Preview Newsletter
PM ACC - 10/26/2018
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BASF's New Boss Puts Construction Chemicals Unit Up for Sale
Oct 26, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Ludwig Burger
Chemicals group BASF said it planned to sell its Construction Chemicals unit or find a merger partner for it, as new Chief Executive Martin Brudermueller looks for ways to boost the group's share price. -
FDA Reduces Maximum Daily Limit for Lead in Children’s Food by Half
Oct 25, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Neltner
On September 27, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reduced the maximum allowed daily intake of lead for children from 6 to 3 micrograms per day (µg/day). -
EU Moves Closer to Banning Single-Use Plastic Cutlery, Plates, and Straws
Oct 25, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Cheryl Hogue
The European Union has taken a major step toward banning single-use plastic cutlery, plates, straws, and beverage stirrers by 2021. The European Parliament approved the planned prohibition on Oct. 24. -
Watch: The Chemistry of a Cover-Up
Oct 26, 2018 | Environmental Health News
By Kristin Lazure and Stephanie Soechtig
In making our most recent film, The Devil We Know, we thought we understood the pervasive and insidious role that toxic chemicals play in our collective lives. -
Oregon Governor Seeks to Block Offshore Drilling
Oct 26, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed an executive order that seeks to ban offshore drilling in the waters off the state’s coast. -
Ewire: Wheeler Pledges to Be 'Champion' for Oil and Gas Sector
Oct 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler offered up warm words for oil and gas stakeholders during a recent speech to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, saying that the “new EPA” would be looking for ways to reduce burdens on the sector. -
EPA Schedules Hearing in Denver
Oct 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Mike Soraghan
EPA has scheduled a public hearing for Nov. 14 in Denver on the Trump administration's proposal to dial back regulation of the oil and gas industry's methane emissions. -
Third Quarter Oil and Gas Deals Hit $123 Billion
Oct 26, 2018 | Houston Chronicle (In Real Clear Energy)
By Rye Druzin
U.S. oil and gas deals in the third quarter hit near $123 billion, the highest deal value since the third quarter of 2014. -
Environmental Groups Shift Strategies to Win Support for Candidates in Midterms
Oct 26, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
Conservation groups are linking the threat of global warming to health care and other prominent issues as they seek to win more support for candidates backing climate change policies in the midterms. -
Peak Embarrassment in War on Oil
Oct 25, 2018 | Wall Street Journal
By Editorial Board
Before resigning this year amid allegations of sexual abuse, former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman spent nearly three years trying to harpoon his great white political whale— Exxon Mobil. -
Texas Complains About Cost of Meeting Pollution Standards
Oct 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
The head of Texas' environmental agency is attacking long-standing procedures for meeting national air quality standards only two weeks after one of his employees won appointment to an EPA advisory panel that helps set those standards. -
Judge Issues Deadline for Epa to Fault Calif. on Delays
Oct 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
A federal judge has given EPA 30 days to formally fault California regulators for foot-dragging on air pollution plans. -
Houston Neighborhood Maps Decades-Old Pollution Problem, Paving Way for Communities Nationwide
Oct 26, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Matt Tresaugue
Bridgette Murray, a retired nurse, lives in a predominantly black neighborhood on Houston’s east side, where small houses grace tree-shaded streets, all built around two schools and a city park.
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BASF's New Boss Puts Construction Chemicals Unit Up for Sale
Oct 26, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Ludwig Burger
Chemicals group BASF said it planned to sell its Construction Chemicals unit or find a merger partner for it, as new Chief Executive Martin Brudermueller looks for ways to boost the group's share price.
Construction Chemicals is the world's largest maker of chemical additives for concrete. Its products were used to build the world's longest railway tunnel in Switzerland as well as London's new underground train line, the Elizabeth line, but BASF said the unit was not large enough to compete successfully on its own over the longer term.
"Neither are we satisfied with the (group) business development nor with our share price development," Brudermueller told journalists in a conference call after the chemicals giant released third-quarter results.
BASF shares were down 1.9 percent at 65.42 euros at 0941 GMT, their lowest in more than two years.
When he took over in May, Brudermueller threw his weight behind the company's strategy of keeping divergent businesses folded into one company.
The CEO, who is scheduled to outline his strategic vision in more detail on Nov. 20, said portfolio reviews would continue, adding that the decision on construction chemicals did not mark a policy change.
"The unit has a very low degree of integration into the rest of the BASF network and it does not fully meet our expectations regarding profitability," said finance chief Hans-Ulrich Engel.
Construction Chemicals had sales of 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in 2017 with about 7,000 staff and Baader Helvea analyst Markus Mayer said it could be valued at 2.4 billion-3 billion euros.
Sika, GCP or LafargeHolcim could be prospective partners, Baader's Mayer said. He added that the BASF unit's earnings had not grown much since it was acquired from Degussa in 2006 for 2.7 billion including debt.
BASF would not provide earnings figures or a price tag, but BASF said it plans to sign a deal for the unit some time next year.
Beyond additives for concrete, the business offers a range of substances for builders, including concrete repair fillers, grouts and sealants under a business dubbed Construction Systems, where BASF is the No. 4 player globally.
A deal "should help establish a very strong player, in particular in Construction Systems, given the ongoing round of consolidation in construction chemicals," said CFO Engel.
The construction chemicals sector is seeing a wave of consolidation. While St. Gobain failed with its takeover of Swiss-based Sika, private equity firm Cinven acquired France's Chryso. Currently, buyout group CVC has engaged investment bank Lazard to find a buyer for French chemical company Parex, which could be valued at around 2 billion euros, people close to the matter have said.
The former Lafarge unit, which reported 2016 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 158 million euros, has attracted interest from Chinese and Western construction materials groups, the people said.
BASF, which is the world's largest maker of chemicals and plastics for the car industry, earlier said quarterly operating profit fell 14 percent as stricter emission rules and trade barriers dented its business with automakers.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/10/26/business/26reuters-basf-results-construction-chemicals.html
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FDA Reduces Maximum Daily Limit for Lead in Children’s Food by Half
Oct 25, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Tom Neltner
On September 27, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reduced the maximum allowed daily intake of lead for children from 6 to 3 micrograms per day (µg/day). It has also set a limit for adults of 12.5 µg/day, to protect against possible fetal exposure in women who are unaware they are pregnant and to reduce infant exposure during nursing. The agency now refers to these limits as the “Interim Reference Level” to match the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) terminology for elevated blood lead levels that warrant action. FDA reports that the new level for children is the amount of lead in food expected to result in a blood lead level of 5 µg/deciliter, with a 10-fold safety factor to account for differences across the population.
This change is a major step in FDA’s new push to limit heavy metals in food to protect children’s neurological development. In April 2018, FDA explained that its Toxic Elements Working Group is “looking at all the [heavy] metals across all foods rather than one contaminant, one food at a time,” and that “even though the level of a metal in any particular food is low, our overall exposure adds up because many of the foods we eat contain them in small amounts.”
As the agency indicated earlier this year, the next step for the Working Group is to “begin reevaluating the specific lead levels that FDA has set for a variety of foods.”
To help understand the implications of this change, it is important to consider that in our June 2017 Lead in Food Report, we estimated that more than one million children aged 2 to 6 years exceeded the old daily intake level of 6 µg/day of lead. This estimate was based on an exposure model by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) using FDA’s Total Diet Study (TDS) data from 2007 to 2013.
Later in 2017, FDA provided us with more recent TDS data from 2014 to 2016 in response to our Freedom of Information Act request. We contracted with Abt Associates[i] to run the new data through the same EPA model to develop an updated food lead exposure assessment.
Table 1 below compares the new data to the older data.Table 1. Estimated number of children 2 to 6 years old consuming more than FDA’s old and new maximum allowed daily intake of lead (excluding drinking water) based on the FDA’s Total Diet Study data.
While it suggests a significant reduction in the amount of children’s lead exposure, direct comparisons are difficult because FDA used a new, more sensitive ICP-MS method and the dataset was smaller. Using the more recent data, it appears that approximately 1.2 million children aged 2 to 6 consume more than 3 µg/day of lead in food excluding drinking water – meaning they are above FDA’s updated daily intake level.
We applaud FDA’s decision to 1) update its 1993 limit for children’s exposure; 2) establish a limit for adults to protect fetuses and infants, and 3) link the limit for children to CDC’s reference level. This update is long overdue and signals an important step to reducing lead in food – especially children’s food. We look forward to seeing FDA develop limits for specific foods that would be used to set priorities, identify problems, and trigger recalls when levels are high.
[i] We can provide the preliminary analysis on request.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/?_ga=2.107501058.1033531354.1540570014-1466136250.1538413461
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EU Moves Closer to Banning Single-Use Plastic Cutlery, Plates, and Straws
Oct 25, 2018 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Cheryl Hogue
The European Union has taken a major step toward banning single-use plastic cutlery, plates, straws, and beverage stirrers by 2021. The European Parliament approved the planned prohibition on Oct. 24.
The proposal, unveiled earlier this year, targets single-use plastic consumer products that are found in greatest numbers on EU shorelines and for which nonplastic alternatives are now available. The Parliament broadened the planned ban by adding takeout food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene.
Lawmakers also altered the proposal to ensure that the ban would cover products made with transition-metal-based oxo-degradable additives. Some companies have claimed that oxo-degradable plastics are a solution to litter problems. But a 2015 United Nations report found no independent evidence that these materials break down more rapidly in marine environments than plastics without these additives.
The plan approved by the Parliament also requires the EU to recycle 90% of certain plastics, including beverage bottles, by 2025. Cigarette makers would have to slash use of plastic in filters 80% by 2030.
PlasticsEurope, an association representing plastics manufacturers, says, “Bans are not the solution. They will discourage investments that are crucial to further develop technologies and infrastructure to recycle plastics.”
Members of the Parliament approved the planned ban with a vote of 571 to 53, with 34 abstentions. The proposal now goes to the European Council, which serves as the upper chamber of the EU legislature.
https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/EU-moves-closer-banning-single/96/i43
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Watch: The Chemistry of a Cover-Up
Oct 26, 2018 | Environmental Health News
By Kristin Lazure and Stephanie Soechtig
In making our most recent film, The Devil We Know, we thought we understood the pervasive and insidious role that toxic chemicals play in our collective lives.
After all, this professional and personal journey had started for us nearly a decade earlier with Stephanie's first feature documentary, Tapped, about the bottled water industry. At that time, the health risks from bisphenol-A—a chemical widely used in plastics, receipt paper and canned food linings—were just coming to light, and momentum was growing for manufacturers, especially those of baby bottles and sippy cups, to stop using the chemical.
As consumers, it was infuriating to learn it wasn't just BPA: there are tens of thousands of industrial chemicals approved for use in the U.S. with little or no independent testing for their effects on human health or the environment. In other words, Americans absolutely cannot assume products marketed and sold to them are safe.
But it wasn't until The Devil We Know that we realized the disturbing depths to which the chemical industry will stoop to protect the bottom line and the lengths to which citizens have to go to for environmental justice.Public pressure exposes poisoned water
The film profiles the community surrounding Parkersburg, West Virginia, home to DuPont's Washington Works factory, where one of the company's most profitable products – Teflon – has been manufactured for decades. Parkersburg, situated in the rural south's Chemical Valley, is a working class town that has relied heavily on DuPont jobs and the benevolence of the corporation's deep pockets.
When a handful of Parkersburg residents, led by a cattle farmer and a gym teacher, took on DuPont, they were vilified by their neighbors. But it was their persistence, and that of a Cincinnati-based attorney named Rob Bilott, that brought the cold, hard facts to light.
For decades, the community was unsuspecting as PFOA, a synthetic chemical compound used as a processing aid in the manufacture of Teflon, was making its way into the drinking water supply of tens of thousands of residents who lived near the plant. One of the chemicals in the dreaded PFAS class, PFOA exposure (even at very low levels) has since been linked to certain diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers.
Not long ago, the Centers for Disease Control said the chemical is now so prevalent, it can be found in the blood of 99.7 percent of Americans, and babies are born pre-polluted.
This is the same chemical at the heart of a federal health study that the Trump administration tried to bury out of concern that it would cause a "public relations nightmare."
But the whitewash surrounding this chemical started many, many years earlier.
The corporate cover-up
Internal documents that emerged during the Parkersburg litigation show the company, decades ago, was sending workers out to collect water samples from local businesses and their own homes to determine how far the contamination had spread.
In 1984, DuPont held a meeting at its corporate headquarters in Delaware. The minutes from that meeting confirm executives were well aware - but did not disclose to the community - that PFOA was in the drinking water. Further, the document also makes clear that PFOA emissions into the air and Ohio River were increasing, yet the company had no plans to do anything about it.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
We know from a former DuPont chemical engineer interviewed for the film, who was with the company for more than 20 years, that the technology existed to make Teflon without PFOA, but revamping the infrastructure necessary to accommodate a new, safer chemical would have been too costly to justify the switch.
The story we tell in The Devil We Know has all the makings of a Hollywood thriller: a cover-up spanning decades, a quintessential David and Goliath pitting deceitful and callous executives against regular folks, a protracted and bitter legal battle, and government apathy that borders on conspiracy.
It's a harrowing and outrageous tale, but it's also incredibly inspiring because it shows, against all odds, the power of a few determined people to change the world.
https://www.ehn.org/dupont-teflon-cover-up-pfas-2614570951.html
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Oregon Governor Seeks to Block Offshore Drilling
Oct 26, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed an executive order that seeks to ban offshore drilling in the waters off the state’s coast.
The order signed Thursday bans oil and natural gas drilling in the three miles of water that Oregon officials control. But it also directs state agencies to block infrastructure and other means to support drilling anywhere off the coast, which would make building pipelines or other structures difficult.
The Trump administration proposed earlier this year to allow offshore drilling off Oregon and all other Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coast states. Nearly all Pacific and Atlantic coast states are fighting the plan.
“Oregonians have a long and proud history of standing up to defend our state. And at a time when the Trump administration is trying to allow oil rigs to be built off nearly every coastline in America, I’m tired of waiting for the federal government to come to its senses and realize that this is a terrible mistake,” Brown said in a statement.
“This executive order will make it clear to oil and gas speculators that Oregon is not for sale.”
Brown said Oregon’s coast supports 22,000 jobs and $2 billion of economic activity in recreation and tourism, plus another 5,500 jobs and $320 million in fishing, all of which would be under threat from the possibility of oil spills or other offshore drilling problems.
Oregon’s order comes after other states took their own measures to try to stop drilling. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation in September to block new drilling rigs or infrastructure in state waters, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has signed a similar policy.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/413332-oregon-governor-seeks-to-block-offshore-drilling
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Ewire: Wheeler Pledges to Be 'Champion' for Oil and Gas Sector
Oct 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler offered up warm words for oil and gas stakeholders during a recent speech to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, saying that the “new EPA” would be looking for ways to reduce burdens on the sector.
“You have a new champion in the White House,” Wheeler told the Oct. 24 Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette write-up of the speech.
The story noted a “generous” plan for the industry in its upcoming agenda. In addition to EPA's pending proposal to weaken Obama-era rules limiting emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane from new oil and gas sources, Wheeler also pledged to explore more ways to use produced water, and that data companies “submit about their operations won't be used to justify new environmental rules."
“Our goal is to free you to do what you do best, which is to innovate, create and produce,” Wheeler said.
The acting EPA chief also previewed additional deregulation for the sector, according to the story. He suggested that the agency might look at various sub-sectors when crafting emissions rules, including well sites, gas storage facilities and pipelines. That way, emissions from one sub-sector “may not be high enough to warrant setting a performance standard under the Clean Air Act,” the story said.
Inside EPA has reported that observers also expect EPA to propose dropping direct methane limits for the sector entirely, in favor of a rule that targets volatile organic compounds while limiting methane indirectly. That would be an important legal distinction, however, because it would likely block future methane rules for existing sources in the sector.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Wheeler also repeated the Trump administration's talking point that GHGs are dropping in the country, largely due to the ongoing shift away from coal in the power sector due to cheap natural gas and renewables.
This “has proven that federal regulations are not necessary to drive [GHG] reductions,” Wheeler said.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-wheeler-pledges-be-champion-oil-and-gas-sector
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EPA Schedules Hearing in Denver
Oct 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Mike Soraghan
EPA has scheduled a public hearing for Nov. 14 in Denver on the Trump administration's proposal to dial back regulation of the oil and gas industry's methane emissions.
That's about a month before the Dec. 17 end of the comment period on the proposal, which would allow oil and gas companies to check their wells less frequently for emissions.
Under the proposal rolled out last month, operators would have to monitor wells on an annual basis and low-production operations every other year, rather than twice a year under the Obama-era rule (Energywire, Sept. 12).
The changes, which EPA calls "targeted improvements," were sought by the oil and gas industry. The agency says it's leaving broader policy issues to be handled at a later date. Those policy issues could include whether methane should be directly regulated.
Some companies, though, have taken a more pro-regulatory stance. Exxon Mobil Corp. has pledged to reduce its own methane emissions. And the head of XTO Energy Inc., an Exxon subsidiary, has voiced support for more comprehensive restrictions.
EPA says the reductions in monitoring and record-keeping will save oil and gas companies $484 million through 2025. That's much of the $530 million the rule was expected to cost drillers.
The agency has said that higher emissions, degraded air quality, and "adverse health and welfare effects" will forgo benefits of the rule valued between $13.5 million and $54 million between 2019 and 2025.
EPA's analysis of the proposal found that monitoring emissions on an annual basis from compressor stations between 2019 and 2025 would increase fugitive methane emissions by 100,000 short tons, volatile organic compounds by 24,000 tons and hazardous air pollutants by 890 tons, compared with monitoring on a semiannual basis.
A key element of the plan is allowing companies to opt out of the relaxed federal rules if they abide by their state rules. The state's rules must be deemed "equivalent." The EPA proposal grants that status to six states — California, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.
The Obama-era rules remain in place for now, requiring companies to look for leaks in their equipment and repair them promptly.
The hearing is to be held in EPA's Region 8 office in downtown Denver starting at 8 a.m. It is expected to conclude at 8 p.m.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/10/26/stories/1060104495
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Third Quarter Oil and Gas Deals Hit $123 Billion
Oct 26, 2018 | Houston Chronicle (In Real Clear Energy)
By Rye Druzin
U.S. oil and gas deals in the third quarter hit near $123 billion, the highest deal value since the third quarter of 2014.
Energy companies spent $122.8 billion, compared to the third quarter of 2014 when they spent $125.7 billion, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, a major auditing and analysis firm.
The spending is five times the $24 billion in oil and gas deals announced in the third quarter of 2017, and a 73.2 percent increase over the 71 billion in deals made in the second quarter of 2018.
The analysis attributed the higher deal value to consolidation in the pipeline and storage sector of the oil and gas industry, with multiple companies combining their infrastructure subsidiaries into their corporate structures in deals valued at $80.7 billion.
Shale oil and gas deals totaled $19.2 billion, with West Texas' Permian Basin taking the top spot with $11.5 billion in transactions.
https://www.chron.com/business/article/Third-quarter-oil-and-gas-deals-hit-123-billion-13333622.php
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Environmental Groups Shift Strategies to Win Support for Candidates in Midterms
Oct 26, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Miranda Green
Conservation groups are linking the threat of global warming to health care and other prominent issues as they seek to win more support for candidates backing climate change policies in the midterms.
Studies repeatedly have indicated that people rarely vote on climate change even if they care about it.
To counter that dynamic, groups including the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund are spending millions this fall to link climate change to the economy, corporatism and health care — the number one issue Democrats are running on this year.ADVERTISEMENT
The groups are spending significantly more than in past midterms to drive home those connections. LCV committed to spending $60 million on 2018 races, more than it has ever spent before. The Sierra Club estimates its expenses will total over $6 million — much higher than what the group spent in 2014.
Will Jordan, a senior research associate at the Global Strategy Group, insisted that climate change is more of an issue in this election than in past campaigns given rising concerns about weather events and a United Nations paper that found the world is running out of time to deal with the warming climate.
“That being said, health care is a larger issue,” Jordan acknowledged.
Still, he said concerns about the planet dovetail with public health and actions the Trump administration has taken to weaken emissions standards that could lead to more pollution.
“I think that at the end of the day it’s going to be fundamentally an election about the major issues: health care, Donald Trump, accountability themes of the election, but at the same time you see this argument get threaded into those,” he said of climate change.
In Virginia, ads against Republican Rep. Scott Taylor target his links to corporate polluters as well as his vote to repeal ObamaCare.
In California, an ad against Republican congressional candidate Diane Harkey focuses on her donations from oil and gas companies and her votes in favor of offshore drilling.
In Kansas, a commercial compares GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder’s opposition to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts to his vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The advertisements’ general message is that a vote for these climate-skeptic candidates is a vote against other important issues.
“I think very few voters vote on any single issue. They look at candidates and they compare their choices with their own values,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.
“We don’t treat climate change as an outlier or special issue or something that is separate from the important things in people’s lives.”
Historically, the environment has ranked low and often dead last among issues of concern to voters.
A Pew Research poll from September found that just 63 percent of voters said the issue would be “very important” to them in the midterm elections. Only 38 percent of Republican voters said the same. In contrast, the Supreme Court, health care and the economy were in the top three.
Conservation groups are well aware of such polls, and it is sculpting their strategies as they seek to win over Republicans and independents.
“In Florida, the red tide and toxic algae ties into climate change and that's bad for the tourism economy and bad for their community’s health,” said Pete Maysmith, LCV’s senior vice president for campaigns.
“In Maine we see [a focus on] climate change because it's bad for the lobster industry, which is central to who the Mainers are. So when we start to see the impacts firsthand, that's a path to this being more tangible in voters.”
Democratic candidates in purple states are using a similar tactic to sway voters.
Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, just saw his state get pummeled by a near-historic hurricane last month. He tied fighting climate change to leading the “green economy” during a debate on Sunday.
“Florida should lead on solar energy; we’re known as the Sunshine State,” the Tallahassee mayor said.
Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, who is running for governor in Colorado, has also highlighted renewables as an economic driver, arguing customers will save money on their electric bills and the increase will create tens of thousands of new jobs, in addition to reducing pollution and health-care costs.
“We need to make sure that we encourage investment in renewable energy by making sure we can recognize the savings for all of us,” Polis said at a debate this week.
Candidates embracing climate change and environmental issues in their platforms is a new development, conservation groups say, and signifies the issue may be going mainstream.
“There are candidates championing environmental issues all over the country — some even have their own expertise, like clean energy entrepreneur Mike Levin in California and Cindy Axne in Iowa, who helped make the state a leader in wind energy,” Maysmith said, referring to two Democratic candidates for the House.
“There are candidates campaigning on their belief in science, on keeping public lands in public hands, and on expanding renewable energy.”
That shift, in turn, is also changing how Republicans in some key battleground states are talking about climate change.
Reps. Mimi Walters (R-Calif.) and Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), who are both in toss-up races this fall, have been criticized by environmentalists of “greenwashing” their records by citing support for environmental issues, despite votes against climate change.
Walters voted in favor of bills to block Obama-era environmental regulations and co-sponsored the “Stopping EPA Overreach Act,” but recently signed on to a letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) that said climate change was a “significant” factor in forest fires.
Roskam, whose Democratic challenger is a scientist, signed a resolution earlier this year that expressed that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the U.S. economy. But he recently went hiking with students from a college environmental group as one of his campaign events.
In the past year, both Walters and Roskam have joined the House Climate Solutions Caucus, which was formed in 2016.
“We are seeing changes in the local level for local district races. Primarily you see more Republican candidates emphasizing clean energy entrepreneurship and growth of small renewable business, and I think that’s a harbinger of what’s to come,” Brune said.
“At some point the fever will break — and I think that repudiation of climate denialism will probably be led by business people and farmers who are often a core [Republican] constituency suffering from climate change.”
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/413225-environmental-groups-shift-strategies-to-win-climate-change-support
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Peak Embarrassment in War on Oil
Oct 25, 2018 | Wall Street Journal
By Editorial Board
Before resigning this year amid allegations of sexual abuse, former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman spent nearly three years trying to harpoon his great white political whale— Exxon Mobil . His hunt failed to uncover malfeasance, but the AG’s office is suing Exxon anyway in a case that should be laughed out of court.
Acting Attorney General Barbara Underwood alleged in a civil suit this week that Exxon defrauded shareholders, including those in the state workers’ pension fund, by failing to incorporate the projected costs of future climate regulation in its planning and investment decisions. The lawsuit says Exxon essentially kept two sets of books—one for public disclosures and another for internal purposes.
Mr. Schneiderman initiated the roving investigation of Exxon’s business practices in November 2015. Exxon has since produced millions of pages of documents, but none have corroborated the political conspiracy theory that the oil and gas giant publicly downplayed the risks of climate change while preparing for them internally. No matter. The state AG’s office is now floating an alternative theory that is even more far-fetched.
Lo, the AG says Exxon’s public disclosures projected a “proxy cost” of climate regulation of $80 per ton of carbon in 2040 in developed countries and between $20 to $40 per ton in developing countries. Yet Exxon allegedly applied internally a “much lower price per ton to a small percentage of its GHG emissions, based on then-current regulations.” In other words, the AG claims Exxon was telling the truth to the public but lying to itself.
But as Exxon explained in a July motion challenging an AG subpoena, the two cost projections are used for distinct purposes. The “proxy costs” are used to forecast global energy demand while “greenhouse gas costs” projections are used internally to make particular investment decisions. Exxon has proprietary reasons for not publicly disclosing these internal estimates. And it must be accurate in cost projections if it wants its enormous and multiyear projects to earn a profit.
Each cost “is employed differently in Cash Flows,” Exxon added. “While Proxy Costs are indirectly reflected in line items associated with a commodity price, GHG Costs are incorporated, where appropriate, in various project economic metrics, including, but not limited to, operating expenses.”
Exxon says it has submitted no fewer than seven letters identifying more than three dozen documents “that show beyond legitimate dispute that the Company applies each cost in accordance with its statements” to investors. The charitable explanation is that this nuance eludes prosecutors who have no experience in business.
The lawsuit cites Exxon’s projects in the Alberta oil sands, which the AG says could lose billions of dollars due to future government climate regulation. Alberta this year imposed a $30 per ton tax on greenhouse gas emissions. Yet Alberta’s conservatives have pledged to repeal the unpopular tax if they win next year’s election, as they’re widely expected to do.***
The reality is that nobody knows the future cost of carbon, and it will hinge as much on politics as on the evolving science and facts of climate change. President Trump sharply reduced the regulatory cost of carbon in the U.S. by rescinding Barack Obama’s Clean Power Rule, fuel-economy (Cafe) standards and methane regulations.
Liberals claim oil will become obsolete as electric cars replace vehicles that run on fossil fuels. But these are the same people who said in 2006 that cellulosic ethanol would soon be an economic alternative to fossil fuels.
The International Energy Agency reported this year that more oil investment is needed to keep up with increasing global demand: “Each year the world needs to replace 3 mb/d of supply lost from mature fields while also meeting robust demand growth. That is the equivalent of replacing one North Sea each year.”
Ms. Underwood is charging Exxon under New York’s notorious Martin Act, which doesn’t require evidence of intent to prove fraud in civil cases. She may be hoping that Exxon agrees to settle and pay a fine so she can declare victory. Yet in this case there’s not even evidence of fraudulent conduct, much less intent. The only party guilty of misrepresentation in this lawsuit is the New York AG.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/peak-embarrassment-in-war-on-oil-1540509533?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1
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Texas Complains About Cost of Meeting Pollution Standards
Oct 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
The head of Texas' environmental agency is attacking long-standing procedures for meeting national air quality standards only two weeks after one of his employees won appointment to an EPA advisory panel that helps set those standards.
Strategies "to help nonattainment areas attain and maintain compliance ... can have numerous adverse impacts," Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, wrote in comments posted yesterday on the website regulations.gov.
Among those adverse impacts, Baker pointed to the expense of coming up with compliance plans. He said money was being spent on regulations rather than on enhancing people's safety and health.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is supposed to regularly review and, if needed, change the air quality standards for ozone, lead and four other "criteria" pollutants. Aiding in those reviews is the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a seven-member panel named by the EPA administrator.
Baker's comments came in response to a June invitation from EPA for public feedback on how the committee, usually known by its acronym CASAC, should consider "any adverse public health, welfare, social, economic, or energy effects which may result from various strategies for attainment and maintenance" of the standards.
The committee will be closely involved in two assessments of the standards for ozone and particulate matter. On Oct. 10, acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler named five new members to the CASAC, including Sabine Lange, the section manager for the Texas agency's toxicology division.
Lange did not immediately reply to emailed questions this morning asking whether she shares Baker's views and planned to raise them in her position as a CASAC member. A TCEQ spokeswoman also had no immediate response when asked by email today whether Baker has instructed Lange to raise his concerns during the review process.
The Texas agency was a frequent foe of Obama-era environmental regulations. Three years ago, for example, Michael Honeycutt, director of TCEQ's toxicology division, helped spearhead a workshop arguing against any tightening of the ozone standard.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/10/26/stories/1060104511
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Judge Issues Deadline for Epa to Fault Calif. on Delays
Oct 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
A federal judge has given EPA 30 days to formally fault California regulators for foot-dragging on air pollution plans.
By late next month, the agency must officially find that the state has failed to submit up-to-date plans for bringing the San Joaquin Valley into attainment for the national fine particulate standards for 1997, 2006 and 2012, according to the order issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of the Northern District of California.
Seeborg's ruling came in a lawsuit brought last month by the Committee for a Better Arvin, a small city in the San Joaquin Valley near Bakersfield, and several other advocacy groups.
They had alleged that "at least" four state implementation plan revisions were legally supposed to have been submitted to EPA between October 2016 and August 2017; after California didn't do so, EPA should have issued the findings of failure at various points between April 2017 and this past February, the suit said. Those findings are "an important milestone" under the Clean Air Act, the suit said, because they trigger deadlines for penalties "and imposition of a federally developed plan if a state's inaction persists."
In a court filing last week, EPA lawyers conceded the agency was late in making the findings and did not oppose the 30-day timetable sought by the plaintiffs.
Fine particulate matter is technically known as PM2.5 because it is no wider than 2.5 microns in diameter, or one-thirtieth the width of a human hair. Inhalation of fine particulates is linked to an array of health problems, including increased risk of premature death in some cases.
The San Joaquin Valley, home to around 4 million people, suffers from particularly stubborn air pollution. Under a two-part sliding scale, EPA currently deems the region in "serious nonattainment" for the 1997 and 2006 standards and in "moderate nonattainment" for the 2012 limits.
California was legally required to submit new or revised cleanup plans for meeting each of those standards after EPA issued fresh regulatory classifications in 2015 and 2016.
Other plaintiffs in the suits are the Committee for a Better Shafter, Medical Advocates for Healthy Air and the National Parks Conservation Association.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/10/26/stories/1060104499
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Houston Neighborhood Maps Decades-Old Pollution Problem, Paving Way for Communities Nationwide
Oct 26, 2018 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Matt Tresaugue
Bridgette Murray, a retired nurse, lives in a predominantly black neighborhood on Houston’s east side, where small houses grace tree-shaded streets, all built around two schools and a city park.
Its name is Pleasantville, a postwar version of the American dream. But the reality is something different.
Warehouses, metal recyclers, salvage yards, Anheuser-Busch’s Houston brewery and an interstate push hard against the neighborhood, proof and product of the city’s light-on-regulations approach to land use. Trains and trucks rumble through the area day and night. It can be difficult to breathe.
“Playing victim has never been one of my personality traits,” said Murray, whose family moved to Pleasantville in 1957, years before industry’s arrival. “I am here to work with the residents for solutions.”
As founder of the nonprofit Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, or ACTS, Murray is working with Environmental Defense Fund to fully understand Pleasantville’s air pollution and its associated harmful health effects. She wants to map a fair, just and sustainable path forward for her community.
The effort began in December 2017 with the placement of a BEACO2N sensor in Pleasantville to measure concentrations of several pollutants, including fine particulate matter, which can get deep inside lungs and cause cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Sensors detect pollution hotspots
In all, EDF, Houston’s health department and the University of California, Berkeley, placed 20 sensors across the city. The list includes Pleasantville, where about 3,000 people live – mostly of low wealth – because the state’s existing network of stationary monitors does not include the neighborhood despite its proximity to a busy port, industry and heavy traffic.
That matters because we know that air pollution can vary by as much as eight times within one city block.
In Pleasantville, preliminary data shows the highest concentrations of particulate matter occur at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., high times for traffic. The later peak typically extends through midnight, suggesting industrial sources also may play a role.
“Our goal is to reduce the health risks from exposure to air pollution, eliminate the health disparities and improve the health and prosperity of those who have suffered the burdens of air pollution for way too long,” said Elena Craft, EDF’s senior director for climate and health.
Projects change the playing field
EDF is doing similar work in other states – and now London – but Houston represents our most extensive effort to use innovative technologies to measure air pollution and produce hyperlocal data that can empower vulnerable communities to take action.
With 14 projects underway, this work comes at a crucial time for Houston, where air pollution remains a public health problem despite hard-won improvements over the past 20 years. In 2018 alone, there have been 30 days with unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone, or smog. On many days, the city’s air also contains other harmful pollutants such as benzene, a gasoline byproduct.
Our projects include:
· Testing a cost-effective, scalable model for mapping air pollution using municipal vehicles in partnership with telematics company GeoTab, TDE Technologies and the city of Houston.
· Identifying hotspots for air pollution using Google Street View cars outfitted with high-resolution sensors. It builds on previous workdone in Oakland, California, in a larger geographic area.
· Deploying Entanglement Technologies’ mobile sensors and laboratory-grade analyzer to measure air pollution like benzene in real time in Houston neighborhoods following Hurricane Harvey.
“If somebody asked me how many fixed site monitors we need, I would say there are never enough,” said Loren Raun, chief environmental officer with the Houston Health Department, which has since received funding to purchase similar instruments from Entanglement Technologies. “Real-time mobile monitoring will change the playing field.”
Community champions drive change
These new tools can make the city’s air pollution not only visible, but also actionable. With the Houston Endowment’s support, EDF will provide high-resolution maps of environmental threats and health effects, along with hyperlocal pollution data and legal options for communities interested in developing their own action plans.
Participation requires an existing community-based organization like Murray’s ACTS, because data cannot drive change without champions.
Murray’s community work initially focused on replacing aging infrastructure, rebuilding roads and improving storm drainage in Pleasantville. She later integrated environmental justice and public health as major parts of her platform.
Decades of injustice, finally in focus
Murray said her concern grew not from one event, but many. Her father died at age 51. He had multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. As industry’s footprint grew around the neighborhood, the air began to stink. In 1995, stored chemicals burned out of control at four nearby warehouses for a day and then reignited three times over the next month.
A recent Environmental Protection Agency analysis shows that people of color face higher exposure to particulate pollution than the population at large, regardless of wealth. These tiny particles have been associated with lung disease, heart disease and premature death. Health and exposure data, however, has been hard to find for Pleasantville, Murray said.
“We know our cancer rates are high, but it’s hard to prove our points when the system does not collect the data,” she said.
More and better information can empower the community, Murray said.
“In black and brown communities, sometimes we know about something, but we are talking only to each other. We need to take the conversation from the front porch to a place of action.”
https://www.edf.org/blog/2018/10/26/houston-neighborhood-maps-decades-old-pollution-problem-paving-way-communities
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