Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 1/30/17
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Markup of U.S. EPA Nominee
Feb 1, 2017 | Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Location: 406 Dirksen / 10:45 AM -
Hearing On Electric Sector Cyber Threats
Feb 1, 2017 | Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy
Location: 2322 Rayburn / 10:15 AM -
Hearing On Reducing Regulatory Burdens
Feb 1, 2017 | Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Comittee
Location: 216 Hart / 10:00 AM -
Hearing About Infrastructure
Feb 1, 2017 | House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Location: 2167 Rayburn / 10:00 AM -
(ACC Mentioned) US Chemical Production Falls In December 2016
Jan 30, 2017 | Hydrocarbon Engineering
By Callum O'Reilly
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has announced that the US Chemical Production Regional Index (US CPRI) fell 0.2% in December 2016. -
(ACC Mentioned) SI Group Receives Responsible Care Award
Jan 29, 2017 | The Times and Democrat
By Gene Zaleski
SI Group, a leading global developer and manufacturer of chemical intermediates, specialty resins and solutions, was presented with the Responsible Care Facility Safety Award by the American Chemistry Council. -
Trump Adviser Calls for Downsizing EPA, Overhauling Its Science
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter and Jennifer A. Dlouhy
A former adviser to President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency transition team called for shrinking the regulator and overhauling the way it uses science to set policy. -
Did Scott Pruitt Lie to the Senate?
Jan 27, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Melanie Benesh and Scott Faber,
Did President Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency mislead members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during his confirmation hearing? -
(ACC Mentioned) Consumer Products Group Defends EPA's Safer Choice In Letter To Trump
Jan 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
A consumer products trade association is urging the Trump administration to maintain and expand EPA's Safer Choice program, a voluntary program the Obama administration championed and sought to expand but which some Trump administration advisors have targeted for elimination. -
(ACC Mentioned) Industry Campaigns for ‘Reform’ of Cancer Agency
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker
The chemical industry is mounting an offensive against the World Health Organization's cancer research affiliate, setting the tone for efforts this year to discredit the agency. -
(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Industry Launches PR War Against World Health Organization
Jan 30, 2017 | Consumer Affairs
By Amy Martyn
It's to be expected that corporations do not like it when government agencies say their products could cause cancer. When California regulators, for example, attempted last year to add glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller, to a state list of possible carcinogens, the agrochemical giant sued the state. -
(ACC Mentioned) EndoBreak: Skittles for Cows; Heart Risks from Fat Shaming?
Jan 27, 2017 | MedPage Today
By Kristen Monaco
Calling out the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) this week, the American Chemistry Council -- an industry trade group -- has started a "campaign for accuracy in public health research," largely in regards to endocrine-disrupting chemical regulatory policy. -
Transition: Chemists Warn Trump Over Changes To EPA Scientific Policies
Jan 30, 2017 | Inside EPA
The American Chemical Society (ACS), an academic association of chemists, “is monitoring, with concern, reports stating the Trump administration is changing scientific communication policy and grant procedures,” at EPA, and it urges the new administration to quickly clarify its policies. -
Too Many Young Children Get Too Much Perchlorate From Food
Jan 27, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Neltner,
On January 9, we described a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report showing that perchlorate exposure to infants and toddlers increased 34% and 23% respectively between the years around 2005 and 2010. -
Advocates Press Costco To Develop Chemicals Policy
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Public health advocates petitioned retail giant Costco Wholesale Corp. to develop a comprehensive chemicals policy at the company's annual shareholder meeting yesterday. -
U.S. Gas May Be One Trade That Survives Trump's Mexico Clash
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Naureen S. Malik
It could take more than a political standoff between President Donald Trump and Mexico to keep U.S. shale gas from flowing south. -
House GOP: No Fast Start for Big Energy, Environment Bills
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
Congress is unlikely to focus on environment and energy policy in its first 200 days beyond related administration nominations and upcoming Congressional Review Act votes, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), deputy Republican whip, told reporters Jan. 27 at the end of the joint Republican retreat in Philadelphia. -
States, Cities Defend Obama EPA In Latest Legal Challenge
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., today moved to defend the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan against the latest legal bid by challengers to kill the rule. -
Alaska Senators Float LNG, Hydro Bills
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Margaret Kriz Hobson
Alaska's Republican senators this week introduced a lineup of bills designed to open the door for additional hydroelectricity in Alaska and to make it easier to build the state's proposed multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas export project. -
Resignation Threatens to Bring Pipeline Rulings to Halt
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jonathan N. Crawford and Catherine Traywick
A U.S. energy regulator filed his letter of resignation on Jan. 26. And with that letter, he may have just brought federal decisions on multibillion-dollar natural gas pipelines to a halt. -
Panel To Consider Grid Hacking Defenses
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Blake Sobczak
Lawmakers are set to hear about the power industry's latest cyberdefense strategies at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday. -
Findings Not Enough to Settle W.Va. Residents’ Concerns Over Spill
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
New information released by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board may not be enough to ease a West Virginia community's concerns about the long-term impacts of a 2014 chemical spill, advocates say. -
(LCA Mentioned) Companies, States See Downside To Regulatory Freeze
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
When U.S. EPA last fall deemed a big part of Louisiana's petrochemical belt in compliance with a 2008 ozone air quality standard, it was a development noteworthy enough to merit a story in the Baton Rouge newspaper. -
Congress May Replace, Not Just Repeal, Environmental Rules
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alan Kovski and Stephen Lee
Congress needs to decide on the next steps to take after it uses the Congressional Review Act to repeal recent regulations on coal, oil and natural gas, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said Jan. 27. -
California: Court Asks Tough Questions In Suit Over GHG Auctions
Jan 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
A California appellate court this week offered tough questions for both sides in the landmark suit testing the legality of the state's greenhouse gas (GHG) allowance auctions under cap-and-trade, a suit that hinges on whether the allowance auction are an illegal tax, as industry groups say, or a legal fee as the state argues. -
Backers Of HFC Pact Drop Climate Angle, Cast Kigali As A Trade Boost
Jan 30, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Eric Wolf
Supporters of an international agreement to limit global warming-inducing coolants are shifting their message to convince President Donald Trump to support it: It's a trade deal, not a climate change pact.
Congressional Hearings
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Environment News
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Feb 1, 2017 | Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
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Hearing On Electric Sector Cyber Threats
Feb 1, 2017 | Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy
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Hearing On Reducing Regulatory Burdens
Feb 1, 2017 | Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Comittee
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Feb 1, 2017 | House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
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(ACC Mentioned) US Chemical Production Falls In December 2016
Jan 30, 2017 | Hydrocarbon Engineering
By Callum O'Reilly
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has announced that the US Chemical Production Regional Index (US CPRI) fell 0.2% in December 2016.
The fall in the US CPRI followed a 0.2% gain in the previous month, and a 0.1% decline in October 2016, as measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis.
Chemical production was lower across all regions in December 2016.
The ACC reported that chemical production was mixed. While there were gains in the production output trend of fertilizers, consumer products, chlor-alkali, miscellaneous inorganic chemicals, and synthetic dyes and pigments, these were partially offset by declines in the production of organic chemicals, plastic resins, pharmaceuticals, synthetic rubber, other specialties, industrial gases, pesticides, coatings, adhesives, and manufactured fibres.
https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/30012017/us-chemical-production-falls-in-december-2016/
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(ACC Mentioned) SI Group Receives Responsible Care Award
Jan 29, 2017 | The Times and Democrat
By Gene Zaleski
SI Group, a leading global developer and manufacturer of chemical intermediates, specialty resins and solutions, was presented with the Responsible Care Facility Safety Award by the American Chemistry Council.
The award is presented to companies with exemplary performance in employee health and safety. ACC Responsible Care award winners are selected by a committee made up of internal and external experts.
SI Group also received a silver award for corporate social responsibility from EcoVadis, an international organization that provides sustainability ratings for global supply chains. SI Group was ranked among the top 13 percent of more than 25,000 worldwide companies assessed by EcoVadis.
http://thetandd.com/progress/progressions-may/article_7b18299b-d32d-50f1-a226-23464cb7ee8b.html
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Trump Adviser Calls for Downsizing EPA, Overhauling Its Science
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter and Jennifer A. Dlouhy
A former adviser to President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency transition team called for shrinking the regulator and overhauling the way it uses science to set policy.
“They've really gotten away with murder in misusing science and justifying regulations on the basis of junk science,” Myron Ebell, who left the transition team he led last week, said in an interview in his Washington office.
Ebell, who made clear he was not speaking on behalf of the Trump administration, said he believed most of the goals of the agency created in 1970 had been achieved and the number of employees should be reduced to 5,000 from the roughly 15,000 employed by the agency.
“If the Trump administration is serious about keeping Trump's promises, they will have to reform the use of science,” said Ebell, director of the Center for Energy & Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a public policy organization that advocates limited government.
His remarks come amid mounting concerns that the Trump administration is eliminating scientific data and has restricted the external communication of agency staff.
By revisiting the science that underpins a swath of environmental rules—including those governing ozone and mercury pollution—the EPA can begin to undo them, Ebell said.
Public Studies
“The way to clear the air about what the EPA is doing—and what the state of our environment is—is to reform the use of science so they have to use publicly available studies that can be replicated, that can be criticized,” he said. “Then we'll find out the condition of the environment was a whole lot better than we've been told.“
He singled out a stringent new air pollution standard imposed under President Barack Obama limiting ground-level ozone pollution to 70 parts per billion, down from the Bush-era level of 75 parts per billion. There is no public health distinction between those two levels, but the economic impacts are enormous, according to Ebell.
“I think we need to look at the costs of these regulations and the health benefits of destroying jobs,” he said.
‘Alternative Facts’
A former EPA staff member disagreed with his analysis.
“It sounds like Myron Ebell has been reading some alternative facts,” said Liz Purchia, who served as an acting associate administrator in the agency during the Obama administration. “He is going to need to provide a legal and scientific justification for redoing the agency's work.“
The government is doing more damage to Americans’ health by killing the jobs that pay their bills, Ebell said. Once you look at it that way, he said, the air pollution standard “not only has no health benefit, it has a very large health harm.“
The EPA is swollen with too many people, far beyond what is now necessary to protect public health and the environment, he said. “Most of EPA's work in terms of protecting the public health and the environment has been accomplished,” but career scientists there and “the special interests that depend upon them” aren't ready to “declare victory.“
“I'm not an expert in downsizing agencies, but I think the Trump Cabinet has people in it who are good at hostile takeovers. Maybe they should be consulted,” he quipped, noting that billionaire investor Carl Icahn is a special regulatory adviser to the new president.
Trump understands that the EPA “can be a huge obstacle” to economic development, Ebell said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726457&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726457&jd=104726457
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Did Scott Pruitt Lie to the Senate?
Jan 27, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Melanie Benesh and Scott Faber,
Did President Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency mislead members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during his confirmation hearing?
At a panel discussion this week that Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, convened to seek further information on Scott Pruitt’s record and positions, some members began to wonder if Pruitt told the truth during his earlier confirmation hearing.
It’s a good question. Compare these examples of what Pruitt said in sworn testimony to what the record actually shows.
Limited role for Oklahoma attorney general?
At his confirmation hearing, Pruitt testified: “Our state has not provided constitutionally as much authority as other states” to bring actions against polluters. He claimed that instead his job was to provide “guidance” to state environmental agencies. In fact, Pruitt had broad authority and duties under Oklahoma law to prosecute polluters.
Environmental enforcement?
Pruitt claims environmental enforcement didn’t stop after he disbanded the attorney general’s environmental protection unit. But budgets show that after taking office Pruitt cut allocations for “environmental law” to zero. What’s more, nearly all of the environmental actions cited by Pruitt were actually started by his predecessor, Drew Edmondson. Edmondson investigated and initiated dozens of actions on agricultural pollution, contaminated former industrial sites and dirty groundwater. Edmondson also helped form the Oklahoma Environmental Crimes Task Force, which conducted 142 criminal investigations resulting in 56 prosecutions.
Prosecuting oil and gas polluters?
Pruitt repeatedly claimed during his testimony that he took action against oil and gas companies, such as ConocoPhillips. The case he cited was not an environmental case, but a fraud lawsuit against ConocoPhillips – the company allegedly committed fraud by double-collecting remediation funds. What’s more, he dropped two similar cases against Chevron and BP. Meanwhile, Pruitt did nothing to address pollution from the ConocoPhillips refinery in Ponca City, Okla., which was given the nation’s highest hazard rating for benzene, a known carcinogen.
“Historic” Illinois River agreement?
Pruitt claimed that a 2013 agreement between Oklahoma and Arkansas was historic because Arkansas would be required for the first time to meet Oklahoma’s water quality standard for phosphorus in the Illinois River. But that’s not true: Arkansas has been required to meet Oklahoma’s standard since 2003. In fact, the 2013 agreement actually amended an earlier agreement by giving give polluters more time to clean up the river.
Protecting tribes?
During his testimony, Pruitt said he provided a voice for tribes concerned about water quality. But Oklahoma tribal leaders, such as Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation, said Pruitt has done nothing to address serious water quality problems in their communities. At Carper’s panel discussion, Camp-Horinek said her community has “averaged a funeral a week over the years because of the detrimental air, earth and water impacts.”
Pursuing poultry litigation?
In 2005, Edmondson sued poultry polluters for dumping more than 300,000 tons of chicken manure into the Illinois River, but the case was not decided by the time he left office. Pruitt claimed that he “[filed] briefs in support of the court making a decision” in the case after taking office. But the court docket shows that he did not take any action to encourage the judge to hold the polluters accountable.
Mahard egg farm?
Pruitt claimed credit for a May 2011 consent decree requiring an egg producer, Mahard, to stop polluting groundwater at all seven of its facilities. But the consent decree was largely developed by Edmondson and the EPA several years before Pruitt took office. Even so, Pruitt testified: “That was something we actually initiated.”
Lead?
Pruitt claimed to “have not reviewed, nor know about” whether there is any safe level of exposure to lead, particularly for children. But an agreement reached by Pruitt to clean up pollution from a smelter in Blackwell, Okla. – included in the list of environmental “accomplishments” he gave the committee – was actually weaker than the agreement reached by private attorneys. What’s more, Pruitt’s lead standard was also weaker than federal standards.
Mercury emissions?
In his testimony, Pruitt denied he had said the EPA should not regulate mercury emissions. But in legal filings, Pruitt has twice argued that the EPA was breaking the law by regulating mercury and other toxic air emissions.
So did the man who may be placed in charge of the EPA lie to a Senate committee? The only way to know would be to hold a second hearing on his nomination.
http://www.ewg.org/planet-trump/2017/01/did-scott-pruitt-lie-senate
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(ACC Mentioned) Consumer Products Group Defends EPA's Safer Choice In Letter To Trump
Jan 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
A consumer products trade association is urging the Trump administration to maintain and expand EPA's Safer Choice program, a voluntary program the Obama administration championed and sought to expand but which some Trump administration advisors have targeted for elimination.
Safer Choice reviews consumer products, largely cleaning products, and allows companies to place the program's logo on packaging for those products that meet EPA's standard. The standard is designed to encourage production and use of products that are the least toxic in their class. Last year, then-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy predicted the program's profile would increase as the agency implemented the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) in a Jan. 24 letter to President Donald Trump describes the program as “creating a market-based incentive for innovation . . . With over 500 industry partners and more than 2,000 products, companies have made significant financial and employee investments to qualify for the Safer Choice logo.”
The program was a favorite of former toxics chief Jim Jones, who oversaw a facelift of the program's name, logo, marketing and visibility in the later years of the Obama administration.
The program has not been without its critics, however, with environmental groups and the agency's children's health advisors in the past questioning aspects of its standard, such as its transparency, EPA's oversight over products that qualify for the label, and its exclusion of endocrine disruption.
More recently, the program came under fire in a blog posting by the free-market think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, where Myron Ebell, who served as the head of the Trump administration's EPA transition team, is a director. The blog argued that Congress should defund Safer Choice. The post charges the program is unnecessarily driving products from the market and forcing product reformulations without regard for potential adverse safety effects.
CSPA, by contrast, urges Trump to “continue the Safer Choice voluntary program to allow products that meet the standards of the program to carry the logo. Many of our member companies have invested substantial resources to develop and market these products so the potential elimination of the program would negate all of the innovation that resulted from those costly efforts.”
Further, the letter argues that “EPA should expand the program to allow antimicrobial products that meet the standards to carry the logo, unless the products are specifically prohibited from using the Safer Choice logo under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). We have member companies that see the market value (through proactive innovation) of being part of the Safer Choice program.”
Congressional Action
The program was also targeted last year in an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that was removed during the House-Senate conference process following lobbying from CSPA and other groups, CSPA President and CEO Steve Caldeira says.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), “would have prohibited the Department of Defense from using any authorized funds for a number of sustainability programs, including the Energy Star, the Safer Choice program and many other programs in the Executive Order on Sustainability,” Caldeira writes to Inside EPA.
In a letter sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the congressional armed services committees last September, CSPA and other groups urge the lawmakers to drop the Fleming amendment from the conference report. The letter described the amendment as “sweeping language [that] prohibits [the] Department of Defense (DOD) from using any authorized funds . . . to carry out much of the President’s Executive Order 13693 (“Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade”), which includes the Safer Choice Program.”
The letter's authors argued that the “Safer Choice Program helps the DOD create a healthier, safer environment for service members and civilian employees by identifying for purchase products that contain the least toxic chemicals for a given purpose.”
In the group's letter to Trump, CSPA also outlines other “top priorities for 2017 that involve the . . . EPA,” including implementing the overhaul of TSCA, reauthorizing the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) beyond its expiration next fall, extending the deadline to implement the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and formally proposing a draft rule under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act classifying aerosol containers as universal waste.
CSPA's description of TSCA echoes statements from American Chemistry Council Vice President Mike Walls last month, who told reporters that the timely, orderly implementation of TSCA is that trade association's top priority for 2017.
Other Priorities
The consumer products group asks Trump to “appoint strong leadership for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention” who is “very familiar with the new law and understand the interests of all segments of the regulated community,” noting that the law includes a number of impending deadlines.
CSPA also “requests adequate EPA resources for implementation. While the industry funds a portion of EPA’s activities under the new law, appropriated funds cover the majority of the costs. Funding for TSCA implementation should increase significantly beyond the baseline set during the years when the law was essentially dormant. Delays on decisions would not only be costly to the chemical industry, but would also stifle job creation.”
And lastly, CSPA seeks “support from the White House and the EPA Administrator on TSCA,” saying the next administrator and White House advisers “should understand that regulation under TSCA is not an impediment to business. In fact, regulation enhances U.S. brands by assuring retailers and consumers that a trusted regulator has evaluated risks from chemicals in a neutral, unbiased, and science-based manner. When science and the new law dictate that restrictions on chemicals are necessary, then EPA should follow through and issue regulations accordingly. Otherwise, some states will step in to fill the gap, creating a patchwork of laws that would be costly and overly burdensome for our member companies to navigate.”
The letter does not mention the recently instituted hiring freeze -- which one EPA source indicates may become an obstacle to TSCA implementation if the freeze is not lifted. “How this [hiring] freeze will potentially impact these efforts is something we will discuss with the new Administration as soon as we possibly can,” Caldeira writes Inside EPA.
CSPA also makes the business case for PRIA, a law first enacted in 2003, which gives EPA the authority to charge fees to companies seeking to register or re-register their products for sale or use in the U.S. These fees were used to expand the pesticides office staffing to ensure that registrations happened on a quicker, predictable schedule. That authority has been reauthorized several times in subsequent acts, and is currently set to expire in September 2017 unless it is reauthorized. CSPA asks that Trump support and sign the bill which it says “will be introduced shortly and must pass by September 2017.”
On EPA's controversial 2015 ozone NAAQS, which ratcheted the previous 2008 standard from 75 parts per billion (ppb) down to 70 ppb, CSPA writes that “member companies have serious concerns about the feasibility of achieving” these NAAQS within EPA's deadline, as well as compliance costs. CSPA asks Trump to sign another bill it expects to be introduced and passed this Congress. That anticipated bill will be similar to legislation last Congress which sought to extend the deadlines and give states more flexibility to implement the new NAAQS, “reform the regulatory review period for NAAQS” and add consideration of feasibility, cost and additional information to the NAAQS review process, CSPA writes.
Lastly, the trade association asks “EPA to promptly draft and publish for comment the proposed regulation indicating that aerosol containers be classified as universal waste,” which it says would increase aerosol container recycling.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/consumer-products-group-defends-epas-safer-choice-letter-trump
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(ACC Mentioned) Industry Campaigns for ‘Reform’ of Cancer Agency
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker
The chemical industry is mounting an offensive against the World Health Organization's cancer research affiliate, setting the tone for efforts this year to discredit the agency.
The American Chemistry Council launched a campaign this week to encourage lawmakers to “seek reform” of Lyon, France-based International Agency for the Research of Cancer (IARC). The agency's assessments of cancer hazards, particularly a 2015 conclusion that the herbicide glyphosate is a probable carcinogen, has rankled Monsanto Co., which developed glyphosate for its Roundup weedkiller.
The council's newly launched Campaign for Accuracy in Public Health Research “aims to raise awareness among U.S. policymakers and our partners around the globe who regularly engage with IARC and the WHO about the need for significant changes at IARC,” Ana Heeren, a spokeswoman for the campaign, told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail.
The suggested overhauls would require IARC to consider to the substance's risk— not just the hazard—and reassess which types of studies get more weight than others. They also would allow input from outside groups on the development of “monographs,” or assessments on the carcinogenicity of common products and activities, from air pollution to occupations.
IARC did not immediately respond to Bloomberg BNA's request for comment. But the agency has a strong ally in the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist with NRDC's health program.
“We will defend the ability of IARC to do its work without industry interference, as will scientists around the world,” Sass told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail.
Monsanto Lawsuits
The campaign “will help explain what IARC is, how it is funded, and what its conclusions actually mean,” said Heeran. To start, ACC has emphasized that IARC's assessments, or “monographs,” are for hazards, not risks. Risk assessments take into account an individual's exposure of the chemical in deciding the likelihood that such a chemical will lead to cancer.
The effort comes as two lawsuits in California seek to use the 2015 IARC monograph to justify restrictions on glyphosate and penalties for Monsanto. Dozens of lawsuits from people claiming that their exposure to glyphosate led to non-Hodgkins lymphoma have been consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In a state court, Monsanto is seeking to block the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment from listing glyphosate under California's Proposition 65 law, which mandates disclosure on products known to cause cancer.
But congressional Republicans have pushed back against the 2015 assessment, contending IARC was opaque in its process. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) sent a letter to National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins Jan. 12, asking him to hand over communications between NIH and IARC. NIH's National Cancer Institute funds about half of the IARC's monograph program that reviewed glyphosate.
Congressional Opposition
Chaffetz sent the letter in light of news last fall that IARC asked members of a working group to ignore requests for records on the glyphosate monograph. IARC is an international agency and not subject to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
The House Science and Agriculture committees also launched investigations into the issue last year after the Environmental Protection Agency published its conclusion that glyphosate does not cause cancer, then abruptly pulled it offline. Appropriators could include riders in next year's appropriations bills to restrict federal money for the international research group.
IARC is not a regulatory agency, and government regulators in several countries have not adopted the conclusion that glyphosate leads to cancer. IARC's monographs are done for for hazards that have already been well-studied in peer-reviewed research, Sass said.
“By the time that IARC comes to it, it really shouldn't be a dispute,” Sass said.
Attorneys in the multi-district litigation on glyphosate in federal court are collecting information ahead of planned hearings in October, said Timothy Litzenburg, an attorney with the Virginia-based the Miller Firm LLC representing cancer patients. The plaintiffs’ attorneys are also looking to compel former EPA official Jess Rowland to submit to a deposition.
Rowland, the former deputy division director for the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, retired from the agency after it released a report finding that that glyphosate didn't cause cancer, then removed it.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726483&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726483&jd=104726483
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(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Industry Launches PR War Against World Health Organization
Jan 30, 2017 | Consumer Affairs
By Amy Martyn
It's to be expected that corporations do not like it when government agencies say their products could cause cancer. When California regulators, for example, attempted last year to add glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller, to a state list of possible carcinogens, the agrochemical giant sued the state.
California’s decision on glyphosate dates back to a panel organized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer-research arm of the World Health Organization. In a move that angered many in the industry, the world cancer agency in 2015 concluded that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans.
In response, California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment decided to label glyphosate as a carcinogen under Proposition 65, the state’s law that lists and labels products that potentially cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive problems. As a result, Monsanto shortly after filed a lawsuit against the agency.
Now the industry is setting its sights beyond California and looking at the bigger picture.Industry campaign targets WHO
The American Chemistry Council is a trade group representing a long list of corporations that produce and work with synthetic chemicals, from ExxonMobil to Eli Lilly to Monsanto. The trade group has a history of enthusiastically defending the safety of various chemicals and lobbying health agencies to do the same.
On Wednesday, the American Chemistry Council announced the launch of its new campaign, one that it claims will promote "Credibility in Public Health Research," or CAPHR for short. The target of the CAPHR campaign is the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, the same agency that had listed glyphosate as a carcinogen.
"In particular, CAPHR will seek reform of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Monographs Program, which evaluates the carcinogenic hazard of substances and behaviors," writes the American Chemistry Council in a press release. "IARC’s Monographs Program suffers from persistent scientific and process deficiencies that result in public confusion and misinformed policy-making."
While that assessment is debateable, the American Chemistry Council correctly notes that IARC’s decisions "have a significant impact on U.S. public policy and marketplace deselection...IARC classifications have also been used by retailers as justification to phase out certain substances." Of course, it’s perfectly legal for retailers to phase out “certain substances” and for consumers to follow suit, but such “marketplace deselection” clearly hurts the pocketbooks of industry giants.
The trade group further accuses the IARC's decisions of leading to "dubious and misleading news coverage."American Chemistry Council has also defended formaldehyde
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), unlike the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, have often sided with industry leaders in debates over controversial chemicals.
For example, the EPA has repeatedly ruled that glyphosate does not cause cancer. And when it organized another scientific panel into the matter last year, the agency agreed to remove one researcher whom the pesticide industry felt was too critical. The FDA, for its part, has long maintained the safety of Bisphenol-A in food packaging, despite petitions from some food safety groups asking to have it removed.
But American federal regulators and chemical producers don't always see eye-to-eye either. In July of last year, the EPA finalized rules meant to protect workers from formaldehyde exposure. "Exposure to formaldehyde can cause adverse health effects including eye, nose and throat irritation, other respiratory symptoms and cancer," the EPA explained, backing up a long history of research into the matter.
The American Chemistry Council has continued to insist that formaldehyde exposure is perfectly safe and has similarly taken the EPA to task for stating otherwise.
"The truth is, formaldehyde is a natural part of our world," the American Chemistry Council wrote in one report, "and the illogical findings of IRIS," or EPA’s draft Integrated Risk Information System, "are not."
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/chemical-industry-launches-pr-war-against-world-health-organization-013017.html
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(ACC Mentioned) EndoBreak: Skittles for Cows; Heart Risks from Fat Shaming?
Jan 27, 2017 | MedPage Today
By Kristen Monaco
Red Skittles spilled onto a Wisconsin highway earlier this week were reportedly on their way to a farm to feed cattle, as an alternative to corn. Candy is said to be a way to "provide cheap carbs" to cows, but can also indirectly add to rising diabetes and obesity rates through consumption of the animals' resulting high-sugar byproducts. (CNN)
Federal survey data indicate that about half of all adult Americans drink at least one sugary drink per day, with the highest consumption rates among black and Hispanic men.
Type 1 diabetes patient and advocate Mary Tyler Moore passed away at the age of 80 this week, due to complications from pneumonia. She served as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's international chairman for over 30 years.
A recent study reported an association between early menarche with an 80% increased chance of early menopause. Childlessness was also found to be associated with early menopause. (Human Reproduction)
Calling out the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) this week, the American Chemistry Council -- an industry trade group -- has started a "campaign for accuracy in public health research," largely in regards to endocrine-disrupting chemical regulatory policy. The group is demanding that IARC's evaluations of cancer-causing carcinogens be a "transparent, thorough assessment of the best available science," stating they "have a significant impact on U.S. public policy." (Reuters)
Fat shaming was linked to increased risk for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease in a study, the suggested mechanism being that low self-esteem leads to overeating and avoidance of exercise. "As healthcare practitioners, we can help challenge negative, internalized stereotypes by educating patients about the complex biological and environmental factors that contribute to obesity, while providing concrete strategies to help patients manage their weight and improve their health," said lead author Rebecca Pearl, PhD, in a press release. (Obesity)
Members of Britain's Parliament demanded greater equality for access to infertility treatments, calling current funding choices "crude, discriminatory, and arbitrary." Some proposed a new national tax in order to cover treatment costs. (BMJ)
Presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine in Honolulu, a study found no reduction in the number of days in the ICU for critically ill children with target glucose ranges between 80-110 mg/dL versus 150-180 mg/dL. The lower targets were also associated with higher rates of hypoglycemia and infection.
Kidney failure patients on dialysis, most commonly caused by diabetes, are largely uninterested in receiving treatment for the depression often seen in this population. The same study also found kidney specialists seldom prescribe depression treatment for those patients willing to accept it. (Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology)
Wellness coaching via telephone was found to be successful at aiding weight loss, by increasing fitness and improving diet. "Because obesity and diabetes are major health issues in the United States, behavioral interventions within clinical settings may be an important means for addressing healthy behaviors," said lead author Julie A. Schmittdiel, PhD, in a press release. (Obesity)
http://www.medpagetoday.com/endocrinology/generalendocrinology/62783
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Transition: Chemists Warn Trump Over Changes To EPA Scientific Policies
Jan 30, 2017 | Inside EPA
The American Chemical Society (ACS), an academic association of chemists, “is monitoring, with concern, reports stating the Trump administration is changing scientific communication policy and grant procedures,” at EPA, and it urges the new administration to quickly clarify its policies.
ACS does not specify which reports it is referring to, but an ACS spokeswoman clarifies that the statement responds to “the rumors circulating that are specific to EPA,” as well as other federal agencies.
While the spokeswoman declined to discuss specific reports, the groups' statement follows reports that Trump's transition team will likely review the scientific work of EPA's scientists “on a case by case” basis before it can be published or presented externally, a step that may be at odds with the agency's current scientific integrity policy.
NPR, for example, noted that “any review would directly contradict the agency's 2012 scientific integrity policy, which prohibits “all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions.'”
In a similar vein, ACS notes that it has “established public policies underscoring the importance of unfettered scientific discourse and exchange to ensure the integrity, credibility and reliability of the scientific enterprise,” and it quotes both.
It points to the ACS Freedom of International Scientific Exchange statement, which states “It is important for organizations that represent scientists and educators to advocate the most open and fair exchange among scientists without limitations imposed by national and global political concerns.”
ACS' Scientific Integrity in Public Policy statement says, “Scientists and engineers have an obligation to provide comprehensive, transparent, unbiased, and understandable technical analyses. Policymakers have the responsibility to consider these analyses and any other relevant technical input in a comprehensive, transparent, and unbiased manner.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/transition-chemists-warn-trump-over-changes-epa-scientific-policies
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Too Many Young Children Get Too Much Perchlorate From Food
Jan 27, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Neltner,
Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director and Maricel Maffini, Ph.D., Consultant
On January 9, we described a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report showing that perchlorate exposure to infants and toddlers increased 34% and 23% respectively between the years around 2005 and 2010. Young children were the most exposed age groups. FDA compared the exposure to a “safe dose” established in 2005 and saw no cause for concern. We respectfully disagree and find the levels alarming. First, we now know that the 2005 “safe dose” is no longer sufficient to protect children’s brains from the irreversible harm that can result from even transient exposures to perchlorate. Second, many young children may be over the “safe dose.”
Perchlorate and the brain
Perchlorate interferes with the thyroid gland’s ability to use iodine from the diet, a critical element to make a thyroid hormone, known as T4. This hormone plays an important role in the body regulating metabolism and, most critically, fetal and infant brain development. Inadequate levels of T4 during pregnancy and in the first years of life are likely to affect a child’s ability to reach his or her full intellectual potential.
Organ development, including that of the brain, is a one-way street where a series of “tightly regulated and temporally coordinated events” take place to produce a functional structure. Simply put, there is only one chance to get it right. Because of the fundamental role of thyroid hormone in brain development, experts warn that drops in T4 could adversely affect the child’s brain during pregnancy and after birth.
Perchlorate is not the only chemical in the diet that disrupts the function of the thyroid gland. Nitrates, a very common additive in processed meats, and thiocyanate, a food contaminant, also affect the ability of the thyroid to use iodine. These three chemicals affect the thyroid cells in the exact same way: they inhibit the sodium/iodine symporter, a protein whose function is to mediate the entrance of iodine from the blood into the cells, thus reducing the amount of the essential element available to make T4. Of the three, perchlorate poses the highest health risk due to its stronger bond to the symporter. Nitrate and thiocyanate’s affinity to the protein are 250 and 15 times lower, respectively, compared to perchlorate.
The “safe dose” set in 2005 is no longer sufficient to protect children’s brains
A safe amount or reference dose (RfD) represents how much perchlorate can be consumed without developing adverse effects during a lifetime of exposure. It’s usually expressed as the amount of a chemical per kilogram of body weight a person can take in on a daily basis.
The current RfD is 0.7 micrograms (µg) of perchlorate per kilogram of body weight per day (µg/kg bw/d). It was developed by a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee and is used by regulatory agencies as the value against which exposure to perchlorate from, for instance, drinking water and food would be compared. It hasn’t been updated since 2005.
The RfD was based on a study where adult men and women were given different amounts of perchlorate every day for two weeks. The researchers then measured how much or how little perchlorate inhibits iodine from entering the thyroid gland. The NAS committee concluded that the lowest dose of 7 µg/kg bw/d did not have an adverse effect defined as hypothyroidism. This clinical disease is recognized for low T4 levels, which triggers a response by the pituitary gland to release thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to stimulate the gland to make more T4. Because the study subjects were adults, an uncertainty factor of 10 was applied to protect the most sensitive population: fetuses of pregnant women with hypothyroidism or iodine deficiency.
We knew almost four years ago that the current RfD for perchlorate was insufficient to protect the most vulnerable population. In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) stated that when hypothyroidism occurs, it may be too late to protect fetal and infant brain development. They recommended that EPA used a more sensitive measure of thyroid dysfunction, such as low T4 levels, to ensure better protection. EPA is currently developing an updated safe dose based on the SAB recommendations and has convened a panel of experts to advise it.
Many young children may be over the “safe dose” and at risk of irreversible harm
FDA’s estimate of perchlorate consumption for infants and toddlers is troubling news. The agency reported on perchlorate levels found in foods purchased between 2008 and 2012 and calculated perchlorate exposure for 14 different age/gender groups. The agency’s experts found that the mean exposure for toddlers (2 year olds) was 0.43 µg/kg bw/d but could range from 0.31 to 0.80. In other words, there is a realistic chance that the mean exposure for toddlers was already over the “safe dose” of 0.7 µg/kg bw/d.
Other young children also had an upper limit of mean exposures close to the “safe dose.” For 6-11-month-old infants, it was 0.65 µg/kg bw/d, and for 6-year-old children it was 0.55 µg/kg bw/d.
These levels alone are alarming because of the risk of irreversible harm to brain development. Yet, the report did not address additional exposure factors that further contribute to our serious concern about the risks of perchlorate in food:Contribution of perchlorate from drinking water, a source that is significant enough that EPA is currently developing standards to protect people.Exposure to nitrates and thiocyanate in the diet, which can also impair the thyroid.
Further, the levels in food may have continued to increase in the four years since the samples were collected.
Efforts to protect thyroid health and brain development are lacking
Nearly all the food we eat is contaminated with perchlorate. Exposure is likely to be even higher for those individuals drinking water contaminated with perchlorate. Given this, our children are likely consuming unsafe amounts of perchlorate. We need the FDA and EPA to act to protect what many of us value the most—our children’s health and their ability to learn and thrive to their fullest potential.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2017/01/27/too-many-young-children-get-too-much-perchlorate-from-food/
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Advocates Press Costco To Develop Chemicals Policy
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Gabriel Dunsmith
Public health advocates petitioned retail giant Costco Wholesale Corp. to develop a comprehensive chemicals policy at the company's annual shareholder meeting yesterday.
A coalition of nonprofits delivered over 35,000 signed petitions from Costco members and consumers calling for significant reforms to protect shoppers' safety. The company received an F for its chemicals management practices in a nonprofit report card last year, ahead of only Amazon.com Inc. (Greenwire, Nov. 16, 2016). Retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. received the highest scores.
"Costco is a company with a reputation for great prices and customer loyalty," nurse Karen Bowman — who attended the shareholder meeting — said in a statement. "That's why it is disappointing Costco is failing to meet the rising consumer demand for safer products and lagging behind Walmart and other competitors.
"Costco has enormous purchasing power to give consumers lower prices. It should also use this power to give consumers protection from toxic chemicals in furniture, apparel, and other products," she continued.
CEO W. Craig Jelinek reportedly told petitioners that the company received a failing grade because it lacked the staff to fill out a survey. He also said the company was examining its sales practices for laundry detergents and cosmetics.
Advocates were quick to push back against Jelinek's claims.
"Costco got an F because they don't have a public safer chemicals policy, not because they didn't fill out a survey," Ivy Sager-Rosenthal, campaign director for nonprofit Toxic-Free Future, said in a statement. "It's disappointing that Costco continues to lag behind Target and Walmart. However, we will continue to work with them and members to urge them to adopt better chemical policy."
Costco shareholders received the signatures at the company's Issaquah, Wash., headquarters. No vote was held on the corporation's chemical policy.
Earlier this week, Target announced a phaseout of multiple toxic chemicals in its supply chain in a move that was widely hailed by public health groups (Greenwire, Jan. 26).
Recent moves by Costco executives indicate that the company is responsive to public campaigns. Earlier this month, the company said that it will discourage suppliers from using neonicotinoid pesticides on plants sold at its stores (E&E News PM, Jan. 13). The class of chemicals is linked to plummeting bee populations.
Costco did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/01/27/stories/1060049137
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U.S. Gas May Be One Trade That Survives Trump's Mexico Clash
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Naureen S. Malik
It could take more than a political standoff between President Donald Trump and Mexico to keep U.S. shale gas from flowing south.
While Mexico works to reverse declining oil and gas production, the nation's burning record amounts of natural gas pulled from tight-rock formations north of the border. Pipeline deliveries of the fuel from the U.S. have more than doubled in the past two years, and Mexico's now tied with Chile as the biggest buyer of tanker shipments of U.S. liquefied natural gas leaving Louisiana's coast.
The gas exports stand in sharp contrast to the showdown threatening one of the world's biggest bilateral trading relationships. Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a meeting with Trump Thursday after the U.S. leader blasted him on Twitter for refusing to pay for a wall along the countries’ border -- and now Trump's considering a 20 percent tax on Mexico imports to pay for it. Gas exports, seen as supporting jobs in the U.S. while handing Mexico cheap fuel, could end up being one trade that bucks the political maelstrom, according to ING Groep NV and Pira Energy Group.
“This all boils down to exactly how protectionist Trump decides to be,” Rob Carnell, chief international economist at ING in London, said by e-mail this week. “My guess is this will be targeted, not blanket, and any retaliation is then down to Mexico, and I imagine they would rather have the gas at a decent price than deter it by putting up tariffs.”
Gas piped to Mexico climbed to a record in 2016, averaging more than 4 billion cubic feet a day in August through October, U.S. government data show. That supply, equal to roughly a fifth of Texas's total gas output, displaced LNG cargoes from Peru, according to Madeline Jowdy, senior director of global gas and LNG at Pira in New York. Exports climbed even higher after Petroleos Mexicanos's Los Ramones Phase II pipeline began operations in May.
Trump himself owned as much as $1 million worth of shares in a U.S. pipeline giant, Energy Transfer Partners LP, that's helping build a line that'll move more gas to Mexico, according to his federal candidate disclosures in 2015. He still had as much as $50,000 worth of shares in the Dallas-based company as recently as May, according to his most recent disclosure. Energy Transfer won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Friday to begin operations at the San Elizario Crossing in Texas which will ship gas to Mexico.
While the State Department issues presidential permits for projects crossing U.S. borders, the commission has jurisdiction over gas pipeline crossings.
LNG imports to Mexico's Manzanillo terminal from the U.S. have also jumped. Ten tankers have unloaded super-chilled gas at the facility on Mexico's western coast since the beginning of August, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. U.S. gas delivered to Manzanillo has gone for as much as $5.53 per million British thermal units, including transportation costs, based on data in a U.S. Energy Department report.
Mexico's increasing reliance on U.S. natural gas isn't without risk, according to Bank of America. Protectionist moves by the Trump administration could curtail exports of the fuel, Francisco Blanch, head of commodity markets research for the bank in New York, said by e-mail Jan. 25.
The impact may hinge on Mexico's response to Trump considering a 20 percent tax on imports from the country—to pay for the wall along the southern U.S. border that Trump pledged to build during his presidential campaign. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Jan. 26, “By doing that, we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone.”
The gas shipments have helped U.S. energy drillers eliminate a supply glut that had sent prices of the fuel plunging to the lowest level in almost two decades. But in one twist of irony, the exports have also cut costs for Mexico's manufacturers, helping them compete against American plants.
Policy changes such as renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and constructing a border wall “risk hurting export demand for U.S. natural gas,” Blanch said. “We remain concerned about large-scale disruptions” to trade.
ING head of commodities strategy Hamza Khan said by e-mail Jan. 25 that gas could keep moving to Mexico through underground pipelines even if Trump succeeds in building a wall along the almost 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border.
“From the political side anything's possible,” he said, “but as a commodity analyst, I don't see why either party would want or benefit from reduced flows.”
—With assistance from Kevin Varley, Amy Stillman, Lauren Etter, Andrea Navarro, Justin Sink and Jonathan N. Crawford.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726466&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726466&jd=104726466
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House GOP: No Fast Start for Big Energy, Environment Bills
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
Congress is unlikely to focus on environment and energy policy in its first 200 days beyond related administration nominations and upcoming Congressional Review Act votes, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), deputy Republican whip, told reporters Jan. 27 at the end of the joint Republican retreat in Philadelphia.
“Something like an energy bill, just to be honest with you when it comes to timing, is probably something we can push past the first 100, 200 days,” Kinzinger said.
Despite health care and tax reform being front-and-center in Congress, Kinzinger and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters completing a major energy overhaul is still an eventual priority. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump will act decisively on these issues, Scalise said, referring to Trump's revival of the Keystone XL pipeline project and his freeze on “radical regulations” that could lead to additional actions.
“Donald Trump has already said we're freezing these radical regulations, and we're going to look at all the things we can do to roll back regulations that were killing jobs,” Scalise said in Philadelphia Jan. 27. “American energy was one of the hardest hit industries by those radical regulations.”
Kinzinger and Scalise made their comments at the end of the retreat held in Philadelphia from Jan. 25 through Jan. 27. A major priority at the retreat was working on a 200-day plan for the party to execute between Jan. 20 and August, discussions where energy and environment issues were largely out of the limelight.
What Is on the Agenda
On energy and environment, the main actions the House expects to execute on are under the Congressional Review Act, Kinzinger said. Those actions are expected to begin next week.
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) earlier in the week of Jan. 27 laying out Republicans’ initial plans to target the Interior Department's stream protection rule (RIN:1029-AC63) and its venting and flaring rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal lands (RIN:1004-AE14) under the review act. However, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said this week that his legislation (H.J. Res 22) to nullify the methane regulation is ineligible for a CRA challenge because the House's parliamentary attorneys said too much time has passed since the regulations were finalized in June.
Using the review act eliminates regulations and bars an agency would from finalizing a substantially similar rule in the future. Environmentalists are expected to challenge these actions through rallying opposition among the public, lobbying and, potentially, in federal court.
Additionally, Kinzinger pointed to the slew of environment and energy nominees the Senate has on tap to confirm or will need to confirm once they are nominated as another way the Senate will focus on these issues. None of the energy and environment nominees ranging from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator nominee Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to Interior Secretary nominee Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) have been confirmed yet.
Still Hope for An Energy Bill
Kinzinger and Scalise both expressed hope for an energy bill at some point and disappointment that efforts to execute on it last session weren't completed.
“We were disappointed we didn't get it done last session. We had cut it—significantly pared it down, hoping to get something,” Kinzinger said of efforts to pass a sweeping energy bill that fell flat in the final days of the last Congress.
The House and Senate were in negotiations to reach a compromise on the energy bill until the final days of the 114th Congress, at which point Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) blamed the House for the breakdown in talks. Scalise Jan. 27 blamed President Barack Obama, and said with Trump in the Oval Office the odds were much better for a final bill.
Kinzinger added that while an energy bill isn't likely in the near-term, “I think it should be—and it should be something that we do soon.”
Room for Committee, Other Action
Individual members and a committee chairman at the conference still highlighted energy and environment actions they planned to work on in the near term.
For example, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has plans to focus on security, capacity and resiliency issues related to the electric grid, among other issues, Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told reporters Jan. 26.
Additionally, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 26 they would push for Antiquities Act reform in Congress. Both members are urging Trump to rescind the national monument designation of the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in Utah among other monuments Obama designated.
“Stay tuned,” Chaffetz said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726462&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726462&jd=104726462
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States, Cities Defend Obama EPA In Latest Legal Challenge
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., today moved to defend the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan against the latest legal bid by challengers to kill the rule.
Led by New York, the states told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a motion that they had an interest in seeing the rule upheld. They were joined by the cities of Boulder, Colo.; Chicago; New York City; and Philadelphia, as well as two counties in south Florida.
The motion seeks to intervene in litigation brought earlier this week asking a federal court to review EPA's decision to deny several requests to administratively reconsider the Clean Power Plan (Greenwire, Jan. 26).
Under the Clean Power Plan, which has been stayed by the Supreme Court, states were required to develop and put in place plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Earlier this month, EPA denied all requests to change the rule except a handful of reconsideration petitions focused on waste-to-energy and biomass issues. It deferred those issues, noting that a separate agency scientific and technical investigation on biomass may clarify the treatment of that fuel.
The new lawsuit over the petition denials comes as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit may soon issue a ruling on the legality of the underlying Clean Power Plan.
President Trump has also vowed to get rid of the rule, along with other components of the Obama administration's climate plan.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/01/27/stories/1060049138
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Alaska Senators Float LNG, Hydro Bills
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Margaret Kriz Hobson
Alaska's Republican senators this week introduced a lineup of bills designed to open the door for additional hydroelectricity in Alaska and to make it easier to build the state's proposed multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas export project.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski and Alaska's junior Sen. Dan Sullivan also proposed renaming a federal wilderness area in honor of former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond (R). Under the bill (S. 213), the newly named territory would be in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in southern Alaska.
The four bills had been included in Murkowski's ill-fated energy reform package that died at the end of last year's congressional session. Now the Alaska senator says she's "optimistic we will be able to see [these bills] signed into law in this new Congress."
The renewable energy bills focus on hydroelectric projects that have been proposed in two southern Alaska communities.
S. 214 would make it easier for Kodiak to expand its Terror Lake Hydroelectric Generating Station facility, which is fed by a remote high-altitude lake 25 miles outside of town (Energywire, June 10, 2016).
That facility provides most of the electricity for the island community and the nearby Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, the largest Coast Guard base in the United States.
A second bill (S. 215) would give the Southeast Alaska Power Association an additional 10 years to begin work on the Mahoney Lake hydro project near Ketchikan. That project is already licensed to begin construction, but developers say local energy demand remains low.
The gas line rerouting bill (S. 217) would give developers of the Alaska LNG Project greater flexibility to decide where to route a proposed 800-mile gas pipeline project. The measure would eliminate a provision of a 2013 law that limited construction to a 7-mile segment of the George Parks Highway, which runs near the border of the Denali National Park and Preserve.
The new bill would allow for part of the proposed gas line to be routed through a non-wilderness section of the park and preserve in order to avoid populated areas.
All four bills have been referred to Murkowski's panel.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/01/27/stories/1060049139
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Resignation Threatens to Bring Pipeline Rulings to Halt
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jonathan N. Crawford and Catherine Traywick
A U.S. energy regulator filed his letter of resignation on Jan. 26. And with that letter, he may have just brought federal decisions on multibillion-dollar natural gas pipelines to a halt.
Norman Bay said he'll leave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission effective Feb. 3. His announcement followed President Donald Trump's decision to replace him as the agency's chairman with his fellow commissioner, Cheryl LaFleur.
With Bay's departure, the agency will have just two commissioners, short of a quorum needed to decide anything from controversial gas pipeline projects to contested utility mergers. His resignation comes just as developers are rushing to build a network of pipelines to accommodate booming natural gas production from shale reserves in the Northeast, unlocking bottlenecks that have caused prices to plunge.
Among the pipelines waiting for approval are: Energy Transfer Partners LP's Rover project and the Atlantic Sunrise system by Williams Partners LP. Spectra Energy's Nexus system and National Fuel Gas Co.’s Northern Access expansion may also be affected.
“After next week, FERC will need a full complement of commissioners as soon as possible so that it can tackle the important work on its busy docket,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who heads the committee responsible for vetting nominees, said in a statement Jan. 27. “I will make it a top priority to work with President Trump and my colleagues to move nominees rapidly.”
The pipeline developers didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Spectra, which asked the commission on Jan. 27 to rule on Nexus by Feb. 3, fell as much as 3.5 percent to $41.92. An index of pipeline partnerships was down as much as 2 percent as oil and gas prices fell.
LaFleur, who Trump appointed as acting chairman on Jan. 26, said in a statement that the agency is “working to get as many orders out as possible” before Bay's departure.
“Basically, if they don't have a certificate by Feb. 3, they don't get to start construction until the fall,” Christi Tezak, managing director of Washington-based industry consultant ClearView Energy Partners, said in a phone interview.
Filling Seats
LaFleur, a Democrat and former utility executive, has been on the commission since 2010. The panel has been running with three Democrats since the resignation of Tony Clark, a Republican, last year. The only other commissioner is Colette Honorable. Bay didn't immediately respond to a telephone request for comment left after business hours.
The agency may not be completely hamstrung with two commissioners, Brandon Barnes, an energy analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a note to clients Jan. 27. It has a policy that allows two, or even one, commissioner to count as a quorum on a limited basis, though it's unclear when that policy would apply.
Filling the panel's three vacancies will take time. The U.S. Senate still hasn't confirmed the bulk of Trump's chosen cabinet. Even a speedy confirmation process could take 30 to 60 days, according to David Wochner, a partner at the Washington-based law firm K&L Gates. That may lead to costly delays for companies awaiting their pipeline certificates.
“For those guys, a month matters,” said ClearView's Tezak.
One name repeatedly floated as a likely pick by analysts including ClearView to fill the next vacancy is Neil Chatterjee, senior energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a former lobbyist for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. His relationships on Capitol Hill may expedite the confirmation process, but not significantly.
First Priority
“If President Trump and Senator McConnell tomorrow were to meet and say this is high priority, I still would expect it's going to be in the 60-day time frame,” Wochner said. “The Senate will be occupied with more significant votes. The cabinet will be first priority.“
Chatterjee declined a request to comment Jan. 26. The White House declined to comment.
Industry groups are meanwhile putting pressure on the administration to act quickly.
“Given President Trump's focus on infrastructure and domestic energy resources, we urge him to nominate candidates to fill the commission's three existing vacancies as soon as possible,” Don Santa, president and chief executive officer of Washington trade group Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said in a statement.
—With assistance from Ari Natter and Ryan Collins.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726484&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726484&jd=104726484
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Panel To Consider Grid Hacking Defenses
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Blake Sobczak
Lawmakers are set to hear about the power industry's latest cyberdefense strategies at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, cited the need for a "dynamic, secure, and integrated electric grid" in a statement announcing the hearing.
"As the committee prepares its upcoming agenda, it's important that members and the public understand the electricity sector's current efforts in planning, responding, and mitigating cyber risks," he said.
While a cyberattack has never caused a power outage in the U.S., hackers were able to cut off power to distribution and transmission substations in Ukraine during two separate incidents last year and in 2015 (Energywire, Jan. 11).
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has said he intends to make critical infrastructure cybersecurity a priority in the new Congress (Greenwire, Jan. 27).
Witnesses at the hearing Wednesday will likely include representatives from large investor-owned utilities, who have the most resources to devote to advanced cybersecurity protections but must rely on the federal government for key intelligence on cyberthreats.
The panel of electricity sector experts will likely discuss efforts to ensure grid operators can cut off all internet connectivity and revert to "manual mode" in the event of a wide-scale cyberattack.
Schedule: The hearing is Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 10:15 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2017/01/30/stories/1060049158
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Findings Not Enough to Settle W.Va. Residents’ Concerns Over Spill
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
New information released by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board may not be enough to ease a West Virginia community's concerns about the long-term impacts of a 2014 chemical spill, advocates say.
The CSB drew criticism from local residents at a Sept. 28 meeting in Charleston, W.Va., when it approved a final report on a chemical spill in the Elk River on Jan. 9, 2014, that caused widespread drinking water contamination. In response to a petition from Philip Price, a Charleston resident and chemical industry consultant, the CSB released new details on its investigation Jan. 25.
The CSB provided additional information, in response to the petition for correction, but as of yet has not modified the initial document.
“A lot of trust was broken with government agencies when this happened,” Maya Nye, a Charleston-area resident and former president of People Concerned About Chemical Safety, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 27. “And this just kind of furthers that, unfortunately.”
Residents’ lingering questions include:
• if the chemical leaked far earlier than thought
• if other chemicals were involved
• if residents were exposed through inhaling the substances
• if concentrations of chemicals were higher than reported
Pam Nixon, the group's current president, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 27 she was still reviewing the petition response.
Residents Cite Unanswered Questions
Price said in his petition the CSB should issue a “major revision or addendum” to the report. He also said the report failed to clearly identify what chemicals were spilled and in what quantities, when and how the spill happened and which areas of the city were exposed to the chemical at the highest levels.
Price told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 26 he was still reviewing the document, but noted that the agency conceded flaws with the original. Price said he thought the lapses included not analyzing the entire spill, failing to preserve original water samples from the spill, not properly verifying the size of the spill and other oversights, Price said.
Price, who holds a Ph.D in analytical chemistry and has worked as a consultant and scientist for Dow Chemical Co. and Union Carbide Corp. for more than 40 years, including in incident investigation, said he did not think the CSB's response would help the public move on from what happened.
“This just sort of substantiates what I've been saying,” Price said, “that their work is really low quality and they're really not answering the fundamental questions of an investigation.”
CSB Explains Findings
In its response, the CSB said it was unlikely that the spill had begun earlier than the day it was first reported. Rather, CSB decided the spill probably “began, more or less, instantaneously and was soon discovered” because residents complained about the chemical's smell even at very low levels and the company said it never noticed what would have been a visible leak.
The CSB said testing of water samples at an Occupational Safety and Health Administration laboratory in Salt Lake City “was limited to compliance purposes and, as a result, did not address the identification of any unknown chemicals in the sample tested.”
The board also said it did not examine questions like how far and how much of the chemicals spread through the Elk River, and thus how many people might have been exposed to it, calling it “beyond the scope of CSB's investigation.”
Revision in Progress
The response to the petition will not be the CSB's last word on what happened when the Freedom Industries chemical tank farm leaked crude methylcyclohexanemethanol, or MCHM, fouling the water of more than 300,000 area residents, CSB spokeswoman Hillary Cohen told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 27.
Cohen said in an e-mail the agency was still revising the report. The revisions are not yet complete, Cohen said, but board members are expected to begin reviewing the updated version “shortly for consideration.”
Under CSB rules, only individuals personally affected by investigations may file petitions over the findings. Price met the standard because he lives about five miles from the Freedom Industries plant, he said. Price's petition was the first filed with the agency since 2010, CSB records show.
CSB Chairperson Vanessa Sutherland announced at a public meeting Jan. 25 that the petition response would be released later that day. The agency posted it online at about 10 p.m. Jan. 25.
The CSB's public engagement process is frustrating for other public commentors who did not receive responses from the agency, Andrew Whelton, an assistant professor of civil engineer and environmental and ecological engineering who wrote a letter to the agency over the report, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 27.
Whelton said it seemed like the agency had hoped not to respond to comments.
“The fact that they've only received two formal petitions in seven years likely indicates they have received many more comments from the public that they have simply refused to engage in,” Whelton said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726487&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726487&jd=104726487
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(LCA Mentioned) Companies, States See Downside To Regulatory Freeze
Jan 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
When U.S. EPA last fall deemed a big part of Louisiana's petrochemical belt in compliance with a 2008 ozone air quality standard, it was a development noteworthy enough to merit a story in the Baton Rouge newspaper.
Now that reclassification, previously scheduled to become official this week, won't take effect until late March, courtesy of a blanket regulatory freeze imposed by the Trump administration.
The freeze, ordered last week, was supposed to showcase the new president's skepticism of purportedly new burdens on businesses. It has also swept up routine measures that are technically classified as rules but may be in fact be welcomed by states and industry.
Also supposed to take effect this week, for example, were EPA decisions that:gave Kentucky primacy for regulating one class of underground injection wells.approved revisions to state air quality plans for New York and California.declared part of the Louisville, Ky., area in attainment for one facet of the 1997 fine particulate standard.
All three are instead among 30 EPA rules whose effective dates were pushed back until March 21. Although the delays will probably have little practical impact, state regulators are typically eager for authority to run their own program.
Businesses, for their part, applaud air quality attainment decisions because they avert threats to transportation funding or the ability of industries to build new plants or expand existing ones.'Little disappointing'
Ozone, the main ingredient in smog, is produced by the reaction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides in sunny weather. It's linked to worsened emphysema symptoms and asthma attacks.
For the Baton Rouge area, compliance with ozone regulations is complicated by the presence of refineries and chemical plants that have historically been big producers of VOCs.
After the five-parish region was declared in violation of the 2008 standard of 75 parts per billion more than four years ago, Louisiana requested reclassification to attainment last spring. EPA announced a tentative signoff in November.
The newly imposed delay is "a little disappointing," Henry Graham, vice president for environmental affairs and general counsel at the Louisiana Chemical Association, said in an interview yesterday. Under the freeze, he said, "some of the good things get lumped in with some things that may need to be revised."
But Graham was inclined to pin blame on the Obama administration for attempting a "data dump" of regulations in its final months. Graham also noted that the Baton Rouge area could slide back into nonattainment later this year as EPA proceeds with enforcement of the stricter 70 ppb ozone limits adopted in 2015.
Governmentwide, the delays apply to any regulations that had been published in the Federal Register but not yet taken effect by Friday, according to the memo from White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to agencies.Other delays
Some actions with national implications are also caught in the net. For the 2017 renewable fuel standard, which was supposed to take effect Feb. 10, the move will mean an almost seven-week delay in the effective date.
In a statement earlier this week, Bob Dinneen, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry trade group, called the postponement "simply procedural," with no expected effect on implementation, enforcement or compliance.
On other fronts, revised EPA air quality modeling guidelines will be delayed by more than a month. But controversial changes to the agency's risk management program affecting chemical plants and other industrial facilities were previously set to take effect March 14, meaning the freeze will add only a week to that timetable.
Priebus' memo allows agencies to pursue additional delays, subject to a public notice and comment period. Trade groups are, meanwhile, lobbying for the regulations' complete repeal through the Congressional Review Act (Greenwire, Jan. 26).
The sweeping nature of the new administration's directive appears to be unusual, if not unprecedented. With exceptions for emergencies and other "urgent circumstances," Priebus also barred agencies from sending regulations to the Federal Register without approval from an administration appointee.
The cumulative impact is difficult to gauge, but in the last week, agencies have withdrawn about 20 final and proposed rules that had been sent to the Office of Management and Budget for a standard pre-publication review, according to the Reginfo.gov website.
The new policy has also led to a dramatic falloff in workload for OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which actually handles the reviews.
At any one time, OIRA typically has dozen of rulemakings in its pipeline. As of today, according to Reginfo.gov, the number stood at four.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/01/27/stories/1060049142
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Congress May Replace, Not Just Repeal, Environmental Rules
Jan 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alan Kovski and Stephen Lee
Congress needs to decide on the next steps to take after it uses the Congressional Review Act to repeal recent regulations on coal, oil and natural gas, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said Jan. 27.
“We start over again to do it the right way,” Bishop said. “That may be done administratively. I would prefer it to be done legislatively.”
The House is expected to vote Feb. 1 on whether to repeal two sets of hotly contested sets of regulations from the Interior Department—the stream protection rule limiting disposal sites of coal waste and a rule to reduce gas venting, flaring and leaking from oil and gas production on federal lands.
Rollback of the regulations will save the coal mining and oil and gas industries from losing billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, industry officials said at a press conference held with Bishop.
Bishop said Congress could amend laws to require the writing of better regulations or allow the Trump administration to write better regulations. Either approach should involve more coordination with states to respect states’ authority, and more of an effort to minimize economic impacts, he said.
Uncertain of Route to Take
Legislation would have a wider and more durable impact by reasserting congressional control over policy decisions and applying the policies widely, not just to the stream protection rule and the venting and flaring rule, Bishop said.
Bishop could take a leading role in writing legislation as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. But he added, “I can't tell you exactly what I plan to do right now.”
Asked whether he would mind allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate methane in place of BLM regulation, Bishop said it was not a matter of which agency regulates but a need for coordinating with states and being realistic and fair.
Bishop said he was confident of enough votes in both houses of Congress to roll back the regulations.
Severe Coal Impacts Feared
The stream protection rule (RIN:1029-AC63), issued in December, will wipe out as much as $20 billion of national coal production and destroy one-third of the current coal workforce, Hal Quinn, chief executive officer of the National Mining Association, said during the same news conference.
The Office of Surface Mining, Regulation and Enforcement failed to engage meaningfully with the states and didn't properly test how the rule would play out in the real world, according to Quinn.
“They stayed in Washington and relied on hypothetical mines as their test case,” Quinn said.
“OSM locked the states out of the process,” said Gregory Conrad, executive director of the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, a multistate governmental agency.
The regulation's supporters have pointed to the destruction mountaintop mining inflicts on water sources, wildlife habitats and human health. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, has called the anticipated rollback vote “an egregious gift to the mining industry.”
Oil, Gas Impacts Already Felt
The venting, flaring and leaking rule (RIN:1004-AE14), issued in November by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is already having a negative impact, said Carla Sonntag, president of the New Mexico Business Coalition.
In northwestern New Mexico, about 70 percent of the wells are economically marginal, producing oil or gas at very low levels, Sonntag said. The modest revenues of such wells are not expected to cover costs of up to $50,000 a well in retrofitting to comply with the BLM regulations, she said.
“So they are in the process of working to shut them down,” she said.
The BLM estimated the annual cost of its rule to industry would be as much as $161 million and said benefits would exceed costs, leading to net benefits of $188 million a year, including estimates of the “social costs” of methane and carbon dioxide.
The Western Energy Alliance, an industry group, commissioned an analysis of the impact of the BLM rule. Economic research firm John Dunham and Associates estimated the annual cost at $1.26 billion, far outstripping annual benefits of as much as $384 million.
The BLM rule would eliminate 1,780 jobs directly involved in oil and gas development and as many as 3,850 jobs once all supplier and induced impacts are taken into account, according to the firm's analysis.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=104726480&vname=dennotallissues&fn=104726480&jd=104726480
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California: Court Asks Tough Questions In Suit Over GHG Auctions
Jan 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
A California appellate court this week offered tough questions for both sides in the landmark suit testing the legality of the state's greenhouse gas (GHG) allowance auctions under cap-and-trade, a suit that hinges on whether the allowance auction are an illegal tax, as industry groups say, or a legal fee as the state argues.
However the court eventually rules, the case is expected to be appealed to the California Supreme Court. But the fight could potentially be made moot if state lawmakers approve legislation this year extending the cap-and-trade program beyond 2020 by a two-thirds vote, the threshold required under state law to pass new taxes. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has asked the state Legislature to take such action through urgency legislation.
Inside Cal/EPA's Curt Barry was in the state's Third District Court of Appeals courtroom in Sacramento for the eagerly awaited Jan. 24 oral argument in the case, California Chamber of Commerce, et al., v. California Air Resources Board (CARB), et al. and Morning Star Packing Co., et al. v. CARB, which could ultimately determine the fate of the state's GHG allowance auctions under cap-and-trade.
And he reported on some of the judges' questions for the parties.
For example, Presiding Judge Harry E. Hull questioned attorneys representing CARB about whether companies are essentially obligated to purchase GHG allowances -- as the industry groups assert -- to do business in the state, or whether such purchases are "voluntary," as the state claims.
Hull also appeared skeptical of CARB claims that the billions of dollars generated by the auctions have all been spent on activities to reduce GHGs, noting a $500 million "loan" the state made to the General Fund several years ago. This issue may be important in the court's decision, which is expected by the end of April, because it could speak to the issue of whether the auctions are intended as a form of revenue for the state in general.
But Associate Justice Elena J. Duarte focused the bulk of her questions on challenging industry's claims that the auctions couldn't be classified as a new kind of legal regulatory fee.
The industry and business groups are appealing a November 2013 ruling by Sacramento County Superior Court that the state's sale at auction of GHG allowances to regulated entities represents a regulatory fee and not a tax that failed to receive a two-thirds vote of the Legislature as required by state law.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/california-court-asks-tough-questions-suit-over-ghg-auctions
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Backers Of HFC Pact Drop Climate Angle, Cast Kigali As A Trade Boost
Jan 30, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Eric Wolf
Supporters of an international agreement to limit global warming-inducing coolants are shifting their message to convince President Donald Trump to support it: It's a trade deal, not a climate change pact.
Both environmentalists and industry fear that Trump, who has dismissed climate change science, will rush to dump the amendment to the Montreal Protocol agreed in Kigali, Rwanda last year that would reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons. But industry is wholeheartedly behind the deal, since it will enable U.S. manufacturers of air conditioning and refrigerants to sell a new generation of equipment to a global market.
"From a public messaging perspective, for the sake of the broader coalition, this a strategic trade initiative to advance U.S. competitiveness to help capture global market share, to help shut out the Chinese, and that provides environmental and climate co-benefits as well as co-benefits for economic development," said Dave Banks, executive vice president at American Council for Capital Formation, a nonpartisan group that aims to be a liaison between government and the business community.
Trump has not indicated whether he supports the deal, which his administration would need to submit to the Senate for approval.
Still, a strategy to frame the Kigali agreement to Trump as a trade deal comes with its own risks, since the new president has already pulled the U.S. out of the TPP and vowed to reopen NAFTA, and instead favors bilateral trade deals.
The shift in message would mark a stark change from former President Barack Obama's touting of the agreement as one part of a trifecta of climate agreements, along with the Paris agreement and a deal on aviation emissions. The agreement struck in October would limit the use of HFCs in air conditioning and refrigeration. Those coolants have many times the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide, though they don't remain in the atmosphere as long, and reducing them could hold down climate change by 0.5° C [0.9° F] by 2100.
The amendment to the Montreal Protocol, first agreed to in 1987 to limit ozone-destroying chemicals, would drive a global push toward the kinds of advanced coolants that U.S. manufacturers are prepared to make. But the treaty also prevents participating countries from buying equipment from non-participating countries — which means U.S. manufacturers would be left out if the Senate doesn't approve it.
And if the Kigali amendment doesn't get come into force, U.S. manufacturers warn they will face competition from a flood of Chinese supplies of the old technology.
"Manufacturing plants in China capable of producing 30 million to 40 million units a year in that old technology," said Stephen Yurek, CEO of the Air-Conditioning Refrigeration, and Heating Institute, a trade group that represents 70 percent of the world's production of commercial heating, refrigeration, and air-conditioning equipment. U.S. production capacity is about 8 million units, the group says.
The Montreal Protocol has been amended four times, and some changes took years to clear the Senate. But AHRI hopes the deal will be ratified by 2019. The group wrote to Vice President Mike Pence shortly after the election, articulating a series of policy goals, including strong support for the agreement. The letter highlights the consequences of not joining.
"We want it to be clear that we support it, but they don't need to deal with it right way," Yurek said. "Wait until the end of this year or next year.
"We're just hoping it doesn't show up on a twitter feed at 3:30 in the morning," he added.
Yurek wants to allow Trump to get his administration in place so the group knows whom to talk to and what the best approach will be. "If we have to deal with it now or in the next six months, we're not going to have the ability to figure out what that message is," he said.
But the group will definitely not push an environmental message, and AHRI Vice President Francis Dietz said the group had "tried to decouple it from climate."
"We don't want this lumped in with climate because they did repeatedly say they want to scrap Paris, but they have not said that about this," he said.
So far, green groups are steering clear of the push to approve the treaty amendment.
Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, a group that was involved in the negotiations in Kigali, said ratifying the HFC amendment was a "no-brainer," but that the group was taking a backseat.
"This is a process that is clearly being led by industry and will continue to be lead by industry," he said.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/story/2017/01/deal-to-limit-hfcs-is-a-trade-agreement-didnt-you-know-146315
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