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ACC AM May 6
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(ACC Mentioned) Plasticity Forum To Host Its 4th International Conference In Cascais, Portugal
May 5, 2015 | EurekAlert
The Plasticity Forum will hold its 4th annual conference on June 8 and 9 in Cascais, Portugal. The forum will bring together approximately 200 business leaders and experts to discuss innovative solutions to the growing plastic pollution problem facing land and marine environments. A recent study from the University of Georgia's College ... -
(ACC Mentioned) Center for Polyurethanes Industry Continues Focus on Spray Polyurethane Foam Stewardship
May 5, 2015 | PuDaily
The American Chemistry Council’s Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) sponsored an ASTM International symposium focused on standardizing methods to measure emissions from spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation. The event, known as the “Symposium on Developing Consensus Standards for Measuring Chemical... -
(ACC Mentioned) ACC Welcomes Senate Hearing on Energy Efficiency Legislation in Washington
May 5, 2015 | Spray Foam
By Jennifer Scott
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued the following statement in response to a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on April 30th examining energy efficiency legislation. “We welcomed the hearing, which reaffirmed that there is strong, bipartisan support for energy efficiency. Lawmakers clearly view it as a smart... -
Growing Markets for Safer Chemicals Prompt Greater Investments, Report Says
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The markets for products made with safer chemicals is growing, prompting greater investments, but further growth is possible, according to a report commissioned by two councils that promote the production of chemicals through safer designs and manufacturing processes. “Safer chemistry's potential for creating business and economic value... -
Evidence grows linking DEHP exposure to reproductive toxicity: What is the state of regulation?
May 5, 2015 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Lindsay McCormick
Phthalates are chemical plasticizers found in a wide array of industrial and consumer products, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping and tubing, cosmetics, medical devices, plastic toys, and food contact materials. Because phthalates are often not strongly chemically bound to these products, they can leach out of those products and into ... -
EPA Guide Outlines State Authority At Closed Hazardous Waste Landfills
May 5, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
EPA has released a draft guidance that gives assurances to states that regulators have the discretionary authority to lengthen the post-closure care (PCC) period beyond 30 years to require continued monitoring for potential releases at hazardous waste landfills, laying out criteria states can use to make those assessments. -
Persistent Industrial Pollutants Could Stymie Songbird Migration
May 5, 2015 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Deirdre Lockwood
In recent decades, many common migratory songbirds have declined in population. Several factors could explain this drop-off, including habitat loss, climate change, feline predators, and wind turbines. But a new study finds that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), toxic industrial pollutants, may share some of the blame by affecting birds’ ability... -
Canada Removes 16 VOCs From List of Toxic Substances
May 5, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The Canadian government has issued an order, excluding an additional 16 volatile organic compounds from the list of toxic substances in schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The order cites scientific assessments done by the US EPA, which concluded that that the VOCs “contribute negligibly... -
EPA Internal Review Report Questions OEM’s Lack Of Vision, Priorities
May 5, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
A strategic internal review of EPA’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has found the office lacks a vision to squarely establish priorities and appears to be heavily focusing on homeland security duties at the expense of its responsibilities related to Superfund removal actions, rule-making and preparedness programs it runs, according... -
Fracking Fluids Leaked Into Groundwater In Pennsylvania County, Report Says
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
Natural gas and other contaminants likely derived from drilling or hydraulic fracturing affected a drinking water aquifer in 2011 in Bradford County, Pa., a new study said. The contaminants were detected using instrumentation not available in most commercial laboratories, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study... -
Frackers Look for Ways to Reduce Their Water Use
May 5, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Erin Ailworth
Some of the largest independent U.S. oil and gas companies are spending now to save money on water later. Investments in technologies and projects to save and recycle water continue even as these companies slash other costs in the face of slumping energy prices. The companies say they hope the efforts will yield savings on the... -
Texas Senate Gives Final Passage to Bill Restricting Local Ordinances on Oil Drilling
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Paul Stinson
The Texas Senate has approved final legislation that would curb municipal efforts to regulate oil and gas operations. Passed May 4 on a 24-7 vote, the bill (H.B. 40) is one of several filed during the legislative session in response to the city of Denton's approval in November 2014 of a ballot measure to ban hydraulic fracturing within its city limits. -
Oil and Gas Industry Rushes to Support Vitter Gubernatorial Bid
May 6, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Jennifer Yachnin
Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) may boast the biggest war chest among those candidates vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) this fall, but he's not the only contender to claim healthy support from the oil and gas industry. A review of recently filed campaign finance reports shows Vitter dominating the money chase with $4.2... -
The Keystone XL Pipeline: What Do You Really Know?
May 5, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Amy Harder
The Keystone XL pipeline has been under review by the U.S. government for more than six years. President Barack Obama could make a decision on the project in the coming weeks, though he faces no deadline. You’ve probably heard about this pipeline, but how much do you actually know about it? Take this quiz to find out. -
Capito Readies Senate Legislation to Block Proposed Clean Power Plan Implementation
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) plans to introduce a bill the week of May 11 to block implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan. “Next week I will be introducing greenhouse gas legislation with my colleagues that will preserve the proper balance of state and federal authority, help ensure... -
States Preview Arguments Against Obama's Climate Rule
May 5, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Two state attorneys general gave a preview Tuesday of their legal arguments against the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants on Tuesday. Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia told a Senate panel that Obama’s plan is based on conflicting statutes within the Clean Air Act and promised his state would pursue further legal action after... -
Obama Climate Rules Face New Attacks From Republicans
May 5, 2015 | National Journal
By Jason Plautz
Senate Republicans are preparing new legislation to upend the tentpole of the Obama administration's climate action plan, but they're also cracking the law books for an offensive playbook. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said she will introduce a bill next week challenging the EPA rules limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing... -
Hoeven Mulling Amendment to Energy Legislation
May 6, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Manuel Quiñones
While the House has been swiftly moving forward with legislation to amend U.S. EPA's new rules for coal combustion waste disposal, the issue has been getting scant attention in the Senate. But Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), long a leading voice on the issue, said he plans to push for an amendment to forthcoming energy legislation in the Senate. -
The Path From Coal to Renewable Energy Can Be Difficult
May 5, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Jim Carlton
For the past decade, the Navajo reservation here has struggled to navigate the change from coal to green power. It’s still struggling. The effort began when environmental activists filed a federal lawsuit that helped result in the closure of a nearby coal plant, which ended up costing many Navajos their jobs. Activists said they would try to help the tribe... -
Coal Firms Reject EPA Claim Of Studies Satisfying Air Law 'Jobs' Review
May 5, 2015 | InsideEPA
By David LaRoss
Coal firms are rejecting EPA's claim to a federal district court that existing agency regulatory impact analyses and other studies for its utility air toxics rule and other emissions policies satisfy a Clean Air Act mandate to review the jobs impacts of its rules, saying the studies fall short of EPA's requirements under the air law provision. -
FERC Supreme Court Arguments Expected in Fall
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court case on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's authority to regulate wholesale electricity markets are expected to be filed this summer with oral arguments likely taking place at the beginning of the Supreme Court's fall term, FERC Commissioner Colette Honorable said May 5. The Supreme Court agreed May 4... -
Second Ozone Implementation Rule Lawsuit Filed
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Earthjustice, on behalf of four environmental and public health groups, filed a lawsuit seeking review of an Environmental Protection Agency rule that set state implementation requirements for the 2008 national ambient air quality standards for ozone (Sierra Club v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1123, 5/5/15). The petition for review, filed May 5... -
IEA Says Developing Countries Will Bear the Brunt of Energy-Related Greenhouse Gas Cuts
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rick Mitchell
Three-quarters of the energy-related greenhouse gas emissions cuts needed by mid-century to avoid a worst-case-scenario spike in global temperatures must come from the world's emerging economies, the International Energy Agency reports. But advanced countries must help developing nations create and deploy energy technologies... -
Green Group Launches Smog Text Alert System
May 5, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Sierra Club launched a system Tuesday to send text message alerts when smog pollution is at a high level in certain areas. The group said the system is meant to protect people from asthma attacks, which scientists believe increase in frequency in response to smog, whose main component is ground-level ozone. -
Inspector General to Audit Progress By PHMSA on ‘Significant Safety Issues'
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General will audit the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration's progress in addressing significant safety issues, the office said in a letter to PHMSA May 5. The office will assess PHMSA's progress in resolving or acting upon congressional mandates and federal agency... -
February Marks First Time Most Crude Oil Arrived at East Coast Refineries by Rail
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
In February, East Coast refineries for the first time received more than half of their crude oil supply via rail, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. These refineries received 52 percent of their crude oil by rail in February, or 12,738 barrels out of 24,369 barrels, the energy agency said May 5. -
Obama’s Pipeline Safety Agency Waits For A Leader
May 5, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Andrew Restuccia & Elana Schor
President Barack Obama has blown past the legal deadline to name a permanent boss for the agency that oversees the safety of the nation’s oil trains and fossil-fuel pipelines — while potentially life-or-death regulations continue to sit in limbo. It’s part of a pattern for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, where an internal... -
OMB Completed Crude-by-Rail Rule Review May 1
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The White House completed May 1 its review of a final Transportation Department rule governing flammable liquids by rail safety, according to public records updated May 5. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx released the “Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains” rule and sent it to the Federal Register... -
Crude Oil Rail Supply Jumps For East Coast Refiners
May 5, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
For the first time, more than half of East Coast oil refineries' crude oil supply arrived by rail in February, according to a Tuesday study from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The growth of crude-by-rail, which began creeping upwards in 2010 and rose precipitously starting last year, could add to the debate over new safety standards for oil... -
California Crude Oil Transfer Terminal Cited by EPA for Violation of Clean Air Act
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
Federal regulators have cited Plains All American Pipeline LP's crude oil transfer and storage facility near Taft, Calif., for violating the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation April 30, finding the Bakersfield Crude Terminal failed to obtain valid permits, install best available control technology and provide... -
IG Will Assess Pipeline Safety Agency's Record For Past Decade
May 5, 2015 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
The Department of Transportation inspector general will assess the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's progress in addressing mandates from Congress and recommendations from other agencies over the last decade. The review, announced in a memo today and set to begin this month, follows a February request...
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(ACC Mentioned) Plasticity Forum To Host Its 4th International Conference In Cascais, Portugal
May 5, 2015 | EurekAlert
The Plasticity Forum will hold its 4th annual conference on June 8 and 9 in Cascais, Portugal. The forum will bring together approximately 200 business leaders and experts to discuss innovative solutions to the growing plastic pollution problem facing land and marine environments.
A recent study from the University of Georgia's College of Engineering found between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean in 2010 from people living within 50 kilometers of the coastline. That year, a total of 275 million metric tons of plastic waste was generated in those 192 coastal countries. Globally, some 280 million tons of plastic is produced annually, yet estimates suggest that only 10 percent is actually recycled. Capturing this waste stream presents a significant and untapped business opportunity, as does the redesign of packaging and the thought process around waste creation. The Plasticity Forum presents ideas and opens up discussions on how to harness this material in new ways, both "pre" and "post" consumer use. The forum addresses design, materials, innovations, reuse and waste reduction in the aim of encouraging further innovations as well as powerful collaborations between producers, users, recyclers, designers, innovators and entrepreneurs.
A global event, The Plasticity Forum was launched in Rio de Janeiro, and has since been held in Hong Kong and New York, with the upcoming conference marking its first European event. The event brings experts across the plastic spectrum - including innovators, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, brand managers, educators, think tanks, government agencies, designers and investors - to address the growing plastic waste issue by creating opportunities, inspiring collaboration, and generating results that scale. Attendees will benefit from sectors surrounding the forum's theme: "Designing for Circularity, Customer Engagement, Reverse Supply Chains and Reaching Scale." This year's forum will include the latest developments in managing and recovering waste as a resource, scalable innovations in plastic that save money, use of new materials, designing for sustainability and solutions for a world where plastic is used, but without its current footprint.
According to Doug Woodring, founder of Plasticity, "Companies are beginning to realize that environmental sustainability has a positive impact not only on the communities they serve, but also their own bottom line. Managing the plastic ecosystem through recycling, reuse and closed-loop methods can make our planet healthier while also creating efficiency in corporate supply chains."
Dr. Mike Biddle, founder and director of MBA Polymers, will be one of the keynote speakers at the event. "Plasticity is a very unique event, and having been to all of them, I see the power in what this type of collaborative discussion brings when a diverse set of experts within various parts of the plastic industry have the chance to share innovations. I am excited to work together to accelerate the conversion of plastic waste into resources all over the world, helping the environment while creating new jobs along the way."
Other speakers at the event will include Willem De Vos, CEO of the Society of Plastics Engineers; Steven Russell, VP - Plastics Division for the American Chemistry Council; Brad La Force, CEO of DEEP and general partner and business development consultant for La Force LP; Monique Maissan, founder and CEO of Waste2Wear; Dr. Denise Hardesty, senior research scientist with CSIRO; Tom Domen, long-term innovation manager for Ecover/Method; Shannon Davis, a sustainable environmental design student at UC Berkeley; Dr. Richard Mattison, chief executive of Trucost Plc; David Stover, co-founder of Bureo Inc.; Andrew Morlet, chief executive of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation; and Ryan Hunt, co-founder and chief technology officer of ALGIX LLC. Additional speakers and the full agenda will be announced shortly and information will be made available on the Plasticity Forum website.
The venue for this year's event will be the Pousada de Cascais - Cidadela Historic Hotel, an old fort, facing the Atlantic Ocean, which has been converted into a boutique resort. The event will also include a special dinner for all attendees at The Presidential Palace in Cascais.
The Plasticity Forum is open to innovators, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, brand managers, retailers and manufacturers, educators, think tanks, government agencies, designers and investors. Speaking and sponsorship opportunities are also available.
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May 5, 2015 | PuDaily
The American Chemistry Council’s Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) sponsored an ASTM International symposium focused on standardizing methods to measure emissions from spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation.
The event, known as the “Symposium on Developing Consensus Standards for Measuring Chemical Emissions from SPF Insulation,” enabled regulatory agencies, SPF manufacturers and other stakeholders to engage in conversations about present and on-going development of standards for measuring emissions from SPF insulation.
The objective of the symposium was to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas from SPF manufacturers, regulatory agencies, indoor air quality professionals, testing labs, air quality consultants, instrument vendors and other stakeholders. Following the presentations on the current status of measuring emissions from SPF insulation, participants discussed paths forward for research, method development and development of standards.
In addition to sponsoring the event, CPI contributed three papers to the symposium:
•Ventilation Research Project for Estimating Re-Entry Times for Trade Workers Following Application of Three Generic Spray Polyurethane Foam Formulations
•Evaluation of Micro-Scale Chambers for Measuring Chemical Emissions from Spray Polyurethane Foam Insulation
•Computer Simulation of Peak Temperatures in Spray Polyurethane Foam Used in Residential Insulation Applications
These papers highlight CPI’s continued commitment to research, method development, and product stewardship. Additional information on these research projects is available on CPI’s website.
“Members of CPI are leaders in product stewardship, and one of our primary focuses is the safe use of polyurethane products to promote energy efficiency and comfortable living and working spaces,” said Lee Salamone, CPI senior director. “The collaboration between industry and regulatory agencies that occurred at this conference is important as we develop standards that everyone can use, and we were pleased to sponsor this important event.”
When buildings are increasingly made airtight, indoor emissions from all products in the home become more important to understanding the quality of the indoor air. SPF insulation helps keep homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Because it is sprayed directly into the gaps, cracks and other surfaces that contribute to heat loss, SPF both insulates and seals, offering one of the easiest and most effective ways of weatherizing existing homes and new construction. -
(ACC Mentioned) ACC Welcomes Senate Hearing on Energy Efficiency Legislation in Washington
May 5, 2015 | Spray Foam
By Jennifer Scott
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued the following statement in response to a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on April 30th examining energy efficiency legislation.
“We welcomed the hearing, which reaffirmed that there is strong, bipartisan support for energy efficiency. Lawmakers clearly view it as a smart, cost-effective way to enhance sustainability while creating jobs and helping manufacturers stay competitive.
“As longtime proponents of the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (S. 720), we were pleased to see it featured, and we applaud Senators Portman and Shaheen for their renewed push for passage. We support the All-of-the-Above Federal Building Energy Conservation Act (S. 869), which would improve energy performance in federal buildings, as well as a bill that would require the evaluation and consolidation of green building programs within the U.S. Department of Energy (S. 939).
“The chemistry industry is a leader in energy efficiency. We invent and make products used in high-performance building insulation, windows, and appliances; lightweight plastic packaging and vehicle parts; engine lubricants and fuel additives; compact fluorescent light bulbs, photovoltaic solutions, and energy storage systems; and many others. These markets are significant, and growing. Chemistry is part of the solution to boosting energy savings in the United States and around the world.
“We look forward to the release of Senator Murkowski’s broad energy package. We hope it includes the Portman-Shaheen bill along with other inventive measures to improve energy efficiency.”
About The Center for the Polyurethanes Industry of the American Chemistry Council: CPI promotes the sustainable development of polyurethanes. Our members are U.S. producers or distributors of chemicals and equipment used to make polyurethane or manufacturers of polyurethane products. For more information, please use the contact information and links provided below. manufacturers stay competitive.
“As longtime proponents of the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (S. 720), we were pleased to see it featured, and we applaud Senators Portman and Shaheen for their renewed push for passage. We support the All-of-the-Above Federal Building Energy Conservation Act (S. 869), which would improve energy performance in federal buildings, as well as a bill that would require the evaluation and consolidation of green building programs within the U.S. Department of Energy (S. 939).
“The chemistry industry is a leader in energy efficiency. We invent and make products used in high-performance building insulation, windows, and appliances; lightweight plastic packaging and vehicle parts; engine lubricants and fuel additives; compact fluorescent light bulbs, photovoltaic solutions, and energy storage systems; and many others. These markets are significant, and growing. Chemistry is part of the solution to boosting energy savings in the United States and around the world.
“We look forward to the release of Senator Murkowski’s broad energy package. We hope it includes the Portman-Shaheen bill along with other inventive measures to improve energy efficiency.”
About The Center for the Polyurethanes Industry of the American Chemistry Council: CPI promotes the sustainable development of polyurethanes. Our members are U.S. producers or distributors of chemicals and equipment used to make polyurethane or manufacturers of polyurethane products. For more information, please use the contact information and links provided below.
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Growing Markets for Safer Chemicals Prompt Greater Investments, Report Says
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The markets for products made with safer chemicals is growing, prompting greater investments, but further growth is possible, according to a report commissioned by two councils that promote the production of chemicals through safer designs and manufacturing processes.
“Safer chemistry's potential for creating business and economic value is promising, but not yet fully realized,” said the report, “Making the Business & Economic Case for Safer Chemistry.”
The American Sustainable Business Council and the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council commissioned Trucost, a data analysis firm, to write the report, which was released May 4.
Bob Keener, deputy director for public relations at the sustainable business council, highlighted in a May 4 interview with Bloomberg BNA federal policies that are helping the market for safer chemicals grow.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice labeling program, for example, is making it easier for customers to identify products made with safer chemicals, he said.
The EPA chemical office's risk assessments, which identify health or environmental risks specific chemicals pose when they are used in particular products or applied in specific ways such as through aerosols, also are highlighting specific opportunities for chemical manufacturers and investors, he said.
Government Regulations Driving Change
Government regulations—especially by states—of product ingredients and chemicals management are a driving force behind change, Trucost said, drawing on interviews it conducted with 17 retailers, consulting groups, industry organizations and chemical manufacturers and formulators. Trucost also analyzed annual reports, investor advisories, shareholder resolutions, government information and other material.
Retail customers' expectations and corporate sustainability policies also are key contributors to the growing market for products made with safer chemicals, Trucost said.
There is no single definition of safer chemicals or chemistry in the report, Libby Bernick, a senior vice president with Trucost, told Bloomberg BNA May 5.
Different companies, trade associations and certification programs use divergent criteria to define the term, she said.
Hence Trucost's analysis draws upon the definitions those companies, associations and programs, along with published studies, used, Bernick said.
Market Trends, Business Risks Examined
The report describes market trends, capital flows, regulatory restrictions and business risks, such as fines paid by individual retailers for alleged violations of hazardous waste laws.
The report also highlights sector trends and examples from individual companies in that sector. The years analyzed don't always match due to difference sources of information Trucost drew upon for its analysis, but the information provides market snapshots.
For example, the market for cleaning products made with safer chemicals had a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent between 2007 and 2011, the report said. That compared to an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent for conventional cleaning products during those same years, the report said.
Coastwide Laboratories, the “Sustainable Earth” division of Staples Inc., experienced an 8 percent growth rate between 2000 and 2005, while Clorox Green Works, a division of the Clorox Co., had sales of $200 million in 2011, the report said.
“Green Works remains a small but really important business for the company,” Alexis Limberakis, director of environmental sustainability at Clorox, recently told Bloomberg BNA (75 DEN B-1, 4/20/15).
Future Work Recommended
Trucost's report offers recommendations to spur additional growth, including interested parties developing more consistent terminology to define and metrics to assess the value of safer chemistries.
Among other recommendations, the report said “Safer chemistry metrics that relate to business and economic opportunity (and risk) should be tracked and communicated, to help spur business understanding of safer chemistry and public policy mechanisms for data disclosure.”
“Existing safer chemistry initiatives should be catalyzed, harmonized and aligned through a value chain approach and used to leverage capital flows toward safer chemistry innovation,” it said.
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Evidence grows linking DEHP exposure to reproductive toxicity: What is the state of regulation?
May 5, 2015 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Lindsay McCormick
Phthalates are chemical plasticizers found in a wide array of industrial and consumer products, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping and tubing, cosmetics, medical devices, plastic toys, and food contact materials. Because phthalates are often not strongly chemically bound to these products, they can leach out of those products and into the environment around us. Given this, it may not be surprising that phthalates and their metabolites can be measured in the bodies of nearly all people tested.
This post reports on important new research on DEHP and summarizes the state of regulation of the chemical in the U.S. and abroad.
Evidence from laboratory experiments where animals are dosed with phthalates strongly suggests that these chemicals have adverse effects on the male reproductive system. The National Research Council (NRC) concluded in its 2008 report that male rats prenatally exposed to certain phthalates during a critical developmental window of sexual differentiation are prone to a number of reproductive tract abnormalities; further, the NRC concluded that it is “biologically plausible” that similar effects may occur in humans exposed to certain phthalates in the womb.
Now, a study conducted by Swan et al. and published in February in the journal of Human Reproduction corroborates this hypothesis of effects in humans for one phthalate: diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP).
In this study, the largest of its kind, researchers recruited pregnant women from prenatal clinics in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Rochester (NY), and Seattle and measured phthalate levels excreted in the urine during the first trimester of pregnancy. To assess the potential impact on reproductive health, the researchers measured anogenital distance (AGD) – the distance between the anus and the genitals – in the infants immediately after birth. AGD is an indicator of prenatal exposure to androgen (a male sex hormone), with typical AGDs being 50-100% longer in males than in females. Shorter AGD is a well-established marker for disruption of male genital tract development (or “feminization”), and has been associated with reduced fertility in males.
This study found that AGD was significantly shorter in male infants whose mothers were more highly exposed to DEHP during their first trimester of pregnancy. No association between prenatal exposure to phthalates and AGD was found in female infants.
A well-designed study
The Swan et al. study is not the first to suggest that prenatal phthalate exposure in males may impact their ability to reproduce as adults, as measured by AGD (for example, see here and here). However, it arguably provides the most robust evidence to date of such effects in humans. According to the authors, this study is “far more powerful and precise” than any other study that has previously investigated this question. Some of the strengths of this study include:A large sample size: The study reported results on 753 participants (366 boys) – more than all other studies published on this topic combined.Well-timed exposure measurement: Urine samples were collected during a critical window of genital development, allowing the researchers to measure phthalate levels during the most relevant timeframe during pregnancy.Precise genital measurements at birth: All measurements were taken using standardized equipment and rigorous protocols, and were timed within a short window after delivery to minimize variability.
DEHP and female reproductive health
Although much less studied, preliminary research suggests that DEHP may also affect the female reproductive system. A new study published by researchers at University of Illinois in April found that, relative to an unexposed control group, female mice dosed with DEHP during pregnancy gave birth to more male offspring, took longer to get pregnant, and showed altered ovarian structure. Several other studies demonstrate a potential for DEHP to adversely impact the female reproductive system; however, this area warrants further research.
With this mounting evidence of health concerns, what is the state of regulation of DEHP?
Regulation of DEHP in the U.S.
DEHP is regulated by a number of federal and state entities in the U.S. (see tables below). Research demonstrates that DEHP exposure has significantly decreased in the U.S. since the early 2000s, which may be largely attributed to the substitution of DEHP with other compounds (including other phthalates) because of regulatory pressure and public concern. Despite this trend, the Swan et al. study suggests that current levels of DEHP exposure may still be sufficient to remain detrimental to male reproductive health.
With the exception of a national ban in some children’s products (see our previous blog) and a few limits in food contact materials imposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there has been relatively little regulation of DEHP in consumer products at the federal level. According to a report published in August 2014 by the Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) on Phthalates, a group of experts convened by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety commission (CPSC), the largest source of exposure to DEHP in pregnant women is diet. DEHP is lipophilic (“fat-loving”) and can leach from food packaging and other food contact materials (e.g., equipment used in mechanical milk processing) into fatty foods such as dairy and meats.
Although there are some limits on DEHP use in food contact materials, there is no restriction on the amount that can be leached into the food itself (i.e., “migration limit”). In order to reduce dietary exposure in women of reproductive age, further regulation in food contact materials and establishment of a DEHP migration limit may well be necessary.
A number of states have implemented DEHP restrictions in water and air at levels differing from the national standards, and a few states – California, Vermont, and Washington – have banned DEHP in toys and childcare products. Washington’s “Children’s Safe Products Act” extends restrictions to DEHP in cosmetics marketed to children (under 12 years). In addition to DEHP restrictions, three states have required reporting or disclosure of DEHP use in products (see table below).
Regulation of DEHP abroad
Many other countries, including Canada, Australia, and Turkey have taken regulatory action to restrict DEHP. However, the European Union (EU) has adopted the most aggressive restrictions. In the mid-2000s, the EU banned DEHP from children’s products and cosmetics and restricted its use in some food contact materials (including a migration limit of 1.5 mg/kg food). In 2008, DEHP was added to the “candidate list” of “Substances of Very High Concern” under the EU’s chemical safety law (REACH), thereby requiring suppliers of any article containing DEHP above a threshold to inform members of its supply chain of the use of DEHP. Most uses of DEHP were banned (or “sunsetted”) in the EU as of February 21, 2015, with the exception of three manufacturers who were granted use authorizations for specific uses (for more information on authorization of DEHP under REACH, see our previous blog). However, uses that do not fall under REACH, such as food packaging, were unaffected by this ban.
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EPA Guide Outlines State Authority At Closed Hazardous Waste Landfills
May 5, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
EPA has released a draft guidance that gives assurances to states that regulators have the discretionary authority to lengthen the post-closure care (PCC) period beyond 30 years to require continued monitoring for potential releases at hazardous waste landfills, laying out criteria states can use to make those assessments.
These criteria include accounting for the potential impacts of climate change and vapor intrusion -- factors that were likely not considered when many of the facilities' permits were issued, the draft guidance says. The document also provides information to aid facility owners in preparing documents to support decisions to adjust the PCC period, according to EPA. The agency is taking public comment on the guidance until June 30.
Under Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) subtitle C regulations governing hazardous waste management, owners or operators of hazardous waste disposal facilities follow PCC requirements for a 30-year period after closing a unit. But the regulations also "provide discretionary authority to the permitting authority to extend or shorten the length of the post-closure care period," Barnes Johnson, director of EPA's Office of Resource Conservation & Recovery, says in the April 29 draft guidance. PCC involves specific monitoring and maintenance activities that facility operators or owners must undertake after a waste unit is closed to ensure the integrity of waste containment systems and to prevent releases of hazardous pollutants, the guidance says.
The PCC requirements apply to land disposal units where hazardous waste is left in place after closure, such as landfills, land treatment units, surface impoundments, or other units, according to the guidance.
While the RCRA regulations identify a 30-year PCC period, that “does not reflect a determination by EPA that 30 years of post-closure care is necessarily sufficient to eliminate potential threats to human health and the environment in all cases," the agency notes.
It goes on to say: "In fact, the regulations provide authority for a permit authority to conduct a case-by-case review of the post-closure care period and to establish arrangements to adjust the length of the post-closure care period on a facility-specific basis, where the record supports a determination that the revised post-closure period will protect human health and the environment.”
EPA committed to writing the guidance after state regulators pressured EPA to issue guidance as many waste facilities were nearing the end of their 30-year PCC period covered by the regulations. The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) in 2012 released a position paper urging EPA to issue guidance on addressing subtitle C hazardous waste sites following the 30-year PCC period. It specifically asked EPA to address whether PCC periods should be adjusted when permits are renewed, and if so, what criteria should be used for making that determination, and what length extension is appropriate.
States wanted EPA to support the presumption that PCC requirements would continue beyond the initial PCC period as long as waste remains in place, one state source said last year after an EPA waste official previewed the draft guidance at an ASTSWMO meeting.
The agency's Inspector General has also been studying whether EPA and authorized states have safeguards to control public health, environmental and fiscal risks beyond the 30-year PCC period.
Adjusted PCC Periods
In the guidance, EPA says decisions about extending or shortening the PCC period must be based on protecting human health and the environment, and advises regulators to make decisions about adjusting the PCC period long before the existing monitoring period ends, recommending permitting authorities begin the process at least 18 months before the facility permit or PCC period expires.
The agency describes an array of criteria for regulators to use on a site-specific basis to evaluate whether to adjust a PCC period, but notes that each of the criteria "is not necessarily appropriate for every unit in post-closure care," and says questions under each criterion "do not all need to be answered in order to make a decision concerning the appropriate post-closure care period.”
The first criterion to consider is the "presence of hazardous waste," with EPA noting that many hazardous wastes degrade slowly or not at all, which could potentially pose unacceptable impacts on the environment or human health in the future, the guidance says. Second, the "nature of hazardous waste remaining in the unit" should be considered, with questions asked for instance on the degree of hazard posed by the wastes and whether they degrade into toxic or non-toxic substances.
Regulators should also consider the type of unit the waste is in; the leachate, such as the leachate generation rate and leachate collection system integrity; groundwater, for instance whether groundwater quality is in compliance with current standards; and siting and site geology/hydrogeology, such as whether the facility is near residential areas and surface and drinking water sources. Under this last criterion, EPA poses the question of whether any new potential exposure pathways such as vapor intrusion have been identified and evaluated as many permits were issued before vapor intrusion was considered by EPA as a potential avenue of exposure.
"In addition, EPA recommends that the potential effects of climate change also be taken into account in making these assessments," the guidance says. For instance, it says flooding and sea-level rise could result in contaminant releases from waste units, and saltwater intrusion and higher levels of salinity in groundwater in coastal aquifers could make clay liners at waste sites more permeable.
Other criteria to consider include: facility history; the integrity of gas collection systems and cover systems; and long-term stewardship, such as physical and legal controls. "A further need to maintain [engineering controls] would likely justify an extension of the post-closure care period," the guidance says, noting this may be needed even if their frequency lessens. Engineering controls refer to physical barriers or structures such as caps and impermeable liners aimed at monitoring and preventing exposure to contamination, according to EPA.
Furthermore, EPA stresses the importance of continuing institutional controls (ICs) in some cases, referring to administrative or legal instruments such as deed restrictions designed to minimize potential exposures to contamination. "Even in cases where the post-closure care period need not be extended to protect human health and the environment, the permitting authority may want to ensure that some long-term ICs, such as an easement that provides access to the property, are continued," the guidance says. The agency also says regulators should consider whether a funding source is available to continue any long-term maintenance beyond the PCC period.
Financial Assurance
The agency in the guidance also recommends how regulators should review hazardous waste management units nearing the end of their PCC period. This includes regulators tracking permit terms and the 30-year dates for all PCC permits; obtaining a copy of the post-closure plan, and any other relevant information such as monitoring reports; and being mindful of the periodic renewal of post-closure permits.
EPA says that facility owners or operators are responsible for giving regulators information necessary to support a decision to adjust the PCC time period. If relevant and complete information is lacking, regulators may be justified to conclude that an extension of the PCC period is needed to protect human health and the environment, the guidance says.
The agency also advises state regulators on financial assurance requirements for an extended PCC period -- something states asked EPA to make a clear statement on. "[P]ermitting authorities should keep in mind that a changed post-closure period may also necessitate revisions to the associated post-closure cost estimate and financial assurance," EPA says. It says that the facility's modified permit or other documentation should reflect these changes. EPA's existing waste regulations require facilities to meet financial assurance requirements for PCC. These mandate that owners or operators provide financial assurance for PCC in an amount equivalent to the current cost estimate for post-closure monitoring and maintenance, according to the guidance.
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Persistent Industrial Pollutants Could Stymie Songbird Migration
May 5, 2015 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Deirdre Lockwood
In recent decades, many common migratory songbirds have declined in population. Several factors could explain this drop-off, including habitat loss, climate change, feline predators, and wind turbines. But a new study finds that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), toxic industrial pollutants, may share some of the blame by affecting birds’ ability to migrate (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2015, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b01185).
PCBs were used during the 20th century in products such as electrical equipment, insulation, paints, and plastics. Some of the compounds are neurotoxic and can also act as endocrine disruptors. Although manufacturing of PCBs has been banned in the U.S. and Canada for more than 35 years, the compounds persist in the environment and bioaccumulate through food webs.
Many previous studies have shown that endocrine disruptors can interfere with reproduction in birds. But Christy A. Morrissey, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Saskatchewan, thought that the pollutants might also directly influence migration, which is partly regulated by hormones. So she and her team raised common songbirds, European starlings, and monitored how an industrial PCB mixture called Aroclor 1254 affected their migratory behavior.
In the spring, the researchers fed groups of newly hatched chicks sunflower oil dosed with 50, 100, or 150 ppm Aroclor 1254—levels similar to those found in the environment—each day for their first 18 days of life. Except for the group treated with the highest level of PCBs, which molted much later than expected, the birds grew normally over four months, gaining weight and then shedding feathers in preparation for fall migration.
In September, the researchers changed the birds’ light conditions to simulate shorter days and spur migration. Then they tested the birds’ preferred migration direction by placing them outside in a standard test cage: a circular pot covered with a mesh screen. In half-hour trials, the researchers filmed the birds and tracked the direction in which they hopped most commonly, which indicates their preferred flight orientation.
Healthy starlings would normally fly south during fall migration. A control group fed sunflower oil without PCBs showed this preference, hopping south-southeast. But the groups treated with the PCB mixture varied in their orientation: The low-dosage group hopped east, the intermediate-dosage group hopped east-southeast, and the birds with the highest dosage hopped all over the place, without any clear orientation.
The results show that birds “can be exposed early in life to these chemicals that are found widely in the environment, and this can have long-term effects on their ability to fly in the right direction,” Morrissey says. If migrating birds don’t make it to their wintering grounds, they have a much lower chance of surviving and reproducing. She says starlings fly in a flock during the day, but the effects may be starker on songbirds that migrate longer distances or fly alone at night.
Diane S. Henshel, an ecotoxicologist at Indiana University, Bloomington, says that the study is well-done and may help explain reports of birds that appear off main migration routes or out of timing with others of their species. Although these reports have sometimes been attributed to weather events, she says “the possibility that pollution may be playing a role is important and should be investigated further.”
Morrissey’s team is now examining the brains of these birds to investigate a mechanism that could explain the link between the PCBs and their migratory behavior.
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Canada Removes 16 VOCs From List of Toxic Substances
May 5, 2015 | Chemical Watch
The Canadian government has issued an order, excluding an additional 16 volatile organic compounds from the list of toxic substances in schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
The order cites scientific assessments done by the US EPA, which concluded that that the VOCs “contribute negligibly to the formation of ground-level ozone”. So the agency included them in the list of compounds, excluded from the regulatory definition of VOCs in the US.
“Environment Canada has examined the scientific approach used by the US EPA and agrees with these assessments,” says a notice in the Canada Gazette.
The 16 VOCs are:
1,1,1,2,2,3,3-heptafluoro-3-methoxy-propane (HFE-7000);
3-ethoxy-1,1,1,2,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,6-dodecafluoro-2-(trifluoromethyl) hexane (HFE-7500);
1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea);
methyl formate (HCOOH3);
tertiary butyl acetate;
1,1,1,2,2,3,4,5,5,5-decafluoro-3-methoxy-4-trifluoromethyl-pentane (HFE-7300);
propylene carbonate;
dimethyl carbonate;
trans-1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234ze);
HCF2OCF2H (HFE-134);
HCF2OCF2OCF2H (HFE-236cal2);
HCF2OCF2CF2OCF2H (HFE-338pcc13);
HCF2OCF2OCF2CF2OCF2H;
2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf);
trans 1-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoroprop-1-ene; and
2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol.
The compounds can be used in a variety of potential applications, including as refrigerants, fire suppressants, heat transfer fluids, foam-blowing agents, aerosol propellants, adhesives and solvents. Some are also used in coatings, cosmetics, cleaners, degreasers and food packaging.
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EPA Internal Review Report Questions OEM’s Lack Of Vision, Priorities
May 5, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
A strategic internal review of EPA’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has found the office lacks a vision to squarely establish priorities and appears to be heavily focusing on homeland security duties at the expense of its responsibilities related to Superfund removal actions, rule-making and preparedness programs it runs, according to a source familiar with the report developed as a result of the review.
According to the source, the report suggests OEM take note of this imbalance because OEM’s regulatory responsibilities are now increasing due to an executive order issued by President Obama aimed at boosting chemical facility safety, as well as the increasing transport of large volumes of oil and the office’s core emergency response responsibilities under the Superfund removal program.
The 2013 chemical facility safety executive order calls for agencies to enhance the safety of chemical facilities and lower risks from hazardous chemicals to workers, the public and responders by better coordinating with state and local agencies and with each other, updating policies and standards and working with stakeholders to identify best practices.
In addition to chemical security policy, OEM also oversees emergency response programs for oil spills and chemical and radiological releases. OEM falls within the agency’s Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response.
The increased attention to oil transportation comes as rail transport of crude oil is growing, particularly unconventional oils that can be more flammable than traditional oils. Nitin Natarajan, deputy assistant administrator of EPA’s waste office, noted last fall in a presentation to state regulators the increase in shipments and warned of the possibility of accidents as volume and distance traveled increases. Highlighting the potential severity of an accident, he said that while the number of rail accidents is “relatively low,” the harms can be significant, including loss of life and major environmental pollution.
Also, as OEM oversees revisions to a National Contingency Plan rule on oil spill response, the office has been under pressure by environmental groups to expand the rule to address major fresh water spills of unconventional, “ultra-hazardous” oil such as blended tar sands oil and extremely volatile shale oils.
The internal report suggests that OEM use annual plans that reference priorities and budgets to better balance its responsibilities and distribute its funds among its programs more evenly and strategically, according to the source. OEM’s priorities do not appear to be aligned with a plan, but rather in response to crises. An annual plan with goals would be key to tracking progress made, the source says the report indicates.
OSWER Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus launched the internal strategic review of the office last year, around the same time he announced federal facility cleanup director Reggie Cheatham would assume the role of OEM acting director due to the retirement of Lawrence Stanton, who had led OEM since 2011.
Former EPA Region 2 Deputy Administrator George Pavlou oversaw the strategic review of OEM, making findings to improve the office following a review period that ended in January, according to the source. The review was aimed at identifying ways to “enhance and better support the organization in its prevention, preparedness, and response roles,” an EPA spokesman says in an email response to questions. The spokesman declined to release the resulting report, saying it was an internal effort.
Lack Of Coordination
In terms of management, the report also suggests moving away from a reactive approach and ensuring a conventional deputy director is in place when the office director must focus on emergency situations, such as the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the source.
The source says the report also highlights the various interactions OEM has with other offices within EPA and other federal departments, and suggests changes that could improve those relationships.
OEM’s responsibilities include working with other federal agencies to prevent chemical accidents, including work to provide information and response efforts and policy to help the regulated community and others prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. OEM’s responsibilities for emergency removals mean it must interact with EPA’s Superfund office and regional removal programs, and its duties to address emergency radiological responses mean interaction with the agency’s Office of Radiation & Indoor Air (ORIA), while its oil spill responsibilities trigger interactions with the National Response Team. OEM also interacts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on emergency support matters.
According to the source, the internal review found difficulties between OEM management and FEMA, and found OEM, Office of Homeland Security and ORIA all have a part to play during a chemical, biological or radiological incident, but it is unclear who has the authority to speak for EPA. FEMA staff interviewed during the review advised moving OEM’s radiological incident duties to ORIA to centralize the agency’s views on radiological issues.
ORIA has a Radiological Emergency Response Team that advises federal, state and local responders on how to address radiological emergencies, but the report indicates OEM and ORIA have a strained relationship, according to the source. The report underscores the need for the two to repair their relationship, collaborate, and define their specific roles to manage radiological emergencies so they are clear on how to respond if an incident were to occur, according to the source. OEM’s relationship with regional removal programs has gotten better in the past year, the source says the report found. At the same time, the source says the report indicates that OEM should look to resolve various issues such as the scope of removal actions at sites that have contamination caused by lead or volatile organic compounds to ensure that removal actions are uniform among the regions. Regions appear to be diverging when it comes to removals related to these issues, the source says.
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Fracking Fluids Leaked Into Groundwater In Pennsylvania County, Report Says
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tripp Baltz
Natural gas and other contaminants likely derived from drilling or hydraulic fracturing affected a drinking water aquifer in 2011 in Bradford County, Pa., a new study said.
The contaminants were detected using instrumentation not available in most commercial laboratories, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study released May 4.
The most likely explanation for the contamination is that stray natural gas and drilling or fracking compounds migrated laterally one kilometer to three kilometers along shallow to intermediate fractures to the aquifer used as a potable water source by three households, the report said.
Chesapeake Energy, the operator of the natural gas wells, paid a fine of nearly $1.1 million in May 2011 under the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act and Clean Streams Law for allowing natural gas to enter aquifers (96 DEN A-7, 5/18/11).
The company also settled a civil lawsuit by the homeowners in June 2012, and the gas company acquired the properties, the study said. Chesapeake declined to comment on the study, a company spokesman told Bloomberg BNA May 5.
Fracking involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals into tight shale formations deep underground to release trapped natural gas and oil resources otherwise uneconomical to produce. Industry maintains the practice is safe, while environmentalists and landowners say they are concerned about its potential to harm groundwater and air quality.
Foam Detected
The gas wells lie in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The affected households reported inundation of natural gas and foam in the drinking water aquifer, the study said. The contaminants had migrated laterally through kilometers of rock.
PNAS said data from the study “do not implicate upward flowing fluids along fractures from the target shale as the source of contaminants but rather implicate fluids flowing vertically along gas well boreholes and through intersecting shallow to intermediate flow paths via bedrock fractures.”
While groundwater contamination by stray natural gas and spillage of brine and other gas drilling-related fluids is known to occur, the study said, contamination of shallow portable aquifers by high-volume hydraulic fracturing has never been fully documented.
Using comprehensive 2-D gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry, an “unresolved complex mixture of organic compounds” was identified in the aquifer, the study said.
Signatures Observed in Flowback
Similar signatures were observed in flowback from Marcellus Shale gas wells. Flowback is a mixture of fracking fluids and produced water that comes to the surface during the process of extracting natural gas.
The study also identified in the flowback 2-Butoxyethanol at nanogram-per-liter concentrations. Long-term exposure in humans to 2-Butoxyethanol, a glycol ether, may result in neurological and blood effects, including fatigue, nausea, tremor and anemia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The source of the contamination might have been wastewaters from a pit leak reported at the gas well pad nearest the drinking water aquifer—the only nearby pad where wells were fracked prior to the incident, the study said.
Could Have Found Source
Had samples of drilling, pit and fracking fluids been available, the technique used in the study might have fingerprinted the contamination source, the PNAS said.
“More such incidents must be analyzed and data released publicly so that similar problems can be avoided through the use of better management practices,” it said.
Katie Brown, a spokeswoman for Energy in Depth, a program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, told Bloomberg BNA May 5 the researchers based “their entire case on the detection of ‘very low concentrations' of 2-BE, a compound used in hundreds of household products.”
Also, she said, the study didn't “account for the fact 2-BE can be found in the cement that was used to construct the replacement wells where they took their samples—that could easily explain the detections of these trace compounds.”
Well Construction Critical
The report confirms the importance of solid well construction practices and proper cementation, Scott Anderson, senior policy director for the climate and energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund in Austin, told Bloomberg BNA May 5.
He agreed with the researchers' call for more case studies of incidents involving “pollution caused by oil and gas activity.”
“The more we understand the source of contamination, the better it will help drive priorities in the policy sphere and help develop reasonable risk controls,” he said.
The researchers for the study included Garth Llewellyn, principal hydrogeologist with Appalachia Hydrogeologic and Environmental Consulting LLC in Bridgewater, N.J.; Frank Dorman and J.L Westland, Department of Biochemistry, Pennsylvania State University; D. Yoxtheimer, Paul Grieve, Todd Sowers and Susan Brantley, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University; and E. Humston-Fulmer of Leco Corp., St. Joseph, Mich.
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Frackers Look for Ways to Reduce Their Water Use
May 5, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Erin Ailworth
Some of the largest independent U.S. oil and gas companies are spending now to save money on water later.
Investments in technologies and projects to save and recycle water continue even as these companies slash other costs in the face of slumping energy prices. The companies say they hope the efforts will yield savings on the thousands of wells they expect to drill in years to come, and ensure they continue to have the water they need for wells in drier regions. With many drilling fields in drought-prone regions of states such as Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, these efforts also may help reduce friction with neighboring communities, farmers and manufacturers that also depend on local water.
Water is a key component of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial oil-field technique that also uses chemicals and tons of sand to crack dense rock formations trapping oil and gas deposits. It takes millions of gallons of water—in some cases, enough to fill nine Olympic-size swimming pools—to frack a single well. As a result, better water management, combined with recycling, can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per well.
Finding ways to recycle and use less fresh water has required a lot of investment from some of the biggest independent producers working in water-scarce regions, including Anadarko Petroleum Corp. , Apache Corp. , and Southwestern Energy Co. Anadarko says it has spent more than $550 million on water management, conservation, recycling and infrastructure in the past several years.
Apache, for its part, says it has spent tens of millions and is already seeing the benefits. “We think we saved tens of millions of dollars last year, and we’re going to do that and more this year,” says Cal Cooper, director of special projects and emerging technologies at Apache.
At ConocoPhillips Co., so much water is coming up with the fuel it is drilling in the Permian Basin of Texas that water management, logistics and recycling have taken on a new importance. During a recent talk with analysts and investors, the company said water-management improvements have helped it cut the cost of supply by about $8 a barrel in some areas. Last year, ConocoPhillips produced 58,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent in the Permian Basin.
These companies’ conservation methods include using brackish water or effluent instead of fresh water, and using pipelines and various treatment systems to more efficiently move, clean and reuse the vast quantities of water that flow through their operations. Far to go
Still, the U.S. energy industry has a ways to go in its water use and recycling efforts.
Roughly a trillion gallons of water—25 times as much as the city of Austin pumped last year—are expected to flow out of onshore U.S. oil and gas wells in 2015, according to consulting firm IHS Energy. On average, about 20% to 35% of that is the sand- and chemical-laced water shot into the well during the fracking process. The rest is super-salty brine that was trapped along with the fuel deposits and is very difficult to clean well enough to put it to other uses.
In most regions, less than 3% of all the water that surges from a well is currently reused, says Francesco Ciulla, managing director at IHS Energy.
Companies such as Oasys Water Inc. have designed filtering systems that make that water fresh enough to be reused for fracking or even irrigation, says Oasys Chief Executive Jim Matheson. Mr. Matheson says inquiries from the oil and gas industry about his Boston-based company’s products have nearly doubled from a year ago as water scarcity and cost have become bigger issues.
At GE Power & Water, a division of General Electric Co., more customers have been asking how to eke out operational efficiencies—and related savings—by upgrading or deploying new water technologies. Heiner Markhoff, chief executive of the division’s water and process technologies business, says the company has been working on filters that can better clean frack water, and is in talks with several energy producers to build wastewater-treatment facilities. One in Wyoming that just opened for Encana Corp. will be able to clean as much as one million gallons a day, according to GE.
One hurdle many drillers face is a lack of contiguous acreage that would make installing major water pipeline systems and recycling facilities economic, says Monika Freyman, senior manager of the water program at Ceres, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on sustainability.
To help producers get around that, the GE division is testing a set of mobile technologies in the Permian Basin that can sit on a well site and treat 10,000 barrels of water a day for reuse.
Pioneer Natural Resources Co. , meanwhile, says it plans to spend about $1 billion building a major water pipeline and treatment project in the Permian for 20,000 wells that it plans to drill there over the next few decades. Its water system will bring treated sewage water from nearby Odessa and Midland, as well as brackish water from a local reservoir. When finished, the project is expected to save about $500,000 per well.
Pioneer, based in Irving, Texas, already has spent tens of millions of dollars to conserve water in recent years. According to Chief Executive Scott Sheffield, the company’s ultimate goal is to stop using fresh water completely.
Other oil and gas companies share that goal. Southwestern says it already recycles nearly all of the water that rises to the surface after it is done fracking wells in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas. The company estimates that that fluid amounts to between 15% and 25% of the amount used to frack each well. In the Fayetteville Shale alone, that has helped cut the company’s overall water use by more than 12%, says Mark Boling, head of Southwestern’s efforts to keep the environmental effects of its operations in check. Restoring habitats
Mr. Boling says Southwestern helps replace the fresh water it uses by working with the Nature Conservancy to restore wetlands, rivers and streams in the regions where it drills. Rebuilding those habitats helps reduce runoff and recharge the groundwater, Mr. Boling says. The company says it expects to be freshwater-neutral by 2016.
Meanwhile, Anadarko has replaced Denver Basin groundwater with effluent from the city of Aurora, Colo., says David McBride, vice president of health, safety and environment for Anadarko. More than 60 miles of pipeline also help the company transport water, eliminating roughly 400,000 truck trips otherwise needed. And in Pennsylvania, Anadarko is reusing 100% of the frack water that backwashes from its wells with the help of another pipeline system.
“Our general approach is to make sure we are prudent users,” says Mr. McBride. “There’s savings across the board if you do this the right way.”
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Texas Senate Gives Final Passage to Bill Restricting Local Ordinances on Oil Drilling
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Paul Stinson
The Texas Senate has approved final legislation that would curb municipal efforts to regulate oil and gas operations.
Passed May 4 on a 24-7 vote, the bill (H.B. 40) is one of several filed during the legislative session in response to the city of Denton's approval in November 2014 of a ballot measure to ban hydraulic fracturing within its city limits.
“The legislature recognizes that in order to continue this prosperity and the efficient management of a key industry in this state, it is in the interest of this state to explicitly confirm the authority to regulate oil and gas operations in this state,” according to the final version of the bill.
Ordinances and regulations enacted by a municipality that ban, limit or otherwise regulate an oil and gas operation would be preempted by H.B. 40 unless the regulation meets one of four tests, granting “exclusive jurisdiction” of oil and gas operations to the state, according to the bill.
The legislation was approved by the state House in April by a 125-20 vote (76 DEN A-18, 4/21/15). Passage with a two-thirds majority in both chambers means the bill will take effect immediately after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signs it, as expected.
Groups Differ on Passage
Passage of the Senate bill was hailed by the energy industry as vital to maintaining a vibrant economy and criticized by environmental groups concerned about cities' rights to protect citizens from hazardous oil and gas operations.
Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA), told Bloomberg BNA the measure represented “balanced policy that keeps cities safe” while ensuring the strength of the Texas economy.
“The Texas Railroad Commission, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and seven additional federal agencies, have the authority and necessary expertise to oversee the oil and natural gas industry to protect the public health and safety and our environment,” Staples said in a May 5 e-mail.
Cyrus Reed, conservation director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, said of the Senate's action, “We think it was a mistake to pass H.B. 40 the way it was written.”
Describing the bill as containing a “litany of problems,” Reed told Bloomberg BNA May 5 that ambiguities persisted in the language of the measure.
“It's a little bit unclear what this means for the literally hundreds of cities around Texas that have some sort of oil and gas regulations,” he said.
Reed also said it was “a little unclear” as to whether cities “are going to have to go back and rewrite their ordinances to deal very narrowly with surface issues,” adding that it was uncertain as to whether those surface issues will meet the bar for being “declared commercially reasonable and stand up to scrutiny.”
Provisions of Bill Criticized
According to the bill, ordinances would be preempted unless the local rule:
• regulates only above-ground activity,
• is “commercially reasonable,”
• isn't otherwise preempted by state or federal law, or
• doesn't effectively prohibit an oil and gas operation conducted by a “reasonably prudent” operator.
“The bill says if you have regulations or ordinances that are five years old, we consider that to be commercially reasonable,” Reed said.
“Commercially reasonable” is defined by the bill as a “condition that would allow a reasonably prudent operator to fully, effectively, and economically exploit, develop, produce, process, and transport oil and gas, as determined based on the objective standard of a reasonably prudent operator and not on an individualized assessment of an actual operator's capacity to act.”
“The bill also says cities are not allowed to do anything on the subsurface, and frankly a lot of the cities do do things like inspect the cementing and the casing and the well-integrity and the blowout preventer, and if you read the bill literally, it kind of says they can't do that anymore,” Reed said.
Municipal Group's ‘Neutrality' Hit
“We were also disappointed that Texas Municipal League made this deal and agreed to be neutral, because it kind of cut the legs out from those concerned about the bill,” Reed said. “It gave political cover basically to a lot of people to vote for the bill that otherwise might not have voted for the bill.”
The Texas Oil and Gas Association and the league, which serves as a government sector lobbying association representing the interests of more than 1,130 cities, agreed to provisions of the bill during the first week of April, with the league dropping initial objections to the legislation and pledging to remain “neutral” following the March 30 introduction of a substitute version.
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Oil and Gas Industry Rushes to Support Vitter Gubernatorial Bid
May 6, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Jennifer Yachnin
Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) may boast the biggest war chest among those candidates vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) this fall, but he's not the only contender to claim healthy support from the oil and gas industry.
A review of recently filed campaign finance reports shows Vitter dominating the money chase with $4.2 million in the bank in mid-April, after raising $1.1 million in the first months of this year.
Other contenders include Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne (R), who reported $1.8 million in his campaign account after adding $520,000 to his coffers, and Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle (R), who reported $1.2 million in the bank after raising $642,000 through mid-April.
State House Minority Leader John Bel Edwards, the most prominent Democrat in the race -- New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) announced late last month he would not make a statewide bid -- reported $894,000 in his campaign coffers after raising $230,000 in recent months.
The candidates will face off in an all-party primary in October, with the top-two vote-getters heading to a November runoff if no one candidate claims a majority of the vote.
In their latest fundraising disclosures, both Vitter -- the race's expected front-runner -- and Angelle showed significant contributions from oil and gas industry-related donors.
But thanks to campaign finance limits in Louisiana that restrict contributions to $5,000 per individual or entity per election -- or a maximum donation of $5,000 for the primary and $5,000 for the runoff, if necessary -- Vitter's campaign was forced to turn back $30,000 in funds to the Texas-based Rain CII Carbon LLC.
According to a description from Rain CII Carbon President Gerard Sweeney posted on the firm's website, the company focuses primarily on converting green petroleum coke into aluminum.
Vitter's campaign finance report shows Rain CII Carbon provided the campaign with a $25,000 and a $5,000 check in late March but was refunded those excess contributions a day later.
The campaign finance reports show that Rain CII Carbon had already donated $5,000 ahead before the March contributions.
But Sweeney, along with two other members of the Sweeney family listed at the same address, were able to provide the Vitter campaign with another $15,000 in donations thanks to three separate $5,000 checks reported within days of the $30,000 refund.
Other donors who made the maximum $5,000 contribution to Vitter's gubernatorial bid include Anderson Oil and Gas President William Anderson, ExxonMobil Chemical Co. President Neil Chapman, Lucas Oil Products Inc., and the Kansas-based Koch Industries, owned by billionaire GOP donors David and Charles Koch.
Vitter also found support from senior officials at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., with both CEO Richard Adkerson and Chief Administrative Officer Michael Arnold donating the maximum $5,000.
Mississippi-based Pruet Oil Co. co-owner Rick Calhoon also donated $1,000, as did Arch Coal Inc.
Other major contributions in the most recent quarter came from the Louisiana-based Boh Brothers Construction firm, which donated $5,000, while Boh Brothers President Robert Boh donated another $5,000 and Vice President Stephen Boh donated $5,000.
Bollinger Shipyards Vice President Charlotte Bollinger also appears on the list of most recent contributors to Vitter, although her $1,000 donation was returned in April when it pushed her over the $5,000 limit.
Bollinger's brother, Boysie, acted as a major supporter for former Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D) failed re-election bid in the 2014 cycle, appearing in several commercials touting her candidacy.
While Vitter is focused on his gubernatorial bid, he also continues to leisurely raise funds for a potential 2016 re-election bid.
According to first-quarter fundraising reports, Vitter's Senate campaign added $69,000 to its coffers in the first quarter of this year and banked $72,000 at the end of March. He would not be able to use those funds in a statewide bid, but he would need to draw on those funds if his gubernatorial aspirations fail to come to fruition.
By comparison, at this point in the 2010 cycle, Vitter reported $2.5 million in his campaign coffers, after raising $731,000 in the first quarter of 2009. Likewise, in 2014, Vitter reported raising $32,000 and ending the first quarter with $804,000 in the bank.
Still, energy industry allies are stocking Vitter's federal campaign with funds, including a $1,000 donation from the Indiana-based Nisource PAC, $1,000 from Entergy PAC and $2,500 from the Pioneer Natural Resources PAC.
Should Vitter win the governor's office, he will be tasked with selecting his own successor in the Senate to complete his current term. That individual -- potentially one of Louisiana's current GOP House lawmakers -- would then have a strong advantage when campaigning for a full term in the Senate in the 2016 cycle. Former regulator nets industry contributions
But Angelle, who served eight years as secretary of Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources after first being appointed to the post by then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) in 2004, also claims notable contributions from the oil and gas industry.
Among the firms that maxed out to Angelle in the first months of this year are PACs related to Texas-based natural gas distributor Atmos Energy Corp. and the Texas-based electric and natural gas utility CenterPoint Energy Inc.
Other contributors who donated $5,000 include Lafayette, La.-based Energy Pipe and Equipment Rentals; Texas-based Targa Midstream Services; and Energy Solutions Technology Inc., a Connecticut-based firm that recycles and disposes of nuclear material.
Angelle also received $1,000 from Louisiana-based Omni Energy Services, $2,500 from Louisiana-based Elos Environmental and $1,000 from South Coast Gas Co.
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The Keystone XL Pipeline: What Do You Really Know?
May 5, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Amy Harder
The Keystone XL pipeline has been under review by the U.S. government for more than six years. President Barack Obama could make a decision on the project in the coming weeks, though he faces no deadline.
You’ve probably heard about this pipeline, but how much do you actually know about it? Take this quiz to find out.
1. What company is proposing to build the pipeline?
a. ExxonMobil
b. TransCanada
c. EnergyFirst
d. Enbridge
Answer: B. TransCanada, of Calgary, Alberta, first announced it was going to build Keystone in 2008. Journal Report Insights from The Experts Read more at WSJ.com/EnergyReport More in Energy The Great Oil Debate: Where Prices Are Heading Why Global Oil Demand Will Fall Green Spinoffs for Investors The Future of U.S. Oil Drilling Automatic Bill Paying Backfires
2. Approximately how many gallons of oil a day are proposed to ship through the pipeline?
a. 35 million
b. 830,000
c. 255 million
d. 50 million
Answer: A. By comparison, the U.S. consumes about 800 million gallons of oil a day.
3. Which of the following is NOT a reason environmentalists have cited for opposing the pipeline?
a. Objection to fracking
b. Worries about climate change
c. Objection to oil sands
d. Worries about pipeline spills
Answer: A. While many environmentalists oppose fracking, a drilling technology used in many parts of the U.S., it isn’t an issue with Keystone.
4.The energy industry says Keystone is necessary to reduce the reliance on shipping oil by rail, which the U.S. government and others say poses a greater risk of accidents.
Due mostly to growth in U.S. oil production since 2008, shipments of oil by rail car have increased by about how much?
a. 50%
b. 200%
c. 5,000%
d. 25%
Answer: C. The number of rail cars carrying oil increased to 493,126 in 2014 from 9,500 in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads.
5. Most new pipelines are routinely reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but approval of Keystone has gone to President Obama because pipelines that cross an international border require a permit from the State Department.
How many of the approximately 20 cross-border pipelines carrying oil or refined oil products have been approved by the Obama administration?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 3
d. 9
Answer: B. The Obama administration approved the Alberta Clipper pipeline, which sends oil sands approximately 1,000 miles from Alberta to Wisconsin, in August 2009. In July 2013, the administration approved a natural-gas-liquids pipeline from North Dakota to Canada, though that isn’t an oil project.
6. Which one of the following substances are oil sands most like?
a. White-sand beach
b. Water
c. Molasses
d. Chili
Answer: C. Oil sands, which contain a heavy kind of oil called bitumen, are often described as having the consistency of molasses, a thick, slow-moving glob. They’re also likened to tar, a human-made product. Opponents of Keystone often describe oil sands as tar sands, though official U.S. and Canadian government analyses of this type of oil use the phrase oil sands.
7. True or false: Canada is the only nation with oil-sands deposits.
Answer: False. About 70 countries around the world, including the U.S. (especially Utah), have oil-sands deposits, according to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
8. Which of the following oil-extraction techniques are used to develop oil sands? (Pick all that apply)
a. Hydraulic fracturing
b. In situ, which injects steam deep below ground to separate the oil and pump it to the surface
c. Mining
d. Offshore drilling
Answers: B and C. Oil from Canadian oil sands is produced by two main methods. About 80% of the sands are developed by in situ, or “in place,” drilling, which involves injecting steam deep below ground to separate the oil and pump it to the surface. The remainder is mined, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. This mining is similar to that of a coal-mining operation, where large shovels scoop the oil sands into trucks, which then take the material to a processing plant where the oil is separated from the rest of the material.
9. How many times has Congress passed legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline?
a. 11
b. 1
c. 0
d. 4
Answer: B. Despite all of the congressional noise around Keystone over the years, legislation approving the pipeline has been passed by both chambers of Congress only once.
10. True or false: Canada controls the third-largest amount of proven oil reserves in the world, after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
Answer: True. The oil sands account for nearly all of Canada’s current proven oil reserves, which stand at 167 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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Capito Readies Senate Legislation to Block Proposed Clean Power Plan Implementation
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Childers
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) plans to introduce a bill the week of May 11 to block implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan.
“Next week I will be introducing greenhouse gas legislation with my colleagues that will preserve the proper balance of state and federal authority, help ensure reliable and affordable electricity and protect jobs and our economy,” Capito said May 5 during a hearing by the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety on legal challenges to the EPA's proposed rule
Capito, who chairs the subcommittee, didn't offer any details about the pending legislation, but it's expected to resemble a bill offered by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.,) that would delay implementation of the rule until all legal challenges have been resolved and provide the states with the ability to opt out of complying with the rule if it would increase electricity rates or jeopardize grid reliability. The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent Whitfield's bill to the House floor April 29 (83 DEN A-5, 4/30/15).
Capito told reporters after the hearing that she will be seeking bipartisan support for her bill. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has previously co-sponsored bills with Whitfield, couldn't be reached for comment.
The Clean Power Plan (RIN 2060-AR33), proposed under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, would establish unique carbon dioxide emissions rates for the power sector in each state. Those standards would be implemented by the states, which would choose for themselves the best options for compliance.
Capito Cites Cooperative Federalism
“We know from nearly five decades of experience that the Clean Air Act works best when implemented in the spirit of cooperative federalism,” Capito said. “When the federal government works with the states as partners, we can, and have, improved air quality and protected our economy and our electricity grid at the same time.”
Opponents of the Clean Power Plan argued that the EPA overstepped its statutory authority in designing the proposed rule, largely reiterating arguments they recently made to federal appellate judges.
“The EPA does not possess the authority under the Clean Air Act to do what it seeks to accomplish under the so-called Clean Power Plan,” Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) said.
Oklahoma and West Virginia both joined in a pair of lawsuits that seek to block the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan before it can be finalized. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard challenges to the Clean Power Plan April 16 but appeared wary of setting a precedent by striking down a proposed rule ( In re: Murray Energy Corp., D.C. Cir., No. 14-1112, oral arguments, 4/16/15; West Virginia v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 14-1146, oral arguments, 4/16/15; 74 DEN A-1, 4/17/15).
Opponents Argue Use of Air Act Section
Opponents of the proposed rule argue the EPA can't regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act because those units are already subject to hazardous air pollutant limits issued under Section 112.
When the Clean Air Act was amended in 1990, conflicting amendments to Section 111(d) were both adopted.
An amendment offered by the House would prevent the EPA from regulating any industrial source under Section 111(d) that is already subject to toxic pollutant standards under Section 112, as are power plants. The Senate's amendment would bar the agency from regulating under Section 111(d) those pollutants that are subject to Section 112 standards.
While both amendments were included in the signed law, only the House amendment was added to the U.S. Code, while both amendments are included in the statutes at large.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey (R) argued the Senate's language is only a conforming amendment and therefore has no force. He argued the EPA is attempting to promulgate a “sweeping proposal on the basis of a typo.”
Professor Calls EPA Interpretation Reasonable
Lisa Heinzerling, the Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, said the EPA has reasonably sought to craft an interpretation of Section 111(d)'s provisions that gives effect to both amendments, and the agency is due deference.
“EPA has long offered an interpretation of Section 111(d) that seeks to take something from each of these amendments,” she said.
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States Preview Arguments Against Obama's Climate Rule
May 5, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Two state attorneys general gave a preview Tuesday of their legal arguments against the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants on Tuesday.
Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia told a Senate panel that Obama’s plan is based on conflicting statutes within the Clean Air Act and promised his state would pursue further legal action after the Environmental Protection Agency approves the rules this summer.
Oklahoma’s Scott Pruitt said the plan is “nothing more than an attempt by the EPA to expand federal bureaucrats’ authority over states’ energy power generation mixes.”
Last week, Oklahoma became the first state to announce it would decline to write a strategy to comply with the Clean Power Plan, which sets carbon emission reduction targets for states to meet. The federal government will write a plan for Oklahoma to use instead.
The legal implications of the federal government setting emissions standards and writing reduction plans were front and center for the committee. Pruitt said the plan amounted to a “gun to the head” for states and improperly expanded the EPA’s role in emissions regulations.
“Why is the EPA presently in the process of developing a uniform federal implementation plan, to put on the shelf to demonstrate to states: unless you act a particular way, unless you act consistent with the rule, this is what you’re going to get?” he said. “This does not sound like cooperation.”
But Lisa Heinzerling, a former EPA lawyer and current Georgetown University law professor, defended the plan as a federalist approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“This plan sets out what states are to do, gives them the targets to meet, gives them the flexibility to choose the way they want to meet those targets,” she said. “In this respect, it’s surprising to me that states are already saying that they prefer the federal government set their plans.”
Both West Virginia and Oklahoma have sued the EPA over the Clean Power Plan. Morrisey said the plan has no legs, legally, because it seeks to add a state layer of regulations onto emissions that are already regulated federally, something he said is banned by the Clean Air Act.
This debate is one conservative lawyers have pushed for a while.
When Congress reformed the Clean Air Act in 1990, it included two conflicting amendments dealing with the regulatory approach Morrisey referenced. Revisers included only one of the amendments in the U.S. Code.
Heinzerling said interpretations of legal ambiguities like that are often left to the agencies. She said EPA has “long offered an interpretation of [the law] that aims to take something from each of these amendments.”
In a statement, EPA spokeswoman Liz Purchia defended the agency’s plan as “built on a time-tested state-federal partnership in the Clean Air Act.”
“We addressed the legal foundation for our Clean Power Plan proposal when we issued the proposed rule in June and we will address all comments concerning the legality of the rule when we issue the final rule,” she said. “Courts have reaffirmed repeatedly the science, law and reasoning on which our rule-makings have relied.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, said she will introduce a bill as early as next week meant to address the balance between state and federal authority over greenhouse gas regulations.Lawmakers on the panel mostly left the legal sniping to the witnesses on Tuesday, but they didn’t shy away from dust-ups over the underlying reason for the power plant rule: climate change.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pressed the Republican attorneys general on whether or not they agreed with the science behind global warming.“I’m not going to make an argument today about climate change or whether the temperature is evolving,” Morrisey said, “because regardless of the policy merits of anyone’s proposal, policies have to be implemented in a lawful manner.”
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Obama Climate Rules Face New Attacks From Republicans
May 5, 2015 | National Journal
By Jason Plautz
Senate Republicans are preparing new legislation to upend the tentpole of the Obama administration's climate action plan, but they're also cracking the law books for an offensive playbook.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said she will introduce a bill next week challenging the EPA rules limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants. Speaking after a Tuesday hearing on the EPA rules, Capito said her bill is still being worked out but would touch on the time line of implementation and the ability of states to opt out of EPA regulations. Her bill will target both the rules on existing power plants and a finalized rule on new power plants.
Inevitable lawsuits against the rule are likely to be appealed up the judicial ladder and could stretch on for years, something opponents are banking on because it would likely put compliance on hold as well. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged states to not comply with the rule, citing the uncertainty of legal challenges, and he even cautioned other countries that America's climate work was at risk because of legal challenges.
Capito's bill will look similar to—but have a wider scope than—a House bill that would give states the ability to opt of the rule and put a hold on federal enforcement until judicial challenges are finished. The House bill passed the Energy and Commerce Committee last week and is expected on the floor sometime after Memorial Day.
Republicans have warned that the EPA rule—which is set to be finalized this summer—would be costly for fossil-fuel states, while casting doubt on the climate benefits of the rule. They have also been increasingly poring through the Clean Air Act to raise questions about the legality of the power-plant rules, especially as states and utilities prepare lawsuits against the rule.
"We have EPA dictating to states and effectively micromanaging intrastate electricity-policy decisions to a degree even the agency admits is unprecedented. This raises a broad array of legal issues and is, quite simply, bad policy," Capito said at a Tuesday hearing of a Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee.
At the hearing, two state attorneys general detailed their legal plans, with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey promising that the state would challenge the power-plant rule when it's finalized this summer. West Virginia has already led a legal challenge against the rule as part of a coalition with 14 other states, but a federal appeals court that heard the challenge last month indicated the challenge may have been filed too early.
Morrisey said Tuesday he expected more states would join the challenge when the rule was finalized.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt also previewed another legal avenue against the bill, saying that Oklahoma will challenge EPA's plan to impose a uniform federal plan against states that choose not to comply with the Clean Power Plan.
Last week, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order barring the state from submitting a state implementation plan for the rule, which makes Oklahoma subject to the federal plan.
"Such a move by the EPA would be the proverbial 'gun to the head' of the states, demanding the states to act as the EPA sees fit or face punitive financial sanctions," Pruitt said.
States, even those who oppose the rule, have already begun working toward crafting implementation plans for the rule ahead of its finalization. (States will get a year from finalization to submit their plans.) The administration would like to see it implemented on schedule and without delay, not only to get the health benefits, but as part of its pledge to the United Nations to cut the country's greenhouse-gas emissions by 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has repeatedly said the agency is on firm legal ground with the rule and last week told senators, "I believe we are acting under the authority Congress gave us in the Clean Air Act."
States and utilities have opened up a number of possible legal fronts against the rule—for example, saying that the rule regulating existing power plants is illegal because EPA is already regulating the power sector through a rule on new and modified plants. Morrisey also said that EPA is trying to reduce consumer demand for energy on top of regulating sources, which he said was an "assertion of unprecedented authority."
McConnell last week also thrust the obscure section 102(c) of the Clean Air Act into the spotlight, saying it would allow Congress to put a check on the rule because it could involve the creation of multistate pacts.
The rule's supporters have said the legal challenges are without bounds and that courts are sure to uphold EPA's action. Sen. Tom Carper, for one, pointed to three Supreme Court rulings affirming EPA's ability to control carbon pollution and said the "legal precedent ... is clear."
"Attempts by Congress and other parties to challenge its legality are essentially an attempt to delay implementation of the plan," Carper said. "The longer we wait to reduce our carbon output, the more severe, and perhaps irreversible, the effects of climate change will become."
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Hoeven Mulling Amendment to Energy Legislation
May 6, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Manuel Quiñones
While the House has been swiftly moving forward with legislation to amend U.S. EPA's new rules for coal combustion waste disposal, the issue has been getting scant attention in the Senate.
But Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), long a leading voice on the issue, said he plans to push for an amendment to forthcoming energy legislation in the Senate.
Utilities, environmental advocates and coal ash recyclers have been wondering when a stand-alone bill will emerge in the Senate. "I think it's more likely that we would offer it in the next piece of energy legislation," Hoeven said.
EPA's decision to regulate coal ash as nonhazardous took much of the impetus away from congressional action. A hazardous designation would have been tougher on utilities and coal ash recyclers.
Still, those same industries worry about the rule's reliance on citizen lawsuits for enforcement. And coal ash recyclers worry about EPA changing its mind down the road.
Hoeven's amendment would likely mirror H.R. 1734, which cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee last month.
"We improve on [the EPA rule], so instead of having enforcement through citizen lawsuits," Hoeven said, "you give the state the primary role in oversight and enforcement."
The full House has yet to take up the coal ash bill. Sponsors hope chamber leaders schedule a vote before summer recess. It may be months before the Senate takes up another energy bill.
Even though backers have described the coal ash legislation as adding to EPA's provisions, environmental groups have objected to parts of the language that they say weakens the agency's rule.
Litigation against the EPA rule, while still possible, has yet to emerge. Utilities and environmentalists are being tight-lipped about their plans.
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The Path From Coal to Renewable Energy Can Be Difficult
May 5, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Jim Carlton
For the past decade, the Navajo reservation here has struggled to navigate the change from coal to green power.
It’s still struggling.
The effort began when environmental activists filed a federal lawsuit that helped result in the closure of a nearby coal plant, which ended up costing many Navajos their jobs.
Activists said they would try to help the tribe develop clean-energy jobs. But now, years later, few jobs have been created. And a second large coal plant in the area is facing a partial shutdown, putting many of the nearly 1,000 jobs at the facility and a related mine in jeopardy.
About 90% of those jobs are held by Navajos, and the fallout could be significant on a reservation where unemployment runs about 50%. “We Navajo are wondering what to do next, because coal is a major part of our resource,” says Travis Francisco, 35, who supports a family of six on his job as a plant supervisor. No easy answers
The situation on the reservation, which sprawls 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, mirrors struggles taking place in coal towns across the country.
When plants close, there’s usually a lot of talk from local officials and environmentalists about trying to replace the lost jobs with ones in green energy.
Delivering jobs is a tall order, though, because renewable-energy projects are usually much smaller scale and less labor intensive. And it can be tough to get green projects started in the first place because they often run into funding problems and political challenges. Eastern Kentucky, for example, has lost about 10,000 coal jobs over the past three years, with only a few dozen solar jobs to replace them, says Peter Hille, president of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, an Appalachia advocacy group in Berea, Ky.
“It’s not a decline, it’s a collapse,” says Mr. Hille, who adds one reason solar has been slow to take off in Kentucky is a lack of state programs such as for homeowner leases to help support it. Environmentalists say clean energy isn’t being embraced in Kentucky and other coal-producing areas because many local politicians oppose it.
Local boosters hope Congress will pass President Barack Obama’s proposal to allocate $1 billion to support reclamation of abandoned coal mines. Much of that work to help restore mine sites to their natural condition would go to unemployed coal miners, says Eric Dixon, fellow at the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center in Whitesburg, Ky.
On the Navajo reservation, no significant wind or solar facilities have been created a decade after a federal lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and other green groups led to the closure of the 1,580-megawatt Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev. That took nearly 200 jobs from a coal mine on Navajo and Hopi lands.
The environmental groups said they wanted to see the jobs replaced with clean-energy ones, and officials say they made an effort to help. Sierra Club officials say their testimony helped prompt the California Public Utilities Commission—which oversaw a utility that ran the closed plant—to lend assistance. The commission allocated millions of dollars in pollution credits freed up by the closure to the Navajo and Hopi tribes for help in moving to clean-energy projects.
“Nobody wants to say, ‘OK, you’re on your own,’ ” says Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club. “What is clear is there needs to be a transition, and there are great opportunities relative to clean energy.”
Tribal officials tell a different story. Walter Haase, general manager of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, says the tribe never got pollution-credit money because the market for the credits collapsed. And he says there hasn’t been much more support from environmentalists. “They could help us by offering money or helping persuade the federal government to create more grants for renewable energy,” he says. “They’ve done nothing but get existing plants closed.”
Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, says the Navajo have shown no leadership in clean energy, adding that his group has been more successful in getting projects approved elsewhere.
Tribal officials, who say they have shown strong leadership, have launched green efforts of their own. They pursued a 200-megawatt wind project in Arizona, but that died in part after new protections for the area’s golden eagles put in too many restrictions, Mr. Haase says.
Other efforts came to fruition, but didn’t create many jobs. The tribe’s utility has deployed solar panels on about 300 homes, creating just two jobs, Mr. Haase says. The tribe plans to develop a solar facility, but that will lead to only four permanent jobs.
The debate over renewables is heating up again amid uncertainty over the future of the 2,250-megawatt Navajo Generating Station. The Environmental Protection Agency last year approved a plan for the facility to shut a third of its generating capacity by 2020 to help reduce emissions that contribute to occasional impaired views at the nearby Grand Canyon. The EPA gave the facility until 2030 to bring the rest of the plant up to federal clean-air standards.
The tribe has argued for keeping the whole plant open. And it isn’t clear if the plant can justify the potential $1 billion cost of meeting pollution standards, given pressures by some green groups to close it sooner. A spokesman for Tempe, Ariz.-based Salt River Project, which operates the plant, said it would be difficult for the owners to make such an investment without being assured they would have time to recover their costs.
For now, coal remains king on the reservation, and many Navajos worry about the future. Besides the impact on a tough local economy, they fear the loss to the Navajo culture if workers and their families have to leave.
Conan John grew up on the reservation and managed to land a job at the coal plant after graduating from college in Utah. Now, the 33-year-old says, his three young children are able to learn the Navajo language and customs. “It’s good to be home,” he said on a break recently from his job as a plant chemist.
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Coal Firms Reject EPA Claim Of Studies Satisfying Air Law 'Jobs' Review
May 5, 2015 | InsideEPA
By David LaRoss
Coal firms are rejecting EPA's claim to a federal district court that existing agency regulatory impact analyses and other studies for its utility air toxics rule and other emissions policies satisfy a Clean Air Act mandate to review the jobs impacts of its rules, saying the studies fall short of EPA's requirements under the air law provision.
In a May 4 brief, the coal sector plaintiffs in Murray Energy, et al. v. EPA say the agency is trying to show compliance with its Clean Air Act section 321(a) jobs review duty with reports and analyses that were conducted under other requirements, despite previously asserting that it had published no such reviews. Section 321 requires EPA to conduct “continuing evaluations” of potential employment changes as a result of its rules.
EPA in an April 10 motion for summary judgment had argued that the agency often assesses rules' potential effects on employment through regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) -- studies conducted during regulatory development that describe the social costs and benefits of rules. EPA said that because the air law does not define what “evaluations” are or provide any guidance on their “scope, content, timing, or frequency.”
Murray and its coal sector allies counter in the new brief that the existing RIAs that the agency has conducted “cannot possibly be the evaluations required by Section 321(a). They do not identify themselves as Section 321(a) evaluations and EPA has made clear it does not consider them to be Section 321(a) evaluations. EPA has also failed to identify any other documents that may constitute its purported evaluations.”
EPA's critics says that existing regulations such as the air toxics standards for power plants have caused coal-fired utilities to shutter, leading to job losses. They warn that pending agency rules such as the proposed greenhouse gas standard for existing power plants will cause similar adverse employment impacts.
The companies hope that forcing a broad jobs review of EPA's air and climate regulations would support their claims that EPA's rules have hurt the coal sector and caused major job losses.
Section 321 of the Clean Air Act says that the agency “shall conduct continuing evaluations of potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from the administration or enforcement of the provision of this chapter and applicable implementation plans, including where appropriate, investigating threatened plant closures or reductions in employment allegedly resulting from such administration or enforcement.”
Employment Impacts
The coal firms in their new brief say that RIAs, which estimate rules' potential future impacts, cannot satisfy the requirement for “continuing evaluations” that include employment reductions or shifts, or consider the effects of air law enforcement actions, which by definition can only begin after a final rule is crafted.
“[W]hile some of EPA’s exhibits purport to go beyond the standard economic analysis, they generally include nothing more than projected net employment impacts, not the evaluations of job loss and shifts required by Section 321(a),” the brief says.
The companies add that EPA has previously said the RIAs and other studies of the implementation of its air rules, were crafted in response to other statutory mandates rather than section 321(a). They argue that EPA has previously said that despite the RIAs' employment considerations, they are not section 321(a) reviews.
For instance, the brief says, in a 2013 response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for materials related to the jobs reviews, EPA “specifically referenced and distinguished the employment discussions in regulatory impact analyses from the Section 321(a) evaluations requested under FOIA.”
Even if the court ultimately decides that the RIAs can be read to satisfy section 321(a), that decision should wait until the end of fact-finding, including discovery and a bench trial, the brief says. The companies oppose resolving the issue through summary judgment, which is supposed to apply only when no facts are in dispute.
“[T]he documents do not reference Section 321(a) at all and these omissions are not corrected by any other evidence cited by EPA,” the brief says of the RIAs and other studies the agency claims satisfy the air law review mandate. “Thus, EPA has 'failed to fulfill its initial burden of demonstrating what is a critical element in this aspect of the case,' whether the documents it relies on have any relation to EPA complying with Section 321(a). These 'unexplained gaps in the materials submitted' by EPA preclude summary judgment in its favor,” the brief adds.
Discovery Request
Separately, Murray and its co-plaintiffs are also asking the court to force EPA to respond to requests for discovery, despite EPA's statement in the April 10 brief that the agency has crafted no documents that could satisfy section 321(a) beyond the RIAs and broad studies cited in that motion.
In an April 22 brief, the industry groups say EPA has ignored requests for material beyond the documents it attached to its own briefs. “EPA has not sought a stay of discovery, or even a protective order from this Court. EPA has simply unilaterally refused to cooperate in the discovery process,” the filing says. Even if there are no 321(a) studies to produce, industry continues, material from EPA could still be useful to deciding on a proper remedy from the court, such as setting a deadline for the studies to complete, or enjoining active rulemaking efforts, if it rules against the government.
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FERC Supreme Court Arguments Expected in Fall
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court case on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's authority to regulate wholesale electricity markets are expected to be filed this summer with oral arguments likely taking place at the beginning of the Supreme Court's fall term, FERC Commissioner Colette Honorable said May 5. The Supreme Court agreed May 4 to consider FERC's challenge to an appeals court decision that struck down Order 745, which was designed to reduce electricity demand during peak periods by paying industrial and large business customers for their power reductions in dollar amounts comparable to actual generation (FERC v. Elec. Power Supply Ass'n, U.S., No. 14-840, cert. granted 5/4/15; 86 DEN A-15, 5/5/15). A U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling vacated Order 745, saying it exceeded the commission's authority under the Federal Power Act. The government petitioned for Supreme Court review in January. Honorable was told by Robert Solomon, FERC's solicitor, that the Supreme Court likely will make a decision on the case in the beginning of 2016, she said during the Energy Bar Association's annual meeting in Washington. “Clearly demand response is a very important tool, and this case will be watched by federal and state regulators alike,” she said. “I'm hopeful about getting the results of this and working well with our state colleagues to ensure that we're able to take advantage of this very important resource.”
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Second Ozone Implementation Rule Lawsuit Filed
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Earthjustice, on behalf of four environmental and public health groups, filed a lawsuit seeking review of an Environmental Protection Agency rule that set state implementation requirements for the 2008 national ambient air quality standards for ozone (Sierra Club v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1123, 5/5/15). The petition for review, filed May 5, is the second lawsuit asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the rule. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates air pollution in the Los Angeles area, filed a lawsuit on the implementation rule on April 24 (South Coast Air Quality Mgmt. Dist. v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1115, 4/24/15; 80 DEN A-20, 4/27/15). The rule (RIN 2060-AR34), signed in February and published in the Federal Register March 6, set deadlines and requirements for demonstrating compliance with the 75 parts per billion ozone standards, revoked the 1997 ozone standards for all purposes and set anti-backsliding requirements for areas that don't meet the 1997 standards (80 Fed. Reg. 12,264; 32 DEN A-14, 2/18/15). Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Sierra Club, the Conservation Law Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles and Downwinders at Risk, a nonprofit group that works on air pollution issues in North Texas. A copy of the petition for review is available at http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/Sierra_Club_v_US_Environmental_Protection_Agency_Docket_No_150112.
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IEA Says Developing Countries Will Bear the Brunt of Energy-Related Greenhouse Gas Cuts
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rick Mitchell
Three-quarters of the energy-related greenhouse gas emissions cuts needed by mid-century to avoid a worst-case-scenario spike in global temperatures must come from the world's emerging economies, the International Energy Agency reports.
But advanced countries must help developing nations create and deploy energy technologies as part of a “concerted global push” to cut those carbon dioxide emissions, said Didier Houssin, the IEA's director of sustainable energy policy and technology, speaking May 4 in presenting the agency's 2015 annual outlook on energy technology development and deployment.
IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said the United Nations climate summit later this year in Paris could prove “historic” if it produces agreements that allow rich and poor countries to make sustainable energy a global reality.
But the IEA warned that in part because of recently lower prices for fossil fuels, the world is falling well short of advances in clean-energy innovation and deployment needed to fight global warming.
Van der Hoeven called for a tripling of annual worldwide investment into energy research, to $51 billion, and a long-term strategy that “requires governments and the private sector to work closely together and shift their focus to low-carbon technologies.”
Warning of Warming
The 418-page report—“Energy Technology Perspectives 2015”—analyzes long-term energy sector trends and focuses on the technologies and deployment levels needed to achieve carbon dioxide reductions under a so-called 2 degree warming scenario. Scientists say catastrophic climate change becomes far more likely beyond a 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warming of the Earth's atmosphere this century compared with pre-industrial levels.
The Paris-based IEA warned that without any changes, the world is on track now to push average temperatures to 6-degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial averages by the end of the century. That scenario would see annual energy- and process-related carbon dioxide emissions surging 60 percent by 2050, to 56 gigatons a year, with fast-growing emerging economies accounting for most of that increase.
That would be more than triple the 14 gigatons of carbon dioxide that would be emitted annually under the 2 degree scenario, said van der Hoeven.
But it also assumes the countries of the world continue current energy practices. By contrast, some major economies, including the European Union and the United States, already have committed to significant cuts in emissions by 2025 or 2030 in preparation for the Paris talks, and other nations are expected to do so.
Technological Answers
To get on track to keep warming to 2 degrees Celsius or lower would require the adoption of policies that foster deployment of existing technologies, as well as development of new ground-breaking technologies, the IEA said.
The report's executive summary cites recent “success stories,” including a rapid growth of solar photovoltaics and the 2014 launch of the world's first large-scale power station equipped with carbon capture and sequestration technology in Canada (191 DEN A-11, 10/2/14).
But Van der Hoeven said other important existing technologies, such as for energy efficiency, have yet to be fully implemented.
‘All Regions Have Roles.'
Houssin said all world regions have a role to play in keeping energy-related emissions under control, and said innovative solutions will depend on local conditions, national circumstances and resources, and different starting points.
“It is important to see that nearly 75 percent of annual carbon dioxide emission reductions by 2050 in the scenario will have to come from non-OECD countries”—those not in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose 34 members include the world's advanced economies, he said.
Some countries can become “early movers” by developing technologies that give them a competitive advantage for implementing their own decarbonization strategies, he added. “At the same time, growing demand for energy and infrastructure needed to provide it creates a unique opportunity for emerging economies to reduce CO2 emissions by deploying innovative technologies.”
OECD countries should create strategies for helping developing nations create needed technologies, Houssin said. “Industrial and emerging economies need to work together to ensure solutions can be deployed at [a] global level, in particular through technology transfers,” he said.
Industry Emissions
The report said fostering innovation of low-carbon products and processes in industry is essential to meeting global decarbonization goals. In a scenario that would keep temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, almost 30 percent of direct industrial carbon dioxide emissions cuts by 2050 hinge on processes in development or demonstration.
Houssin said in industry, deploying best available technologies will be among the most cost-effective emission-reduction options, which could allow more work on cutting-edge technologies.
“Deployment and innovation can reinforce each other in a virtuous circle,” he said, adding that experience has shown the value of stable, long-term policies to promote innovation in low-carbon industrial technologies.
Long-term support can attract private investment more effectively than one-off instruments like tax rebates, he noted.
The IEA advises 29 of the 34 OECD member countries, which include some of the world's largest market economies but not Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia or South Africa.
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Green Group Launches Smog Text Alert System
May 5, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The Sierra Club launched a system Tuesday to send text message alerts when smog pollution is at a high level in certain areas.
The group said the system is meant to protect people from asthma attacks, which scientists believe increase in frequency in response to smog, whose main component is ground-level ozone.
But the alerts are also meant to spur users to encourage the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cut the allowable level of ozone pollution.
“Our hope is that this text alert system helps parents better protect their kids by alerting them when the air outside is unsafe to breathe,” Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said in a statement.
“The system also allows families to send a message to the Environmental Protection Agency in support of stronger smog pollution protections that will cut down on the number of bad air days.”
The launch was timed to coincide with World Asthma Day, which is May 5.
It also comes as the EPA is considering lowering the nation’s ozone standard to between 65 and 70 parts per billion, from the current 75 parts per billion.
Energy companies, who fear that the rule would lead to restrictions on burning the fossil fuels that cause ozone, say that rule would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
But the EPA and its supporters say those concerns are overblown, and a strong rule is necessary to prevent and mitigate respiratory illnesses.
The Sierra Club said more than 40 percent of people in the United States live in areas where the air is unsafe to breathe.
“This should be a wake up call for the EPA and White House to do more to alleviate this chronic health burden that adversely impacts some of our most vulnerable communities,” Hitt said in the statement.
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Inspector General to Audit Progress By PHMSA on ‘Significant Safety Issues'
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General will audit the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration's progress in addressing significant safety issues, the office said in a letter to PHMSA May 5.
The office will assess PHMSA's progress in resolving or acting upon congressional mandates and federal agency recommendations since 2005, the agency's process for acting upon these recommendations and any roadblocks faced by the agency in taking these actions and the agency's actions working with other offices to address safety concerns, Mitchell Behm, the office's assistant inspector general for surface transportation audits, said in the letter.
The audit is being conducted in response to a request from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who expressed concerns regarding the length of time it took PHMSA to address crude oil-by-rail safety and certain pipeline safety issues. The audit will begin this month, Behm told PHMSA Acting Administrator Timothy Butters in the letter.
DeFazio had expressed concerns regarding lack of action or delays in action by PHMSA in a number of areas.
These include what he said was the slow pace of federal rulemaking on transportation of crude oil via rail and the failure to finalize rules on pipeline safety that were required under the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act of 2011 (Pub. L. No. 112-90).
The final rule governing crude oil movement by rail was released May 1 (85 DEN A-14, 5/4/15).
DeFazio Pleased
DeFazio, who sent the inspector general the request in February, said he was pleased that the audit of the pipeline and hazardous materials safety programs would be conducted.
“As I wrote in my letter, PHMSA has continually failed to address longstanding pipeline and hazardous materials safety issues,” DeFazio said in a May 5 statement. “I hope this report will shed needed light on this opaque agency and force it to address serious safety concerns and protect the health and safety of our communities and the American public.”
Patricia Klinger, a spokeswoman for PHMSA, told Bloomberg BNA that the agency has completed 50 percent of the pipeline safety act's mandates and is working to complete the rest of the safety measures. The office also is overall committed to protecting the public and the environment when it comes to hazardous materials transportation, she said.
“We take our safety responsibilities seriously,” Klinger said.
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February Marks First Time Most Crude Oil Arrived at East Coast Refineries by Rail
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
In February, East Coast refineries for the first time received more than half of their crude oil supply via rail, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
These refineries received 52 percent of their crude oil by rail in February, or 12,738 barrels out of 24,369 barrels, the energy agency said May 5.
Increased energy production, alongside the increased capacity for rail terminals to load and unload crude oil from trains, has led to a decrease in crude oil imports by water from other countries, not including Canada, the agency said.
“The growth since 2010 in inland domestic and Canadian crude oil production created an opportunity for U.S. and Canadian railroads to move crude oil to U.S. refining centers on the Gulf, East, and West coasts as well as to refineries in Canada,” the energy agency said in a blog post.
With inadequate pipeline infrastructure in certain areas that have seen increased energy production, much of the crude oil produced has been pushed onto rails.
This increased frequency of this type of transport in the U.S. in recent years has been accompanied by an increase in these types of derailments that have resulted in damage ranging from threatening drinking water supplies to deaths and have led to federal action (85 DEN A-14, 5/4/15).
Much of the increased crude oil production is occurring in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and eastern Montana, the agency said.
The agency used data for its analysis that starts in 2010.
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Obama’s Pipeline Safety Agency Waits For A Leader
May 5, 2015 | PoliticoPro
By Andrew Restuccia & Elana Schor
President Barack Obama has blown past the legal deadline to name a permanent boss for the agency that oversees the safety of the nation’s oil trains and fossil-fuel pipelines — while potentially life-or-death regulations continue to sit in limbo.
It’s part of a pattern for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, where an internal structure that gives deference to industry has helped stymie safety initiatives for years, even as pipeline accidents have caused more than 170 deaths, 670 injuries and $5 billion in property damage during the past decade. Critics say the agency is in dire need of an overhaul — and want Obama to appoint a leader who’s willing to carry one out.
The White House’s short list for administrator includes one insider — the acting PHMSA chief who has been filling in since October — and two outsiders: a state pipeline regulator from Rhode Island and a conservationist who has served on one of the agency’s advisory committees.
The agency has been without a permanent boss for 213 days as of Tuesday, three days longer than federal law says an acting chief can serve unless the president has nominated a replacement. Before that, PHMSA spent nearly five years helmed by a former industry lawyer who did little to erase the agency’s reputation for laxness. A growing number of fellow Democrats say Obama just needs to pick somebody — and soon, since the clock is ticking down on his administration’s opportunity to make wholesale changes.
“PHMSA deserves a shakeup,” Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told POLITICO. “I certainly want them to be aggressive, and if getting a new permanent administrator is key to that, then yes, that would be great.”
“Not having a permanent administrator removes the possibility of leadership for long-term changes,” said Carl Weimer, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog group Pipeline Safety Trust. Until then, he said, a short-term boss “doesn’t know if he really has the backing of the administration to move on issues, and all the PHMSA staff are in a holding pattern waiting to see which way the wind might change under a new administrator.” But Weimer also noted that it’s “hard to tell whether much long-term vision can be accomplished” during the time left in Obama’s presidency.
The agency, part of the Department of Transportation, oversees the regulation of 2.6 million-plus miles of oil and gas pipelines. It’s also one of two DOT agencies overseeing the nation’s record-high shipments of crude oil in rail cars, which have caused a series of fiery derailments during the past two years in states from North Dakota to Illinois and Virginia.
PHMSA and the Federal Railroad Administration released new safety rules for oil trains on Friday — nearly four months after a Congress-imposed deadline — but its major pipeline safety reform efforts have remained paralyzed for years. That delay is due in part to an internal structure that gives industry outsized influence compared with public watchdogs, as a POLITICO investigation showed last month.
And Obama has been slow to replace former PHMSA Administrator Cynthia Quarterman, who stepped down in October after nearly five years running the agency. Acting Administrator Timothy Butters has been filling her shoes since then.
In contrast to Quarterman, who frequently took heat for her previous work as a pipeline industry lawyer, Butters is a former assistant chief of operations at the Fairfax, Va., fire department — making him a potential voice for the emergency responders who bear the brunt of both pipeline and oil train accidents.
Sources familiar with the issue say the White House is also eyeing at least two other possible nominees for the post: Paul Roberti, whose decades of experience on energy issues includes serving on the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission since 2009; and Lois Epstein, director of the Wilderness Society’s Arctic program, who spent 12 years on a PHMSA pipeline safety advisory committee.
Nominating Butters would indicate that the administration wants to stick with a PHMSA veteran with experience navigating the agency’s inner workings, but it would risk provoking criticism that the status quo isn’t enough. Meanwhile, Roberti and Epstein could bring an outsider’s perspective.
Roberti and Epstein would not comment on their own potential nominations, but each has expressed concern about the state of the country’s aging pipeline network.
“The biggest issue we face as states is dealing with aging infrastructure,” Roberti said in a February interview with POLITICO for another story. He formerly chaired the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ subcommittee on pipeline safety, and he hails from a region — the Northeast — that has some of the United States’ oldest pipelines.
Roberti also spent nearly two decades in the Rhode Island attorney general’s office, most recently as assistant attorney general and head of the office’s regulatory unit, and he serves on an Energy Department advisory panel dealing with electric infrastructure.
Epstein, a veteran engineer, urged the administration to find a No. 1 for PHMSA who “can make a significant difference” by helping invigorate a long-paralyzed regulatory effort that has left multiple congressional safety mandates unfulfilled.
“Time is running out on this administration. They know that,” Epstein said in an interview last week. “It’s really unfortunate that they don’t have an administrator in place who can push things forward with some force.”
While she is no longer a PHMSA adviser, Epstein serves on the Interior Department’s outside advisory panel for offshore drilling safety. Her decades of environmental engineering experience began at the Environmental Defense Fund, known as a more moderate green group, and she spent five years in private practice before she joined the Wilderness Society in 2010.
Butters has worked at PHMSA since 2010 but has still won praise from some in Congress for charting a different course than Quarterman. The House Transportation Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, said in an interview that Butters has been “a huge improvement over the last political hack” in charge of the agency.
Butters told members of a House Transportation subcommittee last month that he had not yet started the vetting process to be nominated as PHMSA’s permanent leader and declined to say whether he wants to stay on in that capacity. “I defer to the White House in terms of determining how they want to proceed,” he said.
No matter their policy know-how, acting administrators typically lack the political capital that Senate-confirmed agency leaders can wield. Still, acting leaders at times take the sort of assertive posture that raises the eyebrows of regulated industries — as witnessed by the comments that acting Federal Railroad Administration chief Sarah Feinberg made during last week’s announcement of the oil train regulations.
“We are not an agency with a goal of making things convenient or inexpensive for industry,” said Feinberg, who is believed to be seeking Obama’s nomination for the railroad post. “Our entire goal and mission is safety.”
The pipeline agency would benefit from “somebody who’s going to take charge and move these things forward, like Sarah Feinberg has at FRA, pushing and pushing and pushing,” said a Democratic congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I don’t see the same thing going on at PHMSA — there needs to be significant leadership and changes.”
PHMSA did not respond to a request for comment about its lack of permanent leadership. A White House official would say only that it has no personnel announcements yet.
Despite the 210-day deadline for acting administrators to remain on the job, those time limits become looser once the president submits a nomination, and the executive branch sometimes ignores the limits altogether. B. Todd Jones was acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for nearly a year and a half before Obama nominated him to be the permanent leader in 2013. ATF nominees had for years faced opposition in the Senate.
PHMSA’s unfinished pipeline safety work includes two long-stalled regulations — one for hazardous liquids and one for natural gas — that could make significant changes to existing rules by requiring new technology to catch pipeline leaks and prevent potential damage. The agency faces perennial staffing and enforcement challenges thanks to a pipeline safety budget that barely topped $145 million this year, requiring any future PHMSA leader to be skilled at doing more with less.
The DOT’s independent auditor confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning an audit of PHMSA’s ability to comply with congressional and National Transportation Safety Board mandates, underscoring critics’ longstanding concerns.
The ideal administrator “can put a priority on the issues that are really relevant, outline a plan and be fairly public about it,” longtime pipeline safety consultant and independent PHMSA adviser Richard Kuprewicz said. But he added a significant caveat: “As long as that person can manage with the understanding that they’ll never have the resources” they might want.
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OMB Completed Crude-by-Rail Rule Review May 1
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The White House completed May 1 its review of a final Transportation Department rule governing flammable liquids by rail safety, according to public records updated May 5. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx released the “Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains” rule and sent it to the Federal Register for publication the same day. The White House Office of Management and Budget held meetings on the rule with interested parties ranging from railroads and energy companies to public interest groups and a labor union through April 29 (86 DEN A-1, 5/5/15). The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which led development of the final rule, previously told Bloomberg BNA the agency wasn't sure when the Federal Register would publish it. The rule set a timeline for retrofitting and phasing out older tank cars from Class 3 flammable liquids service and set new tank car standards for this type of transport, as well as setting new speed restrictions and classification requirements.
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Crude Oil Rail Supply Jumps For East Coast Refiners
May 5, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
For the first time, more than half of East Coast oil refineries' crude oil supply arrived by rail in February, according to a Tuesday study from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The growth of crude-by-rail, which began creeping upwards in 2010 and rose precipitously starting last year, could add to the debate over new safety standards for oil railcars.
Last week, the Obama administration released beefed-up rail regulations, requiring retrofitting or retirement of the current fleet of oil cars within seven years and a series of new standards on speed limits, car design, braking and routing. Canadian officials agreed to similar rules for their railways, as well.
The new regulations come after a handful of oil car derailments and explosions around the country, including in North Dakota, Illinois and West Virginia. Some lawmakers, such as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said the new rules should go into effect more quickly.
According to EIA, 52 percent of the crude oil refined on the East Coast in February arrived via rail, much of it from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Montana. Refinery utilization dipped that month, but the percentage of crude delivered by rail was the highest it's ever been, EIA said.
Since 2010, imports of foreign crude oil to East Coast refineries have dropped while the domestic rail supply has increased. EIA credited the increase in rail shipments to improved loading and unloading capacity at the refineries.
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California Crude Oil Transfer Terminal Cited by EPA for Violation of Clean Air Act
May 6, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
Federal regulators have cited Plains All American Pipeline LP's crude oil transfer and storage facility near Taft, Calif., for violating the Clean Air Act.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation April 30, finding the Bakersfield Crude Terminal failed to obtain valid permits, install best available control technology and provide emissions offsets when it expanded the facility to handle increased rail shipments of oil.
As a major source of air pollution, the facility must comply with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's permitting requirements and its new and modified stationary source review rule, EPA Region 9 officials said in the notice.
Failure to bring the facility into compliance could result in penalties of up to $37,500 per day of violation or a civil action.
‘Ministerial' Permit at Issue
The enforcement action supports allegations in a lawsuit filed in January by environmental and citizen groups challenging the “ministerial” permit issued by the air district that paved the way for the facility's expansion in lieu of requiring a permitting process for major sources of air pollution (Communities for a Better Env't v. SJVAPCD, Cal. Super. Ct., No. S-1500-CV-284013, 1/29/15; 20 DEN A-22, 1/30/15)).
In reviewing the facility's permit applications, the EPA found that the facility and the air district underestimated the level of volatile organic compound emissions from the project, especially with the increased shipments of highly volatile crude oil from North Dakota fields.
The EPA found that under the air district's Rule 2010, the facility lacked a valid permit to construct and operate the facility. Also, the facility failed to comply with Rule 2201 for new and modified sources, which requires best available control technology, emissions offsets and a full public review of the project, the EPA said.
At issue in the lawsuit is whether the ministerial permit for construction of fixed roof tanks and oil-water separator tanks was an attempt to exclude public scrutiny of the project, as required under the California Environmental Quality Act, as stipulated in the district's permitting rules.
Abuse of Discretion Alleged
The EPA notice of violation shows that the air district abused its discretion in issuing the ministerial permit, Elizabeth Forsyth, an attorney at Earthjustice representing the groups, told Bloomberg BNA May 4.
At a June 5 hearing in California Superior Court in Kern County, Forsyth will ask for a preliminary injunction against the air district.
The goal of the litigation is to compel the air district to provide the full environmental review that is required to permit the project, according to Earthjustice.
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IG Will Assess Pipeline Safety Agency's Record For Past Decade
May 5, 2015 | E&E News PM
By Sean Reilly
The Department of Transportation inspector general will assess the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's progress in addressing mandates from Congress and recommendations from other agencies over the last decade.
The review, announced in a memo today and set to begin this month, follows a February request from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who said at the time that he was concerned about PHMSA's ability to "address significant safety issues."
In his request, DeFazio had faulted the agency for slowness in creating new design standards for railroad tank cars used to ship crude oil and said PHMSA had failed to address recurring problems implicated in pipeline accidents (E&E Daily, Feb. 4).
In a statement today, DeFazio said he hoped the review would "shed needed light on this opaque agency and force it to address serious safety concerns."
The announcement of the review comes four days after DOT released an overhaul -- crafted by PHMSA and the Federal Railroad Administration -- of tank car standards and other regulations governing shipments of crude oil by train. A spokesman for IG Calvin Scovel said the two events were unconnected.
Besides congressional mandates, the review will examine how PHMSA has fielded recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Government Accountability Office and the inspector general's office.
Scovel's office will also look at any barriers PHMSA faces in implementing new mandates and recommendations and how it addresses safety concerns raised by other branches of the Transportation Department.
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