Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 10/26/16
-
(ACC Mentioned) The Battle to Control the State Senate: All Politics is NOT Local
Oct 26, 2016 | Seattle Pi
By Joel Connelly
The candidates' forum at Oak Harbor Elks lodge, featuring contenders for Congress, the Legislature and Island County Commissioner, appeared on the surface to demonstrate House Speaker Tip O'Neill's old axiom: "All politics is local." -
White House Review of Paintstripper Rule Marks Increase in TSCA Regulation
Oct 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is reviewing an EPA proposal to ban or further restrict the use of paint stripping chemicals N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and methylene chloride, bringing to three the number of once-rare Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rules EPA has sought to advance in recent months. -
JRC Advise on Avoiding Acute Toxicity Tests
Oct 26, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Philip Lightowlers
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been exploring ways to avoid mammalian acute toxicity testing. The results show that data from 28-day toxicity tests can be used to identify chemicals, which fall into the least toxic “non-classified” category under the EU CLP Regulation. -
Clinton and Trump Advisers Spar Over Climate, Fracking
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Northey and Arianna Skibell
Energy advisers for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offered an in-depth look last night into the presidential candidates' views of substantial energy and climate policies in a campaign that has tilted toward mud-slinging and insults. -
Dakota Access Becoming National Native American Cause
Oct 26, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
As the encampment of protesters against the Dakota Access oil pipeline construction in south-central North Dakota has swelled with people, the major energy infrastructure project has been transformed into a national lobbying effort by Native American tribes. -
Trump Invested in, Received Funds from Pipeline Company
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
Republican presidential candidate and property developer Donald Trump has received more than $100,000 in campaign donations from Energy Transfer Partners' CEO, whose company operates the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline. -
Enviros Seek to Halt Southeast Pipeline
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Environmental groups are urging a federal court to halt construction on a natural gas pipeline in the Southeast. -
Enterprise Close to Committing to US NGL Project
Oct 26, 2016 | Platts
By Jim Magill
Enterprise Products Partners is close finalizing initial plans that call for building out a system to transport 60,000 b/d of propane from the Marcellus and Utica shale gas-producing plays to Mont Belvieu, Texas, in part by repurposing and reversing the flow on the 795-mile Centennial Pipeline, a pipe that carries refined products from Texas to Illinois that has been virtually unused since mid-2011. -
Green Group Pushed to Finish Regs Before Obama Leaves Office
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Camille von Kaenel
The president of the Environmental Defense Fund sent information about regulating methane emissions from oil and gas sources to Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, unconfirmed hacked emails show. -
EPA, OSHA Ready Facility IST Guide, Sidestepping Calls For Rule Mandate
Oct 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds
EPA and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) are planning to soon issue long-promised guidance to assist facilities in assessing whether inherently safer technologies (IST), like safer chemicals or processes, would reduce risks of facility accidents and worker injuries, underscoring that federal officials will likely forgo requiring that facilities use those safety measures in future rules. -
Oil-Field Wastewater Taints Calif. Cropland — Report
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Farmers in California's fertile Central Valley have infused billions of gallons of oil-field wastewater — possibly laced with toxic compounds — into 95,000 acres of crops since 2014, according to a report released today by the Environmental Working Group. -
(ACC Mentioned) The Case for Freight Rail Reform is Undeniable
Oct 25, 2016 | The Hill - Op Ed
By Cal Dooley
America’s freight rail system is in desperate need of reform, a sentiment admittedly in conflict with the railroads’ PR campaign showing an industry that is growing, facilitating commerce and even helping the environment. To believe the ads, today’s railroads are as American as apple pie — something to be revered, trusted and preserved at all costs. -
Argenia Railway Technologies: SafeNet PTC Non-Vital Overlay for Positive Train Control
Oct 25, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
Argenia Railway Technologies has launched SafeNet PTC, a non-vital overlay positive train control (PTC) system that is designed with proprietary communications-based train control technologies. -
Train Derails in Wis., Spills Chemical
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
A train derailment in northern Wisconsin on Monday led to a chemical spill that brought hazardous materials workers to the scene. The wreck, just south of the town of Superior, caused no injuries. -
Ending Arctic Drilling Will Secure President’s Climate Legacy
Oct 26, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Brad Ack
Over the last eight years, the United States has transformed the way it works with other nations addressing the climate crisis. We’ve gone from international laggard to global leader, in large part due to President Obama’s efforts to inject this global challenge into mainstream policy discussions in the U.S. and abroad.
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation News
Environment News
-
(ACC Mentioned) The Battle to Control the State Senate: All Politics is NOT Local
Oct 26, 2016 | Seattle Pi
By Joel Connelly
The candidates' forum at Oak Harbor Elks lodge, featuring contenders for Congress, the Legislature and Island County Commissioner, appeared on the surface to demonstrate House Speaker Tip O'Neill's old axiom: "All politics is local."
Until, that is, you run down the list of $900-and-above contributions to incumbent Republican State Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor. Only three names appear from within the district. The GOP is calling up big outside donors because it needs to hold Bailey's seat to maintain its majority in the Legislature's upper chamber.
The Democrats have recruited, as their 10th District Senate candidate, ex-Island County Commissioner Angie Homola, a Navy aviator's wife who became a citizen whistle blower. She upset Island County's de facto political boss Commissioner Mac McDowell in 2008.
Bailey has raised just short of $400,000, and has been aided by six-figure "independent" spending by the pro-GOP Good Government Leadership Council. Homola has taken in $252,000.
The Bailey war chest bespeaks corporate power and the carbon economy with dollars from Allstate Insurance, the American Chemistry Council, Anheuser Busch, Avista (the Spokane-based utility), the BNSF Railroad, and BP North America, Chevron and the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund.
The debate showed what their dollars are defending. Homola is for repealing tax loopholes and argues: "We need to have tax equity in Washington." She is also an environmentalist, although a staunch defender of Navy aviation at Whidbey.
Bailey re-christened and defended tax loopholes, saying: "Most tax incentives are exactly that, incentives to bring jobs to our area." She refused to rule out privatizing at least a few state parks: One 10th District park has been suggested for such a fate. "You cannot treat every park the same," said Bailey. "Therefore, I believe we should do some creative things."
A League of Women Voters moderator took note of Bailey's pledge to maintain "core services" of state government while opposing new revenue measures. "Which do you consider non-core that can be dispensed with?" Bailey was asked.
"I don't understand why I am being asked another question," Bailey replied. She then threw up a generalized answer: "There are a lot of things we fund right now that we are not required to do by law."
The Republicans' 25-member majority in the 49-member Senate is a fairly big tent. Take, for instance, State Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, who represents Mercer Island, parts of Bellevue and the East Side.
Litzow is different, in temperament and ideology, from the prickly, ultra-conservative Bailey. He voted for same-sex marriage. Bailey voted no as a House member. Litzow was on hand at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral when then-State Sen. Ed Murray married his longtime partner Michael Shiosaki.
Litzow and other Eastside Republicans blocked the so-called "bathroom bill", which would have blocked transgender persons from using the rest room of their sexual identity. Bailey was a House cosponsor. Litzow is pro-choice and one Republican not to be endorsed in Christian conservative Rev. Joe Fuiten's "Pastors Picks."
Litzow is getting absolutely no thanks for his progressive stands, and finds such groups as League of Conservation Voters sending volunteers to canvass for his opponent Progressives are gunning for the 41st District lawmaker.
They argue that Litzow's vote sustains Republican control of the Legislature's upper chamber. It keeps Donald Trump's state co-chairman, State Sen. Doug Erickson, R-Ferndale, as chairman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee. Trump's They point to such legislation as the Washington Voting Rights Act, and Gov. Inslee's polluters-pay plan, that GOP Senate leaders have blocked from even a floor vote.
Snarky remarks are part of politics. The Stranger is unabashedly condescending toward its readers when it rolls out endorsements every election. The bluntly stated message: We do the thinking for you.
Malarkey!
Elections have consequences for ordinary people. Votes in Coupeville, and Mercer Island, Vancouver and Issaquah will have a big say in setting the state's direction.
In the 41st District, Litzow was architect of legislation that created a new money source for charter schools, after the Washington State Supreme Court threw out a 2012 initiative that used general fund money.
Litzow chairs the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, which has helped find almost $5 billion for all-day kindergarten and smaller class sizes. The Legislature is still under a Supreme Court order to fully fund K-12 education.
The Washington Education Association passionately opposes charter schools. Charter schools have powerful, moneyed supporters. The two sides are slugging it out in the race between Litzow and his Democratic challenger, businessman Lisa Wellman.
Wellman is sympathetic to capital gains taxes on high income earners, as a way of getting the money to fully fund K-12. Litzow has dismissed capital gains taxes as a "gateway drug" that would lead to a state income tax.
Litzow has the state's biggest legislative campaign war chest, $752,000 at last count, backed up by independent spending by the Washington Realtors Assn. and $154,000 from a GOP outfit called Citizens for Progress Enterprise.
The Democrats are learning to be a big tent as well. They will regain State Senate control if State Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, holds his 5th District seat in eastern King County. He is challenged by popular State Rep. Chad Magendanz, a leading Republican voice on education.
Mullet and Magendanz have raised more than $900,000 between them, with independent expenditures pushing the cost of the race to $1.5 million.
Mullet is a vote for charter schools. So is Guy Palumbo in the 1st District, which straddles the King-Snohomish County line. He is a Democrat who upset very liberal State Rep. Luis Moscoso in the August primary. He is running for the seat of retiring State Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, a WEA ally.
The 17th District, in Clark County, is another prime battleground. Ex-State Rep. Tim Probst came within 77 votes of beating blustery GOP State Sen. Don Benton in 2012. Benton is not running again, and has become state chairman of the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
Probst is faced off against Republican Rep. Lynda Wilson, who has been aided by $300,000 in spending by the Good Government Leadership Council. The two candidates finished the primary in a virtual tie.
Democrats have repeatedly targeted State Sen. Steve O'Ban in the 28th District of Pierce County. O'Ban easily won in 2014 the Senate seat to which he was appointed, and ran well ahead of Democrat Marisa Peloquin in the primary.
All these races will be overshadowed on election night, but their outcomes will cast long shadows in Olympia come January.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/In-battle-for-Washington-Legislature-all-10338524.php
-
White House Review of Paintstripper Rule Marks Increase in TSCA Regulation
Oct 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is reviewing an EPA proposal to ban or further restrict the use of paint stripping chemicals N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and methylene chloride, bringing to three the number of once-rare Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rules EPA has sought to advance in recent months.
OMB received the TSCA section 6(a) rule proposal Oct. 24, according to its website. OMB reviews generally take 90 days but can also exceed that. EPA, OMB and the Small Business Administration (SBA) recently completed a review of the potential effects of the action on small businesses, as required by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, according to SBA.
While it is unknown what the proposal says, EPA presented information to small business representatives over the summer that indicates the agency was considering two options for the chemicals: to ban their manufacture, distribution or use as paint strippers entirely or to “[a]llow certain commercial uses with worker protections and other requirements to protect the public,” according to EPA's slides.
For NMP, those protections would include requiring that products containing the chemical include no greater strength than 25 percent NMP, and the use of gloves specific to the formulation to be fully protective. The slides note that the ban “provides complete risk reduction” while the tightened set of requirements “reduces risks to benchmarks for workers and for occupational bystanders (other workers),” assuming equipment is used correctly.
For methylene chloride, tightened restrictions would include use of specified ventilators, or the use of engineering to reach “an air exposure limit of 0.2 ppm” for the workplace, the presentation says.
EPA in risk assessments conducted in 2014 and 2015 “identified risks associated with commercial and consumer paint and varnish stripping uses” for both chemicals, according to EPA's most recent regulatory agenda. The assessments led to the agency's decision to pursue once-rare action under TSCA Section 6(a) to regulate their uses. Such a rule could propose either a ban of the chemicals or to tighten regulations on their use.
The rule is one of three that EPA is pursuing in its first bids to regulate an existing chemical -- one that was on the market when the original TSCA was enacted in 1976 -- under TSCA section 6 authority since its failed attempt to restrict asbestos in 1985. A federal appeals court struck the asbestos rule down, hampering attempts to limit other substances with the Section 6 authority.
The other two rules EPA is developing under TSCA section 6 regard the use of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) when used as a spotting agent in dry cleaning and in consumer aerosol spray degreasers and a second rule for TCE used as a vapor degreasing agent. EPA sent the first TCE rule to OMB for pre-publication review in July and the second one to OMB in September. Both remain under review, according to OMB's website.
Methylene Chloride
Methylene chloride, also known as dichloromethane, is classified as a human carcinogen. In a risk assessment EPA issued in August 2014, the agency concluded that the chemical's use as a paint stripper posed health risks to workers and consumers, as well as to bystanders. The agency estimated that more than 230,000 workers nationally are exposed to methyl chloride products.
EPA finalized an assessment of NMP in March 2015 that found the chemical poses acute and chronic risks to pregnant women or women of child-bearing age who have high exposure to the substance. NMP is an alternative to methylene chloride.
Representatives of small businesses protested EPA's analyses in documents written over the summer. The industry representatives question EPA's risk assessments, which they say overstate the chemicals' risks by overpredicting exposure. They argue that EPA's analyses of alternate paint stripping chemicals is overly optimistic, they question whether EPA has properly considered all of the findings it must make under Section 6 to lead to regulating the chemicals and they question EPA's authority to act on the chemicals using its new TSCA authority, arguing that instead EPA should notify the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to act, as directed in TSCA Section 9.
For example, July 1 comments from W.M. Barr & Company, Inc., a Memphis, TN-based manufacturer of specialty cleaning products sold to both professionals and consumers, argues that “EPA has a duty under Section 6 of the amended TSCA statute to attempt to quantify and compare the environmental benefits and the public health consequences of the regulatory approaches it is considering. Merely alleging, categorically . . . that the hazards presented by the substitutes 'generally' present 'less concern' than [methylene chloride] is not the level of analysis Congress expected EPA to bring to bear when making such important regulatory determinations.”
Barr says that it would “support a rule prohibiting consumer and DIY use of [methylene chloride]-containing products for stripping bathtubs” but argues that a broader rule would result in the use of problematic alternative products. Barr argues that these products are less effective, leading consumers and workers to use more product and work longer on a job, increasing exposure to other chemicals that may also be harmful. Further, Barr notes that many alternatives are more flammable and volatile than methylene chloride, increasing risks of fire and explosions from use.
Barr notes that methylene chloride “generally has a more favorable profile with respect to ozone depletion potential when compared to” alternative products, and notes that EPA's presentation to the small business representatives did not address this issue. The company argues that “when making such a comparative assessment [of] alternative products as well as regulatory alternatives under the amended Section 6 of TSCA, EPA must consider and address the comparative environmental impacts of both its regulatory options and the products on the market (as well as their potential substitutes.)”
Barr further argues that EPA has overstated methylene chloride's risks in paintstrippers in part by “rely[ing] on data generated prior to significant changes to the OSHA permissible exposure limit and EPA's NESHAP for methylene chloride.” And Barr argues that EPA has not consulted with other agencies like OSHA and CPSC, as “required under Section 9 of the amended TSCA, and therefore EPA has not met its obligation to take into account the successful efforts of other federal agencies . . . and the Agency's own Clean Air Act program.”
Other Approaches
Another cleaning product formulator, the Norwood, MA-based Savogran Company, further describes concerns regarding what it sees as EPA's inappropriate use of TSCA to regulate chemicals that should instead be dealt with by other agencies and statutes, per TSCA Section 9. Savogran notes in undated comments that TSCA “as originally enacted and as updated by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, requires EPA to consult and coordinate with other federal agencies 'for the purpose of achieving the maximum enforcement of this Act while imposing the least burdens of duplicative requirements on those subject to the Act and for other purposes.'” The company adds that products using methylene chloride are already sufficiently regulated by OSHA, CPSC and EPA.
To further its point, the comments cite House report language from the recent overhaul of TSCA, stating, “'H.R. 2576 reinforces TSCA's original purpose of filling gaps in Federal law that otherwise did not protect against the unreasonable risks presented by chemicals,' and further clarifies that 'while section 5 makes no amendment to TSCA section 9(a), the Committee believes that the Administrator should respect the experience of, and defer to other agencies that have relevant responsibility such as the Department of Labor in cases involving occupational safety.'”
The comments also cite Congressional Record accounts of House discussion of the TSCA reform bill, noting comments from Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) specifically noting EPA's interest in pursuing Section 6 rules on TCE and methylene chloride.
The comments quote Blackburn as saying to Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), the lead sponsor of the House version of the TSCA reform bill, “it is my understanding that this bill reemphasizes Congress' intent to avoid duplicative regulation through the TSCA law. It does so by carrying over two important EPA constraints in section 9 of the existing law while adding a new, important provision that would be found as new section, 9(b)(2) . . . as a unified whole, this language, old and new, limits the EPA's ability to promulgate a rule under section 6 of TSCA to restrict or eliminate the use of a chemical when the Agency either already regulates that chemical through a different statute under its own control and that authority sufficiently protects against a risk of injury to human health or the environment, or a different agency already regulates that chemical in a manner that also sufficiently protects against the risk identified by EPA.”
Blackburn went on to thank Shimkus for the change to TSCA Section 9, describing it as important and “[a]s the EPA's early-stage efforts to regulate methylene chloride and TCE under TSCA statute section 6 illustrate, they are also timely.”
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/white-house-review-paintstripper-rule-marks-increase-tsca-regulation
-
JRC Advise on Avoiding Acute Toxicity Tests
Oct 26, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Philip Lightowlers
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been exploring ways to avoid mammalian acute toxicity testing. The results show that data from 28-day toxicity tests can be used to identify chemicals, which fall into the least toxic “non-classified” category under the EU CLP Regulation.
The acute oral systemic toxicity test is usually conducted on rats and establishes an LC50 – the lethal concentration that kills 50% of animals – for a chemical used for CLP classification.
JRC scientists have investigated the idea of replacing this with predictions, based on the results of the 28-day systemic toxicity test. This provides subacute toxicity data, including a no observed adverse effect level (Noael) or lowest observed adverse effect level (Loael).
Using these predictions to replace the acute oral toxicity test can reduce the use of animals in testing. It is consistent with the EU Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL Ecvam) strategy to replace, reduce and refine the use of animals.
JRC scientists started their research by conducting a survey of toxicity testing experts to see why they used the test, and whether they would be willing to substitute predictions based on other methods. They conducted a small online survey with 24 respondents, representing regulatory authorities, academia and the pharmaceutical, veterinary, chemical and agrochemical industries.
The main reason given for using the test was for risk assessment or regulatory purposes, such as the CLP Regulation. However, some respondents used it to set a starting dose for repeated dose studies. Others used dose-range finder studies or other short and in-house tiered studies for that.
The majority of respondents agreed that the 28-day test or even dose-range finder studies could be used to predict acute toxicity classification. In fact, almost half said that they had already switched.
The scientists followed up these results with a retrospective analysis, using data for chemicals already registered with Echa, which have both LD50 data and Noael/Loael data from 28-day toxicity tests.
The data was sorted by the CLP LD50 categories:
category 1 ≤ 5mg/kg bodyweight/day;
category 2 >5 to ≤50mg/kg/d;
category 3 >50 to ≤300mg/kg/d;
category 4 >300 to ≤2,000mg/kg/d; and
non-classified >2,000mg/kg/d.
There was no direct correlation between the two values, but there was a pattern of “protective overprediction”, the scientists say. This was because values from 28-day toxicity tests generally overpredicted the CLP classification, by one category.
“The results of both the survey, and the retrospective data analysis, support the use of data from 28-day toxicity tests in order to identify non-classified chemicals,” the scientists conclude.
“Both Noael and Loael values, above 200mg/kg bodyweight/day, are indicative of a chemical that is non-classified for acute oral toxicity [that is, with a LC50 value over 2,000mg/kg/d],” they continue.
The findings are particularly valuable, JRC says, because non-classified chemicals make up the majority currently registered under REACH. There is therefore an opportunity to waive many acute toxicity tests in future.
However, it also says that it is difficult to predict CLP categories, for substances outside the non-classified grouping.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50527/jrc-advise-on-avoiding-acute-toxicity-tests
-
Clinton and Trump Advisers Spar Over Climate, Fracking
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Northey and Arianna Skibell
Energy advisers for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offered an in-depth look last night into the presidential candidates' views of substantial energy and climate policies in a campaign that has tilted toward mud-slinging and insults.
"What's interesting is how rarely discussions like this have been happening during this election season," said Tracy Terry, director of energy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "Energy policy didn't come up in the debates and hasn't been a focal point for either candidate, which is surprising and disappointing since addressing climate change is likely to be a major issue for the next president."
Trump surrogate Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Clinton energy adviser Trevor Houser traded barbs during the 90-minute debate at the University of Richmond School of Law over climate change and the fate of fossil fuels while sidestepping the contentious Dakota Access pipeline that would move as much as 570,000 barrels of oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
Playing up Trump's pro-business message, Cramer cast the real estate mogul as a gatekeeper to trillions of dollars in oil, gas and coal held back by the Obama administration's regulations and reliance on what he called uncertain climate science. Houser shot back at the lawmaker's "outdated" views on climate change while touting Clinton's visits to Republican strongholds to discuss the fate of coal and jobs.
But neither Cramer nor Houser showed enthusiasm for discussing Dakota Access, a hot-button oil pipeline project that would cross Cramer's congressional district and is the focus of intense opposition from environmental groups.
"This is a state issue in my mind, not a federal issue," said Cramer, who noted that he walked the pipeline route last week. "Mr. Trump hasn't taken a position. I'm not sure he's aware of it, frankly, I haven't talked to him about it."
Houser added that he wasn't aware former Secretary of State Clinton had commented on the project.
"I'd tell you if she did," Cramer said. "She hasn't."
The debate was a departure from debates between the presidential candidates' televised debate brawls. Cramer even offered Houser the stage first on the issue of helping coal communities. Said Cramer, "Secretary Clinton actually has a specific plan for that."
Most of the debate centered around Cramer's views on climate change, or lack thereof.
When asked directly if he believed in human-caused global warming, Cramer, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he doesn't and added that most Americans are neither "climate deniers nor climate worshippers" but landed somewhere in between.
Houser shot back, saying the Trump campaign is ignoring 97 percent of the scientific community, making it difficult to discuss climate change solutions.
"This posture of 'climate change isn't real, but if it were real this would be a better deal' is just a complete nonstarter, and I think the same goes for conversations with climate deniers and Congress," Houser said.
"If Donald Trump is elected president, he will be the only leader out of 195 leaders around the world who doesn't believe in climate change," Houser said. "It just makes it really difficult to come up with solutions if you don't even acknowledge the premise of the problem."
Keep it in the ground?
When asked why Clinton has not yet sided with the "keep it in the ground" movement calling for a full stop to fossil-fuel extraction on federal land, Houser highlighted the Democrat's opposition to offshore drilling and desire to revamp oil and gas leasing.
Clinton, he said, doesn't believe drilling for oil and gas in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Drilling off Virginia, he said, isn't "worth the risk" given the nation's abundant energy supplies.
"It's not worth threatening the $14 billion outdoor economy here in Virginia, much of which relies on coastal tourism," Houser said.
Clinton is also calling for reforms to onshore oil and gas leasing because taxpayers aren't getting their fair share from currently producing acreage, Houser said. "Even on the oil and gas acreage that's currently producing, taxpayers aren't getting their fair share, and that's something that needs to change," he said.
The anti-fossil movement has created slippery footing for Clinton. In emails allegedly hacked from her campaign chairman, John Podesta, she dismissed the "keep it in the ground" movement, telling union builders at a private event last September that activists should "get a life" instead of accessing her at campaign events (E&ENews PM, Oct. 14).
For his part, Cramer doubled down on Trump's intention to exit the Paris climate accord, calling it a "bad trade deal," and attacked U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan as a disruption to the economy without actually making a dent in global emissions.
Houser countered that states have already cut greenhouse gas emissions 27 percent since 2005, hitting 84 percent of the final goal of the Clean Power Plan with 14 more years to meet it.
But Cramer insisted that coal-burning states like North Dakota would not be able to meet the regulation's targets.
He also highlighted Trump's intent to ease access to $50 trillion worth of oil and gas both offshore and under federal lands to claw back a growing national debt. The market, he said, will determine the most effective places to drill and mine, touting the small footprint of modern extraction practices.
"When you have a $20 trillion debt, having $50 trillion of wealth creation to the taxpayer, it make no sense from an economic standpoint, a jobs standpoint, as well as a budgetary standpoint," he said.
'Get rid of all wetlands?'
The debate also shined a bright light on Clinton's past comments both promoting and vowing to crack down on the practice of hydraulic fracturing.
Although recent leaked emails show Clinton and State Department officials heavily encouraged fracking in other countries, the Democratic nominee said during a Democratic primary debate in March she planned to regulate the practice (EnergyWire, May 25).
"So by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place," Clinton said.
Houser said Clinton views natural gas as a bridge fuel "if the right safeguards are in place" to curb methane emissions and leaks from outdated distribution pipelines, that EPA must be able to ensure well casings don't present a risk to local drinking water and that standards are in place to prevent injections of wastewater from triggering more seismic activity in Oklahoma and other states.
Cramer took issue with the premise of the question, saying wastewater injections have never affected drinking water.
Clinton has said natural gas is a "bridge," Cramer said, but it's one she wants to cross quickly — a move that could chill investments into gas infrastructure. He also questioned the soundness of trying to curb methane emissions — and just how far a Clinton administration would go.
"There are more methane emissions coming from wetlands than fossil fuel energy in this country," he said. "Are we then going to get rid of all the wetlands?"
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/26/stories/1060044862
-
Dakota Access Becoming National Native American Cause
Oct 26, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
As the encampment of protesters against the Dakota Access oil pipeline construction in south-central North Dakota has swelled with people, the major energy infrastructure project has been transformed into a national lobbying effort by Native American tribes.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's allegations that the $3.8 billion project that will cross four states was not properly consulted by federal and state regulators when permits has expanded as State of Washington tribes called on the Obama administration to "overhaul a failed system of tribal consultation."
Washington's Native American leaders presented a five-point plan for tribal land protections as part of a second "listening session" held by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Separately, another Sioux tribe leader reportedly has requested that the Obama administration order a full environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project's entire 1,172 miles, which project backers contend is illegal, since only 3% of the pipeline crosses federal lands.
Public workshop sessions have been held with tribes since September when the Justice, Army and Interior Departments said "important issues were raised" by tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically and pipeline-related decision-making generally. Federal agencies acknowledged the preliminary authorization was work done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Industry and labor groups have been unrelenting in criticizing the federal government's belated intervention for an infrastructure project that they contend has been fully vetted by the courts and permitted by state and federal regulators (see Shale Daily, Sept. 13). Last week more than 20 organizations urged federal agencies to "abide by the well-established process and the law," and allow the nearly completed project to progress (see Shale Daily, Oct. 24).
The focus of the Dakota Access quagmire is now placed on social/political/environmental concerns raised by the Native Americans, while the backers of the Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) project to carry Bakken Shale crude oil contend the eleventh-hour interference will have a chilling effect on critical future energy infrastructure projects.
"Tribal nations are forced time and time again to defend that which is sacred to us," said Tim Ballew II, chairman of the Lummi Indian Business Council in Washington state. "This is the result of a failed process of consultation and flawed policies." Meanwhile, in North Dakota last weekend, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II continued to allege that up to 127 peaceful protesters had been arrested by local authorities.
Last week, ETP posted a $100,000 reward for information related to an alleged arson attack that caused $2 million in damage to a construction site in Iowa (see Shale Daily, Oct. 20). Dakota Access and contractor Precision Pipeline are offering the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Three bulldozers and an excavator belonging to the contractor were reportedly damaged earlier in the month at a site near Reasnor, IA, about 40 miles east of Des Moines, according to the Jasper County Sheriff's Office, whose investigators said the fire looked like it was set intentionally.
Archambault countered that thousands of "water protectors" have joined his tribe against the pipeline project, while he accuses North Dakota law enforcement agencies and Gov. Jack Dalrymple of "failing to ensure their safety and rights."
The Washington state tribe's five-part proposal to BIA calls for the Army Corps to conduct "region-wide" environmental impact statements and repeal some of its existing procedures regarding the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). It also calls on President Obama to strengthen sacred site protections through an executive order, for Congress to pass legislation updating NHPA and the National Environmental Protection Act, and for changes to the 2011 fast-track permitting process to ensure "proper and meaningful" consultation with tribes.
Meanwhile, the National Infrastructure Alliance, a group of construction unions, has written to President Obama urging him to direct the Army Corps to allow the Dakota Access project be completed aside from the longer-term tribal consultation issues. "This unfortunate situation demands your immediate attention," wrote Executive Director Raymond Poupore.
The Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN), which also supports the project, said the opposition's call for a full and belated EIS is "something the federal government has no lawful authority to give. We are a federalist nation where states and federal governments share power, and when it comes to major infrastructure projects there are clear delineations of that power."
MAIN's Craig Stevens said the federal government has conducted an appropriate comprehensive environmental assessment and provided approval for the 3% of land within the federal jurisdiction. The only part of the project still pending is for the Army Corps to reconsider its previous approval covering 1,000 feet crossing under Lake Oahe, a dammed portion of the Missouri River in North Dakota.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/108223-dakota-access-becoming-national-native-american-cause
-
Trump Invested in, Received Funds from Pipeline Company
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
Republican presidential candidate and property developer Donald Trump has received more than $100,000 in campaign donations from Energy Transfer Partners' CEO, whose company operates the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline.
And according to Trump's financial disclosures, he has between $500,000 and $1 million invested in the company. Additionally, Trump has funds invested in Phillips 66 Co., which also has a stake in the pipeline.
CEO Kelcy Warren has donated $103,000 to elect Trump and another $66,800 to the Republican National Committee since the real estate mogul was nominated.
The disclosure indirectly links Trump to the $3.8 billion pipeline, which opponents say threatens drinking water and tramples on Native American cultural sites, including burial grounds.
Trump has said he opposes restrictions to the development of oil, coal or gas but has not directly addressed the Dakota Access pipeline. Last week, he said he would "lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks to allow these vital energy infrastructure projects to go ahead."
"We have roadblocks like you've never, ever seen — environmental blocks, structural blocks," he said. "We are going to allow the Keystone pipeline and so many other things to move forwards. Tremendous numbers of jobs and good for our country."
Energy Transfer Partners has declined to comment on the donations.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/26/stories/1060044839
-
Enviros Seek to Halt Southeast Pipeline
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Environmental groups are urging a federal court to halt construction on a natural gas pipeline in the Southeast.
In a legal filing Monday, the Sierra Club, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Flint Riverkeeper pushed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to freeze federal regulators' approval of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project, which would stretch 685 miles through Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
"We filed this as an emergency motion hoping the judges will step in and freeze the project until they have a chance to consider it fully," Sierra Club attorney Elly Benson said in a statement. "Otherwise it is likely that the court won't get to decide its legality until it is too late."
The project includes the Sabal Trail, a joint venture of Spectra Energy Corp., NextEra Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. It would transport gas to Florida, where Duke Energy Florida and NextEra's Florida Power & Light Co. would be the primary customers.
The groups say the pipeline project would disproportionately affect African-American neighborhoods and poor communities, particularly around five compressor stations planned for the route. According to this week's filing from the groups, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not properly consider the impact of the project on those communities, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The opposition effort is also part of a broader environmental campaign to stop the expansion of oil and natural gas pipelines across the United States, including the contentious Dakota Access pipeline in the Upper Midwest. Environmentalists say continued investment in fossil fuel infrastructure undermines renewable energy growth.
"On its face, this pipeline should be rejected for the threat it poses not only to our climate, but to the public health of communities it would affect," Sierra Club's Lena Moffitt said in a statement, referring to the Southeast project. "Rather than doubling down on outdated, dirty fuels, we should complete our transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy."
A separate lawsuit over the same project is pending in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the Sierra Club, the Gulf Restoration Network and Flint Riverkeeper are challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to approve hundreds of water crossings for the pipeline.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/10/26/stories/1060044799
-
Enterprise Close to Committing to US NGL Project
Oct 26, 2016 | Platts
By Jim Magill
Enterprise Products Partners is close finalizing initial plans that call for building out a system to transport 60,000 b/d of propane from the Marcellus and Utica shale gas-producing plays to Mont Belvieu, Texas, in part by repurposing and reversing the flow on the 795-mile Centennial Pipeline, a pipe that carries refined products from Texas to Illinois that has been virtually unused since mid-2011.
"We're on the one-yard line of getting this project committed to and taking off," Danika Yeager, vice president regulated business, said on the sidelines of the Platts Appalachian Oil & Gas Conference on Tuesday.
Enterprise is a 50% partner in Centennial with Marathon Petroleum, which operates the line. Marathon was not immediately available to comment Tuesday.
"If we can get construction started by the end of this year, we expect to have this in service by third quarter 2018," Yeager said.She said future plans call for expanding the project to where it also will be able to carry ethane, with a capacity of delivering 100,000 b/d of NGLs from the Marcellus and Utica plays to the Gulf Coast after 2018.
Yeager said the project developers are counting on seeing a strong NGL demand pull from the Gulf Coast region in coming years.
"We're forecasting that the demand is not is going to be met with western US supply alone and that Appalachia is going to be critical to providing the supply to meet that demand down in the Gulf Coast," she said.
Several major world-class petrochemical cracker plants are expected to come online in the next several years and -- with the exception of the 3.3 billion lb/year world-scale ethane cracker that Shell plans to build in Monaca, Pennsylvania -- all of them are planned to be built in the Gulf Coast.
"We're hoping and forecasting that Appalachia is going to be able to step up," to increase production of NGLs in the face of the coming Gulf Coast demand, Yeager said.
She acknowledged that the project would face some significant challenges, noting that in the current depressed climate for energy prices, production of natural gas and NGLs has fallen in the Northeast.
"In addition there have been some barriers to success that some of our peers in the industry have seen on the NGL side," she said. "As a result of some recent regulatory decisions we're seeing some challenges with that supply in Appalachia finding its way to the Gulf Coast."
The proposed pipeline system would use a combination of legacy Enterprise TE Products pipeline assets and 150 miles of newbuild pipeline from Seymour, Indiana, to Dieterich, Illinois, where it will connect to the Centennial line, which runs from Dieterich to Beaumont, Texas. "We're refurbishing that, reversing that, doing the integrity rehab on it and putting it back in service," Yeager said. "It seems a shame to have 26-inch pipeline in the ground and not having anything in it."
In Beaumont, the pipeline will connect to existing TE Products infrastructure, as well as 50 miles of newbuild pipeline from Beaumont to Mont Belvieu.
One of the strengths of the project is that only about 11% of the pipeline construction will be newbuild lines. Because the project will rely on the use of existing pipeline in Ohio and Pennsylvania, "we don't have any of the challenges with eminent domain that some of our competitors have had," Yeager said.
Once the first phase of the project, to bring propane volumes to the Gulf Coast, is completed, "at that time we have put ourselves into a perfect position to expand service on Centennial to an EP line, and put ethane in there as well," Yeager said.
"We would use the capacity on the existing ATEX line up north, and push ethane on ATEX to Seymour," she said. "At Seymour we would blend the streams coming through to Centennial."
Longer-term plans call for the construction of new fractionation unit at Mont Belvieu to separate out the NGL streams, Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey said in an email.
"We have not committed to building Frac 9. We have the permits necessary should we decide to move in that direction but it remains to be seen if existing infrastructure can handle the demand," he said. "Of course, all this depends on obtaining the necessary customer commitments, which we are working towards."http://www.platts.com/latest-news/natural-gas/pittsburgh/enterprise-close-to-committing-to-us-ngl-project-21885903
-
Green Group Pushed to Finish Regs Before Obama Leaves Office
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Camille von Kaenel
The president of the Environmental Defense Fund sent information about regulating methane emissions from oil and gas sources to Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, unconfirmed hacked emails show.
Fred Krupp sent a short memo to John Podesta in July 2015 on expanding U.S. EPA rules to cut emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas from existing oil and gas facilities. The memo suggested a timeline for the rules that would have seen EPA finish the rules right before the end of the administration.
The timing did not pan out as Krupp wished, but the memo shows the reasoning of the green group, which has long done advocacy and research on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
"Methane standards for the oil and gas sector could represent the culmination of the President's Climate Action Plan," the memo said, according to emails released by WikiLeaks yesterday. "EPA action to address emissions from existing onshore oil and gas facilities under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act is both necessary and achievable before the end of the current Administration."
The EDF timeline would have seen EPA start the rulemaking last fall and finish final rules in November before the end of the administration.
In reality, EPA announced it would regulate methane emissions from existing oil and gas sources only in May 2016 as part of a bilateral U.S.-Canada plan. A second draft of an information collection request is under comment now, according to a spokeswoman, and will provide the agency with industry data. It will not finish the rules before Obama leaves office, leaving the task to the next president.
EPA announced a series of rules to limit emissions from new or heavily modified oil and gas facilities last August and finalized the last piece of that plan last week.
Clinton's climate change plan includes standards to control fugitive methane emissions from both new and existing sources to achieve Obama's goal of a 40 to 45 percent decrease in methane pollution, according to her campaign website.
In a second email in September, Krupp provided some messaging tips about methane leaks to Podesta, seemingly on request.
"Thanks for reaching out. Our team has pulled together some materials to illustrate how the community has been framing the methane leaks problem," Krupp wrote.
He detailed how some politicians, like Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) in the state's debate about methane regulations and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley during his bid for Democratic presidential candidate, have started using the term "zero-tolerance" when talking about methane leaks. He suggested videos of methane leaks as a "powerful tool to communicate the issue to the public."
Among a list of talking points, Krupp cited studies that found methane emissions from oil and gas operations were higher than previously estimated and were expected to increase.
It is unclear if Podesta responded to the emails. WikiLeaks continues to release emails from the hacked account. Podesta and the Clinton campaign are not confirming the authenticity of the emails and say Russia is behind the hack.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/10/26/stories/1060044803
-
EPA, OSHA Ready Facility IST Guide, Sidestepping Calls For Rule Mandate
Oct 26, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds
EPA and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) are planning to soon issue long-promised guidance to assist facilities in assessing whether inherently safer technologies (IST), like safer chemicals or processes, would reduce risks of facility accidents and worker injuries, underscoring that federal officials will likely forgo requiring that facilities use those safety measures in future rules.
But their plan continues to draw opposition from safety advocates, who continue to press officials for a mandatory IST requirement and to question why EPA recently proposed a rule that exempts so many sectors from having to even consider IST.
During an Oct. 24 webinar on "Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security" agency officials said they will soon issue guidance to assist facilities that voluntarily choose to implement IST, which a coalition of labor and environmental groups have repeatedly urged federal agencies to require.
The IST guidance will expand on EPA and OSHA's June 2015 alert backing voluntary use of IST to reduce facility risks.
Agency officials told the webinar that while the alert defined IST, the guide will provide more practical examples of substitute chemicals or processes. "The guidance is expected to be a follow up to the safer alternatives alert and will provide more examples and more detail," Lisa Long of OSHA's Directorate of Standards and Guidance told the webinar. "We're working together, EPA and OSHA, to get that guidance out as quickly as we can."
The agencies' forthcoming guidance on IST is called for under a May 2014 federal action plan for implementing President Obama's Executive Order (EO) 13650 on improving the safety and security of industrial plants. The plan calls for issuing the guide by year-end, the same time that EPA is slated to issue a final risk management plan (RMP) rule overhauling its facility accident prevention regulation, which declined, in the proposed version, advocates long-standing calls to require that facilities use IST.
But during the webinar, officials with the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, which in 2012 petitioned EPA to use Clean Air Act authority to require that facilities use IST, argued that guidance is insufficient to improve facility safety, and questioned why the proposed version of the RMP rule exempts most facilities from a requirement to weigh safer technologies.
Regulatory Updates
EPA and OSHA are updating their facility safety and worker protection rules under the EO. White House officials are currently reviewing an EPA rule due out by year-end revising its RMP facility accident prevention program. OSHA is weighing an update to its process safety management (PSM) facility worker protection rule, though the process will take years.
Obama issued the EO Aug. 1, 2013, after an explosion at a fertilizer facility in West, TX, killed 15 people and wounded 200 others. The EO calls for improving communication and coordination, and for modernizing rules and standards.
While the explosion spurred calls from environmental and labor groups, and some congressional Democrats for a federal IST mandate based on EPA authority under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act, the chemical sector and Republican lawmakers have argued that companies already use the safety measures where feasible, and that federal agencies lack expertise to implement such a mandate.
EPA officials have long appeared to favor encouraging facilities to use IST, rather than requiring it. In 2013, a senior EPA official called a potential federal IST mandate "monumentally difficult."
Early this year, EPA waste chief Mathy Stanislaus called the agency's plan in the proposed RMP rule to require IST analysis rather than implementation a "very good balance."
But in a Sept. 29 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) urged EPA to tighten its proposed RMP rule by requiring that certain facilities use IST, arguing that the rule as drafted fails to adequately improve safety.
Boxer noted that EPA and OSHA's alert issued last year called IST the "first choice" for managing chemical hazards, in pressing for the agency to require that certain facilities implement IST, adding that many high risk facilities are located in environmental justice communities.
IST Requirements
During the webinar, advocates continued pressing for EPA to expand IST requirements in the RMP rule, though Stanislaus, referred all questions on the rule to the White House Office of Management & Budget, which is conducting a pre-publication review.
Rick Hind of the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters asked why EPA's proposed RMP rule exempts industry sectors, like wastewater treatment plants, from the requirement for IST analysis, given that many facilities in the sector have already removed chlorine gas from their processes in favor of less hazardous substitutes.
He also argued that EPA's exclusion of certain industry sectors from the requirement for IST analysis poses disproportionate risks to certain communities, raising environmental justice concerns.
"By exempting 88% of RMP facilities from conducting safer alternatives assessments in EPA's proposed RMP rule in March the EPA rule will arbitrarily discriminate against underserved communities who are disproportionately at risk," he said. "What were the justifications for these proposed exemptions in the March proposed rule?"
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-osha-ready-facility-ist-guide-sidestepping-calls-rule-mandate
-
Oil-Field Wastewater Taints Calif. Cropland — Report
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Farmers in California's fertile Central Valley have infused billions of gallons of oil-field wastewater — possibly laced with toxic compounds — into 95,000 acres of crops since 2014, according to a report released today by the Environmental Working Group.
State filings showed that oil companies sold wastewater containing over 20 million pounds and 2 million gallons of chemicals to irrigation districts in Kern County, which makes up the southern section of the Central Valley. Though 16 of the dozens of oil-product chemicals found in the wastewater are labeled as carcinogens or reproductive toxins in California, EWG noted that oil companies masked the identities of around 40 percent of the chemicals as trade secrets.
EWG senior scientist Tasha Stoiber emphasized that not enough data are yet available to make conclusions about whether oil-field chemicals are seeping into food crops, but urged caution and further study.
"This could, in fact, be ... a good way to reuse recycled [oil-field] water, but we just don't know enough about it," Stoiber said. "We don't have enough studies to say how [wastewater] affects the food, how it affects people that work in the fields, and what are the long-term effects on the soil and the groundwater."
Though EWG asserted that "no one should stop eating produce from California," it slammed "poorly designed short-term studies" that declared certain wastewater-irrigated crops — including pistachios, almonds, grapes and citrus — safe. Wastewater is also used for root crops such as carrots and potatoes — which are especially susceptible to accumulating toxins — as well as some fish farming.
The report charges that state regulators have refused to halt the practice while testing proceeds and are "even allowing the expansion of the irrigation method." The environmental group claims that oil companies have been selling their refuse to farms since 1987, if not before, and that 13.5 percent of cropland in Kern County is irrigated with oil-field water. Some farms use the waste as drinking water for livestock, EWG asserts.
And while the State Water Resources Control Board reports that it has "never authorized" wastewater from hydraulic fracturing for use in agriculture, EWG warned that around 40 percent of reported oil-field chemicals are also used in fracking.
The report singles out San Francisco-based oil giant Chevron Corp. for dispatching its wastewater to farms and questions company analysis that found acetone, benzene and xylene below legal limits in wastewater ponds.
Meanwhile, organic producers in the state have expressed concerns that they could lose their certification if their crops test positive for oil-field chemicals, said Bill Allayaud, EWG's California director of government affairs.
The report calls on California to "suspend existing permits and declare a moratorium on new projects" until crop studies are complete.
In addition, Allayaud said, "We'd like to not see the water districts and the oil companies in charge of the testing."
"We just don't think [water regulators have] done a comprehensive, adequate job of testing for these chemicals," he said. "And if they did, and said it's all clear ... we could join them in saying this is a win-win."
Agricultural groups often claim that the reuse of wastewater alleviates the pumping of fresh water, especially during droughts, and is therefore a boon to both farmers and fossil fuel interests.
The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has convened a food safety panel to study the issue. The panel will meet on Oct. 28 in Rancho Cordova, Calif.
Chevron and the State Water Resources Control Board did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/26/stories/1060044854
-
(ACC Mentioned) The Case for Freight Rail Reform is Undeniable
Oct 25, 2016 | The Hill - Op Ed
By Cal Dooley
America’s freight rail system is in desperate need of reform, a sentiment admittedly in conflict with the railroads’ PR campaign showing an industry that is growing, facilitating commerce and even helping the environment. To believe the ads, today’s railroads are as American as apple pie — something to be revered, trusted and preserved at all costs.
While it’s true that railroads provide an essential service to the American economy, the freight rail system is lacking something just as American as that apple pie: the kind of healthy competition that is the hallmark of our market economy.
Today’s 35-year-old system of antiquated rules and government procedures administered by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) blocks competition between railroads and, when no competitive options are available, deprives rail customers of an accessible means to resolve concerns with rates and service. The reality is that many shippers, from chemical producers to car manufacturers to corn farmers, are captive to a single railroad, and current STB practices offer almost no effective recourse if rates or services are unacceptable.
In fact, thanks in large part to these arcane polices along with massive consolidation within the rail industry, freight rail rates nearly doubled between 2004 and 2014, rising at three times the rate of inflation, even as the volume of freight carried by the railroads has gone down.
Congress recognized the need for change and called on the National Academies of Sciences to conduct a review of the U.S. freight rail industry. The Academies’ Transportation Research Board report confirmed what rail customers had known for years: STB procedures to address shipper concerns “lack a sound economic rationale and are unusable by most shippers,” and many current policies “should be replaced with practices better suited for today’s modern freight rail system.”
Congress took another important step last year by passing legislation to help improve how the STB operates, and it is making a good-faith effort to pursue important changes to do a better job resolving long-standing freight rail problems.
For example, the STB has proposed to allow rail customers with access to only a single rail carrier to request to move their freight to another major railroad at a nearby interchange for an appropriate fee. This proposal is a commonsense, fair solution that would finally allow shippers to seek a competitive bid from another railroad. Canada has been allowing this “competitive switching” for more than a century, but U.S. rail carriers would have you believe it is a radical and unprecedented attack on their livelihoods.
The Surface Transportation Board is also trying to simplify the way it resolves rate disputes, also over the protestations of the rail industry. Current policy requires that to dispute an unreasonable rate, a captive rail customer must prove that it could build and operate its own railroad for less than what it pays its current rail carrier. In no other industry must a customer demonstrate it could build and operate the necessary infrastructure, technical capabilities, equipment and human resources of a made-up competitor to challenge an unfair rate. Building such a case before the STB can cost years and millions of dollars, leaving carriers free to charge uncompetitive prices while the board is considering the matter. Even the STB commissioners have questioned if this approach is a workable method to resolve rate cases.
Railroads are using scare tactics and old-fashioned bullying to preserve the status quo by attacking the STB, and even their own customers. That is why rail customers large and small, including the business of chemistry, have united to form the Rail Customer Coalition. This diverse group of the manufacturing, agricultural and energy industries with operations and employees throughout the United States supports the STB’s efforts. The Surface Transportation Board’s proposals will allow the market to operate more effectively and foster competition, which drives innovation and cost savings throughout our economy. And just as important, these reforms will foster a healthier freight rail system — something rail carriers should fight for, not against.
The STB’s pursuit of reform is not only justified by the times, it has been validated by an objective third party in the National Academies of Sciences and is consistent with the STB’s original statutory mandate from the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 to ensure effective competition among rail carriers.
So despite the hyperbole and protestations from rail carriers, the case for the modernization of rail policies for the good of the entire U.S. economy is undeniable.
Dooley is president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council. Dooley represented the 20th District of California as a Democratic member of the House from 1991 until 2004. He served on the House Agriculture Committee, as well as the House Resources Committee.
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/302783-the-case-for-freight-rail-reform-is-undeniable
-
Argenia Railway Technologies: SafeNet PTC Non-Vital Overlay for Positive Train Control
Oct 25, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
Argenia Railway Technologies has launched SafeNet PTC, a non-vital overlay positive train control (PTC) system that is designed with proprietary communications-based train control technologies. The announcement follows more than two years of work with the Nashville & Eastern Railroad Corp. (NERR) to gain Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Type Approval on the PTC Development Plan for the industry's first non-vital overlay PTC system, Aregnia officials said in a press release.
SafeNet is based on communications-based train control technologies and uses a moving block system to track the locations of trains. It is broken down into four segments: the locomotive, office, wayside and communications segments. The technology is designed to meet the four criteria of PTC outlined in the regulations.
The Type Approval is the first milestone for implementing SafeNet and typically a bidding process is required for railroads who wish to implement it.
“We are extremely satisfied to reach this important milestone for SafeNet PTC. The Nashville & Eastern Railroad has been instrumental in helping us gain Type Approval with the FRA for this new system," said Michael Assad, chief executive officer of Argenia. "We are pleased to offer a lower cost alternative to achieve the requirements of PTC for short lines and small commuter operations, without sacrificing functionality."
NERR Vice President Stephen Drunsic added that the railroad was fortunate to partner with Argenia to navigate the complexities of PTC and in developing a "more cost sensitive solution for the marketplace."
"The FRA has been extremely supportive in our efforts and I think we mutually understand the importance of bringing to market alternative technologies that can offer wide and scalable application," Drunsic said. "With SafeNet, we have a solution that meets the all of the requirements of PTC but also fits within the budget of a smaller operation."http://www.progressiverailroading.com/rail_product_news/details/Argenia-Railway-Technologies-SafeNet-PTC-non-vital-overlay-for-positive-train-control--49892
-
Train Derails in Wis., Spills Chemical
Oct 26, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
A train derailment in northern Wisconsin on Monday led to a chemical spill that brought hazardous materials workers to the scene. The wreck, just south of the town of Superior, caused no injuries.
"We have contained the single leaking rail car, which was hauling octene, a liquid solvent used in plastic production," Calli Hite, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific Railroad, said yesterday. Octene is used to make polyethylene plastics.
The Federal Railroad Administration said it sent inspectors to the scene.
Union Pacific is investigating the cause of the wreck. Town of Superior firefighters said they were keeping track of the flow of octene.
"We apologize to the community," Hite said. "Union Pacific personnel, including our hazardous materials management team, are responding to the incident in coordination with several other agencies".
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/26/stories/1060044837
-
Ending Arctic Drilling Will Secure President’s Climate Legacy
Oct 26, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Brad Ack
Over the last eight years, the United States has transformed the way it works with other nations addressing the climate crisis. We’ve gone from international laggard to global leader, in large part due to President Obama’s efforts to inject this global challenge into mainstream policy discussions in the U.S. and abroad.
And as the first U.S. President to visit the Arctic, he helped millions of Americans appreciate its beauty, recognize its long human history and understand the linkages between the Arctic’s future and the planet’s changing climate.
In the coming weeks, the President must decide whether or not to open federal waters in the Arctic to drilling for more oil and gas. While it may be hard to imagine this President opening the door to multinational oil companies to extract more fossil fuels in the most dangerous and least forgiving environment on the planet, sadly it is a real possibility.
If the President grants the global oil industry access to America’s Arctic waters, it would be a dissonant chord in his administration’s record of hard-fought climate progress. The last thing the planet and the atmosphere needs is more fossil fuels. Recent studies remind us that our climate can’t withstand the carbon emissions from burning the reserves we already have access to, much less the sources yet undiscovered beneath the sea. Granting oil companies license to drill in these remote and unpredictable waters would send world leaders a conflicting message about U.S. seriousness in stabilizing the planet’s climate and protecting the Arctic.
President Obama personally led the way to securing the Paris Agreement. It’s an historic achievement, the biggest single advance to date in the decades-long fight to galvanize international climate cooperation. But U.S. commitments to cut carbon emissions under that agreement cannot be achieved at the same time we are expanding the supply of carbon-based fuels from federal lands and waters.
In fact, under the Paris Agreement, all nations including the U.S., agreed to create plans for zeroing out carbon emissions by mid-century. President Obama is expected to release our nation’s 2050 plan in November. There is simply no place for new oil drilling in a zero-carbon future.
While drilling poses additional climate risks, it also poses serious threats to indigenous communities and the Arctic ecosystem as a whole. A spill in these cold and dark waters could turn into an unmitigated disaster, affecting food webs and Arctic wildlife for decades. Arctic weather is often rough and unpredictable, ocean currents are strong, most of the region remains uncharted, and in the case of an oil spill, the nearest ports would likely be hundreds of miles away – making any cleanup nearly impossible.
Just the process of oil exploration in the Arctic has been incredibly difficult and the risk exceptionally high. We need to look no further than Royal Dutch Shell’s error-laden trials and tribulations over much of the past decade, resulting in an empty effort that cost the company and its shareholders upwards of $7 billion dollars according to news sources.
Americans agree that we need to protect the Arctic from these risks. Recent polls show that 59 percent of Americans support efforts to permanently protect the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans from oil drilling. It just makes sense.
Drilling in the icy waters of the U.S. Arctic would only serve to further shackle us to an outdated model of fossil fuel based growth, when our future lies in clean and renewable energy sources – which are abundant and cost competitive now.
President Obama’s conservation legacy will be remembered by the turning point his administration made in global efforts to avert the worst impacts of climate change. For this legacy to remain consistent, the administration must take offshore Arctic drilling off the table now.
Brad Ack is WWF’s senior vice president for oceans.
http://www.thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/302691-ending-arctic-drilling-will-secure-presidents-climate
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation News
Environment News
Add recipients
Suggested