Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 12/21/2017
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(ACC Mentioned) Ex-Industry Lobbyists Win Top Jobs in Agencies They Once Fought
Dec 21, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Jesse Hamilton
When Cadiz Inc. wanted to build a 43-mile pipeline to pump water from a Mojave Desert aquifer to thirsty Southern California, it enlisted an army of lobbyists, lawyers and consultants to secure the federal government’s sign-off. -
(ACC Mentioned) 5 Chemical Growth Stocks to Revitalize Your Portfolio in 2018
Dec 21, 2017 | Zacks (In Nasdaq)
The chemical industry has gotten its mojo back after being roiled by the global economic crisis. The industry enjoyed a positive run this year, helped by an upswing in the world economy and strength across major end-use markets such as construction, electronics and automotive -
States Back Environmentalists' TSCA 'Uses' Claims
Dec 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
A coalition of state regulators is strongly backing a key argument in environmentalists' lawsuit challenging Trump EPA rules establishing a framework for reviewing existing chemicals under the recently revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)... -
Systematic Slowdown: EPA Indefinitely Delays Virtually All Proposed Actions To Restrict Chemicals Under TSCA
Dec 20, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Richard Denison
By the time the long-awaited reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed in June of 2016, nearly all stakeholders had come to agree that we needed a stronger federal chemical safety system, one that gave EPA more authority and more resources to act. -
SC Johnson Details Skin Allergens in Products Online
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
Consumer products giant SC Johnson has fulfilled its commitment to disclose the presence of 368 skin allergens, product by product, online. -
Industry Addiction to “Toxic Vaping” Tough to Break Without Final EPA Action
Dec 21, 2017 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
As EPA signals its intent to indefinitely delay key rules to regulate toxic chemicals including the cleaning solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), Safer Chemicals Healthy Families today released a new report showing that while some industrial firms are phasing out... -
Trump Administration Delays Bans of Toxic Solvents
Dec 20, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Cheryl Hogue
The Trump administration is delaying the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to ban high-risk uses of three hazardous solvents. -
California Lists N-Hexane Under Prop 65
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) has listed n-hexane under the state's Proposition 65 regulation. This requires manufacturers and retailers to warn workers and consumers exposed to the substance. -
We Are What We Eat: New Paper Outlines How the Regulatory Gaps in the US Threaten Our Health
Dec 21, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Sarah Vogel
In a new paper published in PLoS Biology today, Maricel Maffini, Tom Neltner and I detail the regulatory gaps in how the US manages chemicals in food. -
Trump EPA Indefinitely Delays Bans on Deadly Chemicals
Dec 20, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
The Trump Administration last week proposed to indefinitely delay proposed bans of high-risk uses of three toxic chemicals: Methylene chloride and N-Methylpyrrolidone, or NMP, in paint strippers and trichloroethylene, or TCE, in degreasing. -
Dancet: Echa Should Set Up MoUs With Global Chemicals Agencies
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
Echa can help countries outside of the EU to establish REACH-like legislation by establishing memorandums of understanding (MoU) with peer agencies, Echa’s outgoing head Geert Dancet has said. -
Echa Round-Up
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Echa has received eight testing proposals for the following five substances: -
Murkowski Eyes January Revival Of Energy Bill
Dec 21, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
Having finally secured a long-sought victory on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is looking to the new year to advance another stalled legislative priority: the bipartisan energy package that languished in the last Congress after clearing the Senate by a wide margin. -
Chevron Phillips Starts Commissioning New Texas Ethane Cracker
Dec 20, 2017 | Platts
By Nida Qureshi
Chevron Phillips Chemical has finished building its world-scale ethane cracker at the Cedar Bayou complex in Baytown, Texas, and begun commissioning activities, it said Wednesday. -
N America To Lead Global Petchem Construction – Fluor Exec
Dec 20, 2017 | ICIS
By Joseph Chang
North America will continue to be the focus of global petrochemical construction activity in the coming years with more foreign-based companies also investing in the region, the head of Fluor’s energy and petrochemical business said on Wednesday. -
A Decade In, Keystone XL Foes Renew Resistance to Pipeline
Dec 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Meenal Vamburkar
TransCanada Corp.’s $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project is about to enter its second decade still lacking a clear path forward. -
Amtrak Head Says Deadly Derailment Is a ‘Wake-Up Call’
Dec 20, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Nour Malas and Ted Mann
The deadly derailment of a passenger train that killed three people and injured dozens more has put a spotlight on Amtrak safety management and enforcement—which the rail company’s president acknowledged late Tuesday. -
EPA Gets January Deadline to Plan for Overdue Ozone Decisions
Dec 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Jennifer Lu
The EPA must decide by Jan. 12 how and when it will determine which regions of the country exceed new federal air quality standards for ozone. -
NACAA Asks EPA to Maintain Health Protections in Air Permitting Reforms
Dec 20, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Doug Obey
The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) is asking EPA to ensure that its upcoming “action plan” for overhauling Clean Air Act permit maintains or improves existing public health protections, while pitching reform options including increased resources... -
Schneiderman Expresses SUpport for a Carbon Tax
Dec 20, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Danielle Muoio
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman this week voiced his support for a state carbon tax, joining ranks with a statewide coalition pushing for the legislation.
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(ACC Mentioned) Ex-Industry Lobbyists Win Top Jobs in Agencies They Once Fought
Dec 21, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Jesse Hamilton
When Cadiz Inc. wanted to build a 43-mile pipeline to pump water from a Mojave Desert aquifer to thirsty Southern California, it enlisted an army of lobbyists, lawyers and consultants to secure the federal government’s sign-off.
The Obama administration blocked it anyway.
But the project’s fortunes changed after the election of Donald Trump— and his appointment of David Bernhardt, one of Cadiz’s former lawyers, to be second-in-command of the Interior Department.
Within months, the department had reversed course and told the Los Angeles developer it didn’t need the federal government’s permission after all.
In his first year as president, Trump studded his cabinet with people who previously fought to undermine what some see as the traditional missions of the agencies they now lead. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, for example, built his political career suing the agency and challenging what he termed its “activist agenda.” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has called public schools a “dead end.” And Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, downplayed proposals to cut housing aid.
Less well known — and potentially more impactful — are the former industry advocates who are now shaping policy behind the scenes in lower levels of the federal government.
Trump has placed former industry advocates in regulatory roles across the bureaucracy, often in charge of the very same policies they sought to weaken for previous clients and employers, according to a review by Bloomberg News. There’s a former mining executive in charge of mine safety, a chemical industry advocate writing chemical safety rules and a career banker whose prior company was sanctioned by the agency he has now taken over: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Trump supporters say past Democratic presidents recruited government appointees from advocacy groups and think tanks who were equally invested in matters of policy. The pro-business worldview of Republicans just means GOP presidents are more likely to appoint people who have deep government knowledge from serving as lobbyists, lawyers and executives.
“You certainly wouldn’t want your airplane pilot to not know what he is doing, and you’d rather not have your doctor just come in off the street,” said Mike McKenna, a Virginia-based Republican energy consultant who helped guide Trump’s presidential transition. “Do you want a government run by people who know what the hell they’re doing, or are you OK with it being run by a bunch of amateurs?”
The hiring of ex-lobbyists has been made easier because Trump scrapped an Obama-era requirement that they wait for two years before joining agencies they tried to influence. A revised ethics policy, issued in January, merely requires appointees to recuse themselves from matters involving former employers and clients for two years.
Even that requirement can be waived where the need for an appointee’s expertise is deemed to outweigh conflict-of-interest concerns.
Bernhardt says he didn’t participate in the Cadiz decision, won’t benefit financially from the policy reversal and is recused from particularmatters involving specific people or companies he represented in private practice.
Obama’s Interior Department blocked the Cadiz project, saying the pipeline couldn’t be built in a railroad’s right-of-way on federal land because it wasn’t originally needed by that railroad.
It had plenty of supporters, including Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who backed the project as a congressman, Bernhardt said.
“I’ve not been involved at all in any decision by the department on it,” he said in an interview.
Still, Bernhardt’s former law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, stands to earn millions of dollars if the Cadiz pipeline gets built, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Bernhardt said he has no ongoing stake in the project.
Read more: The President Takes Credit for Killing Regulations That Were Already Dead and Government Careerists Thwart Trump Agenda
Bernhardt’s client list from his time as a lobbyist and lawyer is packed with companies that have business before the Interior Department: affiliates of Noble Energy Company LLC, a major Gulf of Mexico oil producer; subsidiaries of Statoil AS, the Norwegian company that wants to build a wind farm off the New York coast; and a unit of Halliburton Co., the world’s largest fracking services provider.
Now that Bernhardt is back at the Interior Department — he worked there previously in the administration of President George W. Bush — the agency’s request forms for meetings with him specifically outline his commitment “to avoid even the potential appearance of a lack of impartiality” by not personally participating in any particular matters that involve former or current clients of his old law firm.
Bernhardt has developed a scrupulous process — he says it is “vital” — to keep him walled off from potential conflicts forbidden under his ethics agreement. He issued a memo to staff listing specific companies and the type of issues that are off limits, with a level of detail surpassing that of a similar missive from a predecessor in the Obama administration.
“Morality in this sphere is based upon the rules and laws put in place,” Bernhardt said. “I am not here to act in a way that benefits me financially.”
He carries a 4-inch-by-3-inch card that lists the companies he must avoid, to help him — and anyone showing up at Interior — navigate the ethical thicket.
Not on the card: former Bernhardt client Safari Club International Foundation, the charitable arm of Safari Club International, a hunting advocacy group. The club was elated when Bernhardt was confirmed, describing him in blog post as “an avid hunter, angler and shooter” who will help Trump “wisely manage the Interior Department’s resources.”
In November, the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service sided with the group and decided to allow big-game hunters to bring elephant carcasses from Zimbabwe into the U.S., reversing a 2014 ban.
After a public outcry, Trump put the new import plan on hold, but the new policy hasn’t been formally revoked or revised.
Bernhardt is not barred from matters of general applicability involving Safari Club International or its foundation — a category that includes broad regulations and policy moves.
“Mr. Bernhardt has worked on various matters regarding hunting including particular matters of general applicability related to elephants, which is entirely appropriate given his ethics agreement and the guidance he has received from ethics experts,” Interior spokesman Russell Newell said.
Even with all the precautions, the collision of Bernhardt’s past work with current Interior Department policy decisions hands fodder to critics, while threatening to undermine the integrity of those moves. Bernhardt’s very presence at Interior has cast suspicion over the Cadiz about-face.
“Only someone with a vested interest and intimate working knowledge of the agency could have engineered the quick reversal of a fairly arcane policy,” said Kate Kelly, public lands director at the liberal Center for American Progress. “Bernhardt had both.”
Similar scenarios are playing out across the federal government.
At the Energy Department, Sean Cunningham, a former utility lobbyist, is now a vocal champion of the Trump administration’s plan to help keep coal plants online by allowing them to charge more for the power they produce. One of his former clients — FirstEnergy Corp. — is poised to be a major beneficiary.
Cunningham lobbied on behalf of power companies for more than a decade, including challenging proposals that would advantage renewable power, potentially at the expense of coal plants. Asked about conflicts, an agency spokeswoman said Cunningham’s role as a registered lobbyist for FirstEnergy ended in 2008, well outside the two-year recusal window.
Cunningham kept advocating for other industry clients through at least 2013. Those include Southern Company Services Inc., Duke Energy and American Electric Power Co., according to lobbying disclosures.
He has taken a pro-coal message into his new job as the head of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. Coal and nuclear power should be “revived, not reviled, in America,” Cunningham told a conference of state electric regulators Nov. 13.
At the Agriculture Department, a former pesticide industry lobbyist has been helping to map out a blueprint for cutting red tape, after spending seven years trying to influence pesticide policy as a lobbyist for CropLife America, the trade group representing Monsanto Co., Syngenta AG and other agrichemical manufacturers.
Rebeckah Adcock’s new role as the USDA’s regulatory reform officer was good news for the industry. Her background gives Adcock an “an exceptional understanding” of its needs, the Southern Crop Production Association said in a news release after meeting with her in May. A current CropLife lobbyist also sat in on that meeting, according to visitors logs first reported by the New York Times and ProPublica.
Adcock had signed an ethics agreement pledging to avoid CropLife and issues she’d worked on prior to joining the Agriculture Department. But meetings with former employers and clients don’t run afoul of federal ethics rules as long as they include five or more stakeholders — a threshold established in guidance issued in 2009 during the Obama administration.
The meeting “is not a violation of Ms. Adcock’s ethics agreement, ” said Agriculture Department spokesman Tim Murtaugh.
In June, CropLife criticized a proposed rule to regulate genetically modified organisms. In November, the USDA withdrew it.
The presence of former industry insiders is especially pronounced in the Environmental Protection Agency, where at least 10 top Trump appointees previously represented industries with business before the EPA.
“Even setting aside Scott Pruitt, there is a very long list of other folks that are former industry lobbyists and industry lawyers, and it’s not exactly draining the swamp,” said Erik Olson, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s health program. “It’s draining the swamp and finding all the swamp creatures that were there — and then hiring them.”
The former industry representatives include Erik Baptist, a senior deputy general counsel for the agency, who has gotten permission to deal with the U.S. biofuel mandate, despite his past work opposing renewable fuel quotas on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute.
In an interview, Baptist acknowledged his role but said his focus with API was on litigation not lobbying.
Similarly, Susan Bodine now leads the EPA’s enforcement and compliance office after spending years representing an industry targeted by it as a lobbyist for the American Forest and Paper Association. She said in an interview that her work for the paper association focused on regulation of non-hazardous materials and was more than two years ago — falling outside the recusal window.
Nancy Beck was installed as the deputy assistant administrator of the EPA’s chemical safety office, despite having previously pressed for less stringent requirements on behalf of the American Chemistry Council and its member companies, including Dow Chemical Co., DuPont Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp.
Since taking the EPA post, Beck has made things easier for industry by revising an Obama-era proposal for prioritizing and evaluating thousands of existing chemicals for their risks.
The Obama administration had proposed a rule for broadly assessing chemicals, including scrutinizing legacy uses that are outdated but whose effects persist in the environment, such as asbestos insulation still lurking inside schools and offices.
But the American Chemistry Council, with Beck still on board, pressed for risks to be evaluated more narrowly, focusing on current uses. Later, at the EPA, Beck guided an agency rewrite that mirrored the council’s view.
Beck said the change was necessary to focus on chemicals that are “in the flow of commerce” and to make the rule “more implementable and workable.”
Beck had permission to tackle chemical safety issues — and general matters involving the council — because she’s technically an “administratively determined” employee exempt from the Trump ethics pledge.
“I’ve never seen myself as an industry person, and I’ve never been a lobbyist,” Beck said in an interview. “I’m a scientist first — and the fact that I have experience working with a trade association and have an understanding of how industry works doesn’t make me any less of a scientist.”
Some Trump appointees now charged with protecting the public have actively worked to undermine safeguards or were employed by companies cited for violating them. Consider David Zatezalo, who was just confirmed as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration after nearly a decade with Rhino Resources Partners LP, a Kentucky coal company twice rapped by that office for an alleged pattern of violations and fined for a fatal accident in 2011. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Zatezalo, a miner who rose to be chief executive officer of Rhino Resources, said local management “was not doing what they should have been doing.”
Zatezalo said he was “not proud” of the episode, but he “did not try to lawyer-up and stop anything from happening.”
“If you haven’t done your job, we should be big kids and deal with it as such,” he said.
Zatezalo has managed and operated 39 mines, a Labor Department spokesperson said, stressing that he will work to install a culture of safety at all mines.
Joseph Otting was chief executive officer of OneWest Bank Group when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was its chairman — and both were there when an agency that is now part of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency accused it and other firms of foreclosure abuses in the years after the financial crisis.
Now Otting is the comptroller — a job that’s routinely occupied by industry veterans — and has emphasized how much he understands the regulatory burdens that bankers face.
Otting’s own experience with regulators reached a low point several years ago when he felt intense pressure to settle accusations of improper foreclosures at OneWest. He considered quitting his OneWest job instead of signing a settlement agreement in 2011, Otting said at a roundtable with reporters Wednesday. The memory of that moment will color how he approaches enforcement at his agency, Otting said, and he’ll make sure that bankers “are given the right to prove their innocence.”
Among his first actions at the comptroller’s office was to cancel a high-profile program that would have removed hundreds of examiners from resident offices inside the banks they are assigned to scrutinize. The program was meant to keep government officials from getting too cozy with the Wall Street bankers they oversee, but Otting said the approach was “not practical” and other safeguards already prevented such bias.
To supporters, Otting’s expertise makes him a perfect fit for the job.
“What the administration has done is to appoint some very highly successful people with a unique point of view to Washington,” said Tom Quaadman, an executive vice president with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. “That’s very helpful in the development of policy” since a government official with experience on the other side of regulation is more likely to understand the real-world impact of public policies, Quaadman said.
But experience and expertise don’t “cure fundamental conflicts,” said Amit Narang, a regulatory policy advocate at Public Citizen.
“You can claim these people have experience and expertise, but the public is losing faith in our government’s ability to protect the public and to act on behalf of the public and the public interest, rather than corporate special interest,” Narang said. “Even the appearance of corruption is deeply corrosive to faith in our government.”
— With assistance by Mark Niquette, Josh Eidelson, Benjamin Bain, Bill Allison, Elizabeth Dexheimer, and Joe Ryan
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(ACC Mentioned) 5 Chemical Growth Stocks to Revitalize Your Portfolio in 2018
Dec 21, 2017 | Zacks (In Nasdaq)
The chemical industry has gotten its mojo back after being roiled by the global economic crisis. The industry enjoyed a positive run this year, helped by an upswing in the world economy and strength across major end-use markets such as construction, electronics and automotive.
The Zacks Chemicals Diversified industryhas outperformed the broader market year to date. The industry has gained around 26.6% over this period, topping S&P 500's corresponding return of roughly 20.6%.
U.S. Chemical Industry to Ride Growth Wave
The U.S. Chemical Industry has recovered from the damaging effects of Hurricane Harvey and is set for solid growth in 2018. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry trade group, envisions national chemical production (excluding pharmaceuticals) to rise 3.7% in 2018, further accelerating to a 3.9% growth in 2019. The growth is expected to be spurred by higher demand across light vehicles and housing markets, capital investments and improved export markets.
The trade group also expects basic chemicals production to expand 4.7% in 2018 and further gain steam with a 5.2% rise in 2019 on the heels of new capacity additions. Major export markets such as Latin America and Asia are expected to play a significant role in production growth.
The United States remains an attractive investment destination for chemical investment and domestic chemical makers continue to enjoy the advantage of access to abundant and cheaper feedstocks and energy. This is driving investment in chemical production projects.
Per the ACC, roughly 320 chemical projects have been already announced worth more than $185 billion, 62% of which is foreign direct investment. Moreover, roughly 65% of the chemical investment announced since 2010 are complete or under construction. New capacity is expected to provide a boost to chemical production as these investments come on stream.
The ACC also expects chemical industry capital spending to rise 6.3% in 2018 and 6.8% in 2019 and eventually reach $48 billion by 2022.
EU Chemical Sector Back in BusinessThe European chemical industry has also swung back to life on the back of improving global economic sentiment and a resurgent Eurozone economy. Eurozone's recovery has been backed by declining unemployment and strengthening business and consumer confidence.
The outlook for the European chemical industry is positive. The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) expects chemical output in the European Union to rise 2% year over year in 2018. Per the CEFIC, the growth of manufacturing production across sectors such as automotive, construction, metal production and electronics in the European Union has led to higher demand for chemicals in the region. Exports of chemicals produced in European Union have also increased, particularly, in Asia and Russia.
Demand Strength Across Key End-Markets
Chemical makers continue to see strong demand from construction and automotive sectors - major chemical end-use markets. A recovery across housing and commercial construction markets has been a tailwind for the chemical industry. The underlying trends in the housing space remain healthy, backed by steady buyer demand, low mortgage rates, high homebuilders' confidence, low unemployment levels and rising rent costs.
The automotive sector also continues its good run amid certain challenges, supported by an improving job market, rising personal income, improved consumer confidence, low fuel prices, impressive vehicle launches and attractive financing options.
Another positive is a recovery in demand in the energy space - a key chemical end-market that had been out of favor for a while. The recovery has been driven by the rebound in crude oil prices . The recent uptrend in oil prices has been supported by a decline in U.S. oil stockpiles and extension of oil production cuts by OPEC and other major world producers until the end of 2018. Improving fundamentals in the energy space is expected to support chemical demand next year.
5 Chemical Growth Plays
The chemical industry is looking up, making it an attractive investment proposition for 2018. The industry's momentum is expected to continue next year on sustained demand strength across major end-markets and significant capital investment. Amid such a backdrop, it would be a prudent idea to invest in chemical stocks with compelling growth prospects if you are looking to reap solid returns from your portfolio in 2018.
Growth investors look for stocks with aggressive earnings or revenue growth potential, which should lead to higher stock prices. With the help of our Style Score System , we have picked five stand-out chemical stocks that have excellent prospects and might offer solid investment returns.
Our research shows that stocks with Growth Style Score of A or B when combined with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) offer the best investment opportunities in the growth investing space. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here .
Kronos Worldwide, Inc. KRO
Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Kronos sports a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of A. The company has expected earnings growth of 41.1% for 2018. It delivered average positive earnings surprise of 58.8% over the trailing four quarters. Kronos also has a long-term expected earnings per share (EPS) growth rate of 5%. (Looking for the Best Stocks for 2018? Be among the first to see our Top Ten Stocks for 2018 portfolio here. )
Kraton Corporation KRA
Our next pick in the space is Texas-based Kraton, armed with a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of A. The company has an expected EPS growth of 30.6% for 2018. It also delivered average positive earnings surprise of 32.9% over the trailing four quarters. Earnings estimates for 2018 for the company have also increased by around 10% over the last 60 days.
Ingevity Corporation NGVT
South Carolina-based Ingevity is another attractive choice with a Zacks Rank #2 and a Growth Score A. The company has expected earnings growth of 14.3% for 2018. The company also delivered positive earnings surprise in each of the trailing four quarters with an average positive surprise of 10.4%. The stock has a long-term expected EPS growth rate of 12%.
W. R. Grace & Co. GRA
Headquartered in Columbia, MD, W. R. Grace carries a Zacks Rank #2 and Growth Score A. The company has expected earnings growth of 8.5% for 2018. It also delivered positive earnings surprise in each of the trailing four quarters with an average positive surprise of 6.3%. Its long-term projected EPS growth rate is 12%.
Arkema S.A. ARKAY
France-based Arkema sports a Zacks Rank #2 and a Growth Score of A. The company has expected earnings growth of 8.3% for 2018. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 for the company have increased by around 1% over the last 60 days. Arkema also has a long-term expected EPS growth rate of 13.1%.
5 Medical Stocks to Buy Now
Zacks names 5 companies poised to ride a medical breakthrough that is targeting cures for leukemia, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia and other conditions.
New products in this field are already generating substantial revenue and even more wondrous treatments are in the pipeline. Early investors could realize exceptional profits.http://www.nasdaq.com/article/5-chemical-growth-stocks-to-revitalize-your-portfolio-in-2018-cm894890
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States Back Environmentalists' TSCA 'Uses' Claims
Dec 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
A coalition of state regulators is strongly backing a key argument in environmentalists' lawsuit challenging Trump EPA rules establishing a framework for reviewing existing chemicals under the recently revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing that the law requires the agency to review “all uses” of existing chemicals.
TSCA “requires U.S. EPA to evaluate all conditions of use including all forms and pathways of use, disposal, combustion, reuse, recycling and reprocessing,” the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) says in Dec. 11 comments to EPA on a potential rule the agency is weighing for limiting reporting of certain substances under TSCA.
In the comments, ECOS broadly opposes new exemptions from reporting, arguing that EPA will need sufficient data to support reviews of existing chemicals, which state regulators contend should consider all of a substance's uses.
States' support for environmentalists' position signals a brewing clash with EPA and industry groups as litigation over the agency TSCA rules advances in 2018.
The issue of what uses EPA must consider under the new TSCA is the central issue in environmentalist lawsuitschallenging two of the Trump administration's so-called framework rules, guiding how the agency will review “existing” chemicals that have been in commerce for decades.
The substances were largely grandfathered under the old law, and the need to address risks of existing chemicals was a major driver of TSCA reform.
While the Obama administration proposed framework rules that required the agency to assess -- and possibly regulate -- a wide range of chemical uses, the final version issued by the Trump administration narrowed the uses the agency will consider.
Environmentalists are challenging EPA rules for prioritizing and evaluating existing chemicals in pending litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where they are expected to target the risk evaluation rule's exclusions for broad categories of uses, such as legacy uses or those uses already regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or other agencies.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/states-back-environmentalists-tsca-uses-claims
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Dec 20, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Richard Denison
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. My colleague Ryan O’Connell assisted in the research described in this post.
By the time the long-awaited reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed in June of 2016, nearly all stakeholders had come to agree that we needed a stronger federal chemical safety system, one that gave EPA more authority and more resources to act. Only through this could public confidence in the system begin to be restored – to the benefit of both business and public health.
That was then. A scant 18 months later, the law is being implemented by an Administration hell-bent on rolling back existing or indefinitely delaying new health protections, even those called for by large bipartisan majorities in Congress. And the chemical industry? So much for the influence of its better angels who supported reform. It’s now going for broke, grabbing what it can while it can.
Yesterday, the New York Times and The Intercept ran stories spotlighting EPA’s decision to back-burner proposed restrictions on high-risk uses of three highly toxic chemicals – trichloroethylene (TCE), methylene chloride (MC), and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) – relegating them to the bureaucratic dustbin of “long-term actions.” Not coincidentally, the chemical industry has strongly opposed all of the proposed restrictions.
But those aren’t the only proposed actions on chemicals for which this EPA has applied the brakes. An examination of EPA’s two most recent semi-annual “unified agendas” – that trumpeted by the President last week, and the preceding one issued this past April – reveals a much broader and more disturbing pattern: Virtually every proposed action that would impose restrictions or conditions on specific chemicals has been either moved to the “long-term action” attic or simply deleted altogether.
Actions called for under the new TSCA that merely entail putting new processes in place and initiating reviews of chemicals have by and large gone forward and met applicable statutory deadlines. The so-called “framework” rules that establish the processes by which EPA will identify, prioritize and assess chemicals came out roughly on schedule – though highly flawed and heavily tilted toward industry interests.
Forward motion is also preserved on a few chemical-specific actions mandated by the new law and subject to deadlines. For example, a mandated rule establishing reporting requirements for the TSCA mercury inventory, and mandated reconsideration of EPA standards defining who qualifies to be a small manufacturer or processor, both remain under active status.
But then there are the proposed actions that would impose restrictions or conditions on specific chemicals. Together with the proposed bans on TCE, MC and NMP I’ve already mentioned, over the past eight months, six actions EPA had proposed to use its authorities under the core provisions of TSCA (Title I) that Congress amended last year have either been shifted to “long-term action” status or removed altogether:
Shifted to long-term action:Trichloroethylene (TCE); Rulemaking Under TSCA Section 6(a); aerosol degreasers and spot cleanersN-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and Methylene Chloride; Rulemaking Under TSCA Section 6(a)Trichloroethylene (TCE); Rulemaking Under TSCA Section 6(a); Vapor DegreasingSignificant New Use Rule (SNUR); Alkylpyrrolidone ProductsTrichloroethylene (TCE); SNUR for Non-Aerosol Spray Degreasers
Removed altogether:Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs); Reassessment of Use Authorizations for PCBs in Small Capacitors in Fluorescent Light Ballasts in Schools and Daycares
[See our full list of TSCA Title I proposed actions and their fates here.]
To repeat: What all of these proposed actions have all in common is that they would place limits on specific chemicals.
Another rule that is mandated by the new law but has yet even to be proposed also appears to have been delayed, as it, too, has relegated to long-term action:Procedural Rule: Review of CBI [Confidential Business Information] Claims for the Identity of Chemicals on the TSCA Inventory—Amended TSCA Section 8(b)(4)(C)
This rule’s delay is also very concerning, as it is supposed to drive forward EPA reviews of CBI claims to mask the identities of specific chemicals Unfortunately, the shift is consistent with the near total silence of the agency on the status of actions it is required to take under the new law to more closely scrutinize company requests to hide information from the public.
There is one apparent exception to the pattern I described. It’s a mouthful: a Significant New Use Rule applying to Long-Chain Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylate and Perfluoroalkyl Sulfonate Chemical Substances remains at the proposed rule stage. The most infamous member of this group of chemicals is PFOA, DuPont’s so-called “Teflon chemical,” the production of which has largely been phased out in the U.S. Note that, as proposed, one part of this rule would require companies to notify EPA before they could commence making this or certain related chemicals.
Why is this chemical-specific action still alive? One reason may be that companies that voluntarily agreed to phase out production and use of PFOA don’t want other companies to be able to jump back into the market. In addition, EPA’s agenda indicates it will re-propose the rule (in part to align it with the new TSCA’s requirements). Given industry concerns voiced over parts of the original proposed rule, it may well be that EPA is keeping this action alive in order to make weakening changes in the re-proposal. Stay tuned.
Let me sum up what our comparison has found: Under the new TSCA this EPA, by and large, is moving forward on establishing general processes, initiating reviews of chemicals, and meeting direct mandates in the law that industry supports.
But almost across the board, the Trump EPA is slow-walking actions that would prohibit or limit companies’ ability to make and use chemicals.
Why is this happening? A great clue was provided in yesterday’s article on the delayed chemical bans in The Intercept:
Contacted by The Intercept, Faye Graul, executive director of HSIA [the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance], took issue with the EPA’s evaluation of TCE and methylene chloride, which had been carried out under an older version of the Toxic Substances Control Act. She said she believes the chemicals should be considered under the updated version of that law, which was signed by Obama in June. Re-evaluating the substances under the new law would add years to the process.
When asked if the organization had gotten what it wanted with the proposed delay on action on these chemicals, Graul replied, “That is exactly what we asked for, yes.”
But is this really what Congress asked for EPA to do just last year?
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2017/12/20/systematic-slowdown-epa-indefinitely-delays-virtually-all-proposed-actions-to-restrict-chemicals-under-tsca/
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SC Johnson Details Skin Allergens in Products Online
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
Consumer products giant SC Johnson has fulfilled its commitment to disclose the presence of 368 skin allergens, product by product, online.
In May, the international company published a list of fragrance and non-fragrance skin allergens and said it would indicate which product they were found in by 2018.
Specific allergens are now indicated in product information found on the website. SC Johnson brands include household cleaners such as Glade, Pledge, Scrubbing Bubbles and Shout.
A company statement claimed the initiative "goes well above and beyond regulatory and industry allergen disclosure standards, including those in the EU and the US."
SC Johnson chairman and CEO, Fisk Johnson, said: "Other companies use similar ingredients, but we’re helping consumers make informed choices by disclosing the specific skin allergens that may occur in our products."
'A great step forward'
US NGOs have praised the initiative as a positive move towards increased transparency for consumers.
Women's Voices for the Earth, director of corporate accountability, Sarada Tangirala, called the effort "a great step forward" that customers had been seeking for many years.
"Women in particular are far more likely to have fragrance allergies and this level of disclosure gives them greater, and clearer, information they need to protect their health from allergens than any other major manufacturer of cleaning products is currently providing," she said.
Dev Gowda, toxics advocate at the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), said it was a "great move for chemical transparency in consumer products." But he called on the company to "take the next step and completely remove skin allergens from its products."
Industry trend
The initiative is the latest of SC Johnson’s transparency efforts. These have included publishing its fragrance palette with a list of 1,300 approved fragrance ingredients and rolling out product-specific fragrance disclosure.
There has been increasing pressure for ingredient transparency in consumer goods products in the US. In October, the Cleaning Products Right to Know Act (SB258) was signed into law, which requires "chemicals of concern" including fragrance ingredients, to be listed on a product's label.
New York has also floated a proposal for cleaning product manufacturers to publicly disclose ingredients and identify chemicals of concern used in formulations.
In September, Procter & Gamble announced that it would reveal the fragrance ingredients, down to 0.01% of content, for all products sold in the US and Canada by the end of 2019.
And Unilever US announced plans to provide information about specific fragrance ingredients used in its personal care products by the end of next year. Details of the first 100 products across seven brands were made available on an app and online in September.
https://chemicalwatch.com/62730/sc-johnson-details-skin-allergens-in-products-online
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Industry Addiction to “Toxic Vaping” Tough to Break Without Final EPA Action
Dec 21, 2017 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
As EPA signals its intent to indefinitely delay key rules to regulate toxic chemicals including the cleaning solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), Safer Chemicals Healthy Families today released a new report showing that while some industrial firms are phasing out use of this toxic chemical for vapor degreasing, the vast majority seem to be holding back to “wait and see” if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ever adopts its proposed ban on the use. This conclusion is based on a survey of 143 industrial facilities that reported air emissions of TCE within the United States.
Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Acting Director Liz Hitchcock said: “EPA proposed a ban on the commercial use of TCE for vapor degreasing nearly a year ago. Further delay in adopting this health-protective rule keeps workers at an increased risk for serious health impacts.”
Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Program Associate and author of the report Jennifer Dickman added: “Companies should speed up their transition to safer substitutes for this use of TCE. Industry must be proactive in protecting the health of their workers.”
In January 2017, EPA proposed to ban TCE for use in vapor degreasing, using its new authority under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), because worker exposure to the chemical poses an unreasonable risk to human health. This exposure threatens serious adverse health effects such as cancer and fetal heart defects.
EPA estimates that 45,000 to 107,000 workers, including 454 to 1,066 pregnant women, are exposed to TCE from vapor degreasing where they work or from nearby workplaces. Vapor degreasing is a process used in commercial settings to clean equipment or other items with a hot vapor of chemical solvent such as TCE.
To date, the EPA has failed to finalize this proposed TCE ban and the agency’s recent action indicates that it may be delayed even longer. Congress amended the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2016 to remove the roadblocks that had prevented EPA from restricting dangerous chemicals that threaten the health of American workers, consumers, and the environment. Congress required EPA to act swiftly on the uses of chemicals that EPA had already determined posed an unreasonable risk prior to the law’s passage, including TCE used for vapor degreasing.
Whether EPA adopts the pending TCE rule, as well as proposed rules to ban TCE for aerosol degreasing and spot cleaning and to restrict methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) for use in paint stripping, will be critical tests of whether the Trump Administration intends to take seriously the bipartisan consensus that chemicals that pose unreasonable risks should be phased out.
http://saferchemicals.org/newsroom/industry-addiction-to-toxic-vaping-tough-to-break-without-final-epa-action/
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Trump Administration Delays Bans of Toxic Solvents
Dec 20, 2017 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Cheryl Hogue
The Trump administration is delaying the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to ban high-risk uses of three hazardous solvents.
Those plans took shape in the waning days of the Obama administration. That’s when EPA proposed the ban on methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidine (NMP) in paint strippers and trichloroethylene (TCE) in aerosol spray degreasers, spot-cleaning agents in dry cleaning, and vapor degreasing. These uses put people at risk for cancer and neurodevelopmental effects, the agency determined.
If finalized, the restrictions would mark the first time EPA has prohibited uses of a commercial chemical in more than a quarter-century. In addition, they would be the first such regulations since Congress amended the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 2016 to boost EPA’s authority to control high-risk uses of chemicals.
However, the Trump administration on Dec. 14 quietly said it will indefinitely postpone finalizing the planned ban of TCE uses and, at some unspecified time in the future, recast the proposed regulations for methylene chloride and NMP. Such changes could include withdrawing the proposals on methylene chloride and NMP, leaving the two chemicals unregulated.
“EPA is once again kowtowing to the chemical industry,” which has pushed back against the agency’s health conclusions for the three solvents and wants EPA to reassess the compounds, says Richard Denison, lead senior scientist at Environmental Defense Fund, an activist group. He calls the Trump administration’s move an attempt to undermine Congress’s bipartisan reforms to TSCA, which authorize the agency to regulate high-risk uses of chemicals.
Postponement of EPA’s plans for the three solvents is part of a document issued semiannuallyby the White House that lays out an administration’s agenda for creating or withdrawing regulations.
“EPA’s plan balances its statutory requirements to issue regulations and its commitment to providing regulatory certainty through improvements to existing regulations that were flawed, outdated, ineffective, or unnecessarily burdensome,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says in a statement about the agenda.
https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/12/Trump-administration-delays-bans-toxic.html
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California Lists N-Hexane Under Prop 65
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) has listed n-hexane under the state's Proposition 65 regulation. This requires manufacturers and retailers to warn workers and consumers exposed to the substance.
N-hexane is used as a degreaser, a solvent component and a low-temperature thermometer filling.
The substance was considered at the 29 November meeting of the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee (Dartic) of Oehha's Science Advisory Board.
Acting as the state's qualified experts (SQE), the committee determined that n-hexane was clearly shown "through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles to cause reproductive toxicity, based on the male reproductive endpoint".
At the same meeting Dartic also added the pesticide chlorpyrifos to Proposition 65.
Both listings are effective as of 15 December.
https://chemicalwatch.com/62740/california-lists-n-hexane-under-prop-65
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We Are What We Eat: New Paper Outlines How the Regulatory Gaps in the US Threaten Our Health
Dec 21, 2017 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Sarah Vogel
In a new paper published in PLoS Biology today, Maricel Maffini, Tom Neltner and I detail the regulatory gaps in how the US manages chemicals in food. We explore how failures in our current regulatory system put the public’s health at risk as exemplified in the case of perchlorate, a chemical allowed in food and a well-known endocrine disrupting compound. Perchlorate’s ability to disrupt normal functioning of the thyroid means that even low levels of exposure, especially in those with inadequate iodine intake, can adversely impact the developing brains of infants and children. It is not a chemical that should be in the food of pregnant women, infants and children. And yet it is, and the levels children consume have increased in recent years.
Nearly sixty years ago, Congress passed the 1958 Food Additive Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act that gave new authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure the safety of chemicals in food. The American diet has changed considerably in the intervening decades, and today there are more than 10,000 chemicals allowed in food for use in processing, packaging, and transporting. And while Congress intended that companies test chemicals before using them in food and the FDA address chronic health effects and cumulative exposures to chemicals in the food supply when considering safety, in reality, safety assessments of chemicals in food are woefully inadequate.
EDF is working to make safer food available for all. We're urging corporate leaders to improve the safety of food additives, and together with allied organizations, we are committed to strengthening the lawand modernizing the current regulatory system to remove hazardous chemicals from the food supply. Protecting the most vulnerable from hazardous chemicals is a common goal that we should all be striving towards to build a safer and healthier future.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2017/12/20/new-paper-regulatory-gaps-threaten-our-health/
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Trump EPA Indefinitely Delays Bans on Deadly Chemicals
Dec 20, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
WASHINGTON - The Trump Administration last week proposed to indefinitely delay proposed bans of high-risk uses of three toxic chemicals: Methylene chloride and N-Methylpyrrolidone, or NMP, in paint strippers and trichloroethylene, or TCE, in degreasing.
The proposed chemical bans and restrictions were stripped from the Trump Administration’s “Unified Agenda” – and are among hundreds of deregulatory actions that put the health and safety of Americans at risk by weakening protections.
Methylene chloride, an acutely toxic likely carcinogen that is also toxic to the brain and liver, has been linked to more than 50 deaths. CBS recently featured the tragic story of Kevin Hartley, a 21-year-old who died while using it to strip a bathtub.
“This latest action is one more move by this EPA to undermine implementation of the bipartisan reforms to TSCA enacted last year,” said Dr. Richard Denison, Lead Senior Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. “Among those reforms, Congress specifically authorized EPA to take action on these chemicals to address high-risk uses. Instead, EPA is once again kowtowing to the chemical industry.”
“EPA’s callous decision to continue to allow the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers will lead to more needless deaths of Americans who are simply refinishing a door or renovating a bathroom,” said Scott Faber, Senior Vice President at Environmental Working Group. “Once again, this Administration would rather pander to chemical industry lobbyists than save American lives.”
EPA has found that TCE “carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure” and causes developmental and reproductive harms. NMP is also a reproductive toxicant.
EPA under the last Administration had proposed banning TCE in vapor degreasing, aerosol degreasing, and spot cleaning. EPA had also proposed to ban methylene chloride, and was considering either a ban or restrictions on NMP, in paint strippers.
All three bans were proposed in December 2016 or January 2017, and were the first bans proposed under the Toxic Substances Control Act in more than 25 years. They were set to be finalized within months.
But Trump has now removed all of them from its "Unified Agenda,” released last week, and moved the proposed rules to “long-term action” after pressure from chemical companies.
More information can be found here:TCE Rule #1 covering aerosol degreasing and spot cleaners (moved to long-term action in Spring 2017): https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=2070-AK03TCE Rule #2: covering vapor degreasing https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=2070-AK11NMP/MC: covering paint and coating removers https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=2070-AK07
The Administration’s decision to indefinitely postpone the bans comes just months after EPA reversed a scheduled ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to cancer and infertility, over the recommendations of EPA scientists.
https://www.ewg.org/release/trump-epa-indefinitely-delays-bans-deadly-chemicals#.WjuiCluWZD8
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Dancet: Echa Should Set Up MoUs With Global Chemicals Agencies
Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
Echa can help countries outside of the EU to establish REACH-like legislation by establishing memorandums of understanding (MoU) with peer agencies, Echa’s outgoing head Geert Dancet has said.
In his final interview with Chemical Watch as executive director of the agency, Mr Dancet told the Global Business Briefing that Echa should not isolate itself within Europe and should be more vocal and help disseminate similar regulatory practices to other parts of the world.
It is part of Echa’s new strategy to "show how the benefits of REACH can be reaped by their own new legislation – that is part of the discussions I have been having in China and India," he said. "In other parts of the world, we need to argue better that it makes sense to have REACH-like legislation."
For instance, he said, Echa is "willing to help them in using Iuclid as the main instrument for implementing chemicals legislation". This kind of cooperation is a topic Mr Dancet says he will be raising with the Commission services soon, as he does not believe that, with states like Turkey, the system that emerges "will automatically be sufficiently identical to what we have".
There is a duty, he added, to make sure industry does not have the unnecessary extra cost of putting these systems into place. "That’s why I would argue that we should take the initiative ourselves for a memorandum of understanding with those countries."
Mr Dancet finishes his second five-year term at the end of the year. He will be replaced by Bjorn Hansen, the head of the chemicals unit at the European Commission’s environment-directorate general.
He leaves the job convinced that the agency has a respected status: "We are an agency with a very strong reputation, with very dedicated professional staff – the turnover of which is low".
And he is proud that Echa and REACH have been successful. It is he said: "an unexpected achievement".
Read the full interview in December's Global Business Briefing here.
https://chemicalwatch.com/62737/dancet-echa-should-set-up-mous-with-global-chemicals-agencies
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Dec 21, 2017 | Chemical Watch
Testing proposals
Echa has received eight testing proposals for the following five substances:
· 2-(2-vinyloxyethoxy)ethyl acrylate;
· bis(2-ethylhexyl) cyclohexane-1,4-dicarboxylate;
· isotridecan-1-ol;
· pentaerythritol; and
· pivalic acid.
The deadline for comments is 5 February.
Consultation on two Seac draft restriction opinions
The agency is consulting on two draft opinions of the Committee for Socio-economic Analysis (Seac) concerning the following two restriction proposals:
· diisocyanates, submitted by Germany; and
· lead stabilisers in PVC articles, submitted by the agency.
The consultation closes on 20 February.
PFHxS: substance in articles notification reminder
The agency has issued a reminder that the deadline for submitting substance in article notifications for perfluorohexane-1-sulfonic acid and its salts (PFHxS) is 7 January. This group of substances was added to the candidate list on 7 July 2017.
And Echa has asked importers and EU producers of articles to check if PFHxS in their articles meet the conditions for the notification obligation under Article 7 of REACH.
Echa publishes report on 2016 Pic chemicals
Ethylene dichloride was most exported prior informed consent (Pic) chemical in 2016, according to Echa's annual report on PIC imports and exports.
Around 367,000 tonnes of ethylene dichloride were exported from the EU to countries including India, Morocco, Norway and Egypt in 2016, Echa said in a press release. This made it the the EU’s most exported chemical that year under the Regulation.
Benzene was the most imported PIC chemical into the EU, the statement said. More than 380,000 tonnes imported from countries like Turkey, Algeria, India and Russia to many central European countries.
The PIC Regulation administers the import and export of certain hazardous chemicals and places obligations on companies exporting them to non-EU countries.
Iuclid Cloud now has step-by-step instructions
Iuclid Cloud, Echa's online registration web application, has been updated to include a walk-through guide which shows users how to create a full dossier from scratch.
This update is part of the third major release of the Iuclid Cloud services, Echa said in a press release.
The update also allows users to
· check their dataset with Echa's validation assistant;
· see what information from users’ dossier will be published on ECHA’s website;
· automatically generate users’ chemical safety report;
· push users dossiers for submission and retrieve them directly from REACH-IT to complete their submission; and
· access specific help texts for each task in the process
Echa to run free Iuclid and REACH-IT training
Echa is offering free one-to-one training in its chemicals registration applications Iuclid and REACH-IT at an event that will be held in Helsinki between 29 and 30 January.
The training will take place at the REACH 2018 Stakeholders’ Day. Registration details are available on Echa's website.
Substance evaluation workshop
The agency has published the proceedings of its 12-13 October workshop on substance evaluation policy and practical issues.
Supply chain communication
Echa has produced a factsheet to help downstream users of chemicals work their way through the key tools and guidance documents they are likely to need. The main purpose of each product is explained and a link to it provided.
https://chemicalwatch.com/62704/echa-round-up
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Murkowski Eyes January Revival Of Energy Bill
Dec 21, 2017 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
Having finally secured a long-sought victory on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is looking to the new year to advance another stalled legislative priority: the bipartisan energy package that languished in the last Congress after clearing the Senate by a wide margin.
The energy bill, S. 1460, largely mirrors the measure that passed the Senate last year 85-12 but died in conference talks during the closing weeks of the 114th Congress.
It has been in a holding pattern for months since Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) placed it on the Senate calendar, a move that allows him to bring it up anytime (E&E Daily, July 25).
With health care on hold and tax reform now behind the GOP-led Congress, Murkowski said she's working to convince McConnell the energy bill is an easy bipartisan win to kick off the new year.
"My hope is that we'll be able to see this take off in January," she said, arguing the proposal may help sooth tensions from the partisanship of recent months.
"I think it will be important for this Senate, actually this Congress, to begin the new year with some initiatives that are going to bring us together rather than drive further wedges."
Still, it remains an open question whether Murkowski and ENR ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) can get the bill across the finish line this Congress.
Last year, months of conference talks ended up with House negotiators walking away from the table in December, in part driven by the knowledge they'd have a Republican president in the new year.
The House was never particularly enthused by the Senate bill, which addressed energy supply and infrastructure, would have sped up liquefied natural gas exports, and would have permanently authorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said yesterday he could support a comprehensive energy bill but said it may be a heavy lift.
"The House was successful on health care, we've just been successful on a big tax bill, I'm not sure we have the stomach in an election year to tackle a big energy bill," he said, adding that it was "not impossible, but it would be difficult to do."
Barton, who as former Energy and Commerce chairman shepherded the 2005 energy bill into law in a GOP-led Congress and White House, said there may be less impetus to legislate on energy in part because of that effort.
"The energy markets are in a lot better shape right now," he said. "Our basic energy policy is better because of the 2005 deal."
Last year, rather than make deals with the Senate and a lame-duck Democratic president, House Republicans felt they could promote a more aggressive energy legislative agenda.
For instance, the LNG provisions in the Senate bill would simply add a shot clock to force the Energy Department to make decisions on export applications.
Already this year, Republicans in both chambers have offered bills that would go much further in removing federal oversight of the export process.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a senior member of Murkowski's panel who has pushed LNG exports hard in recent years, noted yesterday that the purpose of the Senate's provisions "was to get answers on getting these permits to be able to export more" from an administration that critics say was overly cautious on exports.
Trump's "focus on energy dominance is in my mind the right way to go, that the sort of delays that we were experiencing for which we needed to force legislation, we haven't had," Barrasso said.
Still, the Wyoming Republican said he supports bringing back the Senate package. "We still need to do more," said Barrasso.
Murkowski said yesterday she understands the desire by some Republicans to go further than what was agreed to in the 114th Congress, but said she remains committed to agreements she made with Cantwell.
"If we try to perhaps build it out to be more aggressive in ways that might make Lisa Murkowski a little happier but make Maria Cantwell a little less inclined to help advance it, I'm sensitive to that," she said.
"I would like to capitalize on the gains that we made and advance what I thought was a pretty good bill last year, and if it was a pretty good bill last year, it should still be a pretty good bill this year. We'll do an assessment, but I don't want people to think that we're just going to discard everything that we built and just start brand new."Sweeteners?
Murkowski said she's had discussions about possible additions to the bill that would help jump-start its prospects in the new year, including possibly including a wildfire funding fix that is desperately sought by Western lawmakers from both parties.
Such a fix was one area that conferees made major progress on last year, but the agreement came too late to resuscitate the House's flagging interest in talks.
The ongoing rash of especially brutal wildfires could help propel the issue to the forefront in the coming weeks, aiding the energy bill in the process, Murkowski said.
"I'm told that it's about a $2.5 billion charge to the firefighting account this year, it's about $800 million more than any previous year — staggering," she said. "And it's going to keep getting worse."
Additionally, Murkowski said there's discussion about adding a package of more than 60 noncontroversial public lands bills to the mix, which she said could help solidify support of individual members.
Those measures "don't mean anything to 49 other states, but to those folks in one state, it's really significant."
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), an energy conferee last year and the current chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, said yesterday the upcoming infrastructure bill could carry energy transmission and grid improvements, as well as legislation he authored to reauthorize the brownfields hazardous waste cleanup program, a drinking water infrastructure bill and even his nuclear waste overhaul.
"They could all be infrastructure," he said.
Murkowski acknowledged desire to legislate on infrastructure but said lawmakers shouldn't wait for that bill if the opportunity to act on the Senate energy bill should arise.
"Why don't we start with energy infrastructure because we've got the bill already written?" she asked. "Let's just go."
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2017/12/21/stories/1060069621
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Chevron Phillips Starts Commissioning New Texas Ethane Cracker
Dec 20, 2017 | Platts
By Nida Qureshi
Chevron Phillips Chemical has finished building its world-scale ethane cracker at the Cedar Bayou complex in Baytown, Texas, and begun commissioning activities, it said Wednesday.
"The unit is now undergoing a series of rigorous commissioning activities, system checks and final certifications to ensure a safe and reliable start-up, and consistent, on-spec production," the company said in a statement.
In September, the company had said the 1.5 million mt/year cracker was expected to finish construction and begin commissioning by the end of first quarter next year, followed by ramp-up to full production in the second quarter.
Work on the cracker came to a halt due to Hurricane Harvey in late August, when the entire complex was shut. The site was among the hardest hit along the Texas coast, taking on four to eight feet of water. Pre-Harvey, the new cracker had been expected to wrap up construction and finish commissioning by the end of 2017, with production rampup in early 2018.
Ethylene sourced from the new ethane cracker will feed the company's ethylene derivatives business, including two new polyethylene units.
As part of the company's US Gulf Coast Petrochemical Project, CP Chem started up in September two new 500,000 mt/year polyethylene units in Old Ocean, Texas, bringing the site's PE production to 1 million mt/year, the company said. The units can produce a wide variety of PE resin, from metallocene LLDPE film to bi-modal film and pipe products, the company said.
In addition to the cracker and PE units, the company has also bought nearly 3,000 newly built rail cars and built a storage-in-transition facility to ship polyethylene pellets via rail to domestic customers and to ports for export.https://www.platts.com/latest-news/petrochemicals/houston/chevron-phillips-starts-commissioning-new-texas-21880579
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N America To Lead Global Petchem Construction – Fluor Exec
Dec 20, 2017 | ICIS
By Joseph Chang
NEW YORK (ICIS)--North America will continue to be the focus of global petrochemical construction activity in the coming years with more foreign-based companies also investing in the region, the head of Fluor’s energy and petrochemical business said on Wednesday.
“We’re continuing to see a shift in the petrochemical industry, where projects are being actively developed in North America because of advantaged feedstock. This is driving not only local companies, but drawing investment from other parts of the world,” said Jim Brittain, president of Fluor’s energy & chemicals business.
Fluor is a US-based engineering and construction company with worldwide operations.
Fluor led the construction of Chevron Phillips Chemical’s 1.5m tonne/year ethane cracker in Cedar Bayou, Texas, with joint venture partner JGC.
On 20 December, Chevron Phillips Chemical announced the mechanical completion of its ethane cracker. The plant is undergoing commissioning activities, system checks and final certifications.
“The project came along well after the flooding [from Hurricane Harvey] and is now ready for the introduction of feedstocks,” said Brittain.
LYONDELLBASELL PO/TBA
Fluor is also working on LyondellBasell’s propylene oxide/tertiary butyl alcohol (PO/TBA) project in Texas, having been selected to provide engineering and procurement in October 2017.
“We started at the front end, from concept to [site] selection, helping the client from the beginning. They had advantaged technology, and wanted to take advantage of feedstocks, but also wanted this to be capitally advantaged,” said Brittain.
“We used our Zero Base Execution approach to reexamine how the facility could be put together to lower the capital cost,” said Brittain.
This proprietary process aims to deconstruct the project and simplify how it is built. Part of this includes modularisation, where parts of the plant are built off-site more cost efficiently - usually in countries with lower construction labour costs – and then shipped to the project site.
“Clients are asking for capital efficiency, to have us deliver the project at a certain price point,” said Brittain.
SECOND WAVE OF US CRACKERS
Fluor is looking forward to being a major player in the second wave of US cracker and petrochemical construction. In this new wave, companies are giving projects more scrutiny, to ensure they are feasible.
“There is no question that another wave is coming and we are engaged in a number of those pursuits,” said Brittain.
“Clients are still driving hard for capital efficiency, and certainty of delivery and cost. They are also taking time to make decisions – there’s a fair bit of investigation, working with us cooperatively on the robustness of solutions,” he added.
Even with the challenges of higher construction labour costs in the US, Brittain is confident Fluor can design and execute projects in the US that are competitive on a global basis, he said.
Methanol projects in the US are also set to move forward in 2018, he noted.
“We are still actively engaged in a couple of [methanol] projects that we are progressing, and we definitely see interest in this area,” said Brittain.
“We expect that in 2018, some methanol projects will move forward,” he added.
ASIA ACTIVITY
While Fluor is active in China, where it sees some project opportunities, the company is seeing more Chinese companies seeking to invest in the US, which has advantaged feedstock as well as large end markets.
“We can leverage our relationships, and help them as they leave their comfort zone in China to come to the US,” said Brittain.
In southeast Asia, Brittain sees “a fair amount of activity in integrated refinery/petrochemical facilities” as many countries want to take advantage of growing markets but have challenges with feedstocks.
Fluor is working on aspects of PETRONAS’ RAPID petrochemical project in Malaysia, as well as JG Summit’s cracker expansion in the Philippines.
https://www.icis.com/resources/news/2017/12/20/10176309/n-america-to-lead-global-petchem-construction-fluor-exec/
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A Decade In, Keystone XL Foes Renew Resistance to Pipeline
Dec 21, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Meenal Vamburkar
TransCanada Corp.’s $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project is about to enter its second decade still lacking a clear path forward.
The company's grand plan to lay 1,179 miles (1,897 kilometers) of pipe to carry Western Canadian crude to Texas and Louisiana refineries suffered its latest setback on Dec. 19. That's when Nebraska regulators cut short a bid by TransCanada to tweak its permit application in a push aimed at bypassing potential legal challenges to the alternative route mandated by the state.
With opponents vowing to bog the project down once again with complaints the new path hasn't been properly vetted, TransCanada will enter 2018 still trying to complete a pipeline initially broached in 2008.
The latest ruling was “absolutely the worst decision possible for TransCanada and the best possible outcome for landowners, and the protection of their property rights,” the Domina Law Group, which represents local landowners, wrote in an Dec. 19 email.
Now, both the company and the pipeline's opponents have 30 days to formally appeal that agency's Nov. 20 decision to approve an alternate route. Environmentalists and landowners say they're evaluating their next steps as the deadline approaches.
Landowners along the new route haven't been given a chance to voice their concerns, and federal officials haven't had a chance to properly review it, they've said.
The company, meanwhile, said it remains committed to the project. “Keystone XL remains a viable project with strong commercial support,” said Terry Cunha, a TransCanada spokesman, in an email.
Nonetheless, TransCanada—which has been assessing shipper commitments—hasn't yet formally said it will build the line.
Prairie Revival?
Ever since Keystone XL was revived by the Trump administration in January, opponents have vowed to create a new web of legal problems for the company, even as the continued uncertainty comes as Canadian producers face a transportation bottleneck.
Pipeline disruptions over the past two months have highlighted the region's challenges, as pipes and rail cars filled up, sending heavy Canadian crude prices to the lowest in almost four years.
Keystone XL would send crude from Hardisty, Alberta, through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it will connect to pipelines leading to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.
Still, Jane Kleeb, president of activist group Bold Alliance, said she doesn't think TransCanada will proceed.
If so, Bold has been organizing landowners with the Nebraska Easement Action Team, a legal defense fund that seeks to ensure “landowner rights and interests are protected no matter what the end result is with the pipeline,” according to its website.
“TransCanada knows they're on shaky ground with this route,” Kleeb said in a statement. “The U.S. State Department never reviewed this route—which puts their federal permit up in question.”
—With assistance from Kevin Orland.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=125438346&vname=dennotallissues&fn=125438346&jd=125438346
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Amtrak Head Says Deadly Derailment Is a ‘Wake-Up Call’
Dec 20, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Nour Malas and Ted Mann
TACOMA, Wash.—The deadly derailment of a passenger train that killed three people and injured dozens more has put a spotlight on Amtrak safety management and enforcement—which the rail company’s president acknowledged late Tuesday.
“We have to keep this as a wake-up call. It’s not acceptable,” Richard Anderson told reporters at Amtrak’s new station in Washington state’s Tacoma, through which the train passed Monday.
The station shut down operations shortly after the Monday derailment.
“It’s probably sort of the worst thing that happens when you run a railroad,” Mr. Anderson said of the loss of life and injuries.
Mr. Anderson, who also assumes the post of Amtrak chief executive full-time at the end of the year, said Amtrak is immediately focused on helping families affected by the accident, as well as addressing the company’s overall safety management.
He said the company was putting all available resources into helping passengers and their families: “Whatever compensation, what we can do to help, we’re there to do that.”
“We have to continue to improve and enforce the safety culture at Amtrak,” he said.
Federal investigators said the train was traveling at 80 miles an hour in a 30 mph zone and heading into a tight curve when it plunged off the rails.
Addressing reporters, the Amtrak executive at times pre-empted questions about what went wrong on the train and whether a speed-control safety system called ‘positive train control,’ which wasn’t yet operational on the route, could have prevented such a derailment. He said those questions were for the National Transportation Safety Board, which leads the investigation.
But Mr. Anderson said Amtrak is committed to installing the positive train control system. Railroads are under government orders to install the system by the end of 2018. “We’re on track to meet that deadline,” Mr. Anderson said.
“I’m a big believer in PTC. It makes so much scientific sense... We are huge supporters of positive train control. We have all our capital allocated to get [it] done.”
Mr. Anderson briefed the media after touring the site where the train derailed and a family assistance center.
Amtrak has grappled in recent years with a spate of accidents and infrastructure failures. In 2015, an Amtrak regional train crashed after speeding into a tight curve in Philadelphia at twice the maximum speed, killing 8 people and injuring more than 200. Federal investigators later determined the conductor had become disoriented and failed to reduce speed before the curve. In 2016, an apparent miscommunication among work crews and dispatchers allowed a train to crash into a backhoe near Philadelphia, killing two track workers and injuring multiple passengers.
Over the past summer, the railroad was hit by a series of track failures at Penn Station in New York City, causing cascading delays for Amtrak and NJ Transit, which also relies on the station.
Mr. Anderson’s predecessor as CEO, Wick Moorman, pledged to improve the safety culture at Amtrak. Mr. Moorman, who is serving as co-CEO until the end of the year, helped recruit Mr. Anderson to take over the position.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amtrak-head-says-deadly-derailment-is-a-wake-up-call-1513751385
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EPA Gets January Deadline to Plan for Overdue Ozone Decisions
Dec 21, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Jennifer Lu
The EPA must decide by Jan. 12 how and when it will determine which regions of the country exceed new federal air quality standards for ozone.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Dec. 19 ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to file a status report that states “with precision and specificity” how it will complete ozone designations that were required by law to be completed by Oct. 1.
The EPA has announced which regions of the country currently meet the more stringent ozone standards set in 2015, but states are still waiting to hear which regions exceed the air quality requirements and how severe the pollution problems are, so they can begin work on plans to control pollution. Those plans could include new pollution limits for vehicles and industries, and make it more difficult to secure permits.
More than 165 million people live in counties with poor air quality that have yet to be designated, including most of California, the New York City metropolitan area, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio, according to the the environmental and public health groups—led by the American Lung Association—suing the EPA for late determinations.
The EPA, in its most recent regulatory agenda, didn't give a deadline for making the overdue ozone decisions.
The case is (Am. Lung Ass'n v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 17-1172, 12/19/17).
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=125438327&vname=dennotallissues&fn=125438327&jd=125438327
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NACAA Asks EPA to Maintain Health Protections in Air Permitting Reforms
Dec 20, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Doug Obey
The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) is asking EPA to ensure that its upcoming “action plan” for overhauling Clean Air Act permit maintains or improves existing public health protections, while pitching reform options including increased resources for training permit writers and more national consistency on permits.
The recommendations are included in a wide-ranging Dec. 19 letter to EPA air chief Bill Wehrum from NACAA -- representing many state and local air agencies -- that appears to balance recommendations for embracing more flexible air permitting under the new source review (NSR) and other Clean Air Act permitting programs with warnings that EPA should not make changes that compromise public health.
EPA has established a regulatory reform task force to craft options for addressing a recent Commerce Department report that suggested an air permitting overhaul could help boost domestic manufacturing. NACAA's letter notes that the task force is due to prepare an “action plan” of options by Dec. 31.
Wehrum recently told the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee that his priorities following his recent confirmation include a piecemeal and ongoing approach to reforming parts of the NSR permitting program, which can require facilities to meet strict emissions control mandates.
In a sign of how the agency is likely to pursue air permitting reforms, EPA has already issued guidance saying it will defer to industry's data on whether facilities need to obtain NSR permits. Some also expect the agency to craft similar guidance documents and policy changes in lieu of more sweeping proposed rulemakings to overhaul permitting, after the George W. Bush EPA saw many of its proposed revisions to NSR blocked by the courts.
NACAA is now urging the agency to ensure that any changes it makes to NSR or other Clean Air Act permitting programs “maintain or improve upon” current public health protections.
The officials are also voicing support for a number of ways to boost efficiency and flexibility under permit programs, such as calling on EPA to: “significantly increase the resources” it provides for updating training for air permitting authorities and regulated industries; focus on improving consistency across EPA regions in how they review and approve permits; and expand the geographic area from which pollution sources in non-attainment areas can obtain emissions offsets, “where state law allows.”
NACAA says, “We recognize the important role that permitting plays in managing our air quality and the successes that have been achieved under the Clean Air Act permitting programs. We also recognize the important role and efficient and effective permitting process plays in supporting a healthy environment and a vibrant economy. . . EPA now has the opportunity to build upon the success of the permitting programs and find ways to improve the existing programs.”
Permitting Changes
NACAA in its letter urges EPA to work collaboratively with state and local agencies “throughout all stages of rulemaking or policy development” on air permitting issues. And “[t]o the extent EPA chooses to pursue reforms to the NSR program, NACAA stands ready to work with the agency to find ways to make the permitting process more streamlined and address real or perceived inefficiencies with the program.”
NACAA floats several overarching principles for any permit streamlining initiative, including that “any permit reform or streamlining initiative must maintain or improve upon current levels of public health and environmental protection.”
The group also calls “integrity” of the NSR process key to economic attainment of air quality standards because it is “far more cost effective” to install pollution controls at a new or modified source than do so later. And NACAA says the permit process should be “open, transparent and inclusive.”
NACAA then issues more specific recommendations in over half a dozen areas, while warning EPA to not assume that permit delays are “always attributable” to inefficient processing by state and local agencies or problems with air act permit rules themselves. “In our members' experience, delays in processing air permits are often the result of applicants submitting incomplete or unapprovable applications,” the letter says.
The group calls for actions including agency support for state efforts to improve permit application forms, creation of a “clearinghouse” for such forms that agencies can use to implement best practices, and reinvigoration of EPA's small business ombudsman to assist small businesses in preparing permit applications.
One of NACAA's major recommendations calls on EPA to treat permitting reform as a question of strained resources, not just potential regulatory changes.
“State and local agencies, as well as the private sector, have an urgent need for increased training in Clean Air Act permitting,” NACAA writes, calling on EPA to “significantly increase the resources it devotes to developing, updating and providing such training.”
NACAA faults an “unfortunate decline” in EPA training over the past decade, saying regional and national groups including NACAA have stepped in to boost their role in such training and merit “increased support.” It calls on EPA to take steps including updating and expanding courses offered by an agency Air Pollution Training Institute.
Improving Efficiency
At the same time, NACAA in its recommendations acknowledges a need to improve efficiency and fairness in permit writing by both supporting states and increasing oversight of its regional offices.
Recommended actions include for EPA to look for ways to support state efforts already underway, including state efforts to adopt techniques such as “lean” management, and for EPA to update an existing permitting database that outlines available emissions controls to a “modern, more user friendly platform. State and local agencies find the database very difficult and time-consuming to use in its present state.”
NACAA also says EPA “should focus on improving consistency across and within the EPA regions with respect to the oversight and guidance they provide to state and local permitting programs.” This is needed because “[r]egional inconsistency can lead to increased permitting times when, for example, a state agency is compelled to elevate to EPA Headquarters in question that has been addressed differently by various EPA Regions. Regional inconsistency can also result in the unequal or unfair treatment of similar sources located in different EPA Regions.”
The group also includes a specific policy recommendation acknowledging longstanding concern about the ability of facilities to locate or expand in non-attainment areas. Specifically, NACAA writes that for areas not attaining federal air standards -- particularly the ozone air standard -- “EPA should, where state law allows, expand the geographic areas from which offsets may be secured to include areas that significantly contribute to exceedances” of a standard, even if such areas are not “contiguous” to a non-attainment area.
However, NACAA warns EPA to recognize that efforts to encourage more flexible permit approaches do not always save time. “Many state and local agencies are interested in employing approved 'flexible air permitting' approaches such as Alternative Operating Scenarios and advance approvals in Title V and NSR permitting. In their experience, however, these approaches often add significant time and effort to the permitting process because of the customized nature of each flexible permit,” NACAA says.
Therefore, the group says that “[w]here flexible permitting processes are developed, there should be recognition of the time and staffing resources required to develop each flexible permit.”
NACAA also urges EPA to “improve regional consistency” in this area, and says it also “supports EPA's plan to develop a flexible permitting website and encourages the agency to look for additional opportunities to educate state and local agencies about flexible permitting approaches that maintain or strengthen compliance and promote the development of clean technologies.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/nacaa-asks-epa-maintain-health-protections-air-permitting-reforms
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Schneiderman Expresses SUpport for a Carbon Tax
Dec 20, 2017 | PoliticoPro
By Danielle Muoio
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman this week voiced his support for a state carbon tax, joining ranks with a statewide coalition pushing for the legislation.
His comments, made in the Flatiron District, make Schneiderman the first statewide elected official to endorse the implementation of a carbon tax. They come as Schneiderman prepares to sue the Trump administration over its decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan.
“New York must invest in an equitable transition to a clean energy future — one that creates jobs, protects workers, and supports the communities most affected by climate change,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “That includes passing legislation to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a carbon tax, while expanding investment in the people and places hit hardest by climate change.”
The coalition, called New York Renews, is composed of clean energy, environmental justice and labor groups. It has said it will push legislation in 2018 calling for a carbon tax that would generate revenue for investments in renewables and energy efficiency projects.
A carbon tax has been proposed in the Legislature, but this is the first time a large coalition of environmental groups have made a concerted campaign to pass the measure. The New York Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power market, has also begun the first stages of examining what such a tax may look like.
“Sea levels are rising, major storms are occurring with increasing frequency — and it is low-income communities and communities of color who are hit the hardest,” ALIGN Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell, a coalition member, said in a statement. “New York must dramatically increase its use of renewable energy to combat the threat of climate change. … The fairest and most effective way to do this is to put a fee on pollution.”
Schneiderman expressed support for the Climate and Community Protection Act, also a main focus for the coalition. The act would turn New York’s renewable goals into law and set benchmarks for clean energy initiatives.
The Cuomo administration has been hesitant to support a carbon tax outright, noting that federal action would be needed to ensure it doesn’t hurt the state’s economic competitiveness.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has committed New York to reducing emissions by 40 percent by 2030 as part of his Reforming the Energy Vision. Under the plan, the state is tasked with getting 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
This report first appeared on POLITICO Pro New York on Dec. 20, 2017.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/article/2017/12/schneiderman-expresses-support-for-a-carbon-tax-253109
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