Preview Newsletter
PM ACC Clips Report - August 8, 2018
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S., China, Each Disclose New Tariff Proposals
Aug 7, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Jean-François Tremblay
As the U.S. and China escalate hostilities in their trade war, the manufacturing sector on both sides is at risk of becoming collateral damage. -
(ACC Mentioned) It's Official: US-China Tariffs Will Begin to Hit Plastics
Aug 8, 2018 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken
It's now official. Tariffs will be levied on billions of dollars of resin imports and exports between the United States and China starting Aug. 23. -
China Retaliates with Tariffs on $16 Billion Worth of U.S. Imports After Trump’s Latest Trade Hit
Aug 8, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Amanda Erickson
China will impose tariffs on an additional $16 billion worth of U.S. products, officials announced Wednesday, marking the latest parry in an escalating trade war between the two countries. -
Ex-EPA Officials Urge Wheeler to Change Direction of Agency
Aug 8, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
A group of former officials with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are urging Administrator Andrew Wheeler to turn the agency around following a number of decisions they are calling reckless. -
'It Is Imperative' for Staff to Cooperate with IG — Wheeler
Aug 8, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Kevin Bogardus
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler today urged employees to work with the agency's internal watchdog. -
These 4 Tests Will Reveal Andrew Wheeler's True EPA Agenda
Aug 8, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Felice Stadler
Although Andrew Wheeler has sought to distance himself from Scott Pruitt in some important ways as acting head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he’s also signaled a continuation of his predecessor’s agenda. -
US Toxics Agency Releases Draft Profiles for Four Substances
Aug 8, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has announced that its 29th set of draft toxicological profiles is available for review and comment. -
California Hopeful on Amended Prop 65 Warning Compliance
Aug 8, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Frank Zaworski
Amendments to how warnings are given under California's Proposition 65 are set to take effect from 30 August. And the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) has said it is hoping most businesses operating or selling into the state will be in compliance in time. -
North Carolina Launches State-Wide PFAS Monitoring
Aug 8, 2018 | Inside EPA
Researchers with North Carolina universities are kicking off a state-wide air and water monitoring program for per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) after receiving more than $5 million from the state legislature to do so. -
Residents of Colo. County Ask EPA for Chemicals Regulation
Aug 8, 2018 | Colorado Springs Gazette (In E&E Greenwire)
By Jakob Rogers
El Paso County, Colo., residents last night urged EPA to more tightly regulate toxic chemicals called perfluorinated compounds in drinking water. -
N.Y. City Sues Federal, State Agencies over Contamination
Aug 8, 2018 | Times Herald-Record (In E&E Greenwire)
By Leonard Sparks
The city of Newburgh sued New York, state agencies, manufacturers and the federal government yesterday over pollution in its main water source. -
First Trial on Roundup Cancer Claims Goes to Jury
Aug 8, 2018 | Reuters (In E&E Greenwire)
By Tina Bellon
A trial in which a school groundskeeper alleged that his use of Monsanto Co.'s Roundup weedkiller caused his terminal cancer will go to a California jury after lawyers for both sides delivered their closing arguments yesterday. -
France to Prepare Inventory of Chemicals in Consumer Products
Aug 8, 2018 | Chemical Watch
France has announced plans to create an inventory of substances in consumer products as part of an initiative to prevent hazardous chemicals polluting oceans. -
As Trump, Peña Nieto Rush to Finish NAFTA, Oil Industry Faces Loss of Key Protection
Aug 8, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
The Trump administration is racing to close a deal with Mexico on the North American Free Trade Agreement before the leftist president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, takes office later this year, a drive that appears increasingly likely to eliminate an investment protection provision dear to U.S. oil companies and many other corporations. -
Interior Moves Toward Opening California Acreage for Oil and Gas Leases
Aug 8, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Ben Lefebvre
The Interior Department is moving toward opening up more federal land in California for oil and gas leasing, according to a filing today in the Federal Register. -
(ACC Mentioned) Drayage Drivers Catch Break as TWIC Reader Rules Delayed
Aug 8, 2018 | FreightWaves
By Michael Angell
The US will delay a rule that could have slowed drayage and intermodal drivers accessing ports after complaints about its uneven enforcement and the potential for logistical hiccups. -
Group Sues EPA over Missed Deadlines on Standards Reviews
Aug 8, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Sean Reilly
EPA has missed Clean Air Act deadlines for reviews of emissions standards for a half-dozen industrial source categories, a California environmental group alleged in a lawsuit filed yesterday. -
Proposed Rollbacks in Vehicle Emission Limits Pose Serious Environmental Threat
Aug 8, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Joel A. Mintz
ederal laws and regulations play a crucial role determining the quality of our air, water, and natural resources. Well-researched and scientifically supported rules can bring enormous benefits to the American people, but regulatory rollbacks for little more than deregulation's sake can cause great harm.
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S., China, Each Disclose New Tariff Proposals
Aug 7, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Jean-François Tremblay
As the U.S. and China escalate hostilities in their trade war, the manufacturing sector on both sides is at risk of becoming collateral damage. New tariff proposals unveiled by the U.S. and China in recent days cover many chemicals and key materials that the two countries trade widely and for which, in some cases, few alternative suppliers exist.
Acting on a request from President Trump, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative—the equivalent of the ministry of international trade in other countries—raised from 10% to 25% the custom duties proposed on $200 billion worth of goods that the U.S. imports from China. The U.S. started levying tariffs on Chinese goods this summer in an effort to prompt China to modify business practices that the U.S. deems unfair.
The newly proposed U.S. tariffs follow the implementation of a 25% custom duty on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods in early July. The U.S. is also finalizing a separate 25% levy on another $16 billion worth of Chinese merchandise.
The American Chemistry Council, the main industry group representing the chemical industry, says the new round of proposed U.S. tariffs would be “devastating for U.S. chemicals manufacturers.” It notes that more than $16 billion of the $200 billion in targeted goods are chemicals. “Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are at risk of being put out of businesses by a cost increase of that kind.”
The proposed U.S. tariffs target chemicals and materials for which few alternatives exist. For instance USTR intends to introduce a 25% levy on rare earths, key materials that are mostly produced in China. In 2012, after China introduced export restrictions on rare earths, the U.S., the EU, and Japan complained to the World Trade Organization.USTR also plans to slap a 25% import tax on Chinese hexamethylene diisocyanate, a specialty chemical that very few companies worldwide can make.
Warning of retaliation, China has unveiled tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods. The Chinese list, for which is there is currently no implementation date, taxes a long list of products at rates varying from 5 to 25%. Chemicals, including some high-volume ones like p-xylene, are among the products that China may impose a 25% tax on.
https://cen.acs.org/business/economy/US-China-disclose-new-tariff/96/web/2018/08
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(ACC Mentioned) It's Official: US-China Tariffs Will Begin to Hit Plastics
Aug 8, 2018 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken
It's now official. Tariffs will be levied on billions of dollars of resin imports and exports between the United States and China starting Aug. 23.
The U.S. Trade Representative announced the widely expected 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion in Chinese imports on Aug. 7, and Beijing immediately responded with tariffs on U.S. exports.
The American Chemistry Council declined to comment on the latest USTR announcement, but it previously argued against it, estimating that the Chinese retaliatory tariffs would hit $3.2 billion worth of U.S. plastics exports to China, and that the American tariffs would hit $2.2 billion in chemicals and plastics imports from China.
The U.S. government says the tariffs will give it leverage to challenge Beijing's trade policies, adding that it will soon release details on how companies can apply for exclusions.
Those $16 billion in tariffs complete what is considered President Donald Trump's first round of tariffs on China, totaling $50 billion. The first $34 billion in U.S. tariffs, including on Chinese-made plastics equipment, began July 6.
The next round of tariffs also will likely include plastics and chemicals.
The Trump administration has proposed 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports — which ACC estimated includes $16.4 billion in chemicals and plastics. China has responded with a proposed $60 billion in tariffs on U.S. exports. According to ACC's estimate, Beijing's list of 5,200 goods include 1,000 that are chemical and plastic products.
Trump has also threatened to raise those 10 percent tariffs to 25 percent. Hearings on those $200 billion in duties are set to begin Aug. 20.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20180808/NEWS/180809896/its-official-us-china-tariffs-will-begin-to-hit-plastics
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China Retaliates with Tariffs on $16 Billion Worth of U.S. Imports After Trump’s Latest Trade Hit
Aug 8, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Amanda Erickson
China will impose tariffs on an additional $16 billion worth of U.S. products, officials announced Wednesday, marking the latest parry in an escalating trade war between the two countries.
The 25 percent tariffs will go into effect Aug. 23, targeting cars, crude oil, natural gas and coal.
In a statement, the Chinese Commerce Ministry charged that the United States “once again put domestic law above international law by imposing ‘very unreasonable’ new tariffs on Chinese goods.”
China’s announcement is a direct response to new duties on Chinese goods imported into the United States, announced Tuesday in Washington. Those new tariffs, totaling $16 billion, will be levied against 279 products, including motorcycles, steam turbines and railway cars.
After months of escalation, business communities in both countries are wondering when and how the trade confrontation will end.
“With each successive round of tariffs, Trump continues to back China into a corner, forcing Beijing to respond in kind,” said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of international law firm Perkins Coie and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
“There is no off-ramp, and Trump has given China little wiggle room to save face and come to the bargaining table,” he said. “By continuing to up the ante, Trump is, in effect, publicly demanding an unconditional surrender from Beijing.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-retaliates-with-tariffs-on-16-billion-worth-of-us-imports-after-trumps-latest-trade-hit/2018/08/08/167684ce-9b09-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html?utm_term=.b110c745e92f
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Ex-EPA Officials Urge Wheeler to Change Direction of Agency
Aug 8, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
A group of former officials with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are urging Administrator Andrew Wheeler to turn the agency around following a number of decisions they are calling reckless.
Four former EPA air office heads, as well as former Obama-era Administrator Gina McCarthy, sent a letter to Wheeler and current Office of Air Administrator Bill Wherum on Wednesday asking them to reset the direction of the EPA.
"As your time as Acting Administrator begins, you have the opportunity to clearly set the direction of the agency and return to its core statutory mission of protecting public health," Roger Strelow, David Hawkins, Bob Perciasepe, Gina McCarthy and Janet McCabe wrote Wheeler.
"We urge you to take that opportunity."
In their letter, the group outlines concerns over the agency's negative rhetoric on environmental protections and EPA's recent proposal to weaken the national standard for auto emissions. The former chiefs, some of whom served under Republican administrations, urged Wheeler and Wherum to resist outside voices in making their regulatory decisions.
"As you assume leadership, we urge you to reconsider some of the proposals that seem to be motivated by a reckless drive to de-regulate, no matter the cost, or in response to requests by industries or individuals motivated by their own bottom line or political leanings, not by what is best for the American people," the group wrote.
Additionally the group asks the EPA heads to acknowledge the damage the recent rollback of carbon and methane emissions regulations will do to the climate.
"Protecting public health is neither partisan nor political, and must be based on good science. Setting a standard for healthy air is not a matter of opinion, no more than determining a healthy blood pressure or cholesterol level," they wrote.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/400888-five-former-epa-officials-send-letter-to-wheeler-condemning
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'It Is Imperative' for Staff to Cooperate with IG — Wheeler
Aug 8, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Kevin Bogardus
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler today urged employees to work with the agency's internal watchdog.
Wheeler said in an internal email obtained by E&E News that as a former career EPA employee, he recognized how important the Office of Inspector General is in stopping fraud, waste and abuse at the agency.
"One of the ways we ensure accountability deserving of the public's trust is through the review and oversight carried out by the OIG," Wheeler told employees this morning.
He noted that, by law, the IG requires help and information from EPA staff to do its oversight job.
"It is imperative and expected that agency personnel provide the OIG with access to personnel, facilities and records or other information or material that is needed by the OIG to accomplish its mission," Wheeler said.
He described how the IG conducts its work — audits and evaluations as well as criminal investigations — and that he expects agency staff to report abuses to the watchdog office, sharing the IG's hotline email address and phone number where complainants can request anonymity.
"Each employee taking the responsibility to report activity to the OIG which appears wasteful or illegal is one of the most important and successful means the OIG has for identifying and stopping wrongdoing," Wheeler said.
He also said EPA employees do not have to have permission from their managers to speak to the IG and warned against retaliation of whistleblowers at the agency.
"Please be aware that retaliation against any person who makes reports to the OIG, or who participates in an OIG investigation, is prohibited and will not be tolerated," Wheeler said.
Wheeler is not the first EPA chief to urge staff cooperation with the IG. His predecessors at the agency have done so, as well.
Scott Pruitt, who resigned last month under a crush of allegations of inordinate spending and mismanagement, sent out a similar memo last year (Greenwire, Aug. 9, 2017). Lisa Jacksonand Gina McCarthy, President Obama's EPA administrators, also sent out memos prompting staff to work with the agency's internal watchdog.
Wheeler's memo comes as EPA's IG continues several reviews related to Pruitt's tenure at the agency.
The IG is expected to release several reports soon, perhaps as early as this month, on its audits of the prior administrator's travel, personal security detail and use of the Safe Drinking Water Act's special hiring authority that resulted in substantial raises for aides close to Pruitt, which were later reversed.
Other Pruitt scandals, including his rental for part of last year of a Capitol Hill condo linked to a lobbyist and having staff perform personal errands for him, have also grabbed the IG's attention.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/08/08/stories/1060093051
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These 4 Tests Will Reveal Andrew Wheeler's True EPA Agenda
Aug 8, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Felice Stadler
Although Andrew Wheeler has sought to distance himself from Scott Pruitt in some important ways as acting head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he’s also signaled a continuation of his predecessor’s agenda.
Two immediate examples: his decision to ease coal ash storage rules and announcement to weaken clean car standards.
But there are four specific tests Wheeler faces that we’ll be watching closely over the next several months. They will shed more light on whether he plans to uphold the mission of the EPA, or continue the Trump-Pruitt all-out assault on protections for people and the environment.
1. Will he halt the “censored science” rule?
Before Pruitt resigned amid ethics scandals in July, he proposed a “censored science” rule championed by polluting industries. This change would effectively bar the agency from using many high-quality scientific studies in the development of safeguards from toxic exposures.
Under the guise of transparency, Pruitt’s plan would only allow use of studies that make all their research public – even though gold standard research often relies on personal medical information scientists must protect for legal and ethical reasons. This would effectively censor valid science on chemical risks, air pollution, adverse health effects and other facts that polluters aim to suppress.
Wheeler can stop the proposed rule at any time, and once again center his agency on the best and most comprehensive science and research.
2. Will he reverse Pruitt’s interstate smog decision?
Several states, including Maryland, have petitioned the EPA to help them reduce harmful pollution outside state borders that affects downwind states.
In its petition, Maryland asked the agency to require coal-burning power plants in five upwind states to use pollution control equipment already installed at 36 units. It would reduce interstate pollution and dangerous smog for millions of people in the region.
Under Pruitt, the EPA proposed denying this and a similar petition from Delaware. Wheeler now has an opportunity to reverse course and confirm EPA’s duty to address interstate pollution.
3. Will he stand up against Trump to protect EPA’s budget?
President Trump and Pruitt twice proposed budgets that would have gutted the EPA’s ability to carry out its mission of protecting human health. These cuts would have meant more air pollution and contaminated water, more exposure to lead and toxic chemicals, more asthma attacks and more preventable deaths across America.
It’s clear that President Trump is working to kneecap the EPA through both executive action and budgetary processes. We’re watching to see if Wheeler will stand up for an agency that is already stretched thin with personnel and funding.
4. Will he defend life-saving chemical disaster rules?
Pruitt proposed to gut rules the EPA adopted after a 2013 chemical explosion killed 15 people at a Texas fertilizer plant, including a dozen first responders. The former EPA administrator’s plan would weaken accident prevention measures and reduce the flow of information to local communities affected by such accidents.
Wheeler has said he will make “risk communication” a priority. Reinstituting the chemical disaster measures would show that he’s willing to put action to his words. People’s lives are directly at risk.
There’s more on Wheeler’s plate than these four tests, of course. As head of the EPA, he also needs to cut carbon pollution from power plants, defend a much-needed chemical safety law, and keep methane emissions in check.
The coming months will illuminate the agenda [PDF] of the man charged with keeping our environment clean and helping Americans live healthier lives.
https://www.edf.org/blog/2018/08/08/these-4-tests-will-reveal-andrew-wheelers-true-epa-agenda
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US Toxics Agency Releases Draft Profiles for Four Substances
Aug 8, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has announced that its 29th set of draft toxicological profiles is available for review and comment.
Set 29 has four substances: tribufos; bromodichloromethane; bromomethane; and 2-hexanone.
The sets of substances are taken from a list of 275 chemicals on the ATSDR's substance priority list (SPL).
The list is maintained with the EPA, under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (Cercla). It consists of substances "determined to pose the most significant potential threat to human health, due to their known or suspected toxicity and potential for human exposure".
The agency says that as part of the profiling it will consider key studies on each of the substances, but it wants to hear any additional information that may be relevant by 31 October.Improved usability
The ATSDR also has requested comment on its attempts to improve the usability of its profiles. These include:removing redundant content;adding summary figures and tables that did not exist in previous toxicological profiles; andreformatting the levels of significant exposure (LSE) tables in Chapter 2.
To this end, it asks for comments on the profile for bromodichloromethane, which it is using to pilot the changes.
The agency says that toxicological profiles issued as drafts for public comment "represent its best efforts to provide important toxicological information on priority hazardous substances".
Set 30 – which will include updated profiles of 1,1-dichloroethene; 1,2-dichloropropane; DDT, DDD, DDE; di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP); and pyrethrins and pyrethroids – has been under development since September 2016.
https://chemicalwatch.com/69433/us-toxics-agency-releases-draft-profiles-for-four-substances
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California Hopeful on Amended Prop 65 Warning Compliance
Aug 8, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Frank Zaworski
Amendments to how warnings are given under California's Proposition 65 are set to take effect from 30 August. And the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (Oehha) has said it is hoping most businesses operating or selling into the state will be in compliance in time.
The amendments, adopted back in September 2016, concern requirements for labelling, catalogues, the content of consumer product exposure warnings, authorised agents, industry-specific warnings and other provisions (see box).
And while the changes met with some opposition when first agreed, Oehha says it is working to ensure that the amendments are adhered to.
"We hope compliance will be high, but we are not in the business of making predictions," Sam Delson, Oehha's deputy director of external and legal affairs told Chemical Watch. "We are doing our best to spread the word and inform people about the new requirements and provide assistance to businesses that contact us with questions about how to comply."
Denise Davis, vice president at the California Chamber of Commerce, said: "Many businesses have already come into compliance and many are preparing to do so by 30 August.
"However, like any regulation with such wide application, it is always possible that businesses, particularly small ones, will not be prepared."
And, Caroline Cox, senior scientist at NGO the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), is optimistic: "The regulations have had a long phase-in (two years) so I think businesses should be ready."
Bruce Jarnot, senior manager of product compliance at regulatory consultancy Assent Compliance, said some sectors, such as food, are ready because they thoroughly understand government labelling regulations.
However, others, such as multi-line retailers and big box stores that sell products under private labels, are doing a bit of scrambling, he said.
"Some companies made the transition early and smoothly. While some companies were caught by surprise when customers started asking about labelling," Mr Jarnot said. "Right now we have suppliers who are trying to get the chemical information they need to determine compliant labelling."
As a result, he said, testing laboratories who have clients that sell into the state are currently inundated with verification of product information tasks. These help determine whether a product needs a new warning label that meets the new standards.Amended warning labels
The amendments change safe harbour warnings for compliance with the law in several important ways.
For example, consumer products containing a Prop 65 chemical will have to be labelled that it "can expose you to", rather than simply the product "contains", the chemical.
Warnings will include:the name of, at least one, listed chemical that prompted the warning;the internet address for Oehha's new warnings website. This includes additional information on the health effects of listed chemicals and ways to reduce or eliminate exposure to them; anda triangular yellow warning symbol on most warnings.
The amendments also:clarifiy the roles and responsibilities of manufacturers and retailers in providing warnings;add new 'tailored' warnings that provide more specific information for certain kinds of exposures, products and places;provide for website warnings for products purchased over the internet; andprovide for warnings in languages other than English in some cases.
CEH's Caroline Cox said that from her perspective, "the most important improvements are a requirement to provide warnings in languages other than English under certain conditions; and to identify at least one chemical, by name, to which consumers are likely to be exposed."
https://chemicalwatch.com/69426/california-hopeful-on-amended-prop-65-warning-compliance
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North Carolina Launches State-Wide PFAS Monitoring
Aug 8, 2018 | Inside EPA
Researchers with North Carolina universities are kicking off a state-wide air and water monitoring program for per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) after receiving more than $5 million from the state legislature to do so.
According to an Aug. 1 statement from the N.C. Policy Collaboratory, the funds will go to 20 researchers at multiple North Carolina universities to conduct the testing and begin work on related research projects, including “sampling public water sources statewide to establish a baseline and monitoring protocol”; taking air samples across the state “to better understand how air particles may impact water on and under the ground”; “developing models to predict which private water wells are at greatest risk of PFAS contamination”; and “assessing the impact of PFAS on public health and testing the performance of technologies” to remove them.
The program follows researchers' discovery of a PFAS chemical, GenX, in the Cape Fear River last year. The discovery has led to a class-action lawsuit against Chemours, which has a PFAS-producing plant near the river, and efforts by North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality to monitor and manage PFAS in the river.
State officials have also successfully pressured EPA to set a toxicity value for Gen X, a step that then-Administrator Scott Pruitt announced earlier this year. EPA scientists told North Carolina's Science Advisory Board at its last meeting in June that they are working to complete by this fall a GenX toxicological assessment.
The Charlotte Observer explains that “Over the next year, each municipality in the state will have its water tested at the point where the water enters the public system,” according to an Aug. 6 story. “In addition, each municipality will pick one well that supplies public drinking water to test. Air testing will also be conducted across the state because emissions can settle on the ground. It isn’t known yet how many locations will have air testing.”
The story also notes that the study will provide a final report to the state legislature in December 2019.
The program will be managed by the N.C. Policy Collaboratory, which the state legislature established two years ago to “facilitat[e] the dissemination of the policy and research expertise of the University of North Carolina for practical use by state and local government,” according to its website. The Collaboratory's focus is “facilitat[ing] and fund[ing] research related to the environmental and economic components of the management of [North Carolina's] natural resources ...”
Jason Surratt, associate professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at UNC's public health school, was selected to manage the study. An advisory committee of professors at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmington, Duke University, East Carolina University and North Carolina State University will oversee the program.
Detlef Knappe, an environmental engineering professor at NC State University, and Lee Ferguson, associate professor of environmental engineering at Duke University, will co-chair the advisory committee. Their research teams first discovered GenX contamination in the Cape Fear River, at Jordan Lake and in Cary, NC’s tap water.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/north-carolina-launches-state-wide-pfas-monitoring
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Residents of Colo. County Ask EPA for Chemicals Regulation
Aug 8, 2018 | Colorado Springs Gazette (In E&E Greenwire)
By Jakob Rogers
El Paso County, Colo., residents last night urged EPA to more tightly regulate toxic chemicals called perfluorinated compounds in drinking water.
The best-known chemicals in this class are perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
EPA officials are on a nationwide tour to hear residents' concerns about the presence of these chemicals in their drinking water.
Mark Favors, 49, spoke about relatives who had died, many of them of kidney cancer, after drinking the local water most of their lives. He cited retired Master Sgt. Shelton Lee King, a Vietnam veteran who died of the cancer in 2012.
"You have us begging you, for people that sacrificed for this country, and you can't be overcautious for their lives," Favors said. "And to me, that's unacceptable."
Under EPA's current regulatory process, new standards for perfluorinated compounds in drinking water are not called for until 2021.
"We are working, but what I've heard is you want us to work hard, and faster," said Doug Benevento, administrator for EPA's Region 8, which includes Colorado.
EPA has linked exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances at certain levels with cancer and other health problems (Jakob Rogers, Colorado Springs Gazette, Aug. 7). — CC
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/08/08/stories/1060093019
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N.Y. City Sues Federal, State Agencies over Contamination
Aug 8, 2018 | Times Herald-Record (In E&E Greenwire)
By Leonard Sparks
The city of Newburgh sued New York, state agencies, manufacturers and the federal government yesterday over pollution in its main water source.
That water supply has been out of use for more than two years because of contamination with perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), a chemical that has been linked to cancers and birth defects.
The suit claims defendants including the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the National Guard, and state agencies including the New York State Department of Transportation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey allowed firefighting foams used at a National Guard base and an airport to contaminate Washington Lake. Those sites on land owned by the Department of Transportation didn't stop chemicals from leaking into the lake's watershed or had "failing" protections, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, also accuses companies that produced the class of chemicals that includes PFOS of knowing for decades that those chemicals pose risks to the environment and human health. And the military has known about the risks since the 1980s, the suit says.
Newburgh is asking for damages and a cleanup of the lake's watershed, including the base and airport.
Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office, the Department of Transportation and the New York Army National Guard did not respond to requests for comment. A Port Authority spokesperson said it does not comment on pending litigation (Leonard Sparks, Times Herald-Record, Aug. 7). — CC
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/08/08/stories/1060093031
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First Trial on Roundup Cancer Claims Goes to Jury
Aug 8, 2018 | Reuters (In E&E Greenwire)
By Tina Bellon
A trial in which a school groundskeeper alleged that his use of Monsanto Co.'s Roundup weedkiller caused his terminal cancer will go to a California jury after lawyers for both sides delivered their closing arguments yesterday.
Groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson is one of more than 5,000 plaintiffs across the United States who claim Monsanto's glyphosate-containing herbicides, including the widely used Roundup, cause cancer. His case, the first to go to trial, began in San Francisco's Superior Court of California four weeks ago.
Johnson's lawyer, Brent Wisner, yesterday urged jurors to hold Monsanto liable and punish the company with a verdict he said would "actually change the world." Wisner claimed Monsanto knew about glyphosate's cancer risk but decided to bury the information.
Monsanto, a unit of Bayer AG following a $62.5 billion acquisition by the German conglomerate, denies the allegations and says expert testimony on which Johnson and others rely does not satisfy any scientific or legal requirements.
"The message of 40 years of scientific studies is clear: This cancer is not caused by glyphosate," Monsanto's lawyer, George Lombardi, said, according to an online broadcast of the trial by Courtroom View Network.
EPA in September 2017 concluded a decadeslong assessment of glyphosate risks and found the chemical not likely carcinogenic to humans. The World Health Organization's cancer arm in 2015 classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
If it finds Monsanto liable, the jury can decide to award punitive damages on top of the more than $39 million in compensatory damages Johnson demanded. The jury is expected to start deliberating today.
Johnson's case, filed in 2016, was fast-tracked for trial due to the severe state of his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system that he alleges was caused by Roundup and Ranger Pro, another Monsanto glyphosate herbicide. Johnson's doctors said he is unlikely to live past 2020.
A former pest control manager for a California county school system, Johnson, 46, applied the weedkiller up to 30 times per year.
His case is not part of proceedings consolidated in Missouri, Delaware or California state court, where most of the Monsanto cases are pending. It is also separate from consolidated federal multidistrict litigation pending before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco.
Chhabria in July allowed hundreds of Roundup lawsuits to proceed to trial, finding there was sufficient evidence for a jury to hear the cases despite calling plaintiff's expert opinions "shaky" (Greenwire, July 11).
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/08/08/stories/1060093005
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France to Prepare Inventory of Chemicals in Consumer Products
Aug 8, 2018 | Chemical Watch
France has announced plans to create an inventory of substances in consumer products as part of an initiative to prevent hazardous chemicals polluting oceans.
The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses) is expected to deliver the inventory, which will include data on harmful chemicals in cosmetics, sunscreens and detergents deemed "especially toxic" for marine ecosystems and coral reefs.
The agency will identify the substances of "greatest concern" and propose an "appropriate regulatory framework", according to a press release.
The Ocean Mission initiative will also focus on proposing new measures for the protection of the oceans against waste and, in particular, plastics pollution.
France has a "special responsibility" towards oceans, because 11 of the country's 13 overseas territories are home to coral reefs, Brune Poirson, secretary of state to the minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, said.
The ministry wants to "be able to take action to against certain chemicals if they were found to have a negative impact on marine ecosystems", she added.
While coral reefs represent 1% of the ocean surface, they contain 25% of all marine species, according to the press release.
These ecosystems are "seriously threatened" – at the global level, it is estimated that 20% of the reefs have been "irretrievably destroyed" in recent decades, it said.
Of the remaining 80%, only one third is deemed to be in a satisfactory state. "Among these threats, climate change and consequently the increase in ocean temperatures [...] are clearly identified. But corals are also threatened by certain chemicals that drive their degradation."
In July, the European Parliament's Environment Committee (Envi) called on the Commission to bolster its plastics strategy, by banning microplastics in cosmetics, personal care, detergents and cleaning products by 2020 in order to protect the oceans.Consumer focus
Anses has recently been conducting tests on chemicals in certain consumer products, at the behest of the French government.
In July, French ministries asked the agency to carry out an inventory on the toxicity of substances in clothing and footwear, amid regular reports of cases of allergies and skin irritation relating to them. The test results will support a restriction proposal under REACH by France and Sweden on skin sensitising and irritating substances in the products.
A few months earlier, Anses teamed up with the French Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) to warn people of the risks homemade toy 'slime' can pose to children because they may contain hazardous substances.
In March, the agency announced that its major research programme would include projects on the exposure effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and bisphenols on humans. They were selected in 2017 following Anses' annual call for research projects under its national research programme Environment-Health-Work initiative.
https://chemicalwatch.com/69432/france-to-prepare-inventory-of-chemicals-in-consumer-products
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As Trump, Peña Nieto Rush to Finish NAFTA, Oil Industry Faces Loss of Key Protection
Aug 8, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By James Osborne
The Trump administration is racing to close a deal with Mexico on the North American Free Trade Agreement before the leftist president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, takes office later this year, a drive that appears increasingly likely to eliminate an investment protection provision dear to U.S. oil companies and many other corporations.
The administration has just over three weeks to get a new deal before Congress, if lawmakers are going to complete their required 90-day review period before Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto leaves office Dec. 1. Peña Nieto has his own incentives to get an agreement in place soon as he seeks to cement a legacy before turning over the government to Obrador, according to officials following the negotiations closely.
“They’re both trying to find a way to get this done,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said of Trump and Peña Nieto.
At the center of talks are NAFTA’s existing investment protection rules - known as Investor State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS. Championed by oil companies and corporate America at-large, the provision allows companies to challenge foreign government policies through an independent arbiter and win compensation for losses caused by those policies.
Earlier this year, for example, ConocoPhillips won a $2 billion arbitration award from the Venezuelan government which nationalized the Houston oil company’s holdings in the country just over a decade ago. In 2015 Exxon Mobil and Murphy Oil won a $17.3 million judgment against Canada for a requirement they invest in local research and training in exchange for oil rights off Newfoundland.
President Donald Trump has pushed to eliminate the arbitration provision, arguing that it impinges on U.S. sovereignty. Observers, including Cuellar, say that it’s a concession that Peña Nieto could make to win agreement on other issues.
“If Peña Nieto is willing to move on this, [the Trump administration] will be a little bit flexible to get this thing done,” said Cuellar, who is fighting to keep the arbitration provision in NAFTA
Labor activists, who have criticized the provision for decades as encouraging companies to move factories abroad, are already declaring victory on the issue. Lori Wallach, the director of global trade watch at the activist group Public Citizen, said last week the arbitration provision was “out of NAFTA, as a practical matter.”
After close to a year of negotiations, the United States, Canada and Mexico are down to a relatively short list of negotiating points, including Trump administration’s insistence that the agreement come up for review in five years under a so-called “sunset” clause. Mexico and Canada strongly oppose such a clauses as likely to create too uncertain an environment for investors.
Trump also is fighting to tighten the rules on which motor vehicles are exempted from U.S. tariffs, limiting the exemption only those vehicles with 50 percent of more of their components manufactured within the United States. Mexico has recently offered a counter proposal that is short of Trump’s demand, but would increase the U.S. share of car manufacturing, said Antonio Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and now an attorney in Mexico City with the law firm White & Case.
“If they can get [car manufacturing] across the goal line, then the sunset clause and ISDS should follow in short order,” he said. “If it goes beyond Dec. 1, there could be a loss of momentum that sets in, largely because of the loss of urgency.”
NAFTA without the arbitration provision would face significant hurdles in Washington. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s chief lobbying arm, said doing away with arbitration or instituting a sunset clause would, “undermine U.S. energy security, investment protections and our global energy leadership.”
Earlier this year, more than 100 Republican House members and senators, including Rep. Kevin Brady, of the Woodlands, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the number two Republican in the Senate, sent a letter to the White House stating their concerns about doing away with the arbitration provision.
“At the end of the day this has to go to Congress, and Republicans have made themselves crystal clear they think its important to maintain ISDS,” said John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Whether enough Republicans are willing to defy the administration remains to be seen. The labor unions’ opposition to the arbitration provision may provide the administration with the votes of Democrats, who have become increasingly wary of supporting trade deals perceived as detrimental to U.S. workers, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Trump withdrew the United States from that agreement, which would have lowered trade barriers across 12 Pacific Rim nations, including low-cost competitors such as Vietnam and Malaysia.
“[U.S. Trade Representative Robert] Lighthizer knows he may lose some Republican votes, but he might gain some Democratic votes,” said Bob Cash, director of the Texas Fair Trade Coalition, a nonprofit representing labor interests. “I wouldn’t want to predict anything.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/As-Trump-Pe-a-Nieto-rush-to-finish-NAFTA-oil-13139445.php
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Interior Moves Toward Opening California Acreage for Oil and Gas Leases
Aug 8, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Ben Lefebvre
The Interior Department is moving toward opening up more federal land in California for oil and gas leasing, according to a filing today in the Federal Register.
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management will accept public comment on its proposal to conduct an environmental review on the impact that drilling would have on 400,000 acres of federal land and another 1.2 million acres of mineral estates in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties, according to the filing.
Environmental groups immediately opposed the BLM’s move, saying it would open up public lands to possible damage from fracking.
“We desperately need to keep these dirty fossil fuels in the ground,“ Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release.
Interior hasn’t offered parcels for oil and gas leases in the region since the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups first sued the agency to block the lease sales in 2015, arguing it had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by by issuing oil leases without analyzing fracking’s environmental impact.
Since May 2017, BLM has taken steps to conduct an environmental review that would address the complaints in the original lawsuit, the agency said in an August court filing.
WHAT'S NEXT: The public comment period on the proposal ends September 7.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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(ACC Mentioned) Drayage Drivers Catch Break as TWIC Reader Rules Delayed
Aug 8, 2018 | FreightWaves
By Michael Angell
The US will delay a rule that could have slowed drayage and intermodal drivers accessing ports after complaints about its uneven enforcement and the potential for logistical hiccups.
The US Coast Guard is soon expected to file notice in the Federal Register that it will delay requiring certain ports to use biometric inspections of the Transport Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).
The filing comes after US President Donald Trump signed last week the Transportation Worker Identification Credential Accountability Act of 2018.
Implemented in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks, TWICs are required for drayage drivers, longshoremen and others needing unrestricted access to ports. Truckers entering major ports without a TWIC otherwise usually require escorts.
TWICs are now just checked against the card holder’s photo on the card. But TWICs also have electronic chips holding the applicant’s fingerprints.
By the end of this August, the US Coast Guard was going to require ports it considered highly sensitive to start using a biometric scan of TWIC cards, rather than just a visual scan of the cards.
But the recently passed law requires the biometric scans be delayed until after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can assess the effectiveness of the current TWIC program.
Government watchdogs have criticized the TWIC program for inaccurate background checks and its high administrative costs. It can take up to eight weeks to get a TWIC from the Transportation Safety Administration, which checks the criminal background and citizenship history of applicants.
The new biometric scanning rule has also been panned by industry as ill-defined and causing more delays.
Boyd Stephenson, senior vice president of National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC), says his group opposed the TWIC reader rule because the type of facilities that would be required to have biometric scans was ill-defined when the final rule was published.
The US Coast Guard originally targeted biometric TWIC scans at ports that store hazardous materials or handle over 1,000 passengers. But the rule as written in federal code required biometric scans at any site that holds hazardous materials and even non-maritime sites such as trucking and rail terminals.
“The Coast Guard pulled a switcheroo,” Stephenson said. “That’s cheating under the administrative law procedures.”The NTTC signed on to a lawsuit filed by the International Liquid Terminals Association, American Chemistry Council, and the Fertilizer Institute seeking to block the US Coast Guard and DHS from implementing the law.
The trade groups are not opposed to using biometric scans. But the law as written would have forced them to install biometric scanning at some facilities and then wait for further clarification on installing them at other facilities.The unclear definition of which facilities will be required to use biometric scanning “means possible multiple rounds of facility capital improvements and, consequently, multiple delay periods for the trucks that pickup and deliver at these facilities while they are under construction,” Stephenson wrote in a letter to the US Coast Guard.
“The big fight is whether to install the biometric scans at sites under the current rule and then decide later to install at other facilities,” Stephenson said. “We would prefer everything to happen at the same time.”
For truckers, the multiple rounds of installing biometric scanners means trucks facing delays, Stephenson says. The issue is more critical now due to hours of service requirements, he added.“We are the ones whose cards are going to get read,” Stephenson said. “There could be delays of six to eight hours for trucks. This has implications for trucking writ large.”
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/biometric-twic-scans-delayed
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Group Sues EPA over Missed Deadlines on Standards Reviews
Aug 8, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Sean Reilly
EPA has missed Clean Air Act deadlines for reviews of emissions standards for a half-dozen industrial source categories, a California environmental group alleged in a lawsuit filed yesterday.
The suit, brought by Our Children's Earth Foundation, charges that New Source Performance Standards for bulk gasoline terminals and electric arc furnaces used in steel plants are more than a quarter-century past due for revisiting.
EPA is also several years late in conducting residual risk and technology reviews of the air toxics standards for two classes of gasoline distribution facilities: iron and steel foundry area sources and wood preserving area sources, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The agency's failure to act deprives the foundation's "members and constituents of the cleaner air that would result from those actions," the suit says in asking a judge to compel EPA to review the emissions limits for each category and either revise them or make a determination that no changes are needed.
An EPA spokeswoman declined to comment this morning on pending litigation. According to the suit, EPA is supposed to review both the New Source Performance Standards and the air toxics standards for specific sources every eight years, in part to take account of any advances in pollution control technology.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/08/08/stories/1060093045
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Proposed Rollbacks in Vehicle Emission Limits Pose Serious Environmental Threat
Aug 8, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Joel A. Mintz
Federal laws and regulations play a crucial role determining the quality of our air, water, and natural resources. Well-researched and scientifically supported rules can bring enormous benefits to the American people, but regulatory rollbacks for little more than deregulation's sake can cause great harm.
One example of the potential damage that a poorly crafted regulation may cause is the new proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to roll back a requirement that automobile manufacturers improve vehicle fuel efficiency in the first half of the 2020s. With the rise of wind and solar energy, and the ongoing shift from coal-fired to natural-gas-fired power plants, motor vehicles are now the leading U.S. source of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change — along with other harmful air pollutants. If left in place, the current requirements would significantly reduce those harmful emissions, protecting public health while making disastrous sea level rise less likely. If reversed, the opposite would occur.
The Trump administration has also proposed to revoke a waiver granted by EPA to the state of California that allows it to set stricter vehicle emission standards. The Clean Air Act specifically provides for such waivers because parts of the state are particularly burdened by air pollution. California has consistently sought and been granted such waivers, setting relatively strict requirements for vehicle pollution. The law also allows other states to adopt California’s standards, and 12 states and the District of Columbia have done so, thus guaranteeing that cars manufactured with the California standards in mind will have a broad market.
Both of these regulatory proposals are poorly supported and of questionable legality. The Trump rollback of vehicle emission standards directly contradicts a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, which declared that greenhouse gases are a pollutant subject to EPA regulation. The rollback proposal also conflicts with an EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Moreover, the standards were the result of a negotiation between the Obama White House and the auto industry, which is probably why there wasn’t much clamoring from Detroit for a rollback.
In addition, the Trump administration’s principal rationale for freezing vehicle emission standards after 2020 — an assertion that stricter pollution requirements will cause more driving deaths — appears shaky at best. The agencies’ reasoning relies on several highly questionable assumptions. EPA and NHTSA take as a given that people who drive fuel-efficient cars will drive many more miles, making it likely that they will be involved in car crashes. The agencies’ proposal also assumes that people will be deterred from buying newer, safer cars because they will become more expensive, and that in order to meet fuel efficiency standards, automakers will make their vehicles smaller and lighter, detracting from their crashworthiness.
Experts have sharply criticized these assumptions. Although the current regulation could increase the sticker price of new cars, those price increases will be much lower than the auto price increases that are likely to result from the administration’s tariffs on foreign cars and foreign steel and aluminum. Moreover, the rollback proposal seems to have greatly overestimated the extent to which consumers will drive extra miles in more fuel-efficient cars; and it completely ignores the fact that smaller and lighter cars are likely to do less damage when they collide with other vehicles on the road.
The proposed withdrawal of California’s Clean Air Act waiver also seems to run afoul of the law. The California waiver provision has long been enshrined in the implementation of the statute, and revoking the waiver would run headlong into the clear intent and language of the Clean Air Act itself. To justify its proposed waiver, EPA will need to provide a far more convincing justification for its actions than the flimsy explanations it has thus far offered
The administration’s proposals are still at an early stage. EPA and NHTSA must receive and respond to public comments on them, and their final regulations are certain to be challenged in court. Nonetheless, even if they fail to pass judicial muster, these proposed rollbacks are symptomatic of the shamefully destructive approach to environmental and public health policy that has thus far characterized the Trump administration. Unless that approach changes direction or is held in check by a newly elected Congress starting in January 2019, a good deal more environmental harm seems to be in store.
Joel A. Mintz, a former EPA official, is a Professor Emeritus of Law and the C. William Trout Senior Fellow in Public Interest Law at Nova Southeastern University College of Law. He is also a member of the Center for Progressive Reform.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/400891-proposed-rollbacks-in-vehicle-emission-limits-pose
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