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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Output Nudges Up in May, All Regions Nab Gain
Jun 27, 2016 | Zacks Equity Research (In Nasdaq)
U.S. chemical production ticked up in May on modest gains across the seven chemical producing regions - according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC"). -
EPA's Contracting Habits Scrutinized by Inspector General
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General announced the beginning of an examination “to determine whether the EPA is performing acquisition planning and conducting market research to promote competition and avoid high-risk contracting authorities,” according to amemorandum released June 27. -
High Court Appears To Step Back From Reconsidering Agency 'Deference
Jun 27, 2016 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
Conservative Supreme Court justices seem to be backing off their push to reconsider landmark decisions that give EPA and other agencies deference to interpret their own rules because they likely lack enough votes to limit deference after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia who had argued for such limits, according to court watchers. -
EPA to Hold Webinar on Changes to U.S. Chemicals Law
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency will discuss during a June 30 webinar the increased authorities Congress gave it to manage chemicals through amendments made to the Toxic Substances Control Act. -
BPA Free Plastic: Toxics Are Turned Into Safer Alternatives In New Green Discovery
Jun 27, 2016 | International Business Times
By Maria Gallucci
Like dinosaur bones, the fossils of our modern era — CDs and DVDs — are often piled in forgotten heaps and buried underground. -
State Officials Say Northeast Cracker Projects On Track, Likely to Be Built
Jun 27, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The excitement over Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC's final investment decision (FID) to construct a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Western Pennsylvania was palpable at one of the region’s first shale-related petrochemical conferences in Pittsburgh on Monday. -
Senate May Vote on Energy Bill Conference Soon: Aides
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter and Catherine Traywick
The Senate may vote as soon as this week on a motion to formally go to conference with the House to work out the differences in the two chambers' broad energy bills, according to Republican and Democratic Senate leadership aides. -
Energy Investors Eye More Natural Gas Exports From Louisiana
Jun 27, 2016 | AP (In Chem Info)
A seventh company wants to build a natural gas export terminal in southwest Louisiana. Driftwood LNG, founded by ousted Cheniere Energy CEO Charif Souki, is planning a terminal liquefy natural gas in Calcasieu Parish -
Regulators Finalize Mining, Drilling Payment Disclosure Rules
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Federal financial regulators finalized rules on Monday requiring oil drillers, hydraulic fracturing operators and mining firms to disclose more information about payments they make to federal and foreign governments. -
SEC Approves New Resource Extraction Disclosure Rule
Jun 27, 2016 | Politico Prp - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen and Patrick Temple-West
The Securities and Exchange Commission today approved a new version of its "resource extraction" disclosure rules for mining and energy companies, completing a victory for liberal-leaning activist groups that went to court to resurrect the regulation. -
Overnight Energy: North America Teams Up On Clean Energy
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama and Devin Henry
A NEW NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY PUSH: President Obama and his Canadian and Mexican counterparts will this week announce a goal of producing 50 percent clean electricity across North America. -
US, Mexico, Canada to Team up On Clean Energy, Methane
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will announce a new joint climate change and energy platform during meetings in Ottawa this week, the White House said on Monday. -
U.S., Canada, Mexico to Commit to Clean Electricity Goal
Jun 27, 2016 | Politico Pro - Whiteboard
By Andrew Restuccia
The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will jointly commit to generate 50 percent of North America's electricity from low- or zero-carbon sources by 2025 as part of a new wide-ranging environmental partnership, the White House said today. -
Enviros Challenge Fracking Rule Defeat
Jun 27, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Supporters of the Obama administration's hydraulic fracturing rule are joining government lawyers in a fight to resuscitate the recently defeated regulation. -
SoCal Oil Spill Kept From Coast, But Concerns Rekindled
Jun 27, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
An oil pipeline spill from an accidentally opened valve in Ventura County in Southern California last Thursday spewed 25,000 to 30,000 gallons of crude down a canyon, prompting renewed concerns in California where fossil fuel infrastructure breakdowns have become all-too-frequent. -
High Court Deference Decision Cited in EPA Boiler Litigation
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Patrick Ambrosio
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to reject a Labor Department overtime regulation bolsters arguments against the Environmental Protection Agency's method for calculating air pollution standards for industrial boilers and incinerators, according to environmental organizations. -
California May Have A Huge Groundwater Reserve That Nobody Knew About
Jun 27, 2016 | The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
At the same time, the research also wades deeply into ongoing social and political controversy by suggesting that there is likely to be at least some overlap between oil and gas extraction activities in the state, and these previously unknown deep groundwater repositories.
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Output Nudges Up in May, All Regions Nab Gain
Jun 27, 2016 | Zacks Equity Research (In Nasdaq)
U.S. chemical production ticked up in May on modest gains across the seven chemical producing regions - according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").
The Washington, DC-based chemical industry trade group said that the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index ("CPRI") edged up 0.1% for the reported month following a 0.1% fall a month ago and a 0.5% rise in March. The U.S. CPRI, which is measured using a three-month moving average, was created by Moore Economics to track chemical production in seven regions nationwide. It is comparable to the Federal Reserve's industrial production index for chemicals.
According to the ACC, activity for the U.S. manufacturing sector - the largest consumer of chemical products - was down for the second straight month in May on a three-month moving average basis, declining 0.2%. The manufacturing sector is a major driver for the chemical industry which touches around 96% of manufactured goods. The sector remains weighed down by fewer new factory orders and sluggish export growth amid a weak global economy.
Within the manufacturing sector, production rose across several chemistry end-user markets in May including motor vehicles, computers and electronics, machinery and aerospace.
The May reading showed higher chemical production across all seven regions. Production went up 0.1% on a monthly comparison basis across Gulf Coast, West Coast, Ohio Valley, Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Output rose 0.2% in the Southeast region.
By segments, chemical production was mixed in May. Gains across fertilizers, dyes and pigments, chlor-alkali, other inorganic chemicals, industrial gases, plastic resins, pharmaceuticals adhesives, coatings, and other specialty chemicals were neutralized by lower production of organic chemicals, consumer products, synthetic rubber and manufactured fibers.
Overall chemical production went up 1.3% year over year in May with all regions racking up gains.
The U.S. chemical industry, a nearly $800 billion enterprise, is heavily linked to the overall condition of the nation's economy. It has been consistently leading the U.S. economy's business cycle due to its early position in the supply chain.
The chemical industry is still in gradual recovery mode from the trough of the great recession. The industry's recovery is expected to continue this year, supported by continued strength in the automotive market, positive trends in the construction space and significant shale-linked capital investment.
The shale gas bounty and abundant supply of natural gas liquids has been a huge driving force behind chemical investment on plants and equipment in the U.S. and have provided American petrochemicals producers a compelling cost advantage over their global counterparts. The ACC expects this competitiveness to drive export demand and new capital investment in the country.
Leveraging the abundant natural gas supply, chemical makers including Dow Chemical DOW, LyondellBasell Industries LYB
, BASF BASFY
, Eastman Chemical EMN
, Celanese CE
and Westlake Chemical WLK
are ratcheting up investment on shale gas-linked projects.
Per ACC, domestic chemical investment related to shale gas has reached as high as $164 billion, more than 60% of which are from firms outside the U.S. Already 264 projects - many backed by the Federal government - have been announced by chemical makers to take advantage of ample natural gas supplies with 40% of them already complete or under construction. Such investments are expected to boost capacity and export over the next several years.
However, the chemical industry is still feeling the bite of slowdown in China, lumpiness in Europe, a weak agriculture market and sluggish demand in the energy space.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/us-chemical-output-nudges-up-in-may-all-regions-nab-gain-cm641751#ixzz4Cs5I2jIC -
EPA's Contracting Habits Scrutinized by Inspector General
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General announced the beginning of an examination “to determine whether the EPA is performing acquisition planning and conducting market research to promote competition and avoid high-risk contracting authorities,” according to amemorandum released June 27.
The audit will look at how well the agency has implemented a 2009 presidential memorandum, which sought to minimize waste and maximize value in all governmental contracts, as well as a 2009 Office of Management and Budget directive with similar priorities.
Investigators intend to work primarily within the EPA's Office of Administration and Resources Management and select a subset of contracts for greater scrutiny, according to the document. The audit aims to reduce costs and promote operational efficiency, according to the memorandum.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=92760694&vname=dennotallissues&fn=92760694&jd=92760694
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High Court Appears To Step Back From Reconsidering Agency 'Deference
Jun 27, 2016 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
Conservative Supreme Court justices seem to be backing off their push to reconsider landmark decisions that give EPA and other agencies deference to interpret their own rules because they likely lack enough votes to limit deference after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia who had argued for such limits, according to court watchers.
The deference given to agencies is named after the 1997 decision Auer v. Robbins, authored by Scalia, which says courts should generally give agencies deference on interpreting their regulations as long as the agency's position is "reasonable," building on a similar 1945 decision, Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co.
Despite crafting the Auer opinion, Scalia in recent years -- together with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito -- had signaled a willingness to overturn both cases.
For example, Roberts wrote a dissent in the 2013 Clean Water Act (CWA) case Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center where he said "there is some interest in reconsidering those cases."
Court watchers cite the justices' decision from May against hearing a case that could have allowed a fresh review ofAuer deference as a signal that they are stepping back from such an effort. Scalia's death, which has left the court with a 4-4 divide between its conservative and liberal members, seems to have prompted the shift, they say.
"It seems less likely to me now that they would take that up" with the court divided, said attorney Jeffrey B. Wall of Sullivan & Cromwell at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center's forum on the 2015-2016 Supreme Court term June 17 in Washington, D.C.
Attorney Seth Jaffe of Foley Hoag told Inside EPA June 21 that "I did not think that it was likely that the [Supreme Court] would overrule Auer then and I don't think it likely now. It certainly is less likely without Scalia on the court to push for it."
In its most recent Auer decision, the high court unanimously held in a 2015 case, Perez, et al., v. Mortgage Bankers Association, et al., that agencies can act without warning to revise their "interpretive rules" which state the agency's reading of a regulation's requirements. The decision overturned a long-standing doctrine of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that required notice and comment when federal agencies change interpretive rules.
While an interpretive rule is considered non-binding, under the Auer ruling courts will generally give them deference as long as the agency's position is "reasonable."
EPA has crafted high-profile interpretive rules giving new interpretations of existing regulations on CWA jurisdiction, and observers say the next presidential administration could try to re-interpret many of the Obama EPA's rulemakings -- and then claim deference to those new interpretations under Auer.
Deference Challenge
Citing comments from Scalia and others, critics predicted the high court would take up a deference challenge in the next few years. But on May 16th the justices rejected review of one of the most prominent test cases, United Student Aid Funds, Inc. (USAF) v. Bryana Bible.
In Bible, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit backed the Department of Education's reading of its policy for dealing with borrowers who default on education loans, based on Auer.
USAF, backed by industry groups and 16 states as amici, explicitly urged the high court to take up its case as a vehicle to overturn past deference decisions that relied on Auer. "This case is an ideal vehicle for this Court to reconsider" Auer, its petition for review said.
Declining review in that case could signal that Justice Anthony Kennedy, seen as the court's "swing" vote on many issues, is unwilling to join Thomas, Robert and Alito in a bid to overturn Auer, Wall said at the Chamber event. Under the high court's rules it takes four votes to grant a petition for certiorari.
However, Thomas is signaling that he still hopes to overturn Auer despite that setback. He issued a rare dissent from the decision not to review Bible, in which he accused the court of allowing agencies to effectively make law on their own by reinterpreting unclear rules.
"Any reader of this Court's opinions should think that the [Auer] doctrine is on its last gasp. Members of this Court have repeatedly called for its reconsideration in an appropriate case. . . . But the Court chooses to sit idly by, content to let '[h]e who writes a law' also 'adjudge its violation,'" Thomas wrote.
His opinion echoes Scalia, Alito and Roberts' earlier criticisms of Auer. For instance, Scalia said in a partial dissent toDecker, "Enough is enough. For decades, and for no good reason, we have been giving agencies the authority to say what their rules mean, under the harmless-sounding banner of 'defer[ring] to an agency's interpretation of its own regulations.'"
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/high-court-appears-step-back-reconsidering-agency-deference
In his concurrence to the 2015 Perez decision, Scalia wrote that "By deferring to interpretive rules, we have allowed agencies to make binding rules unhampered by notice-and-comment procedures."
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EPA to Hold Webinar on Changes to U.S. Chemicals Law
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency will discuss during a June 30 webinar the increased authorities Congress gave it to manage chemicals through amendments made to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Signed into law June 22 by President Barack Obama, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act amended TSCA by giving the EPA more authority to obtain toxicity and other data from chemical manufacturers and, for the first time, requiring the agency to assess the risks of chemicals in commerce.
The agency will provide a general overview of the amendments during a webinar, scheduled for 2-3 p.m. EST. More information is available at http://1.usa.gov/28OjNNC.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=92760689&vname=dennotallissues&fn=92760689&jd=92760689
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BPA Free Plastic: Toxics Are Turned Into Safer Alternatives In New Green Discovery
Jun 27, 2016 | International Business Times
By Maria Gallucci
Like dinosaur bones, the fossils of our modern era — CDs and DVDs — are often piled in forgotten heaps and buried underground. But these rounded relics are made of polycarbonates, a common plastic that decomposes in landfills and leaches toxic chemicals into groundwater.
Scientists in IBM Corp.’s research division have found a way to transform discarded CDs, smartphones, kitchen utensils and other polycarbonates into nontoxic plastics that can be used in water purification systems, medical devices and fiber optics. The recycled plastic won’t decompose and thus won’t leach bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic compound that may disrupt brain development and cause other health problems.
“We’re taking something that otherwise would be garbage and turning it into something that could be useful and help benefit the environment,” said Jamie Garcia, a researcher at IBM Research’s Almaden lab in California who developed the process with researcher Gavin Jones.
The recycling discovery, announced Monday, joins the growing universe of “green chemistry” — compounds and processes that aim to replace hazardous substances, reduce pollution in landfills and waterways and, in some cases, curb greenhouse gas emissions. While many of these solutions still exist only in labs or pilot projects, demand for greener alternatives is growing as consumers grow more wary of the chemicals in the products they use, wear and eat every day.
“There is a vibrant ecosystem of small innovators in the green chemistry space,” said Joel Tickner, director of the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council, a network of chemical makers, manufacturers, retailers and businesses that aim to make green mainstream. “As these companies grow, innovation will take root, and that might crowd out the chemicals people are concerned about.”
At the University of Delaware, for instance, chemical engineer Richard Wool has found a way to turn chicken feathers into computer chips. Keratin, a protein found in the feathers, was used to make a lighter, tougher circuit board that works at twice the speed of traditional circuit boards. Mango Materials, founded by Stanford University researchers, is transforming waste biogas (also known as methane) from a wastewater treatment plant into “biopolymers.” The startup is initially targeting microbeads — the ubiquitous spheres in cosmetic products — and other plastic products where biodegradability is a key concern.
The quest to create safer chemicals coincides with a broader push in the U.S. to tighten safety standards chemicals used in household and industrial products. President Barack Obama last week signed a law that will overhaul the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, giving the Environmental Protection Agency more leeway to review and regulate scores of chemicals. As authorities crack down on harmful substances, chemists and inventors are meanwhile creating a palette of safer alternatives.
The IBM researchers said that, at a larger scale, their recycling process could prevent a sizable slice of the 2.7 million tons of polycarbonate created each year from landing in landfills. Unlike the thinner plastic used in soda bottles and food containers, which are melted down and reused multiple times, polycarbonates are often not recycled because the process is expensive or complicated. CDs in particular contain aluminum, and sorting metal from plastic is an added barrier.
Garcia said their recycling discovery is a relatively simple process. At the IBM lab in San Jose, she first grabbed a stack of CDs left over by a group of interns. She picked a disc by one of her “least favorite late ’90s bands” and chopped it into half-centimeter pieces. Garcia put those chunks into a flask, weighed it and added a base similar to baking powder, a bit of solvent, heated the flask, and then dropped in a fluoride reactant. As the flask warmed, the CD pieces disappeared into a bubbling froth. Once cooled and filtered, the froth became a “beautiful pure white powder” — polysulfone, a thermoplastic polymer.
The new material is more chemically stable than polycarbonates and won’t decompose or leach BPA. So Garcia and Jones turned the powder into a reverse osmosis membrane, which is used in high-quality water purification systems. The researchers said they’re now hoping IBM can partner with a chemical company or another business to test and refine the process, reduce costs and scale it up to a larger level.
“It’s an environmental win on many fronts,” Garcia said.
http://www.ibtimes.com/bpa-free-plastic-toxics-are-turned-safer-alternatives-new-green-discovery-2387379
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State Officials Say Northeast Cracker Projects On Track, Likely to Be Built
Jun 27, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The excitement over Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC's final investment decision (FID) to construct a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Western Pennsylvania was palpable at one of the region’s first shale-related petrochemical conferences in Pittsburgh on Monday.
The first Northeast U.S. & Canada Petrochemical Construction Conference & Exhibition was nearly sold out, with 250 in attendance, conference organizers said. State economic development officials from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania shared their economic outlook for the burgeoning Northeast petrochemical industry and said two other proposed ethane crackers that would be comparable in size to Shell's facility remain on track.
"I just want to say how excited we all are about the decision that Shell made. It was actually closer to five years from initial discussions," said Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Dennis Davin of the work that went into attracting Shell to the region. "So it's been a long time. It spanned two different administrations. The previous administration really went all out on this one and really did a great job," he added of former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's administration.
Shell first expressed interest in building an ethane cracker in Western Pennsylvania in 2011. On June 7, the company said it would begin construction on the facility in about a year-and-a-half (see Shale Daily, June 7). It would be built on a 400-acre site adjacent to the Ohio River in Potter and Center townships in Beaver County, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
With a capacity to produce 1.6 million metric tons/year (mmty) of polyethylene and 1.5 mmty of ethylene, which are key building blocks for plastics, the facility is expected to employ 6,000 during construction and another 600 permanent employees once it's operational in the early 2020s. It would also be the first time in more than 20 years that such a facility has been built in the United States outside of the Gulf Coast.
State officials speaking on a regional governance panel Monday morning expressed optimism that Shell's decision would help advance two other similar projects planned for the region.
Thailand's PTT Global Chemical pcl (PTTGC) said last year that it would spend $100 million on preliminary design work for a multi-billion dollar facility in Belmont County, OH (see Shale Daily, Sept. 3, 2015). Brazil-based Odebrecht SA announced plans in 2013 for a facility in Wood County, WV, that would also be comparable to Shell's cracker (see Shale Daily, Nov. 14, 2013). The company said last year, however, that it would postpone its plans for the West Virginia facility pending further project analysis amid the commodities downturn (see Shale Daily, April 23, 2015).
Odebrecht recently transferred control of that project to its petrochemical affiliate Braskem SA, which recently told NGI's Shale Daily that Shell's decision to move forward with its facility would not affect its plans. PTTGC said the same.
David Mustine, Senior Managing Director of Ohio's private economic development organization, JobsOhio, said PTTGC's project remains on track. Key air and water permits for the facility, he said, were filed in May and early June. The company, he said, is in the final stages of completing its design, engineering and cost analysis work. It hired two engineering consortiums to maximize competition and options, Mustine added.
"They have reiterated that their goal is to have a final investment decision in the first quarter of 2017," Mustine assured conference attendees. "So, it has pretty much been on target since we started working with them a couple years ago."
In an interview with NGI's Shale Daily, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Commerce Keith Burdette said he remains optimistic about Braskem's facility, saying he expects the company to make a decision in 2017 or soon after.
"I can't tell you specifically what they're doing. But I can tell you their site is -- I'm guessing -- about 95% prepped," Burdette said. "All the demolition, almost all of it has been done. I think they're still looking at a couple things on the site, but they're probably further ahead [of the other facilities] as far as site preparation."
Burdette said Braskem's permitting process has been ongoing for two years. The company has only recently slowed permits down that must be active on a certain date.
"Braskem's parent has had a lot of challenges in Brazil," Burdette added. "To be honest, we are pleased that Odebrecht has kind of said 'this is now Braskem's project.' Odebrecht stepped away from it. We actually think that uncomplicates things a bit because we've been working with Braskem the longest." The company, Burdette said, has yet to set a date for an FID.
In October 2015, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia signed a three-year cooperative agreement aimed at creating policies that would promote the region's prolific shale plays to help generate more economic opportunities (see Shale Daily, Oct. 14, 2015). That effort, state officials said on Monday, is essential going forward in order to help the Appalachian Basin compete with the Gulf Coast.
Panelists noted that about 70% of the nation's polyethylene consumers are within 700 miles of the tri-state region. While they acknowledged that some of what is produced at Shell's facility will go to the Gulf or be exported overseas, they're still doing everything they can to get more money for workforce development and site preparation to be better prepared for the economic activity that Shell's facility and others are likely to create.
"The competition is pretty much over. It's over...We're not trying to build a facility anymore, we're trying to build an industry," Burdette said. "We make perfect sense, the opportunity to extract or process [natural gas], manufacture with it and sell it within the same basic area of the country is real and significant."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/106895-state-officials-say-northeast-cracker-projects-on-track-likely-to-be-built
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Senate May Vote on Energy Bill Conference Soon: Aides
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter and Catherine Traywick
The Senate may vote as soon as this week on a motion to formally go to conference with the House to work out the differences in the two chambers' broad energy bills, according to Republican and Democratic Senate leadership aides.
Such a move would begin the process of negotiating the significant differences between the two bills as analysts warn Congress is running short of time in the face of a seven-week recess that begins July 15 and an election season ramping up going into the fall.
Although the House voted to begin conference negotiations in May, the Senate has yet to vote as Democrats held off their support for such a measure in protest of the lower chamber adding a slew of measures opposed by the White House to the bill. Among them is a provision to expedite the permitting process for mines. Another is California drought legislation opposed by some environmentalists.
Behind-the-scenes talks with the main architects of the bill have yet to yield a breakthrough, but Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, signaled a willingness to proceed.
“We shouldn't hold up good energy policy to resolve those issues,” she said in remarks at the National Press Club on June 23, referring to disagreements between the two bills over water rights and fire prevention. “We want to deal with these things, but we don't know if the energy bill itself can bear the weight” of some of their complexities, she added.
The Senate passed its version of the legislation (S. 2012) on an 85-12 vote in April, but the House then voted along party lines to add bills as part of an 806-page amendment before sending the measure to the Senate.
The underlying legislation includes language that would expedite the Energy Department's approval process for liquefied natural gas exports, as well as language to increase renewable energy development and energy efficiency.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=92760699&vname=dennotallissues&fn=92760699&jd=92760699
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Energy Investors Eye More Natural Gas Exports From Louisiana
Jun 27, 2016 | AP (In Chem Info)
A seventh company wants to build a natural gas export terminal in southwest Louisiana. Driftwood LNG, founded by ousted Cheniere Energy CEO Charif Souki, is planning a terminal liquefy natural gas in Calcasieu Parish
The $8 billion project by Houston-based Tellurian Investments would be built on 800 acres on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, about five miles south of Carlyss. The American Press reports that the Lake Charles Port Board has agreed to lease 477 acres of that site.
Of other area LNG applicants, only Cheniere's terminal at Sabine Pass is operating.
Driftwood told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it plans to file a formal application by March to export 26 million metric tons per year.
A 96-mile pipeline would cross Evangeline, Allen and Calcasieu parishes.
http://www.chem.info/news/2016/06/energy-investors-eye-more-natural-gas-exports-louisiana
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Regulators Finalize Mining, Drilling Payment Disclosure Rules
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Federal financial regulators finalized rules on Monday requiring oil drillers, hydraulic fracturing operators and mining firms to disclose more information about payments they make to federal and foreign governments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, and deeply opposed by the drilling industry, which says it exposes individual companies’ private financial data. A federal court blocked an earlier version of the rule.
The regulation requires natural resources firms that make SEC filings to disclose payments worth more than $100,000 annually to the federal government or to foreign governments.
Monday’s move comes after a federal judge in 2013 blocked a previous version of the rule which asked companies to disclose even more payment information. The court said then that the rule was overly-broad and asked companies to release too much information, including some not disclosed by firms operating other countries.
The regulation is designed to allow regulators and the public to scrutinize the payments for improper spending or corruption, and SEC Chair Mary Jo White said she was “pleased that the Commission has completed these final rules, which will provide enhanced transparency to further the statutory goal."
But the oil and gas industry was already criticizing the rule on on Monday.
“The SEC’s rule forces U.S. companies to disclose proprietary information to its competitors while foreign entities do not,” said Stephen Comstock, the director of tax and accounting policy for the American Petroleum Institute (API), which sued against the original rule.
“This can give some large industry players an advantage on future business projects, and can fundamentally harm American jobs.”
API said it was reviewing the rule and considering its next steps.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/285091-regulators-finalize-mining-drilling-payment-disclosure-rules
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SEC Approves New Resource Extraction Disclosure Rule
Jun 27, 2016 | Politico Prp - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen and Patrick Temple-West
The Securities and Exchange Commission today approved a new version of its "resource extraction" disclosure rules for mining and energy companies, completing a victory for liberal-leaning activist groups that went to court to resurrect the regulation.
The rule, a provision the agency needed to adopt as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, requires oil, gas and minerals companies to disclose payments they make to foreign governments. It was written into Dodd-Frank to protect against human rights violations overseas.
In 2013, a federal judge said the SEC's first version of the rule was flawed and sent the agency back to the drawing board. After that defeat, Oxfam America, the U.S. affiliate of the humanitarian organization won a court decision last year to force the SEC to speed up its work on this rule. Without Oxfam’s unusual court challenge to compel agency action, the resource-extraction requirements might have fallen to the bottom of the SEC’s rulemaking agenda.
“I am pleased that the Commission has completed these final rules, which will provide enhanced transparency to further the statutory goal,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Overnight Energy: North America Teams Up On Clean Energy
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama and Devin Henry
A NEW NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY PUSH: President Obama and his Canadian and Mexican counterparts will this week announce a goal of producing 50 percent clean electricity across North America.
During a meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday, the three leaders will announce the new climate commitment, which covers nuclear power, renewable energy, carbon capture technologies for fossil fuel plants and energy efficiency measures.
In 2015, 37 percent of total power generation across the continent was clean energy. The U.S. gets about 33 percent of its electricity from renewables, hydropower and nuclear energy, according to the Energy Information Administration.
"The goal of this partnership is really to bring together all of the work that has happened between our respective countries over the past couple of years," said Brian Deese, Obama's senior advisor on climate issues.
The commitments come at the tail end of the Obama administration, which has looked to increasingly focus on international climate change efforts.
Since a new president will take over in January, Obama's successor will be tasked with further implementing the energy goals. But whether the next president is presumptive Democratic nomineeHillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump, Deese cited market forces and said he thinks clean energy deployment will continue in the U.S.
"I think that the transformation of the American energy sector that's underway is going to continue, and that that has been driven by some of the policy choices that this president has made, but it's also being driven by market forces that is bringing down the cost of energy," he said.
Read more here.
MICHIGAN GOV STAYS OUT OF AIR RULE CASE: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is steering clear of his attorney general's lawsuit against an air pollution rule.
Ari Adler, a spokesman for Snyder, said the governor's office is not participating in the challenge filed Friday to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) mercury and air toxics standards.
Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) filed the lawsuit as his latest of many attacks on the regulation. It specifically challenges the EPA's April regulation trying to fix the rule's problems identified by the Supreme Court.
Snyder didn't say he supports the rule, but Michigan state law does require power plants to comply, no matter what happens with the federal regulation.
Due to Snyder's action, Schuette is legally only representing the "people" of Michigan, not the "state" of Michigan.
Read more here.
BLANKENSHIP: CONVICTION WAS 'UNFAIR': Former coal boss Don Blankenship is accusing a federal court of numerous legal errors leading to an unfair conviction on conspiracy to break mine safety rules.
Blankenship is spending a year in federal prison, but also appealing his conviction to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
He was the head of Massey Energy Co. when, in 2010, a disaster and collapse at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners.
Blankenship's appeal rests on numerous claims, including that the jurors weren't instructed properly regarding the burden of proof and prosecutors should have identified the specific laws he was accused of conspiring to break.
"The conviction here was unfair and must be reversed because of erroneous legal rulings at trial that conflicted with clear precedent and permitted conviction notwithstanding manifest shortcomings in the government's prosecution theory and in its proof," the brief states.
The government has until Aug. 8 to respond.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/overnights/285082-overnight-energy-us-mexico-canada-to-team-up-on-clean
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US, Mexico, Canada to Team up On Clean Energy, Methane
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will announce a new joint climate change and energy platform during meetings in Ottawa this week, the White House said on Monday.
The leaders will, among other things, commit to producing 50 percent of electricity from clean energy sources across North America by 2025.
Clean energy, for this effort, includes nuclear power, renewables like wind and solar, increasing energy efficiency and deploying technologies like carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel plants, said Brian Deese, President Obama’s senior advisor for climate change.
The deal is ambitious, but one Deese said is achievable given domestic policies in each of the three countries. In 2015, 37 percent of total power generation across the continent was clean energy, he said. The U.S. gets about 33 percent of its electricity from renewables, hydropower and nuclear, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
“The goal of this partnership is really to bring together all of the work that has happened between our respective countries over the past couple of years,” Deese said.
“We are committing to announcing a goal that would substantially increase North American clean energy generation.”
The United States does not need to hit 50 percent on its own in order for the continent to achieve that goal, but Deese said that is a “stretch goal” of the Obama administration.
“That is not necessary to hitting this North American goal, but it is a stretch goal that we think the U.S. can accomplish,” he said.
The commitments come at the tail end of the Obama administration, which has been marked by an increased focused on international cooperation on climate issues. Since a new president will take over next January, Obama’s successor will be tasked with further implementing the energy goals.
But whether the next president is presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton or RepublicanDonald Trump, Deese said he thinks clean energy deployment will continue in the U.S.
“I think that the transformation of the American energy sector that’s underway is going to continue, and that that has been driven by some of the policy choices that this president has made, but it’s also being driven by market forces that are bringing down the cost of energy,” he said.
As part of the climate deal, which Obama will help announce on Wednesday, Mexico will also join American and Canadian efforts to reduce methane emissions by between 40 percent and 45 percent by 2025.
Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that effort earlier this year, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will join it as well this week.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/285078-us-mexico-canada-to-team-up-on-clean-energy-methane
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U.S., Canada, Mexico to Commit to Clean Electricity Goal
Jun 27, 2016 | Politico Pro - Whiteboard
By Andrew Restuccia
The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will jointly commit to generate 50 percent of North America's electricity from low- or zero-carbon sources by 2025 as part of a new wide-ranging environmental partnership, the White House said today.
Nuclear power, renewables, power plants with carbon capture and sequestration technology, and increased efficiency will all count toward meeting the target, Brian Deese, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, told reporters.
Last year, low- and zero-carbon energy sources made up about 37 percent of North American electricity generation — and about 32 percent of U.S. generation, according to Deese.
The electricity goal will be the centerpiece of a broad energy, climate and environment partnership that President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will announce during a Wednesday summit in Ottawa.
As part of the agreement, Mexico will join the U.S. and Canada in committing to cutting methane emissions 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025, and to publishing regulations for new and existing sources of methane as soon as feasible.
Deese said the 50 percent clean energy target will be achievable "if all three countries respectively make ambitious progress toward executing and in fact exceeding the targets we have respectively set in our national contributions to the Paris agreement.” He called the target a "stretch goal," but said he is confident that the United States can achieve it, even though Obama is nearing the end of his second term.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Enviros Challenge Fracking Rule Defeat
Jun 27, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Supporters of the Obama administration's hydraulic fracturing rule are joining government lawyers in a fight to resuscitate the recently defeated regulation.
The Sierra Club, Earthworks, Western Resource Advocates and other groups today filed a notice of appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging a lower court's recent ruling that the Bureau of Land Management has no authority over fracking.
The groups, represented by Earthjustice, promised an appeal immediately after the monumental district court decision last week, which struck down years-in-the-making environmental regulations for fracking on public and tribal lands. Government lawyers filed their own notice of appeal Friday (E&ENews PM, June 24).
Earthjustice attorney Michael Freeman called the challenge crucial to ensuring that BLM can adequately oversee development on public lands.
"It's important to remember that BLM hasn't updated its regulations in nearly 30 years," he said. "If oil and gas companies really believed their rhetoric about the safety of fracking, they wouldn't be fighting to keep BLM operating under obsolete rules that fail to protect groundwater and public lands."
The appeal is expected to center on the question of agency power: Does BLM have authority over fracking, or did Congress leave states in charge? The winning argument at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was that Congress used the Safe Drinking Water Act to delegate fracking authority to U.S. EPA and then used the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to exempt fracking from regulation by EPA or any other agency (EnergyWire, June 22).
Freeman and government lawyers have countered that the Mineral Leasing Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act give Interior and BLM broad authority over oil and gas drilling on public lands and that the Energy Policy Act addressed only EPA, not any other agency.
"The states' theory that BLM's authority somehow was eliminated by a 2005 amendment addressing a different statute and an entirely different agency is just wishful thinking," Freeman said.
Industry groups, the Ute Indian Tribe and attorneys general in the states challenging the rule -- Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah -- have vowed to keep fighting against it at the 10th Circuit.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/06/27/stories/1060039476
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SoCal Oil Spill Kept From Coast, But Concerns Rekindled
Jun 27, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
An oil pipeline spill from an accidentally opened valve in Ventura County in Southern California last Thursday spewed 25,000 to 30,000 gallons of crude down a canyon, prompting renewed concerns in California where fossil fuel infrastructure breakdowns have become all-too-frequent.
Denver-based Crimson Pipeline LLC, which operates nearly 1,000 miles of oil pipelines in California, was performing maintenance work on the 10-inch diameter pipeline, which was built in 1941, last Wednesday. The work was done before the leaking valve was reported by a resident, whose ranch overlooks the arroyo where the oil flowed more than a half-mile down a dry creek bed.
This the 11th spill or equipment failure involving Crimson -- which also operates in Louisiana -- since 2006, according to records of the U.S. Department Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Pipeline Administration (PHMSA), as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Advocating more investment in clean energy and solutions that "don't harm people or wildlife," the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) Damon Nagami, director of the NRDC ecosystems project in Southern California, said "it's infuriating to see another oil spill so soon after the devastation in Santa Barbara. We forget the real cost of fossil fuels and the big risks that come with Big Oil -- from oil spills to health impacts near drilling sites to the disastrous derailment of oil trains like the one in Oregon recently [see Shale Daily, June 7]."
There was no estimate on how long the cleanup would take. Crimson did not return a call seeking comment.
Reportedly, the Crimson pipeline was up-to-date with its state and federal inspections, and it was undergoing maintenance on Wednesday when the valve that was the source of the leak was replaced. The flow and pressure rates were down at the time of the spill because of the maintenance, a Crimson spokesperson told the LA Times.
Estimates on the Crimson spill have varied widely from an incorrect estimate of 210,000 gallons from county officials to a 29,400-gallon estimate from local officials. Meanwhile, Crimson's spokesperson told local new media it was 25,200 gallons, or about 600 bbls.
In any event, the volumes are much smaller than the Plains All American Pipeline spill a year earlier up the coast that fouled beaches west of Santa Barbara after spilling more than 100,000 gallons (2,934 bbls) of crude (see Shale Daily, June 1, 2015). Plains now faces 46 criminal counts, including four felony charges, for allegedly knowing of the discharge of pollutants into state waters (see Shale Daily, May 18).
Earlier this month, PHMSA published a third amendment to its May 21, 2015, action order directed at the Plains Pipeline operations and alleged failure by the company to take correction actions on its oil pipelines Nos. 901 and 903.
The latest amendment adopts and includes all of the preliminary findings in the original PHMSA corrective action order, earlier amendments and the latest amendment. The findings identified external corrosion as the cause, with contributing factors being ineffective maintenance and safety protection by the pipeline operator.
According to PHMSA records as reported in the LA Times, Crimson's 11 spill and equipment breakdowns over the past 10 years have resulted in 313,000 gallons of hazardous liquids being spilled with the largest single incident being a 2008 equipment failure in Ventura County resulting in 280,000 gallons being spilled.
In April, Crimson added nearly 300 miles of oil pipelines and related facilities in Northern and Central California by acquiring KLM Pipeline and Western San Joaquin Laterals form Chevron Pipe Line Co., adding a transport capacity of 90,000 b/d. Overall, Crimson said at the time that it now has a 200,000 b/d capacity with its California facilities.
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High Court Deference Decision Cited in EPA Boiler Litigation
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Patrick Ambrosio
June 27 — The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to reject a Labor Department overtime regulation bolsters arguments against the Environmental Protection Agency's method for calculating air pollution standards for industrial boilers and incinerators, according to environmental organizations (U.S. Sugar Corp. v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 11-1108, letter filed6/23/16).
The Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project and other groups are challenging the EPA's upper prediction limit, a statistical tool that was used to calculate minimum hazardous air pollutant standards for major source boilers and incinerators. Earthjustice attorney James Pew, who is representing the environmental coalition, told a federal appeals court during December oral arguments that the agency's use of the upper prediction limit is unlawful because it does not represent the average emissions performance achieved by the best-performing facilities in a source category, as required under the Clean Air Act.
The environmental group augmented that argument in a June 23 letter filed with the D.C. Circuit that argues the Supreme Court's decision in Encino Motorcars LLC v. Navarro provides evidence that the agency's use of the upper prediction limit is not entitled to deference. The majority opinion inEncino, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, found that judicial deference to an agency interpretation is not warranted if the agency did not provide an adequate reason for a change in existing policy (Encino Motorcars LLC v. Navarro, 84 U.S.L.W. 4424, 2016 BL 196078 (2016)).
‘Directly Relevant' to Boiler Litigation
That holding is “directly relevant” to litigation over the boiler and incinerator standards because the EPA failed to explain an alleged change in its interpretation of the word “average” in the Clean Air Act, the environmental groups said. The environmental petitioners alleged that the EPA's use of the upper prediction limit conflicts with the agency's prior interpretation of the word average and that the agency never provided an explanation for that change.
The upper prediction limit is one of several issues being challenged in litigation over the boiler and incinerator standards, which are being challenged by both industry organizations and environmental groups. The major source boiler standards (RIN:2060-AQ25; RIN:2060-AR13), which are estimated to cost $1.6 billion annually, apply to more than 14,000 existing boilers found at chemical plants, petroleum refineries and other industrial facilities.
“At no point in the rulemaking (or in litigation) has EPA even acknowledged—let alone explained—the change in its position,” the environmental organizations told the court. “Accordingly, EPA's rule is arbitrary and unlawful and cannot receive Chevron deference.”
Under the Chevron doctrine, courts can defer to the interpretation of expert federal agencies such as the EPA when the meaning of a statute is ambiguous.
The EPA argued in its brief that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit should defer to the agency's “exercise of its technical expertise” in deciding to use the upper prediction limit to calculate the maximum achievable control technology floors for boilers and incinerators. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to calculate maximum achievable control technology (MACT) floors representing the average emissions limitation achieved by the best-performing 12 percent of sources, though the agency can opt to set more-stringent emissions limits.
Legality Questioned Previously
The D.C. Circuit previously questioned the legality of the upper prediction limit in a 2013 opinionthat remanded parts of a rule setting pollution standards for sewage sludge incinerators due to uncertainty with the statistical tool (Nat'l Ass'n of Clean Water Agencies v. EPA, 734 F.3d 1115, 2013 BL 220506, 77 ERC 1473 (D.C. Cir. 2013)).
The EPA in July 2014 provided the D.C. Circuit with an expanded explanation of the upper prediction limit and its use in setting those hazardous air pollution standards.
The three-judge panel assigned to litigation over the boiler and incinerator standards consists of Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Janice Rogers Brown and Thomas Griffith. Oral arguments over the three rules were held on Dec. 3.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=92760688&vname=dennotallissues&fn=92760688&jd=92760688
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California May Have A Huge Groundwater Reserve That Nobody Knew About
Jun 27, 2016 | The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
In a surprising new study, Stanford researchers have found that drought-ravaged California is sitting on top of a vast and previously unrecognized water resource, in the form of deep groundwater, residing at depths between 1,000 and nearly 10,000 feet below the surface of the state’s always thirsty Central Valley.
The resource amounts to 2,700 billion tons of freshwater, mostly less than about 3,250 feet deep, according to the paper published Monday in the influential Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And there is even more fresh or moderately salty water at more extreme depths than this that could potentially be retrieved and desalinized someday for drinking water, or for use in agriculture.
“There’s a lot more fresh groundwater in California than people know,” said Stanford’s Rob Jackson, who conducted the research with the university’s Mary Kang, the study’s lead author. “It’s like a savings account. We can spend it today, or save it for when we really need it….There’s definitely enough extra groundwater to make a difference for the drought and farmers.”
But two other groundwater researchers contacted by the Post questioned aspects of the findings, or their framing, suggesting that the freshwater portion of the resource may already have been used, or that its existence would do little to change California’s water plight. The response suggests the new research could prove controversial among scientists trying to interpret what it means for a state that has battled over water, and its distribution, going back many decades.
The problem is the type of water involved: groundwater, which accounts for 95 percent of the planet’s freshwater that is not contained polar glaciers and ice sheets. This is the water originating as rain and snow that does not end up in lakes or rivers, or getting drawn up by plants. Instead, it slowly penetrates ever deeper into the ground, so long as there are still cavities that can hold it.
The vast groundwater resource at question in the study is, in many cases, very deep — and the deeper in the ground it lies, the more likely it is to be salty. The resource’s huge size, Jackson said, is related to the mountainous terrain — water cascades off mountains and pools in deep underwater pockets over very long periods of time.
But extracting this deep groundwater could be expensive and would run the risk of causing considerable land subsidence, as the empty cavities that once held it collapse. It would also mostly be a one-time fix, according to Jackson: The deep groundwater resource would not replenish for hundreds to thousands of years.
And perhaps most troubling of all — oil and gas companies, whose data provided the basis for the discovery, may already be despoiling some of this water with their activities, the research suggests.
The new study “improves the estimates for the total possible volume of groundwater, and how deep it is, and a little bit about its quality, primarily salinity,” said Peter Gleick, a water resources expert and president of the Pacific Institute, who also edited the study for the journal. “But it doesn’t say anything about whether that stuff’s going to be economic to pump, or sustainably managed in the long run, or an important contributor to solving our water problems. Those are unresolved issues still.”
To uncover the new finding, Jackson and Kang pored over data reported by what Jackson calls “really the only industry that cores deeply into the Earth” — oil and gas. The researchers say that they examined data from nearly 35,000 wells, as well as 938 “oil and gas pools,” spread across eight counties in the Central Valley and beyond.
The study then extrapolated for the entire Central Valley. Most pertinently, it found 2,200 billion tons of fresh and somewhat salty water within about 3,000 feet of the surface, making it the most accessible.
Still, the study suggests that desalinating this water would actually be cheaper than withdrawing larger amounts of salt from seawater, as a new California desalination plant in the San Diego area has begun to do.
At the same time, the research also wades deeply into ongoing social and political controversy by suggesting that there is likely to be at least some overlap between oil and gas extraction activities in the state, and these previously unknown deep groundwater repositories. And here the research is singling out not only hydraulic fracturing or fracking, but also the practice of wastewater disposal in deep geological reservoirs.
“Oil and gas activities happen a lot out West directly into and around freshwater aquifers,” Jackson said. “And there aren’t any restrictions to that practice.”
To be clear, Jackson is merely noting this risk — he is not asserting that any specific damage has been done. While some deep or shallow freshwater in the Central Valley may have been contaminated, he said, “I think most of it is fine. But I don’t really know.”
In a statement, Sabrina Lockhart, communications director for the California Independent Petroleum Association, countered that “It is not accurate to say that underground injection is not regulated.” Lockhart noted that wastewater injection wells require permits and state and EPA permission for siting, saying these regulators “have strict criteria that ensures that there is no harm to potential sources of drinking water.”
The new research prompted skeptical reactions from two researchers asked to comment by the Post.
“A lot of the water that they’re talking about may actually be gone, when you think about the Central Valley, right now, where the average depth of the water table is already at 2,500 or 3,000 feet,” said Jay Famiglietti, a water expert with both NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine.
Famiglietti did agree about the deeper, saltier water sources, though, and praised the study for “highlighting that brackish groundwaters may eventually be an important water source.”
“Just because they’ve seen that the depth of freshwater in this basin is deeper than people thought, does not mean that you can go pump more freshwater out of this system at all. It unequivocally does not mean that,” added Graham Fogg, a hydrogeologist with the University of California-Davis. Fogg did not dispute the new study’s overall numbers, so much as whether the finding would be useful in the context of trying to supply more water to the state.
The problem, Fogg said, is that there is a difference between the amount of water that may exist below the ground and the amount that can be extracted either safely — without major ecological impact — or sustainably.
Stanford’s Jackson agreed that when it comes to replenishing of the deep groundwater resource, “very little of it, at that depth, is sort of immediate.” But he still thinks the state has an unexpected resource that it can now decide how to use — and manage.
“I hope it prompts a conversation about monitoring and safeguarding our groundwater,” Jackson said. “We’re lucky that we have more than we expected. Now we need to use it wisely and take care of it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/27/deep-down-california-may-have-a-lot-more-water-than-scientists-thought/
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