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ACC PM 9/2/16
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(ACC Mentioned) PVC Adaptability to be Showcased at VinylTec '16
Sep 2, 2016 | ICIS News
By Bill Bowen
Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is one of the most useful and ubiquitous of plastics of modern life with hundreds of applications in dozens of end-use markets today. -
Fern Abrams to Present on U.S. Chemicals Regulation at Prestigious Electronics Goes Green Conference
Sep 2, 2016 | I Connect 007
By IPC
On September 7, Fern Abrams, IPC’s director of regulatory affairs and government relations, will present at Electronics Goes Green 2016+ Conference in Berlin, Germany. -
(ACC Mentioned) ACC Questions Necessity of California's First Priority Product Designation
Sep 2, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
Industry groups have called into question the necessity for the first priority product designation proposed under California’s Safer Consumer Products (SCP) programme. -
EPA's Latest Draft ETBE Risk Review Echoes Criticized 2009 Assessment
Sep 2, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA is floating a new draft assessment of the human health risks of the fuel oxygenate ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) seven years after release of an earlier draft, criticized by industry groups and others for relying on a contested study from an Italian laboratory for its cancer review -- although the new analysis largely echoes the 2009 draft. -
(ACC Mentioned) Shale Gas 2.0: An Explosive Expansion of the U.S. Chemicals Trade
Sep 2, 2016 | Nasdaq
By Investor's Business Daily
Here's a tip: Keep an eye out for terms like ethane, ethylene, cracker and ammonia. These are keywords linked to a resurgence of domestic chemicals' manufacturing might. The boom is so broad that it's altering the global competitive landscape and luring a large segment of the chemical trades back to U.S. shores. -
The Problem with Natural Gas: Methane Emissions
Sep 2, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Karen Feridun
The largest methane leak in the nation’s history began last October in an underground natural gas storage facility in California’s Aliso Canyon. When it was all said and done, experts said that 110,000 tons of methane had leaked into the atmosphere over the course of four months and conjured up ways to describe the figure in relatable terms. -
Largest U.S. Grid Operator Can Comply With Rule — Study
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Northey
The nation's largest grid operator yesterday said it could comply with U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan while acknowledging its findings were based on unknowns about future nuclear reactor closures and gas pricing forecasts. -
EPA Defends Withholding 'Confidential' Data In Power Plant ELG Challenge
Sep 2, 2016 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
EPA is rejecting claims by utilities that it hid data used to craft the Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) for power plants by improperly labeling documents as confidential business information (CBI), saying challengers to the water rule are prolonging their suit through unnecessary litigation over the redacted data. -
Oil Slump Forces Cancellation of N.D.-to-Wis. Project
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Daniel Cusick
Canadian energy giant Enbridge Inc. effectively canceled its long-delayed Sandpiper oil pipeline yesterday, saying the North Dakota-to-Wisconsin line was no longer economical due to lagging oil prices and production cuts in the Bakken Shale oil fields of western North Dakota. -
Perspective: Roadway Worker Warning System Alternative to PTC
Sep 2, 2016 | Progressive Rail Roading
By Kevin C. Smith
In the next five years, we should expect all railroad and rail transit operators to voluntarily adopt suitable forms of electronic train approach warning protection for work crews and lone workers working on or fouling railroad tracks. -
Railroads Told to Provide Oil Train Spill Plans
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
Washington state's Department of Ecology has demanded that railroad companies transporting oil show that they are capable of immediatly responding to spills. -
Delaware Air Official Rejects Utilities' Criticism Of Ozone Transport Petition
Sep 2, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
A Delaware air regulator is defending the state's petition for EPA to directly regulate air emissions from a West Virginia power plant from attacks by Midwestern electric utilities calling for the petition to be withdrawn, rejecting the utilities' criticisms by saying they stem from an incorrect reading of the Clean Air Act. -
Energy Conference to Kick Off Work Next Week
Sep 2, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Lawmakers on a joint House and Senate committee will meet next week to begin crafting a compromise energy policy bill. -
Obama Shows What Not To Do On Climate Policy
Sep 2, 2016 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Nicolas Loris
President Obama sets off for his final Asia trip as commander in chief this week, and combating manmade global warming is at the top of his agenda. -
Obama to Use Post-Presidency 'Megaphone' on Climate Change
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Hess
President Obama wants to make climate change a big part of his life and work after leaving the White House next year, he said yesterday.
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(ACC Mentioned) PVC Adaptability to be Showcased at VinylTec '16
Sep 2, 2016 | ICIS News
By Bill Bowen
Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is one of the most useful and ubiquitous of plastics of modern life with hundreds of applications in dozens of end-use markets today.
Though invented by a series of accidental discoveries over decades around the turn of the 20thcentury, the plastic today, in its multiple forms, is driven by precise engineering approaches and finely tuned formulations.
To make the array of products that use PVC – from vinyl fences to blood bags, vehicle dashboards to water pipes – producers of PVC products have discovered and developed plasticizers, stabilisers and lubricants to create a range of formulations and plastic types.
“It is perhaps the most versatile thermoplastic known, given the array of products and properties that can be engineered,” said Mark Lavach, manager of polymer characterisation for Arkema.
It is also the third-largest produced in the US by volume after polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). And US production capacity continues to grow as industry players seek to capitalise on cheap US feedstock, most notably ethylene from ethane.
The US produced about 6.67m tonnes of PVC in 2015, according to figures from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Plastics Industry Statistics Group. Of that, about 2.56m tonnes were sold in export markets, according to data from the US International Trade Commission (ITC).
Lavach is also the chairman of VinylTec 2016, the annual technical conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers, focused on new products and processes used in the manufacture, compounding and processing of PVC.
Running 20-22 September, the gathering starts with a workshop for employees new to the vinyls industry, followed by two days of presentations on new products, advances in production processes, computational molecular simulations, 3-D printing and the ever-changing regulatory environment and its influence on end-use markets.
VinylTec has been around for more than 50 years, Lavach said. It is aimed at the resins producers, compounders, additives makers, processors and others who comprise the North American industry.
“The thing that makes vinyls so valuable are the many things that you can do to adapt its properties and characteristics to meet market demands,” said Peggy Schipper, business director for lubricants at Valtris Specialty Chemicals and a coordinator of the conference. “I liken it to cooking.”
In the recent past, US resin producers, compounders, processors and others have cooked up new formulations to meet environmental concerns about phthalate plasticizers, or to maximise performance in various applications or to simply create new products.
VinylTec has helped further those efforts, Lavach said.
“A lot of new products have been introduced through VinylTec,” Lavach said. “It’s where a lot of new ideas are first showcased.”
Lavach, who is also chairman of ASTM International's D20 committee on plastics, emphasised that standards, including product specifications and testing, also will be a subject reviewed at this year’s conference. ASTM was formerly the American Society for Testing Materials.
Highlighting the global nature of the industry, VinylTec will include an update on REACH, the European initiative to protect human health and the environment through the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances.
Major US PVC producers include Formosa Plastics, Occidental Chemical, Shintech and Westlake Chemical. Westlake's $3.8bnn acquisition of Axiall was completed this week.
http://www.icis.com/resources/news/2016/09/02/10030759/pvc-adaptability-to-be-showcased-at-vinyltec-16/
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Fern Abrams to Present on U.S. Chemicals Regulation at Prestigious Electronics Goes Green Conference
Sep 2, 2016 | I Connect 007
By IPC
On September 7, Fern Abrams, IPC’s director of regulatory affairs and government relations, will present at Electronics Goes Green 2016+ Conference in Berlin, Germany. Her presentation, “Evolution of U.S. Chemicals Regulation: Updating the Toxic Substances Control Act for the 21st Century” will provide an overview of the main U.S. Chemicals Regulation, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the long road to reform, final legislation and the key issues for the electronics industry.
In addition, Abrams will highlight the “whys” of TSCA reform, and main provisions within the final legislation, including preemption of U.S. state laws and regulation of substances in articles, and the U.S. EPA’s implementation plan for the next several years.
IPC supported the bipartisan efforts to reform TSCA because a strong, cost-effective, science-based federal chemical regulatory program is important to our members, who use chemicals to manufacture electronics for the nation’s defense, aerospace, automotive, consumer and other industries.
http://smt.iconnect007.com/index.php/article/99669/fern-abrams-to-present-on-us-chemicals-regulation-at-prestigious-electronics-goes-green-conference/99672/?skin=smt
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(ACC Mentioned) ACC Questions Necessity of California's First Priority Product Designation
Sep 2, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
Industry groups have called into question the necessity for the first priority product designation proposed under California’s Safer Consumer Products (SCP) programme.
This is according to comments submitted to a Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) proposed rulemaking on children's foam-padded sleeping products. This seeks to name as priority products those containing:
tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP); or
tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP).
According to the DTSC, to meet the criteria for a priority product designation, a product-chemical combination must have a potential for:
exposure to a chemical of concern through use, handling or disposal of a priority product; and
such an exposure to "contribute to or cause significant or widespread adverse impacts to people or the environment."
But the American Chemistry Council (ACC) says the DTSC's economic impact statement indicates that "many children's products manufacturers no longer use flame retardants in their products".
And the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) says in its comments that manufacturers have "taken action to remove TDCPP and TCEP in children's foam sleeping mats prior to the promulgation of this proposed regulation."
"If, as of September 2016, there are no products offered for sale in California that contain the flame retardants at issue, it is hard to see how DTSC could conclude that there is current, widespread and significant exposure to justify priority product designation,” says the ACC.
It adds the agency should engage industry stakeholders to "review and improve" on product-specific exposure and composition details before the release of proposed priority products. Such a step, it said, may show that a priority product designation is not needed.
"It does not serve the purposes of the statute to proceed with priority product rulemakings where manufacturers have phased out of chemistry,” says the ACC.
Economic impact statement
Beyond the product designation, the ACC also says it is deeply concerned with the proposal's economic analysis. The DTSC's economic impact statement (EIS), it says, yielded an "inappropriate and unsupported conclusion".
As noted in the ACC's comments, the EIS states that "it costs less to manufacture polyurethane foam without flame retardants than to produce foam with flame retardants."
But the ACC says such an assessment:
assumes a comparison of ‘material x containing substance y’ against ‘material x not containing substance y’. This does not factor in possible costs associated with other variables that may be changed to maintain the product function or performance;
fails to hold the product performance as a constant – that is, children's products with equivalent fire resistance;
does not address testing costs associated with ensuring the performance and safety of a reformulated product; and
fails to consider possible impacts to the lifecycle of the product.
The ACC says the DTSC should "consider developing tailored rules for conducting economic and fiscal reviews of subsequent priority product rulemakings that more closely supports the purposes of the SCP programme".
NGOs advocate broader designations
Californians for Toxic-Free Fire Safety, a coalition of NGOs, supported the priority product designation. It says there is a large potential for widespread exposure to TDCPP and TCEP from a variety of consumer products, including children’s sleeping products.
But it criticises the narrow scope of the rulemaking. It says it excludes other flame retardants of potential concern, and does not allow for the evaluation of a broader range of children's products.
The DTSC should "ensure that it has the ability to focus on and follow up on problematic classes of chemicals across multiple products to make best use of resources as well as make the biggest impact in protecting Californians’ health and environment,” it says.
Karl Palmer, branch chief for the SCP programme, says all comments will be reviewed and responded to in writing in the rulemaking package.
If the DTSC decides to make any substantive changes to the rulemaking, it will publish those changes and initiate an additional public comment period.
According to Mr Palmer, the next priority product rulemaking will be for spray polyurethane foam systems with MDI. The DTSC hopes to start the rulemaking later this year.
https://chemicalwatch.com/49390/acc-questions-necessity-of-californias-first-priority-product-designation
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EPA's Latest Draft ETBE Risk Review Echoes Criticized 2009 Assessment
Sep 2, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA is floating a new draft assessment of the human health risks of the fuel oxygenate ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) seven years after release of an earlier draft, criticized by industry groups and others for relying on a contested study from an Italian laboratory for its cancer review -- although the new analysis largely echoes the 2009 draft.
The agency released the new draft assessment Sept. 1, in advance of a public meeting scheduled for Oct. 26 in Arlington, VA. The agency is accepting written comments on the draft through Oct. 31. Industry groups are likely to attack the latest version as it mirrors conclusions on ETBE's cancer risks that they have said are wrong.
The new draft echoes its 2009 predecessor by concluding that ETBE presents “suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential,” though it uses as the basis for the conclusion a different study, one from the Japan Petroleum Energy Center industry research group, rather than the Italian Ramazzini Institute -- the study faulted in the prior review.
EPA's 2009 draft reached the same conclusion regarding ETBE's carcinogenic potential, but declined to calculate a cancer risk estimate for ETBE due to limitations of the study on which it based its cancer assessment.
EPA in the new draft assessment goes further by calculating those risk estimates, or estimates of cancer potency, for ETBE. The agency explains that it “concluded that the main study was well conducted and quantitative analyses could be useful for providing a sense of the magnitude of potential carcinogenic risk.”
EPA calculates an inhalation unit risk, or estimate of ETBE's cancer potency when inhaled, of 8x10^-5 per milligram per cubic meter of air (mg/m^3). EPA then extrapolates from the same Japanese study to calculate an oral slope factor, or estimate of ETBE's cancer potency when ingested, of 9x10^-4 per milligram per kilogram per day (mg/kg-day).
EPA's decision will likely anger long-time industry critics of the assessment, who argued that EPA's 2009 conclusionoverstated ETBE's carcinogenic potential. They questioned the 1999 study the conclusion relied on because it came from the Ramazzini Institute. Industry argued Ramazzini's unorthodox methodology overstated the risks of ETBE, methanol and other chemicals that its researchers studied.
The Italian research lab traditionally preferred to conduct toxicology studies over the lab rat's natural lifespans, and not to use pathogen-free strains of rats or caging, as are used in most American studies, which generally conclude after two years at most. The American practices are intended to reduce confounding factors in study results, but a Ramazzini official argued in a 2010 interview with Inside EPA that his lab's approach better approximated human life.
Industry's Concerns
Following a 2010 review of some of Ramazzini's archived slides from its methanol study, pathologists with the National Toxicology Program (NTP) found discrepancies. That led EPA's former research chief, Paul Anastas, to review six IRIS completed and ongoing assessments because they referenced Ramazzini studies.
EPA eventually decided that it would not reference Ramazzini studies regarding leukemias and lymphomas. But EPA decided to utilize Ramazzini data regarding hard tumors in one of the six reviewed IRIS assessments, a completed assessment of vinyl chloride, because that data was found to be generally consistent with the NTP review.
More recently, when EPA announced that it was restarting the assessment in 2013, representatives of the American Petroleum Institute and the Japanese Petroleum Industry Technology and Research Institute pressed EPA to drop the ETBE assessment from its influential Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment program entirely.
They argued that ETBE has not been used in the United States since 1996, and the IRIS program should focus its limited resources on higher-priority environmental contaminants. But the chemical has been found at cleanup sites and in some groundwater sources.
Former IRIS chief Ken Olden in 2013 raised the possibility of shelving the assessment in response to industry's comments, but after discussing with colleagues in other EPA offices, concluded that there was a need for the assessment and it should go forward.
EPA briefly discusses the 1999 study by Ramazzini researcher Maltoni and colleagues in its latest draft -- though it bases its ultimate conclusions on the newer Japanese studies' kidney tumor results.
EPA's latest discussion of the Ramazzini study mirrors industry concerns. “Interpretation of the study results reported by Maltoni et al. (1999) is complicated by the nonstandard histopathological diagnoses used and the greater than expected mortality in treated groups and controls compared with other laboratories,” the draft states. “Low survival rates at 104 weeks (approximately 25%) in control groups confound these data because whether tumors in the control group were not observed due to premature death cannot be determined.”
EPA noted that the NTP reviewers “found that the respiratory infections in the study animals confound interpretation of leukemia and lymphoma,” and thus used the NTP reviewers' analyses “when considering carcinogenicity in place of the published Maltoni et al. (1999) study, and leukemia and lymphoma incidences from this study were not considered.”
MTBE Assessment
Industry groups have long looked to the ETBE assessment as a bellwether to EPA's stalled IRIS assessment of the related fuel oxygenate methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which was more commonly used in the U.S.
Companies used MTBE for years to meet the mandate in the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act that set a minimum oxygen content for gasoline in order to cut air emissions.
EPA later discovered MTBE was a high-risk groundwater contaminant, and companies including Exxon Mobil have been embroiled in legal battles over cleanup costs. Most recently, the Supreme Court rejected in May Exxon Mobil's petition to overturn a New Hampshire decision that held the company liable for MTBE groundwater contamination, letting stand a $236 million judgment against the oil company.
EPA's assessment of MTBE was never released following NTP's review of Ramazzini studies and the agency's decision not to use Ramazzini's MTBE data. The assessment is included in the agency's 2015 agenda for the IRIS program, listed in the third group of chemicals that the program will begin assessing over the next several years.
Among EPA's new ETBE findings that could offer hints on the MTBE study is a decision to loosen the proposed non-cancer inhalation risk estimate compared to the 2009 draft. This risk value, known as reference concentration (RfC), is defined as the greatest amount of a substance EPA estimates can be inhaled daily over a lifetime without experiencing a toxic effect. EPA, again using the newer Japanese study, calculates an RfC of 9 mg/m^3, compared with its 2009 proposed RfC of 0.0057 mg/m^3.
EPA selected additional Japanese data to calculate a proposed reference dose (RfD), analogous to the RfC but for exposure via ingestion. It proposes a first-time RfD for ETBE of 0.48 mg/kg-day. The 2009 draft did not include a RfD because its technical panel concluded that there were too many uncertainties to do so. While the new draft includes a total uncertainty factor of 30, calculations excluded from the 2009 draft had a total uncertainty factor of 10,000.
Because of this high total uncertainty factor, EPA in the 2009 draft included the risk estimate only in an appendix, referring to it as an “oral minimal data value” and cautioning that it should only be used “in limited circumstances, for example, in screening level risk assessments or to rank relative risks.”
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epas-latest-draft-etbe-risk-review-echoes-criticized-2009-assessment
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(ACC Mentioned) Shale Gas 2.0: An Explosive Expansion of the U.S. Chemicals Trade
Sep 2, 2016 | Nasdaq
By Investor's Business Daily
Here's a tip: Keep an eye out for terms like ethane, ethylene, cracker and ammonia. These are keywords linked to a resurgence of domestic chemicals' manufacturing might. The boom is so broad that it's altering the global competitive landscape and luring a large segment of the chemical trades back to U.S. shores.
At least 268 production projects are in the works, totaling more than $170 billion in corporate capital spending, according to the American Chemistry Council. Some 60% of that spending is direct foreign investment. The building boom has tapped much of the available capacity among engineering and construction firms, including Bechtel and Fluor ( FLR ). It has sucked up steel from distributors like Ryerson Holding ( RYI ) and Olympic Steel ( ZEUS ). And it has boosted manufacturers of components for energy, refinery and processing plants.
The root cause driving this industrial bonanza: natural gas from shale rock.
Shale gas and its associated liquids provide basic raw materials for plastics, fertilizers and a host of other chemical products. The biggest piece of that picture is ethane, used to create ethylene - the starting point for most plastics.
"The U.S. producer who uses cheap gas can make a product for a fraction of what the higher-cost producers (are capable of), whether they be in Asia or whether they be in Europe," said Fidelity equity analyst Mahmoud Sharaf, who also manages the Fidelity Select Chemicals Portfolio Fund ( FSCHX ).
The buildup is focused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, already the stronghold of U.S. refining and chemicals processing. But it reaches north, east and west.
Just north of Pittsburgh, Shell Chemical, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), is building a $6 billion ethylene refinery - called a cracker, because it breaks down or "cracks" ethane molecules to create ethylene. Thailand's PTT Global is in the early engineering phases of a similar, $5 billion project in eastern Ohio.
A handful of ammonia-plant projects are scattered across California, Wyoming and Iowa. An approved ethane cracker is in early stages in North Dakota, and two new ethane crackers and three polyethylene-processing facilities are moving ahead in West Virginia.
All told, the ACC estimates that the new facilities will provide permanent jobs for 62,000 chemical professionals, in an industry where the average salary is a not-so-shabby $94,000. More broadly, the facilities should boost the economies surrounding those new plants by as many as 655,000 workers, the ACC figures.
The impact?
"It's huge - at least in western Pennsylvania where there is not a lot of what I would call big chemical industry," said Andrew Gellman, a professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Gellman points to the cracking plants going up in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania and says the question over the longer term is "whether or not the ethylene and propylene that the crackers create here gets used in this region" to make other products and thus expand the local economy, "or does it get shipped out?"
Chemicals And The Stock Market
On the stock market , the plastics and specialty chemicals industries have led the five chemical industry groups tracked by IBD. Both have posted gains of 20% in 2016. Specialty chemicals has held within the top 20 ranks among all 197 industry groups tracked by IBD since early June, lifted by Albemarle ( ALB ), The Chemours Co. (CC) and Univar (UNVR), which have rallied off lows early in the year.
IBD'S TAKE: It requires a lot of money to move an industry group, so group moves are often excellent indicators of trends among institutional investors , and can point to hot spots in the economy.
The plastics group has hovered just outside the top 20 rankings. Trinseo (TSE) and Kraton Performance Polymers (KRA) are the group's strongest climbers, up more than 110% each so far this year.
The industry's vast expansion doesn't necessarily translate into a profit boom across the chemical trades.
The biggest chemical names, Germany's BASF (BASFY) and Dow Chemical (DOW), are projected to climb out of slumps and into modest recoveries in earnings and revenue growth next year. That is also true for LyondellBasell Industries (LYB), the Netherlands-based chemical giant that is spending up to $4 billion for new and expanded operations along the Gulf Coast. Dow is pouring $4 billion into new ethane crackers in Freeport, Texas, expected to start up next year.
Other big investors include Chevron Phillips Chemical (jointly owned by Chevron (CVX) and Phillips 66 (PSX)), which is spending $6 billion for new and expanded facilities in and near Baytown, Texas. South Africa's Sasol (SSL) is building an $8.9 billion ethane cracker in Westlake, La. A liquefied natural gas export terminal under construction for Cheniere Energy(LNG) in Corpus Christi, Texas, has a $9.5 billion price tag.
Marcellus, Utica, Eagle Ford
Margins are tight in the basic chemical business and extremely sensitive to raw materials and shipping costs. Raw materials like ethylene and propylene typically account for about 70% of a product's final cost to produce.
Shell chose its Pennsylvania location partly because it provides immediate access to the liquids-rich natural gas found in the Utica and Marcellus shale fields. But it also places the facility along the Ohio River, a major transport corridor, and precisely in the center of a circle reaching from Tennessee to New England. Shell says the region within that circle generates 70% of North American polyethylene demand. The deal was sweetened by a 15-year tax amnesty from the state of Pennsylvania, and a $2.10 tax credit for every barrel of ethane purchased from in-state producers.
Houston receives a strong dose of its natural gas liquids from the Eagle Ford Shale, the production area that runs south between Houston and San Antonio. Besides feeding the new and existing chemical-production facilities along the Gulf Coast, the Eagle Ford sets the stage for a vast export trade in gas liquids.
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) has been an early mover here, investing $3.3 billion in ethane refrigeration and propane dehydrogenation plants set to come on line this year. Enterprise is already the world's largest exporter of propane and has led in exporting U.S. crude oil since that ban was lifted late last year.
Chenier Energy began shipping the first U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas earlier this year out of its new Sabine Pass terminal on the border of Texas and Louisiana. It also has a $9.5 billion LNG export terminal under construction in Corpus Christi, which is set to come on line in 2018.
Chemistry, Competition And Profit
Competitive advantage in at least some parts of the commodity chemicals business depends on the price ratio between natural gas and oil. In ethane markets, the current winners tend to be producers able to take full advantage of cheap U.S. gas: Dow, Taiwan's Formosa, Shintech, Exxon-Mobil (XOM) and Phillips 66, among others, according to Sharaf.
At the other end of the scale are Asia's ethylene producers, whose raw material is naphtha, refined from petroleum and linked to oil prices . Weak oil prices have narrowed the ratio, but the advantage for U.S. producers is still significant.
"You have a $3 input cost in the U.S. for ethylene, and you have a $8.66 input cost on an mBtu (million British Thermal units) basis for the high-cost Asian producers. So the U.S. producer is making the ethylene at a price that is almost 60% lower," Sharaf said.
In Europe, natural gas prices have fallen 40% over the past 12 months, making producers there more competitive. But European players like BASF and Lyondell continue to move forward with their U.S. investments, seeking equal footing in the North American market and the ethylene-export trade to South America and China.
Investors too often make the mistake of assuming that all commodity chemicals are a play on the gas-to-oil price ratio, Sharaf says. In nitrogen - produced by ammonia plants and used primarily in fertilizers - Sharaf contends that the applicable ratio is the one between natural gas and anthracite coal prices in China.
China's slowed economic growth has pressured coal prices there, keeping nitrogen producers in the game and maintaining China's stance as a net nitrogen exporter. On the ethane side, China still supplies nearly half of its ethane needs via imports. This gives the two markets - basically fertilizers and plastics - very different outlooks as the added capacity from new U.S. projects comes on line.
China's Demand For Chemicals
The commodity-chemicals trade generally grows at around the same rate as GDP, making it an important tool for economists.
"The chemicals industry itself is so fundamental to everything that you touch that many people look at it as a bellwether for what the economy is going to do," said Mark Jones, a chemical engineer with Dow Chemical.
But the industry is known for steep cycles up and down. The last cycle in the U.S. came early in this century when rising natural gas prices forced much of U.S. chemical production offshore by 2005. Chemical plants in the U.S. were being disassembled and shipped to other countries, Jones says.
New production capacity climbed in the Middle East and, on a much larger scale, in China. Now, the U.S. is several years into the current building explosion, which appears set to last at least two to three more years. This year, the U.S. is expected to produce 29 million tons of ethylene. New facilities underway should add about 10 million tons of ethylene capacity by 2020, according to Mark Eramo, vice president of global business development with IHS Markit. About 75% of that new production is likely to be exported.
Eramo says the industry's cyclical nature has always been there and will likely continue, but developments in China are likely to have weighty impact on global supply and demand. China is "investing heavily" in propylene production capacity, which is likely to place increasing pressure on that portion of the market. China will continue to export large amounts of nitrogen, pointing to oversupply for global markets. But China's demand outlook for ethylene appears relatively bullish, Eramo said, even with the expected additions in new U.S. capacity.
But there may be some subtractions to the U.S. capacity numbers. Most of the projects were launched before oil prices fell off their $100-per-barrel highs in mid-2014. The rise in U.S. shale oil production and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' strategy change - creating the oil glut - were surprises. Weak demand among struggling global economies - particularly developing countries led by Russia and Brazil - have led some chemical industry players to reconsider their U.S. projects.
BASF confirmed in June that it will postpone a $1.4 billion propylene plant project in Freeport, Texas. On the same site, a $600 million ammonia-plant joint venture with fertilizer maker Yara International (YARIY) so far remains on track. That plant will use hydrogen as a raw material, supplied under a 20-year agreement already inked with Praxair (PX). To seal the deal, Praxair is spending $400 million to expand its hydrogen and nitrogen output and extended pipelines to the Eagle Ford Shale field.
In Louisiana, Houston-based G2X Energy reportedly delayed a $1.6 billion methanol plant in Lake Charles. France's Total (TOT) appears to be sitting on plans to build a $2 billion ethylene plant in Port Arthur, Texas. Sasol said it would push back for one year the completion of a $14 billion gas-to-liquids operation being built in Lake Charles, in an effort to conserve cash.
Chemicals And Air Quality
Once the new fleet of cracking plants goes into place, a follow-on boom in the chemical industry is likely, says Martha Moore, the senior director for policy analysis and economics with the American Chemistry Council.
"The ethane cracker is probably not going to exist in its independence," Moore said. "You're going to put a portfolio of derivative projects around there as well."
The ACC currently counts some 600 projects to build plants to process ethylene, propylene and other basic materials into more valuable products. Of those, 70% are expansion projects and 30% are new facilities. They could be game-changers to local economies in areas such as Pittsburgh, West Virginia and North Dakota.
But such industrial buildups also bring challenges.
Chemical plants release volatile organic compounds, many of which are toxic, as well as precursors to ozone - the basic ingredient of smog.
While it's an old hand at the energy trades, Houston is still a newbie in managing its air quality. The city made strides in improving its air quality after 1999, when it was marked with the highest ozone levels in the country. A big part of those improvements owed to tightened federal regulations on chemical industry cracking plants.
Houston's air quality also benefited from the shutdown of many petrochemical refineries and processing plants, as the industry moved offshore in search of cheaper natural gas.
Last year, the city's ozone levels suffered a sharp setback, with some monitor sites around Houston reporting their worst readings since 2004.
Adrian Shelley, executive director of Air Alliance Houston, says economic recovery contributed to the uptick, compounded by increased activity relating to shale oil and gas activity and last year's lifting of the oil exports ban.
"As the energy industry has rebounded, we have seen the effects of that in the ozone and in ozone precursors," he said.
Older plants tend to be less efficient. Federal requirements have tightened and technologies have improved over time, so generally, newer facilities are cleaner and more efficient, Shelley says.
"It gets to what is BACT: What is the Best Available Control Technology that is required under a new federal operating permit today, vs. BACT when a facility was constructed," he said.
In Pennsylvania, the Clean Air Council, based in Philadelphia, and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project are appealing the Plan Approval Permit issued to Shell Chemical by the state, based on health risks and environmental impacts. The appeal is still pending before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board.
Dr. Monty Alger, a chemical engineer who heads Pennsylvania State University's Institute for Natural Gas Research, says design engineers at Dow, Shell and other companies have looked at the best and most environmentally conscious technology available.
"I am sure the people have incorporated any possible option to make their investments wise and intelligent decisions, subject to the financial hurdles that they need to address," he said.
But at this point, "the chemical industry is moving forward rapidly," Alger said, and "when these major investments are made, you are sort of stuck with them for a long time."
Alger looks to the fringe of the industry for the kind of innovation that creates broad-based change. He points to Mitchell Energy, the small energy independent whose quiet pioneering of hydraulic fracturing techniques in Houston's Barnett Shale in the 1980s and 90s set the stage for the shale gas and oil booms.
"If you are really going to affect a major capital project, you've probably got to be 15 years ahead of it if you want to make a significant change," he said.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/shale-gas-20-an-explosive-expansion-of-the-us-chemicals-trade-cm674202
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The Problem with Natural Gas: Methane Emissions
Sep 2, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Karen Feridun
The largest methane leak in the nation’s history began last October in an underground natural gas storage facility in California’s Aliso Canyon. When it was all said and done, experts said that 110,000 tons of methane had leaked into the atmosphere over the course of four months and conjured up ways to describe the figure in relatable terms. They said it was the equivalent of adding more than half a million cars to the roads for a year.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said that oil and gas production in the state emitted the same amount of methane, 110,000 tons, in 2014, representing a one percent increase from the previous year. The Aliso Canyon leak emanated from one source, leading it to be declared a disaster, whereas leaks occurred in countless spots across the shale fields of Pennsylvania, where it was considered business as usual. The effect on the climate was, however, the same.
For years, fracking opponents have pointed out that natural gas’ reputation for contributing less CO2 to the atmosphere was more than cancelled out by methane leakage rates during production and transmission. Methane, the main ingredient of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas, 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide is at warming the atmosphere. Another report out last week, however, called natural gas’ cleaner-burning reputation into question.
The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) announced last week that CO2 emissions from natural gas were expected to surpass those from coal by 10% for the first time in nearly half a century. In a side by side comparison, burning natural gas emits more than half the CO2 that burning coal and oil do, but last week’s announcement shows what happens when you burn a whole lot of natural gas. The comparisons seem less relevant as emissions skyrocket.
Methane and carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas are on the rise, making the need for the government to change course and ban fracking all the more urgent. The path we are on presently is absolutely unsustainable and one the entire environmental community should oppose in unison. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
One organization that has been a notoriously enthusiastic supporter of natural gas drilling is the Environmental Defense Fund. In response to the news of the methane emissions increase in Pennsylvania, EDF’s Andrew Williams shamefully and preposterously minimized the problem of methane leaks from oil and gas operations to Public News Service-PA. "Sometimes the fix is as easy as tightening a value that's maybe a little bit loose or shutting a hatch that's left open on top of a storage tank," he said. "The type[sic] of controls that we're talking about are readily available and are highly cost-effective."
Right now, about 9,700 unconventional wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania. Thousands of miles of pipelines and about 500 compressor stations move the gas to processing plants, power plants, and local gas utilities. In addition, an estimated 350,000 old wells, classified as orphaned or abandoned, dot the state. The old wells are in varying states of disrepair when they are found and they are almost always leaking methane. Leaks are a big deal in Pennsylvania. Tightening a few valves isn’t going to come close to solving the problem.
Unfortunately, methane emissions are likely to increase in Pennsylvania in the coming years, thanks to a new generation of natural gas power plants. The results of a recent right-to-know request of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection revealed that the agency has approved 42 new natural gas power plants since January 2014. Pennsylvanians Against Fracking compiled its own list of power plants mentioned in articles and industry reports. Our list contained 15 plants not on the DEP’s list. That means that even more plants may be on the horizon.
The proliferation of power plants is in line with another report from the EIA that said natural gas production in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations is expected to increase to more than 40 billion cubic feet per day through 2040. Annual methane emissions of 110,000 tons and CO2 emissions that just eclipse those of coal will be the stuff of what we’ll think of as the good old days. It’s a terrifying thought.
Karen Feridun is founding member of Pennsylvanians Against Fracking.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/294232-the-problem-with-natural-gas-methane-emissions
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Largest U.S. Grid Operator Can Comply With Rule — Study
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Northey
The nation's largest grid operator yesterday said it could comply with U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan while acknowledging its findings were based on unknowns about future nuclear reactor closures and gas pricing forecasts.
PJM Interconnection LLC, which spans 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, said in an analysisthat power plants within its jurisdiction could comply without skyrocketing costs. PJM found the price of compliance would range from 1 percent to 3 percent of average wholesale electricity costs.
PJM conducted the study using confidential data from energy companies throughout the region and modeling a base case — one in which the Clean Power Plan didn't exist — and seven possible compliance pathways state agencies might follow.
In all cases, PJM found power supplies would be adequate. It also said a regional approach would be cheaper than states pursuing separate plans.
PJM found that gas prices, should they continue to hover around $3 to $4 per million British thermal units for the next two decades, could drive the retirement of nearly 30 gigawatts of coal-fired generation and the addition of 35 GW of natural gas combined-cycle capacity. That would allow the region to comply with the rule more easily.
The grid operator also found its existing nuclear plants would become more profitable as time went on, coal plants would shutter and the value of carbon-free power would grow.
"Because of accelerated retirements, there would be no cost to achieve compliance, and the resulting emissions would be below the final Clean Power Plan targets, even without the Clean Power Plan," wrote PJM.
But the operator also outlined the uncertainties that underlie such reports by including "sensitivities," essentially changes in assumptions that alter the study's outcome.
If nuclear plant operators, for example, make business decisions based on short-term economics, PJM found it could lose 6 GW of nuclear power by 2022.
PJM decided to plow ahead with studying the Clean Power Plan earlier this year despite a Supreme Court stay. Members of the Organization of PJM States Inc., which include utility regulators from 14 jurisdictions, requested the analysis (EnergyWire, March 11).
The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce power plants' carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. For each state, the rule establishes a target emissions rate, or the amount of CO2 that could be emitted per megawatt-hour.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/09/02/stories/1060042288
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EPA Defends Withholding 'Confidential' Data In Power Plant ELG Challenge
Sep 2, 2016 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
EPA is rejecting claims by utilities that it hid data used to craft the Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) for power plants by improperly labeling documents as confidential business information (CBI), saying challengers to the water rule are prolonging their suit through unnecessary litigation over the redacted data.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a Sept. 1 brief with a federal appeals court on the agency's behalf opposing the industry challengers' bid to unseal a host of documents EPA designated as CBI.
The power sector groups say the withheld documents contain information needed to support their claims, but DOJ is countering that the existing rulemaking record is enough to show the court why EPA crafted the rule it did, and that litigation over the details of each document will only delay a final ruling.
“If Movants nonetheless believe that the existing record is somehow insufficient to support the ELG Rule because, in their view, the record fails to 'explain' the Agency's 'methodologies and analyses in full,' they can attempt to persuade the Court of the viability of that contention in their merits briefing. There is no good reason to continue to postpone these proceedings through motions practice,” DOJ says in its brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
DOJ adds that the agency has offered to hand over in full 71 documents industry targeted as “the most critical,” as long as the disclosure is done “under seal” to prevent releasing the CBI to the general public, but the power groups have refused. “Such disclosure under seal -- a compromise that EPA has offered but Industry Petitioners categorically rejected -- would provide Movants with all of the information they seek, while simultaneously creating protections for CBI,” the brief says.
The 2015 ELG sets technology standards for power plants to minimize their water discharges, which will be applied in future CWA discharge permits for the utilities. The agency enacted stringent limits requested by environmentalists in comments on the 2013 draft, but advocates are nonetheless suing to tighten the rule further, alongside industry groups who argued that the strong option EPA ultimately chose was too burdensome and carries high compliance costs.
Industry challengers in Southwestern Electric Power Company (SEPC) et al., v. EPA are asking the court to order the release of material from hundreds of documents, including portions of its technical development document, an incremental costs and pollutant removals analysis, and other supporting documents that factored into the ELG rulemaking.
Redacted Documents
EPA redacted many of the documents it released with the final ELG, because they included either data identified as CBI or data that could be used to calculate CBI.
But SEPC and its allies claimed in a June 22 motion to the 5th Circuit that EPA's list of CBI related to the rule is "egregious" and includes “the most critical factual material supporting the ELG Rule, such as EPA’s final methodologies and analyses.”
For instance, they argued in their brief that “even a cursory review of documents’ titles and headings, with terms such as 'General Methodology,' 'Terminology,' and 'Dictionary,'” show that the agency withheld material beyond business secrets.
The industry groups are claiming that withholding those documents prevents them “from effectively raising certain substantive claims challenging the ELG Rule,” and say EPA should be forced to make many of the withheld materials public.
However, DOJ counters in its new brief that the documents in the public record include enough information to judge the agency's actions, and there would be little to gain from releasing the material the industry groups seek.
“Indeed, in large part, the very documents that Movants suggest are incomplete with respect to explaining the pollutants of concern analysis criteria, data sources, and results, do in fact provide such information, along with other publicly available record documents,” the brief says.
DOJ also argues that the power groups are overstating the need for challengers to have access to every technical document underlying a rule they oppose, saying such a standard would be burdensome for agencies and undermine CBI guarantees that regulators rely on to win cooperation from regulated entities.
“Effective judicial review does not require EPA to include confidential information or CBI-deducible information in the public record. Nor is there any requirement -- as Movants appear to suggest here -- that EPA expend every effort -- regardless of time and. resources -- to scour every document withheld as CBI, in order to discern whether it might be possible that fragments of such documents might be included in the public record,” the brief says.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-defends-withholding-confidential-data-power-plant-elg-challenge
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Oil Slump Forces Cancellation of N.D.-to-Wis. Project
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Daniel Cusick
Canadian energy giant Enbridge Inc. effectively canceled its long-delayed Sandpiper oil pipeline yesterday, saying the North Dakota-to-Wisconsin line was no longer economical due to lagging oil prices and production cuts in the Bakken Shale oil fields of western North Dakota.
The $2.6 billion project, designed to carry 225,000 barrels of crude a day from a pumping station near Tioga, N.D., to a terminal in Superior, Wis., was as recently as 18 months ago considered a top priority for Alberta-based Enbridge and development partner Marathon Petroleum Corp.
The 610-mile line would have crossed northern Minnesota, where it faced stiff opposition from environmental groups, Native American tribes and some homeowners in Minnesota's Lakes Belt, one of the state's most popular resort and recreation areas (EnergyWire, April 10, 2015).
Enbridge will continue to pursue permits for another Minnesota pipeline project that would mostly parallel the Sandpiper route. That line, called the Line 3 Replacement Project, would allow Enbridge to retire a nearly 50-year-old conduit carrying Canadian oil sands crude from Alberta into the United States via Minnesota along a more northerly route.
Sandpiper, proposed in 2013 as a high-volume delivery line for North Dakota crude to reach refineries in the Midwest, was touted by Enbridge and its subsidiaries as one of its most important North American pipeline expansions.
In addition to providing a steady oil flow to a major terminal on Lake Superior, the line would also have reduced pressure on freight and passenger rail lines that had become congested with oil trains and raised the risk of derailments, spills and fires.
Enbridge also argued the project would be an economic boon for cash-strapped communities along the pipeline route crossing mostly forests, wetlands and lakes between Clearbrook, Minn., and Duluth.
In its announcement yesterday, Enbridge said counties along the route "will miss out on the economic benefits that the project would have provided," including $25 million in tax revenues that would have come in the line's first year of operation.
Sandpiper was burdened by a combination of factors, including environmental opposition and an adverse court ruling that revoked a state-issued "certificate of need" until the company completed a full environmental impact statement for the project. But the line's viability has also been hampered by declining crude production in the Bakken spurred by sagging global oil prices.
Enbridge cited those challenging economics when it announced yesterday it was withdrawing permit applications before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
"Today Enbridge Energy Partners announced that it has completed its review of the Sandpiper project and concluded that the project needs to be delayed until such time as crude oil production in North Dakota rebounds sufficiently to support additional pipeline capacity," the company said in a statement.
Officials said it was "difficult to project" when demand for Bakken oil would be sufficient to warrant the line's construction but added it was likely to be beyond the company's current five-year planning horizon for ongoing projects.
"Market conditions are very different now than they were when we first proposed Sandpiper" in 2013, Mark Maki, president of Enbridge Energy Partners, said in a statement. "In addition, regulatory delays and changes to the approval process in Minnesota caused us and our shipping customer to seek a solution to get their product shipped to market in a timely manner."
Greens wary of second pipeline
Environmental groups and local opponents in northern Minnesota welcomed the decision, saying Enbridge's pipeline proposal posed too much risk to the wetland-rich Mississippi River headwaters region and "was never a good fit for the state of Minnesota."
At the same time, the groups warned that Enbridge's Line 3 Replacement Project, which is still pending before Minnesota regulators, could be just as damaging to the headwaters region since it follows much the same route laid out for Sandpiper. They also noted that the Line 3 project would double the capacity of oil able to flow between Alberta and Minnesota than the current Line 3 carries.
"Enbridge had originally proposed two pipelines for this corridor, and now it is only proposing one," said Kathryn Hoffman, an attorney with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which represented opponents who sued to block Sandpiper's construction. "This is a different project now, and the agencies will need to re-evaluate this project from the ground up."
Richard Smith, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Headwaters, predicted the Line 3 project, while maintaining a lower profile than Sandpiper, could face even harsher criticism and reviews than Sandpiper. "It's bad enough that Enbridge wanted to push Bakken oil through Minnesota's prime lake country," he said, "but for them to believe a new tar sands oil pipeline through these same waters is OK is even worse."
Friends of the Headwaters and other groups maintain that all new oil pipelines should be routed to the west of Minnesota's Lakes Belt on a more direct route to Midwestern refineries.
Enbridge and its partners maintain the terminal at Superior is an essential component of its oil delivery system and that the lines must continue to access the terminal. While the terminal has close proximity to Lake Superior, none of the oil moving though Enbridge's lines is shipped via the Great Lakes, according to experts.
In August, Enbridge and Marathon signaled that Sandpiper's future was in question when they agreed to buy a 37 percent stake in another oil pipeline, called Dakota Access, for $2 billion. That line, being developed by a consortium called Energy Transfer Partners, would carry crude oil from the Bakken region to Patoka, Ill. As with Sandpiper, landowners and tribes have sued to block Dakota Access, saying it will disturb tribal sites and cause environmental damage.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/09/02/stories/1060042307
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Perspective: Roadway Worker Warning System Alternative to PTC
Sep 2, 2016 | Progressive Rail Roading
By Kevin C. Smith
In the next five years, we should expect all railroad and rail transit operators to voluntarily adopt suitable forms of electronic train approach warning protection for work crews and lone workers working on or fouling railroad tracks. While current positive train control (PTC) regulation may address at least a part of this requirement, PTC will not be available on all track locations; therefore, an alternative method is required to augment the PTC worker protection approach.
One method of protection is to directly detect any train or rail vehicle as it enters an established work zone, regardless of dispatcher protection. The train operator will view an indication they are entering a track section where track workers will be present. Each crewman in the track gang, or even a lone worker walking down a track performing inspection duties, will receive an alert indicating the train's presence.
This method gives the track workers and the employee in charge (EIC) direct ability to protect their work zone. This would be supplemental to today's standard operating practices for train operators or central dispatchers.
Today, lone workers walking the track to inspect track integrity are essentially on their own in terms of protection. At best they are walking with a watchman with a single duty: watching out for oncoming train traffic. With today’s sensor and communication technology, it's possible to set up a zone of protection that follows the workers as they walk the track.
The protection zone will detect trains entering the limits of the zone and immediately send a warning alert to all workers within it. It's even possible to detect the location of the crew within the protected zone and automatically follow the workers as they move up or down the track, essentially forming a protection bubble around them. This virtual dynamic bubble will follow their movement and provide sufficient warning time so the track workers can safely clear the track. Such a robust and flexible worker protection product would be designed to be used as an overlay to the railroad's existing protection rules.Easy setup, clear warnings
The detection zone virtual dynamic bubble should be easily set up by either the employee in charge of safety, or by the lone worker, and will inform the train's operator and train dispatch center of the activated protection zone and the location of the workers.
When a train approaches the work zone, the train operator will receive either an on-board indication of the presence of the workers or will receive a lighted indication on the wayside. In either case, train operators will be provided with information that can save their co-workers lives.
Likewise, when the train is detected to enter the work zone, each equipped worker will receive a strobe light, haptic vibration and a high-pitched siren to indicate the train's approach. The alarm will be provided in sufficient time for the track worker to clear the track to a safe location.
The EIC or Roadway Worker in Charge (RWIC) would also receive the train detection alarm, as well as an alert if all workers in the protection zone haven't reached a point of safety. In that case, the EIC/RWIC is in control of train movement and will likely stop or slow the train until the last worker reports clear.
Kevin C. Smith is senior vice president of global sales and marketing for Miller Ingenuity. The system described above has been developed and tested by Miller Ingenuity, and the company continues to collect user requirements and book orders for pilot systems to be evaluated by industry safety and operations experts. The product is expected be available for sale by the end of 2016.http://www.progressiverailroading.com/safety/article/Perspective-Roadway-Worker-Warning-System-Alternative-to-PTC--49352
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Railroads Told to Provide Oil Train Spill Plans
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
Washington state's Department of Ecology has demanded that railroad companies transporting oil show that they are capable of immediatly responding to spills.
The new regulation, lauded by environmental groups, will take effect Oct. 1.
Oil trains moving through Washington are used to ship oil from extraction sites to ports on the West Coast.
After several derailments and spills across the United States drew the ire of environmentalists, the Department of Ecology said it would make each railroad submit contingency plans.
Washington officials say California and Minnesota have similar rules.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/09/02/stories/1060042295
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Delaware Air Official Rejects Utilities' Criticism Of Ozone Transport Petition
Sep 2, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
A Delaware air regulator is defending the state's petition for EPA to directly regulate air emissions from a West Virginia power plant from attacks by Midwestern electric utilities calling for the petition to be withdrawn, rejecting the utilities' criticisms by saying they stem from an incorrect reading of the Clean Air Act.
The source says the state disagrees with an Aug. 29 letter that the Midwest Ozone Group (MOG) -- representing electric utilities, trade associations and other industry groups -- sent to Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary David Small faulting the petition.
Delaware's petition cites authority under section 126 of the air law in asking EPA to directly regulate the coal-fired Harrison Power Station near Haywood, WV, which the state blames for contributing to high ozone readings in Delaware. Section 126 allows EPA to directly regulate pollution sources that make a “significant contribution” to problems attaining or maintaining national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in other states.
Delaware says that nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the plant compromise Delaware's ability to meet both EPA's 2008 ozone NAAQS of 75 parts per billion (ppb) and its tougher 2015 NAAQS of 70 ppb. EPA considers a contribution “significant” if it constitutes at least 1 percent of the NAAQS.
MOG claims that EPA figures for 2013-2015 show Delaware is meeting both the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, and therefore Delaware cannot invoke section 126 to force emissions cuts from the Harrison plant.
However, Delaware appears unlikely to withdraw the petition, the state regulator tells Inside EPA. “We disagree with their analysis” on two counts, the Delaware official says. First, the state is officially classified “nonattainment” for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and although 2013-2015 data may show compliance, data from 2016 already show the state exceeded the NAAQS seven times. Delaware considers that MOG is ignoring the variability of meteorological conditions that can influence ozone formation from one year to the next, the source says.
In addition, MOG is discounting the “maintenance” prong of the air law's provision on transported air pollution, which requires that upwind areas not only avoid causing violations of NAAQS, but that they ensure such areas can maintain NAAQS compliance once they are redesignated to “attainment” by EPA. “They are disregarding the maintenance obligation. We are not attainment. No one has declared us attainment,” the source says.
The Delaware official says, “It appears that they believe upwind states are entitled to pollute 100 percent of our air quality. That is not the way the Clean Air Act works or should be construed.”
The state has threatened further section 126 petitions if upwind states do not reduce their NOx emissions, which sources have said could pressure EPA to weigh a strict new rule to curb interstate air pollution.
MOG also sent EPA a copy of its letter to Delaware, urging the agency to formally deny the petition if the First State fails to withdraw it as requested by the utility group.
An EPA spokeswoman says the agency “will review the letter” from MOG.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/delaware-air-official-rejects-utilities-criticism-ozone-transport-petition
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Energy Conference to Kick Off Work Next Week
Sep 2, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Lawmakers on a joint House and Senate committee will meet next week to begin crafting a compromise energy policy bill.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking members of the committee, announced the meeting on Friday. Members will meet Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
The hearing will be the first gathering of the more than 40 House and Senate members chosen to write a compromise bill that will reform federal energy policy for the first time in a decade.
Members hope to use the bill to expand exports of liquefied natural gas, renew a major conservation fund, expand energy efficiency programs and protect the electric grid from cyberattacks, among other things.
The meeting comes with time dwindling on the congressional calendar. Members return to Washington after Labor Day for a four-week session before breaking again for more than a month ahead of November’s elections.
Members have long hoped to pass an energy reform bill this year, though several key players, including Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have predicted a final bill will not pass before the post-election lame duck session of Congress.
Top energy lawmakers have said they want to write a measure that will win President Obama’s signature, even if it means stripping out several GOP-favored provisions included in the House version of the bill.
The Senate’s legislation secured broad bipartisan support last spring, and most members backed a motion to go to a conference committee on the legislation despite environmentalists' concerns over the bill.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/294282-energy-conference-to-kick-off-work-next-week
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Obama Shows What Not To Do On Climate Policy
Sep 2, 2016 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Nicolas Loris
President Obama sets off for his final Asia trip as commander in chief this week, and combating manmade global warming is at the top of his agenda.
Though unconfirmed by the White House, the South China Morning Post reports that the U.S. and China will "ratify" the Paris climate agreement negotiated last December and signed by Secretary of State John Kerry in April.
This is somewhat problematic, as the Constitution makes clear that treaties are to be ratified by the Senate, not the chief executive.
To circumvent that requirement, the administration is calling the Paris Protocol a sole executive agreement, as opposed to a treaty. But as my colleague Steve Groves writes, the Paris Protocol does not pass the duck test: If it looks like a treaty and establishes commitments like a treaty, the government should treat it as such and send it to the Senate for advice and consent.
Obama refuses to refer to the Paris Protocol as a treaty, for tactical purposes. But in the interest of honest rhetoric, he should refrain from referring to it as a "deal" or an "agreement." Those words imply a mutually beneficial exchange. But Americans will receive no benefits — economic or environmental — from the emissions cuts the protocol pledges them to make.
The Obama administration has already imposed — unilaterally — regulations to meet the protocol's carbon dioxide pledges. Those regs fall primarily on the energy sector and are already putting coal mines out of business and coal miners out of work. In "ratifying" the protocol, Obama will simply commit Americans to paying higher energy prices and enduring a weaker economy.
Heritage Foundation economists estimate that American household electricity expenditures will increase 15 percent to 20 percent over the next decade as a result of the administration's global warming regulations. Because energy is such a necessary input of virtually every element of the U.S. economy, families and businesses will be hit multiple times over, leading to devastating economic consequences. By 2035, the U.S. will see:An overall annual average shortfall of nearly 400,000 American jobs, including an average manufacturing shortfall of over 200,000 jobs;A total income loss of more than $30,000 for a family of four; andAn aggregate U.S. gross domestic product loss of over $2.5 trillion.
It's a steep price to pay. Yet we will receive virtually no discernible improvement in the environment or climate. Even if the U.S. and the rest of the developed world meet their global warming targets, the change in global temperatures will be almost too small to even measure.
The protocol promises economic misery for the U.S. But what can we expect from China?
Obama assures us that, if the U.S. leads, China and the rest of the developing world will follow our example. But that doesn't seem at all likely.
In November 2014, the U.S. and China reached their own global warming agreement. It committed the U.S. to reducing, by 2025, its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by more than a quarter (26 percent to 28 percent) from 2005 levels. Those are the same targets the U.S. committed to in Paris. China, meanwhile, will be allowed to keep increasing its emissionsuntil 2030, although it solemnly swears that it has "the intention to try to peak early."
It's alarming to know the federal government is willing to bankrupt coal towns, drive up energy bills and cripple the U.S. economy in return for alleged good intentions and a promise to do something 14 years from now.
It remains to be seen if the Chinese will actually hold up its end of the bargain. But they're not off to the best start. Since 2014, Beijing has straight-up lied about how much coal it is burning and underreported its carbon dioxide emissions by a billion tons a year.
The United States is leading by example of what not to do on energy policy and climate policy. A better way for the U.S. to lead is to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). U.S. participation in the UNFCCC has been costly and ineffective and is the foundation for the administration's effort to circumvent Congress. It's time the U.S. got out.
Loris is the Heritage Foundation's Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow and specializes in energy and environmental issues.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/294234-obama-shows-what-not-to-do-on-climate-policy
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Obama to Use Post-Presidency 'Megaphone' on Climate Change
Sep 2, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Hess
President Obama wants to make climate change a big part of his life and work after leaving the White House next year, he said yesterday.
"I think anybody who has the megaphone that even an ex-president has needs to be working on this and raising awareness," Obama told pool reporters during a visit to Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean to highlight his conservation legacy (Greenwire, Sept. 1).
Obama speculated he might have more influence with Republicans who "have been resistant to the science" after he departs Pennsylvania Avenue.
Americans are now more polarized than ever on environmental protection, according to a newanalysis published in the journal Environment that tracked Gallup opinion poll surveys going back to 2001 and congressional voting patterns since 1970.
The authors noted that GOP lawmakers have moved more to the right, especially in terms of opposing government regulations on principle and attacking U.S. EPA.
"This is something that all of us are going to have to tackle, and maybe I get a little more of a hearing if I'm not occupying a political office," Obama said.
Obama's argument for Republicans: If the private sector and the business community are embracing a clean energy agenda, and insurers are pricing coverage for flooding, hurricanes, drought and wildfires based on climate change projections, "then there's no reason why this is something that should be a partisan issue," he said.
Over the last eight years, researchers say, public concern over climate change has fluctuated considerably because of the economic downturn.
The study's authors — Aaron McCright of Michigan State University and Oklahoma State University's Riley Dunlap and Jerrod Yarosh — note an upsurge in "organized denial" in response to the Paris climate deal and other international treaties.
On the flip side, Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change and abnormal weather conditions have increased grass-roots interest in conservation and renewable energy.
Obama reflected on his efforts over the past seven years to mobilize the nation against the unseen threats of climate change.
His historic three-day visit to Alaska in 2015, showing villages already overwhelmed by rising sea levels and changing ocean patterns, stood out as one example.
Obama this week described the Arctic as "the leading edge of climate change — our leading indicator of what the entire planet faces" (Greenwire, Sept. 1, 2015).
His trip yesterday to Midway Atoll, after stops in California and Lake Tahoe, similarly served to highlight the importance of addressing climate change.
The remote site is in the middle of the newly expanded Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which Obama has made the largest marine protected area in the world (Greenwire, Aug. 26).
"The question gets asked, why protect such a large area?" White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday. "And one of the answers to that is the emerging climate science, that you actually need to create scale in order to create the ecosystem."
He said, "I think that in the future, people will look at this and actually see it as a climate refuge because you have a protected space of sufficient scale to actually allow the natural features to become more resilient."
'We've done it before'
Obama arrived in khakis and brown desert boots at an old hangar terminal, where he was greeted by almost all the 40 people who live on the 2.4-mile-long island.
He later made remarks, pointing to the monument's "spectacular" ecosystem and the need to "examine the effects of climate change" in the Pacific.
On the deck of Clipper House — a white wooden structure within the monument that overlooks lush green vegetation, white sand and cyan waters — Obama said it was part of his job to present "visual aid" so the public can understand what is happening in remote regions of the world.
"When we come here, being able to highlight the incredible beauty of a place like this but also recognizing that if oceans continue to get warmer, that a lot of the marine species here could be affected and ultimately that's going to have an impact on human populations, so it's tough," Obama said.
The president also offered advice to his successor on making progress and keeping the climate change from becoming so partisan.
With Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton looking to build on momentum generated by Obama's climate initiatives and Republican nominee Donald Trump vowing to pull out of international agreements on climate, the study's authors concluded that the 2016 presidential election presents a historic choice.
This November, voters confront the "most consequential climate-related decision" most voters will have ever taken, they wrote.
Obama said his successor should tell the story of previous efforts to regulate pollution, including dealing with Ohio's Cuyahoga River, smog in Los Angeles and acid rain in the Northeast.
"The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act transformed parts of the United States, urban and rural, that a lot of people had written off," he said.
"... Or more spectacularly a hole in the ozone way above our heads that's now actually healing itself in part because of steps that we took back in the '70s and '80s. So we have to have confidence in our ability to solve these problems," Obama said.
"We've done it before; there's no reason why we can't do it this time," he added.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/09/02/stories/1060042310
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