Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 10/27/2016
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EPA Review Of PBT Chemicals Poses Early Test For 'Articles' Under TSCA
Oct 27, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
EPA's decision to include the flame retardant chemicals DecaBDEbromodiphenyl ethers (Deca) among a list of substances it has flagged for expedited action under section 6(h) of the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) may pose an early test for the new law's provisions governing chemicals in "articles," or finished products. -
No Surprises in TSCA First Ten Substances, Says EPA Official
Oct 27, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The substances the US EPA selects as the first ten, subject to risk evaluation under the new TSCA, should not come as a surprise, said Jeffrey Morris, deputy director for programmes at the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT). -
Podcast: What the New Chemicals Law Means for You and Me
Oct 27, 2016 | Bloomberg BNA
By David Schultz
People are calling it the most significant piece of environmental legislation in a generation. It could usher in a sea change in the way the EPA regulates toxic chemicals. -
US Healthcare Group Commits to Sourcing Healthy Furnishings
Oct 27, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
Group purchasing organisation, HealthTrust, says all of its manufacturers and distributors offer furniture that meets the Healthy Interiors criteria - a part of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) run by NGOs Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and Practice Greenhealth. -
Campaign Aims to Shield Children from Toxins
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Gabriel Dunsmith
The Environmental Working Group unveiled a program today that aims to bolster children's environmental health. -
Echa Publishes Draft 2017-19 Corap List
Oct 27, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Leigh Stringer
Echa has drafted a list of 117 substances to be evaluated under the Community Rolling Action Plan (Corap) for the period 2017-19. -
BLM Sprints to Cement Obama's Green Legacy
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Scott Streater
The Interior Department is moving toward finalizing rules, policies and projects that it says should ensure renewable energy's unprecedented growth spurt continues on federal land after President Obama leaves office. -
New England Says No to Natural Gas, Yes to Renewables
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Rod Kuckro
A pair of decisions in New England on Tuesday may help clarify where the region is heading when it comes to its energy future. -
N.D. Pipeline Lawlessness Demands DOJ Action to Protect Citizens and Property
Oct 27, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Timothy H. Lee
What arguably began as a peaceful protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP) has devolved into an alarming situation consisting of “hundreds of individuals,” many of whom are “brandishing weapons,” have already caused “millions of dollars” in property damage and are clearly “hostile, and engaged in training exercises which can only be intended to promote [more] violence.” -
Iowa, N.D., S.D. Governors Press Obama Administration to End Dakota Access Standoff
Oct 27, 2016 | Politico Pro - Whiteboard
By Elana Schor
The governors of North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa this week called on the Army Corps of Engineers to issue the easement necessary for the Dakota Access pipeline to cross the Missouri River, ending a months-long standoff with tribal and environmental groups. -
NJ Transit Advances PTC Plan with Radio Spectrum Lease, Adopts Budget
Oct 27, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
New Jersey Transit's board yesterday approved an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to lease radio spectrum for positive train control (PTC). -
Administration Should Finalize Proposed Changes to Strengthen the Regional Haze Rule
Oct 27, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Darryl Haley
Recently, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy visited Shenandoah National Park – an awe-inspiring treasure in my Luray, Va., backyard. -
GOP Report Blasts EPA for Fast-Tracking Final Version
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Tiffany Stecker
U.S. EPA pushed hard to finalize the Obama administration's hot-button Clean Water Rule despite objections from other agencies, according to a report from Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. -
Sustainability Advocates Eye 'Natural Infrastructure' Climate Bond Standard
Oct 27, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Amanda Palleschi
A coalition of water advocates and investors advocating for sustainability practices is beginning to develop a set of standards for financing “natural infrastructure” projects that protect source waters from the effects of climate change, after the group earlier this month released a similar standard for protecting built infrastructure projects.
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EPA Review Of PBT Chemicals Poses Early Test For 'Articles' Under TSCA
Oct 27, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
EPA's decision to include the flame retardant chemicals DecaBDEbromodiphenyl ethers (Deca) among a list of substances it has flagged for expedited action under section 6(h) of the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) may pose an early test for the new law's provisions governing chemicals in "articles," or finished products.
One industry source says that EPA's Oct. 11 announcement that it would include Deca as one of a handful of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) substances for review could revisit issues the agency grappled with in its controversial 2012 proposed significant new use rule (SNUR) targeting most uses of Deca, particularly in products. The SNUR spurred debate over EPA's ability to regulate articles, and those disputes could arise again.
"It does tee up some issues," a second industry source says of the section 6(h) review that EPA will conduct of Deca. But the source also says that other factors EPA will have to consider are legacy use of Deca in finished products and critical use exemptions, as well as new provisions in section 6(h) regarding risk. "We don't know how those will play out," that source adds.
One environmentalist says that "while we didn't love the language" in the revised TSCA on "articles," they do not think it will be a "huge obstacle" in this case because EPA had extensive findings in 2012 supporting its proposed SNUR to show that Deca in articles posed significant risk of exposure.
The March 2012 proposal issued for the class of substances known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) was intended to restrict new uses of Deca unless producers or users provided data demonstrating the chemicals' safety. EPA's proposal, which the agency never opted to finalize, wold have combined a test rule and SNUR was part of the agency's ongoing efforts to more aggressively regulate under the previous TSCA.
The proposed package largely would have targeted Deca, since the other widely-used PBDE flame retardants, penta and octa, were previously phased out under a voluntary agreement in 2005, and others have been placed on the international convention against persistent organic pollutants.
The draft SNURs were controversial because they included provisions seeking to regulate "articles" containing chemicals, which can range from car and airplane parts to textiles and electronics. SNURs also restrict obsolete uses of existing chemicals that EPA deems "new."
Under previous TSCA authority, in order for EPA to issue a SNUR it must consider the extent to which a use changes the type or form of exposure of human beings or the environment to a chemical; whether it increases the magnitude and duration of exposure; and the "reasonably anticipated manner and methods of manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce, and disposal of chemical."
SNURs usually have an exemption for "articles," or manufactured products containing the chemicals restricted by a SNUR. But recently, EPA has issued several rule proposals without this articles exemption prior to the new law's effective date of June 22.
Sources have suggested that the agency's restriction of the articles exemption is expanding because more products are being imported, while fewer are manufactured in the United States, where they might fall under other regulatory scrutiny from separate agencies such as the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Regulating Articles
The new law opens the possibility of placing new limits for the agency on regulating articles, but some observers previously said it also empowers EPA by making its regulatory authority over articles explicit.
The revised TSCA would explicitly give EPA authority to regulate chemicals in articles, but only to the "extent necessary to address the identified risks from exposure to the chemical substance or mixture from the article or category of articles" to ensure that the substance does not present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.
The new bill would impose similar limits on EPA's SNUR authority under TSCA section 5(a) for the import or processing of substances in articles. Environmentalists previously said that the language included in the final compromise bill that became the new law would weaken the agency's current authority by requiring an affirmative finding that the "reasonable potential" for exposure to the substance justifies the notification.
But the environmentalist says that while they opposed the statutory language, in practice EPA has well-justified its exposure findings for articles in the cases in which it has issued SNURs, saying, "I don't think it poses any significant limitations on EPA" in the case of Deca.
Section 6 of the new TSCA law directs EPA to categorize existing chemicals -- those already on the market -- as high or low priority, and then perform risk evaluations of the high priority chemicals.
But under section 6(h), EPA may act to restrict PBT substances where exposure is likely under the conditions of use to the general population or susceptible subpopulations or the environment on the basis of an exposure and use assessment.
The provision allows for the agency to conduct a streamlined evaluation that only involves use and exposure to the substances without conducting a full blown risk evaluation. EPA must then take steps to impose limitations sufficient to reduce exposure to the "extent practicable" within three years of the law's effective June 22 date.
Sources say the section 6(h) listing could pose an early test for the "articles" language and other aspects of the PBT provision, such as the limits of the requirement that EPA "reduce risk to the extent practicable," and how EPA will consider critical use exemptions for Deca, the second industry source says. "One question, though, is, how much this relates to legacy [issues], things in articles that have been there awhile," that source adds.
A third industry source notes that while the Deca rulemaking may consider articles, and thus may be an early test for the section 6 articles language, EPA could issue SNURs before then, such as for long chain perfluorinated chemicals, that could provide an earlier test of the generally similar section 5 articles language.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-review-pbt-chemicals-poses-early-test-articles-under-tsca
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No Surprises in TSCA First Ten Substances, Says EPA Official
Oct 27, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The substances the US EPA selects as the first ten, subject to risk evaluation under the new TSCA, should not come as a surprise, said Jeffrey Morris, deputy director for programmes at the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT).
The Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act requires the EPA to select ten substances from the existing TSCA work plan by mid-December of this year, to begin risk evaluations immediately thereafter.
Speaking at ChemCon the Americas 2016 in Toronto last week, Dr Morris pointed out that the agency has already been working, for some time, on a number of work plan chemicals. Progress includes:
a draft risk assessment for 1-bromopropane (1-BP);
scoping documents on 1,4-dioxane; and
initial assessments for three flame retardant clusters, centered around TBBPA, TCEP, and HBCD.
As such, “it shouldn’t be any surprise to people if those chemicals ended up on the list of ten, because we’ve already done considerable work” on them, said Dr Morris.
Which substances will round out the remainder, said Dr Morris, is yet to be determined. But the EPA is likely to wrap up its decision in the next few weeks or so, ahead of the list’s December unveiling, he said.
Dr Morris also shed some light on another December deliverable: a proposed rule for how the EPA will designate substances on the TSCA inventory as “active” and “inactive”.
How the agency will handle the potential issues in this so-called “inventory reset” has been the subject of much discussion. Stakeholders have flagged up such considerations as:
how nomenclature issues on the inventory may be addressed;
what safeguards should be put in place to protect against the release of confidential business information(CBI);
whether foreign suppliers – especially those selling confidential substances – will be able to jointly submit notice with US importers; and
what role – if any – processors will play in the active substance notification process.
But Dr Morris said, at ChemCon, that the EPA wants to keep the inventory reset rule “as simple as we can”.
“There have been some calls to use this rule to fix some things about the inventory that people have concerns about,” continued Dr Morris.But he said that as far as the proposed rule is concerned, he thinks the agency will “try to hew as closely as we can to the provision in the law asking us to establish an active inventory.”
In addition to this, the EPA has announced plans to release draft rules covering prioritisation of substances for risk evaluation, the risk evaluation process and fees, by mid-December. The Lautenberg Act calls for these rules – with the exception of that on fees – to be finalised by 22 June 2017.
Due in December are also the establishment of a Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC), the definition of a small business, and a report to Congress on the agency’s capacity to conduct risk evaluations and issue rules to address unreasonable risks.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50562/no-surprises-in-tsca-first-ten-substances-says-epa-official
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Podcast: What the New Chemicals Law Means for You and Me
Oct 27, 2016 | Bloomberg BNA
By David Schultz
People are calling it the most significant piece of environmental legislation in a generation. It could usher in a sea change in the way the EPA regulates toxic chemicals.
So what does it mean for you and me?
The overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act cleared both chambers of Congress and got signed by the president this summer, after literally years of political wrangling. It’s the first major update to a Gerald Ford-era law that was widely criticized as being all but toothless. (Check out this infographic for more details.)
How will this affect the household products that consumers buy and use every day? Will shoppers notice anything different when they look for cleaners, plastics, air fresheners and hundreds of other items with chemical ingredients regulated by the law?
For the latest episode of our environmental policy podcast, Parts Per Billion, we talk to two of the players who have a big stake in the future of this law: Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Daniel Rosenberg, who specializes in chemicals regulation, and Chris Cathcart, president of a trade group that represents household product makers.
Rosenberg and Cathcart don’t see eye to eye on much, including what effect the law will have on the marketplace and even why updating it was necessary in the first place.
For much, much more on the still-unfolding impact of this new law, follow on Twitter Pat Rizzuto, Bloomberg BNA’s senior chemicals reporter. You can also read more of our reporting on chemicals issues and lots of other topics at our blog and in our publication Daily Environment Report. If you liked what you heard in the podcast, sign up for a free trial.
http://www.bna.com/podcast-new-chemicals-b57982079200/
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US Healthcare Group Commits to Sourcing Healthy Furnishings
Oct 27, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
Group purchasing organisation, HealthTrust, says all of its manufacturers and distributors offer furniture that meets the Healthy Interiors criteria - a part of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) run by NGOs Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and Practice Greenhealth.
Organisations that commit to the initiative - which is part of the NGOs' Safer Chemicals Challenge - must ensure that 30% of the annual volume of furnishings and furniture purchased do not contain five chemicals and materials of concern.
These are:
formaldehyde;
perfluorinated compounds;
polyvinyl chloride (PVC);
antimicrobials; and
flame retardants.
HealthTrust said its suppliers will consult, at no extra cost, to help its 1,400 members meet the HHI guidelines when making purchasing decisions.
“HealthTrust is committed to the Healthy Interiors initiative as we contract for products in the furniture and furnishings category,” says Mike Arredondo, director of strategic sourcing. “The Safer Chemicals Challenge is a priority for many of our members so it’s also a priority for us.”
HCWH director of communications, Benn Grover, said that support from GPOs would make purchasing easier for hospitals.
“Figuring out which furniture meets HHI, and tracking spending can require extra time and effort and not all systems have that capability. This makes it easier for them as the GPO will assume some of the effort in helping a system meet the healthy interior goal,” he said.
There are 33 manufacturers that have provided lists of products meeting the HHI Safer Chemicals Challenge.
In May this year, HCWH and Practice Greenhealth launched the Greenhealth Exchange (GX). This is a buying cooperative dedicated to green procurement, which will only source furniture meeting the HHI criteria.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50585/us-healthcare-group-commits-to-sourcing-healthy-furnishings
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Campaign Aims to Shield Children from Toxins
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Gabriel Dunsmith
The Environmental Working Group unveiled a program today that aims to bolster children's environmental health.
Launched in partnership with the Jonas Family Fund, EWG's Jonas Initiative for Children's Environmental Health will provide research, news content and education programs related to toxic exposure and chemical contaminants that threaten children. The initiative primarily targets parents, health advocates and news media.
"The mounting evidence connecting children's exposures to environmental contaminants and serious, life-altering health problems continues to grow," said Ken Cook, co-founder and president of EWG, in a statement. "We know that toxic chemical exposures affect the well-being of our kids. This new partnership between EWG and the Jonas Family Fund will bolster the current body of children's health research and strike out on new, groundbreaking approaches that will help protect all children from polluted environments."
Olga Naidenko, senior science adviser for children's environmental health at EWG, will lead the program.
In announcing the program, EWG took U.S. EPA to task for "insufficient" chemical exposure standards.
"Just because levels of carcinogens and neurotoxins found in drinking water, for example, are within the legal limits, doesn't mean they are safe for children," Naidenko said in a statement.
As part of the initiative, EWG will develop its own guidelines for toxin exposure "based solely on health impacts," the group said, implying that the chemical lobby has too much clout in federal chemical decisionmaking.
The group lists pesticides, PCBs, asbestos, cleaning chemicals and heavy metals like lead as several compounds that affect children's health.
EWG hopes the Jonas Initiative will have an impact on policy discussions, it said.
"Through this initiative, EWG will build on its established, game-changing research with new content and new communications strategies that will arm parents, politicians and other concerned citizens with the tools and data necessary to protect current and future generations of children," Cook said in a statement.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/27/stories/1060044897
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Echa Publishes Draft 2017-19 Corap List
Oct 27, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Leigh Stringer
Echa has drafted a list of 117 substances to be evaluated under the Community Rolling Action Plan (Corap) for the period 2017-19.
A total of 95 of these were on the adopted list covering 2016-18, which was released in October last year.
Of the 22 newly added substances, eight are potential endocrine disruptors. Others have been added for “initial grounds for concern”, such as carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) and persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) properties.
The agency notes that the number of substances to be evaluated in 2017 is lower than in previous plans. Last year, 53 substances were added. It says evaluations of 32 substances have been postponed to 2018 and 2019 because of pending compliance checks.
“To avoid overlaps, Echa needs to conclude compliance checks on the majority of substances, before their evaluation can start,” it says in a press release.
ChemSec’s Anna Lennquist says that performing dossier evaluations before substance evaluations “in one way makes sense and is more logical”. However, in practice this may reward companies which have provided poor quality dossiers. “Companies can delay scrutiny of their substance, probably for years,” she says.
“Overall we are worried that the Corap process is becoming a bottleneck for action on hazardous chemicals,” Ms Lennquist says.
Once a substance is added to the Corap list, she says, it falls off the radar for a few years and, in many cases, it results in a request for more data, which in turn is challenged by companies to the Board of Appeal.
“There are still many substances which we know are suitable for the candidate list without further evaluation, and for the Commission to reach the target of having all relevant substances on the list by 2020, there is definitely a need for speed rather than for more bottlenecks,” she says.
The agency expects 24 substances to be evaluated in 2017, 47 in 2018 and 46 in 2019. Echa's Member State Committee (MSC) will discuss the proposal this week and will prepare an opinion on the draft plan in February 2017.
Based on this, the agency will adopt the final Corap update for 2017-2019 and publish it in March 2017.
From the date of publication, member states will have one year to evaluate the substances specified for 2017. Where necessary, they will prepare a draft decision to request further information to clarify the concerns.
https://chemicalwatch.com/50605/echa-publishes-draft-2017-19-corap-list
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BLM Sprints to Cement Obama's Green Legacy
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Scott Streater
The Interior Department is moving toward finalizing rules, policies and projects that it says should ensure renewable energy's unprecedented growth spurt continues on federal land after President Obama leaves office.
Building a clean energy program from scratch, the Bureau of Land Management has approved 60 commercial-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects that would power millions of homes and businesses.
"We are incredibly proud of what the agency, with so many partners and so many private developers, has been able to accomplish in the renewable energy realm," BLM Director Neil Kornze said in an interview. "We've gone from a beat of zero to a beat of at least 60 miles per hour."
Up next is a set of ambitious rules and policies that Dylan Fuge, BLM's counselor to Kornze on energy, said would "finish the job" begun by Obama.
Among the administration's priorities outlined to E&E News by Fuge and others:
Finalize a rule to launch competitive leasing for renewable energy on federal land across the West.
Establish two solar energy zones (SEZs) on federal tracts along the Nevada-California line and identify the first wind energy zones where projects would be encouraged through streamlined permitting.
Direct BLM state offices to identify solar and wind energy zones when resource management plans are amended or updated.
Authorize construction of the first phase of the 3,000-megawatt Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in Wyoming, the largest wind project in North America, and the TransWest Express transmission line, which will carry the project's electricity to major Western load centers.
The competitive leasing rule, first proposed two years ago, is Interior's top remaining task.
The rule would set up a process for renewable energy on federal land that's similar to that for oil and gas development, letting industry bid for a lease on nominated parcels and setting rental and bonding requirements to ensure a fair rate of return for taxpayers (E&ENews PM, Sept. 25, 2014).
The rule's big beneficiary would be solar power, allowing BLM to hold regular competitive lease sales in 19 SEZs on nearly 300,000 acres in six states.
It's also essential to meeting the goals of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which Interior finalized last month. The plan established 388,000 acres of "development focus areas" within a 10.8-million-acre federal planning area that, like the solar zones, are deemed suitable for commercial-scale renewable energy or transmission line projects.
BLM wants to hold lease sales in the desert plan for solar development, as well as commercial-scale wind and geothermal power. Projects would undergo a streamlined permitting process that would take less than a year.
But that won't happen until the competitive leasing rule is finalized.
"This is the energy of the 21st century, and we need a program to match that," said Alex Daue, assistant director for energy and climate at the Wilderness Society. "Right now, BLM is still permitting these wind and solar projects under the same procedures as they use for roads and telephone lines. So this rulemaking is an effort to really modernize the agency's approach to renewable energy development on public lands."
But the final rule has been under review since March by the White House Office of Management and Budget, mostly due to resistance from the wind and solar industries.
The industries aren't thrilled about rental rates and are concerned about changes to megawatt capacity fees, bonding rates and lease fees. They're also uncertain about adopting a system that guides them to pre-screened "zones" that may not align with where the energy resource is located.
Tom Vinson, vice president of federal regulatory affairs for the American Wind Energy Association, said the industry appreciates the administration's "overall commitment to expanding renewable energy." But he said he's concerned that the final rule "will further undermine interest in wind energy projects on public lands by making existing barriers even worse."
"We hope to see improvements in the rule's workability in the final version, but there will remain challenges with the underlying concept," he added.
Fuge said BLM and the White House are working "proactively" to address the industry's concerns.
"I think, big picture, there's a broad recognition within the administration that supporting robust renewable energy development is an important component of the administration's climate goals," he said.
"BLM recognizes its role in supporting that development, while also ensuring it meets its mandate to obtain fair market value for the American public when it makes the public lands available to large, industrial, private-sector uses."
'Hey, this stuff works'
When Obama took office in early 2009, he made his "New Energy for America" agenda a top priority.
At the time, not a single large-scale solar energy project had been approved on federal land, and only a handful of small geothermal and wind power projects had been approved, with a total capacity of about 1,500 MW.
Since then, BLM has approved 60 utility-scale renewables projects that would have the capacity to generate 15,569 MW of electricity — enough to power about 5.1 million homes and solidify renewable energy as a significant part of the nation's energy portfolio for years to come.
That's well ahead of the 10,000 MW goal for 2015 set by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Interior crossed that threshold in 2012.
BLM is already on its way to meeting the goals in Obama's 2013 Climate Action Plan, which challenged Interior to approve 20,000 MW of non-hydropower renewable energy projects on federal and tribal lands by 2020.
"We didn't have a [renewable energy] industry in 2008, and I think that's one of the more underappreciated hallmarks of this administration," said Bobby McEnaney, deputy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Western Renewable Energy Project. "I think history will show many years from now what an amazing transformation it's been."
The effort has critics, particularly congressional Republicans and the oil and gas industry. They say the administration has focused too much attention on renewables, to the detriment of other domestic energy resources.
And some prominent conservation groups and American Indian tribes have challenged BLM's approval of some early projects, claiming the agency rushed to approve them without fully analyzing potential impacts to natural and cultural resources.
Some of those approved projects were later canceled in the face of lawsuits or financial problems.
Consider the massive 709 MW Imperial Valley Solar Project in Imperial County, Calif., and the 663 MW Calico Solar Energy Project in San Bernardino County, Calif., both of which were approved in October 2010. The approval for both projects was challenged in federal court by conservation and American Indian groups, and later was withdrawn at the request of the developers for legal or financial reasons.
BLM has had trouble defending its approval of other major projects.
That was clear when a federal judge in Nevada last year threw out BLM's 2013 approval of what was projected to be the Silver State's largest wind power project, ruling that the agency did not properly evaluate potential impacts to golden eagles and Mojave Desert tortoises (Greenwire, Nov. 4, 2015).
Still, half the 60 projects approved so far either have begun operation or are in some active stage of construction, Fuge said.
"I think that's the proof in the pudding that the program is working," he said.
Those 30 projects include some that were considered impossible a decade ago.
Among those is California's 750 MW McCoy Solar Energy Project, which is under construction and, when finished and placed into operation, is projected to be the world's largest solar plant. Similarly, the Golden State's 392 MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, which began operating in late 2013, is the world's largest concentrating solar power plant.
Projects like these, and the technology that makes them work, would never have gotten off the ground without the administration's "forward-thinking" policies and commitment to making them a reality, said Amit Ronen, director of the GW Solar Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
"A decade ago, these types of projects were not found anywhere in the world, and now there are many of these projects here and around the world," Ronen said. "People are realizing, 'Hey, this stuff works.'"
Solar boom
Much of the ongoing momentum will focus on solar power. That's due partly to the fact that some of the world's best solar resources are in the Southwest, where there are large tracts of federal land.
BLM wants to finalize as many as two new solar energy zones along the Nevada-California line as part of an update of the agency's resource management plan for the Las Vegas and Pahrump field offices, which cover millions of acres in Clark and Nye counties.
BLM is targeting the region because of California's aggressive renewable portfolio standard. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) last month signed a bill requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. State-regulated utilities already must meet a 50 percent renewable energy standard by 2030.
"I think everybody recognizes the potential presented by this area because of where it's situated relative to transmission and the California market," Fuge said.
BLM is working to make identifying SEZs a "part of the normal planning process" when amending or updating land-use plans, he said.
SEZs are a major component of the Obama administration's renewables development effort.
Interior spent years conducting a programmatic environmental impact statement analyzing millions of acres of public land. The result was the Western Solar Plan — approved by former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2012 — which included 17 SEZs. Two additional SEZs were established in 2013 in Arizona and California.
If fully developed, projects in the SEZs could produce as much as 27 gigawatts of solar energy — enough to power about 8 million homes.
Of the 60 renewables projects approved by Interior, 36 are solar projects. If all are built, they will have the capacity to generate 10,148 MW of electricity, or enough to power more than 3 million homes.
"Without a doubt, the Obama administration has been the most solar-friendly administration in modern history," said Christopher Mansour, vice president of federal affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association.
"The proof of Obama's success is the phenomenal development of the solar industry during his tenure, which has grown from 1.2 GW at the end of 2008 to an expected 41.5 GW by the end of 2016."
'Legacy' wind project
Installed wind power capacity has reached record levels during the Obama administration, but unlike solar, much of that has occurred on private and other non-federal lands.
BLM has approved 11 wind energy projects on federal land since 2009. If built, they would have the capacity to produce 4,767 MW of electricity, or enough to power 1.4 million homes.
Fuge said BLM is working with the industry to develop a wind resource mapping tool that will help regulators and developers identify sites on federal lands where the wind resource is high but natural resource conflicts are low.
BLM is also working to develop the first energy zones specifically designated for wind power development. "Certainly, that's something we've heard from the wind industry that they're interested in," Fuge said.
But those efforts will not be completed by year's end, Fuge said. "We're probably a little ways off from the next formal designated leasing area for wind."
One of BLM's top remaining priorities is to authorize construction of the first phase of the 1,000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in southeast Wyoming.
Chokecherry and Sierra Madre, proposed by Denver-based Anschutz Corp., is a "legacy" project for BLM, Fuge said.
Interior in 2012 issued a record of decision approving the project. But the ROD authorized BLM to proceed with site-specific analysis for things like the locations of individual turbines.
BLM in March issued an environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact for siting the first 500 turbines as part of the project's first phase (E&ENews PM, March 9).
The Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft environmental impact statement in April analyzing the potential impacts to bald and golden eagles of authorizing the 500 turbines (E&ENews PM, April 20).
Both documents are expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, allowing construction to begin early next year.
BLM is also expected soon to issue an ROD for the 727-mile TransWest Express transmission line project, also proposed by Anschutz. It would carry up to 3,000 MW from Chokecherry and other wind projects in Wyoming across portions of Colorado and Utah to a substation in southern Nevada, about 25 miles south of Las Vegas.
BLM last year issued a final environmental impact statement for the project, which the Obama administration considers a top priority (Greenwire, May 1, 2015).
The TransWest Express project is likely to face challenges.
The Wilderness Society and others are concerned about the power line's proposed route, which they say would harm greater sage grouse, desert tortoises and other wildlife.
"This is a project that could be important for renewable energy," the Wilderness Society's Daue said. "Unfortunately, the developer and the BLM seem to be headed down the path to selecting a route that instead of following designated utility corridors is going to be cutting across wild and important habitat in northwest Colorado and southeast Utah."
Remaining projects
Meanwhile, BLM is moving forward on a list of five solar and two geothermal power projects deemed priorities for this year and 2017.
But one is the 287 MW Soda Mountain Solar Project, which BLM approved in April. The photovoltaic solar plant would cover more than 1,700 acres of federal land and would have the capacity to power 86,000 homes and businesses.
BLM approved the project despite near-unanimous opposition from the National Park Service, scientists and numerous conservation groups because of its location near the Mojave National Preserve.
The future of the project is in doubt after the San Bernardino County board of supervisors two months ago voted not to approve the county's environmental review of the project (Greenwire, Aug. 24).
BLM is currently conducting an environmental impact statement for the 300 MW Desert Quartzite Solar Project in Southern California's Riverside County. The project, proposed for 4,900 acres of BLM land, likely won't be approved until next year.
A number of the priority projects would be located on Native American or private tracts. BLM is involved only to approve transmission lines proposed to cross agency property.
Among them is the 100 MW Aiya Solar Project on about 900 acres on the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Clark County, about 40 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Interior approved the project last month, with BLM assenting to the use of agency lands for transmission lines (E&ENews PM, Sept. 15).
Kornze said he sees many other large-scale projects in the future.
"As technology gets better and as transmission gets developed, and we focus more on renewable resources instead of fossil fuels, we will see not just the desert Southwest serving as the hub of renewable energy development, but it will spread to other corners of the country and other parts of the West," Kornze said.
"We're excited to have built a program that is not simply something that took place during this administration. It's now part of the way we do business."
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/27/stories/1060044896
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New England Says No to Natural Gas, Yes to Renewables
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Rod Kuckro
A pair of decisions in New England on Tuesday may help clarify where the region is heading when it comes to its energy future.
In Connecticut, the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection called off its procurement of more natural gas, a move that could spell the end of Spectra Energy Corp.'s Access Northeast project and efforts by regional leaders to increase the amount of natural-gas-fired electric generation capacity.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island on Tuesday selected seven solar and wind projects totaling 460 megawatts in response to the three states' New England Clean Energy Request for Proposals announced last year. The next step is to negotiate contracts by mid-January for the power from each project.
"The decisions and the timing of the decisions aptly reflects what ought to be New England's priorities and indicate that our states can proceed with clean renewable energy projects that are domestically sourced and cost-effective for ratepayers," said Greg Cunningham, director of the Conservation Law Foundation's clean energy and climate change program.
The six-state region has been growing more dependent on natural gas for power generation, the result of coal plants closing and the shuttering of two nuclear plants. The risks of that reliance were exposed during the winter of 2013-14, when persistently low temperatures taxed energy infrastructure and resulted in record levels of electricity demand and high prices.
The Connecticut decision to cancel its review of seven proposals was triggered by the state's conclusion that its ratepayers would "disproportionately" bear the cost of natural gas infrastructure.
The New England states had settled on a first-of-its-kind funding system for new natural gas pipelines that would have electricity customers pay a charge for their construction.
But that consensus was upended when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission ruled the system unlawful and "materially reduced the ability for the costs of projects to be shared among a substantial portion of the region's ratepayers," the Connecticut decision said.
Rhode Island has been considering a similar charge, but that proceeding has been put on hold.
"We didn't like the financing scheme to begin with," said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association.
In Dolan's view, the funding mechanism "undermines the economics of non-gas plants at a time when we're seeing the lowest energy prices in New England's history."
Moreover, "it picks winners and losers just among the gas plants in New England," he said, citing in particular the $3 billion Access Northeast project. "While it had a lot of gas plants connected to that pipeline, it by no means had all of them.
"You're subsidizing fuel for those plants that have the dumb luck of being located on that pipeline," and then for any other gas plant, "you're getting undercut by your competitors simply on the basis of the states deciding to subsidize one particular pipeline," Dolan said.
"I cannot foresee a path forward for that project," the Conservation Law Foundation's Cunningham said, unless Spectra uses traditional pipeline funding practices where the buyers of the gas pay. But that path has been a nonstarter for years, which is why the states developed their alternative funding system.
"This entire effort in New England to overbuild the pipeline purportedly for price and reliability purposes has been premised on an anomalous winter in 2013-14. It was a winter in which the management of pipeline was particularly poor, coordination between electric and gas markers was particularly poor, and weather conditions were unusually bad," he said.
"The urgency to the extent that it ever existed has dissipated. We question whether it ever existed, frankly," he said.
Spectra spokesman Creighton Welch said the company is "disappointed" because "the regional pipelines are running full and demand is growing which exacerbates the possibility of electric blackouts and shortages of natural gas for home heating."
He noted that ISO New England, the region's grid operator, said New England's precarious power generation during the winter may become unsustainable in 2019 during extreme cold conditions without immediate action to solidify the region's energy infrastructure.
States pass on Northern Pass
In announcing the results of its clean energy RFP, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island did not select the Northern Pass project, a 192-mile transmission line from Hydro-Québec's hydroelectric plants in Canada to New Hampshire and the rest of New England. The project is being developed by Eversource Energy, formerly Northeast Utilities.
"They weren't cheap enough and weren't selected," Dolan said.
Cunningham said the transmission line was also handicapped by a "hefty price tag and significant permitting and political uncertainty."
Eversource issued a statement saying it will focus its attention on an upcoming request for proposals in Massachusetts for up to 9.45 gigawatt-hours of clean energy resources mandated by recent legislation that must be issued by April 1, 2017.
The winners of the Clean Energy RFP were Ameresco's 20 MW of photovoltaic solar in New Milford, Conn.; the 28.8-MW Antrim wind project in Antrim, N.H.; the 126-MW Cassadaga wind project in Chautauqua County, N.Y.; Deepwater Wind's 26.4-MW solar project in Simsbury, Conn.; Ranger Solar's 220 MW of projects in Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire; and RES Americas' two 20-MW solar projects in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/10/27/stories/1060044883
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N.D. Pipeline Lawlessness Demands DOJ Action to Protect Citizens and Property
Oct 27, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Timothy H. Lee
What arguably began as a peaceful protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP) has devolved into an alarming situation consisting of “hundreds of individuals,” many of whom are “brandishing weapons,” have already caused “millions of dollars” in property damage and are clearly “hostile, and engaged in training exercises which can only be intended to promote [more] violence.”
Those alarming accounts come directly from Mercer County Sheriff Dean Danzeisen in his written plea for help from the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Worse, they're just the latest of his “numerous” – and to date, unanswered – requests for “federal assistance in protecting people and property against the violent actions” of the DAP rioters.
Clearly, Sheriff Danzeisen's descriptions and pleas create alarm and demand order, and the Obama Justice Department's refusal to intervene is frankly... inexcusable.
Federal officials' tolerance for the rioters’ use of federal (taxpayer) property as a staging ground for their increasingly violent actions, including assaults on private security guards and Dakota Access employees, is equally baffling. So far, federal officials’ only public response has been an anemic declaration informing the public that “our hands are really tied” lest it “give the appearance of not protecting free speech.”
At a minimum, that constitutes an abdication of responsible legal authority. At worst, it suggests a federal endorsement of illegal and violent activities.
These destructive and dispiriting events remained unimaginable as recently as this past summer. At that time, the $3.8 billion DAP was proceeding apace along its 1,172-mile route from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to major refining markets throughout the country.
Already 63% of the way completed, the DAP supports roughly 10,000 jobs. It also offers the economies of four states – North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois and Iowa, all of which host portions of the pipeline – with several billion dollars in economic activity.
The DAP promised a welcome boon to the still-fragile U.S. economy and struggling energy sector, particularly to the individual states involved. It was also rightfully heralded as a major step forward in the necessary quest for American energy security and self-sufficiency.
Moreover, the DAP approval process demonstrated a model of regulatory compliance, having successfully navigated not only the federal government’s extensive rules, but also those of the applicable state commissions of the four states involved, each of which issued favorable certificates, permits and approvals. On July 28, with the release of the USACE’s final report asserting total compliance with the relevant federal statutes, Dakota Access Pipeline achieved complete federal approval.
Thus, the situation is clear.
The Dakota Access Pipeline has satisfied every one of its obligations to the federal government. Therefore, it's time for the Federal Government to satisfy its own obligations, especially its role in safeguarding American citizens and their property?
It's incumbent upon the Department of Justice to uphold the multiple rulings issued by other federal entities including the USACE’s approval, and put an end to the violence and property destruction by the rioters. Federal authorities must reinstate peace and order to the area and allow the DAP to complete its final construction safely.
Timothy H. Lee, Esq., Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs, Center For Individual Freedom
http://www.thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/302889-north-dakota-pipeline-lawlessness-demands-doj-action
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Iowa, N.D., S.D. Governors Press Obama Administration to End Dakota Access Standoff
Oct 27, 2016 | Politico Pro - Whiteboard
By Elana Schor
The governors of North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa this week called on the Army Corps of Engineers to issue the easement necessary for the Dakota Access pipeline to cross the Missouri River, ending a months-long standoff with tribal and environmental groups.
The three GOP governors' letter to Army Corps district commanders, while not surprising given their previous support for the pipeline, represents a formal entreaty that could prove difficult for the Obama administration to ignore.
"We understand that there is an effort underway to evaluate and potentially amend the process by which the federal government relates to tribal nations with the siting and permitting of potential infrastructure projects," wrote Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard in their Tuesday letter, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO today. "Until formal changes are made to your regulatory process, it is critical to adhere to the current and established regulatory requirements in place today."
https://www.politicopro.com/energy#ixzz4OJDqaycZ
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NJ Transit Advances PTC Plan with Radio Spectrum Lease, Adopts Budget
Oct 27, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
New Jersey Transit's board yesterday approved an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to lease radio spectrum for positive train control (PTC).
NJ Transit will lease the 218MHz radio frequency spectrum from the MTA for a period of 50 years for up to $725,000. The authorization will allow for the acquisition of the needed spectrum for the northern and eastern portions of NJ Transit's system, agency officials said in a press release.
"This is another milestone in our commitment to upgrading our current safety systems to positive train control by the federal deadline at the end of 2018," said NJ Transit Executive Director Steve Santoro. "We are aggressively tackling the challenges posed as PTC is being designed, developed and deployed simultaneously. Acquiring the needed radio spectrum was one of the larger hurdles which we have now crossed."
The agency is under pressure to advance PTC as quickly as possible, especially following news that the safety technology was not in place when a commuter train crashed into the Hoboken Terminal last month, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others. The train was traveling at twice the posted speed in the terminal when the crash occurred, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Currently, the agency is securing the hardware and software components of the PTC system, including thousands of transponders and 124 radio towers along 326 route miles, along with radios and antenna equipment for 440 locomotives, electric multiple units and cab cars.
In April, NJ Transit's board authorized the purchase of radio spectrum from PTC-220 LLC for the southern, central and western portions of its system.
Meanwhile, the agency's board yesterday adopted a $2.11 billion operating budget and $1.68 billion capital program for fiscal-year 2017.
Nearly half of operating budget's revenue will come from fares, agency officials said. The remaining amount comes from a combination of state and federal reimbursements and state resources.
The capital program will provide funds for continued state-of-good-repair investments in transit stations and infrastructure, as well as ongoing fleet modernization.http://www.progressiverailroading.com/ptc/news/NJ-Transit-advances-PTC-plan-with-radio-spectrum-lease-adopts-budget--49918
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Administration Should Finalize Proposed Changes to Strengthen the Regional Haze Rule
Oct 27, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Darryl Haley
Recently, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy visited Shenandoah National Park – an awe-inspiring treasure in my Luray, Va., backyard. They climbed Hawksbill Summit both to celebrate progress towards cleaner air in our national parks and park communities, and to highlight the remaining challenges and opportunities to achieve truly clean air for our parks, their visitors, and their neighbors.
Why do I care?
My clients visit my family business, Darryl Haley’s Bed & Breakfast, to enjoy beautiful views at Shenandoah National Park. They expect the air to be cleaner and fresher than the air they breathe in their urban communities.
Most of my clients have an active, outdoors-oriented lifestyle. They want to bike and hike and otherwise enjoy the outdoors. When the air is not clean, they can feel and see the difference.
I also work as a physical trainer, and promote human health and fitness. When the air quality is poor, I’m concerned. Poor air quality can affect people working out – and anyone working or exercising outside.
Even people in great shape can notice it’s more difficult for them to breathe on days when air pollution levels are high. Today people have greater awareness of the need to exercise and improve their fitness, for weight control and for overall health. Poor air quality can undermine a person’s efforts to increase fitness by exercising outdoors.
I first visited Shenandoah National Park on a bike ride in 2012. Since then, I’ve hosted young people from Washington, D.C., on camping trips to introduce them to the beauty and majesty of the national parks, and to understand that as Americans, they have access to these awesome places.
Parks like Shenandoah provide a stark contrast with the urban concrete jungles where these young people live. I have organized trips to Shenandoah to expose urban young people to clean air and green space, so they can experience the delights of the great outdoors.
For almost all of the young people on these trips, it is their first camping trip, and for most it is their first time ever outside of the city. It is important that the quality of the park continue to improve, so that visitors like these young people will want to return, and will want to bring their own families in the future.
My family moved to Luray to pursue a health and fitness lifestyle, to enjoy the outdoors, and for the clean, beautiful air – and it’s what we promote to our friends and to the public. The pollution that harms the park also degrades the air quality in the communities like Luray where we live.
I became aware of poor air quality when I noticed that sometimes exercise takes more time for me and for others. On a clear day on top of Old Rag – one of the most popular climbing destinations in Shenandoah National Park – I could see almost to the curve of the earth. But on a day with hazy pollution, I couldn’t see very far. I wondered: what happened?
I became curious about where the pollution originates. I’ve read about the pollution from power plants in the region, and understand that pollution from power plants as far away as Pennsylvania and Ohio can darken our Shenandoah skies.
A key federal clean air program called the “regional haze rule” aims to restore naturally clean air to our national parks, but flaws in this rule undermine our ability to reach that goal. Fortunately, the Obama administration has proposed critical revisions to this policy and now seeks to hold all states accountable for reducing pollution that degrades air in our national parks, regardless of whether the park lies within that state’s borders. The changes would also require states to back up their plans to reduce park pollution – as a teacher might advise a student, states must “show their work.”
Despite these positive steps, the Obama administration’s proposal also could allow states almost another decade to avoid cleaning up, and weaken EPA’s and the public’s ability to hold states and polluters accountable for their pollution.
I urge the Obama administration to act swiftly in the coming weeks to finalize the proposed changes that strengthen the regional haze rule, and reject efforts to weaken protections for clean air for parks and people.
Our national parks are among our country’s greatest achievements. As I trace the footsteps of Secretary Jewell and Administrator McCarthy to Shenandoah’s Hawksbill Summit and look towards the parks’ second century, I hope President Obama will consider our children and the generations to come.
Will future Americans breathe deeply of fresh mountain air? See views stretching more than 100 miles? President Obama, and his two mountain-climbing staff, can put parks on the right path to cleaner air – for our families’ health, and for our national parks.
Darryl Haley, of Luray, Va., hosts “Fitness Friday” on WHUR 96.3 FM and Sirius radio. He was the first person weighing over 300 pounds to complete an Ironman Competition, and played six seasons in the NFL.
http://www.thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/302923-administration-should-finalize-proposed-changes-to
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GOP Report Blasts EPA for Fast-Tracking Final Version
Oct 27, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Tiffany Stecker
U.S. EPA pushed hard to finalize the Obama administration's hot-button Clean Water Rule despite objections from other agencies, according to a report from Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The committee's majority office released a 181-page report today detailing findings culled from thousands of pages of agency documents, emails and transcribed interviews gathered during the two-year investigation.
"The Administration's insistence on adhering to a specific timeline resulted in cut corners and bypassed regulatory protocols," the report's authors wrote. "This rulemaking demonstrates how an ideological policy agenda can override regulatory safeguards put in place by Congress."
The committee found that several officials had complained about the timing of the rule's release, the short deadlines for submitting comments and the lack of a complete economic analysis up until the last weeks before the rule was finalized.
The rule, also called the Waters of the U.S. rule, or WOTUS, sought to clarify which wetlands, streams and waterways receive automatic federal protection by providing a concrete definition of "waters of the United States" in the Clean Water Act. Congressional Republicans have long opposed the regulation, saying the definition would infringe on private and state rights.
"WOTUS was a doomed rule out of the gate," Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in a statement this morning. "The Obama administration prioritized politics over policy by rushing through a legally and scientifically deficient rule."
The rule states that waters within 4,000 feet of the ordinary high-water mark of a navigable water would be covered under the rule.
But "nobody has a 4,000 foot long tape measure," Jennifer Moyer, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers' regulatory program, said in a transcribed interview with the committee. The Army Corps developed the rule with EPA.
The report is also critical of the rule's interagency review process, as emails show some agencies were rushed to complete their assessment of the rule.
"You're killing us," wrote Kenneth Kumor in NASA's Environmental Management Division to Vlad Dorjets of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on May 5, 2015, two days before a deadline to submit comments for the regulatory impact analysis. "I think it's fair to say that the powers that be are more interested in schedule (apparently compressed) than a reasoned response that objectively lays out likely ramifications."
Dorjets also mentioned "the pressure to get this rule out the door" when soliciting comments from the Department of Transportation.
The process irked the Agriculture Department's chief economist, Robert Johansson, who told Dorjets the review was "not well managed."
"You will find that it becomes difficult to convince folks to participate in the interagency process if you feel that their time is just being wasted," Johansson said.
Even the Army Corps, the agency responsible for determining jurisdictional waters under the Clean Water Act, was shut out of the process as the rule approached finalization, according to the report.
"We provided some of that data to them, and then those conversations stopped occurring at a productive level," Moyer said in her transcribed interview.
Memos made public more than a year ago show that top Army Corps officials clashed with EPA and the corps' political appointee, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy, on the rule. The Army Corps' career staff disagreed with changes to the rule, going as far as asking that the corps not be identified as a co-author of the final regulation (Greenwire, July 27, 2015).
Chip Smith, assistant for environment, tribal and regulatory affairs in Darcy's office, said he recommended that the final version of the rule undergo analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act but that Darcy took the advice of her deputy general counsel, Craig Schmauder, to adopt a "finding of no significant impact," which would exempt the regulation from an environmental impact statement.
"The schedule was driven by politics; the policy decisions, some of them, in my opinion, were driven by politics; and in particular, several of the last-minute changes in the last few months, in my view, were not science- or economic-based, but driven solely by politics," Smith told the committee.
In a statement, Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) lambasted House Republicans for criticizing EPA's slow response to the lead contamination in Flint, Mich.'s drinking water, all the while saying the agency did too much to complete the Clean Water Rule.
"Despite Monday-morning quarterbacking and claims of process fouls by House Republicans, the fact is that this new rule will help protect drinking water for millions of our constituents, and our Committee should support these efforts rather than try to undermine them," Cummings said.
The lawmaker added that Republicans "disregarded" the benefits of the rule and the July 2015 Government Accountability Office finding that EPA and the Army Corps complied with statutory and regulatory requirements. GAO issued another report in December of that year finding that the agency had violated lobbying rules in promoting the Waters of the U.S. regulation.
Cummings also countered the claim that the rule was rushed through for political reasons.
"Witnesses interviewed by the Committee explained that the rulemaking process took several years, which was typical for similar rulemakings, and they considered a wide variety of views and comments from stakeholders," Cummings said in his statement.
EPA deferred to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's majority and minority offices for comment.
The committee sought to hold White House OIRA Administrator Howard Shelanski in contempt this summer for withholding documents but canceled a vote on the issue after the White House handed over more than 13,000 pages in June.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/10/27/stories/1060044921
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Sustainability Advocates Eye 'Natural Infrastructure' Climate Bond Standard
Oct 27, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Amanda Palleschi
A coalition of water advocates and investors advocating for sustainability practices is beginning to develop a set of standards for financing “natural infrastructure” projects that protect source waters from the effects of climate change, after the group earlier this month released a similar standard for protecting built infrastructure projects.
The consortium -- which includes the Climate Bonds Initiative, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, Ceres, CDP and World Resources Institute (WRI) -- is in early talks to create a set of market standards for investors looking to fund source water protection efforts through “natural infrastructure approaches,” such as reforestation, WRI Global Water Program Director Betsy Otto said during an Oct. 25 Environmental Law Institute event in Washington, D.C.
Otto, who stressed she was speaking only on behalf of WRI and not the consortium as a whole, said representatives could again convene to discuss criteria for bonds to fund nature-based green infrastructure for water projects and natural asset restoration and remediation.
In an interview, she said that Denver water utilities are already engaged in the kinds of projects the group would consider. “They've been doing a lot of investment in upstream watershed protection,” Otto said. “They've been having catastrophic wildfires, huge problems with sedimentation and the like, so if they're interested in doing reforestation projects in the headwaters -- and they are actually doing those -- they could issue bonds to get the financing to do those projects, but what standards would be used to ensure that those are really good source watershed protection projects?”
Last year the Climate Bonds Initiative issued the Climate Bonds Standard and Certification Scheme, which sets out clear criteria to verify certain environmental credentials of a bond. The organization says in the document that “Activating the mainstream debt capital markets to finance and refinance climate-aligned projects and assets is critical to achieving international climate goals, and robust labeling of green bonds is a key requirement for that mainstream participation.”
Climate bonds, which seek to finance projects that are resilient to the effects of climate change, are a subset of green bonds, which refer generally to debt financing for projects that deliver environmental benefits.
The proceeds from climate bonds “must be invested in assets compatible with a low carbon future in which water infrastructure or management projects are adaptable and resilient to current and future climate change,” the standard says.
In addition to the overarching Climate Bonds Standard, the Initiative is working with other stakeholders to develop sector-specific standards. Their most recent effort is the Oct. 14 release of the phase 1 water criteria. An FAQ accompanying the water criteria explains that water climate bonds can be used for energy or industrial water efficiency projects reuse, catchment or watershed restoration and/or large-scale water supply infrastructure development.
Water Bonds
The phase 1 criteria are focused on built or gray water infrastructure projects. The FAQ notes that water infrastructure “that is able to cope with and proactively prepare for more extreme and unpredictable weather patterns is a necessary investment for a sustainable future.”
Additionally, water infrastructure can offer climate mitigation potential since water distribution systems can use large amounts of energy and sewage plants and wastewater generate methane emissions, the FAQ says. “As we aim to move to a low-carbon development trajectory, it is important that all opportunities are taken to minimize emissions across all sectors, including water.”
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is the first entity to issue climate-certified water bonds. Proceeds from the $240 million Wastewater Revenue Bonds will fund eligible projects in sustainable stormwater management and wastewater projects included in the commission's phase 1 Sewer System Improvement Program, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative.
The Climate Bonds Initiative says on its website that during the latter stages of developing the phase 1 criteria, it became apparent that it would be beneficial to investors and bond issuers to develop a complementary criteria addressing nature-based green infrastructure.
Interest in green bonds has increased in recent years, drawing concerns from both investors and environmentalists that some bonds are being labeled as “green” even when the environmental benefits of projects funded by the bonds are limited, a practice that critics call “green washing.”
The Investor Network on Climate Risk, which includes Ceres, issued a “Statement of Investor Expectations” in March 2015 aimed at addressing those concerns. And EPA's Environmental Financial Advisory Board in 2014 encouraged the agency to play a role in setting market standards for the definition and the use of green bonds.
Increased Investment
Otto acknowledged the issue of “green washing” in her Oct. 25 remarks, but noted the success and growth of the issuance of green bonds. “To utilities or companies issuing them evidence is they sell out quickly and bring new buyers to the market who have not been that interested in municipal bonds. It's growing by magnitudes,” she said.
She called the bond issued Sept. 29 by the Washington, D.C., Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) a successful example of the growth of the practice. DC Water's $25 million, tax-exempt “Environmental Impact Bond” was issued to Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group and the Calvert Foundation for the construction of green infrastructure practices to absorb stormwater surges and reduce the city's combined sewer overflows as part of the city's compliance with an EPA Clean Water Act consent decree: “It truly is a green bond,” she said.
Other panelists at the Oct. 25 event also noted ways in which they were taking environment and social impacts into account in their work. For example, Vail Thorne, senior manager of environmental, health & safety counsel at Coca-Cola, said the soda company is beginning to look at a movement known as “integrated reporting,” which requires companies to incorporate nonfinancial information to its stakeholders to provide them with information on the company's sustainability practices.
“It's on the table, it's being discussed,” Thorne said, although he added that the company is till “quite a ways” from implementation.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/sustainability-advocates-eye-natural-infrastructure-climate-bond-standard
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