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ACC PM 21/02/18
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(ACC Mentioned) SPG Signs DRC, Will Open London Office
Feb 20, 2018 | Politico
By Theodoric Meyer and Marianne Levine
SPG will lobby for the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Washington as a subcontractor to Mer Security and Communications Systems, an Israeli firm that’s worked for the country since last year. -
NGOs Call on US Firm to Reveal Chemicals in Feminine Products
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
A group of 25 NGOs has published an open letter calling on US cleaning products company Prestige Brands to eliminate what campaigners claim are toxic chemicals and disclose all ingredients in its Summer's Eve feminine hygiene products. -
Lawmaker Calls for Probe of Member's Alleged Lobbying
Feb 21, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar
The chairman of a House Oversight and Government Reform panel is calling for an investigation of illegal lobbying by a Chemical Safety Board member. -
Beck Suggests Trump Hiring Cap Undermines EPA's TSCA Implementation
Feb 21, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
Nancy Beck, the top Trump appointee in EPA's toxics office, says lawmakers should have authorized staffing levels for the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) program as they did for a pesticide fee program years earlier, suggesting the administration's government-wide hiring freeze is undermining the agency's ability to implement TSCA. -
EU Enforcement Project Targeting C&L of Mixtures Underway
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
A European enforcement project involving 31 countries is underway to check whether the classification and labelling (C&L) of a mixture corresponds to the information presented in the safety data sheet (SDS). -
Norwegian Study Finds Scant Information on PFHxS
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
Information on the global production and product specific uses of perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) is lacking, the Norwegian Environment Agency has said. -
ChemSec Adds Substance to SIN List
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
NGO ChemSec has added one substance to its Substitute It Now (SIN) list and two new cas numbers to the entry for dechlorane plus. -
America’s Emerging Petro Economy Flips the Impact of Oil
Feb 21, 2018 | Wall Street Journal
By Greg Ip
The effect of oil prices on the U.S. economy used to be straightforward: Higher was bad. Yet between 2014 and early 2016, as oil collapsed, growth slowed sharply. -
Environmentalists Lost Big on LNG Exports. Now What?
Feb 21, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
After years of fever-pitched opposition to liquefied natural gas exports, the Sierra Club quietly pulled its last LNG lawsuit from federal court last month. -
DOE's Walker Plugs North American Energy Model
Feb 21, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Rod Kuckro
Building a robust model of North America's energy infrastructure will help industry players and regulators "understand the interdependencies of the different energy systems," said Bruce Walker, the Department of Energy's assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability. -
Senators Applaud Grant Funding Being Made Available for Positive Train Control Implementation
Feb 21, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Aaron Martin
After raising concerns about implementation of positive train control (PTC) on freight and passenger rail, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jack Reed (D-RI) applauded the U.S. Department of Transportation’s recent announcement that $73 million in grant funding would be made available. -
Amid a Flood of Plastic, Big Companies Try to Clean Up Image
Feb 21, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
Once a month, accountant Michael Byrne pulls on his rubber boots and makes his way to a spot on the banks of the River Thames.
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Transportation and Infrastructure News
Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) SPG Signs DRC, Will Open London Office
Feb 20, 2018 | Politico
By Theodoric Meyer and Marianne Levine
SPG SIGNS DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: SPG will lobby for the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Washington as a subcontractor to Mer Security and Communications Systems, an Israeli firm that’s worked for the country since last year. SPG plans to help the Congolese government coordinate counterterrorism efforts with Washington and will press President Donald Trump’s administration to open a forward operating base in the country, according to Robert Stryk, SPG’s founder. (SPG, which describes itself as a “global private diplomacy” firm, has ties to former Trump campaign staffers; Jacob Daniels, the firm’s president, helped Trump win Michigan.)
— Venable has also retained SPG to help get one of its clients, Slobodan Tesic, removed from a list of foreign nationals sanctioned by the Treasury Department, according to a letter signed by Tesic’s lawyer, D.E. Wilson Jr. The Trump administration slapped sanctions on Tesic late last year. The Treasury Department described Tesic at the time as “among the biggest dealers of arms and munitions in the Balkans” and accused him of “directly or indirectly [providing] bribes and financial assistance to officials.”
— SPG has expanded rapidly in Washington since Trump’s election and plans to open a London office next month. The firm recently hired Bryce Dustman, who was previously chief of staff to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, as senior vice president for domestic policy. Stryk credits SPG’s growth to its promotion of capitalism overseas. “I believe that capitalism is not the sacred franchise of the American people,” he said in a statement. “We are nothing more than the guardian of its flame that burns brightly in every living soul, and it’s our duty and responsibility to export it to every corner of the globe.”
Good afternoon, and welcome to PI. This newsletter is powered by your tips. Please keep them coming: mlevine@politico.com and tmeyer@politico.com. You can also follow us on Twitter: @theodoricmeyer and @marianne_levine.
MUELLER CHARGES FORMER SKADDEN LAWYER: “Special counsel Robert Mueller's team on Tuesday announced the latest target in his sprawling probe into Russian election interference, saying attorney Alex Van Der Zwaanmade false statements about past communications with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates,” POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. ‘Gates faces criminal charges from Mueller over his lobbying work in Ukraine. Mueller said Van Der Zwaan, who worked for a law firm that did work in Ukraine in 2012, made false statements to authorities about communications in 2016 with Gates and an unnamed person. … Van Der Zwaan is expected to appear in federal court in Washington Tuesday afternoon to offer a guilty plea to the charge.” Full story.
— Van Der Zwaan is a former litigation associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, the mammoth global law firm. He was based in London. A Skadden spokeswoman said the firm had fired Van Der Zwaan last year. Van Der Zwaan wasn’t a lobbyist, and Skadden doesn’t have a big Washington lobbying practice, with just half a dozen clients, according to disclosure filings. But several of the lobbying clients the firm does represent are big names, including General Electric, Westfield and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.
JIM LAKE BECOMES A PRINCIPAL AT NAHIGIAN STRATEGIES: Jim Lake is now a principal at Nahigian Strategies. In an interview with PI, Lake said he will focus on clients in the health care, technology, transportation and shipping sectors. Some of his work will focus on the Jones Act, a law that requires all goods transported between U.S. ports be carried on U.S. flagged ships, built in the United States and owned by U.S. citizens, among other provisions. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year, Lake said there was “misinformation that supplies were not getting to the island because of the Jones Act.” His clients want to make sure the law stays in place. Lake also touted Nahigian Strategies’ connections with President Donald Trump’s administration, noting that Nahigian Strategies’ general counsel, Ken Nahigian, was executive director of the Trump transition team.
— Prior to joining Nahigian Strategies, Lake ran his own communications firm. Before that, he was executive vice president of DDC Advocacy and has also worked for McBee Strategic (now known as the Signal Group), Gibraltar Associates and Burson-Marsteller.
INSIGHT SIGNS FOUR: InSight Public Affairs, the new lobbying shop started by two former Podesta Group principals, Oscar Ramirez and Dana Thompson, and a veteran BGR Group lobbyist, Josh Lamel, has signed its first clients: Lyft, T-Mobile, the American Immigration Council and Career Education Colleges and Universities. Three of the four are former Podesta lobbying clients.
IF YOU MISSED IT THIS WEEKEND: GOP donor Al Hoffman Jr. “demanded on Saturday that the party pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians,” The New York Times’ Alexander Burns reports. Hoffman “said he would seek to marshal support among other Republican political donors for a renewed assault weapons ban. ‘For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing’s been done?’ Mr. Hoffman said in an interview. “It’s the end of the road for me.’ Mr. Hoffman announced his ultimatum in an email to half a dozen Republican leaders, including Jeb Bush and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida.” Full story.
NEW JOINT FUNDRAISERS:
None
NEW PACs:
7Gen Leaders (Super PAC)
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Political Action Committee (Alnylam PAC) (PAC)
Citizens Awareness of Government Activities (Super PAC)
Friends for Florida (Super PAC)
Lone Star Gun Rights (Lobbyist/Registrant PAC)
Marijuana Leadership PAC (Lobbyist/Registrant PAC)
Women for Integrity and Leadership (PAC)
Women for Leadership and Integrity (PAC)NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS:
Aguirre Law, APC: Arjun Reddy
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP: Troy Bank & Trust Company
Dykema Gossett PLLC: Health Alliance Plan
Freemyer & Associates P.C.: Elko Mining Group, LLC
Holland & Knight LLP: Securus Technologies, Inc.
InSight Public Affairs, Inc.: American Immigration Council
InSight Public Affairs, Inc.: Career Education Colleges and Universities
InSight Public Affairs, Inc.: Lyft, Inc.
InSight Public Affairs, Inc.: T-Mobile USA, Inc.
K&L Gates LLP: Perspective Robotics AG
Paul V. Beddoe Government Affairs, LLC: Susan J. White and Associates, Inc.
Peck Madigan Jones: Univision Communications Inc.
Scalfone Law PLLC: Town of Redfield
The Federal Group, Inc.: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Veng Group: American Immigration Council
Veng Group: Chinese American Citizens Alliance - National Lodge
W Strategies, LLC: Merck & Co., Inc.NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS:
Dentons US LLP: American Chemistry Council
Dentons US LLP: Kootenai Tribe of Idaho
Dentons US LLP: Lummi Nation
Dentons US LLP: Native American Telecom LLC
Dentons US LLP: Nooksack Indian Tribe
Packard Government Affairs: San Luis Rey Indian Water Authority
Policy Development Group: Secured Financial Solutions
Monument Policy Group, LLC: LinkedIn Corporation
The Federal Group, Inc.: Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation
The Federal Group, Inc.: MDxHealth
The Federal Group, Inc.: Mended Hearts, Incorporated
The Federal Group, Inc.: MyoKardia
The Federal Group, Inc.: Pediatric Congential [sic] Heart Associationhttps://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2018/02/20/spg-signs-drc-will-open-london-office-111295
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NGOs Call on US Firm to Reveal Chemicals in Feminine Products
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
A group of 25 NGOs has published an open letter calling on US cleaning products company Prestige Brands to eliminate what campaigners claim are toxic chemicals and disclose all ingredients in its Summer's Eve feminine hygiene products.
Outlined in the letter are the various ingredients that the NGOs say are of concern in the wipes and washes, including what they claim to be carcinogens, unknown fragrance ingredients, allergens and suspected endocrine disruptors.
The letter is the latest effort in a campaign run by Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE) to increase transparency about what it says are potentially harmful chemicals used in feminine hygiene products.
The ingredients of concern to the NGOs are:preservatives methylparaben and propylparaben – propylparaben was restricted in cosmetics in the EU in 2016. Methylparaben is a suspected endocrine disruptor;octoxynol-9 – a contraceptive drug which could affect fertility;preservative 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol – releases formaldehyde, which is known to be carcinogenic;dyes ext. violet 2 and red 33 – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricts their use in products that come in contact with mucous membranes;dye FD&C yellow 5 – requires a specific safety warning regarding allergic reactions in products used vaginally;Neutresse – a trademark odour control ingredient with unknown health effects; andfragrance.
"Fragrance can be made up of potentially hundreds of different ingredients, many of which are linked to serious health problems from skin irritation to hormone disruption and breast cancer," the NGOs say in their letter.
There has been a recent trend for voluntary disclosure of fragrance in consumer products online. Personal care brands Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever US, are among those that have committed to publishing either their products' fragrance ingredients or allergens on their websites.'Abides to Regulations'
The letter urges Prestige Brands – which markets and distributes over-the-counter healthcare and household cleaning products – to "eliminate the presence of ingredients and contaminants linked to cancer, reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption and other serious health problems" and conduct additional product screening "to ensure safety of use on mucous membranes".
In response, Prestige Brands' senior vice president of science and technology, Jean Bokyo, wrote to the NGOs saying Summer's Eve "abides by all FDA rules and regulations regarding feminine care products, as well as guidelines and procedures outlined by the Cosmetic Ingredients Review (CIR) and strictly adheres to over-the-counter (OTC) standards."
The company's letter goes on to say that Summer's Eve products are "free from alcohol, formaldehyde and harsh chemicals."
"We conduct extensive hypoallergenic and irritation tests during development and only market products which have been clinically proven safe and that meet our strict standards," it adds.
However, Erin Switalsk, executive director for WVE, told Chemical Watch that it was unclear what the term "harsh chemicals" referred to.
"One chemical we noticed on their washes is methylisothiazolinone, a chemical that received the honour of 'allergen of the year' in 2013 from the American Contact Dermatitis Society," she said. "2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol is a preservative used in several Summer's Eve wipes, including one product labeled 'Simply Sensitive.’' It releases formaldehyde, so it's disingenuous for them to state their products are formaldehyde-free."
She added that the NGO would be "pushing for a conversation with Prestige, to talk about our concerns."
Prestige Brands has not yet responded to Chemical Watch's request for comment.Wider action
Last year, a US House of Representatives committee urged the FDA to respond to an NGO petition filed in 2015, asking them to develop guidance for manufacturers on the appropriate use of colourants in feminine washes.
Meanwhile, Grace Meng and Carolyn Maloney (both D–New York) reintroduced the Menstrual Products Right to Know Act (HR 2416) in the House of Representatives in May 2017, after failing to gain traction in Congress in 2016.
The act would seek to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to deem as misbranded any menstrual product that does not bear a label listing the name of each ingredient or component, in order of predominance.
Ms Maloney also reintroduced a separate bill (HR 2379) that would direct the National Institute of Health (NIH) to research the risks posed by the presence of dioxin, chlorine, colourants, dyes, preservatives, fragrances and other chemicals used in feminine care products.
HR 2379 was referred to the subcommittee on health in April 2017 and HR 2416 in December 2017.
https://chemicalwatch.com/64171/ngos-call-on-us-firm-to-reveal-chemicals-in-feminine-products
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Lawmaker Calls for Probe of Member's Alleged Lobbying
Feb 21, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar
The chairman of a House Oversight and Government Reform panel is calling for an investigation of illegal lobbying by a Chemical Safety Board member.
The request was included in a letter sent yesterday by Rep. Blake Farenthold, the Texas Republican who leads the Subcommittee on the Interior, Energy and Environment, to Arthur Elkins Jr., the inspector general of U.S. EPA and CSB.
The letter primarily cited nine-month-old reporting from the conservative Daily Caller website alleging that CSB board member Richard Engler "prompted a grassroots campaign to reverse the Trump administration's proposal to eliminate funding" for CSB last fiscal year.
Specifically, The Daily Caller claimed that Engler helped develop and distribute a flier that directed recipients to urge members of Congress to maintain funding for CSB. Lawmakers ultimately decided to continue bankrolling the tiny independent agency, which is tasked with investigating the causes of industrial accidents.
"If substantiated, these actions appear to implicate federal provisions restricting lobbying activities by federal officials," Farenthold wrote. "In light of this possible breach of federal anti-lobbying provisions, I request that your office investigate this matter and advise the committee as to whether these actions by a CSB board member violated any federal law or practice."
Farenthold also asked Elkins to coordinate with the Government Accountability Office, which is in charge of auditing the use of federal funds.
President Trump's budget proposal for fiscal 2019 again calls for the elimination of CSB. It currently receives annual appropriations of $11 million.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/02/21/stories/1060074399
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Beck Suggests Trump Hiring Cap Undermines EPA's TSCA Implementation
Feb 21, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
Nancy Beck, the top Trump appointee in EPA's toxics office, says lawmakers should have authorized staffing levels for the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) program as they did for a pesticide fee program years earlier, suggesting the administration's government-wide hiring freeze is undermining the agency's ability to implement TSCA.
Speaking on a recent webinar hosted by the law firm Bergeson & Campbell and media group Bloomberg/BNA, Beck bemoaned Congress' failure when lawmakers wrote the 2016 TSCA revisions to provide the flexibility that the Pesticide Registration Improvement Extension Act (PRIA) provides the pesticides office, allowing it to hire full-time equivalents (FTEs) beyond agency staffing caps.
The statute, which Congress is seeking to reauthorize, states that user fees EPA collects thanks to the authority granted in that law can support full-time employees and these employees "shall not count toward the agency's ceiling cap."
Asked about efforts to reauthorize PRIA, Beck explains that difference between the two laws is a "very important point because the agency currently has a hiring freeze, and there are FTE hiring counts that we cannot go above. However, because PRIA language is very clear this does not count towards the agency's cap, we are working to hire 50 more people in the [pesticides] program to help backfill and to help work on registration and re-registration reviews, so we're doing that slowly and hoping to ramp up."
"We believe those 50 people will be a significant addition. The fact the PRIA language allows us to go beyond a hiring cap will be helpful," she added.
Jim Aidala, a former toxics office chief now with Bergeson & Campbell, agreed with Beck's comments. He added that while observing the multi-year TSCA reform drafting process, "for a while there it looked like most of the people writing TSCA amendments had not worked in the federal service. This is the kind of thing where you realize freezes, personnel ceilings and FTE counts are things that matter. And these were some of the things that were taken into account in" PRIA.
Beck detailed a host of activities underway in EPA's toxics and pesticides office in 2018, referencing again the many statutory deadlines that toxics staff are working against as they seek to implement the new law. After summarizing some of the office's major implementation accomplishments of 2017, Beck added, "We expect 2018 to be no less busy. In fact this week itself was crazy."
She pointed to EPA's Feb. 7 publication of a final rule clarifying certification standards for testing formaldehyde emissions from wood products; the publication of a draft proposal for public comment on an approach for assigning a unique identification to trade secret chemicals, as required by the new TSCA; and the release of the proposed TSCA fees rule for comment.
'Major Implications'
Beck on the Feb. 8 webinar said that the fees rule is "a very exciting proposal for us with major implications for the program," that will "allow EPA to defray the costs of new responsibilities under TSCA. The rule will apply to manufacturers and processors who will or are required to submit data to us," including those intending to manufacture a new chemical, or use a chemical in a new way, or those who manufacture existing TSCA chemicals EPA selects for risk evaluation.
"We have provided a smorgasbord of options as well as our primary options," Beck says of the proposal. "The goal is to have [the fees rule] in place by October 1. I hope we can get there even more quickly."
Existing chemicals are those that were on the market when the original TSCA was enacted in 1976, as well as those chemicals that EPA has reviewed and added to the TSCA inventory since that date. The fact that the original TSCA largely grandfathered existing chemicals from regulation became a major driver for TSCA reform.
Beck also highlighted among the toxics' office's 2018 priorities a strategy on how to reduce animal testing and increase use of newer testing methods, with a June deadline. "We expect to use a combination of alternate methods, computer models . . . to assist in the evaluation of hazards and exposure for new and existing chemicals," Beck said of the strategy. "It will be iterative and evolve as the methods evolve over time."
Beck added that the hope is to release a draft version of the plan for comment "early this year . . . soon."
Also on her list, Beck said, is the ongoing update of the TSCA chemical inventory, which will designate the tens of thousands of chemicals on the TSCA inventory as active or inactive by asking manufacturers and processors to tell EPA which chemicals they have used in the past decade. The mandatory reporting period for manufacturers has closed, while the voluntary reporting period for processors will remain open til Oct. 5.
"We've been reporting updates" to the inventory numbers, Beck said, adding that the most recent count as of Feb. 8, was 28,266 chemicals. "We expect to publish a draft inventory in a couple of months. After we get the information from processors, we will do some" quality control checks. She added that the information will be helpful to prioritize existing chemicals for risk evaluation in the new TSCA program for existing chemicals.
Risk Evaluations
Beck also said that EPA staff are also working on the ongoing risk evaluations of the first 10 existing chemicals the Obama agency selected to undergo the new risk evaluation process shortly before the presidential transition. "We are working on those problem formulations now," Beck said of the first 10 chemical reviews. "Hopefully you'll see those in the near term, Once those are released . . . we'll begin our efforts to conduct the robust risk evaluations consistent with the statue. We'll finalize these by late 2019."
Beck also referenced other ongoing projects with pending deadlines, including upcoming guidance on the unique identifiers for trade secret chemicals; another guidance document on how to share trade secret information with states, tribes, doctors and emergency personnel; and crafting exposure assessment documents for a group of chemicals identified as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) for which new TSCA requires expedited action.
Beck said the hope is to release the trade secret-sharing documents "later this year," and that she expects the draft to be reviewed by the White House before public release. Beck said the draft PBT exposure documents will undergo peer review and must be released by June 2019.
"Then there's the new chemicals program, we're all working hard," Beck added. "We're working on putting in a framework that allows us to be timely but also respond to the language in the law.
"https://insideepa.com/daily-news/beck-suggests-trump-hiring-cap-undermines-epas-tsca-implementation
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EU Enforcement Project Targeting C&L of Mixtures Underway
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
A European enforcement project involving 31 countries is underway to check whether the classification and labelling (C&L) of a mixture corresponds to the information presented in the safety data sheet (SDS).
Inspections for the REACH-En-Force (Ref-6) project began in January. It is coordinated by Echa’s Enforcement Forum with all EU and EEA member states participating. Inspections will continue throughout 2018.
Member states may also include "additional modules" in their inspections, Echa says. These are:exemptions concerning labelling and packaging requirements;the obligation to apply harmonised classification and labelling (CLH);the specific requirements of the CLP Regulation for liquid laundry detergent capsules (LLDCs); andthe authorisation and labelling of biocidal products.
The module on biocidal products is the first enforcement project the forum's biocidal products regulation subgroup (BPRS) is participating in. BPRS was founded in March 2017 and meets three times a year to ensure harmonised enforcement.
The forum adopted the Ref-6 project at the end of 2016. Findings will be published in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The EU’s classification, labelling and packaging (CLP) regulation aims to ensure that labels and SDSs provide accurate information on hazards, helping consumers use chemical products safely.
A major transitional period in C&L requirements ended last year and now all hazardous chemicals placed on the market require C&L, according to CLP.
However, classification rules leading to labelling are creating a number of challenges and are not proving to be fit for purpose, the trade association for soaps, detergents and maintenance products (Aise) has said.
Classification should reflect the real hazard to consumers and the resulting labelling should be eye-catching and easy to understand, it says in this month's Global Business Briefing.
The enforcement forum's Ref-5 project aims to ensure that workers handling hazardous chemicals receive sufficient and correct safety information. Inspections were carried out throughout 2017 and the results will be published in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Last week, Echa reported on Ref-4, which targeted non-compliance with restricted substances under Annex XVII. Inspectors found prohibited levels of cadmium, nickel and lead in jewellery, as well as restricted phthalates in a fifth of all toy products tested.
https://chemicalwatch.com/64176/eu-enforcement-project-targeting-cl-of-mixtures-underway
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Norwegian Study Finds Scant Information on PFHxS
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
Information on the global production and product specific uses of perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) is lacking, the Norwegian Environment Agency has said.
PFHxS is often used as a substitute for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which has been restricted under the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) since 2009.
Last year, Echa added PFHxS to the REACH candidate list because of very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) properties.
It has long-range transport potential and higher bioaccumulation in humans than PFOS, the Norwegian agency says in a report. Better information on worldwide manufacture and use of the substance is crucial for further evaluation of the risks it poses, it adds.Uses and global quantities
The agency received responses from 30 global chemical companies to questions on the production and use of the chemical. Most indicated that they are either not producing or using any of the substances investigated, the report says.
PFHxS may be present in fire-fighting foams, food contact papers, waterproofing agents and cleaning and polishing products, either for intentional uses or as unintentional impurities from industrial production processes, the report says.
External market research studies point to a decline in the global production of PFHxS to less than 700kg in 2016 from around 700-750kg in 2012, with a further slight decrease reported for 2017, the report says.
It questions, however, the scientific quality and reliability of data contained in such market studies and says the reasons for the drop in production have not been explained.
Large-scale industrial production of PFHxS and related substances is still ongoing – with at least one manufacturer operating in Italy and three manufacturers in China, the report adds.
Global consumption of perfluorohexane sulfonyl fluoride (PFHxSF) – the starting material for the production of PFHxS – has increased steadily over the past seven years and a further increasing trend is foreseen in the coming years, it says.
The Norwegian Environment Agency warns that, without further information, it is not possible to draw conclusions on the application of PFHxS from available market reports on PFHxSF.
Norway has been focusing regulatory controls on per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and in June nominated PFHxS, its salts and related compounds for action under the Stockholm Convention. In November, a UN expert panel concluded the substance meets the treaty's screening criteria for persistence, bioaccumulation, long-range transport and adverse effects.
https://chemicalwatch.com/64173/norwegian-study-finds-scant-information-on-pfhxs
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ChemSec Adds Substance to SIN List
Feb 21, 2018 | Chemical Watch
NGO ChemSec has added one substance to its Substitute It Now (SIN) list and two new cas numbers to the entry for dechlorane plus.
The addition of reaction products of 1,3,4-thiadiazolidine-2,5-dithione, formaldehyde and 4-heptylphenol, branched and linear (RP-HP) to the SIN list follows its addition to Echa's candidate list in January.
The SIN List consists of chemicals that have been identified by ChemSec as being SVHCs, based on the criteria for these defined within REACH. The NGO says the list "puts pressure on legislators to move forward with speed and urgency. It provides progressive companies with a helpful list of hazardous chemicals to avoid as they aim for a sustainable future. It also challenges chemical companies to revise their portfolio."
https://chemicalwatch.com/64181/chemsec-adds-substance-to-sin-list
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America’s Emerging Petro Economy Flips the Impact of Oil
Feb 21, 2018 | Wall Street Journal
By Greg Ip
The effect of oil prices on the U.S. economy used to be straightforward: Higher was bad. Yet between 2014 and early 2016, as oil collapsed, growth slowed sharply. Since then oil has doubled, yet the economy has accelerated.
Credit this to the emergence of the U.S. as a leading oil producer and, soon, net energy exporter. More expensive oil is still a tax on consumers. But that tax is increasingly offset by the boost to energy investment, production and jobs. The U.S. business cycle is thus now tied in complex and surprising ways to the global oil market.
The rise in U.S. oil production, thanks to shale, is nothing short of spectacular. The federal Energy Information Administration projects that daily output, which was the highest since 1972 last year, will rise to a new record of 10.6 million barrels this year. BP PLC’s latest world energy outlook predicts the U.S. will account for 18% of world oil and related liquids output in a little over two decades, well ahead of second-place Saudi Arabia at 13%.
Even more consequential: The U.S. deficit in crude oil and refined products has shriveled to four million barrels a day last year from 12 million in 2007. The EIA predicts the U.S. will become a small net exporter by 2029, and if all other energy is included, in just four years.
The U.S. has plentiful reserves of “tight” oil—primarily brittle rock formations such as shale—that was unprofitable to extract until the adoption of seismic imaging, hydraulic fracturing of rock and horizontal drilling in the mid 2000s. It now accounts for more than half of U.S. crude output.
Oil’s share to U.S. gross domestic product, at 2.7%, is only marginally above its three-decade average and nowhere near as important as in true petrostates such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. But it plays an outsize role in year-to-year growth fluctuations because shale drillers, who don’t have to spend years looking for new deposits, respond so quickly to market conditions.The Petro-EconomyAs U.S. oil production and exports have soared, energy investment has become a driver of economic growth and factory shipments.
Indeed, a recent study by Richard Newell, president of the think tank Resources For the Future, and Brian Prest of Duke University finds shale output rises nine times as much as conventional output for a given price rise, for two reasons: More wells are drilled, and each well is far more productive. (That advantage declines over time, as shale wells are exhausted more quickly.)
Each new well drilled triggers related demand, from pumps and fabricated metal to truckers. The reverse is also true. Rob Martin, an economist at UBS , estimates that after oil prices tanked in 2014, collapsing energy investment wiped a full percentage point off growth in 2015 and nearly half a point in 2016. Then as oil prices recovered, energy investment contributed 0.6 points to last year’s 2.5% growth.
This is a sharp contrast to historic patterns. When oil prices plunged in 1998 because of the Asian financial crisis, U.S. growth got a boost. When they skyrocketed in 2008, it pummeled an economy already wilting from the mortgage crisis.
Mr. Martin also found oil has had a huge influence on manufacturing. By the end of 2015, near the nadir of prices, shipments of manufactured goods potentially tied to commodities such as fabricated metal products, construction machinery and heavy-duty trucks were down 12% from a year earlier. As oil activity recovered, they turned and by late last year were up 9%.
Not all of this was homegrown. American manufacturers also benefited from recovering activity in foreign oil producers. Nonetheless, it left an imprint on regional growth. From mid-2016 through the middle of last year, more than half the net U.S. jobs created in manufacturing were in Texas, home of the tight oil-rich Permian Basin, according to UBS.
Since mid-2017 that effect has moderated as the recovery in both business investment and factory jobs has spread beyond energy. Nonetheless, Mr. Martin predicts that energy investment will contribute a tenth of the 2.9% growth rate projected for the U.S. this year.
Many crosscutting forces will determine if oil continues to exercise the same influence over the business cycle. The decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to curb output a few weeks after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 was particularly advantageous to American producers, who benefited from both a higher price and an expanded market share. OPEC and Russia may not hold back as stronger global growth propels demand.
Shale producers are also dependent on fickle stock and bond markets to finance operations and the uncertain pace at which extraction technology improves. The recent surge in stock market volatility dragged down oil prices.
Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, a consulting firm, warns the last price bust depressed global oil investment while ensuring U.S. gasoline consumption will keep rising, contrary to the EIA’s prediction of an imminent peak. As global growth picks up, global oil supply will be slow to respond, which Mr. McNally said is a recipe for oil to top $100 per barrel and gasoline to hit $4 a gallon, with the usual pain for consumers and the broader economy.
So oil hasn’t lost its capacity to hurt. But its capacity to help will be an important and unpredictable force for at least a few years yet.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-emerging-petro-economy-flips-the-impact-of-oil-1519209000?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1
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Environmentalists Lost Big on LNG Exports. Now What?
Feb 21, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
After years of fever-pitched opposition to liquefied natural gas exports, the Sierra Club quietly pulled its last LNG lawsuit from federal court last month.
The withdrawal followed a series of losses in similar cases, a subdued end to environmentalists' chief legal campaign against shipping U.S. natural gas around the world. The Sierra Club considers LNG exports too risky for the climate, but federal judges repeatedly found that the government had sufficiently considered impacts.
Many in the natural gas industry are now breathing a sigh of relief, satisfied that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit spoke clearly on the climate issue and glad that the Sierra Club got the message.
But while environmentalists may have abandoned the specific approach used in the failed LNG challenges, they're positioning themselves for a second wave of combat that could prove every bit as bothersome to the industry and the Trump administration.
Put simply: "Sierra Club has not ceded the climate fight on LNG exports," said attorney Nathan Matthews, who led the group's LNG cases.
The next round of challenges to exports is bubbling up slowly — in comments on rulemaking dockets, grass-roots organizing in Texas and administrative protests in Oregon.
In each case, the Sierra Club or other groups could wind up back in the courtroom, opening a new chapter in the long legal debate and sparking fresh uncertainty for export projects.Defeats on defeats
Environmentalists' string of legal defeats on LNG exports began in mid-2016 and piled up quickly from there.
The D.C. Circuit that summer rejected a trio of challenges to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of various gas facilities, finding that FERC had no obligation to consider broad climate impacts of exports when the Department of Energy was the agency with control over whether to actually greenlight those shipments.
Sierra Club attorney Nathan Matthews.
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club duly shifted its focus to DOE, lodging five challenges that asked the court to force the agency to take a closer look at indirect effects of exports, including increased production and use of natural gas.
Last August, the court gave a firm answer: no.
In a case focused on an export application for the Freeport LNG facility in Texas, the D.C. Circuit ruled that DOE had adequately considered climate concerns in various review documents, including a broad life-cycle analysis of LNG's greenhouse gas emissions.
The court said the agency was not required to tailor the life-cycle review — which DOE completed in 2014 and relied upon to approve several other projects — to any particular volume of exports.
A few months later, three other cases fell like dominoes. The D.C. Circuit didn't even bother hearing oral argument on the challenges to exports from Corpus Christi, Texas; Sabine Pass, La.; or Cove Point, Md. It rejected all three in an unpublished four-page judgment that said the Freeport decision had already answered the primary legal questions.
The court had no appetite for environmentalists' continued argument that DOE's analysis of potential climate impacts fell short of its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Natural Gas Act, which requires the agency to make a public interest determination for exports to countries lacking a free-trade agreement with the United States.
Jessica Wentz, an attorney for Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said the decisions give DOE broad legal cover for future export approvals.
"We have the court basically saying DOE's analysis was sufficient because DOE had a report that it appended to the analysis saying, 'Here's the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions for a particular unit of natural gas as compared to coal and oil,' and that was sufficient for the review," she said. "That same report, it's relatively easy for DOE to just append that to any review it does for an LNG export terminal, at which point that satisfies the D.C. Circuit standard."
Indeed, DOE has relied on the 2014 life-cycle study for all of its export approvals since then and has not signaled any plans to change its practice.
Some LNG boosters say that means it's game over for the Sierra Club's climate challenges.
"I am hard-pressed from where I sit and my vantage point to see how there might be additional litigation from an environmental review standpoint on these facilities," said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas. "I think the precedent is there and set, and seeing the most recent withdrawal from Sierra Club I think is a pretty good indicator that they probably see it the same way."
Hunton & Williams LLP attorney Eric Hutchins agreed, saying the environmental group's January decision to pull the remaining lawsuit against DOE signaled that subsequent export approvals will likely be in the clear, at least for now.
"Sierra Club wouldn't withdraw litigation if it had options left to challenge DOE's export authorization analysis," he said. "A significant change in the export landscape could require DOE to revisit that analysis, but in the near term, we can expect more export projects to move forward."
'Dry hole'
So was the Sierra Club's strategy a miscalculation? That's a tough question for Matthews, who spent years working on the litigation.
"Obviously we remain convinced that we were right in those lawsuits, but maybe we would have had additional success had we done a different approach," he said.
Then again, he added, the group was and is certain that DOE's approach to climate analysis represented a systemic problem, so it's hard to imagine choosing any other plan of attack at the outset.
For example, the Sierra Club could have focused its briefs on site-specific impacts of LNG terminals and exports — issues it outlined in earlier legal documents — but, Matthews said, not "at the expense of our arguments about the systemic challenge."
"You only get 13,000 words in a brief, and that may sound like a lot ... but it is not enough to cover everything that we think is wrong with one of these proposals," he said. "So it's always a pick-your-battles, even though there's a much bigger picture in the background of every one of these fights."
Plus, he said, even without a court victory, the Sierra Club's advocacy at the FERC stage may have nudged DOE toward performing its life-cycle LNG study and additional environmental analysis in the first place.
"And although we remain convinced that those DOE materials fall far short of what NEPA requires when it comes to reviewing an individual proposal, it's still a lot better than what we were getting before," Matthews said.
Former Sierra Club climate attorney David Bookbinder also defended the group's tactics.
"They didn't put their eggs in one basket; they didn't even put their eggs in one legal basket," said Bookbinder, now chief counsel for the libertarian Niskanen Center. "That particular basket just didn't work out. I don't see any grounds to say, 'You shouldn't have done those cases.'
"They ran into some unfortunate decisions," he added, "and they're saying, 'OK, that's a dry hole; we're going to go drill elsewhere,' so to speak — to borrow a metaphor from the other side."Starve the system
It's not yet clear what other legal strategies might be most fruitful, but environmental lawyers are busy trying them out for the next wave of proposals.
In Oregon, for example, the Sierra Club has teamed up with regional environmental groups fighting the proposed Jordan Cove LNG terminal and a related pipeline.LNG lawsuits at the D.C. CircuitJUNE 2016D.C. Circuit rejects two environmental challenges to FERC authorization of LNG terminals at Sabine Pass, La., and Freeport, Texas.
The battle is still at the FERC stage: The commission in 2016 rejected developers' initial proposal, citing a lack of demonstrated market demand for the pipeline that would feed Jordan Cove, and Canadian backer Veresen Inc. reapplied last year.
In a formal protest filed in October, the Sierra Club and other groups focused on project needs, effects on landowners and impacts to jobs in the timber, fishing and tourism industries. Separate docket filings from the groups lay out the environmental case for FERC to look closely at site-specific impacts and regional effects of climate change.
If FERC approves the terminal, the groups will likely head to court. And if DOE then approves the actual exports, they'll oppose that, too.
Wentz of Columbia noted that many environmental groups are also zooming out from LNG exports and looking at the broader natural gas infrastructure network.
Indeed, they've gotten some more traction in their opposition to gas pipelines over the past year — most notably with a D.C. Circuit ruling that FERC failed to adequately consider indirect climate impacts of a pipeline project in the Southeast, which could be shut down as a result.
Activists' idea is to starve the system. The more expansive the infrastructure is, the easier it is to build LNG terminals; stopping the spread of pipelines dries up fuel sources for exports.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, one of the fiercest opponents of Dominion Energy Inc.'s Cove Point LNG export facility in Maryland, is at the forefront of that battle.
"Our goal all along was to prevent or keep at a low, low minimum the amount of gas that Cove Point ever exports," CCAN Director Mike Tidwell said. "The fight continues to adhere to that original goal, and that is to make sure that the export facility at Cove Point is a failed enterprise. We tried to trigger the failure through the regulatory process to keep it from being built and the legal process, and now we're on to the longer-term, multipronged movement."
Tidwell noted that the group is actively opposing multiple gas pipelines in the Mid-Atlantic region and successfully pushed for a ban on hydraulic fracturing in Maryland. CCAN is also supporting state-level legislation that would tackle methane leakage from existing pipelines.
It's a roundabout way of fighting LNG exports, but the approach more directly addresses environmentalists' complaints about the upstream climate impacts. Critics concerned about indirect climate effects of exports generally focus on two areas: emissions of methane from increased gas production to feed facilities, and emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the ultimate combustion of natural gas for energy.
And the pipeline fight isn't just about the climate. Instead, groups across the country are layering on concerns about localized impacts, environmental justice and property rights.
"Whereas for a few years, our LNG work was really picking climate as the field to fight on, we're now having a much broader approach in challenging gas infrastructure," Matthews said.Back to the D.C. Circuit?
LNG exports may land squarely before the D.C. Circuit again, too.
While some in the industry have argued that the door is closed for environmental groups to challenge DOE's climate analysis, the Sierra Club still sees windows for legal action.
Matthews noted that any challenge to LNG export approvals would be based on the specific record DOE had before it at the time of a decision, meaning that improved attribution tools or evolving research modeling climate impacts and gas markets could expand the agency's analysis obligations.
"So clearly it's possible that we could go back to the Department of Energy and say, 'The D.C. Circuit upheld what you did before, but now you can do better and there's no excuse not to,'" Matthews said.
"That's one truism of how agency litigation goes," he said. "It's always based on, 'Did the agency do an acceptable job based on what it had before it?' And science and other tools are always advancing."
That makes DOE's LNG life-cycle analysis a clear target, said Wentz. Export opponents could, for instance, try to poke holes in the study's conclusions or assumptions by gathering persuasive research that U.S. LNG actually displaces renewable energy elsewhere, undermining climate benefits from the cleaner-burning nature of gas over coal.
New, higher estimates of the level of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the combustion of fuels would also be useful for environmentalists challenging future projects, she said.
"If you have new research that clearly contradicts the conclusions that were in the DOE LNG export study that it included in its NEPA reviews for these export terminals, then you certainly could have a challenge for a subsequent review where DOE includes that same report," she said.
Further, Matthews said, the court's 2017 Freeport opinion — the basis for all of its recent LNG decisions — can be read narrowly. The court rejected the environmental group's calls for enhanced agency analysis of particular indirect impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, but it didn't weigh in on a couple of other Sierra Club concerns.
First, the D.C. Circuit did not address the propriety of DOE using non-NEPA documents like the life-cycle study and an environmental addendum to support its export approval. Further, the court did not decide whether the government unlawfully segmented its review, failing to weigh the true scope of impacts from the collection of export applications. The court wrote that those particular issues were not squarely raised by the petitioners.
"So there's no precedent in the D.C. Circuit or anywhere else holding that that's necessarily lawful," Matthews said. "So while we remain disappointed by the D.C. Circuit's opinions, I think it's important to remember that those decisions were fairly caveated and narrow."
Indeed, the Sierra Club and its local partners are already pushing those issues in opposition to LNG proposals in Brownsville, Texas, and the Jordan Cove project in Oregon.
'Holding pattern'
Bookbinder, the Niskanen attorney, cautioned that the environmental community's safest bet for increased climate analysis on exports may simply be to wait for a more favorable White House.
"For the next three years, I think we're in a holding pattern," he said. "They're not going to get much good out of FERC or DOE. I think they're going to have to now wait until there's a better administration that takes the emissions question a lot more seriously and one that takes the life-cycle emissions of LNG more seriously."
The industry, conversely, is looking to capitalize on the Trump administration's "energy dominance" agenda by advocating for a more streamlined DOE approval process.
"There's an argument to be made based on what we know about supply that you could essentially treat all exports as 'in the good of the public interest,'" said Riedl, the Center for LNG director.
In other words, the center thinks exports to countries without free-trade agreements with the United States — "non-FTA countries" — could skip the in-depth review process and instead receive the routine approval granted for shipments to free-trade partners.
Though it's not clear the administration is actually considering streamlining for the types of large-volume export proposals at issue in the recent D.C. Circuit cases, DOE is working on a rule to expedite permitting for small-scale exports to non-FTA countries.
Riedl says he's confident both small- and large-scale reforms would withstand legal scrutiny.
As for the Sierra Club? It sees another potential battleground.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/02/21/stories/1060074305
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DOE's Walker Plugs North American Energy Model
Feb 21, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Rod Kuckro
Building a robust model of North America's energy infrastructure will help industry players and regulators "understand the interdependencies of the different energy systems," said Bruce Walker, the Department of Energy's assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability.
It will also help ensure the resilience and reliability of the grid, Walker said, delivering on a policy focus of the Trump administration.
The model would use digital technology to understand how physics, market information and engineering data interact and affect energy delivery across complex regional systems of privately held North American transmission grids. That doesn't currently exist.
Walker had raised the potential benefits of such a model during a Senate hearing last month. Construction of a model will require collaboration with Canada and Mexico, as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. and DOE's national laboratories, among others, he said during an appearance before DOE's Electricity Advisory Committee in Arlington, Va.
An important issue now, Walker said, is the electric system's reliance on natural gas — and its continental pipeline system — for power generation.
The model — which will take years to develop — will help identify "what are the critical components within our system that are single points of failure" and understand "the impact from an operating perspective of facilities that come offline," Walker said.
The reliance on gas "effectively doubles the amount of infrastructure that we need to protect in order to ensure the resilience and reliability of the electric transmission systems," he said.
The model would help companies and regulators make well-informed decisions around grid capital investments, operation and maintenance decisions, and physical and cyber security investments, he said.
Walker said the department's other goals include identifying near-term strategies to protect the grid's most critical assets from physical and cyber attacks; building resilience into the overall design of the future grid using hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as test beds; and developing megawatt-scale electricity storage to support reactive and real power flow.
The Electricity Advisory Committee meeting continues today with an address by FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/02/21/stories/1060074349
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Senators Applaud Grant Funding Being Made Available for Positive Train Control Implementation
Feb 21, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Aaron Martin
After raising concerns about implementation of positive train control (PTC) on freight and passenger rail, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jack Reed (D-RI) applauded the U.S. Department of Transportation’s recent announcement that $73 million in grant funding would be made available.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the senators noted that the deadline for PTC was approaching at the end of the year and that it’s “imperative” for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to make grant funding available for railroads to complete the “technically challenging safety upgrade.”
The letter noted that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 allocated $218 million for FRA Safety and Operations and that Congress allocated an additional $68 million for Consolidated Railroad Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) grants in fiscal year 2017.
In applauding FRA’s announcement that applications would be accepted for $73 million in grant funding for intercity passenger rail initiatives, Collins and Reed said “these funds are an important resource for bolstering the safety of our nation’s railways.”
“There is simply no time to waste when it comes to ensuring that railway accidents like the ones we’ve seen in recent months are prevented, that Positive Train Control is implemented, and that Americans can feel safe when traveling by train.” the senators said in a joint statement. “We are proud to have joined our colleagues in the House in providing this funding last May and urging Secretary Chao to speed its release. We’re glad to see progress finally being made.”
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/8253-senators-applaud-grant-funding-made-available-positive-train-control-implementation/
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Amid a Flood of Plastic, Big Companies Try to Clean Up Image
Feb 21, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
Once a month, accountant Michael Byrne pulls on his rubber boots and makes his way to a spot on the banks of the River Thames.
He carefully marks out a one-square meter (11-square foot) patch and, with gloved hands, catalogues each bit of plastic he finds, meticulously reporting the data to the environmental group Thames21. On Aug. 20, for example, he and other volunteers found an average of 31 food wrappers, the sticks from 29 cotton swabs, 12 bottle tops and about 100 pieces of small chewed up plastic in each patch.
"We are the data gatherers" who provide evidence of the plastic that's clogging the world's rivers and oceans, he said. "We are building up a picture all along the river of what is washing up."
Public awareness of the problem of plastic waste is swelling after alarming forecasts that there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. Plus the shocking images are rolling in: Britain's Sky News' campaign against ocean plastic featuring whales bloated by plastic bags; National Geographic's chilling picture of a seahorse curled around a pink cotton swab, and filmmaker David Attenborough's documentary "Blue Planet II" footage of sea turtles shrouded in plastic.
And where consumers' attention goes, so does that of companies.
In the last few months, Amcor, Ecover, Evian, L'Oréal, Mars, M&S, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Walmart and Werner & Mertz - which together use more than 6 million metric tons of plastic packaging per year — have committed to using only reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an innovation think-tank.
Adidas, meanwhile, is making a line of clothing from recycled plastic bottles and promoting the products with an online video underscoring the health threat to humans of ingesting plastic particles found in fish. Negozio Leggero, a high-end food store in Italy and Switzerland, features 1,500 package-free products. British supermarket chain Iceland is planning to remove all plastic packaging from its own-brand products by 2023.
"Some of the companies that might have been seen as the worst offenders are the ones moving forward," said Abigail Entwistle of Fauna & Flora International, a 115-year-old conservation organization. "They have the most to lose."
These are the companies, after all, that have profited from a business model that wraps everything from spring water to cleaning products in plastic packaging that is used once and thrown away.
Global plastic production increased to 380 million metric tons (418 million tons) in 2015 from 2 million metric tons in 1950, according to research by Roland Geyer, a professor of industrial ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
About 60 percent of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic produced throughout history has ended up as waste, with more than three-fourths of that going into landfills or the natural environment, Geyer estimates. In 2010 alone, between 4 million and 12 million metric tons of plastic entered the marine environment.
The material kills and maims wildlife and makes its way into the food chain.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation highlighted the issue last year in a report that said the weight of plastic in the oceans would equal that of fish by 2050 if current trends continue. Only 14 percent of plastic packaging is currently collected for recycling, according to the foundation, which works with companies like Google, Nike and Danone. Action is needed on multiple fronts, it says.
"It's not about one innovation, one regulation, one action. We need all of them at the same time." Rob Opsomer, who leads the foundation's New Plastics Economy project. "We need to have more and bolder ambitions."
Market research group Mintel says we may eventually see "social stigmatization" of plastic cups and cling film, with firms developing soluble packaging and more retailers shunning products encased in plastic.
"There is money to be made, but more importantly there's money to be lost," said Ben Punchard, global packaging analyst at Mintel. "It is being used as a virtue signal. It's showing you are doing the right thing."
Governments and other institutions have also begun to focus on the issue.
The EU has set a provisional target to recycle 65 percent of urban waste by 2035. Britain last year outlawed the use of plastic microbeads, and the government says it will consider taxes on single-use plastic as part of an effort to eliminate all "avoidable plastic waste" within 25 years. The Church of England suggested its members reduce their plastic use for Lent.
Geyer says initiatives are nice, but recycling and reuse campaigns have done little to stem the tide of plastic pollution over the past 30 years. He believes society needs to contain its rising demand for plastic as companies and governments pursue ever-increasing growth. Oceans are simply "collateral damage" in the consumer economy, he said.
"That's how we build our lives, that's how we consume, that's how the economy is set up now," he said. "On the one hand, everyone says this is terrible, we have to stop it. On the other hand, everyone gets terribly upset if the economy doesn't grow by 3 percent. Honestly, I think we can't have our cake and eat it, and that's what we're trying to do here, I think."
That's not stopping people like Byrne from trying to spread the word.
The accountant has 60 sets of rubber boots to loan to anyone who joins him on the banks of the Thames. He gives everyone a safety briefing, and there's a promise of an afternoon at the pub after the cold and often grueling work of trash counting and pickup.
"We have a problem with plastic," he said. "Everyone knows that, but let me say it again — we have a problem with plastic. We have to do something."
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/02/21/world/europe/ap-ocean-plastic-business.html
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