Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 29/06/18
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemical Production Continues On a Good Note, ACC Says
Jun 29, 2018 | ChemEngOnline
By Scott Jenkins
Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) show that the global chemical industry continued on a good note as the second quarter progressed. -
Catching a (Second) Wave with Petrochemicals in Appalachia
Jun 29, 2018 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
Petrochemical projects in the Appalachian region of the United States will be able to ride the second wave of expansion in the region. -
Chemical Maker Elementis to Buy Talc Producer Mondo Minerals
Jun 29, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Arathy S Nair and Muvija M
Speciality chemicals company Elementis Plc said on Friday it would buy Mondo Minerals from U.S. private equity firm Advent International for an enterprise value of $600 million (457.49 million pounds) to expand into talc additives used in a range of products from plastics to cosmetics. -
Powelson to Leave FERC to Head National Association of Water Companies
Jun 29, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By David Bradley
Commissioner Robert Powelson said late Thursday that he will leave FERC in mid-August to become president and CEO of the National Association of Water Companies. -
EPA Sends Pharmaceutical Waste Rule for White House Review
Jun 29, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA has sent its long-awaited final pharmaceutical waste rule for review to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB), as it anticipates finalizing the rule in October. -
Paint Companies Withdraw Lead-Cleanup Ballot Measure
Jun 29, 2018 | Los Angeles Times (In E&E Greenwire)
By Liam Dillon
Paint manufacturers have withdrawn a ballot measure in California that would have put taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up lead paint in homes. -
Powelson Upends FERC with His Departure
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Rod Kuckro and Sam Mintz
Robert Powelson's departure from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission leaves the agency without its most experienced hand on state regulatory affairs at a time when turbulent policy debates about electric grid reliability and the impact of natural gas pipelines and their emissions are ripening. -
Kennedy's Exit is Big for Environmental Law. Energy law? Meh
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Justice Anthony Kennedy's departure from the Supreme Court is expected to trigger dramatic changes for environmental law. -
Greens Wary of EPA Self-Audit, Not Dead-Set Opposed
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan and Maxine Joselow
Environmental advocates yesterday raised concerns about the Trump administration's plan to let oil and gas producers self-report air pollution violations but didn't dismiss it out of hand. -
Companies Worry About Their 'Attractiveness'
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Zack Colman
Oil and gas companies used a major international conference to publicly grapple with their culpability in warming the planet — and suggest they could be part of the solution. -
Divisive Enbridge Oil Sands Project Lands Minn. Approval
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Minnesota regulators unanimously approved Enbridge Inc.'s request to replace an oil-sands pipeline across the state but split 3-2 on which route to use. -
The Texas Well That Started the Fracking Revolution
Jun 29, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Russell Gold
DISH, Texas—Twenty years ago this month, a well was drilled here that changed the world. -
(ACC Mentioned) Washington Waves: July 2, 2018
Jun 29, 2018 | The Waterways Journal
Members of the waterways industry urged the Trump administration to be open and transparent and consider local input on its dramatic proposal to reorganize the federal government, specifically on consolidating functions of the U.S. Corps of Engineers with the Transportation and Interior departments. -
FAA Bill Back to Playing Second Fiddle
Jun 29, 2018 | Politico
By Stephanie Beasley
SAVE A DANCE FOR FAA? -
A New Bench Could Rule on Big Climate Cases
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
Lawyers are already gaming out how a reshaped Supreme Court might handle future climate change cases. -
Exclusive-EU Plea to Industry to Reuse More Plastic Lacks Bite
Jun 29, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
Europe has pushed back a deadline for companies to volunteer to increase their use of recycled plastics in lieu of regulation, showing how hard it is to end the continent's reliance on developing countries dealing with its waste.
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(ACC Mentioned) Global Chemical Production Continues On a Good Note, ACC Says
Jun 29, 2018 | ChemEngOnline
By Scott Jenkins
Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) show that the global chemical industry continued on a good note as the second quarter progressed. ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that global chemicals production rose 0.9 percent in May and follows a 0.4 percent gain in April and drops in the first quarter.
Note that all data are measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. During May, production gains were again across the board among regions. The Global CPRI was up 1.8 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 115.6 percent of its average 2012 levels in May.
During May, capacity utilization in the global chemical industry gained 0.4 percentage points to 84.9 percent, ACC said. This is down from 85.6 percent last May and below the long-term (1987-2017) average of 86.4 percent.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the chemical industry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98 percent of the total global chemical industry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the U.S. CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.
http://www.chemengonline.com/global-chemical-production-continues-on-a-good-note-acc-says/
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Catching a (Second) Wave with Petrochemicals in Appalachia
Jun 29, 2018 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
Petrochemical projects in the Appalachian region of the United States will be able to ride the second wave of expansion in the region.
Investments — including major amount of new polyethylene resin capacity — are happening as a result of newfound supplies of shale gas and oil in North America. At the recent Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference in Pittsburgh, industry consultant Taylor Robinson identified first and second waves of these projects.
In the first wave, from 2015-19, only 1 percent of investments have gone to Appalachia, as compared to about 67 percent happening on the U.S. Gulf Coast, said Robinson, who's with PLG Consulting in Chicago.
Appalachia will have a much larger presence in the second wave, Robinson added. During the 2020-25 timeframe, the region — which covers parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virgina — will account for 16 percent of North American petrochemical projects.
This second wave includes Shell Chemicals' massive site under construction outside of Pittsburgh. In dollar terms, Appalachian petrochemical investment is expected to grow from $1.6 billion in the first wave to $13.6 billion in the second wave.
A third wave of investments happening after 2023 is likely to include a feedstocks and resins joint venture between PTT Global Chemical of Thailand and Daelim Industrial Co. of South Korea in Dilles Bottom, Ohio.
The extent of "third wave" PE resin capacity growth for North America will be determined by cracker-build decisions, demand growth and global export competitiveness, Robinson said.
He added that a PE plant in the Northeast United States will offer a 5-10 percent total delivered cost advantage for Northeast and Midwest PE markets. That advantage includes a reduction of more than 50 percent in logistics costs for local truck delivery vs. rail delivery from the Gulf Coast.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20180629/BLOG07/180629891/catching-a-second-wave-with-petrochemicals-in-appalachia
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Chemical Maker Elementis to Buy Talc Producer Mondo Minerals
Jun 29, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Arathy S Nair and Muvija M
Speciality chemicals company Elementis Plc said on Friday it would buy Mondo Minerals from U.S. private equity firm Advent International for an enterprise value of $600 million (457.49 million pounds) to expand into talc additives used in a range of products from plastics to cosmetics.
Shares of Elementis fell 4.4 percent on the London Stock Exchange in morning trade, paring early gains.
Mondo, which owns talc mines in central Finland, makes industrial talc additives, used to strengthen plastics, provide corrosion resistance to coatings, oxygen barrier to food packaging and UV protection to cosmetics.
Elementis said it expects the cash-and-debt-free deal to add to margins and adjusted earnings per share in the first full year of ownership.
The acquisition of Amsterdam-based Mondo will be funded by an about $280 million rights issue and debt facilities of $775 million, Elementis said.
Elementis announced a $360-million-deal last year to buy U.S.-based SummitReheis from an affiliate of private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners LLC to expand its personal care chemicals business.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/29/business/29reuters-mondo-m-a-elementis.html
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Powelson to Leave FERC to Head National Association of Water Companies
Jun 29, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By David Bradley
Commissioner Robert Powelson said late Thursday that he will leave FERC in mid-August to become president and CEO of the National Association of Water Companies.
President Trump announced Powelson’s nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in May 2017. At that time a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Powelson was nominated for a term expiring June 30, 2020, previously held by Philip Moeller, who left FERC in October 2015. At the time, Powelson served as the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and on the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Board and the Drexel University board of trustees.
A mid-August resignation would cut short Powelson’s tenure at FERC at one year. His swearing in on Aug. 10, 2017, brought to an end a months-long quorumless stretch at the Commission.
“I express my gratitude to President Trump for nominating me and to the members of the United States Senate who confirmed me,” Powelson said in a statement on the FERC website. “I thank my colleagues for their steadfast commitment to FERC’s mission, members of the public who help inform our decisions, and the staff at FERC for their dedication and support throughout my time at the Commission, especially the members of my office. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve our great nation as a FERC Commissioner."
Powelson is one of three Republicans at FERC, along with Chairman Kevin McIntyre and Commissioner Neil Chatterjee. Commissioners Richard Glick and Cheryl LaFleur are Democrats. By law, no more than three members may be from any one political party.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114886-powelson-to-leave-ferc-to-head-national-association-of-water-companies
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EPA Sends Pharmaceutical Waste Rule for White House Review
Jun 29, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA has sent its long-awaited final pharmaceutical waste rule for review to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB), as it anticipates finalizing the rule in October.
OMB received the final rule, authorized under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), for review June 27, according to OMB's website.
The Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals, which EPA proposed in 2015, will provide sector-specific regulations on the management and disposal of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals at healthcare facilities. It will in part attempt to clarify the regulatory status of reverse distribution.
It also aims to address "sewering" and other unsound environmental disposal practices, reverse distribution companies have noted.
EPA in the spring 2018 Unified Agenda moved its planned issuance of the rule from July to October.
This spring, reverse distributors made a final push to the agency to ease the draft rule's classification of returned drugs as "waste" once they reach a reverse distributor.
These companies have argued for changes, sending a recent letter to the waste office to convince the agency to ease the draft measure, saying the policy interferes with congressional intent under a drug supply security law and could unnecessarily increase the disposal of unused pharmaceuticals while bumping up costs for drug companies, distributors and consumers.
Reverse distribution refers to a practice used by healthcare facilities for managing unused or expired pharmaceuticals. Through the practice, retailers send unsold pharmaceuticals to a reverse distributor, where the medications are evaluated for credit eligibility for the purchaser, manufacturer or seller, and determinations are made on whether they can be resold on a secondary market or whether they need to be disposed of, according to the reverse distribution industry.
In the spring Unified Agenda, EPA notes that healthcare and related facilities have cited difficulty in complying with RCRA hazardous waste regulations for hazardous waste pharmaceuticals. For instance, determining which of thousands of items in a formulary are hazardous waste is one challenge, it says.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-sends-pharmaceutical-waste-rule-white-house-review
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Paint Companies Withdraw Lead-Cleanup Ballot Measure
Jun 29, 2018 | Los Angeles Times (In E&E Greenwire)
By Liam Dillon
Paint manufacturers have withdrawn a ballot measure in California that would have put taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up lead paint in homes.
The ballot measure, from paint companies including Sherwin-Williams Co. and ConAgra, would have blunted a legal decision that made the manufacturers liable for the cleanup costs.
Instead, the measure would have forced taxpayers to foot a $2 billion loan to cover the cleanup of lead-based and other toxic paint.
The companies had shelled out $2.8 million as of March to garner more than 365,880 signatures necessary for making the ballot.
"This is a victory for all Californians," Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D) said in a statement. "We pushed back against the lead paint industry and won."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087371
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Powelson Upends FERC with His Departure
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Rod Kuckro and Sam Mintz
Robert Powelson's departure from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission leaves the agency without its most experienced hand on state regulatory affairs at a time when turbulent policy debates about electric grid reliability and the impact of natural gas pipelines and their emissions are ripening.
Powelson's departure will leave FERC with a split commission, two Republicans and two Democrats, until a replacement is nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
Powelson, a Republican, announced yesterday afternoon on Twitter that he is leaving to become the president and CEO of the National Association of Water Companies, the lobby for the nation's private water utilities. He will leave FERC in mid-August.
"It is with mixed emotions that I issue the following statement. It has been an honor to serve this great country. My family and I are deeply appreciative of this opportunity. FERC is a world class organization. Thanks to you, fellow FERCians!" he wrote.
"Sad to hear this news. You will be missed. That's one lucky trade assn," said Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur on Twitter.
As the only former state regulator on the commission, Powelson was a passionate defender of states' rights and of the success of regional power markets.
Since joining FERC in August of 2017, Powelson has been a vocal opponent of Trump administration plans to secure financial support for struggling coal and nuclear plants.
His declaration that he didn't join FERC to "blow up the markets" was oft-repeated when the Department of Energy sought to direct FERC to change market rules to compensate those plants last year.
And as recently as this week, he echoed those sentiments, advising DOE against targeting one region of the country as the Trump administration again looks for ways to boost struggling power plants (E&E News PM, June 27).
FERC observers will be looking for whom Trump nominates as a replacement and whether that person agrees with the administration's approach to regulating power markets. A new commissioner could shift the dynamic, leaving FERC's two Democrats, LaFleur and Richard Glick, to rebuff administration efforts to subsidize money-losing coal and nuclear plants.
Powelson was named to FERC by Trump in May of 2017. His term was to have run through June 30, 2020.
Before joining FERC, Powelson was a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission, where he was chairman for more than four years. He was also president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
AT NARUC, he served as chairman of the Committee on Water and represented the water committee on NARUC's Task Force on Climate Policy.
While FERC decisions are often unanimous, the vacancy also could have implications for natural gas pipeline applications. Democrats LaFleur and Glick have dissented on several recent commission decisions, arguing against the Republican majority's move to limit greenhouse gas considerations.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087361
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Kennedy's Exit is Big for Environmental Law. Energy law? Meh
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Justice Anthony Kennedy's departure from the Supreme Court is expected to trigger dramatic changes for environmental law.
Energy law? Not so much.
While Kennedy played a momentous role in high-profile environmental litigation over the years — often swinging the court to the left — his impact on energy-focused cases was more limited. Most experts expect his retirement to have just a subtle effect on future energy disputes.
"While Justice Kennedy's retirement will have tremendous consequences on a number of areas of law, I do not believe energy law will be one of them," said Kim Smaczniak, a clean energy attorney for Earthjustice.
The Supreme Court takes up far fewer energy issues than more general environmental disputes, and the energy cases it accepts are often less divisive.
"Many of the legal challenges in this area of law are fact-bound, technically complex and do not readily fit into the categories of cases typically picked up by the Supreme Court," Smaczniak said.
University of Richmond law professor Joel Eisen noted that environmental cases tend to be "hyperpartisan," while energy issues are wonkier, focusing on economics, technology and jurisdictional questions.
The high court's most recent energy rulings were not close calls, meaning Kennedy's often-pivotal vote was less consequential.
"Even if he was replaced by a jurist who had a different perspective on these issues, we might expect these decisions to come out more or less the same way," Eisen said.
Energy lawyers point to three recent disputes that have contoured the modern electric grid and energy regulation during Kennedy's time on the court.
*Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing and CPV Maryland LLC v. Talen Energy Marketing: In April 2016, the Supreme Court issued an 8-0 decision striking down a Maryland energy program challenged by these consolidated cases. The unanimous court found that the state had strayed onto the federal government's wholesale energy regulatory turf.
*Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association and EnerNOC Inc. v. EPSA: In January 2016, the justices voted 6-2 to uphold a contentious FERC regulation that encouraged energy conservation through "demand response" practices. Kennedy joined the majority opinion, which was written by Justice Elena Kagan.
*Oneok Inc. v. Learjet Inc.: In April 2015, the court voted 7-2 that FERC's jurisdiction over market manipulation issues did not prevent antitrust lawsuits from moving forward against major energy companies in the aftermath of the California energy crisis. Kennedy joined Justice Stephen Breyer's opinion for the majority.
"Justice Kennedy was not a swing vote in any of these energy law cases because they weren't 5-4," Eisen said. "There isn't a real search for common ground between warring perspectives."Tilting the court
Still, energy experts see potential repercussions from Kennedy's retirement — they'll just be less dramatic than the environmental shift.
Sharon Jacobs, a law professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, noted that a rebalancing of the Supreme Court could affect how future energy federalism cases play out. Conflict over state and federal authority over the electric grid is a recurring issue in federal litigation.
While Kennedy is known as a strong advocate for state sovereignty, he joined in the Hughes and EPSA decisions favoring the federal government's role. Jacobs noted that it's impossible to know whether Kennedy "played a role behind the scenes in ensuring that the final decisions were adequately respectful of state authority."
"But a new justice with less interest in federalism values could tip the balance further in favor of federal energy regulation," she said. "Or a new justice with an even stronger inclination to preserve state power might join with Justice [Clarence] Thomas in opposing expansive interpretations of federal authority under the Federal Power Act."
Eversheds Sutherland LLP attorney Joseph Hall said that second scenario, a tilt toward states' rights, will be an issue to watch.
"FERC, EPA, [the Department of Energy] and the states are continually trying to evaluate boundaries as energy and environmental policy and law interface and the federal and state government struggle to evaluate which body has decisional authority," he said. "Increased state rights may drive many strategic energy and environmental policy and legal issues back to the state level from the federal government, where they have been tending to elevate over the last several decades."
Increased state rights may drive many strategic energy and environmental policy and legal issues back to the state level.Eversheds Sutherland attorney Joseph Hall
In other words, a more conservative future court could be less inclined to uphold broad federal policies that aim to help the environment but step on states' toes along the way. On the flip side, such a court could also be more inclined to support state-level energy programs that land before the court on jurisdictional grounds.
More generally, a more conservative court could dampen the efforts of environmental groups or policymakers that interpret federal law broadly to accomplish certain policy goals, said former FERC Commissioner Tony Clark, now at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP.
"To the degree environmental groups might hope to leverage a very expansive reading of energy law to achieve their environmental policy goals, having one more justice who adheres to textualism/originalism makes that a less viable strategy," said Clark, a Republican appointee to the commission from 2012 to 2016.
And the court's potential shift on climate law could offer relief to energy companies concerned about federal carbon regulation (Climatewire, June 28).
Smaczniak noted that court watchers should also keep an eye on broader legal doctrines — like access to the courts and the high level of deference agencies receive under the Chevronprecedent — that could affect future energy cases.
"Access to courts, through standing doctrine and the like, are another cross-cutting area to watch," she said in an email. "But given that these doctrines are well-established and based upon substantial bodies of supreme court caselaw, I'd be surprised if we see any revolutionary changes after J. Kennedy's retirement."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087355
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Greens Wary of EPA Self-Audit, Not Dead-Set Opposed
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan and Maxine Joselow
Environmental advocates yesterday raised concerns about the Trump administration's plan to let oil and gas producers self-report air pollution violations but didn't dismiss it out of hand.
Andrew Grinberg, a national campaign manager for Clean Water Action, said his group supports the "self-audit" for new owners, to the extent that it could increase compliance. But he also expressed wariness.
"We are pretty concerned that this could be used as a way to undermine enforcement," Grinberg said during a public session at EPA headquarters. "Given this administration and Administrator [Scott] Pruitt's record on enforcement throughout the agency, we have come to view enforcement with this agency with some skepticism."
Leann Leiter of Earthworks said her group would like to see the audits done by independent third parties, rather than the companies themselves. Among other concerns, Earthworks would like to see methane emissions specifically listed as part of the program.
Leiter also asked what would prevent companies from "offloading" polluting wells onto a new company that could evade fines by participating in the self-audit for new owners.
EPA officials have said that trying to use the program in bad faith to evade enforcement would be against the law. And they have said the agency is not abandoning tough enforcement.
Industry representatives at the stakeholder meeting said they support the concept but voiced concerns that EPA's plan is too rigid and seems aimed at punishing companies that self-report violations, rather than fostering cooperation (Energywire, June 26).
Industry members also worry that the current design of the program creates confusion about the role of states in enforcement. Oil and gas producers generally dislike federal regulation and prefer regulation by state agencies, which often take a more cooperative approach.
The self-audit plan is being shepherded by EPA's enforcement chief, Susan Bodine. It is intended to address emissions from storage tanks used to hold oil, petroleum liquids and wastewater. That's one of the biggest sources of pollution from oil and gas operations.
If approved, the proposal would allow companies that acquire new oil and gas operations to self-audit their newly acquired properties and report any problems to EPA. The companies would then have a flexible timeline to fix the problems. In exchange, EPA would waive all or most of the civil penalties that would normally apply. The plan could be in place by October.
EPA already has had a "new owner" program for traditional manufacturing plants since 2008. The agency has had difficulty applying it to the oil and gas industry because a typical oil field can include hundreds of tanks and other facilities.
Storage tanks are one of the major sources of pollution from the oil and gas industry. Volatile organic compounds such as benzene can leak from pressure-relief valves or from improperly secured hatches. In many cases, truck drivers open the tanks to the atmosphere when they measure the liquids that collect in tanks. Several workers have died from the effects of the toxic gases.
Despite the focus on cooperation, Bodine has also said she is "shocked" at how often environmental violations occur. Her comments were not focused on the oil and gas industry.
Inspections of "energy extraction" sites dropped by one-third in Pruitt's first fiscal year, according to EPA's website. But the number of concluded cases rose slightly.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087359
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Companies Worry About Their 'Attractiveness'
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Zack Colman
Oil and gas companies used a major international conference to publicly grapple with their culpability in warming the planet — and suggest they could be part of the solution.
Industry representatives stressed at the triennial World Gas Conference that they understand the gravity of their most significant climate problem — leaks of methane, a potent gas responsible for 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The oil and gas industry accounts for at least one-quarter of methane emissions. Companies huddling in Washington this week posited that countries and environmentalists will not consider natural gas a long-term option for powering the globe if the industry doesn't confront those facts.
"Now we have to shift our focus to talk about attractiveness. The problem is, I don't think we have a license to tell that story — I think our customers are going to have to," Greg Guidry, executive vice president of Shell Oil Co.'s upstream Americas unconventionals business, said yesterday on a conference panel. "I don't think we have the time to build the trust for an incumbent fossil fuel company to tell that story because there's too much in it for us."
The conference was the first of its kind since nations signed the Paris climate accord. It comes as the Trump administration has sought to unleash the U.S. bounty of natural gas for economic gain — though with little mention of climate change. Oil and gas companies are also facing a rush of litigation for their role in driving global temperatures higher, though they notched a victory as the conference began when a federal court in California tossed such a lawsuit (Climatewire, June 26).
Politicians and energy executives emphasized what became a common refrain — they want natural gas to shed its reputation as a "bridge" fuel to emissions-free renewable energy.
"People like to refer to it as a transitional fuel. Nope. It's a foundational fuel," Energy Secretary Rick Perry said yesterday.
That, though, would require more meaningful steps than the industry has taken to date to stomp out its methane problem. The fuel is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time scale. Some studies suggest methane leakage rates of 3 percent from oil and gas operations would erase natural gas's benefit to reducing climate change relative to coal.
The Trump administration has lifted some rules designed to address methane leaks. Environmental groups said those moves take the industry in the wrong direction, while energy companies said parts of the regulations were burdensome and duplicative.
A study last week by the Environmental Defense Fund and academics showed the industry is underestimating how much methane it puts in the atmosphere. It found oil and gas operations had a methane leak rate of 2.3 percent, compared with EPA's 1.4 percent figure. Overall, the U.S. industry emits 13 million metric tons of methane gas per year, the study said.
"When you walk around here, what's the two things that everyone's saying? 'Well, we're a clean fuel, a low-carbon fuel, right for the energy future, and we're an abundant fuel capable of alleviating energy scarcity and energy poverty,'" Mark Brownstein, senior vice president of energy with EDF, said in an interview at the conference. "It's really hard to sustain those two marketing claims when it could be shown that a significant fraction of the product is escaping into the atmosphere and having a direct impact on global warming and that you're wasting $30 billion of energy every year. That's enough energy to electrify Africa two times over."
Companies have preferred to work through voluntary programs, such as one led by the American Petroleum Institute that will share best practices and technology. Another known as Methane Guiding Principles claims some of the world's biggest oil and gas companies as signatories. They contend there's internal motivation to solve the methane issue because whatever they capture is fuel they can sell.
At the same time, energy firms have lobbied against U.S. regulations to slow methane leaks. While bigger firms, like BP PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp., have set targets for reducing methane emissions, what data they will share is unclear. Some energy companies refrain from joining even voluntary programs because they say they're unnecessary — that's how ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance on Tuesday explained his firm's absence from the Methane Guiding Principles.
Bernard Looney, chief executive of BP's upstream sector, called for an open industry discussion about methane.
"Gas will not win the argument it needs to win if we don't all put methane on the table," Looney said on the panel yesterday. "This is not something we can push away or hide from."
Brownstein of EDF said more data are part of the solution. His group hopes to launch a satellite by 2021 that will measure 80 percent of global oil and gas production. That will help get a handle on infrequent, but significant, leaks that constitute a bulk of methane emissions.
Shell's Guidry advocated for a voluntary action approach combined with policy, though he wasn't specific about what that meant. He said Obama administration EPA regulations for reducing methane emissions were "hitting a lot of the right elements" but that they required unnecessary reporting. He said energy companies, through API, are working with EPA on a replacement rule.
Energy companies must get beyond the reflexive rejection of regulation to maintain their credibility as entities seeking solutions to climate change, said Pratima Rangarajan, CEO of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative.
"Time is really our biggest challenge at this point. I don't think this is an innovation problem," she said on a panel. "The real problem is what drives markets and what drives people to do this. What really drives markets in the energy sector is policy and regulations."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087301
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Divisive Enbridge Oil Sands Project Lands Minn. Approval
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Minnesota regulators unanimously approved Enbridge Inc.'s request to replace an oil-sands pipeline across the state but split 3-2 on which route to use.
The Public Utility Commission yesterday capped nine days of hearings by approving a certificate of need and a route for Enbridge's Line 3.
The five-member commission, four of whom were appointed by Democratic governors, said they were sympathetic to objections from environmentalists, American Indian groups and the Minnesota Department of Commerce who questioned the need for the new line and said approving it will increase greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to global warming.
But ultimately, the commissioners said they were bound to consider Enbridge's argument that the new pipeline would help maintain a stable oil supply in the state.
"We don't have broad policy authority here to decide what we think is right. We have authority to decide what the law requires," Commissioner Dan Lipschultz said during deliberations yesterday, which were broadcast on the web.
The case has drawn thousands of comments and provoked emotional responses. Commission Chairwoman Nancy Lange teared up and reached for a tissue at one point during the deliberations.
As the decision approached, a woman in the hearing room shouted, "You have just declared war" on the state's tribes, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Green groups said the decision was flawed.
"Whatever route it takes, it is unacceptable to allow more dirty tar sands to flow through Minnesota, threatening our clean water, our communities, and our climate," said Margaret Levin, state director of the Sierra Club's North Star Chapter. "It is shameful that the PUC chose to ignore the wishes of Minnesota communities and prioritize the desires of a foreign pipeline company over the best interest of our state."
Line 3 starts in Canada's Alberta oil sands fields and runs across the U.S. border to a terminal in Superior, Wis. Enbridge wants to replace the existing line, which would increase its capacity to 390,000 to 760,000 barrels a day. More than 300 miles of the route lies in Minnesota.
The existing line runs through two reservations and is more than 50 years old. It's also had a series of maintenance issues that put it at risk of leaking. Enbridge has been running the pipeline at a reduced capacity as part of a legal settlement over a massive spill on another of the company's lines in Marshall, Mich.
An administrative law judge recommended that Enbridge replace the pipeline in its existing corridor, but that sparked protests from the Native American tribes because it would leave the pipeline on their reservations (Energywire, June 5).
Enbridge's preferred route also drew protests because it would cut through what some consider culturally significant areas and land near the reservations that the tribes have historically used for hunting and food-gathering (Energywire, June 19).
The commission opted for a hybrid route. The new line will follow Enbridge's preferred pathway across most of Minnesota. As it approaches the historic hunting grounds, it will deviate to an alternate route to be chosen by leaders of the Fond du Lac reservation.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087357
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The Texas Well That Started the Fracking Revolution
Jun 29, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Russell Gold
DISH, Texas—Twenty years ago this month, a well was drilled here that changed the world.
Nothing at the time suggested the unassuming well in this rural town north of Fort Worth would hobble OPEC, the powerful oil cartel that had governed prices of the world’s most important commodity for more than a generation. Or that it would help turn the U.S. into a global energy exporter, or shuffle the geopolitical deck.
But it did all of that—and more. The well used hydraulic fracturing to crack the incredibly tight shale rocks below. It fired the first shot in the fracking revolution—a blast soon felt in Riyadh, Tehran and Moscow.
“I had no idea it would cause so much change. I was just trying to keep my job,” said Nick Steinsberger on a recent visit to the well pad. He was the engineer who obtained permission to try a new approach to completing the well that had been drilled a mile and a half deep into a thick grey wedge of rock known as the Barnett Shale.
Mr. Steinsberger, now 54, called the experiment “my slick-water frack.” It was the first commercially successful use of sand, water and chemicals, pumped into the shale under high pressure, to break open the rock and unleash the natural gas trapped inside. It was the beginning of modern fracking.Nick Steinsberger pulled off the first commercially successful fracking well 20 years ago this month. He revisited that well in early June. PHOTO: BRANDON THIBODEAUX FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“It was a good well, cost $600,000 or $700,000,” Mr. Steinsberger said, walking over the pad to the chain-link fence that surrounds the well. A sign identifies it as the S. H Griffin Estate 4.
Today, most wells drilled in the U.S. use some variation of Mr. Steinsberger’s fracking technique. It has unleashed an unimaginable wealth of natural gas, gas liquids and crude oil, turning the U.S. from an energy pauper into a muscular exporter. It also started an often acrimonious environmental debate about the potential impacts and trade offs of fracking.
“It is one of the most extraordinarily important, disruptive, technologically driven changes in the history of energy,” said Ed Morse, global head of commodity research at Citigroup. “It was revolutionary for the U.S. economy and it was revolutionary geopolitically.”
Mr. Steinsberger’s modest experiment demonstrated that the oil and gas industry had the tools to fracture the rocks where fossil fuels were slowly baked over the millennia. A huge trove of natural gas was accessible at an economical cost.
It was such a novel idea that it spread slowly at first, as doubters couldn’t believe that anyone could successfully tap the source rocks. After a few years, more companies began to copy the wells drilled by Mr. Steinsberger’s employer,Mitchell Energy , the firm founded by the late George P. Mitchell.U.S. Crude-oil productionSource: Joint Organisations Data Initiative.million barrels a day
Russia
Saudi Arabia
U.S.2002’03’04’05’06’07’08’09’10’11’12’13’14’15’16’17’183456789101112
It started in the Barnett Shale. Then other gas-bearing shales were discovered. The Marcellus Shale in Appalachia turned out to be larger and more fecund than the Barnett.
In 2008, more than a decade after Mr. Steinsberger’s well, the industry made another quantum leap: Not only could fracking liberate small natural gas molecules from rocks, it also worked on the longer hydrocarbon chains that make up crude oil. Companies such as EOG Resources Inc. began to drill and frack shales bearing crude oil and natural gas liquids in North Dakota and Texas. The technique has since spread to other countries such as Argentina.
The proliferation of oil and gas production transformed the U.S. energy landscape. A looming dearth of natural gas had led companies to build import terminals. Now there is so much gas the U.S. exports the fuel around the world.
The low-cost fuel has become the leading source of power generation in the U.S. Its rise has reshaped electricity markets, leading to the closure of more than 200 coal plants, as well as a number of nuclear plants. The Trump Administration’s current proposal to subsidize coal and nuclear plants is an indirect result of fracking.
The impact on oil markets might be, if anything, more significant. U.S. oil production had fallen persistently for years, dropping below five million barrels a day. And then: fracking. This year, it hit a new all-time high, reaching 10.9 million barrels a day in June. It is now the world’s largest producer of crude and other valuable petroleum liquids, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.Modern fracking operations are significantly larger and more involved. Here, line boss David Cantu checks the performance of pumping units at a Cudd Energy fracking operation on a Fasken Oil and Ranch well in Midland, Texas, in May. PHOTO: JAMES DURBIN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The surge has weakened the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Facing a growing supply of oil from the U.S., the group stumbled and fought over what to do. It unsuccessfully tried to crush frackers by ramping up production in 2014 to drive down the price of oil, before making its peace with them. Last week, the cartel’s members coordinated with Russia to produce more barrels to prevent oil prices from rising further. Shale output was outside of their control.
The U.S. emerged as a newly confident energy powerhouse. It was no longer fearful that an embargo could maim its economy. This attitude was reflected in a more aggressive foreign policy, as shown by its willingness to take a tough negotiating posture with Iran.
“The fracking boom was the biggest energy story around the world. But it was also the biggest geopolitical story and the biggest environmental story,” said Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.
The proliferation of natural gas, displacing coal, helped the U.S. lower its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 13.4% in the last decade, while growing its gross domestic product, according to BP PLC’s Statistical Review of World Energy.
While fracking has produced environment benefits at a global scale, it has created local problems. Dust, noise, truck traffic and emissions from diesel engines turned rural regions into industrial zones during periods of peak development.
The headlong rush to drill and frack meant that the industry raced out in front of state regulators. Concerns arose about fracking’s impact on water and the impact of methane gases leakage on the climate. Eventually, federal and state regulators responded with increasingly sophisticated rules. And the industry adopted some voluntary measures as well.
Fracking has split the environmental movement. Some environmentalists opposed fracking entirely; others recognized its potential benefits and have worked to minimize its negative impacts.Front-month natural-gas priceSource: WSJ Market Data Group.per million btu
2000’05’10’150.02.55.07.510.012.5$15.0
Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, praised natural gas for helping clean up local air pollution, lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce electricity costs. “The abundance of natural gas has helped, but it is important to work to make it as clean as it can be,” he said.
Meanwhile, fracking continues to evolve. Supersized fracks have become commonplace.
Fracking uses grains of sand to prop open the newly formed cracks to allow gas or oil to flow out. While Mr. Steinsberger’s well required 229,000 pounds of sand, a large contemporary well might require 30 million pounds of sand. The amount of water needed has increased as well.
The S. H. Griffin well has continued to produce gas for two decades. Over the years, more than 2.6 billion cubic feet have flowed out, worth some $8 million at today’s prices. A new well with a supersized frack can produce as much in a day as the original could in two months.
The proliferation of large wells has kept gas below $4 per million British thermal units since December 2016, after topping $10 in 2008. Mr. Steinsberger, who still oversees eight to ten fracks a year, doesn’t see that changing for a long time.
“One day, there might be lasers shooting at the rock” thousands of feet underfoot, he said. “I can’t predict that. But I can tell you natural gas prices will be low for the rest of our lives.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-texas-well-that-started-a-revolution-1530270010?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=3
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(ACC Mentioned) Washington Waves: July 2, 2018
Jun 29, 2018 | The Waterways Journal
Members of the waterways industry urged the Trump administration to be open and transparent and consider local input on its dramatic proposal to reorganize the federal government, specifically on consolidating functions of the U.S. Corps of Engineers with the Transportation and Interior departments.
“Managing water for multiple purposes can and often does lead to conflict among competing interests,” the National Waterways Conference (NWC) stated.
Keeping federal activities on water resources within a single agency would help to optimize such competing interests, allow proper coordination among federal, state and local levels, and protect the multiple benefits produced by projects, the NWC said.
It added Congress and the Corps have recognized the need to streamline the agency’s business model and improve project delivery and responsiveness, citing the reforms enacted through legislation in 2014 and 2016.
Moreover, the NWC said, pending legislation in Congress calls for a comprehensive study of the Corps’ structure and organization and the effects of transferring its functions to an existing or new agency.
The American Association of Port Authorities expressed similar comments.
Sen. Ron Johnson, (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, welcomed the administration’s “outside-the-box” thinking and introduced a bill to expand its authority to reorganize federal agencies.In the House, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing to examine the administration’s government-wide plan.
In her opening statement, Margaret Weichert, deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, stressed the need for change by including among her examples the “organizational complexity and costly regulatory overhead” faced by infrastructure projects at ports. Weichert later responded to a question on the costs of project delays by speaking about how the Corps’ “very good intentions” on the nation’s waterways can result in complex and conflicting regulatory burden that make improvements difficult to achieve.
Although somewhat muted so far, reactions to the administration’s proposal range from Republicans’ welcoming comments to criticism from Democrats who question whether it should be taken seriously at this point.
Senates Passes Funding Package
The Senate passed its version of an omnibus appropriations package that includes funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.A conference committee now is expected to be used to hammer out differences with the House version.
Key senators from both parties made it clear the conference committee’s approach must avoid so-called “poison pill” provisions that Democrats say ended up in the House bill.
A major test of that line-in-the-sand came when the Senate voted to table an amendment by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to include language in the Senate version against the contentious Waters of the United States rule put in place by Obama administration.
The vote killing the Lee amendment was 62 to 34, which included several leading Republicans who oppose WOTUS but clearly hope to keep the appropriations process on track with Democrats on board.
EPA Memo On Dredged Materials
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a memo to boost regulatory certainty in the permitting process on discharges of dredged or fill materials under the Clean Water Act’s Section 404.“We must ensure that EPA exercises its authority under the Clean Water Act in a careful, predictable, and prudent manner,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said.
Pruitt’s memo directs the agency’s Office of Water to develop a proposed rule that would consider several changes, including eliminating the so-called preemptive veto of a permit application before it has been filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or a state as well as the retroactive veto of a permit after it has been issued.
TWIC Card Reader Delay Proposed
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced a bill to ensure the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program is working before it is expanded to require the use of card readers.Introduced by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), the Transportation Worker Identification Credential Act of 2018 was approved by a voice vote.
The American Chemistry Council called for swift Senate passage of the bill, adding it will provide much needed regulatory relief to thousands of workers across the country.
Just days earlier, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking to delay the TWIC reader rule for two categories of facilities from August 23, 2018, to August 23, 2021.
Those two categories include those that handle certain dangerous cargoes in bulk and those that receive such vessels but do not transfer the dangerous cargoes to or from vessels.
Other facilities covered by the current rule must still meet the effective date of August 23, 2018.Comments on the proposed delay must be received by July 23.
“This proposed delay is to consider industry input asking us to reconsider the scope of the TWIC reader final rule and to re-evaluate the underlying methodology used to determine the facilities subject to the electronic TWIC inspection requirements,” said Capt. Ryan Manning, chief of the Office of Port and Facility Compliance.
For additional information, contact Lt. Cmdr. Yamaris Barril at 202-372-1151.
MarAd Funds Program Grants
The Maritime Administration (MarAd) published a notice for funding another round of marine highway program grants.Totaling $6.7 million, this round will be limited to projects previously designed by the transportation secretary for the program and related to the support of documented vessels and port and landslide infrastructure.
MarAd must receive applications by 5 p.m. October 5.
For additional information, contact Tori Collins at 202-366-0795.
“Danger” Removed From Rule 34
The National Maritime Center issued a bulletin to ensure mariners and training providers know of a previously advertised technical change that removes the word “danger” from the Inland Navigation Rules regarding maneuvering and warning signals.
That change in Rule 34 took effect in January.It was made to alleviate potential ambiguity concerning the signal described in Rule 34 specific to a vessel that does not understand the intentions or actions of another vessel or is in doubt that sufficient action is being taken to avoid collision.
“Vessels may use this signal even when “danger” is not present,” the bulletin stated.
https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/2018/06/29/washington-waves-july-2-2018/
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FAA Bill Back to Playing Second Fiddle
Jun 29, 2018 | Politico
By Stephanie Beasley
SAVE A DANCE FOR FAA? Remember how we said getting floor time for the Senate’s FAA bill was like your dream date saying they’ll go to prom with you? Well, now our underdog FAA reauthorization is competing with the most popular kid in school: a Supreme Court nominee. Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune(R-S.D.) told reporters Thursday that the push to confirm a justice before the midterms “obviously affects the legislative calendar on a lot of issues,” including the FAA bill (S. 1405 (115)). But Thune is optimistic. “If we can get a time agreement on this — and we're running the hotline to see where the issues are — and we can get everybody to sort of agree that we can wrap this up on the floor in a couple of days, I still think we can get it done in the July work period,” he said. And this is important to note: Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) has indicated that a SCOTUS confirmation vote probably won’t happen until September.
AMTRAK COULD PULL TRAINS FROM SOME NON-PTC TRACK SEGMENTS: Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson sent ripples through the rail sector in February when he said he "doubted" that Amtrak would continue to operate on freight segments that lack positive train control. Amtrak chief safety officer Kenneth Hylander clarified Thursday that they’ll seek the "path toward PTC equivalency" on each and every segment of the 1,400 miles of track that are exempt from PTC requirements. Where they can’t properly mitigate risks, they might decide to cease operations — but Hylander said they can’t say for sure yet. Tanya has more for Pros, and stay tuned for even more from our conversation with Hylander today.
HAPPY FRIDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Stephanie is your driver. Send tips, scoops and song requests to @Steph_Beasley or sbeasley@politico.com.
You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock / They're just gonna sit there til they rot / Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack / Just busted concrete and rusted tracks (h/t Pete Janhunen at The Fratelli Group)
LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about roads, rails, rivers and runways?
YOUNGER TRUCKER PILOT ON THE HORIZON: A FMCSA spokesman told The Washington Post the agency will launch a pilot program later this year that would allow some 18-to-20-year-old drivers to operate commercial trucks. The initiative is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to address a driver shortage that the American Trucking Associations said could reach 63,000 this year. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.) — one of the sponsors of a House bill (H.R. 5358 (115)) that would lower the required age for commercial truck drivers to 18 — said he has been “flooded with calls and visits” from businesses complaining that the lack of drivers was slowing delivery of their products. “We already say 18-year-olds can drive anywhere inside a state,” he said. “All this bill does is say after they’ve completed a rigorous safety program of 400 total hours driving with somebody else, then they can cross state lines.”
However: Not everyone is on board with the idea of allowing younger truckers on interstate highways. Safety groups and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have said that lowering the age requirement could increase safety risks. OOIDA released a statement this week urging Congress to support efforts that would improve the industry instead of attempts to hire “more cheap labor.”
AIRLINES’ SPAT WITH CHINA INTENSIFIES: China is refusing to hold discussions with U.S. airlines after demanding the carriers alter descriptions of Taiwan and other regions where China claims sovereignty on their websites and in promotional materials, according to a Reuters report. Tensions seem to have only intensified in the wake of the Trump administration’s threats to impose tariffs on Chinese imports. “This has definitely become a foreign policy issue,” a source told Reuters, adding that “the U.S. government did not view it as a technical matter for bilateral aviation cooperation.” Several non-U.S. carriers have already made the changes but U.S. carriers, including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, pressed the Chinese government to give them until July 25 to comply.
ICAO ADOPTS NEW AVIATION EMISSIONS RULES: The Council of the International Civil Aviation on Thursday adopted approved new standards for carbon offsetting and reduction as part of a 15-year climate deal. Under the new requirements, airlines would have to track their carbon emissions. The Environmental Defense Fund applauded the move, but added that it was troubling ICAO amended the standards to allow airlines to claim credits for nonconventional fossil fuels before final approval. “This change could present a serious stumbling block,” Annie Petsonk, EDF’s international counsel, said.
MORE EMISSIONS TALK: New survey results from the Sierra Club show that the majority of voters in 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia support efforts to modernize infrastructure with “clean transportation solutions.” Of the 4,037 people polled, 42 percent strongly supported state efforts to reduce emissions and invest in systems that would rely on fuel-efficient and electric vehicles. Another 29 percent said they “somewhat supported” the idea while 13 percent said they might oppose it. Only 8 percent said they would strongly oppose state efforts to adopt cleaner transportation. A full rundown of the state-by-state data is available here.
APPLAUSE FOR FAA: The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association praised FAA for releasing a final rule this week that would allow greater use of technology in pilot training and certification. The regulation, which would permit the use of “technically advanced airplanes as an alternative to the use of older complex single engine airplanes,” would save as much as $110 million over the next five years, according to AOPA. The rule goes into effect July 27.
MT MAILBAG: Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) sent a letter to DOT blasting the agency for not finalizing a rule that would require drug and alcohol testing for “safety-sensitive” workers at more than 700 foreign aircraft repair stations that work on U.S. aircraft. “We therefore are utterly confused by and disappointed with the FAA’s failure to finalize a rule requiring that workers at foreign repair stations be subject to screening for alcohol and controlled substance use — just as workers at U.S. facilities are — despite two explicit congressional mandates directing the FAA to act,” the lawmakers wrote.
SHIFTING GEARS: Ben Lieberman is returning to the Competitive Enterprise Institute after a seven-year stint as senior counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Lieberman rejoins CEI as a senior fellow, specializing in environmental policy. (h/t POLITICO Playbook)
SPOTTED: House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) peeking his head into Cups & Company in the Russell Senate Building. Though, we're told he didn’t grab any coffee.
THE AUTOBAHN:
— "NJ Transit given initial approval for positive train control extension." POLITICO.
— “Trump to Harley Davidson: ‘Don’t get cute with us.’” POLITICO.
— “Chicago mayor meets with DOT officials on Musk's tunnel project.” Reuters.
— "After ethics warning MTA chairman gets OK for outside jobs in email." The New York Times.
— “Subway delays disproportionately affect low-income New Yorkers, says study.” Curbed New York.
THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 94 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 94 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 825 days.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-transportation/2018/06/29/faa-bill-back-to-playing-second-fiddle-267350
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A New Bench Could Rule on Big Climate Cases
Jun 29, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
Lawyers are already gaming out how a reshaped Supreme Court might handle future climate change cases.
A replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy picked by President Trump is almost certain to steer the court to the right on a host of issues, and climate is no exception. The shift could lead critics of EPA climate rules to take aim at the 2007 Supreme Court ruling in the case Massachusetts v. EPA, a landmark decision finding that the agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Legal fights over the Trump administration's climate policies could give the high court a chance to take another look at the issue.
The first climate-related test case to make it before the Supreme Court after Kennedy's retirement could be one involving an Obama administration rule to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Honeywell International Inc. and Chemours Co. are asking the high court to resurrect the Obama-era regulation. On Monday, the NRDC petitioned the court to review a decision to toss the rule issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last year (Greenwire, June 26).
David Doniger, director of the climate and clean energy program at NRDC, said the arguments in the case are not just about the need to control HFCs, which are potent greenhouse gases. There is also a concern for the financial interest of chemical manufacturers like Honeywell and Chemours that had invested heavily in alternatives to HFCs in anticipation that they would be phased out, along with makers of air conditioning and refrigeration that had also gotten on board.
Given the broader economic and environmental questions involved in the case, beyond limiting greenhouse gases, Doniger said they hoped the issues would be of interest to Chief Justice John Roberts and the rest of the court.
Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, sees the HFC case as the quickest way the high court could revisit the Massachusetts v. EPA decision, because it could involve an examination of the dangers of greenhouse gases. Ebell said that a direct attack against the 2007 ruling is unlikely.
If the justices do agree to hear that case, it might come up too early to be a test of the new justice's views on climate regulations. The court will pick and be briefed on its next batch of cases in the fall and will hold hearings in the winter.
Republicans want to confirm a new justice before the midterm elections this fall, but Senate Democrats won't allow a Trump nominee to be confirmed expeditiously.
Other climate cases that could come before the Supreme Court are challenges to the Trump EPA's next moves on repealing and replacing Obama's Clean Power Plan, along with EPA's methane regulations for oil and gas.
Much of what happens with these challenges still depends on what actions EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt decides to take in the coming months. EPA has yet to state definitively whether it will eliminate the Clean Power Plan outright or replace it with a less stringent version. Any moves by Pruitt to relax climate rules are certain to be challenged by the left, but it's uncertain whether those cases will be heard by the Supreme Court, which hears a tiny fraction of the appeals before it.
But the Supreme Court has already shown an interest in the Clean Power Plan, agreeing to freeze that rule while President Obama was still in the White House.
"I would say that my No. 1 concern is going to be the lawsuit involving the Clean Power Plan and what I think will be Trump's replacement for the Clean Power Plan. That case would almost certainly work its way up to the Supreme Court," said Jessica Wentz, staff attorney and associate research scholar at Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
"With Kennedy on the court, it wasn't entirely clear what would happen with this," Wentz said. "Recently, he's been siding with conservative justices. For environmental cases, he might go either way. Whomever Trump nominates, we can assume he will share Trump's deregulatory agenda."
Ebell doesn't expect litigation over a Clean Power Plan replacement to impact the Massachusetts v. EPA decision. He sees another path to torpedoing that ruling.
Critics of EPA climate rules have already petitioned the agency to revisit its endangerment finding that triggers regulations.
"If they decided not to replace the Clean Power Plan and they decided to consider our petition through an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to look at the endangerment finding again, then that potentially over a period of time could be a way to get back to court with Massachusetts v. EPA," Ebell said.
Some environmental lawyers are skeptical that an effort to undo the landmark Supreme Court case would be successful.
Doniger pointed out that since 2007, the Supreme Court has upheld EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases in two big climate cases: an 8-0 decision in a case titled American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut in 2011 and Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA in 2014. The justices' differing opinions in the UARG case focused on permitting and not on controlling greenhouse gas emissions, Doniger said.
He added that in that case, even the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who delivered the court's decision in the UARG case, had not questioned the ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA. "EPA is getting almost everything it wanted in this case," Scalia said from the bench when he announced the ruling (Greenwire, June 24, 2014).
The scientific support for human-driven climate change has also strengthened over the past decade, and more of the public is aware of the imminent risks rising global temperatures pose.
"In 2007, it might have appeared that climate change was in the future and somewhat uncertain," Doniger said. "Apart from the right-wing nuts who are still pursuing climate denial, most everyone realizes that the impacts are happening now and they are already evident and the problems are much more urgent and real than in 2007."
He added, "The die-hard deniers will never go away, but I find it hard to believe even the conservatives on the Supreme Court would get sucked into that view."
Others aren't as confident that the Massachusetts v. EPA ruling will survive.
"Some of the other conservative justices aren't all that deferential to past conservative precedent," said Wentz of Columbia Law School. "They are still intelligent enough I don't think they want to be the justice to say greenhouse gases aren't pollutants under the Clean Air Act."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/06/29/stories/1060087303
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Exclusive-EU Plea to Industry to Reuse More Plastic Lacks Bite
Jun 29, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
Europe has pushed back a deadline for companies to volunteer to increase their use of recycled plastics in lieu of regulation, showing how hard it is to end the continent's reliance on developing countries dealing with its waste.
The pledges were due to have been made by the end of June under a European plastics strategy unveiled in January when China stopped taking the world's waste due to pollution concerns, focusing minds on its environmental impact.
An EU official said the deadline had been shifted to September after industry appealed for more time. That timeline makes the fallback option of legislation highly unlikely.
The European Union recycles only a quarter of the 25-26 million tonnes of plastics waste it produces per year and about half of that was sent to China, which uses recycled plastics to make products ranging from office furniture to cable coatings.
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The EU executive wants ten million tonnes of recycled plastics to be used in new products sold in the bloc by 2025 - quadrupling demand.
If company pledges do not tally up to that target, it has said it will consider further measures, including regulatory action after December.
But few new laws will be put forth next year because of elections for European Parliament and European Commission head - not to mention Britain's scheduled exit from the bloc.
The EU executive's focus is on pushing through its proposal to ban throwaway plastics such as cotton buds and plastic straws and new labelling rules for plastic waste.
Without a mix of incentives and regulation to spur demand for the waste, industry says there will be no sea change in the market.
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Recyclers in Europe say they are planning to scale up capacity but that to make it worthwhile, there need to be more buyers for recycled plastic closer to home.
In the meantime, they have found markets in other parts of Asia for just over half the waste that used to go to China and say much of the rest is being incinerated, raising the risk of backsliding in sorting efforts, which vary widely across the EU.
"If China no longer imports plastic waste, we cannot tell Europeans to stop sorting because we have no more buyers," said Jean-Marc Boursier, CFO and head of recycling at French group Suez.
"The right answer is for authorities to change the paradigm and boost the incorporation of secondary materials."
OBSTACLES
Divisions within the 28-member bloc and warnings from companies that incorporating recycled plastic will lower the quality of products and increase costs, mean enforcing its target is difficult.
Some companies have come forward.
Among the more ambitious, Volvo, owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, has said a quarter of plastics used in its models would be from recycled materials by 2025, while Danone said its Evian plastic bottles would be made from 100 percent recycled plastic by then.
Austrian plastics maker Borealis, which makes plastics used in products from food packaging to cars, also says it will invest more in coming years to produce "completely waste-based" recycled goods.EDITORS’ PICKSBlood Will Tell, Part 2: Did Faulty Evidence Doom Joe Bryan?How the Koch Brothers Are Killing U.S. Public Transit ProjectsThe Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar
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The Commission official said from all along the plastics value chain had shown interest in the pledging campaign: "We think it is possible to achieve this target on a voluntary basis."
But other EU sources admitted the political push hung on industry goodwill and it will be difficult to even asses whether promises amounted to enough to shift demand.
Borealis CEO Alfred Stern said it was an uphill battle to make recycling profitable.
"Technologies need to be developed," he told Reuters. "But the end goal needs to be commercial, economic viability."
INVESTMENT
Suez and fellow French water and waste group Veolia, Europe's biggest recycling companies, both see an eventual upside to China's restrictions, with plastics waste a relatively small, but growing part of their business.
"The impact of the ban on Europe's recycling industry is enormous, and while it is a disturbance in the short term, over the long term it is a good business opportunity," Woldemar d'Ambrières, head of plastics strategy at Veolia, said.
Unlike glass, which is cheaper to produce from recycled glass than from silicate, plastics are hard to sort and recycle economically in Europe, especially when oil prices are low.
Suez processes some 400,000 tons of plastic waste and produces 150,000 tons of recycled plastic per year. It wants to recycle all the waste it sorts and, if market prices hold up, will invest about 100 million euros over the next three years to boost its recycling capacity to 600,000 tonnes per year.
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"We want industry to make water bottles from water bottles, milk bottles from milk bottles, shampoo bottles from shampoo bottles," Boursier said.
Veolia recycles about 300,000 tonnes of plastics per year and aims to boost plastics recycling revenue to one billion euros per year by 2025 from 200 million euros today.
Industry body Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) says many of the smaller companies which handle much of the continent's plastic waste also have plans to invest and some plastics producers are teaming up with recyclers.
In November, Suez and major plastics manufacturer LyondellBasell together bought Dutch plastics recycler QCP, while Borealis bought two German plastics recyclers in 2016.
"The plastics industry did not do enough to close the loop," said PRE director Antonino Furfari. "It realises now that the way to do that is to invest in recyclers."
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/29/business/29reuters-eu-recycling-plastic-exclusive.html
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