Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 10/30/17
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Hearing On Transportation Nominees
Oct 31, 2017 | Commerce, Science and Transportation
Location: 253 Russell / 10:00 AM -
Hearing On Building Efficiency
Oct 31, 2017 | Energy and Natural Resources
Location: 366 Dirksen / 10:00 AM. -
Hearing On NASA, NOAA, CPSC Nominees
Nov 1, 2017 | Commerce, Science and Transportation
By 10:00 AM, 253 Russell
Location: 253 Russell / 10:00 AM. -
(ACC Mentioned) Spectrum of Harm: Ripple Effects of Trump’s Macabre Environmental Policies
Oct 27, 2017 | Union of Concerned Scientists
By Derrick Z. Jackson
The front pages of last Sunday’s Washington Post and New York Times starkly exposed how concerned citizens, fearful immigrants, and career scientists alike are smothered by the Trump administration’s macabre environmental policies.Worming through the EPA -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Spokeswoman Liz Bowman Really Making Name For Herself, As YOOOGE DICK
Oct 27, 2017 | Wonkette
Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson Liz Bowman is really making a name for herself in the press. Of course, it’s a name that 50 years ago would have been politely elided as “unfit for a family newspaper.” -
(ACC Mentioned) Exxon: EPA Should Leverage Existing Chemical Exposure Data
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The EPA should partner with chemical and product makers in securing chemical exposure information to improve decisions, an Exxon Mobil scientist said. -
EPA Schedules Meeting On Alternative Chemical Test Methods
Oct 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA has scheduled a public meeting next week to discuss its plans and goals for the strategic plan it is developing for implementing alternative chemical testing methods and reducing animal testing, as directed by the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). -
(ACC Mentioned) Trump’s Legacy: Damaged Brains
Oct 30, 2017 | The New York TImes
By Nicholas Kristof
The pesticide, which belongs to a class of chemicals developed as a nerve gas made by Nazi Germany, is now found in food, air and drinking water. Human and animal studies show that it damages the brain and reduces I.Q.s while causing tremors among children. It has also been linked to lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease in adults. -
(ACC Mentioned) Firefighters’ Gear May Be Hazardous
Oct 29, 2017 | The Columbus Dispatch
By Earl Rinehart
The turnout gear that firefighters are encouraged to wear for protection against toxic chemicals at fire scenes could itself be a hazard, according to a lawyer who’s demanding a study be done for a group with “unusually high rates of cancer.” -
California Battery Review May Drive Less Toxic Model
Oct 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
California regulators are poised to launch a review under their pioneering green chemistry program of lead-acid batteries, an effort that state officials say could establish a national or even global model for manufacturing less-toxic batteries. -
European Union Glyphosate Vote Set for Nov. 9
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Union will hold a long-awaited vote Nov. 9 on the reauthorization of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and dozens of other herbicides. -
(ACC Mentioned) Company to Spend $150M on Ethane Storage Facility
Oct 30, 2017 | TankTerminals.com
Mountaineer NGL Storage officials announced Thursday plans to spend $150 million — and potentially as much as $500 million — on its proposed natural gas liquids storage facility along the Ohio River near Clarington. -
(ACC Mentions) Exxonmobil Enhances Polyethylene Production Capacity With New Lines
Oct 27, 2017 | Enterprise Leader
By Marion Hillson
Two polyethylene lines located at ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s plastics plant have been opened. This is in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The capacity of each of the polyethylene lines is 650,000 tons a year translating to approximately 1.3 million tons annually in enhanced capacity. -
Trump China Trip to Broker Multibillion-Dollar U.S. Energy Deals
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer Jacobs and Justin Sink
Representatives from about 40 companies are expected to accompany President Donald Trump on the first presidential trade mission to China Nov. 8-10 and sign deals for billions of dollars in U.S. investments. -
Pruitt: Obama Regulations Were 'War' On Business
Oct 29, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By John Bowden
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt says former President Obama declared "war" on coal and other industries with his administration's environmental regulations and by signing off on the Paris Climate Accord. -
DOE Panel Recommends Expedited LNG Exports, NEPA Review
Oct 27, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
A task force at the Department of Energy (DOE) has come up with a list of four recommendations for the department to follow, including expediting approval of small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, and conducting a review of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations and how they are implemented. -
Fire at West Virginia Plastics Warehouse Releases Toxics
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The EPA deployed a specialized aircraft equipped with sensors to identify chemical contaminants that may have been released during a plastics warehouse fire in Parkersburg, W.Va., a blaze that was still smoldering after five days. -
(ACC Mentioned) Sohn: All Politics Are : Local, Especially With The Environment
Oct 29, 2017 | Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Pam Sohn
First it was foxes-to-guard-the-hen-house political appointments. Then it was undoing environmental protections. -
EPA Mum On Plans For New Source Rule
Oct 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
U.S. EPA's plans for an Obama-era rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants remain a mystery. -
California’s Cap-and-Trade Plan Is Working
Oct 27, 2017 | The Wall Street Journla
The entirely theoretical argument presented by Richard Sexton and Steve Sexton (“The Fatal Flaw in California’s Cap-and-Trade Program,” Cross Country, Oct. 21) falls short in just one place: the real world. The facts show that under California’s law to limit climate pollution, our economy is thriving, jobs are being added at a faster rate than the national average and emissions are decreasing ahead of schedule.
Congressional Hearings
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Environment News
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Hearing On Transportation Nominees
Oct 31, 2017 | Commerce, Science and Transportation
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Hearing On Building Efficiency
Oct 31, 2017 | Energy and Natural Resources
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Hearing On NASA, NOAA, CPSC Nominees
Nov 1, 2017 | Commerce, Science and Transportation
By 10:00 AM, 253 Russell
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(ACC Mentioned) Spectrum of Harm: Ripple Effects of Trump’s Macabre Environmental Policies
Oct 27, 2017 | Union of Concerned Scientists
By Derrick Z. Jackson
The front pages of last Sunday’s Washington Post and New York Times starkly exposed how concerned citizens, fearful immigrants, and career scientists alike are smothered by the Trump administration’s macabre environmental policies.Worming through the EPA
The Times zeroed in on Nancy Beck’s voracious worming through the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations of dangerous chemicals and poisons. She is figuratively trying to eat enough holes in the rules to make chemicals harder to track and control and therefore shielding polluters from prosecution.
Beck is the former regulatory science policy director of the American Chemistry Council and was appointed by President Trump in May as deputy assistant secretary in the EPA’s department of Chemical Safety and Pollution Protection. Before the American Chemistry Council, she served in the George W. Bush White House, where she badgered the EPA in such a picayune manner for proof of chemical harms that she was criticized by the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences.
During President Obama’s tenure, Beck performed the same function for the nation’s leading chemical lobbyist, questioning regulation on arsenic and other chemicals used in perfumes and dry cleaning. But Trump’s election turned the world upside down. Beck was brought back by his White House under special provisions that exempted her from ethics rules that would have prevented her from being involved in decisions involving former employers.
She has since wasted no time declaring herself a puppet of industry instead of a searchlight for safety.Weakened rules on a kidney cancer-causing chemical and other harmful toxins
The Times highlighted Beck’s heavy hand in weakening rules on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a kidney cancer-causing agent that many large companies, including BASF, 3M, and DuPont, volunteered to phase out during the Obama administration. PFOA is present in such common items as nonstick kitchenware and stain-resistant carpeting.
But even with a total phase out, that chemical remains in millions of cabinets and on millions of floors around the nation. Beck’s rewriting of rules made it seem that the EPA would no longer make risk assessments on “legacy” use of products containing PFOA or their storage or disposal. That so alarmed staffers at the EPA’s Office of Water that they wrote a memo, obtained by the Times, warning that PFOA’s potential to continue to pollute drinking water and ground water remains so strong that it “is an excellent example of why it is important to evaluate all conditions of use of the chemical.”
PFOA is only one of several chemicals that the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, with Beck as a relatively little-known henchwoman, are limiting scrutiny on to protect industry. Before Beck arrived, the Trump EPA had already refused—over the objection of staff scientists—to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide believed to stunt child development. The agency, as the Times reports, is also re-considering proposed bans of methylene chloride in paint strippers and trichloroethylene, which respectively are used in paint strippers and dry cleaning and are linked to illness and death.A relentless assault
This relentless assault is remaking the EPA into the Everyday Pollution Agency and has reached such a pitch under President Trump that Beck’s immediate boss, Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, left the agency last month after 38 years with the agency. Hamnett supported the ban on chlorpyrifos and had a long track record of elevating public health impacts into her consideration of chemical harms, particularly on lead paint in homes. As she told the Times, science can rarely be 100 percent sure about anything but if a chemical is “likely to be a severe effect and result in a significant number of people exposed . . . I am going to err on the side of safety.”
With a White House that now errs on the side of industry, Hamnett told the Times that she resigned because, “I had become irrelevant.”“You can’t let your windows up and enjoy a fresh breeze”
A Trump administration dedicated to making science and scientists irrelevant surely has worse in store for everyone else. Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services released a report revealing how low-income residents and people of color regardless of income are more likely to live near toxic chemical facilities in the Houston area.
The Post’s story on Corpus Christi shows that the worst is happening already. For decades, the predominately African American and Latino community of Hillcrest has abutted a massive oil refinery complex that includes a gasoline production facility for Citgo and a Koch brothers plant making jet fuel for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
One resident, 56-year-old Rosie Ann Porter, retired from a job supplying helicopter parts, told the Post that her daughter grew up with serious asthma. Other neighbors complained of other chronic lung diseases. Porter said, “You can’t let your windows up and enjoy a fresh breeze coming through the house. When they’re up and the refinery’s spilling out those fumes, it’s nothing nice.”
In a solid example of environmental justice reporting that displayed the agency of residents, the Post made it clear that the residents refused to succumb to the fumes without many fights. But victories were fleeting. A federal jury found Citgo guilty in 2007 of spewing benzine, a known carcinogen, into the community. The company was fined $2 million, but the verdict and fine were completely overturned on appeals, based on improper instructions to the jury. A report last year by the Department of Health and Human Services found higher rates of asthma and cancer in males than the Texas average.Living in the shadows of soot
More recently, Hillcrest rose up against a massive proposed $500 million bridge spanning high above the Corpus Christi shipping channel. The bridge would allow supertankers to ply beneath it, but construction of the span and a highway addition would completely box in and isolate Hillcrest from any other neighborhood.
Citing civil rights laws and banking on support from an Obama administration sympathetic to the history of highway projects ripping apart communities of color, Porter and other Hillcrest residents filed a complaint with the Federal Highway Administration. The complaint resulted in an unusual compromise in 2015. Texas officials were so eager to increase commerce that they agreed to buyout residents at two or three times their average home value of around $50,000.
That victory came with some major asterisks. One is that the buyouts still may never fully compensate residents for home values that were depressed for decades because of the encroaching refineries. Another is that undocumented residents, whom the Obama administration assumed were eligible for buyouts under nondiscrimination laws, were cut out of the deal by Texas once the Trump administration took over with its anti-Latino immigrant animus. No one knows how many undocumented families are affected because a public complaint might result in deportation.
Thus one set of people, after decades of industrial abuse, are about to set off for other parts of Texas with a payout that may or may not help them buy new homes. Another set of people will continue to live fearfully in the shadows of soot. And in Washington, an administration continues to draw a shroud over all of environmental protections, working to the day that science and safety are, to borrow from Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, irrelevant.
http://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/spectrum-of-harm-ripple-effects-of-trumps-macabre-environmental-policies
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Spokeswoman Liz Bowman Really Making Name For Herself, As YOOOGE DICK
Oct 27, 2017 | Wonkette
Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson Liz Bowman is really making a name for herself in the press. Of course, it’s a name that 50 years ago would have been politely elided as “unfit for a family newspaper.” Consider her reply this week to a request for comment on some detailed questions from the New York Times’s Eric Lipton, who was preparing a major story on how the EPA has grown much friendlier to toxic chemicals after hiring Nancy Beck, a former executive at the American Chemical Council, the industry’s top trade association. Instead of answering a single question, Bowman blew them off and replied:
No matter how much information we give you, you would never write a fair piece. The only thing inappropriate and biased is your continued fixation on writing elitist clickbait trying to attack qualified professionals committed to serving their country.
So that’s professional communication in the Trump administration these days. The Times offered the EPA a chance to comment on or clarify a number of matters before the story went to press, and instead Bowman said there’s no point in replying, because ELITIST CLICKBAIT and you hate America.
We first became aware that the official tone for EPA press releases had gone off the rails when the Associated Press did that story about flooding at EPA Superfund sites in Houston and the EPA released a statement attacking the reporters:Yesterday, the Associated Press’ Michael Biesecker wrote an incredibly misleading story about toxic land sites that are under water.
Despite reporting from the comfort of Washington, Biesecker had the audacity to imply that agencies aren’t being responsive to the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey. Not only is this inaccurate, but it creates panic and politicizes the hard work of first responders who are actually in the affected area.
Not mentioned in that press release? The AP’s lead reporter for the piece, Jason Dearen, was very much in Houston, and had been to all the Superfund sites he described, with video of him going there, for chrissake.
Commenting on this week’s fuck-tussle with the EPA, NYT Washington bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller told WaPo journalism blogger Erik Wemple simply, “It’s an unusual statement coming out of the EPA, let’s put it that way,” and so Wemple put it that way — and also noted that your average clickbait story doesn’t get into the weeds of how toxic chemicals are classified by government agencies. Perhaps Bowman was thinking of the Times’s follow-up piece, “You’ll never BELIEVE what happened when this adorable kitten got into the perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)!”
Today, Wemple documents yet another exchange between Lipton and Bowman, in which Lipton just wanted confirmation, for the same story, on a couple of simple questions: What was a guy’s exact title, and when did he start working at EPA? A website that covers the energy industry, E&E News, had reported the guy had actually started work at EPA before he was confirmed by the Senate, so Lipton wanted to make sure that was right.
Instead of answering the questions, which would have required her to write down the guy’s title and a date, Bowman replied by sending him a link to USA Today and the link to the E&E News story that said the guy started working before he’d been confirmed. Lipton got a bit uppity, and emailed back:
Thanks for this.
So that to me is confirmation from the EPA that he is working at EPA and that he arrived this week.
Appreciate your help.
Eric
Then another EPA comms office person, Jahan Wilcox, jumped in and emailed Lipton,
If you want to steal work from other outlets and pretend like it’s your own reporting that is your decision.
Lipton patiently wrote back to both:
My job is to get direct confirmation of facts.
I do not rely on other news outlets, repeating what they have reported, without getting direct confirmation.
You avoid Fake News that way.
Bowman replied that Lipton darn well better quote as his sources USA Today and E&E News, and then Wilcox cc’ed the whole conversation to those two sources, writing to Lipton,
Adding the two outlets who you want to steal their work from to this email.
So. Fucking. Petty. Ultimately, Lipton didn’t mention either story, says Wemple, because by the time the story went to print, “reporting on Dourson’s status at EPA had already been picked up by other outlets, to the point that it was a congealed public fact.” He then notes that it’s really not normal for a federal agency’s press people to start “preemptively refereeing protocols for story credit among media outlets. Talk about regulatory overreach!”
We can hardly wait to get our very own condemnatory email from Liz Bowman on this story, because we certainly have gone out of our way to portray her and her comms shop in the most negative light possible. We would even go so far as to say that she may well not be a very nice person at all, and we stand by that. We wonder if she flips her lid when you call her “Liz”?https://wonkette.com/624938/epa-spokeswoman-liz-bowman-really-making-name-for-herself-as-yoooge-dick
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(ACC Mentioned) Exxon: EPA Should Leverage Existing Chemical Exposure Data
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The EPA should partner with chemical and product makers in securing chemical exposure information to improve decisions, an Exxon Mobil scientist said.
The Environmental Protection Agency traditionally has been starved of exposure information when reviewing chemical risks. Yet an amended chemicals law now puts a premium on the agency having exposure data as it weighs regulations to restrict chemical uses.
Without good data, the EPA makes assumptions about human and environmental exposures to chemicals. Whether subsequent regulations are too restrictive—limiting chemical sales and use—or too lax, putting people at risk, often hinges on debates over these assumptions.
“There's a lot of information out there,” but it can be challenging to get it, said Rosemary Zaleski, who heads the chemical exposure division at Exxon Biomedical Sciences Inc. “No one entity has all the information. We really need to work together,” she said at a recent International Society for Exposure Science conference in North Carolina.
EPA scientists welcomed outside input and said as long as the science meets rigorous criteria, the agency will consider submitted data, exposure models, and other tools to learn how people are exposed to chemicals and at what levels.
Exposure is Critical
Exposure is a critical component of the chemical reviews that the EPA must make as it implements the Toxic Substances Control Act, which was amended in 2016, Richard Becker, a senior toxicologist with the American Chemistry Council, told Bloomberg Environment.
“Decisions will be driven not just by potential toxicity, but also potential exposures,” he said.
Exposure data informs EPA decisions on whether:
• a chemical is a candidate for initial examination;
• it's a low or high priority for closer scrutiny of potential health and environmental risks; and
• it poses sufficient risks to warrant regulation.
Search Strategies
The EPA has relied on the internet, scientific databases, and other search strategies to obtain information about the “conditions of use” of chemicals and exposures related to how chemicals are made, processed, and disposed of.
“To me, it would be much more efficient to have a dialogue with manufacturers and downstream users/formulators as in combination I would think they could provide this information and in a more current, representative way then what the EPA may be finding on internet searches,” Zaleski told Bloomberg Environment.
Chemical, adhesive, paint, and other manufacturers already have collected exposure information on hundreds of downstream products to comply with chemical regulations around the world, Zaleski said at the conference. Companies have spent a lot of time and money preparing such information, and it could be leveraged to better calibrate upcoming regulations under the amended law.
“How can we maximize information value?,” she asked.
Multinational companies selling chemicals in the European market already have provided European Union authorities with exposure information to register their products. Zaleski said. It could be possible to repurpose for the U.S. some of that data along with submissions to Australian and other regulators, she said.
Cosmetic and personal care product companies in the EU also have teamed up with data management firms to compile chemical use information, said Sarah Tozer, a Procter & Gamble toxicologist. The effort is designed to help calculate “aggregate” exposure to chemicals in personal care products used in Europe, said Filipe Almeida from Cosmetics Europe.
Available Data
Some companies, including Exxon Mobil, have posted detailed information online for chemicals registered in the EU, according to Zaleski. The information is available in what the EU calls an extended Safety Data Sheet. These documents—such as one Exxon Mobil prepared for a type of alcohol called EXXAL™ 13—have more information than those used in the U.S.
That additional information also is available from the European Chemicals Agency database, but it's hard to access because the searches must be conducted one chemical at a time, Zaleski said.
By working with industries and other parties, the EPA will have an easier time pulling together exposure information. “We want to help with a successful TSCA implementation,” Zaleski said.
As the chemical office continues to work through its first 10 chemical risk reviews, the EPA will examine data available from, and methods used, in other parts of the world such as the EU, Cathy Fehrenbacher, acting deputy director of OPPT's risk assessment division told Bloomberg Environment.
EPA Seeks Measured Data
Scott Prothero, with the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, said the agency wants measurements of worker exposures.
“Breathing zone data is the gold standard,” he said during a conference session. “Monitoring may be an okay substitute.”
Breathing zone measurements are taken with sensors attached near a worker's face; monitoring measurements track the amount of chemicals in a room or other space. If actual measurements are not available, the agency will use computer-based models, professional judgment, and other methods to predict potential exposures, Prothero said.
‘Require Data’
But instead of partnering to secure information, Jennifer McPartland—a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund—said the EPA should use new authorities that Congress provided in the amended chemicals law to order companies to generate exposure data.
For example, the agency should require data rather than make untested assumptions as it has in some of its preliminary plans to assess chemicals, she said.Its initial blueprint to review the risks of the solvent 1-bromopropane, for example, said the agency will consider workers’ dermal exposures. But for asbestos, the agency says dermal exposure is unlikely because workers would wear gloves, even though EPA also acknowledges that workers taking lunch or other food breaks may ingest asbestos that has landed on their skin.
The EPA should use empirical data and analysis to evaluate assumptions such as whether employees are using personal protective equipment and following label warnings and instructions, McPartland said.
Blueprints of Chemical Reviews
Hundreds of academic, corporate, federal agency, and other scientists from 33 countries attended the international conference. Five analysts from the EPA's chemicals office described near-term efforts to evaluate exposures.
“Problem formulation” documents lay out a blueprint for the health and environmental concerns the agency will examine, specific conditions of those chemicals’ uses, and questions it will seek to answer. These will be released for public comment by the end of this year or early 2018, the EPA's Fehrenbacher said, and outside parties can provide exposure information to the agency during the comment process.
Along with those documents, the EPA also will publish “living” protocols describing the toxicity and exposure models, processes, and other methods it used to prepare them, Fehrenbacher said. The protocols will evolve as the agency's chemicals office develops new methods, she told Bloomberg Environment.
Charles Bevington, with the same EPA division, focused on exposure models such as EFAST that the agency plans to use. It also is developing other tools, including as ReachScan. Models are sometimes needed to predict exposures that occur as chemicals get into, move through, and affect the environment and health, according to Bevington .
“We're open to other models developed by folks outside [the EPA], as long as they meet TSCA's standards,” he said. That includes internal EPA models, as well as those that chemical companies, consortia, and researchers generate, he said.
Next Steps
The research office developed the web-based Chemistry Dashboard, which quickly pulls together publicly available information on chemical structure, measured and predicted volatility, solubility, toxicity, and other information. Scientists can then use the information to predict the potential health risks of chemicals.
John Wambaugh, co-leader of the EPA's Rapid Exposure and Dosimetry project, focused on uncertainties.
The exposure information they collect through crawling many websites and databases will be very uncertain, but still useful, Wambaugh said.
If the preliminary—albeit uncertain—information suggests that the exposures to chemicals are vastly lower than any dose that could cause health or ecological harm, then it's less urgent to evaluate them right away, he said.
Chemicals with uncertain exposures that may be occurring in the range of potentially harmful doses could warrant closer examination, he said.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=123084360&vname=dennotallissues&fn=123084360&jd=123084360
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EPA Schedules Meeting On Alternative Chemical Test Methods
Oct 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA has scheduled a public meeting next week to discuss its plans and goals for the strategic plan it is developing for implementing alternative chemical testing methods and reducing animal testing, as directed by the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Section 4(h) of the new law sets a June 2018 deadline for EPA to craft a strategic plan “to promote the development and implementation of alternative test methods and strategies to reduce, refine or replace vertebrate animal testing.”
The public meeting is scheduled for Nov. 2 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, as the meeting is co-organized by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM).
According to an Oct. 26 email from EPA, the agency will discuss its progress so far in drafting the strategic plan, experts will address a series of charge questions and the agency will take public comment.
The announcement closely follows an exclusive interview with EPA's top toxics appointee, Nancy Beck, who indicated that work on the strategic plans was one of the next steps of TSCA reform implementation that staff has started working on.
"The goal is to have an opportunity for public input this fall/early winter. I believe there is a need and place for alternative testing methods and they will be an important component to prioritizing and evaluating chemicals," Beck said.
Slides that EPA has posted in advance of the meeting outline a series of goals and objectives for the strategic plan, including promoting “the development and implementation of alternative test methods and strategies”; ensuring that “the strategic plan is reflected in the development of requirements for testing”; crafting “a list of particular alternative test methods or strategies”; developing “criteria for considering scientific reliability and relevance of the test methods and strategies”; submitting a progress report to Congress in 2021, and every five years thereafter and prioritizing and carrying “out performance assessment, validation and translational studies to accelerate the development of alternative methods/strategies.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-schedules-meeting-alternative-chemical-test-methods
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(ACC Mentioned) Trump’s Legacy: Damaged Brains
Oct 30, 2017 | The New York TImes
By Nicholas Kristof
The pesticide, which belongs to a class of chemicals developed as a nerve gas made by Nazi Germany, is now found in food, air and drinking water. Human and animal studies show that it damages the brain and reduces I.Q.s while causing tremors among children. It has also been linked to lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease in adults.
The colored parts of the image above, prepared by Columbia University scientists, indicate where a child’s brain is physically altered after exposure to this pesticide.
This chemical, chlorpyrifos, is hard to pronounce, so let’s just call it Dow Chemical Company’s Nerve Gas Pesticide. Even if you haven’t heard of it, it may be inside you: One 2012 study found that it was in the umbilical cord blood of 87 percent of newborn babies tested.
And now the Trump administration is embracing it, overturning a planned ban that had been in the works for many years.
The Environmental Protection Agency actually banned Dow’s Nerve Gas Pesticide for most indoor residential use 17 years ago — so it’s no longer found in the Raid you spray at cockroaches (it’s very effective, which is why it’s so widely used; then again, don’t suggest this to Dow, but sarin nerve gas might be even more effective!). The E.P.A. was preparing to ban it for agricultural and outdoor use this spring, but then the Trump administration rejected the ban.
That was a triumph for Dow, but the decision stirred outrage among public health experts. They noted that Dow had donated $1 million for President Trump’s inauguration.
So Dow’s Nerve Gas Pesticide will still be used on golf courses, road medians and crops that end up on our plate. Kids are told to eat fruits and vegetables, but E.P.A. scientists found levels of this pesticide on such foods at up to 140 times the limits deemed safe.
“This was a chemical developed to attack the nervous system,” notes Virginia Rauh, a Columbia professor who has conducted groundbreaking research on it. “It should not be a surprise that it’s not good for people.”
Remember the brain-damaging lead that was ignored in drinking water in Flint, Mich.? What’s happening under the Trump administration is a nationwide echo of what was permitted in Flint: Officials are turning a blind eye to the spread of a number of toxic substances, including those linked to cancer and brain damage.
“We are all Flint,” Professor Rauh says. “We will look back on it as something shameful.”
Here’s the big picture: The $800 billion chemical industry lavishes money on politicians and lobbies its way out of effective regulation. This has always been a problem, but now the Trump administration has gone so far as to choose chemical industry lobbyists to oversee environmental protections. The American Academy of Pediatrics protested the administration’s decision on the nerve gas pesticide, but officials sided with industry over doctors. The swamp won.
The chemical industry lobby, the American Chemistry Council, is today’s version of Big Tobacco. One vignette: Chemical companies secretly set up a now-defunct front organization called Citizens for Fire Safety that purported to be a coalition of firefighters, doctors and others alarmed about house fires. The group called for requiring flame retardantchemicals in couches, to save lives, of course.
In fact, this was an industry hoax, part of a grand strategy to increase sales of flame retardants — whose principal effect seems to be to cause cancer. The American Chemistry Council was caught lying about its involvement in this hoax.
Yet these days, Trump is handing over the keys of our regulatory apparatus to the council and its industry allies. An excellent Times articleby Eric Lipton noted that to oversee toxic chemicals, Trump appointed a council veteran along with toxicologist with a history of taking council money to defend carcinogens.
In effect, Trump appointed two foxes to be Special Assistant for Guarding the Henhouse.
Some day we will look back and wonder: What were we thinking?! I’ve written about the evidence that toxic chemicals are lowering men’s sperm counts, and new research suggests by extrapolation that by 2060, a majority of American and European men could even be infertile. These days we spew fewer toxins into our air and rivers, and instead we dump poisons directly into our own bodies.
A Dow spokeswoman, Rachelle Schikorra, told me that “Dow stands by the safety of chlorpyrifos” (I don’t think the company approves of my branding it Dow’s Nerve Gas Pesticide). Given Dow’s confidence, I suggest that the company spray it daily in its executive dining rooms.
Look, it’s easy to get diverted by the daily White House fireworks. But long after the quotidian craziness is forgotten, Americans will be caring for victims of the chemical industry’s takeover of safety regulation.
Democrats sometimes gloat that Trump hasn’t managed to pass significant legislation so far, which is true. But he has been tragically effective at dismantling environmental and health regulations — so that Trump’s most enduring legacy may be cancer, infertility and diminished I.Q.s for decades to come.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/28/opinion/sunday/chlorpyrifos-dow-environmental-protection-agency.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
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(ACC Mentioned) Firefighters’ Gear May Be Hazardous
Oct 29, 2017 | The Columbus Dispatch
By Earl Rinehart
The turnout gear that firefighters are encouraged to wear for protection against toxic chemicals at fire scenes could itself be a hazard, according to a lawyer who’s demanding a study be done for a group with “unusually high rates of cancer.”
Cincinnati lawyer Robert A. Bilott notified U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt last month that he intends to sue the government unless work begins on developing the study. The letter also was sent to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The chemicals that concern Bilott are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoralkyl, collectively known as PFAs. They were used in firefighting foam and turnout coats worn by firefighters. They are popular because of their slick surfactant properties that help turnout coats shed oil, gasoline and hazardous chemicals and foam spread.
In his letter, Bilott gave the officials until Nov. 5 to respond to avoid “a citizen’s suit.”
He had not heard back from the officials as of Friday. A Dispatch request for an EPA interview also went unanswered.
Bilott has experience fighting PFAs in court. In 2000, he sued DuPont on behalf of 3,500 plaintiffs who claimed to have been sickened by water tainted with perfluorooctanoic acid, a PFOA commonly called C8, dumped into the Ohio River. He alleged it killed a farmer’s cows and sickened humans. A panel of scientists concluded there was a probable link between C8 and kidney and testicular cancer and four other ailments. In February, DuPont agreed to settle for $670 million.
Now, Bilott is concerned the same chemicals are contributing to the high incidence of cancer among firefighters, who are 14 percent more likely to contract cancer than the general public, according to “Unmasked,” an investigative series of stories in The Dispatch last week. The newspaper found that firefighters are dying more from cancer than from fires because they don’t always wear the gear that protects them from hazardous materials.
“For many years, unusually high rates of cancer and other adverse health effects have been observed among our nation’s firefighters and emergency responders, particularly among responders who handle or use firefighting foam ... or wear gear treated or made with such PFAs materials,” he wrote in his letter to Pruitt.
He recommended the government form a science panel, like the one convened for the DuPont/C8 trial.
Representatives of the chemical industry said such a panel is unnecessary because the hazardous PFAs were phased out in 2015 per a voluntary program.
“For the most part the industry has moved to C6, which has already been studied and shown is not toxic,” said Jessica Bowman, senior director for Global Fluoro-Chemistry for the American Chemistry Council.
Bowman said Class B firefighting foam is still made with PFOA but is reserved for hazardous spills, such as tanker-truck crashes or rail-car collisions involving fuel spills. Most cities use Class A foam that is biodegradable and doesn’t have the same hazardous properties.
While PFAs have known detrimental health effects, chemicals such a C6 have “very different profiles from a human health” perspective, she said.
Bilott would not comment on studies of C6. However, while fighting DuPont, he was skeptical of DuPont’s claims that its laboratory had adequately tested C8 and approved its use as safe for people. Years later, the science panel said there was a probable link between the chemical and cancer.
Bill Houk is president of the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Association. He’s unfamiliar with Bilott’s concern, but wouldn’t oppose the study he suggests.
“I think we would support gathering more information,” Houk said. “Every fire chief is trying to make sure his firefighters go home every day.”
His gut reaction is there might be something to what Bilott says. But until there’s a decision otherwise, he knows donning the gear to fight the hazard outweighs the possible danger of wearing it.
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20171029/firefighters-gear-may-be-hazardous
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California Battery Review May Drive Less Toxic Model
Oct 27, 2017 | Inside EPA
California regulators are poised to launch a review under their pioneering green chemistry program of lead-acid batteries, an effort that state officials say could establish a national or even global model for manufacturing less-toxic batteries.
As reported by Inside Cal/EPA's Curt Barry, the review by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) of lead-acid batteries under its Safer Consumer Products (SCP) program will kick off with a Nov. 6 workshop in Sacramento.
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) ordered the review last year as part of a $176-million spending plan to remediate areas near the Exide Technologies battery-recycling facility in southern California. The facility was closed due to contamination and expired DTSC permits.
Brown directed DTSC to "evaluate lead-acid batteries through a Hazardous Waste Reduction Initiative," an effort that could "result in identifying lead batteries as a 'Priority Product' under the [SCP] program, which will require manufacturers to evaluate the product's health impacts and consider ways to reduce impacts."
DTSC says in a notice for the upcoming workshop that because the chemical hazards in lead-acid batteries -- such as lead, arsenic and sulfuric acid -- are well known, "exposure is the remaining factor to evaluate. Identifying alternatives is also part of the evaluation."
The public workshop will include a public comment period that follows a variety of 30-minute presentations on the uses of lead-acid batteries, the regulatory landscape they face, lithium-iron-phosphate batteries as a potential alternative in vehicles, automobile manufacturer perspectives, and issues such as recycling, according to DTSC.
DTSC Director Barbara Lee said last year that the SCP review of lead-acid batteries could lead to a national or even global model for manufacturing less-toxic batteries. If "lead-acid batteries are reformulated through this work, it will pay dividends not just for the state of California but across the country and perhaps internationally as well," Lee said.
If the batteries are eventually listed as priority products under the green chemistry program, "then the manufacturers of those products will be required to do alternatives analysis, looking at how those products are made to see if lead-acid batteries could be made safer so that they would, over their lifecycles, release less lead into the environment and cause less of an impact to human health and the environment," Lee added.
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European Union Glyphosate Vote Set for Nov. 9
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Union will hold a long-awaited vote Nov. 9 on the reauthorization of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and dozens of other herbicides.
Glyphosate's current EU authorization expires Dec. 15 but the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, has been unable to broker an agreement on an extension. Some EU countries and lawmakers oppose reauthorization because of fears that the substance is a human carcinogen.
The commission published a draft regulation that would reauthorize glyphosate through December 2022, shorter than the EU's standard pesticide reauthorization period of 15 years. The commission previously floated a 10-year renewal, but had to shorten the period further when a sufficient number of EU countries said they would oppose it.
Under EU rules, the decision on glyphosate must be taken by a qualified majority vote in a regulatory committee of EU member country representatives. The commission said Oct. 26 a vote would take place Nov. 9.
The newly proposed five-year reauthorization is in line with the European Parliament, which has an advisory role on glyphosate. The parliament said in an Oct. 24 nonbinding resolution that glyphosate could be reauthorized for five years, but only for agricultural use, and should thereafter be phased out.
Five Years Seen As Unsatisfactory
The proposed five year reauthorization drew criticism from advocates on both sides of the issue.
Hans Muilerman, chemicals officer with nonprofit group Pesticides Action Network Europe, told Bloomberg Environment that while the commission shortened the requested reauthorization period, it was “only a minor victory” for opponents.
Unlike the European Parliament resolution, the Oct. 27 commission proposal does not include a phaseout plan or a proposal for new independent carcinogenicity tests, Muilerman said.
“This proposal will only mean that Monsanto delivers the same dossiers in a few years time, and we will have a repetition of the current discussion,” he said.
A public campaign in the EU in favor of a glyphosate ban gathered more than 1 million signatures, a trigger point under EU rules for the European Commission to respond.
A spokesman for Monsanto, who asked not to be named citing company policy, told Bloomberg Environment that glyphosate “meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements for a full 15-year renewal in the EU.”
The commission's proposed short-term renewal “will set a dangerous precedent for other substance renewals in the future,” the company spokesman said.
Graeme Taylor, public affairs director for the European Crop Protection Association, said the five-year reauthorization plan “from a scientific perspective simply doesn't make sense.”
“Where politics wins, science loses,” Taylor told Bloomberg Environment.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=123084361&vname=dennotallissues&fn=123084361&jd=123084361
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(ACC Mentioned) Company to Spend $150M on Ethane Storage Facility
Oct 30, 2017 | TankTerminals.com
October 30, 2017 [The Times Leader] - Mountaineer NGL Storage officials announced Thursday plans to spend $150 million — and potentially as much as $500 million — on its proposed natural gas
liquids storage facility along the Ohio River near Clarington.By 2019, company Managing Director David Hooker hopes to store up to 420 million gallons of ethane, propane and butane in caverns along the river, with the goal of allowing the potential PTT Global Chemical cracker plant to access the product via pipelines that would only need to stretch about 10 miles.
Also, the Mountaineer NGL Storage project could be the first part of the Appalachian Storage Hub, or “ethane hub,” which American Chemistry Council officials said could eventually lead to $36 billion worth of investment and about 100,000 permanent jobs.
“We are pretty excited about this project,” Hooker said Thursday. “It is a nice means for industrial growth in the area. It will be nice to keep the product local.”
Hooker said he already has a permit from the Ohio Department of Transportation, but is still waiting for authorization from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“We feel like we have a pretty good rapport with the Ohio EPA. They are pretty clear about what they want from us. We need permits from Ohio EPA, ODNR and ODOT, and we have secured all permitting with ODOT already,” Hooker said. “We are working on some issues with ODNR, but they have been very accommodating.”
Hooker said he expects all environmental permits for the project to be obtained within the first six months of 2018, after which construction could begin.
“We’re pleased to see that the support of this regional effort is as strong as it is, and we believe that the Mountaineer NGL Storageproject highlights how the private sector can take steps to address critical storage solutions for the burgeoning petrochemical industry,” Hooker added. “We think that our investment will encourage significant additional NGL infrastructure support in the region, as well.”
Since discussion of a Marcellus and Utica shale ethane cracker began, industry leaders have maintained a major obstacle is the lack of underground storage capacity for the natural gas liquid. This is needed, they say, to ensure a constant source of ethane to the cracker plant in the event of supply disruptions.
“It would certainly help solve the lack of storage problem,” Hooker said Thursday.
Hooker continues work on his underground storage cavern endeavor, which he hopes to open on former coal mine property along the Ohio River. He has said the plan is to operate three pipelines that will run beneath the river, in addition to those that may run toward the PTT site.
Preliminary plans called for these lines to run under the river — one carrying ethane from the Marshall County Blue Race Natrium natural gas processing plant to the Monroe County caverns; one transporting a combination of propane and butane from the Natrium plant to the caverns; and one sending salt brine waste from salt brine from Clarington to a West Virginia chlorine plant.
“It will be more than a mile underground. We’ve drilled 48 bore-holes into the ground to make sure it is stable,” Hooker said.
Monroe County Commissioner Mick Schumacher said the permitting process for the facility has been relatively slow because the Ohio EPA has had to write new regulations for natural gas liquids storage facilities.
“Belmont County Commissioner Mark Thomas and I are going to contact the Ohio EPA together. We think that if we form a two-county partnership we can help move the process along,” Schumacher said.
During the summer, Hooker joined a panel discussion in Canonsburg, Pa. organized by West Virginia University to discuss storage capacity for the Appalachian Storage Hub, which American Chemistry Council officials said could eventually lead to $36 billion worth of total investment in the region. Hooker’s Monroe County operation would fall into one of the “top-rated” zones, as the salt walls in the area are estimated at 100 feet thick.
U.S. Reps. David McKinley, R-W.Va., and Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, said the project is promising because of the caverns’ proximity not only to the possible PTT project, but also the confirmed Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker under construction in Beaver County, Pa.
“With a new ethane cracker plant coming to the area and our abundant supply of natural gas, investments like this will create thousands of good-paying jobs, spark new private investment, and bring billions of dollars in new revenue to the region,” McKinley said.
“With one ethane cracker construction underway in our region and the potential for another just around the corner, new requirements are emerging for ethane storage and pipeline infrastructure projects,” Johnson added. “These are positive, opportunity-creating developments for the hard-working people of eastern and southeastern Ohio, and I will continue to ensure Congress does not limit this new and growing economic potential, but instead helps to grow it.”
https://www.tankterminals.com/news_detail.php?id=4690
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(ACC Mentions) Exxonmobil Enhances Polyethylene Production Capacity With New Lines
Oct 27, 2017 | Enterprise Leader
By Marion Hillson
Two polyethylene lines located at ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s plastics plant have been opened. This is in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The capacity of each of the polyethylene lines is 650,000 tons a year translating to approximately 1.3 million tons annually in enhanced capacity. Coupled with rest of the plant the volume of production is expected to be a combined 2.5 million tons a year making it one of the biggest polyethylene factories in the world.
“The expansion of our Mont Belvieu facility further enhances our ability to meet growing global demand for high-performance polyethylene products around the world,” said Exxon Mobil Chemical Co’s president, Neil Chapman, in a statement.
Production capacity
The polyethylene products coming out of the plant will possess various advantages include reduced emissions, lower energy consumption and superior performance packaging that is lighter.The source of most of the parts that will be needed at the polyethylene facility will be obtained from Houston port later this month. At its peak the number of containers that are expected to be shipped from the plant are 200.
With the expanded production capacity ExxonMobil will be in a position to exploit opportunities by a growing market abroad and domestically for plastics as the populations in emerging markets begin to consumer more consumer and food products that are packaged. Per HIS Markit, demand for the base chemical which is ethylene is expected to increase by between 5.5 million and 6 million tons per year when the gross domestic product growth figure is assumed to be above 2.5%.
Gulf Coast
The project is part of ExxonMobil’s plan to expand operations in Baytown areas as well as the Gulf. Earlier in the year ExxonMobil revealed that it would invest about $20 billion up to the year 2022 in order to expand its oil refining and chemical plants located on the Gulf Coast. About 12,000 permanent employment positions in liquefied natural gas, lubricant, refining and chemical facilities are expected to be created with this investment.
About 90% of the plastics production capacity in the United States is in the Gulf Coast. When Hurricane Harvey hit about 60% of the propylene and ethylene capacity was knocked out.
Per the American Chemistry Council, there have been 301 chemical sector projects in the United States valued at $181 million which have been announced since 2010. The American Chemistry Council is a trade group which represents chemical companies in the United States.
http://theenterpriseleader.com/exxonmobil-enhances-polyethylene-production-capacity-with-new-lines/
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Trump China Trip to Broker Multibillion-Dollar U.S. Energy Deals
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer Jacobs and Justin Sink
Representatives from about 40 companies are expected to accompany President Donald Trump on the first presidential trade mission to China Nov. 8-10 and sign deals for billions of dollars in U.S. investments.
One of the biggest deals the Trump administration is currently negotiating is a multibillion-dollar energy investment from Chinese oil and gas giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. that would bring thousands of new jobs to hurricane-ravaged areas in Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Many of the deals, including the China Petroleum investment, are expected be in the form of nonbinding memorandums of understanding, not contracts.
Among the companies tentatively approved to go on the trade mission to China are General Electric Co., Honeywell International Inc., Westinghouse Electric Co., Alaska Gasline Development Corp., the Boeing Co., and Qualcomm Inc. The companies represent a variety of sectors from life sciences to heavy machinery and are expected to also include Cheniere Energy Inc., Terex Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Applied Materials Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and Blackstone Group.
Details of the project in the hurricane zones in Texas and the Virgin Islands are yet to be finalized, but the Chinese company, known as Sinopec, is expected to partner with ArcLight Capital, a Boston-based infrastructure investment firm, and Freepoint Commodities LLC, a Connecticut commodity trading firm. The deal is expected to be worth more than $7 billion in investments in the U.S.
700-Mile Pipeline
The project would include construction of a 700-mile pipeline from the Permian oil field in western Texas to the Gulf Coast, as well as a storage facility there. Separately, Sinopec would expand the existing oil storage facility known as Lime Tree in St. Croix, according to a person familiar with the proposal.
The deal will still need final approval from officials in both the U.S. and China.
But all of these development deals may provide a political boost to the U.S. president, who focused much of his time on the campaign trail arguing that he was uniquely qualified to attract jobs and investment back to the U.S.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the U.S. hoped there would be “very good deliverables” during Trump's visit when he visited China last month.
“We are looking forward to a very good session including a lot of American CEOs and we hope there will be some very good deliverables,” Ross told reporters.
Relations between the U.S. and China have become strained as Trump has repeatedly criticized the country's trade deficit and demanded Beijing act more forcefully to prevent the development of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Sale Blocked
In September, the White House blocked the sale of U.S.-based Lattice Semiconductor to a Chinese firm citing national security concerns, and a month earlier the president authorized an investigation into Chinese intellectual property theft. The administration is also weighing whether to impose penalties on Chinese aluminum foil imports amid accusations the product is being sold at below-market rates, though the Commerce Department said earlier this month they would delay its determination on the anti-dumping probe until after the president's visit.
“I am very disappointed in China,” Trump posted on Twitter in July. “Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!”
The White House hopes the trade mission will help smooth some of those tensions while providing Trump with a signature accomplishment he can tout to supporters.
SinoPec Impact
The SinoPec deal alone could reduce the trade deficit between the countries by as much as $10 billion a year, according to one person with knowledge of the negotiations. And the project's focus on areas impacted by recent hurricanes could also provide a political benefit to the president, who has faced criticism over his handling of storm damage, particularly in Puerto Rico. Just 44 percent of Americans approve of the president's handling of the federal response to recent hurricanes, while 47 percent disapprove, according to a CNN poll released Monday.
U.S. firms selected as part of the delegation accompanying Trump to China also expect a boost in their business as well. More than 100 different companies applied to be part of the trade mission, with the administration expected to choose around 40 to send representatives to join Trump in Beijing. U.S. officials are expected to announce which companies have been selected shortly.
Trump is expected to promote those companies throughout his trip, including during meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi visited Trump's golf resort in Mar-a-Lago in April for a meeting where the two leaders agreed to develop a “100-day plan” to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries and bolster American exports.
The president will likely emphasize U.S. liquefied natural gas and its role in lowering the trade deficit, and negotiate for China to buy more LNG from the U.S. in the future, two people familiar with the matter said.
The president's 10-day Asia trip will also include stops in Japan and South Korea, as well as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Association of South East Asian Nations summits in Vietnam and the Philippines.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=123084365&vname=dennotallissues&fn=123084365&jd=123084365
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Pruitt: Obama Regulations Were 'War' On Business
Oct 29, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By John Bowden
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt says former President Obama declared "war" on coal and other industries with his administration's environmental regulations and by signing off on the Paris Climate Accord.
"In the past administration, they created tremendous uncertainty by adopting rules and regulations that were an overreach ... Declaring war on any sector of our economy just doesn't make sense at all. But that's exactly what happened with the past administration," Pruitt told John Catsimatidis on AM 970's "The Answer" in an interview that aired Sunday.
"The past administration declared war on coal [and] fossil fuels. Despite the fact that those energy sources are tremendously important to us as a country to generate electricity, to keep costs low, to provide stability to our citizens," he added.
Pruitt said that the Paris Climate Accord, signed in 2016, was not an "America First" policy. The accord, which was originally signed by 195 countries, sought to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the world.
"The Paris Accord was not good for this country. It was not an 'America First' approach," Pruitt said. "Why would we as a country go to that type of meeting [in Paris] with the kind of [environmental] progress we've made and be apologetic?"
"[China and India] are polluting [but] don't [have to] take any steps until the future," he added. "And sometimes not at all? That is just a bad deal for this country."
President Trump made repealing environmental regulations and ending Obama's "war on coal" a part of his campaign platform and now White House agenda. Still, Pruitt laments the "political football" that he says his agency has become.
"For the last several years, this agency has become kind of a political football. And it actually encouraged that," he says.
"We need to get back to improving air quality, improving water quality ... That’s some of the best work we can do. And that has been underemphasized for the last number of years.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/357659-pruitt-obama-regulations-were-war-on-business
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DOE Panel Recommends Expedited LNG Exports, NEPA Review
Oct 27, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
A task force at the Department of Energy (DOE) has come up with a list of four recommendations for the department to follow, including expediting approval of small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, and conducting a review of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations and how they are implemented.
The recommendations stem from an executive order(EO) signed by President Trump in late March. The EO called for, among other things, DOE and other government agencies to review all existing regulations and orders that could potentially hamper domestic energy development, including oil and natural gas.
In a final report issued Oct. 24, DOE's Regulatory Reform Task Force reaffirmed a rule it first proposed last September, which called for DOE to issue an export authorization for any complete application that proposes exports of up to 140 MMcf/d, and which do not require an environmental impact statement under NEPA.
On NEPA itself, the task force recommended that DOE reform the NEPA process for permitting and export applications, including for LNG and infrastructure. The task force called for a "review of existing NEPA policies to assess whether DOE should grant more categorical exclusions." It also recommended that DOE adopt "categorical exclusions already approved by other federal agencies, and foster interagency collaboration, such as working with the Bureau of Land Management to consider categorical exclusions for geothermal energy on federal lands."
The last two recommendations involve DOE's National Laboratories and its appliance standards program. Specifically, the task force identified several areas for reform at the labs to make them operate more efficiently. It also recommended that DOE review its process rule from 1996, and consider ditching a requirement that it evaluate existing standards at least once every six years.
"Many stakeholders, including manufacturers and small businesses, regard as overly burdensome and unnecessary the statutory requirement to reconsider standards at least once every six years," DOE said. "The current six-year review process may not provide adequate time for such a retrospective analysis, which is critical to determine whether energy conservation standards are working as intended and the underlying assumptions are sound."
Instead of a review every six years, the task force recommended that DOE consider enacting "no amended standards" determinations if data shows small energy savings would require significant upfront cost to achieve. It also encouraged the department to consider "voluntary, non-regulatory and market-based alternatives" to standard-setting.
DOE Secretary Rick Perry said the department "will promote job creation and economic growth, unleash American energy dominance, and advance the energy security of our international trading partners...I look forward to the president's review of our recommendations, and to freeing the energy sector from unnecessary regulatory burdens."
On Thursday, the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas (CLNG), which backs increased LNG exports, said it welcomed the task force's report and its recommendations.
"We applaud DOE and Secretary Perry for recognizing the need to reform NEPA and ease regulatory hurdles that have only hindered the export process," said CLNG Executive Director Charlie Riedl. "We look forward to working with them to help revise the NEPA process while maintaining the industry's excellent safety and environmental records.
"U.S. LNG is providing high paying jobs, billions in investment right at home, and fuel security and choice for allies and partners abroad. A streamlined and clear path forward will allow U.S. LNG to reach its full potential."
Earlier this month, U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Small Scale LNG Access Act, which calls for codifying the DOE's proposed rule on expediting LNG exports.
In a related matter, the EO rescinded guidance unveiled during the Obama administration that federal agencies quantify the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, through an expanded interpretation of NEPA. CLNG and the Natural Gas Supply Association had expressed support for the move.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/112247-doe-panel-recommends-expedited-lng-exports-nepa-review
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Fire at West Virginia Plastics Warehouse Releases Toxics
Oct 30, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The EPA deployed a specialized aircraft equipped with sensors to identify chemical contaminants that may have been released during a plastics warehouse fire in Parkersburg, W.Va., a blaze that was still smoldering after five days.
The 420,000-foot warehouse is owned by Intercontinental Export Import Inc., which buys and sells a variety of plastics.
The Environmental Protection Agency sent the aircraft into the area Oct. 26 , Lawrence Messina, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said in an email to Bloomberg Environment Oct. 27.
An EPA spokesman on Oct. 27 referred Bloomberg Environment to local officials.
Regulators at West Virginia's Department of Environmental Protection issued an order Oct. 26 seeking information from the company about what chemicals were stored there and the materials and chemicals it processed.
Burning plastics can release dangerous chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, dioxins, furans and heavy metals, as well as particulates. These emissions are known to cause respiratory ailments and stress human immune systems, and they're potentially carcinogenic, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Firefighters from multiple jurisdictions continued to work on the site, keeping an eye on hot spots and making sure the fire doesn't reignite as local and state officials track progress.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared a 30-day state of emergency Oct. 24 for Wood County, where Parkersburg is the county seat. Even though the active areas of the fire have been put out, the declaration frees up state resources to fight the remaining smoking hot spots at the warehouse.
Intercontinental Export Import did not respond to requests for comment by Bloomberg Environment.
—With assistance from Steve Gibb.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=123084372&vname=dennotallissues&fn=123084372&jd=123084372
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(ACC Mentioned) Sohn: All Politics Are : Local, Especially With The Environment
Oct 29, 2017 | Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Pam Sohn
First it was foxes-to-guard-the-hen-house political appointments. Then it was undoing environmental protections.
Later came drastically cut environmental protection budgets; the erasures of publicly available data on everything from regulatory violations, violators and sanctions, to the simple words "climate change" from the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Now we have the actual muzzling of EPA scientists who were told last week that they could not present their research on climate change at a conference in Rhode Island.
If you think this is just more partisan, inside baseball in the beltway bulls-eye of Washington, think again.
The Clean Air Act took Chattanooga from it's "dirtiest" air label to the "Scenic City" outdoor mecca it is today, fueling a $1.2 billion tourism industry here.
EPA's $25 million Superfund effort dug 108,000 tons of coal tar quicksand from our Chattanooga Creek to pave the way for new development in Alton Park and along South Broad Street. It also forced the Department of Defense to pay for the cleanup of contamination left from the making of TNT at what once was the Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant. That site now is our very successful Enterprise South industrial park — home to our Volkswagen auto assembly plant.
Likewise, EPA forced the removal of acid-making metal residues from 10,000 acres in the Copper Basin, and that action brought life and fish back to the once-dead Ocoee River after copper smelting left a red stain near Copperhill, Tenn., that astronauts could see from space. The now green and beautiful Ocoee region became the 1996 Olympic whitewater rafting venue.
EPA scientists and engineers oversaw the cleanup of the Kingston Ash Spill after 1.1 billiongallons in slushy, toxic ash rolled liked a slow-motion tsunami from a TVA coal power plant's 60-year-old landfill to swallow 300 acres of suburban land and a 100-acre finger of the Emory River in upper East Tennessee. Today, the site is a community park.
Federally directed environmental efforts have a hand in our future, too.
It was EPA lawyers, after Volkswagen's diesel fraud became clear, who negotiated as part of VW's restitution that the Chattanooga VW plant may become a site for the manufacture of future VW electric cars.
And when people buy carpet in Dalton (and when Dalton residents drink their water), they are far less likely today and tomorrow to risk being affected by a chemical known as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which has been linked to kidney cancer, birth defects, immune system disorders and other serious health problems. The chemical that once made Teflon non-sticky and Stainmaster carpet somewhat stain resistant was outlawed, though residue may remain on land and in water.
So it would be a mistake to think that what happens to EPA in Washington isn't a local issue — whether we're talking policy about climate change and air, or about policy pertaining to chemicals and clean water.
That makes downright scary the recent New York Times report that the Trump administration's EPA abruptly canceled the presentations of two agency scientists and an EPA contract consultant who contributed substantial material to a 400-page report about the impact of climate change on Narragansett Bay, the largest estuary in New England.
"This type of political interference, or scientific censorship — whatever you want to call it — is ill-advised and does a real disservice to the American public and public health," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "We can debate the issues. We can have different viewpoints. But we should all be able to objectively examine the data and look at the evidence."
Robinson Fulweiler, a Boston University ecosystems ecologist, went a step further in an interview with The Washington Post, calling EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's move an "abuse of power."
"The silencing of government scientists is a scary step toward silencing anyone who disagrees," Fulweiler said. "The choice by our government leaders to ignore the abundant and overwhelming data regarding climate change does not stop it from being true or prevent the negative consequences that are already occurring and those that are on the horizon."
But there's more. Pruitt — a longtime ally of fossil fuel interests who, as the former Oklahoma attorney general sued the EPA at least nine times — isn't the only industry toadie who's been given the green light to roll back or dull environmental protections.
Nancy B. Beck, after she joined EPA's toxic chemical unit in May as a top deputy, went right to work rewriting a rule to make it harder to track the health consequences of PFOA — that chemical we have a lot of in the Dalton area. And if it's harder to track health consequences, it becomes harder to regulate it.
For the five years before Beck was appointed to EPA, she was an executive at the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry's main trade association. Before that, she had worked in a testing lab at Estée Lauder, as a toxicologist in the Washington State Health Department, as a regulatory analyst in the White House. And, oh yeah, she once did a fellowship at EPA.
The New York Times recently noted that an EPA Office of Water top official warned in a memo obtained by the newspaper that the changes directed by Beck may result in an "underestimation of the potential risks to human health and the environment" caused by PFOA and other so-called legacy chemicals no longer sold on the market.
Like the chemicals in coal tar? Coal ash? TNT?
All politics are local.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/times/story/2017/oct/29/sohn-all-politics-are-local-especially-enviro/455599/
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EPA Mum On Plans For New Source Rule
Oct 30, 2017 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
U.S. EPA's plans for an Obama-era rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants remain a mystery.
The agency today told a federal court that it has nothing new to report on what changes, if any, the Trump administration will make to the rule. For now, at least, the new source rule remains in place.
"At this time, EPA continues to review the 111(b) Rule," the agency said, referring to the section of the Clean Air Act under which the rule is based.
Finalized in August 2015, the rule requires both new and modified fossil fuel-fired power plants to meet CO2 limits. Coal plants cannot meet the mandates through efficiency improvements alone. Instead, utilities have to install carbon capture and utilization or sequestration technology.
It has flown largely under the radar as the Trump administration has focused on another Obama-era climate rule: the Clean Power Plan, which called for cutting the CO2 emissions of existing power plants.
Like the Clean Power Plan, dozens of parties sued over the new source rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in August granted a request by the Trump administration to hold the case in abeyance indefinitely. The court ordered EPA to file status reports every 90 days (E&E News PM, Aug. 10).
In its status report today — the first since the court order suspending the case — EPA said only that its evaluation of the rule was consistent with President Trump's March executive order calling for the review of several Obama-era climate policies.
EPA asked the court to continue suspending the litigation.
"EPA believes these cases should remain in abeyance pending the conclusion of EPA's review of the rule and any resulting forthcoming rulemaking," the agency's filing said.
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/10/27/stories/1060064929
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California’s Cap-and-Trade Plan Is Working
Oct 27, 2017 | The Wall Street Journla
The entirely theoretical argument presented by Richard Sexton and Steve Sexton (“The Fatal Flaw in California’s Cap-and-Trade Program,” Cross Country, Oct. 21) falls short in just one place: the real world. The facts show that under California’s law to limit climate pollution, our economy is thriving, jobs are being added at a faster rate than the national average and emissions are decreasing ahead of schedule.
The authors complain about a potential problem with some cap-and-trade systems: the risk of emissions and economic leakage, while also decrying one of the solutions, allocating free allowances to trade-exposed industries in proportion to their output. This ensures that producers aren’t penalized for making more goods, and producers who make more goods with fewer emissions are rewarded. Total emissions are still limited by the cap.
There’s a good reason that the authors limit their case to hypotheticals. Five years into cap and trade, there is no actual evidence that leakage is a concern. In contrast, there’s plenty of evidence that the cap-and-trade program is doing exactly what it’s intended to do: help the state cut carbon pollution and continue to lead the world on climate action.
Quentin Foster
Environmental Defense Fund
Sacramento, Calif.
The real flaw is the goal in the first place, never mind the solution. California’s real impact on the environment will never come from being a carbon-neutral state. It comes from its example to the world of high environmental standards while still being one of the world’s largest economies. But one has to wonder how much longer other states and countries will look to California’s leadership when they see the sky-high cost of living and middle-class jobs leaving the state. The governor should focus on that first, and the rest of his goals will follow.
Tom Mysz
Oakland, Calif.
The authors believe that California’s cap-and-trade program is flawed because it does nothing to reduce pollution. But it created another state agency, which means more government and higher taxes. It also hurts business. Mission accomplished.
James Elliott
Doral, Fla.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-cap-and-trade-plan-is-working-1509124808
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