Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 4/19/2016
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Inhofe: Senate, House 'Hopefully Hours' from TSCA Deal
Apr 19, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
The Senate and House are “hopefully” just hours away from striking a deal on legislation reforming the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe said. -
Congress 'Hours Away' From Agreement on TSCA: Inhofe
Apr 19, 2016 | Bloomberg BNA Energy and Environment Blog
By Anthony Adragna and Brian Dabbs
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at a committee hearing that Congress is “hopefully hours away” from reaching agreement on a revamp of the nation’s primary chemicals law. -
Group Urges Obama to Oppose TSCA Bill's 'Monsanto Provision'
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Pearson
Environmentalists are asking President Obama to push back against a provision in a bill overhauling the primary chemical-safety law that they say helps Monsanto Co. -
EPA Releases 1-BP Scientific Review Group Candidates
Apr 19, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA has published the slate of candidates being considered to assist the Chemical Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) in its review of the draft risk assessment for 1-bromopropane (1-BP). -
Lobbying Continues Ahead of Afternoon Senate Votes
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Geof Koss
"There is broad scientific consensus that biomass is not categorically carbon neutral, given its immediate emissions and the long timeframes required to offset emissions with new forest or plant growth," wrote Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups. -
Senate Energy Bill Returns for Vote
Apr 19, 2016 | Fuel Fix
By James Osborne
A long delayed bipartisan bill to update U.S. energy policy could soon be put to a vote on the Senate floor. -
Today's the Day for the Senate Energy Bill
Apr 19, 2016 | Politico (Morning Energy)
By Eric Wolff
The Senate is expected to vote today on an energy bill that has been over a year in the works. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday the bill, S. 2012, will go to the floor after a reauthorization of the FAA has been voted on, Pro's Elana Schor reports. -
Senate Shows It Can Make a Deal on Energy—Just Not a Big One
Apr 19, 2016 | Bloomberg Politics
By Catherine Traywick
The sharply divided U.S. Senate is poised to pass comprehensive energy legislation for the first time in nearly a decade, forging a rare bipartisan compromise -- even if the result is far less ambitious than energy packages of years past. -
Supreme Court Rules Against State Power Plant Subsidies
Apr 19, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Maryland overstepped its authority when it implemented a program to subsidize construction of natural gas-fired power plants. -
7 More States Ask Supreme Court to Gut EPA Mercury Rule
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Robin Bravender
Seven additional states have joined in asking the Supreme Court to toss out U.S. EPA's rule to limit power plants' mercury emissions. -
Oil, Natural Gas Operations are Now Top U.S. Methane Emitters
Apr 19, 2016 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Jeff Johnson
U.S. greenhouse gases emissions held nearly steady from 2013 to 2014, increasingly a mere 1%, according to a newly released annual inventory by the Environmental Protection Agency. -
Pa., Ohio Should Set Up Fracking Trust Funds -- Report
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Pennsylvania and Ohio could protect themselves from the booms and busts of the oil business and develop a source of funding to diversify their economies if they passed a robust tax on unconventional oil and gas production and dedicated a portion of the money to a trust fund... -
Bill Gates Touts Green Energy Job Creation
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Umair Irfan
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates yesterday laid out the jobs case for energy innovation. -
Obama’s ‘Timid’ Legacy on Chemical Safety
Apr 19, 2016 | The Charleston Gazette-Mail Sustained Outrage Blog
This past weekend marked three years since the massive fire and explosion that killed 15 people at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas. Yet despite this disaster and the time that’s gone by, the Dallas Morning News reports: -
Rancor Isn't Stopping Progress on Deepwater 'Culture of Safety'
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
While contentious arguments over new offshore drilling technology requirements and well control rules grab headlines, behind the scenes industry and regulators continue their quiet work on a culture of safety in offshore energy extraction. -
Senator Thune Recognized For Championing Sensible Freight Rail Reforms
Apr 19, 2016 | Freight Rail Reform
By Zippy Duvall
Chairman Thune has developed a reputation for providing thoughtful leadership on an array of Congressional issues. So when the nation’s freight rail laws were in desperate need of modernization, he worked with farmers, agricultural businesses, other shippers, and freight railroads to craft -
Senators Hit Obama’s EPA Budget Request
Apr 19, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Members of both parties took aim at President Obama’s budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency during a Senate hearing Tuesday. -
Chaffetz threatens White House Official with Contempt Citiation over WOTUS Document Request
Apr 19, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Annie Snider
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz is threatening an Obama administration official with contempt of Congress over his slow response to a probe related to the controversial Waters of the U.S. rule.
Industry and Association News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation News
Environment News
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Inhofe: Senate, House 'Hopefully Hours' from TSCA Deal
Apr 19, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
The Senate and House are “hopefully” just hours away from striking a deal on legislation reforming the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe said.
"We know it's been very, very difficult and it looks like now we're just a matter of hopefully hours away from having an agreement with the House,” Inhofe said at an EPA budget hearing. He did not specify what sort of bargain has been struck.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy should "commend" her staff for its work on TSCA, Inhofe added.
TSCA reform legislation has been stuck in negotiations for months over issues such as preemption of state laws and a significant disconnect in scope. EPA and the Obama administration largely sided with the Senate version.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Congress 'Hours Away' From Agreement on TSCA: Inhofe
Apr 19, 2016 | Bloomberg BNA Energy and Environment Blog
By Anthony Adragna and Brian Dabbs
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at a committee hearing that Congress is “hopefully hours away” from reaching agreement on a revamp of the nation’s primary chemicals law.
“It looks like now we’re just a matter of hopefully hours away of having an agreement with the House,” Inhofe told Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Without your staff concentrating on that, it really couldn’t have happened.”
A Senate Republican aide told Bloomberg BNA the closeness of an agreement was a “matter of perspective.” Both chambers have been trying to resolve differences between a broad Senate revamp of the Toxic Substances Control Act (S. 697) and a narrower House version (H.R. 2576).
http://www.bna.com/congress-hours-away-b57982070003/
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Group Urges Obama to Oppose TSCA Bill's 'Monsanto Provision'
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Pearson
Environmentalists are asking President Obama to push back against a provision in a bill overhauling the primary chemical-safety law that they say helps Monsanto Co.
Waterkeeper Alliance and its 55 member organizations say in a letter sent to the White house today that Obama should veto legislation updating the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 if it contains the "Monsanto provision."
At issue is a provision in H.R. 2576, the "TSCA Modernization Act," that was described in aNew York Times article last month as "a legislative gift from the House of Representatives" to Monsanto. The provision addresses how the company might be held liable for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a persistent, man-made chemical banned since 1979 and linked to a variety of health problems.
State attorneys general had not previously flagged the provision in letters sent to House and Senate committees preparing the bills, nor did U.S. EPA when it submitted comments to negotiators earlier this year (E&E Daily, March 4).
Monsanto and House lawmakers view the change as a simple clarification of existing law. Past EPA regulatory requirements, they say, already may disqualify legal claims against PCB manufacturers. In a Texas courtroom, the Times reported, an attorney representing Monsanto argued that the provision would maintain what the company believed current law to be "after the passage of the new law."
Monsanto produced PCBs until 1977, the company said. The company has since shifted its focus from chemical manufacturing to agriculture products. However, the company faces legal challenges from jurisdictions across the United States seeking to hold it liable for environmental impacts that occurred when companies that purchased PCBs from Monsanto disposed of the product improperly.
In a statement, Marc Yaggi, Waterkeeper Alliance's executive director, said the company must be held accountable for the legacy of PCBs.
"Monsanto's PCBs have contaminated more than 80,000 miles of streams and rivers and 2.9 million acres of lakes and reservoirs in the United States alone," Yaggi said. "Rather than be shielded by Congress, they must be held accountable for the damage inflicted on people and natural resources across the country."
Monsanto spokeswoman Charla Lord referred an inquiry to the company's website.
On its corporate blog, Monsanto states that the House bill "simply preserves the framework that has been in effect since passage of TSCA for chemicals that were regulated before any changes to the legislation."
The bill "does not benefit the former Monsanto, or any chemical manufacturer, by shielding them from any legal responsibilities regarding PCBs. And, it doesn't take away anyone's right to hold manufacturers and/or those who use and dispose of chemicals liable for their products," the company said.
The Waterkeeper Alliance maintains that Monsanto knew a decade before it stopped making PCBs that the chemicals were harmful; the company says it wanted to stop selling PCBs, but in 1972, the federal government said the chemicals had to be used in electrical equipment until adequate substitutes could be developed.
Inhofe pushes for deal
Speaking at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee on EPA's fiscal 2017 budget, EPW Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) again delivered an optimistic assessment of the TSCA talks. However, Inhofe's comments were quickly discounted by House aides.
Addressing EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who testified before the committee today, Inhofe thanked the agency for its help on the chemicals legislation.
"We are hopefully hours away from having an agreement with the House," Inhofe said.
A Democratic aide involved in the negotiations said the assessment was unrealistic.
"Discussions continue, but the timeline of 'hours away' is overly optimistic in an attempt to further influence the ongoing negotiations," the aide said.
In an email, Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said, "I don't like to make predictions."
Reporter Sean Reilly contributed.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/04/19/stories/1060035886
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EPA Releases 1-BP Scientific Review Group Candidates
Apr 19, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA has published the slate of candidates being considered to assist the Chemical Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) in its review of the draft risk assessment for 1-bromopropane (1-BP).
Last month, the agency solicited nominations of scientists to serve on a review subcommittee for the CSAC’s 24-26 May meeting, which will undertake the work on the draft risk assessment for 1-BP, used in spray adhesive, dry cleaning and degreasing applications.
The EPA expects to select three to four subcommittee members from its list of 16 candidates. The subcommittee will assist the ten-member CSAC in the review and “provide additional scientific expertise to augment the knowledge base of the chartered committee”.
Affiliations of the scientists under consideration include government agencies – such as the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Institute of Health, and the California Environmental Protection Agency – and several universities.
The CSAC was established in 2015 to provide scientific expertise and recommendations to the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT). The 1-BP review meeting will be the body’s first.
The review of 1-BP comes under the EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Work Plan assessment programme. The substance’s draft risk assessment identified evidence of risks to consumers and workers, from exposure to it in the covered applications.
Comments on the candidates will be accepted until 29 April. Written comments on the draft risk assessment may be submitted to the CSAC until 10 May.
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Lobbying Continues Ahead of Afternoon Senate Votes
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Geof Koss
"There is broad scientific consensus that biomass is not categorically carbon neutral, given its immediate emissions and the long timeframes required to offset emissions with new forest or plant growth," wrote Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups. "Additionally, bioenergy is not as competitively priced as wind, hydroelectric, or other, cleaner technologies."
Echoing concerns expressed by other organizations, the groups also oppose an amendment by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that "promotes" co-firing of biomass as a means to create "net-negative" carbon emissions (E&E Daily, April 19).
A coalition led by the Alliance to Save Energy is working to shore up support for an amendment by Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) that would authorize federal mortgage lenders to consider a home's energy efficiency and monthly energy bills when determining a homebuyer's ability to make payments.
The "Sensible Accounting to Value Energy (SAVE) Act" "would allow the commonsense consideration of energy efficiency during mortgage underwriting, which would help homeowners realize the true value of home improvements that improve comfort and generate savings," the groups wrote yesterday.
The letters aim to counter pushback from Heritage Action for America, which yesterday put senators on notice it will count as a "key vote" both the underlying bill and the "SAVE Act" amendment.
However, the American Chemistry Council today also called on senators to support the Bennet-Isakson amendment, which it called "a voluntary way to improve residential energy efficiency while saving homeowners money." The group also supports the underlying legislation.
The Senate is expected to complete the bill later today, setting the stage for a House-Senate conference to hash out their competing bills.
The House passed its version (H.R. 8) in December (Greenwire, Dec. 3, 2015).
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/04/19/stories/1060035876
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Senate Energy Bill Returns for Vote
Apr 19, 2016 | Fuel Fix
By James Osborne
A long delayed bipartisan bill to update U.S. energy policy could soon be put to a vote on the Senate floor.
Tthe U.S. Senate is scheduled Tuesday afternoon to begin voting on amendments to the Energy Policy Modernization Act, a sprawling piece of legislation designed to update rules and policy on everything from natural gas exports to renewable energy.
Led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, the legislation was held up in February by the debate over how much federal assistance should be afforded to the city of Flint, Mich. following the discovery of lead in its water system.
With a deal on now in place on Flint, the energy policy act could go to the senate floor for a vote as early as this afternoon, according to senate staffers.
A rare instance of bipartisan cooperation, the legislation that seems to touch all aspects of the country’s energy infrastructure.
For the oil and gas industry, decisions on licenses to export liquefied natural gas would have to be made within 45 days. Permitting rules on the construction of natural gas lines on federal lands would be loosened. At the same time, it would support programs making buildings more energy efficient and expand hydropower and geothermal projects.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/04/19/senate-energy-bill-returns-for-vote/
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Today's the Day for the Senate Energy Bill
Apr 19, 2016 | Politico (Morning Energy)
By Eric Wolff
ONCE MORE, WITH ENERGY: The Senate is expected to vote today on an energy bill that has been over a year in the works. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday the bill, S. 2012, will go to the floor after a reauthorization of the FAA has been voted on, Pro's Elana Schor reports. The bill has been a collaboration between Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, both of whom have worked to keep poison pills out of the bill to focus on areas of agreement. The energy policy revamp got hung up for months over a procedural agreement intended advance a bill to bring federal aid to Flint, Mich. and other cities with lead-pipe water distribution systems.
Story Continued Below
The amendments: Under the agreement, today's votes will include a voice vote on a batch of uncontroversial amendments, and then eight will get roll calls. Among them will be Sen. Rand Paul's "Economic Freedom Zones", which would create areas with reduced taxes, a move Paul considers a poverty fighting measure. "The Economic Freedom Zones Act will allow impoverished areas to remove the shackles of big government by reducing taxes, regulations, and burdensome work requirements," he said in a statement.
Energy and water up next: On Wednesday the Senate is expected to take up an Energy and Water appropriation bill that will fund the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Army Corps of Engineers.
WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I'm your host Eric Wolff, and I'm from New York, so I've rather enjoyed this last week of watching politicians try to use a subway turnstile and make small talk with a deli owner. It'll all be over tomorrow and then we can watch these same people try to figure out where the "Main Line" in Philadelphia would take them. Send your tips, quips, and comments to ewolff@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @ericwolff, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.
HOW CONGRESS COULD CLEAN UP SCHOOL WATER: A little-known provision in a 2010 child-nutrition law requiring schools to provide safe water just might be what this country needs to finally deal with its simmering lead problem, if only Congress would spend the money to take it on. The federal government keeps close watch over public water systems, but does next to nothing to ensure that the water flowing from the aging pipes and taps in public schools is safe — a gaping hole in the water safety system. In just the past two weeks: Newark, N.J.; Detroit; and Granville, Ohio made headlines after lead or other dangerous contaminants were discovered in water flowing from school faucets. But the feds don’t know how many schools have similar problems.
Health advocates hope the USDA might use the requirement in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act to prod schools to test their water to make sure it's safe — and that the federal government might pay for it. They estimate the tests would cost around $20 million, and Sen. Bob Casey wants to attach that funding to the agriculture appropriation bill.
Check out the full story from Pro Agriculture’s Helena Bottemiller Evich politico.pro/20TII5Q
GOP SENS INVOKE PALESTINE TO ARGUE AGAINST CLIMATE FUNDS: Senate Republicans believe the U.S. can't spend money on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — including future payments to the Green Climate Fund — because the body accepted Palestine as a member, 28 Republicans said in a letter sent Monday to Secretary of State John Kerry. As Pro's Andrew Restuccia reports, the Senators cite a 1994 law that prevents the U.S. from contributing to "any affiliated organization" of the U.N. that admits Palestine. The Arab territory has long been seeking international legitimacy via admission to U.N. bodies where the U.S. cannot use its veto. In 2011, the U.S. cut off funding from UNESCO when it admitted Palestine. A State Department official told ME, "We will respond accordingly once we receive the letter and have a chance to review it."
ME FIRST — JEWELL’S ‘STATE OF THE PARKS’ ADDRESS: Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is expected to mount a strong defense of the importance of federal lands and call for “a major course correction in how we approach conservation,” in a speech at the National Geographic Society at 2 p.m. today, according to remarks shared with ME.
"This country’s national parks, forests, refuges, and public lands are some of the most valuable assets that we collectively own,” Jewell is set to say. “At a time when they face threats from land grabs to climate change, we can’t afford to turn our backs on them.”
The speech, which marks a weeklong celebration of the National Park Service’s centennial year, comes the day after Jewell announced a $95 million distribution to every state, territory, and the District of Columbia out of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund expired last year, but got a few years of reprieve as part of the omnibus.
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HOUSE TO HOLD COURT ON ENERGY AND WATER SPENDING: The House Appropriations Committee is set to vote on its $37.4 billion energy and water spending bill this morning. While members of the E&W subcommittee itself traditionally avoid getting in each other’s faces, the full committee is a couple of steps closer to the free-for-all that usually awaits us on the House floor. House appropriators released the bill’s report on Monday and there were a few interesting tidbits. For one, the House has $780 million less for the Energy Department than the Senate version does (the House bill overall is about $103 million smaller than the Senate’s). House lawmakers were also concerned with DOE’s “continual proposals” over the last decade to create new research centers — innovation hubs, manufacturing institutes, etc. Nevertheless, they agreed to expand the number of manufacturing institutes by one, while rebuffing Obama’s request for a new Energy Innovation Hub devoted to desalination.
If you go: The markup starts at 10:30 a.m. in Rayburn 2359.
EPA BUDGET BACK IN THE FIRING LINE: EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is on the Hill today for a budget hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. McCarthy’s previous budget hearings on the House side have touched on many of the usual topics: the Clean Power Plan, the Flint water crisis, Waters of the U.S. (particularly EPA’s chided-over social media campaign for that rule), water grant programs, and proposed cuts to a diesel emissions grants program that Republicans like. McCarthy will be back in the hot seat tomorrow when she appears before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Interior-EPA panel, chaired by one Lisa Murkowski.
If you go: The hearing starts at 10 a.m., Dirksen 406.
KEEPING UP WITH NOAA FISHERIES AND FWS? DOES FWS GET JEALOUS OF KHLOE? The House Natural Resources Committee will host a hearing today on new critical habitat rules set by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The committee summoned FWS Director Dan Ashe, and a representative from local government, an environmentalist, and two attorneys, to discuss the rule. Perhaps in an effort to attract some audience to the hearing, or perhaps just to give the press corps a chuckle, the committee will send out a press release this morning featuring a delightful photoshop of Keeping Up with the Kardashians title page, but with Kim holding a fish. ME thinks it's a trout.
If you go: The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in Longworth 1324, and bring your urban dictionary app.
PIPELINE SAFETY — TSA EDITION: The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has a leading role in protecting the nation’s estimated 2.6 million miles of oil and gas line, but did you know the Transportation Security Administration is also on the pipeline police team? The House Homeland Security Committee digs into the issue today with a hearing on “securing the veins of the American economy.” Sonya Proctor of TSA’s Office of Security Policy and Industry Engagement is set to appear alongside Association of Oil Pipe Lines President Andrew Black and Kathleen Judge, risk director at National Grid.
If you go: The hearing starts at 2 p.m. in Cannon 311. For a primer on TSA’s involvement in pipeline security, check out this Congressional Research Service report by Paul Parfomak, who will also be testifying.
FERC FACES FLAK FROM ALL SIDES ON LNG CALLS: Environmentalists and Western lawmakers are calling on FERC to reverse itself on recent LNG export decisions — albeit from different sides of the issue. Sen. John Barrasso and 14 of his House and Senate colleagues are pressing the agency to grant Jordan Cove LNG’s rehearing request. “[I]t is critical that FERC make every effort to allow Rocky Mountain state and Indian tribes to access overseas markets,” the lawmakers wrote to FERC Monday (Sen. Michael Bennet was the sole Democrat to sign, but Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has separately asked regulators to change their minds). Since being rejected by FERC on March 11, Jordan Cove argued the project is needed now that it’s been able to move ahead with five agreements, including a 20-year deal to sell LNG to two of Japan’s largest utilities.
While some lawmakers are upset with Jordan Cove’s rejection, environmentalists are dragging FERC into federal court today urging that the agency’s approval of the Cove Point LNG project was misguided. Patuxent Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is arguing that regulators gave the required environmental review short shrift by not linking LNG project approvals to increased U.S. gas production and climate impacts. Both sides should be well practiced on most of their arguments today since the Sierra Club has levied lawsuits against FERC for other LNG project approvals, including Sabine Pass and Freeport. Oral arguments start at 9:30 a.m. at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
RFS TO OMB: The EPA's proposed Renewable Fuel Standard mandates could be out in July. The agency on Friday sent the standards to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, a process that typically takes 90 days, as Pro's Alex Guillénreports. The latest RFS will arrive amid new political attention: Sen. Ted Cruz did not offer the sort of undying support for ethanol typical of presidential candidates looking for Iowa's support, but he won the state anyway. However his chief backer in that state, Rep. Steve King, now faces a primary challenge largely because of differences over the RFS.
GARBOW LIKES GARLAND: Avi Garbow, EPA's top lawyer, likes Merrick Garland, according to an email released to the conservative group America Rising Advanced Research through a FOIA request. “By many accounts, Chief Judge Garland is eminently qualified and will be an exceptional nominee,” Garbow wrote to acting Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg the morning Garland was nominated. Garbow noted that Garland had recently sided with EPA on the mercury rule before the Supreme Court overturned one part of that decision, and that he joined other judges in keeping the rule alive while EPA issued a fix.
SIT, LIONS, SIT: Columbia University students have been occupying administrative offices or the main library at the university since Thursday afternoon as part of a fossil fuel divestment campaign, POLITICO New York's Conor Skelding reports. Students succeeded in getting university President Lee Bollinger to move up a board meeting on divestment from April 29 to Monday. Students at New York University started their own sit in on Monday.
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-energy/2016/04/todays-the-day-for-the-senate-energy-bill-213833
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Senate Shows It Can Make a Deal on Energy—Just Not a Big One
Apr 19, 2016 | Bloomberg Politics
By Catherine Traywick
The sharply divided U.S. Senate is poised to pass comprehensive energy legislation for the first time in nearly a decade, forging a rare bipartisan compromise -- even if the result is far less ambitious than energy packages of years past.
"It’s probably not going to be known for the sweeping changes it makes to the U.S. energy system," said Sarah Ladislaw, director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "But it is a big deal because it shows bipartisan energy policy is still possible. In this Congress, in energy policy, that matters."
Crafted by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, and the panel’s top Democrat, Maria Cantwell of Washington, the bipartisan measure, S. 2012, seeks to upgrade the nation’s aging pipeline and power infrastructure, boost energy efficiency in federal buildings and streamline applications for exports of liquefied natural gas.
It’s not as far-reaching as the energy packages that cleared Congress in 2005 and 2007 -- which boasted hallmark programs such as the Renewable Fuel Standard -- but its passage would be milestone for a Senate known for gridlock.
"Legislation is back and forth, give and take," Murkowski said of the compromises that she made to get a bill to the floor. Nevertheless, "I think there’s recognition that what we have built is a substantive, solid package."
The chamber last passed a broad energy measure during the George W. Bush administration, clearing a bill that aimed to increase U.S. energy independence by cutting reliance on imported oil and boosting fuel economy standards for cars. Since then, the U.S. energy landscape changed, as shale production made the country the world’s largest oil and gas producer and cut reliance on imports. And, under President Barack Obama, energy bills have stalled over partisan differences about climate change.
Murkowski and Cantwell, aiming to avoid a political morass, drafted a bill that addresses some of the nation’s most pressing energy issues while skirting those most likely to provoke partisan debate. Nowhere in the bill’s 424 pages is there a provision about ethanol or greenhouse-gas emissions from the power sector, two of the most politically charged issues.‘Parochial Interests’
Still, its advocates faced their share of hurdles. The bill first came to the floor in January, and lawmakers began working through a series of amendments. In those rosy days, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, called the legislation "the latest reminder of what’s possible with cooperation in this Senate."
But within weeks, the bill’s momentum stalled, waylaid by Democratic efforts to craft an aid package for Flint, Michigan and concerns over offshore drilling. Murkowski says she worked senator by senator, to free her signature legislation of "parochial interests" and objections. Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow dropped her insistence on including Flint in the energy package; Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy dropped an offshore revenue-sharing measure opposed by Florida’s Bill Nelson.
After a series of amendments votes, final passage in the Senate is planned for Tuesday afternoon.Company Winners
More than 160 companies and business groups reported lobbying on the bill in 2015, and dozens of companies stand to benefit from provisions calling for expedited LNG permitting and hydropower licensing. If the legislation were enacted, American Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Corp. and Entergy Corp. could also gain from a provision to streamline the approval process for electric transmission lines. Right now, more than 20 transmission-line projects are queued up in a federal program designed to speed permitting but, of those, most have been waiting seven years for approval, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Cheryl Wilson.
Companies such as Siemens AG, General Electric Co. and Johnson Controls Inc. could also see new business opportunities as agencies seek contractors to meet updated federal efficiency requirements.
The next question is how the House will respond. The House-passed version, H.R. 8, triggered a veto threat from the Obama administration and garnered little Democratic support. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton said the two bodies will work out the differences.
"I expect the Senate to pass it, and then we’ll go to conference," Upton said in an interview Friday. "I’m convinced that if they pass something, we can get a bill to the president that he’s gonna sign."
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Supreme Court Rules Against State Power Plant Subsidies
Apr 19, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Maryland overstepped its authority when it implemented a program to subsidize construction of natural gas-fired power plants.
The court unanimously ruled that by requiring companies building such subsidized plants to set to the interstate power market, Maryland improperly interfered in markets that are the sole responsibility of the federal government through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
“We agree with the Fourth Circuit’s judgment that Maryland’s program sets an interstate wholesale rate, contravening the FPA’s division of authority between state and federal regulators,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court.
“By adjusting an interstate wholesale rate, Maryland’s program invades FERC’s regulatory turf.”
The ruling could put a similar program at risk in New Jersey. New Jersey’s program was also overturned by the lower courts, but Ginsburg sought to specify that the Tuesday ruling is only for Maryland.
“Nothing in this opinion should be read to foreclose Maryland and other states from encouraging production of new or clean generation through measures untethered to a generator’s wholesale market participation,” she wrote.
It’s the second win this year for FERC defending the jurisdiction of its authority. In January, the Supreme Court upheld a regulation regarding programs that reduce electricity demand during certain times.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, which supported Maryland’s program because it wants states to be able to shape their electricity mixes, said the narrow ruling is good.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is good news for clean energy because it rejected Maryland’s program on extremely narrow grounds,” Allison Clements, director of NRDC’s Sustainable FERC Project, said in a statement. “The decision leaves states free to encourage clean energy through a wide variety of means, including by requiring long-term power purchase agreements.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/276816-supreme-court-rules-against-state-power-plant-subsidies
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7 More States Ask Supreme Court to Gut EPA Mercury Rule
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Robin Bravender
Seven additional states have joined in asking the Supreme Court to toss out U.S. EPA's rule to limit power plants' mercury emissions.
The states filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting a request from 20 other states to throw out the regulation entirely after the high court already found the rule illegal last year. After deciding in 2015 that EPA had failed to properly consider costs, the Supreme Court sent the regulation back to a federal appeals court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit opted to keep the rule in place while the agency tweaked its cost analysis, but the states argue it should have been thrown out entirely.
"The D.C. Circuit endorsed a 'no harm, no foul' concept for unlawful federal regulations," the seven states told the Supreme Court. "But when agencies like EPA act unlawfully, there is no such thing as 'no harm.' Real, tangible harm often accrues as a matter of fact and, in every case, the enforcement of an illegal regulation erodes the rule of law."
The seven states that signed onto the brief were Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
They're supporting the request made by a 20-state coalition led by Michigan that the Supreme Court hear their appeal challenging the D.C. Circuit's decision to keep the rule on the books temporarily (Greenwire, March 18).
Those states are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
EPA's response to the Supreme Court is due May 6.
The agency this week issued a new finding that considered compliance costs and determined that the regulations were "appropriate and necessary" (Greenwire, April 15).
States opposed to the regulations could challenge that rule in court. Because the compliance deadlines were in April 2015 and April 2016 for utilities that received one-year extensions, most of the nation's power fleet has already complied with the rule.
The 27 states asking the Supreme Court to vacate the mercury rule are largely the same as the bloc of 28 states challenging the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan rule to cut power plants' greenhouse gas emissions in the D.C. Circuit.
Alaska and Idaho are challenging the mercury rule but are not involved in the Clean Power Plan litigation. And Iowa is opposing EPA's mercury rule but supporting the agency in the litigation over the Clean Power Plan.
Click here to read the seven states' brief.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/04/19/stories/1060035858
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Oil, Natural Gas Operations are Now Top U.S. Methane Emitters
Apr 19, 2016 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Jeff Johnson
U.S. greenhouse gases emissions held nearly steady from 2013 to 2014, increasingly a mere 1%, according to a newly released annual inventory by the Environmental Protection Agency. But in a key change from previous years, EPA’s report raised methane emissions figures for oil and natural gas drilling and production by 34%. For oil production alone, methane emissions more than doubled.
The agency attributed the increase in methane to new data and more accurate calculations. This sector now accounts for one-third of U.S. methane emission, outpacing landfills and livestock production.
Methane makes up 10.6% by mass of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions but is a crucial compound because it has 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas emitted in largest amounts.
The U.S. is experiencing a drilling and production bonanza in oil and natural gas, the latter of which is composed primarily of methane. As a result, natural gas prices have plummeted and supplies have exploded.
Natural gas burns cleaner and produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy delivered than coal and is displacing coal as the primary fuel for U.S. electricity generation. But high leakage from oil and natural gas wells could change that climate-change advantage.
Consequently, the new methane emission figures for oil and natural gas production are likely to add heat to a long running debate between fossil-fuel advocates and a growing number of atmospheric scientists, who say EPA and industry methane leakage figures have been too low.
“EPA’s methane emissions revisions will nudge natural gas leakage figure upwards,” says Robert Jackson, a Stanford University professor and earth scientist. “Natural gas still looks a little better than coal, particularly when other coal-related air pollution is considered, but the difference is shrinking.”
The oil industry’s American Petroleum Institute disagrees. “EPA has made a significant change in its inventory methodology, and we believe it is seriously flawed,” says vice president Kyle Isakower.
Meanwhile, EPA is considering new regulations for methane emissions, which will focus on oil and gas production facilities.
Overall U.S. emissions in 2014 totaled 6,870 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, which compares with 7,442 MMT in 2007, the year with nation’s highest recorded releases of greenhouse gases. Electricity generation contributed about 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, in 2014, followed by transportation at 26% and industrial activities with 21%. The remainder is from agricultural, residential, and commercial sectors.
http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/web/2016/04/Oil-natural-gas-operations-top.html
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Pa., Ohio Should Set Up Fracking Trust Funds -- Report
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Pennsylvania and Ohio could protect themselves from the booms and busts of the oil business and develop a source of funding to diversify their economies if they passed a robust tax on unconventional oil and gas production and dedicated a portion of the money to a trust fund, according to a report from the Brookings Institution.
The report, "Permanent Trust Funds: Funding Economic Change with Fracking Revenues," says trust funds can help avoid the "resource curse" that comes with rapid oil and gas development. It singles out Pennsylvania and Ohio because they're home to a rapid increase in oil and gas production, thanks largely to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
"It's fairly well-recognized that these are good, prudent and non-ideological tools that can be critical for managing volatility and easing budgets and making investments," Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings who co-authored the report, said in an interview.
Taxes on oil and gas production, or severance taxes, helped fuel the economy in the oil patch when prices were high. But oil prices have dropped more than 60 percent since the summer of 2014, and natural gas prices have dropped almost as much, leading to budget cuts from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico (EnergyWire, Feb. 8).
The report recommends three priorities for revenue from the trust funds -- research to increase a state's oil output, education funding and investment in alternative energy -- and examines the health of trust funds in other energy-producing states.
Texas has dedicated funds from drilling on state-owned land to a pair of funds, which now total about $55 billion, that support education. Montana has put half of its coal-mining severance tax into a trust fund for the last 40 years and now collects more in interest from the fund than it does in direct taxes from mining. North Dakota, which splits its oil and gas taxes into a reserve fund and a long-term Legacy Fund, has been able to dip into its reserves to offset the drop in taxes that came with the oil bust (EnergyWire, Sept. 28, 2015).
On the other hand, Alaska has dedicated 25 percent of its oil taxes to a Permanent Fund that pays an annual dividend to every resident in the state and now faces a budget crisis since the price of oil has plunged (EnergyWire, April 15). Louisiana is coping with a $2 billion budget deficit, in part because of the drop in oil prices and in part because it offered a generous tax break to companies that drill horizontal wells -- the type used for fracking, the report says.
Pennsylvania and Ohio sit over two rich reservoirs, the Marcellus and Utica shales, which have turned them into top-producing states.
Pennsylvania has no tax on gas production, although it levies an annual fee on each gas well. Ohio has an existing tax of 20 cents per barrel of oil and 3 cents per thousand cubic feet of gas, which is far below what most other states charge.
Both Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, have pushed for a modern severance tax, only to be blocked by their respective legislatures (EnergyWire, June 29, 2015).
In Pennsylvania, Wolf wants to dedicate the revenue from his proposed tax to education.
Kasich wants to dedicate 10 percent of his proposed severance tax to a legacy fund that would help counties affected by drilling cope with the long-term impacts, Joe Andrews, his spokesman, said in an email.
Industry groups have said both governors' tax proposals would lead to job losses, particularly given the low oil and gas prices.
In Ohio, severance taxes on all types of mining and energy production have been dedicated to environmental oversight, Shawn Bennett, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said in an email.
"To separate out a single industry from the way severance tax is historically collected in the state is unwise and unjust, especially at a time when oil and gas producers and the service industry are fighting to stay in business," Bennett wrote.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/04/19/stories/1060035847
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Bill Gates Touts Green Energy Job Creation
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Umair Irfan
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates yesterday laid out the jobs case for energy innovation.
Though new technologies have a habit of shuttering old industries and driving people out of work, he argued that new and often unanticipated positions arise to replace losses, helping push down the cost of living.
"Is innovation your friend when it comes to dealing with energy costs, education costs, health costs?" Gates said at event hosted by Reuters in Washington, D.C. "My answer is absolutely yes."
His message comes after Peabody Energy Corp., the largest coal company in the United States, filed for bankruptcy this month and while the largest solar energy provider in the country, SunEdison Inc., is considering doing the same (E&ENews PM, April 15).
With oil and natural gas prices falling, the world's energy industry is shifting uneasily along with those it employs, but inventing a cheap grid battery or a low-cost nuclear reactor might be a beacon of hope.
Gates noted that cleaner energy systems would improve energy security, create new industries and enhance health by cutting air pollution.
"The benefits of advances in energy go far beyond just the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions," he added.
These short-term benefits of low-carbon energy research are likely to be a stronger selling point to policymakers and the public, given that global warming is a relatively low priority for most Americans, a fact that's especially stark in the current presidential race.
"Climate change seems to rank very low in the presidential race, among issues," said Stephen Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters. "We did a poll that showed that only 29 percent of voters even wanted to know where their candidate stood on climate change."
Nonetheless, Gates said, finding a solution to climate change remains an urgent challenge, and the current pace of incremental improvements in existing fossil and renewable power plants is far too slow to avert dangerous warming while leaving many fundamental problems unsolved.
"If you take solar and you keep tinkering with it, you will not tinker it into working at night," Gates said.
Even if the United States cut its energy use in half, overall energy use in the world would still go up year on year as developing countries install air conditioners and buy more cars, according to Gates. In order to push humanity's 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions down, the world would need an energy miracle.
To this end, Gates last year helped launch the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group of private investors committed to funding new clean energy technologies. The effort parallels Mission Innovation, an accord among 20 countries to double energy research and development funding over the next five years (ClimateWire, Feb. 8).
"You really tilt the odds in your favor by investing in R&D," Gates said.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/04/19/stories/1060035856
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Obama’s ‘Timid’ Legacy on Chemical Safety
Apr 19, 2016 | The Charleston Gazette-Mail Sustained Outrage Blog
This past weekend marked three years since the massive fire and explosion that killed 15 people at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas. Yet despite this disaster and the time that’s gone by, the Dallas Morning News reports:
On the one hand, many of the ag-supply and feed stores that used to stock a lot of the fertilizer have stopped selling it, a Dallas Morning News investigation found. Others have beefed up safeguards, such as moving the chemical out of dilapidated buildings and into fire-resistant concrete structures. Fire officials now have the power to inspect sites, and fire departments are more likely to have had training to handle the hazardous material.
But many of the recommendations made by safety investigators have gone unheeded. None of the sites that responded to News inquiries said they had installed sprinklers systems. The state does not require them, but the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has said such a system could have stopped the West accident before it became a fatal explosion.
And despite calls for keeping stockpiles of ammonium nitrate away from populated areas, in up to eight communities tons of the chemical still sit near schools, houses, nursing homes and even a hospital, according to a News analysis of state data.
Perhaps even more to the point, as the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility points out in a statement labeling the administration’s legacy on chemical plant safety issues as “timid”:
An Environmental Protection Agency proposal for preventing major industrial accidents is a step forward but only a very tiny one … The EPA plan is exceedingly narrow in scope, relies on voluntary actions and brings no enforcement heft toward averting chemical plant disasters that imperil both workers and communities.
The EPA proposal, announced in late February, is the main administrative response to what happened in West — and what’s happened in many other communities around the country under President Obama’s watch (see here,here, here and here) — yet it does not even cover fertilizer plants handling ammonium nitrate, exempts utilities and water treatment facilities, and most manufacturers that use covered hazardous substances from its safety technology requirements. Also, as PEER pointed out:
— The plan relies heavily on unfunded local voluntary committees for implementation;
— Industry analyses of inherently safer technology that prevent accidents are kept secret, and thus may remain little more than academic exercises;
— EPA has devoted little enforcement muscle to ensure that even the current requirements are followed.
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said:
U.S. industrial safety will be left little improved by the faint imprint left in the Obama years. This very modest proposal is the first major change to EPA’s Risk Management Program in 20 years – and we may not be able to afford waiting another 20 years to make significantly greater progress in reducing industrial hazards that endanger the public.
http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/watchdog/2016/04/19/obamas-timid-legacy-on-chemical-safety/
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Rancor Isn't Stopping Progress on Deepwater 'Culture of Safety'
Apr 19, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
While contentious arguments over new offshore drilling technology requirements and well control rules grab headlines, behind the scenes industry and regulators continue their quiet work on a culture of safety in offshore energy extraction.
This week will mark the sixth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig accident and the onset of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Post-spill reforms continue six years later, with the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issuing well control rules and new regulations on blowout preventers, or BOPs.
BSEE and the industry have been engaged in a yearlong spat over the well control rules since the agency first opened the proposed regulations for public comment in April 2015. Industry worries that the new rules will prove too onerous and drive rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico (Greenwire, April 14).
Meanwhile, a lot of work is moving forward on safety and environmental management systems, or SEMS. Here, industry and regulators are proceeding much more harmoniously, people engaged in the efforts say.
"The SEMS is very much collaborative," said Brady Austin, a health, safety and environment consultant with Lloyd's Register in Houston.
Work on SEMS was one of the earliest initiatives to move forward post-spill after the former Minerals Management Service was reorganized into three independent agencies: BSEE, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
Largely based on recommendations by the American Petroleum Institute, SEMS aims to steer the industry toward tight and highly regimented workplace safety management practices while trying to keep the initiative with the industry itself, rather than see industry forced to simply respond to the government's commandments.
BSEE's SEMS rules do place some mandates on companies.
For instance, offshore operators must submit to third-party audits of their SEMS program. Where auditors find problems, companies must tell BSEE what their plan is to come into compliance. SEMS aims to identify industry best practices and elevate these to requirements, formalizing what API and others deem as suitable safety standards, with BSEE playing an advisory role.
Officials contrast this to the well control and BOP rulemaking process, which is seen as a mix of top-down and collaborative work by BSEE but is viewed by industry as more prescriptive, as the well control rules require the use of specific technologies, like BOPs with double shear rams.
BSEE official Douglas Morris said in an email that the agency takes a different and lighter touch toward industry on SEMS.
"We view the well control rule as a hybrid rulemaking containing both performance based and prescriptive requirements," Morris explained. "We view SEMs as primarily performance based."
Lloyd's Register, which has recently expanded its offshore equipment training capacity in Houston, is receiving certification to run SEMS audits. Austin agreed that the oil and gas industry and BSEE are on the same page with the direction of SEMS, which much less of the friction that's evident in other BSEE rules application.
"When you're dealing with technical issues, you can get technical," he explained. "But when you're dealing with a management system, you have to stay at a high level, because every company does things differently, and even though they all work toward the same [guidelines] and understand what must be done, they're not told how to do it."
Will contractors be included?
Austin says that major changes to SEMS are coming.
API is in the midst of revising its guidelines, known as Recommended Practice 75, or API RP 75. Institute representative Carlton Carroll confirmed that an update is in the works but couldn't say when those revisions might be completed.
Meanwhile, the Center for Offshore Safety is said to be close to finalizing its own documentation on SEMS audits and compliance monitoring.
The Offshore Energy Safety Institute (OESI) is also playing a role that BSEE Director Brian Salerno described in an earlier interview as key to the ongoing review and improvement of SEMS practices. OESI is an industry-academia collaboration led by principals at Texas A&M University, the University of Houston and the University of Texas, Austin.
"We've asked them to hold a number of forums for us, which they have done," Salerno said. "There's some additional work in terms of dialogue with industry that is on schedule."
Austin says one lingering uncertainty is whether the mandatory auditing requirement for operators will extend to contractors, as well.
Morris said BSEE doesn't anticipate veering from the current approach, though it may not matter much if the auditing requirement is extended to contractors -- Austin argues that the momentum suggests operators will require third-party SEMS audits of their contractors in their contract provisions regardless of whether BSEE mandates them.
"The operators are responsible ultimately for anything that happens on their lease or their operation," Austin said.
Austin said that contractors have nothing to fear from SEMS requirements or audits that operators may require of them, and that it makes sense to involve the contractors, as they vastly outnumber the offshore oil and gas companies that employ them and since contractors do most of the work in the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas fields.
Despite some uncertainty, he and others contend that industry and regulators are making great progress on enhancing offshore drilling and production safety management.
"SEMS rule and the implementation of the SEMS audits and industry participation in it is definitely improving things," Austin said. "Are we all the way there yet? No, and hopefully, we'll never say that we're all the way there yet because that's when you get lax and complacent."
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/04/19/stories/1060035842
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Senator Thune Recognized For Championing Sensible Freight Rail Reforms
Apr 19, 2016 | Freight Rail Reform
By Zippy Duvall
Chairman Thune has developed a reputation for providing thoughtful leadership on an array of Congressional issues. So when the nation’s freight rail laws were in desperate need of modernization, he worked with farmers, agricultural businesses, other shippers, and freight railroads to craft sensible reforms that would make the Surface Transportation Board work better.
He delivered by introducing the STB Reauthorization Act, legislation that pushes the STB to finally address long standing issues, including making it easier and quicker to pursue remedies for unreasonable rates and poor service. Thanks to Thune’s leadership, the legislation won unanimous support in the Senate and the House and was signed into law last year.
The American Farm Bureau is pleased to join with the other agricultural, energy and manufacturing groups in the Rail Customer Coalition to present Chairman Thune with the Murdo MacKenzie Leadership Award in recognition of his significant achievement. The award is named after one of the earliest shipper advocates who had a hand in passing legislation that helped rail customers, the Hepburn Act of 1906.
Two years later, the town of Murdo, South Dakota, was founded in honor of MacKenzie and his accomplishments. While small in size (just under 500 people), the town knows how to turn out strong leaders; Murdo also has the distinction of being Chairman Thune’s hometown.
We witnessed that strength from Senator Thune and his staff as they worked tirelessly to attract the bipartisan support we needed to overcome past obstacles and get the STB Reauthorization Act over the finish line. The new law is the most significant piece of freight rail legislation to pass Congress since the Staggers Rail Actmore than 30 years ago.
We are thankful to the town of Murdo for sending us Chairman Thune, and we are glad that he chose to build on Murdo’s legacy.
The passage of the STB Reauthorization Act, like Murdo’s efforts almost a century ago, marks another significant milestone in moving our nation’s freight rail system forward. Of course, there is still more work to do and we are grateful that Chairman Thune continues to stay engaged and advance reforms at the Surface Transportation Board.
https://www.freightrailreform.com/senator-thune-recognized-for-championing-sensible-freight-rail-reforms/
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Senators Hit Obama’s EPA Budget Request
Apr 19, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Members of both parties took aim at President Obama’s budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency during a Senate hearing Tuesday.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Obama’s budget, which looks to boost the EPA’s funding next year, consists of “misplaced priorities.”
The agency, he said, shouldn’t look to fund a major climate rule for power plants while its implementation has been stayed by the Supreme Court, a reference to Obama's request for $235 million for the Clean Power Plan as part of the budget. The agency, he said, should instead look to invest in programs already on the books.
Obama, he said, is “sacrificing EPA’s core programs to advance his climate agenda.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking member, said the agency should look to do more to improve water quality around the country, especially in light of the Flint, Mich., water crisis. Obama’s budget cuts funding for a state water infrastructure loan program by about 30 percent from 2016 levels.
“People say, ‘let’s make America great again,’” Boxer said, alluding to GOP presidential front-runnerDonald Trump.
“America is great already, but how do we stand here with an infrastructure that is rated D [by the American Society of Civil Engineers],” she said. “We have to continue to invest and improve our nation’s failing water infrastructure.”
McCarthy noted that the budget does include a request for more water infrastructure funding for states, but she said the agency is facing such a tight budget crunch that it can’t do more than that.
“We are sympathetic to the need for more state revolving fund moneys, and we’ll try to work with states and communities to make the most of those,” she said.
In his 2017 budget, released in February, Obama proposed spending $8.3 billion on the EPA, roughly $200 million more than Congress appropriated in 2016. Overall, the agency’s funding is down from around the $10 billion mark seven years ago.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/276802-senators-hit-obamas-epa-budget-request
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Chaffetz threatens White House Official with Contempt Citiation over WOTUS Document Request
Apr 19, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Annie Snider
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz is threatening an Obama administration official with contempt of Congress over his slow response to a probe related to the controversial Waters of the U.S. rule.
Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, laid into White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Howard Shelanski over his office's unfinished response to a July subpoena for documents pertaining to the office's review of the Obama administration's contentious water rule during a hearing this morning. Chaffetz said the office has "intentionally misled and misdirected our investigators."
"I am on the verge of recommending and pushing forward a contempt citation on you, personally," Chaffetz told Shelanski.
Shelanski said he has agreed to do a transcribed interview with the committee on the topic, and that several of his staffers have already done so.
The administrator defended his office's work in response to the subpoena, saying he has provided the committee with more than 6,400 pages of documents pertaining to the regulation, also known as the Clean Water Rule.
Shelanski said his staff is continuing to dig through documents looking for more to hand over, noting that the request was "very broad" and covered a nine year period going back to June 2006.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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