Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 3/14
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Budget Hearing - Department of Energy, Environmental Management
Mar 15, 2016 | US House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations
Location: 2362-B Rayburn / 10:30 AM -
(ACC Mentioned) Undergoing Fertility Treatment? Watch Your Plastics
Mar 14, 2016 | Environmental Health News
By Brian Bienkowski
One of the most challenging aspects of Sarah Bly’s work is helping women cope with infertility. -
US NGO Introduces Ingredient Safety Label for Consumer Products
Mar 14, 2016 | Chemial Watch
By Kelly Franklin
A new non-profit organisation, Made Safe, has launched a consumer products labelling programme which aims to highlight consumer products made without known toxic substances. -
The Pediatrician Who Helped Uncover the Dangers of Lead Has Some Advice for Flint
Mar 13, 2016 | The Nation
By Ava Kofman
When Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton faced off in Michigan last Sunday night, the nation’s eyes were once again on Flint, the majority-black city whose residents had been exposed for months to lead-laced tap water. -
Safer Products For All Children
Mar 14, 2016 | Triple Pundit
By Michael Green
When parents pay a premium price for high-end products for their children, they expect those products to be safe — especially when the products are advertised as safer than other similar, cheaper versions. -
Indiana Pushes Back On Use Of EPA Region 9's Contested TCE Risk Guide
Mar 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Dave Reynolds
Indiana's environment department is pushing back against EPA regions or states using EPA Region 9's contested guidance on protecting against risk of cardiac birth defects from exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) at contaminated sites, calling it “not scientifically supportable” and instead pursuing a more flexible approach to risk. -
Pollutant Is Removed From Water in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., Cuomo Says
Mar 13, 2016 | The New York Times
By Jesse McKinley
More than six weeks after declaring an environmental emergency in this upstate village, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomomade his first visit here on Sunday, announcing that a new filter system had successfully cleared a toxic chemical known as PFOA from the municipal water supply. -
(ACC Mentioned) Houston's Petrochemical Boom Could Soon Face a Big Swoon
Mar 11, 2016 | Houston Chronicl
By Jordan Blum
Houston's petrochemical industry is booming and helping to stabilize the regional economy, but troubling signs suggest the surge is coming to an end. -
(ACC Mentioned) Iowa Can Meet Heath, Environmental, and Economic Goals through Smarter Energy Use
Mar 13, 2016 | NDRC Switchboard
By Katherine McCormick
"American prosperity has always depended on embracing new ideas and technologies. By deploying renewable, cleaner and more efficiency energy solutions, we can make our national economy more productive and resilient.... Promoting energy savings through efficiency and conservation programs is the fastest, most reliable and often cheapest way to meet our energy needs." -
Feds Block Oregon Natural Gas Export Terminal
Mar 14, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Federal officials denied a permit Friday for a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal, a rare rebuke of a gas project by the federal government. -
EPA: Lack of Data Is Key Challenge to Regulating Fracking
Mar 14, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
One of the largest challenges in regulating hydraulic fracturing's impacts on water is lack of data, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said March 11. -
SAB Panel Aims To Mend Split Over Draft EPA Fracking Study Conclusion
Mar 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
Members of an EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel are aiming to mend their split over how to respond to the agency's draft study finding “no widespread, systemic impacts” to water from hydraulic fracturing, with some members saying the conclusion is unclear while others are backing it even as they seek more information from EPA. -
Pennsylvania Shows EPA the Way on Pending Methane Policy
Mar 14, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Fred Krupp and Davitt Woodwell
Speaking to a petroleum industry audience in Houston recently, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “we can and we must do more to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.” McCarthy has it right. -
Cross-State Air Rule Deadlines Pushed Back
Mar 14, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule that permanently changes compliance deadlines under the agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. -
Market Rises on Energy Companies’ Gains
Mar 11, 2016 | AP (In The New York Times)
A jump in crude oil prices and strong gains in European markets set off a rally in U.S. stocks, the fourth consecutive week of gains for the major indexes. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Proposal Boosts Prevention of, Response to Accidents
Mar 11, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
Thousands of oil refineries, chemical plants and other major industries would have to step up efforts to prevent serious accidents and keep the public better informed about potential hazards under proposed U.S. EPA regulations. -
EPA Faults States For Failing To Craft SO2 Air Plans
Mar 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
EPA is faulting 11 states for failing to craft state implementation plans (SIPs) outlining the air pollution control measures they will enact to cut sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and attain the agency's national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the pollutant, triggering a process for EPA to impose air plans on the states.
Congressional Hearings
Industry and Association News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Chemical Management News
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Environment News
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Budget Hearing - Department of Energy, Environmental Management
Mar 15, 2016 | US House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations
Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies
Witness
Dr. Monica Regalbuto
Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management
Department of Energy
This hearing will not be webcast.http://appropriations.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=394441
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(ACC Mentioned) Undergoing Fertility Treatment? Watch Your Plastics
Mar 14, 2016 | Environmental Health News
By Brian Bienkowski
One of the most challenging aspects of Sarah Bly’s work is helping women cope with infertility.
“It’s not only a mental desire you have around creating a life, but a very deeply physical, primal and biological urge, and these women are dealing with this on all of those levels,” said Bly, a women's health counselor and fertility awareness educator in Oregon.
Bly, who runs a private practice in Ashland, home of Oregon's famous Shakespeare festival, urges women to listen to their bodies in pursuing health and pregnancy. Increasingly, she's asking them to also pay attention to scientists’ alarms over chemical exposure.
“When I first started, I’d say ‘do a cleanse’,” Bly said. “Now I teach classes on how to avoid chemicals in our lives and homes.... Where have you lived? What foods did you eat?”
For women trying fertility treatments, research indicates that exposure to one ubiquitous chemical, bisphenol-A, might greatly impair their chances of having a baby.
But federal agencies remain steadfast in the safety of the chemical, known as "BPA" and found in some canned foods and beverages, paper receipts and dental sealants.
“That position is just untenable,” said Wade Welshons, an associate professor at the University of Missouri who studies estrogen chemicals. “One study after another shows BPA exposure leads to one adverse effect after another.”
FDA stays silent
Multiple studies have found that higher bisphenol-A levels in women undergoing fertility treatment—in vitro fertilization, or IVF—meant a reduction in successful pregnancies.
The most recent study, published last month in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, examined 239 women who underwent IVF in Massachusetts from 2007 to 2012. Of the women with the highest exposure to BPA, 17 percent had a baby, compared to 54 percent of women with the lowest exposure.
BPA—used to make plastic hard and shatterproof—mimics the hormone estrogen and acts an endocrine disruptor. Properly functioning hormones are crucial to reproduction, as well as development, brain function and immune systems.
The compound can leach out of can linings and into the food. Studies show that just about everyone has traces of the chemical in their body, and researchers believe diet is the major exposure route.
Welshons said virtually all reproductive impacts from BPA exposure shown in animal studies have been found in humans. The chemical has been shown to impact cell division in the ovaries, and alter menstrual cycles and the uterus.
“We consider it an ovarian toxicant. In addition, strong evidence suggests that BPA is a uterine toxicant,” a group of 11 leading scientists wrote in a 2014 review of the chemical.
Despite this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration maintains that the amount of BPA leaching from food packaging will not harm people.
The agency declined several opportunities to comment about mounting evidence of BPA and IVF outcomes.
Over the past few years, Environmental Health News has sent multiple requests to speak with FDA scientists about BPA research and been denied every time.
Agency assessments declare that BPA is rapidly cleared from the body, leaving no time for health effects.
“They need to stop pretending that there is no human BPA exposure," Welshons said. “They [FDA] need to stop pretending that there is no human BPA exposure.” -Wade Welshons, University of Missouri
"It’s widely found and in the urine of 90 percent of people,” he added. “We wouldn’t see all of these associations without exposure.”
Soy offers protection, calls previous testing into question
The recent study had a novel finding: soy may protect women from the reproductive impacts of BPA. As levels of the estrogen-mimicking chemical increased, the women who did not eat soy foods had lower birth rates, said senior author Russ Hauser, a professor of reproductive physiology at Harvard University.
It’s not clear why soy, which also interacts with estrogen receptors, appears to mitigate the BPA impacts, Hauser said.
But the results suggest that other studies that do not show a link between BPA and pregnancy might be flawed unless they account for what women eat, Welshons said. “If there wasn’t control of diet, the study might not find effects that are actually there,” he said.
Hauser’s work builds on previous research suggesting interplay between BPA and fertility treatment success.
A study of 174 women from Boston, Massachusetts, undergoing IVF found that higher BPA concentrations in urine were linked to decreases in cells that eventually mature into eggs. The women with the highest BPA exposure had, on average, 24 percent fewer of the cells than women with the lowest exposure.
A 2011 study of 44 women undergoing IVF found BPA levels linked with reduced estrogen responses during the fertility treatments.
And it may not just be female exposure: researchers report that BPA levels in men’s blood may affect embryo quality during IVF, according to a 2011 study.
The American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical manufacturers, is not convinced. Steve Hentges, a representative from the council, said in an emailed response that “comprehensive multi-generation studies have found that BPA has no effect on reproduction at any dose remotely close to typical human exposure levels.”
When asked specifically about Hauser’s study, Hentges said it is “not adequate to support any medical advice or decisions.”
“Women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant should consult with their own doctors on questions of nutrition and lifestyle, and certainly should not make critical health decisions based on a single, small-scale study,” he said.
The “most painful loss”
Bly, the fertility counselor, said understanding the possible impacts chemicals such as BPA have on fertility has become “absolutely integral" to her practice. While most women she sees are aware of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, some are not. She encourages natural diets, cleaning products and cosmetics free from endocrine disrupting chemicals, and drinking water out of glass or stainless steel.
But the effort required to avoid these compounds leaves many women intimidated, she said.
“When they look at the science, the studies that show what’s in mother’s breast milk, it’s overwhelming,” Bly said. “It’s a lot to take in … we’re full of this stuff. I try to be careful, encouraging one step at a time.”
But the struggle with infertility can take a severe toll on women.
“It’s the most painful loss,” Bly said. “Just wanting, waiting, and not happening.”
EHN welcomes republication of our stories, but we require that publications include the author's name and Environmental Health News at the top of the piece, along with a link back to EHN's version.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2016/march/trying-to-get-pregnant-watch-your-plastics
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US NGO Introduces Ingredient Safety Label for Consumer Products
Mar 14, 2016 | Chemial Watch
By Kelly Franklin
A new non-profit organisation, Made Safe, has launched a consumer products labelling programme which aims to highlight consumer products made without known toxic substances.
Made Safe’s founder and executive director, Amy Ziff, told Chemical Watch that the programme is the US’s “first human health-focused certification to cross consumer products categories”.
“Consumers are clamouring for a simple way to find products that are made without ingredients known to cause harm”, said Ms Ziff. The Made Safe seal will make it easier for companies to communicate efforts to avoid substances of concern, she said, and for customers to identify and purchase those products.
All non-food items will can seek certification under the programme. But, the initial focus for 2016 will be on baby, household, personal care and cosmetic products.
To achieve certification, products are screened against a proprietary toxicant database. Substances not permitted in certified products include known:carcinogens;developmental, reproductive and behavioural toxins;endocrine disruptors;fire retardants;GMOs;heavy metals;neurotoxins;pesticides, insecticides and herbicides;toxic solvents; andharmful VOCs.
According to Ms Ziff, the toxicant database began with "red list" substances – as defined by authoritative organisations and governmental agencies around the world – and it continues to grow.
The organisation uses modelling, predictive analysis, and scientific investigation to close data gaps around substances and to identify PBTs. And, said Ms Ziff, “each time we screen a product, we learn about new ingredients and add those to our database as well”.Highlight 'innovative companies'
There are a few instances where Made Safe might allow a safe harbour level of an ingredient “if it has been lab-tested and certified to a specific measure.”
But for regulatory considerations – such as with products that may use flame retardants to meet stringent flammability standards – she said the point of the certification is to “reward companies who are innovating healthier solutions”.
“We want to amplify those innovative companies’ messaging and create a clear path to finding safer products”, said Ms Ziff.
She hopes that the programme can demonstrate customers’ willingness to buy safer products. In turn, the NGO “can apply pressure to brands, manufacturers, retailers and suppliers and send a very effective message that consumers don’t want these kind of ingredients in their products."
The programme joins a crowded ingredient safety certification space. Others include federal initiatives, like the US EPA’s Safer Choice programme, and third-party schemes, such as the Environmental Working Group’s EWG Verified, or the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute's (C2CPII) certified productsprogramme.
Several personal care product companies have already achieved certification under Made Safe. The process takes anywhere from eight weeks to a year, depending on the number of products a brand wishes to certify.
https://chemicalwatch.com/45621/us-ngo-introduces-ingredient-safety-label-for-consumer-products
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The Pediatrician Who Helped Uncover the Dangers of Lead Has Some Advice for Flint
Mar 13, 2016 | The Nation
By Ava Kofman
When Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton faced off in Michigan last Sunday night, the nation’s eyes were once again on Flint, the majority-black city whose residents had been exposed for months to lead-laced tap water. The two candidates had both made Flint’s water crisis a crucial campaign cause, and the debate was a chance to showcase their outrage—both called for the resignation of Governor Rick Snyder—and perhaps win over a few Michigan voters before the Wednesday primary. But when resident LeeAnne Walters asked Clinton and Sanders whether they would remove lead service pipes from public water systems across the country, her question served as a sobering reminder that the threat goes well beyond Flint. The city’s toxic water crisis could happen again—and has happened before.
In February, The Nation sat down with the doctor who is largely responsible for our present-day knowledge of lead’s extreme toxicity. Philip Landrigan, a distinguished pediatrician and epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, first noticed the effects of lead on children in the late 1960s, when he was a pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital. Many children came in complaining of headaches and dizziness. Some were comatose. But it wasn’t until working on a case for the Center for Disease Control in El Paso, Texas—which was home, at the time, to a large smelting plant—that he correlated small amounts of lead exposure in children with a loss of IQ points.
Landrigan’s studies in the early 1970s played a pivotal role in the government’s mandate to phase out lead in gasoline and to ban lead paint. In the past decade, an impressive series of studies building on Landrigan’s work have demonstrated that lead is toxic to children even at the lowest levels measurable in the bloodstream. Nonetheless, state officials ignored the findings of Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, when she alerted them that the proportion of children under 5 with elevated levels of lead in their blood had almost doubled since the switch to the Flint River.
Landrigan spoke to The Nation about how far we’ve come in understanding lead’s toxicity and how far we have to go in protecting communities.
Ava Kofman: When you published the results of your initial study, did people believe you?
Philip Landrigan: It depended on who you spoke to. People in the scientific community believed me. The lead industry rejected the findings out of hand, saying that they were foolish, that they were biased, and that they were the consequence of a whole series of other factors: socioeconomic status, race, inadequate parental education. They offered many different explanations to try to discount our findings. Another thing that the lead industry did was that they found paid experts to testify against us and write papers against us.
AK: As someone who’s been working on this issue for decades, what was your initial reaction when you heard about Flint and the water poisoning there?
PL: Well, I had a couple reactions. The first was this terrible sense of déjà vu, that it was “déjà vu all over again,” as somebody said a long time ago. [Laughs] The second was that it reminded me that as bad as Flint is, it’s hardly isolated. We still have a huge problem of lead poisoning in this country. The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s] latest numbers indicate that more than 500,000 children [between the ages of 1 and 5] have elevated blood lead levels over today’s standards. There was a big survey of housing done a few years ago by a man named David Jacobs. It’s probably a little bit out of date, but not that much. He found that 38 million housing units in the United States contain lead, and in nearly two-thirds of those—so 24 million—the lead is in a deteriorating state, where it poses a hazard to children. So we still have a big problem.
AK: When you first heard about the efforts of Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha in Flint, Michigan, to study and distribute the results of her studies on the city’s mass lead poisoning, did you see a lot of parallels to your own work convincing authorities in Texas?
PL: Oh, yeah, it was a clear parallel. I’ve never met her—we have corresponded by email in the past couple of weeks—but she seems like a very good and admirable person. She deserves full marks for her courage, for her persistence, for having skillfully brought the issue to the surface.
AK: If you were to implement wider policy changes to make sure this doesn’t happen again, what would those be?
PL: Well, the simplest thing would just be to have a national testing program to test the water. We have the technology to do it. And you don’t have to test every house in a big [water] system: You can just test systems. But you have to do the testing in the home, and the reason for that is most—Flint’s the exception—but most of the time lead in drinking water is not present at the source. In most systems, the lead gets in either from the pipes under the streets in some of the older cities in the country, or from the so-called service pipes that serve the homes that either are lead pipes or lead solder.
AK: What can these children and families expect as they grow older and hit teen years and adulthood?
PL: Unfortunately, lead causes brain injury. It can erode a child’s IQ. It can disrupt a child’s behavior. The good news is that the pediatric community, the community of child psychologists, and others who care about children’s development have developed some marvelous tools over the past 20 years for educational enrichment of children who have been damaged by lead or by other chemicals or by other problems beyond chemicals. And so I don’t think we should give up on these children at all. We shouldn’t throw up our hands and say that “these children are damaged for life.” That’s a terrible thing to do to these children. To say that “these kids are irretrievably damaged” sends totally the wrong message.
But the message that does have to be put out is that, first of all, these children deserve proper neuropsychological evaluations, paid for by either the state or the federal government. It certainly should not come out of the pockets of the family. Secondly, if children are found to have problems, they should be provided with proper enrichment educational programs, and the sooner the better, because, as you might well imagine, the more quickly the intervention begins, the more effective it’s going to be.
In other words, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of people saying, “Who’s to blame?” It’s going to take time. Lawyers are going to get involved, courts are going to get involved, I understand all that. But somebody should have the courage to step in right quickly and say, “Let’s start the intervention programs for the children now, and we’ll find the money.” That’s what I would do if I were in the position to do it.
But there is another issue, and that is that besides being able to cause brain injury in children, lead also can increase the risk for hypertension in adults, and for kidney injury, and the combination of hypertension and kidney injury has been well-documented to increase risk for heart disease and stroke. And around the world, lead is a major cause of heart disease and stroke as a consequence of hypertension.
AK: Why is there such a difference in the physiology of children that causes lead to affect them more than the bodies of adults?
PL: It’s all about human development. The human brain goes through this extraordinary development starting in about the fourth or fifth week of pregnancy, going through pregnancy and going through the first few years after birth…. The engineering is extraordinary! It makes the desktop computer look like a child’s toy. But the price of that incredible complexity is great vulnerability. So if anything—whether it’s lead or an organic phosphate pesticide, or the ethyl alcohol from a glass of wine—if any of those toxic chemicals get into the brain while that complicated development is going on, the damage can be very severe. Later on in life, at 5 years of age, or at 12 years of age, the brain architecture is more or less settled and it takes a lot more lead to cause harm. Lead is still toxic to the brain at any age, even as adults, but it takes a lot more lead as a person gets older. So that’s why the brain damage is the great risk at the front end of life.
AK: How would you characterize the past several decades’ efforts to get lead out of the environment?
PL: Overall, it’s been an incredible success story. When we took lead out of gasoline and paint starting in 1976, what we saw over the next decade was a more than a 90 percent reduction of the incidents of lead poisoning in blood levels. People that studied the link between lead and IQ have found that American preschool-age children in the mid-’90s have IQs about 2 to 4 points higher than they would have in the mid-1970s.
AK: What do you think of the broader regulatory frameworks to address toxic chemicals in the environment right now, namely the Toxic Substances Control Act?
PL: Well, basically, the current regulatory framework is nonexistent. So back in 1976, we passed TSCA [the Toxic Substances Control Act], which at the time was thought to be great legislation. The chemical industry opposed it bitterly, but then they managed to gut it after it was passed. In the nearly 40 years that TSCA has existed, it’s succeeded in getting a total of five chemicals off the market. And in that time, 20,000 to 25,000 new chemicals have come on the market, so it’s clearly legislation that’s not working. As I’m sure you’re aware, there are efforts in the Congress now to come up with TSCA reform, called the Safe Chemicals Act.
AK: Your work as a practicing clinician and as a researcher have had great effects on policy. What do you see as the best way that doctors can serve as advocates for policy change, and what do you see as the limits of that advocacy work?
PL: Well, first of all, if doctors and scientists in general are going to be effective advocates, they have to be good scientists. There are people who can be grassroots advocates, who work at the community level, who do marvelous work, who are not scientists and don’t pretend to be, and they have a very important role. But when a doctor or scientist wants to become an advocate, they have to remember first and foremost that they’re a scientist: They have to stick to their data. They have to distinguish very clearly between what’s fact and what they would like to see happen, but be based in facts. And if a person is careful and thoughtful, they can do that.
It’s also important, probably like almost anything else in life, to be strategic. You have to pick your battles. You have to do [advocacy] at the right time. But I’ve always thought that when a doctor—and especially a pediatrician—learns the tools of what I call evidence-based or science-based advocacy, that that person can be extremely effective. Doctors are still respected in American society, pediatricians in particular. And when a doctor gets up and says something like, “Lead is a problem,” the way Mona Hanna-Attisha did in Flint, people listen. She did something that not everybody will do, and that’s that she took the next step and went public.
http://www.thenation.com/article/the-pediatrician-who-helped-uncover-the-dangers-of-lead-has-some-advice-for-flint/
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Safer Products For All Children
Mar 14, 2016 | Triple Pundit
By Michael Green
When parents pay a premium price for high-end products for their children, they expect those products to be safe — especially when the products are advertised as safer than other similar, cheaper versions.
But parents who purchased some Orbit Baby car seats recently found out that they weren’t getting what they paid for. Orbit sells high-end car seats, including car seat/stroller “travel systems” that can cost more than $1,500. Some parents who are concerned about toxic chemicals were persuaded to shell out the money for an Orbit car seat by the company’s promise that its products are made without flame-retardant chemicals.
After all, as many parents know, flame-retardant chemicals can cause cancer and have been linked to numerous other serious health problems, including lower IQ, advanced puberty and reduced fertility, among others.
Referring to brominated flame retardants (BFRs), Orbit’s advertising claimed that its car seats are “BFR-Free” and “… made without the use of toxic brominated and chlorinated chemicals.” But tests on certain Orbit car seats by the Center for Environmental Health and others show that the foam filling in the seats contained high levels of chlorinated Tris, a flame-retardant chemical that is known to cause cancer. Under California’s strong consumer protection law, consumers must be warned before they purchase products that can expose them to cancer-causing chemicals, including Tris.
Orbit not only failed to warn consumers, but the company also actively mislead parents with false advertising that claimed its products were safer because they did not contain any toxic flame retardants like Tris. Our organization is now taking legal action calling on Orbit to recall the contaminated car seats. Concerned parents who bought an Orbit car seat can contact CEH to learn more.
Orbit’s deceptive advertising is among the worst greenwashing we have seen in 20 years of exposing unsubstantiated eco-claims. It’s especially disturbing to note that, according to CBS News, one retailer alerted Orbit to the problem with its car seats as early as the fall of 2014, but the company continued to advertise the products as flame retardant-free.
The Orbit story is coming out at a time when dozens of other baby products and furniture companies are making legally-binding commitments to eliminate flame retardants from their products. In addition, major companies, institutions and universities that collectively buy $600 million worth of furniture annually, including Harvard, Facebook, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and others, are urging their furniture suppliersto provide them with products free from flame-retardant chemicals.
No parent should have to pay more to provide their child with safer products free from harmful chemicals. With a growing global market for safer products, companies that can offer affordable, truly sustainable goods will be rewarded. For both consumers and corporations, the Orbit story shows that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom from harmful chemicals.
Michael Green is Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Health.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/03/safer-products-children/
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Indiana Pushes Back On Use Of EPA Region 9's Contested TCE Risk Guide
Mar 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Dave Reynolds
Indiana's environment department is pushing back against EPA regions or states using EPA Region 9's contested guidance on protecting against risk of cardiac birth defects from exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) at contaminated sites, calling it “not scientifically supportable” and instead pursuing a more flexible approach to risk.
Several northeastern states have adopted approaches similar to Region 9, which includes California and other western states. An environmentalist observer has hailed the states' moves as backing EPA's conclusion that TCE poses a risk of cardiac birth defects, as well as Region 9's approach for protecting against the risk.
Industry groups have faulted the science underpinning the guide and urged EPA headquarters to intervene. But the agency last year rejected industry letters and an Information Quality Act (IQA) petition to either reassess the birth defects risk or conduct a White House level analysis of the costs and benefits of the Region 9 approach. Industry has appealed its IQA challenge, claiming the birth defects risk is based on inadequate data.
Although some states are aligning with the Region 9 guide, one industry source says that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's (IDEM) push-back suggests a significant split among states on the guide.
In a March 7 memo, IDEM calls Region 9's approach to protecting against the birth defects risk “highly controversial,” and argues that implementing the approach has “proven to be very problematic as a policy.”
The memo also contends that a majority of states and EPA regions are not following the Region 9 approach, an assertion that if accurate backs industry's long-standing arguments that the birth defects risk is based on flawed science and is leading to unwieldy requirements at sites contaminated with TCE.
EPA regions and states have been struggling for several years to implement EPA's finding in a September 2011 Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment that TCE poses a risk of cardiac birth defects, a developmental endpoint that implies danger from short-term exposures.
The IRIS assessment set a reference concentration (RfC) of 2 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m^3) to protect against chronic exposure through inhalation, and included the birth defects risk based in part on a controversial 2003 toxicology study by Paula D. Johnson, which industry faults as unreproducible, and says should not support regulation.
EPA's Region 9 has been a leader in addressing the birth defects risk and in July 2014 issued a policy calling for risk assessors to move quickly to mitigate risks when exposures to TCE in indoor air through vapor intrusion reach 2 ug/m^3. Vapor intrusion occurs when toxic chemicals rise into indoor air through cracked foundations or other pathways.
EPA sought to clarify TCE policy with an August 2014 memo to its Superfund managers that largely backed the Region 9 and similar approaches that call for prompt action, though EPA acknowledged that the question of what contamination level causes a health risk in the short-term remains unanswered.
Diverging Policies
The industry source notes that Indiana's faulting of the Johnson study is especially forceful. States having diverging policies on TCE creates a management problem for EPA, the source says, especially in areas where contaminated sites cross state lines.
The IDEM memo, “Clarification Regarding Application of Trichloroethylene Indoor Air Screening Levels,” faults Region 9's call for early or interim mitigation measures to address exposures at 2 ug/m^3 in residential settings and 9 ug/m^3 in commercial settings.
“IDEM has recently concluded that an accelerated response is not scientifically supportable based upon current information,” the memo says. And IDEM backs industry's long-standing opposition to the Johnson study, noting that “the results obtained in the original study indicating increased incidence of fetal cardiac malformations have not been replicated despite several attempts to do so.”
A source with IDEM tells Inside EPA that the state agency sought to clarify its policy for protecting against risks from TCE after Indiana site managers raised questions about how to respond to exposures to TCE in indoor air from vapor intrusion.
IDEM officials reviewed publicly available exposure limits of the nearby states, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and found they are taking different approaches than EPA Region 9's plan that relies heavily on accelerated responses for relatively low levels of exposure near EPA's chronic risk number.
The source also says informal conversations indicate other state's are also not following the Region 9 approach, adding that it seems “more people are not implementing EPA's approach than are.”
IDEM officials reviewed the Johnson study and others that have sought to replicate its findings, as well as criticism of the controversial study. In addition to concerns regarding the study underlying the birth defects risk, the source says EPA has not clarified the duration of exposure that may cause a defect to occur.
Indiana's Approach
While not calling for an accelerated response at 2 ug/m^3, IDEM's approach sets a screening level equal to EPA's RfC, requiring additional sampling in a timely fashion. Should indoor air levels exceed 20 ug/m^3, the state requires an urgent response, which would include certain steps to reduce exposures within 24 hours.
The source says the state's approach seeks to err on the side of caution given uncertainty surrounding the possibility that TCE poses a risk of cardiac birth defects. “We know that there is fluctuation,” in indoor air levels, the source says, adding that samples above the state's screening level are not cause for immediate action. “We will require you to evaluate the pathway more carefully.”
An environmentalist questions the IDEM assertion that a majority of EPA regions are not following the Region 9 approach, saying in an email that “I believe that a majority of EPA Regions, if not all, are implementing Region 9's approach.” The source was uncertain of how many states are following Region 9's approach.
EPA Region 9, in a July 9, 2014 memo, recommended early or interim mitigation measures be evaluated and implemented "quickly" when indoor air concentrations of TCE are greater than 2 ug/m^3 in residential buildings and 8 ug/m^3 in commercial buildings. When levels are above 6 ug/m^3 in residential buildings and 24 ug/m^3 in commercial buildings, Region 9 recommends immediate mitigation measures.
EPA headquarters backed Region 9's calls for early action in an Aug. 27, 2014, memo to its Superfund managers, that sought to resolve disparate approaches to protecting against TCE's developmental risk.
At the time, environmentalist and industry sources said the headquarters memo failed to explicitly back the Region 9 approach or clearly state a national policy for addressing risks from short-term exposure to TCE.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/indiana-pushes-back-use-epa-region-9s-contested-tce-risk-guide
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Pollutant Is Removed From Water in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., Cuomo Says
Mar 13, 2016 | The New York Times
By Jesse McKinley
More than six weeks after declaring an environmental emergency in this upstate village, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomomade his first visit here on Sunday, announcing that a new filter system had successfully cleared a toxic chemical known as PFOA from the municipal water supply.
“The PFOA is out of the water,” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a command center set up by the Department of Environmental Conservation. “Today is good news,” he added.
Despite Mr. Cuomo’s optimistic proclamations, state officials — including the governor’s office — were still warning residents not to use tap water for drinking or cooking until a full flush of the local water system had been completed.
Such precautions have become commonplace in Hoosick Falls and surrounding areas since late last year, when federal officials warned the village that its water, which is drawn from municipal wells, contained unsafe levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, a commercial chemical used in manufacturing Teflon and other products.
Since then, the state has scrambled to keep up with a public health scarethat ranks as the worst of Mr. Cuomo’s five-year-old administration and criticism of the government response, including repeated assertions by the Department of Health and village leaders that the water was safe.
On Sunday, however, the governor defended his reaction and praised the performance of state and local officials. “Congratulations, job well done,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding that while work remained, “we’ve made great progress.”
Mr. Cuomo, who has prided himself on an aggressive response to storms and other disasters, had been chided by some conservative lawmakers for not promptly visiting Hoosick Falls, despite the danger posed by PFOA, which is also known as C-8 and has been linked in studies to cancer, serious pregnancy complications and thyroid disease.
Again, though, the governor said his actions had been appropriate.
“You go personally where you’re needed personally,” said Mr. Cuomo, who on Saturday had rushed to the scene of a fatal tugboat accident on the Hudson River. He added that while he had seen the new filtering equipment that morning — “It’s an attractive filter,” he joked — he noted that “my seeing the filter and touching the filter was not all that relevant.”
About two dozen residents of Hoosick Falls, a village of some 3,500 people near the Vermont border, came to the command center. And not all were impressed by the state’s or the governor’s sense of urgency.
“It was 100 days or so: Where was Cuomo?” said Greg Restino, 60, a service manager for a local car dealership who lives near the plant where the pollution is believed to have occurred. “Somebody should have been here.”
State officials have linked the PFOA in Hoosick Falls to a factory, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, where the chemical was once used in making Teflon products. Since last fall, the company has been paying for bottled water for residents and also funded the temporary water filtration system that the governor talked about on Sunday.
After his announcement, Mr. Cuomo met privately with some residents and promised continued, long-term action on the village’s water problems. Several permanent solutions are being considered, including using water from the Hoosic River — which cuts through the village — or increasing the capacity of a village well where the measured levels of PFOA are low. State officials are also considering using a reservoir about 12 miles away, though Mr. Cuomo suggested that costly option was less likely.
In his public remarks on Sunday, Mr. Cuomo again seemed to fault federal officials for not setting long-term guidelines for PFOA, though theEnvironmental Protection Agency had issued a short-term advisory in 2009 putting the safe level for the chemical at 400 parts per trillion. Shortly after the state acted in January, declaring the Saint-Gobain plant a Superfund site, the federal agency recommended an even lower level: 100 parts per trillion.
And indeed, the E.P.A. is due to set a long-term level this spring, something Mr. Cuomo and the governors of Vermont and New Hampshire — two nearby states where water tainted with PFOA has also been found —recently reiterated the need for. “We think the E.P.A. should set a number, and whatever that number is we’ll follow,” Mr. Cuomo said on Sunday. “But we need the number.”
Still, Mr. Cuomo cautioned that the state’s residents should anticipate the discovery of PFOA and other chemicals in the drinking water of other locations. “We’re going to continue to find situations like this all throughout the state, all throughout the country,” he said, noting that past methods of disposing of toxic chemicals were not always prudent. “Now, in many ways, we’re paying the price as a society.”
Marianne Zwicklbauer, 55, who lives in Hoosick Falls with her husband and two children, said she was appreciative of the governor’s visit, but wanted more action from the state.
“The state shouldn’t have been blindsided by this because the E.P.A. has known about it for years,” she said, adding that she had also been disappointed by the federal response. “I would like to be proud of the State of New York. And they have the opportunity to be great on this.”
The governor seemed sympathetic to those living in Hoosick Falls. “If I had a family here, and my kids were drinking the water, I would be frightened,” he said. “The hyperbole, the confusion, the shifting facts, would frighten me,” he said, adding, “that’s why we’ve worked very hard to say we’re doing everything we can do.”
The state hopes to have the new system delivering clean tap water by next week. In the meantime, however, local officials said they were confident that Hoosick Falls would recover.
“We’re not closing up shop and going anywhere,” the town supervisor, Mark Surdam, said. “This problem will be fixed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/nyregion/pollutant-is-removed-from-water-in-hoosick-falls-ny-cuomo-says.html?_r=0
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(ACC Mentioned) Houston's Petrochemical Boom Could Soon Face a Big Swoon
Mar 11, 2016 | Houston Chronicl
By Jordan Blum
Houston's petrochemical industry is booming and helping to stabilize the regional economy, but troubling signs suggest the surge is coming to an end.
The oil crash that has bedeviled the region's oil and natural gas sector is wiping out much of the cost advantage that Gulf Coast chemical plants leveraged against their global rivals. Chemical plants in the U.S. mostly use bountiful and affordable natural gas as their main feedstock, while the rest of the world relies on crude, which was far more expensive until last year.
At the same time, the entire industry is being hit by a global economic slowdown. The variety of plastic products, packaging and automotive parts is linked to the buying power of global consumers. When demand is down, so is the chemical business.
"The global middle class is so important to chemical consumption," Exxon Mobil Chemical President Neil Chapman said. "That's the driver for the growth in petrochemicals."
In the Houston area, a bevy of petrochemical construction projects helped the metro area compensate for the massive loss of jobs from the ongoing oil bust. Ifthat growth slows before a recovery in oil, Houston's economy will lose a critical counterweight to the crude bust, analysts say.
"We still have a lot of (petrochemical) startups coming online here in the U.S., but once we get past the 2017-2018 time frame, it drops off pretty precipitously," said Dave Witte, senior vice president at the IHS research firm who focuses on the petrochemical industry.
Downtown Houston becomes the center of conversation for the uncertain chemical market this week as industry leaders converge for IHS' 31st World Petrochemical Conference. Executives are expected to discuss industry trends and strategies.
Companies already are focusing more on budgetary discipline and protecting shareholder dividends, Witte said. Most U.S. chemical companies' stock values dropped sharply since this past summer. They are still making money, but not necessarily enough to show returns on big new investments.
"People are kind of pausing right now to take a look and try and get a little bit more visibility and certainty before they make the next round of decisions," Witte said of Gulf Coast project announcements. "It's dramatically fallen off from where it was a couple years ago."
Years in the future
The majority of new Gulf Coast petrochemical projects are too far along to cancel, and companies stress they are building to set themselves up years into the future.
In the U.S., the American Chemistry Council counts 266 projects planned from 2010 to 2023 that cost $164 billion to build. Texas would be home for 104 of the projects - worth $51.3 billion - and most of those are in southern Texas, including the Houston area. The council expects those projects to result in 15,800 "direct" new jobs in Texas - not counting construction jobs - and 67,000 nationwide.
Companies including Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Phillips, Dow Chemical Co., BASF and LyondellBasell have multi-billion-dollar expansion projects underway in areas such as Baytown, Channelview, Mont Belvieu, La Porte and Freeport. Many will be done in a year or so.
"There's a lot of discussions about the weakness in the global economy, but these are long-term investments for us," Exxon Mobil's Chapman said.
Exxon Mobil is spending billions to boost production of ethylene and polyethylene - the world's most common plastic - at its Baytown and Mont Belvieu plants. The project is Exxon Mobil's first major U.S. chemical expansion in more than 15 years, with completion slated for 2017.
But like many other companies, Exxon Mobil doesn't have plans for any projects beyond next year that would expand its chemical footprint.
Exxon Mobil plans to export much of its Gulf Coast products to the developing world.
"It's really an export machine," Chapman said. "The fundamentals haven't changed. We see economic cycles all the time."
And experts say at least in the short term, there are questions about the global economy, including China.
China has been responsible for nearly 60 percent of the growth in global demand growth for petrochemicals the past 15 years, Witte said. That was due to its own growth but also because of its manufacturing base. It imports chemicals and plastics and then sends them back out in packaging or in finished products like toys.
"There's a lot of concern over how China has moved to a consumer economy" with less cheap labor and manufacturing, Witte said. "That has people concerned over what it means for demand growth in chemicals."
But Chapman still expects long-term world growth, citing the projected increase in global population and the fact that many people worldwide will be joining the middle class. Exxon Mobil is also opening petrochemical plants soon in Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
Saudi Arabia's growth
Apart from the Gulf Coast, Saudi Arabia has seen the largest global wave of petrochemical growth. But even the Saudis are looking to break the link between their petrochemical production and oil and natural gas prices.
State-owned Saudi Aramco just announced plans to make more specialty chemicals, which are linked to the performance of the products they are used in, so there's less price volatility. Specialty chemicals are used by industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to perfumes to construction.
So-called base chemicals like ethylene - the primary building block of most plastics - are tied to oil and natural gas prices, and they rise and fall with the markets. All ethylene is virtually equal, for instance, but some specialty pigments or resins made by one company may function in certain products better than those made by competitors.
The Saudis aren't alone in looking to cash in on specialty chemicals, noted Adrian Beale, vice president of specialty chemicals at IHS.
"Because they're not such homogenous products, it's not as easy for buyers to switch from one to another," Beale said, adding that shareholders like the stability of the special chemicals business.
But the problem for Texas is that nearly all of the boom here has been fueled by base growth. Much of the specialty chemical growth will be in developing areas such as China, India and the Middle East, he said, closer to where product consumption is occurring.
If oil prices jump back up, Beale predicted some new petrochemical projects could emerge, but he doesn't expect the growth of recent years to repeat.
"Even if oil prices go back up, we're not expecting them to go back to the heights where they were before," Beale said. "Even though the U.S. will have a kind of advantage, it won't be as significant."
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Houston-s-petrochemical-boom-could-soon-face-a-6884725.php
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(ACC Mentioned) Iowa Can Meet Heath, Environmental, and Economic Goals through Smarter Energy Use
Mar 13, 2016 | NDRC Switchboard
By Katherine McCormick
"American prosperity has always depended on embracing new ideas and technologies. By deploying renewable, cleaner and more efficiency energy solutions, we can make our national economy more productive and resilient.... Promoting energy savings through efficiency and conservation programs is the fastest, most reliable and often cheapest way to meet our energy needs."
Iowa's Governor Branstad signed the Governor's Clean Energy Accord on February 16, 2016. An agreement between 17 states, the Accord is a commitment to work together to expand clean energy - including energy efficiency - because of the myriad benefits that it brings to our electric grid, our health, and our economy.
After all, the cheapest and cleanest electricity is the electricity we don't use. Smarter energy use is the most cost-effective way of reducing pollution from power plants, including the dangerous carbon pollution that contributes to climate change. And, by investing in technologies to reduce energy waste, we can provide valuable savings to customers, create jobs in hard-hit sectors like carpentry and manufacturing, and make homes and buildings safer and more comfortable.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan sets the first limits on carbon pollution from power plants, the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. While the Clean Power Plan is delayed as legal challenges play out, states have an opportunity to show leadership and continue progress on cutting carbon pollution while saving consumers money and creating jobs.
NRDC joined businesses, other nonprofits, and trade associations in a letter to Governor Branstad, advising that Iowa prioritize energy efficiency in meeting its Clean Power Plan goals. The signers were a diverse group, ranging from Dow Chemical Co. and the American Chemistry Council to the nonpartisan business group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). According to the letter, a few common efficiency policies, such as updating building energy codes and increasing the use of combined heat and power, would save Iowans over $7 billion on their utility bills, avoid 11 million tons of carbon pollution, and reduce thousands of tons of other harmful emissions.
Similar letters were sent to 33 other governors to highlight the strong support for smarter energy use, especially from the business community, and underscore the opportunities for states to use efficiency to reduce harmful pollution and grow their economies at the same time.
Iowa has decades of experience in saving consumers money through utility-run efficiency programs that have insulated homes and offered rebates for purchase of more energy-efficient appliances.
But Iowa--which still relies heavily on out-of-state coal for electricity generation despite impressive investments in wind generation--can do much more to expand efficiency.
Among the actions Iowa leaders should take: increase the use of combined heat and power, where electricity and heat are generated from a single source; and opt into the EPA's Clean Energy Incentive Program, which will reward states for early investments in energy efficiency and clean energy measures.
The state also should step up efforts to improve manufacturing energy efficiency, reduce commercial buildings' and residential energy use, including participating for the first time in the $5 billion market for investment in large building efficiency upgrades through energy savings performance contracts.
Implementing these measures will get Iowa more than 70 percent of the way to its 2030 carbon-reduction targets under the Clean Power Plan. And, by taking strong state action now, Iowa will reduce the cost of meeting the Clean Power Plan's carbon reduction targets.
An NRDC analysis showed that ramping up efficiency in Iowa would create 2,500 efficiency jobs alone and save businesses and residents $101 million on energy bills in 2020. Iowa should build on its decades of experience with utility efficiency programs and focus on ever-smarter energy use in the decades to come to cut pollution, safeguard its citizens' health, and grow the economy.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kmccormick/iowa_can_meet_heath_environmen.html
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Feds Block Oregon Natural Gas Export Terminal
Mar 14, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Federal officials denied a permit Friday for a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal, a rare rebuke of a gas project by the federal government.
In rejecting the Jordan Cove Energy Project on Oregon’s coast and the major pipeline to bring gas to it, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said that Veresen Inc., the company behind it, did not sufficiently demonstrate that the need for the pipeline outweighs the harm to local landowners.
“We find the generalized allegations of need proffered by Pacific Connector do not outweigh the potential for adverse impact on landowners and communities,” FERC said of the pipeline in its Friday ruling, adding that “the record does not support a finding that the public benefits of the Pacific Connector Pipeline outweigh the adverse effects on landowners.”
Since the export terminal would have no source of gas without the pipeline, the body denied the facility’s permit as well. FERC is an independent agency whose members are appointed by the president, but no other agency oversees its decisions.
The decision was a rare win for environmentalists like Beyond Extreme Energy and the Sierra Club, who say FERC has acted as a “rubber stamp” for natural gas exports.
Greens have been fighting natural gas exports under the logic that the projects would increase demand for natural gas and hydraulic fracturing, to the detriment of the environment and climate.
“This historic victory is the result of over a decade of hard work by Oregonians and their allies across the environmental movement committed to protecting their communities from this dangerous proposal,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement.
“Allowing dangerous proposals like Jordan Cove to continue will only lead to more drilling and fracking, which in turn will further pollute our air and our water and bring about more climate-fueled weather disasters like the record droughts, wildfires, and superstorms we have witnessed in recent years,” he said.
Natural gas exports received increased attention from lawmakers in recent years as a way to increase the United States’ power internationally and hurt energy superpowers like Russia, while helping the domestic gas industry.
Only one such facility is currently in operation in the contiguous United States. It is in Louisiana, and shipped its first cargo last month.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/272743-feds-block-oregon-natural-gas-export-terminal
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EPA: Lack of Data Is Key Challenge to Regulating Fracking
Mar 14, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
One of the largest challenges in regulating hydraulic fracturing's impacts on water is lack of data, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said March 11.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy also noted the agency's narrow jurisdiction over these activities.
“The only thing we regulate is when you use diesel as a fracking fluid,” McCarthy said at the National Environmental Justice Conference. “It just doesn't happen anymore.”
These comments come days after the latest meeting by the agency's Science Advisory Board that is assessing the EPA's study of fracking risks to drinking water.
The EPA is taking action to limit other environmental impacts associated with the oil and gas industry, though, McCarthy said. For example, the White House announced March 10 that it would request better methane emissions data from existing oil and gas wells as the administration moves to regulate this area (48 DEN A-11, 3/11/16).
A Public Health Agency
McCarthy centered her comments at the environmental justice event, however, on the EPA's role as a public health agency and the agency's continued commitment to protecting families, no matter what type of pollution there may be.
McCarthy emphasized the need to “harness the energy and passion” stirred by a recent drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., to have a serious conversation about “how to draw investment and attention to the areas that need it most, but have the least power to normally be able to draw that investment and that help that they so desperately need.” It is “a multi-billion dollar [environmental justice] conversation that is well overdue” (48 DEN A-22, 3/11/16).
“EPA is really a public health agency,” McCarthy said. “If you don't have healthy people and you don't have the ability to keep your kids safe, than I don't know what else comes next.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=84403062&vname=dennotallissues&fn=84403062&jd=84403062
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SAB Panel Aims To Mend Split Over Draft EPA Fracking Study Conclusion
Mar 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
Members of an EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel are aiming to mend their split over how to respond to the agency's draft study finding “no widespread, systemic impacts” to water from hydraulic fracturing, with some members saying the conclusion is unclear while others are backing it even as they seek more information from EPA.
The divisions surfaced during two days of teleconferences -- on March 7 and 10 -- that the panel held this week as part of its long-running review of the draft study. The calls followed release of a Feb. 16 draft SAB letter to EPA that raised concerns over some of the major findings in the draft assessment, suggesting that the conclusions are ambiguous and may be inconsistent with the data limitations and levels of uncertainty within the assessment.
“Of particular concern in this regard” is EPA's statement that “We did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States,” says the letter.
During the March 7 call, a majority of SAB members endorsed retaining the advice that the agency clarify the statement by providing more emphasis on local or regional impacts from fracking to water supplies, and more clearly defining the systems of interest and the terms “systemic,” “widespread,” and “impacts.”
One member said, “I support the statement we made,” and said the panel should ask EPA to clarify the meaning of “impacts” in the purpose of the draft assessment. The member added that while the draft definition the agency provided in an appendix document defines “impacts” as “any observed change in the quality or quantity of drinking water resources,” EPA is not clear on whether and how it measured for such changes.
A second SAB member noted that members of the public “spoke very passionately about specific” impacts in their communities, and would “like to know more about what went wrong,” suggesting more of a focus on local factors, such as human error and geological features, that might contribute to risk.
SAB in a March 9 summary of the first teleconference this week said of the agency's finding of “no widespread, systemic impacts” that “Most SAB Panel members find that this statement does not clearly describe the system(s) of interest (e.g., groundwater, surface water), the scale of impacts (i.e., local or regional), nor the definitions of 'systemic,' and 'widespread,' or impact, agree that the statement has been interpreted by members of the public in many different ways, and conclude that the statement requires clarification and additional explanation.”
Members' Dissent
But during the March 7 call, Stephen Almond, of Fritz Industries, Shari Dunn-Norman, of Missouri University of Science and Technology and John Fontana, of Vista GeoScience, joined a dissent offered by Walter Hufford, of Talisman Energy, with all four of the panel members backing EPA's draft conclusion.
Hufford said that the agency's statement was “concise and clear” and should not be changed, though the four members suggest that EPA should have provided more information on how it reached its conclusion, such as analysis on reported drinking water wells shown to be impacted by fracking.
Dunn-Norman during the March 7 discussion raised concerns that the draft language criticizing EPA's finding may “create a feeling of thumbs-up or thumbs-down” from SAB on the conclusion.
During the subsequent March 10 call, Dean Malouta, of White Mountain Energy Consulting, said, “I'm troubled by what is meant by 'impacts,' it needs tightening up,”
Scott Bair of the Ohio State University suggested adding qualifying adjectives to the definition, such as 'substantial' or 'health.'”
Fontana added, “We definitely need to help steer [EPA] toward what is meant as impact.”
Prospective Studies
The SAB panel is also highlighting the importance of planned prospective case studies that were dropped from the assessment -- even as agency officials say they currently have no plans to conduct those projects.
The studies had been aimed at gathering valuable baseline data pre-drilling and allowing researchers to track gradual water quality changes as drilling commenced, but the agency was unable to identify sites and resolve liability questions with industry in time to include the studies in the draft assessment.
“At this time, there are no plans for prospective monitoring sites, but possible opportunities may come in the future,” Jeff Frithsen, of EPA's Office of Research & Development (ORD), told Inside EPA during a March 8 interview.
In the meantime, despite a lack of funding for EPA to complete prospective studies, “we're looking over our shoulder at our other federal partners,” Frithsen said. He noted that the Department of Energy (DOE) has identified at least three sites for projects that will examine extraction technologies and minimizing potential environmental impacts over the course of the drilling lifecycle.
Frithsen added that the scope of the DOE research is “broader than what we had planned” because it will not be narrowly focused on fracking's possible impacts on drinking water.
ORD's Kevin Teichman during the same interview pointed out that the research would be consistent with the SAB panel's discussion emphasizing the need for “research grade” monitoring data.
“We are looking at what SAB has to tell us, and relying on our partners” at DOE, Frithsen said, but noted that the DOE findings will likely be completed too late for inclusion in EPA's drinking water study, which the agency hopes to finalize later this year.
SAB's Recommendations
The SAB panel during its March 7 discussion agreed to soften language in the draft letter that said that the lack of the prospective studies is a “major limitation” of the draft assessment, but a majority of members expressed support for stressing the importance of the research.
“I don't know that it is a major limitation, but it is a limitation of the study,” Malouta said March 7, and Elizabeth Boyer, of Pennsylvania State University, also said she would support removing the word “major.”
“For the majority of SAB Panelists, the lack of prospective case studies is a limitation of the draft Assessment Report, since the studies would have allowed the EPA to monitor the potential impacts of [hydraulic fracturing] activities” to a level of detail not routinely practiced by industry or required by most state regulation, says the March 9 summary of the first call.
Hufford initially dissented from the “major limitation” language in the draft Feb. 16 letter. In a March 2 document floated ahead of the March 7 discussions Hufford said that the “implication from the SAB’s draft report characterizing this is a major finding and deficiency advances a position that the agency’s work and subsequent conclusions are therefore 'qualified' by not implementing these two prospective studies.”
But Hufford agreed to drop that dissent given the panel's agreement on revising its language to reflect that EPA should consider “lessons learned” from its challenges in developing the case studies and how they could inform design of future prospective studies, identify ongoing and future research needs, and discuss any plans for conducting future prospective studies.
The panel, which must reach consensus, will work to revise the draft letter later this month and eventually send the draft review to the chartered SAB for consideration and approval.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/sab-panel-aims-mend-split-over-draft-epa-fracking-study-conclusion
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Pennsylvania Shows EPA the Way on Pending Methane Policy
Mar 14, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Fred Krupp and Davitt Woodwell
Speaking to a petroleum industry audience in Houston recently, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “we can and we must do more to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.” McCarthy has it right. Uncontrolled leaking and venting of natural gas wastes a valuable resource and threatens our climate. Last week, as part of a joint announcement with Canada, the administration said it plans to move forward on a solution.
For a blueprint on solving this problem, EPA should take a look at Pennsylvania, where Gov. Tom Wolf (D) recently proposed comprehensive new methane emissions standards for oil and gas companies in his state.
Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, packs 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide for the first 20 years it is in the atmosphere. It accounts for one quarter of the human-caused warming we are currently experiencing. And our biggest opportunity for methane reductions comes from the oil-and-gas sector.
In Pennsylvania alone, operators released at least 97,000 metric tons of methane in 2014, though officials say the real figure could easily be eight times higher. In fact, if just one percent of the natural gas produced in the state is escaping — and experts say that’s a lowball — then Pennsylvania companies could be emitting close to 780,000 metric tons of methane a year, and throwing away saleable product worth over $125 million.
To fix the problem, Pennsylvania is proposing better controls and more frequent monitoring and repair for wells, pipelines, compressors and other infrastructure. Most importantly, new rules will include the more than 5,000 wells and facilities that are already operating. Including existing sources is a critical benchmark, because they will continue to be responsible for the vast majority of emissions for many years to come.
Pennsylvania is no stranger to fossil fuels. Its coal powered the industrial revolution, its innovators drilled the world’s first oil well, and now it’s America's second largest gas producer, after Texas. Today, the state understands that oil and gas production carries a responsibility to deal with the impacts that follow.
Far from wanting to punish producers, Wolf, who campaigned on the need for new methane rules, says they are meant to help the industry maintain viability without compromising environmental performance.
By contrast, the federal government has, until now, been unwilling to apply the same common-sense policies at the national level to companies currently releasing at least 9.3 million metric tons of methane a year according to EPA’s latest draft inventory – even though cutting these emissions is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to achieve the Obama administration’s climate protection goals.
As they move forward, Washington could stand to learn from Pennsylvania, as well as from Colorado, another major oil and gas producer, which enacted similar policies three years ago (with active support of both industry and environmental advocates).
The White House last week reiterated its goal to cut oil and gas methane emissions 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025. Last year, EPA released draft rules covering new emitters, but didn’t touch tens of thousands of existing facilities. Now that’s about to change.
By contrast, rules just proposed by the Bureau of Land Management do apply to both new and existing sources on federal and tribal land. In 2013, those facilities released enough gas to heat 1.5 million homes for a year. But BLM covers only a fraction of U.S. production (14 percent of natural gas, 9 percent of oil). There’s absolutely no reason EPA shouldn’t follow states like Pennsylvania and Colorado, as well as its sister agency.
Some in industry says they can’t afford new regulations with today’s low oil and gas prices. But short-term market conditions don’t excuse cutting corners on emissions, especially when the solutions are such a bargain. Recent studies by ICF show that methane leaks can be reduced at least 40 percent at an average cost of just one penny per thousand cubic feet of gas produced—about one-half of 1 percent of today’s price for that much gas.
The payoff is huge: At global scale, stopping 45 percent of methane leakage would help the climate over the next 20 years as much as shutting down one-third of the world’s coal-fired power plants.
Methane is both a local and national problem that requiring robust detection and repair of leaks. Achieving this it isn’t hard or costly, but it does require commitment from both the state and federal levels. The Obama administration should use its final year to make sure we get it right.
Krupp is president of Environmental Defense Fund. Woodwell is president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/272731-pennsylvania-shows-epa-the-way-on-pending-methane
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Cross-State Air Rule Deadlines Pushed Back
Mar 14, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule that permanently changes compliance deadlines under the agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. The agency in 2014 previously tolled those deadlines on an interim basis after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lifted a stay of that regulation, which limits power plant emissions that cross state lines (EME Homer City Generation, L.P. v. EPA, D.C. Cir., 11-1302, 10/30/14). Pushing the deadlines back was EPA's way of addressing several milestones that had passed as the rule worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ultimately upheld the EPA's approach to regulating interstate transport (EPA v. EME Homer City Generation LP, 134 S. Ct. 1584, 2014 BL 118432, 78 ERC 1225 (U.S. 2014). The EPA said the 2014 interim rule was needed because the agency was unable to complete a notice-and-comment rulemaking to alter the deadlines in time to facilitate orderly compliance with the Cross-State Rule beginning on Jan. 1, 2015 (226 DEN A-9, 11/24/14). The final rule (RIN 2060-AS40), which is scheduled for publication March 14, is available at http://src.bna.com/dfH.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=84403050&vname=dennotallissues&fn=84403050&jd=84403050
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Market Rises on Energy Companies’ Gains
Mar 11, 2016 | AP (In The New York Times)
A jump in crude oil prices and strong gains in European markets set off a rally in U.S. stocks, the fourth consecutive week of gains for the major indexes.
Investors bought across industries from the start of trading on Friday. Drillers, refiners and other energy companies rose sharply as the price for U.S. crude hit a high for the year.
Devon Energy jumped 11 percent and Southwestern Energy gained 10 percent.
Just a month ago, investors were dumping shares amid talk of a possible U.S. recession. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell to almost a two-year low. But confidence is flowing back as data suggests the U.S. economy is strengthening.
“While things aren’t great, they’re not the disaster we thought,” said Bill Strazzullo, chief market strategist at Bell Curve Trading. “We’ve rallied after a horrendous start to the year.”
The S.&P. 500 is up now nearly 11 percent from Feb. 11.
On Friday, the S.&P. 500 gained 32.62 points, or 1.6 percent, to 2,022.19. The Nasdaq composite climbed 86.31 points, or 1.9 percent, to 4,748.47.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 218.18 points, or 1.3 percent, to 17,213.31.
Bank stocks rose sharply. That sector had been beaten down in recent weeks as investors worried about loans to highly leveraged energy companies going bad.
Over all, the rally has some investors worried.
Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist of Federated Investors, said the “terrific four-week run” made him a “little nervous.” Among his concerns are the slowdown in China, a stronger dollar, the decline in corporate profits over the past year, and the potential for surprises in the U.S. presidential election.
“Don’t discount the fiscal policy uncertainty of the election,” he said.
Xavier Smith, manager of the Centre Global Select Equity Fund, said he did not believe oil was at its bottom.
“Oil is a proxy for the overall economy, and it’s not going on four cylinders anywhere,” Mr. Smith said. “So why would oil be strong? It doesn’t make any sense.”
European markets rose sharply as investors hoped that the European Central Bank’s latest blast of stimulus policies would help revive the region’s economy. Germany’s DAX gained 3.5 percent, France’s CAC 40 advanced 3.3 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.7 percent.
The moves by Europe’s central bank included three interest rate cuts, loans to banks, and the expansion of a bond-buying stimulus program. Shares in banks, which will be supported by the central bank loans, were among the biggest gainers.
Investors turn their attention to a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve next week. Unlike its counterparts in Europe and Japan, the Fed is looking to wind down its economic stimulus, though most investors do not expect it to tighten credit next week. The Fed raised rates for the first time in nine years in December.
Among stocks making big moves, driller Anadarko Petroleum rose $3.79, or 9 percent, to $46.29 after saying it would cut 1,000 workers, or 17 percent of its work force.
Power company Pepco Holdings fell $2.18, or 9 percent, to $22.07 after officials for the District of Columbia where it operates rejected a proposal to salvage its troubled $6.8 billion merger with Exelon. District regulators rejected the merger twice before.
U.S. crude added 66 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $38.50 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It has risen 47 percent from a 13-year low of $26.21 a month ago.
Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, gained 34 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $40.39 a barrel.
Wholesale gasoline fell 0.5 cents to $1.444 a gallon, heating oil rose 0.2 cents to $1.218 a gallon and natural gas gained 3.4 cents to $1.822 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The dollar strengthened to 113.70 yen from 113.11 yen while the euro fell to $1.1157 from $1.1196.
U.S. government bonds fell, pushing their yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.98 percent from 1.93 percent late Thursday
Industrial and precious metals were mixed. Gold fell $13.40 to $1,259.40 an ounce. Silver climbed 5.6 cents to $15.61 an ounce and copper rose 2.1 cents to $2.24 a pound.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/12/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Proposal Boosts Prevention of, Response to Accidents
Mar 11, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
Thousands of oil refineries, chemical plants and other major industries would have to step up efforts to prevent serious accidents and keep the public better informed about potential hazards under proposed U.S. EPA regulations.
The draft changes, quietly unveiled last month and set for publication in Monday's Federal Register, would also require such facilities to coordinate at least once a year with local emergency response agencies to make sure that preparations are in place to handle a spill or other accidental release of a regulated substance.
The proposal, which has already come under fire from a chemical industry trade group, follows a 2013 executive order issued after an ammonium nitrate explosion at a Texas fertilizer storage and distribution facility killed 15 people. Among other mandates, the order on "improving chemical facility safety and security" told federal agencies to improve teamwork with their state and local counterparts, strengthen information-sharing, and update policies and regulations.
About 12,500 facilities that have filed risk management plans with EPA could be affected; other industries falling under the proposal's umbrella include pulp mills, pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers, and petrochemical facilities.
Any plant that experiences a catastrophic accident or near-miss would have to undertake a "root cause analysis" as part of the investigation into what went wrong. A facility that has a reportable release of a regulated substance would have to contract with an independent third party to perform a compliance audit. Some plants would also have to provide local emergency planning officials with information on investigation reports and compliance audits; they would also have to hold a public meeting in the wake of any accident that has to be reported under the risk management plan.
Once published, the proposed rule has a 60-day public comment period, accompanied by a March 29 hearing in Washington, D.C.
The proposal was the subject of a flurry of meetings last month at the Office of Management and Budget involving numerous participants from EPA, the American Chemistry Council, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association and other organizations, according to summaries posted on OMB's website.
In a two-page summary of its concerns provided to OMB, the chemistry council said that EPA's proposal would impose "substantial costs" without significantly reducing the risk of accidental chemical releases. The industry trade group also questioned the proposed requirement for third-party audits and said that EPA should show how its plans for improved information-sharing with local planners and the public will be used to bolster emergency preparedness.
"While ACC agrees that facilities should develop constructive relationships with the local community and first responders," the summary said, "EPA has not provided any evidence that sharing internal company reports will improve community safety."
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/stories/1060033891/search?keyword=American+Chemistry+Council
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EPA Faults States For Failing To Craft SO2 Air Plans
Mar 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
EPA is faulting 11 states for failing to craft state implementation plans (SIPs) outlining the air pollution control measures they will enact to cut sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and attain the agency's national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the pollutant, triggering a process for EPA to impose air plans on the states.
In a final rule released March 10 ahead of its publication in the Federal Register, the agency says the states that have failed to submit SIPs for the 2010 NAAQS are Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The states must continue to work toward meeting the 2010 SO2 standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb) issued back in 2010, tougher than the previous annual NAAQS of 30 ppb and 24-hour NAAQS of 140 ppb set in 1971. The one-hour form of the standard aims to limit short bursts of intense SO2 pollution emitted by power plants or other industrial facilities.
In addition, the final rule triggers a Clean Air Act process for imposing sanctions on the states if they fail to craft the missing plans within 18 months or 24 months. If states do not have a plan in place by 24 months from the date of the rule, then EPA must finalize a federal implementation plan directly crafting pollution control plans for those states.
“The EPA is committed to working with these states to expedite the development and submission of their nonattainment area SIP submittals and to review and act on their submissions in accordance with the requirements of” the Clean Air Act, the agency says in a fact sheet on the rule.
Mary Anne Hitt, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, in a statement on the rule said, “Eleven state governments are stonewalling and making excuses when it comes to protecting the health of our communities, so it’s more important than ever that the EPA step up and do its job to promptly put in place federal plans that restore clean air expeditiously.”
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