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AM ACC 8/17/2018
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(ACC Mentioned) China to Send Trade Delegation to Dc; Malpass to Lead U.S. Side
Aug 17, 2018 | Inside U.S. Trade
By Anshu Siripurapu
China will dispatch a delegation to the U.S. to discuss trade later this month -- the first senior level dialogue after both imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods -- and Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass will run point for the talks on the U.S. side. -
(ACC Mentioned) What's Happening with WOTUS
Aug 17, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Morning Energy
By Kelsey Tamborrino
...The American Chemistry Council, meanwhile, applauded the proposal in its comment Thursday. "EPA’s proposal codifies an important good governance principle — that government agencies should be as transparent as possible, within the bounds of the law... -
Trump Agenda Gives Wheeler Opportunity to Reverse Bush EPA's Losses
Aug 16, 2018 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
Industry attorneys say acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler's experience as a former agency career official, and later legislative staff, gives him the opportunity to learn from court defeats that blocked much of President George W. Bush's EPA deregulatory agenda... -
States Push for Broad TSCA Evaluations, Despite Preemption Considerations
Aug 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
State attorney generals have written to the EPA urging it to broaden the scopes of TSCA risk evaluations, even though such an approach could limit their ability to act on those substances. But states are also poised to fill any 'gaps' left from uses omitted from the agency's assessments. -
(ACC Blog) Setting the Record Straight: Response to American Academy of Pediatrics Report
Aug 16, 2018 | American Chemistry Matters
By American Chemistry
You may have read or heard about a recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that is creating concerns about the safety of food packaging, additives and plastics containers. Unfortunately, the report has created the false idea... -
(ACC Mentioned) Navy Tests for Cancer-Linked ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water near NAS Jacksonville
Aug 16, 2018 | WJCT
By Ryan Benk
The Navy wants residents using drinking wells in two areas near Naval Air Station Jacksonville to have their groundwater tested. That’s two years after a federal health advisory was issued for certain chemicals used during firefighting training on the base. -
Ex-Trump Nominee Is a Fan of Science Overhaul
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
President Trump's controversial ex-nominee to head EPA's chemical safety office likes a proposal to limit which research the agency can use when crafting new rules. -
US Toxics Agency Releases Final Profile for Two Diisocyanates
Aug 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has released its final toxicological profile for toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). -
New Hampshire Site First for Fluorochemicals Health Study (2)
Aug 17, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will use New Hampshire’s Pease International Tradeport as a test site for a larger investigation of the health effects of fluorochemicals, which are fueling lawsuits and contaminating sources of drinking water across the country. -
Bayer Vows to Appeal Glyphosate Verdict
Aug 16, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Melody M. Bomgardner
It has been only two months since Bayer finalized its purchase of agriculture giant Monsanto, and already the company faces a long legal battle over Monsanto’s best-known legacy products: herbicides containing glyphosate. -
EPA Replacement for Obama Climate Plan Due Late Next Week: Source
Aug 16, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Timothy Gardner
The Trump administration's proposed replacement for the Obama-era's central regulation on climate change, the Clean Power Plan, is expected to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency late next week, an agency source said on Thursday. -
Judge Orders New NEPA Review for Keystone Pipeline
Aug 16, 2018 | Inside EPA
A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to prepare a supplemental National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for the revised route of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, dealing a potential setback to a long-pending project... -
Chinese Hackers Look to Alaska for Edge in Energy Talks — Report
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
On May 28, as Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) capped off a 10-day "trade and investment" trip to China, computer networks in his home state lit up with suspicious activity, according to a new report from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. -
Crude, Gas Liquids Production Hits All-Time Highs in July
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
U.S. production of natural gas liquids reached a record 4.4 million barrels per day last month, while crude oil production matched a previous record of 10.7 million barrels per day, according to the American Petroleum Institute. -
Mountain Valley Work Can Resume to Prevent Erosion — FERC
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Federal regulators have lifted a stop-work order along 70 miles of the Mountain Valley pipeline route, agreeing with the developers' contention that completing the installation of pipe is the "best option" to minimize environmental and safety risks... -
State Water Protections Blocked Energy Projects, Republicans Say
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
Republican senators and a tribal representative accused Washington state Aug. 16 of using water quality protection as an excuse to threaten the country’s drive toward energy independence. -
Clean Energy Jobs in Great Lakes Outnumber Jobs in Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Energy by More Than 4 to 1
Aug 16, 2018 | Environmental Working Group
By Grant Smith
The new clean energy economy provides over four times more jobs in the Great Lakes region than the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, according to EWG’s analysis of recent reports. -
Energy’s Cyber Threat Plea to Trump: Kick Up the U.S. Oversight
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Naureen S. Malik
With cyberattacks against U.S. natural gas utilities growing, the industry’s got an unusual message for the regulation-cutting Trump Administration: Give us more scrutiny. -
Failed Blowout Preventers Cited at Oklahoma Gas Rig Explosion (1)
Aug 17, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
A key piece of safety equipment on a drilling rig in Oklahoma owned by Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. didn’t function properly during a natural gas well explosion and fire that killed five workers earlier this year, a federal investigative agency says. -
Conrail Gets Mixed Win in Toxic Spill Appeal
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven M. Sellers
Consolidated Rail Corp. must pay $500 in negligence damages to a New Jersey man who drove through a cloud of vinyl chloride gas from a train derailment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Aug. 15. -
Zinke Blames Climate Change, Lax Forest Management for Wildfires
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Flavelle and Justin Sink
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said climate change is playing a role in California’s record wildfires, but took aim at environmental policies that he argued are making the problem worse. -
Calif. to Release Climate Assessment for Adaptation
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
California is about to release its latest climate science roundup aimed at helping local regions adapt. -
The Coming Green Wave
Aug 17, 2018 | New York Times
By Timothy Egan
If emotions were water, and you took all the heartbreak felt by the millions who followed the plight of a starving orca whale grieving over her dead calf, you’d have a river the size of the mighty Columbia.
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(ACC Mentioned) China to Send Trade Delegation to Dc; Malpass to Lead U.S. Side
Aug 17, 2018 | Inside U.S. Trade
By Anshu Siripurapu
China will dispatch a delegation to the U.S. to discuss trade later this month -- the first senior level dialogue after both imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods -- and Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass will run point for the talks on the U.S. side.
The Chinese delegation will be led Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced Thursday.
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow confirmed the meeting in an interview with CNBC.
Agriculture Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney said on Wednesday that it would be best for both countries to make a deal. The agriculture industry has long warned of potential damage from Chinese retaliation, a huge market for U.S. agriculture products like soybeans and cherries.
“We’d love nothing more than to settle this,” he said in Indiana. “I was involved in negotiations, Gregg Doud and I were over there. China offered some things. We appreciated that. There was even a little stretch, but when two-thirds of what they offered are things they really, really need to buy anyway, maybe they need a little more time. But, it’s beneficial for both countries to settle this thing sooner than later, because one of [China’s] stated goals is sustained social atmosphere. They don’t want disruptions.”
Doud is the chief agricultural negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Analysts and industry sources say the administration is divided -- and unclear -- about what it wants to achieve with its Section 301 investigation into China’s intellectual property and tech transfer policies, which was the basis for the $50 billion in tariffs and a threat of additional duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
“The administration’s been sending mixed messages on its goals,” said Ed Brzytwa, director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council. “The 301 is ostensibly about addressing tech transfer and IP theft problems but then you’ve also got this 'Made in China 2025' issue where it’s about addressing Chinese industrial policy, but then you’ve got the president saying, ‘We’re going to use this to address the trade deficit with China.’”
“It’s really hard to discern,” he said.
Another industry association source said “different officials within the administration have different areas of focus. The president as we know is highly focused on the trade deficit, but others will talk about the structural reform; obviously USTR put out a 400-page report on a lot of issues.”
Leland Miller, the CEO of China Beige Book, and Bill Zarit, the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told Inside U.S. Trade that Beijing, for its part, has misjudged the resolve of the Trump administration.
“I don’t think that they very well understood that the U.S. was very serious this time and that this administration is not a paper tiger -- I don’t think they got that,” Zarit said.
Miller said Beijing thought it was dealing with a “manageable hiccup” in its relationship with the U.S., which ended up “metastasizing” into a trade battle that is threatening China’s economy and internal plans for economic reform. He said China had previously viewed the U.S. as an idle threat, believing that partisan divides and political shifts in power would prevent any long-term action. Beijing also saw Trump as a “man of bluster, not action,” Miller said.
Kudlow warned Beijing last week that it should not underestimate Trump’s resolve to incite systematic change. He said on Thursday that “other American presidents have started and then they give up, President Trump’s not going to do that.”
Miller said there was internal dissent “bubbling up” in China over the handling of the trade dispute. Beijing, he contended, was eager to strike a deal but was “gun shy” because previous offers made to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had been rejected. China no longer has confidence in dealing with Trump’s lieutenants, Miller said, and might need to be given a clear indication that Trump himself is behind any deal negotiated.
He said China would be willing to make another offer that involved purchase agreements to bring down the trade deficit but contended that a longer-term pact addressing structural reform was further off.
“If the president wants a deal in October, there is one to be had,” he said.
Miller said it would take “serious pain in the relationship” for Beijing to consider abandoning its Made in China 2025 plan, which has been a target of the Trump administration. That would mean not just tariffs, he said, but a serious U.S. effort to dismantle supply chains in China, which would be result in an “inflection point in modern Chinese history” and end the current Chinese model.
Businesses and lawmakers have urged the administration to avoid tariffs and instead coordinate with U.S. allies in pursuit of negotiations with China. The American Chemistry Council's Brzytwa said tariffs would be ineffective in achieving long-term goals.
“China’s a very complex country,” he said. “If you really want to address these problems in China you’re going to have to have a longer-term outlook and if the administration’s longer-term outlook is, ‘We’re going to keep the tariffs in this place up until the point when they change their behavior,’ that is like putting a wall up, like you’re in a siege mentality, and hoping your food stocks don’t run out over the course of three to five years.”
https://insidetrade.com/inside-us-trade/china-send-trade-delegation-dc-malpass-lead-us-side
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(ACC Mentioned) What's Happening with WOTUS
Aug 17, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Morning Energy
By Kelsey Tamborrino
With help from Annie Snider, Ben Lefebvre and Alex Guillén
A COUNTRY DIVIDED: Which streams and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act? As of Thursday, the answer depends on where you’re standing. After a South Carolina District Court ruling overturning the Trump administration’s attempted delay of the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule for failing to offer the public a proper opportunity to comment, the 2015 rule is now officially on the books in 26 states — but not in the other 24 states where other district court injunctions are in place.
"The agencies refused to engage in a substantive reevaluation of the definition of the ‘waters of the United States' even though the legal effect of the Suspension Rule is that the definition of 'waters of the United States' ceases to be the definition under the WOTUS rule and reverts to the definition under the 1980s regulation," Judge David Norton wrote in Thursday’s ruling. "An illusory opportunity to comment is no opportunity at all."
Environmental groups hailed the decision, with Jon Devine of the Natural Resources Defense Council calling it a "sharp rebuke to the Trump administration." Meanwhile, Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, one of the fiercest critics of the Obama-era rule, called on the Trump administration to "to take immediate steps to limit the impact of this dangerous court decision."
But will it hold? The Justice Department is reviewing the decision, a spokesman said, and players on both sides broadly expect an appeal. Separately, EPA said in a statement it and the Army Corps of Engineers "will review the order as the agencies work to determine next steps." But the fate of the delay rule could ultimately become moot if the federal district judge in Texas grants a nationwide injunction request.
And don’t forget, this is just the warm-up fight. The battle royale will be over the Trump administration's rule to repeal the 2015 rule, which the agency has not finalized. Geoff Gisler, the Southern Environmental Law Center attorney who brought yesterday’s case on behalf of local environmental groups, argued that Thursday’s South Carolina court decision has implications for that fight and "should give the agencies pause" as they move forward. "The agencies just aren't telling the public what they're doing," he argued. "What this decision said was you can't just have a comment period, it has to be a meaningful comment period."
WE MADE IT TO FRIDAY! I'm your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Simon and Company’s Jen Covino named the eight senators who formerly served as mayors: Dianne Feinstein, Cory Booker, Jim Inhofe, Bob Corker, Bernie Sanders, Tim Kaine, Mike Enzi and Bob Menendez. For today: Who are the three current House lawmakers who previously served as ambassadors? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @kelseytam, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
FAR FROM OVER: A federal judge’s order directing the State Department to conduct a supplemental environmental review for the Keystone XL pipeline’s updated path through Nebraska is another setback in nearly a decade full of them for TransCanada. The order is sure to stall construction of the pipeline for months, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports. Plaintiffs in the case said the review would involve public hearings in Nebraska and consultations with Native American tribes whose land the pipeline would traverse.
Pipeline opponents are hoping to use the new review to push for a broader study of the project, Ben reports. Doug Hayes, a lawyer for the Sierra Club and one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the judge’s ruling that the “entire pipeline remains interrelated and requires one [environmental review] to understand the functioning of the entire unit” could open the door for them to seek a new review for the pipeline's entire route. “If they are going back to do a supplemental environmental impact statement, our position is they would need to evaluate all the new impacts of the pipeline,” Hayes said. “That would take definitely months.”
WHERE’S WHEELER? Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler travels to Michigan today to discuss issues plaguing the Great Lakes and meet with GOP Rep. Tim Walberg, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and officials from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality.
WHEELER DELIVERS MESSAGE ON HARASSMENT: Wheeler reaffirmed EPA’s policy against harassment in a memorandum sent to staff Thursday. Wheeler wrote that he expects “all individuals working at the EPA — employees, supervisors and non-employees — will not engage in or be subjected to unlawful and prohibited harassment.”
MURKOWSKI: FERC NOMINEE SHOULD GO LITMUS TEST-FREE: Senate Energy Chairman Lisa Murkowski wouldn’t comment on POLITICO’s report that DOE’s Bernard McNamee will be nominated to FERC. But the Alaska Republican said she believes that the next nominee shouldn’t face a litmus test over their view of the Trump administration’s efforts to prop up coal and nuclear power plants, Pro’s Darius Dixon reports. “I worry that this is going to be viewed as, ‘If you don’t commit to voting against or voting for, then you’re not going to have my support,’” Murkowski said. “That’s not the way that we should be selecting commissioners for the FERC.”
GET YOUR COMMENTS IN: American Petroleum Institute’s Frank Macchiarola reiterated the need for Renewable Fuel Standard reform on a call with reporters Thursday outlining the group's comments for EPA's proposed biofuel blending requirements for the coming year under the RFS. “Very simply what we want is an end to this program by 2022,” he said. Macchiarola said API is “willing to compromise” on certain policies like a waiver for summertime sales of E15, but only if the program will sunset by 2022. “The problem again is that the ethanol industry has been dug in to not doing anything,” Macchiarola said. He added legislation is being drafted to reform the program in both chambers, but noted challenges and lengthy debate are likely ahead. Comments are due today on EPA’s proposed volumes, with the final rule due to be released by Nov. 30.
— API is also looking at the proposed plan by EPA and the Department of Transportation to freeze fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. “It is a very complex proposal to a very complex program,” Macchiarola said. “We will say that we appreciate the administration’s relooking at CAFE in the light of changing energy market realities.”
SECRET’S OUT: Thursday was the last day for comments on EPA’s proposed "secret science" rule, which would ban the use of studies that don't publicly disclose all their data. Getting their thoughts in under the wire, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Brian Schatz, Maggie Hassan, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Tammy Duckworth, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tom Carper and Kamala Harris banded together to make their opposition known. “The proposed rule is illegal because it is arbitrary and capricious,” they write, adding that “the proposed rule is illegal because it is the result of an effective delegation of rulemaking authority to private interests.”
The American Chemistry Council, meanwhile, applauded the proposal in its comment Thursday. "EPA’s proposal codifies an important good governance principle — that government agencies should be as transparent as possible, within the bounds of the law, about scientific information relied upon and the justifications for the significant regulatory decisions they make." Still, the trade association also highlighted that implementation of the plan would benefit from better historical context and applicability, and that greater clarity is required on key definitions and regulatory text, among other recommendations.
FIGHTING FIRE WITH A FEDERAL PLAN: The Agriculture Department released a new, aggressive approach to fighting wildfires Thursday, with proactive steps. During a bipartisan press conference, Secretary Sonny Perdue unveiled a plan that emphasizes increased collaboration with states, implementation of mapping and remote sensing tools, and management practices such as prescribed burns and timber sales, Pro’s Liz Crampton reports. Though Perdue brushed aside specific questions on climate change's role, he said Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is on board with the plan and noted further details and costs will be forthcoming from the U.S. Forest Service. "Really a lot of people ... when you talk about climate change, they want to talk about what the causes are,” Perdue said. “[What] we’re trying to talk about is the impact.”
FERC RESTARTS PART OF PIPELINE: FERC modified a stop work order for the Mountain Valley Pipeline this week, allowing construction to restart for around 77 miles of the pipeline’s West Virginia route with the exception of a 7-mile area surrounding the Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike Bridge Trail, MVP said Thursday. However, the company said about half of its construction workforce has been released due to continued delays. MVP said that it “remains committed to the earliest possible in-service date,” though it noted that is now expected to arrive during the fourth quarter of 2019.
GREENS CALL FOR FERC REVIEW: The Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates petitioned the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday to review FERC’s approval of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The suit was filed on behalf of 13 other conservation groups. “FERC ordered the ACP construction stopped because the 4th Circuit determined that permits were issued without proper scrutiny,” SELC attorney Greg Buppert said in a statement. “On the very same day, FERC rejected a rehearing request in which the conservation groups asserted that it also rushed through its decision to permit a pipeline that we don’t need.” The 4th Circuit last week vacated two permits issued for the project by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service.
GREENS FILE FOIA SUIT: Environmental group Friends of the Earth filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Interior Department for lack of response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The lawsuit seeks to compel DOI to produce documents related to senior members of the department and the industries they regulate. The suit points to David Bernhardt's work as a lawyer and lobbyist for oil and gas companies and Vincent DeVito's time working as an energy industry representative. Friends of the Earth is being represented by the law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks LLP.
AD-ING IT UP: Ahead of Wyoming’s gubernatorial primaries Tuesday, a partnership between the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, dubbed the Wyoming Conservation Legacy, will launch a five-figure ad campaign asking candidates to support conservation. The campaign will begin on Saturday and run through Aug. 21 with full-page print ads in the Casper Star Tribune and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, separate radio buys on Wyoming Public Media programs, and digital ads across the state. See the ads here.
MAIL CALL! ON THE FARM: The National Biodiesel Board sent a letter to farm bill conference committee lawmakers reiterating its support for the inclusion of biodiesel programs in the five-year bill.
STAR-STUDDED SUMMIT: Attendees of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September will hear from former White House officials, including former Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of State John Kerry. The summit announced Thursday night that new delegates will join the event, including Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Patricia Espinosa and U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael Bloomberg. Actor Alec Baldwin and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall will also attend.
GO NUCLEAR: The American Nuclear Society this week launched a nuclear science educational program for middle schoolers that covers topics like fission and fusion, and detecting radiation. The “Navigating Nuclear: Energizing Our World” program is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards framework, which provides an evidence-based foundation for scientific research.
MOVER, SHAKERS: Jack Cramton, policy adviser for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), will start Monday as a legislative affairs adviser at the Department of Energy’s Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs Office.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletters/morning-energy/2018/08/whats-happening-with-wotus-320196
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Trump Agenda Gives Wheeler Opportunity to Reverse Bush EPA's Losses
Aug 16, 2018 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss
Industry attorneys say acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler's experience as a former agency career official, and later legislative staff, gives him the opportunity to learn from court defeats that blocked much of President George W. Bush's EPA deregulatory agenda, because he might be able to craft rules that address the key findings of the rulings.
Wheeler is widely expected to take a more cautious approach to the Trump administration's environmental agenda compared with his former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, but still unknown is how that caution will play out in practice. In particular, it is unclear whether Wheeler will aim for more moderate policy goals, or pursue the same agenda but with more of a focus on building procedural and factual records that would support his rulemakings in court.
“The Bush administration had some aggressive goals, but at each turn they were pushed back [in court] because they reached too far, and the law became more and more constraining,” says an industry source. Among the court losses for the Bush administration's deregulatory efforts were appellate rulings scrapping attempts to overhaul the Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permit program, efforts to limit the scope of federal greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations, and a divided Supreme Court ruling on Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction.
“So the question is, has Andy Wheeler learned the lessons of the Bush administration, and is he therefore not going to swing quite as hard for the fences?” the source asks.
The Trump administration has already faced a host of legal losses on efforts to delay EPA rules -- including an Aug. 16 decision scrapping a delay of EPA's 2015 CWA jurisdiction rule until 2020. Critics say Pruitt rushed many of those delay rules, but expect Wheeler to take a more deliberative approach on the substance of rule repeals and other policies.
The Trump EPA's agenda established under Pruitt before his July 6 resignation includes many of the same areas where the last GOP administration suffered those losses. Wheeler and the GOP could thus have a second chance to overcome such adverse decisions, potentially by being less aggressive in the final rules, though EPA also faces pressure to enact its agenda quickly.
But another industry attorney says the major lesson of the last decade of environmental litigation seems to be an emphasis on rulemaking process over the substance of any particular policy. That is an area the source says Wheeler, who worked in the agency's waste office as a career staffer before spending nine years as a staffer for Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) -- a major figure on the chamber's environment panel -- is particularly well-suited to address.
“The ability to defend a rule often has a lot to do with what's in the preamble and how it was structured. . . . A lot of this probably comes down to 'process matters,' and I think Wheeler really knows this well from his experience,” that source says.
Moderating Agenda
There have already been signals that Wheeler may try to moderate the Trump administration's agenda in its role in the recently proposed rollback of vehicle emission standards.
In interagency negotiations prior to formally issuing the rule, Wheeler reportedly pushed back against National Highway Travel Safety Authority (NHTSA) analysis justifying the rollback as a way to reduce highway fatalities, with the New York Times characterizing the battle over that part of the proposal as “nuclear war” -- though the acting EPA chief publicly denied the characterization.
That fight followed a push by EPA staff to drop use of the NHTSA model in the rollback proposal; a staff memo drafted for a June 18 White House Office of Management and Budget meeting says the agency's own research says the proposal as it existed at that time would be “detrimental to safety, rather than beneficial as suggested by” NHTSA's model. It also charges that the travel authority's model is “unusable in current form for policy analysis and for assessing the appropriate level of” vehicle standards.
Yet sources say the fact that the proposal approved by the White House uses the contested NHTSA model despite EPA objections shows that even if Wheeler is less inclined to “swing for the fences” than Pruitt, he may lack that discretion -- especially on politically significant rules like climate policy or CWA jurisdiction that were the subject of 2016 campaign promises by President Donald Trump.
Wheeler has already committed to preserve continuity with the agency's agenda under Pruitt, telling the Washington Post shortly after the leadership change that “the agenda for the agency was set out by President Trump” rather than his predecessor, and “I don’t think the overall agenda is going to change that much, because we’re implementing what the president has laid out for the agency.”
With Wheeler having been in office for less than two months, the first attorney says, “We don't know yet how he will shape rules that are still in the development process -- whether we'll see less aggressive rules or more robust legal reasoning. I do expect that we'll see more fulsome explanations of what the agency intends to do and why.”
Bush-Era Rulings
With most of the Trump EPA's deregulatory agenda still in the proposal stage, it is still unclear how the administration will try to avoid its predecessor's legal missteps. On NSR reform, the agency has yet to float a binding rule at all, instead reworking key areas of the permit program through guidance while promising a future rule that will codify some of those changes.
The final version of that reform will have to overcome a series of court losses for Bush-era NSR rules, including some that current EPA air chief Bill Wehrum helped to craft, such as 2006's New York, et al., v. EPA, et al., where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down a new definition for the statutory exclusion of “routine maintenance, repair, and replacement” from NSR mandates.
Similarly, the administration's climate agenda will be limited by the landmark 2007 Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA that rejected the Bush EPA's decision not to apply the Clean Air Act to GHG emissions. Sources have pointed to reluctance to re-litigate that case as a reason officials are unlikely to back some industry and conservative groups' efforts to overturn the Obama-era finding that GHGs endanger public health and the environment.
The CWA rule will have to contend with the legacy of the 2006 Supreme Court ruling Rapanos, et ux., et al., v. United States, et al., though the justices split 4-4-1 on that case. Future CWA suits will be heard by a very different court since the authors of both competing Rapanos holdings are now gone -- one was written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia and the other by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Those changes in the Supreme Court have been seen as creating a more favorable environment for deregulation in general; should the Senate confirm D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh as Kennedy's successor, observers expecthim to be a reliable fifth vote to overturn expansive EPA rules and preserve deregulatory policies.
In a related development, a federal district court in an Aug. 16 ruling scrapped a Pruitt rule delaying implementation of the Obama-era CWA jurisdiction rule until 2020, though that decision only applies in 26 states not subject to other courts' orders blocking enforcement of the prior administration's water standard.
The decision is the latest in a string of legal setbacks for EPA for delay rules that punted implementation of Obama EPA rules. Whether Wheeler will take lessons from those rulings in any potential future delay rulemakings -- if any remain to be issued -- is still unclear.
Broad Rules
The second industry attorney says another response to the Bush-era court losses could be to focus instead on more systematic changes to how EPA regulates pollution -- an agenda that Pruitt has already set out to an extent with proposals that would restructure the agency's use of science and how it assesses rules' costs and benefits.
“I think the overarching lesson that you would maybe hope that he takes is that taking regulatory reforms that truly improve the structure for compliance in a way that can be lasting and meaningful, instead of just pushing the pendulum back and forth from a conservative administration to a liberal administration,” the source says.
However, the source continues that key to any effort to avoid the “pendulum” effect is to craft rules “Without doing it in a way that would be seen as eviscerating the protections afforded by those statutory schemes -- in a way that would actually last.”
But so far the Pruitt-era proposals seem to be falling short of that goal; even GOP states are opposing the science-transparency rule in new comments, and the cost-benefit proposal is also facing bipartisan push-back in its current form.
https://insideepa.com/weekly-focus/trump-agenda-gives-wheeler-opportunity-reverse-bush-epas-losses
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States Push for Broad TSCA Evaluations, Despite Preemption Considerations
Aug 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
State attorney generals have written to the EPA urging it to broaden the scopes of TSCA risk evaluations, even though such an approach could limit their ability to act on those substances. But states are also poised to fill any 'gaps' left from uses omitted from the agency's assessments.
The attorney generals' 3 August letter came in response to the consultation on the agency's 'problem formulations'. These refine the scopes of the assessment the agency is set to conduct on the first tensubstances subject to risk evaluation under the law.
Co-signed by attorneys from nearly a dozen states historically active in chemicals management – including California, Vermont and Washington – the letter argues that the scopes reflected in the agency's 'problem formulations' represent an "unlawfully restrictive application of TSCA, [which] ignores that Congress intended for the EPA to assess a chemical in its entirety".
As drafted, the problem formulations would "produce deeply flawed risk evaluations" that would make it impossible for the EPA to fulfil its statutory mandate to protect against unreasonable risks, they say.
And they call on the EPA to issue revised scopes for the risk evaluations to address the agency's "fatally flawed" approach to identifying the conditions of use.
TSCA preemptive effects
The attorney generals' push for more robust assessments comes despite the fact that such an action would, in turn, result in broader preemption of the actions that states can take under the reformed TSCA law.
Outside of certain exemptions (see box), states may not act once the EPA has taken a final action on a substance – either by finalising a risk management rule to address identified risks, or by making an affirmative finding that the substance does not pose a substantial risk.
Crucially, this preemptive effect extends only to the uses of substances that the agency evaluates under its risk evaluations. Any condition of use excluded or missed from its final risk evaluation will then be on the table for states to regulate, if they wish.
Ken Zarker, pollution prevention and regulatory assistance manager at Washington state's Department of Ecology, told Chemical Watch the state is closely monitoring the early evaluations. But with regard to the potential for these to omit certain uses, he said: "We would certainly fill any gaps, as states."
"The more that EPA narrows these scopes, it's going to give the states broader abilities to act where the gaps exist," he said. "We still have that ability, and states can move a lot quicker if we need to."
However, he added that the state would prefer to see "a strong federal system".
Business considerations
Martha Marrapese, a partner with law firm Wiley Rein, told Chemical Watch that this potential for states to act leaves companies with an evaluated substance in an "interesting" position in relation to the uses the EPA includes in its evaluations.
If the EPA evaluates the substance and makes an affirmative finding that it does not pose an unreasonable risk, Ms Marrapese said, then states will be blocked from acting. But for any use the EPA doesn't evaluate, "the states will still have the abilities to regulate themselves, to the extent they're not preempted by other federal laws".
A company might argue that their use of a substance is safe or results in negligible exposure and therefore should be excluded from the assessment, she said. But "the downside to that is if it's not part of EPA's risk evaluation, those companies are still going to be fighting that battle on a state-by-state basis".
"If you believe you have a safe use, it benefits you to have it be part of EPA's risk evaluation", because then states will be preempted from acting, she added.
The problem formulations consultation closed on 16 August. The EPA must finalise its risk evaluations by December 2019.
Preemption: A critical issue
Preemption arose as a critical issue during efforts to negotiate the Lautenberg Act, which amended TSCA in 2016. One of industry's motivations for coming to the negotiating table was to put in place a stronger federal system that would combat the myriad state regulations appearing on chemicals of concern.
TSCA preempts state action on a chemical-specific basis. Final action by EPA on a substance – whether by determining it does not present an unreasonable risk, or by imposing a risk management regulation to address identified risks – blocks states from imposing their own restrictions. This extends only to those uses evaluated by the agency.
There are, however, exemptions. Activities that are not preempted include:
· actions already taken by states before 22 April 2016;
· past or future actions taken under laws that were in effect before 31 August 2003 (which effectively safeguards California’s Proposition 65 law);
· information-seeking requirements, such as reporting, monitoring or disclosure rules; and
· most state regulations imposed under water quality, air quality, waste treatment or disposal laws.
States may also seek a waiver to impose restrictions on a substances following final EPA action.
https://chemicalwatch.com/69790/states-push-for-broad-tsca-evaluations-despite-preemption-considerations
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(ACC Blog) Setting the Record Straight: Response to American Academy of Pediatrics Report
Aug 16, 2018 | American Chemistry Matters
By American Chemistry
You may have read or heard about a recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that is creating concerns about the safety of food packaging, additives and plastics containers. Unfortunately, the report has created the false idea that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not doing enough to ensure the safety of the products Americans use and consume.
The public deserves better from organizations like AAP, and a report like this should be closely vetted for scientific accuracy before being published. We believe most medical professionals and scientists would agree that is a reasonable expectation.
Current Food Packaging Regulations
We should always consider how we can improve our laws and regulatory systems, but the reality is that food packaging in the U.S. is best in class. They are strictly regulated by the FDA using comprehensive legal and regulatory checks that apply rigorous scientific standards for health and safety.
The fact is that all food packaging materials are regulated by FDA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). FDA regulations are comprehensive and science-based. FDA has an entire office—the Division of Food Contact Notifications—employing chemists, toxicologists and other scientific staff with extensive knowledge and training that evaluate the safety and environmental impact of chemicals used to produce packaging.
And contrary to the recent statements from AAP, the FDA evaluates the safety of food packaging materials under conditions where they will be used, including heating and cooking conditions such as in the microwave. Many manufacturers of food containers also label these products to help consumers know when they are safe for use in a microwave.
The Importance of Modern Food Packaging
Modern food packaging, which depends on a variety of innovative chemistries, is essential to the quality and integrity of food, extends shelf life and helps in the safe transport and storage of food. Without it, many people would not have as much access to fruits, vegetables, meat and other important staples of a healthy diet. The reality is that not everyone, especially in low income areas, has access to fresh food straight from the farm.
For example, a cucumber wrapped in plastic can stay fresh for up to 14 days, while an unwrapped cucumber stays fresh for about five days. Also, every year in the United States, people throw away up to 40 percent of the meat, poultry and seafood they purchase. Vacuum-sealed plastic packaging is key to preventing oxidation of meats. It can double the amount of time red meat stays fresh, taking shelf life from about three days to about six.
Providing the Facts
To help provide facts about the issue, we’ve put together a myth and fact sheet below.
ROBUST & TRANSPARENT REGULATION
MYTH: Food packaging is a public health threat in the US.
FACT: Food packaging in the U.S. is best in class for health and safety. It is strictly regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, using a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework that applies rigorous scientific standards of safety. The agency regulates the safety of substances added to food, as well as how most food is processed, packaged, and labeled in the United States. As part of its regulatory process, FDA conducts pre-market review of most compounds.
FDA regulates all food packaging materials “from which components can reasonably be expected to migrate into a food. The agency’s safety evaluations focus on three factors. These include the cumulative exposure to food contact substances that migrate into foods and beverages, the nature of the packaging components, and the safe levels of exposure.” https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm355155.htm
MYTH: Food packaging isn’t well-regulated.
FACT: All food packaging materials are regulated by FDA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). FDA regulations are comprehensive and science-based. FDA has an entire office—the Division of Food Contact Notifications—employing chemists, toxicologists, and other scientific staff with extensive knowledge and training that evaluate the safety and environmental impact of chemicals used to produce packaging.
Safety assessments are thorough. FDA says “an assessment of the safety of a food substance generally involves an evaluation of information about its safety and functionality including all studies and tests of a food additive on animals and humans and all studies and tests of a food additive for identity, stability, purity, potency, performance, and usefulness.” https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/ucm300661.htm#IIA
MYTH: The migration, or the transfer of chemicals from packaging to food, is a surprising new discovery.
FACT: Migration, or the transfer of chemicals from packaging to food, is at the heart of how FDA regulates the safety of food packaging. FDA’s regulations take into account the fact that substances can transfer from packaging into food by requiring the amount of migration and potential dietary exposure to be demonstrated to be safe on the basis of available toxicological data. Different foods need different kinds of packaging. For example, some foods are well-known to be acidic—like tomato products and orange juice. The packaging selected for these products needs to “stand up” to the food. Liquids and “wet” foods can’t be packaged directly in paper and cardboard or they will soak through. One of the reasons plastics are so popular for use in food contact is that they are considered inert (resistant to the breakdown into food) and non-toxic, in addition to having other qualities (such as water resistance and resistance to acidic foods).
MYTH: FDA doesn’t review all food packaging materials for safety.
FACT: FDA has different levels of review depending on the substance and use. For substances that migrate into food, FDA reviews the safety of those substances through the Food Contact Notification program. If a substance doesn’t migrate into food at all, consumers won’t have dietary exposure to it, and FDA doesn’t need to review and approve it in advance – like the printing on the exterior of a metal can. FDA makes these exceptions on a case by case basis. Some food additives are also considered Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) substances. General recognition of safety requires general agreement among the experts in a field, based on published data indicating that a substance will be safe for its intended use.
MYTH: Safety laws for food packaging are outdated.
FACT: FDA overwhelmingly conducts its review of food-contact materials through the Food Contact Notification(FCN) program, which is considered by experts to be a highly successful and transparent regulatory process. Under this program, a manufacturer or supplier of a food-contact material must provide objective data for the manufacturing, chemistry, toxicology, and environmental aspects of the production and its use of the food-contact material along with information supporting the conclusion that the material is safe for the intended use.
In addition to the FNC program, Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2010 to modernize food safety oversight by mandating a new approach that incorporates updated and contemporary scientific principles and risk analysis.
MYTH: Imported foods aren’t regulated by FDA at all.
FACT: All packaging material that is used in contact with food in the United States must comply with U.S. laws and regulations, including packaging materials that are produced abroad. Indeed, many manufacturers produce materials for sale worldwide. They often rely upon a clearance and/or a safety determination established under the U.S. regulatory system to support sale of the product in other countries.
MYTH: FDA doesn’t do ongoing, updated reviews of food-contact materials after the initial review.
FACT: FDA conducts ongoing safety reviews of important food contact materials where needed.
After a material is cleared by FDA, the agency continues to monitor public information and safety data that may question whether the use of the material continues to be safe. FDA can also consider the safety of approved materials in stakeholder petitions and routinely does so.
Example: BPA. FDA has been very active in ongoing safety reviews of BPA, and it continues to confirm its safety. In the fall of 2014, FDA experts, specializing in toxicology, analytical chemistry, endocrinology, epidemiology, and other fields, completed a four-year review of more than 300 scientific studies. In addition, the CLARITY Core Study—the largest, most significant study ever conducted on BPA—was undertaken by expert scientists at an FDA laboratory.
Example: ADA. FDA has been very active in ongoing safety reviews of azodicarbonamide, a chemical substance approved for use as a whitening agent in cereal flour and as a dough conditioner in bread baking. FDA approved the use of ADA as a food additive in cereal flour and as a dough conditioner based on a comprehensive review of safety studies, including multi-year feeding studies. FDA has continued to evaluate the safe use of ADA in foods. In 2016, the agency conducted a comprehensive exposure assessment of semicarbazide (SEM) —a breakdown chemical that forms from ADA during bread making. This exposure assessment was presented at the 251st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society on March 15, 2016.
HEALTH & SAFETY
MYTH: Food packaging isn’t safe for infants and children.
FACT: Infants and children are considered in FDA’s reviews. When a manufacturer or the FDA evaluates a packaging material, one of the primary considerations is the intended use. In all cases, the safety of a packaging material is determined on the basis that there is the potential for exposure to a material through the entirety of a person’s lifetime. In some cases, there may be reason to believe that infants and children may have the potential for heightened exposure because one particular type of packaging material is used in contact with a high percentage of the diet. A good example of this is infant formula, where an infant may consume all of its formula from one specific packaging type. For many years, FDA has paid particular attention to the safety and nutrition provided by infant formula. Manufacturers are required to notify FDA before placing infant formula on the market, and the packaging material is one component of the notification.
Both FDA and packaging manufacturers have increased their focus on the safety of packaging materials that could be used in contact with food for infants and children in response to new developments in the areas of infant toxicology and developmental toxicology. The safety evaluation for such materials may require separate consideration of the potential dietary exposure to infants, accounting for the smaller body weight of infants and children, and the potential for high level intake of certain foods. This separate evaluation may result in the need for additional toxicity data to support safety and to address additional infant-specific considerations.
MYTH: Plastic food packaging could potentially disrupt human endocrine systems.
FACT: FDA’s review of plastics used in food contact considers science on the potential effects on human reproduction and development (where needed). In addition, while the science of better understanding endocrine active substances is still developing, it is clear that many of the foods contained in food packaging are themselves endocrine active. Some examples include soy milk, tofu, flaxseed, whole grains, beans, vegetables, berries, and nuts. While some advocacy groups have alleged broad concerns about plastic packaging, they’ve been heavily criticized for failing to explain that endocrine active substances can also have no effect at all or can have healthy effects. FDA itself is careful to explain that endocrine disruptors, which it considers to have adverse human health effects, are not the same thing as the much broader category of endocrine active substances. Some advocacy groups improperly conflate these concepts or use European definitions that the FDA doesn’t, which creates confusion.
MYTH: People should avoid plastics in the microwave or dishwasher.
FACT: FDA evaluates the safety of food packaging under conditions where it will be used, including heating and cooking conditions such as in the microwave. The bottom line is to follow manufacturers’ directions. Containers appropriate for use in the microwave will have instructions for microwave use or will say they are “microwave-safe” or have a corresponding logo.[1]
FDA says it best: “Use microwave-safe containers. Use cookware specially manufactured for use in the microwave oven.” Guidance also says, “And you should not use some plastic containers because heated food can cause them to melt. The FDA recommends using glass, ceramic, and plastic containers labeled for microwave oven use.”[2]
FDA has issued guidance specific to melamine, which is appropriate to serve food but not designed for the microwave: “[f]oods and drinks should not be heated on melamine-based dinnerware in microwave ovens.”[3]
The Harvard Medical School points out that “[c]ontrary to popular belief, some Styrofoam and other polystyrene containers can safely be used in the microwave. Just follow the same rule you follow for using other plastic containers in the microwave: Check the label.”[4]
MYTH: Chemicals of “increasing concern” include bisphenols, phthalates, nonpersistent pesticides, perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), and perchlorate.
FACT: This myth implies that FDA has reached such a conclusion, which it has not. This is the editorial opinion of the authors. FDA withdraws approvals of food contact substances that do not meet safety requirements.
MYTH: The same scientific concerns apply to all chemicals in a group that sound the same—like “bisphenols,” “phthalates,” or “perfluoroalkyl chemicals.”
FACT: Chemicals with similar sounding names, or that seem to be part of the same family, don’t always have a similar toxicological profile. For example, petroleum is something you put in your car, but petroleum jelly is something the American Academy of Dermatology recommends parents use to treat diaper rash. Assertions that an entire group of chemicals all share the same qualities should be viewed with skepticism and not relied upon unless properly supported.
MYTH: BPA, used in the lining of metal cans, is an increasing health concern.
FACT: FDA has continually reviewed BPA in recent years and confirms that “based on its most recent safety assessment… BPA is safe at the current levels occurring in foods.”
FACT: The CLARITY study, conducted by FDA senior scientestits for the express purpose of resolving any remaining uncertainties about the safety of BPA, is the largest study ever conducted on BPA. The study results (released earlier this year) indicate that BPA has very little potential to cause health effects, even when people are exposed to it throughout their lives. In a statement released by Dr. Stephen Ostroff, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at FDA, BPA’s safety is reaffirmed: “our initial review supports our determination that currently authorized uses of BPA continue to be safe for consumers.”
There is no mention of the CLARITY study in the technical report, related policy statement or news statement from AAP, despite AAP acknowledging BPA “has been the focus of significant research and attention.”
The myth that this health concern is “increasing” is also factually unfounded not just based on science, but also based on actual can manufacturing practices, which have shifted to different plastic linings for cans. As of early 2018, the Can Manufacturers Institute reported that at least 90 percent of today’s food cans contain different linings, typically acrylic and polyester.[5]
MYTH: People should avoid certain plastics with recycling codes (3), (6) and (7).
FACT: Recycling codes are available to help identify and sort plastics for recycling – they have nothing to do with the health and safety of the plastics. In fact, all plastics approved by FDA for use in contact with foods have met the same stringent safety standard. Consumers should feel confident that they can use plastic food packaging in accordance with manufacturer’s directions.
Some advocacy groups have targeted PVC, epoxy resin can linings with BPA, and polystyrene as somehow less “safe” than other plastics, and this seems to drive the associated “recommendations” tied to recycling codes. This is misplaced. Consumers should feel confident to use any FDA-approved food packaging as meeting the same standard of safety. Beyond that:
Little to no consumer food contact packaging is PVC in the first place (#3).
· The #7 code is a “catchall” for other and new plastics, including those that are made from bio-based products such as corn, potato starch and sugar cane, as well as plastics that have acrylic, fiberglass, nylon and so forth. Epoxy-resin lined metal cans do not carry a plastic recycling code because the can is recycled as a steel can, not with the plastic recycling stream.
· Polystyrene, the #6 code, is widely used in foodservice. Some suggested a recent NTP review cast doubt on its decades of safe use, but NTP Director Dr. Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. debunked that in June 2011, saying: “[l]et me put your mind at ease right away about [polystyrene foam] … [the levels of styrene from polystyrene containers] are hundreds if not thousands of times lower than have occurred in the occupational setting…In finished products, certainly styrene is not an issue.”[6]
MYTH: Number #3 plastics contain phthalates.
FACT: The word “phthalate” is often used to describe a family of more than a dozen chemicals, many of which are used to add flexibility to polyvinyl chloride (PVC, or vinyl). Most food packaging does not contain phthalates because the plastic used is either not vinyl or is rigid vinyl made without plasticizers such as phthalates. In fact, the vast majority of plastic food packaging is polyethylene, PET, polypropylene, and polystyrene. Silicone is also popular in home cookwear.
FACT: The #3 recycling code denotes PVC plastic for purposes of recycling and collection. But PVC has very little use in consumer foodcontact packaging in the U.S.[7] Plastic cling wraps are another kind of plastic, not PVC. Plastic cling wraps do not use phthalate esters; phthalates are a class of additives used to make PVC soft and flexible for applications like electrical wiring.
MYTH: Perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), used in grease-proof food packaging and paper, are a concern.
FACT: Some PFC compounds are FDA-approved for use in food contact; others are not used in this application. The PFC compounds that are currently allowed to be used in food packaging are supported by a robust body of data demonstrating that these materials are safe for their intended use. These data show PFHxA does not exhibit carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, or genotoxicity. PFHxA is not an endocrine disruptor. PFHxA also does not exhibit adverse effects on reproduction, and developmental effects are mixed and occur at higher doses than other endpoints.
Data demonstrate that there is a high margin of safety for human exposure to PFHxA, including infants and children, from all routes of exposure and from food contact materials in the U.S. For example, a recent study found that potential exposure to infants up to 12 months of age from PFHxA in infant formula resulted in the highest estimated daily intake of 1 ng/kg-day, which is 320,000 times lower than the daily human threshold value derived by the French Directorate of Health.
MYTH: Perchlorate, a degradation product of bleach used to clean food manufacturing equipment, is a concern.
FACT: There is only one minor use of perchlorate in the food industry—as an antistatic agent in bulk dry food containers. It has been scientifically-demonstrated that there is no migration of perchlorate to food resulting from this application, which was central to FDA’s 2017 denial of a petition to ban the use of perchlorate in food-contact applications.
MYTH: Perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), used in grease-proof food packaging and paper, are a concern.
FACT: There are many PFC compounds used for many different things. Some are FDA-approved for use in food contact; others are not used in this application. The specific PFC compounds that FDA allows to be used in food packaging— and that are actually used in food packaging—do not contain, and cannot degrade to, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)).
MYTH: A chemical was reported to have been used in a particular food contact application five or ten years ago, so it must still be in use today.
FACT: Every year, new chemistries, formulations, and materials are developed with different properties to respond to the dynamic marketplace.
The fact that a particular chemical may have once been used in a particular food contact application does not mean that it is used today. The same is true with food contact materials like plastics.
A great example of this is glass condiment jars. Just a few years ago, the use of glass jars for ketchup and mayonnaise was more prevalent. Increasingly, plastic jars are used because they don’t break and because they’re lighter, they reduce shipping weight and fuel use. Data from just five years ago making claims about the use of glass or plastic for condiment packaging would already be outdated.
[1] FDA: “”Consumers can be confident as they heat (meals) or leftovers in the microwave that the FDA carefully reviews the substances used to make plastics designed for food use.” https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps1609/www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2002/602_plastic.html
[2] https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm048953.htm
[3] https://www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm199525.htm
[4] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwaving-food-in-plastic-dangerous-or-not
[5] https://www.packagingdigest.com/food-packaging/most-food-cans-no-longer-use-bpa-in-their-linings-2018-02-20
[6] Associated Press, June 2011.
[7] “There are hundreds of plastics, but only very few are utilized in food packaging. The most common are polyolefin, copolymers of ethylene, substituted olefins, polyesters, polycarbonate, and polyamide (nylon). PET/polypropylene (PP) laminates with different barrier materials such as polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), ethylene‐vinyl alcohol (EVOH), or polyethylene (PE) to provide improved structures.” See https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12028
https://blog.americanchemistry.com/2018/08/setting-the-record-straight-response-to-american-academy-of-pediatrics-report/
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Aug 16, 2018 | WJCT
By Ryan Benk
The Navy wants residents using drinking wells in two areas near Naval Air Station Jacksonville to have their groundwater tested. That’s two years after a federal health advisory was issued for certain chemicals used during firefighting training on the base.
Around 3,000 warning letters have been sent to area residents.
“I want to make sure that the residents that are around NAS Jacksonville understand and know that the Navy and NAS Jacksonville is dedicated to being involved, being engaged to see this issue resolved,” NAS Jacksonville Commander Capt. Michael Connor said at a Thursday open house presentation for residents held at an Orange Park hotel.
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, or NAVFAC, began testing NAS Jacksonville after the U.S. Department of Defense put the base on a national list of36 contaminated military installations in March. When initial base tests came back toxic, officials moved to check the surrounding neighborhoods.
Connor said base officials didn’t know about the possible contamination until the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a “lifetime health advisory” in 2016 for the class of synthetic chemical compounds called per- and poly-flouroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
In the advisory, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and EPA labeled PFAS as an “emerging contaminant” that’s been linked to a range of ailments, including multiple types of cancer.
“We are aware of the concern for these chemicals because of the EPA’s lifetime health advisory,” Capt. Connor said.
PFAS, most commonly used in the linings of non-stick cooking pans and in special foam to fight fires, have been manufactured in the U.S. for around 80 years, and there are thousands of variations.
NAS Jacksonville said it used a large amount of one compound in its aircraft and ship firefighting training program until it was discontinued at the base in 2003. Because the chemical can’t easily be cleaned, a high concentration still sits in an NAS “holding pond” — the same pond, which, for the past 22 years, the base has been filtering and sending to nearby Timuquana Country Club for irrigating its golf course.
Navy officials have identified 24 private wells so far that may have been affected; 12 have already been tested. The results of those won’t be available for weeks.
NAVFAC’s Adrienne Wilson said nine more wells and the golf course are scheduled to be tested next week. If drinking water shows unacceptable levels of PFAS, residents will get an alternative water source on the federal government’s dime.
“Within 24 hours of being notified of those levels we’ll get bottled water to them … an alternate source of water and we will continue to do that until we reach a permanent solution,” she said.
But, Wilson added a long-term solution will be hard to come by — residents would either need to dig deeper wells that avoid gathering groundwater or to hook into the central utility, JEA.
“I wouldn’t say ‘concerned,’ but we don’t know. So, until we sample those wells and find out some information, we’ll find out from there,” she said.
Navy veteran Thomas McCallum, who attended Thursday’s meeting, said, “I’d like to have known about the advisory when I was using it on active duty from the late 80s for the firefighting training, but now you find out 20 years [later] the different chemicals that — ‘Hey, surprise!””
McCallum has a well, but he lives just outside the Navy’s areas of concern and said he only uses it to water his lawn. He said he’s not all that worried about his home’s drinking water or even his time spent around the firefighting chemicals now found to cause a host of ailments.
What worries McCallum is the time he spent on base in Mayport and Norfolk, Virginia, drinking water that may have been poisoned with PFAS.
“How much of the underground water is affected? Is it just limited to the areas? Or is it spread out to [a] 5- or 10-mile radius? Did it get contaminated in the St. Johns River and the following creeks surrounding the base?” he said.
A representative from JEA said the utility has tested its water and customers in the area have nothing to worry about.
Between the late nineties and early 2000s, lawsuits, settlements and voluntary halts to production effectively phased out two older, more toxic versions of the compounds. The federal Environmental Protection Agency advisory only pertains to those, not the more contemporary formulas which are still being produced, reportsthe Associated Press.
Manufacturers of newer PFAS products are reassuring people that recent innovations have made the compound much less hazardous for humans.
"As an industry today ... we're very forthcoming, meeting any kind of regulatory requirement to disclose any kind of adverse data," American Chemistry Council trade group director Jessica Bowman told the AP this week.
But toxic levels of the discontinued PFAS can persist for thousands of years, leading public health experts to refer to the compounds as “forever chemicals.” Although the EPA isn’t currently regulating the substances, the agency this summer has held public meetings in the country’s most affected areas.
At the Jacksonville open house, EPA project manager Pete Dao said the agency isn’t disputing that the chemicals present a very real health risk, but in order to be in danger someone would need to regularly ingest little amounts of the chemical over a long period of time or be exposed to high levels all at once.
“The advisory number is based on a lifetime of exposure, and that number is developed when we see a chemical’s having potential health effects in people,” he said. “The majority of the information is based on testing on animals, and some of it is based on epidemiological studies.”
Still, the EPA’s 2016 recommendations may not be enough to keep people safe. In a study completed earlier this year, federal toxicologists found the advisory levels were still too high for human safety. Politico reported in May the Trump Administration tried to shield that report from the public.
The EPA is currently drafting a national management plan for PFAS compounds by the end of the year, but there’s no firm deadline for it to be completed and no guarantee that new regulations will be established.
Meanwhile, NAS Jacksonville officials said this is just the preliminary phase in their investigation and more records reviews, resident interviews and water testing is needed.
http://news.wjct.org/post/navy-tests-cancer-linked-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-near-nas-jacksonville
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Ex-Trump Nominee Is a Fan of Science Overhaul
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Niina Heikkinen
President Trump's controversial ex-nominee to head EPA's chemical safety office likes a proposal to limit which research the agency can use when crafting new rules.
Michael Dourson, director of science at the nonprofit group Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, told E&E News in an interview that "overall," his group supports the agency's proposed rule, which would require that studies used in EPA rulemaking make their methodologies and data publicly available. The group submitted its opinion in writing to EPA yesterday during a public comment period.
The "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science" proposal, known alternately as the "censored science" or "secret science" rule, has met with strong opposition from environmental groups who see it as a way for EPA to avoid drafting regulations on harmful pollutants.
But Dourson — like other fans of the overhaul — described the rule as a way to allow EPA to demand access to data, in much the same way the agency is already able to evaluate relevant data from the industries the agency regulates.
"There are aspects we support, and there are aspects we would like to see reworked," he said of the proposal. "EPA could have made it more clear that there are situations where they ask for data to do their own analysis and the authors have not given the data, and in that kind of situation, the EPA people are stuck."
More access to data, in turn, would help EPA make more informed decisions about whether it makes sense to proceed with future regulations, he said.
Dourson was nominated to head EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention in July 2017 but withdrew his name last December after facing fierce opposition from Senate Democrats and some Republicans. While awaiting confirmation, he worked for three months as a senior adviser to then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt under a special hiring authority. Both his presence at the agency without prior Senate approval and his connections to the chemical industry drew sharp scrutiny from critics.
Dourson said yesterday that during his time as Pruitt's adviser, he was given no authority to manage staff or make decisions and did not have access to offices containing confidential business information.
"It was basically to learn in office," he said of his role at the agency.
Critics of the EPA science proposal warn that the change strictly limits the types of research it could consider in rulemaking. They say EPA would not be able to consider landmark public health studies that rely on patient information, or on public health research on victims of disasters, where data cannot be ethically replicated. They say that excluding this research will mean the agency will underestimate the potential benefits of crafting new rules and that it would ultimately lead to more pollution.
However, Dourson said he did not think EPA would discount major epidemiological studies like the famous "Harvard Six Cities" research in drafting regulations. Instead, those studies would perhaps be used indirectly to develop hypotheses on what pollution or toxin levels should be used to then conduct animal research to more directly quantify the physical harm caused by the pollutants. That animal research data could then be "tied in" with epidemiological data to extrapolate the harm to human populations.
"It's an amazing amount of work," Dourson said.
The proposal also gives EPA's administrator the authority to waive the data requirements on a case-by-case basis, which has raised some concerns about what types of research may or may not face greater scrutiny.
"I like the idea of giving the administrator some latitude, but at the same time, if he's using his judgment there, he has to fully explain what he is doing," Dourson said.
Yesterday was the last day for the public to leave comments on the proposed rule.
While most of the comments on the proposal slammed EPA for considering it, EPA's plan also received a flurry of positive feedback over the past week. Supporters emphasized their right to know what the government was doing with taxpayer money, and repeatedly called for EPA to "show your work."
Dourson's group, TERA, called for EPA to have more access to data to better enable replication of and independent analysis of research.
"The public's interest is best served by trusting EPA's experts dedicated to public health protection. Withholding scientific data from EPA's independent analysis is not in the public's best interest," the comments from TERA read.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/08/17/stories/1060094337
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US Toxics Agency Releases Final Profile for Two Diisocyanates
Aug 17, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has released its final toxicological profile for toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI).
Both substances are used in many polyurethane household products, including furniture cushions, carpet padding and waterproof sealants. Neither occurs naturally in the environment.
In products such as cushions the diisocyanates are cured and, the report says, consumers are unlikely to be exposed through this route.
Exposure to TDI can occur in the air, though, from products such as adhesives, sealants, coatings, paints, craft materials and insulating foam.
The ATSDR profile, which includes a public health statement, says asthma and symptoms of asthma have been observed in some individuals who are particularly sensitive to the substances.
The public health statement points to research by the Department of Health and Human Services that considers TDI as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen". It also notes that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Iarc) classifies TDI as possibly carcinogenic to humans.
On MDI, the statement says there is limited data on whether it can cause cancer. It points out that Iarc has found that the substance is not classifiable as carcinogenic to humans.
In July, the EU's human biomonitoring project, HBM4EU, which aims to harmonise the exposure assessment method, added diisocyanates to its second list of priority substances. In March, Echa's Socio-economic Analysis Committee (Seac) adopted final Opinions on restrictions proposed on the use of diisocyanates in the workplace.
https://chemicalwatch.com/69796/us-toxics-agency-releases-final-profile-for-two-diisocyanates
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New Hampshire Site First for Fluorochemicals Health Study (2)
Aug 17, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will use New Hampshire’s Pease International Tradeport as a test site for a larger investigation of the health effects of fluorochemicals, which are fueling lawsuits and contaminating sources of drinking water across the country.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry—a unit of CDC—will conduct a “proof of concept” study at an international tradeport in Portsmouth to test data collection methods, questionnaires, risk communication strategies, and other elements as part of a larger study of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS chemicals, that Congress requested, an agency spokesman told Bloomberg Environment Aug. 15.
Heat-, oil-, and stick-resistant PFAS chemicals have been found in wells and other drinking water sources and have fueled multimillion-dollar lawsuits against companies that have made or used the chemicals, including 3M, Chemours Co., DuPont, and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics.
The lawsuits are based on concerns about the two most studied PFAS chemicals: perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Previous studies have shown that the chemicals could affect growth, learning, and behavior of infants and older children; hinder a woman’s chance of getting pregnant; interfere with the body’s natural hormones; increase cholesterol levels; affect the immune system; and increase the risk of cancer.
“I look forward to working with ATSDR and the Department of Defense to ensure this study is implemented as soon as possible,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told Bloomberg Environment in an email.
Shaheen secured $10 million in fiscal year 2018 funding for a national health study of PFAS chemicals.
“Families have waited far too long for peace of mind and should be able to trust their drinking water,” Shaheen said. “This important development is a testament to the outstanding work that has been done locally to document exposure—information that will be invaluable to this study and guide communities across the country on best practices.”
The Pease study is a crucial first step toward answering questions from communities and health departments nationwide, Jake Leon, a press officer for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, told Bloomberg Environment.
“We really want to help advance the science to understand what the potential impact of exposure to these chemicals is,” he said.
Details From Local MeetingThe Pease International Tradeport consists of 250,000 square feet of office and industrial space for banks, financial advisers and other businesses, as well as two day care centers. More than 9,500 people work there, according to the agency.
The CDC’s spokesman didn’t reply to Bloomberg Environment’s request for specifics about the New Hampshire study, but the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry offered some details to the local community at a May meeting.
The agency plans to enroll at least 1,000 adults and 350 children ages 4 to 17 in the tradeport study. Participants will include those who worked or attended child care at the site, as well as nearby residents who were served by contaminated water sources.
The port is located on a former Air Force Base that used PFAS chemicals such as PFOS and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) in a specialized fire fighting foam designed for fast-moving jet fuel fires.
The extent of nationwide contamination stemming from Air Force, Navy, and other military uses of the firefighting foam, called aqueous film-forming foam, prompted Congress to fund health studies.
The federally funded study will examine exposure to PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, and other compounds, the agency told local residents. Health effects it will examine include changes in cholesterol, impaired kidney function, alterations of the immune system, neurobehavioral changes, and differences in hormones that affect sexual maturation.
Longer Followup SoughtLocal residents, former members of the Air Force, and children all had higher than national levels of PFOA, PFOS, and PFHxS, Leon said, summarizing results from blood tests the state health department conducted.
Local residents hope the CDC’s study could be expanded to track them over time, Laurel Schaider, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute told Bloomberg Environment.
For example, mothers whose children were at tradeport’s day care centers want to know if their children’s early life exposures cause behavioral or other effects later in life, said Schaider, who serves as a technical adviser to the Community Assistance Panel that is working with CDC on the planned study. Instead, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry plans to do a one-time assessment of health effects, she said.
The CDC will meet with local residents at Pease again Sept. 20 to discuss the planned study and other issues related to contamination.
(Updates throughout; adds comments from a technical adviser to the Pease community.)
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/new-hampshire-site-first-for-fluorochemicals-health-study-2
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Bayer Vows to Appeal Glyphosate Verdict
Aug 16, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Melody M. Bomgardner
It has been only two months since Bayer finalized its purchase of agriculture giant Monsanto, and already the company faces a long legal battle over Monsanto’s best-known legacy products: herbicides containing glyphosate.
On Aug. 13, a San Francisco jury awarded Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old groundskeeper, $289 million in compensatory and punitive damages. It concluded that the glyphosate-based herbicides Roundup and Ranger Pro were associated with his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The case is the first of more than 4,000 alleging a link between the herbicides and cancer. Monsanto sells the off-patent herbicides as well as crop traits for glyphosate tolerance. The verdict immediately pushed Bayer’s stock price down more than 11%.
Monsanto says it will file posttrial motions and, if needed, appeal the ruling. In a statement, the company says the jury ignored glyphosate’s 40 years of safe use as well as hundreds of scientific studies and regulatory reviews.
“Glyphosate does not cause cancer. The jury got it wrong,” Monsanto Vice President Scott Partridge wrote. “We are confident science will prevail upon appeal.”
Johnson’s lawyers argued that the herbicides’ mixture of glyphosate and other harmful ingredients was a factor in his disease. Large personal-injury jury awards can be whittled down on appeal, but the focus on formulation cocktails makes the outcome of the cases hard to predict, according to Laurence Alexander, an analyst at the investment bank Jefferies Group.
Alexander estimates that glyphosate and associated traits bring in about $4.4 billion in annual profit to Monsanto and other firms that sell them. Consumer use of glyphosate herbicides may shrink following news of the case, but farmers are much less likely to abandon the herbicides or related seeds, Alexander predicts.
The verdict may add momentum to efforts outside the U.S. to restrict the use of glyphosate. Germany’s environment minister, Svenja Schulze, is pushing to phase out the herbicide. Earlier this month, a judge in Brazil ruled that registrations for glyphosate products would be suspended until the government reevaluates their toxicity.
https://cen.acs.org/business/agriculture/Bayer-vows-appeal-glyphosate-verdict/96/i33
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EPA Replacement for Obama Climate Plan Due Late Next Week: Source
Aug 16, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Timothy Gardner
The Trump administration's proposed replacement for the Obama-era's central regulation on climate change, the Clean Power Plan, is expected to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency late next week, an agency source said on Thursday.
The replacement for former President Barack Obama's plan to slash carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants will grant states the ability to write their own weaker regulations for the plants, a Politico report, citing a portion of an unpublished draft of the plan, said this week.
The Trump administration, focused on reversing Obama-era environmental regulations, was not sure at first whether it would replace the Clean Power Plan.
But after pressure from electricity generators and other energy interests concerned about regulatory certainty and litigation over emissions linked to climate change from environmentalists, former EPA head Scott Pruitt, who resigned last month under a cloud of ethics controversies, made replacing the plan with a more industry friendly measure a top priority for 2018.
The EPA in 2015 under Obama finalized the CPP which sought to reduce emissions from power plants to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. But the plan never took effect. The Supreme Court put the brakes on it in 2016 after energy-producing states sued the EPA, saying it had exceeded its legal reach.
The Trump administration's replacement plan would also give states the ability to seek permission to opt out of regulations on power plant emissions, the Politico report said. The EPA source did not comment on the report.
But a move to let states opt out would likely face staunch opposition from electricity industry associations because in many states the CPP's limits on emissions have already been met. In addition, opting out of regulations by states would likely be fought by green groups in the courts.
During a public hearing late last year in Charleston, West Virginia - the heart of coal country - health groups, environmentalists and a former coal miner criticized the Trump's administration's proposal to dismantle the clean power plan.
After a public comment period on the proposed Trump plan, a final EPA rule is expected later this year.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/08/16/us/politics/16reuters-usa-epa-climate.html
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Judge Orders New NEPA Review for Keystone Pipeline
Aug 16, 2018 | Inside EPA
A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to prepare a supplemental National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for the revised route of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, dealing a potential setback to a long-pending project that had become a high-profile symbol in climate and energy policy.
An Aug. 15 order by Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana says the Department of State and other federal agencies “possess the obligation to supplement” the environmental impact statement (EIS) supporting the administration's March 2017 approval of a cross-border permit for the pipeline.
The order was issued in Indigenous Environmental Network, et al. v. Department of State, et al.
The administration's argument that it need not prepare a new EIS is “unpersuasive,” Morris finds, because its permit approval specifically said Keystone must be built as described in its permit applications and in the 2014 EIS that the Obama administration prepared.
However, Nebraska utility regulators in November rejected developers' preferred route for the pipeline and instead approved an alternate route known as the “Mainline Alternative.” Shortly after the state regulators issued that decision, Morris allowed environmentalists' suit to proceed to the merits.
Morris notes that the Mainline Alternative covers five different counties, is longer and crosses different waterbodies. It would also require an additional pump station and accompanying power lines. “Federal Defendants cannot escape their responsibility under NEPA to evaluate the Mainline Alternative route,” he writes.
The judge adds that he will address environmentalists' claims that agencies must re-start consultation with the Fish & Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act in a future order.
Noting that project developer TransCanada said it would not begin construction until the second quarter of 2019, Morris directs the Trump administration to issue a supplemental EIS “in a manner that allows appropriate review before TransCanada’s planned construction activities.”
Morris says he is declining to vacate the administration's permit approval “at this time,” but says he will “consider further remedies if circumstances change that do not allow review of the supplemental EIS” before construction begins.
President Donald Trump issued his Keystone permit approval shortly after taking office, reversing a November 2015 decision by former President Barack Obama to reject the cross-border permit that in part cited the United States' leadership on climate change.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/judge-orders-new-nepa-review-keystone-pipeline
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Chinese Hackers Look to Alaska for Edge in Energy Talks — Report
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
On May 28, as Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) capped off a 10-day "trade and investment" trip to China, computer networks in his home state lit up with suspicious activity, according to a new report from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
The malicious scans targeted Alaskan agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, and at least four oil and gas companies, researchers at Recorded Future found.
Chinese hackers likely wanted to pry their way into crucial networks to gain a strategic edge in any follow-up talks with the delegation of government officials and private-sector representatives.
"One of the highest-profile discussions" during the visit centered on the prospect of a natural gas link between Alaska and China, Recorded Future noted in a blog post yesterday.
"Organizations targeted by the reconnaissance activity were in industries at the heart of the trade discussions, such as oil and gas," Recorded Future said.
The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. has proposed building a $43.4 billion gas pipeline to link vast natural gas reserves in the North Slope to liquefied natural gas export facilities 800 miles south (Energywire, April 17).
"The Alaska LNG project is key to reducing the trade imbalance between the U.S. and China," Walker said in a statement at the outset of the May trade mission.
Austin Baird, press secretary for Gov. Walker, said in a statement that the anonymous activity observed on the perimeter of the office's networks "amounts to someone checking if the door is locked."
The activity cited by Recorded Future, he said "is not unique, nor would we draw conclusions about its timing or source."
"There is no way to tell if the activity is related to the recent trade mission to China, and a review by the Office of Information Technology has found no evidence that state networks were hacked in this instance," Baird said.
University ties
Recorded Future traced the recent cyberespionage campaign back to internet protocol addresses tied to Tsinghua University, a leading academic institution based in Beijing. A media representative for Tsinghua did not respond to a request for comment yesterday, but a university official told Reuters yesterday that the allegations were false.
Earlier this year, researchers at Recorded Future uncovered samples of a "highly sophisticated" hacking tool, dubbed "ext4," that carried links to internet infrastructure registered to Tsinghua.
While "ext4" was primarily aimed at members of the persecuted Tibetan community in China, Recorded Future urged U.S. companies to check for signs of the malware on their networks anyway.
The firm relied heavily on third-party "metadata" — bits of definitional data, like time stamps and destinations, drawn from packets of internet traffic — to conduct its analysis.
"We have moderate confidence that what we observed is a state-directed cyber activity, and that Tsinghua, either the students or the infrastructure, was utilized by the state to carry out this activity," said Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at Recorded Future, in an interview yesterday.
Trade tiffs
In June, the Chinese government threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports of U.S. crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Though the Ministry of Commerce never followed through on those threats, the government has imposed tariffs on other energy products, including naphtha and coal.
The U.S. exported 13.2 million barrels of crude oil to China in May, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The simmering trade dispute between China and the U.S. has planted new hacking targets on the backs of many American energy firms, according to Moriuchi.
She said Chinese hackers are taking an interest in pricing data, communications among energy executives and government officials, and other information that "China would need to be successful in this trade war."
Moriuchi pointed out that hackers continue to be interested in energy companies' "crown jewels" — drilling technology and other intellectual property.
"They create this unfair environment by using state resources to spy on either their competitors or their bilateral partners, to get a leg up," said Moriuchi, who formerly led the National Security Agency's East Asia and Pacific cyberthreats office. "That shifts the threat picture a bit for U.S. oil and natural gas companies."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/08/17/stories/1060094591
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Crude, Gas Liquids Production Hits All-Time Highs in July
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
U.S. production of natural gas liquids reached a record 4.4 million barrels per day last month, while crude oil production matched a previous record of 10.7 million barrels per day, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
In its latest monthly statistical report, the group says rising domestic oil production has partly offset production drops elsewhere. Venezuelan oil production has plummeted with the economic collapse there, and disruptions in Libya and related to Yemen have also affected supplies.
Recent U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that oil supplies from OPEC countries and Russia were up last month compared with earlier in the year, but that oil supply disruption risk has increased with the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran and Saudi Arabia's closure of an important oil transit route, the Bab al-Mandeb strait, out of concern over Yemeni rebel attacks on shipping.
API said U.S. petroleum demand last month reached its highest level since 2007, 20.6 million barrels per day.
Most of the increase in demand as compared with the previous month stemmed from faster sales of residual fuel oil, a marine shipping fuel. API said the higher demand for that fuel likely stems from a surge in global shipping linked with escalating U.S. trade disputes.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/08/17/stories/1060094465
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Mountain Valley Work Can Resume to Prevent Erosion — FERC
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
Federal regulators have lifted a stop-work order along 70 miles of the Mountain Valley pipeline route, agreeing with the developers' contention that completing the installation of pipe is the "best option" to minimize environmental and safety risks while the project undergoes more court-mandated reviews.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order affects the pipeline stretch from "milepost 0" in West Virginia to an interconnection about 77 miles down the pipeline, where it would meet the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline, which runs from New York to the Gulf of Mexico. Excluded from the order is a roughly 7-mile stretch of the pipeline route that includes a section of land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.
Mountain Valley said that first section of the pipeline could be made operational once the 7-mile gap is completed, giving the company an outlet for some of the gas production that the project is intended to serve.
On Aug. 3, FERC issued a stop-work order covering the entire 303-mile pipeline route after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated federal approvals from BLM and the Forest Service allowing the project to cross the Jefferson National Forest in southern Virginia (Energywire, Aug. 6). FERC ordered Mountain Valley to submit a "stabilization plan" to address stretches where construction activities had already commenced.
The plan put forward by Mountain Valley, which is backed by EQT Midstream Partners LP, NextEra Energy Inc. and a number of smaller partners, called for a continuation of pipeline installation activities along significant portions of the route.
In greenlighting a resumption of work along the first 77 miles of the pipeline route, FERC said it was the best way to protect the environment from problems stemming from partially completed work.
"Staff has determined that approximately eighty percent of the right-of-way from Milepost 0 up to Milepost 77 has been cleared," FERC wrote. "Not only have trees been felled in this area, but much of the right-of-way has been disturbed and graded. At some points, pipeline has been brought to the right-of-way; some has been bent to fit the contours of the right-of-way and some has been welded together. In addition, some of the right-of-way has been trenched and some pipe is already put in the ground."
It said that "allowing completion of construction, including full restoration along the right-of-way" was the best option. "Maintaining the status quo would result in significant areas being subject to erosion and soil movement for an indeterminate period, possibly negatively affecting plant and wildlife habitat and adjacent water bodies," FERC said.
Staff said "restoring the land to pre-construction conditions" — which presumably would not include replanting the trees already felled — could result in the area being disturbed again later if the work is allowed to proceed.
It was not clear from FERC's assessment if the remaining 20 percent of the route in question is undisturbed land or how much of it has been graded or had pipe laid out, trenches dug, or pipe laid in the ground.
On Wednesday, in response to Mountain Valley's stabilization plan, project opponents filed emergency motions with the 4th Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking that the developer be barred from continued construction work.
"If your parents tell you to eat your vegetables before your dessert, that doesn't mean you cram all the cake in your mouth," said the Sierra Club's legal director, Pat Gallagher, in a statement. "MVP is once again proving it cannot be trusted, so we are asking the courts to force them to stop construction."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/08/17/stories/1060094597
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State Water Protections Blocked Energy Projects, Republicans Say
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
Republican senators and a tribal representative accused Washington state Aug. 16 of using water quality protection as an excuse to threaten the country’s drive toward energy independence.
“The state of Washington has abused their authority to block the export of coal mined in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Montana,” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said at a hearing.
Barrasso convened the hearing to examine a bill (S. 3303) that he and two other Republican senators—Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va) and James Inhofe (Okla.)—introduced July 31 to clarify the scope of states’ Clean Water Act authority to block such projects.
Barrasso wouldn’t say when the committee will vote on the legislation. He said other bills, including a water resources bill, are taking precedence.
Coal Terminal Denial CitedBarrasso and other lawmakers objected when the state of Washington in 2017 refused to issue a permit for the Millennial Bulk Terminals on the Columbia River. The project intended to export coal from landlocked states such as Wyoming and Montana to Asian Pacific countries, including Japan and South Korea.
“By refusing to allow Wyoming to export its coal, the state of Washington is pushing these Asian countries to use coal from non-American sources—sources that are not as clean or safe,” Barrasso said.
Washington’s Department of Ecology denied Millennium a permit under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, citing numerous “adverse and unavoidable impacts,” many of which related to a substantial increase in railroad traffic to and from the terminal. The water-quality permit is one of several permits it has been seeking to build the terminal.
Maia Bellon, director of state Department of Ecology, said Republicans’ assertions about the department’s actions were false and characterized them as, “frankly, nonsense.”
“The facts are simple: Millennium failed to meet existing water quality standards and further failed to provide any mitigation plan for the areas the project would devastate,” Bellon wrote in an Aug. 15 letter to Barrasso and the rest of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Scope of Water Act AuthorityBarrasso said his bill would clarify the scope of the authority granted to states under the Clean Water Act to certify whether a federally funded and licensed project won’t end up degrading water quality. Currently, if states fail to certify a project, it can’t move forward, even if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted that project a license.
The bill would allow states to certify that only discharges of water from a project itself don’t violate state water quality standards. The bill would not objections to be raised on grounds that are unrelated to water quality, Barrasso said.
Among the bill’s supporters are Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.)and CJ Stewart, co-founder of the National Tribal Energy Association and a member of the Crow Tribe that lives in lands spanning Montana.
Daines accused Washington state of abusing its authority under the Clean Water Act, saying the authority should be used only for discharges from the project that affect water quality and not for other reasons such as rail traffic. He said Asian countries want U.S. coal and that Montana and the Crow Tribe “can provide that coal.”
The tribe is facing an economic crisis, with 70 percent unemployment, because it can’t tap into the trillions of dollars of mineral wealth under its feet, Stewart said.
The tribe was mining 6.5 million tons of low-sulfur coal and was looking to export some of that coal to generate revenue and jobs, “but now that opportunity is lost to us,” Stewart told Bloomberg Environment.
New York Also Exercised AuthorityBarrasso also pointed to other states that he said have exercised their Clean Water Act authority for reasons other than water quality protection. New York state has blocked the construction of the Constitution Pipeline through the state by refusing to certify that the pipeline would meet state water-quality standards.
New York’s action has cost about 2,400 direct and indirect jobs from the pipeline generating $130 million in labor income and economic activity for the region, Brent Booker, secretary-treasurer of North America’s Building Trades Unions, told the committee.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) defended New York’s decision to block the project. States approve most projects apart from a handful of high-profile ones, she said.
“I am very concerned with the changes proposed to the water quality certification authority that applicants are being given federal permits to violate water quality standards,” she said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/state-water-protections-blocked-energy-projects-republicans-say
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Aug 16, 2018 | Environmental Working Group
By Grant Smith
The new clean energy economy provides over four times more jobs in the Great Lakes region than the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, according to EWG’s analysis of recent reports.
In Clean Jobs Midwest, the nonprofits Clean Energy Trust and E2 conclude that the 12 Midwestern states had more than 700,000 clean energy jobs in 2017. Data in the Clean Jobs Midwest report was derived from the U.S. Energy and Employment Report released in May by the National Association of Energy Officials and the Energy Future Initiative.
Narrowing the data on the entire Midwest region to the six Great Lakes states – Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin – shows that there are about 345,000 clean energy jobs in those states. That compares to about 57,000 jobs at coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants and about 21,000 jobs in coal mining and natural gas drilling.
Here are EWG’s takeaways for the Great Lakes region:
· The energy efficiency sector is by far the largest job generator, with almost 300,000 jobs in the Great Lakes area.
· In the Great Lakes states, wind and solar accounted for the most jobs in the renewables sector, reaching over 60,000 jobs.
· Jobs tied to coal mining and natural gas fracturing and related jobs in the Great Lakes states amounted to only about 21,000.
· The major coal producing states – Indiana, Illinois and Ohio – saw a decline in coal mining-related jobs from 2016 to 2017, ranging from over 4 percent in Indiana to over 13 percent in Illinois.
· Small businesses are king in the Great Lakes clean energy sector. On average, about three-fourths of clean energy businesses in the region employ fewer than 20 people.
· The small decline in solar jobs in some states was attributed to uncertainty over extension of the federal tax credit for solar investment and the recent imposition of tariffs on solar panels imported from China.
Of the factors generating these jobs, including the declining costs of wind and solar, it’s clear that public policy plays an important role. For instance, key job-creating subsectors within the energy efficiency arena are high efficiency heating and air conditioning, the federal EnergyStar program for appliances and lighting, and building materials such as insulation.
Key to this development is the federal appliance and equipment efficiency standard program for a broad array of products that’s been in place for decades. According to the Appliance Standards Awareness Network, consumers saved $80 billion from existing standards in 2015, and that will increase to about $150 billion in 2030.
Job growth in clean energy is boosted – or slowed – by government policies. For example:
· According to a 2017 Department of Energy report, the adoption of international building codes by Great Lakes states will save over $8 billion in energy costs by 2040 for commercial businesses and nearly $20 billion for residential customers.
· In Ohio, a hostile policy environment for clean energy has resulted in stunted wind growth, first through the suspension of the state’s renewable energy standard and then by the imposition of draconian setbacks for wind farmswhile the state pursues natural gas fracking, resulting in higher job numbers in that sector than in any other Great Lakes state.
· Strong state policy support for community solar in Minnesota, the Clean Jobs Midwest report shows, yielded an 18 percent increase in solar jobs in the state over just one year.
· According to E&E News, Illinois added almost 4,000 renewable jobs due to the passage of the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016.
The bottom line is that any state can greatly strengthen its economy with well paying jobs if policymakers provide certainty for the renewables and energy efficiency sectors. Unswerving state support can also overcome external economic forces that would otherwise dampen investment and job growth in those sectors.
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/08/clean-energy-jobs-great-lakes-outnumber-jobs-fossil-fuels-and-nuclear#.W3aqSugzZm8
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Energy’s Cyber Threat Plea to Trump: Kick Up the U.S. Oversight
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Naureen S. Malik
With cyberattacks against U.S. natural gas utilities growing, the industry’s got an unusual message for the regulation-cutting Trump Administration: Give us more scrutiny.
The American Gas Association, representing more than 200 distributors, wants the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to beef up a unit that performs field assessments of gas utility cyber defenses and said its members are open to more voluntary inspections.
“We want to be proactive,” AGA Chief Executive Officer Dave McCurdy said in an interview in New York earlier this month. “As this world evolves, if you don’t start to have government actually intervene in some way, it just becomes unmanageable.”
The association’s offer comes amid warnings of growing electronic assaults on energy infrastructure and as the U.S. shale drilling boom makes American gas increasingly vital to the world.
Russian Hackers
In a report in July, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence said Russian hackers compromised dozens of domestic energy companies in 2017. In March, five pipeline companies said their third-party communications systems were shut down by cyberattacks.
While the industry doesn’t see mandated safety rules as an effective approach, there has been a critical shift in views on the government’s role, said McCurdy, a former Oklahoma congressman who led the U.S. House Intelligence Committee in the 1990s. The TSA has five employees in its pipeline section assigned to cyber field assessments. The American Gas Association would like to see it add about 10 more, according to McCurdy.
“This is the private sector asking the government to actually do more inspections,” he said.
Lisa Farbstein, a TSA spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The U.S. government has issued voluntary cybersecurity standards for the energy sector, including gas producers and pipeline operators. McCurdy said industry-led initiatives working with government, rather than rules imposed by Washington, provide a more nimble defense against online threats that evolve quickly.
Having basic reporting requirements and standards in place, however, would set a bar and create a common language for discussing the threat, said Michael Rothschild, director of marketing at Indegy Ltd., a New York-based industrial cybersecurity provider. Hackers have been able to close valves and make slight pressure changes on U.S. pipelines—what Rothschild sees as “breadcrumbs” of reconnaissance taking place.
“We are not talking about individuals taking down a website,” he said. “We are talking about organizations that are looking at gaining red-button functionality.”
A survey Indegy held during a webinar last week with 132 security directors and executives showed most of them see electronic breaches as the primary threat to their operations, but almost a third were unsure if their companies generated any forensics or paper trails to track intrusions.
Targeted Attacks
The gas industry, like the rest of energy, is being targeted by Russian-backed attackers and other state actors, McCurdy said in the interview after a cybersecurity conference in Manhattan. There is no indication yet that nation-states are looking to take U.S. energy systems down, but they appear to be testing for weaknesses, he said.
With that in mind, the industry also is taking stock of its own readiness. The association is planning its first-ever survey this month on company defenses, asking members from giants like Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas to smaller operators like PNG Cos.’ Delta Natural Gas Co. Inc. in Kentucky to answer 10 questions about best practices.
The survey will be sent out by the end of August and results, made anonymous and aggregated, will be shared with members in the fourth quarter, McCurdy said.
The gas pipeline network, like the rest of U.S. energy infrastructure, is “being pinged constantly, ” he said. “It’s being challenged by machines, by software programs looking for vulnerabilities looking for entry. We know that it’s going to continue.”
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/energys-cyber-threat-plea-to-trump-kick-up-the-us-oversight
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Failed Blowout Preventers Cited at Oklahoma Gas Rig Explosion (1)
Aug 17, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ari Natter
A key piece of safety equipment on a drilling rig in Oklahoma owned by Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. didn’t function properly during a natural gas well explosion and fire that killed five workers earlier this year, a federal investigative agency says.
The blowout preventer, a last-resort device used to sever the drill pipe in a well and seal it off, didn’t fully close, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a report that is to be released Aug. 16 as part of its investigation into the Jan. 22 episode in eastern Oklahoma.
It was one of the deadliest drilling accidents since the 2010 underwater blowout at BP Plc.’s Deepwater Horizon facility in the Gulf of Mexico. That disaster, which killed 11 people, was also linked to the failure of a blowout preventer.
“Shortly after the blowout began, at least two personnel reportedly attempted to operate the accumulator that functions the blowout preventer,” the safety board said in the report. “The blowout preventer blind rams did not fully close.”
The report also suggested the blowout, which occurred while oilfield workers were removing drill pipe from the well to change a bit, had been building for some time. When the well blew, the blast of oil- and gas-infused drilling mud started a fire. It burned for more than seven hours before the blowout preventer’s steel rams were manually activated. The drilling rig was leveled.
Details about why the blowout preventer didn’t work and whether it was functioning properly before the explosion are a key part of the investigation and may be addressed in a subsequent report after the investigation concludes.
The accident, which occurred at a well owned by closely-held Red Mountain Energy LLC, has also drawn attention to Houston-based Patterson-UTI’s safety record. At least 10 workers have died on the job at Patterson-UTI sites since 2005, according to records kept by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The agency has proposed fining a Patterson-UTI subsidiary and two other companies involved in the January incident more than $118,000.
In a statement, the company said it is cooperating with the safety board investigation.
“We value the perspective of outside stakeholders and will be working with the CSB to understand their potential recommendations when they are available at the conclusion of their investigation,” the company said. “We remain committed to providing a safe working environment for our employees and others we work with in the field.”
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/failed-blowout-preventers-cited-at-oklahoma-gas-rig-explosion-1
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Conrail Gets Mixed Win in Toxic Spill Appeal
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven M. Sellers
Consolidated Rail Corp. must pay $500 in negligence damages to a New Jersey man who drove through a cloud of vinyl chloride gas from a train derailment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Aug. 15.
But Robert Morris’s fear-of-cancer claims were rightly dismissed because the testimony of his expert witness was unreliable, the court said in an unpublished opinion.
The expert didn’t reliably establish a link between liver cancer and exposure to the chemical, but Morris’s subjective symptoms after the train derailment were enough to establish Conrail’s negligence, the court said.
The litigation stemmed from a 2012 derailment in Paulsboro, N.J., in which tank cars fell off a bridge, some of them spilling vinyl chloride.
Morris sought medical monitoring damages after being enveloped in the cloud as he drove to work, but he didn’t prove that element of his case, the court said.
Morris’s counsel conceded there was no study directly linking short-term vinyl chloride exposure to an increased risk of liver cancer, and the methodology of his expert was unreliable under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., the court said.
Daubert is a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made it harder for some types of expert evidence to get into court.
Morris didn’t need expert evidence to establish his negligence claim, for which a jury awarded $500.
He testified that he experienced a chemical taste, eye irritation, burning sensations, and headaches, and that was enough to prove the vinyl chloride cloud was the cause, the court said.
Judge Michael A. Chagares wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Thomas I. Vanaskie and Susan R. Bolton, sitting by designation.
The Cedar Law Firm and Williams Cuker & Berezofsky represented Morris.
Burns White, as well as Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis represented Conrail.
The case is In re Paulsboro Derailment Cases, 2018 BL 291344, 3d Cir., Nos. 16-3172, 16-3263, unpublished 8/15/18.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/conrail-gets-mixed-win-in-toxic-spill-appeal
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Zinke Blames Climate Change, Lax Forest Management for Wildfires
Aug 16, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Flavelle and Justin Sink
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said climate change is playing a role in California’s record wildfires, but took aim at environmental policies that he argued are making the problem worse.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Aug. 16, Zinke repeated his assertion from last week that “radical” environmental groups are partly to blame for the fires by opposing aggressive forest management such as controlled burns to reduce the amount of fuel.
Environmentalists have countered that the Trump administration has failed to acknowledge the role of global warming in the fires, and made the problem worse by rolling back policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Zinke acknowledged during his comments that global warming is contributing to wildfires.
“Temperatures are getting hotter,” Zinke said, adding “of course” when asked if he accepted that climate change was part of the problem.
The Trump administration has said it will announce a “new strategy for improving forest conditions” later Aug. 16, including its plan “for managing catastrophic wildfires.“
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/zinke-blames-climate-change-lax-forest-management-for-wildfires
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Calif. to Release Climate Assessment for Adaptation
Aug 17, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
California is about to release its latest climate science roundup aimed at helping local regions adapt.
The state's Fourth Climate Change Assessment, due at the end of the month, seeks to translate global climate models into digestible messages that can help inform state and local climate policies. California officials gave a preview of the findings earlier this week in Washington, D.C., to officials and researchers.
The assessment will be highlighted at Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) Global Climate Action Summit in mid-September in San Francisco.
"In the same way that the governor's Climate Action Summit is trying to provide a dose of realism and optimism in the face of our climate crisis, this was a similar effort by the administration to bring the news of the Fourth Assessment to Washington, D.C.," said Jonathan Parfrey, executive director of the nonprofit Climate Resolve, who participated in the workshop.
The last edition of the assessment, issued in 2012, included 30 peer-reviewed papers on the expected impacts on regional agriculture, sea-level rise, wildfires, water supply, electricity demand and public health, among other topics.
This year's report will include more than 50 state and regionally focused papers on topics that include insurance, temperature forecasting, ocean acidification and urban heat islands. It will also offer separate sections on each of the state's nine climatic regions and three other areas of particular interest: environmental justice, tribal communities, and oceans and the coast.
Also featured is a new method of applying global climate models to regional planning. Known as "localized constructed analogs," the technique, developed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, produces estimates tailored to areas as small as 6 kilometers across.
That will help local policymakers manage adaptation better, Parfrey said.
"This is a way of California taking the same data that was used internationally and nationally and then refining the lens," he said.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/08/17/stories/1060094595
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Aug 17, 2018 | New York Times
By Timothy Egan
If emotions were water, and you took all the heartbreak felt by the millions who followed the plight of a starving orca whale grieving over her dead calf, you’d have a river the size of the mighty Columbia.
If anger were a volcano, and you let loose all the rage felt by people over the daily assaults on public land by the Trump administration, you’d have an eruption with the fury of Mount St. Helens.
And if just one unorganized voting segment, the 60 million bird-watchers of America, sent a unified political message this fall, you’d have a political block with more than 10 times the membership of the National Rifle Association.
A Green Wave is coming this November, the pent-up force of the most overlooked constituency in America. These independents, Teddy Roosevelt Republicans and Democrats on the sideline have been largely silent as the Trump administration has tried to destroy a century of bipartisan love of the land.
But no more. Politics, like Newton’s third law of physics, is about action and reaction. While President Trump tries to prop up the dying and dirty coal industry with taxpayer subsidies, the outdoor recreation industry has been roaring along. It is a $374-billion-a-year economy, by the government’s own calculation, and more than twice that size by private estimates.
That’s more than mining, oil, gas and logging combined. And yet, the centerpiece of a clean and growing industry is under attack by a president with a robber baron view of the natural world.
I write from the smoke-choked West, where the air quality in major cities has been worse than Beijing this month. While Trump spends his days comparing women to dogs, and tweets nonsense about rivers flowing to the sea, the biggest wildfire in California history blazes away.
After the four warmest years ever recorded, scientists have now warned that the next five will be “anomalously warm.” But Trump doesn’t even understand time zones, let alone atmospheric upheaval.EDITORS’ PICKSAn Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Presidential ElectionAnnoyed by Restaurant Playlists, a Master Musician Made His OwnOpinionA Free Press Needs You
In face of these life-altering changes, Trump is drafting rules to make it easier for major polluters to drive up the earth’s temperature. While the orcas of Puget Sound are starving, Trump is trying to weaken the law that protects endangered species. And while lovers of the outdoors break visitation records at national parks and forests, Trump is removing land from protection.
This is not green goo-goo or fantasy projection. You can see and feel the energy in places ignored by the national political press.
“If D.C. comes for our public land, water or monuments again, they’ll have to come through me,” says Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat with an even chance of taking a longtime Republican seat in New Mexico, in an ad showing off her political chops.
The revolt started after Trump shrunk several national monuments in the West last year — the largest rollback of public land protection in our history. The outdoor retailer Patagonia responded with blank screen on their web page with the words: “The President Stole Your Land.” It was the first shot in a battle that has been raging all summer.
At the big, boisterous outdoor industry’s national trade show in Denver last month, retailers who sell to the 144 million Americans who participated in an outdoor activity last year, or the 344 million overall visitors to national parks, vowed to flex some muscle in the upcoming midterm elections.
They scoffed at the absurdity of propping up coal when there are more yoga instructors in the United States than people who work to produce a filthy fuel source. They were appalled that the increasingly strange interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, blamed everything but climate change for a summer of epic wildfires. And they promised to be heard this fall.
“We hunt and fish,” said Land Tawney, a Montanan who leads the fast-growing Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “And we vote public lands and water.”
Only one in 10 voters think Americans should use more coal. And more than 80 percent of millennials, soon to be the largest cohort of voters (if they ever turn out), believe there’s solid evidence behind these freakish manifestations of an overheated earth.
Science, a huge majority believes, is not a conspiracy. And yet, this huge majority has been ignored. These people are now ready to “put aside our differences and stand together for the places we love,” as Tawney and Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, wrote in The Denver Post.
You will see it in Minnesota, where the 140,000 people who work in outdoor recreation are furious at Trump’s attempt to open a sulfide-ore copper mine near Boundary Waters Wilderness. You will see it in a half-dozen tossup congressional races in California, where the administration is mounting the biggest assault yet on public health, with its attack on emission rules.
If it’s self-interest powering the wave, such is the nature of politics. At a time of real peril for the things that most Americans love, the silent green majority has had enough.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/opinion/trump-environment-green-wave.html
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