Preview Newsletter
PM ACC Clips Report - May 8, 2019
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(ACC Mentioned) US Trade Groups Voice Tariff Concern
May 8, 2019 | China Daily
By Zhao Huanxin
Major US trade bodies have urged the Trump administration to avoid further escalating tensions by suddenly increasing tariffs on Friday, while researchers said it's sensible for China to maintain a measured approach of continuing... -
U.S. Files Paperwork to Raise China Tariffs on Friday
May 8, 2019 | Wall Street Journal
By Joshua Zumbrun
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office filed paperwork to formally raise tariffs to 25% from 10% on about $200 billion a year of Chinese imports effective on Friday, carrying through on a threat made by President Trump over the weekend as... -
(ACC Mentioned) NYT: EPA Brass Ignored Agency Scientists’ Calls for Asbestos Ban
May 8, 2019 | Environmental Working Group
By Alex Formuzis
Top political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency ignored calls by agency scientists and lawyers to implement an outright ban of asbestos, according to internal memos obtained by the Asbestos Disease Awareness... -
Ban Asbestos Now, Democrats on House Committee Say
May 8, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Asbestos must be banned to prevent more deaths, Democrats on a House committee said May 8. “We don’t have time for more legal maneuvering and a drawn-out court battle while tens of thousands of people are dying,” Rep. Frank Pallone... -
FDA Denies Request for Public Hearing on Perchlorate
May 8, 2019 | National Law Review
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denied a request for a public hearing on its May 2017 decision to deny a Food Additive Petition to remove several clearances for perchlorate from use in food-contact applications. -
‘Portal’ for Interstate Chemical Reporting Will Launch This Year
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Lisa Martine Jenkins
The US organisation Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2) is launching a chemical reporting tool that will enable manufacturers to comply with various states’ ingredient disclosure laws via a single data submission. -
Colorado Legislature Passes Restrictions on PFASs in Firefighting Foams
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
Both chambers of Colorado’s state legislature have passed a bill restricting the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in firefighting foams; it will now head to Governor Jared Polis’ desk for his approval. -
Florida Bill Aimed at Derailing Sunscreen Legislation Fails
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
Legislation that would have derailed plans to locally ban sunscreen products containing oxybenzone or octinoxate in cities in Florida, has been indefinitely postponed and withdrawn. The proposed legislation (SB 588/HB 1299) aimed to... -
AG Announces Settlement for Toxics in Jewelry
May 8, 2019 | E&E - Greenwire
By Philip Athey
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra yesterday touted the state's settlement with five jewelery companies that had levels of lead or cadmium in their products that were above the legal limit. "$83,000 may not sound like a lot,"... -
Toxic PFAS Chemical Found In Tucson — Here's Where
May 8, 2019 | Patch
By Brian Hanna
A new report shows that hundreds of sites nationwide — including in Tucson and Oro Valley — have been contaminated with highly toxic chemicals, including drinking water systems that serve an estimated 19 million people. -
Procter & Gamble Brings Green Chemistry Conference to Cincinnati
May 8, 2019 | WCPO Cincinnati
By Dan Monk
Cincinnati is the center of the green chemistry universe this week as Procter & Gamble Co. hosts more than 100 companies searching for chemical ingredients that are less harmful to humans and the environment. -
Chief Scientists Back Broader EU Policy to Tackle Microplastics Pollution
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The European Commission’s group of chief scientific advisers has recommended that the EU executive broadens existing policy to reduce and ultimately prevent microplastic pollution. In a recent paper authored by the Scientific... -
President Trump to Talk Exports During Cameron LNG Visit in Louisiana
May 7, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Sergio Chapa
President Donald Trump plans to get a first-hand look at the soon-to-be-opened Cameron LNG export terminal just a couple hours east of Houston. The president plans to visit the Hackberry, Louisiana liquefied natural gas facility on... -
Trump Huddles With Florida Politicians
May 8, 2019 | E&E - Greenwire
By Kelsey Brugger
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) lobbied President Trump in opposition to offshore drilling in his state in a White House meeting Monday with Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis (R), E&E News has learned. Nominally, the Florida Republicans met... -
Can Houston Oil and Gas Companies Benefit From ‘Brexit’
May 8, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Alasdair Freemen
With the Offshore Technology Conference once again heralding the arrival of so many Scottish and United Kingdom businesses to Houston, it is an ideal time to reflect on the impact that Great Britain leaving the European Union might... -
Interior Chief Says Offshore Drilling Plan Not 'Indefinitely Sidelined'
May 8, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Rebecca Beitsch
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Tuesday the department will complete development of a five-year offshore drilling plan, despite earlier comments that plan had been put on hold. Responding to questions from Rep. Chellie... -
Colorado Environmentalists Sue Oil & Gas Drillers Over Permit Dispute
May 8, 2019 | Inside EPA
WildEarth Guardians is filing Clean Air Act citizen suits against seven oil and gas companies operating in the Denver area, charging that they are unlawfully operating without proper air permits and harming public health due to excess... -
S.D. Governor, Oglala Sioux in Protests Standoff
May 8, 2019 | AP (In E&E - Greenwire)
By Blake Nicholson
The Oglala Sioux and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) are each waiting for the other side to make a move to resolve a disagreement over anti-protest legislation that led to the tribe banning the governor from one of the largest... -
Occidental CEO Battles Oil-Field Giant to Rule the Permian Basin
May 8, 2019 | Wall Street Journal
By Christopher M. Matthews, Bradley Olson and Cara Lombardo
Driven by a risk-taking chief executive, Occidental Petroleum Corp. is trying to swallow a competitor close to its own size, outmaneuvering one of the world’s oil giants in the process. If it succeeds, CEO Vicki Hollub will win accolades... -
Exxon Sinks up to $100m in 10-Year DOE Research Partnership
May 8, 2019 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jenny Mandel
Exxon Mobil Corp. will partner with two national laboratories to support the commercialization of lower-emission energy technologies, investing up to $100 million over 10 years, the company said today. Funding will support research... -
Will Regulators Ban a Potentially “Catastrophic” Refinery Chemical?
May 8, 2019 | Capital & Main
By Dan Ross
Hydrofluoric acid has been used in the oil refining industry for many decades to manufacture high-octane gasoline. If accidentally released into the air, hydrofluoric acid can form a highly toxic vapor cloud at ground level with the potential... -
Students Evacuated at Lone Star College University Park After Acid
May 8, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Jay R. Jordan
Students in two academic buildings at Lone Star College University Park were evacuated after a reported acid spill, the college tweeted Wednesday morning. Students in buildings 12 and 13 were asked to evacuate because the spill. -
At Least Six Dead in Explosions in Us and Russia
May 8, 2019 | Chemistry World
By Phillip Broadwith
One worker is still missing in the remains of the AB Specialty Silicones plant Explosions at a silicones plant in the US and a Russian fertiliser plant have each left three workers confirmed dead, with a fourth suspected dead at the US... -
Taking the Lead on Safety
May 8, 2019 | Chemistry World
By Patrick Walter
Ten years ago Sheri Sangji died in a tragic lab accident. Ten years ago a young life was unnecessarily lost in horrifying circumstances. For those unaware of the case, the research assistant was working with a pyrophoric liquid at a... -
Nation’s Freight Railroads Showcase Transformative Safety Technologies on Capitol Hill
May 8, 2019 | American Journal of Transportation
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today hosted its second annual “RailxTech” event on Capitol Hill, bringing together the nation’s Class I railroads to offer policymakers hands-on demonstrations of innovative technologies that... -
AAR Highlights Rail Safety Technology at Capitol Hill Event
May 8, 2019 | Progressive Railroading
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) yesterday hosted its second annual RailxTech event on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate new technologies for improving rail industry safety. At the event, Class I... -
The Energy 202: Interior Secretary Blames Congress for Lack of Action on Climate Change
May 8, 2019 | Washington Post
By Dino Grandoni
He acknowledged climate change is real. He acknowledged that humans are contributing to it. So why, Democratic lawmakers asked David Bernhardt, isn't he doing more to address global warming? Apparently, because Congress... -
States Resist EPA Move on Spending for Air Pollution Monitoring (1)
May 8, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Sayid
States are pushing back against EPA attempts to wean them off of no-strings attached grants to monitor fine airborne particle pollution, according to two national nonprofits representing state and local air quality agencies. -
LCV Unveils New Effort to Raise Climate in Democratic Primary
May 8, 2019 | Politico Pro
By Anthony Adragna
The League of Conservation Voters today said it would spend $2 million toward raising the profile of climate change during the 2020 Democratic primary and would push candidates for ambitious action plans that could be implemented... -
Researchers Develop Plastic That They Are Calling the 'Holy Grail' of Recycling
May 8, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Morgan Gstalter
Department of Energy’s scientists announced this week that they have designed a plastic that can be recycled over and over again. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory wrote in Nature Chemistry that they had...
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(ACC Mentioned) US Trade Groups Voice Tariff Concern
May 8, 2019 | China Daily
By Zhao Huanxin
Major US trade bodies have urged the Trump administration to avoid further escalating tensions by suddenly increasing tariffs on Friday, while researchers said it's sensible for China to maintain a measured approach of continuing negotiations.
"This is a predicament for soy growers," American Soybean Association (ASA) President Davie Stephens said on Tuesday, a day after US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he planned to move forward with President Donald Trump's Twitter threat on Sunday to increase the tariff rate from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Stephens, a grower from Clinton, Kentucky, said that US farmers are in a desperate situation, and with depressed prices and unsold stocks forecast to double before the 2019 harvest begins in September, farmers urgently need the China market.
"We need a positive resolution of this ongoing tariff dispute, not further escalation of tensions," he said in a release posted on the ASA website.
Nicole M. Kaeding, vice-president of federal and special projects at the Tax Foundation based in Washington, said that if the Trump administration follows through on the president's threat, it's Americans taxpayers, not Chinese taxpayers, who will pay the price — through higher prices and fewer job opportunities.
"Raising tariffs is not good for economic growth and will reduce employment in the United States," Kaeding told China Daily.
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice of the tech sector, also warned against an increase in tariffs.
"Increasing tariffs would only continue to harm American consumers and businesses of all sizes and across all sectors, as well as threaten American economic growth and leadership in innovation," said Naomi Wilson, ITI's senior director of policy, Asia.
Threats to increase tariffs at this juncture in the negotiations could negatively affect the headway both sides have made, Wilson cautioned in a statement.
The US chemicals manufacturers also called for sensible trade-policy solutions.
Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), said he believed the risks of continuing to use tariffs as a negotiating tactic with China are simply too high, and any potential benefits remain unclear.
China supplies the US with several chemicals that are not available anywhere else and which are critical inputs to US manufacturing. China is also the third-largest export market for US chemicals manufacturers, he said.
"We are starting to see signs that the tariffs are disrupting supply chains, cutting off markets and eroding US chemical-manufacturing competitiveness," Dooley said on Monday.
"ACC and its members strongly urge President Trump to remain focused on sensible solutions with China this week and forgo the imposition of higher tariffs," he said.
Several organizations, including Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, which is the national campaign composed of more than 150 of America's largest trade organizations in retail, technology, manufacturing and agriculture, have in recent days highlighted the negative impact of tariff increases on the US economy and job market.
They cited a February report from Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC as saying that increasing tariffs on $200 billion of goods to 25 percent, coupled with tariffs already in place, and retaliation, would reduce US employment by more than 934,000 jobs, cost the average family of four $767 and reduce US GDP by 0.37 percent.
On Tuesday, Beijing expressed sincerity toward continuing economic and trade talks with Washington, saying the Chinese side does not evade conflict, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Invited by Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, who is also chief of the Chinese side of the China-US comprehensive economic dialogue, will visit the US on Thursday and Friday to attend the 11th round of the bilateral consultation on trade issues.
"Beijing went almost completely quiet in the day following the president's tweets, which seems to indicate that China has acclimated to Trumpian language," Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy in the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said on Tuesday.
The fact that Beijing is still sending a delegation to the US for the trade talks and urging the two sides to meet each other halfway for a trade deal is "very wise on China's part", said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
"There is no payoff to China or the US from escalating trade tensions," Hufbauer told China Daily. "In the end, Trump wants a deal because the alternative of a trade war will damage his 2020 reelection prospects."
Douglas H. Paal, vice-president of the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also commended China's approach.
"It makes sense to continue the talks because the alternative would be a drastic signal to markets," Paal said.
"But if the delegation is not high level, then the outlook is seriously deteriorating for an agreement," he said on Monday, a day before Beijing confirmed that Liu would lead the Chinese delegation for a new round of talks in Washington.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201905/08/WS5cd2f37ea3104842260ba96c.html
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U.S. Files Paperwork to Raise China Tariffs on Friday
May 8, 2019 | Wall Street Journal
By Joshua Zumbrun
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office filed paperwork to formally raise tariffs to 25% from 10% on about $200 billion a year of Chinese imports effective on Friday, carrying through on a threat made by President Trump over the weekend as talks with Beijing enter their final stage.
The USTR had first imposed 10% tariffs on the goods in September, with an original plan to raise the rate to 25% in December. But as negotiations got under way with the Chinese, the USTR delayed the tariff increase.
“In the most recent negotiations, China has chosen to retreat from specific commitments agreed to in earlier rounds,” the USTR said in a filing for the Federal Register, the official publication used for formalizing government regulations, including the change in U.S. tariff rates. “In light of the lack of progress in discussions with China, the President has directed the Trade Representative to increase the rate of additional duty to 25 percent,” the USTR said.
The Federal Register filing formalizes the threat made over the weekend, and repeated by Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday, to raise the tariffs after talks between Beijing and Washington on an overarching trade deal backslid in the past week. The move could increase the pressure on the Chinese trade delegation set to arrive in Washington for further talks on Thursday.
The USTR filing also said the agency would launch a process by which companies could apply for exclusions from the tariffs. With earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum, and with a previous round of tariffs against China, companies could apply for an exclusion from the tariff, particularly if the tariff would be unduly damaging for their business. The $200 billion worth of goods whose tariff rate will rise to 25% from 10% have had no such process.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-files-paperwork-to-raise-china-tariffs-on-friday-11557323595?mod=hp_lead_pos3
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(ACC Mentioned) NYT: EPA Brass Ignored Agency Scientists’ Calls for Asbestos Ban
May 8, 2019 | Environmental Working Group
By Alex Formuzis
Top political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency ignored calls by agency scientists and lawyers to implement an outright ban of asbestos, according to internal memos obtained by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. The memos and the EPA’s actions were reported today by The New York Times.
“Rather than allow for (even with restrictions) any new uses for asbestos, E.P.A. should seek to ban all new uses of asbestos because the extreme harm from this chemical substance outweighs any benefit – and because there are adequate alternatives to asbestos,” EPA staff members wrote in one of the memos. The Times said the memos show that the staff members “considered the agency’s review process and the rule itself seriously flawed.”
Instead of a ban, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a new rule last month that would allow manufacturers to resume abandoned uses of asbestos if approved by the EPA.
Revelation of the memos comes as a key House committee holds a hearing today to consider legislation that would ban the importation, manufacture and distribution of all forms of asbestos within 12 months of the bill’s passage.
The hearing, entitled “Ban Asbestos Now: Taking Action to Save Lives and Livelihood,” takes place before the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, where members of the panel will hear testimony on the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 (H.R. 1603).
The legislation, authored by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), would also require the EPA, the Labor Department and the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a comprehensive report to assess the “presence of asbestos in residential, commercial, industrial, public, and school buildings” and “the extent of exposure and risk to human health associated with the asbestos present in such buildings.”
“The sheer number of lives cut short and families destroyed from asbestos exposure demand nothing less than an outright ban,” said EWG Legislative Attorney Melanie Benesh. “If Administrator Wheeler and the Trump administration won’t act, then Congress must by passing this critical piece of legislation that finally bans asbestos. I can’t think of an easier vote for members of Congress to cast than for a bill that bans a substance responsible for the deaths of so many.”
The legislation is named after Alan Reinstein, who died of mesothelioma, in May 2006. His widow, Linda Reinstein, the co-founder and president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, will testify at today’s hearing. Under her leadership, ADAO has been a tireless advocate on behalf of victims and their families for 15 years.
“The human cost of asbestos exposure has been horrific and the death toll shocking,” said Linda Reinstein in her prepared testimony. “From 1991 to 2017, more than 1 million Americans died from preventable asbestos-caused diseases. For these victims and their families, it is too late. It was outrageous to read the testimony from Mike Walls of the American Chemistry Council, stating he and the chemical industry lobby oppose H.R. 1603.”
In her testimony, Reinstein cites U.S. mortality data from the Global Health Data Exchange that estimates more than 1 million Americans died from preventable asbestos-triggered diseases between 1991 and 2017 alone.
A recent study led by the president of the International Commission on Occupational Health found the death toll from asbestos exposure to be nearly 40,000 Americans a year and more than 255,000 a year worldwide.
https://www.ewg.org/release/house-panel-considers-bill-ban-deadly-asbestos
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Ban Asbestos Now, Democrats on House Committee Say
May 8, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Asbestos must be banned to prevent more deaths, Democrats on a House committee said May 8.
“We don’t have time for more legal maneuvering and a drawn-out court battle while tens of thousands of people are dying,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said during a hearing on the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 (H.R. 1603).
“I believe we need to pass this bill regardless of whether EPA were to announce that it is moving forward with a full ban of asbestos,” Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said.
H.R. 1603 would ban imports of asbestos, a cancer-causing mineral. It also would ban imports of asbestos-containing mixtures, such as cosmetics, and manufactured goods made with asbestos. It also would require companies to report ongoing asbestos use.
It would also require three federal agencies to jointly determine how much asbestos is in residential, commercial, industrial, public, and school buildings and whether it could harm people.
Pre-emption
The measure would pre-empt a rulemaking process Congress set in place three years ago when Democrats and Republicans nearly unanimously passed legislation to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act, the nation’s primary law managing commercial chemicals.
The bill would do that by banning asbestos before the EPA has completed an evaluation of its risks, said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), the top Republican on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, which held the hearing on the bill.
The agency began that risk evaluation to comply with requirements of the amended chemicals law.
It is working to complete the analysis by the end of the year and release a draft risk evaluation later this year, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, the EPA’s assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, told the subcommittee May 8.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/ban-asbestos-now-democrats-on-house-committee-say
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FDA Denies Request for Public Hearing on Perchlorate
May 8, 2019 | National Law Review
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denied a request for a public hearing on its May 2017 decision to deny a Food Additive Petition to remove several clearances for perchlorate from use in food-contact applications. By way of background, the Food Additive Petition was submitted in 2014 by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and eight other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). It requested that FDA:
Revoke its 2005 approval of Threshold of Regulation (TOR) exemption No. 2005–006 authorizing up to 1.2% sodium perchlorate monohydrate as a conductivity enhancer for use in dry food packaging applications;
Issue a new regulation under Part 189 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) adding potassium perchlorate to a “negative list” of substances prohibited from use in food-contact applications; and
Remove the clearance in Section 177.1210 for potassium perchlorate when used as an additive in sealing gaskets for food containers.
FDA originally denied the NGOs’ petition in 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 20847). On the same day that the petition was denied, FDA also announced that it was removing the clearance for potassium perchlorate from Section 177.1210 based on an abandonment petition submitted by industry, thereby rendering the NGO petition moot. (See the PackagingLaw.com article, FDA Removes Clearance for Potassium Perchlorate in Sealing Gaskets Based on Abandonment.)
On June 4, 2017, the NGOs requested a formal evidentiary public hearing on the denial. (See the PackagingLaw.com article, NGOs Request Hearing on FDA’s Denial of Their Perchlorate Food Additive Petition.) In responding to that request, FDA noted that Section 409(f) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) allows any person adversely affected by an order relating to a food additive regulation to “file objections, specifying with particularity the provisions of the order deemed objectionable, stating reasonable grounds therefor, and requesting a public hearing upon such objections.” FDA also explains that it may deny a hearing request if the objections to the regulation do not raise genuine and substantial issues of fact that can be resolved at a hearing (see Community Nutrition Inst. v. Young, 773 F.2d 1356, 1364 (D.C. Cir. 1985)).
The NGOs listed three objections in their request for a formal evidentiary public hearing. First, they claimed that FDA relied on a flawed interpretation of the definition of a food additive in its Threshold of Regulation (TOR) Rule in dismissing Request A (above). Second, and procedurally – that FDA accepted the NGOs Food Additive Petition, then later determined that Requests A and B were not eligible for consideration as Food Additive Petitions. Third, FDA did not make a timely decision on the NGOs’ request that the Agency remove the clearance for the use of perchlorate in gaskets for food containers based on safety reasons, thereby allowing the removal of the clearance based, instead, on an abandonment petition filed by industry after the NGOs’ petition.
In FDA’s denial of the NGOs’ request for a public hearing (84 Fed. Reg. 17113), the Agency concluded that Objections 1 and 2 were not within the scope of the objections and hearing provisions under section 409(f) of the FD&C Act. Concerning Objection 3, FDA determined that it did not raise any genuine and substantial issue of fact that would justify an evidentiary hearing.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/fda-denies-request-public-hearing-perchlorate
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‘Portal’ for Interstate Chemical Reporting Will Launch This Year
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Lisa Martine Jenkins
The US organisation Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2) is launching a chemical reporting tool that will enable manufacturers to comply with various states’ ingredient disclosure laws via a single data submission.
These laws – passed in recent years by Washington, Oregon and Vermont – require companies that sell products containing 'chemicals of concern' to report on them to each state individually. However, they each have slightly different requirements, prompting companies to protest against the inefficiency of the "patchwork" of laws.
IC2 is a group of nine states, collaborating under the auspices of the Northeast Waste Management Officials’ Association (Newmoa) to facilitate information sharing and efficiency.
Initially raised as a concept in 2015, the High Priority Chemicals Data System (HPCDS) will be launched later this year.
"It will be one place for both those submitting the information and those wanting to access it and use it," Newmoa executive director Terri Goldberg told Chemical Watch.
Ms Goldberg said the differing requirements have also presented challenges, especially concerning the management of confidential business information (CBI) standards and fee systems. All data submitted to the portal will be made publicly available.
Funding has come from the EPA’s Environmental Information Exchange Network programme. Although begun in mid-2017, the majority of the portal’s development has taken place in the last six months.
Accommodating changing regulations
The intent of the portal is to accommodate new laws and potentially products as well, and ideally lead to "some sort of harmonisation", says Ms Goldberg.
The design, she adds, has been for "a system that could manage this kind of information for however many states pass these requirements. We do hope that if new states pass requirements, that they will look at what the existing states are requiring and take that into account."
Ingredient disclosure laws are being considered across the country.For example, New York’s state legislature has recently passed another children’s product transparency bill, which Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to sign. And laws that would require manufacturers to list the ingredients in menstrual products have been considered in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York.
In recent months, IC2 and its partner Clean Production Action have also announced an ingredient transparency initiative, which will develop a common set of principles in order to accelerate the adoption of such policies at the state level.
https://chemicalwatch.com/77166/portal-for-interstate-chemical-reporting-will-launch-this-year
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Colorado Legislature Passes Restrictions on PFASs in Firefighting Foams
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
Both chambers of Colorado’s state legislature have passed a bill restricting the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in firefighting foams; it will now head to Governor Jared Polis’ desk for his approval.
If signed into law, bill HB 19-1279 will, from 2 August, prohibit the use of class B firefighting foams with intentionally added PFASs for training and testing purposes, and would create a civil penalty for noncompliance.
It will also create the Firefighting Foams Control Act, which would include: banning the sale of PFAS foam in certain circumstances; requiring manufacturer disclosure of whether personal protective equipment (PPE) for firefighting contains PFASs; requiring the Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) to survey the amount of PFAS foam currently held, used and disposed of by the state’s fire departments; and allowing the CDPHE to request proof of compliance from manufacturers of foams and firefighting PPE.
The Act would enter into force on or before 2 August 2021.
The bipartisan bill passed the House of Representatives on 18 April, and the Senate 30 April – passage was unanimous in the House, and just one Senator voted no. Because this occurred in the final days of Colorado’s legislative session, Governor Polis will have 30 days to sign or veto the bill before it becomes law without his signature.
HB 19-1279 comes close on the heels of similar actions by Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia to restrict the substances for training purposes.
However, Washington state’s law – passed last legislative session – presented the strictest restrictions, banning the foams for all but federally-mandated uses. Colorado’s bill cites Washington’s law as evidence that the addition of PFAS chemicals is unnecessary in firefighting foams.
And New York state is considering a bill banning the PFAS-containing foams that is much closer to Washington's model. Introduced in January, the bill was discussed by the Senate Finance Committee on 7 May, and it is currently on the floor calendar for consideration.
Meanwhile, parties to the Stockholm Convention, meeting in Geneva last week, agreed a global ban on the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), with some exemptions. Among these was one for firefighting foams, though their production, export or import and use in training will be prohibited.
https://chemicalwatch.com/77164/colorado-legislature-passes-restrictions-on-pfass-in-firefighting-foams
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Florida Bill Aimed at Derailing Sunscreen Legislation Fails
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
Legislation that would have derailed plans to locally ban sunscreen products containing oxybenzone or octinoxate in cities in Florida, has been indefinitely postponed and withdrawn.
The proposed legislation (SB 588/HB 1299) aimed to impose a moratorium on local municipalities adopting or enforcing regulations relating to over-the-counter proprietary drugs and cosmetics in Florida. Had it passed, it would have preempted Key West's ban of the sunscreen products from 1 January 2021.
It would have also thwarted similar efforts in other municipalities around the state, such as Miami Beach.
But the legislation failed when the state’s legislative session ended on 3 May.
Meanwhile, a Senate bill proposing a statewide ban on sunscreen containing oxybenzone or octinoxate was withdrawn from consideration at the beginning of April. SB 708 would only have allowed their sale to customers with a medical prescription.
The legislation in Florida comes as part of a growing effort to protect coral reefs, with similar measures already passed into law in Hawaii and Palau.
The movement, however, has met with industry resistance with the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) and Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) citing a lack of scientific evidence that the ingredients are bleaching coral reefs.
Florida’s legislative session will restart on 14 January 2020.
https://chemicalwatch.com/77220/florida-bill-aimed-at-derailing-sunscreen-legislation-fails
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AG Announces Settlement for Toxics in Jewelry
May 8, 2019 | E&E - Greenwire
By Philip Athey
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra yesterday touted the state's settlement with five jewelery companies that had levels of lead or cadmium in their products that were above the legal limit.
"$83,000 may not sound like a lot," Becerra (D) said, "but what we do to get rid of this is priceless."
As part of the settlement, the five companies will pay $83,000 in fines to California. In addition, four of the companies have agreed to on-site testing programs in exchange for credits against the fines they owe.
The new testing programs will allow the companies to test every single piece of jewelery they import for lead and cadmium.
Representatives from the attorney general's office explained that the companies were wholesale retailers that typically imported the low-priced jewelry from China and sold it to small independent stores around the state, rather than larger chains.
Becerra also used the settlement announcement as an opportunity to lend his support to a California bill seeking to strengthen regulations on the two hazardous chemicals.
California state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D) said yesterday that her bill, S.B. 647, would bring "outdated" California regulation in line with more current international standards.
Becerra described the settlement as an "important first step," but he added, "it's not the last step."
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Toxic PFAS Chemical Found In Tucson — Here's Where
May 8, 2019 | Patch
By Brian Hanna
A new report shows that hundreds of sites nationwide — including in Tucson and Oro Valley — have been contaminated with highly toxic chemicals, including drinking water systems that serve an estimated 19 million people.
Researchers at the Environmental Working Group, an activist nonprofit group, said Monday that at least 610 places in 43 states are now known to be contaminated with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS. That's up from the 172 the organization had identified in July 2018.
Should you worry? Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called the presence of the chemicals in drinking water supplies a widespread public health crisis, and states and local communities are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to set legally allowable limits — which currently don't exist — for the substances.
Closer to home, 3 wells just north of Davis-Monthan and a half-dozen wells serving customers on the northwest side, including the Continental Ranch area of Marana, have been shut down, according to reports from the Arizona Daily Star.
In August, Tucson Water temporarily shut down a treatment plant after discovering it was sending water to thousands of customers containing unexpectedly high levels of PFAs. Levels reached 29 to 30 parts per trillion in samples taken Aug. 1 at three sampling points.Subscribe
The new sites, discovered using different data sources, include public water systems, military bases, airports, industrial plants, dumps and firefighter training sites, EWG said.
PFAS are man-made chemicals found in industry and consumer products across the globe dating to the 1950s. They were used in nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing and stain resistant fabrics and carpets, as well as certain cosmetics and firefighting foams. Additionally, PFAS were found in products that resist grease, water and oil, the federal agency said.
PFAS contamination is a public health concern that federal and state health officials are interested in studying further, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The agency cited studies linking PFAS contamination to liver problems, low birth weight, some cancers and other health issues. While more research is needed to determine just how toxic the chemicals are to humans and animals, the "forever chemical," as it's often called, has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle concerned.
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, co-chairman of a congressional PFAS task force, has called PFAS "one of the most widespread public health crises" that Americans face today. Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan has said veterans and their families have become increasingly alarmed about the chemical around bases.
"The Defense Department in particular has so far failed to act with the required urgency to address this growing problem," he said earlier this year.
EWG lists two contaminated sites in the Tucson metro area:
System name: Tucson Water
-Population served: 675,686
-Testing dates: April 16, 2013 - Nov. 20, 2013
-PFAS detected: PFHxS, PFOSPFAS min - max: 0 - 476 ppt
System name: Metropolitan DWID
-Population served: 43,433
-Testing dates: Aug. 20, 2014 - March 23, 2015
-PFAS detected: PFOS
-PFAS min - max: 0 - 53 ppt
The most commonly studied PFAS are perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS. Both have been phased out of production in America, but PFAS can seep into soil, water and air, and take thousands of years to break down. They remain in the environment and can even "build up in people and animals with repeated exposure over time," federal health officials said.
Phil Brown, a professor of sociology and health sciences at Northeastern University and director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, said the EWG's updated map shows PFAS contamination is "truly a nationwide problem."
"Leaders in many communities and states are doing great work to raise awareness about PFAS and push for cleanup, but this is a national crisis demanding national action,' said Brown.
The map shows contamination at 117 military sites. More than 190 sites were contaminated in Michigan — a reflection of the state's robust testing program — while 47 and 43 sites were contaminated in California and New Jersey.There are no legally enforceable limits for PFAS under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, EWG said. The Environmental Protection Agency's non-binding health advisory level for drinking water is 70 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, separately or in combination. The nonprofit is calling on the EPA to establish what it calls a "truly health-protective legal limit" for all PFAS chemicals.
EPA chief Andrew Wheeler said in March that his agency was taking steps toward establishing federal limits for some kinds of the contaminant in drinking water, according to The Associated Press.
https://patch.com/arizona/tucson/toxic-pfas-chemical-found-tucson-here-s-where
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Procter & Gamble Brings Green Chemistry Conference to Cincinnati
May 8, 2019 | WCPO Cincinnati
By Dan Monk
Cincinnati is the center of the green chemistry universe this week as Procter & Gamble Co. hosts more than 100 companies searching for chemical ingredients that are less harmful to humans and the environment.
The Green Chemistry & Commerce Council, or GC3, opened its 14thannual Innovators Roundtable at P&G headquarters yesterday. The group moved the Great American Ball Park this morning, where Lowe’s was among the presenters. The home-improvement retailer is working with others to eliminate paint strippers that contain methylene chloride. Already banned in Europe, the compound has been linked to dozens of deaths in the U.S.
“Major retailers now have lists of chemicals of concern that they’re trying to remove from their products,” said GC3 Director Joel Tickner. “We’re putting out a statement from 10 retailers that says, ‘These are the areas where we want to see innovation.’”
Those areas include flame retardants, solvents, surfactants, water repellents and chemicals used to soften plastic, Tickner said.
P&G is an important driver of green-chemistry innovation in the U.S. because any changes it makes in its supply chain stand a better chance of being adopted by all consumer-product companies.
“There are a lot of smaller brands who can do it more quickly,” Tickner said. “But when P&G is able to make these transitions that means the whole market is able to shift.”
P&G has been investing heavily in what it calls ‘natural’ alternatives to its most popular products, including Tide. Its newly reformulated purclean laundry detergent replaces petroleum-based ingredients with plant-based alternatives from coconut, soy and corn.
Tickner, a professor of public health at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said P&G is known for finding green-chemistry alternatives that actually work.
“That is a very tough thing,” he said. “When Johnson & Johnson went to take a chemistry out of its baby shampoo it changed the color of the shampoo. That color is the brand. So, they had to reformulate it. Took about six years and several million dollars to get it back to where it was with the new chemistry. So, it’s a big challenge. You need large R&D resources to be able to do that.”
P&G has a deep pipeline of sustainability innovations under development, said Todd Cline, section head of R&D for the company’s North American fabric care unit.
“We’ve got a lot of work underway on how we reduce our dependence on plastic,” he said. “The best thing we can do frankly is light weighting. So, we’re doing a lot of work on how do just reduce the total plastic that goes into a package.”
The Tide Ecobox, launched last year, puts liquid detergent in cardboard box that uses 60 percent less plastic and consumes less energy to ship. P&G has also partnered with the waste-management firm TerraCycle on Loop, which officers cleaning products, deodorant and food in refillable containers shipped directly to consumers. P&G has 10 brands involved a test pilot that’s launching in New York this month.
https://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/procter-gamble-brings-green-chemistry-conference-to-cincinnati
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Chief Scientists Back Broader EU Policy to Tackle Microplastics Pollution
May 8, 2019 | Chemical Watch
By Luke Buxton
The European Commission’s group of chief scientific advisers has recommended that the EU executive broadens existing policy to reduce and ultimately prevent microplastic pollution.
In a recent paper authored by the Scientific Advice for Policy by European Academies (Sapea) consortium, scientists say the Commission should "exploit current provisions in existing legal instruments to prevent and attenuate microplastics in water, air and soil".
Airborne, freshwater and soil-based microplastic pollution should be addressed by policy in the same manner as marine microplastics, it said. The Commission, Sapea added, should introduce new actions where possible and feasible under existing relevant instruments.
"Potentially-relevant examples include the water framework Directive and directives applicable to urban wastewater treatment, the application of sewage sludge as fertiliser, and air quality."
Outside of legislation, the EU executive should consider 'softer' voluntary, economic or persuasive measures, aimed at fostering responsible change through commercial or social initiatives.
Since microplastics are comprised of numerous materials, a "multi-pronged approach" is essential, the consortium advised. This would include measures in terms of parameters, which are substance- and context-specific.
It recommended the Commission focuses on high-volume, high-emission and/or high intrinsically hazardous sources of microplastics which pose the highest potential risks.
In the short term, Sapea said this could include: tighter licensing conditions for plastic pellet producers under the industrial emissions Directive; stringent performance standards for washing machines, aimed at textile microplastics; and improved drainage-system interceptors for tyre abrasion microplastics.
The Commission should develop "more novel and sustainable preventative" long-term solutions.
Socio-economic implications
Preventative microplastic pollution measures should be politically and socio-economically feasible, the consortium said.
To ensure net positive and sustainable benefit to society, quantitative analyses of broad factors (for example, trade-offs, substitution strategies/alternatives, lifecycle assessments and cost-benefit calculations) should feature "prominently" in impact assessments of individual measures.
Furthermore, the framing of such socio-economic and trade-off assessments "should be embedded in a ‘reduce-reuse-recycle’ circular-economy logic that strives for better environmental, economic and social outcomes of the plastics system as a whole".
Worldwide effort
The Commission should promote a global treaty, aimed at reducing and tackling the roots of microplastic and other plastic pollution. It should foster international and cross-disciplinary collaboration and the early sharing of new knowledge and research findings, the scientists suggested.
"A first step would be to promote the establishment of a global scientific platform on plastic and microplastic pollution, enabling shared and cross-border access to standardised data."
Additionally, Sapea recommended the Commission initiates the development of consensual international definitions and standards for the measurement and monitoring of microplastic pollution and its impact on ecosystems and human health. This would enable: a globally coherent picture of the nature and threats of microplastic pollution; and clear, unambiguous technical prescriptions and criteria for regulatory measures, when these are needed.
Backing
NGO Rethink Plastic said it agrees with the recommendations.
"We call on the EU to broaden the policy scope to prevent and reduce microplastic pollution, address the trade-offs of policy action, as well as speed up international measures on microplastics, including with a global treaty, as recommended in the opinion."
It also urged decision makers and industry to adapt to the conclusions on the ‘biodegradability dilemma’ – as referred to in the report – "to avoid considering biodegradability as an all-in solution to plastic polluting our air, soil, water, without specific criteria to define it".
Textiles and apparel industry association Euratex said it supports most of Sapea’s recommendations.
Alongside four industry associations, Euratex has launched a cross-industry initiative, supporting researchers in agreeing on a harmonised test method for textiles. It is "very pleased to see the Sapea recommendation confirming the validity of the choices we took last year".
And PlasticsEurope said it agrees that the impact of microplastics on the environment needs to be further assessed. However, it added that scientific evidence is still being investigated and "therefore it is difficult to set a proportionate level for unacceptable risk at this stage".Any regulatory measures developed to restrict the emissions of intentionally added microplastics "must be based on the latest scientific evidence used to assess the risksand be proportionate to the benefits to both the environment and society".
https://chemicalwatch.com/77313/chief-scientists-back-broader-eu-policy-to-tackle-microplastics-pollution
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President Trump to Talk Exports During Cameron LNG Visit in Louisiana
May 7, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Sergio Chapa
President Donald Trump plans to get a first-hand look at the soon-to-be-opened Cameron LNG export terminal just a couple hours east of Houston.
The president plans to visit the Hackberry, Louisiana liquefied natural gas facility on Tuesday where he is expected to give remarks about how the industry is creating jobs and boosting U.S. exports.
Developed by San Diego utility company Sempra Energy, the first of three production units at the $10 billion export terminal was completed last month. The remaining two production units remain under construction but the president will get a first-hand look at Train 1, which is expected to begin exports soon.
"Over 11,000 workers contributed to the construction of this premier energy infrastructure project which will enable the export of abundant and clean natural gas to global markets, bringing resilience and energy security to millions," Sempra Energy officials said in a statement.
Once all three production units are complete, Cameron LNG will be able to make nearly 12 million metric tons of LNG per year. Those production figures translate roughly to about 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day or enough energy to power 8.5 million U.S. homes in a single day.
Trump's visit to Louisiana comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Energy gave Sempra Energy's proposed Port Arthur LNG export terminal in southeast Texas approval to sell LNG to countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with the United States.
The presidential visit also comes less than a month after Trump visited the Houston area to sign two executive orders to remove regulations and other barriers to the energy industry.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/President-Trump-to-talk-exports-during-Cameron-13827222.php?cmpid=ffcp
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Trump Huddles With Florida Politicians
May 8, 2019 | E&E - Greenwire
By Kelsey Brugger
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) lobbied President Trump in opposition to offshore drilling in his state in a White House meeting Monday with Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis (R), E&E News has learned.
Nominally, the Florida Republicans met with Trump to talk about drug pricing and a Trump 2020 campaign rally planned for Panama City this evening.
But "Congressman Gaetz discusses offshore drilling in every conversation he has with the President," his press secretary, Luke Ball, said in a statement, though he declined to provide details of the "private conversation."
Gaetz told Politico that he believed the meeting actually came in response to a request from the governor regarding health care issues.
DeSantis is a Trump ally who has spoken out against drilling off the Florida shore.
Last month he told reporters he would "be raising Cain" should the state be included in the five-year drilling plan, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "You have a mishap; it has a cascading effect. Whatever jobs would be created [by drilling] could be undercut by chilling tourism," DeSantis told the paper. He further assured anti-drilling Floridians that Trump "understands" their perspective because he owns a resort, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach.
DeSantis' office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Gaetz is also a major Trump supporter and a vocal Republican opponent to allowing drilling off the coast of Florida.
Ball noted that Gaetz also "had an extensive and productive conversation [Monday] with [acting Defense] Secretary [Patrick] Shanahan about the dangers that offshore drilling poses to the Gulf Test Range, and he was encouraged by the Secretary's responses."
The meeting followed a request last month from Gaetz and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) for an Oval Office meeting "to discuss the importance of a permanent moratorium on oil and gas drilling and pre-leasing activity" in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
"The people of Florida are clearly opposed to offshore drilling," they wrote, adding that the state's economy depends on tourism, clean beaches and healthy ecosystems. "Not extending the moratorium on offshore drilling will place Florida at risk as a premier tourist destination. A fact which voters are keenly aware of."
In 2016, Trump won Florida by less than 2 percentage points.
The Interior Department had in January 2018 proposed to open up 90% of the outer continental shelf to drilling.
But controversy boiled over early last year when then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) jointly declared the region was "off the table" to drilling. The announcement angered environmentalists and coastal politicians who thought the deal smacked of favoritism.
Interior officials later clarified that a final decision on drilling off the Florida coast had not been made.
The draft of the latest proposal — better known as the five-year plan — has stalled for months, and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently said the agency is holding off on releasing the plan while he assesses recent court orders involving the Alaska and Atlantic coasts (E&E News PM, April 25).
The plan "is not imminent at this time," Bernhardt testified in Congress yesterday (E&E Daily, May 8).
The White House declined to comment on Monday's meeting beyond the prepared readout, which said Trump met with DeSantis and Gaetz in the Oval Office to discuss "the strong state-federal partnership between Florida and the Trump Administration" on health care, including lowering drug prices. Trump also ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to work with DeSantis on a drug importation program, the readout said.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2019/05/08/stories/1060297441
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Can Houston Oil and Gas Companies Benefit From ‘Brexit’
May 8, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Alasdair Freemen
With the Offshore Technology Conference once again heralding the arrival of so many Scottish and United Kingdom businesses to Houston, it is an ideal time to reflect on the impact that Great Britain leaving the European Union might have for Houston companies that deal with them.
Of course, we still do not yet know what deal will be struck between the UK and EU, and whether it may happen at all. The UK and EU recently agreed a 6-month delay to Brexit making the intended date of departure Oct. 31. This buys both sides some negotiating time. More importantly, it allows companies additional time to consider their strategy, something we have been working with our clients to achieve.
And, as with any change in circumstances, there are sure to be challenges and opportunities.
For the moment, there is a total lack of agreement on which tariffs might be applied to goods imported and exported between the UK and the EU, and how that will be resolved is still anyone’s guess.
One area of concern for Houston’s oil and gas services companies that rely on an integrated approach to selling into Europe or sourcing products from Europe is supply route disruption. What affected businesses can do now is work with advisers to assess how their contracts would deal with the impact of such disruption.
Have you thought about your pricing? How might Brexit affect the other party? For new contracts that you are negotiating, the same issues need to be considered.
Another issue that could become a problem for the sector is currency value. If a bad ‘Brexit’ deal severely weakens the British pound, it will make goods from Houston a lot more expensive and slow demand from North Sea operators for their products.
Growth opportunities
Nevertheless, anyone sitting in Houston looking across the Atlantic should be able to see real growth opportunities too.
The flip side to a weak pound is a strengthened dollar which would reduce the costs of buying British products for operators in the United States that. import skills or equipment from the UK. It would also make it easier for U.S. companies to acquire assets or companies in the UK and, of course, benefit those who enjoy fine Scotch whisky and a round at the best golf courses in the world.
In sectors such as offshore construction and decommissioning, Brexit has the potential to create a more level playing-field in markets currently dominated by big European industrial companies. If you have no business in Europe and the UK, you may also be at an advantage to competitors who could suffer disruption to supply lines that run through European ports such as Rotterdam.
Immigration for skilled U.S. staff may become easier as the UK looks to fill supply gaps caused by a restriction of movement of workers from the EU.
And the prospect of a new free trade agreement between the US and the UK could open further opportunities and make business between the countries even more attractive than it already is.
However it shakes out, any slowdown in trade between the UK and Europe necessarily leaves gaps to be filled, and there are strong reasons to suspect that the US — and Houston in particular — is very well placed to benefit. The contingent of UK businesses that visit the energy capital of the world for OTC each year is evidence of the strong link that already exist.
That means opportunities for those willing to invest in the UK - and U.S. businesses may get even more used to welcoming their British counterparts to H-town.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Can-Houston-oil-and-gas-companies-benefit-from-13827375.php?cmpid=ffpolitics
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Interior Chief Says Offshore Drilling Plan Not 'Indefinitely Sidelined'
May 8, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Rebecca Beitsch
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Tuesday the department will complete development of a five-year offshore drilling plan, despite earlier comments that plan had been put on hold.
Responding to questions from Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) in reference to a Wall Street Journal interview in which he said the the plan had been indefinitely sidelined, Bernhardt said the department still has a few more years to complete its plan before a new one is required in 2022.
Pingree, who referred to offshore drilling as universally opposed in Maine, pushed Bernhardt to take it completely off the table.
The Interior chief assured her that state concerns would be paramount in making a determination.
“I’m not aware of a single lease that was ever developed over the opposition of a state,” he said.
Bernhardt said he paused the development of the five-year plan while the courts weigh designations from former President Barack Obama that protected parts of the Alaska and Atlantic coasts from offshore development.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) questioned why Interior was continuing to process permits for seismic exploration of underwater oil reserves, particularly given the risks the process poses to marine life.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of information. If we can do it properly and it can be done responsibly, the data itself is not something we should be afraid of,” he said.
State delegations have already put significant effort into resisting offshore development of their coastlines. A bipartisan group of Florida representatives introduced a bill that would block such drilling, while delegations from Virginia and New Jersey have sent letters to Interior voicing their opposition.
Bernhardt’s assurances that state voices would be considered in developing offshore drilling plans appear to have been a factor in his April confirmation.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said Bernhardt made it clear his and other senators' opposition to offshore drilling would be considered.
"They're not guarantees, but he gave me some assurances," King said shortly after Bernhardt's confirmation vote.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/442589-interior-chief-says-offshore-drilling-plan-will-get-finished
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Colorado Environmentalists Sue Oil & Gas Drillers Over Permit Dispute
May 8, 2019 | Inside EPA
WildEarth Guardians is filing Clean Air Act citizen suits against seven oil and gas companies operating in the Denver area, charging that they are unlawfully operating without proper air permits and harming public health due to excess emissions.
The May 3 suit WildEarth Guardians v. Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc., et al., filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, alleges that the defendants “illegally constructed and began operating massive sources of air pollution along Colorado’s Front Range region without obtaining legally required permits to pollute. By evading their permitting obligations, these companies have collectively realized an economic benefit of over $400 million. Defendants are operating their facilities unlawfully and their operations should be enjoined until they obtain their required permits.”
The suit follows notices of intent (NOI) to sue that the group sent in February to 15 facilities operated by the seven companies targeting what it says is lax air permitting. The NOIs say the companies “knowingly violated the Clean Air Act” and that the state allowed the companies to begin operations without going through the permitting process during a 90-day “grace period,” even though the Denver area is out of attainment with the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for ozone.
At the same time, Gov. Jared Polis (D) is moving to have Denver’s nonattainment designation downgraded from moderate to serious, which would lower permitting thresholds and could force the oil and gas operations to install more stringent pollution controls. The facilities release ozone-forming volatile organic compounds, which are also air toxics.
In a statement announcing the lawsuits, WildEarth Guardians says, “The oil and gas industry is willfully violating our clean air laws at a massive scale. . . . With our health at risk, we can’t afford to frack away our clean air.”
The group adds it will use the companies’ own documents to prove they have violated air law permitting requirements.
The operations are all located in Weld County, whose county commission is opposing Polis’ effort to downgrade the ozone NAAQS designation and instead wants to move forward with a request by the prior governor for EPA to grant the state more time to meet the limit without further consequences.
But WildEarth Guardians says the lax permitting and excess pollution “just highlights the need for aggressive enforcement to deter future violations and set the record straight that our health, safety and environment come before oil and gas industry profits.”
The group adds that the companies face penalties of up to nearly $100,000 per violation per day, and it estimates the companies could together be liable for more than $1.3 billion in penalties.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/colorado-environmentalists-sue-oil-gas-drillers-over-permit-dispute
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S.D. Governor, Oglala Sioux in Protests Standoff
May 8, 2019 | AP (In E&E - Greenwire)
By Blake Nicholson
The Oglala Sioux and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) are each waiting for the other side to make a move to resolve a disagreement over anti-protest legislation that led to the tribe banning the governor from one of the largest reservations in the country.
The legislation aims to prevent costly and disruptive protests against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline similar to those that plagued construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. The Tribal Council on May 1 voted 17-0 to tell Noem she's no longer welcome on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and President Julian Bear Runner informed her by letter the following day "that you are not welcome to visit our homelands."
"I'm going to respect tribal sovereignty. I'm not going to go where I'm not welcomed," Noem told reporters yesterday.
Noem said that she wants to resolve the situation quickly and that she's having "ongoing discussions" with council members who reached out to her. But she hadn't yet spoken with Bear Runner, who she said would be welcome to visit her anytime.
"I'm hoping that the president will change his mind and be willing to work with me to help face some of the challenges that the tribe has — dealing with economic development, the meth epidemic, some of the resources that they've asked me for," she said.
Bear Runner's spokesman Chase Iron Eyes said the president would be willing to meet with Noem, though "who will make the first move, that remains to be seen."
The two bills that Noem and GOP leaders pushed through toward the end of the legislative session in March allow officials to pursue money from demonstrators who engage in "riot boosting" or encouraging violence during a protest.
Activists and American Indian tribes have been planning on-the-ground protests against the Keystone XL pipeline if it's built, similar to Dakota Access pipeline demonstrations in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 that resulted in 761 arrests over six months and cost the state $38 million to police.
"I gave my team the direction to build a plan that would protect our counties and local governments from expenses that come with pipeline construction and to protect our people from the costs and dangers that accompany violent riots," Noem said of the legislation.
The American Civil Liberties Union and tribes contend the anti-riot law stifles free speech.
Iron Eyes said Oglala Sioux members believe the pipeline threatens the environment.
"They want a better way," he said. "They don't want a government that isn't thinking intelligently about impending ecological and existential crises."
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2019/05/08/stories/1060296761
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Occidental CEO Battles Oil-Field Giant to Rule the Permian Basin
May 8, 2019 | Wall Street Journal
By Christopher M. Matthews, Bradley Olson and Cara Lombardo
Driven by a risk-taking chief executive, Occidental Petroleum Corp. is trying to swallow a competitor close to its own size, outmaneuvering one of the world’s oil giants in the process.
If it succeeds, CEO Vicki Hollub will win accolades and Occidental will ward off growing threats from the giants in one of the world’s biggest oil fields. If not, Occidental could itself be vulnerable to a takeover.
Occidental’s battle with mammoth Chevron Corp. to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has riveted the oil industry since it erupted in mid-April. Occidental currently has the highest offer on the table, one that Anadarko said Monday it now favors over Chevron’s. A new offer from Chevron could come any time.
Ms. Hollub lined up $10 billion of backing from Warren Buffett and cut a deal with a French oil company, all in the space of two days, to press her audacious project.
She is pushing it against the wishes of some of Occidental’s major investors, spooked by the cost and risk of mounting debt. Mutual-fund giant T. Rowe Price Group intends to vote against Occidental’s board slate at the oil company’s annual meeting Friday, said a Price portfolio manager, John Linehan.
T. Rowe Price believes financing arranged from Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is “extraordinarily expensive,” Mr. Linehan said, adding: “We are concerned that as the bidding war intensifies there will be a winner’s curse for whoever buys Anadarko.”
David Katz, president and chief investment officer of Occidental shareholder Matrix Asset Advisors,, which expressed concerns to Occidental’s board, said, “Vicki Hollub seems committed to getting this done at any cost.” He said her “obligation should be to maximize value, not to maximize the empire. We urge the company to consider selling rather than buying.”
Though it’s fraught with danger, Ms. Hollub believes a deal for Anadarko would be a rare chance to transform the company’s size and sway in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the epicenter of U.S. shale production, said people familiar with her strategy. Though the fifth-largest U.S. oil company, according to this thinking, Occidental is just too small to match Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp.as they squeeze other producers there with methodically orchestrated expansions.EnergeticOccidental Petroleum is smaller than oil giants such as Exxon but often competes with them for shareholders, overseas projects and deals.
Top spot
Adding Anadarko’s assets would vault Occidental to the top spot in the huge field, according to consulting firm Rystad Energy. Without major change, Occidental, now second, would be only the fifth-largest there by 2025, according to Rystad’s forecasts.
“If we’re going to get in this thing, we’re going to win it,” said Glenn Vangolen, one of Ms. Hollub’s top lieutenants and a senior vice president. “We’re not going to dip our toes in the water and mess up the stock.”
Occidental’s offer for Anadarko is $38 billion. That tops a $33 billion deal Chevron struck to buy Anadarko last month. This week, Occidental sweetened its bid further by upping the amount of cash it includes.
That step indirectly added to the concerns of the objecting Occidental investors. By reducing the number of new shares Occidental would have to issue, the move eliminated the need to get shareholder approval for a deal.
Ms. Hollub has argued Occidental’s investors benefit from the move because it makes the company’s bid more likely to succeed. Occidental declined to make Ms. Hollub available for this article.
Those who know Ms. Hollub say beneath her plain-spoken persona lies an intense competitor. An Alabama native and former French horn player in the University of Alabama’s “Million Dollar Band,” Ms. Hollub, 59 years old, is a passionate fan of Crimson Tide football. Her prized possessions include a portrait of the school’s legendary former coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant.
Since she became CEO three years ago—the first female chief executive at a large oil company—current and former senior executives saw her zeal for a big deal as a departure from her predecessor, Stephen Chazen, who favored small “bolt-on” transactions and tended to avoid big risks.
Given the size of Anadarko—which has an enterprise value of about $55.5 billion, only 7% smaller than Occidental—Ms. Hollub knew an acquisition of it would stretch Occidental to its limits. She expected shareholders to trust her judgment that an acquisition was necessary to ensure the company had the wherewithal to continue competing against oil giants, said people who know her.
Ms. Hollub courted Anadarko, also a substantial player in the Permian Basin, for nearly two years. Early last month she thought she was close to a deal. But after Occidental revised a still-confidential offer of about $76 a share temporarily down to about $72 in early April, she said Anadarko CEO Al Walker stopped responding to her calls and text messages.
Occidental sent a revised $76-a-share offer on April 11, according to people familiar with the issue. By that time, Anadarko had decided to move ahead with Chevron’s offer due to concerns that re-engaging in discussions with Occidental would prompt Chevron to walk away, according to people familiar with Anadarko’s thinking.
On April 12, Anadarko announced it would be sold to Chevron for roughly $65 a share. Ms. Hollub was frustrated. Instead of giving up, she went public with a new $76-a-share offer—and over a whirlwind weekend lined up nearly $19 billion in financial ammunition.
Occidental needed a big war chest to compete with Chevron. Ms. Hollub and her advisers discussed approaching a Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth fund, said people familiar with her thinking. They determined that would take too long, one of the people said.
Another option seemed to lie in Omaha, Neb. Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan had visited Occidental’s Houston office before the Chevron deal to discuss financing options. After the Chevron-Anadarko deal was announced—and Occidental needed cash fast—Mr. Moynihan offered to reach out Mr. Buffett, who was looking for ways to invest Berkshire Hathaway ’s large pile of cash, another person familiar with the maneuverings said.
An investment from him would have the bonus of looking like an endorsement of an Occidental deal from the famed investor, this person said.
Mr. Moynihan called Mr. Buffett to broker a meeting. Ms. Hollub planned a visit to Omaha for that weekend.
First, however, she made a quick trip to Paris on April 26 and struck a conditional deal to sell Anadarko’s extensive African assets to oil company Total SA for $8.8 billion, reducing Occidental’s leverage after an Anadarko takeover.
Her next trip was to Omaha. With her was a top lieutenant and former Bank of America banker, Oscar Brown, Mr. Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual meeting on Saturday.
Within an hour, they struck a deal for Berkshire to spend $10 billion for 100,000 Occidental preferred shares yielding 8% if the Anadarko deal went through.
It gave Ms. Hollub more room to raise her offer. “They absolutely know we have $10 billion and we’re not going to tell them how to structure their transaction and do anything else,” Mr. Buffett said on Saturday.
Decades ago, Occidental was one of a handful of oil explorers led by charismatic wildcatters—companies like J. Paul Getty’s Getty Oil Co. and Leon Hess’s Hess Corp.—that took risks in places others avoided. Occidental boomed under Armand Hammer, who took over what was a sleepy California oil company in 1957 and turned it into a substantial player, mainly through an oil concession in Libya he obtained in the late 1960s.
Competing with companies five or six times its size, Occidental developed an expertise at pumping oil from places that others were willing to discard. One such was the Permian Basin, which had once been among the world’s hottest oil fields but by the late 1990s and early 2000s was left for dead by most of the majors.Armand Hammer, the late head of Occidental Petroleum, seen on the bridge of his jet in 1977.
Occidental developed ways to get more oil out of aging conventional wells there by injecting carbon dioxide into them. It is now a leader in the process, which analysts say could extend the lives not only of conventional wells but of shale wells, which produce prodigiously at first but rapidly decline.
That has also put Occidental at the forefront of the burgeoning business of capturing carbon to forestall climate change. Last year, Ms. Hollub helped lobby for legislation, since passed, to extend and increase carbon-capture tax credits.
“She was the go-to phone call,” said former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. “She’s not like a lot of executives who might just say, ‘I need this.’ She will put the credibility of her company into something she believes in.”
Ms. Hollub, who studied mineral engineering at Alabama, worked on oil rigs right out of college and landed at Occidental in 1982 when it bought the company she worked for, Cities Service. She rose through Occidental’s ranks, running operations from Russia to Venezuela to West Texas.
One of her first big jobs was overseeing Occidental oil fields in a remote part of Ecuador, where she was essentially the mayor of a small city as she managed drilling operations in the Amazon jungle, said the company’s Mr. Vangolen.
Workers there, mostly men, “were all very skeptical of her, being a female in the middle of the jungle, where there basically were no women,” said Mr. Vangolen. “Very quickly, she figured out how to get everyone’s input and get them onboard.”
Glass ceiling
Edward Djerejian, a former chairman of Occidental and onetime U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria, recalled Ms. Hollub impressing the board years ago with a presentation on Permian Basin operations. Around 2014, he and then-CEO Mr. Chazen identified her as Mr. Chazen’s successor.
“The major consideration was her competence,” he said. “We also obviously realized if we made this move we’d be breaking the glass ceiling in the oil-and-gas industry.”
With Ms. Hollub as CEO, Occidental has performed in the middle of the pack. After she took over in April 2016, the company stuck to Ms. Hollub’s pledge not to lay off employees resulting from the industry downturn that began with a late-2014 plunge in oil prices.
But Occidental has shed nearly $9 billion in market value during her tenure while its share prices have fallen about 11%. Much of that decline has come as a result of the offer. Through April 11, the day before Chevron’s announcement, when Occidental’s interest was also revealed, the company’s performance in total return to investors was better than its smaller peers but worse than that of major oil companies including Chevron or ConocoPhillips .
In discussions with shareholders about the company’s all-in bid for Anadarko, Ms. Hollub and her team have invoked an acquisition Occidental made in 2000. The takeover then of Altura Energy gave Occidental the rights to depleted conventional wells in the Permian Basin, wells Occidental has since reinvigorated with carbon injection. The $3.6 billion price for Altura meant that Occidental essentially would acquire for nothing the takeover target’s shale reserves, which frackers would later figure out how to tap.
Similar to that deal, Occidental believes that in an acquisition of Anadarko, it would acquire not just that company’s known oil reserves in the Permian Basin but potentially much more. On a Monday call with investors, Ms. Hollub described a deal for Anadarko as “transformational.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/occidental-ceo-battles-oil-field-giant-to-rule-the-permian-basin-11557269895?mod=hp_lead_pos5
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Exxon Sinks up to $100m in 10-Year DOE Research Partnership
May 8, 2019 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jenny Mandel
Exxon Mobil Corp. will partner with two national laboratories to support the commercialization of lower-emission energy technologies, investing up to $100 million over 10 years, the company said today.
Funding will support research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and National Energy Technology Laboratory and will be shared across a wide range of projects ranging from lower-cost carbon capture for power plants to advanced cellulosic ethanol for transportation, according to Exxon Mobil.
"Today's announcement reinforces the Department's commitment to invest in public-private partnerships that maximize R&D and, ultimately, deploy innovative, economical, and lower-emission technologies" developed through the Energy Department's national laboratories, said DOE Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes. "Over the past two years, this Administration has proven we can simultaneously grow our economy while helping our environment."
Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development at Exxon Mobil's research and engineering arm, said the partnership would encompass both fundamental science and the scale-up of new approaches.
"This is critical because it will give us a better understanding of how to progress technologies so they can be applied globally," Swarup said.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory is home to much of the Energy Department's research on fossil fuels and was a key player decades ago in developing the hydraulic fracturing technology that ultimately unlocked the current shale oil and gas boom. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is known for its work on zero-carbon energy and has a long-running advanced biofuels program.
Exxon Mobil and DOE did not disclose what the initial funding levels will be.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2019/05/08/stories/1060297141
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Will Regulators Ban a Potentially “Catastrophic” Refinery Chemical?
May 8, 2019 | Capital & Main
By Dan Ross
Hydrofluoric acid has been used in the oil refining industry for many decades to manufacture high-octane gasoline. If accidentally released into the air, hydrofluoric acid can form a highly toxic vapor cloud at ground level with the potential to harm or kill those standing in its way. It can travel for miles. Possible health impacts from acute exposure include severe blistering of the skin, organ damage, heart failure and suffocation. Because of these risks, many oil companies have turned to alternative chemical catalysts like sulfuric acid that significantly reduce the airborne risk to the nearby community.Scientist: In the event of a catastrophic MHF release, “the communities closest to the refineries who would be most impacted and who would have the highest risk of death are communities of color.”
But two facilities in Southern California, the Valero refinery in Wilmington and the PBF-owned refinery in Torrance, resisted taking this action and switched to modified hydrofluoric acid (MHF) instead. They are the only two oil refineries in the state using MHF today, and they both can store huge quantities of the chemical on-site: approximately 25,000 gallons in Torrance and 55,000 in Wilmington. MHF is a chemical mixture that the refinery industry argues reduces the risk of a dense, dangerous vapor forming in the event of a leak. But other experts say the science doesn’t back up this claim. A release can cause “the same health impacts” as unmodified hydrofluoric acid, said the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (AQMD) deputy executive officer, Philip Fine, at a public meeting earlier this year.
Which is why many politicians, government agencies, and residents who live in the densely populated neighborhoods in L.A.’s South Bay say that it’s time to see the chemical banned altogether. Many note that communities bordering these refineries are already among the most environmentally burdened and poorest in the state—a predicament the California attorney general’s office has called “particularly unfair.”
“There’s no reason for me to believe that the information I see for modifying hydrofluoric acid is correct,” says Ronald Koopman, a retired senior scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Koopman was one of a group of experts who, in the 1980s, studied the dangers of hydrofluoric acid. He says “thorough scientific tests” haven’t been conducted into MHF under the conditions it’s currently used at the Wilmington and Torrance refineries, and he regards it as “too hazardous” to risk, especially when refineries have the “considerably” safer option of using sulfuric acid.
Others, including oil industry representatives, warn that the cost of switching to an alternative could lead to gasoline price hikes and job losses in the area through plant closures. The Torrance Refinery Company (TORC), a subsidiary of PBF, lists 850 regular employees and contractors. This leaves the AQMD facing a crucial decision—whether to permit the continued use of MHF with certain safety standards in place or to ban it completely. If the latter, the agency must decide how quickly to phase it out. This decision has been brewing for decades.
Back in 1991, the AQMD adopted a rule putting the South Bay on a path toward potentially banning hydrofluoric acid. A lawsuit saw the rule thrown out on a technicality, however, and the refineries subsequently replaced hydrofluoric acid with a version modified with an additive. At the right quantity, the refineries argued, the additive would help prevent the hydrofluoric acid from forming a dangerous vapor cloud. Over the years, the refineries have slashed the amount of additive used.
A lot rides on the AQMD’s decision. By their own calculations, tens of thousands of residents in Wilmington and Torrance are potentially at risk in the event of a large-scale MHF release at either plant. The L.A. County Department of Public Health contends that an evacuation zone could stretch as far as 10 miles, potentially impacting millions.
* * *
The possibility of a dangerous accidental release was made frighteningly clear in Torrance back in February 2015. An explosion shot a 40-ton piece of equipment into the air, and it landed five feet from two hydrofluoric acid storage tanks. Two workers were injured, though not seriously. However, the accident could have been “much more catastrophic,” warnedVanessa Sutherland, head of the Chemical Safety Board, the federal agency that was charged with investigating the accident.
The explosion triggered a flurry of activity at the local and state regulatory level—including a number of state bills targeting refinery safety standards—which have set the stage for the AQMD’s impending decision. The timeline remains sketchy. The agency is currently in talks with industry and community groups. District director of communications Nahal Mogharabi said that the agency will present findings at the next AQMD refinery committee meeting, to be scheduled in the coming months. The final decision, however, rests on the shoulders of the AQMD’s governing board.
Valero did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did the United Steelworkers, a union representing workers at both refineries. TORC responded with a 10-page statement that outlines the same arguments that many oil refinery representatives and workers have made publicly in recent years.
“Despite the unsubstantiated claims activists are circulating on this issue, MHF is safe for use,” the company explained in the statement, listing a number of “safety mitigation” measures it has already made, or intends to make, including steel or water barriers to block or knock down a release. The company’s statement primarily focuses on the potential costs of switching to sulfuric acid, which the AQMD estimates at $300 million. TORC vigorously disputes this number, arguing it could be as high as $900 million. In the event an MHF ban prompts both refineries to close down, it says, the broad impacts would cost consumers “an additional $7 [billion] to $8 billion annually.”
While sulfuric acid poses its own problems, Valero has selected to build new alkylation units which use that chemical, rather than MHF, at its refineries in Louisiana and Texas.
https://capitalandmain.com/will-regulators-ban-a-refinery-chemical-0508
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Students Evacuated at Lone Star College University Park After Acid
May 8, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Jay R. Jordan
Students in two academic buildings at Lone Star College University Park were evacuated after a reported acid spill, the college tweeted Wednesday morning.
Students in buildings 12 and 13 were asked to evacuate because the spill. The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office tweeted that the chemical is Bromine.
The spill was contained to those two building, and students in other buildings on campus were not ordered to evacuate, Lone Star College Police Chief Paul Willingham tweeted.
Willingham said the Houston Fire Department is on scene assisting.
https://m.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Students-evacuating-Lone-Star-College-after-13828825.php?ipid=mobbreaking
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At Least Six Dead in Explosions in Us and Russia
May 8, 2019 | Chemistry World
By Phillip Broadwith
One worker is still missing in the remains of the AB Specialty Silicones plant
Explosions at a silicones plant in the US and a Russian fertiliser plant have each left three workers confirmed dead, with a fourth suspected dead at the US site.
Of the nine workers onsite at AB Speciality Silicones’ plant in Waukegan, Illinois, on 3 May, two were found dead at the scene. A further four were hospitalised, one of whom later died of their injuries. One is still unaccounted for.
The cause of the blast is not yet known. A team from the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has begun investigations at the scene.
On 6 May, near the Russian city of Berezniki, a fertiliser plant run by the Azot branch of Uralchem left three workers dead and a fourth in hospital. According to local news reporting, welding works away from the main production works of the site triggered residual vapour in a tank to explode.
There were no releases of hazardous substances, and the authorities are investigating the incident and monitoring air quality around the site.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/at-least-six-dead-in-explosions-in-us-and-russia/3010474.article
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May 8, 2019 | Chemistry World
By Patrick Walter
Ten years ago Sheri Sangji died in a tragic lab accident. Ten years ago a young life was unnecessarily lost in horrifying circumstances. For those unaware of the case, the research assistant was working with a pyrophoric liquid at a University of California, Los Angeles, US, lab. Something went wrong during the routine transfer of the reagent and she was sprayed with the liquid, which then ignited. She was rushed to hospital for treatment for second and third degree burns over almost half of her body, but died 18 days later. Both UCLA and Sangji’s supervisor Patrick Harran were found to be at fault for failing to provide adequate training and personal protective equipment (PPE). The institute was fined around $132,000 (£100,000) in all.
A sombre anniversary such as this is a reminder that everyone who works in a lab is responsible for their safety and that of others. Having worked in a number of labs, safety wasn’t always as highly valued as it ought to be. There’s often a certain amount of joking and bravado in labs that now strikes me as unwise. One former head of chemistry told me he’d have to delay an interview as a PhD student had just had an accident that was going to give him a scar that he’d be able to ‘show off to the girls’. Another time I was told how close a lab I was working in had come to disaster when a reaction with an azide led to a substantial explosion. Fortunately, everyone had gone to lunch and they were able to laugh it off. They make for good stories and it’s human nature to enjoy tales of the dramatic.
But these sorts of tales are a symptom of a problem; a failure to take safety as seriously as we ought to. The results of a survey of students and group leaders at four top US universities presented at the spring American Chemical Society meeting are instructive. The researchers found that despite PPE being provided, half of respondents didn’t consistently wear it routinely. Near misses were rarely discussed at lab meetings. And only half of group leaders would talk to their department head about a colleague they thought was a danger in the lab. But I think the most important finding to come out of the survey was that leading by example matters. For team leaders that prioritise safety, almost all their students follow this example. For team leaders that don’t, only a third of their students took steps to make their work safer.
The results of this survey show that the answer to unsafe behaviour in the lab is in our hands. Senior members of the lab must set an example on safety. Younger, inexperienced members of the team see them as role models and will act accordingly. Who else should we expect them to learn from if not their peers?
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/taking-the-lead-on-safety/3010437.article
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Nation’s Freight Railroads Showcase Transformative Safety Technologies on Capitol Hill
May 8, 2019 | American Journal of Transportation
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today hosted its second annual “RailxTech” event on Capitol Hill, bringing together the nation’s Class I railroads to offer policymakers hands-on demonstrations of innovative technologies that are making the industry safer and more efficient than ever before.
“There is no better way for lawmakers and their staff to experience the innovations transforming our nation’s 140,000-mile rail network than by interacting with these technologies firsthand,” said Ian Jefferies, President and CEO of AAR. “America’s freight railroads invest heavily in the infrastructure, equipment and technology necessary for keeping pace with a rapidly evolving transportation sector. We will continue to work with Congress to preserve the policies that will allow railroads to continue making these investments and powering the nation’s economy throughout the 21st century.”
At RailxTech, lawmakers, Congressional staff and other transportation stakeholders met with representatives of the nation’s largest railroad companies to learn more about the implementation and testing of new rail innovations, including Positive Train Control (PTC) safety technology, drones, advanced digital imaging and ultrasonic inspection tools. Technology such as defect detectors, rail welding simulators and virtual inspection simulators showcased the work that is done to keep the tracks, equipment and locomotives running safely and efficiently. Attendees also met with freight rail employees who are developing, implementing and using these technologies every day.
Jefferies noted that the impressive display – which also featured participation from a short line carrier, the Transportation Technology Center (TTCI) and the AskRail mobile app – underscores why the freight rail industry is in the safest era of its nearly 200-year history.
“Railroads are prioritizing investments to address and eliminate the primary causes of accidents – track and equipment issues, as well as human error – knowing they will have a significant impact on the long-term safety of the freight rail network,” said Jefferies. “Through data and a connected network, operators can identify problems before they occur to improve the safety and efficiency of the rail system.”
In addition to hands-on technology demonstrations, attendees had a front row seat to a panel discussion moderated by The Mobility Podcast on the evolution of the transportation sector. Panelists discussed how federal lawmakers can encourage innovation through smart policies and regulations.
Attendees tested their skills on training simulators, high-tech inspection tools and fully immersive virtual reality that put the power of rail technology in their hands.
AskRail: Participants checked out the AskRail mobile app, which provides more than 25,000 first responders with immediate access to accurate, timely data about what types of hazardous materials a train is carrying so they can make informed decisions about how to respond to a rail emergency.
BNSF Railway: People tried their hand at BNSF’s drone flight simulator and learned how the company leverages the data collected by drones and artificial intelligence to create an even smarter and safer railroad.
Canadian National: CN offered an exploration of their new cutting-edge automated inspection technology portals, which use advanced digital imagery and machine learning to inspect trains in real time — as they travel at full speed — and identify rail cars that need repair.
Canadian Pacific: Specialized sensors beside rail lines and mounted on rail equipment are capturing terabytes of data every year. Attendees learned how CP is applying this data to inform predictive maintenance months — and even years — in advance, enhancing safety and customer service.
CSX: Participants test drove a locomotive using CSX’s PTC locomotive engineer training simulator and interacted with 3D models of rail facilities generated from drone imagery and LiDAR, a tool that uses lasers to make measurements.
Genesee & Wyoming: Defects in rail are not always visible to the human eye. G&W offered portable rail defect detector technology to give participants an ultrasonic view inside the rail to discern a healthy rail from one that needs maintenance.
Kansas City Southern: KCS’s simulator put attendees in the cab of a PTC-equipped locomotive where they experienced how the technology works to stop a train. KCS also showed how the railroad is leveraging PTC data through geospatial mapping technology to enhance rail operations.
Norfolk Southern: NS highlighted some of the tools they use at their state-of-the-art training facility. Participants developed proper rail welding techniques through virtual reality and performed a virtual inspection of a train’s air brake system using a new tool developed for train conductors and railcar mechanics.
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI): Every day, TTCI — the world’s leading rail research and testing facility — pushes the limits of the rail network and equipment moving across it. They showed their work in action and highlighted how they use dynamic testing and modeling to improve the longevity of bridges, health track and the safety of rail cars.
Union Pacific: Participants took a virtual ride in a HighRail truck, technology used to inspect railroad tracks to detect flaws and inform maintenance planning. UP also took people inside their computer-based training modules for locomotive engineers, allowing them to operate digital trains using actual locomotive controls.
https://www.ajot.com/news/nations-freight-railroads-showcase-transformative-safety-technologies-on-capitol-hill
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AAR Highlights Rail Safety Technology at Capitol Hill Event
May 8, 2019 | Progressive Railroading
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) yesterday hosted its second annual RailxTech event on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate new technologies for improving rail industry safety.
At the event, Class I representatives met with lawmakers, congressional staff and other transportation stakeholders to learn more about the implementation and testing of new rail innovations, including positive train control (PTC) safety technology, drones, advanced digital imaging and ultrasonic inspection tools.
“There is no better way for lawmakers and their staff to experience the innovations transforming our nation’s 140,000-mile rail network than by interacting with these technologies firsthand,” said AAR President and Chief Executive Officer Ian Jefferies in a press release.
Technology such as defect detectors, rail welding simulators and virtual inspection simulators showcased the work that is done to keep track, equipment and locomotives running safely and efficiently, AAR officials said.
Attendees also met with freight-rail employees who are developing, implementing and using such technologies.
“America’s freight railroads invest heavily in the infrastructure, equipment and technology necessary for keeping pace with a rapidly evolving transportation sector," Jefferies said. "We will continue to work with Congress to preserve the policies that will allow railroads to continue making these investments and powering the nation’s economy throughout the 21st century."https://www.progressiverailroading.com/safety/news/AAR-highlights-rail-safety-technology-at-Capitol-Hill-event--57516
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The Energy 202: Interior Secretary Blames Congress for Lack of Action on Climate Change
May 8, 2019 | Washington Post
By Dino Grandoni
He acknowledged climate change is real. He acknowledged that humans are contributing to it.
So why, Democratic lawmakers asked David Bernhardt, isn't he doing more to address global warming?
Apparently, because Congress hasn't told him to.
During his first testimony to Congress since becoming interior secretary, Bernhardt said it is up to lawmakers to direct bureaucrats like himself to address the causes and effects of warming globally.
The punt back to lawmakers is likely to frustrate House Democrats who are trying to hold the administration's feet to the fire on climate change, since they know that any significant climate-related legislation to emerge from their chamber is likely to be rejected by either the president or the GOP-controlled Senate. At the same time, Democrats have only passed a single climate bill — one keeping the United States in the Paris climate accord — since taking the the majority. ADVERTISING
The exchange came when Democrats on the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Interior Department's budget pressed the Trump Cabinet official about why his department isn't doing more to assess and mitigate the effects of warming temperatures, acidifying oceans and other effects of climate change over the vast lands and waters stewarded by the Interior Department.
“Isn’t this really your job?” asked Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine).
Bernhardt pushed back against the assertion, arguing he has no legal obligation to act in response to climate change. "My perspective on this is probably a little different than yours," he said.
He noted that of more than 600 instances in the law mandating the interior secretary to take some action, none tell him that he "shall," as is the legal parlance, manage federal lands to stop global warming.
"There's no 'shalls,' " Bernhardt said. "You guys come up with the 'shalls.' "
Pingee responded by asking Bernhardt to identify any legal barriers to acting on climate change. "If there’s something legally stopping you, then we’re Congress,” she said. "We make the laws."
It is a lawyerly defense Bernhardt has turned to before, including in an interview last year with The Washington Post. Yet law or no law, climate change remains a threat to the land the Interior Department is tasked with overseeing.
In the national park system alone, warming temperatures threaten to undermine the very nature of many popular tourist spots, such as by melting the glaciers of Montana's Glacier National Park and imperilling the iconic Joshua trees of California's Joshua Tree National Park.
And the department holds considerable sway of the United States' overall contributions to climate change. A U.S. Geological Survey study published last year found that a quarter of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions came from the extracting and burning of fossil fuels from federal lands.
Yet in the more than two years Donald Trump has been president, the Interior Department has sought to undo much of the previous administration's efforts to slow the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere undergirding that change.
Its action include rolling back rules designed to reduce the release of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, from oil and natural gas wells and lifting a moratorium on new coal leasing on public lands.
During the hearing, Bernhardt said his department does not plan on easing up on oil and gas drilling on public lands when asked by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the subcommittee’s chairwoman, if a recent United Nations report on the possible extinction of up to 1 million species worldwide gives him pause.
"Are we going to stop oil and gas development because of this report? The answer to that is no," he said, again noting it is up to Congress to decide what the government does or does not allow on federal lands.
But when it came to the issue of drilling for oil and gas off the coasts of states outside the Gulf of Mexico, Bernhardt suggested he would give deference to local leaders.
"I’m not aware of a single lease that was ever developed over the opposition of a state,” he said.
The department has put on pause plans to expand offshore drilling across the U.S. continental shelf after a recent federal court ruled against the Trump administration's effort to lift a current drilling ban in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. That decision came amid stiff opposition to offshore drilling from both Democratic and Republican politicians along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2019/05/08/the-energy-202-interior-secretary-blames-congress-for-lack-of-action-on-climate-change/5cd1f58ca7a0a46cfe152c79/?utm_term=.9aa1402af6b1
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States Resist EPA Move on Spending for Air Pollution Monitoring (1)
May 8, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Sayid
States are pushing back against EPA attempts to wean them off of no-strings attached grants to monitor fine airborne particle pollution, according to two national nonprofits representing state and local air quality agencies.
The Environmental Protection Agency for the second year running has asked state environmental agencies to start matching 40 cents for every federal dollar they receive for the monitoring. The request was tucked away in the EPA’s draft air and radiation program guidance for the upcoming fiscal year, just as it was a year ago.
State air quality officials from Alabama to Arizona, and New York to Nevada, have so far responded with a resounding “no.” Their funds are tied up in other critical air quality programs, and they don’t have additional money lying around to meet the air quality monitoring requirement that EPA imposed on them in 2000, they said in interviews and comments on the draft EPA guidance.
The EPA’s request is in line with the Trump administration’s push to get states to take on more responsibility for environmental protection, rather than leaning on the federal government.
“We are in the process of changing our relationship with the states, acknowledging that they are taking on the vast majority of the responsibility associated with environmental protection,” Henry Darwin, EPA acting deputy administrator, said at a National Environmental Justice Advisory Council meeting May 1.
In its program guidance, the EPA noted that the monitoring network program has reached a level of “maturity” where states can start picking up some of the funding responsibility, a theme the agency has continued to stress.
“EPA and states haven’t done such a good job of acknowledging maturity and changing that relationship,” Darwin said.
Different Sections, Different Funding
The EPA has historically provided funding for state fine particle pollution monitoring under Section 103 of the Clean Air Act. States have used grants under this section to conduct and promote research into the health effects of air pollution, and controlling air pollution.
“The EPA’s proposal to move the funding authority for this type of monitoring to Section 105 would require air agencies to match the funds, which would have a direct impact on agency budgets,” the nonprofit Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies, or AAPCA, told Bloomberg Environment. The association represents 40 state and local air agencies including Texas, Wyoming, Alabama, Arizona, and North Carolina.
The proposed transition could hurt the budgets of some air agencies because Clean Air Act Section 105 requires air agencies to match federal funds, whereas Section 103 does not, the association wrote in a May 3 letter to the EPA.
“If we have to match, which we don’t want to, that money would come from asbestos regulations or some other smaller point source pollution program,” Ron Gore, head of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s air quality division, said in an interview.
Gore said Alabama received about $400,000 for monitoring. Similarly, Nate Olson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said the state receives $492,000 per year from the EPA air quality monitoring grant.
If EPA is successful in requesting the match, these two states would have to spend up to an additional $200,000 each for monitoring, they said.
The EPA said it recognizes the lack of federal resources to fully support state air program needs. The agency said it is prepared to work with states to tailor expectations and and resource allocations to meet local conditions.
Asking States to Do More
State air agencies are equally concerned that the EPA is asking them to contribute more while seeking to reduce its own share, according to Miles Keogh, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, a much larger nonprofit group than AAPCA that represents state air agencies. Like AAPCA, the group urged the agency to abandon its quest, according to written comments on the draft EPA guidance.
For instance, the EPA in its fiscal year 2020 budget request is asking Congress for $153 million to fund programs under sections 103 and 105, which provides money for programs to control and prevent air pollution as well as implementation of federal air quality standards. Last year, Congress appropriated about $228 million for both programs.
This tactic is nothing new for Republican-led administrations, one state official said.
“The EPA under George W. Bush made a similar request, which Congress ignored, while there were no such requests made under the Obama administration,” Keogh said.
The EPA said it would follow congressional direction when a fiscal year 2020 spending bill is signed into law.
Alabama regulator Gore doesn’t believe this is a difference in philosophies.
“It’s a money issue. It’s about who pays,” he said.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/states-resist-epa-move-on-spending-for-air-pollution-monitoring
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LCV Unveils New Effort to Raise Climate in Democratic Primary
May 8, 2019 | Politico Pro
By Anthony Adragna
The League of Conservation Voters today said it would spend $2 million toward raising the profile of climate change during the 2020 Democratic primary and would push candidates for ambitious action plans that could be implemented immediately upon taking office.
The campaign, known as Change the Climate 2020, will feature volunteers in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina who will interact with candidates and their staffs. LCV says staff have recruited more than 700 to date.
"Voters in the early primary and caucus states have unique access to presidential candidates and a responsibility to find out where they stand on the issues we care about — for me that is the climate crisis,” said Garrett Walker, one of those New Hampshire volunteers, in a statement.
The effort will also track candidate policy positions and conduct regular polling of Democratic primary voters.
LCV's campaign follows calls for a climate-focused debate from several presidential candidates including Jay Inslee, Bernie Sanders and Julián Castro.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2019/05/lcv-unveils-new-effort-to-raise-climate-in-democratic-primary-3214770
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Researchers Develop Plastic That They Are Calling the 'Holy Grail' of Recycling
May 8, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Morgan Gstalter
Department of Energy’s scientists announced this week that they have designed a plastic that can be recycled over and over again.
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory wrote in Nature Chemistry that they had designed new plastic, called polydiketoenamine or PDK, that could be disassembled down to the molecular level and reassembled into different shapes, textures or colors multiple times.
Modern-day plastics are reinforced with chemicals to make them more resilient and often end up making the material more difficult to fully recycle.
“Light yet sturdy, plastic is great – until you no longer need it. Because plastics contain various additives, like dyes, fillers, or flame retardants, very few plastics can be recycled without loss in performance or aesthetics,” the lab said in a statement.
Even the most recyclable plastic is only being recycled at a rate of 20 percent to 30 percent, while the rest ends up in incinerators or landfills, researchers said.
Plastic that can be broken down gets mixed in with other plastics with different textures and compositions, described as a “hodgepodge of chopped-up plastics,” making it hard to predict which properties will be inherited.
This unknown has prevented what many consider to be the “Holy Grail of recycling,” the researchers said in the statement.
Brett Helms, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry who helped lead the research, said PDK-based plastics will help prevent items like phone cases and watch bands from ending up in landfills or the oceans.
“We’re interested in the chemistry that redirects plastic lifecycles from linear to circular,” said Helms. “We see an opportunity to make a difference for where there are no recycling options."
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/442683-scientists-say-theyve-invented-recyclable-plastic
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