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acc am 2/3/18

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Oil Trade Groups Fear Cost Impacts of Steel Import Tariffs (1)
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alan Kovski and Rebecca Kern

The prospect of tariffs on imported steel has triggered warnings of harmful impacts on oil, gas, and petrochemical companies, which are in the midst of an expansion boom for pipelines, drilling operations, gas processing plants, and petrochemical plants—all of which are heavy steel users.
(ACC Mentioned) NAFTA Sticking Points Concern US Chemical Sector
Mar 1, 2018 | ICIS
By Joseph Chang

While few believe the US will actually withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), there are big hurdles to overcome in the renegotiations, especially with the Mexico presidential election looming on 1 July, where candidates are taking a harder line on US relations.
(ACC Mentioned) EU Chems Worried Over Potential Trade Wars After US Steel Tariffs - Cefic DG
Mar 2, 2018 | ICIS
By Jonathan Lopez

The new tariffs imposed by the US on steel and aluminium could risk starting a global trade war that would be detrimental for the world economy, the director general (DG) at European chemicals trade group Cefic said on Friday.
(ACC Mentioned) Mexico Sugar Industry Not Worried By Us Trade Deal Review
Mar 2, 2018 | 10 Thousand Couples
By Shelly Chandler

The United States called back its negotiator for the contentious issue of regional auto content rules from a round of NAFTA talks for consultations in Washington on Monday, delaying the ongoing conversations in Mexico City, three Mexican and Canadian trade officials said.
(ACC Mentioned) Chemicals Official Cleared To Weigh In On Industry Litigation
Mar 1, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Kevin Bogardus

Senior U.S. EPA chemicals official Nancy Beck has been cleared by agency ethics officials to take part in certain cases involving her former employer, the American Chemistry Council.
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Chemicals Official Nancy Beck
Mar 1, 2018 | PoliticoPro

... EPA chemicals official Nancy Beck —Formerly the senior director for regulatory science policy for the American Chemistry Council
(ACC Mentioned) Lighthizer Seems All In On Getting ISDS Out
Mar 1, 2018 | Politico
By Adam Behsudi

... Lighthizer appears ideologically committed to eliminating investor-state dispute settlement from NAFTA, even when confronted with business opposition to the controversial U.S. proposal, a top official in the chemicals sector said Wednesday.
(ACC Mentioned) Pressure Mounting in Mexico for NAFTA Round Seven
Mar 2, 2018 | ClickLancashire
By Elias Hubbard

Now is the time to make agricultural trade great again by enhancing NAFTA, negotiating a US position in CPTPP, engaging with Japan, improving KORUS and getting more access to the important Chinese market.
(ACC Mentioned) Resin Pricing Changes Abundant In A Short February
Mar 2, 2018 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito

February may be the shortest month, but it was a busy one for commodity resin pricing.
Trump's Critics Will Try Again To Challenge '2-For-1' Rule Order
Mar 1, 2018 | Inside EPA

Environmentalists and other citizen groups will get a chance to renew their suit aiming to overturn President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) that requires EPA and other agencies to identify two existing rules to repeal for every new rule they issue, despite a judge's decision that the case as it stands now should be dismissed.

LCSA News

(ACC Mentioned) Backing Industry, EPA Plans Pre-Submission Review For New Chemicals
Mar 1, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds

EPA is seeking to revamp its process for meeting with chemical manufacturers prior to companies' submissions of new chemicals for review, granting an industry request to bolster such pre-submission consultations to help streamline the agency's process for reviewing new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which is failing to meet statutory deadlines.

Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) Industry Asks Congress for Federal Chemical Warning Label Standards (2)
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto

Congress should introduce legislation to establish federal chemical labeling standards to bring consistency to the burgeoning number of state labels being required, American Chemistry Council President Cal Dooley said March 1.
(ACC Mentioned) BPA Still Safe Determination is Premature - Endocrine Society
Mar 2, 2018 | FoodQualityNews.com
By Joseph James Whitworth

... The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and PlasticsEurope said results supported the safety of BPA.
Microplastics in EU Products Under Regulatory Microscope
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner

Tiny plastic particles intentionally added to products sold in the European Union are coming under the regulatory microscope as the bloc's chemicals agency seeks data and comment on their use in cosmetics, detergents, paints, and other items.
Most Chemicals Dossiers Lack Critical Data, EU Agency Finds
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner

Companies registering chemicals under the European Union's REACH regulation need to do more to provide regulators with data that can be used to assess the safety of those substances, according to the European Chemicals Agency.

Energy News

America's Global Gas Clout Booms with New Terminal Set to Ship
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ryan Collins, Naureen S. Malik and Debjit Chakraborty

The U.S. is about to take another big step toward becoming a global natural gas powerhouse as a second terminal prepares to ship the fuel from America's shale basins, putting the nation on course to rival the world's biggest exporters.
Shell-Owned LNG Tanker Arrives at Dominion's Cove Point for First Export Cargo
Mar 1, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker owned by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc arrived at Dominion's new export facility on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland on Wednesday and was expected to depart possibly within hours with the facility's first cargo.
U.S. Trade Group Urges Halt To Further LNG Export Applications
Mar 1, 2018 | Reuters
By Scott DiSavino

A U.S. manufacturing trade group on Thursday urged the U.S. Department of Energy not to approve further liquefied natural gas (LNG) export applications, citing concerns that the country was consuming and exporting the fuel at a faster clip than it was finding new resources.

Chemical Security News

New Energy Department Cyber Office to Focus on Grid Emergencies (1)
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern

The Energy Department's new cybersecurity office will focus on mobilizing quickly to deal with emergency cyber and physical attacks on the country's electric grid, an Energy Department official said.
DOE Official Details Vision For New Cyber Office
Mar 2, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Sam Mintz,

A senior Department of Energy official told lawmakers yesterday he wants to stand up the agency's new cybersecurity office this year.

Transportation and Infrastructure News

Senators Give Railroads an Ultimatum on Crash Prevention Control
Mar 1, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Ryan Beene

U.S. regulators should crack down on railroads which fail to meet a looming deadlineto activate systems that safety officials have said could have prevented two recent deadly Amtrak accidents, said top senators on an oversight panel.
Energy Office on Chopping Block Could Fund Infrastructure: Moniz (1)
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern

An Energy Department loan office that the Trump administration proposed eliminating could be used to help boost energy infrastructure, according to a report from a group run by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
Chao Defends Infrastructure Proposal to Senate Skeptics
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Shaun Courtney

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao kicked off her effort on Capitol Hill to tout the administration's infrastructure framework by praising the possibilities of regulatory reductions and permitting reform, and dodging questions about pay-fors.
Chao Defends Plan, But Senate Action Remains Elusive
Mar 1, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Nick Sobczyk

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao squabbled with Senate Democrats today in her first appearance on Capitol Hill to defend President Trump's infrastructure plan.

Environment News

(ACC Mentioned) In First Address, New SAB Chair Raises Concern Over EPA Ozone Rules
Mar 1, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad

In his first public remarks since officially assuming his role as chairman of EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) last month, Michael Honeycutt raised concerns with how EPA determines whether states meet federal ozone standards, underscoring the role he is likely to play advising Administrator Scott Pruitt's deregulatory agenda.
Long-Overdue Toxic Air Pollutant Reviews Stretch Thin EPA Staff
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer Lu

The EPA must complete overdue reviews for more than 40 industrial emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants starting later this year, even as concerns persist that the agency is more interested in rolling back regulations than fulfilling its obligations.
Classification System for Ozone Problem Areas Released by EPA
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer Lu

The EPA on March 1 released its belated system for ranking areas that don't meet 2015 national ozone standards by the severity of the air pollution.
California May Issue Municipal Bonds for Climate Change Projects
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Romy Varghese

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has proposed giving $20 million to establish a state program that would give loans to projects aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions, and that could be leveraged by selling municipal bonds, said Teveia Barnes, executive director of the state's infrastructure and economic development bank.
Next Administration Must Look Beyond Power Rule Redo, McCarthy Says
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Abby Smith

Redoing Obama-era power sector carbon controls won't be enough once a new administration friendly to climate policy comes to power, former Obama EPA head Gina McCarthy said March 1.
Maine Adopts Lower Carbon Limits on Power Plants
Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Adrianne Appel

Maine will place stricter limits on carbon pollution under a new law based on a regional agreement among nine northeastern states to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
EPA Issues Nonattainment Framework For 2015 Ozone Standard
Mar 1, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly

U.S. EPA will stick with a long-standing framework for classifying areas out of attainment with its 2015 ground-level ozone standard, according to a final rule signed today by agency chief Scott Pruitt.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Oil Trade Groups Fear Cost Impacts of Steel Import Tariffs (1)

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Alan Kovski and Rebecca Kern

The prospect of tariffs on imported steel has triggered warnings of harmful impacts on oil, gas, and petrochemical companies, which are in the midst of an expansion boom for pipelines, drilling operations, gas processing plants, and petrochemical plants—all of which are heavy steel users.
A variety of industry trade groups—and some Republican lawmakers who work on energy issues—reacted March 1 with caution to President Donald Trump's statement that he will impose 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and 10 percent tariffs on imported aluminum.
“The U.S. oil and natural gas industry, in particular, relies on specialty steel for many of its projects that most U.S. steelmakers don't supply,” said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.
“We urge President Trump to reconsider imposing these costly tariffs,” said the American Chemistry Council, an association that includes such giants of petrochemical manufacturing as Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. L.P., Exxon Mobil Corp., and Dow Chemical Co.
The association's statement said the chemical manufacturing industry was partway through a $185 billion wave of U.S. expansions partly triggered by the surging availability of domestic natural gas liquids produced from shale and other “unconventional” sources.
“President Trump's announcement comes at the worst possible time,” the group said. “More than half of these investments are still in the planning stage, and market shifts caused by tariff increases may convince investors to do business elsewhere.”
Lawmakers Hear Fears
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she has heard the worries.
“I've had conversation with some who are very concerned about our ability to meet the demand, meet the need when it comes to steel for our pipelines,” she told reporters March 1.
In addition, Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's energy panel, said, “We must tread carefully when imposing tariffs of this size, as they often have unintended consequences on American businesses.”
“Trade is the lifeblood of our nation's economy and products like steel move Texas businesses, particularly energy production,” Olson added.
Ohio's Mixed Picture
Ohio has both steel manufacturing and oil and gas drilling, which poses the prospect of both positive and negative impacts from steel import tariffs.
“First and foremost, this should be about stopping the cheaters,” Mike Chadsey, spokesman for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, told Bloomberg Environment. “If this stops the cheaters, it's a good thing,” he said apparently referring to countries that subsidize their steel sector.
He said his industry's demand for steel has revived steel making in eastern Ohio, especially for steel drilling pipe—the downhole use of steel more than the transportation pipelines or the compressor stations, gas processing plants, and other surface infrastructure.
The steel for the surface infrastructure in the region of the Marcellus and Utica shales probably came from a wide range of sources in Ohio, around the nation, and around the world, Chadsey said.
He expressed support for his state's steel sector, saying, “They're making steel in Youngstown again. That's a big deal.”
But the word from the White House also creates uncertainties about such details as when the tariffs will begin and how long they will last, Chadsey said.
Pipeline Steel Needed
The Association of Oil Pipe Lines issued a statement warning, “U.S. steel makers do not make enough pipeline-grade steel.” The association said pipeline-grade steel was a niche market—3 percent of the total steel market—with high-quality technical specifications not required for many other steel products.
“U.S. domestic steel producers largely exited the pipeline business because of its small market, higher costs, and lower margins,” the association said.
The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America expressed similar worries. The group is concerned that broad government action affecting the availability of pipeline steel “could have the unintended result of delaying or even reducing the number of new pipeline projects,” said Cathy Landry, spokeswoman for the group.
The pipeline industry commissioned a study last year from consulting company ICF International Inc. on the possible impacts of trade or purchasing restrictions that raised line pipe costs 25 percent, the Association of Oil Pipe Lines said.
“Such action translated into a $76 million cost increase for a typical (280 mile) pipeline project or [greater than] $300 million cost increase for a major pipeline project,” the association said. “This result would delay or cancel pipeline projects.”

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128964201&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128964201&jd=128964201

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(ACC Mentioned) NAFTA Sticking Points Concern US Chemical Sector

Mar 1, 2018 | ICIS

By Joseph Chang

While few believe the US will actually withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), there are big hurdles to overcome in the renegotiations, especially with the Mexico presidential election looming on 1 July, where candidates are taking a harder line on US relations.
Three sticking points are of major concern to the US chemical sector – US proposals to eliminate the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, put in a five-year sunset provision, and to revise rules of origin.
“I don’t think the odds are [likely] that we will have an absolute withdrawal from the NAFTA agreement, but I can’t totally rule that out because… some of these provisions… are non-starters unless they’re modified fairly significantly,” said Cal Dooley, CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC). “If the administration drives a hard line… they really create a situation where it’s going to be very hard, for Mexico in particular… to be willing to accept those.”
Under the ISDS, foreign investors can sue host governments for actions infringing their investments using international arbitration. The US administration contends that if US companies didn’t have the recourse ISDS provides for an inappropriate action abroad, they would be “more likely to make that investment – not in Mexico – but in the United States”, said Dooley.
However, “it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition” as US operations can benefit and expand if they have an affiliate in Mexico to send products to, he noted.
And a five-year sunset provision requiring renewal would be problematic. Multi-billion dollar investments are “not made on a five-year horizon – they’re being made on a 40-year horizon and are also predicated on having some consistent rules of trade and market opportunities”, said Dooley.
On rules of origin, the US is proposing higher levels of local content for products to qualify for free trade, and a minimum for US content in certain products.
If the US were to withdraw from NAFTA, tariffs on US chemical exports to Mexico and Canada would likely snap back to Most Favoured Nation tariff schedules at a minimum, said the ACC CEO. This would be around 6% for Mexico, leading to a fall in US exports to the country by about 12%, said Dooley. In the worst-case scenario, Mexico could go to its “Final Bound” tariff rate which averages 36.2% across all products, according to the ACC.
https://www.icis.com/resources/news/2018/03/01/10198475/nafta-sticking-points-concern-us-chemical-sector/

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(ACC Mentioned) EU Chems Worried Over Potential Trade Wars After US Steel Tariffs - Cefic DG

Mar 2, 2018 | ICIS

By Jonathan Lopez

BRUSSELS (ICIS)--The new tariffs imposed by the US on steel and aluminium could risk starting a global trade war that would be detrimental for the world economy, the director general (DG) at European chemicals trade group Cefic said on Friday.
Marco Mensink added that the tariffs imposed on steel of 25% and aluminium of 10% on 1 March by US President Donald Trump could mean the start of a protectionist cycle which could ultimately prompt the EU to impose its own tariffs, among other “safeguard” measures.
The EU’s chemical trade group view mirrors that of its US counterpart, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), which said the tariffs could actually slow down growth in the country’s chemical industry.
“[EU Commission vice president Jyrki] Katainen said it wisely yesterday: it’s much harder to stop a trade war from escalating than preventing one. That’s the negative of today: When you step into the cycle, it’s much harder to manage than just preventing it from taking place,” said Cefic’s Mensink.
“It will be interesting to see the EU analysis and what exactly the impact of tariffs on redirected trade flows from the US to the European market will be: both the direct impact on European steel and aluminium exports to the US, and the impact of trade flows diverted to the US market and coming to Europe.”
Mensink said that rather than tariffs, the EU should seek to impose “safeguard measures” for European steel and aluminium to avoid product not allowed into the EU to be dampened into the European market.
Pressed on whether those measures could include the imposition of tariffs, Mensink said that could indeed be part of a wider package of measures to protect European product.
The world is not yet heading towards a trade war for the moment, Cefic’s DG said, although he admitted it was “at the doorstep” of one.
“Cefic is a pro-free trade organisation, the same way ACC is. For now, Trump is not imposing tariffs on chemicals,” added Mensink (pictured), who always likes to claim he is a naturally optimistic.
- Are you optimistic on this one?
- I am not. This a risk for the global economy. Trade wards are not a solution to anything.
The European steel trade group Eurofer on Friday said that with the imposition of tariffs, the US had chosen “global trade confrontation” and, without calling for immediate imposition of tariffs by the EU, it welcomed a promise from the 28-country bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, to impose “swift action” to safeguard the European steel industry.
"From one day to the next, EU steel exports to the US – which were at 5m tonnes in 2017 – will be severely hit… In the current context of massive global excess steel capacity, markets will be forced to take preventive contingency actions to avoid domestic market disruption from trade deflection," said Axel Eggert, DG at Eurofer.
"We welcome the announcement of the Commission that appropriate and swift measures will be taken to safeguard the interests and jobs in our industry. The EU must not allow that the moderate recovery in our industry over the last year is now being destroyed by the EU's most important political ally.”
https://www.icis.com/resources/news/2018/03/02/10198758/eu-chems-worried-over-potential-trade-wars-after-us-steel-tariffs-cefic-dg/

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(ACC Mentioned) Mexico Sugar Industry Not Worried By Us Trade Deal Review

Mar 2, 2018 | 10 Thousand Couples

By Shelly Chandler

The United States called back its negotiator for the contentious issue of regional auto content rules from a round of NAFTA talks for consultations in Washington on Monday, delaying the ongoing conversations in Mexico City, three Mexican and Canadian trade officials said.
A report from Politico says the outcome of the North American Freee Trade Agreement talks in Mexico could hinge on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. A big reason for that is the shale-gas cost advantage of US feedstocks, ACC said.
"In this case we think we're opening the door to greater competition and market access by manufacturers in China and other regions", said ACC President and CEO Cal Dooley. Easter was there as co-chair of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group.
Mexico's fraught ties with the administration of Donald Trump hit another bump following weekend reports that a testy phone call between the US president and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto led to the cancellation of a planned meeting between the two in Washington. Most of that new production is ultimately planned for export, he said.
There are concerns that stiff US tariffs could raise global steel prices, which would impact Mexico.
"If you replace the imports of corn from the United States with those from Brazil, Argentina and other countries, the price will be more expensive and this will lead to a price increase of tortillas in Mexico", he said. The pact generates more than $1 trillion a year in trade among the three countries and key industries such as autos have integrated supply chains that move components and finished products across the borders of the three countries.
We can not, and must not, withdraw from NAFTA. "Those $5 billion investments are not made on a five-year horizon", Dooley said.

http://10thousandcouples.com/2018/03/mexico-sugar-industry-not-worried-by-us-trade-deal-review/

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(ACC Mentioned) Chemicals Official Cleared To Weigh In On Industry Litigation

Mar 1, 2018 | E&E News PM

By Kevin Bogardus

Senior U.S. EPA chemicals official Nancy Beck has been cleared by agency ethics officials to take part in certain cases involving her former employer, the American Chemistry Council.
Kevin Minoli, EPA's designated ethics official, issued Beck a new memo, obtained by E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act, allowing her to participate in five cases where the chemicals trade group had intervened in court.
Minoli concluded the U.S. government's interest in Beck participating in the litigation outweighed "any concerns about your impartiality" and authorized Beck to take part in the cases.
He noted that Beck, who serves as deputy assistant administrator in EPA's chemicals office, also has helped to defend agency actions and regulations that have been challenged in court. But when the agency was made aware that ACC had intervened in the lawsuits, "you ceased your involvement and sought further ethics advice."
"We indicated that unless you received an impartiality determination from me, the federal impartiality standards would prohibit you from continuing your work on specific party matters," said the memo, dated Jan. 11.
Minoli's determination will be short-lived. Beck will no longer need it after April 21, when she will not have a "covered relationship" with ACC, according to the memo.
Beck has attracted scrutiny as an EPA official due to her past work at ACC, where she often pushed back on agency rules.
Last April, she was hired at EPA in an "administratively determined" position and was not considered a political appointee. Consequently, Beck didn't have to sign President Trump's ethics pledge, although she was still bound by federal conflict-of-interest laws (Greenwire, Aug. 8, 2017).
At least three Trump appointees at EPA — all former lobbyists — have been given waivers for the president's ethics pledge (Greenwire, Feb. 23). But at least one of those officials didn't end up needing his waiver.
Dennis Lee Forsgren, the political deputy in EPA's water office, did not wind up talking about Hurricane Irma with a former lobbying client, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which triggered the waiver, according to ethics records.
The waiver "was ultimately not necessary because the hurricane veered away from the Miccosukee Reservation. Consequently, the Tribe was not as severely impacted as initially anticipated and did not reach out to Mr. Forsgren at all. Therefore, this limited waiver was never utilized."
Forsgren still has recused himself from matters involving his former employer, HBW Resources, and its clients. His recusal statement expires June 18, 2019.Industry ties
Other EPA ethics documents obtained by E&E News under FOIA highlight Trump appointees' ties to industry and other interests that have battled with the agency in the past.
Justin Schwab, deputy general counsel at EPA, wrote two different recusal statements — one in February 2017 as a "beachhead team" member and another this past August after he had joined the agency permanently.
Schwab pledged to not take part in matters involving law firm Baker and Hostetler LLP, which is where he used to work before coming to EPA. That includes several former clients that may have "environmental interests" he listed in his statement, such as the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, Caterpillar Inc., Chevron Corp., Southern Co. and Valero Renewable Fuels Co. LLC.
Schwab also said he wouldn't participate in legal issues where the state of Oklahoma or the Virginia House of Delegates is a party. But both those recusal periods have already ended — Sept. 23 last year for Oklahoma and Aug. 31 for Virginia.
Patrick Traylor, deputy assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, also signed an ethics document, which listed more than four dozen prior energy clients.
Traylor, who came to EPA from the law firm Hogan Lovells LLP, spent about two decades at the firm. Traylor agreed not to be involved in particular matters involving utilities like NRG Energy Inc. and Southern California Edison, Koch Companies Public Sector LLC, Koch Minerals, and BHP Billiton Petroleum Inc.
The need for his recusal ends June 5, 2019.
Like EPA air chief Bill Wehrum, for whom he now works, Senior Counsel David Harlow was previously at the law firm Hunton & Williams LLP. There, his clients included the Utility Air Regulatory Group, DTE Energy Co., Chevron and the holding company for Kentucky Utilities Co., according to his recusal statement from late December.
Under Trump's executive order, Harlow wrote that he is barred from participation for two years "in any particular matter" involving clients for whom he or Hunton & Williams provided legal services in the last two years. According to the memo, Harlow is recused from working on five cases challenging various Obama-era regulations, such as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the Clean Power Plan.
Administrator Scott Pruitt also has his own recusal statement dated from last May where he pledged to stay out of litigation he pursued against EPA as Oklahoma attorney general (E&E News PM, May 5, 2017).
Other Trump appointees were allowed to keep outside jobs.
Patrick Davis, a longtime Republican political consultant who was Trump's 2016 Colorado state campaign director, received approval from EPA to be compensated as sales director of Telephone Town Hall Meeting, or TTHM, a teleconference service company.
Davis, who is now a senior adviser in EPA's Denver office, had to work for TTHM on his own time and couldn't use agency resources for the job. In addition, he couldn't take part in EPA duties that could affect the company, and his outside income was capped at $27,765 for the year.Regional officials
A number of EPA regional administrators appointed by Trump have also signed recusal statements.
Region 4 chief Trey Glenn recused himself from participating in "any particular matter" involving his former employers, Blue Ridge Consulting Services Inc. and Strada Professional Services LLC. He also said he wouldn't take part in matters involving at least 14 clients, including law firm Balch & Bingham LLP, Black Mesa Energy, the Business Council of Alabama and Drummond Co.
Glenn's recusal lasts for two years from the time he joined the federal government.
Doug Benevento, who runs EPA's Denver office, filed a similar statement recusing himself from issues that impacted his former employer, Xcel Energy Inc., a utility holding company. Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford also pledged to keep his distance from the Soil and Water Conservation Society as well as Agriculture and Conservation Services LLC — both of whom he used to work for.
Like Beck of the chemicals office, Pete Lopez, head of EPA's Region 2 branch, was given an impartiality determination to take part in "particular matters" that affect the state of New York. Lopez is a former New York state assemblyman.
But it appears other high-profile Trump appointees at EPA were not given ethics documents.
Michael Dourson, once an adviser to Pruitt whose nomination to lead the chemicals office was withdrawn last year among Democratic and Republican opposition, came under scrutiny for his ties to industry. EPA didn't find any such records for Dourson, according to the agency's response to E&E News' request.
Reporters Hannah Northey and Sean Reilly contributed.
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/03/01/stories/1060075215

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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Chemicals Official Nancy Beck

Mar 1, 2018 | PoliticoPro

EPA chemicals official Nancy Beck —Formerly the senior director for regulatory science policy for the American Chemistry Council — was also given the all-clear by EPA ethics officials to participate in certain cases pertaining to her former employer. In a memo, obtained by E&E News, EPA's designated ethics official allowed Beck to take part in five cases ACC had been involved in. E&E has more here.
https://www.politicopro.com/newsletters/morning-energy/2018/03/evolutions-just-a-theory-pruitt-says-in-2005-121202

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(ACC Mentioned) Lighthizer Seems All In On Getting ISDS Out

Mar 1, 2018 | Politico

By Adam Behsudi

... LIGHTHIZER SEEMS ALL IN ON GETTING ISDS OUT: Lighthizer appears ideologically committed to eliminating investor-state dispute settlement from NAFTA, even when confronted with business opposition to the controversial U.S. proposal, a top official in the chemicals sector said Wednesday.
Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, said the board of his organization met recently with Ross and had an audience with Lighthizer just last week, during which board members brought up the organization's opposition to the U.S. proposal in the NAFTA talks, which would make the deal's dispute settlement mechanism optional. He said Lighthizer gave the same reasoning for ditching ISDS, arguing that it was an “insurance policy” for companies to make a return on their investment. He added that Lighthizer continues to argue that without the recourse ISDS provides to companies overseas, firms could be more inclined to invest in the U.S. rather than being given an incentive to invest abroad.
Dooley said he argued that Lighthizer’s reasoning doesn't apply to the chemical industry, where companies often are unable to transport products over long distances and, as a result, must establish operations abroad to be close to consumers, which are generally manufacturers in those countries.
When confronted with a counter-argument to his position on ISDS, Dooley said Lighthizer focused mainly on the need to provide assistance to sectors of the economy that suffer trade deficits. He said Lighthizer has “really not focused in terms of how do they ensure they don’t disadvantage or undermine the global competitiveness of industries such as the chemical manufacturing sector, which has a significant trade surplus.”
ISDS writing on the wall: Although it doesn’t specifically mention ISDS, Lighthizer’s annual trade policy agenda released Wednesday said the Trump administration is “determined to avoid provisions that will encourage outsourcing.”
“If a company decides to build a factory in Mexico – and it has legitimate, market-based reasons for doing so – then it should act as the market dictates,” the agenda states. “But we reject the notion that the U.S. government should use NAFTA – or any other trade deal – to encourage outsourcing.”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-trade/2018/03/01/brace-yourself-for-possible-steel-and-aluminum-tariffs-today-120440

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(ACC Mentioned) Pressure Mounting in Mexico for NAFTA Round Seven

Mar 2, 2018 | ClickLancashire

By Elias Hubbard

Now is the time to make agricultural trade great again by enhancing NAFTA, negotiating a US position in CPTPP, engaging with Japan, improving KORUS and getting more access to the important Chinese market.
Nantais said he expects USA carmakers "to make it very clear as to the importance of their operations to American jobs", and that a modernized Nafta is their preference over US withdrawal from the pact.
Woodall says having a solid NAFTA deal is critical for the USA cattle industry.
A US withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement could damage the shale-gas investment boom in plastics, slow exports and benefit China and others, according to a new study from the American Chemistry Council.
"Those $5 billion investments are not made on a five-year horizon", Dooley said. The Toronto Stock Exchange index, which stood near 15,700 on Monday, was up a mere 1.3 per cent from a year ago. As a result, we have a trade deal with the European Union and the outline of a deal tying Canada to Japan, Australia, Chile and seven other Pacific Rim countries.
What most don't realize is that almost 50 percent of Wisconsin's exports go to Canada and Mexico.
The Mexican sugar industry is not "overly concerned" that U.S. refiners have asked for a review of its compliance with a sugar trade deal, the head of the Mexican Sugar Chamber, Juan Cortina, said on Tuesday.
In a war of nerves, such as the NAFTA negotiation, a breakthrough could come at any time. An American Farm Bureau Federation economist says USA farmers and ranchers are working to enhance access to foreign markets including Canada, China, Japan, Mexico and South Korea. Relations between the USA and Mexico have also cooled because of Mr Trump's proposal to build the wall between the two countries.
The most likely prospect at the moment is that the current round of talks ends without an agreement, Mexico turns to its presidential election and then the USA turns to its November mid-term congressional elections. Since 2000, trade to China, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the TPP areas has represented between 56 and 63 percent of all USA agricultural trade.
Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, said by phone from Mexico City that Bernstein had returned to Washington for a series of meetings on rules of origin, with the US automobile and other industries. The worst result of that cloud, however, appears to be a slight chill - no storm, no tornado.
Canada will do better to accept an extra year or two of uncertainty than to accept the permanent curtailment of market access that the U.S.is now proposing.
NAFTA has opened markets to America's farmers, grown domestic jobs, and supported $127 billion in annual economic activity.
http://clicklancashire.com/2018/03/02/pressure-mounting-in-mexico-for-nafta-round-seven.html

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(ACC Mentioned) Resin Pricing Changes Abundant In A Short February

Mar 2, 2018 | Plastics News

By Frank Esposito

February may be the shortest month, but it was a busy one for commodity resin pricing.
Regional prices for polyethylene, PVC, solid polystyrene and PET bottle resin all finished higher for the month, while polypropylene took a dive.
Prices for all grades of PE were up 4 cents per pound in February, with PVC up 3 cents and solid PS and PET bottle resin each up an average of 2 cents, according to market sources contacted by Plastics News. The PP dip averaged 6 cents per pound.
The price increases played out against a larger market picture of higher global oil prices and a weaker U.S. dollar, according to Phil Karig, managing director of Mathelin Bay Associates in St. Louis. Since early March 2017, Brent crude oil prices are up about 14 percent, while the dollar has depreciated about 15 percent vs. the euro.
“There are always other impacts on resin pricing such as capacity utilization and anticipated growth of the market locally and globally,” Karig said. “But crude oil prices are the backdrop against which other price influences in the resin market play out against over time.”
Looking forward, he added, depreciation of the dollar is likely to stall for a time as the U.S. Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates more aggressively, which should put a ceiling on crude oil price increases and decrease upward pressure on resin prices.
Longer-term, though, if U.S. budget deficits continue to expand, inflation-driven impacts of oil prices on resin prices “will begin to pick up speed,” Karig said.
The 4-cent PE hike came after lower demand had sent prices down 3 cents in January. Prices for all grades of high, low and linear low density PE had been flat in November and December.
The February PE increase “was supplier driven more than anything,” said Mike Burns, a market analyst with Resin Technology Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas. He added that higher raw material prices played a role in the move, as well some production issues and higher export sales.
Market analyst David Barry with PetroChem Wire in Houston sees the February PE increases as “a short-term move.”
“The cold snap in January had a larger impact on PE operating rates than people thought,” he said in an email to Plastics News. The market has seen a number of non-weather-related force majeure declarations as well, Barry added, at assets operated by at least five PE makers.
“All of these production events are winding down as we get into March, so it's likely to be a month for suppliers to play catch-up and to possibly get more active on the export front,” he said. “The new plants have had little impact on the domestic supply balance that I can see, so I would imagine that most of that new output is going offshore.”
U.S./Canadian PE sales got off to a mixed start in January, according to the American Chemistry Council. Regional sales of HDPE were up almost 4 percent, with LLDPE sales rising 7.5 percent. But sales of LDPE had a rough month, slipping almost 9 percent.
For HDPE, domestic sales growth of 4 percent was dampened slightly by 2.5 percent export growth. In LLDPE, exports boomed 33 percent in January — fueled by new capacity added in 2017 — boosting domestic sales growth of almost 1 percent. LDPE’s 6 percent domestic sales drop in January was worsened by a 17 percent plunge in export sales.PVC exports show strength
The 3-cent hike for PVC happened after prices were flat in January and down a penny in December. It took hold as a result of a stronger export market and because of limited production at some PVC plants in the region, according to an executive at a PVC maker contacted by Plastics News.
“There were some [production] issues associated with the hard freeze in the Houston area,” the executive said. “That pushed operating rates under 80 percent. Exports were also up in price, which tightened supplies for the domestic market.”
U.S./Canadian PVC sales grew just over 2 percent in January, with export growth of 14 percent making up for a 3.5 percent decline in domestic sales. January PVC sales into its flagship rigid pipe and tubing end market were down almost 8 percent, as extreme winter weather slowed construction activity.Polystyrene prices volatile
Regional PS prices climbed 2 cents after being flat in January, but up 5 in December. That topsy-turvy pattern has been dictated by changes in raw material prices. PS makers had been seeking price hikes ranging from 2 to 7 cents per pound for February.
Barry at PCW said the February PS move was influenced by tight supplies of styrene monomer. Higher butadiene prices also put pressure on prices for high-impact PS. By comparison, prices for benzene feedstock, which has been a main driver of PS prices in recent years, have been relatively stable, he said.
Regional PS makers in 2018 are looking to rebound from a 2017 year in which sales fell just over 2 percent. A domestic sales loss of more than 2 percent for full-year 2017 was softened by a gain of 5.5 percent in exports.For PET, nine months of increases
The 2-cent price hike seen by PET in February extended that material’s streak to nine consecutive months of price increases. Most PET buyers have seen increases of 13 cents since September.
PET bottle resin prices in the region have remained a bit tight in the wake of M&G Polymers' bankruptcy-related shutdown of its 800 million-pound-capacity plant in Apple Grove, W. Va. That plant now has been purchased by Far East New Century Corp. of Taiwan and is expected to restart, which would improve supplies for the regional market.
However, market sources have said that when the Apple Grove PET plant restarts, it may devote some of its capacity to types of PET other than bottle resin.Polypropylene roller coaster
Month-to-month volatility in PP pricing is almost a given. The 6-cent drop came after a 9-cent jump in January had been caused by short-term supply tightness, as cold weather griped the Houston area. Supplies of both PP resin and propylene monomer were tight.
Prior to the February slide, North American PP prices had increased for seven consecutive months, with those increases totaling 19.5 cents per pound. Higher domestic demand combined with supply outages had played a role in these price hikes.
“The market wasn’t supporting the level that prices were rising to,” RTI market analyst Scott Newell said. “That resulted in significant demand destruction across the propylene chain.” A similar price decline is possible for March, he added.
The plant issues that were helping drive propylene price volatility have mostly been resolved, according to Barry at PCW. Demand for derivatives, including PP resins, was likely weaker in February, he added, so propylene “is in the midst of a correction right now.”
“It could be that PP producers will try to find a price floor in March and rebuild from there,” Barry explained. “They’ve been successful at keeping the market balanced to tight — not making any more resin than they have orders for.”
As a result, he added, there has not been much spot availability for domestic or international markets, although Barry “suspects that PP export activity could pick up this month.”
North American PP sales got off to a rough start in 2018, dropping 4 percent in January. A domestic sales loss of almost 3 percent was magnified by a 46 percent drop in export sales.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20180301/NEWS/180309992/resin-pricing-changes-abundant-in-a-short-february

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Trump's Critics Will Try Again To Challenge '2-For-1' Rule Order

Mar 1, 2018 | Inside EPA

Environmentalists and other citizen groups will get a chance to renew their suit aiming to overturn President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) that requires EPA and other agencies to identify two existing rules to repeal for every new rule they issue, despite a judge's decision that the case as it stands now should be dismissed.
During a March 1 conference, District Judge Randolph D. Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave plaintiffs in Public Citizen, et al., v. Donald Trump, et al., until April 2 to file a new motion showing why they or their members face “certain” harm from Trump's EO 13771 and therefore have legal standing to challenge it.
He told attorneys for the two sides that despite his Feb. 26 ruling that faulted the suit, the plaintiffs should have a chance to correct their complaint. “It seems to me that the plaintiffs should have an opportunity to seek leave to amend,” Moss said during the hearing.
Moss questioned whether that opportunity should come in the form of a request to file an amended complaint, or simply filing the updated document and letting the Department of Justice (DOJ) make a new argument for dismissing it. The judge ultimately said “I think it doesn't really make a difference” which form the filing takes, because the substance of the arguments on both sides would be the same.
Moss backed a second chance for the plaintiffs despite DOJ attorney Daniel Edward Bensing's argument at the conference that “the plaintiffs in this case made a really incredibly detailed attempt to establish standing,” and “it is difficult for us to imagine” what more they could add to remedy the flaws that Moss identified in the Feb. 26 ruling.
Moss wrote in his decision that based on the facts included in their current complaint, “Plaintiffs cannot plausibly allege that the delay in finalizing the regulatory actions at issue here will certainly cause their members injury; instead the delay will, at most, increase the risk that the identified individuals might someday suffer an injury.”
For instance, he wrote that even though it seems clear that EPA shelved restrictions on the paint-stripping chemicals methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone based on EO 13771, the groups included no details in their papers showing how that delay will expose their members to injury.
During the court session, plaintiffs' attorney Allison Zieve said her clients would address those flaws through new declarations from their members adding new details and facts related to the delayed rules.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/trumps-critics-will-try-again-challenge-2-1-rule-order

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LCSA News

(ACC Mentioned) Backing Industry, EPA Plans Pre-Submission Review For New Chemicals

Mar 1, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Dave Reynolds

EPA is seeking to revamp its process for meeting with chemical manufacturers prior to companies' submissions of new chemicals for review, granting an industry request to bolster such pre-submission consultations to help streamline the agency's process for reviewing new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which is failing to meet statutory deadlines.
“To the extent we can have discussions prior to that 90-day clock starting, it would be extremely useful,” EPA's Jeff Morris told a chemical industry conference in Washington, DC, Feb. 28.
“It would be worthwhile to set up a discussion to talk about the chemistry, to talk about the uses, and talk about the type of information that would be most helpful” to an efficient review.
Morris said he would like to build a program of robust pre-submission discussions with companies that plan to submit pre-manufacture notices (PMN) of new chemicals.
He suggested meetings occur early, when companies are conducting research and development. “I'm committed to dedicating as many resources as I can to make this happen,” Morris said.
His plan announced during the Global Chemical Regulations Conference, comes as industry groups have been pressing EPA to speed its new chemicals review process by beefing up a pre-submission consultation process that until now has been used sparingly and codifying it in its framework for assessing new chemicals.
The New Chemicals Program Implementation Coalition (NCPIC) in Jan. 20 comments on EPA's evolving framework for PMN reviews under the revised TSCA, urged the agency to formalize a pre-submission consultation process to ensure the agency had what it needs for an efficient review.
“Avoiding surprise by flagging issues upfront and providing submitters an opportunity to develop information to address concerns (or abandon a doomed project) before a notice is submitted should make the review process much more predictable for submitters and more time and resource efficient for the Agency,” the coalition said.
The NCPIC comments urged EPA to establish procedures for companies to request and schedule pre-notice consultations, provide clear guidance on data necessary to ensure a productive meeting, and to devote adequate resources to ensure meetings are scheduled in a reasonable time and that sufficient staff attention is provided.
“[I]t is more important than ever for submitters to anticipate the Agency’s substance evaluation needs and provide sufficient information for timely and predictable review,” NCPIC said.
Morris echoed that sentiment in his remarks to Global Chem, both imploring companies to make use of the planned revamped pre-submission consultation process, but also cautioning that EPA will have to work through implementing its new chemical reviews, suggesting that time, rather than process changes, is what's most needed to right the process.
“We are trying to work through it and we have to go case-by-case to build a knowledge base of how you do it,” Morris said. “I don't think [new] rules for the road for this will work. We need to work through it as we go.”
He also echoed industry arguments that delays in EPA's new chemicals review process are slowing cleaner chemicals from reaching the market, prompting companies to continue to use older substances that pose greater risks.
“The new chemicals that come into commerce are so critically important for our well being,” he said, adding that new substances improve electronic devices and other products people rely on. “Getting it right is so important.”
Assessments' Reach
The primary challenges to the new chemicals review process stem from the June 2016 TSCA's requirements that EPA make a definitive finding regarding the safety of each new chemical, and also consider "reasonably foreseeable" uses of a chemical that are not included in a PMN but could occur once a chemical is added to the TSCA inventory.
Morris said the agency is currently wrestling with how far the terms “reasonably foreseeable” and “not likely” to pose an unreasonable risk should expand the agency's assessments.
To evaluate reasonably foreseeable uses, Morris says staff looks at a database of existing substances with similar chemical structures and evaluates whether those comparable substances are used in ways not described in the submission. Also, something in the PMN chemical's properties may compel the agency to consider other uses.
“Wrestling with that notion of how we evaluate reasonably foreseen uses is really a part of our day to day life,” Morris said. “It takes you down a very tricky path in how you go about addressing a use that isn't described in the submission but is reasonably foreseen, and what does reasonably foreseen mean?”
In considering whether a substance is not likely to present unreasonable risk, Morris said EPA considers the full scope of potential hazards, such as whether a substance causes cancer or developmental effects, or is merely an irritant.
He also said that EPA is wrestling with when it has insufficient information to conduct a review.
As EPA is wrestling with the scope of its reviews, industry officials continue to press for a timely and predictable process.
Karyn Schmidt of the American Chemistry Council told the conference that while EPA has made significant progress in eliminating the backlog of new chemical reviews that accrued in the early stages of TSCA implementation, the backlog still exists.
She reiterated industry calls for a predictable process that allows companies to accurately plan when new chemicals will reach the market, and she said that EPA should tell companies well in advance if additional testing will be needed.
Schmidt also encouraged companies that submit PMNs to provide EPA with data that could inform its review of reasonably foreseeable uses, even if those potential future uses might be undertaken by another company.
“EPA is a in a much more difficult position trying to figure out what third-parties might do, so things you can do to help EPA with that third-party look I'm quite certain would be appreciated,” she said.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/backing-industry-epa-plans-pre-submission-review-new-chemicals

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Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) Industry Asks Congress for Federal Chemical Warning Label Standards (2)

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Pat Rizzuto

Congress should introduce legislation to establish federal chemical labeling standards to bring consistency to the burgeoning number of state labels being required, American Chemistry Council President Cal Dooley said March 1.
An industry coalition of chemical makers, farm groups, and manufacturers is discussing with federal legislators the introduction of such legislation and how the standards-development process could work, Dooley said on the sidelines of the council's annual Global Chemical Regulations Conference in Washington.
The federal standards would not prevent states or municipalities from requiring labels warning customers about the chemicals or other ingredients in a particular product, he said. The standards would, however, set consistent, science-based criteria for warning labels, Dooley said.
Companies that met the federal standards and criteria could use that compliance if they needed to defend themselves against an alleged failure to meet a state or local government's requirements, he said.
Dooley and officials from other trade associations at the conference, said they don't expect legislation promoting federal standards to pass in this Congress, which is an election year. But interested parties and legislators can begin work now for future legislation, Dooley said.
Jon Corley, a spokesman for the chemistry council, told Bloomberg Environment the coalition is still in preliminary discussions and organizational efforts which reflects the diversity of interested sectors.
Federal Labeling Standards
The idea, however, is illustrated by the 1967 Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, Dooley said.
That law required the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration to issue regulations requiring that all consumer commodities be labeled to disclose net contents, identity of commodity, and the name and place of business of the product's manufacturer, packer, or distributor. A central idea of the law was to create uniform state and federal regulations for labels, easing national distribution networks.
Other federal laws passed before and after the packaging act also address the idea of consistency in product labels, James Votaw, an attorney with Keller & Heckman LLP, said during the conference.
Some have caused tensions among various members of a given supply chain as chemical suppliers resist disclosing specific product formulations—or mixtures of chemicals that perform particular functions—to the customers that make a final cleaning, cosmetic, or other product, he said. Trade associations also are working to agree on common names they can use when listing specific ingredients, he said.
The many players in any given supply chain network will have to continue wrestling with ways to address such issues, said Julie Froelicher, senior manager, regulatory & technical relations, at the Procter & Gamble Co.
Enquiring Minds
“Customers want to know what's in their products,” she said.
Retailers and product manufacturers already have begun to compete for consumers’ attention by providing chemical ingredients in products they make or sell, Froelicher said.
Owen Caine. a vice president at the Household & Commercial Products Association, said Maryland and New York also are considering ingredient disclosure and/or regulations.
If experience with past state chemical laws are indicative of future efforts, these state laws and regulations will be different in ways that make it hard for manufacturers to comply across states, he said.
Slight differences could mean different labels for products sold in different states or North American countries, said Caine and Froelicher. For most companies that use national distribution systems, that's not feasible, he said.

“It's time for tough conversations,” Caine said.
Questions diverse industries should consider include what information consumers and governments have the right to know; how to best convey information; how to explain the difference between chemical hazard and the possibility—or risk—harm could occur; and who is validating the science behind safety claims, he said.
The Household & Commercial Products Association is working to address these questions with its members, Caine added.

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128964195&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128964195&jd=128964195

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(ACC Mentioned) BPA Still Safe Determination is Premature - Endocrine Society

Mar 2, 2018 | FoodQualityNews.com

By Joseph James Whitworth

... The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and PlasticsEurope said results supported 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. For full story: https://www.foodqualitynews.com/Article/2018/03/02/Endocrine-Society-Reserve-judgement-until-final-BPA-report

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Microplastics in EU Products Under Regulatory Microscope

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Stephen Gardner

Tiny plastic particles intentionally added to products sold in the European Union are coming under the regulatory microscope as the bloc's chemicals agency seeks data and comment on their use in cosmetics, detergents, paints, and other items.
The European Chemicals Agency said the scope of what is known as a call for comments and evidence was broad in order to “fully understand the diversity of uses and the sectors within which intentionally added microplastics are used.” The inquiry would cover microplastics measuring 5 millimeters or less, including nanoplastics, according to a consultation background document.
Depending on responses to the call for evidence, which will be accepted through May 11, the European Chemicals Agency said it could propose in early 2019 to ban microplastic particles in products under the EU's REACH chemicals law. REACH is the EU's overarching law on the restriction, evaluation and authorization of chemicals (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006).
The call is not directed at so-called secondary microplastics, or synthetic particles that are released into the environment through product wear and tear, the background document said. Synthetic microfibers from clothing are an example of secondary microplastics.
Microplastics In Environment Concern
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, previewed a possible REACH restriction on microplastics when it published a strategy Jan. 17 to reduce plastic waste and plastic litter entering the environment. Microplastics released into air, soil and water were “reaching citizens’ lungs and dinner tables” with an “unknown” health impact, the commission said at the time.
Concern about microplastics has also prompted some governments to take action. A U.K. ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products took effect Jan. 9. The U.S., Canada and New Zealand also have passed laws to ban microbeads.
But microbeads in cosmetics, toothpastes, and face washes are only “a very minor source” of microplastic pollution, Roberto Scazzola, scientific director of the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products, told Bloomberg BNA March 1. The association represents companies such as Colgate Palmolive, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever.
Microbeads are also used in products such as toilet blocks and cooktop cleaners, but these are negligible as a source of microplastics in the environment, and “our industry is already phasing out” remaining use of microbeads in such products, Scazzola said.
A study on microplastics intentionally added to products, published by the European Commission in October 2017, found that industrial and agricultural applications, such as industrial abrasives and slow-release fertilizers with polymer coatings, generate greater volumes of microplastics than consumer products.

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128964214&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128964214&jd=128964214

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Most Chemicals Dossiers Lack Critical Data, EU Agency Finds

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Stephen Gardner

Companies registering chemicals under the European Union's REACH regulation need to do more to provide regulators with data that can be used to assess the safety of those substances, according to the European Chemicals Agency.
Since 2008, when ECHA started checking the compliance of REACH registration dossiers with the regulation's information requirements, nearly 2,000 dossiers have been evaluated, with 69 percent found wanting in terms of the hazard information provided, the agency said in a Feb. 28 report.
Where information is found to be lacking, ECHA issues orders to companies to provide the information, which can include requirements to carry out tests to determine substance properties. In most cases, missing information concerns “pre-natal developmental toxicity, mutagenicity or genotoxicity, reproduction toxicity and long-term aquatic toxicity,” ECHA said in a Feb. 28 statement.
ECHA has often complained about shortcomings in the information in REACH registration dossiers filed by companies. Under REACH (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 on the restriction, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals), submission of a registration dossier that collates substance identity and safety information is a condition of access to the EU market.
Registration dossiers had to be filed by deadlines in 2010 and 2013 for chemicals manufactured in, or imported into, the EU in annual volumes of more than 100 metric tons, and for the most hazardous chemicals in annual volumes above 1 metric ton. A May 31, 2018, deadline applies to other substances in the 1 to 100 metric ton band.
’Uncertainty’ of Evaluations
The nearly 2,000 registration dossiers compliance that ECHA checked in the last decade represent 4.6 percent of all relevant registration dossiers, the report said.
The process of compliance verification of dossiers has not always been straightforward for companies, Ruxandra Cana, a partner with law firm Steptoe and Johnson LLP in Brussels, told Bloomberg Environment Feb. 28. For example, “there has been a lot of uncertainty” about the extent to which predictions of the properties of chemicals by comparison with similar chemicals can be used to generate substance data, she said.
In addition, ECHA could do more to look “holistically” at groups of similar substances, rather than compliance checking single substances that are part of a group in isolation, she said.
Over the 10 years of REACH registration dossier compliance checks, companies and ECHA have “intensified their cooperation,” leading to a better understanding of “what is expected from the industry in terms of new data,” Nathalie Gross, spokeswoman for the European Chemical Industry Council, told Bloomberg Environment Feb. 28.
Companies take their REACH “obligation to provide new information on tonnages, uses, exposure, and hazard information of already registered chemicals very seriously,” Gross said.
Suspected Hazardous Substances
Since REACH substance evaluations started in 2012, 221 chemicals have been assessed, with additional information required in 159, or 72 percent, of cases, according to the ECHA report. In about 30 cases so far, the evaluations of suspected hazards have triggered recommendations that substances should be made subject to uniform EU hazard classification, restricted, or otherwise controlled, it said.
But ECHA requests for more data on chemicals from companies could hold up regulatory processes such as decisions to ban or restrict hazardous substances. EU regulators “need to act on the data we have, and to use the precautionary principle more,” Anna Lennquist, senior toxicologist with ChemSec, which campaigns for phaseout of toxic chemicals, told Bloomberg Environment Feb. 28.
Under the precautionary principle, decision-makers take preventive action in the face of uncertainty, shift the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity, explore a range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions, and increase public participation.
The ECHA report also covered evaluations carried out under REACH of chemicals that are suspected of being hazardous. These evaluations are done by authorities in EU countries and can lead to binding decisions requesting more information from registrants.
The substance evaluation process has been shaped by decisions of the ECHA Board of Appeal, which can adjudicate when, for example, ECHA issues a decision requiring a company to provide additional substance information and the company disagrees, according to Cana. Due to board decisions, “the rules are clear, legally certain, and the companies know what to expect,” Cana said.
The substance evaluation process could be improved through, among other things, better communications between the EU country designated to evaluate a chemical and the companies that have registered that chemical, and through clearer criteria for substances identified for evaluation, the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union said in a Feb. 28 email to Bloomberg Environment. Some shortcomings in the process have “not yet been effectively addressed,” the chamber said.

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Energy News

America's Global Gas Clout Booms with New Terminal Set to Ship

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Ryan Collins, Naureen S. Malik and Debjit Chakraborty

The U.S. is about to take another big step toward becoming a global natural gas powerhouse as a second terminal prepares to ship the fuel from America's shale basins, putting the nation on course to rival the world's biggest exporters.
Gemmata, a liquefied natural gas tanker operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, will carry the first cargo from Dominion Energy Inc.’s Cove Point LNG plant in Maryland in the next week, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public.
The remaking of Cove Point, originally built to import natural gas, comes as booming output from shale formations has pushed the U.S. to become a net exporter of the fuel. The facility offers the first East Coast departure point, providing a quicker route to European buyers. It will add another 750 million cubic feet a day of LNG export capacity, making the U.S. the world's fourth-largest producer behind Qatar, Australia and Malaysia.
The U.S. is “steadily entering the ranks of major-league producers” of LNG, Jason Feer, global head of business intelligence at Poten & Partners Inc. in Houston, said by phone Feb. 28. “This just signals how rapidly we've gone from a would-be importer to a major producer.”
Cove Point and Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana, which opened in 2016, are the first in what's poised to be a string of U.S. export facilities: Three more may open on the Gulf Coast by next year, and about two dozen terminals have received government approval or are under review.
A spokesman for Dominion did not respond to requests for comment. Ray Fisher, spokesman for Shell, declined to comment.
Cove Point is the only LNG facility on the East Coast, which will give ships loaded there a quicker route to Europe. It's proximity to the Appalachian Basin, the largest reserve of gas in America, is a benefit, giving the terminal access to some of the lowest-priced fuel in the nation.
Given only 14 percent of shipments from the U.S. have made it to Europe as of the end of February, it could help the nation further build a footprint in a market that so far has received the bulk of its LNG from Qatar.
Cheniere's LNG has “gone all over the world, but fairly little of it has gone to Europe,” Feer said. Cove Point's “location gives it a potential edge getting into these Atlantic Basin markets.”
Super-chilled LNG has been a pillar of the Trump administration's goal of U.S. energy dominance as China's gas use surges.
Shell's Gemmata passed a safety inspection Feb. 27 and was scheduled to dock at Cove Point Feb. 28, Ronald Hodges, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Coast Guard, said by telephone Feb. 27. The schedule does not necessarily mean that's how events will unfold, he added.
The startup of Cove Point will come after a delay: Dominion had initially expected the terminal to begin service by the end of 2017. Though it's not clear where the first cargo will land, GAIL India Ltd. and Sumitomo Corp. have each signed long-term contracts for half of Cove Point's capacity.
Cheniere's Sabine Pass and Dominion's Cove Point will soon have company among U.S. LNG exporters. In 2019, three more gas terminals may begin operations on the Gulf Coast: Cameron LNG in Louisiana, along with Freeport LNG and Cheniere's Corpus Christi LNG, both in Texas.

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Shell-Owned LNG Tanker Arrives at Dominion's Cove Point for First Export Cargo

Mar 1, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence

By Charlie Passut

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker owned by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc arrived at Dominion's new export facility on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland on Wednesday and was expected to depart possibly within hours with the facility's first cargo.
Genscape Inc. analyst Jason Lord told NGI that a camera set up at the berth of the Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG LP terminal at Lusby, MD, showed the Gemmata, a Singapore-flagged, G-Class tanker owned by Shell NA LNG, docking early Wednesday morning. Three ship-tracking websites -- FleetMon, MarineTraffic and VesselFinder -- also confirmed the location of the 290-meter long ship.
Lord said LNG cargoes typically take 18-24 hours to load onto ships. However, since it is the first time Dominion would be running the terminal's LNG pumps in the opposite direction, it may take longer.
"That is generally expected in the commissioning process," Lord said. "It's going to be longer than usual, longer than a typical loading or unloading at a facility."
Cove Point's marketed capacity is fully subscribed under 20-year service agreements. Pacific Summit Energy LLC, a U.S. affiliate of Japan's Sumitomo Corp., as well as Gail (India) affiliate Gail Global (USA) LNG LLC, have each contracted for half of the marketed capacity. Sumitomo has agreements to serve Tokyo Gas Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc.
Although Lord did not know where the Gemmata is destined once it leaves Cove Point, the LNG would be marketed by Shell in the spot market, he said. Dominion spokesman Karl Neddenien said he could not comment on the ship's status, schedule or destination.
With the Gemmata's departure, Cove Point would become the second U.S. facility to export LNG sourced from domestically produced natural gas in the Lower 48. Cheniere Energy Inc.'s Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, LA, began exporting LNG in February 2016. Lord said Cove Point would have an important distinction from Sabine Pass: Japanese customers under long-term contract.
"If you look at Cheniere's customers, they have not been Japanese buyers, even though spot cargoes have ended up in Japan," Lord said. "That's pretty unique to the facility in this perspective."
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Gemmata departed Sabine Pass twice in 2016, in February and April. On both occasions, the ship was loaded with enough LNG to convert to more than 2.9 Bcf and was bound for Chile. The report for 3Q2017, the most recent, was prepared by DOE's Office of Regulation and International Engagement, Division of Natural Gas Regulation.
"That would be expected, as Shell is a customer of Sabine," Lord said, who also confirmed the Gemmata's visits to Sabine Pass. "This shows how the market is changing from an 'A-to-B' type LNG market with repeating routes, and a portfolio player like Shell can optimize their routes and shipping.
"It would not be uncommon for this ship to go wherever, come back, maybe pick up from Sabine again, go elsewhere, come back to Cove Point -- whatever they've optimized. That is another thing we'll see develop. And we've seen other Shell ships that have delivered into [Kinder Morgan Inc.'s Elba Island LNG terminal near Savannah, GA] for example, and after they've done that, come right to Sabine to load up and go elsewhere."
On Monday, Shell issued a report that found LNG demand was strong in 2017, and predicted that it would increase at an average rate of 4% per year over the next 20 years. Shell also reported that 1,100 spot cargoes were delivered in 2017, a 17% increase year/year, and equivalent to three cargoes delivered every day.
DC Media Group, a citizen journalism site with ties to the Occupy movement, reported Wednesday that the Gemmata had arrived off Cove Point last Sunday, and that its arrival was three days early. The ship left the northbound shipping channel in Chesapeake Bay and steamed into the cove before dropping anchor off the point, according to the report.
"It did come in and anchor just down the way," Lord said, adding that Genscape's camera at Cove Point also saw the ship arrive on Sunday. "That could be typical. I don't think anything unusual of it. It's just probably the timeline of when they wanted the ship to show up to load the commissioning volume."
Last December, an LNG tanker docked at Cove Point to assist with the commissioning process. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November issued an authorization for Dominion to export LNG produced during commissioning activities via vessel [CP13-113].
India's oil and gas minister said state-owned Gail has been trying to renegotiate its contractwith Dominion. However, the company called the minister's claims a mischaracterization.
In late January, the Sierra Club agreed to drop a lawsuit contesting approvals of LNG exports from four U.S. facilities, including Cove Point.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/113551-shell-owned-lng-tanker-arrives-at-dominions-cove-point-for-first-export-cargo

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U.S. Trade Group Urges Halt To Further LNG Export Applications

Mar 1, 2018 | Reuters

By Scott DiSavino

(Reuters) - A U.S. manufacturing trade group on Thursday urged the U.S. Department of Energy not to approve further liquefied natural gas (LNG) export applications, citing concerns that the country was consuming and exporting the fuel at a faster clip than it was finding new resources.
The agency’s approval of LNG export volumes equal almost 70 percent of 2016 U.S. demand for periods of 20 to 30 years, which cannot possibly be in the“public interest,” the Industrial Energy Consumers Of America (IECA) said.
After decades of importing massive amounts of natural gas, the United States became an exporter of the fuel in 2017 for the first time in 60 years due in part to growing liquefied natural gas exports.
The United States is expected to become the third-biggest LNG exporter by capacity in 2018. At the start of 2016 before Cheniere Energy Inc’s Sabine Pass LNG export terminal entered service in February of that year, the United States was not exporting LNG.
Sabine Pass is still the only LNG export facility operating in the country, but by the end of the year, the nation’s LNG export capacity is expected to rise from 3 billion cubic feet now to 4.6 bcfd.
One bcfd is enough gas to fuel about 5 million U.S. homes.
Over the next few years, the nation’s LNG export capacity is expected to rise to 9.4 bcfd by the end of 2019 and 10.1 bcfd by the end of 2020 as facilities currently under construction enter service.
In addition, there are dozens of projects under development that hope to get contracts from customers so they can also get built. It is these projects that the manufacturing trade group is targeting.
The companies developing new LNG projects include units of Cheniere, Tellurian Inc, Energy Transfer Partners LP, Exxon Mobil Corp, Pembina Pipeline Corp, Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd, Kinder Morgan Inc and Sempra Energy.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lng-tradegroup/u-s-trade-group-urges-halt-to-further-lng-export-applications-idUSKCN1GD6FY

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Chemical Security News

New Energy Department Cyber Office to Focus on Grid Emergencies (1)

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Rebecca Kern

The Energy Department's new cybersecurity office will focus on mobilizing quickly to deal with emergency cyber and physical attacks on the country's electric grid, an Energy Department official said.
The department is splitting off two cybersecurity divisions within its Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability into a new office that will be responsible for ensuring critical energy infrastructure is protected from natural and man-made events, a move that Energy Secretary Rick Perry first announced in mid-February with few details.
The new office, known as the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), “will real quickly deal with an emergency” arising from both cyber and physical attacks to the electric grid, Bruce Walker, assistant secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, told reporters after a March 1 Senate hearing.
Creating the new office will elevate the importance of the Energy Department's work on cybersecurity, Walker said.
“The whole idea of the CESER program is to be actionable, near-term, and highly responsive today,” he said at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on cybersecurity.
Congressional Reaction
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the committee's chairman, told reporters after the hearing that the focus of the new cyber office makes sense, “and making sure that we have that focus is a very, very important.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee's ranking member, called on the Energy Department to conduct a threat assessment to determine the vulnerability of the electric grid.
“We need to get the threat assessment done, we need to get an understanding of what our workforce need is from that threat assessment, and what other additional focuses besides just hardening of our infrastructure” are needed, Cantwell said.
She said she still hasn't heard from the Energy Department on requests she and other senators made in 2017 for an analysis of Russian cyber warfare capabilities with respect to U.S. energy infrastructure.
New Cyber Authorities
Walker said the cybersecurity office will be headed by its own assistant secretary, who must be nominated by the White House.
The creation of the cyber office is part of Energy Department's new authority over emergency incidents affecting the electric grid under the 2015 Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.
The two divisions that will be moving into the new cyber office will be the Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration division and the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats Research and Development division, Walker said at the hearing.
The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability will retain the Advanced Grid Research and Development division and the Transmission Permitting and Technical Assistance Division. This office will focus on longer-term grid responsibilities, he said.
The department is working to establish the new cyber office in the coming months using existing funding, Walker said. The administration has requested nearly $96 million for the CESER office in the fiscal year 2019 budget request, which hasn't moved through Congress yet.
Walker said one major focus of the two offices will be the increasing amount of natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the country, which he said has exacerbated the cybersecurity risk “because you have more than doubled the number of pieces of equipment that have penetration points into the system.”
Duplicating Efforts?
Robert Lee, CEO and co-founder of Dragos Inc., a cybersecurity company, said he supports the new DOE cybersecurity office, as long as it isn't duplicative with other efforts at at national labs and the private sector.
“CESER should serve as the key team focusing on de-duplicating efforts in the DOE and the labs by being keenly aware of what is already taking place in the private sector,” he told the committee during the hearing.
“There is never malice or unintentional overlap, but with the speed of the rate of innovation in the private sector as well as the sheer volume, you have overlap,” he said.

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DOE Official Details Vision For New Cyber Office

Mar 2, 2018 | E&E Daily

By Sam Mintz,

A senior Department of Energy official told lawmakers yesterday he wants to stand up the agency's new cybersecurity office this year.
The Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response — which officials and members of Congress have already taken to calling CESER, pronounced Caesar — was part of the agency's fiscal 2019 budget request last month.
CESER, which would split off from the existing Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, or OE, would coordinate government and industry responses to cyberthreats to the energy sector and "elevate the department's focus on energy infrastructure protection," Bruce Walker, the assistant secretary in charge of OE, said at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.
He laid out the different tacks that the two offices, CESER and OE, would take in working on similar issues. "The whole idea of the CESER program is to be actionable, near term and highly responsive today," he said.
The remainder of OE would focus on longer-term solutions, like the development of a sophisticated North American energy security model, Walker said.
"One basically feeds the other," Walker told reporters after the meeting. "[CESER] will respond to incidents, and OE will design the system ... on a going-forward basis."
Walker said that while DOE's fiscal 2019 budget asks for $96 million for the new office, he hopes to start it up this year.
CESER would be led by a new assistant secretary, who would be nominated by President Trump. Walker said he did not know who would be picked and that he had not offered recommendations.Committee reaction
Senators at the hearing yesterday were generally supportive of the move to split the offices.
"I welcome the new office because I think you're creating a structure that will facilitate good policy in this area," said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). "I hope you will move quickly to facilitate the formation of this office and stand it up so it can meet its urgent purpose."
Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said, "Some would argue that ... the issues are not distinct, they're very much intertwined, and then you have the reality that we're talking here about how can we design cybersecurity into every aspect of system operations so that an entirely separate office might be counterproductive."
But she told reporters afterward that she was satisfied with the answers from Walker about the purposes of the two offices.
"I think it's fair to ask questions about restructuring like this. I think we heard from the undersecretary the rationale behind it, the logic moving forward, which I think is important," she said.
"There's not one of us up here that is going to deny that cybersecurity in the energy space is not a significant priority, and making sure that we have that focus is very important. I think my question was a fair one, and I think his response was equally fair."
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee's ranking member, said that the administration needs to be more "aggressive" in guarding against cyberthreats.
"We have been pushing for over a year now asking for a threat assessment to our electricity grid," she said. "We are just dead serious that this is a problem. And we are dead serious that we have to come up with a threat assessment."
Several other witnesses at the hearing highlighted risks to the grid from cyberthreats and steps that could be taken to lessen them.
One idea offered by former Democratic Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, now the CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, was that Congress should consider legislation giving the FBI the authority to voluntarily assist the industry in performing background checks for personnel that perform critical functions.
Robert M. Lee, CEO of cybersecurity firm Dragos Inc., urged CESER to provide multiyear funding and operational support to priority efforts, and to focus on "de-duplicating" efforts at DOE by being "keenly aware of what is already taking place in the private sector."
"There is never malice or intentional overlap but the speed of the private sector in comparison to appropriations and grants as well as the sheer volume of innovation taking place can cause unintentional overlaps and competitive issues to emerge," Lee said in his written testimony.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/03/02/stories/1060075245

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Transportation and Infrastructure News

Senators Give Railroads an Ultimatum on Crash Prevention Control

Mar 1, 2018 | Bloomberg

By Ryan Beene

U.S. regulators should crack down on railroads which fail to meet a looming deadlineto activate systems that safety officials have said could have prevented two recent deadly Amtrak accidents, said top senators on an oversight panel.
By year end, railroads carrying people and hazardous materials are required to implement Positive Train Control, crash prevention technology designed to avoid accidents such as derailments due to excessive speed and train-to-train collisions by automatically applying brakes.
As many as two-thirds of 29 U.S. commuter railroads are at risk of missing that deadline or failing to qualify for an extension, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday. Railroads that fail to meet the deadline can be penalized by the Federal Railroad Administration.
“If railroads do not comply with the law by the year’s end,” regulators should “take the enforcement action needed to bring railroads into compliance,” Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, warned at a hearing on Thursday.Preventable Tragedies
Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, the panel’s top-ranking Democrat, said at the hearing that “these tragedies can be prevented, they should be prevented and that’s why the industry must do a better job of implementing PTC and get it done quickly, and that’s why the U.S. government ought to crack down.”
Congress in 2008 mandated that railroads install PTC by 2015 on critical sections of track. Late in 2015, when it became clear that railroads weren’t going to meet the deadline, lawmakers extended it until the end of 2018.
Railroads were also given as much as two additional years to complete full activation across their lines if they met several milestones, including full PTC activation on at least half of their tracks and full installation of the hardware across all of their systems.
“Railroads should not count on any extensions to the statutory framework that Congress passed in 2015," Thune said.Amtrak Crashes
Rail safety has come under renewed scrutiny since recent fatal Amtrak accidents in Washington State and South Carolina that investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said could have been prevented by PTC.
Safety officials likewise told a House panel in February that several railroads would likely miss a December 2018 deadline to fully implement the technology on their tracks, meaning they would need the extension.
An Amtrak passenger train en route to Miami from from New York in February rammed into a parked CSX Corp. freight train outside Columbia, South Carolina, killing two Amtrak employees and injuring around 100 people. In December, an Amtrak train derailed near DuPont, Washington, after barreling through a curved section of track at more than twice the speed limit, killing three.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-01/senators-give-railroads-an-ultimatum-on-crash-prevention-control

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Energy Office on Chopping Block Could Fund Infrastructure: Moniz (1)

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Rebecca Kern

An Energy Department loan office that the Trump administration proposed eliminating could be used to help boost energy infrastructure, according to a report from a group run by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
The Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy has nearly $40 billion in loan authority remaining, and it could be invested to attract as much as $100 billion in energy infrastructure improvements, the Energy Futures Initiative, a not-for-profit group started by Moniz, said in a March 1 report.
“Pairing the objectives of the Trump Administration with the existing authorities of the LPO could significantly reduce the federal budget impact of critical infrastructure projects,” Joseph S. Hezir, a principal at EFI and former chief financial officer at the Energy Department from 2013–2017, said in a statement with the report.
Investments could modernize aging energy infrastructure, including transmission lines, natural gas and oil pipelines, and inland waterways and ports, the report said.
Proposed Axing
The White House wants to eliminate the Loan Programs Office in its fiscal 2019 budget proposal and provide minimal funding to monitor the existing loan portfolio and oversee current awards through completion, which also was proposed in its fiscal 2018 request.
The administration is proposing $7 million in its 2019 budget to maintain loans for its Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program, which funds high-risk technology that aims to avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants and human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases. Funding recipients include the Westinghouse Electric Co. AP1000 nuclear reactors being built in the Southeast, as well as large utility-scale photovoltaic solar projects.
It proposed $1 million to maintain existing loans for its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which has loaned $8 billion to support the production of fuel-efficient automotive technologies. Big players such as Tesla Inc., Ford Motor Co., and Nissan Motor Corp. have received funding.
The White House justified the request because it said the “private sector is better positioned to finance the deployment of commercially viable energy and advanced vehicle manufacturing projects.”
The program continued to receive funding in fiscal 2017 and enjoys bipartisan congressional support. In fact, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) urged Senate appropriators in a Feb. 8 letter to continue funding the program.
Support for Innovation
Terrestrial Energy USA, which is developing an integral molten salt nuclear reactor, applied for a loan guarantee in 2016 and highlighted the importance of the federal program's support of innovative technologies.
“Eliminating the loan guarantee program will increase the cost of capital for such projects and decrease incentives for early market adoption of innovative energy technologies,” Simon Irish, CEO of Terrestrial Energy USA, told Bloomberg Environment.
Moniz serves on the company's advisory board, but the company said it had no role in the report.
The funding for energy innovations should remain in the private sector, according to Nick Loris, an economist with the Heritage Foundation think tank.
“If those projects are economically viable, they can secure private financing and not put the taxpayer's money at risk,” Loris told Bloomberg Environment. “Private companies have stepped up to keep up with our expanding domestic supplies and will continue to lead the way.”
The Energy Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg Environment.
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Chao Defends Infrastructure Proposal to Senate Skeptics

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Shaun Courtney

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao kicked off her effort on Capitol Hill to tout the administration's infrastructure framework by praising the possibilities of regulatory reductions and permitting reform, and dodging questions about pay-fors.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee members questioned Chao about the Trump administration's framework for rebuilding U.S. infrastructure, which includes $200 billion in federal funds and hopes to leverage that to $1.5 trillion.
“By incentivizing new investment in infrastructure, eliminating overly burdensome regulations, providing support for rural America, and streamlining the permitting process, the Department is helping to improve our quality of life and build a brighter future for all Americans,” Chao said in her prepared remarks.
The federal government needs to be a “good partner” to states when it comes to infrastructure investment, said the Senate panel's ranking Democrat, Tom Carper (D-Del.), noting that states are already facing budget constraints.
Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) praised the effort to reduce permitting time to at most two years and for setting aside a portion of direct funds for rural states.
“What works in Baltimore or Chicago may not work for smaller communities like Cody, Casper, or Cheyenne, Wyoming,” he said. “We need an infrastructure plan that includes projects for both.”
Pay-fors
Chao sidestepped questions about how to pay for the administration's plan and dismissed the argument that the proposed budget cuts shifts funds away from transportation.
“I was surprised when I finally saw the administration's plan devoted 15 pages to permitting, but the word pay-for failed to even appear once,” Carper said to Chao.
Several senators referenced Trump's show of support, in a recent White House meeting, for increasing the federal motor fuels tax to enable greater infrastructure investment.
“Does the president mean what he says?” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked Chao directly about the gas tax.
The senators should talk to the White House about where Trump stands, Chao said.
“We need to find pay-fors,"Chao said. “That is very important. There is no agreement on that.”
Leveraging
Several Democratic senators referenced a Wharton School of Business report that concluded the president's plan would have little economic effect and would not encourage new spending by state and local governments.
“We find that most of the $200 billion will not be spent on programs that encourage state and local governments to vastly expand spending on infrastructure,” the report says. “As a result, the plan has a very small impact on the size of the economy.”
Chao pushed back on the report, which was evaluated as sound by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“It actually takes people with real live business experience to know how it works,” she said.
She pointed to the Railroad Infrastructure Financing Improvement Act loans as an example of federal funds leveraging additional non-federal investment.
Time for Infrastructure?
The likelihood of an infrastructure bill making it through the Senate this year was thrown into question when Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters Feb. 27 that the chamber may not have room in the schedule.
Carper was shocked by the comments and said Cornyn walked them back when confronted in the Senate gym.
“We should make more time. If they don't think we have time, let's work weekends” Sen. Dan Sullivan(R-Alaska) said during the hearing.
“I'm not sure what my leadership is talking about , but I think this is a huge priority,” he added.
Asked later about his comments, Cornyn said he hopes the Senate can get to infrastructure this year.
“The time between now and the election is—we've got a limited number of days and if we are going to have to burn up 30 hours for every nominee post-cloture, that limits our time,” he said. “But we're going to try.”

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Chao Defends Plan, But Senate Action Remains Elusive

Mar 1, 2018 | E&E News PM

By Nick Sobczyk

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao squabbled with Senate Democrats today in her first appearance on Capitol Hill to defend President Trump's infrastructure plan.
At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Democrats repeatedly attacked the plan for wanting to make sweeping changes to permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws.
"We're not talking about not protecting the environment, we all care about the environment," Chao said. "We're talking about ways to eliminate sequential, redundant permitting."
The hearing marked the first official steps toward turning out an infrastructure bill, but it also demonstrated just how heavy a lift it will be in the Senate.
Particularly on the permitting issue, there appears to be little headway in crossing lines in the sand between Democrats and Republicans.
"Simply gutting environmental protection does not always achieve time saving," said EPW ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.). "In fact, I think it rarely does."
Republicans, meanwhile, say cutting down on permitting time will help leverage the administration's proposed $1.5 trillion in total investment, with just $200 billion in federal money over 10 years.
"Part of this can be accomplished by cutting Washington's red tape," said EPW Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
Still, both sides are wondering how to pay for the plan.
In a tense exchange with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Chao wouldn't confirm or deny President Trump's reported endorsement of raising the federal gasoline tax.
The president is said to have surprised congressional Republicans when he floated the idea of hiking it by 25 cents a gallon at a closed-door meeting last month (E&E News PM, Feb. 14).
Chao repeatedly referred Van Hollen back to the White House when he pressed her on whether she or the president would support an increase.
But, she added, "I agree with you in that we need to find pay-fors. There is no agreement in that. We need to work on that."
The work will likely get a quicker start on the other side of Capitol Hill.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Deputy Staff Director Chris Vieson said this morning that he's expecting the House to have passed a bill by the August recess.
At the same time, he said, lawmakers will have to figure out how to pay for it before they move into discussions about permitting and other policy areas.
"We can have all the policy discussions we want without actually talking about paying for this bill, but we won't get anywhere," Vieson said at a panel discussion on Capitol Hill sponsored by Bracewell LLP's Policy Resolution Group.
Vieson's boss, Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), said yesterday that lawmakers could look to the lame-duck session to pass an infrastructure bill (E&E News PM, Feb. 28).
Senate Republican leadership remains skeptical. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said earlier this week the chamber might not have time this year.
Cornyn added today that while he's hopeful Congress can get it done, he still thinks time is limited in the notoriously slow Senate.
"Obviously, the time between now and the election, we have a limited number of days," he said. "And if we're going to have to burn up 30 hours for every nominee post-cloture, that limits our time."
At the EPW hearing, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) scoffed at that idea.
"We should find more time," he said. "Let's work weekends."
Reporter Geof Koss contributed.
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/03/01/stories/1060075207

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Environment News

(ACC Mentioned) In First Address, New SAB Chair Raises Concern Over EPA Ozone Rules

Mar 1, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Maria Hegstad

In his first public remarks since officially assuming his role as chairman of EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) last month, Michael Honeycutt raised concerns with how EPA determines whether states meet federal ozone standards, underscoring the role he is likely to play advising Administrator Scott Pruitt's deregulatory agenda.
In keynote remarks at the annual GlobalChem conference, a major chemical industry meeting, in Washington, D.C. March 1, Honeycutt, director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's (TCEQ) toxicology division, devoted much of his remarks to discussing ozone attainment as an example of how “sometimes science shows what we think is true is not necessarily true.”
Pruitt tapped Honeycutt to lead SAB after overhauling the board and other scientific advisory panels in part by barring EPA grant recipients from serving on the panels. Pruitt and his supporters argued that such panelists presented a conflict of interest in favor of regulation, though the policy is being challenged in three pending lawsuits.
Honeycutt's selection as SAB chair has been widely criticized by environmentalists, who note that Honeycutt has long challenged EPA's scientific conclusions on ozone, and its risk analyses of hexavalent chromium, arsenic and other environmental pollutants.
In his address, he cited the case of EPA's national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for ozone, saying the approach EPA takes to measuring attainment has resulted in some areas being found to be out of attainment even though the number of peak ozone days has declined.
The problem appears to stem from the “form” of the standard that EPA has adopted, both for its 2008 NAAQS of 75 parts per billion, and the 2015 NAAQS of 70 ppb. Both standards measure attainment over eight hours using a “form” that averages the fourth-highest ozone readings over one year in a given area over three years.
Honeycutt, who has long raised concerns over EPA's ozone standards, showed peak ozone monitoring data for the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX area, where ozone generally, and peak days specifically, have declined. “The numbers are going down. We've had a few hiccups, but the trend is down,” he said.
But he said emissions cuts of ozone precursors have reduced both the number of peak days -- those at 80 ppb and higher -- as well as low ozone days -- those at 30 ppb and below.
However, because of the standard's averaging approach, regulators were seeing an increase in the number of “moderately high” ozone days -- those at 50-75 ppb -- resulting in reduced health benefits and a non-attainment finding.
“Why do you care? The big deal is, according to EPA, ozone is lethal. It causes premature mortality, and there is no threshold. So in reducing those peaks, we're actually increasing the number of moderately high ozone days [and] decreasing the number of low ozone days,” he said.
Honeycutt said that they hoped reductions in high peaks would offset the average increases. “But it doesn't, in most cases. We're actually seeing more exposures to moderately high ozone. The net benefit isn't there for a lot of places. And sometimes it's equal, and sometimes it's a little higher.”
His assessment is generally consistent with his long-held criticisms of EPA's ozone standards. For example, following a 2015 workshop on TCEQ ozone analyses questioning the Obama administration plans to lower the standards from 75 ppb, Honeycutt told Inside EPA, "We're pretty sure you're not going to see a benefit from going from 75 [ppb] to 60 [ppb]. You're in the noise … We've shown this is going to be a very difficult standard, very expensive to meet."
'We Did Our Job'
Showing a bar graph of the numbers of days at various levels in two three-year increments, 2000-2002 and 2011-2013, and the decline over time, Honeycutt said, “Yay TCEQ, yay industry, yay cars, we did our job. But look what else happened, we reduced the number of low ozone days, after we controlled for ozone peaks. And look what happened here, we increased the number of moderately high ozone days.”
Honeycutt said the data shows that efforts to reduce high ozone days resulted in “remov[ing] both tails,” or both the high- and low- ends of the data on the graph, a result he calls counter-intuitive.
He said that he expected that if he graphed average data in that form, rather than the peaks, he would find the same curve but in lower numbers. Instead, he showed data where the “averages are all over the place. If you look at the trend line, its a flat line. If you try to correlate the average with the max, it doesn’t correlate at all.”
Honeycutt explained the situation is caused by a phenomenon of ozone photochemistry, called the nitrogen oxides (NOx) disbenefit, or the weekend effect. On days that ozone precursors, particularly NOx, drop, ozone levels do not fall accordingly, but stay flat or may even increase.
“The ozone photochemistry people are aware of this. The ozone health people mostly are not aware of this. We're trying to marry the two of these together. What you'll find is, it depends on the local photochemistry,” Honeycutt said.
Honeycutt said that TCEQ staff is preparing a paper for submission to a journal on this analysis in more detail. “In some parts of the country, the annual average can actually increase with decreasing design value. It's totally counter-intuitive,” he added.
Honeycutt called the situation “an example of how peer review can make you aware of some things that you might not be aware of, or aren't intuitively obvious.” He encouraged chemical industry officials to participate in SAB reviews by attending meetings, submitting comments or nominating scientists to serve on SAB panels. He added that the first SAB meeting of 2018 is expected to be scheduled in May or June.
Honeycutt also extolled the virtues of peer review. “I think, at least theoretically, an external peer review will help alleviate public concerns. Because if you have a well respected, august group of external people reviewing some work, and they say, 'Hey, this is good work,' I think the public could appreciate that. It could help make it easier for policy makers to make a really hard or unpopular decision.”
Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), spoke approvingly of Pruitt's overhaul of EPA advisory boards, including the SAB, even as he bemoaned the political polarization of the times. He said one narrative contributing to that polarization is “a narrative being advanced by some opponents of the administration, that they are not committed to sound science. I have to say that nothing we have seen ... really contributes to backing away from sound science.”
Dooley agreed that individuals serving on SAB and other EPA panels “have changed a little bit. But in some ways we look at that as a positive development. The fact that they're reaching out to more people that might have some industry experience, that are … more aware of some of the internal expertise that we have in the industry... in terms of making sound scientific determinations of the safety of our chemicals, is a good thing. This is a contribution that we think is a sound public policy to enure that we are putting together advisory boards and scientific expertise that is broader in scope than maybe we've seen in the past.”
Dooley added his confidence that in time, “the general public will also realize this will contribute to better scientific outcomes.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/first-address-new-sab-chair-raises-concern-over-epa-ozone-rules

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Long-Overdue Toxic Air Pollutant Reviews Stretch Thin EPA Staff

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Jennifer Lu

The EPA must complete overdue reviews for more than 40 industrial emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants starting later this year, even as concerns persist that the agency is more interested in rolling back regulations than fulfilling its obligations.
These reviews, which the Environmental Protection Administration has routinely failed to complete on time, make up part of the agency's core mission, would fit the bill for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's “back-to-basics” campaign.
But the EPA is simultaneously pursuing a packed deregulatory agenda while aggressively reducing the agency's workforce, leaving some environmental advocates deeply concerned that the standards meant to protect people living near industrial sources of toxic air pollution will continue to fall by the wayside.
“The agency is putting its resources into deregulation and decisions that will hurt people instead of doing what the law actually requires,” James Pew, an Earthjustice lawyer, told Bloomberg Environment. Pew represents environmental groups in several lawsuits over the EPA's failure to complete the required toxic pollution reviews.
As of September 2017, the agency had allocated 37 full-time positions within its air toxics division to complete more than 30 overdue reviews, the EPA told judges as part of a recent lawsuit over the delays. The EPA said the division couldn't take on any additional reviews until 2020.
EPA Reaches Out to Industry
The Environmental Protection Agency did not respond to repeated inquiries asking for more recent staffing figures. But some of those reviews are already underway, according to the EPA and regulated industries.
First up are the toxic pollutant standards for Portland cement kilns, which the EPA must complete in July.
“The staff have been responsive in looking at the best data possible, conducting a robust analysis, so that's good,” Charles Franklin, vice president and counsel for government affairs for the Portland Cement Association, told Bloomberg Environment.
The EPA in September 2017 had proposed no changes to the numeric toxic pollutant standards, finding the current requirements sufficient.
Sarah Amick, vice president of environment, health, safety, and sustainability and senior counsel at U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, told Bloomberg Environment the EPA has already begun the review process for rubber tires, due in 2020,
“They just reached out to us to start our [risk and technology review] process and we figured we were next up in the queue,” Amick said.
‘Never Enough Resources’
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must set emissions limits on hazardous air pollutants known to increase the risk of cancer or cause other serious health effects, emitted by 118 industrial source categories. The standards for these pollutants, which include benzene, toluene, hydrochloric acid, and heavy metals, must be reviewed every eight years in light of new public health research and advances in pollution control technologies.
Because the EPA misses the deadlines for these risk and technology reviews, they become “no-brainers” for lawsuits from environmental groups, Janet McCabe, who was acting assistant administrator of the EPA's air pollution office during the Obama administration, told Bloomberg Environment.
“While I was at EPA, there was never enough resources to meet those deadlines,” McCabe said.
The agency faces court-ordered deadlines to complete 33 overdue reviews as part of two different lawsuits and an upcoming deadline to review toxic emissions from Portland cement manufacturing. The EPA must complete eight reviews by the end of 2018, 20 reviews by March 2020, and six by June 2020. The overdue reviews for nine more industrial source categories are subject to another ongoing lawsuit.
In all three cases, the agency blamed its slow progress on a lack of resources.
“Given the funding and other resource constraints facing the agency, EPA is not able to perform all activities it may want to perform, and that it is authorized to perform, at any given time,” Panagiotis Tsirigotis, who leads the division within EPA responsible for the reviews, said in a written declarationfiled January 2017.
As of September 2017, 78 of the division's 84 employees were assigned to work on the reviews, or approximately 37 full-time equivalent staff positions, the agency told a federal court.
Same Office Rolling Back Regulations
The division also works on carbon-dioxide standards for power plants and methane limits for oil and gas wells—the Trump administration has sought to eliminate both. However, the resources diverted to these projects were small and “would have little impact on EPA's ability to conduct rulemaking in the unrealistic time periods” requested by environmental litigants, Tsirigotis said.
Recent toxic pollutant standards reviews have taken at least two and half years to complete, with the majority of rules spanning between three to four years, the EPA told a federal court.
In more difficult cases, the EPA had to ask litigants for more time to complete their reviews, McCabe said, but the trade-off is that these rules are based on the most recent industry data.
“If it moves too fast,” she said, “the rule is not good or it gets finalized in a way that gets subject to requests for reconsideration.”
The lengthy reviews mean that regulated industries can continue to comply with standards with which they are already familiar, Jeff Holmstead, partner at Bracewell LLP in Washington, D.C., told Bloomberg Environment.
“There's so much to do and [the EPA doesn't] have the staffing, but the process isn't necessarily disruptive when the EPA takes longer than eight years to finalize each review, Holmstead said.

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128964192&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128964192&jd=128964192

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Classification System for Ozone Problem Areas Released by EPA

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Jennifer Lu

The EPA on March 1 released its belated system for ranking areas that don't meet 2015 national ozone standards by the severity of the air pollution.
The final classification system—which the Environmental Protection Agency had delayed issuing—matched the version that Obama-era EPA proposed in November 2016.
Under the system, areas with ozone pollution within 10 parts per billion of the most recent 70 parts per billion standard have three years to bring down their ozone concentrations to meet the standards. Areas that don't meet the ozone standards are subject to stricter permitting requirements for new and modified industrial facilities.
Areas with more severe ozone problems have more time to comply. Areas with the most extreme ozone pollution have up to 20 years.
The EPA signaled it would finalize its classification system when it withdrew a proposed version of its classification system Feb. 13 from interagency review at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where a proposed version had sat since September 2017.
The agency has been under legal pressure from environmental and health groups including the American Lung Association, the American Thoracic Society, and the Sierra Club, stemming from two ozone-related lawsuits ever since the agency said it would delay the rules and then missed its October 2017 deadline to name which areas violate the most recent ozone standards.
The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, the ultimate owner of Bloomberg Environment.

http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=128964199&vname=dennotallissues&fn=128964199&jd=128964199

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California May Issue Municipal Bonds for Climate Change Projects

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Romy Varghese

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has proposed giving $20 million to establish a state program that would give loans to projects aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions, and that could be leveraged by selling municipal bonds, said Teveia Barnes, executive director of the state's infrastructure and economic development bank.
The so-called California Integrated Climate Investment Program is part of the fiscal 2019 budget that must still be approved by the legislature.
Loans to projects could be packaged into bonds, Barnes said at the green bonds symposium sponsored by the state treasurer's office, Environmental Finance, and the Milken Institute in Santa Monica.

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Next Administration Must Look Beyond Power Rule Redo, McCarthy Says

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Abby Smith

Redoing Obama-era power sector carbon controls won't be enough once a new administration friendly to climate policy comes to power, former Obama EPA head Gina McCarthy said March 1.
“I would be disappointed if the only thing another administration that wants to do good things takes up is simply saying, ‘Let's redo the Clean Power Plan,’” McCarthy told reporters on the sidelines of the Climate Leadership Conference in Denver. “I think the the Clean Power Plan was great, but by the time there is a new administration, it will be already well surpassed by where the real world is.”
The Clean Power Plan, crafted by McCarthy and her team at the Environmental Protection Agency, was the centerpiece of the Obama administration's climate policy. The 2015 rule set a target for the existing power sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a collective 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The Trump EPA, led by Administrator Scott Pruitt, is working to undo the Obama-era power rule. The EPA proposed to rescind the Clean Power Plan in October, and it has taken input on whether and how it should replace the Obama administration's policy.
McCarthy told reporters she's “pretty confident” Trump EPA officials “are going to have difficulty designing a repeal that could pass muster.”
“I don't think the courts are going to look kindly on what I've been seeing,” she said.
But McCarthy said she also hopes that any new administration will look beyond what she and her team did with the Clean Power Plan. She suggested that there could, at that point, be an opportunity to have congressional action on climate policy.
“Now I love the Clean Power Plan, don't get me wrong, but I already know that it could be strengthened if you're going to bring it back,” McCarthy said.
The Feb. 28-March 2 Climate Leadership Conference is sponsored by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, the Climate Registry, the U.S. Climate Alliance, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Bloomberg Philanthropies is the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, the ultimate owner of Bloomberg Environment.

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Maine Adopts Lower Carbon Limits on Power Plants

Mar 2, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Adrianne Appel

Maine will place stricter limits on carbon pollution under a new law based on a regional agreement among nine northeastern states to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Maine and the eight other states currently participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a compact operating since 2005 among the states to lower carbon emissions from the energy sector by 2 percent annually.
The states participating in RGGI agreed in August to pass state legislation to lower carbon emissions by 2.5 percent annually starting in 2021, through 2030.
Six power generators are covered under the greenhouse gas program in Maine, including Bucksport Generation LLC and Westbrook Energy Center, according to RGGI Inc., a nonprofit corporation created to provide technical and administrative services to RGGI.
Maine is the first of the RGGI states to actually pass the legislation, which was unexpected because Gov. Paul LePage (R) has been an outspoken opponent of the program. LePage believes RGGI raises the cost of energy for industries in Maine.
But Maine lawmakers support RGGI and passed a bill with the new carbon limits in mid-February. LePage, who is in his final year in office, neither signed it nor vetoed it, so it became law March 1.
“Cutting carbon pollution is essential to protect the Maine we love,” Dylan Voorhees, clean energy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, an environmental group that backed the legislation, said March 1.
—With assistance from Gerald B. Silverman.

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EPA Issues Nonattainment Framework For 2015 Ozone Standard

Mar 1, 2018 | E&E News PM

By Sean Reilly

U.S. EPA will stick with a long-standing framework for classifying areas out of attainment with its 2015 ground-level ozone standard, according to a final rule signed today by agency chief Scott Pruitt.
The rule sets five levels for demarcating the degree of nonattainment with the 70-parts-per-billion standard. They range from "marginal," defined as areas with 71 to 81 ppb of ozone, to "extreme," which would apply to areas with ambient ozone concentrations of 163 ppb or more.
That approach "is based on the classification thresholds established for the ozone standard" in place at the time of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, according to an EPA summary.
The rule also sets the deadlines for nonattainment areas to come into compliance, ranging from three years for marginal areas to two decades for extreme areas.
EPA issued the draft rule in November 2016; the final version must still be published in the Federal Register. EPA, which has already deemed the bulk of the country in attainment with the 2015 standard, plans to make all remaining designations by this August.
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/03/01/stories/1060075209

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