Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 7/26/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) UPDATED: EPA Evaluates Risk on 1st New Chemicals Under Reformed TSCA
Jul 25, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Colby Bermel
U.S. EPA on Friday took its first formal chemical regulatory action since reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act were signed into law last month. -
US EPA Issues First Safety Determinations for New Chemicals Under Amended TSCA
Jul 26, 2016 | National Law Review
By Stephen A. Owens
On July 22, 2016, US EPA issued its first safety determinations onpremanufacture notices (PMNs) for new chemicals under TSCA as amended by the recently enacted Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. -
The Road to Toxic Chemical Reform
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Protection
By Jack Pratt
Finally. A chemical law 40 years past its freshness date is reformed. The result? A future where families, schools, and workplaces are better protected from dangerous chemicals in their homes and elsewhere. -
5 Inspiring Signs That Sustainability Is Gaining Traction in the U.S.
Jul 26, 2016 | Huffington Post
By Rosaly Byrd
...The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is a much-needed chemical safety reform signed by President Obama in June 2016. Although most of the products we consume today contain chemicals, chemical safety law in the U.S. has been broken... -
The Pollution In People: Flame Retardants In Gymnasts
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Working Group
By Sonya Lunder
A new study bolstered evidence that gymnasts are highly exposed to fire retardant chemicals in landing mats and foam cubes in landing pits used to practice tumbling and vaults. -
FDA Investigating Hair Care Products Linked To Balding But Can't Stop Sales
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Working Group
By Tina Sigurdson
The federal Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert last week that some 21,000 people have now lodged complaints with the manufacturers of WEN by Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioner products, saying that they suffered bad reactions including hair loss... -
Mapping Lead Service Lines: DC Water Offers a Model for Utilities Across the Nation
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Lindsay McCormick
When I moved to Washington, DC four years ago the phrase “lead service lines” did not roll off my tongue. That began to change as I became aware of DC’s historical lead problems – and dramatically so in the wake of the crisis in Flint, Michigan. -
Tainted Water Near Colorado Bases Hints at Wider Safety Concerns
Jul 25, 2016 | New York Times (In E&E Greenwire)
By Julie Turkewitz
Volk Sanders burst into this world on June 7, a six-pound fuzz-headed ball of joy and his mother’s first child. Days later, Volk’s mother learned that the well water she had consumed for years had been laced with chemicals that the Envionmental Protection Agency associates with... -
BLM Defends Plans for Calif. Oil and Gas Drilling
Jul 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
The Obama administration is again defending its plans for oil and gas development on public lands in California. -
New White House Metric Will Guide Cyberattack Response
Jul 26, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Damian Paletta
The White House on Tuesday announced a new way of gauging the severity of cyberattacks and responding to them, part of a broad effort to improve the sometimes erratic coordination among federal agencies that react to large-scale computer breaches. -
Crude Slump, Pipeline Expansion Mark End of U.S. Oil-Train Boom
Jul 25, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Alison Sider and Laura Stevens
The oil-train boom is waning almost as quickly as it began. -
POLITICO Pro New Jersey: Oil Trains Emerge As An Issue in Campaign to Unseat Garrettk
Jul 26, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By David Giambusso
Oil trains have emerged as an issue in the increasingly heated race for New Jersey's 5th Congressional District. -
Climate Front and Center in Stark Contrast to GOP Confab
Jul 26, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Evan Lehmann
Convincing skeptical Republicans about climate change could be less important for building momentum around tackling emissions than reaching everyday Americans who are affected by rising temperatures, according to several people who spoke... -
Clinton Open to ‘Conversation’ on Carbon Tax
Jul 26, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Hillary Clinton is open to working with lawmakers on a tax on carbon dioxide emissions if Congress wants it, her energy adviser said. -
Carbon Pricing: A Practical Pro-Growth Solution to Climate Change
Jul 25, 2016 | Real Clear Energy
By Hugh Welsh
We can expect an abundance of rhetoric at the Democratic National Convention this week about the threat of climate change, but probably not so much about actions. There is a potentially transformational policy change missing from the conversation: a price on carbon. -
11th Circuit Weighs Stay of CWA Rule Suit Pending 6th Circuit Decision
Jul 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit are grappling with whether federal district or appellate courts have authority to hear suits over EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule, and it is unclear whether they will send a suit over the rule to district court...
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(ACC Mentioned) UPDATED: EPA Evaluates Risk on 1st New Chemicals Under Reformed TSCA
Jul 25, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Colby Bermel
U.S. EPA on Friday took its first formal chemical regulatory action since reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act were signed into law last month.
The agency published premanufacture notices (PMNs) for four new chemicals -- three lubricants and one finishing agent -- drawing the conclusion that all are "not likely to present an unreasonable risk" to human health or to the environment.
If any had presented an unreasonable risk, that finding would have triggered a risk evaluation process that could have lasted years, during which time prohibitions or restrictions would be imposed on the chemical.
The review start date for all four of the chemicals was on June 22, the day that President Obama signed the legislation into law (Greenwire, June 22). Decisions were made on three of the chemicals last Wednesday, and on a fourth two weeks ago.
Two of the chemicals did get caveats, however.
Depolymerized waste plastics and organic modified propyl silsesquioxane were estimated by EPA to be "very persistent."
Persistence means the degree to which chemicals degrade in the environment, and whether their buildup poses hazards.
But, the agency added, "this did not indicate likelihood that the chemical substance would present an unreasonable risk, given that the chemical substance has low potential for bioaccumulation, low human health hazard, and low environmental hazard."
Determination documents were posted for each of the four chemicals, and each carried the signature of specific officials at EPA.
Environmental Defense Fund Lead Senior Scientist Richard Denison was an active architect of the TSCA reform legislation. In a blog post, he applauded EPA for its openness and following of new mandates.
"This, in my view, constitutes an unprecedented level of transparency for a program that has often felt like a 'black box' in the past," he wrote.
Bergeson & Campbell PC, a chemicals law firm in Washington, D.C., also welcomed the determinations.
"It is reassuring that the [structure-activity relationship analyses were] used to reach determinations about persistence, bioaccumulation, and hazard potential, including mention of category analysis," the firm wrote in a blog post.
And the industry was supportive, too.
"EPA's publication of its first new chemical determinations under the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act (LCSA) is an example of the new law already working," wrote Sarah Brozena, the American Chemistry Council's senior director of regulatory and technical affairs, in an email.
But EDF's Denison was critical of other aspects, including the withholding of confidential business information from the determination documents. Under the TSCA reform legislation, any company bringing a new chemical to EPA for review that says doing so would cause it competitive harm has to justify this claim in an appeal (Greenwire, July 1).
The company names and specific chemical identities were not published in Friday's documents.
"It is not clear the extent to which such claims were scrutinized by EPA in these cases, and as the [premanufacture notices] were submitted and the claims asserted prior to the signing of the new law, it's not clear these particular claims would have been subject to the new requirements," Denison wrote. "Going forward, however, we will be seeking assurance that EPA is applying the new [confidential business information] requirements to applicable claims in PMNs and also reflecting them in its reviews and decision documents regarding those PMNs."
Three other grievances Denison brought forward include the documents' use of estimated, not measured, data; the lack of technical information beyond summaries; and "cursory" consideration of exposure and exposed subpopulations.
"So, these first decisions by EPA under the Lautenberg Act are welcome and appear to represent real progress in a number of respects. We recognize the pressure EPA was under not to unduly extend its reviews of PMNs that had been filed prior to the law's passage," Denison wrote. "Going forward, however, and in dealing with less 'easy' cases, EPA needs to do more to ensure and communicate that its review is based on information sufficient to make the affirmative finding the new law requires: whether each new chemical is or is not likely to present an unreasonable risk."
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/07/25/stories/1060040744
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US EPA Issues First Safety Determinations for New Chemicals Under Amended TSCA
Jul 26, 2016 | National Law Review
By Stephen A. Owens
On July 22, 2016, US EPA issued its first safety determinations onpremanufacture notices (PMNs) for new chemicals under TSCA as amended by the recently enacted Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. US EPA announced the decisions exactly one month after President Obama signed the Lautenberg Act into law on June 22, 2016.
In decisions posted to its website, US EPA determined that four new chemical substances were “not likely to present an unreasonable risk” to health or the environment, the new TSCA standard established by the Lautenberg Act. The PMNs for all four substances had been submitted to US EPA prior to enactment of the Lautenberg Act, but because US EPA concluded that the Lautenberg Act had “effectively reset” the 90-day review period for all PMNs, the Agency had reviewed the four chemicals further under the new standard.
The specific chemical identity of each chemical is confidential. The generic names of the four chemicals (and their PMN numbers) are:
Generic: Fatty Alcohols-dimers, Trimers, Polymers (P-16-0281)
Generic: Depolymerized Waste Plastics (P-16-0292)
Generic: Propyl Silsequioxanes, Hydrogen-terminated (P-16-301)
Generic: Organic Modified Propyl Silsequioxane (P-16-302)
While US EPA appears to have selected non-controversial chemicals for its first safety determinations under the new TSCA review standard, US EPA’s decisions give at least some insight into the Agency’s thinking, including the methodology it will use to review PMNs, the scope of its consideration of the potential effects of a new chemical, and the documentation explaining its decision on a PMN.
US EPA’s Determination Documents
The determination document issued for each chemical is fairly short, only three pages long in each case. In general, each document articulates the Agency’s determination about the chemical, the chemical’s name, the chemical’s “assessed conditions of use,” and a summary of US EPA’s evaluation and conclusion. Each document also provides information about the fate, persistence, bioaccumulation, human health hazard, and environmental hazard of the chemical, as well as the potential exposures and potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations relating to the chemical’s conditions of use.
Assessed Conditions of Use: US EPA stated that a chemical’s “intended uses” for purposes of the safety determination are the uses identified in the PMN itself. US EPA identified the “known” and “reasonably foreseen” uses “based on evidence of current use of the chemical substance outside the United States and evidence of the current uses of chemical substances that are structurally analogous to the new chemical substance.” US EPA further explained that it identifies such uses “based on searches of internal CBI EPA PMN databases (containing use information on analog chemicals), other US government public sources, the National Library of Medicine’s Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), the Chemical Abstract Service STN Platform, REACH Dossiers, technical encyclopedias (e.g., Kirk-Othmer and Ullmann), and Internet searches.”
Fate: US EPA estimated “a number of physical-chemical and fate properties” of each new chemical substance using the Estimation Programs Interface (EPI) Suite, “a suite of physical/chemical property and environmental fate estimation programs” developed by the Agency.
Persistence: US EPA estimated “the half-lives for each chemical substance in environmental media (i.e., air, water and soil)” using the Agency’s EPI Suite. The Agency explained that a chemical substance is considered to have “limited persistence” if it has a half-life in water, soil or sediment of less than two months, to be “persistent” if it has a half-life greater than two months but less than or equal to six months, and to be “very persistent” if it has a half-life greater than six months.
Bioaccumulation: US EPA stated that a chemical substance is considered to have a low potential for bioaccumulation if there are bio-concentration factors (BCF) or bioaccumulation factors (BAF) of less than 1,000, to be bioaccumulative if there are BCFs or BAFs of 1,000 or greater and less than or equal to 5,000, and to be very bioaccumulative if there are BCFs or BAFs of 5,000 or greater.
Human Health Hazard: US EPA estimated the human health hazard of each chemical based on its estimated physical/chemical properties (which indicate whether it can be absorbed if inhaled or ingested or by dermal contact) and by comparing it to “structurally analogous chemical substances for which there is information on human health hazard.” The Agency explained that a chemical substance is considered to have “low human health hazard” if effects are observed in animal studies with a No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) equal to or greater than 1,000 mg/kg/day and to have “moderate human health hazard” with a NOAEL less than 1,000 mg/kg/day. A substance is considered to have “high human health hazard” if there is evidence of adverse effects in humans or conclusive evidence of severe effects in animal studies with a NOAEL of less than or equal to 10 mg/kg/day.
Environmental Hazard: US EPA estimated the environmental hazard of each chemical by comparing it to “structurally analogous chemical substances” using the Ecological Structure Activity Relationships (ECOSAR) Predictive Model, a “predictive system” that estimates a chemical’s acute and chronic toxicity to aquatic organisms, such as fish, aquatic invertebrates, and aquatic plants, by using computerized Structure Activity Relationships (SARs).
Fatty Alcohols-dimers, Trimers, Polymers (P-16-0281)
In the determination document for this chemical US EPA identified the “intended use” as “reactive polyol (generic)” and the “known and reasonably foreseen uses” as “lubricant and lubricant additive.” US EPA considers the chemical to have “low potential” to volatize into the air or migrate into groundwater and could be effectively removed if released into wastewater. Although US EPA considers the chemical to be “persistent,” the Agency concluded that this “did not indicate a likelihood” that the chemical would present an unreasonable risk, since the Agency also estimates that it has low potential for bioaccumulation, low human health hazard and low environmental hazard because of its similarity to other fatty alcohol polymers. Interestingly, US EPA stated that “it was unnecessary to estimate the potential for exposure” to the chemical because the Agency concluded that the chemical “presents both low human health hazard and low environmental hazard.” The Agency stated that the chemical “would be unlikely to present an unreasonable risk even if potential exposures were high.” Finally, US EPA determined that because of the chemical’s intended use only “workers in a certain industrial sector” will be exposed it, and the Agency further stated that even though it is “foreseeable” that chemical might be incorporated into “lubricants with the potential for exposures of workers in other industrial sectors or exposures to consumers,” the chemical is still “estimated to present only a low hazard.”
Depolymerized Waste Plastics (P-16-0292)
In the determination document for this chemical US EPA identified the “intended use” as “intermediate for use in the manufacture of polymers” and the “known and reasonably foreseen uses” as “lubricant and lubricant additive.” US EPA considers the chemical to have “low potential” to volatize into the air or migrate into groundwater and could be effectively removed if released into wastewater. Although US EPA considers the chemical to be “very persistent,” the Agency concluded that this did not indicate a likelihood hood that the chemical would present an unreasonable risk, since the Agency also estimates that it has low potential for bioaccumulation, low human health hazard and low environmental hazard based on estimates from “analogous chemical substances/structure-activity relationships.” As with P-16-0281, US EPA stated that “it was unnecessary to estimate the potential for exposure” because the chemical “presents both low human health hazard and low environmental hazard” and “would be unlikely to present an unreasonable risk even if potential exposures were high.” “Workers” are the only potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation identified by the Agency.
Propyl Silsesquioxanes, Hydrogen-terminated (P-16-0301)
In the determination document for this chemical US EPA identified the “intended use (generic)” as “intermediate” and the “known and reasonably foreseen uses” as “lubricant and lubricant additive.” US EPA considers the chemical to have “low potential” to volatize into the air or migrate into groundwater and could be effectively removed if released into wastewater. US EPA concluded that the chemical is not likely to present an unreasonable risk since the chemical has “limited persistence,” “low bioaccumulation potential,” “low concern for human health hazard,” and low environmental hazard, based on the physical/chemical properties of the chemical and analogous chemical substances/structure-activity relationships. As with P-16-0281 and P-16-0292, US EPA did not estimate the potential for exposure to the chemical because the chemical “presents both low human health hazard and low environmental hazard” and “would be unlikely to present an unreasonable risk even if potential exposures were high.” Again, “workers” are the only potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation identified by the Agency.
Organic Modified Propyl Silsesquioxane (P-16-0302)
In the determination document for this chemical US EPA identified the “intended use (generic)” as “plastic additive” and the “known and reasonably foreseen use” as “finishing agent.” US EPA considers the chemical to have “low potential” to volatize into the air or migrate into groundwater and could be effectively removed if released into wastewater. Although US EPA considers the chemical to be “very persistent,” the Agency concluded that this “did not indicate a likelihood” that the chemical would present an unreasonable risk, since the Agency also estimates that it has low potential for bioaccumulation, low human health hazard and low environmental hazard, based on the physical/chemical properties of the chemical and analogous chemical substances/structure-activity relationships. Like the other three chemicals, US EPA here too did not estimate the potential for exposure because the chemical “presents both low human health hazard and low environmental hazard” and “would be unlikely to present an unreasonable risk even if potential exposures were high.” And, again, “workers” are the only potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation identified by the Agency.
Looking Ahead
The four safety determinations issued by US EPA are collectively the first substantive action taken by the Agency under the recently-amended TSCA, and they are instructive in many ways. The long-term utility of the determinations as guidance remains to be seen, however, given, as noted, that all of the chemicals reviewed are non-controversial, with low potential to volatize into the air or migrate into groundwater, low potential for bioaccumulation, low human health hazard and low environmental hazard. Moreover, US EPA identified workers as the only potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation and did not estimate the potential for exposure for any of the chemicals. Of much greater significance will be the determinations that US EPA makes hereafter for chemicals that have greater potential for adverse fate and hazards, more impactful exposures and broader potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations.
http://www.natlawreview.com/article/us-epa-issues-first-safety-determinations-new-chemicals-under-amended-tsca
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The Road to Toxic Chemical Reform
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Protection
By Jack Pratt
Finally. A chemical law 40 years past its freshness date is reformed. The result? A future where families, schools, and workplaces are better protected from dangerous chemicals in their homes and elsewhere.
It took decades of hard work, perseverance, and unlikely partnerships to pass theLautenberg Act, requiring all new chemicals entering the marketplace to first clear a safety bar. The Environmental Protection Agency will have new authorities to require testing. And it will finally have a legal mandate to review existing chemicals on the market.
While these changes won't transform consumer goods overnight, this new law harnesses the power of transparency, expanding information about chemicals and generating more incentives for companies to invest in safer chemicals when designing products. The new law puts in place a purely health-based standard by which chemicals will be judged. And, as companies continue to work to meet rising consumer expectations about the safety, health and sustainability of products, this new law will provide a strong foundation to build upon and expand efforts for generations to come.
In a current climate of toxic politics, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) found a way to create bipartisan commitment to forge a solution to the dangerously outdated Toxic Substances Control Act. See how EDF used sound science and relentless pragmatism to drive a healthier environment for people and planet: A timeline of reform.
Jack Pratt is the Chemicals Campaign director for EDF.
https://eponline.com/articles/2016/07/26/the-road-to-toxic-chemical-reform.aspx
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5 Inspiring Signs That Sustainability Is Gaining Traction in the U.S.
Jul 26, 2016 | Huffington Post
By Rosaly Byrd
The first half of 2016 saw devastating events that have left many — including us — feeling pessimistic about the future of the U.S. and the world. However, since December 2015’s Paris Climate Agreement, there have been various environment-related developments that provide us with some hope that, at least in regard to making sure our world is liveable in the future, we are starting to move forward. Here are 5 inspiring signs that sustainability is gaining traction in the U.S.
Chemical safety reform. The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is a much-needed chemical safety reform signed by President Obama in June 2016. Although most of the products we consume today contain chemicals, chemical safety law in the U.S. has been broken for decades and had not been substantially amended since it was signed into law in the 1970s...until now. This 2016 amendment, which received bipartisan support, makes more information about chemicals available and provides the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with more authority and support to regulate chemicals, allowing the agency to better protect human health from toxic chemicals. Moreover, major companies like Wal-Mart are asking suppliers to remove formaldehyde, triclosan and six other substances from their products, in an attempt to eliminate chemicals from household goods.
All about renewables. The U.S. Energy Information Administration came out with their 2016 Annual Energy Outlook that paints the future of energy, and that future looks bright. Renewables are expected to surpass nuclear power by 2020 and coal by 2028, to become the second largest source of U.S. electricity generation after natural gas. The growth in renewable energy production is spurred by supportive federal and state policies and incentives, as well as the continuing drop in the cost of wind and solar. Governments and companies are increasing the use of renewables and setting aggressive goals, and some smaller cities and companies are already reaching 100% renewable energy. But small cities aren’t the only ones acting- larger cities such as San Diego and Salt Lake City have adopted goals to go 100% renewable, while the state of Hawaii and Google have also pledged 100% clean energy.
Action to reduce food waste. Efforts to reduce the 40% of food wasted in the U.S. from production to consumption process are in full swing. Evidence includes proposed legislation that clarify the “sell by/use by/expires on” dates on food, as well as the Save the Food campaign that provides guidance and motivation for individuals to reduce food waste at home. Companies are also responding to the call to reduce food waste; for example, Starbucks has pledged to donate 100% of unsold food within the next five years.
Climate change is a 2016 political issue. Individuals running for all levels of government are weighing in on climate change one way or another and climate deniers are being called out. In general, Democrats are rallying around the need to act on climate more than Republicans, but congressional and local Republican candidates are beginning to talk about climate change more. For example, in Florida (a state that has been known for its climate denying governor and senators), a bipartisan coalition of mayors wrote a letter calling for more climate-related questions in presidential primary debates. Although we haven’t heard many positive statements on climate action from the Republican presidential candidate, we are hoping that the Democratic nominee will help push this forward, considering more Americans (64%) now are worried a “great deal” or a “fair amount” about climate change (more than at any time since 2008).
Appreciation for nature. National parks saw a record number of visitors last year: 307.2 million visits in 2015, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Park system in August 2016. A key part of sustainability is appreciating all the benefits that nature provides us, including not only the resources that we base our lives on, but also the peace of mind, adventure, and sense of belonging we experience when visiting these magnificent areas.
It is easy to be frustrated by some of the recent occurrences in the U.S. and around the world. Yet as evidenced by some inspiring signs, different aspects of sustainability are being embraced in the U.S., in various ways and by various actors. We hope that this momentum towards sustainability continues to grow in the U.S., as we still have a lot of work to do to make the systems that shape our lives more sustainable.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosaly-byrd/5-inspiring-signs-that-su_b_11159402.html
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The Pollution In People: Flame Retardants In Gymnasts
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Working Group
By Sonya Lunder
A new study bolstered evidence that gymnasts are highly exposed to fire retardant chemicals in landing mats and foam cubes in landing pits used to practice tumbling and vaults.
Courtney Carignan and colleagues from Boston, Harvard and Duke universities measured concentrations of fire retardant chemicals in 11 elite gymnasts. The team found that the gymnasts had elevated exposures to several flame retardant chemicals, including chemicals linked to hormone disruption and cancer.
Exposure to several chemicals increased shortly after gymnastics practice and decreased hours later, pointing to gyms as a source of exposure. This study builds upon prior work by the researchers, showing elevated concentrations of another class of flame retardants, known as PBDEs, in gymnasts.
Over the past several decades, companies have added these and other chemical flame retardants to foam and electronics.There is growing concern about the harmful effects of many of these chemicals, in addition to evidence that they have done little to make products fire resistant.
Carignan found flame retardant chemicals in 25 of the 28 pit cubes she examined. Gymnasts are exposed when the pit foam crumbles, or volatilizes into the air.
In a press release, Carignan called for action:
As a former gymnast, I know that there are many benefits to gymnastics, and don’t think anyone should quit the sport based on our findings. However, I hope our findings will alert gymnasts and coaches to take precautions to reduce their exposure. We need to consider ways to achieve fire safety without the use of chemical flame retardants. Share this study with your local gymnastics studio manager and ask them to explore replacing flame retardant equipment with safer fire safety alternatives, which could include sprinklers, smoke detectors and clearly marked fire exits, among other things.
Carignan launched the Gymnast Flame Retardant Collaborative, where athletes, parents, coaches, scientists and physicians can exchange information about the issue. The website provides fact sheets for parents and gyms about the health hazards of flame retardant chemicals, and tips to reduce exposures.
The foam in tumbling pits is highly flammable, but gym fires are very rare. Carignan is studying ways to maintain fire safety without using chemicals. Simple measures like sprinkler systems could do the trick.
Carignan recommends that gymnasts wash their hands after practice to reduce the risk of ingesting flame retardants, and wear protective clothing and dust masks when handling pit cubes.
Duke University offers free testing for gym pit cubes and other foam household products. While gyms can purchase new flame retardant-free foam cubes, they infrequently remove and replace older foam cubes from the pits.
In addition to gymnasts, other athletes use foam pits for indoor training: skiers, snowboarders, skateboarders and BMX riders. Track and field events, and indoor rock climbing use foam landing pads with protective covers, but the flame retardant content of this equipment has yet to be studied. Indoor trampoline facilities, the sites of countless children’s birthday parties, are also a possible source of exposure.
And there are no U.S. restrictions on Firemaster 550 or phosphate-based flame retardants.
It may seem seem there is an endless stream of news about the unchecked use of harmful and unnecessary chemicals in consumer products. But there is a silver lining: Momentum is growing to remove toxic flame retardants from new products.
Major manufacturers have stopped adding these toxic chemicals to products. Five states have laws banning forms of a fire retardant, called chlorinated Tris, in some foam items. These states include Maine, Maryland, New York, Vermont and Washington. California just announced it will remove two Tris chemicals from children’s sleep products.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is also considering a petition to ban all flame retardants that contain bromine or fluorine from children’s products, household furniture and electronics.
However, the new study indicates that more work is necessary, as restrictions on new products will not clean up the existing problem in America’s gyms.
http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2016/07/pollution-people-flame-retardants-gymnasts
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FDA Investigating Hair Care Products Linked To Balding But Can't Stop Sales
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Working Group
By Tina Sigurdson
The federal Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert last week that some 21,000 people have now lodged complaints with the manufacturers of WEN by Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioner products, saying that they suffered bad reactions, including hair loss, hair breakage, itching and rashes. Many who lost hair said it was not growing back.
We first reported last December that more than 17,000 WEN users had complained to the manufacturer about losing some or all of their hair after using the products.
Though touted as a natural, less harsh alternative to traditional shampoos, the productformulations actually contain a slew of synthetic chemicals, including common allergens. Consumers began complaining to Guthy-Renker, LLC, one of the the products’ distributors, as early as 2008. No one knows what may be causing the problem.
You might be asking yourself, if 21,000 people have complained to Guthy-Renker about the same problem over the course of several years, why is the FDA only saying something to the public about it now?
Companies don't have to share reports of suspected adverse reactions to their products or other safety data with the FDA, and most consumers don’t know to share this information directly with the agency. While Guthy-Renker received thousands of complaints, the agency received merely 127 reports from consumers.
As EWG reported, although Guthy-Renker commissioned at least 13 safety studies into its WEN line, the company continues to withhold nine of these studies from the FDA. The FDA’s investigation into whether WEN may be causing these reactions is therefore hamstrung. The agency itself admits, “even with what we know so far about this product, including the adverse events, we are unable to determine that the product does not comply with the law.”
It appears the FDA is relatively powerless to protect consumers, but Congress can and should do something about it. The Personal Care Products Safety Act, introduced last year by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, would reform the law that governs personal care products like WEN.
If enacted, companies would be required to tell the FDA about reported adverse reactions such as balding, and the agency could compel them to hand over safety studies. The FDA would finally be given the power to recall dangerous products, and would have the funding and authority to investigate concerning ingredients.
In the meantime, if you've experienced hair loss or other adverse health effects that you suspect may be linked to use of WEN hair care products, please share your storywith the FDA.
http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2016/07/fda-investigating-hair-care-products-linked-balding-cant-stop-sales
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Mapping Lead Service Lines: DC Water Offers a Model for Utilities Across the Nation
Jul 26, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Lindsay McCormick
When I moved to Washington, DC four years ago the phrase “lead service lines” did not roll off my tongue. That began to change as I became aware of DC’s historical lead problems – and dramatically so in the wake of the crisis in Flint, Michigan.
But I’m not alone. Even though experts estimate that up to 10 million homes across the U.S. have lead service lines – lead pipes connecting the drinking water main in the street to the home – it’s an issue that is not well understood by most Americans.
And that should come as no surprise given that few water utilities across the U.S. can even say with confidence where the lead services lines are in their systems, and fewer still proactively share what information they have with customers. Lead service lines are an aging infrastructure, typically found in communities with older housing. Local recordkeeping over the years has been inconsistent, leaving many utilities today to rely on incomplete, difficult to access, or non-electronic historical records. Many communities appear to have no documentation of when they ceased installing lead service lines altogether.
When records are absent, it can be difficult to determine with certainty if a pipe is lead without digging it up – and disturbing the pipe can release lead into the water.
The situation is complicated further by ownership issues: service lines are typically split between a public (i.e., utility) side – between the main in the street and the property line – and a private side – from the sidewalk water meter to the house. As a result, utilities often have more information on the public portion of the service line.
Most utilities address the problem of lead pipes by treating the water to build a protective coating on the inside of the pipes, preventing the leaching of lead. Referred to as corrosion control, this approach is important toreduce lead exposure, but not sufficient. It leaves large potential sources of lead in the ground, putting children at risk of exposure when the protective coatings fail. Thus, the best long-term fix is to remove the lead service lines.
But how do we fix a problem when we don’t know where it is? The first step is to begin to understand what we do know and make that information available to the public – thereby raising awareness, creating demand for more information, and allowing everyone to act.
DC Water Map
Last month, Washington, DC’s water utility (“DC Water”) made important strides to increase transparency when it launched a new, interactive map. The map populates nearly every building and public water source across DC – including residences, restaurants, retailers, schools, drinking water fountains, museums, and even the White House – with a color-coded circle indicating whether the both the public and private sides of the service line is lead, non-lead, or there’s no available information. The data are based on a combination of physical inspections, consumer reports, and historical data. s such, there is variability in the reliability of each data point, which DC Water is careful to disclose.
This nifty map is pretty fun to explore. Of course, the first thing I checked out was my house. The color-coded circle hovering over my narrow rowhome is a combination of white and green, signifying that while the public portion of my service line is not lead (green), there is no information for private side (white).
By clicking the circle, a pop up box provided the following additional detail on the public side: “Type: Copper; Description: Service pipe replaced 20051006.” I decided to investigative a bit further, reaching out to my landlord who confirmed that the public portion was replaced in 2005 during DC’s own “lead water crisis,” but had no additional information on the private side.
Despite the data gaps, the map allows DC residents to make their own informed decisions. Those who find a white, “no information,” circle can take steps to help understand if their home may have a lead pipe, throughphysical inspection or free testing provided by the city. Those with evidence of lead may pursue options toreplace their lead pipes. Others may utilize temporary solutions, such as installing an NSF approved filter on their water faucet and always using cold tap water for drinking and cooking.
But it doesn’t stop there. DC residents can also check out their favorite restaurants, children’s daycare, or office building and make informed decisions to avoid lead exposure. I, for one, have started to skip a particular drinking fountain at one of my weekend hangouts after finding out that it is serviced by a lead pipe.
EPA’s call for transparency
On July 6th, EPA directed letters to state officials calling for improved public transparency and implementation of the federal rule on lead in drinking water. To that end, EPA encouraged states to make information available to the public, “The EPA believes that posting of individual sampling results is important for public transparency and intends to work with states that are not yet posting individual sample results – to share lessons learned form states that are already doing so, and to urge all states to adopt this practice.” EPA highlighted the use of online searchable databases of lead service line data as an effective method of increasing transparency. These letters come in response to resistance from many states following similar EPA letters sent to U.S. governors, state commissioners, and tribal leaders earlier this year.
We applaud DC Water for making what data they have available through this comprehensive inventory map. Access to these data is likely to both empower individuals to make informed decisions to reduce their exposure and increase their trust in the public utility. We hope that other cities and municipalities will look to DC as a model, and follow suit.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2016/07/25/mapping-lead-service-lines-dc-water-offers-a-model-for-utilities-across-the-nation/#more-5453
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Tainted Water Near Colorado Bases Hints at Wider Safety Concerns
Jul 25, 2016 | New York Times (In E&E Greenwire)
By Julie Turkewitz
Volk Sanders burst into this world on June 7, a six-pound fuzz-headed ball of joy and his mother’s first child.
Days later, Volk’s mother learned that the well water she had consumed for years had been laced with chemicals that the Environmental Protection Agency associates with low birth weight, cancers, thyroid disease and more.
The aquifer that courses beneath this community in the shadow of five military installations showed traces of perfluorinated chemicals at up to 20 times the levels viewed as safe, environmental authorities said. A sudsy foam used for fighting fires on military bases was probably responsible, according to the Air Force, with the contamination perhaps decades old.
“I’m very angry,” Volk’s mother, Carmen Soto, 20, said at a packed community meeting on July 7. Volk had struggled to gain weight, she said, and she wondered if that was related to the contamination. “They’ve known about this for how long, and they’re just telling us? I drank water throughout my pregnancy. What is that going to do?”
Fountain — named for a creek that once gave life to this southern Colorado town — is now part of a growing list of American communities dealing with elevated levels of perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, in their drinking water. In the last few months, PFC poisoning has upended municipalities around the country, including Hoosick Falls, N.Y., home to a plastics factory, and North Bennington, Vt., once home to a chemical plant.
Unlike in many of the other places, the contamination in Fountain and in two nearby communities, Widefield and Security, is not believed to be related to manufacturing. Rather, the authorities suspect that it was caused by Aqueous Film Forming Foam, a firefighting substance used on military bases nationwide.
Defense Department officials initially identified about 700 sites of possible contamination, but that number has surged to at least 2,000, most of them on Air Force bases, said Mark A. Correll, a deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety and infrastructure at the Air Force.
All of the nine bases that the Air Force has examined so far had higher-than-recommended levels of PFCs in the local drinking water. Four bases identified by the Navy were also found to have contaminated water. In some places, the contamination affects one household. In others, it affects thousands of people.
The bases are in Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“It’s quite possible it will touch every state,” said Jennifer Field, a professor at Oregon State University and an expert on the chemistry of Aqueous Film Forming Foam. “Every place has a military base, a commercial airport, an oil refinery, a fuel tank farm.”
The Air Force has spent $137 million to assess the scope of the problem, and is spending several million more to treat water systems and provide alternate drinking-water sources. It does not have an estimate of how much cleanup will ultimately cost, though one official said it would “likely be quite large.”
“This has focus at the absolute highest level of the Air Force,” Mr. Correll said. “We take it seriously. We’re addressing it aggressively. The Air Force will take responsibility for its actions.”
The firefighting agent in question is a white substance often shot from a hose and used to extinguish fuel fires since about 1970. Aqueous Film Forming Foam was created by 3M at the behest of the Navy, which needed a way to stamp out fires on ships.
The foam was later adopted by airports, oil fields and municipal fire departments, becoming an integral part of the nation’s firefighting kit. It was often sprayed directly onto the ground during repeated training sessions on military bases.
It has probably saved hundreds of lives, including those of pilots in plane crashes.
The foam is laden with perfluorinated chemicals, an unregulated class of man-made chemicals that travel quickly in water and last for years in bodies and environments.
In the face of growing evidence of adverse health effects, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to regulate the chemicals, which manufacturers have used for decades in everyday products like clothing, mattresses and food packaging. In May, the agency released a new health advisory on two of the best-knownperfluorinated chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — suggesting that communities keep their water below 70 parts per trillion for the two combined.
Some who have followed the issue say the government has been too slow to act. “There are those who have argued it just became too big to regulate,” said Rob Bilott, an Ohio lawyer who has urged the E.P.A. to monitor the chemicals since 2001. “It just became such a massive potential issue because of how widespread these chemicals were.”
A spokeswoman for the federal agency, Monica Lee, said its response had evolved “as our understanding of how these chemicals affect human health has improved.”
In Colorado, Fountain, Widefield and Security were among 63 public water systems identified in May by the E.P.A. as having PFC-contaminated water. The communities, which have a combined population of about 60,000, sit in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, and above an aquifer just south of Peterson Air Force Base. The military plays such a large role here that many refer to the base like an old friend, simply “Pete A.F.B.”
Fountain tested at twice the E.P.A.’s latest recommended level. Widefield tested at more than three times the guideline. And Security showed levels nearly 20 times the guideline.
The communities’ anger was evident on July 7, when an estimated 800 people crammed into two halls at Mesa Ridge High School to listen to a doctor, E.P.A. and Air Force officials, and others discuss the problem and their follow-up. PFCs cannot be boiled out of the water, they explained, and only certain filters remove them. The Air Force plans to spend $4.3 million to treat drinking water in the area.
“This is all I think about,” said Tanya Marcus, 38, who raised four children on Widefield’s water system. “I’m not so worried about myself. I’m worried about my kids and everybody else’s kids.”
Particularly worrisome for some was a state health report that compared cancer rates in contaminated areas with those in the rest of El Paso County. Kidney cancers were about 17 percent higher than expected, bladder cancers about 34 percent higher and lung cancers 66 percent.
A state health department doctor, Mike Van Dyke, pointed out that research had associated only one of those cancers — kidney — to PFC contamination, and that high levels of smoking and obesity in the area could explain the elevated numbers. “We don’t think this is a PFC effect,” he said, “but we can’t be sure.”
Utilities directors in the region have shut off many of the poisoned wells, and are pumping in water from elsewhere in the state, an expensive and temporary fix. Local officials have said some people’s water is now safe, while others’ is not. They urged caution, particularly for pregnant and breast-feeding women, but that has sown greater confusion. (The state health department has created a map to help people identify areas of risk.)
Ms. Soto, sitting in the bedroom she shares with the baby, Volk, said that she had switched to bottled water, but that she was breast-feeding and worried she was passing her exposure to PFCs to her son. Baby formula is not really an option, she said, as she works only part time at a Burger King that pays $8.75 an hour.
On recent Fridays, minivans and pickup trucks filled the sprawling parking lot of the St. Dominic Church, where a food bank passed out bottled water using money from a disaster fund.
On the morning after the community meeting, the first car showed up just after 5 a.m., hours before the handout began, its occupants anxious that the water would run out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/us/tainted-water-near-colorado-bases-hints-at-wider-safety-concerns.html
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BLM Defends Plans for Calif. Oil and Gas Drilling
Jul 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
The Obama administration is again defending its plans for oil and gas development on public lands in California.
Lawyers for the Bureau of Land Management late last week urged the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to rule for the government in a lawsuit from environmentalists challenging the agency's resource management plan (RMP) for developing 1 million acres across the Central Valley, San Joaquin Valley, southern Sierra Nevada and Central Coast.
In the latest round of a legal battle that began last summer, BLM says the Center for Biological Diversity and Los Padres ForestWatch have no grounds to challenge the agency's RMP because no new oil and gas leasing in the affected area has actually happened yet and the environmental groups are not facing a "concrete injury" -- one of the legal bars for filing suit.
"Plaintiffs' allegations in this case ignore the three-stage nature of oil and gas development on federal lands," the agency told the court. BLM lawyers explained that RMPs are followed by leasing and then permitting, with additional environmental analysis along the way.
"Here, Plaintiffs will have multiple opportunities to 'appeal' before any oil and gas development occurs under the Bakersfield RMP," the lawyers said in a legal brief. "They can participate in the [National Environmental Policy Act] process for any leasing decision, protest BLM's decision to lease a particular parcel, participate in the NEPA process for any well permit, and appeal through the administrative process any decision to issue a permit."
While BLM says only 25 percent of new wells in the area are expected to be fracked, the groups still allege that the agency should have considered unique environmental impacts of fracking while crafting the new RMP. The plan relies on a 2014 environmental study that does not specifically consider fracking's impacts.
The environmentalists hope the court takes its cues from the neighboring U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which in 2014 found that BLM had not adequately considered the effects of fracking in its environmental analysis for two oil and gas leases in Monterey County.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/07/26/stories/1060040761
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New White House Metric Will Guide Cyberattack Response
Jul 26, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Damian Paletta
The White House on Tuesday announced a new way of gauging the severity of cyberattacks and responding to them, part of a broad effort to improve the sometimes erratic coordination among federal agencies that react to large-scale computer breaches.
The new metric will assign a rating of 0 through 5, with 5 being the most severe, for certain cyber incidents aimed at companies or the federal government. These changes are part of a new presidential directive issued by the White House following complaints that the government’s response to cyberattacks has at times been ad hoc and inconsistent.
“Each level describes the incident’s potential to affect public health or safety, national security, economic security, foreign relations, civil liberties, or public confidence,” the White House said in a statement.
An incident that ranks at a level 3 or above in this system is considered “significant” and will trigger certain coordination mechanisms, meaning senior officers from different agencies will be in close contact. A “Level 5” event is one that “poses an imminent threat to the provision of wide-scale critical infrastructure services, national government stability, or to the lives of U.S. persons,” such as an extensive failure of the power grid.
A “Level 0” event is one considered “unsubstantiated or inconsequential.”
The new system directs agencies to notify each other quickly after they learn of a breach, to expedite any federal response. It aims to improve coordination between federal agencies, something that became an issue during past cyberattacks when multiple federal agencies have been involved in responding to particular incidents.
The new presidential policy directive, or PPD, will create a “unified coordination group” to respond to large-scale cyber incidents. Its task will be to “coordinate the development, prioritization, and execution of cyber response efforts,” among other things.
The PPD has been in the works for months, but it comes at a time of acute focus on the damage caused by cyberattacks.
Hackers last year broke into the Democratic National Committee’s network, and another group broke in several months ago, while WikiLeaks began releasing some internal emails several days ago—humiliating top DNC officials and leading to an uproar at the party’s convention in Philadelphia.
Lawmakers and U.S. officials have said the government needs to clarify its procedures following inconsistent responses to large-scale breaches at several major American companies, such as Target Corp.; the State Department, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and even parts of the Pentagon.
Hackers try to steal information for commercial reasons, but also as a form of espionage, and the U.S. response to these incidents can vary depending on the hackers’ goals and methods.
The PPD doesn't specify how the military should respond to cyberattacks or whether the government will set up any new deterrents for perpetrating a major breach. Policy makers have spent months debating how to design such a deterrent system, though it is unclear when they might agree on one or make it public.
Crafting a reliable response to cyberattacks has been complex because so many agencies play a role in designing safeguards and reacting to breaches.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation probes major hacks. The Department of Homeland Security protects civilian agencies and serves as a conduit between the government and business community.
The National Security Agency has forensic tools that can determine who is behind certain breaches. The Commerce Department plays a role in monitoring the development and sale of cyberweapons. U.S. Cyber Command, a branch of the military, has teams focused on offensive and defensive cyber tools. And various other agencies work with companies from a range of sectors, including banking and energy, to bolster their defenses.
Congress recently passed legislation to improve the government’s sharing of information on cyberthreats with private companies, but the law is voluntary and its success may depend on how extensively companies cooperate with federal agencies.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-white-house-metric-will-guide-cyberattack-response-1469551603
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Crude Slump, Pipeline Expansion Mark End of U.S. Oil-Train Boom
Jul 25, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Alison Sider and Laura Stevens
The oil-train boom is waning almost as quickly as it began.
Rail became a major way to move crude after companies began unlocking new bounties of oil from shale formations, with volumes rising from almost nothing in 2009 to more than one million barrels a day by 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
But those numbers began falling after oil prices started tumbling two years ago, and aren’t projected to recover anytime soon. In April, just 430,000 barrels of oil rode the rails each day, according to the latest federal figures.
Some of the decline came from a drop in U.S. oil production, but oil and rail executives say the drop-off may be permanent. “At least some portion, and it could be a pretty large portion,” of the rail business won’t return, said Union Pacific Corp. Chief Executive Lance Fritz.
More pipelines have begun reaching North Dakota and other shale regions, giving producers a cheaper way to move their oil to market.
Also, a string of fiery crude-freight-train derailments—including one in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people in 2013—have prompted a host of new and expensive regulations, and fueled opposition that has helped delay major rail projects on the West Coast, where a dearth of pipelines makes rail useful. Regulators have mandated new safer tank cars, and older tank cars are being phased out—adding to future costs for transporting oil.
The changes are evident in North Dakota, once the epicenter of the crude-by-rail trend. Oil output from the state’s Bakken Shale formation has fallen by 180,000 barrels a day from its 2014 peak. Meanwhile, pipeline takeaway capacity has more than doubled since 2010.
EOG Resources Inc., one of the first oil companies to see the potential for trains to relieve pipelines, opened its first rail loading terminal in Stanley, N.D., in 2009. But that terminal hasn’t loaded a train in more than a year, according to Genscape, a data provider that tracks activity at U.S. rail terminals.
“New pipeline infrastructure has been put in place to move significant volumes of oil to market,” an EOG spokeswoman said.
Enough pipeline capacity is coming online to replace all of the current volume BNSF Railway Co. is shipping out of North Dakota, said David Garin, the railroad’s group vice president of industrial products.
BNSF used to transport as many as 12 trains daily filled with crude primarily from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, carrying about 70% of all rail traffic out of the area. Now it is down to about five a day.
“Will this business be back to 12 trains a day? Probably not,” said Mr. Garin. “Will it be zero? Probably not.”
Even at its height in 2014, crude-by-rail accounted for less than 2% of total rail volumes, according to Association of American Railroads data. But its decline threatens what was once viewed as a sizable driver of growth for the railroad industry, one that many rail companies, along with oil and gas producers, made investments to support.
Between 2010 and 2015, 89 terminals were built or expanded in the U.S. and Canada to load crude on trains, and nearly as many to offload it, according to consulting firm RBN Energy LLC.
The oil pouring out of U.S. fields was so much cheaper—more than $20 a barrel below international benchmark prices at times—that refineries were eager to pay higher rail shipping costs in exchange for some of it.
New pipelines have helped shrink that price difference by allowing the landlocked oil to reach market. And the U.S. has lifted a ban on crude exports, which allows American crude to be sent abroad freely and is expected to help keep U.S. and international crude prices more closely aligned.
Now oil trains are competing against tanker ships carrying foreign crude. Analysts say rail deliveries are likely to fall even further once shipping contracts signed during the boom expire in the coming months.
There could soon be more than enough space to carry away all Bakken oil through pipelines now in the works. Phillips 66 is partnering with pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners LP to develop a pair of pipelines that will bring North Dakota crude to Illinois and then down to Texas.
The endeavor, which will cost close to $5 billion, is expected to take a major bite out of oil train traffic, even though the pipelines will ultimately bring oil to the Midwest and the Gulf of Mexico, rather than to the East and West coasts, where trains have primarily taken it.
Phillips 66 said earlier this year it may still be cheaper to take that oil and put it on a barge for delivery by sea to the coasts than to send it directly there by train.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/crude-slump-pipeline-expansion-mark-end-of-u-s-oil-train-boom-1469484016?cx_navSource=cx_picks&cx_tag=poptarget&cx_artPos=2#cxrecs_s
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POLITICO Pro New Jersey: Oil Trains Emerge As An Issue in Campaign to Unseat Garrettk
Jul 26, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By David Giambusso
Oil trains have emerged as an issue in the increasingly heated race for New Jersey's 5th Congressional District.
Republican Rep. Scott Garrett is being assailed by his Democratic opponent, Josh Gottheimer, and by environmental groups for meeting with officials from the Federal Railroad Administration over safety measures governing trains carrying crude oil. Critics described the meeting as "closed door," but Garrett's campaign denied the charge, noting that it was open to members of the media.
Since the advent of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, oil companies increasingly have come to rely on trains to transport crude oil east from the Bakken shale in North Dakota, leading to derailments and disastrous fires. Dozens of oil trains pass through populated areas in Bergen County and elsewhere each week as they make their way to refineries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Garrett was scheduled to meet with FRA officials and local elected offcials on Monday afternoon, presumably to discuss new safety measures for the trains, but the public has been excluded from the meeting, drawing protests from environmental groups and an attack from Gottheimer.
"Garrett was the only member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, in the entire New Jersey delegation to vote against safety measures to prevent and respond to hazardous oil spills," Gottheimer said in a statement. "Instead of acting, Garrett spent the last ten months waiting for the federal government to take a train to New Jersey and hold a meeting, that’s not even open to the public.”
"Josh Gottheimer’s lack of seriousness is astounding," the Garrett campaign said in a statement. "Congressman Scott Garrett has a stellar record on train safety. He introduced an amendment to H.R. 2577, the Fiscal Year 2016 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Act, that would have added nearly $17 million to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Safety and Operations Account to protect the safety of passenger and freight railroads operating in our communities."
The New Jersey Sierra Club is helping organize a protest outside the FRA meeting, which was scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. on Monday at the Bergenfield Municipal Building. Other groups, including the Coalition to Ban Unsafe Oil Trains, 350NJ, Environment New Jersey and the Coalition Against the Pilgrim Pipeline are expected to join.
"He is having a closed-door meeting because he doesn’t want the public know he has failed to take action," said NJ Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel in a statement. "That is why we are showing up so the public can have a voice in something that threatens their lives and communities."
The Garrett campaign pointed out that members of the media and elected officials were invited to attend, although only elected officials were permitted to ask questions.
The meeting and protest comes as Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg is pushing legislation in Trenton that would require train operators to provide safety information to the state. Weinberg faced resistance from some during the last legislative session but is pushing the bill again amid renewed support.
That legislation can be read here: http://bit.ly/28PWNMj
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/story/2016/07/oil-trains-emerge-in-fifth-district-race-125215
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Climate Front and Center in Stark Contrast to GOP Confab
Jul 26, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Evan Lehmann
Convincing skeptical Republicans about climate change could be less important for building momentum around tackling emissions than reaching everyday Americans who are affected by rising temperatures, according to several people who spoke about the future of the issue.
The event underscores the attention being paid to climate change at the outset of the Democratic National Convention, where clean energy and the environment are on display like the bronze monuments in this historic city. Prime-time speakers throughout the week are expected to raise it as a key issue, creating a distinct contrast to the convention overseen by Republican nominee Donald Trump last week.
Outside the Wells Fargo Center, event after event features climate change. They range from making the economic case for cutting emissions to advancing ideas that poor people stand to suffer more from the effects of higher temperatures because, for example, they tend to live in areas that are more prone to flooding.
They might also play an important role in getting Congress to act. Several speakers said at an event yesterday that African-Americans and other minorities need to be engaged more by leaders in the climate movement, which some said is conspicuously white.
Julianne Malveaux of Economic Education suggested that white advocates might be less successful at reaching African-Americans than minority climate groups. She and others indicated that the movement is lacking black and Latino communicators. If minority millennials are engaged about the health effects of power plants on their communities, and of the economic benefits of, say, energy efficiency, those messages will "trickle up" to their parents and employers, Malveaux said.
Then, in 10 years, when millennials are parents, they'll teach their children about climate change, she said.
The event hosted by Bloomberg Government, the Environmental Defense Fund and Defend Our Future featured about 25 climate advocates having a lunch discussion. Guests included Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sierra Club President Michael Brune and League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski.
"Eight years ago, we would talk about climate change solely as a problem to solve," said Brune, who described a new economic focus on jobs. "If you care about clean energy ... there's a lot of reason for optimism.
"'Use this election' for a carbon tax
Advocates also applauded the emergence of the Clean Power Plan, the regulatory program enacted by President Obama through executive action. But many also said that legislative action is still needed to meet longer-term goals to reduce emissions.
Van Hollen said grass-roots support for a carbon price needs to grow. He sees this presidential election as a tool to help that happen.
"My view is keep the pressure up, build the momentum [and] use this election to do it," he said, noting that congressional action is unlikely anytime soon, but that Republicans might be open to addressing emissions through "user fees" or cuts to the corporate tax rate. "If we can get to that conversation, then I think we're in a good place."
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said many of the solutions are rooted in local changes, like enhancing transportation systems in cities and retrofitting buildings to save electricity. He also said it's important to modernize electricity regulations and delivery systems so cities can produce power "right where it's needed."
But many of the solutions require federal funding, said Christine Knapp, director of Philadelphia's sustainability office. She noted that earlier ambitions to transform neighborhood rooftops with sun-catching solar panels haven't happened. That's true with transportation and other big infrastructure projects, too, she said.
"The really transformative stuff is going to be difficult to see without action at the higher level," Knapp said.
Bernie backers still angry but turning to Clinton
As the speakers were talking about the party's climate direction over salad and a berry dessert, some streets in downtown Philadelphia were marching with sweaty protesters who are angry at the rise of Hillary Clinton. The announced resignation on Sunday of Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the DNC, after revelations that she favored Clinton over Sanders in the primary contest, failed to satisfy the protesters.
A group of 100 or so Sanders supporters circled City Hall yesterday afternoon, sometimes chanting, "Hell no, DNC, we won't vote for Hillary." One protester carried a sign reading, "Bern the Hill."
Many of the 1,900 delegates supporting Sanders are also livid at the news that establishment party figures were cheering in private emails for Sanders' failure during the primaries.
"They're really messing up," said Matthew Killen, 32, a Florida delegate who booed Wasserman Schultz yesterday morning when she addressed her home-state delegates. "We all yelled at her, 'You gotta be crazy for showing your face here.'"
Killen said Clinton's plans to address climate change through renewable energy is weaker than the carbon tax called for by Sanders. Still, he said he's leaning toward voting for Clinton as both a delegate and a citizen. She's better than Trump, who has described climate change as a hoax, he said.
"I would vote for her based on clean energy alone," Killen said.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/07/26/stories/1060040768
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Clinton Open to ‘Conversation’ on Carbon Tax
Jul 26, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Hillary Clinton is open to working with lawmakers on a tax on carbon dioxide emissions if Congress wants it, her energy adviser said.
Despite repeated pressure from Bernie Sanders and a carbon tax endorsement in the party’s platform, Clinton has not yet committed to pursuing a tax.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee still isn’t rushing to endorse the idea. Trevor Houser, Clinton’s energy adviser, said that with Republicans controlling Congress, it’s better to focus on executive actions, like her pledge to build on President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
“Democrats believe that climate change is too important to wait for climate deniers in Congress to start listening to science,” Houser said Tuesday at a Washington Post event coinciding with the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“And while it’s always important to remain open to a conversation about how to address this issue with Congress, we need a plan that we can implement day one, because it’s too important to wait, and we need to focus on those things as well.”
Houser went on to say that if Congress wants to take action on carbon tax, Clinton would listen.
“I’m sure that if Congress wants to have a conversation about addressing climate change, Secretary Clinton would be delighted to have that conversation,” he said.
It’s doubtful that Congress would do that during Clinton’s presidency. The House voted in June to condemn a carbon tax as “detrimental to American families and businesses” — with all Republicans agreeing — and Republicans are heavily favored to retain the House majority in this year’s election.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/289255-clinton-open-to-conversation-on-carbon-tax-adviser-says
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Carbon Pricing: A Practical Pro-Growth Solution to Climate Change
Jul 25, 2016 | Real Clear Energy
By Hugh Welsh
We can expect an abundance of rhetoric at the Democratic National Convention this week about the threat of climate change, but probably not so much about actions. There is a potentially transformational policy change missing from the conversation: a price on carbon. Our next President – regardless of political party – should work with Congress to enact carbon pricing. It will boost America’s global competitiveness, create high paying jobs, foster innovation, encourage foreign investment in U.S. companies and fund the infrastructure investment needed to address the impacts of climate change.
Not surprisingly, leading scientists support carbon pricing, a system that would impose a fee on companies that produce carbon dioxide from fossil fuels to more accurately reflect their true costs to society – ranging from air pollution in cities, to the extreme weather events increasingly experienced by all Americans. What might be a surprise is that many top economists also support carbon pricing, and for the past twenty years have agreed that a price on carbon is the most efficient and least costly way to reduce carbon emissions. In fact, carbon pricing was supported by conservative think tanks like the R Street Institute long before it became associated with progressive ideas with respect to climate change.
And we have a successful model to work from: does anyone remember acid rain? Didn’t think so, and that’s because the same kind of pricing mechanisms forces industries to change their fossil fuel burning to lower the amount of sulfur released into the atmosphere, saving thousands of lakes and rivers in the Midwest.
There is legislation pending in Congress that would transform our approach to carbon emissions, and it is ready for a vote. Under the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act, sponsored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, carbon would be taxed at $45 per ton and the funds raised would be used to reduce corporate taxes, offset payroll taxes, provide Social Security and veteran’s payouts and allow for state-directed funding to other citizens.
While our next President should prioritize carbon pricing policy, there is plenty that we in the private sector can do today to reduce our companies’ carbon emissions and “Future Proof” our enterprises. We call this “future-proofing” at DSM because we know the businesses that take these steps now are the ones that will thrive in future years as sustainability becomes required, not voluntary.
At DSM, sustainability is not a PR term, but a strategic growth driver. We use a sustainability lens to define what businesses we should acquire or divest; where we should direct research and development funds; and what new practices and technologies we can adopt to reduce our own emissions, energy usage and costs. These discussions occur not just among “C-Suite” executives, but throughout the global enterprise down to the shop floor. We also use a €50 per ton carbon price on ourselves when reviewing investment and large capital project decisions. Again, this is not just about being responsible global citizens – it is about “future-proofing” our business.
Unlike what we’ll likely hear this week at the Democratic National Convention, this is not just rhetoric in DSM – it’s tied directly to compensation. All of DSM’s nearly 400 executives’ annual bonuses and stock options have up to 50 percent of this variable pay tied to sustainability metrics such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our operations, to developing new products with lower carbon footprints than existing products.
If corporations are sincere about sustainability, they should embrace a price on carbon and link compensation for the senior executives directly to meeting goals such as cutting carbon emissions, and lowering water and energy use. Sustainability rhetoric not tied to remuneration quickly falls down the list of executives’ priorities, even with the best of intentions, becoming a “nice to do” rather than a “need to do.” However, in this volatile global economy, these practices are exactly what adaptive companies adopt to create sustainable competitive advantage, “Future Proofing” the organization.
Hugh Welsh is President of DSM North America
http://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2016/07/25/carbon_pricing_a_practical_pro-growth_solution_to_climate_change__109206.html
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11th Circuit Weighs Stay of CWA Rule Suit Pending 6th Circuit Decision
Jul 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit are grappling with whether federal district or appellate courts have authority to hear suits over EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule, and it is unclear whether they will send a suit over the rule to district court or halt it pending the outcome of a 6th Circuit CWA rule suit.
During recent oral argument in the 11th Circuit case, State of Georgia, et al. v. Regina McCarthy, et al., a panel of three judges hearing the case questioned attorneys for both sides on whether they would accept an order holding the case in abeyance rather than a quick ruling on the proper venue for suits over the CWA rule.
But they also raised concerns that by staying the 11th Circuit case until the 6th Circuit rules in the consolidated challenges to the rule that it is hearing, they could limit chances for Supreme Court review on the lingering, unresolved question of whether federal district or appellate courts have authority to hear suits over the rule.
“We don't know how we're going to rule because I don't know. . . . [I] sure don't know how we're going to rule on the merits of the 'jurisdictional' issue. Given all that, would you rather roll the dice, or would you rather us to hold this appeal in abeyance and stay the proceedings in the district court?” District Judge Danny C. Reeves of Kentucky, sitting by designation on the 11th Circuit, asked Georgia Solicitor General Britt C. Grant. The court heard oral argument July 8 and Inside EPA received an audio recording of argument July 25.
Grant -- arguing on behalf of Georgia and 10 other Southern states that oppose the CWA rule and want a district court case over it to proceed -- responded, “We've asked for this court to make a decision. I'll not back up on that request now. Certainly, there are worse things this court could do than hold this case in abeyance or stay it.”
In response to a similar question from Reeves on whether the 11th Circuit should stay the case, Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney Robert J. Lundman said a stay is “clearly a reasonable result here,” but the government will continue to urge the 11th Circuit to dismiss the states' suit entirely.
Reeves noted that if the 6th Circuit overturns the CWA rules as the states are asking it to, their 11th Circuit case would be moot as they would already have achieved their ultimate goal. “Of course it could be mooted. . . . Why shouldn't we hold it and see what comes out?” Reeves said.
Uncertainty over the correct venue for suits over the regulation -- also known as the Waters of the United States rule by some stakeholders -- stems from the fact that the CWA is not specific on which courts should hear challenges to a regulation that defines the scope of the water law.
Ongoing Litigation
In the 11th Circuit case, the 11 Southern states are hoping the court will overturn a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia's Brunswick Division's decision that circuit courts are the proper venue for challenges to the CWA rule, which EPA jointly crafted with the Army Corps of Engineers. Such a ruling would send their suit over the rule back to the lower court to proceed in parallel with the 6th Circuit case.
DOJ, on the agencies' behalf, has argued that the proper venue for challenges to the rule is the 6th Circuit, which issued a 2-1 decision Feb. 22 giving it authority to hear suits over the rule. The court also stayed implementation of the rule nationwide until it or the Supreme Court issues a final ruling in that case, in re: Murray Energy v. EPA.
Critics of the ruling in the 6th Circuit case have said the majority decision to take the case was based in part on what they see as a flawed precedent set by a prior 6th Circuit opinion from 2006 in National Cotton Council v. EPA. They say the 6th Circuit decision is not binding outside that court, and therefore the 11th Circuit has the power to remand the State of Georgia case back to the district court to proceed.
At argument in State of Georgia, Chief Circuit Judge Edward Earl Carnes worried that if the panel stays the case pending a 6th Circuit decision, and ultimately dismisses it if the 6th Circuit sides with the states and other EPA critics, that chain of events could prevent Supreme Court review of the venue question.
He said there would be no split among the courts for the justices to resolve, and the challengers would be unlikely to ask for their victory to be overturned because it came from the wrong court.
“Does that concern you at all, that this issue is essentially never going to be reviewed by the Supreme Court?” he asked DOJ's Lundman.
In response, Lundman answered that the high court could take up the issue anyway as part of its likely review of the rule, with or without a split.
Circuit Judge Jill Pryor seemed to agree with that comment, saying “Given that it's been so heavily litigated, even if no party raises [venue], the Supreme Court very well may reach it -- and very well may provide some clarity."
'Absurd Result'
Carnes also questioned whether it would produce an “absurd result” to allow other courts to decide for themselves whether to follow the 6th Circuit's ruling on venue, rather than automatically deferring to its decision -- especially since under the CWA provisions governing appellate challenges to water rules, the court's decision on the merits of the case would be authoritative.
In particular, he cited E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company et al., v. Train, et al., the 1977 case where the high court held that regulations that set conditions for granting or denying permits are subject to appellate review, even though the law only specifies circuit court challenge for the permit actions themselves.
“The Supreme Court said it would be 'truly perverse' to have a uniform procedure and uniform result for individual permit decisions but not a uniform result in decision for the regulations that affect [them] -- that's closely analagous to the situation we have here,” Carnes said.
However, Grant countered that unlike the permit regulation at issue in E. I. du Pont, the CWA rule sets no requirements on anyone. “There is no way to violate the Waters of the United States rule,” she said.
But Carnes continued, asking, “What sense does it make to say that the petition in the court of appeals, the transferee court decision that it has jurisdiction, it controls nationwide. But, other courts are free to determine that the district courts have jurisdiction, which is directly contrary to the jurisdictional determination of the 6th Circuit that applies nationwide. That doesn't make any sense at all.”
Grant described the seeming contradiction as a “procedural wrinkle.” But Carnes replied that “It's not a wrinkle. It's a major problem.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/11th-circuit-weighs-stay-cwa-rule-suit-pending-6th-circuit-decision
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