Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 29/03/18
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemical Production Continues on Soft Note, ACC Says
Mar 29, 2018 | ChemEngOnline
By Scott Jenkins
Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) show that growth in global chemical production continued on a soft note in February. -
(ACC Mentioned) How TSCA Implementation Could Be Derailed by Pruitt’s Planned Directive Forcing EPA to Ignore Science
Mar 29, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
Several of us at EDF listened in last Friday to a webinar hosted by a committee of the American Bar Association that featured Dr. Nancy Beck, Deputy Assistant Administrator in the office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that administers the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). -
(ACC Mentioned) NGO Scientists May Reject Appointment to US EPA Chemical Advisory Panel
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Julie A. Miller
A recent announcement that the US EPA will be expanding the membership of its Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) has been met with concern from members of the NGO community selected to serve on it. -
Needless Deaths: Toxic Solvents in Paint Strippers
Mar 29, 2018 | Natural Resources Defense Council
By Daniel Reosenberg and Erik D. Olson
As we’ve noted in previous blogs (such as here and here), since the Trump Administration took office, the Environmental Protection Agency’s policies on toxic chemicals have largely been written by and for the largest chemical manufacturers like Dow, Exxon and Monsanto. -
Deaths Linked to a Common Paint Stripper Chemical Go Back Decades, So Why Isn't It Banned?
Mar 29, 2018 | CBS News
A proposed federal ban on a potentially deadly chemical found in common paint strippers may be on hold indefinitely. -
S.C. Lawmakers Press EPA to Restrict Use of Paint Stripper
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar
South Carolina Republicans are urging U.S. EPA to finalize restrictions on a paint-stripping chemical that's killed more than 50 people in the last 35 years, including a Charleston businessman. -
In Case You Missed It: Lead Levels Once Deemed “Safe” May Cause Cardiovascular Death in Adults
Mar 29, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Neltner
So far, efforts to reduce lead risks have been largely focused on young children because their developing brains make kids especially vulnerable to the toxin at very low levels. -
NGO Urges EU Phase-Out of Hazardous Chemical Groups
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
UK-based NGO CHEM Trust has called on EU regulators to "phase out" the use of groups of similar chemicals to prevent substitution of one hazardous substance with a related one that has similar properties. -
Companies Likely to Miss REACH 2018 ‘Fast-Track Check’ Deadline
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
An expected surge in the number of companies submitting REACH 2018 dossiers by the end of March – so as to secure a completeness check outcome on their dossiers in 21 days – does not seem likely, Echa says. -
Echa Round-Up
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
Echa has urged registrants to submit dossiers before the end of March, and it will process the registration in three weeks. -
Exclusive: Firms Complain of Contaminated Crude From U.S. Reserve
Mar 29, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Catherine Ngai
Three firms that bought crude oil last year from U.S. emergency stockpiles raised concerns about dangerous levels of a poisonous chemical in the cargoes, according to internal Energy Department emails and shipping documents reviewed by Reuters. -
Concho Resources' $9.5B Deal Vastly Expands Permian Holdings
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
The biggest oil industry transaction in the Permian Basin was announced yesterday as drillers appear increasingly confident about business prospects in 2018. -
Patagonia Targeted by Online Natural Gas Campaign
Mar 29, 2018 | Houston Chronicle (In E&E Energywire)
By James Osborne
An online campaign by a group backed by oil and gas companies is taking aim at Patagonia. -
FERC Inks Pact with China on Electricity Pricing
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Rod Kuckro
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Chinese government signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday on reform of electricity price regulation in the communist country. -
Texas to India: Take More of Our LNG Shipments
Mar 29, 2018 | Houston Chronicle (In E&E Greenwire)
By Mike Ward
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) yesterday urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase shipments of liquefied natural gas from the state's ports. -
Atlanta Lockdown Revives Ransomware Fears
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Some city services in Atlanta have ground to a halt after a cyberattack last week, but hackers stopped short of disrupting electricity, wastewater treatment and other critical operations. -
BNSF Railway to Invest $230m Into Projects in California
Mar 29, 2018 | Railway Technology
North American freight transportation provider BNSF Railway Company has announced plans to invest nearly $230m in the US state of California under its 2018 capital expenditure programme. -
EPA Pushes Informal Policy to Deal with Polluters Outside Courts
Mar 29, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is embracing an informal policy that would enable polluters to come to an agreement with the agency outside of the federal justice system. -
Talking Points for Staffers Point to 'Gaps' in Science
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
U.S. EPA staffers are being instructed to use climate change talking points that closely follow Administrator Scott Pruitt's public statements on the issue. -
EPA to Finish Ozone Designations in July with San Antonio
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
U.S. EPA will abide by a court-ordered July deadline to wind up all tardy attainment designations for its 2015 ground-level ozone standard, culminating with a closely watched final decision for a fast-growing part of Texas, according to a new regulatory filing.
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemical Production Continues on Soft Note, ACC Says
Mar 29, 2018 | ChemEngOnline
By Scott Jenkins
Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) show that growth in global chemical production continued on a soft note in February. The ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) indicates that global chemicals production fell 0.8 percent in February, following a revised 0.7 percent drop in January and a 0.3 percent gain in December. Note that all data are on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. During February, production gains were in North America, Europe, Africa and Middle East with weakness in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The Global CPRI was up 2.0 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 114.3 percent of its average 2012 levels in February.
During February, capacity utilization in the global chemical industry eased 0.8 percentage points to 84.5 percent. This is down from 85.1 percent last February but is below the long-term (1987-2017) average of 86.5 percent.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the chemical industry for 32 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98 percent of the total global chemical industry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the U.S. CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.
http://www.chemengonline.com/global-chemical-production-continues-on-soft-note-acc-says/
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Mar 29, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
Several of us at EDF listened in last Friday to a webinar hosted by a committee of the American Bar Association that featured Dr. Nancy Beck, Deputy Assistant Administrator in the office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that administers the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Dr. Beck was asked during the Q&A whether EPA was actively working on drafting risk evaluations for the first 10 chemicals TSCA required EPA to identify, even though their long-awaited “problem formulations” have not yet been made available to the public for comment. Dr. Beck replied that, indeed, the agency was hard at work on the risk evaluations, noting that there are “thousands of studies” agency staff have identified relevant to those 10 chemicals that need to be reviewed.
What struck me about that comment, which in and of itself is not at all surprising, is that it was made just a week after news broke that Dr. Beck's boss, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, plans to direct agency staff to reject large numbers of scientific studies from consideration in policy making at the agency.
Pruitt’s planned directive is based on a bill disingenuously called the HONEST Act (formerly called the Secret Science Act) that was introduced by Republicans on the House Science Committee in various forms in the last several Congresses but was never passed. Reports indicate Pruitt intends to impose the draconian requirements of that bill by simple fiat. Pruitt’s directive would likely bar EPA from using any study that either does not meet a narrow definition of “reproducible” or for which all underlying data, down to even the computer codes of any models used, is not made public.
While the bill and Pruitt’s planned directive wrap themselves in the mantle of transparency, their real purpose is to cripple EPA’s ability to use the best science to inform its decisions. Don’t take my word for it; see what former senior officials at EPA and other agencies (here and here) have to say about the devastating effects it would have on EPA science.
Faced with these mandates, EPA staff would have two choices: Spend what the Congressional Budget Office estimated would be tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually just to seek to gain access to and make public all data underlying studies EPA wants to use; or simply reject the studies and pretend like they don’t exist, no matter how relevant to the decision at hand.
Dr. Beck made no mention of Pruitt’s plans on last Friday’s webinar, although the story was already public. She should be familiar with how significant an impact the act would have because her employer immediately preceding her arrival at EPA last April – the American Chemistry Council (ACC) – is a big fan of the HONEST Act, having heartily endorsed it on numerous occasions over the last several years.
All this leaves one asking just how Dr. Beck plans to square this circle: Acknowledging there are thousands of relevant studies to be included in the risk evaluations TSCA charged EPA with conducting, in the face of a directive that would effectively force EPA to reject many or even most of them outright, no matter their quality. And how does that square with the law’s mandate that EPA consider all “reasonably available information” and ensure its decisions reflect the “best available science”?
We don’t think this is a circle that can be squared.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2018/03/29/how-tsca-implementation-could-be-derailed-by-pruitts-planned-directive-forcing-epa-to-ignore-science/
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(ACC Mentioned) NGO Scientists May Reject Appointment to US EPA Chemical Advisory Panel
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Julie A. Miller
A recent announcement that the US EPA will be expanding the membership of its Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) has been met with concern from members of the NGO community selected to serve on it.
The SACC – which is tasked with providing expert advice on scientific matters under TSCA – was formed in the waning days of the Obama administration. Last August, the agency signalled plans to expand it.
On 23 March, the agency announced 11 new members. These include three representing NGOs, four from industry, and four from academia or governmental organisations.
But at least one of newly chosen NGO representatives has refused to participate. And Chemical Watch has learned that all three may back out over concerns that the panel may be forced to work with limited scientific data.
Michael Wilson, national director for occupational and environmental health at the BlueGreenAlliance, "notified EPA that he was unable to accept the appointment", a spokesman for the organisation told Chemical Watch.
Ruthann Rudel, director of research at the Silent Spring Institute, is debating whether to take the position she was offered.
"I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet about my appointment," she told Chemical Watch. "I'm collecting some advice and information."
And Jennifer McPartland, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, said she had not responded to an invitation to join the panel and was surprised to see her name on the list of new appointees.
"News of [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt’s proposal to limit the science the agency can consider has given me pause," she said in an email. She is still debating whether to accept her appointment.
Dr McPartland’s concern around the EPA’s so-called "secret science" policy is shared among many in the NGO community.
The new transparency initiative, signalled by Mr Pruitt in an interview with a conservative news publication last week, could bar the agency from using studies that are not publicly available to underpin regulatory decisions.
NGOs said this could result in suppressing crucial data needed to take action on hazardous chemicals under TSCA.Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals
Formation of the SACC was required by the Lautenberg Act, to provide "independent advice and expert consultation" on the scientific and technical aspects of implementing the new TSCA. Its first 18 members were named in January last year.
The American Chemistry Council criticised the picks, of which less than a quarter were industry representatives.
Following leadership changes to the agency under President Trump, and "after further consideration of the objectives and scope of SACC activities", the EPA said it would expand the committee.
The additional members "will increase the balance of scientific perspectives and add experts with experience in labour, public interest, animal protection, and chemical manufacturing and processing to the committee," the EPA said in its announcement.
Four of the 11 new members represent industry directly, including two of the four candidates backed by the ACC. And appointee Michael Holsapple joined the Michigan State University faculty after a long career with Dow Chemical.
The eleven new appointees are:Charles Barton, global manager of toxicology and risk assessment at the Valspar Corporation;Steven Bennett, vice president for scientific affairs at the Household and Commercial Products Association (HCPA);Sheri Blystone, director of regulatory affairs and product safety at SNF Holding Company;Susan Dempsey, risk assessor and toxicologist for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services;Thomas Hartung, a toxicology professor at Johns Hopkins University;Michael Holsapple, professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University;Mark Johnson, director of toxicology at the US Army Public Health Center;Sidney Marlborough, senior environmental toxicologist at Noble Energy;Jennifer McPartland, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF);Ruthann Rudel, director of research at the Silent Spring Institute; andMichael Wilson, national director for occupational and environmental health at the BlueGreenAlliance.
https://chemicalwatch.com/65565/ngo-scientists-may-reject-appointment-to-us-epa-chemical-advisory-panel
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Needless Deaths: Toxic Solvents in Paint Strippers
Mar 29, 2018 | Natural Resources Defense Council
By Daniel Reosenberg and Erik D. Olson
As we’ve noted in previous blogs (such as here and here), since the Trump Administration took office, the Environmental Protection Agency’s policies on toxic chemicals have largely been written by and for the largest chemical manufacturers like Dow, Exxon and Monsanto. A host of industry-supported decisions—withdrawing a proposed ban on the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, weakening the way the agency reviews of the safety of new (and existing) chemicals—will likely result in a greater number of cancers contracted over time, as well as more instances of developmental delay, neurological impairment and reproductive harm. But another decision by President Trump’s appointees—EPA Anti-Administrator Scott Pruitt and Toxic Chemical Enthusiast Nancy Beck—is already responsible for verifiable and actual deaths, with more almost certain to occur.
One of the last actions taken by EPA during the Obama Administration was to propose a banon the use of a toxic solvent in paint strippers. The chemical, methylene chloride, turns to carbon monoxide in the body—and can quickly overwhelm workers and consumers, even when wearing masks or respirators, resulting in rapid asphyxiation and heart attacks (it is also a likely cause of several kinds of cancer). More than 50 people have died in the U.S. from accidental exposure to methylene chloride since 1980.
The Obama Administration’s EPA was acting under new authority provided by Congress in its 2016 update of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The revised law set up a system for prioritizing and evaluating thousands of existing chemicals to determine whether they pose an unreasonable threat to health or the environment and a mandate for EPA to address any unreasonable risk it identifies. Knowing it would take time for the new system to be established and get started, Congress specifically authorized the Agency to take action on methylene chloride and two other toxic solvents based on evaluations of the chemical the Agency had recently completed. (The other two solvents are known by their acronyms, NMP and TCE). EPA proposed bans on specific uses of MC, NMP and TCE—the first proposed restrictions on existing chemicals by the Agency since it’s largely failed attempt to ban most uses of asbestos in 1989 almost three decades earlier.
When the Trump Administration took office—can you already guess?—the proposed ban was shelved and has subsequently been re-classified as a “long-term” rule, meaning it is highly unlikely to be made final during the current Administration. Since the proposed ban was published just over a year ago (January 2017), at least two people—Kevin Hartley and Drew Wynne—and possibly more, have needlessly died from exposure to methylene chloride. Their stories are heartbreaking. Safer chemicals and non-chemical methods exist for bathtub stripping and paint and coating removal—the European Union banned the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers in 2010. Rather than following the EU’s lead and protecting the public, the current Dow-friendly EPA appears poised to take steps under TSCA that will ensure no action is taken on methylene chloride for at least five more years. But if the Trump Administration caters to the chemical manufacturers, does that mean nothing can be done to prevent further needless deaths from exposure to methylene chloride?
No. Big-box and online retailers have an independent responsibility—a moral responsibility—to protect their customers and consumers from dangerous and deadly products. Companies like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart cannot simply hide behind the irresponsibility and industry-capture of EPA to get away with not protecting consumers. We’re working with our colleagues at Mind the Store and others to compel major retailers to take action. This week, NRDC sent a letter to Robert Niblock, President and CEO of Lowe’s urging immediate action to remove paint stripping products with methylene chloride as well as NMP (which EPA also proposed to ban) from the store’s shelves and website. We’ve also launched an online petition for people wanting to send their own message to Lowe’s. Please join our campaign. We don’t need any more needless deaths from methylene chloride.
https://www.nrdc.org/experts/daniel-rosenberg/needless-deaths-toxic-solvents-paint-strippers
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Deaths Linked to a Common Paint Stripper Chemical Go Back Decades, So Why Isn't It Banned?
Mar 29, 2018 | CBS News
A proposed federal ban on a potentially deadly chemical found in common paint strippers may be on hold indefinitely. The EPA says methylene chloride poses an unreasonable risk and the chemical has been implicated in dozens of deaths. The agency proposed a ban in January 2017, but postponed it late last year.
CBS News' Anna Werner spoke to the family of someone who lost his life in an accident similar to the ones we've heard before: a young man using a paint stripping product, being overcome by toxic fumes and dying.
"The pain runs deep. Not only for me but for my husband and my other two sons," Cindy Wynne said.
Her 31-year old son Drew was the youngest of her three sons, an entrepreneur with a cold brew coffee business in Charleston, South Carolina. In October, he was resurfacing the floor of a walk-in refrigerator using a paint stripper, Goof Off, manufactured by company W.M. Barr. That's where his business partner found him then called his brother Clayton.
"He said, 'He's gone. He's gone.' He screamed that over and over again. That's a phone call I'll never forget," Clayton said.
The death certificate said he was overcome by chemicals in the paint stripper – chiefly, highly-toxic methylene chloride. It's deadly but found in stripping products on store shelves across the country, something Drew's brother Brian quickly learned."I was shocked. I mean, how is it that you can find something that will kill you instantly and buy it, just off the shelf?" Brian said.
It's the question we discovered another family had asked some 20 years ago. Twenty-four-year-old Brian Keller had been stripping paint off a car, using another methylene chloride-based product, Klean Strip Aircraft Paint Remover, also made by W.M. Barr, that he'd bought at a local auto body shop. Then, he fell ill.
Medical records show inhaling methylene chloride vapors led to Keller having a heart attack. He survived in a weakened state for five years, until his mother Judy says he had another heart attack.
Before his death, Keller sued manufacturer W.M. Barr. The company denied responsibility in court filings, saying Klean Strip's label warned the product was "for use by professional, trained personnel using proper equipment and is not intended for sale to, or use by, the general public". W.M. Barr later settled the case for $1.75 million without admitting liability.
"I really thought that this was a problem that was behind us," Keller's family's attorney said. "And when I learned about the accident with the same manufacturer 28 years later, I was shocked."
Not only that, but we found Klean Strip Aircraft Paint Remover advertised for sale to the public by numerous retailers, including Amazon.
"I feel sorry because more parents out there going through the same thing. This is just, shouldn't be, today's society, when they know, that they know, that they know, what this is doing. I don't get it," said Judy Steiner, Keller's mother.
The company declined to do an on-camera interview but sent statements, saying "when used as directed methylene chloride paint strippers have an excellent safety record". However, they said "while we have always had a warning on our label, the recent tragedies have motivated us to ask what more we can do."W.M. Barr says it worked with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on recently-issued guidelines "to develop a new label and warning symbol that are now prominently featured on the front panels of our methylene chloride products."
When the EPA moved last year to ban the products, it said "revised labeling" wasn't enough and that it "will not address the unreasonable risk presented by methylene chloride"-- something Drew Wynne's brother Brian couldn't agree with more."My brother didn't need to die," he said.
W.M. Barr is not the only manufacturer of paint stripping products, but it identifies itself as the largest. These products are already banned in Europe and the Wynnes aren't waiting for EPA action; they're launching a Change.org petition to pressure retailers to take methylene chloride-based products off store shelves.
You can read W.M. Barr's full statements below:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dangerous-paint-stripper-chemical-methylene-chloride-ban-on-hold/
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S.C. Lawmakers Press EPA to Restrict Use of Paint Stripper
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Corbin Hiar
South Carolina Republicans are urging U.S. EPA to finalize restrictions on a paint-stripping chemical that's killed more than 50 people in the last 35 years, including a Charleston businessman.
"As you may know, in August of last year Drew Wynne, an entrepreneur in Charleston, South Carolina, tragically and unexpectedly passed away while using an off-the-shelf paint stripper purchased at a local retail store that contained the chemical methylene chloride," Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and Rep. Mark Sanford told EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Their letter was sent March 22 but released today by public health advocates.
"Drew took numerous precautions including ventilating the space in which he was working and also wearing a respirator and gloves; however, none of it was sufficient to avoid the extreme toxicity of methylene chloride," the lawmakers wrote.
Wynne was the 31-year-old co-founder of Riptide Coffee and died while he was removing paint from the floor of the company's walk-in refrigerator.
EPA determined in 2015 that methylene chloride posed acute risks to users, including asphyxiation and heart attacks. The agency also found that long-term exposure can cause cancer and damage the liver and kidneys.
As a result, EPA moved to require methylene chloride to be distributed in 55-gallon drums — an effort to remove the toxic chemical from store shelves (Greenwire, Jan. 13, 2017).
But under Pruitt's leadership, EPA repeatedly pushed back the date the rule would take effect, and late last year the Trump administration moved the regulation into its "long-term" action category for which there is no implementation date (E&E News PM, Dec. 14, 2017).
Citing Wynne's death, the South Carolina lawmakers called on Pruitt to stop delaying the rule. They called on EPA to "immediately and fully address the already identified risks of methylene chloride" and urged Pruitt to "prevent any further harm from coming to the American public."
Asked about the lawmakers' request, an EPA spokesman said "we will respond to the letter through appropriate channels."
EPA and the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, which represents methylene chloride makers, didn't respond to requests for comment.
The letter is part of a broader campaign against methylene chloride that is also targeting companies that retail the toxic chemical.
Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and the Natural Resources Defense Council are working with the Wynne family to pressure Lowe's, where the coffee entrepreneur bought the paint stripper, and other home improvement retailers to phase out sales of methylene-chloride-containing products. They sent a letter to the company last month and have launched a Change.org petition.
"No family should lose a loved one because of deadly chemicals," Cindy Wynne, mother of Drew Wynne, said in a press release.
"To this day, you can walk into Lowe's and other home improvement retailers and buy the same product that killed Drew — plus numerous others containing the same chemical," she added. "I hope Lowe's CEO Robert Niblock will do the right thing and ban this dangerous product."
Lowe's didn't respond to a request for comment.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077773
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In Case You Missed It: Lead Levels Once Deemed “Safe” May Cause Cardiovascular Death in Adults
Mar 29, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Neltner
So far, efforts to reduce lead risks have been largely focused on young children because their developing brains make kids especially vulnerable to the toxin at very low levels. Since research also tended to concentrate on this group, little was known about how low levels of lead affect the health of adults – until now.
A new study in the prestigious journal Lancet puts adults and lead in the spotlight, and should serve as a wakeup call to regulators charged with protecting our safety and health. They can now begin to quantify the true economic and societal costs of lead exposure.Lead and risk of premature death: A new picture emerges
A team led by Bruce Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University, mined existing, nationally representative data on more than 14,000 adults. All had their blood tested for lead between 1988 and 1994, and had died before 2011.
People with blood levels of 6.7 micrograms of lead per deciliter had a 37-percent higher risk of death from all causes, and a 70-percent higher risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, compared with those with a blood lead level of 1 microgram per deciliter. These blood levels were previously thought to be safe.
Similarly, ischemic heart disease mortality – a condition that reduces the blood flow to the heart, causing a heart attack – rose 108 percent in adults with a concentration of 6.7 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood.
The upshot of this study is that levels of lead previously considered safe are attributed to more than 265,000 premature cardiovascular deaths a year – more than half of all tobacco-related deaths in the United States today – and why the Lancet study is so important from a policy perspective.What will our policymakers do next?
Federal regulatory agencies have a rigorous process of vetting significant studies such as this one through peer review panels, science advisory boards, agency experts and the Office of Management and Budget before it can be the basis of an economic analysis and support rule making.
Therefore, we don’t expect this remarkable study to have an immediate impact on rules, especially in the anti-regulatory environment in which we exist today.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration all have a legal and ethical obligation to give the Lancet lead study serious consideration and to take it through this review process. The next opportunity is the EPA’s long-awaited revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule limiting lead in drinking water.
We now know that even low levels of lead alter lives. Lead affects our brains when we’re young and contribute to our premature death as adults. It’s why we must redouble our efforts to reduce all exposure to lead – period.
https://www.edf.org/blog/2018/03/29/case-you-missed-it-lead-levels-once-deemed-safe-may-cause-cardiovascular-death
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NGO Urges EU Phase-Out of Hazardous Chemical Groups
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
UK-based NGO CHEM Trust has called on EU regulators to "phase out" the use of groups of similar chemicals to prevent substitution of one hazardous substance with a related one that has similar properties.
In separate letters addressed to Echa, the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), and the European Commission's Health Commissioner, the NGO says "the only exception to this should be if industry has good data showing the chemical they wish to use does not have the same properties as those of the chemical being restricted".
The letters coincide with the publication of a report which highlights the common industry practice of substituting bisphenol A (BPA) with bisphenol S (BPS), both of which, Echa’s risk assessment committee has said, may have similar toxicological profiles.
BPA is already on the REACH candidate list of SVHCs on three counts. Not only is it toxic to reproduction, but it also has endocrine-disrupting properties which cause probable serious effects to human health and the environment.
It is used in thermal paper till receipts – although that is facing a restriction from 2020 – as well as polycarbonate water bottles and food can linings.
Echa has started investigating BPS by asking industry for more safety data rather than regulating its use, CHEM Trust says.
Additionally, "as far as CHEM Trust is aware Efsa – responsible for assessing chemicals in food packaging – has not reexamined the toxicity of BPS or other bisphenols" the NGO says.Report findings
According to the report – From BPA to BPZ: a toxic soup? How companies switch from a known hazardous chemical to one with similar properties, and how regulators could stop them – most companies selling BPS are "claiming that it has no hazards".
The report shows that people and the environment are "not being properly protected from hazardous chemicals as businesses are moving from one problem chemical in a group to another," Michael Warhurst, CHEM Trust executive director said.
"We need EU regulators to phase out groups of chemicals of concern, rather than slowly restricting one chemical at a time. We cannot continue to gamble with people's health like this."
The report is published a year after CHEM Trust's No Brainer study, which reviewed the evidence that a number of chemicals, including BPA and BPS, might harm brain development in children.Recommendations
The report lists five recommendations:regulators should regulate groups of related chemicals, rather than take a substance by substance approach: this needs to be used in REACH and regulations such as laws on chemicals in food contact materials. Echa should also investigate the effectiveness of industry’s self-classification of chemicals, and whether this is being done in accordance with the legal requirements;manufacturers must improve their own assessment of the safety of chemicals: it is "not acceptable", CHEM Trust says, to claim that a chemical like BPS has no hazards, when a very similar chemical is known to have substantial hazards, including endocrine disruption;downstream users of chemicals should not replace one "problem chemical" with another similar chemical from the same group;workers should ask whether they are being exposed to BPA or other bisphenols, and ask employers to move to safer non-bisphenol alternatives; andconsumers should ask retailers whether products such as plastic bottles, till receipts and food cans are bisphenol-free, and should ensure that children do not play with till receipts.
https://chemicalwatch.com/65558/ngo-urges-eu-phase-out-of-hazardous-chemical-groups
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Companies Likely to Miss REACH 2018 ‘Fast-Track Check’ Deadline
Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
An expected surge in the number of companies submitting REACH 2018 dossiers by the end of March – so as to secure a completeness check outcome on their dossiers in 21 days – does not seem likely, Echa says.
The agency had previously warned the outcome of such checks on dossiers submitted after 31 March may not arrive until August.
With two months to go until the registration deadline, Echa has received 18,037 dossiers covering 7,452 substances – 4,975 of which have not been registered before.
Overall, the agency said in comments to Chemical Watch, this is 10% behind the current 2018 deadline dossier estimations for this point in time. However, it added, the expectation has always been of a large peak in submissions during the last weeks before the deadline "so it is difficult to draw conclusions at this point".
For the 2018 deadline, 3,236 companies have filed dossiers – 544 companies are new registrants.‘Exceptional’ cases
Submission inquiry and data-sharing dispute activity remains "very high", Echa said, "which is a sign that submissions are in general late".
Additionally, requests for letters of access "remain quite high" as do the number of expressions of interest received for the Directors Contact Group (DCG) solutions. This is particularly the case on the late availabilityof test results – "which also reflects that industry is late with the preparations and therefore submissions will arrive in the last weeks before the deadline", Echa said.
Those prospective registrants expecting late test results on their substances must secure lab testing contracts dated before 31 March in order to be considered as an "exceptional case", and to potentially be permitted to submit their dossiers after the 31 May deadline – if Echa consents.
The agency has now received around 160 expressions of interest for DCG solutions – almost all for the issue on late availability of test results. "Given the large interest we have updated the DCG webpages to make more transparent the kind of documentation that companies need to provide to apply for the DCG cases," Echa said. "It does look like this will continue to increase in the coming weeks."Extra support
The agency has decided to open REACH-IT 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including bank holidays and weekends, so industry can continue to submit. Full Echa support is available during business hours, it said, adding it "constantly" monitors the situation.
It will run a REACH 2018 Q&A session on 19 April with a panel of experts responding to queries.
Echa says it is "ready to support" companies with all the "different difficulties" they may encounter including:late test results;issues with lead registrants and substance information exchange fora (Siefs);suppliers not registering; anddata-sharing disputes.
"It is now important that companies start to submit their dossiers as soon as they are ready," the agency said. "It is also important that companies do not rush to correct their dossiers if they fail the first completeness check, but continue to focus on submitting the remainder of their dossiers.
"They get ample time to address the failure. What is important is to submit before the deadline. The dossier can validly be completed after the deadline, within the time given by Echa to address the failures."
https://chemicalwatch.com/65576/companies-likely-to-miss-reach-2018-fast-track-check-deadline
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Mar 29, 2018 | Chemical Watch
Last chance for quick REACH dossier turnaroundEcha has urged registrants to submit dossiers before the end of March, and it will process the registration in three weeks.
Any submissions in April or May could take three months for a decision, it advises.DCG solutions
In terms of the REACH 2018 deadline, the agency has published instructions on the evidence it expects from companies seeking to benefit from a so-called Directors' Contact Group (DCG) solution.
If companies consider that a DCG solution applies to them, they can contact the agency and submit their evidence in one go, it says.
Companies are advised to do this as soon as possible so that their case can be assessed well before the deadline.
If accepted as a DCG case, the company will receive instructions on how to indicate their situation in their registration dossier.Data-sharing disputes and registration
Registrants that have recently filed a data-sharing dispute with Echa, may still be able to continue business operations – even if their dispute hasn't been assessed by the 31 May deadline.
REACH requires registrants to attempt to agree on data sharing and joint submissions. However, if an agreement can't be reached, they can file a dispute with Echa. The agency's decision is needed before a registration can be filed.
However, Echa has said that it will contact registrants awaiting a decision, to tell them how to file a submission and continue business operations until this is processed.Testing proposals
Echa has launched 28 new public consultations on testing proposals for 21 substances. The deadline to comment is 11 May.Easter hours
The agency says it will be closed from 29 March until 2 April for the Easter break. However, REACH-IT will remain open 24/7 and until the 31 May REACH registration deadline.Webinars
Echa is running a webinar on tools to support safer substitution on 18 April. It will give an overview of what is available to help make the transition to safer chemicals.
Successful substitution requires tools to analyse available alternatives and find the "most suitable methods to frame the project". They can also help with finding relevant substance data and partners, the agency says.Completeness checks:
The materials from the REACH 2018 webinar: 'Completeness check – preparing a dossier and the most common failures' are available on the agency's website.Microplastics:
Echa has posted online a recording of a webinar it ran about its call for evidence on the possible restriction of microplastics. The information session was set up to clarify the scope of the project, and answer any questions on it. It took place on 12 March, and is posted on Echa's YouTube channel.Registration webinar – 19 April
Echa will run a questions and answers webinar about registration on 19 April. The title of the webinar is: 'REACH 2018 questions and answers – everything you want to know about registering successfully'.
Participants will be able to ask an expert panel about all aspects of registration, in preparation for the 31 May deadline. Anyone wishing to take part can register via Echa’s website.Guideline on PAHs restriction
The agency has published a guideline clarifying the restriction on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in articles supplied to the general public. It has been written to assist producers, importers, distributors, and users of articles, member state competent authorities and regulators.Evidence call on oxo-degradable plastics
The agency is assessing the need for a proposal to restrict the use of oxo-degradable plastics. Interested parties should submit any information they have on the substances by 11 May.
https://chemicalwatch.com/65368/echa-round-up
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Exclusive: Firms Complain of Contaminated Crude From U.S. Reserve
Mar 29, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Catherine Ngai
Three firms that bought crude oil last year from U.S. emergency stockpiles raised concerns about dangerous levels of a poisonous chemical in the cargoes, according to internal Energy Department emails and shipping documents reviewed by Reuters.
Problems with crude quality would make the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) less useful in an emergency because refiners would need to spend time and money removing contamination before producing fuel. The reserve is the world's largest government stockpile, currently holding 665 million barrels.
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) occurs naturally in crude and natural gas, but oil producers typically decontaminate such products before delivery to buyers. High levels of H2S can corrode refinery parts and pipelines - and can be lethal to humans in gas form.
Authorities in all major consuming countries keep oil in reserve to ensure that they do not run out of crude to refine into fuels if a natural disaster or war disrupts global supplies. The U.S. government established its reserve in 1975 following the Arab oil embargo.
The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the reserve and periodically sells some of its oil at times when there are no emergencies, as it did with the sales that sparked contamination concerns.
Department Spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes declined to comment about the contamination complaints uncovered by Reuters.
The three firms that raised concerns about high H2S levels were Royal Dutch Shell Co, Australian bank Macquarie Group and PetroChina International America, the U.S. trading arm of state-owned energy firm PetroChina Co Ltd [601857.SS], according to the shipping documents, emails provided by the Energy Department in response to a public records request, and a department official who declined to be identified.
The department took responsibility for cleaning the shipment to PetroChina with an additive after it determined in May of last year that levels of H2S were too high, according to the department official. The department disputes tests showing levels were too high in the other two cargoes, the official said.
All three firms bought cargoes of SPR oil stored in an underground salt cavern in Bryan Mound, Texas last year. The oil was pumped from Bryan Mound through pipelines to the nearest oil terminal at Freeport, Texas before being loaded onto ships, according to records reviewed by Reuters and the department official.
The Freeport facility is owned by Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP. Enterprise knew about higher levels of H2S in a small number of cargoes traded between private firms that passed through its terminal, Enterprise Senior Vice President Brent Secrest told Reuters in an interview.
"Of the hundreds of cargoes we've loaded across Freeport and other Enterprise terminals, we've only had a handful of customers give us feedback regarding high levels of H2S," he said.
UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
In March, Shell complained to the Energy Department after finding high levels of H2S in a cargo the company bought as part of a 6.2 million-barrel purchase from the U.S. government in January, according to emails provided by the department in response to the Reuters public records request.
The firm was "unpleasantly surprised" to find the high levels, Shell oil trader Steve Sellers wrote to the department, adding that the issue caused concern at Shell about the quality of SPR crude for future purchases.
Shell declined to comment on its complaint to the government.
The oil firm's emails said an initial test sample detected H2S gas at levels of less than five parts per million (ppm). But a later test by Shell - after it shipped the crude by boat to another U.S. location - showed H2S levels of 600 parts per million, according to Shell's emails to the department.
Exposure to vapors containing 500-700 ppm of H2S could cause a person to collapse in five minutes and die within an hour, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
SAFETY CONCERNS
In November, Australian bank Macquarie Group bought the third shipment from the SPR and sold it to PetroChina, according to the shipping documents reviewed by Reuters.
The cargo was loaded at Freeport onto a ship called the Stena Sunrise, the documents show.
A testing company named Inspectorate tested a sample from the SPR cargo purchased by Macquarie, according to the documents, and found H2S levels of up to 9,000 ppm.
Inspectorate declined to comment and referred questions to the Energy Department. Macquarie declined to comment.
After the Inspectorate testing, the terminal operator refused to allow workers to perform additional tests out of concern about violating safety regulations, according to the shipping documents.
It is unclear if PetroChina or Macquarie decontaminated the cargo. PetroChina shipped the oil to China, where it arrived on Jan. 18, according to Thomson Reuters shipping data.
RARE INCIDENTS
Reuters was not able to determine how often high levels of H2S are detected across the industry, but industry experts and chemical petroleum engineers said such incidents are rare.
Some crude grades can have H2S levels as high as 1000 ppm when produced, said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston. But producers remove most of that before transporting crude to customers.
Contamination could result from blending different crude grades, for example when one grade of crude is stored in a tank that previously contained a different grade, Krishnamoorti said.
"There has to be some concentrated source of it," Krishnamoorti said. "It's just very odd."
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/03/29/business/29reuters-usa-oil-contamination-exclusive.html
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Concho Resources' $9.5B Deal Vastly Expands Permian Holdings
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Nathanial Gronewold
The biggest oil industry transaction in the Permian Basin was announced yesterday as drillers appear increasingly confident about business prospects in 2018.
Concho Resources Inc. says it will swallow RSP Permian Inc. in an all-stock transaction that's set to close by the third quarter of this year. Concho estimated the value of the deal at about $9.5 billion, including $8 billion in stock and about $1.5 billion in assumed debt.
RSP Permian earlier made headlines with major acreage purchases in the dominant Permian tight and shale oil play. News that Concho would acquire it sent RSP's stock soaring and led to an improved credit outlook for Concho.
Concho CEO Tim Leach said the massive acquisition puts his company in the lead in the Permian.
"Together our scale in the Permian Basin will be powerful," Leach told analysts during a call yesterday. "We'll be the largest Permian producer from unconventional resources. We'll run the largest development program in the Permian. Our combined position will be more than 640,000 net acres."
Fitch Ratings Inc. reacted to the news by placing Concho on its "Ratings Watch" as "Positive". RSP is generally admired by industry observers for its capital discipline.
"Fitch believes the credit-conscious RSP Permian transaction improves Concho's credit profile via RSP's high-quality, complementary acreage position that we believe will facilitate higher-margin, oil-weighted production growth accelerating Concho's realization of size and scale," the ratings agency said in a note to clients. "The transaction also supports and, in some cases, speeds up the realization of financial and operational efficiencies, which should lead to further improvements in unit economics."
The deal seems to confirm predictions that 2018 will prove a banner year for mergers and acquisitions in the oil patch and the strengthening optimism within the industry. That optimism should hold throughout the year so long as crude oil prices don't collapse again.
Higher crude oil prices and faster global economic growth led analysts at Baker McKenzie to predict greater energy dealmaking for 2018.
M&A deal valuation already doubled last year over 2016 figures. Baker McKenzie thinks further acceleration is ahead. In a new report, the consultancy says it thinks North American transactions will slow some but sees fast growth ahead for Europe. Total SA's recent acquisition of Maersk Oil seemed to underscore this view.
"North America will continue to lead M&A activity in the energy sector in 2018, although we forecast transaction values to dip slightly to U.S. $227.7 billion, down from U.S. $242.5 billion in 2017," analysts there say in the new report. "In Europe, we forecast energy M&A to rise by more than 30% to U.S. $56.6 billion, followed by Asia Pacific with U.S. $50.4 billion, Latin America with U.S. $13.4 billion, and the Middle East and Africa with U.S. $4.5 billion."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077683
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Patagonia Targeted by Online Natural Gas Campaign
Mar 29, 2018 | Houston Chronicle (In E&E Energywire)
By James Osborne
An online campaign by a group backed by oil and gas companies is taking aim at Patagonia.
In articles and memes posted to social media, Texans for Natural Gas took issue with what it called, in a separate press release, the outdoor clothing company's "hypocritical" criticism of hydraulic fracturing.
One meme featured a photo of empty shelves accompanied by a caption reading, "Patagonia introduces new petroleum-free product line."
The group's funders include EOG Resources Inc. and Exxon division XTO Energy Inc.
"There's a broader conversation now with a company like Patagonia that uses petroleum products and then plants their principled flag in the ground," said Steve Everley, a spokesman for the group who is also an oil and gas consultant.
Patagonia and its executives have for years stirred the ire of some oil and gas executives with their opposition to fracking. In December, the company also sued the federal government over the Trump administration's move to shrink two national monuments.
Harvard University professor Naomi Oreskes, who has written about the oil and gas industry's fueling of climate skepticism, said it was the latest effort from industry voices to slow action on greenhouse gas emissions.
"They recycle different arguments based on what they think will work in any given moment," she said. "They say we're all hypocrites because we drive a car. ... Look, we're in a system and all of us are part of it. That's why we're trying to change the system."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077663
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FERC Inks Pact with China on Electricity Pricing
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Rod Kuckro
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Chinese government signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday on reform of electricity price regulation in the communist country.
The document's signing was announced on Twitter by FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre. Hu Zucai, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, signed for China.
Neither FERC nor the Chinese Embassy in Washington would elaborate on the MOU or how it came about.
"These documents are typically left to speak for themselves," said FERC spokesman Craig Cano, noting that there was no accompanying statement by McIntyre.
"I'm looking forward to future cooperation" with the Chinese, McIntyre said in his tweet.
The agreement is set to run until Dec. 31, 2019, and could include visits by officials from FERC to China.
The pact is directed at "price reform of China's electricity transmission, distribution and generation sector and natural gas pipeline transportation sector," including "lessons on power industry reform," the MOU says.
Specific areas of collaboration include regulatory policies and experience on electricity pricing and rate design and on regulation policy and market mechanisms for electricity trading.
As for natural gas, the MOU focuses on regulatory policies on natural gas pipeline transportation pricing and rate design and on developments and experience on gas trading markets.
FERC has signed such agreements before with foreign entities. The last one was with Mexico's energy regulator in January 2017 on cross-border transmission issues. Previously, FERC entered agreements with Brazil, Japan and the European Union in 2016, and with Mexico, India and the European Union in 2015.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077759
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Texas to India: Take More of Our LNG Shipments
Mar 29, 2018 | Houston Chronicle (In E&E Greenwire)
By Mike Ward
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) yesterday urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase shipments of liquefied natural gas from the state's ports.
Abbott made the remarks during a weeklong trip to India, where he has been pushing to increase trade with the nation.
The governor told reporters after the meeting with Modi that expanding the Texas-India trade relationship would benefit both parties.
"India is one of the most prolific economies in the world, and growing economies need access to energy," Abbott said.
"As long as India has a need for oil and natural gas, Texas will be a willing partner to provide it," he said. "As this energy trade continues to grow, so will the Texas economy, and I look forward to many more years of this tremendous partnership."
Besides LNG shipments, Abbott has also pushed for direct flight paths from India to Houston or Dallas.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077725
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Atlanta Lockdown Revives Ransomware Fears
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Some city services in Atlanta have ground to a halt after a cyberattack last week, but hackers stopped short of disrupting electricity, wastewater treatment and other critical operations.
The outbreak of the "SamSam" ransomware hobbled online billing services in Georgia's capital. It scrambled court schedules and forced officials to stop accepting new job applications.
"This is much bigger than a ransomware attack," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a press conference earlier this week. "This really is an attack on our government, which means it's an attack on all of us."
Cybersecurity experts said they were still investigating the ransomware attack, which encrypted files on victims' computers and demanded online payment to unlock them. Bottoms said Monday the hackers were seeking to extort $51,000 from the city, though there is no evidence that officials ever attempted to pay the ransom.
Bill Edge, a spokesman for Georgia's Public Service Commission, which regulates energy and telecommunications providers in the state, said no utilities had reported any direct impacts from the malware. He said city officials had cut off outgoing emails from their accounts, but state agencies like the PSC hadn't been affected. "Obviously we can call people on the phone if needed," he added.
Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co. that serves large portions of Atlanta, reported no service interruptions related to the case. "We remain in contact with the city while they address this concern," spokesman Craig Bell said in a statement, adding that maintaining the reliability and security of grid operational systems "is a top priority" for the utility. "We have allocated considerable resources to develop and implement a comprehensive program to protect critical systems," he said.'Grim' options
Though utilities have dodged the brunt of the latest SamSam resurgence, experts say the event serves as a troubling reminder of cyber risks to vital systems like those running the power grid.
"Critical infrastructure owners should be alarmed and use Atlanta as a case study for more investment in cybersecurity," noted John Dickson, principal at the San Antonio-based network security firm Denim Group Ltd. He added that "the worry right now is not [website] defacement, not data loss, but actual disruption to the point where you can't operate your business."
For local governments, the possible responses to a successful ransomware attack are "grim and grimmer," Dickson said. He pointed out that small municipalities and related government organizations can be hard-pressed for information technology funding and tend to fall at the tail end of the security adoption curve.
"Unless local governments have a sophisticated backup and recovery operation, the options are to pay or start over," he said.
Two years ago, a small utility in Michigan opted to pay its hackers $25,000 in online currency. That ransomware attack on the Lansing Board of Water & Light temporarily blocked employee access to utility email and administrative systems, though it did not cause any blackouts (Energywire, Oct. 20, 2016).
In 2016, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. pushed out an alert to hundreds of utilities about the scourge of ransomware.
NERC, which runs a threat information-sharing portal called the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), said that it "is aware of at least one case where an industrial control systems (ICS) theme was used as a lure to deliver ransomware payloads," adding that "from an attacker's perspective, a successful attack on critical operational technologies may improve the odds of a higher payoff."
In other words, the more crucial the service, the higher the potential reward for the hackers who hold it hostage.
"It is unknown whether the electricity subsector will become a key target of interest; however, the E-ISAC believes utilities may be seen as an attractive target," the alert concluded.Manual mode
Earlier this year, cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Talos warned of a resurgence of the SamSam ransomware in control system environments, as well as in the health care and government sectors.
"These attacks do not appear to be highly targeted and appear to be more opportunistic in nature," Talos technical lead Vitor Ventura said in a blog post.
Cisco Talos, a cybersecurity and threat intelligence arm of Cisco Systems Inc., is assisting the city of Atlanta with its investigation of the SamSam infection, along with Atlanta-based researchers from Dell SecureWorks, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security authorities.
"We are certainly not the first to experience this and likely will not be the last," Mayor Bottoms said.
She added that while the response entered the "recovery" phase, municipal workers would continue to fill out forms and work by hand where possible.
Many U.S. power utilities have explored similar fallback options in the wake of successful cyber strikes on Ukraine's power grid in 2015 and 2016 (Energywire, July 21, 2016). In those incidents, grid operators were able to quickly restore power by reverting to "manual mode" — flipping switches by hand.
In Atlanta's case, keeping the city running now takes plenty of paperwork.
"It was a sustainable model until we got computer systems, so it worked for many years," Bottoms said of the city's new manual operations. "And for some of our younger employees, it will be a nice exercise in good penmanship."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077679
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BNSF Railway to Invest $230m Into Projects in California
Mar 29, 2018 | Railway Technology
North American freight transportation provider BNSF Railway Company has announced plans to invest nearly $230m in the US state of California under its 2018 capital expenditure programme.
Besides scheduled maintenance programmes, the company will carry out multiple capacity expansion projects in the state with this investment.
BNSF California operations general manager Donnie Stilwell said: “California is a critical part of BNSF’s rail network, providing access from West Coast ports to major markets in the US.
“By committing to ongoing maintenance projects and enhancements in the state, we are showing our dedication to Californians to run a safe, reliable and efficient railroad.”“We are showing our dedication to Californians to run a safe, reliable and efficient railroad.”
This year, the company will start construction of a third main track between West Needles and Ibis on the Needles subdivision.
About four miles of quadruple main track will also be added to the existing triple track through the city of Needles to boost its capacity.
The scope of works also includes the installation of an additional production track and lift equipment at the Los Angeles Intermodal Facility, extension of the north lead track at the Stockton Intermodal Facility to improve switching capability.
As part of the maintenance programme, BNSF will carry out 570 miles of track surfacing and undercutting work. It will also replace nearly 40 miles of rail and around 100,000 ties in the state.
Over the past five years, the company has invested more than $1bn into California to maintain and expand its nearly 2,000-mile network in the state.
Last month, BNSF announced a $3.3bn network-wide capital expenditure programme.
Under the programme, about $2.4bn will be invested to maintain the core network and related assets, $500m for expansion projects and $300m to acquire new freight cars and equipment.
The remaining $100m will be used to implement Positive Train Control (PTC), a system of requirements for monitoring and controlling train movement.
https://www.railway-technology.com/news/bnsf-railway-to-invest-230m-into-projects-in-california/
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EPA Pushes Informal Policy to Deal with Polluters Outside Courts
Mar 29, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is embracing an informal policy that would enable polluters to come to an agreement with the agency outside of the federal justice system.
Two memos, one from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and one from the EPA, are shedding light on the new policy, which officials are touting as a positive replacement to formal lawsuits, as the number of official cases brought against polluters is dropping to a new low.
In a March 12 letter sent to the chiefs of the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood highlighted a policy that would include "enhancing cooperative federalism," DOJ said in a letter released publicly on March 15.
The idea involves working with individuals or industries in violation of EPA regulations without taking them to court.
"In fact, many kinds of environmental violations can be, and often are, addressed and resolved without federal involvement," the memo reads.
The memorandum, meant as guidance to attorneys within the ENRD division, notes additional methods in which the DOJ could circumvent formal litigation with polluters, through methods of "adhering to the impartial rule of law," "exercising pragmatic decisionmaking" and "employing the full range of enforcement tools."
The new way of thinking aligns with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's oft-mentioned "back to basics" approach to strip down regulations for clean air, water and land.
The memo further advises against apparent bias on polluters, warning: "As we seek to advance the rule of law through our enforcement work, we must do so impartially, without special treatment for, or animus against, any particular person, industry, group, or interest."
In early February, EPA's head of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), Susan Bodine, sent a letter to staffers highlighting the EPA's new approach to polluters. The memo was sent days before the agency released its annual enforcement data, which showed a distinct drop in lawsuits brought and filed against polluters under the Trump administration.
“Some outside entities that are unfamiliar with the true nature of our work here in OECA and have tried to measure the worth of what you do simply through the dollar amount of federal penalties and the number of federal case initiations,” she wrote in an office-wide email reviewed by The Hill.
“However it is also important for EPA to help and, if necessary, persuade states to take actions to address violations and informal actions can bring about a return to compliance more quickly.”
EPA's numbers at the time revealed that polluters were fined a total of $1.6 billion in penalties in fiscal year 2017 — about a fifth of the $5.7 billion EPA penalties collected the year prior, under former President Obama.
More recently, criminal and administrative lawsuits filed by EPA against polluters show the agency to be on track to bring fewer suits in 2018 than the year before. In fiscal 2018 EPA filed just 154 administrative enforcement cases, which is on trend to amount to nearly half of 2017's numbers and less than half of 2016's.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/380811-epa-pushes-informal-policy-to-deal-with-polluters-outside-of
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Talking Points for Staffers Point to 'Gaps' in Science
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
U.S. EPA staffers are being instructed to use climate change talking points that closely follow Administrator Scott Pruitt's public statements on the issue.
EPA employees received guidance this week from the agency's public affairs office that highlights uncertainties about climate science, according to a leaked copy of the guidance obtained by the Huffington Post.
Three of the eight talking points cast doubt on the degree of human responsibility for climate change, although the vast majority of scientists agree humans are the main drivers of rising global activity.
"Human activity impacts our changing climate in some manner. The ability to measure with precision the degree and extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are subject to continuing debate and dialogue," one talking point read.
EPA also stated there were "clear gaps" in the understanding of the human role of climate science and that it was important for the agency to "strive for better understanding of these gaps given their potential significant influence on our country's domestic economic viability."
And, the guidance says, Pruitt "encourages an open, transparent debate on climate science." Pruitt has been pushing for a public debate on climate science modeled after military-style "red team" exercises.
EPA's approved talking points mirror the climate views Pruitt regularly mentions in his public appearances in the media and on Capitol Hill.
The details of the memo were described in an email from Joel Scheraga, an EPA career staffer and the senior adviser for climate adaptation in EPA's policy office. Scheraga's email was also obtained by the Huffington Post.
Scheraga noted in the email that members of an EPA climate adaptation group had suggested it would "be helpful to develop consistent messages about EPA's climate adaptation efforts." These messages could be used for all program and regional offices.
The climate change messaging was distributed by Nancy Grantham, a career staffer in EPA's public affairs shop, according to Scheraga's email.
Environmental groups were quick to slam the talking points.
"Scott Pruitt can issue decrees on EPA's messaging all he likes, but the facts don't lie like he does," said John Coequyt, global climate change policy director at the Sierra Club.
"The climate crisis is at a tipping point, and the time to act is now. The real memo Scott Pruitt should review is the mission of the EPA: to ensure that Americans have clean air, land and water and to ensure that national efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information," he said.EPA's adaptation work continues
Scheraga's email offers a glimpse into climate adaptation efforts still underway at the agency, despite the Trump administration's moves to scale back its climate change policies.
EPA disbanded its climate adaptation program in April last year and reassigned three of the four staff members to other positions within the Office of Policy, which had housed the program under the Obama administration. The program director, Scheraga, remained. At the time, the reorganization sparked concerns the agency would step away from its coordinating role in promoting adaptation (E&E News PM, April 7, 2017).
But according to EPA's website, that work is continuing.
A description of the policy office's climate change adaptation staff says that the "impacts of a changing climate pose significant challenges to the EPA's ability to fulfill its mission" and that EPA must "adapt" and "anticipate and plan for future changes in climate."
Scheraga's email says that EPA's Cross-EPA Work Group on Climate Adaptation is still meeting. The group was established in 2011 and under the Obama administration was responsible for overseeing the implementation of EPA's Climate Change Adaptation Plan. It included representatives from each national environmental program office, regional office and certain national support offices, according to a 2014 EPA policy statement on climate change adaptation from then-Administrator Gina McCarthy.
Jerry Filbin, a former senior analyst for EPA's climate adaptation team who retired from the agency three years ago, said Scheraga appeared to be passing along the talking points and not issuing any sort of directive to use them. Filbin added he had not discussed the issue with his former colleague.
"From my perspective, they were looking for clarity in their message they didn't want to run afoul of the new administration," he said. "Frankly, the four talking points on adaptation didn't deviate that much from where we were three years ago."
The talking points relayed by Scheraga said the agency "recognizes the challenges that communities face in adapting to a changing climate."
EPA also said that it "works with state, local, and tribal governments to improve infrastructure to protect against the consequences of climate change and natural disasters," and that it "will continue to advance its climate adaptation efforts, and has reconvened the cross-EPA Adaptation Working Group in support of those efforts."
While the agency has deleted many references to climate change on its website, it suggested it was offering clear scientific data to disaster-affected communities.
"EPA also promotes science that helps informs states, municipalities, and tribes on how to plan for and respond to extreme events and environmental emergencies," one of the talking points says.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077693
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EPA to Finish Ozone Designations in July with San Antonio
Mar 29, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
U.S. EPA will abide by a court-ordered July deadline to wind up all tardy attainment designations for its 2015 ground-level ozone standard, culminating with a closely watched final decision for a fast-growing part of Texas, according to a new regulatory filing.
While EPA air chief Bill Wehrum had previously insisted the agency needed until Aug. 10 to make the designations for the eight-county San Antonio region, that verdict will now come by July 17, according to a notice set for publication in tomorrow's Federal Register.
The July date was the cutoff set earlier this month by a federal judge on lawsuits brought by Democratic-led states and public health and environmental groups. EPA had previously not said whether it would accept U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam's ruling or mount an appeal (E&E News PM, March 12).
By law, all attainment designations were due by last October, or two years after EPA officials had tightened the ozone standard from 75 parts per billion to 70 ppb. Without explanation, the agency missed that cutoff. Although officials later declared about 85 percent of U.S. counties effectively in attainment with the standard, they punted final decisions for Los Angeles, Houston and every other area in the country at risk of noncompliance.
Another hang-up emerged last September when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) retreated from the state's original recommendation to declare Bexar County, the heavily populated heart of the San Antonio area, in nonattainment for the 70-ppb standard. Abbott instead asked for more time "to show that additional data and considerations — such as international transport — warrant an 'attainment' or 'unclassifiable/attainment' designation."
EPA isn't committing to that step, according to a recent letter to Abbott from Region 6 Administrator Anne Idsal.
At best, she wrote, EPA will rank Bexar County's status as "unclassifiable." Not only do air quality monitors show a violation of the 70-ppb threshold, but the county has emissions of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides that are about four times higher than those of any other county in the region, according to an accompanying technical analysis.
"The EPA stands ready to discuss with Texas any additional information that it would like the EPA to consider to support Texas's recommendation that all of Bexar county should be classified attainment," Idsal wrote in asking state officials to finish making their case by May 11. EPA plans to designate the surrounding seven counties in the San Antonio area as "attainment/unclassifiable," she said.
Ozone, a lung irritant that is the main ingredient in smog, is spawned by the reaction of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in sunlight. It is linked to asthma attacks in children and worsened breathing problems for people with cystic fibrosis and other chronic respiratory diseases.
From a compliance standpoint, the attainment designations are a milestone because they start the clock for states to come up with cleanup plans for areas that don't meet the standard. San Antonio, which has never been declared in nonattainment for any EPA air quality benchmark, is eager to keep that streak alive (Greenwire, April 6, 2015).
In his letter urging EPA to deem Bexar County in attainment, Abbott cited a study that otherwise predicted "staggering" economic consequences and also warned of "serious national security implications" for military operations in the San Antonio region.
EPA must make all of the other attainment decisions by the end of next month, ruled Gilliam, who sits on the bench for the Northern District of California. In separate litigation awaiting action by U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the agency has to turn in a status report on where it stands by May 15.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/29/stories/1060077777
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