Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 11/15/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) API's Durbin to Take Over Duties of Departing Lobbyist Finkel
Nov 14, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anna Palmer and Andrew Restuccia
Long-time oil and natural gas industry executive Marty Durbin will replace Louis Finkel as a top lobbyist at the powerful American Petroleum Institute, POLITICO has learned. -
(ACC Mentioned) How Not to Drain the Swamp
Nov 14, 2016 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Gary Ruskin
The guys in the C-suites sure must be laughing today. They pulled a fast one on the American public. -
Proposed Chemical Risk Evaluation Rule Under Review at OMB
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule describing how it would evaluate the health and environmental risks of chemicals, is under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. -
European Agencies Plan Chemical Enforcement Project
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Agencies in European Union countries responsible for enforcing rules on chemicals have agreed to start a coordinated project to check compliance with classification and labeling regulations, the European Chemicals Agency said Nov. 11. -
Commission Seeks to Tighten Checks on Authorisation Applications
Nov 15, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Geraint Roberts
The European Commission has urged Echa not to allow an authorisation application to pass their 'conformity check' until the agency's committees have adopted their draft opinion on the dossier. -
EU Agency Wants to Curb Chemicals in Batteries, Bleaches
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Nine hazardous substances that are toxic to the reproductive system should be added to the list of 31 that are subject to phaseout orders under the European Union's REACH law, the European Chemicals Agency said. -
The Massive Problem of Microplastics
Nov 15, 2016 | Royal Society of Chemistry
By Camilla Alexander-White
In today’s world, plastic is an essential raw material. Since their invention in the 1930’s, plastics have become ubiquitous in the manufacture of everyday products. -
Bishop Ready to Keep Talking on Reform Package
Nov 15, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) signaled last night that he's willing to keep negotiating with his Senate counterparts on the energy reform package, saying the two sides may be willing to bridge the divide on some outstanding issues... -
US Shale Oil Production Declines Continue to Slow
Nov 15, 2016 | Platts
By Benjamin Morse
US shale oil production declines over the past year and a half are forecast to slow to 20,000 b/d in December, down from a 30,000 b/ddrop in November, US Energy Information Administration data showed Monday. -
Trump Set to Roll Back Obama Policies on Energy, Environment
Nov 15, 2016 | AP (In The New York Times)
By Matthew Daly and Julie Pace
President-elect Donald Trump is considering an oilbillionaire and a North Dakota lawmaker for top posts as he moves to roll back President Barack Obama's environmental and energy policies and allow unfettered production of oil, coal and natural gas. -
Trump Pledge to Review GHG Risk Finding Carries Significant Legal Risks
Nov 14, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Doug Obey
President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to review -- and possibly scrap -- the endangerment finding underpinning EPA's greenhouse gas (GHG) regulatory programs appears fraught with legal risks, multiple sources say... -
Obama Administration Extends Dakota Access Oil Line Review
Nov 14, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Meenal Vamburkar
The Obama administration plans to carry out more discussions and analysis before deciding on a permit for the controversial Dakota Access crude pipeline, further delaying work on a segment of the project that's been stalled since September. -
Steyer Calls on Obama to Permanently Ban Offshore Drilling in Arctic, Atlantic
Nov 14, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Esther Whieldon
Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer is calling on President Barack Obama to invoke largely untested authority to permanently block offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic before Donald Trump takes office. -
CEE Countries Press for Freer U.S. LNG Exports
Nov 14, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Benjamin Oreskes
A coalition of Central and East European ambassadors is calling on Congress to “accelerate the process of issuing LNG export licenses to European countries” in an effort to increase exports of liquefied natural gas from the United States. -
Exxon Mobil Expanding Beaumont Petrochemical Plant
Nov 14, 2016 | Houston Chronicle
By David Hunn
Exxon Mobil is expanding its Beaumont polyethylene chemical plant, adding a new unit and increasing the facility's capacity by 65 percent, the company said Monday. -
Safety Board Cybersecurity Needs More Work, Report Says
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has more work to do to fully manage cybersecurity risks, a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General said Nov. 14. -
U.S. Transport Safety Board Calls for Tougher Rail Oversight
Nov 14, 2016 | Reuters
By David Shepardson
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on Monday urged federal regulators to improve oversight of rail transit systems following a series of accidents and urged logistical improvements to prevent train passenger deaths and injuries in crashes. -
Obama: Trump Should Not End Paris Climate Agreement
Nov 14, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
President Obama on Monday defended the landmark Paris climate deal that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to tear up once he takes office next year. -
U.S. Officials Say World Climate-Change Efforts to Continue Despite Trump’s Views
Nov 14, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Amy Harder
Senior U.S. officials at a major climate change conference Monday, echoed by President Barack Obama, contended the world will seek to keep cutting carbon emissions, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to turn back the U.S.’s own efforts. -
Post-Election: The EPA and Ozone
Nov 14, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Howard J. Feldman, Sr.
While attention has been focused on the presidential election, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is quietly proceeding with implementation of new ozone regulations that could make job creation more difficult in America, potentially exerting... -
High-Level Segment of Marrakech Climate Talks Begin
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Eric J. Lyman
The high-level segment of the UN's Marrakech climate change conference gets under way Nov. 15 with a series of administrative maneuvers delegates and observers say will set the stage for global negotiations over the next two years.
Industry and Association News
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(ACC Mentioned) API's Durbin to Take Over Duties of Departing Lobbyist Finkel
Nov 14, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anna Palmer and Andrew Restuccia
Long-time oil and natural gas industry executive Marty Durbin will replace Louis Finkel as a top lobbyist at the powerful American Petroleum Institute, POLITICO has learned.
Finkel is leaving API, the oil and gas industry’s leading trade group. And Durbin will step in as the group’s executive vice president for government affairs. Durbin re-joined API earlier this year after the group’s late 2015 merger with America's Natural Gas Alliance, the group Durbin headed for more than two years.
Durbin decamped for ANGA in 2013 from API, where he previously served as a senior executive. He previously worked for the American Chemistry Council.
The news comes less than a week after Donald Trump won the election. Industry officials expect that Trump’s administration will be friendlier to the fossil fuel industry.
"I have had an incredible two and a half year run there," Finkel said in an interview. "I thoroughly enjoyed being there, it's a great place. It was time for me to look at other opportunities and decide what comes next."
Finkel and API head Jack Gerard made the decision for him to leave when they discussed larger restructuring at API after its merger with ANGA late last year. Finkel is transitioning out of the trade association between now and the end of the year.
Gerard announced Finkel's departure to the board and executive committee at Monday's meeting.
Finkel joined API after serving as the executive vice president of government affairs at the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
Durbin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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(ACC Mentioned) How Not to Drain the Swamp
Nov 14, 2016 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Gary Ruskin
The guys in the C-suites sure must be laughing today. They pulled a fast one on the American public.
As the seating chart fills out for the incoming Trump administration, it becomes clear that Team Trump seeks to “drain the swamp” in Washington by putting the swamp’s corporate lobbyists in charge.
It’s party time for the corporate elite that really runs our nation.
The signs are legion.
Jeffrey Eisenach, who has worked as a consultant for Verizon and its trade association, is running the FCC transition, and will likely use his post to eviscerate Internet freedoms and bury Net Neutrality.
As our nation’s obesity epidemic continues on, what could be worse than installing a lobbyist for the American Beverage Association, Michael Torrey, to head up Trump’s U.S. Department of Agriculture transition team. Nevermind the 25,000 Americans who die each year due to overconsumption of sugary drinks.
Prominent climate change skeptic Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the corporate front group Competitive Enterprise Institute, is leading Trump’s EPA transition team, a slap in the face to all Americans who recoil at climate change, dirty air and poisoned water.
Two of the biggest winners will be billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, and their firm Koch Industries. At least two of their lobbyists have prominent places in the Trump transition.
Mike Catanzaro, who lobbies for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Chemistry Council and Koch Industries, is the honcho for Trump’s “energy independence” agenda.
Mike McKenna, who is in charge of the transition at the Department of Energy, lobbies for Dow Chemical and Koch Industries.
Doubtless Team Trump’s lobbyists are working on how to gut the key regulators, for example, carrying out Trump’s promise to undermine the “FDA Food Police,” which is supposed to keep our nation’s food system safe for all Americans. Try telling that to the one in six Americans who contract food poisoning each year.
According to some news outlets, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, is joining Trump’s transition team. Thiel is co-founder of Palantir Technologies, which played a key role in a corporate espionage scandal involving U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to spy on unions and citizen groups.
Trump’s promise to “end our government corruption” by putting corporate lobbyists in charge is laughable. As is the idea of empowering Newt Gingrich, who left Congress with a record of contempt for law and House Rules on ethics and corruption, after being forced to pay a $300,000 fine for his congressional wrongdoing.To be sure, Hillary Clinton has been no great friend of the consumers, public health or government watchdogs. Clinton has a well-honed reticence to taking on the corporations and trade associations who paid her mammoth speaking fee and filled her foundation coffers. Her victory would not have brought citizen movements to power, just as her husband’s did not. One open question: How will Trump voters respond to — instead of draining the swamp — putting the swamp in charge of the swamp?
Trump voters ought to be mad — they just got sold out.
Gary Ruskin is co-director of U.S. Right to Know, a food industry watchdog group. For 14 years, he directed the Congressional Accountability Project, which opposed corruption in Congress.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/305903-how-not-to-drain-the-swamp
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Proposed Chemical Risk Evaluation Rule Under Review at OMB
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule describing how it would evaluate the health and environmental risks of chemicals, is under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The proposed rule (RIN: 2070-AK20) is the second of four regulations the agency must issue to implement the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Pub. L. No. 114-182), which amended the Toxic Substances Control Act on June 22.
The EPA has said it plans to propose all four rules by the end of the year to give the Trump Administration time to read comments and issue final regulations.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=100509621&vname=dennotallissues&fn=100509621&jd=100509621
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European Agencies Plan Chemical Enforcement Project
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Agencies in European Union countries responsible for enforcing rules on chemicals have agreed to start a coordinated project to check compliance with classification and labeling regulations, the European Chemicals Agency said Nov. 11.
The enforcement project will check that chemical suppliers correctly classify chemical mixtures in safety data sheets, which they are required to provide to customers, ECHA said. Safety data sheets describe the properties of mixtures and how they can be safely handled.
In addition, enforcement authorities would check the compliance of companies with the requirement to notify their classifications of chemicals to ECHA under the EU's Classification, Labeling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures Regulation ((EC) No 1272/2008), ECHA said.
Enforcement authorities might also check compliance with obligations to adopt harmonized EU-wide classifications for hazardous substances, and that chemicals are correctly labeled and packaged, ECHA added.
The project would be planned in 2017 and start in 2018, ECHA said.
The ECHA Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement, which brings together enforcement authorities, agreed to the project at a Nov. 8-10 meeting.
The forum includes the authorities responsible for chemicals from the EU's 28 member countries and non-EU countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=100509645&vname=dennotallissues&fn=100509645&jd=100509645
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Commission Seeks to Tighten Checks on Authorisation Applications
Nov 15, 2016 | Chemical Watch
By Geraint Roberts
The European Commission has urged Echa not to allow an authorisation application to pass their 'conformity check' until the agency's committees have adopted their draft opinion on the dossier.
But Echa says this may create new problems and that its "main aim is to ensure that the process runs smoothly".
Details of the discussions have come to light after Chemical Watchobtained correspondence between the Commission and Echa from earlier this year, under an access to documents request.
The discussions came after strong criticism from NGOs of the authorisation application process.
Late last year, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) urged Echa to reject, at the conformity check stage, applications not complying with REACH information requirements. These include applications for broad uses, and those missing fundamental information on exposure scenarios, alternatives and/or socio-economic assessments.
It also said a review of the conformity check procedure was "critically needed", because the agency only checks if an application includes all the necessary documents and is complete, rather than checking the quality of the information.
At the time, Echa said it did not see the need for a review of the procedure as it "considered it only a completeness check”.
Writing to Echa head Geert Dancet last July, DG Environment and DG GROW officials said some applications may pass conformity checks by the agency's risk assessment (Rac) and socio-economic analysis (Seac) committees, even though "important, obligatory information is incomplete or provided in a difficult to process form, or is completely missing."
Although these 'deficiencies' can be picked up later in the process, it said, "this practice may have a negative impact on the final opinion where important elements which should form [the] basis for the opinion are not present in the application, which nevertheless has been considered to be in conformity."
To prevent such a "negative impact", the Commission asked Echa's committees to delay giving their final view on a dossier's conformity until they have finalised their draft opinion. Doing so would mean "applicants could be asked by the committees during their opinion-making to provide missing information to complement their applications if an initial check reveals serious information and data gaps."
And to ensure transparency, all such communications between the applicant and the committees should either be reflected in the final opinions, or made part of the whole final opinion package that becomes public.
In his response, sent in October, Mr Dancet welcomed the Commission's suggestions and said Echa plans to publish a practical guide for applicants by the end of the year.
In an accompanying document, Echa told the Commission that on the specific issue of the conformity check, it might be possible to delay such decisions until the end of the decision-making process, but "this may create new problems".
The document does not go into detail on what these problems might be. A major problem, as Echa points out in its 2010 guidance on conformity checks, is that the text of the REACH Regulation does not clearly define what the minimum requirements for passing a conformity check should be.
Asked by Chemical Watch to elaborate, the agency said its main aim "is to ensure that the process runs smoothly". Applications need to provide enough information to enable the committees to give their independent scientific opinions for each application. However, this often "requires more information than what would be the bare minimum required for conformity".
The agency also said it "wishes to avoid situations where applicants do not know if their applications are in conformity or not, as this would create business uncertainty."
Echa received a second letter from the Commission on the subject. However, the agency and the Commission refused to release it as it relates to authorisation applications still awaiting a decision from the Commission, and its disclosure would "seriously undermine the institution's decision-making process". Chemical Watch has asked the Commission to review its position.
https://chemicalwatch.com/51017/commission-seeks-to-tighten-checks-on-authorisation-applications
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EU Agency Wants to Curb Chemicals in Batteries, Bleaches
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Nine hazardous substances that are toxic to the reproductive system should be added to the list of 31 that are subject to phaseout orders under the European Union's REACH law, the European Chemicals Agency said.
The nine additional substances should be prohibited from use in the EU from between 36 and 45 months after their inclusion in Annex XIV of REACH, which lists banned chemicals, the chemicals agency said in its Nov. 10 recommendation to the European Commission.
Even if the phaseouts were required, companies would be able to apply for authorizations to continue using the substances after paying a fee and demonstrating that safer alternatives are not available and the risks of the substances will be controlled.
The substances ECHA recommended for phaseout include:
• 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, dihexyl ester, branched and linear,
• dihexyl phthalate,
• lead monoxide (lead oxide),
• orange lead (lead tetroxide),
• pentalead tetraoxide sulphate,
• tetralead trioxide sulphate,
• sodium perborate,
• sodium peroxometaborate, and
• trixylyl phosphate.
Pentalead tetraoxide sulphate and tetralead trioxide sulphate are used in the production of batteries, sodium perborate and sodium peroxometaborate are used in bleaches, and trixylyl phosphate is used in lubricants.
Commission to Decide
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is responsible for finalizing the listing of any substances in Annex XIV of REACH (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals).
The commission published in September a draft regulation that would add 12 substances to the 31 listed in Annex XIV. A period for submitting comments on the draft regulation ended Oct. 14, with 44 comments received.
ECHA told Bloomberg BNA Nov. 10 that, in addition to the nine newly proposed substances and the 12 substances covered by the draft regulation, there were “14 substances on which the Commission still needs to decide whether or not and when to include them in Annex XIV.”
The chemicals agency's proposal to recommend the nine substances for phaseout was subject to a public consultation that ended in February.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=100509640&vname=dennotallissues&fn=100509640&jd=100509640
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The Massive Problem of Microplastics
Nov 15, 2016 | Royal Society of Chemistry
By Camilla Alexander-White
In today’s world, plastic is an essential raw material. Since their invention in the 1930’s, plastics have become ubiquitous in the manufacture of everyday products. In 2012 the plastics industry accounted for more than 1.4 million jobs in over 62,000 companies across the European Union.1 As useful and versatile as plastics are, however, their unchecked disposal on an unprecedented scale is resulting in significant global impacts on wildlife from marine environment pollution. Microplastics are particularly problematic, and as the life cycle comes full circle, it is feared that they could bring adverse impacts for humans too.Waste by design
The scale of the issue is massive. One study has estimated that of the 275 million tonnes of plastic waste generated by 192 countries in 2010, 4.8–12.7 million tonnes could have entered the ocean.2 That’s a serious amount in just one year. The plastic is of various shapes and sizes and ends up on beaches and in the oceans from many sources: large items such as discarded fishing equipment or items from shipping containers are lost into the sea directly, whereas other discarded items can get washed into the seas from rivers. Similarly, inadequately managed land-based plastic waste from countries with lots of coastline can easily end up in the ocean.
Though it probably wasn’t the original intention to cause pollution, this huge scale of waste isn’t by accident, but rather by design. The largest global market sector for plastic materials is for packaging designed for immediate disposal.1 Luckily, some plastic waste is recyclable, and there are a number of processes in the UK for sorting and recycling household waste, with different polymers recognised in sophisticated mixed recycling schemes using rapid-scanning near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy.3 However, many of the world’s coastal countries currently do not have such recycling policies nor the technical capabilities, and so large quantities of plastic are not recycled and enter landfill. The durable properties of plastics make them persistent and slow to degrade in the environment, and ultimately non-recycled plastics on land and in the rivers are left to work their way into the oceans.
It’s at this point the story of plastic ocean pollution seems to become synonymous with microplastics. Typically less than 5 mm in size, microplastics can be eroded to particles as small as 1–100 nm – nanoplastics. Using modelling tools it has been estimated a total of 15–51 trillion microplastic particles have accumulated in the ocean.4 Some start out as large plastic pieces, slowly eroded by water; others start off as microplastics specifically produced for certain uses, eg microbeads in cosmetic products such as facewash, soaps and shower creams. Microbeads are stable and versatile particulates but after they have been washed down the drain, they have been found to evade filtration systems at water treatment works and are discharged directly into the oceans.Facewash not the major culprit
Cosmetic microbeads in particular have received much media attention. 680 tonnes of plastic microbeads are used in cosmetic products in the UK every year,5 and though this sounds a large amount it is only a small fraction (0.01–4.1%) of the estimated total level of microplastics in the ocean. However, the cosmetic industry has recognised this contribution to marine pollution can be avoided. Chris Flower, director-general of the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association, recently said that ‘although science has shown the use of microbeads in cosmetics is but a minor contributor to the global problem of marine microplastic contamination, nevertheless our industry has acted responsibly to phase out the use of microbeads in wash-off products where the microbeads go down the drain and may end up in the seas. A survey of members has shown most companies have completed their phase-out and total usage has already fallen by over 70%. The remainder will do so before the end of 2018, two years ahead of the deadline set by Cosmetics Europe in its recommendation and well ahead of the time any possible legislative ban could take effect.’
Another emerging source of marine microplastics from household wastewater is microfibres leaching from clothing when washed. Microfibres are 1/100th the diameter of a human hair and are used for better waterproofing, breathability and flexibility in sportswear. The most common types of microfibers are made from polyesters and polyamides, and according to researchers giving evidence to the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee in 2016, the number of leached microfibres in wastewater could be as many as 1900 fibres per garment.
Although it is relatively easy to develop policies and bans for microbeads and microfibers, these sources are just a drop in the ocean in terms of tonnage. Instead, poor land-based waste management practices are seen by the United Nations as the major source of marine microplastics pollution6 and given the nature of the oceans’ geography, the issue is a global and multifaceted problem.Not fit for consumption
Global problem is right: plastic waste can travel great lengths. As such, waste from one place can become an issue in a region geographically distant from the original source, due to the oceans’ powerful currents. Large items tend to float and are carried for many thousands of miles on the surface of the ocean as documented by the ADRIFT model7 – a visualisation tool developed by Erik van Sebille from Imperial College London and software engineer David Fuchs. Erik also devised an educational tool called Plastinography8 with colleagues Jennifer Halstead and Chloe Vandervord from the University of New South Wales, Australia, which explores questions interactively about plastics in the oceans. The model illustrates the presence of gyres, large swirling regions of oceanic water where plastics accumulate, the largest of which is the famous Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Microplastics, however, can also exist on beaches and in deeper waters of the oceans where animals feed, and it’s here the main large scale threats to wildlife exist.
Animals can become entangled in large pieces of plastic – which can cause physical distress and even death – but the main problem is marine wildlife mistaking micro- and nanoplastics for food. Once ingested, they can cause gut blockage, physical injury, changes to oxygen levels in cells in the body, altered feeding behaviour and reduced energy levels, which impacts growth and reproduction. The balance of whole ecosystems can be affected. The particles can also act as carriers by adsorbing and concentrating chemicals present in the environment that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, known as PBT compounds. This means, on top of harm caused by the microplastic particle itself, harmful chemicals can be carried and released inside the body. Additionally, the polymers that make up the microplastics contain chemical additives such as plasticisers, flame retardants and antimicrobial agents, which could leach out of the plastic and into the environment. At present, it isn’t possible to say which poses the biggest threat.
Even we can’t seem to completely avoid the microplastic problem. Particulates have also been detected in seafood sold for human consumption, such as mussels, oysters and sea salt. It has been estimated that the average European shellfish consumer could ingest up to 11,000 microplastic particles per year9 and in Chinese shellfish consumers it is predicted to be an order of magnitude higher.10 However, no studies to date exist that suggest human health could be affected adversely by the ingestion of microplastics in food, as they do not at present constitute a significant proportion of total intake and would be expected to pass straight through the gut. Nanoplastics (1–100 nm in size) on the other hand, which could result from the continual erosion of microplastics, in theory could pass across the gut, but improved analytical methods and much more data is needed to accurately assess the issue.Solve it with science
The Grantham Institute at Imperial College London in their July 2016 report conclude the best way to reduce marine pollution is to manage plastic waste better at source. To prevent pollution entering landfill, there is a need to change the way plastic is viewed by society: from ubiquitous, disposable waste to a valuable, recyclable raw material, much like metal and glass. It’s hoped this will increase the economic value of plastic waste in a circular economy. Another part of the solution is simpler and more cost-effective processes for plastic waste sorting and separation, implementable in poorer countries as well as the developed world.
Better process design is also needed to improve the issue, especially with regards to recyclability and biodegradability. New product design and processing techniques could increase the amount of recyclable plastics – for example, soft plastic films for consumer packaging and coffee cups, which are not currently widely recycled in the UK. One company in the UK, Frugalpac, states that ‘existing cups can only be recycled at two specialist facilities in the UK. Hence only 1 in 400 coffee cups get recycled.’
Similarly, the currently available ‘biodegradable’ plastics unfortunately still persist in the environment for many years, and are therefore not a whole solution to the problem of marine plastic persistence. The invention of new, bio-based polymers could lead to improved biodegradability, and this would be greatly helped by further research into the degradation of plastics in the environment. The new plastics must retain functionality but degrade to innocuous substances much quicker. Chemists additionally have a role to play in examining and quantifying the exposure of wildlife (and humans) to microplastics and any leaching compounds. This would help to determine the extent of the harmful ecological impacts on different organisms in the marine environment and the potential toxicological effects of microplastics on both wildlife and human health.
In general, what’s needed is to raise awareness among the public and the next generation of both the economic value of the plastic as a raw material and the potential harm caused to the marine environment by inappropriate disposal. Putting plastic into landfill deprives us of a valuable resource and chemists have a key role to play in increasing the value of existing plastic materials, through improved cost-effective separation and recycling technologies, as well as through invention of new, more readily degradable bio-based materials for the plastics of the future. Hopefully, with political and scientific backing, the microplastics problem can soon be a thing of the past.
http://www.rsc.org/eic/2016/11/microplastics-marine-pollution
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Bishop Ready to Keep Talking on Reform Package
Nov 15, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) signaled last night that he's willing to keep negotiating with his Senate counterparts on the energy reform package, saying the two sides may be willing to bridge the divide on some outstanding issues before the end of the year.
"I'm still positive we can get something out of it," Bishop said, noting that he was referring to the items before the conference committee that fall in his panel's jurisdiction. "It may have to be scaled down. On my half, there's still areas that can be negotiated."
House and Senate negotiators are working on reconciling S. 2012 with the less bipartisan H.R. 8, including thorny natural resource provisions.
Several conferees yesterday suggested that House Republicans may want to punt the effort into the next Congress, when a President Donald Trump would likely sign legislation more in line with GOP policy preferences.
"We certainly don't need to compromise anymore," conferee and former Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) told reporters. Trump's win "lessens the need" for the energy bill, he argued.
"I'm not saying we should kill it, but if it doesn't move, we'll be in a much stronger position in the next Congress to move an energy bill that we like because we'll have a Republican president," Barton said.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), a senior member on Energy and Commerce and also a conferee, acknowledged the dilemma.
"Now you're in this period of time where folks who wanted more are questioning whether you do this without getting a better bill in a Congress that's in essence controlled by Republicans and a president who will sign the bill," he said yesterday.'So damned close'
But Bishop said lawmakers could let the conference process play out and delay a decision on only some issues until the 115th Congress.
"You can do both," he said. "Obviously the stuff that you can get out of a conference this time, you can get what you can get this conference and then go forward, start over again. That's what you're going to do regardless. So if we can get some kind of a deal this time, fine, let's go for it."
Bishop said two contentious issues — drought and forest management — remained in play.
"We're so damned close to it right now," he said of drought negotiations, saying time was of the essence given the coming winter. "If you're not going to solve that it's really a wasted opportunity."
Bishop's somewhat upbeat tone on energy conference prospects follow what he described as a "positive" meeting with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in Utah last week.
"We talked about some of these issues," he said. "No promises, but it was positive. It was more positive than the meetings before we left."
Bishop added that, "Recognizing the problems she has with water in Washington, as well as with forest lands in Washington, that's the reason why I think she would be receptive to what we're trying to accomplish."
Rank-and-file conferees signaled a willingness to keep working, as well. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), who is retiring, told E&E News yesterday she was unaware about the state of play with talks but hoped they would continue.
Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas), who may chair the Energy and Power Subcommittee in the next Congress, called the conference "an uphill battle" but worth pursuing.
"We're still working, want to get this thing done," he said in a brief interview.Europeans press LNG provision
Also anxious to see efforts continue are ambassadors from Poland, the Czeck Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic, which penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressing support for language in both the House and Senate bills to put a deadline on Energy Department liquefied natural gas export reviews.
"With LNG terminals now in operation in Swinoujscie, Poland, and Klaipeda, Lithuania — and the requisite interconnectors either in place or under development — our region has the capability to receive U.S. natural gas," they wrote.
"However, the regulatory path for granting the LNG export licenses to countries, which do not have free trade agreements with the U.S., remains complex," they said. "It puts burden on U.S. companies to apply for additional licenses. For this reason, legislative action to expedite LNG exports to America's European allies remains a timely and significant issue.
"Thus we hope that the bipartisan effort, which has been gaining momentum steadily over the past few years, will see final resolution during the current session of Congress. We request you to continue working towards the goal of enacting LNG legislation still in 2016."
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2016/11/15/stories/1060045733
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US Shale Oil Production Declines Continue to Slow
Nov 15, 2016 | Platts
By Benjamin Morse
US shale oil production declines over the past year and a half are forecast to slow to 20,000 b/d in December, down from a 30,000 b/ddrop in November, US Energy Information Administration data showed Monday.
December's shale oil output is estimated to be at 4.498 million b/d, compared to 4.518 million b/d in November, the EIA said in its monthly Drilling Productivity Report.
This compares to a decrease of 118,000 b/d to 4.949 million b/d over the same time period a year ago. Production peaked at 5.618 million b/d in March 2015, according to the EIA.
But crude oil production in two of the four the main producing shales areas covered by the report, the Permian in West Texas and New Mexico, and Colorado's Niobrara are forecast to increase production, while Texas' Eagle Ford, and the Bakken Shale of North Dakota and Montana are expected to see production fall.
The Permian is expected to increase production 27,000 b/d to 2.065 million b/d in December, while the Niobrara is forecast to raise output by 2,000 b/d to 404,000 b/d.
The increases in those two regions would be offset by drops of 33,000 b/d to 978,000 b/d and 14,000 b/d to 918,000 b/d in the Eagle Ford and Bakken Shales, respectively.
Greater output in the Permian has been expected by analysts due to the dramatic run up in rigs over the last six months.
The Permian had 218 rigs operating as of last week, which is up by 86 from when the rig count bottomed out there in April this year, according to Baker Hughes.
PRODUCTIVITY GAINS ACROSS THE BOARD
Efficiency gains have been a mainstay of the shale boom in the US, with producers able to squeeze out more oil per well and that does not look to slow down in December, the EIA data shows.
The biggest increase in new-well oil production per rig is forecast for the Niobrara, which should increase by 35 b/d to 1,177 b/d.
This is likely behind the forecast for greater production as the shale's rig count has remained fairly steady this year bouncing slightly above and below the 16 rig active last week.
Despite productivity gains in the Eagle Ford and Bakken, they were not enough to offset the overall decline in production in those shales.
Eagle Ford's new-well oil production per rig is forecast to grow by 27 b/d to 1,307 b/d, while in the Bakken it is predicted to increase 22 b/d to 949 b/d, according to the EIA.
Permian productivity is expected to increase 7 b/d to 611 b/d in December.http://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/newyork/us-shale-oil-production-declines-continue-to-27710061
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Trump Set to Roll Back Obama Policies on Energy, Environment
Nov 15, 2016 | AP (In The New York Times)
By Matthew Daly and Julie Pace
President-elect Donald Trump is considering an oilbillionaire and a North Dakota lawmaker for top posts as he moves to roll back President Barack Obama's environmental and energy policies and allow unfettered production of oil, coal and natural gas.
Trump has vowed to rescind "all job-destroying Obama executive actions" and pledges to sharply increase oil and gas drilling on federal lands while opening up offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and other areas where it is blocked.
Topping Trump's to-do list is repealing the Clean Power Plan, Obama's signature effort to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. The plan — the linchpin of Obama's strategy to fight climate change — is currently on hold awaiting a court ruling.
Trump also is targeting recent Obama administration efforts to reduce air and water pollution that have been opposed by Republicans and industries that profit from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, including a rule to protect small streams and wetlands and ozone regulations designed to cut down on smog.
Those under consideration for energy secretary include Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil tycoon and leading proponent of fracking, and North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, an early Trump supporter from a major oil drilling state, according to transition planning documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Venture capitalist Robert Grady, who worked in President George H.W. Bush's administration, is listed as a contender to lead both the Energy and Interior departments.
Cramer told reporters Monday he is happy to stay in Congress, especially "with a friend in the White House. And if another good friend like Harold Hamm would become secretary of energy, I'd feel like I won the lottery."
A coalition of conservative states has challenged both the Clean Power Plan and the water rule, which expanded the definition of waters protected under the Clean Water Act to smaller non-navigable waters and seasonal tributaries.
The administration says the rule would safeguard drinking water for 117 million people, but Republicans and some Democrats representing rural areas say the regulations are costly, confusing and amount to a government power grab. Federal courts have put the rules on hold as judges review lawsuits.
Trump also is likely to move quickly to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, which Obama rejected last year. Trump highlighted the project at a campaign stop in Florida last month and listed it among his top priorities for the first 100 days of his administration.
Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, said Trump can and will move quickly to overturn Obama's executive orders. From there, he will likely move to approve a new five-year plan that vastly expands offshore drilling and lift a moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands.
"If you have a good offense and a good defense you will win," Harbert said. Whoever Trump picks for key jobs will share his goals of "moving fast, changing the process which is not working now and getting things done," she said.
Obama said Monday that Trump should be in no hurry to make changes, citing U.S. progress on reducing carbon emissions even as the price of gasoline hovers nears $2 a gallon. Trump and his team "may want to take the country in a significantly different direction, but they've got time to consider what exactly they want to achieve," Obama said at a news conference.
Environmental groups don't plan to make Trump's job easy.
"We intend to fight like mad, both in the courts and in the streets, to resist any rollbacks by the Trump administration," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.
Some of those protests have already begun. Groups opposing the construction of an oil pipeline through the Midwest are planning more than 200 protest actions across the country Tuesday.
The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it wants more study and tribal input before approving the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux says the pipeline threatens its drinking water and cultural sites.
Even as they gear up to oppose Trump, Brune said environmentalists may find some common ground with the president-elect. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power not only help fight climate change but are creating thousands of new jobs across the country, he said.
"If President-elect Trump is looking for a stimulus in energy he will find it in the solar and wind industries," Brune said.
Trump has said tax credits and other subsidies for wind and solar power "distort" the market, but says the U.S. should "encourage all facets of the energy industry," including wind and solar power, as a way to achieve energy independence.
AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this story.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/11/14/us/politics/ap-us-trump-energy.html?_r=0&mtrref=query.nytimes.com&gwh=5487EB5EEC08646B6185E5240A74FD0D&gwt=pay
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Trump Pledge to Review GHG Risk Finding Carries Significant Legal Risks
Nov 14, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Doug Obey
President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to review -- and possibly scrap -- the endangerment finding underpinning EPA's greenhouse gas (GHG) regulatory programs appears fraught with legal risks, multiple sources say, because the effort would involve undoing a lengthy administrative record and scientific analyses pointing to the dangers of climate change.
Advocates are already citing the landmark 2009 endangerment finding to suggest that a Trump EPA cannot indefinitely postpone GHG controls, because the finding triggers GHG regulatory obligations that transcend Trump's opposition to EPA's power sector GHG rules.
But one industry lawyer says there is a plausible scenario in which a Trump EPA seeks to narrow, rather than repeal, the finding, in an attempt to erode benefits analysis that justifies future GHG rules.
“Is there a [possible] strategy to change that [finding]? Yes . . . but this is not something that turns on a dime,” the attorney says, characterizing the strategy as legally risky and adding it could take “years. . . . When people sober up . . . [they] should be a little bit more cautious about this.”
Another knowledgeable source is downplaying the idea. “I think if you try to do that, first of all, you would completely lose control of the agency” because career staff would make “life impossible” by reaching out to the media, Capitol Hill and the environmental community. “I think it would be like going back to the beginning of the Reagan administration . . . a disaster. But if they push forward with that, then it will occupy all their time and attention.”
And a third knowledgeable source cautions that attacking the endangerment finding would require not just a legal plan but also a political strategy.
“It is a narrative issue,” the source says. “How do you sell what they are going to do to a public that is deeply divided?”
Trump's victory in the Nov. 8 election opens the door for him to follow through with a campaign promise -- articulated in a response to questions from the American Energy Alliance -- to review “all EPA rules,” including the Obama administration's finding that carbon dioxide and several other GHGs endanger public health and welfare.
The response does not promise to scrap the finding, but it says that “any regulation that imposes undue costs on business enterprises will be eliminated.”
One EPA critic, following the Supreme Court's February stay of the power sector GHG rule, pledged that there “will be a petition asking them to review in the next administration, to reconsider the endangerment finding.”
But the industry attorney warns that scrapping the finding would be “extremely difficult,” given an administrative record -- going back to the 2007 Supreme Court case in Massachusetts v. EPA that affirmed EPA's GHG regulatory authority -- supporting EPA's 2009 finding, which declared motor vehicle GHGs endanger public health and welfare and set in place a long chain of regulatory actions on climate change.
That means that any review seeking to undo that finding would “have to reach different conclusions on the same evidence or [with] new evidence,” the source says.
'Enormous' Evidence
That appraisal is broadly similar -- though not identical -- to statements by environmentalists before and after the election that call attacks on that endangerment finding folly because attempts to revisit the finding would be ruled arbitrary and capricious by the courts.
One example is a 2012 statement by Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) David Doniger, who in prior GHG litigation noted that the finding “stands atop an enormous, multi-layered pyramid of peer-reviewed scientific research and assessment developed over decades. At the base of the pyramid are tens of thousands of scientific publications, each one peer-reviewed before acceptance in a scientific journal.”
Advocates issued a similar message in a post-election press conference Nov. 9, during which NRDC's David Goldston said that Trump “cannot snap his fingers and wish away regulations,” but would have to explain why lengthy factual records supporting those rules are no longer true.
And Sierra Club's Michael Brune made clear the stakes of any potential fight over the finding, citing the responsibility of a Trump administration to “follow the law” and stating that the endangerment finding “holds that protecting the public from climate change is a responsibility of the executive branch.”
But the industry attorney says a Trump administration attack on the endangerment finding is not necessarily impossible. Specifically, the source says a Trump EPA might try to chip away at the finding, including seeking to narrowly focus it on climate change “welfare” impacts and arguing that GHGs don't directly harm human health.
Such a welfare-based approach had been under consideration by the George W. Bush administration, but that was roughly a decade ago and before EPA went on record under the Obama administration with a comprehensive endangerment finding also based on public health impacts.
Regardless of whether a welfare approach would survive legal scrutiny, the source says one rationale for attempting it would be to whittle away at benefits estimates for GHG controls. Such estimates are likely to be an issue in venues including litigation between the agency and environmentalists stemming from future Trump EPA proposals to rescind existing regulations.
But the attorney cautions that an endangerment finding strategy is not an effective strategy for revisiting current EPA GHG rules. “It is not going to affect anything in the chute right now,” the source says. “This is all post hoc.”
The source did not rule out that efforts to rework an endangerment finding could affect an ongoing mid-term review of light-duty vehicle GHG rules due in 2018, but said there are easier ways for a Trump administration to limit those rules -- based on cost and feasibility criteria -- than relying on a reappraisal of GHG risks.
And the source says that even attempting a revision of the endangerment finding could take years -- perhaps much of Trump's four-year term. “You wouldn't want to do that until you had a good [administrative] record,” the source says, adding that the effort could backfire if the agency submits a half-baked finding not based on a “fulsome, scientifically based exercise.”
That finding likely would be at risk in subsequent litigation brought by environmentalists that would only serve to bolster EPA's underlying requirement to issue GHG rules.
Advocates argue that climate science itself makes it impossible for a Trump EPA to develop a plausible administrative record attacking the endangerment finding.
Even so, using the current endangerment finding to press a Trump administration for GHG controls carries its own problems for advocates, given that petitioning and litigating those issues also takes years.
But without a friendly administration or Congress, advocates may not have many options besides shaping public opinion or such lawsuits. It's “their only strategy,” the attorney says.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/trump-pledge-review-ghg-risk-finding-carries-significant-legal-risks
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Obama Administration Extends Dakota Access Oil Line Review
Nov 14, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Meenal Vamburkar
The Obama administration plans to carry out more discussions and analysis before deciding on a permit for the controversial Dakota Access crude pipeline, further delaying work on a segment of the project that's been stalled since September.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is deciding whether the pipeline can cross federal land near Lake Oahe in North and South Dakota, said in a statement Nov. 14 that further talks are warranted given the importance of the lake to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The agency said it will work with the tribe on a timeline “that allows for robust discussion and analysis to be completed expeditiously.”
The delay prevents Energy Transfer Partners LP from finishing work on its $3.8 billion project, which had been stalled by the government since September. It comes a day before opponents are scheduled to hold a nationwide protest at Army Corps of Engineers offices, to call for a permanent rejection of the pipeline. The Army Corps had halted construction and ordered a review of its prior approval of the project after objections were raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The setback may be temporary. While the Army Corps decision prevents the pipeline's completion for now, analysts have said Energy Transfer will probably receive approval to finish the project under President-elect Donald Trump's administration.
Opponents of Dakota Access have argued that it would damage culturally significant sites and pose an environmental hazard where it crosses the Missouri River. Protests have resulted in hundreds of arrests and drawn support from celebrities including actresses Shailene Woodley and Susan Sarandon. The standoff is emblematic of a broader effort by environmentalists to stall oil and gas pipelines, which they argue aren't needed and hurt the the nation's progress in reducing its reliance on fossil fuels.
September Ruling
The Army Corps’ denial of a permit follows a September ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg rejecting the Sioux Tribe's request to stop work.
The 1,172-mile (1,886-kilometer) line had been expected to start carrying oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale to markets in Illinois in the first quarter next year. Energy Transfer has said the project is 84 percent complete, and drilling beneath the lake would take 90 to 100 days.
More than 200 actions had been planned for Nov. 15 with thousands of people expected to participate in the protests nationwide, according to an e-mailed statement from organizers.
Slowing Construction
Earlier this month, Energy Transfer said it refused an Army Corps’ request to voluntarily slow construction until the federal review was complete.
Energy Transfer Partners LP owns the project jointly with Phillips 66 and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Enbridge Energy Partners LP announced a joint venture in August that would also take a minority stake in the pipeline.
The pipeline would help cut costs for Bakken region drillers, which have had to turn to more expensive rail shipments when existing pipes filled up. Dakota Access, with a capacity of about 470,000 barrels a day, would ship roughly half of current Bakken crude production and allow producers to access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets.
The project previously also came under fire in Iowa, where landowners who objected to its use of eminent domain asked the Iowa Utilities Board to halt the pipeline—but were denied.
Energy Transfer Equity LP shares were down 0.9 percent at $16.83 at 5:05 p.m. EST.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=100509662&vname=dennotallissues&fn=100509662&jd=100509662
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Steyer Calls on Obama to Permanently Ban Offshore Drilling in Arctic, Atlantic
Nov 14, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Esther Whieldon
Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer is calling on President Barack Obama to invoke largely untested authority to permanently block offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic before Donald Trump takes office.
The involvement of Steyer's NextGen Climate group ups the ante on an under-the-radar campaign environmentalists and Democrats have been waging for months to get Obama to invoke powers that would effectively allow to ban drilling in sections of oceans under federal control.
“The Trump administration has the potential to do serious damage to our climate — but in the last few months of his presidency, President Obama can take concrete steps to secure his environmental legacy,” Steyer said in a statement NextGen plans to release Tuesday. “We will continue to support bold action by President Obama to fight for our families, and we will keep pushing back against Trump’s dark vision and dangerous plans for our country.”
NextGen and White House officials have discussed the possibility of Obama using his executive powers under a section of the law governing offshore drilling that allows him to "withdraw from disposition" any section of the Outer Continental Shelf that has not already been leased for oil or gas drilling. And the group is asking its members to sign a petition calling on Obama to do so.
Whether Obama follows through before the end of his term remains to be seen, but the move seems more likely now that he will be handing power to Trump rather than Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump has boasted he will unleash fossil fuel development to accelerate growth and curb regulations on oil and gas development, which has environmentalists grappling with how to prevent him from opening up more areas for offshore drilling.
They are hoping Obama will build on his decision in March to propose withdrawing the Atlantic and some of the Arctic Ocean from oil and gas drilling in the next five-year drilling plan. A final version of that plan is expected to be released soon, but Trump could direct his administration to rewrite it after taking office.
Steyer's group says more permanent protections are available using section 12(a) of the OCS Lands Act. Similar to the Antiquities Act, which presidents can use to create national monuments to permanently protect parcels of land from development, Section 12(a) does not include language that allows future presidents to undo the withdrawal of offshore areas from future leasing.
A NextGen Climate America official who requested anonymity said the group has been in talks with the White House, which has said the idea was under serious consideration, but the official did not know where the White House is in that process at this stage. The official would not say when the conversations happened.
Whether Trump would really be powerless to expand drilling in the face of such a decision from Obama would have to be tested in court.
"No president has ever rescinded an open-ended reserve under this, and so there's no litigation history," John Leshy, a Clinton-era Interior official who now teaches at University of California's Hastings College of the Law, told E&E News earlier this year. He added, "Nobody knows the answer because it's never been tried."
Obama has used the law before. In 2014, he made the waters of Alaska's Bristol Bay indefinitely off limits to consideration for oil and gas leasing. And in 2015, he made parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off limits.
Several environmental groups this year have called for permanent leasing bans in the Arctic and Atlantic, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters.
Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, and more than a dozen other Democratic senators in October, called on Obama to use the same law the permanently ban drilling.
“Using this authority to permanently protect these areas would ensure that important industries in our coastal states such as fishing and tourism are protected, that we do not despoil our beaches and coastlines or the sensitive ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean, and that we align our long-term federal energy decisions with a climate-safe future," they wrote in a letter to the president.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/story/2016/11/steyer-calls-on-obama-to-permanent-ban-offshore-drilling-137875
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CEE Countries Press for Freer U.S. LNG Exports
Nov 14, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Benjamin Oreskes
A coalition of Central and East European ambassadors is calling on Congress to “accelerate the process of issuing LNG export licenses to European countries” in an effort to increase exports of liquefied natural gas from the United States.
Seven countries from the Baltics and the Visegrad Group signed a letter today addressed to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate. They explained that terminals in Poland and Lithuania are ready to receive LNG exports. Louisiana this year started shipping gas to Europe, but not to the CEE.
“The regulatory path for granting the LNG export licenses to countries which do not have free trade agreements with the U.S. remains complex,” ambassadors from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia wrote.
These countries view U.S. LNG as a way to reduce their reliance on Russia, which has been “ready to use energy as a political weapon,” the letter said.
The letter calls on Congress to take action this year and cites a “bipartisan effort, which has been gaining momentum steadily over the past few years.”
There is legislation pending in Congress that would set firmer deadlines for how long the Department of Energy has to review LNG export applications with countries that don’t have free trade deals with United States.
This article first appeared on POLITICO.EU on Nov. 14, 2016.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Exxon Mobil Expanding Beaumont Petrochemical Plant
Nov 14, 2016 | Houston Chronicle
By David Hunn
Exxon Mobil is expanding its Beaumont polyethylene chemical plant, adding a new unit and increasing the facility's capacity by 65 percent, the company said Monday.
It estimated the work will create 1,400 construction jobs and 40 permanent positions.
A growing demand for high-performance plastics plus an abundant supply of cheap U.S. shale gas, the feedstock for plastics, is motivating the expansion, the company said.
It is part of the petrochemical boom in Houston and Texas, in which companies are expected to have invested some $50 billion in Texas by 2022.
Polyethylene is one of the most common plastics.
Exxon Mobil manufactures polyethylene products for packaging applications that deliver light-weight, damage-resistant films.
Construction has started. The new unit will begin operations in 2019. Exxon Mobil estimates it will generate $20 billion in economic activity in the first 13 years of operation.
Current polyethylene production capacity is 1 million metric tons per year.
The new unit will add another 650,000 metric tons, bringing total production at the Beaumont plant to just under 1.7 million metric tons.BUSINESSMary Jo White to step down as SEC chiefBillionaires put pop in advocates' push for soda taxesTech losses cancel out gains by banksExxon Mobil expanding Beaumont petrochemical plantTrump's plans for deportations would imperil U.S. GDPUnion says it can't afford multi-million bond to appeal
"The availability of vast new supplies of U.S. shale gas and associated liquids for feedstock and energy is a significant advantage that enables expansion to meet strong global demand growth in polyethylene," Cindy Shulman, vice president of Exxon Mobil's plastics and resins business, said in a statement.
The plant expansion is Exxon Mobil's third significant investment in the Beaumont area in 18 months, the company said. Exxon Mobil previously announced two projects to expand capacity at its refinery.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Exxon-Mobil-expanding-Beaumont-petrochemical-plant-10614494.php
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Safety Board Cybersecurity Needs More Work, Report Says
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has more work to do to fully manage cybersecurity risks, a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General said Nov. 14.
The OIG said in a required audit of CSB's information security that two information security areas fully met federal requirements, while three other sectors came in short.
Under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014, federal agencies are required to implement cybersecurity measures, which are evaluated periodically.
The IG report found CSB's ability to identify and recover from cybersecurity breaches reached the highest, or best level in the IG's assessment. However, its ability to protect and detect breaches as well as respond to cybersecurity incidents are less developed, the report said.
The IG said it had reviewed CSB's progress on the issue since August. CSB did not provide a response to the report.
CSB also finished work on 10 recommendations from previous OIG reports on cybersecurity, the audit found.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=100509654&vname=dennotallissues&fn=100509654&jd=100509654
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U.S. Transport Safety Board Calls for Tougher Rail Oversight
Nov 14, 2016 | Reuters
By David Shepardson
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on Monday urged federal regulators to improve oversight of rail transit systems following a series of accidents and urged logistical improvements to prevent train passenger deaths and injuries in crashes.
NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said at a press conference that U.S. mass transit has "gone for decades without any systematic oversight."
The board cited the crash in Chicago of a train that collided with the bumping post at O'Hare International Airport, injuring 33, and the January 2015 incident in Washington's subway system in which heavy smoke from electrical arcing led to one death and 92 injuries as part of why it wants stronger oversight.
"Creating and enforcing safety standards and accountability in rail safety oversight will compel transit agencies to address safety issues and increase system maintenance," the NTSB said.
The board also said says train deaths could be prevented with improved railcar crashworthiness, including better window retention. The NTSB also said better evacuation procedures could have minimized injuries and prevented deaths.
The NTSB is an independent agency that proposes safety fixes, but does not have enforcement powers. The board is also investigating the crash of a Sept. 29 New Jersey Transit train that killed one and injured over 110 in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The NTSB in its annual review of highest priority transportation safety issues also recommended calling for new efforts to eliminate distractions in transportation crashes, including vehicle accidents.
Many of those accidents are the result of inattentive drivers looking at their mobile phones, and the board wants states to toughen laws against using cellphones or texting behind the wheel.
The board again called for improved efforts to ensure the safe shipment of hazardous materials, including lithium batteries.
U.S. highway deaths in 2015 jumped by 7.2 percent - the highest single-year percentage rise in 50 years - to 35,092 and were up 10.4 percent in the first half of this year, the NTSB said.
In 2012, the NTSB called on states to ban all hands-free and handheld cellphone calls. None have done so, but more than 100 other countries have lowered blood alcohol levels. The following year, the NTSB called on U.S. states to reduce the legal blood alcohol level limit by nearly 40 percent to 0.05 percent.
Robert Sumwalt, an NTSB board member, said it will take "guts" by state legislatures to "do the right thing" to take those steps to boost safety.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-transportation-safety-idUSKBN13929N
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Obama: Trump Should Not End Paris Climate Agreement
Nov 14, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
President Obama on Monday defended the landmark Paris climate deal that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to tear up once he takes office next year.
At a Monday press conference, Obama made the case for the U.S. to stay in the international agreement, calling it an important way to convince other nations to work on climate change the way he has during his administration.
That work, he said, has “made our economy more efficient, it’s helped the bottom line of folks and it's cleaned up the environment.”
He said the Paris agreement “says to China and India and other counties that are potentially polluting: come on board. Let’s work together so you guys can do the same thing.”
Trump opposes the climate deal, an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He says the pact is unfair to the United States because the Obama administration intends to cut American emissions in real terms, while emerging economies like China’s continue to expand their pollution, but at a slower pace.
Trump has pledged not only to end the Paris agreement once he’s in office, but also indicated he’ll aim to grow fossil fuel industries.
Trump cannot formally end the Paris deal because it took effect earlier this month. However, he’s reportedly looking for ways out, and since the deal isn’t binding, he can effectively ignore Obama’s stated goals and pursue his own course.
But Obama said that’s not the right approach.
He warned that, with international agreements such as Paris, or the Iran nuclear accord, “the tradition has been you carry them forward across the administrations, particularly if once you actually examine them, they’re doing good for us and binding other countries into behavior that will help us.”
http://www.thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/305950-obama-trump-should-not-end-paris-climate-agreement
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U.S. Officials Say World Climate-Change Efforts to Continue Despite Trump’s Views
Nov 14, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Amy Harder
Senior U.S. officials at a major climate change conference Monday, echoed by President Barack Obama, contended the world will seek to keep cutting carbon emissions, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to turn back the U.S.’s own efforts.
Mr. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said that in his first 100 days as president he would cancel an accord the Obama administration helped broker among nearly 200 nations last year in Paris. He has also said he would cut off U.S. aid to a $100 billion global fund designed to help poorer nations address climate change.
U.S. officials at the Morocco conference didn’t directly comment on Mr. Trump’s possible actions, but they said the international community is committed to the Paris deal. “The world is different. The Paris agreement exists,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in an interview on the sidelines of the conference. “I cannot see a rollback from a low-carbon future.”
In a press conference in Washington, Mr. Obama added about the accord, “There’s been a lot of talk about the possibility of undoing this international agreement. Now, you’ve got 200 countries that have signed up for this thing, and the good news is that what we’ve been able to show over the last five, six, eight years is that it’s possible to grow the economy really fast and possible to bring down carbon emissions as well.”
Much of the talk on the sidelines of the conference focused on the uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration. Some expressed hope that Mr. Trump wouldn’t follow through on his pledge to pull out of the Paris accord, especially given that he has equivocated on other policy issues, such as repealing altogether Mr. Obama’s health-care law.
But a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s transition team, Jason Miller, on Monday reiterated the president-elect’s position in a statement to The Wall Street Journal: “As part of our pro-American energy plan, we said we’d withdraw from the deal.”
The Morocco conference, held under the auspices of the United Nations, could provide an early sign of how Obama officials will navigate the diplomatic landscape as an administration waits in the wings with very different views not just on climate but on international engagement more broadly.
Jonathan Pershing, a State Department official and Washington’s top climate negotiator, fielded some dozen questions at a press briefing Monday, nearly all which involved Mr. Trump in one way or another.
“I don’t think the U.S. change here is going to affect the development pathway,” Mr. Pershing said. He noted that countries, including China and Brazil, are shifting to sources of energy that emit fewer carbon emissions than conventional fossil fuels, regardless of what the U.S. does.
That creates the possibility that China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest polluters, could switch positions on climate, as China works with the international community to reduce emissions while the U.S. withdraws from such efforts.
Mr. Trump has a few different avenues for pulling the U.S. out of the Paris agreement, and he could pursue them simultaneously. While the president cannot unilaterally cancel the Paris deal, he could begin the lengthy process of officially withdrawing the U.S. from it, which could take years. Since the deal is officially in effect, a country must wait three years to pull out, and once it makes that decision, it must wait another year to actually do so.
A quicker option would be to withdraw from the parent agreement, called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, which has been in effect for 22 years. That agreement allows countries to withdraw with one year’s notice, automatically withdrawing them from any deals that are a subset of the UNFCCC, including the Paris accord.
Another, perhaps simpler, option would be to issue an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the deal, though the legality of such a move is in doubt. Daniel Bodansky, a professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, said such a move would likely violate international law.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-officials-vow-world-climate-change-efforts-to-continue-despite-trumps-views-1479170840
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Post-Election: The EPA and Ozone
Nov 14, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Howard J. Feldman, Sr.
While attention has been focused on the presidential election, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is quietly proceeding with implementation of new ozone regulations that could make job creation more difficult in America, potentially exerting a greater economic impact than either candidate’s fiscal plans.
Ozone is already on the decline, making the regulations questionable even at a fraction of the likely cost. EPA’s own data show that ground level ozone in the U.S. declined 32 percent since 1980 -- 17 percent just since 2000. Previous regulations issued in 2008 were then the most stringent in history, and progress is continuing under the 2008 standards.
The implementation process of the 2008 regulations provides a noteworthy illustration of EPA actions that created uncertainty and may have impacted the rate of improving air quality. After issuing standards in 2008 limiting ozone emissions to 75 parts per billion (ppb), EPA stopped implementation work in 2010. For two years, manufacturers, the construction industry, oil and natural gas producers and other job creators were left in suspense as the Obama administration reconsidered the regulations. The 2008 standards were ultimately left in place, but the delay pushed EPA so far behind that states didn’t receive necessary EPA implementation guidance until 2015, seven years after the 2008 ozone standards were issued. EPA partially acknowledged the problem by granting 19 metropolitan areas – including St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. – more time to comply.
At this point, commonsense suggests that EPA would allow states time to catch up on the delayed 2008 ozone standards. Instead, EPA chose to issue new, more stringent standards of 70 ppb the very same year, 2015. Even worse, EPA maintained a schedule that forces states to develop two different but concurrent ozone programs, unfairly burdening state agencies and local economies. That’s in addition to vehicle fuel efficiency standards, vehicle emissions standards, and power plant and factory emissions standards that are in place and contributing to ozone reductions.
EPA’s new rule increased the number of counties potentially facing non-attainment status from 217 to 958 – a fourfold increase. For context, peak ozone levels even in Yellowstone National Park at the time were 66 ppb. Ozone standards that approach or are lower than naturally occurring background levels could place even rural, undeveloped areas out of compliance and could place new restrictions on virtually any economic activity.
A collection of 269 business groups urged the EPA to avoid moving ahead with ozone standards “that will make it difficult to manufacture products, build new projects, produce energy, improve infrastructure and hire the workers needed to make this all happen.” Made up of manufacturers, builders, contractors, road construction groups and chambers of commerce across the nation, the organizations warned EPA, “A stricter ozone standard could close off communities across the nation to new jobs and economic growth…”
Undeterred and without compelling scientific evidence suggesting the new standards are necessary, the EPA moved forward. Legislation like the Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2016, passed by the House with a companion bill introduced in the Senate, would bring relief to states and delay the impacts from unnecessary and costly new ozone obligations. It should be a top congressional priority during the lame duck session.
New methane regulations follow the same pattern. Methane emissions associated with the natural gas industry declined by 14.8 percent from 1990-2014 while natural gas production increased by 47 percent, according to EPA data. Yet the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are developing new regulations, despite the obvious concern that implementing two sets of regulations from two different agencies on the same issue practically guarantees duplicative, costly overlap.
Overregulation for ozone and methane emissions threatens to undermine oil and natural gas production, and consumers could pay the price. The abundance of affordable natural gas produced in the U.S. has helped drive down electricity, heating and product costs for both homes and businesses, while robust domestic crude oil production has put downward pressure on gasoline prices. Average U.S. disposable household income was $1337 higher in 2015 due to savings generated by shale energy development. At the same time, increasing use of clean, affordable natural gas has pushed carbon emissions from power generation to their lowest level in more than 20 years.
Maintaining the widespread economic benefits generated by energy production should be a top consideration in the regulatory process. Current standards, in combination with industry technological investments, are effective. Letting existing ozone and methane regulations continue to work is the right path to protect public health and environmental progress without jeopardizing the middle-class economy. If the EPA won’t listen, it’s up to Congress to act.
Howard J. Feldman, Sr. Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs at API.
http://www.thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/305967-post-election-the-epa-and-ozone
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High-Level Segment of Marrakech Climate Talks Begin
Nov 15, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Eric J. Lyman
The high-level segment of the UN's Marrakech climate change conference gets under way Nov. 15 with a series of administrative maneuvers delegates and observers say will set the stage for global negotiations over the next two years.
Among the main topics will be the “Marrakech Call for Action,” a confidential document being drafted by conference president Salaheddine Mezouar, the minister of foreign affairs for host Morocco.
Mezouar first mentioned the document Nov. 12, saying only it would “send a message to the international community.” The document has not been released, and delegates speculate its aim is to show the resiliency of the negotiation process despite the possibility U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may withdraw the U.S. from the climate negotiation process.
“There's some unease that the document is not being negotiated,” one delegate from the Group of 77 developing countries told Bloomberg BNA.
‘Complicated Debate’
In a Nov. 14 address to delegates, Mezouar said he did not want to open the document up to a “complicated debate” at the midway point of the talks. Some officials said delegates would be able to weigh in later.
Outgoing United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will formally open the high-level segment of the Nov. 7-18 talks, which will center on negotiations from minister-level delegates, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Among issues on the table for high-level delegates is creating a way to assure a key “facilitative dialogue” in 2018 will act to help countries strengthen emissions reduction and financial commitments from last year's Paris Agreement, and to make progress on the rulebook that will guide its implementation.
Ministers will also discuss goals for action before 2020, when most of the terms for the Paris Agreement kick in.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=100509659&vname=dennotallissues&fn=100509659&jd=100509659
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