Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 05/03/18
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(ACC Mentioned) Ending NAFTA Would Hurt U.S. Industry, Chemical Makers Say
Mar 5, 2018 | Chemical and Engineering News
By Glenn Hess
As talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) continued in Mexico City last week, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) warned that a U.S. withdrawal from the trade pact with Mexico and Canada would significantly harm the U.S. chemical industry. -
(ACC Mentioned) What Tariffs Could Mean for Your Wallet and Why You Need to Check Your Paycheck
Mar 5, 2018 | CNN Money
Tariffs became the word of the week last week. -
(ACC Mentioned) The Chicken Littles Are Hammering Trump on Trade, but Charles Payne's Truth Bombs Blow Their Theories to Smithereens
Mar 5, 2018 | Townhall
By Scott Morefield
President Trump’s Thursday decision to begin the process of keeping his campaign promise to protect the American industrial base by imposing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has seemingly gotten everyone in a tizzy, oddly uniting Big Business, top globalists, the IMF, the GOP Establishment and even liberal Democrats, all of whom never agree on anything yet are united that this particular decision will mean nothing short of an economic apocalypse for the United States. -
Judge Weighs Science Behind Monsanto Roundup Cancer Claim
Mar 5, 2018 | AP (In Washington Post)
By Sudhin Thanawala
Claims that the active ingredient in the widely used weed killer Roundup can cause cancer have been evaluated by international agencies, U.S. and foreign regulators and the product’s manufacturer — agribusiness giant Monsanto. -
(ACC Mentioned) The Energy 202: The Next Wildfire Season Starts Soon. The Government Wants to Use Drones to Fight It.
Mar 5, 2018 | Washington Post
By Dino Grandoni
Last summer, one of the many fires with which federal and local officials had to contend raged in the Umpqua National Forest in southwest Oregon, close to the California border. -
Oil Demand Growth to Shift to Petrochemicals Away From Motor Fuels: IEA
Mar 5, 2018 | Reuters
By Libby George
Strong global demand for oil and gas will shift in the next five years toward petrochemicals and away from motor fuels gasoline and diesel, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday. -
U.S. to Dominate Oil Markets in Years Ahead
Mar 5, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By Grant Smith
The U.S. will dominate global oil markets for years to come, satisfying 80 percent of global demand growth to 2020 as the shale boom keeps OPEC under pressure, the International Energy Agency said. -
CERAWeek Dives Into Industry Transitions
Mar 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump
The energy capital's most prominent energy policy conference starts today, attracting energy industry executives, academics, government officials and an assortment of other dignitaries to this city. -
Grid Regulator Issues 'Massive' Penalty Over Data Exposure
Mar 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Bob Sobczak
Grid regulators have reached an unprecedented $2.7 million settlement with an unidentified power company for failing to protect critical data, records show. -
GAO: Most Commuter Rails are Not on Target to Meet PTC Implementation, Requirements for Extensions Remain Unclear
Mar 5, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Aaron Martin
As many as two-thirds of the nation’s 29 commuter railroads might not be on track to meet deadlines and milestones for implementation of positive train control (PTC) before the year-end deadline, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Wednesday. -
Senator Warns Congressional Patience is Running Out on PTC Implementation
Mar 5, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Aaron Martin
During a U.S. Senate hearing on implementation of positive train control (PTC) on passenger rail lines on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said that the patience of members of Congress is running out. -
Week Ahead: House Takes Up Bills Targeting EPA Regs
Mar 5, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The House will move in the coming week on a trio of regulatory and energy bills.
Industry and Association News
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(ACC Mentioned) Ending NAFTA Would Hurt U.S. Industry, Chemical Makers Say
Mar 5, 2018 | Chemical and Engineering News
By Glenn Hess
As talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) continued in Mexico City last week, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) warned that a U.S. withdrawal from the trade pact with Mexico and Canada would significantly harm the U.S. chemical industry. Without NAFTA, U.S. chemical exports to the other two nations would face a tariff burden of up to $9 billion per year, raising prices for manufacturers and consumers alike, says an economic analysis . . .
§ Access to full text unavailable – subscription required.
Story can be found here:
https://cen.acs.org/articles/96/i10/Ending-NAFTA-hurt-US-industry.html?type=paidArticleContent
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(ACC Mentioned) What Tariffs Could Mean for Your Wallet and Why You Need to Check Your Paycheck
Mar 5, 2018 | CNN Money
Tariffs became the word of the week last week.The president wants to impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports. The announcement got people talking about the potential of a trade war.
The IRS was also busy last week: It unveiled a revised withholding calculator along with a new version of its withholding worksheet.
Here's what it means for your wallet.
First things first, what exactly is a tariff?
A tariff is a tax or duty that the government places on a class of imported goods (tariffs on exports are very rare).
So how could tariffs lead to a trade war? Well, it could cause other countries to retaliate against the US with their own trade barriers. This could kick off a string of tit-for-tat responses that escalate global tensions.
Here's a quick guide that answers all your questions about potential tariffs and their impact.
What does it mean for you? For starters, it could lead to higher prices.
Companies that rely on the materials are warning that they might have to raise prices and cut jobs. For instance, the CEO of The Beer Institute said a tariff on aluminum would cost the beverage industry millions and lead to thousands of layoffs.
The American Chemistry Council warned the tariffs could make factories more expensive, slow innovation, and have "punishing" effects.
If all this is making you want to drown your sorrows in some chocolate, we have more bad news for you.
Hershey, which uses aluminum foil to wrap its chocolate Kisses and steel to build plants, said the policy could "have a negative impact on the entire US economy."
Read the full story on what corporate America is saying about Trump's tariffs by CNN's Jackie Wattles.
It's no secret health care is expensive. Amazon is trying to change that. The retailer has rolled out a line of private label over-the-counter medicines and is building a business selling a wide array of medical supplies to doctors, dentists and hospitals.
Health costs can be particularly high for people with pre-existing conditions. CNN's Tami Luhby explains that the White House is taking steps to lower premiums, increase choice and foster competition in the health insurance market. Good news, right? Well, the changes are coming largely at the expense of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.
CHECK YOUR PAYCHECK
You've (hopefully) by now seen a change in your paycheck thanks to the new tax law Congress passed at the end of 2017.
If you're getting a little extra take-home pay now, that's great news. But you should still check to make sure you're not getting too much of a pay bump (or too little).
The new law lowered most income tax rates, but it made a lot of other tax changes too. To help you figure out if you're getting the right amount of taxes withheld, the Treasury Department and the IRS put out a revised withholding calculator and an updated version of its withholding worksheet. CNN's Jeanne Sahadi breaks it all down for you.
Speaking of finances, since most of us are on the hook for saving for our retirement on our own (bye, bye pensions), it might be nice to have a professional help us out to make sure we're on the right track. But a financial adviser can be pricey. Here's how to know if it's really necessary to pay a financial adviser.
It's been a long winter, so if you've started planning your summer getaway already we don't blame you. But first, let's make some spending room for your vacation.
Forget skipping your lattes or your Sunday matinee habit. If you want to see some significant savings, you have to take an ax to the bigger parts of your budget: We're talking housing, transportation and food. Here's your guide on how to save money on the biggest expenses in your budget.
If you are considering taking the leap into homeownership, make sure it makes financial sense. Read the latest Money Moves column on Renting vs. buying: What can you afford?
If you've already taken a scalpel to your spending, another way to increase your cash flow is to make more money. But that's easier said then done. Getting a new job often brings a higher salary, but getting promoted at work can also result in a bigger paycheck. Here's a four step plan to getting a promotion at work.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/05/pf/applenews-tariffs-trade-war-health-care/index.html
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Mar 5, 2018 | Townhall
By Scott Morefield
President Trump’s Thursday decision to begin the process of keeping his campaign promise to protect the American industrial base by imposing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has seemingly gotten everyone in a tizzy, oddly uniting Big Business, top globalists, the IMF, the GOP Establishment and even liberal Democrats, all of whom never agree on anything yet are united that this particular decision will mean nothing short of an economic apocalypse for the United States.
Truly, to hear these folks tell it we’re looking at an economic scenario to rival the bleak hellscape of The Walking Dead, minus the zombies (unless you count liberals as zombies, which arguably wouldn’t be that far off).
So maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but Chicken Little does sound pretty reasonable by comparison.
Consider:
The American Chemistry Council, a group that represents some of the world’s largest corporations, including Procter & Gamble, 3M, DuPont and ExxonMobil, says the tariffs will have “punishing” effects for the economy. Anheuser-Busch, the largest beer maker in world, said the plan would “put jobs at risk and would be against the US consumer.”
Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs writes on CNN.com of President Trump firing the first shot in a “delusional and destructive trade war,” and that “United States as a whole, and the world, could suffer enormously from Trump's reckless ignorance.” The Washington Post laments the “world-spanning economic consequences” of Trump’s decision. Forbes contributor Steven Hanke even called Commerce Secretary Wilber Ross not just a protectionist, but an “arch” protectionist, as if the “arch” is supposed to make him more like Dr. Evil.
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called the move a “tax hike the American people don’t need and can’t afford.” Nebraska’s Ben “muh principles” Sasse likened it to “kooky 18th-century protectionism.” Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, a Club for Growth supported candidate who barely won reelection by less than 2 percentage points in a state Trump won for the GOP for the first time in almost two decades BECAUSE he promised to get tough on trade, considers Trump’s proposal “a big mistake.”
Liberals, too, are in agreement. The folks at Vox think Trump “decided to put the global economy at risk because he was in a pissy mood.”
Hell, even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is on board, saying on a recent cable appearance, “To say that trade wars are a good thing is just wrong.”
Other nations are naturally piling on, but only because they see signs that their thus-far lucrative gravy train might be ending. Li Xinchuang, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, thinks Trump’s move is “stupid” and “does no good to everyone except a few American steel enterprises.”
Because really, if China doesn’t care about American steel enterprises, should anyone?
Canadians are also apoplectic, “flabbergasted” even, at the prospect of American actually standing up for its own manufacturers.
And of course, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned the decision would not only hurt the United States, but other countries as well.
Because apparently the meaning of capitalism these days is for the United States to allow other countries to impose tariffs on its goods at will and never respond in kind to protect its own workers and industrial base.
Thankfully, Trump’s decision isn’t without its defenders in in the media, led of late by Fox Business host Charles Payne, who says he is not a “protectionist” but wants, like most people slandered with the term, fair trade for all. Lately, Payne has waged a heroic Twitter war with those who would sacrifice America’s industrial base on the altar of globalism. As Payne brilliantly points out, despite the grim prognostications of those who seemingly know better, tariffs not only have worked for America in the past, but are currently working for our competitors now.
“I know tariffs are bad but...” Payne tweeted, “It seems to be working very well for the fastest growing economies in world.” The Fox Business host then listed several nations that employ tariffs and the 10 year average growth of each one.
Here are a few more truth bombs from Mr. Payne:
“Let's be clear, the EU is against tariffs when America uses or considers them but they levy 10% on all US car imports we only have a 2.5% rate on their car imports. #justsaying”
“Currently there are certain nations that take advantage of our civility and commitment to rigid belief that "free trade" really exist when there are hundreds of active cases at the WTO at any given moment. China isn't going to risk $500 billion to protect cheap subsidized steel.”
As for a trade war and the prospect for higher prices, Payne isn’t too concerned.
“The gauntlet has been thrown!” Payne tweeted, “During campaign when candidate Trump said he would push back against unfair trade including using tariffs I asked Trump voters if they would be willing to pay more for products to make a transition back to US production and everyone said ‘yes.’”
“There will be no trade war,” writes Payne. “Sure, but who would China sell $505,597,100,000 stuff Americans bought from them last year? Cuba? China isn't going to do anything the new Emperor isn't going to risk toppling his fragile empire.”
Of the strong history of so-called “protectionist” policies, the venerable Pat Buchanan, who has been brilliant on this issue for decades, opines, “Under protectionist policies from 1865 to 1900, U.S. debt was cut by two-thirds. Customs duties provided 58 percent of revenue. Save for President Cleveland’s 2 percent tax, which was declared unconstitutional, there was no income tax. Commodity prices fell 58 percent. Real wages, despite a doubling of the population, rose 53 percent. Growth in GDP averaged over 4 percent a year. Industrial production rose almost 5 percent a year.”
So much for the "kooky" theory that trade protectionism equals economic disaster!
Buchanan laments the post-1962 demise of a Republican Party that had been, throughout its history, willing to campaign and win on protecting U.S. industry (just as Donald Trump did in 2016). “Where in the history of great nations,” Buchanan asks, “Britain before 1850, the USA, Bismarck’s Germany, postwar Japan and China today, has nationalism not been the determinant factor in economic policy?”
Payne promises to release a report early this week on the average tariffs for the fastest growing countries in the world. Will those who view the data still insist that America cannot possibly protect its industrial base and win economically?
In a piece last July arguing against Trump’s trade policies, even the Atlantic had to admit that “Many economists and industry experts agree that the United States faces unfair competition and artificially low prices that have damaged the domestic steel industry.”
“But they don’t agree that a tariff is the right approach for addressing the problem,” the piece continued, because tariffs “could backfire,” or something.
Sure, it’s a nice argument, but if tariffs have worked in the past for the United States and continue to work for the rest of the world, it’s not one bolstered by history or reality.
Not that the Chicken Littles have ever been concerned with either.
https://townhall.com/columnists/scottmorefield/2018/03/05/the-chicken-littles-are-hammering-trump-on-trade-but-fox-business-host-charles-paynes-truth-bombs-blow-their-theories-to-smithereens-n2457591
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Judge Weighs Science Behind Monsanto Roundup Cancer Claim
Mar 5, 2018 | AP (In Washington Post)
By Sudhin Thanawala
Claims that the active ingredient in the widely used weed killer Roundup can cause cancer have been evaluated by international agencies, U.S. and foreign regulators and the product’s manufacturer — agribusiness giant Monsanto.
Now, a federal judge in San Francisco will conduct his own review during an unusual set of court hearings scheduled to start Monday. It has big stakes for Monsanto and hundreds of farmers and others who have sued the company.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria will spend a week hearing from experts to help decide whether there is valid scientific evidence to support the lawsuits’ claim that exposure to Roundup can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Chhabria is presiding over more than 300 lawsuits against Monsanto Co. by cancer victims and their families who say the company long knew about Roundup’s cancer risk but failed to warn them.
The plaintiffs must first persuade Chhabria, however, that he should allow their epidemiologists and other doctors to testify to a jury that Roundup can cause cancer. Many regulators have rejected the link, and Monsanto vehemently denies it and says hundreds of studies have found glyphosate — Roundup’s active ingredient — is safe.
Chhabria will not determine if the cancer connection exists, but whether the claim has been tested, reviewed and published and is widely accepted in the scientific community.
“It’s game over for the plaintiffs if they can’t get over this hurdle,” said David Levine, an expert in federal court procedure at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Monsanto developed glyphosate in the 1970s, and the weed killer is now sold in more than 160 countries. Farmers in California use it on more than 200 types of crops. Homeowners use it to keep their lawns and gardens pristine.
St. Louis-based Monsanto also sells seeds genetically modified to produce crops that can tolerate being sprayed with glyphosate as the surrounding weeds die.
But the herbicide came under increasing scrutiny after the International Agency for Research on Cancer, based in Lyon, France — part of the World Health Organization — classified it as a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015. A flurry of lawsuits against Monsanto in federal and states courts followed, and California added glyphosate to its list of chemicals known to cause cancer.
Christine Sheppard, among those suing Monsanto, said she sprayed Roundup for years to control weeds on her Hawaii coffee farm. In 2003, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and given six months to live. Now 68, she is in remission but experiences severe pain in her hands and legs from her cancer treatment and has a weak immune system. She believes Roundup is to blame.
“The thing that really gets to me right now is when I walk into Home Depot and places like that and see Roundup still for sale, still advertised as the best thing people can use,” said Sheppard, who now lives near San Diego.
Monsanto has attacked the international research agency’s opinion as an outlier. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says glyphosate is safe for humans when used in accordance with label directions. A draft report by the agency last year concluded the herbicide is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans. The report noted science reviews by numerous other countries as well as a 2017 National Institute of Health survey had reached the same conclusion.
“There are more than 800 published studies — scientific, medical and peer-reviewed — which demonstrate that glyphosate is safe and there is no association whatsoever with any form of cancer,” said Scott Partridge, vice president of strategy at Monsanto.
A federal judge in Sacramento last week blocked California from requiring that Roundup carry a label stating that it is known to cause cancer, saying the warning is misleading because almost all regulators have concluded there is no evidence glyphosate is a carcinogen.
Timothy Litzenburg, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the connection between glyphosate and cancer is not “junk science.”
“You can just do a literature search and find many, many peer-reviewed, published articles concluding that glyphosate exposure increases the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/judge-weighs-science-behind-monsanto-roundup-cancer-claim/2018/03/05/57d71ee0-208b-11e8-946c-9420060cb7bd_story.html?utm_term=.5c98b969998b
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Mar 5, 2018 | Washington Post
By Dino Grandoni
Last summer, one of the many fires with which federal and local officials had to contend raged in the Umpqua National Forest in southwest Oregon, close to the California border.
During one flight over the fire in August, a Bureau of Land Management pilot saw something he later said “wasn’t supposed to be there.” A “spot fire” had broken out beyond the edge of the main blaze, likely set off by a windblown ember.
If the second fire, discerned through an infrared camera since smoke limited visibility to just 100 feet, wasn’t addressed quickly, it could threaten yet more property and lives.
But the pilot hadn’t spotted the spot fire from a helicopter or airplane. He was operating a drone.
That spot fire in Oregon was ultimately contained before it became an issue, according to a video produced by the Department of the Interior highlighting a success story, officials say, in the federal government’s effort to modernize fighting forest fires with a fleet of unmanned aircrafts.
The BLM, a division within Interior, later estimated the early detection of the fire by the drone saved $50 million in land and infrastructure value that could have otherwise been lost.
“I think that is a pretty compelling example of how drones work,” Mark Bathrick, director of Interior’s Office of Aviation Services, said in an interview.
Increasingly, this is what the federal government expects its forest firefighting efforts to look like.
Last year, the Western United States experienced one of its worst wildfire season in years, with an area the size of Delaware burning within California alone. Those fires, along with a trio of devastating hurricanes that hit the opposite coast, made 2017 the costliest year on record for natural disasters in U.S. history.
In response, the federal government relied on unmanned aircrafts, which are increasingly cheaper to buy and deploy, more than ever to aid the efforts of firefighters on the ground. Meanwhile in Congress, lawmakers are frozen in a political stalemate over how to fix a system for funding firefighting efforts that both parties agree is broken.
Last year, Interior, which leads interagency efforts on unmanned aircrafts outside the Pentagon, flew 707 drone missions on 71 wildfires.
“I had the opportunity to join our wildfire professionals last year and was able to test some of the technology that is now being used,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “After seeing the capabilities, I know it will continue to make a big difference in firefighting.”
In total, the department conducted nearly 5,000 flights altogether for various purposes, including drawing maps, surveying wildlife and conducting search-and-rescue missions, according to a report published last month. That volume of flights is a marked increase from 2016, just one year prior, when Interior conducted 750 flights.
Right now, the federal government just uses small drones to surveil fires and aid firefighters on the ground, like BLM did in Oregon — not to actually extinguish them.
But that is a capability the federal government says it is working on. The goal: To deploy retardant-dumping helicopters capable of being flown either manned and unmanned, so firefighting efforts can continue around the clock. At night and in the early morning, darkness and low-lying smoke, respectively, obscure the views of firefighters above, often making missions too dangerous to do.
Another potential use, being tested at the University of Nebraska, is to use drones to start prescribed burns, potentially to control invasive species and prevent more dangerous, uncontrolled fires.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which crafts regulation for drone use, gives Interior more leeway than other government agencies outside the military, allowing the department’s unmanned pilots to fly beyond their line-of-sight in firefighting and search-and-rescue missions.
Interior currently only oversees its own drones. But last month, the department solicited bids for companies to fly drones over forest fires for longer-term data collection.
Right now, Interior is not replacing human pilots with drones, said Bathrick, instead providing “enhanced situational awareness that just didn't exist in the past.” But he added drones generally allow missions to be done “in one-seventh the time and at about one-tenth the cost.”
The falling cost of drone technology come just as the federal government faces shortfalls in funds for fighting forest fires.
As the law is currently written, the U.S. Forest Service, a division of the Agriculture Department that works with Interior to manage fires, must take money from other parts of its budget to pay to put out flames during parched years when firefighting money runs dry.
Because firefighting officials cannot tap traditional relief funds set aside for hurricanes and other disasters, they are stuck in a vicious loop, borrowing money meant for measures for fire prevention, like clearing underbrush.
House Republicans and some Democrats, led by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), have pushed forward legislation easing requirements for time-consuming environmental reviews on tree-thinning projects undertaken to prevent wildfires.
That measure passed the House in November, but some Senate Democrats along with environmental groups are concerned the legislation is a pretext for giving loggers easier access to public forests.
— Lease sale postponed: Zinke on Friday abruptly postponed an oil and gas lease sale of 25 parcels near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico until the department does a detailed analysis of 5,000 cultural sites, The Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports. “The department’s plan is part of a broader push to auction off a slew of leases near protected areas in the West, with auctions scheduled this month in Montana and Utah, and it remains unclear whether those events will be postponed, as well.”
— Meanwhile, the Alaska congressional delegation says Arctic refuge drilling is at least a decade away: "I remind people that just because we have the congressional permission" doesn't mean production in ANWR is imminent, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), according to the Anchorage Daily News. After four decades of effort on the part of Alaskan lawmakers, the GOP opened the refuge to oil and gas drilling as part of the recently passed tax cut bill.
Elsewhere in ANWR news: The Natural Resources Defense Council’s political arm launched an ad on Fridaytargeting GOP lawmakers who voted to open the refuge to drilling. The six-figure ad campaign will target Pennsylvania Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Costello and Patrick Meehan along with Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulson, The Hill reports.
— Door revolves: President Trump on Friday announced he would nominate Peter Wright, a lawyer for Dow Chemical, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Land and Emergency Management. Wright would, if confirmed, oversee toxic waste sites linked to his former company, per CNN.
— Steel yourself for steel tariffs: The president will sign into effect new steel and aluminum tariffs this week or the following week “at the latest," Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday on CNN. And Navarro signaled there’s no plan to exempt countries from the tariffs. “As soon as you exempt one country, then you have to exempt another country and so it's a slippery slope," he said.
In case you missed it, read this stunning account from NBC News on how Trump’s “decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team.”
Meanwhile on Twitter, Trump continued to beat the drums of trade war, threatening to hammer European car companies with steep tariffs:Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
If the E.U. wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on U.S. companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the U.S. They make it impossible for our cars (and more) to sell there.
THERMOMETER
Joseph Kopser, a candidate for Texas’s 21st District seat, speaks at a forum focused on environmental issues at Scholz Garten in Austin. (Tamir Kalifa for The Washington Post)
— They’re running: There is a growing number of scientists running for office in 2018, The Post’s Ben Guarino and Laurie McGinley report. Many of the researchers trading in mixing beakers for kissing babies have been recruited by 314 Action, a political action committee launched to support policymakers with scientific or technical backgrounds. The group, named for the first three digits of pi, describes itself as “the pro-science resistance" and has had 7,000 people respond to calls to run for office, and 400,000 donors who want to support candidates who back science-based policies. 0:40Nor'easter brings severe flooding to Boston suburb
— Century storm returns: For the second time in weeks, Boston was hit by a hundred-year storm. “In other words, impacts from climate change, which were supposed to wallop the area 80 years from now, are already menacing a region that is only beginning to talk about ways to protect itself,” The Post’s Darryl Fears writes. Across the East Coast, the deadly nor’easter paralyzed cities and towns and killed at least eight people, including some who “had tried in vain to take shelter from hurricane-force winds.”
— SUV boom is a bust to the climate : Rising incomes and lower gas prices are driving people to buy more sport-utility vehicles in some countries, the New York Times reports. “The ascent of S.U.V.s and crossovers is already slowing progress in reining in emissions from the world’s cars and trucks, major emitters of the gases that are warming the planet. Transportation accounts for an estimated 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with cars and trucks making up the biggest share.”
— Straws scrapped: The city of Malibu is just the latest to vote to ban or limit the use of plastic straws at restaurants. While leading organizations in the plastics industry agree with the aim of reducing straw use, they believe laws are not the right way to go, the New York Times reports. However, groups like the American Chemistry Council have "taken a softer approach to straw bans than it did with [plastic] bags" which have also been banned in cities across the country.
OIL CHECK
— Record-setting rigs: The number of oil rigs in the United States increased to 800 for the first time in nearly three years, Bloomberg News reports, as drillers have upped exploration “in an almost-unbroken streak since the beginning of November.” That jump, reported by the oil field services firm Baker Hughes on Friday, increased crude production in the country to a record of more than 10 million barrels a day.
— Corn wars, cont'd: Workers from oil refineries in about a dozen states are heading to Washington to lobby against the ethanol mandate. “The lobbying push organized by the United Steelworkers begins Tuesday with visits by 30 workers from more than a dozen independent merchant oil refineries in 11 states to discuss ‘the urgent need’ to overhaul" the EPA's biofuel policy that refiners say is hurting their industry, the Washington Examiner reported.
— Hmmm: A Cleveland State University communications professor published a harsh critique of a study from last year on ExxonMobil's past communication on climate change, which concluded the company had deceived the public on the issue. The professor, Kimberly Neuendorf, criticized the researchers for coding the company's statements on climate change themselves.
"Content analysis coding ought to be conducted with coders who are at arm’s-length with regard to the research, in order to maximize objectivity," she wrote, according to Legal NewsLine. Neuendorf did her study at the request of Exxon.
DAYBOOK
Today
CERAWEEK energy industry leaders’ conference begins.
Coming Up
The House Natural Resources Committee will hold an oversight hearingon Tuesday. The House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Energy holds a hearing on the future of fusion energy research on Tuesday. The House Science, Space, Technology Subcommittee on Energy holds a hearing on the future of transportation fuels and vehicles on Wednesday.The Cleantech Group holds a conference on biotech and sustainability on Wednesday.The Blockchain in Energy Forum will be held on Thursday.R Street, Texas Clean Energy Coalition and The American Conservative hold an event on “How market driven clean energy is transforming the Texas electric grid tickets” on Thursday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/03/05/the-energy-202-the-next-wildfire-season-starts-soon-the-government-wants-to-use-drones-to-fight-it/5a9cabcb30fb047655a06aa0/?utm_term=.f073166d77e5
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Oil Demand Growth to Shift to Petrochemicals Away From Motor Fuels: IEA
Mar 5, 2018 | Reuters
By Libby George
Strong global demand for oil and gas will shift in the next five years toward petrochemicals and away from motor fuels gasoline and diesel, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.
Demand for products ranging from fertilisers to plastics and beauty products will drive roughly a quarter of the expected oil demand growth to 2023, the IEA said in its five-year outlook.
The shift represents a major challenge to the oil industry, as many of the petrochemicals will be produced using gas, cutting out refineries. At the same time, growth in gasoline and diesel usage will be held back by fuel efficiency improvements and declining consumption in the developed world, the IEA said.
World oil demand is expected to rise by 6.9 million barrels per day (bpd) to 2023, it said, with a quarter of this growth, or 1.7 million bpd, coming from demand for petrochemical feedstocks ethane and naphtha.
“Global economic growth is lifting more people into the middle class in developing countries and higher incomes mean sharply rising demand for consumer goods and services,” the IEA said.
“A large group of chemicals derived from oil and natural gas are crucial to the manufacture of many products that satisfy this rising demand,” it added.
Naphtha is made by oil refineries processing crude, but other petrochemical feedstocks - ethane or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - are processed outside traditional oil refineries.
“Ethane, liquefied petroleum gases and naphtha, pose a bigger threat to the refiners’ market share than electric vehicles and gas-powered transportation combined,” the IEA said, estimating refiners would see just 4.8 million bpd of the demand growth to 2023, missing out on 30 percent of it.
The boom in U.S. shale oil has dramatically expanded the availability of ethane, and a string of new projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast are underway to process it.
In total, the world is expected to add 1.4 million bpd in new petrochemical-producing steam crackers to 2023, the IEA said.
Demand for ethane will expand at the fastest pace in the next five years, rising by 885,000 bpd, followed by naphtha with growth of 495,000 bpd and LPG with growth of 40,000 bpd, it forecast.
Jet fuel, supported by growing demand for air travel, will grow by 1.2 percent to 2023, the IEA added.
But it said demand for gasoline and diesel would rise by just 0.7 percent each, with expansion slowed by fuel efficiency standards that now cover two thirds of the world’s top car markets.
More than 80 percent of global car sales are now in markets covered by efficiency standards, including China, India the United States and Europe. The IEA said this“will impact strongly on future oil demand.”
Partially as a result, the IEA warned that refinery additions totaling 7.7 million bpd would outstrip growth in demand for refined products by 2023 by some 3 million bpd.
“The gap between refinery capacity growth and refined product demand growth has never been so large in recent history,” the IEA said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iea-oil-petrochemicals/oil-demand-growth-to-shift-to-petrochemicals-away-from-motor-fuels-iea-idUSKBN1GH1R8
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U.S. to Dominate Oil Markets in Years Ahead
Mar 5, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By Grant Smith
The U.S. will dominate global oil markets for years to come, satisfying 80 percent of global demand growth to 2020 as the shale boom keeps OPEC under pressure, the International Energy Agency said.
"The U.S. is set to put its stamp on global oil markets for the next five years," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a report published Monday. OPEC's surging rivals, which also include Brazil and Canada, will leave little space for the cartel to expand even after its production curbs expire this year.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is riding high right now, defying the skeptics by going deeper than their pledged cuts and maintaining them for long enough to deplete bloated oil inventories. However, the ensuing price recovery has "unleashed a new wave of growth from the U.S.," said the Paris-based IEA, which advises most of the world's major economies.
Thanks to the shale boom, new U.S. supply will cover more than half the world's oil demand growth to 2023, the agency said. Production from the prolific Permian Basin will double over the period and the country's total liquid hydrocarbon output will rise to 17 million barrels a day from 13.2 million last year.The bullish forecast kick-starts the annual CERAWeek conference, a gathering of thousands of oil executives, traders, bankers and investors in Houston.
The American surge and a slightly weaker outlook for global demand growth make uncomfortable reading for OPEC. The IEA slashed projections for the amount of crude needed from the cartel, indicating its supply cuts would need to stay in place until 2021 to avoid creating another prolonged surplus.
Closer to 2023, global markets will start to tighten and the IEA warned that more investment is needed to meet growth in consumption and to make up for production lost to natural declines.
OPEC will struggle to start new production of its own. The IEA's five-year outlook for new output capacity from the group was reduced by about 62 percent from the previous report. The group will add 750,000 barrels a day by 2023 -- just 2.1 percent -- as gains in Iran and Iraq are offset by economically troubled Venezuela, where capacity will slump to the lowest since the 1940s.
There's a risk the wider industry may also fall short after an unprecedented drop in spending from 2015 to 2016, and little sign of a rebound in the subsequent two years, the IEA said. Constant investment is essential because the world loses about 3 million barrels of output each year -- equivalent to the production of the North Sea -- as oil fields age and their reservoir pressure drops.
As a result, by 2023 the level of spare production capacity that could be used in the event of a disruption will be the lowest since 2007. That increases the risk that prices will become more volatile, the agency said.
Slower Decline
Still, that process isn't happening as rapidly as previously feared. Despite expectations that lower investment would accelerate the depletion of maturing non-OPEC oil fields, the opposite is happening. Lower operating costs have so far offset the impact of reduced spending.The average decline rate eased to 5.7 percent last year, compared with 7 percent between 2010 and 2014, the IEA said. That shift was aided by a "remarkable deceleration in decline rates" in the North Sea.
Global oil demand will increase by a total of 6.9 million barrels a day to reach 104.7 million a day by 2023, with China remaining the "main engine of demand growth." That's an average annual growth rate of about 1.2 million barrels a day, little changed from last year's forecast.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/U-S-to-dominate-oil-markets-in-years-ahead-12728322.php
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CERAWeek Dives Into Industry Transitions
Mar 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump
The energy capital's most prominent energy policy conference starts today, attracting energy industry executives, academics, government officials and an assortment of other dignitaries to this city.
Launched more than 30 years ago by the former Cambridge Energy Research Associates, CERAWeek by IHS Markit has evolved to be considered the "Davos of energy," bringing leaders to Houston once a year to discuss trends and themes with other business and civic leaders.
As in years past, today's conference opener will be followed by mainly discussions of oil tomorrow, natural gas on Wednesday, and utilities and power generation on Thursday, before the wrap-up events on Friday.
Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit and the main host for this week, said the conference will cover everything from the oil market to a possible energy transition. That includes looking at implications of shale producers' efforts to produce volumes as well as returns to shareholders. And there's a range of views on how long an energy transition might take and what it might entail, according to Yergin.
Another theme, he said, is infrastructure and the ability — or not — to build pipelines, along with where they're built and how long they take to build. That factors into a question around connecting the U.S. "energy abundance" with markets, he said. Yergin also mentioned mobility. CEO Mary Barra of General Motors Co. should help address that topic as people wonder about the speed and scale of change.
"What kind of cars will people be driving in 10 or 15 years?" Yergin asked rhetorically in an interview. "Or will they be driving them or will a computer be driving them?"
The top leaders of the International Energy Agency and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries speak today, as do Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of French energy giant Total SA, and Pedro Parente, CEO of the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
Later this week will see talks by visitors from Washington, D.C., most prominently Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Those two guests are expected to help represent the Trump administration and its policies.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will give Yergin the broader view from Washington on Friday. Yergin said trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement will be topics during that session.
Yergin, 71, described a focus on technology and innovation at CERAWeek. The conference also has been evolving away from set speeches and toward discussion and dialogue, he said.
Generally in the oil industry and American business, Yergin said, there is support for some Trump policies, such as tax reform and modulating regulation. But he said there are concerns about protectionism and potential disruption of global supply chains.
"It's a mixed view," said Yergin, who was part of a White House strategic and policy forum that disbanded.
Discussions around the global oil industry will likely explore to what extent initiatives by OPEC and other major exporters have rebalanced the global market, even as the United States' oil production continues to rise precipitously.
Looking at markets, Yergin said the buildup of U.S. shale could restrain where prices go. He said it "seems reasonable" to think the West Texas Intermediate oil benchmark could be in a range of the high $50s to mid-$60s per barrel as long as there's strong global economic growth. He doesn't see oil use disappearing anytime soon, though he said volumes could plateau in the late 2030s or 2040s.
Energy trade and the rising tide of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports are topics that are sure to be on the agenda. CERAWeek will launch just days after Dominion Energy Inc.'s Cove Point LNG export terminal sent out its first shipments to the world (see related story).
On the power side, the ongoing energy transition and rise of low-carbon energy resources will be discussed. Kevin McIntyre, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is among the speakers slated to appear this week. Yergin said electric power and pipelines may be discussed during his appearance.
Other speakers expected to garner significant attention include Duke Energy Corp. CEO Lynn Good, PG&E Corp. CEO Geisha Williams, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Saudi Arabian Oil Co. CEO Amin Nasser.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/05/stories/1060075379
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Grid Regulator Issues 'Massive' Penalty Over Data Exposure
Mar 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Bob Sobczak
Grid regulators have reached an unprecedented $2.7 million settlement with an unidentified power company for failing to protect critical data, records show.
In a penalty issued last Wednesday, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. described "serious and substantial" violations of federal security standards at an unidentified utility operating in the western U.S.
The cybersecurity oversights could have let hackers steal employee login information, potentially "gaining both physical and remote access" to the unnamed power provider's systems. In all, more than 30,000 company records were left exposed on the public internet for 70 days, including data tied to electric substations, control centers and the highly sensitive "supervisory control and data acquisition" [SCADA] systems that monitor the flow of electricity.
Those IP addresses, server host names, usernames and passwords have since been taken offline, according to NERC's notice. But "there is no reasonable assurance that during the time the data was exposed on the Internet, it was not already used by a malicious actor — or collected by such an actor — to access [the entity's] network and install an application that can cause the potential harm in the future," NERC said.
In fact, the anonymous utility was tipped off by a hacker, albeit a "white hat" who was only trying to help, according to NERC's account. The "security researcher" reportedly found and downloaded a bundle of information through one of the company's third-party contractors.
Once notified, the utility asked the "white hat" hacker to effectively burn all of the digital documents, requesting that he submit a notarized affidavit confirming that he deleted all copies of the data from his own computers.
The affected company also "informally" notified regulators at the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, NERC said. WECC is responsible for auditing and enforcing grid security from western Canada to the Baja Peninsula.
Normally, a utility that "self-reports" a security problem can expect some lenience, according to Patrick Miller, managing partner at Archer Energy Solutions. But the "massive" size of the fine suggests things may have heated up during that back-and-forth, he said, especially given that the utility was accused of violating just two critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards instead of a whole swath of rules.
"We've seen organizations drop the ball on a bunch of [standards], and they didn't get anywhere near this degree of fines," he said. "I think it's painfully obvious to the entity that WECC is trying to send a message."
Miller said this appeared to be the biggest CIP-related fine he's seen in his career. "It's not just big; it's huge," he said. "The region made it a point to remind them who the authority is."
Miller declined to comment on who may have been the target of the fine, and spokespeople for NERC and WECC declined to comment on the case, citing security protocol.
"We never name entities in CIP violations — don't want to disclose any vulnerabilities that could be exploited," NERC spokeswoman Kimberly Mielcarek said in an email.
Under the terms of the settlement, the unidentified entity agreed to pay the penalty without denying or admitting to the violations. The final dollar amount is still subject to approval by regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. A review of NERC's public enforcement database did not reveal any bigger security-related penalties, while a FERC spokeswoman referred a reporter to the agency's enforcement website.
Tyson Slocum, energy program director at the watchdog group Public Citizen, said he's not convinced that sharing details of the case would jeopardize grid security. "The public has a right to know the identity of the utility and contractor," he said.'Treasure troves'
While E&E News was not able to confirm which Western utility agreed to the settlement, multiple U.S. power companies have struggled to keep their data under wraps in recent years.
In 2016, security researcher Chris Vickery said he came across an exposed "treasure trove" of hashed employee passwords, unencrypted ("plaintext") email passwords and other details from a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. asset management system hosted by a PG&E vendor.
"PG&E didn't bother to ask me if I downloaded a copy of this open, publicly exposed database. I'll tell you now that I did. I still have it," he wrote at the time.
Vickery told E&E News that he has since "purged" the data he discovered and signed an affidavit to that effect. PG&E did not respond to requests for comment on the case.
He said that while it's fairly common for a large company to unintentionally expose data online, "it is extremely rare" that such data turns out to be critical cyber assets (CCAs) relevant to the nation's bulk power system.
"The potential harm that could result from a malicious actor obtaining CCAs is immense," said Vickery, director of cyber risk research at UpGuard, in a Twitter message. "The NERC report is accurate in assessing that residual risk will remain, as any bad actor that may have taken advantage of the exposure could have implanted unknown backdoors into power control systems."
He recommended utilities clearly define all network assets to be used in projects involving third parties and monitor those files to make sure they aren't misplaced.
Vickery went on to discover another cache of utility data left out last year, including control room schema and technical circuit breaker and power monitoring specifications from Austin Energy (Energywire, Aug. 10, 2017).
Again, a third-party contractor had reportedly left the database exposed online.
Austin Energy spokesman Robert Cullick said NERC never followed up on that incident.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/05/stories/1060075377
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Mar 5, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Aaron Martin
As many as two-thirds of the nation’s 29 commuter railroads might not be on track to meet deadlines and milestones for implementation of positive train control (PTC) before the year-end deadline, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Wednesday.
GAO found that commuter railroads’ schedules for meeting PTC implementation milestones don’t reflect Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) time estimates. Seven of 19 railroads could miss milestones ahead of the 2018 implementation deadlines and fail to meet statutory requirements for a revenue service demonstration (RSD)-based extension, GAO found.
FRA estimates that meeting the field testing milestone will take one year to complete, for example. However, GAO found that 14 commuter railroads planned to start testing less than a year before the 2018 deadline, “increasing the potential risk that this milestone will not be completed.”
“However, FRA has the authority to establish alternative criteria for an extension not based on RSD, and several other factors can affect commuter railroads’ planned and future progress,” GAO stated. “As a result, the number of commuter railroads at risk of not meeting the deadline or qualifying for an extension could increase or decrease in the coming year.”
GAO found that FRA had not used a risk-based approach to help railroads prepare for the 2018 deadline, or meet qualifications for an extension. FRA has primarily provided informal assistance and used industry-convened groups to share information, and “in some cases, the information conveyed has been inconsistent according to industry representatives.”
“Some commuter railroads also told GAO that clarification about the agency’s planned process for reviewing and approving extension requests would be helpful,” GAO stated. “Federal internal control standards state that management should externally communicate the necessary quality information to achieve its objectives.”
FRA officials have indicated that they’re working on alternative strategies to communicate information about requirements for extensions, but that has not yet been accomplished. FRA has also failed to use information it receives from commuter railroads on PTC implementation to prioritize resources.
“With the year-end 2018 deadline approaching, and an anticipated significant increase in FRA’s workload, targeting resources to the greatest risk can help better ensure that FRA effectively fulfills its oversight responsibilities and provides commuter railroads the information they need to prepare for the 2018 deadline or seek an extension,” the GAO report concluded.
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/8436-gao-commuter-rails-not-target-meet-ptc-implementation-requirements-extensions-remain-unclear/
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Senator Warns Congressional Patience is Running Out on PTC Implementation
Mar 5, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Aaron Martin
During a U.S. Senate hearing on implementation of positive train control (PTC) on passenger rail lines on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said that the patience of members of Congress is running out.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on PTC implementation follows a series of fatal accidents that the National Transportation Safety Board concluded could have been prevented by PTC technology.
“I understand that testimony has not been particularly encouraging about our collective ability to have this requirement fulfilled by the end of the year,” Wicker said. “The chairman and ranking member’s statements indicate that, on behalf of the Congress, they’re trying to say that patience is running out.”
Congress does not want to shut down train traffic across the country, Wicker said, “but we need whoever to understand that we need to get the attention of those responsible and get a timetable that will work and avoid, I might say, a train wreck coming either figuratively or literally.”
Wicker also probed implementation of PTC on Gulf Coast passenger rail routes that were discontinued due to heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina. Amtrak President and CEO Richard Anderson testified that efforts were progressing, but operators — including CSX — still had work to do.
Anderson also testified that a primary implementation challenge has been the failure to enforce existing regulations on rail traffic preference and incremental cost rights.
“The law is there, but since 1971, but there has never been any effective enforcement over the preference action,” Anderson said. “That’s why the long distance service at Amtrak runs at massive delays.”
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/8472-senator-warns-congressional-patience-running-ptc-implementation/
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Week Ahead: House Takes Up Bills Targeting EPA Regs
Mar 5, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The House will move in the coming week on a trio of regulatory and energy bills.
The Rules Committee has scheduled a meeting Monday to begin looking at the three proposals: the Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act, the Blocking Regulatory Interference from Closing Kilns Act and the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act.
The House is likely to take up the bills in the days following the committee's meeting.
The first two bills seek to change Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations to benefit specific industries.
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The Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act would exempt certain power plants that burn coal refuse from parts of a major 2012 air pollution rule. The Blocking Regulatory Interference from Closing Kilns Act, meanwhile, would delay implementation of a 2015 rule on air pollution from brick kilns.
The committee is also due to consider the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act, which would expand federal agencies' responsibilities to regularly review their rules and policies for potential repeals or changes.
Elsewhere in the House, the Natural Resources Committee will meet for a Tuesday hearing on exploring ways to reduce the Interior Department's maintenance backlog in agencies like the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Natural Resources Committee will also meet Wednesday to vote on three bills concerning strategic minerals, Western federal land transfers and federal land in the Virgin Islands.
Also on Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's environment subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on the future of transportation fuels.
In the House Oversight Committee, lawmakers in the interior subcommittee are planning a Tuesday hearing on the Army Corps of Engineers.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet Tuesday to hear from James Reilly II, President Trump's nominee to be director of the U.S. Geological Survey.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/376511-week-ahead-house-takes-up-bills-targeting-epa-regs
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