Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 3/10/17
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(ACC Blog) Warning Labels Gone Wild: The Ongoing Problem With Prop 65
Oct 3, 2017 | American Chemical Matters
Last week, we wrote about a victory for American consumers after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a San Francisco ordinance requiring warning labels on soda advertisements. -
(ACC Mentioned) Trump’s Pick of EPA Safety Chief Argued Kids Are Less Sensitive to Toxins
Oct 3, 2017 | The Intercept
By Sharon Lerner
Michael Dourson, the toxicologist who will be the subject of a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for what many consider the second most powerful post at the Environmental Protection Agency, has been hired by industry to consult on at least 30 of the chemicals he may be responsible for reviewing if he assumes office. -
EPA Seeks to Keep TSCA Suits in 4th Circuit
Oct 3, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA is again seeking to keep the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit as the venue for litigation challenging its rules for evaluating existing chemicals under the recently-revised toxics law, arguing that moving the suits to the 9th Circuit as environmentalists are seeking would be costly as most of the lawyers involved are located nearby. -
An Industrial Chemical Poisoned Their Water, Now Upstate New Yorkers Want to Know What Replaced It
Oct 3, 2017 | In These Times
By Tracy Frisch
Industry and government officials say perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the toxic chemical blamed for contaminating drinking water supplies in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and several other area communities, is no longer used in manufacturing in the United States. -
Artificial Turf Study Calls for Health Surveillance of Users
Oct 3, 2017 | Chemical Watch
A study looking at artificial turf, made from recycled crumb rubber, suggests that inadequate monitoring could be jeopardising the health of sportspeople, children and those who work with the material. -
(ACC Mentioned) Expert: Shell Plant Part of 'Second Wave' of Ethane Crackers in US
Oct 3, 2017 | Pittsburgh Business Times
By Paul J. Gough
Shell Chemicals' $6 billion ethane cracker being built in Beaver County isn't just important to the tri-state region, it's also playing a big role in the U.S .petrochemical industry. -
Industry Warily Eyes DOE Directive on Coal, Nuclear
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Natural gas industry players are cautiously watching a potentially explosive directive issued Friday by the Energy Department that would boost payments to their competitors in the coal and nuclear power businesses. -
Appalachian Industry Sees Opportunity in Hurricane Harvey's Wake
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Hurricane Harvey could boost the chances for a proposed ethane storage hub in the Appalachian region, along with the area's nascent petrochemical industry, the project's backers say. -
API: Increased U.S. Natural Gas Exports Boost Jobs, Accelerate Economic Growth
Oct 3, 2017 | World Oil
By Michael Tadeo
API today released a new study showing that increased exports of clean and abundant U.S. natural gas (in the form of liquefied natural gas or LNG) could support between 220,000 and 452,000 additional American jobs and add up to $73 billion to the U.S. economy by 2040. -
Mexico Largest U.S. LNG Vessel Importer in July at 14.4 Bcf, EIA Says
Oct 3, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
For the second consecutive month, U.S. dry natural gas production increased year/year (y/y) in July to 2.28 Tcf, a 0.5% increase from July 2016, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports have more than doubled, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). -
Struggling Corpus Christi Plastics Plant Project May Close
Oct 3, 2017 | Fuel Fix
By Jordan Blum
M&G, a financially struggling plastics plant under construction in Corpus Christi, will shut down and eliminate jobs unless the Italian parent company receives an influx of funding and liquidity. -
Energy, Environment Key Issues in Virginia Governor's Race
Oct 3, 2017 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Alan Suderman
Energy and the environment will be front-line issues in this year’s battle for governor of Virginia, a state that stretches from Appalachian coal fields to the Chesapeake Bay -
Tests Find Toxins Miles From Arkema Plant Fire — Residents
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
Toxic chemicals were found in soil, water and ash samples miles removed from a chemical plant that exploded after flooding from Hurricane Harvey, according to almost 20 Houston residents. -
Texas Town Sues Phillips 66, ChevronPhillips for Negligence in Harvey’s Wake
Oct 3, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
More than 300 residents and businesses in Sweeny, a small town southeast of Houston whose livelihood is tied to the oil and gas industry, are suing Phillips 66 and ChevronPhillips Chemical Co LLC, claiming the petrochemical/refinery complex flooded the community without warning after Hurricane Harvey. -
Most Americans Want Climate Policies — That Don't Cost Much
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Adam Aton
Most Americans want their government to do more to address climate change — as long as it doesn't take a big toll on their pocketbooks, according to a new poll. -
EPA Misses Smog Rule Deadline
Oct 3, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) missed a legal deadline to start implementing its regulation limiting ozone pollution. -
Trump's EPA Chief's Schedule Heavily Favors Industry Contacts: Report
Oct 3, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Olivia Beavers
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt's schedule has a heavy emphasis on top executives from companies that his agency is tasked with regulating, The New York Times is reporting.
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(ACC Blog) Warning Labels Gone Wild: The Ongoing Problem With Prop 65
Oct 3, 2017 | American Chemical Matters
Last week, we wrote about a victory for American consumers after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a San Francisco ordinance requiring warning labels on soda advertisements. The court said the labels were “deceptive” and “misleading” and violated the First Amendment. This week, excessive California warning labels are back in the spotlight after the Los Angeles Times—the largest newspaper on the West Coast—published an editorial that points out how out of hand the situation has become.
At issue is a lawsuit brought under Proposition 65, which is the state law that was enacted in 1986 and has led to warning labels being slapped on hundreds of products and public places (even parking garages and Disneyland) because they contain any of about 900 substances. The lawsuit would require coffee manufacturers, distributors and retailers to label coffee cups and packaging with a warning that “This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer.”
So what is the supposed scary chemical? It’s the naturally occurring substance called “acrylamide,” which is found in coffee when roasted and starchy foods like bread, potato chips, french fries and cookies when cooked. The problem is that, as the LA Times notes, the “…jury is still out on acrylamide.” The label improperly implies that the mere presence of a chemical justifies both a warning and the implication that the product itself isn’t safe. California’s mandated warning also disregards two recent studies that found there are compelling signs that consuming coffee helps prevent several types of cancer and ward off heart disease to boot! Are you beginning to see the absurdity of this situation?
It’s good the Times editorial board agrees that warning labels that are not backed by science are counterproductive and do more harm than good. They even admitted they were wrong to dismiss claims back in 1986 that Prop 65 would lead to warning labels being put on every cup of coffee served in California. While it was an innovative, novel and experimental law, the experiment has gotten out of hand as it has played out, and we know now the results are confusing at best and counterproductive at worst.
https://blog.americanchemistry.com/2017/10/warning-labels-gone-wild-the-ongoing-problem-with-prop-65/
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(ACC Mentioned) Trump’s Pick of EPA Safety Chief Argued Kids Are Less Sensitive to Toxins
Oct 3, 2017 | The Intercept
By Sharon Lerner
Michael Dourson, the toxicologist who will be the subject of a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for what many consider the second most powerful post at the Environmental Protection Agency, has been hired by industry to consult on at least 30 of the chemicals he may be responsible for reviewing if he assumes office.
Dourson’s consulting company, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, or TERA, was paid by Dow Chemical, CropLife America, the American Chemistry Council, the American Petroleum Institute, Koch Industries, and other companies and industry groups to study dozens of chemicals. The evaluations TERA produced consistently failed to recognize threats that were clear to scientists and regulators not on the companies’ payrolls.
If confirmed as director of the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Dourson will be in a position to set safety levels for many of the same chemicals his company was paid to defend, including nine pesticides scheduled for scrutiny and 20 industrial compounds that may be evaluated under the recently updated chemical safety law.
Dourson would also be in a position to make decisions affecting chlorpyrifos, another pesticide he’s been paid to research, which can cause memory, intelligence, attention, and motor problems in children. Based on numerous studies that found that very low doses of the pesticide can harm children’s brains, the EPA proposed banning chlorpyrifos in 2016. In research paid for by Dow, the manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, Dourson came up with a safety threshold that was some 5,000 times less protective than what the EPA recommended for children between the ages of one and two.
After reversing the proposed ban, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently delayed the evaluation of both chlorpyrifos and other organophosphates, the chemical class to which it belongs, which had been scheduled to begin in 2017. Dourson would have input on the timing of those evaluations, as well as the research considered in them. About two dozen organophosphate pesticides are commercially available, all of which are neurotoxins.
Environmental scientists have long recognized that children are especially vulnerable to chemicals, including organophosphates, throughout their development. But in a 2002 paper paid for by the American Chemistry Council and the pesticide industry group CropLife America, Dourson suggested that after six months, most children are no more sensitive to chemical toxicity than adults and that in some cases, they are even less sensitive. This idea places him well outside the scientific mainstream and suggests how he might approach not just these pesticides but all chemicals affecting children.
In addition to overseeing pesticides if confirmed, Dourson would be responsible for the implementation of the new Toxic Substances Control Act, which entails setting safety levels for some of the most dangerous chemicals in use. As the 2016 law required, the EPA has already chosen the first 10 substances to be evaluated. Of those 10, Dourson has been paid to work on three — Trichloroethylene, 1-Bromopropane, and 1,4-Dioxane — and in each case, found them to be safer than independent scientists did.
Often the standards TERA recommended weren’t just off, they were wildly off. In the research commissioned by manufacturers of 1-Bromopropane, which the EPA is considering adding to its list of hazardous air pollutants, TERA put forward a safety level that was 67 times higher than one recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. For 1,4-Dioxane, a solvent that harms the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, TERA calculated a safety level that was 1,166 time less protective than that of the EPA.
For PFOA, a chemical used to make nonstick products that has been found in the drinking water of 6.5 million Americans, Dourson helped West Virginia set a state safety standard in 2002 that was 150 times higher than an internal level DuPont itself had set years earlier and 7,500 time higher than the lowest standard set by a state.
TERA consulted on another 17 worrisome chemicals — including lead, arsenic, and the carcinogens chromium and benzene — that the EPA has identified as needing further assessment as part of the Toxic Substances Control Act Work Plan.
In 2015, Dourson and TERA joined the University of Cincinnati and rebranded as the Risk Science Center. Since then, Dourson has co-authored at least one scientific paper with staff of the American Chemistry Council, Dow Chemical, and Exxon.
Dourson and the EPA declined repeated requests to answer questions for this article.
After Dourson’s nomination was announced in July, the agency issued a press release that cited “widespread praise” for the toxicologist from his colleagues. “Dr. Dourson has a can do and winning temperament that inspires confidence,” said Gio Batta Gori, who, like Dourson, has consulted for tobacco companies.
Chemical safety advocates say the overlap between Dourson’s work and the chemicals under EPA scrutiny isn’t surprising. “These companies aren’t hiring Dourson if their product is hunky-dory,” said Jack Pratt, chemicals campaign director for the Environmental Defense Fund. “He comes in when they’ve got a fire. Over and over, he’s the guy that chemical companies hire when some regulator looks at their products and might potentially set a regulation.”
This coziness with industry has led environmental groups to wage a vocal campaign against Dourson, one of four nominees to high-level EPA positions being considered by the Senate’s Environment and Public Works committee this week.
“It’s simply absurd that industry’s go-to science-for-hire guy would now be charged with reviewing the safety of many of the same chemicals he’s previously greenwashed,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, which has dubbed Dourson Mr. Pay to Spray. “It’s like putting Philip Morris in charge of the American Lung Association.”
Patti Goldman, an attorney at Earthjustice, also strongly opposes his confirmation. But she has already begun focusing on how to limit the harm Dourson could cause if confirmed. “As someone who’s been a scientist for hire, Dourson should recuse himself from decisions affecting chemicals he’s worked on,” said Goldman. “It’s impossible for Dourson to be free of bias. What’s he going to do, cite his own studies?”
https://theintercept.com/2017/10/03/epa-nominee-michael-dourson-toxic-chemicals/
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EPA Seeks to Keep TSCA Suits in 4th Circuit
Oct 3, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA is again seeking to keep the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit as the venue for litigation challenging its rules for evaluating existing chemicals under the recently-revised toxics law, arguing that moving the suits to the 9th Circuit as environmentalists are seeking would be costly as most of the lawyers involved are located nearby.
“[I]t would be more convenient for the parties and would conserve travel resources for these cases to be heard in this Court, because all counsel of record are located in Washington, DC, or New York, within easy and more economical travel distance of the Fourth Circuit,” EPA says in a Sept. 29 filing.
“Additionally, this Court will likely be able to resolve these matters more quickly than the Ninth Circuit, which will in turn help minimize disruption to EPA’s processes for reviewing potentially toxic chemicals.”
EPA's brief responds to environmentalists' Sept. 25 filing urging the 9th Circuit to hear challenges to two of three final rules creating a framework for agency reviews of existing chemicals under the June 2016 update to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Existing chemicals are those that have been in commerce for decades and were largely grandfathered under the old law. The need to address risks from existing chemicals was a major driver of TSCA reform. The contested rules guide how EPA will prioritize and then evaluate existing chemicals under the new law.
Environmental groups, including Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, the Environment Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed Aug. 10 and 11 challenges to the prioritization and risk evaluation rules in the 2nd, 4th, and 9th Circuits.
On Sept. 5 environmentalists filed a separate suit challenging the third initial TSCA rule for existing chemicals in the D.C. Circuit, though that case is on a different track. That rule finalized in August, updates the TSCA Inventory of existing chemicals -- those that were on the market prior to the original TSCA's enactment in 1976, or those chemicals that have since been added to that inventory.
In separate orders this month, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated environmentalist challenges to the prioritization rule in the 9th Circuit and to the risk evaluation rule in the 4th Circuit. The 4th Circuit has granted an unopposed request from industry trade associations to intervene in the lawsuit.
In addition to seeking to consolidate the two cases in the 4th Circuit, EPA's recent filing also reiterates the agency's request in a Sept. 14 filing for the 9th Circuit to transfer the prioritization rule case to the 4th Circuit.
In the Sept. 29 filing, EPA says the parties agree that the case should be heard by a single court, though they disagree on the appropriate venue. EPA argues that hearing the cases in the 4th Circuit would limit spending of taxpayer money on attorneys' travel expenses, and that the 4th Circuit generally resolves cases eight months faster than the 9th Circuit.
EPA also faults environmentalists' claims that petitioners should be allowed to choose venue and that the 9th circuit should hear the case because petitioners filed there first as legally unsupported or based on obsolete rules.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-seeks-keep-tsca-suits-4th-circuit
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An Industrial Chemical Poisoned Their Water, Now Upstate New Yorkers Want to Know What Replaced It
Oct 3, 2017 | In These Times
By Tracy Frisch
Industry and government officials say perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the toxic chemical blamed for contaminating drinking water supplies in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and several other area communities, is no longer used in manufacturing in the United States.
But if PFOA has been phased out, what are industries using in its place?
People like Silvia Potter would like to know the answer to that question for the two Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plants that still operate in Hoosick Falls. Potter says people in her community know “absolutely nothing” about the identity of the chemical or chemicals the company is using as a replacement for PFOA.
The lack of information has been frustrating for her and other members of their local advocacy group, NY Water Project.
“We only know what the company volunteers,” she says.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), widely used for decades in the making of nonstick coatings like Teflon and a variety of other consumer products, is considered toxic even in tiny amounts. PFOA has been linked to cancer, birth defects and immune system dysfunction.
In 2006, eight major chemical companies, including 3M and DuPont, entered into a “voluntary stewardship agreement” with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to phase out the production and use of PFOA by 2015. In its place, the industry switched to other chemicals in the same family that were deemed less hazardous by the EPA. But lately a variety of experts have begun to believe that these new chemicals also pose grave threats to human health.
Remarkably, it’s not clear whether government regulators—or even companies like Saint-Gobain—know the specific chemical identities of the substances being substituted for PFOA. In response to questions for this story, Saint-Gobain issued a statement saying it has relied on its suppliers to provide replacement chemicals for PFOA and that the composition of these chemicals “in the case of some suppliers may be proprietary.”
At public meetings, Potter says she and other members of NY Water Project have asked questions “at every appropriate moment” about what substances have replaced PFOA. But the information they have sought hasn’t been forthcoming.
“We’re just assured that everything is safe,” she says. “This concerns us, because things went wrong once. We wouldn’t even know about PFOA if it weren’t for Michael Hickey and his determination to get to the bottom of these mysterious illnesses. I believe the town owes Michael a debt of gratitude.”
Hickey’s father, who for many years worked at one of the local Saint-Gobain plants, died of kidney cancer. It was Hickey who thought to test the village of Hoosick Falls’ water for PFOA in 2014, revealing the village’s water contamination problem for the first time. Change for the better?
PFOA is sometimes called C-8, for its chain of eight carbon atoms, each bonded to fluorine. The carbon-fluorine bond is extremely strong, making PFOA virtually indestructible. So it stays in the environment essentially forever: It doesn’t degrade in water or soil, and plants and animals don’t metabolize it.
By 2014, long after PFOA’s hazards to the environment and human health were first documented, the EPA classified the chemical and its cousin PFOS, which was widely used in firefighting foam, as “emergent contaminants.” But to this day, the federal government still doesn’t regulate them. And PFOA and PFOS, despite their notoriety, are only two of an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 other unique, highly fluorinated compounds.
The chemicals fall within the EPA’s purview under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. But in the four decades since that law was enacted, the EPA has formally assessed only a tiny fraction of the more than 80,000 manmade chemicals on the market.
PFOA is part of a family of highly fluorinated chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The chemicals are used to make consumer products resistant to water, grease or stains, such as Gore-Tex rain gear, Teflon no-stick cookware and Scotchgard stain-repellent for carpets and furniture fabrics. The EPA agreement that phased out PFOA and PFOS by 2015 didn’t stop the production and use of other highly fluorinated chemicals. Instead, the chemical industry has shifted from PFAS compounds with long chains of carbon and fluorine atoms, like PFOA, to shorter-chain compounds in the same family.
The industry had persuaded the EPA that short-chain PFAS chemicals are less persistent in the environment and less harmful to human health than their longer-chain predecessors. But experts who gathered at a conference this summer in Boston said the supposition that short-chain compounds are inherently safer is not warranted, even though the EPA has enshrined a distinction between short- and long-chain compounds in its policies.
“Every perfluorinated compound studied is causing problems,” says Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist who serves as the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program.A new generation of toxins
Birnbaum outlined the adverse effects of PFAS compounds in her keynote address at a June conference focused on these chemicals. The conference at Northeastern University brought together research scientists, government officials, lawyers, journalists, environmentalists and people from communities affected by PFAS contamination. In her presentation, Birnbaum explained even minuscule concentrations of perfluorinated compounds can pose risks.
According to conventional wisdom and principles of toxicology, Birnbaum said, poison is a function of dosage. So if a substance doesn’t pose risks at high doses, it’s considered unlikely to do so at low exposure. But with this class of chemicals, she said, low levels of exposure may induce biological effects even if high levels of exposure do not. This same dynamic also occurs with other endocrine-disrupting substances.
Andrew Lindstrom, an EPA research scientist who studies trace contaminants for the National Exposure Research Laboratory, told those attending the conference that industry is using short-chain substitutes in place of long-chain compounds like PFOA and PFOS. But he said the replacement compounds present multiple challenges.
First, he said, regulators and the public generally don’t know the specific identities of these chemicals, the quantities in which they’re being produced, their health effects or how long they’re retained in the human body. There is some data, though, on one short-chain PFAS compound produced under the product name GenX. DuPont introduced GenX in 2009 specifically as a safer replacement for PFOA for use in making Teflon and the stain-resistant and water-repellant coatings found in many consumer products.
In her series “The Teflon Toxin,” investigative journalist Sharon Lerner of the online magazine The Intercept details the numerous health and environmental hazards with this short-chain PFAS compound.
She writes that DuPont “submitted 16 reports [to EPA] of adverse incidents related to GenX between 2006 and 2013, describing experiments in which lab animals exposed to the chemical developed cancers of the liver, pancreas, and testicles as well as benign tumors. The industry research also tied GenX to reproductive problems, including low birth weight and shortened pregnancies in rats, and changes in immune responses.” Local companies stay mum
The question of what chemicals have replaced PFOA is moot in North Bennington, Vt., where a former Saint-Gobain plant—now blamed for contaminating the private wells of more than 200 homes—has been closed since 2002. But the issue remains a pressing one for neighbors of the Saint-Gobain plants in Hoosick Falls and the Taconic Plastics factory in Petersburgh, which has been blamed for PFOA contamination discovered last year that affected about 70 local water users.
Neither Saint-Gobain nor Taconic have revealed what chemicals they’re using in place of PFOA.
A call to Saint-Gobain did not yield a direct answer. The response came via Peppercomm, a New York City public relations firm. The firm provided a written statement attributed to Dina Pokedoff, Saint-Gobain’s director of branding and communication.
The statement said Saint-Gobain officials “reasonably rely on our suppliers” to provide replacement chemical for PFOA.
“As part of the U.S. EPA’s Stewardship Program that major raw material producers participated in, a primary goal was to eliminate PFOA from producers’ production processes and to identify replacements for PFOA,” the statement said.
But Saint-Gobain would not characterize those replacement chemicals more specifically. Instead it simply stated, “It is our understanding that the compounds that eventually replaced PFOA are reviewed by the U.S. EPA and in the case of some suppliers may be proprietary.” A query to Taconic Plastics, which used PFOA for years at its Petersburgh plant, brought a response from corporate counsel Laurie Mason. She declined to provide any information for this report, citing a Superfund investigation and pending civil litigation.Company records detail hazards
Rob Bilott, a lawyer who brought a class-action suit against DuPont on behalf of people exposed to PFOA near the company’s plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., said the company has a history of professing the safety of highly fluorinated compounds to the public and government regulators—despite its own research demonstrating serious hazards. DuPont settled the Parkersburg suit for $235 million in 2004. But Bilott told participants in the June conference how the lawsuit opened a rare window into the normally secret world of an industrial corporation grappling with responsibility and liability for a nightmare chemical.
Through the legal process of discovery, DuPont handed over more than 100,000 pages of internal documents, which Bilott said he then submitted to the EPA with the goal of putting them into the public record. In that trove of papers, Bilott said he discovered that DuPont had been aware of PFOA’s dangers for several decades. The company studied the chemical in its laboratory program and also collected evidence by monitoring its workers. He said, as a result, DuPont had internally concluded in 1988 that PFOA was a human carcinogen.
According to Bilott, by the 1970s, DuPont already knew that PFOA was bio-persistent. In 1984, the company surreptitiously collected samples to test public drinking water for contamination and determined that PFOA was getting into public water supplies. More than 35 years ago, 3M’s rodent studies had linked PFAS with birth defects. When DuPont repeated the studies, it dismissed any association. But then it monitored a small number of pregnant employees exposed to PFOA. Two women out of a sample of eight or ten gave birth to babies with the same type of unusual birth defects, he said.
In the late 1980s DuPont established its own action level of 500 parts per trillion for PFOA in drinking water. That’s 100 times lower than the threshold of 50 parts per billion that New York was using as a fallback when PFOA was first found in Hoosick Falls’ drinking water in 2014, prior to EPA’s intervention in late 2015 to warn the public not to drink the village water.
The EPA first set a guidance level of 400 ppt for short-term exposure to PFOA in drinking water in 2009. In 2016, the agency established 70 ppt as a guideline upper level for long-term exposure, and New York followed suit.
Last year, after PFOA was detected in North Bennington wells, Vermont established a drinking water enforcement standard of 20 ppt. Contamination spread widely
Jason Galloway, an Ohio State University graduate student who grew up along the Ohio River, told conference participants he became interested in determining the geographic extent of PFAS contamination from DuPont’s Parkersburg plant, now operated by DuPont spinoff company Chemours. Galloway teamed up with Lindstrom, the EPA scientist, who has sensitive analytic equipment for detecting PFAS, and went out in a kayak to collect water samples.
The plant’s air emissions are only monitored within a 2-mile radius, but some of Galloway’s samples taken much further away contained PFOA. In the direction of prevailing wind, to the northeast, he found PFOA at 100 ppt 15 miles from the plant. At a distance of more than 25 miles, PFOA was still detected, though concentrations dropped to 10 ppt.
Twenty miles north of the plant, Galloway also found GenX, though the short-chain PFOA replacement had only been used for a short time. Lindstrom and his collaborators also detected GenX at a concentration of 661 ppt in the drinking water supply of Wilmington, N.C., where they collected samples downstream of another DuPont-owned factory operated by Chemours.
The EPA has estimated, based on its monitoring of large public water systems, that PFOA and other long-chain perfluorinated compounds are in the drinking water of 6 million Americans.
But Harvard environmental engineering professor Elsie Sunderland told participants in the Boston conference that this number seriously underestimates the magnitude of the problem, because about 90 million people rely on private wells or small public water systems that aren’t subject to EPA monitoring.
Sunderland also questioned whether the testing methodologies used by water systems to comply with EPA’s requirements are sensitive enough to find these chemicals. PFAS compounds can cause health effects at levels as low as 1 ppt, she said. Pushing for a phase-out
Arlene Blum, an environmental chemist who founded the Green Science Policy Institute, says a body of research now contradicts DuPont’s claim that short-chain PFAS compounds are safe and environmentally preferable to longer-chain compounds like PFOA. Using a science-based approach—convening scientific experts, motivating needed studies, and publishing research findings in peer-reviewed journals—the Green Science Policy Institute has embarked on a new campaign to eliminate six classes of harmful chemicals. PFAS is the first class the group is targeting.
The institute’s approach builds on the Madrid Statement, which calls for limiting PFAS as a class because the chemicals pose numerous serious hazards that make them unsuitable for production and use. In 2015, 230 scientists from 38 nations signed the Madrid Statement, which was published with references in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Blum says this class-wide strategy would prevent “regrettable substitutions” like those that scientists fear are occurring with the new short-chain PFAS compounds.
So far, at least 40 companies have been persuaded to stop using all PFAS compounds—both long- and short-chain—in clothing and textiles, says Blum. “Our big hope is that the military will do the same.” Despite widespread water and soil contamination on military bases from the use of PFOS-containing firefighting foam, the Pentagon has continued to procure highly fluorinated products for this purpose, she says.Detailing health risks
The most definitive information on how PFOA exposure can affect human health comes from studies of 70,000 people living near a DuPont chemical plant in Parkersburg, W.Va. As part of the settlement in the large class-action lawsuit brought by Bilott against DuPont, three epidemiologists approved by both sides studied this population, which also received free health monitoring. DuPont agreed not to fight personal injury suits from area residents who experienced these health problems.
The data indicated a probable association between PFOA exposure and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, and pregnancy-induced hypertension. Although other effects may occur, they were not statistically significant in this population. As endocrine disruptors, PFAS compounds affect hormonal systems. This can cause of a cascade of effects, because hormones act as signals to start, stop and otherwise regulate many physiological processes.
Courtney Carignan, a reproductive environmental epidemiologist at Harvard, noted that PFAS compounds affect thyroid function. She says adequate thyroid levels are critical for brain development and maturation in the developing fetus and during childhood.
PFAS compounds also are associated with an autoimmune hypothyroid marker. PFOA also disrupts sex hormones, for example by depressing testosterone levels. At the blood concentrations found in children in the Ohio River valley where DuPont’s Parkersburg’s plant contaminated drinking water, PFOA exposure affects mammary gland development in the developing fetus. Later in life, prenatal exposure may impair a woman’s capacity to breast feed and predispose her to breast cancer.
Alan Ducatman, a professor of medicine and public health at West Virginia University, suggests other mechanisms through which PFOA can cause developmental problems. He says studies show PFOA induces problems with fat metabolism in rodents and disrupts cholesterol metabolism in humans. According to Ducatman, cholesterol is a sterol, and the disruption of sterol metabolism is associated with developmental abnormalities.
Highly fluorinated compounds also affect the immune system in complex ways. Birnbaum cited a long-term study of mother-child pairs in the Faroe Islands, which are part of Denmark. In that study, children whose mothers were in the top 20 percent for exposure to PFAS compounds couldn’t mount a normal immune response to vaccination.
In pregnant women, perfluorinated compounds are carried from the placenta to the fetus, and breast milk is a source of exposure for children. Ongoing exposure
Cathy Dawson, an operating room nurse who’s lived in Hoosick Falls for 30 years, brings a health orientation to the NY Water Project. When she first “heard the rumblings” about PFOA and saw a notice about it in her village water bill, she said she didn’t pay much attention. But then she messaged Michael Hickey. As a boy, he and his parents and siblings were her next-door neighbors when Dawson first moved to Hoosick Falls. Hickey’s response propelled her into action.
“Michael filled me in on everything that was going on, and told me about his research,” she recalls. Picking up where he left off, she did her own research.
What she learned left her outraged.
“A lot of people are afraid of the cancers” associated with PFOA, Dawson says. “But something like arthritis impacts people day to day with pain and disfigurement. PFOA is also known to cause cranial-facial abnormalities, and there are all the endocrine disorders. Studies have also linked PFOA to seizures. From a health-care perspective, it’s awful.”
NY Water Project’s big push now is to get the village a new water supply. Although state officials say a new filtration system is now keeping PFOA out of tap water, the village’s water comes from underground wells near the Saint-Gobain plant on McCaffrey Street, and the wells remain heavily contaminated. But water isn’t the only part of Hoosick Falls’ environment affected by industrial pollution. Portions of the village that were contaminated by Saint-Gobain’s plants are on track to be designated a Superfund site—they made it onto EPA’s National Priorities List in late July—and thus become eligible for federal cleanup funds.
For the people being affected, local pollution isn’t just a legacy issue. Dawson says she believes Saint-Gobain is still releasing industrial toxins into the air, and air deposition is one way that highly fluorinated compounds get into ground and surface water.
“The air still stinks, though it’s not as bad as it used to be,” she says, adding that odors from the plant are intermittent. “It smells like burning plastic, like if you left a Teflon pan on the stove.”
http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/20567/drinking-water-contamination-perfluorooctanoic-acid-hoosick-falls-new-york
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Artificial Turf Study Calls for Health Surveillance of Users
Oct 3, 2017 | Chemical Watch
A study looking at artificial turf, made from recycled crumb rubber, suggests that inadequate monitoring could be jeopardising the health of sportspeople, children and those who work with the material.
The study – Artificial turf: Contested terrains for precautionary public health with particular reference to Europe? – calls for proper cumulative health impact assessments to be carried out.
Report author, Stirling University's Professor Andrew Watterson, writes that health concerns surround potential exposure and uptake of chemicals within pitch and base materials.
Research has looked at potential risks to users from substances, such as metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including benzo (a) (e) pyrenes and phthalates, Professor Watterson writes. Some are carcinogens and others may be endocrine disruptors and have developmental reproductive effects, he adds.
But only one widely quoted biomonitoring study has been done, and no rigorous cancer epidemiological studies exist, he says.
Professor Watterson asks for improved information for users, as well as extensive health monitoring and surveillance by the local authorities and Health and Safety Executive (HSE), while data gaps exist.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands and Echa are considering a draft restriction proposal of the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in articles, which could be expanded to recycled rubber crumb. The current applicable limit value is not thought protective enough.
The study is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
https://chemicalwatch.com/59671/artificial-turf-study-calls-for-health-surveillance-of-users
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(ACC Mentioned) Expert: Shell Plant Part of 'Second Wave' of Ethane Crackers in US
Oct 3, 2017 | Pittsburgh Business Times
By Paul J. Gough
Shell Chemicals' $6 billion ethane cracker being built in Beaver County isn't just important to the tri-state region, it's also playing a big role in the U.S .petrochemical industry.
"That essentially is the beginning of the second wave" of ethane crackers, said Todd Dina, global director of Olefins at Houston-based IHS Markit.
The Potter Township plant made the list of 13 ethane crackers being built from 2017 until 2021 in Dina's presentation during Pittsburgh Chemical Day, which was held Tuesday at Heinz Field. This is the 50th annual event, and the second since Shell made its final investment decision to go ahead with the cracker.
"You'll see the biggest buildup in the U.S. petrochemical industry we have ever seen," Dina said. It's part of the estimated $85 billion a year in investment in the domestic petrochemical industry since 2010, a big change since the industry's downturn a decade ago.
What revived the petrochemical industry from stiff foreign competition? The shale boom that has lifted many parts of the country, including southwestern Pennsylvania.
The Shell cracker in Beaver County is scheduled to go online in the second half of 2021. That will come at a good time for the petrochemical industry, which is growing at a rate of about four world-class steam ethane crackers like the Shell plant a year.
Ethane production has doubled since 2005 and it's likely to grow another third by 2020, according to the American Chemistry Council forecasts. There have already been 318 petrochemical projects worth a total of $185 billion announced since 2010, said Martha Moore, senior director of economics and policy analysis at the American Chemistry Council.
"It's a fantastic story for U.S. chemistry," Moore said.
Dina said with the shale boom, there's likely enough supply for a second wave of crackers that will be led by the Potter Township plant. But how many will depend on a number of factors, including the market.
"There is more ethane to be had out there," Dina said.
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2017/10/03/expert-shell-plant-part-of-second-wave-of-ethane.html
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Industry Warily Eyes DOE Directive on Coal, Nuclear
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Natural gas industry players are cautiously watching a potentially explosive directive issued Friday by the Energy Department that would boost payments to their competitors in the coal and nuclear power businesses.
The feeling among participants at an industry conference in Washington yesterday was that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's independence — and legal strictures that it must follow clear procedures to ensure transparency and legal accountability — blunt the potential impact of the proposal to aid a natural gas industry competitor.
The "rulemaking proposal" sent by Secretary Rick Perry to FERC's three sitting commissioners directs the commission to change electricity market rules to compensate "fuel-secure" generation sources that have a 90-day fuel supply on-site by allowing them to fully recover their costs (Greenwire, Sept. 29). Perry said FERC should finalize a rule based on DOE's draft within 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register.
Observers say such a rule, if implemented, could radically alter today's electricity markets (Energywire, Oct. 2).
Branko Terzic, a former FERC commissioner and Wisconsin state regulator who is now a managing director with Berkeley Research Group, noted that FERC's actions with respect to the directive will need to comply with the agency's normal requirements that it be based on a carefully compiled record of facts and incorporate public comment. The resultant rulemaking also must stand up to legal challenges.
The commission may say it needs more than 60 days to address the issue properly, he said. Others noted that the proposal from DOE lacks the specificity of a normal notice of proposed rulemaking and may not be adequate as a starting point to address the issues it raises.
Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners LLC, said a conversation at FERC on the full meaning and scope that is implied with the term "resilience" could be fruitful for the power industry.
"I would be surprised if it ended up where it looks right now," Book said of Perry's starting point and any final FERC rule, noting that reliability and resilience have clear value to the grid. "If the end result is a better structured market, then everybody wins, I think," he added. Book spoke as part of the North American Gas Forum, an event organized by Energy Dialogues LLC.
"I do not sense panic" from the natural gas industry as a result of the new order, Book told E&E News. "Natural gas wins a fuel fight" when the market rules favor cost, he said, and loses a fuel fight when the rules focus on resilience. "Coal lost a lot. In a fuel fight, you can't expect every side to lose forever," he added.
Book said assuming that natural gas would lose its growth momentum on the power grid would be premature, but suggested that if it does lose access, gas producers would renew their efforts to grow in other markets like liquefied natural gas exports and transportation to find outlets for their product.
Rick Smead, a managing director with the consultancy RBN Energy LLC, said the gas industry should use the opportunity of a public debate to fix "flaws" in market rules that can put natural-gas-fired power generators in line behind gas providers for pipeline capacity. In New England, in particular, gas-fired electric generators frequently have trouble getting deliveries of the commodity during winter cold snaps due to pipeline bottlenecks and their second-in-line status.
As analysts counseled skepticism that FERC would act assertively on DOE's proposal, Dena Wiggins, who heads the Natural Gas Supply Association, spoke strongly against the measure. She said she is "very troubled" by a proposal that she said runs counter to the nondiscrimination provisions of the Federal Power Act.
"This proposal is one of the most significant energy proposals related to our industry in decades," she said. "We believe that competitive, fuel-neutral energy markets provide the best outcome."Industry groups push for formal rulemaking
In a filing yesterday afternoon to FERC, NGSA and 10 other energy industry groups asked FERC to advance DOE's proposal through a formal notice of proposed rulemaking, rather than establishing an interim rule to take effect immediately, as DOE has requested.
The groups — which include those representing solar and wind power, oil and gas interests, and publicly owned utilities — urged FERC to reject DOE's proposed 60-day timeline for obtaining public comment and finalizing a rule, saying that timeline was far too short for so significant a rulemaking. They said FERC's public comment period should be at least 90 days and should be followed by a response-to-comment period afterward.
They also asked FERC to hold a technical conference before the comment deadline "to provide affected parties the opportunity to better understand key aspects of the proposed regulations and, ultimately, facilitate the submission of more meaningful comments," and to take more than the DOE-requested 15 days to finalize the rule following the close of public comments.
"The Energy Industry Associations urge the Commission to reject the proposed unreasonable timelines and instead proceed in a manner that would afford meaningful consideration of public comments and be consistent with the normal deliberative process that it typically affords such major undertakings, should it decide to proceed with a rulemaking of this type at all," the groups concluded.
Late yesterday, FERC posted a notice that DOE "had released a proposed rule for final action" and that FERC would accept comment on it for three weeks, through Oct. 23. The commission will take replies to those comments for another two weeks through Nov. 7.
The agency did not indicate any plans to hold a technical conference on the proposal or clarify whether it would adhere to a specific deadline following the conclusion of the public comment periods.
At the natural gas event yesterday, Wiggins said she hopes to maintain a productive relationship with DOE despite the challenge to her industry. "We want to work with this administration, we want to continue to work with Secretary Perry," Wiggins said.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/10/03/stories/1060062353
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Appalachian Industry Sees Opportunity in Hurricane Harvey's Wake
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Hurricane Harvey could boost the chances for a proposed ethane storage hub in the Appalachian region, along with the area's nascent petrochemical industry, the project's backers say.
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia have seen their gas output skyrocket since drilling began in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. The fields are rich with ethane and other liquid byproducts that are currently being shipped out of the region.
Currently, the bulk of U.S. chemical production is on the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Louisiana, a region that was devastated by Hurricane Harvey. More than half the U.S. ethylene production was shut down as the storm flooded plants and knocked out pipelines, according to research firm IHS Markit Ltd.
"That storm amplified, underscored the importance of having a secondary supply," Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) said yesterday during a meeting of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission here.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC is already building a chemical plant in Pennsylvania to convert the region's abundant ethane to ethylene. The proposed ethane hub would serve the Shell plant and others that are envisioned along the Ohio River, which borders Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia (Energywire, June 8, 2016)
The idea already made economic sense, said Brian Anderson, director of West Virginia University's Energy Institute. The bulk of the industrial users for ethylene and other petrochemicals are already in the northeastern United States, so any new chemical plants in the Appalachian region would have a geographic advantage.
There are dozens of sites in West Virginia and along the Pennsylvania and Ohio border that are suitable for storing ethane and other liquids, a study by West Virginia University's Appalachian Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium found. A private company has drilled a test well at a site in Ohio, Anderson said (Energywire, Sept. 7).
West Virginia's representatives in Washington have thrown themselves behind the project, sponsoring bills and even pitching the idea to President Trump (E&E Daily, Sept. 14).
If it happens, the storage hub — or hubs — would be privately financed and would cost billions. Typically, ethane is stored in salt domes or other underground caverns and piped to chemical factories as needed. As the chemical industry grows in the region, it would require storage for other chemicals, said Steve Hedrick, president of the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center in Charleston, W.Va.
"It will not be easy, and it will not be cheap," he said. "It can be done in Appalachia for America. It is not only possible from a conceptual perspective, but it is a geologic reality in waiting."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/10/03/stories/1060062387
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API: Increased U.S. Natural Gas Exports Boost Jobs, Accelerate Economic Growth
Oct 3, 2017 | World Oil
By Michael Tadeo
API today released a new study showing that increased exports of clean and abundant U.S. natural gas (in the form of liquefied natural gas or LNG) could support between 220,000 and 452,000 additional American jobs and add up to $73 billion to the U.S. economy by 2040. The study, conducted by ICF International, also concluded that increased LNG exports would have a minimal impact on natural gas prices. Greater use of natural gas across the world is estimated to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, just as natural gas in U.S. power generation has helped reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to near 25-year lows.
“This report confirms that increasing U.S. LNG exports would bring great benefits to American workers and consumers and the U.S. economy,” said API Executive V.P. and Chief Strategy Officer Marty Durbin. “Increasing the use of U.S. natural gas throughout the world means more production here at home, cleaner air, and increased energy security for our nation and our allies. Today’s report is the latest to exemplify the benefits that come from this clean, affordable, abundant, and reliable energy resource.”
Key findings of the report include: Increased LNG exports volumes of up to 16 bcf/d in 2040 could support between 220,000 to 452,000 additional jobs and add $50 to $73 billion to the U.S. economy. Estimates of current US natural gas resources are approximately 3,700 Tcf, which are higher than estimates of 3,550 Tcf in 2013. The potential global market is now estimated to be 32 Tcf by 2040, which is bigger than the 22 Tcf estimated in 2013. Increased LNG exports are estimated to have a minimal effect on the price of natural gas. Projected price impacts of LNG exports are anticipated to be half of earlier 2013 estimates due to efficiency gains and advances in energy production technology.
Durbin added, “The U.S. is the world’s leader in producing clean and abundant natural gas and today’s study demonstrates that the U.S. can export additional supplies of U.S. natural gas without sacrificing our competitive advantage here at home.”
http://www.worldoil.com/news/2017/10/3/api-increased-us-natural-gas-exports-boost-jobs-accelerate-economic-growth
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Mexico Largest U.S. LNG Vessel Importer in July at 14.4 Bcf, EIA Says
Oct 3, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
For the second consecutive month, U.S. dry natural gas production increased year/year (y/y) in July to 2.28 Tcf, a 0.5% increase from July 2016, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports have more than doubled, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
According to the latest EIA's Natural Gas Monthly report, July's mark in domestic dry gas production is so far the highest for the year, slightly above the 2.23 Tcf recorded in May and 2.22 Tcf from March. February remained the laggard for the year at 2.01 Tcf. The production mark for July 2017 was the highest since May 2016, which also was 2.28 Tcf.
Marketed production totaled 2.44 Tcf in July, a 4.4% increase from the preceding month (2.34 Tcf) and a 1% increase from the year-ago month (2.42 Tcf). Production estimates are based on data from Form EIA-914, the Monthly Crude Oil, Lease Condensate and Natural Gas Production Report. July's mark in marketed production was the highest since March 2016 (2.45 Tcf).
The EIA said the most recent July was the second-highest for the month in terms of natural gas consumption at 2.11 Tcf, an 11.7% increase from the preceding month (1.89 Tcf) but 3.7% lower than July 2016. The latter was the highest for the month in terms of natural gas consumption since the EIA began tracking the metric using its current methodology, which it adopted in 2001.
According to the EIA, y/y total consumption of dry natural gas in July increased in three of the four consuming sectors. Residential deliveries increased 1.2% (to 108 Bcf, up from 106 Bcf) while industrial deliveries rose 1.3% (to 624 Bcf, up from 616 Bcf). Commercial deliveries were relatively flat at 134 Bcf. Industrial deliveries were the highest for July since EIA began using the current definitions for consuming sectors introduced in 2001.
The lone consuming sector that saw a decrease in July was electric power deliveries, which declined 7.9% (to 1.05 Tcf, down from 1.14 Tcf).
After three consecutive months where the United States was a net exporter of natural gas, July 2017 saw net imports of 2.1 Bcf. Still, it was a marked improvement from the 76.3 Tcf of net gas imports recorded in July 2016. The bulk of the 250.1 Bcf the United States imported in July 2017 came via pipeline from Canada (245.2 Bcf), while LNG imports from Trinidad & Tobago totaled 4.97 Bcf. Total imports increased 4.8% from the previous month (239.8 Bcf), but declined 5.5% from July 2016 (265 Bcf).
The United States exported 248.4 Bcf in July, a 1.9% decline from the previous month (253.3 Bcf) but a 31.7% increase from July 2016 (188.7 Bcf). LNG exports totaled 53.6 Bcf in July, a 2.2% increase from the preceding month (52.5 Bcf) but a whopping 241% increase from July 2016, when LNG exports totaled just 15.7 Bcf.
Ten countries imported U.S. LNG, via vessel and truck, in July. The largest importer was Mexico via vessel at 14.4 Bcf, but South Korea was a close second at 14.2 Bcf. By comparison, the United States only exported LNG to six countries in July 2016, with Chile taking the most via vessel at 6.1 Bcf. Still, LNG exports to Mexico, which included exports via vessel and truck, declined 41.6% from the preceding month (24.8 Bcf).
Other countries that imported U.S. LNG in July were China (7.2 Bcf), Portugal (3.7 Bcf), Brazil (3.6 Bcf), Egypt (3.5 Bcf), Kuwait (3.4 Bcf), Chile (3.3 Bcf), Spain (217 MMcf) and Barbados (10 MMcf).
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111937-mexico-largest-us-lng-importer-in-july-at-144-bcf-eia-says
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Struggling Corpus Christi Plastics Plant Project May Close
Oct 3, 2017 | Fuel Fix
By Jordan Blum
M&G, a financially struggling plastics plant under construction in Corpus Christi, will shut down and eliminate jobs unless the Italian parent company receives an influx of funding and liquidity.
The more-than-$1 billion jumbo plastics plant, owned by Italy's Mossi & Ghisolfi Group, will close within two months, cutting about 100 jobs in the process, unless something changes, M&G informed the Texas Workforce Commission.
The warning comes a couple of weeks after construction contractor Fluor, of Irving, said it was cutting 275 jobs at the construction site and pulling out because of M&G's inaction and financial woes. Also, M&G announced last week it may close its West Virginia chemicals plant.
M&G spokesman Terry Tyzack confirmed the problems in an email response Monday to questions about the Corpus Christi project.
"M&G Chemicals is facing financial difficulties and is working closely with its lenders to address the situation," Tyzack stated. "However, these circumstances require the company to reduce its operating costs and plant construction activity."
He emphasized that the project isn't dead yet.
"No decision has been made to permanently shutdown operations or construction at this time," Tyzack added.
Several contractors or subcontractors have sued, alleging they haven't been paid -- in some cases since 2015. The project was scheduled to be completed last year.
Alpek, a Mexico-based chemicals supplier, has halted deliveries to M&G plants and expressed skepticism about the continued viability of the Corpus Christi project.
http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Struggling-Corpus-Christi-plastics-plant-project-12246899.php
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Energy, Environment Key Issues in Virginia Governor's Race
Oct 3, 2017 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Alan Suderman
Energy and the environment will be front-line issues in this year’s battle for governor of Virginia, a state that stretches from Appalachian coal fields to the Chesapeake Bay
Republican Ed Gillespie, Democrat Ralph Northam and Libertarian Cliff Hyra have outlined key differences on matters such as two proposed natural gas pipelines and solutions to recurrent flooding on the state’s coast.
In general, Gillespie favors robust extraction of fossil fuels. Northam opposes offshore oil drilling and a natural gas drilling process called fracking in Virginia, and wants greater environmental protections. Hyra opposes two proposed natural gas pipelines but supports an end to Virginia’s ban on uranium mining.
Big money is involved too: Gillespie has received hefty funding from donors in the oil and gas industry while Northam is backed by environmental groups and billionaire activist Tom Steyer.
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THE ISSUES
Virginia has several pressing energy and environment concerns, including rising sea levels that threaten to devastate the economy of the Hampton Roads region and swallow up Tangier Island. Hampton Roads is home to the world’s largest naval base in Norfolk and a significant chunk of the state’s economy.
It’s one of the most endangered areas in the country and could see a 5-foot sea level rise (1.5 meters) by century’s end, according to some estimates. Even a 3-foot (.9-meter) rise could permanently inundate as many as 176,000 residents, according to a 2012 report from the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
There’s been a heated debate in recent years over two proposed pipelines that would carry natural gas across West Virginia into Virginia. The companies involved and their supporters say the pipelines will deliver cheap and abundant energy that is cleaner than coal, and they’ve promised billions of dollars in economic benefits.
But opponents say the projects will infringe on landowners’ property rights, damage pristine areas and commit the region to fossil fuels just when global warming makes it essential to invest in renewable energy instead.
Other issues the next governor will deal with include President Donald Trump’s push for offshore drilling in the Atlantic, whether the state should allow fracking, and efforts to mine Virginia’s substantial uranium deposits.
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CANDIATES’ VIEWS
In general, Gillespie favors robust extraction of fossil fuels while Northam opposes fracking in Virginia and offshore oil drilling and wants greater environmental protections.
Gillespie and Northam generally agree that the state needs to be more active in helping Hampton Roads deal with its rising sea levels. Gillespie’s plan largely focuses on helping residents, business and localities get low-income loans to help improve infrastructure and mitigate future flood damage.
Northam has criticized Gillespie’s plan for not specifically addressing climate change, a root cause of the rising sea levels. Northam supports current Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s plan for Virginia to limit carbon emission from power plants, a plan Gillespie has said would hurt the economy.
Gillespie enthusiastically supports the two proposed natural gas pipelines. Northam has neither endorsed or opposed them, saying only that they should meet strict environmental safeguards if built.
Hyra sets himself apart as the only candidate who opposes two proposed natural gas pipelines, saying private property owners shouldn’t be forced to hand over their land to a private company.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/energy-environment-key-issues-in-virginia-governors-race/2017/10/03/9deb24e6-a848-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_story.html?utm_term=.9a584167cf15
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Tests Find Toxins Miles From Arkema Plant Fire — Residents
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
Toxic chemicals were found in soil, water and ash samples miles removed from a chemical plant that exploded after flooding from Hurricane Harvey, according to almost 20 Houston residents.
The test results were noted in a letter sent yesterday by the residents' attorney to the CEO of the plant owner, Arkema Inc., and several regulatory bodies. The letter said the residents plan to sue, describing poor air quality that caused dozens to fall ill.
The letter alleges Arkema broke a variety of environmental laws by improperly releasing chemicals after failing to properly store and contain organic peroxides during the flooding. It also states the plant did not fully inform residents about the threat.
"Exposure to this toxic mixture in the environment through human pathways caused bodily injury," the letter said, "and has created a need for a community-wide remediation effort, changes in Arkema's operation and a medical monitoring program to protect the public from risk."
Arkema has declined to say what chemicals were released during the blaze and to discuss the amount released.
Harris County, which includes Houston, announced a lawsuit and investigation of the plant last week. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board have open investigations (Reese Dunklin, Associated Press, Oct. 3).
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/10/03/stories/1060062395
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Texas Town Sues Phillips 66, ChevronPhillips for Negligence in Harvey’s Wake
Oct 3, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
More than 300 residents and businesses in Sweeny, a small town southeast of Houston whose livelihood is tied to the oil and gas industry, are suing Phillips 66 and ChevronPhillips Chemical Co LLC, claiming the petrochemical/refinery complex flooded the community without warning after Hurricane Harvey.
Lead plaintiff Neal Bass Jr.’s lawsuit claims that the operators barricaded the Phillips 66 refinery and ChevronPhillips petrochemicals facilities after initial flooding from the record rainfall caused chemical leaks. The lawsuit, filed in 23rd District Court in Brazoria County, is Neal Bess Jr., et al vs. Phillips 66 Co., et al, No. 93371.
Harvey, a Category 4 storm that rumbled ashore in South Texas on Aug. 25, stalled along the upper Gulf Coast and flooded the Greater Houston area with unrelenting rain.
Some of the 3,800 residents of Sweeny, which is about 60 miles from Houston and 20 miles inland, had flooded property, but overall, the homes and businesses escaped Harvey’s wrath relatively unscathed, according to the complaint.
“The town thought it got through the worst of it, and that their families and friends were going to be fine,” the complaint stated. “They were wrong.”
Many Gulf Coast facilities, including the Sweeny facilities, were shuttered before Harvey made landfall because of flooding concerns. After the storm, chemical and petrochemical spills from the complex threatened to contaminate floodwater in the nearby Linnville bayous. The bayous were carrying Harvey’s floodwaters into the Gulf of Mexico.
To prevent more floodwater from entering the refinery complex, the lawsuit claims that Phillips 66 and ChevronPhillips built barricades around the refineries and dammed the bayous. The dams prevented floodwaters from entering the facilities, but the waters instead inundated homes and businesses.
“These dams gave the water flowing downstream nowhere to flow, except to flood the land and people surrounding the Sweeny refinery...Unforgivably, defendants never warned a single Sweeny resident of the imminent danger upon them. Instead, defendants sat quietly, even though their hydrologists had told them the town was going to flood because of the dams.”
As the floodwaters from the bayous rose, homes and businesses were destroyed, and livestock was lost. Fields that had been sowed also were ruined.
A Phillips 66 spokesperson said the company did not cause Sweeny to flood. However, management is “aware of concerns” and is investigating the incident and working with local authorities.
“Although we experienced significant flooding in the refinery, our actions minimized the potential for release of feedstocks and products that could have negatively impacted the community and the environment,” Phillips 66 said.
The lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for gross negligence, trespass and environmental hazards.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/111938-texas-town-sues-phillips-66-chevronphillips-for-negligence-in-harveys-wake
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Most Americans Want Climate Policies — That Don't Cost Much
Oct 3, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Adam Aton
Most Americans want their government to do more to address climate change — as long as it doesn't take a big toll on their pocketbooks, according to a new poll.
About 7 in 10 respondents said climate change is happening, according to results released yesterday from the University of Chicago and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That's about the same result the poll registered this time last year, and it aligns with survey results released this summer from Yale and George Mason universities.
Only about half of those respondents blamed human activity for warming temperatures, but 61 percent of them — including 43 percent of Republicans — said it's a problem the government needs to tackle.
Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center, said the bipartisan agreement on climate change's existence could be reason to hope for policy action: "Public opinion around many energy issues tends to be fluid, with people often defaulting to partisan starting points. But this survey shows an opportunity for consensus building through discussion and debate."
The poll suggested the public knows little about specific energy issues, with money driving people's views more than health or environmental considerations.
Most respondents said they would support policies to lower emissions, but half said they would be unwilling to pay even $1 more on their electric bill to do so. If climate policies cost an extra $10 per month, 60 percent of respondents said they would oppose them.
Political leanings — more than income, education or geographic location — were the biggest indicator of whether someone would pay a modest fee to combat climate change.
Other studies have also suggested politics has more to do with attitudes toward climate policy than with economics.
As the U.S. economy slumped between 2008 and 2012, multiple surveys showed Americans' belief in climate change dropped about 10 percentage points before rebounding.
Researchers who tracked the same individuals during the downturn found that economic factors didn't influence opinions at all. Instead, people were responding to cues from political and opinion leaders — specifically tea party Republicans who cast doubt on climate science.
Ordinary people can't be experts on everything, so most folks look to people they respect — church leaders, the president, neighbors — for cues on issues of expertise, like climate change, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
"For those people who are dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters, they look to him and he's their leader, and what he says is the truth. For other people, it's Republicans [in general], so they'll look beyond Trump to what other Republican leaders are saying," said Leiserowitz, who was not involved in the University of Chicago-AP poll.20% want Clean Power Plan axed
With the Trump administration poised to replace the Clean Power Plan, about 40 percent of those polled said they oppose rolling back the Obama administration's climate rule. About the same number of people said they have no opinion, and 20 percent said they want it gone.
The Trump administration is also preparing to attend the first global climate conference since announcing the United States' intention to quit the Paris climate agreement. Twenty-eight percent of people support the decision to exit Paris, according to this poll, and 42 percent oppose it.
The results suggest the Paris Agreement's potential costs were the biggest reason people wanted out.
Hydraulic fracturing registered little support, with 41 percent of the poll's respondents opposed to it and 37 giving no opinion on it. Seventeen percent said they favor it.
Seventeen percent of those polled also said they favor the direction of U.S. energy policy, but 45 percent said they have no feelings on it.
The poll's margin of error was 4.1 percentage points, and it surveyed more than 1,000 adults on the web or by phone Aug. 17-21.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/10/03/stories/1060062391
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Oct 3, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) missed a legal deadline to start implementing its regulation limiting ozone pollution.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt should have published Monday his initial determinations on which areas of the country exceed the new, stricter standard on ozone, a component of smog that is linked to respiratory illnesses.
But the EPA did not release any information on the initial findings on Monday. An agency spokeswoman said Tuesday that she did not have any more information on the matter.
In his last job as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt sued to stop the 2015 regulation written under former President Barack Obama.
Pruitt tried earlier this year to delay the initial compliance findings for a year. But when environmentalists and Democratic states sued, the agency walked back and said it would meet the Oct. 1 deadline — which was Sunday, but pushed to Monday for the weekend.
“Mr. Pruitt is showing a blatant disregard for the law by refusing to give Americans a full accounting of how much unsafe smog they’re breathing. That’s irresponsible. It’s illegal,” John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.
“It risks the health of millions of people and stalls required cleanup steps. And it’s why we’ll continue to use every tool available to make sure all Americans learn sooner rather than later — or possibly never — whether their air is dirty and endangering their health.”
The Oct. 1 date is two years from the day that the Obama administration finalized the original rule.
The regulation reduced the allowable level of ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion, from the previous 75 parts per billion.
Business groups and Republican-led states want it repealed, since complying with the new standards would likely require states to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, whose emissions create ozone.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/353608-epa-misses-smog-rule-deadline
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Trump's EPA Chief's Schedule Heavily Favors Industry Contacts: Report
Oct 3, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Olivia Beavers
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt's schedule has a heavy emphasis on top executives from companies that his agency is tasked with regulating, The New York Times is reporting.
According to the report, which is based on Pruitt's schedule between February and May, Pruitt held daily meetings and attended other working events with top industry executives.
He had few meetings with environmental and public health groups, the Times noted.
The newspaper highlighted his schedule on April 26, when Pruitt met with General Motors lobbyists who urged him to withdraw an Obama-era regulation aimed at reducing emissions that contribute to global warming.
He then had a lunch meeting with the heads of Southern Company, one of the largest coal-burning electric utility companies in the U.S., and met with the board of directors of Alliance Resource Partners, another powerful coal-mining company, for another meal, according to the report.
The chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners also reportedly donated almost $2 million to PACs that aimed to get Donald Trumpelected.
Pruitt developed relationships with these companies when he served as Oklahoma’s attorney general. During that period, he sued the EPA over a dozen times to halt regulations on firms he is now overseeing, according to the report.
EPA officials defended Pruitt's meetings with the executives.
“As E.P.A. has been the poster child for regulatory overreach, the agency is now meeting with those ignored by the Obama administration,” the agency said in a statement to the Times, calling its report an “attempt to sensationalize for clicks” Pruitt's schedule.
Others who have served in the same position, however, told the Times they found the industry-heavy schedule unusual.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/353596-trump-epa-chief-frequently-dines-with-execs-from-companies-he
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