Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 3/24/2017
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(ACC Mentioned) ACC: US Specialty Chemicals Markets Rise in February
Mar 24, 2017 | Hydrocarbon Processing
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) reported that US specialty chemicals market volumes rose a strong 0.6% in February. This follows an upwardly revised 0.4% gain in January. Volumes have generally been moving up since May. -
(ACC Mentioned) Resin Prices Heat Up in February
Mar 24, 2017 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
North American prices for most major commodity resins increased in February, as tight supplies and higher feedstock costs provided leverage for suppliers to take those steps. -
Asbestos Still Causes Cancer. Why Is It Still Used?
Mar 24, 2017 | Forbes
By Tara Haelle
When she was in elementary school, Heather Von St. James would head out to feed and play with the family’s rabbits, kept in a hutch in her father’s garage workshop. -
Calling All Costco Members Who Support Safer Products
Mar 24, 2017 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Anya Callahan
“Oh no, not Costco!” That’s what tens of thousands of consumers are saying about the company’s failure to announce a public policy to reduce toxic chemicals in products sold in their stores. -
The Hidden Risks of Trump's EPA Cuts: Birth Defects, Bad Air
Mar 23, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Eric Roston
President Donald Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign that he would only "leave a little bit" of federal rules that protect human health and the environment. -
EU Court Ruling a 'Warning' to Echa, Commission on SVHC Data
Mar 24, 2017 | Chemical Watch
A recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling "serves as a warning" to the EU Commission and Echa to carefully consider all the data for purposes of SVHC inclusion, law firm Fieldfisher says. -
Calif. Approves Strict Leak-Detection Rule
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Anne C. Mulkern
Oil and gas sites in California must check for methane leaks and act to prevent them under a rule approved yesterday, a measure called the toughest in the nation. -
Pipeline Decision Borrows Obama Administration's Analysis
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick
President Trump's move this morning to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline was based on the same research and most of the same State Department staff that laid the groundwork for President Obama's 2015 rejection of the project. -
U.S., in Reversal, Issues Permit for Keystone Oil Pipeline
Mar 24, 2017 | The New York Times
By Clifford Krauss
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would issue a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a long-disputed project that would link oil producers in Canada and North Dakota with refiners and export terminals on the Gulf Coast. -
Drilled Wells Sit Untapped in Permian Shale Boom
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
The U.S. shale drilling rate has reached an 18-month high, but the spike has left a record number of unfinished wells in the country's largest oil field, the Permian Basin in West Texas. -
(ACC Mentioned) Opposition Mounts to Trump Plan to Close Chemical Safety Agency
Mar 24, 2017 | Chemistry World
By Rebecca Trager
US chemistry organisations and the chemical industry have come together to oppose President Trump’s elimination of the only agency charged with carrying out independent investigations of industrial chemical accidents. -
Revised Estimates Make Dec. Spill One of Largest in N.D. History
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
An oil pipeline spill in a tributary of the Little Missouri River in December is three times larger than originally estimated, making it one of the largest pipeline spills in North Dakota history. -
Labor Dept. Moves to Delay Obama-Era Safety Rule
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Dylan Brown
The Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today it wanted to delay new examination requirements at non-coal mines. -
Skeptics Urge Grass-Roots Activism Targeting CO2 Finding
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Hess
The most important message to send the Trump administration and Capitol Hill right now: The 2009 finding that carbon dioxide endangers public health "must go." -
State Approves Controversial SoCal Smog Plan
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
Regulators strengthened Southern California's 15-year anti-smog regime yesterday.
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(ACC Mentioned) ACC: US Specialty Chemicals Markets Rise in February
Mar 24, 2017 | Hydrocarbon Processing
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) reported that US specialty chemicals market volumes rose a strong 0.6% in February. This follows an upwardly revised 0.4% gain in January. Volumes have generally been moving up since May.
All changes in the data are reported on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. Of the 28 specialty chemical segments we monitor, 18 expanded in February, 10 experienced decline and none were flat. During February, large gains (1.0% and over) occurred in antioxidants, food additives, mining chemicals, oilfield chemicals, paint additives, and rubber processing chemicals.
The overall specialty chemicals volume index was up 1.3% on a year-over-year (Y/Y) 3MMA basis. The index stood at 107.2% of its average 2012 levels. This is equivalent to 7.39 billion pounds (3.35 million metric tons). The down-turn in the oil and gas sector had affected headline volumes and weakness spread to other segments. Year-earlier comparisons were negative from second quarter 2015 through second quarter 2016 but are now improving as the recovery in the oil and gas sector has engaged and is now aiding head-line volumes. On a Y/Y basis, there were gains among 15 market and functional specialty chemical segments.
Specialty chemicals are materials manufactured on the basis of the unique performance or function and provide a wide variety of effects on which many other sectors and end-use products rely. They can be individual molecules or mixtures of molecules, known as formulations. The physical and chemical characteristics of the single molecule or mixtures along with the composition of the mixtures influence the performance end product. Individual market sectors that rely on such products include automobile, aerospace, agriculture, cosmetics and food, among others.
Specialty chemicals differ from commodity chemicals. They may only have one or two uses, while commodities may have multiple or different applications for each chemical. Commodity chemicals make up most of the production volume in the global marketplace, while specialty chemicals make up most of the diversity in commerce at any given time, and are relatively high value with greater market growth rates.
This data is the only timely source of market trends for 28 market and functional specialty chemical segments. Chemistry directly touches over 96% of all manufactured goods, and trends in these specialty chemical segments provide a detailed view of trends in manufacturing. The data also sheds light on how various consumer end-use markets are performing compared to others in the marketplace.
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/03/acc-us-specialty-chemicals-markets-rise-in-february
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(ACC Mentioned) Resin Prices Heat Up in February
Mar 24, 2017 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
North American prices for most major commodity resins increased in February, as tight supplies and higher feedstock costs provided leverage for suppliers to take those steps.
Price hikes hit markets for polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC, solid polystyrene and PET bottle resin, according to market sources contacted by Plastics News. These changes have been shown on the PN resin pricing chart.
Prices for all grades of PE surged 5 cents per pound in February. That hike "was a bit of a rebound from the decreases from the end of last year," according to David Barry, a market analyst with the PetroChem Wire consulting firm in Houston.
"January [PE] demand sounds like it was very strong, even though there wasn't much export activity," he said. "And February started with a lot of spot [sales] activity, although that slowed down later in the month."
Regional PE prices had been flat in January but a February price increase was expected because of higher prices for ethylene feedstock. PE prices fell an average of 2 cents per pound in December, but were up a net of 4 cents for full-year 2016. PE makers now are seeking increases of 6 cents per pound set for this month.
PP climbs
North American PP prices jumped 6.5 cents in February, following an increase for polymer-grade propylene feedstock. It's the second straight significant monthly price increase for PP resin, following a 10-cent jump in January.
These moves are a sharp reversal from a combined 11.5 cents in price drops that the market had seen in the last three months of 2016. More hikes could be in store for March, sources said, as propylene remains in tight supply.
"Propylene inventory could be at a historical low by the end of March," one major U.S. PP buyer told PN. "This doesn't bode well for propylene pricing coming down quickly."
The buyer added that refinery and steam cracker turnarounds "are hurting the situation, as well as economics not favoring butane or propane as feedstocks."
PVC takes expected rise
In the North American PVC market, the 4-cent February hike that took hold was expected, based on the same ethylene price movements that sent PE prices up. It was the first market movement for PVC since November, when producers essentially gave back a 2-cent increase they had won in October.
For full-year 2016, North American suspension PVC prices were up a net of 7 cents per pound. PVC sales in the U.S. and Canada enjoyed a solid year in 2016, growing more than 4 percent to more than 15 billion pounds, according to the American Chemistry Council. Domestic sales were up almost 4 percent, with exports up almost 6 percent.
Construction-related uses accounted for more than 63 percent of U.S./Canadian PVC sales in full-year 2016. U.S. housing starts grew almost 5 percent for the year to just under 1.17 million.
Benzene pushes PS
Higher North American prices for benzene feedstock, which is used to make styrene monomer, sent PS prices in the region up an average of 8 cents per pound in February. Regional benzene prices for the month were up 67 cents to $3.34 per gallon, a jump of 25 percent vs. January.
It's the second consecutive monthly price increase for PS in the region. Prices were up 5 cents per pound in January after being flat in December.
North American PS sales for full-year 2016 essentially were flat at just under 4.4 billion pounds, according to ACC. But the largest PS end market — food packaging and food service — saw sales growth of 1.3 percent, to more than 2.7 billion pounds.
PET inches up
For PET, a 1.5 cent increase in February also reflects higher prices for feedstocks such as paraxylene and purified terephthalic acid. PET bottle resin prices now have increased for six consecutive months.
Prices for the material were up 3 cents per pound in January. The six increases now have totaled 9.5 cents per pound.
Demand for PET from the bottled water market remains strong. That sector overtook carbonated soft drinks in the U.S. market for the first time in 2016, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp. consulting firm.
ABS jumps
Higher benzene prices also sent regional prices for ABS resin up 8 cents per pound in February. North American ABS demand is estimated at around 1 billion pounds per year. February ABS prices also were affected by higher prices for acrylonitrile and butadiene feedstocks, sources said. ABS makers now are seeking further increases of 6 cents per pound for March and 5 cents per pound for April.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170324/NEWS/170329932/resin-prices-heat-up-in-february
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Asbestos Still Causes Cancer. Why Is It Still Used?
Mar 24, 2017 | Forbes
By Tara Haelle
When she was in elementary school, Heather Von St. James would head out to feed and play with the family’s rabbits, kept in a hutch in her father’s garage workshop. In the frequently chilly air of the Black Hills of South Dakota, she’d slip into her dad’s warm work coat before heading out. The coat swallowed her up at 7 and 8 years old, but it was conveniently hanging on the door in the entryway for her to grab if she went out to check the mail or grab the newspaper.
It wasn’t until nearly three decades later, after Heather had had her own child, that the consequences of wearing her dad’s work coat came to fruition: just three months after giving birth to her daughter, Heather was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as mesothelioma. Unknown to her and her dad, his work in construction, working with drywall and concrete materials, regularly exposed him to asbestos.
His coat was filled with tiny fibers that made their way into Heather’s lungs and eventually developed into a form of cancer almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure. Heather underwent chemotherapy and surgery, but she lost her left lung—and, eventually, her father. He died in 2014 from renal carcinoma, a different cancer also linked to asbestos exposure.
Asbestos refers to six types of minerals made from tiny, lightweight but strong fireproof fibers. That makes them tremendously useful for thousands of products—except that they kill. At least 80% of people diagnosed with mesothelioma have had confirmed exposure to asbestos. Others likely had exposure without realizing it since it can take decades, even up to 50 or 70 years, before mesothelioma develops in the thin lining of the lungs, chest, abdomen and heart.
Heather was fortunate—she passed the 10-year survival mark just over a year ago—but about half of patients die within a year after malignant mesothelioma diagnosis. And inexplicably, those deaths are increasing, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month. Deaths from mesothelioma were expected to begin decreasing after 2005, but instead, they slightly ticked up from 2,479 deaths in 1999 to 2,597 deaths in 2015.
Many of the deaths occurred among people at least 85 years old, which makes sense given how widespread asbestos was, particularly before the 1980s, and how long the disease takes to develop. The material was commonly used in a range of industries, such as construction, manufacturing, mining, milling and shipbuilding, but it was also found in many other products, including household goods.
Asbestos was banned from use in insulation products in the 1970s, but it remains in many old buildings. Today, the Toxic Substances Control Act bans asbestos in various paper and flooring products, as well as any newly developed products that have no history of asbestos in their manufacturing.
Still, it’s not completely banned, despite calls from public health researchers to do so, perhaps explaining why deaths continue among individuals under 55 years old, the CDC researchers reported.
“Although most deaths from malignant mesothelioma in the United States are the result of exposures to asbestos 20–40 years prior, new cases might result from occupational exposure to asbestos fibers during maintenance activities, demolition and remediation of existing asbestos in structures, installations and buildings if controls are insufficient to protect workers,” the researchers wrote.
The CDC report notes that one in five air samples collected in the construction industry in 2003 exceeded the limits allowed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). And if workers are unprotected, they could be bringing asbestos fibers home just as Heather’s dad did, leaving family members of workers at risk for asbestos exposure as well.
More than a dozen products, from cement products to clothing to car parts, are still manufactured with asbestos. The U.S. isn’t alone in continuing to allow its use. According to a study a few years ago, just 44 out of 143 countries that used asbestos in the 2000s have since banned its use.
The Environmental Protection Agency lists the many places asbestos might be found, including roofing and shingles products, vinyl flooring products, pipes, oil and coal furnaces, certain types of paint, heat-resistant fabrics and car parts exposed to friction, such as brakes. The symptoms of mesothelioma can resemble the early symptoms of many other illnesses, such as fatigue and fever, but they also include difficulty breathing, muscle weakness and chest pain. More information about asbestos can be found at the EPA and National Cancer Institute and more information on mesothelioma can be found at the American Cancer Society.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2017/03/24/asbestos-linked-cancer-remains-a-killer-just-as-asbestos-remains-commonly-used/#57e6fd0a3314
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Calling All Costco Members Who Support Safer Products
Mar 24, 2017 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Anya Callahan
“Oh no, not Costco!” That’s what tens of thousands of consumers are saying about the company’s failure to announce a public policy to reduce toxic chemicals in products sold in their stores. As a result, it’s time for us to take this campaign to the next level to convince Costco to “mind the store” and announce a safe chemicals policy, and we need Costco members to help!
As you may recall, in a recent report evaluating some of the largest retailers on their efforts to reduce the use of harmful chemicals in products sold in their stores, Washington state-based company, Costco, received the lowest letter grade “F”. In comparison, Target and Wal-Mart both received “B’s”.
Since the Mind the Store retailer report card was published, Costco recently updated its website describing the development and implementation of a Costco Restricted Chemical List (RSL) and Smart Screening Program for toxic chemicals.
This is a step in the right direction, but not enough to meet rising consumer demand for transparency and safer products. Costco’s customers want to see a concrete commitment from the company to reduce toxic chemicals in products it sells. We hope Costco will take the next step by announcing a robust safer chemicals policy with clear benchmarks and timeframes to reduce and eliminate toxic chemicals in products they sell.
Target serves as an example of the kind of action we would like to see from Costco. In 2013, Target developed a “Sustainable Product Index” which was updated and expanded in 2015 and again even more recently in 2016.
Last month, at Costco’s annual shareholder meeting we, along with our partners at the Mind the Store campaign, delivered Costco petitions signed by over 38,000 people across the country asking them to take action and develop a public safe chemicals policy. Over a month has passed and Costco still has not announced a policy or an intent to do so.
That’s why we need Costco members to take action. We’re asking Costco members to submit comments to Costco voicing concerns about Costco’s continued failure to announce a public safe chemicals policy.
There are 3 easy ways you can help out:
Go to the store and fill out a comment card.
Next time you are at Costco, fill out a comment card voicing your concerns. Costco comment cards may be available in stores near the customer service desk, or you can print off our card, fill it out at home, and drop it off at a nearby Costco.Make an electronic comment.
Take action online and submit a digital comment to Costco.Call the customer line.
Dial the customer support line and express your concerns with a Costco customer service agent: 1-800-774-2678Here are some ideas for what to say:
“I’m a member and I want to know that Costco is taking steps to ensure products don’t contain harmful toxic chemicals. Please tell management to publicly adopt a safer chemicals policy like Target’s or Walmart’s, with clear public timelines and benchmarks.”
“I’m a member and I can’t believe Costco is behind Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Target when it comes to having a public policy reducing toxic chemicals. Responsible companies are key to transforming the marketplace away from harmful chemicals. Please adopt a public safer chemicals policy like Target’s or Walmart’s that includes clear public timelines and benchmarks.”
It’s that easy!
http://saferchemicals.org/2017/03/24/calling-all-costco-members-who-support-safer-products/
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The Hidden Risks of Trump's EPA Cuts: Birth Defects, Bad Air
Mar 23, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Eric Roston
President Donald Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign that he would only "leave a little bit" of federal rules that protect human health and the environment. Now about 50 former officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are firing back in a lengthy analysis that details, program by program, what amounts to a starvation diet for the EPA.
Calling themselves the Environmental Protection Network, they worked through both Republican and Democratic administrations. The group's members are putting aside their differences over policies and programs to stop what they say "appears to be nothing less than a full-throttle attack on the principle underlying all U.S. environmental laws—that protecting the health and environment of all Americans is a national priority."
Even before formally registering as a nonprofit organization, the network has put together a 50-page analysis of the president's proposed EPA budget, based partly on the White House's fiscal 2018 budget blueprint. The blueprint, released on March 16, sketched out top-line cuts of 31 percent of the agency's budget and 21 percent of its staff. The new administration's targeting of the agency requires an independent, expert assessment of what's happening there, the group says.
Its analysis, single-spaced with wide margins and small type, can be downloaded here.
The analysis is also based on an earlier, confidential budget document called a passback, which makes program-by-program funding estimates. While some of the EPA passback has appeared in the press, the group said in a footnote that it relied on a copy provided to it by William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, a nonprofit that represents state and local air pollution control departments. 1
Requests for confirmation were sent to the EPA and Office of Management and Budget press offices, which have not yet replied to email or phone calls.
Below the EPA's large-scale missions is a constellation of little-known programs that have become a part of the EPA's approach to health and environmental protection over nearly half a century. Although, or perhaps because, the individual programs are smaller and more specific, they demonstrate at a granular level the sweeping nature of the proposed cuts.
Here are five changes the network's analysis says President Trump has proposed, along with the risks they were created to curb. The number of EPA programs targeted for elimination is more than 10 times as long as this list.
Endocrine disruptors
The EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention runs a program that screens and tests endocrine disruptors, chemicals that can harm reproductive health and child growth and development. The White House's proposed budget would shrink the program from $7.5 million to $445,000, to be spent shutting down the work, according to the Environmental Protection Network's report.
A note in the passback explains that the program has seen a pivot toward using modern tools that, "while important to the future of chemical risk assessment at EPA, has eclipsed efforts by the program to deliver on its original mission." By June, the EPA and OMB are supposed to discuss how to incorporate endocrine disruptor screening into existing work on risk.
Lung cancer
Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that, when it seeps up from under a house, can pose health risks to occupants. The new budget would cut by 80 percent the $2.9 million in spending on a federal radon programand an $8 million grant program to states and tribes, the EPN report says. About 21,000 people a year die of lung cancer believed to be caused by radon.
Hazardous materials
The proposed budget removes a federal-state program that would computerize shipping manifests, currently maintained on paper, of trucks carrying hazardous materials. "Seems like a no-brainer," Wyeth said of the modernization, "but it is eliminated."
The passback suggests that the first version of the system, called E-Manifest, be completed using other, undedicated agency funding.
Airborne chemicals and toxins
The EPA spends about $92 million a year researching how air pollution affects people and nature and how best to control which pollutants. According to the group, the proposed budget would halve funding for a program the analysis lauds as a critical success. The EPA estimates (PDF) that by 2020, Clean Air Act measures will reap $2 trillion a year in benefits for $65 million in costs, according to the Network report.
The passback zeroes out the EPA Office of Research and Development's contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, set up in 1989 to coordinate the government's research and analysis of climate change. Also included in the cuts are the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) graduate student fellowships. OMB directs EPA in the passback to focus its resources on initiatives "that are either related to statutory requirements or that are related to basic research inquiries."
Mexico, again
The White House budget proposal would eliminate the Border 2020program, an EPA venture with Mexico's Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, the report says. The program helps communities north and south of the border cut pollution and secure access to cleaner air and water. The partnership posits that the environment, and poverty, don't have international boundaries but may have international solutions. The budget is about $3 million. A $10 million grant program that funds water and wastewater infrastructure projects on the border would also be eliminated.
Some of the cuts above may be a part of traditional budgeting gamesmanship between the executive and legislative branches. Presidents fairly commonly zero out programs they know Congress loves and will fund anyway. For example, the White House proposal eliminates popular grants made under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act. President Barack Obama proposed dramatic cuts to the same program, which Congress tended to restore.
Bigger-ticket proposed cuts to the EPA have been reported widely in the past week, but "the most galling may be the least sexy," said George Wyeth, a leader of the group and an EPA lawyer from 1989 until earlier this year.
Wyeth flagged many programs he said were crucial. "The cuts to state grants are appalling," he said. "The states are where much of the work on the ground occurs—permitting and much of the enforcement." Budget cuts to these grants rose from 30 percent in the passback to 45 percent in the budget blueprint. Cuts to state grants appear to be inconsistent with the administration's governing philosophy, which would balancefederal environmental protection authority with that of the states, according to the EPN analysis.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-23/from-bad-air-to-birth-defects-5-hidden-risks-of-slashing-the-epa
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EU Court Ruling a 'Warning' to Echa, Commission on SVHC Data
Mar 24, 2017 | Chemical Watch
A recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling "serves as a warning" to the EU Commission and Echa to carefully consider all the data for purposes of SVHC inclusion, law firm Fieldfisher says.
The ruling dismissed an appeal by two chemical companies to stop respiratory sensitisers from being included in the REACH candidate list.
In its judgment, the ECJ said the General Court "erred in law" in holding that REACH Article 57(f) excludes any consideration of data other than those relating to the hazards arising from the intrinsic properties of the substances concerned.
Fieldfisher represented appellants Hitachi and Polynt in the case. It says it will be using it as a precedent to defend the position that an SVHC listing on the grounds of "equivalence of concern" cannot be based only on hazards – and that other factors need to be considered, such as human exposure reflecting the risk management measures in force.
The ruling confirms the continuing reluctance of EU courts to rule against EU institutions and agencies on matters involving chemicals, the firm says.
And, Fieldfisher says, it reopens the debate on whether such cases would be better overseen by a board of appeal (BoA) with qualified technical experts, such as Echa's BoA. This would ensure a "more balanced and cohesive approach" to technical cases.
https://chemicalwatch.com/54694/eu-court-ruling-a-warning-to-echa-commission-on-svhc-data
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Calif. Approves Strict Leak-Detection Rule
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Anne C. Mulkern
Oil and gas sites in California must check for methane leaks and act to prevent them under a rule approved yesterday, a measure called the toughest in the nation.
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) voted unanimously yesterday to approve the regulation. Under it, oil and gas facilities, including those that just store natural gas, must test quarterly for methane leaks. They then must pick from allowable methods and technologies for eliminating the pollutant. ARB estimated that the proposed rule would cost $27.3 million annually.
"The Trump administration has backed away from efforts to develop a federal rule to curb methane leaks from existing facilities — the nation's largest source of methane pollution," said Mary Nichols, agency chairwoman, in a statement. "California's regulations continue our leadership in fighting air pollutants and help meet our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030."
Republicans are looking at repealing the Obama administration Bureau of Land Management rule that seeks to cut greenhouse gas pollution from oil and gas flaring, venting and leakage on public and tribal lands.
Oil and gas site methane pollution makes up roughly 15 percent of California's emissions, ARB said. The largest source of emissions is livestock. Their emissions, combined with dairy cow manure, make up about 55 percent.
The petroleum industry trade group Western States Petroleum Association said that California already has "the most stringent air quality regulations in the nation." WSPA said that, in general, it supports the measure, though some elements are flawed.
"While we understand the concerns raised in regards to natural gas storage projects, we again want to point out there is an immense difference between oil and gas production and natural gas storage operations," WSPA President Catherine Reheis-Boyd said in a statement. "Our total industry sector emissions, which includes oil production and natural gas storage, is 4 [percent] of the state's methane emissions. Of that, less than 1 [percent] is from oil production."
Reheis-Boyd said the rule adds requirements "that do not acknowledge the success of mature pollution control measures such as the Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) programs which have operated under local air agency authority for over 30 years."
Rock Zierman, CEO of the trade group California Independent Petroleum Association, said the regulation adds to rules its operators must follow, including mandates such as the state's cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions.
"Policymaking should not happen in a vacuum, and the impact of these far-reaching policies should be considered as a whole rather than piecemeal," he said.
Green groups and health groups praised the rule.
"California's new oil and gas rules are commonsense climate policy," Tim O'Connor, director of the California oil and gas program at the Environmental Defense Fund, said in an email. Finding, fixing and preventing leaks and vents is "one of the most affordable ways to cut climate pollution," he wrote. In addition, studies show leaks may contain cancer-causing compounds and smog-forming gases, he said.
"Adopting these standards can help communities enjoy a healthy environment with less pollution and create a stronger energy economy with less waste," he said.
Aliso Canyon lessons applied
Methane is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide when measured over a 20-year time frame, ARB said. The new regulation is expected to reduce methane leaks from oil and gas operations in California by the equivalent of 1.4 million metric tons of CO2 annually, analogous to taking 280,000 cars off the road annually.
Last year, a methane leak at Aliso Canyon, a natural gas storage site in Los Angeles County, set a record for its emissions. That facility, run by utility Southern California Gas Co., had a well that leaked for four months, ending in February of last year. It spewed nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane, about the annual greenhouse gas pollution of 572,000 cars. The leak forced the evacuation of an estimated 8,000 residents and the relocation of some schools.
ARB said elements of the rule were based in part on what the agency learned from the Aliso Canyon event.
Advocates for the rule said it was unclear whether it could have prevented the Aliso Canyon leak, had it been in effect at the time. But they said the regulation will add key oversight.
The California Legislature currently is considering whether to keep Aliso Canyon closed. Democratic state Sen. Henry Stern's S.B. 57 would forbid reopening it until the "root cause" of the leak is found. An analysis on that started in October 2015.
SoCalGas said the results of that analysis "are independent from the safety of the facility and its fitness for service as a result of the testing and enhancements that have already been completed at Aliso Canyon and verified by the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR)."
Gas flaring restricted
Under the new rule, oil and gas sites must start testing and reporting on their findings next year. Equipment replacement rules kick in the following year.
The rule would be fully implemented by 2020. Larger facilities at that point can have leaks from no more than 2 percent of their total number of components if the leak is at a low rate, or no more than 1 percent of leaks at a moderately high rate. To find leaks, operators can either use traditional equipment prevalent in industry, known as the Method 21 standard, or opt for newer equipment such as optical cameras.
WSPA and SoCalGas criticized Method 21 as flawed.
"Method 21 concentration measurements have been shown to be a poor predictor of methane volume," said Jennifer Morris, SoCalGas' senior policy adviser.
Oil and gas operators under the rule are required to first attempt to put the methane back in the ground. Flaring of natural gas would not be permitted unless it can meet already allowed emission limits, and the system in place is 95 percent efficient.
In the absence of an existing system to stay within those limits, a new vapor control device is required and must meet the nitrogen oxides, or NOx, emissions standard in the regulation. This could include a low-NOx vapor control device or other nondestructive device. In areas classified as in attainment with all state and federal ambient air quality standards, devices would not have to meet the NOx emission standard.
The regulation changes the pollution landscape, said Bill Magavern, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air.
"This rule, we think, is going to be the best in the country and become especially significant given the federal government's retreat from methane regulation," Magavern said.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052025
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Pipeline Decision Borrows Obama Administration's Analysis
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick
President Trump's move this morning to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline was based on the same research and most of the same State Department staff that laid the groundwork for President Obama's 2015 rejection of the project.
The State Department has not conducted a new analysis of the environmental, employment or other effects of the proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline.
"The State Department is still playing the same role it did in evaluating and conducting that review," he said during the daily briefing. Asked whether that meant a new environmental impact statement or other analysis, he said only, "We're looking at new factors."
The department studied TransCanada Corp.'s proposed project for seven years under Obama, culminating in the then-president's Nov. 6, 2015, decision, which came a month before the United Nations' Paris climate summit.
"The United States cannot ask other nations to make tough choices to address climate change if we are unwilling to make them ourselves," wrote then-Secretary of State John Kerry in his national interest determination for the project, supporting that decision. "Denying the Keystone XL pipeline is one of those tough choices — but it is the right decision, for America and the world."
The move was intended to provide momentum ahead of the Paris talks, which resulted in a global agreement on warming.
Toner said yesterday that the KXL decision would not undermine U.S. climate leadership.
"This administration is conducting a review of climate change policy, but our record on this issue speaks for itself," he said. "I think we have been a leader in addressing climate change globally, regardless of this decision that's made with respect to this Keystone application."
No new data, but a new scale?
Trump's fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, released last week, would zero out accounts that have funded international climate programs for the last eight years and would cut U.S. EPA by more than a third. The president and his advisers are also weighing withdrawal from Paris or a weakening of commitments to it.
Trump's decision to approve Keystone relied on many of the same long-studied projections about national and energy security, employment and the environment that prompted Obama to reject it.
In an order during his first week in office, Trump gave the State Department 60 days to review that decision, and it has not written a new environmental impact statement or expanded the old one. There was no interagency process, as there was ahead of the 2015 decision.
"The administration isn't relying on new information in trying to manufacture a different decision," said Anthony Swift, who works on pipeline issues at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
But while the new determination may not include new data, it seems likely to weigh the old data very differently from how it was done under Obama.
The 2015 record of decision and national interest determination for the project considers what it would do to U.S.-Canadian relations, how it might affect oil prices and what the national security implications might be of not building the conduit.
It decided that the project would have "limited benefit" for energy security, for example, but seems to have taken the impact on relations with Canada more seriously.
"Although the Government of Canada has indicated its strong interest in the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline and a denial of the permit will have a negative impact on our relationship, our strong and historic relationship with Canada will endure," it concluded. The Trump document is likely to come to different conclusions and to rank security and employment considerations above environmental ones.
But Swift argues that changes that have occurred since the Obama-era analysis was conducted have actually made the pipeline more of a threat to the climate than Kerry's State Department calculated.
That's because lower oil prices make it less likely that Alberta oil sands producers would bring new supplies of their carbon-intensive product online if they can't transport it cheaply via a pipeline. Those heightened risks were included in an environmental impact statement in January.
"There's an interesting dynamic where the State Department may be reaching an opposite conclusion based on the same information, and the same agency under this administration has already acknowledged that, if anything, the case for Keystone XL is worse because they've highlighted many of the problems with Alberta Clipper," Swift said, referring to an Enbridge Inc. pipeline.
Besides using the same analytical underpinnings, the process also uses many of the same staff.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recused himself from decisions on the project because of his background as Exxon Mobil Corp.'s CEO, and most of the other political positions at State that might have influenced the White House-mandated review of the project have yet to be filled.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052024
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U.S., in Reversal, Issues Permit for Keystone Oil Pipeline
Mar 24, 2017 | The New York Times
By Clifford Krauss
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would issue a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a long-disputed project that would link oil producers in Canada and North Dakota with refiners and export terminals on the Gulf Coast.
The announcement, by the State Department, reversed the position of the Obama administration. It followed a 60-day review that was set in motion as one of the first acts of President Trump’s tenure.
The pipeline has been the focus of a long fight between environmentalists and the project’s advocates, who say it would further the goals of energy independence and economic growth. When President Barack Obama rejected the project in late 2015, he said it would undermine American leadership in curbing reliance on carbon fuels.
The announcement on Friday said the State Department “considered a range of factors, including, but not limited to, foreign policy; energy security; environmental, cultural and economic impacts; and compliance with applicable law and policy.”
The new secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, formerly the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, had recused himself from the decision. The announcement said the permit was signed by the under secretary of state for political affairs, Thomas A. Shannon Jr.
The pipeline still faces hurdles before it can be built. It needs the approval of the Nebraska Public Service Commission and local landowners who are concerned about their water and land rights. Protests are likely since the project has become an important symbol for the environmental movement, with the Canadian oil sands among the most carbon-intensive oil supplies. Mining the oil sands requires vast amounts of energy for extraction and processing.
In addition, interest among many oil companies in the oil sands is waning amid sluggish oil prices. Extraction from the oil sands, situated in the sub-Arctic boreal forest, is expensive. Statoil and Total, two European energy giants, have abandoned their production projects. In recent weeks, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to sell most of its oil sands assets for $8.5 billion. And Exxon Mobil wrote down 3.5 billion barrels of reserves, conceding the oil sands were not economically attractive enough to develop for the next few years at least.
Nevertheless, Canadian production continues to grow as projects that were conceived when prices were higher begin to operate. And the Keystone effort is central to the future of TransCanada, the pipeline builder and a major force in the Canadian oil patch.
The United States Chamber of Commerce and other business groups applauded the administration’s action. Jack Gerard, the president and chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, the primary industry lobbying arm, said the decision was “welcome news” and was “critical to creating American jobs, growing the economy and making our nation more energy secure.’’
Opponents say the pipeline is unnecessary at a time when American oil production is soaring and future demand has been put in question by increasingly efficient cars, electric cars and growing concerns over climate change.
“The Keystone pipeline would be a straw running through the heart of America to transport the dirtiest oil in the world to the thirstiest foreign markets,” said Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Originally planned to open in 2012, the Keystone XL would transport up to 830,000 barrels a day of Canadian and North Dakota crude to Steele City, Neb., where it would connect with existing pipelines to deliver the sludgy oil to refineries in Texas and Louisiana for processing. Most of the refined product would probably be exported, or it might enable domestic producers to export more oil produced in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
When the project was in the planning stages, the United States was highly dependent on oil from the Middle East. But in recent years, domestic production has nearly doubled, and the United States now exports increasing amounts of oil and natural gas. Oil prices have been slashed in half over the last three years, although many analysts predict that petroleum prices will rebound in the next decade, when the pipeline would begin to operate.
For Canada, and especially Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the pipeline represents a mixed blessing. Mr. Trudeau publicly supports the pipeline as a tool to give Canada’s economy a boost, but an increase in oil sands production could undercut his commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as promised in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Protests helped sway the Obama administration to reject the project, and environmentalists have been further emboldened by demonstrations last year in North Dakota, mostly by Native American groups, that have delayed another project, the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Environmental groups are already promising to aid local groups in blocking the Keystone pipeline’s construction. “We’ll use every tool in the kit to stop this dangerous tar sands oil pipeline project,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The project would provide for thousands of construction jobs, and it has attracted the support of several labor unions.
President Trump has made infrastructure building a centerpiece of his efforts to spur economic growth. At the beginning of his term, he instructed the Commerce Department to establish a plan requiring that new pipelines be constructed with American-made materials like steel. But the White House has since suggested that the Keystone project would not be subjected to those rules because it is not a new project.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/business/energy-environment/keystone-oil-pipeline.html?_r=0
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Drilled Wells Sit Untapped in Permian Shale Boom
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
The U.S. shale drilling rate has reached an 18-month high, but the spike has left a record number of unfinished wells in the country's largest oil field, the Permian Basin in West Texas.
It's a sign that output may not rise with the drilling rate, even as oil prices have recovered somewhat from a recent slump.
As prices rose, drilling rights in the Permian became valuable commodities, but despite the shale boom, prices have not recovered enough to justify oil from all the new wells. Some operators may be drilling to keep their leases, but not pumping oil.
"During the period where we had the downturn in price, there were a lot of leases that were in danger of being lost. ... They had to drill a well to maintain it," said Michael Stoltz, an attorney who represents energy firms in Texas for Stubbeman, McRae, Sealy, Laughlin & Browder Inc.
U.S. shale oil output has rattled Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members as oil prices fell to a four-month low Wednesday. OPEC has struggled to cut supply and lift prices.
The incomplete wells, waiting to be tapped, could complicate the market. If prices rise, Permian drillers will begin pumping oil, bringing a new supply spike and forcing down prices.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052033
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(ACC Mentioned) Opposition Mounts to Trump Plan to Close Chemical Safety Agency
Mar 24, 2017 | Chemistry World
By Rebecca Trager
US chemistry organisations and the chemical industry have come together to oppose President Trump’s elimination of the only agency charged with carrying out independent investigations of industrial chemical accidents.
In his budget blueprint for 2018, released earlier this month, Trump proposed ending funding for the $11 million (£9 million) Chemical Safety Board (CSB) that has run for almost two decades.
The CSB’s chairwoman, Vanessa Sutherland, called the attempt to eliminate the agency ‘an attack on the safety and security of America’s workers’, and organisations like the American Chemical Society (ACS) were severely critical of the White House plan. ‘It is a short-sighted proposal,’ warns ACS spokesperson Glenn Ruskin. ‘The CSB was created through the Clean Air amendments of 1990 and it really fills a vital role in promoting safety in the entire chemistry enterprise – industry, academe and government.’
Ruskin says the ‘tremendous benefit’ that the CSB’s activities offer for the public and chemistry far exceeds its modest funding. ‘The return on investment is many fold more than its small budget,’ he tells Chemistry World. It does not appear that the Trump administration has identified another agency or committee that can assume the CSB’s roles and tasks, Ruskin states.
In his so-called ‘skinny budget’, Trump proposes to do away with 19 agencies, but it appears that the CSB is the only one with a safety mandate.
External experts
Businesses that employ hazardous materials face potentially catastrophic accidents, but often lack the in-house expertise to investigate and might be reticent to share lessons learned owing to liability concerns, according to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). ‘Recognising these issues, Congress created the Chemical Safety Board so we can benefit from on-going expertise to investigate major accidents and disseminate best practices and technologies to minimise catastrophic incidents,’ AIChE explained. ‘We believe that this is a competence that must be maintained and a need that we must continue to meet.’
Michael Wright, the United Steelworkers’ director of health, safety and environment, calls the White House plan to defund the CSB ‘remarkably stupid’. Wright emphasises that the agency is charged with helping to prevent major chemical accidents, and estimates that the cost of just one such accident is ‘equal to the board’s entire budget over its entire history – probably 10 times over’.
Christine Todd Whitman, who served as chief of the US Environmental Protection Agency under former Republican president George W Bush, agrees that the CSB is very good value for money and strongly opposes its elimination. ‘I don’t understand the reason behind it, except the chemical industry does not like to have oversight,’ Whitman remarks. ‘This is the chemical industry winning another battle.’
Industry unease
However, the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) expressed ‘serious concerns’ about the proposal. The lobby group said it supports the CSB and its work, and will be asking Congress to continue funding it.
The American Chemistry Council declined to comment on the future of the CSB, but said that one of its top priorities is ensuring the safe development, use and disposal of chemicals in commerce.
Trump’s budget blueprint will be fleshed out when its final version is released in April. It will have to be approved by both chambers of Congress before the president can enact it into law. Ultimately, there may be little appetite on Capitol Hill to shut down, or severely curtail funding for this small but visible safety agency.
Since its inception, the CSB has made nearly 800 safety recommendations to industry, government agencies, labour unions and others. The agency has also issued 90 reports detailing the conditions that led to major chemical incidents, and making distinct recommendations on how to prevent similar incidents.
CSB investigations have included the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April 2010 that killed 11 people and caused a devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the massive chemical spill in West Virginia that contaminated the tap water of 300,000 people in January 2014 and the explosion at West Fertilizer chemical plant in Texas later that year that killed 15 people and injured more than 200.
While the CSB has had some problems in recent years, the NACD says the agency is now back on course under Sutherland. The agency has now concluded a number of long-running investigations that many say should have been closed years ago and is now conducting investigations more quickly, according to the NACD.
In 2015, the CSB was accused of inaction amid internal conflict after its chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso resigned in 2015. He had faced growing congressional and White House pressure following allegations of mismanagement and misuse of private email. In addition, CSB managing director Daniel Horowitz has been on administrative leave since mid-2015 pending an internal investigation. The probe has focused on activities raised by a House Republican committee staff report, released back in June 2014.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/opposition-mounts-to-trump-plan-to-close-chemical-safety-agency/3007013.article
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Revised Estimates Make Dec. Spill One of Largest in N.D. History
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
An oil pipeline spill in a tributary of the Little Missouri River in December is three times larger than originally estimated, making it one of the largest pipeline spills in North Dakota history.
Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. reported this week that the Dec. 1 pipeline leak spilled 529,380 gallons of oil, contaminating a hillside and Ash Coulee Creek.
An earlier estimate of 176,400 gallons was revised after the company pinpointed the timeline of the accident and reviewed metering data.
Cleanup crews remain on the site. An oil sheen has been detected on the creek but does not appear to have reached the river, said Bill Suess, North Dakota Department of Health spill investigation program manager.
The spill has not affected human drinking water sources, but one landowner did report losses of cattle that he attributed to the oil.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052035
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Labor Dept. Moves to Delay Obama-Era Safety Rule
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Dylan Brown
The Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today it wanted to delay new examination requirements at non-coal mines.
A notice to be published in Monday's edition of the Federal Register seeks to push back new mandates from May 23 to July 24. Several other agencies have similarly moved to push back rules.
MSHA said it was "proposing to delay the effective date to assure that mine operators and miners affected by the final rule have the training and compliance assistance they need."
Whereas mine operators can currently conduct examinations at any time during a shift, the new rule would require that an inspection occur before miners are exposed to any risk and workers be notified of any hazard found (Greenwire, Jan. 18).
The standards also mandate that companies keep a record of the examination, risks discovered and the date of corrective action, to be provided to MSHA or the miners' union upon request.
The rule was finalized in the last days of the Obama administration and published in the Federal Register on Jan. 23.
Labor Department leaders said the pause would be consistent with President Trump's executive order mandating a regulatory freeze and reviews of new standards.
The examination rule stems from the previous administration's concern about incidents at non-coal mines. MSHA will accept comment for 30 days starting Monday on how long it should delay it.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052044
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Skeptics Urge Grass-Roots Activism Targeting CO2 Finding
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Hess
The most important message to send the Trump administration and Capitol Hill right now: The 2009 finding that carbon dioxide endangers public health "must go."
Advisers to the Trump administration's transition team at U.S. EPA and other long-established climate contrarians repeated that mantra for the past 36 hours at the Heartland Institute's 12th annual International Conference on Climate Change.
"You need to contact your members of Congress, and you need to make noise and — particularly the scientists here — that the endangerment finding needs to be reopened," said Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and former head of President Trump's EPA transition team.
"President Trump said that he would do it," Ebell told the crowd, after listing about a dozen Trump campaign promises related to energy. Ebell also explained some of the hurdles he believes are holding Trump back, including a shortage of staff in his personnel office.
With Trump expected to take action next week on an executive order that will begin the process of unwinding parts of the Obama administration's climate agenda, the energy industry, environmental community and conservative activists are gearing up for legal and legislative action.
"We need to make it possible to go in and litigate every bit of science — I don't care how long it takes," said Steve Milloy, an attorney and longtime legal foe of EPA, who participated in the Trump transition (Greenwire, Feb. 24).
Milloy urged the "cowards" in Congress to get busy working to "overrule the terrible decision" made in Massachusetts v. EPA, one of three Supreme Court decisions that now have affirmed EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's conclusion in a widely panned interview with CNBC that carbon dioxide is not the main driver behind climate change encouraged some GOP lawmakers who want the agency to revisit the finding (E&E News PM, March 10).
Those include Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), head of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment; Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.); and, most recently, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who served as an energy adviser to Trump during last year's campaign.
House Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) may also join the list of gavel-wielding members of Congress keen on examining the endangerment finding.
Smith was asked yesterday during the conference whether he would hold a hearing on the topic.
"Probably, but it hasn't been set yet. ... We can add that to our list. It will be about 14 or 15 on the ideas that we have coming up that we think are good ones," Smith said.
Long-established climate contrarian Pat Michaels of the Cato Institute rallied the like-minded audience yesterday around vacating the finding, alleging major flaws in the models that support the finding authored by former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
"When the president eviscerates the Clean Power Plan ... it has to go," Michaels said, warning that otherwise every "tentacle" of the "green blob" would be petitioning the courts for a stay of the White House's expected executive action.
"There are people I have heard that are trying to finesse their way around it. There is no way to finesse around a monster, so let's go forward," Michaels said in his keynote address to the two-day conference.
Pressure from lawyers
Ebell speculated that lawyers from the right-of-center Federalist Society, who are said to have affected Trump's pick for the Supreme Court vacancy, are pressuring the administration against reopening the endangerment finding.
Ebell speculated those lawyers are advising: "It's too much work, and you don't really need to do it."
Environmental attorneys are girding for defense of President Obama's initiatives, with a multipronged strategy in the works (E&E News PM, March 7).
"It was certainly a revealing moment when Scott Pruitt confessed or slipped up and said what he really thought on CNBC," said David Doniger, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate and clean air program, on a panel earlier this week previewing climate action under Trump.
"I know that certain gadflies from think tanks and [others] have been urging that EPA during his tenure revisit the endangerment determination," Doniger said, but a "mountain of evidence, thousands of peer-reviewed studies stretching back over now several decades," and courts support it, he said.
Whether EPA chooses the administrative route or Congress revisits the Clean Air Act amendments, Doniger predicted the chances of overturning the finding are "nil."
"That is a doomed effort, but that isn't to say it won't be attempted," he said.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052062
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State Approves Controversial SoCal Smog Plan
Mar 24, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
Regulators strengthened Southern California's 15-year anti-smog regime yesterday.
The California Air Resources Board added additional provisions to a pollution reduction plan before passing it, but doubt remains about whether the regulations will reduce smog. The plan was drafted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The plan relies on voluntary emissions cuts from industry in ports, rail yards and warehouses. ARB and the air district will work in tandem to ensure enforcement.
Other critics say $1 billion a year in unappropriated state funds is too much to pay for industry incentives.
Board members say the plan is not perfect, but an improvement. They want ports to use zero-emissions technology by 2030. The plan also phases out a pollution credits market with direct pollution control, and calls on oil refineries and other smokestack industries to reduce nitrogen dioxide emissions by 5 tons by 2025.
The plan still needs approval by U.S. EPA.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/03/24/stories/1060052038
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