Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 6/12/2018
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(ACC Mentioned) Pruitt Heads Out on Ethanol Visit
Jun 12, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Morning Energy
By Kelsey Tamborrino
...Cal Dooley has delayed his retirement from the American Chemistry Council where he is president and CEO, the ACC announced Monday... -
False Assumptions on Food Waste, Plastics and Packaging
Jun 11, 2018 | Plastics Today
By Robert Lilienfeld
You may be aware of a recent Friends of the Earth Europe and Zero Waste Europe report that claims that plastic packaging has no positive effect on food waste reduction. -
Despite TSCA Evaluations, EPA Leaves Door Open to New TCE, NMP Rules
Jun 12, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA says it could still promulgate stalled Obama-era proposals to regulate two chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) even though the agency says in recently issued “problem formulation” documents that it is planning to re-evaluate risks that the previous administration had already assessed. -
(ACC Mentioned) Industry-Backed Labelling Bill Introduced in US Congress
Jun 12, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
Both chambers of the US Congress are considering an industry-supported bill that would block product labelling schemes that are not "risk-based" or grounded in "the best available science". -
(ACC Mentioned) America's Plastics Makers Respond to G7 Charter Aimed at Cleaner Oceans
Jun 12, 2018 | Recycling Product News
Five countries agreed to The Ocean Plastics Charter, an annex to the Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas and Resilient Coastal Communities, at the G7 Summit this past weekend. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued the following statement. -
(ACC Mentioned) UK Joins G7 Ocean Plastics Plan
Jun 12, 2018 | MRW
By Mark Smulian
Five of the world’s leading industrial powers, including the UK, signed up to a charter to protect the oceans from plastics pollution at the G7 summit in Canada. -
(ACC Mentioned) How Global Leadership and Impact Investments Can Stem the Rising Tide of Ocean Plastic
Jun 11, 2018 | Impact Alpha
By Carol J. Clouse
Plastic straws suck. Just ask my seven-year-old daughter, who saw a photo of a sea turtle with one stuck up its nose and swore never to use them again. -
One Unexpected Sticking Point at the G-7: Plastics Pollution in the Ocean
Jun 11, 2018 | Washington Post
By Philip Bump
There was a quiet detail in a report on this weekend’s disastrous Group of 7 summit in Canada that didn’t receive much notice. -
IARC Needs More Than A Preamble Change
Jun 11, 2018 | Science 2.0
By Geoffrey Kabat
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Unpublished Health Report Prompts Bipartisan Concern
Jun 12, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Corbin Hiar
A bipartisan group of more than a dozen senators is urging top Trump administration officials to publish a delayed health review of certain toxic nonstick chemicals. -
Industry Opposes California Regulating Cleaning Product Chemicals
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joyce E. Cutler
Companies such as Dow Chemical, the SI Group, and Dover Chemical oppose a California proposal to require chemical manufacturers to use safer alternatives to compounds used in detergent and cleansers. -
EPA Forwards Lead Paint Dust Standard for OMB Review
Jun 11, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA has forwarded for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review a draft proposed rule updating its lead paint dust hazard standard for residential structures and its regulatory definition of lead-based paint, two weeks ahead of a court deadline for issuing the plan. -
NY Housing Authority to Pay $2B to Remedy Lead Paint, Decay (1)
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By John Herzfeld
The agency responsible for New York City’s public housing agreed to spend a total of $2 billion, and be supervised by an independent monitor, to remedy lead paint, mold, and other health hazards in decaying infrastructure. -
Another Fracking Boom to Beget Another Fracking Bust; Or Will It?
Jun 12, 2018 | The Hill - Opinion
By David Spence
Employers and community leaders in Midland, Texas are in a scramble to keep essential services operating as restaurant workers and school bus drivers are leaving their jobs for much more lucrative work in the oil patch. -
Global LNG Trade Sets Record Annual Increase on U.S., Australia Exports
Jun 12, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade climbed to 38.2 Bcf/d worldwide last year, nearly 10% higher than in 2016 and the largest annual increase on record, according to the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL). -
Oil Lobby Flexes Muscles on Atlantic Drilling
Jun 12, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
With southern politicians lining up against oil drilling off the Atlantic coastline, oil lobbyists are making another push to change their minds. -
Despite Public Health Consequences, Trump’s EPA to Roll Back Regulation to Prevent Methane Leaks
Jun 12, 2018 | Texas Observer
By Naveena Sadasivam
Last week, the staff of the environmental nonprofit Earthworks were on a retreat in West Texas when Sharon Wilson, a Dallas-based organizer for the group, decided to take them into the Wild, Wild West of the Permian Basin. -
(ACC Mentioned) Hazardous Sites Changing Hands Pose Risks for Companies, OECD Says
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rick Mitchell
Companies buying or selling hazardous waste sites face risks, so planning ahead is vital, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says in its latest guidance. -
U.S. Regulators Urge Better Oversight for Pipeline Cybersecurity
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Adams-Heard
The federal agency now charged with overseeing cybersecurity for U.S. pipelines is ill-equipped to do the job, say two top regulators who want the role given to the Energy Department. -
Trump's Coal, Nuclear Bailout No Shield From Hackers: Cyber Experts
Jun 12, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Timothy Gardner
Bailing out nuclear and coal-fired power plants will not toughen the U.S. power grid against cyber attacks as the Trump administration claims, according to cyber experts, because hackers have a wide array of options for hitting electric infrastructure and nuclear facilities that are high-profile targets. -
Three Exxon Mobil Workers in Louisiana Burned by Sulfuric Acid
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew M. Ballard
Three contractors at an Exxon Mobil Corp. chemical plant in Baton Rouge, La., were burned by sulfuric acid June 11. -
FRA: Rail Industry Is Meeting Safer Tank Car Standards
Jun 11, 2018 | Wisconsin Public Radio
By Danielle Kaeding
Three years ago, the federal government rolled out new safety standards for trains amid a growing number of oil shipments and derailments. Now, railroad companies are using safer tank cars to carry hazardous materials like crude oil throughout Wisconsin. -
(ACC Mentioned) The EPA is Protecting Industry Instead of Public Health or the Environment
Jun 11, 2018 | Paste Magazine
By Allison Bolt
The Environmental Protection Agency is protecting the industries it’s tasked with regulating instead of the environment or public health, The Conversation reports. According a group of social scientists, Scott Pruitt’s “efforts to undo, delay or otherwise block at least 30 existing rules reorient EPA rule-making away... -
(ACC Mentioned) Staffers Warn Scott Pruitt Has Handed EPA over to Polluters
Jun 11, 2018 | The American Independent (In Shareblue Media)
By Eric Boehlert
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under its scandal-plagued chief Scott Pruitt, has swung so far away from its stated mission of protecting consumers that the agency is now on the precipice of “regulatory capture,” say current and former agency staffers. -
GOP Senators Push Trump to Submit Pollution Treaty Amendment for Senate Approval
Jun 12, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A group of Republicans senators is pushing President Trump to let them approve a treaty amendment meant to cut emissions of certain greenhouse gases. -
Republicans Urge Trump to Submit Obama Deal for Ratification
Jun 12, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk
A group of Republicans has urged President Trump to send an Obama-era climate agreement to the Senate for approval. -
Trump, Oil of Less Concern Than Climate Change for Top Companies
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Morison
The world’s biggest companies are increasingly worried about climate change. -
EPA Floats Aug. 1 Deadline to Decide on Ozone NAAQS Reconsideration
Jun 11, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA is suggesting to a federal appeals court that it will decide by Aug. 1 on whether to reconsider the Obama-era decision to tighten the ozone air standard, with agency air chief William Wehrum said to favor accelerating a Clean Air Act-mandated review of the standard due by Oct. 1, 2020... -
Municipalities Seek to Limit Appeal of Climate Nuisance Case
Jun 11, 2018 | Inside EPA
Three California municipalities are seeking to significantly limit the scope of fossil fuel companies' appeal of a federal district court's decision to move their novel climate change nuisance suit back to state court where it was originally filed
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(ACC Mentioned) Pruitt Heads Out on Ethanol Visit
Jun 12, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Morning Energy
By Kelsey Tamborrino
With help from Darius Dixon and Alex Guillén
DEPARTMENT OF INTERESTING TIMING: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is expected to travel to Kansas this morning, where he'll stop by East Kansas Agri-Energy's ethanol plant in Garnett. The trip comes a week after the White House quashed the release of a plan to change the Renewable Fuels Standard amid sharp opposition from ag interests. Iowa GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst — who have been critical of Pruitt — thanked President Donald Trump for refusing to sign off on the deal that Pruitt helped craft that would have expanded sales of E15 fuel, but also allow exports of ethanol to qualify for compliance credits.
“Mr. Pruitt is planning on being here," Bill Pracht, CEO of the ethanol plant, told Pro's Eric Wolff. “I was kind of surprised," he said, adding that he did not organize the visit. "He was coming to Kansas, doing one other event on a different issue, and the plant is on the way to the airport.” According to a consultant with a communications firm that has been helping to organize the trip, Pruitt is also expected to visit another ethanol plant in South Dakota. Pracht said he plans to give Pruitt a tour of the plant and have the administrator meet with his board and some local agricultural groups. EPA, which typically does not disclose Pruitt's whereabouts, did not respond to requests for further details.
ME is wondering what kind of reception Pruitt will receives during his visit, since the administrator has drawn the ire of ethanol backers for granting dozens of ethanol compliance waivers to refiners. Ernst, herself a strong supporter of the ethanol industry, said Pruitt lied to her and other senators last year when he promised to uphold the RFS. Earlier this month, Ernst called Pruitt “about as swampy as you get,” while other ethanol groups accuse him of being sympathetic to refiners. “It’s clear that the refiners have the ear of Administrator Pruitt,” Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council, recently told Eric. “We feel like Administrator Pruitt is going to stay at it."
WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I'm your host Kelsey Tamborrino, and FTI Consulting’s Steve Everley was the first to correctly identify Santa Fe, N.M., as the oldest capital city in the U.S. Today’s question is in honor of D.C.’s Stanley Cup parade: Which former U.S. Supreme Court justice has a hockey scholarship in his/her name? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @kelseytam, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
FERC IN THE POWER BAILOUT HOT SEAT: FERC’s five commissioners aren’t the ones crafting a broad rescue plan for the nation’s economically struggling coal and nuclear power plants, but they will be probed about the issue this morning by lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. If Energy Secretary Rick Perry follows Trump's request to protect coal power plants and moves ahead with a plan to use the Federal Power Act, its pretty likely to end up in FERC's lap. Perry can order a power plant to run, but its the regulators who determine how much the generator gets paid. Expect Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the energy panel, to leap into the issue headfirst and urge FERC leaders to stand firm against Perry. And if previous FERC hearings are any indication, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Angus King will delve into the issue as well.
We’ll be keeping an ear out for where committee Republicans line up publicly on the pending power plant rescue plan, if they mention it at all. Plans that involve the Defense Production Act rather than the FPA to help the struggling plants are likely to need Congress to sign off on new spending, which is no slam dunk given the nearly even split in the Senate. The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in Dirksen 366.
Ahead of the meeting: FERC Commissioners Neil Chatterjee and Richard Glick penned an op-ed in Axios on cybersecurity oversight on the pipeline system, calling on Congress to take action. “Given the high stakes, Congress should vest responsibility for pipeline security with an agency that fully comprehends the energy sector and has sufficient resources to address this growing threat,” they write, suggesting DOE would be a viable option. Read it here.
— In response, DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said Chatterjee and Glick were right to highlight the threat. "They have both received briefings at the Department from intelligence officials on this matter," Hynes said, adding that DOE "remains committed to working with Congress, our interagency and industry partners as we seek to combat this threat and improve the security and resilience of our grid.”
NEW DOE STUDY TO LOOK AT ‘UNCONSTRAINED’ LNG EXPORTS:The Energy Department is slated to post a new macroeconomic study of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports today that the agency says will factor into its decisions around approving exports to countries the U.S. does not have free trade agreements with. This will be the fifth LNG economics study since 2012 and, according to the Federal Register notice, it differs from the previous reports in looking at the impact of “unconstrained” exports. The most recent study, in 2015, considered export volumes of up to 28 Bcf per day. The study will be posted hereand the agency is collecting comments through July 27.
EPA FLOATS 36 NAMES FOR CASAC SPOTS: EPA on Monday released a list of 36 experts nominated for the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which advises Pruitt on NAAQS issues. Pruitt last year appointed three new people to the seven-member panel; the other four slots are open for new three-year appointments at the beginning of October. Three of those four scientists have been re-nominated (Judith Chow, Ivan Fernandez and Elizabeth Sheppard), although Pruitt has shown little interest in re-upping Obama-era advisers on CASAC or other committees. The list is open for public comment through July 2.
Along with a large slate of academics and government scientists, the list includes Thomas Burke, a Johns Hopkins professor and top R&D official at EPA during the Obama administration; Nan Hayworth, a former ophthalmologist-turned-congresswoman who was a media surrogate for Pruitt during his confirmation process last year; Sabine Lange, who works at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's toxicology division under Science Advisory Board Chair Michael Honeycutt; and Deane Waldman, who runs the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Health Care Policy.
Also nominated is James Enstrom, an epidemiologist who received funding from the tobacco industry and who has been openly critical of EPA’s particulate matter standards. Enstrom is connected to Pruitt’s proposed science transparency policy as well. In 2013, when Rep. Lamar Smith was pushing for his legislative version of the policy, he identified Enstrom specifically as a scientist whose request to examine the raw data underlying American Cancer Society studies was rejected.
KOCH INDUSTRIES INVESTS IN FIRSTENERGY: Koch Industries purchased more than 20,000 shares of FirstEnergy Corp., according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The filing shows the group acquired 20,052 shares of FirstEnergy’s stock at approximately $682,000. The same filing lists purchases in more than 20 other energy groups. (h/t Bloomberg's Ari Natter)
SOLAR GROWS IN FIRST QUARTER: Despite recent tariffs on imported solar modules, the U.S. added 2.5 gigawatts of solar photovoltaics in the first quarter of 2018, according to the latest "U.S. Solar Market Insight" report from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association. The report also found that solar PV accounted for 55 percent of all U.S. electricity capacity added during the quarter, and overall, solar installations in 2018 are expected to be in line with 2017's 10.6 GW "before growing more robustly in 2019 and then accelerating in the early 2020s," the report predicts. “This data shows that solar has become a common-sense option for much of the U.S. and is too strong to be set back for long, even in light of the tariffs," said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper in a statement. Read the report here.
ANOTHER PRIMARY TUESDAY: Five states will hold primary elections today: Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia. And while ME isn't expecting any major surprises, there are quite a few energy angles playing out.
— In North Dakota, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is running unopposed, while GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer is widely expected to win his race today to take her on come November. State Sen. Kelly Armstrong is the favorite in both the Republican primary and the general election to fill Cramer’s seat, Roll Call reports. Armstrong is currently vice president of his family’s energy business, the Armstrong Corporation.
— In Nevada, Republican incumbent Sen. Dean Heller is expected to advance to face Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen in November. It's less clear who will get the chance to take Rosen's seat. Twenty-one candidates are vying to replace her in the 3rd Congressional District, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Both Heller and Rosen have opposed efforts to restart the licensing process at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
— In Maine, greens are looking to replace Republican. Gov. Paul LePage, who is term limited, with a more pro-environmental candidate in the state that is home to significant offshore wind resources. POLITICO has more of what to watch in today's primaries here.
** A message from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association:America’s electric cooperatives directly employ 71,000 workers and create thousands of other jobs in their communities. For example, every 20 electric cooperative jobs in Arkansas generate an additional 35 indirect or induced jobs in the state. Learn more: https://bit.ly/2kLKp7Z **
SEND IT TO THE SENATE: Thirteen Republican senators called on Trump to send the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol — a treaty limiting global use of hydrofluorocarbons, a climate change-causing coolant — to the Senate for ratification. “By sending the amendment to the Senate, you will help secure America’s place as the global leader in several manufacturing industries, and in turn give American workers an advantage against their competitors in the international marketplace,” the senators write in a letter sent Monday. Backers of the treaty, Pro’s Eric Wolff reports, worry the president’s antipathy to multilateral deals and climate agreements could jeopardize the deal that was struck at the end of the Obama administration. Read the letter.INTERIOR-ENVIRONMENT MARKUP TODAY: The Senate Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee will mark up its appropriations bill for fiscal 2019. The full committee is expected to take up the measure Thursday. If you go: The markup begins at 9:30 a.m. in 124 Dirksen.
MAIL CALL! DEMS WANT HARASSMENT HEARING: Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee called on Chairman Rob Bishop to hold a hearing on sexual harassment and other types of workplace harassment at DOI, in a letter Monday. The letter highlights Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's frequent calls for a “zero tolerance policy” toward harassment within the department, which they say the secretary has taken commendable action on, but that more needs to be done. The hearing request follows the January report by committee Democratic staff that identified needed policy reforms at the agency.
— Separately, Democratic members of the House Science Oversight Subcommittee sent a letter last week to Oversight Chairman Ralph Abrahamasking for a hearing on a reported internal White House memo that weighed whether officials should simply “ignore” climate studies produced by government scientists. “Ignoring science and pushing political agendas that may be welcomed by industry, but harmful to the health, safety and security of all Americans should never be acceptable to the Science Committee or its members regardless of their political party,” the Democrats wrote.
DOOLEY DELAYS RETIREMENT: Cal Dooley has delayed his retirement from the American Chemistry Council where he is president and CEO, the ACC announced Monday. Dooley will instead extend his tenure through 2019, following last week’s annual ACC meeting, where the group’s board of directors agreed their industry should take on a more global role to reduce and eliminate plastic waste. After a decade at the helm of ACC, Dooley in April had announced he would retire at the end of this year. The ACC’s effort to find Dooley’s replacement has been suspended for the time being, but will resume in mid-2019.
REPORT: BLM RESHUFFLE CONTINUES: BLM has replaced acting Deputy Director of Operations Mike Nedd with Richard Cardinale, a senior DOI official who has never worked at BLM, E&E News reports. Cardinale was director of the business operations division in Interior’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. Sources tell E&E he’s since moved into BLM's deputy director of operations position on an acting basis. Read the story.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED? Ahead of September's Global Climate Action Summit, the World Wildlife Fund has banded together a coalition to issue its "30X30 Forests, Food and Land Challenge," which calls on business and local and state governments to take action on forest and habitat conservation, as well as food production and consumption and land use.
MOVER, SHAKER: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed Shelly Botkin to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the PUC said Monday. Botkin is currently director of corporate communications and government relations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Botkin’s PUC term would expire on Sept. 1, 2019.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-energy/2018/06/12/pruitt-heads-out-on-ethanol-visit-248828
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False Assumptions on Food Waste, Plastics and Packaging
Jun 11, 2018 | Plastics Today
By Robert Lilienfeld
You may be aware of a recent Friends of the Earth Europe and Zero Waste Europe report that claims that plastic packaging has no positive effect on food waste reduction. The publication’s main contention is that both food waste and plastic packaging are increasing, thus the use of plastic packaging does not positively contribute to food waste reduction.
On a superficial level, the finding is correct: Both food waste and plastic packaging waste are growing. But a deeper dive into similar data here in the U.S. reveals that their conclusion regarding the lack of a positive relationship between plastic packaging and food waste is not.
Let’s go to the latest EPA numbers:
U.S. EPA: Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2014 Tables and Figures, Table 22 (p.29). Population data from U.S. Census Bureau.
The two most important points coming out of these numbers are that:
1. At 25.1%, food waste between 2000 and 2014 grew about twice as fast as the population grew, leading to a per capita increase of 10.8%, or an additional 23.5 pounds per person. These statistics are rather disturbing, as they indicate that each of us throws away significantly more food than we did 15 years ago.
According to a WRAP report (Household Food & Drink Waste in the UK), two-thirds of this waste is due to spoilage from foods not being used on time, and one-third is due to consumers serving more food than their family can eat at one meal. Packaging obviously does have a positive role to play here, at least in terms of A.) ensuring that foods have reasonable shelf lives once in the home, and B.) providing consistent, easy-to-understand and accurate information regarding the last day that food should be prepared and/or eaten.
Another reason for the increase in food waste: The unintended consequences of purchasing more fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables. A recent study by the USDA, University of Vermont, and University of New Hampshire was especially critical of the ties between healthy diets and food waste. As reported in USA Today, “Higher quality diets have greater amounts of fruits and vegetables, which are being wasted in greater quantities than other food," said Meredith Niles, a co-author of the study from the University of Vermont, in a statement. "Eating healthy is important, and brings many benefits, but as we pursue these diets, we must think much more consciously about food waste."
The above study corroborates findings made almost 25 years ago by well-known Garbologist Dr. William Rathje, who wrote in the March-April 1996 edition of The ULS Report that, “There are several specific behavior patterns which are associated with high rates of food waste. Most are obvious. It should come as no surprise, for example, that fresh produce is wasted at ten times or more the rate of processed fruits and vegetables, and foods that are used frequently (such as the slices from standard loaves of bread) find themselves in the trash much less often than foods which are used only sporadically (e.g., hot dog buns or muffins).”
2. Much of this decline was due to the substitution of plastic packaging for paper packaging, as plastics in general weigh less than paper, delivering more product per pound of package. (See my April, 2015 article in Packaging Digest for more information as to the magnitude of this effect. And, for a highly detailed report on this subject, see A Study of Packaging Efficiency As It Relates to Waste Prevention, published by The ULS Report in January, 2016.)
This data indicate that food companies are continually looking for ways to deliver more food with less packaging. Known as source reduction, this strategy is the first (and most import) “R” in the EPA’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle strategy as articulated in the EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management Hierarchy.So, in actuality, there is highly credible data which clearly indicates that plastic packaging has a significant role to play in helping to reduce food waste.
Need more proof? Here are a few more examples (taken from an article I wrote for Packaging Digestlast November) that point in this direction:
1. When it comes to alleviating spoilage and other forms of food waste, packaging is so critical that Helén Williams and Fredrik Wikström, life cycle assessment researchers at Karlstad University in Sweden, state that, “Packaging that is altered in order to reduce food losses can lessen the total environmental impact and lead to large environmental gains, even if it is necessary to increase the environmental impact from the packaging itself.” (Journal of Cleaner Production, 2011)
A study of wrapped vs. naked cucumbers showed that over a two-week period, naked cucumbers lost between 10-15% of their moisture, vs. only about 1% for wrapped ones.
Packaging that reduces oxygen exposure can increase shelf life of meats from 4 days to 30 days. This process also reduces in-store waste by up to 25%.2. According to the Freakonomics article entitled How About Them Wrapped Apples, “Given the high cost of wasting food, the question of [packaging] design might be more important than the question of necessity. Waste is an inevitable outcome of production. As consumers, we should certainly see food packaging as a form of waste and seek increasingly responsible packaging solutions. At the same time, though, we must do so without resorting to pat calls to “reduce packaging. Doing so, it seems, could do more harm than good.”
3. You might also take a look at Why Spoiled Leftovers Are Worse for the Environment Than Plastic, from OrganicLife, published by the experts in organic gardening, Rodale Press. As the article states, “Letting stuff in the fridge go straight into the garbage is a big problem.”
Bon appetit!
https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/false-assumptions-on-food-waste-plastics-and-packaging/150947770758909
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Despite TSCA Evaluations, EPA Leaves Door Open to New TCE, NMP Rules
Jun 12, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad
EPA says it could still promulgate stalled Obama-era proposals to regulate two chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) even though the agency says in recently issued “problem formulation” documents that it is planning to re-evaluate risks that the previous administration had already assessed.
“It is important to note that conducting these evaluations does not preclude EPA from finalizing the proposed” rules for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) and paint-stripper n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), the agency told Inside EPA June 8. “Also, if through its evaluation EPA determines that any of these conditions of use present unreasonable risks, EPA will take prompt action under the statute to address those risks.”
The remarks come in response to Inside EPA's June 8 report on EPA's problem formulation documents, which indicate that the agency is planning to re-evaluate risks that the Obama administration had already assessed and proposed to regulate.
Shortly before leaving office, the Obama EPA proposed first-time TSCA section 6 rules limiting some uses of three chemicals -- methylene chloride, NMP and TCE.
TSCA section 6 was a rarely used provision in the original statute that gives EPA power to ban or restrict substances and/or select uses. The statute was reformed, in part, to give EPA greater authority to use its section 6 powers.
The prior administration also included those chemicals among the 10 selected to be the first evaluated under the new TSCA program.
While the Trump EPA quickly listed those proposed rules as “long-term actions,” Administrator Scott Pruitt recently indicated that the agency will soon finalize a measure addressing methylene chloride.
And the problem formulation document EPA released June 1 for methylene chloride states that the agency will not be re-assessing risks stemming from use of the substance in paint strippers because the agency plans to issue the final section 6 rule regulating use of methylene chloride in paint strippers. The proposed version of the methylene chloride rule had also included NMP's use as a paint stripper, but the problem formulation document is unclear on how the agency will proceed.
The June 1 NMP document says EPA plans to re-evaluate risks of NMP, while it appears to leave the door open to a rule.
By contrast, EPA's June 1 problem formulation document for the TCE evaluation says that it will re-evaluate some already assessed risks to ensure that earlier assessments underlying the proposed section 6 rule are consistent with the Trump administration's framework rule governing how TSCA evaluations are conducted.
“We are actively moving ahead to improve the quality and robustness of our risk evaluation,” EPA says.
The agency notes that it will be considering “additional conditions of use” from what it had initially indicated in its June 2017 TCE and NMP scoping documents, “applying and ensuring consistency with scientific standards and guidance under amended TSCA, . . . and considering other available hazard and exposure data to ensure that all reasonably available information is taken into consideration.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/despite-tsca-evaluations-epa-leaves-door-open-new-tce-nmp-rules?destination=node/212575
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(ACC Mentioned) Industry-Backed Labelling Bill Introduced in US Congress
Jun 12, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
Both chambers of the US Congress are considering an industry-supported bill that would block product labelling schemes that are not "risk-based" or grounded in "the best available science".
Senator Jerry Moran (R–Kansas) and Representatives Adam Kinzinger (R–Illinois) and Kurt Schrader (D–Oregon) have introduced the Accurate Labels Act. According to its authors, it is intended to ensure consumers have "accurate and easy-to-understand product information". It aims to do this by:
· establishing "science-based criteria" for state labelling requirements;
· ensuring that product information is "risk-based";
· clarifying that trace amounts of substances do not need to be listed as ingredients; and
· allowing state-mandated product information to be provided online and through smartphone-enabled 'smart labels', including for relevant ingredients and warnings.
"Due to various state laws, items are incorrectly labelled with warnings about harms that do not exist," said Mr Kinzinger. "This inaccuracy creates confusion and fear for the consumers; desensitises the public from heeding serious warnings on health risks; and imposes unnecessary and costly regulatory burdens for producers."
Labelling inaccuracy 'creates confusion and fear for the consumers; desensitises the public from heeding serious warnings on health risks; and imposes unnecessary and costly regulatory burdens for producers,' Cal Dooley, ACC
More than 60 business organisations have united under the Coalition for Accurate Product Labels banner in support of the legislation. The American Chemistry Council, Grocery Manufacturers Association and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives are co-chairing the coalition.
The ACC says the need for the legislation is clear from the growing number of proposals that would mandate product warning labels that are "not backed by science and imply risks where none exist".
It says there have been 30 proposals in 11 different states in the past year to require warning labels or ingredient listings.
The bill "offers a solution to this labelling chaos and misinformation that is creating consumer confusion, driving up costs and creating unreasonable regulatory burdens," added ACC president and CEO Cal Dooley.
Proposition 65
Introduction of the measure comes amid ongoing concern over existing labelling schemes, including California’s Proposition 65, which will see new "clear and reasonable warning" requirements take effect in August.
The proposed Accurate Labels Act does not mention any specific existing labelling provisions. However, Nancy Buermeyer, senior policy strategist for Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, told Chemical Watch the bill has the California law "squarely in the cross-hairs".
"The intent is to undermine the effectiveness of Prop 65," she said. She added the bill's passage would have "a chilling effect".
And on the California law, Claire Parker, a spokesperson for the industry coalition, told Chemical Watch the measure would allow manufacturers to challenge a warning label requirement in a federal district court if they feel the mandate does not meet the new federal standard.
'Underhanded attempt to strike down laws'
Beyond Prop 65, Ms Buermeyer said the Accurate Labels Act could undercut other state ingredient disclosure and labelling laws.
These include New York's recently agreed cleaning products disclosure rule, as well as California's flame retardant labelling requirement.
Ansje Miller, policy director for NGO Center for Environmental Health, called the proposal an "underhanded and deceitful attempt by the chemical industry to strike down laws".
"This legislation would effectively keep the American people in the dark and unaware if ingredients in food, toys, personal care products and other goods could expose them to cancer-causing chemicals and other hazardous substances," added Scott Faber, vice president of the Environmental Working Group.
The Senate version of the bill (S 3019) has been referred to the committee on commerce, science and transportation. The House bill (HR 6022) is under consideration by the energy and commerce committee.
https://chemicalwatch.com/67593/industry-backed-labelling-bill-introduced-in-us-congress
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(ACC Mentioned) America's Plastics Makers Respond to G7 Charter Aimed at Cleaner Oceans
Jun 12, 2018 | Recycling Product News
Five countries agreed to The Ocean Plastics Charter, an annex to the Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas and Resilient Coastal Communities, at the G7 Summit this past weekend. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued the following statement.
"Marine debris is a pressing global issue, and ACC is committed to being part of the solution," said Steve Russell, ACC's vice president of plastics. "Our plastic makers have set and are working to achieve aggressive goals for the reuse, recycling and recovery of 100% of plastic packaging by 2040, with interim goals by 2030.
"To achieve these goals we will need to work closely with stakeholders and governments, including members of the G7," Russell continued. "We look forward to collaborating on a range of activities outlined in the Charter—including sustainable design, research, information sharing, and creative new ideas like the Plastics Innovation Challenge—in the months and years ahead. We believe investing in waste management systems will be critical to making real progress, and we appreciate Canada's leadership in pledging $100 million to jumpstart that effort.
"In facing the challenge of marine litter there is much we can agree on, and even more we must act on, recognizing different approaches and priorities to getting there. Plastics are essential to helping us live safer, more sustainable lives. But they have no place in our oceans or in our environment.
"We know ocean pollution is a large and complex problem. But this problem is solvable if we work together and stay focused on capturing and transforming municipal solid waste at its source."
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) represents the leading companies engaged in the business of chemistry. ACC members apply the science of chemistry to make innovative products and services that make people's lives better, healthier and safer. ACC is committed to improved environmental, health and safety performance through Responsible Care; common sense advocacy designed to address major public policy issues; and health and environmental research and product testing. The business of chemistry is a $768 billion enterprise and a key element of the nation's economy. It is among the largest exporters in the nation, accounting for fourteen percent of all U.S. goods exports. Chemistry companies are among the largest investors in research and development. Safety and security have always been primary concerns of ACC members, and they have intensified their efforts, working closely with government agencies to improve security and to defend against any threat to the nation's critical infrastructure.https://www.recyclingproductnews.com/article/28396/americas-plastics-makers-respond-to-g7-charter-aimed-at-cleaner-oceans
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(ACC Mentioned) UK Joins G7 Ocean Plastics Plan
Jun 12, 2018 | MRW
By Mark Smulian
Five of the world’s leading industrial powers, including the UK, signed up to a charter to protect the oceans from plastics pollution at the G7 summit in Canada.
The United States and Japan refused to join, potentially limiting its effectiveness.
A summit communique said: “We recognise the urgency of the threat of ocean plastic waste and marine litter to ecosystems and the lost value of plastics in the waste stream.
“We commit to building on previous G7 commitments and taking a lifecycle approach to plastics stewardship on land and at sea, moving towards a more resource efficient and sustainable management of plastics.”
It said the current approach to producing, using, managing and disposing of plastics “poses a significant threat to the environment, to livelihoods and potentially to human health”.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the European Union committed to move towards “a more resource-efficient and sustainable approach to the management of plastics”.
They said they would aim to “avoid unnecessary use of plastics and prevent waste, and to ensure that plastics are designed for recovery, reuse, recycling and end-of-life management to prevent waste through various policy measures”.
The five countries committed to work with industry towards 100% reusable, recyclable or recoverable plastics by 2030, use ‘green’ public procurement to reduce waste and support secondary plastics markets and alternatives to plastic, and to increase recycled content by at least 50% in plastic products where applicable by 2030.
They also pledged to recycle and reuse at least 55% of plastic packaging by 2030 and recover 100% of plastics by 2040.
WRAP in April launched a plastics pact for the UK with some more demanding targets.
Despite the US government’s stance, the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) vice president of plastics Steve Russell said: “Marine debris is a pressing global issue, and ACC is committed to being part of the solution. Our plastic makers have set and are working to achieve aggressive goals for the reuse, recycling and recovery of 100% of plastic packaging by 2040, with interim goals by 2030.”
Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan said: “While the leadership to outline a common blueprint is good news, voluntary charters focused on recycling and repurposing will not solve the problem at the source.
“It’s time for the world’s largest economies to recognise that we cannot simply recycle our way out of this problem while we keep churning out so much throwaway plastic in the first place.
“Governments must move beyond voluntary agreements to legislate binding reduction targets and bans on single-use plastics, invest in new and reuse delivery models for products, and hold corporations accountable for the problem they have created.”
https://www.mrw.co.uk/latest/uk-joins-g7-ocean-plastics-plan/10032013.article
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Jun 11, 2018 | Impact Alpha
By Carol J. Clouse
Plastic straws suck. Just ask my seven-year-old daughter, who saw a photo of a sea turtle with one stuck up its nose and swore never to use them again.
https://impactalpha.com/how-global-leadership-and-impact-investments-can-stem-the-rising-tide-of-ocean-plastic/
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One Unexpected Sticking Point at the G-7: Plastics Pollution in the Ocean
Jun 11, 2018 | Washington Post
By Philip Bump
There was a quiet detail in a report on this weekend’s disastrous Group of 7 summit in Canada that didn’t receive much notice. It’s known that there was a variety of issues on which President Trump and the U.S. delegation disagreed with its allies in drafting a statement meant as a capstone to the brief meeting, but the Toronto Star lifted up something unexpected: plastics.
From its report:
“The Americans didn’t want to agree to a declaration on climate change that referenced the Paris accord, nor did they want to sign on an oceans charter, which contained targets on plastics, with similar language. … No one expected Trump would sign on the climate change piece, but they’d hoped the U.S. would agree to take joint action to tackle plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.”
“In the end, it didn’t.”
This is an interesting thing on which to dig in one’s heels. Although Trump’s attitude toward climate change is well understood and predictable — the Paris accord, as you may remember, was a voluntary global effort to address warming — opposition to curtailing plastics pollution is a new one, at least to me. Climate change has been heavily laced with politics and a deliberate effort to mask or question the science linking greenhouse gas emissions to a warming climate. The amount of plastic in the world’s oceans, though, is both directly measurable and obvious in its origins.
Two of the largest measured collections of plastic in the ocean are in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans near the United States.
ll of that plastic isn’t from the United States, though. As plastic waste enters the ocean, it travels with currents as it breaks down into smaller particles. The collection points on the map above are a function of those currents, not of their points of origin.
That said, there has been analysis aimed at determining the origin point of plastics that end up in the ocean. The heaviest contributor, 2015 research found, was China, which makes up about 28 percent of the mismanaged plastic waste in the world. A number of developing countries compose the top 20 most significant contributors — but the United States comes in in the 20th slot.
The challenge is that, although the United States is much better at preventing plastic waste from escaping the refuse collection process, we generate so much more waste that it contributes a lot to the problem. As the researchers put it, “even a relatively low mismanaged rate results in a large mass of mismanaged plastic waste because of large coastal populations and, especially in the United States, high per capita waste generation.” A small percentage of a large number can be as big as a large percentage of a small number.
That 2015 estimate is a range of annual plastic debris that enters the ocean each year. Researchers figured that the upper end of the U.S. estimate was about 0.11 million metric tons of debris — or about 73 percent of the mass of gold that has ever been mined (according to Wolfram Alpha). The low end, 0.04 million metric tons, is the equivalent of three-quarters of the mass of the Titanic.
In other words, the problem of plastic pollution in the ocean — which is a problem, including because of the negative health effects on sea life — is more a function of the United States than any of the other member nations of the G-7. That, too, is a function of scale, but it doesn’t really matter. Like climate change, the United States contributes more than other major developed economies.
The American objection to action on climate change often takes the form of preserving economic competitiveness of American industry. If we were to apply limits or demand certain technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the argument goes, overseas companies that ignored those restrictions would gain a competitive advantage.
The agreed-upon communique released following the summit includes language particular to the issue of plastics pollution, endorsing a charterthat would reduce certain uses for plastic and move toward using only recyclable plastic. The mention of plastics makes up the second part of the second-to-last of 28 points of agreement.
“We endorse the Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas and Resilient Coastal Communities, and will improve oceans knowledge, promote sustainable oceans and fisheries, support resilient coasts and coastal communities and address ocean plastic waste and marine litter. Recognizing that plastics play an important role in our economy and daily lives but that the current approach to producing, using, managing and disposing of plastics and poses a significant threat to the marine environment, to livelihoods and potentially to human health, we the Leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the European Union endorse the G-7 Ocean Plastics Charter.”
Notice the absence of the United States and Japan from that list.
America’s exclusion ended up not mattering anyway. Shortly after leaving the summit, incensed at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump backed out of the communique entirely.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/06/11/one-reported-sticking-point-at-the-g-7-plastics-pollution-in-the-ocean/?utm_term=.ca55d9d2a06c
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IARC Needs More Than A Preamble Change
Jun 11, 2018 | Science 2.0
By Geoffrey Kabat
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which operates under the auspices of the U.N. World Health Organisation, is soliciting comments prior to holding an Advisory Group meeting in November to propose revisions to its Preamble.
That a government group needs to get comments before even forming a group to discuss a preamble sounds like bureaucracy run wild. But the preamble articulates the mission and methods of the IARC Monographs program and an update has been long overdue.
The Monographs program has been embroiled in controversy due to concerns related to its recent assessments of bacon, cell phones, acrylamide, formaldehyde, coffee, and the herbicide glyphosate. That last one even caused the World Health Organisation, of which IARC is a part, to disavow their methodology, and many other health agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the European Food Safety Authority, and Health Canada, did the same.Recently IARC appointed a new director, epidemiologist and M.D. Elisabete Weiderpass. Together with the proposed revision of its Preamble, that might be interpreted as signs that the Agency is taking a critical look at its recent performance in order to improve its process.
However, there are reasons for skepticism regarding this interpretation.
http://www.science20.com/geoffrey_kabat/iarc_needs_more_than_a_preamble_change-232837
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Unpublished Health Report Prompts Bipartisan Concern
Jun 12, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Corbin Hiar
A bipartisan group of more than a dozen senators is urging top Trump administration officials to publish a delayed health review of certain toxic nonstick chemicals.
"The results of this study are critical to protecting the health and well-being of communities across the country, and it is imperative that the results of this study be released immediately," the senators wrote yesterday to the heads of EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
At issue is the draft toxicological profile of four types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that is being led by HHS's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The chemicals are widely used to make Teflon and other stain- and fire-resistant products but have been linked with cancer and other health problems.
In a January email first reported last month, a White House official warned political appointees at EPA that the soon-to-be-published study had found PFAS were dangerous at levels much lower than previously thought.
Yet the HHS study, which the official described as a "potential public relations nightmare," remains under wraps (E&E Daily, May 15).
HHS didn't respond to a request for comment. EPA pointed to previous statements Administrator Scott Pruitt has made disavowing any role in the report's delay (E&E Daily, May 22).
Nearly a dozen bipartisan senators signed on to the letter, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and Rob Portman (R) of Ohio, Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Moore Capito (R) of West Virginia, Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).
News of the delayed PFAS health review has also prompted bipartisan concerns in the House (E&E Daily, May 21).
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/06/12/stories/1060084139
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Industry Opposes California Regulating Cleaning Product Chemicals
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Joyce E. Cutler
Companies such as Dow Chemical, the SI Group, and Dover Chemical oppose a California proposal to require chemical manufacturers to use safer alternatives to compounds used in detergent and cleansers.
The state’s move coincides with the federal Environmental Protection Agency requiring that the chemicals’ release be reported nationally.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control held a June 11 workshop on a profile it is developing on nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs).
The low-cost, effective chemicals are used in institutional and hotel laundry soaps that break down into products the agency said are persistent and affect fish and aquatic life’s growth, reproduction, and development.
The Alkylphenols & Ethoxylates Research Council, whose members include Dow Chemical, SI Group Inc., and ICC’s Industries Inc.’s Dover Chemical Corp., a subsidiary, urged attention be paid to the science they say suggests no further regulation is warranted.
Science Not RobustSelecting products for the Safer Consumer Products regulations “should be anchored in a strong, robust science-based understanding of the hazards and exposures of Candidate Chemicals in California,” council Director Barbara Losey said in a letter to the state.
But the council warns that “the data provided is neither sufficiently robust nor adequately based on the scientific principles of risk assessment to justify a concern for ‘significant or widespread adverse impacts’"—the trigger for further California product regulations.
NPEs could be added to the California list of priority products for which manufacturers must seek more environmentally friendly alternatives. The state is focusing on hotels and on-premises industrial launderers, which annually wash an estimated 2 billion pounds of laundry using products that are sent to wastewater plants and eventually discharged, the agency’s discussion draft said.
During the June 11 workshop, environmental advocates urged the state to consider human exposures, while the industry council pledged to submit more data supporting the view that the science doesn’t warrant such concerns or further regulation.
Persistence ConcernsEnvironmental health groups raised alarms about the chemicals, saying their use in detergents means human exposures are likely.
“Because nonylphenol ethoxylates are getting into the environment, we’re concerned that there will be direct and indirect exposure. And because of the properties of persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity, it seems difficult for us to believe humans have not come into contact and there has been biomonitoring” of human exposures which supports that view, Lisette van Vliet, senior policy coordinator with Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, said.
Clean Water Action supports adding the chemicals to California’s priority list, Toxics Program Manager Andria Ventura told the DTSC. “We can see a direct link to human exposure here.”
NP, the most frequently analyzed NPE compound, was detected in California surface waters, sediments, effluent, sludge, and biosolids, the draft said.
The industry council “is concerned with the casual use of the terms ‘persistent’ and ‘bioaccumulative’ in association with NP. NP and NPE are not persistent or bioaccumulative and this has been confirmed in various governmental assessments specific to these properties and in risk assessments generally,” Losey said in an email to Bloomberg Environment.
Most residential-based detergents phased out NPEs, Daphne Molin, the toxic substances agency’s Safer Consumer Products Branch senior environmental scientist, told the workshop.
The comment period on the California draft, which is the first stage of possible regulatory action, ends June 25.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/industry-opposes-california-regulating-cleaning-product-chemicals
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EPA Forwards Lead Paint Dust Standard for OMB Review
Jun 11, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA has forwarded for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review a draft proposed rule updating its lead paint dust hazard standard for residential structures and its regulatory definition of lead-based paint, two weeks ahead of a court deadline for issuing the plan.
EPA June 8 forwarded its draft proposed “Residential Dust-Lead Hazard Standards, and the Definition of Lead-Based Paint” rule to OMB in advance of a June 26 court deadline.
Once completed, the rule will likely be a key prong in Administrator Scott Pruitt's “war on lead,” as well as broader Trump administration efforts to craft an inter-agency lead strategy. While the strategy is slated for release later this month, agency officials have been grappling with key policy goals, including a planned schedule for eliminating lead exposures, whether the strategy will complement EPA's pending rules and if EPA plans to account for stricter federal health standards that are slated to be adopted later this year.
EPA's submission of its proposed rule seeks to comply with orders from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit which in December granted a request from environmentalists for a novel writ of mandamus that requires the agency to update its lead hazard standard for residential and child-care facilities and its definition of lead-based paint under the Toxic Substance Control Act.
In the case, A Community Voice, et al. v. EPA, the court ordered EPA to propose updates to its 2001 lead dust hazard standard within 90 days, and take final action no later than a year after that. But the court in March grantedan EPA request for an additional 90 days to issue its proposal.
EPA's 2008 lead renovation, repair and painting rule (LRRP) covering maintenance work in residences and child care facilities built before 1978 addresses the hazard that disturbed lead dust could pose to human health, particularly to children, whose developing nervous systems are most susceptible to the potent neurotoxin.
Before 1978, lead-based paint was commonly used, and lead dust can result when the old paint is disturbed.
The rule set a standard of 6,000 parts per million (ppm) lead in dust at which contractors must adopt safety practices to prevent additional exposures. But environmentalists in the 9th Circuit suit successfully argued that the standard should be lowered by an order of magnitude to 600 ppm -- at least in any new proposal.
EPA in late March submitted then withdrew the rule from OMB review after the court extended a previous deadline for issuing the proposal.
In a March 28 memo, the agency's Office of the Inspector General informed the leaders of EPA's toxics and enforcement offices that it “plans to begin preliminary research to evaluate the EPA’s implementation and enforcement of the [LRRP]. Our objective for this project is to determine whether the EPA has an effective strategy to implement and enforce the [LRRP].”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-forwards-lead-paint-dust-standard-omb-review
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NY Housing Authority to Pay $2B to Remedy Lead Paint, Decay (1)
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By John Herzfeld
The agency responsible for New York City’s public housing agreed to spend a total of $2 billion, and be supervised by an independent monitor, to remedy lead paint, mold, and other health hazards in decaying infrastructure.
The proposed federal settlement, announced June 11 by the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, mandates an outlay of $1 billion over the next four fiscal years.
It also calls for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to spend $200 million per fiscal year after that on required improvements, until the problems are fixed. The financing requirements run through fiscal 2027.
That’s on top of about $4 billion already available in other U.S., state, and city capital funding in the first four years of the settlement’s terms.
The agreement, the result of a two-year investigation, marks the infusion of new money and legal requirements into a crisis in the city’s public housing stock, which has long been a source of contention between public officials and lawsuits by tenant groups.
The city, in comparison, spent about $1 billion to meet the terms of an EPA settlement requiring replacement of fluorescent lighting fixtures containing polychlorinated biphenyls in public schools.
The declining condition of public housing has been a political football between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), with the state declaring it a formal disaster emergency.
Shortly after a federal judge in March denied a bid by tenant groups for a federal monitor in a class action, a top Cuomo aide warned that the federal government would impose monitoring if the city didn’t make more progress on lead paint, mold, and a host of other problems with heat, hot water, vermin, and elevators.
The civil complaint filed simultaneously with the settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges the housing authority violated basic U.S. health and safety rules for years. The city repeatedly covered up its noncompliance with false statements to HUD and the public, and intentionally deceived federal inspectors, the lawsuit further alleges.
City Admits False AssertionsThe settlement includes admissions by the city it falsely represented its lead-paint compliance status. It also acknowledges lead paint is present in more than half the authority’s developments, that the city skipped most required risk evaluations, and that it hasn’t ensured the use of safe work practices on surfaces that may contain lead paint.
“NYCHA’s failure to provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing is simply unacceptable, and illegal,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement on the “unprecedented” settlement.
“Children must be protected from toxic lead paint, apartments must be free of mold and pest infestations, and developments must provide adequate heat in winter and elevator service,” Berman said.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt called the settlement a landmark. He said in a statement that the deal “sends a strong message to housing authorities, landlords, and renovators—violating the law and endangering public health will not be tolerated.”
De Blasio termed the agreement a “turning point” for the housing authority, which serves 400,000 tenants.
He blamed the problems on “decades of divestment by the federal and state governments and decades of neglect by New York City government,” which he said “have pushed our public housing system to the brink.”
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/ny-housing-authority-to-pay-2b-to-remedy-lead-paint-decay-1
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Another Fracking Boom to Beget Another Fracking Bust; Or Will It?
Jun 12, 2018 | The Hill - Opinion
By David Spence
Employers and community leaders in Midland, Texas are in a scramble to keep essential services operating as restaurant workers and school bus drivers are leaving their jobs for much more lucrative work in the oil patch.
It’s another fracking boom reminiscent of the 2013 boom in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale. Such is life in the oil industry, characterized by boom-bust cycles ever since Edwin Drake discovered oil in western Pennsylvania in 1859. So why this latest oil and gas boom?
Most people know that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has stimulated steady growth in domestic oil and gas production (and exports). But fossil fuel consumption has been growing as well.
Indeed, natural gas and coal still dominate the electric generation mix nationally and retain large market shares in places like New England (49 percent) and New York (29 percent) that seem to want to decarbonize.
Economic factors drive energy consumption decisions. While coal is losing market share because it can’t compete on price, oil and gas still can. Oil and gas frequently beat their competitors on price in the transportation and electric generation sectors, respectively, notwithstanding growing demand for electric cars and newly inexpensive wind and solar power.
This boom has all the earmarks of past oil and gas booms: rapid and drastic increases in salaries and prices in host communities and concerns about the ability of local communities to manage the consequent social and economic disruptions, truck traffic, environmental impacts, etc.
For every boom, there comes a bust. But some hypothesize that this boom might be different — longer lasting, because of the enormous size of the resource and international geopolitical factors that could keep the price of oil higher for longer.
West Texas shale formations dwarf other formations in size, and they are conveniently located near skilled workers, pipelines and rail lines. Growth in the world economy, declining crude oil inventories, and potential supply disruptions in the Middle East could extend this latest American fracking boom.
Oil prices will determine the length of the boom, and predicting energy prices is notoriously tricky. Competition between fuels, companies and countries is fierce, creative and dynamic. Demand patterns change, and geopolitical conditions change even more quickly and unpredictably.
Already, production in West Texas is exceeding available transportation capacity to get the oil to market, depressing the price of oil in west Texas by as much as 15 percent. Constructing new pipelines to alleviate the bottleneck will take a long time. By then, conditions on the world market may have changed.
Many of my colleagues are energy policy wonks like me who think a lot about “decarbonizing” the economy. We focus on how policies might reduce emissions, and encourage cleaner energy systems. Within that bubble, one can almost forget that the American oil and gas industry is booming.
In progressive political circles, particularly outside oil and gas producing states, it is accepted that a fracking boom is an unmitigated environmental disaster, but others see a more complicated and nuanced picture.
For their part, most Texas towns tend to see the boom as a mixed blessing.
Many locals will capture some of the economic benefits of the boom in the form of higher prices for their labor, property or services. Others will miss out and will experience higher prices for goods and services, noise, crowded roads, etc.
Some worry about the potential for pollution from drilling and fracking operations or degradation of the unspoiled desert landscape. Still others (including those at the McDonald Observatory) are concerned about light pollution from flaring of natural gas or lights on drilling rigs.
Like most states, Texas gives municipal governments only limited leverage over fracking companies, and so local governments must rely on state regulators to ensure that the environmental, health and safety risks of fracking are minimized.
Some local governments have been able to persuade oil and gas producers to make lasting investments in their communities — new health centers, educational programs and other infrastructure. These are some of the ways the boom’s winners can compensate the losers.
Meanwhile, we will learn from this latest boom, and perhaps we will make better decisions and policies in anticipation of the next boom. Many of us hope that conditions over time will lead consumers to prefer forms of energy other than oil and gas.
We shall see. But until that day, the more than 150-year oil and gas boom-and-bust cycle will continue.
David Spence is professor of law, politics & regulation at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches in both the McCombs School of Business and the School of Law. Professor Spence is co-author of the leading energy law casebook, "Energy, Economics and the Environment," (Foundation Press).
http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/391653-another-fracking-boom-to-beget-another-fracking-bust-or-will-it
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Global LNG Trade Sets Record Annual Increase on U.S., Australia Exports
Jun 12, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade climbed to 38.2 Bcf/d worldwide last year, nearly 10% higher than in 2016 and the largest annual increase on record, according to the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL).
Worldwide, imports last year reached 289.8 million metric tons (mmt), up by 26.2 mmt or 9.9% higher than in 2016 and the strongest growth rate since 2010. The number of exporting countries remained at 19, while one country, Malta, joined the import community to bring the number of LNG-importing countries to 40, the nonprofit said in its annual report.
Five onshore liquefaction trains were commissioned last year: two in Australia (Gorgon Train 3 and Wheatstone Train 1); two in the United States (Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass Trains 3 and 4); and one in Russia (Yamal LNG). A floating LNG (FLNG) unit also was commissioned in Malaysia.
“The surge in LNG supply was driven by new production from Australia (10.7 mmt) and from the United States (9.6 mmt) as well as by better performance of existing liquefaction plants in Algeria, Angola and Nigeria (6.2 mmt),” according to GIIGNL researchers.
During the first quarter, Cheniere exported 67 LNG cargoes from Sabine Pass in Cameron Parish, LA, a 56% increase year/year. It also delivered 30 cargoes totaling more than 2 mmt. Through April 30 year-to-date, about 90 cargoes had been produced, loaded and exported.
U.S. exports topped 1.94 Bcf/d last year, sharply higher than the 0.5 Bcf/d in 2016, with all of the shipments originating from Sabine Pass, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The United States is forecast to add about 6.05 Bcf/d of capacity by 2021, which would be in addition to the 3.5 Bcf/d now in operation.
The Elba Island LNG project in Georgia this year is set to commission six of 10 small modular liquefaction trains, with a combined capacity of 0.2 Bcf/d. In the next three years, trains are expected to come online at Cameron LNG in Louisiana and at two Texas projects, Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG. Freeport LNG has delayed startup for its three-train project, with commercial operations beginning sequentially for the trains in the second half of 2019 into the first half of 2020. Cheniere sanctioned Corpus LNG in May.
The United States also is projected to become the third-largest LNG exporter in the world by 2020, behind only Australia and Qatar.
According to GIIGNL, the Pacific Basin last year still was the largest source of supply with 131.4 mmt, or 45.3% of the global market, followed by the Middle East (31.5%) and the Atlantic Basin (23.2%). The Atlantic Basin’s LNG volumes are expected to rise as new liquefaction plants come online in the United States.
“Despite several delayed start-ups, new liquefaction capacity continued to come online in various areas of the world, ranging from the United States to Australia, Malaysia and Russia,” which led last year to a 26.2 mmty increase in LNG supply from 2016, said GIIGNL President Jean-Marie Dauger.
“Meanwhile, expectations of an LNG surplus and of depressed prices have not materialized, as rising imports into China contributed substantially to balancing the market.”
With gains expected in U.S. LNG exports, the supply build-up ahead “could further transform our industry and bring on new evolutions, including a rise in market liquidity and flexibility,” he said.
“New commercial instruments are implemented to adapt to the new realities of the markets as some traditional ones -- such as destination restrictions -- tend to be progressively shelved. As aggregators and traders take a greater share of the market, the break-up of the traditional value chain is gathering pace.”
Spot LNG prices last year followed the same seasonal profile as in 2016, although an increase in prices late in 2017 was stronger on higher-than-expected Chinese demand and colder-than-normal weather in Northeast Asia. Contract LNG prices also increased because of higher oil prices, while spot charter rates finished 2017 “on a bullish note,” driven by demand for ships to transport U.S. gas.
The current contracting and pricing environment may be challenging for new supply developments, however. While two projects were sanctioned in 2016, only one LNG facility received a positive final investment decision last year: Coral FLNG. ExxonMobil Corp. and Eni SpA last year sanctioned Coral in Mozambique in the same region as an export project underway by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Together the two Mozambique projects could make the southeastern African nation the world’s fourth-biggest gas exporter.
Even with “competitive” LNG prices, however, “practical commercial and regulatory challenges still need to be overcome in order for new importers to develop LNG import infrastructure,” in light of only Malta joining the importer group last year, Dauger said.
Besides the United States and Australia, other countries contributing to exports in 2017 included Angola, Nigeria, Malaysia, Algeria, Russia and Brunei, which offset declines in exports from Qatar, Indonesia, Norway, Peru, the United Arab Emirates and Trinidad.
Mexico’s LNG import trade increased by 17% year/year as domestic production continued to decline and infrastructure construction was delayed to connect the domestic grid to gas pipeline exports from the United States.
Asian countries led the growth in global gas imports during 2017, accounting for almost three-quarters (74%), or 2.6 Bcf/d, of last year’s growth. Japan remained the largest importer during 2017 at 11 Bcf/d.
China in 2017 also overtook South Korea as the world’s second largest importer as the Chinese government works to restrict coal use to reduce pollution.
“Our industry seems to experience an acceleration of change, and 2017 was indeed a year for pioneers: first FLNG plant online, first LNG bunkering vessels operating in Europe and first LNG exported from the Arctic region,” Dauger said. “As meaningful, the first large order of nine LNG-fueled containerships indicated that new market sectors are ready to embrace LNG and paved the way for the worldwide implementation of LNG as a solution to reduce marine pollution.”
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114672-global-lng-trade-sets-record-annual-increase-on-us-australia-exports
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Oil Lobby Flexes Muscles on Atlantic Drilling
Jun 12, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
With southern politicians lining up against oil drilling off the Atlantic coastline, oil lobbyists are making another push to change their minds.
The American Petroleum Institute has recruited Jim Webb, the former secretary of the navy and Democratic senator from Virginia, and Jim Nicholson, the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs under the George W. Bush administration, to try and sway some of their former colleagues.
"That's why we're doing this. A lot of people who used to be lined up on this have taken on a more negative attitude, primarily as a result of that big tragic oil spill," Nicholson said, referring to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Their bipartisan campaign - named Explore Offshore and including "100 community organizations" - comes as a string of governors have come out in opposition to President Donald Trump's plan to expand drilling off the Atlantic coaste, including South Carolina Republican Henry McMaster.
Webb and Nicholson are aiming at converting a bipartisan, centrist audience, arguing that advances in technology have made offshore drilling safer and the potential economic and energy security gains outweigh the risks.
"We need to get the total facts back out in front of the people. Then we can have the debate," Webb said. "When people come to understand the impact on national security and energy independence, they will become much more receptive."
But many worry not only about the impact on tourism and the ocean, also on the U.S. military, which operates a massive Navy base in Virginia. Earlier this year, Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis expressing concern that drilling could interfere with military exercises in the Atlantic, something many within the Department of Defense have already said.
Webb, the former navy secretary, said there was a way to coordinate with the military to avoid interference on the part of oil companies.
"These are issues that can be properly negotiated," he said.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Oil-lobby-flexes-muscles-on-Atlantic-drilling-12985147.php
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Despite Public Health Consequences, Trump’s EPA to Roll Back Regulation to Prevent Methane Leaks
Jun 12, 2018 | Texas Observer
By Naveena Sadasivam
Last week, the staff of the environmental nonprofit Earthworks were on a retreat in West Texas when Sharon Wilson, a Dallas-based organizer for the group, decided to take them into the Wild, Wild West of the Permian Basin. A certified thermographer, Wilson has traveled endlessly across Texas documenting the environmental and public health consequences of living near oil and gas operations. As a landowner in Wise County, which overlies the gas-rich Barnett Shale, she had a front-row seat to the rise of fracking. With about 20 staffers packed in three vehicles, Wilson drove down Highway 17 out of Balmorhea from site to site, aiming her thermal-imaging camera at the methane escaping from stacks and leaky tanks at storage and processing facilities. In some cases, the leaks looked like a dripping faucet. In other cases, methane was gushing like a fire hose.
“It’s just crazy what I‘m seeing,” Wilson said. “It’s the worst emissions I’ve seen anywhere.”
The problem is likely set to get worse. The Trump administration is in the process of reversing Obama-era regulations that require routine leak checks and technological improvements to prevent methane from escaping from pipelines and well sites. The official announcement from the EPA is expected this month. That means in shale plays across the state, and in small towns such as Balmorhea — where fracking is expanding up to the doorstep of the famed Balmorhea swimming hole — methane leaks are set to continue, with significant consequences for both air quality and public health.
Methane, which is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is a major driver of climate change. Curbing methane emissions also has the benefit of decreasing volatile organic compounds, including carcinogens such as benzene and toluene that can cause respiratory illnesses, nausea and nosebleeds. According to an analysis by Earthworks, 2.3 million Texans live within a half-mile of an oil and gas facility. More than 900 schools and 75 medical facilities are also in the half-mile radius.
About a decade ago, during the early years of the fracking boom, natural gas was heralded as a clean fuel that could bridge the transition from dirty coal to renewables. Though researchers disagree about the exact amount, studies have found that up to 12 percent of natural gas that is produced ultimately escapes into the atmosphere. Depending on the amount, natural gas may burn cleaner than coal, but methane leaks during extraction and refining might cancel out much, if not all, of the climate benefits.
Leaks can occur in a number of ways: from wells as natural gas is being extracted, as it’s transported through pipelines, while it’s stored in tanks and from unlit flares that vent gas instead of burning it. The Obama EPA regulations require oil and gas operators to monitor sites for leaks at least twice a year, use new technologies to monitor leaks remotely and fix leaks once detected. The EPA expected that these strategies would reduce methane emissions by 510,000 tons in 2025 — causing the equivalent harm of 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. The agency estimated that the upgrades would cost owners of the facilities $530 million, but the benefits to air quality and preventing climate change outweighed the costs by $160 million.
In 2017, soon after Trump appointed former Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, the agency announced it would stop the implementation of the rule. Environmental groups sued over what they claimed was an unlawful “stay” and the courts sided with them. As a result, the rule is still on the books, but the EPA is not enforcing it. In place of federal action, some states such as Colorado, Ohio, New Mexico and Pennsylvania have stepped in to enact their own state regulations to reduce methane leaks.
Texas isn’t one of those states. In 2016, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the EPA over the regulation, calling it “a gross demonstration of federal overreach.” Paxton later said the EPA’s efforts to collect data on methane leaks from the oil and gas industry constituted “harassment.”
“Many companies involved with this request cannot afford the time and expense of complying with an empty, heavily regulatory burden,” Paxton said. “The information request puts strain on these companies — and all for the purpose of supporting an unlawful rule.”
For Lauren Pagel, Earthworks’ policy director, Texas is a prime example of where federal action can help address methane leaks. “It’s been pretty clear that Texas isn’t going to be leading or even following in terms of state regulations,” she said.
Still, some operators are choosing to comply with the regulations anyway. In February, XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, announced that it supported methane regulations. “The correct mix of policies and regulations could help the entire industry raise the bar,” wrote Sara Ortwein, XTO’s CEO. Ortwein also proposed “key principles” similar to the EPA regulations to detect leaks quickly and reduce emissions overall. Then, last month, Exxon announced that it expects to decrease methane emissions by 15 percent and flaring by 25 percent by 2020.
Why would the EPA torch a regulation that some of the largest oil and gas companies are embracing? Pagel said it’s just part of the politics of the Trump administration. “Some of what’s going on at EPA is rolling back anything the Obama administration has done, regardless of whether it’s good policy or not,” she said.
https://www.texasobserver.org/despite-public-health-consequences-trump-epa-roll-back-regulation-prevent-methane-leaks/
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(ACC Mentioned) Hazardous Sites Changing Hands Pose Risks for Companies, OECD Says
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rick Mitchell
Companies buying or selling hazardous waste sites face risks, so planning ahead is vital, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says in its latest guidance.
Ownership changes at the hazardous facilities are increasingly common, the Paris-based organization said in the guidance aimed sellers and buyers as well as due diligence companies, insurers, regulators, and others with a stake in such transactions.
The guidance provides a new tool for discovering, identifying, and then managing risks from acquisitions and divestitures of hazardous facilities, Bill Gulledge, a senior director at the American Chemistry Council, said during a June 11 webinar on the new guidance.
The 45-page document lists risks companies should consider before, during, and after an ownership change.
For example, a facility being sold may be outdated, in poor condition, or may be losing money. The current or prospective owner may not be aware of the site’s risks or may not have taken appropriate action to address them. Self-assessment checklists are available for the original and prospective owners to evaluate their management of the ownership change.
Venture Capitalists Snap Up Properties“If you look at most of the recent ownership changes where we have had safety issues or had incidents in plants that have resulted in releases or other consequences, most of them are related to process safety,” said Gulledge, who participated in discussions to develop the new guidance as a representative on the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD.
One pivotal insight, he said, is that corporations have wide ranges of commercial and industrial expertise. For example, “there are venture capital groups that are buying industrial facilities that they have very little experience in actually managing.”
Well-informed changes of ownership are essential, said Ragnhild Larsen, senior principal engineer for the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection, “because bad oversight of hazardous facilities can have disastrous consequences.”
Critical Role of RegulatorsRachel McCann, a senior policy adviser for the U.K. Health and Safety Executive, said the current and new owners of a facility have the primary responsibility for managing risks in an ownership change, but regulators play a critical role.
For example, a change of ownership may trigger new regulatory requirements of revisions or revisions of old ones, she said. To help, the guidance provides a list of factors for regulators to consider before, during, and after the change of ownership, she said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/hazardous-sites-changing-hands-pose-risks-for-companies-oecd-says
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U.S. Regulators Urge Better Oversight for Pipeline Cybersecurity
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Adams-Heard
The federal agency now charged with overseeing cybersecurity for U.S. pipelines is ill-equipped to do the job, say two top regulators who want the role given to the Energy Department.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Neil Chatterjee, a Republican, and Richard Glick, a Democrat, wrote in an online article that the Transportation Security Administration can’t keep the pipeline network secure. The two FERC commissioners noted that the TSA has only six full-time workers overseeing more than 2.7 million miles of pipeline, and depends on voluntary cybersecurity standards, rather than mandatory ones.
Instead, Congress should give the job to “an agency that fully comprehends the energy sector and has sufficient resources to address this growing threat,” the commissioners wrote.
The plea, in an op-ed on the website Axios, follows a cyberattack in late March and early April in which several U.S. pipeline companies said their third-party electronic communications systems were shut down, with five confirming the disruptions were caused by hacking.
While the cyberattack didn’t disrupt the supply of gas to homes and businesses, it underscored how energy companies are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats and how even a minor attack can have ripple effects. “As abundant and affordable natural gas has become a major part of the fuel mix, the cybersecurity threats to that supply have taken on new urgency,” Chatterjee and Glick wrote.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/us-regulators-urge-better-oversight-for-pipeline-cybersecurity
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Trump's Coal, Nuclear Bailout No Shield From Hackers: Cyber Experts
Jun 12, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Timothy Gardner
Bailing out nuclear and coal-fired power plants will not toughen the U.S. power grid against cyber attacks as the Trump administration claims, according to cyber experts, because hackers have a wide array of options for hitting electric infrastructure and nuclear facilities that are high-profile targets.
U.S. President Donald Trump this month directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take emergency steps to stem a surge in coal and nuclear plant retirements in recent years, arguing that more shutdowns would leave the country less able to bounce back from disruptions caused by storms, physical attacks, and hackers.
The announcement came as the National Security Council debated a Department of Energy (DOE) memo that said cyber and physical threats are "minimized" at nuclear and coal plants because they can store months of fuel on site to survive a supply cut – unlike natural gas facilities that rely on pipeline networks, or wind and solar installations that need the right weather.
While the administration had been arguing for months that “fuel secure” facilities were important to America's ability to rebound from storms and physical attacks, its efforts to link plant closures with protection from cyber attacks appeared to open a new front in its support for the coal and nuclear industries.
Chris Bronk, a professor of computer and information systems at the University of Houston, said he could not endorse the idea.
“I don't see where a policy of keeping open aging infrastructure that would shut unless there was federal markets intervention keeps us any safer from cyber attacks," he said.
Bronk said coal plants, train deliveries and transmission systems are just as susceptible to hackers as gas pipelines, and added that, while nuclear facilities are tough targets, the stakes involved in a successful nuclear cyber attack are enormous - potentially involving an accident that leaks radioactivity and hits surrounding communities.
Nuclear power backers stress that reactors are protected from hackers by so called "air gaps" isolating them from unsecured networks.
But Bronk said air gaps are not impervious to attackers that may seek to gain information such as worker and maintenance schedules from administrative networks over long periods of time.EDITORS’ PICKSFor ‘Columbiners,’ School Shootings Have a Deadly AllureRussian Oligarch’s Yacht Is Part of Costly British DivorceThe Most Powerful Conservative Donors You’ve Never Heard Of
"Those are the control systems that frighten me to no end," Bronk said.
Sergio Caltagirone, the director of threat intelligence at cyber security company Dragos, agreed that bailing out nuclear and coal plants offers little protection.
"I do not expect this policy shift to deliver any additional cyber security resilience based on the threats we're actively monitoring," Caltagirone said.
“ONE FELL SWOOP”
A DOE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the agency recognizes that cyber security risk permeates every energy source.
But the official said there is concern that natural gas's role has grown too rapidly in the last decade, making the grid vulnerable to hacks on pipelines that could knock out 10 to 15 natural gas plants "in one fell swoop."
While the administration talks about gas pipelines, nuclear plants have also been attacked.
In March, the Trump administration blamed Russia for seeking to penetrate multiple types of infrastructure including nuclear, water and manufacturing.
And last July, news reports said Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp, which runs a nuclear power plant in Kansas, had been targeted by hackers. Wolf Creek said there was no operational damage and sensitive systems were separate from the corporate network.
Ben Garber, a cyber security engineer for Ultra Electronics, 3eTI, said the government should put greater focus on encouraging power utilities to strengthen security against attacks, as it has with the financial and health industries.
The DOE said in February it is forming an office of cyber security to do that. Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget included $96 million to fund it but Trump has not yet nominated a leader to run it.
Cameron Camp, a researcher at Slovakian anti-virus software maker ESET said the push to subsidize coal and nuclear seemed more about saving blue collar energy jobs than boosting resiliency.
"It's trying to kill multiple birds with one stone, rather than take a holistic view of the structural problems with the grid itself," said Camp.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/11/us/11reuters-usa-electricity-cyber.html
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Three Exxon Mobil Workers in Louisiana Burned by Sulfuric Acid
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew M. Ballard
Three contractors at an Exxon Mobil Corp. chemical plant in Baton Rouge, La., were burned by sulfuric acid June 11.
The workers came in contact with the acid and were injured during “normal work activities” at the facility June 11, Julie King, a spokeswoman for the company in Houston, told Bloomberg Environment. They have been treated and there is no off-site environmental impact stemming from the incident, she said.
Following treatment by first responders, two of the workers were transported to a local hospital and the third to a local clinic for follow-up, King said.
When the accident occurred, “courtesy notifications were made to local agencies,” King said. “We regret that this incident has occurred, and our thoughts are with the individuals injured.”
King was unable to immediately provide additional details about the extent of the injuries or how the accident occurred.
According to an Exxon Mobil fact sheet posted in 2017, the plant manufactures about 6.4 billion pounds of petrochemical products annually and is staffed by 929 employees.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/three-exxon-mobil-workers-in-louisiana-burned-by-sulfuric-acid
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FRA: Rail Industry Is Meeting Safer Tank Car Standards
Jun 11, 2018 | Wisconsin Public Radio
By Danielle Kaeding
Three years ago, the federal government rolled out new safety standards for trains amid a growing number of oil shipments and derailments. Now, railroad companies are using safer tank cars to carry hazardous materials like crude oil throughout Wisconsin.
In May 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation began requiring high-hazard flammable trains with 20 or more tank cars carrying flammable liquids to operate at reduced speeds. The agency also required new braking standards for trains with 70 or more cars carrying volatile crude oil and retrofitting DOT-111 tank cars with thicker shells and thermal protection by March 2018.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said the design for DOT-111 tank cars is inadequate and prone to damage during derailments.
The rail industry has set up a system to verify that only authorized tank cars are used to transport flammable liquids, said Desiree French, spokeswoman with the Federal Railroad Administration.
"The U.S. Department of Transportation (FRA and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PHMSA) are actively monitoring the phase-out/conversion progress of the tank cars authorized for flammable liquids service, and are coordinating with the industry when issues arise that may impact their ability to meet the prescribed deadlines," wrote French in an email.
At the peak of production in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, BNSF Railway Company had more than three dozen trains carrying 1 million gallons or more of crude oil throughout Wisconsin each week. Now, the railway company reports they have a fraction of that number — at most seven trains a week — carrying crude oil across nine counties in Wisconsin, according to records obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio.
BNSF Railway Spokeswoman Amy McBeth said they've been offering reduced rates to rail car companies that use the newer, safer DOT-117 model.
"BNSF doesn’t own the tank cars that are used to ship crude oil in particular on our network, but we work to get the safer tank cars in service sooner through incentivizing those safer cars, moving away from the DOT-111 tank cars," she said. "When you look at our network, we don’t have any legacy DOT-111 tank cars moving crude oil on our system at this point."
The state has witnessed a handful of train derailments in the last several years, including near Alma along the Mississippi River.
A BNSF train derailed due to operator error, causing 25 tank cars to jump the tracks and spilling more than 20,000 gallons of ethanol into the river. Another incident occurred the same weekend in Watertown, spilling around 500 gallons of crude oil. Canadian Pacific identified the cause of that derailment to be a flaw within the rail.
The U.S. DOT's safety standards and improvements to tank cars have been a positive step toward increasing rail safety in Wisconsin, said Yash Wadhwa, Wisconsin's railroad commissioner.
"The new tank cars for the railroads carrying hazardous materials have a lot of built-in protections like they have thermal protections. They have pressure-relief valves ... the tank shell is thicker," Wadhwa said. "They have the head shield now. All these things help so now, when there’s a derailment, there’s new improved tank design and specifications. The chance for a spill goes down."
The American Association of Railroads reported more than 10,000 tank cars had been retrofitted by the end of March and more than 18,000 new DOT-117 or higher specification tank cars had been built, according to information provided by the Federal Railroad Administration. In addition, the number of DOT-111 rail cars used to ship crude oil decreased from 21,340 in 2013 to 48 this year, according to the American Association of Railroads.
High-profile derailments of trains carrying Bakken crude oil — such as an incident in Quebec, Canada, that claimed the lives of more than 40 people — prompted public officials to take a closer look at emergency preparedness and rail safety. In Wisconsin, the state has expanded caches of foam that would be used to fight any hazardous materials fires, said Brian Satula, administrator of Wisconsin Emergency Management.
"We have about five of them around the state. We first focused on the Bakken crude oil, the more volatile crude oil, and then we started working into the other areas where crude oil is transported from the thicker, less volatile crude oil that’s coming from Canada," he said. "That’s where we’re now working up to the northwest part of the state."
Satula said officials are looking at storing foam in either Rice Lake or Superior this year. Foam caches are already located in Wausau, the Fox Valley, Milwaukee, Grant County and Volk Field. Each area has around 1,500 gallons of concentrate that can make more than 50,000 gallons of foam that can be used in high-hazard fires.
"The railroad companies also have foam caches and equipment that they come with, but we wanted to get in that initial two- to three-hour window (of an incident)," said Satula.
In general, the state has been working to provide more resources and training to departments through grant programs and state funding, Satula said. At the same time, railroad companies have been investing in rail infrastructure and safety. BNSF has invested more than $390 million in the last five years on its network throughout Wisconsin.
"When you look at the safety record of BNSF and the rail industry overall, more than 99.99 percent of those hazmat shipments that BNSF moves, including crude oil, reaches the destination without any release caused by an incident," said McBeth.
The American Association of Railroads said that 2017 saw the lowest rate of accidents in recent years with derailment rates down 42 percent since 2000.
https://www.wpr.org/fra-rail-industry-meeting-safer-tank-car-standards
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(ACC Mentioned) The EPA is Protecting Industry Instead of Public Health or the Environment
Jun 11, 2018 | Paste Magazine
By Allison Bolt
The Environmental Protection Agency is protecting the industries it’s tasked with regulating instead of the environment or public health, The Conversation reports. According a group of social scientists, Scott Pruitt’s “efforts to undo, delay or otherwise block at least 30 existing rules reorient EPA rule-making away from the public interest and toward the interest of the regulated industry.”
Since at least 2008, the EPA has been over-reliant on the industries they are charged with regulating, which ultimately contributed to the financial crisis and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But once Scott Pruitt was hired by the Trump Administration, a group of experts, who recently published a study under the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, now fear complete “regulatory capture.”
Regulatory capture takes place when agencies become dominated by the industries they were charged with regulating rather than public interest. In May, reporters weren’t allowed into an EPA summit meeting that discussed chemical contamination of drinking water. Experts point to this as a warning sign of a particular industry capturing the EPA. How do they know it’s being captured by industry? According to David Moss and Daniel Carpenter of Harvard, an agency has been captured if its actions have been “directed away from the public interest and toward the interest of the regulated industry” by “intent and action of industries and their allies.”
The mission of the EPA is to “protect human health and the environment.” However, Pruitt has protected the interests of harmful industries such as petrochemicals and coal since his first day at the EPA while rarely speaking to the effects these industries have on the environment and public health. The Conversation notes he has even commented that regulators exist “to give certainty to those that they regulate,” and should be committed to “enhanc(ing) economic growth.”
So what will Pruitt’s actions mean for the environment and public health? For example, when Pruitt refused to ban insecticides last year, he put farm workers and children in danger of developmental delays and autism spectrum disorder. When he revoked the Clean Power Plan and relaxed fuel-efficiency standards, he put the entire nation’s health at risk due to the negative health effects of greenhouse gas emissions. The list goes on, but one fact remains true in each case: regulated industries had an “active hand” in these decisions. Pruitt has met with representatives of the industries he’s tasked with regulating 25 times more often than he’s met with environmental agencies.
Pruitt has direct connections to the industries that are actively controlling the EPA’s regulations. Nancy Beck is the EPA’s deputy assistant administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, and also happens to be a former executive at the American Chemistry Council. Beck is just one in a long list of EPA senior officials who have ties to the industries they are now tasked with regulating. Other notable examples are Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler—a former coal industry lobbyist—and Senior Deputy General Counsel Erik Baptist, a former senior counsel at the American Petroleum Institute.
These ties reveal corporate lobbyists are directly impacting the EPA’s decisions. For example, the decision to overturn the Clean Power Plan as well as the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord were moves recommended by coal magnate Robert Murray in his Action Plan for the Administration. Emails between Pruitt and Murray have been documented, as well as Pruitt’s visits with multiple corporate officials as they worked together to take down the Clean Power Plan.
Not only is Pruitt working directly with industries and their corporate lobbyists, he is also silencing those in the EPA who disagree with these actions. According to The Conversation, EPA employees have been “threatened by budget cuts, buyouts and retribution against disloyal staff and leakers.” Pruitt has even limited the scientific research that the agency can rely on when they write environmental regulations. However, the EPA Science Advisory Board voted to do a review of Pruitt’s controversial, and corrupt, proposals—including the scientific justifications behind them. Despite these efforts, the current administration will stand behind Pruitt and every cooperation he is representing. Our only hope for the protection of the environment and public health is the midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/06/the-epa-is-protecting-industry-instead-of-public-h.html
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(ACC Mentioned) Staffers Warn Scott Pruitt Has Handed EPA over to Polluters
Jun 11, 2018 | The American Independent (In Shareblue Media)
By Eric Boehlert
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under its scandal-plagued chief Scott Pruitt, has swung so far away from its stated mission of protecting consumers that the agency is now on the precipice of “regulatory capture,” say current and former agency staffers.
Pruitt is “aggressively reorganizing the EPA to promote interests of regulated industries, at the expense of its official mission to ‘protect human health and the environment,'” according to a group of social scientists who interviewed more than 40 current and former EPA staffers.
According to the new research, the EPA is no longer focused on the public interest; instead, it’s completely focused on private interest and how the agency can better serve big business regardless of the public impact.
(Another example of “regulatory capture” includes the financial collapse of 2008, where weak federal oversight and banking industry influence was widely viewed as fueling the disaster.)
To date, the evidence regarding the latest Pruitt EPA revelation is overwhelming.
Pruitt has stacked his staff with industry insiders — including deputy administrator Andrew Wheeler, who is a former coal industry lobbyist; deputy assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Nancy Beck, who was formerly an executive at chemical lobbying group American Chemistry Council; and senior deputy general counsel Erik Baptist, who was previously senior counsel at the American Petroleum Institute.
That means industry interests get the red-carpet treatment from the EPA.
“The former head of EPA’s Office of Policy, Samantha Dravis, who left the agency in April 2018, had 90 scheduled meetings with energy, manufacturing and other industrial interests between March 2017 and January 2018,” the researchers noted. “During the same period she met with one public interest organization.”
That privileged access then leads to EPA cooperation.
During Trump’s first six months in office, the EPA collected 60 percent less money in civil penaltiesfrom polluters than it had during that same period under both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Recently, a leaked memo confirmed the EPA sent employees a list of talking points on Tuesday instructing them to cast doubt on the scientific consensus about climate change. That spin directly contradicts the reality that 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree that the warming trends observed over the past century “are extremely likely due to human activities.”
More? In a rush to undo an Obama-era ban on heavily polluting trucks, Pruitt recently ignored his own agency’s research on emissions, turning instead to an industry-funded study that was so flawed even the university that produced it had to disown the findings.
The fact that Pruitt has so quickly and thoroughly handed over the EPA to regulated industries may explain why he still has a job despite his historic record of corruption.
In other words, Pruitt has been so transparent in his unprecedented effort to turn the agency away from protecting consumers to promoting big business that Trump may be willing to overlook Pruitt’s borderline criminal behavior.
Pruitt has also been a strong proponent of mindlessly downplaying the importance of science in government policy, which has become a hallmark of the Trump administration.
It’s called the Environmental Protection Agency, but the environment is not what Pruitt’s protecting.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
https://shareblue.com/epa-scott-pruitt-regulatory-capture-pollution-public-interest/
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GOP Senators Push Trump to Submit Pollution Treaty Amendment for Senate Approval
Jun 12, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A group of Republicans senators is pushing President Trump to let them approve a treaty amendment meant to cut emissions of certain greenhouse gases.
The Obama administration helped negotiate the Kigali amendment in 2016, meant to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) around the world. HFCs are used mainly in refrigeration and air conditioning and are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere.
But Trump still hasn’t decided whether he supports it, in which case he would have to send it to the Senate for ratification.
The 13 GOP senators, led by John Kennedy (La.) and Susan Collins (Maine), said the amendment would help domestic companies by leveling the playing field worldwide and giving them long-term certainty on what chemicals to use going forward.
“By sending this amendment to the Senate, you will help secure America’s place as the global leader in several manufacturing industries, and in turn give American workers and advantage against their competitors in the international marketplace,” the senators wrote.
They said the Kigali amendment would increase manufacturing jobs by 33,000 and boost exports by $4.8 billion.
George David Banks, who at the time was Trump’s top adviser for international environmental policy, told a forum in February that the White House was still analyzing the amendment.
“While the administration recognizes that the amendment enjoys broad industry support, we need to carefully think this through and do our best to understand the economic, legal, political, the environmental aspects of the amendment,” said Banks, who has since resigned.
“Before we provide a recommendation to the president, we will need to have a really — really good economic information, we’re going to have to have a real command of it.”
The White House has made no indication that that position has changed and did not respond to a request for comment.
The policy has the support of numerous major companies and the air conditioning and refrigeration industries, as well as environmental advocates.
But some conservatives say it would increase costs without a comparable benefit.
The Kigali amendment would add to the Montreal Protocol, which was reached in 1987 to cut emissions that harm the ozone layer.
HFCs became popular after that treaty as an ozone-friendly alternative to hydrochlorofluorocarbons, but HFCs were later found to be potent greenhouse gases.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/391689-gop-senators-push-trump-to-submit-pollution-treaty-amendment-for
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Republicans Urge Trump to Submit Obama Deal for Ratification
Jun 12, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk
A group of Republicans has urged President Trump to send an Obama-era climate agreement to the Senate for approval.
The Kigali Amendment — named for the Rwandan capital where it was finalized in 2016 — would phase out the potent greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
The goal of the amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is to avert enough emissions from air conditioning units and refrigerators to reduce warming by 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 degree Fahrenheit) by 2100.
But the agreement requires ratification in the Senate by a two-thirds majority. In a letter dated June 4, 13 Republican senators asked Trump to send it their way.
"The Kigali Amendment is intended to foster a smooth transition to commercially available next generation technologies developed by American industry," the group wrote.
"By sending this amendment to the Senate, you will help secure America's place as the global leader in several manufacturing industries, and in turn give American workers an advantage against their competitors in the international marketplace."
The Kigali Amendment has support from a wide range of groups, with industry favoring consistent rules worldwide and environmentalists aiming to address climate change.
It got a stamp of approval from Trump's State Department last year, but it has hit snags in the administration.
EPA, for one, has pushed back. A federal court last year struck down an agency rule — devised under former President Obama and defended in court by the Trump administration — to regulate HFCs. That's led to disagreement over whether the agency has the authority to regulate HFCs.
And two of its biggest supporters in the administration — climate adviser George David Banks and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — are now gone.
Banks said earlier this year that the agreement will likely languish without a champion in the White House (Greenwire, Feb. 19).
The signers of the letter include Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine. All three are Republicans.
They are co-sponsors of a bipartisan bill introduced earlier this year that would give EPA authority to ban HFCs.
"We urge you to send this amendment to the Senate for consideration," the senators wrote. "The impacted industries in our country played a major role in shaping this amendment and are supportive of its ratification and implementation."
This story also appears in Climatewire.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/06/12/stories/1060084137
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Trump, Oil of Less Concern Than Climate Change for Top Companies
Jun 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Morison
The world’s biggest companies are increasingly worried about climate change.
The terms “climate” and “weather” combined were among the most frequently discussed topics among executives of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies, beating “Trump,” “the dollar,” “oil,” and “recession,” according to analysis of 10 years of earnings call transcripts by S&P Global Ratings.
“The effect of climate risk and severe weather events on corporate earnings is meaningful,” S&P said in the joint report with Hamilton, Bermuda-based Resilience Economics Ltd. “If left unmitigated, the financial impact could increase over time as climate change makes disruptive weather events more frequent and severe.”
The analysis shows that 15 percent of S&P 500 companies publicly disclosed an effect on earnings from weather events, with only 4 percent quantifying the effect. The average impact on earnings was 6 percent in financial year 2017.
More companies are expected to increase reporting on climate issues as management teams become more accountable for understanding the financial impact of weather events, S&P said.
“We may begin to see institutional investors build climate risk factors into their portfolio selection processes, thereby placing greater emphasis on climate when directing investments,” the ratings agency said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/trump-oil-of-less-concern-than-climate-change-for-top-companies
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EPA Floats Aug. 1 Deadline to Decide on Ozone NAAQS Reconsideration
Jun 11, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA is suggesting to a federal appeals court that it will decide by Aug. 1 on whether to reconsider the Obama-era decision to tighten the ozone air standard, with agency air chief William Wehrum said to favor accelerating a Clean Air Act-mandated review of the standard due by Oct. 1, 2020, in lieu of launching the reconsideration process.
The Obama EPA in October 2015 tightened the ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) from 75 parts per billion (ppb) down to 70 ppb, saying the move was necessary to protect human health. But Republicans and industry groups criticized the move as unnecessary, saying it will impose costly pollution controls on sources of ozone-forming emissions. Several states and industry groups then filed lawsuits over the decision to tighten the limit.
After EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was sworn in, the agency on April 11, 2017, successfully asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to put the case in abeyance while the agency weighed whether to reconsider and potentially reverse the stricter standard -- a call EPA now expects to make later this summer.
“EPA is hopeful that by August 1, 2018, the Agency will have made a final decision on its expected administrative path forward,” the agency says in a June 8 filing with the D.C. Circuit. “EPA respectfully suggests that the Court continue the abeyance of this matter to August 1, 2018, with EPA to file a status report on that date fully advising the Court and the parties of the status of the Agency’s review.”
Parallel to the potential reconsideration, EPA is also under a Clean Air Act-mandated deadline to review the NAAQS every five years, putting the next regular ozone standard review at Oct. 1, 2020.
Wehrum is said to favor using that review as the vehicle for any changes to the standard rather than a formal reconsideration process, which would require the agency to reexamine the science behind the decision to tighten the standard, and where the onus would be on the agency to explain why its prior scientific conclusions for tightening the NAAQS were not accurate -- with environmentalists expected to sue over any reconsideration.
The agency could even speed up the review given Wehrum's recently announced plan to reduce the time reviews take by removing some scientific advisory input and accepting data that is “close enough” to justify a review rather than “perfect” justification. Under the air law, EPA must set the “primary” health-based NAAQS at a level requisite to protect the public health with an adequate margin of safety.
Pruitt also issued a memorandum May 9 making changes to shorten the review process that could help meet the October 2020 deadline.
And the administrator has proposed a more restrictive science policy that would, if finalized, allow EPA to exclude from its NAAQS review key air quality studies that rely on confidential medical data. The narrower approach could apply to either a formal reconsideration or the next regular NAAQS review.
The 2015 NAAQS is already being implemented in air permitting decisions and through states' preparation of implementation plans, and is hence a burden to states and industry -- although EPA in its June 8 filing again argues the states “have identified no specific, tangible injuries they expect to suffer from the continued abeyance of this matter.”
States opposed to the 2015 ozone NAAQS filed a May 18 motion seeking either an immediate end to abeyance, or an Aug. 1 deadline, fearing they may lose the opportunity to overturn the standard in court.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-floats-aug-1-deadline-decide-ozone-naaqs-reconsideration
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Municipalities Seek to Limit Appeal of Climate Nuisance Case
Jun 11, 2018 | Inside EPA
Three California municipalities are seeking to significantly limit the scope of fossil fuel companies' appeal of a federal district court's decision to move their novel climate change nuisance suit back to state court where it was originally filed, arguing that appellate courts can only review such orders in limited circumstances.
The ongoing dispute over the venue for the nuisance litigation is important because many observers believe the oil, gas and coal companies targeted in the suits have much better defenses in federal court, compared with state courts.
Meanwhile, manufacturing groups are appealing to mayors across the country to not join the list of cities that have filed such climate nuisance cases, arguing the effort is a “misuse of tort law” and uses resources that could be better spent on addressing climate change.
In the instant case, County of San Mateo, et al. v. Chevron, et al., Judge Vincent Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in March remanded the case back to state court after industry had sought to move it to the California district court.
That decision diverged from a prior ruling from Judge William Alsup, also of the Northern California district, who asserted federal jurisdiction in a similar suit brought by San Francisco and Oakland. Alsup recently declined to dismiss that suit and instead ordered discovery to be conducted on industry's jurisdictional claims.
Chevron and other defendants have appealed Chhabria's ruling in San Mateo to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, indicating they wanted the appellate court to review the entire order, which rejected industry's seven reasons for removing the case to federal court.
However, the three municipalities in a June 6 partial motion to dismiss argue that federal rules governing removal of state court cases say that, generally, an “order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise.”
Among the exceptions is the “federal officer removal” provision, in which a case is removed by an officer of the federal government.
Of industry's seven alleged grounds for removal, the municipalities argue that Chhabria rejected six of them for “lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” and they thus fall within the “general bar against appellate review.”
“The sole remaining ground for removal -- what the district court referred to as Defendants 'dubious assertion of federal officer removal,' -- falls within Section 1447(d)’s exception,” the motion says, meaning it is subject to appellate review.
Meanwhile, a coalition of manufacturing groups led by the Manufacturers' Accountability Project is seeking to staunch the expansion of climate nuisance cases.
In a June 7 letter to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the industry groups urge the city officials to avoid launching similar suits and to instead work with industry to “collectively address this pressing issue.”
Climate nuisance cases are a “misuse of tort law and a waste of resources being put toward cases that have been struck down time again by courts across the country. These resources could otherwise be dedicated to pursuits that will result in real solutions to address this issue,” the groups write.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/municipalities-seek-limit-appeal-climate-nuisance-case
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