Preview Newsletter
PM ACC Clips Report - July 13, 2018
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Considers Tariffs on More Chinese Chemicals
Jul 13, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Jean-François Tremblay
The U.S. has ratcheted up the trade war with China with the release of a long list of Chinese-made commodities, worth $200 billion in total, targeted for a 10% tariff. Numerous organic and inorganic chemicals are on the list. -
(ACC Mentioned) A New Round of Proposed Trump Tariffs Would Hit United States Consumers
Jul 13, 2018 | The Hilltop Monitor
On Friday, Washington had imposed additional 25 percent tariffs on $34bn of Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to immediately respond with proportionate tariffs on $34bn American goods including seafood and soybeans. -
'I've Always Considered Myself to Be an Environmentalist'
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Robin Bravender and Kevin Bogardus
Andrew Wheeler, who took over as acting EPA administrator on Monday after Scott Pruitt resigned the top job last week, has sparred with environmentalists in his former roles as a coal lobbyist and a longtime staffer to Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe. -
Democrats Seek to Block Trump Order on ALJs
Jul 13, 2018 | Inside EPA
Democrats are seeking to block President Donald Trump's July 10 executive order (EO) allowing for expedited approval of administrative law judges (ALJs) at OSHA, EPA and other agencies, charging that the proposal would politicize the hiring process and undermine the qualifications for such judges. -
Cummings Demands Subpoena for EPA Public Records Handling
Jul 13, 2018 | PoliticoPro
By Anthony Adragna and Alex Guillén
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is pressing Chairman Trey Gowdy to subpoena EPA and force the agency to release information about how Scott Pruitt's aides scrutinized politically sensitive documents before releasing them. -
Trump's EPA Puts Our Health at Risk
Jul 13, 2018 | Scientific American
By Kathleen Rest and Georges C. Benjamin
It’s common sense: the environment matters to our health. -
Firefighting Foam Chemical Found in Suburban Denver Wells
Jul 13, 2018 | AP (In E&E Greenwire)
By Dan Elliott
Health officials have found low levels of chemicals used in firefighting foam in suburban Denver's drinking water. -
Johnson & Johnson Hit with $4.7bn Verdict in Talc Case
Jul 13, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
A Missouri jury has ordered consumer products conglomerate Johnson & Johnson to pay nearly $4.7bn in damages to 22 women who claim that use of its talcum powder products caused them to develop ovarian cancer. -
OPEC Warns Permian Constraints to Reduce Output but Still Likely Uptick in U.S. Supply
Jul 13, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
Even with global disruptions and increased demand, global oil supply in 2019 beyond the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to be broadly unchanged from this year, mostly because of an expected uptick in North American output and project startups in Brazil. -
Oil Companies Struggle to Navigate Trump on Steel Tariffs
Jul 13, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
U.S. tariffs on foreign steel are testing oil and gas companies' ability to navigate the Trump administration. -
If Trump Gets His Oil Boom, Leases Could Cover This Valley
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Zack Colman
Ten thousand feet up, it's possible to see the whole North Fork Valley from Dan Stucker's plane. As the aircraft glides over sloping mesas with snow-dusted mountains, the land below resembles a vintage pioneer landscape. -
US Expected to Become World's Top Oil Producer Next Year
Jul 13, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
By David Koenig
The U.S. has nosed ahead of Saudi Arabia and is on pace to surpass Russia to become the world's biggest oil producer for the first time in more than four decades. -
FTA Shift on Federal Loans Creates Anxiety
Jul 13, 2018 | Politico - Morning Transportation
By Stephanie Beasley
Lawmakers are raising the alarm that the way FTA is evaluating grant applications could stifle not just the New York-New Jersey Gateway program but big transit projects around the nation as well. -
U.N. Council Is Warned That Warming Creates 'Cycle of Conflict'
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Daniel Cusick
The Trump administration has downplayed climate change as a national security risk. But the U.N. Security Council was warned this week that rising temperatures are inextricably linked to human conflict. -
Apple Launches $300 Million Clean Energy Fund in China
Jul 13, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
Apple Inc. is launching a $300 million partnership with China to bring renewable energy to the country, the company announced late Thursday.
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Considers Tariffs on More Chinese Chemicals
Jul 13, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Jean-François Tremblay
The U.S. has ratcheted up the trade war with China with the release of a long list of Chinese-made commodities, worth $200 billion in total, targeted for a 10% tariff. Numerous organic and inorganic chemicals are on the list.
The U.S. move is a reaction to China’s decision on July 6 to push ahead with a 25% tariff on $34 billion worth of U.S. imports, including many plastics. The Chinese action, in turn, was a response to an earlier U.S. decision to add a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. Those products were announced in two groups—worth $34 billion and $16 billion, respectively—in April and June.
The U.S. says its actions aim to force China to change predatory practices in technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation.
Because China is both a major market and a key supplier, the trade row will have a profound impact on the U.S. chemical industry. China imports billions of dollars worth of U.S.-made plastics every year, and they are now less competitive because of the 25% tax added to their price. The country is also a major supplier of competitively priced basic chemicals that are widely used in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.
“The Administration’s announcement of a potential 10% tariff on $200 billion of additional imports from China, including a significant amount of chemicals, is a stunning and unfortunate development for U.S. manufacturers and consumers,” the American Chemistry Council, a trade group, said in a statement.
Some U.S. companies that buy materials from China appear unconcerned, so far. The paint manufacturer PPG Industries, which sources some of its urethanes from the Chinese firm Wanhua Chemical, tells C&EN that “since a majority of the paint and coatings products produced by PPG are often made, sold, and used in that same territory, this minimizes any impact that tariffs would have.”
https://cen.acs.org/policy/trade/US-considers-tariffs-Chinese-chemicals/96/i29
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(ACC Mentioned) A New Round of Proposed Trump Tariffs Would Hit United States Consumers
Jul 13, 2018 | The Hilltop Monitor
On Friday, Washington had imposed additional 25 percent tariffs on $34bn of Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to immediately respond with proportionate tariffs on $34bn American goods including seafood and soybeans.
USA officials on Tuesday issued a list of thousands of Chinese goods to be hit with the new tariffs.
In June, Trump instructed Lighthizer to prepare $200 billionworth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs that will be enforced if Beijing imposed retaliatory penalties on USA -made products.
Experts have said that the outlook of the trade war depends on how China responds to the tariffs on its imports. In addition, the National Association of Manufacturers said this round would make USA manufacturers less competitive. The White House needs Beijing to pressure North Korea to denuclearize and would have more leverage over China to change its policies if it joined forces with the European Union and others. "Unfortunately, China has not changed its behavior - behavior that puts the future of the US economy at risk".
The Commerce Ministry on Wednesday gave no details, but Beijing responded to last week's U.S. tariff hike on $34 billionof imports from China by increasing its own duties on the same amount of American goods.
Most of the steel used in the United States comes from countries like China, Mexico and Canada - countries all now in a trade feud with the U.S.
However, a move by China against U.S. multi-nationals "could pose a far greater threat to the index in time", Jones said. "This is totally unacceptable", the statement said.
Trump argued the original deal from 2012 was lopsided in Seoul's favor, but has also clouded the issue by appearing to link trade concessions to progress in his separate track of talks with nuclear-armed North Korea.
China's compliance with WTO guidelines lies at the heart of the conflict, notably over Beijing's alleged state support for purportedly private companies. The U.S. last month agreed to lift the measures after ZTE pays a record fine and consents to management changes. "Something as simple as ball bearings - the prices are going up", said University of Denver Professor John Holcomb.
"When exposing and criticizing American words and actions, be careful not to link it to Trump and instead to aim it at the US government", a memo based on verbal instructions from government officials reads.
- Canada and Mexico - Canada and Mexico, members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States, have not been spared the Washington offensive on steel and aluminum and have imposed their own counter-tariffs on U.S. goods.
"Other countries' trade barriers and tariffs have been destroying their businesses".
One senior European official commented that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members are preparing for a worst-case scenario should Mr Trump repeat his threat to end or curtail defence cooperation, with allies not on track to hit their defence funding target of 2% of GDP by 2024. It's a potential effect of a new round of tariffs the Trump administration is proposing to slap on Chinese imports as soon as September.
Orrin Hatch, the Republican Senate Finance Chairman, condemned the move as "reckless" and not "targeted", while USA stock index futures fell in early Asian trading.
The U.S. government said the new tariffs are in response to Beijing's June 15 tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. exports, which were themselves in retaliation for President Trump's initial tariffs against China.
"If you are Trump, you basically want to go after China only after you make sure that NAFTA is a go".
As well, the American Chemistry Council urged President Donald Trump to "bring an end to this unnecessary trade war".
http://hilltopmonitor.com/2018/07/a-new-round-of-proposed-trump-tariffs-would-hit-united/
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'I've Always Considered Myself to Be an Environmentalist'
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Robin Bravender and Kevin Bogardus
Andrew Wheeler, who took over as acting EPA administrator on Monday after Scott Pruitt resigned the top job last week, has sparred with environmentalists in his former roles as a coal lobbyist and a longtime staffer to Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe.
But he's quick to wear the label.
"I've always considered myself to be an environmentalist," he told E&E News today in an interview in his third-floor office at EPA headquarters. "I go hiking, I go camping, I've always done that. My favorite job I've ever had in my life was being the nature conservation director at a Boy Scout summer camp when I was in college in Ohio."
So far, that's been Wheeler's favorite job, he said, "although it only paid $1,000 for the entire summer." He added, "I'm reserving judgment on this job to see if this will be my new favorite."
He said he doesn't have any political aspirations: "I haven't thought beyond being acting administrator."
Wheeler keeps a Magic 8 ball on the coffee table in his new office. He says he consults it when he needs answers.
Many of the walls are still bare after Pruitt's belongings were removed. Wheeler's frames are wrapped in plastic and leaning against the wall. Among them, he's got a sheet that tallies the roll call vote that was taken in the Senate when he was confirmed as Pruitt's deputy administrator on April 12. Three months later, he moved into the EPA chief's office after Pruitt's abrupt departure. As for his new title, he suggested "Andrew." Some of his staff call him "Administrator Wheeler."
His early speeches and interviews have suggested that he plans to steer EPA along the same deregulatory path that President Trump and Pruitt laid out. But he suggested today he's open to making at least some tweaks around the edges on some of Pruitt's policy proposals.
And while he steers clear of criticizing his predecessor, he's stated that he wants to boost transparency at EPA and make inroads with some of the career staff that have felt spurned by the Trump administration.
One of the early moves he made was to open a hallway that runs past the administrator's office and connects EPA's north and south buildings. It had been shut under Pruitt, which angered some career employees.
"I intend to keep it open," Wheeler said today. "I guess it was probably in one of your publications, I read an anonymous EPA employee complaining about that a few weeks ago in an article, saying how they used to walk through it all the time, and if they had outside visitors, they would show them the hallway. I was going to talk to Administrator Pruitt about it, but when I took over, I just went ahead and opened it up, because it should be open. Employees should be able to walk through there."
As for agency scientists who have felt alienated by the Trump administration, Wheeler said, "I'm telling them every day that I value their work."
On questions about retaliation against EPA employees who criticized Pruitt's spending and management, Wheeler said he hasn't examined those issues. But, he said, "I take accusations of retaliation very seriously, and I would want a full investigation of those."
Wheeler suggested he would continue to pursue some of Pruitt's most contentious policy priorities at EPA, like overhauling science advisory boards, requiring data used in rulemaking to be publicly accessible, and repealing and replacing President Obama's Clean Power Plan, he said today, although he said he'd be looking at all of it carefully.
And he said he's being cautious about avoiding conflicts of interest, even as he's coming under fire for his lobbying career with the coal giant Murray Energy Corp.
"I've gone through all of this with our career ethics people, and they don't see any conflicts. I will not meet with my former client, and I am not meeting with my former law firm. I'm not meeting with any of my former clients that I've worked on over the last two years," Wheeler said today.
Wheeler hasn't used the soundproof booth that Pruitt installed in the administrator's office, he said today. Pruitt came under fire for the hefty price tag of the booth.
"It would be expensive to tear it apart, I don't see any sense in tearing it apart," Wheeler said. "And in this day and age, I don't know what the assessment was for the need of it. I did look into the cost of the booth after I got here."
It looks "like a phone booth," Wheeler said. "It is in a storage closet, and it does not look that impressive."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/07/13/stories/1060089071
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Democrats Seek to Block Trump Order on ALJs
Jul 13, 2018 | Inside EPA
Democrats are seeking to block President Donald Trump's July 10 executive order (EO) allowing for expedited approval of administrative law judges (ALJs) at OSHA, EPA and other agencies, charging that the proposal would politicize the hiring process and undermine the qualifications for such judges.
Democratic Reps. Bobby Scott (VA), Elijah E. Cummings (MD) and David Cicilline (RI) announced earlier this week that they plan to offer a rider to pending appropriations legislation that would block funding to implement Trump's order.
“For decades, merit-based standards for ALJs have protected against cronyism and partisanship. This executive order ends the long-standing use of substantive, competency-based criteria to select ALJs. The White House now can appoint judges who are hostile to claims of discrimination to resolve workplace discrimination cases, or install judges critical of Social Security Disability or Medicare to decide eligibility for claims,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement following the EO's announcement.
Trump's EO, issued July 10, requires the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to place the appointments of ALJs into the excepted service, which allows OPM to streamline hiring for “special” government positions.
The order creates a Schedule E for ALJ positions, which would allow EPA and other agencies to hire such judges without having to go through OPM's screening and examination requirements and will instead authorize agency heads to appoint such judges directly.
“This process gives agency heads greater flexibility and responsibility for ALJ appointments,” the White House says in a fact sheet. “Agencies will be free to select from the best candidates who embody the appropriate temperament, legal acumen, impartiality, and judgment required of an ALJ, and who meet the other needs of the agencies.”
The EO was issued in response to a recent Supreme Court ruling that found the Securities Exchange Commission's ALJs are considered “inferior officers” of the United States subject to presidential nominations under the Appointments Clause. The decision presented concerns for some agencies, like EPA, regarding the constitutionality of their appointments of ALJs that oversee some disputes group pursue against the agencies.
But the Democrats say that allowing Trump-appointed agency heads to select ALJ's -- that render decisions in proceedings and challenges to agency actions -- will “politicize” ALJ selection and “undermine the quality and integrity of ALJs and the impartiality of decisions they render.”
They have introduced a measure that would amend H.R. 6147, the proposed appropriations bill for federal service agencies including OPM, to bar any funding from OPM being allocated for the implementation of the EO.
“Every day this executive order is allowed to stand is another opportunity for the White House to appoint partisan ALJs who will be empowered for decades to make decisions that have a significant impact on people’s lives. That is why we are filing an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act which provides that no funds may be spent by the Office of Personnel Management or other agencies to implement this misguided executive order,” the lawmakers say.“We must halt this executive order to avoid the consequences it could have for Americans across the country.”
The House Rules Committee is likely to meet next week to decide whether lawmakers may offer this or any other amendments when the bill is debated on the floor.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/democrats-seek-block-trump-order-aljs
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Cummings Demands Subpoena for EPA Public Records Handling
Jul 13, 2018 | PoliticoPro
By Anthony Adragna and Alex Guillén
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is pressing Chairman Trey Gowdy to subpoena EPA and force the agency to release information about how Scott Pruitt's aides scrutinized politically sensitive documents before releasing them.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the committee's ranking member, said in a letterto Gowdy there was enough evidence that former EPA chief's political aides clamped down on politically sensitive public records requests and delayed the release of others to justify a subpoena for agency records.
Cummings wrote that a subpoena should seek a host of documents related to the agency’s Freedom of Information Act processes, which he said was justified by EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson's admission to congressional investigators that political appointees at the agency sometimes reviewed public records requests prior to release. Those deemed “politically charged” followed a separate process, according to excerpts of his interview released by congressional Democrats.
“During a Committee hearing in 2011, you criticized an official from the Department of Homeland Security for having political appointees review FOIA responses,” Cummings wrote. “I ask that you show that same concern for the way this Administration is implementing FOIA.”
The excerpts support previous reporting from POLITICO that political appointees screened releases related to Pruitt, as the agency struggled to keep up with a surge of requests that led to a massive spike in transparency lawsuits.
A committee spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Jackson also told investigators that he and Elizabeth Beacham White, who POLITICO reported was formerly treasurer of Pruitt’s political action committee before heading up the office tasked with deciding how the agency processes requests for Pruitt's record, would “identify certain productions that we are interested in getting help with.”
Jackson and former EPA policy chief Samantha Dravis confirmed in their interviews with the committee that they sometimes had the opportunity to review public records responses prior to their public release.
“I think if it was highly significant, then it could be something that, perhaps, myself or the communications team or, you know, senior officials could be given an FYI of,” Dravis said, according to excerpts of her interview.
One FOIA request deemed “politically charged” came from the Sierra Club, and was classified that way because the group asked for a broad range of communications records from political officials, according to Jackson. That request has produced a swirl of revelations about lavish spending and ethical lapses by Pruitt that ultimately helped trigger his departure.
“There was no reason for it. There was no topic. It was just a fishing expedition,” Jackson told investigators, according to the letter. “And so when I say it’s politically charged, there’s no real FOIA, you know, Freedom of Information Act reason for it, it is just simply submitted to us to see what we will produce.”
Jackson did acknowledge in his committee interview that there is a "huge legitimate public interest" in such documents.
"But I think it is really important at the same time to specify what you are interested in, because FOIA is not meant to allow open ended requests and to be as if, you know, the requester is a fly on the wall," he said.
The FOIA law only requires requests to be “reasonably described.” EPA’s FOIA rules call for including specific information “whenever possible … such as the date, title or name, author, recipient, and subject matter.”
Democrats also said an email showed Jackson had helped a personal friend who works for the National Pork Producers Council get a meeting with EPA officials to discuss a FOIA request the group had filed.
Asked by committee staff if he would provide similar assistance if environmentalists or liberal watchdog groups asked, Jackson said it is "a possibility." He added that "if they target their requests a little bit more so that I could more readily help them, that might help them out."
Cummings’ letter also detailed other FOIA developments at EPA, including the creation of a “first in, first out” review system that prioritizes older pending requests over newly filed ones, potentially creating delaying responses related to the current administration. EPA officials also sometimes delayed responses to "coincide" with other releases, the letter said.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/article/2018/07/cummings-demands-subpoena-for-epa-public-records-handling-685775
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Trump's EPA Puts Our Health at Risk
Jul 13, 2018 | Scientific American
By Kathleen Rest and Georges C. Benjamin
It’s common sense: the environment matters to our health.
Ask parents, teachers, nurses, and community leaders, and they get it. They know that air and water pollution, contaminated land, and chemical exposures in their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities can cause serious health effects – both acute and chronic. Families and communities across the country value a clean environment and rely on strong public standards, based in science, to give them the protection they need, expect, and deserve.
That’s why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created. It is a critical public health agency whose primary mission is to “protect human health and the environment.” Unfortunately, its track record over the last year-and-a-half has not been good. We have seen the agency sideline science and run in the opposite direction—delaying, weakening, and rolling back public health protections and ignoring the advice of its own scientific experts and advisors. Whether considering pesticides and toxic air emissions or the safety of chemical facilities, the EPA has been stepping back from its primary mission and putting public health at risk.
Now the agency plans to go one step further. It’s proposing a rule to ensure it doesn’t have to use the best available science to make public health and environmental decisions. Next week (July 17), EPA will hold its only public hearing on the proposed rule called “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science.” That sounds like a good thing, but it is a deceptive title and a threat to our health. It turns out that this proposal is really an effort to allow EPA to restrict the science it uses for decision making.
In examining the relationship between public health and environmental pollution, EPA is proposing to eliminate consideration of scientific studies unless the raw study data are made publicly available — possibly including participants’ personal, confidential, and private information — data that may be subject to legal, ethical, and human subject research protections.
This requirement would eliminate human health studies that use integral medical, lifestyle, and geographic data, as well as studies that include confidential business information, such as information from studies conducted by industry to demonstrate safety of a pesticide or other toxic chemical. It could also eliminate consideration of older studies for which data are no longer available or accessible, even if the data have been reanalyzed and the studies have been validated, replicated, reproduced, and undergone rigorous and independent peer review.
Far from using the best available science for EPA decision-making, the proposal would severely limit the studies and scientific evidence the agency would use to fulfill is statutory mission to protect human health and the environment. This is not a new idea. It is the result of a decades-long campaign to undercut reliance on groundbreaking research that definitively linked exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) to premature death and prompted the first regulation of PM under the Clean Air Act. For example, Harvard University’s “Six Cities” study has been anathemato lobbyists in regulated industries for a long time.
EPA provides no analysis of the need for or the potential impacts of the proposed rule. The agency did not consult with critical stakeholders, including scientists and health professionals in developing the proposal. It did not consult with the prestigious National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine or even its own hand-picked Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), whose members found out about the proposed rule via a press event, news articles, and an announcement in the Federal Register. In its June 28, 2018, letter to then EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the SAB chair urged the agency to request, receive, and review scientific advice from SAB before revising the proposed rule.
Science organizations, scientists, public health, and medical professionals from across the country have urged the EPA to withdraw the proposed rule. The editors of major scientific journals issued a joint statementopposing and objecting to EPA’s claim that the rule is consistent with scientific community norms.
In its joint letter of June 1, 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wrote that “The proposed rule would drastically and incorrectly limit the types of scientific data that EPA can use when making substantial regulatory changes. Implementing this rule will harm the health of children and pregnant women by causing EPA to disregard some of the best available scientific studies examining the effects on these vulnerable populations from lead, harmful chemicals, fine particle pollution, and contaminants.”
The American Public Health Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and a host of other public interest organizations jointly called on the agency to withdraw the rule, noting that it “significantly departs from long-standing policy at EPA and is inconsistent with well-established practices used throughout the scientific community.”
And in a May 8, 2018, letter, 300 public health scientists and professionals noted that “If finalized, the proposed rule could place unprecedented limits on the use of scientific evidence by EPA. These limits will in turn shape the development of evidence-based public health policies including air pollution standards, drinking water regulations, pesticide tolerances, worker protections, and more.”
As public health professionals with years of experience in academia, government, and the non-profit sector, we have witnessed political interference and shifting tides on core policy issues across both Democratic and Republican administrations. But EPA’s newly proposed restrictions on the body of scientific evidence it will consider in its regulatory decision making is a fundamental threat to public health, and it will seriously erode the agency’s ability and responsibility to protect it.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/trumps-epa-puts-our-health-at-risk/
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Firefighting Foam Chemical Found in Suburban Denver Wells
Jul 13, 2018 | AP (In E&E Greenwire)
By Dan Elliott
Health officials have found low levels of chemicals used in firefighting foam in suburban Denver's drinking water.
The compounds, called PFCs, were found in wells used by the South Adams County Water and Sanitation District, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The water district serves roughly 50,000 people in Commerce City.
The concentrations in 12 wells were between 24 and 2,280 parts per trillion, according to Kipp Scott, the district's water system manager. Three wells were closed, to be replaced by water purchased from Denver.
Scott said that the water was treated before it reached customers. Once treated, the levels ranged from 45 to 64 ppt, which is below the federal government's limit of 70 ppt (Dan Elliott, Associated Press, July 13). — CS
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/07/13/stories/1060089031
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Johnson & Johnson Hit with $4.7bn Verdict in Talc Case
Jul 13, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
A Missouri jury has ordered consumer products conglomerate Johnson & Johnson to pay nearly $4.7bn in damages to 22 women who claim that use of its talcum powder products caused them to develop ovarian cancer.
The massive verdict includes $550m in compensatory damages, and another $4.14bn in punitive damages.
It follows similar decisions in the same state, and in California and New Jersey, where the company has been ordered to pay tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Across the country, the company faces thousands of similar claims that have yet to come to trial.
A company spokesperson said that J&J is "deeply disappointed" in the decision. It continues to defend its products, saying they do not cause ovarian cancer, and says it plans to appeal the verdict, as it has with the others that have preceded it.Asbestos and ovarian cancer
While there have already been cases where juries found that talc-containing products contributed to ovarian cancer – and others where asbestos contamination in them lead to the development of mesothelioma – this was the first verdict based on asbestos-induced ovarian cancer.
Plaintiffs' medical experts testified that asbestos fibres enter the body when talcum powder is applied to the genital area. Talc is a natural-occurring mineral that can be found in close proximity to asbestos in the ground.
J&J said in a statement that its products do not contain asbestos, and that the verdict was the result of a "fundamentally unfair process" where the cases of unrelated women were tied together in a single case.
"The result of the verdict, which awarded the exact same amounts to all plaintiffs irrespective of their individual facts, and differences in applicable law, reflects that the evidence in the case was simply overwhelmed by the prejudice of this type of proceeding," said the company spokesperson.
But Mark Lanier, lead counsel for the women, said in a statement that J&J has "covered up the evidence of asbestos in their products" for more than 40 years.
He called for J&J to pull the product from shelves, given that it already offers the "marvellously safe" corn starch-based alternative product. "If J&J insists on continuing to sell talc, they should mark it with a serious warning," he added.
Supplier Imerys Talc is reported to have reached a settlement agreement with plaintiffs before the case went to trial. Its terms have not been made public.Appeals
The latest ruling comes just days after a separate appeals process reversed a $55m award to South Dakota resident Gloria Ristesund. In the 2016 verdict a Missouri court awarded compensatory and punitive damages for her claim that J&J talc had caused her ovarian cancer.
However, on 29 June, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that the earlier court lacked jurisdiction over the case. The reversal came about after a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that cases must be taken either in states where the company is based or the injuries occurred – in this instance New Jersey, Minnesota or South Dakota.
The company won a similar appeal last year, reversing the $72m decision that had been the first major loss the company saw in St Louis.
"Every verdict against Johnson & Johnson in this court that has gone through the appeals process has been reversed, and the multiple errors present in this trial were worse than those in the prior trials which have been reversed," said the company spokesperson.
Several of the women in the latest trial have "no connection to Missouri," according to J&J. It "intends to pursue all available appellate remedies."
https://chemicalwatch.com/68681/johnson-johnson-hit-with-47bn-verdict-in-talc-case
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OPEC Warns Permian Constraints to Reduce Output but Still Likely Uptick in U.S. Supply
Jul 13, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Carolyn Davis
Even with global disruptions and increased demand, global oil supply in 2019 beyond the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to be broadly unchanged from this year, mostly because of an expected uptick in North American output and project startups in Brazil.
In OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) issued on Tuesday, researchers said oil supply in 2019 from non-OPEC members should grow by 2.1 million b/d year/year, about the same rate as this year. Non-OPEC oil supply for 2018 has been revised higher from a month ago by 0.14 million b/d to average 59.54 million b/d, an increase of 2 million b/d year/year.
Oil supplies outside OPEC in 2019 are projected to expand by 2.1 million b/d to an average of 61.64 million b/d, led by the United States and followed by Brazil, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and the UK.
Mexico, China and Norway oil supplies next year “are expected to witness the main declines” from “the absence of new projects and heavy declines in mature fields,” MOMR reported.
The pace of U.S. unconventional growth in the second half of 2018 and into early 2019 is forecast by OPEC to “slow down considerably” mainly because of takeaway capacity constraints in the Permian Basin.
“Some of the planned pipeline capacity increases have been delayed, and as a result, the takeaway capacity issue could remain a major constraint until next winter,” the MOMR noted.
In addition, the Permian rig count and well completions “could start to slow and well productivity could decline as operators expand production beyond ‘sweet spots.’”
New projects are anticipated to support oil supply in Brazil during 2019, while Canada is continuing to expand its oil output, particularly from oilsands projects.
U.S. oil demand has been supported by “strong expansions in the petrochemical sector as well as a healthy and growing economy,” OPEC noted. The first four months of 2018 were distinguished by rising demand for natural gas liquids and liquefied petroleum gas “as a feedstock for the petrochemical industry, following a slowdown during the second half of 2017 and as a result of weather conditions.”
OPEC also weighed in on the escalating global trade conflict precipitated by the Trump administration, which has led to backlash around the world. The trade dispute so far has had “only a minor impact on the global economy,” and the 2019 forecast “considers no significant rise in trade tariffs and that current disputes will be resolved soon.”
The increase in global trade has “been a significant factor lifting world economic growth to higher levels in both 2017 and 2018,” OPEC researchers noted. “Hence, if trade tensions rise further, and given other uncertainties, it could weigh on business and consumer sentiment. This may then start to negatively impact investment, capital flows and consumer spending, with a subsequent negative effect on the global oil market.”
The International Energy Agency (IEA), the global energy watchdog, in its monthly Oil Market Report (OMR) issued on Thursday, warned that spare capacity oil supply could become “stretched to the limit” because various conflicts are reducing supply in key producing regions that include Iran, Venezuela and Libya.
“Some of these supply issues are likely to be resolved, but the large number of disruptions reminds us of the pressure on global oil supply,” IEA said. “This will become an even bigger issue as rising production from Middle East Gulf countries and Russia, welcome though it is, comes at the expense of the world’s spare capacity cushion, which might be stretched to the limit.
“This vulnerability currently underpins oil prices and seems likely to continue doing so. We see no sign of higher production from elsewhere that might ease fears of market tightness.”
IEA’s overall growth outlook in 2018 for non-OPEC production has been reduced slightly to 1.97 million b/d, while the 2019 estimate is for a modest increase to 1.84 million b/d.
“On the demand side, although there are emerging signs of reduced economic confidence, and consumers are unhappy at higher prices, we retain our view that growth in 2018 will be 1.4 million b/d, and about the same next year,” IEA said.
This summer “promises to be anything but quiet as markets adjust to the ever-changing geopolitical and physical climate. We continue to be in a close dialogue with major producers and consumers, both inside and outside the IEA family, and are monitoring market developments in order to be prepared to advise on any support that might be needed.”
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC researchers in their independent review of the global supply and demand data said U.S. volumes should begin to increase heading into 2019. And as OPEC formally ends its production cuts following a ministerial meeting in June, “we should see the oil market remain in balance, as demand growth absorbs the increase in supply.”
According to several independent and government analyses, the United States could become the world’s biggest oil producer as soon as next year. Unconventional drilling for domestic oil between 2008 and 2018 has more than doubled and now exceeds the previous high mark set in 1970, according to a recent report by IHS Markit.
“On a net basis, the United States went from importing 60% of its liquid fuel at the peak to below 16% in 2018 -- and the share is still falling,” researchers said. “The United States is now on track to be the world’s largest oil producer, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia, by early next year.”
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/115045-opec-warns-permian-constraints-to-reduce-output-but-still-likely-uptick-in-us-supply
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Oil Companies Struggle to Navigate Trump on Steel Tariffs
Jul 13, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
U.S. tariffs on foreign steel are testing oil and gas companies' ability to navigate the Trump administration.
The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's largest lobbying group, said Friday that it was disappointed in the White House's decision to deny an exemption request for tariffs "on imported steel used in certain parts of oil and natural gas industry operations."
"The administration's arbitrary process to determine these exclusions lacks transparency as it's not clear how and why certain exclusion petitions are granted or denied," said API Vice President for Regulatory and Economic Policy Kyle Isakower. "What is clear, though, is that implementation of tariffs on imported steel undermines domestic energy production and the future of our nation's energy infrastructure which is critical to bringing American energy to market."
Last week the Trump administration rejected a request from Borusan Mannesmann Pipe US for an exclusion on the 135,000 tons of Turkish steel it imports to its facility in Baytown each year.
But others have fared better.
The statement came a day after reports that Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell were both granted exclusions from the tariff in order to buy Japanese steel used in drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Argus Media reported that the Commerce Department is working through a backlog of more than 20,000 requests for exclusion from the tariff, of which it has only processed 241.
The US Commerce Department today approved tariff exclusions for 243 metric tonnes of steel casing and production tubing that Shell said it will use when drilling wells in the US Gulf of Mexico. It also provided a tariff exclusion to Chevron for 50 metric tonnes of corrosion-resistant stainless steel tubing. The waivers will only last a year and are exclusive to the two companies.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Oil-companies-struggle-to-navigate-Trump-on-steel-13072426.php
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If Trump Gets His Oil Boom, Leases Could Cover This Valley
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Zack Colman
Ten thousand feet up, it's possible to see the whole North Fork Valley from Dan Stucker's plane. As the aircraft glides over sloping mesas with snow-dusted mountains, the land below resembles a vintage pioneer landscape.
If President Trump has his way, a new feature could arrive on this vista: oil and gas pumps. His administration is opening vast stretches of public land to energy companies, and among the forests and fields under Stucker's plane, up to 95 percent of the valley could be available to drillers.
The administration's new policies would bring sweeping changes to this Rocky Mountain landscape, facilitated by a growing bond between federal officials and the oil and gas industry. Emails and other communications between government employees obtained by E&E News reveal directives and orders by Trump officials to shelve environmental policies to speed energy development.
In one instance, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke courted oil and gas drillers in private by assuring them that changes to federal land policy would make their companies more profitable.
Documents show that some career employees in the Bureau of Land Management questioned whether drillers were being penalized adequately for major violations of environmental regulations. Interior Department staffers also pushed back on efforts by political appointees to put federal land up for auction before scientific assessments on the potential damage drilling could inflict on wildlife were finished.
At other times, federal officials voiced concern that Trump's drilling goals were more aggressive than oil industry wishes. One federal official was asked whether it would be possible to rejigger data to make it look like the government would sell more leases because she was worried about how companies' lack of interest in drilling would look to administration bigwigs, according to an email E&E News obtained.
These policies will set the nation on a future course of reliance on fossil fuels that cause climate change, more air and water pollution in rural areas, and new threats to endangered species. In return, the government charges oil companies as little as $2 per acre to lease the land for drilling.
Once a coal town, Paonia has transformed itself over the past few decades. It's now known for wineries, boutiques, galleries and organic farms that draw tourists from nearby ski resorts. Perhaps most symbolic of its economic conversion, the town now hosts a major company, Solar Energy International, that trains solar panel technicians.
But Paonia's shift away from its fossil fuel roots could be reversed under the Trump administration's new policies.
Stucker, the pilot, represents the more traditional side of this region. He said his family arrived here on covered wagons in 1893. Dutch people, then Coloradans. That's how they distinguish things in this valley — you're either a fifth-generation son of the Western Slope like Stucker, or you're an organic-farming hippie. Waves of them came in the 1970s.
"I have friends who are liberals, and what I love about that is we have wonderful arguments," said Stucker, a self-described libertarian who favors drilling here. "I do not want us to become Boulder, where you have to get permission to screw a lightbulb in."
Vast acreage for oil companies
Trump feels the same way.
The president's plans to expand fossil fuels seem as boundless as the tracts of wilderness below. He wants to open millions of acres across the West, all owned by taxpayers, to private oil and gas companies. Last year alone, his administration put 11.9 million acres on the auction block. It was the most in nine years. In sheer size, that's twice as big as Vermont.
Colorado's North Fork Valley is now destined to become part of that statistic. Earlier this month, BLM announced it would offer 7,903 acres in the valley to drillers in December.
The move underscores how the Trump administration has sidelined science to promote energy development. Trump revoked a policy that required Interior, which oversees BLM, to consider how its actions could contribute to climate change.
Interior officials wanted to make the business case for drilling on federal land to oil executives at a March 2017 meeting of the American Petroleum Institute's board of directors at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. An email from then-Interior official Megan Bloomgren — who now works for the oil lobby group — to colleagues clarified the message that Zinke wanted to deliver. The upshot is that Bloomgren wanted to persuade them that drilling on federal land would be easier under Trump than President Obama, in turn increasing companies' revenues, returns for taxpayers and U.S. energy production.
"He's saying, 'When you buy a lease from us now it's a junk bond. We want to move that over so we take on more burden and get return on investment with right market conditions. That way you have a higher probability of success. That way lease value and taxpayer return goes up. I'd like to sell product. We're looking at how to price royalties and rents right now,'" she wrote in a March 22, 2017, email. "What can he say to back up that he wants to ensure federal lands are just as profitable as private land?"
Coordination with industry has at times been overt. In an audio recording obtained by watchdog group Documented and shared with E&E News, Interior energy adviser Vincent DeVito detailed his courtship of energy companies at an event sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. The conservative group is linked to fossil fuel billionaires David and Charles Koch. Another brother, Bill Koch, owns the last operating coal mine in Paonia.
In the recording, DeVito asked energy executives whether they would drill more if the department lowered its fees.
"We met with the investors and were like, 'Listen, if we do this, will you participate? Because there is no sense in taking the hit for lowering royalty rates unless you guys do this,'" he said in the recording. "Money from a low royalty rate is better than no money at all. And that's exactly what we're trying to do. You know, we are prioritizing production, we are prioritizing revenue, which creates jobs, right? So when we lower that royalty rate, and we did the lease sale last week, we got folks to come to the table and invest."
Some energy experts say the Trump administration is trying to lease lots of federal land that oil companies don't even want. Of the 11.9 million acres offered by the administration in 2017, 792,823 received bids, considerably less than the 921,240 acres out of 1.9 million under the Obama administration in 2016.
Onshore oil, gas, coal and other hardrock mining on federal lands generated about $496 million for the U.S. Treasury in fiscal 2017 and $1.4 billion for states. Most of this came through royalties. Critics note that royalty rates and fees for renting federal land haven't increased in decades. The Government Accountability Office suggested that raising royalty rates could increase revenues for taxpayers between $5 million and $38 million.
Royalty rates for onshore production are currently 12.5 percent, the lowest allowed by federal law. Energy-rich states such as Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah have higher rates.
"Federal onshore oil and gas revenues have increased 87% in just the first year of the Trump Administration, as well as an overall increase in federal energy revenue around $1 billion," Interior spokesman Alex Hinson said in a statement. "With historic tax cuts and smart regulatory reform, we look forward to continual growth. That means more money for conservation and to rebuild our National Parks."
The 87 percent increase reflects an additional $167 million generated for the federal government from lease sales last year.
The oil industry and Trump's supporters say the president is swinging the pendulum back to energy after Obama conserved a record amount of federal land, some of which Trump has undone. They say Obama suppressed energy production through cumbersome permitting and heavy-handed regulation.
But internal emails obtained by Rocky Mountain Wild and shared with E&E News illustrate a complication with Trump's policies: Energy companies didn't want to lease a lot of the federal land, and that was problematic for BLM leadership because Trump and Zinke had instructed the agency to hold quarterly lease sales.
"It doesn't look like Colorado will have a March 2018 Lease Sale," Rachel Vaughn, a BLM official in Colorado, wrote to colleagues in Washington, D.C., on March 6, 2017. "We don't have any new [expressions of interest] for the field offices in that rotation and we don't have any old deferrals that can be brought forward at this time."
For an administration that wants to demonstrate that it's turbocharging the energy economy, the email betrayed a truth the White House hasn't wanted to admit: By and large, the industry isn't buying what the White House is selling.
"We've been seeing some pushback from the Main Interior, regarding lease sale postponements," Jennifer Spencer, a mineral leasing specialist for BLM in Washington, responded on March 8, 2017.
Spencer explained that a Nevada office ran into a similar problem — lack of industry interest — and recommended postponing the lease sale. But Interior wouldn't approve that. Instead, it forced BLM officials in Nevada to shuffle around leases from another district. The Battle Mountain District was supposed to have one lease sale in September 2017. Instead, it planned two in separate quarters, spending taxpayer dollars to divvy up the land and hold two distinct auctions, in an effort to satisfy the demands from Interior headquarters.
Drilling and organic farms
Paonia sits in a fertile shadow of the Rockies atop the nation's second-largest shale gas reserve. It's a town with a legacy of coal mining. Now it's full of artists and organic farmers. Cafes line the main drag, and mountains hug the valley. The land at its doorstep is under BLM control. That means Trump is the landlord.
The family farm where Dan Stucker, 69, spent summers pitching hay turned 104 his year. He's lived a storied life, doing everything from "deliver a baby to plan an invasion." A former State Department employee who spent years in Zimbabwe — he remembers it as Rhodesia — he eventually felt he was called home by the land where his family's story began.
So perhaps it's ironic that Stucker named his plane "Unintended Consequences," because that's exactly what people on the other side of this debate are worried about.
Here's why: Trump doesn't seem to accept that fossil fuel extraction has costs — to the environment and people's health. The White House reduced estimates of damage from carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, to $1 to $6 per ton. It was $42 per ton under Obama. In the past, Trump has called climate change "bullshit" and a "hoax." Now, his administration is implementing policies that reflect that view.
That outlook emerges in Trump's decisions here and across the West. The nation's vast public lands have always been an engine for energy development. Now it's in overdrive. One of Trump's economic cornerstones is "energy dominance." He wants the nation to produce more energy than it ever has.
To do that, Trump instructed the agency overseeing public lands to kill the "burdens" on oil drilling, gas extraction and coal mining. A 43-page report by Interior identified various rules meant to ensure that energy development was done safely and cleanly. Then the White House began axing them.
Those decisions had clear consequences for wildlife, such as the greater sage grouse, a threatened bird protected by the Endangered Species Act that exists on federal territory oil and gas drillers covet.
"We understand current BLM policy prevents the BLM from utilizing the best available science/data, specifically the most current [sage grouse] Habitat Management Categories ... when applying stipulations in regards to oil and gas parcel leasing," D. Bradford Hardenbrook, a habitat biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, wrote in a letter to a BLM official Sept. 27, 2017, which was accessed through a FOIA registry hosted by WildEarth Guardians. "Inadequate impact preventions are the result."
It's not unusual for Republican presidents to jettison regulations. What stands out is how Trump is doing it. There's scant mention of conservation — a GOP hallmark in the past — or safeguarding the environment. The metric for success in the report was simple: Does this get energy out of the ground faster?
"It basically takes BLM's multiple-use mandate and says one is more important than the others in all instances," a former BLM staffer said. "It basically says we're going to lease and look at areas that cause a lot of consternation and conflict."
Trump's Interior is also taking a lighter touch on enforcing laws it has on the books. A BLM official decided against proceedings to penalize Whiting Petroleum Corp. for spilling 107 barrels of oil in Colorado on March 28, 2017, according to documents obtained through the WildEarth Guardians FOIA registry.
"Seems to me that failing to report a major undesirable event ought to be more than a wrist slap," Gregory Shoop, then the associate state director for the BLM's Colorado office, said in an email to Mark Lyon, a supervisory petroleum engineering technician for the BLM in Colorado. "But that's a problem for another day."
Trump's vision of oil pumps riles many residents in Paonia. It threatens the town's economic lifeblood, they say. People here want to avoid repeating history by relying on a boom-and-bust resource economy driven by the price of fossil fuels.
Hunters crowd into inns and lodges every fall, lured by elk that graze on nearby hillsides. They're a major contributor to Paonia's economy, said Mike Drake, a bow hunter and former Paonia Chamber of Commerce president. Agriculture flourishes here, too. Paonia has Colorado's highest concentration of organic crops.
Can these hills be speckled with oil rigs and still sustain those virtues?
"I don't think the federal government has ever set foot out here. They wouldn't understand it," said Elizabeth Plummer. Her store, Lizzy's Market, sells local meats, cheeses and produce from 20 suppliers.
"We the people own this land, and we the people should have a say in who does what with our land," she said. "And the fact that it could be leased for next to no money and be literally destroyed without anybody having a say in it is literally deplorable. What happened to 'we the people'?"
Bob Reedy owns a gas and service station in Paonia that his father started 65 years ago — local reporters call it, and the worn couch crammed into the corner, the town's "conservative think tank." He doubts the industry's estimates for jobs growth or economic benefits will come true, but he's a utilitarian. He guesses oil company employees will spend money in town while they're working, even if they're only here a short while.
"I hunt, I fish, I ride horses, I ride ATVs and I use pickups, Jeeps, whatever. I use [the land] as much, and in the past probably more, than 90 percent of the people who use it now," Reedy said, adding that he thinks it all can coexist with oil drilling. "We've got to get energy somewhere. Why not here?"
Climate change is another unintended consequence. The Trump administration revoked a policy that instructed BLM to consider whether its actions warm the planet. That means an agency that already accounts for 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions doesn't have to consider its effect on the atmosphere when auctioning off federal land. That land could be under the control of private oil and gas companies for decades.
Climate change already is hitting this area hard. Residents experience water shortages. The Gunnison River Basin, where Paonia rests, is "a microcosm" of the broader climate and water troubles bedeviling the state, according to NOAA. Higher temperatures mean precipitation is increasingly falling as rain rather than snow. That has decreased the Rockies' snowpack, a natural reservoir that feeds the Colorado River system's summer streams. Now, there's less to melt. Crops go parched. Riverbeds go dry. Farmers' pockets go empty.
"Climate change, global warming, degraded water supplies — all the various things that happen when we start developing lands, especially for energy production, is something that isn't factored into what we get from it in the short run," said Mark Waltermire, a soft-spoken organic farmer outside Paonia who sells produce across the state.
Is drilling profitable here?
Trump can offer as much land as he wants, but that doesn't make it profitable to pull oil and gas out of difficult areas. Geology is the problem. Most of the shale plays on which hydraulic fracturing has occurred aren't on federal land. Trump can't control that.
That's especially salient for Paonia, said Brad Burton, a petroleum geologist at Western State Colorado University. The North Fork Valley is "characterized by a thin stratigraphic section that is essentially devoid of petroleum source rocks," so developing oil and natural gas has "extremely low" prospects, Burton said.
"We're giving away leases for pennies on the dollar," said an Interior staffer, speaking on background to be candid. "It's to the detriment of the American West."
But energy companies defend the practice. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, a trade group, said shutting out federal oil and gas development would increase reliance on imported fuel, making the United States more dependent on other oil-rich nations.
"The land is not locked out from other uses," she said. "I know that environmentalists love to say that."
Comparatively few acres attract the minimum price, she said. The government still collects a check either way from rental fees and whatever the company paid for the lease.
"It's kind of like 'no harm, no foul' if somebody buys a lease and then doesn't use it," she said.
Energy companies say there's plenty of interest from industry, but the Obama administration and environmental opponents impeded energy development.
"For eight years, I couldn't get a permit. Why is that?" said Eric Sanford, operations and land manager with SG Interests, which has federal drilling operations near Paonia. "I think it's unfortunate that public lands are used as a political tool like they are."
Worldwide fossil fuel consumption is expected to rise for decades, and U.S. taxpayers benefit by exporting fuel. It's better to have the land under lease so if there's a fuel shortage, drilling can start immediately, oil executives say.
The concern among critics is that Trump is handing large stretches of public land to oil and gas companies for a decade or more. That treats the West's huge landscape as a bank account filled with greenhouse gas emissions that oil companies could withdraw at any time.
"It's what in the climate policy community they call 'climate lock-in,'" said Michael Saul, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. "People are essentially paying money to acquire property rights and federal minerals that in the real world are never going to be burnable under any sort of climate action scenario."
Brent Helleckson, owner of Stone Cottage Cellars, a vineyard and winery in Paonia, is dressed in overalls and a Stetson. His outfit belies a background in aerospace engineering. He's realistic about oil and gas companies' need to stockpile reserves as they deplete what they have. Still, Helleckson questions whether the BLM properly administers its program.
Helleckson surveys the bare branches he's been pruning. The sun begins its slow crawl down the blue sky, finding a notch behind the snow-capped mountains and green valley.
"Is that the best use of that land for the taxpayer? I doubt it," he said. "You've taken a public good and converted it to a private asset. We should be very careful about where we do that."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/07/13/stories/1060088927
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US Expected to Become World's Top Oil Producer Next Year
Jul 13, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
By David Koenig
The U.S. has nosed ahead of Saudi Arabia and is on pace to surpass Russia to become the world's biggest oil producer for the first time in more than four decades.
The latest forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that U.S. output will grow next year to 11.8 million barrels a day.
"If the forecast holds, that would make the U.S. the world's leading producer of crude," says Linda Capuano, who heads the agency, a part of the Energy Department.
Saudi Arabia and Russia could upend that forecast by boosting their own production. In the face of rising global oil prices, members of the OPEC cartel and a few non-members including Russia agreed last month to ease production caps that had contributed to the run-up in prices.
President Donald Trump has urged the Saudis to pump more oil to contain rising prices. He tweeted on June 30 that King Salman agreed to boost production "maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels." The White House later clarified that the king said his country has a reserve of 2 million barrels a day that could be tapped "if and when necessary."
The idea that the U.S. could ever again become the world's top oil producer once seemed preposterous.
"A decade ago the only question was how fast would U.S. production go down," said Daniel Yergin, author of several books about the oil industry including a history, "The Prize." The rebound of U.S. output "has made a huge difference. If this had not happened, we would have had a severe shortage of world oil," he said.
The United States led the world in oil production for much of the 20th century, but the Soviet Union surpassed America in 1974, and Saudi Arabia did the same in 1976, according to Energy Department figures.
By the end of the 1970s the USSR was producing one-third more oil than the U.S.; by the end of the 1980s, Soviet output was nearly double that of the U.S.
The last decade or so has seen a revolution in American energy production, however, led by techniques including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling.
Those innovations — and the breakup of the Soviet Union — helped the U.S. narrow the gap. Last year, Russia produced more than 10.3 million barrels a day, Saudi Arabia pumped just under 10 million, and the U.S. came in under 9.4 million barrels a day, according to U.S. government figures.
The U.S. has been pumping more than 10 million barrels a day on average since February, and probably pumped about 10.9 million barrels a day in June, up from 10.8 million in May, the energy agency said Tuesday in its latest short-term outlook.
According to the Energy Department, the U.S. edged ahead of Saudi Arabia in February and stayed there in March; both trailed Russia.
Capuano's agency forecast that U.S. crude output will average 10.8 million barrels a day for all of 2018 and 11.8 million barrels a day in 2019. The current U.S. record for a full year is 9.6 million barrels a day in 1970.
The trend of rising U.S. output prompted Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, to predict this spring that the U.S. would leapfrog Russia and become the world's largest producer by next year — if not sooner.
One potential obstacle for U.S. drillers is a bottleneck of pipeline capacity to ship oil from the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico to ports and refineries.
"They are growing the production but they can't get it out of the area fast enough because of pipeline constraints," said Jim Rittersbusch, a consultant to oil traders.
Some analysts believe that Permian production could decline, or at least grow more slowly, in 2019 or 2020 as energy companies move from their best acreage to more marginal areas.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/07/13/us/ap-us-oil-production-us.html
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FTA Shift on Federal Loans Creates Anxiety
Jul 13, 2018 | Politico - Morning Transportation
By Stephanie Beasley
WHAT’S MINE IS NOT YOURS: Lawmakers are raising the alarm that the way FTA is evaluating grant applications could stifle not just the New York-New Jersey Gateway program but big transit projects around the nation as well. As our Lauren Gardner and Brianna Gurciullo report for Pros, the agency made clear in a recent Dear Colleague letter that, in its view, DOT loans represent buy-in from the federal government — not from state or local governments. For some projects, that means the percentage of the cost that FTA considers covered by a state or local government will be smaller. And that hurts a project’s chances of getting a grant, unless the sponsor can scrounge up financing from other sources.
‘It’s all our money’: Democratic lawmakers and others have been quick to point out that state and local governments must pay back federal loans. “TIFIA is repaid by state dollars. It’s all our money that’s paying it,” Brian Motyl, the Delaware DOT’s assistant director of finance, said at a Senate hearing this week. “It’s got to be considered a state resource. And by not doing that, I think it’s gonna drastically hurt the amount of applications for the transit program.”
The outlook: It remains unclear whether or how lawmakers will take any action on FTA. The agency is expected to propose new policy guidance for the Capital Investment Grant program later this year.
HAPPY FRIDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Stephanie is steering you into another steamy weekend. Don’t forget to send tips, scoops and song requests to @Steph_Beasley or sbeasley@politico.com.
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis / I pumped a lot of tane down in New Orleans / But I never saw the good side of the city / Until I hitched a ride on the riverboat queen
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A DASH OF DISAPPOINTMENT: FTA isn’t going to meet this week’s deadline for a federal grant application for the Portal Bridge, despite New York and New Jersey officials’ pledge to make a full local funding commitment, POLITICO New Jersey’s Ryan Hutchins reports. The agency said local officials submitted an updated financial plan too close to the deadline. “Given that New Jersey Transit submitted significant changes to the cost estimate and financial plan just nine business days before the deadline, you have not allowed sufficient time for the statutorily required evaluation,” Elizabeth Riklin, an acting associate administrator at the FTA, wrote in a letter to NJ Transit. The project is expected to cost $1.6 billion total and is part of the larger Gateway tunnel project.
COMING ONLINE: Union Pacific may need more time to get positive train control fully implemented across its entire rail network, but CEO Lance Fritz said Thursday that the railroad will have the technology online for passenger trains to use by the end of 2018, our Lauren Gardner reports. Fritz said at least 75 percent of the freight railroad’s tracks will have PTC implemented by the end of the year, and he’s confident the company will qualify for an extension to complete the rest. UP’s prioritization of its shared tracks with Amtrak trains and commuter lines is notable, as Amtrak officials have signaled they won’t use rails owned by freight railroads that lack PTC if they don’t feel it’s safe enough.
DOUBLE MINUS 100: Uber has announced plans to lay off about 100 safety drivers from its self-driving car program in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, reports Ars Technica — the very cities where the company not even two months ago said it would be “doubling down.” Uber made that promise when it was forced to close up shop in Arizona after a deadly pedestrian crash there in March, and said at the time that it planned to resume operations in Pittsburgh this summer. While it will resume testing in Pittsburgh, Uber said many of the drivers that have been let go will be able to apply for 55 new “mission specialist” positions.
TSA INSPECTIONS LAGGED IN CUBA OH NO-NO: GAO released new findings Thursday that showed TSA hadn’t inspected all commercial air carriers flying out of Cuban airports to the U.S. between 2012 and 2017. Flights between the island and the U.S. have increased since the Obama administration resumed regularly scheduled commercial flights to some Cuban cities. But inspections haven’t kept pace and the agency needs to do a better job of identifying and tracking flights between Cuba and the U.S, GAO said. DHS concurred with the recommendation. As your MT host reported last year, Republicans have pointed to the Cuban government’s lack of transparency about its airport security regime as reason to reconsider allowing U.S.-Cuba flights.
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EASY GLIDER: House Republicans are going after an EPA study issued in November that concluded “glider” trucks (rebuilt engines placed in new cabs) emit as much as 55 times more pollution compared with newly manufactured engines. In a letter, leaders on the House Science Committee said they have documents that show "an apparent concerted effort" among EPA scientists, Volvo and the Engine Manufacturers Association to "target" gliders made by Tennessee-based Fitzgerald because they compete with Volvo. "The ensuing exchange appears to show an overt attempt by a regulated entity to shape a scientific study at EPA to achieve a specific, pre-determined outcome," the lawmakers wrote. They ask for a briefing by EPA and communications between EPA scientists regarding the study.
Study up: The EPA study — along with a Fitzgerald-backed study conducted by Tennessee Tech that concluded glider emissions are the same as those from new engines and has since been withdrawn and investigated by the school — is part of an increasingly nasty fight over glider-related pollution, which critics say makes up an outsize portion of truck-related emissions. An Obama-era rule significantly phased down their use, but EPA last year proposed repealing that provision. In the meantime, EPA last week said it will not enforce a strict 300-unit sales cap that applied this year, opening the way for Fitzgerald and others to sell significantly more gliders. In addition to this new House Science Committee inquiry, at least five GOP lawmakers last month asked EPA’s inspector general to review the EPA study as well.
SUPERSONIC, SUPERSONIC: U.S. efforts to get new global standards in place for supersonic jet flights seemed to have rubbed some European regulators the wrong way, according to a Reuters report. Several sources told the outlet that the U.S. and some European countries — such as France, Germany and Britain — were “squaring off” at the United Nations aviation agency over whether to implement tough noise rules for the jets. It's a long-standing conflict that's resurged as the U.S. considers whether to change its rules to allow companies to begin testing early-stage supersonic jets. This most recent rift follows a “1990s clash on noise standards, when the European Union wanted to ban noisy older U.S.-made jets like Boeing 727 from its airports and Washington threatened to retaliate by banning the Anglo-French Concorde,” per the story.
TOO COZY: An FAA inspector assigned to oversee American Airlines “lacked objectivity” due to his close relationship with the airline’s staff and the 28 years he spent working with the carrier — a risk factor FAA hadn’t considered, according to an inspector general’s report. The inspector was supposed to look into complaints of safety problems with American's program to verify the airworthiness of aircraft following major repairs. Tanya has more for Pros.
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME: Delta Air Lines executives said during an earnings call Thursday that the carrier was planning to hike its fares and cutback on some services in response to rising fuels costs, USA Today reports. Delta’s average fares are already up 4 percent from last year and there is “still more to be done” to offset an estimated $2 billion increase in fuel costs, said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. The airline also is planning to reduce capacity and service, although executives did not elaborate on where service would be cut.
SHIFTING GEARS: Melissa Kelly has been tapped as the new chief of staff for Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas). She will replace Bill Zito, who is moving on to the role of deputy chief of staff at FEMA. Stoney Burke has started his own government and public affairs, the Aquia Group. He was most recently chief of staff for Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas). (h/t POLITICO Playbook)
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-transportation/2018/07/13/fta-shift-on-federal-loans-creates-anxiety-277929
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U.N. Council Is Warned That Warming Creates 'Cycle of Conflict'
Jul 13, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Daniel Cusick
The Trump administration has downplayed climate change as a national security risk. But the U.N. Security Council was warned this week that rising temperatures are inextricably linked to human conflict.
"It is clear that climate change is a real threat and is proceeding at a relentless pace," U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the 15-member council Wednesday at the United Nations.
"Fragile countries are in danger of becoming stuck in a cycle of conflict and climate disaster," she added. "Where resilience is eroded, communities may be displaced and exposed to exploitation."
Mohammed's comments came against the backdrop of three consecutive years — 2015, 2016 and 2017 — that the World Meteorological Organization determined were the hottest on record. Experts say extreme heat, drought and other consequences of warming are having a disproportionate effect on the world's poor.
"It is no coincidence that the countries most vulnerable to climate change are often those most vulnerable to conflict and fragility," Mohammed said.
Citing her own experience growing up in the Lake Chad Basin in northeast Nigeria, Mohammed said she had witnessed how climate change places stress on existing political, social and economic rifts.
"We must understand climate change as one issue in a web of factors that can lead to conflict," she said. "Within this web, climate change acts as a threat multiplier, applying additional stress on prevailing political, social and economic pressure points."
The Security Council, one of six major organs of the United Nations, last took up the issue of climate change seven years ago.
The meeting was led by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, who recently accompanied Mohammed to the Lake Chad Basin to examine factors that led the lake to shrink 90 percent since the 1960s.
Wallström challenged the Security Council to "catch up with the changing reality on the ground." She announced the forthcoming launch of a climate security knowledge hub in Stockholm and suggested that Mohammed provide an "institutional home" for the issue of climate change and conflict at the United Nations.
Other ideas proposed by forum delegates included the appointment of a special representative of the secretary-general on climate and security.
Hindou Ibrahim, speaking on behalf of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, urged the council to view climate change and its effects at the village and community level, where stressors can be most acutely felt. "They do not have a choice, but you do," she said.
Hassan al-Janabi, Iraq's minister for water resources, noted that debate opened a new path for finding potential solutions to security threats. These include food insecurity, competition for water resources, mass migrations and environmental damage inflicted by terrorist organizations like the Islamic State group.
Jonathan Cohen, the United States' deputy representative to the Security Council, said the body considers phenomena such as natural disasters — as well as other events that impact populations and cause widespread displacement — in its work.
"In response to these crises, we are all on the same side," he said.
Russia representative Dmitry Polyanskiy cast doubt on the Security Council's ability to effectively address climate change, calling the effort a "misguidance" of the group's responsibility to maintain peace and security.
"We are creating an illusion that the council will tackle climate issues and that there will be some kind of turning point," he said, adding that the Security Council doesn't have the expertise or the mechanisms to effectively counter climate change's effects.
Click here to view a summary of comments from all participating nations.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/07/13/stories/1060088957
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Apple Launches $300 Million Clean Energy Fund in China
Jul 13, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
Apple Inc. is launching a $300 million partnership with China to bring renewable energy to the country, the company announced late Thursday.
The China Clean Energy Fund, a first-of-its-kind fund according to Apple, will invest in clean energy projects throughout the country, with a goal of generating more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy over four years, enough to power nearly 1 million homes.
China is the largest source of carbon pollution in the world, and the investment is intended to help the country with its climate issues.
The partnership, lead by Apple and 10 other suppliers, is part of the company's push to proactively address climate change and increase the use of renewable energy within its supply chain. China is a major producer of Apple products and technologies.
”At Apple, we are proud to join with companies that are stepping up to address the climate challenge,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives in a statement.
“We’re thrilled so many of our suppliers are participating in the fund and hope this model can be replicated globally to help businesses of all sizes make a significant positive impact on our planet," added Jackson, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator during the Obama administration.
Apple announced in April it had met its goal of powering all of its global facilities with clean energy. The company is also helping smaller companies adapt to clean energy usage, which is often financially burdensome especially in small markets.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/396894-apple-launches-a-300-million-clean-energy-fund-in-china
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