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ACC AM 8/10/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Industry Stock Outlook - Aug 2016
Aug 9, 2016 | Zacks (In Nasdaq)
By Zacks Equity Research
The chemical industry is still in gradual recovery mode from the trough of the Great Recession. Despite a spate of headwinds, the highly cyclical industry fared reasonably well in the first half of the year, helped by continued strength across automotive and housing markets -- two major end-use markets for chemicals. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Urged to Flag ‘Low-Risk' Uses in Chemical Rule
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency should help the marketplace by identifying chemical uses that pose little or no risks as well as those that do, industry representatives said Aug. 9. -
Group Petitions California to Regulate BPA in Foods, Drinks
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
An Oakland-based group wants California to identify bisphenol A resins used to line food and beverage containers as a priority product under the state's Safer Consumer Products program. -
New Studies Trace PFC Pollution From Sources To The Next Generation
Aug 9, 2016 | Environmental Working Group
By David Andrews
Fluorine-based chemicals that can cause cancer, developmental toxicity and numerous other detrimental health effects have contaminated the drinking water of millions of Americans, and the blood of people and animals worldwide. But how did these chemicals get there – and what happens when they’re passed on to future generations? -
Anti-Fracking Measures Set To Move To Colorado Ballot
Aug 9, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Petitioners in Colorado have collected the signatures necessary to put two anti-hydraulic fracturing measures on the state’s ballot in November. -
Colorado Oil, Gas Ballot Proposals Submitted For Verification by State
Aug 9, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Two oil/natural gas ballot measures in Colorado that are strongly opposed by the industry were submitted to state officials for signature verification on Monday, the state imposed deadline for submittal. -
California Governor Puts Push For West Grid, Less Gas-Fired Generation on Hold
Aug 9, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
California Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers on Monday put on hold the state grid operator's pursuit of a western regional power grid that gradually lessens dependence on natural gas-fired generation among other byproducts called for under a state law passed last year (SB 350). Concerns about the state's ongoing aggressive climate change programs prompted the action. -
Refiners' Bid To Shift RFS Compliance Obligation Highlights Industry Split
Aug 9, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is criticizing the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers' (AFPM) petition asking EPA to shift a compliance obligation under the agency's renewable fuel standard (RFS) from refiners to fuel blenders, highlighting a split in the refining industry about the best way to reform the program. -
A New Trade Route for Natural Gas Opens in Panama
Aug 10, 2016 | Bloomberg Markets
By Alex Nussbaum and Naureen Malik
When the Panama Canal’s expanded locks slid open in late June, perhaps no one was happier than executives in the U.S. shale industry. With the goal of making the U.S. a global powerhouse for natural gas exports, these frackers have their sights on Asia. Now they have a more direct route that could significantly benefit their bottom line. -
Energy Emissions Projected at Lowest Level Since 1992
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
Carbon dioxide emissions from energy production are expected to decline to their lowest level since 1992 this year as cheap natural gas continues to displace coal as the country's main source of power generation, the Energy Department said in a report Aug. 9. -
EPA Takes More Heat from Officials Over Risk Management Rule
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
Security complaints from states have not been addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency as it crafts a proposed rule aimed at increasing safety regulations at high-risk chemical sites, 11 Republican attorneys general say in a letter. -
PG&E Guilty of Safety Violations Stemming From Fatal Blast
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joel Rosenblatt
PG&E Corp. was found guilty of safety violations six years after one of its natural gas pipelines blew up and killed eight people in California (U.S. v. Pac. Gas & Elec. Co., N.D. Cal., No. 14-cr-00175, 8/9/16). -
EPA Rejects Requests To Revise Oil & Gas Industry Air Toxics Regulation
Aug 9, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
EPA has rejected requests from a host of oil and gas industry groups and environmentalists to overhaul its 2012 air toxics rule for the sector, saying that while it has previously granted reconsideration of limited parts of the final rule, the most recent petitions fail to meet the bar for the agency to agree to revise the contested provisions. -
Delaware to EPA: West Virginia Fouling Our Air
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
Delaware filed a Clean Air Act petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against the Harrison Power Station in Haywood, W.Va., the second time in as many months the state has petitioned federal authorities over air pollution from an out-of-state power plant, the state announced Aug. 9. -
Water of Millions Tainted With Possible Carcinogens: Study
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The drinking water of at least 6 million people is tainted with levels of potentially carcinogenic substances that exceed Environmental Protection Agency recommendations, according to a Harvard University study released Aug. 9.
Industry and Association News
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(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Industry Stock Outlook - Aug 2016
Aug 9, 2016 | Zacks (In Nasdaq)
By Zacks Equity Research
The chemical industry is still in gradual recovery mode from the trough of the Great Recession. Despite a spate of headwinds, the highly cyclical industry fared reasonably well in the first half of the year, helped by continued strength across automotive and housing markets -- two major end-use markets for chemicals.
Chemical companies are increasingly looking for cost synergy opportunities and enhanced operational scale through consolidations amid nagging macroeconomic challenges. These companies also remain actively focused on increasing their reach in high-growth markets in a bid to cut their exposure to businesses that are struggling with depressed demand. Strategic measures including cost management and productivity improvement also remain the prime focus of these companies to stay afloat in a still-difficult global economic backdrop.
Some industry-specific challenges, the Eurozone's feeble recovery and concerns over China's future growth remain sources of near-term uncertainties for the chemical industry. Moreover, chemical makers are also feeling the bite of weak demand in the energy markets amid a still depressed oil price environment. A strong dollar is also hurting U.S. chemical exports, reducing their attractiveness in overseas markets.
Lingering weakness in China -- a key market for chemicals -- is expected to remain a major drag on the chemical industry in the short haul. A persistent credit crunch, overcapacity and weak infrastructure and manufacturing investment are hurting the world's second-largest economy.
In addition, the outlook for the fertilizer and agricultural chemicals space remains cloudy due to sluggish economic conditions in certain developing markets, particularly Brazil.
Notwithstanding these challenges, the chemical industry is expected to continue to recuperate through the balance of 2016, supported by continued strength in the light vehicles market, positive trends in the construction space and significant shale-linked capital investment.
Prospects Look Healthy in the U.S., but EU Stuck in a Rut
The U.S. chemical industry is poised for growth this year and the next despite several challenges including a strong dollar and a difficult oil price environment. According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry trade group, U.S. chemical production will rise 1.6% in 2016 and 3.7% in 2017. Barring production of the pharmaceuticals segment, output is expected to go up 2.7% this year and 4.1% in 2017.
In particular, the trade group expects basic chemicals production to expand 3.1% in 2016 and 4.9% in 2017. Chemical production is also expected to increase across all regions of the country this year.
The ACC envisions the U.S. chemical industry to continue to gather momentum over the next several years on the heels of new capital investments, capacity additions and feedstock cost advantage, and even transcend the nation's overall economic growth in the long term.
The shale gas bounty and ample 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 domestic 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.
The shale revolution has made the U.S. an attractive investment hotspot. Chemical makers including Dow Chemical (DOW), LyondellBasell Industries (LYB), BASF (BASFY), Eastman Chemical (EMN), Celanese (CE) and Westlake Chemical (WLK) are investing heavily on shale gas-linked projects to take advantage of abundant natural gas supplies which is expected to boost capacity and export over the next several years. The ACC expects domestic chemical industry capital spending to increase 10.4% in 2016 and 7.8% in 2017.
Outlook for the European chemical industry, on the other hand, looks tepid given sustained sluggishness in the region. The Eurozone economy remains stuck in an insipid recovery, manifested by a paltry growth of 0.3% in the second quarter of 2016 (according to preliminary estimates published by Eurostat). The region's economic growth, in the short run, is likely to be stymied by Brexit-induced political and economic uncertainties.
Chemical makers in the European Union remain affected by lower prices, relatively higher energy and feedstock costs and a challenging regulatory landscape. According to the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), chemical output in the European Union contracted 0.7% year over year in the first four months of 2016 with chemical prices falling 3.8% for the period. Chemical production in the region rose just 0.6% last year.
CEFIC expects a modest growth of roughly 1% in chemical output in both 2016 and 2017. Healthy domestic demand coupled with tailwinds from a strong construction end-use market are expected to be offset by sluggish demand for European chemical exports due to a challenging global environment.
Zacks Industry Rank
Within the Zacks Industry classification, the chemical industry falls under the broader Basic Materials sector (one of 16 Zacks sectors) which is expected to have a 2.5% share of total earnings for the S&P 500 in 2016. We rank all of the more than 260 industries in the 16 Zacks sectors based on the earnings outlook for the constituent companies in each industry.
The way to look at the complete list of 260+ industries is that the outlook for the top one-third of the list (Zacks Industry Rank of #88 and lower) is positive, the middle 1/3rd or industries with Zacks Industry Rank between #89 and #176 is neutral while the outlook for the bottom one-third (Zacks Industry Rank #177 and higher) is negative. (To learn more visit: About Zacks Industry Rank .)
We have three chemicals related industries: Chemical Plastics, Chemical Specialty and Chemical Diversified. Both Chemical Plastics and Chemical Specialty industry are featuring in the top one-third of all Zacks industries with a Zacks Industry Rank #20 and Zacks Industry Rank #64, respectively. The Chemical Diversified industry currently retains a Zacks Industry Rank #171, placing it in the middle one-third of the 260+ industry groups.
Looking at the exact location of these industries, one could say that the general outlook for the chemical industry is 'Positive-to-Neutral.'
Sector Level Earnings Trends
Looking at the overall results of the Basic Materials sector, earnings for 95% of the sector participants on the S&P 500 index that have unveiled their second-quarter 2016 numbers so far are down 11.8% from the same period last year on 9.1% lower revenues. Nevertheless, the sector racked up a decent beat ratio (percentage of companies coming out with positive surprises) of 63.2% for earnings in the quarter.
Basic Materials is among the sectors that are expected to see double-digit year-over-year earnings decline in the second quarter. The sector's earnings are expected to drop 11.7% in the quarter on 7.6% lower revenues, considering the companies that are yet to report.
However, the earnings outlook for the sector for second-half 2016 paints an encouraging picture. Earnings for third-quarter 2016 are projected to increase 1.7%, accelerating to a 19.3% rise in the fourth quarter. Revenues are forecast to dip 2.6% in the third quarter and rise 3.2% in the fourth.
For more details about the earnings of this sector and others, please read our ' Earnings Trends ' report.
The Way Forward
The chemical industry faces certain roadblocks including a still weak agriculture market, depressed demand in the energy space, slowdown in China and a choppy Europe. Nevertheless, continued strong momentum in the automotive space and an upswing in the construction markets bodes well for the industry.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/chemical-industry-stock-outlook-aug-2016-cm662927
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Urged to Flag ‘Low-Risk' Uses in Chemical Rule
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency should help the marketplace by identifying chemical uses that pose little or no risks as well as those that do, industry representatives said Aug. 9.
Tim Brown, with the Consumer Specialty Products Association, was among several industry representatives who told the agency the procedures it establishes to evaluate chemical risks should require it to identify low-risk uses of a chemical even if there are particular uses that would pose health or ecological risks.
That information would provide clear information for the marketplace, Brown said.
Brown was among more than 660 people from trade associations, consulting companies, California's EPA, the AFL-CIO, animal welfare groups, environmental health organizations and academics who registered to attend or listen to a public meeting the EPA organized to discuss a rule it must develop under the Toxic Substances Control Act as amended on June 22 by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.
The rule, which must be issued as final by June 22, 2017, would describe the process the agency will use to evaluate the risks of high priority chemicals. The rule also will describe the process the agency will use to evaluate the risks of chemicals that manufacturers nominate for agency review. Companies are responsible for paying some or all of these manufacturer-initiated risk evaluations.
Need to Define Best Available Science
Neither Morris nor Tala Henry, director of the EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics' Risk Assessment Division, described the range of information that would or could be in the rule that the EPA plans to propose by the end of December.
That matters a lot, according to comments made during the public comment period and perspectives industry and environmental health organizations shared with Bloomberg BNA on the sidelines of the meeting.
Sarah Brozena, an attorney and a senior director in the American Chemistry Council's Regulatory and Technical Affairs Department, and Kimberly Wise, a risk analyst who helps manage the council's Center for Advancing Risk Assessment Science and Policy (ARASP), told EPA the rule it must issue is much more than a “procedural” regulation.
Congress intended this rule to describe how the EPA will evaluate chemical risks using the law's scientific standards and analytic requirements, Brozena said.
Rule Must Define Statutory Terms
That means the EPA's rule must define some statutory terms in ways that all interested parties understand what the agency means by words and phrases such as “best available science” and “weight of the evidence,” she said.
Wise said the rule should make clear how the EPA will carry out, or how manufacturers that choose to submit risk evaluations should carry out, the problem formulation and scooping stages of a risk evaluation.
Parties reading the rule should understand how the agency will evaluate data quality, Wise said.
The clearer the EPA can be in how it defines these terms, the better the data it will get, the more consistent its risk assessments will be and the easier it will be for the agency to meet the law's chemical risk evaluation deadlines, Brozena said.
CalEPA: ‘Don't Get Bogged Down.'
Gina Solomon, deputy secretary for science and health at the California EPA, urged the federal EPA to craft a rule that focuses on the process it would use to evaluate chemicals.
“Give yourself maximum latitude and flexibility,” Solomon said. “A lot of the science issues discussed today are best dealt with through science guidelines.”
The rule itself should allow the EPA to complete risk evaluations under deadlines mandated by the TSCA amendments, Solomon said.
By the end of this year, the EPA must be evaluating the risks of at least 10 chemicals. Within 42 months, the agency must be evaluating at least 20 chemicals. Each risk evaluation must be completed within three years, with a possible six month extension. As soon as the agency completes an evaluation, it must begin another one.
“We are hoping you don't get bogged down with too many details in this rule or narrow your own latitude too much,” Solomon said.
Use Guidance, Not Rule
Jennifer McPartland, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, urged the EPA to focus, in this rulemaking, on procedures it would use to evaluate risks.
“Rulemakings are not the appropriate vehicle to tackle broader scientific issues,” she said.
Guidance and policy statements are more nimble approaches to defining the types of information the agency wants and the standards it sets for acceptable data, McPartland said.
The guidance that would define terms such as best available science will be binding, Richard Denison, lead senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, told Bloomberg BNA. The law mandates the EPA's use of best available science along with scientific models analytic approaches that meet other criteria, he said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300501&vname=dennotallissues&wsn=499945000&searchid=28170463&doctypeid=1&type=date&mode=doc&split=0&scm=DELNWB&pg=0
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Group Petitions California to Regulate BPA in Foods, Drinks
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
An Oakland-based group wants California to identify bisphenol A resins used to line food and beverage containers as a priority product under the state's Safer Consumer Products program.
The Center for Environmental Health plans on petitioning the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control Aug. 9, seeking regulation of bisphenol A in canned food and beverages.
While BPA is on the department's list of candidate chemicals, the department has yet to propose regulating BPA in food and beverage products as a product-chemical combination. Regulation under the Safer Consumer Products program would require manufacturers to explore using alternatives to BPA, the group said.
Studies have linked BPA to birth defects, abnormal sexual development and other health disorders.
While some manufacturers, like Campbell Soups, are phasing out use of BPA, the industry have said concentrations of the chemical leaching from the containers don't pose a significant health risk.
Proposition 65 Requires Warnings
The petition is driven by an emergency regulation California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment issued earlier this year and now plans to extend through December 2017.
OEHHA added BPA to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals linked to reproductive harm last year. Under the law, manufacturers had until May to begin warning consumers about the risks of BPA exposure. The law doesn't require warnings if the exposure is below a maximum allowable dose level set by OEHHA.
The health hazard office said it could take up to two years to develop a safe harbor level for oral exposure. As a result, it issued the emergency regulation requiring point-of-sale warnings posted in retail stores instead of warning on individual products. The warnings shield manufacturers from Proposition 65 enforcement actions, including private lawsuits allowed under Proposition 65, officially called the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.
Consumers Denied Warnings
A survey the group conducted found several retailers have not posted the point of sale signs and, if even posted, customers weren't aware of the signs.
“The state has denied consumers the right to know when canned food contains this dangerous chemical, despite long-established rules that require companies to warn consumers about this toxic risk,” Michael Green, the chief executive officer of the group, said in a statement. “We're calling on the state to end this assault on consumer choice. There is no excuse for denying us our right to know when harmful chemical are in our food.”
While some manufacturers are moving away from using the BPA-based epoxy resins, the Center for Environmental Health said the switch to alternatives is moving too slowly.
Regulation under the Safer Consumer Products program is a slow process. Adopted in 2013, the state has only recently begun an official rulemaking to identify the first priority product.
“We're hoping DTSC can start the alternatives assessment process within the same time frame” that it takes OEHHA to establish a maximum allowable dose level,” Caroline Cox, the center's research director, told Bloomberg BNA Aug. 8.
As for OEHHA's emergency regulation, Cox said the group is considering challenging the decision.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300504&vname=dennotallissues&fn=95300504&jd=95300504
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New Studies Trace PFC Pollution From Sources To The Next Generation
Aug 9, 2016 | Environmental Working Group
By David Andrews
Fluorine-based chemicals that can cause cancer, developmental toxicity and numerous other detrimental health effects have contaminated the drinking water of millions of Americans, and the blood of people and animals worldwide. But how did these chemicals get there – and what happens when they’re passed on to future generations?
A series of new, peer-reviewed studies connect the dots from the pollution sources, to drinking water supplies, to women’s blood, and bolster earlier findings that these chemicals can harm the immune systems of fetuses exposed in their mothers’ wombs. Perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, are used in Teflon, Scotchgard and hundreds of other products.
A study published today in Environmental Science & Technology Letters points to military bases, airports, industrial sites and wastewater treatment plants as the major sources of PFCs in drinking water. PFC pollution from industrial facilities has long been known, but the new study found that drinking water contamination, detected by nationwide tests mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency, correlates strongly to military and civilian airports' use of firefighting foams.
“During fire-fighting practice drills, large volumes of these toxic chemicals wash into surface and ground waters and can end up in our drinking water,” said Arlene Blum, co-author of the study and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute. “Such toxic and persistent chemicals should only be used when essential, and never for training. There are non-fluorinated fire-fighting foams that should be considered for use instead.”
EWG collaborated on the study with researchers at Harvard University, the Green Science Policy Institute, Silent Spring Institute, University of California at Berkeley, University of Rhode Island and Colorado School of Mines, as well as the EPA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
In June, a study from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found elevated levels of two PFCs – PFOA, formerly used to make DuPont's Teflon, and PFOS, formerly an ingredient in 3M's Scotchgard – in the blood of women whose water supply was contaminated with those chemicals. PFOA and PFOS levels were 38 percent and 29 percent higher, respectively, in women with detectable levels in their drinking water.
PFCs can be passed via the umbilical cord from mother to unborn fetus, as well as from mother to baby through breast milk. Another study, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives, connects early life exposure to PFCs with reduced immune system responses that persist into adolescence. The author, Phillipe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health, said the EPA's non-enforceable health advisory level for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water is much too high to protect against immune system harm. This paper comes just a month after the National Toxicology Program published a draft review of the science indicating that PFOA ispresumed to harm the immune system.
And Grandjean said the contamination revealed by EPA's water tests is only the tip of the iceberg, because the tests don't include the small water systems and private wells that serve more than 30 percent of Americans.
“Our research has documented harm to the human immune system from these substances at levels much below those that were detectable in the [EPA tests] and even more water supplies are likely to contaminated at these low levels,” Grandjean said.
In April, EWG submitted a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, requesting expedited action on setting an enforceable national drinking water standard, and calling for additional data collection and testing to identify and remediate sources of pollution.
PFOA and PFOS have been phased out, but significant work remains to clean up the legacy of pollution left from decades of their use in hundreds of products. Meanwhile, chemical makers have introduced hundreds of replacement chemicals, many of which share similar characteristics to the ones that have caused such widespread contamination.
http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2016/08/new-studies-trace-pfc-pollution-sources-next-generation
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Anti-Fracking Measures Set To Move To Colorado Ballot
Aug 9, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Petitioners in Colorado have collected the signatures necessary to put two anti-hydraulic fracturing measures on the state’s ballot in November.
Activists late Monday turned in the nearly 100,000 signatures necessary to hold a vote on the fracking amendments, The Associated Press reports. State officials need to certify the signatures before placing the amendments on the ballot.
One of the measures would amend the state Constitution to allow local governments to regulate fracking, a question that has become a major political issue in the state. The second measure would set a 2,500-foot minimum distance between fracking sites and sensitive locations like schools and hospitals.
The oil industry opposes both measures and has promised to spend heavily to fight them. An industry-funded group has raised more than $13.4 million in its campaign against them, the Denver Business Journal reported earlier this month.
The fracking ban amendment is in response to a Colorado Supreme Court decision in May invalidating local bans, saying they violate state laws regulating oil and gas drilling.
Fracking fights are common in Colorado. Voters nearly considered a ballot measure restricting the industry in 2014 before Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) established a task force to look at fracking safety in the state.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in July seemed to endorse giving local governments the opportunity to regulate fracking, saying, “There’s some areas, maybe, they don’t want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that’s up to them.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/290832-anti-fracking-measures-move-to-colorado-ballot
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Colorado Oil, Gas Ballot Proposals Submitted For Verification by State
Aug 9, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Two oil/natural gas ballot measures in Colorado that are strongly opposed by the industry were submitted to state officials for signature verification on Monday, the state imposed deadline for submittal.
The CEO of a major producer with a stake in Colorado, PDC Energy Inc.'s Bart Brookman, expressed doubts that the measures had collected enough valid signatures. "We know that experts say validation rates generally are going to be somewhere in the 60% to low-70% range, depending on whether the signature gatherers are volunteers or paid," Brookman said.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) officials attributed the two measures (No. 75 and No. 78) to relentless anti-oil/gas activists and "out-of-state special interests" pushing for bans on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) around the nation. The Colorado Secretary of State's Office has a month to determine if the measures qualify for the November ballot.
"We don't know how many, we don't know how many are valid [signatures]," said Karen Crummy, communications director for the pro-industry group Protecting Colorado's Environment, Economy and Energy Independence.
Noting that industry is looking for an end of Colorado's ongoing cycle of "constant campaigning and political uncertainty" regarding oil/gas issues, COGA CEO Dan Haley, said if the measures qualify for the ballot, "voters will know what's at stake."
And what's at stake Haley summarized as "private property rights, more than $1 billion in state/local taxes that help pay for schools, parks, libraries and roads, energy security for our nation, and good-paying jobs for more than 100,000 working families in the state."
Protect Colorado's Crummy said that the two measures in question could eliminate 90% of all new oil/gas development, amounting to more than 140,000 jobs.
Basically, No. 75 would make it hard to do business in the state by creating a patchwork of different local rules and bans, and No. 78 would increase mandatory setbacks to 2,500 feet from the current 1,000-foot requirement (see Shale Daily, June 7).
David Tameron, senior oil/gas exploration and production analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, noted that initiative backers claimed up to 110,000 signatures, and "to be clear, if [that number] is correct, it means a lower likelihood of either initiative making the November ballot," based on historical signature verification rates.
Nevertheless, Tameron and Dan McSpirit, analyst with BMO Capital Markets Corp., said residual risk from the ongoing uncertainty could negatively affect share prices of Colorado exploration and production companies.
Facing these potential measures, COGA and several industry, business and economic development groups have been working to educate citizens about fracking, which some local governments have attempted to restrict or ban (see Shale Daily, March 4, 2014).
"Setback proposals being considered were designed to mask their true intention, which would essentially ban future oil/gas development in the state," said Josh Penry, principal in EIS Solutions Rockies Region consulting practice. Penry spoke on a news media conference call earlier this year with David Tameron, senior oil/gas exploration and production analyst at Wells Fargo Securities.
Penry and Tameron guessed that there is a 50-50 chance that some anti-oil/gas development measures would obtain enough qualified voter signatures by Monday's state deadline to get on the November ballot. However, Penry expressed strong confidence that voters will reject any of these measures.
"We remain committed to meeting with all stakeholders who have questions and concerns about oil and gas development to find balanced energy solutions," Haley said.
Initiative No. 75 is what a COGA spokesperson called "deceptive" since its "local control" heading would result in belatedly giving local communities the ability to ban fracking.
With 92% of PDC Energy's 2016 capital budget tied to the Colorado Wattenberg field, Scott Reasoner, senior view president for operations, said that the industry is "extremely organized, sophisticated and well-funded in efforts to prevent [the measures] from passing."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/107347-colorado-oil-gas-ballot-proposals-submitted-for-verification-by-state
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California Governor Puts Push For West Grid, Less Gas-Fired Generation on Hold
Aug 9, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
California Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers on Monday put on hold the state grid operator's pursuit of a western regional power grid that gradually lessens dependence on natural gas-fired generation among other byproducts called for under a state law passed last year (SB 350). Concerns about the state's ongoing aggressive climate change programs prompted the action.
Last month, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) issued a 12-volume, 688-page tome analyzing various scenarios to create a multi-state, regional electricity market that would continue to phase out the use of fossil fuels, including gas-fired power generation (see Daily GPI, July 13). The proposal is heavily dependent on inter-state cooperation that is not yet in place.
Despite the setback from the governor and state lawmakers who are unwilling to move forward this year, CAISO CEO Steve Berberich issued a statement praising the state elected officials for supporting the concept and noting that the grid stakeholders have made "extensive progress" to date toward a regional grid.
"While very significant progress has been made, there remain some important unresolved questions that would be difficult to answer in the remainder of this legislative session [ending in early September]," Brown wrote in a letter to state lawmakers.
Although SB 350 recommends the regional grid, additional state legislative action is needed to allow the state to move forward, and some legislative leaders have expressed concerns that the wider grid could dilute California's aggressive ongoing climate change measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and switching to more renewable resources.
Brown said the new goal is to develop a strong program to present to state lawmakers next year.
CAISO's Berberich reiterated studies that have shown that a regional grid offers what he called "significant benefits" to California and the West's economies. The next step is to fully flesh out the governance proposal and related issues remaining for the governance proposal that would bind the regional grid together.
He said all the parties need sufficient time to "evaluate the impacts" of a western grid. Berberich said Brown's leadership will be a key to developing the opportunity in the coming year.
Mandated by the California Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act (SB 350) enacted last year, the CAISO study released last month was completed by four research organizations. It considered two scenarios tied to 2020 and three with a 2030 time frame. The 2020 combination of CAISO and Berkshire Hathaway's Portland, OR-based PacifiCorp multi-state western utility operations is one of the scenarios examined.
In 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved CAISO and PacifiCorp creating a real-time energy imbalance market (EIM) that is designed to provide substantial efficiencies and cost savings on the overall grid. The approved proposal included stakeholder feedback to the grid operator since it announced EIM earlier that year (see NGI GPI, July 8, 2013).
Belatedly, the ties to PacifiCorp, whose generation comes 62% from coal-fired sources, have caused concerns among California officials, noting the mix could adversely affect the state's generation mix that is increasingly coming from more renewables.
The four research groups involved in the CAISO study -- the Brattle Group, Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. (E3), Aspen Environmental Group and Berkeley Economic Advising and Research LLC -- determined that there would be positive economic and reliability results from the regional market.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/107349-california-governor-puts-push-for-west-grid-less-gas-fired-generation-on-hold
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Refiners' Bid To Shift RFS Compliance Obligation Highlights Industry Split
Aug 9, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is criticizing the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers' (AFPM) petition asking EPA to shift a compliance obligation under the agency's renewable fuel standard (RFS) from refiners to fuel blenders, highlighting a split in the refining industry about the best way to reform the program.
“Moving the point of obligation falls short of significant reform,” said API Downstream Group Director Frank Macchiarola on an Aug. 9 call with reporters just days after AFPM filed its petition. API has long called for repeal or reform of the program, saying it sets impossible targets for blending renewable fuels into the U.S. fuel supply. Refiners say they suffer as a result from having to purchase expensive compliance credits to meet the targets.
Although API is criticizing the Aug. 4 AFPM petition as the incorrect way to address problems with the RFS, AFPM -- which has advocated for repeal of the entire program -- says its request is the best option to relieve burdens on refiners in lieu of any serious prospects for Congress to approve legislation to scrap the RFS.
EPA meanwhile is already weighing a petition filed earlier this year by Pennsylvania-based refining company Monroe Energy that asks it to shift the compliance obligation away from refiners.
Monroe Energy also filed a lawsuit Jan. 29 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit claiming the agency's recent multi-year final RFS rule for 2014 through 2016 reopened the compliance burden policy to legal challenge. That suit is on hold while the agency weighs its response to the petition, and according to a July 25 status report EPA is still considering its response, with the next status report due Oct. 24.
EPA in a 2010 rule said refiners and importers must demonstrate compliance by obtaining and retiring credits showing that blenders have blended required quantities of renewable fuels into transportation fuel.
The credits, known as renewable identification numbers (RINs), are generated with each gallon of renewable fuel produced. Refiners may comply with the program's mandates to blend biofuels into the transportation and heating fuel supply by blending biofuels, or by purchasing RINs. However, RIN prices have fluctuated sharply in the past, leading to price spikes that increase costs for those refiners who lack blending capabilities.
Monroe Energy and AFPM argue that shifting the compliance burden from refiners to companies that blend renewable fuels such as ethanol blends of 10 percent (E10) into the fuel supply would be a fair policy.
Chris Grundler, head of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, told lawmakers at a March 16 House oversight panel hearing that “[W]e are analyzing the question” of changing the compliance obligation.
API's Concerns
However, API's Macchiarola said on the Aug. 9 call that changing the point of obligation would not solve the flaws in the RFS. Instead, he argued, it would subject a much greater number of entities to compliance obligations, complicating the program.
Nor would the change alter the current course of the program, under which Congressional mandates on blending risk forcing more biofuel onto the market than current vehicle and fuel distribution infrastructure constraints will allow -- breaching the “blend wall,” Macchiarola argued.
API -- which says it is “the only national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry” -- continues to support efforts in Congress to reform the RFS, and through its new multimedia advertising campaign seeks to sway public opinion against the program in its current form, Macchiarola said.
Macchiarola recognized that a dwindling number of legislative days in this Congress and a looming presidential election limit the chances of a reform in the near future.
However, he said that API intends to maintain an effort to create momentum for reform in Congress in the next administration if reform cannot be achieved during this one. He expressed support for the bipartisan bill, HR 5180, sponsored by Reps. Bill Flores (R-TX) and Peter Welch (D-VT), that would limit biofuel blending to 9.7 percent of the fuel supply.
But the group's opposition to shifting the compliance obligation puts it at odds with AFPM, whose website says it represents “virtually the entire U.S. supply of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, other fuels and home heating oil, as well as the petrochemicals used as building blocks for thousands of vital products in daily life.”
AFPM's Petition
AFPM President Chet Thompson in a statement on the petition said, “The problems with the [RFS] are pervasive and AFPM will continue to fight for its repeal, but until that happens the EPA has the responsibility to ensure that the program is operating as effectively as possible, which today it is not.”
Further, “EPA committed to reconsidering the point of obligation if it became clear that the [RINs] market is not functioning as it intended. And, with RIN prices trading recently at a dollar or more, this is certainly the case. Moving the point of obligation closer to the point of compliance would make the RFS program more sensitive to market needs and reduce consumer costs, and provide some relief until Congress can take appropriate action,” Thompson said.
AFPM in its petition cites EPA's discussion of the issue in a proposed RFS rulemaking from 2009, in which EPA said, “it may be appropriate to consider a change in the way obligated parties are defined to more evenly align a party’s access to RINs with that party’s obligation” under the RFS.
AFPM in the petition says, “The onset of the E10 blend wall in 2013 amplified the dysfunction of the RIN market and the need to change the point of obligation.”
The group adds, “As currently structured, 40 percent or more of the compliance obligation is on refining companies with minimal ability to influence investment decisions and wholesale pricing at the point of blending. These refiners are captive to the RIN market and must bid for RINs against other refiners and even financial speculators.”
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/refiners-bid-shift-rfs-compliance-obligation-highlights-industry-split
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A New Trade Route for Natural Gas Opens in Panama
Aug 10, 2016 | Bloomberg Markets
By Alex Nussbaum and Naureen Malik
When the Panama Canal’s expanded locks slid open in late June, perhaps no one was happier than executives in the U.S. shale industry. With the goal of making the U.S. a global powerhouse for natural gas exports, these frackers have their sights on Asia. Now they have a more direct route that could significantly benefit their bottom line.
Nine years of construction work at a cost of more than $5 billion have equipped the canal with a third set of locks and deeper navigation channels, crucial improvements that doubled the isthmus’s capacity for ferrying goods between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Within a week of opening, officials said they had more than 170 reservations for transits this year, mostly for so-called New Panamax cargo carriers that couldn’t fit through the old canal.
For natural gas suppliers, the expansion comes at a pivotal moment. It coincides with a big increase in U.S. shale production and the construction of several Gulf Coast export terminals designed to help American gas muscle its way onto the world market. The canal’s deeper channels can accommodate the kind of football-field-size tankers that transport liquefied natural gas (LNG), shaving 11 days and one-third the cost of the typical round trip to Asia. In July the U.S. Department of Energy predicted 550 tankers could be crossing each year by 2021.
“We can send gas ships that couldn’t fit through the canal before,” says Bill Diehl, president of the Greater Houston Port Bureau, a maritime industry trade group. “Asia looks like a good market for us now. The shipping costs look like a fair fight.”
A week after the locks opened, the Panama Canal Authority announced its first booking for an LNG carrier. Then in July the authority said Royal Dutch Shell had made a reservation that jumped ahead of the previous booking. Departing from the U.S. Gulf Coast, the 289-meter (948-foot) Maran Gas Apollonia on July 25 became the first LNG tanker to carry the fuel, used for heating and power plants, through the expanded canal. Although a slump in oil and gas prices and slow growth in Asia have kept a lid on exports, the volume is expected to grow by the end of the decade, says Jason Schenker, president of financial market researcher Prestige Economics in Austin.
Gas producers won’t be the only ones affected. Markets from Chile to China are now more accessible for oil drillers across the Americas, and millions of tons of container shipments originating from Asia could start bypassing western U.S. ports and opt to dock instead along the Gulf Coast or the Eastern Seaboard. The anticipated growth has triggered a multibillion-dollar dredging and building binge at ports in the U.S., Caribbean, and South America, all seeking a share of the traffic boom. “There are going to be a lot of feeder services that develop around it,” says Moses Kopmar, an analyst with Moody’s Investors Service in New York. “What it will do is basically unlock a huge amount of the global fleet in terms of being able to transit the canal.”For a QuickTake explainer on the future of LNG, click here
The 102-year-old shipping route risked losing relevance if it didn’t expand to handle the increasingly large vessels favored nowadays, industry experts say. The new locks—a set of chambers sealed by 3,200-ton doors used to raise and lower water levels—provide access to a wider lane for vessels: 180 feet across, compared with 109 feet in the original locks. (Many cargo ships squeezed through the old canal with only a couple of feet of clearance on each side.) In the middle of the isthmus, the authority also dredged deeper, wider lanes through Gatun Lake, where ships spend much of the interoceanic voyage.
For gas companies reeling from the recent collapse in prices, which in March reached the lowest level since 1998, the drop in time and shipping costs will provide a much-needed lift. The new canal can accept almost 90 percent of the world fleet, the authority says. That will cut the round trip from the U.S. Gulf to Asia to about 20 days, compared with 31 days through the Suez Canal or 34 days around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Sailing from Louisiana to Tokyo via Panama would be about 35 percent cheaper than through the Suez, says Jason Feer, head of business intelligence at Poten & Partners, a ship broker in Houston. “It certainly gives U.S. LNG producers options,” he says. “It is a significant percentage of the reason that Asian buyers have been willing to sign contracts with U.S. producers.”
American LNG exports began in February, when Cheniere Energy opened its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana. By 2020, U.S. export capacity is expected to expand to 9.2 billion cubic feet a day, a fifteenfold increase, with the country becoming the world’s third-biggest LNG producer, behind Australia and Qatar, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.
Panama itself is trying to become a destination for some of that fuel. It has tentative plans for a gas import terminal in the canal zone to supply the rest of the region. A U.S.-funded feasibility study is under way.
“There is a lot of activity, there are a lot of emotions, so we’d like just to stay calm,” says Oscar Bazán, the canal authority’s executive vice president for planning and business development. “But it’s clear LNG is going to be a big market for us.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-09/a-new-trade-route-for-natural-gas-opens-in-panama
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Energy Emissions Projected at Lowest Level Since 1992
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
Carbon dioxide emissions from energy production are expected to decline to their lowest level since 1992 this year as cheap natural gas continues to displace coal as the country's main source of power generation, the Energy Department said in a report Aug. 9.
Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to total 5,173 million metric tons in 2016, a 1.5 percent decline from the previous year, the Energy Information Administration said in its “Short-Term Energy Outlook.”
The decline, on top of a 2.8 percent drop in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, comes as the shift toward using natural gas instead of coal to produce power accelerates, the report said.
In 2016, natural gas is expected to fuel 34 percent of electricity generation, compared to 30 percent for coal. In 2015, natural gas was used to generate slightly less than 33 percent of electricity, and coal was used to generate slightly more than 33 percent of electricity.
“Coal-fired generation has decreased because of both the economics driven by cost per kilowatt hour compared to that of natural gas and because of the effects of increased regulation on air emissions,” the EIA said last May.
However, the agency said energy-related emissions are expected to increase by 0.8 percent in 2017 due to increases in the price of natural gas and electricity demand.
In 2017, total U.S. coal production is expected to increase by 4 percent or 32 million short tons, with almost all of the increase coming from the Appalachian region and the Interior region, the report said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300488&vname=dennotallissues&fn=95300488&jd=95300488
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EPA Takes More Heat from Officials Over Risk Management Rule
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
Security complaints from states have not been addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency as it crafts a proposed rule aimed at increasing safety regulations at high-risk chemical sites, 11 Republican attorneys general say in a letter.
The letter comes as EPA works to finalize a proposed Clean Air Act rule on risk management programs for preventing accidental chemical releases (RIN:2050-AG82).
Prepared by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R), the letter was signed by Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin and is just the latest salvo from Republican-led states against the proposal.
The officials argued the EPA should make less information available to the public to make it more difficult for bad actors to learn about high-risk chemical sites.
The July 27 letter repeated statements made in a May 3 letter from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that the proposed regulation contains provisions “outside of EPA's purview” and would do little to make facilities safer.
Disclosure Presents Security Risk
Escalating pressure on the EPA, the state officials wrote that the proposed rule “seeks to make readily-available to the public information that you believe might be useful to the public in the event of an accidental release of chemicals.” But, they added: “As the federal agencies responsible for national security have warned you, compiling that information and making it easily accessible also aids those who might seek to cause an intentional release for nefarious purposes, by providing those bad actors with information that would help them both select a target and exploit any security vulnerabilities their target might have.”
Under the Chemical Safety Information, Site Security and Fuels Regulatory Relief Act of 1999, the public must visit EPA reading rooms to view off-site consequence information—plants' estimates of the impacts of a catastrophic release on a surrounding area. Only residents living in the area can view the information, and they face limits on how many reports can be accessed over a period of time.
The EPA's rule doesn't propose modifying this process. Instead, the rule would require facilities to “provide certain basic information” on a public website, at public libraries or government offices “or use other means appropriate for particular locations or facilities.”
Other Releases of Information
A subset of facilities also would be required to release information on compliance, emergency response and accident history or investigation reports, but only to local or tribal emergency planning committees.
Increased information sharing with local responders has been among the top goals of federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.
Greenpeace Legislative Director Rick Hind said the criticism was overblown.
“I think they don't know what they're talking about,” Hind told Bloomberg BNA Aug. 9. “I think they're just trying to destabilize the rule, invent controversies where there aren't any or where they were addressed almost 20 years ago in the 1999 amendments to the Clean Air Act.”
EPA spokesman George Hull told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail Aug. 8 the agency would review the submission.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300473&vname=dennotallissues&fn=95300473&jd=95300473
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PG&E Guilty of Safety Violations Stemming From Fatal Blast
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joel Rosenblatt
PG&E Corp. was found guilty of safety violations six years after one of its natural gas pipelines blew up and killed eight people in California (U.S. v. Pac. Gas & Elec. Co., N.D. Cal., No. 14-cr-00175, 8/9/16).
The verdict reached Aug. 9 by a San Francisco federal court jury stains the reputation of California's largest utility, but it faces a fine of no more than $6 million after prosecutors backed off a proposal to seek a penalty of as much as $562 million.
Jurors next will determine the amount of the fine.
The blast in San Bruno left a crater the size of a house, destroyed 38 homes and damaged 70 others, and injured 66 people.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300503&vname=dennotallissues&fn=95300503&jd=95300503
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EPA Rejects Requests To Revise Oil & Gas Industry Air Toxics Regulation
Aug 9, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
EPA has rejected requests from a host of oil and gas industry groups and environmentalists to overhaul its 2012 air toxics rule for the sector, saying that while it has previously granted reconsideration of limited parts of the final rule, the most recent petitions fail to meet the bar for the agency to agree to revise the contested provisions.
In a Federal Register notice slated for publication Aug. 10, EPA says that any legal challenges to its decision must be filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the rejection concerns a “nationally applicable” rule. If industry or advocates file suit within the 60-day deadline to sue, it would mark yet another round of litigation over the rule.
EPA first issued its national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) on Aug. 16, 2012, and they target air toxics separate from its new source performance standards (NSPS) for the sector.
The agency recently updated the NSPS to include a first-time emission limit on the potent greenhouse gas methane, and recently took comment on a draft information collection request on methane emissions from existing oil and gas drilling. The results of the ICR could potentially inform a methane rule for those sources.
The NESHAP regulates air toxics such as benzene and formaldehyde, and after the agency issued the rule it received petitions for reconsideration of various provisions. In rulemakings dated Sept. 23, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2014, EPA agreed to revise those parts of the rule -- but is rejecting the latest petitions.
“The EPA has now denied the issues in the remaining 11 petitions as not satisfying one or both of the statutory conditions for compelled reconsideration,” the notice says.
Section 307(d)(7)(B) requires EPA to pursue a reconsideration process if a petitioner can demonstrate to the Administrator that it was impracticable to raise such objection within [the public comment period] or if the grounds for such objection arose after the period for public comment (but within the time specified for judicial review) and if such objection is of central relevance to the outcome of the rule,” the notice says.
The agency says that a petitioner must therefore prove that it was impracticable to raise a concern about a provision in the rule during the regular public comment period on the proposed version of the NESHAP, and that the objection raised in the reconsideration petition is of “central relevance” to the outcome of the rule. EPA concludes that none of the remaining petitions for reconsideration meet these two threshold requirements.
EPA denied petitions filed by a host of groups, including America's Natural Gas Alliance, the American Exploration & Production Council, American Petroleum Institute, Earthjustice, Gas Processors Association, M-Squared, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Oil & Gas Association and Western Energy Alliance.
Many of the same groups are also seeking judicial review of the rules in API, et al., v. EPA, a suit that consolidated petitions for review from the environmental groups and from industry.
The D.C Circuit in a July 21 order continued to hold the case in abeyance at EPA's request, setting a deadline of Oct. 12 for motions to govern further proceedings. -- Bridget DiCosmo
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-rejects-requests-revise-oil-gas-industry-air-toxics-regulation
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Delaware to EPA: West Virginia Fouling Our Air
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
Delaware filed a Clean Air Act petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against the Harrison Power Station in Haywood, W.Va., the second time in as many months the state has petitioned federal authorities over air pollution from an out-of-state power plant, the state announced Aug. 9.
“West Virginia's emissions significantly impact Delaware—and we are petitioning EPA to reduce that impact,” David Small, secretary of Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said in a statement Aug. 9. Emissions from the power station “significantly contribute to Delaware's non-attainment of the 2008 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS),” the petition says.
The filing follows a similar petition to federal regulators last month against the Brunner Island Power Plant in York County, Pa. In both petitions, Delaware says that more than 94 percent of its ozone levels come from transport of air pollutants from upwind states.
The Harrison Power Station adheres to all pollution control regulations and is compliant in how it operates its nitrogen oxide (NOx) removal equipment, Jennifer Young, a spokeswoman for the plant's Akron, Ohio-based parent company, FirstEnergy Corp., told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail Aug. 9.
Many NOx Sources
“Electricity generation is just one of many nitrogen oxide sources, with mobile producers such as cars, trucks and other vehicles contributing far more emissions,” Young said. “In fact, Harrison's total annual NOx emissions, only a portion of which have the potential to reach Delaware, are lower than the NOx emitted each year within the State of Delaware from the vehicle sources.”
The Harrison Power Plant has three coal-fired units that went online in 1972, 1973 and 1974, according to the company's website. All three units have been equipped with scrubbers since 1995, and a 1,000-foot chimney removes more than 98 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, according to the company site.
Delaware argues that the facility is outfitted with effective nitrogen oxide emissions controls but it doesn't consistently use them.
State Seeks Federal Restrictions
The state asked federal regulators to require the Harrison Power Station to limit short-term nitrogen oxide emissions levels to help Delaware maintain its ozone standards. The Clean Air Act requires federal regulators to take action within 60 days or deny the petition.
Delaware said it might file further petitions in the future. It didn't elaborate on where those petitions would be filed.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300491&vname=dennotallissues&fn=95300491&jd=95300491
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Water of Millions Tainted With Possible Carcinogens: Study
Aug 10, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The drinking water of at least 6 million people is tainted with levels of potentially carcinogenic substances that exceed Environmental Protection Agency recommendations, according to a Harvard University study released Aug. 9.
The study detected the highest levels of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in drinking water supplies near industrial sites, military bases and wastewater treatment plants, and is the first to link contamination to these facilities. PFASs have been used in a range of industrial and commercial products that includes pots and pans, and even though some of these chemicals have been discontinued, they persist in people and wildlife, it said.
“For many years, chemicals with unknown toxicities, such as PFASs, were allowed to be used and released to the environment, and we now have to face the severe consequences,” lead author Xindi Hu, a Harvard doctoral student, said in a news release. “In addition, the actual number of people exposed may be even higher than our study found, because government data for levels of these compounds in drinking water is lacking for almost a third of the U.S. population—about 100 million people.”
The study comes months after the EPA released lifetime health advisories of 0.07 microgram per liter for individual or combined exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in drinking water. This and a second study offer more insight into what contributes to PFASs contamination and its impacts on human health.
The study, “Detection of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in U.S. Drinking Water Linked to Industrial Sites, Military Fire Training Areas, and Wastewater Treatment Plants,” was published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
Health Study
Also on Aug. 9, a separate Harvard University study was published that indicated that PFASs exposure may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines in children.
“The EPA advisory limit for PFOA and PFOS is much too high to protect against toxic effects on the immune system,” Philippe Grandjean, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement. “And the available water data only reveals the tip of an iceberg of contaminated drinking water.”
That study, “Serum Vaccine Antibody Concentrations in Adolescents Exposed to Perfluorinated Compounds,” was published in Environmental Health Perspectives.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=95300486&vname=dennotallissues&fn=95300486&jd=95300486
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