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ACC AM 4/8
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(ACC Mentioned) The Far REACH of the EU’s Chemical Rules
Apr 8, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
Chemical regulations for US companies are changing rapidly these days, as the bill that will reform the Toxic Substances Control Act moves closer to the president’s desk and as states implement — or modify — their own chemical laws, such as California’s Proposition 65. -
(ACC Mentioned) More Specifics Sought in EPA's Draft Exposure Guidelines
Apr 8, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The state of Virginia, the Department of Defense, DuPont, trade associations and environmental health advocates want the Environmental Protection Agency to provide more specific guidance and refer to more resources in human exposure assessment guidelines it is developing. -
(ACC Mentioned) US Renews Anti-Dumping Tariffs on HDPE bags
Apr 7, 2016 | ICIS
By Lane Kelley
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) this week voted to renew antidumping duties onpolyethylene (PE) retail carrier bags after determining that allowing the tariffs to expire would harm US manufacturers. -
Lawmakers Fight for Stricter Toxic Substance Laws
Apr 8, 2016 | WPTZ
By Rachel Karcz
For the third time, the Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee is considering changes to the decades old Federal Toxic Substances Control Act. -
EU Review of Carbon Nanotube Toxicity Data Reveals 'Contradictions'
Apr 7, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Andrew Turley
Existing data on carbon nanotube (CNT) toxicity is contradictory, making it difficult to draw clear conclusions on their health effects. -
No Safe Level: Old Pipes and Paint Threaten the Health of America’s Children
Apr 7, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Sarah Vogel
Since the crisis in Flint hit the national headlines, the problem of lead exposure from drinking water has come under greater scrutiny. -
(ACC Mentioned) Commerce Secretary Sees Progress Locally Despite Oil Woes
Apr 7, 2016 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum
President Barack Obama's commerce secretary toured Houston's newest petrochemical training center Thursday, focusing on one of the region's few growth areas as the ongoing oil industry bust sheds jobs by the thousands. -
Obama Readies Flurry of Regulations
Apr 7, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Nick Timiraos
The Obama administration is racing to make final a flurry of regulations affecting broad swaths of the economy, further riling U.S. businesses in an election season that has already been tough on corporate interests. -
Overnight Energy: Fracking Questions Dog Clinton
Apr 8, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Another environmental group is knocking Hillary Clinton over her donations from fossil fuel interests, drawing a laugh from the Democratic front-runner this week. -
EPA Sends Final 'Aggregation' Air Rule For OMB Review
Apr 7, 2016 | InsideEPA
EPA has sent for White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) pre-publication review its final rule on how to “aggregate,” or combine, oil and gas sector emissions sources for Clean Air Act permitting purposes, which could keep the agency on track for issuing the regulation sometime in June. -
House Subcommittee to Consider Ozone Bill April 14
Apr 8, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power will consider April 14 legislation that would grant states additional time to develop plans to comply with revised ozone standards, the committee announced. -
States Want McCarthy to Act on Air Pollution Petition
Apr 8, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Martha W. Kessler
Officials from nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states called on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy to act immediately on a petition seeking to add nine other upwind states to the Ozone Transport Region.
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(ACC Mentioned) The Far REACH of the EU’s Chemical Rules
Apr 8, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
Chemical regulations for US companies are changing rapidly these days, as the bill that will reform the Toxic Substances Control Act moves closer to the president’s desk and as states implement — or modify — their own chemical laws, such as California’s Proposition 65.
Another chemical rule that may not be in a company’s direct line of site is the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). Although it’s EU legislation, it’s worth paying attention to for companies in the US as its reach extends beyond far Europe.
First introduced in 2007, REACH affects a wide range of producers, importers, exporters and downstream users of chemicals in industries from automotive to textiles manufacturing. If the European Chemicals Agency deems a chemical to be unsafe to human health or the environment, it places it on the REACH restricted substances list. There are 59 categories of restricted substances in REACH Annex XVII, involving more than 1,000 substances.
Although REACH applies only to products sold in the EU, US and other global businesses are affected, because REACH compliance throughout the supply chain is required to do business in Europe.
“Since REACH has the potential to affect all chemicals and chemical products produced or imported into the EU, any company that wants a chemical on the market in the EU should pay close attention to REACH chemical rules and regulations,” says Greg Skelton, senior director, international, regulatory and technical affairs at the American Chemistry Council. “Regardless of where a company is based — US or otherwise — companies are required to comply with applicable REACH requirements in order to export to the EU.
The legislation aims to protect human health and the environment by replacing hazardous chemicals with safer new ones — but it comes at considerable cost. The European Commission estimated that it would cost the chemicals industry 5.2 billion euros ($5.9 billion) over 11 years. The European Electrical Insulation Manufacturers say other estimates place the figure as high as 12.8 billion ($14.6 billion).
Under REACH, all chemicals produced and imported in the EU must undergo comprehensive testing and be registered with the European Chemicals Agency. This process can take several years and requires all businesses registering the same substance to share data to limit animal testing and compensate each other financially.
During the first registration phase in 2010 for chemicals produced or imported in quantities above 1,000 metric tons per year, 3,400 substances were registered.
Under the upcoming REACH 2018 deadline, substances that are manufactured in the EU or imported from outside the EU in quantities of between 1 and 100 metric tons per year must be registered. Under this final REACH deadline, the European Electrical Insulation Manufacturers expects applications will be made for 25,000 substances.
“Since its implementation, European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals has proven to be overly bureaucratic and costly for both government and industry,” Skelton says. “As highlighted in the 2012 Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Report, most chemical manufactures continue to struggle with the resource, both financial and personnel, drain of the REACH requirements.”
Because complying with REACH has required a large proportion of company resources, the report describes the impact on companies’ resources for innovation thus:
Firms’ business strategies may have to change as a result of the impact of REACH. This could involve rationalization of production for manufacturers and downstream users and the possible withdrawal, or restrictions placed on production or use, or chemical substances, for downstream users.
Skelton says lessons learned from REACH have informed the ongoing efforts to reform the primary US chemical management system: the Toxic Substances Control Act. “A reformed TSCA that it is risk-based, less bureaucratic and more efficient than REACH could serve as a gold standard for other countries developing their chemical management systems, leading to continued innovation in the industry.”
Any “forward-thinking company,” from electronics manufacturers to building materials producers, should pay attention to REACH because it has made Europe the de facto chemical standard, says Dr. Mark Rossi, executive director of Clean Production Action, which works with companies and governments to promote safer chemicals and products.
“If you are thinking about selling globally, you have to comply with REACH,” Rossi explain. “Even if you think my market is just here in the US, if you are forward thinking at all you want to watch what is happening in Europe. It certainty could happen here because of TCSA and because of what is happening at the state level.”
Plus, it costs less to make a substitution to a product ingredient on your own time as opposed to switching a formulation to meet a compliance deadline or new chemical regulation: “it is much more expensive under crisis conditions to comply with regulations,” Rossi says.
Using safer chemicals and products also gives companies a competitive advantage, Rossi says. “In any sector companies are benchmarking themselves against other companies in that same sector,” he says. “If you see your competitor is already making those moves, you want to follow that.”
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/04/08/the-far-reach-of-the-eus-chemical-rules/#ixzz45EjHOWuG -
(ACC Mentioned) More Specifics Sought in EPA's Draft Exposure Guidelines
Apr 8, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The state of Virginia, the Department of Defense, DuPont, trade associations and environmental health advocates want the Environmental Protection Agency to provide more specific guidance and refer to more resources in human exposure assessment guidelines it is developing.
“While the guidance contains a large amount of good and useful information, it provides only limited direct guidance for parties interested in performing or reviewing the types of studies discussed,” wrote Chris Evans, director of remediation programs for Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
The department was among more than a dozen organizations that commented on draft Guidelines for Human Exposure Assessment the EPA released in January. The comment period closed March 22 (05 DEN A-19, 1/8/16).
The draft guidelines are part of the EPA's growing emphasis on improving exposure assessments, a critical step of risk assessments that underlie regulatory decisions. The draft “builds on and supersedes” guidance the agency issued in 1992, the EPA said in its guidelines.
Agency and other government risk assessors and companies that conduct assessments in accordance with the EPA's policies are among the intended audiences for the draft guidelines.
The EPA said its draft incorporates advances in the exposure assessment field that have occurred since 1992. “It briefly describes the principles of exposure science and assessment, provides guidance on the various approaches that can be used to conduct an exposure assessment and provides references for more detailed information. It does not, however, serve as a detailed instructional manual or supplant specific exposure guidance in use by agency programs,” the EPA said.
International, Domestic Examples Sought
Notwithstanding the EPA's caveats, organizations want more details, more references to specific guidance that complement the human exposure draft and a greater emphasis on topics including uncertainty, variability and prenatal exposures.
Evans, from Virginia DEQ, asked the EPA to “please include case studies and/or specific examples for the approaches, exposure calculations, etc. described in this guidance.”
The document could be substantially improved, he said, “by including more discussion of how the principles outlined in the document could be applied to common scenarios encountered by regulators and researchers.”
The Utility Water Act Group, which represents energy companies, said the draft guidance is silent on how it should be applied to specific environmental laws and regulatory programs.
“Absent guidance from EPA, the final document has the potential to be misused and there is a risk it could negatively impact the implementation of EPA and state environmental statutory and regulatory programs,” the utility group said.
Several organizations, including DuPont and the American Petroleum Institute, described their brief comments as supplementing the more extensive response the American Chemistry Council submitted.
The ACC and the American Cleaning Institute said the draft guidelines do not provide the detailed information the agency offered in its 1992 document.
The draft update, therefore, should specifically reference where more information can be found in the 1992 guidance, both trade associations said.
The ACC, DuPont and the Adhesive and Sealant Council urged the EPA to include more information about international advancements made in exposure assessments. They cited work done in Canada, the European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as examples.
Earthjustice and the LifeLine Group, a nonprofit consulting and software development organization, urged the EPA to also give greater attention to exposure assessment advances made by states such as California.
DOD: Address Workplace Exposures
The EPA's statement that its draft guidelines focus on nonoccupational human exposures prompted diverse reactions.
The Department of Defense said occupational exposures should be addressed as well. Some EPA programs include occupational exposures in their risk assessments, the DOD said. These include the Toxic Substances Control Act Work Plan Chemicals assessment program and the TSCA New Chemicals Review Program, it said.
The ACC said the agency's draft guidelines are confusing. While the agency said they are designed for nonoccupational exposures, the guidance discusses workplace exposures several times, the chemistry council said.
The Teratology Society urged the EPA to expand the draft's discussion of known or probable exposures to pregnant women, embryos, fetuses and nursing infants.
Earthjustice said the EPA needs to update not only its exposure guidelines, but many other risk assessment guidances it has developed over the years.
The EPA's guidance on age-dependent adjustment factors, its list of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals and the agency's failure to apply an in utero adjustment factor illustrate how out of date the agency's guidances are and how they are “not in line with current science,” Earthjustice said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=86562653&vname=dennotallissues&wsn=497376000&searchid=27349932&doctypeid=1&type=date&mode=doc&split=0&scm=DELNWB&pg=0
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(ACC Mentioned) US Renews Anti-Dumping Tariffs on HDPE bags
Apr 7, 2016 | ICIS
By Lane Kelley
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) this week voted to renew antidumping duties onpolyethylene (PE) retail carrier bags after determining that allowing the tariffs to expire would harm US manufacturers.
The duties, covering bags from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, are subject to review by the ITC every five years. The commission voted 6-0 in favour of renewing the duties.
The plastic bag industry began to focus on cheaper imports at least 15 years ago, when the influx of products from Asia more than doubled from 2001 to 2003, according to commission testimony in February from Mark Daniels, chairman of the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA) industry group.
That led to anti-dumping duties against China, Malaysia and Thailand, but the problem still remained.
“Instead,” Daniels testified, “market share was simply shifted to Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam.”
Other anti-dumping orders have expanded the list to six countries that must pay the tariffs.
The US plastic bag industry employs 24,600 American workers in more than 40 states, according to the APBA.
Texas, the hub for the US petrochemical industry that makes the high-density (HDPE) used for the bags, also is home to 38 bag manufacturers that employ about 4,600 workers, the most of any state, according to government employment statistics compiled by the Society of the Plastics Industry.
Industry data show that plastic retail bags accounted for roughly 4% of HDPE production in February, according to data from theAmerican Chemistry Council (ACC).
North American retail bag production increased almost 5% in February, but in the first two months this year declined by 3.5% from the same month in 2015.
Source: American Chemistry Council (ACC)US bag makers have been fighting for survival on two fronts, though.
The “battle of the bag” as author Susan Freinkel called it in her book, “Plastic: A Toxic Love Story”, commenced in 2007 when San Francisco became the first US city to ban plastic grocery bags.
Since then, many US cities have enacted similar bans, opposed by Daniels’ group, which pushes recycling.
In his ITC testimony, Daniels referred to a statewide vote in California scheduled for November this year that could ban the bags there.
“It is unclear what the outcome of that referendum will be and what the demand impact would be if the ban were enacted,” he said.
However, Daniels made it clear that fighting the bag bans is not the most crucial battle for his industry.
Rapidly increasing low-priced imports from Asia, he said, are “something we cannot likely endure.”
http://www.icis.com/resources/news/2016/04/07/9985587/us-renews-anti-dumping-tariffs-on-hdpe-bags/
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Lawmakers Fight for Stricter Toxic Substance Laws
Apr 8, 2016 | WPTZ
By Rachel Karcz
For the third time, the Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee is considering changes to the decades old Federal Toxic Substances Control Act.
“It is inadequate in so many ways that I can’t enumerate,” said Committee Chair David Deen.
Deen said they're closer than ever to getting the federal law changed. They want more testing for the roughly 84,000 chemicals currently registered for use.
“I believe only 200 of them have been adequately tested. Only five have been taken off the market because they showed that they in fact hurt people,” Deen said.
The chemical PFOA was recently found in North Bennington and Pownal.
“PFOA is one of the 60,000 chemicals that were exempted when the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act was passed. When they passed the federal statute, they basically said these 60,000 chemicals that are widely in use, we're not even going to look at them,” said David Weinstein, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ senior policy advisor.
Gov. Peter Shumlin announced testing will be done on drinking and groundwater in several spots in Northwest Vermont.
He said there's relatively low risk and they're just being extra cautious.
“Remember this is not a regulated chemical so companies didn't keep records of what they used and how they used it,” Shumlin said.
Still, Deen said more needs to be done to protect every living thing from the chemicals released into the environment.
“Because of chemicals in our water, our fish were showing they are intersexed. They're no longer male or female and could not spawn successfully so fish populations all over the East Coast are dropping. And that tweaked my interest and then Bennington, and it's related,” Deen said.
The testing will be done over the next few weeks.
http://www.wptz.com/news/lawmakers-fight-for-stricter-toxic-substance-laws/38917862
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EU Review of Carbon Nanotube Toxicity Data Reveals 'Contradictions'
Apr 7, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Andrew Turley
Existing data on carbon nanotube (CNT) toxicity is contradictory, making it difficult to draw clear conclusions on their health effects.
This is the finding of a review by the European Joint Research Centre, Echa and the University of Central Lancashire in the UK.
Direct comparison of studies is difficult, they say, because CNTs are available in many unique formulations that:combine tubes of different size, type and origin; andhave different levels of purity.
They say much more research is needed to establish firm conclusions about the toxicity of CNTs and the extent and nature of their impacts from use in CNT–polymer nanocomposites.
The use of CNTs as alternatives to halogenated flame retardants is currently under investigation by the EU-funded project Deroca (development of safe and eco-friendly flame retardant materials based on CNT co-additives for commodity polymers).
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) combined with phosphorus or other non-halogenated flame retardants might avoid the problem of toxic smoke and byproducts produced during fires.
But concerns remain about the potential health risks posed by CNTs. Some scientists have found they act in a similar way to asbestos in biological systems.
https://chemicalwatch.com/46355/eu-review-of-carbon-nanotube-toxicity-data-reveals-contradictions
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No Safe Level: Old Pipes and Paint Threaten the Health of America’s Children
Apr 7, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Sarah Vogel
Since the crisis in Flint hit the national headlines, the problem of lead exposure from drinking water has come under greater scrutiny. And for good reason. Seven to ten million American homes have water delivered through service lines made of lead pipe – the primary source of lead in drinking water. But the events in Flint also highlight the fact that despite decades of decline in the levels of lead in the blood of American children, we still have a lead problem in this country. Given that there is no safe level of exposure to lead, we have a lot of work to do. The current crisis offers a new opportunity to make significant progress, and we have a record of past achievement to learn from and build upon.
Forty years ago over 13 million young children in American had blood lead levels at or above 10 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL). By 2000, that number had decreased to just under a half a million. The greatest reductions made were among low income and children of color who had the highest blood lead levels. As a result of such significant progress, many declared victory and organizations, including EDF, shifted their focus to other environmental health issues leaving considerable work still to be done on lead.
While blood lead levels were declining, scientific evidence was mounting to show there is no safe level of exposure to lead in infants and young children. Studies showed that adverse neurological effects were happening at lower and lower levels of lead exposure. In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the level of lead in blood used to identify those with elevated exposure to 5 µg/dL. Today, approximately 500,000 children have levels at or above 5 µg/dL.
Despite the major declines in children’s blood lead levels at or above 10 µg/dL and decreases in racial and income disparities since the mid-1970s, progress has stalled over the past decade. And still disparities persist. Children living in poverty remain at the greatest risk. Indeed, children in poor households are three times more likely, and African-American children are twice as likely as white children, to have elevated blood lead levels.
As we consider how we can resume progress in reducing children’s blood lead levels and closing the gaps in disparities, it’s important to reflect on what can be attributed to the progress made earlier. It is clear that the sharp declines in blood lead levels over the past four decades came about through a deliberate national strategy focused on four areas:Progressively limiting sources of exposure by setting strong standards for gasoline, paint, plumbing, food cans, and children’s products.Better managing the lead already in place through careful maintenance of paint in homes with lead-based paint, setting stricter standards for lead-based paint hazards in low-income housing, and, for lead in drinking water, using corrosion control to create a protective coating in lead pipes and plumbing.Replacing major sources of lead exposure that are particularly difficult to safely manage—such as lead-based paint windows.Maintaining a surveillance and public health infrastructure to identify and manage lead hazards by testing children for elevated blood lead levels and intervening to identify and remove sources of exposure.
This was a smart strategy, but if we are to make further progress in reducing blood lead levels, significant improvements and fixes are needed.Regulatory standards need to reflect the latest research that demonstrates there is no safe level of lead exposure. This includes updating standards for lead-based paint at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and overhauling EPA's lead in drinking water rule. Tighter controls are also needed on lead from remaining uses such as leaded gas allowed to be used in airplanes and in automobile wheel weights, as well as on exports of lead in batteries and lead-based paint and in electronic waste.Resources drained from the federal and state systems for lead exposure surveillance need to be restored and expanded. The public health and medical communities serve on the front lines of this effort. They need resources to identify children at risk as well as the sources of lead exposure in those children’s homes.We need to step back from a flawed strategy for managing lead in pipes used to deliver drinking water: replacement of the pipes needs to be the priority prevention measure, with corrosion control used as an interim and ongoing control measure. This is a reversal of our current approach for dealing with lead in drinking water. Failures of corrosion control can happen not only in predictable ways, such as when the water supply was changed in Flint, but also in unpredictable ways due to factors such as physical disturbances of the lines. With as many as ten million homes still having lead drinking water service lines, too many children are at risk.
We recognize that lead-based paint remains the biggest contributor to lead exposure in children, and we strongly support the expansion of federal, state and local efforts to reduce the threat from this source. Currently, EDF is primarily focused on accelerating the replacement of lead service lines because of the significant change in policy that is needed and the opportunity to permanently remove a substantial lead hazard. Importantly, we see this work as part of a broader effort to strengthen the lead exposure prevention strategy and to expand the nation’s collective efforts to protect children from lead.
For decades, this country made tremendous progress in reducing the serious threat that lead exposure poses to our children’s health. If we are going to make further progress in reducing children’s exposure to lead, we’ll need an “all of the above” strategy that builds off of our past successes and fixes major problems. Today, there is a unique political opportunity to restore and expand these efforts to better protect millions of Americans from lead hazards.
In an upcoming series of blogs, we will be describing in greater detail some of the policy improvements and opportunities at hand to strengthen the lead poisoning prevention system, including but not limited to removing lead drinking water service lines.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2016/04/07/lead_edf_approach/
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(ACC Mentioned) Commerce Secretary Sees Progress Locally Despite Oil Woes
Apr 7, 2016 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum
President Barack Obama's commerce secretary toured Houston's newest petrochemical training center Thursday, focusing on one of the region's few growth areas as the ongoing oil industry bust sheds jobs by the thousands.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker last year helped choose Houston as one of its seven "Communities that Work Partnership" regions to match job needs with training programs and outreach efforts.
The federal program is working closely with the Greater Houston Partnership's "UpSkill Houston" project. Construction growth in the petrochemical sector has offset some of the job losses in oil and gas.
While visiting LyondellBasell's new training facility next to North Shore Senior High School, Pritzker called Houston a pioneer in bringing together industry leaders, nonprofits, community colleges and high schools for the best interests of the economy.
"The fact that the petrochemical industry is a bright spot is all the more reason to train folks who are coming out of oil and gas or other industries," Pritzker said. "This is not just about the high school student. This is also about retraining."
Pritzker said she was impressed after speaking with one of Lyondell-Basell's top recruiters.
"I would bet dollars to doughnuts she's not going to overlook the folks that are being laid off," Pritzker said. "Certainly, the flip side is we ought to make them aware of the opportunities in this (petrochemical) industry."
GHP's UpSkill Houston effort formally launched in 2014 to help fill skilled workforce needs in the petrochemical, manufacturing and health care sectors, and more. UpSkill Houston Chairwoman Gina Luna said the overall awareness effort could do more to specifically target oil industry employees losing their jobs. Chevron, for instance, announced 655 Houston job cuts on Thursday.
"It's something we really need to talk more about," Luna said. "Absolutely. That's a huge opportunity. We would love to help re-direct people who are negatively affected in upstream. They would need training, but in some cases it'd be very little."
Energy companies have axed more than 320,000 positions worldwide since the oil and gas bust began, according to Houston consulting firm Graves & Co., which has tracked the industry reductions.
At the same time, the supply of cheap and ample natural gas that's used as the feedstock in chemical plants has created a petrochemical boom along the Gulf Coast.
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 - not counting construction jobs - in Texas and 67,000 nationwide.
David Gosnay, LyondellBasell's training manager for its growing Channelview petrochemical complex, said he's begun seeing former oil field services workers from Schlumberger and other companies switch to LyondellBasell.
"They were worried about the stability of their jobs," Gosnay said.
Todd Monette, LyondellBasell's Channelview plant manager, said there are fewer "wage battles" to hire construction crews away from oil and gas companies during the energy downturn.
"We're going to continue to hire at a pretty good clip probably for the next five or six years," Monette said, noting that the Channelview complex will employ up to almost 1,500 at any given time, including nearly 500 contractors. "I always tell people I run a little city."
For instance, Matt Damge, 42, of Baytown, retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years of service and didn't know what to do next.
He started at San Jacinto College and found himself drawn to job opportunities as a chemical plant operator, and especially to LyondellBasell, once he learned about its military internship class. He was hired full time more than a year ago.
Even a burly Marine veteran like Damge admitted "some fear" about such a big career change. "These guys were very understanding, and I don't think I would've gotten that anywhere else," he said.
Now he sees the effects of the oil bust and hopes those woes don't ripple through chemical plants.
"Yeah, we're driving by. We're seeing it," he said.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Commerce-secretary-sees-Houston-progress-despite-7235393.php
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Obama Readies Flurry of Regulations
Apr 7, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Nick Timiraos
The Obama administration is racing to make final a flurry of regulations affecting broad swaths of the economy, further riling U.S. businesses in an election season that has already been tough on corporate interests.
Planned moves—across labor, health, finance and the environment—range from overtime pay for white-collar workers to more obscure matters such as requiring food makers to disclose added sugar on cartons of flavored milk.
The expected burst of regulation follows an intense few weeks in which the administration has targeted corporate tax inversions, imposed new rules on brokers and advanced restrictions on company relations with union organizers.
The moves have drawn sharp reactions from business groups. After the tax rules, a top U.S. Chamber of Commerce official lamented “politicians bullying America’s job creators.” The head of the Business Roundtable, which represents big-company CEOs, criticized “unilateral action” by the administration.
The rush reflects President Barack Obama’s aim to use his final months in office to cement a progressive domestic-policy legacy using executive powers despite fierce opposition from a Republican-controlled Congress.
Business uncertainty from Washington may not change anytime soon. Presidential front-runners in both parties have shown greater hostility toward business in some ways, with Democrats promising stiffer regulation and Republicans calling for new tariffs or an end to subsidies.
In his first seven years, Mr. Obama issued 392 regulations deemed “major,” meaning each carries an expected economic effect exceeding $100 million annually. Forty-seven more sat on the drawing board for this year. The tally issued already tops the totals during the eight-year tenures of George W. Bush,at 358, and Bill Clinton, at 361, according to an analysis by George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center.
Raw tallies can be imprecise because they obscure particularly consequential regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency’s clean power plant rules issued last year, for example, would require a 32% cut in power plant carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels. Such a bid to address climate change aims to reshape how energy is produced in America. In February, the Supreme Court granted a temporary order blocking the regulation until courts resolve legal challenges.
Although Mr. Obama has until his term ends in January to make regulations final, a deadline looms this spring. Congress can vote to stop any regulation within 60 legislative days of its completion. The president can veto such resolutions.
If Republicans win the White House and maintain control of Congress, any rule issued by Mr. Obama within 60 legislative days of the end of his term could be overturned. That is because a Democratic president wouldn’t be there to veto a congressional vote to block the regulation.
To issue regulations and still leave 60 legislative days before Mr. Obama’s term ends, he has to issue them by mid-May.
Executive orders aren’t subject to such a review, though Congress could pass laws to constrain or undo them. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama said the Treasury’s latest action to deter corporate inversions stemmed from the failure of Congress to overhaul international tax laws. “My hope is that they start getting serious about it,” he said.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton promises to defend Mr. Obama’s executive actions and go even further on inversions. “This is not only about fairness. This is about patriotism,” she said in December when she promised to stop inversions along the same lines as this week’s actions.
GOP candidates pledge to use the same powers to undo Mr. Obama’s agenda, blaming regulations in part for an economic expansion that has been slow to lift incomes. At the same time, Republican front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated Washington for failing to stem the tide of corporate inversions and other candidates pledge to roll back corporate welfare.
Some regulatory expansion stems from legislation. The health-care and financial regulatory laws passed in 2010 instructed regulators to fill in specifics later. The Affordable Care Act is responsible for around one in four major regulations issued in the Obama administration, according to the George Washington University tally.
That count doesn’t include many others, such as those created by the Dodd-Frank Act, because they are enforced mainly by agencies outside the executive branch, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
For workers, the administration has proposed doubling the salary threshold that generally determines which workers are eligible for overtime pay—raising it from its current level of $23,660, last updated in 2004, to $50,440. Hourly workers who earn salaries below the threshold would become eligible for overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week.
Ed Brady, who runs a small home-building company in Bloomington, Ill., said he understands the need to raise the threshold but said the proposal would raise it too much at once.
The increase would require him to put his salaried white-collar employees on an hourly schedule. For his construction superintendent, who earns $36,000 a year before production-related bonuses, “I’m not sure he would be happy with that, or that I’d be able to keep him,” he said.
The Food and Drug Administration is preparing rules to update nutrition labeling on packaged foods and beverages to disclose added sugar. The labels would set the recommended intake of added sugar at no more than 10% of calorie intake.
All the rules face questions of how they will fare after Mr. Obama leaves. A court challenge offers opponents the best shot at directly stopping them, say analysts, but that takes time. Congress could curtail some through spending bills.
Despite GOP candidates’ frequent promises to repeal regulations, advisers to presidents say doing so may take time due to public comment and review.
“President Cruz or President Trump cannot walk into the Oval Office and say, ‘I’m getting rid of this regulation, that regulation,’ and expect that it will be done tomorrow, next week or even next month,” said Sally Katzen, regulatory chief during President Clinton’s second term.
Presidents also discover they don’t want to burn political capital repealing consumer or environmental protections. After Mr. Bush took office, his team reviewed regulations Mr. Clinton had enacted just before leaving. “We didn’t agree with a lot of them,” said John Graham, regulatory czar for Mr. Bush. But “refighting all those battles” wasn’t worth it.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-readies-flurry-of-regulations-1460077858
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Overnight Energy: Fracking Questions Dog Clinton
Apr 8, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
FRACKING FRAUGHT FOR CLINTON: Another environmental group is knocking Hillary Clinton over her donations from fossil fuel interests, drawing a laugh from the Democratic front-runner this week.
Climate group 350 Action circulated a video Thursday of an activist asking Clinton to stop receiving donations from the hydraulic fracturing industry during her presidential campaign.
In the video, Clinton laughed at the activist and said, "Go read the articles. I've debunked all of that."
Clinton's donations from the fracking industry have bubbled up into a minor issue in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Her rival, Bernie Sanders, said last week that she has "taken significant money from the fossil fuel industry," and green groups such as Greenpeace are tying her to more than $1.6 million in donations from industry employees or lobbyists and bundlers.
In response, Clinton has pointed to fact-checking groups that have largely dismissed those complaints, noting donations from fossil fuel interests represent a minor percentage of her overall fundraising this cycle.
"I feel sorry sometimes for the young people who believe this. They don't do their own research," Clinton said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Read more (and watch the new video) here.
EPA CHIEF TALKS FRACKING, TOO: Meanwhile, the Obama administration's top environmental regulator said Thursday that upcoming rules on methane emissions will help keep the fossil fuel industry "sustainable" in the future.
"Moving on [methane] will reaffirm our leadership on climate. It also will happen to make sure that our ability to continue to rely on fossil fuel will be done in a way that is sustainable, as well," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a speech in Canada.
"When you leak methane you are highly inefficient, not just highly polluting. We have to get the methane out of the system. We're going to do it together and we're doing to do it on oil and gas."
Obama is pushing to cut methane emissions by up to 45 percent from 2012 levels over the next decade, saying such a measure is important for reducing a potent global warming-causing greenhouse gas.
McCarthy, though, said it should also help keep natural gas a sustainable fuel for energy generation in the future.
The low price of gas has already made it a viable alternative to coal for electricity generation, and since burning natural gas releases fewer emissions, cutting down on methane leaks would deliver more bang for the buck, environmentally.
Some environmental advocates -- including Sanders -- have embraced the so-called "keep it in the ground" movement as a way to stop fossil fuel development in the future. But McCarthy's statement Thursday reinforces signals from other senior Obama officials that the administration doesn't buy into that push.
Read more here.
LET'S LET CANADA WEIGH IN: McCarthy was in Ottawa on Thursday to meet with her Canadian counterpart, environment and climate change minister Catherine McKenna.
In a speech of her own, McKenna said she was happy to have a "great partner in the United States" on climate change causes, including methane regulations. President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed last month to work together on climate issues, including cutting methane emissions from both countries' oil and natural gas sectors.
McKenna said that such a strategy will have a big impact on the climate change front around the world, especially if North American officials are able to expand their work internationally.
"There is a sense that we need to work very hard and look at all the bilateral tools. When we talk about methane we are discussing how we can expand that to Mexico and how we can expand that globally," she said.
"If we were able to expand globally what've done bilaterally, it would be like closing one-third of the coal-fired plants around the world. That's how important that action is."
READY FOR 'THE REALLY BIG ONE'? Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is warning that the Pacific Northwest isn't prepared to deal with the impacts of a massive earthquake there, something geologists warn is long overdue.
During a hearing on Thursday, Cantwell said government agencies need a better plan to deal with a quake and tsunami that experts say could be as powerful as the 2010 disaster in Japan. She warned of local and county officials in Washington state hearing from federal scientists and struggling to come up with earthquake mitigation plans for their communities.
"I think we need to keep doing more work to make these plans a reality at the federal level," she said. "The size that people are talking about, the map that they show ... basically one of the largest economies in the world, the West Coast economy, will be greatly impacted by this. So I think we want to keep knitting it together."
Cantwell was alluding to a potential quake at the Cascadia subduction zone, a prospect raised by the New Yorker in a (frightening) article last summer. Cantwell said she has heard from more people on that subject than any other, and the government needs a better plan to prepare for that eventuality.
"That's the most I've heard from my constituents, from people across the country, people I grew up with, people in Europe, everybody saying: Have you read this?" Cantwell said. "I don't even know if people here in our nation's capital have our minds wrapped around this."
Read more here, and read the New Yorker's 2015 article here.
AROUND THE WEB:
One-fourth of European countries have now shuttered all their coal-fired power plants, EcoWatch reports.
British Prime Minister David Cameron will not fill his vacant climate change envoy position, a post he created before the Paris climate talks, The Guardian reports.
To cope with a drought and energy crisis, Venezuela's president has given his country's workers Fridays off between now and the end of May, The Wall Street Journal reports.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/overnights/275540-overnight-energy-fracking-problems-rise-again-for
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EPA Sends Final 'Aggregation' Air Rule For OMB Review
Apr 7, 2016 | InsideEPA
EPA has sent for White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) pre-publication review its final rule on how to “aggregate,” or combine, oil and gas sector emissions sources for Clean Air Act permitting purposes, which could keep the agency on track for issuing the regulation sometime in June.
OMB received EPA's final “Source Determination for Certain Emissions Units in the Oil and Natural Gas Sector” on April 7, according to OMB's website, with review typically taking 90 days.
The proposed version of the rule released last year included two options for determining when sources are "adjacent" and therefore considered as a single source and subject to aggregation under one permit. One option is a controversial "functional interrelatedness" factor that would lead to more aggregation than current policy, and the second is a more conservative "physical proximity" test that EPA says is its preferred option.
Whether facilities are aggregated is a concern for industry because combining sources can push their total emissions over the threshold for stricter "major" air permits rather than weaker "minor" source permits.
The proposal is part of the administration's package of air rules affecting the oil and gas sector, which includes the agency's first time methane emissions controls for the industry's new and modified sources that EPA alsosent for OMB review this week.
Environmentalists support the "functional interrelatedness" test in the proposed aggregation rule, urging the agency to drop the quarter mile bright line approach and instead adopt the interrelatedness option for determining adjacency, whereas industry says that neither approach is necessarily lawful, though they favor the physical proximity test.
For example, in Dec. 4 comments on the proposed rule, the American Petroleum Institute faults the proposal for being at odds with the Alabama Power v. Costle 1980 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling, saying the fundamental interrelatedness test "is contrary to law and should not be adopted." API echoes EPA in saying that its preferred option is the physical proximity test.
http://insideepa.com/news-briefs/epa-sends-final-aggregation-air-rule-omb-review
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House Subcommittee to Consider Ozone Bill April 14
Apr 8, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power will consider April 14 legislation that would grant states additional time to develop plans to comply with revised ozone standards, the committee announced. The Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2016 (H.R. 4775), introduced March 17 by Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas), would also bar the Environmental Protection Agency from reviewing the current ozone standards before 2025 (53 DEN A-4, 3/18/16). In 2015, the EPA lowered the national ambient air quality standards for ozone to 70 parts per billion, down from the 75 parts billion set by the George W. Bush administration in 2008. Senior House Republican leaders, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), are among the original co-sponsors of the legislation. Text of the legislation is available at 1.usa.gov/1PevJTO.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=86562659&vname=dennotallissues&fn=86562659&jd=86562659
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States Want McCarthy to Act on Air Pollution Petition
Apr 8, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Martha W. Kessler
Officials from nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states called on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy to act immediately on a petition seeking to add nine other upwind states to the Ozone Transport Region.
That would require those nine new Midwestern states to install and operate the same air pollution controls that are required from similar sources in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
The environmental commissioners from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont urged McCarthy in an April 6 letter to grant the petition they had filed in December 2013 ( (237 DEN A-1, 12/10/13)).
The states say the action is necessary to curb air pollution from the nine upwind states that interferes with the downwind states' ability to comply with federal air quality standards.
Under Section 176A of the Clean Air Act, states can petition the EPA to add any state to an air quality region such as the Ozone Transport Region if there is reason to believe it is the source of pollution that causes violations of air quality standards elsewhere, according to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The Connecticut agency said in a statement April 7 that the EPA administrator was required to approve or disapprove the petition by June 10, 2015, but the action was postponed as the states sought an alternate resolution to the petition.
Connecticut DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee said in a statement April 7 that while the states were able to obtain voluntary emissions reductions from power plants in some of the upwind states, an impasse had been reached and they were unable to achieve legally enforceable control measures to address ozone transport for 2016 and beyond.
As a result, the nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states said they have asked EPA to take formal action and grant the petition.
That petition seeks to add Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia to the Ozone Transport Region.
The states said in their letter to McCarthy that “expansion of the OTR will aid in addressing ozone transport which will result in more reductions of precursor emissions that significantly contribute to ozone nonattainment in our states and would result in a fairer distribution of controlling this pollution.”
North Carolina has already asked a federal court to compel the EPA to respond to the 2013 petition (Van der Vaart v. McCarthy, E.D.N.C., No. 5:16-cv-138, 3/30/16; 62 DEN A-13, 3/31/16)).
Though North Carolina disputes that its emissions are contributing to degraded air quality in eight Northeastern states, the lawsuit, filed March 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, claims that the EPA has failed to “undertake their mandatory, non-discretionary duty to either approve or disapprove” the December 2013 petition within 18 months as required by the Clean Air Act.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=86562662&vname=dennotallissues&fn=86562662&jd=86562662
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