Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 2/26/2017
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Oversight Hearing, “Liquefied Natural Gas and U.S. Geopolitics"
Feb 27, 2018 | House Natural Resources Committee
Location : 1324 Longworth / 2:00 PM -
The Administration’s Framework for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America
Mar 1, 2018 | Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Location : 406 Dirksen / 10:00 AM -
State of the Nation’s Energy Infrastructure
Feb 27, 2018 | House Energy and Commerce Committee
Location: 2123 Rayburn / 10:00 AM -
Full Committee Hearing to Examine Cybersecurity in our Nation's Critical Energy Infrastructure
Mar 1, 2018 | Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Location: 366 Dirksen / 10:00 AM -
(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Specialty Chemical Markets Start Year on Slower Note, ACC Says
Feb 23, 2018 | Chemical Engineering Online
By Scott Jenkins
The American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) reported today that U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes gained 0.1 percent in January, following a 0.8 percent gain in December. All changes in the data are reported on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. -
(ACC Mentioned) US Group Wants to Eliminate EPS Cups Worldwide by 2020 / ACC Says PS Foam Performs Well and Can Be Recycled
Feb 26, 2018 | PlastEurope
US-based coffee and baked goods supplier Dunkin’ Donuts, part of the Dunkin' Brands Group (Canton, Massachusetts; www.dunkinbrands.com), has announced plans to replace PS foam cups with double-walled paper cups across its global supply chain from 2020. -
(ACC Mentioned) Most in Survey See U.S. Fiscal Policy as Too Aggressive
Feb 26, 2018 | AP (In The Washington Post)
A majority of business economists now view the government’s tax and spending policy as moving too aggressively to stimulate economic growth, setting up a potential increase in the deficit in the coming years, a new survey shows. -
(ACC Mentioned) Warren Buffett’s Windfall: Berkshire Hathaway Got 29 Billion from Tax Reform
Feb 24, 2018 | Politico
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and Daniel Lippman
...THE AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL dropped $1.6 million on TV ads supporting Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)... -
(ACC Mentioned) Bisphenol A Has Minimal Health Effects, FDA Says
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sara Merken
Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastic bottles and food packaging, has minimal adverse effects on health, according to new FDA research. -
(ACC Mentioned) BPA Review Supports FDA Position on Safety
Feb 26, 2018 | Food Quality News
By Joseph James Whitworth
A long-awaited study on bisphenol A (BPA) has pointed towards ‘minimal effects’ and provided support to current US regulations... -
More Time to Review Chemical Rule, But Data Missing, Group Says (1)
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Oilfield companies, workers, and other groups will get almost two more weeks to comment on a proposed EPA rule allowing some additional yet restricted uses of an anti-corrosive chemical. -
Food Boxes, Lead Batteries Targets of California Safe Products Push
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
Takeout food containers and lead-acid batteries could be added to California's list of products the state deems potentially harmful to public health and the environment. -
Member States Back Authorisation Applications for Chromate Uses
Feb 26, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
EU member states have approved applications for uses of chromium trioxide, sodium dichromate and potassium dichromate, which are listed as SVHCs under REACH Annex XIV. -
Second Judge Says Trump Can't Keep Stalling Clean-Air Rules
Feb 26, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
By Matthew Brown
A second judge has told the Trump administration it can't keep stalling clean-air rules for oil and gas production on federal lands. -
Walker: Alaska Can Do 'Both' Oil Drilling, Addressing Climate Change
Feb 23, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anthony Adragna
Alaska can continue to pursue oil and gas development while taking steps to minimize the impacts of climate change on the state, independent Gov. Bill Walker said at POLITICO's Eighth Annual State Solutions conference today. -
Ethane Consumption Surges with Petrochemcial Boom
Feb 26, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By Katherine Blunt
The U.S. Department of Energy projects that domestic growth in ethane consumption in the burgeoning petrochemicals industry will surpass that of all other petroleum and liquid products combined over the next two years. -
(ACC Mentioned) In Likely First, EPA Proposes Site With Subsurface Intrusion to NPL
Feb 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
EPA is proposing to list a contaminated site to Superfund's National Priorities List (NPL) based on subsurface intrusion in what is believed to be the agency's first-time use of a 2017 rule that allows it to list a site solely because of the presence of subsurface intrusion in occupied structures. -
Members to Check up on Grid Cyberdefense
Feb 26, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Blake Sobczak
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a hearing Thursday is set to review energy sector efforts to fend off hackers. -
6 Lawmakers to Watch as Push Gets Underway
Feb 26, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk
When President Trump unveiled his long-awaited infrastructure plan earlier this month, it prompted a mixed bag of reactions. -
Rebuild U.S. Infrastructure with American Metals and Minerals
Feb 26, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Tom Madison
The recently-enacted budget deal between the White House and Congress may signal a new willingness for bipartisan compromise in Washington. If so, no issue is more deserving or more perfectly poised for immediate action than investing in America’s crumbling infrastructure. -
Trump Reaffirms U.S. Will Stay Out of Paris Climate Agreement
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Kim Chipman
The U.S. rejoining an international agreement to act on climate change is “not going to happen,” President Donald Trump said in a Feb. 23 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. -
Connecticut, Maryland Say EPA's Air Pollution Transport Policy Inadequate
Feb 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
Connecticut, Maryland and the American Lung Association (ALA) are attacking EPA's policies to curb interstate transport of air pollution as inadequate, criticizing the agency's proposed rejection of Connecticut's petition seeking emission controls... -
D.C. Circuit Ozone Ruling Likely to Complicate, Delay States' Air Planning
Feb 23, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's recent ruling scrapping large parts of EPA's policy for revoking old ozone standards will complicate and delay states' efforts to craft plans for attaining the standards, sources say... -
Environmentalists Seek More Ozone Nonattainment Areas
Feb 23, 2018 | Inside EPA
Environmentalists are urging EPA to increase the number and size of areas the agency designates as being out of attainment with the 2015 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 70 parts per billion (ppb), which would trigger stricter ozone reduction... -
America’s Moral Obligation to the Environment
Feb 26, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Rep. Emanuel Cleaver
President Barack Obama revealed the Clean Power Plan to the world in 2015. Obama referred to the proposal as “a moral obligation” and rightfully labeled it "the single most important step that America has ever made in the fight against global climate change.”
Congressional Hearings
Industry and Association News
LCSA News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News
Environment News
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Oversight Hearing, “Liquefied Natural Gas and U.S. Geopolitics"
Feb 27, 2018 | House Natural Resources Committee
Mr. Peter Doran
President and CEO
Center for European Policy Analysis
Washington, DCMs. Meg Gentle
President and CEO
Tellurian, Inc.
Houston, TXMr. David Livingston
Deputy Director for Climate & Advanced Energy
Atlantic Council
Washington, D.C.Mr. Christopher Smith
Senior Vice President
Policy, Government and Public Affairs
Cheniere Energy, Inc.
Houston, TX -
The Administration’s Framework for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America
Mar 1, 2018 | Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
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State of the Nation’s Energy Infrastructure
Feb 27, 2018 | House Energy and Commerce Committee
WITNESSES
• Brian Slocum, Vice President of Operations, ITC Holdings Corporation;
• Jim Ross, Director, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers;
• Brenda Hellyer, Chancellor, San Jacinto College;
• John Devine, Senior Vice President, HDR Inc.;
• Jennifer Chen, Sustainable FERC Project Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council; and,
• Gary McCarthy, Mayor, City of Schenectady.
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Full Committee Hearing to Examine Cybersecurity in our Nation's Critical Energy Infrastructure
Mar 1, 2018 | Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Specialty Chemical Markets Start Year on Slower Note, ACC Says
Feb 23, 2018 | Chemical Engineering Online
By Scott Jenkins
The American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) reported today that U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes gained 0.1 percent in January, following a 0.8 percent gain in December. All changes in the data are reported on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis.
Weather may have played a role in the slow start to the year. Of the 28 specialty chemical segments monitored by ACC, twenty expanded in January and eight experienced decline. During January, large market volume gains (1.0 percent and over) occurred in catalysts, corrosion inhibitors electronic chemicals, lubricant additives, oilfield chemicals, plastic compounding, rubber processing chemicals, and water management chemicals.
The overall specialty chemicals volume index was up 5.3 percent on a year-over-year (Y/Y) 3MMA basis. The index stood at 111.0 percent of its average 2012 levels. This is equivalent to 7.65 billion pounds (3.47 million metric tons). On a year-over-year basis, there were gains among 24 market and functional specialty chemical segments. Compared to last year, volumes were down in only four segments.
Specialty chemicals are materials manufactured on the basis of the unique performance or function and provide a wide variety of effects on which many other sectors and end-use products rely. They can be individual molecules or mixtures of molecules, known as formulations. The physical and chemical characteristics of the single molecule or mixtures along with the composition of the mixtures influence the performance end product. Individual market sectors that rely on such products include automobile, aerospace, agriculture, cosmetics and food, among others.
Specialty chemicals differ from commodity chemicals. They may only have one or two uses, while commodities may have multiple or different applications for each chemical. Commodity chemicals make up most of the production volume in the global marketplace, while specialty chemicals make up most of the diversity in commerce at any given time, and are relatively high value with greater market growth rates.
These data are the only timely source of market trends for twenty-eight market and functional specialty chemical segments. Chemistry directly touches over ninety-six percent of all manufactured goods, and trends in these specialty chemical segments provide a detailed view of trends in manufacturing. The data also sheds light on how various consumer end-use markets are performing compared to others in the marketplace.
http://www.chemengonline.com/u-s-specialty-chemical-markets-start-year-on-slower-note-acc-says/?printmode=1
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Feb 26, 2018 | PlastEurope
US-based coffee and baked goods supplier Dunkin’ Donuts, part of the Dunkin' Brands Group (Canton, Massachusetts; www.dunkinbrands.com), has announced plans to replace PS foam cups with double-walled paper cups across its global supply chain from 2020. The company already uses double-walled paper cups in the majority of its international markets, but not in the US, where it will start phasing in the new cups in restaurants in New York City and California in spring 2018. Paper cups will then be rolled out across the US as supplier manufacturing capabilities ramp up. Dunkin’ Donuts will also work with franchisees in the remaining international markets to eliminate foam cups by the 2020 goal.
Karen Raskopf, chief communications and sustainability officer for Dunkin’ Brands said, “Transitioning away from foam has been a critical goal for Dunkin’ Donuts US, and with the double-walled cup, we will be able to offer a replacement that meets the needs and expectations of both our customers and the communities we serve.”
Dunkin’ Donuts will use the paper cups, which are made with paperboard certified to Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI, Washington, D.C. / USA and Ottawa, Ontario / Canada; www.sfiprogram.org) standards, for all its hot beverages. “With heat retention properties equal to the company’s foam cup, the new double-walled paper cup will keep beverages hot while keeping hands cool, without the need for a sleeve,” it stated.
The company said it expects the transition to paper cups to remove nearly 1bn EPS cups from the waste stream annually. It plans to explore additional opportunities to increase recycled or certified content for other consumer-facing packaging. The move follows a similar one by McDonald's to phase out its use of PS foam containers by the end of 2018 – see Plasteurope.com of 16.01.2018.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC, Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) responded by saying that plastics makers are working hard to grow access to foam recycling. “The fact is: PS foam can be – and is being – recycled in many communities, more so than many alternatives. Plus, PS foam performs remarkably well at keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold,” it said in a statement.
Dunkin’ Donuts said the move to paper cups complements its plans in the US to have 80% of fibre-based consumer packaging certified to SFI standards by the end of 2018. The company also intends to eliminate artificial dyes from its menu, build new, more energy-efficient restaurants, and partner with the Rainforest Alliance (New York City / USA and Amsterdam / The Netherlands; www.rainforest-alliance.org) to source certified coffee.https://www.plasteurope.com/news/DUNKIN_DONUTS_t239058/
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(ACC Mentioned) Most in Survey See U.S. Fiscal Policy as Too Aggressive
Feb 26, 2018 | AP (In The Washington Post)
A majority of business economists now view the government’s tax and spending policy as moving too aggressively to stimulate economic growth, setting up a potential increase in the deficit in the coming years, a new survey shows.
That view emerged from the latest economic policy survey by the National Association for Business Economics, polling 211 members at companies and industry groups. The survey by NABE, a professional association for business economists, academics and others who use economics in the workplace, was released Monday.
The 52 percent of economists who consider the government’s fiscal policy “too stimulative” compares with only 20 percent in August, in the previous economic policy survey. This time, 37 percent of respondents judged tax and spending policy as “about right,” down from 46 percent in August.
By contrast, the economists are more supportive of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy: more than 6 in 10 have pegged it as “about right.” That’s the highest percentage in eight years, according to NABE.
“Overall, the (survey) panel expects the deficit to grow as a percentage of the economy in the longer term,” NABE Vice President Kevin Swift, chief economist of the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement.
The NABE economists, reflecting the prevailing view of corporate America, continue to have a strong preference for more conservative fiscal policy in the long run.
The $1.5 trillion Republican tax-cutting legislation signed into law late last year, President Donald Trump’s signature accomplishment in the GOP-controlled Congress, provides steep cuts for corporations and wealthy Americans while offering more modest reductions for most low- and middle-income families and individuals. Coupled with a $400 billion bipartisan budget agreement enacted this month, it has raised the possibility of greater inflation. That could make the Fed more likely to tighten credit.
Experts have said, and the new Trump budget proposal acknowledges for the first time, that the massive tax overhaul likely will add billions to the deficit and not “pay for itself” with economic growth and higher revenues. The Trump federal spending plan unveiled in mid-February contains trillion-dollar deficits.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/most-in-survey-see-us-fiscal-policy-as-too-aggressive/2018/02/26/a1f3cb56-1ab2-11e8-98f5-ceecfa8741b6_story.html?utm_term=.e98ae0f167b4
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(ACC Mentioned) Warren Buffett’s Windfall: Berkshire Hathaway Got 29 Billion from Tax Reform
Feb 24, 2018 | Politico
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and Daniel Lippman
ALWAYS A FASCINATING READ -- WARREN BUFFETT’S ANNUAL LETTER -- TAX REFORM WORKED FOR BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY!: “The $65 billion gain is nonetheless real – rest assured of that. But only $36 billion came from Berkshire’s operations. The remaining $29 billion was delivered to us in December when Congress rewrote the U.S. Tax Code.” Read the entire letterhttp://bit.ly/2ooEgki
-- TURN TO PAGE 11 to learn about Buffett’s famous bet, in which an S&P index fund beat a hedge fund over 10 years.
Good Saturday morning. HOT DOC: TRUMP’S PET PROJECT -- “Trump directs Pentagon to schedule military parade for Veterans Day,” by Eliana Johnson: “President Donald Trump’s plans for a White House-backed military parade are beginning to take shape. The president has directed the Department of Defense to organize a parade that would take place on Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day -- according to an unclassified Feb. 20 memo written by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. The memo, which was summarized to POLITICO by a senior administration official, was sent from McMaster to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. It says that Trump wants Mattis to brief him on ‘concepts of operation for this event.’ The memo also said that the parade route should begin at the White House and end at the Capitol.” http://politi.co/2oqsJ40
-- ESTIMATES have pegged this parade at $30 million. What happened to the Republican Party that wanted to cut a dollar for each dollar the government spent?
THE FALL OF ERIC GREITENS … FRONT PAGE OF THE ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: “UNCERTAIN FUTURE: SPECIAL COMMITTEE EXPECTED TO INVESTIGATE GREITENS … Governor resigns from national leadership post … Process to begin as early as next week” http://bit.ly/2EQtCJm
THE LATEST IN FLORIDA …
-- WORTH A READ -- MIAMI HERALD: “‘Filled with rage’: How a scrawny misfit turned into Florida’s worst school shooter,” by Andres Viglucci, Nicholas Nehamas and Sarah Blaskey: “He was chronically depressed, beguiled by firearms and violence, an oddball ostracized by peers and prone to angry outbursts.
“He experienced, in rapid succession, blows of the sort that can send a disturbed, isolated young man hurtling into a spiral of instability: Forced to move out of his lifelong home, spurned by a girlfriend, bounced from school to school, then suddenly losing his mother, his closest companion, to a fatal illness.
“In the months before the teenage killer’s mugshot and name were splashed across the nation’s TV screens and newspaper front pages, he had posted messages online telegraphing his plans and told others about his deadly intentions -- warnings that police and federal agents, alerted by tipsters, did not heed.” http://hrld.us/2F3VblK
-- “FBI Tip-Line Caller Said Nikolas Cruz ‘Is Going to Explode,’” by WSJ’s Del Quentin Wilber: “A person close to the teenager accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school warned the FBI she was concerned he would ‘get into a school and just shoot the place up,’ according to a transcript of her call with a bureau tip line operator more than a month before the massacre. The transcript, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, provides chilling detail about the woman’s efforts on Jan. 5 to warn authorities about Nikolas Cruz’s propensity for violence and his troubled past. The caller’s identification was redacted from the transcript, but the tip-line operator called her ‘ma’am.’ ‘You know, it’s just so much,’ she said on the call. ‘I know he’s—he’s going to explode.’ She said she was making the call because she wanted a ‘clear conscience if he takes off and, and just starts shooting places up.’” http://on.wsj.com/2HFxwGS … Transcript of the call http://on.wsj.com/2CGogyz
THE MUELLER REPORT …
-- “New indictments revealed against Manafort after Gates pleads guilty,” by Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn: “Flanked by his defense attorney, Thomas Green, [Rick] Gates stood at a courtroom lectern and spoke in quick bursts as he answered U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman] Jackson’s questions about whether he understood the rights he was giving up and the possibility consequences of the plea. ‘Did you in fact lie to the special counsel’s office and the FBI on Feb. 1st of this year?’ Jackson asked. ‘Yes, your honor,’ Gates said, offering similar answers as the judge summarized the other charges he was admitting to. At the end of the lengthy back and forth, the judge asked Gates, bluntly: ‘What’s your decision?’ ‘Guilty, your honor,’ Gates replied. …
“At Friday’s hearing, Mueller prosecutors Greg Andres and Andrew Weissmann outlined the scope of the scheme Gates was admitting to. … In detailing the lobbying work that Manafort and Gates orchestrated for Ukraine, Weissmann offered the court some new details, alleging that Manafort was regularly in direct contact with the Ukrainian president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych. The prosecutor also said that in 2012 and 2013, Manafort and Gates ‘secretly retained’ a group of former European officials to cast Ukraine’s government in a favorable light, including by holding a series of meetings with U.S. lawmakers and executive branch officials.
“While the ex-officials posed as dispassionate observers, ‘in fact, they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine,’ Weissmann said. He said Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts to direct 2 million euros to pay the former officials, known as the Hapsburg Group. … After the session concluded on Friday, Weissmann crossed the courtroom and gave Gates a firm handshake. The men appeared to talk cordially, with Green also chiming in.” With cameos by Charlie Black, Barry Bennett, Mercedes Schlapp http://politi.co/2ERVzV6 … The new indictment against Manafort http://politi.co/2Fx549H
****** A message from Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs: Keep Medicare Part D working for seniors. CMS has proposed regulations that will increase costs and cause disruption for millions of seniors. Tell CMS: don’t make changes to popular preferred pharmacy network plans that will stick America’s seniors with higher premiums & drug costs. Learn more. ******
KUSHNER WATCH -- “Top Justice Dept. official alerted White House 2 weeks ago to ongoing issues in Kushner’s security clearance,” by WaPo’s Carol Leonnig, Bob Costa and Josh Dawsey: “A top Justice Department official alerted the White House two weeks ago that significant information requiring additional investigation would further delay the security clearance process of senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to three people familiar with the discussion.
“The Feb. 9 phone call from Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to White House Counsel Donald McGahn came amid growing public scrutiny of a number of administration officials without final security clearances. ... A week after the call from Rosenstein, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly announced that staffers whose clearances have not been finalized will no longer be able to view top-secret information — meaning that Kushner stood to lose his status as early as Friday.” http://wapo.st/2EOfZi7
BERNIE IN HOT WATER -- “Sanders promoted false story on reporting Russian trolls,” by Isaac Dovere with Daniel Lippman: “Bernie Sanders is taking credit for action to combat the Russian incursion into the 2016 election that he didn’t have anything to do with — and didn’t actually happen. Twice this week, in response to questions about whether he benefited from the Russian effort, as prosecutors allege, or did enough to stop it, Sanders said a staffer passed information to Hillary Clinton’s aides about a suspected Russian troll operation.
“It turns out that the purported Sanders’ staffer who said he tried to sound the alarm was a campaign volunteer who acted on his own, without any contact or direction from the Vermont senator or his staff. When the volunteer, John Mattes of San Diego, said he communicated with the Clinton campaign in local press accounts, he was confusing it for a super PAC supportive of Clinton. He also doesn’t know why Sanders is taking all the credit. ‘I’m going to send him a bill for my back pay,’ Mattes joked. ‘He could have called me,’ Mattes added. ‘He maybe doesn’t have my phone number.’
“Mattes’ claims, made in two phone interviews with POLITICO, came after Sanders and staffers offered numerous and conflicting answers in the span of a few hours on Wednesday about what he did about Russian meddling. Sanders and his top aide were at turns defiant and defensive during and after his interview with a Vermont radio station, even initially disputing special counsel Robert Mueller’s finding in his indictment last week that the Russians backed his campaign.” http://politi.co/2BNv1Sj
-- ERIC GELLER: “Russia fears have election vendors feeling the heat”: “The furor over fake news and Russian bots is overshadowing another weak link in the security of U.S. elections — the computer equipment and software that do everything from store voters’ data to record the votes themselves. Now the voting vendor industry is receiving increased attention from Congress and facing the prospect of new regulations, after more than a decade of warnings from cybersecurity researchers and recent revelations about the extent of Russian intrusions in 2016. …
“‘This industry is basically laying out a path to trouble,’ said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a leading congressional voice on cybersecurity who has tried — and largely failed — to get answers from voting technology vendors about their ability to secure their products. ‘You’ve got several of the biggest companies [that] won’t answer questions — basic questions — about if and how they’re securing their own computers and the voting machines that they sell to states,’ he told POLITICO.” http://politi.co/2CGROMm
FOR YOUR RADAR -- “U.S. prepares high-seas crackdown on North Korea sanctions evaders – sources,” by Reuters’ Matt Spetalnick, Phil Stewart, and David Brunnstrom: “The Trump administration and key Asian allies are preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating sanctions on North Korea, a plan that could include deploying U.S. Coast Guard forces to stop and search vessels in Asia-Pacific waters, senior U.S. officials said. Washington has been talking to regional partners, including Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore, about coordinating a stepped-up crackdown that would go further than ever before in an attempt to squeeze Pyongyang’s use of seagoing trade to feed its nuclear missile program, several officials told Reuters.” http://reut.rs/2sQQVkS
WASHINGTON INC. -- “‘This is not normal’: Glitches mar new tax law: Republicans want to make fixes, but Democrats aren’t rushing to help them,” by Brian Faler: “The glitches in the new tax law are starting to pile up. One inadvertently denies restaurants, retailers and others generous new write-offs for things like remodeling. Another would allow wealthy money managers to sidestep a crackdown on lucrative tax break that allows them pay lower taxes on some of their income than ordinary wage earners. A third creates two different start dates for new rules that make it harder for businesses to shave their tax bills. There are dozens of other snafus, hitting everything from real estate investments to multinational corporations to farmers.” http://politi.co/2EZPp4K
GEORGE W. BUSH in the WSJ -- “How Billy Graham Changed My Life: “I met him in 1985. His care and his teachings began my faith walk—and helped me quit drinking”: http://on.wsj.com/2F3rlxR
THE JUICE …
-- SPOTTED: JOHN BOEHNER last night smoking a cigarette outside Trattoria Alberto in Barracks Row. “He held the door open for two men who were walking in and said: ‘I’m just out here, smoking a cigarette’ and laughed,” per a tipster.
-- THE AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL dropped $1.6 million on TV ads supporting Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)...
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2018/02/24/warren-buffetts-windfall-berkshire-hathaway-got-29-billion-from-tax-reform-251285
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(ACC Mentioned) Bisphenol A Has Minimal Health Effects, FDA Says
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sara Merken
Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastic bottles and food packaging, has minimal adverse effects on health, according to new FDA research.
Data show “few significant effects of BPA treatment” on rats in a federal study of chronic toxicity, according to a draft report released Feb. 23 by the Food and Drug Administration.
Global researchers and regulators have focused on the chemical in recent years because many consumer products containing bisphenol A come into contact with food.
The FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research conducted the study as part of ongoing research on potential negative health effects of the chemical with the National Toxicology Program and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Studies from NIEHS-funded academic researchers were not used to develop the FDA's data.
Long-Debated
Scientists, regulators, and academics have debated the safety of BPA for years, and hundreds of studies have produced conflicting or inconclusive results.
The new results are consistent with the FDA's previous findings that low levels of BPA are safe, but federal agencies and advocates cautioned that the conclusions from the study do not yet include ongoing research at universities.
The agencies in the past have had different views on the safety of bisphenol A. The FDA has said that levels of BPA found in food that leaches from plastic containers is safe, while some scientists and health advocates have been concerned with possible hormonal effects from exposure to the chemical, which is also used in flexible hospital tubing.
There has historically been a “wide disconnect between the findings from academic research studies and findings from traditional guideline studies,” John Bucher, senior scientist with the National Toxicology Program, told Bloomberg Environment.
The goal of the research program is to see if the agencies and researchers can reach similar conclusions, so “we really just have to wait and see whether there are important findings that come out of more innovative design studies” from the ongoing research, he said.
Additional findings from academic researchers are expected in 2019. The draft report will be peer-reviewed at a meeting scheduled for April 26 at NIEHS headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Will Controversy Quiet Down?
“Our initial review supports our determination that currently authorized uses of BPA continue to be safe for consumers,” Stephen Ostroff, the FDA's deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said in a statement.
The report does identify areas for further research though, including an increase in mammary gland tumors in one of the rodent groups in the study, he said.
Chemical and manufacturing industry groups have typically pointed to FDA findings to emphasize the safety of bisphenol A. Between 1 billion and 5 billion pounds of BPA were produced in or imported into the U.S. in 2015, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This study is the largest study ever conducted on BPA, and the results indicate that BPA has very little potential to cause health effects even when people are exposed to it throughout their lives,” Steven Hentges, director of the American Chemistry Council's Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group, said in a statement.
“We now look forward to updated safety conclusions from regulatory authorities worldwide who have been awaiting the study results,” he said.
In contrast, health advocates like the Breast Cancer Fund and the Endocrine Society have said that the chemical may interfere with the production and function of hormones, and could contribute to infertility, breast cancer, and behavioral changes in children, among other problems.
Several states—including California, Vermont, and New York—have passed bans on bisphenol A in products like baby bottles and reusable food and beverage containers.
Other countries have similar bans, and the European Union set new regulations Feb. 21 that restrict BPA that comes into contact with food and prohibits the chemical in certain drinking cups and bottles.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128760409&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128760409&jd=128760409
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(ACC Mentioned) BPA Review Supports FDA Position on Safety
Feb 26, 2018 | Food Quality News
By Joseph James Whitworth
A long-awaited study on bisphenol A (BPA) has pointed towards ‘minimal effects’ and provided support to current US regulations...
..The American Chemistry Council (ACC) said results 'strongly support' the safety of BPA. “The results of the CLARITY Core study once again demonstrate that BPA is safe at the very low levels to which people are typically exposed,” said Steven G. Hentges, Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the ACC...
§ Access to full text unavailable – subscription required.
Story can be found here: https://www.foodqualitynews.com/Article/2018/02/26/NTP-draft-report-on-potential-health-effects-of-BPA
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More Time to Review Chemical Rule, But Data Missing, Group Says (1)
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Oilfield companies, workers, and other groups will get almost two more weeks to comment on a proposed EPA rule allowing some additional yet restricted uses of an anti-corrosive chemical.
The additional time is better than nothing, but critical information the Environmental Protection Agency has and should release remains missing from the rulemaking docket, Richard Denison, lead senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), told Bloomberg Environment.
The EPA released an advance notice Feb. 23 that extends the public comment period for a proposed chemical rule that would allow some limited new uses of a chemical despite concerns that it could increase the risk of cancer and harm the neurological system and human development. Comments, which were due Feb. 23, now may be submitted until March 12.
The extra days and additional information the agency provided remain woefully inadequate for interested parties to understand the scientific information that prompted the agency's rule, Denison said.
The EDF, which asked the EPA for more time and information, said its request was backed by the Administrative Procedure Act and administrative practices recommended by the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent federal agency that recommends improvements to federal procedures and processes.
The EPA already gave permission to Schulke Inc. to use the chemical 3,3′-methylenebis[5-methyloxazolidine] (Chemical Abstracts Service No. 66204-44-22) as an anti-corrosive agent in oilfield operations and hydraulic fluids. The EPA did so because Schulke signed an enforceable order requiring it to protect workers and take other precautions with the chemical.
In addition, the EPA's rulemaking docket showed Schulke provided the agency information that said the anti-corrosive chemical may be less hazardous than the triazine-based compounds for which it could substitute.
The EPA's proposed rule (RIN:2070–AB27) would apply the same worker safety and other restrictions to companies making or using 3,3′-methylenebis[5-methyloxazolidine]. The absence of such worker protections constitutes a “new use” of the chemical that the EPA must review, according to the agency.
Two critical documents remain missing from the materials the EPA has posted and should be public because they involve health and safety information the agency reviewed, Denison said.
He referred to an acute inhalation study and monitoring studies of formaldehyde released in specific industrial settings.
Schulke's consent order says those studies were submitted to the agency. Health and safety studies may not be protected as confidential business information under TSCA, according to the EPA.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128760404&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128760404&jd=128760404
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Food Boxes, Lead Batteries Targets of California Safe Products Push
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
Takeout food containers and lead-acid batteries could be added to California's list of products the state deems potentially harmful to public health and the environment.
At a Feb. 26, workshop the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control will go over its latest plan for why chemicals used in food packaging materials, lead batteries, and five other types of products should be candidates for evaluation under the Safer Consumer Products Program.
If a product is identified as a priority under the program, manufacturers could be required to make it safer or stop selling it in California.
Other products included in the latest plan are skin cleansers, sunscreens, and other personal care products; household, school, and workplace furnishings; certain building products and materials; and consumable office, school, and business supplies.
The listed products contain bisphenol A, phthalates, formaldehyde, styrene, lead, and other chemicals linked to adverse health effects and environmental harm.
Absent from the draft 2018-2020 work plan in this version are clothing products and fishing and angling equipment like lead sinkers. State officials said those two categories would be considered later.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128760402&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128760402&jd=128760402
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Member States Back Authorisation Applications for Chromate Uses
Feb 26, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
EU member states have approved applications for uses of chromium trioxide, sodium dichromate and potassium dichromate, which are listed as SVHCs under REACH Annex XIV.
At the REACH Committee meeting on 21 February, they granted the following companies authorisation for conditional uses of chromium trioxide:
· Safran Aircraft Engines: industrial use of a chromium trioxide-based surface treatment mixture applied on safety-critical rotating components of commercial and military aircraft engines, whose failure endangers airworthiness. The recommended review period expires on 21 September 2027;
· MTU Aero Engines: functional chrome plating for aerospace applications for civil and military uses, comprising coating of new components for aircraft engines, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul work on aircraft engine components; and surface treatment for aerospace applications for civil and military uses, comprising treatment of new components for aircraft engines and maintenance, repair and overhaul work on aircraft engine components unrelated to functional chrome plating. The recommended review period ends on 21 September 2029;
· Souriau: industrial use of a mixture containing chromium trioxide for the etching of composite connectors used by industries subject to harsh environments to ensure adhesive deposit to meet requirements of international standards. The review period will expire on 21 September 2021;
· Souriau, Amphenol Limited, Amphenol Socapex, ITT Cannon and Tyco Electronics UK: industrial use of a mixture containing chromium trioxide in conversion coating and passivation of circular and rectangular connectors in order to meet international standards requirements and special requirements of industries subject to harsh environments. The recommended review period ends on 21 September 2024; and
· Souriau, Amphenol Limited, Amphenol Socapex, ITT Cannon, Connecteurs Electriques Deutsch and Tyco Electronics UK: industrial use of a mixture containing chromium trioxide for the conversion of cadmium-coated circular and rectangular connectors in order to achieve a higher level of performances than the requirements of international standards, as well as to withstand harsh environments and high safety applications. These include military, aeronautic, aerospace, mining, offshore and nuclear industries or for the application in safety devices for road vehicles, rolling stock and vessels. The review period expires on 21 September 2029.
Sodium dichromate
Member states also agreed to authorise applications for the following uses of sodium dichromate:
· Souriau and Tyco Electronics UK: industrial use of a mixture containing sodium dichromate for the conversion of cadmium-coated circular and rectangular connectors in order to achieve a higher level of performances than international standards requirements, as well as to withstand harsh environments and high safety applications. These include those in the military, aeronautic, aerospace, mining, offshore and nuclear industries or for the application in safety devices for road vehicles, rolling stock and vessels. The recommended review period ends on 21 September 2029; and
· Souriau, Amphenol Limited and Amphenol Socapex: industrial use of a mixture containing sodium dichromate in conversion coating and passivation of circular and rectangular connectors in order to meet the requirements of international standards and special requirements of industries subject to harsh environments. The recommended review period expires on 21 September 2024.
Potassium dichromate
And they backed the following applications to use potassium dichromate:
· Connecteurs Electriques Deutsch and Tyco Electronics UK: industrial use of a mixture containing potassium dichromate to convert cadmium-coated circular and rectangular connectors in order to achieve a higher level of performances than the requirements of international standards, as well as to withstand harsh environments and high safety applications. These include those in the military, aeronautic, aerospace, mining, offshore and nuclear industries or for the application in safety devices for road vehicles, rolling stock and vessels. The review period ends on 21 September 2029; and
· Connecteurs Electriques Deutsch: industrial use of a mixture containing potassium dichromate in conversion coating and passivation of circular and rectangular connectors in order to meet the international standards requirements and special requirements of industries subject to harsh environments. The review period expires on 21 September 2024.
https://chemicalwatch.com/64332/member-states-back-authorisation-applications-for-chromate-uses
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Second Judge Says Trump Can't Keep Stalling Clean-Air Rules
Feb 26, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
By Matthew Brown
A second judge has told the Trump administration it can't keep stalling clean-air rules for oil and gas production on federal lands.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California ordered the Interior Department to reinstate the Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions. Orrick said late Thursday the administration's delay is "untethered to evidence" and likely to cause "irreparable injury" to California, New Mexico and other states from increased air pollution and negative impacts on public health and the climate.
The ruling marked the second time a federal judge has rebuffed the Trump administration for failing to enforce the methane rule. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte rejected an earlier effort by Interior to postpone part of the rule and ordered the Obama rule reinstated in October. Laporte serves on the same court, which is based in San Francisco.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told The Associated Press Friday that officials will carefully review the judge's 29-page ruling.
Federal rules "are not intended to be adversarial" to the industry, Zinke said, adding that the Obama-era rule "penalizes oil and gas," while the Trump administration wants to encourage the industry to voluntarily find ways to capture and re-use methane.Continue reading the main story
The rule forced energy companies to capture methane that's burned off or "flared" at drilling sites because it pollutes the environment. Many companies consider the rule unnecessary and overly intrusive, but environmental groups warn that methane emissions from oil and gas operations are the second largest industrial contributor to climate change in the United States. Methane is far more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide but does not stay in the air as long.
The Interior Department said earlier this month it is replacing the Obama-era rule with requirements similar to those in force before the Obama administration changed the regulation in 2016.
Interior had previously announced it was delaying the Obama-era rule until January 2019, arguing that it was overly burdensome to industry. Officials at the time said the delay would give the federal Bureau of Land Management time to review the earlier rule while avoiding tens of millions of dollars in compliance costs to industry.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is frequently wasted through leaks or intentional releases during drilling operations. An estimated $330 million a year in methane is wasted on federal lands, enough to power about 5 million homes a year.
Methane pollution also poses a risk to public health, especially to those who suffer from asthma or other breathing difficulties.
Environmental groups praised the ruling and said Zinke and President Donald Trump have lost two court fights and a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate as they attempt to delay or block the methane rule.
"This ruling shows the courts won't allow the Trump administration to flout the law to reward the fossil fuel industry," said Michael Saul, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unchecked methane waste hurts our lungs, rips off taxpayers and cooks the planet."
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/02/23/us/politics/ap-us-interior-methane-rule.html
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Walker: Alaska Can Do 'Both' Oil Drilling, Addressing Climate Change
Feb 23, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anthony Adragna
Alaska can continue to pursue oil and gas development while taking steps to minimize the impacts of climate change on the state, independent Gov. Bill Walker said at POLITICO's Eighth Annual State Solutions conference today.
"You can do both," Walker said. "We are impacted on climate change probably like nobody in the nation, quite honestly. In many ways, it’s impacting our state."
Walker said a team of appointees was "working hard" on a series of recommendations Alaska can take to minimize the impacts of climate change. He launched the push with an October 2017 administrative order.At the same time, he praised the Trump administration's efforts to increase oil and gas production, including by opening part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
The first-term governor also voiced support for some of the reorganization efforts launched by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke even though he said his state would likely be minimally impacted by the push.
"I think there's a reason for what they're doing," he said. "[There's] a lot of overlap between different agencies on how you permit on federal lands, so I think they're trying streamline that a little bit."
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Ethane Consumption Surges with Petrochemcial Boom
Feb 26, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By Katherine Blunt
The U.S. Department of Energy projects that domestic growth in ethane consumption in the burgeoning petrochemicals industry will surpass that of all other petroleum and liquid products combined over the next two years.
The growing thirst for ethane, a natural gas liquid, is largely the result on the rapid expansion of plastics and petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast. Ethane is the feedstock for ethylene, the building block for most plastics.
Last year, chemical companies opened three new crackers that process ethane into ethylene, boosting domestic ethane consumption to 1.2 billion barrels a day, the Energy Department said.
DowDuPont, the nation's largest petrochemicals company, began operating one of those crackers at its new Freeport plastics complex, which has the capacity to produce about 1.5 million tons of ethylene a year. The company plans to turn the facility into the world's largest ethylene plant by eventually increasing output to 2 million tons a year.
The ethylene surge comes amid a Gulf Coast petrochemicals boom driven by an abundance of cheap natural gas flowing from West Texas shale fields such as the prolific Permian basin. By 2019, the Energy Department expects crackers now under construction to boost ethane consumption to 1.6 million barrels a day, up more than 30 percent from 1.2 million barrels.
In comparison, the crude consumption is projected to grow by just 1 percent over the next two years, according to the Energy Department.
Exxon Mobil is preparing to start up a new cracker at its Baytown complex in the coming months. The cracker will be capable of producing 1.5 million tons of ethylene per year.
Other major projects are in the planning stages. French oil major Total, for example, plans to build a $1.7 billion ethane steam cracker alongside its Port Arthur refinery as part of a joint venture with Austrian and Canadian companies Borealis and Nova Chemicals Corp.
The additional ethylene is projected to fuel a plastics boom that has already outpaced domestic demand growth. ICIS, a global energy and petrochemical research firm with offices in Houston, has forecast that by 2022, U.S. producers of polyethylene, the most common plastic, will have further increased their production capacity by as much as 75 percent, with much of the new production exported to foreign markets.
The ethylene boom has already expanded the export market for plastics and resins. The Port of Houston and other nearby ports handle more than 80 percent of U.S. polyethylene exports, according to S&P Global Platts, and the research firm expects that trend to continue as new plants come online.
"North America already is oversupplied," Kristen Hays, S&P senior petrochemicals editor, wrote in the firm's 2018 energy outlook. "Most if not all new output is expected to ship out."
The Energy Department also anticipates ethane exports to increase to 310,000 barrels a day in 2019, up from 180,000 barrels a day last year. Kinder Morgan's Utopia pipeline, which last month began transporting ethane products to Canada from Ohio's Utica shale play, is expected to drive part of that growth.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Ethane-consumption-surges-with-petrochemcial-boom-12705962.php
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(ACC Mentioned) In Likely First, EPA Proposes Site With Subsurface Intrusion to NPL
Feb 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
EPA is proposing to list a contaminated site to Superfund's National Priorities List (NPL) based on subsurface intrusion in what is believed to be the agency's first-time use of a 2017 rule that allows it to list a site solely because of the presence of subsurface intrusion in occupied structures.
The agency is proposing to add Rockwell International Wheel & Trim site in Grenada, MS, to the NPL, according to a recent Federal Register notice of proposed listings. EPA is taking comment on the listing until March 19.
In the site's Hazard Ranking System (HRS) record, which shows the site's analysis for scoring to determine if it is eligible for the NPL, the agency says the "subsurface intrusion component of the soil exposure and subsurface intrusion pathway is sufficient to qualify the site" for the NPL, therefore other pathways were not scored.
Subsurface intrusion (SsI) can take the form of either vapor or water intrusion, the former of which is more common and occurs when contaminated vapors rise from below ground into buildings through dirt floors, utility line openings or other pathways.
One environmentalist calls the addition based solely on subsurface intrusion "a big deal," finding it "encouraging" that EPA will likely be able to use its Superfund authorities to address the contamination. The source was surprised when the rule was finalized last year under the Trump administration, which twice delayed the rule's effective date after the Obama administration signed the final rule in December 2016.
But the Trump EPA quietly put the rule into effect last May despite industry criticisms of the draft rule, in which industry groups argued SsI sites would be a poor fit for the NPL because imminent conditions related to SsI such as fire or explosive risks and acute health risks could not be left unmitigated as the site makes its way through an NPL listing, and the subsequent remedy process.
Industry parties also argued in comments on the draft rule that it lacked a rationale and was unnecessary. "EPA has not established a sufficient rationale to support the contention that the proposed change would result in the addition of sites to the NPL that would not otherwise be listed," the American Chemistry Council told EPA in 2016 comments on the proposed rule.
HRS Rule
The HRS rule was originally supposed to take effect in February 2017, but EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt delayed the rule's effective date twice, along with four other rules, citing a lack of political appointees in key positions who could review whether changes to the rules are necessary.
Dozens of environmental and communities later urged Pruitt to lift the hold, noting that SsI affects thousands of sites across the country and that it would enhance health protections and property values "while enabling the safe reuse of seriously contaminated property."
In the Rockwell case, the HRS record says 217 people work in the main building on the Rockwell site in an area where the indoor air has elevated levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs include trichloroethene (TCE), toluene and cis-1, 2-dichloroethene (DCE), it says.
"Several elements indicate that the site may pose a risk to human health via subsurface intrusion: (1) a subsurface source of vapor-forming chemicals is present beneath and near the building; (2) vapors form and have a route along which to migrate toward the building; (3) the building is susceptible to soil gas entry, which means openings exist for the vapors to enter the building; (4) vapor-forming chemicals compromising the subsurface vapor source are present in the indoor environment; and (5) the building is occupied when these chemicals are present indoors," the record says.
The agency in the rule added the SsI component to the HRS' soil exposure pathway. These pathways -- groundwater, surface water, air and soil exposure -- are used in the HRS to determine which contaminated sites are eligible for placement on the NPL. Under the HRS, a score of 28.50 "is a cut-off point that serves as a screening-level indicator of the highest priority releases or threatened releases," EPA says on the regulatory tracker website.
According to the HRS record, the HRS site score for Rockwell is 50.00.
TCE Contamination
Wheel cover manufacturing and chrome plating occurred on the site for decades, up until the early 2000s; a metal stamping plant is now located on the property, the agency says in a webpage on the contaminated site. Waste generated by the wheel cover and chrome plating operations included chrome plating sludge, solvent still bottoms and other wastes, EPA says. "Past operations, spills, and waste handling practices have resulted in groundwater, surface water, soil and indoor air contamination with [TCE] and related compounds," it says.
TCE remains in the subsurface soil and groundwater, EPA says, and TCE vapors from beneath the operating manufacturing building are passing into the building through cracks, joints and other openings in the concrete floor, contaminating the building's indoor air, the website says.
EPA in the Jan. 18 Register notice is proposing the site to the NPL in order to trigger a Superfund remedial investigation and cleanup, the agency says.
In the meantime, EPA on Dec. 29 restarted a removal action that involves the operation of a treatment system aimed at reducing elevated TCE levels inside the manufacturing building at the Grenada Stamping facility, it says.
The HRS record says that "[a]nalytical results for hazardous substances (VOCs) in the indoor air samples are present at concentrations greater than three times the designated background levels and at concentrations greater than the corresponding reporting limits . . ."
The environmentalist expects more sites will be added due to vapor or water intrusion but says such actions could be tempered by budget cuts at the agency.
EPA itself has alluded to budget limits, and has said it does not expect the HRS rule to result in an increase to the number of sites listed on the NPL or in the number of site assessments conducted annually, according to an EPA fact sheet released with the HRS rule.
"Rather, given current budget levels and the possibility of increased costs for a subsurface intrusion site assessment, EPA may conduct fewer assessments per year," according to the fact sheet. EPA previously identified 1,073 sites that may possibly qualify for the NPL due to suspected SsI intrusion.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/likely-first-epa-proposes-site-subsurface-intrusion-npl
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Members to Check up on Grid Cyberdefense
Feb 26, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Blake Sobczak
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a hearing Thursday is set to review energy sector efforts to fend off hackers.
The oversight hearing will "examine private sector and government challenges and opportunities to promote the cybersecurity and resiliency of our nation's critical energy infrastructure," according to the committee.
Lawmakers will likely focus on emerging cyber risks to the power grid, as utilities add more connected technologies to their networks and as hackers develop more sophisticated capabilities.
ENR Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has called on members of the committee "to continually look for ways to eliminate, diminish or mitigate our vulnerabilities" to hackers, from sorting out government authorities to finding technological breakthroughs (Energywire, Oct. 27, 2017).
The hearing will likely cover Energy Secretary Rick Perry's decision earlier this month to start up a cybersecurity office at DOE dedicated to countering grid threats, researching new cybersecurity solutions and helping to pick up the pieces after a potential disaster. President Trump's 2019 budget proposal set aside $96 million for the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee's ranking member, may also raise concerns about energy networks interlinked with the bulk power system. Cantwell has called for greater scrutiny of security across the nation's natural gas pipelines, which are crucial to operating an increasingly gas-reliant grid.
A White House economic report released last week warned that the energy and financial sectors are the most "interconnected and interdependent with other sectors as well as most robustly connected to the Web, and are thus at risk for devastating cyberattacks that would ripple through the entire economy."
Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, March 1, at 10 a.m. in 366 Dirksen.
Witnesses: Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos Inc. Others TBA.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/02/26/stories/1060074683
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6 Lawmakers to Watch as Push Gets Underway
Feb 26, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk
When President Trump unveiled his long-awaited infrastructure plan earlier this month, it prompted a mixed bag of reactions.
Now, though, lawmakers will have put together legislative language for what's shaping up to be a long and quixotic push for an infrastructure bill.
They'll start this week with a slew of infrastructure-related hearings. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will gather to discuss Trump's outline on Thursday.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has touted its legislative work to promote pipelines and hydropower, is also holding a hearing tomorrow on the state of the country's energy infrastructure.
For Republicans, the usual suspects will be involved with writing a bill and gathering ideas. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will have a say, as will Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate EPW Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). In the House, too, leadership and a variety of chairmen will have their own input.
Many Democrats in both chambers, meanwhile, are poised to oppose the thrust of Trump's plan. That's making progress on infrastructure look like a long shot, especially in an election year.
But if a compromise does emerge, lawmakers will have to iron out differences on a number of environment and energy issues. Here are six lawmakers to watch as the push gets underway:
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.)
The soon-to-be-retired lawmaker has long championed conservative positions as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
One of his biggest pushes in this session of Congress, for instance, has been to privatize federal air traffic control, an effort that's widely decried by liberal critics.
But Shuster recently floated an idea that made conservatives scoff: raising the federal gasoline tax.
Shuster brought it up to his Republican colleagues earlier this month at the GOP congressional retreat in a discussion about paying for infrastructure investment. He said he got a "mixed reaction" (Greenwire, Feb. 1).
Hiking the gas tax for the first time since 1993 could help fund Trump's plan, and it would prop up the Highway Trust Fund, which is set to become insolvent in coming years, Shuster recently told Fox News.
"As a conservative, the principle of a conservative is if you use something, you should pay for it," he said. "And that's what the gas tax is. It's a user fee."
Republicans are unlikely to go along with the idea. But it could remain part of the conversation thanks to Shuster and Trump, who is said to have endorsed a gas tax rise at a meeting with lawmakers earlier this month.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.)
The chairman of the Senate EPW Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure is all in for Trump's plan. He even had talking points for a chat with reporters as he strolled through the Senate basement earlier this month to highlight permitting reform proposals.
Inhofe has deep ties to Trump's appointees at U.S. EPA, and he could be a champion for regulatory rollbacks sought by Administrator Scott Pruitt, a fellow Oklahoman.
Among other things, the administration has proposed limiting reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act to two years and altering provisions of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts (Greenwire, Feb. 12).
Inhofe is also a veteran of past congressional debate on infrastructure, and this time around, he'll likely be one of the loudest voices pushing for the White House's permitting overhaul and against raising the gas tax.
Inhofe chaired the full EPW Committee the last time Congress passed a big infrastructure bill — the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in 2015.
During that effort, he worked closely with then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the committee, to strike compromises that were key to getting the bill through Congress.
It's an experience Inhofe likes to tout when asked about Trump's plan. And though the political environment has changed since then, the Oklahoman may need a similar effort if there's any hope of getting an infrastructure bill passed this year.
Inhofe advanced that style of unified front last week, when he penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on infrastructure with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), an odd pairing given their contrasting views on climate change.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.)
Carper, like Inhofe, is a veteran of the last few efforts to fund infrastructure and reform permitting. This time, he'll be an important negotiator as ranking member of EPW, taking on the role Boxer played in 2015.
So far, the Delaware Democrat has used that position to repeatedly push back on Trump's plan, particularly the financing outline.
The former governor has taken issue with the idea of leveraging so much capital from state and local governments with a relatively small $200 billion federal investment.
That, he says, would flip the traditional formula for infrastructure on its head and put a big burden on states, especially when it comes to highways, which have traditionally been funded with an 80-20 federal-state split.
"It's a big shift of expectations and responsibility away from the federal government and to the states," Carper told reporters recently.
"I tell people here I'm a recovering governor," he said. "And in Delaware and most states across the country, if you ask the departments of transportation what percentage of your roads, highways, bridges cost is borne by the federal government, almost everybody would say half."
As for the issue of streamlining reviews, Carper has been slow to take an official position, though he has said there might be some "commonsense" areas ripe for compromise.
He and other Democrats, however, have questioned the need, with the executive branch still implementing the permitting provisions Congress passed in the FAST Act and the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act in 2012.
Trump has proposed, for example, putting a 150-day statute of limitations of NEPA reviews to cut down on lawsuits, an issue that was already addressed, albeit on a more limited basis, in the FAST Act.
"Before we've actually fully implemented what we adopted in 2012 and 2015, does it make sense to now double down in that regard?" Carper asked recently.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah)
Bishop isn't the first name that comes to mind in discussions about roads, highways and bridges. But he's a longtime champion of reforming NEPA with a surfeit of legislative experience on permitting and public lands issues. And he will have plenty to say about how Congress can reach Trump's permitting reform goals.
The famously wry Bishop told E&E News earlier this month that congressional Republicans will be exploring a range of options on permitting, including alternatives that don't require them to "beat people over the head with it" (E&E Daily, Feb. 15).
On NEPA, for instance, "you don't have to put a two-year thing in it," Bishop said.
"You simply make sure that perhaps we emphasize which agencies are the lead and give those agencies responsibility for coming up with a plan," the House Natural Resources chairman added.
That, too, is an issue addressed by the last two highways bills, but Republicans will likely want to go further.
On that front, Bishop's involvement could be important for natural resources developers and the mining industry, which is hoping Trump's plan might help advance projects (Greenwire, Feb. 22).
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
DeFazio tore into Trump's plan as soon as it was made public two weeks ago.
"For more than a year, we have been hearing from President Trump about a big, beautiful infrastructure proposal," he said in a statement on Feb. 12. "Now, it turns out President Trump's plan is embarrassingly small."
DeFazio, the House Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member, is one of a big pool of House Democrats who view the plan as gutting landmark environmental laws and shredding the Transportation Department to pay for the private sector to build roads.
That criticism highlights one of the biggest hurdles to the push by the president and Republicans: No one knows how to pay for it.
The administration has proposed cutting Amtrak funding in half, cutting the Transportation budget and eliminating the popular Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants. Appropriators rejected similar cuts last year, and they're likely to do so again.
As for DeFazio, he'll be a key channel through which Democrats will push their own agenda on infrastructure, centered on climate resilience and more public funding.
They've outlined their ideas, though not in much detail. House Democrats unveiled a proposal to spend $1 trillion in federal money on infrastructure just a few days before Trump released his plan (Greenwire, Feb. 8).
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has made clear she's eyeing the infrastructure push as a possible vehicle to carry the bipartisan energy legislation, S. 1460, she assembled with the help of ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
A previous version of the proposal, which contains provisions to modernize the electric grid and addresses other energy infrastructure policies, died in the closing weeks of the 114th Congress after House negotiators threw in the towel on conference talks.
The updated version of the bill awaits floor time after McConnell decided to bypass the committee and put the bill directly on the Senate calendar.
"We've had an opportunity once in the Senate to vote on what we thought could be the base for good infrastructure for energy, and we're ready to go if only given the opportunity," Murkowski told E&E News earlier this month.
During a bipartisan White House meeting on infrastructure that included Trump, Murkowski said the energy discussion included "a little bit about pipelines but really more to the regulatory and permitting side that we need to have in place in order to make the infrastructure real."
One issue she raised at that meeting was how the plan might finance rural infrastructure efforts.
"Who's going to be interested in a big public-private partnership project out in a very rural remote corner of the state of Alaska, where you don't have a very good return on an investment?" she asked. "How will a tolling structure work in a place where you just don't have the traffic?"
As chairwoman of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, Murkowski will also have a say in distributing some of the $20 billion in funds agreed to in the two-year budget deal reached earlier this month, which are supposed to address rural water and energy projects (E&E Daily, Feb. 9).
Schedule: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing is Thursday, March 1, at 10 a.m. in 406 Dirksen.
Witnesses: TBA.
Schedule: The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing is Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Witnesses: TBA.
Reporters Geof Koss, George Cahlink and Sam Mintz contributed.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/02/26/stories/1060074695
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Rebuild U.S. Infrastructure with American Metals and Minerals
Feb 26, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Tom Madison
The recently-enacted budget deal between the White House and Congress may signal a new willingness for bipartisan compromise in Washington. If so, no issue is more deserving or more perfectly poised for immediate action than investing in America’s crumbling infrastructure. After all, there are no “Rs and Ds” adorning the bone-jarring potholes, contaminated water pipes and rusting steel trusses.
President Donald J. Trump has made it clear that rebuilding America’s infrastructure is among his administration’s top priorities. He is calling on the federal government to provide the spark that will ignite real and timely action from states and attract private investment dollars to help rebuild the foundation of our nation. This issue represents both a challenge and an opportunity that can no longer be deferred.
The condition of our country’s infrastructure is grim. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently graded America’s roads, bridges, dams, ports, electric grid, water systems and other vital assets a shameful D+. Years of neglect have come at a high cost and will spiral even further out of control if we don’t act now. ASCE estimates that by 2025 we will incur $3.9 trillion in losses to the country’s GDP and shed 2.5 million jobs if we continue with the status quo.
Thoughtfully rebuilding and modernizing our infrastructure will remedy imminent safety and reliability issues, relieve growing congestion and capacity problems, and turbo-charge our economy. If America is up to the task – and we are – we must act fast. By pledging meaningful levels of funding, we can address infrastructure’s physical and fiscal limitations while putting hundreds of thousands of Americans to work in good-paying jobs. Delivering the right projects will relieve growing pressure on our systems, cast crane booms against the skylines of our cities and towns, and open the doors of steel mills, fabrication shops, aggregate plants and mines all across the nation.
Such substantial new investment provides an opportunity to unlock the extraordinary wealth of American raw materials necessary to rebuild our infrastructure. We need copper and zinc to produce the untold miles of cable and wiring that run our transit systems, silver for water filtration and electrical switches, and mountains of aggregate and iron ore to produce the steel and concrete for rail tracks, tunnels supports and bridge beams. The New NY Bridge alone, a $4 billion project underway outside New York City, will require more than 220 million pounds of U.S. steel and 300,000 cubic yards of concrete to complete. We must be prepared to acquire vast quantities of natural resources to support more and bigger projects, and we must give first priority for sourcing raw materials to the U.S.
A robust new construction program should use America’s $6.2 trillion in mineral and metal reserves first and most often to correct the imbalance we experience in this area today. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, in 2017 more than half the American consumption of 50 major mineral commodities was imported, and we have become 100 percent import-reliant on 20 key minerals and metals. Sadly, the proliferation of foreign commodity imports is an economic Achilles’ heel of our own making. An arcane, and unnecessarily protracted U.S. mine permitting process is the culprit and, much like our infrastructure assets, is in dire need of an overhaul.
It routinely takes a decade or more for a new mine to obtain necessary permits and approvals to begin production in the U.S. If 10 years seems like an absurd amount of time, that’s because it is. Consider that Canada and Australia, countries with environmental standards comparable to our own, typically permit and approve new mines in less than three years.
As we prepare to make substantial new investments in the nation’s infrastructure and dedicate a wealth of natural resources to do it, let’s prioritize the use of materials readily available within our borders. Legislative action is required to boost spending, modernize environmental approvals and expedite procurement processes for infrastructure projects. Such action should also include reforms to our outdated, arduous mine permitting process. Streamlining these requirements will take years off the timeline for approvals and can be done sustainably and responsibly. Just as a strong, efficient infrastructure is vital to our national interests, so too is priority usage of our own country’s vast natural resources.
Investing in infrastructure provides a compelling reminder of the importance of building and maintaining a strong national foundation. Fortifying this foundation must include the use of domestic minerals to ensure a successful infrastructure renaissance in America.
Tom Madison is executive director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy. He has also served as commissioner of the NYS Department of Transportation, executive director of the NYS Thruway Authority and Canal Corporation, and U.S. Federal Highway Administrator.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/375352-rebuild-us-infrastructure-with-american-metals-and
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Trump Reaffirms U.S. Will Stay Out of Paris Climate Agreement
Feb 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Kim Chipman
The U.S. rejoining an international agreement to act on climate change is “not going to happen,” President Donald Trump said in a Feb. 23 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The Paris climate deal would be “disaster” for the U.S., hurt the country's global competitiveness, Trump said, arguing China, Russia, India had much better deal than the U.S. under the agreement.
The Trump administration notified the UN Aug. 4, 2017, that it plans to leave the 2015 Paris climate pact reached by more than 190 nations. The administration had hinted it would be open to rejoining the deal under conditions more favorable to the U.S., but environmental groups and some business advocates have suggested that was just for show.
Under the terms of the Paris accord, Trump must wait until November 2019 to formally submit his intention to withdraw. At that point, the U.S. enters a one-year waiting period before it is officially removed.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128760398&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128760398&jd=128760398
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Connecticut, Maryland Say EPA's Air Pollution Transport Policy Inadequate
Feb 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
Connecticut, Maryland and the American Lung Association (ALA) are attacking EPA's policies to curb interstate transport of air pollution as inadequate, criticizing the agency's proposed rejection of Connecticut's petition seeking emission controls on a Pennsylvania power plant as an example of its failure to address the issue.
At a Feb. 23 EPA public hearing in Washington, D.C., Connecticut air regulator Rick Pirolli faulted EPA's rejection of the petition seeking direct federal regulation of the Brunner Island power plant in Pennsylvania. Connecticut blames the plant in part for the state's problems attaining federal ozone limits, and called for approval of the petition under Clean Air Act section 126 that allows a state to ask EPA to regulate air pollution in another state.
EPA “relies primarily on the fact that Brunner Island voluntarily utilized natural gas rather than coal during the 2017 ozone season because it is currently cheaper to do so, resulting in reduced emissions,” Pirolli said. Switching to natural gas cuts levels of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx), but the switch is voluntary and can be reversed -- and Pirolli said this means there is no future guarantee of reduced ozone emissions.
“EPA speculates that economic incentives will cause Brunner Island to continue to voluntarily burn natural gas, so EPA is taking no action,” Pirolli said. “Emission reductions must be real, permanent and enforceable,” and EPA has not met this bar, failing to “meaningfully engage” with the evidence presented by Connecticut in its petition, Pirolli said.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) is already threatening to sue EPA over its proposed decision to deny the state's petition. It is “incumbent upon the EPA to protect the health and wellbeing of all of our residents, regardless of where they live. We will continue to pursue all legal avenues to protect the health of the people of Connecticut,” Malloy said in a Feb. 16 statement.
When faced with requests from states for further action to curb interstate air emissions, EPA has repeatedly referred states to other mechanisms in the Clean Air Act it sees as more appropriate, Pirolli notes, only to then refuse requests for regulation under those other mechanisms.
For example, East Coast states experiencing ozone transport issues have criticized EPA's power plant emissions trading program aimed at mitigating interstate transport, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), as only a partial remedy by EPA's own admission. The issue is now being litigated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in State of Wisconsin, et al. v. EPA, which consolidates claims against the CSAPR rule as updated in 2016 to reduce state NOx allowances.
The price of emissions allowances traded under CSAPR remains too low to ensure that power plants with controls already fitted actually use them, coastal states claim. Pirolli called the allowance price “woefully inadequate.”
Interstate Pollution
On EPA's broader approach to interstate transport, Pirolli said, “EPA has consistently failed to adequately remedy interstate transport. To the extent EPA implies that such regional approaches are preferable to the single source 126 petition approach, it is notable that EPA recently denied Connecticut's requested regional approach” in a petition to expand the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) area under air law section 176(A). Tougher pollution controls apply in the 12-state OTC area of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states than elsewhere.
In that Nov. 3 denial, EPA “encourages states to utilize section 126 instead for a more targeted solution,” Pirolli said. “It is unacceptable for EPA to continuously look for pretext not to act,” he said.
Environmentalists have accused EPA of playing a “shell game” with downwind states, by rejecting measures such as OTC expansion, or creation of huge multi-state nonattainment areas, and suggesting that states rely on other mechanisms instead -- only to reject use of those as well.
EPA air chief William Wehrum has expressed a desire to see states comply with the air law's “good neighbor” provision by submitting SIPs of their own, without EPA acting to provide a federal backstop rule if they fail to do so.
But Pirolli at the hearing said Congress made compliance with the good neighbor provision “mandatory,” and “tasked EPA with acting as a federal backstop” when upwind states fail to meet their obligations.
Pirolli noted that EPA only issued a decision on Connecticut's petition under section 126 after the state sued the agency, with a federal district court forcing EPA to hold a hearing and to issue a final decision by April 8. EPA is taking comment on its proposed denial though March 26, agency officials said.
ALA's Assistant Vice President Janice Nolen echoed Pirolli's concern that EPA's decision relies on unenforceable emissions cuts, and noted that in fact under an agreement reached with Sierra Club, the Brunner Island plant will continue to burn coal at some level until 2029. “Admirable as that agreement is, that action came independently of any response by the EPA and does not include an enforcement mechanism, except another lawsuit.”
Nolen noted that Maryland and Delaware already have outstanding section 126 petitions with EPA, and said “other states will likely also be lining up” to file them once EPA has issued designations for the tougher 2015 ozone NAAQS, which the agency tightened down to 70 parts per billion (ppb), down from the 75 ppb level set in 2008.
'Highly Suspect'
Maryland Department of the Environment engineer Hannah Ashenafi in testimony at the hearing noted that EPA bases its decision in part on Connecticut's ability to meet the 2008 NAAQS by 2023, an approach she faulted.
“EPA’s proposed denial states that recent EPA analysis indicates that no air quality monitors in Connecticut are projected to have trouble attaining or maintaining the 2008 ozone NAAQS by 2023. However, even if these projections prove to be accurate, there are still five ozone seasons, 2018-2022.”
Pirolli in his testimony found this projection “highly suspect,” and said it “in any case fails to address Connecticut's continued nonattainment in the interim.”
Maryland, faced with similar ozone problems to Connecticut, urges EPA to reverse course and grant Connecticut's petition. Maryland currently has a section 126 petition outstanding that seeks direct federal regulation of 36 electric generating units at power plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and is suing EPA to force a response in federal district court.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/connecticut-maryland-say-epas-air-pollution-transport-policy-inadequate
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D.C. Circuit Ozone Ruling Likely to Complicate, Delay States' Air Planning
Feb 23, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's recent ruling scrapping large parts of EPA's policy for revoking old ozone standards will complicate and delay states' efforts to craft plans for attaining the standards, sources say, highlighted by the fact California must now overhaul many of its air compliance plans.
A former EPA air official says the agency “will have to write another rule for what states are to do instead, which may or may not get challenged, so expect a lot more process,” following the court's ruling that scrapped several parts of an Obama-era rule on how states should implement the 2008 ozone ambient air standard.
The unanimous Feb. 16 ruling in South Coast Air Quality Management District, et al., v. EPA, et al., is “going to slow everything down” in terms of states having guidance on “what they are expected to do. It frustrates everybody because these things take a long time,” the source says.
For example, a California Air Resources Board (CARB) spokeswoman says the state will now have to revise its state implementation plans (SIPs) that detail the emissions reduction measures the Golden State intended to use to attain the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 75 parts per billion (ppb).
The ruling also raises questions over the validity of EPA SIP approvals that rely on provisions of the Obama-era implementation rule that the court rejected. For example, there are questions over the agency's recent final approval of a Virginia ozone SIP because the plan relied on the implementation rule to remove emissions control measures for the prior 1997 NAAQS expressed as 84 ppb. The D.C. Circuit's ruling says that removal of such controls qualifies as “backsliding,” or worsening of air quality, that violates the Clean Air Act.
The Obama EPA intended the 2015 implementation rule to serve as a template for implementation of its tougher ozone NAAQS of 70 ppb, which it finalized in October that year. While the Obama administration proposed an implementation rule for the tougher standard before leaving office, the Trump administration never finalized it because it is reconsidering the 2015 NAAQS -- and the recent ruling creates further complications.
EPA has already withdrawn from White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review a limited proposed implementation rule focused on “classification” of areas in various degrees of non-attainment according to their ozone levels. That rule also contained implementation deadlines for the new NAAQS.
And EPA is months behind its Oct. 1, 2017, deadline to finish designating areas as meeting or violating the 2015 NAAQS, with calls from environmentalists to increase the number of areas out of attainment.
Impact On California
California is a good example of where the eventual revised policy on “anti-backsliding” measures will have a significant impact, sources say, given that the state has many areas designated in various levels of nonattainment for both the 1997 and 2008 ozone standards.
The CARB spokeswoman says, “there are a couple of ways California could be impacted. California may be impacted by the ruling related to the selection of a base year for reasonable further progress. The ruling specified that 2011 was the appropriate base year for reasonable further progress. California did not use this year for the ozone SIPs submitted for the 75 ppb 8-hour ozone standard.”
Further, “it’s possible some areas could get bumped up” to a worsened NAAQS nonattainment status if they don’t meet the 1997 standard, or the 2008 NAAQS, the spokeswoman says. The choice of base year is important because the year sets the baseline against which progress in reducing pollution as required by RFP is measured.
“We selected 2012 to demonstrate reasonable further progress for most areas of the state. For two areas 2008 was selected. As a result, California will have to update all of its SIPs with a new base year (to demonstrate reasonable further progress) for all areas of the state,” the California spokeswoman says.
The D.C. Circuit in its ruling also rejected arguments by California's South Coast air district that the rule was too stringent in some respects.
South Coast argued that EPA wrongly disallowed “out of area” emissions reductions from being counted in demonstrations of reasonable further progress (RFP) in state air plans. The court found for EPA and against South Coast on this point. The air district argued that EPA wrongly changed its legal interpretation to disallow emissions cuts from outside a nonattainment area from counting. This is important to some Southern California areas that would otherwise struggle to demonstrate the required emissions cuts without counting cuts in neighboring zones.
The court rejected South Coast's assertion that the air law's reference to emissions cuts “in the area” is ambiguous, and could apply to some other area -- deemed a “transport area” by South Coast -- than the nonattainment area.
The CARB spokeswoman says the impact of this specific issue challenged by South Coast may not be immediately felt in the state. “California did not include 'out of area' emission reductions towards meeting 'reasonable further progress' requirements in South Coast or any other areas of the state. So the SIP that EPA has in front of them does not include that.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/dc-circuit-ozone-ruling-likely-complicate-delay-states-air-planning
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Environmentalists Seek More Ozone Nonattainment Areas
Feb 23, 2018 | Inside EPA
Environmentalists are urging EPA to increase the number and size of areas the agency designates as being out of attainment with the 2015 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 70 parts per billion (ppb), which would trigger stricter ozone reduction requirements in those areas.
EPA missed an Oct. 1 Clean Air Act deadline to issue designations for all parts of the country, and is facing litigation in federal district and appeals courts to force the agency to complete designations so that implementation of the 2015 NAAQS can advance. Designation is traditionally conducted on a county basis, with counties showing ozone levels in excess of the NAAQS designated nonattainment, along with adjacent areas that contribute to those high ozone levels.
EPA now says it will complete designations for most areas by April 30, and the remainder, in the San Antonio area, by Aug. 10. The agency took comment through Feb. 5 on its proposed designations for several hundred areas it has yet to designate, drawing responses from a wide range of groups.
Environmental groups in their comments call on EPA to include more nonattainment areas, or larger ones. Such areas are subject to stricter ozone reduction requirements than attainment areas.
The Environmental Defense Fund in its Feb. 5 comments calls on EPA to include all of Larimer and Weld Counties in the Front Range nonattainment area; “urges EPA to include the major sources located in Morgan and Summit Counties in the Northern Wasatch Front (UT) nonattainment area; “urges EPA to expand the Yuma (AZ) nonattainment area to include more onroad sources;” urges EPA to further expand the Las Vegas nonattainment area; urges EPA to designate the Pittsburgh-Beaver Valley area as nonattainment; and urges EPA to add Ashtabula County to the Cleveland, nonattainment area and Ross County in the Columbus, OH, nonattainment area.
Meanwhile, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Parks Conservation Association in joint Feb. 5 comments “urge EPA to include all of Weld and Larimer Counties, Colorado as well as the area around the Martin Drake, Ray Nixon and Rawhide coalburning power plants in the Front Range nonattainment area.”
In separate Feb. 5 comments, the Sierra Club argues that the agency should designate Michigan's Ottawa County as being in NAAQS nonattainment.
Electric utility groups in their comments on the designations have called on EPA to change several findings of nonattainment to attainment based on air pollution associated with “exceptional events” such as wildfires that increase ozone levels.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/environmentalists-seek-more-ozone-nonattainment-areas
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America’s Moral Obligation to the Environment
Feb 26, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Rep. Emanuel Cleaver
President Barack Obama revealed the Clean Power Plan to the world in 2015. Obama referred to the proposal as “a moral obligation” and rightfully labeled it "the single most important step that America has ever made in the fight against global climate change.”
Obama’s sentiments were shared by a host of bipartisan congressional leaders, particularly my colleagues on the Safe Climate Caucus. And hundreds of multinational companies supported the plan. But instead of embracing this widespread consensus and building on meaningful progress, the Trump administration would rather jeopardize America’s global leadership and public health by moving backwards.
The Environmental Protection Agency, now under the environmentally-insensitive leadership of Scott Pruitt, seeks to undermine our nation’s top scientists and the EPA’s legal obligation by proposing the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The EPA administrator’s sin is his willfully unconscious hijacking of future generations’ ability to drink unsoiled water and breathe unpolluted air.
We must not let this happen. With the EPA holding listening sessions across the country – one most recently in my district, the 5th District of Missouri – we must use this opportunity to take a stand for the environment and the well-being of our communities.
In some ways it is irrelevant whether you believe in climate change or the idea that humans are contributing to climate change, because we are all certainly paying for its effects. In the words of Ben Franklin, an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Though a vocal minority have yet to embrace the facts that climate research has found, we must take action to mitigate these growing costs.
We all have been haunted by the disheartening images from hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. And we have seen footage of the damage caused by the devastating wildfires in California. This is all a result of climate change, which is exacerbated by carbon pollution. If we ignore this fact, the frequency and severity of extreme weather will exponentially increase, leaving hardworking taxpayers to foot the bill. And even more tragic will be the loss of life.
As a parent and grandfather, I cannot help but also think of the environmental consequences that repealing the Clean Power Plan will have on children. At a time when many families are already on the brink, repealing this proposal would lead to more sick kids, higher asthma rates, more expensive hospital visits and thousands of premature deaths.
And to make matters worse, the public health outcomes as a result of pollution are disproportionately worse for people of color.
America, we have a moral obligation to get this right.
As proclaimed in the gospel of Matthew, I believe that our country will ultimately be defined by how we treat the least of these. Will the health outcomes of children and the sorrow of displaced families be taken into account in the future of America’s environmental policy? Our global stature starts with correctly answering these questions.
I commend groups like Moms Clean Air Force, Green for All, and others for holding Administrator Pruitt accountable and ensuring that all Americans have a voice in the environmental space. But we must also keep pushing forward. We must stand up, we must fight for future generations, and we must act on climate.
Turning our back on the Clean Power Plan is dangerous. The world is in desperate need of American leadership and innovation, and we cannot afford to ignore or delude our way out of this current crisis.
Cleaver represents Missouri's 5th District.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/375313-americas-moral-obligation-to-the-environment
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