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ACC AM 14/09/18

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Plastics Industry Seeks Infrastructure Dollars for Recycling
Sep 14, 2018 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken

Plastics industry executives fanned out over Washington Sept. 12 for their annual lobbying day with a new message: a push for more federal government spending on recycling to try to address public concerns about plastics in the environment.
(ACC Mentioned) Risks Intensify in Global Economic Outlook
Sep 14, 2018 | ICIS
By Joseph Chang

Risks from US trade disputes and other factors are intensifying, dampening the global economic outlook even as overall growth is expected to continue.
(ACC Mentioned) Most Economists Say Tariff Impact on Economy Limited Due to Insignificant Amounts Survey
Sep 14, 2018 | Hellenic Shipping News

Tariffs have yet to meaningfully affect the U.S. economy because of the relatively small amounts imposed so far, but trade tensions remain the biggest risk to the economic outlook, according to forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Public Fears Hamper EPA Deregulatory Push, Drive 'Communication' Bid
Sep 14, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds

Faced with polling showing significant public concerns about the environment, acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and other top officials are seeking to bolster “risk communication” to highlight significant improvements over the last 25 years -- a key step if they hope to advance the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda.
EPA's 'Cooperative Federalism' Is Weakening Enforcement, Groups Charge
Sep 13, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds

Environmentalists are urging EPA to strengthen its planned oversight of state enforcement, charging that the agency is taking an uneven and sometimes contradictory approach to the issue, undercutting efforts to ensure adequate protections under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and other environmental laws.
DOJ Targets Nationwide Injunctions in Guidelines
Sep 13, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Ellen M. Gilmer

The Justice Department issued guidelines today opposing the use of nationwide injunctions in federal court.
EPA Chemical Safety Pick No Lame Duck While Awaiting Confirmation
Sep 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Adrianne Appel

The pick to run the EPA’s chemical safety office plans to keep her slate full running the agency’s New England region until she is confirmed.
Dem Refers Kavanaugh 'Information' to Federal Authorities
Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday she had referred concerns about Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh to federal authorities, potentially casting a shadow over the nominee as Democrats wage an all-out opposition campaign.

LCSA News

EPA Requests Nominations of Experts for Ad Hoc Participation in TSCA SACC
Sep 13, 2018 | National Law Review

On September 13, 2018, EPA announced it was requesting public nominations of scientific experts to be considered for ad hoc participation and possible membership on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC).

Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) WSU Researchers Say BPA Alternatives Used in Plastics May Pose Health Risks
Sep 13, 2018 | Seattle Times
By Yasmeen Wafai

Twenty years ago, a Washington State University researcher discovered genetic abnormalities in laboratory mice after they were accidentally exposed to the chemical bisphenol A, known as BPA, commonly found in plastic products.
Despite Findings That Tiny Amounts of BPA Impact Health, FDA Sticks to Its Message
Sep 14, 2018 | Environmental Health News
By Lynne Peeples

Government regulators and academic scientists are at odds over findings from a novel collaborative study on the potential health effects of bisphenol-A (BPA).
Judge Sets Hearing Over EPA's Perchlorate Deadline Request
Sep 13, 2018 | Inside EPA

A federal judge has set a hearing over EPA's push for a six-month delay of its Oct. 31 deadline to propose a national drinking water standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate after the agency rejected environmentalists' request to depose agency officials before they formally respond to the request.
Sherwin-Williams Can’t Shake Lead Paint Claims in Wisconsin
Sep 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Peter Hayes

Sherwin-Williams failed to shake off decades-old lead paint injury claims, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin ruled.
Sweden Runs Workshop on EU Legislative Issues Including REACH
Sep 14, 2018 | Chemical Watch

The Swedish Chemicals Agency, Kemi, is holding a meeting on 10 October to discuss issues in EU legislation, such as REACH, CLP and biocides Regulations and other news and regulatory activities.
ECHA Article Addresses New REACH Information Requirements for Nanomaterials
Sep 14, 2018 | National Law Review

The September 2018 issue of the ECHA Newsletter includes an article entitled “Are the new REACH information requirements for nanos relevant for you?” written by Jenny Holmqvist, Coordinator for Nanomaterials for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

Energy News

(ACC Mentioned) Natural Gas Hub Planned for Appalachia
Sep 14, 2018 | Engineering News-Record

Parsons Corp. has been named the EPC partner for development of a proposed $3.4-billion regional underground storage facility for natural gas liquids and derivatives.
Officials Push Strategic Power of Gas Exports
Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Jenny Mandel

The U.S. should use its natural gas resources as a political weapon against Russia, Republican lawmakers and administration officials agreed during a Senate hearing yesterday, as Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited Moscow to discuss "challenges to the bilateral relationship."
U.S. Expected to More Than Triple LNG Exports Within Two Years
Sep 14, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas could more than triple within two years, the Energy Department says, increasing from 3.5 billion cubic feet per day today to an expected 11 billion cubic feet per day by 2020.
IEA Warns of Higher Oil Prices as Iran, Venezuela Losses Deepen
Sep 14, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

The International Energy Agency warned that oil prices could break out above $80 a barrel unless other producers act to offset deepening supply losses in Iran and Venezuela.
US Gas Exports to China are Threatened by a Trade War
Sep 14, 2018 | Financial Times
By Gregory Meyer

When a US Senate committee met to discuss natural gas this week, the mood in the hearing room was bullish.
Royalty Advisers Move Toward Replacement Valuation Rule
Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Pamela King

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's royalty advisers this week took steps to incorporate outside voices in their process to advance a new natural gas valuation rulemaking and other public lands policies.
California Law Would Make State’s Electricity Grid 100 Percent Carbon Free by 2045
Sep 13, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Steven Mufson

If the resistance to President Trump’s climate policies needed a standard-bearer, California would be it.
Federal Advisers Tackle Response to 'Catastrophic' Grid Outages
Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak

A presidential advisory group is honing strategies for responding to a grid disaster that drags on for months.
Interior Says Federal Court Should Scrap Methane Appeal
Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer

The Trump administration is so close to finalizing a revised methane rule for public lands, a federal court shouldn't bother deciding an appeal related to the original regulation, government lawyers said this week.
Gas Explosions Blast Mass. Homes, Killing Teenager
Sep 14, 2018 | AP (In E&E Energywire)
By Philip Marcelo

A series of gas explosions an official described as "Armageddon" killed a teenager, injured at least 10 other people and ignited fires in at least 39 homes in three communities north of Boston, forcing entire neighborhoods to evacuate as crews scrambled to fight the flames and shut off the gas.

Chemical Security News

Fertilizer Retailers Want Farm Bill Shield From Safety Regulations
Sep 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sam Pearson

Fertilizer retailers and certain chemical storage facilities could sidestep safety rules guarding against catastrophic releases of hazardous substances under farm bill language lawmakers are considering.
Florence’s Path Is Strewn With Toxic Hazards
Sep 13, 2018 | The New York Times
By Kendra Pierre-Louis, Nadja Popovich and Hiroko Tabuchi

While people can move out of harm’s way as Hurricane Florence advances on North and South Carolina, their structures remain behind to face the storm’s full force.

Transportation and Infrastructure News

Lawmakers Mull Regulatory, Job Impact of Disruptive Technology
Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder

Lawmakers at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing yesterday dug into how future transit technologies will affect regulations and jobs.
All Railroads Should Install PTC by Dec. 31 Deadline, NTSB Tells Congress
Sep 14, 2018 | Transport Topics

Equipping the country’s freight and commercial trains with technology designed to automatically slow down or stop trains traveling at dangerous speeds would improve safety, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress Sept. 13.

Environment News

Companies, States Renew Vows to Address Climate Without Trump
Sep 14, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Emily C. Dooley

Fortune 500 companies, religious organizations, small businesses, health care providers, state governments and others made new pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions despite rollbacks at the federal level.
Warren Pushes Bill Requiring Public Disclosure of Climate Risks
Sep 14, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Anthony Andragna

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a potential 2020 presidential candidate, is today unveiling legislation that would require public companies to disclose more information about their exposure to risks stemming from climate change.
Cheaper Industrial Pollution Monitoring Options Floated by EPA
Sep 14, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid

Air pollution monitoring requirements for large manufacturing plants that use boilers and turbines in 20 states and the District of Columbia could be relaxed under a proposal the EPA released Sept. 13.
Environmentalists Reject EPA's Claim 'Close-Out' Rule Moots CSAPR Suit
Sep 14, 2018 | Inside EPA

Environmentalists suing EPA to force it to make the Obama-era Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) emissions trading program more stringent are pushing back against the Trump administration's claim that its proposal to “close-out” the cap-and-trade program moots the case, saying EPA needs to take more action to curb interstate air pollution.
Global Summit Rebukes Trump, Cheers on Work to Aid Climate
Sep 14, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)

Thousands of mayors, climate activists and business leaders from around the world descended Thursday on San Francisco to cheer on efforts to reduce global warming, even after U.S. President Donald J. Trump signaled his disdain for the issue.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) Plastics Industry Seeks Infrastructure Dollars for Recycling

Sep 14, 2018 | Plastics News

By Steve Toloken

Plastics industry executives fanned out over Washington Sept. 12 for their annual lobbying day with a new message: a push for more federal government spending on recycling to try to address public concerns about plastics in the environment.
The lobbying fly-in traditionally focuses on more pocketbook issues like trade policy, worker training and regulation, and those remained high on the agenda for the more than 100 executives who took part.
But rising concerns over plastic waste and worries over bans or taxes on plastic packaging led to an expanded focus this year.
"Recycling infrastructure is really the new key point that we want to raise," said Scott DeFife, vice president of government affairs for the Washington-based Plastics Industry Association, the lead organizer among five trade associations at the event.
For the industry groups, that means pushing for Congress and President Donald Trump's administration to change how Washington views federal infrastructure spending.
Instead of being a vehicle mainly for building things like roads and airports, they want some federal infrastructure spending to be earmarked for city and state recycling operations such as materials recovery facilities and waste to energy plants.
"We're saying some infrastructure spending should be on recycling, waste to energy, whatever needs to be done to properly handle plastic waste," said Chairman Wylie Royce. "On top of that you're creating recycling jobs."
DeFife said the effort is in its very early stages and the association is still putting together detailed legislative proposals.
But including it as part of lobbying day is another sign of how waste issues are taking a higher profile for industry groups: the CEO of the American Chemistry Council, for example, in June said he was delaying his planned retirement specifically to work on plastics waste issues.
DeFife said the federal government should see the global trade in recyclables as it sees world trade in wheat or other farm commodities.
"In D.C. they think of infrastructure as roads and bridges, and we're trying to get them to think of our material as an asset," DeFife said. "It should be invested in."Plastics Industry AssociationFred Daniell, president of Kureha America LLC, meets West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito during the plastics industry's Sept. 12 Washington lobbying fly-in.Trade policy
The lobbying day officially had three priorities: trade, workforce and infrastructure.
On trade policy the industry returned to a familiar theme, in general supporting free trade, but with a nuanced position that not all industry sectors see it the same way, particularly around China.
"As an association we want to promote free trade, we're basically free traders," said Royce, who is senior vice president of colorant supplier Royce Global in East Rutherford, N.J. "We don't see a whole lot of value to tariffs. Obviously, there are some unique situations that we can understand."
DeFife said there's a "broad consensus" among the association companies in support of not putting new tariffs on trade with Canada and Mexico as part of any revamped North American Free Trade Agreement.
While the Trump administration and Mexico have announced the outlines of a new trade agreement between the two countries, DeFife said the plastics industry wants Canada in any new version of NAFTA.
"The goal is we want to maintain positive trade relations and not create turmoil in the industry, in North America," DeFife said.
But the Trump administration's tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports and plans for tariffs on another $200 billion that could be enacted this month, have divided the industry.
The American Chemistry Council, which was part of the lobbying day, has argued strongly against tariffs on China, in part because it fears retaliation from Beijing will close off the Chinese market to U.S. resin exports.
But others, particularly plastics processors like packaging company Pactiv LLC and some large vinyl flooring makers, testified at government hearings in favor of tariffs on Chinese imports.
The industry is worried about tariff fights damaging the overall economy and undoing positive gains the industry has made, including positives from the federal tax cut, and would prefer a resolution and non-tariff ways of addressing concerns about China, DeFife said.
"Retaliatory tariffs escalating doesn't end well," he said. "Don't let it spin out of control, to the point that you damage the economy and damage the positive gains that the industries have."Plastics Industry AssociationSome participants in the plastics industry's annual Washington lobbying day Sept. 12, on the steps in front of the Capitol building.Plastic pipe
Another topic pushed by the executives was changes in federal laws to support more competition in government infrastructure for pipe.
It's the second year that "open competition" in pipe has been on the industry's lobbying day agenda, and the group sees it leveling the playing field for plastic pipe in government purchasing, said Tony Radoszewski, president of the Irving, Texas-based Plastics Pipe Institute.
"A lot of the specifications are written around concrete and iron materials," he said.
As well, the industry was using the event to tell lawmakers about the plastic pipe industry's increasing use of recycled content in storm water pipes, up to 40 percent in some cases, he said.
"We want to start broadcasting the fact that we believe up to 35 percent of curbside recycled bottles goes to corrugated [high density polyethylene] pipe," Radoszewski said.
In a statement for the lobbying event, PPI said recycled content pipes perform as well as pipe made with virgin HDPE and can be a way for governments to reduce the environmental impact of large storm drainage projects.
"Our industry takes a product that has a 60-day shelf life and turns it into a product with a 100-year service life," he said.Building connections
Apart from talking specific points with legislators, executives also said they saw value in building longer term connections and supporting the overall industry.
Norm Forest, the president of the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors, said the Indianapolis-based group is not a lobbying organization, so he said it was difficult for MAPP to speak on hot button issues like trade. It brought about a dozen members to the lobbying day.
"I'm here to participate in supporting the Plastics Industry Association and share with my Congress people," said Forest. Speaking for his company, he said supporting legislation on training and apprenticeships is a key issue.
The event attracted about 130 participants, which DeFife said was a record. The date was moved this year to coincide with the plastics association's annual Washington board meeting, which could have boosted turnout.
Royce also said the charged political atmosphere in the country may be increasing interest among executives, even with what is generally strong business conditions.
"The general industry mood and business mood is very, very positive, but what I'm also seeing is there's more political activism in the world than we've ever seen," Royce said. "I think people are starting to realize that we need to talk to our representatives and we need to deal with them and they have to understand our position. It's the old adage 'If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.'"
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20180913/NEWS/180919946/plastics-industry-seeks-infrastructure-dollars-for-recycling

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(ACC Mentioned) Risks Intensify in Global Economic Outlook

Sep 14, 2018 | ICIS

By Joseph Chang

Risks from US trade disputes and other factors are intensifying, dampening the global economic outlook even as overall growth is expected to continue.
“The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) leading economic indicator suggests a deceleration in the global economy. We see global GDP growth losing steam, from 3.2% in 2018, to 3.0% in 2019,” said Martha Moore, senior director of policy analysis and economics at the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
“Risks are intensifying as oil prices are rising, there is monetary tightening in most economies and we are seeing growing trade tensions and protectionism,” she added.
Moore spoke at the 11th ICIS World Chemical Purchasing Summit in Boston.
The US economy continues to accelerate this year with expected GDP growth of 2.9% in 2018 before easing to 2.6% in 2019.
ACC's Moore warns of risks
“The key risks are from trade tensions, leading to a higher cost of imports and retaliation against US producers,” said Moore.
However, the economist sees continuing growth in the US economy across multiple sectors – “almost firing on all cylinders” – with rising consumer confidence, business investment and manufacturing activity.
Housing continues on a slow and steady climb even with challenges in cost of materials and labour, with US housing starts expected to rise to 1.39m in 2019 from 1.33m in 2018, noted Moore.
And US light vehicle sales are falling from the peak but maintaining at healthy levels. She expects auto sales to fall from a peak of 17.5m units in 2017, to 17.0m in 2018 and 16.8m in 2019.
Europe’s economy came off a strong 2017 with 2.5% GDP growth but has lost momentum. The European Central Bank is withdrawing stimulus and there is the risk of the financial crisis in Turkey impacting creditors  in Spain and France, the economist said.
China growth has also been easing as its Blue Skies initiative has helped reduce excess capacity and housing inventory growth has slowed.
Risks come from a potentially messy deleveraging as well as the trade dispute with the US, said Moore.
Emerging markets are seeing far less robust expansion, as evidenced by their lower manufacturing PMIs (Purchasing Managers’ Indexes), she added.
Trade continues to be the major risk for the US and global economies.
“Between NAFTA, Section 232 (tariffs to protect national security – ex: steel and aluminum), Section 301 (US-China), and the US threatening to leave the WTO (Word Trade Organization), this has the potential to be hugely disruptive,” said Moore.
“In response to the US 232 tariffs, there has already been $3.5bn in US chemicals impacted. It also takes about 18,500 tonnes of steel to build an ethane cracker, so we’re watching this as well as it relates to new investment,” she added.
https://www.icis.com/resources/news/2018/09/13/10259276/risks-intensify-in-global-economic-outlook/

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(ACC Mentioned) Most Economists Say Tariff Impact on Economy Limited Due to Insignificant Amounts Survey

Sep 14, 2018 | Hellenic Shipping News

Tariffs have yet to meaningfully affect the U.S. economy because of the relatively small amounts imposed so far, but trade tensions remain the biggest risk to the economic outlook, according to forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
More than three quarters of economists surveyed between Friday and Tuesday, 78.4%, said the reason why tariffs on U.S. imports and exports so far don’t seem to be having much of an effect on the strength of the U.S. economy was because the amount hasn’t been significant.
“Not only is the dollar value of tariffed goods not substantial, but the retaliation to our tariffs has been much muted,” said Rajeev Dhawan, an economics professor at Georgia State University.
Under President Trump, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on about $113 billion of imports, goods that represented about 4% of all U.S. imports in 2017. Major U.S. trading partners have responded with tariffs on about $70 billion of exports, or about 3% of U.S. exports. The sum of goods that have had tariffs actually imposed is less than 1% of U.S. gross domestic product.
Those numbers could grow substantially if trade disagreements escalate. In all, the Trump administration has threatened tariffs on about $760 billion more in imports, including all automobile and auto part imports and nearly all imports from China. If implemented in full, those tariffs would significantly raise the stakes — and economic impact — hitting about 30% of all U.S. imports.
Still, nearly 70% of economists said there was a risk that economic growth would come in short of their forecasts in the next 12 months, compared with 22.6% who said growth might outperform their expectations and 7.5% who thought the risks to growth were evenly balanced.
Around two-thirds of respondents commented that trade or tariffs were the biggest risks to their economic growth forecasts in the next 12 months.
“The impact is slowly filtering through and more actions will only exacerbate the impact,” Gregory Daco, an economist at Oxford Economics, said regarding tariffs.
The Trump administration is expected soon to impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, on top of tariffs already in effect on $50 billion in goods from China. The U.S. also has placed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, in addition to washing machines and solar panels. China, the EU and other trade partners have announced tariffs of their own on American goods.
Forecasters are skeptical that threatened automobile tariffs will come to pass. They assigned an average probability of less than one in three, or 31%, that the U.S. will impose new tariffs on imports of automobiles and auto parts. That suggests that if the tariffs are imposed, forecasts might shift notably. Economists also didn’t see much likelihood that the U.S. would withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, placing a low 26% probability on such an outcome.
Despite concerns about trade, forecasts for economic growth this year ticked slightly higher in the September survey compared with the prior month. The average estimate for economic growth this year increased to 3.1%, up from a projection of 3% last month. On average, economists still expect the unemployment rate will fall to 3.6% by June 2019, which would be the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years.
The latest survey showed economists’ views on the impact of last year’s tax overhaul over the long run have become less positive than earlier in the year.
Back in the January survey, half of economists said the tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump in December would boost the economy’s long-run trend at least modestly, while the other half said it would have no effect or leave growth somewhat below its current trajectory.
Nine months later, 35.2% said they would boost the long-run growth outlook modestly, while 44.4% expected the tax cuts would have “little impact” on the long-run growth outlook and 11.1% said the tax cuts would hamper the long-run outlook.
Thomas Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council, said the “positive effects of tax cuts are eroded by tariffs and policy uncertainty.”
The Journal’s survey of 59 business, financial and academic economists was conducted Sept. 7-11. Not every forecaster answered every question.
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/most-economists-say-tariff-impact-on-economy-limited-due-to-insignificant-amounts-survey/

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Public Fears Hamper EPA Deregulatory Push, Drive 'Communication' Bid

Sep 14, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Dave Reynolds

Faced with polling showing significant public concerns about the environment, acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and other top officials are seeking to bolster “risk communication” to highlight significant improvements over the last 25 years -- a key step if they hope to advance the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda.
At the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) fall meeting here late last month, top agency officials and their state supporters sought to make the case that improvements in air and water quality over the past quarter century justify their deregulatory efforts though they acknowledged that public concerns about the state of the environment may be making that difficult.
Clint Woods, deputy assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation Aug. 28 told the ECOS meeting in Stowe, VT, that regulators have made “tremendous progress” in reducing air pollution in recent decades, but that “the message hasn't quite gotten through."
Woods , speaking as part of a “Roundtable: Earth, Water, & Sky -- 25 Years of Progress” cited recent Gallup pollingthat showed, for the first time in 18 years, more than half of Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the environment.
The poll, issued earlier this year, found that 62 percent of respondents say the government is not doing enough to protect the environment.
“The majority of Americans say protection of the environment should be a priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth, and believe the U.S. government is not doing enough to protect the environment,” Gallup said.
“About three-quarters support spending more government money on solar and wind power, and support higher emissions and pollution standards for industry,” the organization added.
In the face of such concerns, Woods, backed by EPA water chief David Ross and Craig Butler, director of the Ohio EPA, argued that regulators need to better communicate environmental successes to the public while also focusing on clarifying and addressing remaining risks.
“We haven't yet figured out how to champion our success,” Butler said, contrasting water quality in Ohio from the late 1960s -- when the Cuyahoga River caught fire -- to the present when regulators struggle to communicate health risks from water pollution measured in levels as low as parts per trillion.
Wheeler, EPA's acting chief, has emphasized a similar approach, telling agency staff in his July 11 introductory address that “risk communication” would be his top priority, and that he intended to quickly convene a work group on the issue. “EPA owes it to the American public to be able to explain in very simple easy to understand terms” the risks they face in their daily lives, he said.
Wheeler also touted better risk communication during an Aug. 15 meeting of the agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), though he drew pushback from several NEJAC members who feared that EPA might use the approach to downplay risks to poor and minority areas.
For example, Nicky Sheats, a NEJAC member who is director of the Center for the Urban Environment at Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, NJ, said that “Risk communication is often code for trying to minimize the danger” that neighborhoods face.
'Move the Needle'
At the ECOS meeting, state officials also raised concerns about the Trump administration's continuing push to limit EPA's role.
Janet Coit, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, argued that while many states are going beyond federal mandates to reduce air pollution, they need strong EPA standards and enforcement to have success reducing emissions that cross state lines and concentrate in communities along highways.
“We cannot move the needle [on air pollution] unless there is more effort on the national level,” she said.
Coit also argued that past successes grew from bipartisan cooperation that is currently flagging.
“I was purposely harkening back to an earlier time, because I feel there was a more bipartisan effort to approach air quality and public health,” Coit told Inside EPA on the sidelines of the conference.
When “people were working together to make sure that we had a strong federal backstop and sufficient pressure to address these issues that we cannot address at a state level.”
While Wheeler's focus on risk communication may hint at further efforts to challenge risk assumptions for environmental dangers, it remains unclear what a focus on risk communication might mean for agency rules.
At the ECOS conference, Woods and Ross both touted past successes and noted that additional challenges remain.
Woods argued that the United States is the world leader in air quality improvement and that the nation's pollution reduction trends are accelerating.
But he also noted that EPA's 2014 National Air Toxics Assessment, released Aug. 22, also shows that some areas may face elevated cancer risks driven largely by certain pollutants including ethylene oxide, a toxic gas released from the manufacture of certain products, including textiles and detergents.
He also said that EPA is seeking to take steps to further improve air quality, including reducing areas not in attainment with air quality standards and reducing a backlog of state implementation plans.
In highlighting past success in improving water quality, Ross touted state efforts, backing ECOS and the Trump administration's shared priority of improving cooperative federalism where states take the lead in implementing federally-delegated environmental rules, but EPA retains a role in ensuring state implementation is adequate.
“The reason why we have had remarkable improvement is because of people in this room,” Ross told ECOS. “When you go from state to state you don't think about whether you can drink the water … we should stop and appreciate that."
Ross also said challenges remain, including addressing emerging contaminants like per- and polyfluoroalky substances (PFAS) and preventing incidents like lead in drinking water in Flint, MI, and improving water infrastructure.
But while Coit called for strong federal enforcement, Ross backed the agency's recent shift to putting greater emphasis compliance assistance.
“Enforcement trends should always be going down,” he said, noting that improving regulatory programs should be able to provide better compliance assistance. “Because we're supposed to doing compliance assistance, outreach, all those things about helping people come into compliance.”
https://insideepa.com/weekly-focus/public-fears-hamper-epa-deregulatory-push-drive-communication-bid

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EPA's 'Cooperative Federalism' Is Weakening Enforcement, Groups Charge

Sep 13, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Dave Reynolds

Environmentalists are urging EPA to strengthen its planned oversight of state enforcement, charging that the agency is taking an uneven and sometimes contradictory approach to the issue, undercutting efforts to ensure adequate protections under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and other environmental laws.
In a letter last month to Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), groups including the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Sierra Club and Earthjustice argue that EPA efforts to defer to states and advance cooperative federalism are undermining the strong federal enforcement necessary to prevent recurrences of the Flint, MI, drinking water crisis and other issues.
“We do not question the importance of working collaboratively with state agencies authorized to administer federal environmental standards. But 'cooperative federalism' and 'partnership' should not be used to evade statutory responsibility to hold states accountable and take action when public health is at risk, as it so clearly was in Flint,” the letter says.
The letter raises concerns with several agency efforts, including its recent response declining to quickly heed a July 19 Inspector General's (IG) call to bolster oversight of state drinking water programs in the wake of the Flint crisis, as well as a January 22 interim guidance -- slated to be finalized in the coming months -- that raises the bar for the agency to bring enforcement actions that states oppose.
The letter generally urges EPA to ensure more rigorous oversight of state programs and calls for the agency to take public comment on any of the policies it is developing.
For example, it urges EPA to reconsider its decision rejecting the IG's recommendation to conduct annual reviews of state drinking water actions. “In light of the problems that have occurred in Flint and elsewhere under the lead and copper rule, establishing annual oversight of State actions under this rule is needed. Your failure to act promptly to fully embrace the Inspector General's straightforward recommendation for such oversight of compliance with the health based drinking water standard is discouraging after the Flint disaster,” the letter says.
And it urges EPA to revise the interim guidance to encourage EPA enforcement to protect public health -- even in cases where states object.
The letter comes as EPA is advancing a far-reaching effort to bolster cooperative federalism, where state regulators take the lead in implementing federal environmental law. The push is informed by ongoing talks between the Environmental Council of the States and EPA on streamlining EPA regions' oversight of state permitting and enforcement programs.
The Aug. 14 letter to Bodine is one of two letters EIP and other groups sent to senior Trump EPA officials raising concerns about the push to bolster state oversight. Both letters generally argue that strong EPA oversight is necessary to ensure adequate protection of human health and the environment, and they also seek greater transparency in the crafting of policies that support the push to improve cooperative federalism.
It is not clear if or how Bodine has responded but Henry Darwin, the acting deputy administrator who is leading EPA efforts to craft a new approach for overseeing state programs, told Inside EPA in an interview that officials continue to give states significant leeway.
“We do have an oversight role . . . but it's not to substitute our judgment for theirs, but for us to establish very clear criteria on where [states] will be evaluated,” he said with regard to the agency's new policy for reviewing state decisions.
'Support EPA Enforcement'
In their letter to Bodine, the environmental groups target EPA's refusal to quickly implement the IG's call to establish controls to ensure states are adequately monitoring for compliance with the agency's lead and copper rule.
EPA's IG in a July 19 report, “Management Weaknesses Delayed Response to Flint Water Crisis,” called for “controls to annually verify that the states are monitoring compliance with all Lead and Copper Rule requirements.”
But the letter notes that the agency stopped short of agreeing to the recommendation, saying instead that officials will “work with states to develop an approach or a pilot” for monitoring state programs.
The environmentalists' letter notes that the IG rejected EPA's response, “since these vague assurances do not reflect a commitment to the kind of annual oversight needed to ensure that health-based standards are met.”
However, the letter notes that EPA accepted some IG recommendations that require increased state oversight, such as those involving atypical events, emerging public health concerns, environmental justice concerns, public health analysis or citizen complaints.
EPA also accepted a recommendation that called for a “clear and credible” policy for escalating disputes when states and regions disagree.
Bodine's January 22 interim guidance, “Enhancing Regional-State Planning And Communication on Compliance Assurance Work in Authorized States,” details plans for deferring to states' enforcement of federally-delegated environmental laws.
“EPA will generally defer to authorized States as the primary day-to-day implementer of their authorized/delegated programs, except in specific situations,” the policy says. “EPA believes that exceptions to this general practice should be identified through close communication and involvement of upper management of both agencies.”
For states with authorized or delegated enforcement programs, “the expectation is that the state would be in the lead,” Bodine said Jan. 30 at an EPA National Executive Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C. “But if a state doesn't have the capacity, doesn't have the resources or doesn't have the will to take action, than EPA will,” she added. “It is really all about sharing information . . . we cannot ignore noncompliance.”
But environmentalists say this lowers the bar for federal enforcement, requiring Bodine to “personally approve any EPA enforcement action in cases where a state’s senior leadership has objected to federal involvement, while allowing EPA regional offices to drop such actions without your review and approval.”
They urge Bodine to strengthen the document when it is finalized, saying it “should include requiring Regions to elevate any proposal to pull back any planned enforcement action because of state objections, especially where there are indications of serious public health or environmental risks.”
“You should further make clear that you will support EPA enforcement -- even where states object -- when the failure to bring an action would create significant public health or environmental risks, weaken or significantly delay compliance with federal standards, or allow those who violate federal laws to avoid penalties and other appropriate sanctions,” the letter adds.
They also note the contradiction in EPA's actions, pointing to the rejection of the IG recommendation and the interim guidance while agreeing with the IG in some cases to closely scrutinize states.
“Your response to [parts of the IG's report] anticipate more direct federal involvement in enforcement of the [SDWA], while your interim guidance for enforcement of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and other federal statutes emphasizes deferring to state programs,” the letter says.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epas-cooperative-federalism-weakening-enforcement-groups-charge

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DOJ Targets Nationwide Injunctions in Guidelines

Sep 13, 2018 | E&E News PM

By Ellen M. Gilmer

The Justice Department issued guidelines today opposing the use of nationwide injunctions in federal court.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the broad court orders often frustrate federal policy and have become increasingly common only in recent years.
"Judges have been issuing an increasing number of orders that block the entire United States government from enforcing a law or policy," he said in prepared remarks for a speech in Kansas City, Mo., today. "Not limited to the case or parties in front of them. Not limited to their judicial district. But everywhere."
Sessions announced new DOJ litigation guidelines that direct attorneys to oppose the orders in court. The memo will help DOJ lawyers "present strong and consistent arguments in courts against the issuance of nationwide injunctions," the agency said in a news release.
"We're going to fight them all the way to the Supreme Court," Sessions said.
Judges have applied nationwide injunctions — which can freeze regulations or other actions across the country — to halt key Trump administration policies involving sanctuary cities, transgender members of the military and the travel ban executive order, among other things (Greenwire, June 19).
The broad orders have also cropped up in several environmental cases. Some litigants, for example, asked a district court in Texas to apply a nationwide injunction to halt the Obama-era Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule.
Government lawyers opposed the breadth of the request, even as the Trump administration works to roll back the regulation. The court this week issued a narrower order.
In his speech, Sessions argued that nationwide injunctions threaten the rule of law and the separation of powers.
"It is not the duty of the courts to manage this government or to pass judgment on or give final approval for every policy action the executive branch takes," he said. "The executive branch manages the government. And the president is the head of the executive branch.
"Get over it."
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/09/13/stories/1060096971

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EPA Chemical Safety Pick No Lame Duck While Awaiting Confirmation

Sep 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Adrianne Appel

The pick to run the EPA’s chemical safety office plans to keep her slate full running the agency’s New England region until she is confirmed.
“I will debunk the lame duck myth,” Alexandra Dunn said Sept. 13 during a Providence, R.I., talk to the Environmental Business Council New England, Inc., which represents environmental companies.
Dunn is President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which implements the Toxic Substances Control Act. Prior pick toxicologist Michael Dourson dropped out of the confirmation process after North Carolina’s Republican senators refused to vote for him because of his work with the chemical industry.
Dunn doesn’t know when confirmation hearings will begin, but she told Bloomberg Environment she is fully focused on her job as New England administrator.
A large part of that focus will speeding up environmental permits sought by businesses, currently an agency priority. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler wants them completed within 60 days and for agency officials to communicate more with permit applicants.
“Let me tell you, the eyebrows are going up,” Dunn told attorneys and business representatives in the room.

Applicants for EPA permits are accustomed to a “black hole” of not hearing from the agency for a long time after filing their applications, she said, so the agency needs to be more responsive and transparent about its permit process and communicate more with applicants.
https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/epa-chemical-safety-pick-no-lame-duck-while-awaiting-confirmation

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Dem Refers Kavanaugh 'Information' to Federal Authorities

Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Daily

By Nick Sobczyk

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday she had referred concerns about Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh to federal authorities, potentially casting a shadow over the nominee as Democrats wage an all-out opposition campaign.
In a cryptic statement yesterday afternoon, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee said only that someone had passed along "information" about Kavanaugh.
"That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision," Feinstein said. "I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities."
Several outlets reported that her office had received a letter alleging sexual misconduct when Kavanaugh was in high school, but Feinstein and other Democrats have not elaborated.
The White House and Senate Republicans immediately began pushing back. And with the committee vote scheduled next week, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has thus far rebuffed other attempts to delay.
White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called Feinstein's statement "an 11th hour attempt to delay his confirmation."
"Throughout his confirmation process, Judge Kavanaugh has had 65 meetings with senators — including with Senator Feinstein — sat through over 30 hours of testimony, addressed over 2,000 questions in a public setting and additional questions in a confidential session," Kupec said in a statement.
"Not until the eve of his confirmation has Sen. Feinstein or anyone raised the specter of new 'information' about him."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican on the Judiciary panel, noted on Twitter that the FBI has already performed a background check on Kavanaugh.
"Let me get this straight: this is statement about secret letter regarding a secret matter and an unidentified person. Right," Cornyn wrote.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/09/14/stories/1060096997

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LCSA News

EPA Requests Nominations of Experts for Ad Hoc Participation in TSCA SACC

Sep 13, 2018 | National Law Review

On September 13, 2018, EPA announced it was requesting public nominations of scientific experts to be considered for ad hoc participation and possible membership on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC). 83 Fed. Reg. 46487. The notice states that all nominees will be considered for ad hoc participation in the TSCA SACC’s peer reviews of the EPA’s risk evaluations for the first ten chemical substances addressed under TSCA. Further, all nominees may be considered for TSCA SACC membership to fulfill short term needs when a vacancy occurs on the chartered Committee. As part of a broader process for developing a pool of candidates, EPA staff solicits from the public and stakeholder communities nominations of prospective candidates for service as ad hoc reviewers and possibly members of TSCA SACC.
EPA states in the notice that any interested person or organization may nominate qualified individuals to be considered as prospective candidates, including themselves. It is requested for individuals nominated to have expertise in one or more of the following areas: women's health; children’s health; genetic variability; disproportionately exposed populations; aging; other susceptible populations; biochemistry; chemistry; epidemiology; human health risk assessment; pathology; physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling; pharmacology; ecological risk assessment; environmental fate; environmental toxicology; occupational, consumer, and general exposure assessment; toxicology; dose response modeling; environmental engineering; biostatistics; computational toxicology; fiber science; inhalation toxicology; volatile organics; and systematic review. Nominations are due by October 29, 2018.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/epa-requests-nominations-experts-ad-hoc-participation-tsca-sacc

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Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) WSU Researchers Say BPA Alternatives Used in Plastics May Pose Health Risks

Sep 13, 2018 | Seattle Times

By Yasmeen Wafai

Twenty years ago, a Washington State University researcher discovered genetic abnormalities in laboratory mice after they were accidentally exposed to the chemical bisphenol A, known as BPA, commonly found in plastic products.
Now, Patricia Hunt and her colleagues have found that alternatives to the chemical are also causing genetic abnormalities in mice — and may also threaten human reproductive health.
“We stumbled on an effect yet again,” said Hunt, a professor in the WSU School of Biological Sciences and lead author of a study published Thursday in Current Biology. “This is a more stable plastic, but it induced similar effects on the process of making eggs and sperm.”
BPA has long been used in plastic products such as soda pop and reusable water bottles, as well as food-can coatings. Scientists say trace amounts of the chemical can leach out those products.Featured Video'Figuring History' at Seattle Art Museum (2:35)Most Read Local StoriesAiling orca J50 is likely dead, says lead researcher, as NOAA ramps up searchOrca J50 presumed dead but NOAA continues searchNOAA lays plan to capture ailing orca J50, announces public meetings'Airplane of opportunity'? Richard Russell raised pilot's suspicions a year before Sea-Tac plane heistLynnwood man tried to use a home DNA test to qualify as a minority business owner. He was denied — now he’s suing.Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks.
The research by Hunt and others led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and children’s drinking cups in 2012. The Washington Legislature has also limited its use.
Hunt and her team’s latest discovery found reproductive defects in mice kept in plastic cages made with Bisphenol S (BPS), a common replacement for BPA.
They said mice exposed to BPS experienced changes in how the germ cells in their testes and ovaries copy and splice DNA while producing sperm and eggs. The researchers found similar results with alternative chemicals BPF, BPAF and diphenyl sulfone.
“These findings add to growing evidence of the biological risks posed by this class of chemicals,” Hunt said.
The researchers also found the issues occurring in the male germline lasted several generations after the initial exposure. The mice were not clear of the effects until about the fourth or fifth generation. The genetic changes led to a reduction in viable sperm as well as an increase in abnormal eggs, Hunt found.
“The good news is, if we could eliminate them (the chemicals) we could slowly turn any testis effects back to normal,” she said. “The bad news is, if we’re like mice, it would take generations.”ADVERTISING
Hunt, who was labeled the “accidental toxicologist” by Scientific American magazine, said the pervasive use of the plastics may also compromise basic biological research.
“It’s now becoming almost impossible to run experiments without contamination,” Hunt said.Sign up for Evening Brief
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“We study the germline, which is super sensitive to hormones and chemicals like bisphenols that act like or interfere with our hormones. So we are like the canary in the coal mine,” she said.
Hunt found a residue on her mice cages and lab results showed it was BPS. After eliminating the contamination, she then began to test the effect of BPS on mice.
The FDA last month said BPA does not pose a health hazard when used in food containers. And the American Chemistry Council said earlier this year that a large FDA study found the chemical is safe as it’s currently used.
But Hunt said the FDA studies do not match up with studies done by independent researchers.
“When you do those kinds of big studies of BPA, you see little or no effects,” Hunt said. “But people like me go, look what it does to eggs, look what it does to the brain, look what it does to the heart, so there’s been this big disconnect between these independent researchers and these big toxicology tests.”
Hunt said more research is needed for a safe solution. She encouraged consumers to get rid of any plastic products showing physical signs of change and damage because they may be leaching the components that they are made from.
Hunt’s WSU colleagues in the research are Tegan Horan, a research intern and the paper’s first author, as well as scientific assistants Hannah Pulcastro and Crystal Lawson, and former postdoctoral fellows Mary Gieske and Caroline Sartain. Joining them are Roy Gerona and Spencer Martin of the University of California, San Francisco.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/wsu-researchers-say-bpa-alternatives-used-in-plastics-may-pose-health-risks/

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Despite Findings That Tiny Amounts of BPA Impact Health, FDA Sticks to Its Message

Sep 14, 2018 | Environmental Health News

By Lynne Peeples

Government regulators and academic scientists are at odds over findings from a novel collaborative study on the potential health effects of bisphenol-A (BPA).
In a webcast on Thursday, a representative of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration presented results from the government's portion of the multimillion dollar project, called Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity, or CLARITY-BPA. The government data, reported K. Barry Delclos, a research pharmacologist at the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research, indicates that exposing rodents to BPA resulted in some health effects at high doses but not at the low doses to which people are generally exposed.
"The regulatory agencies currently conclude that BPA does not pose risk at estimated dietary exposure levels," Delclos said.
CLARITY-BPA was launched with the intent of reconciling long-standing differences in the data and conclusions of government and academic studies on the health effects of BPA. "There has been considerable debate over many years over risk posed by low level of BPA exposure," Delclos acknowledged.Related: In a scientific first, researchers gave people BPA — and saw a link to precursor of type 2 diabetes
While some effects did appear at low doses in the FDA's latest study, he explained that his team questioned their biological significance. Among the main arguments he shared for doing so was a "lack of a dose-response" and no "clear pattern of consistent responses." In other words, the health effects in the animals did not appear to increase as the dose of BPA was increased.
A group of academic scientists presented contrasting conclusions in a separate webcast on Wednesday. (Editor's note: Pete Myers, CEO and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, was part of Wednesday's webcast. He is also the founder of Environmental Health News, though the publication is editorially independent.)
The FDA may say that BPA poses no health risk at low doses, said Pat Hunt, a reproductive biologist at Washington State University, but "that is not what we think."
Billions of pounds of BPA are produced every year for use in a wide range of products — from plastic bottles to food containers to cash register receipts. And a little bit of that BPA is getting into our bodies all the time. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found measurable amounts of the chemical in nearly everyone they have tested.
It is these exposures to tiny amounts of BPA that lie at the crux of the continued controversy.Health effects found at doses 20-fold lower than the current federal standard
The long-held assumption in the regulatory testing of toxic chemicals is that the dose makes the poison — or a higher dose always poses greater potential harm than a lower dose. But such a notion is "unscientific based on what we know about how hormones and endocrine disruptors work," said Laura Vandenberg, an environmental health researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who is not a CLARITY-BPA contributor.
Like hormones, BPA and other so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been found to exert powerful effects on the human body at very low doses — even when they appear harmless at higher doses.
The academic scientists pointed out that the FDA study did uncover some serious impacts of the chemical on the mammary gland, prostate, kidney and body weight. Much like the academics' own studies, these effects were primarily linked with the lowest levels of exposure. In fact, half of the significant effects were only found in the low-dose groups and not in the high-dose groups, noted Gail Prins, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a CLARITY-BPA investigator.
"This contrasts with what the FDA is claiming that there are only high dose effects and there are not low dose effects," she said.
The draft of FDA's contribution to CLARITY-BPA was released in February. It went through peer review in April and a final report is anticipated by the end of September. Most of the CLARITY-BPA studies by the academic investigators have now been published, with a few still forthcoming. After all the government and academic studies are completed and finalized, a collective report will also be written and released.
"The power of the CLARITY-BPA study is in the combined data," said Hunt, who did not participate in CLARITY-BPA. "That analysis has not been done."
The stakes could be high. Hunt noted that health effects have been found in the CLARITY-BPA studies at doses that are 20-fold lower than the current tolerable daily intake for BPA set by the government. In order to protect public health, that "tolerable" level is itself set to be extremely conservative — 1000-fold lower than the level that government risk assessments found could affect the health of animals.
"That gives us a lot to think about," said Hunt.
https://www.ehn.org/bpa-harmful-at-low-levels-2604683710.html

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Judge Sets Hearing Over EPA's Perchlorate Deadline Request

Sep 13, 2018 | Inside EPA

A federal judge has set a hearing over EPA's push for a six-month delay of its Oct. 31 deadline to propose a national drinking water standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate after the agency rejected environmentalists' request to depose agency officials before they formally respond to the request.
In a Sept. 11 order, Judge Edgardo Ramos set an Oct. 2 conference on the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) request for discovery on EPA's request to delay the deadline. Ramos, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, also stayed NRDC's deadline to respond to EPA's motion until after the hearing.
EPA's Aug. 30 request -- which sought to extend the Oct. 31 deadline by six months, to April 30, 2019 -- asks the court to amend the agency's 2016 settlement with NRDC.
The settlement sought to end NRDC's February 2016 suit, which charged that officials had missed a statutory deadline for proposing a national drinking water goal after then-Administrator Lisa Jackson's 2011 determination that perchlorate should be regulated.
EPA's efforts have been hobbled since then by challenges in expanding a model as directed by agency science advisors, and in seeking peer review of the updated model.
In a declaration filed alongside the request, Eric Burneson, chief of the Standards and Risk Management Division within EPA's Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water, points to agency efforts to peer review the model as the reason for its delay. Burneson writes the two-step peer review of the biologically-based dose-response (BBDR) model took six months longer than EPA anticipated when it reached the settlement with NRDC.
But NRDC in a Sept. 10 response argues that EPA's explanation, laid out in Burneson's declaration, is “not sufficient to allow NRDC to conclude whether any of the three circumstances that warrant modification have been met.” As a result, the group argues that it should be allowed to depose EPA officials before it takes a position on EPA's request.
EPA, in a Sept. 11 brief opposing NRDC's motion, argues the “Court should reject NRDC’s effort now to delay decision of EPA’s Motion and impose unnecessary, burdensome discovery on EPA. As an initial matter, Plaintiff’s attempt to seek discovery in lieu of responding to EPA’s Motion is inconsistent with the intent of the Consent Decree--to ensure that any extension requests are resolved expeditiously and do not unnecessarily divert EPA from its work in developing a proposed [maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG)] and [(national primary drinking water rule (NPDWR)].”
Further, EPA argues that NRDC “has already had a full opportunity to learn the facts relating to the basis for EPA’s Motion.” EPA's brief adds that six weeks before filing its request to extend the deadline, the agency notified NRDC of its plan, and agreed to a phone call with NRDC to discuss the reasons. The brief adds that Burneson and other EPA officials spoke with NRDC officials on July 24, explaining their reasoning.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/judge-sets-hearing-over-epas-perchlorate-deadline-request

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Sherwin-Williams Can’t Shake Lead Paint Claims in Wisconsin

Sep 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Peter Hayes

Sherwin-Williams failed to shake off decades-old lead paint injury claims, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin ruled.
Claims may proceed against Sherwin-Williams, American Cyanamid, and Armstrong Containers alleging children were exposed to lead paint in their homes, the court said.
The claims rely on Wisconsin’s risk contribution theory of liability which requires a plaintiff to prove only that defendants “contributed to the risk of injury to the public, and, consequently ... to the individual plaintiffs,” the court said.
Risk contribution theory allows a case to proceed if the plaintiff shows the defendant produced or marketed the type of product that caused the injury.
The ruling comes as lead paint manufacturers, including Sherwin-Williams, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to topple a California decision imposing liability on the companies under a public nuisance theory.
In the Wisconsin case, the companies did not have a duty to warn the childrens’ care givers directly of the risks of lead, the court said.
But the plaintiffs may pursue negligence claims based on the general duty of ordinary care, the court said.
Claims of strict liability failure to warn may also proceed against Sherwin-Williams and Armstrong, but Cyanamid is shielded from these claims as a bulk supplier who sold to sophisticated users, the court said.
Sherwin-Williams made white lead carbonate (WLC) pigments and also used WLC in the production of its own paints.
American Cyanamid first manufactured WLC when it bought the assets of MacGregor Lead Co., and its parent Armstrong Chemcon Inc.
The plaintiffs allege that Armstrong Containers is a successor of the John R. MacGregor Lead Co.
Judge Lynn Adelman issued the opinion.
Wexler Wallace LLP, Warshafsky Rotter Tarnoff & Bloch SC, and Motley Rice LLC represent the plaintiffs. Quarles & Brady LLP, and Jones Day represent Sherwin-Williams. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP represents American Cyanamid. Bascom Budish & Ceman SC, and Morris Manning & Martin LLP represent Armstrong.

The case is Burton v. Am. Cyanamid, 2018 BL 329227, E.D. Wis., Nos. 07-CV-0303, 07-CV-0441, 10-CV-0075, 9/12/18.
https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/sherwin-williams-cant-shake-lead-paint-claims-in-wisconsin

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Sweden Runs Workshop on EU Legislative Issues Including REACH

Sep 14, 2018 | Chemical Watch

The Swedish Chemicals Agency, Kemi, is holding a meeting on 10 October to discuss issues in EU legislation, such as REACH, CLP and biocides Regulations and other news and regulatory activities.

A workshop will follow for companies and organisations to advise on the help and information they need and how they might like to work with Kemi.
https://chemicalwatch.com/70182/sweden-runs-workshop-on-eu-legislative-issues-including-reach

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ECHA Article Addresses New REACH Information Requirements for Nanomaterials

Sep 14, 2018 | National Law Review

The September 2018 issue of the ECHA Newsletter includes an article entitled “Are the new REACH information requirements for nanos relevant for you?” written by Jenny Holmqvist, Coordinator for Nanomaterials for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). As reported in our April 26, 2018, blog item, the European Commission (EC) Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Committee voted on April 26, 2018, to amend several REACH Annexes to clarify the registration requirements for nanomaterials. Holmqvist’s article provides answers to what the revised Annexes change, who the changes impact, when the new Annexes come into force, what ECHA is doing to help companies prepare, whether there are test methods already available to comply with the amended requirements, and if the new information requirements imply that nanomaterials on the European Union’s (EU) market are unsafe. Holmqvist recommends that manufacturers and importers familiarize themselves “at the earliest opportunity, with the introduced changes to assess whether they are relevant for your substances.” Industry must comply with the new requirements by January 2020. ECHA is examining which parts of the existing guidance need to be updated or whether new guidance is necessary. Holmqvist states: “We also plan to increase our efforts in reaching out to industry organisations both in bilateral meetings and also through our guidance process. This way, we hope to ensure that there is sufficient support available for companies that are preparing possible updates to their registration dossiers.” Regarding whether the new information requirements imply that nanomaterials currently on the market are unsafe, Holmqvist notes that “without changing the legal information requirements, it would be very difficult for authorities to verify whether companies registering their chemicals have demonstrated the safe use of nanomaterials throughout the supply chain or whether further regulatory actions for managing their risks would be needed,” emphasizing the word verify. Holmqvist states: “I think we all agree that the realisation of the great opportunities that nanotechnology and nanomaterials may offer society should go hand-in-hand with the transparent demonstration by industry of their safety and sustainability.” The article lists the following guidance that is already available to help companies prepare for the revised information requirements:How to prepare registration dossiers that cover nanoforms: best practices;Guidance on information requirements and chemical safety assessment: Appendix R.6-1 for nanomaterials applicable to the Guidance on QSARs and Grouping of Chemicals; andNano-specific appendices to the guidance on information requirements and chemicals safety assessment.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/echa-article-addresses-new-reach-information-requirements-nanomaterials

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Energy News

(ACC Mentioned) Natural Gas Hub Planned for Appalachia

Sep 14, 2018 | Engineering News-Record

Parsons Corp. has been named the EPC partner for development of a proposed $3.4-billion regional underground storage facility for natural gas liquids and derivatives. The Appalachia Storage and Trading Hub will be sited at a location to be determined following geologic investigation. The site is proposed to hold production from the Marcellus, Utica and Rogersville Shale methane deposits and could be located in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania or West Virginia, says Steve Hedrick, CEO of the Appalachia Development Group. The developer has applied for a $1.9-billion loan guarantee from the Dept. of Energy while working to secure $1.4 billion in equity investment. The American Chemistry Council estimates the hub could facilitate $36 billion in follow-on petrochemical investment in the region. Parsons will initially focus on front-end engineering and design.
https://www.enr.com/articles/45164-natural-gas-hub-planned-for-appalachia

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Officials Push Strategic Power of Gas Exports

Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Jenny Mandel

The U.S. should use its natural gas resources as a political weapon against Russia, Republican lawmakers and administration officials agreed during a Senate hearing yesterday, as Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited Moscow to discuss "challenges to the bilateral relationship."
"Secretary Perry has stated that every molecule of energy that the United States exports is exporting freedom to the world," said Steven Winberg, the Department of Energy's assistant secretary of fossil energy, testifying before the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
"There is sufficient gas to send over to our allies and friends in Europe," he told lawmakers, describing the 21 billion cubic feet per day of LNG export capacity that DOE has greenlighted for construction to sell the commodity into world markets.
The hearing, which was attended by one Democratic senator and just a handful of Republicans, was convened to draw attention to how U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas can be strategically important for European countries that are otherwise heavily reliant on pipeline gas from Russia for their fuel supplies.
It coincided with a visit by Perry to Moscow that comes as part of an energy diplomacy tour that also included stops in Austria and Romania to talk about enhancing cooperation, while his deputy, Dan Brouillette, meets with counterparts in Germany.
A DOE readout of Perry's meeting yesterday with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov described the talks as a candid conversation "focused on challenges of the bilateral relationship while recognizing the importance of communicating on energy issues of mutual importance to the United States and Russia."
Russia wants to restart the stalled U.S.-Russia Energy Working Group, according to DOE, while Perry focused on the administration's opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia with Germany and the two countries' joint interest "to succeed in furthering international energy security and global stability."
On Capitol Hill, the witnesses agreed that Russia flexes its energy muscles to exert its influence in Europe and elsewhere, pointing to instances in which it has turned off the gas taps for neighboring countries during winter cold spells.
One notable assertion of Russian energy influence peddling came from Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R), who leapt off from Russian social media meddling and rumored Russian involvement in European anti-fracking campaigns to suggest Russian involvement with a Colorado ballot measure calling for larger buffer zones around oil and gas developments. Regulators have said the measure could take 85 percent of the state's nonfederal land out of production (Greenwire, Aug. 30).
"Russia's continued use of information-disinformation campaign-hybrid warfare to fund division in the United States has been used to help depress, destroy and divide Americans on our energy production," Gardner said.
"Colorado's one of the highest natural gas producers in the country. If something like that were to pass, we know that money has been used by Russians to fund anti-energy initiatives in the United States and around the globe, does it empower [Russian President] Vladimir Putin when he is able to shut down energy production or if we pass initiatives that shut down production in the United States? Does that give him greater leverage over world markets and energy manipulation?" Gardner asked.
"Absolutely," agreed Mark Mills, a fellow at the free-market think tank the Manhattan Institute. "Absolutely," concurred Agnia Grigas, an author who focuses on Eurasian politics.
Mills described LNG export laws as "antiquated" for requiring companies to obtain federal approval to become LNG exporters. "There is no forecast for domestic demand uptake ... that could come close to absorbing half of the projected increase from American gas fields," he said in calling for a change in the Natural Gas Act.
Tyson Slocum, who heads the energy program for advocacy group Public Citizen, disagreed with the often-repeated assertion that expanded exports would benefit the U.S. public.
"I think that exporting unrefined raw materials is a Nigerian model of economic growth," Slocum said. He pointed to a DOE study that suggested domestic natural gas prices could double with expanded exports, and found much of the "public good" from such trade would accrue to those holding a stake in energy companies. "If we're going to be approving a significant increase in export capacity, it's going to conflict with the traditional public interest standard of ensuring consumers have access to fairly priced commodities," he argued.
Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) took issue with that price projection, stating it is "not supported by the committee."Looking east
Murkowski noted that in her state, it was markets to the east that have driven an effort to build new LNG export capacity. "Our reality is that Alaska's gas is probably farther away from the Lower 48 than it is from our partners in the Asian nations," she said.
One question she had for the witnesses: As the U.S. LNG industry sits poised between a wave of big LNG projects that are wrapping up construction and with another wave of projects awaiting investment decisions, is federal policy standing in the way?
"As Alaska has been working through our process over decades to advance our natural gas opportunities, we've seen windows open and we have seen windows close," she said. "Is this a situation where you will have others that will be able to fill this need" of LNG importing countries, both for the gas itself and for the political stability it can build, she asked.
Kevin Book, research director with ClearView Energy Partners LLC, said a global market shift toward shorter-term contracts for LNG will increasingly prop those windows open longer. "Yes, there's a time element because of [long] contracts" rolling over, he said, but the with shorter contract lives, "the window isn't necessarily closed forever."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/09/14/stories/1060096983

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U.S. Expected to More Than Triple LNG Exports Within Two Years

Sep 14, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Rebecca Kern

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas could more than triple within two years, the Energy Department says, increasing from 3.5 billion cubic feet per day today to an expected 11 billion cubic feet per day by 2020.
Four additional LNG export terminals have already received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Energy Department approval and are under construction. The facilities will be located in Cameron, La., Elba Island, Ga., and Freeport and Corpus Christi—both in Texas.
But the Energy Department’s Steven Winberg, head of the Office of Fossil Energy, acknowledged the U.S. is still behind major LNG exporting countries Australia and Qatar.
“We’re catching up very quickly,” he said during a Sept. 13 Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on U.S. LNG exports to Europe..
The U.S. is expected to pass Malaysia to be the third-largest LNG exporter by 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration.
European Markets
Europe is the largest importer of LNG in the world. Currently, the EU receives 43 percent of its natural gas from Russia, according to the European Commission.
“Russia is aggressively looking to get into the LNG market,” Agnia Grigas, an associate at the ARGONNE National Laboratory and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, told the committee. “If we don’t move now, we can expect more competition in the future.”
When Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) asked Winberg if he expects additional U.S. LNG exports will be going to Europe, Winberg said, “It’s difficult to say.”

“Right now, we’ve sent 43 cargoes to nine countries in Europe,” he said. “These are private companies and they are free to move that gas wherever they want.”
https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/us-expected-to-more-than-triple-lng-exports-within-two-years

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IEA Warns of Higher Oil Prices as Iran, Venezuela Losses Deepen

Sep 14, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

The International Energy Agency warned that oil prices could break out above $80 a barrel unless other producers act to offset deepening supply losses in Iran and Venezuela.
Iranian crude exports have fallen significantly before U.S. sanctions even take effect, the IEA said in a monthly report. The Middle Eastern nation will face further pressure in coming months and the economic crisis in Venezuela is pushing output there to the lowest in decades. It's uncertain whether Saudi Arabia and other producers will fill any shortfall, or how far they're able to, the agency said.
"Things are tightening up," said the Paris-based IEA, which advises most major economies on energy policy. "If Venezuelan and Iranian exports do continue to fall, markets could tighten and oil prices could rise" unless there are offsetting production increases elsewhere, it said.
RELATED: How an oil glut could swiftly turn to shortage
Oil climbed to a three-month high above $80 a barrel in London on Wednesday as fears of a supply crunch eclipsed concern about the risks to demand such as the U.S.-China trade dispute. While the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia pledged to boost supply, the IEA said it remains to be seen how much will be delivered.
Saudi Arabia lifted output by 70,000 barrels a day to 10.42 million last month, but that remains "some distance from the 11 million barrels a day level that Saudi officials initially suggested was on the way," the IEA said.
While the agency warned that "there is a risk to the 2019 outlook" for demand from challenges in emerging markets such as currency depreciation and trade disputes, it kept forecasts for consumption unchanged.
In the meantime, supply risks dominate. Oil inventories in developed economies are already below-average and will decline further in the fourth quarter, the IEA predicted.
Venezuela, which is pumping at just half the rate it managed in early 2016, could see its output slump another 19 percent to 1 million barrels a day this year as infrastructure deteriorates and workers flee, the agency predicted.
Iranian production has already fallen to the lowest since July 2016, at 3.63 million barrels a day, as buyers retreat ahead of U.S. sanctions that come into force on Nov. 4.
Although Russia, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf members of OPEC promised to bolster production by about 1 million barrels a day, the IEA remained cautious on whether the full amount would be delivered. It's unclear how quickly OPEC's spare capacity, which stands at about 2.7 million barrels a day, can be activated, it said.
"We are entering a very crucial period for the oil market," which could push prices out of the $70-to-$80 a barrel range seen in the past few months, the IEA said.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/IEA-warns-of-higher-oil-prices-as-Iran-Venezuela-13226665.php

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US Gas Exports to China are Threatened by a Trade War

Sep 14, 2018 | Financial Times

By Gregory Meyer

When a US Senate committee met to discuss natural gas this week, the mood in the hearing room was bullish. The unstoppable rise of US production was noted. Sales to Europe were extensively discussed. A senior energy department official declared that “every molecule of energy that the United States exports is exporting freedom to the world”, a metaphor favoured by his boss, energy secretary Rick Perry. Homegrown hydrocarbons are a priority of the Trump administration. Officials are doing what they can to loosen rules for drillers and ease fuel economy targets, overlooking the climate risks. But they are undermining their own agenda as they conduct a trade war with the most promising foreign gas market of them all: China. China, long reliant on sooty coal to generate power, has embraced natural gas to clean its polluted skies. It is now the world’s fastest-growing market for liquefied natural gas (LNG), or gas that has been condensed for tanker shipment overseas. The US is now a net exporter of gas thanks to supplies unearthed from its shale formations. The opening of an LNG loading terminal in Louisiana in 2016, followed by another in Maryland this past March, have made it a player in the global market. China was the third-largest customer for US LNG in the first half of 2018. Then in August, China warned of a 25 per cent tariff on US LNG in response to President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs on another $200bn worth of Chinese goods. If they take effect, it would cloud the future growth of LNG exports and inflict a real cost to the US economy. China needs a lot more gas. Its LNG imports will nearly double in the next decade, according to Bernstein Research. Yet Beijing has access to molecules that come without American freedom attached. Liquefaction terminals have been built or proposed in countries such as Australia, Canada, Mozambique and Russia. This week state-controlled PetroChina agreed a 22-year deal to buy about 3.4m tonnes per year from Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of LNG. In Vladivostok, presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia met to reinforce economic ties that include the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, set to run east to the Chinese border. This comes as there are signs of a slowdown of gas shipments from the US to China. After discharging an average of 300,000 tonnes per month in the first half, LNG tankers delivered less than half that amount in July and August, according to Abudi Zein of ClipperData, a vessel tracking service. Exports of US LNG already under contract to China should be safe from any tariffs. Early this year Cheniere Energy, which runs the Louisiana plant, inked a 25-year deal to deliver up to 1.2m tonnes of LNG a year to PetroChina. “It won’t affect Cheniere,” Jack Fusco, Cheniere chief executive, told analysts. Less safe is the long list of projects awaiting a final investment decision. Liquefaction plants take about five years to construct, requiring long-term customer commitments to be financed. Fotis Giannakoulis, analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates China’s proposed tariff could scupper more than $60bn of new projects. Recommended Inside Business Henry Foy Why China’s investment play into Russia may endure Nikos Tsafos, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says that the US has become a less attractive place to secure long-term LNG supplies because of its new trade policies and tariffs on steel, critical for energy infrastructure. “You have definitely seen a worsening relative position for US LNG,” he says. “This idea that the US is exporting freedom has been somewhat premised on the notion that US LNG is somewhat better, or less risky, than other gas. I think that has been a very difficult thing to say over the past 18 months.” Relatively fewer LNG exports could eventually weigh on the US economy. A study commissioned by Mr Trump’s energy department in July concluded growth would accelerate with higher LNG export volumes, thanks to rising household incomes and investment in new liquefaction plants. All the tariff talk may become yesterday’s news if Washington and Beijing reach a resolution. And China, with demand charging ahead, may find it needs to line up gas from as many different sources it can, including the US. For the next few years, though, the world has more than enough liquefaction capacity. That gives Beijing its own sort of freedom — the freedom to choose where to buy its gas.
https://www.ft.com/content/184118cc-b7de-11e8-bbc3-ccd7de085ffe

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Royalty Advisers Move Toward Replacement Valuation Rule

Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Pamela King

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's royalty advisers this week took steps to incorporate outside voices in their process to advance a new natural gas valuation rulemaking and other public lands policies.
Groups that have been relegated to the sidelines of the Royalty Policy Committee's meetings are still pushing for a more meaningful seat at the table.
"We certainly believe that not only is the value of energy important, but the revenue is very, very important to America, as well," Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director and acting committee Chairman Scott Angelle said at the start of yesterday's meeting in Lakewood, Colo.
The Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) contends that by listening mostly to input from industry interests, the government may ultimately leave taxpayer dollars on the table. In a lawsuit filed last month in federal district court in Missoula, Mont., WORC called on the Interior Department to comport with the Federal Advisory Committee Act by diversifying its royalty committee membership and welcoming the public in its subcommittee meetings (Energywire, Aug. 8).
The committee announced yesterday that it would soon put out a call for nominations to fill a handful of vacancies.
At least two of the panel's three subcommittees opened their doors to outside participation in the lead-up to the Colorado meeting, but individuals who were invited to attend said their involvement was limited to presenting information.
"I wasn't privy to what they ended up deciding or what they discussed," said Taxpayers for Common Sense President Ryan Alexander, who met with the Fair Return & Value Subcommittee.
The panel yesterday adopted a recommendation to initiate a rulemaking on index pricing for federal resources.
Under former President Obama, Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue issued a regulation that attempted to address that exact issue. The royalty reform rule was repealed in the early days of the Trump administration (Greenwire, Aug. 4, 2017).
ONRR noted at the time that Zinke had recently revived the Royalty Policy Committee to determine fair return on federal coal, oil and natural gas.
"This committee has addressed valuation in its recommendations at this meeting and at its past meetings, but in a way that would favor industry at the expense of taxpayers," Alexander wrote in formal comments to the committee last week.
Former Montana Department of Revenue Director Dan Bucks, who was also invited to the Fair Return & Value Subcommittee meeting, said the revised proposal the full committee adopted was "generally more acceptable" than the draft version.
But no one from the committee asked his opinion, he said.
"I have not been involved in any deliberations or decisionmaking of any working group or subcommittee of the [Royalty Policy Committee], nor do I anticipate being asked to do so," Bucks said.Permitting
The committee tabled a proposal to develop a pilot program for streamlining oil and gas permitting.
Introducing "notifications for permit to drill," or NPDs, would offer an alternative to the time-consuming application for permit to drill, or APD, process, said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance and an alternate member of the royalty panel.
"I would emphasize it's a pilot project," she said at the start of her presentation.
Her fellow committee members pushed for more clarity on whether the program would be established through legislation or a rulemaking. One member asked for more time to review existing legislation that Sgamma cited in her presentation.
One of those bills, H.R. 6088, the "Streamlining Permitting Efficiencies in Energy Development Act," introduced by Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis, would allow drillers to submit NPDs in certain cases, such as for wells in an area that has already been analyzed under the National Environmental Policy Act.
During the public comment period, attendees urged the committee to consider that industry delays account for about half of the time spent on the APD process.
Under a processing system first implemented under Obama, BLM took an average of 121 days to complete an APD in 2017, down from 257 days in 2016. On average, the agency spent 71 days working with operators last year and 118 days the year before.
The Trump administration has sought to slash BLM's APD pileup. Bureau staffers tend to describe the number of backlogged APDs as an ever-present "pending" category.Tribes
The Tribal Energy Subcommittee did not advance any recommendations yesterday, but members of the panel mapped out priorities for 2019.
Among the items on their to-do list is addressing dual taxation, which allows states to layer their own taxes on tribal resources.
"That makes Indian lands less competitive in the market," said Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye, who serves on the panel.
Subcommittee members said they will work with the Interior Office of the Solicitor to advance tribal energy resource agreements, or TERAs, a process defined under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Tribal officials have said regulatory complexity and uncertainty have barred them from implementing TERAs, which allow tribes to lease their lands without Interior review.
In the Trump administration's quest to develop fossil fuels, "tribal lands have got to be part of the answer," said Bidtah Becker, executive director of the Navajo Nation Division of Natural Resources and a member of the royalty committee.
The Tribal Energy Subcommittee plans to offer formal recommendations during the royalty panel's next meeting, which is scheduled to take place in Phoenix in January.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/09/14/stories/1060097017

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California Law Would Make State’s Electricity Grid 100 Percent Carbon Free by 2045

Sep 13, 2018 | The Washington Post

By Steven Mufson

If the resistance to President Trump’s climate policies needed a standard-bearer, California would be it. Here’s a state that requires all new homes to have solar power, puts a price on carbon emissions and forces automakers to make more zero-emission vehicles.
And now? California, which is hosting a climate summit this week, has a new law to make the state’s electricity grid 100 percent carbon free by 2045 — using wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower.
It’s a trend. Across the country more than 70 cities, five counties and one state — from Spokane, Wash., to Denver, from Minneapolis to New Brunswick, N.J. — are looking to turn their electricity grids entirely “green.”
“By setting a real marker we’re sending a message to the country and world that regardless of who occupies the White House today, with or without Washington, California is moving forward,” said Kevin de León (D), a California state senator who sponsored the measure and who is running to oust Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
The task, however, is a tall one. Scale is one reason; California is the world’s fifth largest economy. Its population will grow by several million over the next 27 years and the size of the economy will more than double, straining the electricity grid. Waves of electric vehicles, if they catch on, could also add to electricity demand.
Then there are the technological obstacles. Storage needs — and costs — spike higher as the use of renewable sources rises, eventually more than doubling the cost of new wind or solar.
Even if California and its followers all hit their targets, the impact could be modest. The United Nations Environment Programme, the definitive source for tracking the so-called “emissions gap” between what the world aspires to do about climate change and what it’s actually doing, estimates “sub-national” actors would reduce emissions by about one or two percentage points of the global total by 2030.
Like so many other Silicon Valley types, Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who signed the bill into law this week, is betting on innovation. He hopes the new measure spurs companies to develop batteries big and cheap enough to store intermittent renewable energy that is produced only when the sun shines or the wind blows — not necessary when homes and businesses actually need it.
“This takes expert engineering, scientific research, political collaboration and great wisdom to forge ahead not in one administration but in several,” Brown said in an interview. “That’s why I say we’re like at the base camp. I’m looking up at Mount Everest. We’ve got a big mountain to climb.”
California, which still relies on natural gas for about a third of electricity generation, has some home advantages in chasing the 100 percent goal. It has large amounts of hydro and geothermal power. Moreover, electricity generation accounts for less than 20 percent of the state’s carbon emissions, far below the 34 percent level nationwide, according to the Energy Information Administration. Much of that is thanks to California’s moderate weather and modest amounts of heavy industry.
But the state’s war on climate change also deserves some credit. California set its first renewable goals in 2002. It has raised those targets four times. It also has a cap and trade system that limits carbon emissions while allowing companies to buy and sell credits to meet the targets. The current price is $15 a ton.
The state’s policies have attracted significant investments. The nonprofit research organization Next 10, founded by venture capitalist F. Noel Perry, said 57.2 percent, or $1.4 billion, of all U.S. clean energy technology investment in 2017 went to California companies.
Brown has his worries though. The boom in solar has already swamped midday demand, once a troublesome peak time for electricity grids. Now, there’s so much solar some of it can’t be used. At times, grid operators are actually paying people to use solar.
“I’m worried about the isolation of California, wasting so much solar energy that costs go off the charts,” Brown said in an interview. “And then there’s a backlash, and we don’t come close to our goals.”
California imports about a quarter of its electricity, and Brown has been pushing for a regional agreement that would include other states.
The state and city level standards for electricity grids are part of divisive skirmishes among policy experts who outwardly share the goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions.
In forging California’s legislation, one expert, who asked for anonymity to protect his relationships, compared the debates with “circular firing squads.”
An early version of the measure would have mandated 100 percent renewables, limiting those to solar, wind and geothermal by 2045. The final version, SB100, settled on a compromise. It allows up to 40 percent of the electricity to come from any zero-carbon technology, potentially including hydropower, nuclear or natural gas paired with carbon capture and storage.
Separately, the law raised the 2030 target from 50 percent to 60 percent renewable only.
“We need to use everything we have to get to low carbon,” Ernie Moniz, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was President Obama’s energy secretary, said in an interview. “Are we really going to handle it with wind, solar and batteries? I don’t think so to be honest.”
Moniz said “you just need to have all the flexibility you can muster.”
Tom Steyer, the billionaire philanthropist and political activist, thinks the change in the law’s language doesn’t matter. He doesn’t expect anyone to build a new nuclear plant, and he doesn’t expect natural gas to be married to a carbon capture and storage technology.
“It’s conceivable, but unlikely,” he said. “I could be convinced. I’d like to see it. What we’ve seen so far with natural gas is overpromised and underdelivered from a climate viewpoint.”
The state’s major utilities have urged caution.
“If it’s not affordable, it’s not sustainable,” PG&E said in an email. “We believe customers must be protected from unreasonable rate and bill impacts.” It said “reaching the ambitious clean energy goals in SB 100 will present operational challenges in maintaining grid reliability.”
Any of the California scenarios stand in sharp contrast to initial expectations. When California adopted a law in 2002 forcing utilities to buy enough renewable energy to cover 20 percent of their electricity needs, foes said the measure would kill a million jobs, cost $100 billion and push electricity bills higher.
“The narrative was that it would destroy the economy and that it would cause unemployment,” de León, the bill’s sponsor, said. “And it has done neither.”
Even though California’s electricity rates are the seventh highest in the nation, state energy efficiency programs have reduced household consumption so much that consumers’ utility bills are the sixth lowest in the country, de León said.
And utilities have met targets. In 2017, PG&E delivered 33 percent of its energy from renewable resources, three years ahead of the upwardly revised 2020 mandate. Southern California Edison in 2017 drew 32 percent of the power provided to customers from renewable sources and nearly 50 percent of its power was from non-carbon emitting resources.
“I don’t think people are worried about getting to 50 percent or 60 percent renewables. That in and of itself is good news,” said John Woolard, former vice president for energy at Google. “When we were fighting about this 10 years ago, people would say over 5 or 7 or 10 percent wind and solar and the whole system will fall apart. Now you’ve got data to repudiate that.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/california-law-would-make-states-electricity-grid-100-percent-carbon-free-by-2045/2018/09/13/34e0c430-b2c7-11e8-9a6a-565d92a3585d_story.html?utm_term=.8a24ee80da0a

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Federal Advisers Tackle Response to 'Catastrophic' Grid Outages

Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Blake Sobczak

A presidential advisory group is honing strategies for responding to a grid disaster that drags on for months.
The National Infrastructure Advisory Council shared early takeaways from its "Catastrophic Power Outage Study" in an update posted to a Department of Homeland Security website Wednesday.
The group of energy and transportation CEOs had planned to meet in Washington, D.C., yesterday, but the event was canceled as Hurricane Florence menaced the Eastern Seaboard.
A team of NIAC members has been exploring worst-case scenarios for the U.S. bulk electric system in recent months and plans to issue a report to the Trump administration on long-duration blackouts.
"If you think about a hurricane; storms come and go, and we restore power and get the systems back up and running," said Connie Lau, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and co-chair of the NIAC group drafting the study. "If you combine that [hurricane] with an ongoing cyberattack, because it's man-made, it may not come and go. It may continue, so then how do the most critical of the critical infrastructures — that support lives and the economy — operate in a degraded state?"
A storm-meets-cyberattack scenario may sound far-fetched, but the government hasn't fully prepared for such a low-likelihood but high-impact event, based on the NIAC's initial findings.
"Roles and responsibilities for federal coordination are not well defined for a catastrophic power outage," the NIAC noted in its latest update.Grid 'enclaves'
Lau and her co-chair, Berkshire Hathaway Energy President and CEO Bill Fehrman, formed a study group of 13 experts to hammer out ideas for dealing with a grid catastrophe and to report back to the NIAC.
That group has examined the potential for "community enclaves" capable of soldiering through a long-term blackout, heading off mass migrations that could magnify the damage and casualties.
"We are building this scenario as a power outage the likes of which we have not really experienced before," said Scott Seu, senior vice president at Hawaiian Electric Co., who has led panel interviews with various grid, defense and emergency planning officials for the study.
The goal is to boost resilience at the local, community level, "so people are basically able to take care of themselves and not just be sitting there waiting for rescue."
Seu has also focused on the need for setting clearer leadership roles during a long-term blackout, while delineating which federal agencies do what.
Cross-sector interdependencies have also surfaced as an area for closer attention, from the grid's growing reliance on natural gas as a fuel source to the need for reliable communication technologies during a catastrophe (Energywire, June 15).
Lau said a new National Risk Management Center at DHS could help address some of the "particularly knotty and difficult" cross-sector issues.
"Right now, there isn't any easy place for us to work with the water sector, or transportation or communications sectors, for example," she said.
Seu's study group, which includes experts from the American Gas Association, the New York Power Authority and telecommunications giant CenturyLink Inc., among other organizations, expects to continue conducting research and interviews through October.
From there, Lau's team on the NIAC will decide which of the study group's findings should be included in "actionable recommendations" for President Trump's National Security Council. The final study is due to be published at the NIAC's next quarterly meeting on Dec. 6.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/09/14/stories/1060097019

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Interior Says Federal Court Should Scrap Methane Appeal

Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Energywire

By Ellen M. Gilmer

The Trump administration is so close to finalizing a revised methane rule for public lands, a federal court shouldn't bother deciding an appeal related to the original regulation, government lawyers said this week.
In a brief to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Department lawyers argued that a battle over whether a lower court overstepped when it sidelined much of the Obama-era Methane and Waste Prevention Rule earlier this year is moot.
"Because an order from this Court will soon cease to have any real-world effect, evaluating the merits of this appeal would be a poor use of resources," the brief says. "Accordingly, these appeals should be dismissed as prudentially moot."
The Interior Department told the court it plans to issue its final revised rule — a watered-down version of the Obama program — this month.BLM's methane rule in the courts
Click here to open the PDF. Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News
EPA this week announced plans to scale back its separate standards for methane emissions from new oil and gas sources.
The 10th Circuit dispute is just the latest in a long-running tangle of litigation over the Interior rule, which restricted methane flaring, venting and leaking from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands.
The Trump administration had tried to delay elements of the Bureau of Land Management standards over the past year but was repeatedly rebuffed in federal courts. In April, however, a district court in Wyoming agreed to suspend key parts of the rule.
California, New Mexico and a coalition of environmental groups appealed to the 10th Circuit, arguing that the district court had not applied the proper legal standard to support its decision: a four-factor test weighing the public interest, the possibility of irreparable harm and other issues (Energywire, July 31).
Government lawyers said this week that if the 10th Circuit decides to resolve the case, it should remand the issue to the Wyoming district court to apply the traditional four-factor test.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/09/14/stories/1060097021

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Gas Explosions Blast Mass. Homes, Killing Teenager

Sep 14, 2018 | AP (In E&E Energywire)

By Philip Marcelo

A series of gas explosions an official described as "Armageddon" killed a teenager, injured at least 10 other people and ignited fires in at least 39 homes in three communities north of Boston, forcing entire neighborhoods to evacuate as crews scrambled to fight the flames and shut off the gas.
Authorities said Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence, died yesterday after a chimney toppled by an exploding house crashed into his car. He was rushed to a Boston hospital but pronounced dead there in the evening.
Massachusetts State Police urged all residents with homes serviced by Columbia Gas in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover to evacuate, snarling traffic and causing widespread confusion as residents and local officials struggled to understand what was happening.
"It looked like Armageddon, it really did," Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield told reporters. "There were billows of smoke coming from Lawrence behind me. I could see pillars of smoke in front of me from the town of Andover."
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said state and local authorities are investigating but that it could take days or weeks before they turn up answers.
"This is still very much an active scene," he said. "There will be plenty of time later tonight, tomorrow morning and into the next day to do some of the work around determining exactly what happened and why."
Hours after the explosions, the utility's parent company issued a brief statement saying its crews were still performing safety checks in the area.
"Our thoughts are with everyone affected by today's incident," Indiana-based NiSource Inc. said in a statement. "The first priority for our crews at the scene is to ensure the safety of our customers and the community."
Baker previously said authorities hadn't heard directly from Columbia Gas, but later called the company's response "adequate."
By late yesterday, all of the fires had been doused but many areas remained silent and dark after residents fled and after power companies cut electricity to prevent further fires. Schools in all three communities were canceled for today, and some schools were being used as shelters for residents.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/09/14/stories/1060097037

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Chemical Security News

Fertilizer Retailers Want Farm Bill Shield From Safety Regulations

Sep 13, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Sam Pearson

Fertilizer retailers and certain chemical storage facilities could sidestep safety rules guarding against catastrophic releases of hazardous substances under farm bill language lawmakers are considering.
The changes, included in a version of the farm bill (H.R. 2), which passed the House on June 21, would prevent the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from changing the way it treats these retailers and chemical facilities that sell directly to the public.
The agency had exempted the companies from a safety program for employers that use large quantities of chemicals such as chlorine, anhydrous ammonia, and hydrogen fluoride.
“It would help out the retailers and the agricultural industry in my district and across America,” Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, told Bloomberg Environment on Sept. 12.
Lawmakers are trying to merge House and Senate versions of the bill, and the four leaders of the agriculture committees in both chambers met Sept. 12 to negotiate.
A spokeswoman for Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) didn’t respond to Bloomberg Environment’s request for comment on the provision that would codify the exemption for these facilities from the process safety rules.
What lawmakers decide could have long-term implications for the storage facilities and communities near them. If the exemption were to become law in the farm bill, OSHA would need Congress’s approval to ever change the exemption in the future.
‘Regulatory Certainty’
For more than 25 years, OSHA has exempted from process safety management regulations facilities such as fertilizer sales depots that keep chemicals on site to sell to the public. An example is an agricultural retail facility that stores in a single large tank of anhydrous ammonia, an important nitrogen fertilizer for many crops in the U.S., and sells it to farmers in smaller nurse tanks.
A 1992 OSHA regulation setting process safety management standards exempted retailers and these types of facilities if they generated more than half of their income from direct sales to “end users,” such as farmers and ranchers. The quantity of chemicals kept on-site is not a factor.
After a Texas fertilizer plant, exempted from the program, exploded in 2013 killing 15 people, the Obama administration tried to limit the exemption to fewer facilities handling smaller amounts of chemicals.
The effort failed when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit blocked the action in 2016. The court ruled the agency had to conduct a rulemaking—a longer process allowing for public input—to make the change.
‘Regulatory Certainty’
Industry organizations such as the Agricultural Retailers Association, which represents businesses that sell farm chemicals like anhydrous ammonia fertilizers, want to make sure the agency never does.
“It’s regulatory certainty, more than anything,” Kyle Liske, director of public policy at the retailers’ group, which has pushed for the farm bill provision, told Bloomberg Environment. With the prospect that future administrations could take a tougher stance, “that’s not a good business environment.”
Estimates of the cost to companies that would no longer be exempt from the safety rules absent the farm bill provision have varied. Regulators have said it would cost retailers about $10.4 million, or $2,160 per facility, while companies peg the true cost as 10 times higher.
If successful, the retailers’ strategy would tie OSHA’s hands, Micah Smith, a partner with the workplace safety practice group at the law firm Conn Maciel Carey LLP in Washington, told Bloomberg Environment.
Under the House farm bill provision, OSHA would have to issue a regulation within 180 days restoring an old definition of a retail facility, and a future administration would have no legal authority to reverse it.
“If Congress speaks and makes its intent very clear, the agency doesn’t have the opportunity to do anything differently,” Smith said.
Groups such as the United Steelworkers Union and the National Safety Council, and former Obama administration officials oppose the change, calling it harmful and dangerous.

“Imposing this definition without any notice and comment is really kind of outrageous,” Jordan Barab, OSHA’s deputy director from 2009 to 2017, told Bloomberg Environment.
https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/fertilizer-retailers-want-farm-bill-shield-from-safety-regulations

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Florence’s Path Is Strewn With Toxic Hazards

Sep 13, 2018 | The New York Times

By Kendra Pierre-Louis, Nadja Popovich and Hiroko Tabuchi

While people can move out of harm’s way as Hurricane Florence advances on North and South Carolina, their structures remain behind to face the storm’s full force. In the Carolinas this means not only homes, schools and towns but ponds of coal ash, Superfund sites, chemical plants — and thousands of industrial hog farms with lagoons filled with pig waste.
Here is where the danger lies, and why:Pig farms
Greensboro
Durham
Raleigh
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Charlotte
Wilmington
Columbia
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CharlestonSources: North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality; South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
“This storm is hurtling towards the center of animal agriculture in the state of North Carolina,” said Will Hendrick, an attorney with the environmental nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance.
Florence’s path includes the two counties, Duplin and Sampson, with the highest concentration of pork production in a state that produces a lot of pork. North Carolina has 9.7 million pigs, producing almost 10 billion gallons of manure annually. The only state with a bigger pork business is Iowa.
“It’s 500 times the waste produced by the entire population of Washington D.C.,” said Alexis Andiman, an associate attorney with EarthJustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm that has sued the state over its handling of animal waste.
The material is collected in open pits called lagoons. The system’s design is based on storm surge-data from the 1960s, before the effects of climate change were as well understood.
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew swamped 14 lagoons in the state. And in 1999, the liquid that escaped when Hurricane Floyd flooded dozens of lagoons wound up in waterways where it killed fish and caused algae blooms, which imperil aquatic life.
Andy Curliss, the chief executive of the North Carolina Pork Council, said that the industry had adjusted over the years. “A lot of the farms that flooded in Floyd were bought out and closed, and that’s why you didn't see the same impact in Matthew,” he said.Coal ash ponds
Roanoke
Virginia Beach
VIRGINIA
Norfolk
Greensboro
Durham
Raleigh
NORTH
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Greenville
Charlotte
Jacksonville
Wilmington
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CharlestonSource: U.S. Energy Information Administration via Frontier Group
Coal ash is the dusty residue that remains after power plants burn coal to generate electricity. It contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are linked to respiratory illnesses and cancer.
Energy companies maintain that the way they store coal ash, in earthen pits mixed with water, is safe. Still, there is concern that Hurricane Florence could displace it from the ponds.
There are two dangers, according to Avner Vengosh, a professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Duke University. “One is the overflowing of coal ash ponds causing water contamination in lakes and rivers,” he said. “The other potential risk is the escape of the ash itself.”
That happened In 2008 in Kingston, Tenn., when heavy rains led to the breach of a pond, releasing 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash. It is the largest such spill on record.
Duke Energy, North Carolina’s largest utility, said its measures would keep the coal ash in the ponds. At one site, a pond has been partly covered to help keep water out. Anne McGovern, a Duke Energy spokeswoman, said the company would also continuously monitor the situation. “We actually have drones available to us to help do those inspections,” she said.Superfund sites
Roanoke
Virginia Beach
VIRGINIA
Norfolk
Greensboro
Durham
Raleigh
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Greenville
Charlotte
Jacksonville
Wilmington
Columbia
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CharlestonSource: Environmental Protection Agency Facility Registry Service
The Carolinas are home to more than 70 high-priority Superfund hazardous-waste sites, including a former smelting plant in North Charleston near the coast that is contaminated with arsenic, antimony and other substances linked to health problems including cancer.
The Environmental Protection Agency has said it is monitoring at least 11 Superfund sites in the two states. The agency came under fire last year after hurricanes Harvey and Maria inundated Superfund sites in Houston and Puerto Rico.
“Industrial sites have historically been near water,” said Prof. Thomas Burke, associate dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, who studied chemical exposures after Hurricane Katrina and other storms. “That makes them definitely vulnerable,” he said. “In New Orleans, they caused a toxic gumbo.”
Though cleanup is under way at the Carolina sites, and contaminants like arsenic and lead are already capped to keep them in place, flooding still poses a threat. “With extraordinary surges and inundation of water, you really have to worry about the integrity of these things,” Professor Burke said.Chemical sites
Roanoke
Virginia Beach
VIRGINIA
Norfolk
Greensboro
Durham
Raleigh
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Greenville
Charlotte
Jacksonville
Wilmington
Columbia
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CharlestonSource: Environmental Protection Agency Toxics Release Inventory Program
North and South Carolina are home to more than one thousand sites where toxic chemicals are used or stored, according to a database maintained by the E.P.A.
The region’s paper mills, for example, use various solvents to treat the lumber. Across the country, 2,500 chemical sites lie in flood-prone areas, a New York Times analysis found this year.
“With flooding, will there be damage to storage tanks? These are things we have to watch out for,” said Elena Craft, a senior health scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We’re talking PCBs, dioxins, the worst of the worst,” she said, referring to chemicals known to be harmful to human health.
Professor Burke said flooding could turn common neighborhood businesses, like gasoline stations or dry cleaning shops, into public health threats. Sewage spills are another concern. “Even a run-of-the-mill warehouse that happens to have a huge inventory of pesticides — if that gets into the water, there’s exposure,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/13/climate/hurricane-florence-environmental-hazards.html

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Transportation and Infrastructure News

Lawmakers Mull Regulatory, Job Impact of Disruptive Technology

Sep 14, 2018 | E&E Daily

By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder

Lawmakers at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing yesterday dug into how future transit technologies will affect regulations and jobs.
Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) asked witnesses how innovations like hyperloops would fit into the current regulatory framework.
Josh Raycroft, director of business strategy at Virgin Hyperloop One in Los Angeles, said some federal safety regulations for railroads would apply well to hyperloops. Those are proposed enclosed transportation systems that would move extremely fast.
"We acknowledge that there are many aspects of our technology that might not fit neatly within that framework," Raycroft said, adding that engaging with regulators early will help the process. "We do have some challenges in that we are really a new mode of transportation."
Unmanned commercial and naval marine vessels will similarly face regulatory hoops, said Davis Sanford, an executive at Rolls-Royce Marine North America.
These regulations from the Coast Guard and International Maritime Organization include requiring a person to serve as "look-out" on the vessel. There are also mandatory aid requirements for distressed ships.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said other countries have a jump-start on the U.S. when it comes to autonomous marine vessels.
"Many of the transportation stakeholders feel that the U.S. marine transportation sector is significantly lagging behind both the ground and air sectors in adopting automation and autonomy," Peters said. He asked Sanford about future jobs and how to train a "new type of sailor going forward."
Sanford said maritime academies will have to change their curriculum to train people for the industry. He added that jobs will shift from being at sea to being on docks to perform ship maintenance.
"I like to think of when they switched from sailing ships to steam ships, the seamen went from being sailors going up the mast to trying to haul in sails ... to working in steam engines. It's going to be a shift like that, probably," Sanford said.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) noted the significant backlog for modernizing current infrastructure that already exists, and he asked witnesses how they expect future projects to get funding.
Tina Quigley, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, said that she expects the federal government to be a partner in funding these projects.
She said she expects some federal pots of money to need to be shifted in the future to avoid "investing inappropriately in yesterday's technology."
Quigley said that pilot and demonstration programs are the best way to test these technologies without building additional infrastructure.
"Until it's out there, you're never really going to be able to progress the technology further without learning how it operates," Quigley said.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/09/14/stories/1060096987

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All Railroads Should Install PTC by Dec. 31 Deadline, NTSB Tells Congress

Sep 14, 2018 | Transport Topics

Equipping the country’s freight and commercial trains with technology designed to automatically slow down or stop trains traveling at dangerous speeds would improve safety, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress Sept. 13.
Robert Sumwalt, the independent board’s chairman, expressed concern that a significant portion of the country’s railroads, primarily passenger operators, will not meet a Dec. 31 deadline for implementing the positive train control technology.
NTSB “urges swift implementation of the congressional PTC mandate,” Sumwalt told members of the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee. “For each day that goes by without PTC, we are at continued risk for another tragic accident.”
In 2015, Congress set the deadline for major freight and commuter rail systems to have fully operational PTC systems by Dec. 31. However, railroads that demonstrate benchmarks in the implementation may qualify for extensions up to the end of 2020.
To be approved for a deadline extension, a railroad would need to demonstrate to the FRA that it has met certain statutory criteria.
FRA administrator Ronald L. Batory emphasized that any railroad that had installed less than 90% of its PTC hardware as of June 30 is deemed “at risk” of failing to qualify for a deadline extension.
Nine railroads have been determined to be “at risk,” the agency said. They are New Mexico Rail Runner Express (Rio Metro), Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro), New Jersey Transit (NJT), Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC), Trinity Railway Express (TRE), South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (Tri-Rail), Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain) and Central Florida Rail Corridor (SunRail).
Batory
“Moving forward, FRA will continue to support and facilitate railroads’ implementation of PTC technology by utilizing the tools afforded by Congress and providing extensive technical assistance and guidance to railroads and suppliers,” Batory said. “We remain vigilant in harnessing and leveraging all the personnel, financial and other resources available to help expedite railroads’ implementation efforts.”
On the eve of the hearing, the agency announced a notice of funding opportunity for PTC grants of at least $46 million. Projects eligible for funding include back-office systems, communications and onboard hardware equipment, equipment installation, testing and training for the implementation, and interoperability, the agency noted.
In August, FRA awarded more than $200 million to support 28 projects that aim to deploy PTC systems in 15 states. A grant for up to $29 million was awarded to the Rio Metro Regional Transit District, which operates in central New Mexico.
Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) expressed optimism about the railroads’ efforts on implementation, noting they had achieved significant improvements in the last year. “While we are seeing progress among a majority of railroads, we want to see everyone meet their requirements,” he said.
Several rail executives have argued that costs related to the application of an intricate communication system have delayed the installation of PTC technology.
After a 2008 passenger-train crash in California, Congress ordered railroads to install the automatic braking system by 2015, before issuing an extension to the end of 2018, with the possibility of a deadline extension through 2020.
According to federal investigators, a December 2017 Amtrak derailment in Washington state that killed three individuals may have been prevented with PTC technology.
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/all-railroads-should-install-ptc-dec-31-deadline-ntsb-tells-congress

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Environment News

Companies, States Renew Vows to Address Climate Without Trump

Sep 14, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Emily C. Dooley

Fortune 500 companies, religious organizations, small businesses, health care providers, state governments and others made new pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions despite rollbacks at the federal level.
The pledges were announced at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, and the buying power backing the global Paris Agreement to reduce emissions by 2020 is big.
Seventeen percent of Global Fortune 500 companies representing a market capitalization of $10 trillion have joined an initiative to assess and confirm corporate emissions reduction charges, according to Mahindra Group CEO Anand Mahindra, who is also a co-chair of the summit.
“Targets based on science are the only effective way to meet the challenges we face,” Mahindra said in a statement announcing a new report on global business climate actions. “Around the world, hundreds of businesses are already showing that this is possible with substantial benefits to brand reputation and the bottom line.”
The Global Fortune 500 businesses include Michelin, Kraft Heinz Co., AB InBev, and Yamaha Motor Corp. Beyond that, 480 corporations from 38 countries have set emission reductions goals that mirror the Paris Agreement.
And nearly 300 entities Sept. 12 made their own pacts to reduce emissions as part of the We Are Still In coalition, formed in 2017 after President Donald Trump in 2017 announced plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The effort has 3,500 members in the U.S., representing states, tribes, religious groups, businesses, and other organizations.
Low Carbon Investments Promised
The pledges from Facebook, Levi Strauss, and others include reducing emissions, regulating methane releases, converting to zero-emission fleets, encouraging solar energy, financing low-carbon initiatives, and research and development.
“We know that we can’t live a healthy life on a sick planet,” Seventh Generation CEO Joey Bergstein said.
The Vermont company, which sells paper, cleaning, and personal care products, has a goal for 100 percent of its ingredients to come from bio-based sources rather than petroleum by 2025.
Metrus Energy, which finances energy retrofits and upgrades at commercial, industrial, and other facilities, pledged $100 million to fund new projects that collectively will remove 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, CEO and President Bob Hinkle said.
In Virginia, the state will regulate methane leaking from natural gas infrastructure and landfills beginning in 2019, said Matt Strickler, the state’s secretary of natural resources.
Over the past decade, Virginia has transitioned to using more natural gas than coal but it comes with a hitch.
“Gas burns cleaner than coal, giving us significant public health benefits, but when gas is released into the atmosphere without being burned, its climate benefits over coal literally vanish into thin air,” Strickler said. “That’s because methane that makes up natural gas is a super pollutant that’s 80 times more harmful to our climate than carbon dioxide in the short term.”

One of the chairs of the Global Climate Action Summit is Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Environment is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.
https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/companies-states-renew-vows-to-address-climate-without-trump

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Warren Pushes Bill Requiring Public Disclosure of Climate Risks

Sep 14, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard

By Anthony Andragna

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a potential 2020 presidential candidate, is today unveiling legislation that would require public companies to disclose more information about their exposure to risks stemming from climate change.
Co-sponsors of the legislation include four other possible Democratic 2020 presidential candidates: Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.). Their support suggests the idea could factor in the emerging Democratic presidential primary.
Under the Climate Risk Disclosure Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission would have to issue rules within a year requiring each public company to disclose its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and its total portfolio of fossil fuel-related assets. In addition, companies would have to quantify how their valuation would be affected under various emissions reduction scenarios and detail their risk management strategies related to climate change.
“Climate change can be an economic opportunity if we act boldly and decisively,” Warren said in a statement. “But if we don’t, we will see a global catastrophe that will put the 2008 [financial] crisis to shame. Our bill will use market forces to speed up the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy — reducing the odds of an environmental and financial disaster without spending a dime of taxpayer money.”
The bill comes amid an intensifying push among climate activists for shareholder resolutions that would require publicly traded companies to disclose more information on how climate change would affect their business.
Supporters of the legislation include former Vice President Al Gore, as well as the outside groups Ceres, Greenpeace USA, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Text of the legislation is available here and a one-page summary is available here.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard

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Cheaper Industrial Pollution Monitoring Options Floated by EPA

Sep 14, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Amena H. Saiyid

Air pollution monitoring requirements for large manufacturing plants that use boilers and turbines in 20 states and the District of Columbia could be relaxed under a proposal the EPA released Sept. 13.
The Environmental Protection Agency said its action is designed to give about 310 plants that manufacture paper, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum and coal products, and grains and oil seeds the ability to lower costs that arise from varying monitoring requirements under different Clean Air Act programs.
Specifically, the agency is proposing (RIN: 2060-AU08) to let states write implementation plans that give large industrial plants the option to choose lower cost monitoring of nitrogen oxides. That pollutant reacts in the presence of sunlight to form ground-level ozone, a lung irritant that can exacerbate breathing conditions like asthma. States’ Decision
The EPA said states, not the agency, would decide whether to revise the monitoring requirements in their implementation plans.
The proposal would update the regulations that the EPA issued under its 1998 emissions program known as NOx SIP Call, which lets power plants buy allowances of nitrogen oxides in lieu of installing costly controls to meet federal limits.
The trading program came at the request of Eastern states that had trouble meeting federal ozone pollution requirements because of emissions blowing in from upwind states. The trading program required participating states to develop plans by 2003 to ensure their pollution wasn’t fouling the air of neighboring states.
https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/cheaper-industrial-pollution-monitoring-options-floated-by-epa

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Environmentalists Reject EPA's Claim 'Close-Out' Rule Moots CSAPR Suit

Sep 14, 2018 | Inside EPA

Environmentalists suing EPA to force it to make the Obama-era Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) emissions trading program more stringent are pushing back against the Trump administration's claim that its proposal to “close-out” the cap-and-trade program moots the case, saying EPA needs to take more action to curb interstate air pollution.
In a Sept. 12 response letter filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sierra Club and Appalachian Mountain Club say CSAPR as revised in 2016 was too weak to adequately address transport across state lines of air pollution. They claim that the alleged flaws in the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOx) trading program detailed in the suit would not end because of the close out proposal.
EPA in July issued a proposed finding that the CSAPR utility emissions cap-and-trade program will by 2023 have met its objective of ensuring compliance with federal ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The agency projects that all areas in CSAPR, as updated in 2016, will by 2023 meet the 2008 ozone NAAQS of 75 parts per billion (ppb). As a result, the agency says that further action by 20 states or the agency to curb interstate pollution to meet the 2008 NAAQS, beyond compliance with the existing CSAPR, is unnecessary. Several eastern states in their written comments disagree with the finding.
In the ongoing CSAPR litigation, State of Wisconsin, et al. v. EPA, et al., the two environmental groups say that contrary to the agency's arguments, the close out rule does not moot their case. “The conduct that Petitioners challenge in this case -- EPA’s refusal to abate interstate air pollution in accordance with statutory requirements -- would not 'cease' under EPA’s proposal to refuse yet again to abate this pollution,” environmentalists say in their response letter.
EPA's 2016 update to CSAPR, at issue in the suit, tightened state emissions caps for ozone-forming NOx to help states attain the 2008 ozone NAAQS. The original CSAPR established by the Obama EPA in 2011 was intended to help states meet the weaker 1997 ozone NAAQS expressed as 84 ppb, in addition to particulate matter standards. EPA has not issued a similar program to help states meet the Obama EPA's tougher-still 2015 ozone NAAQS of 70 ppb.
By EPA's own admission, the CSAPR update was not conceived as a complete solution to fully attain the 2008 NAAQS, and environmentalists say this renders it unlawful.
But in its CSAPR close out proposed rule, EPA finds that states within the CSAPR area in the eastern United States will meet the 2008 NAAQS by 2023.
“If the Proposed Good Neighbor Determination is finalized as proposed, certain petitioners’ arguments could be moot,” EPA said in a Sept. 5 letter to the court, citing environmentalists' argument that the CSAPR update is a “partial remedy” and therefore impermissible.
But environmentalists reject that proposition in their response letter. Further, “because EPA proposes to violate the same statutory requirements that Petitioners seek to enforce in this case, EPA cannot show 'that there is no reasonable expectation that the wrong will be repeated,'” as would be required to show mootness.
Environmentalists also reject EPA's selection of 2023 as a benchmark attainment year, because it is later than relevant air law attainment deadlines. “Far from abandoning the violation of statutory deadlines that Petitioners challenge in this case, EPA’s proposal would double down on that unlawful approach.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/environmentalists-reject-epas-claim-close-out-rule-moots-csapr-suit

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Global Summit Rebukes Trump, Cheers on Work to Aid Climate

Sep 14, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)

Thousands of mayors, climate activists and business leaders from around the world descended Thursday on San Francisco to cheer on efforts to reduce global warming, even after U.S. President Donald J. Trump signaled his disdain for the issue.
The Global Climate Action Summit, organized by California Gov. Jerry Brown, included a report that 27 major cities around the world have seen emissions decrease over a five-year period and are now at least 10 percent lower than their peak.
The cities include Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and San Francisco. Together the cities include about 54 million people.
The star-studded conference included a rousing call to action by Harrison Ford, who implored the audience to protect forests, fisheries and other natural wonders. Former President Barack Obama, under whose watch the U.S. agreed to the landmark Paris climate accord, made a brief appearance by video.
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The goal of the conference is to showcase actions already being taken to prevent climate change and to "inspire deeper commitments" among attendees. It was unclear what specific actions might be taken before the summit ends Friday.
"Doing nothing is not an option. Going green is a must. Cities all over the world are on the front lines of climate change," said Frank Jensen, lord mayor of Copenhagen, adding that the bicycle-friendly city wants even more bike lanes.
Giuseppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, Italy, talked up plans to reduce waste from food and other sources.
"I'm very, very proud of waste management. I know it is not a sexy issue, but we commit to a future without waste," he said.
Milan and Copenhagen are among the 27 major cities cited by C40 Cities Climate Leadership, a group whose board is headed by philanthropist and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.EDITORS’ PICKSA Teacher Made a Hitler Joke in the Classroom. It Tore the School Apart.Steve Perry Walked Away From Journey. A Promise Finally Ended His Silence.Riz Ahmed Acts His Way Out of Every Cultural Pigeonhole
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In a speech, Bloomberg called the conference a way to broadcast that the U.S. is still committed to the cause.
"Climate change is a global challenge and Washington ought to be leading from the front," Bloomberg said.
Many people around the world wrongly concluded that America was "walking away from climate action" when Trump pulled the country out of the Paris climate accord, Bloomberg said, stressing that "nothing could be further from the truth."
The 2015 Paris agreement commits countries to set their own plans for cutting emissions.
Bloomberg and Brown said they calculate the U.S. is within striking distance of the reduction in greenhouse gases it previously promised.
Trump announced last year that he was withdrawing from the l climate accord. His administration is also pursuing policies that would boost methane emissions and roll back California's strict vehicle emissions standards.
In response to a question Thursday at a news briefing, Brown, Democrat, said Trump will likely be remembered poorly when it comes to the environment. "I think he'll be remembered, on the path he's now? I don't know. Liar, criminal, fool," the governor said.
The CEO of Salesforce, one of the world's largest online business software companies, urged fellow technology leaders at the conference to help fight climate change.
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CEO Marc Benioff announced that Salesforce and 20 technology companies have signed a pact to "decarbonize" by reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide through supply chains, regulations and customer efforts.
Salesforce recently opened a 61-story office tower in San Francisco that it says relies on clean energy to operate.
Outside the conference, hundreds of protesters said Brown could do more in California, and about a dozen briefly interrupted Bloomberg's speech with chants that natural resources were not for sale.
"America's a wonderful country. Here we have environmentalists protesting an environmental conference," Bloomberg said earlier in the day.
Police escorted 10 demonstrators from the meeting hall and briefly detained two protesters outside who were cited for misdemeanors and released.
Protesters also called on Brown to ban the practice known as fracking, which injects high-pressure liquid into the ground to extract gas. In response, the governor said California has the most integrated and comprehensive oil reduction plan in America.
"You don't snap your fingers and say now it's done," Brown said. "We're definitely moving in the same direction as the critics. They just like us to go a little faster and we would like to go a little faster ourselves."
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The U.S. Climate Alliance, which involves 17 governors, announced Thursday that it would commit to several actions, including making clean energy cheaper for consumers and promoting vehicles and transit that rely on renewable energy.
The summit came with 2018 on pace to be the fourth hottest year on record globally. The eight warmest years in more than a century of record keeping have all been in the past 13 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/13/us/ap-us-climate-summit.html

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