Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 2/5/2019
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Production Enjoys Year-End Bump
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Processing
By Chemical Processing Staff
According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) rose by 0.6% in December, following a 0.3% gain in November and a 0.4% decline in October. -
(ACC Mentioned) ACC's CAB Falls in January, Suggesting Slowdown
Feb 4, 2019 | Chemical Week
By Jing Chen
The ACC’s chemical activity barometer (CAB) declined 0.3% in January on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This marks the third consecutive month-over-month drop, suggesting a slower rate of economic growth in the US. -
(ACC Mentioned) K Street Profits From Drinking Water Fears
Feb 5, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Corbin Hiar and Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
With growing concerns about drinking water contamination in communities nationwide, lobbyists have rushed to shape the emerging congressional debate around a decades-old class of widely used toxic chemicals. -
Oregon Bottle Recycling Rate Hits Record-High
Feb 5, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Avery Anapol
Oregonians recycled 2 billion glass bottles last year through its bottle deposit system, more than ever before. -
Trump Picks Ex-Oil Lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior Secretary
Feb 4, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama and Miranda Green
President Trump is picking David Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, to be the Interior Department’s next secretary. -
EPA Extends TSCA New Chemicals Reviews Due to Shutdown
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The US EPA has extended the review periods of more than 600 TSCA new chemical notifications as a result of the federal government’s shutdown. -
EPA Extends Review Periods for TSCA Section 5 PMNs, SNUNs, MCANs and Exemption Notices Due to Lack of Authorized Funding and Shutdown
Feb 4, 2019 | National Law Review
On February 1, 2019, Lynn Vendinello, Acting Director, Chemical Control Division, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) signed the pre-publication version of a notice announcing that, due to the recent lapse of appropriations and the Agency shutdown, EPA is extending the review periods for all Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 5 Premanufacture Notices (PMN), Significant New Use Notices (SNUN), Microbial Commercial Activity Notices (MCAN), and exemption notices that were submitted to the Agency under TSCA Section 5 before December 29, 2018, and for which the review period had not expired as of December 29, 2018. -
US State Attorney-Generals Petition EPA on Asbestos Reporting Rule
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
More than a dozen US state attorney-generals have petitioned the EPA to develop an asbestos reporting rule under section 8 of TSCA. -
EPA Fluorinated Chemicals Plan Coming Next Week, Wheeler Says
Feb 5, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sylvia Carignan
The EPA’s plan for handling a ubiquitous family of substances contaminating water supplies is nearing completion and could be out next week, the agency’s acting administrator said Feb. 4. -
Children’s Exposure to PFAS Chemicals Begins in the Womb
Feb 5, 2019 | Environmental Working Group
By Olga Naidenko and Dave Andrews
The Environmental Protection Agency reportedly has decided not to set legal limits for the toxic fluorinated chemicals PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. The news is deeply disturbing, because an estimated 110 million Americans' water may be contaminated with those cancer-linked compound... -
Democrats Press EPA on Public Comment Periods, Enforcement
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Watch
A group of US Senate Democrats has requested that the EPA reopen and extend public comment periods that were affected by the partial government shutdown. -
Monsanto Won’t Face Quick Appeal in Roundup Label Class Suit
Feb 4, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Martina Barash
A man who sued Bayer AG unit Monsanto Co. over its marketing of Roundup can’t immediately appeal a federal trial court’s refusal to certify a class of consumers. -
Reorganized Michigan Agency Boosts Clean Water, Climate (1)
Feb 4, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alex Ebert
Promising that a Flint-style water crisis would never happen again, Michigan’s new governor announced the restructuring of the state’s environmental regulatory agency to include an environmental justice office and a greater focus on climate change. -
Two Common Flavoring Chemicals in E-Cigarettes Can Damage Lung Cells
Feb 4, 2019 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Tien Nguyen
Known for its buttery aroma, diacetyl is a popular flavorant in the food industry. In the early 2000s, studies revealed an association between the compound and bronchiolitis obliterans, or “popcorn lung,” a disease first observed in workers at popcorn factories... -
Analysis: Commissioning, Maintenance Slash Us LNG Feedgas Demand
Feb 4, 2019 | Platts
By Starr Spencer
Activity in what has been a mostly sluggish US Gulf of Mexico is expected to increase modestly in 2019, bringing production growth and more exploration aimed at finding the elephant fields of the future. -
Wheeler Faces Criticism on MATS Rollback but Senate Confirmation Likely
Feb 4, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) is urging Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to drop his rollback of the Obama-era power plant air toxics rule as a condition for winning support to be permanent agency chief, but his confirmation appears likely regardless... -
On Eve of Wheeler Vote, Odd Bedfellows Decry MATS Changes
Feb 5, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Niina Heikkinen
A trade association for electric utilities yesterday joined forces with public health and social justice advocates to brief Senate staffers about concerns with possible changes to EPA's rule on mercury emissions from power plants. -
Chesapeake Wins Appeal Over Ohio Property ‘Taking’ by Drillers
Feb 5, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven M. Sellers
Chesapeake Exploration LLC didn’t unconstitutionally “take” the property of Ohio landowners by drilling for oil and gas beneath their parcels, a federal appeals court ruled Feb. 4. -
Judge Orders CSB to Issue Long Overdue Rule on Chemical Releases
Feb 5, 2019 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
A federal judge today ordered the Chemical Safety Board to issue a regulation requiring power plants, refineries, chemical manufacturers and other industrial facilities to report their accidental chemical releases to the board. -
FERC, DOE Plan Joint Infrastructure Security Conference
Feb 4, 2019 | E&E News PM
By Jeremy Dillon
Officials from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy plan to gather for a technical conference next month to talk energy infrastructure security practices, the two sides announced today. -
Pipelines on Alert After Chinese Cyberwar Warning
Feb 5, 2019 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
Four words in the Senate testimony of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats heightened the threat of a state-backed cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure. -
Feds Taking on Distracted Driving
Feb 5, 2019 | Bloomberg (In Digital Insurance)
By Alan Levin and Ryan Beene
Federal safety advocates are targeting three of the worst habits by drivers that kill more than 10,000 people a year: speeding, impaired driving and distractions from electronic gadgets. -
N.J. Rail Lines Still Don’t Have This System That Prevents Accidents, and the Feds Aren’t Happy About It
Feb 4, 2019 | NJ.com
By Jonathan D. Salant
An automatic speed control system that might have prevented an Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia and a crash at the Hoboken Terminal still is not completely in place along the nation’s railroads almost a half-century after the National Transportation Safety Board first recommended it. -
Standardizing Collision Avoidance Systems Is One of NTSB’s Most Wanted Safety Improvements
Feb 4, 2019 | Transport Topics News
By Eleanor Lamb
Automobile and truck manufacturers should develop a standard practice of installing collision avoidance technology in their vehicles, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. -
EPA Eyes End to NSR Compliance Priority, Adding Water and Lead Goals
Feb 4, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds
EPA is proposing new compliance initiatives (NCIs) for fiscal years 2020-2023 that include eliminating the agency’s priority on enforcing the Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permit program, while adding new priorities on noncompliance with drinking water standards... -
Green New Deal Won't Call for End to Fossil Fuels
Feb 5, 2019 | PoliticoPro
By Zack Colman
The first effort by congressional climate advocates to define their "Green New Deal" will omit one of the most ambitious goals its supporters have demanded, sources told POLITICO on Monday: a firm date for ending oil, gas and coal development in the U.S. -
`Green New Deal’ to Be Unveiled Next Week, Ocasio-Cortez Says
Feb 5, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Emma Kinery and Billy House
A resolution outlining the proposed scope of a so-called Green New Deal will be released next week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said.
Industry and Association News
TSCA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News
Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Production Enjoys Year-End Bump
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Processing
By Chemical Processing Staff
According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) rose by 0.6% in December, following a 0.3% gain in November and a 0.4% decline in October. During December, chemical output rose across all regions, with the largest gains in the Ohio Valley and Southeast regions.
Chemical production was mixed over the three-month period. There were gains in the production three-month moving average output trend in plastic resins, organic chemicals, synthetic rubber, coatings, adhesives, pesticides, other specialty chemicals, consumer products and manufactured fibers. These gains were offset by declines in the output of fertilizers, inorganic chemicals and synthetic dyes and pigments.
On a three-month-moving average basis, manufacturing activity rose by 0.3% in December, following a 0.1% gain in November. Output expanded in several chemistry-intensive manufacturing industries, including aerospace, machinery, fabricated metal products, computers and electronics, semiconductors, petroleum refining, iron and steel products, foundries, oil and gas extraction, plastic products and furniture.
Compared with December 2017, U.S. chemical production rose 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Chemical production was higher than a year ago in all regions, with the largest gains in the Gulf Coast.
https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/industrynews/2019/u-s-chemical-production-enjoys-year-end-bump/
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(ACC Mentioned) ACC's CAB Falls in January, Suggesting Slowdown
Feb 4, 2019 | Chemical Week
By Jing Chen
The ACC’s chemical activity barometer (CAB) declined 0.3% in January on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This marks the third consecutive month-over-month drop, suggesting a slower rate of economic growth in the US. Year over year (YOY), the barometer is up 0.8% 3MMA, a slowdown in the pace of growth from late 2018.
On an unadjusted basis, the CAB was flat in January and declined 0.2% and 0.8% in December and November, respectively.
There were mixed results on the four primary components of the CAB. Growth trends in construction-related resins, pigments, and related performance chemistry were mixed. Plastic resins used in packaging and in consumer and institutional applications rose, performance chemistry gained, and US exports were mixed. Equity prices fell sharply during the month, and product and input prices declined, too. Inventory indicators were positive.
https://chemweek.com/CW/Document/101282/ACCs-CAB-falls-in-January-suggesting-slowdown
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(ACC Mentioned) K Street Profits From Drinking Water Fears
Feb 5, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Corbin Hiar and Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
With growing concerns about drinking water contamination in communities nationwide, lobbyists have rushed to shape the emerging congressional debate around a decades-old class of widely used toxic chemicals.
Nearly two dozen groups disclosed lobbying federal officials on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the last quarter of 2018 — the most recent period for which data are available — up from just one company during the same period a year before, according to an E&E News analysis of filings.
Amid a flurry of regulatory and legislative action on the chemicals, organizations representing environmentalists, doctors and cities have entered the lobbying fray alongside powerful industry associations and giant corporations like Exxon Mobil Corp., Dow Chemical Co. and Chemours Co.
Overall, 28 separate entities have specifically listed lobbying Congress or agencies on PFAS since the issue first popped up in a filing by French chemical maker Arkema Inc. from the fourth quarter of 2017. Beyond Capitol Hill, some of the top advocacy targets were EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and White House offices.
And the number of groups that in the last two years spoke to congressional members and agency officials about the chemicals — found in everything from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam but only recently linked to health risks like cancer — could be even higher.
That's because some outfits could be obscuring their PFAS advocacy by only disclosing lobbying on a vague issues such as "drinking water" or "chemicals."
K Street's newfound interest in PFAS comes as no surprise to Betsy Southerland, the former director of science and technology in EPA's Office of Water.
"Early on, I don't think we had a lot of lobbying on either side of the issue — either for more regulation or no regulation — because people were clueless," said Southerland, who left EPA in 2017 after more than three decades at the agency.
"As more and more communities monitor for these things, they become aware that they have a problem. So I think that's why you're seeing a spike in the lobbying right now," she said.How the wave began
Arkema led the lobbying surge. At the end of 2017, it began contacting lawmakers about "PFAS and related fluorochemistry issues" in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, disclosuresshow.
That annual military spending bill, which was signed into law in December 2017, provided $7 million for HHS to lead a study on the human health implications of PFAS exposure.
An Arkema spokeswoman said the company has "a general interest in issues associated with PFAS" as a consumer of the chemical. She said the firm has provided perspective to Congress in that capacity, and it also commented on legislative proposals "from a broader industry perspective."
Water and chemical groups were the next to begin lobbying on the toxins. At the beginning of last year, PFAS showed up in disclosures filed by the National Ground Water Association — which represents water developers, managers and users — and the National Association for Surface Finishing, a trade group for companies that use PFAS and other types of coating materials.
The water association lobbied Congress on "PFAS contamination" while the surface finishing group contacted EPA about "PFAS research and policy initiatives," filings show.
The following quarter, some environmental groups, a site remediation outfit, and the affected city of Tucson, Ariz. joined the rush to lobby lawmakers and agencies on PFAS policy.
Over the same three-month period, EPA held a "national summit" on the toxins and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) introduced the "PFAS Registry Act."
It sought to create a database of Armed Forces members who served on bases where PFAS-based firefighting foams were used.
News also broke during that time that the Trump administration was suppressing the findings of the draft HHS report ordered by the 2018 military spending bill.
After bipartisan uproar, the administration ultimately released the study, which found that "minimum risk levels" for several types of PFAS should be seven to 10 times lower than the health advisories from EPA (Greenwire, June 20, 2018).
By the time the HHS report finally came out, a full-fledged lobbying boom was underway. Groups that disclosed contacting federal officials about PFAS for the first time included deep-pocketed industry associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and American Chemistry Council.
Prominent environmental groups involved at that point included the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the advocacy arm of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Legislative activity around PFAS had also ramped up. Lawmakers introduced at least six bills related to the toxins in August and September of 2018, congressional records show. One, the 2019 military spending bill, H.R. 5515, became law.
That statute included a provision that requires the Pentagon to assess PFAS contamination at military bases and make plans to clean it up and to help soldiers who may have been exposed to it.
Lobbying and legislative activity on PFAS spiked at the end of last Congress. Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (graphic); Senate Office of Public Records and Congress.gov (data)What they want now
Environmentalists mainly want lawmakers and EPA to restrict the use of PFAS, E&E News found by reviewing filings and contacting groups interested in the issue. Companies, on the other hand, generally are calling for more study of the chemicals.
"There are many developing legal and regulatory actions at the state level, as well as an EPA inquiry on PFAS," said Michael Short, a spokesman for the manufacturers' association. "These actions must be based on the best scientific information possible."
The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement that it got involved to highlight "children's unique susceptibility to and potential negative health effects from exposure to these chemicals."
And one outfit that registered to lobby on the issue appears to be a front for companies that have a financial interest in opposing strict regulation of PFAS.
The Responsible Science Policy Coalition is run by Keller & Heckman LLP. The law firm declined to comment on who was bankrolling its advocacy, and the person listed on the filing, Jonathan Gledhill of Policy Navigation Group, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
But according to a July 2018 PowerPoint presentation obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the coalition's key members were 3M Co. and Johnson Controls International PLC.
3M and a Johnson Controls subsidiary were both named in a lawsuit from New York state seeking to recover the costs of cleaning up environmental contamination from PFAS in firefighting foam used across the state's five military and civilian airports (Greenwire, June 21, 2018).
A bill called the "PFAS Action Act," H.R. 535, already has surfaced this Congress, and a bipartisan group of members has formed a working group on the issue (E&E Daily, Jan. 24).
Meanwhile, EPA is showing few signs that it's moving to crack down on the toxins. The agency is reportedly preparing to declare that PFOA and PFOS — two widespread forms of PFAS — are hazardous under the Superfund law, but isn't planning to set a mandatory drinking water standard for them under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
As a result, companies would be required to clean up past PFOA and PFOS contamination yet they could continue to use other forms of PFAS without any federal restrictions (Greenwire, Jan. 29).
Asked for an update on its PFAS plans, EPA's press office said they were currently undergoing interagency review.
"Unlike continued claims to the contrary in the press, the truth is that EPA is moving forward using its authorities under the Safe Drinking Water Act," David Ross, the assistant administrator in charge the water office, said in a statement.
"Across the agency, additional actions are already underway to prevent and clean up PFAS; take enforcement actions where appropriate; and use sound science to help inform our efforts to identify, understand, treat, or remove PFAS in impacted communities," said Ross.
Southerland, however, has heard from former colleagues that EPA intends to effectively put state regulators in charge of setting PFAS limits for drinking water, as previous reporting has suggested. Such a move would and create tremendous regulatory uncertainty, which in this case would be to industry's benefit.
The amount of PFAS allowed in drinking water "could vary across every state in the country," the longtime EPA staffer warned.
"The more variety you have, the more ability industry has to say 'this is bullshit, nobody knows what the actual level of concern is, so we're going to do what's cost effective for us.'"
That's bad news for the public, according to Southerland, who's become an outspoken critic of the Trump EPA. But it means more work for industry lobbyists in the coming years.
"They have a cash cow in EPA," she said. "There's nothing they cannot get from EPA."
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/stories/1060119613/search?keyword=%22american+chemistry+council%22
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Oregon Bottle Recycling Rate Hits Record-High
Feb 5, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Avery Anapol
Oregonians recycled 2 billion glass bottles last year through its bottle deposit system, more than ever before.
Recycling through the system reached a record-high rate of 90 percent in 2018, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Monday.
The 2018 rate marks a 26 point jump from just two years earlier, according to the report.
The bottle deposit system, in which Oregonians bring their recyclable containers to deposit centers rather than having them picked up curbside, recently expanded to accept more types of containers and doubled the payout for depositing eligible containers to 10 cents.
Joel Schoening with the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, which runs the bottle deposit system, suggested that the program’s record success is unexpected due to “change” in global recycling markets. Some recyclable buyers like China are putting limits on recyclable materials due to too much mixture of nonrecyclable trash, according to the report. And within Oregon, some recycling companies are struggling to find buyers, sending their recyclables to landfills instead.
“Because we deal only in glass, plastic and aluminum with very few exceptions, we have a very clean recycling product,” he told the station. “Which makes it easier to sell and recycle domestically.”
Curbside recycling programs, on the other hand, allow for a much more extensive mixture of nonrecyclable trash into recycling streams.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/428377-oregon-bottle-recycling-rate-hits-record-high
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Trump Picks Ex-Oil Lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior Secretary
Feb 4, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama and Miranda Green
President Trump is picking David Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, to be the Interior Department’s next secretary.
“I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior,” Trump tweeted Monday.
Bernhardt, whose past clients include oil companies and others with business before the Interior Department, will lead an agency that oversees about 500 million acres as well as the energy production on that land.
He became the agency’s deputy secretary in 2017 and has led the department on an interim basis since former Secretary Ryan Zinkeresigned amid ethics scandals in January. In the weeks since Zinke’s departure, Bernhardt has risen to the top of the list as the most likely candidate Trump would choose for the post.
“David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!”
Trump will have to send Bernhardt’s nomination to the Senate, where a majority of senators will have to approved him.
“It’s a humbling privilege to be nominated to lead a department whose mission I love, to accomplish the balanced, common sense vision of our President,” Bernhardt said in a statement Monday.
The department has 70,000 employees in various agencies overseeing federal land, offshore drilling, endangered species and American Indian affairs, among other duties.
As deputy secretary, Bernhardt, a Colorado native, worked hand in hand with Zinke on his oil and gas leasing agenda and took the lead on many others, including the administration's push to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the rollback of a number of Endangered Species Act regulations.
In the past he’s called the ESA an “unnecessary regulatory burden.” The rule proposal he helped roll out in July would make it easier to delist an endangered species and would withdraw a policy that offered the same protections for threatened species as for endangered species unless otherwise specified.
Bernhardt has worked at Interior in various capacities, including solicitor during the George W. Bush administration. He has also had multiple stints at the lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, representing clients including Eni Petroleum, Sempra Energy, Halliburton Energy Services, Targa Energy, Noble Energy and the Westlands Water District.
Under ethics standards, he has recused himself from matters involving so many former clients that he carries a card with him listing the recusals.
Environmental groups immediately denounced Bernhardt’s nomination Monday.
“The ethical questions surrounding David Bernhardt and his commitment to pandering to oil, coal, and gas executives make former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke look like a tree-hugging environmentalist in comparison. And Ryan Zinke was a disaster,” Vicky Wyatt, lead climate campaigner for Greenpeace USA, said in a statement.
“We already let Bernhardt do enough damage to our federal lands and waters as deputy secretary — we have to stop him before he destroys some of this country’s best ideas including the Endangered Species Act.”
“David Bernhardt’s nomination is an affront to America’s parks and public lands,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group that has been vocally critical of the Trump administration.
“As an oil and gas lobbyist, Bernhardt pushed to open vast swaths of public lands for drilling and mining. As deputy secretary, he was behind some of the worst policy decisions of Secretary Zinke’s sad tenure, including stripping protections for imperiled wildlife.”
The industries Interior regulates have largely been supportive of Bernhardt.
“We have always been supportive of acting Secretary Bernhardt. We supported his nomination and would support him if the president decides to nominate him to be secretary,” Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters Monday.
“In these transitional phases, it’s important that we have strong political leadership, and I think he’s demonstrated that leadership in his time as acting secretary."
Supporters say Bernhardt’s agenda on fossil fuels would likely continue in the same vein as Zinke.
“Bernhardt possesses an impressive depth of experience at the Department and knowledge of Interior issues. His selection as secretary will assure that important energy and conservation policies will not miss a beat in the transition,” said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore oil and wind companies.
“Bernhardt understands that conservation and enhancement of natural resources can and does occur in conjunction with development of natural resources for energy — both on and offshore,” he said.Bernhardt’s nomination will go to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for an initial hearing, and then a vote before the full Senate.
That panel’s leaders, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), both voted to confirm him to the deputy secretary position in 2017. Only three other Democrats — Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) — voted for him, and Heitkamp and Donnelly lost reelection last year.
Republicans hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, so Bernhardt’s confirmation is likely to go through.
One of the most recent controversies surrounding Bernhardt involved the recent partial government shutdown, which furloughed most of Interior’s workforce.
He drew criticism after announcing the National Park Service would pull from their entrance fee revenue coffers in order to pay for the clean-up and maintenance of parks left up to the public during the shutdown.
“We must provide opportunities for people to access and enjoy our wonderful parks, and we must do so in a way that ensures the same opportunity for future generations to enjoy,” he wrote.
Environmentalists, park rangers and politicians alike questioned the legality of the move under the National Park Service Organic and Antideficiency Acts, the main pieces of legislation that govern federal parks and shutdown procedures respectively. The NPS is currently conducting a legal review of that decision.
Bernhardt also was criticized for bringing certain furloughed workers back to work on oil and natural gas drilling permits, offshore drilling and drilling in the Alaska refuge.
The House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee for Interior, led by Chairwoman Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), will hold a hearing this week on the work that Interior did during the shutdown and whether it was legal.
Bernhardt floated to the top of a crowded field of potential replacements for Zinke. The candidates included many current or former Republican politicians, according to people familiar with the process, such as ex-Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), ex-Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) and ex-Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/428395-trump-picks-ex-oil-lobbyist-david-bernhard-for-interior-secretary
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EPA Extends TSCA New Chemicals Reviews Due to Shutdown
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
The US EPA has extended the review periods of more than 600 TSCA new chemical notifications as a result of the federal government’s shutdown.
In a pre-publication Federal Register notice, the EPA said the 33-day extension is necessary for the agency "to complete its risk assessments, to examine its regulatory options, and to prepare the necessary documents associated with the relevant determination under TSCA." Its duration aligns with the time period between when the agency shut down (29 December 2018) and when the TSCA new chemicals programme fully resumed (31 January).
The delay will apply to 581 new chemical notifications that were undergoing review when the government shut down, according to the EPA. This includes pre-manufacture notices (PMNs), significant new use notices (Snuns), microbial commercial activity notices (MCANs) and exemption notices submitted under section 5 of the law. The EPA is generally required to complete reviews for these within 90 days unless a voluntary suspension is agreed.
The EPA has also clarified that the 24 new notifications submitted during the shutdown were not processed until normal operations resumed and, therefore, their review periods will begin on 31 January.
The agency’s move to extend the reviews is consistent with what industry groups and lawyers had forecastin interviews with Chemical Watch last month, but nonetheless has raised concern that this will only worsen the backlog of new substance reviews.
And the possibility of the EPA being shuttered again has not been ruled out, as a spending deal must be agreed before the continuing resolution that is currently funding the agency expires on 15 February.
https://chemicalwatch.com/74048/epa-extends-tsca-new-chemicals-reviews-due-to-shutdown
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Feb 4, 2019 | National Law Review
On February 1, 2019, Lynn Vendinello, Acting Director, Chemical Control Division, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) signed the pre-publication version of a notice announcing that, due to the recent lapse of appropriations and the Agency shutdown, EPA is extending the review periods for all Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 5 Premanufacture Notices (PMN), Significant New Use Notices (SNUN), Microbial Commercial Activity Notices (MCAN), and exemption notices that were submitted to the Agency under TSCA Section 5 before December 29, 2018, and for which the review period had not expired as of December 29, 2018.
Due to a lack of authorized funding, from December 29, 2018, until EPA operations for the TSCA New Chemicals operations fully resumed on January 31, 2019, certain EPA functions were suspended including the processing of submissions made through the Central Data Exchange (CDX), e-PMN, or other methods. Further, no review work was performed on the TSCA section 5 notifications received by EPA on or before December 29, 2018, and for which the review period had not yet expired as of December 29, 2018. Consequently, the review period for any TSCA Section 5 notice submitted during the shutdown did not begin until TSCA New Chemical operations fully resumed on January 31, 2019.
EPA states that the duration of the extension period will be a total of 33 days, which is equivalent to the duration of the time period from December 29, 2018 (the date on which certain EPA operations shut down) and the date on which EPA operations for the TSCA New Chemicals Program fully resumed (January 31, 2019). The notice states that EPA requires an extension of the review periods to complete its risk assessments, to examine its regulatory options, and to prepare the necessary documents associated with the relevant determination under TSCA Section 5(a)(3).
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/epa-extends-review-periods-tsca-section-5-pmns-snuns-mcans-and-exemption-notices-due
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US State Attorney-Generals Petition EPA on Asbestos Reporting Rule
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Kelly Franklin
More than a dozen US state attorney-generals have petitioned the EPA to develop an asbestos reporting rule under section 8 of TSCA.
The TSCA section 21 petition, submitted on 31 January, calls on the agency to initiate a rulemaking to "address deficiencies" in the existing chemical data reporting (CDR) rule for asbestos.
More specifically, they have requested that the EPA adopt a new asbestos reporting rule that:closes exemptions that exist in the CDR for naturally occurring substances and impurities;extends the reporting requirements to processors of asbestos; andrequires notification of the substance’s use in articles.
This is necessary, they argued, for the EPA to comply with its mandate to conduct risk evaluations for asbestos under section 6 of TSCA and to adopt regulations to address any unreasonable risk it poses to human health or the environment.
"It also would be an important right-to-know tool to give our states and the public access to information that may be critical for avoiding potentially dangerous exposures to asbestos-containing products," the attorneys added.
The petition comes shortly after the EPA’s determination to reject a similar request submitted by a group of NGOs.
In its response, the agency told the petitioners that it "is aware of all ongoing uses of asbestos and already has the information that EPA would receive if EPA were to amend the CDR requirements."
And it said that, even if it were to grant the petition, it would not be able to finalise a new rule and collect information under it in time to inform its risk evaluation. The first ten risk evaluations under the reformed TSCA, of which asbestos is one, must be completed by December, with a possible six-month extension.
Nonetheless, the attorneys said in their petition that it is critical to public health that the EPA considers the knowable universe of potential exposures and eliminate those pathways.
"Neither of these goals can be accomplished," they said, "if EPA does not possess the necessary comprehensive data with respect to the manufacture (including import) and use of asbestos in the US on which to act – data that currently EPA is not collecting under the CDR, as EPA concedes" in its response to the NGO petitioners.
The petition was filed by attorneys from 14 states – including California, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon – as well as the District of Columbia. The agency is required to grant or deny it within 90 days.
https://chemicalwatch.com/74074/us-state-attorney-generals-petition-epa-on-asbestos-reporting-rule
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EPA Fluorinated Chemicals Plan Coming Next Week, Wheeler Says
Feb 5, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sylvia Carignan
The EPA’s plan for handling a ubiquitous family of substances contaminating water supplies is nearing completion and could be out next week, the agency’s acting administrator said Feb. 4.
The Environmental Protection Agency is working on a strategy to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are widespread and may cause adverse health effects, including developmental effects to fetuses and testicular and kidney cancer. No consensus exists on what amounts of the compounds are safe to consume, but the agency is considering whether to set limits for two of the compounds in drinking water.
“Hopefully, the whole plan will be finished by next week,” acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told Bloomberg Feb. 4. “That’s our goal.”
The plan had been delayed by the partial government shutdown, which ended Jan. 25.
The contaminants, also known as PFAS, have been used to manufacture nonstick and stain-resistant coatings in clothing, fast-food wrappers, carpets, and other consumer and industrial products.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/epa-fluorinated-chemicals-plan-coming-next-week-wheeler-says
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Children’s Exposure to PFAS Chemicals Begins in the Womb
Feb 5, 2019 | Environmental Working Group
By Olga Naidenko and Dave Andrews
The Environmental Protection Agency reportedly has decided not to set legal limits for the toxic fluorinated chemicals PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. The news is deeply disturbing, because an estimated 110 million Americans' water may be contaminated with those cancer-linked compounds or others in the chemical family known as PFAS.
But there is another group of Americans threatened by PFAS chemicals – and they haven’t yet been born.
In 2005 and 2009, laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group,
Commonweal and Rachel’s Network found PFOA, PFOS and other PFAS chemicals in the umbilical cord samples from 20 babies born in the U.S.These tests exposed the shocking truth that American babies are born pre-polluted with PFAS and other toxic chemicals, which can pass from mothers to fetuses through the umbilical cord. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all
Americans have PFOA or PFOS in their blood.PFOA, once used to make DuPont’s Teflon, and PFOS, formerly an ingredient in 3M’s Scotchgard, have been linked through extensive research to cancer, kidney disease and weakened childhood immunity.
With the analytical capabilities of the time, the laboratory detected the presence of 10 different PFAS chemicals in the umbilical cord samples. On average, five PFAS compounds were in each sample, and two babies had nine PFAS chemicals in their cord blood.
Since then, multiple international studies have confirmed our findings. Most recently, in 2016 a Canadian study found PFAS chemicals in more than 90 percent of the nearly 2,000 cord blood samples collected from pregnant women.
Not long ago, scientists believed the placenta shielded umbilical cord blood – and the developing fetus – from environmental pollution. But EWG’s research and other studies show that during this critical time of development in the womb, the fetus is already exposed to scores of industrial chemicals.
Exposure to PFAS chemicals comes from many sources – not only drinking water but also food and food packaging, some brands of waterproof clothing and even cosmetics.The extent of drinking water and environmental contamination is only now coming to light, decades after widespread manufacturing of PFAS-containing materials and products. EWG research estimated that PFAS contaminants may be in the drinking water of 110 million Americans.
The list of PFAS chemicals that EWG tests could detect are just a small fraction of the thousands that have been in use worldwide. PFOA and PFOS are now banned in the U.S., and their levels in people have been dropping, according to CDC biomonitoring studies. Meanwhile, replacement PFAS chemicals have come on the market, such as the GenX chemical, which is about as toxic as PFOA.
In 2008, EWG first called attention to the fact that companies have been quietly substituting the older PFAS chemicals with replacements, on the basis of woefully inadequate health and safety information. Sharon Lerner of The Intercept reported that “203 [different] PFAS have been made in or imported to the U.S. in large quantities since 1986.”
Congress and the Trump administration should take steps to understand the sources of PFAS contamination, monitor the scope of PFAS contamination, stop the introduction of new PFAS chemicals, and set science-based cleanup standards for contaminated sites. Specifically, policymakers should:Add PFAS chemicals to the Toxic Release Inventory and require monitoring of PFAS in air, water and our children’s bodies.Ban the introduction of new PFAS chemicals and end the use of PFAS in firefighting foams and in consumer products like cookware, food packaging and personal care products.Set tough science-based cleanup standards, require water utilities and military installations to meet them, and make sure polluters pay their fair share of the cost.
In his confirmation hearing to be EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, currently the acting head of the agency, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that EPA would announce plans soon to address the widespread contamination of the nation’s tap water with PFOA and PFOS. But two sources familiar with the upcoming decision by Wheeler told Politico the Trump administration will not set legal limits for PFAS under the federal drinking water laws.
To protect all Americans, including newborns, EPA and FDA should strengthen its oversight of the entire PFAS family. Allowing the introduction of PFAS chemicals without adequate testing and regulation amounts to letting the chemical industry use the American people as guinea pigs.
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2019/02/children-s-exposure-pfas-chemicals-begins-womb
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Democrats Press EPA on Public Comment Periods, Enforcement
Feb 5, 2019 | Chemical Watch
A group of US Senate Democrats has requested that the EPA reopen and extend public comment periods that were affected by the partial government shutdown.
Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) said in a 1 February letter that, with a funding lapse leaving the EPA’s workforce furloughed for more than a month, regulatory websites went updated or were unreliable. And the ten senators have asked that the agency reopen or extend comment periods on proposed regulations by no less than 35 days, and to reschedule public hearings that were cancelled during the shutdown.
"According to past precedent and EPA’s own public health mission, a government shutdown cannot be allowed to obstruct public participation in our regulatory process," they wrote.EPA enforcement eyed
Meanwhile, leaders of the House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Committee (E&C) are pressing the EPA to provide them with more information on reports of "disturbing trends" in the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). These include those in the media suggesting a decline in enforcement cases, reduction in enforcement staff and "overreliance" on states to conduct these activities.
The 1 February letter was signed by committee chairman Frank Pallone, Jr (D–New Jersey), Diana DeGette (D–Colorado), chair of the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, and Paul Tonko (D–New York), chair of the subcommittee on environment and climate change.
The E&C leaders have also been behind recent requests for the EPA to furnish information on the delayed publication of an Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) study on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), and for it to release studies related to its draft TSCA assessment of pigment violet 29 that are being withheld as confidential.
Congressional attention on EPA activities is expected to remain high, following the power shift in the House of Representatives triggered by last November’s midterm elections.
https://chemicalwatch.com/74075/democrats-press-epa-on-public-comment-periods-enforcement
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Monsanto Won’t Face Quick Appeal in Roundup Label Class Suit
Feb 4, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Martina Barash
A man who sued Bayer AG unit Monsanto Co. over its marketing of Roundup can’t immediately appeal a federal trial court’s refusal to certify a class of consumers.
Wisconsin resident Thomas Blitz alleged Monsanto falsely advertised Roundup by saying the weed killer’s active ingredient, glyphosate, doesn’t affect humans or pets.
Bayer, which acquired Monsanto last year, faces suits by some 8,700 people who blame their cancer on Roundup.
But Blitz’s bid to proceed on behalf of a class foundered in the district court. Individual questions about whether proposed class members relied on the herbicide’s label make class certification inappropriate, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled Jan. 2.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Feb. 4 denied Blitz’s request for an immediate appeal .
Turke & Strauss LLP represented Blitz.
Winston & Strawn LLP represented Monsanto.
The case is Blitz v. Monsanto Co., 7th Cir., No. 19-8001, 2/4/19.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/monsanto-wont-face-quick-appeal-in-roundup-label-class-suit
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Reorganized Michigan Agency Boosts Clean Water, Climate (1)
Feb 4, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alex Ebert
Promising that a Flint-style water crisis would never happen again, Michigan’s new governor announced the restructuring of the state’s environmental regulatory agency to include an environmental justice office and a greater focus on climate change.
The rebranded Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, announced by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) Feb. 4, will consolidate agencies from other parts of government and add new offices, including a Clean Water Public Advocate to respond to citizen concerns over drinking water.
“In Michigan, which has 21 percent of the world’s fresh water, there are parents that can’t bathe their kids or give them a drink of water at the dinner table with confidence,” Whitmer said during a Feb. 4 press conference.
Critics of the overhaul said Whitmer—just a month into her term—used executive authority to dissolve a permit appeal process and a regulatory review panel mandated by the Legislature in bills last session.
“We’re gravely disappointed,” Jason Geer, director of energy and environmental policy for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, told Bloomberg Environment Feb. 4. “If you can just abolish the law, what’s to stop the governors from abolishing anything they don’t like to executive order?”
Environmental JusticeWhitmer’s order restructuring the agency also created an environmental justice response team entrusted with collecting and following up on citizen concerns over environmental issues.
The governor said these steps were necessary to ensure there would never again be a situation like in Flint, where the drinking water of thousands of residents was found to be contaminated with lead. The crisis began when the state and local governments in April 2014 switched to untreated Flint River water that corroded lead pipes.
Whitmer dissolved a regulatory review committee with seats for industry representatives. Also gone is an environmental permit appeal process pushed by industry groups concerned over the cost of appeals in court.
Two bills (S.B. 652, 653) mandating both were signed into law by former Gov. Rick Snyder (R) in the last session. Geer said a lawsuit could result challenging whether Whitmer can nix these programs without a statutory change.
Climate ChangeIn another directive, Whitmer said that Michigan would join 18 other states and Puerto Rico in the U.S. Climate Alliance. These states pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the United Nations’ 2015 Paris climate agreement.
An office within the new department will focus on how Michigan can further adjust state policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That includes pushing more renewable energy, and energy efficiency initiatives.
President Donald Trump announced in 2017 that he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, citing concerns its emissions reductions goals would disadvantage business.
“This is an effort to reestablish the boundaries between the regulator and the regulated,” Liz Kirkwood, executive director of Michigan environmental group For Love of Water said Feb. 4. “She’s not just making a proclamation; she’s set out an institutional structure that can carry the heavy load.”
Flourinated ChemicalsA separate executive order made permanent a state task force that seeks out and combats the spread of fluorinated chemicals in Michigan water. The group is supposed to get more involved with policy, including suggesting changes to Michigan law.
Snyder created a temporary task force in 2017 that researched per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) across the state.
(Updated with comments from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce starting in the fourth paragraph and an environmentalist in the 14th paragraph.)
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/reorganized-michigan-agency-boosts-clean-water-climate-1
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Two Common Flavoring Chemicals in E-Cigarettes Can Damage Lung Cells
Feb 4, 2019 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Tien Nguyen
Known for its buttery aroma, diacetyl is a popular flavorant in the food industry. In the early 2000s, studies revealed an association between the compound and bronchiolitis obliterans, or “popcorn lung,” a disease first observed in workers at popcorn factories that causes dry cough and wheezing. In 2012, the US Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association issued workplace exposure limits for diacetyl and its close analog 2,3-pentanedione and recommended that the chemicals carry a warning label explaining that inhaling fumes containing the compounds could be harmful.
Diacetyl is also the most common of several hundred flavoring chemicals used in e-cigarettes, and a 2016 study of 51 e-cigarette products found that more than half contained 2,3-pentanedione. Now, a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania has evaluated the effect of the two flavoring chemicals on human bronchial epithelial cells in culture and proposed a possible mechanism for how they could impair lung function (Sci. Rep. 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37913-9).
Public health researchers studying e-cigarettes have found that flavorings contribute to the devices’ appeal to young users. From 2011 to 2015, e-cigarette use in U.S. high school students grew 900%, leading the US surgeon general to declare e-cigarette use among youths and young adults a major public health concern since most products contain addictive nicotine that can be harmful to developing brains. In an effort to reduce e-cigarette use among young people, in November 2018 US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on proposed new steps to protect youth by preventing access to flavored tobacco products and banning menthol in cigarettes" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(23, 121, 186); font-family: "Franklin ITC", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue Light", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;">proposed policies to restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarette products (not including mint, menthol, or tobacco flavors) to stores at which customers must present ID to enter.
Still, flavorants in e-cigarettes are widespread, and few studies have investigated the health impacts of these compounds on e-cigarette users.
The new study focuses on diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione’s effects on epithelial cells. These cells line the lungs’ airways and keep them clear, says geneticist and study coauthor Quan Lu of Harvard. They exist in three forms: ciliated, goblet, and basal cells. The hairlike ciliated cells work with mucus-producing goblet cells to sweep away dust and pathogens from airways. Basal cells can turn into either of the other types of epithelial cell.
The researchers treated all three types of epithelial cells with a solution of diacetyl, 2,3-pentanedione or a blank solution. Exposure to the flavor chemicals led to a decrease in the number of ciliated cells, compared with exposure to the blank solution. Using a method called RNA-seq, the team monitored levels of the cells’ RNAs, allowing them to see which genes changed their expression after exposure to the flavor chemicals. Many of the genes with lower expression levels after exposure were involved in ciliogenesis—the pathway in which basal cells turn into ciliated cells. Having fewer ciliated cells along the airways means that the lungs have less protection against foreign bodies that can cause inflammation. This work provides a possible mechanism for how these chemicals are causing damage in the lungs, Lu says.
The researchers plan to test a wider pool of flavoring chemicals and also develop a laboratory set-up to expose cells to aerosolized flavorants, which would better mimic how the cells are exposed to the compounds in the lungs.
Maciej L. Goniewicz of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, who studies the toxicity of flavoring compounds in e-cigarettes, says controlled cellular studies like this one are important because they allow scientists to investigate the impact of single chemicals, which can be challenging to do in human studies. However, it can be difficult to extrapolate these results to human health, he says. When evaluating the health risks of e-cigarette flavorants, Goniewicz adds that it’s important to keep in mind that their risks are relative. For examples, smoking cigarettes exposes people to thousands of chemicals, so it’s possible that even with some toxicity from flavorants, e-cigarettes may still be less risky than traditional ones. Weighing those risks will be up to regulators, he says, but they’ll need more data to do so.
https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/genomics/Two-common-flavoring-chemicals-e/97/web/2019/02?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cen_latestnews+%28Chemical+%26+Engineering+News%3A+Latest+News%29
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Analysis: Commissioning, Maintenance Slash Us LNG Feedgas Demand
Feb 4, 2019 | Platts
By Starr Spencer
Activity in what has been a mostly sluggish US Gulf of Mexico is expected to increase modestly in 2019, bringing production growth and more exploration aimed at finding the elephant fields of the future.
Brent crude has fallen $20 from highs in the mid-$80s/b months ago, but US Gulf operators, especially in deepwater, aren’t phased by volatile prices, analysts say. Instead, operators are deciding to grow in the gulf because of the industry’s increasing ability to make those fields more economic.
Logistical and operational efficiencies, lower oilfield service costs, scaled designs and better engineering have combined to make the region more profitable than it was even before the 2014 industry downturn.
“Generally, when industry is at peak efficiency and operating at its best, industry fundamentals aren’t bad and oilfield costs are relatively low,” said William Turner, a Gulf of Mexico analyst at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
2019 will mark the first increase in US Gulf exploration in four years, Turner said. About 21 or 22 exploration and appraisal wells are expected this year in the US Gulf, up from 19 last year, according to Wood Mac. That compares with 40-50 wells drilled three or four years ago.
The increase is “from a low base,” Turner noted. “Certainly, we’re not at 2014 levels of exploration.”
The US Gulf accounts for nearly 16% of the US’ roughly 11.5 million b/d of oil production. Its crude oil production averaged 1.8 million b/d in Q4 2018, according to the US Energy Information Administration, compared with just less than 1.25 million b/d in 2013.
The EIA projects US Gulf production will crack the 2 million b/d mark in about a year. Meanwhile, S&P Global Platts Analytics projects oil output will end 2022 at 1.82 million b/d, up from a recent low of 1.50 million b/d in December 2018.
Deepwater US Gulf spending is projected at about $10 billion this year, about the same as in 2017 but down from $16 billion in 2015, according to Wood Mac data. Contributing a swath of this year’s production will be Shell’s Appomattox field, capable of producing 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at peak. Chevron’s Big Foot field, which debuted in November 2018, will ramp up this year; its peak production is 75,000 b/d of oil and 25,000 Mcf/d of natural gas.
Several smaller fields are due to come online in 2019, including Buckskin, Stonefly and Nearly Headless Nick from LLOG Exploration, with a combined production of 40,000-50,000 b/d.
Growing small operator Talos Energy, which acquired Stone Energy last year, said wells will come online this year at its Tornado and Boris field. The Tornado #3 well will debut at 10,000-15,000 boe/d, while Boris #3 should contribute 3,000-5,000 boe/d.
Better technology
Despite uncertain oil prices, enthusiastic operators say improved technology makes the area economic. Last month, BP outlined new US Gulf discoveries and nearly 1.5 billion additional barrels of oil it uncovered using improved seismic technology at its giant Thunder Horse and Atlantis fields. And Hess Corp. showcased numerous tieback opportunities at 50% to 100%-plus return rates during a December analyst meeting.
This year’s exploration plate will also see Hess spudding Esox, its first US Gulf exploration well in years, while Chevron already has a rig in place to drill the Yarrow prospect in the Mississippi Canyon area, south of Alabama.
Oil breakevens in the US Gulf average around $55-$60/b, Wood Mackenzie’s Turner said, although some projects are lower. Shell said its Vito development, which is slated for first oil in 2021, has a breakeven price less than $35/b.
Maintaining efficiencies
While tiebacks to existing fields will comprise a major part of US Gulf work this year, the big challenge is to “squeeze the efficiencies they’ve achieved and maintain them,” S&P Global Platts Analytics analyst Sami Yahya said. “What’s really important is the confidence of the market to maintain oil prices,” Yahya said. “They can’t sanction projects without fully knowing they can survive in a low-price environment.”
In addition, 2019 may see a significant project sanction: Chevron-operated Anchor in the Green Canyon area offshore Louisiana. Anchor is an early 2015 oil discovery the company at the time described as “significant.”
Anchor is not only important reserve-wise, but success and invocations there could open development opportunities across the industry, analysts said.
The field is ultra-high-pressure—20,000 pounds per square inch—compared to a current produceable limit around 15,000 psi. Technology is advancing to produce 20K fields, but few operators are large or able enough to take on the gamble.
If Chevron green-lights Anchor, which could happen by mid-year, it could open the frontier play to industry. That might result in a “gold rush” of new leasing and investment in remote, deep and technologically complex fields, Wood Mackenzie’s Turner said.
Another potential hot spot is the Appomattox field, which represents the first output from the Norphlet play offshore Alabama and Mississippi. Depending on how it performs, Appomattox could spur more Norphlet activity, analysts said.
https://blogs.platts.com/2019/02/04/new-projects/
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Wheeler Faces Criticism on MATS Rollback but Senate Confirmation Likely
Feb 4, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) is urging Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to drop his rollback of the Obama-era power plant air toxics rule as a condition for winning support to be permanent agency chief, but his confirmation appears likely regardless and supporters of the rule are eyeing other options to challenge the rollback.
For example, power industry backers of the utility air toxics rule suggest the approach EPA is using in its revised cost-benefit analysis to aid the rollback might be vulnerable to a legal challenge if finalized.
At a Feb. 4 event in Washington, DC, Carper and a diverse coalition of environmental and power sector groups reiterated their opposition to the December proposal that would scrap the previous administration’s finding that the mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) is “appropriate and necessary” under the Clean Air Act. While the proposal would leave MATS in place, critics fear undoing the finding could open the door to scrapping the rule.
Carper, ranking member on the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW), said he wanted to stress the need for Wheeler to drop the proposal if he wants to be confirmed as the next EPA administrator.
EPW is slated to hold a Feb. 5 business meeting to vote on Wheeler’s nomination to head the agency permanently, and his approval is expected given that no Republicans have signaled they will vote against him. A successful committee vote would send Wheeler’s nomination to the full Senate, where the GOP has a 53-47 majority.
“My hope is that Mr. Wheeler will listen to reason,” and withdraw “this foolish proposal,” Carper said, referring to the proposal to undo the appropriate and necessary finding but not change the rule’s requirements.
The finding is a legal prerequisite to MATS, but EPA argues that the rule will remain in place because the Clean Air Act and legal precedent set a high bar to “de-list” power plants as sources of air toxics subject to regulation.
However, MATS’ supporters say this is disingenuous, and Carper said the proposal, if finalized, would open the door to lawsuits against MATS and place the rule in legal jeopardy. An opponent of the rule could argue undoing the finding scraps the basis for the rule. Yet this would make no sense given the powerful public health benefits of the rule, which is now fully implemented at perhaps one-third of the original estimated compliance cost, he said.
Underscoring the industry support for leaving MATS in place, Emily Fisher, general counsel for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) that represents investor-owned utilities, spoke at the Feb. 4 event to warn of the potential impact to industry and consumers if MATS is scrapped, which would undo settled expectations over electricity rates and risk wasting some $18 billion spent by the industry on MATS compliance.
“Wheeler has chosen to ignore the chorus of stakeholders” calling for MATS to be left in place, Carper said.
Despite the warnings to Wheeler that “there are certain changes we expect” on his policies, including MATS, his nomination “is expected to reported out of committee,” Carper said, “but you never know.”
He reiterated that because Wheeler can continue in an acting capacity for more than 200 days under federal vacancies law, there need be no “rush to judgment” in quickly confirming him.
Speaking to Inside EPA on the sidelines of the Feb. 4 event, Carper said, “We are fearful that the outcome of the road that they are on will be to undermine the MATS rule.”
Co-Benefits Analysis
Asked whether the fear is that the rule might serve as a vehicle to undermine EPA’s ability to count “co-benefits” when deciding whether new regulations are cost-effective, Carper said it is “more about MATS than anything else.”
EPA in its proposal relied heavily on the idea that the Obama administration wrongly counted co-benefits of MATS to justify the rule, primarily health benefits of reducing fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which is not an air toxic targeted by the MATS rule.
Critics of the rule say EPA cannot count such benefits when PM2.5 is regulated under separate air law mandates, but supporters say that White House policy requires counting of “ancillary” benefits.
EEI’s Fisher said that the group might be able to support a re-assessment of co-benefits as part of a “generic, forward-looking rule with general applicability,” but not within the confines of a MATS re-appraisal.
EEI supported EPA’s conduct of a risk-and-technology review (RTR) for MATS, required under the air law eight years after EPA issued air toxics standard for an industry sector. EPA’s RTR for the 2011 rule found no new risks and made few changes, except to ease compliance with acid gas limits for a small number of waste coal-burning plants.
But on co-benefits, Fisher told Inside EPA it is hard to see the precedential value of changing the policy within the scope of MATS, because power plant air toxics are regulated under a highly specific part of air law section 112.
Fisher said that with respect to EPA’s most recent cost analysis in the rule, the agency’s decision to use the original estimated costs from 2011 and not the actual implementation costs to date is a key legal weakness of the proposal. It is “a little bit arbitrary to not count the costs that we have spent,” and “we will say that” in comment on the proposal once it is published in the Federal Register.
EEI therefore appears to be signaling one line of legal argument likely to be raised in all-but-inevitable litigation once EPA finalizes its proposal to undo the appropriate and necessary finding. Publication in the Register has been held up by the recent government shutdown, but could be “any day now,” sources say.
Meanwhile, speakers at the event from the Moms Clean Air Force, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Evangelical Environmental Network all continued to underscore the damage to public health that would result from scrapping MATS. The rule has removed not only toxics such as mercury, but also harmful PM2.5, blamed for a variety of respiratory and cardiovascular harms, they said.
Evangelical leader Mitch Hescox said the “most egregious” aspect of the proposal is EPA’s “removing the co-benefits,” which account for the vast majority of the Obama administration’s total estimate of benefits in excess of $37 billion. Also, EPA has intentionally ignored new data pointing to the monetized benefits of previously unquantified reductions in toxics, Hescox said, calling Wheeler’s proposal “despicable.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/wheeler-faces-criticism-mats-rollback-senate-confirmation-likely
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On Eve of Wheeler Vote, Odd Bedfellows Decry MATS Changes
Feb 5, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Niina Heikkinen
A trade association for electric utilities yesterday joined forces with public health and social justice advocates to brief Senate staffers about concerns with possible changes to EPA's rule on mercury emissions from power plants.
The briefing came on the eve of today's Environment and Public Works Committee vote on Andrew Wheeler's nomination to take over as permanent head of EPA (E&E Daily, Feb. 4).
The acting administrator — who has been serving in that capacity since former EPA chief Scott Pruitt left the agency last July amid a string of scandals — has come under close scrutiny for continuing to undo Obama-era regulations on pollution sources ranging from oil wells and landfills to automobiles and federal waterways.
The general counsel of the Edison Electric Institute, Emily Fisher, along with representatives from Moms Clean Air Force, the Evangelical Environmental Network, the NAACP and the American Academy of Pediatrics shared their concerns about the consequences of easing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards with the Senate staffers.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the ranking member of EPW and vocal supporter of the existing standards, also sponsored yesterday's briefing.
The unusual alliance between EEI, which represents investor-owned electric companies, and the public health and social justice groups follows EPA's proposal in December to revoke the agency's prior determination that it was "appropriate and necessary" to curb releases of mercury, arsenic and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
The agency is now suggesting that the costs of implementing the rule, which was finalized eight years ago, outweigh the human health benefits of controlling mercury, a potent neurotoxin, especially dangerous to children and developing fetuses.
Paradoxically, the agency also says it is not planning to make changes to the MATS rule, even as the agency calls for comment on whether EPA has the "authority or obligation" to reverse the rule entirely.
Critics of the Trump administration's move warn that the change could endanger the rule, putting the health of vulnerable communities at risk from more mercury and other toxic pollutant exposure.
Carper lambasted Trump's EPA for relying on outdated data to take an action that he said no court has required, no utility has asked for and is not needed to protect public health.
"This confusing conclusion only opens the door for lawsuits in the future to vacate the rule entirely. It unnecessarily puts the rule in legal jeopardy," Carper said. "I hope Mr. Wheeler will listen to reason and withdraw this foolish proposal."
Fisher noted that EEI has not typically worked with the other groups at the briefing but said the collaboration came about because of their shared disapproval of EPA's actions, although the reasons for their disapproval varied.
Fisher explained that since MATS went into force, utilities have invested $18 billion to be in compliance. Utilities recover those costs over time through increases in retail electricity prices, but if a MATS rule is undone, they would no longer be able to factor in the investment already made in the rates they charge consumers in the future.
"Those costs tend to be spread out over many years to prevent rate shock. We are just starting to recover those costs. We are very concerned that we won't be able to recover those costs," Fisher said.
She added that utilities would be unlikely to turn off the pollution controls in the absence of MATS, as they typically prevent emissions of more than one pollutant and would still help utilities comply with state regulations.
EEI has come out publicly before in opposition to any changes to the MATS rule.
Last July, EEI had joined the American Public Power Association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and four other industry groups in a letter to EPA air chief Bill Wehrum, calling for the agency to not make changes that would undermine investments that had already been made to comply with the rules.
"It is important to note that all covered plants have implemented the regulation and that pollution controls — where needed — are installed and operating," the letter read.
Wheeler told senators during his confirmation hearing last month that he did not believe the changes the agency was considering would undermine the existing mercury regulation.
"We believe that every piece of mercury control equipment that is installed on a power plant today will remain under our proposal," Wheeler told senators (E&E News PM, Jan. 16).
Carper noted that he expected Wheeler's nomination to be reported out of committee, but he called for the full Senate to take time before coming to a vote.
"My messages is why the rush? Let's address concerns that need to be addressed," he said.Costs and 'co-benefits'
As with other regulatory changes, EPA has justified the proposed revision by arguing that it is making changes to make sure the agency is working within its legal authority.
In the case of the MATS rule, the agency stated it is revisiting the "appropriate and necessary" analysis in response to a Supreme Court ruling. In 2015, the court stated that EPA had to consider the costs of compliance before deciding whether a regulation was "appropriate and necessary."
The current EPA proposal reverses a supplemental finding EPA had already completed in 2016 addressing the court decision. Critics of EPA's proposal note that the Supreme Court had not raised objections to that supplemental finding.
A main point of contention is EPA's reliance on "co-benefits," pollutants that are controlled by a regulation even though they are not the main focus of the rule.
The agency is proposing that the agency should not have put consideration of fine particle pollutant reduction on "equal footing" with the direct benefits of reducing hazardous air pollutants (HAP).
"If the HAP-related benefits are not at least moderately commensurate with the cost of HAP controls, then no amount of co-benefits can offset this imbalance for purposes of a determination that it is appropriate to regulate under [Clean Air Act] section 112(n)(1)(A)," the agency wrote in its proposal.
Instead, EPA wants to only compare the costs of compliance, which it says are $7.4 billion to $9.4 billion annually, with the monetized health benefits of reducing hazardous air pollutants, which it says are just $4 million to $6 million.
Elsewhere in the proposal, the agency says that this figure only considers the monetized health benefits of avoiding "IQ loss in children born to a subset of recreational fishers who consume fish during pregnancy."
The Rev. Mitch Hescox, CEO and president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, said this assessment left out recent research that has shown vastly greater benefits of cutting mercury pollution.
"To me, the most egregious act of this entire thing is really the purpose of removing the co-benefits; it only makes sense that EPA must calculate co-benefits," he said.
Fisher suggested that if EPA wanted to have a broader reconsideration of how the agency considers co-benefits, this proposal was not the way to go about it.
"EPA could have a more generic forward-looking rule, not something that would threaten MATS," she said.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2019/02/05/stories/1060119609
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Chesapeake Wins Appeal Over Ohio Property ‘Taking’ by Drillers
Feb 5, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Steven M. Sellers
Chesapeake Exploration LLC didn’t unconstitutionally “take” the property of Ohio landowners by drilling for oil and gas beneath their parcels, a federal appeals court ruled Feb. 4.
Chesapeake’s fracking beneath a 120-acre area below eight tracts owned by Corey Kerns and seven of his neighbors caused no damage to their properties and was conducted according to Ohio law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said in an unpublished decision.
The decision upheld a district court ruling rejecting claims by Kerns that Chesapeake and state officials violated their civil rights in their application of Ohio’s “pooling” process for allocating fracking operations in the state.
The state-regulated pooling agreement allows drillers to explore for oil and natural gas, giving pro rata distributions to landowners.
Here, where Chesapeake owned 65 percent of the land overlying the underground oil reservoir, it applied for and received a mandatory pooling order from the state despite the landowners’ objections.
Chesapeake wasn’t a state actor properly sued under 42 U.S.C. §1983 merely by its use of Ohio’s pooling order process, the three-judge panel said.
It also rejected a related claim against an officer of the Ohio Gas & Oil Commission, which approved the pooling order in 2015.
Such orders were a proper exercise of the state’s regulatory powers, especially when there was no evidence of any interference with the landowners’ "reasonable and foreseeable use of the subsurface,” the court said.
Judge Ralph B. Guy wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Gilbert S. Merritt and Karen Nelson Moore.
The Law Offices of Phillip J. Campanella represented the landowners. Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease represented Chesapeake.
The case is Kerns v. Chesapeake Exploration, LLC, 6th Cir., No. 18-3636, unpublished 2/4/19.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/chesapeake-wins-appeal-over-ohio-property-taking-by-drillers
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Judge Orders CSB to Issue Long Overdue Rule on Chemical Releases
Feb 5, 2019 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Alex Guillen
A federal judge today ordered the Chemical Safety Board to issue a regulation requiring power plants, refineries, chemical manufacturers and other industrial facilities to report their accidental chemical releases to the board.
The rule is decades overdue and can wait no longer, ruled Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for D.C., an Obama appointee.
“Twenty years of inaction is not merely unreasonable; it is an egregious abdication of a statutory obligation,” he wrote.
CSB, a small agency which investigates incidents at industrial sites but does not directly regulate them, was first formed in 1998. The law creating it required the board to write a rule forcing companies to report their accidental emissions. The agency issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in 2009, but never finished its work.
WHAT'S NEXT: The CSB asked for two years to finish the rulemaking. But Mehta said it did not provide adequate reasons for such a timeframe, and ordered the agency to issue a final rule within 12 months.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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FERC, DOE Plan Joint Infrastructure Security Conference
Feb 4, 2019 | E&E News PM
By Jeremy Dillon
Officials from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy plan to gather for a technical conference next month to talk energy infrastructure security practices, the two sides announced today.
The meeting will be held March 28 at FERC headquarters in Washington.
The meeting comes amid some high-profile misfires on cybersecurity in the private sector. Duke Energy Corp. had to pay a record-setting $10 million fine for lack of security, E&E News reported last week (Energywire, Feb. 1).
"The threats against our nation's energy infrastructure, particularly the electric and natural gas sectors, continue to grow and the responsibility for protecting our energy infrastructure is shared across industry as well as states and the federal government," FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said in a statement.
Other topics of discussion include "best practices for mitigation, current incentives for investing in physical and cyber security protections, and current cost recovery practices at both the state and federal level," Chatterjee said.
DOE listed those concerns, among others, with natural gas pipelines as one of the key catalysts behind proposed presidential emergency powers to aid struggling coal and nuclear plants, according to a leaked memo that emerged last summer. That effort appears to have stalled at the White House.
Department officials have increasingly looked to bolster the cyber and physical security of the electric grid. DOE went so far as to create a new Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) with an assistant secretary position, currently led by Karen Evans.
Those responsibilities had originally been in the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, now known as the Office of Electricity.
"We look forward to building upon our partnership with FERC to jointly discuss and find solutions for the emerging threats facing our critical energy infrastructure," said DOE Assistant Secretary of Electricity Bruce Walker. "This conference will create a dialogue to explore how federal and state authorities can facilitate investments to improve the security of energy infrastructure."
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2019/02/04/stories/1060119587
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Pipelines on Alert After Chinese Cyberwar Warning
Feb 5, 2019 | E&E Energywire
By Peter Behr
Four words in the Senate testimony of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats heightened the threat of a state-backed cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure.
"China has the ability to launch cyberattacks that cause localized, temporary disruptive effects on critical infrastructure — such as disruption of a natural gas pipeline for days to weeks," Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee last Tuesday.
The end of that sentence — "for days to weeks" — was an unusual warning by U.S. intelligence leadership that an adversary could cause an extended energy outage. Security experts and industry officials are pondering the implications of Coats' message.
Security alerts from the Department of Homeland Security have disclosed Chinese, Russian and other state-backed attempts to crack into energy systems, including warnings in 2014 about a Chinese campaign against U.S. gas pipelines and a 2017 Russian intrusion aimed at U.S. nuclear plants and other industry targets.
U.S. officials gave conflicting reports last summer about how deeply the 2017 campaign penetrated U.S. power plants. Investigators ultimately reported that hackers had not taken enough control to cause widespread damage or put the electric grid at risk (Energywire, Aug. 1, 2018).
Coats' statement appears to change the threat picture, if taken literally, and that's how it must be taken, one expert told E&E News.
"In a document such as the Worldwide Threat Assessment, nothing in the structure or content of the assessment is an accident. Every word is carefully chosen," said Paul Stockton, former assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and managing director of Sonecon LLC. "The fact that the director of national intelligence has featured the risk that China can cause disruption of natural gas pipelines for a week or more is of extraordinary importance."
The threat of an attack on gas pipelines stands at the top of the priority list for government security offices and infrastructure operators. Cutting off gas supplies would have a dual impact on gas heating and electricity customers. Both energy sectors face a constant, heavy volume of cyber break-in attempts, said Bryan Singer, chief technology officer of Red Trident Inc., a Houston-based cybersecurity firm.
The drain on natural gas supplies during last week's brutal cold wave compelled Xcel Energy Inc. to ask 460,000 customers in Minnesota to turn their thermostats down to 63 degrees to prevent outages, and some 150 homes one hour north of Minneapolis lost gas Tuesday.
For New England, in particular, the possible loss of its vulnerable gas supply for a week or more — if that happened during a winter siege like last year's "Bomb Cyclone" — raises the horrific possibility that homes and offices across a large region could go without heat and power plants without fuel. Large populations could be forced to evacuate.
ISO New England, the region's power grid manager, has warned of the impact on electricity supply of a major loss of gas supplies from pipelines. Without that supply, New England would be heavily dependent on backup stocks of fuel oil for duel fuel power plants that can produce power from gas or oil.
Gordon van Welie, head of the region's power grid operator, told Congress that oil supplies for generators had fallen perilously low in that storm, and had a new blizzard blocked resupply fuel trucks from moving, electricity supply to the region would have been in deep trouble. "Our biggest operating concern was that we would experience a large, multiday system contingency during this period or that oil-fired generators would run out of fuel before they could be resupplied," he said.GAO: 'Significant weaknesses'
Coats' comment didn't shed light on whether he meant that Chinese hackers have already planted destructive cyber weapons on gas systems or, instead, had limited themselves to opening pathways into pipelines that could be exploited later in the event of a military conflict.
Several Senate committee members, contacted through their staffs, would not discuss whether Coats said more during his closed-door meeting with the committee Wednesday afternoon.
James Clapper, Coats' predecessor as director of national intelligence, said he didn't know the basis of Coats' warning, but he assumed the second scenario was more likely. "Given the sophistication of Russian and Chinese cyber capabilities, this is not a surprising revelation," he told E&E News.
The fact that Coats mentioned the risk of a longer-duration outage suggests an intelligence assessment that China could destroy or disable equipment in compressor stations along thousands of miles of pipelines, which could not be repaired quickly.
"If you manage to destroy a compressor, that's a big problem. If you do a couple, you have a major issue in bringing the pipeline back up. That's not easy," said Eric Byres, CEO of aDolus Inc., a cyber defense firm.
"Turbine gas compressors tend to be built and shipped exactly alike," said Singer of Red Trident. "They are going to share operating systems, common architecture."
Still, he said, cracking a code that exploits a common vulnerability isn't easy. "The complexity of that is pretty high," Singer said.
Whether U.S.-China trade and political differences could deteriorate so far that cyber war could follow is a much-debated unknown. A recent RAND Corp. review called China a "rival" not a "rogue" state, while reversing those labels for Russia. RAND warned, however, "In the military realm, Russia can be contained, but China cannot. Its military predominance in east Asia will grow over time, compelling the United States to accept greater costs and risks just to secure existing commitments."
As concern about pipeline cyber defenses has grown inside the administration and in Congress, the gas industry has stepped up collaboration with DHS and other agencies. New voluntary security standards are being issued for pipelines.
Whether the government needs a stronger process for reviewing pipeline cyber defenses remains an issue. DHS's Transportation Security Administration has that responsibility but has shown "significant weaknesses" in overseeing pipeline cybersecurity capabilities, the Government Accountability Office said in December. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sought comments a year ago on the power grid's dependence on pipeline deliveries and other threats to grid resilience. So far, FERC has not taken action. Congress also has not taken action.
The Natural Gas Council, an umbrella lobbying organization for the industry, challenges GAO's "significant weaknesses" finding.
"In the period since GAO's research was conducted, TSA has made great strides to facilitate a fuller partnership among government, industry and regulators, including the recent Pipeline Cybersecurity Assessment Initiative, a collaboration among TSA, DHS, DOE and the Cybersecurity Information Security Agency," the council said.
The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) took the same position last week, responding to Coats' comments with a defense of its defenses and a request for the U.S. intelligence chief to speak up when new information comes to light.
"Our industry recognizes that these attacks are perpetrated by a variety of attackers including nation-states and organized international criminals, and that these attacks may have the potential to temporarily compromise the critical services our industry supplies to the nation," INGAA said. "As an industry, these attacks are something that we take very, very seriously."
It continued, "That said, if the intelligence community has information about specific threats, we would strongly encourage them to share that information with industry."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2019/02/05/stories/1060119595
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Feds Taking on Distracted Driving
Feb 5, 2019 | Bloomberg (In Digital Insurance)
By Alan Levin and Ryan Beene
Federal safety advocates are targeting three of the worst habits by drivers that kill more than 10,000 people a year: speeding, impaired driving and distractions from electronic gadgets.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board unveiled its “Most Wanted” list of safety enhancements on Monday and three of the 10 focused on driver behaviors that could help reduce the annual death toll on the roadways that now exceed 37,000 a year.
Another four spotlight such things as sleepy drivers, better anti-collision technology and mandating seat belts on buses and other types of vehicles.
The NTSB is bucking controversy with some of its push. It wants more use of speed cameras, for example, which are unpopular with motorists.
The List
Eliminate Distractions: Distractions from electronic devices “is a growing and life-threatening problem.” Not only do drivers need to pay better attention; so do pilots, railroad engineers, operators of heavy equipment and pedestrians. Distraction was linked to more than 3,100 traffic deaths in 2017, the most recent data.Drug/Alcohol Impairment: Alcohol is one of the leading causes of highway deaths and NTSB is seeking a reduction in the threshold of drunk driving to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 percent from the current 0.08 percent in most states. Deaths linked to alcohol impairment on highways alone were almost 11,000 in 2017.Safe Shipment of Hazardous Materials: Only 16 percent of U.S. railroad tank cars meet the latest standards for carrying crude oil and other hazardous liquids. Aging infrastructure in the nation’s pipelines is also creating an increased hazard of leaks and explosions.Automated Train Braking: The NTSB has for years sought a requirement for all trains to be computerized to slow or stop for hazards. The government had set 2018 as the deadline for so-called Positive Train Control, but it gave railroads a two-year extension.Charter Flight Safety: Charter carriers -- such as air-medical operators and for-hire business jet companies -- aren’t as tightly regulated as airlines, “leaving them susceptible to disaster.” They should be required to monitor flight data for safety trends and install better warning systems.Reduce Speeding: Proven tools to reduce speeding on U.S. roads must be more widely deployed to curb the practice, which is a factor in roughly 10,000 highway deaths each year. These include traffic cameras, infrastructure design and vehicle technologies.Collision-Avoidance Systems: NTSB wants manufacturers to equip all new motor vehicles with technology that can brake automatically to help avoid an impending crash.Fatigue-Related Accidents: A comprehensive approach is needed to combat operator fatigue in aviation, highway, marine and rail transportation.Require Medical Fitness: Sleep apnea, a disorder that prevents people from getting normal sleep, has factored into many recent deadly accidents, but people often don’t know they have it. There should be mandatory screening and treatment for all train engineers, bus drivers and other rail and highway workers in safety-related positions.Strengthen Occupant Protections: The NTSB wants all U.S. states to pass laws requiring every motor vehicle passenger to wear seat belts, and a crack down on seat belt enforcement. The agency is also calling for better passenger protections in vehicle and rail cars designs.Existing Recommendations
The NTSB releases its top safety priorities once every other year. This year the agency is focused on already existing safety recommendations that it has issued on the related topics. Of the 267 recommendations highlighted by the agency Monday, it is asking that 46 be implemented within the next two years.
Under the administration of President Donald Trump, creating new regulations has become far more difficult. But the NTSB said that in two-thirds of its recommendations, no new regulations are required to obtain a safety benefit.
https://www.dig-in.com/articles/feds-taking-on-distracted-driving
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Feb 4, 2019 | NJ.com
By Jonathan D. Salant
An automatic speed control system that might have prevented an Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia and a crash at the Hoboken Terminal still is not completely in place along the nation’s railroads almost a half-century after the National Transportation Safety Board first recommended it.
Even as Gov. Phil Murphy celebrated New Jersey Transit reaching a milestone in December, that only meant the commuter railroad qualified for a two-year extension. It did not mean the the safety measure — known as positive train control — is in place.
“The risk today for a PTC accident is the same as it was 50 years ago," board member Jennifer Homendy said.
Positive train control remained on the list as the NTSB on Monday issued its most-wanted safety improvements for 2019-2020. It has been a repeated subject of board recommendations ever since four people were killed and more than 40 injured when two commuter trains collided near Darien, Connecticut, in August 1969.
In determining the cause of the October 2016 accident at the Hoboken Terminal, the NTSB noted the absence of a speed control system. Ditto the May 2015 fatal crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia.
“There has been delay after delay in fully implementing this life-saving technology,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
People keep dying because these calls for change are often ignored
U.S. safety board's recommendations on how to make trucks and trains safer are often ignored.
Congress gave railroads until Dec. 31, 2015, to install automatic speed control systems in their engines and their tracks, then provided a two-year extension with the possibility of taking yet another two years to finish the work.
“We are closer to installation but there’s a big difference between installation and being operative,” Homendy said.
In the last 50 years, Homendy said, there were 150 accidents that could have been prevented by positive train control, which killed 303 people and injured 6,800.
The safety board said the probable cause of the Hoboken crash, which killed one person and injured 108 others, was the engineer’s fatigue due to undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea. Contributing factors included NJ Transit’s failure to adequately screen and treat employees for sleep apnea and the Federal Railroad Administration’s refusal to impose rules requiring such testing.
Since the accident, NJ Transit began requiring mandatory sleep disorder testing for engineers and conductors, and removed those with sleep apnea from duty until treated.
The FRA and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in March 2016 proposed requiring such testing, but the agencies dropped their efforts after President Donald Trump took office.
“That is unacceptable,” Sumwalt said. “People will continue to die.”
Also on the list was an ongoing request to reduce driver fatigue,blamed for the June 2014 fatal crash on the New Jersey Turnpike in Cranbury that seriously injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed fellow comedian James McNair.
The other most-wanted improvements were:
-- Eliminate distractions, such as using cell phones while driving.
-- End drinking and driving, and establish drug testing standards
-- Ensure the safe shipment of hazardous materials via railroad and pipeline.
-- Reduce speed-related crashes.
-- Improve the safety of smaller passenger planes such as air taxis, sightseeing flights and air charters.
-- Make collision avoidance systems standard on vehicles.
-- Strengthen protection for occupants in vehicles.
https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/02/nj-rail-lines-still-dont-have-this-system-that-prevents-accidents-and-the-feds-arent-happy-about-it.html
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Standardizing Collision Avoidance Systems Is One of NTSB’s Most Wanted Safety Improvements
Feb 4, 2019 | Transport Topics News
By Eleanor Lamb
Automobile and truck manufacturers should develop a standard practice of installing collision avoidance technology in their vehicles, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Increased use of collision avoidance systems made the NTSB Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements. The agency’s list for 2019-20 was unveiled Feb. 4.
The Most Wanted List identifies the biggest safety improvements that can be made across all modes of transportation, including highway, pipeline and hazardous materials, and rail.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said such technologies could save 1,000 lives a year.
Weener by Eleanor Lamb/Transport Topics
Earl Weener, an NTSB member, said technologies such as automatic braking systems and blind spot monitors should be included in both passenger and commercial vehicles. “Standards need to be developed for the heavy trucks,” Weener said. “It’s a set of tech that can really improve safety.”
Medical fitness and sleep apnea tests are important issues for members of the trucking industry. Truckers often drive routes that force them to sleep away from home and, because of their largely sedentary lifestyles, they risk becoming obese and developing diabetes and sleep apnea. Sleep apnea disrupts rest, which can lead to fatigued drivers. Sumwalt said that fatigue played a role in 90,000 accidents in 2015.
Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said many people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it and improved screening procedures can help people be aware of their own conditions, thus improving their well-being and the safety of everyone else on the road.
“It can be very insidious. People wake up and are tired and they don’t know why,” Landsberg said. “I think if your livelihood depends upon your medical fitness, there is a fear among some of the people that, ‘If I have this problem, I’m going to lose my job.’ Generally, the good news is that’s not the case. It can be treated successfully.”Other Priorities
The Most Wanted List outlines nine other priorities:
Ensure the safe shipment of hazardous materials
End alcohol and other drug impairment in transportation
Reduce fatigue-related accidents
Require medical fitness and screen for obstructive sleep apnea
Eliminate distractions
Strengthen occupant protection
Incorporate positive train control
Implement a strategy to reduce speeding-related crashes
Improve the safety of Part 135 aircraft flight operations.
Operators who work under Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations include those who fly air medical service, air taxis and charter flights.
In 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration took the first steps to require better screening for sleep apnea. However, last year, the agencies withdrew the measure, saying they would seek other methods to address the issue.
“That is unacceptable because, until there’s such screening and treatment for operators, people will continue to die because of obstructive sleep apnea,” Sumwalt said.
NTSB is an independent federal agency that determines the probable cause of transportation-related accidents and promotes transportation safety. The board has five members, each of whom is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
NTSB’s unveiling event was initially scheduled for Jan. 9, but was postponed because of the partial federal government shutdown. There were 97 accidents that occurred during the shutdown that NTSB was not able to initiate investigations on, it said. The board is pressing on with those investigations now.
In many cases, wreckage from crashes that occurred during the 35-day shutdown had been moved to warehouses or storage facilities. Sumwalt said that some perishable evidence may have been lost during that window, making it harder for the board to accurately respond to questions from the families of those who have lost loved ones.
“I worry that, due to shutdown-related delays, we may have lost potential lifesaving information,” Sumwalt said. “Because of the shutdown, we possibly will not have those answers that they need and that, in itself, is tragic.”
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/making-collision-avoidance-systems-standard-one-ntsbs-most-wanted-safety-improvements
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EPA Eyes End to NSR Compliance Priority, Adding Water and Lead Goals
Feb 4, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Dave Reynolds
EPA is proposing new compliance initiatives (NCIs) for fiscal years 2020-2023 that include eliminating the agency’s priority on enforcing the Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permit program, while adding new priorities on noncompliance with drinking water standards and reducing children’s exposures to lead.
The move to end NSR enforcement as a compliance priority follows efforts by the agency's air office to ease industry requirements under the permitting program, and is likely to exacerbate environmentalists' concerns about an apparent significant drop in EPA enforcement actions.
In a pre-publication version of a Federal Register notice EPA floats seven potential NCIs for its Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). EPA selected the planned NCIs by either eliminating or modifying existing priority enforcement areas, and through proposals of two new areas of emphasis.
The agency is seeking comment on the proposed NCIs for 30 days after publication in the Register.
In scrapping OECA’s past emphasis on reducing air pollution from the largest sources, EPA says that federal and state regulators’ efforts have led to significant emissions reductions, and that further emphasis “no longer presents a significant opportunity to affect nonattainment areas or vulnerable populations nationwide.”
“The EPA and state regulatory approaches and enforcement efforts in this sector have resulted in a 90 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions and an 83 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions since 1997, while gross generation has increased by 10 percent,” the agency says.
EPA is also proposing to end its past emphasis on keeping raw sewage and contaminated stormwater out of waters, saying that regulators have focused on that issue since 2000 and have significantly improved compliance and reduced water pollution.
The proposed initiatives are EPA’s first since the Trump administration last summer announced plans to rename OECA’s national enforcement initiatives (NEIs) as NCIs, part of a broader emphasis on compliance assistance under Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and his predecessor Scott Pruitt.
In an Aug. 21 memo to regional administrators, OECA chief Susan Bodine announced the change from NEI to NCI, which she said reflects greater emphasis on compliance assistance and providing states and tribes with additional opportunities for meaningful engagement.
The pre-publication notice says that EPA sought early input from states and tribes last fall and is looking forward to considering that input on the proposals to continue, modify, or conclude past focus areas.
The Obama EPA in its FY17-19 NEIs, added the areas of accidental chemical releases and industrial water pollution and expanded its existing focus on hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) to include community-level air toxics. These all continue to some degree in the proposal for FY20-23.
While EPA is proposing to end its enforcement focus on NSR and prevention of significant deterioration permit requirements, the agency is planning on continuing its past focus on reducing air pollution through other programs.
For example, the agency is proposing to extend its focus on cutting HAPs, such as from leaks, flares, and excess emissions from refineries, chemical plants or other facilities, noting that recent monitoring data shows facilities often emit more HAPs than they report.
“The EPA has worked to identify and address illegal and excess emissions of toxic air pollutants from leaks and flares at facilities that have a significant impact on air quality and health in communities since this initiative began in 2004,” the notice says.
“The Agency believes that continuing this NCI will help to achieve EPA Strategic Plan objectives of addressing vulnerable populations, addressing Clean Air Act (CAA) non-attainment areas.”
Similarly, EPA says that violations of air emission violations for improper management of hazardous wastes “remains widespread” and so the agency is proposing to retain past focus on “Reducing Toxic Air Emissions from Hazardous Waste Facilities.”
New NCIs
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is proposing new NCIs aimed at increasing compliance with drinking water standards and reducing children’s exposures to lead.
The agency notes that thousands of community water systems (CWSs) violate standards promulgated under the Safe Drinking Water Act each year, and says thousands more fail to collect water samples or report test results, complicating efforts to determine whether drinking water is safe.
“This potential NCI would focus on EPA working jointly with states to identify how we can collaborate to use our resources more effectively and efficiently to focus efforts where they can make the biggest difference as we work together to increase compliance with primary drinking water standards thus improving public health protection at CWSs most at risk,” the notice says.
Additionally, EPA is proposing an NCI that “would support various agency efforts to tackle lead contamination in all environmental media and could present an opportunity to use consumer education to increase compliance.”
EPA is floating the NCI after Wheeler in a Dec. 19 news conference sought to deflect questions and criticism that the Trump administration's new plan for reducing children's exposures to lead lacks any new commitments to craft enforceable regulations.
Among the NCI’s for 2020-2023, EPA is also proposing to retain but modify two existing priorities.
The agency plans to shift a focus on “Keeping Industrial Pollutants Out of the Nation’s Waters,” which the Obama administration added to the FY19-NEIs, to an NCI on “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Significant Non-Compliance (SNC) Reduction.”
EPA says the new initiative incorporates the existing effort but takes a broader focus on reducing the percentage of all NPDES permittees that are in noncompliance.
The agency is also proposing to change its existing focus on “Ensuring Energy Extraction Activities Comply with Environmental Laws” from focusing solely the natural gas extraction sector to focusing on significant sources of volatile organic compounds that impact air quality without regard to sector.
“We also will evaluate the idea of merging this work into the ‘Cutting Hazardous Air Pollutants’ NCI, the notice says.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-eyes-end-nsr-compliance-priority-adding-water-and-lead-goals
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Green New Deal Won't Call for End to Fossil Fuels
Feb 5, 2019 | PoliticoPro
By Zack Colman
The first effort by congressional climate advocates to define their "Green New Deal" will omit one of the most ambitious goals its supporters have demanded, sources told POLITICO on Monday: a firm date for ending oil, gas and coal development in the U.S.
The change is a compromise that may make the proposal more politically palatable for many of the Democrats' presidential contenders in 2020, as well as for labor groups that compose a powerful portion of the party's base. But it will disappoint many of the progressives who have rallied and staged sit-ins in the Capitol in recent months to demand swift action on climate change.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are expected to introduce a resolution outlining elements of the plan within days, which will include a goal for eliminating the U.S. carbon footprint by 2030, according to multiple sources.
The text includes an aim to “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for a fair and just transition for frontline communities and displaced workers,” among other high-level ambitions. It also opens the door to using still-unproven technology to eliminate carbon pollution from fossil fuel use — an avenue that many climate activists dismiss as an expensive dead end. But it does not explicitly call for eliminating fossil fuels themselves.
Ocasio-Cortez's office said the plan's goal is still to act quickly on climate change with a range of technologies, though allowing fossil fuels to persist is “not what we’re shooting for,” spokesperson Corbin Trent said.
“It’s had lots of different iterations. The goal is to be a zero-carbon economy in 10 years," Trent told POLITICO when asked whether the resolution calls for banning fossil fuels. "The door is open for technology to solve this problem, sure."
A U.S. economy that produces a net zero of greenhouse gas emissions would still pose a huge challenge, requiring changes well beyond what former President Barack Obama proposed in his climate regulations.
The soon-to-come legislation is the first concrete step by lawmakers to put language behind the Green New Deal, a largely still-undefined platform of environmental and social-justice goals that has quickly become part of the lexicon of the Democrats' presidential hopefuls.
Ocasio-Cortez's campaign platform had previously called for achieving "100% of national power generation from renewable sources" and "decarbonizing" other industries by 2030. The proposed legislative text doesn't rule out such an ambitious goal, but it could ease the friction between two key elements of the Democratic base: labor groups that support oil, gas and coal projects and environmental groups that oppose them.
The phrasing could also leave more room for a slate of Democratic presidential hopefuls to craft a Green New Deal in their own terms in what is becoming a litmus test for the packed field of contenders. Several 2020 candidates, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), have endorsed the concept of a Green New Deal, but have not clearly outlined exactly what they mean.
The choices the lawmakers are making after consultation with a broad set of people in a budding coalition of labor, environmental and social and economic justice groups lay bare the challenges of keeping diverse interests fully satisfied.
Omitting a commitment to cease fossil fuel extraction served as a prime example.
“There’s some real questions as to why there wasn’t a ban called for,” said Vijay Das, senior campaign strategist with progressive policy group Demos, who has seen a version of the five-page resolution but cautioned it could change before its release.
Supporters have previously described the Green New Deal as an effort to marshal billions of dollars in public spending to make the U.S. economy carbon neutral while addressing racial and economic justice and providing good-paying union jobs.
The resolution is expected as House Democrats begin a series of hearings this week that will start laying the groundwork for how the caucus plans to address climate change and after President Donald Trump delivers a State of the Union address that will probably touch on his administration’s efforts to remove roadblocks for oil, gas and coal development.
“It names the problem,” Das said of the forthcoming proposal. “It sort of sets ambitious goals as a resolution, but it’s left for the parties to fill in the gaps and the experts to come.”
Ocasio-Cortez has circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter to generate interest and support, according to Axios and Bloomberg. Markey’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The omission of any target date for eliminating fossil fuels frustrated environmental activists and progressives who argue that continued energy extraction will expose people to pollution and health hazards, problems that disproportionately affect communities of color.
“The language I read was clean, renewable, zero emissions — which is that ‘keep the door open’ approach,” said Julian NoiseCat, policy director with the climate group 350.org, adding that his organization pressed Ocasio-Cortez to include a statement requiring the phase-out of fossil fuels.
Some labor unions are skeptical of the Green New Deal, given the likelihood of significant change for their members. Sean McGarvey, president of the North America’s Building Trades Union, said his members who work in the oil and natural gas industry can make a middle-class living, whereas renewable energy firms have been less generous.
“They’re talking about everything except the workers that are doing the work," McGarvey said at a Monday event with the American Petroleum Institute. API President Mike Sommers said at the event that one-third of construction jobs are in the oil-and-gas sector.
McGarvey said “there has been lately some outreach” from “some of the principals that are putting the plan together,” which he viewed as positive. He told POLITICO that he understood his staff had been in contact with Markey’s office.
Environmental activists within the Green New Deal coalition have acknowledged they need to make stronger inroads with labor in particular. The AFL-CIO and three other labor unions were involved in conversations with Markey and Ocasio-Cortez’s staff, NoiseCat said.
“It was an inclusive drafting process that included stakeholders from environmental, labor and more traditional environmental organizations,” NoiseCat said. “I think that is itself pretty laudable.”
Framing the resolution in terms of “clean” rather than solely “renewable” energy is viewed as an olive branch to labor organizations that rely on a wide sweep of energy industry jobs, such as working on and building natural gas pipelines, nuclear energy and technology that captures and stores greenhouse gas emissions. That comes despite 626 groups last month signing a letter opposing such fuels.
“There’s going to be a 50, 60, 75 year transition — it’s not going to happen overnight even if people want it to happen overnight,” McGarvey said. “But I think getting more specifics in the plan and what it is and how it is and what the timetable is like and then most important for us is what are the economics going to look like in these new emerging industries when it comes to workers.”
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/energy/article/2019/02/green-new-deal-wont-call-for-end-to-fossil-fuels-1142544
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`Green New Deal’ to Be Unveiled Next Week, Ocasio-Cortez Says
Feb 5, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Emma Kinery and Billy House
A resolution outlining the proposed scope of a so-called Green New Deal will be released next week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said.
The measure will be a companion to a Senate version introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ocasio-Cortez said in a “Dear Colleague” letter that asks fellow lawmakers to co-sponsor the resolution.
“We call for a national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not seen since World War II,” the letter said.
The proposed 10-year plan aims to “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers” and invest in sustainable U.S. infrastructure and industry.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/green-new-deal-to-be-unveiled-next-week-ocasio-cortez-says
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