Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 22/8/17
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(ACC Mentioned) Why a New Superglue Is a Big Deal in the Advancement of Car Design
Aug 22, 2017 | CTV News
Automotive designers say the future lies with multimaterial vehicles: high-strength steel, carbon fiber, aluminium and advanced plastics. -
EPA Resignations Create Dangerous Vacuum
Aug 22, 2017 | Indiana Daily Student
By Josh Hoffer
President Trump has recently taken to his social media soapbox to lambast everything from statue removal to immigration, but he has remained silent about one of our nation’s most pressing issues: the environment. -
BHP Billiton to Sell US Shale Business
Aug 22, 2017 | BBC
Mining giant BHP Billiton will sell its US shale assets after pressure from shareholders to offload the underperforming business. -
Court Rejects Pipeline Project on Climate Concerns
Aug 22, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Tiimothy Cama
An appeals court on Tuesday rejected the federal government’s approval of a natural gas pipeline project in the southeastern U.S., citing concerns about its impact on climate change. -
D.C. Circuit: FERC Must Consider GHG Emissions Tied to Gas Pipelines
Aug 22, 2017 | Politico Pro Energy Whiteboard
By Esther Wheldon
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today that FERC must consider the potential greenhouse gas emissions that could result from its 2016 approval of three natural gas pipeline segments in the Southeast, marking a major victory for environmental groups. -
American LNG Limited by Russian Prices
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Energywire
European and American officials might be eager to boost U.S. natural gas exports, but Russia has a powerful counterpoint: Its prices are still the lowest. -
Chemical Safety Head 'Cautiously Optimistic' Her Agency Will Be Saved
Aug 22, 2017 | Chemical World
By Rebecca Trager
The head of the embattled US Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which President Trump planned to abolish, says she is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that Congress will save her agency from the chopping block. -
Video Aims to Spread Word of Lethal Hazards atop Oil Tanks
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan
Two worker safety agencies have developed a video to warn oil-field workers about the lethal hazards of sampling crude oil atop storage tanks. -
Railroaded: Epic CSX Traffic Jam Snarls Deliveries, From Coal to Fries
Aug 22, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Paul Ziobro
Congestion, delays and erratic service are hitting CSX Corp., one of only two railroad operators that handle nearly all the shipments that move by train east of the Mississippi River. -
Trump Team Has Slowed down or Disbanded 3 Climate Panels
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Scott Waldman and Brittany Patterson
The Trump administration has quietly disbanded a growing number of scientific advisory committees, raising concerns that the latest research on climate change could be omitted from government decisions on things like infrastructure projects. -
Ewire: Drillers' Study Seeks to Exempt Marginal Wells from Methane NSPS
Aug 22, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA is still struggling to delay implementing the Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions from oil and gas sources but already the industry is looking ahead to the agency's eventual re-write where they hope officials will roll back key requirements. -
With Obama EPA Rule in Force, Compliance Clash May Loom
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
The Trump administration is giving scant details on how or whether it plans to enforce restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry after a federal court revived the standards last month.
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(ACC Mentioned) Why a New Superglue Is a Big Deal in the Advancement of Car Design
Aug 22, 2017 | CTV News
Automotive designers say the future lies with multimaterial vehicles: high-strength steel, carbon fiber, aluminium and advanced plastics.
The problem arises when it comes to joining these different materials together during production. But there might finally be a solution -- a new kind of superglue.
There are a lot of big things going on in the industry right now, with big leaps in vehicle design, engineering and production. Advanced materials such as carbon fiber and aluminium are increasingly finding their way into mass-market models, hybrid and all-electric vehicles are becoming more common, and autonomous drive technology is also becoming increasingly prevalent.
On the face of things, a new glue doesn't sound like something to get too excited about, but the implications for a new advancement in this area are immense.
Materials like high-strength steel, carbon fibre, aluminium and advanced plastics all have their advantages, but car designers will tell you the future is heading towards multimaterial vehicles. The problem is working out how to combine all these very different materials together on the assembly line.
There might be a solution in sight as researchers at Michigan State University, supported by the American Chemistry Council's automotive group, think they may have come up with a new kind of adhesive that will allow automakers to join multiple materials to each other.
Sandra McClelland, a member of the American Chemistry Council and sales development manager for Solvay Specialty Polymers, the group is promoting the new adhesive, says the new adhesive is a type of superglue capable of adapting to different surface properties that will work at different material temperatures.
Perhaps just as important, possibly even more so, McClelland says the group believes the adhesive will mean mixed auto materials will be able to be cleanly separated at the end of a vehicle's life, which is another increasingly important concern as manufacturers become more and more focused on recycling.
The adhesive is a type of enhanced thermoplastic with extremely small magnetic particles that can bond different types of plastic, different kinds of metals or any combination thereof without having to use any extra rivets or connectors. As the bond itself can be relatively easily reversed, separation for effective recycling at the end of the product's life would be reasonably easy.
At the moment, research into the potential of the new glue is still in the laboratory testing phase, but signs are extremely encouraging for its potential in real-world applications.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/autos/why-a-new-superglue-is-a-big-deal-in-the-advancement-of-car-design-1.3556313
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EPA Resignations Create Dangerous Vacuum
Aug 22, 2017 | Indiana Daily Student
By Josh Hoffer
President Trump has recently taken to his social media soapbox to lambast everything from statue removal to immigration, but he has remained silent about one of our nation’s most pressing issues: the environment.
The environmental issues should be taken the most seriously since climate change and other forms of turmoil may be impossible to reverse. The current administration has proven its loyalties lie with large corporations instead of the earth we walk upon.In the first seven months of his term, President Trump has not done many favors for our ailing planet. Even before his ominous withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement in July, he had rescinded numerous fracking, water and air-pollution regulations, approved the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, proposed gouging vital parts of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 40 percent and tweeted his doubtsabout global warming — a phenomenon that scientists say is undeniably real.
Recently, Scott Pruitt, the EPA Administrator appointed by President Trump, announced that his agency would be rejecting a petition requesting the ban of the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos.
The chemical was already banned from homeowner use after studies showed exposure may be linked to cognitive deficits and nervous system damage, but farmers and agricultural companies can now continue its use. This decision directly conflicts with recommendations made by EPA scientists during Barrack Obama’s presidency to ban the insecticide completely.
On Aug. 20, the Trump administration further emphasized their disregard for science policy when it refused to renew dozens of scientific advisory roles on the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors, including 38 of the 49 roles on the Board’s five subcommittees.
Similar decisions in May led to further staff resignations in protest of the agency’s decisions. The administration has also weakened the Toxic Substances Control Act’s chemical assessment guidelines and eliminated the federal advisory panel responsible for reviewing and interpreting the National Climate Assessment, a recurring report on climate change research.
All these actions demonstrate how damaging it can be to allow corporate interests to dictate how research is funded and conducted. Pruitt, who has sued the EPA on numerous occasions and has ties to oil companies like Exxon Mobil and Devon Energy, can now restructure the agency’s identity in whatever way he sees fit. If these recent events are any indicator, environmental science is most certainly not his top priority.
The true danger of the policies of President Trump's administration is that the changes they make during this term may not be environmentally reversible by the time a new administration takes over. Social legislation, health care and military presence are indeed complicated and expensive to alter.
However, alterations to these policies are easier than attempting to reverse widespread climate change. Cultivating compassion for ocean acidification or atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is a bit more difficult than doing the same for our fellow marginalized and oppressed human beings, but it is what we must learn to do.
Melting sea ice and irreversible ecological cascades are problems we may not have the resources or technology to deal with, whether as a nation or planet. Our Earth is not something we can bring back from the dead.
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2017/08/column-hoffer-eparesignation
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BHP Billiton to Sell US Shale Business
Aug 22, 2017 | BBC
Mining giant BHP Billiton will sell its US shale assets after pressure from shareholders to offload the underperforming business.
The miner said a number of parties are interested in the assets and it is "actively pursuing options to exit".
Shareholder Elliott Management has campaigned for strategic changes at BHP including the sale of its shale operations.
It comes as the company reported $5.89bn (£4.56bn) annual net profit.Shale assets
BHP said on Tuesday that it deemed the shale business "non-core" and was exploring options to offload the assets.
Chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said a number of parties are interested in acquiring its onshore US oil and gas operations, but would not name the price the company is seeking for the assets.
BHP's entry into US shale came at the peak of the fracking boom in 2011. A slump in oil prices slugged the business and forced a $7.2bn writedown last year.
BHP chairman Jac Nasser, who retires this year, recently conceded a $20bn investment in shale six years ago was a mistake in hindsight.
Analysts have suggested the business could sell for about half that in today's market.
New-York based fund manager Elliott Management had been agitating for a sale or other form of divestment of the US shale business.
The activist shareholder has publicly campaigned for a series of other changes at BHP, including the elimination of dual-structured Australia and London stock listings, and higher shareholder returns.Commodity rebound
Plans to sell its US shale operations came as the global miner posted an annual net profit of $5.89bn, following a record $6.39bn loss a year earlier.
The result was slightly below analysts' expectations.
The miner tripled its final dividend to $0.43 a share, which was also shy of expectations.
The Anglo-Australian firm, like other miners, has benefited from a rebound in industrial metals prices after a slump caused by supply gluts and economic slowdown in China.
China is the world's biggest buyer of commodities.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41008227
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Court Rejects Pipeline Project on Climate Concerns
Aug 22, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Tiimothy Cama
An appeals court on Tuesday rejected the federal government’s approval of a natural gas pipeline project in the southeastern U.S., citing concerns about its impact on climate change.
In a 2-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not properly analyze the climate impact from burning the natural gas that the project would deliver to power plants.
The ruling is significant because it adds to environmentalists’ arguments that analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act — the law governing all environmental reviews of federal decisions — must consider climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
The case concerns the Southeast Market Pipelines Project, which is meant to bring gas to Florida to fuel existing and planned power plants.
The Sierra Club sued FERC following its 2016 approval of the project. The environmental group brought a series of objections to the project and its environmental review, but the court denied all of the objections except the one focused on greenhouse gas.
The environmental impact statement for the project “should have either given a quantitative estimate of the downstream greenhouse emissions that will result from burning the natural gas that the pipelines will transport or explained more specifically why it could not have done so,” Judge Thomas Griffith, who was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush, wrote in the opinion. He was joined by Judge Judith Ann Wilson Rogers, one of President Bill Clinton's nominees.
“As we have noted, greenhouse-gas emissions are an indirect effect of authorizing this project, which FERC could reasonably foresee, and which the agency has legal authority to mitigate,” Griffith said.
“Quantification would permit the agency to compare the emissions from this project to emissions from other projects, to total emissions from the state or the region, or to regional or national emissions-control goals. Without such comparisons, it is difficult to see how FERC could engage in ‘informed decision making’ with respect to the greenhouse-gas effects of this project, or how ‘informed public comment’ could be possible,” the court wrote, quoting previous cases regarding environmental reviews.
Judge Janice Rogers Brown, another Bush nominee, dissented from the ruling, arguing that FERC does not have the authority to take action to reduce the greenhouse gas impact of pipelines it approves, so it is not obligated to analyze some impacts.
The court’s decision overturns the project’s federal approval and returns the issue to FERC to complete the necessary greenhouse gas analysis.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/347469-court-rejects-pipeline-project-on-climate-concerns
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D.C. Circuit: FERC Must Consider GHG Emissions Tied to Gas Pipelines
Aug 22, 2017 | Politico Pro Energy Whiteboard
By Esther Wheldon
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today that FERC must consider the potential greenhouse gas emissions that could result from its 2016 approval of three natural gas pipeline segments in the Southeast, marking a major victory for environmental groups.
The court vacated FERC's approval of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project's three natural gas pipelines now under construction in Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and said the agency must redo the environmental impact statement it used in its decision.
Two of the three judges on court's panel rejected FERC's assertions that it could not know the level of GHG emissions that would result from its projects, specifically from power plants burning the natural gas the pipelines would provide.
"We conclude that at a minimum, FERC should have estimated the amount of power-plant carbon emissions that the pipelines will make possible," the opinion said, agreeing with the Sierra Club's arguments.
The court in 2016 made a much different ruling when it held FERC did not evaluate the climate change effects of exporting natural gas from LNG terminals since the agency had no legal authority to consider the environmental harm those exports may cause.
But Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a President George W. Bush appointee, dissented and said FERC lacks authority in this case as well, and is not required to consider the downstream emissions. "The truth is that FERC has no control over whether the power plants that will emit these greenhouse gases will come into existence or remain in operation," Brown said.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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American LNG Limited by Russian Prices
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Energywire
European and American officials might be eager to boost U.S. natural gas exports, but Russia has a powerful counterpoint: Its prices are still the lowest.
That might be all that matters for European customers, who tell pollsters they care more about affordable heat and energy than countering Russia's geopolitical clout. The continent imports about one-third of its gas from Russia.
The United States has begun exporting a small amount of liquefied natural gas to Europe, including the eastern countries most wary of Russian "blackmailing," as Polish President Andrzej Duda put it.
But Russia's gas is piped into Europe, one of the cheapest transportation options, which allows its cost to average $4.86 per million British thermal units. On the other hand, the premium on liquefying American gas, shipping it across the ocean and turning it back into gas sets the price of U.S. gas around $6.29 per MMBtu.
Meanwhile, Russia is pushing ahead with more pipelines and LNG exports of its own. But American gas is trickling in, too. Lithuania expects another shipment in September.
"The arrival of U.S. gas is making Russia nervous. And they should be nervous," said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University (Georgi Kantchev, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 19). — AAA
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/22/stories/1060059013
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Chemical Safety Head 'Cautiously Optimistic' Her Agency Will Be Saved
Aug 22, 2017 | Chemical World
By Rebecca Trager
The head of the embattled US Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which President Trump planned to abolish, says she is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that Congress will save her agency from the chopping block. The CSB is the only US agency charged with carrying out independent investigations of industrial chemical accidents and developing recommendations to prevent their recurrence.
‘We – the CSB’s members and staff – are very passionate about safety and communicating the messages, and we believe very strongly that we are making progress and making a difference in driving chemical safety change throughout the nation,’ stated CSB chair Vanessa Sutherland at a lab safety session at the 254th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in Washington, DC. ‘The good news is that it appears Congress may agree with us,’ she said, noting that this past July the House appropriations committee rejected the president’s proposal by including funding for the CSB to continue its mission in fiscal year (FY) 2018, which begins on 1 October 2017.
Sutherland recalled how she was summoned to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for a meeting in March and was told there that Trump planned to eliminate her agency. ‘Needless to say, that was disappointing to me and the staff at the time, and it was very surprising news,’ she said. There has been considerable opposition to the president’s plan to defund the CSB, including from the ACS.
‘Not confident of anything’
Sutherland is hopeful that, when Congress returns from its summer recess on 5 September, Senate appropriators will also move forward to fund the CSB for FY2018, but she is also anxious. ‘I am not confident of anything – I am not even confident that the government is going to continue operating on 1 October,’ Sutherland stated, noting that US federal agencies did shutdown for more than two weeks in October 2013.
‘Am I confident that people in the Senate value the work that we do, yes, but am I confident that will translate into them supporting the House appropriations view that we should get at least $11 million (£8.5 million) and remain flat, as we have for the last 10 years? I don’t know,’ Sutherland stated.
As a political appointee, Sutherland said she is not in a position to encourage people to lobby Congress to save her agency, but she did say that phone calls and letters from the executive committees or individual members of organisations like the National Safety Council – a non-profit organisation promoting health and safety in the US by curbing preventable injuries and deaths – have had a significant impact on House and Senate leaders. ‘The last several months have been really challenging for the agency,’ Sutherland stated. She said her office has spent many months developing a plan in response to the CSB’s possible elimination, and is trying to continue its five-year strategic plan for 2017 to 2021.
Sutherland emphasised the CSB’s uniqueness, and pointed out that for an agency with funding of just $11 million and about 40 employees, it is ‘extremely effective’. Since its inception, the agency has investigated over 130 incidents and issued 804 recommendations, of which 78% have been addressed.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/chemical-safety-head-cautiously-optimistic-her-agency-will-be-saved/3007877.article
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Video Aims to Spread Word of Lethal Hazards atop Oil Tanks
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan
Two worker safety agencies have developed a video to warn oil-field workers about the lethal hazards of sampling crude oil atop storage tanks.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and California Department of Public Health teamed up on the video describing the dangers present when testing crude oil tanks.
"These guys are at risk because there's lots of harmful vapors in there," says Earl MacKay, operations superintendent for Enerplus Resources (USA) Corp., in the video. "For a person to be in that kind of risk, there's no sense in it."
The video was posted earlier this month. A formal rollout is expected this week. Worker safety officials are hoping the video will reach oil workers to explain the hazards.
The video features Cindy Simpson, whose husband David died while gauging a tank in southern Oklahoma in 2014 (Energywire, Sept. 18, 2015).
"He was always very, very careful," Cindy Simpson says in the video. "I know he was not looking to pass that day. It just really hurts to think that he was alone."
The hazards of toxic vapors spewing out of crude oil tanks in shale fields have been an emerging topic in worker safety circles. NIOSH has identified at least eight other oil-field deaths where tank vapors were suspected as the cause (Energywire, April 13, 2015).
All crude oil has compounds called volatile hydrocarbons such as benzene, butane and propane. Crude from shale formations sometimes has more of these compounds than conventional oil. It's related to why shale crude is more prone to explode in rail cars.
Before they fill up their tankers, truckers have to measure and sample the tanks. To do this, they pop the "thief hatch" atop the tank, potentially exposing them to the toxic gases. Then, they drop in their instruments.
'You kind of get dizzy'
Safety and health officials say the volatile petrochemicals can whoosh out of the tanks with enough force to knock off a worker's helmet. At high concentrations, the hydrocarbons can push oxygen out of the air to the point that they asphyxiate victims, even outdoors. The vapors can disorient people to the point that they are unable to escape the lethal effect of the vapors.
"You kind of get dizzy," said Dee Lelei, a truck owner and operator interviewed for the video. "When you try to run, it hits you so fast you get disoriented and you don't remember which way you want to run."
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and others have issued safety alerts warning companies and their workers about the hazard. NIOSH recommends that crude should be measured without workers opening hatches and peering in.
"The main goal is to get these guys off the tank where they don't need to be," MacKay said.
Simpson, a truck driver who followed the oil boom, died at a well site operated by XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp. A few minutes after he parked his truck and climbed to the catwalk, two other workers noticed Simpson's motionless body over the tank hatch.
The OSHA inspector who investigated Simpson's death found that the industry's method for avoiding toxic exposure to hydrocarbons amounted to little more than telling workers to stand upwind. But the inspector wrote that he couldn't cite a violation because the medical examiner didn't list chemical exposure as a cause of death.
The handling of the case showed how officials in some oil states have failed to understand the dangers of tank gauging.
No autopsy was done by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Officials there also said they didn't need to test for industrial chemicals because there had been no signs of lethal hydrogen sulfide, or "sour gas."
It's a common sentiment among some in the industry that hydrogen sulfide is the only lethal gas to be found at a well site. Other tank deaths were originally suspected to have been caused by the poisonous gas.
Worker safety experts say tests for industrial chemicals are needed when a death might be related to exposure.
Cindy Simpson filed suit against XTO in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma in June 2016. The case is currently scheduled for trial in September. But a settlement conference has been scheduled for Aug. 31.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/22/stories/1060059007
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Railroaded: Epic CSX Traffic Jam Snarls Deliveries, From Coal to Fries
Aug 22, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Paul Ziobro
The freight-train ride from Chicago to Colesburg, Tenn., usually takes a few days. Earlier this month, though, the ride was 18 days, 13 hours and 57 minutes, logs show.
Congestion, delays and erratic service are hitting CSX Corp., one of only two railroad operators that handle nearly all the shipments that move by train east of the Mississippi River. The problems began in May and became much worse this summer, according to customers and weekly performance data reported by the Jacksonville, Fla., company.
It’s a colossal mess for businesses that have spent years streamlining supply chains to run with just-in-time inventories.
Coal producers say their stockpiles are growing because CSX is taking longer than it should to pick up coal-filled railcars from mines in Ohio and West Virginia. Food makers have slowed production in hopes that ingredients such as oils and sweeteners will last until the next delivery. Some companies are trying to avoid the worst bottlenecks in CSX’s system, including by switching to trucks and other railroads.
McDonald’s Corp. has supplemented its regular train shipments of frozen french fries into the Nashville, Tenn., area with truck deliveries, according to a person familiar with the matter.Kellogg Co. has called in truck-hauled tankers of cooking oil to ensure uninterrupted production of Pringles at a Jackson, Tenn., factory, a person familiar with the matter said.
A spokeswoman for McDonald’s said french fry eaters haven’t been affected because “we have contingencies in place to ensure there is no disruption in our supply.” Kellogg didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Much of the blame is aimed at Hunter Harrison, the 72-year-old railroad-industry veteran who became CSX’s president and chief executive in March as part of a shake-up led by an activist investor. He promised to run the company’s 21,000-mile network more efficiently by idling excess equipment, closing some freight yards and running trains on a tighter schedule.
Mr. Harrison used a similar strategy to turn around Canada’s two largest railroads, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. He conceded that the program is off to a rocky start at CSX but said any short-term problems will lead to improved service in the long run.
“I’m sensitive to the issues that we’ve had. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m not,” Mr. Harrison said in an interview. “Some of the characterizations of some of the issues have been inaccurate and have been far overstated.”
He added: “Each one that has come to our attention, we have worked and continue to work very diligently” to address the problem.
Mr. Harrison said some of the recent snarls were beyond his control, such a derailment in Pennsylvania that interrupted service in that region for more than a week in July. Some CSX employees also are resisting the efficiency plan, he said.
In June, CSX fired nine employees in Cincinnati who Mr. Harrison said falsified computer reports about train-car movements to avoid being criticized about delaying customer shipments. He said this month’s derailment of a CSX freight train in South Carolina appears to be suspicious. Local news reports said a bulldozer was partially blocking the tracks.
Unions representing CSX workers disputed Mr. Harrison’s comments. In a letter to Mr. Harrison earlier this month, they said the unions refuse “to accept responsibility for service disruptions that negatively affect the customers when we have no input on operational changes.”
Late last month, the federal Surface Transportation Board ordered CSX to hold weekly meetings with the railroad regulator to discuss the problems. Last week, the STB told Mr. Harrison in a letter that it is concerned about “widespread degradation” of rail service.
“The network needs to be fluid,” Ann Begeman, the agency’s acting chairwoman, said in an interview. Several companies have told the STB that they were close to shutting down factories because of service-related problems at CSX, she added.
A broad group of freight shippers, the Rail Customer Coalition, told lawmakers in a letter that the service woes “put the health of our nation’s economy in jeopardy.” The group called on Congress to investigate the problems.
CSX’s Mr. Harrison responded that the letter contains “unfounded and grossly exaggerated” statements.
Chemical company Chemours Co. expected Mr. Harrison to make big changes at CSX but was in the dark about when they would occur, said Eddie Johnston, federal government affairs manager at Chemours. The Wilmington, Del., company, spun off from DuPontCo. in 2015, makes Teflon coatings, pigments for automotive paints and cosmetics ingredients.
In May, CSX trains started missing expected stops at Chemours plants in the eastern U.S., according to Mr. Johnston. Sometimes, CSX trains delivered raw materials to Chemours but left behind outbound freight cars meant for customers farther up the supply chain.
Other times, he said, CSX picked up finished goods from Chemours but didn’t deliver raw materials or empty freight cars needed for the next pickup.
Mr. Johnston said one Chemours plant came within hours of shutting down in late July before a CSX train arrived with a critical ingredient. Chemours has slowed production at one plant to make sure it can keep running.
“We’re sort of hanging by a thread,” he said. More than once, Chemours complained to a CSX employee about the problems and then found out the next day that the employee had left. CSX has eliminated 2,300 jobs this year. It had about 27,000 employees in December.
Chemours is using trucks to keep its plants running and deliver finished products to customers. A conversation last month between Mr. Harrison and Mark Vergnano, president and CEO of Chemours, has led to better communications, but service levels haven’t improved. “There are people that think normalcy still could be months away,” said Mr. Johnston.
Mr. Harrison said CSX customers were “well-informed” of what the changes would look like, given his record at other railroads. “I don’t think anyone got caught by surprise,” he said.
One of the most jarring changes by Mr. Harrison was the elimination of hump yards, massive facilities that sort long trains by rolling them down an incline and directing them toward tracks where new trains are built. Those trains then roll out to new destinations.
CSX’s Mr. Harrison wants more freight trains sorted when the railroad picks them up and to use locomotive power to break apart and reassemble trains. Soon after taking over at CSX, he closed eight of 12 hump yards, adding more strain to the four remaining locations.
One of the closed hump yards, the Avon Yard in Indianapolis, has since been reopened. “We might have made a mistake” there, said Mr. Harrison.
CSX’s closed Radnor hump yard in Nashville, Tenn., was part of a 500-acre facility. The entire terminal has struggled to adjust.
A measurement of freight-yard delays called dwell time averaged 53.5 hours in Nashville in the latest week for which CSX has released figures, up 63% from a year earlier. Dwell time has more than doubled since April.
Mr. Harrison said the Nashville terminal “didn’t have the best culture,” so he brought in some new managers to try to unclog it. He said the worst is behind CSX in Nashville, and dwell times have begun to rebound.
Some shippers complain that freight is taking roundabout routes that add days to the travel time. The railroad industry calls it ping-ponging.
“All of a sudden, we’re seeing a flood of these types of things,” said Dennis Wilmot, chief executive of Iron Horse Logistics Group, of Aurora, Ohio, which manages railcars for customers. CSX took an Alabama-bound metals shipment to New Orleans, where it was handed off to a Union Pacific Corp. train and then headed west before turning around and eventually reaching Alabama, according to Mr. Wilmot.
CSX said it has been “sending some cars to less-congested, out-of-route terminals for sorting” to keep “customer deliveries moving as efficiently as possible through some congested terminals.”
Poultry farmers are “incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional business costs to make emergency purchases of ingredients transported by truck to keep poultry alive,” according to a letter to regulators last week from the National Grain and Feed Association and other agricultural trade groups. The groups said some CSX feed deliveries were delayed nearly three weeks.
Each day that a railcar is delayed costs the owner as much as $100, estimates Herman Haksteen, president of the Private Railcar Food and Beverage Association, which represents large food companies like PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Heinz Co. For now, companies are absorbing the higher costs.
“They’re doing they’re everything they can so the consumer doesn’t see it,” said Mr. Haksteen. “The customer might see it next year.”
Brent Bilsland, chief executive of coal producer Hallador Energy Co. , of Denver, said service improved in July and August after “subpar” performance in the second quarter. “The performance of the CSX has been much more precise and really, really quite good,” he told analysts Aug. 9.
Shipments of corn and soybean meal by CSX are arriving at a Gettysburg, Pa., facility in seven days, down from 12 days, said Dan Sharrer, co-owner of Agricultural Commodities Inc. The company makes pretzel flour, fertilizer and poultry feed.
“They stubbed their toe, but all in all, they have done me well,” he said.
CSX has told customers to brace for a few more rocky weeks. “Shortly after Labor Day, you’ll see things return to what we call normal,” Mr. Harrison said. “And then they’ll start tracking up again.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/waiting-for-a-train-epic-csx-traffic-jam-sows-chaos-from-coal-to-french-fries-1503417959
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Trump Team Has Slowed down or Disbanded 3 Climate Panels
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Scott Waldman and Brittany Patterson
The Trump administration has quietly disbanded a growing number of scientific advisory committees, raising concerns that the latest research on climate change could be omitted from government decisions on things like infrastructure projects.
On Friday, the Trump administration notified members of the advisory committee for the National Climate Assessment that the group was being dissolved. The dissolution of the all-volunteer panel came on the same day that 13 federal agencies were supposed to weigh in on a draft climate science report that translates the latest research for policymakers at the federal and state levels.
Eliminating the committee in the midst of its work could create additional climate risk and expense in the future, said Richard Moss, the committee's chairman and an adjunct professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Geographical Sciences. He said the committee's work is particularly important for infrastructure projects, for which Trump has proposed a $1 trillion spending plan.
"What's significant about it is that it will slow down the process of making the information available to people who are planning long-lived infrastructure like reservoirs, dams and transportation assets and electrical power grids, things like that where climate conditions influence the operation of the assets," Moss said.
In their notice to committee members, NOAA officials claimed the panel's dissolution would not affect the completion of the National Climate Assessment, which is due out next year.
"This action does not impact the completion of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which remains a key priority for the Department and NOAA," acting NOAA Administrator Ben Friedman wrote to the committee.
Both developments add to a growing pattern. Federal science committees that work on climate issues that could affect regulations on the fossil fuel industry have been dissolved or restructured. Some studies have also been halted, or delayed, that could reflect unfavorably on the energy industry.
On Monday, the Interior Department ordered the National Academy of Sciences to stop studying the health effects of mountaintop coal mining on local residents. Interior officials said the stoppage is based on budget concerns.
When U.S. EPA failed to renew the role of some members on its Science Advisory Board earlier this summer, a spokesman said the agency wanted to increase the role of industry on the board.
In June, the Interior Department allowed the charter for a climate change science advisory group assembled in 2013 to expire. The 25-member panel, which included federal scientists, state experts, environmentalists and business representatives, was meant to keep Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke abreast of action at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and at Interior's eight Climate Science Centers.
Former committee members said the group was effective at shaping the branding and mission of Interior's outward-facing climate science facilities. The centers' goals include helping land managers on the ground effectively use climate science to adapt to changes expected in the future (Climatewire, Aug. 17).
As with some of the other volunteer boards, Trump administration officials described the move as a routine restructuring common during a shift in administrations. Interior officials said the review and subsequent restructuring of the panel are part of a larger agencywide move to assess its 200-plus advisory committees. In recent weeks, some committees have been given the green light to resume meeting.
Still, some former committee members questioned the pace at which the charter for the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science was being rewritten and what its new mission would look like.
"DOI would like us to redevelop a charter with slightly different tasks and a reduced membership that brings more professional societies onto the committee," wrote T. Douglas Beard, then-chief of the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, in an email sent to committee members April 28, the day after a scheduled meeting of the committee was canceled. "The revised committee will focus its efforts on science priority development, stakeholder and partner engagement and operation as network."
Some former members expressed doubt about whether climate change would remain in the title or in the overall mission of the panel. In the White House's proposed budget for fiscal 2018, funding for Interior's Climate Science Centers was slashed by more than one-third, and the administration suggested cutting the total number of centers in half.
"There's nothing inherently — I'm going to be generous in my language here — inherently untoward about reviewing and evaluating committee charters and mandates in the context of their being up for renewal," said Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a former committee member.
"What is odd and unclear is what's slowing the process down," he added. "If USGS and senior leaders within it have expressed their commitment to continue a strong advisory process and they wanted to tweak the charter of the committee to strengthen it and inform its work, that should happen expeditiously."
In an email sent through a press officer, Beard at USGS said, "The original FACA [Federal Advisory Committee Act] charter expired in June, so we are in the process of revising it; the charter is being reviewed by DOI."
It's not clear how many more advisory groups could be disbanded.
The charter for NOAA's Science Advisory Board was renewed in late June for two years. Similarly, the charter for NASA's Earth Science Advisory Committee, which informs the director of the Earth Sciences Division on its programmatic scope and priorities, was filed three days before the inauguration and will be valid until 2019. NASA's Earth Sciences Division conducts much of the climate change satellite research and monitoring for the U.S. government.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/08/22/stories/1060059025
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Ewire: Drillers' Study Seeks to Exempt Marginal Wells from Methane NSPS
Aug 22, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA is still struggling to delay implementing the Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions from oil and gas sources but already the industry is looking ahead to the agency's eventual re-write where they hope officials will roll back key requirements.
A case in point: The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), an industry non-profit that researches issues related to ultra-deepwater, unconventional and small producer production, announced Aug. 21that it is launching a study to determine the emissions profile of low-producing, marginal wells.
“RPSEA officials say the survey is needed to demonstrate if the contribution of methane emissions from marginal oil and gas wells are much lower than what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined and used when it updated its New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) under former President Barack Obama,” the group said in its statement.
When EPA issued the rule in June 2016, environmentalists welcomed EPA's decision in the final rule to scrap a proposed exemption from the rule's leak detection and repair requirements (LDAR) which would have exempted wells producing less than 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day on average for their first 30 days of production.
“Overall, this was the most important single fix that they could have made to the proposal and they did it,” one environmentalist said at the time.
But industry groups like the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), a supporter of the RPSEA study, have long criticized EPA's regulation of marginal wells, charging it raises the price of production from those wells, forcing them to shutter. Industry officials view this as a giveaway to environmental groups and their campaign to “keep [fossil fuels] in the ground.”
Now the industry is looking to the upcoming RPSEA study to help make the case that marginal wells should be subject to the NSPS's LDAR requirements.
“The data that EPA used to develop this rule were assumptions, with limited accurate and defensible data from marginal wells to base this ruling,” RPSEA President Tom Williams said in the statement. “It is absolutely imperative that we provide EPA with data that shows the accurate methane emissions contributions made by marginal wells.”
While industry works to ease EPA's rules, environmentalists are stepping up their efforts to limit emissions. Cornell University and Environmental Defense Fund announced Aug. 21 that they are launching a new project to assess the effectiveness of mobile monitors that measure benzene and other air toxics emissions from oil and gas sites.
The announcement said the project, one of five the two groups announced, is needed because EPA employs only 34 stations in its network “to monitor long-term concentrations of volatile organic compounds, so little is known about the risk to communities near most oil and gas sites.”
“This approach will reduce monitoring costs while giving communities and policymakers solid information about emissions levels and health risks,” the announcement says.
Check back for more on the battle over EPA's rules for the oil and gas industry.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-drillers-study-seeks-exempt-marginal-wells-methane-nsps
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With Obama EPA Rule in Force, Compliance Clash May Loom
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
The Trump administration is giving scant details on how or whether it plans to enforce restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry after a federal court revived the standards last month.
U.S. EPA has been tight-lipped since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit blocked the agency's efforts to delay the Obama-era rule for methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The agency said yesterday that it may make enforcement decisions on a "case-by-case basis."
"EPA may elect to exercise its enforcement discretion on a case-by-case basis with respect to the fugitive emissions monitoring requirements," an EPA spokeswoman said in an email. "Companies that have specific questions regarding their compliance obligations should contact the appropriate EPA regional office."
Finalized last year, the Obama administration's standards aim to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from new and modified oil and gas sites.
Trump's EPA is working to roll back the rule as part of a broader effort to streamline domestic oil and gas production and is expected to finalize a proposed two-year delay of requirements in the coming months.
But the D.C. Circuit's recent decision to strike down a related 90-day delay means that, for now, the Obama rule is alive and well (Energywire, Aug. 11).
Environmental watchdogs are concerned EPA and the oil and gas industry aren't as committed to compliance as they should be.
Matt Watson, associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate and Energy Program, said EPA's "case-by-case" approach is unsurprising but could be legally problematic.
"No surprise there, given that it's clear that their goal is to do away with methane regulation altogether," he said. "What's also unsurprising is the lack of respect for the rule of law that you see in that statement."
EDF attorney Peter Zalzal added that many environmental groups will be monitoring industry and EPA closely and are prepared to take legal action if needed.
"If we just look at the facts of these requirements, my hope would be that companies are out there complying as they're legally required to do," he said.
"That being said," he added, "the Clean Air Act provides a pathway for citizen enforcement. The citizen groups concerned about non-compliance have availed themselves of it in the past, so it's certainly something that's available here, too."Compliance commitments
For their part, many in the oil and gas industry have already committed to full compliance.
The American Petroleum Institute, Independent Petroleum Association of America and Western Energy Alliance — influential trade groups — all told E&E News they are urging their members to follow every requirement on the books.
"The ruling effectively put the updated rules governing new sources of methane emissions into effect," API spokesman Reid Porter said in an email. "API members follow these rules and all rules to keep their projects compliant."
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have already reported compliance with the rule's initial requirements, Watson said.
Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said her group is also advising members to comply, and IPAA Executive Vice President Lee Fuller noted that companies would be legally vulnerable if they don't.
"People are exposed legally if they don't comply, so they're going to choose to comply," he told E&E News.'It's confounding'
Porter, the API spokesman, said his group is maintaining a "collaborative working relationship" with EPA and is providing information about operations and emissions "to inform the agency as they continue to reconsider these important rules."
But industry representatives are far from enthusiastic about being subject to the standards in the meantime.
In an interview, IPAA's Fuller lamented the regulatory uncertainty that accompanied recent regulatory and legal shuffling. He said he's particularly frustrated that the D.C. Circuit did not institute a grace period that would have given industry more time to plan for compliance.
"That's probably the part that creates most of the confusion," he said. "It's confounding to you as a regulated entity."
Fuller said some uncertainty still exists over compliance expectations for oil and gas wells that were completed in late 2015, which are covered by the rule.
"I don't think the expectation was that all of those wells would immediately have to have their first fugitive emissions analysis on June 3 or June 4," he said, referring to the compliance deadline. EPA's 90-day stay, since overturned by the court, kicked in just after the deadline.
"The question is, are they technically in compliance with the requirements given all the confusion associated with the stay and the litigation?" Fuller asked.
For now, he said, operators should "err on the side of caution" and get in compliance quickly if they are not already.
"We're also hoping to get some clarity from EPA on how it wants to re-engage or restart this process — whether the schedule's going to be different, how they're going to choose to enforce," he said. "We don't have that information at this point in time."
Sgamma said her group hasn't received guidance either.Citizen suits
Environmentalists appear cautiously optimistic that oil and gas operators will stick to their commitments to comply with the rule.
But Watson, of EDF, warned that compliance will likely vary across the industry.
"You're going to have leaders in industry who view compliance as a totally non-negotiable question and, further, that have it as part of their corporate ethos to run a tight ship," he said. "And then I think you'll see a range of responses going downhill from there."
That's where legal action comes in, said Sierra Club attorney Andres Restrepo.
"If [EPA Administrator] Scott Pruitt truly cares about the rule of law like he claims to, he will vigorously enforce EPA's methane standards, which are the law of the land," Restrepo said. "If he doesn't, then those of us in the environmental community will fully explore our legal options, including possible citizen enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act."
To bring a citizen suit, affected environmentalists or landowners would have to show that a company is failing to meet its obligation to find and repair methane leaks. Several groups and individuals routinely use methane detection equipment to monitor emissions in the field.
"We have the capacity," Watson said. "We have some of the best methane scientists in the world and important partnerships with not only researchers but local leaders, including concerned landowners."
Industry groups have criticized EDF and other environmental organizations, arguing that their real goal is to simply shut down all oil and gas development.
"I'm sure EDF would love to file citizen suits," Fuller said. "Their agenda is: Litigate, raise money, litigate."
Watson responded that industry leaders oppose methane standards at their own risk.
"It's these companies, these leaders, who have the greatest risk in all of these because their social license goes down with the ship if this EPA and these trade associations have their way," he said. "It's time for them to stand up and demonstrate real leadership."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/22/stories/1060059016
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