Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 8/26/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemicals Production Softens After Stable Period, Says CPRI
Aug 26, 2016 | Gas World
By Rob Cockerill
The American Chemistry Council’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that growth in the industry has been nearly flat for most of the year to date. -
Are Federal Agencies Putting Science over Fear-Mongering?
Aug 26, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Phil Goldberg
This summer, during one of the least productive sessions in recent history, a rare bipartisan achievement slipped through Congress under the political radar. Democrats and Republicans came together with environmentalists and chemical manufacturers to reform the Toxic... -
Boxer Calls on EPA to Regulate Asbestos Under New TSCA Law
Aug 26, 2016 | Morning Consult
By Jack Fitzpatrick
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) called on the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to regulate asbestos under the newly reformed Toxic Substances Control Act, which was signed into law in June. -
Boxer Urges EPA to Tackle Asbestos First Under New TSCA Reforms
Aug 26, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
Sen. Barbara Boxer, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, today urged EPA to include asbestos on its “top 10” list of priority substances to evaluate under the newly reformed Toxic Substances Control Act. -
Sen. Boxer Urges EPA to Start Process for TSCA Prohibition on Asbestos
Aug 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Anthony Lacey
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), ranking member on the environment committee, is urging EPA to use new authority in the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to start the process of developing a ban on asbestos, saying that some lawmakers who backed TSCA reform... -
Boxer Pushes EPA to Evaluate Asbestos
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Colby Berme
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today called on U.S. EPA to include asbestos as one of the first substances it reviews under the nation's recently reformed chemical safety law. -
EPA to Join OSHA in Enforcing Toxic Chemicals Safety Standards
Aug 26, 2016 | Trade Only Today
By Reagan Haynes
A newly expanded regulation will result in government oversight of workers using toxic chemicals by two agencies instead of just one. -
AHFA, Other Associations Set Formaldehyde Emissions Workshop
Aug 26, 2016 | Home Furnishings Business
The American Home Furnishings Alliance has joined forces with two other trade associations to stage an all-industry workshop Jan. 18-19 to help companies navigate the recently released compliance rules for the federal formaldehyde emissions standard. -
Competent Authorities 'Lack Resources' to Fully Implement REACH
Aug 26, 2016 | Chemical Watch
EU member state and European Economic Area (EEA) countries say insufficient financial and human resources are impeding the successful operation of REACH and CLP in their countries. -
Court, Regulatory Battles Ensnarl Bakken Oil Pipeline; Obama Asked to Intervene
Aug 26, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Regulatory and court challenges swirled around the four-state, 1,172-mile Dakota Access LLC oil pipeline project on Thursday, although for the most part construction aimed at completion by year-end continued. -
EPA Pushes Back Comment Deadline on Early Credit Program
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
U.S. EPA is giving commenters two extra months to submit their thoughts on a controversial portion of the Clean Power Plan. -
Chemicals Could Affect Fertility in Female Mice — Study
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King
Prenatal exposures to the chemicals used to extract oil and gas from shale could disrupt hormonal development in female mice, a new study shows. -
A 'Bit of Fear' Could Benefit Corporate Cyber Efforts — Former DOE Official
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
If power utility executives aren't devoting enough resources to cybersecurity, a few measured scare tactics might put them on the right track, according to a former Department of Energy official. -
EPA Fines Manufacturer $7,090 for Alleged Violations Connected to PCBs
Aug 26, 2016 | Pennsylvania Record
By Dawn Geske
...According to the EPA, OMNOVA violated the Toxic Substances Control Act in a move of waste oil containing PCBs to a disposal facility. The company failed to follow proper procedures to handle the PCB waste and didn’t complete the required documentation for removal... -
(ACC Blog) New Study Finds Greater Access to Plastics Recycling Programs
Aug 26, 2016 | American Chemistry Matters
By Steve Russell
Good news on the recycling front: a new study found that more than 60 percent of the U.S. population has access to recycling programs for a wide range of plastics. -
(ACC Mentioned) Texas Scientist Wages Rare Campaign for EPA Advisory Post
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
As the Texas environmental agency's top toxicologist, Michael Honeycutt threw himself into a national fight last year against tighter ozone standards. -
California's Carbon Market is a Big Success. Here Are the Facts.
Aug 26, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Erica Morehouse
A decade ago, critics of California’s ambitious climate policies grimly described the kind of disastrous economy they said would follow.
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemicals Production Softens After Stable Period, Says CPRI
Aug 26, 2016 | Gas World
By Rob Cockerill
The American Chemistry Council’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that growth in the industry has been nearly flat for most of the year to date.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the business of chemistry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total.
The headline index for July rose just 0.1% on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This follows six months of relatively stable activity after a fairly strong fourth quarter.
During July, chemical production increased in both Africa and the Middle East and in the Asia-Pacific region. Activity was flat in Central and Eastern Europe, while production fell in North America, Latin America, and Western Europe.
The Global CPRI was up 2.3% year-on-year (YoY) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 108.5% of its average 2012 levels in July.
During July, capacity utilisation in the global business of chemistry declined 0.2 percentage points to 78.9%; this is off from 80.5% last July and is below the long-term (1987-2015) average of 89.2%.
Results were largely positive on a product basis during July. Weakness in the production of pharmaceuticals was offset by gains in agricultural chemicals, consumer products, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, plastic resins, synthetic rubber, manufactured fibres, coatings, and other specialties.
http://www.gasworld.com/global-chemicals-production-softens/2010901.article
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Are Federal Agencies Putting Science over Fear-Mongering?
Aug 26, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Phil Goldberg
This summer, during one of the least productive sessions in recent history, a rare bipartisan achievement slipped through Congress under the political radar. Democrats and Republicans came together with environmentalists and chemical manufacturers to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
So, what was the secret to TSCA’s success? All of these groups were unified behind a common regulatory vision: chemical regulation must be based on scientific risk alone. TSCA requires EPA to integrate scientific determinations of a chemical’s hazard, use and exposure potential so that facts, not political or fear-based agendas, are the driving force behind chemical regulations.
To be sure, TSCA is a compromise. No one thinks it is perfect. EPA gained authority over chemical regulations, and industry got a streamlined regulatory process. The Environmental Defense Fund called TSCA “a major improvement.” The Society of the Plastics Industry said consumers can have “confidence in the products they depend upon each day, while giving companies a more predictable regulatory system that is based on science rather than rhetoric.”
This fact-driven approach sounds obvious, but it has not always been the driving force for regulations, regardless of which party is in power. For many, EPA has become a symbol for agenda-driven regulation, with the U.S. Supreme Court striking down several EPA regulations and decisions over Agency’s attempts at exercising its authority. These high-profile episodes, though, should not overshadow where EPA has properly adhered to neutral governance.
Again, take EPA’s relationship with the chemical industry. In March of this year, EPA entered an agreement with manufacturers to help it regulate silicone materials called “siloxanes” based on real-life field tests, not computer modeling. Siloxanes enhance the qualities of certain materials, providing important benefits to products used in health care, construction, transportation, cosmetics, electronics and many other areas of the economy.
Regulatory bodies, including Health Canada, the European Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety and the U.S. Cosmetics Ingredient Review, long ago concluded that siloxanes present no risk to human health. But, recent computer-based modeling in Norway raised alarms of potential environmental impacts when disposed. Computer modeling has become an increasingly useful tool in raising warning flags about potential health and environmental risks, but it has limitations. It is not based on real-life results, such as epidemiological studies and field tests.
It turns out that this particular modeling was based on the wrong analytical foundation. The model was designed for carbon-based chemistries, not siloxanes. Despite this fact, European regulators moved forward with restrictions on siloxanes based on these models. Health Canada and now EPA have taken a more fact-based approach. After conducting a multi-disciplinary evaluation of siloxanes, Health Canada found that siloxanes migrate to the air and degrade rapidly, and do “not pose a danger to the environment or its biological diversity.”
EPA is now undertaking a similar study of real-life data. Pursuant to the agreement reached in March, Siloxane manufactures are gathering samples at 14 sites, including four manufacturing or processing sites and nine wastewater treatment plants. This data will be shared with EPA so that the agency can determine if warnings raised by the modeling have merit. EPA’s goal is to finalize the report next year and release it to the public. The Agency should be commended for not succumbing to the same fears as their European counterparts.
Coupling studies that may not be fully on-point with alarmist rhetoric have become powerful tools of groups that oppose chemicals and other new technologies, especially in the age of cable TV and social media. These groups are well-skilled at playing on people’s anxieties – just look at the campaigns against GMOs, large-scale farming, chemicals such as BPA, certain medicines, turf soccer fields, and the like. Questioning technology is important, but science, not fear-mongering should rule the day.
That’s why the rare moment of harmonic convergence around TSCA was so important. Hopefully this example of evidence-based legislation can lay the foundation for a return to public problem-solving in Washington, regardless of who wins this year’s elections.
Phil Goldberg is a senior fellow with the Progressive Policy Institute and a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Shook Hardy & Bacon, LLP.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/293402-are-federal-agencies-putting-science-over-fear-mongering
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Boxer Calls on EPA to Regulate Asbestos Under New TSCA Law
Aug 26, 2016 | Morning Consult
By Jack Fitzpatrick
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) called on the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to regulate asbestos under the newly reformed Toxic Substances Control Act, which was signed into law in June.
The original TSCA law, passed in 1976, gave the EPA such little room to operate that its first attempt to regulate asbestos was ruled illegal according to the law’s language, which left many chemical regulations up to states. The new law gives the EPA a greater ability to regulate, and it calls on the agency select 10 chemicals by mid-December to review for possible regulations.
Boxer, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy saying asbestos should be part of that first round. She pointed to research from the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, estimating that there are 15,000 asbestos-related deaths per year in the U.S., including 11,000 from lung cancer.
“The combination of well-documented, widespread and serious health effects and ongoing use
and exposure provides a strong basis for EPA to act quickly on asbestos,” Boxer wrote.Boxer was a late holdout on TSCA reform, expressing concern about how the federal law would pre-empt state chemical laws, which are strict in California. Boxer’s eventual support for the new law was key in reaching a final deal between House and Senate lawmakers.
https://morningconsult.com/alert/boxer-calls-epa-regulate-asbestos-new-tsca-law/
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Boxer Urges EPA to Tackle Asbestos First Under New TSCA Reforms
Aug 26, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
Sen. Barbara Boxer, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, today urged EPA to include asbestos on its “top 10” list of priority substances to evaluate under the newly reformed Toxic Substances Control Act.
The agency has until December to pick the 10 most crucial chemicals on which to focus its efforts for the next few years, and Boxer’s suggestion adds to mounting efforts to ensure EPA goes after asbestos, which is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and a non-cancerous lung disease called asbestosis.
EPA previously attempted to ban asbestos, but the initial language of TSCA made that difficult despite well-established science on its carcinogenic effects, and a court ultimately slapped down EPA’s ban. The incident became one of driving forces for this year’s successful TSCA reform effort.
“Now that the impediments in the original TSCA law are gone, completing the job started by EPA in 1989 would send a strong signal that the new law can be effective in addressing the most dangerous chemicals in commerce,” Boxer wrote.
Boxer notes that, although it was not successfully banned, asbestos’ use has declined and production within the U.S. has ended. Still, because of the long timeline after exposure to develop medical problems, some 15,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases annually, according to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.
“EPA should seize this opportunity by including asbestos in the first 10 chemicals that it acts on under the new law,” she wrote.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Sen. Boxer Urges EPA to Start Process for TSCA Prohibition on Asbestos
Aug 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Anthony Lacey
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), ranking member on the environment committee, is urging EPA to use new authority in the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to start the process of developing a ban on asbestos, saying that some lawmakers who backed TSCA reform did so with the expectation it would help EPA issue the prohibition.
The law, signed by President Obama on June 22, requires EPA to decide by mid-December on a list of 10 chemicals that it will prioritize for review and determine whether to restrict or ban their use. Boxer in an Aug. 26 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says asbestos should be one of the substances, because of its known adverse health impacts and the agency's previous rule to ban asbestos that a federal appeals court scrapped in 1991.
Asbestos is a known human carcinogen and exposure to the substance can cause major health effects including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and the non-cancer disease asbestosis, EPA says on its website.
Under the revised TSCA, “the U.S. now has the ability to be a global leader and join the many other nations that have acted to address the harms posed by asbestos. EPA should seize this opportunity by including asbestos in the first 10 chemicals that it acts on under the new law,” Boxer writes.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in a 1991 ruling in Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA struck down the agency's 1989 regulation banning asbestos -- issued under the original 1976 TSCA authority -- as unreasonable. The court said the agency had not met its burden of proof to establish the chemical's risk could not be reduced by any other regulatory means, and since then EPA has never proposed a similar limit on a chemical already in commerce.
The new law overhauls the old TSCA and takes many steps to address the legal hurdles that hindered EPA's asbestos ban, including removing language that required the agency to promulgate the "least burdensome" alternative and clarifying that EPA should not consider costs when determining whether a chemical is safe.
“Now that the impediments in the original TSCA law are gone, completing the job started by EPA in 1989 would send a strong signal that the new law can be effective in addressing the most dangerous chemicals in commerce,” Boxer says in her letter to McCarthy.
Asbestos Ban
The senator argues that a ban on asbestos is necessary because “numerous members of Congress” during the debate on the then-pending TSCA reform bill cited EPA's difficulties in regulating the substances as one reason for overhauling the toxics law and bolstering the agency's regulatory authority on chemicals.
“Congress was also clear in the recently-passed legislation that regulating asbestos should be one of EPA’s top priorities -- the bill directs EPA to give priority to chemicals like asbestos that are known human carcinogens and have high acute and chronic toxicity,” Boxer writes.
Although the TSCA reform law does not mention asbestos by name in the legislative text, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) -- which supports a ban on the substance -- previously told Inside EPA that the law is written to allow such a prohibition.
Under the new TSCA law, EPA's first 10 chemicals to undergo risk review must be drawn from a 2014 TSCA Work Plan that was designed to focus the efforts of its program to address risks from chemical chemicals. "I am confident EPA will select asbestos as one of the 10 work plan chemicals" in the first round of reviews, ADAO President/CEO and Co-Founder Linda Reinstein said in a July 11 interview.
Obama in his remarks at the law's signing ceremony cited the agency's inability to regulate asbestos as one of the reasons for supporting TSCA reform. "The system was so complex, it was so burdensome that our country hasn't even been able to uphold a ban on asbestos -- a known carcinogen that kills as many as 10,000 Americans every year. I think a lot of Americans would be shocked by all that," the president said. "I think most Americans would expect that we could come together to fix this law and do a better job protecting the American people."
But one industry source has previously noted that asbestos has been largely removed from commerce and “wouldn't seem high-priority” for regulation under the new TSCA law. The TSCA revisions says that the agency must designate a chemical as “high priority” for regulatory action.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/sen-boxer-urges-epa-start-process-tsca-prohibition-asbestos
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Boxer Pushes EPA to Evaluate Asbestos
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Colby Berme
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today called on U.S. EPA to include asbestos as one of the first substances it reviews under the nation's recently reformed chemical safety law.
In a letter sent to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Boxer said selecting asbestos for evaluation would "would send a strong signal that the new law can be effective in addressing the most dangerous chemicals in commerce."
The ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer helped push the reforms to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. Under the new law, EPA must identify 10 chemicals that will be subject to risk evaluations.
In her letter, Boxer cited reports from EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey and the World Health Organization, saying that, "The combination of well-documented, widespread and serious health effects and ongoing use and exposure provides a strong basis for EPA to act quickly on asbestos."
She added, "With the new tools provided by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, the U.S. now has the ability to be a global leader and join the many other nations that have acted to address the harms posed by asbestos. EPA should seize this opportunity by including asbestos in the first 10 chemicals that it acts on under the new law."
Once the chemicals are identified, risk evaluations must be done for each. The law calls for completing the evaluations within three years of designation, with a six-month extension possible if more data are needed.
If EPA meets its 10-chemical nomination deadline in December, those final evaluations would be due at the latest by June 19, 2020. The same three-year evaluation period applies to any future chemical designated as high-priority (Greenwire, July 1).
Under TSCA, the Clean Air Act and a Consumer Product Safety Commission ban, asbestos cannot be used in certain products.
Exposure to asbestos, the mineral fiber often used in building construction materials, has been linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
In 2012, EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) put asbestos on its list of chemicals that the office wants to study further for possible risks. A risk assessment for asbestos has not been drafted yet.
A peer review committee this week did approve, however, OPPT's draft risk assessment of 1-Bromopropane, a possible human carcinogen used in cleaners and degreasers. The approval of 1-BP's draft risk assessment was the EPA-established Chemical Safety Advisory Committee's first since the Lautenberg Act was signed (Greenwire, Aug. 25).
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization is also lobbying for asbestos to be one of the 10 high-priority chemicals. According to the group, 15,000 Americans die every year from asbestos-related diseases.
"ADAO will continue to be a stakeholder at the table pushing for an expedited full ban on asbestos," the group's president, Linda Reinstein, wrote in a June blog post.
The nonprofit Environmental Working Group named asbestos as the No. 1 chemical it wants EPA to review first (Greenwire, July 21).
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) called on McCarthy in June to include perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) among the first 10 chemicals considered. PFOA was used to make Teflon cookware, plastics and fabrics.
Additional EPA action
EPA also announced today that it is establishing the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals, as mandated under the Lautenberg Act.
The SACC will provide advice on "the scientific and technical aspects of risk assessments, methodologies, and pollution prevention measures or approaches supporting implementation" of the Lautenberg Act.
The agency is seeking nominations to the committee. A public comment period on the SACC nominees will end in early November.
The agency also today named five mercury compounds that cannot be exported beginning in 2020, as required under the Lautenberg Act.
Click here to read Boxer's letter.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/08/26/stories/1060042122
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EPA to Join OSHA in Enforcing Toxic Chemicals Safety Standards
Aug 26, 2016 | Trade Only Today
By Reagan Haynes
A newly expanded regulation will result in government oversight of workers using toxic chemicals by two agencies instead of just one.
The Environmental Protection Agency will now oversee workers’ safety standards under a revised Toxic Substances Control Act, in addition to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“To summarize, it’s a piece of legislation that made a lot of sense, but will have a negative consequence down the road,” National Marine Manufacturers Association government relations vice president John McKnight told Trade Only Today. “Oversight over worker exposure to chemicals has always been exclusively up to OSHA.”
Environmental health and union representatives urged the EPA during public meetings held Aug. 9-10 to use its new authority under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act to protect workers and other at-risk groups. Worker safety and protection from exposure to industrial chemicals on the job received particular attention at the meetings, according to Bloomberg BNA.
The result will be two regulatory agencies for businesses to deal with instead of just one, McKnight said.
“On the legislative side, that’s what we oppose in our federal and state group here in Washington, D.C.” — a growing government that pushes further regulation, McKnight said.
http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2016/08/epa-to-join-osha-in-enforcing-toxic-chemicals-safety-standards/
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AHFA, Other Associations Set Formaldehyde Emissions Workshop
Aug 26, 2016 | Home Furnishings Business
The American Home Furnishings Alliance has joined forces with two other trade associations to stage an all-industry workshop Jan. 18-19 to help companies navigate the recently released compliance rules for the federal formaldehyde emissions standard.
The workshop will be held at The Conference Center at Guilford Technical Community College, located off Interstate 40 on NC Highway 68, about seven miles from Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C.
The AHFA has partnered with the International Wood Products Assn. and the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Assn. for the event.
“Members of AHFA, IWPA and KCMA have been at the forefront of formaldehyde emissions regulation for years – first with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and, more recently, with EPA,” said AHFA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Bill Perdue. “There are differences between the CARB rule and the federal rule, and we all agreed a joint industry workshop was needed to help our members understand those nuances.”
In July, the EPA issued its final rule to regulate formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products used as component parts in finished goods sold in the United States. The rule, which added Title VI to the Toxic Substances Control Act, impacts both domestic and imported finished goods.
“All suppliers of composite wood products need to move quickly to be ready for the roll-out of the new EPA regulations and the new TSCA import certification. Attending this event will help firms jumpstart that process,” noted IWPA Executive Director Cindy Squires.
Providing an overview of the federal rule will be Erik Winchester of the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which was responsible for drafting the federal rule and its implementation guidelines.
Additional confirmed presenters for the two-day workshop include Jackson Morrill, president of the Composite Panel Association, who will address the North American structure for accreditation bodies and third-party certifiers; Travis Snapp, founder and president of Benchmark International, covering the international structure for accreditation bodies and third-party certifiers; Michael Sullivan and Whitney Passmore of the law firm Womble Carlyle, explaining Section 770.3 labeling, including developing and implementing a system for demonstrating compliance for fabricators, importers, distributors and retailers; Lauren Hopkins and Mark Duvall, Beveridge and Diamond PC, addressing the development and implementation of measures to demonstrate compliance with the TSCA import certification; and Jill Witter, secretary and chief compliance and legal officer of Lumber Liquidators, who will describe the public firestorm that erupted in 2015 after her company was featured on “60 Minutes,” and how that affected the company’s documentation, testing and compliance structure.
In addition, the sponsoring associations are assembling a panel of resin suppliers to discuss no-added-formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde resins. Lynn Baker of the California Air Resources Board also has been invited to discuss the similarities and differences between the CARB and EPA rules.
Eugene, Ore.-based Benchmark International is a sponsor of the Joint Industry Workshop. The accredited, independent laboratory provides inspections, testing and certification services for wood, concrete and steel products.
“This is an opportunity for regulatory officials to educate a large and diverse supply chain,” Perdue stated. “Interested industry executives are urged to sign up early to ensure a seat.”
http://hfbusiness.com/hfbnow/ArticleId/14709/ahfa-other-associations-set-formaldehyde-emissions-workshop
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Competent Authorities 'Lack Resources' to Fully Implement REACH
Aug 26, 2016 | Chemical Watch
EU member state and European Economic Area (EEA) countries say insufficient financial and human resources are impeding the successful operation of REACH and CLP in their countries.
However, they are "generally satisfied" with the level of technical resources available.
The comments are included in submissions to a Commission questionnaire that member states and EEA competent authorities (CAs) must complete every five years. In the latest one they reported on REACH operations from 2010 to 2015 and on CLP from 2011 to 2014.
Forty-five REACH CAs in the member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway submitted responses. Six of the countries have more than one CA.
Enforcement activity
The report includes information on enforcement strategies and activities. Twenty one of the EU and EEA countries say they have implemented a REACH enforcement strategy. Malta, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia have devised a strategy, but not yet implemented it. Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Norway did not have a strategy.
Twenty six CAs have implemented an 'overall' strategy for the enforcement of CLP, with Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Norway not having done so. More than half say their CLP strategy is the same as, or similar to, the REACH enforcement strategy.
Most enforcement activities were taken against distributors and downstream users, as well as small and micro-companies, the report says. National enforcement authorities (NEAs) achieved this through monitoring and from results of previous inspections, instead of acting on incidents and complaints.
Compared with previous reports, CA data shows that more REACH enforcement activities addressed information in the supply chain and restrictions. Meanwhile, the majority of CLP controls focused on hazard classification and labelling, the report says.
SVHC and restriction dossiers
Eleven countries say they have been involved in the preparation of Annex XV SVHC dossiers, either individually or in collaboration with other CAs or Echa. Seven have consulted, or involved, other enterprises in their preparations.
Twenty six CAs say there is enough coordination between themselves and Echa in implementing the SVHC roadmap.
Nine say they have been involved in the preparation of Annex XV restriction dossiers, some of which were co-prepared with other CAs or Echa. Seven say they have engaged external enterprises in their preparation.
Dossier and substance evaluation
Fifteen CAs say they were involved in dossier evaluation during the reporting period. Most of these say the process achieved its objectives. However, some raised concerns about the "poor quality" of registration dossiers.
The number of substances evaluated by CAs has increased from 36 in 2012 and 47 in 2013 to 51 in 2014. In total, 23 CAs say they were involved in substance evaluation, citing the following issues:
· lack of expertise, capacity and financial resources; and
· registrants updating dossiers during the 12-month evaluation period, leading to changes in the evaluation process.
https://chemicalwatch.com/49258/competent-authorities-lack-resources-to-fully-implement-reach
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Court, Regulatory Battles Ensnarl Bakken Oil Pipeline; Obama Asked to Intervene
Aug 26, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Regulatory and court challenges swirled around the four-state, 1,172-mile Dakota Access LLC oil pipeline project on Thursday, although for the most part construction aimed at completion by year-end continued.
Mounting opposition turned to the Obama administration with 31 protesting groups asking for the president's intervention, and a lawsuit filed in a DC federal district court by Earthjustice is still pending a ruling on a preliminary injunction.
Echoing shades of the national protest groups that fought the now abandoned Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada, 31 environmental groups sent a letter to Obama, seeking to halt construction and repeal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) river-crossing permits for the $3.7 billion project linking Bakken crude oil to markets in the East and Gulf coasts.
The battlegrounds have focused on an Iowa regulatory hearing and federal court cases tied to challenges by opponents in North Dakota who have formed a "protest encampment" near parts of the construction, but Thursday the environmental groups, ranging from the Sierra Club to Waterkeeper Alliance, alleged in their letter to the White House that sacred the Standing Rock Sioux Native American Tribe's ancestral lands and culturally important landscapes are at risk.
In addition, the project, which is fully permitted and several months into its construction in each of the four states it crosses (North and South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois), could affect the Sioux water supply by its proposed crossing under the Missouri River upstream of the tribal water facilities, the opponents contend.
On Thursday, the three-member Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) denied an eleventh-hour request from 14 landowners along the pipeline route to stay construction work on their lands pending a ruling from the courts, but on a 2-1 vote the IUB gave them until 9 a.m. Monday to separately pursue a stay from the courts.
The environmental groups told Obama they support both the tribes and local landowners along the pipeline route, which have raised many belated concerns, despite the fact that the project has been in state and federal permitting processes dating back two years. In November 2014, Strategic Economics Group, a Des Moines, IA-based research firm, published a study concluding that the pipeline would provide several billion dollars worth of economic benefits to the four-state region.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday a DC federal district judge took under advisement the request for an injunction stopping some of the work that was filed by attorneys for Earthjustice on behalf of the Sioux alleging that the USACE has violated the National Historic Preservation Act by ignoring the tribe's concerns. A telephone conference on the matter has been set for Sept. 14, according to the district court clerk.
Work near the North-South Dakota state border south of the Standing Rock Sioux's reservation has become problematic, drawing fire power from Gov. Jack Dalrymple, pipeline backers and opponents, and various levels of governmental officials in North Dakota. Dalrymple earlier declared a state of emergency to "manage public safety risks associated with the protest."
On Tuesday, four skilled craft union presidents wrote to Dalrymple urging him to use his powers to further protect the jobs of "thousands of workers who are lawfully constructing the Energy Transfer Partners' (ETP) pipeline being built by Dakota Access Pipeline." And earlier a local county sheriff reported an ongoing investigation of two incidents of alleged laser strikes against aircraft being used to observe the pipeline protest site.
"Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a federal violation," said Kyle Kirchmeier, sheriff of Morton County. More than 20 people so far have been arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing onto the construction site, according to news reports. Protest leaders insist everything has been peaceful and no guns or drugs are allowed among the people occupying the protest camp.
Still pending, is Earthjustice's Sioux Tribe lawsuit and a request for a preliminary injunction to block construction of the pipeline. The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, argues that the USACE is violating the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to address the Tribe’s concerns about the pipeline’s impact to sacred sites and culturally important landscapes, and that the river-crossing permits need to be subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The permits for the Dakota Access project were granted using the USACE "nationwide permit 12," a fast track permitting process that has allowed the oil and gas industry to build numerous fossil fuel pipelines across the country, even on private property, without project-specific environmental review or public input process, the environmental groups contend.
"After years of pipeline disasters -- from the massive tar sands oil spill in Kalamazoo, MI, in 2010, to the recent oil pipeline spills in the San Joaquin Valley and Ventura, CA -- our organizations and our millions of members and supporters are concerned about the threat these projects pose to our safety, our health, and the environment," the groups said in their Obama letter. "[This] is yet another example of an oil pipeline project being permitted without adequate public engagement or sufficient environmental review."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/107543-court-regulatory-battles-ensnarl-bakken-oil-pipeline-obama-asked-to-intervene
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EPA Pushes Back Comment Deadline on Early Credit Program
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
U.S. EPA is giving commenters two extra months to submit their thoughts on a controversial portion of the Clean Power Plan.
The agency yesterday extended the deadline for feedback on its Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP) to Nov. 1.
The CEIP is voluntary and is meant to encourage early renewable power development and low-income energy efficiency projects. But many have suggested that as written, it may not work in the way the agency intends (ClimateWire, Aug. 5).
Critics have also said that because the Supreme Court froze implementation of the Clean Power Plan, EPA should not be moving forward with any work that necessitates official comments. Agency officials maintain they are on sound legal ground in pushing forward in writing the CEIP and in assisting states who ask for planning help.
States, companies and advocacy groups were working to finish comments on the CEIP before the original deadline of Sept. 2, and many had requested more time. Some had already come close to finalizing their submissions.
Arizona last week held a last-minute public meeting to review thoughts on the program.
Iowa's key agencies in charge of complying with the rule to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector had just submitted their comments Thursday when they heard about the extension. Iowa officials noted they support the goals of the CEIP but said it may be too complex.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Utilities Board and Iowa Economic Development Authority also have concerns about encouraging projects that may not yield enough money to be worth it to providers.
Under the CEIP, EPA would essentially provide extra carbon trading allowances or credits for certain early work to decarbonize the power sector. Those allowances or credits would have monetary value in a trading system, but Iowa agencies said they worry they won't be valuable enough in the early years of the rule's compliance period.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/08/26/stories/1060042096
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Chemicals Could Affect Fertility in Female Mice — Study
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King
Prenatal exposures to the chemicals used to extract oil and gas from shale could disrupt hormonal development in female mice, a new study shows.
The study, published yesterday in the journal Endocrinology, linked 23 of 24 commonly used hydraulic fracturing chemicals to lower pituitary hormone concentrations, increased body weight, altered uterine and ovary weight, increased heart weight, and other effects.
"The evidence indicates that developmental exposure to fracking and drilling chemicals may pose a threat to fertility in animals and potentially people," author Susan Nagel, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, said in a statement yesterday. "Negative outcomes were observed even in mice exposed to the lowest dose of chemicals, which was lower than the concentrations found in groundwater at some locations with past oil and gas wastewater spills."
Exposure to those doses outside the laboratory could be unlikely, said Katie Brown, a spokeswoman with the industry group Energy in Depth.
"In order for a chemical to be of concern for toxicity there needs to be a concentration high enough to cause harm and a pathway for contamination," Brown wrote in an email toEnergyWire. "With chemicals making up less than one percent of the fracking fluid, and even EPA stating that there's no systemic threat to drinking water from fracking, exposure to these chemicals is likely much greater from everyday products in your kitchen or garage."
There are still a lot of scientists who don't know about real-world exposures to the chemicals studied, said Nagel's co-author, Chris Kassotis, a postdoctoral researcher in Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.
"Certainly for some of the chemicals that we have examined, I have not found environmental levels reported as of yet," he said.
But the study's two lowest levels of exposure — 3 and 30 micrograms per kilogram per day — are equivalent to or below concentrations of some fracking chemicals found by EPA in Pavillion, Wyo.
"We're probably at human relevant exposure levels," Kassotis said.
The findings likely translate to fertility in human females because human and rodent hormone receptors operate similarly, he said, adding that the data suggest a need for a closer examination of human health impacts.
It's possible that the chemicals studied are coming from alternative sources, which is a topic for further research, Kassotis said (EnergyWire, April 6).
Backed by funding from the National Institutes of Health, Nagel recently traveled to Garfield County, Colo., to build on earlier research that suggested a link between oil and gas production and endocrine disruptors in groundwater (EnergyWire, Dec. 17, 2013).
A paper detailing her findings there is forthcoming, Kassotis said.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/08/26/stories/1060042079
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A 'Bit of Fear' Could Benefit Corporate Cyber Efforts — Former DOE Official
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
If power utility executives aren't devoting enough resources to cybersecurity, a few measured scare tactics might put them on the right track, according to a former Department of Energy official.
"You want to put a little bit of that fear and thought provoking in the C-suite," said Pete Tseronis, who now works as founder and CEO of Dots and Bridges LLC, a consultancy focused on critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and analytics. "That's what a [chief information security officer] of any company, and definitely in the government, should be doing."
Tseronis would know. He served as the DOE's inaugural chief technology officer from 2008 until last November. In that agency's C-suite, he said he had a front-row seat to the rapid grid transformations that have upended the North American electricity sector in the past eight years, from the rise of distributed energy resources like solar panels to new and unexpected cybersecurity risks posed by "smart" devices and sensors.
Tseronis noted that cybersecurity was a constant focus at DOE, but he said key utility decisionmakers in the private sector don't always get clear messages about the threat.
"If I'm talking about bits and bytes, synchrophasors and microgrids, threat actors and malware and ransomware, they may be like, 'What does that mean to me?'" he told EnergyWire. "That story to tell a CEO of a power company may be as simple as, 'Here's where we're at risk today.'"
A recent report by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a cybersecurity think tank, sought to shed some light on that risk by profiling the threat actors targeting energy companies around the world. The hacking groups mentioned in the report were allegedly responsible for a series of cyber intrusions in the oil, gas and electric utilities sectors dating back to the mid-2000s.
The ICIT report highlighted the Russia-linked "Sandworm" campaign and the group's cyberattack on Ukrainian power distributors late last year. That Dec. 23 power outage in parts of western Ukraine, though it lasted only a few hours, was the first such blackout known to have been caused by hackers (EnergyWire, July 21).
A briefing on the ICIT paper Wednesday was "not intended to invoke fear in the audience," according to Parham Eftekhari, co-founder and senior fellow at the think tank.
Rather, the cybersecurity professionals at the event set out to "discuss how we respond to this threat to what many consider to be the most critical infrastructure in our country," Eftekhari said.
But speakers had difficulty drawing a line between startling executives into action and going overboard with FUD — "fear, uncertainty and doubt."
Tseronis cautioned against adopting too much of an "alarmist" tone about the cyberthreat, but he also warned against taking electric reliability for granted. "When a city goes out and people don't have food, and panic and mayhem and pillaging and all that, you see the impact that not having energy or power can have on our daily lives," he said, later calling the Ukraine hack a "great example" of the cyber risk to U.S. infrastructure.
Beyond keeping the lights on, power utilities today are also responsible for safeguarding personally identifiable customer data and credit card information, Tseronis pointed out. Any leak of that information might not have the far-reaching impact of a power outage, but it still could provoke backlash from customers.
"If I'm a consumer and my power company's breached, I might say, 'Well, wait a minute, were they spending the money that they needed to to harden their back-end environment?'" Tseronis said, adding that right now, "you don't know that."
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/08/26/stories/1060042091
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EPA Fines Manufacturer $7,090 for Alleged Violations Connected to PCBs
Aug 26, 2016 | Pennsylvania Record
By Dawn Geske
A specialty chemical and emulsion polymer manufacturer received a $7,090 fine for alleged violations of transporting oil containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) handed down the penalty to OMNOVA Solutions Inc. as part of a settlement agreement with the agency. The violations stemmed from the alleged transportation of oil that contained PCBs from OMNOVA’s chemical manufacturing plant in Jeanette.
The company is headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, and produces a range of chemical products such as elastomers, binders, lubricants, emulsions and resins.
According to the EPA, OMNOVA violated the Toxic Substances Control Act in a move of waste oil containing PCBs to a disposal facility. The company failed to follow proper procedures to handle the PCB waste and didn’t complete the required documentation for removal of this type of substance, the EPA alleged.
PCBs are considered a probable carcinogen to humans and are thought to have effect on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system and endocrine system. PCBs were commonly used prior to the 1970s as a nonflammable coolant for electrical equipment and transformers.
In the 1970s, Congress strictly limited the use of this substance by enacting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. This gave the EPA the authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions for PCBs.
For OMNOVA, the agency alleges PCBs got into some oil during the manufacturing process, resulting in the $7,090 penalty from the EPA for its presence. Regarding whether the penalty was in line with other settlements of the same nature, Roy Seneca, spokesperson for the EPA, told the Pennsylvania Record, “There have been several modifications to the penalty amounts over the years based upon inflation adjustments.”
For OMNOVA’s penalty, the EPA relied on its Enforcement Response Policy that outlines its guidelines for PCB penalty violations, enacted in 1980.
“EPA has an Enforcement Response Policy for violations that involve PCBs,” Seneca said.
“The Enforcement Response Policy contains a Gravity Based Penalty Matrix that identifies penalty amounts based upon circumstances and extent of the violations."
Circumstance and extent are determined by such factors as the amount of waste involved in the violation, whether material was illegally disposed of, documentation errors, etc.
Since the alleged violation, OMNOVA has begun an investigation into finding the source of any PCB contamination so it can develop a permanent procedure to handle the removal of this substance during its manufacturing process.
It has already upgraded its oil disposal process to check for PCBs before disposing of oil. During this process, if it finds PCBs present in the oil, it disposes of the material at a facility authorized to handle contaminated waste.
As part of the settlement with the EPA, OMNOVA did not admit liability for the violation, which Seneca explained:
“The procedural rules governing administrative cases state that, in a consent agreement, the respondent can state that it admits the jurisdictional allegations, but neither admits nor denies the specific factual allegations.”
OMNOVA has said it is now in compliance with all related PCB regulations.
http://pennrecord.com/stories/511000184-epa-fines-manufacturer-7-090-for-alleged-violations-connected-to-pcbs
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(ACC Blog) New Study Finds Greater Access to Plastics Recycling Programs
Aug 26, 2016 | American Chemistry Matters
By Steve Russell
Good news on the recycling front: a new study found that more than 60 percent of the U.S. population has access to recycling programs for a wide range of plastics.
The study, “2015-16 Centralized Study on Availability of Plastics Recycling,” conducted by Resource Recycling Systems and Moore Recycling Associates Inc., looked at access to programs that recycle specific categories of everyday plastic packaging, like bottles, caps, cups, tubs and containers. Within those categories, the study differentiated recycling by resin type.
When it comes to plastic bottles, the study found that 92 percent of consumers can recycle HDPE bottles, like milk jugs; 78-81 percent can recycle PVC, LDPE, LLDPE, and PP bottles; and 76 percent can recycle bottle caps. For plastic tubs, containers and cups, 70 percent of consumers can recycle PP tubs and containers; 69 percent can recycle LDPE and LLDPE tubs; 61 percent can recycle PP cups; and 60 percent can recycle PS containers.
This study was part of the overarching “2015-16 Centralized Study on Availability of Recycling,” which was commissioned by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. This larger study looked at 49 different types of packaging and marks the first time that twelve packaging groups – including ACC’s Plastics Division – coalesced around a single methodology to measure recycling availability in the U.S.
The 60 percent figure is more than just good news about an increase in access to plastics recycling. The report is also significant because it provides data relevant to green marketing claims. Generally, the Federal Trade Commission requires that for an item to be marketed as “recyclable” without qualification, a substantial majority (at least 60 percent) of the consumers where the item is sold must have established recycling systems available.
Marketing a product as recyclable helps remind consumers that much plastic packaging is recyclable. And with increased access to plastics recycling, the easier it can be for consumers to recycle. And the more consumers recycle, the more recycling rates will continue to grow.
https://blog.americanchemistry.com/2016/08/new-study-finds-greater-access-to-plastics-recycling-programs/
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(ACC Mentioned) Texas Scientist Wages Rare Campaign for EPA Advisory Post
Aug 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
As the Texas environmental agency's top toxicologist, Michael Honeycutt threw himself into a national fight last year against tighter ozone standards.
Now he's campaigning for a seat on the U.S. EPA advisory panel that played a pivotal role in setting those and other Clean Air Act standards.
By Honeycutt's count, he's asked more than 100 people to weigh in with EPA this summer on behalf of his nomination to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. The 60 that followed through with letters and emails on his behalf have dwarfed the total endorsement for the other six candidates combined.
There's little apparent precedent for such a push. It's a sign the once-obscure committee — best known by its acronym, CASAC (pronounced kay-sack) — is gaining prominence as it approaches a review of closely watched standards for particulate matter.
"It's unusual, but these are unusual times," said George Allen, a Boston-based scientist who now holds the CASAC seat that's coming open and is being sought by Honeycutt.
The selection of Honeycutt — chief of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's toxicology division — could give Texas and other states "important input into the process," he said in an email, pointing to his experience in chemical risk assessment as one plus he could bring to the post.
His pitch for overt support was spurred by EPA's failure to advertise the 30-day public comment period on the nominations this summer, he said. "Had I not contacted people," he explained, "I'm not sure how they would have known."
The seat is supposed to go to a representative of state air regulatory agencies.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is expected to fill the slot by the end of next month, when Allen's term ends. Also nominated are the head of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; the data analysis chief for the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium; and senior managers with the Arkansas and Georgia environmental agencies, the California Air Resources Board, and the Western Regional Air Partnership.
The first three — Craig Butler, Donna Kenski and Bob Blanz, respectively — told Greenwirethey had not asked anyone to write U.S. EPA on their behalf; the remaining three could not be reached for comment.
McCarthy is under no legal obligation to consider public feedback. With "seven exceptional candidates" to choose from, any "would do a great job," Honeycutt said.
The seven-member advisory committee, created in 1977, is charged with providing outside expertise to EPA on regularly required reviews of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, particulate matter and four other criteria pollutants named in the Clean Air Act. Members, the bulk of them currently from academia, are paid $53 an hour for their time and serve three-year terms.
Many of those endorsing Honeycutt's bid were colleagues elsewhere in government or the academic community who lauded his integrity and expertise, according to copies of their letters and emails obtained by Greenwire under the Freedom of Information Act. They also included executives with Exxon Mobil Corp., the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and the American Chemistry Council.
Honeycutt's work on air quality, chemical risk and human health assessment would make him "an invaluable addition to CASAC," Michael Walls, the chemical trade group's vice president for regulatory and technical affairs, said in a letter last month.
The chemistry council, joined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and nine other states, is now among the industry associations suing to overturn the tighter 70-parts-per-billion standard for ozone set in October.
Earlier in 2015, Honeycutt had spearheaded a TCEQ workshop that strongly challenged the scientific rationale for any change to the previous 75 ppb benchmark (Greenwire, April 14, 2015). Among those also endorsing his quest for a CASAC seat are workshop participants from around the country and employees of a Massachusetts consulting firm that helped sponsor the three-day event.
To Texas environmentalists, the workshop typified a long-standing tilt in favor of business interests.
Honeycutt's record "shows a consistent pattern of ideological behavior, indicative of the appearance of a loss of impartiality," the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter and a half-dozen groups wrote EPA last year, when Honeycutt made an initial unsuccessful try for a CASAC seat. Citizens, they added, have found that Honeycutt "speaks more like a representative for industrial companies ... than a representative of a state environmental agency."
The letter was re-sent this week, according to another signer, Adrian Shelley, executive director of Air Alliance Houston, after they learned of Honeycutt's "hard-core" campaigning.
While industry groups might want to have their views represented, Shelley said, "it doesn't make sense to us to put him on that committee."
In his email, Honeycutt said he wants feedback and encourages scientific discussion with people who disagree with him. "Not everyone agrees on what is an acceptable risk," he said. "In my analysis of data, I rely on widely-accepted methods and risk levels."
David Sullivan, a University of Texas air quality researcher, also doesn't see Honeycutt as an ideologue.
"I believe that he is sincere, I believe that he is objective," Sullivan said in an interview. "I think a lot of environmentalists don't get that."
Political scrutiny
The committee's recommendations are not binding on EPA, but they can serve as a fulcrum for future objections. In tightening the ozone standard last year, for example, McCarthy settled on the upper end of a CASAC-recommended range.
But alongside the lawsuits from business groups and states charging that the new threshold is needlessly strict, EPA faces a challenge from environmental and health groups who say the latest research warrants further reductions to the standard to adequately protect public health. In a brief filed earlier this year, they cited CASAC's work dozens of times.
That work may be getting added scrutiny as critics argue that stricter air standards are bumping up against natural realities.
Although industry has a record of installing needed emissions controls, existing tools to address compliance "are being pushed beyond their limits as new, more stringent air standards are moved closer to background concentrations," Joseph Stanko, counsel to an industry group dubbed the NAAQS Implementation Coalition, wrote in a letter to EPA last month.
Background ozone has been a particular concern for Western states. In his letter, Stanko didn't stake out a position on any of the nominees but said EPA has shown a "striking lack of regional and institutional diversity" in filling the state slot.
Since 2000, the occupants of that seat have mostly come from the Northeast, while the committee hasn't had a member from a state air pollution agency since 2007, Stanko said. Instead, the seat has been filled by employees of regional air quality organizations who can be removed from the day-to-day challenges "experienced by state agencies faced with implementing multiple air regulations," he said. (The current seat holder, Allen, is a senior scientist with the Boston-based Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management.)
Echoing the call for more geographic diversity is the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies, which mainly represents state regulators in the South and West, and top congressional Republicans.
Since 2010, the committee has not had a single member from EPA regions 6, 7 and 8 — a 15-state tract ranging from Missouri to Montana — according to a letter from House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and seven other Republican lawmakers last month. In the interest of "balance, fairness and geographic diversity," they asked McCarthy to fill the seat with someone from an area currently not represented.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) made the same point more bluntly in a separate letter, saying that the "seeming geographic bias" cannot be ignored. He also objected to Bart Croes, chief of the California Air Resources Board's research division, on the grounds that the Golden State is already represented on the committee, and to Kenski, in part because of a previous stint on the panel (E&ENews PM, July 21).
Committee members are under scrutiny on another front. In April, Chaffetz asked EPA to turn over confidential financial disclosure forms for members of both the CASAC and another panel known as the Science Advisory Board. At the time, Chaffetz said his committee was looking at the agency's conflicts-of-interest monitoring (Greenwire, April 12). A spokeswoman had no comment today when asked whether EPA has supplied the requested records.
In May, a free-market advocacy group known as the Energy and Environment Legal Institute sued to disband a separate CASAC panel specifically working on the review of the particulate matter standards.
Because almost all panel members had received EPA research grants at some point, the group alleged, they were biased to the agency's view that tougher fine particulate limits are needed.
The institute voluntarily dropped the suit earlier this month but could refile, Steve Milloy, one of its lawyers, said in a recent email.
"All options are on the table," Milloy said.
Click here to read copies of public comments on the seven CASAC nominees.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/08/26/stories/1060042130
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California's Carbon Market is a Big Success. Here Are the Facts.
Aug 26, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Erica Morehouse
A decade ago, critics of California’s ambitious climate policies grimly described the kind of disastrous economy they said would follow. Skeptics have also tried to dismiss the state’s whole cap-and-trade program because demand for credits sold on the combined California-Quebec carbon market slowed this year.
Except, these naysayers’ predictions are missing the mark, as 10 years of clear facts now prove. California’s track record also helps explain why lawmakers this week moved to ramp up the state’s climate efforts – in which the carbon market is expected to continue to play a key role.
1) California is beating emissions targets
Today, California is ahead of schedule in meeting its nation-leading climate goals.
The state’s nearly 10-year-old climate program, of which the carbon market is the backbone, initially required a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, 15 percent below where emissions would be without regulation.
But the Golden State is expected to be well below 1990 levels four years from now; emissions have been below required levels every year for which we have data.
On the foundation of this remarkable success, the California legislature passed climate bills on August 24 that set targets for another 10 years into the future – while ratcheting up ambition. Under the new legislation, which Gov. Jerry Brown has said he will sign, the state will reduce emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
2) California’s economy is booming
Increased economic activity tends to be tied to rising pollution, a major challenge in the fight against climate change. Not so in California, which has instead grown to become the sixth largest economy in the world.
The state’s economic output has increased steadily since the recession as emissions have continued to fall.
In 2013 and 2014, the first two years of California’s experiment with capping carbon, the state added a whopping 900,000 jobs, a growth rate of 5.4 percent that by far eclipsed the national rate of 1.8 percent.
Many of those jobs are a direct result of investments in clean energy technology spurred by the state’s climate policies.
3) California is inspiring global climate action
The impressive first decade of California’s 2006 climate law, and the successful implementation of the world’s most comprehensive carbon market, have attracted numerous partners. States, provinces, cities and countries are watching carefully and taking action, a race to the top that is good for the planet.
At the Paris negotiations at the end of 2015, Gov. Brown led an effort that resulted in states and regions committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. A total of 135 states, provinces and cities, representing one-quarter of the world economy, have signed the agreement.
California is now partnering directly with several Canadian provinces to implement joint cap-and-trade programs, like it did with Quebec. It also established agreements to share information and work with Mexico and China on their efforts to price carbon. State’s reward: $23 billion in benefits by 2025
With full implementation, we project that California’s cap-and-trade and transportation regulations will result incumulative benefits from avoided health costs, improved energy security, and reduced social costs of carbon valued at $10.4 billion by 2020 and $23.1 billion by 2025.
It begs the question: Will the rest of the world continue to be inspired by California’s successful model as the globe shifts to a low-carbon, sustainable economy?
We think so.
https://www.edf.org/blog/2016/08/26/californias-carbon-market-big-success-here-are-facts
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