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AM ACC 7/13/2018

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Industry Sees Threat to U.S. Jobs in China Trade Spat
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Eliza Haverstock

Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. chemical industry are at risk as a new round of proposed tariffs against Chinese-made goods threatens to raise costs enough to change “the value proposition” of domestic manufacturing, a trade group warned July 11.
(ACC Mentioned) Tariffs on Chinese Chemicals Could Hit U.S. Consumers
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tiffany Stecker

Hundreds of chemicals from China could get hit with President Donald Trump’s newly proposed tariffs, raising the cost of making pesticides, disinfectants, and other common household products in the U.S.
(ACC Mentioned) From Seafood to Mattresses: How the Latest Tariffs Would Affect U.S. Businesses
Jul 12, 2018 | Wall Street Journal

The White House on Tuesday said it was weighing imposing tariffs on a further $200 billion in Chinese products, a move that could expose $450 billion of Chinese goods to U.S. import taxes—or nearly all the $505 billion in exports China sends to the U.S.
(ACC Mentioned) The Trade War Is Already Hurting Industrials — Here's Why Energy Could Be Next
Jul 13, 2018 | OilPrice.com (In Business Insider UK)
By Tsvetana Paraskova

As the U.S.-China trade spat turns into a full-blown war with tariffs and retaliatory tariffs and threats of further tariffs, U.S. energy exports to China may suffer if Beijing follows through with its threat to slap tariffs on U.S. oil and oil product imports.
(ACC Mentioned) Volvos Will Soon Be Made with Recycled Plastic
Jul 13, 2018 | ThomasNet News
By Anna Wells

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that our society’s obsession with “convenience items” means that we have a big plastic problem. From bottles and straws to shopping bags and takeout containers, try to go a single day without running into a single-use plastic item and see what happens.
Two Worrying Signs at Andrew Wheeler's EPA
Jul 12, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Keith Gaby

As former energy industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler settles into his new job as acting head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he has a brief window to distinguish himself from the disastrous tenure of Scott Pruitt.
EPW to Hold Nomination Hearing for CEQ Nominee July 19
Jul 12, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anthony Adragna

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on Mary Neumayr's selection to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality on July 19, according to a notice.
Murkowski Warns of FERC Impasse Without Quick Pick
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Sam Mintz

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski said yesterday she wants the Trump administration to quickly nominate a replacement for Robert Powelson, who recently announced he would resign in August from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

LCSA News

Wheeler More Aware of Chemical Issues Than Most EPA Heads
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto

The EPA’s new acting administrator is more familiar than past agency heads were with the nation’s primary chemicals statute, giving him insight into tensions arising in implementing it, attorneys said.

Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) EPA Accused of ‘Suppressing’ Hazardous Formaldehyde Report
Jul 12, 2018 | Tremont Herald

EPA accused of ‘suppressing’ hazardous formaldehyde report Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have accused staff appointed by departing agency head Scott Pruitt of suppressing a report warning that most Americans are exposed to hazardous levels of formaldehyde.
(ACC Mentioned) No Head of EPA Toxics, Pesticides Office Expected Any Time Soon
Jul 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto

The Trump administration may have difficulty recruiting experienced candidates to lead the agency’s chemicals and pesticides office after the brutal confirmation process prompted a previous nominee to withdraw.
(ACC Mentioned) Starbucks Banning Plastic Straws By 2020
Jul 13, 2018 | Clean Technica
By Carolyn Fortuna

Single-use straws will become only a memory in Starbucks by 2020, as the global coffeehouse chain has announced it is eliminating plastic straws from its 28,000 stores worldwide.
EU Toxics Agency Warns Retailers on New Hazardous Substance Reports
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment
By Stephen Gardner

Tesco plc, IKEA, and other retailers and distributors that sell products containing hazardous chemicals in the European Union must submit safe-use data to the European Chemicals Agency by 2021.
Kildee Blasts Lack of PFAS Transparency
Jul 12, 2018 | Inside EPA

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) is calling for more transparency and quicker action from Michigan and federal officials on addressing perfluorinated chemicals, comparing Michigan's withholding release of a 2012 report on the chemicals with the Trump administration's recent stalling...
Precious Metals Federation Dissolves REACH Consortium
Jul 13, 2018 | Chemical Watch

The European Precious Metals Federation (EPMF) said it is to close its REACH consortium on 31 December.

Energy News

U.S. Gas Export Projects Said to Face Permit Delay
Jul 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Rachel Adams-Heard and Ryan Collins

The approval of U.S. shale-gas export projects could be delayed by as many as 18 months as the top energy regulator struggles with a backlog of permit requests, according to people familiar with the matter.
Republicans Look to Squash State Opposition to New Pipelines
Jul 12, 2018 | PoliticoPro
By Darius Dixon

Senate Republicans on Thursday accused states of misusing their power over water permits to block new natural gas pipelines, a trend the lawmakers said could force them to take action to aid the approval process.
Explosion Triggers Safety Notice for Transcanada
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel and Mike Soraghan

Federal regulators yesterday said that land movement may have triggered a natural gas pipeline explosion at a remote West Virginia site last month and that similar conditions exist at a half dozen other spots along the line.
Wisconsin Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion Draws Federal Investigators (1)
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Joyce

Federal safety regulators are investigating a Wisconsin explosion and fire that killed one firefighter and injured several others late July 10.

Chemical Security News

EPA Faults Groups' Late Call to Scrap RMP Delay
Jul 12, 2018 |

EPA is faulting environmentalists' claims that a recent ruling vacating a highway agency's penalty delay backs their suit seeking to scrap the Trump administration's delay of an Obama-era update to EPA's facility safety program...

Transportation and Infrastructure News - There are no clips to report at this time.

Environment News

EPA, GOP Weigh Options to Ease 'Background' Ozone Burden on States
Jul 12, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker

EPA and Republicans in Congress are weighing options to ease the regulatory burden on states with high levels of uncontrollable “background” ozone that could hinder their attainment of federal ozone standards, including through legislation or a pending rule...
We Already Spent the Money, Keep Air Toxics Rule: AEP, Duke to EPA
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid

American Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Corp., and others say they can’t recoup money they spent to meet requirements to cut mercury and other air toxics from their facilities and therefore want the EPA to retain the rule as is.
Exxon Quits Koch-Backed Business Group After Climate Change Row
Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Kevin Crowley and Ari Natter

Exxon Mobil Corp. quit the American Legislative Exchange Council, a lobbying group bankrolled by fossil fuel companies, following a disagreement over climate-change policy.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Industry Sees Threat to U.S. Jobs in China Trade Spat

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Eliza Haverstock

Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. chemical industry are at risk as a new round of proposed tariffs against Chinese-made goods threatens to raise costs enough to change “the value proposition” of domestic manufacturing, a trade group warned July 11.
If President Donald Trump’s trade war continues to escalate with retaliatory measures from China, demand for American goods will plummet, prompting layoffs at plants and pushing some chemical makers to move production overseas, said Ed Brzytwa, director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council.
“The bigger picture here is that U.S. trade policy is making it much, much more difficult for chemical manufacturers to do business here in the United States,” Brzytwa said. “Around 30 percent of all chemical industry jobs are export dependent. Fewer exports means fewer jobs.”
The July 10 proposal to extend tariffs to another $200 billion of Chinese goods came after plastic and chemical companies have been warning for months that Trump’s trade war could damage their business at home and abroad. The new taxes cover a wide swath of chemicals and materials U.S. manufacturers import from China.
460,000 Jobs
Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariff on steel is particularly growth-stifling, he said, because construction of new chemical and plastic plants requires such massive amounts of the material. Already, some sites are seeing delivery and scheduling problems as a result of the tariffs, according to the trade group.
The council has a list of 325 manufacturing projects under way in the U.S., representing a cumulative investment of $194.3 billion. If these projects are delayed or canceled, the 460,000 jobs they generated will cease to exist, Brzytwa said.
“The low-cost natural gas feedstock here in the United States makes it an attractive place for chemical plants under a scenario where there are no tariffs, where costs are low,” he said. “But when there are are tariffs, the value proposition changes.”
China meanwhile consumes billions of dollars worth of U.S. chemical products each year. In 2017, the Asian nation purchased $3.2 billion worth of plastic resins from the U.S., and the number is projected to grow along with the burgeoning Chinese middle class.
The tariff burden on American chemicals will be felt throughout the supply chain, hurting the business of U.S. automakers, agriculture, and health care companies, Brzytwa predicted.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. chemical industry are at risk as a new round of proposed tariffs against Chinese-made goods threatens to raise costs enough to change “the value proposition” of domestic manufacturing, a trade group warned July 11.
If President Donald Trump’s trade war continues to escalate with retaliatory measures from China, demand for American goods will plummet, prompting layoffs at plants and pushing some chemical makers to move production overseas, said Ed Brzytwa, director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council.
“The bigger picture here is that U.S. trade policy is making it much, much more difficult for chemical manufacturers to do business here in the United States,” Brzytwa said. “Around 30 percent of all chemical industry jobs are export dependent. Fewer exports means fewer jobs.”
The July 10 proposal to extend tariffs to another $200 billion of Chinese goods came after plastic and chemical companies have been warning for months that Trump’s trade war could damage their business at home and abroad. The new taxes cover a wide swath of chemicals and materials U.S. manufacturers import from China.
460,000 Jobs
Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariff on steel is particularly growth-stifling, he said, because construction of new chemical and plastic plants requires such massive amounts of the material. Already, some sites are seeing delivery and scheduling problems as a result of the tariffs, according to the trade group.
The council has a list of 325 manufacturing projects under way in the U.S., representing a cumulative investment of $194.3 billion. If these projects are delayed or canceled, the 460,000 jobs they generated will cease to exist, Brzytwa said.
“The low-cost natural gas feedstock here in the United States makes it an attractive place for chemical plants under a scenario where there are no tariffs, where costs are low,” he said. “But when there are are tariffs, the value proposition changes.”
China meanwhile consumes billions of dollars worth of U.S. chemical products each year. In 2017, the Asian nation purchased $3.2 billion worth of plastic resins from the U.S., and the number is projected to grow along with the burgeoning Chinese middle class.
The tariff burden on American chemicals will be felt throughout the supply chain, hurting the business of U.S. automakers, agriculture, and health care companies, Brzytwa predicted.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/chemical-industry-sees-threat-to-us-jobs-in-china-trade-spat

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(ACC Mentioned) Tariffs on Chinese Chemicals Could Hit U.S. Consumers

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Tiffany Stecker

Hundreds of chemicals from China could get hit with President Donald Trump’s newly proposed tariffs, raising the cost of making pesticides, disinfectants, and other common household products in the U.S.
The Trump administration’s latest call this week to impose 10 percent tariffs on more than 6,000 Chinese goods—from fruits and vegetables to textiles and industrial chemicals—would affect more than $200 billion in trade. The list of goods includes insecticides, rodent controls, and weedkillers, as well as raw chemicals used in formulations of pesticides and other finished products.
Industry representatives said these tariffs, if imposed, could weigh on the average consumer more than tariffs on steel, lumber, or other raw materials.
“This is the first time where there is a significant, very large listing of pesticides and chemicals used in consumer products,” Tracy Heinzman, a partner at WIley Rein LLP in Washington, D.C., who represents large chemical companies, told Bloomberg Environment.
In a note to clients, Heinzman warned that companies that import chemicals and related products from China should carefully review the full list of products to assess the effects of potential tariffs.
Latest Tariffs
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced July 9 it would consider new tariffs. The Trump administration proposed the tariffs after China said it would retaliate against tariffs proposed earlier this year.
Chemical industry analysts and the American Chemistry Council warned last month that a potential second round of tariffs targeting Chinese chemical exports could be terrible news for the U.S. petrochemical industry, potentially costing billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
“We anticipate significant disruptions to supply chain operations, offshoring of production, and termination of production altogether due the sudden, uneven playing field that duties would create in the global marketplace” if China retaliates, the council, an advocate for U.S. chemical companies, said in June.
The Trade Representative’s office will collect comments on the proposal through Aug. 17. A public hearing will be held from Aug. 20 to Aug. 23.
Consumer goods companies including Wal-mart, Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser Group plc didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg Environment’s requests for comment.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/tariffs-on-chinese-chemicals-could-hit-us-consumers

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(ACC Mentioned) From Seafood to Mattresses: How the Latest Tariffs Would Affect U.S. Businesses

Jul 12, 2018 | Wall Street Journal

The White House on Tuesday said it was weighing imposing tariffs on a further $200 billion in Chinese products, a move that could expose $450 billion of Chinese goods to U.S. import taxes—or nearly all the $505 billion in exports China sends to the U.S.
While some businesses have supported the tariffs, many have said they would hurt their profits or lead to higher prices for consumers. The White House says China represents a fundamental threat to the U.S. that needs to be countered, even at the cost of pain to the U.S. economy.
The Trump administration sees the latest round of tariffs as necessary to protect vital U.S. industries from Chinese competitors who it says are sheltered by Beijing’s protectionist policies. It has also decried China’s habit of flooding world markets with goods—often made by state-owned enterprises—while erecting barriers to foreign competition at home, and forcing any business seeking access to the Chinese market to form local joint ventures and hand over technology as a condition to entry.
Here is a look at how U.S. businesses might be affected by the proposed levies:
Seafood
The latest tariffs would put duties on dozens of varieties of seafood including tilapia, salmon, cod and tuna. Some lawmakers and seafood groups had also sought the inclusion of Chinese crawfish, shrimp and other seafood on a list of products targeted for tariffs, saying Chinese companies have for years dumped substandard products onto the U.S. market to the detriment of local industries and U.S. consumers.
The U.S. imported $2.7 billion worth of fish and seafood from China last year, according to federal data. Food manufacturers could have to pay more for many varieties commonly sold in U.S. supermarkets and restaurants, and consumers might see increased prices as well, said John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute trade group. Mr. Connelly said U.S. seafood producers are also contending with China’s retaliatory tariffs on Maine lobsters, squid from New Jersey and California, and cod, pollock and salmon from Alaska, raising concerns about lost sales.
—Heather Haddon and Jesse Newman
Chemicals
U.S. chemicals makers argue the proposed tariffs could make raw materials more expensive while threatening access to a key export market. China has emerged as one of the top global suppliers of basic chemicals, and the U.S. on Tuesday outlined potential tariffs on a wide swath of Chinese-made products, from pesticides to photographic developer. Those tariffs will increase costs for U.S. firms that rely on Chinese chemicals imports to create more complex products in the U.S., said Ed Brzytwa, international trade director for the American Chemistry Council. That could mean higher costs for farmers and consumers. The trade group estimates about $9 billion in chemicals-based exports are already exposed to retaliatory tariffs outlined this spring by the European Union, China, Canada, and other countries.
—Jacob Bunge

Switches and routers
The White House on Tuesday said it was weighing imposing tariffs on a further $200 billion in Chinese products, a move that could expose $450 billion of Chinese goods to U.S. import taxes—or nearly all the $505 billion in exports China sends to the U.S.
The proposed tariffs target switches and routers, finished products that are used to set up wired and wireless networks. Those products are key infrastructure in new technology, said Cinnamon Rogers, senior vice president of government affairs at the Telecommunications Industry Association, an industry trade group. The tariffs put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage to China by making it more costly for U.S. firms to develop cloud services that require network connectivity, Ms. Rogers said. Cisco Systems Inc.,among the biggest makers of switching and routing gear, didn’t respond to questions about the impact of the potential tariffs.
—Jay Greene
Cars and car parts
The latest tariffs would target dozens of auto products, including everything from struts and parts for gearboxes to brake pads and windshield glass. A 10% levy, if imposed, would likely inflate costs for both manufacturers purchasing these parts to put in factory-assembled vehicles, as well as car owners who need replacement parts, such as windshield wiper blades.

—Chester Dawson
Handbags
The proposed tariffs target handbags, but the companies with the biggest exposure don’t include big U.S. brands such as Coach, Kate Spade and Michael Kors. Those brands produce mainly leather handbags, and leather bags account for only about 27% of U.S. imports of Chinese-made handbags, according to global trade data tracker Panjiva Inc.
Coach and Kate Spade, both owned by Tapestry Inc., have been moving production away from China amid rising labor costs.
The larger chunk of Chinese handbag imports are made of plastic. These non-leather bags account for 54% of all handbag imports, or $540 million worth of products, according to Panjiva. Those bags are largely sold in mass merchants under brands that aren’t household names.
—Suzanne Kapner
Semiconductors
Semiconductors and related products are among the tech goods hardest hit by last week’s levies on $34 billion of Chinese exports of machinery, components and electronics.
Those duties targeted China’s young chip industry, a segment Beijing wants to emerge as a global power. But the tariffs also sting some U.S. chip makers that participate in the complex supply chain in which manufacturing often starts in the U.S., before products are shipped to China for assembly, testing and packaging, and then shipped back to the U.S.
—Jay Greene
Mattresses
Chinese-made mattresses would be subject to tariffs, according the latest list of proposed levies. The U.S. imported $1 billion worth of mattresses in the 12 months ended May 31, and about $850 million of that was imported from China, according to Panjiva.
But many of the big mattress brands are produced domestically. Tempur Sealy International Inc., the biggest U.S. manufacturer, says the mattresses it sells in the U.S. are made in the U.S. The company has more than 20 manufacturing sites in North America.
Even upstart online sellers such as Casper and Leesa, which have been challenging incumbents and traditional stores, tout that their products are made in the U.S.
—Patrick Thomas
Rare-earth minerals
The proposed tariffs include scandium and yttrium, two rare-earth minerals that defense companies source almost entirely from China. Pentagon chief weapons buyer Ellen Lord has previously called the U.S. reliance on China’s rare-earth supplies “quite alarming.” Industry officials expect defense firms to lobby for an exemption to continue those purchases tariff-free.
A bigger concern for the industry is that China may seek to restrict supplies, and delay regulatory approval for deals. China has also previously indicated it could levy tariffs on some business jets.
—Doug Cameron
Mobile phones
The tariffs—both in effect and proposed—include some mobile-phone components, such as semiconductors and circuit boards. Mobile phones themselves, though, aren’t targeted. Finished devices made in China such as iPhones, for example, aren’t among the products currently facing U.S. tariffs. American consumers might not completely escape the higher costs. Some parts that could be used to fix mobile phones are earmarked for the new duties, which might affect the repair market in the U.S.
—Jay Greene
Soybeans
The trade fight is exacting a heavy toll on U.S. soybean farmers. China’s 25% tax on U.S. soybeans set in last week, fueling concern that tariffs would shut American farmers out of the world’s biggest soybean market. Since the beginning of June, prices for the oilseeds have fallen 19% to the lowest levels in a decade. That is sapping incomes for U.S. farmers already trudging through a multiyear slump in the agricultural economy and prompted concerns that U.S. soybean exports to China could drop by at least half, shrinking U.S. production by as much as 15%.
In a tweet on Wednesday, President Trump said he is “always thinking about our farmers,” promising to fight “for a level playing field.” Some farmers are giving President Trump the benefit of the doubt, saying they are prepared to absorb some economic losses if the U.S. agricultural sector—or the economy as a whole—emerges stronger in the long run.

—Jesse Newman
Device parts
The growing list of tech products targeted for levies—some already tariffed, others proposed—includes many of the mundane components in modern gadgets. These items include disk drives used in servers and storage devices, as well as printer and copier components—parts most people generally wouldn’t buy on their own. But these device parts go into making products such as remote controls and automated-teller machines. Tariffs on some items, such as printed-circuit assemblies, could boost the cost of consumer-electronics repairs. The list of tariffs proposed July 10 adds to the collection of parts that would be taxed, including such components as television antennas and some parts for TV receivers.

—Jay Greene
Dairy
The proposed U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods don’t directly hit dairy producers, according to trade groups, but milk futures and cheese prices have fallen since Mexico and China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in the past month. Mexico is the largest importer of U.S. cheese, and China is the top destination for U.S. whey byproducts. Concerns are also growing that China could retaliate with a fresh set of tariffs that include key dairy exports that escaped the previous round of duties imposed last week, including lactose and infant formula, said Nate Donnay, director of Dairy Market Insight for INTL FCStone Financial.

—Heather Haddon
Solar Panels
The Trump administration announced tariffs on imported solar cells and panels in January, levies mainly affecting Chinese manufacturers. Companies have cited the tariffs, which start at 30% in the first year and decline to 15% in the fourth, as a factor in rising prices for U.S. solar installations and slower solar growth. But the tariffs do appear to be achieving a main objective: boosting solar manufacturing in the U.S.
An analysis by GTM Research showed prices for some utility-scale systems rose from 98 cents a watt in the first half of 2017 to $1.03 a watt in the second half. Meanwhile, some companies are pursuing investment in U.S. solar manufacturing, most recently the North American subsidiary of South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc., which announced last month that it was planning a new solar panel assembly plant in Alabama.
—Erin Ailworth
https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-seafood-to-mattresses-how-the-latest-tariffs-would-affect-u-s-businesses-1531424044

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(ACC Mentioned) The Trade War Is Already Hurting Industrials — Here's Why Energy Could Be Next

Jul 13, 2018 | OilPrice.com (In Business Insider UK)

By Tsvetana Paraskova

As the U.S.-China trade spat turns into a full-blown war with tariffs and retaliatory tariffs and threats of further tariffs, U.S. energy exports to China may suffer if Beijing follows through with its threat to slap tariffs on U.S. oil and oil product imports.
China has, in recent years, become a key export market for growing U.S. energy exports. In fact, China is America’s second-largest crude oil customer after Canada and is also one of the biggest importers of U.S. propane and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Associations of U.S. manufacturers, retailers, and petroleum and chemicals producers have stepped up calls on the U.S. Administration to seek alternative solutions to the tariffs, warning that additional levies would hurt U.S. jobs and growth.
If the United States were to impose tariffs on oil, U.S. oil sellers would have to look for other destinations and attract new customers, which could cost them more.
Last year, more U.S. crude oil was sent to China than any other destination except Canada, the EIA said in an analysis on Tuesday. China received more U.S. crude oil in 2017 than the third- and fourth-largest importers combined, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
U.S. crude oil exports to China averaged 330,000 bpd between January and April this year, with February sales to China beating even exports to Canada, according to the EIA.
And it’s not just crude oil. China was also the third-largest destination for U.S. propane exports last year, behind only Japan and Mexico. Around half of U.S. propane exports went to Asia in 2017, displacing supplies from Middle Eastern countries and some regional production of propane.
For LNG, 15 percent of U.S. exports went to China, making it the third-largest importer of U.S. LNG behind Mexico and South Korea.
China, however, has explicitly excluded LNG from its list of U.S. energy goods that may be subject to tariffs, as it seeks to fight air pollution by a massive switch from coal-fired to gas-fired residential heating.
Although China has ample supplies of coal, it imports some from the U.S. Last year, China received 3.2 million short tons of U.S. coal, which is equal to 3 percent of the total U.S. coal exports. This makes China the tenth-largest destination for U.S. coal exports.

China has become a key trade partner for U.S. energy exports, and potential tariffs on U.S. energy goods could hurt U.S. producers and industries.
Last week, China and the U.S. imposed another round of tariffs on each other, and the U.S. said on Tuesday that it could impose tariffs on an additional US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
“As a result of China’s retaliation and failure to change its practices, the President has ordered USTR to begin the process of imposing tariffs of 10 percent on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.
If China responds with tariffs on energy, this could cut sales of U.S. energy goods, analysts and executives told Reuters last month, when Beijing first threatened to slap tariffs on U.S. energy.
“It’ll force you to put your oil somewhere else, and it’ll cost you more” to attract more buyers, said Ron Gasser, vice president at Texas-based Mammoth Exploration.
In a statement on the latest U.S. list of potential new tariffs on China, David French, Senior Vice President for Government Relations at the National Retail Federation, said on Tuesday:
“The latest list of $200 billion of products to be subject to tariffs against China doubles down on a reckless strategy that will boomerang back to harm U.S. families and workers. The threat to the U.S. economy is less about a question of ‘if’ and more about ‘when’ and ‘how bad.’ Tariffs on such a broad scope of products make it inconceivable that American consumers will dodge this tax increase as prices of everyday products will be forced to rise. And the retaliation that will follow will destroy thousands of U.S. jobs and hurt farmers, local businesses and entire communities.”
Jack Gerard, Cal Dooley, and Edward R. Hamberger—the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, and president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, respectively—wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Examiner published on Wednesday that the trade war is threatening the U.S. economy and could add “hundreds of billions of dollars in potential costs for American businesses — costs that could ultimately be borne by consumers.”
“Pre-tariffs, the private sector was poised to invest $1.34 trillion in energy infrastructure to keep pace with surging production — supporting more than 1 million jobs each year on average through 2035. Tariffs could stifle hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of projects — including new pipeline infrastructure needed to get oil and natural gas from the prolific Permian Basin to markets. The steel tariffs alone could increase the cost of a 280-mile pipeline by as much as $76 million,” Gerard, Dooley, and Hamberger said.
“It’s already clear that this well-intentioned policy will actually make the United States less competitive, undermine this administration’s vision of energy dominance and the manufacturing renaissance, and almost certainly destroy many more jobs than it protects.”
http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-trade-war-is-already-hurting-industrials-heres-why-energy-could-be-next-2018-7

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(ACC Mentioned) Volvos Will Soon Be Made with Recycled Plastic

Jul 13, 2018 | ThomasNet News

By Anna Wells

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that our society’s obsession with “convenience items” means that we have a big plastic problem. From bottles and straws to shopping bags and takeout containers, try to go a single day without running into a single-use plastic item and see what happens.
And the problem, say,experts, is getting worse, with literal mountains of plastic winding up in our waterways, harming marine life, and threatening the future of our planet.
Some manufacturers are turning to plastic recycling as a way to eat away at this accumulation problem. Sure, it’s great PR too, but whatever their motivation, I’ll take it.
Volvo has recently announced that, by year 2025, 25 percent of the plastic that it uses in its new cars will come from recycled sources. And to give you some perspective, the American Chemistry Council says that, because plastic components can weigh half of what traditional ones would, the average light vehicle now contains over 300 pounds of plastic.
The company has developed a sample of their XC60 sedan equipped with recycled plastic parts, to help illustrate what this would look like. In the prototype, the seat and carpet fibers both use plastic bottles, and a console is formulated, partly, from old fishing nets and ropes. The car even uses old Volvo seats as sound dampening material.
Volvo is not the first automaker to use recycled parts, and a few years back, Motor Trend put together a pretty extensive list of other innovative reuse – in case you’re looking for some light reading this weekend.
Some of the more creative notes include Ford’s use of recycled tires in its seals and gaskets in several models. The company also formed a partnership with Coca-Cola, integrating recycled soda bottles into the seats and door panels in one of its Ford Fusion models.
https://news.thomasnet.com/featured/volvos-will-soon-be-made-with-recycled-plastic

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Two Worrying Signs at Andrew Wheeler's EPA

Jul 12, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund

By Keith Gaby

As former energy industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler settles into his new job as acting head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he has a brief window to distinguish himself from the disastrous tenure of Scott Pruitt.
It won’t be enough to avoid ordering used Trump hotel mattresses or renting a condo from lobbyists. Wheeler needs to put a stop to Pruitt’s most serious scandal: Undermining health protections for American families as a favor to politically connected industries.
As Pruitt was exiting, however, there were two fresh signs that this culture of corruption and pollution remains present:
1. Legally binding truck pollution limits thrown out
At the behest of a company that prominently hosted an event for then-candidate Donald Trump, the EPA said it would not enforce legally binding pollution limits for super polluting freight trucks – old diesel engines used in a new chassis that discharge lethal particulate pollution at up to 450 times that of modern engines. Just one year of sales of these trucks would result in up to 1,600 deaths, according to the EPA’s own analysis.
This unlawful action is designed to circumvent the extensive public opposition to this dangerous loophole voiced by the American Lung Association, leading engine manufacturers, the American Trucking Association, and moms.
2. News broke that EPA suppressed report on toxic dangers
It was also reported that EPA’s political leadership has been suppressing a report that found most Americans are inhaling enough formaldehyde vapor in their daily lives to risk developing leukemia and other ailments.
As a Senate staffer in 2004, Wheeler participated in similar efforts to delay an earlier version of the formaldehyde report and has recently lobbied on some issues for Celanese, a major manufacturer of formaldehyde. This highly toxic chemical is used by politically connected companies, including Koch Industries.
A conflicts of interest “collision course”
While Wheeler was Pruitt’s chief deputy at the time we learned about all this, he could start his time as boss by showing he’s different.
But he has already praised President Trump and Pruitt for their work so far at the agency. “We have made tremendous progress over the past year and a half,” he told EPA employees this week.
There’s also strong reason to believe that Wheeler’s career as a lobbyist will foreshadow his approach to government. He was paid by large companies to oppose limits on pollution, using his political connections.
Letting Pruitt’s decisions stand on these two issues will be the first indication that Wheeler plans to continue to operate in this fashion. Unfortunately, it’s already obvious that Wheeler is “on a collision course” over conflicts of interest.
While he has said he will not be involved in decisions regarding some of his former clients, Bloomberg News reports that it will be almost impossible to enforce that pledge, and that it can be waived by officials who report to Wheeler.
Common sense indicates that Wheeler cannot keep his pledge in an effective way. His dozens of clients in the energy and chemical industry are affected by nearly every major decision at the EPA.
Wheeler’s moment of truth
Wheeler recently objected to being called a coal lobbyist. “I get frustrated with the media when they report I was a coal lobbyist,” he said. “Yes, I represented a coal company, but I also represented a cheese company. I represented a lot of different businesses, a lot of different interests.”
If Wheeler would like to dispel the idea that he’s only serving powerful interests instead of public health, real action on truck pollution, toxic chemicals and carbon pollution would be a good place to start.
He can even do a favor or two for Big Cheese, if that’s what it takes.
https://www.edf.org/blog/2018/07/12/two-worrying-signs-andrew-wheelers-epa

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EPW to Hold Nomination Hearing for CEQ Nominee July 19

Jul 12, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard

By Anthony Adragna

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on Mary Neumayr's selection to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality on July 19, according to a notice.
Neumayr, who has been acting head of CEQ since March 2017, is the Trump administration's second selection to lead the department after Kathleen Hartnett White withdrew her name from consideration in February.
In addition, the panel will consider former Louisiana Rep. John Fleming's nomination to serve as assistant secretary of Commerce for economic development.
WHAT’S NEXT: The hearing will be July 19 at 10 a.m.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard

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Murkowski Warns of FERC Impasse Without Quick Pick

Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Daily

By Sam Mintz

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski said yesterday she wants the Trump administration to quickly nominate a replacement for Robert Powelson, who recently announced he would resign in August from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Wary of the potential pitfalls stemming from the 2-2 partisan split that will remain at the five-member independent agency once Powelson leaves, the Alaska Republican said she is going to "put a fire" on the issue.
Powelson's departure to lead the National Association of Water Companies will upend FERC, giving Democrats at the agency the opportunity to wield more influence on a number of issues (Energywire, July 2).
Particularly important will be pipelines, as Democrats Richard Glick and Cheryl LaFleur have dissented on FERC's approval of several recent natural gas projects, citing their disagreement with the Republican majority's decision to limit consideration of greenhouse gas emissions.
With the 2-2 split, any natural projects up for final approval at FERC could be delayed until a new Republican commissioner is confirmed.
Murkowski tied the vacancy to the Trump administration's desire to boost energy infrastructure in the U.S.
"I hope that there is an appreciation as to the significance of a FERC that could be in a position where they might be deadlocked on some of these issues that would be priorities of this administration," she told reporters after a committee hearing yesterday.
"Whether it's the FERC or whatever regulatory body, when it is an even number, it's easier to find yourself at an impasse. So I'd look to get a full complement of five and get everybody in their positions," Murkowski said.
"So I'm going to kind of put a fire on this. We worked very aggressively last year to get the FERC filled out. We'll just do it again."
Murkowski led the Senate's approval of three FERC commissioners last year: Chairman Kevin McIntyre, Powelson and Glick.
The hopes of a speedy Senate confirmation could be complicated for Trump's new FERC nominee by the looming debate over Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh. Murkowski, a moderate pro-abortion-rights Republican, will be under particular pressure as a potential swing vote.
Murkowski said she had not yet talked to anyone in the Trump administration about the open FERC job and declined to say who she thought should get the nod.
But she did ask two former FERC chairmen who were testifying in her committee yesterday what characteristics prospective nominees should have.
James Hoecker, who was chairman from 1997 to 2001 and is now an energy lawyer, said he thinks members should include "seasoned economists, industry engineers, not just lawyers."
"I think that those diverse skills have served the commission well in the distant past, and I think that would be a good idea," he said. "You want somebody with a judicial temperament, someone who doesn't have a particular ax to grind who can make independent decisions."
Joseph Kelliher, chairman from 2005 to 2009, said the nominee should be "comfortable with criticism."
"Someone who is independent by temperament, someone who will follow the record and someone who will try to work with their colleagues ... but only up to a point," he said. "It's not supposed to be 5-0 on everything, it's OK to dissent."
In addition to the pipeline disputes, FERC has worked on contentious orders in other areas recently, issuing split decisions on fuel security in New England and possible reforms to the capacity market run by grid operator PJM Interconnection.
Kelliher, like Murkowski, said that the 2-2 split "has the tendency to divide evenly sometimes."
"Four is a scary number," he said.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/07/13/stories/1060088971

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LCSA News

Wheeler More Aware of Chemical Issues Than Most EPA Heads

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Pat Rizzuto

The EPA’s new acting administrator is more familiar than past agency heads were with the nation’s primary chemicals statute, giving him insight into tensions arising in implementing it, attorneys said.
The attorneys also predicted that Andrew Wheeler—who worked in the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals office from 1991 through 1994—won’t depart from the policies of his predecessor Scott Pruitt.
“He will be more familiar than past administrators. He has at least some familiarity with TSCA and TRI,” said Jim Aidala, senior government affairs consultant with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. in Washington, referring to the Toxic Substances Control Act and Toxics Release Inventory.
That experience should help Wheeler appreciate the tension between companies’ need to have proprietary information kept confidential and the public’s right to know, said Aidala, a former assistant administrator for what’s now the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
After leaving the EPA, Wheeler worked on Capitol Hill for 14 years before joining Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, where he lobbied for energy companies, as well as the Celanese Corp., a chemical manufacturer; and Underwriters Laboratory, or UL LLC, which works on chemical testing issues.
Agency Briefing
Wheeler described during a July 11 agency staff briefing how his experience at the EPA, on Capitol Hill, and as a consultant would affect his approach to leading the agency.
Clear communication about environmental and health risks of chemicals or situations in which pollutants have been released into the environment will be a top priority, he said.
“Flint, Michigan, is the poster child for our need to improve risk communication,” Wheeler said, referring to the fears that city faced after lead leached into its drinking water.
“We need to speak with one voice and clearly explain to the American people the relevant environmental and health risks that they face, that their families face, and that their children face,” Wheeler said.
Those risks must be explained “in very simple, easy to understand terms,” he added.No Policy Shifts
Wheeler said he would continue to implement environmental priorities outlined by President Trump and former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. These included making sure chemicals are reviewed for safety, he said, referring to TSCA mandates.
“Andy is a by-the-book guy who will continue implementing the law, meeting those deadlines,” Dimitrios Karakitsos, an attorney with Holland & Knight LLP in Washington, told Bloomberg Environment.
Wheeler’s background having worked to both make law and implement it will serve him well, said Karakitsos, a primary Republican negotiator in the bipartisan discussions that led to passage of the 2016 TSCA amendments.
“He is an incredibly smart thoughtful person, who knows not only policy but politics,” said Karakitsos, who joined the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee just after Wheeler stepped down as its chief counsel.
Ready to Recuse?
Wheeler’s lobbying background means he will have to recuse himself from some agency decisions, according to Richard Denison, lead senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund. For example, Celanese makes formaldehyde along with many other chemicals.
Formaldehyde is under review by the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System, which examines chemical hazards and the doses at which those hazards could manifest. The agency uses that information to decide if cleanup, air pollution, or other regulations have to be issued or updated.
Wheeler should recuse himself from any involvement in the agency’s review of formaldehyde, Denison told Bloomberg Environment. He also should recuse himself from any future analysis the agency’s chemicals office may undertake of any chemical that Celanese makes, Denison said.
But the question isn’t that black and white, Aidala said. Just because a former client makes a chemical doesn’t mean that Wheeler will have to recuse himself from every decision involving that chemical, he said.
Wheeler has recused himself from issues the EPA could review that would have a direct financial impact on UL, because he had represented that company since May 2016, according to his recusal statement. Such statements cover the two-year period before someone joins the agency.
Wheeler’s efforts on behalf of Celanese Corp. preceeded that cutoff, an EPA spokeswoman said. Wheeler also lobbied for that company regarding an energy, not a chemical regulatory, issue she said.
Chemicals Background
During his November 2017 Senate nomination hearing, Wheeler described lessons he learned while working with the Toxics Release Inventory, which requires companies to report their releases of designated hazardous chemicals into the air, water, and land.
“I understand the power of the data and information that the agency has and the importance of getting that out to the public for people to know about the chemicals released where they live and the impacts that could have on public health and the environment,” he said.
The time that Wheeler spent in the agency’s right-to-know program helping communities plan for chemical emergencies “was very formative in my development as an environmental attorney,” Wheeler said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/wheeler-more-aware-of-chemical-issues-than-most-epa-heads

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Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) EPA Accused of ‘Suppressing’ Hazardous Formaldehyde Report

Jul 12, 2018 | Tremont Herald

EPA accused of ‘suppressing’ hazardous formaldehyde report Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have accused staff appointed by departing agency head Scott Pruitt of suppressing a report warning that most Americans are exposed to hazardous levels of formaldehyde.
The draft report was completed by EPA scientists over a year ago. It claims that most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor day-to-day to put them at risk of developing leukemia, nose cancer, throat cancer, and other ailments, reported.
Formaldehyde is commonly used in the manufacture of wood composites and resins, like those found in cabinets and furniture. It can also be found in some disinfectants, food preservatives, cosmetics and cigarettes. Humans can also be exposed to its vapor by inhaling the emissions of refineries.
Formaldehyde is already “known to be a human carcinogen” by the US National Toxicology Program, but the EPA’s delayed report could potentially reveal harmful effects at lower exposures. This could lead to tighter regulations on manufacturers, new workplace exposure guidelines, or class-action lawsuits from people unwittingly exposed to the chemical.
Two anonymous officials said that Pruitt’s political appointees at the agency are “stonewalling” the report, delaying its release at “every step of the way.”
The report was authored by the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a politically independent body of around 35 scientists within the agency. After IRIS completes a study, a report is then sent to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for review. After passing muster with the NAS, the report can then inform policy.
In the case of the formaldehyde report, the NAS has already been paid $500,000 to carry out the review. The EPA has thus far refused to hand over the report, however.
The anonymous officials, who spoke to Politico, blame Pruitt’s appointees and industry lobbyists for the delay. The appointees, they say, are cancelling briefings on the report, and refusing to let staff carry out important revisions on it without permission. Meanwhile, lobbyists like the American Chemistry Council (ACC) have written to the agency, warning against releasing the report “prematurely” and urging IRIS to incorporate industry-funded research downplaying the risks of formaldehyde.
Nearly a million jobs “depend on the use of formaldehyde,” the Council’s letter stated.
In response to the Politico story, the ACC on Friday calling the draft IRIS document “closer to science fiction than sound science.”
“Incredibly, the IRIS program would have you believe the amount of formaldehyde humans produce and exhale – in every single breath – is dangerous and could cause leukemia. There is no scientific evidence to support that outrageous allegation,” the ACC said.
Members of the American Chemistry Council include Exxon Mobil and Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC, and the organization has previously lobbied against IRIS. Nancy Beck, head of the EPA’s chemical safety office and a Pruitt appointee, is a former employee of the ACC.
“If the administration was really keen on protecting public health, why wouldn’t they send this to the National Academy and give it a really good review?” asked one former EPA official. “If it survives that review, then there’s a public health problem that needs to be dealt with, and if it doesn’t survive the review, then they can point the finger at IRIS and say, ‘You’re dead.’”
Democrats have noticed the delay, and urged the EPA and the Trump administration to expedite the report. “Why is the Trump administration keeping important health & safety information from parents and families?” tweeted Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) on Friday.
“Because formaldehyde can be found in everything from wood products to women’s hair straighteners, the public health risks are substantial,” Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement.
Pruitt resigned from the EPA on Thursday, citing “unprecedented” and “unrelenting” attacks on him and his family. During his tenure at the agency, Pruitt was hounded by negative news stories. Earlier this week, he was confronted in a Washington DC restaurant by a teacher and activist who urged him to resign “before your scandals push you out.”
As head of the EPA, he presided over substantial of environmental regulations, as well as the US’ from the Paris Climate Accords.
Former EPA deputy Andrew Wheeler will be the agency’s new acting chief as of Monday, and looks set to continue in the vein of Pruitt. A former coal lobbyist, Wheeler was staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004 when Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) tried to delay an earlier report on formaldehyde.
Already, Democrats have shifted their pressure campaign from Pruitt to Wheeler.
https://tremontherald.com/world/epa-accused-of-suppressing-hazardous-formaldehyde-report/51403/

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(ACC Mentioned) No Head of EPA Toxics, Pesticides Office Expected Any Time Soon

Jul 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Pat Rizzuto

The Trump administration may have difficulty recruiting experienced candidates to lead the agency’s chemicals and pesticides office after the brutal confirmation process prompted a previous nominee to withdraw.
“There aren’t going to be a lot of people who want to go through what he went through,” Robert Sussman, a former senior policy counsel at EPA, told Bloomberg Environment, referring to Michael Dourson, the former nominee tapped to oversee chemical safety at the agency.
Dourson withdrew his nomination last December after some Republican senators joined Democrats in raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest he had and allegations that his past work downplayed chemical risks to public health.
Dourson, a toxicologist and risk assessment consultant, was tapped by the Trump administration to be assistant administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which oversees the agency’s execution of both the nation’s primary commercial chemicals law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.
But former EPA officials say not having a chemical safety chief won’t hamstring the office, and that policies issued so far under the Trump administration aren’t likely to change.
Next Steps Without a Head
The pragmatic approach is to let the office be led by its current team, said Sussman, who now works for Sussman and Associates.
The three-person team currently leading the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention consists of:
·   Acting Principal Deputy Administrator Charlotte Bertrand, a career employee who formerly worked in the agency’s land and emergency management office,
·   Deputy Assistant Administrator Nancy Beck, a toxicologist who formerly worked for the American Chemistry Council, and
·   Deputy Assistant Administrator and Senior Counsel Erik Baptist, former counsel to the American Petroleum Institute.
Keeping the status quo means the thrust of the office’s policies won’t change, Sussman said. His consulting firm represents the environmental advocacy group Safer Chemicals Healthy Families in legal proceedings challenging the agency’s implementation of the 2016 TSCA amendments.
From the perspective of environmental, health, and labor groups, this means the office will continue to support the chemical industry and won’t issue strict chemical regulations, he said.
Two other attorneys agreed that finding an individual willing to run the chemicals and pesticide office will be difficult in the wake of Dourson’s grueling nomination experience. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and other Democrats leveled strong criticism of Dourson’s approach to chemical policy at the hearings.
Support for Current Leaders
Beck could be a candidate for the assistant administrator role, “but she’d face the same challenges Dourson did,” said Jim Aidala, senior government affairs consultant with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. in Washington.
Beck is very knowledgeable about science and policy, Dimitrios Karakitsos, a partner with Holland & Knight LLC’s Washington office, told Bloomberg Environment. Karakitsos also served as a chief Republican negotiator when Congress amended the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2016.
EPA’s Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson—who formerly worked under Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)—is also very familiar with the 2016 revisions Congress made to TSCA, Karakitsos said.
“The more people you have like Ryan and Nancy, who understand the subject and the law, the better off you are,” he said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/no-head-of-epa-toxics-pesticides-office-expected-any-time-soon

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(ACC Mentioned) Starbucks Banning Plastic Straws By 2020

Jul 13, 2018 | Clean Technica

By Carolyn Fortuna

Single-use straws will become only a memory in Starbucks by 2020, as the global coffeehouse chain has announced it is eliminating plastic straws from its 28,000 stores worldwide. That means around a billion less straws every year will be in circulation and going to landfills, which will help to reduce plastic contamination of the world’s oceans and save marine animals from severe infections, blockages in their digestive system, and even strangulation.
Every day, individuals in the US use — and almost immediately discard — plastic straws. According to Australian scientists Denise Hardesty and Chris Wilcox, some 7.5 million straws litter US shorelines alone. They estimate that as many as 8.3 billion straws can be found on the world’s coastlines. The plastic waste that is thrown away into seas every year can kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures. Even if a stray straw doesn’t find its way into the mouth or nose of a sea animal, plastic doesn’t biodegrade like organic matter but breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that clog the ocean and get consumed by marine life.
Over time, plastic breaks down into tiny particles called micro-plastics, which are found on shorelines and in the systems of marine animals around the world.
A straws-on-request movement is spreading across the US and globe. For example, environmentalists are pushing California cities to require restaurants and other food services to keep their plastic straws to themselves unless a customer asks for one. Activists aim to make the use of plastic straws and single-use plastic items as socially unacceptable, saying that there are alternatives – paper straws, bamboo straws, and even straws made from pasta. (Author’s note: I just received a lovely gift set of three different sized metal straws and an accompanying pipe cleaner. :)) Or, they say, go back to the method we all used before the arrival of the straw – simply sipping our drinks from a glass.
Davis and San Luis Obispo passed straw restrictions last year. “The whole premise is to create awareness around this issue, not to punish people,” said SLO Councilman Aaron Gomez. “It’s about getting people to ponder whether you need a straw… or whether you can do without one.” Fort Myers, Florida has already enacted a similar ban and like-minded propositions are currently being considered in both San Francisco and New York.
Starbucks’ announcement came a week after Seattle, Washington, implemented its city-wide ban on plastic straws in restaurants. Starbucks is headquartered in Seattle.
In May, 2018, the European Council unveiled a plan to ban 10 plastic items that constitute 70% of the pollution in European waterways. That EC proposal also requires plastic producers to assume plastic cleanup costs.
The Problems with Plastic Straws and Other Single Use Plastics
Plastics production became popular around 1950. Since then, 2/3 of the 9.2 billion tons that has been manufactured has become waste, and hardly any of it has been recycled. Researchers in the journal Science journal calculated that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. 40% of today’s plastic is single-use. Less than a fifth of all plastic gets recycled globally. In the US, it’s less than 10%. In March 2018, the European Space Agency said that it would begin measuring plastic pollution levels from orbit to provide a more accurate plastics count than current estimates.
Here are some things you should know about plastics.
§ A staggering 32% of plastic packaging escapes collection systems, generating significant economic costs by reducing the productivity of vital natural systems such as the ocean and clogging urban infrastructure.
§ Today, 95% of plastic packaging material value, or $80 –120 billion annually, is lost to the economy after a short first use.
§ Each year, at least 8 million tons of plastics leak into the ocean — which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to 2 per minute by 2030 and 4 per minute by 2050.
§ If the current strong growth of plastics usage continues as expected, the plastics will account for 20% of total oil consumption and 15% of the global annual carbon budget by 2050.
§ One recent study found in Europe today 53% of plastic packaging could be recycled economically and environmentally effectively.

Final Thoughts
Starbucks’ actions to eliminate single-use straws has set a precedent, allowing it to serve as a role model for other environmentally conscious companies. American Airlines joined Starbucks and Hyatt, announcing that they are phasing out the use of plastic straws globally. At the start of June, McDonald’s announced that it would begin phasing out plastic straws from more than a thousand of its restaurants throughout the UK and Ireland. Back in February, Dunkin Donuts announced that it would phase out polystyrene foam cups from its stores by the start of the next decade.
Starbucks is developing a recyclable spouted lid that has been described as an “adult sippy cup.” These lids, according the the company, “will become the standard for all iced coffee, tea, and espresso beverages.” It’s already available at 8,000 North American locations. Seattle and Vancouver customers will be the first to see these new lids on all their drinks starting this fall. The rest of the US and Canada will get them by the end of 2019, and the remainder of the world will receive them after that.
However, the new lids will still be made of a plastic called polypropylene (PP), which the company defends as “widely recycled” but continues to accumulate as part of global plastics pollution. The melting point and strength of PP makes it the single most used plastic packaging in the UK and the US, with approximately five billion pounds produced in 2010 alone in the US. But according to PP production and recycling figures provided by American Chemistry Council, PP is one of the least recycled post-consumer plastics, at a rate below 1%.
Although we at CleanTechnica have contacted Starbucks for a comment as to why they’ve chosen to substitute straws with a lid that is made of PP and rarely recycled, we haven’t heard back from them at this writing.
The Earth Day Network suggests that each of us do our parts by refusing straws — it’s as simple as adding, “No straw, please” to your beverage orders in restaurants or cafes — and declining beverage tops. They make a good point: Are you really going to spill? Taking time to think ahead in a restaurant or cafe is a lot easier than taking responsibility for the up to 500 years it takes for plastic items to decompose in landfills.
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/12/starbucks-joins-growing-environmental-concern-about-plastic-straws/

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EU Toxics Agency Warns Retailers on New Hazardous Substance Reports

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment

By Stephen Gardner

Tesco plc, IKEA, and other retailers and distributors that sell products containing hazardous chemicals in the European Union must submit safe-use data to the European Chemicals Agency by 2021.
The obligation applies to all types of products sold on the EU market—such as office equipment, furniture, fabrics, and soft plastics—if they contain more than 0.1 percent by weight of any of 191 chemicals considered to be “substances of very high concern,” the European Chemicals Agency said July 11.
The aim is to provide recyclers with more information about any hazardous materials they may process.
Previously, only manufacturers and importers had to abide by the requirement under the bloc’s REACH law (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals), the European Chemicals Agency said July 11. Now retailers and distributors have new requirements.
Examples of substances among the list of 191 are the plasticizer bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), found in products including computers and office equipment, cables, fashion items, vehicles, and medical equipment and the brominated flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane, found in batteries, polystyrene, and insulation products.
Customer Right to Know
Distributors and retailers also must provide safe-use information to their customers. Private consumers have a right under REACH to request information about the hazardous chemical content of products.
EuroCommerce, which represents EU retailers and wholesalers, was “aware of this new obligation,” but couldn’t comment further, spokeswoman Kinga Timaru-Kast told Bloomberg Environment July 12. DIY retailer B&Q Plc and IKEA were unable to comment July 12. Tesco PLC didn’t respond to a request for comment July 12.
The new obligation arises from the EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), which was amended earlier this year.
The aim was to provide better information about the hazardous content of waste products to recyclers in order to “improve the risk management of chemicals during waste recovery and to promote non-toxic material cycles,” the chemicals agency said. A new database for the notifications will be set up by the end of 2019, the agency added.
Companies that fail to provide information by the deadline could be subject to enforcement measures. Authorities in each of the EU countries would be responsible for establishing and implementing their own enforcement regime, European Chemicals Agency spokesman Nedyu Yasenov told Bloomberg Environment July 11.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/eu-toxics-agency-warns-retailers-on-new-hazardous-substance-reports

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Kildee Blasts Lack of PFAS Transparency

Jul 12, 2018 | Inside EPA

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) is calling for more transparency and quicker action from Michigan and federal officials on addressing perfluorinated chemicals, comparing Michigan's withholding release of a 2012 report on the chemicals with the Trump administration's recent stalling in releasing a federal health agency study that conflicted with EPA's risk values.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) withheld a report with important information about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for nearly six years, Kildee said on a July 12 tele-press conference sponsored by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters (LCV).
“That lack of transparency is very concerning and really frustrating,” he said. “Citizens have the right to know what is in their drinking water.” He added that the Trump administration similarly hid a separate report from the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry that shows PFAS to be more harmful than EPA had previously acknowledged.
When it comes to protecting human health, he said state and federal regulators should be transparent and act fast.
Prior to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's resignation earlier this month, EPA officials tasked with heading up the agency's policy efforts on PFAS called the issue one of Pruitt's highest priorities.
But Kildee said EPA under President Donald Trump has been “all talk and no action when it comes to PFAS,” alluding to the national summit Pruitt held in May with states. Kildee is pushing for a national drinking water standard for the chemical, something Pruitt at the May summit said the agency is formally exploring.
Asked by Inside EPA whether he expected to see a shift on PFAS now that Pruitt has left the agency, Kildee says he doubts EPA's “philosophy” will change under the current administration. “[T]here's no indication right now that there will be any philosophical or policy change at EPA,” he said.
“I think we're going to continue to be fighting an uphill battle and we'll need more members of Congress to engage on [this]. I think that's really the sad reality.”
The news that MDEQ had suppressed for the past six years a DEQ report on findings of high levels of PFAS, broken July 10 by the news outlet Mlive, has prompted an uproar from local community activists and the Michigan LCV. The 2012 report, by DEQ regulator Robert Delaney, found high levels of PFAS in Lake Erie and Oscoda, MI, and advised MDEQ to create a plan to address PFAS contamination, Mlive reported.
“However, MDEQ officials failed to take action and withheld the report from the public,” Michigan LCV says in a July 12 press release, citing Mlive's coverage.
The 2012 report contained recommendations that could have given communities, such as Oscoda, protections before contamination levels rose to record high levels, Michigan LCV Executive Director Lisa Wozniak says in the press release. Oscoda is near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, one of the first places where Michigan regulators found record-high levels of PFAS contamination.
During the tele-conference, she called for the state legislature to immediately return to Lansing and convene hearings investigating why the report was shelved for six years, and called for the passage of stalled legislation to set a health standard for the chemicals.
Kildee also called on the military to act more quickly to clean up PFAS contamination throughout the state.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/kildee-blasts-lack-pfas-transparency

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Precious Metals Federation Dissolves REACH Consortium

Jul 13, 2018 | Chemical Watch

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."
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.
This article was amended on 13 July to clarify that the Cobalt REACH Consortium is not, as previously mentioned, considering dissolution.
https://chemicalwatch.com/68669/precious-metals-federation-dissolves-reach-consortium

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Energy News

U.S. Gas Export Projects Said to Face Permit Delay

Jul 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Rachel Adams-Heard and Ryan Collins

The approval of U.S. shale-gas export projects could be delayed by as many as 18 months as the top energy regulator struggles with a backlog of permit requests, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is preparing to notify some developers of liquefied natural gas plants of 12- to 18-month delays in reviews, the people said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. That could affect the commercial viability of several ventures vying for a spot in the rapidly growing global gas market.
FERC, an independent agency under the Department of Energy, is already tapping outside help, with Chairman Kevin McIntyre saying last month that FERC is hiring private contractors for the first time to help work through LNG reviews.
Tamara Young-Allen, a FERC spokeswoman, confirmed the agency had asked the companies to pay for the external contractors, but would neither confirm nor deny the delay notifications coming in the future.
The surge in applications for new export projects is testament to the American shale gas boom that turned old plans to import the fuel on their head. The U.S. has two major LNG export facilities in operation today, with four more set to enter service by the end of 2019. Another four have received all major regulatory permits and are awaiting the final go-ahead from their developers. More than a dozen are seeking approval from FERC.‘Center of the World’
On Wednesday, Commissioner Neil Chatterjee took to Twitter to offer possible solutions to the problem, including increasing pay for agency staffers in a bid to retain them or opening a regional office in Houston, which he called “the center of the world” for natural gas legal and technical expertise.
Paul Varello, president and CEO of Commonwealth LNG, said he’s heard that it will take 18 months to two years to prepare an environmental review for his proposed project—compared to the six to eight months traditionally spent on those assessments.
“Right now, it is a startling revelation to me that it will take me twice as long to permit the plant as to build it,” he said in an interview in Washington. “Five years to permit it, and two and a half years to build it.“
—With assistance from Stephen Cunningham.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/us-gas-export-projects-said-to-face-permit-delay

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Republicans Look to Squash State Opposition to New Pipelines

Jul 12, 2018 | PoliticoPro

By Darius Dixon

Senate Republicans on Thursday accused states of misusing their power over water permits to block new natural gas pipelines, a trend the lawmakers said could force them to take action to aid the approval process.
The complaints aired by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), John Barrasso (Wyo.) and Steve Daines (Mont.) echo the sharp words from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who said last month that New York state officials were putting national security at risk by preventing a new pipeline from being built.
“States have abused the authority to block projects for political reasons, not really having anything to do with water quality at all,” said Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, at an Energy and Natural Resources hearing. He suggested that states' resistance could merit new legislation to curb their power.
Murkowski, who chairs the energy committee, and Daines agreed, saying the state hurdles were dampening energy industry growth.
“We’ve seen, repeatedly, the abuse of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act to stop sensible projects like the Millennium Bulk Terminal and natural gas pipelines, and Congress needs to take action on this,” Daines said. Millennium Bulk is an export terminal project proposed for Longview, Wash., that Daines had hoped would become a conduit to ship Montana coal to Asian markets, but the state denied the project’s 401 permit in September.
Pipeline advocates like Curtis Moffatt, an executive for Kinder Morgan, pressed the panel for action and suggested a menu of options, including calling on EPA to support their cause.
Although FERC has the ultimate responsibility for authorizing gas pipelines that cross state borders, project developers must also get a Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification from individual states.
If a state doesn’t rule on a water permit request within a year, its right to issue the certification gets waived. That deadline is designed to prevent unnecessary project delays. Last year, FERC overruled New York’s objection to Millennium Pipeline Co.'s Valley Lateral Project because the regulators argued that the state had taken too long.
But the energy industry was rattled by New York's decision in 2016, when the state Department of Environmental Conservation rejected a permit within the 12-month timeline. That rejection was upheld in circuit court and the Supreme Court declined to take it up on appeal.
Former FERC Chairman Joe Kelliher, now an executive at NextEra Energy, told lawmakers that writing new legislation to curb state power may be redundant with the rules already set out in the CWA. The issue, he said, is that state officials have gotten more creative in their efforts to stop fossil fuel projects.
“It would seem unnecessary to [have legislation] say, ‘And they shouldn’t include conditions that are completely divorced from water quality,’” he said at the hearing. Instead, lawmakers could urge the EPA to issue new guidance to the states to narrow the scope of their 401 certificate reviews.
Kelliher also suggested that state permit denials could be changed to incorporate an appeals process. That could address some industry concerns, but it would probably require Congress to change the Clean Water Act, a highly unlikely task.
Murkowski appeared open to any move to solve the problem that didn't require writing and passing new legislation.
“If you’re looking for something to move the needle right now, legislation is probably your slowest alternative,” she told reporters after Thursday’s hearing. She said Thursday's hearing could be be followed by meetings with or a letter to EPA pressing the agency to issue the type of guidance Kelliher suggested.
The pipeline rejections have angered DOE's Perry, who has suggested the federal government should consider curbing states' power over the energy infrastructure approvals.
Perry took several swipes at the Empire State’s “obstructionist policies” during the World Gas Conference in Washington last month, warning of a “real reckoning” for politicians who blocked pipelines. However, legal experts involved with active pipeline applications and projects say there’s no “legal hook” for DOE to intervene or override a state’s position on permits.
But Perry’s sentiment is shared by FERC chief of staff Anthony Pugliese who, earlier this week, told conservative news outlet Breitbart that Democratic politicians were “putting politics above the best interests of not only of consumers in their states but also national security” by blocking pipelines “for purely political reasons.”
Although Pugliese isn’t a voting member of the commission, one former FERC official worried that his comments would put the agency back in the sights of climate protesters who had routinely interrupted FERC meetings in recent years.
“Some of the active protest around the commission had died down a little bit, and I think it’s going to ramp right back up,” the former official said.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/article/2018/07/republicans-look-to-squash-state-opposition-to-new-pipelines-684795

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Explosion Triggers Safety Notice for Transcanada

Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Jenny Mandel and Mike Soraghan

Federal regulators yesterday said that land movement may have triggered a natural gas pipeline explosion at a remote West Virginia site last month and that similar conditions exist at a half dozen other spots along the line.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration warned TransCanada yesterday that it intends to impose new safety-related requirements on a portion of the Leach XPress pipeline in response to the risk of land subsidence, which might have been responsible for an explosion last month that blew an 83-foot section of pipe into the air, released 165 million cubic feet (mmcf) of natural gas and triggered a fireball that burned for several hours.
The incident took place in a remote area and no injuries or damage to private property was reported (Greenwire, June 7).
PHMSA's notice of proposed safety order, issued to TransCanada Corp. subsidiary Columbia Gas Transmission LLC, points to geological factors in the incident and could pose a challenge for other projects proposed for construction in similar steep, unstable Appalachian terrain.
The pipeline that failed was constructed last year and went into service early this year, raising questions around why it failed so quickly and dramatically.
"The preliminary investigation suggests that the failure was the result of land subsidence causing stress on a girth weld," PHMSA said in the notice. An initial report on the incident filed by TransCanada and released earlier this week notes the cause of the failure as a landslide not related to heavy rains or floods.
"Since the failure, TransCanada has identified six other points along the pipeline that, based on their geotechnical flyover, are areas of concern to the existence of large spoil piles, steep slopes, or indications of slips," it said.
Those six additional locations, combined with the fact that the pipeline was operating well below its maximum rated pressure when the explosion took place, led PHMSA to conclude that "the continued operation of the affected segment, without corrective measures, poses a pipeline integrity risk to public safety, property and the environment."
PHMSA's notice of proposed safety order comes more than a month after the explosion.
Inspections, analyses and enhanced monitoring
The order does not reflect a completed investigation of the incident but puts TransCanada on notice that PHMSA intends to impose new safety-related requirements in light of what is now known about the incident. It also spells out a series of inspections and analyses that the company must conduct.
PHMSA proposes to require that TransCanada conduct extra surveillance and analysis of the roughly 50-mile section of the pipeline system that runs through terrain similar to that in the area where the rupture took place.
The Leach XPress pipeline system consists of 36-inch and 30-inch diameter carbon steel pipe that carries natural gas about 130 miles from Majorsville, W.Va., to Crawford, Ohio. The section of the route that PHMSA called out "runs along several hills and ridges with steep elevation changes." The rupture took place near Moundsville, W.Va., on a feature known as Nixon Ridge.
TransCanada has 30 days to review the proposed safety order and request "informal consultation" about the agency's proposed remedy and may also request a hearing to contest the facts and actions laid out by the regulator.
PHMSA recently committed to providing public notice of its hearings for pipeline safety enforcement actions, but it was not immediately clear if a hearing on the safety order would also be publicly announced under the same commitment (Energywire, July 5).
Barring changes to the proposed safety order, TransCanada has 30 days before requirements for enhanced monitoring in that higher-risk area kick in, and 45 days to install extra gauges to monitor for pipeline stress. Other requirements of the order include conducting a range of assessments of the pipeline segment that ruptured and of conditions at the time of the incident, and completing a root cause failure analysis.
TransCanada has already completed "minor repair work and grading of the failure site," PHMSA noted.
Service on portions of the Leach XPress line has been restored following an initial shutdown. TransCanada initially told customers it would resume full service on the line in early July but later pushed that timeline back to midmonth.
TransCanada did not respond to questions about the safety order.'
A minor miracle'
Opponents of two pipelines being built through the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and West Virginia said authorities need to take another look at the approvals for those projects in light of the explosion.
"If things are likely to blow up, that's certainly something they should take into account in their analysis going forward," said David Sligh, an environmental attorney for Wild Virginia fighting the Atlantic Coast pipeline, a 600-mile system to run from northern West Virginia to North Carolina. "Thank God that one wasn't next to someone's house. Some of these are."
The developers of the Atlantic Coast pipeline said they are confident that the project is safe.
"Dominion Energy will review and learn from the PHMSA safety order," said Jen Kostyniuk, spokeswoman for Dominion Energy, the lead company on the project. She said the company and its construction contractor "have more than 200 years' experience safely building pipelines in steep mountainous terrains all across the United States," including more than 2,000 miles in the mountains of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
Roberta Bondurant, a lawyer fighting the Mountain Valley pipeline, a 300-mile pipeline to run from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia, agreed that the terrain is "a huge concern." She said there have already been landslides during construction, including one that blocked a road.
Cat McCue, a spokeswoman for Appalachian Voices,` said the proposed projects are the largest-diameter pipelines ever to be built across rugged sections of the Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountains.
"It's a minor miracle no one was injured or killed in that explosion. Are the MVP and ACP companies asking landowners in the path of these massive industrial projects to count on miracles to keep their families safe for the next 30, 40 years?" she asked.
Bill Limpert lives on the front line of that development, as the Atlantic Coast pipeline is slated to run along a mountain ridge on his property in Bath County, Va., coming within 250 feet of a landslide that occurred three years ago.
Limpert said a PHMSA inspector visited the property last year and dismissed concerns about landslides.
"His only comment was that pipeline companies can put pipelines about anywhere they want these days," Limpert recalled. "That sounded to me like the pipeline company's running the show."
Click here for the notice of proposed safety order.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/07/13/stories/1060089009

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Wisconsin Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion Draws Federal Investigators (1)

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Stephen Joyce

Federal safety regulators are investigating a Wisconsin explosion and fire that killed one firefighter and injured several others late July 10.
A natural gas line operated by Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group Inc. was involved in the incident, which is currently the focus of a separate, state “in-depth and intense investigation,” Kevin Konopacki, a Sun Prairie Police Department lieutenant, told reporters July 11.
An Occupational Safety and Health Administration team responded to the incident, Rhonda Burke, an agency spokeswoman, told Bloomberg Environment July 12. Chris Garrison, Sun Prairie fire chief, told reporters the OSHA team was on site and conducting “due diligence.”
“We were notified of a contractor hitting a natural gas main,” Cathy Schulze, We Energies spokeswoman, told Bloomberg Environment in a July 12 email. “Shortly after our fitter arrived, an explosion occurred. Our crews immediately started the process of identifying the safest and most effective way to shut off the flow of gas to the impacted area.”
The company has since restored natural gas service to a large part of the impacted area, while crews are going door-to-door to re-establish service to customers, Schulze said.
The explosion rocked Sun Prairie, Wis., late July 10, causing an evacuation in parts of the municipality as the flow of natural gas spread through sewer lines, Garrison told reporters. Seven public safety workers were treated at a local hospital, but one firefighter, Cory Barr, died in the explosion.
Konopacki wouldn’t speculate about precise details concerning the explosion.
In 2016 a total of 5,190 people died at work in the U.S., with 88 attributed to explosions and fires, Bureau of Labor Statistics data reported. While a total of 35 firefighters died on the job in 2016, just one firefighter’s death was due to explosions and fires during that year, the data said.
(Adds comment from We Energies spokeswoman.)
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/wisconsin-natural-gas-pipeline-explosion-draws-federal-investigators-1

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Chemical Security News

EPA Faults Groups' Late Call to Scrap RMP Delay

Jul 12, 2018 |

EPA is faulting environmentalists' claims that a recent ruling vacating a highway agency's penalty delay backs their suit seeking to scrap the Trump administration's delay of an Obama-era update to EPA's facility safety program, arguing that the Clean Air Act grants EPA authority to set rules' effective dates, and that it sought input prior to issuing the delay.
In a July 9 filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department (DOJ) argues that the Trump administration's nearly two-year delay of an Obama-era final rule updating the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) program is “readily distinguishable” from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) delay of a penalty rule that the 2nd Circuit recently ruled should take effect without delay.
“Here, EPA had ample statutory authority to revise the Amendments’ effective date, for a specified time, pursuant to notice-and-comment and a public hearing, to conduct reconsideration in light of new information that the Amendments may actually do more harm than good,” the filing says.
Environmentalists and states, including New York, Iowa, and New Mexico are challenging a June 2017 EPA rule delaying by nearly two years the effective date of the Obama EPA's January 2017 final rule updating the agency's RMP program with new requirements.
The D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in petitioners' challenges to the delay rule March 16. Judges generally seemed to back the Trump administration's authority to delay the Obama-era rule but questioned whether the agency had justified extending compliance deadlines from the original target of June 19, 2017, until Feb. 19, 2019.
With the delay case pending, EPA in May proposed a rule scrapping most of the requirements that the Obama-era rule added to the RMP program, including for third-party auditing and safer alternatives analyses.
Petitioners in a July 2 letter, argued that the 2nd Circuit's June 29 ruling in the case Natural Resources Defense Council v. NHTSA that found a rule updating penalties for noncompliance with corporate fuel standards should take effect without delay, despite the administration's plans for future revision to the rule, backs their calls to scrap the delay of the RMP rule.
In their response, EPA argues that NHTSA faced a statutory duty for the penalty update rule, while the Clean Air Act imposes no similar duty for EPA to review and update its RMP program. The agency also reiterates arguments that the air law grants EPA discretion to “set reasonable and practicable effective dates.”
“Because the Delay Rule reasonably implements EPA’s explicit statutory authority, and is well-supported by its record, the Court should reject Petitioners’ requested relief and deny their petitions,” the agency response says
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-faults-groups-late-call-scrap-rmp-delay

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Environment News

EPA, GOP Weigh Options to Ease 'Background' Ozone Burden on States

Jul 12, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Stuart Parker

EPA and Republicans in Congress are weighing options to ease the regulatory burden on states with high levels of uncontrollable “background” ozone that could hinder their attainment of federal ozone standards, including through legislation or a pending rule on steps states should take to implement the 2015 ozone standard.
Levels of background ozone can approach the level of national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone in some places, especially in the mountain West. As a result, some states might struggle to attain the 2015 ozone limitof 70 parts per billion even if their state implementation plans (SIPs) for complying with the standard include all possible controls on industrial sources of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.
Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tasked the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which advises the agency on the stringency of NAAQS, with crafting advice on how regulators can address background ozone -- a controversial ask because Supreme Court precedent bars consideration of implementation issues in setting the limits. It is unclear whether acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler will continue to seek that input from the panel.
Background ozone includes both naturally occurring ozone in the environment, and also ozone associated with international emissions that states and EPA cannot reduce because they cannot regulate.
Some lawmakers are already moving to resolve the issue, with Arizona's GOP Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain pushing S. 2825 that would eliminate certain Clean Air Act control requirements for sources in areas in “nonattainment” of NAAQS because of international emissions. Tailored to help Arizona cope with emissions coming from Mexico and even Asia, the bill would enable areas to show they would attain the NAAQS “but for” international pollution, to avoid imposing reasonably available control technology or reasonably available control measures on their sources of industrial pollution. Areas can make the “but for” demonstration under air law section 179B.
The bill would further relieve industrial sources in such areas from having to purchase “offsets” of pollution from other sources, required under air permits to compensate for any increases in pollution they may cause.
It would further apply the same terms to air law regulatory exemptions offered for “rural transport” areas, which are isolated rural areas lacking industrial sources to regulate. However, while the bill would ease air law implementation for areas facing problems with international ozone emissions and those with high ozone originating elsewhere, it would not prevent them from being labeled “nonattainment” in the first place.
'Surgical' Approach
In a July 3 interview with Inside EPA, Timothy Franquist, air quality division director with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, says the bill would be helpful for Western states with high background ozone problems. “It really looks at the West as a whole,” says Franquist. But so far, other Western states have yet to publicly support the bill.
Franquist calls the Flake-McCain bill a “very surgical, focused approach” to making changes to the Clean Air Act. Such a narrow focus is required because opening the air law to amendment is fraught with risk that lawmakers will press for many possibly contradictory changes, he says.
However, legislative change is required because EPA's scope for administrative action is limited, Franquist says. “Their hands are tied” by air law requirements.
In an April 12 executive order directing EPA to make sweeping changes to the NAAQS program, President Donald Trump ordered the agency to make the section 179B exemption available for all areas experiencing international emissions problems, including excess pollution from all international points of origin, “including emissions from Asia.” This departs from Obama EPA policy, which limited the waiver to areas essentially bordering Canada and Mexico.
Further, “the Administrator shall ensure that EPA continues to assess background concentrations and sources of pollution outside the control of State and local air agencies,” to include current and future trends in pollution from foreign sources, and regional trends in exceptional events, including wildfires, stratospheric ozone intrusions, and volcanic seismic activities, Trump wrote.
House lawmakers did vote last year to approve H.R. 806, a bill making extensive changes to the NAAQS program, but the companion Senate bill, S. 263, has so far not advanced out of the Environment & Public Works Committee.
The bills would require EPA within two years to produce a report describing the extent of foreign pollution from North America and its impact on NAAQS attainment, and also EPA procedures and timelines for handling petitions under air law section 179B, and information on decisions to approve or deny those petitions. The report would include a finding on “whether the Administrator recommends any statutory changes to facilitate the more efficient review and disposition of petitions submitted under that section.”
But it is doubtful that legislation to overhaul the NAAQS program will move through Congress given expected opposition from Democrats, who can filibuster the measure in the Senate.
Implementation Rule
As an alternative to legislation, EPA has a near-term opportunity to address its handling of international emissions under section 179B in a forthcoming final implementation rule for the 2015 ozone NAAQS.
The Obama EPA in the proposed version of the rule floated narrowing the scope of section 179B to essentially border areas impacted by Mexican and Canadian pollution. But the Trump and Pruitt directives hint that EPA will adopt a much broader reading of the provision and open its use to many states and for emissions from many foreign sources.
EPA sent the final version of the rule for White House Office of Management and Budget pre-publication review July 3 -- before Pruitt left the agency, so the impact of his resignation on the final rule is unclear.
Uncertainty over the content of the final implementation rule means that, for now, attention might stay focused on Congress to act despite the limited prospects for moving an air law overhaul through both chambers.
Although Franquist says that, in practice, the Flake-McCain bill would alleviate Arizona's concerns, other GOP lawmakers at a June 21 House Science Committee environment panel hearing probed witnesses, including Franquist, on whether it would be preferable to avoid nonattainment status induced by international emissions.
Full committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and other panel members pressed witnesses on how international emissions should be taken into account with respect to NAAQS attainment.
Panel Chairman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) asserted that section 179B does not go far enough because areas experiencing high background ozone from abroad still face an initial nonattainment designation.
Areas can invoke the provision to avoid a “bump-up” to a more-serious category of nonattainment, with more-onerous pollution control requirements, three years after their initial nonattainment designation. But they cannot avoid, for example, nonattainment new source review permit requirements and offset requirements. Franquist noted at the hearing that this “becomes a discouraging factor” in attracting new business to an area.
The Clean Air Act does not allow areas to avoid nonattainment designations due to international emissions, though they can escape such designations caused by “exceptional events” such as wildfires or dust storms under separate air law provisions, Franquist told Inside EPA. EPA may approve the SIPs of areas that would have attained the NAAQS “but for” international emissions, however, easing pollution control requirements somewhat.
Witness Testimonies
GOP witnesses at the House hearing wrestled with the issue of whether a change in the law is necessary to avoid nonattainment designations. Franquist noted that high levels of ozone remain unhealthy regardless of their provenance, but regulators must balance this fact with the practical realities of managing their own industry -- or lack of industry.
Gregory Stella, a senior scientist with consulting firm Alpine Geophysics, noted the problems of trying to quantify foreign pollution as a portion of the pollution driving an area into nonattainment. Stella identified a tendency for foreign emissions to be the cause of a relatively higher portion of background ozone, even as total ozone levels fall.
It “is absolutely clear that there is an ever increasing impact of uncontrollable emission sources on the ability of our states to achieve attainment with the current air quality standards,” Stella said.
Diane Rath, executive director of the Alamo Area Council of Governments in San Antonio, noted a similar trend impacting ozone in that city. San Antonio will be the last part of the country to be belatedly designated for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, by a court-ordered deadline of July 17.
Rath appeared to differ with Franquist over the scope for EPA to consider background ozone when designating areas as attainment or nonattainment. “We urge EPA to take advantage of the flexibility in the Clean Air Act to evaluate and actively consider during NAAQS designation the impact of background ozone levels and all foreign transport on a region,” she said in written testimony to the committee.
Meanwhile, Democratic witness Elena Craft, a air quality scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, downplayed the role of international and background air pollution. She testified that, “even in areas across the Intermountain West where background levels are sometimes incrementally higher, anthropogenic sources are substantial contributors to exceedances of health-based standards and that there are available solutions to reduce this harmful pollution.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-gop-weigh-options-ease-background-ozone-burden-states

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We Already Spent the Money, Keep Air Toxics Rule: AEP, Duke to EPA

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Amena H. Saiyid

American Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Corp., and others say they can’t recoup money they spent to meet requirements to cut mercury and other air toxics from their facilities and therefore want the EPA to retain the rule as is.
The Environmental Protection Agency may decide after a review to change or even revoke the currently stayed 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards or MATS, which required power plants to comply by April 2016. Though the power sector opposes the regulation, it has had no choice but to install expensive pollution controls or shutter aging power plants. Now that it has complied, the power sector wants the rule to stay
“Although we disagreed with provisions of the rule when it was being promulgated, our controls are in place and compliance is being achieved,” Melissa McHenry, a spokeswoman for American Electric Power in Columbus, Ohio, told Bloomberg Environment. “We believe a disruption in the MATS program at this point is not needed.”
The EPA’s review stalled a legal challenge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of the agency’s supplemental findings supporting the 2012 regulation. These findings followed the U.S. Supreme Court 2015 ruling in Michigan v. EPA that said the EPA erred in failing to determine whether the health benefits of the regulation justified its costs.
Public utility commissions charged with setting electricity rates for consumers require power companies to make sure that any compliance costs passed onto customers are “prudent.”
If the EPA decides to change the MATS rule or revoke it in any form after its review, “then the companies could be whipsawed, because they spent their money to meet the federal controls and the state utility commissions may see the costs as imprudent because the rule is not even in effect,” Lee Hoffman, an attorney with Hartford, Conn.-based Pullman & Comley LLC, told Bloomberg Environment.
Billions in Investment
American Electric Power, or AEP, which ranks among the nation’s largest electric utilities, has invested $8.8 billion since 2000 in retrofitting its coal-fueled power plants with environmental equipment that McHenry said “contributes to or directly provides compliance with the MATS requirements” and retired more than 7,200 megawatts of generation from 2011 through 2016.
AEP has worked with state regulatory commissions to recover its costs associated with compliance. But many other private and public companies have not, as national groups representing public and power companies—including the Edison Electric Institute, American Public Power Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association—said in a July 10 letter to Bill Wehrum, EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation.
More importantly, “the industry already has invested significant capital—estimated at more than $18 billion—in addition to these operating costs, and states are relying on the operation of these controls for their air quality plans,” the groups told Wehrum.
Between January 2015 and April 2016, about 87.4 gigawatts, or 29 percent of 2014 coal capacity had installed pollution controls to reduce mercury and other related toxic gases, and nearly 20 GW of capacity was retired, according to a 2017 estimateby the Energy Information Administration.
Silent on Top Priority
Taking another look at the Obama-era MATs regulation is one of Wehrum’s priorities. He has repeatedly said he is aware of the power sector’s investment in meeting the rule but has not disclosed details about the agency’s plans.
At a recent gathering of lawyers, engineers, and consultants at the annual Air & Waste Management Association Meeting in late June, Wehrum reiterated that the EPA is trying to iron out the consequences of its finding that such a rule for the power sector was “appropriate and necessary.”
The national groups representing the power industry want Wehrum to conduct a risk and technology review of the 2012 regulation and to “leave the underlying MATS rule in place and effective.”
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to conduct a risk review eight years after a hazardous air pollutant standard is put in place.
At most, they say the EPA should make minor revisions to the 2012 regulations, such as requiring fewer technology performance tests if the units are not as running as frequently.
Demonstrate Compliance
“The industry wants the EPA to move forward on that technical review so they can demonstrate to the public that there is no risk from mercury given off by power plants, or at least they hope,” Gale Hoffnagle, senior vice president and technical director at TRC Environmental Corp., a Connecticut-based engineering and consulting firm, told Bloomberg Environment.
Environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council are skeptical of the industry’s motives. They say its letter is driven by its need to recover costs, not compliance, which the power sector has opposed from the inception of the rulemaking.
“It is all about the $$$ in Washington,” John Walke, NRDC’s senior attorney and clean air programs director, told Bloomberg Environment in an email.
However, a demonstration showing the extent to which emissions have been reduced would be a “public relations coup” for the industry, Hoffnagle said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/we-already-spent-the-money-keep-air-toxics-rule-aep-duke-to-epa

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Exxon Quits Koch-Backed Business Group After Climate Change Row

Jul 12, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Kevin Crowley and Ari Natter

Exxon Mobil Corp. quit the American Legislative Exchange Council, a lobbying group bankrolled by fossil fuel companies, following a disagreement over climate-change policy.
The oil giant won’t be renewing its membership after it expired in June, spokesman Scott Silvestri said by phone. Exxon had a public spat with ALEC in December when some members, backed by climate skeptics such as the Heartland Institute, moved to convince the federal government to drop its claim that climate change is a risk to human health.
Exxon’s departure comes amid a corporate exodus by the likes of Ford Motor Co. and Expedia Group Inc., largely in response to ALEC’s positions on climate rules, renewable energy and other issues.
Late last year, Exxon was among the companies that objected to a measure debated by ALEC meant to encourage states to prod the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind its Obama-era determination that climate change requires regulation.
“The American Legislative Exchange Council values partnership with Exxon Mobil and stakeholders across the business community,” the group said in an email on July 12. “We have valued Exxon Mobil’s work and leadership with ALEC on STEM education, among other issues.”
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/exxonquits-koch-backed-business-group-after-climate-change-row

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