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ACC AM 27/2/2017

Congressional Hearings

Hearing On Social Cost Of Carbon
Feb 28, 2017 | House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittees on Environment and Oversight

Location: 2318 Rayburn / 10:00 AM
Hearing On Infrastructure Access
Mar 1, 2017 | Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

Location: 106 Dirksen / 10:00 AM

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Earth Matters: Life Too Plastic? Bag It!
Feb 25, 2017 | NyackNewsAndViews
By Susan Hellauer

He’s an American Everyman, just an “average guy” as he tells you right up front: clothes a little baggy, hairline heading north. But his dogged search for answers to some troubling questions made average Jeb Berrier a movie star.A plastic bag odyssey
(ACC Mentioned) If Democrats Want To Take Back The White House Start Now
Feb 25, 2017 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Miroslava Korenha

While America is only one month into the presidency of Donald Trump, the level of political unrest and subsequent activism has reached levels largely unseen in the past generation.
(ACC Mentioned) Progress: Employment Rises At Major Industries
Feb 26, 2017 | The Courier
By Lou Wilin

Employment grew or remained stable at most of Hancock County’s major industries last year, and more of the same is forecast for 2017.
Business Leaders Name Regulations They Would Like To See Go
Feb 24, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H Tullo

In an effort endorsed by several chemical companies, Business Roundtable, an advocacy group composed of CEOs, has sent the Trump Administration a list of “Top Regulations of Concern” that it believes are unnecessary.
Trump Orders Agencies To Create Regulatory Reform Task Forces
Feb 27, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillén

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered federal agencies to begin identifying rules for elimination — a move he presented as part of his larger assault on regulations he said damage the economy.

LCSA News

(ACC Mentioned) Commit to Science in Chemical Rules, Manufacturers Tell EPA
Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto

The EPA's proposed rules to implement the amended chemicals law must show the agency will uphold the law's scientific requirements, chemical manufacturers said.

Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) UN Environment Declares War On Ocean Plastics, Lobbies For Product Bans And Taxes
Feb 24, 2017 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken

The environment agency of the United Nations is urging governments to ban or tax plastic bags, restrict microplastic beads in cosmetics and take other actions against single-use packaging.
(ACC Mentioned) Why Deadly Chemicals May Linger in Cities Under the EPA's New Administrator
Feb 24, 2017 | CityLab
By Aria Bendix

Last week, the Senate confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt’s nomination was controversial for any number of reasons, the most prominent being his repeated attempts to sue the very organization he now runs.
Will Eight On A Plate Catch On? Or Will Weak Observational Claims About Food Fail Again?
Feb 24, 2017 | Science 2.0

There are multiple food fads trying to catch on per year but as the saying goes in science, if one epidemiology study counted, everything would cause or prevent cancer.

Energy News

‘Bold Action' Coming to Lift Energy Restrictions: Trump
Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven

The Trump administration is preparing “bold action” to lift restrictions on U.S. fossil fuel production, President Donald Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Fracking May Get a Little Less Costly If U.S. Silica Has Its Way
Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By David Wethe

Oil explorers facing mounting fracking costs in a revival of the U.S. shale boom may get some reprieve, courtesy of U.S. Silica Holdings Inc.
In Rural Western Maryland, Fracking Divisions Run Deep
Feb 26, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Josh Hicks

The small towns and mountainous rural areas of Western Maryland are dotted with scores of well heads, a reminder of the copious natural-gas reserves that lie underground.
Okla. Acts To Prevent Quakes As Drillers Get Back To Work
Feb 27, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Mike Soraghan

Oklahoma oil and gas officials are trying to head off an increase in earthquakes as the drilling industry shakes off its price slump and ramps up activity.
Hub Streamlined Ahead Of Executive Action
Feb 27, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Emily Holden

U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt over the weekend confirmed executive action against the Clean Power Plan will likely begin this week.
Houston Transforms The U.S. Into An Energy Exporting Hub
Feb 24, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum

Massive cranes loom over the Port of Houston, ready to load cargo containers packed with plastic pellets onto ships bound for China and India, where the pellets will be transformed into grocery packaging, car parts and other consumer products for the growing middle classes of these developing nations.

Chemical Security News

Bill Filed to Create Texas Amber Alerts for Chemical Emergencies
Feb 24, 2017 | Occupational Health & Saftey

A Democratic state legislator in Austin, Texas, Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, and a colleague have introduced a bill that would establish a system to send alerts to Texans' mobile phones during a release of toxic chemicals from a manufacturing facility. Rodriguez has said the bill, HB 1927, would increase protection for affected individuals against toxics that threaten human health or the environment.

Transportation News

(ACC Mentioned) Transport Week: Infrastructure Hearing, Aviation Summit Advance Policy Talks
Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Reportc
By Stephanie Beasley

Recent reports that President Donald Trump and Republican leadership might delay consideration of a major infrastructure investment package until next year are raising alarm bells in Washington but don't seem to have killed efforts to at least keep the conversation going.

Environment News

Pruitt Gets Hero's Welcome At Conservative Confab
Feb 27, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Emily Holden

U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Saturday rallied conservatives and promised to rein in the agency.
EPA Chief Calls For 'Aggressive' Rollback Of Regulations At CPAC
Feb 25, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Max Greenwood

Newly minted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt on Saturday spoke of an "aggressive" agenda of regulatory rollbacks, criticizing the previous Obama administration for being “so focused on climate change."
New Exxon CEO Endorses Carbon Tax
Feb 27, 2017 | Fuelfix
By James Osborne

Two months after taking over the CEO suite at Exxon Mobil, Darren Woods confirmed the company would continue to support a tax on carbon dioxide.

Congressional Hearings

Hearing On Social Cost Of Carbon

Feb 28, 2017 | House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittees on Environment and Oversight

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Hearing On Infrastructure Access

Mar 1, 2017 | Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

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Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Earth Matters: Life Too Plastic? Bag It!

Feb 25, 2017 | NyackNewsAndViews

By Susan Hellauer

He’s an American Everyman, just an “average guy” as he tells you right up front: clothes a little baggy, hairline heading north. But his dogged search for answers to some troubling questions made average Jeb Berrier a movie star.A plastic bag odyssey
Berrier’s small Colorado town got into a friendly competition with another town to see which could reduce its use of plastic bags more. And that set him to thinking—and not just about the ubiquitous flimsy sacks peeled off and filled by the hundreds of billions every year.
When Jeb Berrier opened his eyes to plastic he saw it everywhere in our over-consuming, disposable society: forks and spoons, diapers, packaging inside of packaging, bottles that carry water from Fiji or the French Alps to the corner gas station. And, above all, he saw miles and piles of those single-use petroleum-based polyethylene plastic bags.Just Bag It!
In the multi award-winning 2010 documentary Bag It!, filmmaker Suzan Beraza, follows earnest citizen Berrier as he explores the world of plastic and sees how some people in some places are shedding their plastic bag habit. He travels to Europe to see how Germany, Ireland, and a seaside town in the U.K. created a cleaner world where disposable plastic bags are banned or priced out of practical use. Several countries in Africa and Asia have banned the polluting, fossil fuel-hogging bags as well, and that includes great big China.
During the course of filming, Berrier learns that his wife is expecting their first child, and his quest takes on a new urgency. He even tracks harmful plastic compounds found in many baby products, like bisphenol-A and pthalates, into his own body, and is shocked at what he finds.
Since Bag It! first appeared, scientists have seen swirling sea-gyres of trash continue to poison fish, birds, and other marine life. Small creatures feed unwittingly on shreds and specks of floating plastic, which, in some places, outweigh plankton 40 to 1 . . . and so on up the fish-eat-fish food chain. The flesh of an ever-growing number of marine animals now contains plastic and the toxins it attracts. The water bottle or plastic bag that got away is sitting in your belly with that nice fish dinner.
Albany to NYC: Don’t bag it!
On February 14, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed NY State Senate bill S4158, passed by large margins in both houses of the Albany legislature. It puts a one year block on a hard-fought New York City law that would have had stores charge and keep five cents for each single-use plastic bag, beginning last week. A similar ban has worked wonders in many places in the US, but not without pushback—some of it from people who don’t know or care about the downside of “disposable” plastic or who resent being charged for it; and a lot of it from plastic bag industry.
New York’s plastic bag political lobby, part of the American Chemistry Council, is alert, poised and ready to pounce on plastic bag laws, as they did in San Francisco and Seattle. They do so by either convincing state legislatures to turn back local efforts like New York City’s or by initiating lawsuits. (Not one of these organizations agreed to be interviewed for Bag It!.) Last June, when the Albany lawmakers quickly created S4158, the NY Daily News pointed at powerful, deep-pocketed lobbyists as the moving force behind the Albany bag-ban block.
Other voices, like the New York Times, see this as a crude and aggressive Albany overreach, regardless of how it got started or carried along. Gov. Cuomo, in an unusually long 1,000-word statement, defended his action, saying that it was “absurd” for businesses to collect all those nickels—despite the fact that they purchased the bags to give away. At first glance, this move seems out of keeping with Cuomo’s consistent championing of clean energy efforts. But he did promise that a task force would look into statewide actions to reduce plastic bag use and report back by the end of this year. Watch and learn
In next week’s earth matters we’ll talk to our Albany legislators, local officials, and environmental advocates about the effort to rid the Village of Nyack and all of Rockland County of these noxious, unnecessary bags and similar disposable plastics—in use for maybe 10 minutes, and poisoning our land and water for eons thereafter.
This week, to get the big bad bag picture, find 78 minutes to watch the documentary Bag It!, which can be rented on iTunes or Amazon, or viewed for free on tubitv (where you’ll also see ads, at about the rate of a late night movie on TV but, hey, free!). After you’ve watched, then maybe, like new dad Jeb, you’ll be asking yourself: “Is my life too plastic?”
Learn more:
Bag It!: the movie
NY State Senate bill S4158
Keep Rockland Beautiful
The New Yorker: “The Bag Bill” (5/2/16)
San Francisco Chronicle: “Plastics industry pushing to halt bag-ban momentum” (9/10/16)
Sacramento Bee: “Californians say farewell to the plastic bag” (11/10/16)
http://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/2017/02/earth-matters-life-too-plastic-bag-it/

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(ACC Mentioned) If Democrats Want To Take Back The White House Start Now

Feb 25, 2017 | The Hill - Pundits Blog

By Miroslava Korenha

While America is only one month into the presidency of Donald Trump, the level of political unrest and subsequent activism has reached levels largely unseen in the past generation.
Beginning with the Women’s March on Washington and proliferating into demonstrations as response to the countless issues under threat from a Trump White House, many Americans are desperate to change the status quo.
Meanwhile, Democrats are attempting to make their brand of politics resonate with the rural voters who rejected their presidential candidate last November largely due to her lack of a concise jobs narrative.

However, through their soul-searching it doesn’t seem as if they have found a way to harness the malaise of activists and translate it into political momentum that can bring back congressional seats or the presidency.
At their recent retreat, it seemed as if there was still a lack of consensus amongst Democrats as to which path forward they would adopt. Freshman Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) who represents the Silicon Valley, expressed his support for the likes of Robert Reich or Paul Krugman to add to party discourse.
While a more telling quote came from Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) when she lamented that “one of the things we have to do is stop listening to the consultants who continue to lose, I think at some point we have to listen to the people who win.”
President Trump’s big win didn’t come as result of much brilliance, rather the simple ploy of selling a story to Americans that he could return the sort of economic security and blue-collar jobs that many of them desire. Make america great again merely conjured nostalgia amongst voters instead of offering them a tangible and evidence-based policy plan.
One man cannot outmaneuver globalization and automation to restore jobs that once existed and it’s high time that Democrats capitalized on President Trump’s mendacity by telling voters a different story — one of true job opportunity through the renewable energy revolution.
The next chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) should work with top Democratic donors to create grassroots operations in a multitude of red states and relay to their people that 1 in 50 new American jobs in 2016 was created by the solar industry.
That these jobs also grew 12 times faster than overall job creation meaning that there are more jobs in the solar industry than in oil and gas. Then add that according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fastest growing job in the country is a wind turbine service technician with a growth rate of 108 percent since 2015.
Close with the message that President Obama invested roughly $66 million for job retraining programs in coal country through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) initiative (which could be scrapped by Trump) and the case is made stronger that one party is committed to actual job creation not just keeping current industries artificially afloat through protectionist measures.
Democrats should also relay to concerned Americans that while protests in D.C. gain the nation’s attention they often fail to persuade members of Congress to change their voting patterns. That’s why in addition to encouraging Americans to call their representatives it’s important to emphasize the importance of localized action.
For instance, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), while easily winning his last election comes from a district that has swung for democrats before. There would be no quicker way to make him begin to change his stances on everything from social welfare to climate change than creating an opposition movement in his district.
Holding sizable and constant rallies in his district, canvassing, and bombarding his hometown paper with op-eds highlighting his obstruction of the aforementioned issues would force his office to respond.
We’ve seen a bit of this type of action with recent ObamaCare protests at the town halls of Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Diane Black (R-Tenn.) yet, do your job should be the chant heard at every Republican town hall around the country.
Though these tactics can prove to be powerful in grassroots organizing, there is also an important distinction for the DNC to help make: there is a difference between issues that voters care about and issues that actually shape their votes.
A Gallup poll put out last March revealed that 65 percent of Americans acknowledge anthropogenic climate change which at first glance seems like a heartening statistic to activists. However, the better statistic here would be the percentage of Americans who would be unwilling to vote for a candidate that didn’t acknowledge this science or wasn’t willing to support legislation abating its effects.
This may sound simple but as we saw through the data of last November’s election, the most vital issues for Americans are jobs and the economy and they are the primary drivers of votes cast.
If Americans want Democrats to win back Congress and the White House (and if Democrats are serious about that themselves) then they must start quickly, and by organized means, spreading the message that the best chance blue-collar Americans have of securing reliable employment is through the renewable energy industry and that Democrats have been its primary champion and will remain as such.
Rural American voters made their voices very clear that they are one-issue voters and there’s a good chance they can be sympathetic to other social issues once provided the job security they yearn. It’s time that those opposing President Trump begin to apply strategy to making their tent the biggest one of all.
Miroslava Korenha is a Sustainability Consultant who has worked for numerous NGO’s and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) on sustainability issues.

http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/321167-if-democrats-want-to-take-back-the-white-house-start

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(ACC Mentioned) Progress: Employment Rises At Major Industries

Feb 26, 2017 | The Courier

By Lou Wilin

Employment grew or remained stable at most of Hancock County’s major industries last year, and more of the same is forecast for 2017.
McLane Co. hired 100 workers for the opening of its $119 million, 337,831-square-foot grocery distribution center on Findlay’s north end in January. It plans to an add 110 truck drivers and 150 distribution center workers this year.
Rowmark, which produces plastic sheets for a variety of commercial and industrial uses, added 55 workers through in-house growth and the purchase of a competitor. It is planning to add a few more production and administrative workers this year.
G.S.W., assembler of wire harnesses for automotive uses, mainly Toyota, reported its fourth consecutive year of double-digit employment growth. The Findlay plant, which is the company’s Americas headquarters, added 30 workers in 2016. It is expecting to add a few more this year.
Whirlpool Corp. completed a $40.6 million, 86,400-square-foot expansion last year at its Findlay dishwasher plant. It will add 50 jobs by 2019 related to the expansion.
Most of the other major industries reported being in hiring mode. Several are taking extra steps to attract qualified workers in the face of a nationwide worker shortage.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., G.S.W., Hearthside Food Solutions, Garner Transportation Group and Rowmark are among those involved in extra initiatives to keep a strong pipeline of qualified workers.
These companies responded to The Courier’s annual survey of local industries:
Advanced Drainage Systems
401 Olive St., Findlay
Local products and services: Storm water management systems.
Local workforce: 212
Employment was stable last year at Advanced Drainage Systems’ Findlay plant, which produces pipe and other products for water management systems around the world.
It marked its 50th anniversary last year as the world’s largest producer of corrugated plastic pipe for stormwater and sanitary sewer systems in streets and highways, building complexes, stadiums and golf courses.
Last summer, ADS navigated through flat construction and agriculture markets, and continued weakness in Mexico, by managing its costs and operations well, said Joe Chlapaty, chairman and chief executive officer.
“Despite the market conditions, we were still able to improve our gross margins, adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and cash flow,” Chlapaty said.
Although market headwinds are expected to persist, he forecasts a strong 2017.
“Free cash flow generation should remain strong in the second half of fiscal 2017, which will provide us additional avenues to create shareholder value including investing in our business, making selective acquisitions and returning cash to our shareholders,” he said.
“The long-term underlying fundamentals of our business are strong and we remain confident that we will capitalize on our conversion opportunities that will enable us to continue outpacing market growth,” Chlapaty said.
ADS is scheduled to open its newest plant this year in Missouri. It began construction last year.
In addition, a new distribution center was opened in Panama City Beach, Florida, to serve the panhandle of Florida. That and the new Missouri plant will bring the company’s facilities count to 61 manufacturing plants and 31 distribution centers worldwide.
The company continued its sponsorship of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Soil and Water Engineering Award, which recognizes the contributions and leadership in the science and management of water of an industry leader.
In 2016, ADS received the “Project of the Year” award from the Plastics Pipe Institute for the use of ADS N-12 pipe in construction of a new stormwater management system in Tooele, Utah. The institute is the major trade association representing all segments of the plastic pipe industry.
In a top executive change last year, Mark Sturgeon retired as chief financial officer after a 33-year career. He was succeeded by Scott A. Cottrill.
Autoliv Nissin Brake Systems America
2001 Industrial Drive, Findlay
Local products and services: Automotive products.
Local workforce: 360
Autoliv Nissin Brake Systems America (ANBA) is a joint venture established in April 2016 between Autoliv, a Swedish electronic auto parts maker, and Nissin Kogyo, Nissin Brake Ohio’s parent company. About 360 former employees of Nissin Brake Ohio became employees of ANBA.
Wilson Schroeder became general manager of ANBA at the start of the joint venture. He was previously chief operating officer for Nissin Brake Ohio.
Production levels will fall later this year when a major customer program is finished, the company predicted. Employment levels will be reduced as business volume falls, ANBA reported. But the impact is expected to be minimal because plans are to transfer people from ANBA to the neighboring Nissin Brake plant.
ANBA’s major customer is Honda. ANBA ships to all major Honda automotive plants in North America.
However, ANBA is branching out. It has won “very significant business” with Ford Motor Co. ANBA will start production in 2020 of a new brake system for Ford’s F-150 with volumes expected to reach over 800,000 per year. Preparation for that will be the major focus of ANBA over the next few years, the company reported.
Other major projects involve adopting the Autoliv culture, advancing the Autoliv Production System, and separating production lines from Nissin Brake Ohio into a contiguous space for ANBA, all within Nissin Brake Ohio’s two-plant campus at Tall Timbers Industrial Park.
ANBA said its only turnover concerns have been with its temporary production workers. It did not experience high turnover among full-time employees.
ANBA’s workforce development efforts are reinforced by the company tuition plan, through which some employees attend local colleges.
Ball Corp.
12340 Allen Township 99, Findlay
Local products and services: Packaging products.
Local workforce: 392
Automation projects resulted in a need for fewer employees at the maker of aluminum and steel cans and tops for beverages and food. Ball Corp.’s Findlay plant was able to reach a 12-person, or 3 percent reduction through attrition.
Improved efficiencies led to slightly higher production for cans and ends in 2016.
Ball Corp. said it anticipates employment will remain stable in 2017. Production will have to be reduced for a short period this year while the company retools some equipment.
The Findlay plant’s major customers include Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Miller/Coors, Pepsi-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Abbott Laboratories, and Red Gold.
It generally ships products to customers located east of the Mississippi River. However, in 2016 it shipped more ends and cans to customers west of the Mississippi. That trend will continue in 2017, Ball said.
Ball Corp.’s Findlay factory continued to excel in corporate citizenship:
• It was again recertified as SQF, the Safe Quality Food Certification, the highest designation of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) Food Safety Supplier Assurance Code in the food industry.
• It achieved the highest score for quality, service and delivery among all end suppliers to Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016.
• It collected and donated 34,000 pounds of canned food to Chopin Hall. Its donation was matched with a $34,000 donation from Ball Foundation.
• It donated a truckload of supplies to Hope House in December.
• It took first place in the Great American Can Roundup Challenge for collecting aluminum cans to recycle.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.
701 Lima Ave., Findlay
Local products and services: Replacement tires.
Local workforce: 2,400
Employment and production levels were stable last year at the Findlay plant, which makes tires for light trucks and sport utility vehicles. Tires produced in Findlay are shipped throughout the United States. Cooper also ships Findlay-produced tires to other areas of the world.
Cooper reports that it has been in a hiring mode for both production and professional positions. Its Findlay factory has an ongoing need for hourly production employees as well as certain skilled trades positions.
It is proactive in workforce development. In addition to in-house development programs to help employees enhance their skills, Cooper works locally with Owens Community College. It uses Owens’ apprenticeship program to help develop skilled trades for the Findlay plant.
Cooper also is involved in the “Raise the Bar-Hancock County” initiative (formerly known as the Workforce Coalition). In partnership with other business and community leaders, “Raise the Bar-Hancock County” works toward preparing and growing the future workforce.
Toward that end, Cooper created a new advanced manufacturing class, which it is teaching at Millstream Career Center.
With the workforce pipeline tightening for production positions at Cooper and other U.S. manufacturers, Cooper is actively engaged in national programs such as “Dream It. Do It.” that seek to enhance the image of manufacturing among young people with the goal of feeding the pipeline of future workers.
Besides that, Cooper offers an educational assistance program that provides financial support for continuing education. In the northwestern Ohio area, Cooper Tire has employees who are pursuing degrees or taking courses at the University of Findlay, Owens Community College, Bowling Green State University, the University of Toledo, and Tiffin University.
It all is paying off for Cooper.
The company boasts of continuing to attract top talent for positions throughout the company, including highly-skilled technical and research and development positions as well as executive leadership and other posts.
The Findlay plant and other U.S. facilities received significant investments in equipment last year and also are continuing to receive improved automation to enhance Cooper’s competitiveness in the global tire industry.
The company also has modernized and enhanced its manufacturing operations around the globe.
Product introductions by Cooper continued to play a significant role last year to drive excitement in the marketplace and with consumers.
• Its biggest new product in 2016 was the Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 tire, a breakthrough in the ultra-high-performance tire category.
“Innovations in the tire’s tread compound and design help it deliver incredible grip, allowing the tire to hold the road at up to 1g in tight corners — a marvel of cutting-edge technology for an all-season tire,” said Scott Jamieson, director of product management.
The Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 is currently available in the United States in 37 sizes that fit vehicles ranging from American muscle to German and import cars. The tire features a Cooper tread wear protection warranty of up to 50,000 miles.
Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 earned a 2016 Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The marketing campaign to launch the tire was also recognized with a Global Media Award at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas.
• Cooper also launched a new 40-inch tire in its Discoverer STT PRO line. Since its introduction in 2015, the Discoverer STT PRO product line has been winning accolades from the off-road community for its ability to tackle the toughest terrain — from the thickest mud to the rockiest trails — while maintaining on-road manners not typically found in a dedicated off-road tire. The 40-inch tire is a sought-after size in the off-road community as it provides extra height for clearing obstacles.
• Cooper also touted its Discoverer SRX line in 2016. With 67 percent of U.S. households driving an SUV or crossover utility vehicle, Cooper designed the Discoverer SRX to meet the needs of these vehicles.
In 2016, Roy Armes retired as Cooper’s chairman, chief executive officer and president. Brad Hughes became president and chief executive officer, and Thomas Capo became Cooper’s non-executive chairman.
Cooper Tire garnered several awards last year:
• Cooper’s Clarksdale and Tupelo plants won the Rubber Manufacturers Association’s Safety and Health Improvement Program Award for demonstrating commitment to worker health and safety.
• Cooper earned the Platinum Supplier Award from Wabash National, the largest truck trailer manufacturer in North America. The award recognizes suppliers for outstanding delivery, quality, total cost and service/support. Roadmaster was also named in 2016 as a supplier to TA-Petro locations.
• The Manufacturing Institute recognized both Heather Mosier, sport utility vehicle and light truck tire development manager, and Nichole Williams, Six Sigma black belt, with a “Women in Manufacturing STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Ahead Award.”
• Nearly 1,400 used tires were collected for recycling at Cooper’s local Tire Amnesty Day last June, helping to keep the environment clean. In addition, the American Electric Power Continuous Energy Improvement Program recognized Cooper’s Findlay plant for reductions in energy use.
Findlay Publishing Co.
701 W. Sandusky St., Findlay
Local products and services: Print, radio and electronic media
Local workforce: 196
Employment is down by 14 from a year earlier at the parent company of The Courier, The Review Times, WKXA-FM, WFIN-AM, Findlay Digital Design and Allegra.
The positions of Courier editor and Findlay Publishing corporate marketing manager were eliminated in October.
Traditional print advertising revenue and subscriptions declined last year, but were replaced by growing digital advertising and subscriptions. That trend is expected to continue in 2017.
Findlay Publishing expects employment to be stable in 2017. Job openings will be filled strategically.
It plans to obtain an updated printer for Allegra, and to upgrade distribution equipment for the newspaper.
Garner Transportation Group
9291 Hancock County 313, Findlay
Local products and services: Trucking
Local workforce: N/A
Despite a nationwide shortage of truck drivers and high national turnover rates, Garner’s workforce remains stable.
Employment grew about 10 percent last year. Moderate growth is expected in 2017.
Its truck driver turnover rate is well below the national average.
The company is taking a proactive, multifaceted approach to the truck driver shortage.
Garner offers driver training and school reimbursement programs. It increased wages to over-the-road truck drivers and diesel technicians in 2016.
“Garner wages continue to outpace their peers,” the company said.
It also uses Ohio Means Jobs to find workers, and other local and Ohio-based technical schools as workforce development partners. Garner also uses partnerships with the Hancock County Veterans Services office as well as the Ridge Project.
In 2016, Garner launched an annual scholarship program in partnership with Millstream Career Center for diesel mechanics, as well as internship programs through local universities and colleges.
As a result of its efforts, Garner expects to fill all open positions including truck drivers, technicians and support staff in 2017.
It expects to add about 10 drivers and at least one mechanic. Operations are expected to remain stable this year.
Garner recently acquired Ron’s Truck, Trailer and Auto Repair Service of Fremont. It expects to keep all positions at that facility as well as add additional support and shop staff by the end of 2017. Ron’s will operate as a division of GCM (Garner Contract Maintenance).
Garner said it will keep pursuing opportunities through acquisitions.
The company made a “significant investment” in an internal information technology infrastructure upgrade.
“This included a full computer system upgrade and move to cloud-based services,” Garner reported.
The company last year bought the second special truck named “The Freedom Truck 2.” The commemorative truck depicts various military vehicles from throughout the years. The truck is currently operated by Mike Martie, Garner driver of the year.
Garner won several awards last year:
• It received the Mike Russell Industry Image Award presented by the American Trucking Associations. The award honors trucking companies, state associations and industry suppliers that generate positive awareness of the trucking industry.
• For the second consecutive year, it earned the Top 50 Green Fleet. Presented by Heavy Duty Trucking, the award recognizes fleets that demonstrate accomplishments with fuel economy, facility improvements and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
• Driver Gary Smith was announced as a finalist by the American Trucking Associations in the selection process to become captain on the 2017-2018 America’s Road Team. Smith was selected as America’s Road Team captain in January 2017.
• Garner drivers Tom Watkins, William Tefft, Byron Brown and Gary Smith participated in the Ohio Trucking Association Truck Driver Championship.
• Mike Martie was recognized as Garner driver of the year.
• Garner Safety Director Jim Newsome was recognized by the Ohio Trucking Association for his leadership as chairman of the trucking association Safety Council.
• Garner won the Proudly We Hail Award, presented by Findlay Kiwanis. Proudly We Hail honors Americans who display the nation’s banner properly and regularly.
• Garner was nominated as a “Best Fleet to Drive For,” presented by Truckload Carriers Association and CarriersEdge. “Best Fleet to Drive For” recognizes the Top 20 for-hire trucking companies from across North America. In January 2017, Garner was recognized as a Top 20 “Best Fleet to Drive For.”
• Garner Chief Executive Officer Sherri Garner Brumbaugh was selected as a finalist for the 2016 Influential Woman in Trucking Award, presented by the Women in Trucking Association.
In other notable events:
• Brumbaugh served as vice chairman of the American Trucking Associations.
• Garner participated in Wreaths Across America, transporting holiday wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery, and it assisted in bringing Wreaths Across America to Findlay’s Maple Grove Cemetery.
• Garner Operations Director Tim Chrulski participated in the “Raise the Bar” initiative to tailor future workers for local companies.
Raise the Bar is funded by businesses, United Way of Hancock County, the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation, Hancock County, and the city of Findlay.
G.S.W.
1801 Production Drive, Findlay
Local products and services: Automotive wiring harnesses.
Local workforce: 300
Employment grew by 30, the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth at the assembler of wire harnesses for automotive uses.
Last year’s increase was due to G.S.W.’s growth in business, its Americas headquarters in Findlay, research and development and engineering functions.
Sales increased moderately and profits met the company’s expectations for 2016. Profitability and production are expected to remain stable, with some variability possible based on unpredictable external market conditions.
G.S.W. is in the process of research and development of new products.
Most of G.S.W.’s production is for Toyota Motor Corp. Its products are shipped throughout the United States.
G.S.W. is expecting employment to grow in support functions this year. Employment of production staff is expected to remain stable.
But like other manufacturers in the area, G.S.W. at times experiences shortages in tooling, engineering, computer programmers, production and warehouse/shipping workers.
It is using Owens Community College and Millstream Career Center for workforce development. The company continues to explore other opportunities to develop its worker pipeline.
G.S.W. devotes resources to teach the community about the unique employment experience offered to its associates, such as its learning culture and international exposure opportunities. G.S.W. is actively working with local schools and the community’s Raise the Bar initiative.
The company started several capital projects in 2016, including a new product line as well as office and plant renovations.
It was awarded a new product line from a major original equipment manufacturer. All design and tooling for the product line were developed and built at G.S.W.
This year, G.S.W. plans to build a world-class engineering and quality assurance laboratory. Additional projects include converting the building to LED lighting for energy savings, and investments in renovations to its 27-year-old Findlay plant.
In a management change last year, Annette Edgington was promoted to general manager, succeeding Joseph Nemrava, who retired in April.
G.S.W. garnered multiple awards last year:
• It received global recognition from Denso in the North American Region Cooperation award for best total performance in achieving quality and delivery and cost targets, new technology development, regional and global contributions. The honor included G.S.W. representatives traveling to Japan to receive the award with all of Denso’s global partners present.
• The company received DIAM’s high honor — America’s Diamond award — presented in Michigan.
• G.S.W. received three awards from the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation for its safety.
Hearthside Food Solutions
312 Rader Road, McComb
Local products and services: Baked goods.
Local workforce: N/A
Overall production was relatively constant in 2016, and the manufacturer of Nabisco brand cookies and other baked goods said it continued to add workers.
Hearthside Food Solutions is still in hiring mode, and anticipates production levels will remain stable.
Its goods are sold nationally in major grocery stores, club stores and other food stores.
“As a contract manufacturer, our work is project-based. Some projects are extremely long-term, while others have beginning and ending dates,” Hearthside reported. “In 2017, individual projects will rise and fall.”
The company is cautiously optimistic.
“So long as our base of projects remains strong, we will continue to grow,” the company said.
With the labor market in the McComb and Findlay areas highly competitive, Hearthside has developed multiple workforce pipelines.
“We have a dedicated recruitment team, augmented by other resources, that is keeping up with our demand for new people to fill new positions,” the company reported.
Hearthside University, launched in 2009, provides leadership and communication training to employees during courses held throughout the year. It also has a continuous improvement training program, HPS-U. Hearthside also works with The Employer’s Association of Ohio.
Hearthside said its invests millions of dollars in new capital projects every year, including maintenance and upgrades of existing assets, building improvements, new production lines, new employee amenities, and health and safety.
“Safety, as measured by OSHA metrics, has improved for the sixth consecutive year,” the company reported. “The Hearthside production network now has overall safety scores far superior to industry averages.”
Marathon Petroleum
539 S. Main St., Findlay
Local products and services: Petroleum.
Local workforce: 2,200
Marathon Petroleum Corp. anticipates employment will remain stable in Findlay this year after adding several hundred employees in recent years.
The company’s refining capacity has increased 1.3 percent in the past year to 1.817 million barrels per calendar day. The increase is a result of efficiencies gained at its refineries in Garyville, Louisiana, and Robinson, Illinois.
During 2016, Marathon Petroleum refined 1.699 million barrels per day of crude oil and 151,000 barrels per day of other charge and blendstocks. That was down slightly from 2015, when it refined 1.711 million barrels per day of crude oil and 177,000 barrels per day of other charge and blendstocks.
Marathon has an array of capital projects and joint ventures being done or just completed:
• Its energy and logistics subsidiary, MPLX, is participating in a joint venture with Enbridge Energy Partners to buy a 9.2 percent indirect interest in the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company Pipeline (ETCOP) projects from Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners, for $500 million.
DAPL and ETCOP are collectively referred to as the Bakken Pipeline system, which is expected to deliver over 470,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Bakken/Three Forks production area in North Dakota to the Midwest through Patoka, Illinois, and ultimately to the Gulf Coast.
Marathon Petroleum also expects to become a committed shipper on the Bakken Pipeline system under terms of an ongoing open season.
Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners collectively own a 75 percent interest in Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company Pipeline.
Marathon Petroleum and Enbridge Energy Partners have undertaken a joint venture to buy 49 percent of Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners’ 75 percent indirect interest in the Bakken Pipeline system. MPLX owns 25 percent of this new joint venture with Enbridge, which results in the 9.2 percent indirect ownership interest in the Bakken Pipeline system.
• Marathon Petroleum and Crowley Maritime Corp. formed a new ocean vessel joint venture, Crowley Coastal Partners, in which Marathon has a 50 percent ownership interest. In addition, Marathon contributed $48 million cash and Crowley contributed its 100 percent ownership interest in Crowley Blue Water Partners to Crowley Coastal Partners.
Crowley Blue Water Partners owns and operates three 750 Series articulated tug-barges that are leased to Marathon Petroleum.
• Speedway and Pilot Flying J have finalized their formation of a joint venture, PFJ Southeast, initially consisting of about 120 travel plazas, primarily in the Southeast. Forty-one of the locations were contributed by Speedway and 79 were contributed by Pilot Flying J. All of them carry either the Pilot or Flying J brand and are operated by Pilot Flying J.
• In October 2016, Cornerstone Pipeline became fully operational and in December 2016, the Hopedale pipeline connection was completed. This pipeline is designed to transport condensate and natural gasoline from origination facilities in Harrison County, Ohio, to a tank farm in East Sparta, Ohio, where the condensate and natural gasoline can then continue on to Marathon’s refinery in Canton.
Completion of the project has created transportation and marketing options for Utica and Marcellus shale production in eastern Ohio and the eastern United States. Additional pipelines are currently under construction and will provide further distribution to the Midwest and Canada.
• Marathon’s Garyville refinery last fall completed an upgrade, increasing Garyville’s production capacity of high-value alkylate and light products.
• Marathon expanded its Galveston Bay refinery export capacity by 30,000 barrels per day. Marathon’s total export capacity from both the Galveston Bay and Garyville refineries is now 400,000 barrels per day.
• A multi-year project to expand and enhance Marathon’s corporate offices in Findlay was completed last year. The approximately $90 million capital project provided additional office, parking and meeting space.
• Marathon Petroleum is investing about $20 million in its Findlay campus through the development of The Hancock Hotel, at the northwest corner of Main and Lincoln streets. Construction began in June 2016, with a target completion of early 2018.
Marathon Petroleum also is continuing efforts to boost shareholder value.
One option being considered by a special committee of Marathon’s board of directors is the potential separation of its Speedway subsidiary. The committee is conducting its review with help from an independent financial adviser. An update on that review will be provided by this summer.
In other efforts to boost shareholder value, Marathon is speeding up contributions of its assets to MPLX, its energy and logistics subsidiary. By year-end 2017, Marathon plans to employ with MPLX assets contributing about $1.4 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. In exchange for the assets, Marathon will receive units of MPLX.
Several top management changes occurred in the past year:
• Dave Whikehart was appointed vice president for environment, safety and corporate affairs, effective Feb. 29, 2016. He previously served as vice president for corporate planning, government and public affairs.
• Richard D. Bedell, senior vice president of refining, retired effective March 1, 2016. Raymond L. Brooks was named senior vice president of refining, replacing Bedell.
• J. Michael Wilder, vice president, general counsel and secretary, retired March 1, 2016. Suzanne Gagle assumed the role of vice president and general counsel, and Molly R. Benson became vice president, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer.
• Thomas J. Usher retired as chairman of the board of Marathon Petroleum Corp. on April 27, 2016. Gary R. Heminger, the company’s president and chief executive officer, succeeded Usher as chairman in addition to his current duties.
• John C. Mollenkopf, executive vice president and chief operating officer for MPLX’s MarkWest Operations, retired Oct. 1, 2016. Gregory S. Floerke succeeded Mollenkopf as executive vice president and chief operating officer for MarkWest Operations.
• Randy S. Nickerson, executive vice president of corporate strategy for Marathon Petroleum, was appointed executive vice president and chief commercial officer, MarkWest Assets, of MPLX, effective Oct. 1, 2016.
• Pamela K.M. Beall, executive vice president for corporate planning and strategy for MPLX, was named executive vice president and chief financial officer of MPLX, effective Oct. 6, 2016. She replaced Nancy K. Buese, who left the company.
• Frank Semple, vice chairman of MPLX, retired on Oct. 31, 2016.
• James “Jay” P. Heintschel II, vice president of business development for Marathon Petroleum, retired effective Jan. 1, 2017.
• Craig O. Pierson, vice president of operations of MPLX and president of MPLX’s subsidiary, Marathon Pipe Line, retired Jan. 1, 2017. Timothy J. Aydt was named vice president of operations and president of Marathon Pipe Line, replacing Pierson.
Marathon showed good corporate citizenship and commitment to health, safety and the environment in a variety of ways:
• Marathon Petroleum’s wellness program, Well ALL Ways, strives to encourage and empower employees and their families to live life fueled by healthy behaviors. This is accomplished by providing various benefits such as health assessments, reimbursement for fitness memberships, challenges and onsite biometric screenings.
Marathon’s wellness program continues to serve as a member of the Healthy Ohio Business Council offered through the Ohio Health Department. The council is comprised of organizations across the state committed to providing health and wellness programs for their employees. Council members work with other Ohio companies to encourage the creation of other workplace programs and share best practices for a healthy workforce.
• Marathon maintains 21 habitat sites encompassing nearly 1,200 acres of certified wildlife habitat in and around its facilities. The sites are certified through the Wildlife Habitat Conservation certification program. In 2016, Marathon received five new certifications and four recertifications.
Its employees help establish and maintain the habitats, and also volunteer to make them available to members of the community for educational and recreational purposes.
• Marathon Petroleum is an industry leader in making its operations energy efficient. Beginning in 2009, Marathon became an Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star partner, committing itself to consider energy efficiency in all investment and operating decisions. The Energy Star program recognizes not only energy efficiency, but also environmental performance.
Despite owning and operating less than 10 percent of the U.S. refining capacity, Marathon has received 75 percent (36 of 48) of the recognitions awarded to refineries since the Energy Star program began. Two of Marathon’s refineries, in Canton and Garyville, Louisiana, have earned the award every year of the program’s existence. They are the only two refineries in the nation with that distinction. Three of Marathon Petroleum’s refineries — Canton, Garyville, and Robinson, Illinois — received the EPA Energy Star recognition for superior energy efficiency in 2016.
• Marathon is also a partner company in the EPA’s Smartway Transport Partnership, which recognizes the best-performing freight carriers for carbon efficiency. Marathon Petroleum has scored in the best performance range in terms of grams of carbon dioxide per ton-mile for three straight years, placing Marathon in the top 20 percent of the most efficient freight companies for its Smartway category.
• In 2016, the Garyville and Robinson refineries received governor’s awards for excellence in health, safety and environmental performance.
• Refineries in Canton, Detroit, Garyville, Robinson, and Catlettsburg, Kentucky, and several Marathon Petroleum terminals received the Grand Slam Award from the American Association of Railroads as exemplary shippers of hazardous materials.
• The Canton refinery received Gold Status recertification from the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, which recognizes the refinery for its superior behavior-based safety program.
• The Catlettsburg refinery received a Master Level Certification by Kentucky for its participation in the Kentucky EXCEL environmental excellence program, which recognizes environmental stewardship.
• Marathon Petroleum’s terminal, transport and rail business unit also received an environmental excellence program certification from North Carolina for its Belton, North Carolina, terminal.
• The American Chemistry Council gave Marathon’s terminal, transport and rail organization the Responsible Care Waste Minimization, Reuse and Recycling Award.
• Marathon’s Findlay office complex and 12 other Marathon facilities earned Star status, the highest level of designation in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program, which recognizes workers and employers that have implemented effective safety and health management systems. In addition, Marathon and others with Star status have maintained injury and illness rates below the Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries.
The program is a cooperative program between regulators and industry to help drive higher-level safety performance. The program uses a rigorous application and inspection process to award the program designation.
• Fifty-six Marathon facilities received Certificates of Excellence, three received Certificates of Honor and seven received Certificates of Achievement for site safety. They received the awards from the American Chemistry Council as part of the Responsible Care program.
Marathon is the first certified Responsible Care company in the domestic refining, transportation and marketing industry.
• For having zero non-accidental releases, Marathon’s terminal, transport and rail business unit received several safety awards, including the Norfolk Southern Railroad Thoroughbred Safety Award, Kansas City Southern Railroad Hazardous Materials Shipper Safety Award, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Product Stewardship Safety Award, Union Pacific Railroad Pinnacle Safety Award, Canadian National Railroad Safe Handling Safety Award, and the Association of American Railroads Grand Slam Safety Award.
This year marks the 130th anniversary of when several small oil companies in Ohio banded together to form the Ohio Oil Co. From that humble beginning, the company evolved into Marathon Petroleum Corp., a Fortune 500 company and the nation’s third-largest oil refiner.
McLane
3200 McLane Drive, Findlay
Local products and services: Grocery and food service distribution.
Local workforce: 100
Grocery and food service distribution giant McLane opened its $119 million, 337,831-square-foot distribution center on Findlay’s north end in January.
In addition to the 100 workers it opened with, it plans to hire 110 truck drivers and another 150 distribution center workers this year.
From the Findlay site, groceries, food services and beverages are shipped to convenience stores and drugstores, chain restaurants and other merchants in Michigan; in Ohio as far south as Interstate 70; the eastern side of Indiana and western side of Pennsylvania.
McLane said its customers include Mars, Hershey, Nestle Waters, Wrigley and General Mills, “to name a few.”
National Lime & Stone Co.
551 Lake Cascades Parkway, Findlay
Local products and services: Stone and building products.
Local workforce: N/A
National Lime and Stone Co. strengthened its future position in the face of market-related headwinds in 2016.
A drop in energy-related construction contributed to lower companywide sales volumes in 2016 for the manufacturer of crushed stone and sand for construction.
Drilling and rig counts fell in the company’s markets for a second straight year, with low oil and gas prices holding back exploration and production activities. As a result, the company’s customers built fewer well pads, and shipments for midstream-related construction also declined.
Shipments also were lower for National Lime and Stone’s western Ohio markets, but shipments remained strong in Akron, Cleveland and Columbus.
Public infrastructure construction, which is an important market for the company’s stone products, was stable in 2016. The company continued to supply stone products to several large, multi-year federal highway projects, including the replacement and expansion of portions of Interstate 75 near Findlay, as well as construction of a new interchange at the intersections of Interstate 270, U.S. 23 and U.S. 315 in northern Columbus.
In addition, National Lime supplied a number of smaller federal, state and local projects.
To support its ongoing operational improvement objectives, the company made some important capital expenditures in 2016. Equipment replacements were higher. National Lime and Stone upgraded its Columbus Region Plant to improve its output. In addition, it upgraded its information technology systems. The upgrades included new enterprise resource planning software to support recent growth in the asphalt and paving business.
The company also began to relocate its sand and gravel operation in south Columbus. The new site is better positioned relative to the main transportation arteries in the Columbus metro area. The relocated plant, expected to begin operations this spring, will have more production capacity than the former location.
The company’s corporate development activities in 2016 helped it continue to grow its core stone products business. It acquired control of a small sand and gravel operation in Grove City, which strengthened its market footprint in the greater Columbus area.
To further strengthen its stone products distribution network, National Lime opened a new rail distribution facility in a western suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The site complements the company’s existing location in the southern Pittsburgh metro area.
The company acquired control of a water distribution facility on the Ohio River in New Martinsville, West Virginia. The new location expands National Lime’s footprint farther south into West Virginia and strengthens its position along the Ohio River.
The company last year recognized the service of two longtime employees: Delmo Arend and Evelyn Hauman.
Arend began his 50-year career with the company as a laborer on second shift at the Carey plant. He retired in September 2016 as director of sales for the central region.
Hauman began her 70-year career in the company’s corporate headquarters shortly after she and her husband returned to Findlay following World War II. Since 1946, she has held a number of positions, including accounting, administrative support and data processing. She still helps out at the office on a regular basis.
Rowmark
2040 Industrial Drive, Findlay
Local products and services: Plastic sheets for signs, engraving and thermoforming
Local workforce: 286
The maker of plastic sheets for signs, plaques, trophy plates and many other uses shows positive signs.
Profitability is increasing. Sales grew 32 percent last year through its core operations and through purchases of other companies.
Rowmark is adding employees. It is muscling up with additional equipment and branching out with new product lines.
It said 2017 is looking bright.
“We expect to continue to see sales growth through channel optimization efforts and continued lean management focus,” the company reported. “We will be introducing many new products to our expanding customer base which will drive volumes and more profitability.”
Rowmark added 55 employees in the past year as a result of growth and the purchase in January 2016 of Bur-Lane of Oklahoma City, a national distributor of engraving plastic and identification accessories and supplies.
Rowmark brought production of Bur-Lane’s product line into its Findlay operation.
Besides producing plastic sheets for signs, plaques and trophy plates, Rowmark makes them for hotel hospitality carts, dashboards and interior panels for heavy trucks, boats and recreational vehicles.
Products made in Findlay are shipped around the United States and to over 85 countries.
Production is expected to rise again in 2017, from both the core Rowmark engraving business and its custom extrusion division, PMC.
Rowmark plans to add a few production positions, as well as a few administrative positions. With plans to increase sales, the company also expects to add sales staff as it wins additional business.
Like other companies, Rowmark said it is often challenged by a shortage of “quality” workers in the labor force.
“We are actively supporting the work of the ‘Raise the Bar’ workforce development initiatives in the community,” Rowmark said. “In particular, we understand the need to inform high school students about the opportunities for reliable jobs in manufacturing-based companies that offer good wages and benefits, along with paths to learn new skills and continue their education.”
“For those who do not wish to pursue a college degree immediately after high school, there are numerous opportunities to start a meaningful career right in our community,” the company said.
In capital projects, Rowmark last year made significant additions: a new co-extrusion feed block and die, new extrusion barrels, screws and melt filtration, and new grinding equipment.
It added several new products in 2016:
• A translucent acrylic product called Lucents for the architectural ruler, hobby and craft markets.
• New equipment and consumable products for digital printing.
• Several new laser engraving products with various surface finishes.
More new products are planned for 2017. They include new sublimation equipment and products; new consumables for digital printing; new laser engraving products; and high heat materials for thermoforming.
Rowmark last year successfully completed its recertification audit of ISO 9001.
Whirlpool Corp.
4901 N. Main St., Findlay
Local products and services: Dishwashers.
Local workforce: 2,000
Employment was stable last year at the plant, which produces dishwashers sold throughout North America. Production levels have risen steadily over the past three years with improving consumer demand.
Employment is expected to remain stable this year.
Wilin: 419-427-8413 Send an E-mail to Lou Wilin

http://thecourier.com/local-news/2017/02/26/employment-rises-at-major-industries-2/

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Business Leaders Name Regulations They Would Like To See Go

Feb 24, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News

By Alexander H Tullo

In an effort endorsed by several chemical companies, Business Roundtable, an advocacy group composed of CEOs, has sent the Trump Administration a list of “Top Regulations of Concern” that it believes are unnecessary.
“The majority of the regulations directly and negatively impact economic growth,” wrote Mark J. Costa, CEO of Eastman Chemical and chair of the Roundtable’s Smart Regulation Committee. Also signing the letter were Dow Chemical CEO Andrew N. Liveris, who is leading a manufacturing panel for the Trump Administration, and Honeywell CEO David M. Cote.
Among the environmental rules on the list is an EPA ground-level ozone standard that reduced ozone concentration limits to 70 ppb from 75 ppb. It also hit on a rule requiring carbon capture for new coal-fired power plants and on another rule expanding of federal jurisdiction over state waters.
Business Roundtable also targeted rules related to health care, corporate governance, the workforce, taxes, the internet, and exports.
“While some of the listed regulations in isolation may not appear significant to growth, their cumulative effect has drained resources from innovation and job creation and directed them to non-value-adding administrative and bureaucratic activities,” Costa wrote.
Regulatory reform is one of the Trump Administration’s strategies for jump-starting the economy. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to eliminate two regulations for every new regulation they implement.
Trump met with corporate executives on Feb. 23 to talk about strengthening the manufacturing sector. According to Liveris, the group discussed regulation, taxes, trade, and workforce training. “It is very clear that the language of business is being spoken in the White House,” Liveris said after the meeting.
https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/02/Business-leaders-name-regulations-like-to-see-go.html

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Trump Orders Agencies To Create Regulatory Reform Task Forces

Feb 27, 2017 | PoliticoPro

By Alex Guillén

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered federal agencies to begin identifying rules for elimination — a move he presented as part of his larger assault on regulations he said damage the economy.
Trump’s move may not have much immediate effect, but it continues an anti-regulatory push that began on the first day of his administration. The executive order he signed in the Oval Office Friday directs each federal agency to set up a "regulatory reform task force" to review an agency's existing regulations and search for rules to repeal or modify. The task forces in particular will be directed to "focus on eliminating costly and unnecessary regulations," according to a White House official.
Trump previewed the move in a speech earlier in the day at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“We have begun a historic program to reduce the regulations that are crushing our economy — crushing,” Trump told the CPAC crowd at National Harbor, Md. “And not only our economy, crushing our jobs because companies can’t hire. We’re going to put the regulation industry out of work and out of business.”
The president previously issued an order directing agencies to identify two regulations for repeal for every rule that is written, prompting outcries from environmentalists, labor unions and consumer advocates. Several groups have sued to block that order, although it is not yet clear they will have the standing in court until a regulation is repealed because of it.
Trump's new regulatory review process likely will face similar opposition from those groups, but could prove much harder to challenge, so long as the government cites other evidence for the need to repeal each regulation.
The orders come on top of one of the Trump administration’s first acts upon his inauguration issuing a blanket freeze on regulatory actions across the government, similar to the stoppage imposed when Barack Obama first took office.
"This executive order is one of many ways we’re going to get real results when it comes to removing job killing regulations and unleasing economic opportunity," Trump said Friday, referring to the earlier orders. "Every regulation should have to pass a simple test: Does it make life better or safer for American workers or consumers? If the answer is 'no,' we will be getting rid of it and getting rid of it quickly."
Several CEOs flanked Trump while he signed the order, including Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, Gregory Hayes of United Technologies Corporation, Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Andrew Liveris of The Dow Chemical Company.
Trump said in his CPAC speech that he is not entirely against regulation.
“I want to protect our environment. I want regulations for safety. I want all of the regulations we need, and I want them to be so strong and so tough,” he said. “But we don’t need 75 percent of the repetitive, horrible regulations that hurt companies, hurt jobs, make us noncompetitive overseas with other companies from other countries.”
Trump’s critics promptly dismissed that statement.
“Cognitive dissonance, thy name is Donald Trump,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement.
The president is expected to issue further executive orders on more specific environmental regulations soon.
That includes long-rumored orders directing EPA to begin the process of repealing key Obama-era EPA regulations curbing greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants as well as a contentious rule defining which waterways fall under federal jurisdiction.
Lifting the Interior Department’s moratorium on new coal mining leases on federal land is also expected to be a priority once Ryan Zinke is confirmed to lead that department next week. The moratorium was imposed by a secretarial order and can be lifted easily, whereas the EPA rules will take up to a year or more to formally unwind through the federal regulatory process.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/story/2017/02/trump-orders-agencies-to-create-regulatory-reform-task-forces-149503

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LCSA News

(ACC Mentioned) Commit to Science in Chemical Rules, Manufacturers Tell EPA

Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Pat Rizzuto

The EPA's proposed rules to implement the amended chemicals law must show the agency will uphold the law's scientific requirements, chemical manufacturers said.
The Environmental Protection Agency's decisions about the risks a chemical may pose must be scientifically credible, Michael Witt, director for health and environmental research at the Dow Chemical Co., told Bloomberg BNA.
If the EPA's rules are clear about what constitutes high-quality, reliable data, then chemical manufacturers can work with the agency and each other to generate information the EPA can use to reach its risk-related conclusions, he said.
Good Work, but More Needed
The EPA has worked diligently to uphold the rulemaking deadlines of the amended Toxic Substances Control Act, Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council, said Feb. 23. He spoke during opening remarks at the council's annual Global Chemical Regulations Conference in Washington.
But the EPA's rules must be more specific about how the agency will fulfill Congress’ intent that it use the highest-quality science as it reviews chemicals and determines whether they pose an unreasonable health or ecological risk, he said.
Dooley referred to provisions in Section 26 of the amended law that require the agency to base its scientific judgment of risks on the “best available science” and “weight of evidence.”
What's at Stake?
There's a lot at stake. If the EPA determines chemicals pose unreasonable risks, the law requires the agency to issue some type of risk management regulation within two years.
Whatever restrictions the agency imposes on a chemical must be sufficient to make sure the chemical would no longer present an unreasonable risk, the statute says.
The agency proposed a rule (RIN:2070-AK20) Jan. 19 describing how it would evaluate chemical risks.
The proposed rule said the EPA would use existing guidance, tools and models that are relevant and available to conduct its risk evaluations.
Ideas Welcomed
Jim Jones, who stepped down in January as the EPA's assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, recently told Bloomberg BNA the agency's proposal couldn't be more specific about what would constitute the best available science.
“It's contextual,” Jones said. There's no single way to define best available science, he said.
What's best depends on the type of research being conducted, the study's design and many other factors, Jones said.
“We couldn't figure out a way to be more specific without retarding the science,” Jones said Feb. 22 during an American Bar Association meeting on TSCA.
Had the agency's proposed rule spelled out models or approaches to use, those easily could be outdated in a few years, and then the rule would have to be rewritten, Jones said.
Comments on the agency's proposed risk evaluation rule are due March 20.
Jones urged interested parties to submit ideas on how the agency could be more specific about using best science without impeding scientific developments.
Principles Plus Communication
The EPA shouldn't specify any specific risk assessment approach or technology or it would freeze the science, said Lynn Goldman, who during the Clinton administration had Jones’ job overseeing pesticides and chemicals. She spoke with reporters Feb. 23 on the sidelines of the Global Chemical Regulations Conference.
The agency can, however, do a better job defining the principles of good science and explaining in its risk assessments how it applied them, Goldman said.
For example, the EPA can commit to conducting thorough analyses of available science, she said. Its risk evaluations can then explain the methods it used to search the scientific literature and what other information it used that may not have been published in peer reviewed journals, Goldman said. Industry-generated scientific studies, for example, often are not published in peer reviewed literature but often are designed in consultation with the EPA to answer a specific risk question.
The EPA can commit to using a weight of the evidence approach to assessing scientific studies addressing a particular chemical, Goldman said. The risk evaluation can then describe how the agency weighted different studies and why it gave one study greater weight, or importance, than another, she said.
Moving Toward Management
The chemical industry does not want the EPA to limit its analyses to any specific technologies or risk assessment approaches, Michael Walls, vice president of regulatory and technical affairs at the American Chemistry Council, told Bloomberg BNA. “Nobody wants to freeze the science.”
But saying it will use existing guidance—as the EPA's proposed rule did—is not enough, he said.
Chemical manufacturers want the agency to commit to principles such as using high quality, relevant, reliable studies and a weight of evidence approach, Walls said.
Companies want to understand what the EPA's principles and processes will be, he said.
The agency's assessments should then articulate how it followed those principles and processes, Walls said.
If an agency risk assessment concludes a chemical poses an unreasonable risk that must be managed, the increased clarity about the science in that assessment will help all parties figure out whether labeling, phasing out or some other risk management approach would best address that risk, he said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=106223968&vname=dennotallissues&fn=106223968&jd=106223968

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Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) UN Environment Declares War On Ocean Plastics, Lobbies For Product Bans And Taxes

Feb 24, 2017 | Plastics News

By Steve Toloken

The environment agency of the United Nations is urging governments to ban or tax plastic bags, restrict microplastic beads in cosmetics and take other actions against single-use packaging.
U.N. Environment kicked off the campaign on Feb. 23 targeting disposable plastics and ocean pollution.
The agency launched the Clean Seas campaign at the World Ocean Summit in Indonesia, headlining its announcement by saying that the “U.N. Declares War on Ocean Plastic.” It said 10 countries signed on, including Indonesia, France and Norway.
The high-profile summit drew plastics industry executives like Covestro AG CEO Patrick Thomas, along with government officials and environmental groups, to Bali from Feb. 22-24. It was hosted by The Economist magazine.
The American Chemistry Council, which sent participants, said resin manufacturers are actively engaged in pilot programs to reduce plastics in the ocean and improve waste management in Asia Pacific.
“Scientific and political leaders have identified the need to improve land-based waste management — particularly in rapidly industrializing economies — as the single most important step we can take to reduce the flow of waste into the ocean,” said Steve Russell, vice president of plastics at Washington-based ACC, in a statement.
While the U.N. agency may not have much direct regulatory power, it seems intent on using social media and other pulpits in what it called an “unprecedented global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter” — microplastics in cosmetics and excessive single-use plastics — by 2022.
United Nations officials said they hoped more countries would make commitments to reduce single use plastic at a U.N. ocean conference in New York in early June.
“The ocean is the lifeblood of our planet, yet we are poisoning it with millions of tons of plastic every year,” said Peter Thomson, president of the U.N. General Assembly. “I urge all [countries] to join the Clean Seas campaign and make an ambitious pledge to reduce single-use plastic. Be it a tax on plastic bags or a ban on microbeads in cosmetics, each country [can] do their bit.”
The agency said governments should pass plastics reduction policies and industry should work to minimize plastics packaging and redesign products. It called on consumers to “change their throwaway habits.”Some taking action
At the event, the U.N. said the government of Indonesia outlined plans to reduce by 70 percent the amount of trash the island nation sends to the marine environment by 2025.
It noted that Uruguay will begin taxing single-use plastics bags later this year and Costa Rica plans an effort to dramatically reduce single-use plastics through better waste management.
The U.N. said that 80 percent of litter in the oceans is plastic and the material causes at least $8 billion in damage to marine ecosystems each year. It suggested problems will get worse, saying that plastics production is projected to grow three or four times by 2050.
“Keeping our seas clean and our marine life safe from plastic is a matter of urgency for Norway,” said Vidar Helgesen, that country’s minister of climate and the environment. “Marine plastic litter is a rapidly increasing threat to marine life, seafood safety and negatively affects the lives of people in coastal areas all around the world.
Russell, who attended the summit, said that while the industry is working to keep plastics from the oceans, he noted that polymers have environmental benefits that contribute to reducing greenhouse gases and food waste.
And he said that 70 plastics industry associations worldwide have signed a formal declaration on ocean pollution and support 260 projects to reduce plastics marine litter.
“We know there’s much more to be done,” Russell said. “Leaders from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum are now calling for improved waste management, and our industry is partnering with other stakeholders to improve collection, containment, recycling and energy recovery in the region.”
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170224/NEWS/170229927/un-environment-declares-war-on-ocean-plastics-lobbies-for-product

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(ACC Mentioned) Why Deadly Chemicals May Linger in Cities Under the EPA's New Administrator

Feb 24, 2017 | CityLab

By Aria Bendix

Scott Pruitt remains unconvinced of the dangers of asbestos.
Last week, the Senate confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt’s nomination was controversial for any number of reasons, the most prominent being his repeated attempts to sue the very organization he now runs.
According to thousands of emails obtained by The New York Times, Pruitt’s battles with the EPA were likely influenced by close ties to major oil and gas producers. On Wednesday, the Times reported that Pruitt received draft letters from energy companies to send to federal regulators and participated in meetings to contest the EPA under the Obama administration.
But there’s reason to believe that these industry ties may run even deeper. In a recent hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Pruitt appeared unconvinced about the dangers of asbestos, a deadly material often found in chemical plants, oil refineries, and electric power plants. In addition, prominent law firms that were linked to Pruitt by the Times have defended major corporations against asbestos litigation.What’s the risk?
After being informed by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey that asbestos was responsible for the deaths of nearly 63,000 Americans from 1999 to 2014, Pruitt responded: “Asbestos has been identified by the EPA as a high-priority chemical that requires a risk evaluation… Prejudging the outcome of that risk evaluation process would not be appropriate.”
During the same confirmation hearing, Pruitt also admitted that he had “not reviewed the scientific studies correlating blood lead levels to impacts in children,” and indicated that he did not know if a safe level of lead existed. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration uphold that there is no safe level of lead or asbestos exposure.
Bruce Armstrong, emeritus professor at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, maintains that asbestos is “absolutely” an environmental hazard. The World Health Organization has even dubbed the material “one of the most important occupational carcinogens.”A fatal environmental hazard
While asbestos is often associated with a period following World War II when the cheap, flexible, and fire-resistant material was widely used for commercial construction, it continues to take the lives of an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Americans each year. In general, exposure to asbestos can lead to three major diseases: asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. The latter of these three, which has a life expectancy of 12 to 21 months, can result from relatively minimal exposure.
Although asbestos is widespread in the environment, most people are exposed by breathing in particles through the air. This can occur in buildings, schools, or homes with deteriorating cement, drywall, roof shingles, or ceiling and floor tiles that were manufactured using the carcinogen. Since around half the schools in the U.S. were built between 1950 and 1969, the EPA estimates that asbestos can be found in around 132,000 of the country’s primary and secondary schools.
According to a 2001 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the level of asbestos in the air in cities is around 10 times higher than in rural areas. From 1948 to 1993, around 5.8 million tons of asbestos-containing material were shipped to 208 cities across the U.S., with some of the largest shipments ending up in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, and Chicago.
Asbestos also remains a concern for 9/11 survivors and first responders in New York City. In 2015, Dr. Raja Flores, chief of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center, told CityLab that he anticipated a sharp rise in 9/11-related cancers over the next 30 years, due in large part to the 300 to 400 tons of asbestos fibers that were used to construct the World Trade Center.
Last December, the EPA designated asbestos as a top 10 chemical for review and regulation under statutory law. Nevertheless, the United States remains one of the few industrialized countries without a comprehensive ban. Although the EPA attempted to ban most asbestos-containing products in 1989, the majority of this ban—including the commercial manufacturing, importation, processing, and distribution of asbestos-containing products—was overturned in 1991. Under existing legislation, only “new uses” of asbestos—or products that did not historically contain the material—are prohibited.
Although the scientific link between asbestos and fatal diseases was confirmed by the late 1970s, those with chemical or manufacturing ties still question its hazardous properties. Over the years, the asbestos industry has channeled millions of dollars into independent research that contradicts established scientific claims.The price of a life
When her husband was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2003, Linda Reinstein, the co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, says she felt deceived by her country. Like many, she never imagined that her husband, a businessman who wore a suit and tie to work each day, would contract a disease from a few brief encounters with what she assumed was a banned substance. Upon researching mesothelioma and advocating for anti-asbestos legislation in Washington, D.C., Reinstein soon realized that she was dealing with a massive “corporate cover-up."
In recent years, Reinstein has been an advocate for reforming the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to include a law signed this past summer, which institutes harsher crackdowns on asbestos regulation in schools, as well as public and commercial buildings. Per the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, only health and environmental factors can be used to determine asbestos regulation. The law also instructs the EPA to identify disproportionately susceptible or highly exposed populations, which comes as welcome news to cities and industrial areas. The product of a 10-year negotiation with the chemical industry, the law took so long to approve that its namesake, Senator Frank Lautenberg, died before it passed.
Denying or ignoring its risks could ultimately lead to decreased funding for regulation and removal.
Although ADAO’s efforts have received bipartisan support in the past, Reinstein maintains that asbestos issues often seem partisan. She says that “Pruitt could easily instruct the EPA to give [trade associations like the American Chemistry Council] an exemption” to existing regulations, allowing them to “delay and destruct policy until they’re sued.”
The American Chemistry Council recently issued a statement congratulating Pruitt on his confirmation. At a conference on Thursday, the organization’s CEO, Cal Dooley, reiterated his support for “Administrator Pruitt’s commitment to the best available science under the [Lautenberg Act].” Last August, the ACC asked for leniency under the new EPA regulations, arguing that “because [their] use of asbestos … is confined in the production process, worker exposure risk is essentially eliminated.”
As someone with decades of cancer research experience, Armstrong agrees that lower exposure often results in lower risk. Still, he echoes OSHA in saying that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. “The mechanism by which asbestos [causes] cancer is there at the initiation stage,” he tells CityLab. “There is no need whatsoever for any country to import or use asbestos.”Industry versus science
So what does it mean when the new EPA administrator is unwilling to admit to the dangers of a public health hazard? Thanks to the Lautenberg Act, it is unlikely that the U.S. will again become reliant on asbestos-contaminated construction materials. However, without a ban in place, toxic imports continue. In 2007, an independent ADAO investigation discovered asbestos in five consumer products, including a children’s toy. In the year 2015 alone, the U.S. legally imported an estimated 716,000 pounds of asbestos for consumption.
“[Asbestos removal] is still a priority for us,” says David Rizzolo, the Operations Manager at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “We take it very seriously.” In a city with an abundance of older housing and buildings, Rizzolo estimates that asbestos “will never be gone from our building stock.” Although he expects it could take a while for changes in the EPA to affect his health department, Rizzolo insists that “if you nibble away at federal support for EPA regulations, it could erode support for local air districts [that regulate asbestos].” Although asbestos is one of many health hazards plaguing our cities, denying or ignoring its risks could ultimately lead to decreased funding for regulation and removal, as well as major exemptions for chemical, manufacturing, oil, gas, or energy producers.
“Asbestos is big industry,” says the ADAO’s Midwestern Regional Director and mesothelioma survivor Heather Von St. James. “[Under the new EPA administration,] we’re seeing everything that we’ve worked so hard for unravel before our very eyes.” And yet both she and Reinstein view Pruitt’s confirmation as further motivation to continue their fight for a comprehensive ban. “No one is backing away,” says Reinstein. “We’ve never been stronger as advocates and environmentalists to work on a grassroots level to make sure that [the current laws are] upheld.”
Indeed, in a battle between science and industry, Reinstein still believes that her team will come out on top. “We have something more powerful than money,” she says. “We have the truth.”

https://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/02/why-deadly-chemicals-may-linger-in-cities-under-the-epas-new-administrator/517494/

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Will Eight On A Plate Catch On? Or Will Weak Observational Claims About Food Fail Again?

Feb 24, 2017 | Science 2.0

There are multiple food fads trying to catch on per year but as the saying goes in science, if one epidemiology study counted, everything would cause or prevent cancer.

One long-held epidemiology belief is that the more vegetables you eat, the healthier your heart will be. While vegetarians and animal activists tout such claims, the actual evidence is not clear. In recent decades we've been told bacon, butter and red meat all cause heart disease. But the same groups scaremongering food have also claimed that coffee causes breast cancer, that cell phones cause all kinds of cancer, and that BPA can be an endocrine disruptor, even though they are biological and toxicological impossibilities.

So how seriously should you take changing the guidance from 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day to eight? Dagfinn Aune, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Imperial College London, and colleagues writing in the International Journal of Epidemiology, claims their meta-analysis shows that 7.8 million deaths worldwide could be prevented each year if people ate more fruits and vegetables, preventing heart disease, stroke, cancer and premature death.

They even boldly claim that confounding factors, such as that people who specifically count how many vegetables they eat per day, aren't more physically active, smoke less, and are more likely to avoid large amounts of alcohol. For that reason alone, you should be skeptical. But if you are not skeptical, you are enjoying an article about this weak observational claim in the New York Times and not reading here.

So they say if everyone ate 800 grams of fruit and vegetables every day, 7.8 million deaths each year would be saved. If everyone ate 500 grams of fruits and vegetables a day, 5.4 million deaths. Two to four million deaths related to cardiovascular disease could be prevented a year if everyone ate the optimal amount of fruits and vegetables, the researchers said, while for cancer that number was approximately 660,000 deaths.

All that, from a meta-analysis using studies of people trying to remember what they ate decades ago. It's always wise to be skeptical about modern epidemiology, and when it comes to vegetarian claims, even more so.
http://www.science20.com/news_staff/will_eight_on_a_plate_catch_on_or_will_weak_observational_claims_about_food_fail_again-224930

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Energy News

‘Bold Action' Coming to Lift Energy Restrictions: Trump

Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Rachel Leven

The Trump administration is preparing “bold action” to lift restrictions on U.S. fossil fuel production, President Donald Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Trump didn't offer any details in his Feb. 24 remarks. But as a candidate, Trump said he would allow more fossil fuel production on public lands, including lifting a 2016 coal lease moratorium on public lands, and said he would rescind regulations on climate and water that he portrayed as onerous.
Trump's comments, including his repeated commitments to put coal miners back to work and reduce rules, come days before he is set to address Congress. He has taken early action to fulfill energy promises he made from the campaign trail, including moving controversial pipeline projects forward.
Environmentalists chided Trump following his speech. May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said lifting the coal moratorium won't “jumpstart the coal industry” and said environmentalists remain committed to blocking new fossil fuel infrastructure.
“Instead of investing in the future, Trump is digging into the past,” Boeve said in a Feb. 24 statement. “People across the country care deeply about our climate's future and are ready to fight to keep these fossil fuels in the ground.”

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=106223955&vname=dennotallissues&fn=106223955&jd=106223955

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Fracking May Get a Little Less Costly If U.S. Silica Has Its Way

Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By David Wethe

Oil explorers facing mounting fracking costs in a revival of the U.S. shale boom may get some reprieve, courtesy of U.S. Silica Holdings Inc.
The largest publicly traded provider of frack sand said it aims to double its total supply to about 20 million tons over the next year to 18 months. Since October 2016, the price of the granules that prop open tiny cracks in oil-bearing rock has gone up on average 15 percent to 20 percent, Donald Merril, chief financial officer at the supplier, told analysts and investors Feb. 23 on a conference call.
“The broad expectation is for there to be a dramatic tightening in the sand market to the point at which there's essentially a sand shortage and a tremendous price inflection,” Matt Marietta, an analyst at Stephens Inc. in Houston, said in a phone interview. “I think what we're learning is that there's plenty of sand.“
Once the darlings of the early stages of a shale recovery, sand companies tumbled after U.S. Silica announced the plan. Fairmont Santrol Holdings Inc. dropped 13 percent, while U.S. Silica and Emerge Energy Services LP each fell more than 10 percent. Hi-Crush Partners LP slipped 6.4 percent.
By the middle of this year, the climb in sand pricing could level out, Marietta said. Explorers could even pay less if oil prices fall back down, he said.
Hydraulic fracturing, which blasts water, sand and chemicals underground to release trapped hydrocarbons, has been the key to the shale boom over the past eight years. The contractors that help drill the wells, map pockets of underground oil and supply the sand have all seen improved pricing for their work in the U.S. as explorers are putting rigs back to work.
Recovery Signs
The sand miners were the first to see evidence of a recovery. By early August last year, the four biggest sand suppliers had at least doubled the price of their shares, while oil exploration and production companies in the S&P 500 rose 14 percent.
The supply boost planned by U.S. Silica is not unwarranted, the company said after an analyst suggested on an earnings call that the market may have been spooked by such a large increase.
“We're definitely getting signals from our customer base,” Bryan Shinn, chief executive officer at U.S. Silica, told analysts and investors Thursday on a conference call. “They're sort of begging us to get this online faster, given the pace of demand increase right now. So, I'm not worried about that part at all.“

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=106223945&vname=dennotallissues&fn=106223945&jd=106223945

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In Rural Western Maryland, Fracking Divisions Run Deep

Feb 26, 2017 | The Washington Post

By Josh Hicks

FROSTBURG, Md. — The small towns and mountainous rural areas of Western Maryland are dotted with scores of well heads, a reminder of the copious natural-gas reserves that lie underground.
Here, amid farms, faded industrial sites and a growing number of wineries and tourist attractions, the debate over whether to allow hydraulic fracturing seems far more immediate than in the State House in Annapolis, 170 miles to the southeast.
The controversial drilling method, better known as “fracking,” could bring thousands of jobs and tens of million of dollars in revenue to communities located along the massive rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale. But those benefits would be relatively short-lived, and there is some degree of environmental risk, despite guidelines that state officials say would be among the most stringent in the nation.
The four Republican lawmakers who represent this independent-minded part of the state solidly support fracking and oppose a proposed ban being pushed by downstate lawmakers. But their constituents are deeply divided.
Many longtime landowners, especially struggling farmers hoping to supplement their incomes with gas royalties and land leases, want in on the fracking boom. Other residents are reluctant, afraid of potential harm to the environment, public health and property values.
he ambivalence was evident one recent afternoon when Del. Wendel R. Beitzel (R-Garrett) visited the home of Aaron Miller, who was splitting firewood with his sister Heather and wife, Jacey, not far from a natural-gas well head.
All three Millers are Republicans, but none agree with their representative on the merits of fracking, especially given recent news reports about fracking-related earthquakes in places such as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
“It’s not a partisan issue,” Heather Miller said. “It’s a hometown, loving-your-environment thing.”A controversial industry
Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting huge quantities of water, sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure to release natural gas from rock formations. The industry provides more than two-thirds of U.S. natural gas production now, up from a small fraction in 2000. It has helped the United States keep energy prices low and leapfrog Russia as the world’s leading natural-gas producer.
A two-year state moratorium on fracking is set to expire in October. The House environmental committee held a hearing on the proposal for a permanent ban last week, and the corresponding Senate committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday.
The two bills have 90 co-sponsors — none from Allegany or Garrett counties.
The legislature is also considering bills to extend the fracking moratorium for another two years, and a proposal, introduced by Beitzel and Sen. George C. Edwards (R-Garrett) to create a fund to compensate landowners who cannot sell or lease their natural gas interests if a ban takes effect. The latter measure has seven co-sponsors in the House, all Republicans from rural parts of the state, and none in the Senate.
A 2014 Towson University study found that fracking could support more than 2,500 jobs, add about $80 million a year in wages and generate more than $16 million in annual revenue — from taxes on gas extraction and income — during the industry’s first decade of activity in Western Maryland.
After 10 years, however, fracking would support fewer than 200 jobs and generate less than $2 million in annual tax revenue, because relatively few workers are needed to manage wells once they are created and the supply of gas becomes depleted over time. Critics also say that a substantial number of fracking workers could come from out of state.
“I don’t like all the propaganda about jobs, because it’s all temporary work,” said James Strawser, 71, a fracking opponent who owns a 70-acre berry farm in Garrett County.
He and others say they are concerned about environmental risks, pointing to greenhouse-gas emissions and a growing list of man-made earthquakes and water-contamination incidents. Industry supporters say activists exaggerate the impacts of drilling to drum up fear.
“This issue has been sensationalized all along, and that’s difficult to accept,” said Joyce Bishoff, 68, whose family owns 300 acres in Garrett County, including gas rights.
A 2014 Stanford University report concluded that gas and chemicals from fracking rarely migrate to drinking-water aquifers. It also said that producing and burning natural gas instead of coal reduces water consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. A Rice University studyfound that fracking wastewater is less toxic than similar waste from coal production.
As for earthquakes, the U.S. Geological Survey says that injecting fracking wastewater deep underground for disposal, a common practice, could cause damaging quakes but that the tremors related directly to drilling are “almost always too small to be a safety concern.”
Maryland’s environmental department last year proposed fracking regulations that would require the wastewater to be treated or recycled, rather than disposed of underground. The rules would ban drilling in four watersheds, including the popular tourist destination of Deep Creek Lake, and require four layers of cement and steel casing around wells to prevent water, gas and other fluids from migrating to other areas.
Advocates for a ban say no amount of regulation can safeguard the public from the impacts of hydraulic fracturing.Haves and have-nots
Many of Western Maryland’s strongest fracking proponents are longtime residents who could gain financially from selling and leasing their land and mineral rights. Others are conservatives who bristle at being told what they can do with their property.
The opposition is led by environmentalists, newer residents with vacation homes in resort areas and small-business owners with ties to the region’s growing tourism industry, which helped spur an economic recovery after widespread manufacturing declines.
The towns of Friendsville, Mountain Lake and Frostburg all have banned fracking in recent years.
“People have these cherished memories of coming here for generations, and we’re trying to tap into that sentiment,” said Paul Roberts, 58, who runs a winery in Garrett County and created one of the region’s leading anti-fracking groups. “That’s been a powerful element of why it’s become an emotional issue for so many people in the state.”
Shawn Bender, who has 55 acres in Accident, Md., but does not own the land’s mineral rights, said gas extraction isn’t much different from the timber, coal and farming industries that have long served as part of the region’s economic foundation.
“People who grew up here understand that natural-
resource development is going to have an impact,” said Bender, 34, a vice president at Beitzel Corp., a local company that prepares drilling sites and supports gas extraction. “We’re in the business of knocking down trees and moving dirt.”
Terry Bolinger, 73, a retired lab technician who worked for a tire maker, said that “there’s no way they can pump those chemicals into the ground without contaminating the water supply.”
But his son Terry Bolinger Jr. disagrees. “I don’t think we have a choice but to use that method for producing energy unless you want to go back to the Stone Age,” said the younger Bolinger, a 46-year-old driver for a delivery service.
Some fracking critics have suggested that Beitzel could benefit financially from the drilling practice, either because of the 300 acres he owns in Garrett County or because of Beitzel Corp., which was founded by a distant cousin.
The lawmaker said that he has no financial stake or role in the company. He also said he does not own the gas rights for his own property, much of which is off-limits to drilling because it is either designated for agricultural preservation or located within one of the watersheds that would be protected under the state’s proposed regulations.
Too often, Beitzel said, the debate over fracking boils down to haves vs. have-nots. “If you don’t have property with natural gas, then you have nothing to gain from it, and it’s easier to be opposed to it.”Choosing sides On a recent Sunday after church, Beitzel, Bishoff and Bender joined a few other fracking supporters for coffee at Annie’s Kitchen, bemoaning what they described as a loss of property rights and potential income if a ban takes effect.
The lawmakers said that, at a hearing in Annapolis several years ago, fracking opponents suggested that Western Marylanders are impoverished, uneducated and unable to fully understand the implications of the extraction method.
“Anyone that speaks out for natural-gas development gets booed and laughed at,” Bender said. “And a lot of people locally just aren’t interested in putting themselves out like that.”
Later that day, more than 60 anti-fracking activists met in downtown Frostburg to plan new outreach and train advocates to lobby elected officials.
Down the street, a “Frack Free Frostburg” sign hung in the window of A Place to Eat, Chris Aguilar’s Texas barbecue restaurant. Haitian rap music played on the stereo, and a petition in support of the fracking ban sat by the register.
The 36-year-old Texan came to Western Maryland to work on power lines, and settled in the area about 10 years ago to launch his first restaurant. As he prepared homemade tortillas and a huge slab of pork for the smoker, he said he is confident the fracking industry will never take root in the nearby hills.
“We can’t be bought by special interests,” Aguilar said. “If we send that message to other states, they’ll ban it as well.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/in-rural-western-maryland-fracking-divisions-run-deep/2017/02/26/3dc0c0d4-f791-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.a9762615f8f1

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Okla. Acts To Prevent Quakes As Drillers Get Back To Work

Feb 27, 2017 | E&E News PM

By Mike Soraghan

Oklahoma oil and gas officials are trying to head off an increase in earthquakes as the drilling industry shakes off its price slump and ramps up activity.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) issued a directive aimed at preventing a sudden increase in the amount of wastewater from oil and gas production that would be injected underground in the most quake-prone areas.
"The continued drop in earthquakes, as well as new data and input from the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) have caused a change in our orientation from focusing on current disposal volumes ... to looking ahead to try and ensure there isn't a sudden, surprise jump in those disposal volumes," said Tim Baker, director of OCC's Oil and Gas Conservation Division.
An industry group, the Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association, said it supports the state's directive, even though it could dampen production.
"Our members stand by state regulations when based on sound science and available data," said association President Chad Warmington in a statement.
The sharp increase in earthquakes — tied to deep underground disposal — has slowed in the past few months. That has been linked in part to OCC's restrictions on disposal wells. But companies have also cut back on disposal because of the industrywide price slump. Reducing oil production also reduces wastewater.
OGS scientists presented research to the Geological Society of America meeting in September that indicated the reduced shaking was most likely related to the price slump.
Wastewater injection started decreasing in late 2014, even before the restrictions, according to OGS. In the earthquake-prone northwest and north-central parts of the state, companies cut injection by about 500,000 barrels a day beyond the state's directives. So, absent any move by OCC, they could increase that much without violating those directives (Energywire, July 18, 2016).
Today's directive doesn't cut back on current injection volumes. It is aimed at limiting growth in the volume of disposal in the quake-prone area OCC calls the "area of interest." The agency says it will "remove the potential for an increase" of about 1.75 million barrels a day.
OCC officials say the directive will apply to 654 wells injecting into the Arbuckle formation. That includes several wells permitted for high volumes but not currently subject to any OCC directive.
There were 623 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in 2016. That was a sharp drop from the 903 recorded in 2015 but still the second-highest total ever (Energywire, Jan. 24). Earthquake-prone California and Nevada combined had fewer than 300 earthquakes in 2016.
Several of Oklahoma's 2016 quakes were much stronger than in 2015, so 2016 still set a state record for seismic energy released, a measure of strength.
Before 2009, Oklahoma averaged about two earthquakes a year. Scientists say a sharp increase in wastewater disposal from oil and gas drilling in certain areas drove a remarkable surge in seismic activity. State officials officially acknowledged the link to oil field activity in 2015.
In the past few years, OCC has directed about 700 disposal wells in the state to close or scale back operations. Because of that, the amount of wastewater being injected deep underground every day has dropped by about 800,000 barrels, or 34 million gallons.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/02/24/stories/1060050556

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Hub Streamlined Ahead Of Executive Action

Feb 27, 2017 | E&E Daily

By Emily Holden

U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt over the weekend confirmed executive action against the Clean Power Plan will likely begin this week.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Pruitt said some regulations need to be rolled back in the near-term "in a very aggressive way" (E&E Daily, Feb. 27).
Executive orders from President Trump could move to expand oil, gas and coal development and direct EPA to begin a rulemaking to take apart the Clean Power Plan. The full process, however, will take years and face legal hurdles.
In preparation for tracking how the Trump administration chooses to unwind the rule, E&E News is launching several new tools on the Power Plan Hub.
The Hub now features an explainer page about the rule and how it came to be, as well as a background page that holds key documents, a technical summary of the regulation and a story archive.
The changes are meant to make the Hub more accessible to newcomers to the regulation while maintaining the most-used resources.
Today through Wednesday, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy holds its summit in National Harbor, Md.
On Tuesday night, the president gives his first speech to both chambers of Congress.In case you missed it
·         A vocal group in Virginia wants the General Assembly and governor to repeal a law that keeps state regulators from reviewing whether major utilities are making too much money. Lawmakers instituted a rate freeze in 2015 based on controversial arguments that the Clean Power Plan would cause power bills to skyrocket (Climatewire, Feb. 24).
·         Trump's daughter and son-in-law worked to remove references to the Paris climate deal in a new executive order, and White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to say if Trump is still committed to withdrawing from the agreement (Climatewire, Feb. 24).
·         North Carolina wants to withdraw from a lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan after a Democrat became governor (Energywire, Feb. 22).
·         EPA chief Pruitt is questioning whether his agency is empowered to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (Greenwire, Feb. 20).

http://www.eenews.net/interactive/clean_power_plan/column_posts/1060050585

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Houston Transforms The U.S. Into An Energy Exporting Hub

Feb 24, 2017 | Houston Chronicle

By Jordan Blum

Massive cranes loom over the Port of Houston, ready to load cargo containers packed with plastic pellets onto ships bound for China and India, where the pellets will be transformed into grocery packaging, car parts and other consumer products for the growing middle classes of these developing nations.
Along the Houston Ship Channel, Enterprise Products Partners has added and expanded terminals to ship crude oil and petrochemicals. New terminals to process and ship liquefied natural gas are planned or under construction from Corpus Christi to Lake Charles, La.
All this represents a dramatic shift in the Houston and Gulf Coast economy and another example of how the technologies that opened shale formations to oil and gas drilling were truly revolutionary. In less than a decade, Greater Houston has shifted from net importer to net exporter as energy and petrochemical companies find international markets for crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, refined products, and chemicals, including methanol, ammonia and propylene.
This shift, in turn, could spur a new burst of economic growth as exports bring new money into the region that can be used to hire more workers, expand plants and invest in new businesses. Increasing exports already are contributing to the billions of dollars invested in new and expanding plastics and chemical plants and thousands of new jobs created to build and operate them.
"We are the new kids on the block when it comes to exports," said Maria Burns, director of the University of Houston's Logistics and Transportation Center. "But we have dazzled the global markets."
Houston's role as an exporter has grown as the region's energy companies employed hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to unlock vast new reserves of oil and natural gas, leading to a boom in production and an abundance of cheap oil and gas that are feedstocks for refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. The Houston area last year exported more than it imported by nearly $14 billion, running a trade surplus even as the U.S. trade deficit - meaning imports exceeded exports - widened to $502 billion, according to federal trade statistics.
U.S. gasoline exports, the majority coming from Gulf Coast refineries, have exploded from 4 million barrels a month in 2007 to 25 million barrels a month at the end of last year. As recently as 2010, the Gulf Coast imported more chemicals and plastics than it exported, according the economic research firm IHS Markit. But by 2025, the region from Corpus Christi to New Orleans - primarily the Greater Houston area - is projected to export more than 42 million metric tons of bulk chemicals and plastics, six times the volume of imports and more than triple the amount shipped to foreign markets in 2010.
'Just bonkers'
Ethane, which is used almost exclusively for chemical manufacturing, is one of the most dramatic examples of the shift in Houston's balance of trade. For decades, the U.S. relied on imports of ethane, one of the natural gas liquids that are byproducts of oil and gas drilling. As recently as 2010, the nation exported fewer than 100,000 barrels a day of ethane and other natural gas liquids such as propane.
But today, exports of natural gas liquids exceed 1 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Department. Ethane production, meanwhile, is expected to double between 2013 through 2018, with a large share heading to petrochemical manufacturers in Asia and Europe through Houston.
These trends led Enterprise Products Partners to invest more than $1 billion to open the world's largest ethane export terminal just east of Houston last fall. Enterprise expects to export an average of 150,000 barrels of ethane a day by the end of the year.
"The idea that the U.S. would be exporting ethane is just bonkers," said Jesse Thompson, business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "We were short on ethane for years."
So what does this mean for the Houston economy? The growth in plastics exports alone could create up to 10,000 new jobs, including employees at the plants, longshoremen at the terminals, and truck drivers on the roads, said Patrick Jankowski, the Greater Houston Partnership's chief economist.
Unlike retail and other service industries that primarily recirculate money generated within a regional economy, exports bring in additional money from outside, which in turn can be spent locally on goods and services or invested in new products and businesses, generating economic activity that leads to higher employment.
For example, petrochemical companies, buoyed by growing global demand, are investing an estimated $50 billion in new and expanded plants in the Greater Houston area, creating tens of thousands of construction jobs and several thousand permanent positions. Chevron Phillips this year will complete a $6 billion expansion of plastics and chemical operations, generating 10,000 construction jobs and adding 400 permanent positions.
"This is a great example of manufacturing returning to the U.S. in a major way, " said University of Houston economist Bill Gilmer.
Apart from plastics, the next big jump in exports is likely to come from crude oil, after Congress lifted a 40-year ban on crude exports at the end of 2015. U.S. oil exports exceeded 1 million barrels in a week for the first time ever in early February and, last week, jumped above 1.2 million barrels, more than doubling the weekly average of a year ago. Houston pipeline companies, such as Plains All American, are responding by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build and expand pipelines and terminals to move oil from the Permian Basin and other Texas shale plays and store it along the Houston Ship Channel.
The Port of Houston, meanwhile, is undergoing more than $1 billion in upgrades - including new cargo cranes - to accommodate the growth in exports. Alan Robb, head of the local longshoremen's union, said more exports will mean more overtime and more jobs as container terminals at Barbour's Cut and Bayport extend operating hours later this year to 11 p.m.
"Everybody is welcoming this," Robb said. "The business is growing. Our numbers at the union halls are going up again."
Going south
Not all exports travel around the world. More Texas energy products are going to neighbors like Mexico and Brazil.
Mexico needs natural gas for electricity generation and gasoline and diesel to ease fuel shortages as the nation's economic growth rapidly outpaces its refining and power generating capacity. Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Corp. is investing $1.5 billion to expand and integrate its Galveston and Texas City refineries with the idea of producing more gasoline and diesel for Mexico and other foreign markets.
Between 1945 and 2010, U.S. gasoline exports never reached 10 million barrels of gasoline in a single month. Today, according to the Energy Department, the U.S. routinely ships more than 20 million barrels per month to foreign markets; in November, the U.S. exported a record 25 million barrels of gasoline, most of it produced along the Gulf Coast and much of it going to Mexico, according to Energy Department data.
Companies like Kinder Morgan of Houston and Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas are building pipelines to transport natural gas from Texas shale fields to Mexico. Energy Transfer's nearly completed Comanche Trail and Trans-Pecos pipelines from West Texas to Mexico cost a combined $1.3 billion.
All this growth, however, doesn't come without challenges, beginning with uncertainty about trade policy under President Donald Trump, who has threatened to pull out of free trade deals and unsettled relations with long-time trading partners such as Mexico.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, are protesting the Trans-Pecos pipeline that runs near Big Bend Ranch State Park. Residents north of Corpus Christi in Portland are mounting opposition to plans by Exxon Mobil and a Saudi Arabian company to build a $10 billion petrochemical plant a mile from schools. The Port of Houston's Bayport shipping container terminal was fought vigorously by Shoreacres residents when it was built a few years ago.
Regardless, the already heavily trafficked Houston Ship Channel is about to get busier, in part because of the recently completed expansion of the Panama Canal, which will allow more and bigger ships to pass from the Pacific to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.
"The port has been getting ready for this," said Rich Byrnes, chief infrastructure officer for the Port of Houston Authority. "We've seen it coming."
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Houston-transforms-the-U-S-into-an-energy-10958210.php

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Chemical Security News

Bill Filed to Create Texas Amber Alerts for Chemical Emergencies

Feb 24, 2017 | Occupational Health & Saftey

A Democratic state legislator in Austin, Texas, Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, and a colleague have introduced a bill that would establish a system to send alerts to Texans' mobile phones during a release of toxic chemicals from a manufacturing facility. Rodriguez has said the bill, HB 1927, would increase protection for affected individuals against toxics that threaten human health or the environment.
The bill would set up an opt-out system, so phone users would receive the alerts unless they choose not to and act on that choice. Currently, chemical alerts can be issued by some agencies, but there is no uniform statewide alert system in Texas.
An example of an incident where the alerts could have assisted the public was the methyl mercaptan gas release that killed three operators and a shift supervisor at the DuPont La Porte, Texas, facility on Nov. 15, 2014. The event caused OSHA to place the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board in November 2015 issued recommendations in the case, including that DuPont conduct an inherently safer design review before resuming Insecticide Business Unit manufacturing operations. The board recommended a comprehensive engineering analysis of the discharge of pressure relief systems with toxic chemical scenarios to assess potential inherently safer design options and implementing inherently safer design principles to the greatest extent feasible.
https://ohsonline.com/articles/2017/02/24/bill-filed-to-create-texas-amber-alert-for-chemical-emergencies.aspx?admgarea=news

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Transportation News

(ACC Mentioned) Transport Week: Infrastructure Hearing, Aviation Summit Advance Policy Talks

Feb 27, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Reportc

By Stephanie Beasley

Recent reports that President Donald Trump and Republican leadership might delay consideration of a major infrastructure investment package until next year are raising alarm bells in Washington but don't seem to have killed efforts to at least keep the conversation going.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on infrastructure access issues on March 1.
“With a national discussion on federal infrastructure investment underway, it's worth remembering that many Americans live far away from the highest-ticket projects their tax dollars are asked to fund,” Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said.
The panel of witnesses will include South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R), Utah Transportation Department Executive Director Carlos Braceras, and Rural Broadband Association Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield.
Chemical Industry Study
The American Chemistry Council will introduce a new study on transportation and infrastructure during a March 1 briefing in the House. The council has said it wants to make sure policymakers include the chemical industry in any plans to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Highways and Transit Subcommittee, is slated to speak at the event.
Aviation Hearing
Also on March 1, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee will host its second hearing related to a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization. The hearing will focus on the state of American airports.
Witnesses scheduled to testify include: Sean Donohue, CEO of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; Lance Lyttle, managing director of the aviation division at the Port of Seattle; Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Alleghany County Airport Authority; Lew Bleiweis, executive director of the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority; and Todd McNamee, the airports director for Ventura County, Calif.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host its annual aviation summit on March 2. Among those expected to speak at the event are: Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta; Huban Gowadia, the acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration; U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue; Airlines for America President and CEO Nicholas Calio; and Ed Bolen, the president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=106223966&vname=dennotallissues&fn=106223966&jd=106223966

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Environment News

Pruitt Gets Hero's Welcome At Conservative Confab

Feb 27, 2017 | E&E Daily

By Emily Holden

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Saturday rallied conservatives and promised to rein in the agency.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Pruitt said he would focus on adhering to the formal rulemaking process and stick to the confines of federal law. At the same time, the new administrator said he would promote clean air and water and clean up Superfund sites.
"There's some very important work to protect and provide leadership in the government space. But what's happened in the last several years is the previous administration was so focused on climate change and so focused on CO2 that some of those other priorities were left behind," Pruitt said.
"We as Republicans don't have anything to be apologetic about with respect to the environment. Nothing. We have always believed that you can grow jobs and grow the economy while also ... being a good steward of the environment."
Pruitt hinted at big action this week to start rolling back controversial environmental regulations.
"I think there are some regulations that in the near term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way," he said. Others may take longer, he noted. In particular, he mentioned the Clean Power Plan, methane standards for the oil and gas industry, and the Waters of the United States rule. Pruitt added that "executive agencies only have the power that Congress has given them."
A former college baseball player, Pruitt repeatedly used a slogan coined by legend Yogi Berra.
"The future ain't what it used to be," Pruitt told attendees who stood and applauded for him in the closing hours of CPAC.
Still, he said that when he made his first address to staff last week, he "wanted to send a message to the agency that there are some very important things EPA does."
Pruitt said states care about clean air and water and are "partners, not adversaries." The new EPA administrator said he would devote resources to visit governors and work with them. One of his first official acts last week was to sit down with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
While Pruitt touted his support for a clean environment, his reported hiring picks suggest he will focus mostly on nixing regulations. To lead his Office of Policy, Pruitt will choose Samantha Dravis, who aided in fights against EPA in senior roles with the Republican Attorneys General Association and its affiliated Rule of Law Defense Fund, according to Axios.'We stopped the Clean Power Plan'
In a Q&A after his speech Saturday, a speaker interviewing Pruitt asked for a show of hands from the audience of how many want to eliminate EPA. The crowd cheered.
Asked whether he would support people on social media who have said they want to cut the agency's budget 90 percent, Pruitt said, "It's something that's very difficult to know at this point."
"In the near term, the most important thing we can focus on at the EPA is getting the law right, making sure that the regulations that are posted and adopted by that agency are consistent with the rule of law and consistent with the congressional mandate, and then roll back those that are inconsistent," he said.
The Trump administration has vowed to take apart climate regulations in particular. Executive action to promote fossil fuels and eliminate climate rules is likely this week.
Pruitt said during his Senate confirmation hearing that humans are "in some manner" contributing to climate change.
At CPAC, he said the specific impact is unknown.
"To measure with precision, that is something that is very difficult to do," he said.
He steered the conversation away from whether climate change is real to how policymakers can act.
"If it is happening, what can Congress and what can the administrative state do about it?" he asked. "If the tools aren't in the toolbox and Congress hasn't spoken on the issue, agencies can't just make it up."
Pruitt built his career on lawsuits against the federal government for agency action that he thought was not mandated by law, including EPA's climate standards for coal plants, the Clean Power Plan.
The Supreme Court has found that federal law requires EPA to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants, but Pruitt says he believes EPA overstepped its authority in asking power companies to shift away from coal.
Pruitt proudly acknowledged suing EPA 14 times as the attorney general of Oklahoma. He said it was "deservedly."
"We not only sued. We won. We stopped the Clean Power Plan. We stopped WOTUS," he said.
The Supreme Court stayed the Clean Power Plan last year, although the courts have not settled whether the climate rule is legal. President Trump and Pruitt plan to do away with the regulation as it is written.A generational split on climate among conservatives
When Pruitt left the stage, John Jeffrey, a freshman at George Washington University who is gay and considers himself a Republican "centrist," waited to catch the EPA administrator as he exited.
Jeffrey, from Long Island, N.Y., said he was initially apprehensive about Pruitt because he thinks climate change is happening and will only get worse.
"I was worried a lot about him cutting the funding for the EPA and deregulating to the point where the environment was going to be impacted in a negative fashion that was going to be too extreme, and of course I was worried about people in areas who rely on water quality," Jeffrey said, noting lead contamination in the water supply of Flint, Mich.
But Pruitt's speech largely changed Jeffrey's mind.
"After hearing what he had to say about the idea of 'It's not mutually exclusive, you can be pro-energy and pro-environment,' it made me a lot more hopeful," he said.
Frank and Sarah Arch, who live in Northern Virginia, brought their 11-year-old daughter, Millie, to CPAC. The three were decked out in Trump gear. Frank proudly lifted his pant cuffs to show off his Trump socks and shoes.
"I think we have a man who will help our EPA start focusing on the No. 1 priorities, which are clean water, clean air," Sarah Arch said.
She said she believes EPA hasn't regulated air at all, and she noted the agency has fallen behind on some reviews. But Sarah and Frank Arch both said that they don't want EPA to shut down coal plants to limit pollution. They said that if clean energy makes sense, companies will pursue it on their own.
"They want to put coal out of business. That shouldn't be the goal. The goal is clean air and clean water," Frank Arch said.
Several CPAC attendees cited their personal experiences with government waste or clean energy in expressing support for Pruitt.
Jeffrey said Medicare rented his friend's grandmother an electric wheelchair after a surgery when it would have cost the same to buy it for her. The Arches said they considered getting solar panels for their roof so they could have backup power, but they then balked at the cost.
Kathy Ponce, who came to CPAC with a group of girlfriends from Fontana, Calif., said she's glad Pruitt is in charge and thinks environmentalists have taken things too far.
"They're monitoring cow farts in California," she said.
Ponce said she thinks climate change is "the biggest hoax there is."
"It's not a proven science," she said. "There are some articles that, yes, it is a proven science. But you can also pull a lot of studies up that it's not a proven science. Just follow the weather pattern and the climate history of the past 100 years. It's called weather. It fluctuates."
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2017/02/27/stories/1060050572

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EPA Chief Calls For 'Aggressive' Rollback Of Regulations At CPAC

Feb 25, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire

By Max Greenwood

Newly minted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt on Saturday spoke of an "aggressive" agenda of regulatory rollbacks, criticizing the previous Obama administration for being “so focused on climate change."
In a question-and-answer session at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, Pruitt blamed the Obama administration for failing to tackle more state-based environmental issues, such as a decades-old water quality issues in Oregon tied to a nuclear facility in Washington.
“What has happened over the past several years, is the previous administration was so focused on climate change and so focused on CO2 that some of those other priorities were left behind,” he said.
“We as Republicans don’t have anything to be apologetic about with respect to the environment – nothing,” he added. “We have always believed that you can grow jobs, grow an economy, while also doing what? Being a good steward of the environment.”
Pruitt was confirmed to lead the EPA last week and his first day was Tuesday. His appearance at the political forum underscored the Trump administration's embrace of the conference this week.
President Trump spoke at the conservative confab Friday, while Vice President Pence, White House chief of staff and chief strategist Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, as well as senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, also appeared.
In his previous job as Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times and has close ties to the fossil fuel industry.
He was also a strong opponent of former President Barack Obama’s climate change agenda, as well as many federal environmental regulations.
At CPAC on Saturday, Pruitt reiterated his call to dismantle some of Obama’s environment regulations “in a very aggressive way,” and said that his first rollbacks could come next week.
“I think there are some regulations that in the near term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way,” he said. “And I think maybe next week, you may be hearing about some of those, as it relates to some of these key issues.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/321188-scott-pruitt-calls-for-aggressive-rollbacks-of-environmental

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New Exxon CEO Endorses Carbon Tax

Feb 27, 2017 | Fuelfix

By James Osborne

Two months after taking over the CEO suite at Exxon Mobil, Darren Woods confirmed the company would continue to support a tax on carbon dioxide.
In a blog post on the company’s website, Woods writes, “A uniform price of carbon applied consistently across the economy is a sensible approach to emissions reduction.”
“One option being discussed by policymakers is a national revenue-neutral carbon tax. This would promote greater energy efficiency and the use of today’s lower-carbon options, avoid further burdening the economy, and also provide incentives for markets to develop additional low-carbon energy solutions for the future.”
That echoes language by Woods’ predecessor, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who for years argued that if governments were to regulate greenhouse gas emissions a uniform tax made the most sense. But with former Secretary of State Jim Baker and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson now endorsing such a tax, the idea that Congress might approve the proposal does not appear so completely outside the realm of possibility as it might have just last year.
Woods makes the case that Exxon has a large role to play in a low carbon future, through its research into carbon capture technology and biofuels made from algae.
“All told, we’ve invested $7 billion to develop lower-emission energy solutions during the past decade and a half,” he wrote.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2017/02/24/new-exxon-ceo-endorses-carbon-tax/

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