Preview Newsletter
AM ACC Clips Report - July 5, 2018
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(ACC Mentioned) A Sticky Situation With Non-Stick Chemicals
Jul 5, 2018 | Star2.com
For decades, consumers have been buying water-resistant packaging and clothing, stain-resistant carpets and Teflon cookware. -
Titanium Dioxide Could Be Linked To Diabetes, Research Suggests
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Dr Emma Davies
A pilot-scale US study has tentatively linked titanium dioxide exposure to type II diabetes, after finding particles in pancreatic samples from people with the disease. -
J&J To Reveal Fragrance Ingredients In Its Baby Care Products
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
US multinational Johnson & Johnson said it intends to disclose 100% of the ingredients in its baby care products next month. -
EFSA and JRC Sign Deal To Extend Collaboration
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) have signed a deal to extend their joint working practices. -
Precious Metals Federation Dissolves REACH Consortium
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The European Precious Metals Federation (EPMF) said it is to close its REACH consortium on 31 December. -
Dutch Roadmap Backs 'Safe Harbour' Initiatives For Non-Animal Methods
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) says it aims to establish 'safe harbour' initiatives to help transition to non-animal safety assessment. -
Powerhouse LNG Buyers Jera, EDF Combining Trading Activities
Jul 5, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
Two of the leading natural gas buyers in the world, EDF Trading Ltd. (EDFT) and Jera Co. Inc., on Tuesday agreed to combine their worldwide trading activities to optimize liquefied natural gas (LNG) marketing. -
How A Death In Texas Shaped Gas-Boom Regulation
Jul 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
Twelve years ago, Robert Dale Gayan walked up to a Christmas tree of a natural gas well just outside the city limits. -
Asian Energy Giants Hedge U.S. LNG Buying Spree With European Deals
Jul 4, 2018 | Reuters
By Sabina Zawadzki and Oleg Vukmanovic
Asian utilities are increasingly striking up European partnerships and hunting for acquisitions to hedge their large multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies. -
Trade Tensions Loom Over World’s Fastest-Growing Fossil Fuel
Jul 5, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Rachel Adams-Heard , Dan Murtaugh , and Anna Shiryaevskaya
The world’s fastest growing fossil fuel is bracing for a direct hit from increasing global trade tensions. -
PHMSA Agrees To Provide Public Notice Of Hearings
Jul 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan
Federal pipeline safety hearings are getting a little more open. -
Bill To Establish 'Carbon-Free' Grid Advances
Jul 5, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
A bill to increase California's renewable portfolio standard is advancing in the state Legislature against the backdrop of President Trump and his efforts to reverse federal climate policies.
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Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) A Sticky Situation With Non-Stick Chemicals
Jul 5, 2018 | Star2.com
For decades, consumers have been buying water-resistant packaging and clothing, stain-resistant carpets and Teflon cookware.
Now, there is growing alarm that the chemical components that give those products their appeal are ending up in the water supply.
Drinking water in 33 states in the United States from New Jersey to California has been tainted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly referred to as PFAS.
Now they are also showing up in human blood: A 2015 study found PFAS in 97% of blood samples tested.
A newly released draft of a report by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the substances that have made their way into drinking water are more dangerous to human health than previously thought.
Its release was delayed for months after a Trump administration aide said it would create a “public relations nightmare”.
The substances are uncommonly difficult to break down.
PFAS, of course, are water-resistant, but they are also used in firefighting foam and cookware for their ability to stand up against high temperatures.
Despite that resistance, microscopic particles break off and end up in the food chain, causing health problems from high cholesterol to cancer.
“It’s like the terrible comedian standing in front of a brick wall saying, ‘If Teflon doesn’t stick to anything, how do they get it to stick to the pan?’” said Mark Benvenuto, an industrial chemistry professor at the University of Detroit Mercy who has written about PFAS in a textbook.
“Well, it didn’t. It would slide right off. They had to add things to it to make it less pure.”
Amid growing health concerns, policymakers in multiple US states want to ban PFAS from food packaging and limit the substances in drinking water.
New York is suing six companies that use PFAS in foams used to put out fires, hoping to recoup US$39mil (RM156.96mil).
One study found the chemicals in one-third of fast-food packaging. Another found PFAS were at or above the EPA’s recommended level in water systems in 33 states, serving more than 16 million people.
The Environmental Working Group thinks the number of people affected could be closer to 110 million.
The advocacy group has a map of sites it says are contaminated. The sites are spread across the US, though some places have higher contamination levels than others.
The water-systems study found that areas close to military sites and airports where firefighting foam is used had more PFAS in their water.
Last year, DuPont paid US$670mil (RM2.7bil) to settle a lawsuit filed by 3,500 residents near Washington, West Virginia, home to a DuPont plant that made Teflon.
The company took female workers off the Teflon production line in 1981 after spotting birth defects in rats exposed to the products, but it wasn’t until 2005 that a medical study of 30,000 residents in the surrounding area was conducted.
In New Jersey, the Department of Environmental Protection last year pushed for a drinking water standard after PFAS showed up in 11 public water systems near a polymer plant close to the Delaware River.
Xindi Hu, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard who coauthored the water-systems study, said scientists are still discovering how PFAS get into the environment. Scientists are also still examining how, and at what levels, PFAS affect humans.
So far, studies have found ties between PFAS and high cholesterol, cancer and weakened human immune systems.
Even as researchers continue to investigate, some policymakers argue the science is clear enough to take preventive measures.
Lawmakers this year in Washington state enacted a ban on some firefighting foams with PFAS. Another new law requires businesses such as fast-food restaurants and others selling packaged foods to stop using products with PFAS once the state settles on a suitable alternative.
A bill in California would require companies to disclose the presence of PFAS in packaging, and a bill in New York would ban them outright.
“People now realise it doesn’t just matter what you put in your mouth, but what that food product is wrapped in,” said Washington state representative Joan McBride, the Democrat who sponsored the packaged-foods legislation.
“These chemicals are called persistent chemicals. They stay with you, they’re insidious.”
In testimony on her bill, scientists warned of the dangers of PFAS while companies insisted they are safe. McBride said waiting for the state to determine a safer alternative gives companies time to work through stockpiles, and even help develop a suitable replacement.
California assemblyman Phil Ting, a Democrat, sponsored a bill to put a warning on products with PFAS “so consumers and restaurants can make that educated decision” about using them. “Because I’m not sure even restaurants understand the decision they are making.”
Manufacturers insist PFAS are safe.
“Fluorinated chemistries (PFAS) provide oil and grease repellent properties that help protect the quality and integrity of food, extend shelf life and help in the safe transport and storage of food.
“These attributes may help ensure our food is safer for consumption by protecting it from contamination,” the American Chemistry Council wrote in a statement in response to an interview request. “Banning packaging containing PFAS is unnecessary.”
In New Jersey, efforts have focused squarely on water. The EPA recommends water contain no more than 70 parts per trillion of PFAS. New Jersey has suggested 13 and 14 parts per trillion for two different types of PFAS.
The guidelines are in the comment phase of rule-making. If approved, New Jersey would become the first state to set a maximum contamination level for PFAS.
The goal of the new standard is to help utilities monitor sources and keep it out of drinking water.
Local water utilities have three main options to deal with PFAS: They can stop using certain wells that have high levels of PFAS, dilute the chemical by adding more water, or add a carbon-based treatment that removes the substance but can cost up to US$1mil (RM4.02mil) for large utilities to install.
“It can be treated, but it requires treatment that is above and beyond what a lot of these systems have in place,” said Lawrence Hajna, a spokesman for New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection.
“Seeing this persistent chemical show up in water supplies is kind of opening up new questions of what kind of treatment systems can be put in place, what their effectiveness is going to be, and how costly is it going to be.” – Stateline.org/Tribune News Service
https://www.star2.com/health/2018/07/05/sticky-situation-with-non-stick-chemicals/ -
Titanium Dioxide Could Be Linked To Diabetes, Research Suggests
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Dr Emma Davies
A pilot-scale US study has tentatively linked titanium dioxide exposure to type II diabetes, after finding particles in pancreatic samples from people with the disease.
The particles may affect pancreatic beta cells, which store and release insulin, say researchers from the University of Texas at Austin.
"We were utterly surprised when we observed that in the Type II diabetic pancreas, the dominant crystals were pigment grade titanium dioxide crystals," says lead author Adam Heller. He had instead expected to see crystals of calcium compounds commonly associated with rheumatic joint diseases.
Heller's team analysed 11 pancreatic samples from the University of Florida's Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, eight of which came from people with type II diabetes.
Using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray spectroscopy, the researchers identified titanium dioxide in samples from people with diabetes. Most of the titanium dioxide had a similar particle size to the pigment used in consumer products, from paints to foods.
"The study raises the possibility that humanity's increasing use of titanium dioxide pigment accounts for part of the global increase in the incidence of type II diabetes," write the researchers in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.Data gaps
"The study represents evidence of possible correlation but not causality," cautions David Warheit from the Titanium Dioxide Manufacturers Association (TDMA). "It has several significant gaps and does not confirm that titanium dioxide causes diabetes nor that it can be absorbed into the body," he adds.
In particular, "there is no exposure information to explain the alleged presence of titanium dioxide in the pancreas or a physiologically plausible explanation of this," he says.
"It seems physiologically implausible that particles which are taken up or absorbed into the systemic circulation from the gastrointestinal tract would deposit selectively into the pancreas."
The Texan team is currently working on a larger, blinded study of 22 pancreatic specimens to see if it can replicate the results.
"When we started the study, we followed the footsteps of researchers of the past 100 plus years who associated chronic inflammatory diseases with exogenous and endogenous phagocytized crystals, though never before in the pancreas," says Professor Heller. Phagocytized crystals are those that have been ingested by protective cells in the body called phagocytes.
If the results of the blinded study are consistent, the team says that it will be important to map possible pathways for ingested and inhaled particles to reach the pancreas. It also calls for studies into mechanisms by which the crystals could reduce insulin supply by affecting pancreatic cells.
In 2017, Echa's Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) decided that titanium dioxide should be classified as a category 2 carcinogen by inhalation.
https://chemicalwatch.com/68270/titanium-dioxide-could-be-linked-to-diabetes-research-suggests
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J&J To Reveal Fragrance Ingredients In Its Baby Care Products
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
US multinational Johnson & Johnson said it intends to disclose 100% of the ingredients in its baby care products next month.
The transparency effort will be rolled out as part of a relaunch of its baby care range on 1 August.
"It’s important to us that parents feel confident in what they choose to put on their babies’ skin – that can only be possible with complete transparency, so at relaunch we will share 100% of the ingredients in our bottle, including fragrance," a J&J spokesperson told Chemical Watch.
Full details of the transparency approach, including which regions it covers, will be revealed at the product relaunch, she said.‘Model of transparency’
Bobbi Wilding, director of the US Getting Ready for Baby coalition of more than 100 NGOs, told Chemical Watch it "strongly supports full disclosure of all ingredients", including those in fragrances.
"Provided that the company includes all fragrance ingredients, J&J are modeling the kind of transparency that parents deserve," said Ms Wilding, who is also deputy director of the NGO Clean & Healthy NY.
"There is a large and growing body of scientific evidence that small amounts of chemicals can affect our bodies - especially those of developing babies. Full transparency empowers parents to see for themselves that products are free of chemicals of concern. We look forward to all companies moving in this direction," she said.
Other consumer companies to announce fragrance ingredients disclosure efforts over the past few years include Unilever, Procter & Gamble and SC Johnson.
French cosmetics company L’Oreal has also said it plans to reveal fragrance ingredients in its products, but has not confirmed a timeline for this.Legal battle
J&J and its supplier Imerys Talc, have faced an ongoing legal battle in the US and Canada over alleged asbestos contamination of Johnson’s baby powder.
They are fighting thousands of claims from people who say their cancers were caused by using the company’s products.
Juries in multiple states have handed down multimillion dollar awards over claims J&J ignored studies connecting its talc-containing products to ovarian cancer and failed to warn customers about the risk.
J&J has continually defended the safety of its talcum powder products, which it says do not contain asbestos or cause mesothelioma.
https://chemicalwatch.com/68261/jj-to-reveal-fragrance-ingredients-in-its-baby-care-products
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EFSA and JRC Sign Deal To Extend Collaboration
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) have signed a deal to extend their joint working practices.
The two organisations have collaborated since Efsa was founded in 2002. Areas of joint work include:
· risk assessment for combined exposure of chemicals and chemical mixtures; and
· encouraging collaboration in the collection and use of landscape and environmental data, to be used for risk assessment and research on chemical hazards.
Recent activities include the preparation of guidance on identifying endocrine disruptors in biocides and pesticides. They are also working together on the safety of food contact materials (FCMs).
The agreement will run for five years and automatically renew at the end of this term for successive one-year periods.
https://chemicalwatch.com/68273/efsa-and-jrc-sign-deal-to-extend-collaboration
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Precious Metals Federation Dissolves REACH Consortium
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The European Precious Metals Federation (EPMF) said it is to close its REACH consortium on 31 December.
It is thought to be the first sector association to take the measure following the final registration deadline of 31 May. The REACH Precious Metals & Rhenium Consortium (PMC) was launched in 2006 with a mandate limited to data sharing and registration.
Eurometaux director, Violaine Verougstraete, said the PMC’s activities will be integrated into those of the European Precious Metals Federation. This will, she said, "best address" the changed focus of REACH activities – from registration to maintenance and updates of dossiers, evaluation and risk management.
It will also "ensure continuity and consistency," she added.
From 1 June, substance information exchange fora (Siefs) ceased to exist in a legal context. However, the REACH Directors’ Contact Group – an informal group of directors from the European Commission, Echa and industry associations – has recommended that co-registrants of phase-in (or existing) substances continue to cooperate. The Sief agreements should form a good basis for designing new cooperation contracts, it said.
Under the new arrangements, registrants will discuss post-deadline activities, such as dossier updates, joint submissions, new information requests by Echa and cost sharing.New structure
Ms Verougstraete said REACH and chemicals management "is and remains a core focus of the EPMF", which will have a role of facilitating the interface between policy makers, regulatory authorities and the precious metals industry.
It will also, she added, ensure resources, response and management of further REACH related questions.
As of January 2019, EPMF’s new board and structure will bring ad hoc support based on a "tailor-made approach" via platforms and projects to address specific needs within the diverse precious metals industry, the federation’s press release says.
Dossier updates will be scheduled by the federation based on prioritisation criteria, France Capon, secretary general of EPMF said. However, as the federation oversees just under 100 substances, they cannot be handled at once, she added. The prioritisation criteria it will use will be mainly based on the those used by Echa for its screening process.
"The co-registrants who are not members of the federation or have decided to not join will handle these obligations via the LoA [letter of access] systems," Ms Capon said. "Most of them have already signed an agreement obliging them to contribute to the updates and to the activities related to substances or dossier evaluation."
Chemical Watch understands that another metals group – the Cobalt consortium – is also considering dissolution.
Cefic REACH director Erwin Annys said he is not aware of other REACH consortia taking such action and that Cefic "is fully supportive" of the Directors’ Contact Group recommendations.
https://chemicalwatch.com/68287/precious-metals-federation-dissolves-reach-consortium
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Dutch Roadmap Backs 'Safe Harbour' Initiatives For Non-Animal Methods
Jul 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) says it aims to establish 'safe harbour' initiatives to help transition to non-animal safety assessment.
The statement comes in the institute's Roadmap for animal-free innovations in regulatory safety assessment, published last month.
Under such initiatives, companies submitting data for regulatory purposes can, in parallel, provide additional data for the same substance from new, non-animal test methods. In return, the authorities provide assurances that the latter will not be automatically included in any associated assessment.
Safe harbour initiatives give regulators a chance to determine what decisions could be reasonably made, based solely on data from new methods.
RIVM says in the roadmap there are generally no legal barriers to the use of non-animal test methods. The issue, it says, is "ensuring that these methods are based on solid scientific research".
It adds that ensuring test developers are aware of validation requirements, from an early stage, will aid implementation in legal frameworks. The institute also says that a "good set of positive and negative substances" is needed to demonstrate applicability and that current international validation processes are time-consuming and expensive.
In addition to the safe harbour initiatives, the institute provides three other activities that can be started immediately "to get this transition off to a vigorous start". These are:
https://chemicalwatch.com/68225/dutch-roadmap-backs-safe-harbour-initiatives-for-non-animal-methods
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Powerhouse LNG Buyers Jera, EDF Combining Trading Activities
Jul 5, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
Two of the leading natural gas buyers in the world, EDF Trading Ltd. (EDFT) and Jera Co. Inc., on Tuesday agreed to combine their worldwide trading activities to optimize liquefied natural gas (LNG) marketing.
Discussions for the partnership, to be named Jera Trading Ptd. Ltd. (Jerat), have been underway since last year. If all goes to plan, the transaction is expected to be completed by early 2019.
“With demand for LNG in Japan becoming increasingly variable and difficult to predict and the ramp up in U.S. LNG liquefaction, Europe has become a key balancing market for excess global LNG,” the partners said.
The management teams “believe that there is significant room for optimizing LNG on a global basis, establishing a more liquid market, and, over time, developing a clear pricing signal for LNG in Asia.”
Jera and EDFT already have significant positions in the LNG market, with the new business designed to provide more resources, including risk management capabilities, to “better position Jerat to respond to the uncertainties of LNG demand in Japan and Europe.”
Jera, itself a joint venture (JV) between Japanese electric companies Tepco Fuel & Power Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co., “has been focusing on developing flexible LNG supply sources as flexible procurement is more important than ever before due to the large scale introduction of renewable power generation globally.”
EDF SA subsidiary EDFT has a third-party LNG trading business and access to the European LNG and gas markets that enable LNG unloading, reloading and storage in-tank. It also is one of the largest financial traders via the Japan Korea Marker, aka JKM, in the market.
Jera would hold two-thirds equity in the JV, while EDFT would have the remaining equity.
The partners would have joint responsibility and control in managing the new and expanded business. Each would have two executive directors, with the CEO appointed by Jera.
Jerat would become the exclusive LNG optimizer for Jera and EDF and manage their collective short- and medium-term activity.
“LNG remains a strategically important fuel for Jera and EDF, and this agreement will bring more flexibility and scale to both partners without affecting Jera’s and EDF’s long term procurement activities,” executives said.
With around 300 people and offices in Japan, Singapore, the UK, the United States and the Netherlands, Jerat is expected to become one of the largest utility-owned seaborne energy optimizers, spanning Asia, the Pacific and the Atlantic basins.
As part of this transaction, EDF Trading North America would be responsible for supplying electricity and natural gas to meet Jera’s capacity requirements at Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Freeport LNG liquefaction terminal underway on the Texas coast. EDFT in Europe would become the exclusive market interface for Jerat with respect to the European gas markets.
To recognize the expansion of Jerat’s business, the partners also agreed to change the name of Jera Trading to Jera Global Markets.
“We look forward, through Jera Global Markets, to optimizing our global LNG portfolio with more flexible LNG sources and associated shipping positions amid the uncertainties of LNG demand in Japan and global LNG market developments,” said Jera President Yuji Kakimi.
Added EDFT CEO John Rittenhouse, “LNG is an important fuel for EDF and this joint venture will combine EDFT’s wholesale market optimization capabilities with Jera’s offtake volumes. This is another important step in our relationship with Jera, which started in 2005 and has significantly grown over the years.”
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/114936-powerhouse-lng-buyers-jera-edf-combining-trading-activities
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How A Death In Texas Shaped Gas-Boom Regulation
Jul 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
FORT WORTH, Texas — Twelve years ago, Robert Dale Gayan walked up to a Christmas tree of a natural gas well just outside the city limits.
It was a Saturday morning in April, and Gayan had arrived with a crew and two pump trucks. His instructions were to connect the pumps so the crew could perforate another section of rock beneath the well, which descended 7,300 feet to a gas-bearing formation called the Barnett Shale.
As Gayan worked on the stack of valves and flanges with a crescent wrench, a burst of pressurized gas blew out of the side of the wellhead and threw him 20 feet across the gravel pad. He died instantly. The blown-out well spewed a mist of raw gas and water for eight hours, forcing local officials to evacuate hundreds of homes.
In 2006, shale gas drilling was largely confined to Texas. The national boom in frac'ing — which was spelled without a "k" in 2006 — wouldn't get started for another year or two, when a handful of oil and gas drillers began exploring formations in Pennsylvania, North Dakota and Colorado.
What followed would transform the U.S. economy, adding hundreds of thousands of jobs and creating boomtowns from the Mexican border to Williston, N.D. National conversations about the safety of hydraulic fracturing and the relative benefits of natural gas continue today.
In Fort Worth, a handful of neighborhood groups had raised concerns about noise, truck traffic and air pollution, but were having trouble getting any traction. Gayan's death forced local governments to take a hard look at the shale drilling industry. The blowout was in an undeveloped pasture in a suburban town called Forest Hill, but it was just a few hundred feet from the Fort Worth city limit. The evacuation affected homes in both cities.
"It wasn't just about the money; there were safety concerns, as well," said Don Young, who led a community organization in Fort Worth that opposed drilling in neighborhoods.
Within days, hundreds of residents packed meetings about the local drilling ordinance, debating how best to regulate the gas industry in populated areas. Should the city or the state government be in charge? What's the safest distance between wells and pipelines and surrounding homes? How much pollution does gas drilling cause, and what impact would it have on people's health?
Those questions have become one of the central debates about fracking and shale drilling. A string of court battles, petition drives and election contests have sprung up from Texas to North Dakota and from California to Pennsylvania over which branch of government should ultimately control oil and gas development.
As the nationwide shale boom enters its 10th year, many of those questions remain unanswered.
Cracking into shale
The whole thing started near a nondescript intersection of two country roads in a town that used to be called Clark, about 30 miles north of Fort Worth.
Mitchell Energy and Development Corp., founded by Houston oilman George Mitchell, had been drilling for gas in the area since the 1950s. But like the rest of the Texas oil and gas industry, his production had started to play out by the early 1980s.
Mitchell's stubborn search for a way to replace his flagging production, which has been chronicled in a series of books about oil industry history, took him nearly 20 years and cost more than $200 million.
Geologists believed that most of the oil and gas found in shallow fields was created thousands of feet deeper in the earth, in layers of shale. Mitchell and other oil producers figured those deeper "source rocks" could hold huge amounts of oil and gas, but they were largely inaccessible.
Most conventional oil and gas formations like the ones Mitchell had originally drilled are porous — if a well is drilled into them, the hydrocarbons start to flow toward the surface. Shale is different. The rock is about as dense as a piece of slate, and the oil and gas are trapped in tiny pores.
Mitchell's idea — breaking up the rock to release the trapped gas — wasn't new. Oil producers used to "shoot" formations with nitroglycerin to boost their production. Nor was his preferred technique. Hydraulic fracturing — breaking up a formation with a blast of pressurized water — was invented in the 1940s.
The problem was cost. Mitchell started experimenting with fracturing in the early 1980s, but the treatments relied on a mixture of chemicals that made it too expensive.
In 1998, a Mitchell engineer named Nick Steinsberger experimented with a fracturing mix that was mostly water, with a few chemicals mixed in to make it flow through the pumps easily.
The S.H. Griffin Estate No. 4 well, fractured with 1.2 million gallons of water, was the first successful test of the technique, Steinsberger said in an email. It hit the top of the Barnett Shale at 7,930 feet and produced about 1 million cubic feet of gas a day.
Soon, Mitchell and other companies began drilling their wells horizontally through the Barnett, allowing the fracking treatment to touch even more of the formation and coax out more gas.
For the next few years, the Barnett Shale field was a local anomaly in the oil industry. But in the early 2000s, production took off. The number of drilling permits more than tripled from 276 in 2000 to 832 in 2001.
In 2003, Mitchell sold his company to Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. for $3.1 billion. Soon, a lot of other drillers became interested in Mitchell's discovery.
Within a few years, companies had successfully drilled into the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania, the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, and the Niobrara Shale in Colorado and Wyoming. The prolific Permian Basin oil field in West Texas turned out to have as many as 10 shale layers stacked under it.
Regulating a boom
Shale drilling was a lot different from conventional exploration. For starters, the shale fields typically covered a much bigger area than the older fields. Mitchell Energy had spent 40 years drilling for gas in Texas, but until the Barnett Shale, most of its wells were in two or three counties northwest of Fort Worth. The Barnett covered 18 counties and extended all the way under Fort Worth, to the Dallas city limits.
And shale formations were stingy — the rocks only gave up their oil and gas if they'd been touched by the fracturing treatment. That meant that shale fields required a steady cycle of drilling and fracking to reach their full potential.
All those changes meant that shale drilling suddenly had a big impact on places that had never seen drilling before.
The task of regulating those industries usually fell to state agencies, which in many cases were understaffed and struggling with the same decline as the oil industry.
A lot of state oil and gas agencies were tasked with both preventing pollution and promoting oil and gas production. Many of them had developed cozy ties to the industry they oversaw (Greenwire, Nov. 30, 2011).
In Texas, the oil industry is overseen by the state Railroad Commission. The three commissioners are elected statewide and frequently take campaign contributions from the companies they regulate.
When the shale boom started, "They didn't know what hit 'em," said Bruce Baizel, energy program director at the environmental group Earthworks.
"Agencies tend to be kind of reactive — they regulate what they know, and here's something they didn't know," he said.
Most oil-and-gas-producing states also give producers the upper hand in legal disputes — the owner of the subsurface mineral rights to a piece of property can legally drill a well even if the surface owner objects.
That made it hard for local governments to use their zoning codes to control the locations of drill sites.
Complaints began to stack up as development expanded in the Barnett Shale.
Clark, the town where Mitchell drilled its first successful shale well, changed its name to Dish in 2005. The town's mayor started asking questions about air pollution from nearby wells and pipeline compressor stations; he was later featured in the documentary film "Gasland."
The same year, the city council in Fort Worth set up an advisory committee to rewrite its drilling ordinance. There were already more than 500 wells inside the city limits at the time, and residents were complaining as drilling took place near homes, schools and parks.
At the same time, Fort Worth had become a hub for shale drilling companies. XTO Energy Inc., which owned the well where the blowout happened, was headquartered a few blocks away.
The biggest sticking point for the drilling companies was the setback between gas wells and surrounding homes. Prior to the accident, new wells could be drilled within 300 feet of existing homes. The drillers argued that expanding the setback would make it hard to access parts of the Barnett Shale field.
The high-profile blowout, which led local newspapers and TV broadcasts, changed the political calculus, even though it happened outside the city.
A lot of residents were concerned that the state Railroad Commission wasn't strict enough with the oil and gas industry. The commission never levied a fine against XTO for the blowout in Forest Hill, according to local media reports, even though the company failed to report the incident as required by the commission's rules.
Three days after the accident, Eunice Givens, who represented a neighborhood association near the site of the blowout, strode to the podium in Fort Worth's city hall and said the City Council was being too deferential to gas drillers.
"What about our rights as homeowners? What about our rights as taxpayers?" she asked. "You have created a Frankenstein's monster for neighborhoods in this city, and you are clueless about how to control it."
The same day, Mayor Mike Moncrief recommended doubling the setback to 600 feet. It was significant because Moncrief came from a prominent oil and gas family and was the grandson of a renowned wildcatter, Monty Moncrief.
Gayan's family sued XTO, saying the company had used valves that were too small to handle the pressure at the Forest Hill well. The lawsuit never went to trial, and a confidentiality agreement prevents the family attorney from discussing the case.
Exxon Mobil Corp. bought XTO in 2009 for $41 billion. The company, which is now based outside Houston as part of Exxon, is committed to safety, XTO spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry said in an email.
"Our aim is to ensure each employee and contractor leaves work each day safe and in good health," he wrote.Finding the right balance
The shale boom was just getting started. Within a few years, Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, became the biggest gas-producing county in Texas.
The local City Council became the de facto oil and gas regulator for a large part of the field, settling disputes about well locations and later paying for its own study of air pollution from drilling sites (Greenwire, July 15, 2011).
"It was at least 50 percent of our time, in my estimation," said Jungus Jordan, who has been on the Fort Worth council for 13 years.
By 2007, the shale boom had become a national phenomenon, and U.S. gas production rose significantly for the first time in decades, according to the research firm IHS Markit.
Don Young's phone rang off the wall during those years, as other towns looked for ways to cope with drilling.
"They looked to us for information, and they didn't like what they saw," he said.
State after state faced the same conflicts that happened in Texas. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Corbett's (R) administration passed a law in 2010 that prohibited local governments from controlling well site locations. The state Supreme Court overturned it in 2013 (Energywire, Dec. 20, 2013).
Similar battles took place in Colorado, Ohio and California. New York banned fracking — but not drilling itself — in 2014 (Greenwire, Dec. 17, 2014).
George Mitchell later told Forbesmagazine the federal government should step in and regulate the fracking industry he helped create, which had become dominated by small operators (Energywire, July 2012).
"It's tough to control these independents," he said. "If they do something wrong and dangerous, [the government] should punish them."
Mitchell died in 2013.
In 2014, the town of Denton, which is 35 miles north of Fort Worth and 10 miles from the site of Mitchell's first Barnett Shale well, voted to ban fracking entirely. The state Legislature responded by barring most local governments' efforts to control energy production (Energywire, June 1, 2015).
The Legislature carved out an exception for Fort Worth's setback, though.
For Jordan, the city councilman, that was proof that the city had found the right balance between gas development and the local population's concerns.
"I'm pretty proud of the way we handled it," said Jordan, the city councilman.
The debate isn't over, though, in Texas or other states.
In Colorado, environmental groups are gathering petitions for a statewide referendum that would enact a 2,500-foot setback between oil and gas wells and surrounding homes. It was brought on in part by an oil field explosion last year that killed two people in Firestone, Colo. (Energywire, June 12, 2017).
Young, who disbanded his neighborhood drilling group a couple of years ago, said the city is still too lenient on the gas industry. Before drilling tailed off in the 2010s, the City Council frequently granted exemptions to the 600-foot setback.
Twelve years later, he said, the 2006 blowout looks like a turning point in the debate.
"Without it, it would've been a cakewalk for the drillers," he said. "They were forced to discuss safety more."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/07/05/stories/1060087693
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Asian Energy Giants Hedge U.S. LNG Buying Spree With European Deals
Jul 4, 2018 | Reuters
By Sabina Zawadzki and Oleg Vukmanovic
LONDON (Reuters) - Asian utilities are increasingly striking up European partnerships and hunting for acquisitions to hedge their large multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.
In the latest example, Japan’s JERA, the world’s largest buyer of liquefied gas, will absorb the LNG trading desk of France’s EDF Trading (EDFT) (EDF.PA) to gain wholesale access to European gas markets and sharpen its trading edge.
Such deals, also struck lately by Tokyo Gas and Kogas, give Asian giants a fallback market for U.S. LNG supplies which they may not need, having rushed to commit to big chunks of new liquefaction capacity offered there in the past six years.
JERA’s takeover of EDFT’s LNG trading desk allows it to share EDF’s access to 15 LNG terminals in Europe, just as shale gas producers on the U.S. East Coast ramp up LNG exports.
The United States has sold more than 40 percent of its projected 69 million tonnes/year output from five planned LNG plants, in operation or under-construction, to Asia, the bulk of which will go to Japan and South Korea.
Asia’s thirst for U.S. LNG deals stems from its desire to strike relatively flexible contracts with new producers and wean itself off costly oil-linked supplies from Qatar and other regions at a time of spiking demand.
But, while Korea and Japan will remain top consumers, the rise of alternative fuels and, in Japan’s case, the potential restart of its nuclear reactor fleet may put a brake on demand growth there.
“The level of over-contracted LNG to the early 2020s perhaps explains the emphasis Japan has placed in pushing for destination flexibility on contracted LNG,” said Howard Rogers, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.
“The development of an LNG trading portfolio which allows contracted volumes to be marketed in either Europe or Asian arenas would clearly help Japan optimize its LNG position.” JERA’s access to European terminals will allow it to sell U.S. LNG to the continent, which consumes 550 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas a year and is increasingly seen as a swing consumer of LNG, easily accessible from new U.S. or African production hubs.
ESCAPING OIL-INDEXATION
The U.S. shale revolution presented an opportunity for gas-hungry Asian consumers, especially for Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster shut down its reactor fleet and soaring costs of oil-linked LNG brought on a record trade deficit.
Stung by the gas import bill, Japanese utilities scrambled to sign 20-year LNG import deals from U.S. East Coast developers needing investment to underpin their export projects. The appeal was that the U.S. producers did away with oil-indexation at a time when oil traded at record highs and allowed buyers to divert shipments at will.
But as the shopping spree wound down Japanese utilities realized they may have over-bought. Government policy shifts, such as support for renewable fuels and market liberalization, threatened to undercut their share and dampen LNG demand.
Japan’s gas-for-power consumption is expected to fall 17 percent by 2023 to 100 bcm a year, the International Energy Agency says, as its nuclear fleet comes back on stream and its renewable fuels sector grows by 5 percent annually.
What Asian utilities have a desperate need for is something European players have in abundance. Namely, import rights into LNG terminals dotted across the continent’s shores, which for EDF includes terminals in France and Belgium.
As a result, Tokyo Gas (9531.T) did a deal with Britain’s Centrica (CNA.L) last month to share the purchase of LNG from a new project in Mozambique, and JERA joined Centrica in 2016 to optimize the delivery of six LNG cargos a year as of 2019.
Korea Gas Corp (036460.KS) began handing over 4 million tonnes of LNG to EDFT last year under a deal struck in 2015.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-europe-lng-investment/asian-energy-giants-hedge-u-s-lng-buying-spree-with-european-deals-idUSKBN1JU2DR
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Trade Tensions Loom Over World’s Fastest-Growing Fossil Fuel
Jul 5, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Rachel Adams-Heard , Dan Murtaugh , and Anna Shiryaevskaya
The world’s fastest growing fossil fuel is bracing for a direct hit from increasing global trade tensions.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough talk on trade with China is loomingover his country’s efforts to become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. In Europe, a potential pipeline project from Russia has been imperiled by possible U.S. sanctions, while the sales practices of Qatar, the world’s biggest LNG seller, are under investigation as being anti-competitive.
The friction risks disrupting global trade of gas worth almost $300 billion last year, threatening to distort flows of the commodity just as demandfor the cleaner-burning fuel explodes. It’s also casting a shadow over multi-billion dollar export projects in the U.S. while creating opportunities for countries untouched by the wave of protectionism.
Untapped Potential
Populism has come back and with it a form of economic nationalism, and that’s occurred at the same time as the emergence of global gas,” said Trevor Sikorski, head of natural gas and carbon research at Energy Aspects Ltd. in London. “The former is leading to trade wars, and as soon as that happens everything is on the table.”
The complications arising from trade disputes and geopolitical tensions could distort the global gas market, although it’s unlikely to derail its growth, Sikorski said. For instance, if China levies tariffs against U.S. LNG, traders could re-route cargoes to Japan and South Korea while selling Australian gas to China. Or a drop in Qatari shipments to Europe could be replaced by fuel from Nigeria or Angola.
The end result will be extra fees for traders and slightly higher costs for end consumers, said Nicholas Browne, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Tokyo. He pointed to the example of Russia’s gas pipeline to Europe, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, as how trade can endure despite disputes.True Trade Wins?
“Even at the height of Soviet tensions or the worst days of the Ukraine crisis, they continued to export gas to the West,” Browne said. “When it’s in the economic interest of both parties, trade will continue.”
That’s being tested anew by Russian efforts to boost European sales. President Vladimir Putin recently claimed U.S. trade interests are at the heart of Trump’s threats of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany because its success could reduce Europe’s demand for U.S. gas.
Meanwhile, Europe is also trying to give its utilities greater flexibility and weaken Qatar’s grip on the market. The European Commission last month said it would check “problematic territorial restriction clauses” in LNG contracts with the Middle East nation that may prevent importers reselling the gas. That probe comes a month after the regulator for the 28-nation bloc settled a 7-year investigation into how Russia’s Gazprom PJSC’s set prices for its pipeline gas supply to Europe.
“It’s been a European policy goal for quite a long time to increase market liberalization,” Wood Mackenzie’s Browne said. “They want open access to European gas markets, and that doesn’t work if you have a lot of supplier concentration.”
Despite being at the center of trade tensions, the U.S. and China are a natural fit in the global gas market. China’s booming demand pushed it past Japan this year as the world’s biggest importer. Meanwhile, the U.S. is vying with Qatar and Australia to become the largest exporter of LNG, the super-chilled form of the fuel that’s shipped around the world on special tankers.
That explains why LNG has been conspicuously absent as a target of China’s retaliatory levies after Trump announced duties on $34 billion worth of Chinese exports, which are scheduled to go into effect Friday. The country’s blazing gas demand growth-- part of an effort by President Xi Jinping to cut coal use and smog -- means it can’t be picky about where it gets its supply, Browne said.
“Security of supply is still paramount for China at the moment,” Browne said. “It’s in the best interest for both countries to continue to trade.”
To read more about how China and the U.S. are driving global gas, click here.
Even though LNG has so far eluded direct tariffs, trade tensions are still having an effect on the market. Greg Vesey, head of the Australian company developing the $4.35 billion Magnolia LNG project in Louisiana, said a number of parties he’s talking to have indicated they want to see how the trade tiff shakes out before signing on the dotted line.
Projects to export America’s ample shale gas are vying with developments from Qatar and Russia to East Africa and Papua New Guinea to sign up long-term buyers that underpin billions of dollars in financing. It would be naive to think that competitors weren’t trying to find a way to take advantage of concerns about trading with the U.S., according to Charlie Riedl, head of the Washington-based Center for Liquefied Natural Gas.
“They are absolutely, 100 percent trying to figure out how to capitalize on this,” Riedl said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-04/beyond-the-trade-drama-u-s-china-rivalry-has-only-just-begun
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PHMSA Agrees To Provide Public Notice Of Hearings
Jul 5, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan
Federal pipeline safety hearings are getting a little more open.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has agreed to a request to post advance notice of enforcement hearings, so reporters and the public can ask to attend.
The request was made by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) and E&E News, which have been pressing PHMSA for a more open process.
"In response to your request, PHMSA will include hearing scheduling letters in the publicly accessible case records," PHMSA Chief Counsel Paul Roberti wrote in a letter to RCFP.
PHMSA already posts records pertaining to enforcement actions on a page of its website. The records include enforcement documents sent by the agency and the company responses. But up to now, the agency generally has not posted the dates of hearings in advance.
Hearings have long been held behind closed doors when companies have challenged PHMSA enforcement orders. Earlier this year, E&E News and RCFP challenged that practice, threatening legal action to gain access to a hearing on Cheniere Energy Inc.'s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export site in Louisiana (Energywire, March 21).
PHMSA officials agreed to open the hearing to the press and public, although the presiding officer wound up closing several hours of the daylong hearing in Houston. The agency explicitly made no commitment to open up future hearings.
Following that, RCFP attorneys asked PHMSA to make public the dates of future hearings in advance so the public can request access. Roberti's June letter was a response to that request.
"This is a positive step toward greater transparency that will allow the public to better monitor and understand what PHMSA does and how it does it," said RCFP Legal Director Katie Townsend.
But PHMSA noted that public notice won't necessarily mean public access. Roberti said that if reporters want to attend a hearing, they need to request access in advance, and the agency will evaluate the request. Presumably, members of the public could also request to attend, having gotten notice of the hearings.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/07/05/stories/1060087875
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Bill To Establish 'Carbon-Free' Grid Advances
Jul 5, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
A bill to increase California's renewable portfolio standard is advancing in the state Legislature against the backdrop of President Trump and his efforts to reverse federal climate policies.
S.B. 100, by state Sen. Kevin de León (D), would increase the Golden State's renewable portfolio standard to 60 percent by 2030, up from 50 percent currently, with an additional target of 100 percent "zero-carbon" electricity by 2045.
The bill passed the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee 8-4 along party lines Tuesday and is headed for a vote on the Assembly floor in August, following a monthlong summer recess that begins tomorrow.
It would make California the second state, after Hawaii, to set a target of 100 percent clean energy. The term "zero-carbon" is undefined; lawmakers intend it to encompass more than the dozen types of renewable resources that are currently eligible for the RPS.
"I want to provide flexibilities for technologies that are on the horizon," de León said, citing carbon capture and sequestration and nuclear power as potential options. (California is currently in the process of shuttering its last nuclear plant, and state law prohibits opening new plants without a permanent waste disposal solution in place.)
The state's large investor-owned utilities have had no problems meeting existing renewables targets, which lawmakers have been steadily accelerating for years. But they are opposing the bill because, they argue, they are facing a panoply of challenges, including increased costs related to wildfires and the departure of many of their electricity customers for municipally run suppliers known as community choice aggregators.
"PG&E feels that we should take a moment to pause and reconcile these policy uncertainties before we can move forward," said Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s manager of state government relations, Valerie Turrella Vlahos.
Lawmakers argued that the threat of climate change necessitates the clean energy push. "I believe this is a bold and necessary step to save our planet," said Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D).'Weirdness' elsewhere in session
Supporters are hoping S.B. 100 will stay clear of another bill aimed at increasing renewable generation across the West. A.B. 813, which has been speeding through committees, is more controversial for its focus on neighboring states.
It would begin the process of turning the state's electricity grid operator into a regional transmission organization, a long-standing goal of Gov. Jerry Brown (D). Environmental groups are split on its potential to open up California's grid to dirtier energy from neighboring states, as well as possible interference from Trump's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Energywire, June 27).
"I don't think any of us wants to make the link between this and regionalization," said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, which opposes the regionalization bill for its potential to increase coal-fired generation in the short term, as a 2016 study by the California Independent System Operator found.
Both bills failed to advance in the Legislature last year due to disagreements between labor unions and renewables advocates (Energywire, Sept. 21, 2017).
"I'm not seeing the potential for that to happen again," said Ralph Cavanagh, senior attorney and co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's energy program. He argued that a regional grid would help California incorporate renewables more efficiently by avoiding the need to curtail excess solar, as the state is already having to do on some days. But he also said regionalization isn't necessary to achieve the goals of S.B. 100.
"It's not essential," he said. "We think it would be less costly and, in a whole host of ways, more straightforward to do it."
Others are more inclined to draw a link between the bills, particularly those who want to ensure a role for specific, localized renewable resources like geothermal and hydroelectric power. "I don't think it works unless we have a robust conversation about regionalization," Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D) said at Tuesday's hearing on S.B. 100.
Some of that conversation is taking place behind the scenes. Another version of S.B. 100 language currently in circulation would replace an explicit ban on out-of-state increases in emissions with a softer instruction to avoid those emissions "to the extent feasible."
"The language essentially admits they're anticipating a pollution increase from a regional grid," Phillips said.
Other moving pieces include an upcoming proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission, expected to be released sometime this month. It would revise the amount that municipal electricity suppliers have to compensate utilities for the stranded costs the utilities incurred on behalf of departing customers.
And Brown and legislative leaders also announced plans this week to deal with utilities' costs related to wildfire damages. PG&E has been pushing lawmakers to protect it from massive potential liabilities from last year's wildfires by reforming the state's legal doctrine of "inverse condemnation," which requires not only the government but public and private utilities to pay for the taking of private property (Energywire, June 15).
That conversation is sucking air out of other negotiations and making outcomes less predictable, Phillips said.
"What we're seeing this year is sort of a weirdness associated with all the energy bills that's affected by how do you deal with wildfires and the utilities," she said.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/07/05/stories/1060087891
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