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AM ACC Clips Report - May 15, 2019

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) US Exporters Scramble To Figure Out New Tariffs
May 15, 2019 | CNN
By Katie Lobosco

The latest tariff hike in the US-China trade war puts a bigger tax on some American-grown almonds and peanuts, as well as toys, chemicals and machinery and condoms shipped to China. But US industry groups are still scrambling to figure out the exact items that will be hit and by how much.
(ACC mentioned) US-China Tariff Escalation Threatens H2 Earnings Recovery
May 14, 2019 | ICIS

The US-China trade war escalation with both parties ramping up tariffs threatens to dampen or kill the second-half earnings recovery many chemical companies and analysts had been expecti
(ACC Mentioned) ACC Pushes Back Against New Waste Study Claims
May 14, 2019 | Plastics News
By Jim Johnson

A new study in Europe is claiming up to 3,000 of the world's poorest people — an average of one every 30 seconds — die every day due to waste management problems, including plastic pollution.
(ACC Mentioned) Recycling Partnership Announces Executive Committee Appointments
May 14, 2019 | RECYCLING magazine (blog)

The Recycling Partnership today announced the appointment of a new chairwoman and two new members to its Executive Committee, as well as new committee chairs for its board governance, communications, and public affairs committees for 2019.

TSCA News

On Eve Of Hearing, EPA, NGOs Spar Over Standing To Challenge TSCA Rule
May 14, 2019 | Inside EPA
By Maria Hegstad

On the eve of a key appellate hearing, EPA and environmentalists are sparring over the groups' standing to challenge one of EPA's framework rules for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), responding to a court order that asks the parties to address the issue in the upcoming oral arguments.

Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) Chemical-Laden Foams Banned from Fire Training in Arizona
May 14, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Brenna Goth

Firefighting foam containing a harmful class of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will be largely banned from use in training sessions in Arizona starting next year.
(ACC Mentioned) PFAS Push Opens Debate On Sweeping Approach To Chemical Regulation
May 15, 2019 | PoliticoPro
By Annie Snider

EPA has not regulated a new drinking water contaminant in more than two decades; now lawmakers are pushing for the agency to tackle roughly 5,000 all at once.
New Jersey Sues 3M, DuPont Over Toxic Chemicals in Fire Foam (1)
May 15, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By John Herzfeld and Yueqi Yang

New Jersey sued 3M, DuPont, and six other companies for damages to natural resources from widespread contamination by fluorinated chemicals used in firefighting foam.
New Jersey: State Files Suit Against Manufacturers of Firefighting Foam Products
May 14, 2019 | PoliticoPro
By Danielle Muoio

The New Jersey Attorney General’s office is suing eight companies for selling and manufacturing firefighting foam products that can introduce toxic chemicals into the environment and contaminate water.
Quote-Unquote: House Testimony on PFAS Legislation
May 15, 2019 | Inside EPA

The House Energy & Commerce environment subcommittee is scheduled to hold a landmark legislative hearing May 15 on a host of bills aimed at addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, responding to growing pressure in communities for regulatory and other action to clean up and prevent new contamination.
Saicm Analysis of Science-Policy Interface Finalised
May 15, 2019 | Chemical Watch

NGO the International Panel on Chemical Pollution (IPCP) has finalised its 'mapping and gap analysis' document for "strengthening the science-policy interface in international chemicals governance".

Energy News

(ACC Mentioned) Trump Addresses Sempra Crowd as Louisiana Plant Begins LNG Production
May 15, 2019 | Beaumont Enterprise
By Jacob Dick and Marissa Luck

Fresh off contentious Chinese trade talks, President Donald Trump on Tuesday took the stage at a giant liquefied natural gas facility here to hammer home his economic mantra: American economic independence comes first.
Sempra Starts LNG Output at $10 Billion Plant Amid Trade War
May 15, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Naureen S. Malik

Sempra Energy has started producing liquefied natural gas at its $10 billion export terminal in Louisiana, bringing the facility a step closer to shipping its first cargo as the U.S. moves up the ranks of the world’s biggest suppliers of the fuel.
Cameron LNG Export Facility Starts Up in Louisiana
May 14, 2019 | S&P Global
By Harry Weber and Richard Rubin

Sempra Energy began production Tuesday at Cameron LNG, one of three North American liquefaction projects that the domestic electricity and natural gas provider is counting on to make it a major global supplier.
Trump's LNG Push At Odds With Oil and Gas Industry
May 15, 2019 | E&E Energywire
By Kelsey Brugger

President Trump plans to promote "energy infrastructure" at a liquefied natural gas exports terminal in Louisiana today, but his recent trade war with China and other actions have sparked sharp criticism from oil and gas interests.
Trump Pushes ‘America First Energy Policy’ on Louisiana Trip
May 15, 2019 | Associated Press
By Kevin Freking

President Donald Trump showcased his “America First energy policy” on Tuesday during a trip to Louisiana designed to highlight his administration’s efforts to increase liquefied natural gas exports and boost the country’s energy infrastructure.

Chemical Security News

Cyber Threats Are A Collective Danger: States And Industry Must Respond Collectively
May 15, 2019 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Niv Elis and Rebecca Beitsch

You are probably reading this on an internet-connected device. If you drive a car, it likely depends on dozens of internal microchips just to get you out of the driveway. If you work in an office or at home, your duties are increasingly “moving to the cloud.” And when you use the microwave, it draws power from an electrical grid managed by a computerized control system.

Transportation and Infrastructure News

North Dakota To Sue Washington Over Crude-By-Rail Law
May 15, 2019 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee

Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has threatened to sue over a new state law in Washington aimed at restricting the amount of oil that moves into Washington by rail.
Ewire: Industry, Labor Seek To Boost Infrastructure Push
May 14, 2019 | Inside EPA

Top industry leaders are seeking to boost pressure on policymakers to enact major legislation upgrading transportation and other types of infrastructure, and one top House Democrat is putting the pressure on the White House to endorse a funding mechanism to pay for new projects.

Environment News

Sanders Aligns With Ocasio-Cortez on Climate as Biden Surges
May 14, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Laura Litvan and Emma Kinery

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is highlighting his alliance with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal as he rallies progressive activists to try to blunt the momentum of Joe Biden in the nomination race.
House Democrats Raise Bar on Clean Energy, Efficiency Spending
May 14, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott

House Democrats rolled out plans May 14 for increased spending for Energy Department clean energy and energy efficiency programs in fiscal 2020 instead of the big cuts that President Donald Trump proposed.
House Dems Propose Billions In Extra Funding For Environmental Programs That Trump Sought To Cut
May 15, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Niv Elis and Rebecca Beitsch

House Democrats on Tuesday rebuffed President Trump’s attempts to drastically scale back funding for environmental programs, releasing two spending bills that upped funding to the programs, including those the administration hoped to scrap entirely
Texas Rules Raise Questions On Benefits, Harm From Oil and Gas Sector
May 15, 2019 | Inside EPA

The limited scope of environmental rules in Texas affecting the oil and gas industry could make it difficult to ensure the direct economic benefits of energy production are not overshadowed by a negative environmental legacy, experts said during a May 14 event sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Industry and Association News

(ACC Mentioned) US Exporters Scramble To Figure Out New Tariffs

May 15, 2019 | CNN

By Katie Lobosco

Washington (CNN Business)The latest tariff hike in the US-China trade war puts a bigger tax on some American-grown almonds and peanuts, as well as toys, chemicals and machinery and condoms shipped to China. But US industry groups are still scrambling to figure out the exact items that will be hit and by how much.
Beijing announced on Monday that it plans to escalate tariffs on $60 billion of US goods on June 1, effectively putting up another barrier between American producers and the Chinese market.
The list of items hit is based on a group of goods that Beijing first taxed in September, some at 5% and some at 10%. But it now creates four buckets within that list, charging a range between 5% and 25%.
Excavators and other machinery are in the top bracket, as are stuffed animals and some kinds of furniture. Also facing a 25% tax: The small number of US-made condoms exported to China each year.
The list gets granular, noting differences between combed and uncombed cotton, for example -- making it harder for exporters to track whether their products will get dinged. The latter fell on a previous tariff list, putting a 25% tax on most of American cotton exports to China, according to the National Cotton Council.
Some almonds are hit by the latest tariff hike, depending on how they're prepared and packaged.
"The new tariffs appear to impact roasted, manufactured almonds. We are working to verify the full impact," said Julia Adams, vice president of global trade and regulatory affairs at the Almond Board of California. The bulk of almond exports were already hit with tariffs and not subject to a higher rate, she said.
Major trade groups say they haven't gotten clear guidance.
"We're not quite sure what chemicals are in each of those buckets yet," said Ed Brzytwa, director for international trade at the American Chemistry Council. "But our members are deeply worried about this situation."
To date, multiple rounds of tariffs have been imposed from the United States and China on each other, as the two countries work toward negotiating a comprehensive trade deal. Many American businesses and farmers support President Donald Trump's mission to address long-standing issues with what they say are unfair trading practices — but using tariffs as negotiating tools can cause pain in the meantime.
"We're having a little squabble with China because we've been treated very unfairly for many, many decades, " Trump told reporters Tuesday outside of the White House.
"I think it's going to turn out extremely well," he added.
The Chinese escalation came three days after the Trump administration raised tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese-made goods. They mostly hit industrial materials and component parts, but also raised the price of luggage, hats and gloves for US importers.
Additionally, the United States started a formal process Monday to put new tariffs in place on the remaining exports coming from China that aren't already taxed. That could make a number of goods, including iPhones, toys and sneakers, more expensive for American consumers.
The tit-for-tat maneuvering has some industries fretting about their futures.
Peanuts will see a higher tariff rate from China in the June round. Exports to China are already down 90% for the first three months of the year, which is likely due to the tariffs and Chinese production, said Patrick Archer, president of the American Peanut Council.
"China is an important but not critical market for US peanuts. But we do feel like China — because of its growing population an affluence — should be important for our industry in the long-term," Archer said.
Correction: The headline on this story has been updated to reflect that new Chinese tariffs will strike US exporters.
CNN's Lily Lee contributed to this report.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/14/business/china-us-retaliatory-tariffs/index.html

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(ACC mentioned) US-China Tariff Escalation Threatens H2 Earnings Recovery

May 14, 2019 | ICIS

NEW YORK (ICIS)--The US-China trade war escalation with both parties ramping up tariffs threatens to dampen or kill the second-half earnings recovery many chemical companies and analysts had been expecting.
Following a devastating December 2018 when orders, especially from China, simply stopped, Q1 2019 was expectedly weak as destocking continued to run its course.
However, on the Q1 earnings conference calls, most companies pointed to improving trends in the second quarter and the belief that business in the second half would be much more robust, especially as China’s economy was starting to see some “green shoots” and the US and China were reportedly nearing a trade deal.
Kiss that rosy scenario goodbye for now. Expect Wall Street to take down earnings per share estimates for 2019 and 2020 on tariff headwinds and a deterioration in China and world business sentiment.
The third round of tariffs on both sides are being ramped up. In this round, the US raised tariffs on $200bn in Chinese products from 10% to 25% as of 10 May, while China in retaliation is boosting tariffs on $60bn in US products from rates of 5-10%, to 5-25% as of 1 June.
This third round directly impacts $8.8bn in US chemicals and finished plastics exports to China based on 2017 figures, and $13.2bn in China exports to the US, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
In the escalation in the third round, for bulk commodity chemicals, US exports to China most impacted are ethylbenzene (EB) and paraxylene (PX), both of which go to the 25% tariff tier versus 10% previously.
On the other side, China exports to the US most impacted include caustic soda and titanium dioxide (TiO2) – also now under 25% tariff versus 10% previously.
And on 14 May, the US released a proposed list of new tariffs of up to 25% it’s preparing to impose on another $300bn in Chinese imports.
This would include essentially all other imports not covered by the previous three rounds of tariffs with certain exceptions, and could be imposed towards the end of June following a public comment period.
The impact on bulk commodity chemicals from China in this fourth round of US tariffs is negligible, but the round does include additional finished plastics products.
Equity markets worldwide have taken a hit. Even after the US market rebound on Tuesday 14 May, the US S&P 500 is down 3.8% and the China’s Shanghai Composite off 6.6% since 3 May, the last day of trading in the US before Trump’s threat on 5 May to raise tariffs on 10 May.
While a subsequent broader market rally on 14 May lifted the chemical sector, chemical stock prices in many cases are still down significantly since Trump’s tariff threat.
And the blow to business sentiment bodes poorly for the outlook for the rest of 2019.
Already global fundamentals on the manufacturing side have been deteriorating, with the Eurozone in contraction mode, China remaining weak and the US clearly losing momentum, as evidenced by their respective manufacturing purchasing managers’ indexes (PMIs).
If the PMIs as leading indicators for manufacturing activity are all pointing down, where is the supposed second half recovery going to come from?
On the positive side, at least there’s been a clear shift in policy on the part of central banks.
Since December 2018, the US Federal Reserve has flipped from planning three more rate hikes in 2019 to zero. It also announced plans to stop shrinking its balance sheet later in the year.
Meanwhile, China has undertaken stimulus measures to stabilise its economy and players anticipate more to come if the US tariffs start to bite harder.
Yet on balance, with the escalation of US-China tariffs and slowing manufacturing momentum, 2019 on balance should be a more challenging year for the global economy as well as chemical companies.
Current 2019 consensus earnings estimates for US-based chemical companies, which already show declines versus 2018, will be hard to meet.
In this analysis, we look at what it would take for companies to meet their 2019 consensus earnings per share (EPS) targets, with the first quarter already in the books.
We compare what companies would need to earn from Q2-Q4 2019 to meet consensus, and how this compares to Q2-Q4 in the year-ago period.
With a clearly worse macro environment for the rest of 2019 versus 2018, a number of companies would have to actually beat last year’s Q2-Q4 performance to meet consensus. Others would have to come close with modest single-digit year-on-year declines in EPS.
Looking at the big picture and potential additional negative impacts from the tariff escalation, that’s a tough ask for the economically sensitive chemical sector.
US CHEMICAL COMPANY PROFIT OUTLOOK - TOUGH TO MEET CONSENSUS
Earnings per shareCompany20182019E% ChangeQ2-Q4 2019 needed to achieve consensus% Change over Q2-Q4 2018 needed to achieve consensusDowNA$4.58NADowDuPontNA$2.34NALyondellBasell$11.24$10.46-7%$8.241.1%Westlake Chemical$7.79$5.18-34%$4.47-10.7%Eastman Chemical$8.18$8.595%$6.828.7%Huntsman$3.33$2.72-18%$2.26-1.1%Chemours$5.67$4.16-27%$3.53-7.2%Celanese$11.03$10.55-4%$7.93-3.1%Olin$1.88$1.65-12%$1.37-3.8%Trinseo$7.22$6.47-10%$5.389.2%AdvanSix$2.14$2.6624%$1.982.1%Ashland$3.58$3.03-15%$2.20-0.4%PolyOne$2.43$2.472%$1.830.9%PPG$5.86$6.328%$4.944.4%
NOTE: Estimates as of 14 May 2019
Source: Yahoo Finance
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(ACC Mentioned) ACC Pushes Back Against New Waste Study Claims

May 14, 2019 | Plastics News

By Jim Johnson

A new study in Europe is claiming up to 3,000 of the world's poorest people — an average of one every 30 seconds — die every day due to waste management problems, including plastic pollution.
But a trade group representing the plastics industry in the United States is pushing back against the assertions made by Tearfund, a relief and development agency.
Tearfund, in its warning, has attracted the backing of well-known natural historian David Attenborough who is calling the situation "one of the most pressing problems of today."
The new report, called "No Time to Waste: Tackling the Plastic Pollution Crisis Before It's Too Late," talks about all uncollected trash that's dumped or burned and puts a heavy emphasis on plastics.
Key factors leading to deaths are "air pollution from burnt waste, diarrhoeal disease caused by dumped waste, and mosquito-borne disease caused by dumped waste," Teddington, England-based Tearfund states.
Tearfund said it is basing its numbers on "published data, academic research and expert opinion."
The group said that the death toll is between 400,000 and 1 million people each year due to mismanaged waste, and the estimate of one death every 30 seconds is based on that higher estimate.
Tearfund, through its new Rubbish Campaign, wants companies to disclose the number of single-use plastic products they sell by next year and commit to a 50 percent reduction in that number by 2025. The group also wants companies to ensure one single-use plastic item is collected and recycled for each one sold. Companies also need to "provide employment with dignity" to waste pickers.
The report is available at www.tearfund.org/notimetowaste.
While the American Chemistry Council agrees that mismanaged waste is a huge problem, the trade group calls Tearfund's work misleading.
"We share the goals and commitment of the study's authors. However we question the report's methods and believe the characterization of the report's findings is misleading," said Steve Russell, vice president of the ACC Plastic Division, in a statement.
"The report itself attributes health impacts to all types of municipal waste — organic, paper, cardboard, metals, glass and plastics. Organic waste, in particular, is more likely to contribute to various health effects cited in the report and studies show that it makes up a large portion of unmanaged waste," Russell continued.
ACC points to a World Bank study that indicates 40 percent of the waste in Indonesia's rivers is organic, including food. The mix also includes health and hygiene products. A separate study from the same organization, the trade group said, indicates 6.4 percent of waste in low-income countries is plastics.
"Unmanaged waste is an urgent problem," ACC's Russell continued.
He pointed to the recently announced Alliance to End Plastic Waste as one way the industry is responding. The Alliance, made up of member companies, is pledging $1.5 billion to find ways to keep plastic waste from entering the environment.
"There is no question that dumping of waste in streams and rivers, on roadsides or open spaces, and open pit burning of waste is neither healthy nor sustainable," Russell said in his statement.
The Tearfund report was created in association with Fauna & Flora International, a conservation charity, the Institute of Development Studies, which describes itself as a global research and learning organization, and WasteAid, a waste management charity.
"Large companies place vast amounts of single-use plastic into communities that don't have waste management, with significant and growing planetary health impacts. As this report shows, we cannot recycle our way out of plastic pollution — we need systemic change," said Zoë Lenkiewicz, head of programs and engagement for WasteAid, in a statement.
Tearfund, in releasing the report, specifically called out four multinational companies — Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever — for contributing to plastic pollution.
https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20190514/NEWS/190519975/acc-pushes-back-against-new-waste-study-claims

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(ACC Mentioned) Recycling Partnership Announces Executive Committee Appointments

May 14, 2019 | RECYCLING magazine (blog)

The Recycling Partnership today announced the appointment of a new chairwoman and two new members to its Executive Committee, as well as new committee chairs for its board governance, communications, and public affairs committees for 2019.
Kim Carswell, director of packaging at Target, has been appointed Executive Committee chairwoman. Kathleen Niesen, director of engineering and sustainability for PepsiCo Beverages North America, has been appointed as treasurer. Steve Alexander, president and chief executive officer of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, and Ali Donahue, sustainability manager at Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc. are also joining the Executive Committee as at-large members.

“The Recycling Partnership is a national leader in recycling and a strategic thought partner globally,” said Carswell. “I look forward to helping the committee deepen its leadership to drive change through effective collaborations and work at the local level, in addition to best-in-class policy decisions.”

The Executive Committee is comprised of Stephen Sikra, global lead for packaging material science and technology at Procter & Gamble, Derric Brown, vice president of sustainability for the Carton Council of North America and director of sustainability at Evergreen Packaging, and Craig Cookson, senior director, recycling and recovery for the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council.

New committee chairs for the Board Governance and Development Committee include Matt Bedingfield, chief commercial and strategy officer at Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc. Additionally, Jennifer Killinger, senior director, sustainability and public outreach at American Chemistry Council joins the Communications Committee. Megan Daum, senior director of sustainability at the American Beverage Association, joins the Public Affairs Committee.

“We couldn’t be happier to have these engaged, dedicated leaders as part of our organization,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO for The Recycling Partnership. “The Recycling Partnership is a fast moving, nimble organization thanks in part to the dedication of our board and funding partners.”
https://www.recycling-magazine.com/2019/05/14/recycling-partnership-announces-executive-committee-appointments/

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TSCA News

On Eve Of Hearing, EPA, NGOs Spar Over Standing To Challenge TSCA Rule

May 14, 2019 | Inside EPA

By Maria Hegstad

On the eve of a key appellate hearing, EPA and environmentalists are sparring over the groups' standing to challenge one of EPA's framework rules for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), responding to a court order that asks the parties to address the issue in the upcoming oral arguments.
In a May 10 filing, attorneys for the petitioners urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to consider two recent appellate rulings that the environmentalists say shows they have standing to challenge EPA's rule governing how the agency evaluates the risks posed by “existing” chemicals.
Citing Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(j), the petitioners submitted as supplemental authority two recent decisions -- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) v. EPA, a recent decision from the D.C. Circuit that largely upheld another EPA TSCA rule, and California v. Azar, in which the 9th Circuit partially vacated a Trump administration rule exempting employers with religious and moral objections from an Affordable Care Act requirement that group health plans to cover contraceptive care without cost sharing -- which the petitioners say supports their arguments for standing to challenge agency rules.
“The challenged rule allows EPA to prepare partial risk evaluations, denying Petitioners access to information that would have been developed by a comprehensive evaluation,” they write.
But in a May 14 response, EPA rejected the arguments, charging that the two cases did little to help environmentalists' claims and may even bolster EPA's arguments.
“The Letter only generally argues that Petitioners have standing and does not provide specificity regarding any particular issue raised,” the Justice Department said in a filing on EPA's behalf.
“The cases cited by Petitioners support EPA’s argument,” the response says.
The battle over environmentalists' standing to challenge the TSCA rule stems from the court's May 6 order requiring the parties to “be prepared to discuss, for each issue raised in the Petition for Review, whether this court has jurisdiction to reach the merits.”
The court's order suggests the judges are concerned about procedural issues and appears to be a bad sign for the environmentalists.
The competing filings come days before the 9th Circuit is slated to hear oral arguments May 16 in Safer Chemicals Healthy Families et al. v. U.S. EPA et al., consolidated litigation that challenges the Trump EPA's rules for evaluating risks of existing chemicals under TSCA and for prioritizing existing chemicals for future assessment and possible regulation.
Framework Rules
The rules are two of three framework measures the Trump administration issued in 2017 to comply with statutory deadlines in the revised TSCA. The rules implement a key provision in the reformed law targeting for the first time substances that were in commerce when the original TSCA was adopted in 1976, but which were largely grandfathered from regulation.
But the rules have drawn criticism and legal challenges from a host of environmental, labor and other groups, who are challenging agency claims that it has discretion to exclude certain conditions of use -- such as legacy uses and uses already addressed by EPA and other agencies' programs -- and their resulting exposures from review as inconsistent with the revised TSCA.
The issue is critical to the new law's implementation as it could determine what uses the agency will regulate if it finds that existing chemicals pose “unreasonable risk.”
The issue has been controversial as groups like firefighters and other first responders say the policy -- which EPA had already applied to pending evaluations -- fails to protect them from legacy uses of substances like asbestos. In addition, environmentalists have threatened to ramp up their push for state regulations if the agency does not adequately address the substances, undermining industry calls for single federal standards.
But EPA has pushed back on the groups' suits, arguing in part that the petitioners generally lack standing to challenge the rule. In a brief filed last August, EPA argued that the petitioners lack standing to challenge language in the rule's preamble that says that EPA “may” exclude uses from risk evaluations on a case-by-case basis when the agency has good reason, such as when a condition of use presents only de minimis exposure potential.
“Petitioners do not identify any non-speculative injury and therefore lack Article III standing for this claim,” the agency said in its filing.
But in their recent filing, the petitioners' attorney cites two recent appellate rulings to argue that the groups have standing to sue because EPA's rule will result in injury.
For example, they cite EDF v. EPA, a case in which the D.C. Circuit upheld one of five challenges EDF brought against confidential business information (CBI) provisions in a separate TSCA rule, to argue that the “law is settled that a denial of access to information qualifies as an injury in fact where a statute (on the claimants’ reading) requires that the information be publicly disclosed and there is no reason to doubt their claim that the information would help them.”
In this case, the environmentalists say, “the challenged rule allows EPA to prepare partial risk evaluations, denying Petitioners access to information that would have been developed by a comprehensive evaluation.”
But in its response, EPA pushes back, arguing that the petitioners “nonetheless fail to allege a concrete injury because their standing declarations merely express a belief that EPA could conceivably deny them information as to the scope claim, when the Rules do not compel this."
Moreover, EPA says, the D.C. Circuit in EDF denied the remaining four challenges because “like here, EDF sought to add provisions to EPA’s regulations that were not required by statute yet “cite[d] nothing in the regulation that contradicts those statutory obligations.’”
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/eve-hearing-epa-ngos-spar-over-standing-challenge-tsca-rule

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Chemical Management News

(ACC Mentioned) Chemical-Laden Foams Banned from Fire Training in Arizona

May 14, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Brenna Goth

New law limits use of firefighting foam
Chemicals known as PFAS raising concerns
Firefighting foam containing a harmful class of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will be largely banned from use in training sessions in Arizona starting next year.
The state follows at least 19 others looking at legislation more generally related to PFAS regulation, according to the environmental health network Safer States. A Georgia law signed this month also bans the firefighting foam for training in some cases.
The Arizona law, signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on May 13, aims to limit exposure to the chemicals that have drawn concerns from regulators across the country for contaminating drinking water.
Some PFAS compounds may cause adverse health effects, including testicular and kidney cancer, liver damage, and changes in cholesterol, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Phase-In
Arizona will outlaw state and local agencies from training with firefighting foam with intentionally added PFAS starting in 2020. The law allows its use in some cases, including if mandated by federal regulation or if a testing facility has measures to treat and contain it.
Firefighting foam has come under particular scrutiny in recent months. Groundwater contaminated by foam that the U.S. Air Force has used in training has sparked controversy near numerous bases.
Legislators passed the measure without opposition. The law doesn’t affect the sale or manufacturing of the foam.
Arizona firefighting groups as well as the American Chemistry Council, which represents manufacturers that produce the foam, supported the state’s legislation.
It’s a “common-sense policy” to limit use of the foams to actual fires, said Becky Hill, who represented the American Chemistry Council at a legislative hearing.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/chemical-laden-foams-banned-from-fire-training-in-arizona

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(ACC Mentioned) PFAS Push Opens Debate On Sweeping Approach To Chemical Regulation

May 15, 2019 | PoliticoPro

By Annie Snider

EPA has not regulated a new drinking water contaminant in more than two decades; now lawmakers are pushing for the agency to tackle roughly 5,000 all at once.
As Congress prepares to take up a suite of bills grappling with the challenges that PFAS chemicals pose in the air, water and manufacturing, one of the major fault lines will be whether to require that they be regulated individually or as a class. Known as "forever chemicals," PFAS all share a strong carbon-fluorine bond that makes them linger in soil and groundwater and causes them to build up in the human body. Some varieties have been linked with kidney and testicular cancers, immune problems and other ailments; thousands of others have very little if any research into their health effects.
Public health advocates and activists from communities with contamination from the toxic chemicals argue there is simply no way to effectively grapple with the problem without tackling the entire family of chemicals all at once.
“If you regulate them one by one, we’re going to end up never having regulated these chemicals,” said Erik Olson, who heads the Natural Resources Defense Council’s health program.
If regulators tackled each PFAS variety individually, he argued, industry could simply tweak the chemical formula, producing a slightly different variations that pose similar health and environmental problems but aren’t restricted.
“It would be a complete toxic treadmill to be running on,” he said.
This argument has driven lawmakers from both parties to introduce bills in both the House and the Senate that would direct EPA to take the class approach for setting a drinking water standard (H.R. 2377 (116)), Clean Air Act regulation (H.R. 2605 (116)) and a Superfund designation (S. 638 (116)), as well as disclosure requirements under public right-to-know laws (H.R. 2577 (116)). Others would take steps to restrict their use in commerce as a class (H.R. 2600 (116)).
But industry has staunchly opposed this approach, arguing that there are significant variations among the more than 5,000 chemicals in the PFAS class, including in their health risks and in their uses.
"One-size-fits-all regulation of chemicals as a class is an approach that has been disfavored — if not outright rejected — repeatedly by U.S. agencies and other international regulatory bodies over the years. Consequences can range from deterring innovation to discouraging alternative product design. It can also go as far as completely eliminating a chemistry necessary to an essential product or enabling technology," said a spokesperson for the FluoroCouncil, a division of the American Chemistry Council that represents companies that manufacture, formulate or process PFAS.
And while many of the bills have drawn bipartisan backing — with key Republicans like Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) facing crisis in their home states serving as co-sponsors — some Republicans are echoing the industry's concerns with treating the chemicals as a class.
“Moving a bill to the floor without going through the real due diligence, the science, I think is going to be easy to do for the Democrats and it will be easy for a few of my colleagues to support it,” said Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s environment and climate change subpanel, which holds a legislative hearing on many of the bills this morning.
“The question is: Then what? Is that really something that really gets picked up? An emotional bill based upon fear versus real science?” he asked.
The degree of scientific information on environmental and health dangers of specific PFAS varies widely.
Compounds like PFOA and PFOS, which were used for decades in firefighting foam and consumer products like Teflon and stain-resistant carpeting, have received significant attention from researchers, but other PFAS have gotten little if any independent scrutiny. In some cases, even their chemical formulations are considered trade secrets, making it virtually impossible for independent researchers to test for them in the environment and human bodies, let alone assess their health risks.
Industry has generally acknowledged that “long-chain” PFAS like PFOA and PFOS, which are no longer in use in the U.S., can pose health hazards, but has argued that the “short-chain” PFAS that they have been replaced with don’t pose the same challenges.
But Jamie DeWitt, a toxicology professor at East Carolina University, said that researchers are finding that, while the short-chain compounds might not stay in people’s bodies for as long as their longer-chain counterparts, they are associated with similar illnesses.
“What we see from the compounds that we’ve classified as short-chain, when we give them to experimental animals you often see the same suite of health effects as you see when you give them the long chain,” she said.
Moreover, she noted that many people are exposed to a mélange of different PFAS, since the chemical reactions that produce commercially useful PFAS produce byproducts as well, and when the commercial products break down in the environment they can create subcomponents that are also PFAS. How the combination of chemicals interact to affect human health remains an open question.
“One of the things we’re struggling with is PFAS don’t occur one at a time when people are exposed, people are exposed to a whole mixture of compounds," she said. “They’re not separable in the environment and because we can’t separate them in the environment, why should we have to separate them from a public health perspective?”
But it’s not clear that the country’s environmental laws will be conducive to such an approach.
The 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act set rigorous new scientific standards and cost-benefit requirements in order for EPA to set legally enforceable drinking water limits.
While some families of chemicals have been regulated as a group under the drinking water law, including PCBs and dioxins, those regulations were set before the 1996 amendments were in place, and with some direction from Congress. Since the latest amendments came into effect, EPA has not regulated a single new contaminant under the drinking water law. It has only attempted to do so for perchlorate, which it decided in 2009 warranted regulation, but 10 years later the agency has yet to propose a drinking water limit for it.
Industry has emphasized that any PFAS regulations must be set using “best available science” — a term that environmentalists say can be used to delay indefinitely since science continuously evolves.
“We encourage EPA to move transparently, deliberately, and expeditiously to establish regulatory standards for PFAS compounds using the best available science and the best practices in environmental policy development,” the Responsible Science Policy Coalition, made up of companies with PFAS liability like 3M and firefighting foam manufacturers, said in a statement in February when EPA released its PFAS Action Plan.
Even those who want PFAS regulated question whether EPA can issue a standard that will hold up in court, especially if the agency tackles the chemicals as a class.
“It’s difficult to regulate anything under the law, unfortunately,” said Olson with NRDC. “Is it harder to regulate as a class than it is to regulate one chemical? Yeah, I think it is.”
But politics may intervene first. Already, players in the Senate are acknowledging that a class-based approach might not be doable.
“If you look at the length of time that this supposedly stays in the water systems I think you’ve got to look at the whole class, but I don’t know if that can ultimately get through,” said Capito, who co-sponsored the bill that designate all PFAS as hazardous for the purposes of Superfund and has pressed EPA to set a strong drinking water standard for the chemicals.
Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2019/05/pfas-push-opens-debate-on-sweeping-approach-to-chemical-regulation-1440026

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New Jersey Sues 3M, DuPont Over Toxic Chemicals in Fire Foam (1)

May 15, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By John Herzfeld and Yueqi Yang

Suit seeks damages for tainted drinking water, other PFAS pollution
Adds to renewed litigation push by state under Democratic governor
New Jersey sued 3M, DuPont, and six other companies for damages to natural resources from widespread contamination by fluorinated chemicals used in firefighting foam.
The May 14 lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court, alleges that the companies manufactured and sold firefighting foam products in New Jersey for decades despite knowing that the products released toxic and harmful chemicals into the environment. New York filed a similar lawsuit in June.
Defendants in the New Jersey case, in addition to 3M Co. and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, included Tyco Fire Products LP, Chemguard Inc., Buckeye Fire Equipment Co., Kidde-Fenwal Inc., National Foam Inc., and Chemours Co.
It was the 10th natural resources damages lawsuit filed by the state since Gov. Phil Murphy (D) took office in January 2018, including four March lawsuits aimed at fluorinated chemical contamination at manufacturing sites.
The latest action also follows an unprecedented New Jersey order directing chemical companies to provide a detailed accounting of where and when they manufactured, dumped, supplied, or used per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS. Chemours, 3M, and DuPont have resisted the order, saying they won’t pay for a statewide investigation of fluorinated chemical contamination.
PFAS are common industrial chemicals manufactured in the U.S. since the 1940s and used in making nonstick coatings, stain-resistant fabrics, indsutrial membranes, and fast-food wrappers, as well as firefighting foam—known as aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF).
Some have been classified as likely human carcinogens, and at sufficient levels of exposure have been linked to kidney, liver, and testicular harm, among other health problems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Drinking Water Concerns
The chemicals have appeared in drinking water supplies across the country, spurring new federal legislation, state actions, and numerous toxic tort lawsuits.
“The corporations we’re suing today knew full well the health and environmental risks associated with this foam, and yet they sold it to New Jersey’s firefighters anyway,” state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “Their conduct was unconscionable, and we’re going to hold these companies accountable.”
3M said in a statement that it “acted responsibly in connection with its manufacture and sale of AFFF and will vigorously defend its record of environmental stewardship.”
Chemours, in a statement, said it was “puzzled” by the action, adding that it “does not manufacture, formulate, or sell firefighting foam and does not use PFOS or PFOA in the production of any of its products.”
Tyco and Chemguard, in a statement, said that they had “acted appropriately and responsibly at all times in producing our firefighting foams.” They said that they meet “exacting military standards” in making the foams, and that the U.S. military and civilian firefighters “continue to use them safely and reliably” to put out “life-threatening fires.”
The other companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit alleged that the defendants are responsible for large amounts of foam-laced water running off from fuel spills, firefighting, and routine training sessions. The AFFF releases, the state said, have contaminated groundwater and surface water in New Jersey, including several lakes as well as sediment and wildlife.
Military Bases Eyed
A continuing state investigation has found PFAS contamination around military bases that include Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County, the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Ewing Township, and the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center ten miles northwest of Atlantic City.
New Jersey has 1.6 million people exposed to PFAS contamination, more than any other state, Jeff Tittel, director of the state Sierra Club chapter, said in a statement.
“It’s good that the state is finally going after these polluters,” he said. But he added that the state must “be ready to withstand every legal tactic possible.”
Tittel expressed concerns about the state’s reliance on natural resources damages (NRD) lawsuits, saying that the state has lost two such cases “because there are no rules in place to assess costs of these damages.” Too often, he said, New Jersey has had “to settle NRD cases for pennies on the dollar.”
The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Environment is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.
The case is Grewal v. 3M Co., N.J. Super. Ct., No. MER-L-000953-19, complaint 5/14/19.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/3m-dupont-sued-by-new-jersey-over-toxic-chemicals-in-foam

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New Jersey: State Files Suit Against Manufacturers of Firefighting Foam Products

May 14, 2019 | PoliticoPro

By Danielle Muoio

The New Jersey Attorney General’s office is suing eight companies for selling and manufacturing firefighting foam products that can introduce toxic chemicals into the environment and contaminate water.
According to the lawsuit, the companies sold the products for decades despite knowing their environmental risks. It claims toxic chemicals known as PFOS and PFOA have been released from firefighting foam products and have contaminated groundwater and several lakes in New Jersey.
The suit, filed in state Superior Court in Mercer County, is the latest sign of the Murphy administration’s crackdown on the manufacturers of products that contain toxic chemicals known as PFAS substances, or polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl. In March, the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered five companies to put together an assessment of their use and discharge of PFAS substances and pay millions to clean up the chemicals.
Tuesday’s suit names 3M, Tyco Fire Products, Chemguard, Buckeye Fire Equipment Company, Kidde-Fenwal, National Foam, DuPont and Chemours.
“To protect our environment and ensure the restoration of damaged natural resources, we must hold responsible the manufacturers who knew of the dangers of these products,” DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe said in a statement. “Together with Attorney General [Gurbir] Grewal and Acting Director [of the Division of Consumer Affairs Paul] Rodríguez, I am proud to file this suit to protect New Jersey’s residents as DEP continues to lead the nation in proactively reducing exposure to PFAS chemicals, including the PFOS found in these foams.”
The suit is New Jersey’s tenth natural resource damage case since Gov. Phil Murphy took office last year. NRD cases typically seek millions of dollars for the loss of value and use of natural resources due to contamination.
Tyco and Chemguard plan to “vigorously” defend the lawsuit, said Fraser Engerman, a spokesperson for the companies.
“Tyco and Chemguard acted appropriately and responsibly at all times in producing our firefighting foams,” Engerman said in an email. “We make our foams to exacting military standards, and the U.S. military and civilian firefighters have depended for decades on these foams to extinguish life-threatening fires. They continue to use them safely and reliably for that purpose today.”
Fanna Haile-Selassie, a spokesperson for 3M, defended the company’s actions.
“3M acted responsibly in connection with its manufacture and sale of AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) and will vigorously defend its record of environmental stewardship,” Haile-Selassie said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Chemours said the company was “puzzled” by the lawsuit.
“We’re just seeing this announcement for the first time, but we are puzzled by the Attorney General’s actions,” the spokesperson, David Rosen, said in an email. “Chemours does not manufacture, formulate or sell firefighting foam and does not use PFOS or PFOA in the production of any of its products.”
The remaining companies named in the lawsuit did not immediately return requests for comment.
This report first appeared on POLITICO Pro New Jersey on May 14, 2019.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2019/05/politico-pro-new-jersey-state-files-suit-against-manufacturers-of-firefighting-foam-products-1438527

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Quote-Unquote: House Testimony on PFAS Legislation

May 15, 2019 | Inside EPA

The House Energy & Commerce environment subcommittee is scheduled to hold a landmark legislative hearing May 15 on a host of bills aimed at addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, responding to growing pressure in communities for regulatory and other action to clean up and prevent new contamination.
As Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, told Inside EPA's Suzanne Yohannan, the hearing is a key step in lawmakers' efforts to enact control requirements on the chemicals.
“Holding committee hearings is establishing a clear public record of the threat, and how legislation would address that threat is a step in the right direction. And then hopefully we move quickly to marking up bills in committee and getting them to the floor," said Kildee, whose district includes Oscoda, MI -- home to the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base that is contaminated with PFAS.
Testimony from witnesses scheduled to speak before the environment panel May 15 shows highlights of PFAS issues expected to arise at the hearing:
“We must stop adding more of these toxic forever chemicals to the environment and our bodies. Recently-introduced legislation, H.R. 2596 (Kuster), would prohibit new PFAS and significant new uses of PFAS. We support this important first step.”
-- Erik Olson, senior director for health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council
“Utilizing its oversight authority over the work of federal agencies, we urge Congress to ensure that EPA takes advantage of existing authorities under [the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)] and the Safe Drinking Water Act to manage risks posed by PFAS compounds.”
-- Tracy Mehan III, executive director of government affairs for American Water Works Association
“The US EPA has not set a legally binding regulatory limit for any chemical in two decades; it is time for Congress to act. Of the 5,000 known PFAS, the vast majority have NO associated research data or standards for human biomonitoring. It is not feasible from a time or resource perspective to 'TEST' our way out of this crisis. Employing a 'CLASS' approach for ALL PFAS will be protective for vulnerable populations and the general public.”
-- Jamie DeWitt, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
“The best way to address these contaminants is at their source. Under the authority of TSCA, EPA has the ability to require comprehensive risk assessment for new chemicals before they are introduced into circulation. For those chemicals that are already in circulation and being actively used by industry, more effective controls are needed to ensure these chemicals are not allowed to enter our watersheds, as well as legislation that would require the polluter to cover the costs of abatement.”
-- Brian Steglitz, manager of water treatment services for the City of Ann Arbor, MI
“Congress needs to treat this contamination crisis like a crisis. It needs to end PFAS pollution and clean up PFAS contamination. At a minimum, Congress needs to force companies like Taconic Plastic to report their PFAS releases and force our water utilities to tell us if our drinking water is polluted with PFAS chemicals.”
-- Emily Marpe, mother and community member, Petersburgh, NY
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/quote-unquote-house-testimony-pfas-legislation

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Saicm Analysis of Science-Policy Interface Finalised

May 15, 2019 | Chemical Watch

NGO the International Panel on Chemical Pollution (IPCP) has finalised its 'mapping and gap analysis' document for "strengthening the science-policy interface in international chemicals governance".
The document was submitted to the third meeting of the open-ended working group (OEWG) of the International Conference on Chemicals Management on 2-4 April and published by the secretariat.
The OEWG is responsible for implementing, developing and enhancing the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (Saicm), a policy framework that promotes chemical safety around the world.
A draft version of the mapping and gap analysis was discussed at a workshop that the IPCP ran in November last year in Geneva.
https://chemicalwatch.com/77504/saicm-analysis-of-science-policy-interface-finalised

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Energy News

(ACC Mentioned) Trump Addresses Sempra Crowd as Louisiana Plant Begins LNG Production

May 15, 2019 | Beaumont Enterprise

By Jacob Dick and Marissa Luck

HACKBERRY, Louisiana — Fresh off contentious Chinese trade talks, President Donald Trump on Tuesday took the stage at a giant liquefied natural gas facility here to hammer home his economic mantra: American economic independence comes first.
“We’re independent and we don’t need anybody,” Trump said. “We also don’t need to be ripped off by other countries anymore.”
Workers in hard hats waited in the sun for hours to share the backdrop with a giant American flag hoisted by backhoes and the behemoth Cameron LNG terminal itself. Once on stage, Trump spent about an hour freewheeling on the subject of energy independence.
He held up the company’s new massive export terminal, which he calls a “monster work of art,” as an example of what American companies have been able to accomplish with his administration.
“This would have never happened anywhere else,” Trump said. “What took 25 years to approve, we’re doing in one.”
Sempra Energy also took advantage of the occasion to announce it had begun producing liquefied natural gas from one of its liquefaction plants called trains earlier in the morning. The train was prepped for startup last November, but the facility didn’t finish its final regulatory check until earlier this month.
Once Sempra’s first phase at Cameron LNG is complete, it will have three trains to create an estimated 12 million tons per year of gas for export.
Sempra has invested heavily on the bet that U.S. gas will flood the global market with a second phase planned for Cameron LNG, a terminal facility proposed for Port Arthur, and two phases of projects in Mexico.
Port Arthur LNG recently was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Jeffrey W. Martin, Sempra’s chairman and CEO, also addressed the Louisiana crowd, echoing some of the president’s talking points.
“Bottom line, the forward-thinking energy policies of this administration are creating a larger role for America in the global energy markets,” Martin said. “ … We are proud to play a leadership role in supporting America’s energy renaissance.”
Sempra might be the first to get off the ground, but it is not the only energy powerhouse looking to bank on record production, especially in the Permian Basin of West Texas.
Natural gas production in Texas grew by almost 1 trillion cubic feet last year, the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association reports, driven by continued advances in fracking technology and horizontal drilling. The state leads the country in production.
“We’re unlocking the potential of the Permian Basin in West Texas and are giving it to you through our great pipelines to send it all over the world,” Trump said.
At least $23.6 billion in new natural gas projects for Southeast Texas and western Louisiana have been announced so far this year from partnerships like Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum and American Ethane.
Despite all the seemingly good news for oil and gas giants, the outcome of these export investments still heavily depend on the administration’s negotiations on trade, especially with China.
Fluctuations from tariffs and trade route disruptions have already started to hamper gains held by some of the investors in Gulf Coast projects, including the quickly building chemical sector that companies like Chevron Phillips are looking to expand in.
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.
American Ethane, which also has Russian ties to oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, is still waiting on import approvals from the Chinese government before it can proceed with long-term plans to ship $72 billion worth of ethane gas to Asian markets.
Mention of China was sparse in Trump’s remarks, at least in reference to Friday’s trade talks that ended in $200 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods.
He did mention American energy was helping reduce trade deficits with China, and was helping him put the European Union in its place.
Tuesday’s event marked the president’s third trip to Louisiana since taking office and seventh since starting his campaign in 2015, a fact he was happy to bring up to the crowd of construction crews and few members of the public that were assembled.
“I love the great state of Louisiana,” Trump said. “And by the votes, you love me, too.”
Trump also made time in his address for a few jabs at political opponents and even the state of LaGuardia Airport. As further reminder that that there was an election coming in 16 months, he also promised to get his highway administration working on a new Calcasieu River Bridge for Interstate 10 — if he is re-elected, that is.
Cameron LNG’s Louisiana project is run through a joint venture owned by Sempra Energy (50.2 percent), Total (16.6 percent), Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (16.6 percent) and Mitsubishi/NYK (16.6 percent).
Total, one of the biggest producers of LNG globally, entered into the project through the acquisition of Engie’s upstream LNG business in 2018.
“Total’s commitment to Cameron LNG and its expansion is in line with our strategy to continue building a strong position in the U.S. LNG market,” chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in a statement.
San Diego-based Sempra Energy has 20,000 employees and reported $11.8 billion in revenue last year.
https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Trump-addresses-Sempra-crowd-as-Louisiana-plant-13845542.php

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Sempra Starts LNG Output at $10 Billion Plant Amid Trade War

May 15, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Naureen S. Malik

Sempra Energy has started producing liquefied natural gas at its $10 billion export terminal in Louisiana, bringing the facility a step closer to shipping its first cargo as the U.S. moves up the ranks of the world’s biggest suppliers of the fuel.
The Cameron terminal, which President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Tuesday, will begin loading cargoes in “the coming weeks,” Sempra Chief Operating Officer Lisa Glatch said Tuesday in a statement.
Cameron is the fourth major LNG export terminal to begin operations since early 2016, helping make the U.S. the fastest-growing supplier. But the new production is coming online at a sensitive time for the market as global prices collapse and a trade dispute between the U.S. and China escalates. Beijing announced Monday it will raise tariffs on U.S. supplies of the super-chilled fuel to 25% from 10% beginning June 1, in retaliation for Washington increasing duties on Chinese goods.
The dispute between the two superpowers has already stalled investment deals and supply contracts involving U.S. exporters. Companies including NextDecade Corp., Tellurian Inc. and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. are seeking billions of dollars worth of investment to construct their own terminals. Meanwhile, competition in the global gas market is intensifying after Qatar and Russia announced massive expansion plans.
“These retaliatory tariffs dampen the prospects for the growing U.S. LNG investment, hurt U.S. workers, and benefit America’s foreign competitors, Stephen Comstock, director for the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said in a statement Monday.
The tariffs also mean U.S. gas exporters will be less competitive against other Atlantic Basin suppliers like Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, said Madeline Jowdy, senior director of global gas and LNG at S&P Global Platts in New York.
“China’s status as the emerging largest buyer in the world of LNG puts more pressure on U.S. projects looking for investment dollars,” Jowdy said. “While there are other buyers and portfolio investors out there, not having China as a key investor and buyer will make project financing more difficult.”
China may end up putting its weight behind rival LNG projects in Africa, Qatar, Russia and Australia, Fotis Giannakoulis, an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York, wrote Monday in a note to clients.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
“The U.S.-China trade war may force Venture Global, Sempra, Kinder Morgan and other LNG project developers in the U.S. to look outside China for alternative long-term contracted gas buyers, which would have enhanced bargaining power,” according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report from industry analysts Elchin Mammadov and Talon Custer.
“Otherwise, U.S. exporters may decide to sell their gas on the global LNG spot market, which would increase their exposure to price and volume risk. If Chinese buyers keep shunning long-term deals with U.S. LNG exporters, it would strengthen the position of Novatek, Gazprom, Qatar Petroleum, Woodside and other rivals outside America seeking to sign long-term deals to expand their LNG export capacity,” according to the analysts.
While gas sellers are contending with a global glut of the fuel, setbacks to new export projects could create a supply crunch in the longer term, Wolfgang Peters, managing director of consultant The Gas Value Chain Co., said Monday at the Flame gas conference in Amsterdam.
If final investment decisions “for the next generation of U.S. liquefaction terminals are delayed, then you will have potentially an under-supply and prices go sky high,” Peters said.
San Diego-based Sempra has a 50.2 percent stake in the Cameron terminal. Its partners on the project include Mitsui, Mitsubishi Corp., Total SA and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha.
—With assistance from Vanessa Dezem and Kevin Varley.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/sempra-starts-lng-output-at-10-billion-plant-amid-trade-war

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Cameron LNG Export Facility Starts Up in Louisiana

May 14, 2019 | S&P Global

By Harry Weber and Richard Rubin

Hackberry, Louisiana — Sempra Energy began production Tuesday at Cameron LNG, one of three North American liquefaction projects that the domestic electricity and natural gas provider is counting on to make it a major global supplier.
The highly anticipated startup of the first train at the Hackberry, Louisiana, facility, celebrated with a visit by President Donald Trump, marks the fourth such US project to begin operations since 2016, as the US looks to give shale gas producers more outlets from key basins along the Gulf Coast, in the Midcontinent region and in the Northeast.
Sempra has proposed adding liquefaction facilities at Port Arthur, Texas, and Baja California, Mexico, as part of an ultimate goal of supplying up to 45 million mt/year of LNG to Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
The $10 billion Cameron LNG project -- a joint venture of affiliates of majority owner San Diego-based Sempra, France's Total, Japan's Mitsui and a company jointly owned by Japan's Mitsubishi and NYK -- faced delays in late 2017 and early 2018. As many as 11,000 workers were on site last summer as contractors McDermott International and Chiyoda pushed to get the project back on track. McDermott recently said that startup of trains 2 and 3 will be delayed until 2020.
Project officials said during a tour of the facility in February that the number of commissioning cargoes that are shipped before commercial service begins could range from one to six or seven, depending on customer needs. In a statement Tuesday, Sempra said cargoes would begin being loaded in the "coming weeks."
Current netbacks to the US make Asia a destination of choice for the commissioning cargoes, though unlikely China because of Beijing's decision Monday to raise tariffs on imports of US LNG to 25% from 10% in retaliation for Washington's decision to hike duties on imports of Chinese goods.
At the facility south of Lake Charles, under a tent with the liquefaction equipment as a backdrop, hundreds of workers wearing safety vests and hard hats gathered to hear from Trump and Sempra CEO Jeffrey Martin. Both ignored in their public remarks the tariffs concerns and the impact on the US LNG industry, with Martin instead praising what he described as the administration's "forward-thinking energy policies."
Trump, who has pushed for quicker permitting by federal agencies, spoke of US energy dominance, in between talking about baseball, politics, windmills killing birds, interest rates and the people who voted for him in Louisiana. He was given a brief tour before his remarks. He described the equipment behind him as "pieces of art."
"We are independent," Trump said. "We don't need anybody."
America's promise as a leading global LNG supplier depends on the utilization of the four facilities now in operation and the two more that are preparing to start up, as well as the success of a dozen other second wave projects that are actively being developed for service in the early- to mid-2020s. It was just a decade ago that many of these facilities, including Cameron LNG, were being developed as import terminals, only to change course when the shale revolution unlocked vast reserves of cheap domestic gas.TARIFFS IMPACT
The tariffs have forced spot cargoes from existing US exporters that may have gone to China to be diverted to other countries, and have made it more challenging for developers of new US liquefaction projects, such as Tellurian, NextDecade, LNG Limited and even Sempra for its proposed Texas facility, to be able to secure long-term contracts with buyers. China is expected to become the world's biggest importer of LNG within a decade.
"We welcome other investors yet we are very confident that we will reach FID within the next few months with or without Chinese participants," Tellurian co-founder Charif Souki said in an e-mail to S&P Global Platts on Tuesday.
Cheniere Energy, which is looking to expand, made a similar declaration last week.
Before boarding Air Force One for the flight to Louisiana, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was open to additional US tariff increases, a move that could force the Chinese to retaliate further.OTHER TERMINALS
Cameron LNG operates a tolling model under which the buyer of the LNG is responsible for securing its own feedgas and deciding where the cargoes are delivered. Besides the capacity that will be lifted by the portfolio players and end-users that make up the terminal's ownership group, long-term offtake agreements have been secured by Japan's Tokyo Gas and Toho Gas.
Terminal officials previously said storage tanks at the site already had a sizable amount of LNG in them that was left over from when the facility was an active receiving terminal. That meant the tanks were cooled down, making it unnecessary for Cameron LNG to bring in an import cargo for that purpose, as Cheniere did when it started up Sabine Pass and Dominion Energy did when it started up Cove Point.
Sempra is targeting a late 2019 final investment decision on the Mexican project and a late 2019 or early 2020 FID for Port Arthur LNG.
Besides Cameron LNG, Sabine Pass and Cove Point, Cheniere operates an LNG export terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas. Kinder Morgan is preparing to start up its Elba Liquefaction facility in Georgia, while Freeport LNG in Texas is expected to begin LNG production within the next few weeks.
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/videos/market-movers-europe/051319-platts-market-movers-europe

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Trump's LNG Push At Odds With Oil and Gas Industry

May 15, 2019 | E&E Energywire

By Kelsey Brugger

President Trump plans to promote "energy infrastructure" at a liquefied natural gas exports terminal in Louisiana today, but his recent trade war with China and other actions have sparked sharp criticism from oil and gas interests.
Trump will tour the nearly complete Cameron LNG export facility the day after China hiked tariffs on LNG to 25% for cargoes arriving after June 1. The tariffs could exacerbate declines in shipments to China, poised to be the world's biggest LNG consumer, analysts said.
"What concerns us the most is that these are two of the largest players in the LNG market, and anything that disrupts the furtherance of long-term commercial relationships — which are needed for more LNG export capacity to be built in the United States — is an opportunity lost," said Fred Hutchison, president of LNG Allies.
Today's celebratory event in southern Louisiana — a red state that backed Trump in the last presidential election — has drawn praise in the last week from GOP politicians and trade groups that publicly thanked the administration for prioritizing American energy and speeding up the LNG facility licensing process.
But privately, some members of the oil and gas industry continue to grumble about specific actions the president has taken, or failed to take. They include the U.S.-China tariff battles, as well as ongoing levies on steel and aluminum imports, the delayed five-year drilling plan, and a key vacancy on a federal regulatory body overseeing some aspects of the oil and gas sector. And one industry source said talk of government subsidies for coal and nuclear plants "doesn't seem to go away."
"Part of trying to build the case for that initiative was [Trump] casting doubt on natural gas and the security of pipelines," the source said.
The oil industry's lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, also has taken Trump to task over the continuing trade war, starting the Twitter hashtag "tariffshurt."
"These retaliatory tariffs dampen the prospects for the growing U.S. LNG investment, hurt U.S. workers, and benefit America's foreign competitors," API Director Stephen Comstock said in a statement yesterday.
China's declared tax on LNG and other commodities comes more than a year after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. In recent months, some Republican lawmakers have increasingly called on the president to undo them.
While total costs to energy companies are unknown, API cited companies like Plains All American Pipeline, which had to pay $40 million to obtain specialty pipe from Greece that was not available from U.S. steel manufacturers, according to the group.
"The impact on the competitiveness of U.S. LNG export projects is substantial — several hundred million dollars in some instances," Hutchison added. The administration has denied more than 100 petitions for exemptions from the tariffs.
Supporters say the tariffs encourage U.S. steel manufacturing, although most pipelines are made with material only available abroad. Trump has said the additional costs will be paid for by other countries. Over the weekend, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox News that some costs would be felt by American consumers, adding it is "a risk we should and can take without damaging our economy in any appreciable way."
In addition, oil and gas interests say they are baffled why the White House has not nominated a fifth commissioner to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, leaving the body split between two Republicans and two Democrats. Former Republican Chairman Kevin McIntyre died in January.
"The tardiness in acting on the FERC vacancies is concerning given that really if you are interested in energy and energy infrastructure, the commission is a key agency," one industry source said. "There is often a 2-2 deadlock on things."
As a practical matter, even without a fifth vote, three LNG projects were approved in the last three months. Democratic Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur sided with her Republican counterparts. But she has said she will consider each project on a case-by-case basis, and the industry is not taking her vote for granted.
And she is stepping down after her term expires next month — though she can stay until the end of the year and has said she won't leave until her successor is in place. When she does vacate her spot, the administration will have two positions to fill (Energywire, May 6).
The industry has also expressed frustration about the unveiling of the five-year drilling plan, which has been delayed for months. The latest draft was expected as early as last year, and Interior Department officials recently said the rollout is postponed pending court decisions (E&E News PM, April 25).
The president sided against oil and gas interests when he recently assured coastal Republican senators he would not repeal the Jones Act, a 100-year-old law requiring tankers to be built and manned by American citizens when traveling between U.S. ports. There are currently no Jones Act-approved LNG ships in operation. Repealing the law would have allowed LNG producers to transport their products from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast or Puerto Rico (E&E News PM, May 1).
"Those things are not small potatoes," one industry source concluded.
Some industry insiders say there is a common misconception that they are totally aligned with the Trump administration. Overall, they have achieved some considerable wins in terms of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda and faster approach to licensing LNG facilities, they say.
"It's going to be a mixed bag of what you get since you deal with multiple constituencies," one industry source said. "It's been one where there have been some disappointments and also some areas where we wish they had acted more promptly."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2019/05/14/stories/1060328633

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Trump Pushes ‘America First Energy Policy’ on Louisiana Trip

May 15, 2019 | Associated Press

By Kevin Freking

HACKBERRY, La. (AP) — President Donald Trump showcased his “America First energy policy” on Tuesday during a trip to Louisiana designed to highlight his administration’s efforts to increase liquefied natural gas exports and boost the country’s energy infrastructure.
Trump toured the outskirts of a $10 billion export terminal that will liquefy natural gas for storage and shipping. The process involves cooling gas vapor to a liquid state. Sempra Energy announced Tuesday ahead of Trump’s visit that the Louisiana plant has begun producing liquefied natural gas and will begin shipping to global markets in the next few weeks.
“Under my administration we have ended the war on America energy and ended the economic assault on our wonderful energy workers,” Trump said in a wide-ranging speech to workers that emphasized energy efforts but also touched on the 2020 Democratic field, the economy and his 2016 election.
Trump cites an increase in liquefied natural gas exports as boosting jobs and cementing the U.S. role as an energy provider for international markets. The administration has also promoted liquefied natural gas from the U.S. as a way for Europe to reduce its reliance on Russia for energy.
“We should be producing energy at home, not enriching foreign adversaries abroad,” Trump said.
Europe will be the largest purchaser of U.S. liquefied natural gas in the future, Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, told reporters on Air Force One.
“For too long, Europe has been in the stranglehold of Russian LNG and pipe gas. This is the beginning of the end of that stranglehold,” Sondland said.
Declaring that production of liquefied natural gas was increasing, Trump said: “What does it really mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs.” He also criticized the Democrats’ Green New Deal proposal for aggressively cutting carbon emissions, predicting that “under that deal, everybody in this room gets fired.”
Still, it has not been all good news for U.S. producers. China announced Monday that it planned to increase its tariffs on liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to 25% as the trade war between the two nations intensified.
The president and congressional leaders are trying to work together on an infrastructure package that would boost energy development as well as rebuild roads, bridges and airports. Trump and Democratic leaders agreed to work toward a $2 trillion package, but it will be difficult for lawmakers and the White House to agree on how to pay for it.
Some Republican lawmakers have described raising taxes to pay for public works improvements as “a nonstarter.” Democrats, meanwhile, will be wary of speeding up environmental reviews to hasten construction.
The nation’s top business groups and labor unions support increasing the federal gasoline tax, currently 18.3 cents a gallon. It was last raised in 1993.
Democrats are waiting for Trump to unveil what he can support, knowing an infrastructure package will go nowhere in a Republican-controlled Senate without his strong backing.
As he spoke about his 2020 prospects, Trump made an infrastructure promise to Louisiana, a state that strongly supported him in 2016.
“If we win this election, we’re giving you a brand new I-10 bridge,” he said. “We’re gonna have it all set, ready to go Day One, right after the election.”
Trump also used the official government event to handicap his potential 2020 Democratic opponents. He said that former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke is “falling fast,” and he mocked former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Trump claimed to the crowd: “Bernie’s got a lot of energy. But it’s energy to get rid of your jobs.”
The visit is Trump’s third to Louisiana since he took office. He also used the trip to attend a fundraiser in Metairie.
https://www.apnews.com/b75911009f0e4982b6557ccbb588f357

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Chemical Security News

Cyber Threats Are A Collective Danger: States And Industry Must Respond Collectively

May 15, 2019 | The Hill - Congress Blog

By Niv Elis and Rebecca Beitsch

You are probably reading this on an internet-connected device. If you drive a car, it likely depends on dozens of internal microchips just to get you out of the driveway. If you work in an office or at home, your duties are increasingly “moving to the cloud.” And when you use the microwave, it draws power from an electrical grid managed by a computerized control system.
Digital technology provides our modern lives with many conveniences. But the interconnected systems they reply upon also make us vulnerable. Every day, criminal hackers—some supported by foreign adversaries—launch millions of attacks on our public and private computer networks, probing for weaknesses they can exploit for financial or strategic gain.
States are on the front lines of our collective response to the cyber threat. Governors are responsible for protecting some of the most critical pieces of digital infrastructure, as well as troves of sensitive data. These can include vital records, voter information, industrial control systems that manage dams and power grids, transportation networks, public health information, building blueprints and emergency preparedness plans, to name just a few.
Successful cyberattacks have both a human and a financial toll. The average cost of a data breach is now $3.9 million, according to IBM. Last year, a ransomware attack in Colorado took 2,000 Department of Transportation computers offline and led to the first gubernatorially declared state of emergency in the country resulting from a cyber incident. With the growth of the Internet of Things, cyber intrusions have exponentially more potential to wreak havoc in the physical world.
No one state or governor can overcome the challenges of cybersecurity alone. All 55 U.S. states and territories are bound together as one nation, and we must stand together against the rising tide of cybercrime that robs our citizens and businesses of their money, assets and privacy. Exchanging information and sharing lessons learned is essential. We must work collectively to stay ahead of a fast-moving threat.
On May 14, the National Governors Association hosted the National Summit on State Cybersecurity, the only national conference focused exclusively on state and local cybersecurity. We joined teams from nearly every state and territory in Shreveport-Bossier, Louisiana to share information and best practices, strategize and form a united front against our cyber adversaries.
States have already started to take action.
In 2017, Arkansas was the first state in the country to construct a cyber range specifically designed for educational purposes. Building on this, the Arkansas Department of Education, in conjunction with industry leaders, this year developed range-based curriculum modules to be used in the teaching of important cybersecurity concepts.
The Louisiana Cybersecurity Commission, created by Gov. Edwards in 2017, has been working non-stop to bring together public- and private-sector leaders to communicate, plan and implement activities to build and sustain a comprehensive cybersecurity ecosystem. Louisiana two- and four-year institutions are enhancing cyber degree offerings to prepare more graduates for state and national cybersecurity needs.
A holistic response also requires active, collaborative partnerships between the private and public sectors. Businesses, for example, should look for ways to partner with public agencies or academic institutions to support research and employee training initiatives. Raytheon, for example, is the primary sponsor of the National Collegiate Cyberspace Defense Competition, which helps college students showcase their cybersecurity skills against ethical hackers.
Governors also have a keen interest in working with cities and towns as digital technology becomes more integrated into local services. One particular need is to work closer with local leaders to help them understand the cyber challenges they face and help them meet national standards around protecting critical data and services.
As the president’s new National Cyber Strategy states: “America’s prosperity and security depend on how we respond to the opportunities and challenges in cyberspace.” The rise of internet-connected technology is helping bring new efficiencies to our everyday lives. But to keep our devices, systems, networks and infrastructure safe, we also need the best strategies, governance, and highly skilled workforce to defend them. And that’s where governors and private partners are leading.
John Bel Edwards is the governor of Louisiana. Asa Hutchinson is the governor of Arkansas. Thomas Kennedy is the Chairman and CEO of Raytheon Company, a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/443697-cyber-threats-are-a-collective-danger-states-and-industry-must

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Transportation and Infrastructure News

North Dakota To Sue Washington Over Crude-By-Rail Law

May 15, 2019 | E&E Energywire

By Mike Lee

Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has threatened to sue over a new state law in Washington aimed at restricting the amount of oil that moves into Washington by rail.
S.B. 5579, which Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed into law, would limit the vapor pressure of oil that's transported on rail cars. It would only apply to oil that's loaded or unloaded at new facilities, though, or at facilities that see an increase in the amount of rail traffic they handle.
Burgum said the law may violate North Dakota's rights under the Constitution's commerce clause.
"It is deeply disappointing that another state would attempt to impose restrictions that are both unreasonable and unsupported by science to block the transport of a legal product being shipped in a manner that is even safer than what federal standards require," he said in a statement.
Inslee, who's running for president in part on his record of promoting clean energy, defended the state law in a statement.
"As the federal government continues to fail to exercise its full powers to ensure the safe transport of oil by rail, Washington needs to remain vigilant in protecting our communities from the very real risk of derailments," he said.
A spokeswoman for Inslee said the law is intended to give shippers and refiners plenty of time to comply.
"Everyone is grandfathered until there is a 10 percent increase in crude-by-rail shipment for a refinery compared to 2018, plus a two-year lag after that before the new requirement would kick in," the spokeswoman, Tara Lee, said in an email.
While it's unclear how solid North Dakota's legal case will be, the dispute adds another round to the ongoing debate about the safety of moving oil by rail.
More than 90% of North Dakota's oil comes from the Bakken Shale field, a remote area near the Montana border. When the field first started producing in the early 2010s, there were so few pipelines that more than 70% of the oil was transported on rail cars.
Several pipelines have opened in the intervening years, and only about 17% of the state's crude is currently transported by rail, according to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority. About 29% of the crude coming to Washington's six refineries arrives by rail, according to the state Department of Ecology.
Bakken crude was involved in a string of high-profile fires and explosions during train accidents, including one in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people in 2013 (Energywire, Aug. 5, 2013).
Some experts said Bakken crude is more prone to ignite because it contains high levels of volatile compounds such as butane, ethane and pentane. In response, North Dakota passed regulations in 2014 setting a vapor pressure limit of 13.7 pounds per square inch.
In 2015, New York's then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) petitioned federal transportation officials to set an even lower limit — 9 pounds per square inch.
In 2017, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration began exploring the possibility of imposing a cap on crude volatility. The rulemaking is still pending (Energywire, Jan. 13, 2017).
The Washington law sets the same vapor pressure limit as what New York requested, 9 pounds per square inch.
North Dakota's congressional delegation sent a letter to Inslee urging him to veto the law, saying the proposal is preempted by federal law.
Federal law generally trumps state environmental laws when it comes to rail transport. However, federal courts have ruled in a few cases that local governments can enforce some regulations on rail facilities, such as local building or electrical codes, Alexandra Klass, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, said in an email.
"Washington is attempting to create the type of local environmental health and safety regulation that courts have found are not preempted by federal railroad safety regulations," Klass wrote.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2019/05/14/stories/1060328659

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Ewire: Industry, Labor Seek To Boost Infrastructure Push

May 14, 2019 | Inside EPA

Top industry leaders are seeking to boost pressure on policymakers to enact major legislation upgrading transportation and other types of infrastructure, and one top House Democrat is putting the pressure on the White House to endorse a funding mechanism to pay for new projects.
The comments, from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), came during a May 13 kickoff event for the seventh-annual Infrastructure Week hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, National Association of Manufacturers and other groups.
(This week's festivities are not to be confused with prior, less-formal Infrastructure Weeks proclaimed by the Trump administration, which have been repeatedly overtaken by other political crises and have turned the concept of Infrastructure Week into a running joke in some corners of Washington.)
While Democrats and President Donald Trump have reportedly agreed to advance a $2 trillion package to pay for transportation, water, energy and other types of infrastructure projects, Hoyer told the kickoff event that the president must take the lead in pushing the package, and particularly a funding source.
He said he told Trump “there's not a member in the House nor a member in the Senate that's going to put their neck out on funding a $2 trillion project unless you are leading,” according to Politico.
“If the president does not lead on how we're going to fund this infrastructure investment, it will not happen,” he added, according to a separate report from Transport Topics.
In addition to the thorny issue of funding, Democrats have also pressed the GOP to include an array of climate-related provisions in any bill, while Republicans are pushing to include steps to streamline project permitting. Any of those issues could scuttle bipartisan talks.
While much of the attention in Congress is on transportation infrastructure, industry, states and environmentalists have urged lawmakers to include funding for sectors such as water in any bill.
EPA chief Andrew Wheeler is set to address the topic during a keynote address at a May 15 Bipartisan Policy Center event. He will discuss the agency's role in building “critical infrastructure,” including its funding programs for water infrastructure as well as its functions reviewing and permitting other agencies' infrastructure work.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-industry-labor-seek-boost-infrastructure-push

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Environment News

Sanders Aligns With Ocasio-Cortez on Climate as Biden Surges

May 14, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Laura Litvan and Emma Kinery

Vermont senator highlights differences with Biden in 2020 race
Climate set to be crucial issue for Democratic contenders
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is highlighting his alliance with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal as he rallies progressive activists to try to blunt the momentum of Joe Biden in the nomination race.
Sanders called for urgent action on climate change at a May 13 event in Washington organized by the Sunrise Movement, an activist group that aims to make the 2020 Democratic primary race a referendum on adoption of the far-reaching and costly climate-change proposal that has been a signature issue for Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who was elected last November.
“The United States must lead the world with a global approach that emphasizes the Green New Deal,” Sanders, a Vermont senator, told the crowd at Howard University, “and when we do that we not only address the great environmental crisis of our time but we make millions of good paying jobs.”
The event was Sanders’ second appearance in less than a week with Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star among progressives and young voters whom Sanders is courting to help carry him through the months of primaries and caucuses that begin next year. Last Thursday, the two proposed legislation that would impose a limit of 15% on credit card interest rates and let post offices offer low-cost basic financial services like checking and savings accounts.
“She has really smartly associated herself with key issues like the climate crisis, income inequality, and getting money out of politics,” said Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist who isn’t working for any of the Democratic contenders. “Her endorsement will be absolutely coveted.”
Poll Slide
Sanders has found himself dropping in recent polls since Biden formally announced his bid in April, offering himself as a centrist alternative to Sanders and the candidate best positioned to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020.
The Democratic candidates are under pressure to take a stand on climate and groups like Sunrise Movement are trying to keep the issue at the top of the agenda. An April 30 CNN poll found that 82 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said it was very important for the next president to take aggressive action to slow climate change.
Sanders and other progressives have been criticizing Biden after an adviser to the former vice president told Reuters last week that his campaign would seek a middle ground on addressing the issue that would appeal both to environmentalists and blue-collar voters.
‘Middle Ground’
“There is no ‘middle ground’ when it comes to climate policy,” Sanders tweeted Friday. “If we don’t commit to fully transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels, we will doom future generations.”
Biden also was the target of several speakers who addressed the crowd at the climate event Monday.
Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the Ocasio-Cortez aligned activist group Justice Democrats, asked the crowd: “I’m just curious, who here liked when Joe Biden said that he was middle of the road on climate policy?” Some in the audience booed.
“That means that right now, regardless of who you like during the 2020 presidential primary, you need to be pushing and making sure that every young person, every working-class community, is going out and talking about the issues that we care about,” Rojas said.
Ocasio-Cortez indirectly made reference to the remarks attributed to Biden’s adviser.
“So often when folks, particularly conservatives on both sides of the aisle say that calling for a Green New Deal is too much or too extreme or too radical” and that the “middle ground is right,” she said. “What do they mean by that?”
Speaking at a campaign event Monday in Hampton, N.H., Biden promised to lay out his own plan by the end of May. He rejected the notion that he is being too cautious or late to address the issue, saying he “was in this area long before anyone else was.”
He called for an “environmental revolution” to address a growing threat and said, “If we don’t act quickly we’re going to basically lose everything we have.”
A focal point for Democrats is the Green New Deal, mostly a collection of goals for mitigating climate change that was introduced in Congress by Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts. In addition to establishing a carbon-neutral goal for greenhouse gas emissions, it says it would create “millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States.”
It has more than 100 Democratic co-sponsors and has been embraced by many of the 21 Democrats running for president, including Sanders; Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Sen. Kamala Harris of California; and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Candidates including Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado haven’t signed on.
The Green New Deal also has been a target for Republicans, even as the party moves closer to adopting its own policies on climate change. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced it as a “radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.”
—With assistance from Sahil Kapur and Katia Dmitrieva.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/sanders-aligns-with-ocasio-cortez-on-climate-as-biden-surges

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House Democrats Raise Bar on Clean Energy, Efficiency Spending

May 14, 2019 | BNA Daily Environment Report

By Dean Scott

House energy-water draft bill would hike energy efficiency, renewable energy spending
Would boost ARPA-E energy research zeroed out under Trump budget plan
House Democrats rolled out plans May 14 for increased spending for Energy Department clean energy and energy efficiency programs in fiscal 2020 instead of the big cuts that President Donald Trump proposed.
The draft bill unveiled by House appropriators would hike energy and water spending to a total of $46.4 billion in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
The $46.4 billion total represents a $1.8 billion increase over the current year level, and includes a $1.4 billion increase for the Energy Department. Total Energy Department spending would go up to $37.1 billion, which is $5.6 billion above Trump’s fiscal 2020 request.
The legislation makes its first stop in the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water spending on May 15 when the panel is expected to mark up the measure and send it to the full House Appropriations panel.
The Senate has yet to begin moving its 12 fiscal 2020 spending bills.
Variety of Increases
The House draft version includes significant increases in Energy Department energy efficiency and clean energy spending, including:
$2.65 billion for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a $273 million boost above the current year level and $2.3 billion above Trump’s request;$200 million for DOE electricity programs to increase resiliency of the nation’s grid and ensure it can better accommodate increasing wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources, a $44 million increase from the current year level and $17.5 million above Trump’s request; and$425 million, a $59 million increase over current year levels, for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which researches groundbreaking energy research much as DARPA—the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—does for defense. ARPA-E was zeroed out under the Trump administration’s fiscal 2020 budget proposal.
The House draft spending measure also would provide $130 million in fiscal 2020 for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a $95 million decrease from the current year, and no increase for Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy Research and Development. The fossil energy office would get $740 million under the House proposal, the same as in the current fiscal year, though that would still be $178 million above Trump’s request.
The draft bill doesn’t include funding for the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, a project that state’s lawmakers vociferously oppose.

House appropriators also would provide a total of $7.36 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in fiscal 2020, a $357 million increase from the current year level and $2.53 billion above Trump’s budget request.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/house-democrats-raise-bar-on-clean-energy-efficiency-spending

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House Dems Propose Billions In Extra Funding For Environmental Programs That Trump Sought To Cut

May 15, 2019 | The Hill - E2 Wire

By Niv Elis and Rebecca Beitsch

House Democrats on Tuesday rebuffed President Trump’s attempts to drastically scale back funding for environmental programs, releasing two spending bills that upped funding to the programs, including those the administration hoped to scrap entirely. The first bill from the House Appropriations Committee allocated $37.28 billion for the Interior Department and the environment, which was $7.24 billion above the president’s request. While Trump proposed cutting funding to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by about a third, Democrats are hoping to increase funding to the agency by $672 million. The proposal would bring the EPA's budget to a total of $9.5 billion. “Our Interior-Environment funding bill totally rejects the pro-pollution, anti-public lands, anti-environmental protection budget proposal submitted to Congress by President Trump,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.). “Instead, Democrats are prioritizing investments that ensure our air is safe to breathe and our water is safe to drink,” she added. The $13.8 billion proposed for the Interior Department, which includes funding for land management, Fish and Wildlife Services, National Park Services and Ecological Services, came out $2.4 billion above Trump’s request. The increases to the Interior budget include funding for 500 additional staffers within the National Park Service, as well as an extra $135 million to deal with deferred maintenance at parks.

The bill also sets aside $18 million in the EPA budget for the study and regulation of a chemical used in a variety of nonstick products and fire-fighting foam that has been leaching into water. A second bill from Democrats on funding for energy and water programs offered an 11 percent increase to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The proposal would replace Trump's proposed 86 percent cut, and also gives a $59 million funding boost to the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, a key energy research program. In his budget, Trump not only proposed eliminating the $366 million in current funding for the program, but clawing back $287 million additional dollars in funds that had not yet been obligated. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on energy and water, said the bill "rejects the President’s drastic, short-sighted cuts across the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation – all of which contribute to our nation’s economic prosperity." Democrats argue that budget cuts run counter to Republican calls for energy “innovation” as a solution to climate change, and have pressed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to defend cuts that could inhibit the department from achieving its agenda. “As you can imagine, many of these proposed cuts are nonstarters as far as I am concerned,” Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, told Perry at a hearing last week. “These reductions would severely impact federally-funded investment in clean energy research and development, harming our economy and global status as leaders in these areas.” Perry reiterated an argument that budget cuts did not indicate a lack of importance to the program. "For too long, government success has been measured by how much we spend on it," he said. The energy and water bill also included $665.7 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration, most of which is oriented toward nuclear weapons. Outside of the EPA, the bills rejected several other elements of Trump’s budget proposal, including eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. The new proposals allocated $167.5 million to each program, an increase of $12.5 million from current levels, and increased funding to a number of other arts programs that Trump proposed cutting. Both bills will be marked up in subcommittee on Wednesday, and are expected to be taken up by the full committee as soon as next week. The Senate, in the meantime, has not yet released any funding bills or set overall spending limits for appropriators. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he is waiting for Democrats and Republicans to strike a deal with the White House on spending before writing bills, though he may forge ahead in early summer if they fail to strike a deal.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/443665-house-dems-propose-billions-in-extra-funding-for-environment-programs-that

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Texas Rules Raise Questions On Benefits, Harm From Oil and Gas Sector

May 15, 2019 | Inside EPA

The limited scope of environmental rules in Texas affecting the oil and gas industry could make it difficult to ensure the direct economic benefits of energy production are not overshadowed by a negative environmental legacy, experts said during a May 14 event sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
“If we're going to see change, it has to be a new rule,” Bo Vizcaino, an engineering tech with the Texas Railroad Commission, said during the Roundtable on Unconventional Hydrocarbon Development's workshop in Midland, TX, which was also webcast.
The discussion focused on energy production in the Permian Basin, a large oil-and-gas-producing area in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico that is one of the most prolific in the country.
Danny Reible, the Donovan Maddox Distinguished Engineering Chair at Texas Tech University, noted several environmental concerns connected to shale gas drilling, including demand on scare water resources, above-ground spills and underground leaks, seismic activity, lost ecosystem services and impacts to threatened species, greenhouse gas and other air emissions, and impacts to roads from heavy trucks.
But there are also direct economic benefits, and some places, like Norway, have used the profits from energy development to invest in future environmental needs, Reible said. “Where in the Permian are we going to come down?” Reible suggested Texans likely would be unwilling to give up lower taxes in the short-term to avoid future environmental harm.
Melinda Taylor, a faculty member of the University of Texas School of Law who previously worked for Environmental Defense Fund and the National Audubon Society, noted that Texas has no regulatory framework to protect habitat or natural ecosystems. Ninety-seven percent of energy production in the Permian Basin is occurring on privately owned land, she said, adding that Texas counties have no land use authority and cities have very little. Furthermore, Texas has no law governing damage to surface lands and has limited tort liability, she said.
Vizcaino said the Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas sector in Texas, has taken several steps to limit environmental harm, such as creating an orphan well program to clean up abandoned wells and requiring every well operator to have financial assurance.
But these do not address all the problems, he said. “Unfortunately, operators that walk away leave much more than what's in the kitty,” he said, referring to financial assurance payments. And the commission's limited resources means it can only deal with the most egregious violators, he said.
An audience member asked the speakers how well they believe the full scope and scale of environmental problems have been characterized.
“I'm pretty sure we don't have all the answers,” Vicaino replied. For example, while the commission has an online database of reported spills, there is no requirement to report spills of produced water less than 250 barrels, he said.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/texas-rules-raise-questions-benefits-harm-oil-and-gas-sector

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