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AM ACC 4/19/2018
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(ACC Mentioned) Leaving NAFTA Would Leave Plastics Users in the Lurch
Apr 19, 2018 | The Hill - Opinion
By Bob Patel
As the administration and its Chinese counterparts work toward a solution that benefits consumers and the economic interests of both countries, another important trade discussion is taking place closer to home — the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). -
(ACC Mentioned) Drastic Plastic: What We Learned About Plastic Pollution and Hawaii at the Sixth International Marine Debris Conference
Apr 18, 2018 | MauiTime Weekly
By Rob Parsons
It’s pervasive, persistent, produced from petrochemicals. It takes many forms and can be found as lightweight Styrofoam packaging, rigid polyvinyl chloride pipes, polyethylene water bottles, high-density polyethylene laundry and milk bottles, nylon ropes and nets... -
(ACC Mentioned) Global Fire Suppression Market Report Till 2024
Apr 19, 2018 | Facts of Week
The “Fire Suppression Market” Report provides a complete decision-making overview including definition, product specifications, market gains, key geographic regions and imminent Fire Suppression (FDE) industry peers for 2017-2024. -
White House Investigating Pruitt Spending
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Northey
The White House revealed today it's investigating EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's $43,000 privacy booth, even as the agency pushed back on what it called "inaccurate" stories. -
UK Chemicals Industry Sees Progress, but Brexit 'Clock Ticking Furiously'
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
With less than a year to go until the UK is expected to leave the EU, the British chemicals sector is now "perhaps at its highest level of visibility and political resonance since the days of ICI", Chemical Industries Association head Steve Elliott has said. -
EPA Accused of Illegally Narrowing Toxic Risk Reviews
Apr 19, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven Gibb
Environmental advocates detailed their legal challenges to EPA chemical policies April 16, asserting in opening briefs that the agency is illegally ignoring some public exposures to chemicals as it evaluates their safety. -
Time to Ban Asbestos? Merkley and Bonamici Think So
Apr 18, 2018 | NW Labor
Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep Suzanne Bonamici are sponsoring bills to ban the use of asbestos. Yes, asbestos. -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA to Address Transparency in TSCANew Chemicals Programme
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The US EPA is working to shore up gaps in how it reports information to the public on its TSCA new chemicals programme. The move follows concern expressed by NGOs about the agency's lack of transparency. -
US Agency Solicits Input for Toxicological Profile Development
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is seeking nominations for the next set of substances for which it will develop toxicological profiles. -
US Ammonia Ingestion Study to Focus on Drinking Water Concerns
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Julie Miller
The US EPA has published a draft plan for assessing the non-cancer effects of ingesting ammonia. The agency will host a 23 May webinar on the subject. -
EPA Children's Health Advisors Target Lead Exposures
Apr 18, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA's children's health advisors, who are slated to begin meeting April 19, will focus a significant part of their meeting on reducing children's exposures to lead as federal health officials prepare to tighten the action level for when steps must be taken to protect children and EPA... -
Study Examines Benefit-Cost Analyses for Reach Authorisations
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
REACH authorisation applicants have struggled to explain the societal relevance of the regulatory impacts expected to affect them and other market actors, according to recently published research. -
Mariner East Project to Face More Scrutiny at Public Hearing Later This Month
Apr 18, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has scheduled a public hearing to take comments on two applications filed in October by Sunoco Pipeline LP to modify its construction methods at two locations in Chester County for the Mariner East (ME) 2.... -
Bills to Lower Risk of Cyberattacks on Energy Industry Advance (1)
Apr 19, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
Pipelines and other energy infrastructure would be protected from cyberattacks with programs that the Energy Department established under four bipartisan bills a House subcommittee advanced April 18. -
CSB Releases Animation of 2017 PCA Paper Mill Explosion
Apr 18, 2018 | Powder Bulk Solids
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released an animated video this month illustrating the causes of an explosion at the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) pulp and paper mill in DeRidder, LA on Feb. 8, 2017 that killed three workerS -
EPA Offers Guidance on Permits for New Plants
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
EPA has issued guidance that aims to make it easier for businesses to show that proposed new plants or expansions of existing facilities will not significantly affect air quality when they are applying for air permits under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration program. -
Republicans Look to Expand Use of Law to Kill Rules
Apr 19, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Maxine Joselow and Geof Koss
After a precedent-setting vote yesterday, some Republicans are hoping to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn decades-old rules and guidance documents. -
State's Petition for EPA NSR 'Maintenance' Rule Could Revive Legal Fight
Apr 18, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
West Virginia is petitioning EPA for a rulemaking to clarify and ease a Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permitting exemption for facility “routine maintenance,” a move the agency has signaled it is likely to pursue but one that could revive a legal fight with environmentalists who won a court ruling in 2006 scrapping a similar rule. -
Colorado Exxon Suit Shows Climate Concerns Not Unique to Coasts
Apr 19, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Emily Chasan
Most cities suing oil companies over the impact of climate change want help paying for walls to protect against rising sea levels. And then there's Boulder, Colo.
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(ACC Mentioned) Leaving NAFTA Would Leave Plastics Users in the Lurch
Apr 19, 2018 | The Hill - Opinion
By Bob Patel
As the administration and its Chinese counterparts work toward a solution that benefits consumers and the economic interests of both countries, another important trade discussion is taking place closer to home — the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Despite the heated rhetoric around specific parts of the agreement, at the end of the day, NAFTA has been an undisputed success for the U.S. chemicals and plastics industry.
Strong increases in exports to NAFTA countries and other expanding global markets, along with the robust development of U.S. shale gas, have created an unprecedented wave of investment in our industry.
Companies like mine have been able to create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs while lowering the cost of countless products used by American consumers every day.
In short, a complete withdrawal from NAFTA would be a costly mistake for consumers, the economy and our communities.
In just the past six years, our company, LyondellBasell, has announced U.S. investments of more than $5 billion to expand and build new manufacturing facilities. More broadly, the North American chemical industry has announced approximately 300 new projects valued at roughly $185 billion to meet growing global demand for our products.
NAFTA has strengthened more than chemical and plastics manufacturing in the U.S.; the products made by our companies are advancing several other industries that are also vital to our broader economy.
Chemicals and plastics are used in the manufacturing of automobiles, consumer goods, electronics and packaging film by our customers farther down the value chain. What is good for our industry is also beneficial for countless other U.S. companies that we serve every day.
According to a recent report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), since NAFTA came into effect, chemical exports from the U.S. to Canada and Mexico have tripled and today are forecast to more than quadruple by 2025 to $30 billion.
The reality is, without a well-functioning North American trade compact, many of our global competitors stand ready to displace U.S. producers in these important markets.
Combined with the recently passed tax reform package, ongoing regulatory reform and a favorable environment for energy production, NAFTA remains a key part of the equation for continued growth and success.
While a strengthened trade agreement would benefit our industry and U.S. consumers, withdrawing from NAFTA would be distressing for our industry and those who benefit from our products.
The ACC reports that in a worst-case scenario, exports to our North American partners could fall up to 45 percent from current levels, with chemical industry losses totaling approximately $29 billion.
The tariff burden on U.S. chemical exports to Canada and Mexico would reach $700 million a year and could escalate to as high as $9 billion. Moreover, NAFTA withdrawal would jeopardize more than half of the $185 billion in new chemical industry investments that have been announced.
Perhaps worst of all, if the U.S. were to withdraw from the agreement, the ACC estimates that thousands of jobs would be lost and American consumers would face higher prices for end-use products including automobiles, electronics and appliances.
All told, the cost of withdrawing from NAFTA is extremely high.
Our industry is committed to a constructive dialogue that furthers regulatory certainty and maintains policies that strengthen our leading position. We must ensure that our products remain cost-advantaged for our NAFTA partners, ultimately leading to lower prices for our consumers and more high-paying jobs for our employees.
For more than 30 years, thoughtful energy and trade policies have been critical to the chemical industry’s success as one of the country’s growing manufacturers and exporters. A productive NAFTA agreement that provides certainty, access and enforceability is the right and responsible path for the U.S.
Bob Patel is CEO of LyondellBasell Industries, a leading plastics, chemicals and refining company, and chairman of the board of directors of the American Chemistry Council.
http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/383732-leaving-nafta-would-leave-plastics-users-in-the-lurch
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Apr 18, 2018 | MauiTime Weekly
By Rob Parsons
It’s pervasive, persistent, produced from petrochemicals. It takes many forms and can be found as lightweight Styrofoam packaging, rigid polyvinyl chloride pipes, polyethylene water bottles, high-density polyethylene laundry and milk bottles, nylon ropes and nets and thousands of variations and applications. Look around you and count all the things made of drastic plastic.
Our modern food service is largely dependent on its insulating, waterproof qualities, when used in food packaging, beverage bottles, produce and ZipLoc bags, Tupperware and polystyrene foam containers for our take-out or coffee cups. Many of these qualify as “single-use” plastics, packaged for convenience and easily disposed, or not-so-easily recycled and repurposed.
Though omnipresent in our 21st century world, plastic did not exist at all until 1907, when Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented a synthetic polymer that proved both viable and inexpensive. Bakelite, the early phenol formaldehyde resin he developed and which bears his name, was used to make buttons, jewelry, telephones, children’s toys and more, and is often coveted by collectors.
With the continuing development of many types of plastic, global production grew from 1.5 million metric tons (mt) in 1950, reaching 100mt in 1989, 200mt in 2002 and accelerating to 335mt in 2016.
Along the way, it became apparent that cheap, sturdy, versatile plastic, while a boon to 20th century consumer culture, was also a bane to the environment, and to the health of humans and many other living creatures. Notably, beyond the tonnage ending up in our landfills or as roadside litter, the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by Captain Charlie Moore put plastic on people’s radar as a persistent pollutant in the world’s oceans. It’s estimated that 80 percent of all marine debris is some form of plastic.
Last month, more than 30 Hawaii marine debris experts, scientists and eco-advocates spent a week in San Diego at the sixth International Marine Debris Conference. The Hawaii contingent joined more than 700 attendees from 50 countries, a considerable increase from the fifth IMDC, held in Honolulu with 200+ attending.
Dianna Cohen, a co-founder and CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, referred to this upswing as a “total revolution, a blossoming. All the studies on microplastics, microfibers and defining marine debris as plastic is a huge shift.”
Cohen is also an artist and curator, and spent years crafting elaborate artwork out of plastics and marine debris before an epiphany led her to help found PPC in 2011. She said she witnessed the plastic in her art degrading over time, and realized that’s also what happens in the world’s oceans, as smaller and smaller plastic pieces and fibers are ingested by sea life of all kinds: fish, turtles, crabs, plankton and seabirds, whose carcasses are sometimes found with more than a hundred plastic pieces in their bellies.
Plastic Pollution Coalition currently includes 721 groups from 60 countries, and a number of notable actors and musicians. Its website (Plasticpollutioncoalition.org) features an ocean of information, such as their Global Plastic Reduction Toolkit.
“I don’t want to take on the entire petrochemical industry,” says Cohen, “I believe we should go for the low hanging fruit.” She believes local legislative campaigns to restrict plastic bags, polystyrene, straws and bottled water are all doable.” She advocates adding a fourth “R” to Reduce-Reuse-Recycle dictum; Refuse single-use plastic.
The opening plenary at the 6-IMDC quickly brought the enormity of the issues into focus. Sir David Attenborough, British naturalist and narrator of the Life on Earth broadcasts stated in a video message that, “If we were clever enough to invent plastics, we should be smart enough to get rid of or control them.”
Barbara Hendrie of the United Nations Environmental Programme, North America termed the issues, “One of the greatest challenges of our times.” She stated that we need informed citizens and “We need strong government policies to require a circular model where we produce and re-use.”
But keynote speaker Afroz Shaw, a lawyer from Mumbai, India urged immediate action. “Don’t wait for the big boys [government] to tell you what to do,” Shaw said. “We don’t need a law to tell us what is right to do on our planet.” Shaw was honored as a UN 2016 Champion of the Earth for organizing the World’s Biggest Beach Cleanup project on Versova beach where he played on as a child.
Habib El-Habr is the Coordinator for the UNEP Global Programme for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities. He dropped a bombshell by informing the audience that plastics production is slated to increase by some 40 percent, up to 500 million tons by 2025 and 600mt by 2030.
“Ultimately this is a problem of design,” he said. “How on Earth can we bear this increasing amount of plastic if we can’t handle it now?”
El-Habr also called for Expanded Producer Responsibility, re-thinking production and consumption,” said El-Habr. “Do we really need straws when we order our juice, microplastics in our cosmetics and microbeads in our toothpaste?”
Conrad McKerron of As You Sow works with the big guys. His presentation on Mobilizing Markets for Social Change related his strategies for forming a socially responsible investment community. McKerron regularly attends shareholders meetings of corporations that are the biggest plastic users: Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Unilever. Some are listening, and are working to modify some packaging such as drink pouches, which currently have no recycling.
Corporations McKerron said are not responding include Mondelez (Oreo), Kraft/Heinz and Kroger. He reiterated that there are more plastic factories scheduled to be built in years to come, due to a glut of cheap fossil fuels extracted by fracking, and the gradual shift away from liquid fuels as demand increases for electric vehicles.
Stiv Wilson of The Story of Stuff drove that point home. He cited an article in The Guardian that reported 318 new projects fueled by a $180 billion investment since 2010 by fossil fuel giants Exxon, Shell and others, according to the American Chemistry Council.
Perhaps the most passionate, articulate speaker was 17-year old Melati Wijsen, born and raised on Bali and a member of the Youth Advisory Council for World Oceans Day. When just 12 years old, she and her sister launched an effort called Bye Bye Plastic Bags, which has helped galvanize advocacy across their island of three million people and beyond. She spoke of youth empowerment, proclaiming that, “We are 25 percent of the population, but 100 percent of the future.”
One of the main take home messages was that used or discarded plastic has low value, and most types are difficult to recycle or repurpose. There were a few notable exceptions, such as David Stover of Bureo, which converts discarded fishing nets into premium products including skateboard decks, surfboard fins and sunglasses.
Brodie Neill, originally from Tasmania and working in London, developed techniques to incorporate hard plastics in his museum quality furniture pieces. Apparel company Adidas recently reported they sold one million pairs of shoes made from ocean plastic last year in collaboration with the environmental group Parley for the Oceans.
“Recycling alone is not the solution,” said Stover. But it may lead to a significant carbon reduction compared to incinerating discarded plastics or producing new ones, he said.
HAWAII EFFORTS AND INITIATIVES
Hawaii’s marine debris efforts and scientific studies were featured in a number of 6-IMDC technical sessions. University of Hawaii researchers reported impacts of microplastics on marine organisms, including zooplankton. Surfrider Kauai has taken on removal of massive fishing net balls from the beaches and coastlines of the Garden Island. Natalie McKinney and Doorae Shin of Kokua Hawaii Foundation related many of their initiatives and education efforts, including Plastic Free Hawaii and designing a Zero Waste footprint for the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2016, which hosted 10,000 people from 160 countries.
Musician Jack Johnson and his wife Kim founded Kokua Hawaii Foundation and were both panelists. They spoke of efforts to have their concert tours avoid plastic bottles and other throwaways. Surfrider hosted a small rooftop showing of Jack’s film Smog of the Sea at a quaint restaurant in Pacific Beach, overlooking San Diego’s Mission Bay. The film follows a research boat through the calm waters of the Sargasso Sea, where their “manta trawler” net turned up tiny plastic pieces virtually every time they sampled. And Jack graced the audience with a couple of his classic tunes.
In 2014, Fawn Liebengood was a co-founder of 808 Cleanups, adding a beach and ocean element to original efforts targeting graffiti on Oahu hiking trails. While many Hawaii organizations may do monthly, quarterly or annual cleanups, 808 conducts them four times daily. In 2017 they picked up 135,000 pounds of trash, with the help of 5,688 volunteers.
Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii began as a nonprofit in 2010, and has grown to one of the premier cleanup and education groups working throughout the islands. Led by a small team including Executive Director Kahi Pacarro and scores of volunteers, their Ocean Plastics program has helped recycle over 200,000 pounds of marine debris plastic since 2011.
Megan Lamson of Hawaii Wildlife Fund and Lauren Blickley, a Maui marine biologist and owner of Swell Consulting co-hosted a session detailing Hawaii as leaders in passing measures to restrict plastics and curb marine debris. “Maui has progressively moved towards more sustainable solutions and is recognized as a leader in the effort to break free from our dependency on plastics, said Blickley.
They detailed the plastic bag ban, passed first by Maui County in 2010, with the other three counties following suit by 2015. Tobacco Free beaches and parks passed the Maui County Council in 2014 on an astonishingly fast track, in large part to high school student participation. Maui County was the first to pass restrictions on polystyrene food service wear, culminating in five to six years of efforts hampered by industry lobbyists, including the American Chemistry Council.
Food service vendors and retailers must discontinue using polystyrene foam after December 31 of this year or face stiff fines. Hawaii Island passed a similar measure soon after, and at press time, state Senate Bill 2498 is still alive. If passed, it would distinguish Hawaii as the first state to institute such a bill.
“Plastic pollution is a global issue, but the solutions start locally,” said Blickley.
MORE FROM MAUI
In late January, the US Coast Guard reported a two-mile long marine debris mass in the Ka Iwi Channel between Molokai and Oahu and issued a navigation warning. The mass was tracked by the USCG, UH researchers, National Marine Fisheries Service and the NOAA Marine Debris Program, one of the principal sponsors and organizers of 6-IMDC. Though it did not make landfall, the debris field of nets, ropes, drums, floats and drums provided a reminder that such massive bundles provide a threat to not only navigation, but to marine creatures.
Ed Lyman of the Maui-based Hawaiian Islands Whale Entanglement Network has a job description that would surely have stumped contestants on the old TV show, What’s My Line. A NOAA employee, Lyman and partner Dave Mattila have freed 17 whales of 68 entangled cetaceans spotted since 2002. They have removed over 7,000 feet of rope and line, some traced to gear from as far away as the Aleutians and Southeast Alaska–2,450 nautical miles from Hawaii.
Repurposed fabric made from recycled fishing nets is the closed-loop solution for stylish swimwear designed by two Maui women, Kelley Chapman and Anna Lieding of Manakai Swimwear. Chapman has been around water much of her life, working on boats and for a bikini company before forging out on her own in 2015. Through her extensive research and vetting she discovered that the fashion industry is one of the top global polluters after agri-biz/meat and fossil fuels. Often, as well, there may be social justice issues on how the garments are made.
The company’s nylon fabrics are sourced from two European re-manufacturers, Econyl and Carvico-Vita. Chapman noted that some 70 million barrels of crude oil is used annually making fabrics used mainly for swimsuits and yoga wear. It’s no wonder the Manakai Swimwear website includes the following quote: “Sustainability is the new sexy.”
WHAT CAN WE DO RIGHT NOW?
Dianna Cohen of Plastic Pollution Coalition says we can invest in reusable water bottles and coffee containers (steel rather than hard plastic is preferred), give them as gifts and encourage others to do the same. She likes giving out stainless steel straws, which she considers a “gateway” to further conversations and meaningful actions.
Seabury School honor student Camry Gach recently completed her eighth grade project, which she titled, “Reducing Waste on Maui.” She completed six components for her project: Producing a hilarious educational video on choosing to avoid plastic packaging (you can see it on YouTube); held a zero-waste birthday party; went door-to-door in her neighborhood to spread awareness; conducted a beach cleanup and evaluated the types of trash collected; started a vermi-compost bin, using worms to consume food waste; and volunteered for a large zero-waste event at Ho‘omau.
Like Melati Wijsen of Bali’s Bye Bye Plastic Bags, Camry Gach’s efforts and youth empowerment point the way for us all to do something, anything to step back from the proliferation of throwaway plastics that surround us.
What will your Earth Day pledge this year?
https://mauitime.com/news/science-and-environment/drastic-plastic-what-we-learned-about-plastic-pollution-and-hawaii-at-the-sixth-international-marine-debris-conference/
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Fire Suppression Market Report Till 2024
Apr 19, 2018 | Facts of Week
The “Fire Suppression Market” Report provides a complete decision-making overview including definition, product specifications, market gains, key geographic regions and imminent Fire Suppression (FDE) industry peers for 2017-2024.
Global Fire Suppression Market size will exceed USD 16 billion by 2024, as reported in the latest study.
Stringent government regulations towards public safety along with growing consumer awareness will drive the fire suppression market size. Growing commercial floorspace along with introduction of safety codes and standards will stimulate the product penetration. As per American Chemistry Council, the fire codes set by NFPA and IFC states that all areas with upholstered furniture including healthcare facilities and educational institutes must have sprinkler system installed.
U.S. is projected to reach over annual installation of 150 million units by 2024. Upsurge in construction industry along with technological advancement in the product design and development will embellish the U.S. fire suppression market share. Increasing demand for environment friendly, less toxic, automatic and new generation systems will propel the product growth. In 2016, the country construction industry continued its rebound with 5.3% with another 2% expected increase by the end of 2017.
https://factsweek.com/669640/global-fire-suppression-market-report-till-2024/
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White House Investigating Pruitt Spending
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Northey
The White House revealed today it's investigating EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's $43,000 privacy booth, even as the agency pushed back on what it called "inaccurate" stories.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee today he is probing whether the EPA chief violated the 2017 omnibus spending bill, as well as a separate whistleblower complaint on spending at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"We will investigate them. We take the Antideficiency Act very, very seriously. If they've been broken, we'll follow the rules, we'll enforce the law," Mulvaney said. "I'm not interested in covering for anybody else."
Mulvaney later added, "I'm not any happier about it than you are."
The Office of Management and Budget, Mulvaney said, is beginning a review of a Government Accountability Office report that found EPA violated federal law by failing to tell lawmakers when it installed a secure phone booth in Pruitt's office (Greenwire, April 16).
The congressional watchdog concluded that EPA breached appropriations law — specifically the governmentwide $5,000 spending cap on office redecoration for political appointees — by not giving advance notice to Congress' appropriations committees.
GAO also found that since EPA spent its appropriated funds in a way banned by the law, it also broke the Antideficiency Act and needs to report its violation to Congress and the president.
Mulvaney's comments came as EPA pushed back on "inaccurate reports" about the agency's purchase of bulletproof tires and bullet-resistant seat covers.
Jahan Wilcox, an EPA spokesman, sent a copy of a federal purchase order to the media, saying the document revealed there was no purchase of bulletproof tires or bullet-resistant covers. The email also linked to reports in major newspapers, including a story in The Washington Post that Pruitt had "upgraded his official car last year to a costlier, larger vehicle with bullet-resistant covers over bucket seats."
Wilcox said EPA's protective service detail placed bulletproof vests over each seat in response to an individual trying to assassinate numerous congressional Republicans while they practiced for a charity baseball game.
"We would like to put this rumor to rest," Wilcox said. "EPA has no bulletproof vehicles, tires or seat covers, the agency has no contracts for any bulletproof vehicles, tires or seat covers, and the Agency never sought any contracts for bulletproof vehicles, tires or seat covers."
Amid the ongoing stream of negative stories surrounding the administrator's spending, calls are growing on the left for Pruitt to step down. More than 170 Democrats in both chambers of Congress — led by Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida — today introduced a resolution calling for Pruitt to immediately resign.
"This historic resolution sends an unequivocal message to the administration: the American public has lost faith in Scott Pruitt, and it's time for him to go," Udall said in a statement.
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/04/18/stories/1060079481
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UK Chemicals Industry Sees Progress, but Brexit 'Clock Ticking Furiously'
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
With less than a year to go until the UK is expected to leave the EU, the British chemicals sector is now "perhaps at its highest level of visibility and political resonance since the days of ICI", Chemical Industries Association head Steve Elliott has said.
Speaking at Chemical Watch’s second conference on Brexit this week, Mr Elliott [pictured] said this is clear from recent references to chemicals made by prime minister Theresa May, as well as high level meetings and articles in prominent media outlets.
And, he added, "a partly formal, partly informal alliance" between government, industry, parliamentarians, trade unions and NGOs has developed and is "perhaps giving us our best political shot of delivering" a desired Brexit outcome. This would include, for example, staying in REACH, guaranteeing regulatory continuity and continued engagement in Echa, he said.
Speaking to a packed audience in London, Mr Elliott said that, if asked, the business community would say things feel slightly better at the moment because it felt like some political progress had been made recently.
"That said," he added, "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed." And this all means that a ‘hard’ Brexit is still a possibility and the clock is "ticking furiously".
Mr Elliott made two pleas to the government on practicalities, going forward:
· where possible identify potential supply chain disruptions – because of adverse tariffs, customs delays, regulatory inconsistency, for instance – that might impact products "that matter to the person in the street"; and
· ensure business has access to "the expertise that matters".‘Climbdown’
Nigel Haigh, from the Institute for European Environmental Policy, told the conference he believes the UK chemicals industry is "quite good" at speaking to government, but he urged stakeholders to speak up if they want the government to continue to be present at European Council meetings and in Echa committees.
He added that UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove "used to say the UK could regulate chemicals better than the EU", but has since backed the idea of associate membership of Echa. "This is a very big climbdown," Mr Haigh said, "and I think we can expect some more."
Meanwhile, in another of the event’s keynote speeches, Lord Whitty, a member of the UK’s House of Lords and Parliament’s EU internal market sub-committee, said industry should support the prime minister’s intention for Britain to have associate membership of Echa.
"Mrs May has belatedly alighted on the most effective option – continued membership of Echa, and continued participation of REACH," he said. "You as an industry should pursue it."EU awareness
Delegates heard that some of the EU’s remaining 27 member states have perhaps yet to fully grasp the impact Brexit could have on them and their chemicals industry.
While UK industry is aware of the potential negative consequences of Britain being out of the single market, REACH and Echa, Brexit will cause "the same problems" in the EU, Cefic’s REACH director Erwin Annys said.
However, he added, although the outcome of negotiations is unknown, he could not believe that the UK or other member states would be "willing to kill industry" so "at some point we will sit down together."
There is a growing realisation among some EU countries, Mr Annys said, that "Brexit may be a potential problem for them."
And Michael Warhurst, executive director of NGO CHEM Trust, said the remaining 27 countries might come to recognise the benefits to the EU of allowing the UK to stay in REACH.
There were, he said, some arguments for allowing the UK to ‘cherry pick’ REACH. The benefits could help:
· prevent transboundary pollution from potential deregulation;
· avoid the UK competing with the European chemicals industry by potentially having "a lower level of protection";
· overcome the problem of a British industry that is potentially not legally bound to the authorisation process; and
· spread the global power of REACH: "Across the world, except America, everyone is moving in a REACH-type direction and that is likely to continue."
https://chemicalwatch.com/66095/uk-chemicals-industry-sees-progress-but-brexit-clock-ticking-furiously
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EPA Accused of Illegally Narrowing Toxic Risk Reviews
Apr 19, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven Gibb
Environmental advocates detailed their legal challenges to EPA chemical policies April 16, asserting in opening briefs that the agency is illegally ignoring some public exposures to chemicals as it evaluates their safety.
The coalition is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's prioritization and risk evaluation rules for chemicals, which are important underpinnings to 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition is focusing on the scope of the EPA's approach to a chemical's uses in doing a risk assessment for that chemical, Eve Gartner, an Earthjustice attorney representing the coalition, told Bloomberg Environment.
The coalition said the EPA's regulatory approach in the rules amounts to EPA picking and choosing only certain uses of a chemical among all of its uses. The statute doesn't give the EPA discretion to focus only on some uses of a chemical, the coalition argued.
EPA's response brief in the case is due on July 5.
The case is Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families v. EPA, 9th Cir., No. 17-72260, 4/16/18.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=132442776&vname=dennotallissues&fn=132442776&jd=132442776
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Time to Ban Asbestos? Merkley and Bonamici Think So
Apr 18, 2018 | NW Labor
The U.S. is the only western industrialized nation that has not banned asbestos.
Following a push in 2015 from unions and federal labor advocates, the Canadian government passed a bill in 2016 to ban asbestos by the end of this year. Asbestos is the leading cause of workplace-related death in Canada.
In 2016, the U.S. Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, which required the Environmental Protection Age-ncy (EPA) to undertake a safety assessment of asbestos. The agency included asbestos on its list of the first 10 chemicals for risk reviews under the Act, but its safety assessment must be completed before EPA can consider any controls on asbestos, and the EPA is not required to ban it.
That assessment still has not been completed.
Last November, Merkley joined with seven Democratic senators to introduce the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act. The bill is named after Alan Reinstein, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 66 from mesothelioma, a disease caused by exposure to asbestos. Alan’s wife, Linda, co-founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) in 2004.
In February, Bonamici, a Democrat, introduced a companion bill in the U.S. House. Also named the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act, the bill requires the EPA to complete its assessment, and within 18 months would prohibit the manufacture, processing, use, distribution in commerce, and disposal of asbestos.
“Congress and the EPA must immediately work together to protect the health of our communities from this known carcinogen,” Bonamici said in a press statement.
Linda Reinstein of ADAO says asbestos imports are on the rise. “The chemical industry continues shamefully to seek a way to profit from a known carcinogen, putting the lives of miners from other countries at risk, as well as those exposed during and after production.”
On April 13, both Merkley and Bonamici were presented “The Tribute of Hope Award” by the ADAO for their “steadfast commitment to awareness, prevention, and policy to eliminate asbestos-related diseases.”
Both lawmakers said they continue to look for Republican co-sponsors to partner up on the bill to get it passed.
https://nwlaborpress.org/2018/04/time-to-ban-asbestos/
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA to Address Transparency in TSCANew Chemicals Programme
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The US EPA is working to shore up gaps in how it reports information to the public on its TSCA new chemicals programme. The move follows concern expressed by NGOs about the agency's lack of transparency.
In recent months, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) posted a series of blog posts highlighting areas in the new chemicals programme where it says the agency has failed to comply with the recently amended TSCA law on transparency.
Its concerns stem from a 13 December request that the EPA docket centre provides a set of 69 pre-manufacture notices (PMNs) that had been submitted to the agency. Regulations require these be available to the public.
But the EDF reports that its review of what it received – including some 550 supporting documents – "has revealed massive gaps and inconsistencies in the information EPA does provide to the public, and all too often we are finding that EPA has entirely failed to comply with the law and its own regulations."
It criticises the agency for failing to make files publicly and electronically available, and for not publishing in the Federal Register its receipt of new PMNs.
EPA response
The EPA told Chemical Watch it is working to upgrade its information systems to "better generate reports so that the process is quicker and clearer for the submitter and the public."
And the agency added that it is aware of the "discrepancies and gaps" with reporting PMN information in the Federal Register. It is "actively working to correct [these], and expect[s] to publish more complete PMN information within the next few months."
With regards to confidential business information (CBI), the EDF says many of the documents it received failed to substantiate why they should be treated confidentially. And many of those that did, are "wholly inadequate, routinely claiming information as CBI that is not eligible for nondisclosure or failing to provide justification for information that may be eligible".
"The violations are so egregious that they indicate EPA is failing to conduct even a cursory review of the claims and redactions," the NGO added.
The EPA, however, said it is conducting reviews in accordance with section 14 of the new law.
New chemicals webpage
The EDF has also blogged about changes to the EPA's new chemicals website that have made it "less transparent than it has been for decades". Changes include replacing initial PMN determinations with a generic "focus meeting occurred" status.
It says these changes are intended to "hide from the public any information about whether its initial review of a new chemical raises any concerns or warrants a more extensive review."
The EPA, however, told Chemical Watch it works to engage with submitters early on in the review period to address questions, and that the results of these interactions can lead to amended submissions. As such, it will post determinations – not "preliminary analyses that may be revised based on new information".
The American Chemistry Council told Chemical Watch it agrees that the EPA "could and should do more to be transparent about the process by which it makes decisions, including posting the status of review of new chemicals".
But the ACC said the more serious concern the EPA "urgently needs to resolve" is the speed with which it is reaching PMN determinations.
https://chemicalwatch.com/66088/epa-to-address-transparency-in-tsca-new-chemicals-programme
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US Agency Solicits Input for Toxicological Profile Development
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is seeking nominations for the next set of substances for which it will develop toxicological profiles.
The public can nominate substances found on the substance priority list (SPL) they would like to be considered until 18 May, for review under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Cercla).
The SPL identifies 275 hazardous substances that the ATSDR and the EPA have "determined pose the most significant current potential threat to human health".
The ATSDR will also consider nominations of substances not on the list that "may have public health implications".
https://chemicalwatch.com/66085/us-agency-solicits-input-for-toxicological-profile-development
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US Ammonia Ingestion Study to Focus on Drinking Water Concerns
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Julie Miller
The US EPA has published a draft plan for assessing the non-cancer effects of ingesting ammonia. The agency will host a 23 May webinar on the subject.
The assessment will be carried out under the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) programme.
IRIS published a final review of ammonia inhalation risks in 2016.
That assessment was originally supposed to cover oral exposure as well, but the EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) made recommendations that "would entail new analyses and further peer review for oral exposure". The inhalation portion of the assessment was thus completed separately.
In developing the oral exposure assessment plan, IRIS consulted with EPA programme and regional offices to discuss their needs for information on ammonia. The conclusion was that the assessment should focus on information needed by the Office of Water to help evaluate and address exposure to ammonia in drinking water.
The EPA is accepting comments on the draft plan until 16 May.
Ammonia is a naturally occurring substance, used in many household cleaning products and as an agricultural fertiliser.
It is also used:
· as an antimicrobial agent in food products;
· in water purification;
· in refrigeration systems; and
· as a chemical intermediate in the production of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals.
https://chemicalwatch.com/66091/us-ammonia-ingestion-study-to-focus-on-drinking-water-concerns
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EPA Children's Health Advisors Target Lead Exposures
Apr 18, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA's children's health advisors, who are slated to begin meeting April 19, will focus a significant part of their meeting on reducing children's exposures to lead as federal health officials prepare to tighten the action level for when steps must be taken to protect children and EPA and other agencies craft a strategy for limiting such exposures.
EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) will meet in Washington, DC, April 19-20, where they will weigh its past recommendations to EPA for preventing children's lead exposures, and receive updates on federal efforts, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as EPA's National Lead Coordination Hayley Hughes, according to the meeting agenda.
The meeting comes as CDC is expected later this year to lower its recommended reference level -- the level at which CDC recommends public health actions be initiated to protect children from harmful exposures -- from 5 micrograms per deciliter (ug/dl) of blood to 3.5 ug/dl.
In addition, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has made reducing lead exposures a top priority and recently co-chaired a cabinet-level meeting on crafting a federal strategy to lower childhood lead exposures and wipe out related health impacts. The effort continues a presidential task force formed under the Clinton administration on tackling environmental health and safety risks to children.
To address the issue, CHPAC -- whose members include academics, health care providers, environmentalists, and state and tribal government employees -- will review their year-old recommendations to EPA with an eye toward reiterating or bolstering their advice.
In the March 2017 letter, CHPAC sought stronger protections for reducing lead exposures, urging EPA to revise the lead and copper rule to reduce lead in drinking water and strengthen the agency's lead-based paint hazard standard for lead in paint, dust and soil, among other steps.
In addition, Sharunda Buchanan of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will brief the children's health advisors on the CDC's efforts to eliminate lead exposures.
And EPA's Hughes will address the panel on the agency's efforts.
Other topics slated for consideration include the advisory panel's past recommendations to EPA for protecting children's health under the recently updated Toxic Substances Control Act and an update on novel approaches used in EPA's Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-childrens-health-advisors-target-lead-exposures
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Study Examines Benefit-Cost Analyses for Reach Authorisations
Apr 19, 2018 | Chemical Watch
REACH authorisation applicants have struggled to explain the societal relevance of the regulatory impacts expected to affect them and other market actors, according to recently published research.
The study authors, from Echa's risk assessment unit and the UK Health and Safety Executive, reviewed the benefit-cost analyses in more than 100 cases. They concluded there are a number of information and methodology challenges to overcome.
The paper – Benefit-cost analysis in EU chemicals legislation – discusses impacts from a welfare economics perspective. It makes suggestions on how to improve current practices in benefit-cost analyses applied to chemicals risk management and highlights several topics that require further attention.
The authors say their views are their own and do not represent an official position or view.
Last year Echa analysis of the first 100 applications for REACH authorisation found the socio-economic benefits of continued use of SVHCs outweigh the risks to human health and the environment.
The paper appears in the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis.
https://chemicalwatch.com/66078/study-examines-benefit-cost-analyses-for-reach-authorisations
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Mariner East Project to Face More Scrutiny at Public Hearing Later This Month
Apr 18, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has scheduled a public hearing to take comments on two applications filed in October by Sunoco Pipeline LP to modify its construction methods at two locations in Chester County for the Mariner East (ME) 2 pipeline project.
Sunoco, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), wants to change from horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to conventional boring at one site and from HDD to a combination of conventional bore, open trench and HDD at the other site. Both locations are in West Whiteland Township, where three sinkholes formed near the area where HDD for the ME 2X pipeline was underway, prompting state regulators to shut down operations on the nearby ME 1 pipeline.
The sinkholes, however, have nothing to do with Sunoco’s request. The applications to modify the company’s Chapter 102 Erosion and Sediment Control permits were filed primarily to ensure that a utility’s public water supply in the area would not be impacted. A more in-depth hydrogeology analysis and seismic testing at another location suggested a change in construction method would also be necessary.
The public hearing has been scheduled for April 30. More information about it can be found on the agency’s website. DEP also has been accepting public comments on the applications since February, announcing this week that the period would be extended again to May 11.
“Both the hearing and public comment period extensions are to ensure that local residents have the opportunity to have their concerns heard,” said DEP spokesperson Neil Shader. “The applications for modifications have been under review.”
To be sure, the project has been controversial and has drawn the ire of some residents living along the route, particularly those in the southeastern part of the state where the modifications have been proposed and other issues have arisen. The DEP fined Sunoco an historic $12.6 million earlier this year to resolve dozens of violations and allowed the project to restart construction.
The agency had suspended Sunoco’s permits and stopped nearly all building activities in response to more than 30 separate violation notices and more than 100 inadvertent returns of drilling mud, fluids and other substances, including incidents in Chester County. Regulatory snags forced the company to push back ME 2’s in-service date to 2Q2018.
ETP spokesperson Lisa Dillinger said the ME 2 mainline is 98% complete. When asked if another public comment period extension would delay the project again, she said it would not.
“We believe this change will allow us to proceed with construction in the most efficient manner possible, while keeping safety as our first priority,” she said of the construction modifications. “...This will not impact our timeline for initial in-service.”
ME 1 remains offline as an investigation of the sinkholes and the pipeline’s integrity continues. The pipeline transports ethane and propane from western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex near Philadelphia. ME 2 and 2X, which are being built in the same right-of-way as ME 1, would run parallel for about 350 miles to move natural gas liquids from processing facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Marcus Hook.
In related news, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration said Tuesday that it has created a new grant program funded with the $12.6 million fine paid by Sunoco. The penalty was one of the state’s largest ever collected in a single settlement. Under the program, the administration said grants would be awarded for projects that reduce or minimize pollution and help protect water in the 85 municipalities along the length of ME 2’s corridor.
In a sign of what the DEP might face at the public hearing later this month, Sam Rubin, the eastern Pennsylvania organizer for Food & Water Watch, called the grant program an attempt to “silence dissent” in the communities that have been affected by project construction.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114076-mariner-east-project-to-face-more-scrutiny-at-public-hearing-later-this-month
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Bills to Lower Risk of Cyberattacks on Energy Industry Advance (1)
Apr 19, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
Pipelines and other energy infrastructure would be protected from cyberattacks with programs that the Energy Department established under four bipartisan bills a House subcommittee advanced April 18.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy Subcommittee approved the bills by voice vote. A fifth bill, H.R. 4606, which aims to speed up the approval of small-scale liquefied natural gas exports to the Caribbean, and Central and South America, was advanced on a party-line vote of 19-14, with Democratic opposition.
Of the cybersecurity bills, H.R. 5175, instructs the Energy Department to help state entities and the energy industry improve physical security and cybersecurity capabilities for natural gas pipelines. Another bill, H.R. 5240, directs the department to provide training and technical assistance to electric utilities to mitigate cybersecurity risks.
The subcommittee also advanced H.R. 5239, which directs the Energy Department to create a voluntary testing process to identify cyber-secure products and technologies for the electrical grid, and H.R. 5174, which amends the Energy Department's Organization Act to allow for an assistant secretary of cybersecurity, who would lead the new Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response that the department is forming.“Collectively, these bills represent an important step in the right direction in better protecting our nation's energy infrastructure against cyber and physical threats and strengthening our energy security,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the subcommittee chairman, said at the hearing.
Both H.R. 5175 and H.R. 5239 were advanced in the form of substitute amendments, making minor changes from their previous versions.
Critique of Small-Scale LNG Exports
Democrats objected to H.R. 4606 because they said it would benefit only one company, Eagle LNG Partners, for its Eagle Maxfield facility in Jacksonville, Fla., which has an application pending at the Energy Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The bill aims to codify a proposed rule that the Energy Department issued in September 2017 that provides an expedited approval process for small-scale LNG exports that meet two criteria: They are exporting no more than 0.14 billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, and they are exempt from an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act.
But most LNG export applications—including Eagle LNG—wouldn't qualify for the Energy Department's expedited review because they require a NEPA review. H.R. 4606, however, would allow the Eagle LNG Partners project to go through the expedited review because it only stipulates 0.14 Bcf/d export requirements and doesn't specify NEPA requirements.
“Since only one facility would currently benefit from this bill, it sounds suspiciously like the kind of legislative earmark I thought my Republican colleagues opposed,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), full committee ranking member, said at the hearing.
Even though the expedited review only applies to one company now, it could apply to others in the future, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), vice chairman of the full committee, said.
The Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, which represents natural gas shippers and terminal operators, supports the legislation.
H.R. 4606 “is seeking to address issues that would stifle opportunity to export LNG to many Caribbean nations, many of whom need natural gas to help reduce emissions and protect the environment,” Charlie Riedl, executive director of the center, told Bloomberg Environment.After the subcommittee voted on H.R. 4606, Upton said during the hearing that he advised staff to work with Democrats to address their concerns ahead of the full committee vote.
A vote by the full committee on the bills has not yet been scheduled.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=132442774&vname=dennotallissues&fn=132442774&jd=132442774
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CSB Releases Animation of 2017 PCA Paper Mill Explosion
Apr 18, 2018 | Powder Bulk Solids
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released an animated video this month illustrating the causes of an explosion at the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) pulp and paper mill in DeRidder, LA on Feb. 8, 2017 that killed three workers and injured seven other people.
Taking viewers through a digital rendering of the Louisiana plant, the CSB’s video illustrates the agency’s position that hot work activities near a foul condensate tank containing a flammable atmosphere led to the deadly blast.
“Hot work accidents can be catastrophic. This video animation demonstrates that a more robust hazard analysis is necessary when hot work activities are located on or near storage containers with volatile materials,” CSB Chairperson Vanessa Allen Sutherland said in a press release announcing the video.
The explosion was reported as the mill was engaged in a scheduled annual shutdown, which required workers to perform maintenance and upgrading tasks throughout the facility, according to the CSB.
As Powder & Bulk Solids reported at the time of the incident, police officials stated that welding work was happening when the explosion occurred. An anonymous tipper later told authorities that an unlocked automatic valve may have contributed to the cause.
A final report on the CSB’s investigation into the incident is currently under review by the agency’s board members for approval.
http://www.powderbulksolids.com/news/CSB-Releases-Animation-of-2017-PCA-Paper-Mill-Explosion-04-18-2018
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EPA Offers Guidance on Permits for New Plants
Apr 18, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
EPA has issued guidance that aims to make it easier for businesses to show that proposed new plants or expansions of existing facilities will not significantly affect air quality when they are applying for air permits under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration program.
The nonbinding instructions, posted online within the last day, assign values for "significant impact levels" (SILs) for ozone and fine particulates. Regulators can use the SILs in determining whether a proposed pollution source would cause or contribute to air quality violations under the program.
While SILs have long been employed in this context, "these improvements will potentially reduce the cost and time for manufacturers to obtain this type of air pollution permit from states, local permitting authorities and EPA," the agency said in a short online summary.
Prevention of Serious Deterioration permits, part of EPA's New Source Review program, apply to pollution sources in areas that are effectively in attainment with national air quality standards.
After issuing a 2010 rule on SILs, EPA later acknowledged that it was flawed. Following a Sierra Club lawsuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2013 agreed to the agency's request to remand some parts of the rule.
EPA now envisions a two-stage approach, Peter Tsirigotis, director of the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, wrote in the guidance for regional air division directors.
The instructions will in essence offer a test run "so that we may gain valuable experience and information as permitting authorities use their discretion to apply and justify the application of the SIL values ... on a case-by-case basis in the context of individual permitting decisions," Tsirigotis wrote. EPA will then use the results "to assess, refine and, as appropriate, codify SIL values and specific applications of those values in a future, potentially binding rulemaking," he added.
His memo is buttressed by several supporting documents, including a legal memorandum, a technical justification for EPA's development of the SILs and an outside review of that justification.
But Seth Johnson, an Earthjustice attorney who represented the Sierra Club in the earlier litigation, said in an email to E&E News that SILs represent an illegal lessening of safeguards against air pollution increases.
"In other words," Johnson said, "this action is another example of EPA spending time on discretionary matters that just serve to weaken public health protections against harmful air pollution."
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/04/18/stories/1060079479
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Republicans Look to Expand Use of Law to Kill Rules
Apr 19, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Maxine Joselow and Geof Koss
After a precedent-setting vote yesterday, some Republicans are hoping to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn decades-old rules and guidance documents.
The Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's 2013 auto lending guidance. The vote was 51-47.
This marked the first time the Congressional Review Act was used to target nonbinding guidance. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who introduced the resolution, along with Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), said he hoped it wouldn't be the last.
"I'm hoping that the attention brought to it will encourage people in the private sector from across the country who are affected by various guidance to raise the issue," Toomey told E&E News. "I'm hoping that people will spontaneously kind of bring it to our attention and that we can vet the suggestions and maybe use it again."
The Congressional Review Act of 1996 requires federal agencies to submit rules to Congress for review. Lawmakers have a 60-day window to pass a resolution of disapproval. But the GOP is keeping open killing older actions agencies may not have submitted according to the CRA.
Last year, congressional Republicans celebrated axing 14 Obama-era regulations through the law before the window closed (E&E Daily, May 12, 2017).
While today's vote could herald a resurgence of that effort, no environmental rules appear to be immediately on the chopping block.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he expected to see more Obama-era regulations targeted using the 1996 law, although he added no specific rules or guidance came to mind.
"It's viewed as a new tool that can be very effective," Inhofe told E&E News. "I'm a real fan of the Congressional Review Act. Twenty years without getting any use out of it, and now everyone's using it."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, last fall asked the Government Accountability Office to determine whether federal land management plans in her state were defined as rules under the Congressional Review Act. If so, they could be subject to resolutions of disapproval.
"We've obviously looked at the CRA as avenues," Murkowski told E&E News. "Sometimes it's a good tool, otherwise sometimes it's more of a blunt instrument."
The Pacific Legal Foundation launched a campaign last year to force agencies to submit all proposed guidance documents to Congress for review.
But the property-rights group appeared to abandon the campaign, which specifically targeted the Clean Water Rule, in February (Greenwire Feb. 14).
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said he didn't expect his GOP colleagues to mount a challenge to the Clean Water Rule, also known as the Waters of the U.S. rule, or WOTUS, because EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers already proposed scrapping the regulation this summer.
"[With] WOTUS, we're on track," Hoeven told E&E News. "We've got it stayed, and EPA's coming back and working on something that is hopefully workable. So we've got a process there; I don't know that we would need to try to do something else at this point.
"'What is happening right now is totally nuts'
At least one Democrat and several public interest groups fiercely opposed yesterday's vote on the CFPB guidance document, saying it could set a dangerous precedent for rolling back important environmental and public health protections.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) blasted the vote in a floor speech earlier this week.
"What is happening right now is totally nuts," Schatz said. "What is happening right now is not what we have normally done with CRAs."
He added, "We are going down a path where Congress can take an administrative action that has been done in the last 22 years and subject it to the CRA, and you will not need 60 votes. This is bad for our institution."
Sixty-four environmental and public interest groups also sent a letter to lawmakers opposing the resolution of disapproval for the CFPB guidance document.
The letter said the vote opened up a "dangerous" path to putting major rules on the chopping block, including those that protect public health, the environment, workers, consumers and minority populations.
Yogin Kothari, Washington representative with the Union of Concerned Scientists' Center for Science and Democracy, said the vote created a slippery slope.
"I wish I had insight into what congressional Republicans are going to target," Kothari said. "But the fact that they've used it once means that if they want, they could use it again and again and again."
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/04/19/stories/1060079501
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State's Petition for EPA NSR 'Maintenance' Rule Could Revive Legal Fight
Apr 18, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
West Virginia is petitioning EPA for a rulemaking to clarify and ease a Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permitting exemption for facility “routine maintenance,” a move the agency has signaled it is likely to pursue but one that could revive a legal fight with environmentalists who won a court ruling in 2006 scrapping a similar rule.
In the petition filed April 18, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) asks EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and EPA air policy chief William Wehrum to initiate a rulemaking to set uniform standards for granting the exemption from strict NSR permit mandates for facility “routine maintenance, repair and replacement (RMRR).”
Such a rule would avoid what Morrisey calls harsh and inconsistent interpretations of what is “routine” that have found common maintenance tasks to be “modifications” triggering onerous NSR review.
Morrisey says the rule is required to protect the domestic steel industry from excessive NSR requirements, and to support the West Virginia coal industry that supplies fuel for steel plants, in line with President Donald Trump's policy to boost U.S. coal and steel production. “The requested rule is in lockstep with the President’s agenda, and implementing the rule will indisputably help make America great again,” Morrisey says.
West Virginia's request comes shortly after Anna Marie Wood, director of the air quality policy division at OAR's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, said in a presentation to state air regulators that an update to the routine maintenance definition is among the NSR reforms EPA is working on. She also said that the policy changes will be undertaken with a mix of guidance and rulemaking.
Addressing the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA) spring meeting in Lexington, KY, Wood said EPA is “evaluating the need to clarify the interpretation and appropriate application” of the RMRR exemption under NSR. “EPA anticipates clarification in Spring 2018,” the presentation says.
Wood did not specify what form that clarification might take, whether guidance or formal notice and comment rule. An EPA spokesperson said only that “we will review the petition,” but declined to comment on the form of EPA's forthcoming clarification.
The spring timeline would appear to suggest EPA is more likely to issue guidance rather than a rulemaking, which would take months for the agency to propose, then seek public comment on it, weigh those comments, then craft and issue a final version after mandatory White House pre-publication review.
Alternatively, the agency could issue guidance in the short term and then try to adopt it in a future rulemaking -- but environmentalists are likely to sue whatever form the RMRR policy change takes.
West Virginia in its petition argues, however, that a new rule is necessary to avoid inconsistent application of the exemption. “The State of West Virginia respectfully requests the Agency provide clear, reasonable, and predictable rules that will establish the scope of the routine maintenance and repair exemption,” the state says.
The current absence of such rules, and case-by-case application of the policy, has resulted in “unpredictability and confusion” which “has provoked litigation, which in turn has only further confused the issue.”
Two-Step Solution
West Virginia proposes a two-step rulemaking. “With respect to 'routine,' it should be clarified that the nature and frequency of the work is determined by reference to the source category or industry overall, rather than the specific source in question. Work that is regular, predictable, and recurring in the industry should be considered per se 'routine.'”
Further, “'maintenance and repair,' should be consistently defined based on the particular needs of an industry and source category. If the nature and purpose of a project centers on remediating the effects of unavoidable wear-and-tear caused by the ordinary operation of the type of source in question, then the work should be considered per se'maintenance.'”
Similarly, “replacing components that are necessarily damaged by the ordinary operation of sources in the category should be considered per se 'repair.'” The state argues that the “cost and extent of such projects should not predominate over their nature and purpose.”
But the rulemaking option is fraught with difficulties, as EPA air chief William Wehrum failed to enact a legally defensible version of the RMRR policy revision through a rulemaking when serving previously at EPA, ultimately as President George W. Bush's acting agency air chief.
Wehrum pursued an “equipment replacement rule,” issued in 2003, to ease replacement of equipment. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit first in 2003 stayed the rule, then struck it down in 2006, in New York v. EPA, finding that the rule could allow for emissions increases in contravention of NSR.
West Virginia acknowledges a long history of litigation over the issue, with disparate outcomes, but says the rule it seeks would withstand judicial review for two reasons.
“First, the requested rule returns the Agency’s interpretation of 'routine' to its original position, and 'closer to the enactment of the governing statute.' When conflicting interpretations are advanced by an agency, the interpretation that was adopted closer to the enactment of the governing statute is given more deference than subsequent, conflicting interpretations.”
Second, the agency can claim it is entitled to deference from courts if a change is supported by a “reasoned justification.” Here, the agency could claim to be changing its policy to conform to Supreme Court precedent, West Virginia says.
The state claims support from the high court's 2014 decision in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, a case testing the agency's NSR permitting rules for greenhouse gases. The court in that case found the Clean Air Act “does not strip EPA of authority to exclude” activities from the ambit of the PSD permitting requirement “where their inclusion would be inconsistent with the statutory scheme,” West Virginia says.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/states-petition-epa-nsr-maintenance-rule-could-revive-legal-fight
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Colorado Exxon Suit Shows Climate Concerns Not Unique to Coasts
Apr 19, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Emily Chasan
Most cities suing oil companies over the impact of climate change want help paying for walls to protect against rising sea levels. And then there's Boulder, Colo.
The politically liberal town known as the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, joined by two counties in the same neck of the woods, said Colorado's economy depends on snow, water, and cool weather when they accused Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. of “causing and exacerbating climate change” in a state-court lawsuit filed April 17.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue and requires global participation and actions,” Exxon spokesman Scott Silvestri said in an email. “Lawsuits like this—filed by trial attorneys against an industry that provides products we all rely upon to power the economy and enable our domestic life—simply do not do that.” Suncor didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Colorado communities said they're facing expenses and costs related to earlier snow melt, which has increased the risk of forest fires, dried-out soil, beetle outbreaks, and drought.
The lawsuit joins others against fossil fuel companies filed by California and New York communities, but this is the first brought by an interior state. “Colorado is one of the fastest-warming states in the nation,” Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones said in a statement. “Climate change is not just about sea level rise. It affects all of us in the middle of the country as well.”
—With assistance from Bob Van Voris.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=132442782&vname=dennotallissues&fn=132442782&jd=132442782
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