Preview Newsletter
PM ACC Clips Report - November 26, 2018
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(ACC Mentioned) Debate Over Studies, Science Complicate Firefighters' Cancer Prevention Efforts
Nov 26, 2018 | Chicago Tribune
By Karen Ann Cullotta
The evolving science assessing the heightened cancer risks in fighting fires does not yield many definitive answers, experts say. -
NC Environmental Chief: Chemical Maker Must Change Its Ways
Nov 26, 2018 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Emery P. Dalesio
The largest penalty a polluter has paid North Carolina should change the way one of the country’s biggest chemical companies makes compounds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said appear dangerous even in small amounts, the state’s top environmental official said Friday. -
EU Set To Launch 'Enfometer' Measuring Chemicals Enforcement
Nov 26, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
The European Commission is preparing to launch its first EU-wide indicator to measure the level of enforcement of REACH and CLP. -
EU's JRC Publishes Document On Chemicals And FCMs
Nov 26, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has published a short document, From the packet to the pan – keeping harmful chemicals out of your food, to describe its role in examining food contact materials to develop standards and test methods to ensure food safety. -
EPA May Have Overstated Gas Levels At Chicago-Area Plant
Nov 26, 2018 | Associated Press (In Greenwire)
EPA says it may have overstated the emissions of a cancer-causing gas from a suburban Chicago plant that sterilizes medical instruments. -
Chemical Leak Closes Major East Coast Bridge
Nov 26, 2018 | Associated Press (In E&E Greenwire)
A Delaware bridge that was shut down in both directions by a gas leak yesterday evening, bringing traffic on a major East Coast artery to a standstill on one of the busiest travel days of the year, has reopened. -
FRA: Railroads Advanced PTC Implementation In Q3
Nov 26, 2018 | Progressive Railroading
More than three dozen freight and commuter railroads continued to post progress in the third quarter toward either implementing positive train control (PTC) systems or qualifying for a two-year deadline extension, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Q3 PTC data released last week. -
PTC Tardy List Shrinks
Nov 26, 2018 | Politico
By Sam Mintz
THE NAUGHTY LIST: The list of railroads at risk of not meeting a Dec. 31 deadline for installing positive train control is shrinking, your host reported last week. -
EPA Publishes Refinery Regulation Amendments
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly,
EPA today published a new round of amendments to a 2015 update to refinery regulations, opening a standard 60-day window for fresh legal challenges to be filed. -
Ewire: Did Trump Administration's Timing On Climate Report Backfire?
Nov 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
Just as families were digging into Thanksgiving leftovers and embarking on Black Friday shopping, the Trump administration released its major inter-agency report warning of an array of increasingly severe risks to the country from climate change -- with many experts saying the timing appeared aimed at burying news of the report. -
GOP Senator: Trump Administration Needs To Look At 'Consequences Of Inaction' On Climate Change
Nov 26, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Brett Samuels
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday called for the Trump administration and others to "take a harder look" at the consequences and risks of climate change in the wake of a governmental report that warns the issue has already impacted the country. -
Bipartisan Climate Fee Backers to Plant Flag During Lame Duck
Nov 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
A small group of Democratic and Republican House members plans to introduce a carbon tax bill this week, the first bipartisan climate legislation in a decade. -
Bipartisan Group To Introduce Carbon Fee Bill
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Nick Sobczyk
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is planning to introduce carbon fee legislation this week, a potential marker for cooperation on climate change across the aisle in the new Congress. -
Next Step In Climate Fight: End Oil And gas Production
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Nick Sobczyk
The next big step for climate policy might be almost too obvious: Stop producing oil and gas. -
EPA's Ozone Review Plan 'Harmful' — Former Advisers
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly,
As an EPA advisory committee embarks on a review of the national ground-level ozone standards, a group of former members are assailing both the panel's current makeup and the Trump administration's fast-track approach.
Industry and Association News - There are no clips to report at this time.
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Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News
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(ACC Mentioned) Debate Over Studies, Science Complicate Firefighters' Cancer Prevention Efforts
Nov 26, 2018 | Chicago Tribune
By Karen Ann Cullotta
The evolving science assessing the heightened cancer risks in fighting fires does not yield many definitive answers, experts say.
As a result, many fire departments around the country try to mitigate cancer risks through a patchwork of prevention initiatives that are tethered to research, yet stymied by the sometimes contradictory studies.
“It’s a huge problem with a lot of unknowns,” said Steve Kerber, director of the Firefighter Safety Research Institute at Northbrook-based Underwriters Laboratories. “There are a lot of studies out there that make the link between firefighters and cancer, but it doesn’t answer specific questions about what exactly is happening.”
While both researchers and firefighters have long known the dangers of smoke inhalation and the heightened risk of pulmonary disease, various studies within the past five years, including one by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, have led to a better understanding of the possible connection between cancer and the toxins that firefighters are exposed to while on the job, Kerber said.
The environment in which a fire develops has changed dramatically over five decades, he said.
“We went from using all natural materials (in household goods) to using almost entirely synthetic materials, so it should not be much of a surprise,” Kerber said.
For example, a couch that was made with wood, cotton and horsehair decades ago now is composed entirely of synthetic materials that contain potentially toxic chemicals brought on, in part, by furniture manufacturers’ switch around 1950 to using polyurethane in their products, Kerber said.
“But synthetics are made from crude oil, which burns very differently, has more toxins and spreads much faster, too,” he said.Firefighter cancer rates
A study of 30,000 firefighters from Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco showed that, for most cancer types, observed cancer rates were higher in the group of firefighters than in the general population. Below, a cancer rate greater than one for firefighters indicates more risk for that cancer type than general population.
As part of a demonstration examining the differences, researchers with the institute staged two living rooms — one with wooden furniture, a cotton-covered sofa and other so-called “legacy” furnishings and another with modern items, such as a microfiber-covered, polyurethane-foam-filled sectional sofa, Kerber said.
After a lit candle was placed on each side of the different sofas, allowing fires to grow, the modern room burst into flames within three minutes and 30 seconds, while the fire in the legacy room took roughly a half hour to reach the same point.
While firefighters battle fires that could be burning quicker than in decades past, they’re also in environments that include black smoke emanating from burning synthetic materials, which contain harmful hydrocarbon particulate matter, Kerber said.
“We have somewhere along the lines of 70,000 different chemicals, and everything is made from them, but we know the health implications of less than 1 percent,” Kerber said. “The chemicals are changing faster than we can understand them.”
To address other unknowns, researchers are studying whether the health hazards to firefighters exposed to toxins can be from just one exposure, or repeated exposures, as well as whether each person’s body is resilient in different ways, Kerber said.
Officials with the American Chemistry Council say the goal should be “to protect firefighters from exposure to any smoke from fires, regardless of the contents of what is burning.”
“Fires, and the resulting smoke, are toxic regardless of the source of those fires and what is being burned,” said Kathryn Murray St. John, a spokeswoman for the council. “It is a misconception to think that smoke from an old wooden house burning is somehow less dangerous than smoke from a modern house burning.”
The council, which is based in Washington, advocates and lobbies for chemical manufacturing companies.
While the American Chemistry Council recognizes “elevated rates of some cancers among firefighters, such as mesothelioma,” they are generally attributed to specific causes, such as asbestos exposure, St. John said.
“The increased cancer rates for the specific cancers identified by (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) were not attributed to use of any specific materials or products in modern-day buildings,” she said. “While there have been claims that chemicals in modern-day products may contribute to increased cancer rates in firefighters, such cause-and-effect relationships have not been established.”
https://graphics.chicagotribune.com/firefighter-cancer/evolving-science/index.html
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NC Environmental Chief: Chemical Maker Must Change Its Ways
Nov 26, 2018 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH, N.C. — The largest penalty a polluter has paid North Carolina should change the way one of the country’s biggest chemical companies makes compounds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said appear dangerous even in small amounts, the state’s top environmental official said Friday.
A deal announced late Wednesday requires The Chemours Co. to pay the state a $12 million penalty, add $1 million for investigative costs, sharply reduce air emissions of the nonstick compound known as GenX, and spend millions to provide permanent replacement drinking water supplies to neighbors with contaminated water wells.
“It will change the way this company operates in the state of North Carolina if they are serious about remaining operational here,” state Department of Environmental Quality Michael Regan said Friday. Further enforcement action is possible if scientists find health effects for GenX at levels lower than what the state now estimates is safe, he said.
The penalty outstrips the $7 million Duke Energy Corp. agreed to pay in 2015 for persistent groundwater contamination at its 14 coal-burning power plants in North Carolina.
Chemours also agreed to further penalties if by the end of next month it fails to cut air emissions by at least 92 percent from last year’s level, and by 99 percent by the end of next year. Failing to meet next month’s target could cost Chemours $350,000, while missing the 99 percent reduction goal next year could cost the company $1 million.
Chemours denied it violated any law, regulation or permit and said the deal it struck this week simply allowed it to avoid the expense and risks of litigation while addressing public concerns.
The company also agreed to conduct health studies into the risks posed by releasing GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, into the environment. PFAS are used in nonstick coatings on products ranging from pans to fast-food wrappers, as well as in firefighting foam.
There are no federal health standards for GenX, just as they are lacking for thousands of man-made chemicals. The EPA classifies GenX as an “emerging contaminant” needing research. But animal studies show GenX has the potential of affecting the kidneys, blood, immune system, liver and developing fetuses following oral exposure, the EPA said in a draft report released earlier this month. “The data are suggestive of cancer,” the report said.
Blood and urine tests performed on 30 volunteers living around Chemours’ North Carolina plant found no GenX, but all had in their blood at least four of the 16 similar chemicals tested, the state health department said last month.
The company on Friday repeated that GenX is less hazardous than the compounds it replaced.
Chemours has owned and operated the chemical plant south of Fayetteville for three years. The company was spun off from DuPont, which had operated the 2,100-acre (850-hectare) site for nearly half a century.
Because the flourine-based chemicals produced at the plant are so profitable, the company is spending about $100 million to all but eliminate GenX and all PFAS compounds before 2020.
GenX replaced a similar compound after neighbors of chemical-maker DuPont’s Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant claimed in more than 3,500 lawsuits that the compound made them sick. A jury in July 2016 found Chemours and DuPont liable for a man’s testicular cancer that he said was linked to a GenX forerunner chemical. The two Fortune 500 chemical companies last year agreed to pay nearly $671 million to settle further lawsuits.
The state environmental agency sued the company last year alleging its discharges of GenX and other PFAS violated clean-water laws. Environmental group Cape Fear River Watch also sued both the company and the state.
All those lawsuits would be dropped if this week’s settlement is approved by a judge after giving the public until Dec. 21 to comment.
Unaffected by the agreement are other lawsuits by individuals, Brunswick County or the water utility serving about 200,000 people in and around Wilmington. That water service found GenX in treated drinking water consumed by households about 100 miles (161 kilometers) downstream of the Chemours plant.
A university researcher last week reported finding three previously unreported PFAS compounds in treated water distributed by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/nc-environmental-chief-chemical-maker-must-change-its-ways/2018/11/23/feedcc9a-ef5e-11e8-8b47-bd0975fd6199_story.html?utm_term=.45e8cdb5e83e
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EU Set To Launch 'Enfometer' Measuring Chemicals Enforcement
Nov 26, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Clelia Oziel
The European Commission is preparing to launch its first EU-wide indicator to measure the level of enforcement of REACH and CLP.
Speaking at a Commission conference on enforcement in Brussels on 13 November, DG Grow policy officer Miguel Aguado-Monsonet said the so-called "enfometer" had been developed over the last three years and would be available to public "in a few weeks".
It is one of several steps the Commission is working on to strengthen chemicals enforcement, which has been identified as a REACH area in need of improvement.
The "pioneering" benchmark will combine 50 indicators on different aspects of enforcement gathered from member states, Echa's Enforcement Forum and EU authorities to calculate average compliance for the whole of the European Union, Mr Aguado-Monsonet said.
Enforcement will be tracked on an annual basis with the year 2010 used as a baseline, he said. The final average for each year will incorporate 11 EU-wide indicators that will consider aspects of enforcement, such as:level of penalties compared with compliance cost;training for inspectors;outcome of appeals to determine whether enforcement actions are correct;the forum's output; andcomplaints from stakeholders against enforcement.
Work on the process to calculate enforcement indicators at EU-level began in 2015. At that time, around 2,000 pieces of data collected from 31 countries enforcing REACH and CLP pointed to an average degree of compliance of 80% across the EU. However, the figure was pushed higher as enforcers focused on likely cases of non-compliance.
Member states have expressed concerns around using inspection numbers as a league table, stressing the need "to be clear on what those numbers mean".
Mr Aguado-Monsonet said developing a single indicator for chemicals enforcement in the EU "is a complex task" considering the multiple actors, duty-holders and actions involved. "It is a first attempt," he told the conference and "we still need to think about how we can calculate this better."Other measures
The Commission is trying to tackle enforcement on several fronts, with a view to improving and harmonising activities across the EU.
Member states are reporting on their enforcement strategies every five years and the number of strategies they implemented has increased to 21 in 2015 from 17 in 2010, Mr Aguado-Monsonet said. The next reporting period will be 2020.
The Commission has also embarked on an exchange programme for inspectors from different member states, with a view to harmonising inspections. In the past year, 13 such inspector exchanges were put in place, he added.
Another level of work concerns integrating REACH into the customs procedures, Mr Aguado-Monsonet said. The Commission is exploring developing guidance and risk profiles for customs authorities, while the forum is working on "comparable parameters".
Enhanced enforcement is one 16 actions the Commission called for following its second review of REACH earlier this year.
As part of this, it asked for measures to clarify and enhance the role of enforcement and customs authorities in the controlling REACH obligations, and requested the Forum and member states establish comparable parameters.
Cefic's REACH director Erwin Annys told the conference in Brussels that divergent EU penalties for infringements of chemicals laws are granting non-EU manufacturers opportunities to market their substances illegally.
https://chemicalwatch.com/72338/eu-set-to-launch-enfometer-measuring-chemicals-enforcement
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EU's JRC Publishes Document On Chemicals And FCMs
Nov 26, 2018 | Chemical Watch
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has published a short document, From the packet to the pan – keeping harmful chemicals out of your food, to describe its role in examining food contact materials to develop standards and test methods to ensure food safety.
In October the Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG Sante) started its evaluation process of the EU’s food contact materials legislation.
https://chemicalwatch.com/72337/eus-jrc-publishes-document-on-chemicals-and-fcms
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EPA May Have Overstated Gas Levels At Chicago-Area Plant
Nov 26, 2018 | Associated Press (In Greenwire)
EPA says it may have overstated the emissions of a cancer-causing gas from a suburban Chicago plant that sterilizes medical instruments.
The agency released a statement Wednesday saying it recently discovered a problem with the way the gas, ethylene oxide, has been measured outside the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook, Ill. It says another chemical, trans-2-butene, can be incorrectly identified as ethylene oxide when air quality samples are analyzed in a laboratory. Trans-2-butene can be released from petrochemical industrial processes and the burning of fossil fuels.
EPA says it will host a community forum on the matter Thursday.
An email seeking comment was sent to Sterigenics.
Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Republican DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin recently sued Sterigenics over the emissions (Greenwire, Oct. 31). — Associated Press
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/26/stories/1060107307
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Chemical Leak Closes Major East Coast Bridge
Nov 26, 2018 | Associated Press (In E&E Greenwire)
A Delaware bridge that was shut down in both directions by a gas leak yesterday evening, bringing traffic on a major East Coast artery to a standstill on one of the busiest travel days of the year, has reopened.
The Delaware Department of Transportation tweeted late yesterday that the Delaware Memorial Bridge was "REOPENED to traffic" and urged travelers to drive safely.
The leak stemmed from the Delaware chemical production facility Croda Atlas Point, located near the twin suspension bridges on a major route between Washington and New York City, said Holloway Terrace Fire Co. spokesman George Greenley.
The leaked chemical was ethylene oxide, a highly flammable gas that is a finished product stemming from methanol, Greenley said.
"If that flume would have had an ignition source, it could have been catastrophic with the bridge traffic," he said.
The bridge closed around 5 p.m. yesterday. Croda operators requested it be shut down, the Delaware River and Bay Authority tweeted.
Greenley said fire officials were waiting for pressure to dissipate in the pipes at the facility before reopening the bridge.
Traffic on both sides of the bridge was being diverted to other crossings, including the Commodore Barry Bridge to the north, causing what the authority called a "parking lot" situation to disperse to other clogged roadways.
More than 80,000 vehicles make the crossing daily, according to the authority.
Lashrecse Aird, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, was stuck in the bridge traffic on her way home to Virginia from New York. The Thanksgiving commute usually takes her six hours, she said, but she had already been on the road for that amount of time and her GPS told her she had more than three hours to go.
A police vehicle and a hazardous-materials truck were blocking the bridge when she approached. She was at a standstill for an hour before being redirected, she said. — Associated Press
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/26/stories/1060107331
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FRA: Railroads Advanced PTC Implementation In Q3
Nov 26, 2018 | Progressive Railroading
More than three dozen freight and commuter railroads continued to post progress in the third quarter toward either implementing positive train control (PTC) systems or qualifying for a two-year deadline extension, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Q3 PTC data released last week.
As of Sept. 30, 24 railroads had installed all of their system hardware, 11 others had installed between 95 percent and 99 percent of the required hardware, and all impacted railroads had acquired sufficient radio spectrum, FRA officials said in a press release. In addition, Q3 data shows only five “at-risk” railroads, down 67 percent from the 15 at 2017’s end and 44 percent from the nine at second quarter’s end, they said.
The FRA considers any railroad that has installed less than 95 percent of system hardware to be at risk of not meeting either the federally mandated deadline of Dec. 31, or the statutory criteria necessary to qualify for an extension to 2020’s end. Hardware installation is one of six statutory criteria required to obtain an alternative implementation schedule.
The five at-risk railroads as of Sept. 30 were Amtrak, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Altamont Corridor Express, New Jersey Transit and Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain). They collectively own or control about 1,302 of the 58,000 route miles subject to the PTC mandate, according to the FRA.
“The progress made over the last year is a testament to what can be accomplished with proper focus and attention,” said FRA Administrator Ronald Batory. “We encourage any railroads seeking an alternative schedule to submit their formal requests in a timely fashion.”
Also at Q3’s end, PTC was in operation on 71 percent of freight railroads’ required route miles and 26 percent of commuter railroads’ required route miles.
The FRA continues to track at-risk railroads’ progress on a month-by-month basis. Updates that railroads submitted at October’s end show further implementation progress, FRA officials said.
To learn more about railroads' PTC installation challenges and progress, read this article in Progressive Railroading’s October issue.https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ptc/news/FRA-Railroads-advanced-PTC-implementation-in-Q3--56186
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Nov 26, 2018 | Politico
By Sam Mintz
THE NAUGHTY LIST: The list of railroads at risk of not meeting a Dec. 31 deadline for installing positive train control is shrinking, your host reported last week. As of the end of the third quarter this year, only five railroads had installed less than 95 percent of the equipment needed for PTC.
One of those, Amtrak, had pushed that number up to 97 percent by the end of October, bringing it out of the danger zone. The remaining four are the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Altamont Corridor Express, New Jersey Transit and Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board. FRA has threatened that it will hit any that fail with the highest possible fines, which could reach $28,000 per day. Congress will be keeping a watchful eye on the process through December and into next year.
IT’S MONDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. With the Thanksgiving relaxation over, we're gearing up for a full week of transportation action on Capitol Hill and beyond. Get in touch with feedback, tips, song lyric suggestions or travel sympathy at smintz@politico.com or @samjmintz.
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THIS WEEK: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will consider America’s surface transportation needs at one of its last hearings in this Congress. The hearing is Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Dirksen 406. Across the building in the House, the Transportation Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on icebreaker acquisition and and national maritime strategy.
CONSUMER GROUPS CRITICAL OF COMMITTEE PICKS: Public Citizen toko aim at DOT's reconstituted Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, concerned that two of its members don’t have the right backgrounds to address the issues the committee is tasked with, chief among them a newly-added duty related to addressing in-flight sexual assault and harassment. Specifically, Public Citizen is concerned about the selection of Frances Smith, a fellow at the conservative think-tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn.
“The big consumer advisory headline on this, the task force under the consumer protection panel, is preventing sexual misconduct on planes. … It’s something the administration should be taking seriously and putting people with expertise on,” said Matthew Kent, a regulatory policy associate at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. “But at least two of the people they put on this committee don’t seem to have any bearing on the issue at all.” Rahn was also the subject of an ethics investigation earlier this year after he waived the state’s traditional bidding process for a massive highway project, and then gave a contract partially to a firm he used to work at. Smith's resume shows extensive consumer-focused experience, but nothing that suggests a special expertise in sexual assault or harrassment. DOT did not respond to a request for comment.
What's in store? The committee will meet first on Jan. 16, with sexual assault training, reporting and data collection on the agenda as well as airline ancillary service fee transparency and involuntary changes to passenger itineraries.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-transportation/2018/11/26/ptc-tardy-list-shrinks-426408
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EPA Publishes Refinery Regulation Amendments
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly,
EPA today published a new round of amendments to a 2015 update to refinery regulations, opening a standard 60-day window for fresh legal challenges to be filed.
Acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler signed the final rule earlier this month (Greenwire, Nov. 9). Among other changes, it requires long-delayed compliance with maintenance vent standards within 30 days.
The new action also makes what EPA calls "minor revisions" to work practice standards and other requirements.
The amendments take effect with today's publication in the Federal Register.
They will have little effect on costs and emissions reductions, while nonetheless reducing the yearly compliance burden for industry, according to an agency fact sheet.
EPA had originally published the updated New Source Performance Standards and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants in late 2015. At the time, the agency said they would apply to almost 150 refineries nationwide.
That initial update remains the subject of lawsuits brought both by environmental and industry groups with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. At EPA's request, the consolidated litigation has been in abeyance since March 2016.
In its latest status report, filed Nov. 16, an agency attorney alluded to the recently signed final rule, but added that EPA officials are continuing to consider comments received on a separate October 2016 proposal that would address other issues raised in administrative reconsideration petitions.
"Accordingly, no action is required by the court at this time, and these cases should continue to be held in abeyance," the report said.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/26/stories/1060107341
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Ewire: Did Trump Administration's Timing On Climate Report Backfire?
Nov 26, 2018 | Inside EPA
Just as families were digging into Thanksgiving leftovers and embarking on Black Friday shopping, the Trump administration released its major inter-agency report warning of an array of increasingly severe risks to the country from climate change -- with many experts saying the timing appeared aimed at burying news of the report.
But it appears that strategy backfired, as the report drew widespread coverage in many newspapers and television reports over the weekend because it was the main piece of domestic news in an otherwise slow period.
“If anything, dropping the report on Black Friday just gave Democrats another point of criticism of the administration and generated even more headlines,” the Washington Post reported.
Papers from coast to coast found ways to localize the administration's report -- which is all the more notable because it represents a sharp contrast to the administration's policy agenda of rolling back climate mitigation rules, as well as President Donald Trump's public doubts that the climate is changing or that humans are responsible.
Additionally, the climate report earned some real estate on the Sunday political talkshows -- a relatively rare moment for climate news -- with GOP Sens. Mike Lee (UT), Ben Sasse (NE) and Joni Ernst (IA) being put on the spot by NBC News, Fox News and CNN on the issue.
The New York Times quotes three sources who said the White House made a “clear political calculus” in deciding to release the study without any political interference.
For one thing, a law requires agencies to release an updated climate study every four years, so not releasing the report would be unlawful. Also, officials determined that editing the contents of the report to play down the threats from climate change would be “too risky politically and legally.”
So, officials decided to release the report on Black Friday, “thinking that Americans might be unlikely to be paying attention.”
However, the Times also quotes Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley making a particularly unflattering comparison to former President Lyndon Johnson's statements about the Vietnam War.
“Johnson used to tell people everything was going well in Vietnam, and then you'd turn on the news and see the mayhem. It was this giant disconnect.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-did-trump-administrations-timing-climate-report-backfire
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GOP Senator: Trump Administration Needs To Look At 'Consequences Of Inaction' On Climate Change
Nov 26, 2018 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Brett Samuels
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday called for the Trump administration and others to "take a harder look" at the consequences and risks of climate change in the wake of a governmental report that warns the issue has already impacted the country.
"We can't ignore the impact of climate change on our public health, environment, & economy. This should cause all of us, including the Administration, to take a harder look at the consequences of inaction & use what is known about risks to inform policy," Collins wrote on Twitter while sharing a New York Times story on the report.
We can't ignore the impact of climate change on our public health, environment, & economy. This should cause all of us, including the Administration, to take a harder look at the consequences of inaction & use what is known about risks to inform policy. https://t.co/lljBgQkzJh— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) November 26, 2018
The congressionally-mandated report, which was released on Black Friday, found that climate change has led to an increase in temperature and a rise in sea levels. It warned that its effects will lead to more intense wildfires, floods and other disasters if left unchecked.
The report additionally warns that failure to take sufficient measures to address climate change could shrink the U.S. economy.
Democrats criticized the timing of the report, noting that it was released on the Friday of a holiday weekend. Party members and environmental activists seized on the report to renew calls for the use of renewable energy sources and other policies that could mitigate the effects of climate change.
A few Republican lawmakers were asked about the report on Sunday talk shows, where they acknowledged that the climate is changing but offered few concrete solutions to address the problem.
Some lawmakers spoke about the need to find innovative answers in ways that would not adversely affect the economy.
President Trump has not commented on the report since it was released, but has expressed skepticism about climate change. The Trump administration has rolled back several environmental regulations, and pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/418212-gop-senator-trump-administration-must-take-harder-look-at-the-consequences-of
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Bipartisan Climate Fee Backers to Plant Flag During Lame Duck
Nov 26, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), two Republicans to introduce carbon fee bill that would return money to consumers
With virtually no chance of passage, measure seen as effort to start discussions for next Congress
A small group of Democratic and Republican House members plans to introduce a carbon tax bill this week, the first bipartisan climate legislation in a decade.
While it has virtually no chance of moving during the lame-duck session of Congress, the bill could be a starting point for climate legislation after Democrats assume House control in January.
According to a bill summary obtained by Bloomberg Environment, the measure would apply a $15-per-metric-ton carbon fee to the U.S. oil, gas, and coal industries, but rebate all of the revenue as a dividend to households to shield them from increased fossil fuel costs related to the carbon fee.
The bill, which has been in the works for months, is set to be introduced this week by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), joined by Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Francis Rooney (Fla.). It is meant to plant a flag for climate change efforts in the 116th Congress that opens in January, where Democrats will be in charge of the House for the first time since 2010.
Congress needs to act, Deutch said, citing increasingly dire scientific warnings of economic damage from climate change, including the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment issued Nov. 23.
“More than a dozen federal agencies just warned us that if we don’t take dramatic action, climate change will knock 10 percent off of our GDP by the end of this century,” Deutch said in a statement to Bloomberg Environment. “Putting a price on carbon can help change the behavior of polluters. We hope our bipartisan bill will spur action on climate change before it’s too late.”
Effort to Spark DiscussionThe Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is meant to spark debate in what remains a long-shot bid to move broad climate legislation in the next two years—given that Republicans will still control both the Senate and the White House.
The bill’s backers also hope to bring some additional Democratic co-sponsors aboard before its formal introduction.
The bill’s $15-per-metric-ton carbon price is a modest starting point compared to the $24-per-ton proposal offered over the summer by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), co-chairman of a bipartisan House climate caucus who lost his re-election bid Nov. 6.
While details could change before the bill is introduced, the Deutch bill as drafted would increase that $15-per-metric-ton carbon price by $10 per metric ton per year until certain targets are reached, which the authors project would lead to dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions: a one-third cut over the next decade and a 90 percent emissions cut by 2050, all compared to 2015 levels.
Exemption for Agricultural FuelsAs drafted, the bill would exempt agricultural fuels from the carbon fee. It proposes a “regulatory adjustment” to avoid “duplicative” climate regulations, though which specific regulatory authority might be rolled back isn’t clear. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) vehicle efficiency standards would remain in place, according to the bill description.
Democratic control of the House beginning in January comes nearly a decade after the collapse of President Barack Obama-backed cap-and-trade legislation. It’s unclear whether House Democrats next year might rally behind a carbon tax, or perhaps might try to resurrect cap and trade legislation.
“I think the likelihood that any significant climate legislation being agreed upon by a Republican Senate and a Democratic House is very slim, " said Alex Flint, a former Republican staff director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
And Sarah Hunt, CEO of the nonprofit Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy, said Congress should “focus on achievable climate solutions first,” like increased support for energy technologies and research and development.
“Republicans and Democrats can agree on several greenhouse gas emissions reducing strategies, including building efficient infrastructure, clean energy sector job growth, and advanced energy technology R&D,” Hunt said.
Climate Solutions CaucusBut Flint, who now heads the Alliance for Market Solutions—which works to persuade Republicans to embrace a carbon tax—claimed that unveiling a bipartisan carbon tax bill now “confirms there has been an evolution among Republicans on how to address climate.”
“Climate change is much more important than partisan politics, and we’re gratified this group is moving forward together to address this urgent threat,” Mark Reynolds, executive director of the environmental group Citizens’ Climate Lobby, which has pushed for bipartisan carbon fee legislation that refunds the revenue to consumers, said in a statement to Bloomberg Environment. The group also sent volunteers to Washington earlier in November to advocate.
Deutch co-chairs a 90-member bipartisan House climate caucus formed in 2016 that, until Curbelo’s July bill, had produced little in the way of climate legislation or policy proposals.
Curbelo’s Market Choice Act (H.R. 6463) had only Republican backing—co-sponsored by Fitzpatrick and Rooney.
The fate of the Climate Solutions Caucus is unclear after Republican losses from the midterm elections, which along with retirements means nearly two dozen Republican members, nearly half of the party’s caucus membership, won’t return.
The focus of congressional efforts to grapple with climate change have shifted since the defeat of the cap-and-trade legislation backed by President Obama.
Democratic-led bills have focused on a carbon tax, including the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act (S. 2368), introduced in the Senate in February by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), as well as the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act, introduced in the Senate in January (S. 2352) by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and in the House (H.R. 4889) by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/bipartisan-climate-fee-backers-to-plant-flag-during-lame-duck
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Bipartisan Group To Introduce Carbon Fee Bill
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Nick Sobczyk
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is planning to introduce carbon fee legislation this week, a potential marker for cooperation on climate change across the aisle in the new Congress.
The bill would put a $15-per-metric-ton fee on carbon starting in 2019 and rising by $10 a year until certain emissions reduction goals are met, according to draft text obtained by E&E News. The fee would primarily target the oil, gas and coal industries, and the money would be distributed to households through a trust fund administered by the Treasury Department.
Climate Solutions Caucus co-Chairman Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) is leading on the measure, to be introduced as the "Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act," alongside fellow caucus members Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Francis Rooney (R-Fla.).
The bill is almost certain not to pass this session of Congress. But it would be the first bipartisan carbon fee measure in a decade, and centrist and eco-right climate advocates are hoping it sets the tone for climate work on Capitol Hill next year.
It's also the second climate change bill introduced with Republican support in recent months after Rooney and Fitzpatrick signed on as co-sponsors of the carbon tax bill from outgoing Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.).
"I'm about it," said Joseph Majkut, director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank. "Let's let a thousand flowers bloom."
The latest bill has been in the works for months. It closely mirrors the fee and dividend approach long advocated by Citizens' Climate Lobby, the group behind the House climate caucus.
The group had more than 600 volunteers on Capitol Hill for a lobby day earlier this month, and part of their goal was to pitch CCL's policy proposals to lawmakers and staff.
The targets laid out in the bill are ambitious, even if the initial $15 price is lower than similar proposals. The carbon fee would stop increasing only when emissions have been reduced by 90 percent compared to 2015 levels.
The legislation lays out a schedule to get there, with annual targets set by decade. From 2022 to 2030, the goal would be a 5 percent reduction per year, and from 2030 to 2040, the target would move to 2.5 percent per year, all compared to 2015 levels.
A spokesman for Deutch stressed that the bill is still in draft form and is still being modified. But the early version does have some provisions likely to roil the environmental groups pushing for more aggressive regulatory policies.
As it stands now, the bill would exempt fuels used for farming from the carbon fee and specify that the fee should not be levied on other agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane from livestock.
It would also tweak the Clean Air Act to halt greenhouse gas regulations, though the provision appears to make an exception for vehicle fuel efficiency standards.
Those kind of regulatory changes are the linchpin of many conservative carbon tax proposals, including Curbelo's, which would implement a rolling moratorium on EPA's greenhouse gas regulations.
Still, the bill will undoubtedly make waves during the lame-duck session, as Democrats debate how to address climate change in the next Congress behind closed doors.
There are several Democratic carbon pricing proposals already on the table, including from well-known climate hawks, such as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
Majkut noted that the conversation has now expanded, with two GOP-backed bills introduced this year and at least two returning House Republicans — Rooney and Fitzpatrick — prepared to work on climate change moving forward.
And while the $15 starting price is low, the $10 yearly increase will escalate quickly, he added.
"Can't fault them for their ambition," Majkut said.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/26/stories/1060107345
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Next Step In Climate Fight: End Oil And gas Production
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Nick Sobczyk
The next big step for climate policy might be almost too obvious: Stop producing oil and gas.
A study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change lays out the rationale for limiting production of fossil fuels, rather than consumption.
Seven countries, including France, New Zealand and Spain, have committed to stop oil and gas production in some form.
While the U.S. has largely pushed climate policy aside under the Trump administration, California could be the next major player to limit production, according to the study, as the state considers additional ways to reduce emissions under its 2030 climate action plan.
"California is one of the top oil producing states in the U.S., but it is also a climate leader," Peter Erickson, the study's lead author and a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said in a statement. "Restricting oil production would complement the state's flagship policies, such as strengthened standards for clean power or energy efficiency."
California is a major consumer of fossil fuels, especially oil, which accounts for about 60 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions.
But if the state were to simply stop issuing permits for new oil wells, it could produce an equivalent emissions reduction between 6 million and 19 million metric tons of CO2, according to the study.
"Total emissions reductions would probably be greater, as emissions associated with extracting, refining and transporting oil would also probably be avoided," the authors wrote.
The market mechanism that would spur on those changes is essentially a chain reaction. Dipping California production would prompt other countries and states to produce more oil. But at the same time, prices would go up and consumers would use less, leading, ultimately, to a drop in emissions.
Phasing out oil permits would have an added benefit for vulnerable communities in the state, where most oil and gas production takes place, according to the study.
The policy would be ambitious, and there are undoubtedly political barriers, even in a state such as California, which has shown willingness in the past to make big leaps on climate.
But the state would be a major addition to the list of countries that have already started phasing out production, especially with the U.S. set to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement under President Trump, the study says.
"Without question, there are political headwinds against policies to wind down fossil fuel production, even in California," the authors wrote. "But in the long term, the transition away from fossil fuels will need to be managed — and actively — in a way that is orderly and fair to the workers and communities involved in, and impacted by, oil production."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/26/stories/1060107349
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EPA's Ozone Review Plan 'Harmful' — Former Advisers
Nov 26, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly,
As an EPA advisory committee embarks on a review of the national ground-level ozone standards, a group of former members are assailing both the panel's current makeup and the Trump administration's fast-track approach.
The seven members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) do "not have the depth or breadth of expertise needed for the ozone review, nor could a group of this size cover the needed scientific disciplines," 17 researchers wrote in a letter today to Tony Cox, a Denver consultant who serves as the panel's current chairman.
In addition, the administration's "myriad of changes" to the procedures for assessing National Ambient Air Quality Standards "are collectively harmful to the quality, credibility and integrity of the scientific review process and CASAC as an advisory body," the letter says.
Among a slate of 30 recommendations, the signers urge EPA to scrap a controversial membership policy imposed last year by then-Administrator Scott Pruitt and drop an October 2020 deadline for completion of the assessment of the ozone standards.
Led by Chris Frey, a North Carolina State University professor of environmental engineering, the signers include three former chairs of the seven-member CASAC. Also represented are other past members both of the committee and various auxiliary panels involved in earlier reviews of the thresholds for ozone and other pollutants.
The letter amounts to an extraordinary attack on both the administration's strategy and CASAC's ability to conduct the review in accordance with the Clean Air Act. It comes three days before the committee — with five members appointed only last month by acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler — is scheduled to hold a public teleconference to discuss a draft plan for handling the review.
EPA representatives did not immediately reply to a request for comment this morning. In an email, Cox said he "greatly" appreciated the input from members of the panel involved in the last review of the ozone standard that ended in 2015 with a decision to tighten the limit to 70 parts per billion. But their comments and suggestions touch on legal and policy matters outside CASAC's focus on scientific issues needed to protect public health, Cox said, adding that he is "delighted with the breadth and depth of practical expertise that CASAC now brings to the crucial task of providing top-quality scientific advice and review to help protect public health."
"I agree with the former members that the current CASAC is expected to meet an ambitious set of new, high expectations for timeliness, thoroughness, and quality of scientific advice," Cox wrote. "The bar has definitely been raised. This might have been difficult to achieve using a larger committee structure, but I have sensed no lack of competence or commitment in the current CASAC team to prevent us from fully meeting these high expectations."
Under the Clean Air Act, the committee is supposed to provide outside expertise to EPA in regularly required assessments of the air quality standards for ozone, particulate matter and four other "criteria" pollutants. Most members typically come from academia. Auxiliary panels furnish added know-how to the reviews of specific pollutants.
Last fall, however, Pruitt barred current EPA grant recipients from serving on agency advisory committees. At the time, Pruitt said such a policy was needed to preserve committee members' "objectivity." But it also had the effect of disqualifying otherwise qualified researchers from serving while presenting no such hurdle to industry representatives.
And while the policy is supposed to apply to all of EPA's almost two dozen advisory committees, E&E News has previously found little effort by the agency to enforce it beyond CASAC and a handful of other panels (Greenwire, Sept. 21).
In a May memo, Pruitt took broader aim at the machinery for conducting the reviews. Among other changes, the memo called for reviews to be completed within the five-year window set by the Clean Air Act. In June, the agency launched the new review of the ozone standard.
Because the last one ended in October 2015, its successor must wrap up by October 2020, according to Pruitt's memo.
But that deadline doesn't allow enough time meet the act's requirement for a "thorough review" of the latest scientific information on ozone's health and environmental effects, the former CASAC members wrote in today's letter.
Following Pruitt's forced resignation in July, Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, last month called off previously announced plans to form an auxiliary panel for the ozone standard review; with one exception, his five new appointees have little direct background in research on air pollution's health effects.
Instead, CASAC is now primarily made up of state and local regulators from states that have previously challenged stricter air pollution regulations. Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and 14 other Democratic lawmakers pressed Wheeler to better explain his decision against forming the ozone review panel (E&E News PM, Nov. 19).
In today's letter, the former CASAC members said the committee has transitioned from a body of national and internationally recognized researchers to a panel "composed predominantly of stakeholders chosen based on geographic location and affiliation with state government, rather than scientific expertise first and foremost."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/11/26/stories/1060107353
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