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ACC PM 14/7/17
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(ACC Mentioned) Pruitt's Political Deputies Accumulate Power
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Kevin Bogardus
While U.S. EPA waits on a legion of nominees to emerge from the Trump White House, Administrator Scott Pruitt has sought to fill the void by spreading political deputies across his agency. -
(ACC Mentioned) Top Chemical Safety Official to Retire
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar and Kevin Bogardus
U.S. EPA's acting assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention will retire Aug. 24, a move that is likely to empower an official whose industry links have drawn protests from environmentalists and health groups. -
NAFTA Key to American Energy Dominance
Jul 14, 2017 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Matthew Kandrach
Despite the rhetoric from both candidate Trump and President Trump that the U.S. makes "bad trade deals," few industries have benefited more from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) than our energy industry. -
FirstEnergy Sells Land for Ohio Ethane Cracker Plant
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
A Thai petrochemical company has purchased land in southeast Ohio from FirstEnergy Corp. as the future site of an ethane cracker plant. -
ConocoPhillips to Mothball Alaska LNG Plant
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
ConocoPhillips Co. will indefinitely postpone operations at its liquefied natural gas plant in Kenai, Alaska. -
A Pipeline That Would Cut through the Iconic Appalachian Trail Sparks a Fight over Natural Gas Expansion
Jul 14, 2017 | The Los Angeles Times
By Evan Halper
The stretch of Appalachian Trail through the Blue Ridge Mountains here is prized by hikers from around the world for its open ridgelines, spectacular geologic formations and challenging slopes. -
Feds Investigating Ohio Pipeline over 'Misstatements'
Jul 14, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Federal officials are investigating the developer building a controversial natural gas pipeline over alleged “misstatements” regarding its construction in Ohio. -
DHS Sorts through 'Mountain' of Data on Energy Cyberthreat
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Department of Homeland Security specialists are in the "early" stages of decoding a sophisticated hacking campaign targeting energy, nuclear power and manufacturing firms this year, according to an official familiar with the case. -
Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Leak’s Root Cause Still Unclear
Jul 14, 2017 | Natural Gas Insider
By Richard Nemec
The root cause analysis for the natural gas storage well leak at the Aliso Canyon facility in Southern California, which ended 18 months ago, is apparently months from completion, according to state officials. -
Colo. Still Compiling Info of Pipelines near Homes
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee and Mike Soraghan
As Colorado regulators continue a first-of-its-kind inventory of oil and gas infrastructure located near homes, pressure is building on the state to make the information clearer and more accessible. -
Texas Pipeline Spills 50K Gallons
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
A pipeline in Bastrop County, Texas, ruptured yesterday, spilling about 50,000 gallons of crude oil and prompting a local evacuation, according to county officials. -
White House Official: U.S. Is 'Constructive' on Climate
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick
Divisions over climate and energy weren't as deep as they seemed at last week's Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, a White House official said yesterday. -
The Latest: Washington Republicans Weigh in on Cap and Trade
Jul 14, 2017 | AP (in The Washington Post
California Republican lawmakers in Washington are urging their counterparts in Sacramento not to vote for an extension of the state’s cap and trade program. -
Environmentalists Fault EPA's Approval of California Air Plan
Jul 14, 2017 | Inside EPA
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is criticizing EPA's proposed approval of a California district's clean air plan that they say wrongly excludes consideration of ammonia as a precursor to forming air pollution, reviving a debate over the regulation of animal feeding operations' ammonia emissions and implementation of federal air standards. -
How Much of an Impact Do Green Building Designs Really Have on the Environment?
Jul 14, 2017 | The Energy Collective
By Bobbi Peterson
It’s becoming more common in cities across the world to see buildings outfitted with solar panels, rooftop gardens and large windows to take advantage of natural light and heat from the sun.
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(ACC Mentioned) Pruitt's Political Deputies Accumulate Power
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Kevin Bogardus
While U.S. EPA waits on a legion of nominees to emerge from the Trump White House, Administrator Scott Pruitt has sought to fill the void by spreading political deputies across his agency.
The EPA chief has his lieutenants in at least six program offices at the agency. The deputy assistant administrators don't require Senate confirmation — unlike assistant administrators who are the offices' top executives — and can carry enormous influence, considering they've been hired by the administrator and are expected to carry out President Trump's agenda.
In an internal email sent last week to EPA employees, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson listed Pruitt's political team, including the No. 2s who are working in various offices across the agency. Pruitt's political deputies now on board include:
Patrick Traylor, deputy assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance
.Erik Baptist, senior deputy general counsel.
Dennis Lee Forsgren, deputy assistant administrator for water.
Patrick Davis, deputy assistant administrator for land and emergency management.
Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention.
Richard Yamada, deputy assistant administrator for research and development.
Pruitt also has top aides placed elsewhere in EPA.
Holly Greaves, senior adviser to the administrator for budgets and audits, is stationed in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Last month, Greaves was by Pruitt's side as the EPA chief testified in the House and in the Senate on the president's fiscal 2018 budget plan for the agency.
Pruitt has no deputy assistant administrator yet in the Office of Air and Radiation — a key office, considering its role in the Clean Power Plan as well as several air pollution regulations. Nevertheless, Mandy Gunasekara, Pruitt's senior adviser for air and radiation, is working in the administrator's office and has been handling air issues at EPA.
Pruitt also has his No. 3 in place at EPA — Henry Darwin, assistant deputy administrator and chief of operations — as he waits for a deputy administrator who will require Senate confirmation.
Other program offices do not have a deputy assistant administrator yet, according to Jackson's email from last week, including the Office of Administration and Resources Management and the Office of Environmental Information.
Nearly six months into his presidency, Trump has submitted only two EPA nominees to the Senate, lagging behind his predecessors in the White House. Pruitt was confirmed in February after a lengthy battle in the Senate, while Susan Bodine, Trump's nominee for EPA enforcement chief, cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this week.'They're very influential'
EPA's political deputies may wield substantial power at the agency, but they're still not the top officials in their program offices. That duty falls on career EPA officials who are leading those offices as acting assistant administrators, as they have been since Trump's inauguration Jan. 20.
That sets up an awkward dynamic at EPA with political appointees seeking approval from career officials, which can lead to clashes on where the agency is heading.
Asked whether a deputy assistant administrator can overrule an assistant administrator, EPA veteran Stan Meiburg told E&E News that would be a precarious situation.
"If you end up having to ask that question, you already are in trouble," said Meiburg, who was acting EPA deputy administrator at the end of the Obama administration.
Meiburg, now a Wake Forest University professor, said political and career officials at EPA "have candid discussions."
"If the career guy felt very strongly about something, the political will take that into consideration," Meiburg said. "But also, the career is looking for what the boss wants, and the political can get that information better than anyone else."
The former EPA No. 2 said deputy assistant administrators in Trump's EPA hold great sway at the agency.
"They're very influential," Meiburg said. "From what I heard from staff, they're looking to senior political appointees to make sure that things that need to get done get done and for guidance on decisions they need to make."
Trump's supporters, however, are worried that without Senate-confirmed officials in place at EPA, career staff at the agency can slow-walk the president's agenda.
"Career civil servants know how to slow things down. They can send a complaint to the general counsel's office. Oh, wait, you don't have a general counsel? You have an acting general counsel? That's the problem there," said Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
"The White House needs to get its act together and get some nominees out there."
Ebell, who led Trump's transition team at EPA, praised Pruitt for working to hire political deputies at the agency but expressed concern over career officials still holding leadership roles at the agency.
"Pruitt has done a good job of working around the dysfunction in the White House personnel office. He has a lot of his people in there now shouldering the burden," Ebell said.
"He can have a deputy assistant administrator, but the acting administrator is a career civil servant, and they have the authority."
Despite the wait on nominees, an EPA spokeswoman said the agency has been able to move forward on Trump's agenda.
"We have been able to accomplish an incredible amount of work to implement President Trump's agenda thus far, and are looking forward to that work continuing and accelerating as new leadership is brought on board," said Liz Bowman, the EPA spokeswoman.
In a statement to E&E News, Ross Eisenberg, vice president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, said his group is pleased with the change of direction at EPA.
"It is clear that Administrator Pruitt and his team are working hard to implement President Trump's agenda and have had some early successes," Eisenberg said.
"We have been impressed with the early work done by the new team at EPA and look forward to working with future members of the agency's leadership team."What about the Senate?
Some EPA observers said Pruitt's move to fill his political deputy slots before his office heads are picked was unusual.
"The normal pattern in previous administrations has been to focus initially on filling AA positions and then later backfill with DAA appointees, who are often selected by the AA. The Trump EPA has reversed that pattern and hired DAAs while the AA positions remain vacant," said Bob Sussman, a former EPA deputy administrator during the Clinton administration.
"Thus the DAAs have assumed an unprecedented degree of influence and may remain in charge for several additional months while AAs are nominated and confirmed," added Sussman, who also was a senior policy adviser to EPA chief Lisa Jackson during President Obama's first term.
In addition, some of those political deputies have already come under scrutiny.
Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator in EPA's chemicals office, came to the agency from the American Chemistry Council, where she was often critical of EPA. Democrats and environmental groups have questioned her appointment, and now Beck is expected to gain more influence within the agency as the acting assistant administrator above her plans to retire next month (see related story).
"We have concerns that she [Beck] may be more protective of the chemical industry than public health," said Liz Hitchcock, government affairs director for the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, which has criticized Beck's hiring at EPA.
Hitchcock said EPA is avoiding Capitol Hill by bringing on its top political deputies who don't require Senate confirmation.
"It appears as if Pruitt is using this workaround to staff up before they have to go through the confirmation process," Hitchcock said. "We depend on the confirmation process for these higher positions."
Calling it "very troubling," Sussman said the deputy assistant administrators are not as well-vetted as their higher-up assistant administrators.
"Not only are their qualifications, experience, prior statements and conflicts of interest unknown to Congress and the public, but they have not been exposed to the views and concerns that typically surface during confirmation and articulated their views in response to Senate questioning," Sussman said.
"As a result, DAAs lack the accountability of Senate-confirmed appointees."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057412
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(ACC Mentioned) Top Chemical Safety Official to Retire
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar and Kevin Bogardus
U.S. EPA's acting assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention will retire Aug. 24, a move that is likely to empower an official whose industry links have drawn protests from environmentalists and health groups.
Wendy Cleland-Hamnett started her EPA career in 1979, working on the Toxic Substances Control Act after graduating from George Washington University's law school.
She served in many other posts across the agency — at the Office of Environmental Information, the Office of Policy and the Administrator's Office — before returning to chemical safety.
"I have enjoyed my career at EPA immensely," she said in an email to colleagues obtained by E&E News. "It is hard to imagine a better opportunity to serve the American public, pursue a vitally important mission, learn an enormous amount, and work with incredibly smart, dedicated and collegial people. I hope to have the opportunity to see and talk with many of you before I retire."
Bloomberg BNA was first to report Cleland-Hamnett was planning to leave the agency.
Her departure will leave Nancy Beck — a former top official at the American Chemistry Council — effectively in charge of EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
Beck was brought on earlier this year as principal deputy assistant administrator in the office, a No. 2 position that Cleland-Hamnett once held before taking over the top chemical safety post.
The Trump administration's hiring of Beck, who has often argued against strict chemical regulations, prompted outrage from some advocacy groups.
EPA's decisions regarding TSCA reform "will directly affect the financial interests of the companies represented by ACC," the Environmental Defense Fund's Richard Denison said at the time. "Any reasonable person would see a conflict here, one sufficient to seriously question whose interests Dr. Beck will be representing in playing such a role in TSCA implementation"
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057405
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NAFTA Key to American Energy Dominance
Jul 14, 2017 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Matthew Kandrach
Despite the rhetoric from both candidate Trump and President Trump that the U.S. makes "bad trade deals," few industries have benefited more from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) than our energy industry. With the U.S. now a growing exporter of crude oil and liquid natural gas (LNG), free trade of America's booming energy assets is a win for American consumers and workers.
The President has been very public in stating his desire for the U.S. to achieve “energy dominance.” But that aspiration hinges on not upsetting current trade deals on energy that have worked strongly to America's advantage.
Take Mexico as an example. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. energy exports to Mexico, primarily of oil and natural gas, are now more than twice the value of imports.
In 2016, energy exports to our neighbor to the south reached $20.2 billion, while our energy imports from Mexico fell to $8.7 billion, resulting in an energy trade surplus of $11.5 billion. U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico now fuel a quarter of Mexico’s electricity generation. This trade is unequivocally benefitting American workers and our economy.
Our new energy trade surplus is a dramatic turnabout from the way things were less than a decade ago. Historically, energy trade with Mexico was dominated by Mexico’s sales of crude oil to the U.S. But that’s no longer the case. U.S. oil and gas production has boomed in recent years, primarily because of improved drilling techniques such as fracking and horizontal drilling that have opened up production in shale formations previously out of reach. While our production has grown, Mexican production has faltered.
America's turn as major energy exporter has arrived. The president and his colleagues in Washington should take that as a cue not to cut and run from agreements that are working. Given the president's past comments concerning trade with Mexico, and his more recent statements that he won't pull out of NAFTA "for now," his position requires clarification. A sincere commitment to energy dominance demands that no action will be taken that undermines the enormous benefits NAFTA holds for American-made energy.
Trade has long been a vital engine for economic growth, and any maneuver endangering our rapidly expanding energy economy would come at a steep cost. Without the security NAFTA provides to our energy exports, American energy jobs would disappear. Moreover, domestic manufacturers would be less competitive and consumers would feel the pinch brought on by more dependence on foreign energy.
It goes without saying that no trade deal is perfect, nor ideal for every industry impacted. Still, it's important to recognize that the U.S., Mexico and Canada have all realized economic gains through free trade. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce credits NAFTA with increasing U.S. trade in goods and services with Mexico and Canada from $337 billion in 1993 to $1.2 trillion in 2011.
Let’s also not forget capital flows both ways. Americans have invested nearly $1 trillion in Mexico over the past decade, leading to economic improvements in Mexico that have stabilized immigration from that country in recent years. In fact, more immigrants returned to Mexico between 2009 and 2014 than migrated to the U.S., according to a study by Pew Research.
The American people overwhelmingly want energy independence that frees us from foreign producers, and they want economic expansion and job growth. How fortunate, then, that our energy renaissance is helping provide both, and putting us on the precipice of being an energy superpower. The president's mandate for "energy dominance" is no longer a distant fantasy, but a reality that must be secured by affirming the agreements that are working for our nation's energy future.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/342037-nafta-key-to-american-energy-dominance
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FirstEnergy Sells Land for Ohio Ethane Cracker Plant
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
A Thai petrochemical company has purchased land in southeast Ohio from FirstEnergy Corp. as the future site of an ethane cracker plant.
PTT Global Chemical America paid FirstEnergy $13.8 million for 168 acres of land in Belmont County, Ohio.
The land was previously home to FirstEnergy's coal- and oil-fired R.E. Burger power plant, which was demolished last year.
PTT Global hopes to build a $6 billion ethane cracker plant on the site.
"It's not all the property that PTT Global will need, but it's an essential piece of property," said Dan Williamson, a spokesman for PTT Global (John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 12).
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057348
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ConocoPhillips to Mothball Alaska LNG Plant
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
ConocoPhillips Co. will indefinitely postpone operations at its liquefied natural gas plant in Kenai, Alaska.
The company initially put the LNG plant on the market in 2016.
But since no buyers have come forward, the company will save expenses by mothballing the facility this fall.
The decision comes as ConocoPhillips faces increased competition in a world market awash in natural gas.
"Most people are fairly aware of the fact that worldwide the price of oil and gas has been low," said ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Amy Burnett.
"Over the last few years, more facilities have come online to export LNG," Burnett said. "So there are more sources available for the product, which makes competition more difficult" (Rashah McChesney, Peninsula Clarion, July 12).
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057350
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Jul 14, 2017 | The Los Angeles Times
By Evan Halper
The stretch of Appalachian Trail through the Blue Ridge Mountains here is prized by hikers from around the world for its open ridgelines, spectacular geologic formations and challenging slopes.
But one of the country’s most iconic viewsheds could soon be changed forever to make room for an energy project favored not just by fossil fuel industry boosters like President Trump, but also Virginia’s Democratic governor.
A natural gas developer with some powerful political allies is nearing final approval to plow a pipeline corridor as wide as 150 feet, tracking the trail for dozens of miles and burrowing through it at one point.
Amid the nation’s ongoing boom in natural gas production, federal rules have made pipeline construction an extremely lucrative enterprise, even in markets where the need is hotly debated.
To many, the Mountain Valley Pipeline has become a symbol of the building frenzy. Concern stretches all the way to California, where climate activists worry that such projects are undermining their efforts. Leaders of the Pacific Crest Trail Assn. fear that gas companies feel increasingly emboldened to impose an ever bigger footprint on protected lands.
“Everybody, not only in the East, but around every national scenic trail, should be concerned about this,” said Andrew Downs, regional director with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the 90-year-old nonprofit organization entrusted by the National Park Service decades ago with the task of managing the trail. The conservancy has never found it necessary to get involved in a pipeline fight in this way, but times have changed. “We’ve never seen pipelines of this size and magnitude,” Downs said.
The conservancy is joined by preservationists deeply concerned that the pipeline route would cut through seven historic districts. Those include the picture-postcard village of Newport, a place where generations of families have picnicked by the 100-year-old covered bridge and gathered at the 164-year-old church in the center of town. The pipeline has pushed Newport onto the list of “most endangered historic places” compiled by the group Preservation Virginia.
The same glut of natural gas that helped the U.S. substantially cut its greenhouse gas emissions is now also threatening efforts to fight climate change. In communities being rattled by the rush to lay pipe, the natural gas projects are drawing the kind of rancor usually associated with more imposing and disruptive oil pipelines.
With some 9,000 new miles of pipeline in the planning stages nationwide, natural gas expansions are threatening to undermine greenhouse gas emission reduction goals already agreed to by Virginia and other states hosting the projects.
“Gas helped this country get off coal, but now deep decarbonization requires getting off gas,” said Michael Wara, an energy law scholar Stanford University. “If we build all this gas capacity, we will have a strong incentive to use it for its useful life, which extends well into 21st century. That will blow our climate goals.”
The benefit the Mountain Valley Pipeline would bring to those living along its 303-mile route is a point of intense disagreement and opinion does not cut neatly along partisan lines. There are local tea party leaders and Trump enthusiasts who revile the plan, and die-hard Democrats who see it as salvation. The project’s investors are joined by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and some community leaders in promising that it will boost the economy in ways that are otherwise impossible, such as luring manufacturing businesses that will only locate in Virginia if more cheap gas is readily available.
“With the reserves we have right now on the East Coast, we are able to bring that energy to homes and business at reduced rates,” said Natalie Cox, a pipeline spokeswoman. “The availability of natural gas typically attracts manufacturing facilities. It is good for businesses.” Company officials said advocates were exaggerating the negative impacts on the Appalachian Trail.
Critics, including several national environmental organizations, say the benefits won’t be reaped by residents along the route, but by investors angling for a windfall. Those investors are permitted to collect an impressive 15% return on the project under federal rules left over from a time when domestic gas was not so plentiful and policies were designed to aggressively promote its discovery.
“The regulators are not looking carefully at which of these projects are appropriate and which are not,” said Thomas Hadwin, an area opponent of the pipeline and former utility executive with deep experience in permitting multibillion-dollar energy projects.
It is not just pipeline opponents raising red flags. The Environmental Protection Agency in the final days of the Obama administration pushed federal energy regulators to more thoroughly investigate whether such projects are needed. It warned during the environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline that the group building it had failed to explain why the project as proposed was essential, raising “the possibility of overbuilding, unnecessary disruption of the environment and unneeded exercise of eminent domain.”
Soon after, Norman Bay, the outgoing chief of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees pipeline permitting, surprised the gas industry and activists by cautioning that the federal approval process for gas pipelines was full of shortcomings, creating a risk of overbuilding. In a six-page essay filed as part of a commission proceeding, Bay, long an ally of the industry, opined that regulators are not paying enough attention to legitimate concerns about the long-term viability of the projects, their impact on global warming and the hardships they can cause for communities along their routes.
The White House is hardly embracing such warnings. President Trump is vowing to step up the nation’s natural gas production, and he is working with the gas industry to substantially boost exports of American gas abroad, an issue he emphasized on his recent trip to Europe for the G-20 summit. Environmental groups suspect that much of the gas shipped through the Mountain Valley Pipeline will ultimately end up abroad, despite assurances from the developer and the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission that the project is not designed for that.
The boom in gas pipeline construction was helped along in large part by the Obama administration, as it pursued an “all of the above” energy strategy. But Obama’s action on climate change in his final years in office sought to slow things down. The Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature policy for addressing global warming, placed limits on the amount of natural gas that energy-producing states could use to meet federal emissions targets while transitioning from coal. The administration’s hope was to deter states from locking themselves into generations of reliance on gas, and instead prod them to leave room for a more robust expansion of renewable energy as its cost drops.
In March, Trump ordered the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan. But while the prevailing sentiment from Washington now more heavily favors pipeline investors, gas companies are finding their projects increasingly a tougher sell in the rest of the country. The local disruption the Mountain Valley Pipeline threatens along its route in Virginia and West Virginia has touched off an intense backlash.
Carolyn Reilly wasn’t an activist when she moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains four years ago. She was a home-schooling mom from suburban Florida, lured there by a bucolic patch of land and visions of launching a sustainable farming business. Now she finds herself rallying her neighbors to fight and calling the police every time pipeline surveyors try to access her property.
The easement the Mountain Valley Pipeline is seeking on Four Corners Farm, her family’s business in the hills outside Roanoke, cuts right through a peaceful pasture where a handful of cows were recently meandering. If given final approval, the pipeline company could use eminent domain to get it, and then set about tearing a pathway as wide as 150 feet with heavy machinery so that a 3½-foot diameter gas line could be buried underneath. Reilly worries about grazing patterns being disrupted, pesticides used to control vegetation on the corridor drifting into her crops and the property’s pristine water getting contaminated. “We believe this pipeline would destroy our business,” she said.
Some 130 miles away on a recent night, a group of West Virginians along the pipeline route gathered beside the Greenbrier River to build a large bonfire, fueled by copies of the pipeline construction application. “What they say in this is totally not true,” said longtime local resident Ashby Berkley, pointing to the charred documents.
Pipeline promoters say such grumbling is the exception and that they enjoy the support of a quiet majority in the area. They point to strong support from business leaders and chambers of commerce, as well as a poll they commissioned showing that 62% of Virginians support the project. Activists say the poll is bunk because poll-takers told those surveyed that the project was needed to meet the region’s energy needs. Three-quarters of landowners in the path of the pipeline have signed easement agreements, according to the pipeline company.
For now the project is in a holding pattern because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lacks enough sitting members to approve it. Trump’s nominees to fill those commission seats are awaiting congressional approval.
Meanwhile, opponents are preparing lawsuits and lobbying Congress.
“They thought we were just a bunch of hillbillies that they could roll right over,” said Diana Christopulos, president of the Roanoke chapter of the Appalachian Trail Club, as she walked along the trail recently. “They were wrong.”
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pipeline-appalachian-trail-201707-htmlstory.html
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Feds Investigating Ohio Pipeline over 'Misstatements'
Jul 14, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Federal officials are investigating the developer building a controversial natural gas pipeline over alleged “misstatements” regarding its construction in Ohio.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff said in a Thursday notice that they preliminarily determined that Energy Transfer Partners, developer of the Rover pipeline, “did not fully and forthrightly disclose all relevant information to the commission” in paperwork filed for a federal permit.
The disclosure of the FERC investigation and preliminary finding are the latest problem for Rover, whose developer also built and operates the controversial Dakota Access pipeline.
Ohio officials have accused Energy Transfer of spilling drilling waste that includes diesel fuel at a pipeline construction site, where it allegedly entered wetlands near a river.
That spurred FERC to order Energy Transfer to stop horizontal drilling for the pipeline temporarily.
The Thursday finding regards a historic house that Energy Transfer purchased and demolished in Ohio for the construction. State historic preservation officials say that the house was a protected historic landmark and its demolition was illegal.
“In the application and other docketed filings, Rover falsely promised it would avoid adverse effects to a historic resource that it was simultaneously working to purchase and destroy,” FERC wrote in its notice. “Rover subsequently made several misstatements in its docketed response to the commission’s questions about why it had purchased and demolished the resource.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/342023-feds-investigating-ohio-pipeline-over-misstatements
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DHS Sorts through 'Mountain' of Data on Energy Cyberthreat
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Department of Homeland Security specialists are in the "early" stages of decoding a sophisticated hacking campaign targeting energy, nuclear power and manufacturing firms this year, according to an official familiar with the case.
Mark Bristow, deputy division director for the Hunt and Incident Response Team [HIRT] at DHS's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, said the agency had not identified any risk to public safety from the cyber incidents, which date back to at least May and were first reported by E&E News last month (Energywire, June 27).
Bristow said that there was so far nothing "abnormal or unusual" about the recent malicious activity but added that federal officials treat any such events as "a serious matter."
"We take even what might be considered reasonably mundane intrusions into corporate environments of critical infrastructure asset owners very seriously, in the event that this is just the first stage of an intrusion with an intention to cause physical damage or anything like that," Bristow said. "The challenge with [cybersecurity] is that the difference in time between an adversary just gaining access and poking around and attempting to have an effect or consequence can be very short. So we have to take it seriously from the beginning to ensure that public safety impact won't — or can't — be realized."
The recent hacking campaign relied on "spearphishing" emails to lure employees into clicking on a hijacked resume for a "controls engineer," according to multiple sources and documents. The hackers also booby-trapped webpages likely to be visited by power-sector workers in a "watering hole" attack, among other tactics.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that U.S. government officials have already linked the digital assailants to Russia (Energywire, July 10). The New York Times first disclosed last week that the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp. was among the companies affected by the breach.
A spokeswoman for the Kansas-based nuclear power facility declined to comment on security matters but said there has been no impact to safety systems. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which monitors safety and cybersecurity at the reactor level of nuclear power plants, said the case "is not related to the cyber assets under our regulations and oversight," indicating the cyberthreat never reached that tightly guarded level.
But were hackers aiming for nuclear operations?
Bristow declined to name targets or speculate on the adversary's ultimate goals. But he offered a general warning about jumping to conclusions so early in any investigation.
"Even if you see something that's targeted at control engineers, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going after control systems — or it could," he said. "This is the challenge that we have: trying to make sense of a mountain of data and make assessments."
In a phone interview yesterday, he pointed out that "there's a perception that because cyber moves so fast, that the investigation and the analysis also will move as fast — and that's just not true."Hunting for clues
DHS's Hunt and Incident Response Team was launched last October to help identify and root out suspicious activity on key federal and private networks. The group of cybersecurity specialists was drawn from both the IT-focused U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and the more operationally savvy Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, where Bristow worked before leading HIRT.
Like most DHS cybersecurity offices, Bristow and his crew help critical infrastructure operators and government agencies on a voluntary basis. They may be called in to investigate after a suspected breach — the "incident response" part of the mission — or invited to simply "hunt" around on seemingly calm systems.
"Our bread and butter on both sides is looking for anomalies," Bristow said. "One of the scariest things I can have happen is one of my [team members] saying, 'Huh, that looks strange.'"
He declined to detail the size of the team, citing security concerns, but noted that the group is readying itself to "rise to the challenge if something large-scale occurs."
The DHS branch housing HIRT was one of the few government offices that was spared budget cuts under President Trump's fiscal 2018 proposal, and would instead see a more than $50 million boost compared to 2017 levels (Energywire, June 1).
Bristow said that awareness of critical infrastructure security has grown since 2010, when news first emerged of the Stuxnet worm that damaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges in the late 2000s.
Now, he said his team encounters "constant activity" directed against critical infrastructure providers, but noted that fact alone isn't cause for alarm.
"When people see any type of thing 'cyber' in interesting industries like energy or nuclear, they get very excited," he said. "It's most important to keep a calm head. The lights stayed on yesterday — they were working, at least, here in Virginia. There is a whole cadre of dedicated professionals both in the government and private sector and academia who are working this issue."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057379
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Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Leak’s Root Cause Still Unclear
Jul 14, 2017 | Natural Gas Insider
By Richard Nemec
The root cause analysis for the natural gas storage well leak at the Aliso Canyon facility in Southern California, which ended 18 months ago, is apparently months from completion, according to state officials.
That was the assessment of a spokeswoman for the Conservation Department's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) following a series of public comment hearings on the proposed gas storage rules that concluded Wednesday in Los Angeles. "There is no news on the root cause analysis," she told NGI.
A California Public Utilities Commission spokesperson said the study remains in the third of a five-phase process that is to take more than three years. The third phase is expected to take up to nine months, and the fourth phase more than two months, before the final phase of "integration and interpretation" of the results is issued.
Final comments on DOGGR's draft rules were due by the close of business Thursday.
Although the basis for the four-month-long methane leak at the state's largest gas storage reservoir technically was not the subject of the hearing, affected residents attending the hearing urged for permanently closing the facility.
Specific concerns about the draft rules were offered by a handful of environmental and legal activists, some of whom collaborated with residents forced to vacate their homes for several months during the winter of 2015-2016 at the Sempra Energy gas utility's expense.
A DOGGR panel of legal, engineering and public affairs representatives listened to the feedback.
The question of whether the 86-Bcf capacity Aliso Canyon facility is allowed to reopen was not part of the draft rules hearing. However, the proposed regulations would apply to the decision-making process, the spokeswoman said. "The new gas regulations are based on the stringent protocols put in place after the blowout," she said.
In May, California oil and natural gas field regulators opened the statewide process for final comments, notifying stakeholders that it would adopt the proposed regulations after taking into consideration public comments. DOGGR has estimated that the total cost and economic impacts during the first five years of the rules' adoption by the gas storage facilities to be $236-337 million.
California's final regulations would replace emergency rules that have been in place since early last year following the Aliso Canyon incident. The emergency rules require:
At least daily inspections of gas storage wellheads using leak detection technology such as infrared imaging;
Ongoing verification of the mechanical integrity of all gas storage wells;
Ongoing measurement of annular gas pressure or annular gas flow within wells;
Regular testing of all safety valves used in wells;
Minimum and maximum pressure limits for each gas storage facility;
and Submitting comprehensive risk management plans that prepare for risks at each facility, including the corrosion potential of pipes and equipment.
In June the Trump administration agreed to delay Obama-era safety rules for underground natural gas storage in response to industry concerns.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111088-aliso-canyon-natural-gas-storage-leaks-root-cause-still-unclear
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Colo. Still Compiling Info of Pipelines near Homes
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee and Mike Soraghan
As Colorado regulators continue a first-of-its-kind inventory of oil and gas infrastructure located near homes, pressure is building on the state to make the information clearer and more accessible.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, responding to a pipeline leak that destroyed a home and killed two people, ordered energy companies to turn over an inventory of all flow lines located within 1,000 feet of homes and other buildings. It also ordered companies to test the lines for leaks (Energywire, May 3).
The deadline to submit the information was June 30, but some companies have asked for extensions, and the COGCC has said it could take months to compile and publish all the information. Flaws in the data that have been released so far make it hard to gauge the impact on counties, cities or individual homes.
It's also not clear yet how well companies are complying with the COGCC's order on leak tests.
Those have become high-profile issues for homeowners in eastern Colorado, where simultaneous booms in housing and oil production have left tens of thousands of people living near pipelines and other equipment.
"I'd like to see somebody map it," said Josh Joswick, a former county commissioner from western Colorado who now works for the environmental group Earthworks.
A bill in the state Legislature would've required the state to create a searchable database of the information. It was narrowly voted down just before the session ended in May, but it may be resurrected in 2018, said state Rep. Mike Foote, a Boulder Democrat who was one of its sponsors.
"That information is just gibberish unless it is put into an understandable format," Foote said in an email.Turning over records
Flow lines are low-pressure lines that connect oil and gas wells to storage tanks and other equipment. They're common in older oil fields, where dozens of vertical wells are served by a single tank battery.
The suburbs north and east of Denver are dotted with tens of thousands of older wells, and the state never had clear maps of the flow lines that connect them. A lot of the same oil fields are now being redrilled using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has increased the tension between homeowners and oil companies (Energywire, May 5).
The data released on the COGCC's website show blank entries for more than half the pipelines' test results, although several large companies have said that more than 99 percent of their lines passed.
The test results are even more important than the inventory data, and it's important to know what type of test was used, said Cornell University engineering professor Anthony Ingraffea.
"That's the kind of information I would expect to see in those blank columns," Ingraffea said.
The COGCC data show more than 248,000 flow lines and risers, but the true number of pipelines may be far different.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the biggest operator in Colorado, reported on its website that it turned in about 53,000 records to the COGCC, including individual pipelines and risers that connect the lines to wellheads and storage tanks. But the state agency's database shows 118,000 entries for Anadarko.
PDC Energy Inc., another large operator, reported testing 13,800 pipelines and risers, a spokeswoman said. The COGCC database shows more than 27,000 entries for PDC.
A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, which is the parent of the COGCC, said the commission is still processing hundreds of thousands of pieces of information, and it will take months to complete the process.
"In this undertaking, some of the data will be incomplete, contain errors and require follow-up to work through questions generated by what is submitted," Julie Murphy, assistant director of the Department of Natural Resources, said in an email.Anadarko's response
The oil industry is leaving the door open to a mapping bill, while cautioning that any discussions should happen after the inventory and related tests are complete, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.
"Any possible next steps, from a policy perspective, must be made with full understanding of what the data reveals," Scott Prestidge, a spokesman for the trade group, said in a statement. "Does a map ensure safety, or does validating pipeline integrity ensure safety? In other words, mapping may or may not be the answer. If mapping is part of the discussion, can it be done in a way that protects proprietary information and does not create new security or public safety risks?"
The explosion happened April 17 at a newly built home in Firestone, about 35 miles north of Denver. The home was part of a subdivision built on top of oil and gas wells that were drilled in the 1980s and 1990s. The area was laced with flow lines, some of which were relocated as the adjacent subdivision grew.
One of the pipelines was cut off just a few feet from the home's basement, and it was still connected to a gas well 178 feet away, investigators found.
Gas from the well migrated through the soil and built up in the home's basement. The owners, Mark and Erin Martinez, were home when the gas ignited. Mark Martinez was killed along with his brother-in-law, Joey Irwin. Erin Martinez was severely injured, and one of the couple's children was slightly injured after being blown out of an upstairs window.
Anadarko, which owns the well and the pipelines involved, shut down 3,000 old vertical wells while it conducted safety checks.
The company has tested 4,000 flow lines and found about 12 leaks, John Christiansen, a company spokesman, said in an interview. They've all been shut down.
The company also found 52 leaks in process pipelines, which connect equipment in a tank battery or processing plant, Christiansen said. Process pipelines pose less of a risk to surrounding homes because they typically don't run outside the boundaries of the installation they serve.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057366
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Texas Pipeline Spills 50K Gallons
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
A pipeline in Bastrop County, Texas, ruptured yesterday, spilling about 50,000 gallons of crude oil and prompting a local evacuation, according to county officials.
Contractors working for the pipeline's owner, Magellan Midstream Partners LP, accidentally punctured the pipeline around 9 a.m.
The spill forced the evacuation of 15 homes in the area, but no one was injured in the incident, officials said.
The Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration responded to the spill to oversee cleanup efforts alongside the Texas Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator.
"There are approximately 100 representatives currently working at the site including emergency responders, clean-up and environmental specialists, state and federal regulators and Magellan employees," Magellan said in a statement (Jennifer Hiller, San Antonio Express-News, July 13). — NS
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057396
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White House Official: U.S. Is 'Constructive' on Climate
Jul 14, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick
Divisions over climate and energy weren't as deep as they seemed at last week's Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, a White House official said yesterday.
While the summit produced a text that isolated the United States in its opposition to the Paris Agreement and saw all 19 other members of the major economies club endorse a plan for addressing climate change, the official told reporters at a background briefing that the story is more nuanced.
"It was very cordial," the official said.
The U.S. negotiating team worked shoulder to shoulder with two of the Paris accord's staunchest backers, Germany and France, in an effort to iron out the differences. One late-night session saw French and U.S. negotiators sharing a bottle of German red wine as they worked to find agreement, he said.
Other delegations, meanwhile, were tempted to join the United States on some of its energy language before determining that it would be "just too much of a lift" to upset the communiqué's delicate balance.
The White House official, who attended the talks, said the most substantial point of disagreement between the United States and its 19 allies was the Paris Agreement — the landmark deal from which President Trump announced a U.S. withdrawal in June.
"It was about building a constructive discussion and having a good, positive interaction on energy and climate despite the differences over the Paris Agreement," the official said.
That isn't the story told by other countries at the summit. The conference's president, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, celebrated isolating the United States in the final text, by preventing other nations from signing onto U.S. language related to the Paris Agreement and expanded use of fossil fuels.
"We have not, as I said, been glossing this over," said Merkel in her closing press briefing Saturday evening. When it comes to climate change, she said, "it is very clear that there is a disagreement."
The White House official and European diplomats agree that the basic structure of the energy and climate language in the communiqué was agreed on before the summit. French and German "Sherpas," or negotiators, made separate visits to Washington, D.C., in the weeks before the summit to try to find a landing zone acceptable to all parties. There was agreement that the United States should not be a "footnote" in the text, as it had been in May in the Group of Seven communiqué, which came out prior to Trump's decision to leave Paris.Does 'global approach' mean 'renegotiate'?
The solution that emerged is known as the "three-paragraph model": Items of consensus to all 20 member countries would appear in the top paragraph, followed by a U.S. section and then a "G-19" section that was agreed upon by everyone but the United States.
The White House official said the United States provided the German presidency with a menu of options for items to include in the communiqué.
European participants also met in Berlin two weeks before the Hamburg meeting to strategize. They agreed to not gloss over differences with the United States on climate — a goal Merkel repeatedly referred to in her closing press conference.
"Wherever there is no consensus that can be achieved, this disagreement has to be made clear," she said.
The Germans provisionally accepted language going into the talks stating that "the United States affirms its strong commitment to a global approach that limits emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs." The White House had proposed that language to the Germans together with other items that did not make it into the initial text.
The White House official said the "global approach" language was included because the Germans wanted it to be included.
"If the Germans had not liked it, or had not been OK with it, they would have left it out of the base text," the official said.
Other delegations viewed the language as a suggestion by the United States to replace the Paris Agreement, since Trump had said he might like to "renegotiate" the accord.
The marginalization of the Paris Agreement raised hackles, though the White House official said those criticisms were mainly held by the French. The German presidency tried to restore harmony by cutting "global approach" from the language, but the U.S. team insisted that it be replaced with something else.
So the Germans added an endorsement of fossil fuel expansion in exchange for "global approach."
By Friday night, the draft text had a new sentence that read: "Given the importance of energy access and security in the nationally determined contributions of other countries, the United States of America will endeavor to work closely with other partners to help their access to and use of fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and help deploy renewable and other clean energy sources."
But European countries, including France, objected to that, too. They said a serious response to climate change is incompatible with an expansion of coal, natural gas and other carbon-intensive fuels. They also noted the lack of any reference to carbon capture and storage technology.
In the end, the language about fossil fuels was the last point of contention at the summit. It was finally agreed on by Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron. At the summit, Merkel spent her G-20 presidency walking a tightrope between losing the United States' presence in the communiqué and appearing too accommodating of the unpopular Trump. Later, she said the process was saved by a single word: "states."
"The United States of America states it will endeavour to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels," begins the final version of that problematic sentence.
"It is absolutely clear that this is not a common position, but there is indeed a distinction," said Merkel.'Existential challenge'
The point was further underlined, she said, by scrapping the word "partner" from the interim text and swapping in "countries" in the final version. The lost mention of "partners" for the United States made it clear that the United States was alone, the chancellor said.
"The concern we had was that when it is about further forms of cooperation, is that only about renewables, about low-carbon forms of technologies?" she volunteered during a break in her press conference. "How can we continue to cooperate, because the United States, as regards gas, as regards clean coal, they want to deliver this to developing countries, and it might well look then as if all of the others supported this, as well, and that's why we clearly stated that that was not the case."
The White House official said there was more cooperation than the communiqué reflects. A separate finance negotiating track saw Saudi Arabia and Russia join with the United States to cut language on climate-related financial disclosures and green finance. The official said other countries were tempted to join the U.S. paragraph in the communiqué, too.
The meeting produced a joint statement, but whether it will result in comity on climate and energy remains to be seen.
Merkel has expressed no optimism that the United States will reconsider its plan to leave the Paris Agreement, and she takes a dim view of those who dispute man-made climate change.
"We must tackle this existential challenge, and we cannot wait until every last person on Earth has been convinced of the scientific proof," Merkel said at a pre-summit appearance in June.
Some European diplomats interviewed for this story took some comfort from Trump's decision to withdraw from Paris but stay in the U.N. climate talks. They noted that he joined other G-20 countries in pledging to "collaborate closely" on the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, which include climate.
And the United States' separate mention of helping other countries with their nationally determined contributions to Paris, though marred for some by the fossil fuels reference, nonetheless seemed to indicate future contributions of climate aid under Trump.
The White House official said that could be a reference to U.S. support through multilateral development banks and bilateral initiatives.
Trump has ruled out additional contributions to the United Nations' Green Climate Fund and other U.N. climate programs, but the official affirmed yesterday that the United States will retain its seat on the fund's board.
Trump returned to Europe this week for the Bastille Day holiday in Paris, where he said in a joint press conference with Macron yesterday that "something could happen" to prevent his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
Merkel told an audience in Paris yesterday that "maintaining contact [with the United States] — the ability to communicate — is, of course, important."
She left Paris without meeting with the U.S. president.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/07/14/stories/1060057385
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The Latest: Washington Republicans Weigh in on Cap and Trade
Jul 14, 2017 | AP (in The Washington Post
The Latest on negotiations to extend California’s cap and trade program (all times local):
4 p.m.
California Republican lawmakers in Washington are urging their counterparts in Sacramento not to vote for an extension of the state’s cap and trade program.
U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says in a letter to state lawmakers that continuing the program will raise taxes for California drivers and families. He’s joined in the letter by U.S. Reps. David Nunes, Kevin Calvert and Tom McClintock, all of California.
The letter comes hours after Gov. Jerry Brown urged state lawmakers to pass the legislation rather than act like Washington by blocking it. He specifically appealed to Republicans who have said they’re not on board with the plan.
The letter also slams using money earned through cap and trade to fund California’s high-speed rail project. They’re dubbing the Brown priority a “bullet train to nowhere.”
3:30 p.m.
California legislation to monitor and improve air quality around major polluters is moving closer to a vote in the full Senate.
The bill is advancing alongside a measure to extend California’s landmark cap and trade law that seeks to reduce carbon emissions.
Democrats on the Senate Environmental Quality Committee advanced both measures Thursday in 5-2 party line votes.
The air quality measure requires local air quality management districts to monitor and report air quality data around the dirtiest sources of pollution. Some polluters will be required to upgrade equipment to newer, cleaner technology.
Air-quality districts say the bill would be expensive to implement.
___
2 p.m.
A California Senate committee has advanced a bill to extend the state’s signature climate change law through 2030.
Democrats on the Environmental Quality Committee backed the legislation in a 5-2 party-line vote on Thursday, pushing it one step closer to a vote on the Senate floor.
The measure gives another 10 years of life to California’s cap and trade program, which caps carbon emissions and requires polluters to obtain permits to release greenhouse gases.
Extending the program is a top priority for Gov. Jerry Brown, who is scrambling to line up votes from the required two-thirds of lawmakers.
Democratic lawmakers backed the legislation despite opposition from environmental justice organizations that have long been skeptical of cap and trade. They say the program allows oil refineries and other polluters to continue releasing greenhouse gases as long as they pay a fee.
___
11:30 a.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown says Californians will see significantly higher costs if lawmakers fail to approve his request to extend the state’s cap and trade climate change.
Brown is offering an energized testimony to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, which is considering bills that would extend cap and trade and boost air-quality monitoring. Brown has made combating climate change a centerpiece of his agenda in California and on the world stage.
Brown is encouraging lawmakers to consider climate change “a threat to organized human existence” that must be tackled. His message to lawmakers: “This is the most important vote of your life.”
Brown says the state is required by law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and cap and trade is the cheapest way to do it.
The cap and trade program caps annual greenhouse gas emissions and requires polluters to obtain permits to release climate-changing gases.
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10:30 a.m.
California Republican leaders say their party is opposed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to expand the state’s cap and trade policy.
The GOP opposition announced Thursday complicates Brown’s effort to advance one of his highest priorities. He’ll almost certainly need Republican support to reach the two-thirds supermajority the legislation requires. A vote is slated for Monday.
Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes says none of his caucus members are currently supporting the legislation. He says Republicans want to see more tax cuts and regulatory relief.
Eleven of 13 Senate Republicans signed a letter saying they oppose extending cap and trade.
Brown’s office did not immediately comment. Brown and Democratic leaders had agreed to extend a series of tax breaks and eliminate a controversial fire-prevention fee in a bid to win Republican support.
___
6 a.m.
A plan to extend California’s signature climate initiative for another decade is scheduled to go before state legislative committees on Thursday.
The discussion comes as Gov. Jerry Brown and top lawmakers struggle to line up support in the face of opposition from some environmental advocates.
In a sign of that difficulty, lawmakers indicated Wednesday that negotiations had expanded beyond climate change and air quality to include the state’s lack of affordable housing.
Legislative leaders say they’ve scheduled votes in the Assembly and Senate for Monday, delaying a decision that had been expected to come Thursday evening.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-latest-california-climate-bill-clears-senate-hurdle/2017/07/13/7ea20508-6812-11e7-94ab-5b1f0ff459df_story.html?utm_term=.49356445796d
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Environmentalists Fault EPA's Approval of California Air Plan
Jul 14, 2017 | Inside EPA
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is criticizing EPA's proposed approval of a California district's clean air plan that they say wrongly excludes consideration of ammonia as a precursor to forming air pollution, reviving a debate over the regulation of animal feeding operations' ammonia emissions and implementation of federal air standards.
In a July 12 comment letter to EPA Region 9, CBD faults EPA's proposed approval of a revision to a regulation implementing federal air permitting in Imperial County, CA, under the new source review (NSR) program. Imperial County's Rule 207, which establishes NSR permitting requirements for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), “does not satisfy the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA), which requires ammonia to be regulated as a PM2.5 precursor,” CBD says. CBD's comments might presage an eventual lawsuit against EPA's approval, if the agency finalizes it as proposed.
Environmentalists have long argued that EPA and states should both evaluate the impacts of ammonia as a precursor to air pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone.
Some groups, including CBD, have also pushed for EPA to regulate ammonia as a “criteria” air pollutant in its own right, subjecting it to national ambient air quality standards under the air law.
Because Rule 207 lacks “specific enforceable measures” taking into account ammonia emissions as a precursor, EPA cannot approve it, CBD argues. “EPA’s conditional approval is not valid under the CAA and the District’s Rule 207 proposal must be denied. The EPA is therefore obligated to implement a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that will mandate ammonia as a PM2.5 precursor and cure the Rule 207 deficiency within two years,” CBD says.
Ammonia emissions are a significant issue in Imperial County, which experiences substantial air quality problems but also has a large livestock population. Environmentalists have pressed EPA to regulate ammonia and other air emissions from concentrated animal feed operations, so far without success.
However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently ruled for environmentalists that EPA must require air emissions reporting from smaller animal feeding operations, which were previously exempt.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/environmentalists-fault-epas-approval-california-air-plan
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How Much of an Impact Do Green Building Designs Really Have on the Environment?
Jul 14, 2017 | The Energy Collective
By Bobbi Peterson
It’s becoming more common in cities across the world to see buildings outfitted with solar panels, rooftop gardens and large windows to take advantage of natural light and heat from the sun. Many of these buildings also have other, less obvious green characteristics that help them reduce their environmental impact as well.
Green buildings, which are designed to use resources more efficiently and cause minimal damage to the natural environment, have been touted as a way to help preserve our planet and save us from the impacts of global warming. But how much impact do they really have?
Resource Conservation
Buildings account for 39 percent of all of the energy used in the United States. If green architecture can improve those numbers, it has the potential to significantly impact the overall health of our environment.
Buildings use a lot of energy for heating, cooling, electricity and more, but Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings have been shown to use 25 percent less energy than non-certified buildings.
They achieve this through the use of several design elements. Planting vegetation on rooftops helps keep buildings cooler in the summer, and passive solar can be used to heat them in the winter. Many green buildings also use renewable energy.
LEED-certified buildings can also help occupants use less water. Through the use of water-efficient appliances and fixtures, green designs can reduce water use by 15 percent. They can also help reduce water waste. In the U.S., landscaping makes up 50 percent of water use. Green buildings can divert lightly used water, such as what’s used for laundry and in kitchens, for landscaping.
Green Construction
Building construction can also have a large environmental impact. The construction sector is responsible for up to 23 percent of air pollution, and everything from sourcing and producing materials to transporting them to actual construction processes can impact the environment.
Green builders are more likely to use sustainably sourced materials and use more renewable materials such as bamboo instead of hardwood, which helps preserve forest ecosystems and keeps more trees alive to filter carbon dioxide out of the air.
Green design can also improve the air quality inside a building by integrating vegetation that cleans the air and using materials that release fewer contaminants like volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde. This improves the health of both the people who spend time in the structure and of the environment.
Construction also produces a lot of waste, which green builders try to avoid. Green designs use recycled materials, avoid sending excess resources to landfills and will sometimes even repurpose an existing structure to avoid demolition.
http://www.theenergycollective.com/bobbipeterson/2408602/much-impact-green-building-designs-really-environment
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