Preview Newsletter
ACC PM 11/9/2018
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(ACC Mentioned) Plans to Turn America’s Rust Belt Into a New Plastics Belt Are Bad News for the Climate
Nov 9, 2018 | The Revelator
By Sharon Kelly
The petrochemical industry anticipates spending a total of more than $200 billion on factories, pipelines and other infrastructure in the United States that will rely on shale gas, the American Chemistry Council announced in September. Construction is already underway at many sites. -
(ACC Mentioned) Bayport Polymers and Celanese Join ACC Plastics Division
Nov 9, 2018 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken
The American Chemistry Council’s plastics division has picked up two new members, Bayport Polymers LLC and Celanese Corp., with both saying they’re joining the group to advance industry sustainability goals. -
Time to Close the Loop
Nov 9, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By David Constable
It is readily apparent, to people who take the time to think about it, that the way in which the global chemistry enterprise operates is completely unsustainable. From the use of fossil carbon in the form of petroleum and natural gas, to the routine use of extremely rare elements for catalysis, electronics and other applications, the industry will be existing on borrowed time if it continues to carry on with a ‘business as usual’ mentality. -
Echa to ‘Step Up’ REACH Compliance Efforts, Hansen Tells MEPs
Nov 9, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
Echa head Bjorn Hansen has told MEPs that he is committed to improving efforts on REACH registration compliance issues. -
Trump: Keystone XL Court Ruling ‘a Disgrace’
Nov 9, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
President Trump slammed a federal judge’s late Thursday ruling that blocked the Keystone XL oil pipeline, calling it “a disgrace.” -
Counting The Cost Of A Faster Energy Transition
Nov 9, 2018 | Forbes
By Simon Flowers
Slowly but surely the energy mix is changing. Renewables, increasing efficiency, electrification of end-use demand including electric vehicles (EVs) are all driving the energy transition. Even so, we’ll depend on coal, oil and gas for quite some time. -
China And United States Need Each Other
Nov 9, 2018 | Forbes
By Dan Eberhart
In a fungible global energy market, China does not “need” the United States, nor does the United States necessarily “need” China. America's oil and natural gas producers can find willing buyers elsewhere and China has no shortage of options when it comes to foreign suppliers. But both countries would benefit immensely from the end of the current escalating trade war. -
Poland Signs Deal for Long-term Deliveries of U.S. Gas
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Energywire (via Associated Press)
By Monika Scislowska
Poland's main gas company signed a long-term contract yesterday to receive deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States as part of a larger effort to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. -
U.S. Warns Nations Not to Allow Iranian Oil Tankers
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Energywire (via Associated Press)
By Matthew Lee
The United States is warning other countries not to allow Iranian oil tankers into their territorial waters or ports, saying such access may run afoul of U.S. sanctions and not only incur penalties, but also result in catastrophic economic and environmental damage should an accident occur. -
Exxon Confident in $2B Canada Move as Others Flee
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Energywire (via Bloomberg)
By Robert Tuttle
Almost two years after Exxon Mobil Corp. removed billions of barrels of oil sands crude from its reserves, its Imperial Oil Ltd. unit is investing again, saying low Canadian crude prices that scared off the other majors make it a perfect time to build. -
Enbridge’s Valley Crossing Pipeline Begins Flowing Texas-to-Mexico Natural Gas
Nov 9, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Natural gas began flowing Oct. 31 on the Texas-MexicoValley Crossing Pipeline LLCproject, one day after Enbridge Energy Inc. delivered its third quarter earnings. -
Mich. Officials Urge Bridge Authority to Approve Line 5 Deal
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Greenwire (via Associated Press)
By John Flesher
Michigan officials took another step yesterday toward construction of an oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel that links Lakes Huron and Michigan by asking the Mackinac Bridge Authority to accept oversight responsibility for the proposed structure. -
ASLRRA, Wabtec to Offer PTC Solution for Short Lines
Nov 9, 2018 | Progressive Railroading
The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) and Wabtec Railway Electronics Inc. have agreed to provide positive train control (PTC) support to association members via the WabtecCloud Multi-Tenant Back Office solution. -
Dem Leadership Preps for Climate Issues to Take Center Stage
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) plans to use his chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year to hold President Trump's feet to the fire on his decision to leave the Paris climate deal. -
How House Democrats Will Tackle Climate Oversight
Nov 9, 2018 | Politico Pro
By Kelsey Tamborrino
Another Democratic congressman is pointing to climate change as the top item on his agenda when the House changes hands next year. -
EPA, States Seek Quick Briefing in Landfill Methane Suit
Nov 9, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA and Democratic states are jointly proposing a speedy briefing schedule for the states' litigation over the agency's lax implementation of Obama-era methane standards for landfills, with the states poised to oppose EPA's recent motion to pause the suit due to a regulatory proposal the agency says might render the litigation moot.
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Environment News
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Nov 9, 2018 | The Revelator
By Sharon Kelly
The petrochemical industry anticipates spending a total of more than $200 billion on factories, pipelines and other infrastructure in the United States that will rely on shale gas, the American Chemistry Council announced in September. Construction is already underway at many sites.
This building spree would dramatically expand the Gulf Coast’s petrochemical corridor (known locally as “Cancer Alley”) — and establish a new plastics and petrochemical belt across states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
If those projects are completed, analysts predict the United States would flip from one of the world’s highest-cost producers of plastics and chemicals to one of the cheapest, using raw materials and energy from fracked gas wells in states like Texas, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Those petrochemical plans could have profound consequences for a planet already showing signs of dangerous warming and a cascade of other impacts from climate change.
The gathering wave of construction comes as the Trump administration works to deregulate American industry and roll back pollution controls, putting the United States at odds with the rest of the world’s efforts to slow climate change.
Trump announced in June 2017 that the United States had halted all implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement and intends to fully withdraw. America is now the world’s only state refusing participation in the global agreement to curb climate change (after Syria, the final holdout, signed in November 2017).
This petrochemical industry expansion — much of it funded by foreign investors — makes America’s refusal to participate in the Paris Agreement all the more significant, because much of this new U.S. infrastructure would be built outside of the greenhouse gas agreement affecting the rest of the globe.
If American policymakers approve this wave of new plastics and petrochemical plants with little regard to curbing climate change and reducing fossil fuel use, environmentalists warn, they’ll be greenlighting hundreds of billions of dollars of investment into projects at risk of becoming stranded assets.
From Rust Belt to Plastics Belt
Some of the largest and most expensive petrochemical projects in the United States are planned in the Rust Belt states of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, a region that has suffered for decades from the collapse of the domestic steel industry but that has relatively little experience with the kind of petrochemical complexes that are now primarily found on the Gulf Coast.
In November 2017 the China Energy Investment Corp. signed a “memorandum of understanding” with West Virginia that would result in the construction of $83.7 billion in plastics and petrochemicals projects over the next 20 years in that state alone — a huge slice of the $202.4 billion U.S. total. Those plans have run into snags due to trade disputes between the United States and China and a corruption probe, though Chinese officials said in late August that investment was moving forward.
The petrochemical industry’s interest is spurred by the fact that the region’s Marcellus and Utica shales contain significant supplies of so-called “wet gas.” This wet gas often is treated as a footnote in discussions of fracking, which tend to focus on the methane gas, called “dry gas” by industry — and not the ethane, propane, butane and other hydrocarbons that also come from those same wells.
Those “wet” fossil fuels and chemical feedstocks are commonly referred to as “natural gas liquids,” or NGLs, because they are delivered to customers condensed into a liquid form — like the liquid butane trapped in a Bic lighter, which expands into a stream of flammable gas when you flick that lighter on.
Ethane can represent a surprising amount of the fossil fuel from a fracked shale well, particularly in the Marcellus. For every 6,000 cubic feet of methane (the energy equivalent of the industry’s standard 42 gallon barrel of oil), Marcellus wet gas wells can produce up to roughly 35 gallons of ethane, based on data reported by the American Oil and Gas Reporter in 2011.
And U.S. ethane production is projected to grow dramatically. By 2022 the region will produce roughly 800,000 barrels of ethane per day, up from 470,000 barrels a day in 2017, according to energy consultant RBN Energy.
That supply glut is driving down ethane prices in the Rust Belt.
“The lowest price ethane on the planet is here in this region,” Brian Anderson, director of the West Virginia University Energy Institute, told the NEP Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference in Pittsburgh in June.
Chemicals and the Climate
The petrochemical and plastics industries are notoriously polluting, not only when it comes to toxic air pollution and plastic waste, but also because of the industry’s significant greenhouse gas footprint — affecting not only the United States, but the entire world.
“The chemical and petrochemical sector is by far the largest industrial energy user, accounting for roughly 10 percent of total worldwide final energy demand and 7 percent of global [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the International Energy Agency reported in 2013. Since then the numbers have crept up, with the IEA finding petrochemicals responsible for an additional percentage point of the world’s total energy consumption in 2017.
Carbon emissions from petrochemical and plastics manufacturing are expected to grow 20 percent by 2030 (in other words, in just over a decade), the IEA concluded in a report released October 5. A few days later, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that by 2030, the world needs to have reduced its greenhouse gas pollution 45 percent from 2010 levels, in order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to a less-catastrophic 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
The petrochemical industry has so far drawn relatively little attention from oil and gas analysts and policymakers. “Petrochemicals are one of the key blind spots in the global energy debate, especially given the influence they will exert on future energy trends,” Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said in a statement this month.
“In fact,” he added, “our analysis shows they will have a greater influence on the future of oil demand than cars, trucks and aviation.”
The new investments, which will rely on decades of continued fracking in the United States, offer the oil and gas industry a serious hedge against competition from renewable energy, even in the event that climate policies push fossil fuel energy to the margins.
“Unlike refining, and ultimately unlike oil, which will see a moment when the growth will stop, we actually don’t anticipate that with petrochemicals,” Andrew Brown, upstream director for Royal Dutch Shell, told the San Antonio Express News in March.
The planned infrastructure could also help bail out the heavily indebted shale drilling industry financially by consuming vast amounts of fossil fuels, both for power and as a raw material.
The American Chemistry Council has linked 333 chemical industry projects, all announced since 2010, to shale gas — that is, gas that is produced using fracking. Forty-one percent of those projects are still in the planning phase as of September, according to the council, and 68 percent of the projects are linked to foreign investment.
State regulators in Texas and Louisiana have already issued permits that would allow a group of 74 petrochemical and liquefied natural gas projects along the Gulf Coast to add 134 million tons of greenhouse gases a year to the atmosphere, an Environmental Integrity Project analysis found in September. The group said that was equal to the pollution from running 29 new coal power plants around the clock.
The expansion of plastics manufacturing in America also has environmentalists worried over a plastics pollution crisis. “We could be locking in decades of expanded plastics production at precisely the time the world is realizing we should use far less of it,” Carroll Muffett, president of the U.S. Center for International Environmental Law, told The Guardian in December 2017.
Petrochemical Paradox
The petrochemical industry transforms ethane and other raw material into a huge range of products, including not only plastic, but also vinyl, fertilizers, Styrofoam, beauty products, chemicals and pesticides.
The petrochemical industry itself straddles an uncomfortable fence when it comes to renewable energy and climate change. A significant portion of its revenue comes from “clean” technology sectors, as it provides materials used to make batteries and electric cars.
One report last year concluded that roughly 20 percent of the industry’s revenue comes from products designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the American Chemistry Council cited the industry’s role supplying “materials and technologies that improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions,” as it opposed Trump’s decision to drop out of the Paris climate agreement.
But petrochemical manufacturers are also heavily reliant on fossil fuels. They need them to power and supply a dreamed-of “manufacturing renaissance,” as the ExxonMobil-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute explained as it pushed for Trump to abandon the Paris agreement.
Plans to use American shale gas would also link petrochemicals to the expansion of fracking, which carries its own environmental concerns. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s landmark study on fracking and drinking water concluded in 2016 that fracking has led to water contamination and poses continued risks to American water supplies.
In addition, though conversations about climate change usually focus on carbon emissions, the gas industry has such a bad methane leak problem that using natural gas can be even worse for the climate than burning coal.
“We share IEA’s view that the production, use and disposal of petrochemical-derived products present a variety of environmental challenges that need to be addressed,” the American Chemistry Council said in a statement sent to DeSmog, which also cited the use of petrochemical products in the renewable energy industry and the manufacture of products that raise energy efficiency like home insulation and lighter auto parts. “We are committed to managing energy use in our companies and manufacturing facilities.”
Pittsburgh and Paris
Climate implications make a petrochemical build-out risky, not only from an environmental perspective but also from a fiscal perspective, Mark Dixon, cofounder of NoPetroPA, which opposes fracking-based petrochemicals projects, told DeSmog.
One plant, Shell’s $6 billion ethane “cracker” plant currently under construction in Beaver County, Penn., has permits to pump 2.25 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year into the air near Pittsburgh, roughly equal to the annual carbon pollution from 430,000 cars.
Industry advocates say the region can produce enough ethane to support up to seven more ethane cracker plants like Shell’s.
“We’re trying to drop our emissions 50 percent by 2030,” Dixon said, referring to Pittsburgh’s highly touted plans to comply with international climate targets despite the federal government’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement. “The Shell cracker alone will decimate that.”
Stranding Assets
International negotiators met in Bangkok in September to hash out details on how the Paris agreement will be implemented. The United States, which participated in talks despite the Trump administration’s intention to withdraw from the accord, faced criticism over working to delay clarity over the agreement’s financing (nonetheless, a top U.N. negotiator praised “good progress” from the talks).
While the Paris agreement is not directly binding, globally there has been discussion of using trade agreements and tariffs to pressure countries that fail to keep up with their carbon-cutting commitments.
In February the European Union declared that it will not sign new trade agreements with any country that refuses to get on board with the agreement.
“One of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with E.U. should implement the Paris agreement on the ground,” France’s foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told the French Parliament. “No Paris agreement, no trade agreement.”
“They’re already shooting across the bow, saying look, you’ve got to implement the Paris climate agreement,” Dixon told DeSmog. “We could very well spend 10 years building an infrastructure to support fracking all over the region, crackers, ethane, plastics, everything, then have Europe say, ‘Sorry, you can’t do that. You have to shut it down.’ ”
In other words, whether or not the United States puts its signature on the climate pact’s dotted line, the pressure from trading partners to reduce greenhouse gas pollution — and the underlying concerns about the rapidly warming climate — could remain the same.
That said, while the United States is the only country rejecting Paris on paper, it is far from the only country on track to miss its targets aimed at warding off catastrophic climate change. Only Morocco and Gambia are projected to hit “Paris Agreement Compatible” targets, according to the Climate Action Tracker (whose rating tracker includes many major polluters but not all countries worldwide).
The E.U. itself currently earns a rating of “insufficient” from the group (China is ranked “highly insufficient,” while the United States and four other nations earned the worst “critically insufficient” grade).
Closing Windows
The next several years will determine the future of petrochemical production for decades to come, crucial years when it comes to the fate of the climate, if industry gets its timing right — particularly in the Rust Belt.
“The window to make this all work is not forever,” Charles Schliebs of Stone Pier Capital Advisors told the NEP Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference in June. “It’s maybe two to five years.”
That means key decisions may be made while Donald Trump remains in office — though state and local regulators will also face important calls over permits and construction planning.
For some living near the center of the planned petrochemical expansion, the problem is readily apparent.
“We’re not going to be able to double down on fossil fuels,” Dixon said, “and comply with the Paris climate agreement.”
https://therevelator.org/plastics-fracking-climate/
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(ACC Mentioned) Bayport Polymers and Celanese Join ACC Plastics Division
Nov 9, 2018 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken
The American Chemistry Council’s plastics division has picked up two new members, Bayport Polymers LLC and Celanese Corp., with both saying they’re joining the group to advance industry sustainability goals.
The addition of the two companies brings the plastics division’s membership to 18 companies and the Vinyl Institute. As environmental pressures around waste and recycling have increased on the industry, the division has been expanding — it added Shell and Americas Styrenics as members last year.
The head of Bayport, also known as Baystar, noted sustainability goals in an ACC statement announcing its decision to become part of the group.
“Baystar looks forward to joining other leading U.S. plastics producers in working to advance the sustainability of the plastics industry and strengthen the circularity of the essential products and materials we provide,” said President Diane Chamberlain.
Similarly, Mark Murray, vice president of global sales engineered materials at Celanese, said that firm was joining the division as “a tangible way we can demonstrate our corporate values of being sustainable and improving the world.”
Steve Russell, the head of the plastics division, said the membership growth “confirms resin producers’ confidence in our strong, strategic focus and ability to deliver value through market facing programs and best-in-class advocacy.”
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20181109/NEWS/181109906/bayport-polymers-and-celanese-join-acc-plastics-division
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Nov 9, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By David Constable
It is readily apparent, to people who take the time to think about it, that the way in which the global chemistry enterprise operates is completely unsustainable. From the use of fossil carbon in the form of petroleum and natural gas, to the routine use of extremely rare elements for catalysis, electronics and other applications, the industry will be existing on borrowed time if it continues to carry on with a ‘business as usual’ mentality.
Some who recognise this have begun to investigate the idea of moving towards a circular or closed-loop economy. One organisation in particular, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is entirely focused on creating greater public awareness of how to implement closed-loop strategies that will hopefully mitigate a variety of adverse environmental effects. A second organisation the REMADE Institute, a US Department of Energy-funded initiative, is a public-private research partnership that is looking to develop new technologies to enable the circular economy.
There are two main issues that I have thought about when considering a closed-loop economy and which I have not seen raised very often. First, if we think about some of the chemicals and materials that are the focus of great environmental concern, such as plastics, we should understand that these are made using a large number and volume of hazardous chemicals.
For example, ethylene, ethylene oxide, vinyl chloride, isobutylene, benzene and others are the basic building blocks of plastics and these all have a variety of significant environmental, human health and safety hazards associated with them. It is equally true that industry manages the risk of using these chemicals by limiting exposure or through appropriate engineering controls to minimise physical hazards. This is why the industry has been able to grow and why there is generally little public concern about these chemicals.
Second, in addition to these basic building blocks, catalysts (such as antimony trioxide), plasticisers (such as phthalates), UV inhibitors, antimicrobials (including arsenic compounds) and other additives are blended into the plastics to make them and/or to give them the desired properties for a particular function needed in a product. At one end of the spectrum is PVC, where as much as 50% of the final plastic is additives like plasticisers; at the other is a plastic like polyethylene, which has relatively few additives.
Regardless, the way industry makes things has significant levels of inertia, capital expenditure and diversity of products. These in turn represent significant barriers towards change and the use of less toxic materials. If we continue to use the types of plastics that are currently in use, we will continue to be manufacturing a very large volume of very hazardous chemicals, some portion of which will find its way into the environment and into humans.
If we shift the discussion to how we reuse these materials after their useful service life, we are faced with equally vexing problems. From a systems perspective, collecting, transporting and separating plastics streams involve enormous challenges and have a heavy impact in terms of energy, water and potentially materials, depending on how separations are accomplished.
At this point, plastics are either going to be mechanically or chemically recycled. In mechanical recycling, the plastic is shredded or chopped up and re-extruded. This is done in the electronics industry with acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene (ABS) which is used, for example, in computer housings and electrical products.
When it comes to chemical recycling, only a limited number of options is currently available. Separating, for example, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene and polycarbonate from each other in a mixed waste stream is effectively impossible. Even if one is able to obtain a reasonably pure waste stream, breaking down these plastics into their monomers and separating out all the contaminants is still not feasible.
In addition, it is very likely that the processes to separate these plastics chemically would result in hazardous waste streams and would probably require a considerable amount of energy. If one uses thermochemical means to decompose the polymer to syngas or some other smaller organic molecule, it is unlikely that it would be economically possible to convert that back into a polymer and it would instead be converted to something like a fuel or perhaps methanol.
Implicit in this is that plastics are ubiquitous precisely because they are a low value commodity chemical product and we are very hard pressed to recycle them or separate them sufficiently into pure enough feedstocks to return them to the economy as high value-added products. The technology to do this does not exist and, in many cases, it is still an open question whether or not the hypothetical future process to do it would be sufficiently robust and efficient to be viable from an economic and lifecycle perspective.
It really is time to pose the question of what kind of a future world people want. One that perpetuates the use of highly hazardous chemicals, or one that is comparatively freer of substances that adversely impact the environment and society? The choice needs to be made, and soon.
https://chemicalwatch.com/71757/time-to-close-the-loop
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Echa to ‘Step Up’ REACH Compliance Efforts, Hansen Tells MEPs
Nov 9, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
Echa head Bjorn Hansen has told MEPs that he is committed to improving efforts on REACH registration compliance issues.
His statement came in an annual exchange of views with members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee on 8 November.
The discussion centered around a recent German project that checked 3,800 REACH dossiers and found that 32% for substances at tonnage levels of 1,000tpa and above were non-compliant.
Mr Hansen said Echa is "concerned" about the results of the study and the agency "will step up" to address them.
Echa conducts compliance checks and has done "a lot of work" in this area, he said. "But I clearly and totally subscribe to [the view] it is not sufficient."
The agency has so far looked at 700 substances. Of those, two-thirds needed further data, he added. Echa’s approach, he went on, is not to randomly select substances, but to choose chemicals where there is a higher likelihood of non-compliance.
MEP criticism
Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout said it was time that Echa took action "showing your urgency and your concern". People are not necessarily saying chemicals are unsafe, he added, but "the problem is we don’t know – and these are the high volume chemicals. This is around 95% of the volume of the chemicals on the European market."
Echa must "start very clearly communicating" what action has been taken and explain why certain chemicals are still on the market, he said.
If after 10 years, the conclusion is that one-third of the dossiers are incomplete, "then Echa is falling. Very simple." Mr Eickhout questioned how many dossiers had been revoked in that time. "Four? Five? That’s far less than if you really did a proper check."
Polish MEP Bolesław Piecha called for more transparency and suggested that information should be made public about non-compliant companies. He conceded it is a "delicate" issue but it is of "utmost importance" for Echa to be credible and show it is working for the benefit of both humans and the environment.
In reply Mr Hansen said "you have a commitment from me. We will do more. We will put more efforts into compliance." Exactly how that is going to transpire in terms of numbers of dossiers, he added, "is difficult to say at the moment".
Resources
French MEP Michèle Rivasi noted that the REACH regulation says Echa must analyse 5% of submissions. "You need to increase that," she said. "It can’t just be 5% – we need 100%. More money and more experts may be required. "Give me a figure," she said. "We need hard facts."
Echa needs to make any improvements immediately, she added. "You need to say to member states ‘this is what we need; these are the resources we need. These are the improvements that can be made.’ It’s pretty critical isn’t it?"
One full-time equivalent staff member can undertake about five dossier compliance checks in one year, Mr Hansen said. It would require "many, many years" to check all registrations up front, he added, and that instead the agency decided "to ex-poste check the compliance".
The system, he said, is set up for the companies to stay on the market. "They are not illegally on the market," he said. "The system is set up so all these dossiers are complete, but a high fraction are not compliant."
The agency’s current target is to check 200 dossiers a year, he said, although "we are going more in the direction" of 200 substances.
"What I’m looking at is an acceleration of these efforts. But I would dare to say that if we find 200 substances that cover 30% of the volume on the market then it’s better than doing 300 substances that only cover 5% of the volume on the market."
Echa and the Commission are in discussions about the issue of resources and financing, Mr Hansen said.
https://chemicalwatch.com/71779/echa-to-step-up-reach-compliance-efforts-hansen-tells-meps
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Trump: Keystone XL Court Ruling ‘a Disgrace’
Nov 9, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
President Trump slammed a federal judge’s late Thursday ruling that blocked the Keystone XL oil pipeline, calling it “a disgrace.”
“It was a political decision made by a judge. I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House Friday morning, heading to France.
“48,000 jobs. I approved it. It’s ready to start,” he added. The State Department has estimated that the project would provide up to 42,000 temporary construction jobs, but just 35 direct permanent jobs once completed.
Trump indicated that his administration would appeal the ruling from Montana federal judge Brian Morris to the San Francisco-based Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has often ruled against his administration.
“I guess it’ll end up going to the Ninth Circuit, as usual,” he said. “We’re slowly putting new judges in the Ninth Circuit. Everything goes to the Ninth Circuit, everything.”
Trump signed an executive order that led to Keystone’s approval days after he took office in January 2017.
Morris revoked TransCanada Corp.’s federal permit to build the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, stopping the company’s plans to start construction next year.
The judge said the Trump administration’s State Department didn’t adequately review the environmental impacts of the pipeline, and didn’t justify why it reversed the Obama administration’s 2015 rejection of the project.
“The department’s 2017 conclusory analysis that climate-related impacts from Keystone subsequently would prove inconsequential and its corresponding reliance on this conclusion as a centerpiece of its policy change required the department to provide a ‘reasoned explanation,’” Morris wrote.
“The department instead simply discarded prior factual findings related to climate change to support its course reversal.”
State could appeal, but it could also try to fix the problems Morris identified.
State had argued that the federal court system doesn’t even have the right to review Trump’s approval, because it stems from his constitutional authorities.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/415902-trump-keystone-xl-court-ruling-a-disgrace
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Counting The Cost Of A Faster Energy Transition
Nov 9, 2018 | Forbes
By Simon Flowers
Slowly but surely the energy mix is changing. Renewables, increasing efficiency, electrification of end-use demand including electric vehicles (EVs) are all driving the energy transition. Even so, we’ll depend on coal, oil and gas for quite some time. Demand for fossil fuels continues to rise for the next two decades at least in Wood Mackenzie’s base case forecasts and the share of global energy demand stays above 70% through until 2040.
What if it happens a lot faster? Our Carbon Constrained Scenario envisages a world in which existing and viable technology trends accelerate, steer policy, and become bound together to shape far faster cuts to carbon emissions than we see today under current pledges. I talked through the implications for the energy mix with David Brown, Senior Cross Commodities analyst.
David, rapid decarbonisation must be great news for renewables? Yes - the uptake would be explosive. The electrification of demand across all regions drives power demand at nearly 2% p.aer annum through 2040. Wind and solar capacity grows nine-fold from over 900 gigawatts today to just under 8,000 gigawatts by 2040; renewables share of global power output jumps from 7% to 40%. It’s transformational. Large-scale energy storage isn’t commercial today, but we’d need 780 gigawatts of storage capacity by 2040.
And the big loser? Coal is the first casualty of decarbonization. Coal demand halves by 2040 even with no international carbon dioxide pricing regime as the power sector switches to gas and renewables. That’s wildly different to Wood Mackenzie’s base case where coal demand stays broadly flat. India is the only major consumer in the scenario where we see demand for coal increase through 2040. We don’t see carbon capture and storage playing a big role.
What about oil? A faster energy transition takes a chunk out of oil demand by 2040. We forecast demand peaks at 110 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2036 in our base case. But demand from petrochemicals continues to grow leaving total demand still at that level in 2040. The Carbon Constrained Scenario has two main effects. First, higher EV sales penetration would wipe another 5.5 million b/d off demand. Second, mounting environmental concerns prompt higher biofuel mandates and a challenge to the widespread use of plastics. More biofuels, less single-use plastics, and more plastics recycling takes out another 5 million b/d. So oil demand falls to 100 million b/d by 2040, back to today’s level, and on the slide.
Is gas the bridging fuel we think it is? Demand grows through 2040, but at a slower rate. Power is the big market, gas benefiting from the switch out of coal because of its lower carbon intensity; and provides the flexibility to balance intermittent solar and wind power. Gas has a lot of running room in markets with high power demand growth like China, India and south-east Asia – 60% of incremental demand 2018-40 is from Asia-Pacific economies. But in slower-growing power markets like the EU and the U.S. with high penetration of renewables, gas demand growth will be more limited.
Does nuclear fit in? Nuclear just about holds its own, despite being a zero carbon source of power. Growth in capacity in developing economies like China and India is countered by the EU and North America which have fallen out of love with nuclear. Nuclear’s high cost is a factor.
And what does this all do to carbon dioxide emissions? Emissions fall much faster than under our base case and go beyond the Paris Agreement NDCs at the global level. OECD emissions continue to decline given modest energy demand growth and fuel switching. Developing economies’ emissions peak in the late 2020s then decline as substitution away from coal gathers momentum. Reduction of coal-fired power is the single biggest contributor to the emissions decline. But the Carbon Constrained Scenario still falls well short of the 2oC world, the IEA SDS trajectory. To get there will need much more to happen beyond the power sector, including: deep decarbonization of industry, transport and other sectors; accelerated reduction in battery costs; and high-cost, as yet commercially unproven technology such as carbon capture and storage.
Simon Flowers is Chief Analyst and Chairman for Wood Mackenzie. He has over 20 years of experience in the oil, gas, utilities and mining sectors, working with the boards of many energy companies on strategic issues.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/woodmackenzie/2018/11/09/what-would-a-faster-energy-transition-mean-for-the-markets/#550d2fb9c018
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China And United States Need Each Other
Nov 9, 2018 | Forbes
By Dan Eberhart
In a fungible global energy market, China does not “need” the United States, nor does the United States necessarily “need” China. America's oil and natural gas producers can find willing buyers elsewhere and China has no shortage of options when it comes to foreign suppliers. But both countries would benefit immensely from the end of the current escalating trade war.
The economic, geopolitical and strategic advantages of continuing free and fair trade are evident for both countries, which is why both sides should acknowledge the harm that could from this unfortunate episode if it is allowed to continue into the new year.
As the CEO of one of the largest privately owned oil services companies, the trade war has impacted my firm, Canary, LLC. Our total year-to-date spending on items manufactured in China exceeds $10 million. Although many of the vendors we deal with are in Houston, the lion's share of the manufacturing happens in China through overseas subsidiaries from which we purchase either directly or indirectly. We have scores of Chinese vendors; however, there are a strategic few with whom we have spent $1 million or more over the years.
The trade war is so far not crippling the energy sectors of either country, but the Trump administration’s protectionist trade policies have had real impacts. U.S. tariffs on imports have added 25% to the cost of steel for Canary. That number is no small issue. Steel is a fundamental raw material for everything we do at Canary; it is necessary to make the wellhead and pressure control equipment, valves and other apparatus need by producers in America's booming shale regions.
Material costs are up more than 8% from a year ago in the U.S. oil sector, which has still not fully recovered from the price collapse of 2014.
Currency exchange risk meanwhile is a double-edged sword with the potential to affect costs by 5% to 15%, and is often a forgotten expense in coverage of escalating trade tensions.
The service sector, including Canary, has had a hard time keeping up with the increase in production. Our sector's capacity to find and hire qualified workers is nearly maxed out, even though companies are running all out three shifts a day. Supply chain uncertainty can also lead to delays in operations like forging, casting and welding, and makes planning operations and investments extremely difficult.
These are some of the micro issues that have surfaced for energy companies in the United States since tariffs began. But it’s not until you examine the macro side of the U.S.-China energy relationship that you begin to understand the scope of opportunities that the world’s two largest economies are putting at risk.
No emerging market is more critical to the global oil industry than China, the world’s most significant driver of demand growth. The United States had been making sizable inroads into China's oil and gas markets before the trade war. That progress is now at risk.
The United States is the world’s largest oil and gas producer, with oil production of 11 million barrels a day and natural gas output of 94 billion cubic feet per day. We have also established ourselves as a major energy exporter. With production forecast to grow further, every incremental barrel of oil and most gas molecules will need to find a home in markets abroad.
Overseas markets have never been more important for the U.S. oil and gas sector, and China is undeniably the most critical market in the world for energy exporters. China last year usurped America as the world’s largest importer of oil. China is not a market where U.S. producers want to be excluded. Annualized at a price of $80 per barrel, Chinese imports of U.S. crude of roughly 500,000 barrels a day equate to $14.6 billion in trade. A U.S. president seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with China would do well to keep that in mind.
Beijing, of course, has not yet slapped tariffs on U.S. crude oil imports. That remains an arrow in its quiver as trade talks continue. But it has taken action against natural gas, hitting American liquefied natural gas, or LNG, with a 10% surcharge, which effectively makes U.S. gas uncompetitive in China.
China’s natural gas markets are arguably more valuable than its crude markets for aspiring exporters. In 2017, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated the United States exported 1.5 million tons of LNG to China at a value of about $644 million.
But the opportunity is so much more significant of U.S. gas exporters. China was the third biggest market for U.S. LNG in 2017, right behind South Korea and Mexico. China has become the world’s fastest-growing LNG market after imports surged by nearly 50% last year to nearly 40 million tons. The trend of rapid growth has continued this year as the Chinese LNG market has expanded by a further 50%. China's growth is expected to drive global LNG demand for the next decade, as China tries to improve its air quality by switching from coal-fired power production to natural gas.
An expected “second wave” of U.S. LNG export projects under consideration is turning out to be more of a gentle ripple, in no small part because of President Trump's approach to trade policy. Costs are everything in the ultra-competitive global energy markets, and for America's LNG developers more expensive steel is a negative. For U.S. LNG exporters, tack on the 10% tariff applied by China, and that market is out of reach.
The upshot is that banks and other lenders are thinking twice before providing loans to LNG developers. These financiers require LNG exporters to have committed buyers before providing the billions of dollars needed to build export facilities. With the window closing on China, banks are looking for projects in Western Canada, Australia or East Africa, but not the United States.
For China, the potential loss of U.S. energy supplies also comes with negative consequences. It is no secret that China has struggled to sustain its domestic oil and gas production in recent years despite the central government’s best efforts. China’s state-run oil and gas companies have been active over the past decade in global merger and acquisition markets, acquiring upstream assets around the world to compensate for weak prospects at home. But China officials concede their country will continue to rely on energy imports to fuel economic growth for the foreseeable future. Beijing would like to accomplish this on the best economic terms possible - and without relying too heavily on one country or region to reduce geopolitical risks.
China can turn to alternative suppliers for LNG, but it may not be in the country's best interests to double down on other top exporters like Qatar. Russia is another option, both for piped gas and LNG shipments, but Beijing need only look at Europe to see the pitfalls of over-dependence on Moscow.
Supply diversity is the best strategy for China. Removing the world’s top oil and gas producer from the mix makes little sense. Besides the geopolitical comfort that comes from dealing with a stable supplier like the United States, China can also use the U.S. supply option as leverage with other suppliers to ensure it gets the best price.
Building a closer energy relationship with the United States, including taking advantage of America's advanced production technology, could also help China stimulate its own energy sector.
It’s clear that Washington and Beijing do not want a trade war, but neither side is likely to push away from the table first. The brinkmanship has markets spooked, as evidenced by the recent sell-off in global equity markets.
The International Monetary Fund recently noted that the two economies at the center of the ongoing tariff fight will see slower economic growth in 2019. The Fund maintained that the United States and China would grow by 2.9 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively, this year but said both would slow more than expected to 2.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, in 2019.
That economic impact extends to energy markets where experts now see global oil demand growing at a slower pace than expected this year and next. The Paris-based International Energy Agency recently cited U.S.-China trade tensions when it lowered its oil demand growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 by 110,000 barrels a day to 1.3 million barrels a day and 1.4 million barrels a day, respectively.
Oil prices have fallen in lockstep with benchmark Brent under $80 a barrel, even as the market faces the elimination of Iran’s oil exports from renewed sanctions. Iran sanctions and supply fears had previously put oil prices on boil and, perhaps, headed toward $100 a barrel. That is no longer the case. It takes a substantial event to reverse such market psychology, but fading U.S.-China trade hopes qualify.
With both sides now looking to dig in for the long haul, markets will get worse before they get better. And without a more pragmatic approach in Washington and Beijing, the energy industry is in for a bumpy ride.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daneberhart/2018/11/09/china-and-united-states-need-each-other/#669e8aac56dd
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Poland Signs Deal for Long-term Deliveries of U.S. Gas
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Energywire (via Associated Press)
By Monika Scislowska
Poland's main gas company signed a long-term contract yesterday to receive deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States as part of a larger effort to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
The state company PGNiG signed the 24-year deal with American supplier Cheniere during a ceremony in Warsaw attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
"This is a sign across Europe that this is how your energy security will be developed, your energy sources diversified," Perry said before the deal was signed.
Perry is visiting several countries in Central and Eastern Europe to expand on energy partnerships in the region, the Department of Energy said.
The value of the deal with the Polish company was not disclosed, in line with traditional secrecy for such energy deals.
However, Piotr Wozniak, the president of PGNiG's management board, said the price is 20 to 30 percent lower than what Poland pays its current supplier in Russia.
Under the deal, Poland will receive some 700 million cubic meters of gas from 2019 through 2022, and 39 billion cubic meters from 2023 through 2042. Poland's annual consumption of gas is almost 16 billion cubic meters, 25 percent of which is covered from Poland's own deposits.
Wozniak said the deal would also provide a safety net to protect neighboring Ukraine from unexpected breaks in Russian gas deliveries. PGNiG is planning two more deals for U.S. gas deliveries, he said.
Poland and Ukraine feel especially vulnerable due to their dependence on Russian energy supplies, which Moscow has used as political leverage in the past.
Their anxieties have increased because of a German-Russian project to build Nord Stream 2, a second pipeline under the Baltic Sea that would deliver gas directly from St. Petersburg to Germany, bypassing Ukraine and Poland.
Poland's ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, sent a message that was read out saying he was "happy that the deal will increase Poland's energy security."
Deliveries of liquefied natural gas will begin in 2019 but will not reach full volume for several years, PGNiG said.
The gas will be delivered by ship from terminals in Louisiana and Texas to a liquefied natural gas terminal in Swinoujscie, in the northwest, on Poland's Baltic coast.
In October, PGNiG signed a separate long-term contract for the purchase of some 40 million tons, or over 50 billion cubic meters, of liquefied natural gas from Louisiana-based Venture Global Calcasieu Pass and Venture Global Plaquemines LNG.
That was to replace a deal expiring with Russia's Gazprom and was the first such deal in Central and Eastern Europe.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/11/09/stories/1060105617
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U.S. Warns Nations Not to Allow Iranian Oil Tankers
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Energywire (via Associated Press)
By Matthew Lee
The United States is warning other countries not to allow Iranian oil tankers into their territorial waters or ports, saying such access may run afoul of U.S. sanctions and not only incur penalties, but also result in catastrophic economic and environmental damage should an accident occur.
The State Department reminded the global shipping and insurance industries Wednesday that as part of the Trump administration's "maximum pressure campaign" to get Iran to change its behavior, insuring Iranian tankers will now incur penalties under U.S. sanctions reinstated this week.
Brian Hook, the special U.S. representative for Iran, said that as major insurers withdraw coverage from Iranian vessels, Iran will likely turn to domestic insurance companies that will not be able to cover losses for maritime accidents that could run into the billions of dollars.
"From the Suez Canal to the Strait of Malacca and all choke points in between, Iranian tankers are now a floating liability," Hook told reporters. "Countries, ports and canal operators and private firms should know they will be likely responsible for the costs of an accident involving a self-insured Iranian tanker."
The U.S. "sincerely hopes" accidents do not occur, he said, but he noted that an Iranian tanker was involved in an accident in the East China Sea in January that resulted in the loss of the ship and a massive oil spill. He said the U.S. has evidence that Iranian vessels are trying to evade U.S. sanctions by disabling location transponders used to prevent collisions.
"This tactic is a maritime security threat," Hook said. "These transponders are designed to maximize visibility at sea, and turning them off only increases risk of accidents and injuries. Self-insured Iranian tankers engaging in unsafe behavior, with many tons of crude oil on board, is courting environmental and financial disaster."
The sanctions that came into force Monday target Iran's energy, financial and shipping sectors and mark the end of U.S. participation in the 2015 nuclear deal that President Trump withdrew from in May.
The sanctions aim to further isolate Iran by choking off its main source of revenue — oil exports — by imposing sanctions on countries and companies that do not end their imports.
However, some trade is still allowed, as the administration has granted waivers for eight major importers to continue buying Iranian petroleum products without penalty for another six months.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/11/09/stories/1060105609
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Exxon Confident in $2B Canada Move as Others Flee
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Energywire (via Bloomberg)
By Robert Tuttle
Almost two years after Exxon Mobil Corp. removed billions of barrels of oil sands crude from its reserves, its Imperial Oil Ltd. unit is investing again, saying low Canadian crude prices that scared off the other majors make it a perfect time to build.
Imperial Chief Executive Officer Rich Kruger puts the rationale for the 2.6-billion-Canadian-dollar ($2 billion) Aspen project in northern Alberta down to building when others aren't to save money.
"It's a bit countercyclical in that there's not a lot of investment in construction going on," Kruger told reporters Wednesday. "So if you want the highest performance from contractors and tradesmen and safety and productivity, it's a good time to build."
The decision comes in stark contrast to moves by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ConocoPhillips to sell oil sands assets, and by locals like Cenovus Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. that are curtailing production to weather rock-bottom prices. Part of Imperial's confidence comes from being able to work around the pipeline bottleneck that has sent prices so low.
Imperial is looking at ways to process more heavy crude at its refineries and could place some of the new production in Enbridge Inc.'s Line 3, the one export pipeline that's under construction and scheduled to be completed late next year. Imperial also owns a crude loading terminal near Edmonton with the capacity to load 210,000 barrels a day that could be utilized to ship out crude oil.
The project is "definitely a few years out and the major issues around egress are focused on Q4 2018 and Q1 2019," said Dennis Fong, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. in Calgary.
Plus, investing in down times is how Imperial rolls, Chris Cox, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc., said by phone.
So far, investors seem wary, though. Shares of Imperial slipped 1.6 percent to CA$41.50 in Toronto on Wednesday, trimming gains this year to 5.8 percent. Exxon holds about 69 percent of Imperial.
The new oil sands project, the largest to be sanctioned since crude first collapsed from $100 a barrel in 2014, will produce 75,000 barrels a day of bitumen once it starts operation, using new technology called solvent-assisted, steam-assisted gravity drainage. Construction begins this quarter and is expected to be completed in 2022, and it could be expanded by another 75,000 barrels a day depending on performance and market conditions, the company said.
Lower cost
Investing when others aren't will allow the company to spend 30 to 40 percent less than what it would have cost four years ago, according to Kevin Birn, a director on the North American crude oil markets team at IHS Markit.
Imperial's approach is also in contrast to what Suncor Energy Inc.'s. Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams said in September: that the company wouldn't expand base levels of production until there is "more clarity" on pipelines.
But Imperial is not entirely alone. Canadian Natural's 40,000-barrel-a-day Kirby North project, sanctioned after the downturn, is scheduled to begin producing oil by late next year. Cenovus began the Phase G expansion of its 50,000-barrel-a-day Christina Lake oil sands project early last year, with production anticipated to start in the second half of 2019. Meanwhile, BHP Billiton Ltd. agreed to pay $625 million for two conventional oil exploration licenses off the coast of eastern Canada.
"Imperial operates with a long-term perspective," Cox said. "They are implicitly making a bet, but it's not as big a bet as the market perceived."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/11/09/stories/1060105613
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Enbridge’s Valley Crossing Pipeline Begins Flowing Texas-to-Mexico Natural Gas
Nov 9, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
Natural gas began flowing Oct. 31 on the Texas-Mexico Valley Crossing Pipeline LLC project, one day after Enbridge Energy Inc. delivered its third quarter earnings.
CEO Al Monaco during a 3Q2018 conference call emphasized that the Calgary operator is keeping focused on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the market of choice for most of its North American shippers.
Valley Crossing’s Border Crossing Project, which was delayed in September, includes a 1,000-foot stretch of 42-inch diameter pipeline that extends from a point in Texas state waters, about 30 miles east of Brownsville, to the international border with the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
A presidential permit was issued last year to construct and operate the 2.6 Bcf/d cross-border gas pipeline between Texas and Mexico, where it will be used for power generation and industrial customers [CP17-19]. Valley Crossing received FERC authorization to begin construction earlier this year.
During a conference call to discuss quarterly results last week, Monaco said Enbridge has a "fundamental and strategic story" to link low-cost U.S. supply with growing export markets in Mexico.
"We are connected to significant upstream supply,” including through the Kinder Morgan Inc.-led Gulf Coast Express (GCX), a 1.92 Bcf/d gas line that would carry supply from the Permian Basin to the Texas coast. GCX was given the green light in late 2017 by Kinder subsidiary, DCP Midstream LP, and an affiliate of Targa Resources Corp.
"We're building on our Texas Eastern Gulf Coast position with the recently acquired Pomelo Connector and the South Texas expansion coming into service later this quarter," Monaco said.
The Gulf Coast is "going to be a big area of focus in the coming years for us as our network is positioned with significant supply growth and last-mile connectivity to capitalize on market pull."
Monaco noted during the conference call that gas has also begun flowing on the Great Lakes-to-Ontario Nexus project. Enbridge expects to have up to 1 Bcf/d of contracts in hand by the end of November.
"We're working on more commitments here, and we continue to see good interest for market connections along the Nexus line," Monaco said.
He also cited progress on the "mega-scale" utility in Ontario, following approval by provincial regulators to combine Union Gas Ltd. and Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. on Jan. 1. Monaco said it would be the second-largest in North America in terms of customers and No. 1 in terms of volumes of gas delivered. The combined utility would have 3.7 million customers and 270 Bcf of gas in storage.
In response to a question on ongoing takeaway constraints from Western Canada, Monaco said constraints are found in other parts of North America, and "if you just look at the basis differentials, obviously we are going through a difficult time right now."
Cautioning patience in working through what he calls a "massive supply growth" in North America, Monaco said he was optimistic that more takeaway capacity across North America would be developed in the next two to three years.
The CEO also said at least two noncore assets are "in the hopper" for a potential sale.
"Given the more than doubling of our asset sale targets that we had, there is no immediate rush on this given where they are and the work [the past sales] are doing," he said. “I think we've demonstrated that we make good capital allocation decisions when we see good value, and we'll continue to monitor that.”
Net income was $104 million (21 cents/share), compared with $93 million (19 cents) in the year-ago quarter.
https://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/116416-enbridges-valley-crossing-pipeline-begins-flowing-texas-to-mexico-natural-gas
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Mich. Officials Urge Bridge Authority to Approve Line 5 Deal
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Greenwire (via Associated Press)
By John Flesher
Michigan officials took another step yesterday toward construction of an oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel that links Lakes Huron and Michigan by asking the Mackinac Bridge Authority to accept oversight responsibility for the proposed structure.
Department of Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh and two consultants pitched the plan to the bridge authority. No vote was taken, but the authority heard dozens of public comments, most of them opposed to the project as potentially posing a risk to the Straits of Mackinac and the area's fishing and tourism industries.
"Don't ram this down our throats. Don't rush things," said Bay Mills Indian Community chairman Bryan Newland, who added that the project would violate native fishing treaty rights.
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's administration reached a deal last month with Enbridge Inc. to drill the tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac over seven to 10 years at a cost of up to $500 million, which the company would pay. The bridge authority would assume ownership after completion and lease the tunnel back to Enbridge for 99 years.
It would replace an underwater segment of Enbridge's Line 5, which carries about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily. Environmentalists are pushing to decommission the twin lines, which have been in place since 1953, while the company says they're in good condition.
A crucial part of Snyder's plan is putting the bridge authority in charge of the tunnel, even though the authority's only responsibility since its founding has been managing the 5-mile-long bridge linking Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
Michael Mooney, a Colorado School of Mines expert on tunnel design and a consultant for the state, said the tunnel proposal is sound and would provide extra protection by encasing the new pipeline in concrete.
"There is virtually no way for product to leak out of this tunnel," Mooney said.
The seven-member bridge authority, which has four members recently appointed by Snyder, is scheduled to meet again in February. But Creagh said administration officials hope the panel will approve the tunnel plan by the end of the year, when the Republican governor's term expires.
Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was elected governor Tuesday after criticizing Line 5 during her campaign.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/09/stories/1060105837
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ASLRRA, Wabtec to Offer PTC Solution for Short Lines
Nov 9, 2018 | Progressive Railroading
The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) and Wabtec Railway Electronics Inc. have agreed to provide positive train control (PTC) support to association members via the WabtecCloud Multi-Tenant Back Office solution.
The cloud-based Wabtec service will enable railroads to receive real-time information on train movement, speed restrictions, train position and speed, as well as the state of signal and switch devices to be shared between trains, wayside devices and back office applications.
Through the agreement with Wabtec, the association can offer PTC back-office support at a price that is "more reasonable" for short lines and regionals, said ASLRRA Chair Judy Petry in a press release."The implementation of PTC is one of the most complex and challenging projects to be mandated for the U.S. rail system, particularly for our short-line members, who often do not have the technical staff and expertise, but have a complicated role to play, integrating with multiple Class I systems," said Petry.
Wabtec's solution will enable railroads to reduce the risk and costs in testing and deploying an overall PTC system across multiple railroads, said Rajendra Jadhav, president of Wabtec's electronics group.
The Wabtec solution is the latest of PTC support options offered by ASLRRA to its members.
https://www.progressiverailroading.com/short_lines_regionals/news/ASLRRA-Wabtec-to-offer-PTC-solution-for-short-lines--56082
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Dem Leadership Preps for Climate Issues to Take Center Stage
Nov 9, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) plans to use his chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year to hold President Trump's feet to the fire on his decision to leave the Paris climate deal.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who is ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and is running for House Majority Whip in the new Congress, plans to introduce a cap-and-trade bill for greenhouse gases in the new session modeled on one that passed the House in 2009.
And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is talking about reviving the defunct House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which was scrapped in 2011 when Republicans took control of the chamber.
As the dust settled on Tuesday night's election, staff and members who will have a hand in setting next year's House agenda were still grappling with how to prioritize their climate and energy wish lists. Most said they wanted to focus on domestic issues rather than the Paris Agreement.
DeGette's communications director, Lynne Weil, said Trump's decision to leave the globally popular deal last year deserves oversight, but she expressed little confidence that Democrats could force Trump back within the climate regime.
"It's within the president's discretion to do this," she said.
Besides cap and trade, which Weil said could pass the House this year, other DeGette priorities include reintroduction of her bill to regulate hydraulic fracturing and scrutiny of Trump's rollbacks of Obama's rules on oil and gas methane, power plant, and vehicle emissions.
Other aides were wary of spending too much time on Paris. "I think Paris is tricky because the administration sets foreign policy for the country, and Congress is sometimes leery of stepping into the foreign policy space," said another House Democratic aide. "I think it could be a challenge for Congress to play in that space."
But Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) told E&E News that Democrats should reach out to global partners to counter the impression left by the United States' retreat.
On Paris, he said, "a lot of public information would be helpful to know exactly what that move was about, what the consequences are and what the time frames are."
"It's important to let the world community know that we're serious about that issue," he said.
Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Democrats could find better ways to advance the climate agenda than by scrutinizing Trump's decision to leave Paris.
"What would they do that would have any impact on Trump's thinking on this?" he asked. Rather than rake over the process that led to last year's June 1 Rose Garden announcement, he said, Democrats should highlight state and local governments that are implementing Paris' objectives and the benefits they see from it.
One House Democratic aide said that he has a "specific interest" in the agreement reached by 195 parties three years ago.
"It's his intention to require the administration to defend its dangerously unwise policy of withdrawing from Paris every step of the way," the aide said.
Tonko said Democrats should push forward on items like energy efficiency and grid modernization, despite likely friction from the administration.
"These are important elements that need to be taken to mind and to heart," he said.
Infrastructure legislation that Democrats hope will move early next year with a modicum of bipartisan support could also be a vehicle for incremental progress on climate change, by making investment in electric vehicle technologies, renewable energy, climate change adaptation and other areas. One House Democratic aide held up last year's Democratic proposal on infrastructure as a possible blueprint for that.
Tonko, ranking member of a key House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, also said he hopes the new Congress will deliver progress toward carbon pricing legislation. Tonko has been holding meetings with stakeholders and plans to offer a set of principles for climate action early in the new Congress.
He suggested that his history of working across partisan lines on the Environment Subcommittee with now-Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) could pave the way for an "inspiring dialogue that will hopefully bring us to the best and most effective and efficient outcome."
While not addressing Pelosi's proposal directly, Tonko said the current committee structure has ample infrastructure to make progress on climate change.
"It certainly falls within the assignment charged by the Environment Subcommittee," he said. "And I think we should go forward and with every bit of strength make this the top priority. The committee jurisdiction allows for that, and so it should be honored, and it should be utilized in a way that will move us along."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/11/09/stories/1060105779
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How House Democrats Will Tackle Climate Oversight
Nov 9, 2018 | Politico Pro
By Kelsey Tamborrino
GAVEL GAZING: Another Democratic congressman is pointing to climate change as the top item on his agenda when the House changes hands next year. New York Rep. Paul Tonko, who's expected to wield the gavel at the Energy and Commerce Committee's environment panel, tells Pro's Eric Wolff that he's looking to turn up the oversight of the Trump administration, and that his goal would be to ensure "the top priority will be a bold response to climate change," he said.
But Tonko also echoes what POLITICO has previously reported: The prospects of the party moving any climate change legislation under the Trump administration are slim. "Being realistic, it may be tough for legislation to be approved by this administration, but there are many acts to building a legislative agenda. We'll be looking into an agenda that would advance efficiency, grid modernization, and maybe rolling it into a larger infrastructure bill that addresses both improving resilience for adaptation and investing in our infrastructure with issues like [electric vehicle] charging deployment," he tells Eric. Read the full interview.
That's the latest promise from Democrats to turn the spotlight back to climate change, and comes after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said last monthahead of the midterms that she planned to resurrect a committee dedicated to addressing climate change. Bloomberg cited sources on Thursday confirming that committee would return after Republicans shut it down 11 years ago. And New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone said recently he'll examine the impacts of climate change on communities and the economy if he takes the chairmanship at the Energy and Commerce Committee.
OVERNIGHT NEWS: JUDGE HALTS KEYSTONE XL OVER CLIMATE CHANGE: A federal judge ordered both the Trump administration and TransCanada to stop any work on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on Thursday night, saying President Donald Trump's approval of the project last year violated several key environmental and administrative laws by ignoring facts about climate change.
Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for Montana ruled that the Trump administration almost completely ignored climate change in its analysis supporting the pipeline's construction, a shift that unlawfully reversed the Obama administration's 2015 decision rejecting the pipeline's cross-border permit. Alex Guillén has the details here for Pros.
THE FOX AND THE INTERIOR SECRETARY: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reached out to Fox News about possibly working with the channel as a contributor, sources familiar with the move told POLITICO's Ben Lefebvre and Eliana Johnson. Sources also say the secretary is seeking positions on energy company boards of directors or even with private equity firms. However, another source told POLITICO a contract with Fox is unlikely unless Trump asks Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox's parent company News Corp., and there's no indication that Fox has so far expressed any interest in putting Zinke on the air.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-energy/2018/11/09/how-house-democrats-will-tackle-climate-oversight-406274
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EPA, States Seek Quick Briefing in Landfill Methane Suit
Nov 9, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA and Democratic states are jointly proposing a speedy briefing schedule for the states' litigation over the agency's lax implementation of Obama-era methane standards for landfills, with the states poised to oppose EPA's recent motion to pause the suit due to a regulatory proposal the agency says might render the litigation moot.
A Nov. 6 joint stipulation from the two parties in California, et al. v. EPA, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asks the court to give the states until Nov. 13 to file their opposition to EPA's stay motion, and to give EPA until Nov. 20 to file a reply brief, or earlier if the states submit their filing early.
The states in the filing “assert that time is of the essence in deciding this motion” and thus urge expedited consideration.
The filing responds to EPA's motion, which was filed the same day, to stay the case due to its recent proposal to significantly extend the deadline for states to submit compliance plans for the methane standards until mid-2019. Under the 2016 regulation, states had until May 2017 to submit plans, but only three have done so to date.
EPA's deadline proposal says the deadline extension would align the methane rules with its separate plan to change the implementing regulations for section 111 of the Clean Air Act.
That section was used for both the methane standards as well as power sector greenhouse gas standards -- known as the Clean Power Plan -- that the Trump EPA is seeking to replace with a narrow policy.
Under EPA's proposed new landfill rule deadlines, EPA would not be forced to issue a federal compliance plan -- issued when states do not submit satisfactory plans -- until early 2023.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-states-seek-quick-briefing-landfill-methane-suit
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