Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 8/25/16
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Judge Rejects Bay Area Cities’ Monsanto PCB Lawsuits
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joyce E. Cutler
Three California cities have three weeks to devise arguments that Monsanto Co. should be held liable for polychlorinated biphenyls contamination in San Francisco Bay, a federal judge ruled (City of San Jose v. Monsanto Co., N.D. Cal., No. 5:15-cv-03178, order granting motions to dismiss filed 8/22/16; City Of Oakland v. Monsanto Co., N.D. Cal., No. 5:15-cv-05152,order granting motion to dismiss filed 8/22/16, City of Berkeley v. Monsanto Co., N.D. Cal., No. 5:16-cv-00071, order granting motions to dismiss filed 8/22/16). -
Living Near a Fracking Site Is Tied to Migraines, Fatigue
Aug 25, 2016 | The New York Times
By Nicholas Bakalar
Living near a natural gas hydraulic fracturing site is associated with increased rates of sinus problems, migraines and fatigue, according to new research. -
The Quiet Frack, and Other Technology to Reduce Public Impact
Aug 24, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
New technologies are reducing costs and raising recoveries, but as pressure pumper Liberty Oilfield Services demonstrated Tuesday in Denver, innovation has not only improved equipment, but it's helping to assuage relationships with nearby communities. -
U.S. LNG for China Arrives via Panama Canal
Aug 24, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Jenny W. Hsu
The first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the lower 48 U.S. states to China arrived this week, thanks to the recently expanded Panama Canal’s easing access to the robust Asian market for U.S. gas exporters. -
Natural Gas Exports Expanding, Good Business For Texas
Aug 24, 2016 | Houston Chronicle
By Chris Tomlinson
The United States is breaking records for natural gas exports to Mexico, according to energy data firm S&P Global Platts, and analysts say sending liquefied gas to the rest of the world could become a big business for Texas. -
Gulf Coast Booming With Propane, Butane And Now LNG Exports
Aug 24, 2016 | Fuel Fix
By Jordan Blum
The Houston Ship Channel and the Gulf Coast region are increasingly exporting almost every type of product derived from shale natural gas and oil, energy executives said Wednesday. -
U.S. Awards $28 Million for Cleaner Fossil-Fuel Research
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
Projects to develop cost-competitive solutions for fossil fuel-based power generation with nearly zero emissions will receive $28 million from the Energy Department, the department announced Aug. 24. -
(ACC Mentioned) Making Trains Safer
Aug 25, 2016 | The Register Guard
The issue of railroad safety is a prime example of the difficulties that can arise when public safety bumps up against increased cost to private industry. -
Energy Transfer Shale Oil Pipeline Build Delayed by Protests
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Meenal Vamburkar
Protests by Native American groups are slowing construction of an Energy Transfer Partners LP oil pipeline that could ship almost half of Bakken shale production out of North Dakota to refiners across the Midwest and Gulf Coast. -
Susan Sarandon, Shailene Woodley Headline D.C. Protest
Aug 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Sign-carrying activists protesting the Dakota Access pipeline rallied today outside the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the project that would carry a half-million barrels of crude each day from the Bakken formation to Illinois refineries. -
'A Real Commitment Backed Up By Real Power': Gov. Jerry Brown To Sign Sweeping New Climate Legislation
Aug 25, 2016 | Los Angeles Times
By Chris Megerian
Gov. Jerry Brown marked a milestone for California’s climate change policies Wednesday even as he warned of more battles to come, saying opponents of new environmental regulations were “vanquished” as lawmakers approved tougher plans for cracking down on greenhouse gas emissions. -
California Passes Bills to Set 2030 Carbon Emissions Target
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
California lawmakers sent two measures to extend California's landmark climate statute beyond 2020 to the governor's desk.
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Judge Rejects Bay Area Cities’ Monsanto PCB Lawsuits
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joyce E. Cutler
Three California cities have three weeks to devise arguments that Monsanto Co. should be held liable for polychlorinated biphenyls contamination in San Francisco Bay, a federal judge ruled (City of San Jose v. Monsanto Co., N.D. Cal., No. 5:15-cv-03178, order granting motions to dismiss filed 8/22/16; City Of Oakland v. Monsanto Co., N.D. Cal., No. 5:15-cv-05152,order granting motion to dismiss filed 8/22/16, City of Berkeley v. Monsanto Co., N.D. Cal., No. 5:16-cv-00071, order granting motions to dismiss filed 8/22/16).
San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley, Calif., lack standing to sue Monsanto over decades-old contamination from PCBs that eventually made it to the cities’ municipal stormwater systems, Judge Edward Davila, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled Aug. 22 in dismissing their public nuisance lawsuits.
PCBs Run Through It
“The Cities do not take ownership of stormwater merely because it flows through municipal pipes on its way to the Bay,” Davila said, ruling 13 days after holding oral arguments.
The dismissals are the first ruling to emerge from a flurry of recent “super tort” lawsuits West Coast cities filed seeking to hold Monsanto liable for allegedly polluting public waterways with polychlorinated biphenyls made decades ago to insulate electrical equipment.
The cities contend they've incurred costs to clean up the discharge under state and federal requirements and that Monsanto, which was the nation's sole U.S. PCB manufacturer, should pony up its share of the clean up costs.
“However, as Defendants point out, the Cities have had to pay because of a regulatory requirement, not an adverse judgment. And although it may be true that the State of California could bring a public nuisance action against the cities, an equitable indemnity cause of action is premature unless and until the State does so and obtains a judgment or settlement,” Davila said.
Davila gave the cities until Sept. 13 to file amended complaints on the nuisance causes of action.
Rejection, Redo
“The court's ruling is a complete rejection of these contrived legal theories that confirms there is no basis in the law for these speculative nuisance claims by the cities,” Scott Partridge, Monsanto global strategy vice president, said in a statement. “San Jose, Berkeley and Oakland have been ill-served by the overly aggressive tactics of their contingency fee counsel, and we hope this ruling will conclude this matter.”
Cities are bearing the cost to reduce and remove Monsanto's PCBs from stormwater as part of their fundamental and important function of stormwater management, said the cities’ lead attorney, John P. Fiske, Gomez Trial Attorneys, San Diego.
“The Cities look forward to providing the court further information in the amended complaint regarding their stormwater management and legal standing," Fiske said in a statement e-mailed Aug. 23 to Bloomberg BNA.
Defense attorneys Aug. 23 notified the federal court in San Diego, where a judge is considering the first-filed test case against Monsanto pertaining to San Diego Bay, of Davila's ruling (San Diego Unified Port Dist. v. Monsanto Co., S. D. Cal., No. 15-CV-578, notice of supplemental authority filed8/23/16).
Monsanto is seeking to dismiss similar litigation in Seattle (City of Seattle v. Monsanto Co., W.D. Wash., No. 2:16-cv-00107, reply filed 7/29/16); Spokane, Wash. (City of Spokane v. Monsanto Co., E.D. Wash., No. 2:15-cv-00201, memorandum of opposition filed 7/23/16); Portland, Ore. (City of Portland v. Monsanto Co, D. Ore., No. 3:16-cv-01418, response filed 8/22/16); and Long Beach, Calif. (City of Long Beach v. Monsanto Co., C.D. Cal., No. 2:16-cv-03493, notice of supplemental authority filed 8/23/16).
Panel Had Rejected Consolidation
The panel on multidistrict litigation last April rejected the cities’ motion to consolidate the litigation in the Northern District of California (n re Monsanto PCB Water Contamination Litig., 2016 BL 110517, J.P.M.L., No. 2697, order 4/7/16).
Robert M. Howard, Kelly E. Richardson and Jennifer Casler-Goncalves with Latham & Watkins LLP in San Diego and Andrea M. Hogan, Latham's San Francisco office, represent Monsanto, Solutia and Pharmacia. Gomez Trial Attorneys, San Diego, Baron & Budd P.C., Dallas,and Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs PC, Houston, represent the plaintiffs.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=96257111&vname=dennotallissues&fn=96257111&jd=96257111
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Living Near a Fracking Site Is Tied to Migraines, Fatigue
Aug 25, 2016 | The New York Times
By Nicholas Bakalar
Living near a natural gas hydraulic fracturing site is associated with increased rates of sinus problems, migraines and fatigue, according to new research.
Scientists had 7,785 randomly selected participants in a large Pennsylvania health system fill out health questionnaires. About a quarter met criteria for one or more of three disorders: chronic rhinosinusitis, migraine headaches and severe fatigue.
The study, in Environmental Health Perspectives, ranked participants according to how closely they lived to fracking sites and larger wells. Compared with those in the bottom one-quarter by this measure, those in the top one-quarter were 49 percent more likely to have sinusitis and migraines, 88 percent more likely to have sinusitis and fatigue, 95 percent more likely to have migraines and fatigue, and 84 percent more likely to have all three symptoms.
The senior author, Dr. Brian S. Schwartz, a physician and environmental epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, acknowledged that there may be variables the researchers did not account for, and that this was an observational study that does not prove cause and effect.
But, he said, “there have now been seven or eight studies with different designs and in different populations, and while none is perfect, there is now a growing body of evidence that this industry is associated with impacts on health that are biologically plausible. Do we know the exact mechanism? No. That requires further study.”
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/living-near-a-fracking-site-tied-to-migraines-fatigue/
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The Quiet Frack, and Other Technology to Reduce Public Impact
Aug 24, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
New technologies are reducing costs and raising recoveries, but as pressure pumper Liberty Oilfield Services demonstrated Tuesday in Denver, innovation has not only improved equipment, but it's helping to assuage relationships with nearby communities.
The oilfield services company earlier this month unveiled Quiet Fleet, a sound reduction technology incorporated directly into its fracturing (fracking) equipment, which reduces noise levels by an estimated factor of 3 versus a conventional fleet. The marvelous muffler drew applause at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association's 28th Annual Rocky Mountain Energy Summit, where attendees were all ears to hear about ideas that may reshape their world.
Liberty CEO Chris Wright shared a panel with Baker Hughes Inc.'s Hans-Christian Freitag, vice president of integrated technology, and GE Oil & Gas' Phil Mason, president of pressure control. Anadarko Petroleum Corp.'s Lloyd Stutz, who directs the global engineering technology group, moderated the session.
"We have to keep thinking the unthinkable," Freitag said of oilfield technologies. "We may fail tomorrow, and the day after have a solution..."
Privately held Liberty deployed Quiet Fleet into the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin of Colorado and in the first 10 days of operation, completed 210 fracture stages, Wright said.
"Ever since we began fracturing operations in Colorado three years ago, we have focused on innovation that addresses the three biggest impacts on local communities: noise, dust, and truck traffic," he said. "We are making big progress on all three. The Quiet Fleet is the culmination of two years of Liberty engineering effort."
In Liberty's demonstration video presented to the industry audience, the sound difference in the proppant operations was reduced sharply. The equipment was shown without the equipment and then with the muffler. The pressure pumping equipment was fracturing an estimated 80 bbl of oil a minute near a Colorado neighborhood. It appeared to make no more noise than a well tuned vehicle driving down a street.
"This is an industry driven by innovation and risk takers," Wright said. "We are extracting oil and gas in the DJ Basin now that has average time to drill a well down to four days. Wow."
Innovation became "more urgent" when prices collapsed in 2014 and definitely was not taken off the table, despite smaller budgets. Since the downturn, Liberty's average costs have fallen by 30%, while estimated ultimate recoveries at its Bakken Shale exploration company, Liberty Resources, have risen by 20-30%. As important to Liberty is being a good neighbor, said Wright, a Colorado native.
Reducing Noise, Dust, Trucks
"Noise, dust and truck traffic are more sensitive in Colorado because most development is in or near communities," he said. Since Liberty began fracking in the DJ three years ago, it has worked to containerize sand, among other things, to remove the "noisiest piece of equipment from fracking. It almost completely gets rid of dust from frack sand, ends the line of trucks waiting on the side of the road. And it's also making it much quieter...
"Wash, rinse repeat," he said of innovating. "That's the path to get excited about."
Freitag, who began working at Baker Hughes in 2002, said the "price crisis" has made it "mandatory to take a step back to see what we are doing and do it differently...We have a social responsibility, a license to operate. The oil industry doesn't live in an isolated bubble. We are part of the world," making it imperative to employ the best technology and continuously innovate.
"From that point of view, it's the industry's time to experiment, try new things," Freitag said. "It can be as simple as reducing noise, emissions, frack water treatments...There are loads of opportunities for the next generation to make the industry more efficient and effective.
"What the public doesn't see is that energy is as important as it is," he said. "It brings with it a choice," whether it's wind, solar or fossil fuels. "Nothing is for free. You have to put everything together to have the right mix."
The best solutions most often are "elegant" and "clever," Freitag said. "Sometimes it is so simple." For instance, one of Baker Hughes' "clever" solutions was to develop a fracking chemistry solution that begins activating when it is hit by water. It also is analyzing new technology to "steer" wells, which enable them to be drilled 10,000 feet deep within a zone that's no wider than six feet.
Self-Steering Drilling
"To keep that well in that zone today requires human interaction," Freitag said. "Why not have it be autonomous, able to steer and navigate?" A steering system could regulate the mud flow and rate of pressure.
"These are clever solutions...for the drilling process. Where Google has the self-driving car, our industry has a lot of runway still to explore."
At GE Oil & Gas, the workforce is driven by a need to "eliminate and defer discretionary spending," Mason said. The energy business unit's three core themes are to standardize technology, offer digital solutions and collaboration -- part of its aim to transform the future of oil and gas.
Integrity Monitoring System
For example, an asset integrity management system predicts when an asset is going to fail, alerting when inspections are needed and inspecting equipment without taking them out of service.
Collaborating with partners also allows GE Oil & Gas to "focus on how to spend on things that make the biggest difference in the immediate future," Mason said. Improving artificial lift systems are on the drawing board, with one system designed to make electrical submersible pumps, or ESPs, up to 94% more efficient.
"The process is important in getting to the answer," Mason said.
Innovations still are needed, and a better industry-wide solution has to be found to reduce seismic activity from disposal wells, according to Wright.
"In seismic activity, we haven't done a very good job...The Earth is a solid, but it's moving, and when things move, they create faults. And when the fault slips, it's an earthquake." Most fracks never trigger seismic events of more than 2 magnitude, but injection wells are not fracks -- they are done over a long time and they are continuous, which makes them more prone to seismic events, Wright said.
Lessening Seismic Impact
In Oklahoma, the spate in quake activity in the last couple of years has been linked to wastewater injection wells (see Shale Daily, July 14). The produced water is flowing into the Arbuckle formation, Wright explained. "It's right on top of basement rock, and there are big faults. The fluid is leaking in and raising pressure, causing them to slip.
"The good news is, it's very, very solvable. The vast majority of injection water is not going to induce earthquakes. But we need to be eyes open about it, and measure where we're doing it. Do simple seismic monitoring. It's very solvable, but we've been slow on the uptake."
Managing "human knowledge" is key in solving oil and gas issues, Freitag told the audience. Like his panel peers, he also is concerned about the brain drain as older experts retire and young people flee the industry, even though it offers challenges unlike any other.
"We have a lot of knowledge, but how do we make it accessible for future generations?" Freitag asked. "We have to rethink, and find some sort of clever GPS [global positioning system] for knowledge in the oilfield...We can create our own materials; we use nanotechnology to make new chemicals. We work at pressure and temperatures in hostile environments that are second to none on this planet. What we have going against us is a lack of publicity..."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/107514-the-quiet-frack-and-other-technology-to-reduce-public-impact
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U.S. LNG for China Arrives via Panama Canal
Aug 24, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Jenny W. Hsu
The first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the lower 48 U.S. states to China arrived this week, thanks to the recently expanded Panama Canal’s easing access to the robust Asian market for U.S. gas exporters.
The shipment was chartered by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company confirmed to The Wall Street Journal. The cargo, from the Sabine Pass export facility in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, was delivered to the Yantian Port on Monday in southern China and was purchased by China National Offshore Oil Corp. as part of a long-term contract, according to S&P Global Platts, an energy and commodities information provider.
Cnooc didn’t respond to a request for comment.
U.S. LNG, which is usually transported on large ships that can’t fit in the older Panama Canal locks, hasn’t been able to compete in Asia. The new locks, which opened in June and can accommodate larger ships, mark a significant moment for U.S. exporters.
“The expansion has significant implications for LNG trade, reducing travel time and transportation costs for LNG shipments from the U.S. Gulf Coast to key markets in Asia and providing additional access to previously regionalized LNG markets,” the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
The new locks can reduce the travel time from the U.S. to North Asia for ships that couldn’t fit in the old locks by about one third—to 20 days—and cut transportation costs by about 30 cents to $1 per million British thermal units, said research consultancy Energy Aspects,.
“This shipment could be the start of many more U.S. gas cargoes coming to Asia, especially now more Chinese smaller independent gas companies are keen on buying foreign gas on a spot basis, ” said Peter Lee, an Asian energy analyst at BMI Research.
LNG is natural gas that is cooled in ultralow temperatures to a liquid form so it can be stored and transported by ship. Prices have recently come under intense pressure in Asia, which makes up 70% of the world’s demand, due to a gusher of new supply.
LNG producers expect to add 40 million metric tons of capacity in 2016 alone.
Meanwhile, demand in Japan and South Korea—the top two importers of LNG in the world—is falling due to such factors as a decline in overall power demand and an increasing reliance on coal. Moreover, many buyers have already signed contracts to take LNG from suppliers for the next decade or more.
“[This leaves] China as the main growth story for LNG in the region,” said Stuart Elliot, an LNG analyst at S&P Global Platts.
China’s LNG imports were up 21% on-year in the first six months of this year to 11.5 million tons. Australia and Qatar were the leading two suppliers, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.
Chinese government officials have said they want to increase the ratio of natural gas in the country’s total energy mix to 10% from the current 5% by 2020.
—Sarah Kent in London and Mayumi Negishi in Tokyo contributed to this article.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-lng-for-china-arrives-via-panama-canal-1472044735?mg=id-wsj
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Natural Gas Exports Expanding, Good Business For Texas
Aug 24, 2016 | Houston Chronicle
By Chris Tomlinson
The United States is breaking records for natural gas exports to Mexico, according to energy data firm S&P Global Platts, and analysts say sending liquefied gas to the rest of the world could become a big business for Texas.
The unanswerable question at the moment, though, is when.
The Mexican government began privatizing the entire energy industry last year, encouraging more electricity generation using natural gas from Texas shale wells. Exports to Mexico reached an all-time high this month, and additional pipelines currently under construction will expand that business, Platts Analytics, a forecasting and analytics unit of S&P Global Platts, says.
U.S. gas is making up for a drop in Mexican production due to declining wells and could increase increase to 5.3 billion cubic feet per day by 2021, a 2.4 billion build over 2015, Platts reported.
Wholesale U.S. natural gas prices are among the lowest in the world following six years of hydraulically-fracturing shale rock. But the industry developed too many wells, sending the price collapsing from $13 to under $3 for a million British Thermal Units, making new drilling uneconomical.
That's triggered upheaval in the natural gas business, with Cheniere Energy shifting from importing gas from overseas to building an export terminal at Sabine Pass that began shipping liquefied natural gas earlier this year.
Exporting America's cheap natural gas, much of it produced in the Permian Basin in West Texas and in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, could become a major business, analysts at Citigroup wrote in a note released Monday.
"What appears to be unfolding into next year is a seismic change in the functioning of the global LNG market," the report said, according to Bloomberg News. "The U.S. Gulf Coast is likely to begin to emerge as a major, if not the major, gas trading hub in the world, with cargoes being lifted and awaiting direction."
The problem is that the technology that enabled the huge boost in natural gas production in the United States is equally exportable, and hundreds of naturalgas projects around the world are also boosting production and driving down global prices.
New research by the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas suggests major uncertainty at least through 2023.
"The growth in the demand for LNG in the key markets in Asia which imported 72 percent of global production in 2015 and the increase in supply as new trains are being brought on-line has been outpacing the demand," author Andy Fowler wrote. "There is considerable uncertainty over when new supplies will be needed – on a low demand scenario it could be as late as 2023."
Natural gas is widely touted as a bridge fuel that will allow the world to stop burning coal while transitioning to renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar. That would suggest a huge market for the low-cost fuel, but the question is when will it demand grow and begin paying well enough to warrant new wells and the transportation costs to deliver it to customers?
A lot of people are promoting natural gas as a sure-fire investment, but that's a bet best approached with skepticism and along timeline for generating significant returns.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/outside-the-boardroom/article/Natural-gas-exports-expanding-good-business-for-9181659.php
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Gulf Coast Booming With Propane, Butane And Now LNG Exports
Aug 24, 2016 | Fuel Fix
By Jordan Blum
The Houston Ship Channel and the Gulf Coast region are increasingly exporting almost every type of product derived from shale natural gas and oil, energy executives said Wednesday.
Speaking at the two-day Gulf Coast Industry Forum — previously called the Petrochemical Maritime Outlook Conference — in Pasadena, top executives highlighted how the Port of Houston is the only major port in the U.S. to export more than it imports.
The region is shipping out crude oil, liquefied natural gas, ethane, propane, butane, refined fuels, petrochemicals and plastics to power the developing world.
The growth has helped make Houston’s Enterprise Products Partners the world’s largest exporter of propane. The company also exports butane and will ship out ethane when it completes the world’s largest ethane export facility along the Houston Ship Channel. Ethane is the primary feed stock for the booming petrochemical sector; liquefied petroleum gases like propane and butane are used for heating, cooking and transportation.
“I would’ve never thought 10 years ago that Enterprise would be a bigger exporter of LPG than Saudi Arabia,” said Anatol Feygin, senior vice president of strategy for Cheniere Energy.
Enterprise also has exported more crude oil than any other company since Congress lifted the decadeslong ban on exports in December.
“We had a vision five years ago watching the shale revolution that the U.S. was going to be long on hydrocarbons,” said Enterprise Executive Vice President Bill Ordemann, citing relatively stagnant U.S. consumption. “We felt like a vibrant export market was going to be necessary.”
Enterprise, however, doesn’t deal in LNG. That’s where companies like Cheniere and Houston-based Freeport LNG come into play.
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass export terminal in Louisiana exported America’s first load of LNG this year. Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG export terminal is under construction and a terminal in Freeport is scheduled to be completed in 2018.
But as the U.S., Australia and others export more LNG, demand is slowing in countries — such as Japan — that were expected to be the biggest consumers. Feygin said markets such as Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan are opening up and could help reduce a budding glut.
The opening of the Panama Canal expansion in July also will help open markets for American LNG, said Mark Mallett, Freeport’s senior vice president for operations and projects.
The canal’s expansion could boost business at the Port of Houston, Executive Director Roger Guenther said.
“I believe we’re in a significant position to capture new business,” said Guenther, adding that more shipments will come through the channel than by rail from the West Coast.
That means the channel could be further dredged and widened, he said.
“If you don’t have a channel you don’t have a port,” Guenther said. “We’ve got to take care of it.
“Our channel is going to continue to get bigger. The ships are going to get bigger. So we have to continue to push for federal support.”
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/08/24/gulf-coast-booming-with-propane-butane-and-now-lng-exports/
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U.S. Awards $28 Million for Cleaner Fossil-Fuel Research
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
Projects to develop cost-competitive solutions for fossil fuel-based power generation with nearly zero emissions will receive $28 million from the Energy Department, the department announced Aug. 24.
The 14 projects receiving the grants, which include three partnerships with General Electric Co. research groups, will aim to create coal-based advanced combustion power systems and advanced coal gasification processes and improve the cost and reliability of solid oxide fuel cells.
Recipients of the Energy Department funds will provide an additional $8.4 million.
The projects will support the DOE's Advanced Combustion Systems Program, which is working to develop lower cost combustion systems that generate electricity with nearly zero emissions.
The department said the projects will increase the efficiency of current and new fossil-fuel power sources and reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. They will take place in 11 states.
Advanced Combustion and Oxygen Production Plants
Three projects will be pilot plants based on advanced combustion systems, which will aim to be capable of 90 percent carbon capture. The plants will be more cost efficient and will be at least 10 megawatts in size. Each project is allocated approximately $3 million.
General Electric Co. and Alstom Power Inc., based in Windsor, Conn., are one of the recipients of funds for one of those projects.
The DOE also selected two recipients that will each receive approximately $2 million to develop stand-alone oxygen-production technologies to use in coal gasification processes.
They will produce oxygen that is at least 95 percent pure to use in small-scale (up to 5 megawatt) plants at a lower cost than commercial oxygen-production technologies. The plants will then increase the efficiency of producing syngas, a gas mixture that can be converted into clean energy, fertilizer, chemicals or liquid fuel, the DOE said.
The DOE also selected nine recipients that will each receive amounts ranging from approximately $170,000 to $4 million to improve the cost, reliability and effectiveness of solid oxide fuel cells, a solid-state electrochemical device that converts hydrocarbon fuels into electricity.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=96257131&vname=dennotallissues&fn=96257131&jd=96257131
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(ACC Mentioned) Making Trains Safer
Aug 25, 2016 | The Register Guard
The issue of railroad safety is a prime example of the difficulties that can arise when public safety bumps up against increased cost to private industry.
Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act in 2008 after a series of fatal train accidents. Among its requirements was installation by railroads of safety technology called positive train control by Dec. 31, 2015. This technology automatically stops trains before collisions or derailments occur, saving lives.
The railroad industry informed Congress that it couldn’t possibly meet the 2015 deadline, adding for good measure that the technology was unproven and that this was an unfunded mandate.
As the deadline neared, pressure on Congress to grant an extension increased. Shippers who use rail lines to move their goods, including members of the American Chemistry Council, warned Congress that adhering to the deadline would cause a nationwide disruption of rail service leading to widespread economic and public health disasters.
Even a one-month disruption would cause the national Gross Domestic Product to fall 2.6 percent, the council said. Household income would fall by $17 billion and people would stop buying cars and houses, causing a chain reaction. Other disasters would include a shortage of safe drinking water, the shippers added, because chemicals used to disinfect public water supplies are shipped by rail.
Faced with dire predictions of everything from economic collapse to cholera, Congress blinked, extending the rail-safety deadline for three years, to 2018, with the possibility of further extensions.
A report issued last week by the Federal Railroad Administration makes it clear that railroads have made very little progress in meeting the requirements of the act. For example, fewer than 10 percent of freight route miles and only a little more than 20 percent of passenger route miles have been equipped with the safety technology.
It is time for Congress to stop the foot-dragging by railroads and start holding rail executives’ feet to the fire, making it clear that they need to get moving on these safety requirements and that there will be no further extensions of the deadline after 2018.
“Every day that passes without PTC (positive train control), we risk adding another preventable accident to a list that is already too long,” the head of the Railroad Administration, Sarah Feinberg, said.
Railroad Administration officials warned Congress in 2012 — and again in 2013 and 2015 — that railroads weren’t making enough progress in implementing the safety technology, which has been around in one form or another for more than 45 years.
In 2015, while Congress was considering different options for extending the deadline for compliance, an Amtrak train derailed near Philadelphia, killing eight passengers and injuring more than 200. An investigation determined that the accident would have been prevented if a PCT system had been installed.
The federal government has provided more than $650 million in grants to passenger railroads and nearly $1 billion in loans to implement the safety technology. In addition, President Obama is requesting $1.25 billion for assistance to commuter railroads in his 2017 fiscal year budget, following requests of $825 million in both 2015 and 2016.
It’s time to stop the delays and implement this technology nationwide, as previously required by Congress, before more lives are lost.
http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion/34707660-78/making-trains-safer.html.csp
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Energy Transfer Shale Oil Pipeline Build Delayed by Protests
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Meenal Vamburkar
Protests by Native American groups are slowing construction of an Energy Transfer Partners LP oil pipeline that could ship almost half of Bakken shale production out of North Dakota to refiners across the Midwest and Gulf Coast.
Work on a portion of the nearly $4 billion Dakota Access Pipeline has been halted after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sought an injunction, arguing that the project “will damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.” A hearing in a Washington, D.C., federal district court was held Aug. 24, but there was no immediate ruling.
The 1,172-mile pipeline would run from North Dakota to Patoka, Ill., where it would join another Energy Transfer line running to Nederland, Texas. The 470,000 barrel-a-day line, projected to be in service in the fourth quarter, would reduce transport costs for North Dakota drillers who have been forced to turn to more expensive rail shipments when existing pipelines filled up.
Dakota Access would give Bakken operators flexibility they didn't previously have, said Gurpal Dosanjh, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. Transporting crude to the Gulf Coast could cost producers about $4 a barrel with the new line, compared with costs of $10 to $12 to transport the oil by rail from northern states, he said.
With a crude market downturn spurring widespread industry cost-cutting, the pipeline “doesn't necessarily make it viable at these places, but it brings it closer,” Dosanjh said.
Enbridge Stake
Enbridge Inc. and Marathon Petroleum Corp. agreed earlier this month to pay $2 billion for a minority stake in the Bakken Pipeline System, which includes Dakota Access and the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline, which will run from Patoka to Nederland. Enbridge shelved its Sandpiper pipeline project.
The site that has drawn protests from Native Americans and environmentalists is close to the border of North and South Dakota where the pipeline would cross the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
The dispute has drawn the attention of actors including Shailene Woodley and Susan Sarandon.
The halted construction “does not impact any of the construction going on at any of the other areas in North Dakota or the other states along the route per the construction plan we have in place,” said Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer. The halt affects a section that is less than one mile, she said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=96257117&vname=dennotallissues&fn=96257117&jd=96257117
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Susan Sarandon, Shailene Woodley Headline D.C. Protest
Aug 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Sign-carrying activists protesting the Dakota Access pipeline rallied today outside the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the project that would carry a half-million barrels of crude each day from the Bakken formation to Illinois refineries.
Actresses Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley and filmmaker Josh Fox spoke against the project, which has recently been given federal permits for more than 200 water crossings in four states.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit last month against the permitting agency, the Army Corps of Engineers.
"We are fighting for our first medicine, which is water," a representative of the Cheyenne River Sioux told the crowd today. "We're fighting for the next generation and the generation after that, through peace, prayer and unity — not through violence."
Tribes and environmental groups fear water contamination from the project, which they compare to the Keystone XL pipeline. KXL sparked years of protest before President Obama denied a permit to the project that would have linked Canada's oil sands region to Gulf Coast refineries.
Members of the Oglala Lakota, Navajo and Seneca nations stood in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux, who have also filed an appeal with the United Nations alleging human rights abuses.
"This is not just an Indian issue, it's a human issue," said Harold Frazier, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux. "Water is life."
A tribal leader offered a drum. Several men, while beating on the drum, sang sacred songs.
While decrying the pipeline, many tribespeople noted that their protest was a form of prayer.
The Dakota Access pipeline has vaulted into national headlines as members of the Standing Rock Sioux have camped out beside a pipeline construction site, temporarily halting work. About 2,000 people are now gathered at two camps in an effort to block construction. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) authorized an emergency declaration last week to bring police to halt the protests.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/08/24/stories/1060042019
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Aug 25, 2016 | Los Angeles Times
By Chris Megerian
Gov. Jerry Brown marked a milestone for California’s climate change policies Wednesday even as he warned of more battles to come, saying opponents of new environmental regulations were “vanquished” as lawmakers approved tougher plans for cracking down on greenhouse gas emissions.
"This is a real commitment backed up by real power," Brown said while flanked by legislative leaders from the state Senate and Assembly.
The two measures that Brown plans to sign would:require the state to slash emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, a stiffer target than the one currently on the books; create a new committee to oversee climate programs and require regulators to provide more detailed information on where progress is being made; andprod regulators to take stronger action to cut pollution from refineries and other facilities
Environmental advocates and clean energy companies have pushed the proposals as a major step forward for California, which has been touted as an international example for tackling global warming. Oil companies and some manufacturers fought the legislation, warning of higher costs and out-of-control regulators.
Left unresolved is the future of cap and trade, which requires companies to buy permits in order to release greenhouse gas emissions. Brown said new steps would be needed to safeguard the program, a crucial source of revenue for projects such as the bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, from a years-long legal battle over whether it is an unconstitutional tax.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-climate-oversight-legislation-jerry-brown-20160825-snap-story.html
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California Passes Bills to Set 2030 Carbon Emissions Target
Aug 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
California lawmakers sent two measures to extend California's landmark climate statute beyond 2020 to the governor's desk.
S.B. 32, which cleared the Senate on a 25-13 vote, amends the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (A.B. 32) to include a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The current law mandates the state reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
The companion bill, A.B. 197, creates a legislative oversight committee, to which the California Air Resources Board must report annually; adds two ex-officio members of the Legislature to the air board; and requires CARB to consider the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and prioritize regulations to reduce direct emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from large stationary sources and mobile sources.
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) said Aug. 23 he would sign both bills.
S.B. 32 would require CARB to develop “technologically feasible and cost-effective regulations” to achieve the 2030 target.
A.B. 197 would restrict the air board's independence in implementing the 2030 emissions reductions goal, University of California, Los Angeles law school professor Ann Carlson said in an Aug. 23 statement.
“The original climate legislation setting the 2020 target, A.B. 32, gave CARB a remarkable amount of power to figure out how to meet the goal,” Carlson said.
As a result, CARB has enacted a suite of policies including an economywide cap-and-trade program, low-carbon fuel standard for transportation fuels and other measures to shrink carbon emissions and other pollution from mobile sources, she said.
While provisions in A.B. 197 managed to sway enough lawmakers to support both bills, the Western States Petroleum Association and energy groups balked at the provision in A.B. 197 that requires CARB to prioritize direct emissions from stationary and mobile sources.
Republicans, Democrats Take Different Positions
Several Senate and Assembly Republicans said A.B. 197 doesn't go far enough making CARB more accountable, at times calling the air board an agency that has “run amuck.” As for the 2030 target in S.B. 32, they said the original climate bill, A.B. 32, has forced businesses out of the state, cost jobs and increased energy costs.
In contrast, Democrats said A.B. 32 has created thousands of clean energy jobs and curbed emissions. Setting a target beyond 2020 is needed to provide the certainty businesses need to develop the technologies needed to meet the state's climate policies and renewable energy standards, S.B. 32 author Sen. Fran Pavley (D) said on the Senate Floor.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=96257125&vname=dennotallissues&fn=96257125&jd=96257125
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