Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 23/8/17
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(ACC Mentioned) Reporting Tool Will Aim to Quantify Chinese Ban Impact
Aug 23, 2017 | Plastics recycling Update
By Colin Staub
A common complaint about China’s restriction on scrap materials imports is the lack of solid information about what exactly the upcoming ban will target. A Canadian plastics group is taking data-gathering into its own hands. -
(ACC Mentioned) Multi-Material Automotive Market Gets Superglue Breakthrough
Aug 23, 2017 | Digital Journal
By Karen Graham
Automotive engineers and designers say the future lies in multi-material vehicles - High-strength steel, carbon fiber, aluminum, and advanced plastics. However, joining these different materials together during production has always been a problem. -
RIVM Publishes Hazardous Substances in Waste Streams Study
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical Watch
A study by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has made recommendations on how to limit the risks of 'highly hazardous' substances (ZZSs) for humans and the environment in the circular economy. -
Review Unlikely to Spur Oil and Gas Rush
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King
Changing or abolishing at least six of the 21 national monuments currently under Interior Department scrutiny could create limited new opportunities for oil and gas operators. -
Cove Point Seeking FERC OK to Introduce Feed Gas, Ship Loading Equipment
Aug 23, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG LP has filed a request for authorization from FERC to introduce hazardous fluids at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, MD. -
Major Ruling Against FERC Shakes Up Climate Law
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Environmentalists are celebrating a big win after a federal court ordered regulators to take a closer look at a natural gas pipeline's impact on climate change. -
Proposed Rule Pushes BLM Requirements to July 2019
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King
Federal lands regulators last week offered the Office of Management and Budget a proposal for rolling back Obama-era requirements to limit methane releases from oil and gas operations on public lands. -
Chemical Safety Board Officials Seek Collaboration with ACS
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical and Engineering News
By Jeff Johnson
Two top officials with the Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates chemical-related accidents, said they are exploring the potential for a collaboration with the American Chemical Society. -
Democratic States Float Arguments to Vacate EPA's RMP Delay
Aug 23, 2017 | Inside EPA
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general (AG) is backing environmentalists' efforts to vacate EPA's lengthy delay of an Obama-era update to the agency's facility accident prevention program, arguing the delay violates the Clean Air Act and is arbitrary and capricious because it misconstrues a federal arson finding as central to the update rule. -
Congress Faces Big Lift on NEPA for Trump Permit Push
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Greenwatch
By Camille van Kaenel
President Trump's bid to streamline permitting for infrastructure projects likely hinges on a legislative overhaul of a cornerstone environmental law, legal experts say. -
Study Concludes Exxon Misled Public on Climate Change
Aug 23, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A study published Wednesday asserts that Exxon Mobil Corp. misled the public for years about what it knew regarding the science of climate change. -
GOP Lawmakers Aimed to Influence Picks for Regional Chiefs
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Kevin Bogardus
Republican lawmakers, in letters sent to U.S. EPA, have pushed their picks to run the agency’s regional offices.
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(ACC Mentioned) Reporting Tool Will Aim to Quantify Chinese Ban Impact
Aug 23, 2017 | Plastics recycling Update
By Colin Staub
A common complaint about China’s restriction on scrap materials imports is the lack of solid information about what exactly the upcoming ban will target. A Canadian plastics group is taking data-gathering into its own hands.
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) is developing an online tool where plastics exporters can report when their shipments are rejected by Chinese customs agents. The system, which will be available to companies throughout North America, will take information confidentially.
Chinese officials announced last month the country will prohibit imports of certain recovered materials by the end of the year. Specifics have trickled in since the ban was announced, with officials most recently indicating most post-industrial plastics will still be allowed for import.
The CPIA has already received phone calls from collectors who have material they can’t move because their permit to ship to China has not been renewed, said Joe Hruska, vice president of sustainability for the CPIA. Sources with close ties to China say authorities have not issued new import permits since June.
The objective behind the database is to compile figures on the impact and get the metrics behind the export disruption.
“The whole idea is to quantify how many tons are affected,” Hruska said. “That will tell you the shortage that we might have in market capacity.”
Industry players can look at that information. Some operations might determine, based on the volume rejected by China, whether it’s feasible to expand processing capacity domestically.
Hruska said it will be important for municipal programs to communicate the problems of contamination to residential customers during the ban. But it will take leaders in many sectors coming together to figure out alternative markets.
“We’ve got to find a way to help them and keep that material in the curbside, but we can’t do that without data,” he said. “So we need more information, and that’s the way to do it.”
Ultimately, Hruska said the Chinese regulations are a reminder for materials recovery facilities to produce a higher-quality product to access domestic markets.
“We need to look at our own backyard, produce quality material and feed our economy,” Hruska said. “I’m not talking about restricting trade, but quite frankly, here’s an example where we placed our confidence in another marketplace, and now it’s coming back to bite us.”
CPIA is part of the North American Plastics Recycling Alliance, alongside the Association of Plastic Recyclers, the American Chemistry Council, the Plastics Industry Association and others.
“There’s what I would call a collaborative action by the North American plastics industry to address this challenge, and opportunity,” Hruska said.
https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2017/08/23/reporting-tool-will-aim-quantify-chinese-ban-impact/
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(ACC Mentioned) Multi-Material Automotive Market Gets Superglue Breakthrough
Aug 23, 2017 | Digital Journal
By Karen Graham
Automotive engineers and designers say the future lies in multi-material vehicles - High-strength steel, carbon fiber, aluminum, and advanced plastics. However, joining these different materials together during production has always been a problem.There has been a lot happening in the automotive industry lately, in vehicle design, engineering, and production innovations, to name just a few. But the biggest advancements are in the types of materials being used.As hybrid and all-electric vehicles become more common on the road, there is an increasing need for automotive parts that are light-weight, yet durable, and that's where multi-material innovation is growing. However, at the production end, finding an adhesive that bonds these different materials on the assembly line has been a problem.Researchers at Michigan State University, supported by the American Chemistry Council's automotive group, have made a breakthrough in the quest to find an automotive "super glue" capable of bonding multiple materials together, according to Sandra McClelland, a member of the council and sales development manager for Solvay Specialty Polymers.Solvay, a multi-specialty chemical company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium is promoting the new adhesive that adapts to different surface properties and works at different material temperatures. McClelland says the group believes the new adhesive will also allow mixed material auto parts to be cleanly separated at the end of a vehicle's life, another growing concern as manufacturers adopt circular economy practices.
"The vehicles of today and tomorrow will be manufactured with a combination of energy-saving materials," McClelland said this month during the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars held in Michigan, reports Automotive News. "Multimaterial solutions are and will provide OEMs and consumers with the best possible choices for performance, safety, aesthetics, and value. All materials are in play."
The adhesive is a type of enhanced thermoplastic with tiny bits of small magnetic particles capable of bonding different types of plastics, metals or even various combinations of materials without the use of rivets or connectors. Researchers have found the bond is easily reversed, making the recycling processes at the end of the products life relatively easy.
It may be a few years before the product is available. Research in the new glue is still in the laboratory testing phase, but early results are very promising.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/multi-material-automotive-market-gets-superglue-breakthrough/article/500737#ixzz4qb7UPKsu
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RIVM Publishes Hazardous Substances in Waste Streams Study
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical Watch
A study by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has made recommendations on how to limit the risks of 'highly hazardous' substances (ZZSs) for humans and the environment in the circular economy.
ZZS is the Dutch classification of harmful substances based on hazard criteria. It is different to an SVHC under REACH.
Its findings show that waste streams, including wastewater from sewage treatment and recycled products, contain ZZSs that hinder safe recycling options.
RIVM assessed the following 'priority chains':plastics;production industry and manufacturing;construction;consumer products; andbiomass and food.
It is difficult to get a complete overview of ZZSs in waste streams because information is lacking on concentrations, RIVM says. However, its study shows examples of ZZSs that are clearly found in such streams. These include: flame retardants in plastics;dyestuffs and pigments in textiles, andheavy metals in agricultural waste streams.
RIVM has made recommendations on the prioritisation of ZZSs and waste streams. In addition, it has advised the government to develop a scheme to select the most appropriate waste treatment options.
In the medium- and long-term the drive should be to develop safer alternatives for ZZSs. This will result in 'safe loops', irrespective of the types of end-use, the institute says.
RIVM says the study's results will be useful for national initiatives. These include the Dutch government's aims to promote sustainable use and reuse of natural resources – as outlined in its programme The Netherlands circular in 2050 – and the country's waste management plan
Outside of the Netherlands, the European Commission has recently conducted a targeted stakeholderconsultation to seek views on the interface between chemicals, waste and products legislation.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58342/rivm-publishes-hazardous-substances-in-waste-streams-study
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Review Unlikely to Spur Oil and Gas Rush
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King
Changing or abolishing at least six of the 21 national monuments currently under Interior Department scrutiny could create limited new opportunities for oil and gas operators.
But while unlocking monument-designated lands could offer some potential for new energy activity, it's unlikely that widespread development would erupt on currently protected acres. In southeastern Utah's Bears Ears National Monument, the poster child for Interior's review, there is some potential for oil and gas extraction, but the site is located far from the resource-rich Uinta Basin in the state's northeast corner (Energywire, April 13).
In June, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke advised reducing Bears Ears' size by an unspecified amount (E&E News PM, June 12). Recommendations on the rest of the monuments on his listare due to the White House tomorrow.
Interior has not said whether fossil fuel development potential is a factor in assessing whether past administrations abused their power under the Antiquities Act. The 1906 law allows presidents to set aside federal lands as monuments.
Zinke has said of his review that there is "no predetermined outcome on any monument."
The industry group Western Energy Alliance said its support of the review has less to do with energy potential on existing monuments and more to do with the harm future designations could cause for its membership.
"By and large, the national monument designations have not affected the oil and natural gas industry," said Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma. "There are a few leases in the periphery of Bears Ears far from the cultural resources, but other than that, we have largely dodged a bullet.
"Which is not to say that some future president — such as a President Elizabeth Warren or some other 'keep it in the ground' president — couldn't designate areas with oil and gas potential, and that is why we are focused on the future of the Antiquities Act," Sgamma added.
Zinke has so far removed six sites from his review, including one monument whose designation is particularly permissive of oil and gas activity within its borders. Whereas other sites allow for existing extraction to continue after monument status is granted, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument remained open to new leasing (Energywire, April 27).
In a July 21 tweet, Zinke announced that no modifications would be made to the Colorado monument.
Environmental groups say they are still puzzling over how Interior is deciding whether to exempt or examine protected sites.
"Given the reality show pageantry surrounding this unwarranted review of our national monuments, a tweet announcing that a place like Canyons of the Ancients is safe this time around offers little assurance," said Greenpeace USA spokeswoman Cassady Craighill.
Following an E&E News analysis exploring which monuments held oil and gas potential, Greenpeace conducted its own investigation and concluded that — in addition to Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients, Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante and Montana's Upper Missouri River Breaks — California's Carrizo Plain and San Gabriel Mountains national monuments could also be ripe for new exploration (Energywire, April 27; Greenwire, May 10).
Zinke has eliminated Upper Missouri River Breaks from his review (Greenwire, Aug. 3), but Carrizo Plain and San Gabriel Mountains could still see changes.
"If these national monuments are shrunk or open to development, that certainly puts them at risk of turning into oil and gas fields," Craighill said. "People and elected officials should challenge any changes to these public lands in court to protect these places today and for generations to come."
While exploration in Carrizo Plain was largely dormant for years, the monument's 2010 resource management plan notes that "recent advances in technologies (including seismic exploration, drilling, and production technologies), along with significant increases in oil and gas prices, may result in more activity in the future."
Carrizo Plain is especially vulnerable because "there was oil and gas interest there," said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club's lands protection program.
The Center for Biological Diversity has also tracked industry interest in tracts contained within two Nevada monuments: Gold Butte and Basin and Range (E&E News PM, Aug. 18).
Even if all the monuments on Zinke's list remained intact, some groups have raised concerns about oil and gas leasing in very close proximity to monuments. The Western Values Project has compiled its own watch list, which includes Canyons of the Ancients, Dinosaur and Hovenweep national monuments.
"It's very clear that Secretary Zinke and this administration is willing to risk just about every national monument under review that has the potential for development at the behest of the fossil fuel industry," said Chris Saeger, executive director of the Western Values Project.
Although no companies in the Independent Petroleum Association of America's membership have specifically expressed a desire to develop inside a monument, spokesman Neal Kirby said improved management of border areas is of particular interest for the trade group.
"We believe it is possible to manage our nation's incredible natural resources and balance the Interior Department's multiple-use mission," Kirby wrote in an email. "There are areas where a national monument area stops and Bureau of Land Management land begins, so there needs to be a transparent process in place for the agency to manage access to lands that are congressionally designated as multiple use."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/23/stories/1060059068
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Cove Point Seeking FERC OK to Introduce Feed Gas, Ship Loading Equipment
Aug 23, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG LP has filed a request for authorization from FERC to introduce hazardous fluids at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, MD.
In a filing Monday, Dominion asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission by Aug. 30 to introduce feed gas to the facility's pre-treatment and liquefaction areas [CP13-113]. The company also asked for permission to proceed with setting up equipment for ship loading, including LNG loading pumps and return-gas blowers.
Earlier this month, Dominion said the project was 95% complete. The facility, which would source gas from the Marcellus Shale, would be bidirectional, offering import and export capability, with capacity to handle 750 MMcf/d.
"The liquefaction facility has been integrated with the existing terminal consistently throughout the development of the Cove Point Liquefaction Project," Dominion told FERC. "This integration includes environmental policy and procedures, quality, safety, plant arrangements and engineering, and ranges from details such as tie-ins to overall issues such as hazard analysis. Operations procedures and logic have been developed to integrate the processes and procedures of the liquefaction facility with those of the existing terminal."
Dominion said several facets of the project have been fully integrated, including plant protection systems and control systems, utilities and power, and LNG send-out and storage. "Cove Point is currently training its operations team with a plant operations simulator which integrates the controls of the existing terminal and the new liquefaction facility," the company said.
Although the filing did not identify a source for the feed gas, the project's marketed capacity is fully subscribed under 20-year service agreements. Sumitomo Corp.’s U.S. affiliate Pacific Summit Energy LLC and GAIL (India) Ltd.’s U.S. affiliate GAIL Global (USA) LNG LLC each have contracted for half of the marketed capacity. Sumitomo has agreements to serve Tokyo Gas Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc.
Cove Point would be the first LNG export facility on the U.S. East Coast and only the second in the Lower 48 states behind Cheniere Energy Partners' Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111482-cove-point-seeking-ferc-ok-to-introduce-feed-gas-ship-loading-equipment
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Major Ruling Against FERC Shakes Up Climate Law
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Environmentalists are celebrating a big win after a federal court ordered regulators to take a closer look at a natural gas pipeline's impact on climate change.
A panel of judges yesterday sided with the Sierra Club, ruling that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission failed to adequately consider downstream greenhouse gas emissions from the Southeast Market Pipelines Project — a network that includes the contentious Sabal Trail pipeline in Florida.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated FERC's approval of the project, a portion of which is already in service, and ordered the agency to take another look (Greenwire, Aug. 22). The decision may push the project out of service, but the D.C. Circuit has not yet issued a mandate.
Many environmental lawyers see the decision as a game-changer for gas pipelines and beyond.
"It's a very significant decision coming out of the D.C. Circuit because FERC and other federal agencies, especially under the Trump administration, have tried to really limit their review and not fully grapple with all of the impacts of their decisions and their approvals," Sierra Club attorney Elly Benson told E&E News.
Benson and other experts expect the ruling to have broad impacts on other challenges dealing with climate analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.
"The issues here are going to be analagous in a lot of other contexts where a federal agency is approving a project where it's reasonably foreseeable, and in fact entirely foreseeable, that that fossil fuel is going to be combusted, which will release greenhouse gases, which contributes to climate change," she said.
"That situation arises all the time, and I think this opinion will be applicable in those circumstances."'Litany of excuses'
The 2-1 decision directs FERC to dissect downstream climate impacts of the Southeast pipelines or offer a better explanation for why it's not doing so. Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote the opinion, joined by Judge Judith Rogers, a Clinton appointee. Judge Janice Rogers Brown, another Bush appointee, dissented.
FERC and industry lawyers declined to comment on the decision, but many court watchers expect the agency and pipeline backers to ask the D.C. Circuit to reconsider.
"My assumption is that this decision will be appealed, either for an en banc rehearing or to the Supreme Court," said Michael Burger, executive director of Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. "FERC has long maintained that this is not its responsibility, including during the Obama administration."
"Given the split decision an appeal seems almost inevitable," he added. "So its long-term effects are uncertain."
The case centers on FERC's climate and environmental justice analysis in a 2015 environmental impact statement for the Southeast pipelines. The court tossed the environmental justice claims yesterday, but the climate arguments were successful.
Sierra Club and other groups had argued that the agency's environmental impact statement should have carefully quantified emissions from the power plants that ultimately burn natural gas delivered by the pipelines.
In court filings and during oral argument in April, government lawyers defended FERC's less precise approach to studying downstream climate effects. The agency concluded last year that impacts would be insignificant, largely because emissions from power plants receiving the natural gas would be offset by reductions in coal combustion.
FERC and industry lawyers have further argued that detailed calculations of downstream impacts are too speculative to be useful because of uncertain and constantly changing market conditions and other variables (Energywire, April 19).
"FERC provided this litany of excuses for why it couldn't really take a meaningful look at those greenhouse gas and climate impacts, and today the D.C. Circuit rejected those excuses," Benson said.'A mixed bag'
The case is making waves in the environmental law community.
James Coleman, a Southern Methodist University law professor who has researched the government's obligations to consider climate impacts, said he was shocked by the decision — especially in light of a recent D.C. Circuit ruling that rejected a Sierra Club challenge to another agency's climate analysis.
Last week, a separate panel of judges rejected environmentalists' claims that the Department of Energy didn't adequately consider indirect greenhouse gas emissions from liquefied natural gas exports in Freeport, Texas.
Judge Robert Wilkins, an Obama appointee, endorsed nearly the same argument that FERC has pushed in the Sabal Trail case: that market uncertainties make it too difficult to precisely analyze indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Energywire, Aug. 16).
"That was a classic NEPA decision — that the agency has expertise here on what's feasible and what's not to consider, so it was reasonable to say that [further analysis] goes too far," Coleman said. "It seemed a week ago like this was all resolved, and I had assumed that the decision would be consistent."
Burger, of Columbia, also pointed out the contrast from last week's order, noting that "today's decision leaves the jurisprudence a mixed bag."
Still, yesterday's ruling gives environmentalists significant new ammunition, Coleman said.
"It's huge because this is an argument that's going to be repeated in many different contexts," he said. "People are going to make it for new oil pipelines and for every natural gas decision."
Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, said the ruling is in tension with the Trump administration's efforts to streamline pipeline approvals, leaving the government more legally vulnerable if it skirts any level of environmental review.
"But as these recent rulings show, agencies will lose legal challenges when they don't appropriately consider climate change impacts," he said, also referring to a recent district court decision ordering the Interior Department to consider the impacts of burning coal while approving a mine expansion. "Rather than speeding the process of infrastructure and energy development, the Trump administration has risked slowing it down."
Coleman, who agrees with FERC that the many moving pieces surrounding natural gas use and production make precise downstream analysis unreliable, warned that the court's favored approach could prove problematic.
"The court says, 'Well, we'd just like to see those numbers,'" he said. "Well, if those numbers don't provide any predictive power, how are the agencies attempting to use them?
"If FERC wants to avoid doing that kind of speculation," he added, "it's going to have to explain better to the courts because it's obviously lost at least two judges on the D.C. Circuit."
Now, all eyes are on FERC's next steps with regard to the Southeast pipelines. The agency is expected to move quickly to address its climate analysis in light of the court's decision, but the pipelines may be in limbo in the meantime.
ClearView Energy Partners analyst Christi Tezak said the D.C. Circuit's decision to vacate FERC's approval of the project on NEPA grounds may be a first. But, she noted, the court has not yet issued its mandate. FERC now has the opportunity to seek rehearing and, if necessary, Supreme Court review.
"Therefore, while potential suspension of operations on Sabal Trail and the balance of the Southeast Market pipelines is possible, it is not yet a reality," she wrote in a memo last night.
Benson said environmental lawyers will be monitoring the situation closely.
"The court did vacate the certificate order, so it's basically an illegal project right now," the Sierra Club's Benson said. "It's operating without a valid certificate order, so we're going to be taking the appropriate next steps."
FERC declined to comment on what it plans to do next.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/23/stories/1060059077
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Proposed Rule Pushes BLM Requirements to July 2019
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King
Federal lands regulators last week offered the Office of Management and Budget a proposal for rolling back Obama-era requirements to limit methane releases from oil and gas operations on public lands.
In a notice received by OMB last weekend, the Bureau of Land Management announced its proposed rule to suspend certain requirements under the Methane and Waste Prevention Rule. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on Nov. 18 and went into effect Jan. 17.
After a failed attempt in May to kill the regulation under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), BLM announced it would delay compliance with deadlines that had not yet taken effect (Greenwire, June 14). In a motion filed the following week, Justice Department attorneys indicated that BLM would propose to suspend the rule's remaining provisions (Energywire, June 22).
BLM's new proposed rule appears to pause all of the final rule's provisions until July 17, 2019.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has said he intends to rewrite the rule, which may have been prohibited had the CRA effort been successful (Energywire, June 21).
BLM's rollback of the methane rule is part of Interior's effort to align with President Trump's "energy independence" executive order.
"The delays and suspensions are consistent with the President's March 28, 2017, Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth and its requirement that the BLM review the previous, related final rule to determine whether revisions, rescissions, or suspensions are appropriate," BLM wrote to OMB.
One of the groups suing BLM for delaying the existing methane rule said the administration should heed the lessons of multiple unsuccessful efforts to scrap the regulation.
"Many of the provisions in the rule are already working in key Western states like Colorado and Wyoming," said Jon Goldstein, director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund. "It's a commonsense measure that reduces waste and helps clean up the air."
If a delay is finalized, that would also be subject to legal review, Goldstein added.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/23/stories/1060059067
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Chemical Safety Board Officials Seek Collaboration with ACS
Aug 23, 2017 | Chemical and Engineering News
By Jeff Johnson
Two top officials with the Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates chemical-related accidents, said they are exploring the potential for a collaboration with the American Chemical Society.
In separate presentations at the ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday, CSB Chairperson Vanessa Allen Sutherland and Kristen Kulinowski, a CSB board member and longtime ACS member, applauded the society’s recent efforts to elevate the importance of safety among chemists. Particularly, they pointed to policies that call for authors to address and emphasize safety concerns associated with work reported in ACS journals and the inclusion this year of safety as a core valuein the society’s strategic plan. ACS publishes C&EN.
In introducing Sutherland during a Presidential Events talk, ACS President Allison A. Campbell stressed CSB’s importance as an independent investigator of chemical-related accidents.
“They do not shame or blame. They are not there to punish but to get the facts,” Campbell said. The board investigates the cause of accidents and makes recommendations to regulatory agencies, facilities, and others to improve safety, she continued.
Sutherland said that in the two years since she took over CSB leadership, much of her emphasis has been on building relationships with industry, academia, and others over safety, works she wants to expand with ACS.
With a staff of 40 and an $11 million annual budget, Sutherland described an agency stretched thin. President Trump has proposed defunding CSB, though it’s up to Congress to decide whether and how much to fund it.
“We are a small organization,” Kulinowski told C&EN. CSB’s safety concerns are similar to those of ACS, she said, and working together the two organizations could expand their safety outreach.
The paths of ACS and CSB have crossed before, she noted, primarily on investigations of accidents at academic labs or in classroom demonstrations gone bad. Beyond lab work, Kulinowski did not have specific initiatives in mind, but she said safety opportunities where the two organizations could align were plentiful.
Over its 19-year history, Sutherland said, CSB has investigated 130 accidents, made some 800 recommendations, issued nearly 100 reports, and produced 68 videos promoting safer practices. Sutherland described a science-based organization that searches for the root cause of chemical accidents.
http://acsmeetings.cenmag.org/chemical-safety-board-officials-seek-collaboration-with-acs/
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Democratic States Float Arguments to Vacate EPA's RMP Delay
Aug 23, 2017 | Inside EPA
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general (AG) is backing environmentalists' efforts to vacate EPA's lengthy delay of an Obama-era update to the agency's facility accident prevention program, arguing the delay violates the Clean Air Act and is arbitrary and capricious because it misconstrues a federal arson finding as central to the update rule.
The 11 Democratic state AGs, led by New York's Eric Schneiderman, are challenging EPA's June 14 final rule that delays by nearly two years the Obama EPA's Jan. 12 final rule updating its Risk Management Plan (RMP) accident prevention rule with new requirements for independent audits, hazard analysis and data disclosure.
Environmental and labor groups are also challenging the delay rule, which postponed the RMP rule's effective date 20 months from June 19 to Feb. 19, 2019 to allow time to revise the RMP update rule.
The litigation, State of New York et al. v. E. Scott Pruitt, is one of a series where state officials and environmentalists are challenging efforts by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to delay Obama-era rules so they can be reviewed and revised. So far their efforts have been successful, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit blocked the agency from delaying rules governing methane emissions from oil and gas sources.
The ruling in the methane case, Clean Air Council v. EPA, could set a precedent that may make it difficult for EPA to delay other rules, including the RMP rule, as the agency relied on the same authority in each case.
Since the ruling in the Clean Air Council case, the agency has also dropped or sidestepped delay decisions in several other cases. For example, the agency dropped a plan to delay designating areas' attainment with Obama-era ozone standards and also punted on whether to delay greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks even as it began a review of some of its provisions.
The D.C. Circuit is now weighing competing arguments in the RMP delay case on whether to stay, or possibly vacate the delay.
In an Aug. 18 statement of issues state AGs back environmentalists' claims that EPA's delay violates the Clean Air Act, saying the law limits delays for reconsideration to three months, and also requires the agency to promulgate rules and guidance to prevent and detect accidental releases to the greatest extent practicable.
“Does EPA’s Delay Rule, issued to eliminate the burdens of complying with the Chemical Disaster Rule (82 Fed. Reg. 27136) -- without any determination that compliance with the initial effective date was impracticable or that a later effective date would further the statute’s risk-reduction aims -- violate Congress’s directives in 42 U.S.C. § 7412(r)(7) and amount to arbitrary and capricious rulemaking?” the state filing says.
The AGs also back environmentalists' arguments that Pruitt misconstrued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) finding that arson sparked a fatal 2013 fertilizer facility explosion at West, TX, as justification for delaying the RMP rule. Pruitt has argued that the Obama EPA failed to allow adequate time for public input on the BATF finding of arson at West, and noted the explosion was the impetus for the Obama-EPA to pursue an update.
In the recent filing, states suggest they will back environmentalists' claims that while the West explosion focused federal attention on facility safety, the Obama EPA's rule sought to address risks from various types of facilities. The state officials fault Pruitt's assertion that there was insufficient time for public input on BATF's finding of arson at West.
“Is the Delay Rule, which purports to extend the reconsideration proceeding commenced under 42 U.S.C. § 7607(d)(7)(B), arbitrary and capricious or not in accordance with law because: (1) EPA received timely comments on the BATF finding; and (2) the BATF finding is not of central relevance to the Chemical Disaster Rule?” the states say.
While advocates and state Democrats oppose the delay, the update rule has drawn strong opposition from industry groups as well as GOP-state attorneys general, including Pruitt prior to his selection to lead EPA. As Oklahoma AG, Pruitt led a July 2016 letter to former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy arguing proposed requirements for disclosure of facility data would worsen terror threats.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/democratic-states-float-arguments-vacate-epas-rmp-delay
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Congress Faces Big Lift on NEPA for Trump Permit Push
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Greenwatch
By Camille van Kaenel
President Trump's bid to streamline permitting for infrastructure projects likely hinges on a legislative overhaul of a cornerstone environmental law, legal experts say.
The 1970 National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, figures to be a major stumbling block, they say.
The president called for the construction of highways, bridges, pipelines and other infrastructure with an executive order last week that would set a two-year goal for permitting (Greenwire, Aug. 15).
His order mirrors a proposal by Philip Howard, founder of the nonprofit Common Good and senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, who says the order is just a start.
"So far it's a lot of talk and not a lot of action," said Howard, who served on the White House's Strategic and Policy Forum that disbanded last week. "What's required is to create clear lines of authority to make decisions. They need a law."
Trump called during the presidential campaign for a $1 trillion infrastructure initiative, but his White House has so far relied on issuing executive orders, rolling back some regulations and bolstering initiatives begun under the 2015 Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.
"Some of this stuff is definitely not new," said Cynthia Taub, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP who focuses on NEPA. "Largely this executive order is taking tools and procedures already established by the FAST Act and making them more generally applicable."
But Taub said she was struck by how the Trump administration is leaning on the White House Council on Environmental Quality to clear a path for projects.
"There's some language that CEQ has to look at ways to improve the environmental review process" and interpret NEPA, she said. "This would be a very new role for CEQ [from] what we've seen in the past."
The order calls on CEQ to report within a month on possible changes to policies and regulations to speed projects through NEPA reviews. Taub said those recommendations would likely be limited to policy guidance because of the limited time for action and the office's limited authority for resolving permitting disputes.
Howard told E&E News he presented in April proposed legislative language on NEPA to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and DJ Gribbin, Trump's infrastructure aide. He also said he mentioned it to Trump.
In addition to setting a two-year goal for project approvals, Howard's proposal would give CEQ the authority to grant a one-year review "for those projects that were developed with significant consultation with stakeholders and that demonstrate net environmental benefits." It would also give CEQ the authority to pre-empt state and local officials if their environmental reviews are delayed.
Natalie Strom, a White House spokeswoman, said "streamlining and permitting reform is a key part of keeping that promise and is certainly a part of the conversations around future legislation." She declined to confirm or comment on Howard's assertions.
Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, wrote in a May blog post that Howard's proposal "makes wildly inaccurate and often unsubstantiated claims about the costs associated with environmental review."
"The massive budget and staff cuts that the Trump administration has proposed for [U.S. EPA] as well as other departments reveal that any talk of NEPA reform is a hollow gesture on the way to evisceration," DeGood wrote.
Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said it's "ironic" Trump's executive order tasks CEQ with new duties given the president has yet to appoint a director (Climatewire, July 5).
Trump has also yet to appoint a director for the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, an interagency body set up by the FAST Act to coordinate environmental reviews. The administration hired some permanent staffers and is revamping the council website. Positions for political appointees to represent agencies in the council also remain open.
Republican lawmakers have seen Trump's focus on infrastructure as an opportunity to renew their proposed bills to overhaul NEPA.
Before the August recess, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) introduced a bill, S. 1756, "to improve the processes by which environmental documents are prepared and permits and applications are processed and regulated by federal departments and agencies" (Greenwire, Aug. 7). It's pending in the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Sullivan's bill would "essentially gut NEPA," said Scott Slesigner, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"What we need now, rather than bills to destroy NEPA, is to implement the law that Congress has already passed in this space," he said, referring to the FAST Act.
Other lawmakers, including some Democrats and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), have urged the administration to implement existing law like the FAST Act rather than creating duplicative initiatives they say could end up being counterproductive (E&E News PM, June 9).
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/23/stories/1060059109
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Study Concludes Exxon Misled Public on Climate Change
Aug 23, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A study published Wednesday asserts that Exxon Mobil Corp. misled the public for years about what it knew regarding the science of climate change.
The findings from a pair of Harvard University researchers add to charges from environmentalists, Democratic attorneys general and others that Exxon knew decades ago that its fossil fuels harmed the planet but chose to sow doubt about the science to the public and investors.
The new peer-reviewed study, published in Environmental Research Letters, relies heavily on textual content analysis, a sociological process meant to systematically read texts for patterns or other wide-ranging findings.
“We conclude that ExxonMobil misled the public,” the researchers write. “We stress that the question is not whether ExxonMobil ‘suppressed climate change research,’ but rather how they communicated about it.”
The authors, Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes, specialize in scientific inquiry. Oreskes is an outspoken critic of climate change skeptics and others who disagree with the scientific consensus on climate.
The study, analyzing Exxon’s external and internal statements from 1977 through 2014, found that the widest gulf between Exxon’s public and private communication was between paid “advertorials” the company wrote and all other documents studied.
While 83 percent of its peer-reviewed papers and 80 percent of internal documents acknowledged humans' role in climate change, only 12 percent of its advertorials did, and 81 percent of them expressed doubt.
Exxon slammed the Wednesday study in a statement, pointing out that it was sponsored in part by the Rockefeller Family Fund, which has funded other previous efforts to show Exxon misled on climate.
“The study was paid for, written and published by activists leading a five-year campaign against the company,” Exxon said in a statement. “It is inaccurate and preposterous. Rather than pursuing solutions to address the risk of climate change, these activists, along with trial lawyers, have acknowledged a goal of extracting money from our shareholders and attacking the company’s reputation.”
Exxon now publicly agrees with the scientific consensus that greenhouse gases from human activity are the main cause of climate change, and the company supports a tax on carbon dioxide emissions.
It has also repeatedly denied charges that it lied to the public or investors.
Green groups said the research is a significant addition to the case that Exxon lied.
“Exxon has officially run out of excuses,” Naomi Ages, Greenpeace’s lead climate liability campaigner, said in a statement.
“This peer-reviewed study from Harvard is just the latest piece of evidence indicating that the largest oil company in the world knew about the risks of climate change, but concealed them from the public and shareholders. State attorneys general dedicated to protecting people and the environment from recent assaults should act now to hold polluters accountable for the biggest crisis facing humanity.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/347622-study-concludes-exxon-mislead-public-on-climate-change
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GOP Lawmakers Aimed to Influence Picks for Regional Chiefs
Aug 23, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Kevin Bogardus
Republican lawmakers, in letters sent to U.S. EPA, have pushed their picks to run the agency’s regional offices.
The letters obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by E&E News show that GOP House members and senators wrote during the early months of the Trump administration with their recommendations for the agency's regional administrators.
The documents illustrate that lawmakers, including some of the most powerful on Capitol Hill, have a keen interest in who is running EPA, as the agency's actions could affect their constituents back home.
In an April 26 letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, recommended Todd Parfitt, director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, to be the agency's Region 8 administrator, based in EPA's Denver office.
Barrasso called Parfitt a "distinguished public servant" who also served as deputy director and administrator of Wyoming DEQ's Industrial Siting Division before taking the top job at the state agency.
"Equally important, Mr. Parfitt has firsthand experience with the economic burdens that occur when federal and state requirements are duplicative. He is well poised to identify these issues and support the EPA in advancing policies that both protect our environment and promote economic growth," Barrasso said.
"I strongly recommend the appointment of Mr. Parfitt to EPA."
Keith Guille, a spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, declined to comment when asked about Barrasso's letter recommending Parfitt to be EPA Region 8 administrator.
Other lawmakers submitted other recommendations for the top job at the agency's Mountains and Plains branch.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, sent a May 2 letter to Pruitt recommending Patrick Davis for Region 8 administrator.
Bishop noted that Davis' work as a consultant led him to deal with EPA issues and that he was a member of the Trump administration's "beachhead" team at the agency.
"Patrick is a team player and works hard to seamlessly interface multiple levels of government, ensuring that national policy is right for the diverse regions across America. This is a valuable trait in any regional director," Bishop said.
Lee Lonsberry, a spokesman for Bishop, said his letter "best communicates why the recommendation was made."
Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) also recommended Davis to be EPA Region 8 chief. In an April 17 letter to Pruitt, Coffman said Davis had applied for the job and that the congressman urged "your favorable consideration of Patrick for this important post within the EPA."
Coffman said that Davis' consulting work exposed him to the issues facing Region 8 and that he had built "thousands of relationships in the region," ranging from governors and senators down to state legislators and mayors. Davis also built similar relationships in EPA due to his work as part of the beachhead team, according to Coffman.
Coffman also said Davis has "close alignment" with the Trump administration's priorities.
"His record in this regard is well established and he is ideally suited and capable of communicating and carrying out President Trump's and your priorities as the EPA Region 8 Regional Administrator," Coffman said.
Daniel Bucheli, a Coffman spokesman, told E&E News that the congressman has known Davis for over 20 years since Coffman's days as Colorado's state treasurer.
"The reason he recommended him was solely based on his qualifications and knowledge of the subject area at hand and expertise in [Colorado] matters," Bucheli said.
Davis also has acknowledged his relationship with the Republican House member. His political consulting firm's website has listed Coffman on its "Our Clients & Partners" webpage.
Meanwhile, Davis has joined EPA but in a different capacity. The longtime political consultant and former Colorado state director for Trump's campaign is now deputy assistant administrator for the agency's Office of Land and Emergency Management (Greenwire, June 16).
EPA has yet to announce its appointment of a Region 8 chief, but the agency has moved forward with announcing regional administrators in other parts of the country.
Earlier this week, EPA said Trey Glenn, a consultant and former director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, would run the agency's Region 4 office in Atlanta (Greenwire, Aug. 22).
Some lawmakers had different suggestions for leading EPA's Southeast office.
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) sent a Feb. 8 letter to EPA saying he supported Georgia state Sen. Rick Jeffares for Region 4 administrator.
Perdue said Jeffares was "imminently qualified for the job" and would be a "tremendous asset" to EPA.
Perdue said Jeffares had spent most of his life working to improve Georgia's water systems, including as a city official, and held top positions on relevant committees in the state Senate. Jeffares is also president of J&T Environmental Services, "which works to preserve and protect water for small communities in Georgia," Perdue wrote.
Jeffares, however, took his name out of consideration for the regional job when he launched his campaign for Georgia lieutenant governor in May.
"He was honored to be considered, but he removed his name from the hat when he declared his campaign for lieutenant governor," said Dan McLagan, communications director for Jeffares' campaign.
Former EPA regional administrators told E&E News that it is not unusual for lawmakers to weigh in with EPA about whom they want to run the regional posts.
"It is pretty common to get one or two lawmakers to say, 'He or she is a good person, and I would support them,'" said Mary Gade, who was EPA Region 5 administrator during the George W. Bush administration's later years and is now an environmental consultant. "It's not a popularity contest. You don't need legions of lawmakers, but one or two saying they will support you is helpful."
Having congressional support is a big plus for an EPA regional administrator. Karl Brooks, who served as EPA's Region 7 chief during the Obama administration, said he talked dozens of times to members of Congress and their aides while he was head of the agency's Midwest office.
"It is a big part of the job of the regional administrator to work with the region's congressional delegation," Brooks said. "It was a very important part of my job to keep members of Congress and their staff informed about what the agency is doing."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/23/stories/1060059115
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