Preview Newsletter
PM ACC 12/5/2018
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The Senate Must Reject Bernard McNamee’s Nomination for FERC
Dec 5, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Mary Anne Hitt
Bernard McNamee’s record is so biased toward fossil fuels that it should disqualify his nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The U.S. Senate must reject his nomination in order to maintain the Commission’s integrity and the public’s trust. -
Amazon to Ban Paint Strippers Containing Methylene Chloride and NMP
Dec 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Leigh Stringer
Online retail giant Amazon is to ban the listing and sale of paint stripper products containing the solvents methylene chloride and n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) from March next year. -
UK Releases Additional No-Deal Brexit REACH Guidance
Dec 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The UK government has published additional guidance on UK REACH in the event Britain leaves the EU on 29 March without a deal. -
Greater EU Regulatory Consistency Needed for End-Of-Life Vehicles – Industry
Dec 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Caterina Tani
The European Commission should improve coherence between the end-of-life vehicles (ELV) Directive and other EU frameworks, such as REACH and the RoHS Directive, industry has said. -
N.M. Agency Cites Air Force for Groundwater Contamination
Dec 5, 2018 | AP (In E&E Greenwire)
The New Mexico Environment Department has issued a notice of violation to the Air Force for failing to properly address groundwater contamination at a base near Clovis. -
U.N. Aims to Stem Plastic Trash
Dec 5, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Nathanial Gronewold
The United Nations has declared war on plastic trash littering the world's seas. -
(ACC Mentioned) DOE Highlights Case for Appalachian NGL Storage Hub in Report to Congress
Dec 5, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday unveiled a long-awaited report demonstrating the feasibility of developing a natural gas liquids (NGL) storage hub in the Appalachian Basin that it says would increase supply and geographic diversity... -
Marathon in 'Exploratory' Talks with Exxon, Plains on Permian Pipeline
Dec 5, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By Marissa Luck
As companies race to develop pipelines from the booming Permian Basin, two competing pipeline developers could join efforts. -
Overseas Markets Should Help Cap U.S. Natural Gas Prices
Dec 5, 2018 | Forbes
By Michael Lynch
My previous post noted that U.S. LNG exports in the past two years equate to the shortfall in natural gas inventories and thus could be argued responsible for the 50% increase in prices recently. -
FRA Releases Railroads Progress Toward Positive Train Control Implementation in Third Quarter
Dec 5, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Melina Druga
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently released data from the third quarter highlighting railroads’ progress toward Positive Train Control (PTC) implementation.© Creative Commons -
Ewire: EPA Poised to Propose Scrapping CCS in Utility NSPS
Dec 5, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA is poised to propose scrapping yet another Obama-era climate change rule, with the agency slated to float a plan for rescinding the de facto carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) requirement for coal plants in the 2015 greenhouse gas standards... -
EPA Cracks down on Ozone as Lawsuits Loom
Dec 5, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
EPA is pressing ahead with implementation of its 2015 ground-level ozone standard, even as litigation surrounding that threshold remains unsettled. -
US Isolated on Climate as World Meets to Create a Rulebook for Paris Agreement
Dec 5, 2018 | CNN (In Real Clear Energy)
By Nicole Gaouette
The year's most important meeting on climate change got underway in Poland this week with one glaring absence: a high-level US presence. -
Climate Reality Check: Global Carbon Pollution Up in 2018
Dec 5, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
By Seth Borenstein
After several years of little growth, global emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide experienced their largest jump in seven years, discouraging scientists. -
Carbon Tax Supporters Say Trump Wrong on French Riots
Dec 5, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Maxine Joselow and Hannah Northey
American carbon tax supporters say it's unfair to draw too many conclusions from the unrest in France over new motor fuel taxes there. -
WHO Tells COP24 Cost of Ill Health Far Outweighs Tackling CO2
Dec 5, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Helen Collis
The World Health Organization today urged countries to meet the Paris Agreement goals, arguing the financial gains of healthier populations would far outweigh the cost of cutting CO2 emissions.
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The Senate Must Reject Bernard McNamee’s Nomination for FERC
Dec 5, 2018 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Mary Anne Hitt
Bernard McNamee’s record is so biased toward fossil fuels that it should disqualify his nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The U.S. Senate must reject his nomination in order to maintain the Commission’s integrity and the public’s trust.
For FERC to serve its critical role under the Federal Power Act, it must be a technology-neutral agency whose decisions are based on expert analysis and fair, transparent processes that ensure reasonable electricity prices and energy reliability for the public. McNamee, on the other hand, has no experience regulating electricity markets on the state or federal level. Instead, he has a long history of being a partisan fossil fuel lawyer who has proactively worked to undermine clean energy’s growth.ADVERTISEMENT
The most egregious example of this was his central involvement in the development of a scheme designed to bail out old, expensive coal and nuclear power plants during his time at the Department of Energy on Secretary of Energy Rick Perry’s staff. Seeking to blunt the fast growing clean energy sector and placate the wealthy coal executives supporting Donald Trump, McNamee drew up a plan for FERC to implement that would have forced electricity customers to pay billions of dollars to prop up uneconomic coal and nuclear plants that could no longer compete against cheaper competitors like solar and wind.
The response was swift and unforgiving, and created rare alignment among frequent energy policy opponents, who unanimously pointed to the fact that the bailout would destroy the marketplace, increase costs, and stunt private investment. McNamee’s bailout proposal would have cost electricity customers an estimated $250 billion over a quarter century and resulted in 27,000 premature deaths due to the pollution caused by running dirty coal plants that ordinarily would be replaced by cleaner, cheaper generation.
After months of intense criticism, FERC rightly and unanimously rejected it -- a huge relief to consumers, public health providers, and stakeholders across the electricity sector. However, a memo leaked this summer revealed that a revival of that failed scheme is expected to come before FERC again soon. Fast forward to last month’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on McNamee’s nomination, and everyone’s fears came crashing back down once again. Any hope that McNamee had just been doing his job as a DOE staffer when he designed the horrendous coal bailout evaporated during his testimony, when he showed his true colors by flatly rejecting calls to recuse himself from future coal bailout schemes that may come before FERC.
To make matters worse, immediately after this irresponsible refusal to follow basic ethics protocols if he was seated, a video tape surfaced that was released by Utility Dive, in which McNamee brazenly promoted fossil fuels, derided clean energy resources, and slandered environmental and public health groups for holding polluters accountable. Despite these massive red flags, the chairwoman of the Senate committee, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), recklessly let his nomination move forward to a full Senate vote. Murkowski’s decision is all the more troubling considering that she rejected Ron Binz’s FERC nomination in 2013because she perceived a bias in his past work on clean energy. Yet she was willing to overlook McNamee’s overt devotion to fossil fuels and antipathy toward America’s clean energy revolution.
There is time, however, to overrule this egregious double standard by having the full Senate reject Bernard McNamee’s nomination to FERC. Allowing McNamee to sit on FERC would be a grave mistake that would undermine the Commission’s historic technology neutral posture, and create fertile ground for another coal bailout attempt -- but this time, one of the referees will be a former star quarterback that’s rooting for one team over another. McNamee has clearly proven through his work and his own words that he is nothing more than a fossil fuel surrogate intent on undermining, or even eliminating clean energy from America’s electricity markets. We can’t let that happen. The Senate must reject his nomination.
Mary Anne Hitt is Senior Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/419782-the-senate-must-reject-bernard-mcnamees-nomination-for
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Amazon to Ban Paint Strippers Containing Methylene Chloride and NMP
Dec 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Leigh Stringer
Online retail giant Amazon is to ban the listing and sale of paint stripper products containing the solvents methylene chloride and n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) from March next year.
Amazon confirmed to Chemical Watch that the policy will apply globally.
Companies selling the products online will have to provide them with documents confirming that they do not contain the two solvents.
The ecommerce giant's announcement follows the launch of Amazon's chemicals management policy in October, which introduces a restricted substances list containing 54 chemicals.
Growing trend
Amazon's move comes after a number of US retailers committed to bans on methylene chloride and NMP-containing paint strippers. They include paints and coatings companies PPG and Sherwin-Williams, retail giant Walmart and DIY store chains Lowe’s and The Home Depot. Last month, Canadian DIY chain Home Hardware announced a ban that will take effect in 2019.
In 2017, the NGO coalition Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families – through its Mind the Store initiative – led a national campaign, encouraging retailers to phase out the sale of paint strippers containing the two chemicals.
This came after reports that linked exposure to methylene chloride in paint strippers to more than 60 deaths in the US.
Federal action
NMP and methylene chloride are among the first ten substances subject to risk evaluation under the revised TSCA. They were previously the subject of TSCA workplan chemical risk assessments that identified unreasonable risks.
Last year, the US EPA proposed a rule to ban methylene chloride-containing paint strippers, after finding the products pose an unreasonable risk to human health. But the proposal – which would also ban or restrict products containing the replacement solvent NMP – appears to have stalled.
"While Amazon, Lowe’s and other retailers have stepped up, the EPA has dragged its feet and consumers have suffered," Mike Schade, Mind the Store campaign director of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, said in a press release.
"The time for EPA inaction is over. How many more people have to die before the Trump EPA finalises the long-delayed ban?" he added.
The EPA has been mired in controversy this year, in particular with the resignation of former agency head Scott Pruitt and NGO concerns about acting administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist.President Donald Trump’s latest nominee to head the agency's chemical management office is Alexandra Dunn, an EPA regional administrator based in Boston, Massachusetts. The position, which oversees the implementation of TSCA, has been vacant for more than a year.
https://chemicalwatch.com/72525/amazon-to-ban-paint-strippers-containing-methylene-chloride-and-nmp
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UK Releases Additional No-Deal Brexit REACH Guidance
Dec 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The UK government has published additional guidance on UK REACH in the event Britain leaves the EU on 29 March without a deal.
It follows the agreement in principle between the two sides of terms set out in the withdrawal agreement, as well as the draft political declaration of 22 November.
"Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed," the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said on its Brexit webpage to accompany the new advice. "As such it is the duty of a responsible government to continue to prepare for all scenarios, including the unlikely event of a no deal."
In order to help businesses prepare for this "unlikely possibility", the additional guidance – released on 4 December – has expanded on, "and should be read in conjunction with", the technical notice on REACH from 24 September, HSE said.
In the event of a no-deal the UK will replicate EU REACH, while making the necessary operational changes.
Business scenarios
In the new guidance, the HSE has urged companies to review their roles within the EU and UK REACH regimes because they could change "significantly". They may need to take a number of actions in order to maintain or gain access to the EU/EEA and the UK markets, it added.
The additional guidance document sets out scenarios for:
· a UK-based EU REACH registration holder wishing to maintain UK market access;
· a UK-based downstream user or a distributor of an EU REACH-registered chemical who wishes to maintain UK market access;
· a UK importer of chemicals from outside the EU/EEA, or those relying on a UK importer for supply from outside the EU/EEA, and wishing to maintain EU/EEA market access;
· a UK-based REACH authorisation holder wishing to maintain use or supply for a use in the UK;
· a UK downstream user of a REACH authorisation held by an EU/EEA-based company, wishing to maintain use or supply for a use in the UK;
· those exempt through product and process-orientated research and development (Ppord) considerations; and
· those awaiting an Echa or EU Commission decision.
For the UK market, there will be a "phased approach designed to minimise disruption and ensure continuity", HSE said. Some of the proposed timeframes will be kept under review, it added.
The latest guidance also includes advice on safety data sheets, Ppord exemptions and only representative provisions.
It adds that the IT system, which will mirror EU REACH-IT for registrations, grandfathering and downstream user notifications, will be "operable" from 29th March.
In September, the UK's National Audit Office said plans for the IT system may need to be "significantly reworked" to allow further long-term enhancements.
On 11 December, the UK Parliament is scheduled to vote on the agreed draft text on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
https://chemicalwatch.com/72539/uk-releases-additional-no-deal-brexit-reach-guidance
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Greater EU Regulatory Consistency Needed for End-Of-Life Vehicles – Industry
Dec 5, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Caterina Tani
The European Commission should improve coherence between the end-of-life vehicles (ELV) Directive and other EU frameworks, such as REACH and the RoHS Directive, industry has said.
Stakeholders submitted the comments to a Commission consultationon the evaluation of the ELV Directive, which was carried out from 4 October to 1 November.
The Commission must review the Directive by 31 December 2020 to see if it meets current needs for the environment, the public and industry.
European battery manufacturer association Eurobat said it is "essential" that this looks at "possible inconsistencies and overlaps" with the circular economy and waste legislation, in particular the waste framework Directive, REACH and the batteries Directive.
According to the Beryllium Science & Technology Association (Best), "lack of coherence among EU initiatives translates into overregulation" and could "create legal uncertainty and undermine competitiveness" across the Union.
Meanwhile, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (Acea) raised concerns about the differences in the scope, exemptions and introduction of new substance restrictions between the various regulations.
SVHCs
Stakeholders also commented on the handling of SVHCs in recycled vehicles. To achieve both their separation from the ELV waste stream and provide certain materials for further recycling, Acea proposed that "available" post-shredder technologies be applied "rather than making the dismantling of parts mandatory".
This applies not only to plastics but also to electronic parts, whose precious metals content has "decreased significantly" in the past, it said.
According to Best, the reduction of hazardous substances in vehicles should be "dictated by a risk-based approach" instead of hazard classification of the material which could "negatively affect" the market image of the substance.
Meanwhile, the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (Euric) said the "ever-changing thresholds for an increasing amount" of substances under REACH and the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) Regulation form a "considerable burden" for the recycling industry.
While industry is capable of reducing legacy substances to "the greatest possible extent", Euric said it "will not be able to eliminate all substances of concern completely".
The Commission must recognise this, it said, and where necessary introduce "reasonable exemptions" for recycling.
Eurobat and the International Lead association pointed out that the existing ELV exemption criteria should be "consistent" with those of substance restrictions in other waste legislation, such as RoHS Article 5(1) (a). This says exemptions and their duration shall take into account the availability of substitutes and socio-economic impact of substitution and that "lifecycle thinking on the overall impacts of the exemption shall apply".
POPs
Earlier this year NGOs urged the Commission to withdraw recycling exemptions on POPs in order to close a "toxic loophole" in EU policy.
In its consultation comments, French shredding and recycling company Galloo said the presence of flame retardants in some vehicle plastics raises an important question about the responsibility of car manufacturers. It added that it hopes the ‘polluter pays’ principle will apply, and that the cost of eliminating such POPs "will be fully supported" by them.
Recycling exemptions for these substances were recently debated in a recast of the POPs Regulation. On 28 November, the European Council endorsed the European Parliament’s amendment to reduce to 500ppm the threshold for toxic flame retardants classified as POPs in plastic articles made from recycled electronic waste.
The limit was half that initially included in an amendment proposed by British MEP Julie Girling, but ten times the level suggested by NGOs. Such a low threshold, Ms Girling said, would have hit European plastics recyclers handling electronics or ELVs hard.
The Commission will now launch a public consultation on ELV in early 2019, followed by a stakeholder conference in the second quarter. The review will be completed by the end of next year.
https://chemicalwatch.com/72532/greater-eu-regulatory-consistency-needed-for-end-of-life-vehicles-industry
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N.M. Agency Cites Air Force for Groundwater Contamination
Dec 5, 2018 | AP (In E&E Greenwire)
The New Mexico Environment Department has issued a notice of violation to the Air Force for failing to properly address groundwater contamination at a base near Clovis.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, chemicals associated with firefighting foam once used at Cannon Air Force Base, have been detected in groundwater on and near the military installation.
That has prompted requests by state officials for more tests and a study to determine the extent of the toxic plume.
Environment Department officials announced yesterday that the agency is requiring swift action from the base to comply with specific requirements of state law to protect human health and the environment.
They say failure to comply with the violation notice could result in an administrative compliance order that can assess civil penalties up to $15,000 per day for each violation.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/12/05/stories/1060108801
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U.N. Aims to Stem Plastic Trash
Dec 5, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Nathanial Gronewold
The United Nations has declared war on plastic trash littering the world's seas.
U.N. representatives yesterday launched a global campaign against plastic waste that will encourage consumers to reject single-use plastic products and, in some cases, will promote outright bans on their use.
The rising tide of waste in the world's oceans is causing alarm among global fishing and ocean tourism sectors and is a growing health concern.
Scientific findings suggest humans are gradually filling the seas with toxic microplastics that inevitably end up in fish and eventually in the humans that consume them. Some studies argue that nearly every person on the planet has some plastic in his or her system.
The governments of Norway and Antigua and Barbuda announced their intent to lead a campaign against plastic waste, to include a publicized event in New York to happen sometime next spring, along with an international concert slated for April 2019.
The announcement coincides with a meeting underway in Geneva by parties to the Basel Convention, an international treaty on the control of cross-border hazardous waste trade. The Basel Convention export group meeting on marine litter concludes Friday.
"Antigua and Barbuda has been successful in the elimination of single-use plastics," said that nation's prime minister, Gaston Browne, during a U.N. press event. "During the past two years, we have introduced a ban that has worked very well, and in addition we have banned the use of Styrofoam utensils, straws and other such initiatives."
Browne, whose nation depends heavily on tourism — in particular, snorkeling and scuba diving — said his was the first country in the Caribbean to implement an outright ban on certain single-use plastics. He invited other countries to follow suit.
In East Asia, where the plastic ocean waste problem is most acute, governments and the private sector are increasingly active with their own anti-plastic campaigns, encouraging either sharply reduced consumption of single-use plastics or swapping out plastics altogether with alternative materials. Initiatives in Singapore and Hong Kong have been launched recently.
The expanding number of anti-plastic movements around the world is now considered a potentially serious threat to the global plastics and petrochemical industry.
In an October assessment issued by the industry research and advisory firm IHS Markit, researchers concluded that the rising global anti-plastic movement "is putting future plastic resin demand and billions of dollars in industry investment at risk." Analysts there advised petrochemicals and plastic precursor makers to jump on a global recycling bandwagon, lest they see a consumer backlash hit demand on a scale equivalent to two years' worth of global plastic production.
Browne said he and his fellow citizens haven't had any serious problems finding biodegradable alternatives.
The new anti-plastic campaign is to be spearheaded in part by the U.N. Environment Programme and National Geographic Society, he said. U.N. agencies also hope to press member governments to conduct their own public outreach campaigns.
"We are calling on all nations to join us in banning the use of single-use plastic," Browne said. "We want to utilize our example, our experiences, in order to encourage other nations to follow."
The U.N. and other sources now estimate that some 8 million to 12 million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans each year. The rate of input suggests that by 2050, the volume by weight of plastic could outweigh the volume of fish in the oceans.
"Microplastics are now confirmed in table salt, in fresh water," said U.N. General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa. "Each person on the planet is believed to have plastic in their bodies due to this. And this came out in a recent report of the Austrian Academy of Science."
Online viral videos and images have helped to spread awareness of the ocean plastic problem, leading to public pressure on companies to ban straws or other items deemed harmful to marine life.
Some experts contend that bans on single-use plastic items won't be enough to tackle the problem, pointing to a lack of proper waste management and recycling systems instead as the main culprit, especially in Southeast Asia. China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam have been deemed the largest contributors to ocean plastic waste (Greenwire, Aug. 14).
Others admit there is still much unknown about the harmful impacts of ocean plastic waste but argue that we know enough for governments and policymakers to take immediate action. And a rising chorus of scientists studying ocean plastic waste are reaching the conclusion that the best way to tackle the problem is to dramatically lower consumers' use of plastic in the first place.
A study published this year in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe argues that the risk of harm to human health is high. That study also concludes it is unreasonable to expect developing world nations to set up sophisticated recycling programs given the expense and the limited success of recycling networks in the developed world.
Huge volumes of recyclable plastic materials collected in developed countries are not recycled in those nations but rather exported to the developing world.
Better to tackle the problem at the source, said the team of eight scientists from Spain, Sweden and Germany, including lead report author Frederic Gallo.
"Urgent and strong actions with relatively low public investment are needed at a global level, i.e. policy reforms including extended producer responsibility (EPR) and fiscal and economic instruments," the study says.
That same study dismissed efforts such as beach cleanups or direct ocean removal campaigns, pushing instead for addressing the problem through public policy changes that "could allow scarce resources and effort to be focused on measures that are very likely to reduce the problem by directly attacking the source."
"Although there is still need to carry out focused scientific research to fill the knowledge gaps about the impacts of plastic litter in the marine environment, the food chain and human health, the precautionary principle, the already existing scientific evidence and reasonable concerns should be enough to support actions by the scientific, industry, policy and civil society communities to curb the leaking of plastics into the marine environment in the short term," the authors argued.
Beginning last year, officials with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, made available to the public its Deep-sea Debris Database. Results from a single year of data collection were published in March of this year in the journal Marine Policy.
In that paper, the JAMSTEC team announced the deepest-ever discovery of human plastic waste in the ocean, a discarded plastic bag found near the bottom of the Marianas Trench at a depth of 10,898 meters (35,754 feet). The team reported that 33 percent of the man-made debris encountered in the deep ocean was macroplastic, the vast majority of those pieces single-use plastic items.
For deep-sea plastic pollution, researchers agreed that tackling the source of the problem is the most effective long-term solution but argued in favor of recycling and waste-capture initiatives as well.
"The influence of land-based human activities has reached the deepest parts of the ocean in areas more than 1,000 km from the mainland," said the JAMSTEC paper. "Whereas regulation on the production of single-use plastic and the flow of such debris into the coast are the only effective ways to prevent further threats to deepsea ecosystems, successful management of plastic waste is possible through internationally harmonized practices based on scientifically sound knowledge."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/12/05/stories/1060108821
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(ACC Mentioned) DOE Highlights Case for Appalachian NGL Storage Hub in Report to Congress
Dec 5, 2018 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jamison Cocklin
The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday unveiled a long-awaited report demonstrating the feasibility of developing a natural gas liquids (NGL) storage hub in the Appalachian Basin that it says would increase supply and geographic diversity for the nation’s petrochemical and plastics industries.
In remarks before the National Petroleum Council’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, DOE Secretary Rick Perry also said that the Trump administration would support the development of an Appalachian hub to strengthen the country’s energy and manufacturing security.
“There is an incredible opportunity to establish an ethane storage and distribution hub in the Appalachian region and build a robust petrochemical industry in Appalachia,” Perry said. “As our report shows, there is sufficient global need, and enough regional resources, to help the U.S. gain a significant share of the global petrochemical market.”
With large NGL hubs in Mont Belvieu, TX, on the Gulf Coast, Conway, KS, and Sarnia, Ontario, North America has the world’s second largest ethylene production capacity behind the Asia-Pacific region, DOE noted in its report. But with 95% of U.S. capacity located in Texas and Louisiana, DOE added that the geographic concentration may pose a strategic risk, especially when severe weather events limit the availability of key feedstocks, as Hurricane Harvey did last year.
The geographic diversity of a possible hub in Appalachia, where NGL production is expected to continue growing, “could provide manufacturers with flexibility and redundancy with regard to where they purchase their feedstock and how it is transported to them,” the report said. “Moreover, this flexibility and redundancy, as well as the overall increase in U.S. feedstock production, could mitigate the potential for any price spikes in petrochemical feedstocks that could be caused by a severe weather or other disruptive event in any one region of the U.S.”
U.S. natural gas plant liquids, according to the report, are expected to nearly double between 2017 and 2050, supported by an increase in global petrochemical demand. The bulk of that growth is expected to come from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, along with production from the Permian Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, over the next decade. Ethane production in Appalachia alone, DOE said, is projected to reach 640,000 b/d through 2025 -- or more than 20 times higher than it was just five years ago.
Jerry James, who co-founded Shale Crescent USA in 2016 to brand the industry’s potential in the Mid-Ohio Valley in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, said the DOE report “solidifies the notion that diversifying America’s petrochemical manufacturing base” by investing in an Appalachian NGL hub would improve the nation’s competitive edge.
“As we watch hurricanes threaten Gulf Coast production, the Shale Crescent region offers a more insulated, affordable alternative to supplement production,” said James, who is also president of Ohio-based Artex Oil Co. “This will ultimately prevent disruptions in the nation’s supply chain and keep prices stable for many plastic-based goods we rely on every day.”
The Gulf Coast is unequivocally North America’s petrochemical stronghold, and industry representatives in the Northeast have widely acknowledged that. In Mont Belvieu alone, there is more than 240 million barrels of NGL storage that serves a concentrated energy value chain.
The DOE report notes, however, that one-third of U.S. petrochemical activity occurs within 300 miles of Pittsburgh, with more than $300 million of net revenue, 900,000 workers and 7,500 related establishments.
As a result, the report makes clear that development of an Appalachian hub might not necessarily conflict with the Gulf Coast’s hub and the expansion that’s underway there. Most Appalachian capacity, the report said, would likely serve regional demand for NGL derivatives, freeing up Gulf Coast production for other markets, including exports.
Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Spigelmyer said the industry in the Northeast remains “fully committed” to working collaboratively with policymakers “at every level of government” and all other key stakeholders to help grow energy jobs in the basin. He also welcomed the Trump administration’s support for such efforts.
Proponents of an NGL storage hub want to link up Appalachian shale formations with a network of pipelines, equipment and underground storage. The hub, supporters say, could ease supply and demand imbalances and help create more regional buyers and sellers of the commodities, similar to Mont Belvieu.
To be sure, dry gas storage is nothing new in Appalachia, which has long been a staging ground to move volumes to the Northeast. Salt solution mining has also occurred for decades in the region, and there are currently shallower mined hard rock facilities that store refined products and NGLs across the basin.
But the region still lacks adequate NGL infrastructure for such a robust hub.
“The extent to which east region NGLs will be converted and consumed locally will depend on regional infrastructure additions and, more specifically, the interplay between storage and transportation,” DOE said.
Mountaineer NGL Storage LLC is currently working through a prolonged regulatory process in Ohio to develop an underground facility in the Salina salt formation there. Appalachia Development Group LLC also is working to secure financing for a similar facility in West Virginia.
The DOE’s report is the latest in a series of private and public sector efforts in Appalachia to demonstrate the potential for a storage hub. In recent years, other studies have been released showing that tens of billions of dollars in investments would come with such infrastructure and how the region has distinct advantages compared to the Gulf Coast.
“The right policies will be critical to realizing the opportunity. Policymakers can help by continuing to ensure that natural gas liquids storage and distribution projects are eligible for existing private-public financing programs,” the American Chemistry Council said. As Congress and the Trump administration “consider infrastructure modernization legislation, the Appalachian Hub should be a priority. And a timely and efficient regulatory permitting process is essential.”
Another study from West Virginia University last year showed that Appalachia is ripe for the kind of underground NGL storage that would help tame production volatility, identifying various formations throughout the region that are suitable for the task.
Moreover, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc is currently building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Western Pennsylvania that’s expected to come online in the early 2020s. Thailand’s state-owned PTT Global Chemical pcl, meanwhile, is thought to be close to making a final investment decision on a similarly-sized ethane cracker in nearby Ohio.
"The petrochemical industry is going to be the next big thing to come to Appalachia,” said Energy In Depth spokesman Dan Alfaro, who works in the region for the outreach arm of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. “Shell’s investment was the first big step in this movement, and we're going to continue to see more of these investments coming into the region in the near future.
“The supply is here, the demand is here, the necessity is here and the report shows Appalachia checks all the boxes to make the region a viable location to house the next American energy hub."
DOE prepared its report at the request of Congress and shared the findings with a select group of lawmakers. The analysis considered projected trends in ethane production over the coming decades and where changes in ethane production are expected to occur, with a particular focus on regions where established ethane hubs don’t exist.
https://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/116679-doe-highlights-case-for-appalachian-ngl-storage-hub-in-report-to-congress
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Marathon in 'Exploratory' Talks with Exxon, Plains on Permian Pipeline
Dec 5, 2018 | Houston Chronicle
By Marissa Luck
As companies race to develop pipelines from the booming Permian Basin, two competing pipeline developers could join efforts.
Marathon Petroleum executives said Tuesday they've initiated exploratory talks with Exxon Mobil and Plains All American Pipeline of Houston to combine efforts on a Permian-to-Gulf Coast pipeline to maximize capital efficiency.Recommended Video
If it proceeds with Exxon and Plains, Marathon Petroleum would leave another pipeline project it's involved in called the PGC Pipeline.
That's a 600-mile pipeline that will take Permian oil to Gulf Coast, including to its refineries in Galveston Bay and Texas City. The pipeline arm of Marathon is partnering with the Dallas pipeline company Energy Transfer, Magellan Midstream Partners o Oklahoma and the Israeli company Delek Group on multibillion pipeline project expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Marathon, of Findlay, Ohio, would still pursue that PGC Pipeline as it continues discussions with Exxon and Plains on potentially joining efforts, said Don Sorensen, Marathon's head of Andeavor Logistics in a investor's day webcast Tuesday.
In June, Exxon said it plans to create a joint venture with Plains All American to construct a multibillion-dollar pipeline stretching from west of Midland to the Houston and Beaumont areas. The 1 million barrel-a-day, oil-and-condensate pipeline is expected to be operating in late 2020 or early 2021.
It follows a similar route to the pipeline Marathon is developing with Energy Transfer, Magellan and Delek.
Despite record production from the Permian Basin, there aren't enough pipelines to carry the crude to the market. Energy companies are pushing to fix the problem with new pipeline proposals.
Until those projects start coming online in mid-2019, companies are relying more on trucks and trains to move the crude. Permian crude is selling at a discount in Midland because of the difficulty getting it to Gulf Coast markets.
Collectively companies in Texas are planning to spend more than $40 billion to build or expand almost 10,000 miles of pipelines — long enough to stretch from West Texas to China.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Marathon-in-exploratory-talks-with-Exxon-13442991.php
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Overseas Markets Should Help Cap U.S. Natural Gas Prices
Dec 5, 2018 | Forbes
By Michael Lynch
My previous post noted that U.S. LNG exports in the past two years equate to the shortfall in natural gas inventories and thus could be argued responsible for the 50% increase in prices recently. Current plans calling for the construction of as much as 18 bcf/d of capacity in the next few years should be interpreted cautiously; recall that in 2003, 5.3 bcf/d of import capacity was planned given long-term expectations of tight U.S. gas markets and continued high prices. As the figure below shows, LNG imports never reached more than a fraction of that level, and the country is now a net exporter. Most plants were never built though some were later converted to export facilities.
Could there be a new boom and bust cycle in LNG exports? Quite possibly. At present, 8 bcf/d of capacity is under construction, and another 8 bcf/d is approved but not under construction (as of late October). If all were built and operated, they would absorb a fifth or more of current domestic gas production levels. Already, this appears, in combination with cold weather, to have raised prices in the U.S.
But the fear that LNG exports might drive up long-term natural gas prices should be scrutinized carefully. One of the strengths of the U.S. LNG industry is its willingness to compete on prices; most other nations and companies tend to set prices equal to crude oil equivalent prices and wait for demand to materialize. This often means that natural gas deposits are left unexploited for years. The U.S. has a reserves-to-production ratio of 12 years, while Australia’s is 32 years and Indonesia 43 years. The latter two are admittedly isolated from markets, but this is exacerbated by policy choices.
And export prices for LNG are far higher than those for domestic sales or pipeline exports, as the figure below shows. However, this is misleading since the earlier, high-priced sales were generally low-volume exports. (The second figure shows that before 2017, when LNG prices were high, U.S. LNG exports were minimal.) Until recently, nearly all exports were from Alaska to Japan, and the startup of new projects, such as Sabine Pass, has resulted in larger sales volumes but usually at lower prices. In part, this is due to the practice of signing contracts with prices set according to U.S. Henry Hub natural gas prices, not market prices. But also, the global LNG market has weakened substantially.
The weakness of the U.S. LNG industry is the high cost of its raw material. In many parts of the world, natural gas has been only very slightly exploited so that conventional gas fields are often huge and relatively cheap to produce. The cost of feedstock for U.S. LNG plants is not fixed by production costs in the field dedicated as their supply, but the spot price in the U.S. market.
This means that the variable cost of U.S. LNG is much higher than the variable cost for, say, Russian natural gas pipeline exports. Fixed or sunk costs must be paid whether operating or not, while variable costs are only incurred when sales are being made. Thus, if the price of natural gas in Europe is below $6/Mcf, the Russians might be losing money but continue to sell gas because they are covering their variable costs and a significant portion of their fixed costs, while U.S. operators, faced with a Henry Hub price of $4.50/Mcf, which represents a variable cost (along with labor and fuel at the liquefaction plant), might choose to postpone sales until either overseas prices improve or U.S. prices decline.
It helps that much of the current LNG production is going to Asia, where there is minimal pipeline gas available (so far), and prices are usually higher than in Europe. Plus, the buyers are regulated utilities that can pass through costs and are more interested in stable long-term supplies. Newer LNG producers should take this difference into account when planning investment and considering market potential.
The other implication is that LNG markets will help to provide a ceiling on U.S. domestic gas prices; when prices pass $4/Mcf, demand for U.S. LNG exports will abate. Of course, other factors especially the price of oil will determine precisely what U.S. gas price will make large-scale European sales attractive, but the $8-10/Mcf prices of a decade ago seem highly unlikely.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2018/12/05/overseas-markets-should-help-cap-u-s-natural-gas-prices/#79d27ad10fb3
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FRA Releases Railroads Progress Toward Positive Train Control Implementation in Third Quarter
Dec 5, 2018 | Transportation Today
By Melina Druga
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently released data from the third quarter highlighting railroads’ progress toward Positive Train Control (PTC) implementation.© Creative Commons
The deadline for fully implementing PTC systems or qualifying for an alternative schedule is the end of the year.
As of Sept. 30, 24 railroads have completed PTC system hardware installation, and 11 railroads are between 95 and 99 percent away from completion. PTC is in operation on 71 percent of freight railroads’ required route miles and 26 percent of passenger railroads’ required route miles.
The FRA awarded $203 million in grant awards in August for PTC implementation to 28 projects in 15 states.
“The progress made over the last year is a testament to what can be accomplished with proper focus and attention,” FRA Administrator Ronald L. Batory said. “We encourage any railroads seeking an alternative schedule to submit their formal requests in a timely fashion.”
During the third quarter, there was a 67 percent decrease in the number of “at-risk” railroads from the end of 2017 and a 44 percent decrease since the previous quarter.
The five at-risk railroads are Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Altamont Corridor Express, New Jersey Transit, Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain), and National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak).
Amtrak was 92 percent compliant at the end of the third quarter and still needed to install hardware.
Caltrain was 91 percent compliant and needed to install hardware, train employees and implement sufficient revenue service demonstration (RSD).
New Jersey Transit was 66 percent compliant and needed to install hardware.
Altamont Corridor Express was 55 percent compliant and needed to install hardware and implement sufficient (RSD).
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority was 46 percent compliant and needed to install hardware, train employees and implement sufficient RSD.
Collectively, the railroads own or control approximately 1,302 route miles subject to the statutory mandate.
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/11404-fra-releases-railroads-progress-toward-positive-train-control-implementation-in-third-quarter/
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Ewire: EPA Poised to Propose Scrapping CCS in Utility NSPS
Dec 5, 2018 | Inside EPA
EPA is poised to propose scrapping yet another Obama-era climate change rule, with the agency slated to float a plan for rescinding the de facto carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) requirement for coal plants in the 2015 greenhouse gas standards for new and modified plants.
A draft version of the proposed rule cleared the Office of Management and Budget Dec. 4 and the agency has said that acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler will make an “energy policy announcement” Dec. 6.
The New York Times confirms speculation that Wheeler will announce the key changes to the utility new source performance standards (NSPS) rule, which is an important legal predicate to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan -- a rule Trump officials are also targeting.
The CCS portion of the new source rule has long been its most controversial aspect, with industry opponents arguing the technology has not met a Clean Air Act standard of being “adequately demonstrated.”
At the time the rule was finalized, EPA relied heavily on a Canadian CCS facility. Since then, a coal plant retrofitted with CCS near Houston has begun operating. Obama EPA officials also noted that various sub-components of CCS are in operation at other facilities.
The rule's CCS provisions do not explicitly require use of that technology to comply, and EPA at the time noted that coal plants could meet the limit in other ways, such as co-firing with natural gas.
The Times, citing two knowledgeable sources, says the plan would allow new coal plants to emit 1,900 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour, compared with the Obama limit of 1,400 pounds.
The current NSPS virtually ensured that no new coal plants would be built in the United States for the foreseeable future, given the high cost of CCS. However, experts say that utilities were not planning new coal anyway because of cheap natural gas and renewables, so the rule largely underscored existing market trends.
Those trends continue today, and if anything have intensified.
However, the Times argues that rescinding the CCS-based standard sends “a powerful signal to the coal industry as well as to other countries struggling with the political difficulties of addressing climate change, that the United States is trying to pave the way for coal-burning plants.”
That may be the measure's greatest significant given new Energy Information Administration (EIA) data projecting domestic coal consumption to decline to its lowest levels since 1979. In a report released Dec. 4, EIA said it expects “total U.S. coal consumption in 2018 to fall to 691 million short tons (MMst), a 4% decline from 2017 and the lowest level since 1979. U.S. coal consumption has been falling since its peak in 2007, and EIA forecasts that 2018 coal consumption will be 437 MMst (44%) lower than 2007 levels, mainly driven by declines in coal use in the electric power sector.”
Inside EPA's Dawn Reeves has long been tracking the NSPS regulation, reporting that the plan would replace the CCS-based standards with a far weaker limit based on the installation of ultra-supercritical technology that does not require coal to be gasified. That technology is more efficient than other types of coal plants, but is still a traditional pulverized coal process that emits higher levels of GHGs and other pollutants than gasification technologies.
Dawn has also reported that EPA's NSPS proposal is expected to seek input on whether the agency should reconsider its threshold finding that power sector GHG pose enough of an endangerment to warrant regulation.
The issue divides major industry groups -- who favor retaining the finding and associated EPA rules as a way to create regulatory certainty and preempt common law suits -- from free-market organizations and some Trump administration officials -- who have long called for scrapping EPA's endangerment finding in an effort to remove all of the agency's climate regulations.
One utility industry source earlier said the possible consideration of revoking the finding is little more than a gesture to appease “a segment of what we call the base” that supports “a fringe position. . . . The bulk of the electric utilities and most of industry do not agree with” efforts to revoke it. “There are reasons why they want the rule to be put in place,” and some of them “involve public relations.”
This source believes the NSPS revision proposal will seek comment on the endangerment issues, but EPA will “not act on it. They might throw it out as, 'Do you have any comments on this?' and what will likely happen is most of industry will say, 'Don't do it,' and they'll rely on that” to reject a revocation.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-epa-poised-propose-scrapping-ccs-utility-nsps
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EPA Cracks down on Ozone as Lawsuits Loom
Dec 5, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
EPA is pressing ahead with implementation of its 2015 ground-level ozone standard, even as litigation surrounding that threshold remains unsettled.
Under a final rule set for publication in tomorrow's Federal Register, the agency sets cleanup plan requirements for 22 states deemed in nonattainment with the standard (Greenwire, Nov. 8).
Publication will also open a 60-day window for any lawsuits challenging the rule to be brought with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
On Dec. 18, a three-judge panel on the court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on competing litigation brought by states, industry trade groups and public health and environmental organizations that variously challenge the 70-parts-per-billion threshold set in 2015 on the grounds that it is either overly strict or too weak. Arguments in the case were originally supposed to be held in April 2017 but were delayed as the Trump administration pondered its position on whether to continue to defend the Obama-era benchmark.
Also tomorrow, EPA will publish formal findings that California has failed to submit up-to-date plans for bringing the San Joaquin Valley into compliance with fine particulate standards for 1997, 2006 and 2012.
Following a lawsuit brought by several advocacy groups, a federal judge in October ordered EPA to make the findings within 30 days (Greenwire, Oct. 26). Deborah Jordan, a senior official in the agency's Region 9 office, signed off on Nov. 19.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/12/05/stories/1060108829
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US Isolated on Climate as World Meets to Create a Rulebook for Paris Agreement
Dec 5, 2018 | CNN (In Real Clear Energy)
By Nicole Gaouette
The year's most important meeting on climate change got underway in Poland this week with one glaring absence: a high-level US presence.
Global leaders and officials are gathering for two weeks of meetings at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP24, to create a rulebook that will turn the 2015 Paris climate agreement into a workable reality. They aim to establish rules, figure out financing and build ways to verify that nations are meeting their commitments.
But even as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for action Monday in Poland, telling gathered delegates that "we are in deep trouble with climate change," the United States has been emphasizing its rejection of the Paris agreement and global consensus.US opposition
COP24 comes on the heels of the G-20 gathering in Argentina, where 19 of the 20 leaders signed a communique reaffirming their commitment to fight global warming, but President Donald Trump insisted on a paragraph outlining his opposition and the US decision, under his administration, to withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced at a closing G-20 plenary session on Saturday that the gathered leaders had agreed on language about climate, a key sticking point in the leadup to the summit.
"We ratified the concern we all share with regard to climate change," Macri said.
The communique document obtained by CNN includes a section on climate, saying that signatories to the Paris climate accord reaffirm that the agreement "is irreversible and commit to its full implementation, reflecting common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances."
"We will continue to tackle climate change, while promoting sustainable development and economic growth," the document reads.'Abdication'
Notably, however, a separate clause put the United States alone, saying it "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."
A senior US official said the communique was adopted by unanimous consensus, with the US still the only country not joining the section on the Paris climate accord. The separate language was required for Trump to sign off on the communique, the official said.
It's a 180-degree turn from the role the United States played in helping bring the climate pact into being, and it's happening at a time when global cooperation may be faltering, analysts said.
"It is an almost complete abdication. We have really, really dropped out of our leadership position," said Samantha Gross, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Initiative on Energy and Climate.
The United States was a major driver in reaching the Paris agreement and afterward was particularly good at leading on issues of monitoring and verification, Gross said. But beyond that, there's a broader question.
"If we don't lead, who does?" Gross asked. "It's not clear who that's going to be and if anyone will fill that role."
Some observers float the idea of China taking up the baton, but Gross and others said that it's not clear that Beijing wants that kind of leadership role, adding that it has its own priorities shaped by domestic concerns and the country's terrible air pollution.
Trump has displayed a steady hostility to the Paris climate agreement and the very idea of climate change itself, responding to his own government's recent report about its potentially catastrophic impact by saying, "I don't believe it."
The US president's views also reflect a growing global nationalism and distrust of multilateral institutions that could make it all the harder to make progress on a complex, international challenge such as climate change, Gross noted in a call with reporters.
Many countries are preoccupied with domestic challenges: The UK is consumed by Brexit, Mexico is in the middle of its own presidential transition, a climate skeptic has just become president-elect of Brazil, and Australia too may be backing away from climate commitments.
"The global political environment is really challenging right now," Gross said. "It is a challenging time just for the idea of multilateralism in general."
The leadership vacuum on climate change comes as a recent study showed that CO2 emissions are falling woefully short of the Paris agreement goal to limit temperature rises during this century to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
In this environment, delegates from nearly 200 nations arrived in Poland, some of them starting meetings a day early to meet a year-end deadline to create a blueprint for the Paris agreement.
"I think it's fair to say it's the most important, consequential talk since Paris," said Todd Stern, a former US special envoy for climate change, now with the Brookings Institution.
The two-week gathering, deep in Polish coal country, is the first major climate meeting to follow a stark reportby the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that called for urgent change, saying that governments would have to cut emissions by 45% by 2030 to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
While the United States is not sending senior officials, a delegation of working-level staff is attending the meeting, as are representatives from US states and business.
"We will still be there," Gross said. "We just don't have the pull we used to."
CNN's Kevin Liptak, Nic Robertson, Jeremy Diamond and Brandon Miller contributed to this report.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/03/politics/us-climate-isolation-cop24/index.html
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Climate Reality Check: Global Carbon Pollution Up in 2018
Dec 5, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times)
By Seth Borenstein
After several years of little growth, global emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide experienced their largest jump in seven years, discouraging scientists.
World carbon dioxide emissions are estimated to have risen 2.7 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to three studies released Wednesday from the Global Carbon Project , an international scientific collaboration of academics, governments and industry that tracks greenhouse gas emissions. The calculations, announced during negotiations to put the 2015 Paris climate accord into effect, puts some of the landmark agreement's goals nearly out of reach, scientists said.
"This is terrible news," said Andrew Jones, co-director of Climate Interactive, which models greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures but was not part of the research. "Every year that we delay serious climate action, the Paris goals become difficult to meet."
The studies concluded that this year the world would spew 40.9 billion tons (37.1 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide, up from 39.8 billion tons (36.2 billion metric tons) last year. The margin of error is about one percentage point on either side.
The Global Carbon Project uses government and industry reports to come up with final emission figures for 2017 and projections for 2018 based on the four biggest polluters: China, the United States, India and the European Union.
The U.S., which had been steadily decreasing its carbon pollution, showed a significant rise in emissions — up 2.5 percent — for the first time since 2013. China, the globe's biggest carbon emitter, saw its largest increase since 2011: 4.6 percent.
Study lead author Corinne Le Quere, a climate change researcher at the University of East Anglia in England, said the increase is a surprising "reality check" after a few years of smaller emission increases. But she also doesn't think the world will return to the even larger increases seen from 2003 to 2008. She believes unusual factors are at play this year.
For the U.S., it was a combination of a hot summer and cold winter that required more electricity use for heating and cooling. For China, it was an economic stimulus that pushed coal-powered manufacturing, Le Quere said.
John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, said the results aren't too surprising because fossil fuels still account for 81 percent of the world's energy use. The burning of coal, oil and gas release carbon dioxide, which warms the Earth . Reilly, who wasn't part of the study, praised it as impressive.
Global Carbon Project chairman Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist, said he was discouraged.
The Paris accord set two goals. The long-held goal would limit global warming to no more than 1.8 degrees (1 degree Celsius) from now, with a more ambitious goal of limiting warming to 0.9 degrees (0.5 degrees Celsius) from now.
The trend is such that the world would have to be lucky to keep warming to 1.8 degrees, let alone the lower goal, Le Quere said.
China increased its emissions to 11.4 billion tons (10.3 billion metric tons), while the U.S. jumped to a shade under 6 billion tons (5.4 metric tons). The European Union spewed 3.9 billion tons (3.5 billion metric tons) and India soared to 2.9 billion tons (2.6 billion metric tons). Overall, the world is spewing about 1,300 tons (1,175 metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the air every second.
Use of coal — the biggest carbon emitter — is rising. And while countries are using more renewable fuels and trying to reduce carbon from electricity production, emissions from cars and planes are steadily increasing, Le Quere said.
Global carbon dioxide emissions have increased 55 percent in the last 20 years, the calculations show. At the same time, Earth has warmed on average about two-thirds of a degree (0.38 degrees Celsius), according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/12/05/science/ap-us-sci-climate-emissions-2018.html
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Carbon Tax Supporters Say Trump Wrong on French Riots
Dec 5, 2018 | E&E Greenwire
By Maxine Joselow and Hannah Northey
American carbon tax supporters say it's unfair to draw too many conclusions from the unrest in France over new motor fuel taxes there.
That's exactly what President Trump did on Twitter yesterday.
The president sent a tweet yesterday after French President Emmanuel Macron bowed to public pressure and temporarily suspended the motor fuel taxes, which are already among Europe's highest.
Macron decided to suspend implementation for six months after waves of protesters — dubbed the yellow vest movement — rioted in major cities for three consecutive weekends (Climatewire, Dec. 5).
Trump linked the protests to his distaste for the Paris climate accord, saying on Twitter yesterday: "I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago. The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters."
But advocates pushing for climate action in the United States say the president's message was misleading, conflating Macron's decision with a rejection of the Paris Agreement.
Beyond misinformation, climate advocates in the U.S. also say the situation in France doesn't undermine their argument for a carbon tax.
"There's lots of ways you could structure a carbon tax, which would avoid problems like this," said Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center. "It seems to me a little bit silly to constantly obsess over the idea that any increase in prices via tax is somehow the equivalent of bringing us into a European situation."
He added, "Look, I'm no expert on French politics. But based on the media reports I've seen, these demonstrations and riots and acts of violence have virtually nothing to do with the fuel tax, and a lot to do with other grievances with the French system."
Many of the protesters view Macron as elite and out of touch with the working class, complaining that his policies favor the wealthy.
Citizens' Climate Lobby, the group behind the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, also seized on the situation in France to defend carbon pricing in the U.S. yesterday.
CCL is backing bipartisan carbon fee-and-dividend legislation from Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.). The bill would put a $15-per-metric-ton price on carbon emissions, rising by $10 each year. Net revenues would be returned to households as a dividend (E&E Daily, Nov. 28).
"Public resistance to fossil fuel price hikes, like that seen recently in France, can be overcome by returning revenue to households," CCL said in a statement yesterday.
Greg Bertelsen, senior vice president at the Climate Leadership Council, which backs the so-called Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan, echoed this sentiment.
"The experience in Paris reiterates the importance of returning carbon fee revenue directly to the American public," Bertelsen said. "This proposal ensures that we reduce emissions at the required scale and speed while also ensuring that we grow the economy. It's also a plan that polling has shown is immensely popular with voters on both sides of the aisle."
Still, Americans for Tax Reform has been circulating an editorial in The Wall Street Journal that calls the French unrest part of larger global opposition to carbon pricing.
"France's violent Yellow Vest protests are now about many domestic concerns, but it's no accident that the trigger was a fuel-tax hike," states the piece by the conservative newspaper's editorial board. "Nothing reveals the disconnect between ordinary voters and an aloof political class more than carbon taxation."
The piece goes on to contend that "the carbon tax revolt is worldwide," citing the fact that voters in Washington state last month rejected a carbon fee on the ballot (Climatewire, Nov. 7).
But Alex Flint, executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions and the Climate Leadership Council, argued the opposite is true, that the economy would be better protected and even grow if the United States moves to tax carbon.
If revenues from that tax are reinvested, he said, the results could be economic growth rather than the economic stagnation that is the real reason protesters marched in Paris.
"If we take a carbon tax off the table, all we have left are needlessly inefficient and expensive regulations," he said. "The economy is not a reason to avoid acting on climate. Rather, we need to reduce carbon pollution to avoid the impact of climate change on our economy."
Reporter Nick Sobczyk contributed.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/12/05/stories/1060108827
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WHO Tells COP24 Cost of Ill Health Far Outweighs Tackling CO2
Dec 5, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Helen Collis
The World Health Organization today urged countries to meet the Paris Agreement goals, arguing the financial gains of healthier populations would far outweigh the cost of cutting CO2 emissions.
In its bid to sway negotiators to fulfill these requirements at the COP24 summit in Katowice, Poland, WHO presented new estimates that the value of health gains from climate action would be around double the cost of mitigation policies at global level.
It would save about a million lives a year globally by 2050 through reductions in air pollution alone. Air pollution causes 7 million deaths worldwide every year and costs an estimated $5.11 trillion in welfare losses globally, WHO said.
In the 15 countries that emit the most greenhouse gas emissions, the health impacts of air pollution are estimated to cost more than 4 percent of their GDP. Actions to meet the Paris goals would cost around 1 percent of global GDP, according to the WHO report.
“We can’t afford to delay action any further,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO.
The organization called on countries to account for health in all cost-benefit analyses of climate change mitigation.
It also recommended fiscal incentives such as carbon pricing and energy subsidies to incentivize sectors to cut greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants.
It also encouraged parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to remove existing barriers to supporting climate-resilient health systems.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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