Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 8/29/2017
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(ACC Mentioned) Clearing the Gulf Coast’s Chemicals Logjam
Aug 28, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H. Tullo
As a massive wave of chemical plants comes online, companies chart different courses to the market -
Harvey Disrupts More Than One Third of U.S. Chemical Production
Aug 28, 2017 | Bloomberg Markets
By Jack Kaskey
A third of U.S. chemical production has been disrupted by Tropical Storm Harvey, boosting prices and threatening shortages for basic industrial building blocks such as chlorine and ethylene. -
Harvey stalls chemical, university activities on the Gulf Coast
Aug 28, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Melody Bomgardner & Jyllian Kemsley
Amid record rainfall, petrochemical firms shutter facilities, universities cancel classes -
Energy Regulator Makes First Move in Months, OKs Nexus Pipeline
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Catherine Traywick and Mark Chediak
DTE Energy Co. and Enbridge Inc. won U.S. approval to build the $2 billion Nexus natural gas pipeline in the Midwest, ending a review that lasted almost two years and forced delays to the project. -
Harvey Knocks Out Energy Infrastructure, Threatening Higher Gas Prices
Aug 29, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Hurricane Harvey is taking more oil and gas infrastructure offline in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, raising prospects for a spike in gasoline prices. -
New Study Reveals Gaps In The Methods Used To Assess Chemicals In Oilfield Wastewater
Aug 28, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Cloelle Danforth
A new study led by researchers with Colorado School of Mines exposes limitations with the current methods used to detect chemicals in oilfield wastewater and offers solutions to help regulators make better decisions for managing this waste stream. -
"Chemical Emergency" That Added To Area's Catastrophe Is Contained
Aug 28, 2017 | Chron
By Andrew Kragie and Jordan Blum
La Porte firefighters and a Harris County hazmat team have contained a chemical spill Monday after a pipeline ruptured on the northeast side of La Porte in the petrochemical district about 20 miles east of downtown Houston. -
CSB Issues Safety Alert for Post-Harvey Plant Restarts
Aug 28, 2017 | Powder & Bulk Solids
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) issued a safety alert Monday for oil and chemical facilities impacted by Hurricane Harvey in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, suggesting that firms act with caution as they start up plants idled during the storm. -
(ACC Mentioned) Water Contamination a Concern After Hurricane Harvey
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By David Schultz, Nushin Huq and Sylvia Carignan
Water contamination is among the main environmental threats facing emergency responders in Hurricane Harvey's aftermath. -
Corporate America May Be Best Hope to Re-Engage Trump on Climate
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
You'd think U.S. companies would be ready to throw in the towel after they failed to sway President Donald Trump to stay in the landmark Paris climate pact. -
EPA's Plan for Sulfur Dioxide Decisions Left in Place by Court
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Abby Smith
The EPA's December 2020 deadline to determine whether areas are meeting federal sulfur dioxide standards for air quality will remain unchanged after an Aug. 28 federal court decision. -
California Cap-Trade Auction Sells Out at Record High Prices
Aug 29, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
California air regulators and oil/natural gas industry representatives are lauding the state's recent cap-and-trade auction, which sold out air emissions credits at historically high prices. -
Harvey Damages Spur Congressional Debate On Climate, Flood Policies
Aug 28, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Lee Logan
Forcing the issue of climate change back into the spotlight, ongoing catastrophic flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey will likely complicate efforts in Congress to re-authorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is slated to expire next month, while also spurring calls for lawmakers to overturn President Donald Trump's recent revocation of tough federal flood standards. -
Tillerson Wants to Cut Special Envoys, Including for Climate Change
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Nick Wadhams
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Aug. 28 unveiled his plan to eliminate several special envoys, including for climate change and the Iran nuclear deal, in a sweeping proposal to put his stamp on the agency and meet President Donald Trump's demands for deep budget cuts.
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(ACC Mentioned) Clearing the Gulf Coast’s Chemicals Logjam
Aug 28, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H. Tullo
As a massive wave of chemical plants comes online, companies chart different courses to the market
The heavy lift vessel Zhen Hua 13 departed from Shanghai last month carrying three new, 120-meter-tall cranes. The big ship should reach its destination on the Houston Ship Channel by early October.
The new cranes are part of a $700 million upgrade project at Barbours Cut, one of the ship channel’s two container terminals. The improvements will allow its wharves to accommodate the larger vessels soon to arrive through the newly expanded Panama Canal and . . .
... Earlier this year, the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted a study, sponsored by the American Chemistry Council trade group, of how railroads, trucks, and ports will handle the coming wave of production.
Access to full text unavailable – subscription required. For full story: http://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i34/Clearing-Gulf-Coasts-chemicals-logjam.html?type=paidArticleContent
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Harvey Disrupts More Than One Third of U.S. Chemical Production
Aug 28, 2017 | Bloomberg Markets
By Jack Kaskey
Storm shuts 37% of U.S. chlorine output and 40% of ethylene
Price gains seen in already tight caustic soda market
A third of U.S. chemical production has been disrupted by Tropical Storm Harvey, boosting prices and threatening shortages for basic industrial building blocks such as chlorine and ethylene.
Producers such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Occidental Chemical Corp. have shut plants and cut back operations in recent days along the flood-crippled Gulf Coast. Those disruptions have affected 37 percent of U.S. capacity for making chlorine and caustic soda, salt-derived chemicals used to make vinyl and PVC pipe, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
About 40 percent of U.S. ethylene capacity has been shut, PetroChemWire said in a report Monday. Ethylene is the most used petrochemical and largely goes into plastics such as polyethylene, used in trash bags and food packaging.
The crisis could get worse as Harvey, which made landfall Friday night in Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, is circling back into the Gulf of Mexico and could crash ashore again, this time on the Texas-Louisiana border. The full extent of Harvey’s toll won’t be known for days, with rain totals that are measured in feet rather than inches.
The largest chemical-price impact is likely to be on caustic soda as near-record exports had already driven prices up 77 percent over 16 months, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Jason Miner and Christopher Perrella said in a note. Net Benefit
Olin Corp. is the world’s largest producer of chlorine and caustic, which are produced in tandem and known collectively as chlor-alkali. Even with some of its production idled in the path of the storm, the impact should provide a net benefit to the company because of higher prices, Jim Sheehan, an analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, said in a note Monday. He recommends buying Olin shares.
“With an even tighter caustic soda market in the near-term due to the chlor-alkali production outages related to Hurricane Harvey,” producers could realize better price increases than the $40-per-ton they were seeking before the storm, Sheehan said.
Westlake Chemical Co. stands to benefit the most from tighter markets for chlor-alkali and ethylene as well as downstream products such as polyethylene and PVC resins, said Kevin McCarthy, an analyst at Vertical Research Partners. While its rivals are shutting plants, Westlake’s facilities are outside the direct path of the storm, he said.
Occidental Chemical and Formosa Plastics Corp. are among the chlor-alkali producers that shut plants because of Harvey.
It’s not yet clear that prices for ethylene and polyethylene will rise from the storm closures. Excess supplies were hanging over the market ahead of Harvey, and buyers are anticipating rising output from several new plants that have begun to come online, said Kathy Hall, editor of PetroChemWire. Plants maintain a cushion of inventory, and some may begin to restart as soon as Tuesday, she said.
“There is not a pricing panic so far,” Hall said.Damage Estimates
Ethylene prices could rise if plants are damaged and need longer to restart, she said. Another factor is how quickly flood waters recede from roads and railways to allow normal shipping of plastics and other derivatives, Hall said. And with so many Houston residents displaced by the storm, it remains to be seen how soon plant employees can return to work.
About 70 million pounds of daily ethylene output had been shut as of Monday morning, Hall said in a storm update. That’s 55 percent of total capacity in Texas, the largest U.S. producer of petrochemicals.
Closed ethylene plants include ones owned by Dow, Exxon Mobil, LyondellBasell Industries NV, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Ineos Group Holdings SA.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-28/harvey-disrupts-more-than-one-third-of-u-s-chemical-production
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Harvey stalls chemical, university activities on the Gulf Coast
Aug 28, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Melody Bomgardner & Jyllian Kemsley
Amid record rainfall, petrochemical firms shutter facilities, universities cancel classes
As Tropical Storm Harvey made its way back out to the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, it was still too early to evaluate what will be left behind when flood waters recede. Over the weekend, many petrochemical operators in Texas initiated shut down procedures due to expected flooding. Meanwhile, the storm’s effects on schools in the Houston area are uncertain.
Industry began preparations as early as Thursday in areas where the hurricane was projected to make landfall. In Port Lavaca, Texas, and nearby Victoria, shutdowns included Dow Chemical’s Seadrift facility, Ineos Nitriles Green Lake site, and Invista’s plant in Victoria County. Fuel companies in Corpus Christi shuttered refineries temporarily, including those operated by Valero Energy, Citgo Petroleum, and Flint Hills Resources.
On Sunday, Harvey, which was downgraded to a tropical storm, dumped as much as 75 cm of rain to the east in Houston. Exxon Mobil began shutting down its Baytown refinery and petrochemical complex, the second largest in the nation. Another large refinery, Chevron’s Cedar Bayou complex—also in Baytown—was shut down, followed by Royal Dutch Shell’s complex in Deer Park. The U.S. Gulf supplies roughly 25% of the country’s transportation fuels. About 15% of total U.S. refining capacity has been shut down due to Harvey.
Chemical plant shutdowns due to expected flooding included Ascend Performance Materials’s Chocolate Bayou plant in Alvin, Texas. The facility produces hydrogen cyanide, acrylonitrile and disodium iminodiacetate. Oxychem shuttered its chlor alkali and vinyl assets in Ingleside, Texas. Formosa Plastics temporarily closed its refinery at Point Comfort, Texas. Six area plants operated by LyondellBasell were shut down, and the firm’s Houston refinery is operating at reduced rates.
Also on Sunday, Huntsman shut down manufacturing sites in Conroe, Dayton, Chocolate Bayou, Freeport, Houston, and Port Neches, Texas. “As you know, the situation is very dynamic and can change quickly. Our primary concern at this time is for the safety and well-being of our employees, their families and our plant communities,” says Anne M. Knisely, Huntsman’s director of communications.
The Gulf region produces roughly 40% of the chlor-alkali and vinyl in the U.S., and about 60% of the country’s ethylene, polyethylene, and polypropylene, according to Kevin W. McCarthy, analyst at Vertical Research Partners, an equities research firm. In the coming weeks, supply restrictions due to shuttered facilities will likely push commodity prices upward, particularly for chlor-alkali and vinyl, McCarthy predicts.
Students and instructors are also unable to travel due to floods. Classes at the University of Houston and Texas Southern University started last week, and both institutions were closed through Wednesday, Aug. 30, according to their websites as of C&EN press time. C&EN was unable to reach chemists at either institution.
Rice University also started classes last week and as of press time was closed through Wednesday, Aug. 30. So far, the campus is relatively unscathed, at least in part because of measures the university took following flooding from Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
“All labs were put on safe mode on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning,” chemistry department chair Matteo Pasquali tells C&EN. “Rice has back-up generators that will kick in rapidly if we lose power.”
Most biological samples are in the Bioscience Research Collaborative building, Pasquali says. The building’s systems are operating and its flood gates are “working as intended,” according to Rice’s emergency information website as of C&EN press time.
As for personal effects, “So far I know of one Chemistry colleague who had about 1 m of water in his house Sunday morning,” Pasquali says. “He and his family are safe as they live in a two-floor house, but of course they face significant disruption over the coming weeks or perhaps months. Via Facebook, I have heard that several colleagues in physics and bioengineering are also experiencing problems.”
“It’s best to say that the storm is not over,” Pasquali adds. “We hope that the worst is behind us, but the whole infrastructure is stressed out at and beyond its limits. We really don’t know how much rain will fall in the next two to three days, and what consequences it will have.”
McCarthy says infrastructure impacts will be widespread. “The prospect of this level of water has high potential to wreak havoc with utilities, rails, ports, barge access and the ability of personnel to access sites across southern Texas,” he says.
For industry, it could be a week or longer before the larger refineries resume operations. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has issued an alert warning employees to take special precautions when restarting equipment. “Restarting a complex petrochemical process requires a higher level of attention and care than normal processing, because numerous activities are occurring simultaneously and many automatic systems are run under manual control,” the CSB noted in its alert. “Because a significant number of facilities were shut down during Hurricane Harvey, there will be a significant number of facilities restarting, which will increase the risk to safety.”
https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/08/Harvey-stalls-chemical-university-activities.html
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Energy Regulator Makes First Move in Months, OKs Nexus Pipeline
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Catherine Traywick and Mark Chediak
DTE Energy Co. and Enbridge Inc. won U.S. approval to build the $2 billion Nexus natural gas pipeline in the Midwest, ending a review that lasted almost two years and forced delays to the project.
The 257-mile (413-kilometer) pipeline will transport 1.5 billion cubic feet a day of Appalachian gas to Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Ontario. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project Aug. 25. It's the first major pipeline the agency has authorized since the February resignation of then-Chairman Norman Bay, whose departure left the commission without the quorum needed to make major decisions.
The approval spares Nexus developers further delays, after being forced to push the project's in-service date into 2018. DTE Chief Executive Officer Gerard Anderson said in July that two-thirds of the pipeline's capacity had been contracted, with more commitments expected once construction begins. He said the delay wouldn't affect its earnings projections.
DTE and Enbridge can begin preparations to start construction in order to get the pipeline into service in 2018, the companies said in a joint email statement. A more precise in-service date will be provided after the companies review the U.S. order, they said.
The developers expected the pipeline to be approved in February, prior to Bay's departure. FERC approved three other major natural gas lines during Bay's final days: Williams’ $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, National Fuel Gas Supply Corp.’s $455 million Northern Access project and Energy Transfer Partners’ $4.2 billion Rover line.
The pipeline will take 7 to 10 months to build, Chief Operating Officer Jerry Norcia said during a July earnings call.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119691768&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119691768&jd=119691768
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Harvey Knocks Out Energy Infrastructure, Threatening Higher Gas Prices
Aug 29, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Hurricane Harvey is taking more oil and gas infrastructure offline in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, raising prospects for a spike in gasoline prices.
Nearly 19 percent of Gulf of Mexico oil production, and more than 18 percent of its natural gas production, are offline as of Monday afternoon, federal officials said.
At least 10 refineries in the region have also shuttered. According to S&P Global Platts figures on Sunday night, about 2.2 million barrels per day of refining capacity have closed in Texas, including major plants operated by Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero, Shell and other oil giants.
Exxon said Monday afternoon that its Baytown, Texas, facility, the second-largest U.S. refinery with a 560,500 barrel per day capacity, “has completed the safe shutdown of the majority of its operations.” The company’s Beaumont refinery was operating at “reduced rates,” Exxon said.
At least five refineries were offline in Corpus Christi, Texas, as of Sunday night. Valero, which operates a 293,000 barrel per day refinery in Corpus Christi and a smaller site in Three Rivers, Texas, said officials “are working closely with our business partners and port operations to determine the availability of necessary transportation and logistics infrastructure to resume refinery operations.”
The western Gulf of Mexico is home to about one-third of the United States' refining capacity, meaning the shutdowns because of Harvey are likely to drive up gasoline prices for the rest of the country.
Gasoline wholesale futures were up as much as 3.3 percent in midday trading on Monday.
Goldman Sachs analysts, using past hurricanes as a guide, estimated Monday that Harvey will reduce gasoline supplies by 615,000 to 785,000 barrels per day.
Officials estimated last week that major disruptions in the region could drive up gasoline prices by up to 15 cents per gallon, and industry predictions were in line with that mark on Monday. The storm hasn’t damaged a refinery, a prospect that experts said could lead to a 25 cent-per-gallon spike by next weekend.
Harvey, now a tropical storm, has dumped at least 35 inches of rain on parts of Houston. Rainfall could reach 50 inches in parts of the region before the storm moves out later this week.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/348307-harvey-knocks-more-texas-energy-operations-offline
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New Study Reveals Gaps In The Methods Used To Assess Chemicals In Oilfield Wastewater
Aug 28, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Cloelle Danforth
A new study led by researchers with Colorado School of Mines exposes limitations with the current methods used to detect chemicals in oilfield wastewater and offers solutions to help regulators make better decisions for managing this waste stream.
Oilfield wastewater is extremely salty and can contain multiple combinations of many potentially harmful chemicals (approximately 1600 on a national basis). However, most standard or approved analytical methods available to regulators were designed to work with fresh water. Because oil and gas wastewater is so salty—sometimes 10 times saltier than seawater or more—chemists often have to dilute wastewater samples to manage the high salt content.
This means they may also be diluting chemicals of concern to concentrations too low to detect, even though they may be present at risky levels. For example, benzene is a chemical associated with petroleum hydrocarbons and a known carcinogen. It also has a drinking water standard of 5 parts per billion – that’s 5 cents in 10 million dollars. It really doesn’t take much dilution of a sample to lose that level of precision.
More concerning is that more than 75% of the chemicals associated with unconventional oil and gas production don’t have standard analytical methods. So, not only are the available analytical tools frequently inappropriate for saltwater samples, there are no tests at all for most of the chemicals that could be there.
Why it matters
In the United States oil and gas production generates nearly 900 billion gallons of wastewater per year. That’s the same amount as 30% of the water that went over the Hoover Dam last year.
Historically, most of this wastewater has been pumped into underground wells for permanent disposal. But concerns about this practice leading to earthquakes, coupled with heightened demands for water and a desire to cut costs, has companies looking at new ways to manage this massive waste stream, from crop irrigation to discharge into surface waters.
Before this wastewater is reused in ways that could affect our water or food supplies, the right tools are needed to identify, measure, and treat the chemicals it may contain. This is a basic requirement for making sound decisions about protecting our health and our environment.
Advancing science to improve policy
Before new technologies and analytical methods developed in research laboratories are standardized and used in a regulatory context, they must undergo a rigorous and time-consuming validation process to assure they are robust, accurate, and precise.
Getting the job done right requires having the right tools. For this review, researchers combed through scores of research methods, evaluated which techniques are appropriate for oil and gas wastewater, discussed challenges associated with current methods, and offer potential solutions for detecting chemicals. In other words, the study offers us a starting point for making better decisions about cleaning or reusing wastewater.
Today, there’s a lot that isn’t – and can’t – be known about what’s in this wastewater, and, as a result, it’s nearly impossible to conclude that it won’t threaten human health and our environment if it is released into our ecosytem.
Fortunately, this review represents an important step toward identifying potential approaches to understanding the chemistry of this complex waste, and could lead to better treatment and disposal practices that will ultimately help keep our soil and water clean.
http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2017/08/28/new-study-reveals-gaps-in-the-methods-used-to-asses-chemicals-in-oilfield-wastewater/
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"Chemical Emergency" That Added To Area's Catastrophe Is Contained
Aug 28, 2017 | Chron
By Andrew Kragie and Jordan Blum
La Porte firefighters and a Harris County hazmat team have contained a chemical spill Monday after a pipeline ruptured on the northeast side of La Porte in the petrochemical district about 20 miles east of downtown Houston.
Around 4:30 p.m. Monday, residents of La Porte, Baytown and Shoreacres were warned to shelter in place - meaning they should stay inside, shut off air conditioning and close doors and windows.
La Porte police and the city of Shoreacres signaled shortly after 7 p.m. that the incident was resolved. No injuries were reported.
"We have given the all clear," La Porte Police Sgt. Bennie Boles said in a statement. "Roadways are opened."
"The chemical release has been contained," the city of Shoreacres said in a release from the Harris County emergency management office.
The chemical that leaked just north of the interchange between Texas 225 and Texas 146 was anhydrous hydrogen chloride, "which presents symptoms of eye, throat, and nasal irritation," according to a statement issued by the city of La Porte.
A federal safety guide identifies hydrogen chloride as a corrosive poison gas that "can cause serious or permanent injury." The guide describes the chemical as a "colorless gas with a sharp, pungent odor." The non-flammable substance is part of the manufacturing process for "rubber, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and in gasoline refining and metals processing."
Residents were ordered to shelter in place on La Porte's northeast side, in the area contained by Farrington Road on the west, North Avenue H on the south and Texas 146 on the east.
As a result, the city of Baytown said the Fred Hartman Bridge was closed over the Houston Ship Channel.
A hazmat team from the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office was on scene by 6:30 p.m., agency spokeswoman Rachel Moreno said. They worked with local firefighters and the pipeline company, as Harris County pollution control officials monitored air quality.
"Our team has cleared the scene and is headed home," Moreno said about 7:30 p.m.
La Porte residents had started posting on the city's Facebook page about 5 p.m. asking why sirens were going off and seeking information. The city did not post about the shelter-in-place order until after 5:30 p.m.
Amy Martin, a La Porte resident, said she received an automated text message, phone call and email from the city with instructions to shelter in place because of a "chemical emergency."
The outdoor sirens began to sound a few minutes later, Martin said. She added that she shut off her air conditioning, as instructed, and had yet to get the all-clear as of 6:20 p.m.
A local TV station reported that the spill came from a Valero pipeline, but a company spokeswoman said the incident did not involve the company's infrastructure.
"It's not our asset," Valero spokeswoman Lillian Riojas told the Chronicle in an email. "Hopefully the city of La Porte can identify the company."
The La Porte Police Department did not identify the owner but said that "the company responsible for the line and the cause of the leak is being investigated and will be determined at a later date."
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Chemical-leak-adds-to-catastrophe-in-Ship-Channel-12097384.php
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CSB Issues Safety Alert for Post-Harvey Plant Restarts
Aug 28, 2017 | Powder & Bulk Solids
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) issued a safety alert Monday for oil and chemical facilities impacted by Hurricane Harvey in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, suggesting that firms act with caution as they start up plants idled during the storm.
“We urge facilities to follow established procedures and checklists prior to restarting. This is a time for diligence, so that no lives are claimed by fires and explosions at refineries and ensure the production of essential transportation fuels and chemicals,” CSB Chairperson Vanessa Allen Sutherland stated in an agency press release.
Restarting oil and chemical facilities poses various safety threats as operations return to normal levels.
“Starting up a complex petrochemical process requires establishing stable flows, levels, temperatures, and pressures within large-scale equipment. Startup requires and receives a higher level of attention and care than normal processing, because numerous activities are occurring simultaneously and many automatic systems are run under manual control,” the CSB said.
The agency suggests checking process equipment prior to restarting, including an examination of large bulk storage tanks to uncover potential signs of floating displacement or drainage. Plant operators are urged to employ established safety procedures for restarting their facilities.
A comprehensive list of concerns for plant operators who are restarting their sites can be found here.
http://www.powderbulksolids.com/news/CSB-Issues-Safety-Alert-for-Post-Harvey-Plant-Restarts-08-28-2017
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(ACC Mentioned) Water Contamination a Concern After Hurricane Harvey
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By David Schultz, Nushin Huq and Sylvia Carignan
Water contamination is among the main environmental threats facing emergency responders in Hurricane Harvey's aftermath.
The Environmental Protection Agency is prioritizing search and rescue for those who were stranded by the storm, but federal and state environmental agencies in the Houston and Galveston areas may soon face contaminated drinking water and flooded wastewater plants.
The EPA is investigating reports of spills and developing a plan to test floodwater for contaminants, according to David Gray, the acting deputy administrator for the EPA's south central region. When floodwaters recede, he told Bloomberg BNA, project managers will assess each Superfund site in the hurricane-affected area for damage.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told Bloomberg BNA the agency would start removing debris once floodwaters recede.
Each response team—as well as companies operating in the affected area—is dealing with limited transportation options. “All of the ports in the area are shut down and no trucks or trains are moving in that area,” Scott Jensen, a spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council , told Bloomberg BNA.
Flooded Facilities
While coastal communities in Harvey's direct path were evacuated ahead of the hurricane, a number of Houston-area counties evacuated neighborhoods on Sunday and Monday as waters continued to rise in rivers, bayous and reservoirs. Some parts of the state have already received close to 40 inches of rain, according to National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
One of the primary environmental problems that officials in Texas will be working to avoid over the coming days is the widespread contamination of drinking water across flood-affected areas.
Utility-owned facilities that remove contaminants from drinking water may be unusable if they're inundated with floodwaters, according to Kevin Morley, a federal relations manager with the American Water Works Association who specializes in emergency preparedness. But even if these facilities aren't inundated, Morley told Bloomberg BNA, they may not have the power needed to run their pumps or an ability to get fuel for their generators.
This is especially a concern for small utilities that serve communities in sparsely populated rural areas because these utilities may not have the same level of redundancy in their backup power supplies as their big city counterparts.
Serious health problems can arise when a water utility loses power and its backup generators are damaged, according to Lara Zent, head of the Texas Rural Water Association.
“If their power goes out, all the pumps go out,” she told Bloomberg BNA. “The system is not functioning, it loses pressure, and you have potential contamination issues.”
Zent said her organization owns seven generators and already is getting calls from utilities in other parts of the state offering to donate their generators. She said TRWA staff were heading to areas east of Corpus Christi, but that, as of Aug. 28, still-rising flood waters are still preventing them from reaching areas outside of Houston.
Wastewater Backups
Alan Roberson, head of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, said Texas’ drinking water treatment facilities may fare relatively well because these types of facilities are usually built on higher ground.
That's not the case with wastewater treatment plants, Roberson said. They're typically built in the lowest-lying areas to take advantage of the gravitational flow of water.
Morley said wastewater plants are designed with a bypass that allows water to flow directly through them during big storms that overwhelm their capacity. However, this means that untreated raw sewage will be flowing directly into Texas’ waterways, which eventually deposit into the Gulf of Mexico.
Federal water pollution laws require states to limit the amount of pollution, such as wastewater, that their treatment plants discharge.
Gray said it's too soon to discuss whether Texas will receive waivers on complying with these pollution statutes.
Utilities Helping Utilities
The scenario is not totally bleak for water utilities in flood-affected areas. Morley said Texas water officials will be able to rely on help from utilities in neighboring areas thanks to a program called the Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network, or WARN.
Through this program, water utilities across a state enter into agreements that allow them to share resources in the event of a disaster and then work out the financial arrangements later. It was created after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in California and then expanded to nearly every state after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
As a result of WARN agreements, utilities from across Texas can send staff and equipment into Houston without having to worry whether or how they'll be made financially whole, Morley said. He said utilities in San Antonio have already sent people to help out, even before the flood waters in Houston crested.
Additionally, EPA officials have been sent to Texas at the request of the state and are helping out in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's drinking water phone bank, according to EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman.
Bowman also said the EPA is preparing to send technical assistance teams to Texas to help inspect water treatment facilities to determine their functionality.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119691755&vname=dennotallissues&wsn=499834000&searchid=30417910&doctypeid=1&type=date&mode=doc&split=0&scm=DELNWB&pg=0
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Corporate America May Be Best Hope to Re-Engage Trump on Climate
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
You'd think U.S. companies would be ready to throw in the towel after they failed to sway President Donald Trump to stay in the landmark Paris climate pact.
But companies that favor U.S. engagement on climate are exploring ways to push the White House to re-think its approach to climate change and clean energy. They include bolstering formal business alliances; working with California and other states whose governors seek to engage business on the issue; and trying to reframe the climate discussion by using terms such as “more resilient infrastructure” in place of “adaptation.”
Corporate voices are considered the last, and perhaps only, hope of getting Trump to focus on climate impacts at home and get him back to negotiations in climate talks abroad after his announcement June 1 that he is pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement.
Dozens of Fortune 500 companies want to ensure they aren't left outside the room in future talks that could impact whether their renewable energy and low-carbon technologies are able to compete with the more than 195 nations still in the pact.
Nothing in the work toward addressing climate “is as impressive as our business leaders saying we need America back at the table,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
‘Lead By Example’
Microsoft, which urged the Trump administration not to abandon the Paris agreement, seeks in the wake of Trump's decision “to lead by example,” Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, said in a statement to Bloomberg BNA.
The technology giant wants to invest in more renewable energy to power its global data center operations and expand its use of an internal carbon fee, which it began in 2012 to make its data centers, offices, manufacturing, and other business units accountable for their contributions to the company's overall carbon footprint.
BP, which along with others in the energy sector such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Shell backed the Paris climate pact, sees climate change as “an important long-term challenge justifying global action” in the wake of Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris deal, and it continues to back an economywide price on carbon, BP America said in a statement to Bloomberg BNA.
The company said it will continue to back increased production of natural gas, which is less carbon-intensive than oil or coal, and support more innovation in carbon-mitigation technologies.
Other large companies are part of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions’ Business Environmental Leadership Council, a group of mostly Fortune 500 companies launched in 1998 to back mandatory climate policies. Earlier this month, the group's members—which include Bank of America, Duke Energy, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy—were joined by Amazon, which the council said was the leading U.S. corporate purchaser of renewable energy last year.
“It has never been more important to bring business leaders together with policymakers to explore pragmatic steps toward a clean energy future,” Bob Perciasepe, the center's president, said in a statement.
Beyond those corporate efforts, a total of 14 states including California, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington also have launched the U.S. Climate Alliance, pledging to fill the gap from the federal retreat on climate.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has announced plans to host a September 2018 international climate summit in San Francisco in which he envisions entrepreneurs, world leaders and others exploring solutions. And the nonprofit Climate Group will host Climate Week NYC in New York Sept. 18 to 24 featuring business leaders and others to advocate for climate action to coincide with the annual UN General Assembly.
Reframing the Discussion
Some say reframing the discussion could help in pushing policies that ensure roads, bridges, and other projects are better able to weather sea level rise, more flooding and higher temperatures.
“The data shows that as we get temperature increases, we get more cracking potholes, increased flooding, and you end up with more infrastructure loss,” Lisa Grice, global director of sustainability services at the Ramboll Environ, an environmental consulting firm, told Bloomberg BNA.
The Trump administration is more likely over time to be receptive to ideas that benefit the clean energy industry or bolster reliability of the power grid if framed not so much as climate-friendly projects but rather “wins for driving jobs or providing other economic value,” according to Grice, who worked during the Bush administration to launch the Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program, which recognized voluntary corporate action on climate.
“You need to think of these as climate change tactics,” she said, such as completing infrastructure projects that the administration can tout as simply making good on Trump's pledge for improved roads and bridges. They may include what Grice calls improved “asphalt road resiliency” that—without directly mentioning climate change—will shore up defenses against climate impacts.
Some of that change in terminology may appear subtle at first but is likely necessary, according to Grice, who said a preference for the more neutral-sounding term of “resiliency” over climate adaptation is already underway.
“We have a challenge not just from extreme storm events but also a combination of typical storm events with modest sea level rise, which also creates all kinds of property loss and impacts and elevates the cost of climate adaptation,” Grice said. “Finding a way to frame the federal government as a hero or savior would really appeal to this administration” if it could point to progress in shoring up communities from those threats, even as it will likely do so without even mentioning climate, she said.
“Now, the more individual companies can help frame anything that the federal government is doing around, say, energy efficiency, renewable energy, or climate resilience as a win for driving jobs or other economic value will incentivize this administration to do more,” she said.
No Letting Up
The Trump administration so far has shown no signs of letting up on its campaign against climate policies, from ending overseas climate aid to rolling back Obama administration rules cutting vehicle and power plant greenhouse gas emissions.
A coordinated business campaign to keep the U.S. in the Paris deal also didn't sway Trump. About 1,000 companies and investors urged the president to stay, including U.S. industry leaders in technology, energy, health, and manufacturing such as Apple, Google, Facebook, HP, Intel Corp., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Johnson Controls and Mars Inc.
More recently, climate-friendly corporate voices may also have to overcome what appears to be a growing schism between some corporate leaders and Trump over his response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month. Trump disbanded two advisory groups made up of CEOs—the Strategy & Policy Forum and the Manufacturing Council—but only after corporate chiefs began resigning.
Also scrapped: an Advisory Council on Infrastructure, which Trump only created in mid-July to advise him on his $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Among the projects the infrastructure panel was to make recommendations on were two that could impact the U.S. carbon footprint: renewable energy generation and electricity transmission.
The Trump administration argues that it isn't losing a seat at the table in international climate talks even as it walks away from the Paris deal because it can continue in negotiations under the parent treaty to the Paris deal, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Even with Trump's announcement, the U.S. cannot technically withdraw from the Paris pact for four years, a span that gives U.S. companies and other supporters years to push Trump to reconsider his withdrawal.
Still Prodding Trump to Tweak Pledge
Some continue to argue that Trump can address much of his concern by taking advantage of flexibility in the Paris accord that allows nations to adjust their pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions. That would allow Trump to pare back the U.S. pledge Obama made to the Paris deal, which is to cut emissions up to 28 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels.
“Rather than withdrawing from the agreement, a process that will take several years to accomplish, the U.S. is free to adjust its commitment if the [Trump] Administration feels the original commitment is inappropriate,” Stephen Harper, Intel Corp.'s global director of environment and energy policy, said in a statement to Bloomberg BNA.
“The Paris process will also provide a forum for countries to strike additional bi- and multilateral deals on technology transfer, particularly in the area of renewables and alternative energy,” Harper said.
“U.S. companies will lose business if we are not part of such deals,” he said, and the specter of a U.S. withdrawal from a deal signed by more than 190 parties could isolate it from world efforts to confront global warming and develop the renewable energy technologies those nations will need for such a global effort, he said.
Staying outside what is now a “virtually global effort to address climate change could make it vulnerable to border taxes and other trade retaliation by countries who are part of that effort,” Harper said, and such policies “would punish U.S. exports and our economy.”
‘Open to Re-Engaging’
Trump “is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers,” according to a State Department statement issued Aug. 4 as the U.S. notified the UN of its plans to withdraw.
One theme the Trump administration intends to bring to future climate change negotiations, according to the statement, is finding ways to help other countries “access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently.”Myron Ebell, energy and environment director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who favored withdrawal from the Paris accord, said he reads any hint of a renegotiation as little more than a token acknowledgment to those in the Trump camp who favor international engagement.
“The president has clearly said that the only deal the U.S. would be interested in doing would be one that would serve America's interests,” Ebell said. “As he has defined it, America's interest is to be the world's largest energy producer and to become one of the major coal, oil, and liquefied natural gas exporters in the world.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119691758&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119691758&jd=119691758
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EPA's Plan for Sulfur Dioxide Decisions Left in Place by Court
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Abby Smith
The EPA's December 2020 deadline to determine whether areas are meeting federal sulfur dioxide standards for air quality will remain unchanged after an Aug. 28 federal court decision.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a 2014 settlement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council that set a phased schedule for the agency to issue air quality designations as required by a 2010 sulfur dioxide standard (North Dakota v. Pruitt, 9th Cir., No. 15-15894, 8/28/17). Under that settlement, the EPA must meet a Dec. 31, 2020, deadline to create the designations—seven years later than the June 2013 deadline set by Clean Air Act requirements.A group of states led by North Dakota argued that the settlement between the EPA and the environmental groups imposed legal obligations on the states without their consent. Among other complaints, the group also argued that the deadline under the settlement “far exceeded” the three-year period allowed under the Clean Air Act to issue designations.
But the court said arguing that the consent decree—which only set a schedule for the EPA to complete its designations—imposed unfair obligations would be akin to launching a “backdoor challenge” against an agency rule.
“[T]he States cannot block the Consent Decree between the Sierra Club and the EPA simply because they disagree with its terms,” the court wrote in a split opinion. The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, the majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., an affiliate of Bloomberg BNA.
The EPA is on track to make several designations by the end of this year. In a notice last week, the EPA requested input on the pending designations, which the agency said will mark the third round of such decisions under the sulfur dioxide standards.
The EPA finalized the air standards in June 2010, setting a sulfur dioxide standard at 75 parts per billion. Under the standards, the agency must designate areas as either in “attainment,” “nonattainment,” or “unclassifiable.” Designations of “nonattainment” trigger pollution control requirements for states and other entities.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119691761&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119691761&jd=119691761
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California Cap-Trade Auction Sells Out at Record High Prices
Aug 29, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
California air regulators and oil/natural gas industry representatives are lauding the state's recent cap-and-trade auction, which sold out air emissions credits at historically high prices.
All of the more than 73.5 million emissions credits were sold for average settlement prices exceeding $14/metric ton, a record high since trading began in 2012.
The auction followed a vote by the California legislaturelast month to extend cap-and-trade through 2030.
Western States Petroleum Association President Catherine Reheis-Boyd said the results of the Aug. 17 auction "prove that reforming and extending the cap-trade program was the right thing to do; the passage of AB 398 has reinforced carbon market certainty, helping the industry compete in the world's most stringent regulatory environment."
The auction sold current vintage allowances (63.8 million) that fetched average prices of $14.75/metric ton, and future 2020 vintage allowances (9.7 million) that drew average prices of $14.55. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Canadian province of Quebec conducted the joint auction, and proceeds from the sale will not be reported until after an ongoing exchange process is completed to divided the proceeds into U.S. and Canadian dollars, a CARB spokespersons said.
Ninety-eight qualified bidders participated, including 22 on the Quebec portion of the sale. All of the major utilities, refiners and producers in California participated. The maximum current vintage price was $50.70/metric (C$64.41) and for 2020 vintage $18 (C$22.87). Minimum prices for the U.S. and Canada were in the $13 and C$17 ranges, respectively.
In July, California lawmakers in a bipartisan vote extended the much-debated multi-billion-dollar cap-and-trade program for another decade. The CHG carbon emissions trading system was set to expire in 2020 under its creation in a 2006 climate change law. State leaders supported the legislation's passage, but some environmental organizations said it still was not enough, and they alleged that the industry had too big a role in crafting the bill's final language.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111535-california-cap-trade-auction-sells-out-at-record-high-prices
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Harvey Damages Spur Congressional Debate On Climate, Flood Policies
Aug 28, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Lee Logan
Forcing the issue of climate change back into the spotlight, ongoing catastrophic flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey will likely complicate efforts in Congress to re-authorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is slated to expire next month, while also spurring calls for lawmakers to overturn President Donald Trump's recent revocation of tough federal flood standards.
Environmentalists and Democrats often frame such policies as a climate change adaptation issue, given that global warming is making hurricanes and other severe weather events more extreme. However, Republicans tend to shy away from discussing the climate-related factors of natural disasters and have even accused Democrats of politicizing the issue by raising climate concerns.
Besides the flood-related policies, Harvey could also add a new wrinkle to ongoing appropriations talks for fiscal year 2018, according to press reports, given the likely need to pass an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to pay for recovery efforts and the fact that federal relief could be complicated by any government shutdown.
NFIP's congressional authorization expires Sept. 30, so lawmakers already were faced with reauthorizing the program in the coming weeks even before Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in southeast Texas late Aug. 25.
In addition to wind-related damage from the initial impact, Harvey has since largely stalled over the Texas Gulf Coast, and it is projected to drop more than 4 feet of rain in Houston and surrounding areas before it passes. That all but assures that NFIP claims related to the storm will cause the program to exceed its $30.4 billion borrowing authority, according to an Aug. 28 statement from the conservative R Street Institute. The program currently has $24.9 billion in debts.
R Street -- which split off from the free-market Heartland Institute several years ago due to its stance that policymakers should address climate change risks -- says any NFIP reauthorization effort should “encourage development of the growing private market in flood insurance.”
In previous debates over the insurance program, some have pushed for gradually higher rates for property owners in flood-prone areas who are currently paying relatively low rates for coverage. Environmentalists backed this strategy as a way to discourage building in floodplains, while free-market groups supported it because it reduced the government's fiscal risks.
However, many aspects of a 2012 law intended to increase such rates -- and to update flood maps with new data based on climate-related sea level rise -- were scrapped after an outcry from affected property owners.
The Wall Street Journal reports that about a dozen senators are pushing legislation, led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), to increase homeowners' rates to be more in line with a property's flood risk, while creating incentives for private insurers to issue more policies.
Trump Flood Order
Aside from the thorny questions surrounding flood insurance, several observers also say that Harvey offers prime evidence for why Trump's recent revocation of strict Obama administration flood standards was midguided.
Trump's Aug. 15 order, which revoked the flood standards as part of a push to speed infrastructure deployment, faced a broad backlash because many said the move would ultimately force the government to spend more money to rebuild projects damaged in future storms.
The earlier standard -- which Trump's order now reverts to using -- requires projects to be built in areas with a 1 percent or less chance of flooding in a given year, or a 100-year flood.
Obama's order would have given developers three options: The first is to build projects in areas two to three feet above the 100-year standard, depending on whether the project is deemed critical. They could also build above areas with a 0.2 percent chance of flooding, or a 500-year event. Or they can use “data and methods informed by best-available, actionable climate science.”
R Street -- which opposed Trump's revocation of the stronger flood standard -- urges Congress in an emergency spending supplemental providing disaster relief for Harvey to “include language overturning” Trump's decision to rescind the flood requirements.
The Obama-era standard “served to protect both taxpayers and the environment by ensuring that flood risks are taken into account when building federal infrastructure and other federally funded projects in recognized flood zones,” says R Street's R.J. Lehmann in the statement. “Hurricane Harvey is another reminder of why that process is essential.”
Officials with R Street, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Taxpayers for Common Sense had previously co-authored an op-ed in the Washington Examiner criticizing Trump's decision, arguing that “federal agencies are once again free to spend taxpayer dollars on projects at significant risk of flooding. In the aftermath of future floods, the federal government will continue to pay billions to rebuild these projects in the same vulnerable place and in the same vulnerable ways.”
Although he criticized Trump's recent order, Lehmann in an earlier blog post said that Obama's decision to frame the flood standards as a climate adaptation policy was “the wrong messaging” for Republicans and “may have contributed to a very unfortunate policy decision.”
Budget Impacts
Also, Capitol Hill sources tell the Washington Post that any emergency supplemental faces complications due to some Republicans' prior demands for disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy to be offset with spending cuts.
The Post reports that minority Democrats will challenge Republicans to approve such aid without corresponding cuts, and that the dynamic might increase pressure on Congress to pass FY18 spending bills to avoid a government shutdown that likely would hamper federal disaster relief agencies.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/harvey-damages-spur-congressional-debate-climate-flood-policies
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Tillerson Wants to Cut Special Envoys, Including for Climate Change
Aug 29, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Nick Wadhams
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Aug. 28 unveiled his plan to eliminate several special envoys, including for climate change and the Iran nuclear deal, in a sweeping proposal to put his stamp on the agency and meet President Donald Trump's demands for deep budget cuts.
In a letter to Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson detailed how the job of many envoys will be subsumed into other agencies, such as the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Each elimination is accompanied by the amount of money the change will save.
The moves will “advance U.S. national security interests, and will help to counter the influence of U.S. adversaries and competitors,” Tillerson said in the letter. Some jobs have “accomplished or outlived their original purpose” while others will exist but in a different structure, he said.
Tillerson's plan, parts of which will need congressional approval, reflects his belief that there were too many special envoy jobs—there are currently about 70—and their work often duplicated efforts done elsewhere in the department. He's also seeking to carry out demands that he cut the agency's budget by about a third.
Some of the reductions have widespread support and won't prove controversial. Among them is the representative for Northern Ireland issues, a position seen as increasingly unnecessary since the Good Friday agreement was implemented in 1998.
Others are likely to provoke criticism both within the department and the broader foreign-policy community, including the special envoy for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. That reflects President Donald Trump's rejection of the previous administration's ultimately unsuccessful bid to shut the prison, where the U.S. houses dozens of alleged terrorists, including the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Also among the jobs proposed to end is the special envoy for climate issues, following Trump's announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Its tasks will be folded into the Bureau of Oceans and International and Scientific Affairs.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=119691764&vname=dennotallissues&fn=119691764&jd=119691764
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