Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 6/28
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U.S. Chemical Output Nudges Up in May, All Regions Nab Gain
Jun 27, 2016 | Zacks
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 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. -
PFOA, PFOS Impair Immune System, Draft Analysis Finds
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Two persistent perfluorinated chemicals can impair the immune system, according to a draft National Toxicology Program hazard analysis. -
EPA Releases Final Agenda for IRIS Public Science Meeting
Jun 28, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA has released the final agenda for the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) public science meeting on 29-30 June. -
California Issues DINP Safe Use Determination for Vinyl Flooring
Jun 28, 2016 | Chemical Watch
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) has issued a safe use determination (SUD) for the use of DINP in vinyl flooring products. -
BPA Free Plastic: Toxics Are Turned Into Safer Alternatives In New Green Discovery
Jun 27, 2016 | IB 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 chemicalsinto groundwater. -
State Officials Say Northeast Cracker Projects On Track, Likely to Be Built
Jun 27, 2016 | NGI's Shale Daily
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. -
Michigan Governor Won't Participate in Air Pollution Case
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is seeking to distance himself from the state attorney general’s lawsuit challenging an Obama administration air pollution rule. -
Enviros Challenge Fracking Rule Defeat
Jun 27, 2016 | E&E News PM
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. -
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. -
Climate Change High on Agenda as Obama and Trudeau Meet for Summit
Jun 27, 2016 | The New York Times
By Ian Austen and Coral Davenport
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US, Mexico, Canada to Team Up on Clean Energy, Methane
Jun 28, 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. -
Obama to Make Clean Energy Pledge with Mexico, Canada: Report
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
President Obama will set a goal this week for the United States to get half of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2025. -
Tackling Air Pollution Could Save Millions of Lives: IEA
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anna Hirtenstein
Air pollution will continue rising in the coming decades unless nations around the world invest trillions of dollars in cleaner energy and emissions controls, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.
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U.S. Chemical Output Nudges Up in May, All Regions Nab Gain
Jun 27, 2016 | Zacks
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 - Analyst Report) , LyondellBasell Industries (LYB - Analyst Report) , BASF (BASFY - Snapshot Report) , Eastman Chemical (EMN - Analyst Report) , Celanese (CE - Analyst Report) and Westlake Chemical (WLK - Snapshot Report) 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.https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/221737/us-chemical-output-nudges-up-in-may-all-regions-nab-gain
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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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PFOA, PFOS Impair Immune System, Draft Analysis Finds
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Two persistent perfluorinated chemicals can impair the immune system, according to a draft National Toxicology Program hazard analysis.
Neither of the two chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), is made in the U.S., the program's draft analysis said.
The presence and persistence of both chemicals in the environment and human bodies, however, make the findings of public health interest to states and water utilities in parts of the country, such as Washington County, Minn., and Hoosick Falls, N.Y., that are finding PFOA and PFOS in their drinking water supplies.
Written comments on the program's draft analysis can be submitted through July 5; a peer review panel will critique it July 19.
Although no longer in U.S. production, PFOA, PFOS and chemicals that break down into those persistent compounds were used in thousands of products including food packaging, lubricants, fire retardants, and water- and heat-resistant coatings.
The National Toxicology Program conducted a systematic review of human, animal and detailed biological or “mechanistic” studies of PFOA and PFOS because several experimental animal and epidemiological studies detected immune effects following exposure to the chemicals.
The program identified 33 human, 93 animal and 27 mechanistic studies that could help answer the question of whether PFOA and PFOS affected the immune system.
The program's draft analysis, released June 6, concludes each chemical is “presumed to be an immune hazard to humans.”
The strongest evidence for both chemicals involved their capacity to suppress antibodies and to cause a hypersensitive immune response, the draft analysis said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=92760696&vname=dennotallissues&fn=92760696&jd=92760696
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EPA Releases Final Agenda for IRIS Public Science Meeting
Jun 28, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA has released the final agenda for the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) public science meeting on 29-30 June. It will discuss the draft toxicological assessments for tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP).
The meeting will take place at EPA Potomac Yards South in Arlington, Virginia. It will be webcast.
https://chemicalwatch.com/48278/epa-releases-final-agenda-for-iris-public-science-meeting
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California Issues DINP Safe Use Determination for Vinyl Flooring
Jun 28, 2016 | Chemical Watch
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) has issued a safe use determination (SUD) for the use of DINP in vinyl flooring products.
It says a vinyl flooring product containing 18.9% or less DINP by weight, is at or below the no significant risk level (NSRL) of 146 micrograms/day.
Products meeting this concentration limit are not required to provide an exposure warning under Proposition 65.
The SUD applies to non-textile vinyl flooring products used in residential, commercial and institutional buildings. It was issued at the request of the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI).
A SUD for DINP in PVC roofing was issued last year. In a separate notice, Oehha has issued a correction to its analysis supporting this SUD. The corrected upper-end estimates of exposure remain below the NSRL.
DINP was added to Prop 65 as a substance known to the state to cause cancer in December 2013.
https://chemicalwatch.com/48257/california-issues-dinp-safe-use-determination-for-vinyl-flooring
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BPA Free Plastic: Toxics Are Turned Into Safer Alternatives In New Green Discovery
Jun 27, 2016 | IB 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 chemicalsinto 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 | NGI's Shale Daily
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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Michigan Governor Won't Participate in Air Pollution Case
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is seeking to distance himself from the state attorney general’s lawsuit challenging an Obama administration air pollution rule.
Ari Adler, a spokesman for Snyder, said the governor and his administration are not involved in the challenge filed Friday by Attorney General Bill Schuette, and Snyder’s lawyers notified Schuette he is “disassociating” himself from the case.
Schuette, also a Republican, sued the Environmental Protection Agency Friday in federal court to try and overturn the latest piece of its mercury and air toxics standards for power plants.
Schuette has tried numerous times to get the Supreme Court to overturn the rule, and although the high court said last year it was not written lawfully, it has refused to overturn the regulation.
Now Schuette is challenging the EPA’s addendum to the regulation from April. That addendum used an existing cost-benefit analysis to conclude that writing the rule is “appropriate,” something the EPA did not do the first time, causing the Supreme Court’s initial decision against the rule.
Snyder’s decision does not mean that he supports the rule, although state law in Michigan requires power plants to comply with it, even if it is overturned.
But it does mean that Schuette is only representing the “people” of Michigan in the lawsuit, not the “state” of Michigan, which would require the support of Snyder’s administration.
Michigan, like most states, elects its governor and attorney general separately, and they can act independently of one another.
Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming are joining Schuette in his lawsuit.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/285058-michigan-gov-wont-participate-in-air-pollution-case
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Enviros Challenge Fracking Rule Defeat
Jun 27, 2016 | E&E News PM
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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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 (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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Climate Change High on Agenda as Obama and Trudeau Meet for Summit
Jun 27, 2016 | The New York Times
By Ian Austen and Coral Davenport
When Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, appeared at the United Nations this spring to sign the Paris climate accord, the rapturous ovation he received was worthy of the celebrity he had become, a leader full of promise and of promises, especially on climate change.
On Wednesday, as Canada convenes a North American Leaders’ Summithere, the youthful Canadian will meet the last celebrity to emerge to such adulation on the world stage, and President Obama will have some lessons to impart. Climate change will be a central topic of the summit meeting and of Mr. Obama’s address to Canada’s House of Commons.
The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will announce a North America-wide climate partnership, syncing their national policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They will pledge a joint goal of generating 50 percent of North America’s electricity from zero-carbon sources by 2025, up from 37 percent today. White House officials said that power mix would include wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear energy and coal or gas power paired with carbon capture technology. They will also announce that Mexico will join an existing agreement between the United States and Canada to collectively regulate leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that escapes from oil and gas wells.
But all of that will come with a note of caution. Unlike his Canadian counterpart, the American president’s hair is now gray, his speeches wizened by his experiences — and his message is likely to reflect the hard lessons he has learned as he has tried for nearly eight years to curb the climate-warming emissions of Canada’s neighbor to the south.
“Trudeau is facing the same fossil-fuel-lobby reality that Obama encountered,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former climate adviser in the Clinton administration who now consults on climate policy. “In a way, Canada is a test case for the penetration of renewable energy in a fossil-rich country.”
The parallels between the leaders are striking, even if the younger man’s efforts have only begun. During his first eight months in office, Mr. Trudeau, 44, has put climate change at the heart of his agenda, after his predecessor, Stephen Harper, a Conservative, reneged on Canada’s commitments under the first global climate pact, the Kyoto Protocol.
When President Obama, then new to office, attended the 2009 climate change summit meeting in Copenhagen, he too was cheered by environmentalists and many world leaders as a drastic departure from his predecessor, George W. Bush, a Texas oilman who had also pulled his country out of Kyoto.Continue reading the main story
But both have learned that adulation on the world stage does not necessarily translate into action at home on a problem as intractable as climate change.
After vowing in Copenhagen to make the United States a leader in the fight on global warming, Mr. Obama saw his climate change bill torpedoed in Congress. Only toward the end of his second term was he able to push through a climate policy that he had always thought of as a Plan B — a suite of regulations on coal-fired power plants — and those too are stalled, this time by a federal lawsuit.
Mr. Obama sees something of a kindred spirit in the prime minister.
“On the world stage, his country is leading on climate change and cares deeply about development, so from my perspective, what’s not to like?” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Trudeau during the prime minister’s state visit in March.
But on the smaller stage here in Canada’s capital, Mr. Trudeau is bumping up against the same opposing forces that stymied Mr. Obama in Washington.
Mr. Trudeau has acknowledged the difficulties. “Climate change will test our intelligence, our compassion and our will,” he told the United Nations in April. “But we are equal to that challenge.”
Canada’s economy relies heavily on oil and gas production, particularly in Alberta, where production of petroleum from the heavily polluting oil sandsis a major source of government revenue, and the global collapse of oil prices has left the region suffering. Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Trudeau is experiencing pushback to efforts to reduce oil demand.
It was Mr. Harper who submitted Canada’s climate change plan to the Paris negotiations, a plan widely criticized as weak. But for all his passionate speeches about climate change, Mr. Trudeau can offer an alternative only after he works out a new pact with Canada’s 10 provincial governments. So far, nothing has emerged.
“We were excited by Trudeau in Paris — he took an opposite stand from the previous government,” said Laurence Tubiana, the French climate change envoy. “But it’s not easy to make policies happen.”
Indirectly, just the election of Mr. Trudeau helped Mr. Obama carry out a major environmental decision, the rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have carried nearly a million barrels of oil from Alberta’s oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries. While American environmentalists begged him to reject the project, Mr. Obama delayed his decision for years in part to avoid straining relations with Canada.
Mr. Trudeau’s election in October 2015 changed the calculus. Although a Keystone supporter, the prime minister had put the pipeline much lower on his agenda than his climate change commitments. Less than a month after his election, Mr. Obama rejected the pipeline.
The first time Mr. Obama called Mr. Trudeau after a congratulatory election-night call was to give him a heads-up about his Keystone decision. But the call grew into a broader discussion on joint climate change plans. “That call could have gone very differently,” said Mr. Obama’s senior climate change adviser, Brian Deese. “But instead of acrimony, they both resolved that there was a real opportunity for our countries to increase our partnership on climate change.”
The two then met at the Paris climate summit meeting a month later. Then Mr. Trudeau set Canada’s bureaucracy into motion, appointing Catherine McKenna, an international trade lawyer, as his minister of environment and climate change.
“Catherine and her team were warmly welcomed. Her message was essentially, ‘Canada’s back,’” said Todd Stern, the former United States climate envoy.
But Mr. Trudeau’s push for a national plan to tax carbon emissions is still a matter of negotiation. Some provinces, including Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia, have put plans in place to tax or price emissions. Others have refused.
Brad Wall, the premier of oil-producing Saskatchewan, has vowed never to sign any carbon tax agreement.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Keystone XL’s failure, politicians from western Canada are pushing Mr. Trudeau to support new pipelines to the United States.
Rachel Notley, the premier of Alberta, said she believed Mr. Trudeau was warming to the idea. “He’s become more aware of what it means for our economy, what it means to reposition and get our product to market, and get a better price for our product,” she said.
And climate change remains a sensitive subject on both sides of the border. When the Canadian Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, linked a huge wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, “to the global climate crisis,” she was rebuked by several other politicians, including Mr. Trudeau. Her comments were seen as a distasteful attempt to use the disaster for political purposes, a charge sometimes mirrored in the United States.
Still, support is growing for climate measures in Canada. Ontario, the most populous province, introduced a package of climate change measures earlier this month that included joining Quebec’s cap-and-trade system, which, in turn, is linked to California’s program.
Climate diplomats say that while Mr. Trudeau’s international celebrity will not be enough to push through tough domestic climate policies, it will not hurt.
“If you have Trudeau, who is a much more charismatic figure and gets press attention, then that amplifies what he says and gives a sense of momentum,” Mr. Stern said. “It’s a good thing.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/world/americas/canada-climate-justin-trudeau-obama.html?_r=0
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US, Mexico, Canada to Team Up on Clean Energy, Methane
Jun 28, 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 Republican Donald 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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Obama to Make Clean Energy Pledge with Mexico, Canada: Report
Jun 27, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
President Obama will set a goal this week for the United States to get half of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2025.
CBC News, citing sources familiar with the plans, said Obama will make the pledge as part of a summit in Ottawa, Canada, with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
The United States got only 13 percent of its electricity from clean sources like wind, solar and hydropower last year, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). It’s unclear if the pledge would include nuclear power, which is also emission-free and supplies 20 percent of the country’s power.
The United States's pledge would largely be up to the next president to enforce. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has committed to sweeping clean energy goals, including to have half of the country’s electricity be clean by 2030, while Republican Donald Trump has promised to greatly expand the production and use of fossil fuels and roll back environmental regulations.
Mexico will make a similar clean energy pledge at the summit, and Canada already gets 63 percent of its electricity from clean power, CBC said.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz declined to comment to reporters Monday about the CBC report.
The clean electricity pledge would be the latest in a series of cooperative measures on climate change and energy Obama has made with Canada since last year’s election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The two leaders have agreed together to dramatically cut methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector and to reduce short-lived greenhouse gases like black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto plans to sign onto those agreements as well, CBC reported.
The three leaders will also commit to taking steps to encourage biodiversity across North America.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/285019-obama-to-make-clean-energy-pledge-report
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Tackling Air Pollution Could Save Millions of Lives: IEA
Jun 28, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anna Hirtenstein
Air pollution will continue rising in the coming decades unless nations around the world invest trillions of dollars in cleaner energy and emissions controls, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.
The Paris-based agency is calling for governments to adopt a strategy to cut pollutants by half—a plan that would add about 7 percent to the total energy investment needed through 2040, according to a June 27 IEA report. That includes $4.8 trillion for advanced pollution controls and accelerating the transformation of the energy industry.
“Clean air is a basic human right that most of the world's population lacks,” said Executive Director Fatih Birol. “We need to revise our approach to energy development so that communities are not forced to sacrifice clean air in return for economic growth.”
The energy agency's strategy pushes for cleaner fuels, energy efficiency, better cooking facilities and emissions controls. It also calls for a collective long-term air quality goal, policies for implementation and regulations to monitor and enforce it. The agency said the efforts could cut pollution-related deaths by more than 3 million a year.
Source: IEA
Poor air quality is affecting the entire planet, with 80 percent of cities that monitor levels failing to meet standards set by the World Health Organization. Public pressure is mounting in countries such as China, prompting ambitious renewable energy agendas. The developed West also has its fair share of smog, with London surpassing the European Union's annual limits on air pollution just eight days into 2016.
The energy industry is the single largest human-caused contributor to poor air quality, the IEA report said. Most of it comes from unregulated and inefficient fuels. The agency sees air pollution as the fourth-largest threat to human health, after high blood pressure, poor diet and smoking.
What is actually clogging up our air? These three pollutants have the biggest impact on health.
Particulate matter
Tiny particles that float in the air, and can be either liquid and solid. They're linked to detrimental health impacts, such as chronic lung diseases. The severity depends on the size of the particles. The bigger they are, the more damage they can do to your respiratory system. About 85 percent of particulates come from the energy industry, according to the IEA.
Sulfur dioxide
A gas made from burning fossil fuels. Most of it comes from power plants and industrial processes such as metals processing with almost all from the energy industry. It causes adverse health effects and also can be dissolved into water, resulting in acid rain.
Nitrogen oxide
A greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Almost all of it comes from the transportation sector and power plants that burn fossil fuels. It is a toxic gas that causes lung inflammation and other health problems when inhaled.
What are the main causes of air pollution?
Poverty
There are 2.7 billion people in the world who burn biomass for cooking. Smoke inhalation from this, as well as burning kerosene for lighting, is estimated to cause 3.5 million premature deaths a year, mostly women and children in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Fossil-fuel–intensive industries
Power plants that burn fossil fuels and industrial facilities are major emitters. Burning coal is responsible for 60 percent of combustion-related sulfur dioxide emissions.
Urbanization
Tightly packed cities with roads full of traffic lead to dirty air. Two-thirds of the $2.3 trillion investment into pollution control technologies that the IEA recommended would go toward complying with elevated vehicle emissions standards.
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