Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 8/23/2017
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(ACC Mentioned) IoT Is About to Tell You When Your Food Is Spoiled
Aug 22, 2017 | Network World
By Frederic Paul
“It’s not getting any younger.”...In my house, that’s code for either eating or trashing something in the refrigerator that’s flirting with its “best-by” date — or just no longer looks as appetizing as it once did.Sensors are the core of the Internet of Things. -
California to Consider Listing N-Hethane, Coumarin Under Prop 65
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Advisory committees will meet in November to consider listing the substances n-hethane and coumarin under California's Proposition 65. -
California Talc Trial Jury Slaps $417m Verdict on J&J
Aug 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
A California jury has ordered US multinational Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m in damages in its ongoing legal battle over the safety of talc. It is the largest loss dealt to the company. -
EU Commission Pressed to Review Detergents Labelling
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
Soap and detergents trade body Aise has called for modifications to detergent labelling that would eliminate overlapping requirements for allergenic fragrance substances and preservatives, and better align them with the CLP Regulation. -
Power Plant Emissions Should Be Part of Pipeline Review: Court
Aug 23, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Chris Marr
Carbon emissions from gas-burning power plants should have been considered in federal regulators’ review of a Florida natural gas pipeline, a federal appeals court ruled Aug. 22, siding with conservation groups. -
Colorado Governor Orders Pipeline Rule Update After Fatal Accidents
Aug 23, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) Aug. 22 directed the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to upgrade its rules on inspection and pressure-testing of natural gas flow lines, one of a series of steps he has taken to improve safety following two deadly accidents. -
Energy Transfer Told to Revise Rover Gas Line Drill Plans
Aug 23, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Catherine Traywick
Energy Transfer Partners must submit revised horizontal directional drilling plans for the Rover natural gas pipeline along with other information before FERC will allow the company to resume drilling in certain areas, the agency said in an Aug. 22 filing. -
Members of Trump’s Infrastructure Panel Resign in Protest
Aug 23, 2017 | Roll Call
By John M. Donnelly
More than a quarter of a blue-ribbon panel of experts that advises President Donald Trump on infrastructure security submitted a joint resignation letter to him Monday because, they wrote, his actions jeopardize U.S. security and “undermine” America’s “moral infrastructure.” -
Activists, Lawmakers Rally for Override of Christie's Oil Train Veto
Aug 23, 2017 | NorthJersey
By Curtis Tate
Community activists and state and local officials rallied Tuesday in Teaneck in support of overriding Gov. Chris Christie's veto of an oil train transparency bill, which if successful would be the first in his two terms in office. -
Group Touts Carbon Markets Tool to Ensure Emissions Drop
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Arianna Skibell
A carbon emissions cap-and-trade program encompassing nine Northeastern states is due for an update, and an environmental think tank has some suggestions. -
California-Quebec August Auction Results Reflect a Secure Cap-and-Trade Future
Aug 23, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Erica Morehouse
Strong results from the California-Quebec August auction released today reflect that the future of cap and trade is secure in California. -
California Pollution Permits Sell at Highest Price Ever
Aug 23, 2017 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Jonathan J. Cooper
California raised more than $640 million this month auctioning off permits for businesses to emit greenhouse gases as part of a program aimed at fighting climate change, according to state data released Tuesday.
Industry and Association News
LCSA News - There are no relevant clips to report at this time.
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News
Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) IoT Is About to Tell You When Your Food Is Spoiled
Aug 22, 2017 | Network World
By Frederic Paul
“It’s not getting any younger.”
In my house, that’s code for either eating or trashing something in the refrigerator that’s flirting with its “best-by” date — or just no longer looks as appetizing as it once did.Sensors are the core of the Internet of Things.
But what if Internet of Things (IoT) sensor technology could tell you whether that lasagna was still safe for dinner or whether it’s time to toss the hair-coloring product slowly drying out in the back of your medicine cabinet? That promise is what’s on the menu at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington, D.C., this week. So, what does the world’s largest scientific society, with more than 157,000 members, have to do with IoT?
Sensor technology is at the core of IoT, and the researchers aligned with the 140-year-old organization have developed a cheap, portable, paper-based sensor that could potentially do a lot more than tell users how old the food is. The idea is that the sensors could actually interact with the substance to tell whether or not it’s spoiled.
Silvana Andreescu, Ph.D., told Phys.org, "My lab has built a versatile sensing platform that incorporates all the needed reagents for detection in a piece of paper. At the same time, it is adaptable to different targets, including food contaminants, antioxidants and free radicals that indicate spoilage."More than just spoiled leftovers
That means the technology could also be used to identify new medicinal plants without having to bring samples back to the lab, or to authenticate the provenance of expensive wines and teas.
According to Andreescu, the key is nanostructures that “catch and bind” with the compounds being tested for — in this case, the reactive oxygen species that products accumulate as they age and eventually spoil — changing color to indicate the results. Green for good to eat, for example, or red for send it to the dumpster.
Even better, because all the reagents needed are incorporated into the paper, “users don't need to add anything other than the sample being tested.” That means the sensors could be added to food or cosmetic labels, offering real-time information on the condition of their contents without users having to perform special tests.Super cheap, disposable sensors could be big business
So, yeah, that lasagna may not be getting any younger, but deciding whether to keep or toss it may no longer be a guessing game. And that could help take a bite out of the $640 worth of food the average American family throws out each year, according to the American Chemistry Council. Put it all together, and those leftovers add up to big dollars — an estimated $165 billion worth of food Americans waste every year.
Sure, these paper-based, color-coded sensors don’t need the internet to display their results, but these kinds of super-cheap, disposable sensors can only extend the reach of the IoT. And it’s hardly a stretch to see these sensors being able to communicate with smart appliances to track how well they’re doing preserving food, notifying consumers when stuff needs to be thrown out, and even figuring out when staples need to be replaced.
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3218120/internet-of-things/iot-is-about-to-tell-you-when-your-food-is-spoiled.html
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California to Consider Listing N-Hethane, Coumarin Under Prop 65
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Advisory committees will meet in November to consider listing the substances n-hethane and coumarin under California's Proposition 65.
The state's law requires manufacturers and retailers to warn workers and consumers exposed to chemicals on the list.
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) is considering listing n-hethane as a developmental and reproductive toxicant. It is used as a degreaser, a solvent component and a low-temperature thermometer filling.
The Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee (Dartic) of Oehha’s Science Advisory Board will consider the chemical at its next meeting on 29 November, along with the pesticide chlorpyrifos.
The committee requested information on n-hethane and several other chemicals in February. In its 18 August meeting announcement, Oehha said hazard identification materials would be available in about a week.
Coumarin, a fragrance ingredient sometimes derived from plants, may be listed under Prop 65 as a carcinogen. The Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) will consider the substance at a 2 November meeting.
Oehha requested information on coumarin in March. The hazard information document published with the meeting notice says animal studies show evidence the substance may be carcinogenic.
Comments on hazard identification documents are accepted for 45 days following their publication.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58328/california-to-consider-listing-n-hethane-coumarin-under-prop-65
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California Talc Trial Jury Slaps $417m Verdict on J&J
Aug 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
A California jury has ordered US multinational Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m in damages in its ongoing legal battle over the safety of talc. It is the largest loss dealt to the company.
The massive decision came in the case of 63-year old Eva Echeverria. She claimed that decades of using the company's talcum powder for feminine hygiene purposes was connected to her ovarian cancer. Siding with the plaintiff, the jury awarded $347m in total punitive damages, and $70m in total compensatory damages.
The verdict handed down in the case – the first to be decided in California – far eclipses the penalties dealt to the company in a St Louis court. There, the company has been ordered to pay $110m, $70m, $72m and$55m in four cases heard in the class-action suit.
Johnson & Johnson looked to be gaining ground earlier this summer, after the St Louis court declared a mistrial in light of a US Supreme Court decision on where injury claims can be filed. But California's decision represents a major setback for the company, as it faces hundreds of additional complaints in the state – and thousands more across the country.
The company says it will be appealing the California decision, as it has with the Missouri outcomes, "because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder", according to spokesperson Carol Goodrich.
"In April, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote: 'The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer,'" said Ms Goodrich. "We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun a research study exploring the potential link between ovarian cancer and talc in cosmetics. Results are not expected for several years.
Missouri is gearing up to hear the next trial against Johnson & Johnson in October.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58320/california-talc-trial-jury-slaps-417m-verdict-on-jj
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EU Commission Pressed to Review Detergents Labelling
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
Soap and detergents trade body Aise has called for modifications to detergent labelling that would eliminate overlapping requirements for allergenic fragrance substances and preservatives, and better align them with the CLP Regulation.
And the recent implementation of the amended Annex VIII of CLP, outlining the information to be provided to poison centres, means changes must also be made to medical datasheets, the organisation adds.
Aise submitted its comments, alongside those of member states, trade bodies and NGOs, to the European Commission's consultation on the detergents Regulation. It forms part of the evaluation and fitness check to assess whether the Regulation is achieving its objectives by analysing its effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU-added value.
Aise says a reduction of the list of ingredients and their related concentration ranges on labels is needed to help focus on the elements "relevant for consumers". Digital sources such as websites could give this information, it says.
And in its response to the consultation Kemi, the Swedish Chemicals Agency, says labels and packaging on detergent products are "overloaded" with information that can include:
· detergents Regulation requirements;
· CLP requirements;
· Aise icons;
· potential ecolabel information; and
· other voluntary product specific information.
Manufacturers are unclear whether preservatives they intentionally add to the product should be stated in the list of ingredients, Kemi says. And likewise if no preservatives have been added.
The Regulation is "tricky" to enforce, the agency says, and checking to see if the ingredients list corresponds to the actual content of the product and the most recent formulation is a "time-demanding procedure". "General simplifications" are needed to clarify the legislation, it says. But it stresses that all amendments must be done without reducing the protection of human health and the environment.
More needed
Other stakeholder responses to the consultation contradict the need for a reduction of information on labels.
NGOs ChemSec and European consumer organisation Beuc call for detergents to carry full ingredient lists, as required by the cosmetics Regulation. There is also an urgent need, ChemSec says, to update and elaborate the current list of 26 consumer allergens listed under the Regulation.
Germany's federal environment agency (UBA) agrees that all detergent ingredients should be labelled, but this may create space issues on the packaging, it says in its consultation reply. Therefore the Commission should consider whether it is necessary for ingredients to be written in several languages on each product if a standardised system – such as the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) – could be feasibly applied.
Dosing instructions are important for users, but it is unclear how the user interprets the classifications 'lightly', 'normally' and 'heavily' soiled – this could potentially result in general overdosing, UBA says.
In addition, dosing measures provided by industry "are often not viable" because the marks are often "barely visible" or do not correspond to the specifications on the packaging. The website link on the packaging should directly link to the list of ingredients, but the UBA says this is not always the case.
Global initiatives
The issue of listing ingredients in cleaning products has gained traction in North America in recent years with manufacturers facing pressure to disclose them. SC Johnson launched a programme in 2015 and has recently revealed hundreds of potential skin allergens that may be used in its products. Early this year, Procter & Gamble (P&G) launched a website that allows consumers to see what preservatives are in its products.
On a federal level, in May a bill was reintroduced in the US House of Representatives that would require ingredient listing for commercial and consumer cleaning products. And disclosure has become a priority issue for many US states. This year, California's Senate passed a bill that would require increased disclosure of such ingredients and New York has also proposed a similar requirement.
Meanwhile, in Canada NGO Environmental Defence has challenged the government to introduce laws to require cleaning products and many cosmetics to feature a complete ingredient list.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58329/eu-commission-pressed-to-review-detergents-labelling
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Power Plant Emissions Should Be Part of Pipeline Review: Court
Aug 23, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Chris Marr
Carbon emissions from gas-burning power plants should have been considered in federal regulators’ review of a Florida natural gas pipeline, a federal appeals court ruled Aug. 22, siding with conservation groups.
The case is the second in two weeks in which a federal court insisted that federal agencies consider indirect environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, when reviewing a fossil fuel project. In the earlier one, a Montana federal district court on Aug. 14 ruled to block a coal mine expansion plan by Signal Peak Energy. The courts’ rulings contrast with the Trump administration's efforts to increase fossil fuel use despite a consensus scientific view that burning them is causing climate change.
A group of connected pipeline projects, including the 515-mile Sabal Trail, will need an updated environmental impact review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's decision (Sierra Club v. FERC, 2017 BL 293107, D.C. Cir., No. 16-1329 Consolidated with 16-1387, 8/22/17 .
The court's decision, however, “will not affect Sabal Trail's operations at this time,” Andrea Grover, a spokeswoman for Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, told Bloomberg BNA by email on Aug. 22. She said the company is reviewing the decision and has no further comment.
The Sabal Trail went into full commercial service in early July, carrying natural gas from an Alabama terminal through southern Georgia and to Florida power plants owned by NextEra Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. NextEra and Duke also are co-owners of the pipeline, along with Spectra Energy, which merged into Enbridge Inc. earlier this year.
A panel of judges split 2-1, with the majority agreeing with the Sierra Club, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Flint Riverkeeper, which argued FERC's original review of the project didn't adequately consider the projects’ climate change impacts.
The pipeline will let Florida power companies burn more natural gas instead of pursuing renewable energy alternatives, the environmental groups said in their court filings.
“We conclude that at a minimum, FERC should have estimated the amount of power-plant carbon emissions that the pipelines will make possible,” Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote in the Aug. 22 opinion. The court remanded the case to FERC for preparation of a new environmental impact statement.
Looking at Next Steps
Elizabeth Benson, the Sierra Club's lead attorney on the case, demurred on speculating as to whether the pipeline might be shut down while FERC revisits the environmental impact.
“We're looking at next steps,” she told Bloomberg BNA on Aug. 22. “Anything is possible.”
The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, the majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., parent of Bloomberg BNA.
“The bottom line is the court found the environmental impact statement violated” the National Environmental Policy Act requirements, Benson said. “This was an unlawful project.”
A FERC spokeswoman said the agency doesn't comment on litigation.
Similar Coal Mine Ruling
The Sabal Trail case—much like the Montana coal mine case—signals that some federal courts are insisting that environmental reviews include information on indirect greenhouse gas emissions.
“Despite Trump's efforts to ignore greenhouse gas emissions in the NEPA process, the courts are saying it's necessary” to consider them, Michael Gerrard, an environmental and climate law professor at Columbia Law School, told Bloomberg BNA on Aug. 22.
On the other hand, three recent rulings by the D.C. Circuit court went against the Sierra Club. In those cases, the group contested federal approvals of liquefied natural gas facility projects. The judge in the Sabal Trail case noted a difference in those cases—that the LNG facilities’ natural gas exports would be beyond FERC's regulatory authority and therefore beyond the scope of its consideration for environmental review.
“Here, FERC is not so limited,” Griffith wrote in the opinion. “Congress broadly instructed the agency to consider ‘the public convenience and necessity’ when evaluating applications to construct and operate interstate pipelines.”
Benson agreed it's significant to see courts require that regulators consider the environmental and climate impacts of projects based on how the natural gas or coal will be used.
“This is a big victory in that respect,” she said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119374707&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119374707&jd=119374707
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Colorado Governor Orders Pipeline Rule Update After Fatal Accidents
Aug 23, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) Aug. 22 directed the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to upgrade its rules on inspection and pressure-testing of natural gas flow lines, one of a series of steps he has taken to improve safety following two deadly accidents.
Hickenlooper announced in all seven steps the state will take involving the oil and gas industry. In April, two men were killed when a leaking flow line connected to a natural gas well owned by Anadarko Petroleum Co. caused a house to explode near Firestone, Colo. In May, a worker was killed and three others were seriously injured in an explosion caused by a buildup of combustible products in a trench being dug between oil storage tanks at an Anadarko site.The direction to the OGCC involves rules for natural gas flow lines connecting wellheads to production facilities. The governor also called for an enhancement of the “8-1-1” system, where people can call to learn the location of underground pipelines before digging.
Hickenlooper directed the commission to develop rules similar to those contained in a notice to oil and gas operators he ordered sent out following the Firestone explosion. The notice required companies to identify, inspect, and pressure-test all flowlines within 1,000 feet of homes and other occupied buildings. That process resulted in the testing of 120,000 flow lines at 23,000 different well sites across the state, he said.http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119374709&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119374709&jd=119374709
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Energy Transfer Told to Revise Rover Gas Line Drill Plans
Aug 23, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Catherine Traywick
Energy Transfer Partners must submit revised horizontal directional drilling plans for the Rover natural gas pipeline along with other information before FERC will allow the company to resume drilling in certain areas, the agency said in an Aug. 22 filing.
Energy Transfer will have to provide names, contact information, and qualifications for all drilling inspectors, specialists and engineers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in the filing. FERC said it also would require weekly horizontal directional drilling monitoring reports from the company.
The company submitted a revised drilling plan Aug. 4, incorporating recommendations for third-party review. FERC halted horizontal drilling on certain segments of the pipeline following a 50,000-barrel spill of diesel-tainted drilling fluid.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119374713&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119374713&jd=119374713
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Members of Trump’s Infrastructure Panel Resign in Protest
Aug 23, 2017 | Roll Call
By John M. Donnelly
More than a quarter of a blue-ribbon panel of experts that advises President Donald Trump on infrastructure security submitted a joint resignation letter to him Monday because, they wrote, his actions jeopardize U.S. security and “undermine” America’s “moral infrastructure.”
Seven Democratic members of the 27-person National Infrastructure Advisory Council are stepping down, said Cristin Dorgelo, one of the resigning members, in an email to CQ Roll Call. Dorgelo, a senior counselor at Mission Partners LLC, was formerly chief of staff for President Barack Obama’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The council, created in 2001, advises the president through the Homeland Security secretary on critical U.S. infrastructure and information systems. Its members are drawn from the private sector, government and academia.
Four of the council members who resigned confirmed in emails that they had done so and that the text of their letter to Trump, obtained by CQ Roll Call, is accurate.
The council members providing that confirmation were Dorgelo; Christy Goldfuss, a vice president at the Center for American Progress who chaired Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality; DJ Patil, formerly U.S. chief data scientist under Obama; and Daniel Tangherlini, former administrator of the General Services Administration.
In the letter, the resigning council members said they normally work in a bipartisan and collaborative fashion.
“Unfortunately,” they added, “our experience to date has not demonstrated that the Administration is adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview, or responsive to sound advice received from experts and advisors on these matters.”
“In taking on this duty,” they wrote, “we each took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, that oath compels us to resign. The moral infrastructure of our Nation is the foundation on which our physical infrastructure is built. The Administration’s actions undermine that foundation.”Critique of Trump
The departures represent the latest example of outside advisers to Trump resigning in protest in the wake of the president’s widely criticized comments on the recent unrest in Charlottesville, Va., in which he appeared to assert moral equivalence between neo-Nazis and people protesting them.
Earlier this month, the president disbanded the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative and the Strategic and Policy Forum after CEOs resigned in droves from them.
In Monday’s letter to Trump, the resigning members of the infrastructure council cited the president’s remarks about the Charlottesville violence and his attacks on the CEOs who left advisory councils in protest.
But they also noted what they called Trump’s “insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process.”
And they decried his actions on climate change as threats to U.S. security.
“Additionally, your decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, your intent to revoke flood-risk building standards, and your many other actions to ignore the pressing threat of climate change to our critical infrastructure also point to your disregard for the security of American communities,” they wrote.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/members-trumps-infrastructure-panel-resign-protest
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Activists, Lawmakers Rally for Override of Christie's Oil Train Veto
Aug 23, 2017 | NorthJersey
By Curtis Tate
Community activists and state and local officials rallied Tuesday in Teaneck in support of overriding Gov. Chris Christie's veto of an oil train transparency bill, which if successful would be the first in his two terms in office.
Though fewer oil trains have been moving through North Jersey communities recently, the governor's veto last month of S-806 has become a rallying point for those who wanted to see stronger safety measures in place.
"What Christie did was unconscionable," said Jeff Tittel, senior chapter director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "We need the Legislature to stand up."
Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, an outspoken Christie critic, joined about two dozen activists under a concrete bridge that carries Route 4 over Palisade Avenue and the CSX River Line.
Weinberg is the lead sponsor of the bill Christie vetoed. It would require railroads to submit disaster response and cleanup plans to state officials, make their bridge inspection reports available to the state Department of Transportation and disclose routing and volume information publicly to assist emergency response personnel.
"This bill is about safety," she said.
More: N.J. Senate plans override of oil train bill that railroads opposed and Christie vetoed
More: CSX lobbied Christie officials before he vetoed oil train bill
More: Christie vetoes oil train bill that would have given first responders more emergency info
The lawmakers and activists remain concerned about a series of oil train derailments in North America, especially the July 2013 catastrophe in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where 47 people were killed.
"Each and every day is a possible emergency," said Assemblyman Gary Schaer, D-Passaic. "Each and every day we cross our fingers and hope everything will be all right."
Though several oil trains have derailed in the United States since 2013, nobody has been killed or seriously injured.
CSX oil trains derailed and caught fire in Lynchburg, Virginia, in April 2014, and in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, in February 2015. Both derailments were attributed to track defects.
CSX recently told state officials that the number of oil trains it moves through New Jersey had declined to zero to five per week, from 15 to 30 just a few years ago.
The declining price of oil in the past few years has prompted East Coast refineries to switch back to crude imported by sea vessel rather than oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale region that is transported primarily by train.
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Still, documents obtained by The Record showed that CSX, Norfolk Southern and Conrail, the state's three largest freight rail companies, lobbied senior Christie administration officials ahead of the governor's veto. They also wrote Christie a letter urging him to veto the legislation a month before he did.
Weinberg said it was still "a little bit iffy" whether she could muster enough votes for an override on Friday, with many lawmakers out on vacation.
But if she can't get enough votes this week, "we will do this all over again" once the new governor takes office in January.
At least some Republican votes are expected in favor of the override, including that of Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Cresskill.
Schaer said Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, supports the override effort.
The Legislature has failed to override any of Christie's vetoes in his eight years in office.
http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2017/08/22/activists-lawmakers-rally-override-christies-oil-train-veto/589507001/
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Group Touts Carbon Markets Tool to Ensure Emissions Drop
Aug 22, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Arianna Skibell
A carbon emissions cap-and-trade program encompassing nine Northeastern states is due for an update, and an environmental think tank has some suggestions.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is in the middle of its 2016 program review, established a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide power plants can emit by issuing and auctioning tradable CO2 allowances. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont participate in the program.
RGGI has seen compliance costs and allowance prices settle at lower-than-expected levels, which boosts the economy but doesn't necessarily reduce emissions associated with global warming. Now a team of researchers at Resources for the Future is proposing a mechanism that could continue to reduce emissions even when prices are low. The tool is called an emissions containment reserve, or ECR.
In a report released today, RFF's Dallas Burtraw, Karen Palmer and Anthony Paul, with the University of Virginia's Charles Holt and William Shobe, use simulation modeling and laboratory experiments to weigh this potential new design idea for RGGI.
Here's how it works: If the demand for emissions allowances is low, the price of those allowances will fall. If the auction price dips to a proposed ECR price level, then some or all of the allowances would not be sold. This would ensure that if the price of the good falls, less of that good comes into the market, reducing price volatility and reducing total emissions.
The idea is that the dynamics of the carbon market would have the same flexibility seen in most other commodity markets, according to Palmer.
"In every other commodity market, whether you're selling tin or iron, if market demand is low and prices are lower, people supply less," she said. "If demand is lower, then you supply less. That's what the ECR makes possible. It makes emissions allowance markets look like other markets."
This would allow a sharing of benefits, according to Paul.
"If compliance with RGGI turns out to be cheaper than expected, then the benefits of that low cost would be shared between economic and environmental interests if the ECR is implemented," he said. "Because the ECR allows the allowance price to fall, that leads to savings for generators and ratepayers. But the ECR would restrict how much it can fall by not putting so many allowances in the market — a benefit for the environment."
RFF has often been consulted by RGGI officials to design elements of and update the program, though researchers say there is no guarantee RGGI's 2016 update will incorporate the new ECR tool.
"Nobody knows for sure when the program review will be finalized," Paul said. "It all happens behind closed doors, and it certainly is not in the bank that this will happen."
Still, Palmer said the tool amounts to an extension of updates RFF researchers have previously suggested — not a radical departure.
"One of the ways RGGI tries to accommodate the fact that things change over time is to have regular program reviews, and that's when they look at program design aspects," she said. "This ECR feature would add more flexibility in between those formal program reviews."
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/08/22/stories/1060059058
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California-Quebec August Auction Results Reflect a Secure Cap-and-Trade Future
Aug 23, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Erica Morehouse
Strong results from the California-Quebec August auction released today reflect that the future of cap and trade is secure in California.
The August 15 auction saw increased demand and prices for carbon allowances, which will now be usable at least through 2030. These strong results are particularly significant because the auction is the first since a California appellate court cemented the legality of the program, and since the California Legislature extendedthe state’s cap-and-trade program with the two-thirds vote. This vote protects the program from the type of legal challenges that artificially depressed demand for allowances in 2016.
August auction by the numbers
· Over $640,000,000: Approximate amount raised for California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in this auction. This is an all-time high for California.
· $14.75: Price at which current vintage allowances sold. This is $1.18 above the minimum price of $13.57 at which participants were allowed to bid. This is the largest premium above the minimum price that the auctions have seen since California and Quebec started holding joint auctions. (However, one California auction in 2013 did sell allowances for $14.00 which was more than $3.00 above the minimum price at the time.)
· 63,887,833: Number of “current vintage” allowances offered and sold at this auction by California, Quebec, and California utilities, and which are available for immediate use.
· 9,723,500: Number of “future vintage” allowances offered and sold at this auction, which will not be available for use until 2020. These allowances sold for $14.55 a record premium above the “floor price” also $13.57. The last auction to sell all offered future vintage allowances was in November of 2015.
This is what certainty looks like
Until recently, two big question marks were hanging over California’s cap-and-trade program. These were encouraging auction participants to buy only the allowances that they absolutely needed at the four previous auctions – and led to only modest auction results.
The certainty provided by the resolution of these concerns contributed a great deal to the strong August auction results. Here’s how:
1. California court upholds cap-and-trade program: A California appellate court first held in May that the cap-and-trade program is not a tax, overturning a lengthy legal battle spearheaded by the California Chamber of Commerce. After this news the May auction saw a significant rebound. This confidence was supported in June when the California Supreme Court declined to review the appellate court’s decision, cementing a win for the state of California (and EDF and NRDC as intervenors) after four and a half years of litigation.
2. California legislature extends cap-and-trade program to 2030: California’s ambitious 2030 climate target was cemented into law in 2016 but the current cap-and-trade regulation only ran through 2020. ARB was set to extend the program, but legal questions meant that without legislative action the post-2020 program could have been plagued by the same type of challenges that had affected prices in 2016. A change to the definition of a tax in 2010 meant that the California Chamber of Commerce and others might have had gotten a second bite at the litigation apple. But on July 17, 55 Assembly members and 28 Senators came together across party lines to pass legislation extending California’s cap-and-trade program to 2030, ensuring the program could move forward unimpeded.
Today’s results affirm the courage of the votes taken to secure the future of cap and trade in California. Carbon prices now more directly align with expectations about the true cost of reducing carbon pollution through 2030. That clearer and more accurate price will send a signal throughout California that will drive the action needed to meet the state’s climate targets and show others around the world what is possible.
http://blogs.edf.org/climatetalks/2017/08/22/california-quebec-august-auction-results-reflect-a-secure-cap-and-trade-future/
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California Pollution Permits Sell at Highest Price Ever
Aug 23, 2017 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Jonathan J. Cooper
California raised more than $640 million this month auctioning off permits for businesses to emit greenhouse gases as part of a program aimed at fighting climate change, according to state data released Tuesday.
Last week’s auction was the state’s first since lawmakers voted to extend California’s cap and trade program through 2030. It requires businesses, oil refineries and other polluters to obtain permits to be able to emit carbon, with the overall goal of drastically reducing emissions. Money raised through the auctions goes to projects such as high-speed rail, public transit and housing projects.
Demand for the permits rebounded in this month’s auction after more than a year of flagging interest as businesses waited to see if the program would continue.
Permits for near-term emissions sold for $14.75, while future allowances went for $14.55 as companies snapped up permits before prices rise over the next 13 years. The sale price was nearly $1 higher than the price last quarter.
The auction revenue pays for initiatives that reduce emissions or mitigate the impacts of climate change. Sixty percent of the money is earmarked for specific purposes, including the bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco, public transit and housing projects. Lawmakers are expected to decide this month on a spending plan for the remainder, including up to $840 million generated in previous auctions.
Cap and trade is a central part of California’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below the level in 1990 by 2030. Polluters must obtain permits, known as allowances, for each ton of carbon that they release. The number of allowances goes down each year, increasing the cost of pollution over time and, proponents hope, increasing incentives for polluters to invest in cleaner technology.
The program was scheduled to expire in 2020 until lawmakers voted last month to extend it until 2030. Uncertainty about its future — along with a lawsuit challenging the legality of the auctions — was blamed for significantly reducing demand for permits for more than a year. The California Court of Appeal ruled earlier this year that the auctions are constitutional and the Supreme Court has declined to take the case.
“What’s good news now is that the carbon price more accurately reflects what will be required for California to get to its 2030 goal,” said Erica Morehouse, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, which supports the cap and trade law. “It didn’t reflect that as accurately before this auction.”
The strong demand now reflects polluters stocking up on allowances before 2020, when the state will get more aggressive about winding down the number available, said Chris Bush, research director for Energy Innovation, a San Francisco company that provides advice and analysis on energy and environmental policy.
An abundance of allowances that will be used down the road could stifle the future environmental benefits of cap and trade, he said.
“That’s going to mean extra emission in the future,” Busch said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/california-pollution-permits-sell-at-highest-price-ever/2017/08/22/7c951ff6-878a-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html?utm_term=.6c61ccc03a67
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