Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 31/8/17
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DuPont and Dow Merge, Triggering Cuts
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
Rival chemical developers DuPont and Dow Chemical Co. are formally merging today, likely triggering a round of corporate cuts. -
Many Companies Investing in Chemicals Management Software
Aug 31, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Nearly half of the companies responding to Chemical Watch and Chemical Risk Manager’s ongoing software survey are considering implementing chemicals management systems in the next 12 months. -
Procter & Gamble Raises the Bar on Fragrance Ingredient Transparency
Aug 31, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Alex Formuzis
Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest maker of both household cleaning and personal care products, announced Wednesday the most sweeping fragrance ingredient transparency initiative to date, said EWG President Ken Cook. -
Echa Round-Up
Aug 31, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Echa has updated the list of substances for which a lead registrant has been declared in REACH-IT. The list now includes 12,007 substances. -
Harvey Ripples Through U.S., Global Energy Markets
Aug 31, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Christopher M. Matthews and Alison Sider
Tropical Storm Harvey’s crippling of Gulf Coast refineries, ports and pipelines is being felt across the country and even globally, a result of a U.S. energy boom that has made the country and the world increasingly reliant on Texas. -
Harvey’s Toll on Energy Industry Shows a Texas Vulnerability
Aug 31, 2017 | The New York Times
By Clifford Kraus and Hiroko Tabuchi
For years, much of the nation’s refinery capacity and chemical production have been concentrated along the swamps and narrow inlets of the Gulf of Mexico, risking devastation in a monster storm. -
Harvey's Floods Could Delay 10% of U.S. Fracking: Analyst
Aug 31, 2017 | Bloomberg
By David Wethe
As much as 10 percent of U.S. fracking work could be delayed after Hurricane Harvey ripped through southeast Texas, home to one of the nation’s busiest oilfields, according to Raymond James & Associates. -
N.Y. Rejects Project, Cites Inadequate FERC Review
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Saqib Rahim
New York regulators denied a natural gas pipeline project yesterday on grounds that federal authorities failed to do a sufficient review of its greenhouse gas impacts. -
(ACC Mentioned) Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules
Aug 31, 2017 | International Business Times
By David Sirota, Alex Kotch, Jay Cassano, and Josh Keefe
The French company whose Houston-area chemical plant exploded twice on Thursday successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times. -
(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Blaze Fuels Criticism of Trump EPA, Congress
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar and Arianna Skibell
A burning chemical plant northeast of Houston today may reignite debates over federal and state efforts to limit public access to information about facilities that house potentially dangerous substances. -
Swamped Chemical Plant Explodes, Burns in Storm's Wake
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Mike Lee
Containers of chemicals began to explode and burn at a flood-stricken plant outside Houston today, highlighting the ongoing problems Hurricane Harvey has created for the area's industrial base. -
Court Won't Reinstate Obama-Era Safety Rule — for Now
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
A federal court yesterday refused to immediately reinstate Obama-era chemical safety regulations that the Trump administration has delayed for nearly two years. -
Harvey Has Morphed into a Multi-Pronged Environmental Disaster
Aug 31, 2017 | The New Republic
By Emily Atkin
At first, it was just another thing to worry about. Hurricane Harvey was headed straight toward the heart of America’s petrochemical industry, where dozens of refineries and chemical plants sit next to vulnerable communities. -
EPA Enforcement Pick Moves to Agency Ahead of Confirmation
Aug 31, 2017 | Politico Pro - Energy Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
Susan Bodine, President Donald Trump’s pick to run EPA’s enforcement office, will begin at the agency on Tuesday as an adviser to Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Industry and Association News
LCSA News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Environment News
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DuPont and Dow Merge, Triggering Cuts
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
Rival chemical developers DuPont and Dow Chemical Co. are formally merging today, likely triggering a round of corporate cuts.
The companies expect to see tax savings from the merger. They plan to eventually spin off into several smaller independent companies, but before that happens, DowDuPont plans $3 billion in cuts.
A group of scientists in Delaware, downsized from DuPont's Central Research Department, are ready. With a $275,000 grant in hand, they're working on a research and development business to bring back what former DuPont scientist Seetha Coleman-Kammula calls the "collaborative spirit" absent from modern corporate labs.
"This is a way for them to continue to do scientific research," said former DuPont lawyer James Dinnage, who is helping to develop the business. "You don't know what kind of business it will turn into" (Joseph DiStefano, Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 31). — NS
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/31/stories/1060059465
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Many Companies Investing in Chemicals Management Software
Aug 31, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Nearly half of the companies responding to Chemical Watch and Chemical Risk Manager’s ongoing software survey are considering implementing chemicals management systems in the next 12 months.
Nearly 450 companies have completed the questionnaire so far. Most are large chemical or manufacturing companies.
Those using IT solutions indicate that their systems are important or very important to the main categories examined in the survey. These are:
· operational risk - mitigate operational risk, using safety and risk assessment tools;
· environmental performance - measuring the environmental impact of chemicals throughout the supply chain;
· product stewardship - minimising the above; and
· process safety - monitoring and assessment of the manufacturing process to improve safety.
Regulatory compliance software that can manage data was rated as important or very important by most companies for their current chemicals management needs; compliance assurance received the least interest. The most valued functions of chemical safety assessment software were hazard and risk assessments; and consumer safety the least.
Interestingly 20% of companies responding do not integrate the systems with internal IT. Of those that do, 45% use in-house teams and 22% use consultants.
Cost and time-saving are rated the most important factors driving investment in software solutions; least important is corporate social responsibility.
The survey runs until 8 September and the full results will appear in the Chemicals Management Software Guide, scheduled for publication this October.
If you have not completed the survey yet, you can find it here. If you are a software or IT provider and would like to appear in the guide, contact our sales team on cw.support@chemicalwatch.com.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58428/many-companies-investing-in-chemicals-management-software
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Procter & Gamble Raises the Bar on Fragrance Ingredient Transparency
Aug 31, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Alex Formuzis
Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest maker of both household cleaning and personal care products, announced Wednesday the most sweeping fragrance ingredient transparency initiative to date, said EWG President Ken Cook.
By 2019, the Cincinnati-based company will begin online disclosure of fragrance ingredients – down to 0.01 percent of the product – for all its products and lines sold in the U.S. and Canada, according to the company’s news release. Procter & Gamble will first offer consumers details about the fragrance ingredients for Tide purclean laundry detergents, Herbal Essences shampoos, Febreze air fresheners and Olay skin care products.
“It is clear Procter & Gamble is listening to its customers and consumers overall, who have called for more transparency of ingredients in household products,” said Cook. “Because of the company’s sheer size and market share, P&G’s sweeping initiative could be the domino that triggers similar actions from the rest of the industry that has not yet embraced this level of transparency for fragrance ingredients.”
Cook noted that in its 25 years, EWG has been at the forefront of chemical ingredient disclosure in consumer goods, believing people have the right to know what is in the products they purchase and use on themselves and in their homes.
“We applaud P&G for its commitment and leadership in taking these significant steps towards giving the public more information about ingredients, and we predict other companies will soon follow suit,” Cook added.
In 2004, EWG launched its Skin Deep® online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products, the first-ever effort to give consumers easily accessible information about the potential hazards associated with chemicals in the products they use every day and point them to products with fewer ingredients of concern. Today, the searchable database rates more than 70,000 products.
EWG followed up in 2012 with the online Guide to Healthy Cleaning, scoring products on both the harms associated with ingredients and on transparency. Today, the database houses detailed information and safety ratings for more than 2,500 products.
In 2016, Skin Deep saw roughly 8.6 million visits and the cleaners guide had more than 1.5 million visits, demonstrating the importance consumers place on arming themselves with ingredient information for products before shopping.
http://www.ewg.org/release/procter-gamble-raises-bar-fragrance-ingredient-transparency#.WagzZj4jHIU
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Aug 31, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Lead registrants updatedEcha has updated the list of substances for which a lead registrant has been declared in REACH-IT. The list now includes 12,007 substances.
Cloud services tutorial
The agency is offering an online tutorial to help registrants make use of its Cloud services.
The tutorial explains how to access the Echa Cloud and subscribe to its Iuclid Cloud Services – a simpler way for smaller companies to build their REACH registration dossier, it says.
Echa is planning more online tutorials on the services.
Registration support from non-EU countries
The agency has added links to guidance material on REACH 2018 produced in three non-EU countries:Albania;Kosovo; and Montenegro.
The national authorities in each country are responsible for the material, with support from Echa. The agency says more links will be added when available.
UVCB substances form updated
Echa has updated its form, originally published in June, to help EU importers report or request relevant information on UVCB substances.
Substances of unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products or biological materials (UVCBs) are identified by, among other things, the description of the manufacturing process, the agency says.
With the update, Echa says it hopes to "target EU importers only and give clearer instructions on how to report the information in Iuclid".
Registration in a nutshell guidance now in 23 languages
Echa has published translated versions of its Guidance in a nutshell on registration (v3.0) in 23 languages. They can be accessed by changing the language on the agency's webpage.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58408/echa-round-up
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Harvey Ripples Through U.S., Global Energy Markets
Aug 31, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Christopher M. Matthews and Alison Sider
Tropical Storm Harvey’s crippling of Gulf Coast refineries, ports and pipelines is being felt across the country and even globally, a result of a U.S. energy boom that has made the country and the world increasingly reliant on Texas.
Harvey shut down a third Gulf Coast refining center Wednesday, and is knocking on the door of a fourth. More than a dozen refineries are affected—including the country’s two biggest, Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s Motiva facility in Port Arthur and Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Baytown facility—cumulatively representing more than 30% of U.S. refining capacity, according to IHS Markit.
More than 3 million barrels a day of refining capacity in Texas remained shut Wednesday morning, according to analysts, more than Brazil’s daily national consumption of petroleum products. Three shuttered refineries said on Wednesday they were either starting up or planning to start up again.
Port closures are compounding the refineries’ woes. Port Houston has warned shippers it is likely to be closed to large vessels at least through Saturday. U.S. Coast Guard officials say it could be weeks before large container ships and oil tankers can safely navigate the Houston Ship Channel leading into the port, the second busiest in the U.S. by tonnage, and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official said Tuesday that Houston’s port will likely be closed to large ships “for the foreseeable future.”
The flood’s fallout also broadened to include the risk of an explosion at an industrial chemical manufacturer, Arkema, 25 miles northeast of Houston. After evacuating the site Tuesday and urging residents within a mile-and-a-half radius of the plant to leave the area, the company said Wednesday that it has “no way to prevent” a potentially large explosion and fire, after flooding led to a refrigeration failure for material that could explode if not kept cold.
Harvey could do some $10 billion in damage to infrastructure in the Houston area, a significant portion of it tied to energy, according to Adam Kamins, an economist for Moody’s Analytics. Businesses, including energy companies, could also lose as much as $10 billion in economic output, he said.
The halting of refinery operations is leading gasoline and other fuel prices to rise sharply, especially in the Gulf Coast region, and as shortfalls ripple into the markets that get fuel from the Gulf, the impact is likely to radiate throughout the country. Shortages were projected to show up from Austin to Atlanta to Chicago, analysts said.
While some gas stations around Texas are already reporting shortages and some bouts of panic-buying, fuel prices rose across the country anywhere from 5 to 30 cents a gallon, depending on the city, according to several analysts.
Record flooding has also strained the pipelines, fuel racks and trucking routes that comprise the logistical network that gets fuel from refineries to corner filling stations. Colonial Pipeline Co. expects to shut down its 5,500 mile pipeline from Houston to New Jersey by Thursday, and fuel wholesaler Mansfield Oil Co. said supplies will likely be tight as far away as Maryland.
“Basically a third of the country more or less is going to be affected,” said Mark Anderle, director of supply and trading at TAC Energy, a fuel marketer.
The shutdowns in Texas could also impact global markets, because of the much bigger role the U.S. now plays.
For years, hurricanes in the Gulf have disrupted U.S. supplies of crude oil and refined products, frequently driving up the price of domestic gasoline and crude. But the shale revolution has transformed the U.S. into the world’s largest exporter of refined products.
“Harvey is demonstrating how much more important and different both the risks and resilience of the Gulf are to the global energy system in the age of shale,” said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
The U.S. Gulf Coast has become an international fuel factory, exporting gasoline to Mexico and Brazil and diesel to Europe. While other countries, such as the U.K., can ship tankers full of gasoline to the U.S., now other countries that used to count on U.S. refineries will be bidding those cargo prices higher.
When hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, the U.S. was the largest importer of gasoline and other refined products. It is now the world’s largest exporter of refined products. The U.S. is still a net importer of crude oil, but due to shale drilling, is expected to be the world’s largest exporter of light-sweet crude into the next decade, potentially equal to Libya and Nigeria combined on a good day, according to Ed Morse, Citigroup’s global head of commodities research.
As the U.S. begins exporting more liquefied natural gas in coming years, hurricanes could have an even more profound impact on global energy supplies, Mr. Morse said. A glut of natural gas unlocked by shale drilling created a previously nonexistent LNG export trade in the U.S. The U.S. could export more than 12 billion cubic feet of LNG a day by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration, up from 500 million cubic feet last year.
“The U.S. becoming a major supplier was supposed to reduce volatility,” Mr. Morse said. “It actually adds volatility to the market.”
Houston’s port is believed to have sustained little damage from the storm itself. But vessels need the all-clear from the U.S. Coast Guard to access the Houston Ship Channel, which provides entry to the port and nearby energy complexes.
That could be days or even weeks away, as the Coast Guard must sweep the channel for debris and verify it is deep enough to handle big ships. And even if the port is able to receive ships, flooded roads and railroads could prevent dockworkers, trucks and trains from unloading them.
The port’s closure is affecting a host of industries. Restaurants and retailers could lose a week or more of sales, with some national chains shuttering dozens of locations in the Houston area. Some may struggle to keep items in stock if they can’t bring in supplies through Houston’s port and many roads and railroads are underwater.
Houston’s port is one of the nation’s busiest for container cargo, such as auto parts and furniture. Corpus Christi’s port, which handles the majority of U.S. oil exports as well as other energy shipments, is also closed to most vessels.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvey-ripples-through-u-s-global-energy-markets-1504137861?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosgenerate&stream=politics
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Harvey’s Toll on Energy Industry Shows a Texas Vulnerability
Aug 31, 2017 | The New York Times
By Clifford Kraus and Hiroko Tabuchi
For years, much of the nation’s refinery capacity and chemical production have been concentrated along the swamps and narrow inlets of the Gulf of Mexico, risking devastation in a monster storm.
The pounding being endured by coastal Texas will probably be the biggest test of that risk so far, and energy experts say it raises questions about the area’s role as a hub for such crucial and environmentally sensitive industries.
“The hurricane did what terrorists could only dream of and take a third of U.S. refinery capacity off line for days on end,” said Michael E. Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. “Over the long term, the energy sector will have to consider the costs of additional hardening of the infrastructure on the Gulf Coast versus moving to a different location like the Eastern Seaboard.”
The Texas and Louisiana coasts took on their vital role because they link vast oil and gas resources, both inland and offshore, with Caribbean and Atlantic shipping channels. But the damage from Harvey, which arrived with hurricane force, has exposed a downside: vulnerability to storms that experts say are becoming more extreme because of climate change.
The damage, detailed in state and federal regulatory filings, is wide ranging: escaping gasoline from a submerged roof at a Phillips 66 storage tank; a sinking tank roof at Exxon Mobil’s vast refinery in Baytown, which resulted in the release of hazardous gases including volatile organic compounds and benzene, above permitted levels; and a lightning strike that disrupted operations and led to toxic-gas releases at a Dow Chemical plant in Freeport.
The full implications are potentially even larger. The environmental fallout could worsen, and if oil and natural gas prices spike because refineries and pipelines are crippled, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, along with electric cars, could get a major lift. The United States could be forced to import more gasoline and other refined products. And a chemical industry that has been expanding rapidly because of cheap natural gas from shale fields could be slowed, or even stalled.
Such a chain of events is for the moment pure speculation since it will take weeks to fully assess the storm damage. But the damage will undoubtedly be extensive.
Nearly every major Texas and Louisiana refinery has been partly or completely shut down because of damage or for safety reasons, suppressing the daily production of at least 2.6 million barrels of refined petroleum products. At least seven major refineries are out of commission, and Morningstar on Tuesday estimated that 11 more refineries, with a combined capacity to produce 1.3 million barrels per day, risked closing, including the Saudi Aramco-Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Tex., the nation’s largest.
The port of Houston is closed until at least the end of the week, a major hit to both energy imports and exports. The situation may be far worse in the port of Corpus Christi, which may be crippled for some time since a drill ship broke loose from some tugboats and ran aground in the narrow shipping channel near Port Aransas, perhaps the most threatened choke point on the entire coast. The giant shale oil fields of West Texas have not been affected by the weather, but several long-haul pipelines that take the crude from the Permian Basin to coastal refineries have shut down, and that could eventually force production companies to slow their operations.
“I don’t know if you will see a mass exodus from the Houston area,” said Harald Jordan, vice president for engineering at Peak Energy, an oil and gas exploration company based in Colorado. “From a strategic perspective, any company that is invested in a volatile region like that might want to rethink their concentration of critical assets and people there.”
But other parts of the country are much less supportive of the oil and gas industry, one of the primary reasons that refineries and natural-gas import and export facilities were concentrated in the region in the first place. Texans and others in the region have depended on the industry for their livelihoods for generations.
So far, oil and gas price increases have remained muted because so much oil and gasoline was in storage around the country when the storm hit and because most drivers along the coastal gulf areas are staying at home. The national average for regular gasoline on Tuesday was $2.38 a gallon, only 4 cents above a week ago, according to the AAA motor club. Texas prices were $2.19 a gallon, 6 cents above a week ago. A bigger problem for many drivers is the flooding of gasoline stations.
But prices are likely to shoot up in the coming weeks, many experts say, as the damage to refineries begins to be felt in reduced deliveries.
At the Baytown refinery, one of the biggest in the country, workers were racing to empty the tank with the damaged roof and repair the roof itself, Exxon Mobil said in its filing. Phillips 66 said it was drawing down gasoline levels to a minimum at its tank. And Dow said it was taking precautions at its Freeport chemical plant to minimize emissions after the lightning strike.
Separately, at least a dozen facilities were flaring or burning off excess gas that had nowhere to go, because production at the sites had stalled, or because other gas plants in the area had shut down. Flaring from the Baytown refinery, among many others, is emitting excess levels of nitrous oxides.
The damage underscores how the companies often held responsible for contributing to global warming could increasingly suffer from its effects. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 were a precursor, causing spills of 750,000 gallons of petroleum products from offshore platforms, rigs and pipelines, according to estimates by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Some critics have suggested the havoc also highlights what critics have called oil companies’ lack of transparency on their readiness to weather the effects of climate change.
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest refiner, said in a 2015 “corporate citizenship” report that it designs its structures with changes of weather in mind. “The company is aware of the risks posed by extreme weather events and recognizes the risks that climate change could potentially introduce for facilities exposed to changes in extreme weather events over the life of an investment,” the report said.
This week the company said in a statement that “our Baytown complex has completed the safe shutdown of the majority of its operations,” and that “Exxon Mobil’s primary focus continues to be the safety of our employees, contractors and the communities in the affected areas.”
But a 2015 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy group, identified the Baytown facility as one of the country’s refineries most vulnerable to flooding. Using storm-surge modeling, it showed that a Category 3 hurricane could inundate parts of the site and leave some structures under 15 feet of water. (Harvey made landfall with even greater force, as a Category 4 event.)
Exxon Mobil remains under criticism for not fully disclosing the climate risks of its assets around the world. “We know so little about what these companies are doing, or prepared to do,” said Gretchen T. Goldman, the research director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “History tells us something will spill.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/business/energy-environment/harvey-energy-industry-texas.html
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Harvey's Floods Could Delay 10% of U.S. Fracking: Analyst
Aug 31, 2017 | Bloomberg
By David Wethe
As much as 10 percent of U.S. fracking work could be delayed after Hurricane Harvey ripped through southeast Texas, home to one of the nation’s busiest oilfields, according to Raymond James & Associates.
More than half of the rigs running in the Eagle Ford Shale are estimated to have suspended drilling because of the storm, Marshall Adkins, an analyst at Raymond James, wrote Thursday in a note to clients. The muddy conditions left in Harvey’s wake will add stress to the fracking services sector that has consistently lagged the faster drilling crews.
Given its location in far southeastern Texas, the Eagle Ford was the only major American shale formation in the cross hairs of Harvey when it slammed ashore as a Category 4 hurricane last week. Major explorers including EOG Resources Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. halted drilling and evacuated crews in anticipation of the storm, crimping as much as 57 percent of daily production, according to the Texas Railroad Commission.
“Given that much of oil and gas activity occurs in areas only accessible via dirt roads, the heavy rainfall usually makes the movement of trucks and supplies much more difficult,” Adkins wrote. “The trucking and rail of sand, chemicals, and personnel to the well site will all take more time given the likely nasty condition of many Eagle Ford access roads.”
The Eagle Ford was the only shale basin of the big four to drop activity last week, as some in the industry start to look at shale as a more expensive option compared to other places.
The temporary drop in the rig count by as much as 45 rigs due to flooding could be a catalyst for higher oil prices, Adkins wrote.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/harvey-s-floods-could-delay-10-percent-of-u-s-fracking-analyst
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N.Y. Rejects Project, Cites Inadequate FERC Review
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Saqib Rahim
New York regulators denied a natural gas pipeline project yesterday on grounds that federal authorities failed to do a sufficient review of its greenhouse gas impacts.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) conditionally denied the Valley Lateral Project, citing a recent federal court ruling that said federal regulators have to take greenhouse gases into account when reviewing gas pipelines (Energywire, Aug. 23).
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission "failed to consider or quantify the indirect effects of downstream GHG emissions in its environmental review of the Project that will result from burning the natural gas that the project will transport to CPV Valley Energy Center," DEC said in a filing to FERC yesterday.
The denial sets up further litigation about a suddenly contested topic: whether state or federal authorities hold the trump card on interstate gas pipelines. A group of recent rulings in federal court have explored the nuances of cases where FERC has approved a pipeline but host states haven't.
The Valley Lateral was to run 8 miles from Millennium Pipeline Co.'s system to CPV Valley, a natural gas plant in upstate New York that is over 80 percent built. The facility can also run on oil if necessary.
The pipeline got FERC approval in November, but under federal law, it needed a water quality permit from New York in order to proceed with construction.
DEC yesterday said it concluded that FERC's environmental review was "inadequate and deficient" and that a federal appeals court ruling in August, Sierra Club v. FERC, signaled "a material change in applicable law" that permitted the state to deny the application.
Michelle Hook, a spokeswoman for Millennium Pipeline Co., said the company is considering its options.
"It does not appear to be a clear-cut decision and our lawyers are reviewing it to determine how to proceed," she said in a statement. "What is clear is that the NYSDEC did not deny our water quality certificate based on any environmental impacts we would have on water or wetlands. We have addressed every request they have made of us related to water crossings. According to a letter from DEC, the agency's issue is with the power plant's greenhouse gas emissions and not any direct environmental impact of our pipeline."
New York activists waged an intense opposition campaign over the last month, urging New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo not to "frack it up" by approving the pipeline and warning that it would smack of corruption if he did.
But some in the pipeline industry have fired back that the decades-old standard for approving pipelines is running into political opportunism. The industry is exploring whether FERC holds a trump card: a "waiver" that allows construction to proceed if a state takes too long to evaluate a water permit (Energywire, July 31).
FERC has never granted such a waiver for an interstate gas pipeline, according to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/31/stories/1060059525
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(ACC Mentioned) Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules
Aug 31, 2017 | International Business Times
By David Sirota, Alex Kotch, Jay Cassano, and Josh Keefe
The French company whose Houston-area chemical plant exploded twice on Thursday successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times. The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections.
The effort to stop the chemical plant safety rules was backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors.
Representatives from Arkema Americas and the American Chemistry Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In 2013, a West Texas chemical plant explosion killed 15 people, prompting the Obama administration to try to increase chemical plant safety standards (investigators later found the explosion was caused deliberately.) In an executive order that year, President Obama proposed an overhaul of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Management Program with the goal of increasing safety and transparency at chemical plants by strengthening existing regulations.The EPA said the enhanced rules would “seek to improve chemical process safety, assist local emergency authorities in planning for and responding to accidents, and improve public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated source.”
Arkema has six production plants in Texas and has received more than $8.7 million worth of taxpayer subsidies from the state. Arkema’s Crosby plant — which OSHA fined more than $90,000 for ten “serious” violations earlier this year and is now spewing black smoke over the Houston area — appears to be covered under the existing EPA rules because of the kinds of chemicals it uses. While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has given chemical companies legal cover to hide the locations of their EPA-regulated chemicals, the Associated Pressreports that the Arkema facility where the explosions occured house large amounts of toxic sulfur dioxide and flammable methylpropen, which required Arkema to submit a risk management plan to the agency -- and which would have subjected the company to the strengthened safety rules.
However, those rules — which would have taken effect on March 14 — were blocked by EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. The move was a big win for the chemical industry that has delivered more than $100 million to federal lawmakers since 2008. Among those who have received more than $100,000 from the industry are powerful Texas lawmakers including Sen. John Cornyn (R), Rep. Joe Barton (R), Rep. Pete Olson (R), Rep. Gene Green (D), Rep. Pete Sessions (R) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R).
“Will Likely Add Significant New Costs”
Documents reviewed by IBT show that Pruitt’s announcement followed a lobbying campaign by Arkema and its colleagues in the chemical industry.
In May of 2016, Arkema sent a letter to the EPA, criticizing the proposed rule. One part of the letter said the rule’s requirement of independent risk management audits “will likely add significant new costs and burdens to the corporate audit process.” The company also took issue with the rule’s “Safer Technology and Alternatives Analysis” (STAA) requirements.
Those provisions would have required that companies consider using “inherently safer technology” that would encourage companies to “Substitute less hazardous substances” and encourage firms to “Simplify covered processes in order to make accidental releases less likely or the impacts of such releases less severe.”
“The additional requirement for STAA would be burdensome because there is no consensus methodology, definitions or standards for STAA,” the company told the agency. “Knowledge of ‘inherently safer technologies’ can vary greatly depending on the process being examined and the knowledge and expertise of the team performing the analysis. As a result, implementation of STAA would likely be inconsistent across companies.”
Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Arkema specifically lobbied on the chemical safety rules. In the first quarter of 2017, as the Trump administration was reviewing the rule, federal records show the company was lobbying on “EPA chemical regulations, including Significant New Use Rules and the Significant New Alternatives Policy program and EPA Risk Management Program regulations.” The records show the company directly lobbied the EPA and the White House on the issue. In the second quarter, federal records show Arkema lobbying the EPA and the National Economic Council on “EPA risk management program regulations.”
Of Arkema’s six production plants in Texas, five, including the Crosby plant, are near the coast and in the Houston area, raising the prospect of additional explosions due to flooding. The town of Beaumont, where there is a taxpayer subsidized Arkema plant, has experienced severe flooding. Another plant is located in Houston, and two more, in nearby Pasadena, sit right on the Trinity Bay; one of these plants took in nearly $5 million in subsidies.
Arkema Push To Stop Rules Gets Boost From Its Lobbying Group & From Texas Republicans
In its letter to the EPA, Arkema noted that it is a member of the American Chemistry Council — a powerful lobbying group that has delivered $1.6 million of campaign donations to federal lawmakers since 2010. That Arkema-backed group helped spearhead the effort to block the EPA’s chemical plant safety rule. In January, the council was one of 21 groups that sent a letter to congressional leaders asserting that the new rule’s costs were not worth the alleged safety benefits.
“The lack of identifiable and quantifiable benefits stands in stark contrast to the clear costs associated with this rule,” said the letter. “Whether it be the requirement of third-party auditor participation that will reduce the pool of qualified auditors, changing well-established audit procedures already designed to maximize safety effectiveness, or imposing ineffective requirements to consider ‘inherently safer technology/design,’ the final rule includes a litany of costly changes that have not been shown to increase safety.”
The push to convince the Trump administration to block the chemical plant safety rules was bolstered by an American Chemistry Council-backedresolution introduced on February 1 by Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
Among the 65 co-sponsors of the measure to block the rules were 10 members of the Texas Congressional delegation, including five who represent Houston area districts: Brian Babin (TX-36), whose district encompasses Crosby, where the Arkema plant lies; Michael McCaul (R-10), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, whose district sits northwest of Houston; John Culberson (R-7), whose district covers part of Houston; Randy Weber (R-14), who represents a coastal district just outside of Houston; Blake Farenthold (R-27), a representative whose coastal district lies southwest of Houston. Other co-sponsors include Louie Gohmert (R-1), vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Lamar Smith (R-21), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology who has challenged climate science. Weber and Babin are also members of that committee.
The Texas lawmakers who sponsored Mullin’s bill to block the chemical plant safety regulations have received more than $652,000 from the chemical industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. That data shows the American Chemistry Council in specific has delivered more than $160,000 to the Texas congressional delegation since 2008, with top recipients including Gene Green ($20,288), Olson ($18,999), McCaul ($13,500), Barton ($16,500) and Sen. Ted Cruz ($15,000). Babin and Weber also each received$3,000 from Arkema. The National Center on Money In State Politics reports that the American Chemistry Council has given more to federal lawmakers in Texas than lawmakers in any other state.
The Texas lawmakers who sponsored Mullin’s bill to block the chemical plant safety regulations have raked in more than $652,000 from the chemical industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The American Chemistry Council in specific has delivered more than $160,000 to the Texas congressional delegation since 2008, with top recipients including Gene Green ($20,288), Olson ($18,999), McCaul ($13,500), Barton ($16,500) and Sen. Ted Cruz ($15,000). Babin and Weber also each received $3,000 from Arkema. Separate state campaign finance records reviewed by IBT show that Texas is the state that the company has spent the most money in, with the council giving more than $122,000 to Texas legislators.
In 2017, as the Mullin bill was moving through Congress, the American Chemistry Council directly lobbied the EPA — along with the U.S. House and Senate, the Department of the Interior, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Agriculture — on this resolution on behalf of Arkema and its many other corporate clients. In a May 2017 letter to the EPA, the American Chemistry Council advocated that the implementation of the safety rule be delayed for “at least eighteen months” — until February 19, 2019, arguing that the current rule would be too expensive for its members such as Arkema to implement.
“The Final Rule raises significant security concerns and compliance issues that will harm ACC members and others in the regulated community,” the trade association wrote to the EPA. “Certain provisions, such as the requirement to audit ‘each covered process’ in a facility’s compliance audit, impose costly and burdensome obligations on facilities.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/texas-republicans-helped-chemical-plant-exploded-lobby-against-safety-rules
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(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Blaze Fuels Criticism of Trump EPA, Congress
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar and Arianna Skibell
A burning chemical plant northeast of Houston today may reignite debates over federal and state efforts to limit public access to information about facilities that house potentially dangerous substances.
The Arkema Inc. organic peroxide manufacturing plant began to burn around 2 a.m. CDT after floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey knocked out cooling systems the facility relies on to keep highly reactive plastic feedstock from combusting (see related story).
One deputy who responded to the fire was "taken to hospital after inhaling fumes," the Harris County Sheriff's Office tweeted. He and 14 other first responders complaining of "respiratory irritation" have since been treated and released, the sheriff said.
But if U.S. EPA had implemented a final industrial facility safety rule, none of the officers would have been at risk, said Mathy Stanislaus, who led the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response during the Obama administration.
The rule would have made "sure that the local responders were fully aware of the particular chemical and the particular method to respond to an incident," he said.
It also would have strengthened efforts to head off accidents and done more to keep the public informed of potential risks at plants, said Stanislaus.
"This was a modest first step of addressing safety for first responders and localities," said Stanislaus, who helped draft the rule. He is currently a senior adviser at the World Economic Forum, a Swiss foundation promoting public-private partnerships.
Administrator Scott Pruitt prevented the safety rule from taking effect until 2019 to allow the agency time to reconsider industry objections.
Companies claim it would be costly and could allow sensitive information to fall into the wrong hands. Environmental groups and some states are fighting the delay in court (E&E News PM, July 24).
In a statement about the chemical plant explosion, Pruitt said, "EPA's focus is on the safety of those around the facility and we urge those in the area to follow the safety instructions of local authorities."
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned residents in a news release that "the smoke from the fire is especially acrid and irritating. Those with heart problems or respiratory conditions, such as asthma or emphysema, may be particularly sensitive."
The state agency is urging people to limit their exposure to the smoke but said there "is minimal risk of long-term health problems."Actions by Texas leaders
First responders and residents may also have been caught off-guard by the chemicals in part because Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), during his time as state attorney general, restricted access in 2014 to annual reports on facilities that house large quantities of potentially dangerous chemicals. He cited terrorism concerns.
Those so-called Tier II reports were once available upon request to any member of the public, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The nonprofit Center for Effective Government has argued that posting all risk-management plans and Tier II reports online would make it easier for first responders and the public to make sense of the information.
The American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry's top lobby group, said it didn't have a statement on the situation or the role safety regulations could have played in it, and urged E&E News to contact Arkema. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
CEG maintains its own website that hosts EPA's risk-management plans, but the agency does not have such a service of its own (Greenwire, April 16, 2015).Congress
Chemical safety advocates said the incident showed the shortcomings of the recently passed overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act and the dangers of EPA budget cuts.
The TSCA reauthorization bill was a compromise package, which had the support of chemical companies and some public health groups.
But James Goodwin, senior policy analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform, believes the final version may have left communities at risk in the aftermath of the plant explosion.
"At the time of its passage, many of us in the environmental community predicted that it was just a matter of time before the practical consequences of the weaker reform bill — particularly for the working-class families that live along the fence lines of chemical plants — would bear out," he said.
Other legislation that mandated quicker reviews of existing chemicals "would have offered us a better tool for obtaining this information," Goodwin added. "Now, and later during the massive cleanup effort, we're going to wish we knew a lot more about what hazards these chemicals pose so that we can address them properly and keep cleanup workers safe."
Sarah Vogel, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund's health program, said the explosion and fire at the Arkema plant demonstrates the need for strong EPA safeguards.
"If Congress goes along with the massive cuts to EPA that the Trump administration has proposed, they will be putting the health and safety of the American people at risk," she said.
"EPA plays an essential role in protecting our air and water and responding to emergencies like [Hurricane] Harvey," Vogel said. "We will desperately need a fully functioning agency to help rebuild a safe and resilient Houston."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/31/stories/1060059527
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Swamped Chemical Plant Explodes, Burns in Storm's Wake
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Mike Lee
Containers of chemicals began to explode and burn at a flood-stricken plant outside Houston today, highlighting the ongoing problems Hurricane Harvey has created for the area's industrial base.
Fifteen deputies were taken to a hospital as a precaution after breathing smoke from the fire, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. No other injuries were reported.
Arkema Inc.'s plant outside Crosby, Texas, about 25 miles east of Houston, manufactures organic peroxides, a class of chemicals used to produce plastics and vinyl. Some of the compounds have to be kept cool to keep them from burning.
The plant lost power Monday, and backup generators the company brought in were disabled when the plant flooded, Richard Rennard, president of Arkema's acrylic monomers division, said at a televised news conference. The plant also has a liquid nitrogen system that can cool the chemicals, but it was damaged in the flood, too.
Crews stored the chemicals in nine refrigerated containers and moved them to remote areas of Arkema's 120-acre site. One of the containers caught fire at about 2 a.m. Monday, with a sound that was described as either an explosion or the release of a pressure-relief valve.
Harris County officials had already evacuated residents from a 1.5-mile radius around the plant, and Rennard said the best course of action would be to let the other eight containers catch fire and burn themselves out.
Harvey, which came ashore as a hurricane, caused storm damage and flooding along a 300-mile stretch of the Texas coast that's home to about 25 percent of the nation's oil refineries and a large number of chemical companies that rely on the oil industry for feedstocks.
The plants have already reported releasing millions of pounds of toxic chemicals due to lightning strikes, storm damage and emergency shutdowns (Greenwire, Aug. 30).
TV footage showed a smoldering fire this morning in the remains of a trailer at Arkema's plant. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the smoke from the Arkema fire didn't pose a risk to surrounding residents.
However, Arkema posted a warning on a local community alert system telling surrounding residents that the smoke could contain unburned chemicals from the plant or "degraded" chemicals caused by combustion. It warned residents to stay inside and turn off their air conditioners if they smell smoke.
Even before the storm hit, local governments in Houston were growing more concerned about the dangers of the chemical industry after a string of accidents at plants and warehouses in the area (Greenwire, Sept. 22, 2016).
Because of Houston's lax zoning laws, chemicals are manufactured and stored in proximity to homes and schools all across the region. Arkema's plant in Crosby, for instance, is in a rural area dotted with small homes. Some of them appear to be less than 1,000 feet from the plant's boundaries, according to images on Google Maps.
A Houston Chronicle investigation in 2016 highlighted the need for more information about the amounts and types of products being used.
The newspaper also questioned whether state and federal regulations went far enough in protecting the public from certain types of chemicals, including reactive agents like the peroxides used in the Arkema plant.
It's possible to neutralize organic peroxides with other chemicals before they can explode, Sam Mannan, of Texas A&M University's Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, told the Chronicle in a story this morning.
"You'll lose the feedstock, but it's safer than letting it go into runaway mode," Mannan said.
It's unclear whether Arkema took those sorts of precautions. Asked about the use of neutralizing chemicals, Rennard, the company division president, said, "I can't comment on that, I don't know the chemistry you're describing."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/31/stories/1060059521
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Court Won't Reinstate Obama-Era Safety Rule — for Now
Aug 31, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
A federal court yesterday refused to immediately reinstate Obama-era chemical safety regulations that the Trump administration has delayed for nearly two years.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a two-page order rejecting a request by environmentalists and states to either stay or vacate the delay in the U.S. EPA standards.
In a twist coinciding with the court's order, however, flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Harvey set off explosions at a chemical plant in Crosby, Texas (see related story).
A three-judge panel of the court said in the order that the parties had not satisfied the "stringent requirements" for a stay and that the "merits of the parties' positions are not so clear" as to warrant vacating the Trump EPA's delay at this time.
Instead, the court said it would set an expedited briefing and oral argument schedule in the litigation. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee, is hearing the case with Judges Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins, both Obama appointees.
At issue is a regulation EPA published in January, shortly before the Obama administration left office, aimed at protecting emergency responders from chemical exposure, preventing accidents at plants and helping facility operators learn from accidents that do occur.
The rule was supposed to have gone into effect in March, but EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt stayed compliance for 90 days. The agency followed up in June by announcing a nearly two-year delay to Feb. 19, 2019, after holding a public comment period (E&E News PM, June 12).
Environmentalists sued over the delay, arguing that pushing back compliance by 20 months violated the Clean Air Act. Led by New York, attorneys general from 11 states later joined the litigation (E&E News PM, July 24).
They asked the D.C. Circuit to compel EPA to put the standards back in place while the litigation is ongoing, arguing that the delay should be vacated for the same reasons that a separate panel of the court threw out a delay in Obama-era methane standards for the oil and gas industry.
In that case, the court found that EPA lacked the authority to issue a stay because petitions for reconsideration raised issues that had been hashed out extensively during the Obama administration.
Texas is part of a coalition of states that have supported EPA's delay in the standards in court. The states say that the Obama administration took a "deeply flawed approach" and that the rule creates "greater risk" because it requires sensitive information about facilities to be publicly disclosed.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/31/stories/1060059495
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Harvey Has Morphed into a Multi-Pronged Environmental Disaster
Aug 31, 2017 | The New Republic
By Emily Atkin
At first, it was just another thing to worry about. Hurricane Harvey was headed straight toward the heart of America’s petrochemical industry, where dozens of refineries and chemical plants sit next to vulnerable communities. There were forecasts of biblical rainfall, which experts predicted could flood facilities and cause accidental toxic substance releases, or worse, explosions. If multiple plants shut down at once, there could be huge emissions of harmful air pollutants. And if too much rain fell on the region’s Superfund sites, they could overflow, threatening human health.
It’s been nearly a week since Harvey first made landfall in Texas, and all of these things have happened. In the most high-profile case, a flooded chemical plant east of Houston burst into blast smoke twice, leaking chemicals and sending 15 people to the hospital. Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long is calling the plume “incredibly dangerous,” noting that the organic peroxides at the facility pose threats to human health. Residents living in a 1.5-mile radius around the plant were ordered to evacuate.
But this is far from the only pollution event that has resulted from Harvey, and arguably not the most dangerous. More than one million pounds of toxic air pollutants have spewed into the region’s atmosphere due to mass refinery and chemical plant shutdowns, with more pollution events expected as the plants start to back up. Drinking water across southeast Texas is also “going to be contaminated,” infectious disease specialist Rick Watkins told the Guardian, because of the disruption of sewage systems, which will leak into floodwater. According to Newsweek, “drinking water has [already] come into contact with dirty floodwater.” Superfund sites, of which there are at least a dozen in Harris County, continue to threaten contamination of floodwater as well.
Other spills are happening too. Rainfall caused a 6.3-million-gallon gas tank to tip over and leak “an unspecified amount” of fuel at a Kinder Morgan facility in Pasadena. On Wednesday, the Sierra Club released a long list of issues reported at petrochemical facilities across the region. More are likely on the way.
These combined threats pose a truly unprecedented challenge for the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency that covers southeast Texas. “I can tell you, there was nothing even remotely like this during Sandy,” said Judith Enck, the former EPA Region 2 administrator who handled the environmental response to that historic 2012 storm. “We had some refineries in New Jersey that were impacted, but nothing like this.”
Fortunately, the regional EPA office covering Houston and the surrounding areas appears to recognize the magnitude of the challenge. On Wednesday, EPA’s Region 6 office activated the National Incident Management Team, said David Gray, the office’s acting deputy regional administrator. That team consists of on-scene disaster response coordinators from other regional EPA offices across the country to handle the multiple threats. And though President Donald Trump has not appointed a Region 6 administrator, the acting administrator, Sam Coleman, was in charge of EPA’s response to Hurricane Katrina. “Our team here in Region 6 has a lot of experience over the years in responding to emergencies,” Gray said in an email.
Specifically, Gray said EPA officials have inspected two Superfund sites near Corpus Christi and have visited two wastewater and drinking water systems that may be contaminated. (Gray did not specify which ones.) He said aerial assessment aircrafts are conducting reconnaissance over the impacted area. And he said the regional office is coordinating with FEMA and EPA’s D.C. headquarters. “Administrator [Scott] Pruitt is in regular contact with EPA staff across the agency who are part of this hurricane response effort,” Gray said.
It is far too early to assess the effectiveness of the EPA’s response—and too early to say what the human health effects will be. While the Arkema chemical plant situation was drawing significant attention from the media on Thursday, it is not the biggest threat to public health, according to Dan Cohan, an environmental engineering professor at Rice University who specializes in air quality management. That honor will likely go either to contaminated drinking water or to the air pollution coming from the many petrochemical facility shutdowns and startups.
“I think the shutdowns and startups and other exceptional event releases are likely more important (though less dramatic and visible),” Cohan said. “They’re likely to release far more pollution overall, and the startups coming during weather when the pollution could more easily impact air quality.” Mass shutdowns of petrochemical facilities have already released thousands of pounds of carcinogenic compounds into the atmosphere, but the wind and rain from the hurricane likely dissipated the emissions. Now, as the rain and winds clear, multiple petrochemical facilities will be starting up at the same time. Startups are huge emissions events, and many will likely be happening in unison.
The vast majority of these plants are located in the Houston area, posing a health risk to the millions of people who live there. Most at risk, however, are the communities that live directly next to the facilities—communities that are disproportionately low-income and minority. In a statement issued via the Sierra Club, local Houston environmental justice organizer Bryan Parras said the risk these communities face is “terrifying,” particularly because the state’s air quality monitors are down. “The only way we can really know what’s happening is when we see it or smell it,” he said.
The uncertainty that comes with this multi-pronged pollution risk will be a new feeling for many in Houston and the surrounding area, but not for Parras or the people who live in the city’s East End. “The environmental crimes against my community and thousands more like it have been happening for decades, and superstorms like Harvey only heighten the threats we face,” he said. Perhaps now that the threat has ballooned into a region-wide crisis, those in charge of preventing these disasters will start to pay attention.
https://newrepublic.com/article/144635/harvey-morphed-multi-pronged-environmental-disaster
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EPA Enforcement Pick Moves to Agency Ahead of Confirmation
Aug 31, 2017 | Politico Pro - Energy Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
Susan Bodine, President Donald Trump’s pick to run EPA’s enforcement office, will begin at the agency on Tuesday as an adviser to Administrator Scott Pruitt.
The Senate has yet to confirm Bodine to the post of assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance. But in a staff email released by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson writes that Bodine will serve as a “special counsel to the administrator on compliance.”
Jackson added that Lawrence Starfield, a career official, “remains the acting assistant administrator for enforcement and will work closely with Susan in her new role until the U.S. Senate confirms her."EPA did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bodine since 2015 has been chief counsel on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She previously was in private practice, and served as the Senate-confirmed head of what is now EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management under George W. Bush. Although Sen. Tom Carper, the top EPW Democrat, has praised Bodine personally, panel Democrats voted against her confirmation in July over a dispute with EPA about responding to letters from Democrats.
PEER blasted Bodine's hiring as an attempt to bypass Senate confirmation.
“Advice and consent of the Senate is not some formality or courtesy, it is a constitutional requirement,” said Executive Director Jeff Ruch.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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