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Report Outlines Benefits of TTIP for Small Businesses
Apr 22, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The Office of the US Trade Representative and the European Commission have released a joint report, highlighting the benefits to small businesses that regulatory cooperation and other aspects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) [currently being negotiated] can bring, on both sides of the Atlantic. -
Boxer Urges Fixes For 'Fast Track' Senate TSCA Bill
Apr 22, 2015 | InsideEPA
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is urging Sens. David Vitter (R-LA) and Tom Udall (D-NM) to make several major changes to their bill to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) including paring back state preemption provisions, saying the legislation is on a “fast track” to an environment panel markup slated for April 28. -
EPA To Weigh Risks Of 1,4-Dioxane Under TSCA Authority
Apr 21, 2015 | InsideEPA
After a preliminary review, EPA has decided to further assess potential risks to workers and consumers from the ubiquitous substance 1,4-dioxane through a novel program that seeks to better regulate existing chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and has prompted the agency to weigh restrictions on several other chemicals. -
US EPA Releases Initial Assessment for 1,4-Dioxane
Apr 22, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA has released a problem formulation and initial assessment document for 1,4-dioxane, the first step in the risk assessment process under its workplan chemicals programme. -
Hold the Phones! Literally.
Apr 22, 2015 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Cindy Luppi
You may not have noticed yet but there’s an epic battle about to break wide open and onto the floors of Congress regarding our nation’s chemical safety policies. -
Report Urges Congress to Restore Funding for Asbestos Removal in Schools
Apr 22, 2015 | The Hill - Reg Watch
By Lydia Wheeler
School districts have long been on their own when it comes to dealing with asbestos, a new report from the Environmental Working Group Action Fund found. -
Boxer: Two Years After West Explosion, ‘Very Little Progress Has Been Made’
Apr 22, 2015 | The Dallas Morning News
By Michael Lindenberger
One of the leading voices in the Senate for safety reforms in the wake of the massive explosion in West, Texas today said she’s concerned that very little has been accomplished in the year since the fatal blast to make workplaces safer from chemical disasters. -
Why Did These Oil Workers Die?
Apr 21, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Alexandra Berzon
The deaths of Trent Vigus and at least nine other oil-field workers over the past five years had haunting similarities. -
(ACC Mentioned) Colo. Court Rejects Industry-Favored Litigation Tool for Contamination Cases
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Colorado courts cannot require landowners to link contamination to oil and gas operations before a lawsuit moves forward, the state's highest court decided this week. -
QER Could Help Lawmakers Aiming to Pass Broad Bill
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E Daily
By Nick Juliano
If bookies set odds on legislative prospects, a bipartisan, comprehensive energy bill would still be a definite long shot this year, but the reactions from Capitol Hill to a suite of proposals rolled out by the Obama administration yesterday may have improved its odds -- at least slightly. -
2 Reports Show How Time, Change are Squeezing the Power Grid
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Peter Behr
Two separate high-level official reports yesterday spotlighted short- and long-term challenges to the nation's electric power grid. The short-term hazards are a consequence of policy. The long-term dangers stem from the absence of policy. -
House Panel Advances Opt-Out Bill
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jean Chemnick
Legislation to allow states to opt out of U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan progressed one step further in the legislative process today, clearing a key House Energy and Commerce Committee subpanel on its way to likely House passage. -
Utilities, Whitehouse Defend Clean Power Plan
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Hannah Northey
Electric utilities that rely heavily on nuclear and renewable energy defended U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan alongside a Senate Democrat who faulted Republican leadership for trying to stall the proposed climate rule. -
Clean Power Plan Calculator Highlights Efficiency Opportunities for States
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Climatewire
By Scott Detrow and Emily Holden
A top energy efficiency advocacy group is releasing an online tool this morning that it hopes will assist air quality regulators and other state officials as they figure out how to meet ambitious carbon reduction goals laid out by U.S. EPA's impending Clean Power Plan. -
Ky. GOP Candidates for Governor Agree: Clean Power Plan is Bad
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jennifer Yachnin
Republican candidates seeking to differentiate themselves ahead of Kentucky's gubernatorial primary sparred last night over bridge tolls and state health care programs, but the contenders did agree on one thing: Each vowed to defy U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan if elected. -
Sierra Club Launches Campaign to Promote Lower Ozone Limit
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Amanda Peterka
The Sierra Club today launched a campaign to promote a tighter national standard for ozone, a key component of smoggy air. -
Dems Unveil 'Strongest Anti-Fracking Bill' for Federal Land
Apr 22, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A pair of Democratic House members introduced a bill Wednesday to ban hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, commonly known as fracking, on federal land. -
Study Finds Low Cost in Reducing Methane Emissions
Apr 21, 2015 | The New York Times
By John Schwartz
Reducing methane leaks from oil and gas operations around the world could provide a relatively inexpensive way to fight climate change, according to a new report commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund. -
House Appropriators Send Energy and Water Bill to Floor
Apr 22, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillén
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved its $35.4 billion fiscal 2016 energy and water spending bill. -
Thermal Camera ‘Sees’ Hidden Pollution, Nets Major Settlement with Energy Firm
Apr 22, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Joby Warrick
In normal daylight, the big tanks used to store Noble Energy Inc.’spetroleum looked solid enough. But when regulators examined them through thermal cameras, they made a startling discovery: Noxious pollutants escaped from the tanks like smoke from a chimney. -
Committee Passes $35B Funding Bill for Energy, Water Development
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - The Hill
By Rebecca Shabad
House appropriators on Wednesday advanced a $35.4 billion bill that would funding energy and water development for fiscal 2016.
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Report Outlines Benefits of TTIP for Small Businesses
Apr 22, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The Office of the US Trade Representative and the European Commission have released a joint report, highlighting the benefits to small businesses that regulatory cooperation and other aspects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) [currently being negotiated] can bring, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Small businesses in the US and the EU can be “disproportionately affected by non-tariff barriers, which can take the form of requirements applied at the border or 'behind-the-border' barriers,” the report says.
Compliance with such measures can be challenging and resource intensive. It adds: A central shared goal of TTIP is to provide “greater openness and transparency, reduce unnecessary costs and administrative delays and promote enhanced regulatory compatibility, while achieving the levels of health, safety and environmental protection that each side deems appropriate and meeting other legitimate regulatory objectives.”
Another aim of TTIP is to ensure that regulations are developed in ways that are “more efficient, cost-effective and compatible ... through, for example, use of impact assessments and the application of good regulatory practices.”
“Progress in this area will ensure that impacts on SMEs are taken into account in the regulatory process, reduce companies’ costs and potentially open up new markets for them, both across the Atlantic and globally,” it says.
TTIP will also help small firms gain greater access to government procurement markets. Public entities in the US and EU buy a broad range of goods and services from private sector businesses, which leads to job-supporting opportunities for industries that provide consulting services, infrastructure and other products and services, the document says.
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Boxer Urges Fixes For 'Fast Track' Senate TSCA Bill
Apr 22, 2015 | InsideEPA
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is urging Sens. David Vitter (R-LA) and Tom Udall (D-NM) to make several major changes to their bill to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) including paring back state preemption provisions, saying the legislation is on a “fast track” to an environment panel markup slated for April 28.
At an April 21 briefing with reporters, Boxer said that she has asked several Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) Democrats -- including Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) -- to suggest possible revisions to the legislation, S. 697. “We're waiting to hear the results of those meetings,” Boxer said during the briefing.
S. 697 is a “fast-track bill” on a “roller coaster to passage,” the senator said, reiterating her long-running concerns with various provisions in the bipartisan legislation. She opposes the bill's language that would broadly preempt state chemicals programs; provisions limiting EPA's review of substances; and more.
The preemption provisions of the legislation would bar state chemicals rules once EPA designates a substance "high-priority" under the prioritization scheme that the bill would establish -- which critics charge could leave a "regulatory gap" of up to seven years before a final federal rule is in place.
Boxer also highlighted that the bill would only require EPA to review 25 chemicals over a five year period, far short of what is needed to address the thousands of chemicals currently “grandfathered” from regualtion under TSCA. The fact that the 1976 law grandfathers those chemicals is a major driver of reform legislation.
And the senator, ranking member on EPW, also said that the bill does not include any reference to asbestos, despite EPA's 1991 failed attempt to regulate asbestos that remains a major failing of the current TSCA, and that experts have said regulation of asbestos under the S. 697 bill would “never ever happen.”
If Vitter and Udall do not address Boxer's concerns with the measure she said she will “lobby hard” against the bill. Boxer is pushing her own version of TSCA reform with Markey and other Democrats.
The competing bill would expedite EPA action on asbestos, would not preempt state chemicals programs, and has the backing of several states who oppose the broad preemption language in S. 697. But, Boxer said during the briefing, “Our bill is not being marked up by the environment committee.”
S. 697 “has momentum and that worries me,” Boxer added, saying she will send briefing testimony provided by Kathi Salley-Randall on behalf of the Breast Cancer Fund and Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Laura Welch, on behalf of Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and others to Senate colleagues.
Boxer also suggested that a draft House TSCA reform bill, floated by Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), might have fewer problems than the Vitter-Udall bill, saying some of the issues with the Senate bill are “not issues with the House bill.”
Boxer's remarks add to observers' comments suggesting the lower chamber's measure could be more likely to win broad bipartisan backing than either Senate bill because it is significantly limited in scope compared to the upper chamber versions.
More than 100 pages shorter than either Senate bill, the House legislation sidesteps a suite of potentially controversial policy provisions that have stymied the Senate's efforts and also helped kill a broader House bill in the 113th Congress.
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EPA To Weigh Risks Of 1,4-Dioxane Under TSCA Authority
Apr 21, 2015 | InsideEPA
After a preliminary review, EPA has decided to further assess potential risks to workers and consumers from the ubiquitous substance 1,4-dioxane through a novel program that seeks to better regulate existing chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and has prompted the agency to weigh restrictions on several other chemicals.
EPA April 21 said it has completed problem formulation and an initial assessment of 1,4-dioxane, a likely carcinogen, and that further review is warranted of potential risks from the substance to workers exposed during product formulation or while using it as a cleaning agent. The agency also will assess risks to workers and consumers from products that contain 1,4-dioxane as a contaminant, such as paints, varnishes, adhesives, cleansers and detergents.
EPA's preliminary review concluded that risk to the general population through inhalation exposure to ambient air emissions is low. And the agency says a drinking water assessment is not currently necessary, because 1,4-dioxane is monitored, and the agency is considering whether regulation is needed under a different process.
Dioxane has long been a concern in drinking water and at Superfund sites, and more recently, environmentalists and public health groups have questioned its appearance in consumer products like soaps and shampoos.
An EPA Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment in 2010 listed the chemical as a "likely" carcinogen and set risk values for oral exposures, but industry and federal agencies, including the Defense Department and NASA have questioned EPA's strict estimate of cancer risks by oral exposure.
The agency in 2013 released an updated IRIS assessment that included first-time inhalation risks and maintained the controversial “likely” carcinogen finding.
EPA April 21 released the “TSCA Work Plan Chemical Problem Formulation and Initial Assessment” of 1,4-dioxane, saying it is the first time it has released that documentation for a chemical under review by the TSCA workplan assessment program. The agency says the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) intends to develop similar documents for other chemicals that the program will assess moving forward.
In the review, OPPT says it conducts chemical risk assessments if scoping and problem formulation documents find exposures of concern, hazards, and there is sufficient data for analysis.
Peer reviewers have criticized several of the initial assessments EPA conducted under the novel TSCA workplan assessment program, and urged EPA to seek more data on workplace exposures to the chemicals before using the assessment for regulatory purposes. EPA intends to eventually review more than 80 chemicals under the program.
Earlier this year, EPA announced it is mulling the possibility of initiating rare actions under TSCA section 6 to restrict or prohibit the use of the paint-stripping chemicals n-methlpyrrolidone and methylene chloride. And last year, the agency begun work on a section 6 rulemaking for the common degreasing solvent trichloroethylene.
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US EPA Releases Initial Assessment for 1,4-Dioxane
Apr 22, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The US EPA has released a problem formulation and initial assessment document for 1,4-dioxane, the first step in the risk assessment process under its workplan chemicals programme.
The chemical is an industrial solvent, used in a variety of products and as a laboratory reagent and chemical intermediate.
The agency concluded after the initial assessment, which looked at likely exposure and hazard scenarios for workers and consumers, that it will assess further potential risks to workers, exposed during product formulation and its use as a cleaning agent and also to workers and consumers, exposed during use of products that contain the chemical as a contaminant, such as paints, varnishes, adhesives, cleaners and detergents.
It also determined that risk to the general population, through inhalation exposure, is low and that an assessment of exposure through drinking water is not needed because the chemical is now being monitored.
1,4-dioxane is the first chemical under its workplan, for which the agency is releasing a problem formulation and initial assessment document.
The EPA plans to repeat the exercise for the rest of the 90 workplan chemicals (CW 23 October 2014). So far, it has released final assessments for five.
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Apr 22, 2015 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Cindy Luppi
You may not have noticed yet but there’s an epic battle about to break wide open and onto the floors of Congress regarding our nation’s chemical safety policies. The chemical industry would like to preserve as much of the status quo as possible, with few restrictions on how they produce and distribute chemicals. The nation’s leading health and environmental groups are pushing for common sense updates that reflect modern science and protect our families from toxic chemicals in every day products like children’s toys and couch cushions.
This battle will answer critical questions like how soon we can expect protection from asbestos and other toxic chemicals with strong links to cancer or learning disabilities. Will there be stringent enforcement of the law that ultimately passes, or will follow through be crippled by blocking the usual role of state officials? Will there be loopholes that allow years of stalling and foot dragging from the Exxon Mobiles and Dow Chemicals of the world, or will the Environmental Protection Agency be given the tools they need to move on health-based decisions about toxic chemicals?
If someone you care about — your sister, neighbor, best friend, parent — is struggling with a disease associated with exposure to toxics chemicals, today is the day to pick up the phone. If you’d like a healthier future for the children in your life, today is the day to pick up the phone. If you’d like the standards in place in the United States so we can catch up with advances in other parts of the world like the European Union, today is the day to pick up the phone.
Clean Water Action and other members of the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families coalition will be doing all we can, staffing phone banks and urging our members to join in as well. Our goal? To make sure that Congress hears us…and to make sure we achieve a healthier future for our friend Lula Pearl (pictured) and for all of us.Call your senator today: (202) 224-3121!
And don’t forget to take action with us here. Urge your senator to oppose the Udall-Vitter chemical bill S.697.
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Report Urges Congress to Restore Funding for Asbestos Removal in Schools
Apr 22, 2015 | The Hill - Reg Watch
By Lydia Wheeler
School districts have long been on their own when it comes to dealing with asbestos, a new report from the Environmental Working Group Action Fund found.
According to the sister organization of the Environmental Working Group, which has been a vocal supporter of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), it’s been more than 20 years since Congress set aside funds to help schools address asbestos exposure.
“Many schools built before the early 1980s almost certainly contain asbestos, and almost every week brings another story of asbestos found in schools – disrupting education, displacing students and disturbing parents,” the report’s author and EWG Action Fund Advisor Bill Walker said in a release. “It’s a national problem that demands a national solution, starting with a total ban on asbestos.”
The report comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate how best to reform the nation's toxic chemical laws with two competing bills in the Senate.
Environmentalists have widely opposed the bill introduced by Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and David Vitter (R-La.) despite the fact that it appears to have enough bipartisan support to be the winning legislation.
The action fund report said 1984 was the last time the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a nationwide survey to determine the extent of the potential dangers asbestos posed to students, faculty and other school employees.
Of the 2,600 public school districts and private schools sampled, the action fund said EPA estimated that 15 million students and 1.4 million teachers, administrators and other employees – in almost 35,000 schools – were at risk of exposure to deadly airborne asbestos fibers.
The report calls on Congress to restore funding to school districts for asbestos abatement and enact a total ban on the toxic substance, which can be attributed to more than 10,000 deaths a year.
In a statement, US EPA said the agency is reviewing the report.
During a press conference Tuesday, Boxer called on Udall and Vitter to “fix their toxic chemical bill before it goes to mark-up as early as next week.”
Boxer said the Udall-Vitter bill is worse than the current TSCA law because it only provides for the assessment of 25 chemicals over five years, it “eviscerates states rights to protect their people from cancer-causing chemicals and “it does nothing to address asbestos.”
“The bill doesn’t even mention the word asbestos,” she said. “And experts say regulation of asbestos under the Udall-Vitter bill will never, ever happen.”
In a response Tuesday evening, Udall’s office called those statements “blatantly false.”
"It is blatantly false to say that Senator Udall's bill would prevent the regulation of asbestos,” Udall’s Spokeswoman Jennifer Talhelm said in a statement. “Senator Udall's bill specifically corrects the flaws in current TSCA to finally give EPA the ability to regulate asbestos as well as BPA, styrene, and many other dangerous chemicals. If we don't act — or if we hold out for an unworkable proposal — these chemicals will continue to flow through commerce unregulated, and our kids will never have the protection they need to be safe."
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Boxer: Two Years After West Explosion, ‘Very Little Progress Has Been Made’
Apr 22, 2015 | The Dallas Morning News
By Michael Lindenberger
One of the leading voices in the Senate for safety reforms in the wake of the massive explosion in West, Texas today said she’s concerned that very little has been accomplished in the year since the fatal blast to make workplaces safer from chemical disasters.
The explosion at West Fertilizer plant two years ago this month killed 15 people.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is ranking member (and former chairman) of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and said this morning that despite President Obama naming a high-level inter-agency task force to recommend changes for handling of dangerous materials, little progress has been made.
“After the disaster in West, Texas, President Obama issued an Executive Order establishing a Working Group to conduct a comprehensive review of our chemical safety and security programs and develop recommendations for improving these programs. However, I am very concerned that despite the clear risks posed by our nation’s chemical facilities, very little progress has been made to improve safety.”
Boxer’s statement came as the committee, now chaired by Republican Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, welcomed testimony by Vanessa Sutherland, the president’s nominee to be chairman of the Chemical Safety Board. (An archived video of this morning’s hearing is here.)
Sutherland has been nominated to replace Rafael Moure-Eraso, who resigned under pressure from the committee and others late last month. (SeeInhofe’s opening remarks.)
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Why Did These Oil Workers Die?
Apr 21, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Alexandra Berzon
The deaths of Trent Vigus and at least nine other oil-field workers over the past five years had haunting similarities. Each worker was doing a job that involved climbing on top of a catwalk strung between rows of storage tanks and opening a hatch.
There were no known witnesses to any of the men’s deaths. Their bodies were all found lying on top of or near the tanks. Medical examiners generally attributed the workers’ deaths primarily or entirely to natural causes, often heart failure.
But in the past few months, there has been a shift. Though still unsure of the exact cause of the deaths, government agencies and some industry-safety executives are now acknowledging a pattern and are focusing on the possible role played in the deaths by hydrocarbon chemicals, which can lead to quick asphyxiation or heart failure when inhaled in large quantities.
In the meantime, federal agencies and industry-safety groups are planning to send out a joint alert to the oil industry as early as this week, warning of the potential for imminent danger from inhaling hydrocarbons, according to several people involved in the effort. Much of the industry remains ignorant of the possible risks, they say.
David Miller, the director of the American Petroleum Institute’s standards board, said the industry may also address the issue while working on new recommendations involving tank storage. “It is an acknowledgment from our perspective that one accident is too many,” he said.
According to some industry-safety and government officials, the industry has been ignoring warning signs for years and has been resistant to implementing some steps that would reduce or eliminate the risk to workers.
“I was trying to get workers into respirators and all kinds of things and running an uphill battle,” said a former industrial hygienist for a large oil company who said he had noticed dangerously high hydrocarbon levels in some of his testing as far back as 2009. “They say, ‘Everyone does it this way.’ But that doesn’t make it any less right or wrong.”ENLARGETank batteries in North Dakota where a worker died on April 28, 2014. The photo was taken by safety inspectors as part of an OSHA investigation into the worker’s death and obtained by The Wall Street Journal. PHOTO: U.S. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
Some industry officials said that companies hadn’t realized there might be a problem until the pattern of deaths began to emerge, but they now acknowledge the situation needs to be studied further.
The documented deaths date back to 2010, with six last year. Three were in North Dakota, three in Colorado, one in Texas, one in Oklahoma and one in Montana, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which first highlighted the pattern in May 2014. This year there was at least one death, in North Dakota. It’s still under investigation and may fit the pattern, federal officials said.
Four workers were engaged in what’s called tank gauging, where they measure the level of oil in tanks coming out of wells or the level of some byproducts that come up after the fracking process is completed. Five others were assigned to take samples of oil for further testing.
These jobs are often done alone in remote areas and require opening the hatch and standing above it. When that happens, chemicals that have vaporized spurt out in a dense plume that is often invisible, safety experts say.
It’s unclear why these types of deaths were noticed only recently, and the cause is still under study. Unlike many previous oilfield deaths involving toxic fumes, the culprit doesn’t appear to be hydrogen sulfide, which has long been well-known in the industry as a hazard. Some experts have focused on the unusually high levels of certain hydrocarbons, including benzene, in the type of crude that is now common in the U.S.
In one small sample, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that some chemicals that came out of the tanks close to where some workers stood exceeded levels that have the potential to cause imminent death or permanent health effects, according to a study the agency presented in December.ENLARGEPlume of chemicals coming out of the top of a tank, taken with an infrared camera.PHOTO: U.S. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
Some industry and government experts say they believe the danger may be exacerbated in part by a recent environmental rule designed to protect public health.
In 2012 the Environmental Protection Agency enacted a rule that new oil-field tanks would have to capture hydrocarbons coming out of well sites rather than vent them into the atmosphere. As a result of the requirement, the same dangerous chemicals that had been emitted regularly were now more likely to build up pressure inside the newer tanks, industry and government scientists say.
A spokeswoman for the EPA said its storage-tank requirements shouldn’t add to hazards if they are properly designed and operated.
In July 2010, Mr. Vigus, a 30-year-old worker on a Montana well site, was found slumped over on a catwalk near a storage tank he was checking. The county’s pathologist determined he had died of heart failure.
Mr. Vigus’s mother, Terri Vigus, said the report had always left her uneasy. “I just never, ever felt that that was what happened,” Ms. Vigus said. “I just kept going to how healthy he was.”
OSHA safety inspectors closed their case with no findings around two months later, when they received the medical report.
Some industry experts say the industry knew the plumes could unleash potentially dangerous vapors and should have been monitoring the chemical levels all along. And, they say, companies could implement safety fixes that would reduce or remove hazards. One option is to use automated or remote methods to read tank levels. That is done regularly elsewhere, including in Canada.
“There’s no question in my mind it was absolutely known” that there were dangerously noxious fumes coming from the tanks, said Dennis Schmitz, a safety consultant for oil companies in North Dakota. “You are absolutely required to evaluate that hazard before you put that employee up there.”
“Every hazard should be engineered out,” added Mr. Schmitz, who acknowledged that fixes would add some cost.
In a case related to one of the deaths, an environmental engineer forMarathon Oil noticed in his emissions studies that his company was using pipes that were too narrow to accommodate the pressure of the gas coming through them, creating too much gas buildup in the tanks, according to a sworn statement he gave in a later lawsuit after the worker, Dustin Bergsing, died on a Marathon Oil site.
The engineer said he asked the company to redesign some of the piping systems to create more of a constant flow but was ignored.
Lee Warren, a spokeswoman for Marathon Oil, said in an email that the company considered that statement to be “grossly inaccurate and wholly without merit.” Marathon settled the case; it did not admit liability. “We take seriously the responsibility to properly educate employees about potential hazards that could be encountered in their work,” she said.
Kenny Jordan, the executive director of the Association of Energy Service Companies, said the first priority for the industry is to raise more awareness among workers about the dangers. “We’re trying to take a proactive approach with what we’re doing and trying to get the notice out to workers in the field,” Mr. Jordan said.
Federal officials say they have limited power to force the industry to do more. Oil and gas sites are exempted from many OSHA rules, including specifications on how to handle potential benzene exposure.
At a recent online presentation designed to educate North Dakota oil workers about hydrocarbon dangers, a panel made up of federal and industry safety officials as well as some oil companies showed workers an infrared video image of a giant plume of chemicals coming out of the top of a tank that they said was otherwise invisible.
The officials told workers they should stand upwind of the chemicals when they open the tank hatches.
Workers should also hold a tool called a “four-gas monitor” over the top of the tank, the officials told workers, though all workers aren’t currently provided with the tool.
But afterward several experts, including some panel members, said those measures won’t solve the problem. Said Timothy Hicks, an oil-field safety consultant: “Wind is not a reliable exposure control.”
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(ACC Mentioned) Colo. Court Rejects Industry-Favored Litigation Tool for Contamination Cases
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Ellen M. Gilmer
Colorado courts cannot require landowners to link contamination to oil and gas operations before a lawsuit moves forward, the state's highest court decided this week.
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday found that state trial judges are not empowered to require plaintiffs to prove their contamination claims have merit before advancing a case to the time-consuming discovery phase. The decision nixes future use in Colorado of "Lone Pine" case management orders. Named after the New Jersey case where they originated in 1986, Lone Pine orders require plaintiffs to show "prima facie" evidence that supports their claims before legal proceedings begin in earnest.
Though focused on seemingly mundane legal procedure, the decision is significant to oil and gas operators who hoped to use Lone Pine orders to help defend against pollution claims. The Colorado case, Antero Resources Corp. v. Strudley, attracted amicus briefs from powerful industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, National Association of Manufacturers, Independent Petroleum Association of America and American Chemistry Council.
The dispute began in 2011 when William and Beth Strudley sued Antero for natural gas drilling operations near their western Colorado home that allegedly contaminated the air, water and ground around their house and caused their family to have burning eyes, sore throats, headaches, rashes and nausea.
When Antero argued that the Strudleys' claims were unsubstantiated, the trial court issued a Lone Pine order requiring the Strudleys to submit threshold evidence to support their claims before proceeding to the costly and time-consuming discovery process that allows both sides to investigate claims. The court found their evidence to be insufficient, dismissed the case and barred them from filing another suit on the contamination claims. The Strudleys appealed the decision, and a state appellate court ruled in their favor.
Antero appealed that decision, arguing that Lone Pine orders are important tools for weeding out false claims and protecting companies from unmerited and expensive lawsuits.
"The Strudleys' failure to come forward with any diagnosis of illness or injury attributable to the Companies' actions revealed that their hand was a losing one, which no amount of further discovery could change," Antero attorneys argued in opening briefs before the state Supreme Court. "On this record, full and final dismissal was within the district court's discretion -- and the correct result."
But the Supreme Court justices disagreed, finding this week that the trial court exceeded its authority and that Lone Pine orders are prohibited under Colorado's Rules of Civil Procedure.
"The Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure grant courts flexibility and discretion to address discovery disputes as they arise," Justice Gregory Hobbs wrote in the opinion. "But this judicial authority is limited; it does not allow a court to require a plaintiff to establish a prima facie case in the early stages of litigation while simultaneously barring discovery that might expose the very support sought to prove a claim."'Litigation tool'
As a legal tool, Lone Pine orders have frequently arisen in other contamination lawsuits in the oil and gas world -- with mixed results. In 2013, for example, a federal court in New York found a Lone Pine order appropriate in a case dealing with contamination claims against Anschutz Exploration Corp.
But federal judges in Pennsylvania have refused three separate requests from Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Chesapeake Appalachia LLC and a Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary to use Lone Pine orders in lawsuits accusing the companies of groundwater contamination. The court has repeatedly found that the cases did not present the complex and burdensome discovery scenarios imagined when Lone Pine orders were first used, like mass torts against a landfill or pharmaceutical company.
The Colorado court's opinion notes that while Lone Pine orders are common in federal court, Colorado's Rules of Civil Procedure contain critical differences that prevent the state from adopting the federal model. Colorado courts have never authorized the use of the orders.
Justin Winquist, an attorney for BakerHostetler in Denver, said the use of Lone Pine orders had not been common in state courts in the past, but the decision nonetheless deflates the hopes of industry officials who hoped they would be a useful tactic going forward.
"Had the Colorado Supreme Court gone the other way, it certainly would have provided a litigation tool for defendants in these cases," he said.
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QER Could Help Lawmakers Aiming to Pass Broad Bill
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E Daily
By Nick Juliano
If bookies set odds on legislative prospects, a bipartisan, comprehensive energy bill would still be a definite long shot this year, but the reactions from Capitol Hill to a suite of proposals rolled out by the Obama administration yesterday may have improved its odds -- at least slightly.
The multibillion-dollar price tag carried by the proposals in the administration's Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) may cause some sticker shock in an era of tight budgets. But its overarching focus on energy infrastructure needs -- to capitalize on domestic production; secure a reliable electric grid; and ensure safe transport of oil, gas and coal, among other goals -- dovetails with some of the priorities being addressed by lawmakers assembling an energy bill this year.
Republican energy leaders in both the House and Senate yesterday welcomed the QER as an important contribution to the broader energy policy debate and said they are eager to keep working with the administration.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said in a joint statement that the QER underscores the need for a long-overdue update to domestic energy policies to account for newly abundant resources.
"While we share our differences with this administration regarding energy policy, when it comes to the transmission, storage, and distribution of our resources, we can all agree that targeted changes to our laws and policies are necessary. We need a modern and resilient energy infrastructure that will meet tomorrow's energy challenges," Upton and Whitfield said.
"We are reviewing the administration's full recommendations, but we have already found areas of common ground where we will work together," they added. "We are setting out to build the Architecture of Abundance, and we welcome any willing partners to join us."
E&C ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) similarly welcomed the road map's release.
"We need to look at all sides of the equation -- demand and supply, consumers and producers, and, most importantly, the impacts of a changing climate -- to help us construct an energy future that is both economically and environmentally sustainable," Pallone said in a statement. "And we need the resources of both sides of the aisle, both chambers of Congress, and all branches of government in order to get there."
To be sure, there are ample details still to be combed through in the hundreds of pages of documents and supporting information that constitute the QER, but the measured reception was a welcome sign for energy bill watchers. Still, not all Republicans were quick to embrace the plan.
"If the Administration is serious about securing our energy future, a good start might be with the bipartisan bills passing out of the House," Matt Sparks, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), wrote in an email to reporters this morning, pointing to bills on the Keystone XL pipeline, liquefied natural gas exports and permitting streamlining for gas pipelines.
The Energy and Power Subcommittee tomorrow will hold a hearing on the first of four titles of the "Architecture of Abundance" that energy bill committee leaders hope to advance this year (E&ENews PM, April 21). The first piece focuses on workforce development, based on legislation introduced last year by Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush, an indication of the committee's commitment to assembling a bipartisan package and effort to offer an olive branch to Democrats.
The White House is touting the QER as a road map to a future in which energy comes mostly from cleaner sources such as natural gas, wind and solar electricity, or biofuels, and its recommendations are targeted toward transitioning existing infrastructure toward those goals (Greenwire, April 21).
The recommendations also address concerns that have been raised in response to U.S. EPA's impending Clean Power Plan, which will regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector for the first time and is driving a broader transition in the energy industry. For example, it proposes up to $5 billion worth of state grants to modernize the electric grid, which critics worry would be overly stressed when coal plants shut down and are replaced by intermittent renewables, and calls for up to $3.5 billion to improve aging natural gas pipelines, which will be needed to meet anticipated increased natural gas demand.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is assembling her own energy bill this year, said in a brief interview yesterday that she had not yet studied the QER in detail but was encouraged by earlier conversations with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who had suggested the road map could help serve as a template for an energy bill.
In particular, Murkowski said she wanted additional guidance on addressing permitting and siting constraints that the industry has said inhibit infrastructure development, but she was encouraged to hear that one of the chapters was focused on those issues.
"I've never been to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but what I'm told is that in order for the 12-step plan to work, the first thing you have to admit is that you're an alcoholic," Murkowski said. "So we've got to admit that we've got a system that is inefficient, that needs to be reviewed -- some would say overhauled, some would say tweaked -- but if we can at least agree that we've got some work to do here, maybe we can find a starting place."
Upton and Whitfield's statement does not mention the EPA rules, but that is likely by design. The committee tomorrow plans to mark up a Whitfield bill that would undercut the Clean Power Plan, but it has been apparent all year that effort likely will remain separate from the bipartisan energy bill Upton hopes to deliver (E&E Daily, Feb. 13).
Still, the measured reaction from Upton and Whitfield to the QER caught some off-guard, especially in light of the administration's broader agenda.
"No one doubts that investments in energy infrastructure and permitting reforms make sense, but how do either square with an administration that also creates regulatory roadblocks to either?" asked Stephen Brown, vice president for federal government affairs at Tesoro Corp., a large oil refiner.
Brown also noted that most companies already are investing in infrastructure upgrades and would benefit more from permitting reforms than additional federal spending.
American Gas Association President Dave McCurdy touted ongoing work to upgrade pipelines and pointed to rate mechanisms in place in 38 states to help the process.
"This is an ongoing priority for natural gas utilities, and there is significant proactive work already underway by the natural gas industry, work that is benefiting customers, the overall economy, our nation's energy security and the environment," he said.
Louis Finkel, an executive vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, welcomed the QER as an acknowledgement that oil and gas will remain important features of the U.S. energy mix and touted the job-creation potential of infrastructure upgrades.
"If the president wants to achieve our nation's full energy potential and play a key role in this equation, he should put this industry to work," Finkel said in a statement yesterday. "Essential infrastructure improvements in just the oil and natural gas area could, over the next decade, attract as much as $1.15 trillion in new private capital investment, support 1.15 million new jobs, and add $120 billion on average per year to our nation's [gross domestic product]."
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2 Reports Show How Time, Change are Squeezing the Power Grid
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Peter Behr
Two separate high-level official reports yesterday spotlighted short- and long-term challenges to the nation's electric power grid. The short-term hazards are a consequence of policy. The long-term dangers stem from the absence of policy.
The North American Electric Reliability Corp., the grid's federally designated operations monitor, stated again that the power industry needs more time to develop coordinated plans to meet requirements of U.S. EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan, particularly the initial requirements for reduced power plant carbon emissions in 2020.
"We're at a point where we're looking out approximately four years to implementation [of the EPA plan as proposed]," said John Moura, NERC's director of reliability assessments. NERC hasn't concluded that the plan will cause blackouts, he said, but neither can it conclude that the lights will stay on if the plan is imposed.
"That is a reliability concern in and of itself," Moura told reporters in a conference call yesterday on NERC's assessment (Greenwire, April 21).
"There is so much uncertainty in the short-term horizon," he added. "The industry is not used to having that uncertainty."
A longer-term perspective comes from the Energy Department's first Quadrennial Energy Review, an assessment of the nation's comprehensive future energy challenges. It argues that the uncertainties now on the horizon will become increasingly dire unless the United States faces up to a climate policy and other changes moving through the electricity sector.
"Ongoing impacts of global climate change have already been stressing energy ... infrastructure in a variety of ways," the QER says.
"This means greater vulnerabilities for ... infrastructure from hurricanes, drought, extreme temperatures, wildfires, more intense precipitation events, and flooding," the review says. "Climate change is also driving sea-level rise, which interacts with storm surge and heavy downpours to intensify coastal flooding."
Under the most severe scenario of sea-level rise in the National Climate Assessment, by 2030, the number of electricity substations along the Gulf of Mexico vulnerable to storm surges from Category 1 hurricanes would climb from 225 to 337, the QER reports.
In the long term, the need for a more resilient, redundant power grid -- from customer units to high voltage substations -- is required not only because of climate-related threats, but also because of less likely but potentially more disastrous threats from cyber or physical attack, or space weather, the QER says.
"Extreme weather and climate change is a leading environmental risk to this infrastructure," it says. "Low-probability, extremely high-consequence events, such as geomagnetic disturbances, must also be anticipated and managed.
"The administration has made it a priority to work with industry to identify challenges and create solutions for increasing the security and resilience of the electric grid, including the development of an integrated national plan to mitigate challenges pertaining to aging power transformers, the cyber and physical security of transformers, and the vulnerabilities of large power transformers," the QER says.
"These efforts will be part of a formal national strategy (planned for release in 2015) for strengthening the security and resilience of the entire electric grid for threats and hazards," DOE says.A failed attempt
A decade ago, Congress responded to the massive 2003 Northeast power blackout by passing the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Triggered by high-voltage power lines that shorted out when they came too close to trees that a Ohio utility had neglected to trim, the blackout also stemmed from operating challenges caused by increasing shipments of long-distance power over the grid, poor planning and the lack of enforceable reliability standards, experts concluded. The grid was changing, and policy hadn't kept up.
In addition to creating a federally appointed grid overseer to develop reliability standards -- the job went to NERC -- the 2005 act set up a two-step plan designed to break through deadlocks in building the highest-priority power lines.
DOE was authorized to designate regional "national interest" corridors threatened by excessive power line overloading, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was given backstop authority to permit power lines in the corridors if state energy agencies failed to act within a year. The plan never came to life.
In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2009 that the precise wording of the 2005 law allows FERC to intervene only if a state fails to act on a proposal, not if it rejects a project. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated DOE's designation of two such corridors, in the Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Yesterday, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) filed legislation that would give FERC power line siting authority if state agencies fail to act on a proposal within a year. Industry officials believe DOE is looking for support on Capitol Hill to take up its forthcoming transmission plan (Greenwire, April 21).
But with no congressional consensus on climate and grid policy, expansion and modernization of the high-voltage network remains with a patchwork of different entities -- transmission developers, regional transmission operators and vertically integrated utilities, with siting decidedly in the hands of state regulatory agencies with their individual priorities and policies.
NERC's Clean Power Plan report yesterday indicated that these regional tensions will only increase as coal plants retire or scale back operations, and other generation or conservation measures fill the gaps.
"Many of the states really don't require a lot more time," Moura said. But others will, he added.
Among the changes NERC's modeling projects: Canada would export three times more power to the United States under the Clean Power Plan, primarily to the northern Midwest and New York state. Utilities in the Mid-Atlantic region's eastern PJM Interconnection area would shift from being net importers of power to net exporters. Power exports into the lower Mississippi area would increase from the Appalachian region and central Midwest.
"The change in the power flow, both in direction and magnitude, could present challenges in planning and operation" of the high-voltage system, the NERC report says. "These changes in power transfers between areas require extensive power system studies and planning to ensure existing transmission lines are capable of such transfers."
The transmission changes grow more complex because of the expansion of wind farms distant from urban centers, and construction of new gas generation near existing gas pipelines, the NERC report says.
Although NERC stressed that this report was preliminary and not prescriptive, it did present model results of the types and locations of power plants expected to retire, and where new generation was likely to appear. It also highlighted areas where new transmission lines would be needed.Glacial pace for transmission
NERC surveyed industry transmission owners on the amount of time required in recent years to plan, build and open new power lines and substations. For the biggest lines of more than 500 kilovolts, the pace is glacial, NERC reported: for surveying, 12 months; right-of-way acquisition, 32 months; permitting 32, months; and construction, 79 months.
Based on one of its model runs, NERC says, "the generation and transmission additions and upgrades necessary to fulfill the capacity requirements ... would not be completed until 2031."
NERC's conclusions were challenged yesterday by the American Wind Energy Association.
"The coal power plant retirements NERC projects between now and 2030 will be more than offset by the nearly 50 GW [gigawatts] of new gas generating capacity that is already planned for addition between now and 2020," said Michael Goggin, AWEA's senior director of research. NERC assumed wind energy would grow around 2 percent a year. The actual annual rate is more than 10 times greater over the past decade, he said.
Solar generation was capped at 12 GW through 2030 in the NERC report, although the industry prediction calls for 20 GW in the next two years, Goggin added. "Had NERC not arbitrarily limited renewable energy and energy efficiency, they could have played a far greater role in meeting the CPP targets for the early 2020s in particular," Goggin said.
NERC's analysis does not explore time-saving options available to transmission developers, such as building extra capacity on new power line projects that have been sited and approved, or upgrading existing ones. Nor does it discuss strategies for getting a head start on transmission projects that are most likely to be needed, based on expected coal plant retirements and new generation.
That is because NERC's responsibility is for the grid that is, not what it may be, some experts say. And that perspective is rooted in the present.
Every big new line changes the competitive landscape where it delivers power, helping some utilities and hurting others. "There are going to be conflicts," NERC's Moura said. "There are going to be winners and losers. All of that takes time to iron out.
"It's going to take a long time."
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House Panel Advances Opt-Out Bill
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jean Chemnick
Legislation to allow states to opt out of U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan progressed one step further in the legislative process today, clearing a key House Energy and Commerce Committee subpanel on its way to likely House passage.
The House Energy and Power Subcommittee approved the draft bill by Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) that would bar EPA from implementing a federal plan to regulate power plant carbon dioxide in states that do not choose to comply with the existing power plant rule. It also would grant all states a reprieve from requirements to submit implementation plans until judicial review of the rule concludes.
Whitfield and co-sponsor Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) steered away from a discussion of climate change in urging approval of the bill. Instead, they focused on what they said were the rule's legal vulnerabilities and the potential for states to incur high costs complying with it before it is ultimately invalidated by the courts.
The chairman disputed that EPA's proposal would have any significant impact on climate change, though he did not take aim at the underlying science of man-made warming.
China and other countries are ramping up fossil fuels investment as the United States divests, he argued. And efficient coal-fired power plants and increased use of natural gas in the United States are already driving down domestic emissions.
"America does not have to take a backseat to anyone on addressing climate change; in fact, we're at the forefront," Whitfield said. "If we're out there leading already, we're doing more than anyone else."
But he described the opposition to EPA's draft rule as "ferocious" and its scope as "unprecedented."
He pointed to industry witnesses' testimony that the EPA draft would lead states to shutter their coal-fired power plants before the courts have an opportunity to lessen the rule's stringency.
"Potentially billions of dollars may be committed to compliance with the proposed rule before we know whether EPA has authority to proceed with the rule," Whitfield said.
Griffith also said the draft "is not about the debate regarding global warming and what the United States should do, this is about following the law." He pointed to the recent testimony by one-time Obama mentor and constitutional expert Laurence Tribe, who told the subpanel last month he supported EPA's aims but not its bid to overstep its legal authority.
"The legal basis for this law is extremely weak, and I believe the EPA knows that," Griffith said.
Democrats, meanwhile, noted that Whitfield had chosen Earth Day to advance his measure -- which they said was ironic given that it would undermine EPA's ability to implement the Clean Air Act, undoing many of the environmental gains of the last several decades.
"It used to be that even when Republicans spent significant time trying to undermine our environmental statutes they would at least use Earth Day as a tool to trumpet some small consensus environmental bills with small improvements," said Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (R-N.J.). "Now we don't even get that. Now we have Republican majority whose message seems to be, 'Happy Earth Day, let's pollute the planet.'"
He noted that plaintiffs already have recourse to ask the courts to stay a rule if their challenge is likely to be successful and if they can demonstrate they face irreparable harm from it in the meantime.
"I just don't understand why this legislation is necessary," he said.
Democrats offered three amendments to the Whitfield measure, all of which fell along strict party lines.
All were aimed at hammering home frequent Democratic talking points about the expense of climate change in more frequent and severe weather events and health-related costs, and about the economic potential of clean energy investment.
Subpanel ranking member Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) offered two of those amendments that would require governors to weigh health and disaster relief and preparedness costs in certifying that the Clean Power Plan would be too costly for their state's ratepayers -- a certification that would allow them to opt out of the rule under Whitfield's proposal.
Rush and other panel Democrats noted that state and federal agencies are frequently called upon to provide aid after natural disasters that scientists say will grow more common because of warming.
"We are going to heap new costs onto taxpayers, not just in my state but all across the country," said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.).
Castor said her own state faces saltwater intrusion into freshwater wells, harm to municipal stormwater infrastructure and other expenses from rising seas. The president is expected to point to many of those harms during a visit today to Florida's Everglades National Park to celebrate Earth Day (E&E Daily, April 22).
The third Democratic amendment the subpanel rejected was a nonbinding endorsement of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon capture and sequestration.
Pallone sponsored the amendment, but Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) gave a passionate statement in favor of its aims, blaming members of both parties for failing to work together to promote industries that he said could address warming while growing the economy.
"This is like 'Groundhog Day' every time we talk about climate change here," he said, referring to a Bill Murray film in which a day repeats itself indefinitely. "It's the same arguments from both sides."
Neither side has a serious plan to grow technologies like CCS, he said, which can only be accomplished with the involvement of the federal government.
Pallone said the committee should try to find common ground for a new bipartisan bill.
But Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said Doyle was blaming the wrong branch of government for the dearth of federally funded CCS projects. Congress authorized FutureGen, he noted, but the Energy Department under both of the last two administrations have had a hand in killing the clean coal pilot.
"The executive branch in both parties does not have the will to see this project through from either side," he said.
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Utilities, Whitehouse Defend Clean Power Plan
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Hannah Northey
Electric utilities that rely heavily on nuclear and renewable energy defended U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan alongside a Senate Democrat who faulted Republican leadership for trying to stall the proposed climate rule.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for pushing states to "just say no" to complying with the EPA rule and bemoaned Republicans' "litany" about the "war on coal."
"Fortunately, even his own home state isn't following his own advice," the senator said on a call with reporters, pointing to pushback McConnell's message is facing in the coal-heavy Bluegrass State. Kentucky officials are exploring potential options for reducing emissions under the rule.
"If he's not having any effect in his own home state, I really don't see this as anything more than a statement of fealty to the coal industry," Whitehouse said.
Whitehouse said he expects EPA to finalize the Clean Power Plan in midsummer, and there will be a Congressional Review Act challenge that President Obama will veto.
"I think at that point, the race will have developed enough in the ... electorate that the candidates for Senate re-election and for the Republican presidential nomination will be close enough that people will start talking about climate change in a more sensible way," he said. "Some of the Senate folks will be able to say, 'Look, we gave it our all, we took our best shot.'"
Whitehouse led a cadre of liberal Senate Democrats last week in countering McConnell's message, warning governors that choosing not to comply would limit their options (E&E Daily, April 15).
Outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's (D) administration acknowledges climate change and has signaled it wants to submit a state implementation plan, they noted. The state's Energy and Environment Cabinet is preparing an "80 percent" plan -- or set of recommendations -- on how the next administration can navigate a state law limiting compliance options in order to produce an approvable SIP.
The effects of the EPA proposal on the country's electric reliability are at the center of heated debates on and off Capitol Hill.
Republican concern was fueled yesterday when the federally appointed grid monitor, the North American Electric Reliability Corp., released a report calling for a delay to allow utilities and states time to coordinate and construct necessary pipes and wires (Greenwire, April 21).
But Whitehouse was joined on the call by executives from utilities that stand to benefit from EPA's push to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which applauded the EPA proposal and said the industry can indeed comply.
The senator took the chance to criticize the Chamber of Commerce for its "deplorable" stance on climate issues, thanking Exelon Corp. for its decision in 2009 to leave the well-funded and influential lobbying entity for attacking the push for cap-and-trade legislation (Greenwire, Sept. 28, 2009).Exelon 'very supportive' of EPA plan
Kathleen Barron, Exelon's vice president of federal regulatory affairs and policy, called the EPA proposal "constructive" and said the industry is having a good debate with the agency. Exelon operates 24 nuclear units that it has argued should receive more beneficial treatment under the EPA plan, renewables and 5,000 megawatts of gas.
Barron, after noting that 53 percent of the country's low-carbon power is generated by reactors, said the final rule must recognize the benefit of nuclear power. She also said the industry is prepared, noting that the electric sector responded well to EPA's mercury and air toxins rule.
"We have no doubt the industry will be able to respond similarly to the [carbon reductions that are] represented in the EPA proposal," she said. "We're very supportive of the direction EPA is going in."
Electric utility responses to the Clean Power Plan have spanned the spectrum, with more coal-reliant companies pushing back against the rule.
But the utility trade association Edison Electric Institute has aimed for a constructive approach, suggesting specific fixes to the draft rule that the group argues would make it tenable for the industry.
Julie Blunden, senior vice president and chief strategy officer of SunEdison, said her company has grown to be the world's largest developer of renewables and plans to continue to focus on its business in the United States.
Blunden touted job creation in the renewables field compared with oil and gas, noting that wind and solar generation supports 250,000 employees. She added that wind and solar use little water, a critical aspect in light of California's drought.
Whitehouse added that grid operators are also deeply involved in discussing the EPA rule and will help "drag some of the more recalcitrant states into compliance."
Barron added that she's not hearing that McConnell's message is gaining traction or that state regulators don't plan to comply with the EPA proposal in any of the 19 states in which Exelon operates. Instead, regulators are expressing the desire to get credit for work already completed or underway and compliance pathways that are flexible approved by the agency in a timely manner.
"We're not hearing any state regulators saying they're not intending to do their best," she said.
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Clean Power Plan Calculator Highlights Efficiency Opportunities for States
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Climatewire
By Scott Detrow and Emily Holden
A top energy efficiency advocacy group is releasing an online tool this morning that it hopes will assist air quality regulators and other state officials as they figure out how to meet ambitious carbon reduction goals laid out by U.S. EPA's impending Clean Power Plan.
While several groups have already released similar compliance calculators, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy argues that its scaled-down program is more straightforward to navigate, and, from the group's perspective, better highlights the role efficiency programs can play in helping states meet their carbon reduction goals.
"If we really want states to aggressively embrace energy efficiency, we need them to understand this opportunity, which is partially why we developed this tool," said senior manager and researcher Sara Hayes. "I think it's a hard thing to get your head around when historically, you've been looking at generation as your way to meet reliability and address customer need."
The calculator is a bit oversimplified -- states' existing power-production makeups or efficiency programs are not factored in -- but aims to help policymakers grasp how far efficiency programs could get them, in terms of pure greenhouse gas reductions.
"The idea is to give people the context of here's how much you can get," said research analyst Rachel Young, who helped develop the tool. "And if you invest this amount of money, this is what energy efficiency can get you. And, fortunately for us, it turns out that energy efficiency can get you quite a lot."Up next: decoupling research
ACEEE highlighted Virginia as one example of where efficiency efforts -- like improved building codes, combined heat and power efforts, and behavioral programs that provide customers with information on what times of the day they use the most power -- could theoretically get a state to 100 percent of its EPA-mandated carbon reduction goals.
To do that, however, ACEEE assumed Virginia would implement all these programs on top of the annual 1.5 percent energy savings that EPA's building blocks suggest can be achieved through the plan's Building Block 4, which is efficiency. Most analysts assume states will use the programs as a path -- not a supplement -- to the 1.5 percent goal.
ACEEE is primarily targeting state decisionmakers with the tool, but the organization says utilities could also play a primary role in promoting energy efficiency as a path to decarbonization.
Several ACEEE reports due at the end of May will explore policies that could incentivize power companies to pursue efforts to reduce energy use.
That research will touch on decoupling -- a way of disassociating utility profits from the amount of power sold -- as well as policies to allow utilities to recover the costs of energy efficiency projects.
Click here to go to the ACEEE’s calculator.
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Ky. GOP Candidates for Governor Agree: Clean Power Plan is Bad
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Jennifer Yachnin
Republican candidates seeking to differentiate themselves ahead of Kentucky's gubernatorial primary sparred last night over bridge tolls and state health care programs, but the contenders did agree on one thing: Each vowed to defy U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan if elected.
During an hourlong debate sponsored by CN2's "Pure Politics," a Kentucky-based program, each of the would-be GOP nominees utilized a question on Kentucky's role in the Clean Power Plan to criticize the Obama administration's energy policies and vowed to shore up the state's coal industry.
State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, former Louisville Metro Councilman Hal Heiner, former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will Scott and Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin, who lost a 2014 GOP primary challenge to Sen. Mitch McConnell, are competing for the GOP nomination in hopes of succeeding term-limited Gov. Steve Beshear (D).
The winner of the May 19 primary is expected to face state Attorney General Jack Conway (D) in the general election.
While Democrats have traditionally dominated the state's top office -- the GOP has held the office for only two terms since the 1947 election, claiming their last win in 2003 -- Republicans are aiming to build on McConnell's strong win last cycle, along with President Obama's unpopularity in the state, to claim control of the governorship in November.
Although the candidates clashed repeatedly -- both Bevin and Comer criticized Heiner over his ties to a political action committee -- discussion remained civil during a trio of questions on energy policy that dominated the first half of the debate.
Each of the candidates largely echoed arguments made by McConnell in an op-ed in theLexington Herald-Leader earlier this year that asserted state lawmakers and officials shouldn't submit draft proposals to EPA for power plants' carbon dioxide emissions.
"We shouldn't submit a plan to this government to close down our coal-fired power plants," said Heiner, who claimed an 8-point lead in the GOP primary in a March poll conducted by SurveyUSA for Kentucky media outlets. Bevin and Comer tied for second with 20 percent in the same poll of 520 voters, which had a 4.4-point margin of error.
Heiner also accused the Obama administration of intentionally targeting the coal industry and Kentucky in particular during the president's tenure.
"I'm not willing to wreck this economy in Kentucky to comply with what this president believes should be done. We need to push back, and we need to push back on a states' rights basis," Heiner added.
Comer similarly promised he would push back against efforts to rein in carbon pollution in the Bluegrass State.
"I will ignore those unnecessary regulations," Comer said, asserting that existing proposals would put Kentucky at a "competitive disadvantage" with its neighboring states.
"I will not stand by and let Barack Obama mandate regulations that are not necessary for this state. We have to focus on the people of Kentucky, so I will ignore those regulations, and I will not comply with his mandate," Comer added.
Both Bevin and Scott cited the Constitution in their opposition to the Clean Power Plan.
"These are not legally required mandates that have been handed down," Bevin said, while Scott suggested that "EPA does not have constitutional power to tell a state what to do."
Heiner, Bevin and Comer also called for easing state restrictions on oil and gas drilling and urging a reduction in the amount of time required to issue new permits for wells in the state.
"The permitting process is so arduous," Bevin said. "I will do everything in my power as governor ... to ensure that Kentucky is a state where we simplify, streamline the entire process."
He added: "We will fuel this state in every sense of that word possible."
Each of the candidates insisted that the state must retain its focus on coal production.
"We have to focus on coal, too. There is a future in coal," Comer said.
The candidates offered more nuanced distinctions when asked whether they believe in climate change -- with both Heiner and Bevin acknowledging global warming but questioning human contribution, and Comer offering the most definitive opposition to climate science while arguing for some environmental protections.
"I do not believe in global warming," Comer said. "I understand weather patterns. We had a very severe winter this year with 12-inch snows. There is no global warming."
He continued: "What we have to have, though, is common-sense policy with regard to environmental regulations. I believe government does have a responsibility to protect us to make sure we have clean water."
Bevin criticized scientists for embracing what he called "fluff and theory" over human contribution to climate change.
"Do we have a responsibility as stewards of this Earth? Yes, we do. Should we be mindful of what we do with our rivers, our waters, our airway, etc.? Absolutely. No question about it," Bevin added. "But do I think we should suffocate the job creation and the dignity of people that comes from being engaged and being employed in order to accomplish something based on theories so that someone in Washington, D.C., can shake people down for money? I don't."
Heiner did not question climate science -- opening his remarks with the oft-used GOP disclaimer that "I'm not a scientist" -- but said that any policy that would reduce coal usage would be detrimental to the state's economy.
"Of course we need to pursue clean coal technology, and there is advancements there, and that will come over time. We're already much cleaner than we were five years ago, or 10 years ago or 20 years ago. And that's going to continue to advance. But the fact is for Kentuckians to go to work, for the U.S. to be competitive, we need to have a competitive energy policy. And that policy should be based on coal," Heiner said.
The Republican candidates will face off again on April 28 at an event in Bowling Green sponsored by the Kentucky chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.
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Sierra Club Launches Campaign to Promote Lower Ozone Limit
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Amanda Peterka
The Sierra Club today launched a campaign to promote a tighter national standard for ozone, a key component of smoggy air.
According to the environmental group, the campaign seeks to highlight health threats to children that stem from exposure to ozone pollution. It will run from now through October, when U.S. EPA has been ordered by a federal court to decide on a final ozone standard.
Today, to kick off the effort, the club placed an ad in The Washington Post's Express that "highlights the challenges of being the working parent of a child with asthma," according to a news release. The club said it timed the ad to coincide with Take Your Child to Work Day, which occurs tomorrow.
"Little lungs deserve healthy air," Sierra Club Beyond Coal Director Mary Anne Hitt said in the statement, "and the EPA can take a huge step toward protecting our families and our communities by strengthening smog pollution protections."
The club said the campaign will include other online and print ads. The environmental organization, which did not give a dollar amount for the effort, said it also plans to work with local elected officials, parents' groups and community groups through October.
EPA in November 2014 proposed to tighten the national ambient air quality standard for ozone from 75 parts per billion, which was last set in 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, to between 65 and 70 ppb (Greenwire, Nov. 26, 2014).
The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations are calling on EPA to set the standard at no higher than 60 ppb, arguing that the science shows adverse health effects occur at higher levels of exposure.
Industry has argued that the current standard is adequate to protect public health and has warned that a tightening would result in harm to the economy.
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Dems Unveil 'Strongest Anti-Fracking Bill' for Federal Land
Apr 22, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A pair of Democratic House members introduced a bill Wednesday to ban hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, commonly known as fracking, on federal land.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) touted the measure as the “strongest anti-fracking bill” ever introduced. It would cover national parks, Bureau of Land Management property, national forests, wilderness areas and other lands under federal jurisdiction.
“Our national parks, forests and public lands are some of our most treasured places and need to be protected for future generations,” Pocan said in a statement announcing the bill on Earth Day.
“It is clear fracking has a detrimental impact on the environment and there are serious safety concerns associated with these type of wells,” he said. “Until we fully understand the effects, the only way to avoid these risks is to halt fracking entirely.”
“Our public lands have been preserved and protected by the federal government for over one hundred years,” Schakowsky said. “We owe it to future generations to maintain their natural beauty and rich biodiversity.”
Environmentalists have long been concerned that fracking, in which fluids are injected at high pressure into the ground to extract minerals, can harm groundwater, soil and air, and cause earthquakes.
Pocan and Schakowsky introduced a similar bill at the end of 2014.
The pair has taken other measures to crack down on fracking, including pushing the EPA to investigate fracking’s impact on groundwater.
The bill was introduced just over a month after the Interior Department, the federal government’s main land management agency, unveiled new regulations for fracking on federal land.
Greens and Democrats complained that the rule fell short and did not sufficiently rein in fracking to the extent necessary to protect the environment.
Oil and gas drillers also opposed the rule, saying its restrictions ware not justified, and sued to have it overturned.
“Congress must follow Congressman Pocan and Congresswoman Schakowsky’s bold leadership and ban fracking on these lands, so that future generations can enjoy these special places,” Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, said in a statement.
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Study Finds Low Cost in Reducing Methane Emissions
Apr 21, 2015 | The New York Times
By John Schwartz
Reducing methane leaks from oil and gas operations around the world could provide a relatively inexpensive way to fight climate change, according to a new report commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund.
The amount of methane that escaped worldwide in 2012 was roughly 3.6 billion cubic feet and would have been worth $30 billion on the market, said Kate Larsen, a director of the Rhodium Group, which produced the study. A country that produced that amount of gas would rank seventh in the world, coming in just after Russia, she said.
Methane, the major component of natural gas, is also a powerful greenhouse gas. It is valued as an alternative to coal because it produces half of the carbon dioxide that coal does when burned in power plants. But released directly into the atmosphere, methane has short-term climate effects that are much greater than those of carbon dioxide.
“Methane is both a serious climate challenge and also, in our view, a major untapped opportunity to start reversing the tide of global greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mark Brownstein, chief counsel for the environmental fund’s United States climate and energy program.
Previous research sponsored by the group suggests that leaks from natural gas facilities could be reduced by 40 percent at a cost of 1 cent per 1,000 cubic feet.
In the United States, the Obama administration has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to as much as 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, and to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production by up to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.
Without action to combat leaks, Ms. Larsen said, methane emissions will grow 23 percent by 2030. According to the report, if the 30 nations that emit the most methane from oil and gas reduced emissions 50 percent by 2030, the impact on climate change of curtailing that waste would be as great as stopping the combined carbon dioxide emissions of India and the entire European Union in 2012.
The new study is one of 16 sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund to gain a better understanding of the methane problem. This study, which was not published in a scientific journal, was financed entirely by the Environmental Defense Fund, said Drew Nelson, senior manager in the group’s natural gas program.
A spokesman for the petroleum industry said its companies were already at work to reduce leaks. Carlton Carroll, a spokesman for theAmerican Petroleum Institute, said that industry and government had worked together to reduce methane emissions.
“Even as U.S. oil and natural gas production has risen dramatically, methane emissions have fallen thanks to industry leadership and investment in new technologies,” he said. “Emissions are low and will continue to fall as operators innovate and find new ways to capture and deliver more methane to consumers, and existing E.P.A. and state regulations are working,” he continued, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency.
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House Appropriators Send Energy and Water Bill to Floor
Apr 22, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Alex Guillén
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved its $35.4 billion fiscal 2016 energy and water spending bill.
The bill, which ultimately cleared the committee on a voice vote, now heads to the floor, where it is expected to come up next week, according to Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers.
Before shipping the bill to the floor, appropriators sliced $50 million off the NRC’s 2016 budget and directed some of that funding to grid support activities.
The amendment, approved by a bipartisan voice vote, reallocates $27.5 million of that for grid activities, including $10 million for smart grids, $10 million for transformer resilience and advanced components, and $7.5 million for grid cybersecurity. The reduction in funding will come from the NRC’s corporate support activities.
By a vote of 18-31 Republicans blocked a Democratic amendment that would have excised several GOP riders that would block the administration from changing the definition of "fill material," from changing federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction via the “Waters of the United States” rule, and from implementing the National Ocean Policy. A second Democratic amendment targeting the ocean policy rider failed 20-29. -
Thermal Camera ‘Sees’ Hidden Pollution, Nets Major Settlement with Energy Firm
Apr 22, 2015 | The Washington Post
By Joby Warrick
In normal daylight, the big tanks used to store Noble Energy Inc.’spetroleum looked solid enough. But when regulators examined them through thermal cameras, they made a startling discovery: Noxious pollutants escaped from the tanks like smoke from a chimney.
“You look at them and you see absolutely nothing,” said John C. Cruden,head of the Justice Department’s environmental enforcement division, “but through the camera it’s billowing off the tanks.”
The surprise finding in early 2012 led environmental officials to document a major, yet hidden, source of air pollution in the Denver area, one that contributed to the region’s high levels of smog. The investigation culminated with an announcement Wednesday of what Cruden described as a “first-of-its-kind” legal settlement: an estimated $73.4 million agreement aimed at stopping the leaks and improving air quality in Colorado and perhaps far beyond.
The settlement, announced jointly by U.S. and Colorado officials, includes what Justice Department officials estimate to be about $60 million for equipment upgrades at thousands of storage tanks to prevent leaks. Noble Energy, the Texas-based energy company, also consented to a nearly $5 million civil penalty and agreed to contribute $8.5 million to environmental remediation projects.
Justice Department officials said Noble was unaware of the problem, and when shown the evidence, agreed to a costly retrofitting that will reduce future emissions from its operations in oil and gas fields in central Colorado. “We’re hoping this sets a good example for other companies,” Cruden said.
The settlement was one of two announced by Justice officials timed with Wednesday’s Earth Day observance. The second involved a $5 million agreement by ExxonMobil’s pipeline subsidiary resulting from a crude oil spill near Mayflower, Ark.
The Noble settlement stems from a long-running effort by the Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado’s state environmental regulator to find the sources of air pollutants known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. The Denver area has long been in violation of federal standards for VOCs, which are major contributors to smog. VOCs are byproducts of numerous man-made chemical processes, include fossil-fuel combustion.
In 2012, field teams began looking at potential sources of VOCs around Denver, using infra-red thermal imaging cameras. At one point they pointed the devices at storage tanks used by Noble and other companies for temporary storage of liquid condensates from their oil and gas fields.
“We identified that they had a problem with VOCs coming from those tanks,” Cruden said. “To [Noble’s] credit, they stepped up.”
Noble Energy spokeswoman Reba Reid said the company agreed to explore system-wide emissions problems after the initial discovery of leaks involving a “relatively small number of older tank batteries.”
“We take environmental compliance seriously and entered into this agreement to further reduce our emissions,” Reid said.
She noted the agreement does not specifically outline the exact amount dedicated for upgrades.
The technical retrofits being implemented as part of the settlement will be accompanied by monitoring equipment that will help detect future leaks. Federal regulators are hoping that other companies will voluntarily make similar changes to avoid being targeted.
Cynthia Giles, the EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement, said the agreement is important because it showcases a “common-sense” fix to a significant pollution problem while helping spur the development of pollution-control technologies that can benefit the entire industry, as well as the communities nearby.
“As domestic energy development grows, we all have a stake in making sure it’s done responsibly,” Giles said.
In the ExxonMobil case, two subsidiaries of the oil giant agreed to pay $4.19 million in civil penalties and nearly $1 million in environmental restoration projects related to a March 2013 rupture of the Pegasus Pipeline in Mayflower, a town northwest of Little Rock.
The pipeline, carrying Canadian crude from Illinois to Texas, spilled 134,000 gallons in a residential neighborhood, forcing evacuations and contaminating a nearby creek.
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Committee Passes $35B Funding Bill for Energy, Water Development
Apr 22, 2015 | E&E - The Hill
By Rebecca Shabad
House appropriators on Wednesday advanced a $35.4 billion bill that would funding energy and water development for fiscal 2016.
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said the measure, along with another that would fund military construction and veterans’ benefits, are on track to hit the House floor next week.
The energy and water bill provides a $1.2 billion increase above the 2015 funding level, though it is $633 million below President Obama’s request.
The legislation provides funding for Energy Department programs, the Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains and develops the nation’s water systems, and other related agencies.
During Wednesday’s markup of the bill, several GOP-sponsored amendments were adopted. Republicans, however, rejected amendments from Democrats that would have stripped out controversial "riders" on environmental policy.
Republicans defeated an amendment from Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) that would have removed provisions that would undermine Obama's executive orders related to the national ocean policy and restrict the federal government from redefining its jurisdiction over clean waterways, among other things.
Republicans also rejected an amendment from Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) dealing with corporate tax dodging that would prevent funding from being used to enter into contracts with companies that are chartered in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the Appropriations panel, criticized Republicans for adding in riders that the Obama administration threatened to veto in earlier spending bills.
“I’m truly amazed that you would frankly willfully go down this path again,” she said. “I’m disturbed that you would seek to roll back ocean policy and other environmental protections.”
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