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(ACC Mentioned) US Film Recycling Leaps 11 Percent
Feb 24, 2015 | Plastics News
By Jim Johnson
Post-consumer plastic film packaging recycling jumped 11 percent year-over-year, according to new findings from the American Chemistry Council. -
A Pesticide Banned, or Not, Underscores Trans-Atlantic Trade Sensitivities
Feb 23, 2015 | The New York Times
By Danny Hakim
Syngenta, a Swiss chemicals company, produces one of America’s most popular herbicides -
Senior US House Democrat Welcomes Limited TSCA Bill Proposal
Feb 24, 2015 | Chemical Watch
By Dinesh Kumar
A senior House Democrat has termed as workable, Republican John Shimkus' proposal to introduce a Toxic Substances Control Act reform measure that is more limited in scope this year (CW 21 January 2014). -
Obama Will Quickly Veto Keystone Bill
Feb 24, 2015 | The Hill
By Laura Barron-Lopez
President Obama is poised to reject GOP-backed legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline with a swift veto designed to minimize any distraction from a looming shutdown within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). -
GOP Leaders Vow to Continue Keystone Fight
Feb 24, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Laura Barron-Lopez
Republican leaders warned President Obama on Tuesday that, if he thinks vetoing legislation that authorizes the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline is the end of the fight, he is "sadly mistaken." -
Celebs Urge Obama to Veto, Reject Keystone
Feb 24, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Laura Barron-Lopez
More than 100 high-profile actors, musicians and environmentalists joined together Tuesday in urging President Obama to veto legislation authorizing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. -
Energy and Power Subcommittee Announces Trio of Energy Hearings
Feb 24, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Erica Martinson
The House Subcommittee on Energy and Power has announced three hearings next month to look at changing energy markets, reliability issues and EPA’s plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. -
Jewell, Murkowski Face Off in High-Stakes Budget Hearing
Feb 24, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Phil Taylor
Republican senators delivered a full-throated attack this morning against the Obama administration's energy and natural resources policies, accusing the Interior Department of ignoring Alaskans, Gulf Coast residents and the goal of the U.S. attaining energy independence. -
CBD Sues EPA To Force Issuance Of PM2.5 FIPs
Feb 24, 2015 | InsideEPA
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is suing EPA in a bid to force the issuance of what it says are long-overdue federal implementation plans (FIPs) that the agency must impose on two states and Puerto Rico to ensure they attain the agency's 2006 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). -
Near-Term Costs of Climate Action Will Yield Long-Term Benefits -- Deputy Chief
Feb 24, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jean Chemnick
U.S. EPA's second-in-command said today that addressing climate change is particularly difficult because of the "temporal separation of costs and benefits." -
Influx of 'Marginally Improved' Tank Cars Threaten Oil-by-Rail Rule -- Federal Watchdog
Feb 24, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Thousands of oil tank cars slated for construction this year could dull the impact of a major crude-by-rail safety rule, the head of a federal watchdog warned yesterday.
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(ACC Mentioned) US Film Recycling Leaps 11 Percent
Feb 24, 2015 | Plastics News
By Jim Johnson
Post-consumer plastic film packaging recycling jumped 11 percent year-over-year, according to new findings from the American Chemistry Council.
The new statistics, based on 2013 numbers, were released Feb. 24 as part of the Plastics Recycling 2015 conference in Dallas.
The jump of 116 million pounds, to an estimated 1.14 billion pounds, marks the highest annual collection total since the ACC started surveying collection in 2005.
This category includes wraps, bags and commercial stretch film made primarily from polyethylene.
Moore Recycling Associates authored the new findings, 2013 National Postconsumer Plastic Bag & Film Recycling Report, for ACC’s Plastics division.
Among the details, the report indicates that polyethylene film recycling has increased by 74 percent since 2005, the trade group said.
Overall increases are attributed, in part, to greater collection efforts taking place at small and mid-size businesses. Consumers also are more frequently bringing their used bags and film to in-store collection program, ACC said.
“These increases highlight the critical role that grocers, retailers and other businesses play in collecting this valuable material,” said Steve Russell, ACC’s vice president of plastics, in a statement
While bags and film saw a significant increase in recycling in 2013, ACC also released a report on the recycling of non-bottle rigid plastics that actually saw a slight dip of 1 percent from 2012 to 2013.
That report, the 2013 National Postconsumer Non-Bottle Rigid Plastic Recycling Report, said the amount collected in 2013 was still triple the total from 2007 when that report was first issued.
Despite the overall decrease of 1 percent, the report indicates that there was a 17-percent increase in domestic reprocessing of these materials. Some 67 percent of the material was reprocessed in the United States and Canada.
China’s Green Fence initiative, aimed at cleaning up recyclables entering that country, helped push the rigid plastics number lower, the first time that’s happened during the report’s history, ACC reported.
These tighter controls in China provided more material for domestic processors, but also caused recyclers in the United States to meet higher quality standards, Moore Recycling Associates said.
While film recycling was up in 2013, ACC said there have been additional attempts to keep the numbers increasing recently.
That includes a move by brands and retailers to start using the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s “store drop-off” label on their film packages as a reminder to consumers.
The coalition also has partnered with the Flexible Film Recycling Group and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers to launch the Wrap Action Recycling Program to help increase awareness of recycling opportunities at local stores.
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A Pesticide Banned, or Not, Underscores Trans-Atlantic Trade Sensitivities
Feb 23, 2015 | The New York Times
By Danny Hakim
Syngenta, a Swiss chemicals company, produces one of America’s most popular herbicides. It is called atrazine, and 73.7 million pounds of the chemical compound were applied in the United States in 2013. It was used on more than half of all corn crops, two-thirds of sorghum and up to 90 percent of sugar cane.
But Syngenta cannot sell atrazine to farms in its own backyard.
The weed killer is banned as a pesticide in the European Union as well as in Switzerland over concerns that it is a groundwater contaminant.
Syngenta, however, did not get the memo.
Even though the European Union banned atrazine over a decade ago, the company has long insisted that the pesticide was not banned. On one corporate website, Syngenta points to “anti-atrazine activists” who “claim that ‘atrazine’ is banned in the European Union. This is patently false.”
Another Syngenta-backed site, “Saving the Oasis,” also blames “anti-atrazine activists.” And another such site, AGSense, says, “We’ve known it all along, and now you know it too: Atrazine is not banned in the European Union.”PhotoCreditLiz Grauman for The New York Times
The company has repeated its assertion to reporters.
“It is not banned,” Ann Bryan, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an email, though she acknowledged that “countries in the E.U. currently do not use atrazine.”
Companies are perhaps understandably sensitive about revealing too much about the gulf that exists between American and European regulation of pesticides and other chemicals.
Generally speaking, the European approach incorporates the so-called precautionary principle and requires companies to establish that new chemicals are safe before they are put on the market. The American approach puts the onus on regulators to show some evidence of danger before taking action against new chemicals.
Scores of chemicals that are banned or tightly restricted in the European Union are allowed in the United States. One recent analysisby the Center for International Environmental Law, a Washington-based advocacy group, found 82 instances of pesticides allowed in the United States but barred or restricted in Europe.
This disparity can make selling products on one side of the Atlantic that are banned on the other uncomfortable, though few companies have tried a semantic maneuver quite like Syngenta’s.
“The use of atrazine as a herbicide/pesticide is banned in the E.U.,” Mikko Vaananen, a spokesman for the European Chemicals Agency, said in an email, adding that it was still allowed as an intermediate substance used in industry to create new chemicals. European Union government documents, from formal filings to informal newsletters, also use the term “banned.”
Sensitivity over regulatory gaps between the United States and Europe has flared during trans-Atlantic trade talks, which have been underway since 2013 in hopes of reaching a broad deal that they say could save businesses tens of billions of dollars a year.
The talks are considered more of a priority for Europe, which is mired in deflation and high unemployment, than the United States, where the economy is recovering. But both sides have made reaching an agreement a cornerstone of trade policy.
Finding commonalities in trans-Atlantic regulations is one of the main efforts of the talks, since much work has already been done to reduce tariffs. As a result, though, an increasing number of critics of the process are concerned that the outcome could favor corporations more than consumers. Advocacy groups have particularly focused on chemicals, given the disparities in policy.
Government negotiators on both sides, however, call concerns misguided and say they have released documents and provided assurances aimed at clarifying their intentions.
Trevor Kincaid, a spokesman for the United States trade representative, said in a statement: “We have made it clear privately and publicly, in Europe and the U.S. in multiple languages, and in a variety of formats: Neither one of us is looking to abandon our unique, high-standard, approaches to chemical regulation. Period.”
Daniel Rosario, a spokesman for the European Commission, said in his own statement: “We have made clear since the beginning of the negotiations that neither full harmonization nor mutual recognition are feasible on the basis of the existing framework legislations,” adding, “It is therefore equally clear that we are not aiming at a convergence of E.U. and U.S. chemicals regulations.”
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Senior US House Democrat Welcomes Limited TSCA Bill Proposal
Feb 24, 2015 | Chemical Watch
By Dinesh Kumar
A senior House Democrat has termed as workable, Republican John Shimkus' proposal to introduce a Toxic Substances Control Act reform measure that is more limited in scope this year (CW 21 January 2014). Mr Shimkus, chair of the Environment and the Economy subcommittee, has said he would throw up the measure for Democratic input, so they would commit to supporting it.
“I think it works,” Representative Gene Green (Democrat-Texas), and fellow subcommittee member, toldChemical Watch in an interview. Last year, Mr Shimkus introduced a TSCA reform draft, the Chemical in Commerce Act, which failed to garner any Democratic support. Democrats, led by then full Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, came up with a set of counter proposals which was roundly crtiticised by Republicans and industry, resulting in an impasse (CW 3 June 2014). Mr Waxman has since resigned from Congress.
“I think Chairman Shimkus is on to something if he comes up with a measure, which [though not] perfect, can correct some of the things that are so outdated in TSCA and he is willing to open it up to Democratic suggestions,” said Mr Green.
Asked if he believes new full House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone's (Democrat-New Jersey) expressing interest in working on reform allows fellow party members to work collaboratively with Mr Shimkus, he said the thinks so. “We are in a new Congress and have some new people working on it [TSCA reform], so I am hopeful that we won't have the issues that we had last time.”
For Mr Green, who represents a district with several petrochemical companies, the reform is a “major issue”, he said.
As for whether he prefers state preemption to be dealt with, after there is agreement on other TSCA issues, Mr Green said if Mr Shimkus is providing the leadership, “we are going to try and do the easier things [first] and preemption is one of the most difficult. And because it is regional, only a few states have taken the steps [to regulate chemicals] as California has done.” If the House can “come up with legislation that doesn't touch preemption and has got bipartisan support, I think that would a great step forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Shimkus is “not committed to any timeline” for introducing a bill, and he “continues to hope for participation in the process from anyone sincerely interested in agreeing to a bipartisan bill”, said his spokesman, Jordan Haverly.
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Obama Will Quickly Veto Keystone Bill
Feb 24, 2015 | The Hill
By Laura Barron-Lopez
President Obama is poised to reject GOP-backed legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline with a swift veto designed to minimize any distraction from a looming shutdown within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Republicans plan to send the bill to Obama’s desk Tuesday morning and intend to flay the president over his promised veto.
But quick action, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said, “eliminates any opportunity to take the focus off the bizarre things Republicans are doing on DHS and immigration orders.”
“It would be smart to do it right away,” he said. “The longer they delay it, the longer Republicans are allowed to work on two or three issues at the same time.”
The GOP and some Democratic supporters of the pipeline, however, warn that the president’s rejection of the bill won’t be the last word in the long-running fight over the project.
“We’ll soon learn where American workers and energy independence fall on President Obama’s priority list,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.).
Republicans are already weighing their next moves, and at the top of that list is a likely attempt to override the veto.
First, the GOP is hoping to win this week’s messaging game after waiting to send the Keystone bill to Obama until after Congress’s Presidents Day recess.
“We didn’t send the bill up last week because we wanted to be here when we sent it because we expect him to veto it,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
Republican leaders warned Obama on Tuesday he is “sadly mistaken” if he thinks a veto is the end of the fight.
In an op-ed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) urge the president to sign legislation approving the $8 billion oil sands project, but threaten to continue the fight if he doesn't.
"The allure of appeasing environmental extremists may be too powerful for the president to ignore," they wrote. "But the president is sadly mistaken if he thinks vetoing this bill will end this fight. Far from it."
"We are just getting started."
The White House signaled Monday that Obama would make quick work of rejecting the legislation.
“I would anticipate, as we’ve been saying for years, that the president will veto that legislation, and he will, so I would not anticipate a lot of drama or fanfare around it,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
“I wouldn’t anticipate a lengthy delay” on a veto, he added, hinting at a quick rejection of the bill.
Grijalva called the Keystone bill a “test” and Obama’s chance to show the Republican-controlled Congress that he will stick to his word.
“He is going to get a bunch of these,” Grijalva said of bills meant to draw a veto, which he said could include a Department of Homeland Security funding bill with language on immigration and an education bill opposed by Democrats.
“So this is his chance to show in a definite strong way, ‘I told you no, and this is no.’ This is where the influence and power of the White House comes into play.”
Last month, Republicans pulled out all the stops after taking control of the Senate, making the $8 billion oil sands pipeline project their first order of business in the 114th Congress. Republicans plan to highlight Obama’s use of veto power as evidence of obstructionism.
Asked if Obama would downplay the veto to put the spotlight back on the pending DHS shutdown, Hoeven said “absolutely, because he knows that this is an issue Americans overwhelming support.”
Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), called the GOP plans a futile attempt to shift focus off the DHS.
“If Republicans think anything short of averting a shutdown will shift the focus from a potential Homeland Security shutdown on Friday, they are fooling themselves,” Jentleson said.
The Keystone showdown comes as the pipeline has lost some traction among the public. In January, support dropped to 41 percent, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
Still, Republicans are ready for the veto and assessing their options.
“First thing we will do is talk to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” Hoeven said. “We may bring it back and try to override it. We will do work there and assess where we are at on votes.”
For opponents of the pipeline, the expected veto marks the beginning of the next phase of the fight.
Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club, told The Hill earlier this month that after the veto, opponents will “need to make sure votes are there to sustain that veto.”
Right now, 63 senators back the pipeline, but 67 would be needed to override Obama. In the House the path to a veto-proof majority — or two-thirds — is harder.
When the House approved the bill two weeks ago, it passed 270-152.
If Republicans fail to override a veto, however, it won’t mean the end of the line for Keystone.
Next up, the GOP will try to attach approval for the project to a broader energy package or an appropriations bill that is harder for the president to veto.
--This report was originally published on Feb. 23 at 9:02 p.m. and last updated on Feb. 24 at 7:56 a.m.
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GOP Leaders Vow to Continue Keystone Fight
Feb 24, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Laura Barron-Lopez
Republican leaders warned President Obama on Tuesday that, if he thinks vetoing legislation that authorizes the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline is the end of the fight, he is "sadly mistaken."
In an op-ed published Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) urge the president to sign legislation approving the $8 billion oil sands project but threaten to continue the fight if he doesn't.
"The allure of appeasing environmental extremists may be too powerful for the president to ignore," the Republican leaders said. "But the president is sadly mistaken if he thinks vetoing this bill will end this fight. Far from it."
"We are just getting started."
Republicans plan on Tuesday to send the bill to the White House, where it is expected to meet a swift demise.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated the president's plan to veto the bill on Monday and said not to expect "a lot of drama or fanfare" surrounding it.
The administration argues the bill circumvents the ongoing process at the State Department, which Obama has said he wants to be allowed to play out.
McConnell and Boehner assailed this notion in their op-ed, arguing, "if anything, the process has been needlessly drawn out."
The pipeline has been under review by the U.S. for six years, going through roughly five environmental impact reviews.
Sticking to the GOP's vow to paint Obama as an obstructionist with this first veto since 2010, McConnell and Boehner chide the president in their op-ed for refusing to listen or look for common ground.
"It's the same kind of top-down, tone-deaf leadership we've come to expect and we were elected to stop," the duo said.
The administration has pushed back at such rhetoric, arguing that, if the new Republican-controlled Congress wanted to work with the president, it would not have brought forward a bill on an issue Obama has made clear he would veto.
Tuesday's expected veto could be the first of many for Obama during his last two years in office as he faces a GOP majority in both chambers.
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Celebs Urge Obama to Veto, Reject Keystone
Feb 24, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Laura Barron-Lopez
More than 100 high-profile actors, musicians and environmentalists joined together Tuesday in urging President Obama to veto legislation authorizing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.
In a letter circulated by climate group 350.org, musician Willie Nelson, and actors Robert Redford, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo call on Obama to go one step further than vetoing the Republican-backed Keystone bill and reject the pipeline's pending permit all together.
"We appreciate your pending veto of the congressional bill, and we fully support an outright rejection of the permit," the celebrities wrote.
Legislation approving the $8 billion project is headed to the White House Tuesday morning and is expected to be quickly vetoed by the president.
Opponents of the pipeline have said they are more concerned about winning an outright rejection of the pipeline from Obama and say they will continue to pressure the White House.
"Many of the choices that define a presidency come by accident or chance — some storm or crisis that demands a quick response," the letter states. "But this one is firmly in your control."
The high-profile figures stress that the pipeline has failed to meet the president's climate test in the letter.
Recent comments from the Environmental Protection Agency questioned the limited impact Keystone would have on climate change, handing a small but crucial victory to opponents.
"Rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline will powerfully demonstrate your commitment to stopping the rising of the oceans, set the stage for further climate action and build a legacy worth sharing," says the letter, which was also signed by musician Lance Bass and actor Alec Baldwin.
Other signers included landowners, tribal leaders, unions and elected officials.
Supporters of the pipeline argue it will create jobs and boost U.S. energy security.
Republican leaders charged Obama on Tuesday with "appeasing environmental extremists" and vowed that a veto is "far from" the end of the fight.
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Energy and Power Subcommittee Announces Trio of Energy Hearings
Feb 24, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Erica Martinson
The House Subcommittee on Energy and Power has announced three hearings next month to look at changing energy markets, reliability issues and EPA’s plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
“Next month we will begin to lay the foundation to build the Architecture of Abundance while continuing our aggressive oversight of EPA’s regulatory agenda,” said Chairman Ed Whitfield. “These discussions will help us gain a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing America’s energy sector so we can work to better maximize and preserve the benefits of our abundant resources.”
The three hearings are titled:
“21st Century Energy Markets: How the Changing Dynamics of World Energy Markets Impact our Economy and Energy Security,” on Tuesday, March 3.
“The 21st Century Electricity Challenge: Ensuring a Secure, Reliable, and Modern Electricity System,” on Wednesday, March 4.
“EPA’s Proposed 111(d) Rule for Existing Power Plants: Legal and Cost Issues” on Wednesday, March 17.
Witness lists are not yet available. -
Jewell, Murkowski Face Off in High-Stakes Budget Hearing
Feb 24, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Phil Taylor
Republican senators delivered a full-throated attack this morning against the Obama administration's energy and natural resources policies, accusing the Interior Department of ignoring Alaskans, Gulf Coast residents and the goal of the U.S. attaining energy independence.
The hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee marked the first of a handful of trips Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will make to Capitol Hill in the coming months to defend the agency's $13.2 billion budget before a hostile, GOP-controlled Congress.
Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) accused Jewell of "waging an unprecedented attack" on Alaska's ability to bring energy resources to market, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Jewell and President Obama appear aloof to Louisiana's residents hammered by the erosion of coastlines.
Jewell found an ally in ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who called her budget "a balanced and forward-leaning proposal that creates jobs and long-term economic opportunity." Cantwell also praised Obama and Jewell's decision to recommend new wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Cantwell noted the challenges of running an Interior agency tasked with both preserving and exploiting the nation's natural resources.
"You have a very tough day job," Cantwell said.
This morning was no exception, as Jewell faced Republican fire on a laundry list of Obama policy initiatives, including Bureau of Land Management efforts to regulate hydraulic fracturing and the venting and flaring of natural gas; the Fish and Wildlife Service's pending decision on whether the greater sage grouse deserves protections under the Endangered Species Act; and the National Park Service's work to award contracts to run park lodges, campgrounds and other visitor services.
Murkowski's attack was among the most pointed -- and poignant given her outsize influence over Interior as chairwoman of the panel that writes the agency's annual budget.
"I don't want to make this personal, but the decisions from Interior have lacked balance," Murkowski said in her opening statement. "You're depriving us of jobs, revenue, security and prosperity."
Murkowski's ire stems from Jewell's decision in December 2013 to reject a gravel road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to improve emergency egress for residents of King Cove, Obama's decision last month to propose permanently banning oil drilling in the ANWR's oil-rich coastal plain, and the president's decision to withdraw some 10 million acres of Arctic Ocean waters from future oil and gas leasing.
Jewell defended her agency's actions, noting that BLM had made 72 percent of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) available for oil leasing and permitted ConocoPhillips Co. to initiate oil production in the reserve, moves aimed at shoring up the depleted Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
She added that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing making 90 percent of the undiscovered oil resources in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas available to leasing, while setting aside areas important to Alaska Native whale hunters.
She also noted that Interior is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to explore alternatives to a road through Izembek to improve public safety in King Cove, including the use of helicopters or boats to cross a shorter segment of King Cove to reach an all-weather airport at Cold Bay.
"This is not a unique situation," Jewell said of King Cove's isolation from medical facilities. "There are many villages that struggle with medical evacuations."
But Murkowski noted that few remote Alaskan communities are as close to a major airport as King Cove.
Western lawmakers should be on alert for land restrictions in their own states, Murkowski said.
"I think what we're seeing in Alaska is a warning for those in the West," Murkowski said.
Cassidy blasted the Obama budget for proposing to divert more than $3 billion in future oil and gas revenues destined for four Gulf Coast states to be used for national conservation and public lands priorities. In order for Louisiana to continue providing the infrastructure necessary to support offshore oil and gas drilling, it needs the oil and gas revenues it was promised in a 2006 law to help rebuild its eroding coastline, he said.
"This is an environmental atrocity," he said. "Why should these families think [Obama] cares about them?"
Jewell said revenues from the outer continental shelf should benefit all Americans. She noted that Gulf Coast states should receive billions of dollars for restoration as a result of the BP PLC oil spill in 2010.
Cantwell praised Jewell's budget for investing heavily in the Land and Water Conservation Fund and for proposing major boosts in discretionary and mandatory funding for NPS as it approaches its centennial.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) also expressed support for a provision within the Park Service budget that seeks private-sector support, with federal matching dollars, for maintenance backlog projects.
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CBD Sues EPA To Force Issuance Of PM2.5 FIPs
Feb 24, 2015 | InsideEPA
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is suing EPA in a bid to force the issuance of what it says are long-overdue federal implementation plans (FIPs) that the agency must impose on two states and Puerto Rico to ensure they attain the agency's 2006 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS).
The suit, filed Feb. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says that EPA's duty to craft a FIP with PM2.5 emissions reduction measures stems from a Sept. 8, 2011, agency finding that Iowa, Washington and Puerto Rico failed to submit complete “infrastructure” state implementation plans (SIPs) for meeting the PM2.5 limit. If a state fails to have an EPA-approved SIP in place, the agency can impose a FIP on that state.
SIPs include the air pollution reduction measures that states will use to reduce emissions and attain EPA's NAAQS, but EPA has Clean Air Act authority to impose its own controls through a FIP if SIPs are incomplete.
The suit seeks the air plans for complying with the 2006 PM2.5 limit of 15 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3), saying issuance of that rule started a three-year clock for approval of all SIPs. EPA since tightened the PM2.5 NAAQS to 12 ug/m3 in a 2012 rulemaking, and is preparing its next air law-mandated review of the standard.
CBD in its suit says the air law sets a two-year deadline for EPA to impose a FIP after it has declared a state's failure to submit an adequate SIP. The agency says that the Sept. 8, 2011, declaration on the two states' and Puerto Rico's SIPs means that the agency should have promulgated FIPs for all three by Oct. 11, 2013. EPA has not done so, and the suit claims a violation of a mandatory duty to issue FIPs to resolve the missing parts of the SIPs.
Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at CBD, said in a statement the FIPs are vital to protect public health from emissions of PM2.5, or soot. “The science is clear. Soot poisons our air, our lands and waters, and us. We have the ability to make the cuts needed to make us all safe. We just need the EPA to ensure it happens.”
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Near-Term Costs of Climate Action Will Yield Long-Term Benefits -- Deputy Chief
Feb 24, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jean Chemnick
U.S. EPA's second-in-command said today that addressing climate change is particularly difficult because of the "temporal separation of costs and benefits."
Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg said this morning at the Climate Leadership Conference in Arlington, Va., that policies like EPA's Clean Power Plan for utilities will provide the bulk of their benefits years from now in the form of avoided global warming.
"We're engaged here in a present enterprise whose focus is the future, and that's both exciting and a little bit scary," he said.
But efforts like EPA's rule will yield some near-term benefits in energy efficiency and pollution reduction, he said.
Meiburg told the room full of climate change officers and professionals that while the day-to-day work to combat warming may be difficult and fraught with political discord, it will be important to future generations. That was the concern that Meiburg said brought him out of retirement to take the deputy post when former deputy Bob Perciasepe left. And it is what drives efforts at the state and private-sector level to address warming.
Meiburg spoke on day two of the conference, which was sponsored by the Association of Climate Change Officers, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, the Climate Registry, and EPA.
He was followed by a panel of state grid, environmental and energy regulators, and utilities, who offered different views about the pros and cons of EPA's proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from the existing power fleet.
The panel ran the gamut from coal-dependent Kentucky, which has registered its concern that the proposal could stunt the growth of its manufacturing sector, to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative -- a compact of Northeastern states that have urged the federal agency to increase the draft rule's stringency.
"I'm from Kentucky, and I am not a climate science denier," Len Peters, the Bluegrass State's secretary of energy and environment, told the gathering.
But while Peters credited EPA with extensive outreach on the draft, which was released last June and is set to be finalized this summer, he noted that Kentucky's Democratic administration remains concerned about the rule.
"At the end of the day, the Clean Power Plan is really an energy policy," he said -- and Kentucky needs inexpensive energy to fuel its heavy manufacturing sector, which is vital to its economy.
"We have coal, bourbon, horses, basketball. But at the end of the day, we have about 11,000 or 12,000 people in the coal fields, and we have 230,000 people in the manufacturing industry," he said. "And we're a small state. So you can see what drives our economy."
Peters oversees the office that would be responsible for writing Kentucky's compliance strategy for the EPA rule, but it has been hampered by a state law that would confine the rule to what can be achieved on site at a power plant -- a limitation that would make it impossible for Kentucky to comply.
But Peters touted Kentucky's white paper released in October 2013 that asserted that EPA should count coal plant retirements toward a state's emissions reductions goals.
On the other end of the spectrum was Maryland Public Service Commissioner Kelly Speakes-Backman, who also leads RGGI.
She told the gathering that Maryland has benefited from its membership in the RGGI cap-and-trade program, which has led it to diversify its power mix and improve demand-side efficiency. Maryland still derives nearly half its power from coal but no longer faces the threat of brownouts due to excess demand.
When it comes to EPA's power rule, Speakes-Backman said, "we're confident that it can be done, because we're doing it."
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Influx of 'Marginally Improved' Tank Cars Threaten Oil-by-Rail Rule -- Federal Watchdog
Feb 24, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Thousands of oil tank cars slated for construction this year could dull the impact of a major crude-by-rail safety rule, the head of a federal watchdog warned yesterday.
Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, wrote that sweeping tank car standards now under review at the White House "could be weakened by a vast new fleet of cars built to older and less-safe standards."
The blog post marked Hart's harshest words to date for a newer, "marginally improved" tank car standard that the rail industry adopted in 2011 after a deadly ethanol train derailment near Cherry Valley, Ill.
Since then, the so-called CPC-1232 tank car model has been involved in several damaging oil train derailments and fires, including a recent series of explosions near Mount Carbon, W.Va. (EnergyWire, Feb. 17).
"Though proposals in the current [Department of Transportation] rulemaking would make a significant improvement over CPC-1232, another 36,000 of these cars will be built for crude oil service by the end of this year," Hart wrote, suggesting that barring "swift regulatory action," such cars could make the overall fleet more dangerous.
Crude-by-rail deliveries have shot up in recent years, from fewer than 10,000 carloads in 2008 to about 500,000 last year, according to industry data.
The surge in oil shipments has linked coastal refineries to booming production in North Dakota's Bakken Shale play, but a series of derailments and explosions have drawn scrutiny from regulators and the public. In July 2013, a 72-car train carrying oil from the Bakken derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people.
That car had been using flimsier tank cars built before the voluntary CPC-1232 standard came into effect. Safety watchdogs in the United States and Canada have traditionally focused their criticism on these older-model DOT-111 tank cars, with the NTSB warning about their puncture-prone design as far back as 1991.
But Hart's blog post and NTSB's decision to add tank car integrity to this year's "Most Wanted" list of safety improvements will add pressure on federal regulators to phase out even newer CPC-1232s.
A rule to quickly retire "less-safe" CPC-1232s isn't likely to sit well with refiners and oil shippers that have added the cars to their fleets in a bid to stay ahead of DOT regulations.
Despite flagging interest in new oil tank cars due to the recent decline in crude prices, manufacturers such as Trinity Industries Inc. expect to fill longstanding tank car orders through the rest of the year (EnergyWire, Feb. 23).
By contract, the bulk of those will be built to the CPC-1232 standard, although Oregon-based tank car manufacturer Greenbrier Companies Inc. has voiced its own doubts about the car's safety.
"It's better than the plain DOT-111 car, but we need to step our game up," Greenbrier's chief engineer and Senior Vice President Gregory Saxton told a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee hearing this month on changing energy markets.
Greenbrier has said it is already building a new tank car model that goes above and beyond the CPC-1232 standard by adding thicker steel and other protections.
But in the absence of federal rulemaking -- scheduled for publication this May -- it's unclear if even Greenbrier's "Tank Car of the Future" will be allowed to stay on the tracks without eventual upgrades.
"We strongly urge industry and regulators to take action and reverse the trend set by tragic accidents such as Cherry Valley, Illinois; Lac-Mégantic, Quebec; Casselton, North Dakota; Lynchburg, Virginia; and Mt. Carbon, West Virginia, by demanding the most robust tank cars available to lessen the consequences of rail accidents involving hazardous materials," Hart said.
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