Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 12/29/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Announces Transition Chief for Research Office, New NCEA Director
Dec 29, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA has announced the Office of Research & Development (ORD) official who will serve as acting ORD chief during the transition to the Trump administration, while also naming the new director for the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) that includes its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program. -
(ACC Mentioned) Outlook Mixed for PVC, PET and Polystyrene
Dec 29, 2016 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
The North American PVC market would be happy if 2017 matched 2016. Elsewhere, as the year draws to a close, the regional PET market is doing OK, while the polystyrene market hopes that better days are ahead. -
(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemical Production Remains Flat in Q4, ACC Says
Dec 29, 2016 | Chemical Engineering
By Scott Jenkins
The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that headline global production was flat during November on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. -
(ACC Mentioned) ACC Releases November 2016 Resin Production, Sales Statistics
Dec 29, 2016 | Hydrocarbon Processing
US production of major plastic resins totaled 6.4 billion pounds during November 2016, a decrease of 0.4% compared to the same month in 2015, according to statistics released today by the American Chemistry Council. -
Pruitt’s Confirmation as EPA Chief Essential to Restoring Balance of Power
Dec 29, 2016 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Jason Pye
The early days of the 115th Congress will see a focus on a regulatory reform, as the House of Representatives seeks to reestablish Article I of the Constitution, which delegates lawmaking authority solely to the legislative branch. -
The Great Lakes Have Become a Dumping Ground for Millions of Pounds of Plastic
Dec 29, 2016 | Huffington Post
By Kate Abbey-Lambertz
About 21.8 million pounds of plastic flow into the Great Lakes each year, new research from the Rochester Institute of Technology shows. -
Dem AGs Warn Trump Against Repealing Obama’s Climate Rule
Dec 29, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A group of Democratic state attorneys general is warning President-elect Donald Trump against repealing the Clean Power Plan, saying it would lead to more lawsuits. -
Withdrawing Obama Climate Plan Would ‘Lead to More Litigation,’ AGs Warn Trump
Dec 29, 2016 | Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
Donald Trump has not yet taken office — but already, legal chess moves over how to dismantle President Obama’s signature climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, are being telegraphed. -
Climate: EPA Supporters Urge Trump to Reject 'Misguided' Advice to Revoke ESPS
Dec 29, 2016 | Inside EPA
Officials in 19 states and localities that support EPA’s greenhouse gas standards for existing power plants are urging President-elect Donald Trump to continue defending the regulation in court, warning that calls by the rule's state opponents to revoke the rule on “day one” are unlawful and will be vigorously resisted in court. -
Carbon Emissions in 2016 Expected to be Lowest Since 1992
Dec 29, 2016 | Fuel Fix (Blog)
By Ryan Handy
Carbon emissions from U.S energy sources in 2016 are expected to be the lowest in nearly 25 years, according to an analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy. -
Oregon Senators Praise FRA, UP Agreement on Safety Standards
Dec 29, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) issued a statement last week praising the announcement that the Federal Railroad Administration(FRA) has reached a safety-standard agreement with Union Pacific Railroad. -
2017 Freight Rail Outlook
Dec 28, 2016 | Railway Age
By William C. Vantuono
If 2016’s wild, throw-predictions-out-the-window runaway freight train of a Presidential election taught us anything, it’s that nothing is ever a given. As the old saw goes, never assume, because it makes an a—well, you get it. -
States Face Off Over Future of Obama Global Warming Plan
Dec 29, 2016 | The New York Times
By Associated Press
Two weeks after officials in two dozen states asked Donald Trump to kill one of President Barack Obama's plans to curb global warming, another group of state officials is urging the president-elect to save it.
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Announces Transition Chief for Research Office, New NCEA Director
Dec 29, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA has announced the Office of Research & Development (ORD) official who will serve as acting ORD chief during the transition to the Trump administration, while also naming the new director for the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) that includes its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program.
NCEA is a key center within ORD that operates EPA's influential Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) chemical assessment program as well as the risk analyses behind the agency's six national ambient air quality standards, such as the ozone and particulate matter limits. The IRIS program's assessments are often the scientific basis for EPA rules and other decisionmaking, and are referenced by agencies and decision-makers around the world.
Ahead of Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, sources described several new leaders within ORD that an EPA spokeswoman later confirmed -- though she declined to comment on changes yet to be finalized.
Among the changes, Bob Kavlock, deputy assistant administrator for science in ORD, will serve as the office's acting administrator until the Trump administration selects a political appointee, sources tell Inside EPA.
An agency spokeswoman confirms that “[i]n ORD, the first assistant position is currently the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science position, and, absent action by the President to designate someone, [Kavlock] will be Acting AA for any period when the AA position is vacant.”
Acting NCEA Director Michael Slimak recently announced that the agency has selected a new director for the center, Tina Bahadori, sources say.
The agency spokeswoman confirmed the appointment of Bahadori, who is currently national program director of EPA's chemical safety and sustainability research program.
Bahadori has been with EPA since 2012 and directs one of six cross-cutting research programs created by the last Senate-confirmed agency science advisor, Paul Anastas.
Her portfolio includes overseeing EPA's National Center for Computational Toxicology, an area of heavy investment for the agency. The technologies that it is developing and validating are seen as key to implementing EPA's new authorities under the overhauled Toxic Substances Control Act.
Bahadori, an exposure scientist, is past president of the International Society of Exposure Science and is an associate editor of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, according to the agency's website. She has served on several National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committees, as well as advisory committees to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ill-fated National Children's Study.
Prior to joining EPA in 2012, she was managing director for the chemical industry association American Chemistry Council's Long Range Research Initiative for nearly a dozen years.
Staff Changes
Bahadori was one of three finalists for the NCEA position vacated last summer when Ken Olden retired -- an the only finalist who was an internal candidate.
One of the other two finalists, Kristina Thayer, will also be joining ORD as the new director of IRIS, two sources tell Inside EPA. It is unclear what that move means for Vincent Cogliano, who has been the IRIS director since late 2010.
The agency spokeswoman declined to confirm information regarding the IRIS director position or Cogliano's role, saying only that, “We don’t comment on personnel decisions that haven’t been finalized.”
One source, however, says that Cogliano is moving to ORD's front office, where he will be working on issues relating to EPA's implementation of its new TSCA authorities under the revised law. Such a position would presumably be a liaison-type role, since the new TSCA authorities will be implemented by EPA's toxics office. ORD's role is generally a supporting one to the agency's program and regional offices.
Thayer will be moving from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, where she has served a number of management roles. She has played a key role in responding to calls from NAS and others for EPA and other agencies assessing environmental health risks by adopting systematic review methodologies to improve the transparency and logic of their analyses.
Thayer and her staff were involved in crafting the systematic review approach the office now uses in its monographs, and assisted the IRIS program in its efforts to craft a systematic review approach for that program as part of its reform efforts.
Prior to her current role, Thayer held positions in the NIEHS National Toxicology Program's Office of Liaison, Policy, and Review and the NIEHS Office of Risk Assessment Research. Before joining the NTP/NIEHS, she was a senior scientist at the World Wildlife Fund and the Environmental Working Group, according to NIEHS' website.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-announces-transition-chief-research-office-new-ncea-director
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(ACC Mentioned) Outlook Mixed for PVC, PET and Polystyrene
Dec 29, 2016 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
The North American PVC market would be happy if 2017 matched 2016. Elsewhere, as the year draws to a close, the regional PET market is doing OK, while the polystyrene market hopes that better days are ahead.
Through October, PVC was doing better than any other major North American commodity resin. U.S./Canadian PVC sales were up more than 5 percent, according to the American Chemistry Council in Washington.
PVC has seen domestic sales growth of almost 5 percent augmented by a surge of almost 7 percent in exports. Sales into its flagship rigid pipe and tubing sector were up almost 7 percent.
“We’re cautiously optimistic about next year,” an executive at a PVC maker said. “There could be some volatility, but in general the market should be up.
“The pipe market has been strong all year,” the executive added. “Siding also has been strong, but it’s been a little weaker here at the end.”
The executive also said that pipe and infrastructure could benefit from increased government spending in both the U.S. and Canada in 2017.
The North American PVC market is seeing growth based on housing, especially from single-unit housing that uses more PVC, according to Mark Kallman, a market analyst with Resin Technology Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.
“For next year, a lot of rhetoric about the [U.S. presidential] election points to infrastructure work and stronger GDP growth,” he said. “There are some good signs there and lots of ethylene [feedstock] coming on, so it could be a good all-around situation.”
Kallman cited home remodelers’ use of PVC siding, deck and fencing as a growth area for 2017. Continued low feedstock costs in the region should allow PVC makers like Shintech Inc. to continue to export the material from the U.S. to other parts of the world, he added.
Both Kallman and the PVC executive added that PVC maker Westlake Chemical’s recent acquisition of rival Axiall Corp. will continue to affect the regional market in 2017. “You’ve got cases where Westlake and Axiall were competing, and now their people have to call each other and ask for a quote on material,” the executive said.
Phil Karig, managing director of the Mathelin Bay LLC consulting firm in St. Louis, said that PVC saw “robust demand growth in 2016” as the U.S. housing market remained relatively strong, combined with exports of low cost PVC.
“Absent a total collapse in world oil prices, PVC exports should continue at a healthy clip in 2017,” he added in an email. PVC demand from the housing market will depend on whether higher mortgage interest rates are offset by increases in consumer and business demand related to government spending on infrastructure.
“Beyond exports, as long as the housing market continues to grow, housing related PVC uses in general and PVC pipe in particular will continue to be strong in 2017,” he said.
Karig added that PVC makers are bringing on new capacity “at a more measured rate” than the polyethylene market, and they’re not facing “the constant threat of lower cost imports” as is the case in the polypropylene market. As a result, he said, PVC profit margins “are currently more defensible and sustainable” than they are in most of the other major commodity resin markets.
Polystyrene struggles
The North American PS market struggled a bit in 2016, with sales through October down almost 1 percent compared to the same period in 2015, according to ACC. Sales into food packaging and food service — its largest end market — were up almost 1 percent.
“We anticipate continued growth in food service applications as polystyrene remains the ideal choice,” said Brad Crocker, president of PS maker Americas Styrenics in The Woodlands, Texas. “It’s easy to process and has unique insulating properties that helps keep food safe for consumption.”
He added in an email that AmSty also expects to see 2017 PS growth in North American electronics/appliance demand, as North American production advantages and workforce efficiency will lead to increased PS demand in durable applications.
“The current low crude environment helps to ensure polystyrene remains both the economical and value-added choice for converters,” Crocker said. “Although we can’t predict what will happen with benzene in 2017, AmSty will continue to focus on delivering value to our customers through understanding inter-material dynamics, resin supply and demand and inherent product value.”
Market analyst Robin Chesshier of RTI said that PS likely will face some challenging feedstock issues in 2017. “Styrene monomer supply has been very tight for 18 months, and it really hasn’t got better,” she said. “For most of [2016], the polystyrene price was moving with the benzene price. But now it looks like it’s moving with supply and demand.”
Chesshier added that those conditions have kept PS prices relatively high and that “the longer the [PS] price stays elevated, we could see more processors look to switch to other resins.”
At October’s Global Plastics Summit in Chicago, market analyst Priya Ravindranath pointed out that PS remains priced higher than most commodity resins and still is seeing low growth. Global PS demand peaked in 2004, at which point prices went up as a result of similar high prices for benzene feedstock, said Ravindranath, who’s with IHS Chemical in Houston.
She added that the North American PS field is seeing some growth in electrical and appliance uses from Mexico. Northeast Asia is seeing some PS demand growth as well, Ravindranath said.
Increased use of shale gas has helped some plastics, she explained, but it’s negatively impacted PS by lower benzene production. Lighter feeds like natural gas produce less benzene than heavier feeds like crude oil do.
In spite of these challenges, AmSty’s Crocker remains optimistic about 2017. “Going forward, AmSty will continue to focus on the importance of sustainability to our customers and their customers,” he said, adding that the firm “is very excited” about efforts like the Foam Recycling Coalition grant that should increase foam recycling throughout North America.
He’s also enthusiastic about and the emergence of plastics-to-feedstocks technologies that offer innovative in-kind recycling solutions for PS.
“Plastics-to-feedstocks seems to have a unique fit with polystyrene and offers a very compelling end-of-life solution,” Crocker said. “With the millennial generation positioned to be the largest generation in U.S. history, sustainability is likely to grow in importance throughout the entire food service value chain.”
PET 'relatively good'
On the PET side, resin maker DAK Americas sees 2016 as “a relatively good year” with North American demand growth of 2 to 2.5 percent, according to resins sales and marketing director John Cullen. PET demand from the carbonated soft drink end market — its largest usage — “reached the bottom of the slowdown” in 2015 and was flat in 2016 and should be flat in 2017 as well, he added.
Bottled water demand continues to grow, but resin demand for that application is up only 3 percent because of thinner bottles that use less PET. Even so, he said “consumers are drinking more and more bottled water.”
Demand for PET in custom containers for a variety of foods also is growing, Cullen said.
“There’s been a lot of innovation and growth in the custom area for sauces and other products,” he said. “There’s been development on food barrier technology vs. glass and some good and innovative designs.”
At the GPS event, IHS Chemical analyst Tison Keel was a bit less optimistic on North American PET growth, seeing annual demand as flat in recent years. North American PET demand “has run its course in replacing glass and aluminum,” he said.
“Consumer preferences are moving away from [carbonated soft drinks]. People are listening to what medical experts are telling them.”
Some market watchers see the North American PET market as oversupplied, but M&G group is adding more than 2 billion pounds of PET capacity in the first half of 2017 at a new plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. Some of the plant’s PET output will be shared with Charlotte, N.C.-based DAK.
“We’re still seeing 2 to 3 percent growth for a market approaching 10 billion pounds [of demand], so there’s a need for new capacity and a need to invest long-term,” Cullen said. In Keel’s view, the opening of the Corpus Christi site “will result in a hyper-competitive environment” for North American PET. He also expects some older PET capacity in the region to be closed.
Keel also is seeing a response by North American PET makers to back-integrate into feedstocks in order to improve their supply chain and increase profit. Each of the four remaining firms have made investments into feedstocks since 2010, he said. When M&G completes a new PTA feedstock facility in Corpus Christi, both M&G and DAK will be fully back-integrated, Keel added.
“If we can make raw materials better, that gives us a competitive advantage,” Cullen said. “We’ve back-integrated for a long time, and now we’re seeing Indorama do it and now M&G is following that course. Having more control over cost is an important aspect of the business.”
DAK also has recovered from Hurricane Matthew, which caused its PET production in Fayetteville, N.C., to be down for about two weeks in October. The hurricane “wreaked havoc with the Southeast,” Cullen said. “We got 15 inches of rain in 24 hours in Fayetteville. It eroded the ground under the railroad tracks and we had to bring in 1,200 truckloads of dirt to replace it.”
“Our transportation networks were offline for about a week, but there was no permanent damage to the site and we were able to supply our customers from other locations,” he added.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20161229/NEWS/161229937/outlook-mixed-for-pvc-pet-and-polystyrene
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemical Production Remains Flat in Q4, ACC Says
Dec 29, 2016 | Chemical Engineering
By Scott Jenkins
The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that headline global production was flat during November on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This follows two months of decline and fairly good gains last year. During November, chemical production increased in North America, Latin America, and Central & Eastern Europe but fell in Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions. Chemical production was flat in Africa & Middle East. The Global CPRI was up only 0.4 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 108.1 percent of its average 2012 levels in September.
During November, capacity utilization in the global business of chemistry declined 0.1 percentage points to 78.3 percent. This is off from 80.5 percent last November and is below the long-term (1987-2015) average of 89.1 percent.
Results were mixed on a product basis during November, with gains in consumer products, inorganic chemicals, plastic resins, synthetic rubber, coatings, and other specialties. Considering year-over-year comparisons, growth was strongest in coatings followed by plastic resins, and other specialty chemicals.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the business of chemistry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98 percent of the total global business of chemistry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the US CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.
http://www.chemengonline.com/global-chemical-production-remains-flat-in-q4-acc-says/
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(ACC Mentioned) ACC Releases November 2016 Resin Production, Sales Statistics
Dec 29, 2016 | Hydrocarbon Processing
US production of major plastic resins totaled 6.4 billion pounds during November 2016, a decrease of 0.4% compared to the same month in 2015, according to statistics released today by the American Chemistry Council. Year-to-date production was 72.7 billion pounds, a 1.8% increase as compared to the same period in 2015.
Sales and captive (internal) use of major plastic resins totaled 6.5 billion pounds during November 2016, an increase of 5.2% from the same month one year earlier. Year-to-date sales and captive use was 72.7 billion pounds, a 1.5% increase as compared to the same period in 2015.
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2016/12/acc-releases-november-2016-resin-production-sales-statistics
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Pruitt’s Confirmation as EPA Chief Essential to Restoring Balance of Power
Dec 29, 2016 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Jason Pye
The early days of the 115th Congress will see a focus on a regulatory reform, as the House of Representatives seeks to reestablish Article I of the Constitution, which delegates lawmaking authority solely to the legislative branch. Passage of legislation to rein in the regulatory state, however, is only one part of this important effort.
Bills like the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, and the Midnight Rules Relief Act are likely to see quick passage out of the House. Each of these worthy measures passed the House in the 114th Congress only to languish in the Senate.
While procedural hurdles could continue to stall these bills in the upper chamber, a proxy battle in the war against the regulatory state will come by way of the confirmation process for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Regulatory overreach is not a new threat to the constitutional separation of powers and the prosperity of the American people. President George W. Bush, as explained by Veronique de Rugy in January 2009, “was the biggest regulator since Nixon.” According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews, the Bush administration issued 390 “economically significant” regulations -- those with an annual cost of $100 million or more -- over eight years.
But the Bush administration’s regulatory agenda pales in comparison to that of President Obama. In less than two terms, Sam Batkins of the American Action Forum explained in August, the Obama administration had issued 600 economically significant regulations, with a cost of $743 billion.
“President Obama could easily top 650 major rules by the time the next president takes the oath of office (31 percent more than his predecessor),” Batkins wrote. “What will the final tally be for major regulations? To date, the administration’s major rules have cost, on average, $1.4 billion. With the possibility of 50 more rules, the lame duck tally could push this regulatory cost figure to $813 billion ($743 billion base plus $70 billion in future rules).”
Promulgating nearly 4,000 rules since 2009, the EPA is one of the worst offenders of this regulatory avalanche. Among the most controversial rules the EPA has issued is the Clean Power Plan, which, through purported authority claimed under the Clean Air Act, requires states to develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent of 2005 levels. The rule, which is aimed at the coal industry, is estimated to avert a fraction of a degree of temperature increases by 2100.
The annual cost to the energy sector to comply with the Clean Power Plan is estimated to be between $41 billion to $73 billion. These costs, of course, will be passed off to consumers in the form of higher energy prices. For states like West Virginia and North Dakota, this could mean average price increases of 43 percent and 33 percent. Missouri and Montana could see an increase of 24 percent, while Pennsylvania and Ohio may see increases of 17 percent and 15 percent. Interestingly, these states are represented by vulnerable Senate Democrats who are up for re-election in 2018.
States dependent on the coal industry have already been ravaged by the Obama administration’s policies. But the Clean Power Plan, could cost the industry nearly 126,000 jobs. This is an alarming reality for labor unions dependent on coal, which is why the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and United Mine Workers of America have joined the 27-state lawsuit against the EPA to halt the rule.
Pruitt, who also sued the EPA over the Clean Power Plan, will have the opportunity to reverse the trend of over-regulation. Unlike most bureaucrats, the Oklahoma attorney general believes that states should have the power to regulate industries based on their own needs, not have bureaucrats in Washington dictate rules to them. He also believes in a balance between regulation and prosperity, one that has been absent during the Obama administration.
Those in the Senate -- Democrat or Republican -- who vote against Pruitt’s confirmation will be siding with radical environmentalists who are actively seeking to undermine prosperity and opportunity for all Americans.
Jason Pye (@Pye) is the director of public policy and legislative affairs for FreedomWorks, a limited government group headquartered in Washington, D.C. representing more than 6 million members nationwide.
https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/312059-pruitts-confirmation-as-epa-chief-essential-to
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The Great Lakes Have Become a Dumping Ground for Millions of Pounds of Plastic
Dec 29, 2016 | Huffington Post
By Kate Abbey-Lambertz
About 21.8 million pounds of plastic flow into the Great Lakes each year, new research from the Rochester Institute of Technology shows.
Lead author Matthew Hoffman, assistant professor of mathematical sciences, calculated the estimate in Inventory and Transport of Plastic Debris in the Laurentian Great Lakes paper, which the Marine Pollution Bulletin journal published online this month. It’s the first attempt to determine the total amount of plastic waste entering the world’s largest freshwater system, he said.
Over half of the plastic debris, or 5,300 metric tons, has ended up in Lake Michigan yearly, study estimates found. That’s equivalent to 100 Olympic-sized pools full of plastic bottles, the researchers said.
They calculated the amount of plastic flowing into the lakes using population totals along the shores of each of the five lakes and existing estimates for the amount of plastic waste individuals produce and how much of that ends up reaching water. The formula is based on one that researchers used last year in a study that estimated about 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans annually.
Though their totals make sense compared to the ocean numbers, the quantity is still “startling,” Hoffman said.
“The size, I think, is the first thing that jumped out at me,” he told The Huffington Post.
Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Coastal Forecast System the research team simulated the movement of plastic particles entering the lakes between 2009 and 2014 to see where currents carried them.
A video of their data simulation shows plastic particles entering and moving through Lake Erie in 2009:
Hoffman originally wondered if they’d find any indication that debris collects in specific areas of the Great Lakes, similar to the “garbage patches” formed in the Pacific Ocean by current and wind movement. Instead, they found that while particles do occasionally accumulate, sustained wind events periodically pushed them to shore.
The difference might actually make it easier for people to care about the environmental effects of plastic pollution, Hoffman suggested.
“Abstractly, this feels awful, but it’s also far away from us,” he said about garbage collecting in the middle of the ocean. “In the Great Lakes, it’s coming back on the shores and we’re going to encounter it a lot more as humans.”
Plastic makes up more than 80 percent of the garbage that litters Great Lakes beaches, another study found last year. Hoffman said plastic’s impact on the environment, animals and humans is “still one of the big unknowns.”
“We hope that this is a good first step in spurring other studies, other interest in the Great Lakes,” Hoffman said.
Environmentalists and researchers have, in recent years, called attention to the problem of microplastics getting into lakes, rivers and the oceans. Tiny particles of plastic, called microbeads, have been used in products like exfoliating face wash and aren’t always effectively captured by waste treatment plants. A 2013 study that counted microplastics in several sample areas of the Great Lakes found an average of 43,000 particles per square kilometer.
Companies including Unilever pledged to phase out microbeads, several Great Lakes states considered bans and President Barack Obama signed legislationlast year that will prohibit microbeads in rinse-off cosmetics. However, a loophole allows companies to continue using microbeads in other products, from detergents to sandblasting materials. It also didn’t apply to other types of plastic debris, like microfibers ― one source of those is fleece clothing, which sheds tiny plastic fiberswhen you wash it.
“The microbeads were definitely an issue, but that’s not all the plastic that’s getting in” the Great Lakes, Hoffman said. “That hasn’t been solved. … With the microbead ban, there’s a tendency to feel like, we did something. Which is great, but there’s still more that needs to be done.”
Hoffman acknowledges that their calculations are only estimates. Their model doesn’t account for a number of variables that could affect how plastic travels in the lakes, including particles’ size and type, their vertical movement and specific weather events. However, they compared its outputs to earlier research that collected actual samples of plastic debris in small areas of the lakes and found that their results were a decent match at most of the sample sites.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/great-lakes-plastic_us_586502c0e4b0de3a08f73d20
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Dem AGs Warn Trump Against Repealing Obama’s Climate Rule
Dec 29, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A group of Democratic state attorneys general is warning President-elect Donald Trump against repealing the Clean Power Plan, saying it would lead to more lawsuits.
The group, led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) and representing 14 states and five localities, wrote Thursday that it is in Trump’s best interest to preserve Obama’s climate change rule for power plants and continue defending it in federal court.
They stopped short of threatening to sue Trump if he tries to unwind the rule, but guaranteed him that someone would sue.
“We advocate that you reject misguided advice that the Clean Power Plan be discarded; advice that, if followed, would assuredly lead to more litigation,” they wrote.
“Instead, we urge you to support the defense of this critically-important rule and the implementation of its carefully constructed strategies to reduce emissions from the nation’s largest sources.”
The letter came in part as a response to advice from West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), the leading litigator fighting the Clean Power Plan.
Morrisey and other Republican state attorneys general told Trump earlier this month that he should issue an order on his first day in office instructing the EPA to stop working to enforce the rule, and then take other long-term steps to fully repeal it and make sure a future president can’t reinstate it or a similar regulation.
Repealing the rule was one of Trump’s main energy policy promises on the campaign trail. He has nominated Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general and another leading challenger of the Clean Power Plan, to head the EPA.
But Schneiderman and other Democrats said repeal would be a bad idea.
“Following such a course would be ill-conceived and contrary to law,” they wrote. Among the Democrats’ arguments are that the legality of the rule has not been settled, an executive order cannot repeal a regulation and Trump ought to consult with stakeholders about the impact of repeal first.
Most in the coalition are participating in the current litigation to defend the Obama administration, and many have sued previous administrations to force stronger environmental protections.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/312095-dem-ags-warn-trump-against-repealing-obamas-climate-rule
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Withdrawing Obama Climate Plan Would ‘Lead to More Litigation,’ AGs Warn Trump
Dec 29, 2016 | Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
Donald Trump has not yet taken office — but already, legal chess moves over how to dismantle President Obama’s signature climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, are being telegraphed.
It started on Dec. 14 with a letter to Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan from West Virginia’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, and allied attorneys general from largely conservative states who have opposed and sued over the plan. They suggested several steps to undermine the regulation as soon as the president-elect takes office, including an “executive order on day one” that rescinds the rule and tells the EPA not to enforce it because it is “unlawful.”
The conservative AGs also urged Trump’s and Pence’s consideration of whether to “seek to stay or resolve” court cases that are currently pending over the plan. The Clean Power Plan is being weighed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which could rule on it soon. The note seemed to imply the possibility of the new administration ceasing to defend the rule in court and instead perhaps seeking a settlement with those opposing it.
Notably, the letter was not signed by Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, who has been tapped as Trump’s EPA head and who was previously part of the team of attorneys general suing over the Clean Power Plan.
But their view of the law is hardly undisputed. A band of attorneys general from more liberal states, led by New York’s Eric Schneiderman, wrote to President-elect Trump on Thursday, contesting that these kinds of moves are legally permissible.
When it comes to the pending litigation before the D.C. Circuit, they say, “be assured that we would vigorously oppose in court any attempt to remand the Clean Power Plan back to EPA so late in the litigation, and prior to a decision from the Court on the merits of the claims.” The attorneys general behind the letter include not only Schneiderman but California’s Kamala Harris, Massachusetts’s Maura Healey and several others.
As for a Trump executive order to declare the rule unlawful and stop EPA from enforcing it, they write, “history and legal precedent strongly suggest that such an action would not stand up in court.” The letter argues that a court will have to rule on the legality of the Clean Power Plan one way or another and that there’s little way to short circuit this — indeed, the D.C. Circuit could even rule before Trump takes office.
“We advocate that you reject misguided advice that the Clean Power Plan be discarded; advice that, if followed, would assuredly lead to more litigation,” write the attorneys general.
It all amounts to two views of how vulnerable this major regulation is to reversal under Trump — and sets the stage for one of the biggest, and perhaps longest running, environmental battles of his administration.
The Clean Power Plan, finalized and published in the federal register in October, is not susceptible to one of the bluntest tools for attacking a finalized regulation — the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress (allied with a sympathetic president) to essentially nullify federal regulations — if they are released late enough in a president’s final term — in the legislative body’s next session.
The plan is certainly vulnerable to being overruled in the D.C. Circuit or Supreme Court. But proponents say they’re confident about its chances in these venues because they think the EPA has been flexible enough in outlining the plan and won’t be considered to have acted in an arbitrary way.
And it’s vulnerable to a long-term, laborious process called “notice and comment rulemaking,” which essentially would mean remaking the regulation in a different form, through the same regulatory process by which it was originally designed.
“To rescind or modify the Clean Power Plan, the EPA administrator must issue a new proposed rule, explaining in detail the changes from prior legal interpretations and factual findings that it wishes to make, and why those changes are justified,” writes attorney David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The conservative attorneys general admit this, writing that to “actually withdraw the Rule, there will need to be formal administrative action.” Such action would play out over the course of Trump’s first term, and perhaps even longer. And when it’s finalized, environmental groups — and Schneiderman’s band of more liberal attorneys general — would again have the chance to sue.
All of that, really, is the long game. But the key thing to watch now, based on this series of letters, is the short one. It will turn on whether the D.C. Circuit has time to rule before the incoming Trump administration takes office, whether that administration tries any of the aforementioned steps — and finally, whether this does indeed lead straight back to court.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/29/withdrawing-obama-climate-plan-would-lead-to-more-litigation-ags-warn-trump/?utm_term=.c882a7373a0f
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Climate: EPA Supporters Urge Trump to Reject 'Misguided' Advice to Revoke ESPS
Dec 29, 2016 | Inside EPA
Officials in 19 states and localities that support EPA’s greenhouse gas standards for existing power plants are urging President-elect Donald Trump to continue defending the regulation in court, warning that calls by the rule's state opponents to revoke the rule on “day one” are unlawful and will be vigorously resisted in court.
If Trump were to follow the advice recently laid out by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) and other states, it would be “ill-conceived and contrary to law,” the coalition of supporting states writes in a Dec. 28 letter to the president-elect.
The coalition of supporters is led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D), who is joined by 13 other states -- California, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington -- as well as the District of Columbia; Boulder, CO; New York City; Broward County, FL; and South Miami, FL.
Their message echoes that of environmentalists, who have similarly warned they will fight any efforts to roll back the power plant rule or other climate measures -- such as EPA's GHG endangerment finding -- in court.
The supporting coalition outlines several reasons why the advice of Morrisey and other opponents of the rule -- outlined in the Dec. 14 letter to Vice Preisdent-elect Mike Pence and Republican congressional leaders -- is “misguided.”
First, they note challenges over the legality of the Obama EPA’s rule, known as the power plant existing source performance standards (ESPS) or the Clean Power Plan, will have to be resolve by the courts “one way or another.”
“If the challengers are so confident in their oft-repeated claim that the Clean Power Plan is ‘unlawful,’ why not let the court decide the claims that they themselves brought?” the letter reads, adding, “Be assured that we would vigorously oppose in court any attempt to remand the Clean Power Plan back to EPA so late in the litigation, and prior to a decision from the Court on the merits of the claims.”
The coalition in its letter also rejects calls from opposing states that President-elect Trump should issue an executive order on his first day in office rescinding President Barack Obama’s memorandum directing EPA to issue the ESPS. Opponents of the rule suggest this executive order should also instruct EPA to “take no further action to enforce or implement the rule.”
But the coalition of supporting states vows to challenge such an action in court and argues the executive order would likely not survive a legal challenge. “[A]n executive order purporting to nullify the Clean Power Plan would contravene EPA’s statutory obligation under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act,” the states and localities write. They later add: “Thus, rather than take executive action that would only lead to new litigation, the far more efficient path is to let the present litigation run its course.”
In addition to refuting opposing states’ advice for the president-elect, the coalition of supporting states also urge Trump to “consult various stakeholders” before committing to a rollback of Obama administration climate policies. The states and localities note climate change “is damaging every area of the country.”
“For this reason, it is crucial that we have a seat at the table for any such discussions, so that you may hear from those states, counties, and cities with a successful track record modernizing the electricity sector and using innovative -- and often market-oriented -- solutions for cost-effectively reducing carbon pollution,” the letter adds.
Nonetheless, it is unlikely the Trump administration would continue to defend the ESPS in court, given pledges from the transition team to revoke the regulation. In addition, Trump nominated staunch ESPS opponent Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) to head EPA, a choice that sets the stage for a broad dismantling of the Obama EPA’s climate policies.
https://insideepa.com/the-daily-feed
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Carbon Emissions in 2016 Expected to be Lowest Since 1992
Dec 29, 2016 | Fuel Fix (Blog)
By Ryan Handy
Carbon emissions from U.S energy sources in 2016 are expected to be the lowest in nearly 25 years, according to an analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Carbon emissions for the first six months of 2016 hit a record low — emissions were 2,530 million metric tons, which was the lowest for the first half of a year since 1991. An analysis by the department’s Energy Information Administration attributes the drop to mild weather and the shift from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas and renewable energy in U.S. power production. .
Warmer winter weather during the first six months of this year kept demand for heating fuels, like natural gas and heating oil, lower. Overall, the winter of 2016 had the fewest heating degree days since 1949 — heating degree days are the number of days when temperatures drop below 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
But changing energy sources also helped drive emissions down to a record low. Coal consumption dropped during the first six months of 2016, by 18 percent. This fall, the EIA said that coal production in the U.S. was on track to be the lowest since 1978.
The use of wind energy, hydroelectric power and solar energy also increased during the first six months of 2016. Most of the increase in renewable power came from wind energy, but hydroelectric power also increased as drought conditions lessened on the West Coast.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/12/29/carbon-emissions-in-2016-expected-to-be-lowest-since-1992/
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Oregon Senators Praise FRA, UP Agreement on Safety Standards
Dec 29, 2016 | Progressive Railroading
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) issued a statement last week praising the announcement that the Federal Railroad Administration(FRA) has reached a safety-standard agreement with Union Pacific Railroad.
UP agreed to additional inspections and maintenance improvements following a fiery crude-oil train derailment last June in Mosier, Ore. The incident occurred as the train was traveling through the Columbia River Gorge.
Although no one was injured, the FRA said the railroad hadn't been following its own inspection rules, according to a report by the Associated Press. The FRA is still investigating the accident.
After the derailment, Wyden and Merkley called on the FRA to halt crude-oil traffic through the Columbia Gorge until the cause of the Mosier accident was fully analyzed.
"We welcome the Federal Railroad Administration's decision to hold Union Pacific to higher safety standards following the disastrous oil train derailment in Mosier this year. While banning oil trains from the Columbia Gorge is the only way to completely eliminate future derailments, this agreement has the potential to significantly improve railroad safety — something we have been calling for since 2014," the senators said in their prepared statement.
They will review the compliance agreement to "to ensure it helps protect communities near train tracks, and will closely monitor its enforcement to ensure the Trump administration upholds the agreement's requirements," they added.
"We also expect the FRA to complete its investigation of the Mosier accident and to make further changes to strengthen or add safety measures to the agreement if the investigation warrants them," the senators said.
http://www.progressiverailroading.com/safety/news/Oregon-senators-praise-FRA-UP-agreement-on-safety-standards--50488
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Dec 28, 2016 | Railway Age
By William C. Vantuono
If 2016’s wild, throw-predictions-out-the-window runaway freight train of a Presidential election taught us anything, it’s that nothing is ever a given. As the old saw goes, never assume, because it makes an a—well, you get it.
Is a traffic recovery under way? Maybe. Do the railroads have a better chance of clamping the lid shut on onerous rules and regulations like forced access (reciprocal switching), and seeing restrictions lifted on coal-fired electric power plants under a Trump Administration, rather than Clinton II? Probably. A concerted industry effort is under way on Capitol Hill to make those things happen. Does Donald Trump’s purported interest in pouring money into U.S. infrastructure mean that rail transportation will benefit? Unknown.
No one really knows what’s going on beneath the hairspray-hardened flaming orange comb-over topping Trump’s head. Since winning the Electoral College vote on Nov. 8, he at times is appearing more “Presidential”—serious, thoughtful, willing to compromise. He seems to recognize gray areas, in sharp contrast to his campaign persona of talking in extreme black-and-white terms. Some observers think that, deep down, he never believed he’d actually win (perhaps explaining his Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil-like campaign behavior), and now faces the very somber prospect of actually having to be President of the United States—sort of “Now what do I do?”
What could a Trump Administration mean to the railroads? Plenty. Or perhaps not so much, because market forces will almost always trump politics—pun intended. Following are a few educated observations.
Jason Seidl: Will 2017 Trump 2016?
To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, what a long, strange trip it has been in 2016. I am fairly certain that most railroads would love to close the door on a year that brought the group many challenges. Indeed, the railroads not only saw coal traffic decline yet again but also saw intermodal weakness brought about by a soft truckload environment.
While growth in automotive traffic was solid throughout the year, it was not enough to offset further weakness in metals, chemicals, petroleum and crushed stone and sand. The railroads also saw their core pricing power diminish as we moved through the year due to sluggish overall demand and the aforementioned soft trucking market. The railroads did what they could by reigning in costs through headcount reductions, network streamlining and improved operational productivity. Despite the group’s best efforts, earnings remained under pressure in 2016.
As I write this article, year-over-year carloadings are looking better for the railroad group, with much of it due to easier prior-year comparisons. Growth in agricultural products and less of a coal traffic decline have also helped. Looking out to 2017, we have hopes for volume growth to return to the industry, albeit at a low-single-digit pace.
Indeed, we are forecasting a recovery in intermodal as traffic finds its way back on the rails with rising trucking rates, particularly in the back half of the year. We believe the pending deadline for electronic logging devices (ELDs), coupled with fleet reductions in 2016 by many carriers, will limit capacity as 2017 progresses. This combination should lead to higher spot then contractual pricing for truckload services, which in turn should help the railroads regain some of the transitory business lost to the highways.
Coal traffic, while not expected to show a sharp rebound, should not be nearly the drag it was for the industry in 2016. For some carriers, coal could be up, depending on the combination of winter weather, natural gas prices and exchange rates. Agricultural loadings should be strong to start the year, but a record harvest will likely present very difficult back-half comparisons for the group. Automotive growth should continue to slow considerably, as the law of large numbers takes over while other industrial products should see modest growth. Construction materials and stone may see a surge in the back half of the year as infrastructure projects take hold.
Cowen and Company’s proprietary 3Q Railroad Shipper survey noted pricing expectations slipping to 2.1%, down from the prior two quarters of 2.9% each. We believe this sequential negative pricing trend will begin to correct itself as we move through the course of the year. While overall economic growth should help, so should the anticipated recovery in the truckload market. However, we note that intermodal pricing recovery typically lags truckload pricing.
A discussion of 2017 could not be complete without discussing the political ramifications of the recent election some of you may have heard about. President-Elect Trump’s election night victory caught many people and pundits by surprise. A Trump Presidency will undoubtedly have ramifications on the railroads and the country as a whole.
Trump has been an outspoken critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and has vowed to renegotiate or scrap the treaty. He does have the authority to do so as there is a clause in the agreement that allows a party to withdraw six months after it has given notice. Trump has been particularly critical of automotive companies that have moved their plants to Mexico. This is rather important, as some two million vehicles (just over 10% of total vehicles sold) are imported from Mexico each year. Trump has also openly discussed implementing tariffs against Mexico, some of them stiff.
Canada should not be left out of this discussion either, but it appears that relations are far better with Canada especially and has manufacturing associations lobbying their government to prioritize U.S./Canadian trade relations ahead of Mexico.
In addition to NAFTA, potential changes to trade with China and other Asian countries also appear to be on the table. Fears of potential changes go beyond our borders, as the Japanese Prime Minister was the first world leader to meet with the President-Elect Trump in person, altering his schedule to do so.
Washington appointments will also have an impact on the rail industry. The most direct impacts will occur when 2 new members are appointed to the Surface Transportation Board by the new president. While any appointee is subject to Senate confirmation, we doubt any nominee by President Elect Trump will fail to get confirmed given the Republican majority. Such anticipation has led to the Association of American Railroads to call for a complete halt to all major rule making until the STB positions are filled. Trump is very pro-business, especially given his views on reducing corporate tax rates (a potential boost for earnings for most U.S.-based corporations) and proposed infrastructure spending (an area where he can undoubtedly forge alliances across the proverbial aisle). Hence we would be surprised to see any STB appointments that would do damage to the rail industry.
We remain optimistic on the rail group as we head into 2017, and are rooting for the President-Elect to be successful, as we do with every incoming President. Earnings growth should come to the North American rail group far easier in 2017 than 2016. However, given the group’s current pricing power and the state of capacity in the supply chain, any outsized growth will not likely occur until the back half of the year.
Tom Simpson: Innovative Ideas Needed
Despite some bright spots like grain and automobiles, U.S. rail traffic continues its march to historic lows. In October, the Association of American Railroads reported the 20th straight month of traffic declines and more than 350,000 railcars in storage. The Railway Supply Institute American Railway Car Institute (ARCI) Committee railcar orders report, always a leading indicator for our industry, continues the bleak economic news, showing new freight car orders totaling just 5,526 for the third quarter of 2016. While total 2016 railcar deliveries will approach 65,000, the backlog of car orders continues to dwindle. A new “loss of orders” footnote has been added to the report to explain why the numbers do not track from quarter to quarter.
What does all this mean? Paradigm change is a phrase we have heard from Class I railroad executives.
What will help the industry survive the current downturn? Class I executives are looking to technology and an improved, more-focused quality process. When RSI Chairman Tom DeJoseph of Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc. and I were invited to attend the REMSA board meeting this past summer, we heard the call for innovative technology from Class I officials. Those who attended the recent RSI/CMA 2016 Rail Expo and Technical Conference in Omaha and saw Union Pacific Chairman and CEO Lance Fritz’s keynote speech heard a similar refrain.
With more than 800 railroad suppliers listening, Lance described the best ideas that were helping UP weather the downturn. While the railroad likes to look at 10- and 20-year snapshots, Fritz described the company’s goal as “wanting to do better tomorrow with assets we have today.” He spoke of “Machine Vision” car imaging, automated inspection of trains to weed out defective cars before they can lead to a derailment. Using car imaging technology reduces the four hours it would take to inspect a normal train to a few minutes, he said. He also spoke of UP’s movement to longer rail, reducing the number of welds needed in continuous welded rail because welds are a notorious weak point in the rail infrastructure.
In a similar vein, Fritz described how UP has devised an innovated thermite head repair weld that also reduces weak points in the rail infrastructure. From the car and locomotive perspective, he said UP is looking to strengthen the underside of rolling stock and looking for more flexibility and capacity in new railcars.
As an example of next-generation technology, Fritz described the use of drones to inspect tunnels and bridges, reducing the risk to UP employees. Other Class I railroads also are looking for suppliers with innovative ideas on how to bring new technology and innovation to the rail industry.
While RSI was in Omaha, representatives of the RSI Board of Directors and the RSI Quality Committee met with UP Vice President Supply and Continuous Improvement Lynn Kelley, whose background is in the auto and aerospace industries. She described the difficult operating environment she found in those industries and how she applied that knowledge to UP. She described UP’s approach to quality, which goes beyond the M1003 programs adopted by the AAR and Class I railroads. Using what it calls PPAP (Production Part Approval Process), UP is working with its suppliers to identify risks in the manufacturing process to prevent catastrophic events. PPAP is currently focusing only on high-risk areas in the roadbed infrastructure—ballast, rail, frogs, etc. The next high-risk area UP will focus on is rolling stock.
Speaking of quality, the AAR and RSI quality committees are discussing developing an educational effort to again focus the industry on continuous quality improvement. A buzz-phrase in the 1990s, continuous quality improvement seems to lose steam in down economic cycles when it should be most important. As Lynn Kelley and UP have discovered, an emphasis on quality, especially in safety-critical areas, can play a key part in helping the industry face economic downturns.
Lessons here? Suppliers who bring innovative technologies to their customers that will reduce derailments and employee exposure to dangerous situations will be the suppliers that succeed and grow. Companies that adopt a rigorous quality program along the lines of UP’s PPAP will succeed and grow.
Our industry has always bounced back from economic downturns, as in the early 2000s and the early 2010s. We may see a different rebound this time, fueled by technology, innovation and continuous quality improvement.
Freight Cars: Recovery Will Take Some Time
The most recent freight car forecast from Economic Planning Associates calls for deliveries of just under 62,000 units in 2016, as carbuilders work off significant backlogs, followed by a 21,000-car plummet in 2017, a slightly worse 2018, and the beginnings of a small rebound in 2019.
“Due to strength in boxcars, hi-cube covered hoppers, and mid-sized hoppers, our 2016 estimate of total railcar deliveries edged up from 60,300 cars to 61,800 cars,” said EPA principal Peter Toja. “However, weaknesses in tank cars, coal cars, flat cars, and mill gons will serve to lower 2017 assemblies to 41,000 cars. After a further easing to 40,000 deliveries in 2018, demand for railcars will rebound on an annual basis, reaching 51,500 cars in 2021.”
“Railcar demand continues to be relatively weak,” said Toja. “Orders of 18,799 cars through the first three quarters of this year were far outpaced by assemblies of 47,519 cars, sending backlogs down from 111,000 at the beginning of the year to 77,600 units at the end of September. Still, backlogs represent 5.05 quarters of production at current assembly rates.
“However, we anticipate a general softening in deliveries for most car types during the next two years before we see a pickup in assemblies once again in 2019.
“Our weak economy continues to dampen rail traffic. The hardest-hit sections of rail product movements were coal, petroleum, forest products, and metallic ores and metals. Due to a record harvest and strong export markets, grain haulings scored an impressive gain of 5.6% through September.
“Based on significant backlogs, we expect an acceleration in boxcar assemblies that will result in deliveries of 3,250 units this year and 3,500 cars in 2017. We look for deliveries of about 2,000 cars per year during the longer term.
“Due to strength through September and current backlogs, we look for deliveries of 11,500 hi-cube covered hoppers this year and 7,500 units in 2017. From 2018 through 2021, deliveries will be in the range of 4,000-5,000 cars per year.
“Given the assemblies to date and the continuing growth in grain and soda ash demand, we have raised our mid-sized covered hopper deliveries forecast from 8,000 to 10,500 cars this year. Next year, we look for 7,000 cars to be delivered. From 2018 to 2021, deliveries will average 6,000 cars per year.
“Demand for coal carrying equipment has vanished. During the first three quarters of this year, there were no orders for aluminum-bodied hoppers and gondolas.
“The current energy environment is sluggish, at best, and we noted a slowing in tank car orders and assemblies. As a result, we are lowering our 2016 tank car delivery estimate from 20,000 to 18,000, and then to 8,000 cars in 2017. From 2018 to 2021, demand for tank cars will gradually rise from 9,000 units to 15,000.”
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/freight/class-i/freight.html
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States Face Off Over Future of Obama Global Warming Plan
Dec 29, 2016 | The New York Times
By Associated Press
Two weeks after officials in two dozen states asked Donald Trump to kill one of President Barack Obama's plans to curb global warming, another group of state officials is urging the president-elect to save it.
Democratic attorneys general in 15 states, plus four cities and counties, sent a letter to Trump on Wednesday asking him to preserve Obama's Clean Power Plan.
The letter was a rebuttal to one sent this month by mostly-Republican officials in 24 states.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was the rebuttal letter's lead author.
The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at existing power plants by about one-third by 2030. Opponents say the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to implement the rules.
The plan is already the subject of a legal fight.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/12/29/us/ap-us-attorneys-general-clean-power-.html?_r=0
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