting the governor had already volunteered to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
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EPA Ends Recordkeeping Requirements for Pollutant
Feb 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Businesses will no longer be subject to recordkeeping and reporting requirements under the Clean Air Act related to the use of t-butyl acetate, which is used as a solvent in paints, inks and adhesives. The agency, in a final rule scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Feb. 25, will remove all recordkeeping, inventory, emissions reporting and photo chemical dispersion modeling requirements for users of t-butyl acetate. The substance already had been excluded from the regulatory definition of volatile organic compounds for the purposes of emissions limits or content requirements but was subject to recordkeeping requirements for volatile organic compounds. The agency promulgated the rule (RIN 2060-AR65) in response to a petition from LyondellBasell, a multinational corporation involved in plastics, chemicals and refining, which requested the agency do away with redundant and burdensome reporting requirements. The rule is available at http://src.bna.com/cP0.
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Bicameral Hearings Mull Unfunded Mandates, Costs of EPA Regs
Feb 25, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Hannah Hess
New and proposed rules from U.S. EPA got a double dose of scrutiny yesterday from panels on both sides of the Capitol.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law targeted new air toxics standards during a hearing on the "triple threat" that regulations pose to jobs, wages and startups. The panel's Democrats countered that such standards are key to protecting public health.
A more bipartisan mood dominated the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, where discussion of the challenge state and local governments face in complying with the Clean Power Plan fueled discussion of updates to the 1995 Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.) and other critics on the Senate panel complained that the law was meant to protect state and local governments from prohibitively expensive rules but instead created a system in which agencies write new rules with little input from those affected.
"This goes back to a basic principle that we have. It's that individuals who are affected by a rule should actually have a voice when that rule is done," Lankford said yesterday.
He is co-sponsoring a bill that would extend the law's reach to require agencies to consult the private sector and other stakeholders when developing mandates, among other provisions.
But legal experts warned that many of the problems raised in the 90-minute hearing couldn't really be solved by passing a new law.
"It's too complicated, too variable," said Richard Pierce Jr., a professor at George Washington University Law School.
The Clean Power Plan, for instance, involves "about eight agencies in every state" trying to coordinate, he said. In some states, EPA engages with natural resources agencies, while public utility commissions are major stakeholders elsewhere. "Trying to figure out who to consult with ... [is] a very difficult process," Pierce said, adding, "I don't think you're going to be able to solve it with legislation."
Sitting on the opposite end of the witness panel from Pierce was Utah state Sen. Curtis Bramble (R), president of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The group wrote a report last summer on the key role that state legislatures will play in complying with the Clean Power Plan (ClimateWire, June 30, 2015).
"Consultation is a matter of timing," Bramble said in his closing remarks. "If an agency calls 12 hours before the rules is effective and then claims that they have reached out to the state, that really doesn't count."
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said she is on the lookout for model legislation that states have adopted to reform the regulatory process.
George Mason University Centers on the Public Service Director Paul Posner, a former Government Accountability Office official, warned that the overall solution would be a "heavy lift" and could require rethinking government structure.
Heitkamp joked that "groans will come up," if she started to talk about the need for another intergovernmental agency.'Devastating' impacts vs. benefits
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) invited criticism of the Obama administration's proposed regulatory agenda during his hearing. He said almost 40 percent of jobs require a government license, compared with 5 percent a generation ago.
Janet Whitacre Kaboth, president of a small, boutique-type manufacturer of fired-clay paving brick, predicted that complying with EPA's new air toxics standards would cost her family's Ohio-based company, Whitacre Greer Co., "23 percent of our current net worth." She said the rule's benefits would be minimal or nonexistent compared to the devastating impact on the industry.
Murray Energy Corp. Vice President Ryan Murray declared the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's proposed stream protection rule "devastating" and predicted it would lead to the elimination of the coal industry. He accused the agency of drafting the rule "behind closed doors" without meaningful impact from miners.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) challenged Murray on the need to protect clean water.
"The rules that are on the books right now, they work, and they don't need to be materially rewritten on stream protection," Murray said. As proof of efforts to comply, he said the company employs "more environmental scientists" than mining engineers.
Johnson said the hearing was only an exercise to "justify the crony capitalist mission of regulatory reform."
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EPA Won't Cut Carbon Using International Provision -- Ex-Counsel
Feb 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
U.S. EPA is unlikely in the short term to embark on a rulemaking to create a greenhouse gas program under the Clean Air Act's international section, a former key player in the agency's climate push said today.
Some legal scholars have argued that the agency should consider using that section while the Clean Power Plan remains frozen by the Supreme Court. Section 115 of the Clean Air Act could give EPA a backstop if the high court ultimately strikes down the carbon program for power plants, they say.
But Scott Fulton, who was general counsel at EPA during the Obama administration and briefly the agency's No. 2 acting official, today predicted that the agency likely would not even consider using Section 115 until litigation on the Clean Power Plan is resolved.
"My guess is that we will not see EPA moving in this direction at least in the near term, probably not until the other side of the Clean Power Plan litigation," said Fulton, now president of the Environmental Law Institute, at an event organized by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and New America.
In an unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court earlier this month froze the Clean Power Plan while court challenges play out. Some legal experts say the action signals that the high court will strike down the program, though the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has made the future of the rule even murkier than it already was.
Section 115 of the Clean Air Act is titled "international air pollution" and gives EPA the authority to compel states to reduce emissions that contribute to health or welfare problems in other countries, as long as those countries reciprocate with like protections.
In a report last month, environmental law professors called the section a "powerful, and as yet unused tool" that would allow EPA to create a nationwide greenhouse gas regulatory program. In the wake of the Supreme Court's stay, some law experts have predicted that the idea of using it as a backstop to the Clean Power Plan, which is based in Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, would gain momentum (Greenwire, Feb. 12).
But Fulton today said it was "not likely the framers of the provision had greenhouse gases specifically in mind." The section predates the 1990 Clean Air Act amendment and was likely geared to resolve conflicts between the United States and Canada over acid rain and the pollutant sulfur dioxide, he said.
"Section 115 is not without its own question marks," he said. "If it were a vehicle perfectly suited to and designed for this purpose, we probably would be looking at a Clean Power Plan based on Section 115 and not on Section 111."
Fulton also said EPA is likely fearful of exploring the option during the stay because it could project "some weakness or misgivings about the Section 111 foundation that might resonate with the court in a problematic way."
EPA today also indicated that it is focused on the Clean Power Plan in the short term.
"EPA firmly believes the Clean Power Plan will be upheld when the courts address its merits because it rests on strong scientific and legal foundations," the agency said today in an emailed statement when asked whether it was considering using Section 115.
EPA simply may not have the "bandwidth" to go down an alternative path to the Clean Power Plan, Fulton also said. Along with defending and continuing to implement the plan, EPA likely will address administrative petitions for reconsideration during the freeze, he said.
"Even during the stay, there's a great deal for the agency to be working on," he said.
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