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ACC AM Mar 3
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(ACC Mentioned) Legal Status of Chemical on June 1, 2016, To Determine Data Reporting Rule Threshold
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Chemicals covered by significant new use rules and certain other requirements prior to June 1, 2016, will be subject to a 2,500-pound threshold under the Chemical Data Reporting rule, a senior Environmental Protection Agency official said March 2. Chemicals newly covered by a SNUR or other requirement after ... -
(ACC Mentioned) Waste Management Joins Recycling Partnership
Mar 3, 2015 | Environmental Leader
Waste Management has joined Curbside Value Partnership’s Recycling Partnership, which aims to improve US curbside recycling. Founded last year, the national recycling industry collective’s partners companies and organizations include: Alcoa Foundation, Amcor, American Chemistry Council, American Forest & Paper Association... -
(ACC Mentioned) Bill Would Regulate Toxins in Children's Products
Mar 2, 2015 | Statesman Journal
By Tracy Loew
Industry groups are fighting an Oregon bill that would protect children from toxic chemicals, saying such regulation should be done at the federal level. "Creating a patchwork of differing policies from state to state is not the most effective method to accomplish this goal," Kevin Messner, of the Association of Home Appliance... -
Comment Period for New Use Rules Extended
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency is extending the comment period for a series of significant new use rules, or SNURs, it proposed earlier this year, according to a notice scheduled to be published in the March 3 Federal Register. The agency initially proposed the SNURs for 13 chemicals on Jan. 7 with a comment period... -
EPA Eyes Push For Quick State Adoption Of Final Waste Definition Rule
Mar 2, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
EPA plans to urge states to quickly adopt its recently finalized definition of solid waste (DSW) rule, in an effort to create consistency across the country, even as one industry attorney predicts states will continue to have a patchwork of regulations governing hazardous waste recycling due to resource limits and other reasons. -
Oil Refineries Need to Heed Concerns, Implement Safety Improvements
Mar 2, 2015 | LA Times
By Antonia Juhasz
"The most important thing is to shelter in place, stay indoors, no outdoor activity, turn the air conditioners off, keep the windows closed.” This was the instruction Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey gave to neighbors of the Exxon Mobil refinery, including the children at 14 schools, for three hours following a massive explosion at the facility Feb. 18. -
Industry Groups Challenge Revisions To EPA Oil, Gas Performance Standards
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
Oil and natural gas industry groups have filed several lawsuits challenging an Environmental Protection Agency rule amending the new source performance standards for the oil and natural gas sector (Indep. Petroleum Ass'n of Am. v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1040, 2/27/15). -
Warren Buffett Slams Keystone Delay
Mar 2, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Billionaire investor and President Obama fundraiser Warren Buffett disagreed Monday with the president’s delay in reviewing the Keystone XL pipeline, saying it amounts to the United States thumbing its nose at Canada. “I would have passed Keystone,” Buffett told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in advance of the 50th annual shareholder... -
Fracking Center Expands Wastewater Treatment Standard
Mar 2, 2015 | The Energy Collective
The Center for Sustainable Shale Development, a collaborative established in 2013 between Chevron, Shell and other natural gas companies and environmental groups to set fracking standards, has expanded its wastewater Performance Standard 1 to address the treatment of shale wastewater at permitted facilities. -
McConnell Files Cloture on Veto Override; Vote Tomorrow
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
By Manuel Quiñones
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed a cloture motion last night to move forward with an attempt to override President Obama's veto of legislation approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. Republican leaders said the motion was necessary because Democrats were unwilling to allow the vote... -
Murkowski Lays Out Aggressive Agenda Before Easter Break
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
By Nick Juliano
Senate energy leaders yesterday announced a packed agenda for this month that will include a half-dozen hearings on topics ranging from hunting and fishing on public lands to the Department of Energy's forthcoming infrastructure review. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee's activities begin Thursday with a hearing on the Arctic... -
West Virginia Bill on Coal Safety Challenges State Democrats Who Oppose Federal Rules
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tim Loh
Mike Caputo, one of the top Democrats in the West Virginia Legislature, began working in the state's coal mines at age 19. It helped put his kids through school, he said, and helped him pay for his family home. Now Caputo, who is still involved with his union, finds himself labeled a coal killer, the target of Republicans pushing to... -
NAM's Bertelsen Responds to Pushback on Ozone Rule Economic Study
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
What are the economic impacts of U.S. EPA's proposed ozone rule revision? During today's OnPoint, Greg Bertelsen, director of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, discusses his organization's latest study pointing to bad economic news for the manufacturing sector ... -
Loss of Scientific Integrity Claims Rose At EPA During FY14 Amid Greater Outreach
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anthony Adragna
Allegations of loss of scientific integrity at the Environmental Protection Agency rose significantly during fiscal year 2014, but a new report links the increased reporting to intense outreach efforts and the arrival of the agency's first dedicated employee on the issue. -
EPA Utility MACT 'Startup' Waiver Conflicts With SSM Ruling, Critics Claim
Mar 2, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA's decision to give utilities a four-hour exemption from its maximum achievable control technology (MACT) air toxics rule for the sector during facility “startups” conflicts with an appellate ruling barring air toxics rule exemptions and saying MACT limits must apply at all times of startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM), advocates claim. -
Science Board Reform Bill to Cost $2M -- CBO
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
By Amanda Peterka
House legislation to reform U.S. EPA's Science Advisory Board would cost $2 million over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. CBO yesterday said the bill, which the House is scheduled to debate later this week, would cost less than $500,000 a year from 2015 to 2020. Funding, though, would be subject ... -
Hydrocarbon Refrigerants With No Impact On Global Warming Gain Approval From EPA
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
The Environmental Protection Agency approved four hydrocarbon refrigerants with no global warming potential as acceptable substitutes for currently available alternatives in a final rule released March 2. As part of the final rule (RIN: 2060-AS04), the EPA is also approving use of the hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant ... -
EPA Tackles Emissions From Refrigerators, Air Conditioners
Mar 2, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Tim Devaney
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to cut down on emissions from refrigerators. The EPA announced recently it is approving the use of new “climate-friendly” refrigerants that could replace those already in use in refrigerators and air conditioners. -
Private Sector Fails to Disclose Federally Funded Inventions -- GAO
Mar 2, 2015 | E&E News PM
By Katherine Ling
Inventions developed with federal funds but undisclosed by the private sector are escaping the Energy Department's notice and leaving the government's interests unprotected, according to a Government Accountability Office report released today. The failure to properly monitor federally funded inventions developed by nonprofits -
Expedite, Finalize Oil-by-Rail Safety Rules, Pennsylvania Governor Says to Obama
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
Federal rulemakings to address the safe transport of crude oil by rail should be expedited and finalized, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) recently told President Barack Obama. Wolf's administration has sought to assess and address the state's preparedness for crude-by-rail incidents, Wolf said in a letter. The federal government has the primary... -
CSX Must Restore Site of Derailment, Spill In West Virginia, According to EPA Order
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
CSX Transportation Inc. must clean up and restore the environment at a site in West Virginia of the derailment of a train carrying more than 3 million gallons of crude oil, the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered. CSX, the railroad from which the train derailed, must write a plan identifying... -
Crude on Derailed Train Contained High Level of Gas
Mar 2, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Russell Gold
The crude oil aboard the train that derailed and exploded two weeks ago in West Virginia contained so much combustible gas that it would have been barred from rail transport under safety regulations set to go into effect next month. Tests performed on the oil before the train left North Dakota showed... -
Sacramento Area Congress Members Call on Feds to Upgrade Oil Train Safety Now
Mar 2, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee
By Tony Bizjak
Several Northern California representatives in Congress have sent a letter to the Obama Administration expressing displeasure that federal officials missed a self-imposed deadline to propose stronger safety regulations on trains shipping crude oil. The Sacramento area is among many in the country that is seeing growing numbers of trains...
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(ACC Mentioned) Legal Status of Chemical on June 1, 2016, To Determine Data Reporting Rule Threshold
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Chemicals covered by significant new use rules and certain other requirements prior to June 1, 2016, will be subject to a 2,500-pound threshold under the Chemical Data Reporting rule, a senior Environmental Protection Agency official said March 2.
Chemicals newly covered by a SNUR or other requirement after that date will be subject to the general 25,000-pound reporting threshold that applies to most chemicals, Lynn Vendinello, deputy director of the EPA's Chemical Control Division, told a conference in Baltimore.
The next round of CDR reports must be transmitted to the EPA between June 1 and Sept. 30, 2016. The thresholds that will apply for the 2016 reports have long been known to chemical manufacturers, but the EPA had not announced the exact date that would trigger the 25,000-pound or 2,500-pound thresholds.
Vendinello spoke at the annual Global Chemical Regulations Conference organized by the previous hitAmerican Chemistry Councilnext hit and Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA). The conference continues through March 4.
The 2016 CDR submissions will cover production volumes from 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, with 2015 being considered the principal reporting year and, therefore, the year for which the most data may be required.
Hundreds of Chemical Companies Required to Submit
More than 1,600 chemical companies operating at 4,785 production sites were required to submit CDR rule reports in 2012, the last year the reports were due.
The number of companies subject to the Toxic Substances Control Act reporting requirements is likely to increase during the next CDR rule submission period due to reduced thresholds that will trigger the reporting requirement for some chemicals.
In general, manufacturers, including importers, will be required to submit CDR reports if they made or imported a chemical during 2012, 2013, 2014 or 2015 in volumes of 25,000 pounds or more, Vendinello said.
Lower Threshold Triggered by Some Rules, Orders
If, however, a chemical is regulated as of June 1, 2016, under certain provisions of TSCA, the production threshold that triggers the requirement to report will be 2,500 pounds or more, Vendinello said.
Examples of TSCA regulations or orders that would trigger the 2,500-pound reporting threshold, she said, include a chemical being regulated under a Significant New Use Rule, a chemical being subject to a consent order that governs its production or release and a chemical that has been restricted as authorized by Section 6 of the law, she said.
Mary Marrero, a regulatory affairs manager at Procter & Gamble Co., said CDR submissions are important because the production volume, use and other information they provide support the EPA's risk-based regulation of chemicals.
Procter & Gamble has a team of about 25 people that may be asked to help prepare the information for CDR submissions, Marrero told Bloomberg BNA.
Beginning in 2012, the company has striven to increase its use of software that can access information needed for the requirements, she said at the conference.
P&G will test new software it has developed beginning this July with the goal of being ready to submit information to the EPA as early as April 2016, Marrero said.
If the internal April 2016 deadline can be met, the company will be well-positioned to adjust its reports just before June 1, 2016, if a regulatory change triggers the 2,500-pound reporting threshold, Marrero told BNA.
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(ACC Mentioned) Waste Management Joins Recycling Partnership
Mar 3, 2015 | Environmental Leader
Waste Management has joined Curbside Value Partnership’s Recycling Partnership, which aims to improve US curbside recycling.
Founded last year, the national recycling industry collective’s partners companies and organizations include: Alcoa Foundation, Amcor, American Chemistry Council, American Forest & Paper Association, the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers, Ball Corporation, Carton Council, Coca-Cola, SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association, and Sonoco.
CVP says Waste Management’s support is a part of its larger effort to expand its reach and diversify its industry resources.
CVP says the partnership is off to a strong first quarter as its three inaugural city projects move closer to delivering roll carts to more than 100,000 homes and even more programs submitting applications to the 2015 RFP.
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(ACC Mentioned) Bill Would Regulate Toxins in Children's Products
Mar 2, 2015 | Statesman Journal
By Tracy Loew
Industry groups are fighting an Oregon bill that would protect children from toxic chemicals, saying such regulation should be done at the federal level.
"Creating a patchwork of differing policies from state to state is not the most effective method to accomplish this goal," Kevin Messner, of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told a legislative committee during a 2.5-hour hearing Monday.
"The bill would trigger new reporting and product reformulation requirements for manufacturers that are not supported by sound scientific principles," said Tim Shestek, of the American Chemistry Council.
Senate Bill 478 would require the state to maintain a list of chemicals of concern for children's products, require manufacturers to provide notice of chemicals on the list that they use in children's products, and eventually require manufacturers to remove or use substitutes for certain chemicals.
It's modeled on a similar program implemented in Washington state in 2009.
California, Vermont and Maine also have state-level toxics laws.
Oregon's proposal would focus on the same 66 chemicals as Washington's law.
They're the ones science shows are of most concern to children's health, said Angela Crowley-Koch, of the Oregon Environmental Council.
Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, one of the bill's sponsors, told the committee that federal law does not require companies to disclose the presence of toxic chemicals in children's products.
"Research has shown that dangerous toxins, including arsenic, mercury, formaldehyde, phthalates and BPA are present in children's products and show up in children's bodies, human cord blood, breast milk and other bodily tissues," Keny-Guyer said.
"Toxic chemicals have been linked to cancer, asthma, Parkinson's disease, infertility and genetic damage, fetal and child development, learning disabilities, liver toxicity and diabetes," she said.
It's the third consecutive try for the legislation.
Last year, a similar bill died in committee. In 2013, a similar bill passed the House, but stalled in the Senate.
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Comment Period for New Use Rules Extended
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Environmental Protection Agency is extending the comment period for a series of significant new use rules, or SNURs, it proposed earlier this year, according to a notice scheduled to be published in the March 3 Federal Register. The agency initially proposed the SNURs for 13 chemicals on Jan. 7 with a comment period scheduled to end next week (RIN 2070-AB27; 80 Fed. Reg. 838; 04 DEN A-3, 1/7/15). However, the agency said it received multiple requests to extend this period. With this extension, the EPA will now accept comments on the SNURs through April 23. Comments may be submitted at Regulations.gov under the Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPPT-2014-0760.
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EPA Eyes Push For Quick State Adoption Of Final Waste Definition Rule
Mar 2, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
EPA plans to urge states to quickly adopt its recently finalized definition of solid waste (DSW) rule, in an effort to create consistency across the country, even as one industry attorney predicts states will continue to have a patchwork of regulations governing hazardous waste recycling due to resource limits and other reasons.
All states, "at a minimum," will have to adopt the more stringent aspects of the new rule by July 2017, unless state statutory changes are needed, in which case they will have one year longer, EPA staff said during a Feb. 19 webinar on the rule. "But we will be working with states to try and speed that time line up because we do think that it's an important rule, [and] that it would be good to have a consistent program across the country," one EPA staff member said.
The rule, released Dec. 10 and published in the Federal Register Jan. 13, attempts to close what the agency saw as regulatory gaps in the Bush-era 2008 DSW rule by mandating use of all four of the agency's criteria for determining that recycling of hazardous waste is legitimate, rather than just two under the Bush rule. It also eliminates a transfer-based exclusion from the solid waste definition replacing it with a stricter "verified recycler exclusion," among other measures.
During the Feb. 19 webinar, EPA staff outlined what they said would be a complicated state authorization process due to the rule's complexity. The rule is more stringent than a 2008 final rule contested by environmentalists and adopted by very few states. The four states that adopted the 2008 rule -- Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Idaho -- will be required to modify their programs to align them to be at least as stringent as the federal program, according to the EPA staff members on the webinar. As of the rule's effective date -- July 13 of this year -- facilities in these four states should start complying with the new rule, which will mean "over-complying with the state program" until that state updates its program, one of the staff members said during the question-and-answer portion of the webinar.
The rule will also take effect July 13 in Iowa and Alaska, because those two states lack authorized Resource Conservation & Recovery Act programs, according to the staff.
Most states, however, did not adopt the 2008 rule and use a base hazardous waste program under the rule in existence prior to 2008. Some aspects of the new rule are less stringent than that base program, while other parts are stricter. As a result, all states, "at a minimum," will have to adopt those parts of the rule that are more stringent than the base hazardous waste program, an EPA staff member said on the webinar.
Stricter Provisions
These stricter provisions include the adoption of: the new rule's ban on sham recycling; its definition of legitimate recycling, which includes a definition of "contained" as it pertains to a hazardous secondary material; a speculative accumulation date tracking requirement; and revisions to the standards and criteria for solid waste variance and non-waste determinations, according to EPA.
But the majority of states will have the choice of whether to adopt other new or revised exclusions, as they are considered less stringent, according to the EPA staff. These provisions include: the generator controlled exclusion, verified recycler exclusion and the remanufacturing exclusion, staff said.
The final rule retains the 2008 generator-controlled exclusion for secondary material recycled under the control of the generator, either on-site by the same company or through a toll manufacturing recycling agreement, according to EPA slides on the final rule.
The verified recycler exclusion replaces the 2008 transfer-based exclusion, and requires that hazardous materials recyclers either obtain RCRA permits to address these materials or secure a variance before operating under the exclusion, according to EPA. Verified recyclers must meet a number of criteria, including meeting legitimacy factors, providing financial assurance for closure, and meeting public participation requirements.
The remanufacturing exclusion is a new exclusion from regulation as a solid waste for certain higher-value hazardous spent solvents being remanufactured into commercial-grade products. This will lower the use of virgin solvents, according to EPA.
Private practice attorneys tracking the rule say it is not unusual for there to be a patchwork of RCRA regulations across the country. One attorney says rule implementation will be complex and take time to sort out, but adds it is not unusual for new RCRA rules to have both more and less stringent parts.
A second industry attorney says, "This rule isn't going to change that patchwork piece of it," noting that since 1985, the regulated community has had to look at RCRA rules state by state.
A third attorney predicts there will be a patchwork of rules "for some period of time," but notes that it appears EPA tried to address the concerns states had with the previous rule -- such as the need for more controls -- through changes in the new rule in the hopes that more states will adopt it.
Recycler Exclusion
But the second attorney doubts that many states will adopt the verified recycler exclusion. This source explains that it would be more work for states to verify, making it a resource issue for states, which are under tight budgets. If states do not adopt the verified recycler exclusion, the material will have to go to a RCRA permitted facility and be fully regulated as a hazardous waste. This source predicts only a handful of states will adopt the verified recycler exclusion.
The source believes more states -- perhaps as many as 15 -- will move to adopt the remanufacturing exclusion because the resource burden is not that large and states believe the remanufacturing of spent solvents is not a discarding of waste.
The first attorney says that states might wait to see if the rule is litigated, although states will nonetheless have to adopt the more stringent aspects. With the 2008 rule so quickly litigated, some states waited to see about adopting it, the source adds.
A source with the Association for State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials says the group is in the midst of preparing an analysis of the rule, and is unsure where individual states currently stand on the rule. During a Feb. 25 webinar sponsored by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on various hazardous waste regulations, Michelle Ching, with DEC's Division of Environmental Remediation, said the department is still evaluating the rule to determine whether the state will move forward on adopting the optional portions of the rule, and asked for public comment on that decision.
A Colorado state source says Colorado is not likely to adopt the optional portions of the new rule. Further, the source notes that the state already had previously made all four legitimacy criteria required, and now will need to make only minor changes to its regulations to meet the more stringent requirements set out by the new rule.
Legal Challenges
The second attorney believes the new rule will be litigated, noting that all past DSW rules have been litigated. Any number of parties could sue over the rule, including environmentalists, the hazardous waste treatment industry, the chemical industry or other industry parties, the source suggests, noting that environmentalists are likely to oppose the verified recycler exclusion. The source is averse to the exclusion, saying while some facilities have already spent millions of dollars to get permitted to receive hazardous waste and recycle, others can "pop up" with a verified exclusion and variance and will not have to meet the same requirements as those with a permit.
Sources with Earthjustice, which sued over the 2008 rule for being too lax, and with the waste treatment industry could not be reached for comment at press time. In a statement issued when the rule was released in December, Earthjustice suggested some concerns, saying the group expected a "stronger rule," and noted it "leaves critical gaps in community safeguards from toxic exposure." Parties who wish to litigate the rule have 60 days from Jan. 13 to file suit.
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Oil Refineries Need to Heed Concerns, Implement Safety Improvements
Mar 2, 2015 | LA Times
By Antonia Juhasz
"The most important thing is to shelter in place, stay indoors, no outdoor activity, turn the air conditioners off, keep the windows closed.” This was the instruction Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey gave to neighbors of the Exxon Mobil refinery, including the children at 14 schools, for three hours following a massive explosion at the facility Feb. 18.
Four workers were injured. The force of the explosion, in a pollution control unit, was so great it registered as a magnitude 1.4 earthquake. Photographs showed a scene straight out of “Mad Max,” with heavy white ash coating twisted debris, and a blown-apart multi-story structure. For 28 hours, twin stacks shot flames into the air, burning off volatile gases.
Only a limited area of the 750-acre facility was affected, but Torrance residents from at least 3.5 miles away felt the rumble and cleaned up after the “white snow” that fell on streets, cars, playgrounds, homes, pets and people. Composed of “catalyst dust” — usually made up of aluminum oxide and smaller amounts of nickel and vanadium — the ash is considered nontoxic in the amounts released but it can irritate skin, eyes and throats, and those handling it are cautioned to wear protective gloves and face gear.
It was the third U.S. refinery explosion this year, and just the latest reminder of the very real dangers petroleum refineries and terminals pose for their workers, their neighbors, the air we breathe and the climate we share. For nearly a decade, the industry's leading watchdogs have warned that American refineries are operating with shocking disregard for known risks and are failing to adhere to existing regulations, which are also dangerously insufficient.
That reality has also put nearly 7,000 refinery workers on picket lines at 15 refineries nationwide. Torrance isn't among them, but the Tesoro refinery in nearby Carson is. The strike is not about wages or benefits. It's about 12-hour shifts for 30 straight days, worker fatigue and accidents, and too many ill-trained, ill-paid contract workers (the injured workers at Torrance were contractors).
And it's about companies that aren't using the safest available technology; for example, they use unnecessarily dangerous materials, such as modified hydrofluoric acid, which was present in vessels and piping close to the unit that exploded in Torrance. Fortunately, the vessels and piping weren't breached.
In fact, at least 50 workers have died in U.S. refinery incidents since 2007, according to my research. During the same period, according to the United Steelworkers, a fire or explosion has put refinery workers and communities at risk twice a month, on average, at facilities across the nation.
One of those accidents stands out in California's memory. In 2012 a corroded pipe ruptured, causing an explosion and fire at Chevron's Richmond, Calif., refinery. Six workers were injured, a black cloud of toxic chemicals spread thousands of feet into the air and across San Francisco Bay, and about 15,000 nearby residents sought medical assistance, all because, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, the company didn't do proper maintenance.
Five years earlier, after a BP Texas refinery blast killed 15 and injured 180, the Chemical Safety Board warned of pervasive “complacency toward serious safety risks” at all American refineries. After Richmond, it concluded the situation had not improved. The board specifically cited the need for California to “enhance and restructure” its deficient safety management regulations.
In response, Gov. Jerry Brown established an interagency working group on refinery safety. Its February 2014 report includes workers testifying about old, outdated and corroded structures, inadequate maintenance and retaliation against those who try to shut down unsafe operations. The report also reveals severe gaps in regulations, limitations on state regulators' abilities to “cover all aspects of process safety,” and penalties that are “insufficient … to create meaningful deterrence.”
One of the things those penalties fail to deter is air pollution. Since 2005, Exxon Mobil has paid more than $15 million in fines (including fines for failing to address violations that led to previous fines) related to state and federal air standards at the Torrance refinery and terminals. Nonetheless, the Torrance refinery has been in “high priority violation” of the federal Clean Air Act in every quarter since at least 2011 and faces 12 Clean Air Act “significant violations,” which carry fines of nearly $100,000. These pollutants pose serious health risks to neighbors and the climate: California's refineries are the single largest stationary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state.
The governor's report listed more than two-dozen necessary safety improvements, starting with new rules to force refineries to adopt “inherently safer systems.” Since then, just two new regulations have made it as far as the rule-making phase.
Clearly, much is left to be done. Oil refineries will always be hazardous, but they can be made much safer. Before there's another Torrance, or Richmond, or another clean-air violation or refinery death, the demands of the striking workers should be met, the concerns of communities heard and the governor's and Chemical Safety Board's recommendations fully implemented.
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Industry Groups Challenge Revisions To EPA Oil, Gas Performance Standards
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
Oil and natural gas industry groups have filed several lawsuits challenging an Environmental Protection Agency rule amending the new source performance standards for the oil and natural gas sector (Indep. Petroleum Ass'n of Am. v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1040, 2/27/15).
The Independent Petroleum Association of America and other petitioners filed lawsuits Feb. 27 and March 2 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Those other petitioners are:
• Gas Processors Association, No. 15-1041
• Texas Oil and Gas Association, No. 15-1042
• Western Energy Alliance, No. 15-1043, and
• American Petroleum Institute, No. 15-1044.
Attorneys for the petitioners could not be reached for comment.
The December 2014 EPA rule (RIN 2060-AR75) clarified how well operators should handle gases and liquid during the well completion process, amended performance standards for storage vessels and removed a provision that shielded oil and natural gas facilities from civil penalties for emissions violations that occur as a result of a malfunction. It was issued less than two weeks before a key compliance deadline (79 Fed. Reg. 79,018; 245 DEN A-11, 12/22/14).
The EPA in 2012 issued new source performance standards for hydraulically fractured wells that required well operators to install controls to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds.
Industry groups had petitioned the EPA to revise the standards to better align regulatory requirements during flowback with the operational methods and equipment used by industry. The EPA's revisions rule also included several clarifying amendments to the storage vessel provisions of the emissions standards.
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Warren Buffett Slams Keystone Delay
Mar 2, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
Billionaire investor and President Obama fundraiser Warren Buffett disagreed Monday with the president’s delay in reviewing the Keystone XL pipeline, saying it amounts to the United States thumbing its nose at Canada.
“I would have passed Keystone,” Buffett told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in advance of the 50th annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway, which he founded. “I think that we have an enormous interest in working with Canada.”
While not directly calling out Obama, Buffett made it clear that he disagreed with the way the federal government is currently handling TransCanada Corp.’s application for the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, which it filed more than six years ago.
“That is a valuable resource of North America and Canada’s been a terrific partner over the decades,” he said.”And for us to kind of thumb our nose at them, you know, not what I would do.”
Buffett supports the pipeline despite Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership of BNSF Railway, which also carries crude oil and therefore competes against pipelines.
Buffett’s comments came less than a week after Obama vetoed a bill that would have forced approval of Keystone.
Obama said that the bill would disrupt the current practice that gives the executive branch exclusive authority to review cross-border pipeline applications to determine whether they would be in the “national interest,” a process that the Obama administration is still conducting.
Buffett has supported Keystone since at least 2012.
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Fracking Center Expands Wastewater Treatment Standard
Mar 2, 2015 | The Energy Collective
The Center for Sustainable Shale Development, a collaborative established in 2013 between Chevron, Shell and other natural gas companies and environmental groups to set fracking standards, has expanded its wastewater Performance Standard 1 to address the treatment of shale wastewater at permitted facilities.
The expanded standard represents the culmination of a year-long effort by a working group of stakeholders from industry and NGO participating organizations to address conditions necessary for safe surface discharge of treated shale wastewater, CSSD says.
The original performance standard identified recycling and underground injection as acceptable methods of managing produced water and recognized that there was also a need to address methods of wastewater treatment and discharge. For this reason, it contained a commitment that the group would address wastewater treatment by the fall of 2014.
In evaluating water management options, the working group took into account risks associated with long distance trucking, and that outlets for recycling grow more limited as operations mature and begin to produce more water than they can recycle.
After examining current federal and state regulatory frameworks, EPA guidance, and available technologies, CSSD’s working group determined that discharge through regulated Centralized Waste Treatment (CWT) facilities would be the most appropriate expansion of wastewater disposal options.
Some wastewater treatment facilities designed specifically to treat shale wastewater are now capable of treating shale gas wastewater to levels at or better than receiving stream standards, which makes them an acceptable alternative to zero discharge.
Based on a review of existing permits and technologies, CSSD determined that the best available treatment technology currently in operation involves a combination of distillation and biological treatment and, as necessary, reverse osmosis. Because technology in this area is quickly evolving, the expanded standard allows operators to use CWT facilities that utilize technologies or combinations of technologies other than those identified on the condition that they demonstrate they can achieve equivalent or superior treatment.
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McConnell Files Cloture on Veto Override; Vote Tomorrow
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
By Manuel Quiñones
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed a cloture motion last night to move forward with an attempt to override President Obama's veto of legislation approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Republican leaders said the motion was necessary because Democrats were unwilling to allow the vote on whether to override the president's veto to happen right away. The cloture vote is set for tomorrow. SPECIAL REPORT
A look at the far-reaching debate on the Keystone XL pipeline, which could change the energy and economic agenda for both the U.S. and Canada. Click here to view the special report.
McConnell yesterday accused Democrats of mounting a filibuster. "It takes 67 votes to overturn a veto," McConnell said, "more than the 60 required to overcome a filibuster, so there is no reason for a filibuster other than to delay and cause gridlock simply for its own sake."
Republicans are pointing to a report by the Congressional Research Service that said veto override votes usually move forward by unanimous consent. They say researchers could not find a single instance in Senate history of a cloture vote prior to an override attempt.
Democrats have not been vocal about their strategy. Asked last night why her side wouldn't allow the override vote to happen right away, Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) replied, "I'm against the project."
The KXL bill got 62 votes in the Senate earlier this year, including nine Democrats. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was absent at the time but will likely be the 63rd vote for the pipeline this week.
Even though pro-KXL lawmakers have enough supporters to get past the cloture, they are unlikely to gain any new backers for overriding Obama's will. The effort has already all but failed.
Asked about the vote count, pro-KXL Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said, "It is pretty much what it is." Asked whether pipeline supporters were whipping for votes, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who has voted against pro-pipeline legislation, said, "They may be reaching out to others but not to me."
Most of the nine pro-KXL Democrats are on record saying they will vote to override the president's veto, even if the effort is unlikely to succeed. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) remains undecided, at least in public.
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Murkowski Lays Out Aggressive Agenda Before Easter Break
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
By Nick Juliano
Senate energy leaders yesterday announced a packed agenda for this month that will include a half-dozen hearings on topics ranging from hunting and fishing on public lands to the Department of Energy's forthcoming infrastructure review.
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee's activities begin Thursday with a hearing on the Arctic, an issue of outsized importance to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the committee's chairwoman who has repeatedly clashed with the Obama administration over oil development and related issues in the region (E&E Daily, March 2).
Next week, ENR will consider the "Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act," a bill that would expand outdoor recreation access to public lands sponsored by Murkowski, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and more than a dozen other senators.
The following week brings a hearing on technology related to the electric grid and a separate session to consider whether to lift the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports.
Murkowski strongly supports lifting the crude oil export ban but has not introduced legislation on the subject because she says the Obama administration has all the authority it needs to authorize new exports. Some Republicans have been slow to embrace the push amid fears that the issue could become politicized over gasoline prices; the House Energy and Commerce Committee is considering crude exports at a hearing today (E&E Daily, March 2).
Rounding out ENR's month will be hearings on potential reforms to managing national forests and a discussion of DOE's forthcoming Quadrennial Energy Review, which is expected to address the need for pipelines, electric transmission and other energy infrastructure.
The committee's full schedule is as follows: March 5, 10 a.m.: Hearing to evaluate opportunities for the United States to build on its status as an Arctic nation. March 12, 10:30 a.m.: Hearing to receive testimony on the "Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2015." March 17, 10 a.m.: Hearing to evaluate the state of technological innovation related to the electrical grid. March 19, 10 a.m.: Hearing to receive testimony on U.S. crude oil export policy. March 24, 10 a.m.: Hearing to receive testimony on potential reforms to the nation's forest system. March 26, 10 a.m.: Hearing to receive testimony on the Obama administration's Quadrennial Energy Review.
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West Virginia Bill on Coal Safety Challenges State Democrats Who Oppose Federal Rules
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tim Loh
Mike Caputo, one of the top Democrats in the West Virginia Legislature, began working in the state's coal mines at age 19. It helped put his kids through school, he said, and helped him pay for his family home.
Now Caputo, who is still involved with his union, finds himself labeled a coal killer, the target of Republicans pushing to rewrite state rules on mining safety and the environment that have been on the books for years.
The label comes as Republicans, in control of the legislature for the first time since the Great Depression, are pushing to pass a new Coal Jobs and Safety Act. They say the legislation will cut red tape and lower industry costs, while union members worry it will lower safety thresholds. While both sides have long joined together to oppose U.S. environmental rules that hurt Big Coal, the state campaign has them on different sides.
Unions “have run West Virginia for years,” said Randy Smith, the Republican who sponsored the bill in the West Virginia House. “This is the first time in 83 years Republicans have control. Anything we introduce, they're fighting against.”
The act, which could face a final vote within a week, comes amid a state-based drive to undercut federal environmental rules being pushed by President Barack Obama to address global warming. West Virginia, along with Texas and Wyoming, has already seen efforts to target the ways local schools address global warming, emphasizing doubts on the role of humans in climate change.
Outmoded Rules
The West Virginia mine legislation is designed to update what supporters describe as outmoded rules, created after mining disasters in the 1960s and 1970s, that fail to take into account the latest mining technology.
After a 1972 incident at the Blacksville No. 1 mine that killed nine miners, for instance, a regulation was created mandating that workers vacate underground areas when some heavy equipment is moved. That rule is no longer needed because the newest equipment doesn't require the same type of dangerous electrical connections, according to Smith, who works in the mines as a section foreman with a 10-man crew.
Talk of coal safety resonates in West Virginia, where the mountainous landscape is dotted with memorials to mining disasters. In April 2010, an explosion killed 29 workers at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., the worst coal accident in the state in four decades.
The message from opponents of the coal act is stark: “When safety standards are cut, miners die,” the United Mine Workers of America says on its website. “It's that simple.”
Mining Disasters
No one disputes that the U.S. coal industry is in bad shape, with most publicly traded producers losing money. Mines in Appalachia in particular have suffered from competition from cheaper natural gas, which some power plants are now using instead of coal, and an oversupply of coal used in steelmaking.
In 2013, West Virginia's coal output was 116 million tons, down 27 percent from five years earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration, a government agency. As coal mines have shut, the number of miners in the state has fallen 21 percent to 16,500 over that period, according to the West Virginia Coal Association.
It is against this backdrop that West Virginia Republicans were able to take control of both state houses for the first time since 1932. Their campaign tied state Democrats to Obama's environmental efforts, which include the introduction of carbon rules for power plants.
That has left Caputo and other Democrats who managed to get re-elected in an awkward spot. While Caputo is opposed to Obama's proposed carbon rules, he stands with the union against the regulatory changes proposed at the state level.
‘Economic Engine.’
“There's not a Democrat I know in this state that's anti-coal,” he said in a telephone interview. “It's the main piston in our economic engine.”
Still, Caputo opposes the law because, he says, “you can't cut safety to increase production. A safe mine is a productive mine and that's just the way it's got to be. This industry has left too many widows and too many orphans.”
It is those types of statements that have drawn fire from his Republican foes, and this past fall he found political ads landing in his mailbox that labeled him as someone trying to kill off the industry.
Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, has a different view. “This industry in Central Appalachia is under attack from the federal government,” Raney said. As a result, he said, the state and region have to identify things that can be done on the local level to improve the industry's standing.
‘Battle Cry.’
His organization, which has lobbied for years to enact many provisions in the West Virginia bill, has stated that the proposed act won't weaken safety standards but could help strengthen its future.
The bill has passed the state Senate and is in the House of Delegates. It is likely to be signed into law, but may be too wide-reaching to withstand the inevitable legal challenges, according to state Sen. Bob Beach, a Democrat who voted against the legislation.
“Miners on the whole would like things to remain as they are,” Beach said in a telephone interview. “But the ‘War on Coal’ battle cry was heard, and I believe that is why we have the legislation we have today.”
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NAM's Bertelsen Responds to Pushback on Ozone Rule Economic Study
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
What are the economic impacts of U.S. EPA's proposed ozone rule revision? During today's OnPoint, Greg Bertelsen, director of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, discusses his organization's latest study pointing to bad economic news for the manufacturing sector and states if EPA moves forward with its proposed revised numbers. NAM's report has received criticism for the methodology used in its assessment, and Bertelsen responds to the pushback. Today's OnPoint will air on E&ETV at 10 a.m. EST.
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Loss of Scientific Integrity Claims Rose At EPA During FY14 Amid Greater Outreach
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anthony Adragna
Allegations of loss of scientific integrity at the Environmental Protection Agency rose significantly during fiscal year 2014, but a new report links the increased reporting to intense outreach efforts and the arrival of the agency's first dedicated employee on the issue.
Forty allegations of loss of scientific integrity were reported in fiscal year 2014, up from just three claims of loss of scientific integrity reported since the formal release of the agency's Scientific Integrity Policy in February 2012 until fiscal year 2014. The 40 allegations represented less than 0.3 percent of EPA staff and an even smaller percentage when the contractors, grantees and volunteers also covered under the policy are included, according to the report.
“The increase in the reporting of allegations in fiscal year 2014 coincides with both the arrival of the agency's first full-time Scientific Integrity Official and significant increases in outreach about the policy and hence is probably not as notable as it might seem,” the report states. “Allegations from outside the agency have dropped while those from inside the agency have increased. This is a positive development that may indicate that the agency is resolving concerns before they are shared with outside parties.”
According to the report, scientific integrity is “adherence to professional values and practices when conducting, communicating and applying the results of science and scholarship.”
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has defended the scientific work of her agency amid what she described as “manufactured” attempts from individuals with political or business motivations to undermine it (82 DEN A-7, 4/29/14).
Republicans in Congress have criticized the EPA for what they describe as “secret,” not sufficiently peer-reviewed and not sufficiently transparent scientific work that is then used as the basis for major regulations. The House is expected to vote this week on two proposals related to EPA science efforts this week (40 DEN A-16, 3/2/15).
Much Informal Reporting
Of the 40 allegations lodged during fiscal year 2014, 17 were received formally and 23 were informal. Formal allegations can reveal the identity of the person making the allegations.
The claims involve alleged suppression or delay of a document release, authorship disputes that could involve plagiarism and potential conflicts of interests or a lack of impartiality during peer review.
Twenty-two of the 23 informal reports came from within the agency, while just six of the 17 formal allegations did, according to the report.
Of those formal claims, “three are closed, three are being investigated by the Inspector General, one is being resolved in the affected region and the other 10 are in the inquiry phase,” the report said.
The EPA unveiled its final Scientific Integrity Policy in February 2012 and has been working on its implementation since then. The agency hired its first full-time scientific integrity officer, Francesca Grifo, in November 2013 (228 DEN A-5, 11/26/13).
Other Priorities in Science Integrity
Besides improving the reporting and resolving of scientific integrity disputes, the EPA said five other priorities would be reducing confusion about publication authorship, increasing transparency, defining timely release of agency scientific work, enhancing peer review and reducing constraints to full implementation of its Scientific Integrity Policy.
One of the key ways to improve transparency cited in the report was ensuring EPA scientists are available to discuss their work with media.
“It is vital that EPA scientists have both training and permission to communicate their research results,” the report states. “The role of EPA scientists as translators of research is ever more important to reporters being able to write well about EPA's research accomplishments and to enhancing public trust in the agency.”
To date, more than one-third of all EPA employees including all supervisors have received training on the Scientific Integrity Policy. In fiscal year 2013, the agency also strengthened oversight of contractor-led peer review panels through new guidelines and additional opportunities for public input on panel selection.
The EPA is also working to update its Peer Review Handbook. A fourth edition of the document is currently undergoing agencywide review and will then be reviewed and approved by the science advisor.
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EPA Utility MACT 'Startup' Waiver Conflicts With SSM Ruling, Critics Claim
Mar 2, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA's decision to give utilities a four-hour exemption from its maximum achievable control technology (MACT) air toxics rule for the sector during facility “startups” conflicts with an appellate ruling barring air toxics rule exemptions and saying MACT limits must apply at all times of startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM), advocates claim.
Environmentalists outlined their push-back on the utility MACT revisions in a recent filing in litigation over the changes, as well as an administrative petition for EPA to reconsider the rule. If the agency retains its changes and the suit proceeds, it would allow the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to again rule on SSM exemptions just years after its 2008 decision that said the Clean Air Act generally bars air law waivers during SSM.
And the lawsuit, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, et al. v. EPA, could separately also create further legal complications for implementing EPA's utility MACT. The rule is already facing a pending Supreme Court challenge in which industry says the agency erred by not considering costs when it decided to issue the MACT.
Several years after EPA's original issuance of the utility air toxics rule in December 2011 -- and published in the Feb. 16, 2012, Federal Register with a compliance deadline this year of April 16, the agency in a Nov. 19 rule finalized a handful of changes to various provisions affecting emissions limit during facility startups.
The rule established a four-hour exemption from the utility MACT's strict numerical emissions limits during power plants' startups. During those four hours EPA instead said that companies must use “work practice” standards including use of cleaner-burning fuels such as natural gas and starting use of pollution controls as quickly as possible.
Environmentalists say that the revision is at odds with the D.C. Circuit's 2008 ruling in Sierra Club v. EPA, et al. that said the SSM exemption EPA had offered in a host of Clean Air Act section 112 MACT rules was unlawful because it fell short of an air law requirement that the emissions standards apply at all times. The court in that case scrapped the general SSM exemption, and the agency is now taking steps to remove it from various rules.
EPA's Nov. 19 rulemaking does not mention the 2008 decision, but it crafted the change to the startup provision in an attempt to address industry concerns that the MACT as originally issued could not be met.
However, the revisions have prompted petitions for reconsideration as well as lawsuits from industry groups and from environmentalists. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Environmental Integrity Project and Sierra Club argue that the changes are unlawful and will allow for massive spikes in utility air pollution.
In a Feb. 26 statement of issues in the suit, environmentalists claim the startup provisions violate the air law. They question whether the agency “contravened the Clean Air Act or acted arbitrarily by, in the [MACT rule], establishing numerical standards and a 30-day averaging period for [hazardous air pollutants (HAPs)] and their surrogates that do comply with the minimum stringency ('floor') provisions” of the air law.
The groups earlier provided more detail on their criticisms of the rule in a Jan. 20 petition for reconsideration filed with EPA. They warn in the filing that the four-hour startup MACT exemption will likely result in huge amounts of additional pollution, given the frequency of startup events for some power plants.
Reconsideration Petition
In the petition to EPA, the groups warn that “the D.C. Circuit has specifically held that the Clean Air Act requires that 'there must be continuous section 112-compliant standards,'” citing the Sierra Club decision.
“But the revised final rule includes no continuous, § 112-compliant work practice or other emission standard to limit the rate of HAP emissions during the first four hours after generation. The four-hour exemption itself is not a work practice and does not limit emissions. EPA’s purported work practices for clean fuels and pollution controls do not require continuous reduction in emissions -- and are, in reality, not work practices -- because they are so vague that they are unenforceable,” says the group's petition for reconsideration.
According to EPA's own analysis prepared for the SSM rule, the “average” power plant had between nine and 10 startup events per year during 2011-2012, and a small number had more than 100 such events in 2011 and 80 in 2012. Allowing power plants to operate without controls for up to four hours during startup even 10 times each per year would result in “massive” pollution, the groups say.
“EPA’s finding that measurement is impracticable during these four hours is not supported by substantial evidence, as it is required to be under bedrock administrative case law,” the groups say, adding that it is “impossible to tell if EPA’s determination is the result of rational decision-making.”
EPA based its exemption on the difficulty of measuring emissions of HAPs during the startup period, but advocates say this runs counter to decades of experience in running continuous emissions monitoring (CEM) for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides under the agency's acid rain program. Under that program, EPA requires CEM to operate from the moment combustion begins and throughout generation, and EPA has failed to explain “why it has suddenly decided the same data cannot be used to measure compliance” with the MACT emissions limits.
The MACT rule as a “co-benefit” reduces fine particulate matter (PM2.5), some of which is considered toxic air pollution. “EPA has failed to establish that PM emissions cannot be measured or reasonably estimated during the first four hours after generation begins,” the groups say.
Environmentalists further take issue with EPA's softening of the work practice standards applicable during startup that would have required the use of clean fuels exclusively up until the point of electricity generation, and that power plants engage all pollution controls, with limited exceptions, upon firing their primary fuel -- usually coal.
Instead, EPA inserted “amorphous” requirements that plants burn clean fuels during startup “to the maximum extent possible,” and that control devices other than those used to control PM2.5 be engaged “as expeditiously as possible,” the environmental groups say in their petition for reconsideration.
EPA sheds “no light on what it means to 'maximize' clean-fuel use through the first four hours of generation, and EPA’s purported work practices only require that [electric generating units (EGUs)] demonstrate they have enough clean-fuel capacity to allow PM controls to 'engage' within the first hour that firing of the primary fuel begins,” they say.
Also, when determining that power plants would have difficulty meeting the original SSM requirements of the MACT rule, EPA did not consider the performance of the top 12 percent of electric generating units, as it is required to do by the air law when calculating the MACT “floor,” or minimum emissions limit, environmentalists say.
“An analysis of the SO2 CEMS data that EPA included in the docket shows that one-third of EPA’s 'best performing' sources cannot meet the [MACT] emission rate at all,” they conclude.
Utilities' Concerns
Meanwhile, utilities Southern Company Services, Inc., Alabama Power Company, Georgia Power Company, Gulf Power Company and Mississippi Power Company in a Feb. 26 statement of issues list their own objections to the SSM rule that they will raise in D.C. Circuit litigation.
The utilities say they will ask the court to examine whether “the regulatory language is inconsistent and fails to adequately establish a rational definition of startup.”
The utilities also question “[w]hether EPA’s new regulatory language subjecting electric generating units in startup or shutdown to both work practice standards and numerical emission limits whenever any unit using a common stack is operating normally is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.”
The Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), representing a broader group of utilities, has already filed a petition for reconsideration with EPA and parallel lawsuit with the D.C. Circuit. In its petition for reconsideration, UARG says EPA has unreasonably failed to add specific emissions control technologies to a list of exempted control devices that plants need not engage during a certain phase of startup; that the agency's methodology in calculating the MACT "floor," or minimum emissions limit, is flawed and cannot be replicated, in contravention of the air law; and that EPA has mishandled the issue of how and when to cap "diluent" values when measuring emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.
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Science Board Reform Bill to Cost $2M -- CBO
Mar 3, 2015 | E&E Daily News
By Amanda Peterka
House legislation to reform U.S. EPA's Science Advisory Board would cost $2 million over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
CBO yesterday said the bill, which the House is scheduled to debate later this week, would cost less than $500,000 a year from 2015 to 2020. Funding, though, would be subject to congressional appropriators, the budget office said.
The legislation is aimed at correcting a perceived bias in EPA's Science Advisory Board, an approximately 50-member panel that advises the agency on the science that goes into federal rulemakings.
H.R. 1029 would add new peer-review requirements when it comes to balance and independence on the advisory board, as well as set a quota for state and local officials to be included on the panel and allow corporate interests to serve after disclosing financial conflicts of interest.
It would also require academics to disclose previously received grant funding from EPA and add requirements for board members to respond in a written format to public comments.
Reps. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) introduced the bill last month. The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved the bill last week mostly along party lines (E&E Daily, Feb. 26).
The Rules Committee will meet later this afternoon to vote on how floor debate on the legislation will proceed. A similar version of the legislation passed the House last November.
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Hydrocarbon Refrigerants With No Impact On Global Warming Gain Approval From EPA
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
The Environmental Protection Agency approved four hydrocarbon refrigerants with no global warming potential as acceptable substitutes for currently available alternatives in a final rule released March 2.
As part of the final rule (RIN: 2060-AS04), the EPA is also approving use of the hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant difluoromethane (HFC-32). President Barack Obama has ordered the EPA to use its authority under the significant new alternatives policy (SNAP) program to identify alternatives to ozone-depleting substances that would make less of an impact on the climate as part of the White House Climate Action Plan.
“Today's rule is an example of how we can turn the challenge of climate change into an opportunity to innovate our way to a better future,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a March 2 statement. “By working together, businesses and EPA are bringing new, climate-friendly refrigerants to market that better protect our health and the environment.”
The four hydrocarbons being approved are ethane, isobutane, propane and the hydrocarbon blend R-441A.
The EPA is approving the five refrigerants for use in household refrigerators and freezers as well as in standalone retail food refrigeration equipment, very low temperature refrigeration, non-mechanical heat transfer, vending machines and room air conditioning units. The final rule also would exempt ethane, isobutane, propane and R-441A from Clean Air Act Section 608's prohibition on venting since the EPA found those substances pose no environmental threats.
The EPA proposed the rule in June 2014 (125 DEN A-4, 6/30/14).
In one change from the proposed rule, the EPA will not finalize the charge limits for packaged terminal air conditioning units, packaged terminal heat pumps and floor-mounted air conditioning units it had proposed. Instead, the EPA said it will establish charge limits for portable air conditioning units that are consistent with those for room air conditioners.
Refrigerants Used in Europe, Asia
The EPA said Australia, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom already have approved hydrocarbon refrigerants for use in household and commercial refrigerators and freezers, and many companies had expressed interest in using them in the U.S.
The EPA has previously approved use of isobutane and R-441A as acceptable substitutes for the chlorofluorocarbon CFC-12 and the hydrochlorofluorocarbon HCFC-22 in commercial and household refrigerators and freezers. The agency also approved use of propane in retail standalone refrigerators and freezers (244 DEN A-12, 12/20/11).
The final rule will take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
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EPA Tackles Emissions From Refrigerators, Air Conditioners
Mar 2, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Tim Devaney
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to cut down on emissions from refrigerators.
The EPA announced recently it is approving the use of new “climate-friendly” refrigerants that could replace those already in use in refrigerators and air conditioners.
This comes as part of the Obama administration’s climate action plan. The new rule will affect household refrigerators and freezers, restaurant refrigerators, and room air conditioners, the EPA noted.
“Today’s rule is an example of how we can turn the challenge on climate change into an opportunity to innovate our way to a better future,” EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said.
The new rule is intended to better protect public health and the environment.
The EPA is approving several new climate-friendly refrigerants as substitute chemicals under the agency’s significant new alternatives policy program, because they “offer better climate protection without harming the ozone layer."
These new refrigerants have “low global warming potential” the EPA says, and it hopes they will replace many of the older ozone-depleting substances currently in use.
According to the EPA, the older refrigerants have global warming potentials of 1,400 to 4,000 — but the new refrigerants could cut that number to between 3 and 675 GWPs, greatly reducing emissions.
The climate-friendly refrigerants include ethane, isobutane, propane, hydrocarbon blend R-441A, difluoromethane.
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Private Sector Fails to Disclose Federally Funded Inventions -- GAO
Mar 2, 2015 | E&E News PM
By Katherine Ling
Inventions developed with federal funds but undisclosed by the private sector are escaping the Energy Department's notice and leaving the government's interests unprotected, according to a Government Accountability Office report released today.
The failure to properly monitor federally funded inventions developed by nonprofits, small businesses and universities has crippled DOE's ability to ensure that the invention is either patented for commercialization, licensed for federal use or manufactured domestically when appropriate, as required by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, GAO says.
An outdated communication system and lack of a documented process to ensure contractors are disclosing inventions are to blame for DOE's poor oversight, according to the report.
The Bayh-Dole law allows private contractors to retain ownership of agency-funded inventions to promote greater commercialization, but they must disclose such inventions to DOE to ensure the government's interests in these inventions are protected.
A push to better leverage federal research and development and transfer of products from the lab to the marketplace has been a longtime issue for DOE. Congress has recently turned its attention to "modernize" the national laboratories, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has created an Office of Technology Transitions to "elevate" the commercialization of DOE research (Greenwire, Feb. 11).
There is also a greater concern that the U.S. economy is not benefiting from inventions developed here because they are commercialized and manufactured abroad -- one of the prevailing reasons Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and John Thune of South Dakota requested the GAO report.
DOE is taking actions to improve the situation, according to the report. It is set to update and integrate its data system this fiscal year, and has two pilot projects to assess the extent of undisclosed inventions. One pilot project that audited a random sampling of 100 awards only uncovered three undisclosed inventions, but another that cross-referenced inventions with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data revealed 100 undisclosed inventions and 549 patents that were not in DOE's systems.
The agency is proposing a regulatory change that would require annual contractor reporting on the utilization and manufacture of any products that use a DOE-funded invention, as well as a disclosure 10 years after invention. Tracking the domestic manufacturing of an agency-funded invention is more difficult, but DOE has proposed for-profit contractors submit a "U.S. manufacturing plan" to help decisions regarding financial awards, DOE said.
GAO supported DOE's efforts to improve its invention oversight but noted the agency has not developed an implementation plan with appropriate milestones to help assess its progress toward completing key steps, including data integration or defining requirements for the planned or potential upgrades to that system.
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Expedite, Finalize Oil-by-Rail Safety Rules, Pennsylvania Governor Says to Obama
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
Federal rulemakings to address the safe transport of crude oil by rail should be expedited and finalized, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) recently told President Barack Obama.
Wolf's administration has sought to assess and address the state's preparedness for crude-by-rail incidents, Wolf said in a letter. The federal government has the primary ability to make crude-by-rail transport safer by, for example, implementing more stringent tank car and braking requirements, he said.
“[T]he tools and options available to me are limited,” Wolf said in the Feb. 26 letter to the president. “Now is the time for action in order to increase safety and reduce risk.”
Crude by rail derailments across the country and in Canada have had a range of detrimental effects, from threatening local drinking water supplies to igniting homes.
Wolf joins congressional lawmakers, federal officials, industry and environmental groups in calling for speedier processing of rules aimed at improving crude-by-rail safety. A dramatic increase of domestic oil production alongside a dearth of pipeline infrastructure has led to an increased use of rail to transport these flammable energy resources and an increase in associated derailments.
High-Priority State Issue
The issue is a high priority for Wolf as it directly affects Pennsylvania residents. Approximately 60 to 70 trains carrying crude oil arrive in or pass through Pennsylvania weekly and at least four train derailments have occurred in the state since January 2014, two of which were in Philadelphia, Wolf said.
The governor's administration has met with first responders and major railroads such as CSX Corp. Inc. to assess current prevention and response techniques and options, including examining the impact of a crude-by-rail derailment in an urban area. The state has also reviewed federal and state rail inspection frequency and processes, Wolf said.
But broader actions to prevent or mitigate risks of oil train derailments can only be taken on a federal level and should be taken quickly, Wolf said. The federal government should implement crude oil volatility standards, reduce train speed limits in urban areas and implement more stringent tank car and braking system requirements, he said.
Wolf also requested federal assistance to hire and train more rail safety inspectors in Pennsylvania, where there are 5,000 miles of track and only six inspectors trained with federal resources.
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CSX Must Restore Site of Derailment, Spill In West Virginia, According to EPA Order
Mar 3, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
CSX Transportation Inc. must clean up and restore the environment at a site in West Virginia of the derailment of a train carrying more than 3 million gallons of crude oil, the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered.
CSX, the railroad from which the train derailed, must write a plan identifying short- and long-term steps to protect or restore the Mt. Carbon, W.Va., waterways, land and air potentially affected by the incident, the EPA said in an administrative order.
These steps must include monitoring the air quality and groundwater, for example, and reporting progress to the EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. CSX must also continue efforts to contain the oil that was spilled and establish public availability centers to answer related public health and environmental impact questions, among other measures.
The Response Action Plan must be submitted to the EPA and state environmental department within seven business days of the effective date of the order, which was signed Feb. 27. The effective date is March 4, the EPA told Bloomberg BNA.
The 109-car train on the CSX tracks derailed Feb. 16, resulting in several tank cars igniting, setting one home on fire and forcing the evacuation of nearby residents. The accident released oil from tank cars into the Kanawha River and the surrounding environment (37 DEN A-3, 2/25/15).
The EPA issued its order under the Clean Water Act.
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Crude on Derailed Train Contained High Level of Gas
Mar 2, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Russell Gold
The crude oil aboard the train that derailed and exploded two weeks ago in West Virginia contained so much combustible gas that it would have been barred from rail transport under safety regulations set to go into effect next month.
Tests performed on the oil before the train left North Dakota showed it contained a high level of volatile gases, according to a lab report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The oil’s vapor pressure, a measure of volatility, was 13.9 pounds per square inch, according to the Feb. 10 report by Intertek Group PLC.
That exceeds the limit of 13.7 psi that North Dakota is set to impose in April on oil moving by truck or rail from the Bakken Shale. Oil producers that don’t treat their crude to remove excess gas face fines and possible civil or criminal penalties, said Alison Ritter, a spokeswoman for the North Dakota Industrial Commission.
The state introduced new rules on shipping oil in December, after a series of accidents in which trains carrying crude from the Bakken erupted into fireballs after derailing. As the Journal has reported, oil from shale formations contains far more combustible gas than traditional crude oil, which has a vapor pressure of about 6 psi; gasoline has a maximum psi of about 13.5.
The company that shipped the oil, Plains All American Pipeline LP, said it follows all regulations governing the shipping and testing of crude. “We believe our sampling and testing procedures and results are in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements,” said Plains spokesman Brad Leone.
New information about the West Virginia accident is likely to increase regulators’ focus on the makeup of oil being shipped by train. Federal emergency rules adopted last year imposed new safety requirements on railroad operators but not on energy companies.
“The type of product the train is transporting is also important,” said Sarah Feinberg, the acting head of the Federal Railroad Administration. “The reality is that we know this product is volatile and explosive.”
Ms. Feinberg has supported requiring the energy industry to strip out more gases from the crude oil before shipping it to make the cargo less dangerous, but such measures aren’t currently included in current or proposed federal rules.
In the wake of the West Virginia accident, members of Congress have called on the White House to expedite its review of pending safety rules developed by the U.S. Transportation Department. Timothy Butters, the acting administrator of the department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said the new regulations were being vetted as quickly as was practical, given what he called their complexity.
Some critics are calling for lower limits on the vapor pressure of oil moving by rail.
The lower the vapor pressure, the less explosive the oil and “the less chance of it blowing up—that should be the common goal here,” said Daniel McCoy, the chief executive of Albany County, N.Y., which has become a transit hub for Bakken crude heading to East Coast refineries.
The train that exploded in West Virginia included 109 tanker cars loaded with about 70,000 barrels of crude. It traveled from Western North Dakota across Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio before derailing in Mount Carbon, W. Va. Nearly two dozen tanker cars full of crude oil were engulfed in flames, some exploding into enormous fireballs that towered over the small community and burned a house to the ground.
The cause of the derailment remains under investigation. State and federal officials have said the train was traveling well under speed limits imposed last year on trains carrying crude oil. The train was made up of relatively new tanker cars built to withstand accidents better than older models.
A couple hours after the derailment, CSX and Plains All American Pipeline turned over paperwork about the crude to first responders and state and federal investigators. The testing document was included; the Journal reviewed it after making an open-records request.
A spokesman for CSX Corp. , the railroad that carried the oill at the time of the crash, said it had stepped up its inspections of the track along this route, a procedure that railroads voluntarily agreed to last year. Related Crude-oil gas analysis document from Feb. 10. Oil From U.S. Fracking Is More Volatile Than Expected June 24, 2014 North Dakota to Require Producers to Treat Crude Before Shipping Nov. 13, 2014
“Documentation provided to CSX indicated that the shipments on the train that derailed were in compliance with regulations necessary for transportation,” said Gary Sease, a CSX spokesman. “We support additional measures to enhance the safety of oil shipments, and continue to work cooperatively with regulators, oil producers, tank car manufacturers and others to achieve ever higher safety performance.”
A spokesman for BNSF Railway Co., which hauled the crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, where it was handed off to CSX, declined to comment on the derailment.
Intertek, the testing company, said it is abreast of the regulatory changes and “working closely with authorities and our clients to assure compliance.”
The U.S. Transportation Department is testing samples of crude that didn’t spill or burn and says it plans to compare its findings with the North Dakota test.
The fire burned for three and a half days. “If it is burning hard, you can’t put it out,” said Benny Filiaggi, the deputy chief of the Montgomery Fire Department, who responded to the West Virginia derailment. He said he received training from CSX about oil-train fires in October.
“We concentrated on evacuating everyone nearby before the first explosion,” Mr. Filiaggi said.
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Sacramento Area Congress Members Call on Feds to Upgrade Oil Train Safety Now
Mar 2, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee
By Tony Bizjak
Several Northern California representatives in Congress have sent a letter to the Obama Administration expressing displeasure that federal officials missed a self-imposed deadline to propose stronger safety regulations on trains shipping crude oil.
The Sacramento area is among many in the country that is seeing growing numbers of trains carrying volatile Bakken crude oil. Elsewhere in North America, several trains have crashed and exploded, including one carrying highly volatile Bakken crude in West Virginia several weeks ago that spilled oil into a river and set a forested area on fire.
Pressure is growing on federal officials to impose safety regulations. The federal government last year announced a series of potential rule changes, including requiring stronger tank cars, and set a January 2015 date for a likely ruling.
“Clearly action needs to be taken to increase the safety standards for rail cars transporting Bakken crude oil, and it must be taken now,” Rep. Dori Matsui, D-Sacramento, said in a press statement about the letter. “Our communities simply cannot afford any delay in implementation of stringent safety guidelines.”
The group, which includes Matsui, John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, and Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, sent its letter Friday to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and Federal Railroad Administration, asking them to take action to make rail shipments safer.
“We understand that more than 3,000 comments to the rule were analyzed and we commend the DOT for its work with industry thus far on information sharing, slower speeds, and reinforced railcars, but the multi-pronged solutions for this important safety issue must be implemented as quickly as possible,” the group wrote in the letter.
“We also believe that DOT should issue a rulemaking that requires stripping out the most volatile elements from Bakken crude before it is loaded onto rail cars. This operation may be able to lower the vapor pressure of crude oil, making it less volatile and therefore safer to transport by pipeline or rail tank car. Additionally, we believe that track maintenance and improvements must be a priority.
“We need safer rail lines that are built for the 21st century including more advanced technology in maintaining railroad tracks and trains, so that faulty axles and tracks do not lead to further derailments. If more dangerous and volatile crude is to be transported through cities and towns and along sensitive waterways and wildlife habitat, the rail and shipping industries must do more.”
The letter from local leaders came a day after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf sent a similar, high-profile plea to the president.
“The pace of federal rulemaking on rail safety is too slow,” Wolf wrote in a letter to Obama. “We urge that new federal safety rules be developed and implemented with a sense of urgency appropriate to the risk presented.”
Federal transportation officials said they are taking the final steps now in the process, but that the issue is complex.
“I’ve made the tank car rule a top priority for this department because the American people must have confidence that when hazardous materials are transported through their communities, we’ve done everything in our power to make that train as safe as possible, “ Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
“This is a highly complex issue, consuming massive staff time, scientific study, dialogue with stakeholders and experts, and coordination across borders,” Foxx said. “The department has and will continue to put a premium on getting this critical rule done as quickly as possible, but we’ve always committed ourselves to getting it done right.”
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article11925212.html#storylink=cpy
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