Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 11/22/17
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(ACC Mentions) Upcoming Changes At The Top In North America / Jerry MacCleary Named CEO Starting February 2018
Nov 22, 2017 | Plasteurope
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based US subsidiary of German engineering plastics producer Covestro(Leverkusen; www.covestro.com) has announced North American leadership changes. -
(ACC Mentioned) With Opposition Growing, EPA Nominee From UC Could Fail Senate Confirmation Vote
Nov 21, 2017 | Cincinnati Enquirer
Michael Dourson, the former University of Cincinnati toxicologist turned President Trump environmental nominee, may not have enough support to win Senate confirmation. -
(ACC Mentioned) California Should Expand On San Francisco’s Flame Retardants Ban
Nov 22, 2017 | San Francisco Examiner
By Robyn Purchia
Many are giving thanks this holiday to the first responders who battled the blazes in Napa and Sonoma counties last month. But the dangers firefighters face didn’t dissipate with the smoke. A lack of statewide action to eliminate toxic, flame retardants continues to jeopardize their health, along with the health of all Californians. -
After Flint, Helping Doctors Recognize Chemical Exposure
Nov 22, 2017 | The New York Times
By Rachel Cernansky
Before doctors in Flint, Mich., knew they were dealing with a crisis of lead poisoning, there were warning signs of a problem with the water supply. -
6 Million Americans Are Drinking Contaminated Water Linked To Cancer
Nov 21, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Arlene Blum and Tom Bruton
More than 6 million Americans are drinking water polluted with highly fluorinated chemicals. -
REACH Enforcement Project Finds Phthalates In Toys A 'Big Problem'
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Nick Hazlewood
The preliminary findings of a soon to be released project report on REACH enforcement, will reveal that almost a fifth of toys checked on the European market were non-compliant with an EU restriction on phthalates. -
MEPs Divided On The Citizens’ Initiative To Ban Glyphosate
Nov 22, 2017 | Euractiv
By Aline Robert
More than a million European citizens have signed a petition to ban glyphosate, a pesticide classed as a probable carcinogen. In the face of European concerns, MEPs are divided. EURACTIV France reports. -
EU Scientific Committee Publishes Opinion On Climbazole Combined Use
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) has published an addendum to its Opinion on the combined use of the cosmetic preservative, climbazole. -
EU Member States Back Methanol Restriction In Windscreen Washing Fluids
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
EU member states have voted to approve a proposal to restrict the use of methanol in windscreen washing or defrosting fluids in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.6% by weight. -
Echa Finds Unregulated Substances On ChemSec SIN List
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Echa has identified seven substances on NGO ChemSec's Substitute It Now (SIN List) that are not yet under regulatory scrutiny but that may be potentially harmful to humans or the environment. -
Denmark Launches Three-Year Chemicals Initiative
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Denmark will invest DKK285m (€38.3m) in a new three-year initiative from 2018-2021 that aims to protect vulnerable groups from harmful chemicals such as endocrine disruptors. -
Poland Signs 5-Year US Natural Gas Import Deal
Nov 21, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Poland’s state-owned oil and natural gas company signed a five-year deal Tuesday to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States. -
Economics Drives Kansas Firm From Fracking in Illinois
Nov 22, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Joyce
Economic changes in the oil industry, not just regulation, led a Kansas energy company to abandon plans to enter the Illinois hydraulic fracturing market. -
Alaska Drilling Provisions Unveiled: A Closer Look
Nov 22, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Adam M. Taylor
Portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska would be opened to oil and gas drilling under draft reconciliation recommendations that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Nov. 15. -
Bittersweet Keystone Win Means Canada's U.S. Dependence Deepens
Nov 22, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Robert Tuttle
Here is one thing Keystone XL won't do for Canada: wean the country's oil industry off its dependence on the U.S. -
Trump Administration, Enviros Urge Court to Leave BLM Frack Ruling Intact
Nov 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
The Trump administration and a coalition of environmental groups have found themselves on the same side, albeit for different reasons, in a pair of appellate court cases over an Obama-era rule governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and tribal lands. -
Alaska Gasline Asks FERC to Accelerate Environmental Review
Nov 22, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By David Bradley
The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) has asked FERC to advance the review of its proposed pipeline and natural gas liquefaction project, in part through adopting the findings of an environmental impact statement previously performed for a similar project. -
Port Arthur Plant Had Largest Wastewater Spill In Texas After Harvey
Nov 21, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Alex Stuckey
A wastewater facility operated by one of the largest chemical product producers in North America is responsible for the single biggest wastewater spill during Hurricane Harvey, releasing more than 100 million gallons in Jefferson County, state records show. -
UP Highlights Third-Quarter PTC Work
Nov 22, 2017 | Progressive Railroading
Union Pacific Railroad in the third quarter prepared 31 additional track segments for positive train control (PTC) operations, the Class I announced last week. -
Hundreds of Local Leaders Agree: Do Not Economically Re-Regulate Freight Railroads
Nov 22, 2017 | InsideSources
By Brett Harrell, Paul C. Jablonski, and Christopher Reilly
As the fall grain harvest wraps up and we head toward the holiday season, the importance of efficient, reliable transportation in our lives is front and center. And though infrastructure investment has been discussed as a priority of the Trump administration and Congress, it remains a distant possibility. -
EPA Defends Rule Allowing Regional 'Nonacquiescence' To Court Rulings
Nov 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Anthony Lacey
EPA is defending its policy allowing its regions “nonacquiescence” to applying one federal appellate court's ruling on Clean Air Act (CAA) issues if that court is outside a particular EPA region, over objections from industry groups that argue the rule will lead to unfair and uneven application of court rulings across the agency's regions. -
House Natural Resources Panel To Weigh 'Modernizing' NEPA
Nov 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
The House Natural Resources Committee plans to hold a hearing next week on “modernizing” the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an event that could allow Republicans on the committee to explore steps to streamline environmental reviews of projects that are required under the law.
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Nov 22, 2017 | Plasteurope
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based US subsidiary of German engineering plastics producer Covestro(Leverkusen; www.covestro.com) has announced North American leadership changes. With effect from 1 February 2018, Jerry MacCleary, who is currently president and managing director of Covestro and head of the Polyurethanes business unit in North America, will assume the role of CEO and chairman of the board of Covestro. He will be succeeded as head of the Polyurethanes business unit by Christine Bryant, currently head of Coatings, Adhesives and Specialties. Current COO Erik Haakan Jonsson will take over as president and managing director of Covestro.
MacCleary currently represents Covestro as vice chairman of the board, a member of the executive committee and an officer at the American Chemistry Council (ACC). He will become chairman of the ACC executive committee on 1 January 2018. In 1979, MacCleary joined Covestro (then part of Bayer), then had a diverse career path, including sales, marketing and strategic management roles in the US and Germany. He has been head of the North American Polyurethanes unit since 2004, a role he maintained after becoming the company's president in 2012. He also led Covestro's North American business during its separation from Bayer and establishment as an independent company in 2015.https://www.plasteurope.com/news/COVESTRO_t238410/
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(ACC Mentioned) With Opposition Growing, EPA Nominee From UC Could Fail Senate Confirmation Vote
Nov 21, 2017 | Cincinnati Enquirer
WASHINGTON – Michael Dourson, the former University of Cincinnati toxicologist turned President Trump environmental nominee, may not have enough support to win Senate confirmation.
But Dourson remains in a top position at the Environmental Protection Agency – with the power to influence key regulatory decisions – even as opposition to his nomination mounts. Trump nominated Dourson to lead the EPA’s chemical safety and pollution prevention office in July.
Senate Democrats have pilloried Trump’s pick, citing Dourson’s record of downplaying the risk of chemicals in research funded by major industry players, such as DuPont, Monsanto and the American Chemistry Council. Dourson’s defenders say he’s an experienced and objective scientist who has not let his funding sources shape his conclusions.
Last month, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt hired Dourson as an adviser, seeming to bypass the Senate confirmation process. Dourson has been working at the EPA since mid-October, infuriating Senate Democrats and environmental groups.
But Dourson’s opponents got a boost last week, when two Republican senators – Richard Burr and Tom Tillis, both of North Carolina – said they would vote against Dourson.
Dourson and other scientists worked on behalf of DuPont to examine the chemical PFOA, a precursor to another substance that has been implicated in contaminated drinking water at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune. Veterans exposed to that water have suffered from an array of cancers and other illnesses; the Department of Veterans Affairs recently agreed to provide benefits to the affected service members.
“With his record and our state’s history of contamination at Camp Lejeune as well as the current Gen X water issues in Wilmington, I am not confident he is the best choice for our country,” Burr said in a statement last week.
A third Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said she had “a lot of concerns” about Dourson and hadn’t made up her mind yet.
“I think it’s safe to say that I am leaning against him but I have not yet reached a final decision,” Collins told reporters last week. A spokeswoman declined to elaborate on Collins’ concerns Tuesday.
If Collins, or another undecided Republican, decides to vote no, Dourson’s nomination would fail. Republicans hold a narrow 52-48 seat majority in the Senate, and Democrats are united in their opposition to him.
“If there are three Republicans members that are on record saying they would oppose him, it won’t come up for a vote,” predicted Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, a Washington-based advocacy group that is working to defeat Dourson. “That means the nomination just kind of fizzles.”
When Pruitt hired Dourson to work as an adviser last month, he quit his job at the University of Cincinnati and moved to Washington – presumably believing his confirmation was assured and the adviser job would be temporary.
A spokesman for the EPA declined to comment on what the Trump administration would do if it becomes clear Dourson does not have the votes to win confirmation. Would the White House yank his nomination and send him back to Cincinnati? Or would Pruitt try to keep him on as an adviser?
“Dr. Michael Dourson is a highly qualified scientist to lead EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution,” said Jahan Wilcox, an EPA spokesman.
With Dourson’s fate uncertain, EPA officials have been trying to highlight the toxicologist’s previous work at the EPA, where he served in various positions from 1980 until 1994. His supporters are also touting Dourson’s pro bono work, including a case in northern Kentucky where he found that a poorly installed septic system was making a family and its pets sick.
The Senate has not scheduled a vote on Dourson’s nomination yet.
It’s not clear how much leverage Dourson’s opponents have to push for his ouster —even if they have the votes to block his confirmation. A spokeswoman for Delaware Sen. Thomas Carper, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, declined to say whether Democrats would try to get Dourson removed from his current job as Pruitt’s adviser.
“Since his nomination, my colleagues and I have been gravely concerned about Michael Dourson’s ability to serve as an impartial judge of toxic chemicals at EPA,” Carper said in a statement to USA TODAY. “It’s clear that many of my colleagues agree – this nominee is just too extreme and the wrong choice to oversee what chemicals are safe for American families.”
But Carper and others on the Environment and Public Works Committee have already raised questions about Dourson’s role. In an Oct. 24 letter, 10 Senate Democrats asked Dourson to detail his official job title and duties. And they suggested that if he shapes any policy changes, those could come under legal scrutiny.
“Your appointment creates the appearance, and perhaps the effect, of circumventing the Senate’s constitutional advice and consent responsibility,” wrote Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and the other Democrats. “Your improper involvement in EPA decisions could provide grounds for subjects of EPA regulations and oversight to challenge the legal validity of those decisions in court.”
Wilcox said Dourson is not performing the duties of the job he's been nominated for —leading the chemical safety and pollution prevention office.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/21/opposition-growing-controversial-cincinnati-environmental-nominee-coulmay-not-have-votes-confirmatio/886124001/
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(ACC Mentioned) California Should Expand On San Francisco’s Flame Retardants Ban
Nov 22, 2017 | San Francisco Examiner
By Robyn Purchia
Many are giving thanks this holiday to the first responders who battled the blazes in Napa and Sonoma counties last month. But the dangers firefighters face didn’t dissipate with the smoke. A lack of statewide action to eliminate toxic, flame retardants continues to jeopardize their health, along with the health of all Californians.
“We’re long overdue for bold statewide policy prohibiting the unnecessary use of flame-retardant chemicals,” Debbie Raphael, director of the San Francisco Department of Environment, told me.
Thankfully, The City wasn’t afraid to step up and act last month. After determining flame retardants aren’t necessary to protect San Franciscans, the Board of Supervisors unanimously banned sales of upholstered furniture and certain children’s products containing the chemicals. The City is the first in the nation to regulate the toxins so extensively.
But San Francisco’s protections only extend as far as our borders. To protect Californians properly, the Golden State should expand The City’s policy beyond the Golden Gate. While any expansion will likely face challenges from industry trade groups, it’s a fight our local state legislators seem ready to take on.
Ironically, California is responsible for making the fight necessary in the first place. After the state adopted fire safety standards in 1975, manufacturers complied by dousing their entire inventories with flame retardants. California sparked the growth of these chemicals in homes across the country.
Unfortunately, questions about their health impacts also grew. Researchers at UC San Francisco and elsewhere have linked exposure to numerous problems, including lower IQ points in children, impaired fertility and even cancer. Since 2006, hundreds of firefighters have died from the disease.
“Our firefighters stricken with cancer are the canaries in the coal mine alerting you that our home and work place environments are not safe,” Adam Wood of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation told The City’s supervisors. “While we’re exposed to these chemicals intensively in their most toxic state while they’re on fire, these are the same chemicals that are degrading into fine powder form and off-gassing in the homes, workplaces and offices of every San Franciscan.”
Despite these serious health concerns, California policymakers only revised the safety standards to eliminate the requirement that manufacturers apply flame retardants. Sacramento has not banned the sale of the poisonous products.
As is often the story, powerful industry lobbyists have slowed meaningful action. The American Chemistry Council, the same group fighting plastic bag bans, has paid witnesses to present horrific, but fabricated, testimonies before state lawmakers. One particularly awful story involved a 7-week-old baby who died in a fire because her pillow didn’t contain flame retardants. It was later revealed there was no baby and no fire.
“Despite no evidence these toxic chemicals save lives, our state government failed to meaningfully act because of millions of dollars spent by the chemical lobby,” Supervisor Mark Farrell, who introduced San Francisco’s ban, told me.
The chemical lobby didn’t stymie all state legislators, though. The City’s former Sen. Mark Leno worked to restrict flame retardants during his tenure. In 2014, he successfully introduced legislation requiring manufacturers to label products containing the chemicals.
Although labels are certainly important, Californians deserve more. Friday Apaliski, who helps San Franciscans have healthier homes through her Sustainability Concierge business, has found labels concealed inside cushions and taped to the bottom of couches.
“Disclosure is only half the battle, because the onus is on the consumer to look and see,” she told me. “A ban in California would be better.”
Assemblymember David Chiu agrees. As supervisor, his legislation made it easier for San Francisco firefighters to receive benefits for illnesses such as cancer. Now, he seems prepared to continue his work to protect first responders in the Assembly.
“It is unacceptable that we have not been able to ban these chemicals at the state level, and it’s critical that the fight continue for firefighters, consumers and children,” he told me.
State Sen. Scott Wiener also seems prepared to expand the work of his predecessor, Leno, with a ban on toxic flame retardants.
“The state needs to look beyond requiring labels warning customers of the existence of these chemicals, and start enacting bans, especially on products for young children,” he said.
Like the wildfire devastation, the state’s culpability in putting the health of children, firefighters and families at risk hangs over us this holiday. But San Francisco’s landmark ban provides hope. If Chiu and Wiener can get the state to follow our lead, perhaps next year all Californians can give thanks for healthier homes.
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After Flint, Helping Doctors Recognize Chemical Exposure
Nov 22, 2017 | The New York Times
By Rachel Cernansky
Before doctors in Flint, Mich., knew they were dealing with a crisis of lead poisoning, there were warning signs of a problem with the water supply. The doctors just didn’t know what to do with them — including Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician credited with uncovering the widespread lead poisoning afflicting that city. She said Flint was exposed to a “toxic soup” for 18 months — with drinking water violations for nine of those months — but no one knew exactly what was in the soup, or more important, what the soup was doing to the health of the people drinking it.
“We knew other things were in this water, but we didn’t do anything because nobody knew what to do about them,” she said. Officials had been advising residents concerned about one group of chemicals, called trihalomethanes, to ask their doctors for advice; the chemicals were elevated for months because of heavy disinfection treatment and are possibly carcinogenic. “And the doctors’ groups in Flint were like, ‘What do we know about total trihalomethanes? We don’t know what to tell people!’ ”
The medical community’s slow response to the water contamination in Flint is a symptom of what Dr. Hanna-Attisha calls one of the largest deficits in the field of medicine today — the omission of environmental factors, like air and water quality, in the way that doctors talk to patients about their health.
The long-term influence of the environment on our health has been a growing focus of environmental and health researchers in recent decades: scientists have shown that lead causes brain damage; bisphenol A and phthalates disrupt the endocrine system, impairing fertility and reproductive processes; some pesticides and flame retardants cause cancer and interfere with brain development in fetuses and children. Yet these variables remain largely overlooked in medical practice. Few doctors, for example, think to ask patients if they use a water filter at home, if they store food in plastic containers or glass, or if their children’s bedding contains flame retardants. That oversight begins in medical schools, which in the United States barely mention environmental factors beyond some acute scenarios like lead poisoning.
Last year, Lynne Heilbrun, a researcher at the University of Texas, San Antonio, introduced “Medicine and the Environment,” a new course at the medical school that aims to change this situation. It could fill what environmental health experts and the Association of American Medical Colleges say is a significant gap in how doctors are trained to assess and treat patients.Continue reading the main storyFixesFixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work.Assisting the Poor to Make Bail Helps EveryoneNOV 15For Wounded Vets’ Children, a Special Summer WeekNOV 8The ‘Problem Child’ Is a Child, Not a ProblemOCT 24Beyond the GPS, Mapping Every Place, EverywhereOCT 17Giving Capitalism a Social ConscienceOCT 10
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The course, an elective, covers the health impacts from chronic exposure to common chemicals and includes house calls for students to assess chemicals found in local residents’ homes, such as cancer-causing compounds used in perfume fragrances, body lotions and plug-in air fresheners, as well as the threats posed by them. The students are then assigned to write an action plan for the families to reduce their exposure. Ms. Heilbrun said they often recommend avoiding fragranced products, using natural cleaners like baking soda and vinegar instead of harsher, toxic products, and replacing any pesticides used for indoor pests with traps or baits.
One of the few other schools to integrate environmental health into its medical school coursework is the University of California, San Francisco. There, environmental health is now a mandatory part of the curriculum for all medical students.
As the water crisis in Flint illustrated, many patients don’t realize how much environmental factors could be affecting their health. Some patients have the knowledge or resources to seek specialists on their own, but many do not. “Most people’s interactions with the health care system is with their doctors, and it’s really important that doctors be aware of how the environment can influence health,” said Tracey Woodruff, director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. She said the school added the environmental component to the curriculum because of the evidence that exists, but also because of the evidence that doesn’t exist yet. “The government does not require testing of chemicals for health effects,” she said. “There are lots of data gaps in the science. So it is important, but there is also some detective work that physicians have to do to adequately address it.”
In Flint, Dr. Hanna-Attisha says asthma is one of the most common things she and colleagues treat in children, and the environment plays, or should play, a central role in those conversations. “If we don’t ask about their air quality and their exposures, we’re just Band-Aiding these issues, and they’re just going to come back and come back until we address the fundamental causes,” she said.
With such a rapidly evolving environment and chemical exposures changing all the time, asthma and lead poisoning are among the most well-understood conditions; impacts of other substances are not as well known. The quantity of environmental research that already exists, let alone new studies published every week or month, can be hard to keep up with. Dr. Hanna-Attisha says all doctors don’t need to become environmental health experts; they should just have a baseline understanding of how to evaluate a person’s full picture of health, including the environment, and be able to refer a patient to a specialist when necessary.
“The goal is not to make experts,” she said. “We don’t want to make experts, but we do want to know when people need a referral.”
Ms. Heilbrun first aspired to begin her class on medicine and the environment after her own experience with a chemical, which she believes is what caused developmental delays in both of her sons. She had used a pesticide, chlorpyrifos, to treat a flea infestation when she was unknowingly pregnant in the early 1990s. (Chlorpyrifos has since been recognized as a neurotoxin and was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency from home use in 2000.) Last year, E.P.A. scientists recommended banning it from agricultural use, but Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, denied that petition earlier this year.
Ms. Heilbrun cannot prove chlorpyrifos was the cause of her sons’ delays. But she has spoken with health experts around the country over the last decade and believes it was, based on their assessments, and because of the timing of the exposures and the onset of symptoms. Ms. Heilbrun said she had her home tested four years after she last sprayed chlorpyrifos — and after an environmental cleanup — and levels of the chemical were still dangerously high, at a level that independent research has associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in children whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy.
Interest in the environmental health class has been growing in San Antonio, at both the university’s medical and nursing schools, where the course is being offered at the request of the dean. Interest is also spreading nationwide.
Dr. Hanna-Attisha believes interest is growing because students have been demanding it; they want to be able to look at their patients’ full picture of health, including the environment, and social and behavioral factors as well.
No data is available on how many environment-related diagnoses may be overlooked, partly because environmental health is such a complex, slow-moving field. “Sometimes you don’t see the consequences for generations,” Hanna-Attisha said. “Look at thalidomide. The moms who took it were O.K.; it wasn’t until the babies were born that you saw the consequences.”
Health experts have also pointed to weak chemical regulations; only a fraction of the 80,000-plus chemicals registered for use today have been tested for safety. “We are exposed to lots of them, but most we don’t know about because of lax government laws. What we do know is that childhood illnesses are skyrocketing — diabetes, obesity, ADHD, autism,” Dr. Woodruff said.
At the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Woodruff said that in addition to the mandatory training introduced this year, the school plans to find other ways to integrate the study of environmental influences on health with other aspects of the curriculum. When a class is focused on respiratory health, for example, she said they’ll make sure air pollution is part of the discussion.
One fourth-year medical student, Brian Mugleston, took the class in medicine and the environment at the University of Texas last year and can already see how the class will make a difference in his practice as a doctor. “In basic medical education,” he said, “we think about many different drugs, toxic substances — especially in emergency medicine — and we think about poisonings. What this course made me consider is more long-term exposure.”
Dr. Woodruff said that at her campus, while the environmental health component will include the known health impacts of a range of chemicals, the larger goal is to get students thinking more critically about the wide-ranging interactions between the environment and health. That means keeping up with the science, evaluating the quality of research, and dealing with an ever-increasing number of unknowns.
“We take an oath when we graduate from medical school, and we swear that we are going to stand up for our patients,” Dr. Hanna-Attisha said. “It is not our job to sit silent in our lab, in our clinics, in our classrooms and to go about our daily business when we see environmental health and other injustices around us. It is our job, as physicians, very much to be that voice and advocate for our community.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/opinion/flint-doctors-chemical-exposure.html?_r=0
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6 Million Americans Are Drinking Contaminated Water Linked To Cancer
Nov 21, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Arlene Blum and Tom Bruton
More than 6 million Americans are drinking water polluted with highly fluorinated chemicals.
The most-studied chemicals in the class are linked to kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, decreased sperm quality, high cholesterol, decreased immune function in children, and other serious health problems.
Highly fluorinated chemicals are found in firefighting foam used by military and domestic airports, furniture, carpets, outdoor gear, clothing, cosmetics, cookware and food packaging. The chemicals make their way from manufacturing facilities, consumer products and firefighting activities into the air, water, and food, and then into humans.
The health impact of these chemicals, which are increasingly being found in our drinking water, is very concerning. Some scientists say we are carrying out an unintended chemical experiment on our population. Patrick Breysse, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, described highly fluorinated chemicals as “one of the most seminal public health challenges for the next decades.”
A recent analysis indicated that the number of Americans with contaminated drinking water is much higher than scientists had estimated. One of the nation’s largest water testing labs estimated that a quarter of our nation’s water systems are likely to contain these chemicals at levels of concern to some scientists.
A new, peer-reviewed letter calling for coordinated health research in U.S. communities with drinking water contaminated by highly fluorinated chemicals was published in the journal Environmental Health this week. Thirty-nine leading scientists and physicians signed this letter, which was sent to legislators on key committees in the House and Senate and in impacted regions to draw attention to the pollution of drinking water with these chemicals. The Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration also received this letter, because firefighting foams used at military bases and airports are responsible for a major share of the contamination.
The government’s current response is not adequate. We need a coordinated strategy to study health effects and reduce exposure. This strategy would provide impacted communities with the information, blood testing, health studies and medical monitoring that they are urgently requesting.
Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have also been asking for action to address this pollution. Some good news is that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which passed the Senate and House this week includes a provision for $7 million to begin a five to seven-year-long health study of communities affected by these firefighting foam chemicals. The legislation would also establish the first-ever nationwide study on the human health effects of exposure to highly fluorinated chemicals from drinking water.
The NDAA also calls for $72 million to be added the Air Force and Navy’s environmental restoration accounts, to be spent on cleaning up impacted areas.
Another provision in the NDAA meant to help prevent future contamination needs to be modified to achieve its goal. Highly fluorinated chemicals are currently required to be used for fighting aviation fires at both military and domestic airports because of a Department of Defense rule commonly referred to as the Milspec.
According to the third provision in the NDAA, the department is required to submit a report on its development of new firefighting foams and phase out of old varieties of foam within six months. The unfortunate reality is that the new varieties of foam currently in use are also highly fluorinated. These regrettable substitutes are equally persistent in the environment and may cause similar health and ecological problems as the older ones they are replacing.
A better solution to the problem is switching to the fluorine-free foams increasingly used on oil drilling platforms and in military and domestic airports around the world. However, before our airports can consider switching to safer fluorine-free foams, the Defense Department’s Milspec rule needs to be updated to allow their use.
With NDAA funding for coordinated health studies and remediation in impacted communities, as well as a change in the Milspec to allow fluorine-free firefighting foams, we would indeed be moving towards both solving the current problem and preventing future reoccurrences — for healthier drinking water and a healthier population.
Arlene Blum, Ph.D., is a research associate in Chemistry at UC Berkeley and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, known for her scientific and policy work to limit the use of six classes of chemicals of concern.
Tom Bruton, Ph.D., is a Science and Policy fellow at the Green Science Policy Institute. Bruton studies the remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with highly fluorinated chemicals.
http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/361343-6-million-americans-are-drinking-contaminated-water-linked-to
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REACH Enforcement Project Finds Phthalates In Toys A 'Big Problem'
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Nick Hazlewood
The preliminary findings of a soon to be released project report on REACH enforcement, will reveal that almost a fifth of toys checked on the European market were non-compliant with an EU restriction on phthalates.
The REACH-En-Force-4 (Ref-4) project, coordinated by the Echa Enforcement Forum, looked at 14 restriction entries in REACH Annex XVII across 29 countries.
Among its most significant findings of non-compliance were:
· 19.7% of 464 toy products, tested for the phthalates DEHP, DBP and BBP;
· 14.1% of 86 brazing fillers, tested for cadmium;
· 13.6% of 213 articles, tested for asbestos;
· 13.3% of 467 leather articles, tested for chromium VI; and
· 12.1% of 1,124 jewellery items, tested for cadmium.
The final public report is expected by the end of the year.
The Ref-4 working group's chair Marilla Anttila (pictured) told the Chemical Watch European Enforcement Summit in Brussels that 5,625 products had been inspected during 2016. Of these, 17 were substances, 1,009 mixtures and 4,599 articles.
A fifth of the items checked were obtained from the internet, meaning it was an online enforcement activity too, Ms Anttila said.
The restrictions examined were:
Restriction entry in Annex XVII
Substance
Products tested
Non compliance rate
5
Benzene
Glues for consumers and professionals
0.8%
6
Asbestos fibres
In articles
13.6%
23
Cadmium and its compounds
Plastic material/packaging and other articles, brazing fillers and jewellery
9.9% (brazing fillers 14.1%; jewellery 12.1%; plastic material/ packaging 5%)
27
Nickel and its compounds
Jewellery and metal parts (eg buttons, zippers)
8.1%
32
Chloroform
Glues for consumers and professionals
5.2%
43
Azocolourants and Azodyes
Textile and leather articles
1.1%
45
Diphenylether, octabromo derivative C12H2Br8O
Substances and mixtures and articles
0
47
Chromium VI compounds
Leather articles and cement
10.4%
48
Toluene
Adhesives and spray paints, intended for supply to the general public
3.7%
49
Trichlorobenzene
Substances and mixtures
0
50
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Articles for supply to the general public
7.8%
51, 52
Phthalates
Toys and childcare articles
14% for entry 51 (DEHP, DBP, BBP with 19.7% for toys) and 9.2% for entry 52 (DINP, DIDP, DNOP)
63
Lead and its compounds
Jewellery
6.7%
Ms Anttila, who is chemical products head of unit at Tukes, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency, said that a worrying facet was the non-compliance rate in items that had no information on their country of origin: 39 %. These might include, for example, cheap jewellery, she said, and national authorities should keep up efforts in inspecting them.
The working group selected the restrictions on the basis of non-compliance information that national authorities already had, along with details from Rapex notifications and information about available testing methods in the Forum compendium of analytical methods. They also sought cooperation from customs authorities. The final report will include work on eight other entries reported by national coordinators.
Within the project's framework, member states decided on the scope of the entries, type of companies, number of samples, and any enforcement actions in cases of non-compliance.
In conclusion, Ms Anttila told the summit, the "big problems" thrown up were phthalates in toys; heavy metals in jewellery; cadmium in brazing fillers; asbestos in articles sold online; and chromium(VI) in leather articles.
And a lesson was, she said: "Successful risk-based targeting may result in significant non-compliance rates. The enforcement authorities need to have systems in place for analysing products on the market."
https://chemicalwatch.com/61920/reach-enforcement-project-finds-phthalates-in-toys-a-big-problem
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MEPs Divided On The Citizens’ Initiative To Ban Glyphosate
Nov 22, 2017 | Euractiv
By Aline Robert
More than a million European citizens have signed a petition to ban glyphosate, a pesticide classed as a probable carcinogen. In the face of European concerns, MEPs are divided. EURACTIV France reports.
Around 1.3 million European citizens want a ban on glyphosate.
The European Parliament, which rejected a 10-year renewal of glyphosate authorisation in October and proposed a total ban by 2022, debated on Monday (November 20th) a European citizens’ initiative entitled “Prohibiting Glyphosate and protecting people and the environment from toxic pesticides “.
“We welcome this initiative, a sign of good health of the European democracy”, said Eric Andrieu (France, S&D) and Ian Huitema, (Netherlands, ALDE). The Socialist MEP seems to be more alert than his liberal colleague: “We must apply the precautionary principle immediately,” he said, while Huitema mused: “Will banning glyphosate allow us to initiate the green transition of our agriculture?”
Brendan Burns, head of agriculture and development at the European Economic and Social Committee, summed up the situation: “European policies are placed in a complex situation as scientific studies come to contrary conclusions about glyphosate.”
While the WHO, through its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has declared the pesticide “likely carcinogenic to humans”, other recent studies contradict this analysis: a study by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, conducted over the long term in the United States, fails to establish a link between the pesticide and the appearance of tumours in farmers.
“Glyphosate is probably carcinogenic? Coffee too! Yet you drink coffee!” scoffed UKIP MEP John Stuart Agnew, dismissing the problem of using glyphosate in the agri-food industry.
A comment that Franziska Achterberg, head of agricultural policy at Greenpeace, does not forgive in her response to deputies: “You do not drink glyphosate but you are constantly exposed. Studies show that the pesticide is present in 45% of European soils,” she said.
The Greenpeace official also refused to accept the arguments that tend to deny glyphosate’s probable carcinogenic role: “Why would have California banned it otherwise?” she asked.
The citizens’ initiative allows at least one million citizens from at least a quarter of the member countries to invite the Commission to act on the subject of their choice. Introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, the mechanism is by no means binding. The glyphosate initiative is the fourth largest, in terms of the number of collected signatures, ever debated in Parliament.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/meps-divided-on-the-citizens-initiative-to-ban-glyphosate/
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EU Scientific Committee Publishes Opinion On Climbazole Combined Use
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) has published an addendum to its Opinion on the combined use of the cosmetic preservative, climbazole.
This is in light of new margin of safety (MoS) data submitted in April by Cosmetics Europe, including a proposal for reduced concentrations of the substance for use in different product types.
There is a decreasing number of authorised preservatives, the SCCS says, and less than 1% of products launched in the EU between 2010 and 2015 as per specific product categories contained climbazole.
The committee has concluded that climbazole as a cosmetic preservative, when used individually in the following, is safe for human health. That is:
· in hair lotion and footcare, maximum concentration of 0.31%;
· in face cream, maximum concentration of 0.5%; and
· as anti-dandruff agent in shampoo, maximum concentration of 2.0%.
However, combinations of three or four products cannot be considered safe, SCCS says. Most combinations of two products can be considered so; that of hair lotion and face cream and face cream and foot care give, using the conservative "adding on calculation", a MoS below 100 (83 and 90, respectively).
The maximum concentrations considered safe, under an aggregate exposure scenario for cosmetics, are:
· 2% as anti-dandruff agent in rinse-off shampoos; and
· 0.2% as preservative in leave-on formulations (face cream, hair lotion, footcare), with the exception of cosmetics applied on full body area (body lotion).
Meanwhile, the committee says it will closely follow up the outcome of further studies conducted under REACH, and will reassess the substance's safety if necessary.
https://chemicalwatch.com/61909/eu-scientific-committee-publishes-opinion-on-climbazole-combined-use
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EU Member States Back Methanol Restriction In Windscreen Washing Fluids
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
EU member states have voted to approve a proposal to restrict the use of methanol in windscreen washing or defrosting fluids in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.6% by weight.
Nineteen member states voted in favour, eight against and one abstained at the REACH Committee meeting on 25 October. It passed narrowly, as the votes in favour are understood to be representative of 68% of the EU population; the qualified majority threshold is 65%.
The restriction, which was proposed by Poland, aims to reduce methanol poisoning from consumption by alcoholics of windscreen washing fluids or denatured alcohol, which is used as a cheap substitute for consumable alcohol.
It is also expected to prevent the poisoning from accidental ingestion, including in children.
Echa’s Risk Assessment and Socio-economic Analysis Committees (Rac and Seac) agreed Opinions on the restriction in December 2015.
The Finnish Safety and Health Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health worked with Poland on the proposal. In the early 2000s, nearly 40 people died each year in Finland from methanol-related incidents, according to the country’s Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes).
From 2014-16, the agency launched a project of risk-based controls and provided consumer information for sellers of methanol products. It resulted in illegal products being removed from the market.'Localised problem'
The Methanol Institute says the restriction is "not the best way" to address the concerns of surrogate alcohol use and poisonings, because it is "a localised and not a EU-wide problem".
Its CEO Gregory Dolan says a "more effective and appropriate response" to concerns around windscreen washing fluid ingestion would be based on the development of national strategies to:increase consumer education;increase social awareness;provide more vigilant enforcement;involve the targeted use of bitterants; andwhere applicable, implement national legislation.
A restriction will have "a direct financial impact" on consumers across Europe, Mr Dolan says. This is "despite the fact" that the circumstances it seeks to address are "limited and isolated" to a small number of member states. This includes Poland, he adds, "which has shown that reinstating its national restriction has been effective in addressing the problem".
Additionally, a ban on methanol in the fluids "risks promulgating surrogate alcohol use across Europe, as evidence indicates that its presence acts as the primary deterrent" for illegal consumption of ethanol-containing windscreen washing fluids, Mr Dolan says.
The Methanol Institute has urged the Council of Ministers and European Parliament to reject the Commission’s regulation on the basis that "it is not justified based on the treaty principles of subsidiarity and proportionality".
Evidence shows that there is "no clearly demonstrated need" for an EU-wide solution, Mr Dolan says. And, in accordance with two socio-economic analyses performed, the increased annual costs of such a measure "far outweigh" any projected societal health benefits, he adds.
The justification for the measure and its proportionality has been questioned by members of Seac, as expressed in a minority position, Mr Dolan says.
https://chemicalwatch.com/61932/eu-member-states-back-methanol-restriction-in-windscreen-washing-fluids
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Echa Finds Unregulated Substances On ChemSec SIN List
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Echa has identified seven substances on NGO ChemSec's Substitute It Now (SIN List) that are not yet under regulatory scrutiny but that may be potentially harmful to humans or the environment.
The SIN List contains publicly available information on substances from existing databases and scientific studies, as well as new research. In March, 30 SVHCs were added to the Llst.
As part of the EU's efforts to identify all relevant, known SVHCs by 2020, Echa decided to screen the SIN List to check if there are gaps in regulatory controls.
The agency's integrated regulatory strategy sets criteria for identifying substances of potential concern and defining how to further regulate them. It starts by screening information that companies have sent to the agency in their REACH registration dossiers and classification and labelling notifications. The common screening approach also looks at external sources including other lists of substances of concern published by regulatory bodies, agencies, trade unions and NGOs.
The seven SIN List substances identified by Echa as being of potential concern are:(methylenebis(4,1-phenylenazo(1-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl) -1,2-dihydro-6- hydroxy-4-methyl-2-oxopyridine-5,3-diyl))) -1,1'-dipyridinium dichloride dihydrochloride;o-hexyl-N-ethoxy carbonylthiocarbamate;pyridine, alkyl derivatives;copper lead resorcylate salicylate complex;slags, lead-zinc smelting;nitric acid, barium salt, reaction products with ammonia, chromic acid (H2CrO4) diammonium salt and copper(2+) dinitrate, calcined; and1,2-dichloropropane (propylene dichloride).
"Echa and member states will investigate whether those [seven] substances warrant further action," it said.
The agency said around 80 of the 912 SIN List chemicals were "of most interest" in terms of identifying new substances of concern, but only seven of those screened had a "high potential for exposure to humans or release to the environment".
Most in the group of 80 are already classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR) and therefore restricted for consumer use. While almost a third are registered as intermediates and have low exposure potential, Echa said.
The agency systematically screens external sources of data as well as internal REACH and CLP databases to identify new substances of concern. However, unlike the SIN List, it relies on both hazard concern and potential for exposure to select substances "that matter most".
More than 270 of the SIN List substances are "already, or in the process of being, regulated", Echa said, while around 280 are "currently under scrutiny" by the agency or member states. A third group of about 240 substances are "considered of low priority for regulatory action at present", it added.
The analysis showed "considerable overlap" between the SIN List and the work done by authorities, suggesting that the list "is a valuable tool for industry to predict action by authorities", the agency said.'False impression'
In a statement, ChemSec said it welcomes the recognition of the SIN List as an important source of information for Echa, but is concerned that the analysis may give "a false impression" that the use of SIN List chemicals in the EU is under control.
The political target of having all known relevant SVHCs listed by 2020 is not likely to be met, ChemSec said, considering that the SIN List contains over 700 chemicals more than the candidate list. The NGO is urging member states and Echa to accelerate the process.
Echa's prioritisation of ‘substances that matter’ might lead to hazardous and important substances being overlooked, the NGO's senior policy advisor Frida Hök said. In addition, the substances identified by the agency as being under regulatory scrutiny "are likely many years from being regulated if these processes continue at the current speed", she added.
"ChemSec is convinced that every substance on the SIN List fulfils the criteria for identification as an SVHC and should therefore be placed on the candidate list," Ms Hök said.
https://chemicalwatch.com/61925/echa-finds-unregulated-substances-on-chemsec-sin-list
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Denmark Launches Three-Year Chemicals Initiative
Nov 22, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Denmark will invest DKK285m (€38.3m) in a new three-year initiative from 2018-2021 that aims to protect vulnerable groups from harmful chemicals such as endocrine disruptors.
Environment and Food Minister Esben Lunde Larsen said with the new drive, which starts next year, the country "sets the level of ambition even higher to protect unborn children and young people".
Funds will be used to prevent allergies, while the money available for "enhanced and coherent" information on chemicals in products, biocides and foods will be more than doubled, according to a statement.
Some DKK34.3m will be allocated to knowledge building and research into hormone disrupting substances, and tightening control of chemicals in imported products.
Pia Olsen Dyhr, chair of the Socialist People's Party, said the challenge is clear. "Girls are premature in puberty, [while] men's semen quality is decreasing." One issue, she added, is to identify substances that may not be hormone disrupting in themselves, but can become so when combined with other chemicals.
The initiative will focus on the following areas:tighten sanctions for companies that repeatedly violate the rules;strengthen regulation of allergy-causing substances - send a signal that the worst allergens must be taken out of products;ensure "strong and effective control" of goods entering Denmark;strengthen research into hormone-disrupting substances;provide more information to consumers - they must be warned even when there is the "slightest suspicion" of harmful chemicals;prioritise eco labels Swan and Flower, and put special effort into reducing PVC in consumer products, such as children's rainwear; andcreate more incentives for companies to develop a more circular economy.
In February, the Danish Consumer Council’s Think Chemicals initiative won government support for a further three years. However, a substantial reduction in funding means the number of tests conducted on consumer products will be halved.
The programme carries out independent testing of products, aimed at helping consumers avoid chemicals of concern.
https://chemicalwatch.com/61923/denmark-launches-three-year-chemicals-initiative
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Poland Signs 5-Year US Natural Gas Import Deal
Nov 21, 2017 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Poland’s state-owned oil and natural gas company signed a five-year deal Tuesday to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States.
The deal is between Polish Oil and Gas Company Group (PGNiG) and Centrica LNG Co., for shipments between 2018 and 2022, the parties said. The gas will go through Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana.
PGNiG did not disclose the gas volumes or prices.
“This five-year agreement for American LNG deliveries is based on gas market conditions. We look forward to working with Centrica as a partner to continue to provide diversified supply into Poland,” Piotr Wozniak, PGNiG’s CEO, said in a statement.
“We are extremely pleased to have concluded this mid-term contract with PGNiG as part of Centrica’s strategy to build our global LNG portfolio,” said Jonathan Westby, Centrica’s managing director for energy marketing.
The deal comes both as Poland and the rest of eastern Europe work to dramatically reduce their dependence on pipeline-delivered gas from Russia and as the United States works to ramp up its natural gas exports.
Poland opened an LNG receiving terminal on the Baltic Sea last year and is working with companies around the world to sign supply deals.
PGNiG received its first LNG shipment from the United States in June as part of a spot-market deal, shortly before President Trump visited the nation. Trump’s visit was, in part, to promote United States energy exports.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/361413-poland-signs-5-year-us-natural-gas-import-deal
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Economics Drives Kansas Firm From Fracking in Illinois
Nov 22, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Joyce
Economic changes in the oil industry, not just regulation, led a Kansas energy company to abandon plans to enter the Illinois hydraulic fracturing market.
A subsidiary of Wichita, Kansas-based Woolsey Company Inc., had been the first company to win a permit for hydraulic fracturing operations in Illinois. But then the company unexpectedly announced in early November it wasn't going to drill for oil there after all.
In a statement, the company blamed the state's regulations, including environmental requirements, for the withdrawal of its plan for fracking operations in White County. But Mark Sooter, vice president of business development for Woolsey Companies, told Bloomberg Environment that economic reasons—including increased oil production, driven in part by increased fracking, and low oil prices—factored into the decision as well.
“They were expecting to make a lot more money for what they would get out of the ground,” Josh Mogerman, Natural Resources Defense Council spokesman, told Bloomberg Environment. “The reality of this is, it's economics.”
A Nov. 13 Energy Information Administration report predicts shale-oil output to increase 80,000 barrels a day by December compared with a year earlier and reach 6.2 million barrels per day by Dec. 31.
Regulatory Burden Only?
The 2013 Illinois Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act (98-0022) prohibits high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations without a state permit, sets water quality monitoring requirements, and establishes a tax on oil or gas extracted from state-regulated wells.
On Aug. 31, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources granted Woolsey a permit to drill and operate a well for energy production and perform high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations.
The company designed the construction of a high-volume horizontal well at a depth of 5,280 feet, at which point it would hit a horizontal shale deposit, and then proceed with a horizontal bore of 4,780 feet. Woolsey has been active in hydraulic fracking in Kansas for more than a decade.
On Nov. 2, however, the company announced it was withdrawing from the market. “In the near term we will focus our efforts in Kansas to test some intriguing geological ideas in a state with a pro-business attitude and functional oil/gas regulatory climate,” the statement said.
Interest in fracking in several Midwestern states is muted due to a lack of rich shale deposits, though some states provide silica sand that's used in the fracking process. Wisconsin is the country's largest supplier of silica sand, and the sand is produced in Minnesota and Iowa as well.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124002708&vname=dennotallissues&fn=124002708&jd=124002708
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Alaska Drilling Provisions Unveiled: A Closer Look
Nov 22, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Adam M. Taylor
Portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska would be opened to oil and gas drilling under draft reconciliation recommendations that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Nov. 15.
During the markup, the committee approved an amendment from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to require the Energy Department to sell as much as 5 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from fiscal 2026 through 2027 and to increase oil revenue-sharing payments to Gulf states during the same period.
Under the approved recommendations, the Interior Department would have to conduct at least two lease sales in the so-called 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's northern coastal plain during the decade following enactment. Each lease sale would have to include at least 400,000 acres in the areas with the greatest potential for discovering oil and gas.
“Opening a small part of the non-wilderness 1002 area for responsible energy development will create thousands of good jobs, keep energy affordable for families and businesses, ensure a steady long-term supply of American energy, generate new wealth, reduce the federal deficit, and strengthen our national security,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a Nov. 15 news release.
Environmentalists have opposed opening the wildlife refuge to drilling, citing the danger a potential spill could pose to local species including migratory birds, polar bears and the Porcupine caribou herd, which calves in the area.
Interested Companies
The measure would stipulate that energy companies operating in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would pay royalties equal to the value of 16.67 percent of the oil and gas produced. The proceeds would be split evenly between the federal government and Alaska. The rate on other federal lands is generally capped at 12.5 percent.
ConocoPhillips, Alaska's largest oil producer, supports opening the refuge to drilling, though it's stopped short of committing to pursue leases in the area.
“If ANWR were to be opened, we'd consider it within our opportunities,” company spokeswoman Natalie Low told Bloomberg News. The area “would have to compete with other regions for our exploration dollars.’’
BP Plc, Burgundy Xploration LLC, and CaraCol Petroleum LLC also have been active in onshore drilling in Alaska.
The language approved that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved would temporarily increase the maximum amount of federal royalty funds paid to oil-producing Gulf states—Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Under the measure, the states would receive as much as a combined $650 million in each of fiscal 2026 and 2027.
The measure wouldn't change the cap in other years, which is $500 million through fiscal 2055. The revenue-sharing payments were established by the 2006 Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (Public Law 109-432) and began in fiscal 2017.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The Energy Department would have to sell as much as 5 million gallons of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in fiscal 2026 and 2027. Money generated by the sale would be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury.
Sales would have to stop when $325 million is generated. The department couldn't sell oil from the reserve in amounts that would affect the president's ability to use the reserve in the event of an energy supply shortage.
The fiscal 2018 budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 71), instructed the Senate committee to produce legislation that would reduce the deficit by $1 billion over 10 years. The corresponding House panel didn't receive such an instruction.
The Congressional Budget Office wrote in a Nov. 8 cost estimate that Murkowski's initial proposal would increase net offsetting receipts, resulting in a $1.09 billion reduction of the federal deficit from fiscal 2018 through 2027 and satisfying the budget resolution's instructions. The Congressional Budget Office hasn't released a cost estimate for the committee-approved language.
The measure would be combined with Republican proposals to rewrite federal tax laws as part of a reconciliation bill that could be passed with only a simple majority in the Senate as long as the measure complies with the rules for such legislation.
Provisions in reconciliation bills are supposed to be budgetary in nature, such as affecting revenue or spending. If a provision doesn't produce a change in outlays or revenue, it's subject to a point of order that can be waived only with 60 votes.
What's Next
The budget resolution directed the Budget Committee to combine the oil provisions with the tax language, which the Finance Committee approved Nov. 17.
That package could be offered as an amendment to the tax bill (H.R. 1) that the House passed 227–205 Nov. 16. The Senate is slated to begin floor consideration the week of Nov. 27.
Following Senate action, the House would have to accept the Senate version, or the chambers would have to resolve the differences through formal or informal negotiations.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124002717&vname=dennotallissues&fn=124002717&jd=124002717
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Bittersweet Keystone Win Means Canada's U.S. Dependence Deepens
Nov 22, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Robert Tuttle
Here is one thing Keystone XL won't do for Canada: wean the country's oil industry off its dependence on the U.S.
While approval of the project in Nebraska was welcomed by Alberta and its producers, it came also as a reminder that Canada hasn't been able to clear two crucial projects within its own soil, to ship crude to other markets from its own ports. Meanwhile, TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL ties the country's industry even more to its southern neighbor.
As Nebraska's Public Service Commission voted to approve Keystone XL's route through the state early Nov. 20, Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain expansion to British Columbia's Pacific Coast remained mired in regulatory delays and legal challenges even after gaining federal approval last year. The decision in Nebraska also came after TransCanada's Energy East project, which would have linked Western Canadian producers to the Atlantic Coast, was canceled last month amid fierce opposition from Quebec.
The U.S. has become a “monopoly buyer” of Alberta's oil, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said at a speech in Toronto Nov. 20. “We continue to urge Canadian decision makers to follow this example so we can have access to global markets from Canadian ports, supporting good Canadian jobs.”
Canada sent about 99 percent of its crude exports to the U.S. last year with the remainder mostly going to the U.K., Italy and Spain from oil platforms off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Statistics Canada data show. While the existing 300,000-barrel-a-day Trans Mountain line is the only export pipeline that connects to a Canadian port, nearly all of the crude it carries supplies refineries in Washington state.
New Markets
“Pipeline infrastructure to new markets is critical,” Sneh Seetal, spokeswoman for Suncor Energy Inc., Canada's biggest oil company, said in a phone interview. “Expanded connection to the U.S. is critical but so is access to new markets.”
Another project that's set to send more Canadian crude to the U.S. is Enbridge Inc.’s replacement and expansion of Line 3, which runs from Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. While construction is still awaiting the go-ahead from Minnesota, Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Al Monaco said in September that the company is confident approval will be granted.
Meanwhile, a plan to expand Trans Mountain to 800,000 barrels a day by December 2019 could be delayed by nine months, the company warned last month. On Oct. 26, Kinder Morgan asked the National Energy Board for permission to start work as the company waited permits from the city of Burnaby, British Columbia, the end point of the line in Canada and a center of opposition to the project.
Access to Asia
Canadian oil producers say expanding Trans Mountain is crucial to gain access to Asia, where demand for heavy oil is growing. While line 3 may be expanded by late 2019, “Trans Mountain is still having issues,” Kevin Birn, a director at IHS Energy in Calgary, said in a phone interview.
While Keystone XL would likely increase the price for Canadian crude by allowing more volumes to reach the U.S. Gulf Coast refining center, Trans Mountain would have the added benefit of opening access to customers in Asia, said Mike Walls, a Boulder, Colorado-based crude oil analyst at Genscape Inc.
“The transportation economics from Western Canada are much stronger” to Asia, he said. The price of heavy Canadian crude is “just going to be bid up that much more.”
Heavy Western Canadian Select crude, the benchmark for the oil sands, would trade at a discount of less than $10 a barrel to West Texas Intermediate futures from almost $16 a barrel currently after Line 3, Keystone XL and Trans Mountain are all operational, according to Walls and Tim Pickering, chief investment officer at Auspice Capital Advisors Ltd.
WCS's discount has widened over the past two months as pipelines out of Western Canada fill up and new oil sands production enters the market from Suncor's new Fort Hills mine and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s expanded Horizon mine and upgrader. The bigger discount is necessary to offset the higher costs of shipment crude by rail.
The Keystone XL project still faces potential legal challenges. The Nebraska panel that approved the project also mandated an alternative route that was immediately targeted by the project's opponents as lacking adequate vetting.
“This may have some positive effect but not to the same extent as if we have tidewater access,” Pickering said by phone. “Trans Mountain is mission critical for Canada.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124002706&vname=dennotallissues&fn=124002706&jd=124002706
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Trump Administration, Enviros Urge Court to Leave BLM Frack Ruling Intact
Nov 21, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
The Trump administration and a coalition of environmental groups have found themselves on the same side, albeit for different reasons, in a pair of appellate court cases over an Obama-era rule governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and tribal lands.
In separate filings Monday, attorneys for the environmental coalition and the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Court to reject calls from four western states, two energy industry groups and an Indian tribe for a rehearing over the rule.
Specifically, BLM and environmentalists asked the court to leave intact a ruling by a three-judge panel on Sept. 21 to dismiss litigation against the proposed rule. They also want vacated a ruling last year, which said the BLM does not have the authority to regulate fracking.
That's where the similarities in the filings end. The Trump administration wants the September ruling kept intact because it ultimately plans to rescind the rule, perhaps as early as January. Meanwhile, the six environmental groups -- Sierra Club, Earthworks, Western Resource Advocates, Conservation Colorado Education Fund, the Wilderness Society and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance -- want the court to issue a mandate to officially vacate the district court ruling, which would have the effect of reviving the Obama-era rule, if only temporarily.
"The panel's Sept. 21 ruling applied well-established law that vacatur of the lower court ruling is appropriate when an appeal is determined to be unripe or moot," the environmental groups’ filing said, adding that the BLM had not requested a rehearing. "The petitions for rehearing instead represent a thinly veiled attempt to delay issuance of the mandate by relitigating an issue this court already considered and correctly decided."
Attorneys with the Department of Justice said BLM "expects to publish a new rule as soon as possible after the Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the proposed rule. The court may therefore deny the petitions and stay the mandate until Jan. 6, 2018, giving BLM an opportunity to complete the pending rulemaking that was the basis for the panel's holding."
Colorado, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, as well as the Independent Petroleum Association of America, Western Energy Alliance and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, have filed requests for a rehearing -- either by the panel or en banc. Earlier this month, the courtagreed to hear additional arguments about the request. They argue that a rehearing would give the panel's decision to vacate the lower court ruling time to coincide with BLM's moves to rescind the rule.
The BLM rule would require oil and gas operators to use the FracFocus registry to disclose the chemicals used in fracking and use above-ground tanks to temporarily store produced water, among other things. U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled in June 2016 that the BLM does not have the authority to regulate fracking. The government subsequently filed an appeal.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/112517-trump-administration-enviros-urge-court-to-leave-blm-frack-ruling-intact
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Alaska Gasline Asks FERC to Accelerate Environmental Review
Nov 22, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By David Bradley
The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) has asked FERC to advance the review of its proposed pipeline and natural gas liquefaction project, in part through adopting the findings of an environmental impact statement previously performed for a similar project.
In a letter sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week, AGDC asked for "immediate action to progress the environmental review of Alaska LNG in a timely, efficient and cost-effective manner" [CP17-178].
Specifically, AGDC requested that FERC utilize an environmental analysis performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in connection with the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline (ASAP) project, "which raised the same wetlands issues currently being reviewed in connection with the Alaska LNG project."
AGDC also asked FERC to grant any necessary waivers or variances of the Office of Energy Project's Wetland and Waterbody Construction and Mitigation Procedures issued in May 2013 that impose more restrictive requirements than those imposed on the ASAP project.
AGDC also requested that an environmental review schedule be issued by Dec. 15. The company in its application requested a final order be issued no later than Dec. 31, 2018.
The two projects have been competing to attain full regulatory approval.
The Alaska LNG Project would include a gas treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay, an 800-mile pipeline to Southcentral Alaska with up to five offtakes for in-state use, and a natural gas liquefaction plant in Nikiski to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export. The much smaller ASAP project would include liquefaction and exports.
Earlier this year, AGDC filed its Natural Gas Act Section 3 permit application with FERC. AGDC also filed permit applications with four additional federal agencies: the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, and National Marine Fisheries Service.
The project would give market access to 35 Tcf of proven gas resources stranded on the North Slope. AGDC, a state of Alaska entity, says the gas pipeline would provide Alaskans with access to natural gas for residential and industrial use. Additionally, the liquefaction plant would be authorized to process 20 million tons/year of LNG for export.
During President Trump's Asia-Pacific trade mission to China earlier this month, state-owned Sinopec Group, the Bank of China and China Investment Corp. signed a joint development agreement to help Alaska develop the LNG export project. Additional gas-related deals in the region between Alaska, West Virginia and Gulf Coast operators could lead to potentially billions in future investments. AGDC also recently picked up more potential backing for the LNG export project when PetroVietnam Gas signaled its support.
Late last year AGDC took over control of the project from major producers ExxonMobil Corp., BP plc and ConocoPhillips, which said the project had become uneconomic.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/112515-alaska-gasline-asks-ferc-to-accelerate-environmental-review
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Port Arthur Plant Had Largest Wastewater Spill In Texas After Harvey
Nov 21, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
By Alex Stuckey
A wastewater facility operated by one of the largest chemical product producers in North America is responsible for the single biggest wastewater spill during Hurricane Harvey, releasing more than 100 million gallons in Jefferson County, state records show.
But the release at the Port Arthur facility run by BASF TOTAL Petrochemicals did not harm the environment, company spokesman Bob Nelson said in a written statement.
"Our process water systems were not compromised - no process chemicals in the water," Nelson said in an email. "The release was mostly rainfall, and some flood waters."
The Port Arthur facility - a joint venture between chemical giant BASF Corporation and TOTAL Petrochemicals & Refining USA - is one of more than 200 in the areas impacted by Harvey that were responsible for about 149 million gallons of raw sewage and industrial discharges pouring into neighboring communities and waterways in the aftermath of the storm, according to state records obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
About half of those facilities are located in Harris County, where they spilled 22.9 million gallons, records show. The spills are self-reported to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, officials said.
Gypsum Pile in Pasadena, for example, accounted for 18 million gallons of Harris County's spill tally. Previously known as FKP Gypsum Pile, the facility sits along the Houston Ship Channel where an inactive gypsum storage pile "associated with historical fertilizer manufacturing" is managed, according to the site permit.
Nearly 20 facilities in Fort Bend County reported releases of about 9.5.4 million gallons of spilled sewage or industrial discharge. Almost all of that - 9.5 million - spilled from the City of Katy Wastewater Treatment Plant at 25839 Interstate 10.
Those numbers, however, likely are incomplete. TCEQ records show that 225 of the 839 spills reported - many of which were located in Harris County - as of Nov. 2 did not have a release amount associated with their spill report.
The spills add to a problem already plaguing counties decimated by the hurricane: contaminated floodwater, which can contain infectious organisms and intestinal bacteria.
Three wastewater facilities are considered inoperable by TCEQ more than two months after one of the worst storms in U.S. history slammed into the Houston area. Fourteen others are operating with issues as of Nov. 3.
Harvey aftermath
The BASF TOTAL facility in Port Arthur produces cancer-causing Butadiene, used in rubber and plastic production; Ethylene, used for anti-freeze, polyester and pharmaceuticals; and Propylene, used for plastics and adhesives.
But Nelson said those harmful chemicals were not present in the 106 million gallons that poured out of the wastewater facility on site starting Aug. 28, three days after Harvey came ashore near Rockport in South Texas.
On that day, TCEQ data shows that drainage ditches backed up, causing wastewater, storm water and floodwaters to intermingle.
"The 106 million gallons was rainwater that overflowed the site ditches and flowed off the site," into areas where it wasn't supposed to be, Nelson said.
The excess water drained into Sabine Lake, which is about a mile from the facility. The BASF TOTAL site sustained minimal damage, he said.
The spill was not BASF's only problem during the hurricane. The company also had issues at its Beaumont pesticide plant, where tanks overflowed and released "trace amounts of non-hazardous process chemicals in the discharge water," Nelson said.
This happened despite the company's attempts to reduce the wastewater on site prior to the storm by transporting it off site, he said.
"Despite these efforts, due to unprecedented rainfall associated with Hurricane Harvey, wastewater overflowed tankage and then overflowed the tank containment area," Nelson said.
Further testing showed that "air emissions from this waste water overflow did not exceed reportable quantities," Nelson said, so the spill was deemed non-reportable.
Nearly 20 other wastewater facilities in Jefferson County reported spilling about 167,000 gallons of sewage and process water, including Sasol Chemicals in Winnie, TCEQ documents show.
Sasol reported spilling 50,000 gallons of sewage into the Mayhaw Bayou on Aug. 29, when storm water overloaded the sumps, containments and holding tanks, according to the state.
The Winnie facility produces products used to manufacture antioxidants, agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals and fragrance chemicals, according to the company's website.
Facility officials could not be reached for comment.
Other problems
It didn't take long after Harvey made landfall Aug. 25 for the Gypsum Pile facility in Pasadena to feel the storm's wrath.
That same day, process water from the facility began spilling as the site was pummeled by feet of rain. By the time the rains stopped, it had been inundated with up to 34.5 million gallons of rainwater, TCEQ records show.
Though the facility treats waste from a site that manages the inactive gypsum pile, facility officials reported to TCEQ that the 18-million-gallon spill posed no threat to humans or the environment. Officials assumed some diluted, untreated water from the site, along with rainwater, entered the Harris County ditch and the Houston Ship Channel.
The facility is operated by WLSK-Pasadena and the contact person listed on its permit, James Keigher, could not reached for comment.
About 100 other facilities in Harris County reported spilling about 22.9 million gallons of sewage and process water during the storm.
In Fort Bend County, The Katy spill came from the facility's wet well and two manholes. The control room also was flooded, records indicate, and all affected areas had to be disinfected with lime.
Water from the facility flows into Buffalo Bayou and then the San Jacinto River Basin.
Officials with the city of Katy, which operates the facility, could not be reached for comment.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Port-Arthur-plant-had-largest-wastewater-spill-in-12375679.php
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UP Highlights Third-Quarter PTC Work
Nov 22, 2017 | Progressive Railroading
Union Pacific Railroad in the third quarter prepared 31 additional track segments for positive train control (PTC) operations, the Class I announced last week.
Other PTC-related accomplishments in the quarter include educating more than 2,800 employees on PTC operation and increasing by 1,700 the number of route miles in PTC operations.
As a result of work completed in the quarter, 73 percent of UP's track segments now are prepared for PTC operation, according to a UP press release. Those preparations included equipping the track segments with wayside signals, switches and radios; and defining the GPS coordinates, which identify thousands of precise locations for systemwide PTC coordination.
About 43 percent of UP's route miles are now in PTC operation; 79 percent of locomotives and 87 percent of required radio towers are equipped with PTC technology; and 59 percent of UP employees have been trained in PTC operations.
UP plans to spend about $300 million on PTC this year toward its current total estimated cost of $2.9 billion.
Federal law requires Class Is, Amtrak and commuter railroads to implement PTC on their systems by Dec. 31, 2018. Some railroads under certain circumstances can apply to the Federal Railroad Administration to receive an extension to Dec. 31, 2020.http://www.progressiverailroading.com/ptc/news/UP-highlights-third-quarter-PTC-work--53317
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Hundreds of Local Leaders Agree: Do Not Economically Re-Regulate Freight Railroads
Nov 22, 2017 | InsideSources
By Brett Harrell, Paul C. Jablonski, and Christopher Reilly
As the fall grain harvest wraps up and we head toward the holiday season, the importance of efficient, reliable transportation in our lives is front and center. And though infrastructure investment has been discussed as a priority of the Trump administration and Congress, it remains a distant possibility.
At the very least, policymakers should do no harm – ensuring today’s reliable infrastructure, particularly private infrastructure not financed by taxpayers, is kept strong. To that end, a pending regulatory proposal at the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) that would undermine freight rail operations and investment should be scrapped.
Freight railroads are the backbone of our economy. Companies and communities across the country depend on them to connect ports, farms, factories, mines and consumer goods to markets across the country and the globe. In one year alone, freight railroads generated $274 billion in economic activity across the U.S. according to a study by Towson University based on 2014 data.
Freight railroads are also the backbone of U.S. passenger rail. Other than the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak trains and state-supported route trains operate on tracks owned by freight railroads, as do most commuter railroads. Policies directed toward freight railroads consequently impact passenger service as well.
Railroads are able to move products and people so efficiently because of their decades-long commitment to investment. Since 1980, these private companies have spent and invested over $630 billion on maintaining and upgrading the 140,000 track miles that comprise the nationwide rail network. They spend more each year on this network than most states spend on highways. And they do it with their own private sector dollars, not taxpayer funds.
Railroads are financially capable of these massive expenditures because of smart public policy that allows the industry leeway to run its private business. A balanced system of economic regulations ushered in through the Staggers Act of 1980 fully protects shippers while allowing rail carriers to earn enough money to afford the capital investments the network requires.
“Forced access,” the pending regulation at the STB, could change all that. The proposal would force railroads to share their privately owned and maintained networks with their direct competitors at below-market rates.
Essentially upending the system of regulations put in place by partial economic deregulation enacted nearly 40 years ago, the rule would be a dramatic step backward to a time when government bureaucrats set rates and controlled routes for the railroads. Similar proposals in the past have been estimated to cost $8 billion in annual rail revenue—a steep reduction that would dramatically undercut the resources railroads have at their disposal to invest in infrastructure and operations.
The negative effects of these past onerous policies, of course, radiated far beyond the railroads themselves. Shippers, consumers and the economy suffered. A significant portion of the network was in bankruptcy and stationary trains were literally falling off tracks due to the crumbling infrastructure below them.
Policymakers cannot allow a return to this failed system. To this end, a letter jointly signed by over 450 local and state elected leaders, economic development officers, chambers of commerce, advocacy groups and rail supply companies was transmitted this week to the STB and to congressional leadership opposing forced access.
As signatories on that letter, we know how much our communities rely on freight rail. We know that the STB rule would undermine local rail service, and moreover, that today’s balanced regulations are the key to a safe and economically viable rail network. In communities across the country, this rule would upset that balance, undercutting rail investment, placing local jobs in jeopardy, undermining local control over passenger train dispatch and exposing our neighbors to a less safe rail system.
And we are of course not alone in our thinking. More than 25 national organizations recently wrote to the same set of Congressional leaders rejecting this push for re-regulation, echoing years of nonpartisan analysis opposing unnecessary government intrusion into the sector.
Now is the time for the STB to withdraw this misguided proposal. If they do not, Congress should exercise its oversight authority.
http://www.insidesources.com/hundreds-local-leaders-agree-not-economically-re-regulate-freight-railroads/
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EPA Defends Rule Allowing Regional 'Nonacquiescence' To Court Rulings
Nov 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Anthony Lacey
EPA is defending its policy allowing its regions “nonacquiescence” to applying one federal appellate court's ruling on Clean Air Act (CAA) issues if that court is outside a particular EPA region, over objections from industry groups that argue the rule will lead to unfair and uneven application of court rulings across the agency's regions.
The Trump administration is defending the Obama-era rule, arguing that is a permissible interpretation of the air law, and based on a “reasoned” decisionmaking. EPA says the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit should therefore reject the suit over the rule filed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the National Environmental Development Association's Clean Air Project (NEDA/CAP), representing several industries.
“Nothing in the Act required EPA to adopt what appears to be the Associations’ preferred approach, a requirement that all regions act with absolute uniformity even after a single, adverse regional court decision. That approach would have serious fairness implications and would not be feasible when different circuits issue different interpretations of the same national policy,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) says on EPA's behalf a Nov. 20 brief.
EPA's “regional consistency” policy requires agency mandates to be consistent across the agency's 10 regions, but under a July 21, 2016, rule the agency provided a “narrow” exception to the policy. Under the waiver, regional EPA offices that face adverse court rulings on a national policy can continue applying the policy in states outside the court's jurisdiction, without needing to seek special permission from EPA headquarters.
In the lawsuit, NEDA/CAP, et al. v. EPA, industry groups have warned that the rule creates a legal “wild, wild west” spurring major uncertainty for companies due to uneven application of court rulings.
“The Amended Regional Consistency Rule violates the plain language of the statute, because it both fails to assure fairness and uniformity and omits the required mechanism for identifying and standardizing inconsistent policies. The Amended Regional Consistency Rule creates a 'wild, wild west' for Petitioners' members and should be set aside,” according to the opening brief from API and NEDA/CAP filed in August.
They say the consistency rule update directly violates the CAA's section 301(a)(2) mandate to “assure fairness and uniformity” in agency actions, although EPA has rejected this claim.
The rule violates the provision “because it allows for inconsistencies among EPA Regions, removes the required mechanism for identifying and standardizing inconsistent policies, and allows the Regions to take inconsistent positions without input or approval from the EPA Administrator or Headquarters staff,” says the brief.
But DOJ counters in its new brief that EPA “permissibly interpreted the Act to accommodate intercircuit nonacquiescence,” because the law is “silent or ambiguous” on how the agency should instruct its 10 regions to address conflicts arising from circuit-specific court decisions.
“Like any federal agency, EPA may ordinarily decline to follow, in its administrative proceedings, the case law of a court of appeals other than the one that will review its final agency action,” DOJ says.
Rather than creating confusion, DOJ counters that the regional consistency policy update fills a statutory gap and resolves the ambiguity on the air law about whether an EPA region needs to adhere to a circuit court decision if that court is located in a state outside of that region.
The agency also defends its “reasoned decisionmaking” process for the rule, saying it adequately explained the rule and reiterating that the court should reject the suit.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-defends-rule-allowing-regional-nonacquiescence-court-rulings
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House Natural Resources Panel To Weigh 'Modernizing' NEPA
Nov 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
The House Natural Resources Committee plans to hold a hearing next week on “modernizing” the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an event that could allow Republicans on the committee to explore steps to streamline environmental reviews of projects that are required under the law.
The Nov. 29 hearing is titled, “Modernizing NEPA for the 21st Century,” though the committee has not yet released witnesses or additional details on the hearing.
Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration have long complained that NEPA reviews of major federal projects consume too much time, delaying key permits for several types of infrastructure.
President Donald Trump has sought to speed NEPA reviews, including by reviewing existing regulations governing such reviews, crafting infrastructure-specific NEPA guidance, potentially expanding categorical exclusions of activities that are exempt from review, and requiring agencies to develop plans to speed reviews.
However, four Democratic former White House Council of Environmental Quality officials have warned Trump and key Cabinet officials that their efforts to speed NEPA reviews could invite major legal risks if such efforts sacrifice the quality of such analyses.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/house-natural-resources-panel-weigh-modernizing-nepa
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