Preview Newsletter
AM ACC Clips Report - May 13, 2019
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Hearing on PFAS Legislation
May 15, 2019 | Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change
Location: 2322 Rayburn/ 10:30 AM -
Hearing on Water Pollution from Oil and Gas Development
May 16, 2019 | Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
Location: 1324 Longworth / 10:00 AM -
Markup of Funding Legislation
May 15, 2019 | House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies
Location: 2362-B Rayburn/ 12:00 PM -
Hearing on Impacts of State-Owned Enterprises on Public Transit and Freight Rail
May 16, 2019 | Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Location: 2167 Rayburn/ 10:00 AM -
Hearing on Economic and Health Issues Surrounding Climate Change
May 15, 2019 | House Ways and Means Committee
Location: 1100 Longworth / 10:00 AM -
(ACC Mentioned) China Trade War Risks Thousands of Chemical Industry Jobs, Billions of Dollars
May 10, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Marissa Luck
The Gulf Coast petrochemical industry has already been bruised by trade tensions with China. Now those economic wounds could worsen as trade tensions flared Friday, putting thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars in capital investments at risk if all-out trade war erupts. -
(ACC Mentioned) UN Members Choke Waste Exports Despite U.S. Opposition
May 11, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Bryce Baschuk
More than 180 governments agreed May 10 to strengthen global regulations on the trade of plastic waste. -
(ACC Mentioned) UN Adopts Global Treaty Limiting Plastic Waste Trade
May 10, 2019 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken
Hoping to slow plastic pollution in the environment, members at a high-level United Nations meeting May 10 decided to include plastic waste in a treaty governing trade in hazardous waste. -
(ACC Mentioned) Plastic Waste Producers Must Get Consent Before Exporting Toxic Waste to Global South
May 13, 2019 | CIWM Journal Online
By Misbah
On 10 May in Geneva, Switzerland – 187 countries took a major step forward in curbing the plastic waste crisis by adding plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another. -
(ACC Mentioned) Shipping Plastic Waste to Poor Countries Just Got Harder
May 13, 2019 | National Geographic
By Laura Parker
It just got more difficult for rich countries to ship their plastic waste to poor countries. On May 10, more than 180 nations agreed in Geneva to add mixed plastic scrap to the Basel Convention, the treaty that controls the international movement of hazardous waste. -
Strength in Numbers: Why Forming a TSCA Consortium Is Important
May 10, 2019 | The National Law Review
By Lynn L. Bergeson
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on March 20, 2019, a list of 20 chemicals that EPA has suggested as candidates for high priority designation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as reported in our March 22, 2019, memorandum "EPA Releases List of 40 Chemicals Undergoing Prioritization for Risk Evaluation." -
EPA Issues Notice to Manufacturers and Processors on the TSCA Inactive Inventory
May 10, 2019 | The National Law Review
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Margaret R. Graham
On May 9, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would soon be making available a signed action signed on May 6, 2019, that identifies chemical substances for inactive designation according to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory Notification (Active-Inactive) Requirements rule. -
Washington Attorney General Compels Amazon to Remove Toxic School Supplies – More Action Needed
May 10, 2019 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Laurie Valeriano and Mike Schade
Yesterday, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Amazon announced an important enforcement action that will keep brain-damaging lead and cancer-causing cadmium out of the hands and mouths of children. -
Energy and Commerce to Take up PFAS Legislation
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Courtney Columbus
A House Energy and Commerce panel will take up legislation this week to address industrial chemicals that have contaminated water. -
House, Senate Lawmakers Introduce Flurry of PFAS Bills
May 10, 2019 | Inside EPA
Bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that attempts to mandate toxic release reporting and federal facility cleanups of the chemicals and bar incineration of PFAS waste, coming just days before a key House panel is scheduled to hold a legislative hearing on the class of toxic, non-stick chemicals. -
3M, DuPont Refuse to Pay for New Jersey Chemical Cleanup
May 10, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sylvia Carignan
Chemours Co., 3M Co. and DuPont are taking a stand against what one company called an “unprecedented” New Jersey order, saying they won’t pay for a statewide investigation of fluorinated chemical contamination. -
(ACC Mentioned) Companies Asked to Come Clean on Climate Lobbying
May 13, 2019 | Financial Times
By Jennifer Thompson
As the blades of a wind turbine turn gently against the clouds, the words “The greatest push for renewable energy the world has ever seen” appear on the screen. -
Offshore Industry: 'We Really Need to Be Serious' on Climate
May 13, 2019 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump
The offshore oil and gas industry called last week for prioritizing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while reiterating its view that fossil fuels remain vital to the world's energy mix, even as renewables grow. -
5 Questions About the Interior-EPA, Energy-Water Bills
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By George Cahlink
Proposals to reorder the Trump administration's energy and environmental priorities will come this week as the House unveils its fiscal 2020 spending bills for EPA and the Energy and Interior departments. -
Committee to Review Industry's Water Impacts
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Ariel Wittenberg
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will review the water pollution impacts of oil and gas development Thursday. -
Entrepreneurs Are Thriving Along the West Texas “Death Highway”
May 13, 2019 | Quartz
By John Detrixhe
There’s so much money gushing out of West Texas these days that even a deadly highway doesn’t keep people away. The fracking boom is shredding a key stretch of asphalt that runs from Pecos—site of the world’s first rodeo—through a former ghost town and into New Mexico. -
ExxonMobil's $2B Baytown Expansion Will Include Specialty Plastics
May 13, 2019 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
ExxonMobil Corp. has approved a $2 billion expansion project in Baytown, Texas, that will include major capacity expansions for elastomers and specialty olefins. -
Trade War Cuts U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas Exports to China
May 10, 2019 | Reuters
By Scott DiSavino
No liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels that left the United States in March and April have gone to China, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data shows, as the trade war between the two nations escalates. -
Tanker Collision Spills Massive Amounts of Deadly, Flammable Liquid in Houston's Galveston Bay
May 10, 2019 | Newsweek
By Scott McDonald
A tanker moving outbound through the Houston Shipping Channel collided with two barges Friday afternoon, spilling an enormous amount of a refined product into Galveston Bay and transmitting a strong gaseous odor that has permeated inland. -
North Dakota to Sue Washington State over Oil Train Standard
May 10, 2019 | AP
By Blake Nicholson
North Dakota is preparing to sue Washington state over a new Washington law requiring oil shipped by rail through that state to have more of its volatile gases removed, which supporters say would reduce the risk of explosive and potentially deadly derailments. -
Oil-Train Routes Are Narrowed to Alternatives in Utah, Moffat
May 11, 2019 | The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
By Dennis Webb
A Moffat County route is still in the running for a proposed railroad that would provide an outlet for oil produced in the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah, but isn't the preferred alternative of the group pushing the project. -
As Big Data Transforms Freight Transportation, Where Does Government Fit In?
May 10, 2019 | Freight Waves
By Joanna Marsh
Creating regulatory flexibility and providing a framework for the freight transportation industry to cope with massive logistics datasets are ways that federal and state legislators can enable innovation, according to panelists speaking on government’s role in promoting technological advances in transportation. -
(ACC Mentioned) Con: Bottled Water Bans Would Not Be Effective and Would Be Overturned Long-Term
May 12, 2019 | Victoria Advocate
By Kali Venable
Water bottles are a quick and healthy option for people on the go, not to mention critical for people in disaster situations and in communities like Placedo, where some residents used bottled water for everything from drinking to cooking after illegal levels of arsenic were found in the water flowing from their faucets. -
Ocasio-Cortez Calls Biden's Reported 'Middle Ground' Climate Policy a 'Dealbreaker'
May 10, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By John Bowden
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday criticized a "middle ground" climate plan reportedly in the works from former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign, calling it a "dealbreaker" for the party's progressives. -
Climate Change Takes Center Stage for Schumer
May 13, 2019 | Politico Pro
By Anthony Adragna
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is vowing to keep a sharp focus on climate change, pressing what he views as one of the Democrats’ best advantages over Republicans in the 2020 election. -
House Spending Bill Resurrecting Climate Fund Clears First Step
May 10, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
A fiscal year 2020 spending bill that would end a restriction against U.S. funding of overseas climate change efforts won approval May 10 by a House Appropriations spending panel. -
Ways and Means Forges Ahead After Curbelo Kerfuffle
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk
Climate change will get its first breath of life in years this week in the House Ways and Means Committee — a panel that could be pivotal for major climate legislation. -
UARG Announces Plans To Dissolve Amid Ongoing House Investigation
May 10, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
The Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), the power sector organization that often challenges EPA air rules, is dissolving after 40 more than years -- even as House Democrats are pledging to continue their investigation into the group over its ties to EPA air chief Bill Wehrum.
Congressional Hearings
Industry and Association News
TSCA News
Chemical Management News
Energy News
Chemical Security News
Transportation and Infrastructure News
Environment News
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May 15, 2019 | Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change
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Hearing on Water Pollution from Oil and Gas Development
May 16, 2019 | Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
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May 15, 2019 | House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies
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Hearing on Impacts of State-Owned Enterprises on Public Transit and Freight Rail
May 16, 2019 | Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
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Hearing on Economic and Health Issues Surrounding Climate Change
May 15, 2019 | House Ways and Means Committee
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(ACC Mentioned) China Trade War Risks Thousands of Chemical Industry Jobs, Billions of Dollars
May 10, 2019 | Houston Chronicle
By Marissa Luck
The Gulf Coast petrochemical industry has already been bruised by trade tensions with China. Now those economic wounds could worsen as trade tensions flared Friday, putting thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars in capital investments at risk if all-out trade war erupts.
For the past decade oil and chemical companies have poured billions into building up petrochemical plants on the Gulf Coast to capitalize on the region's cheap supplies of natural gas and access to international markets through the Houston Ship Channel – but many of those huge investment decisions were made on the premise that Chinese demand for chemicals would swell.
On Friday the U.S. hiked tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and China promised it would retaliate. Now petrochemical companies suddenly face the possibility that the Chinese demand they thought they could count on could evaporate and they lose millions as pricing for their products deteriorates.
Already American chemical companies have watched their margins fall as the trade war scrambled trade flows, depressed pricing across the global chemical market and threatened to undermine the return on investment for $204 billion worth of new chemical manufacturing plants, including $140 billion worth of projects on the Gulf Coast.
At least one major Houston chemical company saw profits plunge in the first quarter partly because of the trade war and falling chemical prices. Another Houston oil company saw its chemical margins fall as it were forced to send products to less advantageous markets outside of China. And others wondered if they would have to delay investment decisions on massive petrochemical projects in U.S. if the trade war dragged on much longer.
And this could be just the beginning. Analysts say that Gulf Coast chemical companies haven't seen the full impact of the trade war yet because much of the new export-oriented petrochemical plants are only just now being built or in the planning stages. But an all-out trade war could depress chemical prices and dampen demand globally, spurring ripple effects that could hit Gulf Coast petrochemical companies even if they can avert Chinese tariffs by selling into other regions.
" When the tariffs rates hit you're going to start seeing more companies make different decisions, whether they're public with it or not .... some of the investments might get stalled, the hiring might slow or might not happen at all. There could be job loss depending on the situation," said Ed Brzytwa director of international trade at American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical companies. "A 25 percent tariff rate is serious business."
Chinese retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports could put 55,000 chemical sector jobs and $18 billion in domestic at risk if the two sides can't reach a resolution, according to the American Chemistry Council.
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/China-trade-war-risks-thousands-of-chemical-13835691.php
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(ACC Mentioned) UN Members Choke Waste Exports Despite U.S. Opposition
May 11, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Bryce Baschuk
More than 180 governments agreed May 10 to strengthen global regulations on the trade of plastic waste.
Starting in 2020, governments that export plastics that are mixed or contaminated must obtain prior informed consent from importing countries before they can ship their non-recycled waste abroad.
Parties to the Basel Convention—which defines limits on the cross-border movement of hazardous waste and its disposal—agreed to amend the global treaty to include plastic waste “in a legally-binding framework that will make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated,” according to a UN press release following the decision.
The announcement came at the conclusion of a two-week chemicals conference in Geneva.
“Today’s decision provides more power to smaller countries to say no to non-recyclable plastic waste,” said IPEN science and technical adviser Joe DiGangi in an interview with Bloomberg Environment. “It is a huge mess that needs to be addressed. A lot of this stuff is not properly sorted before it is exported.”
IPEN, also known as the International POPs Elimination Network, is an environmental advocacy group that addresses persistent organic pollutants. POPs are a group of chemicals that includes polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides.
U.S.-China FightThe move comes a year after China banned imports of most plastic waste due to the Chinese government’s concerns about environmental contamination.
China is the world’s largest importer of recycled goods and imported $2.3 billion worth of paper and plastics from the U.S. in 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
It’s noteworthy that the Trump administration and the U.S. plastics industry opposed the move, as did Argentina and Brazil.
“While this week’s amendments to the Basel Convention are intended reduce exports of mixed waste to less developed economies, this is a complex area that deserves more nuanced consideration than it has received to date,” a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council told Bloomberg Environment. “Emerging trends and technologies will continue to change the nature of traded materials, and decisions this week may unintentionally make it more difficult for developing countries to properly manage their plastic waste.”
Although the U.S. isn’t a party to the Basel Convention, the May 10 decision prohibits non-parties to the Basel Convention from exporting plastics waste to members of the treaty.
“This will effectively force the U.S. to deal with its own waste problems,” DiGangi told Bloomberg Environment.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/un-members-choke-plastic-waste-exports-despite-u-s-opposition
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(ACC Mentioned) UN Adopts Global Treaty Limiting Plastic Waste Trade
May 10, 2019 | Plastics News
By Steve Toloken
Hoping to slow plastic pollution in the environment, members at a high-level United Nations meeting May 10 decided to include plastic waste in a treaty governing trade in hazardous waste.
The changes in the Basel Convention, which were pushed by Norway and adopted by the 187-nation body, create a legally-binding and potentially far-reaching framework that will put tighter controls on buying and selling of plastic scrap and waste.
At a news conference at the close of the meeting in Geneva, U.N. officials also made note of huge petition drives on social media urging the Basel negotiators to act on plastics waste.
"Plastic waste is acknowledged as one of the world's most pressing environmental issues, and the fact that this week close to 1 million people around the world signed a petition urging Basel Convention Parties to take action here in Geneva ... is a sign that public awareness and desire for action is high," said Rolph Payet, executive secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, a U.N. agency.
The decision means that exporters of plastic waste will be required to get permission from the country receiving contaminated, mixed or unrecyclable plastics, a process known as prior informed consent, according to a statement from a group of environmental non-governmental organizations attending the meeting. They say the decision will give developing countries a better tool to control plastic environmental problems.
The decision follows individual country restrictions, such as China's ban on many kinds of plastic scrap imports in 2018.
"Today's decision demonstrates that countries are finally catching up with the urgency and magnitude of the plastic pollution issue and shows what ambitious international leadership looks like," said David Azoulay, environmental health director for the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law.
"Plastic pollution in general and plastic waste in particular remain a major threat to people and the planet, but we are encouraged by the decision of the Basel Convention as we look to the future bold decisions that will be needed to tackle plastic pollution at its roots, starting with reducing production," Azoulay said.
But the plastics industry had argued that, while well-intended, some of the Basel amendments being considered during the long meetings, which began April 29 and ended May 10, would have "significant unintended consequences."
The World Plastics Council warned in a May 6 statement that overly tight rules could inhibit trade in high-value recycled plastic like PET bottles or slow down development of new technologies like chemical recycling.
"Because in practice many countries will have insufficient time to increase their domestic recycling infrastructure, or improve their capacity to manage new and potentially diverse plastic waste streams under the Convention's prior notice and consent requirements, the proposal in its current form could hinder efforts to address the plastic waste challenge," WPC said.
"So in effect the amendment may exacerbate the many problems arising from inadequate municipal waste management infrastructure, and potentially result in an increase in plastic leakage to the environment," it said.
Environmental groups criticized what they said was resistance to including plastic waste in the Basel treaty, coming from the United States government and U.S. business groups like the American Chemistry Council.
But WPC, which includes ACC, said it recognized the challenges facing some countries with plastic waste and said the Basel discussions could lead to positives actions, like more investment.
WPC said the plastics industry was working on solutions, such as the industry's $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste.
"The WPC acknowledges and agrees that some countries lack infrastructure to properly manage used plastic, which could lead to environmental and health impacts," it said. "We also agree that an update of the waste listings for plastics under the Basel Convention could encourage investments in recycling to enable a more local circular economy."
WPC is composed of CEOs of more than 20 of the world's largest plastic resin makers, along with national and regional trade associations, including ACC and PlasticsEurope.
A Basel statement said the goal of the new rules is to make trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated and ensure that management of plastic waste is safer for human health and the environment.
The environmental groups said that because the United States is not a signer of the Basel Convention, it will be prohibited from trading plastic waste with developing countries that are Basel parties but not part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20190510/NEWS/190519991/un-adopts-global-treaty-limiting-plastic-waste-trade
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May 13, 2019 | CIWM Journal Online
By Misbah
On 10 May in Geneva, Switzerland – 187 countries took a major step forward in curbing the plastic waste crisis by adding plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another. The amendments require exporters to obtain the consent of receiving countries before shipping most contaminated, mixed, or unrecyclable plastic waste, providing an important tool for countries in the Global South to stop the dumping of unwanted plastic waste into their country.
After China banned imports of most plastic waste in 2018, developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have received a huge influx of contaminated and mixed plastic wastes that are difficult or even impossible to recycle. Norway’s proposed amendments to the Basel Convention provides countries the right to refuse unwanted or unmanageable plastic waste.
The decision reflects a growing recognition around the world of the toxic impacts of plastic and the plastic waste trade. The majority of countries expressed their support for the proposal and over one million people globally signed two public petitions from Avaaz and SumOfUs. Yet even amidst this overwhelming support, there were a few vocal outliers who opposed listing plastic under Annex II of the Basel Convention. These included the United States, the largest exporter of plastic waste in the world; the American Chemistry Council, a prominent petrochemical industry lobbying group; and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a business association largely comprised of waste brokers. As the United States is not a party to the Basel Convention, it will be banned from trading plastic waste with developing countries that are Basel Parties but not part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
David Azoulay, Environmental Health Director, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL): “Today’s decision demonstrates that countries are finally catching up with the urgency and magnitude of the plastic pollution issue and shows what ambitious international leadership looks like. Plastic pollution in general and plastic waste in particular remain a major threat to people and the planet, but we are encouraged by the decision of the Basel Convention as we look to the future bold decisions that will be needed to tackle plastic pollution at its roots, starting with reducing production.”
Martin Bourque, Executive Director, Ecology Center: “Recycling is supposed to be part of the solution, this legislation will help prevent it from being a source of pollution. False claims by the plastic industry about plastic recycling resulted in a complete disaster for communities and ecosystems around the globe. This legislation raises the bar for plastic recycling which is good for people and the planet, and will help restore consumer confidence that recycling is still the right thing to do.”
Mageswari Sangaralingam, Research Officer, Friends of the Earth Malaysia: “Controls on the plastic waste trade are much needed now to curb dumping of waste in the Global South. The inclusion of prior informed consent is a step towards addressing the issues of the plastic waste trade and pollution crisis. Recycling is not enough, we need to break free from plastic.”
Sirine Rached, Global Policy Advocate, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA): “It’s only fair that countries should have the right to refuse plastic pollution shipped to their borders. China had raised the ambition, arguing for countries to have the right to refuse virtually all plastic waste imports, but the final result was a compromise. Since the onslaught of plastic dumping will continue for a year until the measures come into effect, GAIA calls on countries to protect themselves from global plastic waste dumping by banning dirty plastic imports in national law. Countries can tackle the plastic pollution problem while protecting the climate, by focusing on reducing plastics and shifting to Zero Waste systems free from dirty technologies like incineration or plastic-to-fuel.”
Jim Puckett, Executive Director, Basel Action Network (BAN): “We have taken a major first step to stem the tide of plastic waste now flowing from the rich developed countries to developing countries in Africa and Asia, all in the name of “recycling,” but causing massive and harmful pollution, both on land and in the sea. A true circular economy was never meant to circulate pollution around the globe. It can only be achieved by eliminating negative externalities and not just pushing them off to developing countries.” Tim Grabiel, Senior Lawyer, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA): “The Basel amendments are a critical pillar of an emerging global architecture to address plastic pollution. Other international bodies must now do their part, including ambitious measures under the IMO and ultimately a new legally binding UN treaty. The EU was a vocal and active supporter of the Basel amendments, proposing to increase ambition so that only the cleanest of clean plastic waste would not be subject to notification. The EU is not only leading by example but taking its Plastics Strategy to the international level.”
https://ciwm-journal.co.uk/plastic-waste-producers-must-get-consent-before-exporting-toxic-waste-to-global-south/
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(ACC Mentioned) Shipping Plastic Waste to Poor Countries Just Got Harder
May 13, 2019 | National Geographic
By Laura Parker
It just got more difficult for rich countries to ship their plastic waste to poor countries. On May 10, more than 180 nations agreed in Geneva to add mixed plastic scrap to the Basel Convention, the treaty that controls the international movement of hazardous waste.
Under the amended treaty, exporters must first obtain consent from the governments of receiving nations before shipping the most contaminated, mixed, or unrecyclable plastic waste. Requiring that kind of special attention is regarded as a crucial step in helping the world gain control of a plastic pollution crisis that has already seen 100 million tons of plastic waste leak into the world’s oceans, according to United Nations figures.
David Azoulay of the Center for International Environmental Law, a research and advocacy group, said in an interview that the action “shows what ambitious international leadership looks like.”
Plastic waste shipments became an issue last year after China, the world’s biggest importer of plastic scrap, stopped buying non-industrial plastic scrap, upending a $200 billion global recycling industry. By 2030 China’s new policy will have displaced more than 120 million tons of mixed or contaminated plastic, according to a study published last year.
As a result of that change, other Southeast Asian nations, including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, were quickly overwhelmed with shipments of waste that they did not have the capacity to handle. Several countries took action to stop shipments at their ports. In the West, plastic trash piled up on the docks in San Francisco and in the U.K. and other European nations, as trash exporters searched for new buyers.
Although the European Union is the world’s largest exporter of plastic waste, U.S. exports are the largest for a single country. But because the U.S. is not a party to the Basel Convention, the new regulations could effectively prevent it from selling contaminated or mixed plastic waste to developing nations, according to Azoulay and another observer who attended the negotiations.TODAY’SPOPULAR STORIES
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A spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council said the U.S. potentially could negotiate separate agreements with other countries that would allow trade of contaminated plastic. But, she added, the amendment to the Convention creates “new regulatory hurdles.”
The new regulations were proposed as an amendment to the Convention by Norway, which, among other nations, unsuccessfully pushed for a broader global agreement on plastic waste at the United National Environmental Program meeting in Nairobi in March.
In Geneva, U.S. observers argued against amending the Convention, and suggested voluntary measures to contain plastics pollution would be more effective than binding measures, according to an observer of the discussion in Geneva.The U.S. also suggested that better infrastructure in developing nations would be a more effective solution. Its suggestions carried little weight in the negotiations because the the U.S. has signed but not ratified the treaty.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a recycling trade group, said in a statement that the amendments to the Convention “will hamper the world’s ability to recycle plastic material.…” Requiring prior informed consent from importing countries, the group argued, will create “an administrative burden that will make it harder for countries without recycling capacity to export collected plastics to countries with infrastructure in place.”
The Basel Convention was negotiated by the United Nations Environmental Program and is considered the most comprehensive international environmental agreement on hazardous waste. As of last year, 186 nations and the European Union are parties to the convention. Aside from the United States, a handful of smaller nations have not signed or ratified the Convention. The treaty’s full name is the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/05/shipping-plastic-waste-to-poor-countires-just-got-harder/
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Strength in Numbers: Why Forming a TSCA Consortium Is Important
May 10, 2019 | The National Law Review
By Lynn L. Bergeson
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on March 20, 2019, a list of 20 chemicals that EPA has suggested as candidates for high priority designation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as reported in our March 22, 2019, memorandum "EPA Releases List of 40 Chemicals Undergoing Prioritization for Risk Evaluation." Should those chemicals go forward as high priority, they will be subject to risk evaluation under TSCA Section 6. Industry stakeholder responses to this candidate list proposal and follow up actions with EPA related to risk evaluation work optimally will be conducted under existing or potentially newly formed chemical consortia.
But what if your chemical is not on the list of 20? If you want to protect or even increase your business market advantage, consider inviting your commercial rivals to join an industry advocacy group anyway. This is particularly important if you have a chemical of commercial interest on the TSCA Work Plan Chemicals list.
In today’s regulatory environment, engaging in advocacy opportunities with your company’s competitors makes sense. Consolidating experience, knowledge, and finances allows a company to achieve far more and faster than it could individually. Given that amended TSCA requires EPA to look to the TSCA Work Plan Chemicals to identify chemicals for future prioritization consideration, we know those chemicals will be subject to regulatory scrutiny eventually. So setting up and working under a consortium umbrella now makes sense. Even if your chemical is not yet on the proverbial radar screen, there is benefit of organizing with others early. Groups that wait to organize will deplete valuable limited time to form, leaving less time to engage effectively and comprehensively on EPA’s proposed actions. Organizing industry groups now means reduced cost, greater flexibility, increased time for strategic planning, and less aggravation in the long run.
Beyond prioritization and risk evaluation under Section 6, we also know that EPA anticipates industry group engagement for testing under TSCA Section 4. Within the risk framework rulemakings, EPA expressed repeatedly and clearly that it anticipates TSCA obligations will be shared collaboratively and addressed by consortia groups. Even within a general regulatory advocacy context, in many respects, EPA appropriately prefers working with industry coalitions to save time, obtain greater use and exposure information, and leverage more efficiently its own resources.
Congress explicitly included the concepts of industry consortia as part of amended TSCA legislation under Section 4, as it relates to efforts to reduce animal testing, and Section 26, in anticipation of increased Agency fee payments.
So working under a consortium umbrella makes sense. But before proceeding with group formation, there are some important factors to consider:
Antitrust Protection: Members of an industry group must consider the need to protect against antitrust concerns. It is reasonable to anticipate that outsiders may be concerned with key competitors working together. It could be perceived as opportunities for dishonest companies to pursue unfair market activities, such as price fixing or monopolization efforts. To address such concerns, industry consortia must be managed in a way that ensures federal antitrust laws are followed. This can be achieved through a third-party management service, which provides administrative structure to the group, including specific meeting agendas and minutes, and competent antitrust counsel at meetings to ensure discussions or exchanges of prohibited information do not occur.
Regulatory Experience: Today’s regulations are complex. It is nearly impossible for today’s company representatives to have in-depth knowledge of the myriad of regulatory statutes impacting their commercial chemical products. Having easy access to experts to assist the consortium in understanding the regulatory pressures for a specific chemical, as well as insight on strategic approaches, is invaluable.
Financial Experience: As organizations consider management service providers, they should appreciate that for many regulatory programs, the amount of money to collect and disburse is not insignificant. Under TSCA Section 6, industry consortia will need to collect over $1,000,000 to cover anticipated EPA fees. TSCA Section 4 requires fee payments of about $10,000 to $30,000 -- PLUS costs associated with the specific testing required. Costs under the EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, while still in hibernation but potentially could progress soon, could be over $1,000,000. A consortium should consider whether its management service provider has the ability to collect and disburse funds needed to cover required industry fees, contract testing, administrative management, and other costs associated with consortium work. In some cases, there may be federal tax implications. As such, it is recommended that consortium financial management be conducted under the auspices of a certified public accountant.
Sunset Provisions: While details on the why, when, and how of setting up a new industry group is important, companies should also think about the parameters for shutting down the group when its work is completed. A consortium should be maintained only if additional work is needed. Otherwise, there should be an easy option for members to disband when the work is done.
As mentioned, companies should be thinking ahead if chemical products important to them were not on the March 20 list. The new normal is not what you think and going it alone is not smart. The time to prepare for the future of your company’s products is now, and to do that, you will need to coordinate with others in your commercial space.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/strength-numbers-why-forming-tsca-consortium-important-0
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EPA Issues Notice to Manufacturers and Processors on the TSCA Inactive Inventory
May 10, 2019 | The National Law Review
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Margaret R. Graham
On May 9, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would soon be making available a signed action signed on May 6, 2019, that identifies chemical substances for inactive designation according to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory Notification (Active-Inactive) Requirements rule. The pre-publication version of the notice is available here. Specifically, EPA states that the signed action is a companion to the first version of the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory with all listings designated as active or identified as inactive, which was posted on the EPA TSCA Inventory web page on February 19, 2019, and it will initiate a 90-day period after which substances identified as inactive will be designated as inactive. Because the action was signed on May 6, 2019, inactive designations will become effective on Monday, August 5, 2019.
Starting on August 5, 2019, manufacturers and processors are required to notify EPA before reintroducing into commerce a substance designated as inactive on the TSCA Inventory. Manufacturers and processors can notify EPA via a Notice of Activity Form B, found in EPA's Central Data Exchange (CDX). Upon receiving such notification, EPA will change the designation of substances from inactive to active.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/epa-issues-notice-to-manufacturers-and-processors-tsca-inactive-inventory
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Washington Attorney General Compels Amazon to Remove Toxic School Supplies – More Action Needed
May 10, 2019 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Laurie Valeriano and Mike Schade
Yesterday, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Amazon announced an important enforcement action that will keep brain-damaging lead and cancer-causing cadmium out of the hands and mouths of children. This follows an investigation that revealed consumers in Washington and across the country made at least 15,188 purchases of products with illegal levels of lead and cadmium from amazon.com.
The new settlement is excellent news for kids not just in Washington state but nationwide! It should also be a welcome relief for parents who have enough to worry about—they shouldn’t have to worry whether the lunch box or costume jewelry they buy for their children contains chemicals that can impact their ability to learn or cause cancer.
More broadly, this demonstrates the importance and impact that states can have in making our homes and kids safer from harmful chemicals in products. Before Washington state adopted stringent lead and cadmium levels for kids’ toys and jewelry under the 2008 Children’s Safe Products Act, there were weak federal standards for lead in toys. Back then, the state law spurred federal action, and now the enforcement of both the state and federal laws by the Washington state Attorney General will result in a national change from one of the world’s largest online retailers.
“As a parent, when I buy products for my kids, I expect them to be safe. All retailers must ensure that their products do not pose a threat to Washington children. If they don’t, they will hear from my office.” – Washington Attorney General Bob FergusonAmazon’s chemicals policy
Toxic-Free Future, the Mind the Store campaign, NRDC, and other coalition partners have been urging Amazon for years to adopt a comprehensive chemicals policy and last year Amazon took the first step. This was welcome news! Since then, the company has expanded it to also ban the sale of toxic paint strippers.
But this new enforcement action clearly demonstrates the urgency for expansion and improvements to Amazon’s chemicals policy, not only to comply with existing laws but to go beyond the laws and get ahead of regulation. In this situation, the costs associated with compliance and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state could have been avoided if Amazon had stronger protocols in place.
We are glad to see that Amazon agreed to require Upstream Product Safety Control of sellers on amazon.com. This means they will be requiring sellers of children’s school supplies and jewelry on amazon.com to demonstrate they are in compliance by submitting lab reports that show state and federal lead and cadmium limits are not being violated.
However, it shouldn’t just stop with lead and cadmium or just these product categories because far too many products contain harmful chemicals that can impact children’s health. That’s why Washington state just adopted a groundbreaking new chemical law that will tackle some of the most dangerous classes of chemicals that are put into products. The law prioritizes, among others, toxic PFAS chemicals widely used in carpets and furniture, as well as organohalogen flame retardants we know from our own testing are in the televisions Amazon sells.
These chemicals will soon face greater scrutiny and regulation in Washington and other states across the country. Washington’s law addressing five classes of chemicals provides a roadmap of chemicals that retailers like Amazon should follow. It makes a lot of sense for Amazon to get out ahead of the regulatory curve and restrict these chemicals in the products it sells.
https://saferchemicals.org/2019/05/10/washington-attorney-general-compels-amazon-to-remove-toxic-school-supplies-more-action-needed/
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Energy and Commerce to Take up PFAS Legislation
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Courtney Columbus
A House Energy and Commerce panel will take up legislation this week to address industrial chemicals that have contaminated water.
Wednesday's hearing is titled "Legislative Proposals to Protect Americans at Risk of PFAS Contamination & Exposure."
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are the subject of a flood of new legislation in both chambers. They have been used in commercial and industrial products, including military firefighting foam, for decades and have been linked to certain cancers and other health conditions.
Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) said lawmakers' bills focus on "how we can better monitor, better reduce exposure, expedite cleanups, dispose of these chemicals safely and much more."
At least 20 bills on PFAS have been introduced since the start of the new Congress in January, according to information compiled by the Library of Congress. Some are companion measures.
EPA has come under fire from lawmakers and activists for what they say is a lack of action and urgency on PFAS. The agency has defended its work.
Tonko told E&E News that a recent trip to Fort Washington, Pa., a suburb affected by PFAS contamination, highlighted the need to act quickly on legislation that addresses the harmful chemicals (E&E Daily, May 7).
Tonko and Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) are both co-sponsors of a bill titled the "Protect Drinking Water From PFAS Act," introduced by Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle (D) last month. The measure also has the support of Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (E&E News PM, April 30).
Separately, Pallone introduced the "Providing Financial Assistance for Safe Drinking Water Act" last week to help fund removal of the substance from water (E&E Daily, May 9).
Lawmakers also introduced several other PFAS bills this week, including one that would designate the chemicals as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act (E&E News PM, May 9).
Other bills on PFAS include:H.R. 2195 from Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), titled the "PFAS Registry Act of 2019," would create a registry of service members who may have been exposed to PFAS on military installations. Its companion in the Senate is S. 1105 by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).H.R. 1976 from Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), titled the "PFAS Detection Act," would require the U.S. Geological Survey to carry out nationwide sampling of PFAS in the environment. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced a companion measure, S. 950, in the Senate.H.R. 535, the "PFAS Action Act" by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), would require EPA to designate PFAS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) introduced a companion measure, S. 638, in the Senate.H.R. 2626, from Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and S. 1372, from Stabenow, titled the "PFAS Accountability Act," would set reporting requirements for PFAS cleanup at federal facilities. It would also set deadlines.H.R. 1567 and S. 675, the "Prompt and Fast Action to Stop Damages Act," from New Mexico Democrats Rep. Ben Ray Luján and Sen. Tom Udall, would give the Department of Defense temporary authorization to provide water free of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) for use in agricultural areas.
Schedule: The hearing is Wednesday, May 15, at 10:30 am in 2322 Rayburn.
Witnesses: TBA.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2019/05/13/stories/1060321163
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House, Senate Lawmakers Introduce Flurry of PFAS Bills
May 10, 2019 | Inside EPA
Bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that attempts to mandate toxic release reporting and federal facility cleanups of the chemicals and bar incineration of PFAS waste, coming just days before a key House panel is scheduled to hold a legislative hearing on the class of toxic, non-stick chemicals.
The efforts in part would seek to push initiatives aimed at Defense Department (DOD) PFAS contamination -- found in communities that have persistently voiced their concerns over the class of chemicals that have spread into drinking water systems around the country. EPA's PFAS action plan includes few firm commitments to regulate the class of thousands of chemicals, which have been linked to adverse health effects including certain cancers and other conditions.
The bills introduced May 9 follow the introduction in late April of H.R. 2377, which would set a two-year deadline for EPA to regulate the substances in drinking water. The House Energy & Commerce environment subcommittee plans to hold a legislative hearing May 15 “on a series of bills aimed at addressing perfluorinated compounds (PFAS) contamination,” the committee's website says.
In the House, four lawmakers from Michigan led by Rep. Fred Upton (R) introduced H.R. 2626, which would require federal agencies, within one year of a state's request, to develop a plan of action to address PFAS contamination, according to a May 9 press release from Upton's office.
The release says federal agencies would now need to follow state and federal laws for PFAS cleanup stemming from their facilities. While the military services face significant environmental cleanup liability for PFAS at their bases, they have resisted states' attempts to force groundwater cleanups of the chemicals. For instance, New Mexico officials have battled the Air Force over PFAS contamination stemming from two bases. And in Michigan, the Air Force and state are in dispute resolution over cleanup of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.
Co-sponsor Rep. Dan Kildee says the legislation will jump start the Air Force and other federal agencies to act more quickly to “address the growing public health crisis of PFAS chemicals."
A bipartisan group of 11 senators reintroduced the “PFAS Accountability Act,” which appears to similarly aim to push federal facilities to clean up PFAS. According to a May 9 press release from Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), a chief sponsor of the legislation, the bill would create specific deadlines and reporting requirements for remediating PFAS at federal facilities, including active and closed bases, and would require greater transparency. It would mandate expedited cooperative agreements between federal facilities and states to address the contamination, and allow states and localities to be reimbursed for cleanup costs, the release says.
Another bill aimed at DOD and also introduced May 9 would halt the incineration of firefighting foam containing PFAS -- a bar that would block DOD's current method for disposing of foam containing certain PFAS that the military has been transitioning away from. The PFAS Waste Incineration Ban Act would require EPA to bar the incineration of such foam containing PFAS, says a May 9 press release from Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), a sponsor. The legislation would further efforts by environmentalists to block the military from incinerating the foam.
“Incinerating PFAS chemicals only expels them into our environment and threatens our clean air and public health,” Dingell says in the release, noting safe disposal methods need to be found. The bill's other co-sponsors are Reps. Kildee and Ro Khanna (D-CA).
Also on May 9, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced H.R. 2577, which would require public toxic release reporting by certain manufacturers, processors and producers of their uses of all PFAS. The legislation would create an additional chemical class under the Toxics Release Inventory to require industrial facilities that exceed a threshold of 1,000 pounds of PFAS per year to report to EPA, according to the release.
Bill sponsors are Reps. Antonio Delgado (D-NY), Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Kildee.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/house-senate-lawmakers-introduce-flurry-pfas-bills
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3M, DuPont Refuse to Pay for New Jersey Chemical Cleanup
May 10, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Sylvia Carignan
Chemours Co., 3M Co. and DuPont are taking a stand against what one company called an “unprecedented” New Jersey order, saying they won’t pay for a statewide investigation of fluorinated chemical contamination.
The companies asserted they aren’t responsible for contamination under the state’s Spill Compensation and Control Act, which prohibits hazardous substances and pollutants from being discharged and imposes liability on those who do so.
New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection in March ordered DuPont Specialty Products USA LLC, DowDuPont Inc., E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Chemours Co., Solvay Specialty Polymers USA LLC and 3M to tell the state where and when they manufactured, dumped, supplied, or used poly- or perfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS.
The chemicals have appeared in drinking water supplies across the country, spurring new federal legislation, state regulations and orders including New Jersey’s.
New Jersey also requested the companies set up a fund for investigating and remediating PFAS across the state, but the companies have refused, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg Environment May 9 through a state public information request.
‘Wildly Expensive’But even the act of estimating the costs of cleaning up PFAS across the state would be “wildly expensive,” Lanny S. Kurzweil, partner at McCarter & English LLP in Newark, N.J., wrote to the state on behalf of Chemours April 17.
Each company put up different defenses against the state’s request for funding, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg Environment May 9, but are willing to talk with state officials about PFAS chemicals near their own New Jersey facilities.
A spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg Environment’s request for comment.
3MIn its order, New Jersey said 3M knew that PFOA and PFOS, two chemicals in the PFAS family, were “harmful to people and the environment, including based on its own studies from as early as the 1970s.”
The chemicals have been used to manufacture nonstick and stain-resistant coatings in clothing, fast-food wrappers, carpets, and other consumer and industrial products. Some of 3M’s products, including Scotchgard and firefighting foam Light Water, contained PFAS.
The New Jersey Spill Act allows the state to request information about discharged pollutants, but in reference to PFOA and PFOS, “useful products supplied by 3M are not ‘pollutants,’” Donald J. Camerson, principal at Bressler Amery & Ross PC in New Jersey, wrote to the state April 25 on behalf of 3M.
PFAS compounds may cause adverse health effects, including developmental harm to fetuses, testicular and kidney cancer, liver tissue damage, immune system or thyroid effects, and changes in cholesterol, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
SolvayThe state’s order is “unprecedented in scope and devoid of meaningful or reasonable substantiation,” Solvay said in documents obtained by Bloomberg Environment May 3 through a state public information request.
The department specifically asked Solvay to repay $3.1 million New Jersey spent to address PFAS chemicals near its West Deptford facility, but the company has declined.
The Solvay plant didn’t manufacture PFAS chemicals, but used them to make specialty plastic products, according to the company.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/3m-dupont-wont-fund-new-jerseys-fluorinated-chemical-cleanup
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(ACC Mentioned) Companies Asked to Come Clean on Climate Lobbying
May 13, 2019 | Financial Times
By Jennifer Thompson
As the blades of a wind turbine turn gently against the clouds, the words “The greatest push for renewable energy the world has ever seen” appear on the screen.
The 2018 advert by Royal Dutch Shell reflects the ambitions of one of the world’s biggest oil and gas groups to diversify away from fossil fuels and into areas such as clean energy.
As is often the case, however, advertising tells only part of the story.
A few years ago it was climate activists and some consumers who would ask whether a company’s public statements on the environment were consistent with its lobbying on regulation in private. Now, some of the world’s biggest investors are homing in on potential disparities between companies’ public support for efforts to address climate change and their simultaneous membership of industry groups that oppose such policies.
“We ask boards to assess their memberships and take into account misalignments,” says Carola van Lamoen, head of active ownership at Robeco, an asset manager. In other words, are they consistent in their actions?
Since 2015, the Dutch investor has asked companies in the oil, gas and automotive sectors to declare memberships of industry groups such as trade associations, and quizzed them on what they spend on lobbying. “Sometimes it’s not very clear for investors and other stakeholders what memberships exist,” Ms van Lamoen says.
For its part, Shell last month announced that it was leaving one of the largest US oil industry groups because of differences over climate policy. Shell will not renew its membership of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers from next year, in part because of the group’s opposition to a carbon tax or other policies aimed at tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
Susana Penarrubia, head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration at German fund manager DWS, says it too has questioned companies on their lobbying activities and plans to step this up for fossil fuel companies. “I am concerned,” she explains.
The 2015 Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rises to below 2C from pre-industrial levels, along with other initiatives that push for more disclosure on climate risks, have placed the topic firmly on the agenda for investors.
Union Investment, the €323bn German asset manager, was among a group of European investors that last month wrote to 56 companies, asking them how they work with trade associations on ESG issues.
This followed a move by a group of investors with total assets of $2tn, led by the Church of England Pensions Board and Swedish pension fund AP7, which in October wrote to 55 European companies challenging them on their seemingly inconsistent approach to climate lobbying.
The letter, whose signatories included Legal & General Investment Management and Robeco, called on them to review the positions adopted by trade associations and other organisations of which they are members, and ask whether they run counter to their own pledges to act on climate risk.
Two months later, another coalition of investors pressed European power companies to “ensure that their trade associations are aligned” with the goals of the Paris agreement, as part of a broader push to end coal use by 2030.
Shell had promised to review its membership of business groups after pressure from investors. The oil major assessed how closely 19 industry organisations were aligned with its policy goals, including support for the Paris agreement and a government-led mechanism to put a price on carbon emissions.
It said it was satisfied with nine of those groups but there was “some misalignment” with others, including the American Chemistry Council and FuelsEurope.
“This review is a first step towards greater transparency around our activities with industry associations on the topic of climate change,” Shell said in a statement in April.
Other oil groups are expected to follow. “This is the best practice in the oil and gas industry,” says Ms van Lamoen. “Other companies are certainly looking at what’s been done here. We expect more to come.”
An encouraging sign for investors was the promise earlier this year by miner Glencore to review its membership of trade associations to ensure they do not undermine the Paris agreement.
Investors continue to believe that engagement with governments remains an important part of companies’ corporate strategy.
Ian Simm, chief executive at sustainable investment specialist Impax Asset Management, says that while lobbying often has pejorative connotations, “it’s not all about the negative side”. He notes: “In a world where there is no interaction between policymakers and companies, policy is in a vacuum.”
Ultimately, however, energy groups should expect such interactions to face greater scrutiny by shareholders.
https://www.ft.com/content/67967534-39d9-11e9-9988-28303f70fcff
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Offshore Industry: 'We Really Need to Be Serious' on Climate
May 13, 2019 | E&E Energywire
By Edward Klump
The offshore oil and gas industry called last week for prioritizing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while reiterating its view that fossil fuels remain vital to the world's energy mix, even as renewables grow.
Influential executives at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) — one of the largest annual gatherings of oil and gas professionals — grappled with the industry's public image as they discussed goals around delivering the energy people want and attracting potential employees.
"It's not really a race for more renewables," said Susan Dio, chairwoman and president of BP America, which is part of London-based BP PLC. "It's a race for lower emissions. We have got to be working on making every form of energy cleaner, affordable and available."
OTC has been held in Houston since 1969, when several thousand people attended. Turnout has fluctuated over time, with more than 108,000 attendees in 2014 followed by declines for five straight years. There were about 59,200 people in attendance this year, which roughly matched the total from 2006.
This month's OTC followed a climate-heavy program at March's CERAWeek by IHS Markit, another Houston energy conference that attracts industry leaders (Energywire, March 18). Strong rains and flash flooding last week also served as a reminder of the vulnerability in and around this longtime energy capital as it tries to navigate changes in its signature industry.
At OTC, speakers discussed ways to operate more efficiently and reduce costs. That's important because offshore oil and gas projects compete with onshore shale developments and other programs for capital, talent and attention.
Sessions this year covered everything from updates on regulatory issues and oil and gas projects to offshore wind and carbon capture and storage discussions. The exhibition hall showed off some of the latest in subsea technology. A sense of hope still lingered at OTC as companies push ahead with offshore oil and gas projects and offshore renewables. Attendees came from more than 100 countries, according to a conference news release.
It's still possible to attract talented young people to the industry, said Jannicke Nilsson, chief operating officer at Norway's Equinor ASA, adding that it can't be taken for granted. She spoke about efforts to be safe and inclusive and to produce oil and gas with the lowest possible emissions. Equinor used to be known as Statoil ASA.
"We really need to be serious and show that we are taking the climate issue very seriously," Nilsson said.
Arnaud Breuillac, president of exploration and production at France's Total SA, spoke about plans to reduce carbon intensity of energy sales as he outlined a potential future with oil, biofuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. He told an OTC crowd he was sure that "most of you recognize that our industry has a major role to play to tackle climate change issues."
BP's Dio said a walk around OTC can be an eye-opener in terms of technology, and advances could be applied to make operations safer and more reliable. She said the industry needs to be open-minded about attracting talent.
"I don't think we're talking about the importance of this industry to human prosperity as well as we could be," Dio said. "I think we do need to educate and make sure that we're talking about the good things that we're doing in a very powerful way."
Energy companies have continued to make significant offshore investments. Last week, BP announced a decision to sanction development of an expansion related to the Thunder Horse facility, which would boost oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.Efficiency gains
But Chris Tomlinson, a columnist with the Houston Chronicle, offered a sobering outlook for offshore oil in a recent piece that noted global climate worries and interest in greenhouse gas regulation. He argued that deciding whether to build a new offshore platform has never been riskier.
Offshore oil and gas projects can cost billions of dollars.
"As the climate changes and people around the world demand action, the oil industry generally — and offshore drilling specifically — face near extinction without adaptation," Tomlinson wrote.
Dio said the industry generally moves too slowly and needs to think about how to become more agile and able to take advantage of technologies.
In an interview, she told E&E News her company is incentivized to reduce emissions because they're also its product, especially in gas fields.
Roger Jenkins, CEO of Murphy Oil Corp., said he thinks "efficiency gains in offshore are really in the infancy stage." Offshore Technology Conference
CEO Roger Jenkins of Arkansas-based Murphy Oil Corp. said this is a great time to invest in the offshore business, noting a lack of competition among companies that are Murphy's size.
"I believe that the efficiency gains in offshore are really in the infancy stage," Jenkins said.
Automated rig technology, he said, will be important in the future. And he noted the potential of batteries that store electricity.
"You can lower your carbon footprint and lower the amount of diesel burned on these rigs," Jenkins said. "I believe this is a big technology ahead, along with lower carbon engines used in ultra-deepwater rigs and in vessels serving the offshore industry."
Malcolm Frank, an executive with Cognizant Technology Solutions, said artificial intelligence (AI) platforms will drive a fourth industrial revolution following the loom, steam engine and assembly line. AI also could enhance and protect jobs, he said.
Frank said that, if managed correctly, this could drive new horizons of growth and opportunity. He said energy companies can use other industries to figure out what works and apply it to their sector.
"The good news is you're late to the party," Frank told an OTC crowd. "And that's not a critique. It's just the nature of your industry structure."
A number of areas in oil and gas could be improved with automation, he said, such as drilling time and accuracy, environmental protection, personnel safety, asset management, maintenance operations, and compliance. A platform can have over 33,000 data points on average and only about 2% of them are instrumented today, according to Frank.
Government officials also were part of discussions last week at OTC.
Scott Angelle, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, emphasized the importance of safety, the environment and production in discussing the offshore energy industry.
Walter Cruickshank, acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, noted interest in renewables at OTC this year. He also described an ongoing effort to update air quality regulations for offshore oil and gas in certain areas.
And he told E&E News the industry is right to think about the long-term future of energy markets, noting efforts in states and countries to reduce their carbon footprint. Energy companies ought to be looking at those things and building them into long-term strategies, he said.
"It's just good business to do that," Cruickshank said.A 'dual challenge'
Gordon Birrell, who works in the upstream business of BP and serves as chief operating officer for production, transformation and carbon, mentioned two key themes in prepared remarks for an OTC session — producing more energy at a low cost and reducing carbon.
While global energy demand could rise by about a third over 20 years or so, according to Birrell, carbon emissions may need to fall roughly in half by 2040 to support the Paris climate agreement.
"That's the dual challenge we all face: The world needs to produce more affordable energy with fewer emissions," Birrell said. "Helping to meet this challenge underpins everything we do at BP. And that will mean producing energy differently and smarter."
But he stressed that renewables are coming from a low base even as they are growing at a fast pace. He said the world will need many sources of energy, including oil and gas.
Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, Austin, said oil and gas will be needed to help lift people out of poverty and to maintain healthy economies that allow for reinvestment in the environment.
In an interview, Tinker said it's silly for people to say they're going to be 100% renewable unless they're naked; hungry; and lack electronics, a car and a house.
"Your emissions are coming from somewhere," he said. "Everything you consume came from somewhere. If it wasn't your region, it was somebody else's region — and often with less environmental regulations than ours."
He said climate should be on the radar. But he said a battery manufacturer should be talking about the environmental effects of mining and disposal, while an oil producer should talk about the environmental effects of drilling, production, transmission and use.
Tinker said he's a fan of renewables where they make sense. He also said the world is going to use oil and gas in its energy mix for a long time, echoing the thoughts of some companies.
"So how do we help them make those more sustainable?" he asked. "And if you attack the fuel only, you're going to end up with this polarization, which doesn't accomplish anything — and that's what's happening in Washington."
Douglas Pferdehirt, CEO of TechnipFMC PLC, an oil and gas services company, called for the industry to be open-minded, embrace new technologies, work with academia, and look to other industries and thought leaders.
"We have the foundation, the capital structure, the project management expertise to be able to take the energy equation forward regardless of what path that it goes on," Pferdehirt said.
He told a crowd at OTC he believes the industry will continue to overcome challenges.
"I am convinced that there are individuals out there either in middle school or primary school that will stand on this stage in the future representing our companies that will continue to be the ones that will drive us towards a better tomorrow," Pferdehirt said.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2019/05/13/stories/1060321925
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5 Questions About the Interior-EPA, Energy-Water Bills
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By George Cahlink
Proposals to reorder the Trump administration's energy and environmental priorities will come this week as the House unveils its fiscal 2020 spending bills for EPA and the Energy and Interior departments.
Already, House Democrats have backed top-line increases for those measures — 4% for Energy-Water and 4.5% for Interior-EPA.
They'll outline where those increases will go in legislation being released tomorrow ahead of subcommittee markups Wednesday.
The House's Defense spending bill will also emerge, and appropriators will continue holding hearings on various agencies.
Leading Democratic appropriators have already said they plan a sharp break from the priorities of the White House and GOP lawmakers.
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), chairwoman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, has said to expect a "significant bump" for EPA.
An increase would be in contrast to Republicans, who have largely flat-funded the regulator, and a White House that wants to cut it by a third.
Eyeing water infrastructure projects, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chairwoman of the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, has said that if President Trump is committed to infrastructure, he could "start" with an Army Corps of Engineers increase.
Here are five questions to consider as House Democrats take the lead in writing the major energy and environmental spending bills for the first time in nearly a decade.
Where will the EPA spending increase go?
After years of fending off cuts, EPA is on target for its first significant increase since Trump took office.
One area certain to do well is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, where there is bipartisan support for setting funding at $300 million — not the $30 million proposed by the White House.
Programs aimed at studying climate science also will be a priority for Democrats, after the GOP has tried to curtail them.
Lawmakers have sought to bring more attention to water contaminants per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which have been linked to cancer and other health ailments.
McCollum said she backs that effort and is expected to propose more dollars for EPA work on PFAS. She could also add language in the bill ordering the agency to speed up setting a maximum contaminant level for the chemical.
Democrats are likely to propose to limit funding for various EPA efforts aimed at rolling back the Obama-era Clean Power Plan and attempting to set a new national standard for car emissions.
Appropriators might also put the brakes on funding for a proposed reorganization of EPA's Office of Research and Development.
They worry that plan is an attempt to sideline the Integrated Risk Information System, which assesses the health hazards of chemicals and has long drawn industry criticism.
Will appropriators kill the Interior reorganization and offshore drilling?
An overdue agency reorganization and controversial offshore drilling effort might see their prospects dim further under this year's spending bill.
New Interior Secretary David Bernhardt already has signaled he is not on board with some elements of his predecessor's call for reorganizing the agency into regional, military-style commands and moving some land management personnel West.
It seems likely that appropriators, who have been skeptical of the effort, won't provide much of the $28 million sought to implement it.
Bernhardt is also slow-walking a push for expanding offshore drilling amid legal wrangling and political pushback from several states.
House appropriators could weigh in by limiting funding for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which would oversee that plan as well as politically charged drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
An increase may be coming for the National Park Service, which the Trump administration hopes to cut by 15% to $2.74 billion for fiscal 2020. Democrats have argued at hearings far more is needed, especially to address the agency's nearly $20 billion maintenance backlog.Will House appropriators get behind a 'Manhattan Project' for clean energy?
Energy Secretary Rick Perry caught many off guard this spring when he said he could get behind a push for a "New Manhattan Project" for clean energy that could become a bipartisan counterweight to the progressive Green New Deal.
House appropriators could make a first down payment on that goal by reversing proposed cuts to the Department of Energy's Office of Science of $1.1 billion and the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy of $2 billion, when compared with their fiscal 2019 enacted numbers.
Those efforts — including more spending on carbon capture and battery storage — are seen by many on Capitol Hill as crucial to accelerating the development of green technologies that will help reduce carbon emissions.
The idea for the ambitious project comes from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, but with the House moving its spending bill first, the effort could take root in the Democratic-controlled chamber.Will water projects budgets be flooded?
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the top GOP appropriator on the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, likes to note that every congressional district has an Army Corps of Engineers project in it. But the best advocate for the corps this year might be Mother Nature.
Amid record-breaking floods in the Midwest this spring, the Army Corps of Engineers could be set for a large increase to help fund and manage its long list of overdue flood control projects.
One area where appropriators could direct more money is for a comprehensive study of the lower Missouri River, where some of the worst flooding has occurred.
Simpson is seeking to boost spending by as much as $2 billion this year for the corps, after the White House proposed cutting the agency by 30% from current spending of $7 billion.
Expect a bipartisan push to bump up funding for the Army Corps' Everglades restoration project, which Trump himself promised after visiting this spring. Backers say they want $200 million in fiscal 2020 compared with the $63 million originally proposed by the White House.
What about the Senate?
Spending bills aren't moving in the Senate — yet.
While the House is on course to have introduced more than half of its bills by the end of this week with plans to move them to the floor by June, the Senate has yet to take up any.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Congress needs to first negotiate a deal to raise stringent budget caps for fiscal 2020 and 2021.
Without increasing them, federal agencies would face automatic reductions of tens of billions of dollars come the new fiscal year, Oct. 1.
Those cuts "will be draconian," Shelby told his Senate GOP colleagues during last week's caucus luncheon, adding that many senators "probably haven't thought about it much because they think we're going to take care of it."
House Democrats counter they are moving spending bills under the assumption that Congress will eventually raise the budget caps.
Schedule: The House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the Defense bill is Wednesday, May 15, at 10 a.m. in H-140 Capitol.
Schedule: The House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the Energy-Water bill is Wednesday, May 15, at noon in 2362-B Rayburn.
Schedule: The House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the Interior-EPA bill is Wednesday, May 15, at 2 p.m. in 2008 Rayburn.
Schedule: The Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Forest Service budget is Wednesday, May 15, at 9:30 a.m. in 124 Dirksen.
Witness: Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen.
Schedule: The House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on the U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Reclamation budget is Thursday, May 16, at 2 p.m. in 1324 Longworth.
Witnesses:Brenda Burman, commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation.Don Cline, associate director, U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Mission Area.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2019/05/13/stories/1060323361
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Committee to Review Industry's Water Impacts
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Ariel Wittenberg
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will review the water pollution impacts of oil and gas development Thursday.
The hearing is the second in a series about how oil and gas extraction affects public health and the environment.
It follows a Trump administration move last month to continue excluding oil and gas waste from federal hazardous waste rules.
That includes produced water, drilling fluids and other liquid waste that is routinely injected into disposal wells or stored in wastewater pits or tanks.
EPA decided companies were already doing a good enough job of storing waste and decided to continue exclusions for oil and gas in a move slammed by environmentalists as "magical thinking" (Energywire, April 24).
In a statement, the subcommittee said the hearing would look at groundwater pollution but that lawmakers seek to also "point out there are a number of ways that the use of water during [oil and gas] development impacts communities and the environment in the U.S."
Indeed, three oil producing states have been looking for ways to reuse wastewater produced by the drilling industry, asking EPA for permission to issue point source permits under the Clean Water Act.
Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma ultimately are seeking to allow oil-field wastewater to be reused for irrigating crops, watering livestock, or even discharging it into rivers and streams.
The move is partly motivated by the fact that injecting wastewater into wells has become more difficult. The practice has been linked to a string of earthquakes in Oklahoma, while injection wells in Texas and New Mexico are showing signs of diminished capacity (Energywire, Dec. 20, 2018).
Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, May 16, at 10 a.m. in 1324 Longworth.
Witnesses:Dominic DiGiulio, senior research scientist, PSE Healthy Energy.Daryl Peterson, retired farmer and landowner, North Dakota.Emily Collins, executive director and managing attorney, Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2019/05/13/stories/1060309753
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Entrepreneurs Are Thriving Along the West Texas “Death Highway”
May 13, 2019 | Quartz
By John Detrixhe
There’s so much money gushing out of West Texas these days that even a deadly highway doesn’t keep people away. The fracking boom is shredding a key stretch of asphalt that runs from Pecos—site of the world’s first rodeo—through a former ghost town and into New Mexico. But even as the carnage piles up, businesses are blossoming like cactus along US Highway 285.
John Cantu, a gray haired 63-year-old born in Northern Mexico, is one of these entrepreneurs. One look at me and he knew my sizes exactly: 32-inch waist, 32-inch inseam, medium shirt.
I didn’t expect that kind of sartorial expertise from a guy selling clothes by the side of the road on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. While Cantu showed me the thousands of pieces of fire-resistant clothes in his trailer, trucks carrying sand, water, and hulking fracking equipment rumbled by on US 285.
Cantu got the idea a few years ago when he was buying industrial clothes from rag houses—warehouses that buy thousand-pound bails of used clothing—to sell in Louisiana. After a while, customers started asking him for fire-resistant clothing, known as FR in the business.
Cantu had never heard of the garb, which is sometimes made from synthetic fibers like non-combustible modacrylic. He discovered that demand for FR was coming from the oil fields in West Texas, where it’s standard issue for workers. He bought a load of inventory to make a trial run near Pecos, and his FR quickly sold out, like shiny belt buckles at a rodeo.
“I said, ‘this is it!’” Cantu, also known these days as FR John, told me. “I wish I had done it sooner.”
Now, the self-described tree hugger is making a killing from the petroleum industry.
The people, mostly men, working on the fracking rigs often put in 14-hour days, for two weeks on and then one week off. That makes simply driving to work dangerous, amid the gauntlet of exhausted drivers and heavy trucks. Newspapers have dubbed US 285 the “Death Highway.”
And then there’s the work itself. At truck stops, you hear stories about men who get crushed by machinery or poisoned by hydrogen sulfide gas. Workers end up covered in oil, mud, and drilling fluids. The lines at laundromats can stretch for hours. Some men throw their clothes away instead of wash them.
“The poor guys, they work so much,” Cantu said. After a moment, he added: “This oil field would not run without the Mexican nationals, God bless their souls. The majority doing the hard work are Mexican nationals. Are they legal? Do they have their paper work?”Death Highway
I grew up close by, in a town called Fort Stockton, but I can’t recall driving what’s now the most treacherous section of US 285. Until recently, there was almost nothing there, and what was there—an expanse of desert dotted with rusting industrial equipment—resembled something from a Mad Max film. These days, the road is disintegrating from the daily bombardment of truck traffic. When someone gets a job driving US 285, their families try to talk them out of it. But that’s hard to do when there’s a pile of money to be made.
US 285 is just one symptom of the West Texas fracking boom, which is so ferocious the local infrastructure—from schools to hotels, restaurants, and roads—can’t keep up with it. Vehicle crashes in Reeves County, where a key stretch of the highway is located, have risen 300% in the past decade as the oil frenzy revs up.
The trick to avoid the craters in the road, a local who works in oilfield construction told me, is to memorize where the holes are. “It’s still hard to avoid them at night,” he admitted. “It’s not the only road in West Texas like this.”
That was something I heard from a lot of truckers, like Miguel Saucedo. We met at a truck stop, where he vented about inexperienced drivers and ate a Tupperware lunch he brought from home.
Saucedo has worked in West Texas for seven years, some of them on fracking wells. Now, he does “hot shotting”—which means he pulls a 40-foot trailer that can carry 60,000 pounds. His job is to be available to haul in, at a moment’s notice, whatever is needed for a rig to keep running, which can be anything from pipe to directional drilling tools. The biggest problem with his job is the newbie drivers.
“They’ve got their foot up on the dashboard!” he said. “They forget they have a trailer in back. Big trucks, they don’t brake as fast.”Praying cowboy stickers
The largely empty landscape around US 285 is scattered with fracking rig equipment and supplies, truck stops, and long rows of temporary housing called “man camps.” Fracking for oil brings up natural gas, another valuable commodity, but the region, for now, lacks the pipelines to carry the gas to market. Instead, it burns off in giant flares like birthday candles.
West Texas booms every few decades during an oil rush, sucking in fortune-seekers with it. Many of them are young men who work on the fracking rigs, making as much as $100,000 a year, or even more, but around the fields there are also armies of truck drivers, man-camp builders, truck stop workers, and other hardy entrepreneurs.
In a dirt pull-off next to a gas station, I saw a school bus that had been converted to a cafeteria selling tamales. Nearby, there was a baffling RV flying pro-Trump and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags that was almost completely covered in stickers (Confederate flags and the “Make America Great Again” slogan were prominent).
I figured it must be the work of a compulsive (and almost certainly armed) traveling preacher of nationalism and far-right politics. But it turned out the stickers were for sale. The heavy-smoking proprietor was a jolly man with a green cartoon martian tattooed on his scalp. He said the praying-cowboy sticker was probably the most popular one on offer.Pilot Flying J
Apart from an actual fracking rig, the best place to get a feel for the boom is at a truck stop. Men, as often as not speaking Spanish, line up in coveralls with corporate logos to buy food. The area lacks just about everything—Orla doesn’t have a proper supermarket, a church, or even a bar—but it does have an incredibly well-run, polished, Pilot Flying J truck stop that acts as a grocery store, restaurant, hangout, and coffee shop for thousands of workers. It runs out of breakfast food by 7 a.m. because men start streaming in at 4 a.m. During the day, you can buy a salad or a meatloaf and listen to a speaker in the ceiling that announces when a shower becomes available.
Flying J, like the fracking rigs, has to import employees, many of whom are women, and put them up in modular housing. It’s a tough sell, as there isn’t much to do in Orla when you’re not working. The labor ends up costing about 25% more than usual, but it’s worth it because the company says those locations are among Pilot Flying J’s highest-volume outposts.Don’t call it a “man camp”
West Texas is far short of the number of workers needed to keep up with the demand for truck drivers and roughneck workers on the oil rigs. Employees are imported from other parts of Texas, other states, and other countries. Sometimes they stay in hotels, where rates have shot up to $300 a night or higher, or companies house them in one of the fleets of trailers—the man camps—that have been trucked in to expand the housing stock.
At some camps, rig workers putting in 14-hour (or more) days will share a room, swapping when one shift ends and the other begins. The official population in Pecos, Texas, is around 9,000. But the workers brought in to handle the wells have doubled that, according to some estimates. “This oil boom, it runs over these towns like a tsunami,” said Ralph McIngvale, a partner at Permian Lodging.
I visited a Permian Lodging camp that’s open to the public for lunch. Miki Bryce, a polite sales assistant with the air of a concierge, greeted me at the door even though I was unannounced. She insisted on treating me to a late lunch, and then also insisted that any article mentioning Permian Lodging shouldn’t refer to it as a man camp. The owners took issue with a Bloomberg article that had referred to it as such. “We are an exception,” she said. “It’s a lodge.”
Bryce said Permian Lodging was a cut above the other temporary housing options, with better chefs, gel-topped extra-large mattresses, a gym, high thread-count sheets, and a movie theater. When I visited, men were playing pool and televisions were playing football in the cafeteria, which was serving steak that day. “I hope you’re a carnivore,” Bryce said.An ocean of oil
Texas is so rich in oil that it used to bubble up to the surface on its own. West Texas and part of New Mexico are home to the Permian Basin, a particularly bountiful, 75,000-square mile expanse that was a shallow seaway some 850 million to 1.3 billion years ago, where algae and prehistoric life became the basis of what’s now an ocean of underground oil.
Even after almost 100 years of drilling and extraction, the Permian is one of the top producing oil fields in the world, now pumping out around 4.1 million barrels per day. One of the keys to the Texas resurgence, of course, is hydraulic fracturing—that is, fracking—which traces its roots to the days of Standard Oil, the monopoly established by John Rockefeller in 1870.
These days, teams drill a miles-deep deep vertical hole in the ground, and then rotate the bit and chew horizontally through another mile or so of rock. Engineers then concoct a customized cocktail of water, sand, and chemicals to blast into the underground formations under high pressure, releasing trapped oil and gas.“It’s like Los Angeles at rush hour.”
The Permian is a major reason why America is now the world’s biggest oil producer: It accounts for 459 of the 990 rigs operating in the US, according to Baker Hughes, an oilfield services company. That’s why Chevron and Occidental sparred over Anadarko Petroleum this year, a battle that Occidental chief executive Vicki Hollub won by splashing out $38 billion, winning her company Anadarko’s prized assets in the Permian.
About 60 of the Permian Basin’s oil rigs are concentrated in Reeves county, where Pecos and Orla are located. It’s one of the few ways that young people, mostly men, with strong arms can still make a lot of money without a college education.
On US 285, traffic flows constantly. More lanes, which are being built by the highway department, are desperately needed. At its busiest, the line of trucks runs interrupted, day and night. “It’s like Los Angeles at rush hour,” said Shameek Konar, chief strategy officer at Flying J, the truck stop chain with the immensely popular outpost in Orla.
Truck drivers told me they were grateful for a highway patrol crackdown, forcing drivers to go slower, and stopping them from trying to pass too many cars on the road at once. But shutting down the road entirely until it can be properly repaired seems out of the question. There’s just too much money at stake.
One afternoon, I was driving down US 285 and Trump was on the radio. He was delivering his oft-repeated diatribe about crime and drugs flowing across the southern border, along with immigrants. It made me wonder how many undocumented workers were in the oil fields around me.
Texas relies heavily on undocumented labor for farming, according to the Pew Research Center, but the data suggests it’s far less common in the fracking industry. Jeffrey Passel, a senior researcher at Pew, estimates that there may be around 20,000 unauthorized immigrants working in the Texas oil and gas industry. If accurate, that would represent around 5% of workers in fracking.
That number is a lot smaller than the guesses I heard from everyone I interviewed, some of whom talked about rigs where all operations are conducted in Spanish. One possibility is that West Texas workers vastly overestimate the number of undocumented immigrants on their crews. Multibillion-dollar energy companies, after all, have a lot to lose by using illegal employment practices. The other possibility is that the undocumented workers are obscured within layers of subcontracting and aren’t reflected in surveys.Boom and bust
West Texans know the boom won’t last forever. They’ve been through it plenty of times before. They’re making money while the getting is good.
RF John is plotting an expansion. He plans to sell food next door to his clothing trailer. With his wife’s help, he said he wants to run the food business 24 hours a day. He may also get an account with Square so he can accept card payments, letting customers swipe their corporate credit cards. It’s not because he’s worried about getting robbed—he says even the “dope fiends” are making too much money to bother a guy in a trailer stuffed with cash.
“It’s going to be exciting,” he said. “I’m cleaning up.”
https://qz.com/1552685/entrepreneurs-thrive-on-us-highway-285-amid-permian-fracking-boom/
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ExxonMobil's $2B Baytown Expansion Will Include Specialty Plastics
May 13, 2019 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
ExxonMobil Corp. has approved a $2 billion expansion project in Baytown, Texas, that will include major capacity expansions for elastomers and specialty olefins.
The expansion is expected to create 2,000 construction jobs and will maximize increased production from the Permian shale oil basin, officials with ExxonMobil in Irving, Texas, said in a May 2 news release.
Capacity expansions at the 3,400-acre Baytown site, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year, include a new unit with annual capacity of almost 900 million pounds of Vistamaxx-brand polyolefin elastomers. Officials said that Vistamaxx materials offer higher levels of elasticity, softness and flexibility.
The expansion also will enable ExxonMobil to enter the market for linear alpha olefins specialty materials. A new unit in Baytown will have annual capacity of almost 800 million pounds of LAO materials. LAOs are used in many applications, including polyethylene for the packaging market, high-performing engine and industrial oils and waxes and building blocks for surfactants.
Production from that Baytown expansion is set to begin in 2022.
"Our substantial investments in the United States support ExxonMobil's long-term growth plans and will result in thousands more high-paying jobs," Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in the release.
The Baytown expansion is in addition to the company's 2017 Growing the Gulf initiative, which outlined plans to build and expand manufacturing facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast, creating more than 45,000 high-paying jobs across the region.
Woods cited an Ernst & Young study, commissioned by ExxonMobil, which found that in 2017 ExxonMobil contributed more than $43 billion to U.S. gross domestic product and supported nearly 177,000 jobs across the country.
"This research … is a powerful snapshot of how our business in the United States directly benefits the American economy," Woods said. "It underscores the many ways that the company and our employees are contributing to prosperity across the country."
Woods added that the company's recent investments, such as a major expansion of oil and gas production in the Permian Basin and the planned expansion at Baytown, will continue to boost the U.S. economy.
"Global demand for chemicals is expected to be greater than energy demand growth and GDP growth over the next 20 years," he said.
Since 2017, ExxonMobil has added more than 3 billion pounds of annual polyethylene production capacity, mostly at a new facility in Mont Belvieu, Texas.
In July, ExxonMobil opened a massive new ethane cracker in Baytown with annual capacity of more than 3 billion pounds of ethylene feedstock. Officials said at the time that the new capacity will be used to make PE in Mont Belvieu.
In February, ExxonMobil confirmed plans to build a major new polypropylene resin unit in Baton Rouge, La., with annual production capacity of almost 1 billion pounds. Construction on the new PP unit will begin this year, with production set to start in 2021. The project is expected to create up to 600 jobs during construction and 65 permanent jobs once completed.
ExxonMobil ranks as one of the world's largest oil and gas suppliers. Its ExxonMobil Chemical unit is a major producer of polyethylene, polypropylene and several specialty plastics.
https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20190510/NEWS/190519997/exxonmobils-2b-baytown-expansion-will-include-specialty-plastics
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Trade War Cuts U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas Exports to China
May 10, 2019 | Reuters
By Scott DiSavino
No liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels that left the United States in March and April have gone to China, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data shows, as the trade war between the two nations escalates.
On Friday, the United States increased its tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25% from 10%, rattling financial markets already worried the 10-month trade war between the world’s two largest economies could spiral out of control.
So far this year, only two vessels have gone from the United States to China - one in January and one in February - versus 14 during the first four months of 2018 before the start of the trade war.
For a graphic on U.S. LNG shipments to China, see: tmsnrt.rs/2LB9nXV.
The data, however, shows a handful of vessels from the United States are still sailing across the Pacific Ocean and some could end up in China.
In 2018, 27 LNG vessels went from the United States to China, down from 30 in 2017. Most of those, however, left U.S. ports before the trade war started, with 18 tankers going to China in the first half of the year and just nine during the second half.
Executives at Cheniere Energy Inc, which owns two of the three big operating U.S. LNG export terminals, said this week that the trade war is “unproductive and creates some added costs for our Chinese consumers” but “hasn’t had an impact on us” and is not expected to have an impact going forward.
The United States and China started imposing tariffs on each other’s goods in July 2018. As the dispute heated up, China added LNG to its list of proposed tariffs in August and imposed a 10-percent tariff on LNG in September.
The United States is the fastest-growing LNG exporter in the world, while China is the fastest-growing importer of the fuel.
U.S. LNG sales jumped 61 percent in 2018 versus 2017, making the country the fourth-biggest exporter in the world, while China, the world’s second-biggest buyer of the fuel, increased its purchases by 39 percent last year as it weans its power and industrial sectors off coal to reduce pollution, according to data from the International Gas Union.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-lng/trade-war-cuts-u-s-liquefied-natural-gas-exports-to-china-idUSKCN1SG1YU
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Tanker Collision Spills Massive Amounts of Deadly, Flammable Liquid in Houston's Galveston Bay
May 10, 2019 | Newsweek
By Scott McDonald
A tanker moving outbound through the Houston Shipping Channel collided with two barges Friday afternoon, spilling an enormous amount of a refined product into Galveston Bay and transmitting a strong gaseous odor that has permeated inland. The vessels were navigating the channel through heavy afternoon rains.
The liquid leaked into the bay is highly-flammable, toxic to marine life and could be deadly to anyone who ingests it.
The collision happened around 3:15 p.m. CT on Friday just east of Barbers Cut, click2Houston.com reported. The barges, each carrying 25,000 barrels of a gasoline-refining product called reformate, were traveling the inbound lane. One barge capsized and the other was badly damaged.
In addition to the chemical spill into the water, a strong odor has reached the western shore of both the Galveston and Trinity bays, and a faint odor has been detected as far west as Interstate-45.
Reformate, the liquid seeping into the waters, is highly toxic to marine animals and can be deadly if swallowed by humans. It is also highly flammable. Reformate is used to boost octane levels in commercially-sold gasoline.
As of 8 p.m. CT, the shipping channel was closed from Light 61 to Light 75, KPRC reported.
Municipal officials inland began receiving reports of a strong gas odor early in the afternoon. The town of Seabrook said its volunteer fire department was dispatched to check out its community.
“We are receiving several reports about a petroleum smell coming from the Bay. The SVFD is investigating, however, we are receiving preliminary reports that the smell may be a result of barge accident in the Houston Ship Channel. We will be working to confirm this information,” Seabrook officials tweeted.
Officials from League City, located 30 minutes south of Houston, said the odor was slightly noticeable but not enough to warrant any action from its residents.
“League City & Galveston Co are monitoring air quality after a ship collided with 2 barges in Houston Ship Channel, releasing thousands of barrels of gasoline product into the water. Residents may notice a 'gasoline' smell. At this time, residents do NOT need to take any action,” the city tweeted.
Parts of the federally-owned shipping channel, which is the transitway for ships worldwide carrying crude oil and gas into Houston, remains closed.
https://www.newsweek.com/tanker-collision-houstons-galveston-bay-spills-massive-amounts-deadly-1422915
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North Dakota to Sue Washington State over Oil Train Standard
May 10, 2019 | AP
By Blake Nicholson
North Dakota is preparing to sue Washington state over a new Washington law requiring oil shipped by rail through that state to have more of its volatile gases removed, which supporters say would reduce the risk of explosive and potentially deadly derailments.
North Dakota officials say the law will make Pacific Northwest refineries off-limits to the energy industry of North Dakota, which is the nation’s No. 2 crude producer. They are also reaching out to other oil-producing states to garner support for the lawsuit, which they expect to file within weeks in federal court.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill into law Thursday. It requires a lower vapor pressure limit for crude shipped by rail than the industry standard and North Dakota requires. Inslee has made climate change a focus of a 2020 Democratic presidential campaign.
Democrat Andy Billig, the Washington Senate Majority Leader who sponsored the bill, said the goal is to reduce the risk from oil being shipped by train from North Dakota’s Bakken oil patch to Pacific Northwest refineries. The volatility of oil trains drew widespread public attention following several explosive derailments, including one in 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people.
“We know these trains pose a serious risk as we watch them pass through downtown Spokane in sight of Lewis and Clark High School, hospitals, medical buildings, and senior living facilities,” Billig said. “This bill about safety.”
North Dakota officials view the new law as a potential blow to their state’s oil economy. About 150,000 barrels of North Dakota crude, or about one-tenth of the state’s daily production, is shipped to Washington refineries. North Dakota produces more oil than any other state but Texas.
North Dakota’s three members of Congress last month implored Inslee to veto the bill and the North Dakota’s Industrial Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, said it would sue if Inslee signed it.
The Industrial Commission is comprised of the governor, agriculture commissioner and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. Stenehjem on Friday said his office is in the “preliminary research stages” of drafting its lawsuit but that it would be filed within weeks. He said it may argue that the Washington statute violates interstate commerce law or pre-empts federal authority.
Stenehjem also has reached out to other oil-producing states about possibly joining as a plaintiff or offering supportive testimony. He did not specify a number or say which states.
“Some have offered help; some I’ve just visited with,” he said.
Stenehjem said he also plans to speak with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson as a courtesy.
“I don’t expect him to do anything but defend his law, like I would do,” he said.
The law sets a vapor pressure limit of less than 9 pounds per square inch for oil unloaded from trains, lower than North Dakota’s limit of 13.7 psi and what is considered the national standard for stable crude of 14.7. North Dakota’s limit, implemented in 2015 , builds in 1 psi as a margin of error.
Lowering North Dakota crude to a vapor pressure below 9 psi would require the removal of components such as butane, which is needed as an additive for winter gasoline blends so that vehicles can start in cold weather. That would devalue the product, according to the North Dakota Petroleum Council, a trade group representing about 500 energy companies.
The Washington law requires new refineries and older ones that increase oil volume to adhere to the new vapor pressure standard. Violations could result in fines of up to $2,500 per day per rail car.
https://www.apnews.com/83b484f685a34168adc40e8b4af9773b
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Oil-Train Routes Are Narrowed to Alternatives in Utah, Moffat
May 11, 2019 | The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
By Dennis Webb
A Moffat County route is still in the running for a proposed railroad that would provide an outlet for oil produced in the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah, but isn't the preferred alternative of the group pushing the project.
Meanwhile, other alternative routes that would have reached Rifle or Mack have been ruled out, after having made a short list of eight routes winnowed down from 29 initially evaluated.
The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, made up of eastern Utah counties working together on transportation, broadband and other infrastructure initiatives, is pushing the railroad project to connect the basin's oil to existing rail lines and boost access to more markets. The oil now is trucked mostly to the Salt Lake City area, where it goes to refineries there.
The coalition has obtained state funding to cover the roughly $30 million cost of preparing a federal environmental impact statement on the project. The federal Surface Transportation Board will be working with a contractor to prepare that document.
That environmental review will focus on three routes. Two would head southwest within Utah to a point northwest of Price, following different routes. An 80-mile route following Indian Canyon southwest of Duchesne is the coalition's preferred one.
A third, 185-mile route would head east to the Dinosaur, Colo., area. It would then share about 13 miles of the Deseret Power Railroad, which ships coal from the Deserado Mine in Rio Blanco County to a power plant across the Utah border, before roughly tracking U.S. Highway 40 and then heading to its end in the Axial area southwest of Craig.
Eric Johnson, an attorney who represents the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, said both the preferred alternative and the Craig route would cost an estimated $1.2 billion.
But the preferred route, besides being shorter, is more likely to get oil trucks off the highway in Utah than the Craig route would be, improving safety on those highways.
The reason is that the preferred route is a somewhat direct route to Salt Lake City refineries for any oil that would be shipped to them, whereas the Craig alternative would result in a "big, circuitous route" for any oil headed to Salt Lake City, he said.
Johnson said while multiple versions of routes to Rifle and Mack were considered, mountain passes kept those options from becoming finalists for consideration.
"We really took a very careful look at Rifle — that would have really helped that Natural Soda plant," Johnson said.
Natural Soda solution-mines baking soda southwest of Meeker and currently trucks its product to Rifle for shipment to domestic and international customers.
The new railroad would allow the Uinta Basin to ship out not just oil but gilsonite, a local mined natural asphalt, as well as locally produced agricultural commodities. And it would allow for shipping into the basin things such as hydraulic fracturing sand and tubular steel used in local oil and gas development.
"It's not like an oil pipeline where it's single purpose and it only flows one direction. It's a multiple-purpose transportation solution," Johnson said.
He said the project backers could look to private investors to obtain financing to pay for the railroad but also are looking at trying to tap federal low-interest financing specifically offered for railroad construction.
Moffat County Commissioner Ray Beck previously has said a railroad in northwest Colorado would have a huge economic benefit for western Colorado, boosting interstate and intrastate commerce.
Meanwhile, Ryan Beam, who works in Utah for the Center for Biological Diversity, said he's working to assemble a coalition of opponents to the project. He said it "would torpedo efforts to transition from boom-and-bust fossil fuel extraction towards clean, sustainable, just economies."
He said that with it appearing the rail line will be built in Utah, for Colorado communities that would mean "hundreds of new toxic trains traveling through on existing rail without any clear benefits in sight." He said project proponents are talking about oil being shipped to the Gulf Coast, meaning it presumably would go south in Utah and then east through Grand Junction and Denver.
The oil's high paraffin content makes it less volatile and explosive than other oil in case of a train accident. But "that doesn't mean the stuff isn't still toxic," and there still would be impacts to local communities from diesel train engine exhaust associated with pulling "uniquely heavy" trains, Beam said.
He said he also is concerned that the rail line could lead to quadrupling of oil production in the Uinta Basin, which already is out of attainment for federal ozone standards because of pollution from oil and gas development.
Johnson said environmental concerns will be looked at during the federal review process.
https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/oil-train-routes-are-narrowed-to-alternatives-in-utah-moffat/article_d8dda916-73ad-11e9-9c6e-20677ce05640.html
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As Big Data Transforms Freight Transportation, Where Does Government Fit In?
May 10, 2019 | Freight Waves
By Joanna Marsh
Creating regulatory flexibility and providing a framework for the freight transportation industry to cope with massive logistics datasets are ways that federal and state legislators can enable innovation, according to panelists speaking on government’s role in promoting technological advances in transportation.
“I worry about our regulatory regime and our permitting processes in terms of whether they have the agility and nimbleness to allow our society to embrace the technological change that’s coming,” said James Ray, former senior advisor for infrastructure at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).
To go about this, panelists speaking at a May 7 event on Capitol Hill organized by the Association of American Railroads suggested several options.
Lawmakers need to reset their “muscle memory” so that the government resists maintaining the status quo of long lead times to draft regulations, Ray said, pointing to the years-long environmental permitting process for projects.
To keep up with the pace of technological advances, “we need to have that agitation between ‘sister and brother’ agencies” such as between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “so that we can develop a new muscle memory for developing projects under a tight timeline,” he said.
Lawmakers must also look at how to help industries best utilize the massive amounts of supply chain data that is and will become available, especially since varying modes and constituents within the transportation network – trucks, rail, shippers, states – tend to look at datasets through their own lenses and as a result, the normalization of that data becomes strained and expensive, Ray said.
“What are the core datasets that the C-suite is going to need to look at…We should have a core set of data that really spans the entire country,” Ray said. “I think there’s a role in the federal government in thinking of those issues as well. Big data will be the new oil. To the extent that we can harmonize those datasets across the country, the better off we’ll be.”
While Congress hasn’t taken action on autonomous vehicles, the USDOT and certain states have been creating “sub-regulation,” such as working groups, best practices documents, guidance documents or “sandboxing,” to provide some governance while still allowing regulatory flexibility, said Jennifer Huddleston, research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a think tank.
Some states have also started to look at their regulatory codes to see whether they are inhibiting innovation, she said.
“We’re seeing states and policymakers desiring more innovation, not less,” Huddleston said.
Will another tax replace the gas tax?
With global positioning systems embedded in more passenger and freight vehicles, the possibility of replacing the federal fuel tax with another tax will likely see political debate. As electric vehicle uses potentially increases, that could decrease the funding going into the gas tax.
Implementing a road-user charge in place of a gas tax would enable tax rates based on time of day and traffic levels, which could in turn influence driver behavior. For instance, if a truck drives on a road that was not built to withstand continued wear from heavy trucks, that truck could be taxed accordingly to pay for the damage to that road.
“The technology is incredibly simple…the real question is if there’s political will,” said Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank.
The states could take action on establishing road-user charges if the federal government doesn’t act first, since state departments of transportation are the ones who maintain the roads, Ray said.
Facing international pressureThe transportation industry and U.S. lawmakers must grapple with how to facilitate innovation within the country because so much of innovation is already occurring outside the U.S.
An estimated $12 billion is being invested in logistics startups globally, with half of those startups in China and two-thirds in Asia, according to Patrick Lortie, a partner and global rail leader at Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm. Those companies are not staying within their own region, but they’re challenging incumbents on their home turf, which is forcing our companies to adapt while also bringing in a lot of innovation into the country, he said.
“There’s going to continue to be a lot of innovation coming to our side. It’s going to come from outside the U.S. and outside the industry, in many cases,” Lortie said.
U.S. industries can take that innovation coming in from abroad and apply it to their own networks or regulations. For the rail industry, practices adopted by European freight rail that focus on efficiency and are meant to deal with tighter customer demands need to be brought into the U.S., Lortie said.
Change is comingThe confluence of several factors – the availability of big data across the supply chain, consumers’ changing transportation patterns brought on in part by ridesharing options with Lyft and Uber, the rise of e-commerce and its affect on shipping patterns – are resulting in major upheavals affecting all transportation modes.
“The way we move, the way our goods move, is about to change in a dramatic fashion,” Ray said.
The focus is also becoming more about the customer or shipper, and less about the transportation carrier.
“People are no longer necessarily thinking of one mode to get people or items from Point A to Point B,” Huddleston said.
Meanwhile, the rail industry is at a tipping point because of several factors, Lortie said. Those are an economy that’s moving away from large rail-centric commodities of heavy industrial goods such as coal and a trucking industry that could grow dramatically in size within the next 20 to 25 years, in part because of autonomous trucking.
“From a shipper standpoint, this is all great. The shipping, the logistics of the future will be more efficient, more sustainable,” Lortie said. “There’s going to be better integration in the supply chain, so that the customer will have a really good ending in that. But it’s going to be very tough for the incumbents going forward.”
But the railroads can compete by developing technology that builds upon existing tools such as positive train control (PTC), a federally mandated safety technology that measures the distances between trains. The railroads can use PTC as a foundation towards predictive maintenance and shipment visibility, Lortie said.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/as-big-data-transforms-freight-transportation-where-does-government-fit-in
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(ACC Mentioned) Con: Bottled Water Bans Would Not Be Effective and Would Be Overturned Long-Term
May 12, 2019 | Victoria Advocate
By Kali Venable
Water bottles are a quick and healthy option for people on the go, not to mention critical for people in disaster situations and in communities like Placedo, where some residents used bottled water for everything from drinking to cooking after illegal levels of arsenic were found in the water flowing from their faucets.
If bottled water is not available, 63% of people will choose soft drinks or another sugary drink, according to research from the International Bottle Water Association.
When the University of Vermont banned the sale of single-use plastics water bottles on campus in 2013, for instance, sales of higher-calorie beverages in place of water increased by 12%, juice sales increased by 11% and sugar-sweetened beverage sales increased by 10% overall, according to research from the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington.
Bottled water sales surpassed carbonated soft drinks in 2017 as Americans purchased 13.7 billion gallons of bottled water, according to figures from the International Bottled Water Association and Beverage Marketing Corporation.
But in the same year, plastic bottle recycling declined by 3.6% to 29.3%, according to figures released by the Association of Plastic Recyclers and American Chemistry Council in Washington, D.C.
The way people dispose of plastic water bottles is problematic because residents often do not buy recyclable products or they put products in their recycling bins that are not accepted by the city’s program, said Darryl Lesak, the city’s environmental services director. However, he said, restricting the sale of the bottles is not a solution.
Among other programs, Lesak oversees the city of Victoria’s curbside recycling program. The city only accepts plastics 1 and 2, which includes plastic water bottles. He said about 60-70% of Victoria residents regularly use the recycling program.
“There is a way to take care of those single-use bottles properly, (but) getting people to do that is the hard part,” he said. “If we can’t even get them to put them in the green bin, how are you going to get them to buy a multiuse bottle that they have to carry with them everywhere they go?”
Lesak said his main issue with plastic water bottle bans is that they likely would not hold up legally.
Plastic water bottle bans mirror bans on plastic bags, which gained popularity about the same time. Last year, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that cities cannot ban plastic bags, citing a state law that prohibits cities from trying to reduce waste by banning “containers” and “packages,” which are terms not defined in the law but that include plastic bags, according to the court’s ruling.
“While (banning or restricting plastic water bottles) sounds good, I don’t know that it would ever work in terms of the legislation,” Lesak said. “That is my first thought: Are you doing something that may work at first and then somebody is going to sue you over it?”
https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/con-bottled-water-bans-would-not-be-effective-and-would/article_36c09f9a-6cf9-11e9-987f-273659492fb9.html
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Ocasio-Cortez Calls Biden's Reported 'Middle Ground' Climate Policy a 'Dealbreaker'
May 10, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By John Bowden
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday criticized a "middle ground" climate plan reportedly in the works from former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign, calling it a "dealbreaker" for the party's progressives.
Biden has not yet publicly released a proposal to combat climate change and aides have pushed back following a Reuters report about a "middle ground" proposal, arguing that his forthcoming plan was being mischaracterized.
But several 2020 presidential rivals and environmental groups have latched onto the story and blasted his reported plans, with Ocasio-Cortez joining those voices on Friday afternoon.
"This is a dealbreaker. There is no 'middle ground' w/ climate denial & delay," tweeted Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman lawmaker who has championed the Democrats' more liberal Green New Deal legislation.
"Blaming 'blue collar' Americans as the main opponents to bold climate policy is gas lobbyist 101," she continued. "We’re not going to solve the climate crisis w/ this lack of leadership. Our kids’ lives are at stake."
Biden's campaign pushed back earlier in the day after Reuters reported that the former vice president was working on an alternative climate policy to Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal.
The outlet reported that Biden's plan would focus on technology and regulations that limit emissions from the burning of fossil fuels rather than fully transitioning America's energy grid toward renewable energy sources.
Biden himself appeared to address the report on Twitter, promising more details about the plan in the coming days.
"I’m proud to have been one of the first to introduce climate change legislation. What I fought for in 1986 is more important than ever — climate change is an existential threat. Now. Today," he wrote.
"We need policies that reflect this urgency. I'll have more specifics on how America can lead on climate in the coming weeks," Biden added.
The vice president "knows how high the stakes are," a spokesman for his campaign argued in response to Reuters's report and criticism from progressives on Friday.
"As president, Biden would enact a bold policy to tackle climate change in a meaningful and lasting way, and will be discussing the specifics of that plan in the near future," Biden spokesman T.J. Ducklo added. "Any assertions otherwise are not accurate."
His campaign's communications director, Bill Russo, added to the denialsby tweeting a post that read simply: "Reuters got it wrong."
Ocasio-Cortez has previously come out against other climate proposals offered by members of her party that in her view either insufficiently deal with carbon emissions or put off the deadline for reaching zero carbon emissions.
In April, she criticized a plan offered by former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), who is also running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
“Personally, I think we need to have more aggressive timelines than that to be honest,” the congresswoman told The Hill at the time, referring to his deadline for reaching net-zero emissions being set at 2050.
“I think that the science and the IPCC [report] shows exactly what we need, and our legislation needs to be in line with that,” she added, referring to a climate assessment published by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/443220-ocasio-cortez-says-bidens-reported-middle-ground-climate-policy-is
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Climate Change Takes Center Stage for Schumer
May 13, 2019 | Politico Pro
By Anthony Adragna
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is vowing to keep a sharp focus on climate change, pressing what he views as one of the Democrats’ best advantages over Republicans in the 2020 election.
Schumer’s decision to devote his attention to climate change this year comes amid a wave a new activism from the party’s younger, greener supporters — and recent polling data showing climate change has risen from its back-burner status to become one of the top issues for Democratic voters overall.
“Things have moved on climate more than almost any other issue in the last few years,” Schumer told POLITICO in an interview. “I am more optimistic than I’ve ever been, and I think going on offense will help us.”
It’s been a balancing act on occasion. Schumer parried Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s move to hold a vote on the Green New Deal resolution by leading his party to vote “present” en masse, a tactic that may have helped Democrats defuse Republican accusations they supported the plan conservatives had labeled a “socialist fantasy.”
While Schumer’s move to blunt the impact of the vote was supported by progressive groups, they’re anxious to see him back ambitious action in bills moving through Congress this year.
“We’re glad he’s given climate change more of the attention it deserves, but the fact of the matter is that real leadership on climate change is backing and passing the Green New Deal,” said Stephen O'Hanlon, a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement, the progressive group that helped design the proposal and is a close ally of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “Over the coming months, he needs to make true on his promise that any infrastructure plan include real climate policy.”
Schumer insists his support for aggressively tackling climate change is genuine, and he said he told President Donald Trump at an April 30 White House meeting that any federal infrastructure plan must be “pro-climate,” with investments in electric vehicles, energy efficiency and a modernized electric grid to aid the transmission of renewables like wind and solar.
In addition to that, Schumer said he’d press for climate change components to any tax bills or spending plans this year, a strategy he thinks could help Democratic efforts to win back the Senate and White House in 2020.
“This should be one of the most important issues in any election given the urgency, and we help highlight that,” he said.
Schumer said he would insist on the inclusion of battery storage, electric vehicle and additional wind and solar tax incentives as part of any tax extenders package. Along with the Democratic-led House, Democratic senators will also push for environmentally friendly provisions in the annual appropriations cycle, like funding for cleaner buses and efficient building incentives, he said. And Democrats will push for resiliency and clean energy provisions as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
“In the past, all we could do is knock out the bad things,” he said. “But now we have a chance to do some good things.”
While Schumer’s been a consistent backer of environmental protections throughout his career, climate change has long ranked as a lower priority than issues like health care, financial services and immigration. But a poll by CNN released at the end April foundclimate change had risen to become the top issue for registered Democratic voters around the country. Results from a March CNN-Des Moines Register poll of Iowa voters found 80 percent of Democrats wanted presidential candidates to make it a top priority, second only to health care as an issue of major concern.
It's that type of support that has raised the profile of the Green New Deal and convinced six of the top Democratic presidential hopefuls to at least verbally support the resolution, S. Res. 59 (116). Still, those candidates — Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — all followed Schumer’s strategy to vote “present” when McConnell put it to a vote in the Senate.
During the floor debate over the resolution, Schumer assembled a group of Democratic senators for the unusual tactic of repeatedly interrupting GOP senators and urging them to put forward their own solutions to climate change. He verbally jousted with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), interrupting his speech and admonishing him that "we’ve not heard anything from the other side about what they’re for with climate."
The tactic was praised by green groups, though they are pushing Schumer for more.
“Schumer recognizes that progressive action to slow climate change is a winning issue, but we need to see action, not just rhetoric,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. “Schumer calling out Mitch McConnell on climate change is good, but it simply is not enough. As progressive activists ramp up action on the Green New Deal, we expect to see real climate leadership from Schumer going forward.”
For their part, Republicans don’t think increased focus on climate change is going to pay political dividends for Schumer and Democrats.
“Democratic presidential candidates were quick to embrace Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s job-killing Green New Deal and it has now complicated matters for Senate Democrats,” said Jesse Hunt, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “It moved the conversation to a place where Democrats have to defend socialist policies in states where those ideas are extremely unpopular.”
Senate Democrats are hoping to develop an ambitious climate change proposal to be ready for speedy action following the 2020 election and will look to a new ad-hoc climate committee, formed by Schumer, to develop some of those ideas that could then be written into legislation. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), that panel’s chairman, said it would begin by holding internal meetings with labor groups, business CEOs and youth advocates ahead of public hearings in July.
“We want to start with labor because we need to demonstrate to our friends in labor that we understand that climate action has to be good for working people and for organized labor, in particular,” Schatz told POLITICO. “There’s a way to do this that can work for everybody but it starts with showing them the proper respect.”
Schumer’s pushed for years behind the scenes to keep deregulatory environmental riders out of spending bills, and some environmental groups are anxious to see him keep the spotlight on the issue.
“I think Senator Schumer like all of us saw that the 2018 elections made clear that embracing climate action is both good policy and good politics,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters. “I think he has really upped his game and we’re delighted by that.”
Schumer says his focus on climate change isn’t simply a political calculation. It’s been fed by the “visceral, profound” damage from Hurricane Sandy he saw while visiting Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island following the 2012 storm and the birth of his first grandson, Noah, last fall that he says drove home the human side of unchecked climate change. While riding his bike along the south shores of Brooklyn three weeks after his grandson’s birth — “one of my happiest rides” — Schumer said he wondered if Noah would be able to share the same experience given the rising seas.
“It really hit home on the generational issue,” he said.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2019/05/climate-change-takes-center-stage-for-schumer-1421227
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House Spending Bill Resurrecting Climate Fund Clears First Step
May 10, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
A fiscal year 2020 spending bill that would end a restriction against U.S. funding of overseas climate change efforts won approval May 10 by a House Appropriations spending panel.
The spending bill, which would provide a total of $56.4 billion in base discretionary spending for the State Department and various foreign operations, is the first step toward resuming U.S. backing of the United Nations Green Climate Fund. The green fund helps poorer developing nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions and address climate impacts.
The fiscal 2020 spending measure was approved by voice vote by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Subcommittee members didn’t offer any amendments during the markup, agreeing to wait until the spending bill goes to the full Appropriations panel in the weeks ahead.
The spending bill would also bar the Trump administration from tapping funds to continue the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, which President Donald Trump first announced in June 2017. That language, as well as the attempted resurrection of the Green Climate Fund, face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate and will likely encounter strong resistance from the White House.
The Green Climate Fund has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Environment is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.
First Effort on Climate FundingThe spending measure marks House Democrats’ first effort to fund many climate programs, including the Green Climate Fund, that Republicans targeted before their control of the House ended in January. The bill would only remove the prohibition against funding and doesn’t set a proposed U.S. contribution to the green fund.
The U.S. under the Obama administration backed the fund, which helps developing nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions and address rising sea level and other climate impacts. Trump zeroed its funding after coming into office in 2017. The launch of the climate fund was one of several proposals richer industrialized nations put on the table in the run-up to the 2015 Paris Agreement to get developing nations to join the climate accord.
The actual language in the House spending bill only opens the door for resuming U.S. support, stating that funds “may be made available for a contribution, grant, or any other payment for the Paris Agreement.”
The Obama administration in 2014 pledged $3 billion over four years toward the fund, but was able to provide only one-third of that amount before Trump took office due to congressional opposition, mostly from Republicans.
The House version of the State and Foreign Operations spending bill proposes a $2.2 billion increase over current year spending within the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and other U.S. funding of international programs, $13.7 billion above the president’s fiscal 2020 budget request.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/house-spending-bill-resurrecting-climate-fund-clears-first-step
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Ways and Means Forges Ahead After Curbelo Kerfuffle
May 13, 2019 | E&E Daily
By Nick Sobczyk
Climate change will get its first breath of life in years this week in the House Ways and Means Committee — a panel that could be pivotal for major climate legislation.
The committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday on climate change and public health, and it's already making news.
Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) had originally invited former Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo to testify, but he rescinded the invitation late last week amid pressure from Democratic leadership — after Curbelo had already rearranged his travel plans (E&E News PM, May 10).
Curbelo's appearance could have been instructive for the future of climate policy on Capitol Hill. He's a former member of the tax-writing committee and last year introduced the first Republican-led carbon tax bill in nearly a decade.
Curbelo now has several posts publicly advocating for carbon pricing, including at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, which helped craft his bill.
And his expected testimony about carbon pricing would have come amid shifting Republican rhetoric on climate, as Democrats talk up the issue and polls show that voters increasingly care about climate change.
The committee itself has not explained the incident, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) did not approve of a potential Curbelo appearance before the committee, especially since the Florida Republican has not ruled out another run at his former seat.
Curbelo was unseated by Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D) in 2018, and he has said in the past that he may seek to return to public office, whether or not that means another bid for the southern Florida district.
"Mr. Hoyer felt it would be inappropriate for Mr. Curbelo to testify given he has been unclear about his 2020 electoral plans and has a long track record of being unable to persuade his Republican colleagues that climate change is real and needs to be addressed," Hoyer spokeswoman Mariel Saez said in a statement.
Curbelo said he does not blame Neal and that the chairman had been "overruled" by Democratic leaders. He plans to publicly release his prepared testimony this week.
Politico reported that Neal is now facing pressure to cancel or reschedule the hearing. To that point, Democrats have not yet publicly announced their witnesses, but so far the committee has not changed its plans.
If the hearing goes on as planned, lawmakers will have a list of open questions before them: Will House tax-writers move on carbon pricing legislation in this Congress? Are they interested in reforming energy tax credits, as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has proposed?
And how willing is Ways and Means to move climate legislation with a list of other items on the Democratic plate, from health care to retirement issues?
The hearing suggests Democrats will seek to address climate change through the tax code, but the Curbelo incident raised questions about whether leadership sees carbon pricing as an immediate option and whether it's interested in building bipartisan support.
Nonetheless, lawmakers said last week they expect the committee to take its time, just as Neal has done on other issues.
"My sense of his strategy is, let's make the case for why climate change is a big deal first before we come up and say, 'OK, here's our solution,'" said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), a committee member who sought a seat on the panel this Congress specifically to work on carbon pricing legislation.
The advocacy community is similarly hoping that Wednesday's hearing will be a springboard to future policy conversations about pricing carbon.
While other House committees, namely Energy and Commerce, have showcased a GOP rhetorical shift on climate change, Ways and Means may be most important for conservative climate policy, said Alex Flint, executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions, a center-right carbon tax group.
"But it is the Ways and Means Committee that has the jurisdiction over the most important climate policy tool: taxes," Flint wrote in an email. "In effect, the Ways and Means Committee has the natural gifts — or jurisdiction in congressional parlance — to be the center of the congressional effort on climate change."
The early signs suggest that the panel's Republicans, at the very least, won't attempt to dispute climate science. The GOP has called as its witness Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath, the conservative clean energy group.Tax extenders
Powell's group does not specifically advocate for carbon pricing, but he's an active player in the conservative climate advocacy world, and the group has been a major proponent of clean energy and carbon capture research spending and tax breaks.
In addition to any discussion on carbon pricing, the hearing could provide hints of where talks stand on a potential package to extend various expired energy incentives.
Democrats have looked to inject issues like clean energy and battery storage into those discussions, but while Senate Finance Committee leaders have offered legislation, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is still waiting for the House to move first.
For now, Beyer said there are "so many rumors about what extenders will either be used for or added to," adding that there is plenty of talk about the issue behind the scenes.
Another item potentially on the Democratic radar is Wyden's bill, the "Clean Energy for America Act," a long-running proposal from the Oregon lawmaker to consolidate 44 energy tax breaks into three incentives for clean electricity, transportation fuels and energy efficiency (E&E Daily, May 3).
"This is an opportunity for us to start the conversation," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), another Ways and Means member who supports carbon pricing.Natural Resources hearing
Ways and Means won't be the only House committee active on climate Wednesday.
The Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands will hold a hearing that afternoon on how climate change affects recreation on public lands.
It will feature testimony from various wildlife advocates and sportsmen, who have emerged in groups such as Protect Our Winters as prominent climate advocates.
Schedule: The Ways and Means Committee hearing is Wednesday, May 15, at 10 a.m. in 1100 Longworth.
Witnesses:Rich Powell, executive director, ClearPath.Others TBA.
Schedule: The Natural Resources Committee hearing is Wednesday, May 15, at 2 p.m. in 1334 Longworth.
Witnesses:Jesse Deubel, executive director, New Mexico Wildlife Federation.Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, 2010 Winter Olympian, indigenous and environmental activist, and Yupik Alaskan.Hilary Hutcheson, owner, Lary's Fly & Supply shop, and representative, Protect Our Winters.Mark Lambrecht, director of government affairs, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.Fred Ferguson, vice president of government and industry relations, Vista Outdoor Inc.
https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2019/05/13/stories/1060323443
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UARG Announces Plans To Dissolve Amid Ongoing House Investigation
May 10, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
The Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), the power sector organization that often challenges EPA air rules, is dissolving after 40 more than years -- even as House Democrats are pledging to continue their investigation into the group over its ties to EPA air chief Bill Wehrum.
In a May 10 statement, UARG’s policy committee announced that the group’s membership “has decided to disband the organization following a wind down period.”
While the statement cites declining membership as the reason, it says those departures are due to a 90 percent decrease in power plant air emissions – not the scrutiny from the House investigation and the public leak of sensitive membership, dues and other financial information.
As a result of the declining emissions, “the scope of the organization’s activities needs to be tailored accordingly,” the statement says.
It does not mention the ongoing investigation by the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which was launched April 11 and is looking into ties between UARG and Wehrum, who worked at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, which represents UARG, before returning to EPA in late 2017.
The probe is also seeking information about whether ratepayers have supported utility company membership dues to UARG.
According to documents provided to Inside EPA by American Electric Power (AEP) ratepayers do foot the bill, which for AEP in 2017 totaled $555,000.
That year UARG had a budget of more than $8 million.
The House investigation was spawned by a February leak of UARG’s membership list and dues for the 25-member organization. Since then, at least eight firms quit, representing 25 percent of its budget, and prompting widespread speculation that UARG would soon implode.
“My people are seated in the stands and we will bring around the popcorn in a bit,” one industry source said last month, adding that group’s demise should continue organically without any need for outside interference.
Now that that has happened, Democratic members of Congress are pleased but are pledging to continue their inquiry.
“UARG was little more than a clandestine movement to undermine clean air protections to the benefit of industry and the detriment of the American people. We’re glad to see this group disband, and pleased to know that there will be one fewer secretive industry group out there fighting to undo the progress we’ve made toward cleaner, healthier air,” Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and panel chairs Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) – who are leading the investigation -- say in a joint statement.
“However, our committee’s investigation is not over. Important questions remain about whether EPA officials William Wehrum and David Harlow continue to advance their former coal industry clients’ agenda at EPA, and we intend to see those questions through.”
The lawmakers add that core to their investigation is whether Wehrum and his deputy Harlow – both of whom represented UARG as Hunton attorneys – “continue to illicitly serve their old client’s agenda in their new capacities at EPA.”
Wehrum’s Policy Stances
Also of concern to Democrats is a possible ethics violation by Wehrum, who soon after returning to EPA met with UARG at Hunton’s Washington, D.C., offices. He has since been seeking to advance some of UARG’s positions, including a high-profile change to EPA’s new source review (NSR) program that softens when the stringent permit program is triggered and adopts a view long held by UARG member DTE, which is one of the utilities that quit the group.
The ethical issue has prompted scrutiny from Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the ranking member of the Senate environment committee, who has long been seeking an Inspector General (IG) probe into whether Wehrum violated his ethics pledge.
Carper renewed his request for an investigation May 6 after he and others discovered verbatim language from a different Hunton-affiliated industry group, the Air Permitting Forum, in EPA’s controversial NSR memo softening the agency’s policy. One source says Hunton’s access to EPA has been severely limited.
On Twitter, Carper welcomed UARG’s end. “This good news was made possible by investigative reporting and Congressional oversight. But the EPA IG must still investigate whether [Wehrum] violated ethics rules in his dealings with former clients, especially as more shadowy groups come to light.”
In its statement, UARG says it has formed a committee to oversee the wind down that will include supporting members as they “continue to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry.”
A House committee source said last month it had received responses from UARG and all eight utilities it had queried by the April 25 deadline, but was uncertain about next steps.
The UARG statement also defends the group’s work, saying it “sought common-sense solutions to address air quality concerns.” It adds that UARG has submitted comments on rulemakings “to ensure the development of legally, economically, and technically sound regulation that projects public health and the environment.”
And it notes that members have worked with both Democratic and Republican administrations, “providing a forum to assist regulators and industry participants in navigating complex regulation.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/uarg-announces-plans-dissolve-amid-ongoing-house-investigation
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