Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 10/19/16
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(ACC Mentioned) Davis Funds Soar; Wicklund In Red
Oct 18, 2016 | The News-Gazette
By Tom Kacich
Not only does U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis have more than a million dollars in his campaign fund, but his only opponent in the 13th Congressional District race has a campaign fund that is in the red. -
Staff Contacts for Six Chemical Rulemakings Posted by EPA
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency released the names and contact information for chemicals office staff working on six rulemakings. -
TSCA's Animal Testing Limit Could Promote Use Of Alternate Test Methods
Oct 18, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
The revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) includes mandates for EPA to reduce and replace whole animal tests where scientifically feasible with alternative toxicology methods, which advocates say could bolster confidence in computational toxicology (CompTox) high-throughput screening, and other alternate testing methods. -
(ACC Mentioned) Glyphosate Delay "Inexcusable"
Oct 18, 2016 | Horticulture Week
By Matthew Appleby,
US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology chairman Lamar Smith (Republican-Texas) has described as "inexcusable" the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) announcement that the Scientific Advisory Panel's upcoming meeting on the chemical glyphosate has been further delayed. -
EPA Aims to Boost Awareness of Green Chemistry Through Awards
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to bring more attention to scientists who design chemicals and chemical manufacturing methods offering solutions for climate change, water pollution and other environmental problems, an agency leader said Oct. 18. -
EPA Pact With NRDC Sets 2019 Deadline For Final Perchlorate SDWA Rule
Oct 19, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA has reached a settlement with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that commits the agency to issuing by Dec. 19, 2019, a Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, following a federal district court judge's ruling that EPA missed a SDWA deadline for proposing such a rule. -
Vermont Updates Reporting Guidance
Oct 18, 2016 | Chemical Watch
Vermont’s Department of Health (VDH) has updated its guidance for manufacturers required to report under the state's chemical disclosure programme for children’s products. -
IRIS Managers Weigh Contractor's Calls For Improving Risk Assessments
Oct 18, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
Managers and staff with EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program are weighing recommendations in an agency contractor's report outlining how to improve the IRIS process management of its influential risk assessments, including developing a “master schedule” of assessments and bolstering consistency across the program. -
Toxic Chemicals Tied To $340 Billion In U.S. Health Costs And Lost Wages
Oct 17, 2016 | Reuters
By Lisa Rapaport
Chemicals found in plastic bottles, flame retardants, metal food cans, detergents, cosmetics and pesticides cost the U.S. more than $340 billion a year in health costs and lost earnings, a new study estimates. -
The Plastic Plague: Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals In Everyday Things Like Water Bottles DO Cause Cancer, Diabetes, ADHD And Autism - And Cost US $340 BILLION A Year
Oct 18, 2016 | The Daily Mail
By Mia De Graff and AFP
Plastic bottles contain hormone-disrupting chemicals that can cause cancer, diabetes, ADHD and autism, scientists confirmed in a report on Tuesday. -
Toxic Products Cost The US $340 Billion A Year
Oct 18, 2016 | Treehugger
By Melissa Breyer
Chemicals found in plastic bottles, flame retardants, food cans, detergents, cosmetics and pesticides cost the US twice as much as in the EU where the toxins are regulated. -
European Commission Votes To Strengthen Mercury Regulation
Oct 18, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee (Envi) has voted in favour of amendments to a Commission proposal for a mercury Regulation. -
New Colorado Drilling Rules Fail to Safeguard Neighborhoods
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
The approval of a large multi-well oil and gas facility in Colorado shows that new rules designed to protect residential areas are failing, residents near the project said. -
Pennsylvania Shows The Way Toward A Clean Energy Future
Oct 18, 2016 |
By Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto
After hearing oral arguments last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is now deliberating on a case that could determine the fate of the federal Clean Power Plan (CPP). -
New Jersey Waste-to-Energy Bill Would Require Corporations to Separate Food Waste
Oct 18, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
Restaurants, supermarkets and other large food waste generators in New Jersey may soon be required to separate and recycle this waste stream for use as compost or in waste-to-energy facilities. -
Task Force Urges Safety Reforms for Natural Gas Storage Fields
Oct 18, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Rebecca Smith
Federal officials on Tuesday called for a sweeping safety overhaul of more than 400 underground natural gas storage fields in the U.S., following a massive leak last year at a facility near Los Angeles. -
Gas Storage Safety Lessons Gleaned From Aliso Canyon Leak
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
New natural gas storage wells should be designed with double barriers, and older, single barrier wells phased out to guard against leaks and uncontrolled flows, a federal task force said. -
White House Unveils Strategy To Prevent Blowouts
Oct 18, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Northey
A White House task force today floated dozens of safety recommendations for the nation's 400 underground gas storage wells almost a year after a leaky facility in California forced the evacuation of thousands of Los Angeles-area families. -
EPA Chief: New Climate Deal Less ‘Costly’ Than Alternatives
Oct 19, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
President Obama's environment chief said Tuesday an international agreement to phase out a globe-warming refrigerant chemical came together because it’s a low-cost way to combat climate change. -
Carbon Trading Could Cut Costs Of Paris Deal — World Bank
Oct 18, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Hess
The World Bank forecasts that increased international carbon trading could cut the cost of climate change mitigation by 32 percent by 2030, in its latest push for pricing carbon emissions. -
Delaware Seeks Stronger Air Pollution Controls in Philadelphia
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Gerald B. Silverman
Air quality improvements in Delaware are largely attributable to favorable weather conditions and not actual pollution controls, the state argued in a lawsuit that seeks more stringent emissions requirements for the larger Philadelphia region ( Delaware v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 16-1230, brief filed 10/17/16). -
ZDHC Announces New Contributors
Oct 19, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) programme has announced four new contributors.
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(ACC Mentioned) Davis Funds Soar; Wicklund In Red
Oct 18, 2016 | The News-Gazette
By Tom Kacich
Not only does U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis have more than a million dollars in his campaign fund, but his only opponent in the 13th Congressional District race has a campaign fund that is in the red.
Davis, a two-term Republican congressman from Taylorville, had $1.15 million in his campaign fund on Sept. 30, according to his campaign disclosure report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
His Democratic opponent, Mark Wicklund of Decatur, reported a campaign fund that was $2,617 in debt. Wicklund raised only $1,830 during the July-September quarter, and spent $9,182.
Davis’ campaign, meanwhile, reported $294,826 in contributions and $271,830 in expenditures.
A third candidate in the expansive district — independent David Gill of Bloomington — is no longer on the ballot after a federal appellate court panel in Chicago overturned a Springfield judge’s ruling that placed Gill’s name on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Gill, however, reported $723 on hand after a quarter in which he raised $7,707 and spent $15,047. Most of Gill’s third-quarter expenditures were for attorney’s fees in his legal effort to stay on the ballot.
Gill reported $8,000 in payments to Springfield attorney Sam Cahnman and $1,350 to Chicago attorney Andrew Finko.
The 13th District extends across much of central Illinois and includes almost all of Champaign-Urbana, plus Decatur and parts of Springfield, Bloomington, Normal, Collinsville and Belleville.
While at one time the 13th Congressional District was considered only marginally Republican — Davis won in 2012 by only 1,002 votes — he won re-election in 2014 with 59 percent over a well-funded Democratic opponent, former Madison County Judge Ann Callis. And he has proven to be a formidable fundraiser.
Davis’ contributions in the last quarter included $90,150 from individuals and more than $205,025 from political action funds.
Davis, who in the House sits on the Agriculture and Transportation committees, got much of his PAC money from groups with business before those panels. In the current election cycle, he has received $10,000 from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the American Chemistry Council; $9,000 from the Action Committee for Rural Electrification and $7,000 from the Growth Energy PAC, a pro-ethanol group.
For the election cycle which began Jan. 1, 2015, Davis has received almost $675,000 in contributions from individuals and more than $1.67 million from PACs.
Wicklund has raised a total of $19,692 during the election cycle, about $7,000 of which came from individuals. Most of his campaign receipts — $12,392 — have come from himself as campaign contributions.
Neither candidate has given any indication that they will be running commercials on local broadcast stations before Election Day.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-10-18/davis-funds-soar-wicklund-red.html
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Staff Contacts for Six Chemical Rulemakings Posted by EPA
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency released the names and contact information for chemicals office staff working on six rulemakings.
The July 2016 Action Initiation List, which the agency updated Oct. 14, also briefly summarizes six rulemakings triggered by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Pub. L. No. 114-182), which amended the Toxic Substances Control Act on June 22. The rules, which still must be proposed, involve:
• fees chemical manufacturers and possibly processors would pay to help the agency recoup some of its expenditures overseeing their products;
• the process to update the TSCA inventory to identify chemicals made in, or imported into, the U.S. during the past 10 years;
• the procedures the EPA will use to decide which chemicals are high or low priorities for risk evaluation;
• steps the agency will follow to evaluate chemical risks;
• the process the EPA will use to identify the manufacture and use of mercury and mercury-containing products in the U.S.;
• the process the agency will use to review confidential business information claims made for chemical identity.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=99040372&vname=dennotallissues&fn=99040372&jd=99040372
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TSCA's Animal Testing Limit Could Promote Use Of Alternate Test Methods
Oct 18, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
The revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) includes mandates for EPA to reduce and replace whole animal tests where scientifically feasible with alternative toxicology methods, which advocates say could bolster confidence in computational toxicology (CompTox) high-throughput screening, and other alternate testing methods.
One advocate says the new requirements include "very prescriptive language that frankly makes animal testing a last resort, instead of knee jerking to animal testing," and that the more EPA is able to use the alternative methodologies for regulatory purposes, "the more confident EPA and industry will get in reading the data."
Under the revised TSCA, which took effect on June 22, EPA must take several measures aimed at reducing and eventually replacing vertebrate animal testing with alternative methodologies, language sought by animal rights advocates who say it will ultimately help secure more confidence in such methods.
Specifically, section 4 of the law requires that EPA must "reduce and replace to the extent practicable," and where scientifically justified, the use of vertebrate testing to collect data on chemicals. Rather than defaulting to whole animal testing, EPA must first consider "reasonably available existing information," including toxicity data, CompTox and bioinformatics and high-throughput screening methods and the prediction models of those methods.
The law also requires EPA to facilitate in compelling industry testing and issuing test orders under its section 4 testing authority the use of scientifically valid test methods as alternatives to animal testing" while providing information of equivalent or better scientific quality and relevance that will support regulatory decisions."
Under the same provision, EPA is required to facilitate the grouping of two or more substances to further minimize the animal tests and to encourage the formation of industry consortia to jointly conduct testing to avoid unnecessary duplication of data.
By June 22, 2018, EPA must also develop a strategic plan for promoting the development and implementation of alternative testing methodologies and protocols, and require that studies conducted in accordance with industry-required risk evaluations of chemicals also seek to minimize animal testing where "scientifically justified."
Shortly after the law's passage, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' Jessica Sandler said in a press release that "This law reflects the transformation in toxicity testing that PETA scientists have worked tirelessly to achieve."
Animal Testing
The TSCA revisions were designed to address what stakeholders saw as multiple flaws in the original toxics law enacted 1976. Sandler said that under the original law "millions of animals have suffered and died in chemical toxicity tests, while only a handful of dangerous industrial chemicals have been banned."
PETA said the new law ensures that "principles to replace and reduce the use of animals and to increase the use of information from human-relevant methods are integrated into the heart of the legislation."
For example, the law's tiered approach to prioritizing chemicals into high- and low-priority designations will help to minimize testing by targeting only certain chemicals for further study based on "available information and quick, inexpensive screening tests that are usually animal-free."
Advancing computational toxicology, in vitro studies, bioinformatics, high-throughput screening, prediction models and other methods aimed at replacing the use of whole animal or vertebrate tests on chemicals has been a priority of the Obama EPA, but funding levels have previously hindered progress in validating some of those methodologies.
For example, EPA in its proposed fiscal year 2017 budget sought a $5.6 million increase to EPA's chemical safety and sustainability research budget, intended to further advance EPA's CompTox and other 21st century toxicology approaches -- both methods development as well as advancing their regulatory use.
In a budget justification document, EPA said that the increased funding would help make advancements in computational chemistry to allow use of information from chemical structures with known bioactivity to other structures with less data; use the high-throughput hazard and exposure information to begin to evaluate cumulative risk of chemical exposures; expand and extrapolate to novel assays that have relevance to ecological impacts; and demonstrate how existing data can be used to develop high-throughput risk assessments, in particular for data-poor chemicals.
But the proposed budget also would have reduced funds to the original Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which an agency spokeswoman told Inside EPA early this year could slow progress to validate high throughput alternative methods for screening for estrogen, androgen and thyroid bioactivity relevant to risk of endocrine disruption.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/tscas-animal-testing-limit-could-promote-use-alternate-test-methods
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(ACC Mentioned) Glyphosate Delay "Inexcusable"
Oct 18, 2016 | Horticulture Week
By Matthew Appleby,
US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology chairman Lamar Smith (Republican-Texas) has described as "inexcusable" the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) announcement that the Scientific Advisory Panel's upcoming meeting on the chemical glyphosate has been further delayed.
Smith said: "It is inexcusable that EPA continues to delay its review of glyphosate. Today’s announcement that the Scientific Advisory Panel will not meet next week as scheduled means that a final recommendation will not be made until 2017. The Science Committee is already aware that at least one of the members of the previously announced panel has close ties to the questionable research conducted by IARC, which has been criticized by EPA’s own Cancer Assessment Review Committee. The unwillingness of the agency to move forward with this important analysis may be an attempt to pack the panel with individuals who have a pre-determined agenda or bias not based on sound science."
On June 7 Smith sent a letter to the EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting transcribed interviews with four EPA employees to better understand the process the EPA used to evaluate the chemical glyphosate.
In April, the EPA posted what appeared to be the final risk assessment for glyphosate prepared by the Cancer Assessment Review Committee (CARC). EPA subsequently removed the report from its website stating it was posted "inadvertently." The report was clearly marked as "Final Report" and signed by the 13 members of CARC. The CARC report found that glyphosate was not likely to be carcinogenic.
Meanwhile, the American Chemistry Council has written a letter to the US Oversight and Government Reform Committee welcoming the Committee’s interest in learning more about the relationship between the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). ACC says it has "serious concerns about the transparency, rigour and relevance of IARC's Monograph programme."
http://www.hortweek.com/glyphosate-delay-inexcusable/plant-health/article/1412571
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EPA Aims to Boost Awareness of Green Chemistry Through Awards
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to bring more attention to scientists who design chemicals and chemical manufacturing methods offering solutions for climate change, water pollution and other environmental problems, an agency leader said Oct. 18.
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge, which began to accept nominations Oct. 18 for its 2017 awards, provides recognition to engineers and scientists who develop environmental health solutions, Jim Jones, assistant administrator of chemical safety and pollution prevention, told Bloomberg BNA. Dec. 31 is the deadline for nominations; awards will be presented in the summer of 2017.
The cost-effective solutions being recognized through the awards deserve greater recognition, said Jones, who has visited about 15 award recipients since August 2013.
“It's amazing what is going on out there. The innovation in this country is breathtaking,” Jones said.
Boosting Awareness, Leveling Playing Field
As just two examples, both addressing climate change, Jones pointed to Newlight Technologies LLC, which received an award in 2016. Jones said the company developed a small-scale, cost-competitive way to transform methane into plastic. In 2012, Cytec Industries Inc. received an award for developing a technology that significantly reduced aluminum manufacturers’ energy usage.
Techniques the agency plans to use to get more attention for award winners include adding a new search capacity to the agency's green chemistry website, Jones said. The search tool will allow website users to search previous award winners by the environmental or health concern the award recipient's technology addressed, Jones said.
The EPA also is working with the Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2), an association of state, local and tribal governments, to help make more agencies, companies and other interested parties aware of award-winning technologies, he said.
Apart from the presidential awards, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Pub. L. No. 114-182), which amended the Toxic Substances Control Act June 22, will help spur recognition of green chemistry, Jones said.
Companies that have developed new chemicals with better health or environmental profiles than the ones for which they could substitute, often tell agency staff that they are not playing on a level playing field, Jones said.
Under the original and amended TSCA, before they can make a new chemical, manufacturers must have that chemical reviewed by EPA. Under the original TSCA, those new chemicals had to compete against existing chemistries that did not have the best safety profile, Jones said. Under the Lautenberg Act, existing chemicals will be reviewed. Over time, he said, “we will be leveling the playing field,” because new and existing chemicals will have to meet the Lautenberg Act's safety standard.
Six Types of Awards
The annual awards recognize developments in four areas:
• Greener Synthetic Pathways, an example of which would be the use of renewable feedstocks to make chemicals;
• Greener Reaction Conditions, an example of which would be the development of a chemical reaction process that doesn't use solvents;
• The Design of Greener Chemicals, such as a chemical that is inherently safer because it is less explosive than the substance it could replace; and
• Climate Change, for chemicals or chemical production methods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=99040375&vname=dennotallissues&fn=99040375&jd=99040375
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EPA Pact With NRDC Sets 2019 Deadline For Final Perchlorate SDWA Rule
Oct 19, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA has reached a settlement with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that commits the agency to issuing by Dec. 19, 2019, a Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, following a federal district court judge's ruling that EPA missed a SDWA deadline for proposing such a rule.
The consent decree, submitted Oct. 17 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Southern New York, says the agency intends to complete by Oct. 18, 2017, a peer review of materials that will inform the SDWA rulemaking. EPA will then sign a proposed standard by Oct. 31, 2018, and sign the final version in December 2019.
If approved by Judge Edgardo Ramos, the pact will resolve litigation that NRDC filed claiming the agency's Feb. 11, 2011 determination that it should regulate the substance under SDWA triggered a two-year clock for issuing a proposed maximum contaminant level (MCL) goal and proposing a drinking water regulation for it. Ramos in a Sept. 19 order agreed with NRDC that the agency had missed the deadline for the proposal.
The judge's order, however, did not address whether EPA also missed a deadline for issuing a final version of such a rule. As recently as Oct. 12, NRDC filed briefs on its motion for summary judgment on its allegation that EPA also missed the deadline to finalize a perchlorate drinking water standard.
NRDC compared SDWA's time line to the language of the Endangered Species Act, which it said “courts interpret as establishing binding final deadlines.”
The group further argued that legislative history of SDWA “further confirms Congress’s intent that the agency rapidly regulate new contaminants found to pose a risk to human health. By contrast, the agency’s interpretation is illogical, would reward agency delay, and would undercut the public’s ability to enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act’s requirements,” NRDC said.
Consent Decree
The consent decree separates the two charges, acknowledging Ramos' order on liability regarding EPA's failure to propose the rule as required by SDWA.
On the issue of finalizing the rule, the consent decree states only that “NRDC alleges that EPA has failed to comply with this second mandatory duty.” The consent decree also notes that “EPA and NRDC have agreed to a settlement of this action without admission of any further issue of fact or law.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Bretz, on EPA's behalf, submitted the consent decree to the court with a letter requesting that Ramos stay briefing deadlines on the issue “during the Court's consideration of the consent decree.”
EPA's efforts at advancing the rule have been complicated because the agency's science advisors recommended in 2013 that EPA rule developers use a novel modeling approach to inform the standard, rather than a traditional algebraic formula. But the model's development has taken much longer than the advisors anticipated.
EPA released last month the model and other materials to undergo peer review that will inform its SDWA decisionmaking on perchlorate, as well as a list of 19 potential peer reviewers and charge questions. The peer review will help guide the agency in weighing how to best regulate the substance.
EPA is taking comment on the model through Nov. 14, and seeking input through Oct. 21 on the peer reviewers and their charge. The consent decree says that the agency intends to complete the peer review work by Oct. 18, 2017, but that if it fails to do so it will update the court with a status report by Oct. 30, 2017.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-pact-nrdc-sets-2019-deadline-final-perchlorate-sdwa-rule
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Vermont Updates Reporting Guidance
Oct 18, 2016 | Chemical Watch
Vermont’s Department of Health (VDH) has updated its guidance for manufacturers required to report under the state's chemical disclosure programme for children’s products.
The Chemicals of High Concern in Children's Products Rule requires manufacturers of certain products, containing any of 66 chemicals of high concern to children, to file reports with the state.
The updated guidance has further information on declaration of trade secrets, and includes a new reporting form for this.
The document also has new details on brand names and product models.
Unlike similar reporting rules in states like Washington and Oregon, Vermont’s is on a product-by-product basis. A coalition of business groups has repeatedly raised concerns over the burdens of the approach.
After a delayed launch to its online report portal, the VDH announced a 1 January 2017 reporting deadline for manufacturers covered under the state’s chemical disclosure programme.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50385/vermont-updates-reporting-guidance
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IRIS Managers Weigh Contractor's Calls For Improving Risk Assessments
Oct 18, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
Managers and staff with EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program are weighing recommendations in an agency contractor's report outlining how to improve the IRIS process management of its influential risk assessments, including developing a “master schedule” of assessments and bolstering consistency across the program.
The report, which the agency recently provided to Inside EPA, praises parts of IRIS but outlines several steps that the agency could take to improve it -- following years of concern from some lawmakers and others about delays and other problems with the program. However, it is unclear whether EPA will take formal action on the recommendations until it appoints a new permanent National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) director.
Michael Slimak, who oversees IRIS and is currently interim NCEA director following the July 31 retirement of prior NCEA Director Ken Olden, recently provided program staff with the study by contractor ICF International, called “Assessment Report: EPA IRIS Practices And Tools For Program And Project Management.”
ICF conducted group and individual interviews with some 50 IRIS staff and managers across its geographic divisions in Research Triangle Park, NC, Cincinnati, OH and Washington, D.C., to begin their assessment. The contractors concluded that IRIS leaders broadly believed that “[t]he quality of draft assessments do not meet expectations” and “[m]anagement lacks visibility into draft assessment activity progress.”
By contrast, IRIS staff and chemical assessment managers told the contractors that they received “[i]nconsistent or conflicting guidance . . . from management.” Staff found “[r]epetitive rework of assessments is burdensome and frustrating” and the “[t]imeline set by management is aggressive and sometimes unrealistic.”
IRIS leaders and staff said the “IRIS assessment process is evolving”; the “[i]ntroduction of Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) is a correct step”; how an “IRIS assessment is aligned with other organizational priorities within NCEA is unclear” and the “assessment workload falls predominantly on senior, high productive team members.”
Asked to comment on the report's findings, an EPA spokeswoman said that in recent years “the IRIS Program has made significant advancements. As part of EPA’s commitment to continuous improvement of the Agency’s IRIS Program, this report was undertaken to review the program’s project management capabilities.”
The spokeswoman adds that “IRIS management and staff have been working to improve efficiency and effectiveness within the program. The report identified a number of best practices and tools that exist within the IRIS Program, while also noting opportunities to enhance existing practices and introduce complementary tools and practices that will improve program productivity, internal communication, and overall program management.”
Contractor's Report
ICF notes praise for some “best practices and tools” used in the IRIS program, such as human “[r]esource decisions are made at both the program and assessment team levels in an effort to optimize draft assessment production”; draft “assessments undergo several reviews to explore multiple perspectives of assessment quality”; “[m]anagement meetings address perceived risks to assessment production, quality, and other factors” and IRIS management has “designated an individual to cultivate the development of a [program management office] which is targeted to provide integration management, analysis, and other support to program leadership and assessment teams.”
But “[w]hile evidence of best practices and tools exists, there are opportunities to bolster, integrate, and mature these practices. By doing so, IRIS can address pain points within the program that are impacting productivity, assessment quality, and worker satisfaction. Feedback from interviewees indicates that despite the existence of practices and tools, more needs to be done to improve communication, quality, productivity, and worker satisfaction,” the report says.
ICF suggests changes to improve IRIS process management, such as creating “program plans and assessment plans to guide program and assessment execution”; developing templates and tools shared across linked computers to “reduce worker confusion [and] enhance consistency across teams”; “[s]trengthen the [nascent] Program Management Office [PMO]. . . . The PMO can function as the steward for practices, tools, and education for assessment team. In addition it can perform analysis of assessment team status. . . . Through better integration of teams, standardization, and informed decision-making, IRIS can improve productivity, quality, and transparency across the program.”
More detailed recommendations in an appendix include urging the program to “Develop an integrated master schedule to reflect assessment timing, interdependencies, and resource requirements.”
It appears, however, that action on any of the recommendations may wait until EPA appoints a permanent replacement for Olden following an advertisement for the position that closed Aug. 5.
The EPA spokeswoman says that agency staff “is currently reviewing all the recommendations from the report and working with both managers and staff within the [NCEA] to identify how to best respond to recommendations . . . and further strengthen the program’s management practices. The report will also be provided to the new Director of NCEA for their consideration and input.”
IRIS Criticisms
The IRIS program has been widely criticized by a broad spectrum of stakeholders for both the scientific quality of its assessments as well as the laborious pace of their production.
IRIS assessments take years to complete, with those of complexity and stature in the political realm can last a decade or more. Most recently, the program finalized the assessment of a trio of isomers of trimethylbenzenes (TMBs) in September, ending a nearly two-year drought in the program's publication of final assessments. The last final assessment published before that of TMBs was that of Libby amphibole asbestos in December 2014.
Olden addressed the issue in public remarks at an IRIS stakeholders' meeting in June, where he announced his then-impending retirement. Olden argued that efforts to improve the scientific rigor of the program led to delays in producing assessments, but that the reforms he spearheaded were necessary, and IRIS is making progress on implementing them.
Olden cited finite resources as another bar to IRIS' progress, noting that the program has 49 full time employee equivalents and “not . . . enough scientists to assign to everything that is on [IRIS'] multi-year plan," Olden said. He alluded to the tradeoff between producing more assessments -- a longstanding criticism of the program, which produced even fewer assessments under his watch -- and making process improvements to the overall program.
"Unfortunately, it takes people, staff time to do the things that I'm going to tell you we've done over the past four years. . . . It's a tradeoff. I accept full responsibility for the tradeoff," Olden said. "My only disappointment is that the culture and organizational structure critical for success was not in place in 2012. We had two choices: We could continue to operate as we were, with the same outcome, the 2011 [NAS] formaldehyde report, or we could reinvent ourselves and we have chosen the latter."
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/iris-managers-weigh-contractors-calls-improving-risk-assessments
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Toxic Chemicals Tied To $340 Billion In U.S. Health Costs And Lost Wages
Oct 17, 2016 | Reuters
By Lisa Rapaport
(Reuters Health) - Chemicals found in plastic bottles, flame retardants, metal food cans, detergents, cosmetics and pesticides cost the U.S. more than $340 billion a year in health costs and lost earnings, a new study estimates.
That’s more than twice the annual estimated cost of $163 billion in the European Union, where regulations may limit exposure to some of these chemicals, researchers note in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
The chemicals in question are known as endocrine disruptors because they can interfere with the body’s endocrine, or hormone, system and produce negative developmental, reproductive, neurological and immune effects.
“These findings speak to the large health and economic benefits to regulating endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” said senior study author Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a researcher at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City.
For the current study, researchers reviewed blood sample and urine analyses that documented the presence of endocrine disruptors among U.S. participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
They estimated total costs linked to these chemicals based on both the direct cost of treatment and the indirect cost of lost productivity or earnings. Then, they compared the U.S. results to findings from a previous study done in Europe.
Costs are higher in the U.S. in large part due to widespread use of a chemical mixture applied to furniture to make it less flammable that has been restricted in Europe since 2008.
This chemical blend, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), is responsible for about 43,000 cases of intellectual disability in the U.S. each year, compared with 3,290 cases in Europe, the researchers estimate.
PBDEs are also tied to the loss of 11 million IQ points each year in the U.S., compared with 873,000 lost IQ points in Europe.
Combined, the costs associated with intellectual disabilities and lost IQ points linked to PBDEs come to $266 billion a year in the U.S., compared with $12.6 billion in Europe.
Organophosphates - chemicals in pesticides that have been restricted in the U.S. since 1996 - are associated with 1.8 million lost IQ points and 7,500 cases of intellectual disability in the U.S. each year, at an estimated cost of $44.7 billion.
In Europe, where these pesticides are not strictly regulated, organophosphates are linked to 13 million lost IQ points and 59,300 cases of intellectual disability each year, costing a projected $194 billion.
Autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, heart and vascular disorders, and endometriosis are among the other diseases linked to exposure to endocrine disruptors and included in the cost analysis.
One limitation of the study is that researchers limited their cost analysis to a subset of about 5 percent of endocrine disruptors with solid evidence suggesting they cause health problems, the authors note. This may underestimate costs, they argue.
Even so, the results offer some of the most compelling evidence to date of the economic impact of U.S. environmental policy, said Joseph Allen, a public health researcher at Harvard University in Boston who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Adults and children in the U.S. carry more industrial chemicals in their bodies than their European counterparts simply due to differences in chemical policies,” Allen said by email.
“In the U.S. our chemical policy largely follows the approach of our legal system – ‘innocent until proven guilty,’” Allen added. “This is appropriate for criminal justice policy but has disastrous consequences for health when used for chemical policy.”
Absent changes in regulations, there’s still plenty people can do to limit their exposure to the chemicals, Trasande noted.
“These include eating organic foods, avoiding microwaving food in plastic containers, limiting canned food consumption, and washing plastic food containers by hand instead of putting them in the dishwasher,” Trasande said.
“People can also avoid using plastic containers labeled on the bottom with the numbers 3, 6 or 7 inside the recycle symbol, in which chemicals such as phthalates are used,” he said. “Switching to “all natural” or “fragrance-free” cosmetics can also reduce exposure.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-chemicals-environment-idUSKBN12H2KB
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Oct 18, 2016 | The Daily Mail
By Mia De Graff and AFP
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are in thousands of products
Products range from plastic water bottles to cheap toys and cosmetics
Study warns they cause neurological damage and behavioral problems
Exposure to these chemicals cost the US at least $340bn in health a year
Plastic bottles contain hormone-disrupting chemicals that can cause cancer, diabetes, ADHD and autism, scientists confirmed in a report on Tuesday.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) interfere with the body's hormonal system, affecting development and leaving the body open to a staggering range of diseases.
But they are found in thousands of everyday products, ranging from plastic and metal food containers, to detergents, flame retardants, toys and cosmetics.
These chemicals are responsible for scores of illnesses - costing the US an eye-watering $340 billion in health-related costs each year, the bombshell report by NYU Langone revealed.
The most common EDC-related illness is neurological - including attention-ADHD, autism and loss of IQ.
The invisible but dangerous chemicals also boosted obesity, diabetes, some cancers, male infertility and a painful condition known as endometriosis, the abnormal growth of tissue outside the uterus.
In a country where plastic is rife, these illnesses are not as rare as we may think.
The landmark new study by NYU Langone reveals the economic impact of the chemicals leaves a huge, two per cent dent in the US' gross domestic product (GDP) each year.
'Our research adds to the growing evidence on the tremendous economic as well as human health costs of endocrine-disrupting chemicals,' said lead investigator Leonardo Trasande, an associate professor at NYU Langone in New York City.
'This has the potential to develop into a much larger health and economic issue if no policy action is taken,' he told AFP.
Some of the chemicals highlighted in the report, including phthalates used in bottles, are banned in the European Union - and would therefore not be on sale in Britain.
MailOnline is attempting to find out whether some of the toxins may still be in UK plastic products. But a similar study last year estimated that the chemicals cost the EU health systems $271 billion.
The chemical affect the body's endocrine tissues, which produce essential hormones that help regulate energy levels, reproduction, growth, development, as well as our response to stress and injury.
Mimicking naturally occurring hormones such as estrogen and androgen, EDCs lock on to receptors within a human cell and block the body's own hormones from binding with it.
Recent research has raised red flags showing that 'environmental contaminants can disrupt the endocrine system leading to adverse-health consequences,' according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
In the US, the biggest chemical culprit by far among the thousands of manmade molecules suspected of interfering with human hormones are so-called PBDEs, found in flame retardants.
Bisphenol A, used to line tin food cans, along with phthalates in plastic food containers and many cosmetics, were also held to be responsible for upward of $50 billion worth of health damages.
A similar study concluded last year that health-related costs of EDCs in the European Union were some $271 billion, about 1.28 percent of GPD.
Crucially, the main drivers of disease and disability were different on either side of the Atlantic, Trasande said.
'US costs are higher mainly because of the widespread use in furniture of brominated flame retardants,' which were banned in the EU in 2008, he explained.
The blood level of these chemicals in the average American would be in the top five percent of Europeans today.
By contrast, the health costs associated with pesticides in food were 10 times higher in the EU than in the United States, where more stringent regulations were put in place to protect pregnant women and children.
To put a figure on the impact of EDCs, the researchers reviewed blood and urine samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which has gathered data since 2009 on major disease risk factors from 5,000 volunteers.
Computer models were then used to project how much each of 15 diseases or conditions was attributable to chemical exposure, and the estimated health costs for each one.
The study was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, a medical journal.
Flame retardants and pesticides in particular are known to affect the developing brain and can lead to loss of IQ.
'Each IQ point lost corresponds to approximately two per cent in lost productivity,' Trasande explained.
The costs and benefits of regulation should be openly debated, the authors argued, citing the decision in the 1970s to ban lead in paint, and then 20 years later in gasoline.
Commenting in the same journal, Michele La Merrill, an expert in environmental toxicology at the University of California in Davis, said the new findings 'provide a lesson on the lasting economic effects of harmful chemicals.'
They should 'inspire a policy shift to end the cat-and-mouse game currently employed the US government and industry.'
The EU set broad criteria in June for identifying potentially harmful EDCs, but consumer and environmental groups said they fell far short of what is needed.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3847804/The-hormone-disrupting-chemicals-plastic-bottle-cause-autism-cancer-cost-340-BILLION-year-healthcare.html
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Toxic Products Cost The US $340 Billion A Year
Oct 18, 2016 | Treehugger
By Melissa Breyer
Chemicals found in plastic bottles, flame retardants, food cans, detergents, cosmetics and pesticides cost the US twice as much as in the EU where the toxins are regulated.
It’s enough to make one’s blood boil. The chemical policy in the United States is so illogical; how does it make sense that we allow toxic chemicals with known negative health effects to persist?
I could rant and rant, but a new study puts the travesty in perspective by applying numbers to it, and maybe the kind of numbers that policy-makers can understand – not deaths, but dollars.
The research comes from New York University’s Langone Medical Center and was published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. The researchers discovered that endocrine disruptors cause more than $340 billion a year in health costs and lost earnings. For comparison, it’s more than double the yearly estimated cost of $163 billion in the European Union.
In matters of chemical policy, the EU operates by means of the precautionary principle, in which ingredients likely to be hazardous can be removed from the market, even if full scientific evaluation hasn’t been completed. When it comes to our health, why isn’t the norm?
“Adults and children in the U.S. carry more industrial chemicals in their bodies than their European counterparts simply due to differences in chemical policies,” Joseph Allen, a public health researcher at Harvard University told Reuters.
“In the U.S. our chemical policy largely follows the approach of our legal system – ‘innocent until proven guilty,’” Allen added. “This is appropriate for criminal justice policy but has disastrous consequences for health when used for chemical policy.”
The chemicals in the study are endocrine disruptors. Found in a wide array of consumer products – think plastic bottles, flame-retardants, food cans, detergents, cosmetics and pesticides. They can interfere with the body’s hormone system and cause all kinds of deleterious developmental, reproductive, neurological and immune effects.
The researchers looked at blood and urine levels of endocrine disruptors in samples from participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES); and then compared the American data to results from European research. In determining the dollar impact, the direct cost of treatment was considered, as well as indirect costs from of lost productivity or earnings.
Reuters points out some of the startling highlights from the study:
This chemical blend, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) [flame-retardants], is responsible for about 43,000 cases of intellectual disability in the U.S. each year, compared with 3,290 cases in Europe, the researchers estimate.
PBDEs are also tied to the loss of 11 million IQ points each year in the U.S., compared with 873,000 lost IQ points in Europe.
Combined, the costs associated with intellectual disabilities and lost IQ points linked to PBDEs come to $266 billion a year in the U.S., compared with $12.6 billion in Europe.
[Costs are higher in the U.S. in large part due to widespread use of a chemical mixture applied to furniture to make it less flammable that has been restricted in Europe since 2008, Reuters notes.]
Organophosphates – chemicals in pesticides that have been restricted in the U.S. since 1996 – are associated with 1.8 million lost IQ points and 7,500 cases of intellectual disability in the U.S. each year, at an estimated cost of $44.7 billion.
In Europe, where these pesticides are not strictly regulated, organophosphates are linked to 13 million lost IQ points and 59,300 cases of intellectual disability each year, costing a projected $194 billion.
“These findings speak to the large health and economic benefits to regulating endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” said senior study author Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a researcher at NYU.
Other diseases and conditions linked to endocrine disruptors and looked at in the study include autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, heart and vascular disorders, and endometriosis and others.
Remarkably, the scientists considered only about 5 percent of endocrine disruptors with solid evidence suggesting they cause health problems, the authors note. The costs (and damage) is likely way more.
Until policy makers get the guts to take some action, there are things we can do as consumers to limit our exposure to chemicals – steps that TreeHugger writes about a lot. Trasande even sounds like he’s taking notes from the TreeHugger playbook when he writes of the steps we can take to avoid toxins in consumer products.
“These include eating organic foods, avoiding microwaving food in plastic containers, limiting canned food consumption, and washing plastic food containers by hand instead of putting them in the dishwasher,” Trasande says.
“People can also avoid using plastic containers labeled on the bottom with the numbers 3, 6 or 7 inside the recycle symbol, in which chemicals such as phthalates are used,” he says. “Switching to “all natural” or “fragrance-free” cosmetics can also reduce exposure.”
Either that, or move the European Union.
The following video is about 30 minutes long, and while not connected to the study, gives a comprehensive overview of the thousands of chemicals found in everyday products. A discussion of endocrine disruptors is near the beginning.
http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/toxic-products-cost-us-340-billion-year.html
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European Commission Votes To Strengthen Mercury Regulation
Oct 18, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee (Envi) has voted in favour of amendments to a Commission proposal for a mercury Regulation.
The amendments include: aligning the export ban on mercury-added products with restrictions already applied within the EU;expanding the regulation to include three more mercury compounds;phasing out mercury in dentistry by the end of 2022, and for children and pregnant women within one year from entry into force of the Regulation;prohibiting the import of mercury and listed compounds; andimport for disposal is permitted initially until December 2027.
This moves the EU a step closer towards ratifying the Minamata Convention on Mercury, said the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).
"Envi has sent a clear message to the Commission and member states that it wants to see a robust mercury Regulation going beyond the minimal requirements of the Minamata Convention," EEB's Elena Lymberidi-Settimo said.
ChemSec policy advisor Frida Hök said: "Mercury has the ability to travel long distances and affect places far from where it was originally used. The water quality all over Europe will be improved if a phase out is decided upon."
NGOs applied pressure on the Commission in a joint letter to member states earlier this year. A month later Envi backed rapporteur changes to the proposed Regulation.
Parliament will now begin discussions with the European Council to see if they can reach an agreement before the end of the year.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50365/european-commission-votes-to-strengthen-mercury-regulation
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New Colorado Drilling Rules Fail to Safeguard Neighborhoods
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
The approval of a large multi-well oil and gas facility in Colorado shows that new rules designed to protect residential areas are failing, residents near the project said.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission's “new rules are meaningless,” said Lowell Lewis, member of the “Neighbors Affected by Triple Creek,” a permitted drilling location that will have 22 wells and 22 oil tanks near a residential neighborhood in Greeley. Lewis said in an Oct. 17 statement the commission failed to enforce its requirement for an alternative location analysis nor did it require the use of “best available technologies” at the facility.
Nearby residents said the producer, Extraction Oil and Gas, initially pledged to use oil pipelines to limit the impact on the neighborhood. Extraction's state-issued permit doesn't require the company to use pipelines, and the company has told residents that it will use trucks to transport natural gas and oil from the site.
“Extraction's proposal has wrecked me emotionally and financially,” Dawn Stein, a nearby homeowner, said in a statement from the neighbor group. “I fail to see how their ‘mitigations’ of cement barriers and hay bales around my house will protect me from the noise and smoke of thousands of trucks rumbling past.” Stein, 60, who has lived in her home for 30 years, said she learned last December that a new oil and gas access road will be placed 35 feet from her bedroom window.
Fracking, Horizontal Wells
From the site, Extraction Oil and Gas will be able to reach minerals underground and 2.5 miles away using hydraulic fracturing and the longest horizontally drilled wells in Colorado, Lewis said. The COGCC approved the project Oct. 14, and neighbors say Extraction is planning to begin operations there before the end of the month.
Brian Cain, a spokesman for Extraction in Houston, said the company hasn't released an official start date. He declined to comment further.
Todd Hartman, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, told Bloomberg BNA Oct. 18 that the facility is about 900 feet from the closest home. Under Colorado's oil and gas rules, wells must be at least 500 feet from occupied buildings such as homes, schools and hospitals.
Under the commission's new rules (Recommendation 17) for a Large Urban Mitigation Area facility, which took effect in March, if the operator has an agreement with the local government regarding the siting of an oil and gas facility—as Extraction does with Greeley—the COGCC process for conducting an alternative location analysis isn't triggered, Hartman said. The commission did require Extraction to evaluate two alternative sites put forward by local residents, he said.
Lack of Pipeline Infrastructure
Hartman said the commission concluded that the lack of existing pipeline infrastructure in the area made the option of piping oil and natural gas off-site unavailable. The site will deploy state-of-the-art technology that reduces issues commonly associated with loading product into trucks, issues such as tank vapors, extended diesel truck idling and safety hazards, he said. “COGCC believes this loading system represents the best available technology in tank battery design and construction,” he said.
During a public comment period on the permit for the facility, some 70 public comments were submitted to the COGCC opposing the current location, according to the neighborhood group. Extraction estimates there will be more than 205,000 heavy truck trips to and from the site over the expected 25-year life of the wells, the group said.
The recommendation for amending the COGCC's Large Urban Mitigation Area rules came from a special task force that Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) convened in 2014 to address conflicts between the state and local governments in oil and natural gas regulation.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=99040373&vname=dennotallissues&fn=99040373&jd=99040373
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Pennsylvania Shows The Way Toward A Clean Energy Future
Oct 18, 2016 |
By Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto
After hearing oral arguments last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is now deliberating on a case that could determine the fate of the federal Clean Power Plan (CPP). Opponents of the CPP, which sets the nation’s first limits on carbon pollution from power plants, have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming regulatory overreach by the federal government. While much of the controversy has focused on industry and states, this is an issue of tremendous consequence to local government. That’s why the Cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh support the Clean Power Plan and defended the EPA in court.
Cities and towns like ours are on the front lines when it comes to dealing with the very real effects of pollution and climate change. From managing flooding events to air quality concerns, mayors can’t wait idly by for federal and state government to act. Both of our cities are advancing ambitious, achievable sustainability agendas that are rooted in improving environmental and public health, increasing social equity, and driving economic competitiveness.
In Philadelphia, we are leading by example: we've committed to reducing greenhouse gases 80% by 2050 and are improving energy performance in city-owned facilities. As part of the Rebuilding Community Infrastructure initiative, we are making energy efficient improvements to recreation centers, libraries and other city-owned buildings. We're releasing an update to our sustainability plan next month and are developing a comprehensive energy master plan that will guide our efforts to substantially increase energy efficiency and renewable energy generation.
In Pittsburgh, we purchase 30% of our municipal energy from renewable sources, enough to power 3,500 homes a year. The Pittsburgh 2030 District is an exciting public-private collaborative working to create high-performance buildings that will increase the competitiveness of our downtown. Partnering with the Department of Energy, we are advancing several migrogrid and district energy projects across the City.
Despite the progress our two cities are making, we know that it’s not enough. Ultimately, an alignment between local, state and federal government is essential to meeting the climate imperative. We believe that the next step in this direction is moving forward with the Clean Power Plan.
By providing states with a flexible framework for how they meet their emissions goals, the CPP has the potential to build upon and accelerate the work being done at the local level. The Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP) is the part of the CPP that explicitly aims to extend from the utility scale to the community scale. The CEIP is a voluntary early-action program designed to catalyze renewable energy and energy efficiency projects as a way for states to meet their compliance goals. It will drive projects that create jobs, lower utility bills, and increase energy efficiency and clean energy adoption.
In particular, the CEIP will focus investments in low-income communities, where families carry a higher-than-average energy burden and are disproportionately affected by climate change. Our cities know these challenges all too well: a 2016 report by ACEEE found that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are among the top 10 major U.S. cities that have the highest energy burdens for low-income households. The clean energy future we’re working towards must be one from which everyone benefits. That’s why we submitted comments to the EPA supporting the goals of the CEIP and encourage the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to opt-in to the program.
Pennsylvania is the epicenter for the myriad issues being contested around the Clean Power Plan: an economy tied to coal production, the transition to natural gas, tremendous growth potential in renewables, and the need to secure a safe climate. And Pennsylvania, with its industrial legacy and well-trained workforce, like the country at-large, is well positioned to be at the forefront of the clean energy economy.
The Clean Power Plan is about more than power plants. It represents the country’s most aggressive effort to date to protect the health and well-being of our communities from carbon pollution and climate change. As U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael Bloomberg—once a mayor himself—says, "We cannot address climate change effectively without putting cities at the center of the agenda." We couldn’t agree more and stand eager to work with our state and federal government to make the Clean Power Plan a success.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/301518-pennsylvania-shows-the-way-toward-a-clean-energy
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New Jersey Waste-to-Energy Bill Would Require Corporations to Separate Food Waste
Oct 18, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
Restaurants, supermarkets and other large food waste generators in New Jersey may soon be required to separate and recycle this waste stream for use as compost or in waste-to-energy facilities.
A bill that would mandate these changes, S-771, was recently passed by the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee, as reported by NJ.com. The legislation would also encourage the state to build more waste-to-energy plants.
Food waste is the single largest component of US municipal solid waste, according to the EPA. It accounts for a major portion of the nation’s methane emissions and it costs businesses billions.
The US Department of Agriculture estimates the food retail industry lost almost $47 billion in 2010 (the most current figures) from food losses — that’s 8 percent of their food supply.
If half of the nation’s food waste could be recycled and used as a fuel for energy, enough electricity would be generated to power 2.5 million homes for a year, according to EPA estimates.
New Jersey Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the sponsor of the bill, told NJ.com that the legislation is “an intelligent alternative to improve our environment. We have a problem with waste in this country, and recycling solid waste is a viable system that will produce energy to provide to our homes, schools and businesses.’”
Similar laws have been adopted in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
The New Jersey proposal follows a Rutgers University study that found New Jersey was not utilizing the potential energy from biomass, which it said can help the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions improve air quality.
In other efforts to reduce food waste, Food Cowboy, which uses mobile technology to help food companies route surplus and unsaleable inventory to charities and organic waste to composters, earlier this year launched two initiatives to fund startups and technologies that reduce food waste.
The No Waste Promise Alliance and the Food Waste Innovation Fund will together invest up to $75 million a year in public and private sector solutions to food waste, Food Cowboy says.
Last year, the US government set a goal to cut food waste in half by 2030 — a move widely supported by the retail, food and beverage industries, among others.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/10/18/new-jersey-waste-to-energy-bill-would-require-corporations-to-separate-food-waste/
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Task Force Urges Safety Reforms for Natural Gas Storage Fields
Oct 18, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
By Rebecca Smith
Federal officials on Tuesday called for a sweeping safety overhaul of more than 400 underground natural gas storage fields in the U.S., following a massive leak last year at a facility near Los Angeles.
The report by the Interagency Task Force on Natural Gas Storage Safety recommended 44 measures to bolster the safety and soundness of natural gas storage fields in 30 states that fall under federal jurisdiction.
It was prompted by a massive and protracted gas leak in October 2015 at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field northwest of Los Angeles, which released more than 90,000 metric tons of methane and forced the relocation of thousands of households from the nearby community of Porter Ranch.
Marie Therese Dominguez, the administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, served as the co-chair of the task force, which was created in April.
She said Tuesday that her agency expects to create comprehensive rules for interstate gas storage fields by the end of the year, after receiving the authority through a pipeline safety act President Barack Obama signed into law in June.
The Aliso Canyon leak, she said, forced federal and state officials to confront the fact that “we are dealing with aging infrastructure around the country” that demands immediate attention to prevent additional disasters.
About 80% of the wells at these storage sites were drilled before 1980 and many use technology and materials regarded today as antiquated. The Aliso leak stemmed from a faulty well dating to 1954, which proved difficult to seal.
Ms. Dominguez said improvements are needed to protect human health and to provide dependable gas supplies for home heating and to furnish power plants with fuel. About a third of the nation’s electricity is expected to come from natural gas this year, a number that is growing as utilities retire coal-fired power plants.
The task force’s report found many wells were converted to storage use from oil production and lack “piping designed for the higher overall operating pressures of natural gas,” which could weaken them.
It also found local, state and federal officials need to develop special plans to handle potential supply disruptions at 12 major storage fields that furnish fuel to large numbers of power generators.
The task force recommended that wells with only a single line of defense develop a double barrier. That typically means moving gas through a pipe that is encircled by packing material, cement and an outer pipe.
Federal officials said operators need to perform more rigorous tests of wells and log the condition of pipes and casing materials, so that repairs happen before there are leaks. They added that operators and officials need to develop better systems for monitoring leaks and handling emergencies.
Some environmentalists applauded the federal effort to create standards but worried that industry concerns about the cost of implementing recommendations could dilute the effort.
The American Gas Association, an industry group, said it was pleased the report recognized the importance of gas storage. It previously expressed concern that new federal rules could prove burdensome and ultimately costly for customers.
Don Santa, head of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said in a statement he was wary of the recommendation advocating “double barriers” to prevent well leaks. He said it could affect “the majority of U.S. natural gas storage wells.”
The task force concluded that more research is needed on safety valves that could shut off the flow of gas in emergencies. It recommended the Energy Department and Transportation Department conduct a joint study of the costs and benefits.
That drew criticism from Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat who represents communities near the Aliso Canyon spill. In a statement, he said he was concerned the report “fails to call for sub-surface safety shut-off valves on every well.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/task-force-urges-safety-reforms-for-natural-gas-storage-fields-1476825112
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Gas Storage Safety Lessons Gleaned From Aliso Canyon Leak
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
New natural gas storage wells should be designed with double barriers, and older, single barrier wells phased out to guard against leaks and uncontrolled flows, a federal task force said.
The call for the more-protective well design is among 44 recommendations in a report released Oct. 18 by an interagency panel the White House convened to analyze last year's massive leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in California to prevent future incidents.
“We wanted to take advantage of the lessons learned from Aliso Canyon and apply them to the more than 400 underground natural gas storage wells,” Lynn Orr, the under secretary for science and energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, said in a press call.
More than 5 billion cubic feet of methane and other chemicals were released between Oct. 23, 2015, and Feb. 11, 2016, from a well at Southern California Gas Co.'s Aliso Canyon storage field near Los Angeles.
“Protecting the health of our communities, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and moving toward a clean energy future — these goals are central to the vision of a 21st century city,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a written statement. “The Aliso Canyon disaster displaced a community and caused health impacts for many residents, and woke the nation to the danger and environmental harm of natural gas leaks. We can't let it happen again.”
Key Recommendations
The report, “Ensuring Safe and Reliable Underground Natural Gas Storage,” focused on well integrity, health and environment and energy reliability issues.
Along with moving to double barrier wells, the report also calls for rigorous monitoring and evaluation of storage wells, a federal study of subsurface safety valves and improved planning to prevent and mitigate health and environmental risks and reduce energy reliability risks in the event of future leaks.
A study of the long-term health effects of the odorants used in natural gas also is needed, Orr said.
States also should review their authority to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas leaks, the report said.
Planning Averted Power Outages
State and local energy officials had feared that the closure of the Aliso Canyon facility, due to the leak, could result in power outages this summer and possibly this winter. Measures implemented to reduce demand and balance supply have avoided outages, Orr said.
About 80 percent of the storage wells operating in 25 states were constructed before 1980 and have the “single point of failure” designs, compared to the double barriers in the more modern wells, the report said.
While the root cause of the leak at Aliso Canyon storage field has not yet been determined, the leaking well was a single point of failure design, the report said.
Gas Storage Is Needed
Even with increasing investment in renewable energy, natural gas continues to play a critical role in the U.S. energy infrastructure, said Orr and Marie-Therese Dominguez, administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
“Throughout the nation and in the Los Angeles basin, there is a need for natural gas storage,” Orr said. “We need to make sure they operate safely.”
Residents surrounding the Aliso Canyon storage field, many environmental advocates and some elected officials have called for permanent closure of the facility.
“The only way to truly safeguard the public is to complete our transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy and leave dirty fuels in the ground,” Lena Moffitt, director of Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, said in a written statement.
Market overhauls are needed to reduce the nation's dependence on gas and gas storage, but the aging gas infrastructure must be addressed, Mark Brownstein, a vice president of climate and energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a written statement.
“This new report accurately describes the serious safety and environmental hazards involved with these crumbling links in our energy infrastructure,” Brownstein said. “The challenge now is taking action. We need stronger safety standards at both the state and federal level, and to make sure that state and federal officials are working together to close the gaps in the safety net.”
Federal Rules Planned
The report will help inform a phased in federal rulemaking to make the nation's aging natural gas infrastructure safer, Dominguez said.
PHMSA plans on issuing an interim final rule by the end of the year that will set national standards based on American Petroleum Institute-recommended practices, Dominguez said.
The API recommended practices address design, construction and operation of underground natural gas storage operations, the organization's spokesman, Michael Tadeo, told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail.
“We look forward to our continued collaboration with federal and state government agencies to advance our common goal of safety and zero incidents,” he said.
The American Gas Association, API and other industry groups said they will work on data-gathering initiatives and technical information to explain current efforts and identify new options to improve the safety of storage facilities.
Aliso Canyon Improvements
SoCalGas is reviewing the report and will support “forward-looking and reasonable regulations that promote safety at natural gas storage facilities,” Chris Gilbride, a spokesman for the Sempra Energy utility, told Bloomberg BNA.
The Aliso Canyon storage remains closed to withdrawals and injections of natural gas until all the wells have been inspected and approved for use by state oil and gas regulators.
More than 40 miles of new piping has been installed in storage wells at Aliso Canyon, Gilbride said. A fence-line infrared detection system and video scanning of the wells are among other safety improvements at the facility, he said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=99040380&vname=dennotallissues&fn=99040380&jd=99040380
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White House Unveils Strategy To Prevent Blowouts
Oct 18, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Northey
A White House task force today floated dozens of safety recommendations for the nation's 400 underground gas storage wells almost a year after a leaky facility in California forced the evacuation of thousands of Los Angeles-area families.
The interagency task force laid out 44 recommendations to boost surveillance and response capability across the nation in response to the massive leak of 90,000 tons of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — from Southern California Gas Co.'s Aliso Canyon facility in California last October.
Franklin Orr, the Energy Department's undersecretary for science and energy, and Marie Therese Dominguez, administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, co-chaired the task force.
Among other recommendations, the panel said new wells should be designed so that a single point of failure doesn't trigger a widespread failure or leak, and operators should adopt "rigorous" monitoring programs to detect and prevent failures.
Orr said wells should have backup systems to contain gas flows in the event of a leak. "What we're recommending is we use a phased approach ... so there is some secondary containment in these wells," he said.
The White House panel also called for the creation of a "unified command" among first responders, the public and industry to avoid the massive leak and evacuations seen in California.
The task force called for better coordination to ensure the nation's grid — increasingly reliant on natural gas — remains stable if a storage facility experiences a failure and is forced offline for months or longer. A dozen of the nation's underground storage facilities in California and along the Gulf Coast alone could affect 2 gigawatts or more of the nation's available generation capacity, according to the report.
Dominguez reiterated PHMSA's intent to issue interim final guidelines by the year's end to streamline rules for gas storage facilities across all 50 states (EnergyWire, July 15).
President Obama formed the task force after the Aliso Canyon methane leak. More than 8,000 families were forced to relocate from their homes in the Porter Ranch area of San Fernando Valley. Many residents suffered headaches, nosebleeds and nausea (Greenwire, Sept. 14).
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who represents a district near Aliso Canyon, said he was pleased the report made strong safety recommendations but expressed concern about its failure to call for subsurface safety shut-off valves on every well. Sherman also said the report neglects to include a "too big to fail analysis" on whether some gas storage facilities are so large that their closure could harm a major metropolitan area.
When asked about the congressman's critique, Orr today noted the report calls on the departments of Energy and Transportation to conduct a "specific and thorough joint study" of subsurface safety valves.
Mark Brownstein, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund's climate and energy program, said in a statement the United States needs stronger state and federal safety standards.
"There are more than 400 of these facilities in at least 30 states that aren't covered by federal safety or environmental rules, while state regulations vary widely in quality and effectiveness," Brownstein said. "Many of these facilities are old and have problems related to initial well construction and long-term corrosion. The older these systems get, the more leaks and blowouts become a problem. Right now, we're effectively crossing our fingers, hoping for the best."
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/10/18/stories/1060044468
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EPA Chief: New Climate Deal Less ‘Costly’ Than Alternatives
Oct 19, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
President Obama's environment chief said Tuesday an international agreement to phase out a globe-warming refrigerant chemical came together because it’s a low-cost way to combat climate change.
Nearly 200 nations, including the United States, agreed last weekend to a binding deal phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a potential greenhouse gas category used in refrigeration and air conditioning.
Speaking with Mashable on Tuesday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AdministratorGina McCarthy said the deal came together because negotiators found it a cheaper and easier way to reduce greenhouse gases than simply cutting carbon dioxide emissions globally.
“If we didn’t do that, we would have to replace all those additions with additional CO2 reductions,” she said. “That would be much more costly than actually addressing HFCs quickly and effectively.”
HFCs have about 10,000 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. The deal to phase down their use is expected to avoid 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.
American officials and industry groups in the United States support phasing out the chemical, but negotiators needed to convince several developing countries to agree to do so as well.
India, which has growing demand for air conditioning, was one of the major hold-outs heading into last week’s conference in Kigali, Rwanda. But by the end of the week, Indian officials had agreed to phase down the chemical, but on a later timeline than for major nations like the U.S.
“We had to be flexible enough in the tailoring of the final agreement to recognize where India was, and what a real commitment they were making in the timeframe they were committing to,” McCarthy said.
The HFC agreement comes after a busy month on the climate front.
Earlier this month, enough countries ratified the Paris climate deal to ensure it takes affect this year. The agreement aims to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
Also this month, the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization agreed to an emissions trading system for international commercial flights, a move to reduce emissions from that sector.
McCarthy called the work “remarkable” on Tuesday.
She addressed other subjects as well. As others in the Obama administration had done, she dismissed the “keep it in the ground” movement that aims to end fossil fuel development as “fine,” but one that won’t be effective right now.
"I think it’s fine," she said. "Do i think it’s can happen right away? No, but that’s never stopped the environmental movement before. What the heck, they can keep pushing and we can keep responding."
And she said she has given up trying to win over people who deny the science behind man-made climate change.
“I would waste no time with climate deniers. If they haven’t figured out by now, what in God’s name can anyone say to them that would make them figure it out?” she said.
“I know that I’m supported to be for everybody, but my patience has worn thin over 8 years [in the Obama administration,] and 20 years before that trying to working on this.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/301643-epa-chief-new-climate-deal-less-costly-than-alternatives
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Carbon Trading Could Cut Costs Of Paris Deal — World Bank
Oct 18, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Hess
The World Bank forecasts that increased international carbon trading could cut the cost of climate change mitigation by 32 percent by 2030, in its latest push for pricing carbon emissions.
New modeling in the report, "State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2016," based on the goals spelled out in countries' national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, shows that by the middle of the century, an international market has the potential to reduce the cost of the deal by more than 50 percent.
Without more carbon trading, analysts said, the goal of limiting the Earth's warming to below 2 degrees Celsius would be difficult to achieve cost-effectively.
The report also shows that momentum on carbon pricing has continued to grow, with 40 national jurisdictions and over 20 cities, states and regions putting a price on carbon in 2016 — including 7 out of 10 of the world's largest economies.
Climate efforts under the Paris Agreement in the United States have taken the form of federal regulations, including U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan. Authors note California's cap-and-trade program and efforts underway in Washington state and Oregon as evidence that carbon pricing initiatives are gaining traction elsewhere.
Over the past decade, carbon pricing initiatives on global emissions have increased threefold, according to the report, translating to about 13 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Governments raised about $26 billion in revenues from carbon pricing initiatives in 2015, a 60 percent increase compared with the revenues raised in 2014.
Authors predict next year could see the largest-ever annual increase in the share of global emissions covered by carbon pricing initiatives. For instance, China is set to embark on building the world's largest cap-and-trade system (ClimateWire, May 18).
"The more we cooperate through carbon trading, the larger the savings and the greater the potential to increase ambition by countries in the short term," said John Roome, the World Bank's senior director for climate change.
Carbon pricing policies must be coordinated with other energy and environmental policies to be effective, Roome said.
"This will require collaboration within and between countries," he added.
The report released today at the Partnership for Market Readiness assembly meeting in Vietnam is the bank's latest move in a long push for pricing carbon. It joined last year with the International Monetary Fund, which has also urged carbon taxes, to convene the Carbon Pricing Panel (ClimateWire, Jan. 13).
Roome said this spring that the bank would be "deepening" its efforts to help countries put a price on carbon (ClimateWire, April 8).
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/10/18/stories/1060044470
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Delaware Seeks Stronger Air Pollution Controls in Philadelphia
Oct 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Gerald B. Silverman
Air quality improvements in Delaware are largely attributable to favorable weather conditions and not actual pollution controls, the state argued in a lawsuit that seeks more stringent emissions requirements for the larger Philadelphia region ( Delaware v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 16-1230, brief filed 10/17/16).
“Upwind emissions that are the primary cause of our nonattainment have not been mitigated and favorable meteorology is the likely cause of our clean air,” Delaware told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an Oct. 17 brief. “Delaware did not believe that all the measures necessary to attain had been implemented.”
The state is asking the court to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to grant the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City region a one year extension to meet the federal air quality standards for ozone that were set in 2008. Instead, Delaware would like the EPA to reclassify the region as a “moderate” nonattainment area, which would require the states to impose additional pollution controls on vehicles and other industrial emissions sources.
Delaware argued that it has taken steps to reduce emissions, but other states in the region have not gone far enough. Citing EPA modeling, the state said that Maryland and Pennsylvania contribute at least six times the emissions of Delaware to the area.
Delaware argued the Clean Air Act requires that every state in a multistate area apply for an extension year before the EPA may extend an attainment date. In this case, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey requested an extension, but Delaware did not.
The state also argued that the EPA can't grant an extension unless all states in the region are in compliance with their state implementation plan and, in this case, New Jersey and Delaware are out of compliance.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=99040377&vname=dennotallissues&fn=99040377&jd=99040377
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ZDHC Announces New Contributors
Oct 19, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) programme has announced four new contributors.
They are:the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC);the Unione Nazionale Industria Conciaria, the Italian trade association for the tanning industry;Centro Tessile Serico, Italian testing and certification firm for textiles; andpolymer materials company, Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience).
By joining, the organisations commit to supporting ZDHC’s goal of promoting sustainable chemistry in the textile and footwear industries.
Contributors use their expertise to help create and develop ZDHC standards, tools, guidance and training. They also contribute financially on an annual basis.
ZDHC executive director, Frank Michel, said he was excited to see the continued support for the elimination of hazardous chemicals.
“In particular, we’re pleased to announce the formal collaboration with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, as we share a large number of overlapping brands, and this collaboration will strengthen our work,” he said.
The HIGG Facilities Environmental Module (FEM), developed by SAC, has been endorsed by ZDHC since 2015.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50371/zdhc-announces-new-contributors
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