Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 6/5/2018
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(ACC Mentioned) US April, May Ethylene Contracts Settle at Two-Year Lows Amid Long Supply
Jun 4, 2018 | ICIS
By Jessie Waldheim
US April and May ethylene contracts settled on Monday for a majority of participants at a decrease of 1.5 cents/lb and 0.75 cent/lb, respectively, amid long supply and historically low spot prices, sinking to their lowest levels in over two years. -
(ACC Mentioned) Canadian Plastics, Chemistry Industries Launch Initiative for Plastics Packaging Recovery
Jun 4, 2018 | Recycling Today
By Megan Workman
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA), Mississauga, Ontario, and the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), Ottawa, Ontario, have announced an initiative to reuse, recycle or recover 100 percent of plastic packaging by 2040. -
With GOP Wary of Defying Trump, Kochs Step into Tariff Fight
Jun 5, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
The political network affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers is launching an effort to shore up support for free-trade policies, as congressional Republicans and business interests are growing increasingly uneasy over the direction of the Trump administration's trade agenda. -
U.S. EPA Advisers Want to Give Formal Feedback on Plan to Restrict the Science Used by Agency
Jun 4, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Cheryl Houge
Academic and industry scientists on EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) are unanimous: They want to review EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s controversial proposed regulation that would restrict the data the agency could consider when setting new standards for allowable pollution or regulating commercial chemicals. -
CBD Seeks 'Disciplinary Action' to Limit EPA's Foia Denials
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is stepping up its legal challenges to EPA's policies and practices under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking a court order to block officials from using allegedly unlawful methods to limit access, as well as a finding that personnel may have acted improperly and “disciplinary action is warranted.” -
Watchdog Aired Concerns About EPA Ethics Staff Levels Last Year
Jun 5, 2018 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillen
Shortly after Scott Pruitt took the helm at EPA and before any of his scandals emerged, the federal government’s top ethics watchdog warned him that EPA’s ethics program was stretched thin. -
Eying 2018 Deadline, EPA Taps New Division Heads For Reorganized OPPT
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
Leaders of EPA's toxics office have selected many of the new division directors for the office's planned overhaul and are proceeding with additional management selections as part of a plan to complete the reorganization -- which aims to better implement the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) -- by year's end. -
(ACC Mentioned) New Chemical Tests Need More Industry, Regulator Conversations
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ayanna Alexander
Federal developers of new chemical safety tests that don’t use animals need to engage industry representatives and regulators who are in a position to adopt those methods, a federal testing director said. -
(ACC Mentioned) California Legislature Advances School 'Green Cleaning' Bill
Jun 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The California Assembly has passed a bill that would compel schools to purchase "environmentally preferable" cleaning products. -
Study: Consumer Product Safety Testing Misses Cancer Risks From Chemical Mixtures
Jun 5, 2018 | Environmental Working Group
By Olga Naidenko
Mixtures of chemicals commonly found in consumer products are more likely to increase breast cancer risk than the same chemicals individually, according to a new analysis. -
Regulators Need Industry Data on PA Oligomers, Germany Says
Jun 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has called on industry to provide more toxicology information on polyamide (PA) oligomers in plastic kitchen utensils. -
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Narrowly Rules to Toss Permit for NatGas Wells in Residential Area
Jun 4, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
Two families that have fought for years to stop Inflection Energy LLC from drilling several wells near their homes in northeast Pennsylvania won a victory last week when the state Supreme Court found that the company failed to prove oil and gas development is similar to other uses authorized in a residential-agricultural (R-A) zoning district. -
A Burning Question for Texas: What to Do with All That Gas?
Jun 5, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ryan Collins
Texas is facing a burning question that’s pitting the state’s economy against its environment, and oil drillers against each other. -
China Fastest Growing LNG Importer, U.S. Share Could Grow, Report Says
Jun 4, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
China and the United States seem destined for major bilateral liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade as the U.S. shale gas boom continues unabated and China establishes itself as the world's fastest growing LNG importer, according to a report by the Brookings Institution. -
Perry Sees Power Grid Attacks ‘Coming’ as He Makes Bailout Case
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said June 4 cyberattacks on the grid are imminent as he linked the security of the nation’s power system to efforts by the Trump administration to bail out struggling coal and nuclear plants. -
Perry, Citing Cyber Threat, Says Trump Is Right
Jun 4, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday that the closure of coal and nuclear plants could hurt the United States' ability to recover from a cyberattack against its electric grid. -
Chemical Board Closure Threat Found to Repel Job-Seekers: Audit
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
The Trump administration’s push to eliminate the Chemical Safety Board is preventing the agency from attracting and keeping staff, and board members too often pursue individual agendas in ways that harm morale, the EPA’s inspector general found June 4. -
Environmentalists Plan NEPA Suit Over FERC's Narrow GHG Review Policy
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
Environmentalists are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to rescind an order rejecting consideration of upstream and downstream greenhouse gas impacts when conducting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews of many natural gas infrastructure projects -- teeing up potential litigation on the issue. -
Court Slams Pruitt's Claim On CO2 Link To Warming, Orders Data Release
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
A federal district court judge is rejecting EPA's refusal to provide documents showing the basis of Administrator Scott Pruitt's claim that human-released carbon dioxide is not the “primary contributor” to climate change, and is instead ordering the agency to produce the records by next month. -
EPA Proposes to Deny Delaware, Maryland Interstate Ozone Petitions
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA is proposing to deny five Clean Air Act petitions from Delaware and Maryland seeking direct agency regulation of power plants in several upwind states that the two petitioning states claim are compromising their ability to meet federal ozone standards, marking the latest setback for East Coast states' quest to curb interstate air pollution. -
Maryland, Delaware Riled Over EPA Air Complaints Snub
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
Maryland and Delaware may sue the EPA over pollution from upwind out-of-state power plants after the agency shrugged at the states’ pleas for help.
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(ACC Mentioned) US April, May Ethylene Contracts Settle at Two-Year Lows Amid Long Supply
Jun 4, 2018 | ICIS
By Jessie Waldheim
US April and May ethylene contracts settled on Monday for a majority of participants at a decrease of 1.5 cents/lb and 0.75 cent/lb, respectively, amid long supply and historically low spot prices, sinking to their lowest levels in over two years.
The double-month settlement puts April ethylene contracts at 26.75 cents/lb ($590/tonne) and May at 26.00 cents/lb. At least one participant did not accept the April and May settlements.
March ethylene contracts had settled at 28.25 cents/lb.
Ethylene contract prices are at their lowest point since 25.75 cents/lb in February 2016, when values had softened due to record lows for feedstock ethane and sluggish demand.
The May and April contract prices had tracked lower spot prices, but increases for feedstock ethane had limited the decline in April, and a rebound for spot prices had limited the decline in May.
Spot prices had been falling since early 2018 as production from new capacity had outpaced an increase in consumption from new downstream polyethylene (PE) capacity.
The decline bottomed out at 12.00-12.50 cents/lb in the week ended 11 May, with ethylene spot prices at their lowest point since January 1999.
In the second half of May, spot prices rebound slightly following the idling of a cracker and improved operating rates for downstream PE.
In mid-May Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) idled the No 22 ethylene unit at its Sweeny complex in Old Ocean, Texas. Market sources had attributed the move to the slump in ethylene spot prices.
Meanwhile, PE production rates in March and April had risen significantly from levels seen earlier in 2018, according to data from the American Chemistry Council. Despite some new PE plants still not running at full rates, market sources expect PE production in May has remained strong.
While the market has become more balanced by late May, it may again be under pressure with the start-up of more capacity.
The new 1.5m tonne/year ExxonMobil cracker is expected to start up mid-2018, and market sources have said it could start up in mid-June.
Several more crackers are expected to start up before the end of the year. About 7m tonnes/year of ethylene capacity is expected to come online in 2018, which includes the CP Chem 1.5m tonnes/year cracker which started up in early March at the Cedar Bayou complex in Baytown, Texas.
Some market sources expect the new capacity could keep length in the ethylene market through the end of the year. However, others expect ethylene could become more balanced late this year once new PE capacity is built out and reaches full operating rates.
Another 1.3m tonnes/year of PE capacity is expected to come online in the second half of this year. About 3.5m tonnes/year of PE capacity came online during 2017, and some of those plants still have room to increase operating rates.
US ethylene contract prices typically settle at the start of the month for the prior month and follow direction from spot prices and production costs.
The market had been unable to reach a settlement for April contracts, and negotiations were revisited along with talks for May.
Ethylene contracts last had a double-month settlement following Hurricane Harvey, when the August contract was delayed amid disruptions from the hurricane. August contracts settled alongside September contracts the following month.
Major US ethylene producers include ExxonMobil, INEOS, LyondellBasell and Shell Chemical.
Major US buyers include Occidental Chemical and Westlake Chemical.
https://www.icis.com/resources/news/2018/06/04/10227899/us-april-may-ethylene-contracts-settle-at-two-year-lows-amid-long-supply/
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Jun 4, 2018 | Recycling Today
By Megan Workman
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA), Mississauga, Ontario, and the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), Ottawa, Ontario, have announced an initiative to reuse, recycle or recover 100 percent of plastic packaging by 2040.
The groups say the targets underscore their members’ commitment to a future without plastic waste.
Representing the broad plastics value chain in Canada, CPIA and CIAC and their members announced the following waste reduction targets: a new aspirational goal of 100 percent of plastics packaging being reused, recycled or recovered by 2040; andan aggressive interim goal of 100 percent of plastics packaging being recyclable or recoverable by 2030.
Carol Hochu, president and CEO of CPIA, says, “Plastics innovations are essential to increase living standards and improve overall sustainability via new products that design out waste, reduce food waste, support resource efficiency, conserve water and natural resources and reduce emissions. But it is a waste of precious resources for plastics to be used once and then landfilled.”
Achieving these goals will require significant investment across the value chain in new and upgraded infrastructure and improved packaging design, according to the associations. Success also will require widespread public participation in recycling and recovery programs along with changes to littering behavior.
“Industry has a role to play in designing materials and applications for greater recovery, reuse and recyclability, but addressing the issue of plastic waste will require actions from society as a whole and from all of us as individuals,” Bob Masterson, president and CEO of CIAC, says.
“Our members are committed to doing their part, working with governments and others, to significantly improve the recycling and recovery of postuse plastics packaging to complement existing innovations,” Masterson adds. “Supports for investments in new innovations such as chemical recycling will be essential to achieving these goals.”
These targets put the Canadian plastics industry in line with PlasticsEurope and the American Chemistry Council, who recently announced similar ambitions.
CPIA and CIAC say they are committed to “ensuring the plastics industry continues to be at the forefront of made-in-Canada solutions to the global issue of reducing the amount of plastics that goes to landfills.”
Since 1943, the CPIA has served as the national voice for and leader in plastics industry sustainability across Canada and beyond, representing the interests of the plastics value chain including resin and raw material suppliers, processors/converters, equipment suppliers, recyclers and brand owners.
The CIAC is the association for leaders in the chemistry sector in Canada, a $53 billion industry. The association represents more than 50 members and partners across the country.
http://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/canadian-plastics-chemistry-packaging-recovery/
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With GOP Wary of Defying Trump, Kochs Step into Tariff Fight
Jun 5, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Geof Koss
The political network affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers is launching an effort to shore up support for free-trade policies, as congressional Republicans and business interests are growing increasingly uneasy over the direction of the Trump administration's trade agenda.
The groups, which include the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity and the LIBRE Initiative, announced plans yesterday for a multiyear, multimillion-dollar campaign "to champion the far-reaching benefits of trade and oppose tariffs and other barriers."
"This campaign makes a clear statement," Freedom Partners Executive Vice President James Davis said in a statement. "Trade is a major priority for our network.
"We will work aggressively to educate policymakers and others about the facts," he said. "Trade lifts people out of poverty and improves lives. It is critical to America's future prosperity and our consumers, workers and companies."
A position paper by the groups talks up the benefits of trade while calling on President Trump to scrap an assortment of tariffs recently imposed or under consideration.
The effort comes amid growing fears among companies and Republican lawmakers over the administration's hard-line positions in ongoing simultaneous trade negotiations with multiple regions on trade, including China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union.
While free trade has long been a central tenet of the Grand Old Party, the president has moved aggressively to reorient U.S. trade policies to the "America First" philosophy he espoused on the campaign trail.
Yesterday, high-profile talks with China intended to halt a possible trade war ended without an agreement. Over the weekend, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Trump's attitude toward trade with his country as "insulting."
GOP lawmakers have registered their opposition to Trump's flirtation with broad tariffs, as well as the administration's hard-line positions in talks to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.
But so far they have largely held back from threatening legislative action to limit the president's ability to unilaterally set trade policy.
Instead, senior Republicans have vowed to continue working with the administration to soften the impact of trade policies they normally would oppose (E&E Daily, March 14).GOP wary of challenging Trump
Both House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) signaled last week they would continue to try to influence, rather than confront, the administration after Trump shocked the world by allowing steel and aluminum tariffs to take effect against imported products from Canada, Mexico and the European Union — all long-standing U.S. allies (E&E News PM, May 31).
"There are better ways to help American workers and consumers," Ryan responded in a statement. "I intend to keep working with the president on those better options."
Hatch, who likened the tariffs to "tax hikes," responded that he will "continue to push the administration to change course" despite "mounting evidence that these tariffs will harm Americans."
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters yesterday he was surprised by Trump's decision to apply the tariffs to U.S. allies.
"I kind of was because I thought we'd been having a good conversation back and forth," Cornyn said. He described the tariffs as an "unguided missile" that can spark retaliatory tariffs across multiple sectors.
Yet Cornyn also urged continued outreach to the administration.
"I know the president's getting different advice based on different views in the White House itself, and I would hate this great booming economy as a result of the policies of this administration be squandered by a trade war," he said.
Normally, trade-loving Republicans have had mixed success with the approach. The administration initially scaled back the steel and aluminum tariffs, only to lift earlier exemptions for allies (Greenwire, March 28).Energy angle
That decision continues to rankle energy interests.
"Steel tariffs in our view are unjust," Greg Armstrong, CEO of Plains All American Pipeline LP and chairman of the National Petroleum Council, said in remarks at the U.S. Energy Information Administration conference in Washington, D.C., yesterday. "A lot of the steel pipe we're buying right now is not made in the U.S."
But with the risks of a trade war escalating on several fronts, there's new signs that congressional Republicans may be willing to insert themselves into the fight.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is retiring and has had several high-profile public clashes with the president, took to Twitter over the weekend to criticize recent administration moves.
"These two stories feel like something I could have read in a local Caracas newspaper last week, not in America. Venezuela, here WE come!" Corker wrote, referencing stories on Trump's decision on steel tariffs and his order that aims to prop up coal and nuclear plants.
In a later tweet, Corker announced that he was "working with like-minded Republican senators on ways to push back on the president using authorities in ways never intended and that are damaging to our country and our allies. Will Democrats join us?"Legislation
A Corker spokeswoman said yesterday the senators were working on legislation "that would address the administration's recent actions to intervene in markets by abusing the president's national security authorities."
However, similar legislative pushback, S. 2538, to the steel tariffs by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) — who like Corker is also retiring — has barely registered on Capitol Hill, gaining just one co-sponsor since its introduction in March.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who served as U.S. trade representative during the George W. Bush administration, noted at the time that finding agreement among 60 senators on trade policy made such legislative gambits an uphill fight.
However, the Koch brothers' campaign could help shore up congressional resolve on tariffs and other policies related to trade.
In addition to calling for Trump to permanently lift the steel, aluminum and solar barriers, and scrapping similar tariffs aimed at China, the groups' policy paper urges Congress to hew to traditional free-trade principles by abolishing agricultural quotas, commodity subsidies, the Export-Import Bank and the Jones Act, which imposes requirements on goods shipped by vessels within the United States.
Cornyn left the door open to Corker's forthcoming legislation. "I look forward to seeing what he's working on," he said.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/06/05/stories/1060083455
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U.S. EPA Advisers Want to Give Formal Feedback on Plan to Restrict the Science Used by Agency
Jun 4, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Cheryl Houge
Academic and industry scientists on EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) are unanimous: They want to review EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s controversial proposed regulation that would restrict the data the agency could consider when setting new standards for allowable pollution or regulating commercial chemicals. And they want EPA to hold off on finalizing that rule until they’ve provided feedback on it.
The proposal would require the agency to rely solely on publicly available data, a move that Pruitt says will boost transparency about regulatory science and allow anyone to check, authenticate, and reproduce scientific findings that underlie EPA’s decisions. The plan would generally prohibit the agency from using certain scientific studies—notably epidemiology studies that protect participant’s identities—as well as proprietary computer models and confidential business information.
Scientific groups say the plan would leave the agency without key data. Businesses, meanwhile, support much of the proposal, seeing it as a move to curb EPA’s ability to regulate, but they worry that it doesn’t go far enough to keep their intellectual property and other proprietary information out of the hands of competitors.
Many of the three-dozen members of SAB, which consists of experts from outside the agency, expressed concern at a May 31 to June1 meeting that the agency did not turn to the board while developing the proposal, which took them by surprise when EPA released it in April. “This rule deals with a myriad of scientific issues for which the Agency should seek expert advice from the Science Advisory Board,” says a memo from an SAB working group that examines agency’s agenda of planned regulatory and other actions, which is updated twice a year. The proposal for limiting science used as the basis for regulatory actions never appeared on that list.
Some board members pointed out that the proposal itself lacked transparency. For instance, it did not include analysis of the costs of the planned changes to EPA or to the practice of science, pointed out Kenneth M. Portier, an independent consultant and statistician who has worked for the American Cancer Society.
The proposal could garner greater acceptance if SAB reviews it and supports at least parts of it, said Richard Smith, a statistics professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The meeting was the first for the SAB since Pruitt last year reshaped the board by barring academic scientists who receive research grants from the agency from serving as advisers. He appointed several new members who express concerns that EPA’s assessment of chemical risks are overly strict or who are skeptical about epidemiology studies that link pollution exposure to health problems.
Nonetheless, SAB members agreed that reviewing the document falls squarely into the board’s congressional mandate to advise EPA on the adequacy of the scientific and technical information that underpin the agency’s planned actions. “That should be our job,” said board member Frederick Bernthal, president emeritus of the Universities Research Association, a consortium of research universities.
It remains to be seen whether Pruitt will agree to the SAB’s request to wait for the board’s input before finalizing the rule. Although the board agreed to formally ask Pruitt to seek its expert input, its actual request, which it has not yet drafted, likely will not land on Pruitt’s desk for several weeks.
Board members also agreed unanimously that they want to review the science underpinnings of proposals to withdraw or significantly change three greenhouse gas-related regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, which was President Barack Obama’s signature climate change policy.
https://cen.acs.org/policy/regulation/US-EPA-advisers-want-give/96/web/2018/06
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CBD Seeks 'Disciplinary Action' to Limit EPA's Foia Denials
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is stepping up its legal challenges to EPA's policies and practices under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking a court order to block officials from using allegedly unlawful methods to limit access, as well as a finding that personnel may have acted improperly and “disciplinary action is warranted.”
In a complaint filed May 24 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, its second seeking to obtain records of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's controversial travel, schedule and ethics practices, CBD is asking the court to direct the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which enforces government ethics rules, to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted.
The suit charges that EPA failed to meet mandatory determination deadlines, conduct adequate searches and refused to disclose and improperly withheld records responsive to CBD's requests.
The complaint targets a series of EPA policies and practices that the group says are unlawful, including its denial of fee waivers that the agency reverses on appeal and its practice of “always using the date of the FOIA request as the cut-off date responsive records, regardless of the circumstances."
To address its concerns, the group asks the court to find that EPA has violated FOIA by “failing to conduct adequate searches for all responsive records and otherwise improperly withholding them.”
The May 24 complaint follows a recent filing in another FOIA suit the group has brought against EPA, where it is asking the court to allow limited discovery of EPA's record retention and search practices and require Administrator Scott Pruitt to answer questions under oath about how his office creates and maintains records to comply with FOIA “transparency” and open records requirements.
Such suits have been mounting as the agency has struggled to keep up with dozens of FOIA requests, in addition to their practices that critics charge unlawful delay release of records. For example, environmentalists charged in suits filed late last year that high-level “awareness reviews” were delaying release of documents.
In the instant case, the complaint charges that EPA has a “practice” of denying requests for FOIA fee waivers, “forcing the requester to appeal, only for the agency to reverse itself on appeal months later."
The complaint also charges that EPA has adopted a practice of “always using the date of the FOIA request as the cut-off date responsive records, regardless of the circumstances,” resulting in unlawful delays and preventing requesters from getting timely records in response to FOIA requests.
As a result, the complaint seeks orders blocking such practices. Additionally, CBD is also requesting the court grant a written finding “that the actions of agency personnel raise questions about whether they acted arbitrarily or capriciously with respect to the Center’s FOIA requests,” and that the courts direct the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to “promptly initiate a proceeding to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted” against the EPA FOIA employees who were “primarily responsible for the improper withholdings.”
As an alternative argument, CBD claims that by “repeatedly violating FOIA’s statutory mandates, EPA’s actions are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or not in accordance with the law and therefore actionable pursuant to the [Administrative Procedures Act]."
“This is nothing new with EPA,” Margaret Townsend, open government staff attorney at CBD, told Inside EPA. “What is new, is Pruitt's staff's response to our request.”
Townsend explains that CBD hope the case will set a legal precedent for enforcing adequate response and records search practices at the agency and “change the culture at the EPA and beyond,” and have a closer examination of the agency's FOIA and recordkeeping practices.“We're hoping EPA pays more attention to requests regarding Pruitt's schedule and travels,” she added. “In the past, these types of records were available online."
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/cbd-seeks-disciplinary-action-limit-epas-foia-denials
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Watchdog Aired Concerns About EPA Ethics Staff Levels Last Year
Jun 5, 2018 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillen
Shortly after Scott Pruitt took the helm at EPA and before any of his scandals emerged, the federal government’s top ethics watchdog warned him that EPA’s ethics program was stretched thin.
EPA’s central ethics office “may be insufficiently staffed to ensure the long-term effectiveness of EPA’s ethics program,” warned the March 2017 report from the Office of Government Ethics.
The review covered EPA’s ethics operations stretching back into the Obama administration, highlighting an ongoing problem at the agency's office that is charged with reviewing ethical issues like conflicts of interest and financial disclosures. And within a few months, Pruitt was facing a litany of ethics issues, including a sweetheart Capitol Hill rental deal that agency ethics officials later said they had green-lit retroactively without having all the facts in hand.
The March 2017 report from the Office of Government Ethics has not previously been reported but was revealed in a recent production of documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
“At the very least, OGE is concerned that at current staffing levels, [Office of General Counsel] Ethics may not be able to absorb the impact of any staffing changes, such as medical leave or retirement, or any unforeseen events. Additional responsibilities or priorities may stretch existing resources even further,” the report warned.
EPA did not return a request on Monday for comment on the OGE report. An entry in a correspondence management system released under FOIA classified the report sent directly to Pruitt as "for your information," with "no action required."
The ethics office is not the only oversight branch of EPA that was struggling to keep up with increased workload.
EPA's Office of Inspector General warned the White House last year that its budget is already too low to carry out the myriad audits and investigations it was being asked to perform. That warning came before the OIG opened several new probes into Pruitt's activities. Congress ultimately spared the OIG the steep cuts requested by the White House, but also rejected the office’s call for more money to carry out investigations.
“To underfund and understaff the offices charged with investigating the seemingly endless conflicts of interest surrounding top officials like Scott Pruitt is a disservice to the American people who deserve to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Noting the number of probes into Pruitt’s activities, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement that “it’s no wonder” ethics officials are “overburdened.”
“Congress must ensure these offices have adequate resources in order to be able to conduct independent investigations and issue ethics determinations free from influence from EPA’s political leadership,” Pallone said.
EPA's top ethics official is Kevin Minoli, a career employee who also served much of last year as the agency's general counsel. His ethics deputy is Justina Fugh, who handles day-to-day work on ethics for the 14,000-employee agency. As of the end of 2016, she was assisted by only a few other full- or part-time ethics officials, according to OGE's report.
Fugh told POLITICO the number has dwindled even further since the report came out due to retirements, resignations and parental leave. Fugh currently has just one full-time employee and one part-time employee assisting her with all of EPA’s ethics work.
The ethics office had approved Pruitt’s $50-a-night condo deal from the wife of a lobbyist, which turned into a scandal when it emerged the lobbyist had represented a client with issues pending at EPA. Last week, that lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, acknowledged he had also worked for two previously undisclosed clients last year, according to amended lobbying disclosures.
Fugh told POLITICO in March, when the rental deal was first reported, that reviewing political appointees’ living situations was outside its normal area of review, saying it “just isn't what we do.”
“I don’t go around looking at where people are living or how they’re living,” Fugh said at the time.
That changed quickly.
EPA officials, looking to quell the mounting stories over Pruitt’s rental, shared details and documents with news outlets. On the evening on March 30, EPA officials sent reporters a one-paragraph memo penned by Minoli that cleared the deal retroactively.
That memo quickly drew fire from critics who said it let Pruitt off the hook too easily. The rental deal was reviewed long after it was signed, and the memo approving it said his $50-a-night deal, which Pruitt paid only on nights he stayed there, was consistent with market rates. Other reports indicated Pruitt’s daughter lived there last summer while interning at the White House and that the rest of his family had stayed there occasionally as well, an apparent violation of Pruitt’s rental agreement.
Within a few days, Minoli issued a longer, more detailed memo and said the initial letter clearing the rental was based on incomplete information.
Soon after, David Apol, the acting head of OGE, wrote to Minoli urging him to more closely scrutinize Pruitt's activities, including his rental deal, along with allegations of retaliation against employees who pushed back on his activities.
Minoli referred Apol’s concerns to EPA’s Office of Inspector General. Ethics officials have no authority to investigate, Minoli wrote to Apol in April, and when his office "lacks sufficient evidence to assess fully an ethics matter, we have a long-standing practice of referring it" to the OIG, which can root out "fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption.”
In addition to EPA’s central ethics officials, more than 100 other officials spread out across EPA's programs handle some of the ethics work, according to OGE’s report, although it appeared it is not their full-time focus.
Those officials are not directly supervised by EPA’s central ethics office. Current staffing “may be insufficient” to give those employees “continuous oversight and necessary guidance and training,” the OGE warned last year.
The March 2017 review appeared to be the first time OGE had issued such a report covering the agency since 2004.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/article/2018/06/watchdog-aired-concerns-about-epa-ethics-staff-levels-last-year-594388
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Eying 2018 Deadline, EPA Taps New Division Heads For Reorganized OPPT
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
Leaders of EPA's toxics office have selected many of the new division directors for the office's planned overhaul and are proceeding with additional management selections as part of a plan to complete the reorganization -- which aims to better implement the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) -- by year's end.
Jeff Morris, director of EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) provided a May 24 reorganization update to office employees, and announced “preliminary decisions” for division directors and deputy and associate division directors of the new divisions described in the reorganization plans that OPPT leaders have been crafting since last fall.
“Our goal is to begin the formal Agency review process in July with the hope of implementing a new organization later this year,” Morris writes in the May 24 email reviewed by Inside EPA. “We understand that the changes we are proposing are significant, but we also believe that reorganizing the office to better align with TSCA requirements is critical to OPPT’s success.”
Morris' update is the latest in a reorganization process that started last fall, when Morris first announced plans to reorganize OPPT to better meet the many new responsibilities that the reformed TSCA places on OPPT. Of special concern is the office's new responsibility to assess and possibly regulate existing chemicals, those that were on the market before the original TSCA took effect in 1976, and were largely grandfathered from it.
At the time, Morris sought OPPT employees' opinions on three straw options for collapsing OPPT's existing seven-division structure into five divisions.
But that drew significant staff concerns, and Morris delayed the reorganization effort in April to propose a new revised plan with six divisions. The new plan, which OPPT now appears to be acting upon, relies on OPPT leadership being able to hire a sufficient number of new scientists to fill a second risk analysis division to bolster chemical assessments required by the reformed TSCA.
Now, Morris indicates that OPPT leaders are working to staff the planned new divisions: a new chemicals management division (NCMD) and existing chemicals management division (ECMD) with matching new chemicals science (NCSD) and existing chemicals science divisions (ECSD); a Chemical Right-To-Know, Analysis and Innovation Division (CRAID); and a Mission Operations Division (MOD).
The new reorganization plan is winning approval from former officials. Charles Auer, former director of OPPT and now with the law firm of Bergeson & Campbell, wrote in a recent blog post that dividing the offices to focus on new and existing chemicals generally “makes sense,” he wrote.
For example, “merging the existing chemicals function of the Chemical Control Division (CCD) with those of the National Program Chemicals Division (NPCD) into [the ECMD] makes sense. The existing NPCD branches that cover legacy chemical issues (e.g., lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), mercury, and asbestos) will presumably become risk management branches tasked with overseeing risk management activities for those chemicals under the amended [TSCA].”
Further, Auer approves of the plan's creation of the separate NCMD, which he writes “also makes sense in light of the challenges encountered by the office in its early implementation of Section 5 under new TSCA.”
Still, he cautions that EPA's plan to hire new scientists could be challenging, and could hinge on the office “receiving adequate hiring authority to meet its scientific needs and then being able to locate and hire the needed technical experts,” he writes. “While Dr. Morris seems optimistic regarding the first, the second will present a major challenge to the Office in securing technical expertise in the areas in demand.”
Division Leaders
As the reorganization plan advances, Morris is asking candidates for management positions for their preferences, but says that the agency's needs will ultimately prevail. Staffing started with division directors and will move through the ranks to general staff.
The preliminary decisions on division leaders include for the new ECMD: Tanya Mottley as director, Brian Symmes as deputy and Sheila Canavan as associate director. Mottley currently leads the NPCD.
Morris indicates that a decision has yet to be made on the director of the pending New Chemicals Management Division, while Lynn Vendinello has been selected as deputy director. She is currently serving as the acting director of the existing CCD, which lost its director to EPA's research office in a significant OPPT leadership reshuffling in April.
Tala Henry, who is on detail as acting OPPT deputy director for programs, will take the helm of the pending NCSD. She was previously director of the existing Risk Assessment Division, which is being split into two divisions in the reorganization to perform risk analysis of new chemicals and existing chemicals. A deputy for the new division has not been named.
Similarly, a director for the ECSD has not been named, though Stan Barone has been selected as its deputy. Barone currently serves as the acting director of a separate EPA office, the Office of Science Coordination and Policy, which the Trump administration has sought to reduce through significant resource cuts.
The new CRAID, which combines the office's various data collection, analysis and reporting programs will be led by David Widawsky, Deputy Director Tom Tillman with Larry Reisman as associate director. Widawsky currently serves as director of the existing Chemistry, Economics and Sustainable Strategies Division, while Reisman has most recently served as the acting director of the Toxics Release Inventory Program Division, which is being subsumed into the new CRAID.
Lastly, the MOD, which will include OPPT's information technology, human resources and other essential services will be led by Pam Myrick, Deputy Director Vickie Richardson and Associate Director Megan Carroll. Myrick has been serving two roles in OPPT, leading the existing Information Management Division while serving as acting director of the Environmental Assistance Division. Neither division will exist after the reorganization is complete.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/eying-2018-deadline-epa-taps-new-division-heads-reorganized-oppt
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(ACC Mentioned) New Chemical Tests Need More Industry, Regulator Conversations
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ayanna Alexander
Federal developers of new chemical safety tests that don’t use animals need to engage industry representatives and regulators who are in a position to adopt those methods, a federal testing director said.
The director of the federal National Toxicology Program’s nonanimal testing committee, Warren Casey, urged a governmental testing panel to expand its narrow technical focus and be more open to the ideas of the chemical sector, federal regulators, and public and environmental health advocacy groups when validating chemical safety tests.
“It’s become very apparent that the intersection of the end users being connected with the best-method developers is absolutely essential,” Casey, who also serves as the director of the Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods, said. The center examines alternatives to animal use for chemical safety testing.
“It gets back to why methods are validated but never used, because the people who are going to use them or regulate on them were never consulted to start with,” Casey said during the May 24 public forum hosted by the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies.
The Environmental Protection Agency adopted its policy in April allowing chemical and pesticide manufacturers that want to reduce their use of animals in product tests to use nonanimal skin tests. That prompted more pressure from advocates for nonanimal testing like the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Welcome New DirectionCasey’s advice is being welcomed by firms such as the ANGUS Chemical Co. of Buffalo Grove, Ill., which seeks to access new computer-based chemical tests.
Pamela Spencer, the company’s senior director of regulatory and product stewardship, told Bloomberg Environment she welcomes the outreach because it allows smaller companies like hers to gain access to new methods.
“ANGUS considers this an important point of engagement on the development and application of new approach methodologies,” she said. “I welcome the outreach and that outreach enables experts in small companies, like ANGUS, to incorporate [new approach methodologies] into their sustainable product initiatives.”
Many companies seek to include “Not Tested on Animals” labels on products they market to consumers.
The May 24 forum was geared towards nonanimal tests that generate equal or better information.
The recommendation for more outreach comes as animal rights groups decry steep increases in the projected numbers of animals, like rats and rabbits, to be used under the nation’s chemical and medical safety laws.
Advocates for nonanimal testing—the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—reported that the number of animal tests from the Environmental Protection Agency went from “a few dozen” using 7,000 animals in 2016, to over 300 tests involving “75,000 rats, rabbits, and other vertebrates,” by 2017.
New Outward FocusNicole Kleinstreuer, the center’s deputy director, echoed Casey’s focus on engagement and broadening the panel’s narrow technical focus on test validation.
Moving to computer-based tests will require persuading regulatory scientists to accept them and industry to invest in conducting them as part of safety compliance efforts.
“It is paramount to include the end users—both in terms of regulators and regulated industry—in the conversations with method developers from the beginning, to ensure that new approaches are targeting the key questions of concern in terms of protecting human health and the environment,” Kleinstreuer told Bloomberg Environment.
Another focus of the forum was to implement the interagency center’s strategic roadmap—which came out in January 2018—through collaboration, using the ideas of its membership organizations, as well as the expertise of 16 federal agency representatives.
Federal StrategiesDuring the forum, the Department of Defense announced related plans.
“We are planning to start the roadmapping process for Rapid Chemical Hazard and Risk Assessment applications for DoD-specific chemicals and their replacements,” Emily Reinke, a biologist at the Army Public Health Center, told Bloomberg Environment.
The Food and Drug Administration has already created its own strategic roadmap, according to FDA spokeswoman Tara Rabin.
“As part of the FDA’s commitment to advancing the development of new research tools, the FDA formed the Modeling and Simulation Working Group to accelerate the adoption of modeling and simulation tools in product development and evaluation; and initiated the Toxicology Working Group, which has developed a roadmap for integrating emerging predictive toxicology methods and new technologies into regulatory safety and risk assessments,” Rabin said.
An EPA spokesperson also told Bloomberg Environment the agency is open to outreach and would continue to work “closely and openly” with interested groups.
Outside Groups ActiveThe Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine seeks to co-sponsor a workshop with the interagency committee and the FDA “to identify overlapping agency and industry priorities” in the drug development pipeline.
The Humane Society recommended that the committee reach out to international counterparts like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Cooperation on Alternative Test Methods to craft new alternatives to animal testing.
The EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs “has often taken the lead; however, NAMs [new approach methodologies] implementation would benefit from the committed participation of other” panels, the society said.
The American Chemistry Council said it is interested in partnering with industry and government entities. “Companies already use NAMs, and, as we develop more scientific confidence in them, we want to increase their use,” Jon Corley, the organization’s spokesperson, told Bloomberg Environment.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/new-chemical-tests-need-more-industry-regulator-conversations
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(ACC Mentioned) California Legislature Advances School 'Green Cleaning' Bill
Jun 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The California Assembly has passed a bill that would compel schools to purchase "environmentally preferable" cleaning products.
The Clean and Healthy Schools Act (AB 2570) would require school districts and certain nonpublic schools to purchase only products meeting independent, third-party certification criteria for reduced effects on human health and the environment.
Products that must bear a Proposition 65 warning label are expressly excluded from the definition.
Product categories that are affected include industrial cleaners for furniture, counters, restrooms, glass, carpets and floors. Schools could seek an exemption if they can demonstrate a lack of economic feasibility.
The requirements are slated to take effect from autumn 2021.
According to the legislature’s bill analysis, the Green Seal, EcoLogo and Safer Choice programmes all meet the certification criteria. But bill opponents have said that these programmes may certify products containing Prop 65-listed chemicals, leading to a potential conflict.
The bill, which will now be taken up in the Senate, is sponsored by the Environmental Working Group.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), California Chamber of Commerce, Household & Commercial Products Association (HCPA) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) have all registered their opposition.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67390/california-legislature-advances-school-green-cleaning-bill
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Study: Consumer Product Safety Testing Misses Cancer Risks From Chemical Mixtures
Jun 5, 2018 | Environmental Working Group
By Olga Naidenko
Mixtures of chemicals commonly found in consumer products are more likely to increase breast cancer risk than the same chemicals individually, according to a new analysis. But safety tests by government regulators don’t routinely evaluate the combined effects of multiple chemical exposures.
For a study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Toxicological Sciences, a team from the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute looked at how the combination of three widely used chemicals can cause healthy breast cells to behave more like cancer cells.
They tested the aggregate effect of BPA, a plastics additive; methyl paraben, a preservative in cosmetics and body care products; and PFOA, a non-stick chemical formerly used to make Teflon. BPA, PFOA, and methyl paraben are all found in the bodies of Americans, due to their presence in consumer products and drinking water.
In tests for the study, when all three chemicals were present together, they changed breast cell biology in a more profound and consequential way than each chemical individually. The scientists noted that the doses of three chemicals tested were close to the levels found in people, and suggested that in the body, these mixtures could increase breast cancer risk.
Although everyone is exposed to a mixture of many chemicals every day, federal and state health agencies look at safety testing for only one chemical at a time. The effects of individual chemicals in these daily mixtures add up, but at the moment, federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration do not determine the safety of chemicals on the basis of the aggregate effects of chemicals people come in contact with daily.
"It's been suspected for years that chemicals behave differently in mixtures than they do by themselves," said Dr. William Goodson, a senior author of the study. "The tragedy is that no regulations require that the effects of chemical mixtures be evaluated. With the existing consumer product safety testing, we are sailing blind into a perfect storm of chemicals with almost no knowledge of what to expect.”
Exposure to mixtures of toxic chemicals often starts in the womb, and the developing fetus gets its first dose of chemical exposure before birth. BPA, parabens and PFOA are also found in the placenta and the umbilical cord blood, as demonstrated by research from EWG and other research organizations.
Getting rid of the most toxic chemicals in the marketplace is essential to advance cancer prevention and to protect future generations of children. Regulatory agencies must change their testing policies to reflect the reality that Americans are exposed not to one chemical at a time, but to multiple chemicals at once.
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/06/study-consumer-product-safety-testing-misses-cancer-risks-chemical#.WxZ4Xu6FPco
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Regulators Need Industry Data on PA Oligomers, Germany Says
Jun 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has called on industry to provide more toxicology information on polyamide (PA) oligomers in plastic kitchen utensils.
The institute has published its risk assessment of two selected PA oligomers, PA6 and PA66. However, it was unable to give a definitive answer on the safety of kitchen utensils containing them because of the lack of relevant data.
The assessment team established a tolerable personal exposure level of 90micrograms/day. This is based on the "threshold of toxicological concern" approach and categorisation of the substances by chemical structure. Health effects are unlikely below this exposure level, the report says.
But the exposure estimates suggested that real exposures are likely to exceed this level, reaching up to 17.6 milligrams/day.
Thus, toxicology data from industry is required to confirm the safety of the substances in kitchen utensils at these higher exposures, the BfR concludes.
Oligomers are polymer fragments: they comprise the same repeating chemical structures as polymers, but are limited to only a few monomers. PA oligomers form in kitchen utensils during polymerisation, and because of their relatively small size, they can migrate into food on contact.
The substances are type III substances according to chemical structure, under the Cramer classification system. This means the structures "permit no strong initial impression of safety and may even suggest a significant toxicity". But they are not suspected of being carcinogenic or genotoxic, the report says.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67387/regulators-need-industry-data-on-pa-oligomers-germany-says
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Narrowly Rules to Toss Permit for NatGas Wells in Residential Area
Jun 4, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
Two families that have fought for years to stop Inflection Energy LLC from drilling several wells near their homes in northeast Pennsylvania won a victory last week when the state Supreme Court found that the company failed to prove oil and gas development is similar to other uses authorized in a residential-agricultural (R-A) zoning district.
The families had filed an appeal of the Fairfield Township Board of Supervisors’ decision to issue Inflection a conditional use permit in the R-A district. A trial court sidedwith the residents in 2014, finding that oil and gas drilling does not meet the criteria of the township’s zoning ordinance. The state Commonwealth Court later reversed that decision and upheld the conditional use permit, finding that natural gas development is authorized because it’s similar to a public service facility that can be located in nearly any zoned district where facilities for sewage, water, power and other services exist.
The high court again invalidated Inflection’s conditional use permit last Friday, ruling that the evidentiary record does not support the supervisors’ decision and finding that drilling, completing and operating multiple natural gas wells in the district is not similar to any other uses authorized under Farifield’s zoning ordinance.
The case has been watched closely for years. It’s been at the forefront of efforts by environmental groups and other shale gas opponents that have argued R-A districts, which blanket most of the state, are not compatible with an industrial use like oil and gas drilling.
“The court’s decision makes clear that shale gas development is an industrial land use, and that local government must rigorously consider what other land uses it is compatible with before allowing it to occur in districts designed for incompatible uses, such as a district designed to foster a quiet residential environment,” said attorney George Jugovic Jr. of PennFuture, the environmental advocacy group that represented the families.
Most drilling across the state occurs in R-A districts. An opinion from the high court that would have found it to be incompatible with such zones could have had a deep impact on the industry’s operations. Several townships across the state have faced similar challenges to drilling permits by opponents claiming that natural gas development in residential areas threatens homes, businesses, public safety and the legal rights afforded to residents under an environmental amendment in the state’s constitution.
The high court, however, did not address those issues and instead focused strictly on the Fairfield Township case. Responses to the opinion were mixed as a result.
“What the court did not say was that oil and gas drilling could never take place in residential and agricultural districts -- as some environmental groups were arguing,” said Kevin Sunday, director of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. “Nor did the court say that local governments may never authorize any development for any industry with a conditional use. It is a narrow decision, and the implications will be further borne out as more zoning cases are litigated.”
The justices overturned the lower court’s ruling in a 4-3 opinion. Attorney Christopher Nestor, of the Harrisburg, PA-based law firm Overstreet & Nestor LLC, who was not involved in the case, noted that both the majority and dissenting opinions indicated that municipalities are not precluded from allowing oil and gas activities, regardless of whether they occur in R-A or industrial zones.
“Applying our standard of review, we hold that [Fairfield Township’s] conclusion that Inflection satisfied its burden of proving that its proposed use was similar to a permitted use in an R-A district is not supported by the record,” Justice Christine Donohue wrote for the majority. “In so ruling, this decision should not be misconstrued as an indication that oil and gas development is never permitted in residential/agricultural districts, or that it is fundamentally incompatible with residential or agricultural uses.”
Sunday added that while the court said oil and gas drilling could take place in R-A districts, zoning regulations might have to be structured more precisely in some cases.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Kevin M. Dougherty suggested that such matters should be left to the expertise of local governing bodies, which the majority acknowledged in noting that state law permits municipalities to amend zoning ordinances to allow oil and gas development in all zoning districts.
It’s unclear what’s next for Inflection, which holds more than 100 permits across Lycoming County where Fairfield is located, according to state Department of Environmental Protection records. There are other wells in the township too, but the high court found that the case record included very little information about previous permits issued there.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114599-pennsylvania-supreme-court-narrowly-rules-to-toss-permit-for-natgas-wells-in-residential-area
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A Burning Question for Texas: What to Do with All That Gas?
Jun 5, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ryan Collins
Texas is facing a burning question that’s pitting the state’s economy against its environment, and oil drillers against each other.
With natural gas pipelines in the Permian Basin reaching 98 percent of capacity, Texas is weighing whether to keep intact or loosen strict state regulations that limit flaring, the process used by drillers to burn off excess gas pumped up along with their oil. Now the limit for individual wells is 45 days. After that, without a rare-granted exemption, the gas must be piped away or the well must close.
Shut wells mean less revenue for companies and the state, at a time when oil prices and production is surging while regional gas prices are in a tailspin. Ending or expanding the cap solves the problem. But it also gives drillers that haven’t paid for space on existing pipes a competitive edge over those that have, and could spark environmental protests.
“This is not a simple thing we’re talking about,” said Ryan Sitton, of the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the oilfields. “It’d be a pretty big policy shift and we want to be very thoughtful about what the ramifications could be.“
Sitton said he’s meeting with producers across the Permian, and hopes to have a decision within six months, when he believes the pipeline-space dilemma will come to a head.
Two Percent Left
Multiple gas pipelines crisscross the Permian, with a total capacity of 8.1 billion cubic feet a day. But as the price of crude has risen, so has production, growing 25 percent in just the last year. The gas associated with that boom has filled up all but two percent of pipeline capacity as of the end of April, according to RBN Energy LLC, and Rystad Energy AS suggests oil output may grow 10 percent more by the end of 2018.
Natural gas prices in the Permian, meanwhile, are the cheapest in the nation.
Spot prices at the Waha hub in West Texas were down 49 percent this year to $2.03 per million British thermal units at 4:24 p.m. on Friday, according to the Bloomberg assessment. Meanwhile, spot gas at the Henry Hub in Louisiana, the U.S. benchmark, gained gained 1.4 percent over the same period to $2.93.
The region is “ground zero for the oversupply caused by associated gas production,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC in New York, by email. If oil production continues to boom, the price of gas “could certainly go to zero.”
There’s relief on the way, with as much as 10.5 billion cubic feet a day of gas pipelines proposed or being built. But the bulk of it won’t arrive until late next year or in 2020.
Changing the regulations could affect different constituencies in different ways.
Drillers like Centennial Resource Development Inc., for instance, have paid upfront to guarantee room on existing pipelines, assuming that the current limits wouldn’t be dramatically altered.
Centennial Assumption
“We are operating under the assumption that the Texas Railroad Commission will not allow us or the industry to flare gas for an extended period when takeaway capacity is full,” said Sean Smith, Centennial’s chief operating officer, during the company’s first-quarter earnings call with analysts.
Concern that extended flaring could punish companies like that are already heavily invested in the last space on existing lines is a key issue for the Railroad Commision, according to Sitton. “How do we do something that is fair and equitable for all producers so that we are not having an artificial market impact?” he said.
Environmental ImpactGoing hand-in-hand with the financial questions are those revolving around the possible effect of more flaring on air quality.
Flaring releases toxic compounds like cancer-causing benzene and matter that is linked to respiratory illnesses, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, which is against increasing the duration.
Suzanne Franklin and her husband, James, can see 17 flares breathing fire into the sky from the front porch of their ranch in Reeves County. The visible pollution has definitely impacted their life. “We used to go out and look up at the stars,” she said. “Now, you don’t see any stars.“
She believes the flaring has affected her breathing. Since the first flare was lit up about a year ago, her doctor has put her on three different medicines “just to breath right.“
Still, she’s determined not to pack up her bags and move away. “I’m not willing to leave this place because it is my home,” she said.
Seven counties in the region already rank in the top 10 nationwide for childhood asthma attacks, according to the Clean Air Task Force. More flaring could increase that dubious standing, according to Colin Leyden, the fund’s senior manager of regulatory and legislative affairs.
‘Not Pretty’“It’s not pretty from an air quality perspective to have that much flaring going on,” he said in a phone interview.
To this point, no increase in flaring has been needed. In the last year, in fact, the number of permits have slightly decreased in the Permian, falling to 194 in April from 217 during the same month in 2016, according to data from the Railroad Commission. The number of extensions have fallen as well, to 22 from 67 in the same time period.
But even with the number of permits down, the amount of natural gas consumed by flaring is probably up, with wells much more productive than they were even six months ago, said Artem Abramov, vice president of shale analysis at Rystad Energy, in a phone interview.
Texas now flares about 3 percent of the gas produced in the basin. Matthew Portillo, analyst at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co., said he believes that could rise as much as five times higher as production is boosted in the next year.
Sitton disagrees. A primary role for the Railroad Commission “is to prevent waste,” he said. “If you believe that waste is not dollar waste, but the waste of the hydrocarbon molecule, then we have to be very judicious about when we grant flaring exemptions. Those are the questions that we are trying to get our heads around.“
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/a-burning-question-for-texas-what-to-do-with-all-that-gas
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China Fastest Growing LNG Importer, U.S. Share Could Grow, Report Says
Jun 4, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
China and the United States seem destined for major bilateral liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade as the U.S. shale gas boom continues unabated and China establishes itself as the world's fastest growing LNG importer, according to a report by the Brookings Institution.
China is the world's fastest growing natural gas consumer as its national government pushes programs to replace coal, Brookings said. Last year, the country's gas consumption increased by 15% and its imports grew by 28%. China's import dependence has grown from zero in 2005 to 39% last year.
U.S. LNG export capacity in 2017 reached 20 billion cubic meters (Bcm) with 2.9 Bcm going to China, accounting for 6% of China's LNG imports, according to the report.
At the end of 2017, analysts with Barclays Capital noted that China's energy commodities imports remained strong, with gas imports up 42% and oil rising 15% in 2017 compared with 2016. Total year-to-date import levels have amounted to 64 Bcm, up 27% from the 51 Bcm imported during the same period in 2016.
The Chinese government has made a push to encourage more gas use, and higher incremental demand levels "will now meet peak winter demand levels," according to Barclays. However, this "could put China in a precarious gas supply situation, depending on how winter weather unfolds. Chinese production levels have remained relatively static at about 12 Bcm over the course of the year [2017], failing to keep up with demand increases and leaving China more dependent on higher levels of imports."
Other analyst teams, such as BofA Merrill Lynch Commodity Research, have added their assessments, noting that China was "gobbling up" gas imports, boosting purchases by 60% in the first 10 months of last year. In early December, Asian spot LNG prices reached nearly $10/MMBtu, the highest since the start of 2017. China imports 21% of its gas as LNG, with more than half coming from Australia (47%) and Qatar (21%).
Two of China's other LNG sources -- Malaysia (11%) and Indonesia (7%) -- are likely to decrease their gas exports in the 2020s, opening the door for more U.S. LNG exports to China, Brookings concluded. "In addition, international pipeline supply is not enough to fill the gap," the report noted, adding that U.S. imports "suit China's economic interests and energy security."
Reports from the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have further stoked expectations for increased U.S. LNG exports to Asian markets.
National government run anti-pollution campaigns in China are seen as primary drivers for its growing appetite for natural gas. The push for cleaner fuels to replace coal appears to be picking up steam this year in China, Brookings said.
Adding Henry Hub price-based LNG supplies to an oil-linked LNG portfolio brings more stability to the Chinese gas supplies, according to Brookings. In addition, U.S. LNG should be more competitive if global oil prices continue to rebound.
Mexico, South Korea and China were the biggest importers of U.S. LNG last year, when 1.94 Bcf/d was exported, a 500 MMcf/d increase, according to an EIA report earlier this year. The three countries represented 53% of the exports, EIA said.
China's national energy strategy includes a goal of natural gas making up 15% of the nation's energy mix by 2030. "If China's primary energy consumption reaches 5.5 billion tons coal-equivalent by 2030, natural gas consumption would reach about 650 Bcm, or 2.7 times its level in 2017,” Brookings said.
Part of China's acceleration of gas imports comes via pipelines,. Two major arteries -- Central Asian Gas Pipeline and the China-Myanmar Oil/Gas Pipeline -- bring 46% of China's gas imports, according to Brookings. Two new pipeline projects are slated to come on line within the next two years -- Siberia in 2019, and added capacity to the Central Asian line in 2020.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114594-china-fastest-growing-lng-importer-us-share-could-grow-report-says
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Perry Sees Power Grid Attacks ‘Coming’ as He Makes Bailout Case
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said June 4 cyberattacks on the grid are imminent as he linked the security of the nation’s power system to efforts by the Trump administration to bail out struggling coal and nuclear plants.
“We know that attacks are coming and we can never let down our guard,” Perry said at an Energy Department grid-security conference in Austin, Texas.
The retirement of “fuel secure” coal and nuclear plants “at an alarming rate” will hamper the ability of the U.S. power grid to recover from any cyberattacks, Perry said.
Perry’s remarks come after President Trump ordered him to find ways to stem retirements of coal and nuclear plants in the name of national security.
“The president is right,” Perry said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/perry-sees-power-grid-attacks-coming-as-he-makes-bailout-case
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Perry, Citing Cyber Threat, Says Trump Is Right
Jun 4, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday that the closure of coal and nuclear plants could hurt the United States' ability to recover from a cyberattack against its electric grid.
"Fuel secure units are retiring at an alarming rate that if unchecked will threaten our ability to recover from intentional attacks or from natural disasters," Perry said at Department of Energy's cyber security conference in Austin. "The president is right to view grid resilience as a serious national security issue."
Perry's comment linking power plants closures with cyber attacks appears to open a new front in the administration's push to throw a financial lifeline to coal and nuclear plants operators, which the administration argues provide critical backup should the pipelines supplying the increasing number of natural gas plants on the U.S. power grid be disrupted.
On Friday, President Donald Trump ordered Perry to "prepare immediate steps" to stop those plants from closing. At the same time the White House is weighing an unprecedented use of national security powers, which could order power grid operators to buy electricity from a list of struggling coal and nuclear plants for two years "to forestall any further action towards retirement, decommissioning, or deactivation of such facilities," as described in a memo from the Department of Energy.
During his speech, which was primarily focused on building up national defenses against would be cyber attackers, Perry did not say whether he planned to carry through with the actions described in the memo.
But he made a case that few threats are as great as a sustained power outage, citing a report from the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers that put the cost of cyber attacks in 2016 at between $57 and $100 billion dollars.
"Attacks have become easier to launch, their frequency, their scale and sophistication is increasing," Perry said. "As secretary of energy, I have no higher priority than protecting our nation against those dangers."
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Perry-citing-cyber-threat-says-Trump-is-right-12965814.php
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Chemical Board Closure Threat Found to Repel Job-Seekers: Audit
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson
The Trump administration’s push to eliminate the Chemical Safety Board is preventing the agency from attracting and keeping staff, and board members too often pursue individual agendas in ways that harm morale, the EPA’s inspector general found June 4.
The board has failed to hire candidates for several positions in recent months and prospective employees cited the possible elimination of the agency as a reason they look elsewhere for work, CSB Chairperson Vanessa Sutherland said, according to the inspector general’s report.
Sutherland, the chairperson since August 2015, announced her own resignation May 21, and plans to leave the agency later this month. No reason was given for her departure.
How the 40-person agency retains qualified staff has implications for the speed and quality of safety investigations. Companies in the chemicals, manufacturing, and other industries use those investigations to improve operations.
Board members sending mixed messages is challenging for companies, which typically engage with the agency through professional staff, Mark Farley, a partner at the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Houston, told Bloomberg Environment June 4.
“It introduces a measure of unpredictability,” Farley said.
Board Aware of ConcernsThe board is aware of the management concerns identified, spokeswoman Shauna Lawhorne said in a June 4 statement to Bloomberg Environment.
“We will continue to work with the appropriate leadership of the Congress to ensure that the agency fulfills its obligations to improve chemical safety for the industry, its employees, and our communities,” Lawhorne said.
The safety board has been targeted for elimination under the Trump administration in a budget blueprint released in March 2017 and the fiscal 2019 budget request, which was released in March 2018. Congress refused to go along, instead providing $11 million in fiscal 2018. The House Appropriations Committee proposed $12 million for fiscal 2019. The board has received $11 million a year in funding since fiscal year 2014.
Unauthorized DisclosuresThe report cited unauthorized disclosures of information, including the board’s fiscal 2019 budget request. Bloomberg Environment reported on that document prior to its release by the board.
“Some CSB managers believe that the person who leaked the budget request was a board member,” the audit said, adding that staff “are frustrated and feel disrespected.”
Other actions by individual board members include filing a public comment with the Environmental Protection Agency rather than as part of the entire board and disseminating information in ways that aren’t consistent with the board’s policies, according to the report.
Budget Problems, TurmoilSutherland’s limited legal authority over individual board members makes it difficult to control unauthorized actions, the report said.
Board members are Senate-confirmed and only the White House can remove them. Congress would have to pass legislation to change this system.
The agency plans to create a policy document specifying internal enforcement actions to be taken against board members who deviate from agency policies, the report said.
The board has nine open investigations: Kuraray America Inc. in Pasadena, Texas; Husky Energy Inc. in Superior, Wis.; Red Mountain Operating near Quinton, Okla.; Didion Milling in Cambria, Wis.; Midland Resource Recovery in Barbour County, W.Va.; Loy Lange Box Co. in St. Louis; Sunoco Logistics Partners LP in Nederland, Texas; Enterprise Products Partners LP in Moss Point, Miss.; and DuPont in LaPorte, Texas.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/chemical-board-closure-threat-found-to-repel-job-seekers-audit
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Environmentalists Plan NEPA Suit Over FERC's Narrow GHG Review Policy
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
Environmentalists are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to rescind an order rejecting consideration of upstream and downstream greenhouse gas impacts when conducting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews of many natural gas infrastructure projects -- teeing up potential litigation on the issue.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network sent a May 26 letter asking the commission to formally rescind its May 18 order denying rehearing for the Dominion Transmission pipeline upgrade project that took the surprise step -- on a 3-2, party-line vote -- of declaring that upstream and downstream GHG impacts from many gas infrastructure projects “are outside the scope of our NEPA analysis.”
The FERC decision comes amid a separate commission review of its 1999 pipeline approval process and despite an August decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejecting a NEPA review of the Sabal Trail pipeline network in the Southeast over a failure to assess downstream GHGs.
FERC and industry have signaled that they plan to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the D.C. Circuit ruling.
The commission has sought to distinguish the Dominion project from the Sabal Trail project by arguing that there are no identifiable end users for the Dominion project, while Sabal Trail was built specifically to supply several Florida power plants, and thus their downstream GHG emissions are an “indirect” effect under NEPA.
Delaware Riverkeeper's letter says FERC's order “announced its intention to violate its legal obligations pursuant to [NEPA] to fully and properly consider the climate changing impacts of its pipeline infrastructure decisionmaking,” and the group notes that the order has broad implications for all pipeline infrastructure reviews.
Also, a separate May 31 letter from dozens of local groups accuse FERC of misusing its authority to deny its NEPA obligations “and render a sweeping interpretation of federal law that undermines the courts. In doing so, FERC has denied the due process rights of communities across the nation that continue to be harmed by its rubber stamp approval of fracked gas pipelines and infrastructure.”
The letters tee up likely additional litigation on the matter, though the exact pathway is unclear, according to a source with Delaware Riverkeeper.
“We are certainly looking for options [to sue], but it looks like the only folks that can challenge are those that have intervened in this docket, and that is the problem. All others who will be impacted down the line have no chance to litigate this decision in a timely fashion -- before it gains traction and solidification at FERC and potentially in the courts.”
The source notes that Delaware Riverkeeper filed individual comments on the Dominion review, and so would have standing to sue, but is unclear how many groups in the sign-on letter filed comments.
Despite opposition to the decision and the process in which it was made, FERC appears intent on moving forward with narrow GHG considerations in most NEPA reviews of gas projects, rather than considering the significance of upstream and downstream emissions or putting them in a broader context.
In addition to FERC's potential high court appeal of the adverse D.C. Circuit ruling in Sierra Club v. FERC, the commission last week approved another pipeline without an in-depth climate review under NEPA.
Florida Pipeline
FERC on May 31 approved the construction of the Okeechobee Lateral Project, an offshoot of the Southeast Markets pipeline network to serve a Florida power plant, with a divided commission again finding that a detailed consideration of the GHG impacts is not necessary.
The new order rejects accounting for broader climate considerations, as requested by the Sierra Club in an objection to the initial NEPA review that was part of the administrative proceeding.
“The Okeechobee Clean Energy Center is not contingent upon the Commission's approval of the proposed Okeechobee Lateral Project,” the order says, arguing the power plant would be built regardless of whether the pipeline is approved.
It also notes that the environmental assessment conducted for the project “considered the end use and the associated GHG emissions of the natural gas to be transported on the Okeechobee Lateral by reference to” the supplemental environmental impact statement conducted after the court ruling for the Sabal Trail pipeline.
There, FERC estimated that the power plant could emit 5.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, which would be a 2.3 percent increase over Florida's GHG emissions inventory from 2015 of 228 million metric tons and a 0.1 percent national increase of the 5.4 billion metric tons released in 2015.
The order notes that “there is no widely accepted standard to ascribe significance to a given rate of volume of GHG emissions” -- consistent with FERC's earlier rejection of using the social cost of carbon (SCC) metric. But FERC argues that “this does not in any way indicate that the Commission is not cognizant of the potentially severe consequences of climate change and it does not undermine our hard look” in the NEPA review.
As in the Dominion order and the Sabal Trail orders, the two Democratic commissioners -- Cheryl LaFleur and Richard Glick -- submitted their own statements on the climate issue.
In this instance, LaFleur concurs with approving the Okeechobee pipeline because she finds it is in the public interest. However, she notes her “continued disagreement regarding the Commission's determination that it is unable to discern the significance of downstream [GHGs]. . . . I reject the contention that the Commission cannot ascribe significance to a given rate or volume of GHG emissions,” noting that NEPA requires such determination and she defends use of the SCC for that purpose.
Glick dissents from the approval, saying that FERC “cannot conclude that the Project is in the public interest without first determining the significance of the Project's contribution to climate change.” He says simply listing the pollutants is not enough. “Instead, the Commission must actually assess the harm that the Project will cause as a result of its contribution to climate change” and similarly defends use of the SCC.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/environmentalists-plan-nepa-suit-over-fercs-narrow-ghg-review-policy
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Court Slams Pruitt's Claim On CO2 Link To Warming, Orders Data Release
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
A federal district court judge is rejecting EPA's refusal to provide documents showing the basis of Administrator Scott Pruitt's claim that human-released carbon dioxide is not the “primary contributor” to climate change, and is instead ordering the agency to produce the records by next month.
In a June 1 opinion in Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) v. EPA, Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, finds EPA's opposition to PEER's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)] request at issue is “particularly troubling.”
EPA's argument is essentially “that the evidentiary basis for a policy of factual statement by an agency head, including about the scientific factors contributing to climate change, is inherently unknowable,” she writes.
The judge also says that Pruitt's “personal opinion” on the issue is highly relevant, as it could help guide EPA's regulatory agenda.
Howell was responding to EPA's refusal to search for responsive records to answer PEER's FOIA request that sought the underlying scientific data for Pruitt's March 2017 claim on CNBC that, “I would not agree that [CO2 and other greenhouse gases are] a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.” He added that “there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact” of “human activity on the climate.”
Such statements are at odds with the vast majority of scientific findings on the issue -- including a major scientific report released by the Trump administration -- finding human-released CO2 to be the dominant cause of climate change. The statements are also at odds with information on EPA's own website, though the Trump administration has taken steps to soften language and delete some information.
PEER filed suit in April 2017, seeking the studies upon which Pruitt based his claim and specifically asked for EPA scientific studies finding human activity not to be the largest factor in global climate change.
Howell in her ruling writes that EPA's refusal to search for the documents “runs directly counter to” administrative law legal precedents requiring that agencies provide “a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made,” and that it is the agency's responsibility to explain the rationale and factual basis for its decisions.
“EPA's strained attempt to raise an epistemological smokescreen will not work here to evade its obligations under the FOIA. EPA almost seemingly discounts any reason for public interest in the EPA Administrator's public statement,” the opinion says, citing EPA responses in the case that argued there was no agency decision implicit in Pruitt's talk show statements and that there is no administrative record or file “compiled to support individual statements of personal opinion.”
But Howell dismisses those claims, noting that an agency head's public statements about the causes of climate change, “even if those statements do not reflect an 'Agency decision,' but merely 'personal opinion,' may nonetheless guide the agency's regulatory efforts and, to the extent any agency records provide the basis for such public statements, those agency records are a perfectly proper focus of a FOIA request.”
Howell rejects all of EPA's claims about why it did not need to answer the FOIA request, including finding that it was not improper, it did not lack specificity and it was not overly broad.
Howell grants PEER's motion for summary judgment, rejects EPA's competing motion and orders the agency to conduct and complete a search for records by July 2 and to give them to PEER by July 11. The opinion also sets a July 31 deadline for the parties to file a joint status report of any outstanding issues in dispute.
In response, PEER said in a statement, “The beauty of FOIA is that a government agency can run but ultimately can't hide. This suit forces EPA to determine whether Mr. Pruitt's statements had a factual basis or were full of hot air.”
EPA's Arguments
EPA had argued in a Nov. 9 filing that the FOIA request “actually asks the Agency to answer questions and identify documents that may prove or disprove a proposition concerning climate change. To be proper, a FOIA request must seek records, nothing more. Plaintiff cannot ask EPA to agree or disagree with an assertion under the guise of a FOIA request.”
The filing also argued that PEER “is trying to lay a trap. If EPA fails to respond, PEER may allege and the public may assume that EPA cannot disprove the assertion. If EPA responds, EPA is necessarily taking a position about the meaning or significance of the documents and the substantive matters that the documents allegedly support or disprove. Either way, the Agency is being forced to take a position on a policy matter.”
PEER responded in a Dec. 11 filing that “it defies logic that EPA could know where and how to search for the documents that Administrator Pruitt relied on for his statement that human activity is not the primary driver of climate change, but at the same time be wholly unable to process a request for documents that support” that conclusion. “There is nothing improper about either part of the request and EPA is in violation of FOIA.”
EPA on April 16 submitted a notice of supplemental authority to the court arguing that an April appellate ruling on a FOIA request seeking information into allegations of science misconduct at EPA should be persuasive in dismissing PEER's complaint.
In that case, Hall & Associates v. EPA, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled April 9 that a FOIA request seeking EPA records to disprove each of the claims did not reasonably describe the documents sought and would have required EPA to undertake research, analysis and formulation of opinions, which are not required under FOIA.
But Howell's opinion rejects the comparison, finding that EPA over-relied on Hall and concluded that the PEER request “is manifestly different from the FOIA request at issue here since the plaintiff's FOIA request does not call for the agency to make any judgments or opine about the causes of climate change” but rather seeks the documents themselves.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/court-slams-pruitts-claim-co2-link-warming-orders-data-release
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EPA Proposes to Deny Delaware, Maryland Interstate Ozone Petitions
Jun 4, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA is proposing to deny five Clean Air Act petitions from Delaware and Maryland seeking direct agency regulation of power plants in several upwind states that the two petitioning states claim are compromising their ability to meet federal ozone standards, marking the latest setback for East Coast states' quest to curb interstate air pollution.
In a proposed rule that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed May 31 but not yet published in the Federal Register, EPA rejects the petitions filed under Clean Air Act section 126.
The provision allows downwind states to ask EPA to directly limit emissions from sources in other states upwind that inhibit attainment of national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). States have an air law “good neighbor” obligation to mitigate their emissions that harm air quality in other states.
“Downwind states like Delaware depend on the EPA to make sure that every state is a good neighbor when it comes to reducing air pollution. By denying these petitions, Mr. Pruitt has made clear that this administration has little regard for the plight of downwind states like Delaware,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) in a statement June 1 on the agency's proposed disapproval.
East Coast states that experience high levels of ozone pollution from upwind states are pushing EPA to do more to limit interstate emissions, especially with regard to meeting the agency's tougher 2015 ozone NAAQS. The Obama EPA tightened the ozone standard down to 70 parts per billion (ppb) in 2015, down from a weaker limit of 75 ppb set by the George W. Bush EPA in 2008.
“EPA proposes to deny all five petitions because Delaware and Maryland have not met their burden to demonstrate that the sources emit or would emit in violation of” the good neighbor provision, EPA says in the Register notice. “EPA is further proposing to deny the petitions based on the agency’s independent analysis that the identified sources do not currently emit and are not expected to emit pollution in violation of the good neighbor provision for either the 2008 or 2015 ozone NAAQS.”
Delaware's four petitions related to emissions from the Harrison Power Station, the Homer City Generating Station, and the Brunner Island Steam Generating Station in Pennsylvania, and the Conemaugh Generating Station Conemaugh in West Virginia. Maryland's petition, meanwhile, targeted 36 electric generating units at power plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
EPA will take public comment on the proposal for 45 days following its publication in the Register, and also plans to announce a public hearing in Washington, D.C., according to an agency fact sheet.
EPA's decisions follow its final rejection in an April 6 decision of a section 126 petition filed by Connecticut, also over the Brunner Island plant, seen as raising the bar for when the agency will grant such petitions. The state has threatened legal action, and the decision is still awaiting publication in the Federal Register.
New York filed a similar petition March 12 over emissions from sources in nine upwind states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The air law gives EPA 60 days to respond to section 126 petitions, but EPA routinely takes much longer, prompting lawsuits seeking judicial deadlines for issuance of responses. EPA has granted itself a six-month extension, until Nov. 9, to respond to New York's petition.
Delaware, meanwhile, is challenging EPA's ability to grant itself such extensions without first issuing a proposed response to a petition, in appeals filed in both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the 3rd Circuit.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-proposes-deny-delaware-maryland-interstate-ozone-petitions
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Maryland, Delaware Riled Over EPA Air Complaints Snub
Jun 4, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
Maryland and Delaware may sue the EPA over pollution from upwind out-of-state power plants after the agency shrugged at the states’ pleas for help.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed June 1 to deny five petitions the states had filed asking the federal government to impose new pollution controls on power plants in upwind states that Maryland and Delaware had argued were fouling their air.
“We will testify in opposition to the proposal and will use all available tools, including litigation,” Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles said in a statement.
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said the EPA “is shirking its primary responsibility,” ignoring the needs of states, and putting public health at risk.
“Delaware is working hard to protect its communities from dirty air, but emissions from other states account for nearly 90 percent of air pollution in the First State,” Carper said in a statement.
Submitted between July and November 2016, the petitions said the plants violated the Clean Air Act’s “good neighbor” provisions, which requires states to ensure that air pollution from within their borders doesn’t impinge on downwind states’ ability to meet federal limits for pollutants such as ozone. If a state’s plan doesn’t meet that requirement, the EPA must step in with a suitable plan for addressing the pollution.
Ozone issues can lead to a variety of health problems, especially for children, the elderly, and people with asthma.
Follows Similar DenialThe proposed denial of the Maryland and Delaware petitions comes a few months after the EPA in February denied a similar petition from Connecticut over emissions from Talen Energy’s Brunner Island Steam Electric Station in York County, Pa.
The EPA in its proposal said Maryland and Delaware had not done enough to demonstrate that pollution from those upwind power plants was actually linked to poor air quality downwind.
Delaware told the EPA in January it would sue if the federal agency didn’t respond to the state’s petitions for pollution reductions from plants in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In four petitions, Delaware said pollution from the coal-fired plants prevents it from meeting federal ozone standards.
The plants in the Delaware petitions are Talen Energy’s Brunner Island facility; the Conemaugh Generating Station, operated by PSEG Power LLC in Indiana County, Pa.; the Homer City Generating Station, operated by NRG Energy Services in Indiana County, Pa.; and the Harrison Power Station, operated by a FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary in Harrison County, W.Va.
Maryland’s petition called out 36 electric power plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, saying they were interfering with the state’s ability to meet the 2008 standards.
“We’re not asking for those power plants to do anything that we’re not already doing in Maryland,” Grumbles said in his statement.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/maryland-delaware-riled-over-epa-air-complaints-snub
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