Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 4/13
-
(ACC Mentioned) American Chemistry Council: Global Chemical Production Looks Positive
Apr 13, 2016 | Energy Global
By Francesca Brindle
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) released its Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) for February with the headline index rising 0.2% on a three month moving average (3MMA) basis. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Proposes Three New Use Rules to Protect Workers
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Significant new use rules designed to protect workers manufacturing three chemicals will be proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency April 13. -
(ACC Mentioned) If You Eat Fast Food You’re Getting a Generous Helping of Toxic Chemicals
Apr 13, 2016 | Civil Eats
By Elizabeth Grossman
Most busy Americans have a powerful push-pull relationship with fast food. While they may know the facts—most fast food is high in fat, salt, and sugar and can lead to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity—they still eat a lot of it. -
The Flaws in the Emerging Toxics Reform Legislation and How They Can Be Fixed
Apr 12, 2016 | Huffington Post
By Nicholas Ashford
Congress is about to take action on reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), addressing the slow progress since its passage in 1976 in advancing protection from exposure to toxic substances, as well as a significant set-back rendered by a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 1991. -
New EPA Chemical Safety Advisory Committee to Meet May 11
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
A newly formed committee that will advise the Environmental Protection Agency about risk assessments conducted by its Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) will hold an online, public orientation meeting May 11, according to a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published April 13. -
TTIP Could Weaken REACH Safeguards, Groups Say
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
A pair of European environmental protection groups criticized U.S. and European Union trade negotiators working on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), saying the trade pact could weaken European controls over harmful chemicals. -
Citing Health Concerns, Marine General Bans War Court Defense Staff from Living at Guantánamo’s Camp Justice
Apr 12, 2016 | Miami Herald
By Carol Rosenberg
The general overseeing Guantánamo war court defense teams has issued an order forbidding his staff to sleep at the Camp Justice compound following a new health risk assessment on cancer-causing agents there. -
(ACC Mentioned) Natural Gas: Powering American Manufacturing Growth
Apr 13, 2016 | Marcellus Shale Coalition
American natural gas development is spurring investment and job growth across the chemical manufacturing sector, representing a “stunning reversal of fortune from just a few years ago,” according to new American Chemistry Council (ACC) analysis. In the update to ACC’s 2013 study, the new research makes clear that U.S. -
(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Industry Investment Linked to Shale Gas Tops $164B!
Apr 13, 2016 | Marcellus Drilling News
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) participated in a Hudson Institute event yesterday. During a presentation made by the ACC, they announced that U.S. chemical industry investment linked to plentiful and affordable natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from shale formations has reached an astonishing $164 billion. -
(ACC Mentioned) Shale Boom Drives $164 Billion in Chemical Sector Spending
Apr 7, 2016 | Business and Industry Connection Magazine
The U.S. chemical industry has invested $164 billion in capital projects as a result of the shale boom, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) said Wednesday. ACC said 40% of those projects — including new facilities, expansions and facility restarts — are completed or underway, while 55% are in the planning phase. -
Shell Chemical Texas Steam Cracker has Upset; Market Sources Say Plant is Offline
Apr 12, 2016 | Platts
Shell Chemical has suffered a second process upset in as many days at its 835,000 mt/year steam cracker in Deer Park, Texas, a company spokesman said Tuesday, while market sources said the plant was offline. -
LNG Trade Hits New Peak in 2015, With Glut Looming in 2016
Apr 12, 2016 | Fuel Fix
By Robert Grattan
Global trade in liquefied natural gas hit a record high last year, an industry group reported this week, as the market for the fuel heads toward an oversupply this year. -
Waste-Heat-to-Power Technology Cuts Oil & Gas Costs, Emissions
Apr 12, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
As oil and gas companies look to cut costs during this time of price volatility and meet strict emissions regulations, Alphabet Energy and Coyote North have developed a product that that they say does both. -
Maryland County Becomes First in State to Say ‘No’ to Fracking
Apr 12, 2016 | The Washington Post
By Arelis R. Hernández
Lawmakers in Prince George’s County voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban hydraulic fracking, becoming the first local jurisdiction in Maryland to prohibit the extraction of natural gas within its borders since the state’s moratorium on the practice went into effect. -
Support Dries Up for Renewable-Energy Tax Breaks
Apr 13, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Richard Rubin
An attempt by renewable-energy advocates to have their tax breaks hitch a ride on a Senate aviation bill looks like it isn’t going to get off the ground. -
House Denies Admin Priorities in Energy and Water Spending Bill
Apr 12, 2016 | E&E News PM
House Republican appropriators unveiled a tight $37.4 billion energy and water development spending bill this afternoon that largely ignores the White House's request and takes on several of its top policies. -
Big Investments Seen for Gas, Oil Infrastructure
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alan Kovski
The U.S. and Canada will need an average of about $26 billion a year in infrastructure investments for transportation, processing and storage of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids over the 21-year period from 2015 to 2035, according to a study released April 12 by the INGAA Foundation. -
Environmentalists Press States To Demonstrate Biomass GHG Cuts In ESPS
Apr 12, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Dawn Reeves
Environmentalists at an EPA-sponsored workshop on using “climate-friendly” biomass in its power plant greenhouse gas rule strongly pressed state officials on how they would show that biomass used to comply with the rule actually reduces GHGs, with some hinting that a lack of such a demonstration could prompt legal action. -
California Aims to Slash Potent GHGs by 2030
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
California aims to slash emissions of methane, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon 40 percent to 50 percent by 2030, under a draft plan state air quality regulators released late yesterday. -
Republicans, Small Business Complain of Onerous EPA Rules
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
Republican senators and small business representatives complained at an April 12 hearing that under the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has been unrelenting in imposing burdensome regulations with little sensitivity to the costs they impose. -
Judges Reject Consolidation Of West Coast PCB Cases
Apr 12, 2016 | InsideEPA
A federal judicial panel is rejecting a request from several West Coast cities to consolidate their tort claims against chemical company Monsanto for water and sediment contamination stemming from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), saying consolidation is unneeded as the parties, regulations, bodies of water and contamination differ among the lawsuits.
Industry and Association News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Transportation News
Environment News
-
(ACC Mentioned) American Chemistry Council: Global Chemical Production Looks Positive
Apr 13, 2016 | Energy Global
By Francesca Brindle
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) released its Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) for February with the headline index rising 0.2% on a three month moving average (3MMA) basis. This follows a 0.4% gain in January and a strong 4Q15. During February, chemical production rose in North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific; was flat in Africa and the Middle East, and fell in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. The Global CPRI was up 3.4% year over year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 110.1% of its average 2012 levels in February.
During February, capacity utilisation in the global business of chemistry slipped slightly to 81.6%. This is off from 81.9% last February and is still below the long term (1987 - 2015) average of 89.2%. All segments of the business of chemistry have improved from the trough of the recession with the most pronounced recovery having occurred in the cyclical segments. During February, results were positive, with production of manufactured fibres, synthetic rubber, inorganic chemicals, and coatings as weak segments. Considering Y/Y comparisons, chemical production increased in every category. Growth was strongest in plastic resins followed by pharmaceuticals, consumer products, manufactured fibres, and other specialties. Other segments featured more modest year earlier comparisons.
ACC's Global CPRI measures the production volume of the business of chemistry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012 = 100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98% of the total global business of chemistry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the US CPRI data, a timely source of US regional chemical production.
http://www.energyglobal.com/downstream/petrochemicals/13042016/American-Chemistry-Council-positive-growth-CPRI-global-chemical-production-3023/
-
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Proposes Three New Use Rules to Protect Workers
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Significant new use rules designed to protect workers manufacturing three chemicals will be proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency April 13.
The EPA says all three chemicals are analogous to diisocyanates, a group of chemicals that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says can cause asthma, lung damage and in severe cases, death. Diisocyanates are used primarily to make polyurethane products, such as rigid and flexible foams, coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers, according to an American Chemistry Council website.
The three SNURs would require any company making any of the three chemicals to take precautions, such as ensuring potentially exposed workers are in well-ventilated workspaces and wearing National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-certified respirators that meets specific criteria.
Three Chemicals Already in Commerce
The original manufacturer of each chemical already agreed to such controls after it submitted premanufacture notices (PMNs) prior to the agency allowing the chemicals to enter commerce. The SNURs are designed to ensure that any subsequent manufacturer agrees to the same conditions as did the original manufacturer.
Any company intending to make the chemicals without implementing the requirements in the proposed rule would have to notify the EPA 90 days before manufacturing them. The notification would allow the EPA to review the proposed manufacturing process and determine whether it would pose an unreasonable risk warranting some kind of control.
The EPA will accept comment on the proposed rules through May 13.
The EPA is proposing new use rules for the three chemicals after the American Chemistry Council and its Diisocyanates and Aliphatic Diisocyanates Panels told the agency they planned to object to direct final SNURs the EPA issued Oct. 2, 2015, for these three chemicals. The three new use rules were part of a package of 30 SNURs the agency issued at the time (191 DEN A-9, 10/2/15; 80 Fed Reg. 59,593).
The generic names of three chemicals, ways they are used and the premanufacture notice (PMN) numbers EPA assigned are:
• isocyanate prepolymer, an ingredient in an industrial adhesive (P-15-221);
• methylene diisocyanate polymer with diols and triols, an industrial adhesive (P-15-247); and
• polymer of isophorone diisocyanate and amine-terminated propoxylatedpolyol, which is used to make polymers (P-15-278).
Standard EPA Procedure Followed
In keeping with standard procedures, the EPA withdrew its direct final SNURs (RIN 2070-AB27) for the three chemicals on Nov. 20, 2015, after the American Chemistry Council and its diisocyanates panels submitted letters to the agency announcing their intent to object to the SNURs for these three chemicals (224 DEN A-9, 11/20/15; 80 Fed. Reg. 72,592).
The letters of the council and panel did not describe their concerns.
A chemistry council attorney told Bloomberg BNA April 12 she needed to discuss the proposed SNURs with interested council member companies before describing what their concerns may be.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87171063&vname=dennotallissues&wsn=497275500&searchid=27383883&doctypeid=1&type=date&mode=doc&split=0&scm=DELNWB&pg=0
-
(ACC Mentioned) If You Eat Fast Food You’re Getting a Generous Helping of Toxic Chemicals
Apr 13, 2016 | Civil Eats
By Elizabeth Grossman
Most busy Americans have a powerful push-pull relationship with fast food. While they may know the facts—most fast food is high in fat, salt, and sugar and can lead to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity—they still eat a lot of it. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, eight in 10 Americans report eating at fast food restaurants at least monthly, with almost half said they eat it at least weekly.
Now, a new study may add fuel to the anti-fast food fire. It suggests that people who eat fast food regularly are being exposed to significantly higher levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals called phthalates. These findings raise concerns because phthalates have been linked to a range of adverse effects including impacts on reproductive, behavioral, and respiratory health.
Published today in Environmental Health Perspectives, the study, conducted by researchers at George Washington University, looked at fast food consumption by nearly 9,000 people and found that those who reported eating more of it in the past day had urinary phthalate levels as much as 40 percent higher than those who had eaten no fast food in the 24 hours before testing.
“This is the largest study of its kind to examine if a certain type of food preparation is associated with levels of these chemicals in the body,” the study’s lead author Ami Zota, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University, told Civil Eats.
The study asked about 8,900 people participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2003 and 2010 what they had eaten in 24 hours before having their urine tested for the breakdown products of two phthalates: di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and diisononyl phthalate (DiNP).
The researchers also calculated how much fast food-related fat people had consumed and recorded what type of food people had eaten: meat, dairy, grain, eggs, etc. The results showed clearly that people with the highest fast food consumption had 23.8 percent higher levels of metabolized DEHP in their urine and 39 percent higher levels of metabolized DiNP.
Higher fat, meat, and grain consumption was also linked with higher phthalate levels but over all, the results “suggest a bigger relationship between phthalates and the fast food,” Zota explained. The findings connecting phthalate exposure with food are supported by many previous studies that have examined phthalate levels in different types of food.
A Ubiquitous Chemical
Phthalates are used extensively in plastics, including food packaging and processing equipment, medical equipment, flooring, toys, and countless other consumer products. They’ve also been used as preservatives in synthetic fragrances and in personal care products and cosmetics, including lotions, nail polishes, shampoos, deodorant, and baby wipes to name but a few. Phthalates can migrate out of all these products and can be inhaled, absorbed through skin, and ingested. Phthalates are so widely used that scientists consider them “ubiquitous” and the CDC has found them in the bodies of well over 90 percent of Americans tested.
In animal studies certain phthalates have been shown to interfere with the male reproductive system. Many studies have linked phthalate exposure to adverse reproductive, respiratory, and neurobehavioral health effects in children and to increased risk for metabolic disease. Based on concerns among medical and public health professionals, a number of phthalates are now barred from use in children’s products by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. While different phthalates can produce different health effects, the two phthalates tracked in this study are considered endocrine disrupters and associated with these effects.
As Zota explains, the study defined fast food as the CDC does, including not only the big chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s, but also at other restaurants without table service and grab-and-go food like prepared sandwiches or pastries at Starbucks, or slices of pizza, burritos, and noodles. The exposures appeared to apply equally to McDonald’s and Burger King and to higher-end fare at Starbucks and “casual dining” restaurants, she said.
Also notable, says Zota, is the diversity of the participants, who ranged in age from six to 80 and included a full range of socio-economic, racial, and ethnic groups. Age was the only of these factors that made a difference—the exposures were highest in teens and adults and lowest in children—likely reflecting patterns of eating, Zota and colleagues noted.
Where are the Phthalates Coming From?
While the study did not investigate the initial sources of phthalates measured, previous research suggests that these chemicals are associated with food packaging, preparation, storage, processing equipment–including dairy tubing–and even the vinyl gloves some food industry workers wear, Zota explains. “There’s a myriad of sources,” she says. “It’s most likely the more processed the food the more opportunities [for phthalate exposure.]”
How important are these exposures? “No studies in humans have found a safe level of phthalate exposure,” says New York University School of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine Leo Trasande, who did not participate in this study but has researched phthalates in food. “We know there are effects of low level exposure,” he says. For example, the levels found in this new study are comparable to those previously linked to blood pressure increases and metabolic effects in children.
The chemical industry has refuted such findings and maintains that phthalates are safe, and do not easily migrate from products. According to the American Chemistry Council—whose members include BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, and over 100 other chemical companies—the presence of phthalates in people does not indicate health concerns.
What’s the Bottom Line?
Many scientists and clinicians are increasingly recommending limiting exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals like phthalates, especially among vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women, young children, and those going through puberty, among others, explains Zota. And given that a great many people regularly eat the kind of quick meals this study focuses on—about one third of the study’s participants—the evidence may point to one more reason to eat less fast food.
“It speaks to the general concern we’ve long had about food regulations and permissible amounts of chemicals as food additives,” both those added intentionally and those than can creep in from food contact materials, says Trasande. It also “adds further evidence for eating fresh food and avoided pre-processed and packaged food.”
http://civileats.com/2016/04/13/fast-food-phthalates/
-
The Flaws in the Emerging Toxics Reform Legislation and How They Can Be Fixed
Apr 12, 2016 | Huffington Post
By Nicholas Ashford
Congress is about to take action on reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), addressing the slow progress since its passage in 1976 in advancing protection from exposure to toxic substances, as well as a significant set-back rendered by a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 1991.
TSCA was heralded as a much-needed protection for greater worker, consumer, and public health protection. It provided the authority for both regulation and testing of chemicals, but it hasn’t lived up to its hope and promise, even compared to its parallel effort — the REACH Directive — which was begun three decades later in the European Union.
TSCA has two fundamental flaws: First, its regulatory approach is built on an outdated two-step process of “risk assessment” followed by “risk management.” Second, the risk assessment done relies almost exclusively on either animal testing or human epidemiological evidence. Evidence based on chemical structure alone is not sufficient.
The initial regulatory attention to a particular chemical generally emerges when there is some evidence or concern about potentially harmful exposure or incomplete data about its risk. Hence, the regulatory process has focused primarily on improving risk assessment, an inexact science at best and a costly and time-consuming process to boot. This has resulted in endless debates about risk (the origin and quality of the data, the methodologies used, and balancing conflicting studies), which, in turn, has led to enormous delays and, finally, judgments that often are more political than scientific.
Rather than relying exclusively on risk assessment, regulatory agencies would be wise to consider technological alternatives earlier in the regulatory process. When the EPA becomes aware of information that suggests toxicity or adverse health effects associated with a chemical, the agency should first look for clearly safer alternatives — whether existing or capable of being easily developed — in lieu of embarking on the traditional two-step process of risk assessment followed by risk management. This approach could avoid an extensive and time-consuming risk analysis and speed up public health protections.
California and Massachusetts toxics regulations are moving in this direction, which is probably why some supporters of TSCA reform seek to remove the power of the states to regulate chemicals covered by TSCA through federal preemption of state law. Such a preemption provision would not advance health protections and should not survive the legislative process.
If opportunities can be identified or created for changing the chemicals or their associated processes, even the present version of TSCA could allow action to be taken on suspect chemicals, without a full risk assessment. Section 6(c) of TSCA instructs EPA to take risks, costs, and benefits into account when establishing a rule. But most importantly, TSCA also requires EPA to consider the availability of substitutes.In reauthorizing TSCA, Congress needs to support a regulatory approach that considers alternatives alongside risks, costs, and benefits. Where clearly safer chemicals and chemical processes exist, a protracted and costly risk assessment exercise would be unnecessary. This would also satisfy the objections raised by the Fifth Circuit in Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA, a case which stopped EPA’s regulation of asbestos in its tracks — and dealt a near death blow to TSCA regulation — because the agency had not properly considered alternatives.
Risk assessment has always been the bottleneck in TSCA testing and regulation. To date, EPA has used the statute to designate only a handful of chemicals for testing. An amendment to TSCA’s section 4 could easily rectify this bottleneck in the U.S. Recognizing the slow progress of TSCA due insufficient human data and limited resources for animal testing, the EU established the REACH Directive. Convinced that there are other bases for assessing hazard or risk, the EU initiative specifically encourages structure activity relationships (i.e., chemical structure and its relationship to toxicity) as an often-preferred option for hazard or risk assessment.
Of course, any of these changes will likely be resisted because the risk assessment bottleneck serves to delay or defeat regulation. But an early and serious examination of alternatives to suspect chemicals would not only accelerate the regulation of potentially harmful chemicals, it would also stimulate innovation in products and processes which would benefit the economy and the industry. We can hope that the legislation that emerges from Congress is strong and provides opportunity for these sensible changes to be made, heralding a period of better health protection, innovation-friendly regulation, and a TSCA more in line with REACH.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicholas-ashford/the-flaws-in-the-emerging_b_9675374.html
-
New EPA Chemical Safety Advisory Committee to Meet May 11
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
A newly formed committee that will advise the Environmental Protection Agency about risk assessments conducted by its Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) will hold an online, public orientation meeting May 11, according to a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published April 13.
Individuals or organizations wishing to discuss issues the Chemical Safety Advisory Committee should consider should contact the committee's designated federal officer by May 4.
The committee will hold its first advisory meeting May 24-26. At that meeting, the committee will discuss a draft OPPT assessment that concluded 1-bromopropane (CAS No. 106-94-5), a spray adhesive, dry cleaning chemical and degreasing agent, could harm the health of chronically exposed workers and also harm women of childbearing age and their fetuses if exposed briefly to high concentrations (51 DEN A-11, 3/16/16).
On March 16, when the EPA announced the advisory committee's 1-bromopropane meeting, the agency had not yet released the names of the committee members (81 Fed. Reg. 14,111).
The agency posted those names online March 30.
The 10-member committee will be chaired by Kenneth Portier, vice president of the American Cancer Society statistics and evaluation center. A state toxicologist, autoimmune expert, epidemiologist and aquatic toxicologist are among scientists serving on the panel.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87171068&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87171068&jd=87171068
-
TTIP Could Weaken REACH Safeguards, Groups Say
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
A pair of European environmental protection groups criticized U.S. and European Union trade negotiators working on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), saying the trade pact could weaken European controls over harmful chemicals. The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and ClientEarth said the latest TTIP regulatory cooperation proposals could threaten implementation of the EU's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations. REACH requires companies to register any production or importation of chemical substances into the EU that could have negative impacts on human health and the environment. The two groups pointed to a pair of recently released TTIP textual proposals regarding regulatory cooperation and good regulatory practices as evidence that the proposed deal would chip away at REACH chemical safeguards. “The latest TTIP proposals would allow ‘regulatory cooperation’ to affect the implementation of EU chemical laws,” says Baskut Tuncak, a senior attorney with CIEL. “This is a serious threat to EU chemical laws and policies as the U.S. continues to lobby against more protective EU standards,” he said in a March 21 news release. TTIP negotiators are expected to further discuss and refine their regulatory cooperation proposals at their next negotiating round in April.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87171070&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87171070&jd=87171070
-
Apr 12, 2016 | Miami Herald
By Carol Rosenberg
The general overseeing Guantánamo war court defense teams has issued an order forbidding his staff to sleep at the Camp Justice compound following a new health risk assessment on cancer-causing agents there.
Marine Brig. Gen. John Baker issued the order over the weekend in an email obtained by the Miami Herald. It just so happens that the Sept. 11 judge, for unrelated reasons, canceled this week’s pretrial hearing, meaning few if any staff are at the crude compound built atop an obsolete airstrip at the remote U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
“At this time, the potential cancer risk and non-cancer health effects associated with Camp Justice and any final conclusions [and risk management actions] cannot be determined,” according to a new Navy-Marine Corps risk assessment dated Feb. 23 that just surfaced.
Baker notified staff Monday night that they are forbidden to stay at the trailer park where U.S. military defense personnel are typically housed “until I am provided a clearer explanation of the health risks associated with living at Camp Justice, and how any remedial measures will mitigate those risks.” The general, however, did not forbid staff from working on the site, where the Pentagon Office of Military Commissions has special classified computers and trailers to handle National Security documents.
U.S. military health teams have been evaluating the safety of living and working at the site since a Naval Reserves officer filed a complaint with the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office July 14 citing seven instances of civilians and service members who contracted a variety of cancers and had spent time at Camp Justice. One of the seven, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, had cancer of the appendix and died days after the officer filed the complaint.
A preliminary Aug. 14 study dismissed the notion of a cancer cluster, saying the incidents and types of cancers among former staff were too disparate and declared the compound “habitable for occupancy.” A follow-up military and civilian consulting team then took air and soil samples at the site and searched historical records for the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, which produced the latest, inconclusive 29-page “Health Screening Risk Assessment.”
The report listed a series of health concerns, including the presence of mercury in a building once used as detention center headquarters that years earlier functioned as a dental clinic; formaldehyde in indoor air samples; excess bromodichloromethane and chloroform in two showers; arsenic in soil samples on the site where some work court personnel and temporary visitors are housed in a tent city and adjoining trailer park, and PCBs in and around a ramshackle hangar where journalists and troops work and attorneys brief the media.
It also echoed early acknowledgments of asbestos in older buildings where legal staff work on the site, referenced an Aug. 14, Miami Herald report, and added the asbestos containing material is “generally non-hazardous if it is undisturbed.”
It was dated Feb. 23 and released to some war court staff on April 1 — the same day the chief Guantánamo judge canceled this month’s 9/11 session citing a sealed filing from the Justice Department. Baker, who would not discuss his order when reached by telephone Tuesday, visited the base April 8, was briefed on the findings and sent out the initial order Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
The possibility of a cancer connection has stirred anxiety among war court employees for months. “We won’t be working there. And absent further information, I don’t anticipate returning to that courtroom,” said former Air Force Maj. Michael Schwartz, a defense attorney for one of the alleged Sept. 11 plotters on Tuesday morning as he boarded a flight from Jacksonville for Guantánamo.
He and his colleagues had already obtained housing away from the war court compound for this week’s client visit, he said. Schwartz, who has worked out of Camp Justice since 2012, recently resigned his Air Force commission to remain on the case.
The courtroom, a $12 million snoop-proof, maximum-security building that looks like a warehouse, is built atop the obsolete McCalla air field between a trailer park known as “the Cuzcos,” offices, a tent city and the hangar. In the 1990s the site was used as a migrant camp for Cuban families picked up at sea during the rafter crisis.
The Pentagon built the Camp Justice compound in 2007 and 2008, far from the Detention Center Zone currently holding 89 captives run by a 2,000-member staff. At the time, the Bush administration was planning to ramp up war crimes trials at the base after bringing 15 former high-value captives from CIA black sites to Guantánamo’s secret Camp 7 prison. President Barack Obama reformed the war court, and kept the compound.
The next war court session is scheduled for May 11-12 when former CIA captive Majid Khan is due in court to update his guilty plea on terrorism charges and for his lawyers to question a new Army judge assigned to the case. Another short hearing, in the case of alleged al-Qaida commander Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, is scheduled for the following week.
Meantime, with no court sessions underway, General Baker said through the Pentagon spokesman that it involved moving 10 defense team members “to other housing facilities on Naval Station Guantánamo Bay because of his views of a recent Navy preliminary environmental report about Camp Justice.”
The Pentagon’s chief war crimes prosecutor, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, said Tuesday morning that he and his staff would continue to live and work out of Camp Justice. “The prosecution, which uses Camp Justice and the nearby living areas heavily, will have an administrative section there soon to prepare for hearings in the Khan and Hadi cases,” he said by email. “All prosecution personnel are being kept informed of the ongoing official measures to inspect the working environment and ensure health and welfare.”
Khan attorney Wells Dixon of the Center for Constitutional Rights called the report “another compelling reason why Guantánamo should be closed without delay.”
“No service member or civilian should be subjected to these sorts of health risks under any circumstances, including because Obama is unwilling to use his full legal authority to close the prison,” Dixon said by email. “It’s hard enough representing Guantánamo detainees without having to worry about getting cancer or other serious diseases.”
The report also said “there appears to be uncertainty regarding what exact occupational and environment standards (and monitoring) apply” at Camp Justice because, although on a permanent base, the war court compound’s status is “expeditionary,” essentially temporary.
Successive Air Force engineering units on temporary assignment have tinkered with the infrastructure, moving tents and trailers, adding some, removing others, arranging and rearranging orange barriers, barbed wire and sniper fencing. Some Air Force engineers slept there, but no longer do. Reporters covering the trials and hearings and legal observers brought down as guests of the Pentagon sleep in tents not far from the lawyers’ trailer park.
The report recommends that the Office of Military Commissions as well as the Southern Command, whose detention center staff has a role in managing the site, “provide more granularity on exposure durations” of people who work and live at the Expeditionary Legal Complex known as the ELC.
Efforts to assess the health risks there are also hampered by insufficient historical records, the study found, about “chemicals of concern” on everything from locations of fuel tanks to “potential spills or releases to the environment” of earlier flight-line solvent and fuel. “Consequently there was insufficient evidence available to address the potential environmental exposures to carcinogens that were alleged in the complaint.”
The detention center spokesman, Navy Capt. Chris Scholl, said Tuesday that prison camp troops “routinely” stay temporarily at the tent city and there was no order to stop that, or withdraw military units assigned to work there daily.
An Army unit from the Tennessee National Guard is based inside the hangar, where they produce a weekly newsletter, The Wire, for prison camp staff who live and work miles away. That unit also processes visiting reporters’ documents and, during the one day a month reporters are permitted at the detention center, decide which photos taken by independent journalists must be destroyed for “operational security reasons.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article71334867.html
-
(ACC Mentioned) Natural Gas: Powering American Manufacturing Growth
Apr 13, 2016 | Marcellus Shale Coalition
American natural gas development is spurring investment and job growth across the chemical manufacturing sector, representing a “stunning reversal of fortune from just a few years ago,” according to new American Chemistry Council (ACC) analysis. In the update to ACC’s 2013 study, the new research makes clear that U.S. chemical industry investment linked to affordable natural gas from shale has reached $164 billion and can support hundreds of thousands of good-paying American jobs.
In fact, this report – among many – further confirms what President Obama stated in 2014: “Our 100-year supply of natural gas is a big factor in drawing jobs back to our shores. Many are in manufacturing – the quintessential middle-class job.”
Key Takeaways
· Shale-driven manufacturing benefits: U.S. chemical industry investment linked to plentiful and affordable natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from shale formations has reached $164 billion.
· Investment growth: New investments represent significant growth from 2013, when $71.7 billion was tied to shale development.
· American jobs: 264 chemical manufacturing projects and $164 billion in investment could support 738,000 permanent new jobs across the U.S. economy by 2023.
ACC’s report comes on the heels of the first export of ethane – a natural gas byproduct and key feedstock in the chemical manufacturing process – from Delaware Co.’s Marcus Hook processing facility, reflecting the fact that shale is a boon to both domestic manufacturers and America’s allies abroad.
Here’s what they’re saying:
· Marcellus Shale Gives Marcus Hook “a New Lease on Life”: This week the boss at Phila. Energy Solutions, you know, what used to be Sunoco, turned up the heat in the push for a huge expansion of energy-related industries along the Delaware River. … Sunoco Logistics is breathing new life into the shuttered icon of Delco industrial might hard on the banks of the Delaware River. And if Rinaldi gets his way, the plant that literally breathed life into the lower end of Delaware Co., will once again be bustling, having received a new lease on life courtesy of the state’s Marcellus Shale gas industry. … The idea is to use Sunoco’s vast network of pipelines to bring Marcellus Shale products such as ethane and propane to the Marcus Hook facility, where it will be loaded onto ships and sent around the globe. The talk is that Marcus Hook could be the epicenter of an “energy hub” for the entire Northeast part of the country. (Delaware Co. Daily Times editorial, 3/30/16)
· “Hydraulic Fracturing has Transformed [America] from an Importer to an Exporter of Natural Gas”: Natural gas has a lot going for it. It burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, producing about half the carbon dioxide of coal. Thanks to new discoveries and the U.S. shale boom, it’s cheap and plentiful. … LNG can be loaded on ships and transported around the world. This high-tech process has transformed natural gas into a more freely traded commodity with the potential to reshape the politics of global energy. … The biggest turnaround has come in the U.S., where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has transformed the country from an importer to an exporter of natural gas. … More nations have shifted to LNG as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Bloomberg View, 4/5/16)
· Energy Hub Would Create “Thousands of New Jobs and Billions of Dollars in Economic Activity”: The campaign to build a massive natural-gas pipeline to Phila. to fuel development of an energy hub is about to kick into a higher gear. … “If the three states in the greater Phila. region work together to create an energy hub, thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity will be created,” the report states. … [Energy-hub organizers] add that some existing industries would commit to billion-dollar projects on the condition that a new pipeline would deliver gas. (Phila. Inquirer, 3/31/16)
With policies that encourage greater natural gas production and use, Pennsylvania is well-positioned to continue to benefit from shale’s opportunities.
http://marcelluscoalition.org/2016/04/natural-gas-powering-american-manufacturing-growth/
-
(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Industry Investment Linked to Shale Gas Tops $164B!
Apr 13, 2016 | Marcellus Drilling News
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) participated in a Hudson Institute event yesterday. During a presentation made by the ACC, they announced that U.S. chemical industry investment linked to plentiful and affordable natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from shale formations has reached an astonishing $164 billion. Some 40% of that investment is for the 264 projects – new facilities, expansions and factory re-starts – that is either completed or underway. Another 55% are for projects in the planning phase. This is a big deal folks. ACC’s research shows the investments tied to shale will lead to $105 billion per year in new chemical industry output and support 738,000 permanent new jobs across the U.S. economy by 2023–including 69,000 new chemical industry jobs, 357,000 jobs in supplier industries and 312,000 jobs in communities where workers spend their wages. Below we have a variety of resources for you. We have the ACC announcement with many interesting facts and figures. We also have a fact sheet summarizing their research, a copy of the slide deck used for the presentation (with really cool slides), and a copy of a study the ACC published in 2013 with a list of the companies who, at that time, had announced major downstream projects using shale-related natural gas and liquids…
First up, the official press release/announcement from the ACC:
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) today announced that U.S. chemical industry investment linked to plentiful and affordable natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from shale formations has reached $164 billion. Forty percent of the investment for the 264 projects – new facilities, expansions and factory re-starts – is completed or underway, while 55 percent is in the planning phase.
ACC Senior Director of Energy Policy Owen Kean revealed the new figures at a Hudson Institute event, “America’s Future Natural Gas Economy: Promoting the Next Energy Breakthrough.” He appeared alongside Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Arthur Herman on a panel examining the role of natural gas in manufacturing.
“U.S. chemical manufacturers rely on natural gas for heat and power, and it contains ethane, an NGL that serves as our main feedstock,” Kean said. “Dramatic supply growth has had an equally dramatic impact on U.S. natural gas prices. It’s a stunning reversal of fortune from just a few years ago, when the chemical industry was losing market share – and jobs – to competitors abroad.
“America enjoys a robust supply outlook, expected to last for decades, and a price environment that’s the envy of the world,” Kean continued. “Our country has become the most attractive place in the world to make chemicals, and a historic wave of expansion and investment is underway.”
ACC analysis shows that $164 billion in capital spending could lead to $105 billion per year in new chemical industry output and support 738,000 permanent new jobs across the U.S. economy by 2023, including 69,000 new chemical industry jobs, 357,000 jobs in supplier industries and 312,000 jobs in communities where workers spend their wages. Much of the new investment is geared toward export markets, which can help improve the U.S. trade balance.
“We need the right regulatory and policy approaches in order to fully realize the potential of shale gas as an engine of manufacturing growth,” Kean said. “Policymakers must avoid unreasonable restrictions on oil and gas production on public lands; keep oversight of production on private lands in the hands of the states; and expedite the construction and permitting of infrastructure, such as pipelines, needed to move natural gas and NGLs to market.”
It’s also important to ensure a timely, transparent and efficient regulatory permitting process for shale-related manufacturing projects such as new factories and expansions. Companies and state agencies need clarity and certainty about the process and timing for obtaining permits. Legislation introduced in the House last month would help fix longstanding problems with the implementation process for new air quality standards.
The data released today updates the ACC report, “Shale Gas, Competitiveness, and New U.S. Chemical Industry Investment—An Analysis of Announced Projects.” Published in May 2013, it examined nearly 100 chemical and plastics projects totaling $71.7 billion in potential investment announced as of March 2013. The figures are growing as new projects are announced.
ACC analysis employs the IMPLAN input-output methodology, an economic model that quantifies interdependencies among industries or economic sectors. IMPLAN is used by government agencies including the Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and over 20 others, and by over 250 colleges and universities, local governments, non-profits, consulting companies, and other private sector companies.*
*American Chemistry Council (Apr 6, 2016) – U.S. Chemical Industry Investment Linked To Shale Gas Tops $164 Billion
The Hudson Institute’s event, held yesterday (April 6) was called “America’s Future Natural Gas Economy: Promoting the Next Energy Breakthrough”. You can view all of the slides and presentations on this page.Here is the slide deck used by the ACC for their presentation:
ACC – Shale Gas and New U.S. Chemical Industry Investment: $164 Billion and Counting from Marcellus Drilling News
We LOVE this particular slide in the deck, which shows how shale gas/ethane produces products we rely on every day:
Click for larger versionA copy of the the ACC fact sheet about their updated research:
ACC Fact Sheet – U.S. Chemical Investment Linked to Shale Gas: $164 Billion and Counting from Marcellus Drilling News
The numbers shared by the ACC during their presentation are an update of a 2013 study released by the ACC titled “Shale Gas, Competitiveness, and New US Chemical Industry Investment: An Analysis Based on Announced Projects.” We’ve embedded that study below because it contains a lot of great-and-still-relevant information, but also because of the list of companies in Appendix 2 on page 41. That’s a list of companies with announced projects related to shale gas and NGLs.
ACC Study – Shale Gas, Competitiveness, and New US Chemical Industry Investment from Marcellus Drilling NewsFinally, the ACC issued the following infographic summarizing the new numbers they found since the original 2013 report:
Infographic from ACC showing how petrochemical investment and jobs are...
http://marcellusdrilling.com/2016/04/u-s-chemical-industry-investment-linked-to-shale-gas-tops-164b/
-
(ACC Mentioned) Shale Boom Drives $164 Billion in Chemical Sector Spending
Apr 7, 2016 | Business and Industry Connection Magazine
The U.S. chemical industry has invested $164 billion in capital projects as a result of the shale boom, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) said Wednesday. ACC said 40% of those projects — including new facilities, expansions and facility restarts — are completed or underway, while 55% are in the planning phase.
That level of capital spending could yield $105 billion per year in new chemical industry output and support more than three quarters of a million jobs in the U.S. by 2023, ACC said. Suppliers would add 357,000 jobs in that scenario.
In presenting the findings at an energy event, ACC energy policy director Owen Kean urged the federal government to avoid restricting drilling on federal and private lands and expedite permitting of pipeline projects.
“We need the right regulatory and policy approaches in order to fully realize the potential of shale gas as an engine of manufacturing growth,” Kean said.
http://www.bicmagazine.com/expansions/downstream-subsection/shale-boom-drives-164-billion-in-chemical-sector-spending/
-
Shell Chemical Texas Steam Cracker has Upset; Market Sources Say Plant is Offline
Apr 12, 2016 | Platts
Shell Chemical has suffered a second process upset in as many days at its 835,000 mt/year steam cracker in Deer Park, Texas, a company spokesman said Tuesday, while market sources said the plant was offline.
The spokesman, Ray Fisher, did not provide the operational status of the facility, citing company policy. The Tuesday issue was similar what Fisher Monday said was a "process unit upset on the chemical side of the complex."
Market sources Tuesday, however, said the plant was taken offline Monday and the upset a part of startup attempts. The duration of the outage was estimated at one to three days.
In morning markets, April ethylene was traded four times in the at 26.5-26.75 cents/lb MtB Wms, while May was offered at 26.5 cents/lb MtB Wms.Platts assessed US spot ethylene Monday at 27-27.5 cents/lb FD USG for April and May deliveries.
http://www.platts.com/latest-news/petrochemicals/houston/shell-chemical-texas-steam-cracker-has-upset-21259134
-
LNG Trade Hits New Peak in 2015, With Glut Looming in 2016
Apr 12, 2016 | Fuel Fix
By Robert Grattan
Global trade in liquefied natural gas hit a record high last year, an industry group reported this week, as the market for the fuel heads toward an oversupply this year.
Last year’s surge in LNG trading came as new liquefaction plants in Australia and Indonesia began shipping to customers in Europe and the Middle East. But with a large amount of capacity coming online along the U.S. coastline, where this year’s new cargoes will end up is less certain.
Shipments of the fuel, called LNG, grew by 2.5 percent to 245.2 million tons annually or roughly 32.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2015, the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers or GIIGNL reported. The global trade now totals a little less than half the 79 billion cubic feet of natural gas the U.S. produces daily.
“In a global context of lower energy prices and sluggish economic growth, the LNG industry is holding its breath for the impact of an export wave from the United States,” GIIGNL president Domenico Dispenza wrote.
In 2015, new projects added 14.4 million tons per year of new liquefaction capacity across the globe. The largest leap was made in Australia, where the Santos GLNG project’s first shipments made the country the globe’s second largest exporter ahead of Malaysia. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG.
In 2016, the LNG floodgates are expected to open. GIIGNL expects 42 million tons per year of new capacity to come online, as both new projects are christened and existing ones begin to ramp up liquefaction. Already, massive projects such as Northeast Australia’s Gorgon LNG have shipped their first cargoes.
Simultaneously, demand for the fuel looks shaky. Countries such as South Korea and Japan saw demand for gas stay nearly flat or decline in 2015. Both China and European markets grew, despite weak economic growth, GIIGNL said.
“Increasingly, emerging markets are driving demand growth,” the group said. For example, in 2015, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, helped absorb some of the oversupply by ramping up imports to a combined 5.5 million tons, mostly through spot and short-term agreements.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/04/12/lng-trade-hits-new-peak-in-2015-with-glut-looming-in-2016/
-
Waste-Heat-to-Power Technology Cuts Oil & Gas Costs, Emissions
Apr 12, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
As oil and gas companies look to cut costs during this time of price volatility and meet strict emissions regulations, Alphabet Energy and Coyote North have developed a product that that they say does both.
Alphabet Energy’s technology turns waste heat from exhaust into electricity. Coyote North develops waste gas incinerators and combustors.
The two companies’ Power Generating Combustor (PGC), which converts exhaust heat from enclosed flares into electrical power, is now being deployed at well pads in the Marcellus-Utica shale region. The companies say the product eliminates the need for diesel- and natural gas-powered generators and electrical grid connections at well pads, reducing costs of fuel, rental and maintenance, and eliminating emissions.
It follows escalating efforts in the US and Canada to limit emissions from the oil and gas industry.
Over the summer, the EPA proposed regulations to limit methane emissions from new and modified sources in the oil and gas sector as part of its plan to cut such emissions by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025. Earlier this year the US Interior Department proposed a methane emissions rule to limit venting, flaring and leaking from oil and gas operations on public and American Indian lands.
This month, the EPA will begin developing regulations to limit methane releases from existing oil and gas wells. Canada has also committed to regulate methane emissions from new oil and gas wells and reduce these emissions by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.
Using the PGC, well pad operators will immediately eliminate emissions that would have been produced by the diesel- and natural gas-powered generators, the companies say.
By offsetting diesel- and natural gas-powered generators, the PGC has the potential to eliminate approximately 50 US tons of CO2; 1,000 pounds of NOx + NMHC; 900 pounds of CO per flare, per year in the United States. If added to 60,000 enclosed flares in the US, the PGC could help eliminate about 3 million US tons of CO2; 30,000 US tons of NOx + NMHC; and 27,000 US tons of CO annually, the companies say.
Alphabet Energy and Coyote North developed the PGC after hearing feedback from their oil and gas customers who said getting reliable electricity to their remote sites proved challenging. To meet this need, Alphabet Energy initially produced the E1, which turned waste heat into electricity. Customers wanted to use a similar product on enclosed flares, so Alphabet Energy and Coyote North developed the PCG.
The PGC is a two-part system that includes an enclosed flare, and a cap-like-designed thermoelectric generator, which attaches to the top of the enclosed flare. The underlying enclosed flare delivers high-temperature exhaust heat to Alphabet Energy’s PowerModules, which contain heat exchangers and the company’s proprietary thermoelectric material.
The companies say the currently offered PGC generates 2.5 kW of electricity, which is enough for well pad operators to optimize production and ensure site safety by running a variety of site electronics, such as process and monitoring equipment.
The companies are developing a second version of the PGC with increased power output that will be available in the future.
“Our customers tell us their flares are burning money,” said Mothusi Pahl, vice president of marketing and head of business development, oil & gas, Alphabet Energy. “By converting an enclosed flare’s exhaust heat into electricity, a well pad operator offsets thousands of dollars per month that would have been spent on generator fuel, rental and maintenance costs, all while ensuring site safety and reliability.”
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/04/12/waste-heat-to-power-technology-cuts-oil-gas-costs-emissions/
-
Maryland County Becomes First in State to Say ‘No’ to Fracking
Apr 12, 2016 | The Washington Post
By Arelis R. Hernández
Lawmakers in Prince George’s County voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban hydraulic fracking, becoming the first local jurisdiction in Maryland to prohibit the extraction of natural gas within its borders since the state’s moratorium on the practice went into effect.
Council member Mary A. Lehman (D-Laurel) sponsored the legislation that would amend the zoning ordinance to forbid natural-gas drilling across the county and particularly in the rural southern Prince George’s communities sitting on top of the Taylorsville Basin.
The basin — which runs through southern Maryland under the Potomac River and into Virginia — is a potentially untapped natural-gas reserve, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But it spans an ecologically sensitive area that residents and activists have long fought to protect from excessive development, industry and power plants.
“We are taking a lead in the state to protect our quality of life here,” Lehman said after the council adopted the ban. “It will lay the groundwork for a statewide ban in Maryland.”
Supporters, including Gov. Larry Hogan (R), have called fracking an “economic gold mine” that would create hundreds of jobs and provide a clean source of cheap energy. But anti-fracking activists say the extraction method exposes the environment to the risk of spills, water and air pollution and potentially irreversible ecological damage.
Hogan’s predecessor, former governor Martin J. O’Malley (D), barred fracking until a commission could study the public-health and environmental impacts. The commission’s controversial 2014 report found that natural gas could be produced safely. Nevertheless, the Democratic-controlled legislature pushed for fracking restrictions against Hogan’s wishes.
Last year, state lawmakers proposed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, which involves blasting pressurized water and chemicals into rock to extract gas. Regulators are studying the practice, and the law required they adopt rules before issuing permits for drilling in places such as Western Maryland, home to a huge shale rock formation.
The bill became law without Hogan’s signature.
Activists are hoping the Prince George’s ban will trigger a trend across the state and that the movement will motivate lawmakers in Annapolis to adopt a prohibition before the moratorium expires in October 2017.
“It’s important for Prince George’s to protect its residents from fracking,” said Thomas Meyer, senior organizer for the environmental group Food & Water Watch. His non-governmental organization, along with residents and other groups, brought the idea of a ban to Lehman in the summer. “We hope the Maryland legislature follows suit.”
Drew Combs, of the Maryland Petroleum Council, played down the significance of the ban, saying the amount of gas in Prince George’s is negligible compared to reserves in the Marcellus rock formation in Garrett and Allegany counties.
“While this decision is largely symbolic, it sends the wrong message,” he said. “Prince George’s County residents benefit year-round from natural gas safely produced in neighboring states.”
The county is following in the footsteps of towns in New York, which also used their local zoning ordinances to prohibit fracking. The energy industry sued, saying the local governments lacked the authority to issue such bans, but the state’s highest court upheld the “home rule” of municipalities in 2014.
The ruling had a domino effect across the country as local governments, such as the District, issued a variety of resolutions, laws and ordinances against hydraulic fracturing. In Montgomery County, lawmakers adopted a 2014 resolution opposing fracking in Virginia’s George Washington National Forest, which lies in the Potomac River basin. Lawmakers wanted the effects on water supply studied first.
For Prince George’s County resident and civic leader Joanne Flynn, the ban could not come soon enough. The Brandywine-area farmer depends on well water for drinking, for her crops and her livestock. Fracking, she said, would endanger her entire livelihood.
“This would protect our future,” Flynn said at the council hearing on Tuesday. “We need to address climate change in all we do.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-county-becomes-first-in-state-to-say-no-to-fracking/2016/04/12/62c08702-00cf-11e6-9d36-33d198ea26c5_story.html
-
Support Dries Up for Renewable-Energy Tax Breaks
Apr 13, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Richard Rubin
An attempt by renewable-energy advocates to have their tax breaks hitch a ride on a Senate aviation bill looks like it isn’t going to get off the ground.
The breaks in question included some odds and ends that had been left out of last year’s tax-extensions law, such as tax credits for geothermal heat pumps, clean-energy manufacturing facilities and fuel cells.
They came under criticism from some Republicans and from Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, groups tied to the industrialists Charles and David Koch, who pegged them as “corporate welfare.”
The effort to extend the breaks fell apart on Tuesday.
“The minimal Republican interest seems to have evaporated,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, (D., Ohio). “When the Koch brothers tell them no, they don’t move.”
Taking the tax breaks out will make it easier to pass the aviation bill. Supporters of the renewable-energy breaks will try again later this year.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/04/12/support-dries-up-for-renewable-energy-tax-breaks/?mg=id-wsj
-
House Denies Admin Priorities in Energy and Water Spending Bill
Apr 12, 2016 | E&E News PM
House Republican appropriators unveiled a tight $37.4 billion energy and water development spending bill this afternoon that largely ignores the White House's request and takes on several of its top policies.
The legislation, set for subcommittee markup tomorrow afternoon, would fund agencies under its jurisdiction at $259 million above current spending and $168 million above the president's request.
The proposed increase would be less than 1 percent over fiscal 2016 funding, a move in keeping with Republicans' calls for strict limits on discretionary spending.
"This is a responsible bill that supports U.S. national security, safety and economic competitiveness -- balancing these critical priorities while maintaining tight budget caps," said House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho).
"It prioritizes the maintenance and safety of our nuclear weapons and makes strategic investments in infrastructure projects and energy research that will help grow our economy," Simpson said.
The legislation includes another top Republican priority -- a boost for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.Clean energy hike denied
The Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy would take a hit under the plan. Appropriators are requesting $1.8 billion, $200 million below last year's level and more than $1 billion below President Obama's request.
The office is key to the administration's plans to address climate change through Mission Innovation, a global plan among 20 countries to double clean energy research and development spending in five years.
DOE and many of EERE's renewable, efficiency and sustainable transportation programs would help implement that plan in the United States. The administration called for a 60 percent increase in wind research and a 40 percent jump in geothermal programs, for example.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy would fare better, receiving a slight increase from last year's level of $291 million to $306 million.
The agency funds energy projects in the early stages that are typically out of the reach of the private sector and is also part of the Mission Innovation plan (E&E Daily, Feb. 8).
The Office of Science, which funds DOE's fusion, advanced computing and basic research programs, would see its funding increased from last year's record level, from $5.35 billion to $5.4 billion, under the new GOP-led bill.
The science office generally enjoys support from both Democrats and Republicans, like Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), for its support of research initiatives at the national labs. Obama requested $5.7 billion.Reviving Yucca, backing MOX
House appropriators have revived the perennial fight over the nuclear waste repository in Nevada, providing a $150 million boost in nuclear waste disposal funding that Republicans want to use to revive the Yucca Mountain site.
The Obama administration shuttered the project, opposed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, but pro-Yucca lawmakers are looking ahead to the Nevada Democrat's year-end retirement.
The bill would block funding for closure activities "or for actions that irrevocably remove the possibility that Yucca Mountain may be a repository option in the future" (E&E Daily, April 6).
The bill also includes $20 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to continue reviewing DOE's application to build a repository under the mountain, located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) recently pressed Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on a 2013 federal appeals court decision that ordered NRC to continue its review of the application (E&E Daily, March 18).
Obama's budget request, by contrast, reflects a continued push away from Yucca toward an alternative plan to begin engaging with communities interested in hosting permanent sites for nuclear waste (EnergyWire, April 12).
The new spending bill would increase funding for DOE's nuclear office and nuclear weapons security programs. However, the $1.8 billion funding level for defense nuclear nonproliferation reflects a $118 million decrease below current spending. The bill would prohibit new nuclear nonproliferation projects in Russia.
Republicans are also resisting the Obama administration's second attempt to pull the plug on an over-budget and behind-schedule nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in South Carolina (E&E Daily, Feb. 10).
The bill would restore funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site to $340 million, defying Obama's plan to start shutting down the plant.
On environmental cleanup, the bill includes $6.15 billion, cutting about 10 percent from current levels. Republicans have rejected a plan by the Obama administration to use an old fund tied to the once-government-owned U.S. Enrichment Corp. for decontamination and decommissioning of uranium enrichment sites in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky (E&E Daily, March 1).
Instead, the legislation would allocate about $689 million for cleanup from the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund.Boost for Army Corps
The spending bill would offer the Army Corps of Engineers' civil works division a record $6.1 billion -- $100 million more than fiscal 2016 enacted levels and $1.5 billion more than the president's budget request.
This would include $2.7 billion for navigation projects and studies and $1.26 billion for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund -- about $63 million more than the appropriation for fiscal 2016.
"This is all good news and will help move critical projects forward," said Rob Vining, a senior adviser with policy and planning firm Dawson & Associates and former chief of civil works for the Army Corps.
Congress has allocated record levels for the corps over the last four years, boosting the lower levels proposed in the president's budget request.
The new proposed boost comes as Congress prepares to unveil a Water Resources Development Act later this month, which would authorize studies and construction on massive public works and environmental restoration projects.
The spending plan would allow full use of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, an amount that won't be known until the full committee markup.
It also includes $1.8 billion for flood and storm damage reduction activities, an increase of $105 million above fiscal 2016 and $582 million above the administration's budget proposal.
The Bureau of Reclamation would receive $1.1 billion in the spending bill, $131 million less than the fiscal 2016 level and $27 million more than the president's request. Reclamation manages water resources in the West, overseeing often contentious water diversions.
At the behest of California's Republican lawmakers, the bill includes provisions to allow flexibility in the operations of the state's major water projects, relaxing water-saving restrictions in periods of heavy rainfall, like last winter's El Niño-driven storms.Riders
The bill also includes a number of riders to restrict the administration's authority to claim jurisdiction over certain bodies of water under the Clean Water Act.
The legislation would bar any changes to federal jurisdiction under the act in an attempt to block U.S. EPA and the Army Corps' Clean Water Rule.
The measure, currently tied up in federal court, seeks to redefine which wetlands and waterways receive automatic protection under the Clean Water Act.
The legislation would also bar the administration from changing the definition of fill material, a step that could restrict dredge-and-fill permits for activities like mining.
Another provision in the bill would ban such permits for routine farming and ranching activities, including cultivating, harvesting and pond or irrigation ditch construction.
Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs and other Ohio lawmakers reinserted a provision from the fiscal 2016 spending bill to block the corps from dropping dredged material into Lake Erie.
The state of Ohio has pushed back against the corps' attempts to dispose of the material in the lake, saying the often-polluted sediment would pose a threat to fisheries.
The bill also includes language allowing the possession of firearms on corps lands.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/04/12/stories/1060035487
-
Big Investments Seen for Gas, Oil Infrastructure
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alan Kovski
The U.S. and Canada will need an average of about $26 billion a year in infrastructure investments for transportation, processing and storage of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids over the 21-year period from 2015 to 2035, according to a study released April 12 by the INGAA Foundation.
The study, done by consulting company ICF International, said the lion's share of the investment, about 61 percent, would be for natural gas infrastructure, about 30 percent for oil and 9 percent for natural gas liquids, for an aggregate of $471 billion over 21 years in a low-case investment and $621 billion in a high-case scenario.
The study assumed a steady state in terms of regulations, for the most part, but it factored in a modest allowance price for carbon dioxide emissions rising to $25 per ton by 2035. The study did not include the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.
The investments in “midstream” assets—the infrastructure between production and use—will be at their highest levels during 2016–2019, followed by a leveling off of capacity additions at lower levels starting in 2020, according to the study.
ICF Vice President Kevin Petak, speaking at a news conference for release of the study, said the “front-end loading” of the projections reflected the investment momentum of recent years plus an assumption that market demand will slow down over the longer term (see related story).
Over the next 10 years, Petak said, the most notable drivers for market growth will include exports of liquefied natural gas, exports of gas to Mexico and use of gas for power generation.
Numerous Projects Delayed
Construction of infrastructure in 2016 and 2017 may prove to be less than anticipated but will get done at some point, according to Robert Riess, INGAA Foundation Chairman and president of Sheehan Pipe Line Construction Co.
The INGAA Foundation is associated with the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, which represents gas pipeline companies.
“I think ‘16 ultimately is going to be a lot slower year than we thought, because of some of the big delays,” Riess said. “There are numerous projects that are being pushed back from ‘16 to ‘17.”
The delays will be for various reasons, including permitting and public resistance, Riess said.
“But I think the work is still there. Those are all viable projects. They all have end users,” Riess said. “They're going to get built. It's just a question of when you get permits to go ahead and proceed with construction.”
Seeing Higher GDP, Higher Prices
The high-case estimate in the study of $621 billion over 21 years assumed economic growth averaging 2.6 percent in terms of gross domestic product. The low case of $471 billion assumed 2 percent GDP growth through 2025, then 2.6 percent.
The high case assumed crude oil acquisition prices for refiners average about $50 a barrel in 2018, $60 in 2020 and rising to $75 in 2025 before leveling off. The low case assumed crude prices average about $40 in 2018, $50 in 2020 and do not reach $75 until about 2030.
In the high case, wholesale natural gas prices at the Henry Hub trading center in Louisiana average below $3 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) through 2017 then rise above approximately $4.30 by 2020. In the low case, gas prices at Henry Hub not only are below $3 through 2017 but rise only to about $3.70 by 2020 and do not reach $4 until about 2028.
The study assumed some liquefied natural gas export facilities are developed, with Texas and Louisiana especially benefiting from LNG export jobs. In its forecast of most investment going to natural gas, the prospects for LNG exports were among the factors, along with demand for pipelines, compressors, processing plants and storage.
Riess and Petak avoided naming specific projects that will go ahead or be delayed.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87171092&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87171092&jd=87171092
-
Environmentalists Press States To Demonstrate Biomass GHG Cuts In ESPS
Apr 12, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Dawn Reeves
Environmentalists at an EPA-sponsored workshop on using “climate-friendly” biomass in its power plant greenhouse gas rule strongly pressed state officials on how they would show that biomass used to comply with the rule actually reduces GHGs, with some hinting that a lack of such a demonstration could prompt legal action.
Industry officials at the April 7 workshop at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., however, expressed optimism that EPA would allow states to actively promote bioenergy as GHG-neutral renewable power under the existing source performance standards (ESPS), based on the workshop, which promised a “constructive dialogue” on using biomass in stationary source GHG policies.
While EPA officials did not further detail the agency's policy on the issue during the workshop, all of the speakers at the event appeared to suggest that at least some forms of biomass could be GHG neutral or cut emissions. That comes as EPA in the ESPS suggests that “sustainable” biomass could play a role in compliance, though it has not detailed what it means by that term.
For example, Greg Latta of the University of Idaho presented carbon modeling research showing that in all likelihood U.S. forest stocks are stable or increasing -- a condition the biomass industry has cited to urge EPA to determine that biomass is carbon neutral. Latta also said that older forests consume carbon at a slower rate than newer forests, implying that a healthy forest products market, including biomass, can enhance atmospheric carbon reduction.
“You start off increasing [sequestration] at an increasing rate. There's an inflection point, and then you're increasing at a decreasing rate,” he said, adding that many forests in the United States have reached that sequestration “inflection point,” which suggests they are not currently contributing as much to carbon sequestration as in the past.
One outstanding question for states will be how much flexibility they will have in crafting their own biomass policies as part of their ESPS compliance plans. One industry source says the workshop made clear that states will have maximum flexibility, but another source says that the only clarity is that states promoting biomass as a carbon-free renewable energy under the rule will have “responsibility, and maybe flexibility.”
State officials from Oregon, South Carolina, California, New Hampshire and Minnesota presented their ongoing biomass policies during the workshop. They indicated they did not expect much additional guidance from EPA on biomass in the ESPS until the agency determines whether to accept their compliance plans, and said they may need to come together to coordinate their bioenergy ESPS policies.
Joe Fontaine of New Hampshire said, “We are in genuine support of biomass,” while California's Claire Jahns described how her state is seeking to ensure that trees that die from drought or beetle infestation are used for energy.
However, few of the speakers were from state air offices responsible for crafting ESPS compliance plans, and no one from EPA participated in the workshop other than during the introduction.
EPA Perspective
One unidentified questioner asked a state panel whether the workshop would have been more productive if EPA had provided its perspective on whether it would approve a state's biomass policies as part of its ESPS compliance plan. The questioner asked if there might be another workshop “where EPA officials are actually here for discussion and maybe accomplish something in a positive direction.”
In response, Marcus Kauffman, a biomass resource specialist at Oregon's Department of Energy, said, “This is the first start to the conversation” and that he would like to see a “continued dialogue working toward the gift of clarity. We are not there yet.”
During the afternoon session, environmentalists sharply questioned the state officials on whether they could demonstrate that their biomass policies actually reduce GHG emissions, as required by section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, the section EPA used to develop the ESPS, which is stayed during court review.
In the final rule, EPA said it would allow certain types of sustainable biomass to be used for compliance but did not define sustainability. It sought additional comment on biomass in its proposed federal implementation plan and model trading rules, which have not yet been finalized.
At the workshop, Jonathan Lewis of the Clean Air Task Force said that sustainable forestry is a completely “different proposition” from reducing emissions from stationary sources. He asked whether state officials believed that the ESPS requirement for biomass providers to ensure sustainable forestry feedstocks is sufficient to comply with the rule's requirement to reduce emissions.
Specifically, he asked if New Hampshire or Minnesota had done an independent assessment of whether sustainability satisfied “the legal requirement of 111(d)” -- a question one industry source took as a litigation threat.
In response, New Hampshire's Fontaine said his state will most likely propose its participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as its ESPS compliance plan. He also noted that biomass is not applicable under RGGI “so it remains to be seen if this is something in our compliance plan that gets submitted [and] is ultimately rejected by EPA. We'll have to wait and see, I think, would be my answer.”
Similarly, Anna Dirkswager, who is with an industry-led clean energy group in Minnesota but used to be with the state's renewable energy office, noted that the state's Pollution Control Agency is responsible for verification and monitoring, “and I think for the purpose of today's discussion I will pass on that” question because her job is focused on forestry practices, not air emissions.
Another questioner, Sami Yassa of the Natural Resources Defense Council, asked the state officials how to demonstrate carbon benefits through the sustainable management of forests. He noted that carbon accounting as articulated by a draft EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) report -- which will be revised again following an SAB meeting earlier this month -- has said biomass carbon benefits must be additional to cuts that would occur in a business-as-usual scenario.
In light of that, he asked the states that already have these policies how they would “demonstrate additionally . . . when they are your baseline?”
New Hampshire's Fontaine noted that ESPS and RGGI are “focused on getting reductions from fossil fuel-fired power plants” whose emissions are continuously monitored from smokestacks. “I don't think we intend to quantify or measure the emissions from biomass plants that don't meet the applicability of these programs,” he said.
He cited one coal plant in the state, the Schiller Unit 5, that was initially covered by RGGI in 2005 but then converted to burning 400,000 tons of wood a year in 2006, meaning that its emissions are now “zeroed out” under the initiative. However, he did not address whether energy from biomass plants would be used to offset coal or gas plant emissions under the rule.
Mary Booth of the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) asked the state officials whether they acknowledge the “physical reality” that burning biomass releases 50 to 60 percent more carbon dioxide than a modern coal plant, while decreasing a plant's efficiency. She cited an analysis of RGGI and said if biomass CO2 was included, then the region's emissions would increase 42 percent from where they are projected to be in 2023.
Fontaine said it is not fair to compare the emission rates of biomass plants to coal plants without looking at lifecycle emissions including the carbon resequestration from regrowth. He added that RGGI is undergoing a program review, with a meeting in Boston on April 29, and invited Booth to comment as part of that process.
'Instantaneous Sequestration'
During a morning presentation on biomass industry trends, Seth Walker, an economist with RISI, which conducts analysis for the pulp and paper industry, urged people to “think about [biomass carbon accounting] on a larger scale.” While it could take a single tree 30 years to re-sequester the carbon that is released when a tree is burned for energy, it would take a full stand of trees much less time to do so.
“When you think about it on a landscape level, it's almost sort of an instantaneous sequestration so long as you have a positive growth to [harvest] ratio and sustainable forest management practices,” he said.
PFPI's Booth argued that during its review of EPA's initial biomass accounting framework, the SAB “explicitly disavowed the approach of instantaneous sequestration. . . . I'm wondering why the panelists are advancing this completely discredited approach to carbon accounting,” she said. “It's not instantaneous. The atmosphere sees the carbon.”
Also, Tyson Miller of the Dogwood Alliance asked Oregon's Kauffman to address research from Oregon State University finding that forests can be a net source of CO2 for up to 20 years from soil disturbed through harvesting and replanting.
Kauffman said, “I don't think the carbon conversation is strictly about carbon,” and called it “a proxy fight” over bioenergy.
“The EPA has regulatory authority over the carbon content coming out of natural gas and coal plants, and that's what's in the rule. Sustainability is not really in EPA's jurisdiction. As a forester, I'm concerned about those things and that's the broader context,” he said.
Following the workshop, the Biomass Power Association commended EPA in an April 8 statement for the “substantive discussion on biomass power” and the “thoughtful selection of panelists.” The group says it hopes EPA “incorporates the advice of these witnesses in considering how biomass will contribute to the” ESPS, and that it wants to see more information on the role that existing biomass plants, built before Jan. 1, 2013, can play in state plans.
The 2013 date is the cutoff for any renewable facility to be considered “new” under the rule.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/environmentalists-press-states-demonstrate-biomass-ghg-cuts-esps
-
California Aims to Slash Potent GHGs by 2030
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
California aims to slash emissions of methane, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon 40 percent to 50 percent by 2030, under a draft plan state air quality regulators released late yesterday.
The proposal is the latest iteration of the California Air Resources Board's strategy to target short-lived climate pollutants, greenhouse gases with far more heat-trapping potential than carbon dioxide.
Building on the state's existing climate and air pollution programs, the plan proposed new measures to reduce emissions of black carbon, or soot, from off-road and non-mobile sources, including forests; cut methane emissions from dairy operations in half; eliminate the disposal of organic waste in landfills; reduce fugitive methane emission from oil and gas systems; and accelerate the use of refrigerants with low-global warming and the adoption of more efficient refrigeration systems.
Reducing emissions of these powerful climate pollutants will help us slow “the advance of global warming” as programs to reduce fossil fuel related carbon emissions are phased in, CARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols said during an April 12 media call. Near-term reductions of the pollutants also have the added benefit of improving air quality, she said.
“We can make progress on these issues and at a relatively low cost,” Nichols said.
CARB will discuss the proposal at an April 26 workshop at California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento. Staff will present the proposal to the agency's governing board May 19, and accept written comments through May 26.
The air board is expected to vote on the plan later this year.
Curbing Emissions
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has proposed spending $215 million in the 2016–2017 fiscal year to curb emissions of short-lived climate pollutants.
Pending legislation, S.B. 1383, would codify the emission reduction targets that CARB has included in the plan. The goals would require reducing curbing human-caused black carbon 50 percent from current levels and methane and hydroflurocarbons by 40 percent each by 2030.
Under the plan, the state would develop new regulations for dairy operations, a key source of methane emissions. Until then, dairy operators can earn emissions offsets under the state's greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program to help defray the costs of installing digesters to reduce methane, Nichols said.
Nearly 60 percent of the state's methane emissions come from agricultural activities, CARB said. The plan calls for reducing methane from dairies 75 percent by 2030.
The plan also focuses on reducing organic waste, particularly food waste now going to landfills, and reducing soot from wildfires.
New to this version of the plan is a proposed food recovery rule and a section on forestry, CARB's Ryan McCarthy said.
Economic incentives would promote the development of technologies that convert methane into transportation fuels.
As for hydroflurocarbons, CARB's plan is to develop its own phase-down plan should a global agreement under the Montreal Protocol not be reached.
CARB is developing other measures to target methane emissions from gas and oil operations and storage facilities. The California Public Utilities Commission is drafting regulations for methane leaks from pipelines.
Legislation enacted in 2014 required CARB adopt a plan to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87171091&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87171091&jd=87171091
-
Republicans, Small Business Complain of Onerous EPA Rules
Apr 13, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
Republican senators and small business representatives complained at an April 12 hearing that under the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has been unrelenting in imposing burdensome regulations with little sensitivity to the costs they impose.
The chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Waste, Superfund and Oversight Management, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), said smaller companies “are burdened with sweeping EPA regulations and provided few resources to aid them in complying with a myriad of confusing and costly regulations.”
High-profile EPA rules under the Obama administration—including its power plant carbon pollution limits and a rulemaking to clarify the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act over certain waters—exemplify an agency seeking “to eliminate all environmental issues both real and perceived,” sais Michael Canty, president and CEO of Ohio-based Alloy Bellows & Precision Welding Inc.
“The number and cost of EPA regulations seems both overreaching, overly costly, and increasingly more difficult to comply with, especially by small businesses,” according to Canty, testifying on behalf of the National Small Business Association.
But Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the panel's ranking Democrat, said environmental regulations have led to new job growth and increased U.S. competitiveness, pointing to the success of a clean technology incubator firm, Greentown Labs Inc., in spurring development of 50 startups at its operation in Somerville, Mass.
Emily Reichert, the company's CEO, told the Senate subcommittee that regulations encouraging clean energy investment have led to more than 1 gigawatt of installed renewable energy capacity in the state as of 2015.
“Despite being in one of the most heavily regulated states in the country, in 2015 Massachusetts experienced the largest single year of growth in the clean energy industry since reporting began in 2010, at 11.9 percent, which represents 10,500 new jobs,” she said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87171095&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87171095&jd=87171095
-
Judges Reject Consolidation Of West Coast PCB Cases
Apr 12, 2016 | InsideEPA
A federal judicial panel is rejecting a request from several West Coast cities to consolidate their tort claims against chemical company Monsanto for water and sediment contamination stemming from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), saying consolidation is unneeded as the parties, regulations, bodies of water and contamination differ among the lawsuits.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) April 7 issued an order in In Re: Monsanto PCB Water, concluding that "centralization is not necessary for the convenience of the parties and witnesses or to further the just and efficient conduct of this litigation." The order followed briefs filed by parties as well as March 31 oral arguments before the panel.
In the litigation, the cities of Seattle and Spokane in Washington and San Diego, San Jose, Berkeley and Oakland in California were seeking consolidation of their tort suits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, saying that allowing for MDL would "promote judicial efficiency, economy, and consistency."
Monsanto, now a leading agrochemical company, was the sole manufacturer of PCBs for commercial use from the 1930s to the 1970s. The cities' litigation alleges the company has produced over one billion pounds of PCBs, and more than 6,000 U.S. waterbodies are contaminated with the chemical.
In their lawsuits, the six cities allege that the company produced, promoted and sold PCBs, knowing that they were toxic and could not be contained in their original application, and that the chemicals would persist, the City of San Diego says in a Jan. 27 brief.
The cities have spent large amounts of money to address PCB contamination in sediment and waters under their jurisdiction and to reduce PCBs entering into these waters. For instance, Seattle in its suit says it is paying for investigative and treatment costs related to PCB contamination at two Superfund sites -- the Lower Duwamish River site and the East Waterway site.
The cities argued for consolidation, contending similar contamination and injuries from the PCBs, but Monsanto opposed, noting they are not class-action suits, were brought by different municipalities and raise varying causes of action and legal theories, and dealt with different bodies of water and sources of contamination.
The judicial panel effectively agreed with Monsanto. While the suits share questions of fact arising from allegations that Monsanto-manufactured PCBs contaminated marine environments and that plaintiffs will incur cleanup costs, that "is where the commonality among these actions ends," the panel says.
"Each action is an individual public nuisance action brought by a different municipal plaintiff alleging contamination of a different body of water . . .," the order says.
"The factual questions relating to the alleged contamination of each of these bodies of water undoubtedly will differ -- particularly as plaintiffs do not allege that Monsanto directly contaminated these waters, but rather that PCBs manufactured by Monsanto and incorporated into other products thereafter leached into the environment," it says. "Similarly, the facts relating to regulation of these waters and plaintiffs' remediation efforts [are] likely to differ significantly.”
Further, the panel notes that all of the actions reside in the 9th Circuit, "reducing any potential for inconsistent, substantive pretrial rulings that could produce an inconsistent outcome on the merits." It also notes that all of the actions share common plaintiffs' and defense counsel, which will aid in facilitating informal coordination of discovery in the suits.
http://insideepa.com/news-briefs/judges-reject-consolidation-west-coast-pcb-cases
Industry and Association News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Transportation News
Environment News
Add recipients
Suggested