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ACC PM 8/25/17
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Harvey's Impact Likely Catastrophic for Texas Coast; Eagle Ford Activity Curtailed
Aug 25, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
Hurricane Harvey was taking a bead on the Corpus Christi region of Texas Friday morning, churning up winds under Category 3 status at 110 mph, and expected to strengthen before making landfall late Friday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. -
Permian Boom Reinforces Texas' 'Energy Dominance' — Report
Aug 25, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
The United States will be a net energy exporter in less than a decade, and Texas will dominate that trend. -
NY Part 1: NatGas Hits Political Wall in New York, as Industry Fights Losing Battle
Aug 25, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The natural gas industry is losing in New York state, where a political wall has been erected to stop fossil fuel, which is not only costing producers opportunities to grow, but blocking nearby states from receiving vital supplies. -
Not Just Oil Trains: CSX Work on Crash-Avoidance System a Secret, Too
Aug 25, 2017 | NorthJersey.com
By Curtis Tate
CSX, the railroad known for operating trains with millions of gallons of crude oil through New Jersey, wants to keep secret its progress on installing a collision-avoidance system Congress required in 2008. -
Congressmen Visit Rail Suppliers in Minnesota, Utah and Ohio
Aug 25, 2017 | Progressive Railroading
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) earlier this week met with Miller Ingenuity staff for a product demonstration of ZoneGuard, the company's roadway worker protection system. -
GOP Assembly Leader Loses Post over Cap-And-Trade Vote
Aug 25, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
The leader of California's Assembly Republicans announced yesterday that he would step down after coming under fire from his own party for voting to extend the state's cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. -
E.U. To Host Talk with Calif., Carbon-Trading Nations
Aug 25, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
The European Union is hosting a climate workshop next month with China, Canada, New Zealand and California ahead of this fall's U.N. talks to discuss their emissions trading systems. -
States Seek Court Ruling Vacating EPA Ozone Designations Delay
Aug 25, 2017 | Inside EPA
Several Democratic-led states are backing environmentalists' push for a federal appeals court to preserve their suits over EPA's since-withdrawn delay of designations for which areas are attaining the 2015 ozone ambient air limit, with the states also asking the court to vacate the delay and declare that it was unlawful from the beginning. -
EPA to Host 10 Hearings on Water Rule Rewrite
Aug 25, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning 10 public hearings to gather input on its effort to write a new version of the Obama administration’s key water pollution rule.
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Harvey's Impact Likely Catastrophic for Texas Coast; Eagle Ford Activity Curtailed
Aug 25, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
Hurricane Harvey was taking a bead on the Corpus Christi region of Texas Friday morning, churning up winds under Category 3 status at 110 mph, and expected to strengthen before making landfall late Friday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Evacuations continued, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities as far north as Louisiana impacted.
In the 10 a.m. CDT update by the NHC, the eye of Hurricane Harvey was near latitude 26.7 North, longitude 96.0 West, based on an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft and Doppler radar. Maximum sustained winds were near 110 mph, with higher gusts. Some strengthening was still possible.
Harvey was moving toward the northwest near 10 mph, but its forward speed was expected to decrease significantly over the next couple of days. Based on the forecast track Harvey was likely to make landfall on the middle Texas coast Friday night or early Saturday. The hurricane then was likely to meander “near or just inland” along the Texas coast through the weekend.
At mid-morning Friday, Harvey was around 115 miles southeast of Corpus, which is forecast to see up to 32 inches of rain; the area’s average annual rainfall is around 30 inches. Corpus also was likely to see a storm surge of six to 12 feet. Rainfall along the Gulf Coast into the Greater Houston area, home to the nation’s largest petrochemical and refinery complex, could be 12-18 inches, with a storm surge of three to six feet.
Extended flooding along the upper Texas coast and into Louisiana was seen continuing into next week. Inland Texas also was expected to see extensive storm impacts, with the potential for double-digit rainfall for days.
In addition to mandatory evacuations for areas near Corpus, the Cameron Parish, LA, Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) on Friday morning issued a mandatory order of evacuation for all areas south of the Intracoastal Waterway, impacting the Cameron LNG facility.
“Localized heavy rains, high water, downed trees and power outages are to be expected with the incoming storm system; these conditions are likely to continue through next week,” the OEP said. Once Cameron Parish officials determine the threat has passed and roadways are determined passable, the evacuation order will be lifted.
“Harvey is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 15 to 25 inches and isolated maximum amounts of 35 inches over the middle and upper Texas coast through next Wednesday,” said the NHC. “During the same time period, Harvey is expected to produce total rain accumulations of seven to 15 inches in far South Texas and the Texas Hill Country eastward through central and southwest Louisiana, with accumulations of up to seven inches extending into other parts of Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley. Rainfall from Harvey will cause devastating and life-threatening flooding.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was forecasting Harvey to be a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall late Friday, then it was seen stalling and meandering along the upper Texas coast.
To help analysts assess energy-related potential storm effects, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is maintaining an energy disruptions map that displays energy infrastructure and real-time storm information.
“If NOAA’s current expectations are realized, Hurricane Harvey will be the first major hurricane -- those rated Category 3 or higher -- to make landfall in the United States since four major hurricanes (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma) made landfall in 2005,” EIA’s principal contributor Michael Mobilia said.
“Because of the slow speed of the storm and the forecast for it to stall over Texas, NOAA expects prolonged periods of torrential rainfall, leading to the potential for severe flooding in the region.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday declared a state of disaster for 30 counties in the path of the storm.
“Flooding and high winds caused by Hurricane Harvey have the potential to affect energy infrastructure in the region, including the Texas Gulf Coast, the home to a great deal of oil and natural gas infrastructure,” EIA said.
Meanwhile, inland Texas activity was ending too, with ConocoPhillips and Statoil ASA among the exploration and production companies that had suspended drilling activity not only in the offshore but also in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.
Marathon Oil Corp. had released “nonessential personnel” from its Eagle Ford operations and was “in the process of suspending operations where appropriate," a spokesperson said. Pioneer Natural Resources Inc. also had stopped completing wells in the Eagle Ford. "The safety of our employees is paramount in these situations, therefore completion operations will pause until the storm has moved out of the area," a spokesman said.
Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.’s analysts don’t expect “significant nor lasting production impacts from Harvey” because GOM output has fallen to only 1.7 million b/d oil and 3.3 Bcf/d gas. Before Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, GOM gas output was more than 10 Bcf/d.
“Moreover, a majority of GOM production is located off the Louisiana coast, which is not on Harvey’s path. However, the storm will certainly impact some production (current reports suggest only 10% of GOM production shut-in) and disrupt refinery runs, imports and exports...which will show up in the weekly inventory numbers for the next few weeks.
“Onshore production is less likely to be impacted other than deferral of completions in the Eagle Ford Shale, if the rainfall/flooding predictions come to pass.”
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico accounts for almost 20% of total domestic crude oil production, and the Texas Gulf Coast is home to nearly one-third of U.S. refining capacity. As of Thursday, several oil and gas companies had shut in production and evacuated personnel from offshore platforms.
“Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008 and Hurricane Isaac in 2012 were the most recent hurricanes to make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast, with Ike being the last hurricane to directly affect Texas,” EIA noted.
The three storms together affected oil and natural gas infrastructure in the region, each shutting in more than 3 Bcf/d of natural gas production and 1 million b/d of crude oil output. The trio also temporarily shut down significant pipeline and refining capacity.
About one-half of U.S. oil production historically has come from Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Texas also accounts for about one-quarter of domestic natural gas production.
EIA’s energy disruptions map displays key layers of energy infrastructure, including refineries, power plants and major electric transmission lines, and it provides real-time storm information from the National Weather Service. The web page also contains links to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Emergency Situation Reports and websites with updates on the effect of severe weather on energy infrastructure. In addition, EIA's U.S. Electric System Operating Data tool provides near real-time information on electricity demand and can show areas where electricity service has been disrupted.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111515-harveys-impact-likely-catastrophic-for-texas-coast-eagle-ford-activity-curtailed
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Permian Boom Reinforces Texas' 'Energy Dominance' — Report
Aug 25, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
The United States will be a net energy exporter in less than a decade, and Texas will dominate that trend.
That's the message delivered in a new industry report by the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA), which represents the state's upstream oil and gas companies and lobbies on their behalf in Austin.
TXOGA President Todd Staples told reporters during a call that the Permian Basin is far and away leading Texas' oil and gas surge, which is showing surprising strength even with weak natural gas prices and crude oil prices less than half what they were a few years ago. He said this state's oil and gas industry is demonstrating "impressive job growth" and boasting statistics that underlie how Texas is at the leading edge of North American energy production.
"Our nation's leaders have made energy dominance a priority, and we know there's been a flurry of activity in the oil and gas sector as prices have readjusted," Staples said. "We commissioned this report to demonstrate even with the realignment in the industry how oil and natural gas investment and activity in Texas is helping to make America more energy secure than ever."
Figures compiled by TXOGA show that the Permian Basin alone attracted 41 percent of all merger and acquisition dollars last year, some $25.6 billion. Roughly half of all active onshore oil rigs are drilling in the Permian. TXOGA reports that some 45 percent of all U.S. onshore crude oil production is now originating from the Permian Basin, which also extends into portions of southeastern New Mexico. Factoring in offshore oil production, the Permian may account for nearly one-third of U.S. crude output by some estimates.
And though the Port of Houston garners attention for its rising energy exports, TXOGA says it's actually the Port of Corpus Christi that has emerged as the nation's largest oil exporting port. The association reported that some 30 percent of the nation's crude exports are shipping from Corpus Christi.
Citing data from the Texas Workforce Commission, Staples said the recent surge in jobs growth in oil and gas underscores just how quickly the industry is recovering from the oil price crash. Nearly 5,000 jobs were added to the industry in June, he said, "the highest monthly gain in at least five years," according to the new report. TXOGA believes more than 300,000 jobs in the state are directly involved in the oil and gas extraction business.
Weak commodity prices don't seem to be slowing the industry down, Staples argued. "The 'lower for longer' I think is the new reality that we've had to live with for the past couple or three years now, and I think you've seen amazing capabilities of the industry to drive down costs," he said. "Part of that has been done through efficiencies, part of it's been done through innovation and technology."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/25/stories/1060059179
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NY Part 1: NatGas Hits Political Wall in New York, as Industry Fights Losing Battle
Aug 25, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The natural gas industry is losing in New York state, where a political wall has been erected to stop fossil fuel, which is not only costing producers opportunities to grow, but blocking nearby states from receiving vital supplies. The situation appears unlikely to change anytime soon.
Nevertheless, the industry has a renewed hope in President Trump’s pro-energy agenda, believing his administration will intervene in some way to jump-start stalled pipeline projects or open tribal lands in the state to unconventional natural gas development.
Like it or not, it’s become increasingly clear that more shale gas is not welcome in New York. Ask most in the industry and they’ll tell you why: “It’s a Cuomo thing. It’s political.” Many would rather not be quoted when discussing Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has doggedly pursued a vision for the state’s energy future and inserted himself squarely into the party’s efforts to combat climate change and promote renewable energy.
“Everybody is hurting nationwide because of commodity prices,” said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGANY). “Every state has the price battering; every state has the public opposition to fossil fuels -- even though New York is Ground Zero, but all the other states can hydraulically fracture (frack) gas if they want to. So we have the third leg of the triple whammy here, and that is this governor. All the other states are battling the same things, but in New York, we’ve had the door slammed shut.”
That closed door has had an impact on neighboring states.
Pennsylvania shale drillers produced 5.1 Tcf across the border in New York’s backyard last year. Producers in northern Pennsylvania, however, have hit a wall when it comes to reaching lucrative markets in New England.
Subjected to a robust regulatory review process, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied both National Fuel Gas Co.’s (NFG) Northern Access expansion project and the Constitution Pipeline key water quality certifications (WQC) for stream or wetlands crossings under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). More than 1 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity is stuck in regulatory limbo and mired in litigation.
‘Lousy Regulatory Treatment’
NFG CEO Ronald Tanski curtly told financial analysts in May that the Buffalo-based company is receiving “lousy regulatory treatment in New York state,” suggesting at one point that a move out of state was not out of the question and saying the company would increasingly invest elsewhere.
“Let’s be clear, we’d still love to achieve some sort of negotiated solution for that project,” Tanski said the same day when asked about Northern Access. “But when the governor won’t take 10 minutes to respond to repeated requests of the CEO of a New York headquartered company with 1,200 employees in the state and the commissioner of the DEC won’t return my calls, I mean who are we going to negotiate with?”
Each project has challenged the DEC’s decisions in federal court. The pipelines are now threatened altogether.
“These projects were really developed to help New England serve their demand,” said BTU Analytics LLC analyst Matt Hoza. “And now that’s not going to happen. Atlantic Bridge, is due on at the end of this year, after that project we don’t foresee any other projects really connecting that supply in Northeast Pennsylvania to that demand market in New England.”
What’s more, after nearly seven years of regulatory review that began with an executive directive before Cuomo took office, the state officially banned high-volume hydraulic frackingin 2015, denying opportunities for the state’s smaller producers, which long ago saw demand outpace the supplies pulled from conventional reservoirs. Additional resources were swept off the table for larger independents, too.
Yet Cuomo is popular across much of the state.He garnered more than 50% of the statewide vote in 2010 and 2014. Wide swaths of New York, both Upstate and Downstate, are pockmarked with local fracking bans, as well.
The governor has acknowledged that gas is a necessary bridge fuel, but nothing more. New York obtained 24% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2016, according to the Energy Information Administration. Under Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), renewable contributions would increase to 50% by 2030. The program is underpinned by significant state investments and plans for “green” job creation.
“Now that New York has built a foundation for the renewable energy system of the future, the state must double down by investing in the fight against dirty fossil fuels and fracked gas from neighboring states,” Cuomo said in his 2017 state-of-the-state address. The Cuomo administration did not respond to questions from NGI’s Shale Daily regarding the state’s energy policies.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition and the American Exploration & Production Council labeled New York as “rogue” in a court brief supporting NFG. The Constitution and Northern Access pipelines, along with the state’s fracking ban, have become powerful symbols of anti-fossil fuel sentiment.
“The state level is where the environmentalists should be waging their war,” said attorney Richard Drom, who practices before FERC at Washington, DC-based Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. “I don’t think they’re going to be successful at all at the federal level.”
Constitution and Northern Access long ago were approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The natural gas industry argues that New York’s denial of the pipelines, and its fight with others, threatens interstate commerce and emboldens an environmental agenda that could find more activists targeting state-issued WQCs to upend pipeline construction.
Unusually Long Pipeline Reviews
Just before midnight on Friday, April 7, the DEC emailed NFG a 13-page letter denying Northern Access a WQC, noting the project’s plan to construct 71 miles of pipeline in the state failed to meet its water quality standards and would negatively impact the environment. The letter, NFG has argued in the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, was “superficial, conclusory and repeatedly contradicted by record evidence.”
About a year before that, on Earth Day 2016, the DEC denied Constitution Pipeline Co. LLC a WQC, claiming the permit application was incomplete. Both denials came after unusually long reviews, roughly three years each.
The companies have argued in court and before FERC that the DEC’s denials were “arbitrary and capricious,” far exceeded the scope of the state’s authority under the CWA, were politically motivated and eclipsed the statutory timeframe in which a decision should have been made. The Second Circuit has been asked to review and vacate the DEC’s decisions. NFG also has asked FERC to allow it to proceed without state permits, arguing the Natural Gas Act (NGA) preempts the state’s authority.
The Circuit Court recently denied Constitution’s challenge, ruling DEC is entitled to its review under relevant federal laws.The court, however, said it lacked jurisdiction over how long it took DEC to issue a denial letter, and said it was a matter for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Both sides welcomed the court’s opinion as a victory, and Constitution’s backers still see a “path to final approval,” according to spokesman Keith Isbell. It’s unclear what’s next for Constitution. Isbell said after the ruling that “we are weighing all options.”
DEC has pushed back in court, insisting it has broad authority under the CWA for review. FERC’s certificates are predicated on the companies obtaining state approval, and DEC argues that its “thorough and transparent” reviews gave the companies ample opportunity to comply with state standards or submit additional material.
“Under Gov. Cuomo, New York has nation-leading climate change policies from ramping-up renewable energy production through strategic investments and setting stringent safeguards to ensure public health and the environment are protected from the potential impacts of proposed pipelines and fossil fuel infrastructure,” said DEC spokeswoman Erica Ringewald, when asked about the state’s energy policies and the agency’s regulatory processes.
“DEC subjects all applications for environmental permits to a transparent and exhaustive review process that encourages public input at every step of the process.”
DEC, Constitution and NFG representatives declined to comment specifically about the ongoing litigation. NFG spokeswoman Karen Merkel said the company is unfazed by the outcome for Constitution in the Second Circuit.
“We continue to review the decision,” she said. “But our circumstances are different than the DEC’s decision in Constitution, which was based on an alleged failure to provide sufficient information. We remain confident in our appeal.”
Constitution initially submitted its WQC application in August 2013. The company subsequently withdrew and re-submitted it in 2014 and in 2015, a move DEC argued extended the review period each time by up to a year.
NFG and Constitution submitted thousands of documents, conducted weekly conference calls, had regular meetings and sent countless emails to the agency, they said. Both also claim DEC repeatedly indicated its satisfaction with the applications long before they were denied.
In a sworn declaration in 2015, submitted by Constitution’s Environmental Project Manager Lynda Schubring, which was later struck from the Second Circuit case record over DEC’s objections, DEC permitting chief Christopher Hogan said the agency “was ready to issue the permits, but the governor’s office was not.”
Schubring said she continued to contact Hogan until Constitution received its denial letter, saying that “at no time did he inform me that DEC was waiting for additional information from Constitution.” DEC claimed in subsequent court documents that the declaration and others submitted misrepresented conversations between the agency and company officials, adding that it couldn’t adequately respond without creating a “trial by affidavit.”
For its part, NFG has asked the Second Circuit to order discovery into New York’s decision-making process to determine “whether the governor or any political appointees exerted or may continue to exert improper influence” on its regulatory approvals. The company has charged that DEC’s denial was “pretextual,” pointing to comments Cuomo made in an editorial board meeting with The Buffalo News days after the denial was issued. He suggested that the economic impacts of the project were outweighed by the environmental impacts.
DEC has dismissed that as conjecture, saying in court that the agency’s “determination, on its face, is based solely on water quality considerations. It contains no mention of economic issues.” The agency added that pointing to a newspaper article fails to meet the exacting standard for vacating its decision and argued that NFG put words in the governor’s mouth by selectively plucking from his statements.
Struggling With DEC
NFG also argued in court that the DEC has approved similar natural gas projects in recent years, such as Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC’s 132,700 Dth/d Atlantic Bridge expansion, which received water quality permits from New York in May 2017. But DEC indicated in court documents that those projects are not at all similar, saying in most cases that they were smaller, in already disturbed rights-of-way and involved replacing or installing less than 20 miles of pipeline.
DEC officials told NGI’s Shale Daily that the agency has approved at least seven WQC under the CWA for interstate natural gas pipeline projects since 2012. When asked if those projects were related to shale gas development, officials said the agency does not “categorize pipeline projects under review by extraction method or the type of gas that may be transported through them.”
The time it takes DEC to review and make a decision for such permits, according to the officials, is dependent on the specific circumstances of the proposed project, including its scope, potential environmental impacts and the cooperation of sponsors in providing necessary information.
The bulk of both pipelines would be built in New York. Those operations would not be without environmental risks. Combined, the projects would cross more than 442 waterbodies and 153-plus acres of wetlands. Several environmental groups have intervened in court on behalf of the DEC, arguing that construction would have consequences for critical habitats and impact water quality in a way that FERC failed to acknowledge when it approved the pipelines.
Problems of this kind are not unusual for long-haul pipelines. FERC’s pipeline reviews are voluminous and include specific mitigation conditions in detail.
The steps NFG and Constitution have taken to detail their struggles with the DEC and any extraordinary executive involvement, which included a separate lawsuit by NFG to obtain related documents under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, could be fruitless.
Generally, a court reviewing an agency decision is restricted to the administrative record compiled by that agency when it made the decision. The Second Circuit found that there was ample administrative evidence to support DEC’s decision to reject Constitution’s WQC application. NFG has suggested, depending on different scenarios, that its case could drag on until 2020. Even if the court were to rule in its’ favor, the applications would likely be remanded back to DEC for resolution.
Consider the ill-fated Islander East pipeline. In 2006, Connecticut’s environmental regulatory agency, at the time headed by former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, denied the project’s WQC. The denial was remanded to the agency, which again denied the application.
Turning to White House For Support
Williams, which would construct and operate Constitution, doesn’t want an Islander East repeat. CEO Alan Armstrong anticipated the second circuit outcome on the company’s 2Q2017 earnings call when he said, “it’s a little bit unusual for a court to overrule an agency like that.”
Millennium Pipeline Co. LLC has also been battling New York since 2015 over what it claims are unnecessary permitting delays for an eight-mile lateral to feed a gas-fired power plant in the state. The DC Circuit Court in June declined Millennium’s request to force state regulators to expedite its WQC review, suggesting the pipeline could bypass the agency and go directly to FERC, which already approved the project.
Armstrong said that ruling was encouraging, but the company has turned to the White House “to move things along,” as others have.
IOGANY’S Gill views President Trump’s policies as one of the last glimmers of light for the state’s beleaguered natural gas industry. “Absolutely, there’s beginning to be some loosening of the reins,” he said, when asked if he thinks Trump might intervene. “We’ve seen it with Dakota Access, we’ve seen it with Keystone,” he added of those previously stalled projects.
The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comments about the situation in New York or whether the president has considered his options to help the industry there.
“We’re seeing early indications of a muscular energy policy under Donald Trump,” said Mike Caputo, a political operative who worked as Trump’s campaign communications adviser. “President Trump -- I can tell you with great confidence -- he’s told me more than once that he’s really bothered by Cuomo’s hydraulic fracturing ban, very bothered by it.”
Caputo recently delivered his remarks before the IOGANY’s summer meeting in Clymer, NY. Caputo managed Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino’s unsuccessful campaign against Cuomo in 2010 and was later part of efforts to recruit Trump to run against the governor in 2014.
“He’s going to take an early look at the interests of the Seneca’s and other tribes here in New York and maybe help with Cuomo’s energy policy on Indian lands,” Caputo told the crowd. “Not sure it’s going to happen, but I know they’re talking about it right now and they think that New York is the first place they go.”
Caputo’s claim could not be independently verified. Many of the state’s Native American tribes have opposed fracking. Caputo said that if the administration can put political controversies behind it, however, the energy sector could be among some of the first to see significant changes.
Trump has already signed an executive order hailed by industry trade groups that calls for the federal government to expedite its review and permitting of major infrastructure projects, such as oil and gas pipelines.
Sources said they hope the Trump administration can influence FERC to intervene in New York and get Constitution and Northern Access going again. It’s a wait and see situation. Two of Trump’s nominees have been confirmed and two more are expected to be confirmed and join the Commission in September, giving the agency a Republican chairman and a majority of three Republicans.
The various interest groups are attempting to gage the firepower in the new Commission. Laws and rules have been re-interpreted, bent and stretched before by aggressive Commissions, most notably the one in the early days of deregulation that turned interstate natural gas pipelines into common carriers.
No ‘Rubber Stamp Factory’
Drom, of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, said the Commission is hamstrung in a way by the NGA, which he said clearly stipulates that FERC must almost always approve a certificate as long as a company has customers and it meets the law’s criteria.
It’s not a “rubber stamp factory, there’s a definite process to go through,” Drom said, reacting to environmentalists’ claims. “I think FERC is entirely correct in staying out of these battles. Congress gave them limited authority. If the pipeline is not following state laws, then the certificate is invalid. It’s up to the state to go to FERC and demonstrate that the state laws aren’t being followed.” Conversely, Drom said FERC only approves projects if they meet state standards.
That juxtaposition is one reason why the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) and other environmental groups are pushing to reform the NGA. DRN’s leader, Maya van Rossum, said FERC “misinterprets” its mission and always applies the NGA in a way that is “supportive of a pipeline project and against the people.” She said her organization is pushing for Congressional hearings into the Commission’s “abuse of power” to identify the reforms that need to be introduced and implemented.
Given the political landscape, she acknowledged what an uphill battle that is. She said Cuomo has not catered to a certain voting base in New York, adding that DRN and its allies opposed to fossil fuel development have had to push harder than they wanted to for victories there.
Even still, she said New York’s stance is encouraging and could help other states take bolder positions against the industry. “We’re looking for a champion. Someone who will call for the right kinds of actions.”
Cuomo The Pragmatist
Could Cuomo be that champion? He entered office in 2011 in the middle, aligning with the liberal voting base on social issues and governing as a moderate centrist on economic issues. Since his first term, Cuomo has successfully tackled gun control, marriage equality, a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave and free tuition at state colleges and universities -- all important national policy priorities for the Democratic party -- leading the news media and many interviewed for this series to wonder if he’s considering a run for president.
“He came into office wanting to take a more centrist position, wanting to be more open-minded, open for business, including wanting to open things up for natural gas development,” said Robert Shum, a political science professor at the College at Brockport in Upstate New York. Shum said Cuomo is a pragmatist, like most politicians.
“People talk about Cuomo changing and it’s like, ‘well yes,’ he saw where the votes are. He saw that the environmentalists could deliver votes,” Shum said. “It’s probably not unfair to say he’s moved in that direction. Look elsewhere in energy. He’s always balancing, always hedging.
“In nuclear, he’s announced that he’s decided to shut down the Indian Point plant on Long Island because that’s a way to appeal to environmentalists,” he said. “But he’s also hedging and allowing for subsidies to be put in place for two other plants. That’s his modus operandi; to be pragmatic and to do whatever is necessary.”
The same day Trump announced his intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, Cuomo, California Gov. Jerry Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced the creation of a climate alliance so that states may advance the global agreement’s goals to reduce climate change impacts.
“As the federal government abdicates its responsibility on climate change, New York is a driving force for protecting our natural resources for future generations and ensuring New York’s environmental review process is the strongest in the nation,” DEC’s Ringewald said in response to a question about how environmentalists view the agency’s efforts to regulate the oil and gas industry.
Regardless of a presidential run, Cuomo is viewed by many as a shoo-in for a third term as governor. Sources said that while there’s frustration among some in the legislature about state energy policy, the focus has waned since New York banned fracking, which one executive called a “defining moment.”
“With the pipeline issues, I think it’s sort of a hangover from the fracking ban,” Shum said. “It sort of generates a momentum of its own, where Cuomo now has this brand where he sees that he can get votes from the cities and the environmental groups.He can brand himself as a progressive and that gives him an advantage over other candidates.
“I don’t know now whether the industry could do something else in terms of rallying support. It’s harder with pipelines.”
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111517-ny-part-1-natgas-hits-political-wall-in-new-york-as-industry-fights-losing-battle
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Not Just Oil Trains: CSX Work on Crash-Avoidance System a Secret, Too
Aug 25, 2017 | NorthJersey.com
By Curtis Tate
CSX, the railroad known for operating trains with millions of gallons of crude oil through New Jersey, wants to keep secret its progress on installing a collision-avoidance system Congress required in 2008.
The railroad claims the information is "confidential, proprietary and security sensitive." That's the same rationale the company used to fight greater transparency about its oil train operations. New Jersey agreed to withhold those details, but other states did not.
The company, based in Jacksonville, Fla., is the only major railroad operating in New Jersey to submit a quarterly progress report to federal regulators on positive train control with a key detail omitted: which parts of its 21,000-mile network have it, and which don’t.
The railroad’s publicly available version of its quarterly report contains large gaps of information that's redacted, or blacked out. Similar reports from Norfolk Southern, Conrail, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, by comparison, contain fewer or no redactions.
Positive train control is an advanced technology that automatically stops or slows trains to prevent operators from running past stop signals or going faster than the appropriate speed, the kind of simple human errors that have contributed to deadly accidents.
Those include last year's New Jersey Transit crash in Hoboken, which killed one person, and 2013's Metro-North derailment in the Bronx, which killed four people. It also includes the 2015 derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia, which killed eight.
The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded such a system could have prevented numerous train accidents over the years and ranks as one of the agency's "Most Wanted" safety improvements.
Rob Doolittle, a CSX spokesman, said the railroad redacted certain kinds of information from its positive train control progress reports "because it is confidential, proprietary and security sensitive."
In the CSX report, that includes the status of positive train control installation on individual sections of track.
Those looking at Norfolk Southern's most recent progress report, for the three months ending in June, could see that the railroad was installing the system on its Lehigh Line in northern New Jersey.
However, those looking for similar information about CSX's River Line in northern New Jersey would not see what kind of progress the railroad has made on the system there.
The River Line parallels the Hudson River from near Albany, N.Y., to the Meadowlands.
Both Norfolk Southern and CSX shipped large volumes of Bakken crude through New Jersey, until economic trends in the oil market dramatically reduced the shipments.
CSX's report is prefaced with a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration requesting confidentiality. Each page of the CSX report is stamped "Contains Confidential Information," and the information the railroad considers confidential isn't shown.
The quarterly reports from Norfolk Southern, Conrail, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit are not marked confidential, and show the kind of information the CSX report omitted.
Marc Wills, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said that "a railroad may request confidential treatment of a document, or a portion thereof" submitted to the agency if it contains information that's exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, contains a confidential trade secret or is otherwise exempt from disclosure by law.
The law says, however, that the agency "retains the right to make its own determination with regard to any claim of confidentiality."
"It's more than fair for constituents and those living along CSX tracks, or interacting with CSX trains, to ask why the railroad is less forthcoming about its progress on PTC than many other railroads," said Sarah Feinberg, who led the Federal Railroad Administration until January.A history of secrecy about oil trains
Throughout 2014 and 2015, CSX and other railroads used similar justifications to keep information about oil train routes and volumes a secret.
After the U.S Department of Transportation began requiring railroad transporting large volumes of Bakken crude oil notify state emergency response officials of the shipments in May 2014, the railroads endeavored to shield the information from public release by asking states to sign confidentiality agreements and marking their reports confidential.
While New Jersey was among the small number of states to agree with that rationale, the railroads lost the fight elsewhere, notably in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Both states rejected the confidentiality request after multiple news organizations challenged it.
New York never agreed to keep the information secret. Though Delaware sided with New Jersey, Amtrak provided the missing data.
A deadly 2008 collision between a commuter train and a freight train in southern California spurred lawmakers to enact legislation requiring positive train control.
Congress set a deadline of Dec. 31, 2015, for railroads to install it on passenger routes and freight lines carrying poisonous gases such as chlorine and anhydrous ammonia.
Citing the cost and complexity of installing the system, however, the rail industry lobbied Congress for a three-year extension, and they got it.
Because the boom in crude oil transported by rail began a few years after the original legislation, railroads were never required to install positive train control on their oil-train routes.
The Record reported this month that CSX had lobbied senior officials in Gov. Chris Christie's office ahead of his veto of legislation to require more transparency about oil trains in the state.
Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, had hoped to round up enough votes to override Christie's veto of S-806 as early as Friday.
But some lawmakers are still on summer break, and the sudden death of state Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic City, deprived Weinberg of one of the votes she needed. Weinberg is the bill's lead sponsor.
In a Teaneck rally with other state and local officials and community activists Tuesday, Weinberg said if she fell short of votes for the override, she'd try again when Christie's successor takes office in January.
http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/watchdog/2017/08/25/not-just-oil-trains-csx-work-crash-avoidance-system-secret-too/596019001/
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Congressmen Visit Rail Suppliers in Minnesota, Utah and Ohio
Aug 25, 2017 | Progressive Railroading
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) earlier this week met with Miller Ingenuity staff for a product demonstration of ZoneGuard, the company's roadway worker protection system.
Walz also joined representatives from Operational Lifesaver Inc. and local railroads to tour Miller's manufacturing plant in Winona, Minnesota.
The Railway Engineering-Maintenance and Suppliers Association(REMSA) coordinated the event. Miller Ingenuity President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Blue led the tour.
Attendees toured ZoneGuard's manufacturing assembly area and discussed the product's operational features with Miller's leadership and engineering team, REMSA officials said in a press release.
During Walz's visit, rail advocates pushed for full funding of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program and the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grants program for fiscal-year 2018.
Other attendees included Mark Peterson, mayor of Winona; Liisa Stark, assistant vice president of public affairs for Union Pacific Railroad; and Sean Winkler, director of advocacy at REMSA.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Wednesday joined rail advocacy organization GoRail to tour A&K Railroad Materials Inc.'s national headquarters in Salt Lake City.The visit included an overview of railroad operations in Utah and the freight-rail industry's legislative priorities, GoRail officials said in a press release.
A&K President Rhonda Nicoloff led the tour, which highlighted the company's distribution facility.
In a meeting before the tour, the group discussed proposed rail regulations under consideration by the Surface Transportation Board and their potential impact on the country's rail network, GoRail officials said.
The regulations include "forced access," which would stifle rail companies' ability to invest in their network and operations, according to GoRail.
Finally, Stronghold Coatings recently hosted U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) to mark the opening of the company's new facility in Franklin, Ohio.The facility will double Stronghold Coatings' production floorspace and make room for additional employees, company officials said in a press release.
The 5,000-square-foot facility will house production for the company's MM1018 bridge and structural repair product, which is a polymeric metal material providing force-fit gap compensation.
To manufacture the MM1018 product in-house, Stronghold Coatings acquired specialized mixing and blending machinery. The company's older facility will continue to produce other products, including Dichtol micro-porosity sealers.http://www.progressiverailroading.com/supplier_spotlight/news/Congressmen-visit-rail-suppliers-in-Minnesota-Utah-and-Ohio--52559
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GOP Assembly Leader Loses Post over Cap-And-Trade Vote
Aug 25, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
The leader of California's Assembly Republicans announced yesterday that he would step down after coming under fire from his own party for voting to extend the state's cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases.
Assemblymember Chad Mayes (R) said he would abandon his leadership post on Sept. 15, the last day of the state's legislative session, and that Assemblymember Brian Dahle (R) would replace him.
"Brian Dahle will be an effective leader for the caucus and will continue our work to move the Republican Party toward greater relevance and viability in California," Mayes said in a statement. "I am proud to support him."
The leadership change came after several weeks of growing turmoil within the caucus, including a vote Monday to oust Mayes that fell three votes short of a majority. Another vote had been scheduled for next week, and several other Republicans had expressed interest in being leader, but Dahle emerged as a clear favorite yesterday morning.
"As soon as someone has the votes, then usually all those plans go out the window, and they move as quickly as possible," said Mayes' spokesman, Matt Mahon.
The state's 25 Republican assemblymembers hold less than one-third of the lower chamber's 79 seats. Their dwindling numbers have allowed Democrats to reach supermajority votes this year on raising the state gas tax and extending California's cap-and-trade system through 2030, a priority for Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
Mayes and seven other Republicans crossed the aisle last month to support Brown's bill on cap and trade, A.B. 398, raising the ire of fellow Republicans who opposed action on climate change. They also argued that the vote enabled Democrats in vulnerable seats to avoid casting a vote for the bill, hurting Republicans' chances in next year's elections.
Brown put in a good word for Mayes on Twitter after his ouster.
"Sad day when the Grand Old Party punishes a leader whose only flaw was believing in science & cutting regs, costs & taxes for Californians," he wrote.
Mayes had argued that Republicans are becoming increasingly irrelevant in California and should engage on climate and other issues in order to broaden their appeal and extract concessions. He delivered a presentation to the California Republican Party last week that cited a January poll showing Republicans could lose 353,000 party members due to their opposition to climate policies. Such a loss would put them below "No Party Preference" registrants, who currently make up 24.5 percent of registered voters to Republicans' 25.9 percent (Climatewire, Aug. 23).
Dahle, a farmer who represents the northeasternmost corner of the state, signaled he would also seek to broaden the GOP's platform.
"For far too long, the majority party has ignored millions of Californians who want greater economic opportunities in a state where the cost of living is simply too high," Dahle said in a statement. "We will continue fighting for them every day. In order to do so, we have to stay focused on building a relevant party that can win more elections so that Republicans have more influence on public policy."
A Democratic climate activist, though, predicted more political polarization as a result of the leadership scuffle.
"Once again, elected Republican legislators have shown that they can't abide heresy — in this case, acknowledgement that climate change is real and requires real solutions," RL Miller, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party's environmental caucus and president of the Climate Hawks Vote political action committee, said in a statement. "This vote only reinforces our belief that there's no reasoning with Republicans on climate solutions. The only real solution is to vote them out."
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D) praised both Mayes and Dahle. "Chad Mayes is a good man who worked hard to balance doing what was right for California and meeting the needs of his caucus," he said in a statement. "Personally, I will miss working with Chad as Republican Leader. But make no mistake, the bromance will endure."
"Since we were elected to the Assembly in 2012, Brian Dahle and I have had a strong working relationship. I know that will continue in his new role."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/08/25/stories/1060059199
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E.U. To Host Talk with Calif., Carbon-Trading Nations
Aug 25, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
The European Union is hosting a climate workshop next month with China, Canada, New Zealand and California ahead of this fall's U.N. talks to discuss their emissions trading systems.
The meeting is being organized by the European Commission's director-general for climate action, Jos Delbeke, and will involve discussion of the potential to link carbon markets, according to the head of California's main air and climate agency.
"Jos Delbeke has invited all the countries and California that have cap-and-trade programs to come to a meeting in Europe in late September to talk about what possibilities there might be for linking our programs," California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said in an interview in June in Beijing.
The meeting in Florence, Italy, on Sept. 25-26 will include policymakers from California, Canada, China, the European Union and New Zealand. It will take place ahead of another meeting on carbon market platforms being organized by Italy, which chairs the Group of Seven this year.
Canada, China and the European Union have been taking steps to cooperate on climate policy since President Trump began raising the possibility of withdrawing the United States from the U.N. climate agreement signed in Paris in 2015. In May, top climate officials from the three jurisdictions met in Berlin and agreed to meet in September to advance the Paris goals.
The European Union, California and two Canadian provinces have active carbon cap-and-trade programs, and China is planning to launch its nationwide program in November. New Zealand has a trading program covering about half its emissions, and Canada is also working to introduce a national carbon price via emissions trading or carbon taxes. Trading programs will cover 15 percent of global carbon emissions once China's system begins, up from 9 percent currently, the European Union noted.
The workshop is by invitation only and its purpose is to discuss "the experiences on implementation of emissions trading systems to date, and to further promote emissions trading as a cost-effective climate policy tool," according to the workshop's website.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/08/25/stories/1060059198
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States Seek Court Ruling Vacating EPA Ozone Designations Delay
Aug 25, 2017 | Inside EPA
Several Democratic-led states are backing environmentalists' push for a federal appeals court to preserve their suits over EPA's since-withdrawn delay of designations for which areas are attaining the 2015 ozone ambient air limit, with the states also asking the court to vacate the delay and declare that it was unlawful from the beginning.
A group of 14 states and Washington, D.C., filed an Aug. 24 brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit urging it not to dismiss American Lung Association (ALA), et al. v. EPA, et al., even though the agency has voluntarily abandoned its attempt to delay from Oct. 1 to Oct. 1, 2018, the designations for whether areas are attaining or in nonattainment with the 2015 ozone limit of 70 parts per billion (ppb).
The states say that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that sued over the delay are right to worry that EPA could try again to push back the deadline for issuing the designations, which starts a Clean Air Act clock for states to write emissions control plans for meeting the standard.
As a result, they ask for the declaration that the delay was unlawful ab initio -- from the beginning -- in order to prevent EPA from reviving it.
“Although EPA withdrew the Designations Delay, NGO Petitioners’ challenge to it is not moot because EPA could reverse course again, and in fact, the withdrawal notice expressly contemplates that EPA may determine that further delay . . . is necessary,” says the brief, which is joined by New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued the one-year delay on June 6, saying it was vital to allow more time to assess the data that the Obama administration used to justify tightening the ozone limit from the 75 ppb level set in 2008 down to 70 ppb.
But on Aug. 2, after NGOs and states sued to overturn that delay and reinstate the original deadline for the designations, Pruitt withdrew his letter through a Federal Register notice and said the review could instead be completed this year.
The agency then moved to terminate the ALA suit, saying Pruitt's reversal rendered the case moot. But the NGO petitioners, now joined by the states, are saying that the wording EPA used to reinstate the 2017 deadline leaves the door open for another delay.
“EPA may try to reverse course yet again by issuing a new rule reinstating the Designations Delay or withdrawing the Withdrawal Notice. The Withdrawal Notice itself is agnostic as to its permanence, noting only that there 'may be areas of the United States for which designations could be promulgated' by the statutory deadline, but that '[t]he Administrator may still determine that an extension of time to complete designations is necessary,'” the states' Aug. 24 brief says.
Rather than dismiss the case, they argue, the D.C. Circuit should either keep it alive but stayed, so litigation can resume if and when EPA delays designations again, or explicitly declare that EPA never had statutory authority for the stay, which would bar it from instituting another one in the same approach Pruitt used for the since-withdrawn delay.
“To the extent the Designations Delay remains capable of springing back into effect if EPA withdraws the Withdrawal Notice or the Withdrawal Notice is otherwise invalidated, vacatur declaring the Designations Delay as void ab initiowill ensure” EPA cannot act on that possibility, the states say.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/states-seek-court-ruling-vacating-epa-ozone-designations-delay
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EPA to Host 10 Hearings on Water Rule Rewrite
Aug 25, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning 10 public hearings to gather input on its effort to write a new version of the Obama administration’s key water pollution rule.
The teleconference meetings will run throughout the fall, the EPA said in a Federal Register notice released Friday and due to be published Monday.
Nine of the sessions will be dedicated to specific interests like agriculture, construction, conservation and energy, and one will be for the general public.
The meetings are part of an effort by the EPA and the Army Corps to write a new “waters of the United States” regulation to define the limits of the federal government’s jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.
The agencies formally proposed in July to repeal the Obama administration’s version of the rule, which Republicans and industry said was vague and far-reaching, and would require a long permitting process for everyday business activities.
The second part of that process is to write a new regulation. President Trump has directed the agencies to write a more business-friendly rule that follows an opinion that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 2006 that would be far more restrictive on the federal government than the previous rule.
Environmentalists supported the Obama administration rule and charge the Trump administration with putting significant water supplies in danger.
“Both EPA and the Corps are aware that the scope of [Clean Water Act] jurisdiction is of intense interest to a broad array of stakeholders and therefore want to provide time for broad pre-proposal input,” the EPA wrote in the Federal Register notice.
The EPA is also planning an in-person meeting on the matter with small entities like businesses and governments, and it is inviting the public to submit written comments as well.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/347964-epa-to-host-10-hearings-on-water-rule-rewrite
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