Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 12/6/2016
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(ACC Blog) Listening to the Science on BPA from Austria
Dec 6, 2016 | American Chemistry Matters
By Steven Hentges, Ph.D
If you live in Austria, should you be concerned about exposure to bisphenol A (BPA)? Not according to the results of a new study from Austrian government researchers that was just published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. -
(ACC Mentioned) Hexion Achieves Responsible Care® Certification
Dec 6, 2016 | Yahoo Sports
Hexion Inc. (“Hexion” or the “Company”) today announced it achieved recertification by the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Responsible Care® Management System, the chemical industry’s world-class environmental, health, safety and security initiative. -
(ACC Mentioned) Next Generation, API-Certified Diesel Engine Oils Officially Debut
Dec 6, 2016 | Concrete Products
By Concrete News
Lubricant producers can begin marketing two new American Petroleum Institute-licensed categories, CK-4 and FA-4. Soon to be referenced in on- and off-road diesel engine manufacturer specifications, they exhibit improved shear stability, oxidation resistance and aeration control properties against the API CJ-4 formulations they succeed. -
(ACC Mentioned) Tiny Houses at a Big Crossroad
Dec 6, 2016 | Plastics News
By Catherine Kavanaugh
Twenty-five tiny houses are under construction in a blighted Detroit neighborhood by a non profit group with a plan that could become a national model for helping people who earn about $12,000 a year become homeowners in seven years. -
Trump Team Boasts of Rapid Pace as Energy Picks Loom
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Robin Bravender
President-elect Donald Trump has outpaced past presidents in picking Cabinet officials dating back to at least the Nixon administration, the transition team announced today. -
Asbestos Use Dropped 16% in 2015 — USGS
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Gabriel Dunsmith
The U.S. Geological Survey has cataloged a gradual decline in domestic consumption of the carcinogenic mineral asbestos in 2015, even as the chloralkali industry took a larger chunk of the pie. -
EPA Has Data to Make PFCs Drinking Water Regulation Determination
Dec 6, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA has the necessary information to make a determination under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) on whether it should regulate two perfluorinated chemicals (PFC), an EPA water official told agency advisors recently, though he added he could not predict the outcome of the decisions, which would be made by the Trump administration. -
EPA Chief Defends Methane Regs as Cost-Effective
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
U.S. EPA chief Gina McCarthy argued yesterday that if Republicans nix limits on methane emissions, they will forgo opportunities to lower electricity prices and level the playing field for businesses. -
Protesters' Win 'a Wakeup Call' for Other Pipeline Projects
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel and Mike Lee
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe scored a temporary victory in its fight against the Dakota Access pipeline Sunday when the Obama administration said it was denying a permit. -
New Market Aims to Make Trading Natural Gas More Like Oil
Dec 6, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Sarah McFarlane
Two U.S. exchanges plan to launch derivatives that could make it easier to trade a type of natural gas, potentially revolutionizing this market in the way that the Brent and West Texas Intermediate benchmarks did for crude oil, according to people familiar with the matter. -
Fight Over Md. Fracking Ban Could End in Compromise
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Energywire
State lawmakers seeking a permanent ban on hydraulic fracturing in Maryland may settle for extending the existing moratorium on the oil and gas extraction technique. -
EPA Says Oil Plume on Potomac River Came from Power Plant in Maryland
Dec 6, 2016 | Washington Post
By Katherine Shaver
An oily sheen discovered last week on the Potomac River — the source of much of the Washington region’s drinking water — came from a power plant in Dickerson, Md., the Environmental Protection Agency says. -
Hackers Hunting for Energy-Tech Flaws See Cash on the Horizon
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Equipment suppliers to the power grid, water utilities and other U.S. infrastructure are warming up to a cybersecurity strategy once viewed as heretical: paying hackers who find security flaws in their products. -
Help with PTC Implementation: Supply Community Perspectives
Dec 5, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
There’s only about two years left for the dozens of freight and commuter railroads impacted by the Rail Safety Act of 2008 to meet the federal deadline for implementing positive train control (PTC). -
Ivanka Trump 'Very Committed' — Gore
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Hess
Former Vice President Al Gore praised Ivanka Trump's commitment to sensible climate policy last night, saying it was "certainly evident" during a brief conversation with the future first daughter at Trump Tower yesterday. -
General Mills, Starbucks, Walmart and Other Big Brands Want to Stay the Course on Climate. Here's Why.
Dec 6, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Murray
Corporate leadership is driven by long-term economics, not by short-term politics. -
Google Says It Will Run Entirely on Renewable Energy in 2017
Dec 6, 2016 | The New York Times
By Quentin Hardy
Last year, Google consumed as much energy as the city of San Francisco. Next year, it said, all of that energy will come from wind farms and solar panels.
Industry and Association News
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Environment News
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(ACC Blog) Listening to the Science on BPA from Austria
Dec 6, 2016 | American Chemistry Matters
By Steven Hentges, Ph.D
If you live in Austria, should you be concerned about exposure to bisphenol A (BPA)? Not according to the results of a new study from Austrian government researchers that was just published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.
The title of the new study (Human biomonitoring of bisphenol A exposure in an Austrian population) may not sound so interesting, but the results are very important. Biomonitoring refers to a scientific technique for measuring exposure to chemicals by measuring their levels in biological samples, such as urine or blood. The results of biomonitoring studies provide critical information to evaluate whether exposure to a chemical is safe or not.
What the Austrian researchers did was measure the level of BPA in urine samples from a large group of Austrians, ranging in age from 6-81 years. Measuring BPA in urine is considered the most scientifically reliable way to evaluate exposure because BPA is quickly eliminated from the body in urine after exposure. In other words, what goes in (i.e., exposure) comes out in urine where it’s easy to measure.
If you’re interested in safety though, measuring exposure is only half of the safety equation. How do we know what the data means? What levels are safe and, more importantly, what levels are unsafe? Fortunately there’s quite a bit of information on the other half of the equation that readily allows us to interpret biomonitoring data in the context of safety.
Of particular value for interpreting biomonitoring data, a group of researchers in Greece reported a “biomonitoring equivalent” (BE) value for BPA in another recent study. The BE value is based on the conservative safe intake level recently established for BPA by the European Food Safety Authority, and the BE value represents the estimated concentration of BPA in urine corresponding to intake of BPA at the safe intake level.
The median BPA level measured in the Austrian study population is more than 250 times below the BE level. This indicates that the actual Austrian exposure levels are not only safe, but they’re safe with a wide margin of safety. So if you do live in Austria, there’s no need to be concerned about exposure to BPA.
But what if you don’t live in Austria? As it turns out, the Austrian researchers aren’t the only ones who have conducted biomonitoring studies on BPA. Large-scale studies from several other countries report BPA levels in urine that are similar to the levels found in the Austrian population.
For example, recent studies on pregnant women in France and Canada confirmed low exposure levels that are particularly noteworthy, since pregnant women might generally be considered one of the most vulnerable subpopulations for exposure to chemicals. Similarly, the results from large-scale biomonitoring studies on the general populations of the United States and Canada further demonstrate low BPA exposure levels.
Government bodies around the world support the safety of BPA based on their review of extensive scientific information, including biomonitoring data that consistently demonstrates very low exposure. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration answers the question “Is BPA safe?” with a crystal clear answer – “Yes.”
https://blog.americanchemistry.com/2016/12/listening-to-the-science-on-bpa-from-austria/
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(ACC Mentioned) Hexion Achieves Responsible Care® Certification
Dec 6, 2016 | Yahoo Sports
Hexion Inc. (“Hexion” or the “Company”) today announced it achieved recertification by the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Responsible Care® Management System, the chemical industry’s world-class environmental, health, safety and security initiative. The Company recently successfully completed an independent audit of four U.S. manufacturing sites and its headquarters.
“Responsible Care is an important part of our approach to sustainability and corporate social responsibility that ensures we operate in an ethical, safe and environmentally sound manner that protects our associates, our customers and the communities where we live and work,” said Craig O. Morrison, Chairman, President and CEO. “Our facilities have successfully completed rigorous independent audits that reflect our commitment to ongoing improvement as well as open, transparent reporting.”
Four locations achieved certification: Mt. Jewett, Pa.; Alexandria, La.; Lakeland, Fla.; and Argo, Ill. Each site participated in a comprehensive review that included environmental management, safety procedures, regulatory compliance, product safety, security measures, emergency response plans and community outreach. The Company’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, was also audited and received certification.
Companies participating in Responsible Care must complete an independent audit every three years. Hexion achieved its original certification in 2013.
The Responsible Care program is also coordinated by The International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). ICCA is the worldwide voice of the chemical industry, representing chemical manufacturers and producers across six continents. Serving customers in approximately 100 countries, Hexion has pledged support for the ICCA’s Responsible Care Global Charter, which aims to unite global chemical companies under a unified system of performance management.
In addition, 43 sites within Hexion’s global manufacturing network have achieved ISO9001 certification (Quality Management System) and another 12 sites have achieved ISO 14001 certification (Environmental Management System). The Company also has 7 sites that have earned OHSAS 18001 certification (Health and Safety Management System). In total, Hexion sites have achieved 80 safety, quality and energy management designations globally.
“Responsible Care certification helps us ensure our operations are safe, secure and sustainable at all levels of the organization,” said Karen Koster, Executive Vice President for Environmental Health and Safety. “The audits examined a wide range of issues, from permit compliance and emergency preparedness to safety processes and our community outreach, all with the goal of ensuring we are continually improving our performance.”
Responsible Care is a global initiative that began in Canada in 1984 and is practiced today by 60 national and regional associations in more than 65 economies around the world. Responsible Care companies operating in the U.S. have a worker safety rate that is five times better than the U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole, and three times better than the overall business of chemistry. In addition, Responsible Care companies have reduced greenhouse gas intensity, water consumption and emissions.
About the Company
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Hexion Inc. (formerly known as Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc.) is a global leader in thermoset resins. Hexion Inc. serves the global wood and industrial markets through a broad range of thermoset technologies, specialty products and technical support for customers in a diverse range of applications and industries. Hexion Inc. is controlled by investment funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC. Additional information about Hexion Inc. and its products is available at www.hexion.com.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/hexion-achieves-responsible-care-certification-121500187.html
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(ACC Mentioned) Next Generation, API-Certified Diesel Engine Oils Officially Debut
Dec 6, 2016 | Concrete Products
By Concrete News
Lubricant producers can begin marketing two new American Petroleum Institute-licensed categories, CK-4 and FA-4. Soon to be referenced in on- and off-road diesel engine manufacturer specifications, they exhibit improved shear stability, oxidation resistance and aeration control properties against the API CJ-4 formulations they succeed. The API Lubricants Group developed the categories’ performance thresholds and testing guidelines to a) meet the varying needs of aging, new and in-service power packages; and, b) help on- and off-road engine manufacturers address more stringent regulations.
“December 1 is an industry milestone as it marks the first day CK-4 and FA-4 engine oils can be marketed and sold on retail shelves or in bulk,” said API Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System Senior Manager Kevin Ferrick. “The time between approval of the categories last winter and the first licensing gave large, medium, and small oil marketers the ability to test their new formulations and ready them for market. This signals the culmination of almost nine years of cross-industry collaboration in the development of the new standards.”
CK-4 oils replace API CJ-4 products and are backward compatible with most applications where engine manufacturers recommend the latter. API FA-4 oils are formulated to provide protection in some current and new on-road engines, and augment compliance with anticipated emissions control and fuel economy rules covering such power. They have limited or no backward compatibility with on- and off-road diesel engines for which manufacturers recommend CJ-4 lubricants.
Both CK-4 and FA-4 best existing standards by providing enhanced protection against oil oxidation and engine wear, particulate filter blocking, piston deposits, and degradation of low- and high-temperature properties. Technicians and consumers need to check owner’s manuals or with engine manufacturers to determine which new oil is right for their vehicle, API notes. Visually different API Service Symbol Donuts distinguish the two categories: the FA-4 Donut features a shaded section, the CK-4 Donut maintains the CJ-4 scheme. Joining the API Lubricants Group in developing the categories were the American Chemistry Council and Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association.
http://concreteproducts.com/news/10114-next-generation-api-certified-diesel-engine-oils-officially-debut.html#.WEb2NbIrJ0w
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(ACC Mentioned) Tiny Houses at a Big Crossroad
Dec 6, 2016 | Plastics News
By Catherine Kavanaugh
Twenty-five tiny houses are under construction in a blighted Detroit neighborhood by a non profit group with a plan that could become a national model for helping people who earn about $12,000 a year become homeowners in seven years.
Energy efficiency is a top priority for the diminutive dwellings being built by Cass Community Social Services for cash-strapped college students, young adults who have aged out of the foster care system, senior citizens and homeless people.
Nine inches of fiberglass insulation and vinyl windows by Genex Window and Door Co., which is based in the Detroit suburb of Warren, are two of the building products selected to keep utility bills at a minimum for the rent-to-own residents of the 250- to 400-square foot houses.
“It’s not only a small space but a green space,” said the Rev. Faith Fowler, executive director of the agency and pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church, as she stood inside a 300-square foot Tudor-style tiny house. “I’m told the electric and heating bills for the first house, in the middle of February, when it’s cold in Michigan, should be $32 because we have 9 inches of insulation and very energy efficient windows.”
The tiny house trend started as a way of living simple. Proponents extol the advantages of a minimalist lifestyle. They own fewer things, have less clutter. They reduce their energy consumption. They pay fewer bills. They spend less time on house work. They also can travel if their tiny house is on wheels — but that’s not the case with the Detroit homes, which are on foundations.
“Our people don’t own cars and we want to help repopulate a neighborhood,” Fowler said.
In the last couple years, the appeal of living small has broadened from do-it-yourselfers to low-income housing advocates to the general public. Now it could be on the verge of nationwide acceptance. On Dec. 6, the International Code Council is expected to announce the outcome of a vote on an appendix to the 2018 International Residential Code, which sets minimum requirements for habitable structures. If approved, the appendix would be the model U.S. code for tiny houses used as primary residences.
The appendix was drafted by Andrew Morrison, who lives in a 207-square-foot tiny home with his wife and two kids.
The proposal addresses issues surrounding the legality of tiny homes from a building code perspective with the exception of the use of a trailer as a foundation system. The proposal covers loft access, ceiling heights above and below lofts, and emergency egress and escape routes, among other issues.
If approved, the appendix could become a guide to building safe and healthy tiny homes that would be issued certificates of occupancy.
“The tiny house movement continues to grow and I think it is still developing into something long term,” Morrison said in an email. “Whether the population on a large scale will live in 400-square-foot [or less] homes or not is yet to be seen; however, I think one of two options will become reality. No. 1, large swaths of the population will make the move to living tiny. Or, No. 2, the tiny house industry will have a huge impact on overall house square footage across the U.S., bringing it back into scale. Either way, there will be a move to smaller houses as time pushes on.”
Time to down size?
The average size U.S. house has grown to 2,687 square feet, and 31 percent of newly constructed homes are at least 3,000 square feet, according to 2015 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. With residential and commercial buildings accounting for about 40 percent of total U.S. energy consumption and 12 percent of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, building size and materials matter.
“That’s why I’m involved with tiny houses,” said Robert Reed, past president of the American Tiny House Association, which represents the needs and values of the tiny house community.
“I see this ultimately as a sustainability issue. If you have a smaller footprint, the amount of carbon needed to keep your existence can be reduced if you do it well.”
Plastic products like insulation, foam board, foam spray — which will be used on future Detroit tiny houses — windows and doors help create a solid building envelope, he added.
“Tiny houses pose a unique problem because as you shrink the house, the ratio of volume to envelope changes,” Reed said. “In a tiny house, when you open a door, if you leave that sucker open for even a minute you’re going to completely change the air in the house out. That envelope is very important and you have to do everything you can to be efficient and keep in as much air as possible.”
The Florida-based American Tiny House Association works with local governments on zoning and building code issues that keep small structures — usually those less than 500 square feet — from being a viable, acceptable housing option. The same rules established to keep people safe can constrain innovation and make tiny living illegal. Issues related to pocket neighborhoods, like the one going up in Detroit, backyard cottages, reworking RV parks and collecting property taxes are finding their way onto public meeting agendas everywhere.
“Some empty nesters want to live in a tiny house in their backyard and lease their other house so they can travel,” Reed said, describing the common rally cry as “less stuff, more life.”
The cultural change around employment also is contributing to the popularity of tiny houses.
“People don’t have traditional jobs,” Reed said. “They have gigs, like maybe the nine-month startup of a website or a new product. They want the liberty to take that job opportunity and not be burdened by mortgages. Millennials are deeply affected by the housing bubble burst and seeing their parents unable to make life decisions because they have a mortgage and are upside down.”
To Morrison, society simply can’t afford to keep building larger and larger houses.
“We can’t afford it from an environmental perspective, nor can we simply afford it financially,” he said. “Too many people are being pushed out of the housing market as prices continue to skyrocket, even as incomes plateau and remain stagnant.”
Getting on board
Building material manufacturers and suppliers are responding to the demand. In March, 84 Lumber, which is based in Eighty Four, Pa., jumped on the tiny house bandwagon with four models all under 200 square feet to build or buy. A cottage style called “Shonsie” features reinforced polymer composite siding, low-e vinyl windows and a front porch of composite decking. Blueprints, a materials list and a trailer start at $6,884 while a “shelled in” semi-DIY package costs $22,884 and a fully outfitted, move-in ready Shonsie goes for $59,884.
“With our national footprint and commitment to the dedicated do-it-yourselfer, we are uniquely positioned to become a part of this new path to homeownership, and are excited to offer tiny living on a national scale,” owner President Maggie Hardy Magerko said in a news release.
Last year, Dow Building Solutions was among the sponsors of a young couple that started towing their 130-square-foot living space around North America for a project called Tiny House Expedition. The Midland, Mich.-based company provided its Styrofoam-brand insulation and Froth-Pak spray foam insulation for the walls, noting that when there’s not an inch of space to waste, its products have thin profiles and are light weight.
Then, there’s the 170-square-foot “Tiny House That’s Big on Energy Efficiency” that traveled around to science centers as part of the Plastics Make It Possible initiative of the American Chemistry Council. Built with Zack Giffen, co-host of DIY Network’s “Tiny House Nation,” the dwelling has polysio-based foam sheathing, polyurethane spray foam, plastic solar shingles, vinyl siding, windows and tile, a polycarbonate skylight, fiberglass door and cross-linked polyethylene pipe.
Dreaming in Detroit
When Cass Community Social Services announced its rent-to-own tiny house program for roughly $1 per square foot per month, Fowler said the agency was swamped with applicants and requests for information about how residents of the $1.5 million development might become homeowners in seven years.
“Everybody on the planet wants to know how we’re doing it,” Fowler said. “People in Australia, England, Haiti as well as 20 different states have contacted me for information. We’re asking them to wait until next summer when we have 13 houses built and occupied. Then we’ll know our information will be good.”
Only one house, the stucco Tudor on a 30-by-100 square foot lot, has been completed. It will rent for $300 a month. Fowler said that should be a reasonable expense for someone earning at least $750 a month, which was the minimum threshold to apply.
To get the development going, Fowler said the agency received corporate donations, including $400,000 from Ford Motor Co. It is about halfway to its goal and several churches and other Detroit groups are “adopting” tiny houses for $40,000. That’s what Fowler estimates the first house cost using professionals. Volunteers will do the finish work like drywall, painting, tiling and deck building on the next 24 houses and the costs should go down.
All the houses will be distinctly different with styles including Cape Cod, Victorian and contemporary. Some will have metal roofs. To date none of the designs use vinyl siding, but Fowler said no building materials have been ruled out.
Inside, the houses have a stove, refrigerator, microwave, washer and dryer, bathroom with shower or tub, table and chairs, and bedroom or a loft. Outside, there’s a porch and backyard deck and landscaping. Although there are about 300 vacant lots and many decaying buildings within a mile of the project, there’s also a medical clinic, gym and small store within a couple blocks.
The social service agency will act as landlord and pay residents’ property taxes until the occupants become the owners. While they are building equity, residents will meet monthly with financial advisers about budgets, debt, credit, savings and investments. If their earnings increase, they can stay.
“That’s unique to our project,” Fowler said. “Usually you have to stay low income. Here, you end up with an asset, which is of course, how most of us function in life. We live there. We use it for collateral. We sell it if we have a need. We leave it to our kids. It really will be a game changer for them, and we think a great way to include them in the American Dream.”
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20161206/NEWS/161209913/tiny-houses-at-a-big-crossroad
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Trump Team Boasts of Rapid Pace as Energy Picks Loom
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Robin Bravender
President-elect Donald Trump has outpaced past presidents in picking Cabinet officials dating back to at least the Nixon administration, the transition team announced today.
Trump is planning to formally announce his selection of retired Gen. James Mattis to be Defense secretary tonight, which comes on the heels of several other high-profile nominations.
"The president-elect is filling out his Cabinet at the fastest rate since at least 1968, possibly even further back, which is really an indication that the transition is working very smoothly, efficiently and effectively," Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters today on a daily press call.
Trump said last week that he intended to roll out "most" of his picks for the still-vacant Cabinet jobs this week, meaning selections for energy and environmental posts could be announced at any moment. U.S. EPA and the Interior and Energy departments are slots that haven't yet been filled.
On tap for tomorrow is a meeting between Trump and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who just yesterday conceded his bid for re-election in a close race against Democrat Roy Cooper (E&E News PM, Dec. 5).
The outgoing Republican governor has been floated as a possibility for Interior secretary. He would be a surprise pick as a non-Westerner, but he could draw attention for his push to increase offshore drilling.
Among those meeting with Trump today to discuss possible jobs is Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. and a rumored contender for secretary of State. Trump's team had previously said the candidates for that job had been narrowed to four contenders — including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — but the field appears to have expanded in recent days.
Spicer said today Trump has "made it clear from the beginning that he's going to take the best and the brightest people," but declined to offer details about which candidates are currently in the running for the State Department post.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) met with Trump this morning, and they discussed topics like transit and statehood for the capital, according to pool reports.
"The one thing I know emphatically that he said is that he is a supporter of the District of Columbia, he's familiar with the District of Columbia, and he wants to be supportive," Bowser told reporters after her meeting, according to pool reports. "We talked about a lot of issues. I think you know, No. 1 on the list of things to talk about is federal involvement in Washington, D.C.'s transit system," she said.
Asked whether statehood came up, Bowser said, "We talked about the things that are important to Washingtonians, and certainly becoming the 51st state is one of them."
On whether she'd be interested in an administration job, Bowser said, "I have the best job in Washington, D.C. I'm the mayor."
Trump is also scheduled to meet today with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R), who's reportedly a contender for U.S. ambassador to China, and conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham, who could be in line for an administration post.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046739
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Asbestos Use Dropped 16% in 2015 — USGS
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Gabriel Dunsmith
The U.S. Geological Survey has cataloged a gradual decline in domestic consumption of the carcinogenic mineral asbestos in 2015, even as the chloralkali industry took a larger chunk of the pie.
In a report released online today, USGS said that total asbestos consumption dropped to 343 tons last year, a 16 percent decline from 406 tons in 2014. The drop continues a yearslong trend and indicates that a phaseout or ban on the material — highly anticipated by environmental groups — is feasible.
Compared to 2011 levels, usage has dropped more than 70 percent.
Last week, U.S. EPA included asbestos in its list of 10 priority chemicals to regulate under the recently reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (E&E News PM, Nov. 29). But some public health advocates expressed concerns over President-elect Donald Trump's past comments supporting use of the material.
USGS indicated that the reason for the decline in asbestos use is largely economic.
"Domestic use of unmanufactured asbestos fiber continues to decline as alternative materials and new technology displace it from the few remaining markets," the chapter reads. However, global production of the mineral remained steady at just over 2 million tons.
And USGS also noted that domestic use of asbestos by the chloralkali industry ballooned to 95 percent of the total from 35 percent in 2010. The sector uses asbestos heavily in chlorine production, and health experts have expressed concerns about workplace exposure and industrial releases into the environment.
Inhalation of asbestos fibers is linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma and other respiratory ailments.
Linda Reinstein, president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, criticized continued use of the mineral.
"We know that the chloralkali industry, as the biggest user, continues to pressure the EPA for exemptions," she said. "Their unwillingness to give up a toxic chemical is reprehensible. ... Yes, [total use] is less, but we don't need any."
Daniel Flanagan, a mineral commodity specialist at USGS and author of the report, said "it wouldn't surprise me" if domestic use of the material continues to decline.
"There are alternative technologies out there to the asbestos membranes that the chloralkali industry is using," he said. His report suggests that the industry will soon begin adopting such alternatives on a broader scale.
The United States stopped mining asbestos domestically in 2002 and relies entirely on imports to furnish its supply. In 2015, all asbestos utilized in the United States originated in Brazil.
"What about the Brazilian miners in the pits, mining 350 tons for the United States to use?" Reinstein asked. "There's no safe use in a pit."
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046736
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EPA Has Data to Make PFCs Drinking Water Regulation Determination
Dec 6, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA has the necessary information to make a determination under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) on whether it should regulate two perfluorinated chemicals (PFC), an EPA water official told agency advisors recently, though he added he could not predict the outcome of the decisions, which would be made by the Trump administration.
"The short answer is, we now have the information we need to make that determination. The way the process works, we prepare a preliminary regulatory determination, then take comment and we go final with that determination," Eric Burneson, director of standards and risk management in EPA's water office, told the agency's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) at its most recent meeting in Washington, D.C. "I can't tell you -- and I think folks realize that it would be the next administration that makes this determination."
Burneson's Nov. 16 comments came in response to questions from one of the CHPAC members, Tom Neltner, chemicals policy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, following an EPA presentation on its May drinking water health advisories for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).
Neltner asked if "regulation [is] the next step for this" and noted that under SDWA, "they're sort of linked. One sort of queues up for another."
The May health advisories set lifetime exposure health advisory levels at 0.07 micrograms per liter (ug/L) for both chemicals, which translates to 70 parts per trillion (ppt), and EPA recommends the combined concentrations of PFOA and PFOS, if found together in drinking water, not exceed 70 ppt.
But the advisories are not binding, and EPA's drinking water chief Peter Grevatt suggested prior to their finalization that while PFOA and PFOS contamination may cause problems for local jurisdictions, monitoring data so far was not showing the chemicals to be nationally prevalent in water systems to the degree that would justify national regulations.
Before setting an enforceable drinking water limit, SDWA requires the EPA administrator to consider three criteria: the potential adverse effects of the contaminant on human health; the frequency and level of contaminant occurrence in public drinking water systems; and whether regulation of the contaminant presents a meaningful opportunity for reducing public health risks.
Burneson indicated that EPA now has the information needed for an administrator to consider such a determination. "If your question is . . . does this set up a regulatory determination for PFOA and PFOS -- going through the steps . . . we put PFOA and PFOS on the third [candidate contaminant list (CCL)], so they are contaminants that have been identified" as having a potential adverse health effect, Burneson said. "We did the monitoring under the third unregulated contaminant monitoring rule [(UCMR) 3] that just concluded last year. And now we have a health effects support document that underlies the health advisory, but it's also a peer reviewed risk assessment."
Risk Assessment
Burneson added the peer-reviewed risk assessment helps the agency with the question of adverse health effects, and the UCMR3 provides "nationally representative occurrence" data to answer the question as to whether the contaminants occur or are substantially likely to occur at levels of concern.
The agency's final CCL4, published in the Nov. 17 Federal Register, echoes Burneson's comments that the agency is prepared to make a regulatory determination about PFOA and PFOS.
Some commenters had urged EPA to remove PFOA and PFOS from the final CCL4 due to industry commitments to voluntarily reduce the use and production of the chemicals, but the agency in the Federal Register notice says "there are still a limited number of ongoing uses of PFOA and PFOS. Additionally, these chemicals are persistent in the environment and in the human body, which indicates they may be present in water or migrate to drinking water sources even after uses and production have been reduced or ceased, and therefore potential exposure may still be of concern."
The agency adds that "[i]n accordance with the SDWA, EPA will consider the occurrence data from the final UCMR 3 data set, along with the peer reviewed health effects assessments supporting the May 2016 PFOA and PFOS Health Advisories, to make a regulatory determination whether or not PFOA and PFOS require" National Primary Drinking Water Regulations.
Looking over the results of the UCMR 3 data, Burneson said it included sampling from 4,900 water systems across the country. Of those, 95 detected PFOS, with 46 at levels above EPA's health advisory, or 0.9 percent, Burneson said. For PFOA, 108 of the systems detected it, with 13 of them above the health advisory level, or 0.3 percent, Burneson said.
Neltner noted that occurrence data was "significantly fewer than you had for perchlorate," EPA's last regulatory determination under SDWA in 2011. The agency is now under a court-ordered deadline to propose a drinking water standard for perchlorate, after the agency missed the statutory two-year deadline.
Burneson clarified that because the health advisory recommends that PFOA and PFOS be considered together, the occurrence data should be combined. "I should note . . . we actually recommend that you add the concentrations together, and I've given you the individual percentages. I believe that when you add the concentrations together, the number comes up to about 1.2 percent of water systems across the country."
Burneson said perchlorate occurrence was at about 4.1 percent of water systems, leaving Neltner to note that the question of the third criteria, whether the administrator would consider the situation to represent one that regulation would present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction, is open.
Neltner said the experience with perchlorate "suggests different administrations make different judgment calls." The George W. Bush EPA determined in 2008 that there was insufficient risk reduction opportunity to regulate perchlorate, but the Obama EPA quickly decided in 2009 to reconsider that determination.
"No comment," Burneson said.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-has-data-make-pfcs-drinking-water-regulation-determination
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EPA Chief Defends Methane Regs as Cost-Effective
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Climatewire
By Emily Holden
U.S. EPA chief Gina McCarthy argued yesterday that if Republicans nix limits on methane emissions, they will forgo opportunities to lower electricity prices and level the playing field for businesses.
GOP lawmakers have said they intend to employ the rarely used Congressional Review Act to eliminate the agency's standards for new sources of emissions from the oil and gas industry, as well as a rule from the Interior Department controlling methane on public lands (Climatewire, Nov. 30).
EPA is collecting information about how to regulate existing oil and gas infrastructure but will not have time to finalize those rules before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
"This happens to be a rule that isn't just cost-effective but makes money. It lowers the cost of electricity," McCarthy said of the new source regulation, speaking at a Washington event hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.
"What they're leaking is not just a pollutant, but it's also their product," she said. Methane is a primary component of natural gas that escapes as it is pumped from underground and shipped by pipeline. It's also a greenhouse gas with powerful warming potential.
Scott Segal, an industry lawyer for the firm Bracewell LLP, called McCarthy's argument "semi-ludicrous."
"Natural gas companies know that natural gas is their product. That's why there's been tremendous adoption of technologies and methods of practice to reduce methane leakage," Segal said. "They want to get that natural gas to market."
He added that "EPA's a hammer, and everything looks like a nail." Not every environmental issue requires a federal regulation, he said.
Little contact from Trump team
EPA has not slowed down with its regulatory work. Even though the incoming Trump administration has vowed to stop rules on energy production, McCarthy said her team is pressing forward with background work to start limiting methane emissions from existing oil and gas sources.
The Trump transition team has yet to make substantive contact with EPA, McCarthy said yesterday. One individual reached out once a few days before Thanksgiving.
But when Trump's officials arrive, EPA wants to share information submitted in response to the 15,000 information-collection requests the agency sent out.
Her team will "talk about the many companies that are relying on us to provide a level playing field," she said, noting that "there are many natural gas developers and companies and distributors who want to purchase and produce natural gas in a way that is [environmentally beneficial]." Some of those businesses are already complying with state standards and might like to see their competitors regulated, too.
McCarthy said EPA officials dwelled on whether they needed more information about the industry and ultimately decided that they did in order to write rules that were cost-effective and legally sound.
EPA will "be able to provide the next administration with a lot more thoughtful information on the value of looking at existing facilities," she said.
People recognize that the shift to natural gas has been a boon to the economy and boosted job growth, McCarthy noted.
"I don't think those people want to see that interrupted because of a failure to implement a rule that is reasonable and appropriate" and protective of them, she said.
McCarthy pushed back, however, on the notion that the growth in natural gas is part of the Obama administration's legacy. She said the boom was due to market forces and that Obama has focused on lowering greenhouse gas emissions and boosting zero-carbon power. She also recognized that nuclear power generation does not emit greenhouse gases and said that as plants go offline, states will have to address how to replace them with green energy.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046695
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Protesters' Win 'a Wakeup Call' for Other Pipeline Projects
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel and Mike Lee
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe scored a temporary victory in its fight against the Dakota Access pipeline Sunday when the Obama administration said it was denying a permit.
But the win could have bigger implications for pipelines nationwide, which face an increase in sophisticated campaigns to derail infrastructure development.
Protesters from around the country have watched the demonstrations on social media and through traditional news outlets. Many of them have visited the temporary camp in North Dakota, where they picked up tactics and motivation.
Kate Baer, who is helping raise money to challenge the Diamond crude oil pipeline across Arkansas, spent five days in Standing Rock, she said in an interview.
"That really inspired me," she said.
How the game's played
Dakota Access is a 1,170-mile pipeline that would connect North Dakota's Bakken Shale oil field with refineries and other pipelines in Illinois. Its builder, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, had received most of the permits it needed from state and federal agencies when the Standing Rock protests started.
The pipeline was slated to cross under Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River, about a half-mile upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The tribe argued that it hadn't been fully consulted about the route and that construction could endanger the reservation's water supply and damage cultural sites on surrounding land that used to belong to the tribe.
The tribe sued in July, saying the Army Corps of Engineers improperly gave Energy Transfer a permit to bore the pipeline under the federally controlled lake. At the same time, thousands of protesters swarmed to a makeshift camp outside Cannon Ball, N.D., where they organized marches and other protests to block construction. The protests attracted national attention, including visits from Hollywood actors and statements of support from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
The suit is still pending, but on Sunday, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy ordered the Army Corps to conduct a broader environmental impact statement on the project. The corps will consider an alternate route as part of the review (Energywire, Dec. 5).
Thomas Ahern, a partner at public affairs firm Five Corners Strategies, said he has seen an uptick in community opposition that dates back about 15 years and has accelerated in the past five or six years. The company advises developers of solar, wind, and oil and gas projects.
The Dakota Access protesters' win, however fleeting, "should be a wake-up call to those companies that are trying to permit and access new pipeline projects," Ahern said.
"That a group of activists in the Dakotas could band together nationwide and cause that kind of pressure and change, regardless of what happens four months from now with a new administration, should be worrisome to anyone who's looking to move their permitting process in 2017," Ahern said.
And the coming of the Trump administration, which will leave the executive branch and both houses of Congress in Republican hands, may not help pipeline developers, he said.
"Most of the activists will be taking their advocacy, and their actions, and their member base [to] the state level," he said.
Ahern sees state and local governments as easier to influence than national regulators. A few hundred letters or phone calls can overwhelm a state official and change the tenor of conversations with a developer, he said, while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is accustomed to large-scale pushback.
From the company's perspective, he said, "it's a lot easier to deal with an agency like FERC, and your senator and your congressman, and to get support that way, than it is to go to 50 different towns along your pipeline route" holding open houses and coffee gatherings, only to be met by state officials worried about the level of local opposition they're experiencing.
Ahern pointed to some aspects of the Dakota Access fight that won't necessarily translate to other pipeline projects, like the water crossing permits controlled by the Army Corps. But more broadly, he said, social media has enabled advocates and activists to organize much more quickly and effectively than they could in the past, and those tools will continue to be applied to energy projects.
"The people who should be most motivated to get this done, they wait too long and they allow narratives to be built by opponents, they allow opposition to be built by activists, they allow communities to band together against them, all because they believe, 'Well, we'll have FERC on our side,'" he said. "That's not how the game's played anymore."
'The world was watching'
Individual pipeline protesters and landowners around the country were already facing off against police in some cases before the Standing Rock protests started, said Maya van Rossum, head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network in Pennsylvania. Activists in her state have disrupted government meetings, jammed hearings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and filed lawsuits to slow down construction of pipelines serving the Marcellus Shale gas field. But the Pennsylvania protests have been largely local affairs.
The Standing Rock protests — which featured hundreds of protesters confronting tear gas, rubber bullets and fire hoses — drew national attention. While there have been hundreds of arrests and sporadic reports of violence and vandalism, the North Dakota protesters typically used techniques honed during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, from mass marches to group prayers (Energywire, Oct. 13).
"The difference ... is the world was watching, and it was so large," van Rossum said. "Everybody can see the truth."
The Standing Rock tribe's legal action also could provide a path for other groups fighting pipelines, Eric Reed, an attorney, said at a press conference held yesterday by the Society of Native Nations in Dallas.
The tribe said the Army Corps broke the project into several segments and used its "nationwide" permitting system to grant permission each water crossing. The nationwide permits are intended for minor projects that have only small impacts and don't require the government to study the impact of the whole project.
"This segmentation process, which is unlawful and illegal, is going on everywhere in the United States where these projects are," Reed said.
Community groups in Arkansas are already using that argument against the Diamond pipeline. The 440-mile, $900 million pipeline is intended to connect an oil collection hub at Cushing, Okla., with a refinery in Memphis, Tenn.
Like the Dakota Access pipeline, the Army Corps has divided the Diamond line into several segments and issued a series of nationwide permits for each water crossing. Several of the crossings are close to the water supplies for towns along the route, the Arkansas Times reported last month.
After the North Dakota decision, the corps "may look at these permits more closely in the future, and may reconsider some of the permits that they have issued here in regards to Diamond Pipeline," Melissa Adams, an organizer for Arkansas Water Guardians, said in an email.
In the public eye
John Stoody, who leads government and public relations with the Association of Oil Pipe Lines in Washington, D.C., said his group does not expect to see protests like those that have characterized the Dakota Access pipeline build-out and the Keystone XL fight spread more broadly in the industry.
"We know that pipelines will stay in the public eye, and we know that we have work to do to share with the public how pipelines are a safe transportation mode," Stoody said.
But he put much of the responsibility for the drawn-out protests at Standing Rock on the shoulders of the Obama administration. "With the new administration coming in, tactics such as 'defeat by delay' will be harder to undertake, and we won't get to the same place we are with the current Dakota Access situation, where opposition was allowed to build and in some sense encouraged by continuing delay," he said.
President-elect Donald Trump and members of his team said he will clear the way for the project to move forward come January (Greenwire, Dec. 5).
Stoody said he expects a smoother development path for infrastructure development under the incoming Republican administration. "The current process takes some time, and that's OK; these projects deserve close study," he said. "But we do see an end to unwarranted delays after those review processes have been completed."
Cathy Landry, a spokeswoman for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, also predicted smoother permitting under the Trump administration. On the flip side, environmental groups have been using pressure on pipelines as a way to slow development of fossil fuels.
"I don't think that changes," she said in an email.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046715
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New Market Aims to Make Trading Natural Gas More Like Oil
Dec 6, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Sarah McFarlane
Two U.S. exchanges plan to launch derivatives that could make it easier to trade a type of natural gas, potentially revolutionizing this market in the way that the Brent and West Texas Intermediate benchmarks did for crude oil, according to people familiar with the matter.
The moves by CME Group Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc.come as increasing shipments of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. and elsewhere have helped create a spot, or short term market, for this commodity, which is transported on ships in liquid form.
Having a spot market makes it easier to launch futures contracts, which will attract a wider pool of investors while offering the sort of real-time prices currently available in oil, gold and many other major commodities. Companies and investors use commodities-futures markets to speculate on the price of a commodity and to hedge its risk against turns in the market.
Currently, buyers and sellers mainly agree to yearslong LNG contracts priced off oil, gas that is piped, and price reporting agencies’ data. There is no global price benchmark for LNG.
Since the late 1990s, the majority of the world’s oil has been priced off Brent, the international benchmark, and WTI, its U.S. equivalent. There are already several benchmarks for pipeline gas including the U.S.’s Henry Hub and Europe’s NBP and TTF markets.
In LNG, “you’re seeing an evolution toward more market-based pricing, but there hasn’t been that real consolidation around a couple of benchmarks yet,“ said Jason Feer, head of business intelligence at consultancy Poten & Partners. ”Oil was a fragmented market and then over time it consolidated around Brent and it consolidated around WTI,” he said.
To be sure, companies have already tried before to create LNG pricing benchmarks with limited success, including Japan OTC Exchange and the Singapore Exchange, better known as SGX.
But industry analysts say that the chance of success is greater with an increasingly large spot market underpinning the futures contract—an agreement to buy or sell an underlying asset.
The CME wants to launch a futures contract next year underpinned by U.S. Gulf Coast LNG exports, two people familiar with the matter said. ICE is also working on a U.S. Gulf Coast LNG futures contract, one of the people said.
Peter Keavey, managing director of energy products at CME Group, declined to comment on specific plans, but said the exchange is constantly talking to its customers about new products.
"There’s definitely an interest in creating a liquid and transparent spot market and then further down the road, from an exchange standpoint, a liquid futures contract would have to follow that liquid spot market,” Mr. Keavey said.
ICE declined to comment.
That spot market is being driven by a number of factors.
For a start, there is just more gas being consumed. Gas is expected to make up around one quarter of the world’s primary energy mix by 2040, up from around a fifth, according to the International Energy Agency. New buyers, including Jordan, Egypt and Pakistan emerged in 2015. Meanwhile, supply has exploded, mainly due to the U.S. shale boom and through new projects in Australia.
Earlier this year, Cheniere Energy Inc. exported the first U.S. LNG in decades through a terminal it converted for this purpose in Louisiana.
At least another four LNG export terminals are expected to start up on the U.S. Gulf coast in the next three years. That would bring U.S. capacity to over 60 million metric tons annually, compared with the world’s top exporter Qatar’s 77 million metric tons a year.
Energy major BP PLC predicts LNG will overtake pipeline gas as the dominant form of traded gas within the next two decades.
“The market will need to evolve and come up with different pricing mechanisms,” said Anatol Feygin, Cheniere’s chief commercial officer.
The new pool of gas and people to buy it has created a more actively traded spot market.
The spot market, defined as cargoes delivered within 90 days of a sale being agreed, made up around 15% of LNG trade in 2015, according to the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers.
There are signs that spot trades rose sharply this year. Bookings of LNG ships for less than a year—one indicator of spot market activity—have risen by 60% for the January-August period, compared with the same period last year, according to data from gas-shipping company GasLog Ltd.
Another factor boosting the LNG spot market is the growing participation of large trade houses. These giant commodities traders also helped create a global spot market in oil in the 1980s, earning U.S. trader Marc Rich the title ’the king of oil.’
Trade houses, including Trafigura Group Pte., Vitol Group and Gunvor Group, are buying and selling LNG in the spot market, adding liquidity.
“Traders have made a difference in boosting liquidity, we’re not the only factor but we’ve played a role,” said Hadi Hallouche, head of LNG at Trafigura.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/planned-futures-benchmark-could-revolutionize-lng-market-1481037093
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Fight Over Md. Fracking Ban Could End in Compromise
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Energywire
State lawmakers seeking a permanent ban on hydraulic fracturing in Maryland may settle for extending the existing moratorium on the oil and gas extraction technique.
Once Maryland's Legislature convenes Jan. 11, "I think in all likelihood we'll end up with a moratorium of some amount of time," said state Del. A. Shane Robinson (D), who has sponsored bills to ban hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in previous sessions.
The state's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has long taken a favorable view of fracking. An influential Democratic state senator, Joan Carter Conway, has also blocked past attempts to impose an outright ban on the practice.
Activists have staged demonstrations and put pressure on lawmakers who don't think a fracking ban is needed. But even state lawmakers stridently opposed to the practice, such as Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D), concede they will likely accept a moratorium if a ban falls through.
Supporters of a ban fear potentially harmful environmental side effects from fracking, such as groundwater contamination. Those who favor opening western Maryland to gas drilling point to the economic benefits of such activity and argue that any environmental risks can be mitigated.
Zirkin indicated he may push for a full vote on a fracking ban by introducing a bill through the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which he leads. "I believe this should and will get to the floor in one form or another," he said. "This issue is not going away quietly".
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046685
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EPA Says Oil Plume on Potomac River Came from Power Plant in Maryland
Dec 6, 2016 | Washington Post
By Katherine Shaver
An oily sheen discovered last week on the Potomac River — the source of much of the Washington region’s drinking water — came from a power plant in Dickerson, Md., the Environmental Protection Agency says.
It was unclear Tuesday whether the power plant owner, NRG Energy, would face any penalties. EPA spokeswoman Terri White said the agency typically tries to “recoup costs from the responsible party(ies)” in such cases but that the agency is now focused on working with the power company to remove the oil to protect water intake pipes for D.C.-area water filtration plants.
The EPA said the oily sheen has “diminished considerably” but that “degraded sheen” has been spotted “lodged in small, discreet spots” south of the plant.
Local water utilities are continuing stepped-up monitoring and other efforts that they say have prevented the oil from entering filtration plants that treat drinking water for the District and suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The water utilities put booms in the river last week to divert the oily water from their river intake pipes and are continuing more frequent testing of water in the river, inside the treatment facilities and before the drinking water is sent out to homes and businesses.
A team of a dozen or so investigators from the EPA and state and local environmental agencies have been interviewing business owners along the river to try to track down the source of the oil since it was discovered Nov. 27.
White, the EPA spokeswoman, said Tuesday that NRG notified the EPA and other environmental agencies about the sheen near its Potomac River discharge canal Nov. 27, but that NRG officials said the plant was not the source of the oil. Even so, she said, the EPA continued to consider the power plant as “a potential source.”
“They maintained they were not the source days into the event,” White said.
NRG spokesman David Gaier said the company, which has headquarters in New Jersey and Texas, “had no indication” Nov. 27 that the oil had come from its power plant but notified the EPA “out of an abundance of caution.” He said the company worked with the agencies to try to find the source and put booms in the river to prevent the oil from flowing downstream. The oil release “has been completely stopped,” Gaier said.
The spill was less than 150 gallons, both NRG and EPA officials said.
Gaier said the company didn’t believe the oil came from its plant in part because company officials had heard that the sheen also had been seen upstream from it. White said Tuesday that the EPA did not find any oil upstream from the plant.
Gaier said the company shut down one of its cooling water circulating systems on Nov. 27 “out of an abundance of caution” and shut down two more cooling systems Saturday. He said testing by the Coast Guard determined Monday that the oil in the river matched the oil that the plant uses to lubricate turbines.
Gaier said the company has determined that the spill resulted from “a mechanical failure of some sort” and that the water cooling systems could have caused the leaking oil to reach the river.
“This appears to be a mechanical failure, not a human error of any kind,” Gaier said.
Dean Naujoks, a spokesman for the Potomac Riverkeepers advocacy group, praised the EPA’s investigation, saying, “This sends a strong message that dumping any oil or pollution into the Potomac River is unacceptable.”
Even so, Naujoks said, he questions how the spill happened and when NRG took responsibility for it during an investigation that, so far, has spanned 10 days.
“The longer this went on,” Naujoks said, “the more tax dollars were spent dealing with it and responding to it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/12/06/epa-says-oil-plume-on-potomac-river-came-from-maryland-power-plant/?utm_term=.93d746eff77f
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Hackers Hunting for Energy-Tech Flaws See Cash on the Horizon
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Equipment suppliers to the power grid, water utilities and other U.S. infrastructure are warming up to a cybersecurity strategy once viewed as heretical: paying hackers who find security flaws in their products.
Honeywell International Inc., General Electric Co. and other major vendors have kept their distance from these reward programs, called "bug bounties." But a growing number of industrial automation companies see a chance to crowdsource the painstaking and costly process of combing through hardware and software for weaknesses.
With Microsoft Corp. and the Department of Defense offering their own bug bounties, cybersecurity experts think big industrial firms could come around to the idea.
"You've got Microsoft, Apple and Google that are doing it, so I see it as inevitable for the major automation suppliers," said Bryan Owen, principal cybersecurity manager at the operational technology firm OSIsoft, which is weighing the pros and cons of launching its own bug bounty program.
The logic for consumer-level companies is straightforward. If a friendly hacker alerts Microsoft to a critical flaw in the latest version of Windows, both parties can walk away happy: Microsoft can whip together a fix and push that out to millions of customers, and the hacker can walk away with up to $100,000 for his or her trouble, under the terms of the bug bounty.
That scenario gets more complicated for firms like OSIsoft or GE, however. Software running on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, or in an electrical control room, can't be updated at the drop of a hat. Patching physical hardware poses an even greater challenge: Cybersecurity mistakes baked into the original design of field equipment, rather than in the software running on it, may stick around for decades.
"Today, if someone finds a vulnerability, and a vendor fixes it lickety-split, what you'll find is that it's very hard for that fixed software to actually get deployed in the field," Owen said.
"Bug bounties will probably come after it's actionable for our customers," he said.
In the meantime, Owen said, companies can be receptive to hackers who want to help improve software rather than sell ways to break it on the black market. He pointed out that OSIsoft has an "ethical disclosure" policy for publicizing any software bugs brought to its attention by outside researchers.
'Painting a bullseye'
Many control system vendors like OSIsoft post an email address or online portal for security researchers to submit vulnerability reports. Such resources can help companies and hackers find some middle ground. Bug hunters might not see their efforts rewarded with cash, but at least they can expect to get a fair hearing. Hackers offering their unsolicited security research in the past have, on occasion, been met with threats of legal action.
The Department of Homeland Security offers a way for hackers to bypass the private sector and submit flaws in critical infrastructure equipment directly to the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), which acts as a clearinghouse for verifying and getting the word out about vulnerabilities.
While both ICS-CERT and private ICS vendors often credit helpful researchers by name, neither group hands out wads of cash in exchange for cybersecurity discoveries.
Adam Crain, founder of control system cybersecurity research and consulting firm Automatak LLC, pointed out in a recent exchange on Twitter that code quality would have to increase for bug bounties to bear fruit — otherwise, he tweeted, "the vendor is just painting a bullseye on themselves."
Crain stands among the top bug hunters in ICS-CERT's history, according to the agency's published figures, most recently zeroing in on a denial-of-service issue with some Siemens hardware.
For years, he has been careful to coordinate his work with the agency, so as not to put critical infrastructure at risk. But some hackers opt to go public with their findings before giving vendors or the U.S. government a fair shot at pushing out a fix.
Such behavior "is definitely not good for the security community. [It] makes us all look bad," Crain said. "That said, vendors need to develop a security posture that can deal with full disclosure."
Omar Santos, principal engineer for the Product Security Incident Response Team in Cisco Systems Inc.'s Security Research and Operations, said "not all of the relationships are going to be the same" with outsiders who share bugs with the company. "But we'd rather know about a vulnerability than find out that it's been exploited for three years," he said.
"The thing that keeps me up at night is not so much, 'Hey, this researcher just gave me two days to fix a vulnerability,'" Santos told E&E News. "What keeps me up at night are the vulnerabilities that are not being found."
The right fit?
Santos is a fan of bug bounty programs, and at least one Cisco subsidiary — cloud services provider Meraki — offers $100 to $2,500 to researchers for qualifying bugs. (Cisco opted to keep the program in place after acquiring Meraki in 2012.)
But Cisco, which provides networking equipment for critical infrastructure users and has jointly developed industrial technology with Rockwell Automation Inc. in the past, is still generally skeptical of rewarding hackers.
"As a whole at Cisco, the general philosophy is not to pay for any bug," Santos said. "Probably, to be honest with you, that will never happen."
For starters, he said, Cisco can afford its own team of security researchers. "We have Cisco employees who used to be folks who would report [vulnerabilities]," he said, noting that the company also tries to keep up good relations with ethical hackers.
Santos said most vulnerabilities in Cisco products are discovered and fixed in-house. He doesn't see how hackers could access refrigerator-sized routers and isolated, multimillion-dollar industrial components.
"For a researcher, that's going to be cost-prohibitive," Santos said.
To get around the issue, he said, Cisco has occasionally invited outside hackers and "penetration testers" to review its products. But such solutions can quickly outstrip the budgets of smaller vendors, a limitation Santos readily acknowledges.
"No company, it doesn't matter the size, is immune to vulnerabilities," he said. "The reason I say that I'm spoiled is that if we find vulnerabilities, I can have an engineer reverse-engineer the exploit."
Kevin Staggs, a senior engineering fellow at industrial automation giant Honeywell, said in an email that the company follows best industry practices "in making it easy for security researchers to report" their findings.
"Honeywell gives attribution to the reporting individual/company when a potential vulnerability is reported and a security update is released as a result," he said.
The company has stopped short of offering cash rewards for bugs, even as it accepts outside input. "We are willing to work with the security research community to responsibly and transparently respond to any suspected vulnerability in our products," Staggs said.
Same fears, different sizes
Not all bug bounties need cash to back them up. Ecava IGX, a Malaysia-based control system software provider, offers a "non-monetary" bug bounty program for its IntegraXor SCADA product line. Users can submit vulnerabilities in exchange for software licenses worth up to $3,999 and credit on Ecava's website.
"We don't believe in obscurity as security," Ecava co-founder K.P. Lee said in an email, noting that the bug bounty program is "still running very well as of today."
Brian Knopf, who directs "internet of things" security research for information services provider Neustar Inc., has handed out free equipment for researchers to hack into while he was designing internet-connected devices in the past.
"It was easy to me to send out a $300 router as opposed to a $3,000 bounty," he said. "As a researcher, one of the hardest things is just funding your budget to have something to work on. If I put [a device] in front of them, they're going to work on it."
Knopf now focuses on securing the fast-growing world of the internet of things, a category that encompasses billions of consumer-level devices that are smaller and cheaper than their industrial counterparts.
The two categories of equipment bear many similarities, from their core computer processors to their poor security reputations.
Knopf said industrial device manufacturers carry an extra dose of caution when it comes to bug bounties. "It's the same sort of fear [as with the internet of things], but just intensified: What are these hacker kids going to do to destroy this infrastructure?" he said. "What they don't realize is that many of us are professionals who do this for a living, who understand how to test critical infrastructure without destroying it."
Bug bounties have earned a cautious endorsement from senior U.S. officials in the Defense Department and DHS, which recently posted security principles for the internet of things (Energywire, Nov. 21).
Robert Silvers, assistant secretary for cyber policy at DHS, said that while bug bounty programs "may not be right for every single company," he considers them a "valuable tool" overall. Still, DHS does not yet offer bug bounties for hackers who find flaws in its own public-facing websites or programs.
"Anytime you can crowdsource to get the perspectives and approaches of many, as opposed to just those you have in-house, the more likely you are to catch vulnerabilities before the bad guys do," he said. "It's a good tool. I think we're seeing more and more companies look into bug bounty programs and adopt them — government agencies, too."
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046694
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Help with PTC Implementation: Supply Community Perspectives
Dec 5, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
There’s only about two years left for the dozens of freight and commuter railroads impacted by the Rail Safety Act of 2008 to meet the federal deadline for implementing positive train control (PTC). Or, nearly four years remaining for those roads that meet certain conditions for a two-year extension, such as the installation of all PTC hardware by 2018’s end.
When completed, PTC systems will be operating on about 60,000 route miles in the United States. The systems will include devices installed on 25,000 passenger and freight locomotives, or 90 percent of all motive power.
But before railroads reach the completion stage, teams of railroaders, manufacturers, software designers and safety experts will continue to toil full time to develop, test, validate and install the many complicated and interconnected pieces of PTC systems. The rail supply community offers many products and services — some of which are new or redesigned — to help railroads adopt the technology.
In November, Progressive Railroading sent the following question to dozens of positive train control (PTC) suppliers and service providers: How is your company helping railroads implement PTC, and how does that assistance factor into the rail industry’s efforts to adopt the technology by the end of 2018 or 2020?
The following 27 companies responded via email. Click on any company to read their response.
Alstom
Ansaldo STS
Dayton T. Brown
Fabricated Metals
Hemisphere GNSS
Herzog Technologies
HUBER+SUHNER
Interrail Inc.
LILEE Systems
LinkUP International
LTK
Maser Consulting
Meteorcomm
The Omnicon Group
Parsons
PS Technology
Rail Power Services
Siemens
Smiths Microwave/PolyPhaser
Snyder Equipment
Sunrise Camp PTC Services
Tech Mahindra
VHB
Wabtec
Wi-Tronix
Wilmore Electronics
ZTRhttp://www.progressiverailroading.com/rail_product_news/details/Help-with-PTC-implementation-Supply-community-perspectives--50223
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Ivanka Trump 'Very Committed' — Gore
Dec 6, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Hess
Former Vice President Al Gore praised Ivanka Trump's commitment to sensible climate policy last night, saying it was "certainly evident" during a brief conversation with the future first daughter at Trump Tower yesterday.
Although Gore was reluctant to go into detail about his conversation with President-elect Donald Trump or Ivanka Trump, Gore downplayed the risk of progress under the Obama administration being erased.
"I think the momentum is unstoppable now. We're winning this. We're going to win it," Gore told MSNBC's Chris Hayes. "But there is a serious question as to how fast we will win it."
Gore said the international agreement reached in Paris last year was designed to send a signal on global commitment to the issue.
"That signal has been received very powerfully. The mood worldwide has completely changed," Gore said, shrugging off the suggestion that Trump's victory chilled the mood at the latest round of United Nations climate negotiations.
Pressed for more details on his meeting at Trump Tower, Gore said he was choosing his words "carefully" in order to not give too many details and respect the privacy of the president-elect in the hopes of being invited back.
"It's no secret that Ivanka Trump is very committed to having a climate policy that makes sense for our country and for our world, and that was certainly evident in the conversation that I had with her before the conversation with the president-elect," Gore said.
The bulk of his visit was spent with the elder Trump (E&E News PM, Dec. 5).
"It was a very intelligent exchange," Gore said of the meeting.
Gore made his surprise visit to the Trump transition team's headquarters yesterday before kicking off his sixth annual "24 Hours of Reality" live broadcast in New York City.
Focused on the climate crisis in the 24 largest CO2-emitting countries, the celebrity-studded event ends tonight after a final hour on the United States that will include U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/12/06/stories/1060046729
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Dec 6, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Murray
Corporate leadership is driven by long-term economics, not by short-term politics.
This is why more than 365 businesses and investors recently called on President-elect Donald Trump and other United States leaders to “strongly support” the continuation of low-carbon policies and U.S. participation in the Paris climate agreement.
These business leaders – from big brands such as Dupont, General Mills, HP Enterprises, REI, Salesforce.com and Unilever – know that the pathway to job creation and economic growth is accelerating efforts to curb climate change. Changing course or our pace, they wrote, “puts American prosperity at risk.”
Smithfield Foods announcement yesterday that it will slash 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from its entire supply chain is further evidence that corporate America gets it.
In coming weeks and months, sustained private-sector leadership of this kind will be critical for shaping the thinking of the next administration, and for keeping the country on track toward a clean energy economy where innovation and technology advancements are king.
Businesses want to stay competitive
Corporate America will be watching closely as the incoming administration develops a range of policy proposals in coming months on energy, trade, infrastructure, tax reform and more.
Businesses of all shapes and sizes understand the importance of regulatory certainty, economic stability, and commitments from our political leaders that the U.S. will remain competitive in an increasingly interconnected world.
Nations today are ramping up investments in clean energy technology and building new partnerships to meet their carbon emission goals. It’s not in America’s interest to fall behind in this race.
None of this is lost on corporate America – nor should it be lost on Trump who prides himself of his business acumen and who campaigned on making American industry stronger.
The sustainability trend is accelerating
Our corporate partners routinely stress the importance of regulatory certainty for business planning, investment decisions and job growth.
I expect to see leading companies and investors continuing to stand up to support bedrock environmental protections critical not just for business, but also for public health and the overall economy. Several recent corporate announcements suggest their engagement is only accelerating.
On Dec. 5, Smithfield Foods became the first major protein company to announce a greenhouse gas reduction goal throughout its entire supply chain, from feed grain to packaged bacon. By 2025, the company expects to cut emissions by 4 million metric tons – equivalent to removing 900,000 cars from the road for a year.
Pepsi, which pioneered the concept of “performance with purpose” a decade ago, recently renewed its commitment to the philosophy with a new slate of sustainability goals. On the company’s impressive to-do list is a science-based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent across the company’s value chain, including its agricultural supply chain, by 2030.
Our long-time partner, Walmart doubled down on its commitment to sustainability leadership with a new set of 2025 goals in early November. The retailer committed to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 18 percent, cutting 1 billion tons of emissions from its global supply chain. That’s more than Germany’s annual emissions.
Microsoft announced its largest wind power purchase agreement to date with a deal to buy 237 megawatts of capacity from projects in Wyoming and Kansas. As a result, Microsoft’s data centers will get about 44 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and hydropower sources this year, and 50 percent in two years.
We believe that such business leadership – through science-based reduction targets, investments in renewables and operational and supply chain improvements that slash emissions – will continue to gain traction.
As my friend Andrew Winston pointed out in his recent blogfor Harvard Business Review, the economics support it and customers want it. And why sustainable business will move forward no matter what.
We all stand to gain when they do.
https://www.edf.org/blog/2016/12/06/general-mills-starbucks-walmart-and-other-big-brands-want-stay-course-climate-heres
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Google Says It Will Run Entirely on Renewable Energy in 2017
Dec 6, 2016 | The New York Times
By Quentin Hardy
Last year, Google consumed as much energy as the city of San Francisco. Next year, it said, all of that energy will come from wind farms and solar panels.
The online giant said on Tuesday that all of its data centers around the world will be entirely powered with renewable energy sources sometime next year.
This is not to say that Google computers will consume nothing but wind and solar power. Like almost any company, Google gets power from a power company, which operates an energy grid typically supplied by a number of sources, including hydroelectric dams, natural gas, coal and wind power.
What Google has done over the last decade, with relatively little fanfare, is participate in a number of large-scale deals with renewable producers, typically guaranteeing to buy the energy they produce with their wind turbines and solar cells. With those guarantees, wind companies can obtain bank financing to build more turbines.
The power created by the renewables is plugged into the utility grid, so that Google’s usage presents no net consumption of fossil fuels and the pool of electricity gets a relatively larger share of renewable sources.
“We are the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world,” said Joe Kava, Google’s senior vice president of technical infrastructure. “It’s good for the economy, good for business and good for our shareholders.”
Unlike carbon-based power, Mr. Kava said, wind supply prices do not fluctuate, enabling Google to plan better. In addition, the more renewable energy it buys, the cheaper those sources get. In some places, like Chile, Google said, renewables have at times become cheaper than fossil fuels.
Whether Google is the largest buyer of renewables would be difficult to verify, as many industries do not release data on how much energy they consume. There is no doubt, however, that Google’s large computer complexes, along with similar global operations by Amazon and Microsoft, are among the world’s fastest-growing new consumers of electricity.
Google hopes that success in working with large wind farms, like the 50,000-acre facility in Minco, Okla., which supplies Google’s large data center in Pryor, Okla., will spur development of the industry. NextEra Energy, which owns the wind farm, has about 115 wind farms in the United States and Canada.
About 25 percent of United States electricity goes to businesses, and companies like Google are now about 2 percentage points of that. Dominion Virginia Power, located in a state with perhaps the world’s largest concentration of data centers, last year had a demand increase from those customers of 9 percent, while overall demand was nearly flat, according to Dominion.
Google operates eight different businesses, including internet search engines, YouTube and Gmail, each of which has over 1 billion customers. They run on a global network of 13 large-scale data centers, each one a complex of many buildings containing hundreds of thousands of computers.
The 5.7 terawatt-hours of electricity Google consumed in 2015 “is equal to the output of two 500 megawatt coal plants,” said Jonathan Koomey, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance. That is enough for two 140,000-person towns. “For one company to be doing this is a very big deal. It means other companies of a similar scale will feel pressure to move.”
It moves the needle on costs to have a big consumer, Mr. Koomey added, since a larger market tends to allow for economies of scale and more innovation. “Every time you double production, you reduce the cost of solar by about 20 percent. Wind goes down 10 to 12 percent,” he said.
Facebook has entered into similar deals with wind producers. Last week, Amazon reiterated its long-term commitment to power its machines entirely with renewable energy, though for 2016 it expects to be above about 40 percent of its goal. It has announced five more solar projects.
Microsoft says it has been 100 percent carbon neutral since 2014, but much of this comes from the purchase of carbon offsets, which are investments in things like tree planting or renewables projects meant to compensate for the fossil fuels a company consumes. The company hopes to have half of its electric power supplied from wind, solar and hydroelectric sources by 2018. Its data centers currently use about 3.3 million megawatt-hours of power a year.
Google has long championed uses of alternative energy. In 2007, it patented an idea for a floating data center that would be powered by waves. It was never built. Less fanciful, but so far equally fruitless, have been schemes to source lots of geothermal power, or capture the high-velocity winds of the stratosphere with large kites. It also takes pride in the energy efficiency of its data centers.
Critics note that while Google might be adding wind and solar to the world’s power grid, overall it is still dependent on fossil fuels, since sun and wind power are intermittent, while demand for things like YouTube cat videos is continual.
“In my mind it’s a P.R. gimmick,” said Chris Warren, vice president of communications at the Institute for Energy Research, a think tank in Washington supported largely by donations from individuals and companies in the fossil fuel industry. “If they think they can actually support themselves with wind and solar panels, they should connect them directly to their data centers.”
Next year’s goal will be 95 percent accomplished with wind turbines around the world, Mr. Kava said, and Google’s support for the industry could keep prices dropping, particularly relative to things like coal. “We’re technology-agnostic, but we’re not price-agnostic,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/technology/google-says-it-will-run-entirely-on-renewable-energy-in-2017.html?_r=1
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