Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 1/6/2017
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(ACC Mentioned) Ted Boyatt Joins Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Jan 6, 2017 | Maryville Daily Times
Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry President and CEO Bradley Jackson announced Thursday that Ted Boyatt has been named the Chamber's incoming director of strategy and legislative affairs. -
Parties Spar over Trump Picks, Disclosures
Jan 6, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
A hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead U.S. EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R), remains in limbo as both parties squabble over the pace of the confirmation process. -
Murkowski Wants Perry, Zinke Hearings Before Inauguration Day
Jan 6, 2017 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Darius Dixon
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski wants President-elect Donald Trump's nominees for the top spots at the departments of Energy and Interior to have their confirmation hearings before Inauguration Day. -
Transition: McCarthy Suggests Future EPA Agenda in 'Exit' Memo
Jan 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in an “exit” memo to President Barack Obama is touting the agency's air, climate and other rules and recommending a plan “going forward” for the next administration to continue those efforts -- but does not address expectations that the Trump administration... -
EPA Proposes Adding Gas Processors to Toxics Inventory
Jan 5, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Natural gas processing plants would be required to report chemical discharges on U.S. EPA's Toxics Release Inventory under a U.S. EPA proposal set for publication tomorrow in the Federal Register. -
Academies Urges Use of New Types of Toxicity, Exposure Data
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Toxicity and exposure data generated by nontraditional means such as personal exposure monitors and organs-on-a-chip can be used in chemical risk assessments, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee said in a report released Jan. 5. -
Natural Gas Facilities to Publicly Report Toxics Under New Rule
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker
The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a step to tighten disclosure requirements for natural gas processing facilities, issuing a proposal to require companies to report their chemical data to the public. -
Jury Orders DuPont to Pay $10.5 Million Over Leaked Chemical
Jan 6, 2017 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
A U.S. jury in Ohio ordered DuPont on Thursday to pay $10.5 million in punitive damages to a man who said he developed testicular cancer from exposure to a toxic chemical leaked from a Dupont plant, the plaintiff's lawyer Robert Bilott said. -
Meet the Newest Republicans on the House Energy Committee
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
At least one of the four Republicans joining the House Energy and Commerce Committee this session believes that climate change is real and needs to be addressed. -
U.S. Likely To Become Net Exporter of Energy, Says Federal Forecast
Jan 6, 2017 | NPR
By Jeff Brady
The report shows Americans are using energy more efficiently, and the agency projects that will continue. Despite a growing population and a growing economy, consumption is expected to be relatively flat through 2050. -
The Future Of Oil And Gas? Look To The Past
Jan 5, 2017 | Forbes
By Chris Ross
In the early days of 2017, it behooves oil and gas companies to reflect on the past, while making plans robust to an uncertain future outlook. -
Army Corps Offers Olive Branch to Tribes in Wake of Dakota Access
Jan 5, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Annie Snider
An obscure change in a new regulation governing permits for wetlands could give tribes a greater say in thousands of development projects across the country, including oil and gas pipelines that are being targeted by environmental groups and Native American activists. -
McCarthy Expects 'Swift Action' on Repealing Methane Rules
Jan 5, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Republican lawmakers have yet to decide which regulations from the Obama administration they want to repeal first, but he disclosed that he expected "swift action" on rules governing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. -
Untruth in Green Advertising
Jan 6, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Editorial Board
Our friends in the environmental movement often behave as if they have a monopoly on sound science, but not everyone is convinced. Witness the rebuke that Britain’s independent advertising watchdog issued to Friends of the Earth, which on Wednesday was forced... -
With a Record $1.4 Trillion in Sustainability Assets, Investors Bail on Fossil Fuels
Jan 5, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Namrita Kapur
As President-elect Donald Trump puts together his fossil fuel-focused administration, the investment community is moving full speed in the opposite direction, instead putting their bets on emissions reductions and support for clean energy. -
Exxon Mobil, Saudis Eye Community Near Corpus Christi for Petrochemical Plant
Jan 5, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Saudi Arabia's top chemical company are advancing plans to build a massive petrochemical plant north of Corpus Christi, and the small neighboring cities are bracing for big changes. -
New Obama Report Warns of Changing ‘Threat Environment’ for the Electricity Grid
Jan 6, 2017 | Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
At a time of heightened focus on U.S. cybersecurity risks, the Energy Department released a comprehensive report on the nation’s rapidly changing electrical grid Friday that calls for new action to protect against evolving threats. -
What's the Key to Preventing Train Crashes?
Jan 5, 2017 | Christian Science Monitor
By Patrick Reilly
Federal investigators are searching for answers in Wednesday’s Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) commuter train crash. The train failed to stop when entering Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal, hitting the “bumper block” at the end of the tracks and injuring more than 100 passengers. -
(ACC Mentioned) Ozone Rule Opponents See Potential Congressional, EPA Action
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Patrick Ambrosio
Opponents of the 2015 ozone standards see potential avenues for Congress and Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency to address compliance concerns, but any effort to roll back or delay implementation of the rule will face fierce opposition... -
New Senate Chairman Vows ‘Fundamental Shift’ on Environment
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
The Wyoming Republican who is taking the gavel of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is looking to make “a fundamental shift” away from the Environmental Protection Agency and other regulations that he argues have hurt U.S. industry and job growth. -
The Case for Scott Pruitt to Lead the EPA
Jan 6, 2017 | Real Clear Energy
By Adam Brandon
The mainstream media’s misrepresentation of Scott Pruitt as an unsophisticated crony of the powerful energy lobby couldn’t be farther from the truth. -
Environmentalists Attack EPA Transport 'Hot-Spot' Guide as 'Final' Action
Jan 6, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
Environmentalists are ramping up claims that EPA's guidance for states on how to ensure transportation projects do not create particulate matter pollution (PM) spikes, or “hot-spots,” in excess of regulatory limits is a final agency action subject to judicial review... -
Climate: NAS Poised to Issue Latest Report on 'Carbon Cost' Tool
Jan 6, 2017 | Inside EPA
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is poised to release next week the second part of its report on the Obama administration's social cost of carbon (SCC), a long-awaited study that supporters say could complicate any attempts by the Trump administration or other critics...
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation News
Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) Ted Boyatt Joins Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Jan 6, 2017 | Maryville Daily Times
Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry President and CEO Bradley Jackson announced Thursday that Ted Boyatt has been named the Chamber's incoming director of strategy and legislative affairs.
A Maryville native and graduate of the University of Tennessee, Boyatt previously worked for House Majority Leader Glen Casada's 2014 re-election campaign, and served as vice chairman of the Blount County Republican Party from 2009 to 2013, a press release from the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.
“Maintaining and enhancing Tennessee’s business-friendly climate is essential to our state’s continued job and economic growth,” Boyatt said in the release. “The onset of a new legislative session brings with it many opportunities, and I am honored to work with the Chamber’s vast statewide network of businesses, local chambers of commerce, and economic development professionals to ensure that Tennessee remains one of the country’s top destinations for investment, business expansion, and job creation.”
Founded in 1912, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry also serves as the Tennessee Manufacturing Association, and is the official state affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council.
http://www.thedailytimes.com/business/ted-boyatt-joins-tennessee-chamber-of-commerce-and-industry/article_b4a1a439-d73a-505e-b998-dc21eb46277b.html
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Parties Spar over Trump Picks, Disclosures
Jan 6, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
A hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead U.S. EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R), remains in limbo as both parties squabble over the pace of the confirmation process.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told E&E News yesterday that he had a "very good" meeting with ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.) to discuss the nomination and other issues Wednesday afternoon.
The two have not yet agreed to set a date for the hearing, but Barrasso indicated they would discuss that further during a Monday meeting.
In a statement released after seeing Pruitt yesterday, Carper noted that he has "grave concerns about Mr. Pruitt's selection and I am not alone."
"A vast array of groups — including environmental advocates, public health organizations, children's groups, former EPA administrators and religious leaders — have expressed similar sentiments," Carper said.
"The American people and members of this body deserve to have their concerns addressed and their questions answered, especially given Mr. Pruitt's record," he added. "As this process continues, I look forward to evaluating Mr. Pruitt's responses to the questions that have been asked of him and more closely examining his vision for the agency."
Carper later told reporters that his sit-down with the nominee was "mostly just a 'get-to-know-you,'" adding that the two plan to meet again after Carper has time to review Pruitt's responses to a letter he sent last month.
Democrats said they were also waiting for an FBI background check on Pruitt and other ethics paperwork to be completed before agreeing to a hearing, Carper said.
"Not just to receive it but to study it and to be able to do follow-up questions," he said.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) accused Democrats of "obstruction, delay and stall tactics." He called their actions "irresponsible and dangerous," noting that President Obama had seven top nominees confirmed on his first day.
But Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said requesting financial records and FBI clearances was "standard protocol," which he said the Obama team was quick to submit. "Every Obama Cabinet nominee had an ethics agreement before their hearing," Schumer said.
Schumer also complained about nominee hearings next week happening during votes on a GOP budget resolution and called for more time to question some nominees. But Cornyn cited the "tyranny of the calendar."
Manchin positive
Former EPW Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) signaled there was a date in mind for Pruitt's hearing but declined to say when it was.
"I was told in confidence," he told reporters, adding that "it will be very soon."
But Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said yesterday they are still waiting to meet with Pruitt, who continued to make the rounds on Capitol Hill.
The nominee met with new EPW Committee member Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). In a statement, she called it "imperative that the law is followed" on the renewable fuel standard (RFS).
"I received assurances from Mr. Pruitt that he intends to do so, and I will hold him to that commitment," Ernst said. "I was pleased to hear that President-elect Trump made it clear to Mr. Pruitt that he cares about the RFS."
Pruitt has opposed the RFS, which is popular in Iowa. Ernst invited Pruitt to visit an ethanol plant there and to witness firsthand the effects of EPA's Clean Water Act rule on farms and landowners.
Ernst noted that she extended a similar invitation to current EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who didn't take her up on the offer.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who met with Pruitt on Wednesday, told E&E News yesterday he emphasized his support for the Clean Air Act during the meeting.
"It's important to me, and he understands that," Alexander said. "I live in a state where we have a lot of problems with dirty air blowing into places, and the federal clean air laws have helped clean up our state, which brings in jobs, keeps tourism coming and makes it healthier."
Alexander said he would not announce whether he will support Pruitt or any of Trump's nominees until after confirmation hearings but said twice that he was "impressed" with Pruitt.
Trump's transition team yesterday trumpeted West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's positive view of Pruitt after the two met.
"I believe the Attorney General has the right experience for the position and look forward to his confirmation process," Manchin said in a statement.
Perry
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) put coal front and center during his meeting with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Energy.
Daines has championed preserving coal jobs in Colstrip, Mont., home to the second-biggest coal plant west of the Mississippi River.
The facility has become a political football and is slated for a partial shutdown in 2022 as part of a settlement with environmental groups (Climatewire, Nov. 3, 2016). DOE recently identified available but costly ways to reduce its emissions.
"After speaking with Governor Perry, I have confidence that he will work to restore the balance between fossil fuel and renewable energy investments and regulation," Daines said, "a balance that has been lacking in President Obama's Energy Department."
Colstrip Mayor John Williams said: "Colstrip provides for the needs of Montana and the region, and it makes good things happen in our communities."
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who like Daines is a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, noted that he has known Perry since both were elected governors in 2000.
"Good guy, he'll do a fine job," Hoeven told reporters yesterday. "We're good friends."
Hoeven indicated that Perry will focus on developing all sources of energy, while his experiences as governor will guide his management of the sprawling department.
"He's also a governor so he's a big fan of the 10th Amendment, as am I, meaning that you know states will have a bigger role in how to develop their energy resources, which I think is appropriate," said Hoeven. "'Cause what we do in North Dakota is different than what they do in California."
The two didn't discuss liquefied natural gas exports during their meeting, but Hoeven said he expects the Trump administration to be "supportive" of efforts to expedite exports either administratively or legislatively.
National labs, Dakota Access
Several GOP senators said they discussed the national laboratories in meetings this week with Perry. Democrats have been slamming a Trump transition team questionnaire to DOE officials asking them for information on the salaries of lab employees, among other things (E&E News PM, Dec. 19, 2016).
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she told the former Texas governor about the importance of research generally and the work of the National Energy Technology Laboratory in her home state.
She didn't seem too concerned. Capito called Perry's nomination "encouraging news" for expanding energy infrastructure. She noted that emissions fell in Perry's home state of Texas with population growth.
"There's ways to strike a balance," she said.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) said he was confident in Perry's all-of-the-above strategy on energy after discussing the work of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in his home state.
Similarly, Alexander said Perry "knows that the future of clean energy and our brainpower advantage depend to a great extent upon research at our outstanding national laboratories, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory."
Perry appears to be making moves to avoid any showdowns. He retired from the board of Energy Transfer Partners LP at the end of December, newly released disclosure records show. The Dallas-based company is pursuing federal regulatory approval to build the $3.78 billion Dakota Access pipeline.
Although the Army Corps of Engineers, not DOE, would grant the final approval for the contentious pipeline, some critics have questioned Perry's position with the company.
Perry's disclosures made clear his resignation was not tied to disagreements about Energy Transfer's operations, practices or policies.
Zinke
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told reporters yesterday that she will meet with Interior secretary nominee Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) either today or Monday, with a hearing possible for next week.
Hoeven, who met with Zinke yesterday, said the two discussed the nominee's opposition to selling federal lands, which has raised eyebrows in some conservative corners.
"He understands and respects that we have national parks and lands that are open to the public that need to be protected and preserved," Hoeven said. "But at the same time he also understands the importance of agriculture and mining and energy development."
Zinke is "going to be very much for multiple use on public lands, which is the right approach. He understands that the administration wants to develop energy, but at the same time, he's an outdoorsman, he's a hunter, a fisher as am I," Hoeven said. "I think he's got the right idea on multiple use and will be effective."
Minority Leader Schumer yesterday also said Democrats were interested in tax information from more nominees. Trump's secretary of State pick, Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson, told Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) he was open to making such documents public.
Reporters George Cahlink, Hannah Northey, Christa Marshall and Dylan Brown contributed.
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2017/01/06/stories/1060047947
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Murkowski Wants Perry, Zinke Hearings Before Inauguration Day
Jan 6, 2017 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Darius Dixon
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski wants President-elect Donald Trump's nominees for the top spots at the departments of Energy and Interior to have their confirmation hearings before Inauguration Day.
The Alaska Republican said specific hearing dates for former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke haven't been nailed down yet, but she wants them to take place before Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
"Yes, yes, yes, before Inauguration," she told POLITICO in the Capitol this afternoon.
Murkowski is meeting with Zinke this afternoon and is expected to meet with Perry on Friday. Given the committee's seven-day hearing notification rule, a hearing could be scheduled for as early as next Thursday if it's announced today. Otherwise, the hearings could still happen the week of the Inauguration.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Transition: McCarthy Suggests Future EPA Agenda in 'Exit' Memo
Jan 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in an “exit” memo to President Barack Obama is touting the agency's air, climate and other rules and recommending a plan “going forward” for the next administration to continue those efforts -- but does not address expectations that the Trump administration will reverse several major Obama EPA policies.
The White House Jan. 5 released exit memos from the heads of each Cabinet-level agency that recount the administration's activities since 2009, while laying out next steps to continue that work after Obama leaves office. McCarthy's memo is a broad-ranging document that addresses EPA policies on climate change, air pollution, water, toxics, equity and state engagement, with recommendations for future officials on continuing each.
For instance, on air and climate policy McCarthy touts EPA's Clean Power Plan limiting greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants as well tightened standards for criteria air pollutants, including the national ambient air quality standard for ozone.
The memo describes a path forward on implementing those rules and developing their successors, despite the push for a broad rollback of the current administration's Clean Air Act policy under President-elect Donald Trump.
“All of these forward leaning actions will require additional focus in the years to come. On climate change, EPA will need to continue implementation of the Clean Power Plan, provide technical assistance to the international community on tracking greenhouse gas emissions, and continue our work with the Department of Agriculture to cut food waste in half by the year 2030. The agency will also need to work with states on significant air pollution reduction efforts, including ozone attainment,” the memo says.
On water, McCarthy focuses her recommendations on infrastructure in the wake of the Flint, MI, lead contamination crisis, saying the Trump EPA should follow the agency's November strategic plan for future Safe Drinking Water Act implementation. The “going forward” agenda also mentions efforts to reduce pollution under the Clean Water Act, but offers no specific policies for future officials to pursue beyond continuing implementation of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan Republicans have opposed.
“Continued federal action must occur to address drinking water pollution and help communities provide their citizens with clean drinking water. And while the agency has significantly reduced point source pollution, non-point source pollution and stormwater runoff plague our waterways and will need future attention,” the memo says.
Turning to toxics, McCarthy says the agency's top priorities should be implementing the newly reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the rule setting standards for protecting workers who handle pesticides -- even though states and industry are already petitioning for a stay of the worker protection standards, including arguments that the rule was unlawfully finalized.
“Two major priorities needing future action will be the implementation of TSCA and the worker protection standards. EPA recently announced the first 10 chemicals for review under the new law, but this is only the beginning of a long and necessary process to further protect Americans from toxic chemicals. And while the agency is proud to further protect farmworkers, the new standards will require a sustained effort of outreach and engagement to ensure they truly protect all workers,” the memo says.
The section on relations with state officials touts EPA's “joint governance” structure with the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), which represents many state environment agencies -- a structure that ECOS officials hope to preserve under Trump.
But McCarthy also calls for increased funding for state regulators, saying, “States also need to reassert their oversight role on environmental matters. Over the last decade, resources at all levels to support environmental protection measures have either remained flat or declined. In the years to come, a great investment is necessary to help states face the many complex challenges that currently exist while preparing for the next set of challenges.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/transition-mccarthy-suggests-future-epa-agenda-exit-memo
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EPA Proposes Adding Gas Processors to Toxics Inventory
Jan 5, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Natural gas processing plants would be required to report chemical discharges on U.S. EPA's Toxics Release Inventory under a U.S. EPA proposal set for publication tomorrow in the Federal Register.
The proposed rule would add to the inventory about 282 facilities that recover liquid hydrocarbons from oil and gas field gases.
"Adding these facilities would meaningfully increase the information available to the public on releases and other waste management of listed chemicals from the natural gas processing sector," the proposal says.
Among chemicals used by such facilities:
· n-Hexane, an oil derivative linked to partial paralysis and nerve damage.
· Hydrogen sulfide, which causes nausea and is fatal at high concentrations.
· Toluene, a solvent linked to respiratory problems.
· Benzene, a carcinogen.
· Xylene, which causes liver, kidney, heart and nervous system damage.
· Methanol, a solvent linked to headaches and dizziness.
EPA says natural gas processing uses over 21 chemicals already listed in the toxics inventory.
Environmental and public health groups regularly use the TRI to track Americans' exposure to certain pollutants.
EPA will accept comments on the proposal until March 7.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/01/05/stories/1060047917
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Academies Urges Use of New Types of Toxicity, Exposure Data
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Toxicity and exposure data generated by nontraditional means such as personal exposure monitors and organs-on-a-chip can be used in chemical risk assessments, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee said in a report released Jan. 5.
The report, “Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations,” backs up its conclusion that new sources of toxicity and exposure information are useful by offering case studies. They show how agencies could use new types of data to analyze risks from situations such as exposures to chemicals, air pollutants and contaminants at hazardous waste sites.
Jonathan Samet, a pulmonary physician and epidemiologist teaching at the University of Southern California chaired the National Academies’ committee that prepared the report and will discuss the panel's recommendations during a Jan. 6 webinar.
The Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences requested the report.
These agencies sought guidance on the use of data generated through emerging technologies including sensors; atypical species such as worms, fruit flies and zebrafish; automated tests in which cells or DNA are exposed to chemicals or pharmaceuticals; and computer-based toxicity and exposure prediction models.
Data Useful Now
Much remains to be learned about what the new types of toxicity and exposure information mean and the types of decisions they may be useful for, Samet told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 4.
But “these data can be used now in risk assessment,” he said.
The EPA is pleased the report's recommendations complement research and case studies that its Chemical Safety for Sustainability research program has underway, Tina Bahadori, who directs that agency research program, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 4.
The academies committee briefed EPA and other agency officials on their recommendations Jan. 4, she said.
Scientific Advances
Tremendous scientific and technological advances allow the biological basis of disease to be better understood than even 10 years ago, the academies report said. It referred to progress that researchers have made since 2007, when the academies issued a previous report titled “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy.”
Epidemiological research strategies and techniques to measure or estimate chemical exposures also have progressed substantially, the report said. It highlighted advances made since a 2012 academies report called “Exposure Science in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy.”
For example, exposure assessment tools such as passive sampling techniques and personal sensors “offer unparalleled opportunities to characterize individual exposures, particularly in vulnerable populations,” the report said.
Researchers also increasingly are able to measure chemicals in teeth, hair, nails, placental tissues and infants’ first stools, the report said.
“The question that needs to be addressed now is how concentrations in these matrices are related to and can be integrated with measures of exposure that have been traditionally used to assess chemical toxicity or risk,” the report said.
The report discusses diverse approaches agencies can use to integrate biological and epidemiological information with data from chemical-detection technologies and computational models.
“Although the committee considered various methods for data integration, it concluded that guided expert judgment should be used in the near term,” the report said.
New Direction for Risk Assessment
The academies’ latest report urges agencies to base their risk assessments on information about biological changes that chemicals, pharmaceuticals or other exposures can cause rather than observations made during experimental animal studies.
Agencies also should incorporate more exposure information into their analyses, the report said.
The report urged agencies to take a “new direction” in their risk assessments by acknowledging that most diseases are caused by multiple factors. These factors include an individual's or groups’ genetic make-up, the life stage during which exposures occur and nutritional status, the report said.
Diseases have multiple causes, Samet said. But acknowledging that multiple factors play a role in causing disease should not delay risk assessments, he said.
Referencing multiple causes should help agencies explain the additional risk contributed by a chemical exposure or medication, according to the report.
Next Steps
Bahadori said the report makes clear that progress in biological, epidemiological and exposure-related sciences has outpaced the capacity of agencies—even academic researchers—to absorb and understand how to apply the findings from such research, she said.
“The data are here,” she said. “It's time we figure out what we're going to do with it.”
The EPA is likely to build on the report's recommendations through workshops it will organize, perhaps with the other agencies that asked the academies for the report, Bahadori said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=102978817&vname=dennotallissues&fn=102978817&jd=102978817
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Natural Gas Facilities to Publicly Report Toxics Under New Rule
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker
The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a step to tighten disclosure requirements for natural gas processing facilities, issuing a proposal to require companies to report their chemical data to the public.
The EPA is proposing to add natural gas processing facilities to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), a publicly available database created to inform communities of toxic and hazardous chemicals released in the environment.
Under the proposal (RIN:2070-AK16), these facilities would be required to disclose chemicals listed under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). These include hydrogen sulfide, toluene, benzene and methanol. Natural gas processing plants use at least 21 different chemicals on the list, the EPA said in its notice, set for publication in the Federal Register on Jan. 6.
“We're definitely happy that the proposed rule is out there,” Adam Kron, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), told Bloomberg BNA. EIP was one of the groups that pushed for the EPA to require the natural gas industry to release the chemical data to the public.
Natural Gas Wells Exempt
There are at least 282 natural gas processing facilities that would be required to submit the information to the Inventory, according to EPA estimates. This is more than half of the 517 facilities in the continental U.S.
The rulemaking stems from a 2012 petition from EIP and other organizations to compel the EPA to include the oil and gas sector among the industries that must file TRI emissions reports.
The EPA partially granted the petition in 2015, saying that natural gas processing facilities should be required to submit information to the TRI, but that well sites, compressor stations, and other sites in the gas production chain would be exempt. The proposed rule does not affect upstream facilities, like hydraulic fracturing sites.
After EIP petitioned and received no response from the EPA, it sued the agency in federal court on the issue. The organizations voluntarily dismissed the complaint after the EPA partially granted their request agreeing to processors but excluding wells and compressors and others in the supply chain (Envtl. Integrity Project v. EPA, D.D.C., No. 1:15-cv-00017, 12/15/15).
Kron said EIP would request that those sites be included in the final rule. The processing facilities are similar to refineries and other plants that are already required to report their chemical releases, he said.
The rule is set to be finalized in 2018, placing the decision in the hands of the incoming administration. It also comes as the number of processing plants grow, a result of the hydraulic fracturing activity boom, Kron said.
Section 313 of EPCRA requires certain facilities that manufacture, process or use certain toxic chemicals to report environmental releases annually to the Toxics Release Inventory. Facilities also must report pollution prevention and recycling of those chemicals. The EPA's next TRI report is set to be released in the next two weeks.
Public Information Could Burden Companies
The increased workload to collect chemical data will certainly burden natural gas facilities to an extent, said Andrew Steward, an attorney in the Washington, D.C., offices of Vinson & Elkins LLP and a former senior manager in the EPA's office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
But of equal concern for facilities is how that information is presented to the public through the EPA's online TRI database and national reports after the companies collect it, said Stewart, who works with oil and gas companies in his current role.
It's important that the data be put in the “proper context,” said Stewart, to avoid the misuse of information on the effects of these chemicals on communities.
Those data could be the starting point for investigations and citizen lawsuit activities, based on how widely they are shared.
“That's sort of the genie that comes out of the bottle once you are reporting in the TRI system,” he told Bloomberg BNA.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=102978829&vname=dennotallissues&fn=102978829&jd=102978829
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Jury Orders DuPont to Pay $10.5 Million Over Leaked Chemical
Jan 6, 2017 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
A U.S. jury in Ohio ordered DuPont on Thursday to pay $10.5 million in punitive damages to a man who said he developed testicular cancer from exposure to a toxic chemical leaked from a Dupont plant, the plaintiff's lawyer Robert Bilott said.
The federal jury had awarded Kenneth Vigneron $2 million in compensatory damages in December. Bilott said the jury also awarded attorneys' fees, to be determined at a later date.
This is the third and largest verdict that jurors in the Columbus, Ohio, federal court have issued against DuPont for injuries linked to perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA or C-8, which is used to make Teflon. The $12.5 million in damages is more than double the amount awarded in a case decided in July.
"The jury has sent a strong message that we hope DuPont will listen to," Bilott said in an email to Reuters.
DuPont faces more than 3,400 lawsuits over the leak of the chemical from its Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant.
The leak allegedly contaminated local water supplies and has been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancer. Vigneron claimed he developed testicular cancer from the chemical exposure.
DuPont has used C-8 at the West Virginia plant since the early 1950s. Vigneron alleged the company leaked the chemical from the facility during the course of its operations.
While DuPont is the named defendant in the litigation, it has an agreement that its performance chemicals spinoff Chemours Co will cover the costs of such lawsuits.
Chemours spokeswoman Cynthia Salitsky said Dupont was directly liable for damages and Chemours may have defenses to any potential indemnification claim.
She also noted the majority of remaining lawsuits claim the chemical caused high cholesterol or thyroid disease, not cancer.
DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said the company was disappointed in the verdict and planned to appeal.
"We believe the verdict was the result of trial rulings that misrepresented the findings of an independent science panel and misled jurors about the risks of C8 exposure," Turner said.
DuPont has lost two other recent trials over C-8. The first ended in October 2015 with an award of $1.6 million to a woman who claimed the chemical caused her to develop kidney cancer.
In July 2016, a jury in a case involving a plaintiff with testicular cancer found Dupont acted with actual malice. The jury returned a verdict of $5.1 million, which was later bolstered with $500,000 in punitive damages.
Those two trials were test cases, or bellwethers, meant to determine the major issues and gauge the scale of liability for the remaining litigation.
Vigneron's case is the first non-bellwether trial in the consolidated litigation, with 39 more cases slated to go to trial in Columbus over the next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/01/05/business/05reuters-du-pont-verdict.html?_r=0
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Meet the Newest Republicans on the House Energy Committee
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
At least one of the four Republicans joining the House Energy and Commerce Committee this session believes that climate change is real and needs to be addressed.
Congressman Ryan Costello (R-Pa.), who is also a member of the Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, was one of 11 House Republicans to introduce a resolution in September 2015 to promote “economically viable, and broadly supported private and public solutions to study and address” the impacts of climate change.
“We can't just stick our heads in the sand and say there is no problem,” Costello told the Reading Eagle in Pennsylvania the same month the resolution was introduced.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) announced Jan. 4 that Costello and fellow Republicans Tim Walberg (Mich.), Buddy Carter (Ga.) and Mimi Walters (Calif.) would join the committee. Walberg has been a member of the House since 2007; the other three joined Congress in 2015.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced late Jan. 5 new Democratic members joining the committee: Rep. Raul Ruiz (Calif.), Rep. Debbie Dingell (Mich.) and Rep. Scott Peters (Calif.).
Environment, Energy Records
Despite Costello's work and votes on climate and certain other issues like clean energy funding, his overall environmental record from his first session in Congress earned him a score of only 14 percent on the League of Conservation Voters lifetime scorecard.
That was due to his votes, such as one to pass a 2015 resolution permanently blocking the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, the first-ever carbon dioxide emission standards for existing power plants. However, he did vote against a resolution that would block the agency's carbon standards for new and modified power plants.
The other three new members voted against both of those resolutions and had lower lifetime scores than Costello on the conservation voters scorecard.
All four members are largely in lock step on other fossil fuel-based energy issues. For example, they supported the Keystone XL pipeline at the beginning of the 114th Congress and supported lifting the ban on crude oil exports.
Walberg has touted on his website support for use of market-based tools “that encourage alternative energy sources” such as wind and solar, and supports use of nuclear energy. He also has opposed the use of a carbon tax as recently as 2016.
Priorities in Committee
Walters, who has said she supports market pricing for water use to reduce water use in California as at least part of a solution to its drought, told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mailed statement that she will “work to advance an all-of-the-above energy program, make our country energy independent, and keep energy affordable for American families and businesses.”
Carter told Bloomberg BNA he would examine what specific energy and environment areas would be priorities “as we get more into it.” He said that as a congressman representing the Georgia coast, he understands the importance of “balance” between protecting the environment and allowing development.
“The environment is extremely important and we're going to make sure that we do everything we can to protect the environment,” Carter said. On his website, Carter touts that his state is home to a recently permitted liquefied natural gas export facility and EPA Superfund sites.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=102978839&vname=dennotallissues&fn=102978839&jd=102978839
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U.S. Likely To Become Net Exporter of Energy, Says Federal Forecast
Jan 6, 2017 | NPR
By Jeff Brady
The U.S. could become a net exporter of energy in coming years, according to the federal government's Annual Energy Outlook 2017. This continues a trend the Energy Information Administration has highlighted before in its annual report.
The EIA projects the country will continue to import oil through 2050, though at much lower levels than in the past. The main thing that will make the U.S. a net exporter of energy is natural gas.
Domestic natural gas production has risen by nearly 30 percent over the past decade, primarily because controversial technologies such as hydraulic fracturing have opened up new fields to drilling. Now companies are proposing and building natural gas export facilities around the country with the production boom expected to continue.
The EIA is quick to warn that there is a lot of uncertainty in projections like this. That's why each year the agency considers a variety of factors and then develops multiple scenarios. It looks at things like production, demand, prices and technological advancements. Most of the agency's seven scenarios show the country becoming a net exporter by 2030.
One scenario, in which crude oil prices rise sharply, projects the country would become a net energy exporter within just a few years. That's unlikely to happen, though. The agency believes Brent crude oil prices this year will average around $51.66 a barrel — about half of what a barrel sold for in 2014.
As part of its annual report the EIA also has projections for energy-related carbon emissions. EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski says emission levels will depend a lot on what happens with the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, which is tied up in the courts now. Considering President-elect Donald Trump's stated desire to boost the coal industry, he could choose to stop defending the plan.
"We see the highest emissions without the Clean Power Plan because we'll continue to use more coal, and coal has more carbon dioxide than the other fossil fuels," says Sieminski.
The report shows Americans are using energy more efficiently, and the agency projects that will continue. Despite a growing population and a growing economy, consumption is expected to be relatively flat through 2050.
The EIA believes gasoline will remain the dominant fuel for transportation in the U.S. for decades. Still, the number of electric vehicles is expected to increase from 1 percent of the cars on the road today to 6 percent in 2040. That may not seem fast enough growth if you're an electric-car advocate, but consider that there are about 250 million cars in the U.S. now. Sieminski says, "There's a lot of gasoline and diesel-powered cars on the road that are not going to be retired immediately."
The fact that natural gas is replacing coal for electricity generation has been widely reported. The EIA data show more power comes from gas than coal now. And the agency projects that renewable forms of electricity, such as wind and solar, could overtake coal by 2030.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/05/508421943/u-s-likely-will-become-net-exporter-of-energy-says-federal-forecast
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The Future Of Oil And Gas? Look To The Past
Jan 5, 2017 | Forbes
By Chris Ross
In the early days of 2017, it behooves oil and gas companies to reflect on the past, while making plans robust to an uncertain future outlook. There are several questions that should be asked:
· Where are we in the oil and gas price cycles?
· How will politics and policies affect the business outlook?
· What are the appropriate strategies?
Learning from the Past
It will not surprise any investor in oil and gas and related businesses that theirs is a cyclical business. Prices run up when supplies fall short of demand, hover on the summit for a few years, then tumble as new supply sources are developed and demand growth slows down (Figure 1).
After the collapse of 1986, oil prices remained volatile through 1990, then declined further through 1998 as production from the Middle East, Norway, Iran and Venezuela increased to meet demand growth and replace declines in Russia and North America. One consequence of the price decline in 1998 was major oil company mega-mergers. These resulted in high-grading of projects, reduction in aggregate capital spending and slowdown in production increases, setting the stage for the run-up in prices after 2002.
The period from 1986 through 2002 can be seen in retrospect to have been a “long grind,” as oil prices were set by the long-term marginal costs of incremental production sources needed to satisfy demand growth and replace declining production from mature oil fields and political turmoil.
Tightly controlled wellhead natural gas prices in the 1970s led to supply shortages. The 1978 Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA)
started a process of decontrol and broadened the responsibility the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held over the industry.
In 1985, FERC issued Order No. 436, which changed how interstate pipelines were regulated. This established a voluntary framework under which interstate pipelines could act solely as transporters of natural gas, rather than filling the role of a natural gas merchant. However, it wasn’t until Congress passed the Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act (NGWDA) in 1989 that complete deregulation of wellhead prices was enabled. Issued in 1992, FERC Order No. 636 completed the final steps towards a competitive market by making pipeline unbundling obligatory.
Natural gas became a traded commodity subject to its own cycles (Figure 2).
The decontrolled market opened new sources of supply, enabled by new seismic technologies that uncovered large resources of natural gas under the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) continental shelf. A gas bubble was inflated, holding spot prices below $3/million British Thermal Units from 1989-1999. New markets, notably independently owned cogeneration plants empowered to sell electricity to industrial plants and the grid at prices representing the “avoided cost” that new utility projects would have incurred, caused rapid demand growth. The bubble burst as gas production in the Gulf of Mexico peaked, natural gas prices increased and LNG import terminals were built.
Higher prices induced innovation on the supply side as George Mitchell figured out how to extract natural gas from tight shale rock, and the technologies were deployed in other gas and then oil shale plays. Natural gas prices collapsed in 2009: demand accelerated as natural gas displaced coal in the power sector, somewhat constrained by limitations on pipeline transportation. New pipeline connections were built despite opposition; LNG import facilities were converted to export facilities.
Mark Twain wrote “History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” If history were to repeat itself, oil prices would remain low for another “long grind”, mirroring 1986-2002 by declining further over the next 15 years; natural gas prices would start strengthening in 2019.
Politics and Policies
For oil markets, turmoil in the Middle East and Africa withdrew about 3 million barrels per day from world markets between 2005 and 2015. Ideological conflicts, coupled with the demographic realities of a growing number of young men with few employment opportunities, suggest continued instability.
OPEC’s agreement to reduce production with apparent support from Russia will be tested by inducing expansion of U.S. shale production. But the need for cash to meet social commitments is likely to reduce funding available for capital spending by the national oil companies and will lead to lower production, regardless of the OPEC quotas. The “long grind” seems likely to be shorter this time around, more likely five rather than 15 years.
The past eight years have seen a series of rules designed to suppress coal use, to the benefit of natural gas as well as renewables. Several of these rules are still being litigated, and the new administration may choose not to defend constitutional challenges by various individual states. There may also be a reduction in subsidies and mandates favoring renewables, but natural gas will likely find it difficult to displace coal at the pace seen in recent years. LNG exports will allow further production growth, but the resource available in shale plays in 2017 is significantly larger than the GoM shelf resource available in 1989. Expect natural gas volumes to grow but prices to remain capped by coal through the mid-2020s.
Strategies
For upstream companies, the not-so-long grind through the early 2020s calls for a conservative approach to strengthen balance sheets, sustain dividend payments and drill within cash flows. Prices will be volatile and excessive exuberance will be punished by periods of low prices. However, it will be important to see around corners and monitor closely the factors that could shift the outlook to a new run-up in prices, requiring an expansionary emphasis on capturing new resources and a greater tolerance for debt.
The oilfield services sector has been hammered by the downturn and will likely consolidate further. It remains to be seen whether the consolidation will be lateral or vertical. Halliburton failed in its attempt to strengthen its verticals by merging with Baker Hughes; Schlumberger and Technip have taken a French solution of lateral extension by acquiring Cameron and FMC Technologies, respectively, and the forthcoming merger between GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes is also mainly lateral extension of business lines. Historically, oil companies have preferred to purchase equipment and services from best-in-class providers, and the new conglomerates will need to work hard to overcome past preferences and create a persuasive value proposition for bundling purchases of equipment and services from a single vendor.
Midstream companies should be able to resume organic growth as companies “replumb” energy infrastructure, aided by a supportive rather than hostile federal government and underwritten by producers seeking access to liquid markets.
Refiners and petrochemicals companies should benefit from an increasing gap between natural gas (used as feedstock and energy) prices and crude oil (setting international petroleum and petrochemicals products prices) as the oil price cycle will be out of phase with the gas price cycle. Nevertheless, these sectors will see limited volume growth and should continue to focus on limited capital improvements, operations excellence and accretive, synergistic acquisitions.
Well managed companies created value for shareholders through the 1990s by leveraging new technologies, simplifying their organizations to improve productivity, partnering creatively with providers of equipment and services and making acquisitions when prices were low. That playbook should be dusted off and updated for the next five years.
As a consultant, Professor Chris Ross works with senior oil and gas executives to develop and implement value creating strategies.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/uhenergy/2017/01/05/the-future-of-oil-and-gas-look-to-the-past/#5aacb7826af9
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Army Corps Offers Olive Branch to Tribes in Wake of Dakota Access
Jan 5, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Annie Snider
An obscure change in a new regulation governing permits for wetlands could give tribes a greater say in thousands of development projects across the country, including oil and gas pipelines that are being targeted by environmental groups and Native American activists.
The new language in the Army Corps of Engineers regulation limits the use of streamlined permitting processes for an array of projects ranging from energy pipelines to road construction to commercial shellfish farms if they impact tribes’ rights. The change could have the biggest impact in the Pacific Northwest and the Missouri River basin where tribes hold strong treaty rights relating to hunting and fishing, and have fought infrastructure projects they see as harming them.
But the Obama administration didn't go nearly as far as tribes and environmental activists had hoped it would in the wake of a bitter fight over the Dakota Access pipeline, a 1,168-mile oil pipeline that has been staunchly opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The tribe fears a rupture in the pipeline could contaminate its water supply, and it has argued the planned route encroaches on sacred ancestral lands located on private property.
Last month, the Obama appointee overseeing the Army Corps delayed the pipeline project by ordering further review and consultation related to an easement allowing the company to drill on Corps land.
The easement decision was the last remaining lever available to the federal government to stall the project since the Corps had already given its approval to more than 200 separate nationwide permits allowing the pipeline to cross streams and wetlands. Tens of thousands of development projects that have modest impacts on federally protected streams or wetlands are approved by the Corps each year under these nationwide permits, which allow for an accelerated review process.
Tribes and greens say that pipelines should not be approved through this expedited process, and they object to the process in which the Corps evaluates each individual stream crossing individually, rather than looking at the cumulative impact of the pipeline. Critics have also urged the Corps to look at a pipeline’s full route — not just the portions that cross protected waters — in evaluating the damage its construction would cause.
“I think the nationwide permit system serves a totally legitimate purpose for projects that have truly minor or beneficial actions, but it’s become a loophole for big projects with serious impacts, not just to water but to treaty rights and other tribal concerns,” said Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice who is representing the Standing Rock Sioux in some of the Dakota Access litigation.
But in the new regulation that is slated to be finalized in March, the Corps rebuffed efforts to fundamentally change its approach to energy pipelines, underscoring that its authority is limited to impacts to protected waterways, and that it does not have the power to “regulate the operation of oil and gas pipelines” nor address leaks.
However, after months of listening sessions hosted by the Corps across the country in which tribes raised concerns about the nationwide permitting process, the agency amended its language relating to tribal rights.
"As we continue to mature in our [nationwide permit] program implementation and how it intersects with our tribal relationships, we make needed changes to our rules. This was one opportunity to do just that," said Moira Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, who oversees the Corps.
Currently, the Corps’ regulations limit the use of nationwide permits for projects that would “impair” a tribe’s treaty rights for hunting, fishing or water supply. But tribes argue that the Corps and other federal agencies often ignore other rights, especially when the protected resource isn’t on a reservation. For instance, a tribe may have the right to use a piece of off-reservation land for ceremonial purposes or hunting and gathering, said Jeanette Wolfley, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law.
“Oftentimes rights that may be impacted may not necessarily be included under the treaty or in some instances, tribal land may have been ceded to the United States,” she said.
Tribes argued that when federal agencies do reach out to tribes to consult on a proposed project — like the Dakota Access pipeline — it often happens so late in the process that they don’t feel their concerns can really be heard.
The new language in the updated regulation governing nationwide permits would broaden the scope of tribal concerns that the Corps must consider to include not just tribal land, treaty rights and water rights, but also protected tribal resources — a term that the Corps defines as covering resources both on and off the reservation.
And the regulation would prohibit the Corps from using nationwide permits to approve any project that would have “more than minimal adverse effects” on these tribal rights — a clearer and potentially lower bar than was previously on the books.
Some lawyers say the regulatory change will end up turning the review process for even minor, routine projects into a slog.
“My guess would be if things continued on the trajectory they’re on now, you’d see less things dealt with on the nationwide permit basis and more things dealt with on an individual permit basis,” said Bart Freedman, a partner with the firm K&L Gates in Seattle who has represented both tribes and non-tribal parties. Nationwide permits are typically processed in about 24 days, while individual permits approving larger or more controversial impacts to protected waters average 187 days of review once they are filed.
Freedman said that a shift toward the individual permitting system wouldn’t just mean that the permitting process would take longer, but the more thorough review could make it more likely that tribal concerns would be validated.
“If you have the equivalent of an [environmental impact statement], you’re going to have a much more focused look on the potential impacts of a project, so you’re potentially more likely to identify those impacts than if there was a more kind of summary review,” he said.
But some tribal lawyers say the updated regulation is not a game changer since most of the nationwide permitting regime was left in place.
“This small part is a really good, positive step forward, but that was just one tiny element of a bigger picture of problems associated with the use of nationwide permits overall,” said Vanessa Ray-Hodge with Sonosky, Chamber, Sachse, Endreson & Perry LLP.
Indeed, the pipeline industry sees the new permit regulation as an overall win, and so far doesn’t expect that the new tribal language will be much of a change from how the Corps is already working with tribes and others with an interest in projects, said John Stoody, vice president of government relations at the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.
The regulation could face a court challenge — environmental groups have indicated they are prepared to sue over the nationwide permit governing oil pipelines — and the tribal rights language could be legally vulnerable since it was not included in the proposed version of the rule. Even if it stands, it will fall to the Trump administration to implement.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/story/2017/01/army-corps-offers-olive-branch-to-tribes-in-wake-of-dakota-access-143083
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McCarthy Expects 'Swift Action' on Repealing Methane Rules
Jan 5, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Republican lawmakers have yet to decide which regulations from the Obama administration they want to repeal first, but he disclosed that he expected "swift action" on rules governing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, the House passed along partisan lines a bill that would allow Congress to reject an entire block of proposed regulations, so-called "midnight rules," if they were submitted by federal agencies within the last 60 days of a legislative session and in the final year of a president's term. Currently, lawmakers must go through the regulations one at a time.
In a speech on the House floor Wednesday, McCarthy promised that lawmakers "will repeal specific regulations that are harmful to the American people, costing us time, money, and most importantly, jobs...
"[President Obama] continues to unilaterally impose regulations on his way out the door," McCarthy said, according to the Congressional record. "So while we haven't yet determined what needs to be repealed first, I expect to start with swift action on at least the stream protection rule and methane emissions standards, both of which limit our energy production."
Last year, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) unveiled rules governing flaring and venting of associated natural gas on public and tribal lands, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued three final rules covering methane emissions from new oil and gas wells. Several states and industry groups have since filed lawsuits over both sets of rules.
"This process won't be completed quickly, but as we remove harmful regulations and change the structure of Washington, draining the bureaucratic swamp that undermines the will of the people, we can rebuild trust between the people and their government again," McCarthy said. He added that House lawmakers will look at the Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA) next week.
"[The RAA] will require agencies to choose the least costly option available and will end judicial deference to agencies, which puts the American people at a disadvantage in the courtroom."
On Wednesday, the House passed HR 21, also known as the "Midnight Rules Relief Act," on a 238-184 vote; four Democrats crossed party lines and voted with the GOP. The bill, introduced Tuesday by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), calls for amending the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to allow Congress to issue a joint resolution of disapproval for a block of rules, or "en bloc."
In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's win last November, Republican lawmakers have threatened to use the CRA as a tool to repeal various Obama administration policies, including a separate BLM rule governing hydraulic fracturing on public and tribal lands, and the joint promulgation of the Clean Water Rule (CWR) by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The CWR was designed to clarify what constitutes Waters of the United States (WOTUS), thereby deserving protection under the Clean Water Act.
"It is time to get rid of the Washington-knows-best, top-down, one-size-fits-all rules like the EPA's WOTUS [and] the Clean Power Plan..." Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) said Wednesday before HR 21's passage, adding that the federal government enacted 3,400 regulations in 2015. She asserted that the regulations cost the nation $1.9 trillion in lost productivity and growth, calculating the loss at $15,000 per household.
With the passage of HR 21, Wagner said Republicans "are demonstrating that we are listening to our constituents and we are telling them that their elected representatives are in charge, not Washington bureaucrats."
But House Democrats pushed back. "I am astounded by this feeling that regulations shouldn't be examined one by one," said Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). "Under this measure, 61 regulations could be considered en bloc. To me, just trying to put together two regulations to revoke them would be very, very hard to handle...
"Can you imagine this Congress trying to block regulations which would be offered in one bill that could be over 60 different regulations? I mean, it is unthinkable. It is not very practical at all."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/108951-mccarthy-expects-swift-action-on-repealing-methane-rules
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Jan 6, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Editorial Board
Our friends in the environmental movement often behave as if they have a monopoly on sound science, but not everyone is convinced. Witness the rebuke that Britain’s independent advertising watchdog issued to Friends of the Earth, which on Wednesday was forced to withdraw one of its anti-fracking leaflets.
The finding by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concerned a magazine insert titled “Pat Saved Her Home From Fracking. You Can Save Yours Too.” The ad claimed that hydraulic fracturing—the injection of high-pressure fluids into shale to extract oil and gas—causes cancer, asthma and eye problems, as well as skin diseases and nervous disorders. Friends of the Earth illustrated the ad with a photograph of a national park where there are no plans to frack.
Britain’s ASA took action in response to a complaint from the energy company Cuadrilla, which objected to the ad’s suggestion that toxic chemicals could end up in drinking water and cause illness. The regulator resolved the dispute informally, and Friends of the Earth said this meant ASA had “dropped” its complaint. That prompted the regulator to clarify Thursday that it had ended its investigation only after Friends of the Earth promised it wouldn’t repeat “claims it made in its anti-fracking leaflet or claims with the same meaning.”
As a matter of principle we don’t like any regulation of speech content, even if the ASA is a self-regulating body unaffiliated with the British government. The best way to counter false speech is with more speech, which is how it works in the U.S. with its First Amendment.
That would have been the better way for the ASA to handle it too, but the episode does illustrate the falsity of green-lobby claims. Even President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has never been able to show harm that fracking pollutes ground water. Yet this falsehood persists, much like claims about the dangers of genetically modified foods that have been debunked by scientific authorities on both sides of the Atlantic.
England sits atop an estimated 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, with major reserves in Wales and Scotland too. If tapped, those reserves could add dynamism, jobs and security to Britain’s economy, much as fracking has in the U.S. Getting there will require rebutting green scare-mongering that masquerades as science.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/untruth-in-green-advertising-1483665734
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With a Record $1.4 Trillion in Sustainability Assets, Investors Bail on Fossil Fuels
Jan 5, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Namrita Kapur
As President-elect Donald Trump puts together his fossil fuel-focused administration, the investment community is moving full speed in the opposite direction, instead putting their bets on emissions reductions and support for clean energy.
Some recent developments:
· Investors controlling more than $5 trillion in assets have committed to dropping some or all fossil fuel stocks from their portfolios, according to a new report tracking the trend.
· Climate change criteria shape the investment of $1.42 trillion in assets under management, a more than fivefold increase since 2014. Clean technology is now a consideration incorporated by money managers with $354 billion in assets under management.
· A recent government bidding process for a large wind farm outside New York State got so many offers the auction had to be extended for a day. The winning bidder was Statoil, an oil company with a growing renewable portfolio willing to pay $42 million, more than twice what the last round of Gulf oil leases generated.
· Microsoft-founder Bill Gates and nearly two dozen other business leaders just launched a new, $1-billion fund that will finance emerging energy innovations to deliver affordable and reliable energy. Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ goal is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero levels.
Why is there so much momentum in the sector now, especially considering the proclivity of the incoming Trump administration for fossil fuels? Because of two short words that mean everything to investors: return and risk.
Price of renewables is right
Although federal policy and the bias of government leaders have an important influence on return and risk, they are far from the only factors. The investment thesis for clean energy is clear.
Prices are dropping, making renewables not only competitive, but ushering in an era of undercutting fossil sources – even without subsidies. Solar energy, for example, is already the lowest-cost option in parts of the world and expected to beat out coal globally by 2025.
In addition, large consumers, looking to insulate themselves from volatility in electricity markets are locking into financially favorable, long-term renewable energy purchases. Corporate power purchasing agreements, or PPAs, had their best year by far in Europe in 2016, totaling more than 1 gigawatt, up from about 400 megawatts in 2015.
Amid coal bankruptcies, investors play it safe
New risks have also cropped up to steer investor behavior.
There is hesitance to fund coal, in particular, as credit ratings have been deteriorating. At least seven coal producers with liabilities of $500 million or more have filed for bankruptcy in the United States since the start of 2014.
Credit downgrades have outnumbered upgrades among coal mining companies this year by about eight to one, Bloomberg data show. Such market realities are immune to politics.
“No turning back”
Besides wanting to address climate change and other risks in their portfolios, investors now seek to reap the rewards of a sector where revenues are outpacing costs and have become a clear value play.
As Pete Grannis, deputy controller at the $185-billion New York State public pension fund, said at an investor side event at the recent international climate talks in Marrakech, “The die has been cast, there is no turning back.”
https://www.edf.org/blog/2017/01/05/record-14-trillion-sustainability-assets-investors-bail-fossil-fuels
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Exxon Mobil, Saudis Eye Community Near Corpus Christi for Petrochemical Plant
Jan 5, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Saudi Arabia's top chemical company are advancing plans to build a massive petrochemical plant north of Corpus Christi, and the small neighboring cities are bracing for big changes.
Exxon Mobil and the Saudi Basic Industries Corp., known as SABIC, have selected their preferred site for the joint venture - 1,400 acres just beyond the boundaries of two cities, Portland and Gregory - despite opposition from residents who fear the plant is too big, too dirty and too risky. The $10 billion plant would create an estimated 11,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent positions, and generate millions of dollars in property taxes for the county and school district.
The future of the project will depend on votes by San Patricio County Commissioners and the Gregory-Portland School Board, which will consider tax breaks that Exxon Mobil and SABIC say they need to start building and hiring. School Board President Randy Eulenfeld said he's undecided, seeing the benefits of new jobs and more money for schools versus the likely change to the character of two towns with a combined population of 20,000.
"It's about a quiet community ... overlooking a bay becoming more industrial," Eulenfeld said.
The companies announced the project in July with four sites in mind - two in Louisiana and one other in Texas near Victoria - before increasingly homing in on San Patricio County late last year. Grass-roots opposition picked up in the fall as word spread that San Patricio County increasingly appeared to be the likely pick. As pressure mounted, the Portland City Council made a non-binding ceremonial vote against it in December, encouraging Exxon Mobil and SABIC to build elsewhere.
The proposed site is within 2 miles of a high school, junior high and elementary school, and local groups formed to oppose the project. One group, Portland Citizens United, collected more than 2,500 signatures in an online petition calling for the rejection of the tax breaks.
"It's a big safety risk," said Adair Apple, a member of Portland Citizens United. "I feel like we're all impacted because it'd be sitting there right outside our city limits."
Schools Superintendent Paul Clore said he believes the project will benefit the schools without harming the communities. He said he toured Exxon Mobil's expanding petrochemical campus in Baytown and came away with a positive impression.
"All of it seems to coexist without conflict in that area," Clore said.
Exxon and SABIC said they selected the site because of its access to cheap and abundant natural gas from Texas shale fields, as well as the proximity to ports, railways and highways. The complex would include the world's largest ethane cracker, which turns a component of natural gas into ethylene, the primary building block of most plastics, as well as other plastics manufacturing operations. The plant could come online as early as 2021.
County judge's support
San Patricio County Judge Terry Simpson said it's an exciting project for the community, and he contends a majority of the people are supportive. The nearby schools already sit near natural gas pipelines and railways that carry chemicals and oil, he said.
"The hazards are always there," Simpson said. "You can't eliminate the potential that there's a disaster of some sort."
Buffer zone
The key, Simpson said, is building to the highest safety standards. Exxon Mobil and SABIC are proposing to construct new roads and upgrade others near the site to accommodate the increased traffic. They also say the site will include a buffer zone to keep plant operations as far away from homes and roads as possible to lessen any environmental and aesthetic harm.
The plant would receive millions of gallons of water daily, with its industrial supplies coming from Corpus Christi and drinking water from Portland and Gregory. Corpus Christi suffered a water crisis in December after an asphalt emulsifier leaked into its water supply.
The county commissioners haven't scheduled their next meeting, but the school board will discuss the project on Jan. 17. Clore said there's no plan to vote at the meeting.
"This is our only chance to do something about it," Apple said.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Exxon-Saudis-eye-community-north-of-Corpus-10838663.php
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New Obama Report Warns of Changing ‘Threat Environment’ for the Electricity Grid
Jan 6, 2017 | Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
At a time of heightened focus on U.S. cybersecurity risks, the Energy Department released a comprehensive report on the nation’s rapidly changing electrical grid Friday that calls for new action to protect against evolving threats.
The agency urged policymakers to grant regulators new emergency powers should threats become imminent, among other recommendations.
The document notes the sprawling scale of U.S. electric infrastructure: The nation has 7,700 power plants (ranging from coal-fired to nuclear) and 55,800 substations. Some 707,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines link the two, and then 6.5 million additional miles of local lines spread out from the substations.
Dramatic change is sweeping over the sector. For instance, so-called smart meters are being added to bring more online control to the electrical grid. And more and more households are adding solar systems to their rooftops, providing new connecting points. A “rapidly evolving system” is in major need of modernization and upgrades to keep pace, the report says.
“There’s the weak-link issue for the whole system,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in an interview to highlight the report. “The reality is, for a lot of rural, smaller utilities, it’s a very difficult job to have the kind of expertise that will be needed in terms of cyber, so we suggest for example, grant programs to help with training, to help with analytical capacity in these situations.”
“The economy would just take an enormous hit” from a successful grid attack, he said.
The document is the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, a series of wide-ranging reports surveying the entire U.S. energy system that the department began after President Obama announced new climate change policies in 2013. The first installment dealt broadly with the entirety of the nation’s energy infrastructure, which goes far beyond electricity to encompass natural gas and oil pipelines, storage infrastructure, and other facets. This one zooms in on electricity.
It highlights not only cyberattacks on electric infrastructure in Ukraine in late December of 2015 — in which three Ukrainian utilities were hit by synchronized cyberattacks, leading to power losses for 225,000 customers — but also the Oct. 21, 2016, event that used in-home Internet-connected devices, collectively, to lead a large denial-of-service attack.
“We know that this is not just a theoretical concern,” Moniz said.
The report calls for utilities to take engage in “deliberate risk management activities” as the electric power sector becomes increasingly interconnected with global communications networks.
“The threat environment is also changing — decision makers must make the case for investments that mitigate catastrophic, high-impact, low-probability events,” the report notes.
Cyberthreats are not the only challenge facing the grid. The report warns that extreme weather events triggered by human-caused climate change also makes the system vulnerable.
On grid security, the report contains myriad recommendations, including amending the Federal Power Act to give the Energy Department the ability to issue a “grid-security emergency order,” and also giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission new powers to bolster reliability standards that affect electricity-sector operators “if it finds that expeditious action is needed to protect national security in the face of fast-developing new threats to the grid.”
In the interview, Moniz said he hoped that under the next administration, the Quadrennial Energy Review process would continue, noting that the last installment of the report has already triggered major action. Of its 63 recommendations, the DOE has found, 21 are already “fully or partially reflected in Federal law.”
“We think that the second volume hopefully is going to have the same kind of track record,” Moniz said. “That’s the basis upon which I certainly hope, and will certainly recommend, presumably to [Energy secretary nominee Rick Perry], that the new administration take ownership of this, and keep it going.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/06/new-obama-report-warns-of-changing-threat-environment-for-the-electricity-grid/?utm_term=.4ecfd7bcce23
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What's the Key to Preventing Train Crashes?
Jan 5, 2017 | Christian Science Monitor
By Patrick Reilly
Federal investigators are searching for answers in Wednesday’s Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) commuter train crash. The train failed to stop when entering Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal, hitting the “bumper block” at the end of the tracks and injuring more than 100 passengers.
This crash comes as the latest of several recent crashes and derailments on US rail lines. In October, a New Jersey Transit commuter train hit the bumper in Hoboken Station, coming off the tracks and fatally striking a woman on the platform. On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak train derailed after rounding a bend in Philadelphia at high speed, killing eight passengers. In December 2013, a similar crash in the Bronx left four Metro North passengers dead.
These crashes have intensified calls for railroads to adopt a system called Positive Train Control (PTC), which uses GPS data, onboard computers, and other electronics to automatically adjust trains’ speeds based on their locations. Congress has authorized $199 million for railroads to install the technology. But PTC’s limits suggest that safety-minded railroads may also want to improve hiring and training.
“I don’t want people to think that positive train control is a magic bullet that will prevent all accidents,” transportation engineer Gus Ubaldi told CBS New York. Instead, Mr. Ubaldi sees a train’s operator as the key to railroad safety. “Why did he miss his mark?” he asked of the ill-fated LIRR train’s driver.
It’s too soon to tell if this train’s operator caused Wednesday’s crash. But the National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB) attributed two of those other recent crashes to human error. It ruled that Amtrak 188’s engineer had been distracted by radio communications with another train; the driver of the Metro North train that derailed in 2013 apparently suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea, and nodded off before entering a curve. The federal investigation into last fall's Hoboken crash continues.
The NTSB’s chairman, Christopher Hart, presents PTC as a means to prevent crashes like these. This past May, he said that “the list of PTC-preventable accidents stretches back decades,” pointing to the Bronx and Philadelphia derailments as tragedies that the technology could have averted.
But the challenges – and ongoing delays – of installing sensors, data, and other equipment along America’s vast rail network may require railroads to find other ways to improve safety sooner.
In 2008, Congress mandated the installation of PTC on all rail lines that carry passengers or hazardous material by the end of 2015. In October of that year, with both freight and commuter railroads behind schedule, Congress pushed the deadline back to 2018.
Even as PTC covers more miles of track, gaps in coverage could still pose a danger. Last summer, after an Italian train crash killed 27 people, The Christian Science Monitor reported that the train had been on one of the few sections of Italy’s rail network not covered by automated-braking systems.
Railroads do have another means to minimize the risk of human error: better hiring and safety practices. In its report on the 2013 Metro North crash, the NTSB found that the commuter railroad “did not have an effective system for identifying, monitoring, analyzing, and mitigating safety risks.”
The Board’s investigators found that employees believed that management valued on-time arrival over safety, and feared retribution if they reported safety violations or mistakes. Their report also concluded that Metro North failed to screen and treat employees for sleep apnea, the oversight gap thought to have led to the 2013 crash.
The NTSB recommended that Metro North correct these problems to prevent future crashes. Other commuter railroads may want to take notice. Both New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road may eventually be covered by PTC. But this system’s slow rollout suggests that lower-tech workplace changes – better safety training, improved hazard reporting, and stronger screening of employees – are currently railroads’ fastest path to keeping passengers safe.
New Jersey Transit has already taken steps in this direction. The NTSB’s final report on its Hoboken crash is still pending, but the Garden State’s railroad has already introduced a new check against drivers’ mistakes. A conductor must now enter the driver’s cab as the train approaches the station, reminding the driver to slow down.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2017/0105/What-s-the-key-to-preventing-train-crashes
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(ACC Mentioned) Ozone Rule Opponents See Potential Congressional, EPA Action
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Patrick Ambrosio
Opponents of the 2015 ozone standards see potential avenues for Congress and Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency to address compliance concerns, but any effort to roll back or delay implementation of the rule will face fierce opposition from environmental and health advocates.
Absent action from Congress, new EPA leadership or the courts, the agency is on track to make its area designations this fall: a determination of which areas do and don't meet the 70 parts per billion ozone standards. Parts of at least 22 states, ranging from big cities like Los Angeles and New York to the oil- and gas-rich Uinta Basin in Utah, are unlikely to meet those standards based on air quality data, according to a 2016 Bloomberg BNA survey of state environmental agencies.
The National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council, two industry trade groups that have been leading critics of the more stringent ozone standards, both told Bloomberg BNA that they think there is a legislative path forward for addressing their concerns with the ozone standards, as well as administrative options for the incoming Trump administration.
Environmental and public health advocates, who view the 70 ppb standards as a necessary health protection that will help avoid asthma attacks and other adverse health effects, plan to push back in the Senate and in the courts to keep implementation of the rule on track.
Areas that don't meet the ozone standards are subject to a number of requirements to reduce emissions of the pollutants that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, including stricter permitting requirements for new and modified industrial facilities.
Legislation Expected Soon
The push for ozone legislation will start early in the 115th Congress: Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) will soon reintroduce legislation that would delay implementation of the 2015 ozone standards, according to a spokeswoman for Olson's office.
The House in 2016 passed Olson's bill, known as the Ozone Standards Implementation Act, but the bill never reached the Senate floor. That bill would push back implementation of the ozone standards by eight years, while also making changes to the EPA's process for conducting future reviews of national air standards for ozone, particulate matter and other criteria pollutants.
“Mr. Olson plans on reintroducing the legislation soon,” the spokeswoman told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail. “This issue is critically important and he wants to keep it front and center.”
The Ozone Standards Implementation Act is backed by a variety of industry trade organizations that are seeking delayed implementation of standards that they said are too costly and difficult to meet. In addition, several members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, including EPA team leader Myron Ebell, signed onto a 2016 letter supporting the bill.
The EPA has historically failed to meet its legal obligation to review national ambient air quality standards every five years, drawing deadline lawsuits from advocacy groups. While supporters of Olson's bill say that illustrates the need to change the EPA's review process, environmental and health organizations say extending the review period would further delay needed air quality improvements.
On the Senate side, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) introduced several ozone-related bills last Congress, including a Senate companion to the Ozone Standards Implementation Act and a bill that would change the way EPA reviews requests to exclude air quality data influenced by wildfires and other uncontrollable events from decision-making on whether an area meets the standards. A spokesman for Flake told Bloomberg BNA that the senator will be introducing similar legislation in the 115th Congress.
Supporters See Path Forward
The American Chemistry Council, in a Jan. 4 statement e-mailed to Bloomberg BNA, said it expects lawmakers to renew efforts to address “long-standing problems” with the EPA's national ambient air quality standards, including the need for states to implement two standards at the same time. Those efforts include standalone legislation like the Olson and Flake bills, as well as the possibility of including ozone-related language in appropriations bills, according to the chemical trade group.
“We would certainly like to see them get ‘over the finish line’ this year, and we are optimistic,” the American Chemistry Council said.
Congress is expected to have a busy schedule in 2017, but Ross Eisenberg, vice president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, told Bloomberg BNA that he expects there will be the “political will” to address ozone implementation concerns as members of Congress hear from metropolitan areas that will struggle to meet the standards, as well as industries that will be subject to emissions reduction requirements.
“I still think there's a legislative path for fixing some of the bigger challenges that plague the [national ambient air quality standards] process,” Eisenberg said. “I do think that that avenue will remain open.”
Action on ozone could come quickly in the 115th Congress, particularly if there is bipartisan support for halting implementation of the standards, according to Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for the Center for Regulatory Solutions. Dempsey noted that Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) has voiced support for suspending the 70 ppb standards, given the difficulty that Denver will face in meeting the standard. In addition, Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) has raised concerns about possible implementation difficulties.
Dempsey told Bloomberg BNA that if there is an appetite among congressional leadership to address EPA regulations, “ozone would be front and center” in that effort.
Advocates Plan Defensive Strategy
While supporters of the ozone bills see the potential for Congress to act, environmental and public health advocates will fight back against any effort to roll back protections under the Clean Air Act.
Advocacy organizations plan to launch a “vigorous defense of Americans’ right to breathe clean air,” John Walke, director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Bloomberg BNA.
“We will fight any attempt to roll back clean air safeguards and health protections,” Walke said.
In Congress, the strategy will be to make sure that any bills targeting the Clean Air Act are unable to get through the Senate, Walke said. While Congress has the option of disapproving recently issued regulations using expedited floor procedures under the Congressional Review Act, the 2015 ozone standards were issued well outside that window, meaning it will take 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy at the American Lung Association, said he hopes a majority of both chambers of Congress, or at least a “large and potent minority” in the Senate, will reject any bill to undermine the ozone standards. Advocacy efforts won't focus just on Senate Democrats, as Billings said there are plans to work with senators on both sides of the aisle to help them understand the importance of the health-based ozone standards and a strong Clean Air Act.
Billings noted that a string of recent significant pollution episodes in Beijing, New Delhi and Tehran demonstrate the importance of the Clean Air Act, which he said explains why the air is so much cleaner in the U.S. than it is abroad.
Reconsideration Possible, But Difficult
If Congress is unable to get ozone legislation through the Senate, it is possible that Trump's EPA could act on its own to slow implementation of the ozone standards. While Trump has made limited mention of ozone, his pick to lead the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is involved in a legal challenge to the rule.
Administrative action by the EPA, potentially through a reconsideration of the standards, is possible, but it would potentially take years and be subject to legal challenges.
“That's certainly an option, but it's not a quick option,” said Eisenberg of the National Association of Manufacturers. “We're under no illusion.”
There is a “pretty reliable roadmap” on how EPA could choose to reverse course on the ozone standards because the Obama administration already did it, Eisenberg said. After entering office in 2009, Obama's EPA launched an out-of-cycle reconsideration of the 2008 ozone standards of 75 ppb, but eventually abandoned the effort years later.
“Ultimately, the science will dictate where this all lands, because it has to, but we think there are process issues that would justify a reconsideration,” Eisenberg said.
Seth Jaffe, a partner at Foley Hoag LLP in Boston, predicted that it would be difficult for the Trump administration to come up with a legal justification to withdraw the 70 ppb standards. Jaffe's practice covers a range of environmental issues, including permitting and enforcement under the Clean Air Act.
Jaffe said Trump's EPA would have to come up with a new explanation for why the 2008 standards shouldn't have been tightened that fully addressed conclusions by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a panel of independent advisers, that a standard higher than 70 ppb wouldn't be protective of public health.
“The courts have pretty clearly said you've got to have a pretty clear explanation,” Jaffe told Bloomberg. “I don't see how this administration can come up with a record that would survive judicial review.”
Flexibility for Trump's EPA
While a full reconsideration of the level at which the ozone standards are set might be difficult, some say Trump's EPA would have some flexibility to address industry and state implementation concerns.
William Yeatman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, acknowledged that there is “not a lot” the EPA would be able to do administratively to reverse course on the 70 ppb standards, given that the courts have barred the agency from considering cost in setting the health standards and required the agency to follow the advice of the CASAC. Two of Yeatman's colleagues at the Competitive Enterprise Institute—Ebell and Christopher Horner—are serving on the Trump transition's EPA review team, but Yeatman has no involvement with the transition.
While changing the 70 ppb level would be very difficult, Yeatman told Bloomberg BNA that the EPA under Pruitt could achieve a “de facto relaxation” of the standards through the implementation process, which is largely at the discretion of the administration.
Olson's office also said they think the discretion afforded to the EPA in the implementation process could help address some concerns.
“While many issues related to ozone are driven by statute, interpretation and implementation are always key, given the amount of deference given to agencies,” the spokeswoman for Olson said. “Rep. Olson is confident that positive steps can be taken by the incoming administration.”
The EPA has yet to issue its implementation rule for the 2015 ozone standards, which will address a range of requirements for the state environmental agencies that are tasked with implementing the 70 ppb standards. The American Chemistry Council said that implementation rule will give incoming EPA leadership “an opportunity” to address issues created by the overlapping 2008 and 2015 standards.
Advocates to Continue Legal Defense
The Trump administration will take over the EPA not long before a federal appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments over the legality of the 2015 ozone standards, including challenges from Oklahoma and other states. Arguments originally were set for February, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently rescheduled those arguments for April 19 (Murray Energy v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1385, 12/19/16).
The American Lung Association and other advocacy organizations that are intervening in that litigation on behalf of the EPA will continue to defend the rule, no matter how vigorously the Trump administration decides to defend the Obama-era decision on where to set the standards.
“We will make sure that the court is fully informed of what the law requires and what the science says,” Billings said. “That's what being an intervenor gives us: participatory rights in the case, and we'll make sure our views are heard.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=102978815&vname=dennotallissues&fn=102978815&jd=102978815
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New Senate Chairman Vows ‘Fundamental Shift’ on Environment
Jan 6, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
The Wyoming Republican who is taking the gavel of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is looking to make “a fundamental shift” away from the Environmental Protection Agency and other regulations that he argues have hurt U.S. industry and job growth.
“We have the opportunity to continue to be good stewards of the environment in a way that doesn't hurt jobs,” avoiding “what happened the last eight years” under the Obama administration, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 5.
“It's going to be a fundamental shift and we'll take a look at the real costs and the real benefits of different regulations that affect the economy, as well as the environment,” he said.
Barrasso's rise to the chairmanship—he succeeds Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has been either the committee's chairman or ranking member since 2003—was assured when Republicans held on to their Senate majority Nov. 8.
Barrasso was formally elected chairman Jan. 4; Delaware's Sen. Tom Carper will serve as the panel's top Democrat.
Agenda to Be Outlined at Hearing
Barrasso and the departing Inhofe are on the same page on key environmental issues—both are among the Senate's most vocal opponents of Obama's climate and other environmental regulations and question the link between human activity and climate change.
But Barrasso has been perhaps the lead voice in the chamber trying to derail international climate aid that Obama pledged to help developing nations adapt to climate impacts and pursue a low-carbon development path, and has more of an international focus generally stemming from his chairmanship of a Senate foreign relations subcommittee.
Barrasso declined to elaborate on how he may target that funding, but it is clearly in the crosshairs given Republicans are largely opposed and control both chambers of Congress, and will control the White House after Jan. 20. Particularly vulnerable: President Barack Obama's $3 billion pledge over four years to the Green Climate Fund.
The new chairman said he will give a detailed opening statement “to really go through specifics” of his agenda when the Environment and Public Works Committee holds its confirmation hearing for Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Barrasso's committee had yet to schedule Pruitt's confirmation hearing as of late Jan. 5.
Environmental groups are strongly opposed to Pruitt, largely due to litigation he has used to derail Obama's EPA rules. One group, Clean Air Moms Action, began a television and online ad campaign this week criticizing Pruitt's efforts against EPA mercury standards.
Clean Air Act Changes Unlikely?
Inhofe, who will stay on the committee as a member, told Bloomberg BNA Republican committee members have yet to meet “to talk about all these detailed agenda items” but said he rejects the notion that he and Barrasso are opposed to science. The distinction, Inhofe said Jan. 5, is that Republicans will argue that any environmental regulations be steeped in “sound science.”
“The only thing we're going to say is, it has to be based on sound science—-that's it,” Inhofe said. Low on the committee's priority list, Inhofe said, are changes to the Clean Air Act, a hot-button item that has eluded House Republicans who grumble that the EPA has had far too much latitude in using its authority and that the law should be changed to rein in the agency.
“No, it's just not high enough on the agenda to discuss right now,” Inhofe said of possible changes to the law.
Perhaps, he was asked, next year?
“Sounds good,” Inhofe said.
Will Work With Trump
In a statement, Barrasso offered only a broad outline of his agenda, vowing as chairman to focus “on measures that will remove red-tape and bureaucratic barriers to economic development, while ensuring clean air, land, and water for every American.”
“Over the past eight years, a runaway Environmental Protection Agency has time and again issued cumbersome regulations that have limited job creation and energy development,” he said. The environment committee will work closely with the Trump administration “to remove these obstacles to economic growth, while protecting the environment,” it said.
Republicans now outnumber Democratic votes 11-10 on the environment committee; Republican members in addition to Barrasso are Inhofe and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.); John Boozman (Ark.); Roger Wicker (Miss.); Deb Fischer (Neb.); Jeff Sessions (Ala.); Jerry Moran (Kan.); Mike Rounds (S.D.); Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska).
Democrats, in addition to Delaware's Carper, are Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.); Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.); Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); Cory Booker (D-N.J.); Ed Markey (D-Mass.); Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.); and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, also onthe committee, caucuses and votes with the Democrats.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=102978840&vname=dennotallissues&fn=102978840&jd=102978840
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The Case for Scott Pruitt to Lead the EPA
Jan 6, 2017 | Real Clear Energy
By Adam Brandon
The mainstream media’s misrepresentation of Scott Pruitt as an unsophisticated crony of the powerful energy lobby couldn’t be farther from the truth. In nominating Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, President-elect Donald Trump has selected someone willing to defend the American people’s values, and the Senate should confirm him as soon as possible.
Here is how Pruitt will lead in accordance with American ideals:
Pruitt will defend separation of powers. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt has led the charge against the Clean Power Plan (CPP), a series of EPA regulations crafted by the Obama administration that attempt to reduce greenhouse emissions from power plants.
Only Congress has the power to enact such extensive changes. The EPA’s attempt to bypass the legislative branch is unconstitutional. As Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in FDA vs. Brown & Williamson: “No matter how important, conspicuous, and controversial the issue, and regardless of how likely the public is to hold the Executive Branch politically accountable, an administrative agency’s power to regulate in the public interest must always be grounded in a valid grant of authority from Congress.”
No such valid grant has been given. Pruitt and attorneys general of 27 other states have sued the EPA for overreaching its constitutional limits. They are supported by both conservative and liberal judges in condemnation of the regulations. Bush appointee Judge Brett Kavanagh referenced both O’Connor and Scalia opinions in his arguments against CPP. And even Lawrence Tribe, Obama’s law school mentor, thinks the plan is unconstitutional. Pruitt’s case is currently awaiting a decision in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Afterwards, it must sit before the Supreme Court before CPP can be enacted.
Pruitt will ensure that the EPA plays by the rules and goes through Congress. By doing so, he will promote the best method for producing effective environmental policy: bipartisan efforts in Congress, not top-down decisions made by unelected officials.
Pruitt will defend federalism. The EPA has repeatedly ignored the rights of states to determine their own policy. Time and time again, it has imposed uniform rules for diverse situations, landscapes, and people. CPP is just one example of such regulations, and according to Pruitt’s attorney, David Rivkin, it would allow the EPA to drive states on issues like developing new power plants.
Pruitt has doggedly fought CPP and similar regulations, refusing to quit even when the courts would not hear his cases. He has sued the EPA multiple times over rules that interfered with state sovereignty. Under his leadership, Washington bureaucrats will no longer dictate the lives and lands of the citizens with whom they barely interact. Instead, state and federal governments will work together to create legislation appropriate to regional needs. And states, no longer bound by regulation, will be free to experiment with environmental policies that, if successful, can be implemented on a national level.
Pruitt will defend American entrepreneurship. Environmental issues have stunted American industry. The EPA’s regulatory onslaught has cost Americans $1 trillion over the past decade, and the agency’s attack on coal has cost Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio thousands of jobs.
If these regulations go unchallenged, American corporations will be left with two options. They either can spend money on lawyers to help navigate endless EPA regulations and stay in America, or they can move to countries without regulations. If they stay, the money spent on lawyers prohibits them from creating jobs. If they leave, the emissions in countries without regulations will do even greater damage to the global environment.
Pruitt will advance American businesses. He has a history of working with, not against, business; his letter to the EPA objecting to CPP was developed in cooperation with Devon Energy. Although the media tried to frame this as underhanded dealing with a corporate lobby, Pruitt’s actions actually defend American workers. Labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Mine Workers, have joined his suit against CPP. And with restrictive regulations eliminated, companies can invest in hiring more workers rather than exorbitant legal fees.
Pruitt has shown himself to be an audacious and effective leader, willing to question establishment conventions in defense of the Constitution. Under him, the EPA will develop strategic, specific solutions to environmental issues that take both innovations from the private sector and the concerns of the states into account. The Senate must honor the American principles Pruitt has so ardently defended and immediately confirm his appointment.
Adam Brandon is the president and CEO of FreedomWorks.
http://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2017/01/06/the_case_for_scott_pruitt_to_lead_the_epa_110167.html
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Environmentalists Attack EPA Transport 'Hot-Spot' Guide as 'Final' Action
Jan 6, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
Environmentalists are ramping up claims that EPA's guidance for states on how to ensure transportation projects do not create particulate matter pollution (PM) spikes, or “hot-spots,” in excess of regulatory limits is a final agency action subject to judicial review, and triggers the “substantial probability” of “imminent” harm to public health.
The environmentalists' argument, detailed in a Jan. 4 brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, aims to counter EPA's claim that the guidance issued in 2015 is not a final agency action and therefore cannot be challenged in court.
In the D.C. Circuit case Sierra Club, et al. v. EPA, et al., environmentalists and community activists are challenging the guidance document, which they say mandates practices for transportation conformity analysis that will result in excess pollution and harm to public health.
Under the Clean Air Act, state regulators must determine that transportation projects such as highway construction do not cause or contribute to new violations of national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). Projects must “conform” to the state's plan for air law implementation and NAAQS attainment.
The groups in the suit ask the court to find the guidance unlawful and without effect, leaving in place a 2010 conformity procedure instead. The new guidance at issue applies to both coarse particulate (PM10) and the smaller fine particulate (PM2.5).
In its new reply brief, the groups attack EPA's position that the guidance is not legally binding, and hence not subject to judicial review. EPA says the guidance is not a rule and offers only recommendations on how states conduct their hot spot analysis, but environmentalists say the guidance imposes hard requirements on states and is in effect a legislative rule subject to review.
Legal Standing
The groups further reject EPA's assertion that they cannot demonstrate harm from the guidance and hence lack standing to sue.
“EPA’s arguments ultimately fail because the sections of the Hot-spot Guidance at issue, by law and by their own terms, impose binding legal norms that govern conformity determinations made by transportation agencies. Case law in this Court holds that those legal norms cannot lawfully be promulgated or amended except by notice and comment rulemaking required by the Administrative Procedure Act” (APA), the groups say. EPA published a Federal Register notice to announce the guidance, but did not undertake formal rulemaking.
“EPA argues that the 2010 Guidance is not binding because it was not promulgated by full APA procedures, but the Guidance satisfied minimum APA requirements for legislative rules,” the groups say. They argue the text of the guidance makes clear it establishes required procedure for states to follow, not mere recommendations.
Environmentalists argue that the revised guidance will produce “design values” for PM2.5, used to determine compliance with the PM2.5 NAAQS, that will result in unlawfully high PM2.5 levels. This, they say, will result in harm to human health in at least three areas where road building projects are underway or planned, in Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles. The health harm gives them standing to sue, despite some of the projects lacking final approval to proceed, the groups claim.
“Petitioners have standing because the amended Guidance allows harm that would not have been legal under the 2010 design value procedures, is causing actual harm to petitioners’ members in Phoenix, and threatens the 'substantial probability' of harm to members in Denver and Los Angeles where two other highway projects are nearing final approval,” they argue.
However, the court has already denied a request by the groups to stay the guidance, based in part on the groups' inability to show likelihood of imminent injury.
Oral argument has not yet been scheduled in the case.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/environmentalists-attack-epa-transport-hot-spot-guide-final-action
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Climate: NAS Poised to Issue Latest Report on 'Carbon Cost' Tool
Jan 6, 2017 | Inside EPA
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is poised to release next week the second part of its report on the Obama administration's social cost of carbon (SCC), a long-awaited study that supporters say could complicate any attempts by the Trump administration or other critics to scrap the tool that provides default values to estimate the benefits of EPA and other agencies' climate rules.
NAS says in a Jan. 5 notice that it plans to release the report Jan. 11 and says it will both address the issue of future updates to the SCC and make recommendations for near- and longer-term research priorities.
While it is unclear what exactly the NAS panel will recommend, the academy has said the report will examine the “merits and challenges” of more comprehensive updates to the climate damages estimates to ensure they reflect the best available science.
The NAS study is a follow-up to a prior narrower report released in early 2016 that recommended against an interim update to interagency SCC estimates to account for reduced estimates of climate sensitivity to emissions, saying the affect of any change in that area would be too small to justify an immediate revision.
Observers are watching the upcoming NAS report closely, in part for how it discusses damages currently omitted from the SCC -- an issue that could open the door to increasing the SCC estimates even as Capitol Hill and other Republicans remain hostile to use of the estimates in regulatory policy.
The fate of the SCC -- a per-ton estimates of economic damage from carbon dioxide and other GHGs, used by multiple federal agencies for regulatory cost-benefit analysis -- is somewhat uncertain as the Trump administration prepares to take office. Some Trump advisers and other observers have pointed to the SCC as an example of climate-related executive action that could be easily scuttled.
But supporters of the carbon cost tool have pointed to the forthcoming NAS report, among other things, as complicating critics' efforts to scrap the SCC. Observers on both sides of the issue have suggested the phase two report could bolster calls to strengthen or defend the SCC.
One SCC backer told InsideEPA recently that a plausible outcome is that NAS does not explicitly “put its thumb on the scale” by calling for higher SCC values, but may issue recommendations that point to the need to raise the SCC by implicitly or explicitly referencing the omission of some climate damages in current climate modeling efforts.
A conservative critic of the SCC also predicted a similar scenario, suggesting the academy report will include at least in part recommendations that point to adding categories of climate damages to the SCC.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/climate-nas-poised-issue-latest-report-carbon-cost-tool
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