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ACC PM 1/17

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) House Passes Miscellaneous Tariff Bill
Jan 16, 2018 | World Trade Online

The House on Tuesday passed the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill by a 402-0 vote, leaving its fate up to the Senate.
(ACC Mentioned) Jack Gerard to Step Down as Head of Influential American Petroleum Institute
Jan 17, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Steven Mufson

Jack Gerard announced Wednesday that he would step down as head of the American Petroleum Institute, a powerful lobbying association representing a wide variety of oil and natural gas companies.
(ACC Mentioned) Chief Oil Lobbyist to Resign
Jan 17, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama

Jack Gerard, head of the oil and natural gas industry’s main lobbying group, is stepping down in August.
(ACC Mentioned) American Petroleum Institute CEOJack Gerard to Step Down in August
Jan 17, 2018 | Washington Examiner
By Josh Siegel

Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute and the oil industry’s top lobbyist in Washington, will step down from his post in August when his contract expires.
(ACC Mentioned) Api's Jack Gerard to Step Down
Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Hannah Northey

Jack Gerard, leader of the country's largest and most prominent oil trade group for more than a decade, is stepping down in August.
(ACC Mentioned) API's Gerard Stepping Down in August
Jan 17, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anthony Adragna

The American Petroleum Institute's long-time president Jack Gerard today announced he'll depart the organization when his current contract expires in August.
(ACC Mentioned) Head of Oil Lobbying Powerhouse API to Step Down After Decade
Jan 17, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jennifer A Dlouhy

The leader of the American Petroleum Institute will leave the industry’s top Washington lobbying group in August, after helping win new places to drill, expand markets for U.S. oil and defeat a Trump administration plan to subsidize coal-fired power plants.
(ACC Mentioned) API President, CEO Jack Gerard To Step Down In August
Jan 17, 2018 | Oil and Gas Investor

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said Jan. 17 that President and CEO Jack Gerard will not make another long-term commitment to API and will step down when his current contract ends in August 2018.
(ACC Mentioned) API President and CEO Jack Gerard to Depart in August
Jan 17, 2018 | WorldOil

After 10 years running one of Washington’s most influential associations covering all aspects of the oil and natural gas sector, API President and CEO Jack Gerard announced he will not make another long-term commitment to API and will step down when his current contract ends in August 2018.

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Chemical Management News

Trump Administration Highlights 21 Contaminated Sites With Business Potential
Jan 17, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green

The Environmental Protection Agency is highlighting 21 contaminated land sites across the country for their redevelopment and commercial potential.
Trader Joe's to Remove Controversial Chemicals From Receipts
Jan 17, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Lauren Coleman-Lochner

Cleanup in the checkout aisle. Trader Joe’s, the grocer known for its eclectic products (and Hawaiian-shirt-clad workers), will remove two controversial substances from its register receipts, according to a statement on the company’s website.
BPS Not Used As Bpa Substitute in Thermal Paper – Echa Survey
Jan 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel

Manufacturers of thermal paper used in cash registers and till receipts in the EU are not using bisphenol S as a substitute for bisphenol A, which faces a restriction from 2020, an Echa survey has found.
EU Prepares Comprehensive Microplastics Restriction
Jan 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton

The European Commission has asked Echa to prepare a REACH Annex XV restriction dossier on the use of intentionally added microplastic particles to all consumer and professional use products.

Energy News

The Energy 202: Trump Administration Is Trying to Sell Natural Gas to African Countries President Disparaged
Jan 17, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Dino Grandoni

President Trump’s remarks last week denigrating Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “shithole countries” has probably doomed a deal to save "dreamers," young illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children.
Trump Plan Ignores Limited Potential off Most of Alaska
Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Margaret Kriz Hobson

More than half of the U.S. offshore lands targeted for development under the Trump administration's recent five-year oil and gas leasing plan contain little or no oil or gas, according to an Interior Department report.
N.D. Sees Cautious Optimism as Oil Production Improves
Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee

North Dakota's oil production could hit a record by the end of the year, and the state's top energy regulator gives much of the credit to the Trump administration.
Inventors Search for 'Missing Link' in Renewable Energy
Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By John Fialka

What may become one of the most disruptive renewable energy experiments in recent history is taking shape behind a building here in an assemblage of girders, pipes and tanks.
States Urge Court to Issue Clean Power Plan Ruling
Jan 17, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen

A coalition of states that support the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan urged the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today to issue its ruling on the underlying rule, saying the Trump EPA's plan to repeal and replace the controversial regulation will take too long.

Chemical Security News

Homeland Security Chief Says Electric Grid Safeguards Need Work
Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak

A federal guide for shielding the power grid from hackers "needs to be updated" but not enforced, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told lawmakers yesterday.

Transportation and Infrastructure News

House Bill Would Require Train-Stopping Technology, Following Washington Amtrak Derailment
Jan 17, 2018 | Seattle Times
By Mike Lindblom

The federal government would give $2.6 billion to railroads to install emergency train-stopping technologies, so they won’t miss a deadline of December 2018, under a new bill in the U.S. House.

Environment News

Ewire: Trump Officials, California Renew Talks on Vehicle GHGs
Jan 17, 2018 | Inside EPA

Trump administration officials are slated to meet with their California counterparts in Washington, D.C., this month for “another round of discussions” on light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for model years 2022-2025, according to a Reuters report.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) House Passes Miscellaneous Tariff Bill

Jan 16, 2018 | World Trade Online

Editor's note: This story was updated after initial publication to reflect the passage of the bill.
The House on Tuesday passed the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill by a 402-0 vote, leaving its fate up to the Senate.
The House voted under suspension of the rules to pass the bill, which would cut tariffs on nearly 1,700 products not made or found in the U.S. that are used as inputs in goods made in the U.S.. An identical bill has been introduced in the Senate, which is expected to vote to send it to the president.
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) said in a statement that the “bipartisan, bicameral legislation is a win for American manufacturers, their workers, and families across the country. With the temporary tariff relief provided by the bill, our manufacturers will see reduced costs for needed production inputs that are simply not available in the United States. This will help them better compete globally, create more jobs here at home, and make high-quality ‘Made in America’ products more affordable for families.”
“Over seven years have gone by since the last time Congress passed MTB legislation,” Brady added.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Chemistry Council and the National Association of Manufacturers on Tuesday urged the House to quickly pass the measure.
The Chamber of Commerce sent out a “key vote alert” on Tuesday afternoon calling on House members to support the bill.
Since the last MTB expired in 2012, “U.S. businesses both large and small have faced hundreds of millions of dollars in higher tariff costs,” Jack Howard, senior vice president of congressional and public affairs at the Chamber, wrote in the alert. “The negative impact on the competitiveness of American companies has been especially significant for small and mid-sized firms. These higher costs limit the ability of companies to expand production, hire additional workers, or invest in new cost-saving equipment.”
Similarly, the American Chemistry Council said in a statement that the industry “depends on some imports of raw and intermediate products that are not produced or available domestically, but which are needed to fortify chemical innovations. Since the last MTB expired in 2012, chemical companies have been burdened by import duties on these materials.”
The council said the U.S. chemical sector should post a record trade surplus by the end of the decade.
“ACC urges House leaders today to take swift action on the passage of tariff suspension legislation that will strengthen the competitiveness of chemical manufacturers across the country,” it added.
The National Association of Manufacturers issued its own key vote alert Tuesday morning. After the House vote, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said “While it may not make headlines, this is a top story and a big deal for manufacturers. Manufacturers and other businesses face what amounts to a nearly $1-million-a-day tax every additional day this issue goes unresolved. That’s thanks to billions of dollars in burdensome tariffs that companies have had to pay since the last MTB expired at the end of 2012, just for buying the supplies they need to build products in America.”

Timmons' statement added that NAM is “now looking to the Senate to act quickly to get this tariff-relief legislation to the President for his signature. Manufacturers and our economy started 2018 strong. Passing legislation like this will help keep the momentum going.”
https://insidetrade.com/trade/house-passes-miscellaneous-tariff-bill

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(ACC Mentioned) Jack Gerard to Step Down as Head of Influential American Petroleum Institute

Jan 17, 2018 | The Washington Post

By Steven Mufson

Jack Gerard announced Wednesday that he would step down as head of the American Petroleum Institute, a powerful lobbying association representing a wide variety of oil and natural gas companies.
Gerard has been running API for 10 years, a period in which crude oil prices have lurched from less than $30 a barrel to $140 a barrel and back down again.
He has pushed successfully for lifting restrictions on crude oil exports, speeding permits for natural gas export facilities, and rapidly restarting of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the BP oil spill. He has also fought against higher taxes or the elimination of long-standing tax breaks for the industry.
Gerard is one of the highest paid association heads in Washington. In 2015 he earned $6.3 million from API and its affiliates in 2015, according to the Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for the group. He will remain until his contract ends in August.
“We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities,” Gerard said in a statement.
Yet many people both in and out of the oil industry have felt that Gerard had spent too much of the group’s money supporting Republicans. According to opensecrets.com, 85 percent of the money API gave to congressional candidates went to Republicans. Two prominent exceptions have been Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), whose state is a leading fracking state, and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), whose state produces large amounts of coal.
API has a budget of about $250 million, and it has spent lavishly on public advertising campaigns. Often it has sought to conceal or minimize its role. It has advertised under names like “Energy Nation,” “Energy Citizens,” “EnergyTomorrow,” or “the People of America’s Oil and Natural Gas Industry.” In the ads, ties to API are duly noted, albeit usually in small print.
The strategy, Gerard said in a 2012 interview, was to influence lawmakers by mobilizing their constituents.
“If we’re concerned about a particular member [of Congress], we will educate that constituency and encourage people to weigh in with their elected official,” he said. “Congress is a lagging indicator. Congress is responsive to the American people. That’s why a well-educated electorate is a key to sound policy.”
Earlier this month, Gerard delivered his annual state of energy speech to an invited audience at the Reagan building on Pennsylvania Avenue, highlighting the slogan “energy is powering past impossible.” His prominent guests included Manchin, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, leaders of the Navajo Nation and three affiliated tribes of North Dakota, the president of the Iron Workers Union and the chief executive of the Noble Corp., a drilling company.
He has opposed many environmental regulations, though API issued its own guidelines for limiting methane emissions from fracking wells.
Raised in Mud Lake, Idaho, outside the 140-year-old Mormon stronghold of Idaho Falls, Gerard is the son of a John Deere salesman and a teacher. He graduated from George Washington University after finishing his mission work in Sydney. He worked for Idaho Republicans Rep. George Hansen and Sen. James A. McClure, the former chief of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who pushed to privatize federal lands, promoted the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and was one of 11 senators to vote against the Clean Air Act of 1990.
After McClure retired, he and Gerard formed a lobbying firm. Gerard left that to run the National Mining Association and later the American Chemistry Council.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/17/jack-gerard-to-step-down-as-head-of-influential-american-petroleum-institute/?utm_term=.8cb86994b5e8

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(ACC Mentioned) Chief Oil Lobbyist to Resign

Jan 17, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire

By Timothy Cama

Jack Gerard, head of the oil and natural gas industry’s main lobbying group, is stepping down in August.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) announced the planned departure Wednesday, saying Gerard’s contract will be up after 10 years at the industry group’s helm.
In a statement, Gerard celebrated the oil industry’s accomplishments, saying it’s in a very positive moment.
“Serving the oil and natural gas industry during this historic time, when an American energy renaissance has made the U.S. the world’s leading producer and refiner of oil and natural gas, has been among the most fulfilling professional experiences of my career,” he said.
“We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities.”
Gerard implied he won’t be retiring after leaving, saying in the statement that he is “ready for my next challenge."
Gerard earned $6.3 million in total compensation from API in 2015, the most recent year for which tax records are publicly available.
Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. and API’s current chairman, cheered Gerard’s tenure.
“Jack has been an extraordinary leader for the oil and natural gas industry during a time of challenge and opportunity,” Woods said in a statement.
Since coming to API in November 2008, Gerard has been with the group for important milestones like the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the massive boom in domestic oil and natural gas production, an aggressive climate change and environment agenda by the Obama administration, the Trump administration’s rollback of that agenda and Congress’ 2015 action ending the ban on oil exports.
Gerard fought aggressively for the industry in those fights, including fighting off numerous attempts at climate change policies by the federal government and pushing against some offshore drilling standards that the industry saw as unnecessary.
He also oversaw the merger of America's Natural Gas Alliance into API in 2015.
Gerard previously served as head of the American Chemistry Council and the National Mining Association, and has worked for former Idaho Republican lawmakers Rep. George Hansen and James A. McClure. Gerard also led his own lobbying firm Gerard & Neuenschwander.
API represents numerous facets of the oil industry, including drillers, pipeline companies, refiners and fuel sellers.
The group spent $4.9 million on lobbying in 2008, the year Gerard started, and it increased to a peak of $9.3 million 2013, before falling to $6 million in 2016, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, based on disclosures by API. It spent $6.7 million lobbying through the third quarter of last year.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/369310-chief-oil-lobbyist-to-resign

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(ACC Mentioned) American Petroleum Institute CEOJack Gerard to Step Down in August

Jan 17, 2018 | Washington Examiner

By Josh Siegel

Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute and the oil industry’s top lobbyist in Washington, will step down from his post in August when his contract expires.
API, the main trade group representing the oil and natural gas industry, announced Gerard’s departure Wednesday morning after he spent a decade as CEO.
Gerard, 60, has been a prominent energy lobbyist in Washington for decades, leading top fossil fuel industry trade associations from coal to chemicals to natural gas and oil. He joined API after leading the National Mining Association and American Chemistry Council.
“Serving the oil and natural gas industry during this historic time, when an American energy renaissance has made the U.S. the world’s leading producer and refiner of oil and natural gas, has been among the most fulfilling professional experiences of my career,” Gerard said in a statement. “We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities.”
Just last week, Gerard delivered API’s “State of American Energy” address, where he touted his group’s role in making the U.S. achieve “energy abundance” while contributing to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Over the past decade, an influx of cheap natural gas and the rise of renewable energy have transformed the nation’s power grid, reducing wholesale electricity prices and forcing unprofitable coal and nuclear plants to retire.
The U.S. is now the world's biggest natural gas producer, with an increase of more than 30 percent in production since 2008, thanks to drilling technologies such as fracking and horizontal drilling.
The Energy Department forecasts that between now and 2040, consumption of natural gas will increase more than any other fuel source.
“We are powering positive change in reliability, safety and environmental performance every day through technology and innovation,” Gerard said during his Jan. 9 address. “Industry innovation and technological breakthroughs are why the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of natural gas, oil and refined products.”
Natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal. Gerard, however, has acknowledged the challenges of limiting emissions of methane, the main component in natural gas. Methane is more potent than carbon dioxide, although its emissions are relatively short-lived. The Trump administration is trying to repeal Obama-era methane emissions, an effort API supports, but many companies have pledged to take more limited action on their own.
API late last year announced a new program aimed at reducing emissions of methane from oil and natural gas production. Participants include Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. Many climate scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/american-petroleum-institute-ceo-jack-gerard-to-step-down-in-august/article/2646165

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(ACC Mentioned) Api's Jack Gerard to Step Down

Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Greenwire

By Hannah Northey

Jack Gerard, leader of the country's largest and most prominent oil trade group for more than a decade, is stepping down in August.
Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, plans to leave the lobbying group when his current contract ends in eight months and will continue to direct the lobbying group and help search for a new leader in the meantime.
Under Gerard's leadership since 2008, API almost doubled its membership and is now facing a slew of policy wins under the Trump administration, including expanded offshore drilling in federal waters and an aggressive regulatory rollback, not to mention more favorable tax treatment.
Gerard's tenure has also seen a more tumultuous side, including the massive boom in shale gas production, looming questions about the sector's management of climate change, the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and API's merging with the America's Natural Gas Alliance.
API did not immediately respond when asked about the timeline for finding a new leader or what comes next for Gerard, a father of eight and former House and Senate staffer (Greenwire, Sept. 22, 2017).
"I have served for 10 years at API, which is the longest tenure of my career," Gerard said in a statement. "I'm ready for my next challenge and want to ensure that API will have time for an orderly transition to plan for its next decade."
An Idaho native, Gerard first came to Washington in 1981 as an intern for former Rep. George Hansen (R-Idaho) and later worked for another Idaho Republican, former Sen. James McClure, who then chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Gerard later co-founded and led a lobby shop with McClure before moving on to run the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council.
Gerard last week laid out API's main policy goals at an annual "state of the industry" event, including retaining trade protections through the North American Free Trade Agreement and enhancing regulatory "certainty and predictability" (Energywire, Jan. 10).
Also departing the lobbying group is Brooke Sammon, API's spokeswoman and the former spokeswoman for Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign. Sammon in an email yesterday to colleagues said she is joining Firehouse Strategies, a public affairs and communications firm in Washington, D.C.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/01/17/stories/1060071185

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(ACC Mentioned) API's Gerard Stepping Down in August

Jan 17, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard

By Anthony Adragna

The American Petroleum Institute's long-time president Jack Gerard today announced he'll depart the organization when his current contract expires in August.
"We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities," Gerard said in a statement. "I’m ready for my next challenge and want to ensure that API will have time for an orderly transition to plan for its next decade.”
Gerard, president since 2008, will continue with his current responsibilities and will assist in the search for his successor through August. Prior to joining API, he led the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council.
"Jack has built a solid foundation from which we will continue to grow," API chairman and Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said in a statement. "Our focus will now be on the search for a successor who will build on Jack’s achievements.”
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard/2018/01/apis-gerard-stepping-down-in-august-401894

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(ACC Mentioned) Head of Oil Lobbying Powerhouse API to Step Down After Decade

Jan 17, 2018 | Bloomberg

By Jennifer A Dlouhy

The leader of the American Petroleum Institute will leave the industry’s top Washington lobbying group in August, after helping win new places to drill, expand markets for U.S. oil and defeat a Trump administration plan to subsidize coal-fired power plants.
Jack Gerard’s exit will come at the end of two five-year contracts with the trade group. API’s executive committee now will lead the search for a successor, with the expectation of having a new CEO in place by Sept. 1, Gerard said in a message to staff Wednesday.
“We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities,” Gerard, 60, said in a news release.
Since joining the group in 2008, Gerard helped broaden API’s reach and visibility in the nation’s capital, sometimes by doing rhetorical battle with the Obama administration. Among his targets: a permitting slow down in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, policies designed to throttle greenhouse gas emissions and new mandates for drilling on public land.
In the past decade, the group has expanded its membership by 50 percent, built a grassroots network of 45 million Americans to advocate on energy policy and tripled global operations.
API also notched many policy successes, Gerard said in an interview, including the end of a ban on most crude exports, and a law opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain to drilling. The Trump administration also is moving to roll back or rewrite a host of regulations governing the industry.
"He has unified our industry, expanded our global reach, heightened our effectiveness and navigated a number of significant public policy challenges to a successful conclusion," Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in a news release.
Gerard’s tenure at API has not been without controversy. Even Gerard’s supporters dubbed him “Voldemort,” a reference to the villain in the Harry Potter series of books and movies, for the lobbyist’s willingness to do battle. With a salary of more than $5 million and $1.3 million in other compensation in 2015, according to the latest API tax filing available online, Gerard is among the highest paid trade association leaders in Washington, alongside the leaders of other energy, pharmaceutical and business groups. Before joining the American Petroleum Institute, he led the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council.
API’s decision to fight state and federal proposals to subsidize coal-fired power also has drawn controversy. Although some states have enacted policies meant to help keep coal power plants online amid competition from cheaper, cleaner burning natural gas, federal regulators rejected Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s plan to subsidize struggling coal and nuclear plants earlier this month.
Gerard defended API’s approach Wednesday.
"While some would seek to ask for government assistance, if you will, to reshape markets, we operate on the fundamental premise that the free market brings the most efficient, fair market to the American consumer," Gerard said. "We support all forms of energy. What we don’t support is government intervention and efforts to skew marketplaces favoring one energy over the other."
Gerard, a father of eight children, said he’s not sure what will come after he leaves API, but intends "to stay active in the public policy debate."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/head-of-oil-lobbying-powerhouse-api-to-step-down-after-decade

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(ACC Mentioned) API President, CEO Jack Gerard To Step Down In August

Jan 17, 2018 | Oil and Gas Investor

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said Jan. 17 that President and CEO Jack Gerard will not make another long-term commitment to API and will step down when his current contract ends in August 2018.
Since Gerard joined the oil and natural gas trade association in 2008, API membership grew by almost 50% and added members from every sector of the industry, according to API’s press release. The organization also tripled its growth in global markets where it promotes safety through standard setting and best practices, including expansions to Singapore, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro.
Additionally, Gerard helped build a grassroots network comprised of 45 million voters with representation in congressional districts who communicate with their elected officials on energy issues, the release said.
“Jack has been an extraordinary leader for the oil and natural gas industry during a time of challenge and opportunity,” API Chairman and ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said in a statement. “He has unified our industry, expanded our global reach, heightened our effectiveness, and navigated a number of significant public policy challenges to a successful conclusion, including: the end of the crude oil export ban; the preservation of a pro-development and refining tax and regulatory framework; and the creation of a Center for Offshore Safety, dedicated to safety in offshore operations. Jack has built a solid foundation from which we will continue to grow. We will miss Jack tremendously because of his significant accomplishments over the years. Our focus will now be on the search for a successor who will build on Jack’s achievements.”
Gerard will assist in the search for a new CEO and continue to direct API’s work until a replacement is found.
“Serving the oil and natural gas industry during this historic time, when an American energy renaissance has made the U.S. the world’s leading producer and refiner of oil and natural gas, has been among the most fulfilling professional experiences of my career,” Gerard said in a statement. “We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities. I have served for 10 years at API, which is the longest tenure of my career. I’m ready for my next challenge and want to ensure that API will have time for an orderly transition to plan for its next decade.”
Gerard joined API after serving as president and CEO of trade associations the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council. He worked for almost a decade in the U.S. Senate and House. He is active in several civic organizations, including as an advisory board member and past chairman of the National Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America, a board member and former co-chair of The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, and chairman of the board of directors for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
API is a national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 10.3 million U.S. jobs and nearly 8% of the U.S. economy, the release said.
https://www.oilandgasinvestor.com/api-president-ceo-jack-gerard-step-down-august-1678876#p=full

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(ACC Mentioned) API President and CEO Jack Gerard to Depart in August

Jan 17, 2018 | WorldOil

After 10 years running one of Washington’s most influential associations covering all aspects of the oil and natural gas sector, API President and CEO Jack Gerard announced he will not make another long-term commitment to API and will step down when his current contract ends in August 2018. Until then, he will continue to direct the association’s work and assist in the search for a new CEO.
“Serving the oil and natural gas industry during this historic time, when an American energy renaissance has made the U.S. the world’s leading producer and refiner of oil and natural gas, has been among the most fulfilling professional experiences of my career,” said Gerard. “We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities. I have served for 10 years at API, which is the longest tenure of my career. I’m ready for my next challenge and want to ensure that API will have time for an orderly transition to plan for its next decade.”
Since Gerard joined API in 2008, association membership grew by almost 50% and added members from every sector of the industry. The organization tripled its growth in global markets where it promotes safety through standard setting and best practices, including expansions to Singapore, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro, and the industry’s public policy influence improved dramatically at the local, state and federal level. During his tenure, Gerard built an effective grassroots network comprised of 45 million voters with representation in every congressional district who communicate with their elected officials on energy issues.
“Jack has been an extraordinary leader for the oil and natural gas industry during a time of challenge and opportunity,” said API Chairman and ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods. “He has unified our industry, expanded our global reach, heightened our effectiveness, and navigated a number of significant public policy challenges to a successful conclusion, including: the end of the crude oil export ban; the preservation of a pro-development and refining tax and regulatory framework; and the creation of a Center for Offshore Safety, dedicated to safety in offshore operations. Jack has built a solid foundation from which we will continue to grow. We will miss Jack tremendously because of his significant accomplishments over the years. Our focus will now be on the search for a successor who will build on Jack’s achievements.”
Gerard joined API after serving as president and CEO of two large trade associations – the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council. He worked for almost a decade in the U.S. Senate and House. He is active in several civic organizations, including as an Advisory Board member and past chairman of the National Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America, a board member and former co-chair of The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, and chairman of the board of directors for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 10.3 million U.S. jobs and nearly 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 45 million Americans.
http://www.worldoil.com/news/2018/1/17/api-president-and-ceo-jack-gerard-to-depart-in-august

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Chemical Management News

Trump Administration Highlights 21 Contaminated Sites With Business Potential

Jan 17, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire

By Miranda Green

The Environmental Protection Agency is highlighting 21 contaminated land sites across the country for their redevelopment and commercial potential.
The agency flagged notable Superfund sites in a list published Wednesday in an effort to direct "interested developers and potential owners" to what they call "formerly contaminated" sites.
Spots listed include the Allied Paper site on the Kalamazoo River in Missouri and Eagle Mine in Colorado.
The EPA lists the two among the sites with the "greatest expected" potential to be redeveloped in their communities. In its plan, the EPA says it will work to identify interested businesses and developers to reuse the Superfund sites.
“EPA is more than a collaborative partner to remediate the nation’s most contaminated sites, we’re also working to successfully integrate Superfund sites back into communities across the country,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in a statement. “Today’s redevelopment list incorporates Superfund sites ready to become catalysts for economic growth and revitalization.”
The EPA came up with the list following a number of recommendations from the Superfund Task Force in 2017. The task force gave 42 recommendations to streamline and improve the Superfund program including expediting cleanup and remediation and engaging partners and stakeholders.
Pruitt has made cleaning up Superfund sites a pinnacle of his tenure even while the Trump administration works to cut funding and diminish positions at the EPA.
Yet Pruitt has also been critiqued for taking credit for cleaning up sites where the majority of remediation occurred under the previous administration.
An Associated Press analysis found that all seven of the sites that were partially or fully removed from the priorities list in 2017 were cleaned up before Pruitt took over the agency last year.
At the time, however, Pruitt appeared to take credit, saying in a statement, "We have made it a priority to get these sites cleaned up faster and in the right way."
He added: “The Superfund program is carrying out the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment more every day.”
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/369336-trump-administration-highlights-21-contaminated-sites-with-business

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Trader Joe's to Remove Controversial Chemicals From Receipts

Jan 17, 2018 | Bloomberg

By Lauren Coleman-Lochner

Cleanup in the checkout aisle.
Trader Joe’s, the grocer known for its eclectic products (and Hawaiian-shirt-clad workers), will remove two controversial substances from its register receipts, according to a statement on the company’s website.
The chemicals -- BPA and BPS -- are widespread in register and ATM receipts, according to findings by the Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based organization that works with consumers and companies to promote greener products and practices. A study being released Wednesday in partnership with Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a coalition of environmental and health groups, showed BPA and BPS were found in 93 percent of 208 register receipts tested. They came from a variety of businesses, including major retailers, banks, and gas stations.
“We are now pursuing receipt paper that is free of phenol chemicals (including BPA and BPS), which we will be rolling out to all stores as soon as possible,” Mark Sloan, vice president of product marketing, said in a statement. The Ecology Center sent a letter to Trader Joe’s informing them of its findings before the report’s release.
The U.S. has banned BPA in sippy cups, baby bottles and formula packaging, following similar measures in Canada and the European Union. Some studies have shown the substance disrupts normal hormone functioning, particularly in younger people, while others have traced links to diabetes and obesity. The substance is also found in food can linings and various plastic items. The Ecology Center calls BPS a “common and regrettable substitute” with similar effects.
Best Buy Co. is among retailers using receipts free of the substances, the report said.
Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families ranked Trader Joe’s 25th of 30 in a ranking of retailers’ chemicals policies released in November, one of nine that earned a failing grade. Best Buy ranked seventh with a ‘B.’
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/trader-joe-s-to-remove-controversial-chemicals-from-its-receipts

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BPS Not Used As Bpa Substitute in Thermal Paper – Echa Survey

Jan 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch

By Clelia Oziel

Manufacturers of thermal paper used in cash registers and till receipts in the EU are not using bisphenol S as a substitute for bisphenol A, which faces a restriction from 2020, an Echa survey has found.
BPS has been seen as the most likely substitute for BPA in thermal paper but has itself come under scrutiny for causing health problems. But in the period 2014-2016, Echa says its use in thermal paper has not shown a marked rise. However, at the same time the share of replacement substances has "noticeably increased".
According to the agency's findings, the use of BPA in thermal paper during the three-year period declined from 65% to 59%, while the use of BPS remained stable at 4%. Meanwhile the use of other substances increased from 32% to 37%.Thermal paper restriction
Thermal paper is a fine paper coated with a photographic developer – often BPA – that changes colour when exposed to heat. It is used in thermal printers and commonly in small devices, such as cash registers and credit card terminals.
In December 2016 the European Commission published a Regulation that BPA should not be placed on the market in thermal paper, in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.02% by weight, after 2 January 2020. The restriction came after the substance was found to affect the female reproductive system, the brain and behaviour, the mammary gland, metabolism and obesity.
This turned the regulatory spotlight onto BPS, amid concerns it might be used as a substitute despite having a similar toxicity profile to BPA.
NGOs are pushing for more action on BPS, saying that simply switching from one to the other would lead to a case of 'regrettable substitution'. And Belgium is currently evaluating the substance as an endocrine disruptor under the Community Rolling Action Plan (Corap).
Echa says as part of the survey, which was requested by the Commission, it contacted the European Thermal Paper Association (ETPA) and nine non-ETPA manufacturers.Hansol paper
The survey did not include information from Hansol Paper – an important non-ETPA manufacturer – but Echa said the overall picture did not change even when this uncertainty was taken into account.
According to Hansol's website and other information gathered from online resources, the company used mainly BPS and D8 – another colour developer – Echa says. Assuming that it used the two in equal measure, overall use of BPA dropped from 61% to 55%; BPS use increased only to 7% in 2016 from 6% in 2014; and the share of other developers jumped to 38% from 33%, the agency says.
Echa says it has agreed with the Commission that it will continue its work and update the survey annually, until the BPA restriction enters into force.
https://chemicalwatch.com/63192/bps-not-used-as-bpa-substitute-in-thermal-paper-echa-survey

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EU Prepares Comprehensive Microplastics Restriction

Jan 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch

By Luke Buxton

The European Commission has asked Echa to prepare a REACH Annex XV restriction dossier on the use of intentionally added microplastic particles to all consumer and professional use products.
The request is part of the EU plastics strategy, published yesterday. It sets out measures to reduce the use of microplastics, which are defined as pieces of plastic less than 5mm in diameter.
The strategy is one of five priority areas, adopted by the EU action plan for the circular economy. Its broad objective is ensure all plastic packaging on the single market is recyclable by 2030 and consumption of single-use plastics is decreased.
Echa will seek stakeholder evidence in the spring to help its risk and socio-economic assessment and expects to submit the microplastics restriction dossier on 11 January next year.
It is estimated that up to 300,000 tonnes of microplastics are released into the environment each year in the EU. The Commission has now set out measures to tackle the substances in the annexes to the plastics strategy. These include improving the monitoring and mapping of marine litter, including microplastics, based on Union harmonised methods.
The Commission will also consider labelling; specific requirements for tyres; better information and minimum requirements on the release of microfibres from textiles; as well as measures on microplastic loss from paints.
Recent studies have found microplastics in the air, in foods like salt or honey and drinking water. The impacts of these on human health are yet unknown, the Commission said, but also committed to assessing the effectiveness of their capture and removal under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.
It said that more research is needed to improve understanding of sources and impacts.
The Commission has also asked Echa to work on a REACH restriction proposal for the use of oxo-plastics – these are used in carrier bags and food packaging. They include additives designed to promote oxidation of the material so that it fragments.Industry initiatives
Through its plastics strategy, the Commission is calling on companies and associations to implement "cross-industry agreements" to reduce the release of microplastics into the environment.
A group of five, including soap and detergents trade body Aise and textiles body Euratex, has already pledged to work together to:
agree on reliable and harmonised test methods to identify and quantify types of microplastic;
call for collaboration across all relevant sectors and other organisations to share information and define common priorities; and
support and participate in industrial research activities to investigate feasible options to tackle pollution.
By the end of the year, the group plans to send a proposal to the Commission that aims to fill knowledge gaps on sources of microplastic pollution.
Stakeholders have until 30 June to submit their pledges to the Commission.More action needed
NGOs have welcomed the Commission’s plastics strategy – but say it does not go far enough.
The REACH restriction proposal is "a step in the right direction", ClientEarth lawyer Tatiana Lujan said. But, she added, the focus needs to be more on prevention, as well as reducing the amount of plastic that goes to waste.
And the Rethink Plastic Alliance says that while a restriction on oxo-plastics is mentioned, the strategy gives no further detail. "There is no place for oxo-plastics in a true circular economy," said the NGO’s coordinator Lévi Alvarès. "If the Commission is to be serious about halting the use of these damaging materials, a ban is urgently needed."
Some member states have already taken action to curtail release of microbeads – microplastics used in cosmetics and personal care products. The UK recently banned them and Sweden and Belgium have made similar proposals.
https://chemicalwatch.com/63198/eu-prepares-comprehensive-microplastics-restriction

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Energy News

The Energy 202: Trump Administration Is Trying to Sell Natural Gas to African Countries President Disparaged

Jan 17, 2018 | The Washington Post

By Dino Grandoni

President Trump’s remarks last week denigrating Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “shithole countries” has probably doomed a deal to save "dreamers," young illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. A shutdown of the federal government — the first since 2013 — could come as soon as the end of the week.
A less dramatic, yet still significant, consequence of Trump’s vulgar commentary could be the undermining of the administration’s goal of becoming, in the words of Trump officials, an “energy dominant” country. Trump's disparaging label could jeopardize a burgeoning effort to sell U.S. natural gas to developing countries, including those in Africa.
The Trump administration has dispatched its top energy and environmental officials to woo potential buyers of U.S. energy in Africa, a continent home to the "shithole" countries that Trump wants to prevent from sending their citizens to the United States, according to remarks in his meeting last week with lawmakers.
Last month, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt and a crew of aides spent four days in Morocco to promote the potential sale of U.S. natural gas there. In October, Energy Secretary Rick Perry attended a natural gas development workshop in South Africa.
“We want to be your partner,” Perry said, noting that the United States could “export not only LNG but also the technology and infrastructure to build gas economies across Africa.”
(Perry's reflections on his African trip upon returning home got more attention. In November, the energy secretary suggested fossil fuels help prevent sexual assault in impoverished countries.)
The rationale undergirding much of the Trump administration’s deregulatory efforts — whether it be opening public lands to coal leasing or oceans to oil drilling — is to bring more domestic fuel above ground and sell it abroad. The goal is, in short, to make the United States a net energy exporter.
Among the fuels the Trump administration wants to facilitate is the sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
As part of this effort, high-ranking administration officials have been pitching U.S. gas to energy-thirsty customers in South Korea, Japan, Eastern Europe — and other nations in Africa. And some observers say the president's words can't help but hurt this effort.
“Comments like those made by Trump last week undercut the soft power of the U.S. and tarnish the country’s reputation — and the reputation of Trump himself,” said David Victor, professor of international relations at the University of California at San Diego. “They probably create some domestic politics problems for countries that want to buy LNG from U.S. suppliers.”
But Victor added, “The role of government in blessing or pushing these things — especially in market-oriented economies like the United States — is easy to overstate.”
As economies in Africa develop, natural gas consumption is growing by more than 3 percent per year, the International Energy Agency reported last year. Trading gas across oceans — which involves cooling the fuel in specialized tankers before unloading it through expensive import terminals able to convert the fuel from a liquid to gas — takes more intergovernmental cooperation than the average overseas transaction.
Meanwhile, the United States, which once was a key customer of natural gas from Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, has a natural gas bounty after the boom in hydraulic fracturing over the past decade.
Beginning under President Barack Obama and continuing under Trump, natural gas producers received a steady stream of approvals for the construction of natural gas terminals to sell their product abroad. In February 2016, Houston-based Cheniere Energy began shipping gas out of Louisiana. Between then and November 2017, a small percentage — 1.3 percent — of the liquefied natural gas that left the United States went to one African country, Egypt, according to an Energy Department report.
Since Trump took office, his administration has found buyers in Lithuania and Poland, eager to get out from under the yoke of their traditional fuel supplier, Russia. But in Africa, the head winds of energy economics — rather than any blowback after the "shithole” brouhaha — may stifle similar sales.
“I am not sure how well placed the U.S. might be to fill that market,” Antony Goldman, an independent energy analyst, said of Africa, “not so much because of the ‘shithole’ remark but because of cold hard logic.”
Few African countries have the economies to sustain significant natural gas imports. Exporters, for their part, are more enticed by potential markets elsewhere, particularly in Asia.
“You look at China. You look at India,” said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, a lobbying group. “Those are two large, massive potential import countries.”
Furthermore, Africa has long had oil and gas reserves of its own. It is probably cheaper for South Africa, the continent’s third-largest economy, to build pipelines to gas fields to the north in Mozambique than it is to import gas by tanker, Goldman said. Similarly, Morocco could get gas from its North African neighbors.
And more recent discoveries in East Africa mean that even Egypt may seek gas closer to home.
“The ability to produce gas at a much closer market is very real in Africa,” Riedl said.
So despite the gestures (whether obscene or obliging) from Trump or his deputies, “the need to import U.S. LNG is probably pretty unlikely,” he said.
— Interior exodus: Three-quarters of members of a board advising the National Park Service quit abruptly on Monday over frustration with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, The Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports. The members quit after Zinke refused to meet with them last year. In a letter to Zinke, departing board chairman Tony Knowles wrote he and the other members “have stood by waiting for the chance to meet and continue the partnership . . . as prescribed by law… We understand the complexity of transition but our requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new Department team are clearly not part of its agenda.”
The resignation of nine out of 12 National Park System Advisory Board members leaves the federal government without a functioning body to designate national historic or natural landmarks. In short order, the move drew congressional backlash. On Tuesday evening, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) issued a statement saying "I call on Secretary Zinke to personally reach out to each member of the National Park Service Advisory Board and tell them their counsel is valued and that this Administration respects local voices," echoing language Zinke used when declaring Florida exempt from Interior's five-year offshore oil plan.
— Fact checkingTrump’s coal claims: The Post’s Nicole Lewis examines Trump’s repeated claim the administration is “saving” coal country following his vow during the campaign to put an end to the “war on coal.”
Here are the three claims that earned four Pinocchios from The Post's fact-checking team.
The claim: “We’ve lifted the restrictions on American energy, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean, beautiful coal, of which we have 1,000 years of supply,” Trump said during a Dec. 8 rally in Pensacola, Fla.
The verdict: “Based on the average annual amount of coal produced since 2010, 0.95 billion short tons, the country’s estimated recoverable coal reserves would last a little more than 250 years," Lewis writes. "That’s about 750 years less than Trump estimated.”
The claim: “One thing that I am very proud of: the state of West Virginia. Last month, it was one of the highest percentage increases in GDP, the state of Texas beat it. And people are saying, wait a minute, West Virginia just came in second. Do you know what that is about? That is about cutting regulations and letting the people go and mine,” Trumps said during an October interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity.
The verdict: “Trump takes credit for West Virginia’s economic gains, but it’s undeserved. For one, when the first quarter ended March 31, 2017, Trump was just two months into his presidency. While he was quick to do away with several regulations on energy production, many of the new policies have yet to take effect. The state’s recent growth is due to increased mining production and a rise in prices for coal and natural gas,” Lewis writes.
The claim: “Since the fourth quarter of last year until most recently, we’ve added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector. In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs,” EPA chief Scott Pruitt said in a June 4 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The verdict: “From January to May, the United States gained 33,000 jobs in 'mining and coal,' according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a few thousand short of Pruitt’s claim of 50,000 new jobs. But that’s not the biggest problem with his figures. Most of the gain in “mining” jobs had nothing to do with coal,” Lewis writes. “Most of the new jobs were in a subcategory called ‘support activities for mining." Most jobs in that subcategory are for oil and gas operations.
— A postmortem on Perry's grid plan: When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unanimously rejected Perry’s proposal to financially bolster coal and nuclear power plants, the one surprise vote in opposition came from Neil Chatterjee, a Republican commissioner who used to work for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and who was thought to be sympathetic to coal interests.
At a Bipartisan Policy Center event on Tuesday, Chatterjee explained how he had come to the conclusion that Perry’s proposal was not legally viable. According to Gavin Bade at Utility Dive:
.@FERChatterjee at @BPC_Bipartisan: @SecretaryPerry "asked the right question," but "proposed the wrong remedy" with NOPR. Says it "did not meet the legal test that [FERC] proposed."— Gavin Bade (@GavinBade) January 16, 2018
While nominally under the Energy Department, FERC was designed to be politically independent regulatory body. Many observers thought Perry's demanding letters to the commission tested that autonomy — a sentiment Chatterjee seemed to echo, according to Catherine Traywick of Bloomberg News:
On rejection of DOE proposal to save coal, @FERChatterjee says "we demonstrated our independence." Says FERC will continue to act independently regardless of "outside forces" trying to influence policy— Catherine Traywick (@ctraywick) January 16, 2018
— Zinke isn't just pushing offshore oil: His department wants more offshore wind development, too. During a trip to Denmark this week, Vincent DeVito, Zinke’s energy counselor, told reporters the administration is working “quite aggressively” to boost renewable energy nationwide, including a “robust expansion of offshore wind," Bloomberg News reported.
Currently, the United States is behind Europe in developing its wind-swept areas at sea, with only one offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. Early in Zinke's tenure, Interior auctioned off over 122,000 acres off of Kitty Hawk, N.C. for wind development. The world’s biggest turbine maker, Vestas Wind Systems, is based in Denmark.
— Talk of a gas tax hike never dies: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is drafting a proposal to urge lawmakers and the Trump administration to raise the federal gasoline tax by 25 cents per gallon to help pay for infrastructure, The Post’s John Wagner reports. But Thomas J. Donohue, the leader of the lobbying group — which has struggled to find its place in Trump's Washington — acknowledged it would be "a tough vote" to raise the gas tax for the first time since 1993 given that Republican leaders in Congress have already shut down a similar suggestion from President Trump that the federal government hike the gas tax by 50 cent per gallon.
— BP’s Deepwater Horizon costs deepens: As Zinke tours the country to bolster support for the Trump administration's plan to expand offshore drilling, BP made a timely announcement Tuesday that it expects to take an additional $1.7 billion charge in its fourth-quarter earnings related the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster settlement.
From The New York Times: “The company also said that it now anticipated that cash payments related to the disaster to be about $3 billion this year, up from an estimate issued in the third quarter of more than $2 billion… The charge announced on Tuesday is related to a court-supervised settlement program after a class-action lawsuit to resolve claims for business losses and other claims related to the oil spill."
— Oil prices briefly passed $70 a barrel on Tuesday: The New York Times has a rundown on the combination that led to the uptick: “Tensions in Iran. Cold weather in the United States. A year of production cuts. With 2018 still young, there has been no shortage of reasons oil prices are pushing higher..."
The latest on the California mudslides:
A lawsuit filed Tuesday is alleging two California utilities are partly to blame for the widespread destruction from the spate of wildfires and deadly mudslides in the state. The Associated Press reports the suit alleges negligence by Southern California Edison and Montecito Water District: “The lawsuit was brought by individuals injured in flash floods and a business that sustained property damage. It claims Edison's equipment caused the enormous fire and said that mudslides only occurred because vegetation that held soil back was burned in the blaze. The water district is accused of negligent actions surrounding its equipment, leading to a catastrophic break of a major water line.”

A new interactive from the Times attempts to untangle the cause of the mudslides. “Geologists and officials in Santa Barbara say it is still too early to know precisely how and why last week’s mudslides became so lethal. But they are already studying satellite imagery to help determine the path of the deadly debris, in the hopes that understanding what happened will prevent similar calamities in the future. Wildfires in December charred much of the hills in the area, burning the chaparral all along the foothills. Fire effectively changes the soil, making it more slippery and far more prone to erosion than healthy land.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/01/17/the-energy-202-trump-administration-is-trying-to-sell-natural-gas-to-african-countries-president-disparaged/5a5e181330fb0469e884016f/?utm_term=.cbc2716d4c58

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Trump Plan Ignores Limited Potential off Most of Alaska

Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Margaret Kriz Hobson

More than half of the U.S. offshore lands targeted for development under the Trump administration's recent five-year oil and gas leasing plan contain little or no oil or gas, according to an Interior Department report.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's much-lauded proposal to make more than 90 percent of the U.S. outer continental shelf (OCS) open for oil and gas leasing targets a total of 1.7 billion acres of land along the nation's shores, of which about 1 billion acres is located near Alaska.
But 900 million acres of Alaska OCS lands hold insubstantial amounts of oil or gas, according to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management report released with the 2019-2024 leasing plan.
Ten of the 14 Alaska planning areas proposed for leasing each contain 200 million barrels or less of undiscovered technically recoverable oil. An eleventh planning area holds 600 million barrels of oil. All of those areas contain 4 trillion cubic feet or less of gas.
By comparison, BOEM says that the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea planning areas together hold an estimated 23.6 billion barrels of oil and over 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Interior excluded a separate Alaska planning area from the plan because it had been withdrawn from future leasing in 2014 by President Obama.
Oil companies and Alaska government officials cheered the Trump administration's proposal to allow exploration in the hydrocarbon-rich Arctic and in the Cook Inlet south of Anchorage.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) praised Zinke for adopting a "'blank slate' approach [that] launches a new discussion with local stakeholders to determine where responsible energy development should take place."
"While nothing in this proposal is final, it is good to see the administration seeking to expand access in places like Alaska, rather than limiting our opportunities," she said in a statement.
Since then, Murkowski has suggested that Interior should drop the Gulf of Alaska planning area from the federal leasing plan due to the region's importance for commercial, subsistence and sport fishing.'A very fragile ecosystem'
The Trump administration has already reversed its plans to open Florida's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling after Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) voiced heavy opposition to top Trump administration officials.
But Alaska's Native, fishing and environmental interests insist that far more land should be excluded from Zinke's five-year lease plan.
The Bering Sea Elders Group said that the massive Bering Sea "is a very fragile ecosystem." Drilling in the region, which runs from the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean, could damage the migration routes of marine mammals that the Native communities rely on as their primary source of food, the group said.
Those concerns were shared by Kawerak Inc., a Native regional tribal consortium in western Alaska. Noting that the western OCS lands were not included in previous lease sales, the group argued that drilling could pose a serious threat to marine life and safety in the area.
The Native groups are also angry that BOEM has scheduled only one public meeting in Alaska on the proposed five-year leasing plan. That Jan. 23 session will be held in Anchorage, hundreds of miles from the remote Native villages that would be most directly affected by the leasing plan.
As a result, communities and Native groups along the western and southern shores plan to seek government-to-government meetings in their communities.Hitting dry holes
For decades, Alaska's oil-rich Arctic has been the focus of sporadic industry efforts to tap promising oil fields in the OCS. However, no new leases have been offered in the Arctic for a decade.
The most notorious exploration bid ended in 2015, when Royal Dutch Shell PLC spent seven years and $7 billion searching for oil in the Chukchi Sea, only to hit a dry hole. At one point, the company's drill rig, the Kulluk, ran aground in southern Alaska and later had to be scrapped.
Shell had suffered a series of lawsuits, accidents and weather problems, but ultimately blamed the project's failure on the Obama administration's unpredictable regulatory program.
Late in his second term, Obama banned resource development on 125 million acres of federal lands in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. But he left open a 2.8-million-acre sliver of Beaufort Sea waters where crude is already being piped to shore.
Since then, the Trump administration has paved the way for oil development projects in that region of the Beaufort. Over the last year, regulators have fast-tracked Eni US Operating Co.'s permit to drill at its Nikaitchuq North unit and issued a draft environmental impact statement on Hilcorp Alaska LLC's Liberty oil project.
Meanwhile, President Trump issued an executive order overturning Obama's ban on oil and gas leasing in nearly all of the Arctic waters.
Environmental groups are challenging that action, insisting that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act allows a president to protect offshore waters from future development but does not allow preservation decisions of previous presidents to be reversed.
That lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.
Erik Grafe of Earthjustice, one of the attorneys handling the environmentalists' legal challenge, said that the green groups will fight oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic Ocean.
"It is unlawful to hold lease sales in these areas, notwithstanding President Trump's attempt to undo these protections, so including them in the schedule of leases is inappropriate," he said. "We will advocate for the removal of these areas and assess our options once the plan is finalized sometime down the road."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/01/17/stories/1060071137

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N.D. Sees Cautious Optimism as Oil Production Improves

Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Mike Lee

North Dakota's oil production could hit a record by the end of the year, and the state's top energy regulator gives much of the credit to the Trump administration.
Most of the Trump administration's regulatory reforms have been tied up in court, but the Dakota Access pipeline, which Trump approved shortly after taking office, boosted the price that North Dakota oil companies are receiving for their output, state Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said. And the federal tax bill that passed in December could provide a further boost.
Those factors, along with improving oil prices, have brought optimism back to the state after three years, Helms said on a conference call with reporters.
"We're back into growth mode," Helms said.
North Dakota's oil production peaked at 1.23 million barrels a day in December 2014, then started to fall as worldwide oil prices tanked. West Texas Intermediate crude, which traded above $100 a barrel in the summer of 2014, fell to less than $30 a barrel by the spring of 2016.
By December 2016, North Dakota was pumping 942,000 barrels a day, and the Legislature was forced to cut its budget as oil-related taxes dried up.
Prices began recovering earlier this year, to more than $50 a barrel, and North Dakota's output rose to 1.19 million barrels a day in November, the most recent month available. The price kept climbing in December and January, reaching above $60 a barrel, and the state could eclipse its old record in the second half of the year, Helms said.
The Dakota Access pipeline prompted months of protests by environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who said it posed a risk to its water supply. The Obama administration temporarily halted construction of the pipeline, but Trump reversed that decision less than a month after taking office (Energywire, Feb. 9, 2017).
North Dakota oil used to trade as much as $10 below the national average because it cost so much to get to market. Since the pipeline opened in June, the price differential has narrowed significantly, making it more profitable to drill for oil in the Bakken Shale field.
Likewise, the tax reform bill that Congress passed in December "really pumped up the bottom line for a lot of our oil producers," Helms said.
To be sure, there are still potential obstacles facing the industry, and the state is unlikely to see the kind of explosive growth it experienced from 2010 to 2013, when the Bakken field was new, Helms said.
Oil companies still need to find an outlet for the natural gas and petroleum liquids that are co-produced in most oil wells, for instance. And the state faces sporadic problems with other infrastructure, like a power outage in December that shut down several sites in McKenzie County, Helms said.
"Any given month, we can take a step backward," he said.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/01/17/stories/1060071109

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Inventors Search for 'Missing Link' in Renewable Energy

Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Climatewire

By John Fialka

What may become one of the most disruptive renewable energy experiments in recent history is taking shape behind a building here in an assemblage of girders, pipes and tanks. It's called a bioreactor, but has the look of an unfinished project built with pieces from a giant erector set.
It's the apparatus of an ambitious goal: to make a renewable form of natural gas, which chemists also call methane. Instead of being produced from underground fossil fuel deposits, the methane from this machine will come from a two-step process. First, supplies of cheap solar and wind-powered electricity will be used to split hydrogen from water. Then the hydrogen will be combined with carbon dioxide, the otherwise troublesome greenhouse gas.
The bioreactor will subject this gaseous mix to pressure, plus the metabolisms of an unusual and very obliging community of tiny microbes called archaea. These bugs catalyze a reaction that turns the hydrogen and CO2 into a renewable form of methane that could be stored in great quantities in the globe's existing natural gas pipeline systems. That kind of storage could provide a cleaner fuel almost anywhere it is needed.
Within a century or two, the world's natural gas supplies might be depleted, predicts Kevin Harrison, an engineer who is overseeing this "Power to Gas" (P2G) experiment here at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
"It would be nice to leave some of that underground," Harrison said, referring to naturally occurring methane, which also becomes a powerful global warmer when it leaks into the atmosphere.
P2G could be disruptive because it upends the current system. Instead of burning natural gas to make electricity or heat, it would use renewable electricity and carbon dioxide — that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere — to make natural gas. The Department of Energy, which has used NREL to spur cheaper supplies of wind and solar power over recent years, sees the resulting gas as one way to avoid expensive renewable energy storage systems that use hydrogen, electric batteries and molten salt. If it works, the storage system for this methane is already built and paid for.
Like many stories in the scientific saga to remove problems posed by climate change, this one features improbable beginnings and blind alleys. The archaea were discovered by a group of Swiss engineers lounging at a hot springs resort in Iceland in the 1970s. They found what appeared to be bacteria that were producing the springs' 150-degree-Fahrenheit temperatures. They isolated one strain and deposited it in a collection of curious microorganisms in Germany.
The developer of the archaea catalyst chosen for P2G is Laurens Mets, a molecular biologist at the University of Chicago. He wants to see it demonstrated here at NREL because he was forced to develop the process in Europe. To some Americans, his project has a fairy tale aspect to it, an aura that he wants to dispel. "People who don't believe it can go in and watch it in action," he said in an interview.
He started his research in the 1990s, when many scientists thought that the next breakthrough in clean energy would involve just the first step: to store renewable energy as hydrogen and distribute it in that form. Some scientists still refer to the expanded idea as the future "hydrogen economy." At the time, Mets was struggling with a process that used light beams to coax algae to produce hydrogen, but he began having doubts about whether hydrogen, a tiny, flammable atom that can work its way into most metals, could be stored safely and cost-effectively.
He decided to refocus his efforts on archaea, microbes that resemble bacteria, but are smaller and genetically quite different. Their metabolism produces heat and methane, which Mets knew could be stored. Methane contains 3 ½ times more energy than hydrogen. But Mets heard reports that the bugs he found couldn't be trusted to scale up their methane production because they would use more of it to grow, and that the process could be poisoned by nearby oxygen.
But after testing them in his Chicago laboratory, Mets concluded that these reports were "urban myths." His archaea didn't divert much methane into their bodies and were very tidy, scrupulously removing oxygen from their surroundings. As he put it: "We brought in a whole bunch of these strains to compare and settled on this one group that seemed to be extremely efficient. They need almost nothing. We feed them hydrogen and carbon dioxide."
With help from the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which commercializes promising technologies developed by its researchers, Mets obtained a patent on the selected strain and formed a company called Electrochaea in 2010. The business set up offices in St. Louis.
But then he found himself in what seemed to be another blind alley. The process of hydraulic fracturing, a relatively new method of drilling for natural gas, was producing so much fuel that by 2010, the U.S. price of natural gas began to drop by as much as 60 percent. Not many Americans were interested in a sketchy idea that promised a more expensive form of natural gas.
"The economics really went in the tank," Mets recalled.
But Mich Hein, an "entrepreneur-in-residence" working at the Polsky Center, became CEO of Electrochaea and discovered a much different situation evolving in Europe. In Denmark, which had begun to produce a considerable amount of wind-powered electricity, natural gas prices were climbing. The country relied on supplies from wells in the North Sea, which were being depleted, posing the possibility that it might have to depend on buying future natural gas supplies from Russia. Sweden and Germany were worried about the same problem.
Hein, who had previously organized some small biotechnology companies, worked up a pitch to sell archaea. Most biotech processes, he explained, don't scale up. "We tend to take microbes that can do X and try to get them to do Y. And they can do that if you beat them with a stick, but as soon as you stop doing that, they'll stop doing Y and go back to making X," he said. "But these guys [archaea] want to do Y for a living."
Energinet, Denmark's state-owned operator of its electricity and natural gas systems, was intrigued. It had excess wind power, and it helped finance an experiment with Electrochaea at a Danish university. When that worked, Energinet found partners to help finance a larger experiment just outside Copenhagen that fed the bugs CO2 from a local sewage plant. They devoured it.
Hein found venture capital partners in Munich, where he helped set up a European headquarters. Then he found a utility in Hungary, Magyar Villamos Muvek, that agreed to build a 10-megawatt pilot facility, the first commercial-sized plant that produces renewable natural gas.
Another selling point, Hein discovered, was that Europe is seriously considering carbon taxes to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That brought in Audi AG, the German carmaker, as an investor. According to Hein, it had worked out the math and found that lowered carbon emissions would give it a tax break to sell its Audi A3 Sportback, which, like many cars, can run on gasoline or, with some adjustments, on natural gas.
Finally, in 2017, the heroic feats of Mets' bugs began to raise eyebrows in the United States. Southern California Gas Co., or SoCalGas, has over 21 million customers. It is the largest natural gas distributor in the United States and is located in a state that encourages low-carbon fuels and where many electric utilities have more available solar and wind power than they can sell.
SoCalGas is partnering with NREL to build the bioreactor that is taking shape here. "We're helping with the study of this technology because it may offer the potential to use a natural gas distribution system as a utility-scale storage for excess wind and solar electricity generation," SoCalGas said in a statement to E&E News.
"It holds the potential to be a tool to support the expansion of our wind and solar energy resources to meet California's electricity needs around the clock. Additionally, it could drive economic growth in the Western U.S. by helping to optimize the region's electric and gas grid operations," SoCalGas added.
But even that may not be the end of this renewable energy fairy tale. According to Harrison, the engineer at NREL, an animal feed company that he would not name wants to use NREL's bioreactor when SoCalGas is finished with it. Its goal is to see if the bugs would make a basic and more expensive cattle and chicken feed ingredient: amino acids.
Mets, the inventor, says he has no interest in amino acids but intends to focus more research on getting his bugs to make precursors for jet fuel and gasoline. Finally, Hein, who directs Electrochaea, says he has been having "extended discussions" with owners of wind farms and promising wind farm sites in Canada, West Texas and Iowa that have no nearby connection to the electric power grid.
But they might become commercial if they turned their electricity into methane, which can be piped or trucked.
"What we're looking at here," he said, "is the missing link in the renewable energy portfolio."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/01/17/stories/1060071143

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States Urge Court to Issue Clean Power Plan Ruling

Jan 17, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard

By Alex Guillen

A coalition of states that support the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan urged the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today to issue its ruling on the underlying rule, saying the Trump EPA's plan to repeal and replace the controversial regulation will take too long.
The requests comes after EPA asked the court last week to keep the lawsuit on hold indefinitely, "pending the conclusion of rulemaking."
“Neither EPA’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan nor its prolonged and uncertain plans to replace the rule justify additional abeyance,” the states wrote in their filing today. They argued that the newly extended comment period on the advance notice seeking ideas on how to regulate carbon dioxide more narrowly "means it is unlikely that the agency will complete repeal until late 2018 at the earliest, more than two years after en banc argument in this case."
Any challenge to that repeal, the states added, would touch on all the same legal arguments made in the original challenge to the Clean Power Plan — meaning issuing the ruling on the underlying Clean Power Plan would serve “judicial economy” by avoiding rehashing old legal arguments in a new case.
Environmental groups made a similar request last year, but the court continued to keep the lawsuit on hold.
WHAT’S NEXT: The court will decide whether to put the lawsuit on hold once again. It has previously done so only for limited periods, although the practical effect has been a long-term pause in the proceedings. There is no timeline for the court to decide.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard

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Chemical Security News

Homeland Security Chief Says Electric Grid Safeguards Need Work

Jan 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Blake Sobczak

A federal guide for shielding the power grid from hackers "needs to be updated" but not enforced, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told lawmakers yesterday.
Nielsen defended the voluntary approach to cybersecurity favored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, while warning that the agency's framework for protecting critical infrastructure isn't foolproof.
"I will never be able to sit here and guarantee you that we will have full security," she said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Department of Homeland Security oversight.
When committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asked how much confidence Nielsen had in the current system for guarding the grid, Nielsen replied that the NIST cybersecurity framework is voluntary.
"In other words?" Whitehouse asked.
"In other words, we need to continue to do more, we need to continue to update it and keep up with the threat, the threats continue to evolve," Nielsen said.
When pushed on whether there's a need for Congress to intervene or whether voluntary efforts should be made mandatory, Nielsen said "voluntary works" and pointed out that NIST appeared to be in the process of updating its own measures.
A NIST spokeswoman said the agency is seeking comments on a revised draft of its 4-year-old framework, which includes new recommendations for handling software vulnerabilities, among other changes amid an uptick in cyberthreats to the power grid.
Major electric utilities already face mandatory cybersecurity rules set through another agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in conjunction with the nonprofit North American Electric Reliability Corp.
But those "critical infrastructure protection" standards only apply to operators of the bulk power grid. Smaller utilities face a mishmash of state-level cybersecurity regulations that rarely include binding requirements.
Many small to midsize electric utilities say they have turned to the NIST framework to shore up their computer systems, though authorities have found it difficult to track the document's overall popularity and impact (Energywire, Nov. 28, 2016).
The document is aimed at DHS-defined critical infrastructure sectors, from the energy utilities to chemical plants and wastewater facilities.
Earlier in the hearing, Nielsen said she would work on reforming her agency's approach to sector-specific cybersecurity outreach and information sharing.
"We're also working with the private sector to understand what it is that's really critical," she said. "Traditionally, we've looked at 16 critical infrastructure sectors, but given the interconnectivity of the world today, we're moving toward a look at essential functions which might cross sectors."
That focus on functions, rather than preset categories, could help DHS quickly share cyberthreat intelligence to people who can act on it, Nielsen suggested.
"Overall, it's agreeing together what is critical and what is the best way that we can protect it," she said.DHS shuffle
Yesterday's hearing was dominated by talk of DHS's immigration policy and President Trump's recent vulgar comments on Haiti, El Salvador and Africa (Energywire, Jan. 16).
But several lawmakers, including Sens. Whitehouse, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), found time to press Nielsen on her agency's cybersecurity roles, from safeguarding U.S. elections from Russian interference to defending the power grid and other infrastructure networks.
Nielsen did not call for specific legislative efforts on cybersecurity but urged Congress to help clarify DHS's cybersecurity mission by changing the name of a key department.
"Do you know what NPPD does? Nobody does, that's the point," she told Whitehouse at one point in the hearing, referring to the National Protection and Programs Directorate. "So we need to make it clear that cybersecurity is within the DHS — the name change is important so that our stakeholders know that."
The House last year passed a measure to rename the NPPD the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to better reflect its day-to-day activities (E&E Daily, Dec. 13, 2017).
A DHS official said yesterday that the agency is proceeding with an internal reorganization of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, a key NPPD office that acts as a sort of help desk for companies seeking cybersecurity advice.
Part of that effort has involved folding the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team into the NCCIC, a step that the agency says won't set back efforts to protect power grid networks and other control systems from hackers. "This realignment has no impact to the technical expertise and services our stakeholders rely on us to provide," DHS officials said in a newsletter posted yesterday.
Marty Edwards, who directed DHS's industrial control system efforts until leaving the agency last year to become managing director of the Automation Federation, said "it's too early to tell" what kind of impact the ICS-CERT shake-up will have on the agency's ability to thwart control system cyber intrusions and attacks.
"Critical infrastructure networks — and especially industrial control systems — are so important that DHS and other government agencies must treat them uniquely," he said.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/01/17/stories/1060071131

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Transportation and Infrastructure News

House Bill Would Require Train-Stopping Technology, Following Washington Amtrak Derailment

Jan 17, 2018 | Seattle Times

By Mike Lindblom

The federal government would give $2.6 billion to railroads to install emergency train-stopping technologies, so they won’t miss a deadline of December 2018, under a new bill in the U.S. House.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and co-sponsors include six Washington state members. It’s prompted by a Dec. 18 crash in which an Amtrak Cascades train derailed at 78 mph north of Olympia, killing three passengers and injuring dozens.
Railroads would be prohibited from launching new passenger routes until the technologies are installed on them, under the Positive Train Control Implementation and Financing Act.
The Cascades crash occurred on its first public passenger trip through a new 14.5-mile stretch, where a century-old freight line was rebuilt to create a direct, faster route from Tacoma to Nisqually. But the $181 million project left in place a 30 mph curve, where tracks approach a freeway overpass.
The rail industry was already granted a three-year extension beyond a 2015 deadline set by Congress to install the safety technology. Some companies wanted another two years, until 2020.
“No more delays, no more extensions, no more excuses from railroads who have had 10 years to implement PTC (positive train control) technology,” said DeFazio, ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to The Hill congressional news site.
Amtrak says it has equipped 51 percent of its locomotives with PTC equipment nationally.
As for the Cascades line, where Amtrak operates state-owned locomotives, Amtrak promises PTC will be installed and activated “during the third quarter of 2018,” in a letter last week from CEO Richard Anderson to Washington and Oregon transportation directors.
The satellite-based system applies brakes if an engineer fails to slow or stop for another train, a switch, a work zone, or a low-speed area. BNSF Railway says its Northwest trains are equipped with PTC. Sound Transit commuter trains have PTC, but the fledgling system doesn’t always boot up.
DeFazio’s bill would require Amtrak to issue quarterly progress reports not only for its own routes including the Northeast Corridor, but state-owned lines Amtrak operates — including the Cascades, committee staff said.
Seven railroads are at high risk of missing the 2018 deadline, he said in a letter: Trinity Rail Express in Texas, Canadian National, Central Florida Rail Corridor, CSX, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Norfolk Southern and Metra in Illinois.
Four decades have passed since the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended train-control systems. Congress finally required them following a Metrolink crash that killed 25 people outside Los Angeles, while the engineer was texting.
Washington state Democrats co-sponsoring the bill are Reps. Rick Larsen of Everett, Denny Heck of Olympia, Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor, Adam Smith of Bellevue, Pramila Jayapal of Seattle and Suzan DelBene of Medina.
Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Vancouver, has asked DeFazio to list her as a co-sponsor, her staff said late Tuesday.
WSDOT moved Amtrak Cascades back to its previous route along Puget Sound, until new train control is ready.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/house-bill-would-require-train-stopping-technology-following-washington-amtrak-derailment/

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Environment News

Ewire: Trump Officials, California Renew Talks on Vehicle GHGs

Jan 17, 2018 | Inside EPA

Trump administration officials are slated to meet with their California counterparts in Washington, D.C., this month for “another round of discussions” on light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for model years 2022-2025, according to a Reuters report.
The two sides have long been at odds over the standards, with the Trump EPA seeking to roll back its GHG rules to some degree, while California and its allies have sought to preserve the Obama-era requirements.
The Golden State has significant leverage in the dispute because of its special Clean Air Act authority to enforce its own standards, threatening to disrupt a unified set of standards that automakers favor -- though EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has suggested he may roll back the waiver the agency grants the state to develop its own standards.
“Automakers want the White House and California to reach agreement on revisions because a legal battle over the rules could result in lengthy uncertainly for the industry,” the Reuters story notes, adding that a major automaker trade group “has encouraged more talks between California and federal regulators in hopes an agreement is reached.”
Pruitt earlier told the outlet that there is “no reason to speculate on” whether the agency might target California's special air act waiver authority. “I think that what's important is that we continue to reach out to work with California.”
Pruitt has earlier unnerved California officials, environmentalists and other supporters of the rules when he told a House hearing in December that the state should not be able to “dictate” strong fuel economy limits for the rest of the country.
California air chief Mary Nichols now says she expects an EPA attack on the waiver to be “the next shoe to drop.”
The Reuters story notes that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) -- whose fuel economy standards are generally aligned with EPA's GHG rules -- is set to issue a proposal for MY22-25 by March 30 that would outline a “broad set of options.”
That could track closely with a forthcoming “determination” by EPA about its GHG rules, which is due by April 1. Many expect that to find that the rules must be changed to some degree, but it could leave the agency wide discretion on seeking wholesale revisions or minor modifications.
That means that Trump administration and California negotiations could continue for several more weeks as officials try to head off a full-scale battle over the vehicle standards.
In an interview with Inside EPA, EPA air chief Bill Wehrum left the door open for an uncertain outcome. While he prefers that the two sides stay together, he said, “We can live in a world, you know, a two-car world, but that's not ideal.”
EPA has had many meetings with NHTSA and some with California, “and we want them to be very frank conversations, so we've all agreed we're not going to share our deliberations. . . . But the purpose of that conversation is to stay together and if we can I'd very much like to stay together.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-trump-officials-california-renew-talks-vehicle-ghgs

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