Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 7/21/17
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White House Deregulation Push Clears Out Hundreds Of Proposed Rules
Jul 20, 2017 | Reuters
By David Shepardson and Valerie Volcovici
The White House said Thursday it had withdrawn or removed from active consideration more than 800 proposed regulations that were never finalized during the Obama administration as it works to shrink the federal government's regulatory footprint. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Weighs Changing Chemical Data Reporting Rules
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto and Tiffany Stecker
The EPA may revise a regulation used to collect chemical production volume and other information from chemical manufacturers, according to an updated spring regulatory agenda it released July 20. -
Small Businesses Praise Effort to Stop EPA's Solvent Rules
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Small companies in America's heartland welcomed a House committee's effort to block the EPA from restricting the use of three solvents and possibly forcing them to close their doors. -
(ACC Mentioned) Delay of Farmworker Protection Rule Could Be Announced Soon
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker
The EPA will extend the deadline that state agriculture agencies are facing to meet new rules shielding farmworkers from pesticide exposure. -
EU Pressures Countries to Decide on Glyphosate Reauthorization
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Union floated the possibility that manufacturers of pesticides containing glyphosate could lose access to the EU market after 2017 if the bloc's member countries are unable to agree on a reauthorization for the chemical. -
(ACC Mentioned) LyondellBasell To Move Ahead On $2.4 Billion Houston Plant
Jul 21, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum
The Houston petrochemical company LyondellBasell said it will move forward with its most expensive project ever, a $2.4 billion plant near the Houston Ship Channel that would become the largest factory of its kind in the world. -
Bills Streamlining Pipeline Permitting Pass House With Some Bipartisan Support
Jul 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
Two bills designed to streamline the permitting process for energy infrastructure, including oil and natural gas pipelines, passed the House of Representatives with some measure of bipartisan support on Wednesday. -
Permian Expansions on Horizon for Kinder as Mexico, LNG Drive NatGas Growth
Jul 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jeremiah Shelor
Demand pull from exports to Mexico and from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on the Gulf Coast has bolstered Kinder Morgan Inc.'s (KMI) outlook for its natural gas transportation business, as volumes rose during the second quarter. Expansions targeting Permian Basin output also are on the horizon. -
Federal Chemical Security Effort Evolves to Compliance
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Bruce Rolfsen
Department of Homeland Security inspections of workplaces handling dangerous chemicals have entered a new stage with inspectors conducting follow-up checks to see if sites are providing the protections employers promised, an agency official said July 20. -
Oil and Gas Companies Complying With Colorado's Pipeline Order
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
Anadarko Petroleum Co. is shutting down more than 5,600 pipelines following a fatal home explosion three months ago in Firestone, Colo. caused by a severed natural gas line connected to one of the company's vertical wells, a company official told Bloomberg BNA. -
(ACC Mentioned) GOP Effort To Make Environmental Science 'Transparent' Worries Scientists
Jul 20, 2017 | WPSU
By Nell Greenfieldboyce
Groups that represent industries from farming to fracking are supporting a legislative push to rewrite how government handles science when drawing up regulations. -
EPA Air Agenda Mum on Fate of Biggest Climate Rules
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
The EPA put its methane standards on an immediate chopping block but did not say when it will address carbon dioxide limits for power plants or whether it will repeal the scientific finding underpinning all climate change rules. -
State Air Group Highlights Suite Of EPA Rules For Possible Overhaul
Jul 20, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
The Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA), the group of state air regulators from mostly Republican-led states, is highlighting a suite of EPA rules that state and local air officials hope the agency will identify for possible overhauls in a report the agency is slated to issue next week. -
Maryland Plans Suit Over EPA Failure To Respond To Ozone Petitions
Jul 20, 2017 | Inside EPA
Maryland has put EPA on notice that it intends to sue the agency over its failure to respond to the state's petition for EPA to directly regulate power plants in five upwind states that contribute to the state's ozone levels, as East Coast states continue their quest to mitigate interstate ozone problems.
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White House Deregulation Push Clears Out Hundreds Of Proposed Rules
Jul 20, 2017 | Reuters
By David Shepardson and Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said Thursday it had withdrawn or removed from active consideration more than 800 proposed regulations that were never finalized during the Obama administration as it works to shrink the federal government's regulatory footprint.
In a report, the Trump administration said it had withdrawn 469 planned actions that had been part of the Obama administration's regulatory agenda published last fall. Officials also reconsidered 391 active regulatory proceedings by reclassifying them as long-term or inactive "allowing for further careful review," the White House said.
The steps to eliminate regulations makes good on a much-repeated Trump campaign promise to promote business-friendly policies. Investors have anticipated the action, helping to push share prices higher on hopes that fewer regulations will boost business growth and lead to higher corporate profits.
The Trump administration has identified nearly 300 regulations related to energy production and environmental protection it plans to rescind, review or delay across three agencies – the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior and Energy Departments.
Trump had identified several of the regulations as targets in his March executive orders on energy, but they will now undergo a formal rulemaking process to be rescinded or revised.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the administration was addressing "that slow cancer that can come from regulatory burdens that we put on our people."
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to place "regulatory reform" task forces and officers within federal agencies in what may be the most far-reaching effort to pare back U.S. red tape in recent decades.
Trump has vowed a sweeping cut in U.S. regulations and previously ordered agencies to repeal two rules for every new one adopted.
The Interior Department is reviewing an Obama-era rule that directed companies to reduce venting and flaring and methane leaks from oil and gas production on federal and tribal land, according to a White House semi-annual government-wide regulation report.
Representatives of the oil and gas industry cheered.
“We just got through eight years of a regulatory onslaught, aimed at curtailing oil and gas production. So we are very supportive of the administration’s efforts to roll back regulation,” said Kathleen Sgamma, head of the Western Energy Alliance, which represents oil and gas drillers in Western states.
She said membership was particularly pleased about the effort to repeal the methane rule, which the industry estimated would have cost about $50,000 per well. Methane is one of the gases scientists say is driving global climate change.
The U.S. Transportation Department said it would review a number of Obama administration proposals that were close to being finalized including making automobile event data recorders mandatory, requiring sounds for electric cars and updating some crash test dummy standards.
The government also said it does not plan to complete a number of airline-related regulatory actions within the next year, including new rules required by Congress generally requiring quick automated refunds for any baggage fees when checked luggage is not delivered.
The Energy Department listed dozens of energy efficiency standards for commercial and household appliances that it would review.
The White House said the regulatory agenda "represents the beginning of fundamental regulatory reform and a reorientation toward reducing unnecessary regulatory burden on the American people."
But some condemned the plan.
"Six months into the administration, the only accomplishments the president has had is to rollback, delay and rescind science-based safeguards," said Yogin Kothari of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Today’s release of the regulatory agenda confirms just as much. It continues to perpetuate a false narrative that regulations only have costs and no benefits.”
Among the labeling requirements pushed back are Agriculture Department rules regarding production labeling on "natural" for meat and poultry as well as the bioengineering disclosure standard.
The regulatory agenda calls for the U.S. Labor Department to rescind an Obama-era rule that prohibits restaurants and bars from forcing servers to share their tips with untipped employees such as cooks and dishwashers. That 2011 tip-pooling regulation is also the subject of a legal challenge by the National Restaurant Association, which has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the rule.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-idUSKBN1A40UX
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Weighs Changing Chemical Data Reporting Rules
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto and Tiffany Stecker
The EPA may revise a regulation used to collect chemical production volume and other information from chemical manufacturers, according to an updated spring regulatory agenda it released July 20.
It has delayed work on a final and a separate, proposed, Toxic Substances Control Act rule, both of which would have restricted some uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent degreaser that can cause neurological and other health problems at sufficient levels of exposure.
New, Ongoing Rules
The revised Toxic Substances Control Act rule (RIN:2070-AK33) the EPA is considering could alter the information chemical makers must submit under the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule.
The rule requires manufacturers—including importers—to provide the EPA with production volume, processing and use, and other information for chemicals made or imported above specified thresholds. Manufacturers’ next reports are due in 2020 and data from past reports has informed EPA's oversight of industrial chemicals under the 2016 Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act.
The Environmental Protection Agency also continues to evaluate a Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) petition (RIN:2070-AK26) to add 25 chemicals to the inventory. The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act program asked for additions—such as the solvent n-propyl bromide (nPB)—which are made in volumes greater than one million pounds annually and have well-documented health concerns.
Long-Term Actions
Following a flurry of rulemakings the agency issued June 22 to meet the amended toxics law mandates, the agency moved a number of other rulemakings from its immediate activities list to a register of “long-term actions.”
These include a proposed TSCA rule (RIN:2070-AJ94) to align the hazard communication aspects of its significant new use rules, or SNURs, with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Hazard Communications Standard. That rulemaking also would have revised reporting requirements for requests that chemical manufacturers submit to the EPA, called pre-manufacture notices (PMNs), when they want to make or import a new chemical (81 Fed. Reg. 49,598).
The American Chemistry Council, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute, and the American Coatings Association were among the industry groups that told the EPA its proposed revisions went too far. Competitors could have used some of the changes to get proprietary product or use information, they said.
Other long-term rulemakings include:
• a final rule (RIN:2070-AK03) to prohibit the manufacture, processing and distribution in commerce of TCE as a spotting agent in dry cleaning and in commercial and consumer aerosol spray degreasers,
• a proposed significant new use rule (RIN:2070-AK18) requiring companies that want to make a non-aerosol spray degreaser containing TCE to notify the EPA before doing so,
• a final significant new use rule (SNUR; RIN:2070-AK09) for alkylpyrrolidones, which are used as chemical reactants and in adhesives, coatings, silicone seal removers, and consumer and commercial paint primers, and
• a final SNUR for nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates, which are detergent-like chemicals used for industrial processes and in personal hygiene, automotive, latex paints, lawn care and some consumer laundry products.
Inactive Rulemakings
The EPA has dropped work on several chemical rules, according to a list of inactive federal rulemaking. These include:
• a proposed TSCA rule to obtain information about chemicals and chemical mixtures used for hydraulic fracturing (RIN:2070-AJ93),
• two possible TSCA rules reassessing ongoing authorized uses of polychlorinated biphenyls (RIN:2070-AJ38; RIN:2070-AK12),
• a final TRI rule (RIN:2070-AK16) to require natural gas processing facilities to report the chemicals released into the environment.
The EPA published the proposed TRI rule adding natural gas processors in the final days of the Obama administration to tighten disclosure requirements of toxic emissions under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Under the draft rule, these processing facilities would have had to submit data to the EPA on at least 21 different chemicals, including hydrogen sulfide, toluene, benzene and methanol. Upstream facilities—like hydraulic fracturing wells—would be exempt.The agency collected comments on the TRI proposal through May 6. The rule has been included on the last two regulatory agendas, Adam Kron, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), told Bloomberg BNA. He added that it was unclear whether this action was in line with the requirements for rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act.
“I'm not sure what to make of that,” Kron said. “I haven't seen just parking a rule like this.”
The rulemaking is a result of a petition the EIP and other groups submitted to the EPA in 2012.
The EPA did not respond to questions about the reasons it made these and other regulatory changes.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124423&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124423&jd=117124423
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Small Businesses Praise Effort to Stop EPA's Solvent Rules
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Small companies in America's heartland welcomed a House committee's effort to block the EPA from restricting the use of three solvents and possibly forcing them to close their doors.
“We might go out of business if the EPA proceeded with the rules as written,” Dallas Cochran, who owns a small company called Charles Paint Research, Inc. in Kansas City, Mo., told Bloomberg BNA.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill and report for the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies July 18 with provisions directing the regulator to delay its final rules that would restrict some uses of three solvents: trichloroethylene (TCE), methylene chloride, and n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP).
The three solvent rules would be the first to manage chemical risks that the EPA would issue under the 2016 Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, which amended the Toxic Substances Control Act. The EPA proposed the rules to reduce potential neurological and reproductive health problems that its analysis concluded could result for workers and consumers exposed to the solvents.
Environmental and public health advocates are among those who oppose the delays, saying public confidence in the new chemicals law would be undermined if solvent manufacturers and the House committee succeed in blocking the rules.
A local government agency director in Washington state and the attorney for a coalition of environmental and labor groups said communities, first responders, and workers need the protections these chemical rules would provide.
“We strongly support banning these substances as a needed protection for our residents and our environment. Local governments are first responders for nearly every negative outcome resulting from the widespread use of hazardous chemicals like methylene chloride and TCE—we have a deep stake in this issue,” Lynda Ransley, who directs the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County, Washington, said by email.
Chemical Use Restrictions
Using methylene chloride and NMP to remove paint and coatings would generally be prohibited by the EPA's first rule. The second would prohibit TCE for aerosol degreasing and spot cleaning by dry cleaners, while the third would prevent that solvent's use in vapor degreasers, which can be used to clean metal, electronic equipment, and other materials.
The EPA should continue its planned evaluation of the health and environmental risks that many different uses of all three solvents pose before deciding whether to proceed with its three rules, the committee's report said. The EPA's rules were based on narrow risk assessments it conducted before TSCA was amended. Since the law was overhauled, the EPA announced that it would assess a wider range of uses for the three solvents.
Methlene chloride-containing strippers are safe to use if people follow the directions on the label to use them outdoors or in well-ventilated spaces, said Charles Paint Research's Cochran.
Walter Tornstrom, who owns a small company called Rapid Blanket Restorer Corp. in Chesterland, Ohio, told Bloomberg BNA that the House committee approach, which would require the EPA to do more analysis before rulemaking, is better. His company sells a methylene-chloride solvent formulation used in the printing industry.
Both companies employ fewer than five people. The future of their businesses is also a concern for Cochran, who is 62 years old, and Tornstrom, 75. The EPA's rule to restrict the use of one of the solvents could make it difficult for them to sell their business because methylene chloride-containing products are important for both companies, Cochran and Tornstrom told Bloomberg BNA.
Workers, Local Budgets
King County's Ransley told Bloomberg BNA that paramedic services, medical examiners, household hazardous waste collection sites, and solid waste disposal are just a few of the local government services that must deal with the consequences of methylene chloride, TCE, and other hazardous materials in the community, she said.
The county also has to pay hazardous waste disposal fees to safely manage solvent-containing waste that residents bring to local collection sites, she told the EPA in comments on the proposed rule. If residents were to throw products into their municipal trash can, they will likely land in a public landfill, where they would pollute local air, soil, and water, she wrote in comments on the paint stripping and TCE degreasing rules.
Attorney Robert Sussman, who represents Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a national coalition of environmental, labor, and other advocacy groups, also opposes the delay.
“Workers using paint removers will die” if the EPA delays issuing its proposed methylene chloride and NMP restriction rule, he said at a meeting organized by the advocacy organization BlueGreen Alliance Foundation, which represents both workers and environmental groups.
Federal and state health agencies know of 17 deaths involving bathtub refinishers using methylene-chloride containing products.
Amended TSCA
Daniel Rosenberg, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Bloomberg BNA that the action of the House Appropriations Committee conflicts with the Lautenberg Act, which authorized the EPA to proceed with the rulemakings.
“Given the House language is contrary to the language and intent of Congress in Lautenberg, it would make sense for the Senate to right the wrong of the House by including a statement that reflects what the law said,” he said.
Rosenberg said he's talked to Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who introduced the Lautenberg Act and is ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the EPA's budget. Udall is “well-positioned to insist that something as egregious as the House report isn't allowed to influence what EPA does,” Rosenberg said.
Udall's office did not reply to requests for comment July 19.
Richard Denison, lead senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, told Bloomberg BNA the agency doesn't need to start over again with the rules.
“EPA's existing assessments demonstrated that these chemicals pose huge health risks, and we believe EPA has a responsibility to promptly address these risks by finalizing their proposed bans,” he said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124433&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124433&jd=117124433
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(ACC Mentioned) Delay of Farmworker Protection Rule Could Be Announced Soon
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker
The EPA will extend the deadline that state agriculture agencies are facing to meet new rules shielding farmworkers from pesticide exposure.
The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to publish a rule this month that will formally delay the compliance deadline for the agricultural Worker Protection Standard (RIN: 2070-AK40) by at least a year, according to the Office of Management and Budget's unified regulatory agenda released July 20.
The rule seeks to minimize the risk of pesticides to farm laborers. Finalized in 2015, the regulation marked the first update to the Worker Protection Standard since 1992. The new standard set a minimum age of 18 for laborers handling pesticides, expanded training to prevent pesticide exposure to children in farmworkers’ homes, and required no-entry zones up to 100 feet around sprayed areas.
The move comes after EPA said May 11 that it would delay the Worker Protection Standard and a separate, related rule to train and certify applicators of the more restricted pesticides. The regulatory agenda contains no information about compliance dates for the second rule. Both delays are opposed by farmworker advocacy groups.
“These actions are robbing some of the most exposed workers and communities of fundamental protections from pesticide exposure,” Andrea Liliana Delgado, senior legislative representative for the legal nonprofit Earthjustice, said in a May statement to Bloomberg BNA.
State Agencies’ Concerns
The 2015 rule set the implementation date for Jan. 2 of this year. Some state agencies said they did not have the materials and resources in place to carry out the new requirements, which include additional training and restrictions on the age of farmworkers approved to handle pesticides.
However, the EPA did not set an effective date for the pesticide handler certification and training rule (RIN:2070-AJ20).
In response to a petition from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture to extend implementation, the EPA agreed to delay the Worker Protection Standard's start date for at least a year, or until “adequate compliance tools have been completed and states have the necessary tools, time and resources to implement the rule changes.”
A final rule setting the compliance delay is set for November.
The EPA also is expected to clarify the tolerance limits for antimicrobial pesticides in accordance with a 2015 legal settlement with the American Chemistry Council, according to the regulatory agenda.
The EPA will propose a correction to a 2013 rule that set the maximum amount of a microbe-killing chemical at 200 parts per billion limit for a single food. The rule will be changed to say that the 200 ppb threshold is based on total estimated daily dietary intake.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124422&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124422&jd=117124422
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EU Pressures Countries to Decide on Glyphosate Reauthorization
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Union floated the possibility that manufacturers of pesticides containing glyphosate could lose access to the EU market after 2017 if the bloc's member countries are unable to agree on a reauthorization for the chemical.
Anca Paduraru, spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, told Bloomberg BNA July 20 that the commission “has no intention to reapprove glyphosate” unless member countries decide whether or not they want to continue to permit the use of pesticides containing the substance. Glyphosate is the world's most widely used herbicide.
Under EU rules, the commission formally adopts pesticide approvals based on a positive qualified majority vote of a regulatory committee of EU member country representatives. For glyphosate, however, EU countries are split because of a dispute over the substance's carcinogenicity, meaning there may be no qualified majority either for or against the reauthorization.
In such a situation, the commission can step in to decide if the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared a substance to be safe, as it has with glyphosate.
Paduraru confirmed to Bloomberg BNA, however, that in case EU countries fail to either support or reject the reauthorization of glyphosate, the commission will not exercise its power to step in and instead allow the current glyphosate authorization—which runs to the end of 2017—to lapse. The commission said in May that it will discuss with the regulatory committee a reauthorization of glyphosate through 2027.
The reauthorization of glyphosate in the EU is controversial after the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said in 2015 that the substance was probably carcinogenic. EFSA subsequently said it probably wasn't carcinogenic, while the European Chemicals Agency said glyphosate should not be classified carcinogenic in the EU.
Situation ’Worrying’ for Companies
The EU regulatory committee that votes on pesticides approvals discussed the reauthorization of glyphosate at a July 20 meeting. Paduraru said a vote would be held in the fall.
Graeme Taylor, public affairs director of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), told Bloomberg BNA July 20 that the commission's plan not to reauthorize glyphosate in case of a no-opinion vote was a “worrying shift.”
EU countries avoid taking “unpopular or difficult” decisions by delivering no-opinion votes, but in such cases the commission should step in because it has a “responsibility to science and evidence-based decision making,” Taylor said.
Glyphosate was developed by Monsanto, though the patent expired in 2000 and pesticides containing the substance are now made by numerous companies. Monsanto spokesman Brian Carroll told Bloomberg BNA July 20 that ECPA spoke for the company on the issue.
ECPA told Bloomberg BNA that other member companies that produce and distribute glyphosate-containing products are Adama Agricultural Solutions, Arysta LifeScience, HELM AG, Nufarm Ltd., Syngenta Corp., and UPL. About 40 percent of world production of glyphosate is now made in China, Carroll said.
Bart Staes, a Belgian Green member of the European Parliament, said in a July 20 statement that when the regulatory committee votes on glyphosate, it should outright reject a continued authorization because of “serious health concerns associated with the substance.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124439&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124439&jd=117124439
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(ACC Mentioned) LyondellBasell To Move Ahead On $2.4 Billion Houston Plant
Jul 21, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Jordan Blum
The Houston petrochemical company LyondellBasell said it will move forward with its most expensive project ever, a $2.4 billion plant near the Houston Ship Channel that would become the largest factory of its kind in the world.
The project, which would create some 2,500 construction jobs and 160 permanent positions at the plant, represents a continuation of the petrochemical boom along the Gulf Coast fueled by cheap and ample natural gas liquids and supported by access to foreign markets through the growing export terminals at the Port of Houston and other Texas ports. The American Chemistry Council, a trade group, estimated the Texas Gulf Coast accounts for about $70 billion of the $185 billion in petrochemical plants completed since 2010 or planned through 2023.
The Houston area today boasts one of the world's greatest concentrations of petrochemical plants, in many ways the result of the shale-drilling boom that produced large amounts of natural gas liquids - primarily ethane- which provide the feedstock for most modern chemicals, including plastics. The rapid growth of the sector, which created tens of thousands of construction jobs and thousands of permanent positions, helped the region weather the worst oil bust in generations and avoid the broader economic collapse that battered the area in the 1980s.
The industry's expansion has slowed as projects have been completed, but it continues to attract investment from some of the world's biggest companies. Exxon Mobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical and Dow Chemical are building modern plastics expansions near Houston in Mont Belvieu, Old Ocean and Freeport, respectively.
LyondellBasell's latest expansion, said Bob Harvey, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, solidifies "Houston's position as a global hub of petrochemical manufacturing, leveraging Houston's strategic access to the Americas and top markets around the world."
The new LyondellBasell plant will make propylene oxide, which is used to make bedding, carpeting, coatings, building materials and adhesives, and the by-product tertiary butyl alcohol, which is refined into an additive that makes fuels burn cleaner. The plant will have the biggest production capacity in the world for these chemicals, capable of manufacturing 1 billion pounds of propylene oxide and 2.2 billion pounds of tertiary butyl alcohol a year.
As part of the project, the company will build a plant to refine tertiary butyl alcohol into fuel additives. Construction on the project is slated to begin next year, with completion scheduled for 2021.
LyondellBasell planned this project awhile ago but stopped short of authorizing to allow other local expansions to begin first. In May, for example, LyondellBasell started construction on a $700 million plant in La Porte to churn out thinner, more durable and less environmentally harmful versions of the world's most common plastic, polyethylene. The facility should come online in 2019.
The ethane from Texas' shale gas is used to make the chemical ethylene. Ethylene is converted into pellet form and either consumed domestically or exported to Asia and Europe.
In the last few years, LyondellBasell also has completed ethylene expansions at its Channelview, La Porte and Corpus Christi sites, as well as a plastics expansion in Matagorda.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/LyondellBasell-to-move-ahead-on-2-4-billion-11304010.php
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Bills Streamlining Pipeline Permitting Pass House With Some Bipartisan Support
Jul 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
Two bills designed to streamline the permitting process for energy infrastructure, including oil and natural gas pipelines, passed the House of Representatives with some measure of bipartisan support on Wednesday.
Seventeen Democrats joined 237 Republicans to vote in favor of HR 2883, also known as the Promoting Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure Act. The bill calls for replacing the presidential permit requirement for oil and natural gas pipelines and electric transmission facilities that cross the U.S. border between Canada or Mexico.
The bill also calls for FERC to issue certificates for oil and gas pipelines that cross the border, while the secretary of the Department of Energy would issue them for electric transmission facilities.
HR 2883 was introduced by Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Gene Green (D-TX) on June 12. Despite bipartisan support from the start, 175 Democrats voted against the legislation.
House lawmakers also passed HR 2910, the Promoting Interagency Coordination for Review of Natural Gas Pipelines Act, on a 248-179 vote. Thirteen Democrats joined 235 Republicans in support. The bill calls for strengthening the lead agency role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and further defining the process for federal and state regulatory agencies involved in the permitting process for interstate natural gas pipelines.
Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), whose district includes north-central New Jersey, joined 178 Democrats in voting no on the bill. HR 2910 was introduced by Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) on June 15.
Neither bill has counterpart legislation under consideration by the Senate. Both passed the muster of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Monday.
Oil and gas industry voices support, but Democrats rail
"Despite the clear need for pipelines, the permitting process has become more protracted and challenging," Don Santa, CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), said in a statement Thursday applauding HR 2910's passage. "While FERC acts in a timely manner on most proposed applications, roadblocks and delays are becoming commonplace with other federal and state permitting agencies.
"We hope the Senate takes prompt action on this legislation that will facilitate the responsible and orderly development of infrastructure, enabling consumers to enjoy more fully the benefits of America's abundant and affordable natural gas supply."
In a separate statement, the American Petroleum Institute (API) joined INGAA in thanking the House for passing both bills.
"This is an important step in strengthening our nation's energy infrastructure and creating U.S. jobs across the country," said Robin Rorick, API's midstream and industry operations group director. "Creating certainty and improving efficiency in the permitting process for natural gas pipelines will ensure that consumers continue benefitting from affordable, reliable, clean-burning natural gas.
"We urge the Senate to approve this legislation so that American workers, consumers, and the environment can continue to benefit from our nation’s abundant supply of natural gas."
Before the vote on HR 2883, Green said opponents of the bill "argue the executive permitting process has worked well in the past. It is true that in the past the process has been proven effective. Unfortunately, cross-border decisions have now fallen victim to election year-cycle politics.
"We cannot build infrastructure in this country or on the continent based on who sits in the White House, whether they be Democrat or Republican. It is Congress' responsibility to create regulatory rules by which infrastructure is constructed."
But Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) countered that HR 2883 "would allow large and long-lived cross-border energy projects to be approved with no understanding or consideration of their environmental impact or to be exempted from any permitting requirement at all.
"The bill assumes that these projects are always in the public interest regardless of the merits. It is an unjustifiable giveaway. It elevates corporate profits over the public interest, and it is wrong."
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) concurred. "We all know that FERC acts as a rubber stamp for fossil fuel projects, and the bills we are considering today further narrow the opportunities for private landowners to push back against projects and try to protect their land from eminent domain."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111157-bills-streamlining-pipeline-permitting-pass-house-with-some-bipartisan-support
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Permian Expansions on Horizon for Kinder as Mexico, LNG Drive NatGas Growth
Jul 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jeremiah Shelor
Demand pull from exports to Mexico and from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on the Gulf Coast has bolstered Kinder Morgan Inc.'s (KMI) outlook for its natural gas transportation business, as volumes rose during the second quarter. Expansions targeting Permian Basin output also are on the horizon.
KMI's gas transportation volumes were up 3% year/year during 2Q2017 on the strength of higher exports to Mexico (up 8% year/year) and LNG exports pulling from its pipes, management for the Houston-based midstreamer said during a conference call with analysts late Wednesday.
KMI continues to firm up customer support for its proposed Permian-to-Agua Dulce Gulf Coast Express project, said CEO Steve Kean.
"We're not putting it in our backlog at this point, but we've got a good offering to the market, and we're progressing our commercial discussions toward firm commitments,” he said. “We also continue to see interest in our Permian capacity on" the El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline Co. (EPNG) system, "which has some very economic -- that is, low-capital -- expansion opportunities to get more gas to Waha."
Kean said Gulf Coast Express plans to complement EPNG upgrades to bring more Permian gas to the Waha hub in West Texas.
"The EPNG expansions are about getting gas to Waha, and what Gulf Coast Express is about is getting gas away from Waha to the premium market that is now in East Texas. So they're very complementary," Kean said. "In terms of the capital on EPNG, we've got some fairly significant volume opportunities" of about 500 MMcf/d where "there isn't a significant amount of capital required, things like being able to direct more gas to Waha by installing backpressure valves and additional meters and the like.
"...EPNG has a nice network in the Permian, and to the extent we can feed additional gas to Waha...that provides a good supply end for Gulf Coast Express," Kean said. "And on the market end, we think we've got an excellent Texas intrastate system that's tied in with Mexico, LNG, petrochemical demand, power demand, Houston Ship Channel, industrial and utility demand in the greater Houston area.
“It's a great network with great connectivity.” Agua Dulce, in a rural area of South Texas near Corpus Christi, “used to be in the middle of nowhere. Now you can get to Agua Dulce and you can get to Houston, which is all of a sudden really somewhere in terms of value for the gas molecule."
In late May, KMI spun off its Canadian assets via an initial public offering (IPO), forming Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. (KML), which includes its Trans Mountain Pipeline serving the Canadian oilsands. As part of the completion of the IPO, KML made a final investment decision for its planned expansion of the Trans Mountain system.
Kean said all 708,000 bbl of the Trans Mountain expansion remains under long-term contract and that KML has secured financing for the C$7.4 billion project. The expansion has received environmental approval from British Columbia and is on track to begin construction in September.
"As we are moving into project execution, we're finalizing rates with contractors, we're ordering materials readying for construction to start in September. We're doing that with substantial First Nation support, support from the federal government on a project of vital national interest, support from the Alberta government and with our BC environmental order in hand, and with significant financing sources already secured," Kean said.
The strong prospects for the gas business come as KMI management looks to return value to its shareholders through a series of dividends and a $2 billion share buyback program implemented over the next few years.
"At the end of 2015, we made a very difficult decision to reduce our dividend for the first and only time in KMI's history," Executive Chairman Richard Kinder said. "We said we would work hard to strengthen our balance sheet and fund our growth" capital expenditures "from our internally generated cash flow without having to issue equity or additional debt and that when we had made sufficient progress on those goals, we would begin to return additional value to our shareholders."
The company has since cut around $5.8 billion in debt while funding its operations through cash flow, said the CEO.
KMI plans to increase its dividend by 60% in 2018 and by 25%/year for 2019 and 2020. The $2 billion share buyback program is expected to start in 2018.
KMI reported 28,187 billion Btu/d in natural gas transport volumes during the quarter, up from 27,414 in the year-ago period. Gas gathering volumes declined year/year to 2,673 billion Btu/d from 2,993 billion Btu/d in 2Q2016. Throughput on the Trans Mountain mainline was 27.5 million bbl during the quarter, down from 28.7 million bbl in the year-ago quarter.
KMI reported a quarterly net income of $337 million (15 cents/share), compared with a net income in 2Q2016 of $333 million (15 cents). Revenue totaled $3.368 billion, up from $3.144 billion in the year-ago period.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111160-permian-expansions-on-horizon-for-kinder-as-mexico-lng-drive-natgas-growth
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Federal Chemical Security Effort Evolves to Compliance
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Bruce Rolfsen
Department of Homeland Security inspections of workplaces handling dangerous chemicals have entered a new stage with inspectors conducting follow-up checks to see if sites are providing the protections employers promised, an agency official said July 20.
Before, most inspections had been part of the initial process for DHS to approve security plans.
David Wulf, acting deputy assistant secretary for DHS's Office of Infrastructure Protection, said that in 2017 about 93 percent of the division's inspections will spotlight whether worksites adhere to their federally mandated chemical security programs.
The new emphasis is a turnaround for an agency that had been criticized for taking too long to have its chemical security program in place.
The infrastructure division, starting around 2013, had focused on inspections that were part of the authorization process for approving security plans, Wulf said. The focus evolved to follow-up compliance checks after about 3,000 authorization inspections were made.
Wulf spoke at the 11th annual Chemical Sector Security Conference in Houston, Texas, on the agency's Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS).
Not Just Manufacturers
In addition to chemical manufacturers, DHS regulates chemical handling among a wide-range of sites including food processors, research laboratories, oil refineries and fertilizer plants, Wulf said.
Triggering DHS's interest is whether a site handles any of the hundreds of substances called a “chemical of interest” by the agency. The agency's primary concern is whether terrorists would be likely to attack the site or if chemical could be stolen and used in later attack.
As part of an additional security review, DHS is working with about 160 facilities to determine if more than 7,000 workers who have unescorted access to chemicals pose a terrorism risk, Wulf said.
Still unresolved is how the agency will deal with the transportation of ammonium nitrate, a widely used fertilizer ingredient also frequently used to make terrorist bombs.
Wulf said DHS is awaiting a report due in early 2018 from the National Academies of Sciences on chemicals used to make improvised bombs. The report is expected to recommend voluntary and mandatory measures for employers and DHS to take.
Paying attention only to ammonium nitrate would have “done little more than shift the risk” to other chemicals, Wulf said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124436&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124436&jd=117124436
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Oil and Gas Companies Complying With Colorado's Pipeline Order
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
Anadarko Petroleum Co. is shutting down more than 5,600 pipelines following a fatal home explosion three months ago in Firestone, Colo. caused by a severed natural gas line connected to one of the company's vertical wells, a company official told Bloomberg BNA.
Anadarko and about 162 other oil and gas operators in Colorado are working to comply with a state notice to operators issued after a cut, leaking gas flowline caused the explosion April 17 that killed two men.
More than 370 company employees and contractors are disconnecting, plugging, and “abandoning” some 3,600 one-inch supply or “return” lines from all its operated vertical wells in the basin, Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen said July 19. The company also is focused on cutting off and plugging more than 2,000 inactive steel flowlines, which connect wellheads to production facilities.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) on May 2 directed the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to issue the notice to operators to ensure safety in light of increased oil and gas drilling activity in close proximity to homes and other occupied buildings. Phase 1 of the notice requires companies to inspect and pressure test their existing flowlines. Phase 2 requires them to verify that any flowline not in active use has been “abandoned” under commission Rule 1103, which includes lines being cut off below ground and sealed.
Deadline Extension
Anadarko and six other companies recently received an extension until July 31 of the original June 30 deadline for Phase 2. Anadarko sought the extension given the scope of the order, the scale of the company's operations, and the additional voluntary efforts it has undertaken beyond the notice.
The other companies—Noble Energy inc., Willsource Enterprises LLC, BP America, ConocoPhillips, PDC Energy, and Pioneer Natural Resources—have been granted extensions until the end of the month, Todd Hartman, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, told Bloomberg BNA July 19.
Anadarko also has pressure-tested more than 4,000 active lines, and 99.6 percent passed. The 16 lines that failed will be repaired and retested, Christiansen said. The majority of the abandoned lines were located on tank farms, he said. Anadarko has switched to a tankless system in the region, transporting hydrocarbons on larger pipelines and handling them at a centralized facility.
Costs Not Yet Tallied
The company has not determined how much money it is spending to comply with the notice.
“Our focus continues to be on helping residents feel safe in their homes,” Christiansen said, adding that Anadarko has offered to fund methane-detection equipment for homes in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Noble has integrity tested some 2,500 flowlines it currently operates within 1,500 feet of building units, Brian Miller, spokesman for the company in Denver, told Bloomberg BNA July 19. The company has disconnected and plugged some 4,000 flowlines since the notice went into effect, he said.
Once companies have complied with the order, the commission will assess the data to ensure flowline integrity and the marking and removal of inactive flowlines, Hartman said. Commission staff also will continue to verify information submitted through on-site inspections.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124440&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124440&jd=117124440
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(ACC Mentioned) GOP Effort To Make Environmental Science 'Transparent' Worries Scientists
Jul 20, 2017 | WPSU
By Nell Greenfieldboyce
Groups that represent industries from farming to fracking are supporting a legislative push to rewrite how government handles science when drawing up regulations.
And the whole effort has scientists worried.
Consider, for example, the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act, or HONEST Act, which passed the House in the spring and now is with the Senate. Just how "honest" it is depends on whom you ask.
The HONEST Act says the EPA can't take a particular action based on scientific research unless that research is "publicly available online in a manner than is sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results."
Trouble is, making all that data widely available in such detail isn't always possible — past studies may not have all this documentation. And it's a huge burden to require that everything from raw data to computer models be made available to outsiders, says Thomas Burke, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was a science advisor at the EPA.
"To say that every study needs to have the data out there — this is code for 'We are going challenge it — to raise issues of uncertainty and play the delay game' that was so successfully played, unfortunately, with things like tobacco," says Burke.
When industry delays regulation by nitpicking the science, he says, public health suffers.
The HONEST Act has been endorsed by industry groups ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the American Chemistry Council. Bruce Thompson, president of the American Exploration & Production Council, which represents oil and gas exploration companies, says his group supports the bill because when it comes to issues like fracking, science at the EPA has previously gotten mixed up with politics.
"Hopefully that is changing," says Thompson. "And I don't say that from the standpoint of, 'They'll politicize it our way.' That's not what we want. We want it to be objective and seen in a proper, transparent, scientific light."
Industries like fracking are important for the economy, Thompson says, so there's a lot at stake here.
The chairman of the House science committee, Texas Republican Lamar Smith, has described it as a common sense bill that requires the EPA to act on solid, transparent science.
"In our modern information age, federal regulations should be based only upon data that is available for every American to see and that can be subjected to independent review. That's called the scientific method," he told his colleagues.
Other legislation being considered by the current Congress, such as the Regulatory Accountability Act, also tries to spell out what kind of science can get used when the government acts.
This legislative effort has the support of groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation, which is concerned about possible restrictions on pesticides.
"More than anything else, we're looking for a process that's open, a process where other scientists can kind of look at the data that EPA uses, and then look to see if that science is repeatable," says Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory relations for the federation.
But words like "repeatable" are exactly what worries Sean Gallagher, the senior government relations officer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"Defining terms, or setting in stone, terms like 'reproducible' or 'independent analysis' may sound good when you read it and it may look simple," says Gallagher, "but they have serious unintended consequences that may manifest down the line."
For example, Gallagher points out that research done in the wake of a catastrophe, like the BP oil spill, wouldn't be repeatable — because no one wants to reproduce an environmental disaster, even if they could. That kind of science could potentially get excluded from decision-making if the HONEST Act became law.
That's why a number of scientific organizations oppose the bill. "For the scientific community," Gallagher says, "this is a very bad bill, and it has serious implications."
President Trump and the Republicans in Congress have made reducing government regulation a top priority, however. That's why Gallagher thinks some kind of legislation like this bill has a real shot at being taken up by the Senate later this summer.
http://radio.wpsu.org/post/gop-effort-make-environmental-science-transparent-worries-scientists
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EPA Air Agenda Mum on Fate of Biggest Climate Rules
Jul 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
The EPA put its methane standards on an immediate chopping block but did not say when it will address carbon dioxide limits for power plants or whether it will repeal the scientific finding underpinning all climate change rules.
The agency's regulatory agenda, released July 20, leans heavily on rules for hazardous and conventional air pollutants after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt vowed to return the agency to its core functions of protecting clean air and clean water. This summer, the agency plans to halt methane emissions limits for oil and gas wells and for landfills as the administration reconsiders those rules. The agenda offers no details, however, on what the EPA will do about the Obama administration's biggest climate change initiatives, which Pruitt had opposed as Oklahoma attorney general.
“I wouldn't read much into something appearing or not appearing in the regulatory agenda,” William Yeatman, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has opposed EPA greenhouse gas regulations, told Bloomberg BNA.
The EPA sent a plan (RIN:2060-AT55) to repeal the carbon dioxide standards for power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan, to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review in June, but the regulatory agenda did not include a schedule for when that plan might be issued. The rule is listed among the agency's long-term objectives, along with comparable emissions limits for newly built power plants.
Some conservative and free market groups have pressed the EPA to go further and reconsider its 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions should be regulated under the Clean Air Act, which would eliminate all of the agency's climate regulations. The EPA has not yet responded to those petitions and the regulatory agenda gave no indication of whether the administration would pursue that course.
The agenda also is silent about the administration's plans for reviewing carbon dioxide emissions standards for model year 2022 through 2025 passenger vehicles, which the EPA had said it planned to complete by April 2018.
The Obama administration had concluded that those standards—which required manufacturers to achieve the equivalent of 54.5 miles per gallon on average by 2025—were reasonable. But the Trump administration said it would reconsider that finding.
Agenda: Traditional Pollution
The EPA's upcoming slate of air pollution rules focuses primarily on required reviews of its national air quality standards and mandatory updates to various toxic pollution emissions standards for a host of industries.
The EPA plans to complete by March 2018 a rule (RIN:2060-AS82) laying out requirements for states implementing new, more-stringent ozone air quality standards set in 2015. The EPA in June announced plans to delay for a year decisions on which areas of the country fail to meet the 70 parts per billion ozone standards, drawing a legal challenge from environmental groups.
John Walke, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Clean Air Project, told Bloomberg BNA the agenda also gave no indication whether the EPA would reopen the 2015 ozone standards, which Pruitt also had opposed as Oklahoma attorney general.
Also missing is the EPA's timeline for reviewing the air quality standards for particulate matter, last set in 2012. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must complete its review by 2018, but the regulatory agenda gives no dates for starting or completing that process.
By the end of the year, the agency will make additional determinations (RIN:2060-AT45) of which regions don't meet air quality standards for sulfur dioxide, complying with a court settlement with environmental groups. The EPA has already completed two rounds of designations for the sulfur dioxide standards, set at 75 parts per billion in 2010.
A rule to retain the current nitrogen dioxide standards (RIN:2060-AR57) should be completed by May 2018, according to the agenda. The EPA has already released a proposal saying the existing standards are sufficient to protect public health and the environment, echoing the conclusion of its scientific advisers. The proposal is expected to be published in the Federal Register in August, according to the agenda.
The EPA's agenda also includes updates to several toxic pollution emissions standards for industries such as petroleum refining, secondary lead smelting, ceramics manufacturing, and Portland cement manufacturing.
Though Pruitt has pitched his administration as returning to the agency's core functions, Walke said the regulatory agenda gives no indication that those air pollution rules will be sufficiently protective.
“Each of those rules could turn out to weaken or worsen the status quo and weaken and worsen what the statute requires,” he said. “We don't know and the document doesn't say.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=117124421&vname=dennotallissues&fn=117124421&jd=117124421
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State Air Group Highlights Suite Of EPA Rules For Possible Overhaul
Jul 20, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
The Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA), the group of state air regulators from mostly Republican-led states, is highlighting a suite of EPA rules that state and local air officials hope the agency will identify for possible overhauls in a report the agency is slated to issue next week.
Together with the Council of Governments (COG), the group issued a July 19 report, “The State of Regulatory Reform,” which compiled comments that AAPCA's state and local members have submitted to various EPA deregulatory dockets identifying rules for possible overhaul.
The document is intended “to help navigate intergovernmental priorities for regulatory reform on Clean Air Act and cross-media issues” at EPA, AAPCA says.
The document was issued ahead of a July 26 deadline for agencies to submit a draft final report on their regulatory reform recommendations to the White House for review, AAPCA notes, citing a May 8 Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs memo to agencies' regulatory reform officers encouraging officials to coordinate compliance with Trump administration executive orders (EO), including EO 13777, which requires agencies to create task forces to identify burdensome rules for repeal or replacement; and EO 13783, which promotes energy independence and instructed EPA to kill the Obama-era power plant greenhouse gas rules, among other initiatives.
The document compiles public comments the group's members sent to EPA when it was soliciting regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement or modification and the report compiles the states' comments into themes.
AAPCA's compilation of comments is designed to help illustrate key state priorities but stops short of including individual comments on whether specific rules are appropriate to repeal, replace, modify or maintain.
These “themes” of EPA regulations to be addressed include: the once in/always in policy for air toxics sources; treatment of data influenced by exceptional events; emissions guidelines for municipal solid waste landfills; standards for stationary compression internal combustion engines and other types of engines; the startup, shutdown and malfunction state implementation plan (SIP) call; permitting requirements for air curtain incinerators; regional haze; the nitrogen oxides SIP call; interstate ozone transport; the Clean Power Plan and its new source counterpart; modeling issues and appendix W for the oil and gas sector; the ozone air quality standard; the cross-media electronic reporting rule; guidance as de facto rulemaking; and general air quality standards and SIP process improvements.
The report on the EPA regulatory reform effort notes that the agency accepted comment through May 5 and as of July 18 the docket included more than 467,000 comments. The report highlights individual rules and themes in order to help state and local officials navigate that volume of comments, particularly as submitted by state environmental agencies.
If at least three state agencies commented on a rule, then their comments were more likely to be included in the report, which includes links to individual illustrative comments and excerpts.
Finally, AAPCA notes that the rules identified may also be relevant to two other Trump orders: EO 13771 on reducing rules and controlling regulatory costs, and EO 13563 on improving regulations and regulatory review.
State Forum
Additionally, AAPCA and COG launched a website “States at the Table,” to help provide a forum for the effort with a specific focus on how states can engage in federal advisory committees, suggesting a stepped up role for some states that wish to engage with EPA in its deregulatory agenda.
The page now lists open nominations that states may want to submit including for slots on EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board.
The website also seeks to provide a resource for state leaders from all three branches of government on how to interact with energy and environmental agencies through federal advisory committees.
“In particular, this site will catalog committees of interest at U.S. EPA, U.S. Department of Energy, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of the Interior, as well as provide an introduction to the Federal Advisory Committee Act,” the group says in a statement. “Providing information on meetings, activities, history and openings with these influential panels can help state, local and tribal officials navigate an alphabet soup of federal agencies, promote federalism on complex energy and environmental issues, and provide interested state officials with a potential 'seat at the table' with their federal counterparts in the early stages of regulatory, scientific or intergovernmental decision making.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/state-air-group-highlights-suite-epa-rules-possible-overhaul
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Maryland Plans Suit Over EPA Failure To Respond To Ozone Petitions
Jul 20, 2017 | Inside EPA
Maryland has put EPA on notice that it intends to sue the agency over its failure to respond to the state's petition for EPA to directly regulate power plants in five upwind states that contribute to the state's ozone levels, as East Coast states continue their quest to mitigate interstate ozone problems.
In a July 20 letter, Maryland Secretary of the Environment Ben Grumbles, a Republican appointee, gives EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt 60 days' notice that the state will sue EPA in federal court if the agency does not respond to its petition filed under Clean Air Act section 126 for EPA to directly regulate the upwind sources.
Maryland's Nov. 16 petition asked EPA to regulate emissions from 36 electric generating units located at power plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The state claims that these sources contribute significantly to problems attaining the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone, including the 2008 NAAQS set at 75 parts per billion (ppb), and the tougher Obama EPA limit of 70 ppb set in 2015.
Maryland says EPA has missed a statutory deadline of July 15 to respond, which EPA already extended by six months. Also, EPA has failed to hold a public hearing on the issue as required by the air law, Maryland says.
The petition was part of a broad push by eastern states seeking to pressure EPA to force upwind states to reduce their ozone-forming emissions through direct regulation and stricter federal rules on ozone transport in order to help the downwind states attain federal air standards.
But the states' strategy faces an uncertain future under the Trump administration, which is already taking steps to delay and roll back Obama-era requirements.
Amelia Chassé, a spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), said in a statement, “Protecting Maryland's air quality will always be a priority of this administration, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that other states and the federal government are meeting their responsibilities.”
Although Grumbles has served under two Republican governors, including Hogan and former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, and prior to that as a senior manager in the George W. Bush EPA, he has taken a hard line on out-of-state air pollution in his current post, as well as in his new position as chair of the Ozone Transport Commission, a group of East Coast states.
This is consistent with other Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states that complain that much of their ozone pollution stems from emissions of nitrogen oxides from upwind states.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/maryland-plans-suit-over-epa-failure-respond-ozone-petitions
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