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AM ACC 5/31/2018
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(ACC Mentioned) Navarro: Mnuchin Comment on China Tariffs Was ‘an Unfortunate Soundbite’
May 30, 2018 | Inside US Trade
By Anshu Siripurapu
The U.S. and China are still very much in a trade dispute, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Wednesday, calling Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s announcement of a truce “an unfortunate soundbite.” -
Bayer Gets Canadian Antitrust Approval for Monsanto Purchase
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joshua Fineman and Aoyon Ashraf
Bayer’s bid to purchase Monsanto has won antitrust approval from Canada’s Competition Bureau, according to a consent agreement. -
US Epa Defends TSCA Inventory Rule in Response Legal Brief
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The US EPA’s interpretation of the TSCA statute in its inventory notification rule was "reasonable", the agency has said in a recent response brief filed in the ongoing legal challenge of the rule. -
Lowe's Drops Paint Strippers Containing Methylene Chloride
May 31, 2018 | Inside EPA
Lowe's hardware store chain is planning to phase out paint strippers containing methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) from its global product selection by the end of the year, an announcement that comes days after EPA reversed course... -
Europe to Ban Some Single-Use Plastics
May 31, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alex Scott and Alex Tullo
The European Commission has proposed a new law that bans or restricts the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on Europe’s beaches and in its seas. -
US EPA Received 20 New PMNs in January
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA received 20 new pre-manufacture notices (PMNs) in January, and recorded 35 amendments to 31 existing PMNs. -
McDonald’s, Starbucks Among Those Readying for EU Plastics Ban
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Single-use plastic products that commonly litter European Union beaches must be consigned to the dustbin of history, but many companies say they have their brooms ready. -
Triclosan Could Be Really Harmful to Your Gut, and It's Probably in Your Toothpaste
May 31, 2018 | Los Angeles Times
By Melissa Healy
Triclosan, an antimicrobial agent found in toys, toothpaste, cosmetics and more than 2,000 other consumer products, has been found to wreak havoc on the guts of mice whose blood concentrations of the compound are roughly equivalent to a typical level for humans. -
Stanley Black & Decker Quells Prenatal Claim as Untimely
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Peter Hayes
Stanley Black & Decker quashed decades–old allegations that a woman’s prenatal exposure to toxic substances caused her birth defects. -
No Convincing Answers on ‘Missing’ REACH 2018 Substances – UEAPME
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
European SMEs trade body Ueapme has criticised Echa and industry associations for failing to explain why "thousands" of expected substance registrations under today’s final REACH deadline have not yet materialised. -
Aerospace Sector ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Scope of Echa’s Future Role
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) has questioned the future role Echa has set for itself in the agency’s draft strategic plan for the years 2019-23. -
IG Faults FERC Reviews for Lack of Transparency
May 30, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Sam Mintz
The Department of Energy's inspector general said in a report today that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should improve the transparency of its process for reviewing prospective natural gas pipeline projects. -
Appalachia, Permian Natural Gas Constraints Looming Over Projected E&P Forecasts
May 31, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
U.S. natural gas producers are guiding toward 4.2 Bcf/d in output gains this year versus 2017, based on a survey of 50 of the largest onshore operators, but the biggest question is whether there will be enough takeaway capacity in the country’s two largest producing regions. -
U.S. DOE Issues Nine NatGas Import, Export Authorizations to Canada and Mexico
May 30, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy granted nine authorizations last month for companies to both import and export natural gas to Canada and Mexico via pipeline for up to two years, while also vacating three similar authorizations. -
Sabine Oil’s Rejection of Midstream Contract Affirmed
May 31, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Daniel Gill
Bankrupt Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. could reject a contract with a “midstream service provider” because the agreement didn’t create a property right, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed. -
Exxon Says World Needs More Oil Even as Emission Concern Lingers
May 31, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Kevin Crowley
Exxon Mobil Corp’s Darren Woods says his company is at the center of a delicate balancing act between those who want a cleaner environment and those seeking economic growth that depends on rising energy demand. -
White House Report Flags Gaps in Grid Cyber Readiness
May 31, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Federal energy officials have identified gaps in the U.S. grid's defenses against a major cyberattack, according to a highly anticipated White House report released yesterday. -
Deadly Attacks Feared as Hackers Target Industrial Sites
May 31, 2018 | The Hill - Cybersecurity
By Morgan Chalfant
The hacking threat to critical infrastructure in the United States and beyond is growing larger, with nation states and other malicious actors looking to gain a foothold in sensitive technologies to conduct espionage and potentially stage disruptive or destructive attacks. -
Federal Climate Funding Increased 50%
May 31, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Kelsey Brugger
Before hurricane season begins tomorrow, the Government Accountability Office reported that the White House budget office has failed to detail costs that could be incurred from climate change — including disaster relief. -
Pruitt's Paris Evolution
May 31, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was the Trump administration's top spokesman for the decision to exit the Paris climate accord a year ago. -
Greens Take ANWR Fight to Chevron Meeting
May 30, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Margaret Kriz Hobson
Opponents of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge took their battle to Chevron Corp.'s annual meeting today, calling on the oil company to pledge not to begin oil and gas development in the Arctic refuge's coastal plain. -
EPA Pact Allows First Use of Compliance Cost Deductions Under Tax Law
May 31, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
EPA has submitted for court approval what appears to be the first consent decree that includes language allowing some of the defendant's compliance costs to be deductible under the new tax law, which generally prohibits such deductions unless... -
Exxon Hopes for New York Top Cop With Different View on Climate
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment
By Kevin Crowley
Exxon Mobil Corp. is hoping the downfall of Eric Schneiderman will be an opportunity for the next New York attorney general to come to a “different conclusion” on the oil giant’s role in climate change. -
Sensors and Electronic Health Records Reveal Block by Block Traffic Air Pollution Health Disparities Among the Elderly in Oakland
May 30, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Ananya Roy
Many public heath efforts, thankfully, focus on the youngest among us. We fight for a clean environment and healthy future for our kids.
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(ACC Mentioned) Navarro: Mnuchin Comment on China Tariffs Was ‘an Unfortunate Soundbite’
May 30, 2018 | Inside US Trade
By Anshu Siripurapu
The U.S. and China are still very much in a trade dispute, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Wednesday, calling Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s announcement of a truce “an unfortunate soundbite.”
“What we’re having with China is a trade dispute, plain and simple,” Navarro told NPR.
The White House on Tuesday announced plans to levy a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods following a Section 301 investigation into Beijing's intellectual property and technology transfer practices, a move Navarro lauded as “historic.” China said it was “surprised” by the announcement.
Mnuchin, following a visit from a Chinese delegation that resulted in a joint commitment to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, said that the tariffs were “on hold.”
“We’re putting the trade war on hold,” Mnuchin told Fox News on May 20. “So, right now, we are -- we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework.”
But Navarro on Wednesday said “That was an unfortunate soundbite.”
Asked if the U.S. was ready to face Chinese retaliation including against agriculture, Navarro said, “Of course, we’re ready for anything.” He added that the Section 301 tariff announcement was the result of a months-long interagency process.
“At the end of the day what we would need to do as a country -- and the president has courage and vision to do this -- is to stand up to Chinese economic predation,” Navarro said.
The tariffs and investment restrictions are designed to safeguard American intellectual property and prevent China from realizing its ambition of becoming a global leader in key industries through its Made in China 2025 plan, Navarro said.
“We can stop them from putting our high-tech companies out of business with the tariffs; that’s the purpose of the tariffs,” Navarro said when asked if the U.S. could successfully thwart Beijing’s goal. “What we can stop them from is buying up our crown jewels of technology.”
“As a practical matter, America is the best innovator in the world,” he added. “The problem we have now is every time we innovate something new China comes in and buys it or steals it.”
He also noted bipartisan support in Congress from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), both of whom supported the administration’s decision to move forward with tariffs.
“When you have Chuck Schumer and Marco Rubio on the same sheet of music saying, ‘We’ve got to stop this’ you know you’re doing something right,” Navarro said.
But asked why Trump was considering lifting sanctions on Chinese telecom giant ZTE -- which Schumer, Rubio and other lawmakers, citing national security concerns, have vehemently opposed -- Navarro demurred, saying he couldn’t comment on a law enforcement issue.
Echoing President Trump, Navarro contended that the U.S. “lost the trade war long ago” when former presidents negotiated free trade agreements such as NAFTA and supported China’s entry in the World Trade Organization.
Such moves, Navarro argued, led to the hollowing out of America’s industrial base and the loss of millions of factory jobs.
He said Trump’s policies were not “protectionist” but “simply a defense of America’s manufacturing and defense industrial base.”
Navarro’s comments came as U.S. business groups, including some in the agriculture industry, are again sounding the alarm over the tariffs.
“When these tariffs were proposed earlier this year, China made clear it would fight back. China’s decision to levy tariffs on U.S. agriculture products in response to the tariffs on steel and aluminum was a precursor to what we can expect from today’s announcement: more retaliation,” Casey Guernsey a spokesman for Americans for Farmers & Families, said in a Tuesday statement.
American Chemistry Council Director of International Trade Ed Brzytwa said in a Tuesday statement that, “If applied, these duties will invite damaging retaliation and advantage China’s growing industry at the expense of American production and workers. We anticipate significant disruptions to supply chain operations, offshoring of production, and termination of production altogether due the sudden, uneven playing field that tariffs would create in the global marketplace.”
At a May 17 event hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, ACC President and CEO Cal Dooley and other panelists urged the U.S. to eschew unilateral tariffs and work with allies to pressure China at the World Trade Organization.
Dooley pointed to the recent ruling in a Boeing-Airbus dispute as an example of the WTO’s effectiveness. Asked if the U.S. could afford to wait the nearly 14 years it took to resolve the Boeing case in a WTO dispute with China, he said some reform was necessary.
“I think we would all agree that the process needs to be reformed and modified and modernized so that you can have quicker decisions,” he said. “But what I would also say [is] that alternative approach also reduced the prospect of action 10, 20 years ago that would have been a response by tariffs that could have led to a trade war.”
“The point I’m making is if you have these multilateral institutions that provide recourse that is an alternative to a unilateral approach ... which is what the administration is doing now,” he continued. “And the difference is when you go down the path of imposing tariffs you invite retaliation that again is going to have significant adverse impacts.”
U.S. Fashion Industry Association President Julia Hughes also acknowledged the lengthiness of the WTO process but said it was where the U.S. could have the biggest long-term impact. The conversation should be about “what’s next for the WTO,” she said at the May 17 WITA event.
Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, told Inside U.S. Trade on May 17 that he wasn’t opposed to bringing actions at the WTO but said on their own such moves were unlikely to be effective. He noted that the Trump’s Section 301 directive involved a “three-pronged” approach including tariffs, investment restrictions and a WTO case.
“I don’t think the question is ‘Which is the right strand here?’” he said. “I think you have to do all three of them together to maximize the pressure points on this, and I think relying on one at the exclusion of the others would be a tactical error.”
https://insidetrade.com/daily-news/navarro-mnuchin-comment-china-tariffs-was-%E2%80%98-unfortunate-soundbite%E2%80%99
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Bayer Gets Canadian Antitrust Approval for Monsanto Purchase
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joshua Fineman and Aoyon Ashraf
Bayer’s bid to purchase Monsanto has won antitrust approval from Canada’s Competition Bureau, according to a consent agreement.
As part of the agreement, Bayer agreed to sell its canola and soybean seed and traits businesses, its glufosinate-ammonium herbicide business, and its LibertyLink gene and event technology business.
In addition, Bayer’s Centurion Assets used on canola and flax, carrot seed business, digital farming business in Canada, and the company’s VOTiVO and ILeVO nematicidal seed treatment businesses will be sold to prevent unfair competition.
Bayer secured U.S. antitrust approval May 29 for the $66 billion takeover of Monsanto.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/bayer-gets-canadian-antitrust-approval-for-monsanto-purchase
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US Epa Defends TSCA Inventory Rule in Response Legal Brief
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The US EPA’s interpretation of the TSCA statute in its inventory notification rule was "reasonable", the agency has said in a recent response brief filed in the ongoing legal challenge of the rule.
The case focuses on the law's "inventory reset" rule, a reporting scheme that helps the agency to determine the substances ‘active’ in commerce.
The Environmental Defense Fund petitioned the federal court last autumn to review the rule. In its March opening brief, the EDF said it includes interpretations that are in violation of the statute and are "arbitrary and capricious" - a legal standard of review under the Administrative Procedures Act.
Many of these concerns centered around the agency’s treatment of information claimed as confidential.
But in its response brief, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the EPA says that its interpretations of the law are "reasonable".
Beyond that, the so-called arbitrary and capricious standard "presumes the validity of agency action", it says. A reviewing court must uphold a final rule that "satisfies minimum standards of rationality".
The agency’s brief also questions whether the EDF has legal standing to challenge several aspects of the rule. To reach this bar, a plaintiff must demonstrate that lack of court action would result in an ‘injury’, among other requirements.
In its opening brief, the EDF said the final rule’s failure to ensure disclosure of all information required by the law would result in an "informational injury that would inhibit its advocacy efforts".
But the EPA has argued that provisions in section 14 – which covers confidentiality – "bind EPA by their own terms", notwithstanding the reporting requirements outlined in section 8. And because the "EPA must and will follow" these requirements, "EDF’s ‘injury’ is nothing more than unsubstantiated worry", it says.
The EDF "appears to have conflated the absence of additional, unnecessary cross-references to TSCA section 14 … [with a] wilful intent to disregard EPA’s other statutory obligations", says the brief. Such "unsupported speculation" is insufficient for demonstrating legal standing, it says.
Core arguments
In its opening brief, the EDF objected that the rule allows any person to maintain an existing confidentiality claim, regardless of whether they are the original claimant. But the EPA’s brief argues that this approach was required by statute – and even if the statute had been ambiguous on this point, its interpretation is "reasonable and entitled to deference".
Regarding EDF’s arguments on EPA’s failure to assign a ‘unique identifier’ to confidential chemical substances, the brief says these are a "separate matter … irrelevant to the inventory rule".
And it dismisses EDF’s concerns about export-only manufacturers being exempted from reporting. The statute does not bar this exemption, and it is "consistent with the requirements and purpose of that section", it says.
The inventory rule litigation is one of three major legal challenges to the new TSCA law.
The EPA is separately facing a lawsuit over its ‘framework rules’ for conducting prioritisation and risk evaluation of existing substances, and a challenge to its approach to new chemicals.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67261/us-epa-defends-tsca-inventory-rule-in-response-legal-brief
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Lowe's Drops Paint Strippers Containing Methylene Chloride
May 31, 2018 | Inside EPA
Lowe's hardware store chain is planning to phase out paint strippers containing methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) from its global product selection by the end of the year, an announcement that comes days after EPA reversed course and pledged to complete a landmark Obama-era rule regulating similar uses of the chemical.
The company's May 29 announcement marks another win for environmentalists, labor groups and their allies, including families of those killed by exposure to the chemical, who have been pushing EPA to ban it use.
“We care deeply about the health and safety of our customers, and great progress is being made in the development of safer and more effective alternatives,” said Mike McDermott, Lowe’s chief customer officer, in a statement announcing the ban on May 29. “As a home improvement leader, we recognize the need for viable paint removal products and remain committed to working closely with suppliers to further innovate in this category.”
The company says that they plan to continue to take “additional actions steps, including actively working with the EPA, key non-governmental organizations and suppliers to quickly market new alternatives and lead change in the industry.”
The Obama administration in 2017 proposed a rule banning the use of methylene chloride and NMP in paint strippers, marking one of the first efforts to exercise use of new authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act to regulate “existing” chemicals.
But the Trump administration shelved the proposals as part of its deregulatory agenda, prompting significant pressure from South Carolina Republican lawmakers and environmental groups to address the substance.
During a May 8 meeting, families of consumers and workers killed from exposure while using paint-strippers containing methylene chloride pushed Administrator Scott Pruitt to complete the rulemaking and ban the uses. In the face of such pressure, Pruitt announced May 10 that the EPA has reversed course and plans to complete the rulemaking by the end of the year.
However, it is not clear if the final rule will go as far as the proposal, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently strengthened its labeling requirements for products containing methylene chloride, providing an alternative regulatory route to a ban.
Regardless of how far EPA goes, safety groups are applauding Lowe's decision, but are also urging other companies to implement a similar ban to address EPA's failure to act.
The company's plan “begins to fill a vacuum left by EPA’s failure under [Pruitt],” and “underscores the urgency” to finalize a ban on the use of these chemicals in paint strippers that EPA first proposed in January 2017, said Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families’ Mind the Store Campaign Director Mike Schade in a May 29 statement.
“Since the EPA first proposed action on these two chemicals, at least four consumers have died while working with methylene chloride-based paint strippers.”
“When facing federal inaction on vital issues facing the American public--some of which are matters of life or death--retailers have a responsibility and an opportunity to do right by their customers.”
Worker safety advocates also welcomed Lowe's announcement. “Workers and consumers will be safer once deadly chemicals are no longer for sale at one of the world’s largest retailers,” said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), said in a statement.
The group had named Lowe’s as a “Dirty Dozen” company on their 2018 report on companies they say “put workers and their communities at risk,” due to their “ongoing sales of products containing methylene chloride,” citing data that more than 60 deaths have been linked to methylene chloride since 1980.
“Vapors from methylene chloride and NMP can be especially deadly when used by workers or consumers when working in unventilated and confined spaces. Several worker deaths occurred recently during the stripping of bathroom fixtures, because this work often takes place in small rooms with limited ventilation,” the statement adds.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/lowes-drops-paint-strippers-containing-methylene-chloride
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Europe to Ban Some Single-Use Plastics
May 31, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Alex Scott and Alex Tullo
The European Commission has proposed a new law that bans or restricts the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on Europe’s beaches and in its seas. The move comes amid efforts by the U.K. and by U.S. jurisdictions such as California to also limit single-use plastics.
The products on the EU’s ban list include cotton swab shafts sticks, cutlery, plates, straws, drinks stirrers, and sticks for balloons. They will need to be made with more sustainable materials. Single-use plastic drink containers will be allowed only if their caps remain attached. Other products are subject to awareness-raising and cleanup measures. Together with fishing gear, the products targeted cause 70% of all marine litter, the EC says.An EU proposal would ban or limit single-use plastics in a bid to reduce pollution.
Under the law, plastic producers will be obliged to help cover the cost of waste management and cleanup and to promote litter awareness. Producers of fishing gear, for example, will be required to pay for the collection and treatment of waste gathered by port authorities. The EC says it will provide industry with incentives to develop less-polluting alternatives.
“Europeans need to act together to tackle this problem, because plastic waste ends up in our air, our soil, our oceans and in our food,” says Frans Timmermans, the EC’s first vice president responsible for sustainable development. The EC is pushing to approve the measures by May 2019.
PlasticsEurope, Europe’s leading plastic industry association hit back at the proposal. “Plastic product bans are not the solution,” it says. The association is urging the EC “not to take short cuts” and warns that alternatives to plastics may not be more sustainable. Rather than plastics, PlasticEurope blames the problem on a lack of waste management infrastructure and “inappropriate littering behavior.”
But the proposed legislation was welcomed by environmental organizations, including the European Environment Bureau, a network of groups. “There is no reason why we shouldn’t ban unnecessary single-use plastic items when durable and toxic-free alternatives already exist,” says Stéphane Arditi, the group’s products and waste policy manager.
Biobased plastic producers could benefit from the proposed law. “Bioplastics can offer sustainable and safe alternatives for some of these identified products,” says François de Bie, chair of European Bioplastics, an industry association. However, the proposed law remains vague regarding the use of alternatives, he says.
The move to control plastic litter follows the January unveiling of the first Europe-wide strategy for managing the region’s growing plastic waste problem. It stipulates that all plastic packaging must be recyclable by 2030. Since then countries around the world have announced plastic recycling overhauls and new laws to curb plastic litter.
In the U.S., prohibitions on plastics have been rolled out on the state and local, rather than the federal, levels, with California generally leading the way. Following a referendum, the state banned plastics shopping bags in 2016. Laws introduced in the state’s legislature would ban restaurants from provide drinking straws except by customer request, require beverage container caps to be tethered, and require labels on clothing made mostly from synthetic fibers to warn that they shed microfibers when washed.
New York City has made on-again, off-again attempts to ban plastic bags and polystyrene foam containers. And last week, the city council introduced a bill to ban plastic straws and stirrers.
https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/Europe-ban-single-use-plastics/96/i23
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US EPA Received 20 New PMNs in January
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA received 20 new pre-manufacture notices (PMNs) in January, and recorded 35 amendments to 31 existing PMNs.
During January, it also received nine new notices of commencement (NOCs) and one application for a test marketing exemption.
The agency reported receiving test data on ten substances, as well.
The EPA reported its January new substance programme updates in a 24 May Federal Register notice. These came two days after separate notices for November and December.
Notices for these three months mark a new reporting policy, offering more detail on PMN submissions and testing data received in connection with consent orders.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67298/us-epa-received-20-new-pmns-in-january
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McDonald’s, Starbucks Among Those Readying for EU Plastics Ban
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
Single-use plastic products that commonly litter European Union beaches must be consigned to the dustbin of history, but many companies say they have their brooms ready.
Plastic plates, cutlery, straws, cotton bud sticks, and drinks stirrers should be banned altogether, while the bloc should adopt measures to reduce consumption of other plastic products such as drinks bottles, cup lids, and lightweight plastic bags, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in a proposed directive.
For companies such as Belgian grocery retailer Delhaize SA, the EU move was not a surprise and would complement corporate efforts to cut back on single-use plastics, Roel Dekelver, spokesman for the supermarket chain, told Bloomberg Environment May 28.
Starbucks Co. also is making its takeaway drinks cups more recyclable, the company said in a May 29 email to Bloomberg Environment.
“Earlier this year, we removed all plastic straws and cutlery from our condiment bars in British Starbucks stores, and we plan to implement this approach across Europe,” Starbucks said.
Likewise, McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd. in the U.K. has plans in line with the commission’s that include “piloting paper straws in some restaurants” and “moving them behind the counter” so customers have to ask before being given a straw, Paul Pomroy, McDonald’s U.K. chief executive officer, said in a May 28 email to Bloomberg Environment.
Management, Not BansBut PlasticsEurope said plastic product bans are not the answer. Rather, authorities should instead focus on improved waste management systems to prevent garbage entering the oceans, according to the Brussels-based industry group.
The commission said its proposal, which also includes requirements on fishing gear, such as plastic fishing nets, would cover 70 percent of the waste items that enter the marine environment.
Measures to curtail and better manage single-use plastic items were “necessary and urgent,” and “worldwide, this is the most ambitious and comprehensive proposal addressing marine litter,” commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, said when announcing the proposals.
The EU should aim to finalize the draft directive by the time elections to the European Parliament take place in May 2019, Timmermans said. The Parliament and the Council of the EU, which represents the governments of the bloc’s countries, must agree on the directive before it can be adopted.
“Plastic can be fantastic, but we need to use it more responsibly,” Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said in a statement. “Today’s proposals will help business and consumers to move towards sustainable alternatives.”
The measures come as the EU seeks to seize leadership in creating sustainable goods, a market that is worth 2.5 trillion euros ($2.9 trillion), according to consumer goods company Unilever. With some plastic possibly taking 1,000 years to decompose, the EU proposes for companies to set up reuse systems such as deposit refund programs to ensure a stable supply of high quality material.
EU countries then would have two to three years to put in place the specific measures included in the draft directive. The bans on certain single-use plastic items would take effect two years after the directive goes final, for example.
The draft directive also would require EU countries to ensure that 90 percent of all disposable plastic bottles are collected for recycling by 2025. This level of collection is seen in the EU where systems are in place allowing consumers to pay a deposit on plastic bottles that’s refunded when the bottle is returned for recycling, according to the commission proposal.
Other measures in the draft directive would require EU countries to ensure a significant reduction in use of single-use plastic containers, such as those for takeaway food, and that manufacturers of these products and of other items, including filter cigarettes and lightweight plastic bags and packaging, contribute to extended producer responsibility systems or programs in which producers pay a levy to fund waste collection and cleanup.
Delhaize is already trying out plastic water bottles with integral, nondetachable plastic caps, and will from late 2018 replace lightweight plastic bags for fruit and vegetables with paper bags, leading to about 80 million fewer plastic bags being used annually, Dekelver said.
Unintended Consequences?The commission’s plans to reduce single-use plastic litter come after a strategy paper on plastics published in January and coincide with new overall EU waste rules approved by the European Parliament in April. Under the waste rules, at least 55 percent of all plastic packaging in the bloc should be recycled by 2030.
The items slated for bans were all products for which nonplastic alternatives were available, such as paper for straws and disposable plates, Timmermans said.
The EU move to ban straws, stirrers, and some other single-use items was welcome but “symbolic,” and measures on plastics could increase other environmental pressures, Jeroen Dagevos, head of programs at Dutch advocacy group the Plastic Soup Foundation, told Bloomberg Environment May 28.
For example, paper or glass packaging was less problematic than plastic as litter but might have a larger greenhouse gas footprint, Dagevos said.
The emphasis should be on reducing use of packaging overall to reduce the amount of plastic packaging that makes its way into the environment, he said.
—With assistance from Lyubov Pronina (Bloomberg)
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/mcdonalds-starbucks-among-those-readying-for-eu-plastics-ban
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Triclosan Could Be Really Harmful to Your Gut, and It's Probably in Your Toothpaste
May 31, 2018 | Los Angeles Times
By Melissa Healy
Triclosan, an antimicrobial agent found in toys, toothpaste, cosmetics and more than 2,000 other consumer products, has been found to wreak havoc on the guts of mice whose blood concentrations of the compound are roughly equivalent to a typical level for humans.
One group of mice who were fed a diet laced with triclosan for three weeks ended up with low-grade inflammation of the colon and saw their garden of gut microbes become notably depleted. When researchers chemically induced inflammatory bowel disease in another group of mice, those exposed to real-world levels of triclosan suffered increased damage to the colon and more severe symptoms of colitis than did mice who weren’t fed the chemical.
Finally, in mice made to develop colon cancer, those exposed to triclosan at normal human levels developed more and larger tumors, fueled by the activation of genes known to drive the cancer’s growth. In addition, these mice were slightly more likely to die of colon cancer than their counterparts whose diets and environments were triclosan-free. However, the difference was too small for scientists to say it was more than a statistical fluke.
The findings were published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The study authors, led by Haixia Yang, a postdoctoral food science researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, discovered that the guts of triclosan-fed mice were particularly depleted of Bifidobacterium, a strain that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects.
By changing the gut’s microbiotic population and activating genes that govern inflammation and cancer growth, triclosan “could cause adverse effects on colonic inflammation and colon cancer,” Yang and her colleagues wrote. “Further studies are urgently needed to better characterize the effects of [triclosan] exposure on gut health to establish science-based policies for the regulation of this antimicrobial compound in consumer products.”
Previous research has demonstrated triclosan’s toxicity at doses that would be unusually high for humans, but the new study is among the first to rigorously explore the compound’s safety at more typical levels of exposure.
Triclosan used to be widely used in antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers marketed to consumers. But the Food & Drug Administration ordered it removed from soaps and hand sanitizers marketed to consumers in 2016. Last December, the FDA declared triclosan and 24 other antimicrobial compounds to be “not generally recognized as safe and effective” for antiseptic products intended for use in healthcare settings as well.
The FDA’s findings gave the makers of antiseptic soaps, rubs and skin preparations until the end of this year to remove triclosan and the other antimicrobial compounds from their products, and most have already done so. But it remains ubiquitous on the U.S. market — an ingredient intended to reduce bacterial contamination of cosmetics, yoga mats and other athletic clothes and gear, children’s toys, kitchenware, and even building materials such as carpeting and paint.
It would fall to the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the use of triclosan and related antimicrobial agents in consumer goods where no health benefit to the consumer is claimed. Under EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the agency has been focused on rolling back regulations rather than expanding them.
Meanwhile, triclosan is routinely still used in many toothpastes — with the FDA’s blessing — since it has been found to prevent gingivitis. Researchers have found evidence it settles and accumulates in household dust, extending humans’ exposure.
Triclosan appears to be readily absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. While humans clear most of it quickly, there is growing evidence that traces of the compound accumulate. And its health effects have come under mounting suspicion.
At high doses, triclosan is associated with a decrease in the levels of some thyroid hormones, at least in animals. Other studies have raised concern that exposure to triclosan increases the likelihood that bacteria will develop resistance to antibiotics. Researchers are also exploring whether long-term triclosan exposure increases risk for skin cancer.
Last June, 200 scientists and medical professionals signed the Florence statement, calling triclosan and a related agent, triclocarban, “environmentally persistent endocrine disruptors that bioaccumulate in and are toxic to aquatic and other organisms.” The group called for “greater transparency” in their use, adding that “they should only be used when they provide an evidence-based health benefit.”
Northwestern University environmental engineer Erica Marie Hartmann, who was not involved in the new study, said the work was “very thorough.”
“These researchers have drilled down and said, ‘We think this adverse effect is mediated by gut microbiome,’” she said.
Since the FDA has called its routine use into question, conducting trials of long-term human exposure to triclosan might be ethically problematic, Hartmann added.
“But I think it’s fair to say, it’s possible to draw analogies,” she said. “Even at very low levels of exposure, we still see these adverse health outcomes. … This doesn’t make me feel any more comfortable about triclosan in toothpaste.”
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-triclosan-cancer-risk-20180531-story.html
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Stanley Black & Decker Quells Prenatal Claim as Untimely
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Peter Hayes
Stanley Black & Decker quashed decades–old allegations that a woman’s prenatal exposure to toxic substances caused her birth defects.
The claims are time-barred under a six-year state statute of limitations for injuries sustained prior to birth, a California appeals court said.
The court declined to apply a statute of limitations enacted in 2003 for exposure to hazardous materials, which tolls the time for filing until the child reaches the age of 18.
Daniela Castillo’s claims already lapsed before the 2003 law was enacted, the court said. The law didn’t revive a claim that already lapsed, the court said, noting that it would only occur if it specifically states the intent to do so.
Castillo alleged that her mother was exposed to toxic substances working at a factory owned by the defendants while she was pregnant her. Castillo was born without a left hand or forearm and suffers from cognitive problems.
The 2012 complaint alleged Castillo was injured in 1992.
The complaint named Stanley Black & Decker Inc., Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc., and former B&D subsidiary Price Pfister Inc.
Judges Judith Ashmann-Gerst, Elwood Lui and Brian M. Hoffstadt issued the per curiam ruling.
Law Offices of Everardo Vargas Valencia represented Castillo. Lester & Cantrell represented Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., and Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc. Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp represented Price Pfister.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/stanley-black-decker-quells-prenatal-claim-as-untimely
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No Convincing Answers on ‘Missing’ REACH 2018 Substances – UEAPME
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
European SMEs trade body Ueapme has criticised Echa and industry associations for failing to explain why "thousands" of expected substance registrations under today’s final REACH deadline have not yet materialised.
Echa had previously predicted that by 1 June up to 25,000 chemicals would be registered for the first time. But in a press release from 30 May, Ueapme said its calculations based on the latest data from Echa show that "not even half of that number have been attained".
According to Echa figures from 09:00 Helsinki time on 31 May, 32,486 registrations have been submitted for 10,954 substances. Of those, 27,782 registrations are complete – they have been checked by Echa and the fee has been paid – corresponding to 9,856 substances.
Ueapme secretary general Véronique Willems said she would be "already worried if the discrepancy between the status quo and estimations would be a couple of hundred substances, but we are now talking about thousands of substances".
"Either the past predictions are totally wrong or we will indeed have a huge problem soon," Ms Willems said. "So far no one – not authorities, nor other industry associations – could give us a convincing, comforting answer."
She added it is "worrying" that Echa's estimates have been more "conservative" than those of industry.
The trade body said it has been warning industry about the large number of ‘missing’ registrations for over a year and added it could lead to "serious and unforeseen impacts on many value chains" if the expected substances are not registered.
‘Don’t panic!’
Echa and Cefic have told businesses not to be alarmed about the shortfall in registrations and explained that there may not be as many unregistered low volume substances on the European market as initially thought.
It is possible, Echa told Chemical Watch on 30 May, that the market is "so dynamic that the data it collected is out of date".
The overall number of registrations for all three registration tonnage bands, including those for past deadlines in 2010 and 2013, is closer to the European Commission’s original estimation of 30,000 substances and 90,000 registrations, Echa said. Its latest figures show that 87,359 registrations have been submitted for 21,412 substances. Of those, 82,268 registrations are complete, corresponding to 20,535 substances.
But 2018 registration numbers have been consistently falling short of expectations in the past year. Last month, the number of dossiers submitted to Echa was 30% behind initial estimates.
Missing lead dossiers
As of 31 May, Echa's lead registrants' list showed that 15,942 joint registrations have been made so far under all three REACH deadlines, but 925 lead dossiers are still missing.
These can still be submitted, the agency said, but a significant number of those missing lead dossiers are considered as "abandoned". This means that substance information exchange fora (Siefs) have either decided to change the substance identity and create another joint submission, or companies have lowered their volumes, or ceased production.
The number of dossiers submitted, but yet to be considered as ‘registered’, is 1,865. Echa said it is still processing these dossiers – conducting completeness checks on some, while awaiting fees to be paid for others – before they are formally registered.
Figures on the list change daily, Echa said, and the final figure of completed REACH registrations will only be available in early September, once dossier checks have been completed.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67320/no-convincing-answers-on-missing-reach-2018-substances-ueapme
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Aerospace Sector ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Scope of Echa’s Future Role
May 31, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) has questioned the future role Echa has set for itself in the agency’s draft strategic plan for the years 2019-23.
Its comments – along with those of member states, NGOs and industry– were submitted to the agency’s recent consultation on the draft plan. In it, Echa establishes three priorities:identification and risk management of substances of concern;safe and sustainable use of chemicals by industry; andsustainable management of chemicals by applying EU legislation.
ASD said it is "concerned" about Echa’s ambition to become, by 2023, the main source of scientific knowledge and technical know-how on chemicals, thereby serving a wide range of EU policies and stakeholders.
This statement, the ASD said, is "not appropriate" as Echa’s role is in managing the technical and scientific data provided by industry, and the administrative aspects of the implementation of REACH and other legislation in relation to chemical hazards.
Such expertise "is acquired primarily through technical development within academia and industry, hence Echa’s ambition is of deep concern".
Due to product "complexity, longevity and stringent airworthiness and safety requirements", it added, the technical requirements of the aerospace and defence industry are "demanding".
These requirements are "heavily dependent" on "appropriate use" of chemicals, ASD added. "Technical maturity can only be achieved by industry through long-term testing of products and the chemical processes required to manufacture and maintain them, through rigorous qualification of the final product, and through careful monitoring of in-service use data."
Trade body Eurometaux said that the overall aim is not to duplicate chemicals legislation but render its more effective application. Therefore "it is important to recognise that there might be cases where Echa could rely on specialised knowledge and expertise from third parties".
And Cefic said it had "the impression" that in its strategic plan "Echa is going beyond the roles actually assigned to it, without any clarity on the funding of those tasks".
Substitution and sustainability
ASD also raised concerns that introducing substitutes for harmful chemicals used in the industry risks "the integrity and safety of complex aerospace and defence products".
It gave the example of a protective treatment system for an airframe – an alternative "may increase the risk of fatigue failure", it said, adding "only industry has the scientific knowledge and technical know-how to manage that risk".
Meanwhile, Cefic said Echa’s use of the phrase ‘sustainable use of chemicals’ is not defined and is not explicitly mentioned in Echa’s plan.
It also reiterated the need for an EU chemicals legislation finder – a "comprehensive search tool on chemicals regulated under horizontal and sectoral legislations", which will, it said, improve sustainable management of chemicals in Europe.
"The realisation of this database should be mentioned as a measure of success" in Echa’s plan, Cefic added. The database will help SMEs and "become more important for the circular economy when materials might enter a new cycle under other sectoral legislation. An overview of all restricted and forbidden uses should be easily available", especially for SMEs with less resources, it said.
In November, Echa said it was conducting further studies before deciding whether to commit to developing the finder database.
The agency’s Management Board is expected to endorse Echa’s five-year strategic plan in December.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67315/aerospace-sector-deeply-concerned-about-scope-of-echas-future-role
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IG Faults FERC Reviews for Lack of Transparency
May 30, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Sam Mintz
The Department of Energy's inspector general said in a report today that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should improve the transparency of its process for reviewing prospective natural gas pipeline projects.
FERC, an independent regulatory agency within the umbrella of DOE, has authority over interstate natural gas pipelines, and its process for reviewing companies' applications to build that infrastructure has earned significant scrutiny.
In today's report, the DOE IG said that although FERC is not violating any laws or statutes that govern the agency's review of pipeline applications, there are problems with the systems it uses and the information it provides.
"FERC had not fully ensured that its natural gas certification process was transparent to stakeholders," the inspector general wrote.
Many of the problems found by the IG relate to FERC's website and documentation systems, which are frequent targets of criticism from stakeholders who say that they are often down or slow and difficult to use (Greenwire, Jan. 18).
One specific system mentioned in the report was FERC's eLibrary, its publicly available document repository.
"The design, search functionality, and limited ease of use of eLibrary ... potentially limited stakeholders' ability to access FERC policies and documents related to specific project applications," the inspector general wrote.
The watchdog said that in several cases, it was unable to find information in the database without "direct assistance of FERC officials." The IG said that it is also hard to find the status of pending project applications.
Another flagged issue was FERC's work to track and address comments on natural gas projects. The IG found a lack of "documented processes or a consistent methodology."
"In the absence of a consistent methodology, we did not verify to what degree comments received by FERC were considered, aggregated, and reflected in the environmental documents or final orders for the certificate applications during our review," the IG wrote. "The lack of a consistent methodology could increase the risk that FERC may not address significant and impactful public comments."
In its response, FERC agreed with all of the IG's five recommendations and said it is planning fixes, including a website redesign and improvements to the eLibrary system by as early as this year. It will also create procedures to make sure that staff consistently review and consider public comments.
"I appreciate your feedback on our processes and your suggestions to make them more transparent and navigable for our stakeholders and the general public," wrote Chairman Kevin McIntyre.
The report came as FERC is undergoing its own broad review of its policy statement for reviewing natural gas project applications, which has not been updated since 1999. The agency is taking public feedback on, among other factors, its methods for determining whether a project is in the public interest and its consideration of climate impacts (Energywire, April 20).
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/05/30/stories/1060083023
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Appalachia, Permian Natural Gas Constraints Looming Over Projected E&P Forecasts
May 31, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
U.S. natural gas producers are guiding toward 4.2 Bcf/d in output gains this year versus 2017, based on a survey of 50 of the largest onshore operators, but the biggest question is whether there will be enough takeaway capacity in the country’s two largest producing regions.
The survey by UK-based Energy Aspects Ltd. (EA) represents more than half of the firm’s total year/year (y/y) U.S. projected growth forecast of 7.0 Bcf/d.
“Our sample of 50 major publicly traded U.S. producers posted output of 33.8 Bcf/d in 1Q2018, representing 43% of total U.S. dry production of 78.3 Bcf/d,” analyst David Seduski said. “This ratio is relatively unchanged from 2017, when our sample group comprised 43-45% of the total.”
Exploration and production (E&P) companies sampled increased production sequentially, or quarter/quarter (q/q), at a rate of 2%, or 0.6 Bcf/d, and by 6% (1.9 Bcf/d) y/y.
The increase by the 50 E&Ps is in line with total U.S. sequential growth of 2% (1.3 Bcf/d), but it trailed the U.S. y/y projected gains of 10% (7.0 Bcf/d).
“In our balances, we are currently projecting 7.0 Bcf/d in total U.S. y/y production gains in 2018,” Seduski said. “Of that, 4.2 Bcf/d is projected to come from our sample based on the group’s published production guidance for the year. That leaves the 57% of production not in our sample to account for 2.8 Bcf/d in growth y/y.”
EA’s sample outpaces the rest of U.S. producers because of the inclusion of EQT Corp., now the largest U.S. gas producer, which is forecasting 1.1 Bcf/d growth y/y to 4.2 Bcf/d from its Appalachian-focused drilling.
Several E&Ps sampled also reevaluated their full-year 2018 production guidance after the first quarter results were finalized. The updates came after 2017 “saw a number of firms in our sample miss the guidance they had published at the start of that year,” Seduski noted.
Misses largely were by Appalachian heavies EQT, Chesapeake Energy Corp., Southwestern Energy Co., Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Antero Resources Inc. and Range Resources Corp.which “all missed their targets in 2017.”
Delays to Appalachian gas takeaway projects, including the first phase of Rover Pipeline and the late startup of Leach XPress and Rayne XPress, which each slipped into the first quarter, “likely contributed to production coming in under forecast amounts,” Seduski noted.
Some factors that contributed to missed first quarter projections are unlikely to affect the entire year, takeaway constraints should continue through 2018, “potentially placing the 4.2 Bcf/d y/y uplift from our sample in jeopardy.”
Barnett Output Slumping
The biggest gas production revisions made during 1Q2018 from previous guidance were by Devon Energy Corp., “which produced only 1.0 Bcf/d of the 1.15 Bcf/d it had projected for 1Q2018,” Seduski said. “This comes after the company also missed its 2017 guidance by 0.54 Bcf/d that year.”
The Oklahoma City-based independent’s “underwhelming performance” followed declining returns in the once mighty and first great onshore gas formation, the Barnett Shale, where Devon’s output declined y/y by 28 MMcf/d to 0.47 Bcf/d. However, Devon also recorded a “near 50% drop” y/y in Eagle Ford Shale gas from 0.12 Bcf/d to 63 MMcf/d. The E&P reduced its 2018 gas guidance from a midpoint of 1.18 Bcf/d to 1.03 Bcf/d as a result.
Other U.S. E&Ps adjusted their guidance after smaller production misses.
Appalachia stalwart Eclipse Resources Corp. cut its full-year guidance midpoint from 0.24 Bcf/d to 0.23 Bcf/d “after it failed to clear a backlog of wells needing completion in the Utica,” Seduski noted. “EQT lowered its midpoint for 2018 guidance as well, by 14 MMcf/d, though this represents less than 1% of the producer’s 4.2 Bcf/d in projected output.”
Gulfport, Ultra Adjust Higher
Positive adjustments to full-year gas guidance also were seen in EA’s sample group, notably by Gulfport Energy Corp., which revised up to 1.2 Bcf/d from 1.15 Bcf/d from higher output expected in the Utica and Oklahoma reservoirs. Ultra Petroleum Corp. also “rode growing production in Wyoming’s Green River Basin to post y/y growth of 91 MMcf/d,” and it raised its midpoint for guidance by 14 MMcf/d to 0.79 Bcf/d as a result.
Small upward revisions to guidance also were prevalent among Permian Basin operators, notably, Apache Corp., which was encouraged by 1Q2018 gas volumes, which jumped 57% y/y. Apache joined Permian competitors QEP Resources Inc. and Concho Resources Inc. in raising projected 2018 gas production midpoints by 1-2%.
Appalachia again led domestic gas production gains in the first quarter, posting 4.5 Bcf/d in y/y growth, according to EA. Chesapeake posted gains of 60 MMcf/d in the Utica to 0.44 Bcf/d, and of 35 MMcf/d in the Marcellus to 0.87 Bcf/d. Southwestern’s Appalachian output climbed 0.4 Bcf/d y/y to 1.8 Bcf/d, while CNX Resources Corp. more than tripled its Utica volumes to 0.46 Bcf/d from 0.13 Bcf/d.
Constraints Potential Issue
The biggest uncertainty looming for Appalachian and Permian E&Ps is takeaway capacity Seduski said.
“Range noted in its conference call that without additional capacity it has contracted on the beleaguered Rover Phase 2, its Appalachia production was likely at a ceiling of 1.2 Bcf/d,” while “Cabot cited the need to temper expectations until work is completed on Atlantic Sunrise.”
Lots of questions during first quarter calls also centered around Permian gas constraints, which E&P executives noted are linked to oil takeaway rather than gas infrastructure.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. CEO Al Walker during the 1Q2018 conference call said of the Permian, “The ability to extract that gas into any market at a reasonable price is an objective of ours, in order to evacuate the liquids at the most economically available way we can.”
Permian heavyweight Chevron Corp. also noted capacity challenges in Permian gas takeaway.
However, not every Permian gas producer expressed alarm about potential constraints.
Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Apache each claimed to have enough gas transport options from the basin but stressed the need for more infrastructure to keep up with growth.
When asked during the first quarter call whether ConocoPhillips had concerns about Permian capacity constraints, CFO Don Wallette said, “No. We're really not, and we don't expect to either.”
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114544-appalachia-permian-natural-gas-constraints-looming-over-projected-ep-forecasts
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U.S. DOE Issues Nine NatGas Import, Export Authorizations to Canada and Mexico
May 30, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Charlie Passut
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy granted nine authorizations last month for companies to both import and export natural gas to Canada and Mexico via pipeline for up to two years, while also vacating three similar authorizations.
According to Tuesday's edition of the Federal Register, the DOE issued 12 orders in total under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act. Of those, four are blanket authorizations for companies to import and export natural gas to Canada via pipeline.
Binghamton, NY-based New York State Electric & Gas Co. was given authorization to import and export up to a combined total of 100 Bcf (Order No. 4175), while Boise, ID-based IGI Resources Inc. was granted a 600 Bcf limit (No. 4176). Meanwhile, Canada's Energy Source Natural Gas Inc., which is based in Guelph, Ontario, was given permission to import and export up to a combined total of 1 Bcf (No. 4177) and Greene, NY-based Empire Natural Gas Corp. was given a 4 Bcf limit (No. 4179).
Vancouver, Canada-based Powerex Corp. and Stamford, CT-based Engelhart CTP (US) LLC each were given blanket authorizations to both import and export natural gas from and to Canada and Mexico. The DOE set a combined total limit of 130 Bcf for Powerex (No. 4173) and 1,460 Bcf for Engelhart (No. 4180).
Under the three remaining orders, Houston-based Santa Fe Gas LLC was granted a blanket authorization to import and export up to a combined total of 365 Bcf from and to Mexico (No. 4171). Midland, TX-based West Texas Gas Inc. was given permission to export up to 50 Bcf via pipeline to Mexico (No. 4172), and Houston-based Spark Energy Gas LLC was granted permission to import up to 2 Bcf from Canada (No. 4174).
Three authorizations were vacated. In November 2016, Powerex had been granted authorization to import and export up to combined total of 60 Bcf from and to Canada and Mexico. The company requested that the DOE vacate its existing authorization last March.
Spark Energy was given permission to import up to 1.22 Bcf from Canada in October 2016, but the company asked the DOE to vacate the order last April. The department had also granted, in April 2017, permission for Noble Americas Gas & Power Corp. to import and export up to a combined total of 400 Bcf from and to Canada and Mexico. The company last month notified the DOE that it no longer needed the authorization.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114550-us-doe-issues-nine-natgas-import-export-authorizations-to-canada-and-mexico
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Sabine Oil’s Rejection of Midstream Contract Affirmed
May 31, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Daniel Gill
Bankrupt Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. could reject a contract with a “midstream service provider” because the agreement didn’t create a property right, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.
The May 25 summary order upheld a New York bankruptcy court’s 2016 decision.
It’s a great result, Sabine’s lawyer Ryan Bennett of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, told Bloomberg Law. A reversal could have resulted in an award of damages against the company, he said.
After filing Chapter 11 in 2015, Sabine won confirmation of its plan of reorganization in July 2016. It emerged from bankruptcy the following month, Bennett said. He called the bankruptcy a success with the company coming out with “its balance sheet cleaned up and performing well.”
Houston-based Sabine produces natural gas and crude oil. Before the bankruptcy, it had a contract with Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering, LLC, known in the industry as a “midstream provider,” for moving, storing or otherwise disposing of gas and oil products and by-products removed by Sabine from land in Texas.
Prior to confirming a plan, Sabine moved to ‘reject'—effectively terminate—the Nordheim contract as “unnecessarily burdensome.” In bankruptcy a debtor can assume or reject certain contracts if performance is still required by both sides of the agreement.
But that power to reject would not be in effect if the contract involves real property rights. Nordheim argued it did.
The court sided with Sabine and held the agreement was for services and did not implicate a property interest under applicable Texas law. To be a property interest, it said, the parties must have been in “horizontal privity,” meaning that the original agreement would have to have been made as part of a conveyance of land. There was no such transfer.
With the rejection affirmed, Sabine doesn’t have to be concerned about paying damages for contracting with another midstream provider in the years since the rejection, Bennett said.
Counsel for Nordheim declined to comment.
Circuit Judges Rosemary S. Pooler, Reena Raggi, and Christopher F. Droney heard the case.
Sabine was represented by Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. Nordheim was represented by Bracewell LLP and Baker Botts LLP.
The case is Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. v. Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering, LLC (In re Sabine Oil & Gas Corp.), 2018 BL 185976, 2d Cir., No. 17-1026, 5/25/18.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/sabine-oils-rejection-of-midstream-contract-affirmed
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Exxon Says World Needs More Oil Even as Emission Concern Lingers
May 31, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Kevin Crowley
Exxon Mobil Corp’s Darren Woods says his company is at the center of a delicate balancing act between those who want a cleaner environment and those seeking economic growth that depends on rising energy demand.
Exxon is planning to invest more than $200 billion in major oil and gas projects around the world over seven years, a signal that growth carries a bit more weight in company plans.
“Society has aspirations for economic growth, reliable and affordable energy, and environment protection,” Woods, the company’s chief executive officer, said at Exxon’s annual general meeting in Dallas May 30. “We see our role as helping close the gap between what people want and what can be responsibly done. This is what I believe sustainability is all about.”
Woods cited investments in environmental projects such as algae biofuels, and in methods to cut emissions in its industrial processes, as helpful steps forward. But his comments set him apart from rivals in Europe, many of whom are investing in renewable energy such as wind, solar, and in-battery storage.
‘Bridging the Gap’Exxon won’t invest in these areas if it doesn’t have a competitive advantage, Woods has said. “We are convinced that technology is going to play a role in bridging that gap and addressing those conflicts” between the growth in energy usage and curtailing emissions, he said at the meeting.
Meanwhile, at Chevron Corp.’s annual meeting, which also took place May 30, 45 percent of investors voted in favor of the company publishing targets on controlling methane emissions, a count falling just short of passing the resolution.
Chevron said the move was unnecessary because it’s already working hard to reduce emissions. It signed on this month to an industry-sponsored set of “guiding principles” dedicated to lowering emissions. Environmental groups cited the vote total as progress.
This “sends a powerful message to the oil and gas sector that methane is a key financial risk to the industry’s future,” the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement.
At Exxon, there were no surprise votes, with investors rejecting a proposal to separate the CEO and chairman roles, approving current executive pay and supporting the company’s current board. In a wide-ranging speech, the CEO also said the company’s new projects—including an offshore discovery in Guyana and new development in Brazil—will make up half the company’s earnings by 2025.
Target of ProtestsExxon has frequently been the lightning rod for activists and protesters against Big Oil’s role in climate change. The company may have managed to sidestep a vote on environmental issues this year after announcing a plan to cut methane emissions in September and enhancing it this month, when it pledged to reduce outflows by 15 percent from 2016 levels.
In his comments, Woods said that trillions of dollars of fresh investment is needed in oil and gas if the world is to meet the demand for energy out to 2040, even if policy makers limited global warming to two degrees above historical norms, Woods said.
“Oil and natural gas continues to play a huge role in all scenarios,” he said.
Woods has been mounting a strong defense of his strategy to ramp up spending on major oil and gas projects during the next seven years, at a time when many rivals are curtailing spending. For Woods, the returns from the global projects—from Guyana to Mozambique—are such that cash is better spent on them than being returned to investors through share buybacks.
The stock, which has lost its long-held premium rating over rivals, is up 2.9 percent since the strategy was unveiled in March, compared to a 14 percent rise in the price of oil and a 10 percent rise in the S&P Energy Index. Exxon gained 3.9 percent May 30 with West Texas Intermediate up 2.3 percent to $68.26 a barrel at 2:42 p.m. in New York.
Rival PledgesMost of Exxon’s rivals have pledged to retain a hard ceiling on capital expenditures even if oil prices rise as they seek to return more cash to investors.
BP Plc is buying back shares, Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to spend $25 billion on stock in the open market through 2020, and Chevron Corp. has hinted it may restart a buyback plan if cash flows continue to improve.
Exxon, historically one of the S&P 500’s biggest stock repurchasers, has no immediate plans to follow suit. The oil major will first use its cash to pay dividends and invest in growth projects.
“The thing that I won’t do is compromise these advantaged, value accretive investments to buy back shares,” Woods said in an interview with Bloomberg News last week.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/exxon-says-world-needs-more-oil-even-as-emission-concern-lingers
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White House Report Flags Gaps in Grid Cyber Readiness
May 31, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
This story was updated at 7:20 a.m. EDT.
Federal energy officials have identified gaps in the U.S. grid's defenses against a major cyberattack, according to a highly anticipated White House report released yesterday.
"Power restorations following a significant cyber incident could be more challenging than previously experienced" in grid disasters like ice storms or hurricanes, the Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security warned in a joint report to President Trump.
Their 55-page "Assessment of Electricity Disruption Incident Response Capabilities" offers a sobering look at shortcomings in electric sector cyber readiness, from funding challenges for small utilities to a shortage of cybersecurity workers with specialized knowledge in the control systems that underpin the grid.
The report notes that while "the United States is, in general, well prepared to manage most electricity disruptions," widescale grid cyber events could overwhelm available public and private resources for fending off hackers. It cites a recent nonpublic set of DOE tests that found a catastrophic cyberattack could result in electric load loss from 40 to 50,000 megawatts.
"This Administration recognizes the growing security risk of cyber threats and has prioritized overcoming these challenges facing our nation," Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement announcing the report's public release.
Perry pointed to the recent creation of DOE's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response as an "important step" in guarding energy infrastructure from a range of disaster scenarios.
The new report credits the private sector for "efforts in place to prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents," but warns that industry steps to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities may falter during an actual attack.
"Existing mutual assistance programs, which provide tested, formal processes for impacted companies to request support from others during an outage, may be stressed in their response to a significant cyber incident due to the potentially widespread and unexpected nature" of such an event, the report concludes. "Also, as cyber incidents may impact disparate systems across the country, the impacted owner-operators may not be familiar with each other's systems and procedures."
A large-scale cyberattack, launched without warning, has the potential to affect more customers and cause longer-lasting power outages than even a major hurricane, the report found.
While a cyberattack is not known to have caused a power outage anywhere in the U.S., the report references a December 2015 hack in western Ukraine that cut out power to 225,000 electricity customers for several hours.
A year later, hackers struck Ukraine's power grid again, cutting off electricity for several hundred thousand people around the same time in December.
U.S. utilities are aware of the "dynamic threat" and have learned from those events abroad, according to Scott Aaronson, vice president for security and preparedness at the Edison Electric Institute, which represents major investor-owned utilities.
"There are initiatives already underway aimed at filling exactly the gaps identified in the report because many of the gaps were either first identified during industry-wide and government exercises or taken as lessons learned from real-life incidents, such as the cyberattacks in Ukraine," he said in an emailed statement yesterday.
Aaronson added that the Cyber Mutual Assistance program — called out in the report — now covers about 80 percent of electricity customers and 75 percent of natural gas customers in the U.S.
For smaller utilities, the assessment notes that funding for cybersecurity "often falls short of the full scope of capabilities needed to improve prevention efforts." It calls on the federal government to support the development of preventative cybersecurity tools.
The document also highlighted the need for a thorough review of both voluntary and mandatory reporting requirements for major cyber events. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has proposed lowering the bar for utilities to report an attempted hacking intrusion, citing the paucity of available data (Energywire, Feb. 28).
But large power utilities are also required to share information through DOE, and other agencies in rare cases.
"DOE should work with DHS, industry partners, and other relevant organizations to better define information needs and reporting thresholds through an assessment of voluntary and mandatory reporting requirements," the assessment recommends.
Other action items included work on developing cyber insurance products for the electricity sector, improvements to training exercises and information-sharing programs, and a follow-up assessment of "the sufficiency of data on industry back-up power to improve planning and modeling."
The DOE report was loosely timed with the one-year anniversary of Trump's May 11, 2017, executive order on cybersecurity, which called for its preparation. A few other agencies posted their own reports yesterday to mark the occasion, including the Department of Commerce's final take on boosting U.S. resilience to "botnets" — armies of hacked devices — and a Commerce-Department of Homeland Security analysis of the U.S. cybersecurity workforce.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement that "the work undertaken reflects months of extensive research and collaboration with the private sector," adding that "as the world becomes more interconnected, it also becomes more difficult to secure" from botnets and other emerging cyberthreats.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/05/31/stories/1060083057
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Deadly Attacks Feared as Hackers Target Industrial Sites
May 31, 2018 | The Hill - Cybersecurity
By Morgan Chalfant
The hacking threat to critical infrastructure in the United States and beyond is growing larger, with nation states and other malicious actors looking to gain a foothold in sensitive technologies to conduct espionage and potentially stage disruptive or destructive attacks.
Dragos, a firm that specializes in industrial cybersecurity, has released new research asserting that a hacker group responsible for deploying highly sophisticated, destructive malware to an industrial plant in the Middle East last year has begun to expand its operations beyond its initial targets.
“This is no longer about data theft or business disruption. Someone can get hurt. It’s about physical consequences,” said Dan Scali, senior manager for FireEye’s industrial control system security consulting practice.
Last week, researchers at Dragos released new details about a threat group they call “Xenotime.” They said the group has developed hacking tools to compromise and disrupt industrial safety instrumented systems — hardware and software controls that are used to ensure the safe operations of large-scale nuclear, chemical and other industrial plants and allow for emergency stops to take place.
The group, whose origins are not publicly known, deployed malware to an industrial plant in the Middle East last year that specifically targeted Triconex safety systems manufactured by Schneider Electric. The attack caused the plant to shut down.
Now Dragos says that the actors have expanded their operations, making their way into networks of industrial organizations beyond the Middle East. The group has also demonstrated capabilities to potentially disrupt safety systems other than Triconex.
The developments have raised concerns that Xenotime could be moving to carry out destructive attacks, such as triggering chemical explosions.
“It is the most dangerous cyber threat in the world, period,” said Sergio Caltagirone, director of threat intelligence at Dragos.
“Really, there has been no malware in the world so far that has actually put lives at risk, demonstrably,” Caltagirone said. “This adversary is.”
Dragos has provided little technical details about the group’s behavior, and has not divulged the countries now affected by the activity, though CyberScoop reported that U.S. companies were among those breached. Dragos said it has alerted U.S. officials and other foreign governments to the threat.
The Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for engaging with owners and operators of critical infrastructure to help them guard against cyber sabotage, did not return a request for comment.
Concerns about cyber threats to critical infrastructure from nation states like Russia have been mounting in Washington, particularly in light of twin attacks that knocked out power in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016.
Industrial organizations have stepped up monitoring of their control networks to detect potentially nefarious activity, offering security professionals new insight into malicious actors looking to target critical infrastructure systems around the globe.
“It’s hard to say that we’re seeing specifically a trend because we are working with small numbers,” Scali said.
“But we’ve seen an escalation in attackers capability and also willingness to conduct these types of attacks over time,” Scali added.
Forms of malware specifically designed to target industrial systems — used to power elements of the electric grid, water systems, and other critical services — are rare. The malware associated with Xenotime was only the fifth known malware family targeting these systems since the “Stuxnet” virus was used against Iranian nuclear power plants in 2010.
Both FireEye and Dragos identified the malware in December. While researchers have not publicly identified the breach victim, The New York Times reported it was a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia. While the attack inadvertently caused operations at the plant to shut down, experts warn the consequences could have been far worse.
“If you’re attacking the safety instrumented system and trying to make changes to how it operates, you’re trying to hurt or kill someone, damage equipment, cause some other physical consequence or impact on the environment,” Scali said. “There’s a level of audacity around attacking a safety system.”
The activity associated with Xenotime has not been traced to a particular country, though experts suspect the group is linked to a nation state. Private actors don’t have the financial incentive to stage destructive attacks, nor do they possess the significant resources that are needed to hone such capabilities.
Dragos also suspects that the hackers are working with another, unidentified hacking group that first gained access to industrial networks through spearphishing and watering hole attacks and then passed that access to Xenotime.
In most cases, hackers spent between nine months and multiple years inside these networks, conducting intelligence on industrial operations, Caltagirone said.
“Basically, they are learning to become operators themselves inside this environment,” he said.
There have been other signs of nation-state cyber actors conducting reconnaissance on systems powering critical services.
In March, U.S. officials revealed that Russian hackers had staged a multi-year intrusion campaign against companies in the energy sector and other critical services.
In some cases, hackers gained access to energy sector networks and moved laterally in order to gather intelligence on industrial control systems and supervisory control and data acquisition systems — information that could provide a foundation for developing capabilities to stage attacks against targets in the energy sector.
“You need not only to compromise the systems, you also need knowledge of the industrial process,” Scali said. “The more information and reconnaissance that you can do ahead of time … that makes the attacker’s job easer and fills in that missing information that a hacker would need to cause a physical disruption.”
Dragos will release research on Thursday detailing the activities of a threat group the firm calls Covellite, which has breached networks associated with electric companies in Europe, East Asia and North America to gather intelligence on internal industrial operations.
Last September, the group carried out a spearphishing campaign against a small number of U.S. electric companies, though researchers say the hackers have significantly scaled back operations against North American targets.
The hacker group’s techniques have the hallmarks of those used by North Korea’s army of hackers, a force known to U.S. officials as “Hidden Cobra,” though it is unclear exactly how the two are related.
As adversaries continue to evolve in cyberspace, officials are on high alert for attacks that could compromise critical services. Jeanette Manfra, a top Homeland Security cyber official, told The Hill earlier this year that she is keenly focused on working with industry to prevent attacks that could disrupt essential services, from the financial sector to the electric grid.
“I really believe that that is where the risk is,” Manfra said.
Meanwhile, experts anticipate an uptick in cyber activity targeting industrial control systems going forward.
“The ability to affect industrial control systems as part of a potential cyber war and larger kinetic or digital war environment is very high up on the list of many countries,” said Caltagirone. “We expect that, not only is our ability to find them going to get better … but we also know that there is going to be more adversaries entering in this space in the mid- to long-term.”
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/389983-deadly-attacks-feared-as-hackers-target-industrial-sites
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Federal Climate Funding Increased 50%
May 31, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Kelsey Brugger
Before hurricane season begins tomorrow, the Government Accountability Office reported that the White House budget office has failed to detail costs that could be incurred from climate change — including disaster relief.
Over a seven-year period, federal climate change spending amassed $13.2 billion across 19 agencies — a 50 percent jump, according to a GAO report released yesterday. Most of the additional $4.4 billion went to technology to cut emissions.
The congressional watchdog recommended that the executive branch include funding information to Congress for any program that could be affected by climate change, including disaster relief, flood and crop insurance, or repairs to strengthen buildings facing severe storms.
"[M]ore complete information on fiscal exposures and the long-term effects of decisions would help policymakers make trade-offs between spending with long-term and short-term benefits," the report stated.
The Office of Management and Budget disagreed with the recommendation. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has sought to ax climate funding but has been blocked by Congress.
GAO analyzed climate change spending at six agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense and Energy; NASA; and the National Science Foundation.
Ninety-four percent of federal climate change funding went to programs that are not exclusively dedicated to climate change. Rather, those programs merely touched on climate change — such as nuclear energy research.
Eighteen out of 533 programs had a primary purpose to address climate change. The rest had multiple purposes and other goals. What's more, those 18 programs represented 6 percent of these agencies' reported climate change funding for fiscal 2017.
In addition, the GAO report found that OMB should provide a detailed analysis of federal climate change programs it considers to be overlapping or duplicative. Again OMB disagreed.
In the last 25 years, the White House's budget office reported more than $154 billion in funding for federal climate change activities throughout several agencies. GAO was asked to review the dollars in part because of concerns about overlap.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/05/31/stories/1060083063
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May 31, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was the Trump administration's top spokesman for the decision to exit the Paris climate accord a year ago.
Pruitt's prominence as a leading advocate for the withdrawal and his publicity tour after Trump's announcement fall in line with Pruitt's vociferous opposition to EPA's climate regulations and his continual questioning of mainstream climate science.
But Pruitt's place in the limelight — speaking alongside Trump in the White House Rose Garden last June and taking a victory lap on cable news — belied his relative newcomer status to the public fight over the Paris deal and previous statements that the State Department, not EPA, should decide what to do.
Pruitt rarely spoke publicly, if at all, on exiting Paris until just about two months before the Rose Garden ceremony. News articles on Pruitt in the months leading up to and following the 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris in 2015 do not show the then-Oklahoma attorney general commenting on the rule's implications for the United States. He had, however, been a leading legal challenger of the Clean Power Plan, a rule meant to be a key component of fulfilling the United States' voluntary commitment under the accord to cut its greenhouse gas emissions between 26 and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Some Republicans privately say Pruitt took on the role of Paris deal opponent mainly as a way to build his own political profile.
Whatever his private stance on Paris, Pruitt made sure to avoid the topic when asked about it after Trump nominated him to lead EPA. During Pruitt's confirmation process in January 2017, he sidestepped questions for the record from Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) about whether he thought the United States should withdraw from the Paris Agreement. He responded that it was up to the State Department to decide. (Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wanted to keep the United States in the deal.)
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, EPA's transition team — led by Myron Ebell, an early critic of the climate accord — was already laying the groundwork for an exit from Paris.
"It really came down to — nothing to do with environmental quality — it had to do with is this or is this not a treaty and what does it commit us to," said David Schnare, a former EPA transition team member (Climatewire, Dec. 4, 2017).
EPA's transition team had drafted a massive version of what would later become the March 2017 "energy independence executive order," best known for announcing the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. They had initially included language on the Paris Agreement in this order, along with the reversal of a number of other executive orders from former President Obama, according to Schnare.
The transition team had planned for the president to sign this and dozens of other executive orders on Inauguration Day.
"The transition team, reflecting the public statements by the President-elect expected Trump to spend several hours on the 20th signing many EOs. When he didn't, there was broad unhappiness amongst the entire transition team," said Schnare in an email.
'Bad deal'
By last spring — ahead of Trump's June 1 announcement — Pruitt's role in the discussion to exit the Paris Agreement became more visible.
In the end of March, the EPA administrator seemed to have put aside qualms about openly criticizing the accord. In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Pruitt, for perhaps the first time publicly, called the Paris Agreement a "bad deal" for the United States.
"What was wrong with Paris was not just that it was failed to be treated as a treaty, but China and India, the largest producers of CO2 internationally, got away scot-free, they didn't have to take steps until 2030," Pruitt told host George Stephanopoulos. "We penalized ourselves through lost jobs, while China and India didn't take steps to address the issue internationally. So Paris was just a bad deal in my estimation."
He described the Paris deal as nonbinding but also condemned its impact on American jobs. Each critique of the agreement came with an assurance that the United States had already significantly cut its level of air pollution.
By April, criticism of a proposed U.S. withdrawal began to heat up, and it wasn't just coming from Democrats and environmental groups. On April 6, Cloud Peak Energy Inc. CEO Colin Marshall sent a letter to the president, urging the United States to remain in the accord.
"By remaining in the Paris Agreement, albeit with a much different pledge on emissions, you can help shape a more rational international approach to climate policy," Marshall wrote.
Other businesses joined calls to remain. On May 10, CEOs of 30 major companies including the heads of Dow Chemical Co., General Electric Co., and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. took out full-page advertisements in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. They argued that the accord would strengthen their competitiveness in global markets and help support investment by setting "clear goals."
'It was about politics'
Pruitt kept beating the drum for withdrawal.
On April 11, he went on "Fox and Friends" to condemn the Paris Agreement as an "America second, third or fourth approach."
"America was going to cost itself jobs as it relates to the obligations there. People who say it's not enforceable, every meeting I've had with my counterparts in Germany, Canada and elsewhere, the first question they ask me is, 'What are you going to do to comply with Paris?'" he said.
Pruitt was also busy off-camera. He collaborated with Trump's then-strategic adviser Steve Bannon, pushed the National Mining Association to vote for withdrawal from the deal and helped Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) prepare a letter signed by 22 senators calling on the president to exit the agreement (Climatewire, July 7, 2017).
The day Trump finally did announce his decision to leave the Paris Agreement, it was Pruitt who took the podium after the president to first offer his congratulations, with a close handshake and a smile. He told the assembled audience, "Today, we put America first."
A year later, Pruitt echoed the same sentiments to the Washington Free Beacon, describing the president as having "fortitude and courage" to get out.
"It was a failed agreement from the very beginning," he told the Free Beacon yesterday in an interview. "I firmly believe the Paris accord is more form over substance, it was more label than reality, it was not about action and results, it was about politics."
He added that "the president was right to reject all those things and say to the rest of the world, 'We're going to put America first, we're going to say no to being disadvantaged economically, and we're not going to be apologetic about the progress we've made and continue to make in these issues.'"
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/05/31/stories/1060083051
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Greens Take ANWR Fight to Chevron Meeting
May 30, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Margaret Kriz Hobson
Opponents of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge took their battle to Chevron Corp.'s annual meeting today, calling on the oil company to pledge not to begin oil and gas development in the Arctic refuge's coastal plain.
During a question-and-answer session at the San Ramon, Calif., meeting, the Sierra Club's Ben Cushing warned company officials that oil firms run the risk of ruining their reputations and triggering a public backlash if they begin exploration in the region.
"Your brand would be associated with trampling on human rights, destroying one of the world's last remaining intact wild places and further accelerating the climate crisis," Cushing said.
The confrontation came two weeks after more than 100 environmental and indigenous rights organizations teamed up with a coalition of institutional investors to oppose drilling in the refuge's 1.6-million-acre northern plain. The groups sent letters urging dozens of major banks and oil and gas companies, including Chevron, to oppose drilling in the refuge (E&E News PM, May 14).
Chevron was a significant target because it's one of an exclusive group of companies that owns the only well ever drilled in the Arctic refuge coastal plain. That well, known as KIC-1, is held by Chevron, BP PLC and two Alaska Native corporations — the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., which owns the subsurface rights, and the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp., which owns the surface rights.
Since that well was drilled in 1986, further exploration was prohibited in ANWR, and the results have remained a closely held secret.
But in December, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) changed the dynamics by successfully inserting a provision into a tax bill to allow drilling in the Arctic coastal plain.
Now green activists and Native organizations from Alaska and Canada are fighting to block development.
"This place, the calving grounds of the porcupine caribou herd and the sacred place where life begins, cannot be destroyed," Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, said in a statement. "We will not allow our last untouched ecosystem to be stolen for greed."
Lena Moffitt, senior director of the Sierra Club's Our Wild America Campaign, said Chevron and other oil companies eyeing oil investment in the Arctic refuge "are at a crossroads."
"They can side with a growing number of investors, tribes, environmental advocates and climate justice groups by pledging to stay out of the Arctic refuge and instead invest in the clean energy of the future, or they can risk losing their social license and trillions in funds in pursuit of the dirty fuels of the past."
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/05/30/stories/1060083013
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EPA Pact Allows First Use of Compliance Cost Deductions Under Tax Law
May 31, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
EPA has submitted for court approval what appears to be the first consent decree that includes language allowing some of the defendant's compliance costs to be deductible under the new tax law, which generally prohibits such deductions unless they are specifically identified as deductible in the agreement.
The proposed settlement could set a precedent for a handful of similar settlements that were proposed to courts in the waning days of 2017, after President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act Dec. 23, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determined that the deductibility of those settlement costs must be addressed with specific language in the decrees.
The IRS is also planning a rulemaking to address the issue going forward.
The May 25 consent decree, in United States of America, et al. v. Columbian Chemicals Company, asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to enter it with the revised tax language.
An accompanying May 25 unopposed motion to enter says the consent decree is “identical” to a decree lodged on Dec. 22 but for the fact that it identifies costs that can be deducted from future tax liabilities.
“Section 162(f)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code now provides that, in order to be deductible, costs incurred under a court order or settlement with a government entity in order to come into compliance with the law or to perform restitution must be identified as such in that court order or settlement agreement,” the motion says.
“As this revision does not affect the substance of the proposed settlement, no further public review and comment is necessary to resolve this case,” the motion adds.
A memorandum in support of the motion notes that the proposed settlement was subject to a 30-day public comment period and that no comments were submitted.
The settlement is part of a trio that address alleged new source review (NSR) violations with three “carbon black” producers in Ohio, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas; the decree here addresses the Louisiana and Kansas facilities owned by Columbian Chemicals.
The settlements were noteworthy when proposed late last year because they were among the first by the Trump administration to address alleged NSR violations -- at the same time the Trump EPA is seeking to make major reforms to the Clean Air Act program that was intended to require stringent pollution controls.
The carbon black settlements generally require the companies to install sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubbers and nitrogen oxides (NOx) selective catalytic reduction (SCR) controls, as well as get rid of flares, pay civil penalties and conduct on-site environmental mitigation projects.
The draft Columbian settlement requires installation of the scrubbers and SCR, a $650,000 civil penalty and environmental mitigation valued at $375,000.
EPA estimated that the controls would reduce SO2 by nearly 6,000 tons per year (tpy) and NOx by 465 tpy.
Carbon black is a powder used in tires and ink, and its production creates large amounts of SO2 and NOx, along with toxics that are controlled by separate maximum achievable control technology limits, EPA said in announcing the agreements.
A source familiar with the settlements explained that carbon black is made from petroleum refining byproducts, and that before the settlements were negotiated, none of the facilities had installed any pollution-specific controls for SO2 or NOx.
$100 Million Deduction
But the new tax law posed a problem for finalizing the agreements because it included provisions that would have blocked the companies from deducting the cost of the controls -- estimated to be as much as $100 million --- from their corporate taxes.
While the tax law dramatically reduced the corporate tax rate -- from 35 percent to 21 percent -- it also removed a number of previously allowed deductions, including for some settlement compliance costs.
Industry attorneys earlier this year asked the Trump administration to quickly clarify whether payments businesses make to settle some environmental enforcement actions can still qualify for tax deductions. They warned that how the issue is resolved could determine parties' willingness to settle, as an inability to deduct the payments from tax liabilities could make those settlements much more costly and lead to fewer agreements.
The attorneys in March asked DOJ to clarify which types of payments would be subject to the deduction prohibition -- based generally on whether they were made to settle violations of law versus payments for other reasons such as restitution -- and also asked the IRS to issue a settlement tax deduction rule -- a regulation the IRS has said it would undertake this year.
Also, DOJ formed a working group, that includes IRS representatives, to address the issue.
Under the prior tax law, businesses were generally prohibited from deducting payments for criminal fines and violations of law, such as civil penalties. But deductions were generally allowed as a business expense for amounts paid to the government such as for compensatory damages and for remediation of property under environmental law.
But the tax law repealed the prior approach and replaced it with a “general prohibition of business expense deductions for any payments made to or at the direction of a government, a governmental entity or certain nongovernmental self-regulatory entities in connection with a violation of law or an investigation involving a potential violation of law,” according to the law firm Sidley Austin.
The law also specified that “no deduction otherwise allowable shall be allowed under this chapter for any amount paid or incurred (whether by suit, agreement, or otherwise) to, or at the direction of, a government or governmental entity in relation to the violation of any law.”
But it also provided an exception from the prohibition that detailed a series of conditions that must be met in order to deduct a payment -- including that payment constitute restitution for remediation of property damage or harm that was caused by the violation, and is paid to come into compliance with any law that was violated.
Also, it said that a court order or settlement agreement must identify the deductible amount -- hence the need for the modification to the Columbian settlement.
Additionally, the IRS in an April 9 bulletin sought comments by May 18 on a range of issues for how it should address requirements that agencies report settlement amounts to it, and provided transitional guidance temporarily suspending reporting requirements.
When the bulletin was released, one industry attorney said it deferred the obligation of settling agencies to send case-by-case reports to the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department, for now, and that the deductibility of individual settlements will continue to be determined case-by-case until the IRS completes its rule.
In the meantime, the case-by-case approach seems likely to continue past practices prohibiting fines and penalties from being deductible, according to the source. The pending IRS rule is not expected to change that. The source added that the cost of complying with an injunctive order including installation of pollution controls have always been deductible and would likely continue to be case by case.
Another case with the same issue pending is in federal district court in Texas, U.S. v. Exxon, where the parties earlier this year won a lengthy extension to allow EPA and DOJ to amend the decree similar to the amended Columbian Chemicals agreement. The Exxon case now has a June 29 deadline to submit the amended decree language.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-pact-allows-first-use-compliance-cost-deductions-under-tax-law
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Exxon Hopes for New York Top Cop With Different View on Climate
May 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment
By Kevin Crowley
Exxon Mobil Corp. is hoping the downfall of Eric Schneiderman will be an opportunity for the next New York attorney general to come to a “different conclusion” on the oil giant’s role in climate change.
“I hope whoever comes in steps back and takes an objective look, looks at the discovery they’ve had, looks at our position, what we’ve done and comes to a different conclusion,” Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods told reporters after Exxon’s annual general meeting in Dallas May 30.
Schneiderman, who abruptly stepped down from the state’s top law enforcement post this month amid allegations he assaulted several women, was investigating Exxon’s accounting practices relating to climate change. He denies wrongdoing.
In June of last year, Schneiderman provided detailed findings from the fraud probe for the first time, saying Exxon may have been using two sets of numbers -- one public and one secret -- to calculate the future impact of the Earth’s warming on its assets. Exxon denied the claims, calling them “inaccurate and irresponsible” at the time.
Exxon subsequently counter sued, claiming officials were conspiring with environmental groups and that they had made up their minds about securities-fraud probes before they had started. This suit was thrown out by a New York judge in March.
“We’ve submitted over 3 million pages of documents,” Woods said. “The investigation emphasis has shifted and moved over time. I’m real confident with where we stand there.”
Woods said he hasn’t met the interim New York attorney general, Barbara Underwood.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/exxon-hopes-for-new-york-top-cop-with-different-view-on-climate
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May 30, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Ananya Roy
Many public heath efforts, thankfully, focus on the youngest among us. We fight for a clean environment and healthy future for our kids. However, it is easy to forget that pollution affects us in every stage of life and its insidious health effects accumulate over time and can result in disease and disability.
Older people already have higher rates of disease and are highly vulnerable to air pollution, because they have been breathing for 70, 80, or 90 years. The effects of air pollution among the elderly provide insights that help us solve problems that can benefit the whole population.
Senior citizens have become the largest and fastest-growing segment of the population. By 2030 one in five Americans will be 65 and older, a demographic shift that influences everything from consumer behavior to health-care costs. Further, grandparents play a critical role in the success of families and the next generation – both emotionally and physically. It is estimated that for approximately 4.9 million families with children, the grandparent is the main breadwinner.
Due to the importance of senior citizens in our society and their unique vulnerability to pollution, the insights EDF scientists and our partners made in a new study published in Environmental Health are especially critical. The study shows that differences in traffic-related air pollution are associated with higher rates of heart attacks and deaths from heart disease in the elderly.
Using cool new technology and data analytics, EDF teamed up with Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Division of Research to combine data from our block-by-block study of air pollution in Oakland, CA, with electronic health records from more than 40,000 local residents. This approach allowed us to evaluate the impacts of air quality between neighbors, people who live on the same street, or within a few blocks of each other at an unprecedented resolution.
The study shows that two kinds of air pollution from cars and trucks cause serious health problems. Even small (3.9 parts per billion) increases in smog-causing pollutants are associated with a 16% increased risk of diagnosed heart attacks, surgery or death from heart disease among the elderly. The same was true of black carbon, a type of soot from trucks, where small increases in concentration are associated with a 15% increased risk.
This study builds upon our partnership with Google to investigate and map air pollution. In 2017, we revealed the results of our work with Google Earth Outreach, which deployed Google Street View cars to create one of the largest mobile air pollution measurements ever assembled. They mapped the differences in air quality within Oakland. They also uncovered unexpected variation in air pollution within small neighborhoods and even individual city blocks. The results of this health study provide proof of concept that these differences in street level air pollution on the doorsteps of people’s homes have serious consequences for the residents of communities.
Explore the results of the study on this map.
Why is this study so valuable? Because local action requires local information. While researchers have studied air pollution and health effects across populations in large neighborhoods, towns or cities, accurately evaluating and quantifying risks from air pollution at the street level–where people live–has been elusive until now.
This research is part of EDF’s effort to advance the science behind air quality monitoring, using an emerging wave of environmental innovation to make pollution not only visible but actionable. EDF is not only tracking and measuring air pollution, but also bringing academia, industry, community groups and the public sector, together to develop solutions and take these ideas to scale.
With data like this, we can improve the lives of the 4 out of 5 Americans who reside in urban areas. That will mean the elderly, and all of us, can live healthier lives.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2018/05/30/sensors-and-electronic-health-records-reveal-block-by-block-traffic-air-pollution-health-disparities-among-the-elderly-in-oakland/
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