Preview Newsletter

ACC AM 03/12/18

Congressional Hearings - There are no hearings to report at this time.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) New Study Refutes Negative Environmental Impact of Plastics Packaging
Nov 30, 2018 | Plastics Technology
By Jim Callari

Packaging has been targeted more than any other segment of the plastics industry.
(ACC Mentioned) US Plastic Resins Output Rises in October: Tariffs a Concern
Dec 3, 2018 | Zacks
By Anindya Barman

U.S. production of major plastic resins expanded 6.6% year over year to 7.3 billion pounds in October, according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council (“ACC”), a leading industry trade group.
(ACC Mentioned) US Specialty Chemicals Volumes Up in October: 3 Stocks to Buy
Nov 30, 2018 | Zacks (In Nasdaq)
By Anindya Barman

The U.S. specialty chemical industry started the fourth quarter on a positive note with October seeing a rise in volumes, according to the latest report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").
(ACC Mentioned) Industry Hails USMCA, Calls On US to End Steel Tariffs
Nov 30, 2018 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken

Plastics and manufacturing trade groups praised the Nov. 30 signing of a new trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States, but some called on President Donald Trump to use the agreement to cancel tariffs on steel and aluminum.
(ACC Mentioned) US, Mexico, Canada Sign NAFTA Replacement Deal
Nov 30, 2018 | ICIS

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was signed by leaders of the three countries at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Friday.
(ACC Mentioned) Killing Rats Yields to AI as Science Seeks to Avoid Animal Tests
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto

Testing new pesticides sometimes involves having rats inhale them for 90 days, killing them, and then analyzing how much cell death or injury they find in the rodents’ noses and windpipes.

LCSA News - There are no clips to report at this time.

Chemical Management News

Utilities Urge EPA To Fix SDWA Constitutional Concern In Perchlorate Rule
Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Lara Beaven

Rural water utilities are suggesting that a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) that gives the EPA administrator “sole judgment” to determine new contaminants may be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge under the “non-delegation” doctrine, and are urging the agency to address the issue in an upcoming rule governing perchlorate.
Environmentalists Cite Health Fears To Fight EPA Water 'Blending' Policy
Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA
By David LaRoss

Environmentalists are threatening to sue EPA over any rule that authorizes wastewater treatment plants to “blend” partly- and fully-treated effluent during wet-weather events, warning in written comments that the state of research into potential health harms from blending is too thin to support a rational rulemaking process.
Campbell Soup Loses Venue Dispute Over Tainted Water System
Dec 3, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven M. Sellers

Texas is the best venue to litigate a suit brought by Campbell Soup Co. against the supplier of a water heating system that allegedly contaminated some of the soup maker’s products, a federal court in Ohio ruled.

Energy News

Trump Said to Advance Seismic Surveys for Oil in Atlantic
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

The Trump administration is taking a major step toward allowing a first-in-a-generation seismic search for oil and gas under Atlantic waters, despite protests that the geological tests involve loud air gun blasts that will harm whales, dolphins and other animals.
Earthquake Strikes Southern Alaska, Threatening Oil Exports (1)
Dec 3, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Robert Tuttle

A magnitude 7 earthquake struck Alaska early Nov. 30, shutting the state’s most important oil pipeline and potentially threatening crude exports.
Exxon Water Permit Needs Speedier EPA Action, Federal Judge Says
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Adrianne Appel

A lawsuit alleging an Exxon Mobil Corp. facility in Massachusetts is vulnerable to climate change wouldn’t be necessary if the EPA was doing its job, a federal judge said Nov. 30.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Not Yet Ready to Hear Regulator Appeal on Shale Rules
Nov 30, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has for now rejected an appeal filed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) challenging the Commonwealth Court’s ruling on part of the agency’s comprehensive overhaul of rules for unconventional natural gas drillers.
A Crucial Moment Arrives for U.S. LNG Exports
Dec 2, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Christopher M. Matthews

With global demand for liquefied natural gas accelerating, 2019 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for LNG exporters in the U.S.
Oil and Gas Flow to Texas Coast Spawns Building, Tensions
Dec 3, 2018 | AP (In E&E Energywire)
By Jamie Smith Hopkins and Kiah Collier

To the east, the Gulf of Mexico stretches out, blue-green and sparkling.
First Senate Vote on FERC Nominee Tonight
Dec 3, 2018 | E&E Daily
By Jeremy Dillon

Senate Republicans are looking to confirm President Trump's controversial pick to fill the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week despite Democratic protests that the nominee could undermine renewable energy deployment.
Keystone XL Pipeline Cleared for Limited Pre-Construction Work
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Adams-Heard

TransCanada Corp. can resume certain pre-construction activities, including engineering and meeting with interested parties, for the Keystone XL oil pipeline following a federal court decision, the company said in an emailed statement.
Keystone XL Oil Pipeline to Face Environmental Review Do-Over
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Adams-Heard

TransCanada Corp.’s long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline will face another round of environmental scrutiny, all but dashing company plans to begin construction in February.

Chemical Security News

Carcinogen in Illinois Air to Get Review, Standards From EPA (1)
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Joyce

Residents in an Illinois town exposed to carcinogenic pollution from a plant that sterilizes medical devices will know more about the risks they face when the EPA completes an assessment in early 2019.
EPA Imposes Obama-Era RMP Rule Mandates Despite Looming Rollback
Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds

In compliance with an appellate court order, EPA is issuing a final rule imposing requirements of the Obama administration's January 2017 final rule strengthening the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility accident prevention program, despite plans to issue early next year a final rule largely scrapping the Obama-era rule.
Workplace Safety Saves Lives and Money. Is Your Facility Prepared?
Dec 3, 2018 | Occupational Health & Safety Online
By Jay Smith

OSHA requires employers to protect employees from electrical hazards, including arc flash.

Transportation and Infrastructure News

Rebecca McPhail: Freight Rail Reforms Crucial to WV Economy
Dec 1, 2018 | Charleston Gazette-Mail
By Rebecca McPhail

Freight rail reforms are needed now, more than ever, if West Virginia hopes to continue expanding its economy, attracting new businesses and creating a wealth of new jobs across our state.
More Oil Trains? Perth Amboy Terminal Could Become Hub for Crude Exports
Nov 30, 2018 | NorthJersey.com
By Curtis Tate

For several years, millions of gallons of crude oil a week have traveled New Jersey's rail network on their way to Northeast refineries.
It’s Time to Move on Sustainable Infrastructure
Nov 30, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Gerry Connolly, Doris Matsui and Paul Tonko

A major infrastructure overhaul is long overdue.

Environment News

Key Terms and Issue at This Year’s Global Climate Summit
Dec 1, 2018 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Frank Jordans

Negotiators are gathering in Katowice, Poland, for the annual U.N. climate summit, known informally as COP 24.
Trump Splits From Other G-20 Leaders on Climate Change
Dec 3, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Jean Chemnick

Countries led by France and China succeeded in isolating President Trump this weekend at the Group of 20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
States, Industry Group At Odds Over Trump EPA's HFC 'Management' Plan
Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA
By Lee Logan

Democratic-led states are at odds with a manufacturing industry coalition over a Trump EPA plan to rescind Obama-era rules extending refrigerant management and leak guidelines to appliances that use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are a potent short-term greenhouse gas.
States, Industry Clash Over EPA Plan to Delay Landfill GHG Rule
Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA

The Maryland Attorney General's (AG) office is raising concerns over the climate impacts of EPA's proposal to delay implementation of the Obama-era landfill methane rule, warning in testimony to the agency that it should act promptly to achieve reductions of the third largest man-made source of the potent greenhouse gas.
Fast-Track Reviews Spark Concern Among EPA Advisers
Nov 30, 2018 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly

The Trump administration's inaugural attempt to speed up reviews of national air quality standards is already fanning unease among a key group of participants: the outside advisory panel that will help carry it out.
Post-Brexit Environmental Watchdog Will Have Teeth: U.K. Minister
Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Ali Qassim

The U.K.'s environmental minister sought to allay fears that the country’s exit from the European Union will diminish enforcement of its environmental protections.
Betting On a New Way to Make Concrete That Doesn’t Pollute
Dec 2, 2018 | The New York Times
By Stanley Reed

Just after sunrise, a concrete plant located in a muddy industrial zone north of London stirs to life.
IKEA Targets Big Cut in Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Production
Dec 3, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)
By Anna Ringstrom

IKEA, the world's biggest furniture group, pledged on Friday to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its production by 80 percent in absolute terms by 2030 from their levels two years ago.
Inside the Sunrise Movement (It Didn't Happen by Accident)
Dec 3, 2018 | E&E Climatewire
By Mark K. Matthews, Nick Bowlin and Benjamin Hulac

The birth of the Sunrise Movement started with a small grant, a lot of Monster Energy drinks and a little help from the Sierra Club.

Congressional Hearings - There are no hearings to report at this time.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) New Study Refutes Negative Environmental Impact of Plastics Packaging

Nov 30, 2018 | Plastics Technology

By Jim Callari

Packaging has been targeted more than any other segment of the plastics industry. Not surprisingly, since it’s omnipresent. I’ve been around long enough to remember where it all started: in the late 1980s with the hamburger clamshell (which ironically, to my recollection, was replaced by an extrusion-coated wrap). Since then, environmentalists have set their sights on foamed PS, bags, PET bottles (the latest claim is that bits of PET from bottles are getting into the food supply) and lately, straws.
With that in mind, processors and their brand owners might want to check a new study released last month by the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Prepared by Franklin Associates and titled Life Cycle Impacts of Plastic Packaging Compared to Substitutes in the United States and Canada: Theoretical Substitution Analysis, the 172-pg study concluded that replacing plastic with alternative materials in packaging applications would cause increases in energy use, water consumption and solid waste, as well as increase greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), acidification, eutrophication and ozone depletion. The report focused on six packaging categories: caps and closures, beverage containers, stretch and shrink film, carrier bags, other rigid packaging, and other flexible packaging
“This report builds upon established data on the energy and GHG benefits of plastics, compared to alternatives,” said Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for ACC. “It expands our understanding of critical environmental benefits beyond energy and highlights key environmental indicators like water use and waste generation.”
The study expands upon a 2014 report that used life-cycle assessment methodology to assess the energy consumption and GHG emissions potential of the same six categories of plastic packaging produced and sold in the U.S. and Canada relative to alternative packaging.
Looking at the U.S. data alone, when compared with alternatives, production, use and disposal of plastic packaging across the six areas studied saves per year:Enough energy to fuel 18 million passenger vehicles;Enough water to fill 461,000 Olympic swimming pools;Waste equivalent to the weight of 290,000 Boeing 747s;The acidification potential of 292,000 railcars of coal.
“The findings challenge common misperceptions around plastics and underscore that plastic is a versatile efficient material that is helping to solve some of our greatest environmental challenges. However, we can’t realize its full benefits if we don’t work toward better end-of-life solutions,” said Russell. ACC and North American resin producers established a goal that 100% of plastic packaging will be reused, recycled or recovered by 2040. Meeting this goal and eliminating plastic waste in our ocean will further improve the environmental performance of plastic packaging. “We all want a world without plastic pollution, but we wouldn’t want a world without plastic.”
Call me naïve, but I think the problem most environmental groups have with plastics is emotional. It’s based on fear, and the perception that “Well, if it’s chemicals, it’s got to be bad.” One way to combat fear is with facts. If you serve the packaging market, you might want to download the study and take a look.
https://www.ptonline.com/articles/new-study-refutes-negative-environmental-impact-of-plastics-packaging

Return to headline | Return to top
(ACC Mentioned) US Plastic Resins Output Rises in October: Tariffs a Concern

Dec 3, 2018 | Zacks

By Anindya Barman

U.S. production of major plastic resins expanded 6.6% year over year to 7.3 billion pounds in October, according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council (“ACC”), a leading industry trade group.
Production of major plastic resins was 71.7 billion pounds year to date, an 8.7% rise from the same period a year ago.
Per the ACC, sales and captive (internal) use of major plastic resins was 7.4 billion pounds for the reported month, up 9.9% year over year. The same was 71.6 billion pounds on a year-to-date basis, also rising 8% from the same period in 2017.
The ACC, earlier this year, said that it envisions U.S. plastic resins production to grow at the fastest pace this year since 2012 as new capacity comes onstream and demand firms for domestic and overseas customers.
The plastics industry includes manufacturers of polymer materials for a host of end-use markets such as packaging, building & construction, transportation, electronics, containers and aerospace. These products include plastic resins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene that are made from raw materials sourced from crude oil and natural gas.
U.S. plastics makers are gaining from healthy demand from major end-markets such as packaging, building & construction and transportation. Packaging and construction industries remain the mainstays of the chemical plastics industry.
Higher industrial activities and growing consumer spending are expected to support demand for major plastic products including polyethylene and PVC across key markets. Demand for polyethylene — the most widely consumed polymer globally — remains strong in the packaging market for applications in films, bags, bottles and other packaging materials, thanks to growing usage in food and consumer packaging. Moreover, building and construction is a significant market for PVC and the favorable overall outlook for the housing market augurs well for this major plastic product.
The American plastics industry also continues to enjoy the advantage of access to abundant and cheap ethane feedstock extracted from shale gas. The shale bounty has provided U.S. plastics producers a compelling cost advantage over their global counterparts, which use oil-based feedstock such as naptha. This is driving investment in plastics production projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast to beef up capacity.
However, the trade tensions between the United States and China pose as headwinds to the plastics industry. The Trump administration imposed tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods earlier this year that led to China retaliating with tariffs on American products of equal value. The U.S. administration, in September, also levied a 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, thereby intensifying the trade tensions. In response, China hit back with tariffs on an additional $60 billion in American products.
China’s list of U.S. goods hit with tariffs include an array of plastics products. Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs would harm a major market for a range of chemicals and plastics produced in the United States. Chemical industry groups have raised concerns that the tariffs would hurt U.S. plastics exports and the competitiveness of the domestic plastics industry. China’s retaliatory tariffs have hit more than 1,000 U.S. chemicals and plastics exports worth an estimated $10.8 billion, per the ACC.
The trade tensions have weighed on U.S. chemical plastics stocks this year. Shares of prominent plastics makers such as Westlake Chemical Corporation (WLK - Free Report) , Trinseo S.A. (TSE - Free Report) , Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. (RYAM - Free Report) and PolyOne Corporation (POL - Free Report) have sagged around 32%, 30%, 28% and 23% year to date, respectively.
Westlake Chemical currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). While both Trinseo and PolyOne hold a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), Rayonier Advanced Materials is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Wall Street’s Next Amazon
Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.
https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/340709/us-plastic-resins-output-rises-in-october-tariffs-a-concern

Return to headline | Return to top
(ACC Mentioned) US Specialty Chemicals Volumes Up in October: 3 Stocks to Buy

Nov 30, 2018 | Zacks (In Nasdaq)

By Anindya Barman

The U.S. specialty chemical industry started the fourth quarter on a positive note with October seeing a rise in volumes, according to the latest report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").

Positive October Readings

The Washington, DC-based chemical industry trade group said yesterday that U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes rose 0.3% in October on a monthly comparison basis. This follows a 0.4% gain a month ago and a 0.6% increase in August. The data changes are reported on a three-month moving average basis.

Of the 28 specialty chemical segments monitored by the ACC, 17 saw growth in October. During the reported month, large market volume growth (1% and over) was witnessed across foundry chemicals, lubricant additives and textile specialties.

Per the ACC, the overall specialty chemicals volume index went up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis in October. Volumes were driven by year over year growth in 22 markets and functional specialty chemical segments. Oilfield chemicals notched up the strongest growth with volumes climbing 16.6%. The index stood at 114.4% of its average 2012 levels in October, which is equivalent to 3.54 million metric tons.

Trade Tensions Cloud Prospects

Specialty chemical products are used based on their performance and have a specific purpose. They have application in the manufacturing process of a vast range of products including paints and coatings, cosmetics, petroleum products, inks and plastics.

The ACC envisions national chemical production (excluding pharmaceuticals) to rise 3.4% in 2018 and further gain steam with a 3.6% growth in 2019. The growth is expected to be spurred by higher demand across light vehicles and housing markets, an upswing in U.S. manufacturing, favorable shale gas economics, capital investments and strengthening export markets. The trade group expects improving industrial activities to contribute to the growth of the specialty chemicals segment.

However, the prospects of the industry of late are being clouded by escalating trade tensions between the United States and China. The Trump administration imposed tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods earlier this year that led to China retaliating with tariffs on American products of equal value. The U.S. administration, in September, also slapped a 10% tariff (slated to rise to 25% starting 2019) on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, thereby intensifying the trade tensions. In response, China hit back with tariffs on an additional $60 billion in American products.

Beijing's list of U.S. goods hit with tariffs includes a wide range of chemicals. China is one of the biggest export markets for U.S. chemicals and thus, leaves the U.S. chemical industry heavily exposed to Beijing's retaliatory trade actions. The tariffs have created an uncertain demand environment for U.S. chemical products in this major market.

Strategic Actions to Reap Margin Benefits

Companies in the specialty chemical space are also hamstrung by feedstock cost pressure. These companies face headwinds from a spike in costs of raw materials as a result of short supply partly due to production outages and plant shutdowns. China's environmental crackdown has led to the tightening in the supply of certain key raw materials as a result of plant closures. The disruption in the supply chain has pushed up the prices of inputs.

However, the companies in this space are gaining from favorable demand in major end-use markets such as construction, electronics, automotive and agriculture as well as strategic measures including cost-cutting and productivity improvement, expansion into high-growth markets, operational efficiency improvement and earnings-accretive acquisitions.

Moreover, a number of companies including Ashland Global Holdings Inc. ASH and W. R. Grace & Co. GRA are taking aggressive price increase actions in the wake of raw material cost inflation. These actions should help them alleviate any pressure on margin.

Stocks Worth a Bet

Specialty chemical companies are bearing the brunt of trade tariffs and faces input cost pressure. However, strategic actions including expansion of scale through acquisitions and continued focus on cost and productivity should keep them afloat over the short haul. The favorable October volume data also augurs well for the specialty chemical industry.

We highlight the following three specialty chemical stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) that are worth considering for investment in the prevailing operating environment. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here .

Ashland Global Holdings Inc.

Kentucky-based Ashland sports a Zacks Rank #1. It has expected earnings growth of 13.7% for the current fiscal year. Earnings estimates for the current year have been revised 2.8% upward over the last 60 days. The stock also has long-term expected earnings per share (EPS) growth of 10%.

Ingevity Corporation NGVT

South Carolina-based Ingevity is another attractive choice. It carries a Zacks Rank #2 and has an expected earnings growth of 49.2% for 2018. The company delivered positive earnings surprise in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average positive surprise of 19.8%. Earnings estimates for the current year have been revised 3.5% upward over the last 60 days.

Celanese Corporation CE

Texas-based Celanese carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company has expected earnings growth of 47.8% for 2018. Moreover, it delivered positive earnings surprise in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average positive surprise of 13.3%. Earnings estimates for the current year have been revised 5% upward over the last 60 days. The stock also has long-term expected EPS growth of 10%.

3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now

The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline.

So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it.
https://www.nasdaq.com/article/us-specialty-chemicals-volumes-up-in-october-3-stocks-to-buy-cm1062827

Return to headline | Return to top
(ACC Mentioned) Industry Hails USMCA, Calls On US to End Steel Tariffs

Nov 30, 2018 | Plastics News

By Steve Toloken

Plastics and manufacturing trade groups praised the Nov. 30 signing of a new trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States, but some called on President Donald Trump to use the agreement to cancel tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Leaders of the three countries signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the replacement for Nafta, at the meeting of the G20 economic bloc in Buenos Aires.
While industry reaction was positive, with groups relieved that the long, contentious negotiations were able to maintain tariff-free trading among the countries, the American Chemistry Council called on Trump to eliminate all tariffs and quotas for steel and aluminum. ACC says the tariffs are raising costs for the industry's substantial investment boom in new U.S. facilities, fueled by shale gas.
"The Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum still cast a shadow over the zero-tariff philosophy of the USMCA," ACC said. "We urge President Trump to rescind all tariffs and avoid any quotas on steel and aluminum in order to maximize the job and economic growth made possible by the USMCA."
ACC noted that it supports the agreement, including an annex on chemical substances, covering regulatory cooperation in the trading bloc, and said it would advocate for strong investor-state dispute resolution language.
Three industry groups — the Plastics Industry Association in the United States, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association and the Asociacion Nacional de Industrias del Plastico in Mexico — issued a joint statement hailing the signing for providing certainty for business growth and innovation.
"We urge the legislatures of the U.S., Canada and Mexico to ratify this agreement and give the industry the certainty it needs to hire new workers and invest in the future," they said.
The Washington-based Window and Door Manufacturers Association also called on the Trump administration to revoke steel and aluminum tariffs, including those for Canada and Mexico.
The National Association of Manufacturers called on the U.S. Congress to approve the pact before the end of the year, and said that completing the agreement would give the U.S. more leverage in its trade talks with China.
"By securing the relationship with our North American allies, we are also better positioned to demonstrate a strong and united front against China's unfair trade practices and end the harm they inflict on manufacturers in America," NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said.
https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20181130/NEWS/181139983/industry-hails-usmca-calls-on-us-to-end-steel-tariffs

Return to headline | Return to top
(ACC Mentioned) US, Mexico, Canada Sign NAFTA Replacement Deal

Nov 30, 2018 | ICIS

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was signed by leaders of the three countries at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Friday.
The trilateral agreement covers an approximate $1.2tr worth of goods.
US President Donald Trump, along with Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto made various statements on the deal’s impact for future trade in North America.
Source: Twitter
The USMCA includes various labour protections, environmental protections, intellectual property protections and rules regarding digital trade.
Though signed, the deal will still need to be ratified by each country’s various legislatures.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) approved of the signing but urged Trump to rescind tariffs on steel and aluminum.
“The newly-inked USMCA, once ratified, would allow chemical manufacturers to continue to leverage the highly integrated, North American supply chain to reduce costs, boost US exports, and inject new growth and job-creation throughout the region,” the ACC said. “At the same time, the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum still cast a shadow over the zero-tariff philosophy of the USMCA.”
Under NAFTA, chemical companies in all three countries were able to utilise duty-free trade fore more than two decades, supplying each other with feedstocks and sending finished products to markets.
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2018/11/30/10289220/us-mexico-canada-sign-nafta-replacement-deal/

Return to headline | Return to top
(ACC Mentioned) Killing Rats Yields to AI as Science Seeks to Avoid Animal Tests

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Pat Rizzuto

Testing new pesticides sometimes involves having rats inhale them for 90 days, killing them, and then analyzing how much cell death or injury they find in the rodents’ noses and windpipes.
Syngenta Crop Protection LLC is trying a new approach as it compiles data on its fungicide chlorothalonil to submit to the EPA. It combines data on particle sizes, computer modeling of respiratory functions, and testing on donated human nose cells to predict how irritating the chemical would be to the airway.
It’s a test case for scientists advising the EPA, who at a Dec. 4-7 meeting will evaluate the potential utility and limitations of Syngenta’s nonanimal testing strategy. If the advisers endorse the approach, that would open the door to more companies being able to use similar approaches.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s response also would be another step in regulators’ broader efforts to decide whether alternative test methods are now reliable enough that chemical and household-product manufacturers, medical device makers, and pharmaceutical companies can reduce the need for testing on rats, birds, rabbits, and other animals.
Strategy
“Syngenta has spent a lot of time and money to perfect and optimize this approach,” said Amy Clippinger, a director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) International Science Consortium Ltd., which has been doing joint research with the EPA. “They’ve done a really good job developing a comprehensive human-relevant testing strategy.”
Dow Chemical Co., Royal Dutch Shell plc, and Unilever plc are among other companies working to perfect nonanimal testing methods, or at least tests that move away from the traditional use of mammals. EU regulators recently accepted data from Shell from tests using fish embryos, water fleas, bacteria, algae, and tiny minnows called zebrafish as evidence that a former refinery site posed no risks to the environment, said Sarah Hughes, a senior ecotoxicologist with Shell.
And the Food and Drug Administration’s medical device center is working with the Gaithersburg, Md.-based Institute of In Vitro Sciences and a group of personal care product manufacturers to evaluate whether a new type of test that uses human tissues could substitute for rabbit testing, Erin Hill, the institute’s president, told Bloomberg Environment. Some companies want to make vegan formulations and don’t want those products tested on animals, Hill said.
Tipping Point
A convergence of technologies that weave together different types of chemical information has reached a point that regulators are comfortable knowing that companies are generating the data they need for some decisions, said Richard Becker, a senior toxicologist at the American Chemistry Council, the primary trade association representing chemical manufacturers.
He and other scientists described four developments and several policies that are making regulatory use of nontraditional data possible:
New types of tests—for example, ones with transparent, microscopic worms called C. elegans—can simultaneously evaluate hundreds of chemicals. In days those tests can reveal a chemical’s potential to harm development. Standard rodent tests can take years to examine a single chemical.Thanks to regulations in the European Union and elsewhere, there’s a vast amount of publicly available chemical and biological information in databases around the world, said Craig Rowlands, a senior scientist at Underwriters Laboratories, now called UL LLC. Software developers working with scientists are figuring out ways to quickly search those databases and combine diverse information to reveal, for example, if a chemical that irritates eyes is also likely to irritate skin, Rowlands said. (Bloomberg Environment’s resource center uses content from UL for its BNA Trainer and ChemCite tools.)The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which evaluates international chemical-test protocols, launched its “adverse outcome pathway” (AOP) initiative in 2012. That project combines different sources of information to document the specific biological changes that occur following chemical exposure that lead to problems like skin rashes.More agencies are changing internal policies so regulatory managers can accept nontraditional data.
All of these developments—particularly the adverse outcome pathways OECD is developing—help companies as well as regulators, said Carl Westmoreland, science and technology director at Unilever’s Safety and Environmental Centre. The skin-irritation pathway, for example, shows how chemicals can bind to certain cell proteins, which triggers immune responses that result in skin rashes.
A consumer products company can use that type of test to decide if a small increase in a shampoo ingredient would be safe, Westmoreland said.
Agency changes include a 2016 letter the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs published inviting companies to submit data from nonanimal studies; a strategy the EPA’s chemicals office released in June describing its approach to accepting new types of data; the Predictive Toxicology Roadmap the FDA released in December 2017; and an interagency committee’s Strategic Roadmap on new ways to evaluate the safety of chemicals and medical products.
These give companies explicit information about what regulatory agencies want and how they could use that new information, said Warren Casey, director of a National Toxicology Program center working on new types of chemical safety tests.
Ordinary Rodent Studies
Ordinarily, the EPA uses rat data to understand whether and how much of a pesticide would irritate people’s airways. That information helps the agency decide what types of personal protective equipment like masks and gloves, exposure limits, and other safeguards are needed to protect pesticide applicators and farmworkers. Yet rats and people have quite different airways, breathing rates, and cellular makeups, the EPA said in materials ahead of the Dec. 4-7 science advisers review.
The information the EPA advisers review next week would substitute for a small part of the data the agency uses to register a pesticide, but it’s better and more immediately relevant data than that available through testing on rats, Paul Hinderliter, a senior Syngenta scientist, told Bloomberg Environment Nov. 27.
For the new testing, Syngenta measured the amount of its chlorothalonil that pesticide users might inhale and the size range of the fungicide’s particles, he said. The smaller a particle is, the deeper it can get into lungs and cause problems. The larger the particle, the more likely it will remain in the upper parts of the respiratory tract.
Cells That ‘Talk’
Syngenta fed the applicators’ potential exposure data into a computer model that calculated where the chlorothalonil particles would be deposited in human airways. The particles were so large they wouldn’t get past the nose, Hinderliter said.
Finally, Syngenta used a three-dimensional human cell test called MucilAir developed by Epithelix, a Swiss-based company. The test Syngenta purchased used nose cells donated by people following surgeries or other medical procedures, Hinderliter said.
The donated cells are prepared so they regrow into fully functioning cells that “talk” to each other using enzymes, electrical impulses, and other signals that constitute cells’ "language.” The cells even have tiny hair-like structures that help remove irritating particles, he said.
The nose cells are placed in tiny wells in specially designed plastic plates that mimic the bloodstream flowing underneath people’s cells and the air that wafts across them, Hinderliter said.
Syngenta’s scientists then measured early signs of respiratory irritation such as enzymes that cells release when disturbed and alterations in electrical charges, which signal cell membrane damage.
Those subtle early indicators of what later could become respiratory problems are important, Hinderliter said. If exposures to a chemical are kept so low that the early signs of irritation never occur, then neither would other more serious problems, he said.
What’s Next?
In the near future, the EPA’s pesticide program will finish an ecological-safety project it and PETA undertook, said Anna Lowit, science adviser for the agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs.
Traditionally, the EPA requires pesticide manufacturers to conduct two tests exposing birds to the products they want to register. The goal is to decide whether just one test could still provide sufficient information to protect birds from short-term, high exposures to pesticides, she said.
Both Shell’s Hughes and Kathy Plotzke—chief health and environmental scientist for consumer solutions at Dow—said refinements to ecological tests are important. Companies spend more time than people realize conducting tests to determine whether their products affect fish, birds, and other wildlife, they said.
Testing for Infants
The FDA also is interested in alternative test methods, particularly for therapies for human infants, Susan McCune, director of FDA’s office of pediatric therapeutics, said during a Nov. 14-16 Society of Toxicology meeting.
“Very few new therapies are being developed specifically for neonates,” McCune said.
Newborns can grow quickly, and that dramatic growth rate affects how drugs move through and affect babies, she said. The vulnerability of newborns and their quickly changing bodies are just two of the factors that make it hard for drug manufacturers to study the diseases these infants face, McCune said.
The FDA wants to learn more about how new types of toxicity data could help protect children, McCune said.
Resistance
The biggest barrier to using new types of safety data is that human beings and institutions resist change, Casey said.
Companies often claim regulators aren’t open to new methods, Casey said. But he said his years in the pharmaceutical industry taught him that corporate managers wanting to make sure they meet their metrics—and get related bonuses—also are barriers, he said.
Nonscientist managers, who don’t understand why a new type of safety data might be better, often are more comfortable providing traditional information that they think will win regulatory approvals more quickly, Casey said.
The reluctance is understandable, Casey and Hill said. If a new crop pesticide is delayed by a few months, the producer could lose the critical, seasonal window in which the product would have been applied, they said. For a business that needs to register a pesticide, “that’s a very hard decision to make,” In Vitro Sciences’ Hill said.
Regulators must proceed incrementally to make sure there’s solid science underlying new tests and the interpretation of test results, said Tala Henry, an acting deputy director in the EPA’s chemicals office.
“We have certain questions we have to ask. If you have a method that answers all those questions, let us know,” said Suzanne Fitzpatrick, a senior FDA toxicology adviser at the recent Society of Toxicology meeting.
“Our job is not to do all the research but to put safe and effective products on the market,” she added.

https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/killing-rats-yields-to-ai-as-science-seeks-to-avoid-animal-tests

Return to headline | Return to top

LCSA News - There are no clips to report at this time.

Chemical Management News

Utilities Urge EPA To Fix SDWA Constitutional Concern In Perchlorate Rule

Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Lara Beaven

Rural water utilities are suggesting that a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) that gives the EPA administrator “sole judgment” to determine new contaminants may be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge under the “non-delegation” doctrine, and are urging the agency to address the issue in an upcoming rule governing perchlorate.
“Given the premise that the SDWA provides the Administrator with 'sole judgment' to determine new contaminants to regulate and that we are not aware of any intelligible principle administering the delegated authority, we are concerned that the SDWA may not withstand a non-delegation doctrine challenge under Article One, Section 1 of the United States Constitution,” the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) says in a Nov. 21 letter to EPA water chief David Ross.
“We urge the Agency to identify an intelligible principle for implementing the 'sole judgment' SDWA authority and to make a finding that SDWA does not violate the non-delegation doctrine in any proposed and final rule.”
Under the non-delegation doctrine, when Congress gives EPA or any other agency the power to craft an enforceable rule it must also specify an "intelligible principle" to limit the regulators' discretion.
As such, it represents an opportunity for rule critics -- or the Supreme Court -- to limit EPA's rulemaking discretion by arguing that interpretations of SDWA or other statutes that give the agency broad authority run afoul of the little-used doctrine that bars Congress from giving the executive branch “unbounded” discretion to regulate.
Some observers say they expect supporters of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda to support use of the doctrine as a way to limit EPA and other agencies' discretion, possibly as an alternative to -- or in addition to -- an expected narrowing of the Chevron precedent, under which courts defer to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutory text.
The non-delegation doctrine dates back to the New Deal era but has only been used to strike down parts of two statutes, both in 1935, although there are at least two pending Supreme Court cases making non-delegation arguments.
While the high court has rarely ruled on the issue, the justices are poised to decide as soon as Nov. 30 whether to accept a petition over environmental limits on a border wall, Animal Legal Defense Fund, et al., v. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), et al., that argues in part DHS' broad authority to waive environmental and other laws in order speed construction on border-security projects violates the non-delegation doctrine.
A criminal law sex offender registries case, Gundy v. United States, that was argued before the high court Oct. 2 also raises non-delegation issues. The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, a frequent challenger to what it sees as expansive EPA authority, filed an amicus brief in Gundy where it links the case to the fight over Clean Water Act jurisdiction.
And the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has invoked the non-delegation doctrine in CBD v. Zinke, et al., a case that aims to find the Congressional Review Act unconstitutional. That case is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Industry and other critics of broad environmental regulations have previously sought to use the non-delegation doctrine to limit EPA's power, most prominently in 2001's American Trucking Associations, Inc. et al v. EPA, where a unanimous high court rejected a non-delegation challenge to the Clean Air Act.
Should the doctrine be strengthened by a new decision, an industry attorney says environmental cases would almost certainly follow.
And an NRWA source says the addition of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh could make the court more amenable to such arguments.
Perchlorate Rule
NRWA's letter addresses a pending EPA rulemaking that requires the agency to set first-time standards for perchlorate, the rocket fuel ingredient, in drinking water.
The rulemaking is subject to a court-ordered deadline that requires EPA to develop a health-based drinking water goal and enforceable drinking water standard for perchlorate. The deadline to propose both the goal and the rule was originally set for Oct. 31, but EPA has asked the court to extend that until April as it is struggling to peer review a model likely to form the basis for the rule.
Environmentalists have grudgingly agreed to the agency's extension request although a judge has not yet ruled on whether to grant it.
Once completed, the rule will mark the first SDWA regulation since Congress amended the law in 1996.
But NRWA is raising concerns with provisions in the law that give the EPA administrator sole authority to determine whether to regulate contaminants.
The letter notes that at the end of the Bush administration, EPA determined in 2008 that a perchlorate drinking water regulation would not present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems -- one of three criteria under SDWA the agency must meet before setting drinking water standards.
But the Obama administration in 2011 revised that determination and said perchlorate meets SDWA's criteria for regulation. That is, perchlorate may have an adverse effect on human health; it is known to occur or is likely to occur in public drinking water systems with a frequency and at levels of public health concern; and in the sole judgment of the administrator, regulation presents a meaningful opportunity for public health risk reduction.
“NRWA is not aware of any 'intelligible principle' articulated by the Agency on how the Administrator implements the 'sole judgment' SDWA authority in determining whether a contaminant meets the SDWA criteria for regulation,” the letter says.
An NRWA source says that if there were an intelligible principle, the determination on whether to regulate or not would not change due to a new administration. The “sole judgment” language, contained in the 1996 amendments to SDWA, “is an anathema to non-delegation,” the source says.
“It's not EPA's fault” that the language may be unconstitutional, but the agency needs to answer the question in any proposed and final perchlorate rule, the source says.
The source says NRWA likely lacks the expertise to make a non-delegation argument in litigation but notes a recent increase in both regulated parties and environmentalists making such arguments pending Supreme Court cases. And having raised the question in the SDWA context, “I think it's going to attract attention,” the source says.
In addition to its constitutional concerns, NRWA also backs technical concerns raised by other utility groups that have questioned the model EPA is seeking to develop as a basis for its rule.
For example, Kevin Morley of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) earlier this year suggested the model may not be the best available science that SDWA requires, suggesting that a risk value the National Academy of Sciences generated in 2007 may be a better option.
But experts peer reviewing the model released a report April 5 that generally supported EPA's approach and called it “fit for purpose."
NRWA is now joining AWWA in objecting to the model. The letter backs April 10 comments from AWWA to the agency that say the agency's model likely to underpin the perchlorate rule “is not fit for purpose and, if accepted, would set a troubling precedent for the scientific integrity of the Agency's regulatory process.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/utilities-urge-epa-fix-sdwa-constitutional-concern-perchlorate-rule

Return to headline | Return to top
Environmentalists Cite Health Fears To Fight EPA Water 'Blending' Policy

Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA

By David LaRoss

Environmentalists are threatening to sue EPA over any rule that authorizes wastewater treatment plants to “blend” partly- and fully-treated effluent during wet-weather events, warning in written comments that the state of research into potential health harms from blending is too thin to support a rational rulemaking process.
Comments obtained by Inside EPA signed by 69 environmental and public-health groups urge EPA to wait to craft its planned Clean Water Act (CWA) blending rule until it has more data on the effects of the practice, including whether blended wastewater is likely to contain dangerous levels of pathogens or disinfection byproducts.
“In the face of these questions, moving forward now with a rule that formally authorizes blending would be an arbitrary and capricious action, unsupported by substantial evidence, in violation of the principles that govern administrative decision-making,” the groups say.
The new letter, which is dated Nov. 9 but was obtained by Inside EPA Nov. 27, is a late response to EPA's call for pre-proposal input on its development of a CWA policy to govern blending practices at wastewater treatment plants.
In comments filed ahead of the Oct. 31 deadline, utility groups and states generally backed blending, arguing that it is often the best option for facilities facing heavy wastewater flows that could overwhelm the facility and cause an overflow if routed through the full treatment process.
However, the environmental and health groups say there are numerous “unanswered questions” about the impacts of discharging blended wastewater, especially because such waste usually does not receive a full course of secondary treatment that sterilizes otherwise-dangerous bacteria, viruses, parasites and other pathogens.
“When wastewater foregoes full secondary treatment, as it does when treatment plants engage in blending, pathogen reduction is far less successful. . . . As a result, there is significant reason to believe that discharging blended sewage that foregoes full secondary treatment could put public health at risk,” the letter says.
It continues that while blended wastewater is generally “disinfected” before being discharged, that process “is not the same as sterilization; it does not kill all pathogens."
Moreover, the letter says chemical disinfection could introduce new contaminants into the wastewater discharge, generally known as disinfection byproducts.
Blending supporters have argued that public-health concerns with the practice are overstated because any wastewater discharge must meet CWA permit limits, regardless of the treatment technology. But the environmentalists and health advocates say many wastewater plants have permits that set no limits on pathogens, or use a long-term average -- for instance, averaging the bacteria released over a month -- that would not protect against short-term releases of heavily infectious waste.
“The lack of appropriate effluent limitations is a serious problem in the blending context because members of the public tend to assume that if permit limits are being met, then all pollutants of concern are being adequately removed, and therefore contact with the wastewater poses no danger. (This assumption also seems to be shared by some members of the wastewater utility industry, who voiced it during stakeholder events over the past month.) However, this assumption does not hold true in the blending context, where permit limits on constituents like sediment and nutrients bear little relationship to the true health risk posed by the discharge,” the letter says.
It also says that since disinfection technology can vary widely in how well it handles various types of pathogens, permits that rely on a single “indicator” metric -- such as releases of the bacteria E. coli -- could allow blended discharges with high levels of other pathogens such as viruses.
Regulatory Safeguards
The environmental and public-health groups urge EPA to conduct extensive new research on potential blending hazards, and in the meantime to maintain the Obama administration's de facto policy of forbidding blending unless there are “no feasible alternatives” to the practice, despite a 2013 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit that held the ban to be beyond regulators' CWA authority.
“While EPA performs this information-gathering exercise, it should continue to treat blending as a prohibited bypass in the 43 states that are not affected by” Iowa League, the letter says. Decisions of the 8th Circuit are only binding in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Arkansas, although a municipal wastewater group is trying to revive a suit that would extend the 2013 precedent nationwide.
However, they continue that if EPA set on crafting a blending rule in the near future, it should set strict standards defining the practice and restricting its use to truly extreme wet-weather conditions.
“Because the impacts of blending are still not fully understood, the practice should not be allowed at all; but if it is, it should be considered a last resort that is kept to an absolute bare-minimum frequency, and certainly not authorized during every rain event,” the letter says.
Moreover, it continues, any facility that wants to install blending technology should be subject to a CWA discharge permit that includes stringent pathogen limits backed by frequent monitoring and public-notice requirements. “Not only will comprehensive monitoring ensure that individual permittees comply with permit terms and track attainment of water quality standards to keep recreational users safe, it will also help to fill some of the broader information gaps described above,” the groups argue.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/environmentalists-cite-health-fears-fight-epa-water-blending-policy

Return to headline | Return to top
Campbell Soup Loses Venue Dispute Over Tainted Water System

Dec 3, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Steven M. Sellers

Texas is the best venue to litigate a suit brought by Campbell Soup Co. against the supplier of a water heating system that allegedly contaminated some of the soup maker’s products, a federal court in Ohio ruled.
Campbell spent more than $1 million to correct the contamination and isolate affected foods at its plant in Paris, Texas, making that state preferable to Ohio, where now-defunct Direct Contact was based, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio said Nov. 29.
The water system produced soot, carbon monoxide, and aldehydes in the heated water used in Campbell’s food product, the complaint states. The company’s damages include the cost of isolating the contaminated foods, storage and disposal expenses, and “extensive system modification costs.”
Campbell properly filed its negligence and breach of contract case in the Northern District of Ohio because Direct was based there, the court said in denying the vendor’s bid to dismiss the case.
But Direct gained traction in its alternative motion to transfer the litigation to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Federal courts typically defer to a plaintiff’s choice of forum, but here a transfer to Texas weighed strongly in Direct’s favor because the allegedly defective water treatment system, the plant, and Campbell employees are in that state, the court said.
Judge Sara Loi wrote the opinion.
Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease represented Campbell. Davis & Young represented Direct Contact.
The case is Campbell Soup Supply Co. v. Direct Contact, LLC, 2018 BL 440150, N.D. Ohio, No. 18-cv-00942, 11/29/18.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/campbell-soup-loses-venue-dispute-over-tainted-water-system

Return to headline | Return to top

Energy News

Trump Said to Advance Seismic Surveys for Oil in Atlantic

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

The Trump administration is taking a major step toward allowing a first-in-a-generation seismic search for oil and gas under Atlantic waters, despite protests that the geological tests involve loud air gun blasts that will harm whales, dolphins and other animals.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is set to issue “incidental harassment authorizations” allowing seismic surveys proposed by five companies that permits them to disturb marine mammals that are otherwise protected by federal law, according to three people familiar with the activity who asked not to be named before a formal announcement.
The firms, including TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. Asa and Schlumberger Ltd. subsidiary WesternGeco Ltd., still must win individual permits from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management before they can conduct the work, but those are widely expected under President Donald Trump, who has made “energy dominance” a signature goal.
The seismic surveys to identify oil and gas reserves would be conducted in Atlantic Ocean waters along the U.S. East Coast, from Delaware to central Florida.
The research involves periodic blasts from large compressed air guns, which send out sound waves that penetrate the sea floor. When the sound waves bounce back, they are captured by sensors towed behind seismic vessels. The resulting data is used to produce detailed maps of underground geological features.
Conservationists say the blasts are so loud they jeopardize the hearing of dolphins, cause whales to beach themselves and disrupt animals’ mating and feeding habits. Scientists have warned that the surveys could cause long-lasting damage to marine animals.
The harassment authorizations are expected to lay out steps the geophysical companies must take to mitigate damage to animals, including limitations blocking surveys during the calving season for the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. There are under 500 remaining North Atlantic Right Whales, which travel each winter from their feeding grounds near Canada and New England to warmer waters off South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
“The seismic air guns are firing blasts that are so loud, they create one of the loudest man-made sounds in the ocean, and they fire every 10 seconds,” said Diane Hoskins, a campaign director with the conservation group Oceana. “The blasts are repeated every 10 to 12 seconds, weeks or months at a time, and the sound travels extremely far in the ocean—the distance of a flight from New York to Las Vegas.”
Supporters stress that similar seismic surveys are already being conducted for scientific research and help find sites for wind turbines off the East Coast. They argue that despite extensive use, there has been no documented decline in marine mammal populations from the work. And they note that when used to identify potential oil and gas resources, seismic surveys can help energy companies better target later drilling and decrease the odds of sinking more so-called “dry wells” that end up being a bust.
“These activities are exploration activities,” said Nikki Martin, president of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors. “The assessment of the resource is critical; it’s critical knowledge for the states and critical knowledge for the federal government in determining future decisions regarding offshore exploration and development.”
It has been decades since the last seismic surveys for oil and gas along the East Coast -- and those only touched a sliver of the territory the Trump administration is considering for energy development. The Interior Department is developing a proposal for selling offshore drilling rights over the next five years, after putting almost all U.S. coastal waters—including the Atlantic—on the table for leasing in a draft plan last January.
If ultimately approved, the seismic surveys would mark another Trump administration reversal of an Obama-era decision in the name of prioritizing domestic energy development.
The Obama administration denied pending seismic applications in January 2017. But Trump sought to streamline government permitting of seismic surveys in an April 2017 executive order. And within days, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had issued an order resuming evaluation of the seismic permit applications that had been rejected.
The other companies winning incidental harassment authorizations are CGG Services US Inc., Spectrum Geo Inc., and a unit of ION Geophysical Corp.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/trump-said-to-advance-seismic-surveys-for-oil-in-atlantic-1

Return to headline | Return to top
Earthquake Strikes Southern Alaska, Threatening Oil Exports (1)

Dec 3, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Robert Tuttle

A magnitude 7 earthquake struck Alaska early Nov. 30, shutting the state’s most important oil pipeline and potentially threatening crude exports.
The temblor hit 8 miles north of Anchorage. The 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System that carries crude from the Arctic coast to the marine terminal in Valdez was shut as a precaution, Michelle Egan, spokeswoman for Alyeska, said by phone. Egan said she wasn’t aware of any damage to the line, which transported 530,000 barrels Nov. 29 and has the capacity to move 2 million barrels a day. An update on the line’s status was expected later on Nov. 30, Egan said.
Alaska Air Group Inc. said it temporarily suspended operations at the Anchorage airport following the quake.
“We understand there’s considerable damage being reported” at the airport, the company said in a statement. There was one oil tanker at the Anchorage port, the Pacific Beryl, which was delivering jet fuel from South Korea to ports in Alaska.
Hilcorp Energy Co. has temporarily shut some of its operations in the area and is inspecting assets, which include oil platforms in Cook Inlet, not far from Anchorage. No spills or injuries had occurred so far, the company said in an emailed statement.

Alaska produced 494,000 barrels of oil a day last year, with most of it sent down the Alaska pipeline to Valdez, where it’s shipped out by tanker, usually to U.S. West Coast refineries. No tankers were at the terminal when the quake struck and “everything is fine down there,” Egan said. A few smaller vessels were moved away from the shoreline.
Hilcorp Energy Co. operates oil platforms in Cook Inlet, not far from Anchorage, while Marathon Petroleum Corp. has a 63,000 barrel-a-day refinery in nearby Kenai. Neither company immediately responded to requests for comment.
--With assistance from Kevin Varley.
(Updates with more comments from Alyeska and statements from ConocoPhillips and Hilcorp starting in second paragraph.)

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/earthquake-strikes-southern-alaska-threatening-oil-exports-1

Return to headline | Return to top
Exxon Water Permit Needs Speedier EPA Action, Federal Judge Says

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Adrianne Appel

A lawsuit alleging an Exxon Mobil Corp. facility in Massachusetts is vulnerable to climate change wouldn’t be necessary if the EPA was doing its job, a federal judge said Nov. 30.
U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ordered that by Dec. 20, Exxon and the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group, jointly seek answers from the Environmental Protection Agency about a new water pollution permit for an oil and gas site in Massachusetts.
“I don’t know why they aren’t doing their job,” Wolf said of the EPA during a hearing on the case in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The foundation filed a first-in-the-nation lawsuit against Exxon in 2016, alleging the company hadn’t effectively fortified its oil and gas facility on the Mystic River in Everett, Mass., to withstand the impacts of climate change. They want those factors added to the updated pollution permit.
After ordering the parties to approach the EPA, the judge turned his attention to the question of whether the lawsuit should be dismissed, as Exxon has requested. It was unclear when Wolf might reach a decision.
Permit Expired in 2014
Exxon’s Clean Water Act permit to discharge water from its operations in Everett expired in 2014.
Exxon has applied for a new permit, and the foundation asked the EPA to issue tougher requirements that consider climate change impacts. But the EPA hasn’t made a new permit a priority, Wolf said.
“You tell them Judge Wolf has issued an order. I want to know when and if they ever expect to decide on the permit,” Wolf said.
If the agency moved forward with the permitting process, many of the issues raised by the foundation could be addressed by the agency and its experts, Wolf said.
An EPA spokeswoman said the agency was unable to comment because it hadn’t seen the judge’s order.
The foundation alleges that Exxon regularly discharges water polluted with fuel oil, gas, and chemicals into the Mystic, a major river flowing into Boston Harbor, in violation of the Clean Water Act. Heavy storms resulting from climate change will cause even heavier discharges, it argues.
Exxon argues its Everett facility—like of all its plants—can withstand major storms.
‘Terrible Problem’
Christopher Kilian, an attorney with the foundation, said it is commonplace for the EPA to seemingly ignore Clean Water Act permit applications for decades.
“This is a terrible problem in the Commonwealth,” Kilian said.
Wolf agreed with the foundation to pause the current case, while the organization and Exxon pursue action from the EPA.
The case is Conservation Law Found.. v. ExxonMobil Corp., D. Mass., No. 16-cv-11950, 11/30/18.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/exxon-water-permit-needs-speedier-epa-action-federal-judge-says

Return to headline | Return to top
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Not Yet Ready to Hear Regulator Appeal on Shale Rules

Nov 30, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence

By Jamison Cocklin

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has for now rejected an appeal filed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) challenging the Commonwealth Court’s ruling on part of the agency’s comprehensive overhaul of rules for unconventional natural gas drillers.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) filed a lawsuit against the regulatory package -- one year in the making -- shortly after it took effect in 2016. The Commonwealth Court stayed parts of the package to decide on the lawsuit, which has prevented the DEP from enforcing the rules. In August, however, the lower court found that one of the seven counts being challenged by the industry related to rules governing hydraulic fracturing near playgrounds and similar properties is too restrictive, declaring them “void and unenforceable.”
DEP appealed, but the state’s high court quashed the appeal on Wednesday, refusing to hear it until the Commonwealth Court issues a final order on the other six counts. DEP spokesman Neil Shader said essentially, the high court told the agency “that we jumped the gun a little in appealing just part of the Commonwealth Court decision before the rest was done.”
Both parties acknowledged that once the Commonwealth Court issues its final order, the agency will have another chance to appeal, depending on the outcome.
The aspect of the rulemaking in question could restrict oil and gas development near playgrounds and other defined public resources as it would require operators to conduct a review of the impacts drilling would have on those kinds of properties.
Commonwealth Court Judge Michael Wojcik, writing for a five-judge panel in August, called the definition of playgrounds "so broad as to defy quantification and compliance...It obviously includes children's playgrounds, sports fields, and picnic sites. However, it also includes virtually any area open to the public for recreational purposes, including commercial enterprises, such as shopping centers, movie theaters, sports stadiums, amusement parks, and golf courses."
At the time, MSC President David Spigelmyer said the ruling would provide "valuable relief" for oil and natural gas producers.
The remaining six counts of MSC's lawsuit involve challenges to the state’s new rules governing area of review; onsite processing; impoundments; site restoration; remediation of spills; and waste reporting. Those aspects of the case are still pending before the Commonwealth Court.
MSC’s lawsuit seeks declaratory judgment that those sections of the regulatory package are unlawful, arguing that they would harm its members. Parts of the regulations have since been implemented and the industry is complying with them, but MSC is challenging what DEP has identified as being the core provisions of the new rules.
https://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/116634-pennsylvania-supreme-court-not-yet-ready-to-hear-regulator-appeal-on-shale-rules

Return to headline | Return to top
A Crucial Moment Arrives for U.S. LNG Exports

Dec 2, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal

By Christopher M. Matthews

With global demand for liquefied natural gas accelerating, 2019 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for LNG exporters in the U.S. A number of them will soon decide whether to move ahead with multibillion-dollar projects to ship the bounty of American shale to foreign markets.
There are currently just three operational terminals in the U.S. to export LNG: Dominion Energy Inc.’s D 1.02% Cove Point in Maryland and Cheniere Energy LNG -0.86% Inc.’s two plants in Louisiana and Texas. There are a handful of plants and expansion projects under construction, which were approved by regulators several years ago, but analysts say they aren’t enough to meet rapidly growing demand.
There are about 25 proposed U.S. LNG export projects, 13 of which could have regulatory approval within the next year. While not all of the projects will be built, the world needs at least a handful of them to satisfy demand. The U.S. could ultimately account for 20% to 30% of global LNG supply, analysts say.
The unexpectedly strong growth of demand over the past year is giving a boost to the U.S. export industry, which some had feared would stall. U.S. exporters could add 57 million metric tons or more of annual supply next year to the LNG market, nearly doubling the amount available for export, according to analysts.
American LNG exporters are competing for customers with suppliers in Canada, Qatar, Russia, Australia and elsewhere. But the U.S. companies believe the country’s vast natural-gas reserves, some of the largest in the world, and relatively low prices will make them competitive. A glut of natural gas has kept the U.S. benchmark price for LNG near or below $4 per million British thermal units for years. Asian LNG prices are more than double that, while European prices have been higher than U.S. prices by around 40% or more over the past few years.
Michael Sabel, co-chief executive of Venture Global LNG Inc., says his company will move forward with its estimated $4.5 billion project in Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. The company hasn’t previously announced its final decision to build the plant.
The Biggest Mistakes Bosses Make When Making Decisions—and How to Avoid Them
Research shows that how bosses decide is just as important as what decisions they make.
CLICK TO READ STORY
Want to Run a Good Meeting? First, Take a Comedy Class
What improv training can teach leaders about having meetings that actually accomplish something.
CLICK TO READ STORY
What #MeToo Has to Do With the Workplace Gender Gap
A new study from Lean In and McKinsey shows the pervasiveness of sexual harassment at the office and the persistence of inequality. That isn’t a coincidence.
CLICK TO READ STORY
Seven Jobs Robots Will Create—or Expand
Artificial intelligence threatens to destroy a lot of jobs. But there’s another side to the story.
CLICK TO READ STORY
How Bosses Waste Their Employees’ Time
Managers are often oblivious to the impact of their words and actions. Here’s how they can open their eyes.
CLICK TO READ STORY
The Tricky Task of Managing the New, Multigenerational Workplace
With older employees working longer, bosses must make sure they feel valued while also creating opportunities for young employees.
CLICK TO READ STORY
MORE IN LEADERSHIP
“Customers are starting to think there will be a production shortfall by 2021 or 2022, and that has ramped up contracting activity,” Mr. Sabel says.
The company’s Calcasieu Pass facility will be able to supply about 10 million metric tons a year of LNG, or about 1.3 billion cubic feet a day, and will take around three years to build. The company will make a formal announcement on the project in late January after it receives final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Mr. Sabel says.
The surge in global LNG demand is being driven by China’s push to cut carbon emissions, in part by shifting from coal-fired power plants to natural gas. Net Chinese imports of LNG will jump from five billion cubic feet a day in 2017 to nearly eight billion this year, according toCitigroup Inc., C -0.17% which expects China’s demand for natural gas to grow an average of 13% a year through 2021. One billion cubic feet is enough gas to fuel around five million U.S. homes for a day.The Boom Heads Abroad
Export Constraints
Burning Desire
LNG imports for selected nations and regions in billion cubic feet a day (rolling 12-month average). China's imports have surged.
U.S. companies approved plans for many LNG export-terminal projects in 2014 and 2015, but underinvestment in the years since in the U.S. and elsewhere may crimp global supply.
Some had feared the 10% tariff China imposed on imports of LNG from the U.S. earlier this year amid trade tensions with the Trump administration could stall the U.S. export industry. But China’s faster-than-expected demand growth is tightening supplies everywhere, meaning the world needs U.S. LNG to help fill the void.
“Over the last 12 to 18 months the global market has really tightened up,” says Kristy Kramer, a researcher at energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. “We expect 2019 to be a record year globally” for LNG consumption, she adds.
That shift may spur other major proposed projects in the U.S. to move forward, say analysts, including Tellurian Inc.’s TELL -0.96% $27.5 billion Driftwood LNG project and the $10 billion Golden Pass LNG Terminal, a joint venture of Qatar Petroleum, Exxon Mobil Corp.XOM 0.56% and ConocoPhillips . COP -1.03% The companies have said they could make a final decision on the projects, both of which are on the Gulf of Mexico, in 2019.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-crucial-moment-arrives-for-u-s-lng-exports-1543755600?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=4

Return to headline | Return to top
Oil and Gas Flow to Texas Coast Spawns Building, Tensions

Dec 3, 2018 | AP (In E&E Energywire)

By Jamie Smith Hopkins and Kiah Collier

To the east, the Gulf of Mexico stretches out, blue-green and sparkling. To the west and north, flounder and trout meander in a chain of bays.
People flock to Port Aransas to fish. Others come to this Texas beach town near Corpus Christi to kayak, parasail or admire the hundreds of bird species on the barrier island, which is deep into rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey damaged or destroyed 85 percent of the buildings here last year.
A perfect location, from a certain point of view, to put not one but two crude oil export terminals for ships so big they're called supertankers.
Those proposals are part of a historic build-out of oil and gas infrastructure in the United States as it becomes a top exporter of both fuels. Texas, home to the most prolific oil field in the country, is at the epicenter. More than 80 plants, terminals and other projects are in the works or planned up and down the state's Gulf Coast, from Port Arthur to Brownsville, according to a Center for Public Integrity and Texas Tribune review of corporate plans.
Oil and gas production in the U.S. has skyrocketed, particularly in West Texas. When Congress lifted decades-old federal restrictions on crude exports at the end of 2015, a move that came on the heels of rule changes throwing open the doors for exports of natural gas, it set off a mad dash.
Much of the export infrastructure is headed for just two regions: Houston — America's oil capital — and Corpus Christi, where a port previously focused on oil imports is battling it out with Houston to be the country's No. 1 location for moving crude to other nations. Each shipped out more than $7 billion in crude during the first nine months of the year, up from less than $1 billion two years earlier, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
"At the end of 2015 ... we had the first shipment of crude that was exported," said John LaRue, executive director of the Port of Corpus Christi. "And now, as I'm sure you know, it's a constant surge."
Oil and gas export growth means jobs paying good wages. But it also intensifies a quandary bedeviling the Gulf. Heavy industry there pumps out greenhouse gases warming the climate, upping the risks of powerful storms that, in turn, endanger those same facilities and everything around them. Hurricane Harvey, which dumped more rain than any other U.S. storm on record, damaged hundreds of thousands of homes in Texas last year, killed at least 68 people, and, particularly around Houston, sparked industrial spills, air pollution and explosions.
Many of the new or proposed facilities along the Texas Gulf are in areas that felt Harvey's bite. A Corpus Christi liquefied natural gas terminal — which just began operations and already has expansions planned — received permits to release up to 5.8 million tons of greenhouse gases each year, according to an analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project, a research and advocacy group. That's the equivalent of nearly 1 ½ coal-fired power plants. Other parts of this new supply chain will facilitate greenhouse gases pumped out in Asia and beyond.
"There is some irony or poetic justice, depending on your point of view, in having all these greenhouse gas emitters being the most vulnerable to climate change, but there are a lot of people living around them, and it's not such a good deal for them," said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and a former head of civil enforcement at EPA.
The boom also sets up a clash over the future of the mid-Gulf, a less industrial and more tourism-focused part of the Texas coast than Houston.
From the Port of Corpus Christi's perspective, the new export business is a huge plus. "You're going to see more development, more industry, more jobs," said Eddie Martinez, the port's business development representative, as he cruised in a boat along the ship channel in June, passing oil tankers and new projects.
But as the growth spills beyond the port's industrial spine, it's upending some communities.
The idea of building crude oil terminals in Port Aransas to serve ships extending the length of four football fields — requiring a much deeper ship channel in that area — has residents and business owners there up in arms.
"Everyone I speak to says they're against this," said Neesy Tompkins, who moved to town in 1978 after falling in love with its natural beauty.
This type of development boom on the coast isn't unprecedented, but it hasn't happened for decades, said Michael Webber, acting director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas, Austin.
"We're seeing massive build-out," Webber said. "Export infrastructure, chemical infrastructure, you name it."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/12/03/stories/1060108391

Return to headline | Return to top
First Senate Vote on FERC Nominee Tonight

Dec 3, 2018 | E&E Daily

By Jeremy Dillon

Senate Republicans are looking to confirm President Trump's controversial pick to fill the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week despite Democratic protests that the nominee could undermine renewable energy deployment.
The chamber will take a key procedural vote on Bernard McNamee at 5:30 p.m. today, where Republicans will likely have the numbers to push forward the current executive director of the Department of Energy's Office of Policy. A final roll call may come as soon as Wednesday.
While Democrats have been unable to stop the confirmation process from moving forward, lawmakers will look to make the vote as meaningful as possible, including remarks on the floor to raise awareness of some of McNamee's previous work.
That work involves stops as a political appointee in DOE's Office of the General Counsel last year, where he helped formulate Energy Secretary Rick Perry's plan to aid struggling coal and nuclear plants.
Throughout the confirmation process, Democratic lawmakers have pointed to that work as indicative of how McNamee would operate on the commission. FERC ultimately rejected the policy proposal unanimously amid opposition from the renewables and natural sectors (Greenwire, Nov. 15)
"This is like putting the fox inside the chicken coop," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) during McNamee's Nov. 15 confirmation hearing.
Democrats took additional issue with comments shown in a video that emerged last month of McNamee giving a February speech to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, in which he criticized the use of renewables, the fundraising tactics of environmental groups and the need for more promotion of fossil fuels (E&E News PM, Nov. 20).
In response to that video, McNamee told lawmakers he vowed to remain impartial in his decisionmaking to any fuel sources.
Republicans should have the numbers to advance the McNamee nomination regardless, unless outside issues intervene.
Both Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have promised to make the Senate floor process more difficult as a way of securing votes or briefings on their separate issues.
The two, however, appear to be enabling the consideration of agency nominations, both joining with their Republican colleagues to confirm Kathleen Laura Kraninger to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Should one defect, Republican math still has a backstop in Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who voted with Republicans to advance the McNamee nomination out of committee on a 13-10 vote (Greenwire, Nov. 27).
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/12/03/stories/1060108441

Return to headline | Return to top
Keystone XL Pipeline Cleared for Limited Pre-Construction Work

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Rachel Adams-Heard

TransCanada Corp. can resume certain pre-construction activities, including engineering and meeting with interested parties, for the Keystone XL oil pipeline following a federal court decision, the company said in an emailed statement.
The Nov. 30 decision clarifies a Nov. 8 order placing an injunction on the contentious project after Judge Brian Morris, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, found that the project’s 2014 environmental assessment by the Obama administration was inadequate.
TransCanada then asked the court to amend or clarify the order to say that early work was allowed, which the company said would pave the way for full construction to start as early as mid-February.
A decision on the remaining pre-construction work, such as movement of pipe and site preparation, will be made next week after Morris receives written arguments from the environmental groups behind the lawsuit, TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said.
“It is too soon to say what the injunction will mean to the timeline of the Keystone XL pipeline but we remain confident the project will be built,” Cunha said, adding that the company will now resume engaging with stakeholders.
The 1,200-mile pipeline, which would help carry 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refiners, has faced legal holdups amid staunch opposition from environmental groups and landowners. TransCanada has yet to formally declare that it will build the conduit.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/keystone-xl-pipeline-cleared-for-limited-pre-construction-work

Return to headline | Return to top
Keystone XL Oil Pipeline to Face Environmental Review Do-Over

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Rachel Adams-Heard

TransCanada Corp.’s long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline will face another round of environmental scrutiny, all but dashing company plans to begin construction in February.
The U.S. State Department indicated it’s going to undertake a new review of the $8 billion project in a Nov. 30 filing. The analysis, formally known as a supplemental environmental impact statement, will look at potential effects on greenhouse gas emissions, crude spills, cultural resources, and the overall market—issues a federal judge cited when he declared the original assessment inadequate earlier this month.
TransCanada didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the new review.
The 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline, which would help carry 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refiners, has faced legal holdups amid staunch opposition from environmental groups and landowners.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/keystonexl-oil-pipeline-to-face-environmental-review-do-over

Return to headline | Return to top

Chemical Security News

Carcinogen in Illinois Air to Get Review, Standards From EPA (1)

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Stephen Joyce

Residents in an Illinois town exposed to carcinogenic pollution from a plant that sterilizes medical devices will know more about the risks they face when the EPA completes an assessment in early 2019.
That review could lead to new air pollution standards for a Sterigenics U.S. LLC facility in Willowbrook, Ill., outside of Chicago. Although Sterigenics said its emissions of ethylene oxide are well within federal standards, the facility has been in the spotlight in recent months with members of Congress and nearby residents calling for stricter limits on the toxic air pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency heard from hundreds of concerned residents during a three-hour public meeting Nov. 29 on the facility.
“There’s a lot of things EPA doesn’t know. That’s a concern. But it’s also comforting because at least they know what they don’t know. So now they can work toward a full understanding,” Frank Trilla, Willowbrook mayor, told Bloomberg Environment.
In addition to Sterigenics, Medline Industries Inc. and Vantage Specialty Chemicals Inc. emit ethylene oxide emissions in Illinois..'A Logical Process’
Bill Wehrum, the top EPA air official, acknowledged at the meeting that those ethylene oxide emissions could caused elevated health risks for those living nearby.
“If we act before we have fact, we’re not doing anyone a service,” he said. “We have to have a logical process, we have to have a fact-driven process, and ultimately we have to have a legal-driven process.”
The agency at the meeting outlined its plan to complete an assessment of the Sterigenics facility and its emissions by February or March 2019.
Along with that, the EPA is reviewing ethylene oxide emissions standards (RIN:2060–AM31) for sterilization facilities that was issued in 2005. A proposal to update those requirements could come by mid-2019, EPA officials said.
Sterigenics officials didn’t attend the meeting, but the company issued a statement saying it meets all state and federal requirements for ethylene oxide.
The company also said that air pollution monitors it placed across the Chicago area between Oct. 12 and Oct. 23 routinely detected the pollutant.Congressional Bills Introduced
Some of Sterigenics’ critics complain that information on the company wasn’t released in a more timely fashion. A bill introduced in the U.S. House Nov. 29 seeks to remedy that concern.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) introduced H.R. 7189, which if enacted will require EPA to disclose its National Air Toxics Assessment, a review of pollutants and emission sources issued about every four years. The legislation was cosponsored by Reps. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), who attended part of the Nov. 29 public meeting, and Brad Schneider (D-Ill).
Illinois Democratic Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth introduced companion language (S. 3691) in the Senate.
When the EPA determines a chemical is a carcinogen, Congress needs to ensure that information is relayed to the public, Foster said in a Nov. 29 news release. “This legislation will ensure that the EPA utilizes the best available scientific data to evaluate chemicals in a transparent and methodical manner and communicate their findings with appropriate federal, state, and local officials.”
In a Nov. 29 statement, Durbin said the bill will close loopholes and force the EPA to do more when it comes to transparency on public health hazards in the future.
(Updated with additional reporting throughout.)

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/carcinogen-in-illinois-air-to-get-review-standards-from-epa-1

Return to headline | Return to top
EPA Imposes Obama-Era RMP Rule Mandates Despite Looming Rollback

Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Dave Reynolds

In compliance with an appellate court order, EPA is issuing a final rule imposing requirements of the Obama administration's January 2017 final rule strengthening the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility accident prevention program, despite plans to issue early next year a final rule largely scrapping the Obama-era rule.
In a final rule scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Dec. 3, EPA triggers -- effective immediately -- compliance mandates of the January 2017 Obama-era rule, which imposed new process safety, auditing and emergency coordination requirements.
Given the Obama rule's staggered compliance deadlines, facilities will have to comply with requirements to coordinate with first responders and conduct stricter process safety reviews, with additional compliance deadlines for the rule's other requirements trailing in the years 2020-2022.
EPA is imposing the new compliance mandates under order of a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which vacated the Trump administration's delay of the rule, but the new obligations will likely be short-lived given the administration's plans to largely scrap the Obama-era rule via a pending notice-and-comment rulemaking.
“The Court specifically identified as vacated the June 14, 2017 rule that had delayed the effectiveness of the RMP Amendments rule until February 19, 2019. The rule published today simply implements the decision of the Court,” EPA says.
EPA cites the court order as good cause for not seeking public input on the rule under an exception in the Administrative Procedure Act. “Since EPA lacks discretion to do otherwise, it would serve no useful purpose to provide an opportunity for public comment on this issue,” the agency says.
In an Aug. 17 ruling, a two-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit vacated the Trump administration's delay rule that postponed by 20 months, from June 19, 2017, to Feb. 19, 2019, the effective date of the Obama administration's final rule updating RMP, saying that the delay made a “mockery” of the Clean Air Act.
EPA bypassed an early October deadline to seek rehearing of the panel's Aug. 17 ruling, and is instead planning a significant rollback of the rule, backing industry arguments that disclosing facility data increases risks and that the Labor Department should remain the lead agency for process safety.
The Trump administration is seeking to quickly finalize a proposal that would rescind most requirements of the 2017 regulation, though the revision rule proposes to retain and amend provisions relating to first responders.
EPA sought public input through Aug. 23 on the May 17 proposed revision rule and plans to issue a final version in January 2019, though the agency has not yet sent a draft final rule for White House Office of Management and Budget review, which generally takes 90 days, but can take less time.
Muddles Enforcement
The imposition of mandatory requirements just months before the agency intends to scrap those same requirements muddles EPA's RMP enforcement in the coming months.
Micah Smith of the Conn Maciel Carey law firm, which advises industry clients, says that some EPA regional offices might enforce provisions of the Obama-era rule, despite headquarters' revision push. But he said that the pending revision raises questions about whether the RMP amendments would still be in effect when an enforcement action, which may take years, becomes final.
“A particularly active regional office with an ongoing investigation might [make] some noise about complying with these rules,” Smith said, adding that lengthy investigations and negotiations over potential violations would complicate finalizing any enforcement before the revision rule takes effect.
“Everything might just stay in flux until we find out what direction the reconsideration rule goes,” he says.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-imposes-obama-era-rmp-rule-mandates-despite-looming-rollback

Return to headline | Return to top
Workplace Safety Saves Lives and Money. Is Your Facility Prepared?

Dec 3, 2018 | Occupational Health & Safety Online

By Jay Smith

OSHA requires employers to protect employees from electrical hazards, including arc flash. Yet OSHA does not specifically explain how to comply with these regulations. NFPA 70E is the bridge between OSHA regulations and compliance. It is the consensus standard for electrical safety in the workplace, referred to by OSHA on numerous occasions. NFPA 70E 2018 states that safe work practices need to be used to protect employees from injuries while they are exposed to electrical hazards.
The total cost of safety cannot be underestimated. Those direct costs add up rather quickly. There area costs such as workers’ compensation, medical and legal expenses, and indirect safety costs such as training, accident investigation, implementation of corrective measures, and lost productivity. Not only does an electrically induced injury occur within seconds, causing severe and sometimes lethal injuries; it subsequently results in unscheduled interruption, expensive repairs to equipment and facilities, and regulatory fines. It is also known that workplaces with safety concerns tend to have lower employee morale and productivity.
As the electrical safety industry evolves to being technology-driven, workplace safety programs should adapt, as well. Equipment and safety devices are constantly improving. Industry 4.0 is focusing on the transition to smart factories, where machines, devices, sensors, and people will interact via the Internet of Things (IoT), predicting failures and triggering maintenance processes autonomously. Job automation and the number of computers and robots in the workplace will only continue to increase.
How do you prepare for these workplace safety challenges? There are five critical areas that must be addressed in order to drive a comprehensive and effective safety approach within your facilities. In this article, we will focus in on the safety of employees who are exposed to electrical hazards arising from the
1. Electrical Safety Program
First and foremost, the employer is required to establish a company-wide, all-encompassing safety program. NFPA 70E Section 110.1 requires an Electrical Safety Program, a written document that directs activity appropriate for the risk associated with electrical hazards. Its scope includes safety principles, policies, procedures, controls, awareness of hazards, risk assessments, job safety plans/job briefings, audits, incident investigation, and training, among others.
The Electrical Safety Program's key objective is to provide overall guidance. In order for the Electrical Safety Program to be effective, it must be properly communicated to, and understood by, everyone in the organization.
2. Hazard Assessment
Energy sources, including electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, thermal, and others, can be hazardous to workers. NFPA 70E Section 130.2 requires that all electrical equipment operating at voltages greater than 50 volts be put into an electrically safe working condition (disconnected from energized parts, locked/tagged, tested for absence of voltage, and grounded if necessary) before a worker performs any sort of work on the equipment. Organizations need to establish an effective lockout/tagout program to address this requirement.

These standards are general industry standards focused on addressing the practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery or equipment. When an electrically safe working condition cannot be established, electrically safe work practices must be used before any worker is exposed to hazards. Section 130.5 requires an arc flash assessment to be performed to determine the risks, the safe work practices required, the arc flash boundary, the incident energy exposure level at the working distance, and additional protective measures required, including the use of PPE. In order to perform under these circumstances, an energized electrical work permit is required if the work is performed within the restricted approach boundary.
There are various approaches on how to accomplish an arc flash assessment, which is why there can be confusion around the best practice and all of the requirements. Along with the numerous standards, there are various methods used to calculate and qualify an arc flash hazard. The scope of the assessment is another aspect to take into account. High-level assessments ensure all points are thoroughly assessed, whereas a more "cost-effective" choice would determine fewer hazards and end up costing more in the long run.
There are also misconceptions, including one that equipment supplied from a panel rated at 1.2 cal/cm2 (hazard category 0) will also be rated the same. There are scenarios where this may not be the case. The lower the fault current, the longer it will take a fuse or circuit breaker to open. If there are long cable runs, transformers, or other overcurrent protective devices, the incident energy and hazard risks can increase at panels and equipment downstream.
According to NFPA 70E 130.5 (H) and NEC 110.16, all switchboards, panelboards, industrial control panels, meter socket enclosures, motor control centers, and disconnect switches or circuit breakers that may be examined, adjusted, or maintained while energized must be identified and marked prominently with a label to warn qualified workers of potential electrical shock and arc flash hazards.

Incident energy analysis needs to be reviewed whenever changes occur in the electrical distribution system that could affect the analysis results, or every five years, whichever occurs first.
3. Hazard Prevention
Proactivity toward prevention lowers safety risks. Any and all preventive measures will drastically lower the probability of a hazardous scenario from happening. Preventive maintenance, such as infrared thermography, reduces the risk of equipment failure, job safety planning/job briefings, and safety audits, among others.
4. Hazard Mitigation
The hierarchy of control methods state that after any risks have been identified, risk mitigation needs to be effectively implemented, such as the following:Elimination, substitution, and engineering controls are the most effective methods. They are usually applied at the source and are less likely to be affected by human error, compared to awareness, administrative controls, and PPE.The potential for human error and its negative consequences on people, processes, the work environment, and equipment must be considered during the implementation of mitigation measures.
5. Electrical Safety Training
Training workers (employees and contractors) who are exposed to hazards is critical to workplace safety, particularly when the hazard risk is not eliminated or reduced to a safe level. Workers need to be able to identify and understand the specific hazards associated with their respective job assignments. Electrical safety, lockout/tagout, and emergency response in a classroom setting, on the job, or a combination of the two are required within the scope of training, according to the NFPA 70E standard.

A worker will be considered a qualified person once he/she is qualified to perform the job safely and is trained and knowledgeable about the equipment and work method; is able to identify the associated electrical hazards; and is familiar with the proper use of the precautionary procedures, techniques, tools, and PPE required to avoid them. Only qualified persons should be permitted to work exposed to electrical hazards that have not been put into an electrically safe working condition. Unqualified workers also need to be familiar with any electrical safety-related practices necessary for their workplace safety. The employer is responsible for determining, at least on an annual basis, that each employee is complying with the required safety-related work practices and for documenting that each employee has received the proper training, including names, training content, and training dates. The employer also has shared responsibility for contractors.
Creating a safe workplace is an ongoing process. Workplace safety is a key enabler of business continuity, operational performance, and productivity. It is also a critical factor in protecting your most important assets: your employees, facilities, and financial interests. Addressing these five key areas effectively will help you achieve a best-in-class safe, healthy, and productive workplace.
https://ohsonline.com/articles/2018/12/01/workplace-safety-saves-lives-and-money.aspx?m=1

Return to headline | Return to top

Transportation and Infrastructure News

Rebecca McPhail: Freight Rail Reforms Crucial to WV Economy

Dec 1, 2018 | Charleston Gazette-Mail

By Rebecca McPhail

Freight rail reforms are needed now, more than ever, if West Virginia hopes to continue expanding its economy, attracting new businesses and creating a wealth of new jobs across our state.
To grow West Virginia’s economy, we need to make sure that goods can flow smoothly and efficiently into and out of our state, especially by rail. Unfortunately, that is not currently the case thanks to outdated transportation policies in Washington.
By any calculation, a lot is riding on freight rail reform for West Virginia. Businesses in our state export $3.6 billion of manufactured goods each year —much of it by freight rail. Manufacturing accounts for 56 percent of West Virginia’s exports and nearly 47,000 mostly high-wage manufacturing jobs, or 6.5 percent of our total workforce. It also important to note that 75 percent of all exporters in West Virginia are small businesses.
That’s why a competitive and reliable freight rail system is so crucial for businesses in West Virginia — both big and small. Many of our state’s top industries, such as manufacturing, metals/minerals, and energy production, depend on railroads to send and receive millions of tons of product every year.
But because of massive consolidation, the freight rail industry has become a near monopoly, with just four railroads dominating about 90 percent of the market. A lack of competition — compounded by cost-cutting measures by railroads — and antiquated regulations have led to higher prices, spottier service, deteriorating rail networks and logistical nightmares for shippers.
The good news: These freight rail problems can be fixed.
The bad news: The governing board responsible for addressing freight rail problems has too many vacancies to act right now.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is the entity tasked by Congress to oversee the nation’s rail network. It has been hamstrung because most of its seats are unfilled. In fact, two seats have been vacant for nearly three years. The Senate Commerce Committee, including West Virginia’s Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V.a, has approved three nominees. It’s now on U.S. Senate leadership — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — to allow the full Senate to confirm President Trump’s nominees.
Once the Senate has done its part, the STB can finally get back to work on sensible reforms like competitive switching. Manufacturers are often stuck with one rail company because of outdated regulations that shield railroads from competition, which forces customers to pay whatever the railroad wants to charge. If approved, competitive switching would allow shippers with only one freight rail option to switch their freight to another rail company at a nearby interchange for a fair fee.
The STB should also look at cutting red tape from its overly bureaucratic process for resolving issues with unfair rates. Under the current system to challenge a rate, a shipper must design, on paper right down to the bathrooms, an entire railroad business, and prove that it could serve the same traffic at a lower cost than the rates charged by the existing railroad. It’s a nearly impossible task that is especially problematic for small businesses since rate cases can cost millions of dollars and take years to resolve.
The STB could fix this with another market-based reform called rate benchmarking, which would use real world data to establish benchmarks for competitive rates to help them decide when railroads are overcharging shippers.
To successfully transform and grow our economy we cannot afford to be saddled with ineffective regulatory policies that our mired in the past. That’s why the West Virginia Manufacturer’s Association has joined with other forward thinking groups to support freight rail reforms through the Rail Customer Coalition, which represents a wide range of manufacturers, energy producers, and small businesses.
We can’t afford to wait any longer and will keep pressing Washington to act on freight rail reform so we can create a business climate that encourages people to invest and build in West Virginia.
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/gazette_opinion/op_ed_commentaries/rebecca-mcphail-freight-rail-reforms-crucial-to-wv-economy/article_28748bd8-40d1-5ec9-9f49-051cb9abc129.html

Return to headline | Return to top
More Oil Trains? Perth Amboy Terminal Could Become Hub for Crude Exports

Nov 30, 2018 | NorthJersey.com

By Curtis Tate

For several years, millions of gallons of crude oil a week have traveled New Jersey's rail network on their way to Northeast refineries.
Now, more oil trains may be rolling across the state with a different purpose: exporting North American crude to other countries.
Reuters reported Thursday that the first known shipments of crude oil were exported through the Buckeye Partners terminal in Perth Amboy. Though the exports originated from North Dakota's Bakken shale region, Reuters reported that Buckeye is preparing to accept trainloads of heavy crude from western Canada.
Congress lifted a 40-year ban on oil exports in 2015, and the United States is now exporting as much as 3 million barrels per day.
Rail has become an important conveyance for North America's crude oil production, even amid an expansion in pipeline capacity.
According to data published Friday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 544,000 barrels a day moved on U.S. rails in September. Nearly half that volume, 264,000 barrels, crossed the border from Canada.
In September, 132,000 barrels of oil were bound for the East Coast each day, 52,000 of them from Canada. That's more than a five-fold increase from September 2017.
The shipments have raised concerns from lawmakers, emergency response officials and community and environmental advocates because of the potential for a spill or fire resulting from a derailment.
A BNSF train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Iowa in June, spilling 160,000 gallons into a flooded river.
A Union Pacific train carrying Bakken crude derailed along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon in June 2016, spilling nearly 50,000 gallons and igniting a large fire.
During the peak period of crude by rail shipments from 2013 to 2015, more than a dozen trains derailed throughout North America, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil, igniting large fires and causing mass evacuations.
The worst derailment, in Quebec in July 2013, killed 47 people when a river of burning Bakken crude swept over the lakeside town of Lac-Megantic.
The derailments prompted a major overhaul of regulations on both sides of the border. Flammable liquids, including crude oil and ethanol, are now shipped in sturdier tank cars. Railroads inspect their tracks more frequently. Oil producers test and label their products to properly reflect the risk they pose.
Firefighters and other local officials have received more training from the railroads on how to respond to a derailment, and railroads are sharing more information about the hazardous materials they ship.
In New Jersey, a bill to strengthen state oversight of oil trains was vetoed last year by former Gov. Chris Christie. Its primary sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Loretta
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2018/11/30/oil-trains-perth-amboy-terminal-could-become-hub-crude-exports/2163667002/

Return to headline | Return to top
It’s Time to Move on Sustainable Infrastructure

Nov 30, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog

By Gerry Connolly, Doris Matsui and Paul Tonko

A major infrastructure overhaul is long overdue. Revitalizing and updating our infrastructure is absolutely necessary for America to compete and maintain its leadership in the global economy. It’s essential to creating jobs, including immediate construction jobs across the country and spurring long-term job growth across a variety of sectors. And a smart infrastructure plan is also a crucial opportunity to take bold and immediate action on climate change.
Our country and our global economy are at a turning point, and any old infrastructure plan simply will not do. We need a plan to establish American leadership and prosperity for the next century. And for that, we need a plan built around sustainability and resilience. While serving to spur economic growth and increase our security, a smart infrastructure plan that takes the long-view must advance serious solutions to climate change.
The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that we have barely more than a decade to take serious action on climate change if we are going to prevent its most catastrophic impacts. Experts advise robust improvements in energy efficiency, innovative polices that support electrification across our economy, and investments to modernize our grid and encourage the deployment of more clean energy resources if we hope to prevent a global temperature increase that threatens all communities.
These policies are not only vital to addressing climate change, but they’re critical to building our communities and our economy in more resilient and sustainable ways. They are areas where we should be able to find bipartisan support and should be included in a forward-thinking, broad reaching infrastructure plan.
There are so many reasons to move forward now on a sustainable infrastructure plan. Investing in clean energy, for example, isn’t just about greenhouse gas pollution. It’s also about spurring job growth in America’s rural communities by increasing our reliance on wind power.
It’s about reducing hazardous air pollution that endangers the health of our families by increasing deployment of solar power and zero-emission vehicles. It’s about giving American businesses the competitive advantage in rapidly growing sectors like battery storage. And for some, it’s simply about energy freedom—whether that’s the freedom from dependence on resources imported from a foreign power or the freedom to power your own home without having to rely on the grid.
For members of Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, it’s about all of the above and the urgent need to address the climate crisis.
Too many Americans are losing their homes, their livelihoods, and in the worst cases their lives, to increasingly extreme storms, floods and fires. While striving to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, we also have to deal with the ones our communities are already facing by investing in more resilient infrastructure that can weather storms better and keep Americans safer. To ignore these dangers puts lives at risk and wastes significant taxpayer dollars. For example, in Norfolk, where sea-level rise is quickly putting many parts of the community in harm’s way, a recently constructed $318 million light-rail system—paid for primarily with federal funds—was built at sea level. Currently, the system risks ultimately being swept away and the money wasted, but with better planning, the tracks could have been elevated to safeguard against the rising tides.
Last February our Caucus put together a broad reaching infrastructure proposal, which includes many legislative ideas for building more sustainably. We can institute policies to protect natural ecosystems like wetlands and forests that provide communities with water filtration, flood mitigation and protection from storm surge, and we can support community investment in storm water systems that better manage increased flooding and water runoff associated with climate change.
Any infrastructure plan we consider must be a job creator and a bold climate bill. According to the BlueGreen Alliance, a clean infrastructure plan that protects workers, communities and the environment could create up to 2.7 million jobs across the economy.
It’s hard to enumerate all the possibilities for a smart, sustainable infrastructure plan. Our proposal only scratches the surface, but our hope is that it will spur action to address these serious environmental challenges while promoting economic opportunity and building the infrastructure we need to keep America competitive for the next century.
All our communities, red and blue, will only suffer if we fail to pass a sustainable infrastructure package.
Connolly, Matsui and Tonko are co-chairs of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC).
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/419201-its-time-to-move-on-sustainable-infrastructure

Return to headline | Return to top

Environment News

Key Terms and Issue at This Year’s Global Climate Summit

Dec 1, 2018 | AP (In The Washington Post)

By Frank Jordans

Negotiators are gathering in Katowice, Poland, for the annual U.N. climate summit, known informally as COP 24. It is the most important international meeting for countries to discuss and coordinate the fight against global warming.
Here is a look at some of the key issues and terms that will come up at the event, which starts Sunday and ends on Dec. 14:
COP
The acronym stands for Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Held for the first time in 1995, the COP also acts at the meeting of parties to the 1992 Kyoto Protocol that first committed countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The term “Paris” is often used to refer to the accord’s headline goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times, and if possible to limit the increase to 1.5 C (2.7 F).
PARIS RULEBOOK
When leaders approved the 2015 accord, they put aside a lot of questions about the finer details of how the agreement would work.
The meeting in Katowice is meant to finalize those details, including how countries will collect and transparently report their greenhouse gas emissions, and keep track of efforts to reduce them.
NDCs
Rather than set a global target for emissions cuts, the Paris Agreement allowed countries to submit their own goals, known as Nationally Determined Contributions.
It was recognized that all the initial national targets together wouldn’t be enough to keep global warming below 2 degrees C, so the Paris accord requires countries to keep raising their goals over time.
The next set of NDCs for the period after 2020 needs to be submitted within the next two years. An overview of submissions so far can be found here .
TALANOA DIALOGUE
To encourage countries to keep raising their NDCs, regular discussions are held among all parties to the Paris Agreement.
These review what’s been achieved so far and what needs to be done next. As part of its presidency of last year’s climate meeting, Fiji introduced the notion of “talanoa,” a form of open conversation rooted in the Pacific island’s culture that’s intended to allow participants to share their stories and learn from each other.
It’s hoped that the so-called Talanoa Dialogue will allow countries to discuss sensitive issues without resorting to blaming others.
GLOBAL STOCK-TAKE
Once every five years, countries are meant to summarize the world’s overall progress toward achieving the Paris goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees C — if not 1.5 C.
The first such global stock-take was meant to happen in 2023. But because the Paris accord was ratified so quickly, this year’s meeting is regarded as the first, albeit unofficial global stock-take.
CLIMATE FINANCE
Curbing global warming is expected to require a vast overhaul of the world’s economy, as countries shift from using fossil fuels to using clean sources of energy to heat homes, manufacture goods and power all manner of devices from cars to computers.
Rich countries have the resources to pay for this transition but many poor countries don’t. To ensure that they, too, reduce their greenhouse gas emissions large sums of money will need to flow from rich to poor countries.
Aside from using the money to “green” their economies, developing nations will also need funds to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change, such as sea level rise, which are predicted to hit poor countries hardest.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/key-terms-and-issue-at-this-years-global-climate-summit/2018/12/01/cd102d00-f542-11e8-99c2-cfca6fcf610c_story.html?utm_term=.20ed9d9545a9

Return to headline | Return to top
Trump Splits From Other G-20 Leaders on Climate Change

Dec 3, 2018 | E&E Climatewire

By Jean Chemnick

Countries led by France and China succeeded in isolating President Trump this weekend at the Group of 20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The nations included a reference to the Paris Agreement in a communiqué covering issues from migration to trade. All G-20 leaders except Trump pledged to "reaffirm that the Paris Agreement is irreversible and commit to its full implementation."
The statement by those countries reads: "We will continue to tackle climate change while promoting sustainable development and economic growth."
The 19 members of the G-20 apart from the United States all also signed last year's action plan at the group summit in Hamburg, Germany, which was held one month after Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris accord and abandon its commitment to it. The G-20 plan bolstered the Paris deal and reaffirmed countries' determination to see it through implementation.
Earlier drafts of this year's communiqué omitted mention of Paris altogether, a move proposed by an Argentinian presidency wary of angering the American president. But in negotiations that went on all night Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping prevailed, adding language to the final draft that showed the U.S. president was alone — again — in rejecting the deal.
The statement came after European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker penned a letter last week calling on E.U. leaders to use the talks in Buenos Aires to highlight climate ambition.
"The United States reiterates its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, and affirms its strong commitment to economic growth and energy access and security, utilizing all energy sources and technologies, while protecting the environment," states the communiqué.
Whereas last year's Hamburg declaration included a U.S.-only pledge to "endeavor to work closely with other counties to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently," this year's declaration has no specific reference to fossil fuels — even in the U.S.-only section.
The United States, though, joined its partners in taking note of this October's landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which found that warming must be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid catastrophic effects.
"We recognize the importance of comprehensive adaptation strategies, including investment in infrastructure that is resilient to extreme weather events and disasters," said all parties, including the United States.
"In this sense, we support actions and cooperation in developing countries, especially those that are particularly vulnerable, including small island states, such as those in the Caribbean."
The G-20 members also say they "discussed" long-term low-greenhouse-gas development strategies and even the Talanoa Dialogue, a session to be held at the Katowice, Poland, climate talks that kick off today. The dialogue is aimed at increasing the ambition of national commitments to the Paris Agreement in 2020, after the United States is slated to pull out. State Department career official Judith Garber will participate in the forum for the United States.
The end result does less to single out the United States than last year — but also less to trumpet the use of conventional energy sources. That appears to be a French innovation. The French fought last year to keep the fossil fuel language out of the final statement; this year's wording suggests they won.
Some greens applauded the G-20's refusal to ignore Paris, saying the language would send a positive signal to Katowice, where negotiators over the next two weeks face the difficult task of completing implementation guidelines for Paris.
"Other G-20 leaders have reaffirmed their support for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement, heeding the urgent warning from the world's scientific community that much greater efforts to decarbonize the global economy are needed if we are to avoid truly catastrophic climate impacts," said Alden Meyer, strategy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Now these leaders must back up their words with strong actions."
But Nathaniel Keohane, who leads the Environmental Defense Fund's climate program, saw some evidence that the United States might have watered down the group's reference to the IPCC report, changing it from an endorsement to a taking "note," which he called "about the weakest verb possible."
References to the Katowice talks and Talanoa are "milquetoast," he said, "since they don't specify what success or engagement means."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/12/03/stories/1060108469

Return to headline | Return to top
States, Industry Group At Odds Over Trump EPA's HFC 'Management' Plan

Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA

By Lee Logan

Democratic-led states are at odds with a manufacturing industry coalition over a Trump EPA plan to rescind Obama-era rules extending refrigerant management and leak guidelines to appliances that use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are a potent short-term greenhouse gas.
In recent comments on the Trump administration proposal, critics say it takes an unlawfully restrictive view of section 608 of the Clean Air Act, which bans knowingly venting ozone-depleting substances (ODS) or their “substitutes,” a category that includes HFCs.
However, industry groups that have long opposed the Obama rules are applauding the move, arguing that the agency lacked authority in the first place for the 2016 rules because HFCs do not deplete the ozone layer and section 608 of the air law primarily targets ODS.
The law “grants the agency with authority to issue restrictive regulations only for” ODS, say Nov. 15 comments from the National Environmental Development Association's Clean Air Project (NEDA/CAP), a multi-sector manufacturing coalition of companies that operate domestic facilities, noting that the group raised an identical concern in 2017 litigation over the Obama rules.
That suit, NEDA/CAP v. EPA, was paused by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after Trump officials agreed to revisit the Obama regulation in August 2017.
The agency's Sept. 18 proposal is an outgrowth of that reconsideration process, with the agency proposing to scrap leak repair and other management guidelines for appliances that only use substitute chemicals such as HFCs, while it is retaining them for appliances that use a blend of HFCs and ODS.
The approach in the proposal generally tracks with EPA's new legal interpretation that it cannot restrict HFCs under its significant new alternatives policy (SNAP) program if an operator has already replaced ODS with those substitutes.
NEDA/CAP argues that despite section 608(c)'s restriction on venting substitutes, section 608(a) does not extend separate management guidelines to such chemicals, meaning the 2016 rule was unlawful.
EPA at the time argued the 608(a) language was ambiguous and thus, under the Chevron doctrine, it was reasonable to extend the management guidelines to substitute chemicals because they were already covered by venting restrictions.
“NEDA/CAP continues to object to applying the Chevron Doctrine to bootstrapping EPA’s interpretation of Section 608(a) to carry out Section 608(c) by requiring the use of certified technicians and applying other Subpart F requirements to non-exempt ODS substitutes,” the group says. “Regulations are unnecessary because Section 608(c) is a self-effectuating statutory provision, and it is being implemented by good management practices based on the case-by-case nature and conditions of a particular appliance.”
NEDA/CAP's members include major corporations across a variety of manufacturing sectors, including Boeing, BP, Caterpillar, Eli Lilly and Co., Koch Industries, Occidental Petroleum, Weyerhaeuser and others.
Other industry groups, such as appliance manufacturers and some chemical companies previously supported the Obama-era 608 standards, creating a split within industry.
'Misguided' Proposal
However, a coalition of 16 Democratic state attorneys general (AG), led by Massachusetts' Maura Healey, writes in Nov. 15 comments that the 2016 rule was appropriate because it would lead to additional ODS cuts, “protect public health and welfare by reducing climate-warming refrigerant substitutes, and promote regulatory certainty and compliance by harmonizing standards across all major refrigerant types.”
The agency's new interpretation of its air law authority is “unlawful and misguided,” the AGs argue, and is “part of EPA’s recent pattern of cross-program efforts to roll back regulations promulgated under clear and established statutory authority to protect the public from the dangers of ODSs and their substitutes.”
They add that “rescission of those requirements would increase, rather than reduce, harmful emissions, a critical fact EPA now blatantly ignores.”
Further, extending leak repair standards to ODS substitutes offered a “roadmap for compliance with the venting prohibition for technicians who handle both ODSs and their substitutes, permitting them to follow one, clear set of protocols for all refrigerants. The Proposed Rule replaces this certainty with an uneven and confusing regulatory scheme.”
The 2016 standards also earn an endorsement in Nov. 14 comments from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA). That group largely faults EPA's proposal to scrap current restrictions that limit handling of refrigerants to certified professionals.
The existing restriction prevents the release of both ODS and substitutes, the group argues, and prevents safety accidents that can occur with an untrained operator.
Contractors also believe the rescission of leak repair guidelines for ODS substitutes is “misguided,” because it would mean larger air conditioners would use more energy and would cause “premature equipment failure.”
“While the current 608 program is not perfect, particularly when it comes to enforcement, it has created a safety barrier that, more often than not, protects consumers,” ACCA says.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/states-industry-group-odds-over-trump-epas-hfc-management-plan

Return to headline | Return to top
States, Industry Clash Over EPA Plan to Delay Landfill GHG Rule

Nov 30, 2018 | Inside EPA

The Maryland Attorney General's (AG) office is raising concerns over the climate impacts of EPA's proposal to delay implementation of the Obama-era landfill methane rule, warning in testimony to the agency that it should act promptly to achieve reductions of the third largest man-made source of the potent greenhouse gas.
However, the waste industry is downplaying the significance of the proposal and opted not to testify at a Nov. 27 hearing where environmental groups also criticized the delay.
One industry source says that the proposal simply aligns deadlines for states to submit implementation plans to EPA with a pending power plant GHG proposal known as the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule.
Both rules were issued under the same section of the Clean Air Act, 111(d). "We think this is good public policy, and plan to submit comments in favor, but it really has no impact on our operations, so we decided there was no compelling reason to testify," the source says.
That contradicts Maryland's testimony delivered by special assistant AG Josh Segal, who says that instead of delaying the landfill methane rule, EPA should act quickly on the issue, a need underscored by the recent dire National Climate Assessment released by the Trump administration.
He also notes that there is technology to capture methane from the landfills and convert it to marketable fuel. "When it comes to combating the causes of climate change, methane emissions from landfills are low-hanging fruit. Particularly in these circumstances, EPA should have acted promptly -- at the very least within the deadlines prescribed by its own regulations -- to review state plans for implementing" the rule, Segal says.
Under the original rule, each state would already have "a valid and enforceable plan" and "landfills would be on their way to achieving the 330,000-ton annual methane emissions reductions that the regulations envision.”
But because the agency is pursuing the delay, "no state has an approved compliance plan" and the agency has not taken action on the three state plans that have been submitted. Segal also notes that the ACE deadlines that EPA is aligning with its methane regulations are still "just a proposal," while the methane rule has been "final, effective and legally binding" for more than two years. He urges EPA to abandon the delay proposal.
Maryland and eight other states have sued to compel the agency to act, and Segal says the state will be submitting joint comments with the AGs of other like-minded states.
EPA issued the rule for existing landfills in August 2016 and set a May 30, 2017, deadline for states to submit compliance plans. The new proposal -- issued earlier this month -- extends the deadline to August 2019, a three-year timeframe consistent with the 111(d) changes the agency is proposing in ACE. It also seeks to extend EPA's deadline to act on state plans from six months to two years, and it would give EPA an additional eight months -- from four months to one year -- to issue a federal plan for states that submit unapprovable plans or no plan at all.
The Department of Justice flagged the delay proposal in an Oct. 23 filing in the lawsuit Maryland cited, a move that could allow DOJ to argue the case is moot.
Also testifying in opposition to the proposal, Rachel Fullmer of the Environmental Defense Fund says that if finalized the measure "would further delay updates that were already more than a decade overdue by the time they were proposed in 2014, resulting in substantial additional climate-destabilizing and health harming pollution."
Lissa Lynch of the Natural Resources Defense Council says in her testimony that, "EPA's recent actions regarding the Landfill Rule make clear that the ACE proposal is merely convenient pretext to continue to delay the rule's implementation."
And Matthew Bowen of the Clean Air Task Force testified that while EPA's proposal contends that only three states submitted plans, “what it fails to disclose in its proposal is that it told states and regulated sources not to concern themselves with compliance. . . . To claim that the failure of states to submit plans is evidence that the needed more time is entirely disingenuous."
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/states-industry-clash-over-epa-plan-delay-landfill-ghg-rule

Return to headline | Return to top
Fast-Track Reviews Spark Concern Among EPA Advisers

Nov 30, 2018 | E&E News PM

By Sean Reilly

The Trump administration's inaugural attempt to speed up reviews of national air quality standards is already fanning unease among a key group of participants: the outside advisory panel that will help carry it out.
At a kickoff teleconference yesterday for a new review of the ground-level ozone standard, several members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) voiced concerns about both a fast-track timetable and acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler's recent decision against creation of an auxiliary panel to provide added know-how.
"I believe that getting high-quality documents is much more important than meeting the deadline of October 2020," said Jim Boylan, a senior air official with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Tim Lewis, an Army Corps of Engineers researcher who now specializes in aquatic ecology, noted that he had not been involved in the air pollution field "for a good number of years." The absence of the auxiliary panel might hinder the seven-member CASAC "from being able to meet the schedule," Lewis said.
During previous reviews, such panels "provided invaluable expertise [and] different perspectives that greatly strengthen the process," said Dr. Mark Frampton, a retired professor of medicine from the University of Rochester. "I think as a CASAC, we should — and hopefully unanimously — request that EPA create an ozone review panel."
EPA representatives did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment this afternoon. During the teleconference, CASAC Chairman Tony Cox said he hoped the committee could do a top-notch job and meet an "aggressive schedule."
If that proves impossible, "I do plan to acknowledge that and to request whatever changes or help might be necessary so that we guarantee that we end up with a quality product," said Cox, a Denver consultant.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to assess and — if warranted — revise the ambient air quality standards for ozone, particulate matter and four other "criteria" pollutants every five years. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, typically made up mainly of academic researchers on air pollution's health and environmental effects, is statutorily supposed to provide independent expertise during those reviews.
Ozone is a lung irritant linked to asthma attacks in children and breathing problems for people with emphysema and other chronic respiratory diseases.
The current 70-parts-per-billion standard dates back to October 2015. The review is the first to be launched under new ground rules put in place in May by then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt. Among other changes, Pruitt put top priority on meeting the Clean Air Act's five-year deadline. As a result, the new assessment is supposed to wrap up by October 2020.
EPA kick-started the review in June. The 2 ½-year timetable for its completion has no recent precedent. Wheeler also broke with tradition last month when he scuttled plans to form an auxiliary panel to aid in the ozone review and disbanded an existing panel that was helping in a separate appraisal of the particulate matter standards (Greenwire, Oct. 12).
The use of the panels dates back decades. Wheeler has not given his rationale for concentrating authority in the seven-member CASAC, other than to say through a spokesman that it is consistent with the act and the committee's charter, neither of which mentions review panels.
The committee is now entirely made up of appointees named by Pruitt and Wheeler. In written comments earlier this week, a group of former CASAC members and other participants in previous air quality assessments said it lacks the expertise needed to carry out the ozone standards review (Greenwire, Nov. 26). Chris Frey, a North Carolina State University engineering professor who was the lead signer, reiterated that point in oral comments during yesterday's teleconference.
The conference's purpose was to discuss a draft plan for carrying out the review. While the tight timetable promises to put pressure on EPA career employees responsible for doing most of the work, "we are very much trying to keep to an accelerated schedule and keep the number of drafts of documents to a minimum," Erika Sasser, head of the health and environmental impacts division at the agency's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, told CASAC members at the outset.
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/11/30/stories/1060108407

Return to headline | Return to top
Post-Brexit Environmental Watchdog Will Have Teeth: U.K. Minister

Nov 30, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Ali Qassim

The U.K.'s environmental minister sought to allay fears that the country’s exit from the European Union will diminish enforcement of its environmental protections.
A new post-Brexit environmental watchdog will have the power to take “strong enforcement action” against businesses and the government for any breaches of environmental rules, Therese Coffey, the parliamentary undersecretary of state for the environment, said.
“It should not be the case the people profit from doing the wrong thing” to the environment, Coffey said at a meeting in London Nov. 29 organized by the Aldersgate Group, a coalition of businesses and environmental groups that push for a sustainable economy.Allaying Fears
A group of 16 cross-party parliamentarians raised concerns in a Nov. 22 report that U.K. regulators won’t have the same strong authority to enforce environmental laws as their peers in the European Commission and the European Union Court of Justice.
Coffey said the watchdog’s powers will include “taking the government to court if necessary.”
The government will publish details of the watchdog’s powers before the end of the year in a draft of the country’s first environmental legislation in 20 years, Coffey said.
The draft will help inform the future Environmental Principles and Governance Bill, which establishes an “environmental watchdog to hold government to account on our environmental ambitions and obligations once we have left the EU.”
The government aims to publish the bill next spring after the U.K.’s intended departure from the EU.
Under the U.K.'s withdrawal agreement, that will have to be ratified by Parliament in a Dec. 11 vote, EU institutions would continue to oversee the enforcement of environmental rules in the U.K. until at least the end of 2020.Need for Independence, Funding
Any future watchdog should be independent from the government, Daniel Johns, head of public affairs at Anglian Water, the largest water and wastewater company in England and Wales, said at the Nov. 29 panel discussion.
Johns cited the challenges he faced on the government’s advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change, which was formed “to hold the government into account” on climate change. Because the committee is funded by the government, “we knew we had to pick our battles as we always face the threat of budgets being cut,” he said.
Martin Baxter, chief policy adviser at the U.K.’s Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment, also raised the question of “how the government will ensure the independence of the new body.”
Coffey said the power to enforce environmental laws is what will make the watchdog effective. These powers will be delineated in the draft bill slated for release in two weeks. Adequate Funding
A new regulator will also need to be adequately funded, said Susanne Baker, the head of environment and compliance programs at techUK, which represents more than 900 tech businesses.
Adam Read, director of external affairs at the recycling and recovery firm SUEZ UK, agreed it was essential the watchdog to be a “well-resourced body”.
Companies are being asked to comment on a list of draft assurances. A group of businesses, NGOs, and policy think tanks called The Broadway Initiative say the government should include these assurances in the draft bill.
These assurances, unveiled at the Nov. 29 meeting, include establishing a sufficiently independent and equipped body that can take legal action before a tribunal or court, Edward Lockhart-Mummery, convenor at The Broadway Initiative, said. The deadline for comment is Dec. 14.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/post-brexit-environmental-watchdog-will-have-teeth-uk-minister

Return to headline | Return to top
Betting On a New Way to Make Concrete That Doesn’t Pollute

Dec 2, 2018 | The New York Times

By Stanley Reed

Just after sunrise, a concrete plant located in a muddy industrial zone north of London stirs to life. Workers in orange suits and hard hats watch through a protective window as a machine presses what looks like red sand into a tray of brick-shaped blocks.
Further along the line, other workers carefully measure these ruddy-colored blocks, pitch rejects into bins, and then adjust the machinery to correct errors.
Joining the dawn patrol on this fall morning is a team from a company called Solidia Technologies. Solidia is based in Piscataway, N. J., and has financial backing from a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as oil companies like BP and Total of France.
These crew members, dressed in yellow protective suits to distinguish them from their local partners in orange uniforms, are visiting England to test a new technology that the company hopes will dramatically reshape the manufacturing of concrete. Solidia says it can make this ubiquitous building material cheaper and at the same time reduce carbon dioxide emissions by essentially turning them into stone.
Solidia’s big bet is that by tweaking the chemistry of cement, the key ingredient in these blocks and other concrete products, it can profit from helping to clean up an industry that is not only one of the largest on the planet but also one of the dirtiest. Cement plants are major league emitters of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for climate change.
The technology seems to work but persuading the concrete industry to sign on is proving a painstaking and costly process. “It’s a labor of love; it is a market that is resistant to change,” said Jan van Dokkum, a Kleiner Perkins operating partner and Solidia’s chairman, who has spent a decade nurturing the company.
Solidia’s European collaborators, concrete giant LafargeHolcim, are intrigued enough to allocate the Americans a couple of hours plant time for a stretch of mornings — one of a series of trial runs in Britain and in North America. So far, they like what they see. “From my perspective the chemistry works, the mix works, the process works, “ said Warren Hilton, the plant manager.What on Earth Is Going On?
Mr. Hilton said that he was especially attracted by the potential for saving money by speeding up the manufacture of the thousands of these paving blocks his plant churns out yearly. The concrete stones go into walkways, patios and the surroundings of soccer stadiums. “if we can get the technology to work here,” Mr. Hilton said. “There will be a great benefit to any local concrete plant” that uses it.
To date, much of the focus in combating global warming has been on the electric power industry, where huge investments have been made in clean energy sources like wind and solar. Experts, though, say other major carbon dioxide sources like manufacturing industries, responsible for about a quarter of emissions, will also need to be tackled if the world is to rein in climate change.
Cement ranks near the top of this list. Cement is the glue that binds together sand and gravel to form concrete, a material used to build everything from roads, to homes, to water and sewage systems. It forms about 15 percent of the content of these blocks.
Because of the high heat and large amounts of energy needed as well as the chemical processes involved, making conventional or Portland cement — a process which requires high temperature kilns — produces as much as 7 percent of total global CO2 emissions. On a ton for ton basis, cement plants spew more carbon dioxide than any other manufacturing process, according to the International Energy Agency. Taking on cement making is “quite key from a decarbonization perspective,” said Araceli Fernandez Pales, a senior energy technology analyst at the agency, which is based in Paris.
Solidia claims it can reduce as much as 70 percent of that pollution by using different chemical formulas and smarter procedures to make cement. Ordinarily, for instance, concrete is cured or hardened in a reaction using water and steam. Solidia uses carbon dioxide instead.
At the end of the production line at the concrete plant, a fork lift operator stacks the trays of paving blocks like baked bread in what look like shipping containers. Carbon dioxide, collected from the flues of industrial plants, is pumped in from a nearby tank in amounts regulated by a system using sensors and computer software. Through a chemical reaction the CO2 is incorporated in synthetic limestone instead of being released into the atmosphere. The Solidia blocks are ready for use in 24 hours — a big potential advantage over ordinary pavers, which require a couple of weeks to harden.
Experts say that Solidia’s technology, which was developed at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, N.J., is promising. “There is absolutely no reason it should not work,” said Tom Hills, a specialist on new cements at Imperial College in London.
If Solidia’s concrete-making technology succeeds in gaining traction around the world, it could be a way of binding up large quantities of carbon dioxide in roads and other structures. That potential is attractive to oil companies looking for ways to reduce the greenhouse gases their activities produce. BP, for instance, has invested $10 million in Solidia. The company says it wants to use the technologies “near our operating facilities where we could take CO₂ generated and turn it into something material and productive,” according to David Nicholas, a company spokesman.
Winning over the cement and concrete industry will be tough for Solidia and other companies with alternatives to traditional products, Mr. Hills said. Solidia executives complain that the building industry is resistant to change, but the hesitation to adopt newer technologies is understandable. “If you want to build something that lasts 50 or 60 years, “ said Mr. Hills, who also works as a research engineer at a technology company called Calix. “Would they be willing to take the risk to build a building and to have it fall down?”
The trial run at Leighton Buzzard is part of a long and costly effort by Solidia to win converts, whom the company hopes will eventually license the technology. The company has spent around $100 million on R & D and trials like this one and is close to gaining the first glimmers of commercial acceptance.
In the battle to gain acceptance, Solidia is starting with simple, low risk products. The blocks the company is making at the plant are “not really a very sexy product,” said Tom Schuler, Solidia’s chief executive, but were chosen as the “fastest way to have an impact.” The American stone and tile company EP Henry, for instance, is using Solidia’s technology to make and sell pavers for walkways, patios and driveways.A batch of Solidia’s bricks in Leighton Buzzard being readied to be sealed and infused with carbon dioxide.
In other words, if a block breaks on the patio, the house will not fall down. Applications like reinforced concrete or mix poured from trucks are more complicated with more complex regulation and, thus, for down the road.
Solidia has also been careful to tailor its technology so that existing plants do not have to make expensive changes to adopt its manufacturing techniques. “If you make potential customers “do too many different things, you are going to get resistance,” said Bo Boylan, Solidia’s chief commercial officer.
Mr. van Dokkum of Kleiner Perkins, who is a veteran of the renewable energy business, says, optimistically, that Solidia may now be at the stage where solar power was a decade or more ago. A relatively few early adopters and government subsidies helped solar gain acceptance until the prices of panels came down, opening the way to today’s huge market. “Once we get this transition going,” he said. “Then suddenly this thing will boomerang through the industry.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/climate/betting-on-a-new-way-to-make-concrete-that-doesnt-pollute.html

Return to headline | Return to top
IKEA Targets Big Cut in Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Production

Dec 3, 2018 | Reuters (In The New York Times)

By Anna Ringstrom

IKEA, the world's biggest furniture group, pledged on Friday to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its production by 80 percent in absolute terms by 2030 from their levels two years ago.
The commitment applies to IKEA's own factories and most of its direct suppliers, brand owner Inter IKEA said in a statement.
It comes days before world leaders gather in Katowice, Poland for the most important U.N. climate meeting since the 2015 Paris summit, where 195 countries pledged to work to limit a rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius.
"I hope for a leadership that steps up, sets clear targets and dares to nail a number of commitments without us having all the solutions," Inter IKEA CEO Torbjorn Loof told Reuters.
ADVERTISEMENT
"That goes for governments, businesses and other players," he said, adding it was vital that emission targets are set in absolute terms.
The U.N. on Thursday warned global temperatures are on course for a 3-5C rise this century.
In 2016, IKEA's direct suppliers and own factories emitted 3.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. IKEA produces around 10 percent of its range itself and sources the rest from suppliers.
Efficiency across production and shifts to renewable energy, such as biomass-based for the energy-intensive particle-board production, will help reach the new target, CEO Loof and sustainability chief Lena Pripp-Kovac said in an interview.
Other key elements are a shift towards more lightweight materials, and tests of a new glue, a switch to which could cut as much as 6 percent off its emissions level.
More than 400 firms including H&M, Coca-Cola and Sony have committed to a U.N.-backed initiative to help limit global warming to below 2C.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/11/30/business/30reuters-climatechange-ikea.html

Return to headline | Return to top
Inside the Sunrise Movement (It Didn't Happen by Accident)

Dec 3, 2018 | E&E Climatewire

By Mark K. Matthews, Nick Bowlin and Benjamin Hulac

The birth of the Sunrise Movement started with a small grant, a lot of Monster Energy drinks and a little help from the Sierra Club.
Now it's the most talked-about environmental group in Washington.
Whether it can turn the buzz surrounding it into actual change will depend on how much its young leaders have learned from the fizzled Occupy Wall Street movement — and the degree to which the country is ready to embrace its ambitious vision of a wholesale transformation of U.S. society.
Co-founder Evan Weber, 26, thinks that it is.
"We are seeing a lot of hope from our generation in a way that makes me believe we can actually do something really big," he said.
More than that though is Weber's belief in the way the Sunrise Movement is trying to convince Congress to undertake a massive program to fight global warming — in the same way that former President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the New Deal to combat the Great Depression.
"We think to win on climate change we have to be part of a broader movement to [rewrite] what government should be for," he said.
That movement burst into view with a surprise protest Nov. 13 outside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the likely next speaker of the House (Climatewire, Nov. 14).
Dyanna Jaye, 26, Sunrise's campaign director, said the rally — which resulted in the arrest of 51 protesters — was one step in a process that began years ago but is poised for a breakthrough. Another Sunrise Movement protest is planned for Dec. 10 in Washington, and organizers hope to surpass the 200-plus activists who showed up the last time.
"We have a very limited window of time to influence the agenda of the next Congress," Jaye said.Lost beaches, lost dad
Weber said his interest in climate activism is rooted to his hometown on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, where environmentalism was "sort of second nature, if you pardon the pun."
Weber grew up playing on several beaches he said no longer exist because of rising sea levels.
"Living on an island, it becomes very apparent very quickly what we do as humans to the natural environment," he said.
Weber attended Punahou School, where former President Obama graduated.
The young activist said he was inspired that "someone who came from my little island could have such a positive impact on the world" — though Weber would later add that he was disappointed Obama didn't do more to address global warming.
"He had fundamentally failed to fulfill many of his campaign promises," he said. "In particular, this was incredibly true on climate change."
Weber left Hawaii to attend college at Wesleyan University, where three life-changing events happened in rapid succession.
Most significant was the death of his father his freshman year, who suffered a heart attack as he was riding a bike.
"After my father passed away, I realized how precious time is and how much I had been taking it for granted," Weber said.
The next was his participation in the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011, which held the public's attention for about a month as protesters tried to raise awareness about income inequality.
"Ever since that moment I knew in my soul that if we were ever going to take action on climate change in this country, that we were going to have to do something like that," he said.
The third was his friendship with Matthew Lichtash, another Wesleyan student who also was studying economics and environmental policies.
With the help of green activist Michael Dorsey, a visiting professor at the time, the three landed a $30,000 grant to spend summer 2013 writing a plan on how to save the world from climate change.Energy drinks, energy transition
Dyanna Jaye. Isabel Bottoms/Sunrise Movement
"It was heads down for a good two months," said Lichtash, who got his caffeine fix during that time from Monster Energy drinks. Weber preferred tea.
"We're still very good friends despite my love of Monster and his lack of love for Monster," he joked.
Lichtash said the Sierra Club allowed them to use its Washington office near Union Station as a home base to craft an environmental action plan that was "commensurate with the scale of the climate crisis."
"It wasn't lost on us that this was incredibly ambitious," Lichtash said.
The result was a roughly 35-page treatise that relied heavily on carbon taxes — an idea that Weber recently mentioned in connection with his pitch for a "Green New Deal" (Climatewire, Nov. 19).
Other suggestions ran the gamut, including a phaseout of fossil fuel leases on federal lands and the creation of a blue ribbon panel to address the climate crisis, Lichtash said.
"We didn't have a 'Green New Deal' specifically," he said. "We had a commission that would discuss things like that."
Once the writing was done, the team tried to build support and attract attention.
"We realized the next step was to build out and advocate around this plan," Lichtash said.
That led to the creation of a group called the U.S. Climate Plan that Weber said was incorporated in January 2014.
About this time, the two friends began pursuing separate avenues of activism.
Lichtash would go on to join the New York Power Authority — promoting electric vehicles across the state, he said — while Weber waited tables and did bicycle deliveries while he tried to get the climate plan off the ground.
For Weber, that included networking with other environmentalists, like those involved in efforts to get universities and other institutions to divest from fossil fuel. It also meant trips to major events, such as a 2014 climate protest in New York City where he met Jaye, a co-founder of the Sunshine Movement.
For Jaye, global warming is a local problem. She grew up in Hampton Roads, Va., where nuisance flooding is common. "Every time a storm hit, we had weeks off from school," she said.
After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2015, Jaye was in Paris that winter for the international climate summit, where she led a youth contingent pushing to zero out fossil fuel emissions by 2050.
Before the final agreement was drawn up, Jaye and her peers had a problem: United Nations rules banned certain types of visual demonstration. So they drew zeros in black-and-white paint around their eyes instead.
"We had hundreds of young people walking around the U.N. with zeros painted around their eyes," Jaye said by phone. "Young people would sit in these rooms with paint on their faces."
The final deal, the most ambitious global climate accord in history but still short of what scientists say is necessary, brought mixed emotions. Jaye said it quickly sunk in that it wasn't enough.
"I felt that sense of devastation coming back home," she said of the talks' aftermath. "It made me recommit."
That sort of urgency is central to Sunrise's pressure campaign against veteran Democratic lawmakers like Pelosi.
"It was definitely a powerful moment," she said of the sit-in at Pelosi's office. "We want to bring that to the halls of Congress."Occupy fizzled. Will Sunrise?
One hurdle for Jaye, Weber and their allies was the difficulty of launching a new advocacy group in an arena where there are plenty of established environmental organizations.
Then too was the challenge of trying to shepherd young people into a sustained movement — a problem both Democrats and Republicans puzzle over, often unsuccessfully, every two years.
Solving these problems was part of the reason it took nine months of planning before the early Sunrise team launched the group in April 2017.
One factor working in their favor was that the group didn't start from scratch. Some of the architects of the Sunrise Movement included activists from organizations such as 350.org — which also provided some early financial support.
Among the co-founders were Sara Blazevic and Varshini Prakash. Both came from the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network, whose goal was to pressure universities and other institutions to divest from the oil and gas industry — often in a public fashion akin to the protest outside Pelosi's office.
Blazevic led a 33-day divestment sit-in at Swarthmore College in 2015; Prakash did the same at the University of Massachusetts in a 2016 event that resulted in 34 arrests, according to Sunrise officials.
Yet both said they were unsatisfied in the progress they were making, and each viewed the tumultuous 2016 elections — which saw the rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump from different ends of the political spectrum — as proof that a change in direction was needed.
"I was proud of our divestment work, but I could tell that if we didn't evolve, we would never build enough power to actually stop climate change," Blazevic said in a statement. "I could see us entering a period of massive political upheaval."
Prakash added: "It was clear to us that a lot of big environmental organizations were pretty baffled and confused by the rise of new political figures like Sanders and Trump."
In the back of Weber's mind was the challenge of how to avoid the mistakes of the Occupy Wall Street protests — notably their inability to maintain momentum after they captured the public's attention.
"It had the flash-in-the-pan moment, but there wasn't a clear direction of where the movement could go," Weber said.
One fix was through better organization.
The Sunrise group's first appearance was a climate protest in Washington, where the team canvassed attendees to build support.
That helped lay the groundwork for a major calling card of the group — what it calls Sunrise Semesters.
"When we launched the movement, our first major task [was] to build an army of young people to make climate change matter in the 2018 elections," Weber said.
Supporters would join the group for several months — a semester — as if they were on a traditional political campaign. The first attempt yielded about 85 folks who worked across five states during the 2018 elections.
A big social presence was also key. When Pelosi released a statement last month on Twitter agreeing with Sunrise's ambitions but not signing on to its policy goals, the group fired back.
"Almost there @NancyPelosi!" Sunrise tweeted. "We need you to embrace @Ocasio2018's proposal for a Select Committee on a #GreenNewDeal. @HouseDemocrats must spend the next 2 years developing a plan & building support to transform our economy over the next decade. You have the power! You with us?"
David Turnbull, a longtime environmental advocate with Oil Change International, said Sunrise runs an impressive online operation. "It's a generational thing too, right?" he said. "These are people that are fluent in online tools."
A driving motivation, Weber said, was to make the Sunrise Movement the "cool kids in the climate movement."
The group hasn't shied away from its millennial roots either. A fundraising drive on its website encourages its backers to "sponsor a millennial to fight for you."
"We are giving our time, but we need your help to pay basic living expenses" is the pitch. A donation of $800 sponsors a millennial for a month; $4,800 equals six months.
In this case, at least, time could be a weapon for the Sunrise Movement. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center projected that millennials were poised to overtake baby boomers as the largest adult generation in the U.S., as well as its biggest eligible voting bloc.
In relation to other environmental groups, the Sunrise Movement is relatively small. Its officials said they have about 16 full-time staff and that they've raised about $1 million since its founding.
The group rents space from the Sierra Club in Washington, though officials in both groups said Sunrise is independent.
"This is their platform, and they are pushing it their own way," said John Coequyt of the Sierra Club.
The two groups do have a common mission, however, and Weber said the Sunrise Movement received a $50,000 grant from the Sierra Club Foundation.
Weber said the group tries to build momentum by focusing on targeted actions. It rallied at congressional town halls in a redux of the tea party protests of 2009 and 2010.
And the Sunrise Movement was integral to a campaign this election cycle that encouraged lawmakers — mostly Democrats — to sign a campaign pledge not to accept money from fossil fuel industries (E&E Daily, Sept. 7).
One backer of that pledge was a little-known House candidate from New York named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "She was someone who was very passionate about climate justice," Weber said. The Sunrise Movement backed Ocasio-Cortez in her upset primary victory over Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.).
And when the Sunrise Movement decided to protest outside Pelosi's office a week after Election Day, she stood alongside them.
"Obviously we had added star power and firepower that took it through the roof," Weber said.
The timing of the protest wasn't an accident. The Sunrise Movement planned to strike first once Congress went back into session after the elections.
"We knew there was a critical period of time after each election where agendas are set and groups can influence" the debate, Weber said. So the thought was, "What if we do an action in D.C. the week after the election before anyone else is ready to move?"
The gambit worked. Not only did the protest attract plenty of attention from the Capitol Hill press corps, but the presence of Ocasio-Cortez fit into a broader narrative about infighting among congressional Democrats — further fueling media attention.
In the aftermath, Weber said the group's Twitter followers tripled to about 30,000 followers, and it has increasingly become the go-to group among young environmentalists looking to influence the next Congress, particularly with its message of trying to combat climate change through a massive program like a "Green New Deal."Burning allies?
Sunrise's protests elevated climate ahead of the new Congress, winning a thumbs-up from Pelosi, but the group quickly ran into the hard realities of the Democratic caucus.
There is little open opposition to the group's message among House Democrats, but some prominent figures are noncommittal about its specific demands. That's especially true of Sunrise's demand that Pelosi establish a committee with broad legislating power to craft the "Green New Deal."
Both Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), likely the next chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who's poised to lead the Natural Resources Committee, question the wisdom in giving lawmaking authority to a new committee, a key Sunrise position.
A target of Sunrise protests, Pallone was confronted by activists who wanted him to sign a pledge rejecting fossil fuel campaign contributions. He refused. Shortly after, Pallone fought with Ocasio-Cortez at a private caucus meeting, according to Politico, where he slammed the attempt to shift legislative power away from the committee he expects to lead.
Some question the wisdom in targeting Pelosi. The longtime party leader has the backing of groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters. Even Ocasio-Cortez called her the most progressive candidate running for party leader.
"An advocacy truism is that it's usually easier to pressure champions and allies because they share advocates' views," said Dan Weiss, a former political director for several environmental organizations. "However, without a majority of officials who support advocates' agenda, pressuring champions will do little to make advocates' proposals into a reality."
Others reject this view. Mainstream groups are too complacent and unwilling to press party leadership to accept the gravity of the climate crisis, said RL Miller, director of Climate Hawks Vote.
"Sunrise has succeeded in getting climate front and center where those groups have failed, if they were trying at all," she said.
Sunrise's stance directly counters the bipartisan, incremental progress approach advocated by the Climate Solutions Caucus, which operates under the view that only cross-party collaboration will yield climate legislation. The group hasn't convinced GOP members to vote accordingly.
Caucus co-founder Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, perhaps the most prominent Republican who supports climate action, called Sunrise's tactics "truly deplorable" (Climatewire, Nov. 19).
"I don't think those groups contribute very much," said Curbelo. "The solution to this is bipartisan compromise."Looking ahead
But Curbelo will be gone when the new Congress begins. And Sunrise's "Green New Deal" has gone from a fringe proposal to one that's endorsed by nearly 20 members of the new Democratic Congress in a matter of weeks. One of those to sign on is California Rep. Ro Khanna (D), who headlined a press conference Friday on the steps of the Capitol in support of the deal.
In an interview with E&E News, Khanna compared the Sunshine Movement to the student gun control activists who survived the Parkland mass shooting in Florida.
"I love 'em," Khanna said. "They are young, passionate advocates. For them, climate change isn't theoretical. They know that by the time they're my age, they are going to have to deal with this."
But with Republicans in control of the Senate and Trump in the White House, major legislation of any type is unlikely to become law in the next two years — regardless of what happens in Congress. Most environmentalists hope for some green spending as part of an infrastructure package, along with investigations into the Trump administration's regulation rollbacks.
Paul Bledsoe, an energy fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute who worked on climate change in the Clinton White House, said Sunrise should look to integrate climate concerns into party priorities across the board over the next two years.
Ripe areas include tax policy, mitigation in infrastructure spending, the national security threat posed by a changing planet and, in particular, economic opportunity.
If climate is to matter in the 2020 campaign against Trump and beyond, the issue cannot stand alone, according to Bledsoe.
"The Democratic presidential nominee is going to talk about climate, but he or she is going to talk more about economic opportunity," he said. "Sunrise knows that."
Weber said his group's recent protests put Sunrise in position to be a player in the 2020 primary, where progressive cred will be a valued currency.
The group intends to press candidates to support the "Green New Deal" and sign the no-fossil-fuel-money pledge. Those who do not can expect opposition and protests.
On the flip side, any candidate who wins the backing of Sunrise would get an injection of energy from a fast-growing, youth-driven organization.
"I've been watching (and assisting a little bit) the dawn of a Sunrise Los Angeles chapter," Miller wrote in an email, "and it's exciting and beautiful."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/12/03/stories/1060108439

Return to headline | Return to top

Add recipients

Suggested