Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 5/9/17
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(ACC Mentioned) Harvey Helps PE Price Hike Take Hold
Sep 5, 2017 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
Supply concerns in the wake of Hurricane Harvey have sent North American prices for polyethylene resin up by an average of 3 cents per pound. -
(ACC Mentioned) Community News For The East Hartford Edition
Sep 5, 2017 | The Hartford Courant
East Hartford, in partnership with ShopRite, is rolling out a major new environmental sustainability initiative to dramatically increase recycling of plastic wraps and bags. -
2 Courts to Hear Lawsuits Over TSCA Rules
Sep 5, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
Two federal courts will decide the fate of a pair of rules issued by U.S. EPA under the nation's new chemicals law. -
EDF Sues EPA to Ensure New Toxics Law Protects Public's Right to Know
Sep 5, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
On Friday, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) filed a new lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit to preserve the public’s right to know about chemicals covered under the toxics law Congress overhauled just last year. -
Vegan Dr Martens Boots Recalled for Containing Benzidine
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
More than 30,000 pairs of Dr Martens vegan boots have been recalled in the US and Canada because of the presence of the chemical benzidine. -
Congressional Hearing to Focus on EPA IRIS Programme
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
An upcoming congressional hearing is to focus on "the scientific and operational integrity" of EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) programme. -
Exclusive: EPA Eyes Limits for Agricultural Chemical Linked to Crop Damage
Sep 5, 2017 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
The U.S. environmental agency is considering banning sprayings of the agricultural herbicide dicamba after a set deadline next year, according to state officials advising the agency on its response to crop damage linked to the weed killer. -
Canada Approves Substance for Use in Paints and Coatings
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The Canadian government has imposed ministerial conditions for the manufacture or import of the substance iron(1+), chloro[dimethyl 9,9-dihydroxy- 3-methyl-2,4-di(2-pyridinyl-κN)-7-[(2-pyridinyl-κN)methyl]- 3,7-diazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane-1,5-dicarboxylate-κN3, κN7]-, chloride (1:1). -
Finnish Investigation Finds Restricted Metals in Jewelery
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) has found high levels of the restricted metal, cadmium, in jewellery. -
Harvey and the Future of Energy
Sep 5, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump and Nathanial Gronewold
The flooding that overwhelmed much of this city last week didn't spare the energy industry. Instead, it provided an argument for a more electrified and decentralized future. -
Post-Harvey, Oil, NatGas Operators Slowly Drying off, Restarting
Sep 5, 2017 | Natural Gas Inteligence
The Texas Gulf Coast was drying out Tuesday, more than a week after Harvey pummeled the region and dumped record rainfall across the Greater Houston area, the nation’s largest energy complex. -
Plant Burns Chemicals but Stays Mum on Airborne Releases
Sep 5, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Mike Lee
The chemical company whose plant exploded and caught fire after it was flooded during Hurricane Harvey — and where more fires were deliberately lit this weekend — has declined to reveal what materials were released as the site burned. -
House Democrats Seek Pruitt Explanation for Agency Secrecy
Sep 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
As Congress returns from its recess, House Democrats are pressing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to explain recent reports describing newly opaque agency practices, including outsourcing of agency work to regulated industries, issuance of rules largely without input of agency staff, blocking of public access to information including senior staff schedules and closure of agency websites. -
Pruitt Press Aide Plays God with EPA’s State Grant Funding
Sep 5, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Alex Formuzis
A report today by Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post details the enormous power Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has handed to a former Florida political consultant, who is now in charge of blessing or denying grants to states.
Industry and Association News
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(ACC Mentioned) Harvey Helps PE Price Hike Take Hold
Sep 5, 2017 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
Supply concerns in the wake of Hurricane Harvey have sent North American prices for polyethylene resin up by an average of 3 cents per pound.
The Aug. 1 increase initially was thought to be unsuccessful, but took hold after the storm made landfall on the Texas coast on Aug. 25. Large amounts of resin and feedstock production remain down as a result.
The 3 cent hike for all grades of high, low and linear low density PE will be shown on next week's Plastics News resin pricing chart. The chart also will show a 0.5 cent increase on polypropylene and a 2.5 cent increase on PET bottle resin. Those hikes were in place for August before the storm hit.
As of Sept. 1, S&P Global Platts reported that 13 Texas ethylene units were down and that four others were operating at reduced rates. Consulting firm PetroChem Wire estimated that at peak storm impact, just over 60 percent of U.S. ethylene production was out of commission.
Chevron Phillips Chemical has declared force majeure sales limits at its three PE production sites in Texas. LyondellBasell Industries has done the same at four PE sites, and Formosa Plastics Corp. USA has taken the same action in Point Comfort.
Formosa also has declared force majeure for PP and PVC in Point Comfort. Oxy Vinyls has taken that step at two PVC sites, as has Ineos at two PP sites and Total Petrochemicals at its PP unit in La Porte.
Restart procedures have begun at several of these locations. Market sources have said resuming production will be challenged by the effects that flooding has had on infrastructure, including electricity, highways and railroads.
Prior to the August hike taking hold, regional PE prices had been flat for two straight months after rising 3 cents in May. Some regional PE makers now have announced price increase of 4 cents for September.
U.S./Canadian PE sales were mixed in the first seven months of 2017, according to the American Chemistry Council. Sales of HDPE in the region were down 3 percent in that period, as a domestic sales gain of almost 4 percent was wiped out by a drop of 26 percent in export sales.
LDPE sales in the region ticked up 2 percent in those seven months, with a domestic sales drop of 1 percent negated by an export sales gain of more than 11 percent. In LLDPE, regional sales grew almost 2 percent, as domestic growth of more than 4 percent was lowered by a 6 percent drop in export sales.
The 0.5 cent PP increase for August was the second consecutive hike by that amount. Prices for that material had been flat in June after sliding down 7.5 cents in May and 6 cents in April.
North American PP sales were not robust in the first seven months of 2017, increasing almost 1 percent vs. the same period in 2016. Domestic PP sales grew 2 percent in that period, while export sales slipped 27 percent.
The 2.5 cent PET increase for August followed a 1.5 cent hike in July. Both moves were the result of tighter supplies and slightly higher feedstock costs, according to market watchers contacted by Plastics News.
Prices for PET bottle resin now have increased for three straight months, including a 0.5 percent rise in June. Prior to that, prices had declined for three straight months, totaling 3.5 cents in decreases.
Some North American PVC makers now are seeking increases of 5 cents per pound for September, due largely to storm impact on supply of resin and raw materials.
Polystyrene maker Americas Styrenics is seeking a 3 cent per pound increase effective Sept. 1. Some production of benzene — which is used to make PS feedstock styrene monomer — have been affected by the storm.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170905/NEWS/170909968/harvey-helps-pe-price-hike-take-hold
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(ACC Mentioned) Community News For The East Hartford Edition
Sep 5, 2017 | The Hartford Courant
East Hartford, in partnership with ShopRite, is rolling out a major new environmental sustainability initiative to dramatically increase recycling of plastic wraps and bags.
The initiative seeks to educate East Hartford residents about the importance of recycling their plastic wraps, bags and other flexible film packaging at retail drop-off locations like ShopRite and other local grocery and retail stores, and not in curbside recycling bins.
The initiative is part of an ongoing statewide Wrap Recycling Action Program Campaign, an innovative public-private partnership that promotes recycling of flexible film packaging. Nationwide, more than 18,000 grocery and retail stores collect flexible film packaging for recycling—yet consumer awareness remains low.
Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc said many people may not be aware that they can't place these plastics in their blue recycling bins and the goal is to raise awareness and divert 100-percent of plastic film from curbside bins by 2020.
Residents in East Hartford and across the nation can recycle a wide variety of clean and dry flexible plastic wraps and bags. Visit the East Hartford WRAP website at www.easthartfordct.gov/wrap for more information.
Pictured placing the first recycling in the new bin, built by East Hartford DPW, are (left to right) Director Tim Bockus, DPW; Assistant Director Marilynn Cruz – Aponte, DPW; Carpenter Dan Foran, DPW; Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc; Jordan Coe, Waverly Markets LLC, ShopRite of East Hartford; Sarah Lindsay, American Chemistry Council; Wayne Pesce, Connecticut Food Association; Sherill Baldwin, DEEP; and State Rep. Jeff Currey, East Hartford.
http://www.courant.com/community/east-hartford/hc-eh-0907-easthartford-20170905-story.html
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2 Courts to Hear Lawsuits Over TSCA Rules
Sep 5, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
Two federal courts will decide the fate of a pair of rules issued by U.S. EPA under the nation's new chemicals law.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear litigation over the agency's rule guiding risk evaluations of chemicals, while the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear litigation over how the agency prioritizes chemicals for review.
A special judicial panel on multidistrict litigation randomly selected the 4th and 9th circuit courts on Friday.
Last year, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, a reform to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act.
It requires EPA to conduct risk assessments of chemicals without regard to cost and to protect vulnerable populations like children and pregnant women.
The Trump administration issued the rules at issue in June. One of them established the process and criteria for identifying high-priority chemicals for risk evaluations, while the other established the system for determining whether the chemicals present an unreasonable risk to health or the environment.
Separate coalitions of green groups last month filed lawsuits in three federal circuits — the 2nd, 4th and 9th — accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully weakening the rules (E&E News PM, Aug. 14).
EPA had asked for the multidistrict panel, which has the authority to determine the legal venue when lawsuits have been filed in two or more federal judicial districts, to step in and consolidate the cases.
The panel, though, rejected EPA's request that both rules be litigated in the same court "in the interest of justice and judicial efficiency."
The Environmental Defense Fund today filed a separate lawsuit challenging EPA's August rule updating the inventory of chemicals in use and when companies can claim confidential data.
EDF's lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit claims that EPA is unlawfully concealing information about chemicals that the public has a right to know.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/09/05/stories/1060059709
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EDF Sues EPA to Ensure New Toxics Law Protects Public's Right to Know
Sep 5, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
On Friday, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) filed a new lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit to preserve the public’s right to know about chemicals covered under the toxics law Congress overhauled just last year. The lawsuit seeks to hold the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to a key goal of the reforms to maximize transparency and knowledge about which chemicals are in use today.
“Among the critical goals of the new law is to shed more light on the chemicals found in our homes, schools and workplaces,” said Dr. Richard Denison, Lead Senior Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. “Unfortunately, EPA’s rule skirts that responsibility and will conceal information that the public has a right to know. Our lawsuit seeks to force EPA to follow the law and enhance public access to that important information.”
A glaring failure with the implementation of the original 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was how little the public could access information about the chemicals around us. That law required EPA to set up and maintain an inventory of chemicals in use. But in implementing the law, EPA provided no mechanism for removing chemicals no longer in use. That inventory has grown to some 85,000 chemicals, many of which are no longer manufactured, imported, or processed in the United States.
Moreover, EPA allowed companies to readily claim the identities of chemicals to be “Confidential Business Information” (CBI) with little scrutiny, thereby masking indefinitely the identities of more than 17,000 of these chemicals.
To address these problems, last year’s Lautenberg Act amending TSCA required EPA to “reset” the inventory. The law requires EPA both to identify which chemicals are in current use and to review chemical identity CBI claims to ensure that only claims that are still warranted are maintained. The law also establishes a significantly higher threshold for claiming CBI and sets a 10-year expiration for claims unless they are re-established.
EPA’s Inventory Notification Rule, published on August 11, 2017, deviated from the law’s requirements and falls short of the desired goal to improve transparency about chemicals in use, by failing to ensure that CBI claims are appropriately asserted and reviewed. The rule would allow companies to assert and maintain claims that do not meet the law’s requirements. As a result, EPA will be concealing information about chemicals in violation of the public’s right to know.
Congress required EPA to reset the Inventory for several important reasons, not the least of which is to better understand the landscape of chemicals in use as EPA begins its work under the new TSCA, including with respect to prioritization, risk evaluation and risk management. The Lautenberg Act expressly required that companies substantiate and EPA review all CBI claims for chemical identity, and it subjects those claims to an expiration date. These new requirements undo decades of prior practice at EPA of readily accepting and maintaining indefinitely CBI claims, often without evidence that the information warranted concealment from the public. Access to such information is crucial for researchers, journalists and public health advocates, as well as businesses who wish to better understand their own supply chains and consumers who wish to better understand the consequences of and exercise some control over their chemical exposures.
In August, EDF filed two other lawsuits over rules governing how EPA will prioritize and conduct evaluations of chemicals in commerce, rules that will affect hundreds of future decisions made by the TSCA program.
https://www.edf.org/media/edf-sues-epa-ensure-new-toxics-law-protects-publics-right-know
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Vegan Dr Martens Boots Recalled for Containing Benzidine
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
More than 30,000 pairs of Dr Martens vegan boots have been recalled in the US and Canada because of the presence of the chemical benzidine.
Benzidine is a compound used in synthetic dyes, but has not been sold in the US since the mid-1970s, due to concerns that it has the potential to transform into other, carcinogenic substances in the body.
Dr Martens voluntarily requested a recall of the unisex Vegan 1460 boots through the US Consumer Safety Product Commission website, after it discovered the traces as part of routine testing.
It states that "prolonged and direct contact with the boot tongue lining can expose the wearer to the chemical".
Only certain batches made in one factory have been affected, after the textile supplier mistakenly used a family of azo dyes that can, under certain conditions, break down into aromatic amines including benzidine.
Consumers have been told to immediately stop using the recalled boots and contact Dr Martens for a full refund or free replacement product.'Low risk of exposure'
Dr Martens vegan boots are made from non-leather, synthetic materials including polyurethane (PU).
The affected boots were manufactured in Vietnam and retailed at Dr Martens, Journeys and independent stores, as well as on websites including Amazon and Shoebuy, from January 2015 until July this year.
A Dr Martens spokesperson told Chemical Watch that traces of the chemical compound benzidine were detected in the fabric, used to line the tongue of some batches of boots and the chemical "may pose a health risk under certain conditions, specifically requiring prolonged and direct contact with the skin."
They added: "In this instance, the risk of exposure is very low, but as the chemical is a restricted substance we are taking the necessary steps to recall the impacted boots. The safety of our customers is our number one priority and as soon as we were made aware of this issue we took immediate action."
The company has begun a full investigation to understand how this happened.
In December 2014, the US EPA issued a final significant new use rule under TSCA for nine benzidine-based dyes.
This requires manufacturers (including importers) and processors, to notify the EPA at least 90 days before starting or resuming new uses of these chemicals in products, except for certain limited laboratory uses, so that the agency can evaluate its use.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58449/vegan-dr-martens-boots-recalled-for-containing-benzidine
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Congressional Hearing to Focus on EPA IRIS Programme
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
An upcoming congressional hearing is to focus on "the scientific and operational integrity" of EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) programme.
Lawmakers have long criticised the programme and requested that the agency clarify how it has responded to calls for reforming it. At a hearing in February, industry representatives contended that IRIS often overstates the actual risk posed by specific chemicals.
The 6 September hearing is being held jointly by the subcommittees on Environment and Oversight of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Witnesses are to include Thomas Burke, an environmental health professor at Johns Hopkins University, and two representatives of environmental consulting firms: Kenneth Mundt, principal at Ramboll Environ, and James Bus, senior managing scientist at Exponent.
Meanwhile, lead Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have written to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt "raising significant concerns about the lack of transparency" at the agency.
The letter cites news reports that senior scientists have been cut out of decision making under the Trump administration and that the new management has even restricted employees’ ability to move about the agency’s headquarters.
"We are troubled by reports that the agency continues to operate with complete disregard for transparency, by discontinuing the long-standing practice of posting the calendars of agency leadership online, taking down agency websites, and halting certain data collections," the members wrote to Administrator Pruitt.
"Taken together, these actions suggest a troubling pattern of secrecy and distrust at EPA, which serves to undermine the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment."
The letter was signed by Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr (D–New Jersey), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D–Colorado) and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D–New York).
The Democrats demanded that Mr. Pruitt "confirm the accuracy of these allegations".
https://chemicalwatch.com/58452/congressional-hearing-to-focus-on-epa-iris-programme
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Exclusive: EPA Eyes Limits for Agricultural Chemical Linked to Crop Damage
Sep 5, 2017 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
The U.S. environmental agency is considering banning sprayings of the agricultural herbicide dicamba after a set deadline next year, according to state officials advising the agency on its response to crop damage linked to the weed killer.
Setting a cut-off date, possibly sometime in the first half of 2018, would aim to protect plants vulnerable to dicamba, after growers across the U.S. farm belt reported the chemical drifted from where it was sprayed this summer, damaging millions of acres of soybeans and other crops.
A ban could hurt sales by Monsanto Co and DuPont which sell dicamba weed killers and soybean seeds with Monsanto's dicamba-tolerant Xtend trait. BASF also sells a dicamba herbicide.
It is not yet known how damage attributed to the herbicides, used on Xtend soybeans and cotton, will affect yields of soybeans unable to withstand dicamba because the crops have not been harvested.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discussed a deadline for next year's sprayings on a call with state officials last month that addressed steps the agency could take to prevent a repeat of the damage, four participants on the call told Reuters.
It was the latest of at least three conference calls the EPA has held with state regulators and experts since late July dedicated to dicamba-related crop damage and the first to focus on how to respond to the problem, participants said.
A cut-off date for usage in spring or early summer could protect vulnerable plants by only allowing farmers to spray fields before soybeans emerge from the ground, according to weed and pesticide specialists.
Monsanto spokeswoman Christi Dixon told Reuters on Aug. 23, the day of the last EPA call, that the agency had not indicated it planned to prohibit sprayings of dicamba herbicides on soybeans that had emerged. That action "would not be warranted," she said.
The EPA had no immediate comment.
EPA officials on the last call made clear that it would be unacceptable to see the same extent of crop damage again next year, according to Andrew Thostenson, a pesticide specialist for North Dakota State University who participated in the call.
They said "there needed to be some significant changes for the use rules if we're going to maintain it in 2018," he said about dicamba usage.
State regulators and university specialists from Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and North Dakota are pressuring the EPA to decide soon on rules guiding usage because farmers will make planting decisions for next spring over the next several months.
Tighter usage limits could discourage cash-strapped growers from buying Monsanto's more expensive dicamba-resistant Xtend soybean seeds. Dicamba-tolerant soybeans cost about $64 a bag, compared with about $28 a bag for Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans and about $50 a bag for soybeans resistant to Bayer's Liberty herbicide.
Already, a task force in Arkansas has advised the state to bar dicamba sprayings after April 15 next year, which would prevent most farmers there from using dicamba on Xtend soybeans after they emerge.
Arkansas previously blocked sales of Monsanto's dicamba herbicide, XtendiMax with VaporGrip, in the state.
"If the EPA imposed a April 15 cut-off date for dicamba spraying, that would be catastrophic for Xtend - it invalidates the entire point of planting it," said Jonas Oxgaard, analyst for investment management firm Bernstein.
Monsanto has projected its Xtend crop system would return a $5 to $10 premium per acre over soybeans with glyphosate resistance alone, creating a $400-$800 million opportunity for the company once the seeds are planted on an expected 80 million acres in the United States, according to Oxgaard.
By 2019, Monsanto predicts U.S. farmers will plant Xtend soybeans on 55 million acres, or more than 60 percent of the total planted this year.
RISKY DRIFT
About 3.1 million acres of soybeans vulnerable to dicamba were hurt by sprayings this summer, accounting for 3.5 percent of U.S. plantings, according to the University of Missouri. (Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/2feVSxz)
Chemical companies have blamed the crop damage on farmers misusing the herbicides.
Specialists, though, say the weed killers are also risky because they have a tendency to vaporize and drift across fields, referred to as volatility. Summer can be a riskier time for sprayings, they said, because high temperatures can increase volatility.
Monsanto previously denied requests by university researchers to study its XtendiMax herbicide for volatility, as previously reported by Reuters. In the end, the EPA gave dicamba weed killers from Monsanto and BASF abridged two-year registrations, less than the five years experts say is more common.
To address the crop damage, the EPA has also asked state officials about enhanced training for dicamba users; tighter restrictions on when and how the herbicides can be sprayed; and the possibility of reclassifying the products so the general public could not buy them, according to participants on the call.
"Everything is an option," said Jason Norsworthy, a University of Arkansas professor who was on the call.
Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley said in a statement that the company was communicating with the EPA, which is "evaluating potential actions to facilitate enhanced training and compliance for 2018."
DuPont, too, is working with the EPA and state regulators on issues involving its dicamba herbicide, FeXapan, spokeswoman Laura Svec said.
Rival BASF "could see some label enhancements" to its dicamba herbicide, Engenia, if the EPA requires changes, spokeswoman Odessa Hines told Reuters. The company "will be as flexible as possible" so farmers can use the product, she said.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/09/05/business/05reuters-usa-pesticides-epa-exclusive.html?_r=0
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Canada Approves Substance for Use in Paints and Coatings
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The Canadian government has imposed ministerial conditions for the manufacture or import of the substance iron(1+), chloro[dimethyl 9,9-dihydroxy- 3-methyl-2,4-di(2-pyridinyl-κN)-7-[(2-pyridinyl-κN)methyl]- 3,7-diazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane-1,5-dicarboxylate-κN3, κN7]-, chloride (1:1).
Under these, the chemical can be used to manufacture paints or coatings that are "intended to be applied and cured in an industrial facility".
It can be used in other paints and coatings if they are:
· intended for adult use;
· the concentration of the substance is no more than 100 parts per million; and
· they are manufactured with a waterborne or an alcohol-based solvent system.
The environment minister has to be notified at least 120 days before the manufacture of the substance in Canada.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58473/canada-approves-substance-for-use-in-paints-and-coatings
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Finnish Investigation Finds Restricted Metals in Jewelery
Sep 5, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) has found high levels of the restricted metal, cadmium, in jewellery.
The agency investigated 91 pieces of metal jewellery and found that in five products it was present at levels from 42% to 90% – far exceeding the permissible EU limit of 0.01%. Cadmium has carcinogenic and mutagenic properties and is very toxic to aquatic organisms.
The study also found nine products contained solubilised nickel above what is allowed. Nickel is suspected of causing cancer, respiratory and skin sensitisation.
Following the tests, Tukes ordered the withdrawal from the market of jewellery that contained high levels of the metals. No lead was found in any of the products tested.
The agency says that higher levels of restricted metals are increasingly being found in jewellery. In 2015, out of 30 pieces examined, only one contained a large amount of cadmium.
There has been increasing international activity on the monitoring of metals in jewellery. Earlier this year, Sweden carried out a similar test and found that nearly a third of the marketed items tested contained levels of lead and cadmium above permitted levels.
Echa has recently called for evidence to identify information necessary to review the current restriction on lead in jewellery.
In North America, at the end of last year Health Canada proposed amendments to the children's jewellery regulations that would implement restrictions on cadmium and lead.
And in the US in 2016, the US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) said toys containing lead are stillbeing sold.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58468/finnish-investigation-finds-restricted-metals-in-jewellery
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Harvey and the Future of Energy
Sep 5, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump and Nathanial Gronewold
The flooding that overwhelmed much of this city last week didn't spare the energy industry. Instead, it provided an argument for a more electrified and decentralized future.
The famed oil refineries in and around Houston shut down, halting gasoline production and pouring pollutants into the air.
The main electric utility here drew praise for keeping power on for scores of customers but had to tackle hundreds of thousands of outages.
Down the Texas coast, high winds caused extensive damage to the power grid. Some areas of the state saw water slow the process of restoring power.
Ultimately, Hurricane Harvey and its remnants cemented both the vulnerability of Texas' energy infrastructure and the crucial role electricity plays in keeping the economy and everyday life running. Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast now face countless questions.
What could and should be done to lessen the impact of the next big one? Was this a once-in-a-lifetime flooding event or evidence of a new normal? Will the disaster quicken the U.S. shift toward low-carbon electricity, distributed power and less reliance on fossil fuels?
"We need to keep moving the economy as quickly as we can away from these fossil fuel products and towards wind and solar and electrified vehicles," said Daniel Cohan, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University. "In doing so, that reduces our need for the fossil fuel products, and it's what we need to slow down the global warming that's intensifying these storms."
Such a transition will take decades, so Cohan laid out two other central suggestions. One is striving for some kind of protection to keep catastrophic flooding from hampering a large chunk of the nation's refining and chemical capacity. That could help avert "an unfathomable environmental disaster and disaster to our country's energy economy," he said.
The other idea is having better management plans at facilities and more regulatory and financial incentives to help minimize emissions that have been apparent in Texas since Harvey (Greenwire, Aug. 30).
"It's the fuel that's vulnerable, right?" said Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, which tracks consumer and environmental issues. "And it's the fact that we have such a deep concentration of fuel production in this one area that's so intensely vulnerable."
But, in Shelley's view, the idea of investing billions of dollars to shore up the resiliency of the fossil fuel industry would be a misapplication of resources. He sees a need for more electrification.
To Cohan, expanded use of electricity could apply to transportation and home and water heating. Smart chargers and thermostats could help steer energy use toward times with the cheapest and cleanest power.
"You need to get more efficient first and foremost," Cohan said. "You need to green the grid. And then you need to electrify as much as possible."
Electricity offers the potential for customers to pair home solar with storage and perhaps have reserves when the grid is down. It remains to be seen how advances in batteries might be able to reduce worries that relying so much on electricity could actually increase vulnerability.
Meanwhile, the shift toward decarbonization and increased electrification continues, including in the transportation sector.
"The trend is really going to be shaped by the rate of the technology development and the rate of the economic viability of it," said Fred Beach with the University of Texas, Austin.Electric 'nervous system'
Beach, an assistant director for policy studies at UT's Energy Institute, was impressed by the electric resilience in Houston during Harvey, even if it reinforced the difference between a flooding event and one more centered on high winds that can knock over power lines. Harvey made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25.
When Hurricane Ike struck in 2008, CenterPoint Energy Inc. saw some 2.1 million customers — or homes and businesses — lose power as heavy winds hit Houston. It took about 18 days for the company, the main electric wires utility in the Houston metropolitan area, to consider its restoration complete for people who could take power.
This time around, workers from CenterPoint and other utilities turned lights back on at a steady pace (Greenwire, Aug. 29). The company said it has restored about 885,000 customers since Harvey began affecting its service territory. As of yesterday evening, more than 11,000 customers were without power in CenterPoint's region, though fluctuations continued. Some homes have been unable to take power due to damage.
"The restoration times, particularly in the Houston area, have been pretty remarkable particularly when you compare it against Ike," Ken Anderson, a member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, said during a meeting Thursday.
Many Houstonians stayed dry inside their homes last week and rode out the storm with air conditioning and lights and the internet. Meanwhile, an Arkema Inc. chemical plant northeast of Houston suffered explosions after it lost electricity and lacked needed refrigeration (Greenwire, Sept. 1).
"It's a pretty big dichotomy, isn't it?" Brandy Marty Marquez, another PUC member, said in a recent interview. She also reflected on electricity and modern life.
"It is truly the nervous system of our society, and without it, people are sometimes in mortal danger and certainly are at a loss with communication and all of those other things," she said.
Marquez said it will take time to examine the response to Harvey, but she thinks smart meters played an important role in getting the lights back on. She also praised utility workers.
"I just feel like everybody needs to go hug a lineman," Marquez said.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state's main grid operator, reported a stable power system despite the disruption and damaged transmission lines. Fortunately, power demand also was lower in the days after Harvey.
The South Texas Project, which has two nuclear units, was among the facilities that remained on during and after the storm. Beyond Nuclear issued a news release last week urging that STP be shut given worries about flooding risks, but the facility kept operating as about 250 people were sequestered at the site.
Wind installations in the state survived even if some had to cope with nearby infrastructure damage. "Texas wind power seems to have weathered the storm, and virtually all of the wind farms there are back online producing electricity," Peter Kelley, a vice president at the American Wind Energy Association, said in an email last week.
The total Texas and Louisiana outage count topped 300,000 at times after Harvey hit, according to the Edison Electric Institute. But snapshots don't capture the full total as customers came back online and others fell off.
AEP Texas said it may be days before it can restore power to some customers southwest of Houston. And Entergy Texas, which serves parts of East Texas, said Sunday that it might take 10 days to fully restore power to thousands of customers given damage to the system, if they can take electricity.
"Unlike distribution lines and poles, substations are much more complex parts of the power grid that includes electronics and computers to protect the electric system," Sallie Rainer, CEO of Entergy Texas, said in a statement.Oil's vulnerabilities
For Greater Houston's oil and natural gas, refining, and petrochemical industries, the question of vulnerability to severe storms is no longer an academic one. Harvey exposed new vulnerabilities that previously hadn't been fully considered.
By some estimates, Harvey knocked out 25 percent of the nation's crude oil refining capacity, shuttering refineries across the Texas coast. Some infrastructure has been offline for about a week, causing temporary spikes in pump prices.
Rough estimates suggested Harvey forced some 900,000 barrels of oil per day to stop production during the storm's multiday run. That figure included both the Gulf of Mexico and onshore with the Eagle Ford Shale. The latter was affected largely because producers lost avenues for refining and exporting crude.
S&P Global Platts also reported a big hit to petrochemical manufacturing, with Harvey forcing the closure of roughly 50 percent of U.S. ethylene production capacity.
With Houston cut off, fuel distributors on the East Coast could tap imported gasoline and diesel from Europe, even though that can push up prices. Meanwhile, refineries not hit by Harvey have ramped up output to fill the gap, particularly from the Midwest. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the nation had some 230 million barrels of gasoline alone in storage before Harvey hit.
"Given the scope of the capacity offline, the greatest disruption in U.S. refining history, given that scope it's almost surprising it wasn't worse, and I think a big reason is the gasoline stockpiles," said Rob Smith, a research director at IHS Markit.
But Basil Karampelas, managing director at BDO, said Hurricane Harvey also exposed a new aspect of storm vulnerability: the oil, natural gas and refining workforce.
According to one rough federal estimate, Harvey's floodwaters may have damaged or destroyed at least 100,000 homes. It was inevitable that many of those who lost property or were forced to evacuate were oil and gas workers.
"For many of the refiners and chemical companies a large percentage of their employees are going to be displaced from their homes for potentially months," Karampelas noted in an email. "This could have significant impacts on their ability to staff their facilities."
Paul Lux, also at BDO, sees Houston facing lingering problems from Harvey's aftermath in terms of workforce recruitment and retention.
"One of the biggest risks is the possibility that Harvey could trigger a mass exodus from Houston, similar to what we saw with Katrina," he said, referring to the hurricane that struck New Orleans in 2005. "That scenario could put a serious strain on the labor market essential to operations and production."
Still, Smith argued that many of the impacts were predicted, and that refineries were proactive in shutting in their operations ahead of the storm. He said the industry's ability to rebound from an event as momentous as Hurricane Harvey could surprise many.
Some petrochemical and refining capacity is expected to be back up and running as early as this week as companies appear determined to keep the disruptions as short as possible. Refining giant Valero Energy Corp. said yesterday that its Texas City and Corpus Christi plants have already returned to pre-storm conditions. Production also has been returning in the Gulf and the Eagle Ford, and partial reopenings are happening at ports along the Texas coast.The future
Regardless of how quickly the energy sector recovers, Harvey will be one for the record books.
Some eastern parts of the Houston region — where much of the oil, gas, refining and petrochemical activity is centered — recorded around 50 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Roofs of storage tanks literally caved in from the weight of the water.
Parts of Houston returned to normal over the Labor Day weekend, though some homes and businesses still lay underwater and certain roads had closures as waterways remained swollen.
Households throughout Houston were beginning the arduous process of cleaning up after the storm. Piles of ruined carpet, furniture and plasterboard formed on residential streets. Thousands of residents will be looking for new cars.
Jigar Shah, a clean energy advocate and co-founder of Generate Capital, tweeted Friday to automakers about the opportunity for electric vehicles, saying, "This would be a great time to bring all of your extra EV inventory to Houston on monthly rentals."
UT's Beach said he thinks plug-in hybrids may play an important role in a transition in the coming years because of the flexibility they provide compared with pure electric vehicles. They could combine the trend toward electrification with America's trust of cars that run on fossil fuels.
"I have zero range anxiety in my electric vehicle because there is an engine in there and there is a [gasoline] tank," Beach said. "So I don't have to worry if the battery goes dead."
Beach stressed the outlying nature of Harvey and said refineries will have to consider risks, and it's not clear the region can fully prepare for the sort of event it just experienced. This was essentially a rain event, not a storm surge event, for Houston-area refineries.
"I can almost guarantee that there are going to be people calling for those refineries to be built up to where they can withstand" such events, Beach said. "Does that mean we build higher dikes and walls and dams and stuff around the refineries? I don't know."
In an opinion piece, Eric Berger, editor of the popular Space City Weather site, said Houston faces an important question as it considers its future after major flooding.
"We risk Houston becoming a place shunned by new people and new businesses as not worth the trouble," he wrote in a piece published on the Houston Chronicle's website. "Heat and humidity, people can live with. But not this."
Public Citizen's Shelley said Houston needs to look at major questions around drainage and upgrades. He thinks the energy side of the equation can be addressed in part by reducing the petrochemical footprint that's focused here.
"Are we going to be immune to hurricanes when we're electrified? No," Shelley said. But that doesn't mean petrochemical problems can't be addressed, he said.
Rice's Cohan is hopeful that Harvey acts as a wake-up call to rebuild the city the right way. Looking to change could apply to Houston's approach to energy as well.
"The city in the long run will be better off if we move away from the boom-and-bust cycles of the oil and gas industry and we're on more diversified footing, with clean energy being a part of that," he said.
One past proposal, known as the Ike Dike, would try to protect the region from storm surge and could cost billions of dollars. To Cohan, it calls for too much in terms of a barrier, though he said a case could be made for more targeted protection for the Houston Ship Channel.
"No matter how quickly we move towards electric cars, it takes a long time to replace the existing fleet," he said, adding, "We're going to need refining capacity."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/09/05/stories/1060059609
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Post-Harvey, Oil, NatGas Operators Slowly Drying off, Restarting
Sep 5, 2017 | Natural Gas Inteligence
The Texas Gulf Coast was drying out Tuesday, more than a week after Harvey pummeled the region and dumped record rainfall across the Greater Houston area, the nation’s largest energy complex. The oil and natural gas industry was back to work after the Labor Day holiday, while experts were attempting to make sense of long-term impacts from the devastation.
“The resolve of Texas to rebuild and come back greater than ever remains unquestioned,” said Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts. However, the impact of Harvey on the energy complex will be felt “for a material amount of time to come.”
All things being equal, refining should continue to be the most affected subsector, as outages remain widespread and supply “will undoubtedly become tight in the weeks to come, and localized instances of gasoline shortages are likely.”
Meanwhile, midstreamers with Gulf Coast exposure continue to experience outages but “structural damage appears to be mild. Oil and gas output in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is already reviving, and recovery in the Eagle Ford Shale (where the situation is less clear-cut) is on deck as well...Eagle Ford activity disruptions should taper off in the weeks ahead.”GOM Nearly Normal
Activity in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was returning to normal by Sunday. Workers remained evacuated from only 14 production platforms, and personnel had returned to all five of the previously evacuated non-dynamically positioned rigs operating in the GOM, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
A total of 121,484 b/d (6.94%) of crude oil was shut in on Sunday, down from the peak 428,568 b/d reported Aug. 26. Also declining was shut-in natural gas, which reached 259 MMcf/d (8.05%) Sunday, compared with a peak of 835 MMcf/d Aug. 26. BSEE said its Sunday report would be the last related to Harvey's impact in the GOM.
“Needless to say, the GOM is a big place, and the vast majority of offshore production was unaffected,” said Raymond James analysts. “As powerful as Harvey was, even at the peak (Aug. 26) the shut-ins affected only one-quarter of total GOM oil output, 429,000 b/d, and a similar portion of gas output…
“Having been hardened and elevated (by an average of 20 additional feet) following Katrina, offshore production platforms appear to have suffered little to no structural damage.”
Motiva Enterprises, which operates the nation’s largest refinery in Port Arthur at 603,000 b/d, has not indicated when the complex may restart because of heavy flooding. However, ExxonMobil Corp., which operates the nation’s second largest refinery, said it was making progress to restart its 584,000 b/d Baytown complex, “which was spared significant damage from Harvey.
“Timing on a return to normal operations will depend largely on the availability and condition of transportation infrastructure. We are working with the Port of Houston to expedite vessels through the Houston Ship Channel, and we are coordinating with railroads to help facilitate necessary repairs.”
ExxonMobil’s Beaumont refinery remained shuttered because of flooding in the lower part of the complex, but chemical manufacturing facilities “are dry, and we are initiating startup activities at the polyethylene plant.”
Mont Belvieu Resuming Service
Enterprise Products Partners LP said the Mont Belvieu complex, the nation’s largest natural gas liquids (NGL) processing facility, has resumed commercial service, including ramping up its eight NGL fractionators, six propylene splitters, isomerization facility and octane enhancement unit.
“While NGL storage remains operational and brine containment has stabilized, the partnership continues to carefully monitor this situation. Enterprise has not curtailed NGL fractionation or storage services.” The two marine terminals on the Houston Ship Channel also have resumed commercial service to load ethane, liquefied petroleum gas and polymer grade propylene ships. Seaway’s marine terminals in Texas City and Freeport also have resumed service. The partnership’s Beaumont marine terminals are operational “but are not currently receiving ships since the port remains closed to traffic.”
Enterprise said its eight NGL processing plants and two fractionators in South Texas also have begun full operation and its natural gas, NGL and crude oil pipelines are in commercial service.
“While a final assessment of certain locations is still underway, the company has not incurred significant physical damage to facilities,” Enterprise said. “Operationally, the partnership continues to face challenges resulting from curtailments or allocations by some critical third-party service providers.”
Crestwood Equity Partners LP’s Tres Palacios Gas Storage facility on the Gulf Coast in Matagorda County also has resumed normal operations. The temporary shut-in should have no “meaningful impact” to operations, it said.
In Harvey’s wake, the Raymond James team reiterated its medium-term oil macro views as unchanged as global demand is outpacing supply. Modeling out Harvey’s impact on U.S. inventory trends, there may be a “blip” before a return to large undersupply in the oil markets.
The Corpus Christi-area plants bounced back quicker than expected and are in restart mode. Houston area refineries are working to restart in the coming days and weeks. Port Arthur/Beaumont “is the largest unknown,” because flooding was extensive. Midstream infrastructure damage also appears minimal, with pipeline restarts happening in parallel with refineries.
Eagle Ford A Question Mark
“As the effects of Hurricane Harvey settle in, a theme seems to have developed across midstream infrastructure -- long-lasting damage is minimal, but floodwaters will be a persistent logistical obstacle,” said analysts.
For the onshore, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas “presents more of a question mark. Unlike the Interior Department’s daily reports on GOM status, there is no aggregated real-time data for the Eagle Ford, and thus the production impact is more difficult to quantify.”
Few E&Ps reported any asset damage from Harvey, which suggests that most of the shut-ins announced were driven by Gulf Coast refinery outages, causing a reverse domino effect in the value chain.“Midstream assets, which carry E&P output to market, sustained minimal damage from the storm, but operators are now at the mercy of refinery restarts, thereby pigeonholing Eagle Ford production recovery,” said analysts. “Further, refinery outages have potentially widespread implications for other major producing areas, including the Permian Basin and Midcontinent region, as much of production in these plays is transported to the Gulf Coast hub given its proximity.”
Reduced fractionation and storage capacities at Mont Belvieu weakened domestic NGL consumption and multiple port closures halted international exports, exacerbating Harvey’s effect on E&P operations in the region.
“We expect the impact of gas/NGL issues to be more short-term relative to crude oil consumption issues, given the nature of the gas/NGL markets and infrastructure,” according to Raymond James.
Assuming midstream operations resume concurrently with refinery restarts, Eagle Ford oil production mostly should be back to normal in the next few weeks, although “it is hard to know for sure until more operational updates come to light,” analysts said.
The impact to most oilfield service operations following Harvey should be temporary.
Though the Eagle Ford has a significant number of rigs (81), the areas that experienced the most intense amounts of rainfall also have a smaller amount of rig activity as compared to the more western parts of the resource play. Thus, the areas that carry the heaviest impact likely only amount to 35-40 rigs in Southeast Texas and up to 30 rigs in Louisiana.
Completions activity may be harder hit, but that should be only temporary.
“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,” said analysts. “Nevertheless, this likely just slows the process rather than stopping it. We believe the temporary stoppage could delay 5-10% of U.S. pressure pumping demand for a week or more.”
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111630-post-harvey-oil-natgas-operators-slowly-drying-off-restarting
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Plant Burns Chemicals but Stays Mum on Airborne Releases
Sep 5, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Mike Lee
The chemical company whose plant exploded and caught fire after it was flooded during Hurricane Harvey — and where more fires were deliberately lit this weekend — has declined to reveal what materials were released as the site burned.
The Harris County fire marshal's office set fire to six containers of chemicals at Arkema Inc.'s plant in Crosby, Texas, over the weekend in what the company called a "controlled burn." Other containers had started to explode and catch fire Thursday, days after the plant lost power and flooded during the storm.
The fires were out yesterday morning, and local officials lifted an evacuation order that covered a 1.5-mile radius around the plant.
Arkema filed two emissions reports with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that described the fires, but said "an estimate of the contaminants released is not available at this time."
The company is allowed to withhold that information in its initial emissions report, which has to be filed within 24 hours of any unusual pollution release, said Andrew Keese, a spokesman for the TCEQ. Arkema will have two weeks to file a final report with a full description of the materials that were released.
But dozens of other companies filed similar initial reports that included detailed estimates of the emissions caused by flooding, lightning strikes and emergency shutdowns at plants along the Texas coast. Early estimates compiled by environmental groups show that millions of pounds of pollutants were released into the air (Greenwire, Aug. 30).
A spokesman at Arkema's headquarters in King of Prussia, Pa., didn't immediately respond to questions about the fire and the chemicals that were released.
Arkema's plant, about 25 miles east of Houston, became a flashpoint for the debate about chemical safety after it announced that it had no choice but to let chemicals at the site burn. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has opened an investigation into the company (Greenwire, Sept. 1).
The company, along with state regulators, declined to release an inventory of the plant's chemicals, citing the threat of terrorism. That information used to be publicly available, but Texas allowed companies and local governments to begin withholding details in 2014. Arkema later listed the names of chemicals at the plant on its website, but not the amounts (Greenwire, Sept. 1).
Arkema has also tried to downplay any potential danger posed by the smoke from the fire. Fifteen sheriff's deputies were treated at local hospitals after breathing the smoke Thursday.
The company produces organic peroxides, which are used to make plastics and other products. Some of those compounds have to be chilled to prevent them from catching fire.
Before the storm hit, Arkema brought in backup generators to maintain its refrigeration systems, but flooding at the site was deeper than the company expected. The water knocked out the regular power system and the backup generators, and damaged a liquid nitrogen system that also could have been used to stabilize the products.
At that point, Arkema's staff moved 500,000 pounds of peroxides to nine refrigerated trailers and moved them away from buildings and other stockpiles of chemicals at the site.
The plant is in a rural area dotted with small homes. Residents told local media outlets they were worried about horses and other livestock that they had to leave behind.
Arkema has set up a hotline for local residents who need assistance and has helped 100 families find housing since the evacuation, company officials said in a news conference yesterday.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/09/05/stories/1060059729
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House Democrats Seek Pruitt Explanation for Agency Secrecy
Sep 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
As Congress returns from its recess, House Democrats are pressing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to explain recent reports describing newly opaque agency practices, including outsourcing of agency work to regulated industries, issuance of rules largely without input of agency staff, blocking of public access to information including senior staff schedules and closure of agency websites.
“We write with significant concerns regarding the lack of transparency at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” senior Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote in an Aug. 30 letter to Pruitt.
The lawmakers are unlikely to receive a response to the their requests as the administration has determined in need not respond to minority oversight efforts.
The letter, signed by Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the committee's ranking Democrat, along with Diane DeGette (D-CO), the top Democrat on the oversight panel, and Paul Tonko (D-NY), who leads the environment panel, seeks a series of responses to two recent reports in the New York Times that detailed the alleged practices.
“According to these reports, EPA's own career staff and scientists with decades of experience in science and environmental law have been cut out of EPA's regulatory process to the detriment of unbiased scientific expertise,” the lawmakers write, stating that this development in tandem with removal by EPA of experts from EPA's Board of Scientific Counselors, “suggests a continued and extreme disregard for scientific integrity.”
The lawmakers also say they are troubled by indications in the reports that EPA continues to operate with “complete disregard for transparency,” by scuttling the long-standing practice of posting calendars for agency leadership online, by taking down agency websites, and halting some data collection.
“We request you confirm the accuracy of these reports,” the letter states, seeking a specific confirmation from the agency in five areas: that EPA is issuing its rules largely without the input of 15,000 career employees and relies mostly on advocates from regulated industries; that EPA employees require escorts to gain entrance into parts of EPA headquarters; that employees are told not to take notes in meetings with Pruitt and to leave cell phones behind; that EPA closed 1900 agency webpages and has halted data collection of oil and gas company emissions; and that EPA has ended its practice of making appointment calendars for the administrator and top EPA staff publicly available.
With respect to the alleged lack of involvement by career employees of agency decisions, the lawmakers write “please confirm the accuracy of these allegations and explain how agency processes ensure that the expertise of EPA career employees informs the agency's decisions, including key regulatory actions.”
Whether and how quickly the agency will respond to the query is unclear, with the letter coming amid major tensions between the Trump administration and Hill Democrats over what many claim is unprecedented unresponsiveness by EPA and other agencies to to Hill oversight requests.
But the letter also serves to highlight criticism from the agency's defenders -- including former agency officials -- that Pruitt is moving to dismantle the agency's role in ways that go beyond a typical shift in agency priorities from one presidential administration to another.
And the Democrats' queries also come with fiscal year 2018 spending legislation that funds EPA is still pending, amid indications that the Hurricane Harvey disaster could heighten attention to the agency's short-term storm response as well as its longer-term approach to pollution threats from current and future storms.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/house-democrats-seek-pruitt-explanation-agency-secrecy
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Pruitt Press Aide Plays God with EPA’s State Grant Funding
Sep 5, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Alex Formuzis
A report today by Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post details the enormous power Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has handed to a former Florida political consultant, who is now in charge of blessing or denying grants to states.
John Konkus, who was President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman in Leon County, Fla., is now a political and press aide to Pruitt in the EPA’s public affairs office. Konkus is “in charge of vetting the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the EPA distributes annually,” wrote Eilperin.
“Administrator Pruitt has given this former political operative a startling level of authority to play god with resources that could be used to clean up contaminated water in Flint or the chemical spill in Houston,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “That is an enormous amount of power for someone who has no apparent expertise in public health or environmental protection, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise: neither does Pruitt.”
On the same day that Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and two other Republicans voted against the party’s health care bill, EPA staffers stopped all grants to Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the Post reported. Soon after, the hold was narrowed to just Murkowski’s state and it stayed in effect for almost two weeks.
“Payback for defying President Trump could be delivered by Administrator Pruitt and Mr. Konkus, and the people who would suffer are the innocent local leaders struggling to protect their communities from pollution,” Cook added.
http://www.ewg.org/release/pruitt-press-aide-plays-god-epa-s-state-grant-funding#.Wa7aAj4jHIU
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