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PRACTICE ACC PM Shelly 28/11/17
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Glick to be Sworn in at FERC Wednesday
Nov 28, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Darius Dixon
Democrat Rich Glick is slated to be sworn in as a FERC commissioner on Wednesday, FERC spokeswoman Mary O’Driscoll said today. -
EPA Curb on Nonstick Chemical May Have Reduced Number of Babies With Low Birth Weight
Nov 28, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin
Efforts to phase out a chemical used in nonstick coatings have resulted in fewer U.S. babies being born underweight in recent years, according to findings published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. -
EU Notifies WTO of Amended O-Phenylphenol Restriction
Nov 28, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission has notified the World Trade Organization of a draft Regulation that aims to restrict the maximum concentration of o-phenylphenol as a preservative in leave-on cosmetic products to 0.15%, lowered from the currently authorised concentration of 0.2%. -
Court Upholds Obama EPA's Deal with Greens on Drilling Waste
Nov 28, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
U.S. EPA and environmentalists won't have to scrap an agreement they reached last year over regulation of oil and gas waste. -
Army Corps Eyes NWP Revisions to Meet Goals of Trump's Energy Order
Nov 28, 2017 | Inside EPA
The Army Corps of Engineers in a new report on regulatory reform says changes to nine Clean Water Act (CWA) general permits covering dredge-and-fill activities associated with domestic energy production and use could help achieve the goals of President Donald Trump's executive order promoting energy independence. -
Keystone Deliveries Resume as Leak Investigation Continues
Nov 28, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Gordon Jaremko
Flows resume Monday into the United States from Alberta on the Keystone oil pipeline after an 11-day interruption to repair a leak and start cleaning up a 5,000 bbl oil spill in northeastern South Dakota. -
New Testing Brings Total of GenX-Contaminated Wells to 85
Nov 28, 2017 | AP (In The Washington Post)
North Carolina officials say tests have detected elevated levels of an unregulated compound at 34 additional wells near a chemical company’s manufacturing facility. -
Climate Action Today: Where We're Going and How We Reach Results – Despite Current Roadblocks
Nov 28, 2017 | EDF
By Fred Krupp
Not long ago, I attended a briefing about some of the ways innovation is driving environmental progress. -
Bloomberg Steps in for EPA to Sponsor Conference on Warming
Nov 28, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Arianna Skibell
After U.S. EPA said this summer it would not sponsor the 2018 Climate Leadership Conference, today Bloomberg Philanthropies announced its intention to fill the gap.
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Glick to be Sworn in at FERC Wednesday
Nov 28, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Darius Dixon
Democrat Rich Glick is slated to be sworn in as a FERC commissioner on Wednesday, FERC spokeswoman Mary O’Driscoll said today.
There were no updates on when Kevin McIntyre, President Donald Trump's pick to be FERC chairman, would do the same.
Both McIntyre and Glick were confirmed by the Senate early this month, and though their paperwork cleared the White House shortly before Thanksgiving, neither have officially joined the agency. That delay had fueled speculation among FERC watchers that there was a dispute over staffing decisions or Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s controversial grid proposal.
Current FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee sought to tamp down the rumors today.
“There is no conspiracy here. There is no intentional delay or dragging things out to some nefarious end," he told reporters after a Consumer Energy Alliance event. "It’s simply a matter of timing, prioritization, getting documents signed and once the documents were signed ... people have to unwind their own professional obligations in their current jobs.”
Chatterjee also said it was unfair to compare the slow pace in bringing McIntyre and Glick aboard to the quicker process that put him and Commissioner Rob Powelson on the commission in August, when the agency had gone months without a quorum.
“There was considerable pressure to get the paperwork signed and moved as quickly as possible,” he said. “The circumstances here are different because we have a functioning quorum.”
https://www.politicopro.com/energy
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EPA Curb on Nonstick Chemical May Have Reduced Number of Babies With Low Birth Weight
Nov 28, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin
Efforts to phase out a chemical used in nonstick coatings have resulted in fewer U.S. babies being born underweight in recent years, according to findings published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.
Researchers at New York University based their findings on an analysis of blood samples of new mothers that were gathered between 2003 and 2014 as part of a national health study to examine levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Exposure to the synthetic chemical, long used in a variety of consumer products, from stain-resistant carpets to nonstick pans, pizza boxes and outdoor apparel, has been associated with a range of potential health problems, including cancer.
Researchers suggest developing fetuses are particularly at risk for birth defects and lower-than-normal birth weights. Such concerns were a driving force behind a 2006 agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. manufacturers to decrease and eventually halt the production of PFOA by 2015.
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For years, PFOA had been nearly ubiquitous in the United States, with much of it traveling unregulated through water supplies. According to the EPA, blood serum tests in the U.S. general population between 1999 and 2012 detected PFOA 99 percent of the time. However, those figures have begun to fall as companies have phased out the chemical.
The NYU researchers found that PFOA levels in women ages 18 to 49 continued to rise from 2003 to 2008, when median levels peaked at 3.5 nanograms per milliliter. But by 2009, not long after the government compelled companies to begin phasing out the chemical, the trend began to reverse. Blood levels of PFOA began dropping from a median 2.8 nanograms per milliliter to 1.6 nanograms per milliliter by 2014.
Researchers used computer modeling to estimate the number of low-weight births that may have been caused by specific levels of PFOA chemical exposure. They compared the estimated impact of PFOA when blood levels were highest with the impact after blood levels dropped. That allowed them to estimate that the voluntary phaseout of PFOA and similar chemicals has prevented between 10,000 and 17,000 low-weight births in the United States annually in recent years.
“All too often we talk about the failure of EPA or other agencies to regulate chemicals,” the study’s lead investigator, NYU School of Medicine associate professor Leonardo Trasande, said in an interview. “But we don’t give enough credit when an agency does the right thing, and works with industry proactively to phase a chemical of concern.”
A number of factors contribute to low-weight babies, who weigh 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms) or less. But Trasande said he and his colleagues at NYU isolated the number that could be attributed to exposure to PFOA.
“What we found was this very striking pattern,” said Trasande, a pediatrician and health epidemiologist. He added that preventing so many low-weight births translated into billions of avoided societal costs on everything from infant hospital stays to lower earning potential for those children who faced significant health and developmental problems. “We know that more low-weight babies means extra medical care.”
The EPA’s scientific advisory panel identified PFOA as a “likely carcinogen” in June 2005. Six months later it reached a $16.5 million settlement with the DuPont Co., which used to produce the chemical compound in Parkersburg, W.Va., over the company’s failure to report possible health and environmental risks associated with its product for more than two decades. That evidence, which dated as far back as 1981, included the fact that the chemical could be transferred from a pregnant woman to her baby via the placenta.
In January 2006 eight companies — including DuPont, 3M, Ciba and Clariant — agreed to stop making PFOA.
Even as companies have eliminated the chemical from use, that doesn’t mean Americans are no longer exposed. Millions of products that contain PFOA and a similar compound known as PFOS remain in people’s homes and in commercial settings.
Last year, researchers at Harvard University found that drinking water supplies serving more than 6 million Americans contain unsafe levels of the chemicals. That data came from more than 36,000 samples collected by the EPA between 2013 and 2015.
The EPA last year issued a health advisory about PFOS and PFOA, warning about potential long-term exposures to the compounds and urging state and local officials to take action or at least notify residents about contaminants when they are detected in drinking water. Ultimately, though, the advisories are unenforceable.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/28/epa-curb-on-nonstick-chemical-may-have-reduced-number-of-babies-with-low-birth-weight/?utm_term=.9b8f0fff9d1e
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EU Notifies WTO of Amended O-Phenylphenol Restriction
Nov 28, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission has notified the World Trade Organization of a draft Regulation that aims to restrict the maximum concentration of o-phenylphenol as a preservative in leave-on cosmetic products to 0.15%, lowered from the currently authorised concentration of 0.2%.
The proposed date of adoption is the third quarter of 2018. And the proposed entry into force is 20 days from publication in the EU Official Journal.
The final date for comments is 60 days from notification.
The Commission had consulted on the proposed restriction, and amendment to the cosmetics Regulation, earlier in the year.
In June 2015, the Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) said the maximum concentration limit for o-phenylphenol in leave-on cosmetic products should be reduced.
https://chemicalwatch.com/62037/eu-notifies-wto-of-amended-o-phenylphenol-restriction
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Court Upholds Obama EPA's Deal with Greens on Drilling Waste
Nov 28, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
U.S. EPA and environmentalists won't have to scrap an agreement they reached last year over regulation of oil and gas waste.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a challenge today from North Dakota, which argued the President Obama-era settlement was reached unfairly and infringed on the state's rights.
At issue is a late 2016 consent decree in which EPA agreed to consider revising Resource Conservation and Recovery Act standards to include oil and gas waste. The agency has until March 2019 to decide whether an update is warranted and then until 2021 to complete any update.
The settlement was in response to district court litigation from the Environmental Integrity Project, which argued that EPA had failed to meet a statutory duty to regularly revisit RCRA standards. North Dakota attempted to intervene in the original lawsuit but was blocked by the district court.
North Dakota then appealed to the D.C. Circuit, arguing two points: The lower court was wrong to block the state from intervening, and the settlement was unlawful.
The case featured a strong Trump EPA defense of the settlement with environmentalists, even as Administrator Scott Pruitt has separately spurned such deals. Government and environmental lawyers defended the agreement together, noting that the consent decree does not mandate RCRA changes but merely sets out a timeline for EPA to consider revisions.
In oral arguments earlier this month, Greenberg Traurig LLP attorney Paul Seby, representing North Dakota, argued that states deserved a seat at the table when the settlement was negotiated (Energywire, Nov. 8).
A three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit rejected North Dakota's arguments and upheld the district court's decision. In a short order, the court ruled that North Dakota had not been harmed by the settlement because it only establishes a deadline for EPA to revisit RCRA standards.
"The District Court thoroughly analyzed North Dakota's motion to intervene and correctly concluded that North Dakota did not have standing to intervene as of right under [court rules]," the order said. "Our cases have held that a putative intervenor has no standing — specifically, has no injury-in-fact — when that putative intervenor alleges that it will be injured by the establishment of a deadline for a federal agency to decide whether to promulgate a rule."
The panel included Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee, and Judges Nina Pillard and Sri Srinivasan, Obama appointees.
Environmental Integrity Project attorney Adam Kron praised the decision.
"The outcome here is especially important because North Dakota cannot thwart EPA from complying with its congressional mandate and reviewing oil and gas waste disposal regulations for the first time in nearly three decades," he said in an email.
A lawyer for North Dakota did not respond to a request for comment. EPA does not comment on litigation.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/11/28/stories/1060067443
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Army Corps Eyes NWP Revisions to Meet Goals of Trump's Energy Order
Nov 28, 2017 | Inside EPA
The Army Corps of Engineers in a new report on regulatory reform says changes to nine Clean Water Act (CWA) general permits covering dredge-and-fill activities associated with domestic energy production and use could help achieve the goals of President Donald Trump's executive order promoting energy independence.
Executive Order 13783, Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth, requires federal agencies to review existing regulations that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear resources. EPA, the Corps and other agencies are floating their plans for reform, with the Corps announcing its report in the Nov. 28 Federal Register.
According to the report, the Corps reviewed 12 CWA nationwide permits (NWPs) that authorize activities associated with the development or use of domestically produced energy resources and recommends changes to nine of the permits, including expanding where some coal mining activities can occur.
The Corps, however, recommends keeping the 1/2-acre limit in the six NWPs where it currently applies. These include NWP 12 Utility Line Activities, NWP 21 Surface Coal Mining Activities, NWP 39 Commercial and Institutional Developments, NWP 50 Underground Coal Mining Activities, NWP 51 Land-Based Renewable Energy Generation Projects, and NWP 52 Water-Based Renewable Energy Generation Pilot Projects.
Since it was first adopted in 2000, the 1/2-acre limit has been “effective in ensuring that the NWPs with that acreage limit only authorize those activities requiring Department of the Army authorization that result in no more than minimal individual and cumulative adverse environmental effects. Where feasible, project proponents will design their projects to avoid and minimize losses of jurisdictional waters and wetlands on the project site to comply with the 1/2‐acre limit and qualify for NWP authorization,” the report says.
But the Corps says the 300 linear foot limit for filling and excavating stream beds in NWPs 21, 39, 50, 51, and 52 should be removed “because of the challenges and associated costs in determining whether a particular stream segment is perennial, intermittent, or ephemeral and potentially eligible for a waiver of the 300 linear foot limit.”
Removal of the limits would streamline the NWP authorization process and reduce processing times, and other limits -- such as the 1/2-acre limit and pre-construction notification (PCN) requirement, which allows the Corps to review each proposed activity -- are sufficiently protective, the Corps says.
While the current 300 linear foot limit can be waived for losses of intermittent and ephermeral streams, identifying these stream segments requires additional analysis and increases review times, the Corps says. “Removal of the 300 linear foot limit would reduce costs to the regulated public and the Corps, resulting in more equivalency between these NWPs and the other NWPs.”
NWP Revisions
Additionally, for NWPs 21, 49 and 50, “the Corps recommends removing the provision requiring the permittee to receive a written authorization from the Corps before commencing with the activity, to be consistent with the other NWPs requiring PCNs and allowing default authorizations to occur if the Corps district does not respond to the PCN within 45 days of receipt of a complete PCN.” NWP 49 covers coal remining activities.
For NWP 12, which covers structures or work in navigable waters for crossings of those waters associated with the construction, maintenance, or repair of utility lines, including oil and gas pipelines, the Corps recommends simplifying the PCN thresholds. The permit also authorizes the construction, maintenance, or expansion of substation facilities associated with a power line or utility line in non‐tidal waters of the United States, foundations for overhead utility lines, and the construction and maintenance of utility line access roads.
Currently, there are seven threshold requirements to obtain coverage under NWP 12, but the Corps recommends reducing those to only two: requiring PCN notification for utility lines crossing navigable waters subject to section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and for utility line activities resulting in the loss of greater than 1/10‐acre of waters of the United States.
For NWP 17, which covers hydropower projects, the Corps recommends changing the generating capacity threshold from 5,000 kilowatts (kW) to 10,000 kW to be consistent with the definition of “small hydroelectric power project” in the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013.
NWP 3 authorizes the repair, rehabilitation, or replacement of any previously authorized, currently serviceable structure or fill, and the Corps recommends modifying it to authorize small amounts of riprap to protect those structures and fills without a PCN requirement. Riprap is stone used to stabilize shorelines and structures to prevent erosion and destabilization.
“After NWP 3 was reissued on December 21, 2016, the Corps has been asked whether this NWP authorizes small amounts of riprap to protect the structure or fill that repaired, rehabilitated, or replaced, without the need to submit a PCN. The structures and fills repaired, rehabilitated, or replaced under this NWP often are related to energy production, distribution, and use,” the report says. -- Lara Beaven (lbeaven@iwpnews.com)
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/army-corps-eyes-nwp-revisions-meet-goals-trumps-energy-order
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Keystone Deliveries Resume as Leak Investigation Continues
Nov 28, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Gordon Jaremko
Flows resume Monday into the United States from Alberta on the Keystone oil pipeline after an 11-day interruption to repair a leak and start cleaning up a 5,000 bbl oil spill in northeastern South Dakota.
Deliveries were beginning through a “controlled return” at reduced pressure and gradually pumping back up to the seven-year-old line’s capacity for 530,000 b/d, operator TransCanada Corp. said Monday.
The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) reviewed the restart plan and made no objections, TransCanada noted. No air or water pollution concerns have been raised in the spill area by state authorities or landowners.
Neither TransCanada nor the PHMSA disclosed a suspected cause for the leak. The rupture was under pancake-flat and thinly populated South Dakota farmland near Amherst, a region not noted for threats to pipelines such as frequent floods, high flows in river or stream crossings, earth tremors or slope erosion. A brief flash flood damaged a cattle feedlot in 2009, before Keystone began operating.
As of last weekend about 170 cleanup and remediation personnel recovered 44,730 gallons of oil, or one-fifth of the spill of 210,000 U.S. gallons (reported more dramatically in Canada as 795,000 liters, using the national metric system).
TransCanada did not disclose cleanup cost or completion date estimates. Officials of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission said Keystone’s performance is watched closely and its operating liable is liable to be suspended or cancelled if violations are discovered.
Canadian industry analysts rated the high-volume traffic disruption as a contributor to recent oil price increases, along with optimism that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will extend restricted production quotas at a meeting this week.
TransCanada, meanwhile, gave no further hint at the fate of the proposed Keystone XL 830,000 b/d addition to the oil export network.
As part of a cost and shipper lineup review the company requested clarification of a route approval order granted by the Nebraska Public Service Commission on Nov. 20, four days after the leak in the completed first Keystone line revived environmental and native protest against a system that primarily carries Alberta oilsands production.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/112557
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New Testing Brings Total of GenX-Contaminated Wells to 85
Nov 28, 2017 | AP (In The Washington Post)
North Carolina officials say tests have detected elevated levels of an unregulated compound at 34 additional wells near a chemical company’s manufacturing facility.
The Fayetteville Observer reports the results announced Monday bring the total number of wells contaminated by the potentially harmful GenX compound to 85. The verified results from 107 tests conducted last month also found 48 wells with a level of the chemical below the state’s health goal.
Traces of GenX also have found in two municipal wells used by the Bladen County water system, around 3 miles (5 kilometers) from The Chemours Co. plant.
The state is suspending Chemours’ permit to discharge wastewater into a neighboring river on Nov. 30, after the Wilmington, Delaware-based company failed to report an October spill of a GenX precursor.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/new-testing-brings-total-of-genx-contaminated-wells-to- 85/2017/11/28/9c151230-d45d-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_story.html?utm_term=.408ea1d11142
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Climate Action Today: Where We're Going and How We Reach Results – Despite Current Roadblocks
Nov 28, 2017 | EDF
By Fred Krupp
Not long ago, I attended a briefing about some of the ways innovation is driving environmental progress. It came during a visit to Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, where I heard from scientists who are developing fast-charging electric vehicle batteries that will help overcome range anxiety.
Breakthroughs like these will help scale the solutions we need to turn the corner toward a safer and more stable climate.
New technologies are empowering people to protect the environment in other ways. Cheap pollution sensors and data analytics can make hidden health threats visible – and actionable.Times are tough, but there’s still progress
In Oakland and Houston, we’re working with Google Earth Outreach to map air pollution block by block. No longer can governments or big businesses choose to conceal pollution from people; we can measure it ourselves, and use social media to make it public.
Transparent environmental data allow us to hold laggard companies accountable and celebrate the stewardship of corporate environmental leaders.
This wave of innovation is just one of the trends that makes me hopeful about our environmental future, even at a time when America’s bipartisan legacy of environmental safeguards is under assault. I also draw hope from the progress we’re making with states, corporations and other countries.
We worked with California this year as the state extended and deepened the ambition of its groundbreaking cap-and-trade program, which Environmental Defense Fund cosponsored.
We’re also helping Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, achieve an extraordinary commitment: removing 1 gigaton of climate pollution from its global supply chain. That’s more than Germany emits annually.
And in China, we are working with the government as it phases in what will become the world’s biggest emissions trading system for carbon.
As we approach the end of President Trump’s first year in office, it’s worth taking stock of how much has changed, and where leadership can still be found. My colleagues at EDF have been doing just that – adapting to a changing landscape by drafting a new strategic plan [PDF] called Pathways 2025.
Here are a few of the conclusions we’ve reached.Trump’s policies hurt his own voters
Among the many factors driving the 2016 election outcome was a profound sense of voter pessimism – a rejection of elites and mistrust of expertise driven by the sense that the rules of the game have been rigged.
There are valid reasons for people to feel this way, but the populist wave only succeeded in electing a president who is making the problem worse. With his administration’s attacks on clean air and public health standards, regular people are getting hit harder than ever.A price on carbon: Still a key priority
Fairer and more transparent rules of the road can help restore public trust. When it comes to climate change, for example, United States markets are badly broken. They let corporations pollute our common atmosphere for free.
The way to fix them is by putting in place a price and limit on carbon pollution – and this remains EDF’s No. 1 climate policy objective.
This may seem like a dark time to talk about climate progress in Washington. But the Trump administration has inspired a rebirth of environmental activism, with support for EDF and other groups at an all-time high. Hundreds of thousands marched on behalf of climate action and sound science this year.
Polls show Trump’s environmental agenda is deeply unpopular.Note to Congress: Citizen action soars
Together with our allies, we help amplify this upwelling of citizen action by giving voice to our two million members and activists, our Moms Clean Air Force affiliate with more than a million members; and Defend Our Future, a burgeoning initiative to engage millennials.
We want Congress and the administration to understand that attacking bedrock environmental standards carries the same political risk as cutting Social Security.
Even as the impacts of climate change become more damaging, we remain confident that our solutions, if scaled in time, can help turn the corner to a safer climate, cleaner air and healthier communities.A new focus: Resilience in a warming world
However, even with ambitious greenhouse gas reductions, considerable warming is inevitable. That’s why a new focus of our work is helping people and natural systems become more resilient in the face of the changes we cannot avoid.
Our Oceans, Ecosystems and Health programs are pursuing several climate resilience initiatives:Oceans: Well-managed fisheries are better able to withstand the stress of climate change, improving the fortunes of people everywhere.Health: Climate and human health will benefit from our work to reduce conventional air pollution.Ecosystems: The climate will benefit from work to reduce fertilizer overuse, curbing the amount of nitrous oxide entering the atmosphere. And building natural infrastructure, such as wetlands and barrier islands, helps make coastal communities more secure in the face of change.
EDF has also embraced an important new goal known as “net-zero emissions.”
It means not just reducing emissions, but eventually reaching a point of balance when the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases we’re putting into the atmosphere are matched by those we’re taking out through measures such as reforestation and agricultural practices that increase carbon in soils.
Technologies that pull carbon from the atmosphere are also promising and may become economically viable in years to come. A carbon recovery pilot project called Climeworks is up and running in Iceland, but remains too expensive to scale.
The net-zero point of balance is the place where we stop doing more harm to the climate, and begin to heal it. It’s a long way off, but it’s critical that we have a strategy for both where we’re going, and – despite the current politics – how we will get there.
https://www.edf.org/blog/2017/11/28/climate-action-today-where-were-going-and-how-we-reach-results-despite-current
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Bloomberg Steps in for EPA to Sponsor Conference on Warming
Nov 28, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Arianna Skibell
After U.S. EPA said this summer it would not sponsor the 2018 Climate Leadership Conference, today Bloomberg Philanthropies announced its intention to fill the gap.
"The EPA may no longer be in the business of recognizing American climate leadership, but across the country there are state officials, mayors and businesses who are driving the climate agenda forward," Dan Firger, environmental program head for Bloomberg Philanthropies, said in a statement.
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and the Climate Registry, the co-hosts of the conference, cheered the group's decision, praising nonfederal efforts to confront global warming.
"We don't have time to lose in the fight against climate change, and supporting and recognizing the actions of U.S. business and government leaders will ensure we continue to make progress," Ann McCabe, the Climate Registry's interim executive director, said in a statement.
EPA leaders said in August that the agency was discontinuing its support after backing the conference and related awards during the Obama administration (Greenwire, Aug. 28).
An email from EPA said, "We understand this news comes in the middle of the 2018 Awards application period and we apologize for any inconvenience to those preparing applications. We would like to thank you for your support for our mission to protect human health and the environment."
The conference, now in its seventh year, brings together more than 400 energy and climate leaders from both the public and private sectors. The event will be held Feb. 28 through March 2 in Denver.
"States and local communities throughout the U.S. are proving that climate action can improve our health and quality of life, and can even save money," Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) said in a statement.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has said it intends to work with leaders at the conference to advance America's Pledge, an initiative from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) that seeks to manifest nonfederal action on climate.
Also supporting the conference is the U.S. Climate Alliance, which was formed in response to President Trump's announcement that he would withdraw from the Paris climate pact.
The alliance has since grown to encompass 36 percent of the U.S. population and more than $7 trillion of the country's gross domestic product (E&E News PM, Sept. 20).
"We are seeing a new wave of actors from beyond Washington step into the leadership void," Center for Climate and Energy Solutions President Bob Perciasepe said. "America's Pledge and Bloomberg Philanthropies are playing an indispensable role in convening business and local leaders."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/11/28/stories/1060067455
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