Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 21/8/2017
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EU Commission Publishes Green Public Procurement Criteria for Furniture
Aug 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission has issued a staff working document on the EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for furniture. -
Lithuania Becomes First Ex-Soviet State to Buy US Natural Gas
Aug 21, 2017 | Financial Times
By David Sheppard
Lithuania became the first former Soviet state to import a shipment of US natural gas on Monday, at a time when Washington has promised to help weaken Europe’s reliance on gas supplies from Russia. -
Firm Wants to Burn Methane Leaking from Utah Coal Mine — Creating Credits to Sell to Carbon-Emitting Companies
Aug 21, 2017 | The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brian Maffly
Coal and trona mines are a big source of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. Long after land that has been mined is restored, heat-trapping methane can still leak into the atmosphere. -
Colorado Eyeing Oil, NatGas Rule Changes in Wake of Flowline Explosion
Aug 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Colorado officials on Friday indicated that proposed rules for the oil and natural gas industry are coming, with some as early as this week. -
Court Blocks Constitution Gas Line Again
Aug 21, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Saqib Rahim
A federal court has upheld New York's decision to deny a water permit for a major natural gas pipeline. -
Rover Tops Negative Inspection Tally
Aug 21, 2017 | E&E Energywire
The 710-mile Rover pipeline being constructed to transport natural gas from the eastern United States to the Midwest and Canada has more environmental violations than any other major interstate natural gas pipeline built in the last two years. -
Trump Seeks to Bolster Pentagon's Cyber Offense and Deterrence
Aug 21, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
President Trump's action Friday elevating the status of the U.S. Cyber Command aims to strengthen the Pentagon's defensive and offensive cyberwar capabilities and could also create a more formidable deterrence against state-backed attacks on the nation's electrical networks and other critical infrastructure. -
Texas-Mexico Rail Border Facility Upgraded
Aug 21, 2017 | Railway Gazette
Kansas City Southern, US Customs & Border Protection and Mexican customs agency SAT inaugurated a joint rail freight processing facility at the Laredo border crossing in Texas on August 17. -
Green Group Launches Ad Against Regs Reform
Aug 21, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
An environmental group launched an advertising campaign Monday to oppose a pair of bills meant to make it more difficult for federal agencies to write regulations. -
A Controversial California Effort to Fight Climate Change Just Got Some Good News
Aug 21, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Chelsey Harvey
A controversial California climate program got a shot of good news this month when a study suggested it is successfully reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and providing other environmental benefits on the side.
Industry and Association News - There are no clips to report at this time.
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Environment News
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EU Commission Publishes Green Public Procurement Criteria for Furniture
Aug 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission has issued a staff working document on the EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for furniture.
The GPP criteria are voluntary and aim to help public authorities purchase products, services and works with reduced environmental impacts.
During the tendering process points are awarded if furniture meets the criteria for low chemical residue in:
· upholstery coverings, where the material is shown to comply with the limits for restricted arylamine dyes, extractable heavy metals and free formaldehyde; and
· padding materials if the latex foam complies with the listed requirements for chlorophenols, heavy metals, pesticides and butadiene.
The criteria are split into three broad sections: refurbishment service for existing used furniture; procurement of new furniture items; and procurement of furniture end-of-life services.
In July, the European Furniture Industries Confederation (Efic) said the use of flame retardants and other chemicals may prevent the furniture sector from fully entering the circular economy.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58310/eu-commission-publishes-green-public-procurement-criteria-for-furniture
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Lithuania Becomes First Ex-Soviet State to Buy US Natural Gas
Aug 21, 2017 | Financial Times
By David Sheppard
Lithuania became the first former Soviet state to import a shipment of US natural gas on Monday, at a time when Washington has promised to help weaken Europe’s reliance on gas supplies from Russia.
The liquefied natural gas cargo aboard the Clean Ocean tanker is highly symbolic, as Lithuania looks to cement ties and backing from Washington following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Rising shipments of US natural gas, made possible by the shale revolution in the country, are increasingly pitching into regions Russia’s state-backed gas company, Gazprom, has long considered its own backyard.
Lithuania has already been importing LNG from Norway since it opened its first terminal for the supercooled fuel in 2014, but is keen to show Moscow it has a variety of options, including from the world’s largest economic and military power.
“This shipment of US LNG is historic and symbolic as Russia sees Lithuania as it’s backyard and traditionally one of Gazprom’s monopoly markets,” said Agnia Grigas, an Atlantic Council fellow in Washington DC and author of ’The New Geopolitics of Natural Gas’.
“It’s also a signal from the US LNG industry showing that they can go to any region and challenge Gazprom, while Lithuania hopes to deepen commercial ties with the US to ensure Washington’s commitment and support.”
Gazprom believes that its pipeline supplies can compete with US LNG on price and Moscow has criticised the US for targeting pipeline projects with possible sanctions.
Lithuania’s energy minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas said on Monday that the shipment from Cheniere Energy’s export terminal on the US Gulf Coast to the floating Klaipeda terminal in the Baltic state was, however, done at a price that was competitive with gas delivered on Russian pipelines, without revealing terms.
“We are happy to reach a point where importing gas from U.S. is not only politically desirable but also commercially viable,” Mr Vaiciunas said. Alaska aside, Cheniere is the first US company to export LNG from the mainland, and has sent out more than 160 cargoes since operations started in February last year.
The majority of these are on long-term contracts though it has a number of cargoes available for sale in the spot market through its London-based trading arm.
Most of Cheniere’s cargoes have gone to Latin America and Asia, but European countries have also been taking occasional shipments with US LNG reaching Spain, Italy, UK, Netherlands and Poland in the last 18 months.
US President Donald Trump said in a speech in Poland in July that US gas exports to the continent would increase, knowing US natural gas exports have found a particularly warm welcome among pro-Nato politicians in central Europe and the Baltic states.
Both sides have talked up raising shipments further. Jack Fusco, president and chief executive of Cheniere said on Monday that the company was looking “forward to continuing that relationship” with Lithuania.
LNG supplies are expected to grow almost 50 per cent between 2015 and 2020.make further inroads globally as supplies ramp up from the US and Australia as well as other sources.
That is linking up regional natural gas markets and is expected, in the long run, to make the super-cooled fuel trade more like oil, with more reliance on spot deals to set prices, and giving traders a bigger role in the market.
Commodity trade house Gunvor on Monday secured a ten-year offtake deal with Equatorial Guinea to market cargoes coming out of its Fortuna Floating LNG project, which is expected to start up in 2019.
https://www.ft.com/content/33113758-8680-11e7-8bb1-5ba57d47eff7
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Aug 21, 2017 | The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brian Maffly
Coal and trona mines are a big source of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. Long after land that has been mined is restored, heat-trapping methane can still leak into the atmosphere.
Now a Colorado business is developing a plan to make money by burning methane that would otherwise seep out of Utah’s recently retired West Ridge coal mine near East Carbon.
Flaring the gas creates an environmental benefit — one that the state of California recognizes and considers a financial credit, called an offset. Companies in that state whose carbon emissions are to supposed to be kept under certain thresholds can buy the offsets when they need to exceed their legal limits.
Global Carbon Strategies Corp. (GCS), based in Grand Junction, Colo., is aiming to tap the Utah mine’s ventilation system to flare up to 400,000 million British thermal units of methane a year, under a five-year contract with Utah trust lands officials.
“Instead of just venting methane, we are spending money to generate offsets,” said GCS vice president Collon Kennedy. “It’s a pro-business thing. … Instead of a regulatory requirement, we are giving you an economic incentive.”
Under federal safety laws, the mine operator has a legal right to vent the methane without penalty. And that, said Kennedy, qualifies the proposal to flare the seeping gas as a carbon offset under the system California adopted to limit emissions, called cap-and-trade.
Carbon offsets are currently selling for $5.80 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent. Kennedy’s firm is being underwritten by a major California business that he declined to identify.
“We raised money through them. In return we will provide a certain number of offsets,” Kennedy said.
In the deal with the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, Kennedy’s company will pay a 12.5-cent royalty on every million British thermal units flared, plus $5,000 in annual rent, resulting in as much as $55,000 a year added to Utah’s school endowment.
The West Ridge flaring could become the nation’s only carbon-offset project in which a fossil fuel is burned without producing energy.
While no one doubts the project would benefit the environment, the plan has run into regulatory hurdles, since agencies are unsure how to permit it and not everyone thinks it’s a good idea to pay mine operators to torch a valuable resource.
In 2013, the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, included flaring of coal-mine methane in its carbon-offset program over the objections of climate activists.
The Natural Resources Defense Council argued the system“rewards” coal companies for doing nothing to stem the flood of methane from their mines, while paying them for what they should be required to do anyway.
“This is a total scam, and it’s just another example of how California fundamentally does not understand coal mines and the nature of coal mine regulation,” Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, wrote in an email. “But the real issue is, why in the hell do state and federal regulators allow coal mines, both active and inactive, to just vent methane willy-nilly?”
The main ingredient in natural gas, methane is the simplest, lightest and cleanest fossil fuel. It also packs 72 times the short-term potency of carbon dioxide for trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to Dave Clegern, who runs CARB’s climate program. Accordingly, it is preferable to burn methane, which does release some carbon dioxide, rather than simply releasing it.
Coal mines represent 12 percent of all human-caused methane emissions, the nation’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Yet methane emissions from mines are exempted from regulation under the Clean Air Act because the gas has to be vented from underground coal deposits to prevent lethal explosions. And for safety reasons, mines do not flare the gas as oil wells typically do.
The West Ridge project targets five so-called gob wells that vent part of its 2,100-acre SITLA mineral lease. The larger federal portion of the mine’s lease is not involved.
GCS proposes opening the mine’s now-plugged bore holes, which are clustered in a 3-acre area, and piping seeping gas to an enclosed burner, which would consume 98 percent to 99 percent of the methane, according to Kennedy.
Equipment would quantify how many British thermal units enter the burner, which would be used to determine royalty payments. To calculate the carbon offsets the methane destruction is worth, GCS is relying on Salt Lake City-based consulting firm Bluesource, which advises firms on mitigating environmental impacts.
Bluesource will register the offsets with the Climate Action Reserve, one of three registries recognized by the state of California, and companies can then purchase them.
Operated by Murray Energy Corp., West Ridge is among the West’s “gassiest” mines, venting nearly 1 billion cubic feet in 2014, according to federal records. It ceased production in 2015 after yielding about 2.5 million tons a year. For geological reason, mines in Utah‘s Wasatch Plateau are not nearly as gassy as those in the Book Cliffs, where West Ridge is located.
Other retired Utah mines on EPA’s list of leading methane emitters are Aberdeen, Soldier Canyon and Willow Creek.
The EPA estimated that venting from Western mines’ produced 2.9 billion cubic feet of methane in 2014, but only 1.1 billion cubic feet was actually used for producing energy. The portion that was not used could have provided 531.5 gigawatt hours of power generation capacity, according to EPA estimates.
In 2007, Murray Energy began a methane capture program at Aberdeen in what was the first large-scale program of its kind west of the Mississippi, processing 3 million to 7 million cubic feet per day. The gas was compressed and injected into a natural gas pipeline, but technical problems limited its operation to 30 percent to 40 percent of capacity and the project was eventually abandoned.
According to Kennedy, it is not economically feasible to otherwise use the West Ridge methane because it would be difficult to process it for market and there are no pipelines nearby to transport it.
CARB has authorized seven mines to join the offset program, including Colorado’s Elk Creek and Wyoming’s active Green River Trona Mine. Soda ash, processed from trona, is a crucial ingredient in glass, detergents and other industrial products.
The agency said it has yet to receive an application for the West Ridge project.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2017/08/21/firm-wants-to-burn-methane-leaking-from-utah-coal-mine-creating-credits-to-sell-to-carbon-emitting-companies/
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Colorado Eyeing Oil, NatGas Rule Changes in Wake of Flowline Explosion
Aug 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Colorado officials on Friday indicated that proposed rules for the oil and natural gas industry are coming, with some as early as this week.
The director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), Matt Lepore, said in a radio interview that Gov. JohnHickenlooper's staff is focused on revamping rules in the aftermath of a Firestone flowline explosion in April that killed two residents.
"I think we've probably identified a couple of changes to those flowline rules, and we will seek to maybe increase the staffing” at COGCC, he said.
Hickenlooper's office confirmed to NGI's Shale Daily that an announcement on the issue is likely very soon.
COGCC likely will ask the legislature for additional oversight of about 124,000 flowlines connected to 22,000-23,000 wells statewide, Lepore said. There have been growing concerns about well proximity to neighborhoods, a primary focus for the past few years.
"We have adopted lots of rules over the last five years to try to address a classic land-use conflict, but we're certainly not at the endpoint.” Local government, he said, has a legitimate role to play with oil and gas operators.
"One of the things we've promoted for local governments is long-range planning with operators," Lepore said said. "When a developer comes in and says, 'This would be a nice place for a subdivision, and I want to build 600 homes here,’ local governments have got to be aware that there is a mineral estate underneath the ground that likely is severed from the surface, that somebody is going to come along one day wanting to develop those resources."
The flowline tragedy heightened the debate regarding the frequency of oil and gas incidences, the intensity of industry oversight and the long-simmering issue about local control.
Hickenlooper ordered a statewide review of oil and gas operations after a preliminary investigation of the Firestone incident determined it was linked to an abandoned and severed unrefined natural gas flowline in Weld County. The abandoned line, which ran about 170 feet from a nearby Anadarko Petroleum Corp. well to the home's foundation, had not been capped.
From 2006-2015, Colorado experienced 116 fires and explosions at oil and gas operations, according to a recent study by the Energy Research and Social Sciences unit at the University of Colorado's School of Public Health. Incidents annually occurred at about 0.03% of active well, or one fire or explosion a year for every 3,690 active wells.
"The rate of these incidents per number of active wells in Colorado is significantly lower than in Utah (0.07% of active wells)," according to the study. Colorado has a voluntary reporting system for incidences, unlike other states, including Utah, which has mandatory reporting.
The main causes of the recorded incidents in the COGCC database were equipment failure (20%), lightning strikes (14%), and operator error (9%). For 42% of the cases, the cause was unclear, unspecified or under investigation.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111462-colorado-eyeing-oil-natgas-rule-changes-in-wake-of-flowline-explosion
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Court Blocks Constitution Gas Line Again
Aug 21, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Saqib Rahim
A federal court has upheld New York's decision to deny a water permit for a major natural gas pipeline.
Last year, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) rejected Constitution Pipeline Co.'s application for a water permit under the Clean Water Act. Constitution sued, saying DEC had unfairly quashed the application after extensive review and that federal authorities should award the permit anyway.
Last week, three judges with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with DEC, accepting the state's argument that Constitution had not supplied enough information for the state to decide if the pipeline posed a water risk.
"We conclude that respondents' actions were within their statutory authority and that the decision was not arbitrary or capricious," the judges wrote.
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said the ruling supported New York's right to impose strict water quality standards.
"We hope this sends a loud message that New York will not rubber stamp any project that fails to protect public health and our environment," Seggos said in a statement.
But Constitution pointed out that the ruling left them another avenue: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
As the 2nd Circuit judges pointed out, the company can ask the D.C. Circuit to weigh a separate question: Did DEC's review take so long that the office waived its authority to conduct it? If so, federal authorities could grant the water permit and Constitution could begin construction.
"The D.C. Circuit has recently acknowledged [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's] authority to make the ultimate decision under the Natural Gas Act," Constitution said in a statement. "While we would have preferred an immediate path to construction, we are pleased with the court's resolution of this jurisdictional issue."
Christine Tezak of ClearView Energy Partners LLC wrote in a report, "We expect pipeline opponents to be buoyed by this ruling and to continue pressuring state policymakers to exercise such 'vetoes' over federally approved natural gas projects."
ClearView saw three options for Constitution: asking FERC to grant its water permit on the grounds that New York has waived its authority, appealing to the Supreme Court or submitting a new pipeline application to New York.
The ruling is the latest twist in an ongoing tussle between state and federal authority over pipelines — a tussle that may intensify as President Trump has brought FERC to a quorum.
Under federal law, proposed gas pipelines have to secure both federal and state approvals. The pipeline must first pass environmental review at FERC. It must also secure water permits, under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, from each state the pipeline will cross.
In the case of Constitution, New York and the pipeline company were at odds over the construction method.
Over its nearly 100-mile span in New York, the pipeline would cross 251 bodies of water. DEC wanted Constitution to place the pipeline by drilling beneath these bodies of water, a method DEC said was less risky to the environment.
Constitution said this wasn't feasible or necessary for all 251 crossings and that a "trench" method — diverting the stream during construction and restoring it after construction — would do.
Constitution claimed it had provided more than enough information for DEC to make a determination. But the 2nd Circuit judges disagreed, saying Constitution dodged DEC's repeated requests for specific detail on how the pipeline would be built at those 251 junctures.
"We conclude that the denial of the § 401 certification after Constitution refused to provide relevant information, despite repeated NYSDEC requests, was not arbitrary or capricious," the court wrote.
Environmental groups cheered the decision, saying it reaffirmed states' rights to apply their own environmental standards to interstate gas pipelines.
"We're thrilled by the decision from the 2nd Circuit. This really sends a clear message that states have the power to block natural gas pipelines in their borders when they violate state water quality standards," said Kim Ong, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council's New York program. "It reaffirms the power of states to block pipelines even if all the other federal permits find that they can go forward."
The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America said the decision will hurt New Yorkers struggling with utility bills and make it harder for Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to achieve his ambitious goals on renewable energy.
"The Cuomo administration has said that in order to transition to more costly, intermittent resources like offshore wind, New Yorkers must be able to access clean natural gas," the group said in a statement. "INGAA is disappointed in this decision because it is critical to both the environment and America's energy independence that new natural gas infrastructure projects move forward in New York to provide these benefits."
If past is prologue, this will not be the last pipeline skirmish in New York.
In April the DEC denied the federal water permit for another major pipeline: the Northern Access project, sponsored by National Fuel Gas Co. That case is also in appeals court.
DEC could decide whether to permit a third project, the Valley Lateral, this month. But the company behind that project, Millennium Pipeline Co., has asked FERC to grant the permit now, saying DEC has taken longer than allowed and thus waived its right to do the review.
Millennium's request came after a D.C. Circuit ruling in June decided pipeline companies can ask FERC if a state has waived its right to do this review (Energywire, July 31).
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/21/stories/1060058970
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Rover Tops Negative Inspection Tally
Aug 21, 2017 | E&E Energywire
The 710-mile Rover pipeline being constructed to transport natural gas from the eastern United States to the Midwest and Canada has more environmental violations than any other major interstate natural gas pipeline built in the last two years.
The Energy Transfer Partners LP pipeline is one of the biggest energy projects ongoing today. U.S. regulators approved the $4.2 billion project in February.
"Not only is it a situation where there are probably more incidents and more headlines than any other pipeline, on a project basis it's a magnitude that we haven't seen in years," said Kyle Cooper, director of research with IAF Advisors.
Energy Transfer has been cited for damaging protected wetlands in Ohio. A West Virginia regulator temporarily ordered the company to cease and desist activities after it polluted streams.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has stopped horizontal drilling on certain parts of the pipeline after a 50,000-barrel spill of diesel-tainted drilling fluid.
"Rover will be built in compliance with all safety and environmental regulations, and in some instances we will exceed those requirements," said Energy Transfer spokeswoman Alexis Daniel in response to Bloomberg's tally of over 100 negative inspection reports for the pipeline (Malik/Traywick, Bloomberg, Aug. 17). — CS
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/21/stories/1060058961
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Trump Seeks to Bolster Pentagon's Cyber Offense and Deterrence
Aug 21, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
President Trump's action Friday elevating the status of the U.S. Cyber Command aims to strengthen the Pentagon's defensive and offensive cyberwar capabilities and could also create a more formidable deterrence against state-backed attacks on the nation's electrical networks and other critical infrastructure.
The White House order responds to a goal Congress set in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act to raise the authority of the Cyber Command in the Pentagon hierarchy, giving it more operational autonomy and more opportunity to recruit cybersecurity experts.
The administration did not change, and is still considering, a related issue raised by Congress of changing the current "dual hat" leadership structure in which both the Cyber Command and the National Security Agency are headed by the same person, currently Adm. Michael Rogers. The change would give each agency independent leadership.
Trump said Friday, "The elevation of U.S. Cyber Command demonstrates our increased resolve against cyberspace threats and will help reassure our allies and partners and deter our adversaries." During the 2016 campaign Trump stressed this capability. "As a deterrent against attacks on our critical resources, the United States must possess the unquestioned capacity to launch crippling cyber counter-attacks," Trump said in a speech in October.
An administration spokesman said the action "is not in response to a particular cyberthreat scenario." Rather, the decision reflects the judgment that the seven-year-old Cyber Command now has the capabilities to operate as a separate military organization and is needed "to respond to what we assess is an increasing global cyberthreat."
James Clapper Jr., former director of U.S. national intelligence, said it was the right step, but more was needed. The Cyber Command (Cybercom) was never intended to remain permanently a subordinate command, he said. "Nor was the dual-hat arrangement intended to be permanent. So, elevation to full-up unified command status is appropriate," he said. "We tried to do it in the last administration, but just ran out of runway.
"The much more important issue to me is the separation of NSA and Cybercom," Clapper said in an email. "The whole discussion revolves around what's best" for the Defense Department, he said. "You don't hear much about what's best for NSA as a crucial part of the intelligence community," he added. "The separation needs to happen, too."
The tension over separating NSA and Cybercom has centered on their potentially opposing interests in cyber war. NSA might be striving to protect covert access to adversaries' systems as an active intelligence channel, while the Defense Department could see that access channel as a path for attack, damaging the targeted systems but also disclosing the vulnerability.
As the Government Accountability Office noted recently, "Their respective collection and disruption missions may not always be mutually achievable."
Currently, Rogers referees that conflict, and separation of the two agencies under different leaders would require different decisionmaking if the agencies' interests collided, said University of Texas law professor Bobby Chesney in a recent Lawfare blog.
The option of elevating the Cyber Command has been under discussion in the Pentagon and Congress for many years, said Paul Stockton, former assistant Defense secretary for homeland defense. The change Friday is largely symbolic, he added. "Cyber Command for many years has had a great deal of autonomy in terms of its functions," he said.
"I would hope that under the unified command U.S. cyber capabilities across the board will continue to improve," Stockton said.
"The Cyber Command has the opportunity to help defend DOD networks against attack, and also — in ways that still need to be better clarified — to be able to provide support to other government networks and potentially to the private sector, as approved by the secretary of Defense and the president," he said.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, supported Trump's action but added that Congress isn't done with the policy issues.
"While we welcome this elevation, there is much more to be done to prepare our nation and our military to meet our cybersecurity challenges. We must develop a clear policy and strategy for deterring and responding to cyber threats," he said in a statement.
"While Cyber Command and the National Security Agency should eventually be able to operate independent of one another, the administration must work closely with the Congress to take the necessary steps that will make this separation of responsibilities successful, and to ensure that each agency will emerge more effective and more capable as a result," McCain said.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/21/stories/1060058968
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Texas-Mexico Rail Border Facility Upgraded
Aug 21, 2017 | Railway Gazette
Kansas City Southern, US Customs & Border Protection and Mexican customs agency SAT inaugurated a joint rail freight processing facility at the Laredo border crossing in Texas on August 17.
The facility enables Mexican export processing to be undertaken at the US railhead, with equipment for non-intrusive security scanning.
KCS said the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo rail crossing is the busiest on the border, processing an average of 23 trains in both directions per day carrying products including cars and parts, steel, grain and petroleum. Eliminating the need to stop trains on the cross-border bridge would increase the fluidity of train movements, while improving security and reducing traffic congestion.
‘As our governments begin the important work of updating the North American Free Trade Agreement this week, we must all remember the importance of the NAFTA trade relationship to both countries and both economies’, said KCS President & CEO Patrick J Ottensmeyer. ‘This project, and others to follow, are essential to facilitate the goal of expanding trade and particularly increasing exports of goods such as refined petroleum products and petrochemicals from the USA to Mexico.’
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/n-america/single-view/view/texas-mexico-rail-border-facility-upgraded.html
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Green Group Launches Ad Against Regs Reform
Aug 21, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
An environmental group launched an advertising campaign Monday to oppose a pair of bills meant to make it more difficult for federal agencies to write regulations.
Clean Air Moms Action is running the digital video ad in five states with closely watched or competitive Senate races next year: Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Florida and Virginia.
In the ad, car safety advocate Janette Fennell tells the story of how she escaped an abduction because of a car’s trunk release mechanism, which she said was there thanks to a federal rule.
But the Regulatory Accountability Act and the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act would make it harder for similar regulations to be written, Fennell says.
“From car safety, to clean air and water, Congress is threatening these lifesaving standards,” she says.
The House passed both bills in January, and a Senate committee passed them in May. The Senate could vote on the measures after its August recess, though at least eight Democrats would have to join all of the GOP in order to reach the 60-vote threshold to pass the bills.
They bills are part of a wide-ranging effort by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration to roll back what they see as costly, unnecessary regulations, and prevent future ones.
The Regulatory Accountability Act would require that federal agencies publish more information about the scientific underpinnings of their rules and would subject rules to a 10-year mandatory review cycle.
The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, meanwhile, would require Congress to approve any new regulation with an estimated annual economic impact above $100 million.
Environmental groups, Democrats and other pro-regulatory advocates say the proposals would hamper regulators’ ability to protect the public and carry out their missions.
Clean Air Moms Action is a part of the Environmental Defense Action Fund, itself an affiliate of the Environmental Defense Fund.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/347349-green-group-launches-ad-against-regulatory-reform-bills
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A Controversial California Effort to Fight Climate Change Just Got Some Good News
Aug 21, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Chelsey Harvey
A controversial California climate program got a shot of good news this month when a study suggested it is successfully reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and providing other environmental benefits on the side.
The study, conducted by a trio of Stanford University researchers, concerns a California “carbon offset” program, which allows companies to pay to preserve carbon-storing forests instead of reducing their own emissions. According to the researchers’ findings, that program is protecting imperiled forests and preventing the carbon they store from being released into the atmosphere.
“It was really exciting to see, in this moment where it’s hard to find any positive news on climate change, here’s this very small program that looks like it’s actually working so far,” said Christa Anderson, a PhD student in environment and resources at Stanford University and the new study’s lead author. Anderson conducted the study with Stanford colleagues Christopher Field and Katharine Mach.
The program is built into California’s existing cap-and-trade system, a carbon-pricing initiative that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by placing a ceiling on the amount of carbon companies are allowed to emit and penalizing those that exceed the limit. The cap-and-trade system also establishes a market for the buying and selling emissions permits, creating a financial incentive for companies to reduce their own emissions and sell the extra savings.
As part of this trading framework, companies may also buy offsets from forest managers all over the country, guaranteeing that they’ll preserve their trees and allow them to store up carbon dioxide. By buying these offsets, companies can adhere to California’s emissions-cutting policies without reducing their own carbon output directly.
The program is controversial among some state residents and environmental groups, who argue that it allows companies to slack off on their own emissions reduction efforts and continue polluting California’s air. They’ve also suggested that the forests selling offsets would likely be storing up carbon regardless and that the program may not actually produce any climate benefits.
The controversy has resulted in some recent adjustments to the program. Just last month, California lawmakers approved a 10-year extension of the cap-and-trade scheme, which was originally slated to terminate in the year 2020. The post-2020 system will include tighter limits on the amount of forest offsets the market will offer.
Now the new study, published last week in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, suggests some of the concerns surrounding the program may not actually be cause for worry — at least for now.
For one thing, forest offset credits only account for 2 percent of all credits in California’s cap-and-trade system, the authors note. Currently, the program allows this percentage to climb to a maximum of 8 percent, a level that might be cause for concern, Anderson suggested. But at 2 percent, the use of forest offsets remains a relatively minor component of the system.
“So that question of are offsets allowing greenhouse gas emitters to avoid responsibility of reduction — probably not in this case,” Anderson said.
The authors also conclude the program does, in fact, reduce emissions that wouldn’t have otherwise been cut. Only about a quarter of the forests participating in the program are already owned by conservation groups, meaning the majority of participating forest managers would not necessarily have opted to preserve their trees without the purchase of offsets. In fact, the authors note, more than half of the participating forests were actively being logged before becoming part of an offset project.
The researchers also point out the offsets account for uncertainty about the future of preserved forests, whose carbon-storing potential could be affected by a variety of factors, including wildfires or disease outbreaks. This ensures that program doesn’t overestimate the value of a credit.
Overall, about 25.5 million tons of carbon have been credited as part of the forest offset program since it was first developed, according to Anderson. And the program comes with various side benefits as well — namely, the conservation of forests that might otherwise have been destroyed and the preservation of habitat for wild plants and animals.
“I think this kind of work is really important in the sense that it’s looking closely at what is actually happening as we develop carbon markets,” said Michael Wara, a former climatologist and environmental law expert at Stanford University. Wara was not involved with the new research, but helped advise the development of the proposal that extended California’s existing cap-and-trade scheme.
But while he acknowledges the evidence suggests the program is working so far, he said there are still some uncertainties that should be further explored.
For instance, he noted, the program offers higher initial payments for forests that have greater amounts of carbon already stored in them before the offset project begins. This aspect of the program could introduce a kind of participation bias, in which forest owners with greater amounts of carbon already stored on their land are more likely to opt into the program in the first place. Without further studies, it’s difficult to say whether participation in the program and overall emissions reduced would be greater or smaller without such a bias.
“I don’t think there’s enough evidence in this paper to know whether it’s a good thing or bad thing,” Wara said.
Anderson also suggested the program could do a better job of accounting for the future impact of climate change when considering the uncertainties facing future forests’ carbon-storing potential.
“You could imagine the state adding in some kind of metric and saying because of climate change in this area we think we have a greater risk of fire, or bark beetle disease and death in trees,” she said. “And so we need to account for that risk and deduct credits based on that higher risk.”
Wara pointed out critics of the program still have some valid concerns, emission reductions aside. While it’s true that forest offsets make up a fraction of the credits used in California’s cap-and-trade scheme, it does mean that some companies are using it to put off reducing their own emissions, meaning they’re probably not reducing their production of other air pollutants either.
“In some sense, forest carbon is trading one kind of co-benefit for another kind of co-benefit,” Wara said. “It’s not strictly a benefit, it’s a trade-off, because we’re going to burn more carbon in California in exchange for storing more carbon elsewhere.” Some of the fiercest critics of forest offsets are often people who live in or advocate on behalf of communities that are disproportionately affected by air pollution, he added.
But despite these concerns, the new research suggests the program has probably been effective at producing its primary intended outcome — reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall. And that’s encouraging news for a state that has gone to great lengths to establish itself as a leader on climate change under the Trump administration.
The concept of a carbon offset is “a super complicated thing to get right,” Wara noted. “And it’s something that it appears, based on the evidence in this paper, that California may have gotten mostly or more or less right. I don’t think it’s an open and shut case, but this paper has evidence that’s suggestive of that fact.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/21/a-controversial-california-effort-to-fight-climate-change-just-got-some-good-news/?utm_term=.28983f33ea8c
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