Preview Newsletter
ACC PM Clips Report 4/18/2018
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(ACC Blog) Stay Ahead of the Regulatory Curve at the Twelfth Antimicrobial Workshop
Apr 18, 2018 | American Chemistry Matters
By American Chemistry
Antimicrobial products are critical to many industries and help in the protection of public health. Antimicrobials are highly regulated, making it critical for companies to stay abreast of the ever-changing regulatory landscape in which they operate. -
(ACC Mentioned) Lobbyist Confirmed as US EPA Deputy Administrator
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Julie Miller
The US Senate has approved the nomination of lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as deputy administrator at the EPA. His appointment comes as serious questions are asked about the future of current EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. -
(ACC Mentioned) Top 5 Issues in Plastics and Packaging: The ACC Responds
Apr 18, 2018 | Plastics Today
By Steve Russell
Positioned figuratively at the center of the plastics industry, Washington, D.C.-based American Chemistry Council’s stated mission is to “solve some of the biggest challenges facing our nation and our world.” -
(ACC Mentioned) Earth Day 2018: Plastics Don’t Deserve the Bad Rap
Apr 18, 2018 | Independent Women's Forum
By Amy Cooke
It’s that eco-festive time of year again when environmentally conscientious and slightly sanctimonious friends and family members shame us for our secret stash of plastic grocery bags, insufficient recycling efforts, and having a disposable bottle of water in our gasoline-powered car. -
(ACC Mentioned) Earth Day 2018: A Focus on Plastics Pollution and Recycling
Apr 18, 2018 | Plastics Recycling Update
By Editorial Staff
Sunday marks the 48th iteration of Earth Day, an annual celebration that tends to spawn many recycling-related events and announcements. This year, plastics are the focus of the conversation. -
(ACC Mentioned) Issues of the Environment: Ann Arbor to Launch New Plastics Recycling Program
Apr 18, 2018 | WEMU
By David Fair
The theme of Earth Day 2018 is End Plastic Pollution. Earth Day comes up this Sunday, April 22nd. To coincide with the theme, 'Issues of the Environment' focuses on an upcoming initiative in Ann Arbor aimed at reducing plastic waste that typically does not end up in the recycling stream. -
The Petrochemicals Party Shows No Signs of Stopping
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H. Tullo
The chemical industry is booming, and little in the forecast indicates that the good times will let up anytime soon. That was the key message from the consultants and executives who presented at the IHS Markit World Petrochemical Conference 2018 in Houston last month. -
House Subcommittee Advances Cybersecurity, LNG Bills
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Mintz
A House subcommittee today advanced four bipartisan bills aimed at modernizing the Department of Energy and its cybersecurity operations. -
Committee Approves Bipartisan Recreation Measure, Other Bills
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
The House Natural Resources Committee advanced seven bills this morning by voice vote, including one that would promote outdoor recreation on federal land. -
Fighting Ocean Plastics at the Source
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H. Tullo
In Muncar, on the coast of East Java, Indonesia, fishers still make their living the traditional way, launching from the shore in the hand-painted boats they have used for generations. -
Environmentalists Launch Suit Challenging EPA's TSCA Rules
Apr 18, 2018 | Inside EPA
Environmentalists have filed their opening brief in their suit challenging EPA's “framework” rules for prioritizing and assessing existing chemicals for possible regulation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing the rules violate a requirement to conduct a holistic review that considers all of a chemical's uses. -
Disability Campaigners Call on Lowe's to Ban DCM, NMP
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical Watch
Learning disability campaigners have called on US home improvement retailer Lowe's to stop the sale of paint strippers containing methylene chloride (DCM) and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP). -
Grid Operators Grapple with Resilience Issue
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump
Four U.S. electric grid CEOs were on one panel yesterday. There's only one place the discussion could start: resilience. -
Who Is Buying U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas?
Apr 18, 2018 | Forbes
By Jude Clemente
The U.S. is becoming an increasingly larger player in the $100 billion global liquefied natural gas market, a business that is now about 45 Bcf/d and will boom to $300 billion by 2030. -
LNG Deals Divert Focus from U.S.-China Energy Tech Issues
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
The Trump administration should avoid improving the national trade balance with China through increased liquefied natural gas exports, says a new assessment that warns any benefits from doing so would likely be short-lived. -
China’s Unconventional Natural Gas Output to Double by 2020, Says Wood Mackenzie
Apr 18, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
hina’s unconventional natural gas production has undergone significant progress in the past 10 years, increasing to nearly 600 wells and 9 bcm (317.8 Bcf) of production in 2017, and output is likely to double to 17 bcm (600 Bcf) in 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie. -
Crisis of Fluorinated Chemical Pollution Keeps Spreading, With No End in Sight
Apr 18, 2018 | Environmental Working Group
By Monica Amarelo
Two decades after pollution from highly toxic fluorinated chemicals was first reported in American communities and drinking water, the number of known contamination sites is growing rapidly, with no end in sight. -
House Panel Advances Bills to Guard Energy Grid from Cyberattacks
Apr 18, 2018 | The Hill - Cybersecurity
By Morgan Chalfant
A House panel has approved a string of bills aimed at securing U.S. energy infrastructure from cyber threats, following revelations of Russian cyberattacks targeting grid operators. -
Here are 5 Climate Leaders to Watch
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Anne C. Mulkern
California is known for pushing policies to limit climate change. It's also part of the "resistance" working to counteract moves by the Trump administration. -
Climate Change Behind Worsened Ozone Pollution — Report
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
The good news in the American Lung Association's latest annual survey of air quality trends: Levels of dangerous fine particulates generally continued to decline in recent years. The bad news comes attached to a warning note about the impacts of climate, both physical and political.
Industry and Association News
LCSA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News - There are no clips to report at this time.
Environment News
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(ACC Blog) Stay Ahead of the Regulatory Curve at the Twelfth Antimicrobial Workshop
Apr 18, 2018 | American Chemistry Matters
By American Chemistry
Antimicrobial products are critical to many industries and help in the protection of public health. Antimicrobials are highly regulated, making it critical for companies to stay abreast of the ever-changing regulatory landscape in which they operate.
Those engaged in the business of antimicrobials will not want to miss the Twelfth Antimicrobial Workshop held June 7-8 at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, VA. The workshop is the only program of its nature that gives those engaged in the business of biocide chemistry the opportunity to network with critical stakeholders and learn the latest news. The program will also feature the latest policy and regulatory information about the antimicrobial market.
Register here.
Who should attend the Antimicrobial Workshop? The workshop is vital for personnel with regulatory responsibilities, technical staff, marketing professionals and management. Specifically:Regulators will gain new insights into antimicrobial products and collaborate with their fellow colleagues in other states, and in the federal government, in order to set priorities and make sound decisions.Industry professionals will receive the latest information on international issues and hear directly from federal and state regulators while networking with their industry peers.
What are some of the highlights of the Antimicrobial Workshop?Reregistration and Registration ReviewState Ingredient Disclosure Initiatives for Antimicrobial ProductsDisinfectant Claims for Emerging Viral PathogensEPA DfE Pilot Program for DisinfectantsEU, Korea, China and Canada: Antimicrobial Regulatory DevelopmentsEPA/FDA Dual Jurisdiction: Food Use and Medical DevicesFDA Regulations for Antibacterial Washes and Rubs
Click here to view the full agenda.
The Antimicrobial Workshop is sponsored by the American Chemistry Council Biocides Panel, the Household & Commercial Products Association, and ISSA, the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association, in coordination with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Antimicrobials Division.
https://blog.americanchemistry.com/2018/04/stay-ahead-of-the-regulatory-curve-at-the-twelfth-antimicrobial-workshop/
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(ACC Mentioned) Lobbyist Confirmed as US EPA Deputy Administrator
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Julie Miller
The US Senate has approved the nomination of lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as deputy administrator at the EPA. His appointment comes as serious questions are asked about the future of current EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.
Mr Wheeler began his career in the EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), but quickly moved to Capitol Hill. There he was chief of staff for Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), an energy industry advocate and leading opponent of the idea of climate change.
Later, as a principal at the lobbying firm Faegre Baker, Mr Wheeler’s biggest client was coal giant Murray Energy. He has also represented the Celanese Corporation, a chemical manufacturer; and ICOR International, a manufacturer of refrigerants.
"Before the Trump administration, it would have been inconceivable that a coal and chemical industry lobbyist with a long history of hostility toward environmental policy, would be the number two at the EPA," said Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook.
The American Chemistry Council, however, touted his "considerable experience in the environmental field".
Pruitt problems
Meanwhile, speculation is growing over EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s tenure at the top of the agency.
In recent months Mr Pruitt has become mired in a number of ethics controversies involving millions of dollars. Among these is his alleged use of a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act to hire a variety of aides outside standard personnel procedures, including former ACC official Nancy Beck as deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP).
And as the chorus of voices calling for Mr Pruitt's resignation grows, there is speculation as to how long President Trump will continue to support him – which has brought Mr Wheeler's role into a brighter spotlight.
"The problem with the Wheeler nomination is if [Pruitt] goes tomorrow, Wheeler is in fact the administrator," Senator Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) said at a news conference where Senate Democrats demanded Mr Pruitt’s resignation.
Three Democrats joined 50 Republicans in approving Mr Wheeler’s nomination on 12 April.
https://chemicalwatch.com/66051/lobbyist-confirmed-as-us-epa-deputy-administrator
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(ACC Mentioned) Top 5 Issues in Plastics and Packaging: The ACC Responds
Apr 18, 2018 | Plastics Today
By Steve Russell
Positioned figuratively at the center of the plastics industry, Washington, D.C.-based American Chemistry Council’s stated mission is to “solve some of the biggest challenges facing our nation and our world.”
After PlasticsToday asked the ACC to address the major issues in plastics packaging today, the following was submitted by Steve Russell, vp of ACC’s Plastics Division.
1. Some people put the blame for ocean debris squarely on plastics. How does ACC respond to this criticism?
Russell: We all want clean, healthy oceans. And because plastic is a large component of waste streams that leak into the ocean, those in the plastic supply chain have a role to play in delivering solutions. Data shows most ocean pollution comes from poorly managed municipal solid waste—which includes a range of material, not just plastic—from rapidly emerging economies that have yet to invest in waste management infrastructure. So for a truly clean ocean, the solutions implemented must consider what types of items are reaching the ocean, not just the material with which they’re made.
The use of plastics in emerging economies indicates a growing middle class with increased access to nutritious foods in sanitary packaging, personal care products, connectivity, transportation, and jobs. However, in these regions, the rise in access to consumer goods has outpaced the infrastructure needed to manage post-use materials of all kinds.
Without that infrastructure, trash—much of it plastics—ends up in rivers, on streets and sidewalks, and in our oceans. Many experts who have studied ocean plastics have determined that the most certain way to stop trash from getting into our oceans is to invest in infrastructure solutions that capture post-use resources and convert them into valuable products. Several types of technologies are enabling infrastructure to be designed—and materials to be used—with greater circularity (more about that below).
2. Given that a lot of plastics are getting into our oceans what is industry doing to address the problem?
Russell: Plastics makers across the globe are actively working to keep plastics out of our oceans. In 2011, ACC worked with our association colleagues to launch the Global Declaration—a program to engage the world’s plastics associations in delivering tangible solutions. Today, 75 associations from 40 countries have signed the Global Declaration and are tracking and publicly reporting projects in six areas. These include education, research, public policy, sharing best practices, plastics recycling/recovery, and plastic pellet containment. The number of projects reported by declaration signatories has grown to 355 and more than tripled since inception.
We’ve learned that one of the most important ways we can contribute is to partner with organizations that offer critical expertise in ocean sciences and conservation, investment and infrastructure development. For example, ACC is a member of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance® (TFSA), which is working on cross-sector innovations to prevent trash from reaching waterways. TFSA’s report Stemming the Tide(2015) identified ways to stop the flow of plastics into the ocean by growing waste management systems in countries where most plastics leakage occurs.
Plastic makers are among major consumer brands that are working with the Closed Loop Partners to create a new fund (called Closed Loop Ocean (CLO) to prove a financing model for waste management. CLO is seeking funding commitments totaling $150 million to help finance infrastructure that advances the recovery and circularity of material use in countries with high levels of ocean bound waste. Plans call for funding projects as early as next year.
https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/top-5-issues-plastics-and-packaging-acc-responds/68876973858600
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(ACC Mentioned) Earth Day 2018: Plastics Don’t Deserve the Bad Rap
Apr 18, 2018 | Independent Women's Forum
By Amy Cooke
It’s that eco-festive time of year again when environmentally conscientious and slightly sanctimonious friends and family members shame us for our secret stash of plastic grocery bags, insufficient recycling efforts, and having a disposable bottle of water in our gasoline-powered car.
Earth Day 2018 is Sunday, April 22, and this year’s theme is “End Plastic Pollution.” The Web siteisn’t very kind to the man-made materials found in products that do everything from save lives to reduce waste:
“From poisoning and injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, from littering our beaches and landscapes to clogging our waste streams and landfills, the exponential growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of our planet.”
I don’t know anyone opposed to polluting less and encouraging more efficient use of resources. It’s smart business and good for the environment, but plastics don’t deserve the hyperbolic bad rap that Earth Day 2018 is determined to give them.
As the proverb goes, “necessity is the mother of invention,” and so it is with plastics, which got their start in the 19th century as a possible replacement for “scarce materials such as ivory and tortoise shell,” according to the Plastics Make it Possible Web site, an “online destination” for news and innovation on plastics from the American Chemistry Council.
I’m old enough to remember the novelty of plastic shampoo bottles was advertised in the famous Prell commercial. Yes, there was a time when parents worried about broken glass bottles in bathtubs.
Fast forward to present day. It would be hard to imagine life without plastics. Consider whether you would be willing to do without preemie incubators, baby bottles, medical packaging, syringes, helmets, skis, carpet, curling irons, light weight fuel-efficient cars, food packaging, TVs, computers, and cell phones… just to name a few.
Think of going on a picnic, taking kids to the park, making dinner, putting on makeup, or being in the hospital without plastics.
And first responders and the military? They can’t protect all of us without plastics protecting them.
Part of Earth Day participants’ problem with plastics could be that the raw materials needed to produce them are primarily hydrocarbons such as coal, natural gas, and oil, which Earth Day doesn’t look upon favorably. In 2016, the Earth Day theme was “Stop Protecting Fossil Fuels.”
It was that 2016 anti-fossil fuel theme that inspired my employer, the Independence Institute, Colorado’s state-based, free-market think tank, to launch our first annual Earth Day Fossil Fuels Art Contest in 2017 to honor the resources Mother Earth provides that make the day possible:
“Enviros celebrate by planting trees, but they never celebrate the trucks that deliver the trees, or the gas that powers that truck, or the plastic handles of the shovels they use. Shouldn’t Mother Earth be thanked for making Earth Day events possible?”
We’re back in 2018 with our Earth Day Fossil Fuels Poster Contest. While others will celebrate industrial wind and utility scale solar, we want to highlight fossil fuels, the “work horses” of our economy.
As our Web site says, “In the 21st Century, so many of us are fortunate to celebrate Earth Day from positions of material wealth and a standard of living derived almost exclusively from fossil-fuel-driven economic development that has lifted scores of people out of poverty through access to affordable power. We believe affordable, reliable, abundant, safe energy and a thriving, clean environment are not mutually exclusive.”
Consider this a big thank you to our earth for providing us hydrocarbons to power our economy and produce plastics that make our lives better.
Just ahead of Earth Day 2018, I’m reminded of a great line from the 1967 movie (made possible by plastics and fossil fuels) The Graduate: “There’s a great future in plastics.”
It was true then, and it’s true now.
http://www.iwf.org/blog/2806319/Earth-Day-2018:-Plastics-don%E2%80%99t-deserve-the-bad-rap
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(ACC Mentioned) Earth Day 2018: A Focus on Plastics Pollution and Recycling
Apr 18, 2018 | Plastics Recycling Update
By Editorial Staff
Sunday marks the 48th iteration of Earth Day, an annual celebration that tends to spawn many recycling-related events and announcements. This year, plastics are the focus of the conversation.
Earth Day Network, a nonprofit group at the center of the action, is using the day to bring attention to a multi-year campaign called “End Plastic Pollution.”
“Our goals include ending single-use plastics, promoting alternatives to fossil fuel-based materials, promoting 100 percent recycling of plastics, corporate and government accountability and changing human behavior concerning plastics,” according to the group. (Earth Day Network is closely associated with Earth Day, but the annual event is not organized by any single group or entity.)
The following is a selection of Earth Day recycling announcements:
Chemical industry perspective: Steve Russell, vice president of the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), wrote in response to the plastics focus of some groups on Earth Day this year. Arguing that bans on single-use plastic items will cause more environmental harm, Russell said the key to preventing plastics pollution is boosting collection and recycling infrastructure in developing countries, and he pointed to industry efforts on that front.
Outreach tools available: The Recycling Partnership is highlighting outreach tools it has available for programs wanting to reach residents on Earth Day. The nonprofit group’s website has recycling messages available for free, including a graphic showing people the variety of products that can be made from recycled PET.
Sustainability discussion: The Plastics Industry Association will host an Earth Day Twitter chat @PLASTICS_US to discuss trending topics in sustainability. Participating in the April 18 online conversation will be representatives of Plastics Technology, Dow Chemical, the Plastics Industry Association, Envision Plastics and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
From ocean plastic to fabric: Major League Soccer (MLS) players will wear special uniforms made by Adidas using Parley Ocean Plastic. Last year, four MLS clubs – New York City FC, Orlando City FC, LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC – wore the recycled-plastic jerseys on Earth Day. This year, all 23 clubs will participate, with teams wearing either non-dyed or carbon-colored jerseys to differentiate themselves on the field.
Message in the sky: Airline JetBlue has partnered with The Ad Council and national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful to raise awareness about the benefits of recycling. The company is donating space and running the “I Want to Be Recycled” public service announcements on all flights throughout April.
Car seat recycling: Target will accept any unwanted children’s car seats for recycling April 22 through May 5, and customers dropping off old seats will receive discounts on new products. Target will send the collected seats to Waste Management. The retailer’s program was first started in 2016, and since then its five collection campaigns have diverted 2.6 million pounds from landfill, according to a press release.
Film recycling reminder: A recycling awareness event in North Branford, Conn. will feature displays meant to remind residents that films are recyclable via retail drop-offs. According to zip06.com, the event organized by the North Branford Hazardous Waste and Recycling committee will have big bags full of film, including bubble wrap and paper towel wraps.
Toy recycling: Hasbro has teamed up with TerraCycle to launch a toy and game recycling pilot program. In honor of Earth Day, consumers in the Lower 48 can visit hasbrotoyrecycling.com to sign up for the free mail-in recycling program.
Reusable containers: Illinois State University will hold its 6th annual Water Bottle Swap where students can exchange a single-use water bottle for a Camelbak brand bottle.
Recyclables Roadshow: An April 21 Hershey, Pa. event titled “You CAN Recycle That: Recyclables Roadshow” in will feature speakers from Waste Management of Pennsylvania and local group Derry Environmental Action Committee. Attendees will be asked to bring one or two thoroughly washed items, and the speakers will explain whether they’re recyclable. All attendees will receive a reusable bag.
https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2018/04/18/earth-day-2018-focus-on-plastics-pollution-and-recycling/
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(ACC Mentioned) Issues of the Environment: Ann Arbor to Launch New Plastics Recycling Program
Apr 18, 2018 | WEMU
By David Fair
The theme of Earth Day 2018 is End Plastic Pollution. Earth Day comes up this Sunday, April 22nd. To coincide with the theme, 'Issues of the Environment' focuses on an upcoming initiative in Ann Arbor aimed at reducing plastic waste that typically does not end up in the recycling stream. Packaging expert and consultant Todd Bukowski discusses the program and what the public will need to know to make it work.
Todd Bukowski is a Principal at the packaging consulting group, PTIS LLC. Todd has over 20 years of experience in food and pharmaceutical packaging. As part of PTIS, Todd focuses on sustainability initiatives, has been a presenter on Essentials of Sustainable Packaging Course through the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
He is a lead presenter and program leader at the PTIS’s Future of Packaging programs, which use foresight to look out 5-10 years and understand how global trends will impact packaging. Todd holds an MBA in Supply Chain Management and a Packaging degree from Michigan State University.
Bukowski is a packaging consultant but this initiative was brought up as part of an Ann Arbor Resource Management Team looking to identify programs to help drive up recycling & recovery rates in Ann Arbor, It is not part of his consulting work.
Websites of note:
www.how2recycle.info – the labeling scheme I mentioned that helps communicate which parts of each package can be recycled, and how to do. Also will list a number of the brands that are using the relatively new label scheme, which is meant to help reduce some of the confusion about what can/ cannot be recycled by using national data on how many consumers have “reach” or availability to recycle a particular package. Was developed from Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) – industry NGO
http://how2recycle.info/sdo - good overview of what can be recycled – and photo of why don’t put bags in curbside recycling
Program overview:
Using the WRAP program as a model – we are looking to utilize the existing plastic bag recycling infrastructure that is already in place at many retailers – and expand to collect flexible polyethylene film (PE) that is made of the same material as grocery store bags
A number of materials that most consumers are not aware of:
Produce bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags, overwraps for water bottles/ beverages, newspaper bags, air pillows for e-commerce, overwraps for paper towel/ napkins/toilet paper, flexible diaper overwraps
Enables collection of more material to keep out of landfill
Coincides with the How2Recycle burst – communication scheme to make easier for consumers to know what to recycle – and really first system to call out using store drop off programs for films
Additional Resource:
www.plasticfilmrecycling.org – website that part of the national program about plastic film recycling. Also has information on where you can recycle, type of packages that can be recycled, and reports on the size of the program, and case studies of other communities that have implemented this system. National program called WRAP – Wrap Recycling Action Program – developed by American Chemistry Council
http://wemu.org/post/issues-environment-ann-arbor-launch-new-plastics-recycling-program
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The Petrochemicals Party Shows No Signs of Stopping
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H. Tullo
The chemical industry is booming, and little in the forecast indicates that the good times will let up anytime soon. That was the key message from the consultants and executives who presented at the IHS Markit World Petrochemical Conference 2018 in Houston last month.
Chemical makers are wrapping up tens of billions of dollars of investment in new petrochemical facilities meant to take advantage of cheap feedstocks derived from shale. Normally, such a swell in supply pours cold water on prices and hits the industry’s bottom line. But this time around, the thinking goes, demand is so strong that the world will devour every kilogram of product that firms can crank out.
Dave Witte, who heads energy and chemicals consulting at IHS Markit, began his presentation by noting that the chemical industry has enjoyed five years of strong profits and that it was natural for the 1,300 attendees to wonder when the prosperity might end. Historically, he pointed out, long periods of capacity buildup often coincide with economic weakness that compounds oversupply and results in painful industry downturns.
For example, a lot of capacity opened in 1990, just before the recession that cost George H. W. Bush the 1992 election. An industry peak in the mid-1990s was scuttled by the 1997 Asian currency crisis and the 2001 economic downturn, leading to a five-year trough for chemicals.
This time may be different. “The industry is now seeing a relatively long period of stable, though generally subdued, demand growth,” Witte said. Although a big slug of U.S. capacity for chemicals such as ethylene and polyethylene is coming onstream over the next couple of years, expansion in the Middle East and China is muted, he pointed out.
Witte expects two more very strong years for chemicals, a “slight pullback” in 2020 as the market absorbs the new output, and a resumption of strong profitability thereafter.
Mark Eramo, vice president of global chemical business development at IHS Markit, was even more optimistic. He raised the specter of a “supercycle”—an extended period of little spare capacity and robust demand when profits fatten to enormous proportions. The chemical industry hasn’t seen such a scenario in a generation.
“In each element of the value chain, we are talking about strength,” Eramo said. “Consumers are pulling hard, the assets are running hard, the feedstock is there, and the investment is occurring.”
Over the next five years, combined worldwide capacity for the base chemicals ethylene, propylene, methanol, chlorine, benzene, and p-xylene will expand by 25% to 610 million metric tons, Eramo said.
And demand should keep pace. IHS expects years of relatively low oil prices that will stimulate strong demand for chemical products. Eramo predicted that over the next five years, demand for the industry’s most basic building blocks, ethylene and propylene, will grow faster than it did over the previous five years. Operating rates for ethylene should remain above a very healthy 90%.
Sudden events such as a supply outage or a surge in demand could trigger price escalation and “record-setting profitability,” he said.
It’s more than just low oil prices that are buoying the industry. In his remarks at the conference, IHS Markit Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh painted a picture of a world economy that is galloping along.
In the U.S., consumer confidence is at a 17-year high. Unemployment stands at 4.1% and may dip to 3.5% next year, which would be its lowest level since the Korean War.
Globally, emerging economies such as Brazil are climbing out of recession. Europe and Japan are growing faster than they usually do.
But Behravesh sees a couple of factors that could ruin everything. One is a trade war instigated by the Trump administration’s protectionist policies. “Trade wars are bad, and they’re unwinnable,” he said.
Another is inflation, a side effect of an overheating economy. The Federal Reserve has already been inching up interest rates as a preventive measure. Behravesh said the Reserve could cause a recession if it panics and jacks rates up too fast. “Recoveries don’t die of old age,” he said. “They get killed off.”
The chemical executives who spoke at the conference, remembering the scars they’ve received over the years, opined a little cynically about all the talk of industry invincibility.
“I know that one of these days, IHS is going to have a conference about how to climb out of the deep downturn,” said Mark Lashier, CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical. “We’ve all been around long enough to know this won’t go on forever.”
Lashier worries that strong demand and low feedstock costs won’t be enough to keep investment coming in the U.S. chemical industry. “We believe the key issue to address is rising capital costs,” he said.
In 2011, Chevron Phillips was the first chemical company in more than a decade to announce a new U.S. ethylene cracker. Since that time, Lashier has seen construction costs increase. For example, after the rush to hire construction workers, inexperienced laborers stymied productivity for a while at the company’s ethylene project.
Chevron Phillips is now evaluating building another cracker on the Gulf Coast. “But we have to be convinced that we can mitigate these risks,” Lashier said.
Doug May, president of olefins, aromatics, and alternative feedstocks at Dow Chemical, agrees. Like Chevron Phillips, Dow built an ethylene cracker on the Gulf Coast and is now planning additional expansions.
May said capital costs on the Gulf have risen by 40% over the past five years as the chemical industry was installing a lot of capacity. This rise, he said, “made many of the projects on an economic basis look very different from what was first predicted.”
Peter Huntsman, CEO of Huntsman Corp., acknowledged that industry fundamentals point to a period of prolonged profitability, but he also had a warning for attendees.
“The most feared time in the chemical industry is the very time when people say ‘we’ve learned our lessons, we’re not peaking, we’re not in the valley, we’re in a plateau, and that plateau is going to last forever,’ ” he said. “Nothing goes right in this industry for all that long.”
Huntsman told attendees to avoid getting complacent during the good times. He said his company’s polyurethanes business goes toe-to-toe with large competitors like Covestro and BASF, but it also competes with nimble young firms that formulate polyurethanes. Large chemical companies need to be flexible enough to make decisions quickly.
“Now is the time to prepare for when times ain’t so good,” he said.
https://cen.acs.org/business/petrochemicals/petrochemicals-party-shows-signs-stopping/96/i16
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House Subcommittee Advances Cybersecurity, LNG Bills
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Mintz
A House subcommittee today advanced four bipartisan bills aimed at modernizing the Department of Energy and its cybersecurity operations.
The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy also passed a separate piece of legislation that would expedite small-scale liquefied natural gas exports, but only on a party-line vote and following a clash between Democrats and Republicans.
The four bills approved by the subcommittee by voice vote, which earned praise from both parties, were:
H.R. 5174, from Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), which would create a new assistant secretary position within DOE to focus on energy emergency and energy security.
H.R. 5175, from Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), which would require the secretary of Energy to carry out a program to coordinate between federal agencies, states and the energy industry to ensure the security of natural gas pipelines, hazardous liquid pipelines and LNG facilities.
H.R. 5239, from Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), which would establish a voluntary DOE program to test the cybersecurity of products and technologies intended for use in the bulk power system, and allow the DOE to provide technical assistance to utilities and other stakeholders to help mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
H.R. 5240, from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), which would require DOE to create a program to facilitate public-private partnerships to promote cybersecurity for smaller or rural utilities.
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), the subcommittee's ranking member, praised the sponsors and the co-sponsors "for their thoughtful attention to this critical issue."
The bipartisan cohesion fell apart, however, with consideration of a fifth bill, H.R. 4606, from Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), which would expedite applications to import or export small quantities of LNG.
The legislation would codify a rule recently proposed by DOE, but committee Democrats say the bill goes further than the administration's action and would bypass the National Environmental Policy Act.
DOE currently requires any small-scale LNG facility seeking expedited approval to qualify for exemption under NEPA, and Johnson's bill would remove that requirement, according to Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas).
Democrats also noted that it would only benefit one current LNG project — Eagle LNG in Jacksonville, Fla. — which led Rush to call it a "pretty obvious legislative earmark."
Johnson defended his bill in part by noting that small-scale exports of American LNG could be used by countries in the Caribbean and Central America to replace Venezuelan oil, which could help reduce emissions in the region.
"That's a fact that I think is lost on those who say this bill would gut NEPA," Johnson said.
The bill passed 19-14.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/04/18/stories/1060079433
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Committee Approves Bipartisan Recreation Measure, Other Bills
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
The House Natural Resources Committee advanced seven bills this morning by voice vote, including one that would promote outdoor recreation on federal land.
H.R. 3400, from Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), would ease permitting for tour guides and tour trips across multiple agencies.
The committee voted down 9-27 an amendment from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) that would have removed a section of the bill related to recreational management.
She said the section's language indicates that recreational use of federal land is valued over any other use, like energy development.
"We need to, I think, do everything we can to support multiple use as the law is currently stated, not to come up with ways that we can have new designations or value one use over the other," Cheney said.
Bishop countered that the amendment would do "specific harm to the base bill." He said, "By striking the language, it strikes some of the protections and provisions we've tried to add to include in this."
Ranking member Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) also opposed the amendment, calling the national recreation area system created by the section the "heart of the bill."
The panel agreed to an amendment from Bishop that includes language from the "Every Kid Outdoors Act," H.R. 3186, which would grant fourth-graders free access to federal lands and waters.
The panel also passed an amendment from Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) that adds language to prevent the Interior and Agriculture departments from changing land management policy while related studies are ongoing.
"Just because we're studying the potential of a tract to be designated as a national recreational area does not mean that we have made that decision, and federal land managers need to abide by what our current law says and not what we might change it to in the future," McClintock said.
The committee favorably reported the six other bills:
H.R. 2991, from Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), to establish the Susquehanna National Heritage Area in Pennsylvania. The administration previously spoke against the bill (E&E Daily, April 12).
H.R. 788, from Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), to amend the Pittman-Robertson Act to facilitate the establishment of more public target ranges in certain states.
H.R. 1026, from Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.), to revise the authorized route of the North Country National Scenic Trail in northeastern Minnesota and to extend the trail in Vermont to connect with the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
H.R. 1037, from Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), to authorize the National Emergency Medical Service Memorial Foundation to establish a commemorative work in Washington, D.C.
H.R. 4069, from Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), to amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify the treatment of authentic Alaska Native articles of handicraft containing nonedible migratory bird parts.
H.R. 4645, from Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), to add certain segments of East Rosebud Creek in Montana to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/04/18/stories/1060079441
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Fighting Ocean Plastics at the Source
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alexander H. Tullo
In Muncar, on the coast of East Java, Indonesia, fishers still make their living the traditional way, launching from the shore in the hand-painted boats they have used for generations.
But that doesn’t mean that this harbor town is untouched by time. Plastic waste is mounting on the riverbanks and in the waters around Muncar. Some probably lurks within the fish brought ashore on the boats.
Muncar is the second-largest fishing port in Indonesia, but it has barely a semblance of a waste management infrastructure. Dorothea Wiplinger, the sustainability manager for Austrian plastics maker Borealis, was on the ground in Muncar recently studying the problem. She says nearly 90% the garbage, mostly organic waste, that local inhabitants generate is either dumped haphazardly or burned.
“You cannot see the sand anymore because the beaches are just full of waste. And then the high tide takes the waste away,” she says. “The people there don’t have any other choice.”
The developing world is dotted with places like Muncar. The problem is particularly acute in China and in the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These five countries alone are responsible for most of the plastics that end up in the ocean.
In such countries, rising affluence is allowing people to buy more plastic-wrapped food and drink than they could before. But infrastructure hasn’t kept up, leaving citizens with no environmentally sound means to throw stuff away.
By developing better waste management practices, like those that already exist in wealthier places, these countries could stop the trash from escaping into the ocean.
But some observers have more drastic measures in mind. A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times declared that the “sheer volume of plastic trash now littering Earth has become impossible to ignore.” Piecemeal bans by states and cities on plastic bags and drinking straws can’t clean up the environment fast enough, the paper said. It called for phasing out all single-use plastic.
Governments in places like Indonesia and Sri Lanka have pledged to improve. The plastics industry, eager to see the problem disappear, is mobilizing with business-friendly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to develop methods for collecting, sorting, and recycling plastic trash. The parties hope they can roll out the solutions fast enough and at a large enough scale to make a difference to the ocean.
A growing problem
Scientists have been sounding the alarm about ocean plastics for more than a decade. And in recent years, the facts have grown increasingly disconcerting.
One of the earliest warnings came from the International Coastal Cleanup, run by Ocean Conservancy, an NGO. The International Coastal Cleanup began in 1986 when 2,800 volunteers collected 110 metric tons of debris on the Texas coast. Last year, a half-million volunteers from all around the world collected more than 8,300 metric tons of garbage.
The volunteers keep meticulous data, which amounts to a vast waste characterization survey of the world’s coastline. Last year, nine of the top 10 items collected were plastics, including beverage bottles and caps, food wrappers, straws, and grocery bags.
“It is really meant to be a snapshot of the most persistent items that are littering our beaches and waterways,” says Nick Mallos, director of the Trash Free Seas Program at Ocean Conservancy. “Over time, we have seen a shift towards more and more plastics, which reflects the global marketplace and the shift to plastics as the dominant material.”
Scientists have also been probing the ocean itself to understand the plastics problem. Organizations such as Algalita Marine Research & Education and the 5 Gyres Institute have been sending expeditions to trawl the oceansto capture plastics and assess how widespread the problem has become. Over the past decade, they succeeded in bringing the public’s attention to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, nicknamed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area where currents converge and plastics flotsam accumulates.
In 2014, these organizations pooled data from their expeditions to estimate that 5 trillion pieces of plastic trash, weighing more than 250,000 metric tons, were afloat at sea.
Britta Denise Hardesty, a principal research scientist with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, has seen plenty of ocean plastics firsthand. Her fieldwork on plastics ingestion by birds has taken her to remote areas of Tasmania and Western Australia reachable only by pontoon plane. “You don’t see a single coastal site where you don’t find trash,” she says.
“It is reasonable to think that if we continue in the direction where we are going now, there’s going to be ecosystem impact,” Hardesty says. “Plastics don’t belong in our stomachs, in our food chain, or over our reefs. That stuff smothers and kills things.”
Hardesty recently participated in a study that dissected 378 seabirds in eastern Australia. Some 24% of them had debris in their digestive tracts. She helped compile a survey of published data suggesting that, by 2050, 95% of all seabirds will be ingesting plastic if the pollution isn’t mitigated.
Chelsea Rochman, assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto, sees similarly alarming trends in fish. She led a 2015 study in which researchers bought fish at markets in Indonesia and California and dissected them to see if they could find microplastics—less-than-5-mm fragments that result when the environment shreds littered plastics over time. She found microplastics in 28% of the 76 fish from Indonesia. She also found debris in 25% of the 64 fish procured in California. In the U.S., most of the waste was microfiber, possibly from laundry water.
“That did get a lot of attention, I think because it is kind of striking to say that there’s plastic in your seafood,” Rochman says. “And it shows that the mismanagement of our waste has come back to haunt us on our own dinner plates.”
Researchers are probing other fundamental questions, Rochman says, such as how plastics might affect fish health. They have found plastic particles in fish blood cells, livers, and even brains. Plastics probably leach chemicals into fish and, she says, have been shown to promote liver tumors and pathology in their gonads.
In 2015, it became clear that the scale of the ocean problem was even bigger than was uncovered in the earlier gyre studies. That’s when a team led by Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia, published a paper titled “Plastic Waste inputs from Land Into the Ocean” in Science (2015, DOI: 10.1126/science.1260352).
Jambeck had read about the gyre expeditions and wondered if she could estimate the rate at which plastics were entering the world’s oceans from data about human consumption. “I thought that if our waste is ending up in the ocean, then it is probably because of something that is happening on land,” she recalls.
The team made assumptions about waste generation and probable plastics use in coastal populations around the world. Using the World Bank’s country-level data on waste management practices, they estimated how much waste was mismanaged through improper collection and disposal. Finally, the team modeled how much of that mismanaged waste hemorrhaged into the ocean. The conclusion: between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons during the basis year of 2010.
Based on the study’s mid-range estimate of 8.0 million metric tons, leakage amounted to 3% of the world’s 2010 plastics production of 265 million metric tons, as reported by the trade group PlasticsEurope.
The Jambeck paper suggests that plastics waste could reach crisis proportions if people don’t come up with remedies more quickly than consumption increases. Plastics leakage to the ocean might grow to 17.5 million metric tons per year by 2025, and the cumulative buildup could hit 155 million metric tons by that time, doubling today’s levels.
Jeff Wooster, global sustainability leader for Dow Chemical’s packaging business, credits the Jambeck publication with creating a heightened sense of urgency. “I think a lot of people didn’t really recognize how big the magnitude of the problem was and how serious the crisis could be if it is not fixed,” he says.
A plan for plastics
Ocean Conservancy’s Mallos says the influence of the Jambeck paper cannot be overstated. “It really was a hallmark moment in this dialogue, and it really changed the global discourse from one that was largely focused on gyres to one recognizing a large vector from land, where we can intervene,” he says.
A key to this intervention is Jambeck’s observation that certain countries contribute more to ocean waste than others. According to her team’s survey, five countries—China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam—contribute more than half of ocean plastics. Improve waste infrastructure in these places, and significantly less plastic will escape into the ocean overall.
But the paper hardly exonerates countries with developed waste infrastructure. Because of littering of about 2% of total waste and very high per-capita consumption of plastics, the U.S. ranks 20th in the world.
Ocean Conservancy built on Jambeck’s paper and added its own analysis as well as research on the ground in China and the Philippines to come up with a blueprint for reducing plastic waste in the ocean. Its widely referenced report, “Stemming the Tide: Land-Based Strategies for a Plastic-Free Ocean,” came out later in 2015.
The Ocean Conservancy report focused largely on ocean leakage from the top five countries. Using its own research, it substituted Thailand for Sri Lanka as the fifth country. The group maintains that these five countries could reduce plastics litter to the ocean by 65% as early as 2025, reducing overall marine plastics leakage by 45%. The effort would cost $5 billion annually.
The essence of the plan is that towns and cities need to collect more garbage from residents. Ocean Conservancy estimates that 75% of plastics leakage comes from uncollected waste. Collection is sometimes as low as 10% in rural areas of China and the Philippines.
The other 25% of the leakage comes from cracks in the waste management system itself, the NGO says. This happens, for example, when an open-air dump is located near a river, allowing plastics to blow into the water. Remedies include better landfills, recycling, and waste-to-energy facilities where combustion can take plastics out of circulation for good.
The report says the region needs political commitment to see the reforms through. It calls on governments, NGOs, and the private sector to establish proofs of concept for local waste management schemes.
Mallos says governments have strong incentives to act. Collecting trash, after all, helps public health, too. “When it comes to waste management, it is not just good for the ocean,” he says. “It is good for society.”
Acting for oceans
Whether it is because they themselves have recognized the need to improve or they are reacting to prodding from NGOs, governments in Asia are starting to act. For example, noting that “marine plastic debris is a slow-motion catastrophe,” Indonesia made a commitment to the United Nations last year to reduce plastics debris by 70% by the end of 2025. The government said it would spend $1 billion to improve waste management and that it is eager to work with the private sector.
Sri Lanka banned single-use plastic items like shopping bags last year after a garbage dump collapse killed 32 people. Officials hope the ban will rein in the country’s reputation as one of the worst offenders when it comes to ocean plastics.
Some people think China’s new ban on the importation of postconsumer plastics may have a beneficial impact on the ocean. The country had been importing millions of metric tons annually from the U.S. and Europe for recycling. But a straw thrown into a recycling bin in Sacramento could easily end up adrift in the China Sea.
“They were importing mixed plastics, and they were picking through it and taking out the most valuable items, and the rest were just discarded into the environment,” Dow’s Wooster says.
The big fear about the China ban, however, is that the U.S. and Europe will simply export their waste plastics to other Asian countries rather than process them at home.
Increasingly, the plastics industry is heeding the call from NGOs and governments to collaborate. Companies are betting that focusing on Asia could yield dramatic results and remove a black eye on the industry.
Last year, Borealis, along with its joint-venture company Borouge and its recycling affiliate Mtm Plastics, kicked off a $5 million program with Indonesian officials and the social entrepreneurial firm SystemIQ. The partners are attempting to eliminate ocean plastics in Muncar by establishing a waste collection system and diverting plastics toward recycling.
“We want to create a mini-circular economy in that specific location—a proof point that a circular economic system works for that city—and then scale up,” Borealis’s Wiplinger says.
So far, the partnership has collected data on waste characterization and leakage. It has also assessed the informal plastics recycling sector—the trash pickers who pluck out metals and high-value plastics like polyester and polyethylene containers for recycling. “The plastic items that are wasted are mostly low-value flexible packaging items,” Wiplinger observes.
This month, the partners will implement the project using data they’ve collected. Their plan includes establishing sufficient collection points, deploying waste collection trucks and processing facilities, and hiring additional staff.
The partners also want to stimulate a market for difficult-to-recycle plastics like flexible packaging. “You have to increase recycling because this will give you the revenue that you need to finance waste collection,” Wiplinger says.
Dow has a long history with the marine plastics issue. It has been sponsoring the coastal cleanup since the first Texas event more than 30 years ago. As plastics consumption and litter grew, Wooster says, the company realized that it was “not going to fix this littering problem just by doing beach cleanups.”
About seven years ago, Dow helped form the Trash Free Seas Alliance with Ocean Conservancy and other big corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola. More recently, the company pledged $2.8 million toward efforts to fight marine debris.
For example, Dow is sponsoring a program to build roads in Indonesia and India made in part with flexible packaging that is otherwise difficult to recycle. Engineers recently blended 3.5 metric tons of plastics into a 1.8-km road laid in West Java, Indonesia. Such roads sequester plastic that might otherwise be discarded and may last twice as long as a conventional road.
Companies like Dow are feeling public pressure over the environmental impact of their products. And they aren’t being hounded just by one viral LA Times editorial. Some NGOs have made reducing and eliminating single-use plastics part of their advocacy platforms.
For example, one of the groups that sponsors the ocean plastics expeditions, 5 Gyres, along with other environmental groups, publishes the BAN (Better Alternatives Now) List, which includes many of the products that are ubiquitous in ocean cleanups. On it are bags and straws but also products such as food wrappers and beverage bottles, which the plastics industry has long insisted offer the environmental benefit of preserving food.
“I don’t think that the attention on fixing the problem in Southeast Asia is necessarily directed at preventing bans on single-use plastics,” Dow’s Wooster says. But he does admit that it’s bad for business when people turn against plastics because of a perceived impact on the environment.
“If they view it that way and it causes them not to use that material, then we know we don’t have a market anymore,” he says.
It isn’t just companies that make plastics that are trying to get involved. Last year, Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest consumer products company, transformed the plastics that volunteers collected on French beaches into 150,000 Head & Shoulders shampoo bottles. This year, the company is rolling out Fairy dish detergent bottles made of ocean plastics.
Steve Sikra, associate director for global product stewardship at P&G, says the effort is meant to raise awareness in the minds of consumers “to signify plastic has value.” Additionally, he says the products are meant to highlight to consumers P&G’s goal of using 25% recycled content in its products in Europe by the end of this year.
P&G, along with Ocean Conservancy, the American Chemistry Council, Pepsi, Dow, and 3M, is participating in Closed Loop Ocean, an initiative pledging $150 million toward stopping plastics leakage in Southeast Asia.
Closed Loop Partners will manage the program. In the U.S., Sikra explains, its Closed Loop Fund, where he serves as an advisory board member, provides low-interest loans for recycling projects. These loans bear most of the financial risk and thus encourage commercial lenders to step up and provide the balance of the financing.
Closed Loop has helped fund recycling trucks in Ohio, material recovery facilities in Florida and Nebraska, and an enhanced recycling program in Connecticut. With the ocean plastics program, Closed Loop hopes to duplicate the same model in Southeast Asia, Sikra says. “It is about galvanizing investment in waste and recycling solutions in that part of the world.”
But Dow’s Wooster stresses that more than pilot programs are needed to make a dent in the problem. “We have taken these small projects, and we have learned from them,” he says. “The challenge for the industry right now is how do we start thinking bigger picture and on scalable solutions.”
That’s precisely Dell’s goal with its ocean plastics initiative. Last year, the computer company used about 7 metric tons of plastics that had been dumped in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to create packaging for its XPS 13 laptop. The company aims to increase usage 10-fold by 2025.
To boost its numbers, Dell is establishing a supply chain for plastics that have been improperly disposed of and are likely headed for the ocean. The company used data that it gathered in Port-au-Prince, such as population density and proximity to water, to come up with models to predict where trash accumulates. It then compared that data with satellite imagery of dumping grounds.
Dell applied this model to pinpoint hot spots in Asia where it could find sources of plastics. Oliver Campbell, the firm’s director of worldwide procurement and packaging, says the technique isn’t unlike the seismic imagery an oil company might use to decide where to set up a rig. “We weren’t drilling for oil; we were drilling for ocean plastic,” he says.
Hot spots include Chennai, India; Manila, the Philippines; and sites in Indonesia. In fact, Dell’s research found all too many sources of plastics in the region. “It is not like there’s a shortage of ocean-bound plastic; there is an overabundance of it,” Campbell says.
It will be a long time until plastics are hard to find. Pilot programs to stop plastics from flowing into the ocean in Southeast Asia are just getting started. Scale-up of productive schemes is likely years away.
Still, Ocean Conservancy’s Mallos is encouraged by what he is seeing. Ten years ago, he notes, people didn’t give marine plastics a second thought. Now, a broad coalition of industry, NGOs, and governments is hashing out solutions.
“If you look at climate change as an analog, it took almost three decades to achieve that type of public awareness and public debate,” he says. “I think that’s because, unlike climate, plastic floats in the ocean. It is a visible, tangible thing. You can see it on the beaches. You can see it in the ocean. And it is not hard to understand that it is alien and that it does not belong there.”
https://cen.acs.org/materials/polymers/Fighting-ocean-plastics-source/96/i16
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Environmentalists Launch Suit Challenging EPA's TSCA Rules
Apr 18, 2018 | Inside EPA
Environmentalists have filed their opening brief in their suit challenging EPA's “framework” rules for prioritizing and assessing existing chemicals for possible regulation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing the rules violate a requirement to conduct a holistic review that considers all of a chemical's uses.
“EPA’s claim of authority to exclude conditions of use and their resulting exposures from risk evaluations violates TSCA’s plain text, structure, and purpose,” groups including Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the United Steelworkers say in an April 16 brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
“The law requires EPA to examine broadly all of a chemical’s 'conditions of use,' a term TSCA defines to encompass a chemical’s entire lifecycle, starting with manufacture and processing, and continuing through distribution, use, and disposal.”
The suit, Safer Chemicals Healthy Families et al. v. U.S. EPA et al., challenges a pair of EPA rules issued last June for prioritizing and evaluating existing chemicals under the revised TSCA.
The lawsuit could pose a significant hurdle to EPA's TSCA implementation, as environmentalists have threatened to ramp up calls for state rules, creating a patchwork of regulation that industry fears, if EPA fails to adequately consider chemical risks.
The rules at issue are intended to implement a key portion of the new law, targeting for the first time chemicals that were in commerce when the original TSCA was first adopted in 1976 but which were largely grandfathered from regulation.
But environmentalists charge that the risk evaluation and chemical prioritization rules are unlawful because rather than considering all uses for possible regulation as the Obama administration had proposed, the final rules issued by the Trump administration said the agency had discretion to preclude consideration of certain uses, such as legacy uses or those that are regulated by other agencies, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In their opening brief, petitioners argue that EPA significantly weakened the proposed framework rules, contravening congressional intent, following the appointment of former chemical industry lobbyist Nancy Beck to a senior post in EPA's toxics office.
“Following this appointment, EPA abruptly reversed course and adopted the approach favored by the chemical industry, in many instances revising the rules to match the chemical industry’s comments word for word,” petitioners say.
“In the final Framework Rules, EPA asserts unfettered discretion to exclude known or reasonably foreseen exposure pathways from consideration, thereby ignoring important contributors to a chemical’s overall risk.”
The groups argue that TSCA's plain language requires EPA to consider all conditions of use in its prioritization and risk evaluation decisions, and that the agency's “use-by-use approach” contravenes the law's requirement that EPA make a holistic determination for each chemical.
Additionally, they contend that EPA has unlawfully rewritten the law's definition of “conditions of use” to omit certain uses and disposal, and that the framework rules are inconsistent with EPA's obligation to base decisions on “reasonably available” information.
Environmental groups are also pursuing other lawsuits challenging EPA's TSCA implementation. For example, NRDC in January filed a lawsuit in the 2nd Circuit challenging EPA's draft framework for reviewing new chemicals under the revised TSCA.
And EDF is pursuing a case in the D.C. Circuit opposing EPA's handling of confidential business information in companion rule updating the agency's TSCA chemical inventory.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/environmentalists-launch-suit-challenging-epas-tsca-rules
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Disability Campaigners Call on Lowe's to Ban DCM, NMP
Apr 18, 2018 | Chemical Watch
Learning disability campaigners have called on US home improvement retailer Lowe's to stop the sale of paint strippers containing methylene chloride (DCM) and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP).
Four national learning and developmental disabilities organisations and 20 state chapters, wrote to the company's CEO Robert Niblock warning that exposure of pregnant women to the solvents was associated with health risks to their unborn children.
The risks, the letter says, include:
impaired motor and verbal skills;
impaired memory function;
attention deficit hyperactivity behaviours; and
brain tumours.
It is signed by the Learning Disabilities Association of America, the Autism Society of America, the American Network of Community Options and Resources and the Arc of the United States.
The letter adds that scientific studies have linked the solvents with impaired sperm quality, with one outcome being higher risk of babies with low birth weights. Low birth weight, in turn, is a contributing factor to learning and developmental disabilities.
Pressure
Lowe's and other home improvement retailers have been under increasing pressure from an NGO campaign to stop selling products containing DCM. This centres on the death of a man last autumn, following exposure to a paint stripper purchased at the store.
At the time of publication, Lowe's had not responded to a request to comment from Chemical Watch, but has previously said it is working with its product suppliers "to bring new alternatives to consumers and lead change in the industry".
The company has also said it is working with its vendors "to encourage improved labelling on packaging to better communicate the proper use of these chemicals, while also highlighting the benefits of alternative products."
US NGO campaign, Mind the Store, is focusing its efforts on encouraging retailers to phase out DCM, after plans to ban it in paint strippers under a section 6 TSCA rule, were shelved last year.
https://chemicalwatch.com/66077/disability-campaigners-call-on-lowes-to-ban-dcm-nmp
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Grid Operators Grapple with Resilience Issue
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump
Four U.S. electric grid CEOs were on one panel yesterday. There's only one place the discussion could start: resilience.
"Resilience is going to be sort of an aspiration, not a destination, because I don't know that we're ever going to say, 'We're there, we're done," said John Bear, CEO of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).
Bear's comments came during the Gulf Coast Power Association's spring conference, demonstrating that resilience remains the word of the moment to describe power-sector concerns about keeping the lights on when natural or man-made disasters strike. Observers continue to watch for possible action from the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to help struggling coal- and nuclear-fueled power plants.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has given mixed signals on a potential response to FirstEnergy Solutions Corp., which requested help for its aging power plants (E&E News PM, April 12). Perry previously sent a proposal to FERC that suggested changing market rules to shore up baseload generation. That idea was turned back, though FERC continues to study grid resilience.
Bear said MISO believes its region is resilient right now, but there are ways to improve. The dynamic of a changing resource mix provides significant challenges, he said, as does the need to work with neighbors.
Nick Brown, CEO of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which has members in a central swath of the country, said thinking about the concept of resilience is appropriate. He said regions are becoming more dependent on one another because of interconnectivity. He cited cybersecurity as an area that deserves particular focus.
Andy Ott, CEO of PJM Interconnection, which has a footprint that includes parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, said he thinks resilience is too multidimensional to have one definition.
For example, Ott said, problems could stem from a purposeful attack instead of being an "act of God." He said infrastructure includes the power network as well as networks tied to fuel delivery, information technology and telecommunications.
Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's main grid operator, opened the session with a few comments before asking Bear about resilience. He later echoed Bear's aspirational comment in saying it's hard to imagine being done with something like cybersecurity.
Ott noted that states have different views as they realize competition means some generators could exit the market.
"The conflict there, of course, now becomes not just a conflict within the state, but now I got other states' governors calling to say, 'Hey, there's a cost shift going on here,'" Ott said.
After the panel, Pat Wood III, a former Texas regulator and a former FERC chairman, wondered about what he called "D.C. navel-gazing" over resilience. He said the job of the industry is to "keep the freakin' lights on" in the short and long term. Wood suggested a focus on areas such as integrating more wind, cybersecurity concerns and extreme weather events.
"If resilience is a code word for propping open uneconomic plants, we ought to be no part of that," Wood said in an interview. "That needs to sink on its own poor merits."
Thinking beyond energy
Paula Gold-Williams, CEO at CPS Energy of San Antonio, said yesterday that she understands Perry's role and respects the creativity he has brought.
"He's thinking about reliability," she said in an interview yesterday. "He's thinking about the things that are important not just to energy but to national security."
Gold-Williams said every market is different and declined to give a preference regarding potential action on the issue. State regulators retain primary jurisdiction over Texas' main power market.
Ott, the PJM CEO, wondered how certain states with renewable portfolio standards may proceed. That could include whether they figure out how to bring in renewables from elsewhere and how to get transmission built, or whether they look at offshore wind or different standards. Ott also is keeping an eye on developments in New England in terms of fuel security and a fairly restricted set of gas pipelines.
Regions such as SPP and ERCOT have been juggling periods with high wind penetration. And Brown said he's watching what happens with generation assets elsewhere.
"What occurs in New England and PJM as they deal with it, I know we're going to have to deal with the same thing," he said.
MISO's Bear said he will look at future FERC decisions related to storage and distributed energy resources. He suggested the best source of storage could be "a big, broad regional grid that has diversity in it."
While resilience questions remain, there also was talk about the potential for an organized market approach in new parts of the U.S. West.
Brown touched on the struggle in the political arena to make decisions. He wished for attention on policy around distributed generation and microgrids, which he said could be a tremendous resource for wholesale markets.
The issue of inaction was part of the message James Baker III brought here yesterday, as well.
The former secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush discussed a carbon dividends plan floated last year (Greenwire, Feb. 8, 2017). Baker said it could be a way to overcome a partisan split over climate policy. The plan includes a carbon tax and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and certain regulation.
Baker lamented partisan animosity between Republicans and Democrats, saying it's hard to get things done. And he said he still has "serious doubts about exactly what effect man-made emissions may be having on the climate."
But Baker said the future effects of a changing climate are marked by uncertainty, and he called for prudent measures to limit the scale of potential damage.
Baker said the plan he touted "can serve as a really good insurance policy just in case the Al Gores of the world happen to be right."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/04/18/stories/1060079379
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Who Is Buying U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas?
Apr 18, 2018 | Forbes
By Jude Clemente
The U.S. is becoming an increasingly larger player in the $100 billion global liquefied natural gas market, a business that is now about 45 Bcf/d and will boom to $300 billion by 2030. So far this month, U.S. LNG feedgas has averaged 3.5 Bcf/d, compared to 2.1 Bcf/d for year-ago levels. LNG now accounts for about 4-5% of our total demand, and now with two exporting facilities there's much more to come: U.S. capacity to export LNG will more than triple to over 10 Bcf/d by 2020, and we could be the leading global supplier within the next five years. After Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass in Louisiana started exports in February 2016, Dominion Energy's Cove Point in Maryland just exported its first cargo March 1 and went into commercial service April 10.
U.S. LNG exports have continued to travel the world, reaching 28 countries per government data. About 60% of our exports have been sold on a spot basis, an added flexibility that the long rigid LNG market craves. Stated by the U.S. Department of Energy: "Although liquefaction capacity at Sabine Pass is fully contracted under long-term contracts to various buyers, flexibility in those contracts’ destination clauses allows U.S. LNG to be shipped to any market in the world.”
Mexico has been our largest customer, but South Korea is closing in since receiving its first cargo under a long-term contract between Korea Gas and Cheniere. Mexico's position as top LNG destination is temporary, given that the ongoing pipeline buildout in the country will allow for more imports of U.S. piped gas and lower intake at Mexico's three LNG import terminals. The pipeline urgency in Mexico is obviously high: prices for LNG imports from the U.S. are about 50% higher than for piped gas.
U.S. policymakers and the administration should know therefore that both of the top buyers of our LNG have free-trade agreements with us. These are deals that get approved automatically because they are "deemed to be consistent with the public interest." In contrast, exports to countries that have no free-trade agreement with us can face long delays. Our slow approval process will increasingly serve to help our competitors like Russia and Qatar because the key incremental gas buyers are the non-free trade nations. Our energy policy must catch up with this reality, which explains why expediting the approval process has had strong bi-partisan support.
Could any limits on the U.S. export of LNG violate the law?
But now, the ongoing tariff scare and "potential trade war" would complicate the entire LNG export process. China, for example, could easily turn to more proximate Australia for supplies. Hopefully, "Can The 'Kudlow Effect' Stop Trump's Trade Tirades?"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2018/04/17/who-is-buying-u-s-liquefied-natural-gas/#43c1837177ad
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LNG Deals Divert Focus from U.S.-China Energy Tech Issues
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
The Trump administration should avoid improving the national trade balance with China through increased liquefied natural gas exports, says a new assessment that warns any benefits from doing so would likely be short-lived.
The paper, published today by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, argues that focusing on LNG within the U.S.-China trade relationship could take the focus off how Chinese trade practices hurt the U.S. on clean energy technology, which will be central to world economics over the coming decades.
The paper takes issue with the administration's efforts to promote LNG export deals in China. Last fall during a trip by President Trump to Beijing, three major Chinese companies signed a nonbinding agreement to bankroll 75 percent of an LNG export project in Alaska in exchange for control of 75 percent of its output (Energywire, April 17).
The tentative agreement is one of several high-profile deals the administration is seeking for LNG exports: Energy Secretary Rick Perry has been pressing the case for U.S. LNG in India this week (Greenwire, April 16), while EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt traveled to Morocco in December and met with senior officials there on the issue (Energywire, April 12).
Melanie Hart, lead author of the new report, says China is using LNG, for which it has a big short-term need until it can produce more of its own natural gas, as a sideshow to distract the White House from energy competition that will matter more in the future.
"While Beijing is launching an all-out effort to dominate global clean energy markets, the Trump administration is undercutting U.S. clean tech innovation on multiple fronts. Beijing views that dynamic as an unparalleled opportunity to gain a substantial edge [over] the United States in the energy technologies of the future," she said.
That could undercut future U.S. competitiveness, she adds. "If the administration accepts natural gas deals as a major trade concession that will give Beijing a pass on much bigger trade issues, that will only magnify the damage," she said.
Part of the paper's argument hinges on a view that U.S.-China LNG deals will not lead to long-lived trade, because U.S. gas supplies are not very competitive on price in China. Deliveries of U.S. gas were more expensive than 74 percent of China's LNG imports in 2017, it says. While importing some U.S. gas supplies may make sense for China to spread its geographic risk, the paper says, the administration would do better to pursue LNG export agreements with countries where shorter shipping distances translate to stronger economics.
Industry boosters like the Center for LNG have welcomed the Trump administration's support on trade, as U.S. shippers seek to secure contracts for a wave of LNG exports coming online from newly constructed plants through 2020.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/04/18/stories/1060079377
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China’s Unconventional Natural Gas Output to Double by 2020, Says Wood Mackenzie
Apr 18, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
China’s unconventional natural gas production has undergone significant progress in the past 10 years, increasing to nearly 600 wells and 9 bcm (317.8 Bcf) of production in 2017, and output is likely to double to 17 bcm (600 Bcf) in 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie.
Two state-owned operators, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., aka Sinopec, and PetroChina Co. Ltd. are drilling unconventional wells in the mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin. Sinopec is drilling wells in the Fuling development, while PetroChina has two projects underway, Changning-Weiyuan and Zhaotong.
“Nearly 700 new wells will come onstream between 2018 and 2020 from the three projects combined, with a total capital investment of $5.5 billion,” said Wood Mackenzie consultants.
However, despite the achievements in domestic tight gas and shale, China still is expected to miss by a considerable margin its 2020 production target of 30 bcm (1,059.32 Bcf).
"China is eager to materialize its shale gas potential to fuel its massive gasification initiative and support rising demand growth," said consultant Tingyun Yang. "In order to meet the government's 30 bcm target, up to 725 additional wells are needed by 2020 on top of the nearly 700 new wells.
“This will double the amount of investment needed in the base-case drilling plan. The required well number could be larger if well productivity degrades. This is a mammoth task” for the country’s national oil companies (NOC).
"The speed of shale development will impact global gas markets,” said consultant Lynn-Yuqian Lin. “Considering the impact of shale gas production on domestic demand, the 2020 13 bcm 'gap' will have to be filled by imports,” particularly liquefied natural gas (LNG).
"We have already witnessed how China was able to leverage on flexible LNG to cope with record-high demand this recent winter season.”
Yang said the “good news” for unconventional gas development is that well costs “have gone down considerably -- 40% for exploration wells compared to 2010 levels, and 25% for commercial wells compared to 2014. Chinese NOCs are starting to get their shale game plan together.”
The United States had more than 30 years to realize the unconventional drilling potential, according to Wood Mackenzie, which took off in the early 2000s.
“Success was built on a combination of underlying factors, including competitive and open markets, active small players, developed infrastructure and easily available expertise. None of these hold true for China.”
Comparing plays and rocks reveals how unique China’s formations are, according to the consulting firm. The country’s shale formations “tend to be deeper, more tectonically fractured and often less-pressured than U.S. plays.”
Deeper depth formations mean deeper wells have to be drilled, which leads to higher costs and more challenges to maintain well integrity. Most of China's tight gas and shale gas plays are in mountainous terrain, too.
“Selecting viable well sites is not as straightforward as in Texas, where the topography is far flatter,” said consultants. “In China, operators have to first remove mountainous land to host well sites, build their own infrastructure, and transport drilling crews and equipment across vast distances to the well sites. High population density also makes drilling and hydraulic fracturing harder.”
According to a report published last year in ScienceDirect, nine giant gas fields have been successively discovered in the Sichuan Basin with cumulative proven gas reserves of 3.69 tcm (130.3 Tcf). The evaluation by state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. demonstrates “that natural gas resources in the Sichuan Basin takes the first place among those petroliferous basins all over China, but its proved gas reserves is only 10%, so the exploration prospect is bright.”
Big Oil made a move to join the state-owned operators, but all but one have since exited after lackluster results, noted the consultants. According to Wood Mackenzie, BP plc is the only remaining big player, with two undeveloped production sharing contracts.
“The Chinese NOCs, however, have overcome these challenges by developing their own understanding of the unique geology, relying on their own service arms to get more experience and, most importantly, progress in completion techniques and technology,” said consultants.
The NOCs have adopted a pad-based drilling, fracturing and production process to reduce the footprint of the well sites on the mountains. The practice, combined with more indigenous technology and drilling and completion techniques have reduced drilling time and costs, while the wells are becoming larger.
Chinese unconventional drilling costs still are higher than in the United States. For example, Wood Mackenzie estimated well drilling costs are as much as 20% higher compared to a “deeper and larger well” in the Haynesville Shale.
However, a recent turnkey contract for drilling, cementing and completion for four Sichuan wells that was given to Honghua Group “could perhaps hint at a new chapter in Chinese shale,” said consultants. The contract implies an all-in cost at $7-7.5 million/well, which would be another 20% decline in well cost from 2017, once pad construction, infrastructure and facilities costs are included.
"While we do not expect a Chinese shale gas boom anytime soon, the NOCs will no doubt continue to push on and innovate, driven by the need to secure and develop energy resources for strategic reasons," Yang said.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114072-chinas-unconventional-natural-gas-output-to-double-by-2020-says-wood-mackenzie
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Crisis of Fluorinated Chemical Pollution Keeps Spreading, With No End in Sight
Apr 18, 2018 | Environmental Working Group
By Monica Amarelo
Two decades after pollution from highly toxic fluorinated chemicals was first reported in American communities and drinking water, the number of known contamination sites is growing rapidly, with no end in sight.
The latest update of an interactive map by EWG and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University documents publicly known pollution from so-called PFAS chemicals at 94 industrial or military sites in 22 states. When the map was first published 10 months ago, there were 52 known contamination sites in 19 states. The map and accompanying report are the most comprehensive resources tracking PFAS pollution in the U.S.
“With the alarming spread of known PFAS contamination sites, it’s unconscionable that the Environmental Protection Agency has taken only the most feeble steps to respond to the crisis,” said Bill Walker, an investigative editor at EWG, which has studied the family of fluorinated chemicals for 20 years. “States are stepping up to set cleanup standards, but a national crisis demands a national response. It’s only a matter of time until another American community learns that its water is contaminated with these highly toxic chemicals.”
PFAS chemicals, used in hundreds of consumer products, have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, weakened immunity and other health problems. The two most notorious members of the family – PFOA, formerly used to make DuPont’s Teflon, and PFOS, formerly in 3M’s Scotchgard – are now banned in the U.S., but manufacturers have replaced them with chemically similar, largely untested compounds that may be no safer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PFAS chemicals contaminate the blood of virtually all Americans.
"This updated map demonstrates the scale of PFAS contamination, impacting scores of communities and millions of U.S. residents,” said Phil Brown, Ph.D., director of the Northeastern University research institute. “The full story of PFAS contamination suggests that PFOA and PFOS remain significant pollutants even though they are no longer produced in the U.S. Drinking water supplies should be tested not just for these legacy contaminants, but for their replacement chemicals that may become major public health hazards as well."
Much of the increase in contamination sites is in Michigan, where a virtual explosion of known sites has made the state the current hotspot of the PFAS crisis. North of Grand Rapids, one private well near a former Wolverine Worldwide tannery has almost 60,000 times as much PFOS and PFOA as the best independent research says is safe. About 10 miles away, a woman who lives across the street from a Wolverine dump site has 750 times as much PFOS in her blood as the average American.
In addition to contamination from industrial and military sites, the map also shows where an EPA-mandated testing program detected PFOA, PFOS and similar chemicals in public drinking water supplies. The EPA tests found PFAS contamination of systems serving 16.1 million Americans in 33 states. But the true extent of tap water contamination is likely much greater.
The EPA testing program, which ended in 2016, covered only a sample of small systems and did not include private wells, which together provide drinking water for about a third of Americans. More recent tests have found tap water in North Carolina and West Virginia contaminated with a new PFAS chemical called GenX, which DuPont’s own studies found causes cancer in lab animals. The EPA also did not require reporting of test results above 20 parts per trillion, or ppt, for PFOA and 40 ppt for PFOS.
The EPA has no legal limits for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water, only a non-enforceable health advisory level of 70 ppt for either chemical or the two combined. This is far above what studies say is safe. Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vermont have all set or proposed levels for PFAS chemicals in drinking water that are lower than the EPA advisory level or are legally enforceable.
https://www.ewg.org/release/crisis-fluorinated-chemical-pollution-keeps-spreading-no-end-sight#.WteEUvnwa-t
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House Panel Advances Bills to Guard Energy Grid from Cyberattacks
Apr 18, 2018 | The Hill - Cybersecurity
By Morgan Chalfant
A House panel has approved a string of bills aimed at securing U.S. energy infrastructure from cyber threats, following revelations of Russian cyberattacks targeting grid operators.
The four bipartisan legislative proposals aim to elevate the Department of Energy’s efforts on cyber response and engagement and create new programs to address grid and pipeline security.
Lawmakers on a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee approved the bills Wednesday, weeks after U.S. officials disclosed that Russian hackers staged a multi-year hacking campaign against the energy grid and other critical sectors. The revelation has stirred fears about the prospect of future grid attacks.
“Potential for cyberattacks by foreign nations and other actors against our nation’s business and energy systems highlights one of the significant and growing threats to the reliable supply of energy in the United States,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who is chairman of the full committee, said Wednesday.
Lawmakers on the Energy subcommittee easily approved the four bills that aim to bolster the Energy Department’s cybersecurity efforts, including one that would require Energy Secretary Rick Perry to establish a program to boost physical security and cybersecurity of energy pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities.
The other bills would elevate the leadership of the department’s emergency response and cybersecurity efforts to the assistant secretary level; establish a voluntary program to help private utilities identify and use products that are built with strong cybersecurity; and enhance public-private partnerships to ensure that electric utilities are secure.
Walden said the bills “take practical steps to ensure that the Department of Energy can effectively carry out its emergency and security activities in the energy sector and ensure the continued safe and reliable flow of energy across the United States.”
The bills now advance to the full House Energy and Commerce Committee for a vote before the full House can consider them.
Perry and other top Energy officials have acknowledged the breadth of cyber threats facing the energy sector. They have also insisted that the department is making cybersecurity a priority, including the establishment of a new a new office to address the physical security and cybersecurity of U.S. energy assets.
Still, lawmakers signaled Wednesday that the department and Congress need to do more to guard the power grid from hackers looking to stage destructive attacks.
“We have recently seen how vulnerable our society and internet are to foreign interference,” Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), who is sponsoring two of the bills approved Wednesday, warned.
“If an outside entity were to attack our electric grid, we could go dark without electricity for months.”
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/383746-house-panel-approves-bills-to-guard-energy-grid-from-cyberattacks
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Here are 5 Climate Leaders to Watch
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Anne C. Mulkern
California is known for pushing policies to limit climate change. It's also part of the "resistance" working to counteract moves by the Trump administration.
We look at five people who are leading the fight against climate change — and President Trump. They're working on getting a city to produce net-zero carbon emissions, planning more aggressively for climate adaptation and helping inland areas increase clean transportation.
People around the country are paying attention, said Ethan Elkind, climate research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
"Here in California, all of these things that happen at the local level, at the state level, they're all very powerful models," said Elkind. "Definitely what happens here is watched everywhere."
Here they are:
Ted Winterer, Santa Monica mayor
Santa Monica, a coastal city west of downtown Los Angeles, wants to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It will release a plan to achieve that goal next month.
Mayor Ted Winterer, 61, leads the effort. It's part of a larger aim to join cities, counties and states pledging to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord.
If enough act, he said, the country can meet part of the U.S. commitment, even though Trump plans to pull out of the pact.
"It's important cities like Santa Monica sign on," Winterer said. "That's how we're going to get there in the absence of robust federal action on the issue."
Moves already approved by the city include requiring 50 percent energy efficiency in buildings by 2030. All new buildings must include solar panels. Santa Monica's goal is 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 for all residents and businesses.
One major obstacle for hitting carbon neutrality, Winterer concedes, is that people in Los Angeles County love their cars. It's been difficult to shrink trips where only one person is in the vehicle.
The city in response is adding public EV charging stations in parking lots owned by the city, at parks and on streets.
Winterer and other Santa Monica officials received significant pushback for one climate-related move. The city eliminated mandated parking for new construction downtown, about 40 blocks of the city's 8.3 square miles.
Parking spots create demand for cars, Winterer said, whereas no parking pushes people to find alternatives like using bicycles or light rail.
"There's not a lot of climate deniers in our city," Winterer said. Now it's now a matter of "trying to persuade them that the things we need to do that might have an individual level of impact on their lives. ... People need to be persuaded to make connection between those individual actions and the long-term goals."
State Sen. Bob Wieckowski, adaptation advocate
California leads the country in terms of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but it needs to step up planning for warming's inevitable impacts, argues state Sen. Bob Wieckowski (D).
"How do you organize your local governments, or your state government, so that you make changes to your transportation system, your agricultural system, to your city, to your planning, to your bridges, and then how do you pay for it?" he asked.
For Wieckowski, the light "really went on" when he attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. When the international coalition released draft agreements, he said, about 20 percent of the money dedicated was for adaptation.
He realized "we needed to do more in the state, not to take away from the mitigation," to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but that "we're going to need to adapt, and we're going to have to do it smart because it costs a lot of money."
Until 2015, California didn't allocate any money for specific adaptation programs. The fiscal 2017-18 budget dedicated some dollars: $18 million for low-income weatherization, $20 million for lands adaptation, $6 million for coastal adaptation and $11 million for research.
Wieckowski, 63, recently offered a bill, S.B. 262, to create a one-stop shop for adaptation policies in California.
His earlier measure, S.B. 246, set up a climate adaptation and resilience program with California's Office of Planning and Research. It's aimed at coordinating regional and local efforts with state strategies.
Cities need to plan together, Wieckowski said. In the San Francisco Bay Area, multiple counties are affected by sea-level rise, and actions taken by one could affect others.
One issue that must get addressed, he said, is making sure programs benefit all income groups. There shouldn't be a situation where a wealthy city or landowner can build sea walls that protect their property, sending rising waters to other locations.
Lauren Faber O'Connor
Lauren Faber O'Connor, chief sustainability officer for LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, is working on multiple green goals.
LA, the nation's second-largest city with nearly 4 million residents, is undergoing a transformation on environmental issues, said Jonathan Palfrey, executive director at Climate Resolve, a nonprofit focusing on local climate solutions.
"The city of L.A. used to have the worst energy profile of any city in California," Palfrey said in an email. It was "hugely dependent on coal" for electricity but now aims to stop using it by 2027. "Now the debate entails getting off natural gas and aiding in the electrification of transportation."
O'Connor, 35, previously worked for the administration of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) at California EPA as it helped develop the state's cap-and-trade program. She later worked for current Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and at the Environmental Defense Fund.
O'Connor's aims include making a city that's notorious for its traffic into a walkable place. That includes adding sidewalks and trees.
LA is also seeking to electrify its transportation. The city recently launched an EV car share for lower-income residents, partially funded through cap-and-trade revenues. LA has installed nearly 1,500 EV charging stations and plans to add more.
"It's not just the cost of the vehicles that's a barrier to growth," O'Connor said. "It is making sure [EV] charging stations are as ubiquitous as gas stations."
The mayor has directed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to research switching to 100 percent renewable energy. LADWP is the largest municipal utility in the country.
O'Connor connected LADWP with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. NREL will run a two-year study on options and provide a suite of potential scenarios on how the goal can be made reality.
"This isn't a 'can we get there,'" she said, "This is a 'how can we get there.'"
Randall Winston, cap-and-trade proceeds overseer
Randall Winston, 35, oversees how millions of dollars get spent on programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Winston works as executive director at the California Strategic Growth Council. It distributes some of the revenues generated by the state's cap-and-trade program.
The auction of allowances under the program in November saw record prices, bringing in a total of $863 million in state revenues. The February auction generated $725 million.
"We are certainly operating on kind of a full-steam-ahead mentality," Winston said. "I certainly feel personally much more urgency to try to make sure that we are not only spending our funds responsibly but making sure that we are maximizing our benefits."
That means the portion of funds going to help disadvantaged communities should improve the environment, he said, boost public health and create jobs.
Winston previously worked for Brown as special adviser to the chief of staff, with a focus on zero-emissions vehicles, green buildings and international climate policy. Winston joined trade missions to China and Mexico, trips that led to climate pacts.
Elkind said Winston "understands how to listen to all the different pressures, the interest groups; there's a lot of demands from the Legislature" about the money.
There's "a feeding frenzy" over who gets the cap-and-trade dollars, Elkind said.
The council each year makes decisions for distributing funds. It created a category where at least 10 percent goes to rural areas, following concerns that dollars for affordable housing and sustainable communities were mostly flowing to places with robust transportation, such as LA and San Francisco.
Winston's feedback also helped lead to a new project called Transformative Climate Communities. Communities get funds to develop their own goals, strategies and projects to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, improve public health and the environment, and create jobs.
The goal is to shape a more wholesale transformation of neighborhoods affected by environmental burdens, he said.
Jennifer Vanos, adaptation scientist
It's getting hotter outside, and Jennifer Vanos is researching ways to make that safer and more tolerable.
Vanos, 32, works as an assistant professor of climate and human health at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. She heads a project studying ways to transform spaces so they add less heat to the environment.
Climate models predict temperatures will rise roughly 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit because of climate change. That makes adaptation important, she said.
"We can help bring temperatures down through design in cities," Vanos said.
Vanos is working on three test projects. One is with a privately owned playground in El Cajon, in southeast San Diego County. She found that rubber there heats to 176 F, and a metal slide nears 160 F.
"If a kid was on the slide, they'd likely burn their skin," Vanos said.
She's looking at what happens when shade is added through trees and an artificial shade sail.
Vanos is also working with Phoenix as it seeks to transform a lower-income neighborhood. And she's collaborating with a University of Tokyo researcher to look at the 2020 Summer Olympics marathon course. She's pinpointing areas of extreme heat stress where mitigation could be used for cooling.
Vanos sees more of this work happening in the future.
"If it makes financial sense in the long term, which a lot of this does, then it will become bigger and bigger."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/04/18/stories/1060079345
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Climate Change Behind Worsened Ozone Pollution — Report
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
The good news in the American Lung Association's latest annual survey of air quality trends: Levels of dangerous fine particulates generally continued to decline in recent years. The bad news comes attached to a warning note about the impacts of climate, both physical and political.
The 19th "State of the Air" report, released this morning, finds particulate pollution dropped across much of the country from 2014 through 2016. But the same was not true for ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog. Of the 25 cities with the worst ozone pollution, 16 saw increases in "unhealthy air days" during that three-year period, according to the report, which attributes the trend to rising temperatures that spur formation of the lung irritant.
While the overall picture is still better than several years ago, the numbers indicate that ozone will remain a challenge "because of climate change," Janice Nolen, the association's assistant vice president for national policy, said in an interview.
And the report lays out what are described as a half-dozen threats to the nation's air quality stemming from Trump administration policies and congressional proposals. Those include bills intended to weaken Clean Air Act requirements, attempts to roll back EPA's 2016 initiatives to curb emissions from new oil and gas operations, and efforts to replace scientists on key advisory panels with industry representatives.
"Cleaning up air pollution requires a strong and coordinated effort on the part of our federal and state leaders," the report said.
The survey, released every year since 2000, taps monitoring data to create a rolling overview of air pollution trends.
Overall, almost 134 million people, or 41 percent of the nation's population, lived in counties that experienced unhealthy levels of ozone or fine particulates during the three-year period in question, up from 125 million in last year's report, which covered the years 2013-15 (Greenwire, April 19, 2017). Ozone is linked to asthma attacks in children and worsened breathing problems in people with chronic respiratory illnesses. Fine particulates, technically known as PM2.5 because they are no wider than 2.5 micrometers, or one-thirtieth the diameter of a human hair, are connected to an array of heart and lung problems.
As has traditionally been true, the problem spots mostly lie west of the Mississippi River. With Los Angeles at the top of the list, eight of the 10 metro areas with the worst ozone issues were in California. The heavily populated Golden State also accounted for seven of the 10 areas suffering from the most severe short-term PM2.5 exposure, as measured on a 24-hour basis. Other contenders in the top 10 included Fairbanks, Alaska; Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem in Utah; and Pittsburgh and nearby parts of Ohio and West Virginia.
Fairbanks, which had placed 17th last year among the metro areas with the worst year-round PM2.5 levels, rocketed to first place this year. Although Alaska's second-largest city has long had a smoke problem because of residents' reliance on wood stoves, the report attributes the ranking change to improved monitoring data as opposed to a dramatic worsening in air quality.
The report also notes some sizable information gaps. According to EPA records, for example, complete monitoring data continued to be lacking for Illinois, while "the entire state of Mississippi," along with Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties in California, lacked valid numbers for year-round PM2.5 pollution. As a result, the number of people breathing unhealthy levels is likely "vastly" underestimated, according to the report.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA must regularly undertake reviews of the standards for ozone, particulates and four other "criteria" pollutants to ensure that national air quality standards are strict enough to protect the public in light of what's known about their health effects.
In 2015, one of those reviews prompted EPA to tighten the ozone standard from 75 parts per billion to 70 ppb. The release of this year's report comes less than two weeks before an April 30 court-ordered deadline for the agency to make almost all remaining area attainment designations for that 2015 benchmark. From a compliance standpoint, those decisions carry weight because they start the clock for states to devise cleanup plans for out-of-compliance areas.
All designations for the 70 ppb standard were statutorily due last October. While regulators in November deemed some 85 percent of the nation's counties in compliance with the threshold, they postponed decisions on Los Angeles, Houston and other cities likely to fall short. A federal judge in California set the April 30 deadline last month in response to lawsuits brought by the lung association, along with a coalition of Democratic-led states and other environmental and public health groups (E&E News PM, March 12). The lone exception is an eight-county area in and around San Antonio; EPA has until July 17 to make that designation.
In his previous job as Oklahoma's attorney general, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was among a battery of challengers seeking to overturn the 70-ppb standard. At EPA's request, all of that litigation has been in abeyance for the past year as the agency reviews its position. In their latest status report filed last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, EPA attorneys gave no indication of what the agency's plans are.
Although the review is continuing, they wrote, officials have "not yet made a final decision whether to maintain, revise, or otherwise reconsider" the 2015 standard.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/04/18/stories/1060079453
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