Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 6/13/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) AHFA Directors Meet with Legislators in D.C.
Jun 13, 2016 | Furniture Today
By Furniture Today Staff
Members of the American Home Furnishings Alliance Board of Directors met with key regulatory officials and members of Congress, including Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan, during the organization’s annual Washington D.C. government affairs meeting... -
(ACC Mentioned) HFA Members Attend Second Annual D.C. Fly-In
Jun 13, 2016 | Furniture World Magazine
The Home Furnishings Association recently announced that their members attended the Association’s second annual Washington, D.C. fly-in this week to meet with members of Congress and key officials to discuss legislation and regulations... -
Resources for Understanding the Lautenberg Act
Jun 13, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Richard Denison
With last Tuesday’s passage by the Senate of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 2576), a new TSCA is on its way to the President’s desk to be signed into law. -
As Retirement Nears, Vitter Relishes Win on Chemical Bill
Jun 12, 2016 | The Advertiser
By Deborah Barfield Berry
It took five years and lots of bipartisan wrangling, but Republican Sen. David Vitter can finally claim victory in his battle to pass landmark legislation reforming the country’s chemical safety law. -
Dupont on Trial over C8s Tied to Cancers. But is the Replacement C6 Safer?
Jun 13, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Ken Silverstein
Right now, Dupont is involved in a civil trial over a chemical it had used to manufacture stain-resistant teflon, called C8. It’s a test case — one of six — that will determine how the remaining 3,500 are dealt with. -
Portland Unnerved by Discovery of High Lead Levels in School Drinking Water
Jun 13, 2016 | Los Angeles Times
By Rick Anderson
Communities across the U.S. have been testing their water in the wake of a lead contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., and for the most part, the results have seemed reassuring, with many cities declaring their water safe to drink. -
(ACC Mentioned) Marcellus, Utica Shales Provide Big Boost to Manufacturers
Jun 13, 2016 | Akron Beacon Journal
By Bob Downing
The Appalachian Basin that encompasses Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia has a long history of being a manufacturing hub. This region in the Ohio Valley and throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania recently went from being part of the Rust Belt... -
Chamber Pushes Senate on Energy Bill
Jun 13, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is encouraging senators to join a conference committee with the House on an energy overhaul bill. -
Senators to Probe Challenges Facing New Oil, Gas Projects
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Hannah Northey
Senators will take a closer look this week at the anti-fossil protests as well as regulatory and environmental hurdles facing the oil and gas industry's build-out of pipelines. -
Clinton Could Issue 'Clean Power Plan 2.0' -- Consultant
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
If she's elected president, expect Democrat Hillary Clinton to consider using the Clean Air Act to issue "Clean Power Plan 2.0" and an economywide limit on carbon dioxide emissions, a climate and energy consultant predicted last week. -
NRDC to Model State Clean Power Plan Costs and Benefits
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Powerplays
By Emily Holden and Rod Kuckro
As more and more updated modeling shows the United States is on track to meet U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan standards through the mid-2020s, the Natural Resources Defense Council is planning to conduct a macroeconomic analysis on how the rule would affect certain states. -
States May Want RPS Tweaks for Climate Rule
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
States that want to use their renewable portfolio standards to help meet U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan goals may want to make some program tweaks, according to a recent report by the Clean Energy States Alliance. -
RFF's Linn Discusses New Economic Analysis of Court Stay
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E TV
new Resources for the Future economic analysis of the Supreme Court's stay of the Clean Power Plan considers the impacts of implementation during the stay on the coal industry. During today's OnPoint, Joshua Linn, senior fellow at Resources for the Future... -
Ohio Locals Brand Their Low-Priced Natural Gas Charm
Jun 13, 2016 | Columbus Dispatch (In E&E Energywire)
By Dan Gearino
Groups in southeastern Ohio are trying to attract large manufacturers by marketing themselves as home to the lowest natural gas prices in the industrialized world. -
Railroad Investments Spur Economy and Improve Safety
Jun 13, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Michael J. Rush
A new study from Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute recently released by the Association of American Railroads confirms that railroads significantly benefit the U.S. economy. -
USDOT Unveils New Hazardous Materials Safety Grant
Jun 13, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced late last week the availability of $1 million in grant funding for training and outreach programs that help communities prepare... -
(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Green Building Council Announces LEED Pilot Credit: Building Material Human Hazard and Exposure Assessment
Jun 13, 2016 | Spray Foam
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently announced a new LEED pilot credit—Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment, which encourages project teams and manufacturers to assess human health related exposure scenarios for products... -
Supreme Court Won’t Revisit Mercury Rule
Jun 13, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
The Supreme Court won’t force EPA to overhaul its mercury pollution rule for power plants, turning back the latest challenge to the Obama administration’s environmental regulations. -
EPA Says Toxics 'Completion' Rule Cannot Re-Open MACT Rules to Suits
Jun 13, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA is fighting environmentalists' lawsuit that claims the agency has not satisfied a Clean Air Act mandate that it regulate air toxics from sources representing 90 percent of emissions of seven hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), with the agency arguing the suit... -
EPA Advisors Likely to Include Army Corps' Dissent in CWA 404 Permit Plan
Jun 13, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Amanda Palleschi
An EPA advisory panel plans to include in its recommendations for how EPA can assist states in obtaining authority to issue Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 dredge-and-fill permits a caveat that says which parts of the guidance may not be able to be approved... -
The Atmosphere Has Hit a Grim Milestone — And Scientists Say We’ll Never Go Back ‘Within Our Lifetimes’
Jun 13, 2016 | Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
Scientists who measure and forecast the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere said Monday that we may have passed a key turning point.
Industry and Association News
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(ACC Mentioned) AHFA Directors Meet with Legislators in D.C.
Jun 13, 2016 | Furniture Today
By Furniture Today Staff
Members of the American Home Furnishings Alliance Board of Directors met with key regulatory officials and members of Congress, including Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan, during the organization’s annual Washington D.C. government affairs meeting June 7-8.
Last week's meeting with officials focused on topics such as formaldehyde regulation, upholstered furniture flammability and the voluntary furniture stability standard. Following an audience with Ryan at the U.S. Capitol Building on June 7, the AHFA board members were joined by retail executives from the Home Furnishings Association on June 8 for a morning of presentations by members of Congress.
The executives were addressed by Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), as well as Representative Trent Kelly (R-MS), along with Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Elliot Kaye and Senior Director of the American Chemistry Council Sarah Brozena.
“AHFA organizes an annual government affairs meeting to ensure that industry executives have face time every year with key regulators and legislators,” said AHFA CEO Andy Counts. “We must continually remind key legislators that our industry still represents tens of thousands of U.S. jobs and more than $100 billion in consumer product purchases each year.”
http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/532240-ahfa-directors-meet-legislators-dc
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(ACC Mentioned) HFA Members Attend Second Annual D.C. Fly-In
Jun 13, 2016 | Furniture World Magazine
The Home Furnishings Association recently announced that their members attended the Association’s second annual Washington, D.C. fly-in this week to meet with members of Congress and key officials to discuss legislation and regulations that directly affect HFA members and their businesses.
HFA members and a representative from the International Home Furnishings Representatives Association (IHFRA) spent June 7 in meetings on the Hill conveying member views on some of their top concerns, specifically a national remote sales tax, deferred interest terms, port and labor issues, along with regulations under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). They met with Sen. Capito (R-WV), Rep. Graves (R-LA), Chairman Goodlatte’s (R-VA) counsel in the House Committee on the Judiciary, Dan Huff, along with other congressional staffers.
HFA members joined American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) members in representing the furniture industry on June 8 as the groups were addressed by Senators Johnson (R-WI), Burr (R-NC) and Tillis (R-NC), Rep. Kelly (R-MS), the Honorable Elliot Kaye, chairman of the CPSC, and Sarah Brozena, senior director of the American Chemistry Council.
“We think it’s important for our members to come to Washington and meet with their representatives and senators face-to-face to discuss the issues that are critical to their businesses and communities,” said HFA CEO Sharron Bradley. “It’s also important for Congress to see that furniture retailers are engaged and aware of the issues and eager to improve the business environment.”http://www.furninfo.com/Furniture%20Industry%20News/6372
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Resources for Understanding the Lautenberg Act
Jun 13, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Richard Denison
With last Tuesday’s passage by the Senate of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 2576), a new TSCA is on its way to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
To assist everyone in understanding what the new law will do and how it compares to original TSCA, I have prepared two new documents:
· Want to see how TSCA now reads as amended by the Lautenberg Act: Here is a redline of TSCA based on the final bill.
· Here is a 10-page side-by-side of old vs. new TSCA, compared in 12 key issue areas.
And here are links to our earlier analyses of the bill:
· a description of: (a) how the Lautenberg Act amends the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 and (b) changes made after House and Senate bill passage to reconcile the bills;
· a description of what is and is not preempted under the Lautenberg Act; and
· Our fact sheet on the Lautenberg Act.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2016/06/13/resources-for-understanding-the-lautenberg-act/
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As Retirement Nears, Vitter Relishes Win on Chemical Bill
Jun 12, 2016 | The Advertiser
By Deborah Barfield Berry
It took five years and lots of bipartisan wrangling, but Republican Sen. David Vitter can finally claim victory in his battle to pass landmark legislation reforming the country’s chemical safety law.
“It wasn’t easy,’’ Vitter, R-La., said on the Senate floor recently. “This is long overdue.’’
The Senate approved the bill Tuesday night, sending it to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law in upcoming weeks.
With that victory behind him, Vitter plans to focus on other priorities during his remaining his six months in the Senate. He will leave office in January after losing his bid for governor last year to Democrat John Bel Edwards and deciding not to run for re-election.
Vitter, a lawyer by training, said he has no definite plans beyond January, but whatever he does won’t involve elected office. He said he hasn’t talked to companies or firms yet about possible jobs, but would like to work in public policy.
“I’m looking forward to being in the private sector,’’ Vitter told USA TODAY last month. “I’m not running for anything. I guess I’m saying never. I looking forward to really a very new chapter in my career.’’
Vitter basked in the spotlight after Congress approved the chemical safety bill he crafted with Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. The legislation — the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act — is named for the late senator from New Jersey. It overhauls the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, which authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate chemicals in consumer products.
”It’s been a big accomplishment,’’ Vitter said. “This is an area of federal law that everybody, every stakeholder, every group, whether it’s some far-left environmental group or industry, said needed to be updated. The trick was getting agreement on doing that.’’
Even Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, who has clashed frequently with Vitter on a host of issues, praised his work on the chemical safety bill.
“We’ve had our differences. We’ve had our fights,’’ Durbin, a Democratic leader, said Tuesday before the Senate vote. “I have to say if (the bill) ends up being approved, it’s quite an accomplishment for him and for Congress to pass historic legislation.’’
The chemical bill will almost certainly be Vitter’s last major accomplishment, said Joshua Stockley, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
“I think he sees this as his legislative swan song, his last opportunity to both leave the office and his state with something to talk about or something to kind of cement his legacy,’’ Stockley said.
Vitter, a two-term senator, is chairman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. He also serves on the Environment and Public Works, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Judiciary committees.
Vitter, 55, said constituent services and casework will be a priority during his remaining months in office. He said his office also is developing a guidebook for his successor on how to help constituents.
“It really is an important part of the job and it really can make a big difference in people’s lives,’’ he said.
Vitter also hopes to help craft a bipartisan water resources bill that includes flood protection and money for dredging - issues important to Louisiana
“We’re trying to get it across the finish line before the end of the year,’’ he said.
Vitter did his early work on the chemical safety bill with Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who died in 2013. Udall stepped in to help finish the bill.
“He’s been a man of his word,’’ Udall said of Vitter on the Senate floor Tuesday. “It’s been a pleasure working with him.’’
Other Democrats, however, had little to say about Vitter, who isn’t even popular among members of his own party.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a liberal from California, has clashed bitterly with him on environmental issues. In 2013, Vitter angered Boxer by leading a surprise GOP boycott of a committee vote on Gina McCarthy's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
The two teamed up, however, on a bipartisan bill to renew the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which authorizes water projects, flood protection and navigation programs.
Asked about Vitter’s retirement last week, Boxer said only, “I wish him well,’’ as she walked away.
Sen. Corey Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey – Lautenberg’s home state, had even less to say.
“I’m not going to talk about him,’’ he said with a laugh and walked off.
Stockley said Vitter’s practice of placing holds on nominations and legislation has irked both Democrats and other Republicans in the Senate.
“He’s known more for blocking things to achieve results as opposed to creating things to achieve results,’ ’ Stockley said. “It would be naïve, I think, to expect something different in the next six months. He is who he is.’’
But Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, pointed to Vitter’s work with Boxer on the WRDA bill, which he called ‘‘a pretty good act of skillful legislating.’’
Wicker and Vitter served together in the House, where Wicker was deputy whip and Vitter was part of his team.
“He always has a thoughtful take on complex issues,’’ Wicker said. “He doesn’t over-abuse the privilege of chiming in, but when he does speak up he’s generally making a point that needs to be considered.’’
Bill Cassidy, the junior Republican senator from Louisiana, said Vitter’s chemical safety bill will have a significant impact in Louisiana. Vitter campaigned with Cassidy during Cassidy’s successful bid last year to unseat Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.
“The knock on David was always… ‘Oh my gosh, he can’t get along with anybody,’” said Cassidy. “He’s collaborating with folks who are from the left of the political spectrum, getting something that’s very important to workers and very important to our industry. It’s a good thing - nice way to cap his career.’’
http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/06/12/retirement-nears-vitter-relishes-win-chemical-bill/85711138/
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Dupont on Trial over C8s Tied to Cancers. But is the Replacement C6 Safer?
Jun 13, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Ken Silverstein
Right now, Dupont is involved in a civil trial over a chemical it had used to manufacture stain-resistant teflon, called C8. It’s a test case — one of six — that will determine how the remaining 3,500 are dealt with.
Dupont, however, started to phase-out C8 from the market in 2014 after it was determined that it caused a number of cancers linked thyroid and testicular issues. It has replaced it with C6, which is supposed to be safe.
To be precise, C8s have eight carbons, with the most common being PFOA. C6 has six carbons.
“We’re certainly relying on the EPA to make sure that they haven’t replaced one chemical with a health and safety threat with another one that is the same or worse,” says Mike Fitzgerald, an air quality specialist for New Hampshire’s state government, in a public radio story that aired there.
That same story goes to quote others who say that not much is known about C6s and that they could lead to health-related issues: “The best advice I have is let’s treat them like they have toxic properties like C8,” says Philippe Grandjean, a Harvard University researcher.
As we know, the US Congress has passed measures in both chambers to update the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act. The US Environmental Protection Agency had no rights before the measure to test or regulate the 64,000 chemicals in the market. But the revisions will allow it to do so, although it has seven years to evaluate each chemical. EPA told the New Hampshire radio network that it is now reviewing C6.
Some history: DuPont was first sued over this issue in 2001. As part of a settlement that occurred in 2005, both sides agreed that the C8 chemical would be studied by three scientists. Beginning in 2011 and throughout 2012, those experts concluded that C8 was “more likely than not” to cause such conditions as ulcerative colitis, kidney cancer, thyroid disease and testicular cancer.
The C8 byproduct had been dumped into the Ohio River near Parkersburg, W.V., which resulted in the poisoning of water resources in two districts in West Virginia and four in neighboring Ohio.
That’s where the current civil trials are taking place, one of which occurred last October, one that has been settled and one that is taking place right now. In the first trial, the jury awarded the plaintiff $1.6 million in compensatory damages but no punitive damages meant to teach the company lesson. While Dupont is now appealing that verdict, it considered that a victory — that it had no knowledge of the potential harms that could from using C8.
“No one at DuPont ever believed that the very low amounts of C8 that were getting into the community were likely to cause harm to anybody,” said DuPont’s attorney Damond Mace, a partner in Squire Patton Boggs, in his opening statement before the jury in the third test case that began in late May. The issue is about what DuPont knew back then and not what is known today, he said.
The plaintiffs are arguing, however, that DuPont did know that the C8 led to certain cancers as early as 1988. It was then that its own scientists had run tests on rats and found that it produced a “slight” but “statistically significant” increase in the odds of getting testicular cancer.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/06/13/dupont-on-trial-over-c8s-tied-to-cancers-but-is-the-replacement-c6-safer/
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Portland Unnerved by Discovery of High Lead Levels in School Drinking Water
Jun 13, 2016 | Los Angeles Times
By Rick Anderson
Communities across the U.S. have been testing their water in the wake of a lead contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., and for the most part, the results have seemed reassuring, with many cities declaring their water safe to drink.
One exception has been a city that has always prided itself on its natural stream-fed drinking water: Portland, Ore., recently discovered high levels of lead in its school drinking water, and the agonizing drip-drip-drip of additional revelations that has ensued has left the Rose City with a toxic hangover.
Public records, including newly released emails, have revealed that school officials not only knew the water was unsafe, but allowed students and teachers to drink it while officials decided on a course of action. The district also failed to disclose all it knew, and the schools’ health officer was found to have misled the public.
The two-week-old controversy has already produced a campaign to dump schools Supt. Carole Smith.
“They knew about the lead,” says one school parent, Mike Southern, who is pushing for a criminal investigation of district actions and has started an online petition to oust Smith. “They did nothing.”
Smith, superintendent of the 49,000-student district since 2007, apologized last week and took responsibility for the delay in notifying students and parents about unsafe lead levels.
“This gap in information and communications regarding health and safety cannot happen again,” she said in a statement, “and I am working to ensure that it won’t.”
Portland isn’t alone. While cities, especially those in the West, have generally shown favorable test results for municipal drinking water, school water systems — often older piping systems — are facing bigger problems.
A recent USA Today analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data found almost 350 schools and day-care centers failed lead tests 470 times from 2012 through 2015. All tested above the EPA’s lead “action level” of 15 parts per billion. One Maine elementary school came in 41 times higher.
If the action level for lead is exceeded, the EPA says, extra measures must be taken to control corrosion. Children are at particular risk for lead exposure to their central nervous system and have “no safe blood lead level,” the agency says. Exposure can result in reduced IQ and attention spans, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, behavioral problems and impaired growth.
The Portland lead test results, released at the end of May, surprised and then angered some parents when they learned the results had been known since March 31. Smith was aware of the March testing but says she didn’t learn of the results until late May.
The test results from Creston and Rose City Park elementary schools showed lead levels as high as 33 parts per billion. Retesting a month later at Creston turned up a 53 parts per billion reading, three times the action level.
Creston’s principal and some Parent Teacher Assn. members received the results on May 16, but no action was immediately undertaken. The superintendent’s office received the results May 25.
All district drinking fountains were finally shut down May 27, and students were given bottled water as replacements. Smith announced she was bringing in a local law firm to review the district’s internal response to the crisis.
The PTA was at the forefront of uncovering and responding to the dilemma. The Creston PTA sought the initial testing and, after the results became known within the district, PTA President Lisa Kensel learned Creston officials had taken no action. On May 24, she posted her own signs at the school, warning students not to drink the water.
Last week, the district reported the tests results from two Rose City Park elementary students revealed blood lead levels “that fell within the range recommended to see a doctor” for more testing. No connection to the school lead levels has yet been made.
Using record requests to dig deeper, Willamette Week revealed that high lead levels were found at over half of 90 school sites tested between 2010 and 2012, while the Oregonian reported the district hadn’t done regular, comprehensive drinking water testing in 15 years.
That was despite a 2001 determination that “most schools have at least one location where lead levels are above 15 [parts per billion],” according to then-Supt. Jim Scherzinger.
Last week, the release of district emails threw the swiveling spotlight on the district’s senior manager for environmental health and safety, Andy Fridley, who had participated in the initial testing. Critics say his messages to parents and co-workers portray him as misinformed and reluctant to take action.
If contaminants aren’t found in initial testing, he wrongly told one parent, “there is no reason to believe they will be in the future.” District spot testing, he also inaccurately said, had detected only “lead levels at or below” the action zone.
Appointed by Smith two years ago, Fridley was put on paid leave by Smith last week, along with Fridley’s boss, Chief Operating Officer Tony Magliano. Smith says she’s unsatisfied with their handling of the tests.
On Thursday, the district sent a notice to school families and staff, updating ongoing lead testing. “Congratulations,” it began, “on the completion of another school year.”
Anderson is a special correspondent.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-portland-water-20160613-snap-story.html
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(ACC Mentioned) Marcellus, Utica Shales Provide Big Boost to Manufacturers
Jun 13, 2016 | Akron Beacon Journal
By Bob Downing
From Energy in Depth's Nicole Jacobs:
The Appalachian Basin that encompasses Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia has a long history of being a manufacturing hub. This region in the Ohio Valley and throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania recently went from being part of the Rust Belt to seeing a resurgence in investment in manufacturing, thanks to shale development. And that story just keeps getting better as more and more companies return thanks to the affordable energy available in the region.
The Wall Street Journal highlighted this trend earlier this week:
“The Ohio Valley from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill., has a long industrial heritage, with chemical companies, and oil and gas producers, that have been operating there for decades. A group of them in Marietta, Ohio, and Parkersburg, W.Va. – with a combined population of about 50,000 — aim to tout their low gas prices and industrial heft to energy-hungry businesses from Brazil to Thailand.”
In fact, recently businesses have been able to get their natural gas—a necessary feedstock for many industries—through the Dominion South Point hub at the lowest prices in the country, once again making the region appealing to all types of businesses. From the WSJ article:
“We’re back at the center of energy production in the United States, and even the world,” said Jerry James, chief executive at Artex Oil Co., an independent producer based in Marietta. “We’ve got everything that a manufacturer needs.”
The low prices, coupled with new infrastructure investment, continue to set the region apart from other areas of the country with the growth potential improvements in shale development have created. For instance, just this week,Shell announced its official plans to build an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. This facility will not only create thousands of jobs for the region, but will also be a major attraction for chemical plants and plastics manufacturers looking to reduce costs by locating closer to feedstocks. As Cal Dooley, American Chemistry Council President and CEO, explained following the announcement,
“Thanks to our nation’s abundant supplies of shale gas, the U.S. has become the world’s destination for new chemical industry investment. Our competitive edge will mean new jobs and exports and a stronger manufacturing sector for years to come.”
Over the border in Ohio, a Thai company, PTT Global, has also announced plansto potentially build a cracker plant in Belmont County. A Brazilian company, Odebrecht, has met with officials to discuss the possibility of another in Wood County, West Virginia, although both of these projects are still in the beginning phases of discussions and planning. As Pat Ford, executive director of the Brooke Hancock Business Development Corporation, explained of the planned investments,
“So you’re looking just within the past 2 years, 20 billion dollars of private investment being planned in our region. The number of employment opportunities, spin-off employment opportunities for all of these businesses, and the investment it’s going to be creating, it pretty much paves the way for a bright future for our region economically for the next 20-30 years.”
Even as states await large-scale projects such as these to come online, they are already seeing a resurgence in manufacturing within their borders. For instance, as the New York Times reported in 2014:
“Both Youngstown and Canton are places which experienced nothing but disinvestment for 40 years,” said Ned Hill, a professor of economic development at Cleveland State University. Now, “they’re not ghost towns anymore. You actually have to go into reverse to find a parking spot downtown.”
That’s in large part due to companies like Vallourec and Exterran opening factories as a direct result of the nearby shale development. The steel industry has seen similar growth in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. President Obama has even acknowledged the importance of shale in the resurgence of manufacturing during visits he made to the Marcellus Shale stating,
“Our manufacturing sector that used to be losing jobs, just hemorrhaging jobs, is now adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s.”
Vice President Biden echoed similar sentiments during the same visit:
“And now there’s an energy boom. You all know about the Marcellus Shale — I think you heard of that, right? There’s an energy boom that’s changed the paradigm of manufacturing. It’s cheaper to manufacture in the United States than it is in Europe and/or in Asia.”
This isn’t surprising given a recent study from IHS Economic, commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) that showed:
“Thanks to technological improvements in energy development, such as fracking and horizontal drilling, the report predicts energy intensive industries (chemicals, refining, metals, etc.) will outperform the U.S. economy through 2025.”
All in all, thanks to shale development, good things are in the works for Appalachia that equate to more jobs, greater economic stimulation, and new opportunities in the region.
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/drilling/ohio-utica-shale-1.291290/marcellus-utica-shales-provide-big-boost-to-manufacturers-1.690066
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Chamber Pushes Senate on Energy Bill
Jun 13, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is encouraging senators to join a conference committee with the House on an energy overhaul bill.
In a Monday letter to senators, the Chamber said an energy reform bill is “crucial” to “maximize and prolong the benefits the recent energy renaissance is producing.”
The only way to overhaul those energy laws now is to merge the rewrite packages already passed separately by the House and Senate. The House voted in May to create a conference committee to do so, but the issue remains open in the Senate.
“The Chamber urges the Senate to move to formal conference and begin work resolving differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions of S. 2012 so that Congress can expeditiously approve legislation to improve energy efficiency, energy infrastructure, overall American energy policy and energy policy involving tribal lands,” wrote R. Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president of government affairs.
The Chamber says it will score a Senate vote on going to conference, the first time in at least a decade the business group has considered a conference committee procedural vote important enough to include in its legislative scorecard.
The Senate passed its energy reform bill, a collection of policy changes aimed at tasks like electric grid modernization and natural gas exports, in April. The House in May voted to send members to a conference committee to write a compromise package.
The Senate, though, has yet to take that step, despite Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) hope that such a vote would come shortly after Memorial Day.
Industry supporters say their hopes for a reform package were buoyed by a deal on a bill changing chemical safety laws, a major legislative victory that came together after months of behind-the-scenes deal making.
But lawmakers have a constricted legislative calendar this year, making it tougher for an energy bill deal to come together before November’s elections.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/283262-chamber-pushes-senate-on-energy-bill
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Senators to Probe Challenges Facing New Oil, Gas Projects
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Hannah Northey
Senators will take a closer look this week at the anti-fossil protests as well as regulatory and environmental hurdles facing the oil and gas industry's build-out of pipelines.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to hear from a panel tomorrow that includes an infrastructure specialist from the Congressional Research Service, industry and trade groups, a trades union president, and an air policy director from the Environmental Defense Fund.
A smorgasbord of issues awaits both the committee and witnesses. The committee is planning to dig into the economic, safety, environmental, permitting, construction and maintenance considerations associated with new pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals.
The pipeline industry is facing challenges on a number of fronts.
The Rockefeller Foundation is sponsoring a conference in Atlanta this week for property owners, nonprofit groups, law firms and environmental groups to strategize on fighting the use of eminent domain to build new oil and gas pipelines (Greenwire, June 10).
Groups like Food & Water Watch; landowners from Texas, West Virginia, Virginia, Iowa and other states; and other nonprofit and legal groups will be in attendance.
Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska and a prominent voice opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline, said opponents of new oil and gas projects are pursuing a three-prong strategy.
In addition to fighting the use of eminent domain, climate activists and landowners are pushing for a federal climate test for each oil and gas pipeline, as was done for Keystone XL, and they're fighting local and state approvals, Kleeb said.
But witnesses such as Andrew Black, president of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, and Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions, will likely touch on the need for new pipeline infrastructure to generate jobs and feed the nation's energy needs.
And Environmental Defense Fund Air Policy Director N. Jonathan Peress may mention ways to limit the environmental footprint of gas infrastructure without locking out renewables.
Schedule: The hearing is Tuesday, June 14, at 10 a.m. in 366 Dirksen.
Witnesses: Andrew Black, president of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines; Ross Eisenberg, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers; Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions; Paul Parfomak, specialist in energy and infrastructure policy for the Congressional Research Service; and Environmental Defense Fund Air Policy Director N. Jonathan Peress.
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2016/06/13/stories/1060038683
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Clinton Could Issue 'Clean Power Plan 2.0' -- Consultant
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
If she's elected president, expect Democrat Hillary Clinton to consider using the Clean Air Act to issue "Clean Power Plan 2.0" and an economywide limit on carbon dioxide emissions, a climate and energy consultant predicted last week.
It's widely recognized that the next presidential administration would have to take additional measures to achieve the Obama administration's emissions reduction pledge to the international community.
David Bookbinder, who formerly served as chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club, said he expected Clinton to consider a second regulatory regime for power plants and the broader carbon program in the absence of congressional action on climate change.
"The big problem is not the U.S. emissions going forward," Bookbinder said at a U.S. Energy Association event last week. "The big problem is that if the United States doesn't do anything or doesn't meet its commitments, there's no incentive for anyone else to meet the commitments or do anything."
In the lead-up to the Paris climate negotiations, President Obama pledged that the United States would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions between 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Existing regulatory measures, including the Clean Power Plan and efforts to lower methane emissions from landfills and new oil and gas operations, will fall short of that goal by at least 309 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, predicted Bookbinder, who is now a consultant at Element VI Consulting.
That calculation based on U.S. EPA's latest greenhouse gas inventory assumes the agriculture sector will reduce its emissions voluntarily by about 120 million metric tons and that all existing Obama administration regulations will be upheld by the courts.
Bookbinder said that it's unlikely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has vowed to undo the Paris climate agreement, would take any action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It's also unlikely that Congress, which will probably remain split, will pass legislation on climate change during the next administration.
Top advisers for Clinton say she would wield executive powers to address climate change and not seek a big solution from Congress (E&E Daily, May 9).
But Clinton would have only a few options to substantially close that Paris gap absent action by Congress, Bookbinder said.
One option would be to use the Clean Air Act to issue rules that target individual industrial sources of pollution. But each rule likely will take 10 years to complete and make it through the courts. And it's unlikely that such rules would add up to close the gap, Bookbinder said.
"The single largest [source category] is refiners," he said. "They have maybe 200 million tons a year of emissions. So you knock that down by 30 percent. That takes 60 million tons. Then after that you get into smaller and smaller source categories."
It's unclear how much a rule targeting methane emissions from existing oil and gas operations, which the Obama administration announced earlier this year and which would be completed under the next administration, would contribute to closing the gap, he added.
Enter Clean Power Plan 2.0. If the Supreme Court blesses EPA's first program for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, expect a Clinton EPA to issue a second version that calls for steeper cuts in emissions, Bookbinder said.
"That is the one place in the distinct category-by-category of regulating sources that the administration can look to," he said. "And if anyone thinks EPA isn't already working on 2.0, they're dead wrong."
Bookbinder predicted that a second Clean Power Plan could cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent off the first Clean Power Plan's target, or up to 340 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
"It's a huge chunk," he said. "But the utilities will scream, and that will take another decade to get there."
A more attractive option for environmentalists would be for Clinton to use the Clean Air Act's international provision to put in place an economywide carbon reduction program. Section 115 allows EPA to compel states to reduce air pollution emissions that contribute to health or welfare problems in other countries -- if those other countries reciprocate with like protections.
Supporters of using the section to impose a carbon dioxide program argue that the Paris climate deal fulfills the reciprocity requirement (Greenwire, Jan. 15).
"It is the silver bullet de jour of the enviros, and they are dead serious about this," Bookbinder said. "There is no doubt that the environmental community is pushing this on the Clinton people right now and will lay it down as one of their markers."
Bookbinder said that he expected a Section 115 program could find footing during a second Clinton administration. And he said that the Supreme Court may bless the approach if climate change impacts continue to proliferate -- even though there are "huge legal problems" with using Section 115 to combat greenhouse gases.
"If 10-12 years from now Congress still has done nothing, and EPA tries a 115 approach, and it gets to the Supreme Court, five justices or more might say, look, Congress has done nothing," Bookbinder said. "The executive branch at least has a statute that they say works and does have a solution to this problem."
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/06/13/stories/1060038727
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NRDC to Model State Clean Power Plan Costs and Benefits
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Powerplays
By Emily Holden and Rod Kuckro
As more and more updated modeling shows the United States is on track to meet U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan standards through the mid-2020s, the Natural Resources Defense Council is planning to conduct a macroeconomic analysis on how the rule would affect certain states.
Starla Yeh, a senior policy analyst for NRDC, said the group may look at the jobs and electricity price impacts on the same states it has studied previously: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Yeh has argued that while states are already moving toward the rule's carbon reduction goals, EPA's power-sector climate rule is still needed to push emissions reductions later on. While some states and utilities will fare better than others under the regulation, NRDC has argued that many states could see benefits from green jobs.
This week, EnergyWire reporter Rod Kuckro will cover the Edison Electric Institute's annual convention in Chicago, where, today, DTE Energy Co. CEO Gerry Anderson will lead a discussion on "The Clean Power Plan and Beyond," with the chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission and officials from the Electric Power Research Institute, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Siemens AG.
"In the wake of the Supreme Court's stay of the Clean Power Plan in February, states have responded in a variety of ways, with some suspending work on state compliance plans and others moving forward," according to the agenda description of the talk. "Meanwhile, the long-term transition to a low-carbon energy future continues uninterrupted, driven by technology, economics and public policy. This panel will discuss the prospects for the Clean Power Plan, the recent signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and ongoing efforts by electric power companies to spur greater deployment of clean energy."
Also this week, EnergyWire reporters Jeffrey Tomich and Kristi Swartz will attend regional energy regulatory conferences. Tomich will be in Bismarck, N.D., at the Mid-America Regulatory Conference. The agenda does not specifically reference the Clean Power Plan but includes a panel on multistate policy challenges.
Swartz will be in Manalapan, Fla., at the conference of Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, where the agenda includes sessions on the impact of emerging technologies on state economies and what low-carbon power will replace nuclear energy if plants retire.
Tomorrow, Arizona's Department of Environmental Quality holds a public meeting on the Clean Power Plan. ADEQ is transitioning to a new website for the planning process.
On Friday, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative holds a webinar to continue its program review and will talk about how member states may comply with the Clean Power Plan.
Also on Friday, PJM Interconnection LLC Senior Economic Policy Adviser Paul Sotkiewicz will discuss the grid organization's capacity market auction and Clean Power Plan implementation at a monthly lunch series of the National Capital Area Chapter of the United States Association for Energy Economics.
In case you missed it:
· Multiple models suggest the United States could outpace the Clean Power Plan goals through the mid-2020s, just with planned changes and expected renewable power and natural gas costs (ClimateWire, June 9).
· Experts calling for a renaissance in nuclear energy to curb greenhouse gas emissions are losing ground (ClimateWire, June 6).
· Critics of the Clean Power Plan say U.S. EPA's continued work with states that want to keep planning for power-sector carbon reductions may force opposing states to stay involved or get left behind (ClimateWire, June 10).
· Pennsylvania Republicans advanced a bill that would give them more influence over how the state complies with the Clean Power Plan (ClimateWire, June 10).
· Greenwire reporter Robin Bravender looks back on how this Supreme Court term went from "sleepy" to stunning (Greenwire, June 10).
http://www.eenews.net/interactive/clean_power_plan/column_posts/1060038689
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States May Want RPS Tweaks for Climate Rule
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
States that want to use their renewable portfolio standards to help meet U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan goals may want to make some program tweaks, according to a recent report by the Clean Energy States Alliance.
The report digs into how states could count RPS achievements to meet the agency's power-sector carbon limits.
"Fundamentally, under either mass-based or rate-based state plans, state RPSs can continue to operate as they have done previously," the authors wrote, referring to the options EPA gives for meeting the climate targets. However, they added, "states may choose to increase their RPS targets or harmonize their eligibility rules" if the regulation survives legal challenges.
State RPS policies differ around the country and may not match EPA's requirements exactly, said Ed Holt, a consultant who wrote the report as part of the group's RPS Collaborative, which is funded by the Department of Energy and the Energy Foundation.
For one, EPA will only give states credit for incremental renewable energy added in 2013 and later. Many state RPS programs give credit to projects from before then.
For states that aim for an average rate of emissions, only energy produced between 2022 and 2030 will count under EPA's rule. Some renewable power that comes online in 2020 and 2021 could get credit under the agency's Clean Energy Incentive Program.
States could change their programs to match EPA's requirements for simplicity's sake, although that is not required. They may also want to consider whether they will need to increase their RPS targets to help with Clean Power Plan goals, Holt said.
RPS policies could play into state implementation plans differently, depending on what kind of plan states pick.
If a state chooses to cap carbon emissions, RPS programs could indirectly help states meet EPA goals by displacing fossil fuel power.
If a state aims for an average rate of emissions, a credit in an RPS program might qualify as a credit for Clean Power Plan compliance.
But the two types of credits must be tracked separately. States may need to build upon existing RPS tracking systems to make new Clean Power Plan credit trading systems, according to the report.
An RPS credit and a Clean Power Plan credit may represent the same unit of zero-carbon power, and it may be ineffective for two different entities to own credits for the same unit of power because they may not achieve the emissions reductions they intend, the report adds.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/06/13/stories/1060038702
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RFF's Linn Discusses New Economic Analysis of Court Stay
Jun 13, 2016 | E&E TV
A new Resources for the Future economic analysis of the Supreme Court's stay of the Clean Power Plan considers the impacts of implementation during the stay on the coal industry. During today's OnPoint, Joshua Linn, senior fellow at Resources for the Future, explains why he believes claims of irreparable harm to the coal sector during litigation are unsubstantiated. Linn also says the coal industry could see some economic recovery if the rule is overturned.
Monica Trauzzi: Hello, and welcome to OnPoint. I'm Monica Trauzzi. With me today is Joshua Linn, senior fellow at Resources for the Future. Josh, thank you for joining me.
Joshua Linn: Thanks for having me.
Monica Trauzzi: So, Josh, you've co-authored a new economic analysis of the Supreme Court stay of the Clean Power Plan and its implications. You believe that one of two conditions for the stay has potentially not been met. Explain the reasoning and the framework you used for the analysis.
Joshua Linn: Sure. Happy to. So first of all, following the Supreme Court stay, there were a lot of discussion about, sort of legal aspects of this action, why did they do it, how unusual or unexpected was this and what are the implications. Missing from that discussion, we thought, was a sort of an economic analysis, since one of the major arguments was made was that there would be a potential, large -- very large and irreparable harm to the coal sector immediately during the period of litigation. And so that was the claims being made to support the stay.
Now, we, in thinking through this, what -- under what conditions would it actually make sense or might there be large harm to the coal sector, and really we want to separate sort of two aspects of the problem. One is sort of what's the magnitude of the costs to the coal sector, and the other is what's the timing of those costs. And so our assessment of the magnitude of the costs, really need to think about the context of the Clean Power Plan and how it fits in with the path that we're on in the electric power sector already, and there is a sort of convergence of factors including market forces like low natural gas prices, innovation for wind and solar, policies supporting renewables. You know, a whole bunch of influences that are leading us to generate less of our power from coal and more from other sources, and that's reducing emissions -- carbon emissions as a result.
So, we're on this path and the Clean Power Plan, given the timing of the deadlines and the magnitude of the deadlines, it's furthering us down this path of reducing emissions. And as a result, we would expect to see major changes happening, major changes and reductions not until the middle of the next decade. And so, when we think about what are the magnitude and timing of the costs, the cost to the coal sector could be substantial, right. I mean, we're expecting a further shift away from coal, but we don't expect this to happen until eight or 10 years from now.
Monica Trauzzi: So did the court make a mistake?
Joshua Linn: So, we look at one particular argument that was made in support of the stay. The Supreme Court did not say why they were issuing the stay. There are other arguments about cost estates and things like that. When we look at the arguments around the harms to the coal sector, including coal-fired plants, coal mines, coal workers and associated economies, we don't find any support for those claims.
Monica Trauzzi: Many states have halted their planning on the rule pending litigation, and you contend that if implementation of the rule proceeds, industry should still be able to follow the current compliance schedule, which is pretty tight if you consider how late in the game that might be once litigation is over. What about the states, though, who actually have to come up with the compliance mechanisms?
Joshua Linn: Right. So there are two separate questions about, one is sort of the timeline states are under and sort of their deadlines they have for submitting plans and putting together a plan to meet their emissions reductions. And then there's a second question of, how are the electricity generators and how are the utilities and the power sector, how are they going to meet and comply with those plans. And so, there's a particular schedule for the states to come up with their plans and, as I mentioned, there has been a fair bit of momentum for states to sort of work together and try to coordinate their actions, and there can be great benefits of setting up market-based programs and coordinating action among states, can generate some real cost savings. Then when states sort of come up with those plans then, it's up to the power sector to start reducing emissions, and those emissions reductions, even if the courts reach their final decisions next year or even early 2018, given the trends that we're on, the actual emission reductions that would have to start in the mid-2020s are just not all that great and are things that can be achieved by using more of existing technologies, more of a shift from coal to gas.
Monica Trauzzi: The coal industry would say that bankruptcies and the overall market slowdown has come in part due to the knowledge of pending regulations, even if those regulations are currently not in place. Does uncertainty itself hurt the industry?
Joshua Linn: So, in our paper, we emphasize the sort of convergence of these trends and forces that are, no doubt, affecting the coal sector and really are contributing to the -- and causing these shutdowns, these bankruptcies, and so there's no question that that's going on. And there's also no question that the Clean Power Plan sort of adds to the pressure on the coal sector. The question at hand in sort of thinking about the stay is, how much pressure is the Clean Power Plan putting on individual businesses and when would that pressure occur. And our argument is that there will be some pressure and it will occur in the mid-2020s. Now, how they deal with the uncertainty around the litigation is basic, sort of standard economic theory would say that any business that faces uncertainty ought to delay decisions until after that uncertainty -- after you learn something. And in this case, there's a lot that's going to be learned once their courts reach their final decisions. And so there's every reason in the world to delay any decisions that you're going to make until after that litigation is done and therefore, that's another reason sort of supporting this conclusion that they're not going to do anything that they can't undo in this time period now because they're going to want to wait until they see what happens, see what the courts decide and then make their decision.
Monica Trauzzi: I recently interviewed West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is leading the state lawsuit against EPA on the power plan, and he believes that though coal jobs might not be on the same level as in the past because of the market slowdown, some damage to the coal economy could be reversed if the rule were to be struck down. Do you think that the coal industry could in some way recover if we see the rule struck down?
Joshua Linn: You know, as I see it, there are these major forces in the power sector that I mentioned that are putting a lot of pressure on the coal sector. And so if you take out one of those pressure points, take out the Clean Power Plan, I would expect to see sort of a bit of an increase in the amount of coal that's used for generation, production from coal mines. But we're talking about sort of a shift off of a downward trend in the sector that's coming about for other reasons, right, for low natural gas prices, innovation in renewables, other environmental regulations besides the Clean Power Plan.
Monica Trauzzi: All right, we will end it right there. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Joshua Linn: Thank you.
Monica Trauzzi: And thanks for watching. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
http://www.eenews.net/tv/videos/2141/transcript
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Ohio Locals Brand Their Low-Priced Natural Gas Charm
Jun 13, 2016 | Columbus Dispatch (In E&E Energywire)
By Dan Gearino
Groups in southeastern Ohio are trying to attract large manufacturers by marketing themselves as home to the lowest natural gas prices in the industrialized world.
Area leaders launched the "Shale Crescent USA" campaign last week, touting the benefits of the nearby Marcellus and Utica shale gas basins running along the Ohio River.
"Our ultimate goal is to create some high-paying, blue-collar manufacturing jobs," said Jerry James, CEO of Artex Oil Co. in Marietta, who is helping organize the campaign.
The area's natural gas prices are lower than the national average, but Kenneth Medlock III isn't sure they'll last. Medlock, director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said the area's gas is cheap due to a gas glut without enough pipeline infrastructure to disperse it. He said once more industry moves in and pipelines are built, local prices will likely reach the national average.
"You never want to extrapolate a long-term vision from a short-term reality," Medlock said.
However, he added that Ohio's gas supplies would be a great business asset.
The groups behind the project, including the Marietta Area Chamber of Commerce, the Southeastern Ohio Port Authority, and the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, are selling more than just the gas price.
Mark Schwendeman, president of the area's Schwendeman Agency, said he hopes "Shale Crescent" becomes shorthand for the region's intrinsic advantages, which include gas, plentiful water, and close proximity to markets along the East Coast and in the South and Midwest.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC may lead others into the region; the company announced last week that it had decided to build a long-anticipated ethylene cracker in nearby Beaver County, Pa. The plant would be a boon to plastic and chemical makers (Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch, June 10).
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/06/13/stories/1060038668
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Railroad Investments Spur Economy and Improve Safety
Jun 13, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Michael J. Rush
A new study from Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute recently released by the Association of American Railroads confirms that railroads significantly benefit the U.S. economy. The Towson report found that in 2014, the seven largest freight railroads directly or indirectly accounted for 1.5 million U.S. jobs, $274 billion in economic output, $88 billion in wages and $33 billion in tax revenues.
The railroads’ economic impact is so large because railroads move so much freight. In 2015, America’s Class I railroads delivered 31.5 million carloads of freight to customers nationwide, serving nearly every industrial, wholesale, retail, and resource-based sector of our economy. Historically, railroads have accounted for approximately 40 percent of intercity ton miles.
The railroads have been able to provide their customers and the public at large with efficient transportation services because they have been investing more and more in their networks. In recent decades, railroads spent more than 40 cents out of every revenue dollar on infrastructure and equipment and spending levels in recent years have reached record levels.
Not surprisingly, railroad investments have also correlated with a safe industry becoming even safer. Federal Railroad Administration statistics show a continuously improving safety record over the last several decades, by all important safety measures. For example, since 2000 the train accident rate has decreased 39 percent and the employee injury rate 48 percent. Recent years have been the safest in railroad history.
Railroads are not resting on their laurels though.
Take for example the transportation of hazardous materials. In 2014, 99.999 percent of hazardous materials carloads were delivered without a release caused by a train accident. Nevertheless, railroads have been pushing for enhanced tank car standards for the transportation of chlorine, anhydrous ammonia, crude oil, ethanol, and similar hazardous materials, to further reduce the possibility that a release will occur.
Furthermore, railroads are working closely with communities to prepare for an accident should one occur. Railroads train tens of thousands of emergency responders annually. Railroads have also developed an app through which emergency responders can input the identification number of a rail car and immediately obtain information on the hazardous materials in the train.
Technology continues to be a big factor as well. For instance, railroads are researching the use of drones to inspect their tracks; advanced ultrasonic technology to detect hidden track defects; and automated wayside detectors to find defective freight car components. The industry is also investing more than 10 billion dollars in positive train control, an automated system that will automatically stop a train before certain types of serious accidents attributable to human error occur.
Another important initiative focuses on data analysis, compiling industry-wide data on equipment defects to avoid accidents. These analyses can spot problems on individual freight cars or more systemic problems. The data is collected by the Association of American Railroads’ information technology subsidiary, Railinc. This collective effort can detect issues that should be addressed to a much greater extent than analyses by individual railroads.
The new Towson report shows that America’s nearly 140,000-mile freight rail network is critical to the American economy. Just as important, the railroads’ economic success has been accompanied by the safest railroad record in the country’s history and continuous railroad efforts to make the industry even safer. The railroads look forward to reaching unparalleled levels of safety while contributing to the economic success of the nation in the years to come.
Rush is Senior Vice President of Safety and Operations at the Association of American Railroads.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/281793-railroad-investments-spur-economy-and-improve-safety
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USDOT Unveils New Hazardous Materials Safety Grant
Jun 13, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced late last week the availability of $1 million in grant funding for training and outreach programs that help communities prepare for transportation incidents involving hazardous materials.
The new "Community Safety Grants" program was created by the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) that Congress passed late last year. The funding may also be used to improve training for state and local personnel who enforce hazardous material regulations, according to a PHMSA press release.
The anticipated start date for the FY2016 grant program is Sept. 30. Applicants are required to apply electronically through www.grants.gov. Applications are due July 1.
"Enhancing the safe transport of hazardous materials by rail is one of the department’s top priorities," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "Community Safety Grants will focus on training state and local personnel responsible for enforcing its safe transportation, and fills a critical gap in funding. This new grant program offers another tool in their toolbox."http://www.progressiverailroading.com/federal_legislation_regulation/news/USDOT-unveils-new-hazardous-materials-safety-grant--48518
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Jun 13, 2016 | Spray Foam
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently announced a new LEED pilot credit—Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment, which encourages project teams and manufacturers to assess human health related exposure scenarios for products during their installation and use phases.
“LEED v4, the latest version of the LEED green building system, has begun a shift in how we think about health and building materials,” said Scot Horst, chief product officer, USGBC. “We have a focus on transparency and optimization so specifiers can know what they are using and can reward innovation. But understanding how a material impacts human health requires a full understanding of hazard and exposure. The new pilot credit is a first step toward evaluating exposure by encouraging product inventories in order to prioritize decision making.”
The pilot credit seeks to reward manufacturers who perform hazard and exposure assessments that can serve as a basis for developing products designed to minimize human health impacts during installation and use of the products. These assessments can, in turn, be an important consideration for alternative assessment of building materials. By requiring exposure to be considered during product development, this pilot begins to make linkages between the product’s ingredient inventory and hazard assessment required by the existing Materials Ingredients credit and performance testing required by LEED’s Low Emitting Materials credits.
The Hazard & Exposure pilot credit continues USGBC’s work to advance LEED users’ knowledge and understanding of the materials used to build and operate buildings. USGBC’s ultimate aim is that project teams have a full and complete picture of building materials and products—all in one place—which will help enable transparent, informed decisions around important attributes of materials and products used in our offices, homes, schools and other structures.
This pilot credit was developed by USGBC in conjunction with the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and its members, as part of the partnership announced in 2014. The partnership was established to expand collaboration between suppliers and specifiers, leverage scientific expertise and make LEED a more effective tool to deliver positive economic, environmental and social outcomes. This initiative acknowledges USGBC’s success in leading the transformation of the built environment and sets up a pathway to take advantage of the materials science expertise of ACC and its members.
“ACC welcomes the new pilot credit, which rewards products that have undergone rigorous and scientific hazard and exposure assessments,” says Debra M. Phillips, vice president, ACC. “Through Responsible Care, ACC members support scientific and systematic approaches to managing and continuously improving the safety of their products. ACC members also undertake third-party verification of their systems and approaches. This new credit brings such a scientific, systematic and third-party validated approach to the important issue of health.”
All USGBC members are eligible to submit pilot credits for consideration; pilot credits are evaluated based on applicability to the goals of LEED, relative impact compared to other LEED credits or pilot credits, technical rigor and achievability.
“Today, exposure information and the assumptions that go into it aren’t required to be shared by manufacturers,” added Horst. “This new pilot credit will facilitate information sharing that will help us guide future credit writing.”
To fulfill the credit requirements, LEED projects must submit product documentation from manufacturers, including calculations and assumptions, to GBCI, the third-party verification body for LEED. This information will be combined with data from other ongoing pilots and credits and synthesized by USGBC and GBCI to inform technical development of this pilot and other materials-related LEED credits.
The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification system is the world’s most widely used program for the design, construction, maintenance and operations of green buildings. Today, there are nearly 75,000 commercial projects participating in LEED across the globe, with 1.85 million square feet of building space becoming LEED-certified every day.
Green construction is a large economic driver. According to the 2015 USGBC Green Building Economic Impact Study, green construction will account for more than 3.3 million U.S. jobs—more than one-third of the entire U.S. construction sector—and generate $190.3 billion in labor earnings. The industry’s direct contribution to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is also expected to reach $303.5 billion from 2015–2018. For more information about the LEED credits, visit usgbc.org/LEED.
http://www.sprayfoam.com/foam-news/-us-green-building-council-announces-leed-pilot-credit-building-material-human-hazard-and-exposure-assessment/2746
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Supreme Court Won’t Revisit Mercury Rule
Jun 13, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
The Supreme Court won’t force EPA to overhaul its mercury pollution rule for power plants, turning back the latest challenge to the Obama administration’s environmental regulations.
The court today rejected a request from Michigan and other states to take up a new challenge regarding the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard. The Supreme Court last year said EPA should have considered costs when it first decided it was “appropriate and necessary” to regulate, but a lower court left the rule in place while EPA worked on a fix that was finalized in April.
EPA should have had to start over from scratch, the challengers argued, because the rule was based on a faulty initial finding.
But the court this morning rejected Michigan’s appeal without explanation, as is standard in such rulings. The challengers had faced an uphill battle, since the high court decision last year had left the rule in place, indicating a majority did not consider the flaw to be fatal.
Plus, the death of Justice Antonin Scalia means EPA’s foes likely would have had to convince a member of the court’s liberal wing to change sides in the new case, if the court had decided to take up the appeal.
Coal producer Murray Energy has challenged EPA’s mercury fix in the D.C. Circuit. Others may join that legal fight soon; the deadline to sue is June 24.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy
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EPA Says Toxics 'Completion' Rule Cannot Re-Open MACT Rules to Suits
Jun 13, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA is fighting environmentalists' lawsuit that claims the agency has not satisfied a Clean Air Act mandate that it regulate air toxics from sources representing 90 percent of emissions of seven hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), with the agency arguing the suit actually tries to attack EPA air toxics rules years after the deadline to sue.
Environmental groups in their suit allege that EPA has improperly relied on “surrogate” pollutant cuts in its maximum achievable control technology (MACT) air toxics rules to control the seven HAPs, which the air law treats differently from other air toxics because of their “persistent” and “bioaccumulative” qualities.
In a June 10 brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on EPA's behalf, the Department of Justice (DOJ) says the suit should be dismissed because it is not an attack on the agency's statement that it has regulated 90 percent of emissions of the HAPs. Instead, DOJ argues, the suit attempts to scrap a host of MACT rules that the agency issued years ago and are beyond the air law deadline for legal challenge.
Under Clean Air Act section 112(c)(6), EPA by Nov. 15, 1995, had to list industrial sources for regulation accounting for 90 percent of seven HAPs -- alkylated lead compounds, polycyclic organic matter, hexachlorobenzene, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofurans and 2,3,7,8- tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin.
The agency for years avoided issuing a formal notice-and-comment rulemaking stating that it had fulfilled this obligation, initially issuing a declaratory finding that it had achieved the mandate without first taking public comment, in response to environmentalists' pressure.
Environmental groups then sued the agency over the lack of notice-and-comment on the finding. The D.C. Circuit in a ruling compelled EPA to reissue the finding in rule form, resulting in the June 3, 2015, finding now at issue.
However, DOJ in the new brief says the attacks on surrogacy are beside the point, because they challenge underlying MACT rules years after the 60-day statutory window to sue over those rules has passed.
“The 90 Percent Rule does not provide a vehicle to reexamine the sufficiency of previously-promulgated emission standards,” DOJ says. “Contrary to Sierra Club’s suggestion,” the 90 percent requirement “does not provide an independent basis to reopen otherwise untimely challenges” to the underlying MACT rules.
“EPA listed the source categories emitting each” of the seven HAPS; “identified the percentage of the aggregate emissions of each pollutant emitted by the particular category; and stated the MACT emission standard applicable to each category. Sierra Club presents little or no direct challenge to these findings,” DOJ says.
.Rather, Sierra Club “misconstrues” the 90 percent requirement as calling for “EPA to make, and this Court to review, a new determination that each one of the pre-existing standards” for the seven HAP pollutants satisfies the Clean Air Act's MACT stringency standards,” DOJ argues.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-says-toxics-completion-rule-cannot-re-open-mact-rules-suits
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EPA Advisors Likely to Include Army Corps' Dissent in CWA 404 Permit Plan
Jun 13, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Amanda Palleschi
An EPA advisory panel plans to include in its recommendations for how EPA can assist states in obtaining authority to issue Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 dredge-and-fill permits a caveat that says which parts of the guidance may not be able to be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that issues most 404 permits.
During the June 7-9 meetings of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology's (NACEPT) assumable waters subcommittee, many members agreed a final version of the recommendations should include some sort of statement of the Corps' perspective on key definitions since there are areas where it is highly likely to disagree. These include the scope of waters for which the Corps would retain permitting authority and how to define which wetlands are "adjacent" to those waters.
"The Corps is so far apart with [its waters definition], and it's hard for us to comment on the documents because there's just so much there, that it's past the point we can make edits or comments because that would turn the document upside down in some cases," said William L. James, the Corps member of the NACEPT subcommittee.
EPA convened the NACEPT subcommittee in response to an April 2014 request from states, and asked it to provide recommendations on how the agency can best clarify for which waters a state or tribe may obtain CWA section 404 permit responsibilities, and for which waters the Corps retains permit responsibility.
Under the statute, the Corps has the authority to issue permits for the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands, but EPA has the authority to develop policy used in evaluating permit applications, approve and oversee state and tribal assumption, review individual permit applications and prohibit, deny or restrict the use of any defined area as a disposal site.
Delegated Authority
Thus far, only Michigan and New Jersey have received delegated 404 authority, but EPA has been working with 24 other states and tribes trying to assume authority. The full panel's final recommendations are expected to shape a new rule or policy to provide clarity for states wanting to assume authority under 404, including best practices and procedural guidance that could be tailored to each individual state.
But many members of the panel have previously questioned whether such guidance provided to EPA and the Corps could withstand legal concerns from within the Corps. Members at prior NACEPT assumable waters subcommittee meetings pointed to political concerns within the Corps, such as the dissent of the Corps' assistant chief counsel for environmental law and regulatory programs Lance Wood.
Wood has argued in law review articles and elsewhere that state assumption is not adequately protective of wetlands and aquatic resources, creates unnecessary cost and administrative burdens on states, and subjects wetland protection measures to state politics.
NACEPT subcommittee member Eric Metz, a planning and policy manager at the Oregon Department of State Lands' Aquatic Resource Management Program, cautioned during a December 2015 meeting that the final recommendations should neither work for a formal endorsement or opinion from agencies on recommendations but also not "work so independent of the agencies' legal perspectives.”
Additionally, panelists have discussed that any guidance would have to be mindful of legal issues pending in the courts around the CWA jurisdiction rule, including how to address adjacent wetlands.
Subcommittee's Drafts
The assumable waters subcommittee has completed drafts outlining several options for clarifying the issue of adjacency and the definition of "waters," and plans to include versions those drafts in its final set of recommendations. But members at the June 9 meeting discussed the importance of including a separate section on legal issues to be reviewed before the next meeting, as well as a possible inclusion of footnotes that there are some recommendations the Corps may not agree to.
Working group members discussed either the possibility of including a "footnote" saying certain areas would not be accepted by the Corps or a "broader statement of perspective" of the Corps that acknowledges potential conflict more generally, but did not decide on which of those two options would make it into the next draft.
The group also agreed to pull out some of the "legal pieces" included in the "waters work group" draft from March 12 and work on those separately to include somewhere in the final document. These sections generally urge federal agencies to issue field level guidance to states on 404 assumption as well as a "uniform national procedure for identification of state-assumable waters" to be included in the field guidance."
The legal team will look at the CWA and other applicable statutes, such as section 10 of the Rivers & Harbors Act, and the legislative intent of those definitions.
"What I was thinking we most needed is basically to take that as kind of an outline and go back into the case law and think about how we would refine that, so we'd use that in the final report," said subcommittee member Jan Goldman-Carter, senior manager of the wetland and water resources division of the National Wildlife Federation and a leader of the subcommittee's legal review efforts.
The work group drafts will undergo that legal review throughout the summer with the goal of finalizing them before a September webinar. The subcommittee is then slated to meet in December to finalize a report to deliver to the NACEPT co-chairs by early 2017.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-advisors-likely-include-army-corps-dissent-cwa-404-permit-plan
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Jun 13, 2016 | Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
Scientists who measure and forecast the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere said Monday that we may have passed a key turning point. Humans walking the Earth today will probably never live to see carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere once again fall below a level of 400 parts per million (ppm), at least when measured at the iconic Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where the longest global record of Co2 has been compiled.
“Our forecast supports the suggestion that the Mauna Loa record will never again show CO2 concentrations below the symbolic 400 ppm within our lifetimes,” write the researchers, led by Richard Betts of the UK Met Office’s Hadley Center, in Nature Climate Change. The study was conducted with colleagues from the Hadley Centre and Ralph Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the pre-industrial atmosphere were around280 parts per million. But concentrations began to rise with the early growth of industry and continually climbed throughout the 20th century, as documented by the famous Keeling curve, based on observations taken at Mauna Loa dating back to the late 1950s.
This record is referred to often as a “saw-toothed curve,” because every year, concentrations go up and down somewhat (due to the life cycles of plants across the globe, which drawn in carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis). But nonetheless, the long-term trend is steadily upward because humans are putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than plants and other natural “sinks” can pull back out again.
Concentrations have crossed 400 parts per million on a temporary basis. It began as brief excursions, and last year, 2015, the annual average concentration at Mauna Loa was more than 400 parts per million for the first time (it was 400.9). Nonetheless, during the course of the yearly cycle in carbon dioxide concentrations, there were still some parts of the year last year when they remained below that level.
What the new study suggests is that those days are over — carbon dioxide will never fall below 400 ppm this year, nor next, nor the next. The reason is that the strong 2015-2016 El Niño event has pushed concentrations upward more than usual for a given year — El Niños tend to do that, because they dry out tropical regions, lessening tree growth and sparking vast wildfires. That means that even in September of this year, when annual concentrations are typically at their lowest (as northern hemisphere trees lose their leaves and vegetation growth declines heading into winter), they’ll likely still be slightly over 400 parts per million, scientists forecast.
“I don’t think anything sort of special will happen just because we’re going past 400,” Betts said. “But I do think that these numbers are important for awareness, really. … It’s a reminder of the long-term effects we’re having on the system.”
The paper also predicts that this El Niño will drive a year-to-year rise in average atmospheric concentrations of 3.15 parts per million, exceeding the single-year change caused by the last major El Niño, from 1997-1998, of 2.9 parts per million. On June 12, concentrations were at 407.26 parts per million, according to NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, which monitors the data. But they should start to decline soon, according to the seasonal cycle, which reaches a peak in May and a low in September, and is driven by the growth of plants in the northern hemisphere (where there is much more total land area).
Because it presents a forecast that is naturally subject to some uncertainty, the study does note that there is still a possibility of a day this year that dips somewhat below 400 parts per million at Mauna Loa — but adds that it’s not that likely. “Daily values will be most likely to stay above 400 ppm, although values slightly below remain a small possibility,” the researchers note.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will continue to rise even though global greenhouse gas emissions from industry may be leveling off somewhat, the study adds — because each year still represents a net addition to the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide is a very long-lived greenhouse gas. Thus, even by 2050, the researchers don’t think we’ll find any way of getting back below 400 ppm.
“In the longer term, a reduction in CO2 concentration would require substantial and sustained cuts in anthropogenic emissions to near zero,” they write. Barring dramatic cuts in fossil fuel emissions, combined with the development of some kind of “negative emissions” technology that actively withdraws carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, we’ll see rising carbon dioxide concentrations for some time, they note.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/13/the-atmosphere-has-crossed-a-grim-milestone-and-scientists-say-well-never-go-back-within-our-lifetimes/
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