11.02.09
California’s Attempt at Regulating Greenhouse Gases and the Commerce Clause
This post was authored by Rajiv Tata, who currently serves as General Counsel for Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company:
California’s Heavy-Duty Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measure (GHG Measure) will affect the transportation of goods between California and other states, and will therefore impact interstate commerce. Although the federal government seems as though it will eventually regulate greenhouse gases, thereby possibly preempting state regulations like the GHG Measure, for now, the constitutionality of the GHG Measure will likely depend upon a dormant commerce clause analysis.
There is ample precedent under U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence establishing that absent discrimination a state regulation affecting interstate commerce will be upheld unless the burden imposed on interstate commerce is clearly excessive in relation to the regulation’s putative local benefits. It is also well established that the power of the state to regulate the use of its highways is broad and pervasive. It is not surprising then that the Court’s recognition of the peculiarly local nature of safety issues, both in the context of highways and human health, resulted in such regulations being upheld despite their impact on interstate commerce.
Under dormant commerce clause analysis, the threshold inquiry is to determine whether a challenged law discriminates against interstate commerce. Here, the GHG Measure is not likely to be considered discriminatory against out of state transportation companies since the requirements actually increase the operating costs of companies domiciled within California.
Typically, if the challenged regulation is not discriminatory, it will be upheld unless there is an excessive burden on interstate commerce in relation to its “putative local benefits.” Therefore, any analysis involving the constitutionality of the TRU ATCM and GHG Measure will have to weigh their respective burdens and benefits. The Supreme Court applied a dormant commerce clause analysis to a state regulation in a factual context similar to that presented by California’s GHG Measure. In Bibb v. Navojo Freight Lines, Inc., the Court determined the constitutionality of an Illinois statute requiring the use of a specific rear fender mudguard on trucks and trailers operating on that state’s highways.
The Court’s analysis balanced the statute’s safety benefits against the burdens it imposed on interstate commerce. Initially, the Court noted that statutes pertaining to safety are afforded a strong presumption of validity because they often involve policy decisions that are best left to the discretion of state legislatures. In the Bibb case however, the Court found that the statute placed burdens on interstate commerce that were outweighed by its benefits. Specifically, the facts the Court found to be outcome determinative included the costs associated with the installation, maintenance, and replacement of mudguards, safety issues relating to decreasing the effectiveness of truck and trailer brakes, and mudguards’ susceptibility to fall off during use. In addition, the Court found that Illinois’ regulation conflicted with that of another state, thereby requiring interstate carriers to shift loads to differently designed vehicles when traveling between the states. Combined, the heavy burden on the interstate movement of trucks and trailers led the Court to strike down the regulation because it surpassed the permissible limits for safety regulations.
The GHG Measure imposes burdens on the movement of trucks and trailers in interstate commerce similar to those relied upon by the Court to strike down the Illinois statute in Bibb. Under the GHG Measure carriers will need to purchase side skirts, front and rear trailer fairings, low-rolling resistance tires, and incur the cost of installing, maintaining, and repairing these items on their fleets.
Similar to the statute in Bibb, the GHG Measure also presents a safety issue. Trailer side skirts can be easily damaged while crossing railroad tracks and driveways, and while loading and unloading at docks with tapered ramps. Truck drivers will need to remove the devices if damaged under such circumstances, resulting in down time, or bear the liability risk of the devices detaching from the trailer while driving. Moreover, the aerodynamic side skirts will likely operate in treacherous weather conditions, often bearing the additional weight of snow or ice that could compromise the devices’ safety and result in failure at high speeds.
The California regulations present a third burden identified in Bibb, requiring interstate carriers to shift loads to differently designed vehicles when traveling between the states. Entire out of state fleets will incur the costs of compliance with the California regulations because it is often not possible for carriers to know in advance which equipment will be used in a particular region on a particular day. Moreover, those carriers not wanting to incur these operating costs would need to expend time and resources in ensuring that cargo was transferred to designated trailers equipped to legally operate in California.
Based on the Bibb factors, a court analyzing the costs associated with complying with the California regulations might conclude that they impose too great a burden on interstate commerce to be upheld.
Notwithstanding the numerous burdens placed on interstate commerce by the California regulations, a thorough dormant commerce clause analysis will need to consider their respective benefits. California’s stated purpose in enacting the GHG Measure is to control major sources of GHG emissions to alleviate a serious threat to California’s public health, natural resources and environment. To accomplish its goal, ARB grouped sources of those emissions into various sectors. Not surprisingly, the GHG Measure is grouped under the transportation sector.
The GHG Measure seeks to alleviate the harm GHGs pose to public health by improving the fuel efficiency of heavy duty trucks and trailers. The GHG Measure’s perceived benefits are illusory in several ways however. Test data used to justify the adoption of the GHG Measure demonstrates that desired fuel efficiencies materialize at sixty five miles per hour or more. Such speeds are unattainable both legally and practically. First, the California Motor Vehicle Code prohibits a truck from exceeding fifty-five miles per hour on a highway. In addition, CalTrans data demonstrates that the average truck speed on California’s main commercial corridor is less than sixty five miles per hour. At these speeds the fuel savings used to justify the regulation’s adoption cannot be attained. If the fuel savings cannot be attained, the corresponding health benefits from reduced GHG emissions cannot be realized. Under such a scenario, the burdens imposed by the GHG Measure will significantly outweigh the regulation’s unobtainable benefits, thereby reducing the likelihood that it will survive legal challenge.
Even if the GHG Measure’s intended benefits are realized, the problem California might encounter in sustaining the validity of its regulations under a dormant commerce clause challenge is that air contaminants contributing to public health concerns are inherently fluid, and therefore global in nature. Indeed, the heads of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation, and Energy, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, agreed that the regulation of GHGs must take a different approach than that used to historically regulate air pollution:
the Clean Air Act is premised on the idea that controlling
emissions in the United States will improve air quality in the
United States, and that a state or region can improve its air
quality by controlling emissions in that area. This is not true
in the case of greenhouse gases. Controlling greenhouse gas
emissions in the United States will reduce atmospheric
concentrations of those gases only if our emission reductions are
not simply replaced with emissions increases elsewhere in the
world.
In adopting the GHG Measure, California is clearly attempting to address a global issue, which as discussed above, will have a significant impact on interstate commerce. Under such a factual scenario, courts may need to develop a new standard for analyzing the validity of state GHG regulation. Such analyses will need to not only evaluate the burdens and benefits of such regulation on interstate commerce, but whether those benefits are realized at a local, state, national, or even international level. The result of such an analysis will hopefully determine how to equitably apportion the burden associated with such benefits.
For more information, please visit http://climatechangelegal.blogspot.com/ or
http://rajivtata.com
November 2, 2009 – Environmental Law Settlements, Decisions, Regulatory Actions and Lawsuit Filings
November 2, 2009 – A summary review of environmental law settlements, decisions, regulatory actions and lawsuits filed during the past week. These were all first posted, in abbreviated form, on http://twitter.com/smtaber. If you would like to receive this update in an e-mail delivered to your inbox every Monday, please send an e-mail to subscribe@taberlaw.com with the word “subscribe” in the subject line.
SETTLEMENTS
Wallingford Chemical Company Fined for Clean Air Violations. — EPA News Release, October 26, 2009
Cytec Industries, an international chemical company based in Wallingford, Conn., will pay a civil penalty of $155,000 and spend $150,000 to perform an environmentally beneficial project to resolve EPA claims that the company violated the federal Clean Air Act. The company’s Wallingford plant contained a production line that used to manufacture resins. These resins, which are used in the coating of certain types of furniture, contain “Hazardous Air Pollutants.” An EPA inspection revealed that Cytec emitted excess Hazardous Air Pollutants, including formaldehyde and methanol, in violation of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Amino/Phenolic Resins. Cytec also failed to submit to EPA an adequate operating plan for several tanks that store volatile liquids and failed to properly respond to EPA’s requests for information.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Wallingford firm to pay $300K to resolve EPA claims. — Hartford Business Journal Online, October 26, 2009 Click Here
U.S. EPA settles with the GATX Corporation for failing to notify authorities after 2008 ammonia release. — EPA News Release, October 27, 2009
Under the terms of a settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the GATX Corporation, the railway will pay a $5000 penalty and donate a $20,700 mercury analyzer for failing to immediately notify authorities of the 2008 release of ammonia at their Colton, Calif. rail car repair facility. According to the EPA, based on information received from the San Bernardino Certified Unified Program Agency, the California Emergency Management Agency and the National Response Center, the GATX Corporation delayed reporting the release of 250 pounds of ammonia from a rail car repair facility on Sept. 9, 2008, which was caused when an employee failed to follow company procedures for flaring ammonia from a tank car. .
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EPA reaches agreement with Sunoco on clean-air violations. — EPA News Release, October 27, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with Sunoco Inc. (R&M) on alleged clean-air violations at the company’s chemical plant at 1019 Haverhill-Ohio Furnace Road, Haverhill, Ohio. The agreement, which includes a $400,000 penalty, resolves EPA allegations that Sunoco failed to comply with federal requirements for controlling leaks of hazardous air pollutants from equipment at the plant. .
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EPA reaches agreement with JandJ cores on clean-air violations. — EPA News Release, October 27, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with J&J Cores LLC on alleged clean-air violations at the company’s secondary aluminum production facility at 2237 Oxford Township Road, Newcomerstown, Ohio. EPA assessed a $1,000 penalty. The agreement resolves EPA allegations that from April to June 2008 J&J Cores failed to continuously monitor and record temperatures of the afterburner that controls hazardous air pollutant emissions from its sweat furnace. The company uses the sweat furnace to reclaim aluminum from automotive, household and manufacturing breakage scrap.
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Notice of Proposed Consent Decree to address lawsuit filed by Chesapeake Bay Foundation published in Federal Register. — Federal Register, October 28, 2009
Under the terms of the proposed consent decree, EPA shall, no later than March 16, 2011, sign for publication in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking setting forth EPA’s proposed emission standards for coal- and oil-fired EGUs pursuant to CAA section 112(d). In addition, EPA shall, no later than November 16, 2011, sign for publication in the Federal Register a notice of final rulemaking setting forth EPA’s final emission standards for coal- and oil-fired EGUs pursuant to CAA section 112(d). Click Here
Tempe developer Lennar pays $182,519 to settle Clean Air Act. — EPA News Release, October 29, 2009
Tempe, Ariz., developer Lennar Communities Development, Inc., has settled with the Environmental Protection Agency for a total of $182,519 – a combined $38,425 fine and $144,094 supplemental environmental project – in response to alleged dust violations that occurred at residential construction sites in Maricopa County. “Maricopa County’s particulate air pollution is a serious problem,” said Deborah Jordan, director of the Air Division in the EPA’s Pacific Southwest office. “The EPA works closely with local air quality agencies to enforce existing regulations, and remind companies such as Lennar that not complying with the law will not be tolerated.”
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St. Martinville settles EPA sewage lawsuit. — Richard Burgess, The Advocate, October 29, 2009
The city has agreed to build a new sewage treatment system that utilizes wetlands to clean wastewater and pay a $50,000 penalty to end a 9-year-old federal Clean Water Act lawsuit, according to court documents. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued St. Martinville in 2000, alleging the city’s sewage treatment system was inadequate and allowed too much pollution to flow into area waterways.
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EPA settles with Detroit company on hazardous waste violations; $700,000 to be spent on facility updates at two locations. — EPA News Release, October 30, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has settled with Usher Enterprises Inc. of Detroit, Mich., for alleged violations of federal hazardous waste regulations at two of its oil recycling facilities. EPA’s administrative order requires the company to spend $700,000 to upgrade two of its facilities at 10585 Grand River Ave. and 8900-9000 Roselawn Ave. by installing new tanks, upgrading secondary containment, and decontaminating and testing the integrity of other tanks. Usher will also pay a $19,700 penalty.
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DECISIONS
Judge revokes permit for Mirasol development. — Eric Staats, Naplesnews.com, October 26, 2009
A federal judge has revoked an environmental permit for a controversial golf course community in northern Collier County. Wetlands and endangered wood storks that roost at nearby Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary have been the focus of a twisting decade-long legal fight over the permit for the Mirasol project — and it isn’t over yet. In an order filed Friday in Miami, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez sent pieces of the permit review back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for another look. Click Here
Court orders will force homeowners in nine East Bay cities to fix or replace sewer lines at sale, upgrade. — Doug Oakley, Contra Costa Time, October 26, 2009
Homeowners in nine East Bay cities who sell or upgrade their properties starting in March must spend hundreds to thousands of dollars replacing their sewer lines under court orders obtained by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The orders are an attempt to stop the dumping of as much as 400 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the Bay each year as the result of overflows during rainy weather. About 50 million gallons of partially treated sewage ended up in the Bay as recently as Oct. 13, when about 4 inches of rain fell on the East Bay, said officials from the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which treats East Bay sewage.
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California Companies Correct Environmental Violations, U.S. EPA Reduces Fines – Businesses avoid nearly $400,000 in penalties by self-reporting violations. — EPA News Release, October 27, 2009
Six California companies that voluntarily disclosed and corrected environmental violations have seen penalties waived by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It’s the result of an EPA policy that has been successful in getting companies to make good-faith efforts in self-policing their own environmental compliance. The recent self-disclosure cases had potential penalties ranging from $18,900 to $192,400 for environmental violations that the agency determined caused no serious or actual harm to human health or the environment. Altogether, the six companies avoided $381,600 in penalties. .
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Corn Plus sentenced for violating the Clean Water Act. — Ethanol Producer Magazine, October 27, 2009
A Winnebago company was sentenced today in federal court for discharging into Rice Lake wastewater containing a pollutant. The act is a violation of the Clean Water Act, the federal law aimed at protecting our nation’s waters. In St. Paul, United States Magistrate Judge Jeanne Graham fined the company $100,000 and ordered it to make a $50,000 community service payment to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to benefit the Rice Creek Watershed. Judge Graham also required Corn Plus to implement an Environmental Compliance Plan and a Code of Conduct as well as retain a full-time Environmental Health and Safety manager. .
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PIPELINE PLANS: Judge kills water ruling, Permission for agency to tap three rural valleys rejected. — Henry Brean, Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 28, 2009
For the moment at least, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has lost the water it hoped to pump to Las Vegas in the first phase of its proposed pipeline across eastern Nevada. In a strongly worded order issued last week, a district judge overturned a 2008 state ruling that granted the authority permission to tap groundwater from three valleys in central Lincoln County. Judge Norman Robison ruled that State Engineer Tracy Taylor “abused his discretion” and “acted arbitrarily, capriciously and oppressively” when he cleared the authority to pump more than 6 billion gallons of groundwater a year from Cave, Delamar and Dry Lake valleys. .
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Prosecutor on Mancuso brothers: ‘They sunk themselves:’ Paul, Steven face prison time after jury finds them guilty in asbestos case. — Rocco LaDuca, The Observer Dispatch, October 29, 2009
It might have taken three years to figure out what the Mancuso brothers were up to, prosecutors said, but it took 12 jurors only three hours in U.S. District Court Wednesday to find them both guilty of conspiring to defraud the federal government by violating asbestos-disposal regulations. Paul Mancuso, 45, could face up to 51 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 24, based on his prior asbestos-related convictions. He also could face millions of dollars in fines and restitution payments, prosecutors said. Steven Mancuso, 38, faces up to 5 years behind bars.
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EPA requires AEP to test W.Va. coal ash site. — The Associated Press, October 29, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is requiring American Electric Power to conduct additional safety tests at a West Virginia coal ash impoundment. EPA issued a statement Thursday saying agency contractors noted that the construction of the impoundments at AEP’s Philip Sporn power plant is similar that used at a Tennessee coal ash impoundment that gave way last year, releasing about 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash.
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OSHA punishes BP over safety: Regulators cite lack of upgrades since fatal Texas City blast and more violations. — Tom Fowler, The Houston Chronicle, October 31, 2009
More than four years after an explosion at its Texas City refinery killed 15 workers, BP still hasn’t made required safety upgrades, has committed new safety violations and should pay a record $87 million in fines, federal regulators said Friday. The London-based oil giant said it will contest the allegations and the fine, and that it has met the terms of a previous settlement agreement involving the 2005 blast. In unveiling the proposed fines, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the company had not completed all the safety upgrades required under the agreement. OSHA also alleged 439 new “willful” safety violations, chiefly related to pressure release devices at the plant.
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Other Articles about the same topic:
BP Is ‘Disappointed’ With $87 Million Texas City Refinery Fine. — Eduard Gismatullin, Bloomberg, October 30, 2009
BP Plc, which expects an $87 million fine in relation to its response to an explosion at the Texas City refinery, said it’s “disappointed” with the penalty from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA this month rejected BP’s request for more time to comply with a settlement over the 2005 blast, which killed 15 workers and left hundreds injured. The London-based company, Europe’s second-largest oil producer, now anticipates a fine, spokesman Andrew Gowers said today by phone.
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Court Orders DOE to Reconsider Calif. Washing-Machine Standard. — Debra Kahn, Greenwire in The New York Times, October 30, 2009
The Energy Department must reconsider California’s energy- and water-saving standards for residential washing machines, a federal court ruled this week. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here Wednesday overturned (pdf) DOE’s 2006 decision denying California a waiver from the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. On the books since 2002, the rule would require washers sold in 2007 to use no more than 8.5 gallons of water per cubic foot of washing machine capacity, falling to 6 gallons by 2010.
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REGULATORY ACTIONS
Ritter support for Salazar’s shale plans is right for western Colorado. — Bill Grant, The Daily Sentinel, October 26, 2009
Gov. Bill Ritter should be applauded for his support of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s plan to impose strict accountability rules for a new round of research and development leases for oil shale and his request for the Interior Department’s inspector general to investigate the last-minute shale leases granted in the final days of the Bush administration. “The potential for oil shale development in Colorado and the economic opportunity it represents is huge,” the governor said. “But the prospect of commercial-scale activities raises significant questions about how oil shale can be successfully integrated into our state’s economy and how we can protect the state’s environment, water and communities.”
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Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement Following Green Cities California Unveiling of Best Practices Web Site. — Real Estate Rama California, October 26, 2009
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after Green Cities California, the collaborative of 10 cities and counties acknowledged as sustainability leaders, launched a Web site today that will serve as a resource for other communities striving to go green: “As California continues to lead our nation in green technology and sustainability, it is essential that our cities and local governments step up and take the lead as well. It is fantastic to see these local cities coordinating their efforts to use green technology as an opportunity to stimulate the economy, build jobs and produce real solutions, and I urge other cities to take part and do the same. This is a local, grassroots movement that will continue to gain momentum. Together we will take action to ensure that our state is the pioneer in addressing important environmental issues.”
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Chesapeake Bay TMDL Events. —EPA News Release, October 26, 2009
EPA sets public meetings on Chesapeake Bay pollution limits (TMDL) designed to restore the Bay
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EPA Moving Fast to Revise Ozone Standard. — Matthew Madia, OMB Watch, October 26, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency is readying a replacement for the current national air quality standard for ozone, or smog, which was roundly fouled up during the Bush administration. Last Wednesday (Oct. 21), EPA sent to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) – the gatekeeper for all things regulatory – a draft version of a new notice of proposed rulemaking. That notice will propose revisions to the ozone standard finalized in March 2008.
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Michigan wetland program gets 3-year reprieve. —The Associated Press, October 26, 2009
Michigan’s program that shields bogs, marshes, swamps and other wetlands from overdevelopment remains on shaky ground even after surviving the most serious challenge in its 30-year history. Eight months after Gov. Jennifer Granholm called for handing over protection of Michigan’s wetlands to the federal government as a cost-cutting measure, she recently signed a bill that will keep the state program alive at least three more years. Afterward, legislators will decide its fate yet again.
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EPA’s plan for Koppers cleanup assailed: Area engineers say water should be pumped out at a much higher rate. . — Megan Rolland, The Gainesville Sun, October 26, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to clean up a plume of toxic chemicals that is slowly migrating toward Alachua County’s water supply has “baffled” engineers with both Gainesville Regional Utilities and the Alachua County Department of Environmental Protection. The plan, which the EPA released in August, calls for water in the aquifer underneath the Cabot Koppers Superfund site to be pumped and treated in an effort to prevent the spreading of chemicals allowed to leach into the ground over 40 years by a wood-treatment plant.
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Melamine limits for baby formula too high, study finds. — Unbossed.com, October 26, 2009
A research paper published in the September issue of Pediatric Nephrology reveals that current limits on trace amounts of melamine in baby formula increase the risk of pediatric kidney disease, therefore are too high. Melamine is the industrial chemical that hospitalized thousands of Chinese children in 2008 when it was intentionally added to milk in large amounts.
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BLM seeks comments on proposed Pinedale Anticline condensate line. — Nick Snow, Oil & GasPA News Release, October 23, 2009
The US Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a proposed 42-mile condensate pipeline from the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field to a terminal south of LaBarge, Wyo. BLM said Ultra Resources Inc., Houston, has proposed the 6-in. pipeline to fulfill a requirement in the supplemental environmental impact statement record of decision for the field that operators install a liquids gathering system to reduce truck traffic associated with production there within 2 years.
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Other Articles on the same topic:
Proposed Wyoming pipeline could reduce pollution. — The Associated Press, October 24, 2009 Click Here
Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule; Proposed Rule. — Federal Register, October 27, 2009
EPA is proposing to tailor the major source applicability thresholds for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and title V programs of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and to set a PSD significance level for GHG emissions. This proposal is necessary because EPA expects soon to promulgate regulations under the CAA to control GHG emissions and, as a result, trigger PSD and title V applicability requirements for GHG emissions. .
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EPA, Baja government join for air-quality studies. — Sandra Dibble, San Diego Union Tribune, October 27, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Baja California yesterday announced their collaboration in two air-quality studies on the U.S.-Mexico border in California. One study will evaluate the condition of a network of 13 air-quality monitoring stations in Baja California. The stations, set up with support from the EPA and the California Air Resources Board, were turned over to the state of Baja California in 2007. The second study involves updating a 1999 emissions inventory, focusing on Tijuana, Rosarito Beach, Tecate and Mexicali. The studies, costing $173,000, are being funded by the EPA through the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, a binational agency created under a side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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EPA Crafting Multiple Air Pollutant Strategy. — Robin Bravender, Greenwire in The New York Times, October 27, 2009
U.S. EPA is working on a new strategy aimed at providing a clearer road map for industrial investment in air pollution controls, the agency’s top air official said yesterday. EPA’s air chief, Gina McCarthy, said she wants to implement a more industry-friendly approach to rulemaking that will allow companies to invest in controls that curb multiple pollutants at once rather than using a more expensive piecemeal strategy.
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Will Oregon Close the State’s Only Coal-Fired Power Plant? — Joshua Frank, AlterNet.org, October 28, 2009
Not so say activists in Oregon who are attempting to chain and lock the doors of the state’s sole coal-fired power plant. Located along the scenic Columbia River Gorge in eastern Oregon, the Boardman Power Plant is owned and operated by Portland General Electric and supplies enough power to support the energy consumption of approximately 280,000 homes.
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U.S. Steel gets OK for benzene water fix. — Gitte Laasby, Post-Tribune, October 28, 2009
U.S. Steel Gary Works will begin treating benzene-laden groundwater leaking into Lake Michigan from north of its coke plant by the end of October. In August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved U.S. Steel’s plan for treating the groundwater in a well system. The plan involves testing the system during and after startup to make sure it performs properly.
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Project will test delta smelt protection. — Peter Ottesen, RecordPA News Release, October 26, 2009
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will provide information on a proposed demonstration project to place temporary gates across Old River and Connection Slough between December and March in efforts to keep endangered delta smelt away from state and federal export pumps near Tracy.
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EPA publishes new greenhouse gas rules. — UPI, October 27, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a proposed rule Tuesday that would limit the Clean Air Act to the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Under the regulation published in the Federal Register, the act would apply to power plants and other plants that emit at least 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year, The Washington Post reported. The Clean Air Act, as written, applies to all emitters of more than 250 tons a year.
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EPA Picks Cleanup Plan for Copley Square Plaza Superfund Site. — EPA News Release, October 28, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has selected a cleanup plan for the Copley Square Plaza Superfund site at 2777 Copley Road in Copley, Ohio. A comment period including a public meeting was held this past July. EPA evaluated three alternatives and chose a $5 million plan that includes treatment of shallow ground water contaminated by tetrachloroethene—commonly known as “PERC”—and connection of about 30 area homes to a public water supply.
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EPA Issues Final Rule for National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from Petroleum Refineries. — Federal Register, October 28, 2009
This action amends the national emission standards for petroleum refineries to add maximum achievable control technology standards for heat exchange systems. This action also amends the general provisions cross-reference table and corrects section references.
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Salazar order on climate change riles GOP. — Thomas Burr, The Salt Lake Tribune, October 29, 2009
Western Republicans fear Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is trying to skirt congressional authority by issuing an administrative order on climate change that the GOP members say could hurt businesses and cost taxpayers millions. Utah Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz and Sen. Orrin Hatch joined 13 other Western Republicans who charge in a letter Wednesday that the administration is trying an end-run around Congress on climate change legislation. At issue is Salazar’s September “Secretarial Order” that creates a Climate Change Response Council and allows Interior agencies to coordinate efforts to combat the impacts of increased carbon in the atmosphere.
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EPA Orders Chemical Testing for Hormone Effects. — EPA News Release, October 29, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued the first test orders for pesticide chemicals to be screened for their potential effects on the endocrine system. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by human and animal endocrine systems, which regulate growth, metabolism and reproduction.
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EPA Posts New Schools Air Toxics Monitoring Initiative Data. — EPA News Release, October 29, 2009
The first results from ongoing air toxics monitoring at two New Jersey schools and one New York school are now available on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Web site. A total of four schools in EPA’s Region 2 were selected as part of the agency’s national Schools Air Toxics Initiative. The initiative, which is monitoring 63 schools in 22 states, will help EPA and the states learn if long-term exposure to toxics in the outdoor air poses health concerns for school children and staff.
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EPA Requests Comments on Survey for Stormwater Rule. — EPA News Release, October 29, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a survey to help strengthen stormwater regulations and reduce stormwater discharges from newly developed and redeveloped sites. Stormwater discharges can harm water quality through increases in stormwater volume and pollutant loadings into nearby waterways.
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EPA Alerts W.Va. and Ohio Officials of Potential Concerns about AEP Coal Ash Impoundment. — EPA News Release, October 29, 2009
As part of an ongoing comprehensive review of dam integrity of coal ash impoundment sites nationwide, EPA has alerted West Virginia public officials and first responders that an impoundment at American Electric Power’s (AEP) Philip Sporn facility requires additional safety testing. While EPA does not believe the impoundment’s dam is at immediate risk of failure given the information we currently have, out of an abundance of caution the agency has notified W.Va. and Ohio officials of the need for further testing to fully determine the impoundment’s integrity. AEP has committed to submitting a plan to carry out the safety tests. That plan will be provided to EPA on Monday, November 2. EPA will oversee the testing and use all necessary authority to assure the safety of the facility.
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EPA Calls on State of Missouri to Set New Water Quality Standards for St. Louis Segment of Mississippi River. — EPA News Release, October 29, 2009
EPA has determined that the State of Missouri needs new or revised water quality standards to protect a 28.6-mile segment of the Mississippi River around St. Louis that flows from North Riverfront Park to the confluence of the Meramec River. This EPA action directs the state to address this area of the Mississippi River to protect public health for recreational uses such as tubing, water-skiing and swimming.
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EPA Issues Final for National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Chemical Manufacturing Area Sources. — Federal Register, October 29, 2009
EPA is issuing national emission standards for the control of hazardous air pollutants for nine area source categories in the chemical manufacturing sector: Agricultural Chemicals and Pesticides Manufacturing, Cyclic Crude and Intermediate Production, Industrial Inorganic Chemical Manufacturing, Industrial Organic Chemical Manufacturing, Inorganic Pigments Manufacturing, Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing, Plastic Materials and Resins Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical Production, and Synthetic Rubber Manufacturing. The standards and associated requirements for the nine area source categories are combined in one subpart. This final rule establishes emission standards in the form of management practices for each chemical manufacturing process unit as well as emission limits for certain subcategories of process vents and storage tanks. The rule also establishes management practices and other emission reduction requirements for subcategories of wastewater systems and heat exchange systems.
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EPA Releases Draft Document Related to the Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Carbon Monoxide for Public Review and Comment. — Federal Register, October 29, 2009
On or about October 20, 2009, the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) of EPA is making available for public comment a draft assessment document: Risk and Exposure Assessment to Support theReview of the Carbon Monoxide (CO) Primary National Ambient Air Quality Standards—First External Review Draft. This draft document describes the quantitative analyses that are being conducted as part of the review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for carbon monoxide (CO).
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U.S. Agencies Speed Up Approval Of New Transmission Lines On Federal Lands. — The Gov Monitor, October 29, 2009
Today, Obama Administration officials released a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by nine Federal Departments and Agencies to make it faster and simpler to build transmission lines on Federal lands.The goal of the agreement is to speed approval of new transmission lines, reduce expense and uncertainty in the process, generate cost savings, increase accessibility to renewable energy and jump start job creation.
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Final Rule for Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, October 30, 2009
EPA is promulgating a regulation to require reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors of the economy. The final rule applies to fossil fuel suppliers and industrial gas suppliers, direct greenhouse gas emitters and manufacturers of heavy-duty and offroad vehicles and engines. The rule does not require control of greenhouse gases, rather it requires only that sources above certain threshold levels monitor and report emissions.
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Final Rule on Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District and San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, October 30, 2009
EPA is finalizing approval of revisions to the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District (NSAQMD) and San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions were proposed in the Federal Register on July 13, 2009, and concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from asphalt paving, gasoline bulk storage tanks, and gasoline dispensing stations. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act). Effectctive Date: This rule is effective on November 30, 2009.
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Polluted Southern communities ask EPA to address environmental injustice. — Sue Sturgis, Facing South, October 30, 2009
Environmental justice leaders representing more than a dozen polluted communities from six Southern states met with Environmental Protection Agency leaders this week and asked them to take action to better protect the health of low-income communities and communities of color.
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EPA Proceeds with Revoking Regulations Allowing Carbofuran Pesticide Residues on Food. — EPA News Release, October 30, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward to implement the agency’s May 2009 final rule revoking tolerances, or residue limits, for the pesticide carbofuran. EPA continues to find that dietary exposures to carbofuran from all sources combined are not safe.
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Hawaii announces plans to study environmental effects of undersea power cable. — Mark Niesse, The Associated Press, October 29, 2009
Hawaii is moving forward with plans to build an undersea cable to carry wind-generated electricity from Maui County to power-hungry Honolulu. Government renewable energy officials announced Thursday they are accepting bids from contractors to do an environmental study of the cable’s possible impacts on whales, the ocean floor and coral reefs.
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EPA Finalizes Cleanup Plan for Hopewell Precision Site. — EPA News Release, October 30, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its plan to address contamination at the Hopewell Precision site in Hopewell Junction, New York. The Agency has also already started the design of the new public water supply system, which will be followed by connection of those homes with potentially-contaminated drinking water wells to municipal water. The final cleanup plan will address the sources of contamination directly. Due to sloppy, past practices at the Hopewell Precision, Inc. facility where sheet metal parts were turned into furniture, the ground water that runs underneath the site has become contaminated with chemicals that can volatilize in the form of vapors into homes built over the contaminated plume. Contamination in the ground water under the site has spread beyond the boundaries of the facility. EPA’s cleanup will include restoring the ground water to drinking water standards within a reasonable time period and ensuring that the homes over the contaminated plume are not being affected by vapors that may emanate from the plume, into the basements of the homes.
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TMDL ‘Pollution Diet’ Meetings Set for W. Va. — EPA News Release, October 30, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold two public meetings in West Virginia next week to discuss the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) – a strict “pollution diet” to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its vast network of local rivers, streams and creeks.
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EPA orders higher water quality standards for Mississippi River at St. Louis. — The Associated Press, October 30, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency has directed the state of Missouri to raise water quality standards for a 28-mile segment of the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The new standards will require the stretch of river from North Riverfront Park to the mouth of the Meramec to be clean enough for swimming, fishing and other recreational activities. EPA regional spokesman Art Spratlin tells KWMU that the change will classify the entire length of the Mississippi River, from the Iowa border to the confluence with the Ohio (River), to the same highest use for recreation. A spokesman for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says the Nixon administration will work with the Metropolitan Sewer District and the EPA to make sure the new water quality standards are met.
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Other Articles on the same topic:
EPA ruling might mean a cleaner Mississippi River. — The Editorial Board, stltoday.com, October 30, 2009
It takes more than 200 pages of dense, legalistic language to detail the intricacies of the federal Clean Water Act. But the bottom line is simple: Federal and state governments must protect lakes, streams and rivers from pollution — even rivers once treated as open sewers. The law isn’t new; it’s been around since 1972. But, until recently, parts of state government acted like they’d never heard of it.
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Alarmists unfairly target crucial agricultural tool. — Lori Feltis, Post-Bulletin, October 31, 2009
On Nov. 3, the EPA is kicking off a new review of a herbicide called atrazine, which has been the subject of more than 6,000 scientific studies and is used by farmers in 60 countries. For 50 years atrazine has been used safely by U.S. farmers, and every EPA Administrator, Republican and Democrat, since the agency was founded has certified its safety.
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LAWSUITS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS FILED
Millbrae disputes claims of sewage infractions. — Julia Scott, San Mateo County Times, October 26, 2009
City officials have come out swinging against a legal action by an environmental group accusing the city of sewage spills and other infractions in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. Millbrae Public Works Director Ron Popp issued a press release Friday answering to a notice of intent to file suit under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The potential lawsuit was initiated in early October by San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit that has used similar tactics to force other Peninsula cities to improve their sewage systems and stop dumping sewage into the Bay.
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Developers face potential $125,000 fine for storm water violations at Smiths Ferry, Idaho construction site. —EPA News Release, October 26, 2009
Developers conducting work in Idaho are facing $125,000 in proposed penalties for violating the federal Clean Water Act at a construction site in Smiths Ferry, Idaho, according to a complaint issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. Sal Gallucci, JJS Southwest LLC and Whitehawk Land Development Corporation failed to apply for a construction general permit prior to building and improving roads at the Whitehawk Subdivision from 2005-2009, according to the EPA complaint. A permit is required by the federal Clean Water Act for construction activities that have the potential to discharge pollutants into waterways. The construction site is located near the North Fork of the Payette River, which is listed as impaired.
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Enviros Sue EPA to Protect Historic District. — Ryan Abbott, Courthouse News Service, October 26, 2009
A nonprofit land preservation group wants the U.S. EPA to revoke the permit it granted that lets a wastewater treatment plant pump treated sewage into a creek that runs through a Historic Landmark District and into Chesapeake Bay. The Historic Green Springs group says the EPA issued the permit for the Zion Crossroads Wastewater Treatment Plant in Louisa County to discharge pollutants into Camp Creek without studying its effects on the quality. The group says the permit violates the Clean Water Act.
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Tests Show Recontamination of Soils in Herculaneum, Mo., from Doe Run Resources Corporation Lead Smelting Operation. —EPA News Release, October 26, 2009
EPA Region 7 is considering a range of enforcement actions against the Doe Run Resources Corporation, now that recent tests have shown more than one-third of a group of properties situated within a mile of the company’s lead smelter in Herculaneum, Mo., contain lead at levels exceeding 400 parts per million (ppm), EPA’s threshold for removing and replacing such soils.
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Other Articles on the same topic:
Doe Run downplays EPA lead concerns. — The Associated Press, October 27, 2009
The Doe Run Co. is downplaying the extent of a lead contamination problem at properties near its eastern Missouri smelter that was raised by federal environmental authorities. Tthe company responded Tuesday that very few of the sampled properties have an average that is above the level of concern defined by the EPA. In some places in town, the company said, soil lead levels went down.
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Mo. smelter downplays EPA concerns about lead. — Cheryl Wittenauer, The Associated Press, October 28, 2009
The Doe Run Co. on Tuesday downplayed the extent of lead contamination at properties near its Herculaneum lead smelter, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stood by tests showing many neighboring homes had tainted soil. The agency said Monday that recent tests revealed high levels of lead in the soil of 129 residential properties — or more than a third tested — within a mile of the smelter. Soil remediation had already been done at about 100 of the 129 properties during the past decade under previous EPA orders. Long-term or repeated exposure to lead can affect the blood and other organs, central nervous system, and harm human reproduction or development. Doe Run spokeswoman Barb Shepard said the company was “surprised” by EPA’s announcement, adding “we were coming to different conclusions from the data.”
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Lawsuit could affect mine project. — Dick Kamp, Nogales International, October 27, 2009
A lawsuit challenging a Bush administration policy that allows mines on federal land to deposit waste on other valid mine claims was filed Oct. 20 in federal district court. The lawsuit was filed by the Western Mining Action Project on behalf of the environmental group Earthworks, Tucson-based Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR), Native American nonprofit-Western Shoshone Defense Project, Great Basin Resource Watch in Nevada, and High Country Citizens’ Alliance in Colorado.
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January trial ordered in Huntington spill. — The Associated Press, October 29, 2009
A January trial is scheduled for the former owner of a chemical company who’s facing charges stemming from a spill in Huntington that displaced hundreds of people. Former TechSol Chemical Co. owner James R. Holt pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges of violating the Clean Water Act and violating federal hazardous waste storage laws.
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Environmental groups appeal Vogtle permit. — Rob Pavey, Augusta Chronicle, October 29, 2009
A consortium of environmental groups filed an appeal today challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s issuance in August of an early site permit for the planned addition of two new reactors at Georgia Power Company’s Plant Vogtle. The appeal was filed today by Emory University School of Law’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic and Diane Curran on behalf of five groups: Center for a Sustainable Coast, Savannah Riverkeeper, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions and Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
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Group tries to keep Xcel plant in Colorado idle. — The Associated Press, October 29, 2009
An environmental group wants a judge to prevent Xcel Energy from firing up a new coal-fired plant in southern Colorado until a court case determines whether pollution levels will be too high. WildEarth Guardians filed a motion Wednesday in federal court seeking a preliminary injunction to keep the utility from starting operations at a new unit of the Comanche power plant in Pueblo. The group filed a lawsuit in July that claims the utility is violating the law by not obtaining approval required by the federal Clean Air Act. Jeremy Nichols of the group’s Denver office said the company hasn’t adequately updated information required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on efforts to reduce mercury emissions.
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Murphy Oil Sued Over Air Pollution From Meraux Refinery. — Environment News Service, October 29, 2009
Student attorneys at Tulane University’s Environmental Law Clinic are taking on a giant oil company on behalf of a community group suffering from air pollutants released into their residential neighborhoods by an oil refinery. A motion for partial summary judgment against Murphy Oil USA, Inc. was filed today by the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic on behalf of the neighborhood association Concerned Citizens Around Murphy.
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Delaware files suit to block dredging. — Jeff Montgomery, The News Journal, October 31, 2009
Attorney General Beau Biden went to federal court Friday to block the Army Corps of Engineers from deepening a section of the Delaware River within Delaware’s borders without state permits. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Delaware, expands an interstate, intergovernmental squabble over states’ rights, federal authority, economic development ambitions and environmental protection.
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STATE & FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Boxer Opening Statement: Legislative Hearings on The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S.1733) . — U.S. Sentate Committee on Environment and Public Works Press Release, October 27, 2009
This is the first legislative hearing on S. 1733, The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Over the next three days, we will hear from 54 witnesses, on nine separate panels. Today, I want to welcome my partner in writing this bill, Senator John Kerry, and our distinguished Obama Administration witnesses. I greatly appreciate the President’s leadership on this issue. As promised, the Chairman’s Mark was made public Friday, and we have released and posted EPA’s economic analysis of the bill. Committee rules provide that this document be circulated three days before the markup. We have done this at least 10 days before the markup.
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First Day of Hearings
Key Democrat Cites Concerns on Climate Bill. — Siobhan Hughes and Ian Talley, The Wall Street Journal, October 28, 2009 Click Here
At Senate Climate Hearings, Lots of Transport Talk and All Eyes on Baucus. — The Associated Press, October 27, 2009 Click Here
U.S. Must Lead Way in Clean Energy Technology, Agency Heads Say. — Carrie Halperin, ABC News, October 28, 2009 Click Here
What the Solar Industry Wants in a Climate Change Bill. — Ucilia Wong, GreentechSolar, October 27, 2009 Click Here
Inhofe, Kerry spar over climate change. — Jim Myers, Tulsa World, October 27, 2009
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Obama urges Senate to pass cap-and-trade energy bill. — The Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2009 Click Here
Second Day of Hearings
Algal Biomass Organization Applauds Senator Boxer & Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for Inclusion of Algae-based Fuels in Climate Bill. — Reuters, October 28, 2009 Click Here
Leading Scientist to Tell Senate Panel: Urgent Action Needed, Adaptation Funding Essential. — Union of Concerned Scientists, October 28, 2009 Click Here
Climate Change Legislation Will Increase Diesel Prices, Hurt Consumers. — Reuters, October 29, 2009 Click Here
Third Day of Hearings
Senate Begins Climate Bill Debate Amid Lowered Expectations from UN. — Steven Zweig, Heatingoil.comhe Associated Press, October 29, 2009 Click Here
Boxer, Republicans Spar Over Climate Bill Timing, Economic Studies. — Darren Samuelson, Greenwire in The New York Times, October 29, 2009 Click Here
Third Day of Climate Bill Debate Focused on Timetable, Economics. — Carol Sonenklar, heatingoil.com, October 30, 2009 Click Here
Climate change coal compromise soothes Baucus. — James McConnell, Chicago Economic Policy Examiner, October 30, 2009 Click Here
Republicans move to delay climate bill progress. — Richard Cowen, Reuters, October 31, 2009 Click Here
Testimony Continues on Climate Change Legislation. — Staff, Ohio Farmer, October 30, 2009 Farm organizations testify at Climate Change hearings, worried about fuel and fertilizer costs. Click Here
Great Lakes shippers seek congressional Democrats help in fighting air pollution rules. — John Flesher, The Associated Press, October 27, 2009
Shipping companies that haul iron ore, coal and other freight on the Great Lakes have enlisted support from leading congressional Democrats to ward off air pollution regulations they say would be a financial burden. A group representing the 55 U.S.-flagged vessels that operate on the lakes is hoping for relief from a House-Senate conference committee expected to meet this week in Washington to negotiate a compromise on a natural resources spending bill.
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Other Articles on the same topic:
Deal struck on Great Lakes ship pollution. — The Associated Press, October 27, 2009
Congressional negotiators reached formal agreement Tuesday on a deal that would effectively exempt 13 Great Lakes steamships from a proposed federal rule meant to reduce air pollution.
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Great Lakes freighters win exemption from air pollution regulations. — Eartha Jane Melzer, The Michigan Messenger, October 28, 2009
13 of the 55 freighters that operate on the Great Lakes will likely be exempted from a proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rule that would require ships operating within 200 miles of a coast to burn cleaner fuel and upgrade their engines, AP reports.
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American Iron & Steel Institute thanks EPA & Congress for compromise on regs for large vessels on the Great Lakes http://bit.ly/3p5CyF
Cow Burps OK: House, Senate Block EPA From Regulating Livestock Emissions. — Kirsten Korosec, BNET, October 28, 2009
Farmers can breath a little easier now — cows can burp and fart without fear of the Environmental Protection Agency regulating their methane emissions. You may remember the “cow tax” rumors that floated around late last year and caused an uproar among farmers and ranchers worried the EPA planned to regulate methane gas emitted from livestock. The EPA has said — repeatedly — it has no plans to impose a cow tax. But the idea was still worrisome for ranchers and farmers. House and Senate conferees made it official Tuesday and approved an amendment to block agency efforts to require Clean Air Act permits for greenhouse gases emitted by livestock, according to reports from Greenwire and Scientific American.
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Congress to send $475 million for Great Lakes clean-up. — Mike Simonson, Business North, October 29, 2009
An Obama promise to Great Lakes governors for new money to clean up the Great Lakes is about to become law. Mike Simonson reports from Superior. A Congressional conference committee approved $475 million late Tuesday in what’s being called one of the most ambitious environmental programs in Great Lakes history.
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Obama EPA advisor to Great Lakes says climate change will dictate restoration efforts. — Michael Scott, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 29, 2009
Cameron Davis, Great Lakes ‘czar’ for the Obama Administration, said today that climate change will drive future clean-up efforts on the lakes. “I look at the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as a climate change adaptation effort,” Davis said in Cleveland this afternoon at a press briefing at the Great Lakes Science Center prior to the final public hearing of the a federal task force on oceans and the Great Lakes. “Everything that we’re trying to do — we, meaning the EPA and its 15 federal partners — is designed to address the kind of stressors that we’re likely to see coming to the Great Lakes as a result of climate change.”
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Gas Producers Favor State Oversight of ‘Fracking’. — Kelly Merritt, The State Journal, October 29, 2009
States do a fine job of regulating the drilling process of “fracking,” and transferring that regulatory authority to the federal government is not necessary, according, to West Virginia oil and natural gas industry executives. Identical bills were introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate this summer to repeal a portion of the Safe Drinking Water Act that exempts hydraulic fracturing operations from that act. Fracking, as it is known in the drilling industry, is a process that injects treated water deep into the productive zone of natural gas and oil wells to fracture the rock and stimulate more production of gas or oil. The procedure has been a common practice in the industry since the 1940s and is used to enhance production from new and older wells.Senate Bill 1215 and HR 2766 are known as the FRAC Act — Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals — and would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to repeal an exemption for hydraulic fracturing operations.
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Colorado Trout Unlimited lobbies House for small stream protection. — Joe Overlock, Fly Fishing Examiner, October 30, 2009
In 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court limited the Clean Water Act to exclude protection of ”rivers and streams that affect interstate commerce, streams navigable by boat, or are connected to such streams.” Our friends from Colorado TU are hoping to change that to close that loop hole in the Clean Water Act.
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OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
Less mercury expected in Utah, thanks to Nevada pact. — Judy Fahys, The Salt City Tribune, October 26, 2009
A new deal between the state of Nevada and a gold-processing company located there is expected to mean less toxic mercury in Utah’s air and water. The Nevada Department of Environmental Protection and Queenstake Resources USA Ltd. signed a consent decree earlier this month that requires the company to do a better job of monitoring and reducing its mercury emissions. And additional controls could be required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as soon as next spring. The company, which reported releasing 1,069 pounds of mercury off-site in 2007 from its Jerritt Canyon gold operations, has already started ramping up its “roasters” after being shut down over environmental violations in March 2008. After beefing up testing and equipment, Queenstake resumed gold processing for a month before the state ordered its operations shut down again for failing to meet a deadline on new control equipment.
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Writer confuses carbon sequestration, storage in argument. — Joe Lopez, Springfield News-Leader, October 26, 2009
In his article against cap-and-trade legislation, “Cities are trapping most of our carbon,” Mr. Boyer leads you to believe that he is an authority on the subject of climate change and correct in his views. However, any reader with even a basic understanding of the subject is left to wonder whether Mr. Boyer is very confused or intentionally misleading his audience.
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The haze that kills: When it comes to air quality, ‘particulate matter’ particularly matters. — Editorial, The Houston Chronicle, October 26, 2009
We recently realized that, while we were busy worrying about the ozone and toxic gases in Houston’s air, we missed a more solid class of gunk befouling our lungs. “Particulate matter,” scientists call it, or “particle matter” — or, when they tire of all those syllables, plain old “PM.” PM includes any too-tiny-to-see bit of solid or liquid stuff that floats in the air: soot and dust and sand, chemicals and aerosols, smoke from grills and wildfires, tailpipe emissions from diesel-burning 18-wheelers and gas-burning cars, emissions from petrochemical flares and ocean-going tankers, and even the driveway grit that your neighbor’s SUV kicks up as she squeals out on her way to work. You know the haze that can make a Houston sunset especially spectacular? That’s PM.
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Land in downtown Algonquin could be contaminated. — Kerry Lester, The Daily Herald, October 25, 2009
Land in downtown Algonquin could be contaminated, officials say. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Transportation officials have found “higher than normal levels” of certain types of volatile organic compounds east of the abandoned Toastmaster factory on Washington Street. According to a joint news release by the IEPA, IDOT and village of Algonquin, no health risks have yet been identified for residents living in the area. The village’s water system is not affected, and no private wells are believed to be in the area. But the IEPA and the Illinois Department of Health plan to meet with home and business owners in the coming weeks to discuss more testing and possible remedies.
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Climate Change Policy and Safe Investing. — John Lorinc, The New York Times, October 297, 2009
Countries that adopt policies obliging utilities to purchase a percentage of their power from renewable sources at above-market prices — also known as a “feed-in tariff” — represent the safest harbors for investors looking to finance clean-energy ventures, according to a broad-ranging risk analysis released Monday by Deutsche Bank’s global asset management group and Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
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Obama says momentum growing for climate-change legislation. — Christi Parsons, The Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2009
Reporting from Arcadia, Fla. – President Obama declared Tuesday that a “consensus is building” around climate-change legislation and characterized opponents as preoccupied with the past instead of a “clean-energy future.” Standing on the edge of a large solar-power plant here, Obama urged the Senate to pass a measure that caps carbon emissions and to set aside arguments that it would harm the economy and cost jobs.
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CASEnergy Co-Chairs’ Statement on Climate Change Debate. — Stephen Heiser, Nuclear Street, October 28, 2009
If we are serious about reducing our fossil fuel emissions as a hedge against the negative effects of climate change while meeting our growing energy demands, we must search for practical answers. Any one energy source alone will not solve our challenges. A diverse portfolio of energy solutions that includes and favors all low-emissions technologies, such as wind, geothermal, and nuclear energy is needed. Of that group, nuclear energy is the only large-scale, virtually carbon-free electricity source, operating efficiently and safely around the clock.
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Sierra Club Says Coal Mine Polluted River. — Ryan Abbott, Courthouse News Service, October 27, 2009
Hobet Mining, a subsidiary of Patriot Coal Corp., repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act by dumping selenium and other pollutants into public waters, environmental groups say. The groups notified state and federal officials of the violations in February, but say the government has done nothing to stop it. The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservatory and the Sierra Club sued Hobet in Federal Court. They claim Hobet dumped chemicals into a tributary of the Mud River at least 22 times between Dec. 8, 2008 and June 30, 2009, polluting it with selenium, aluminum and iron.
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Coastal communities need to do more to protect shorelines from climate change, study says. — Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, October 28, 2009
Atlantic coastal communities have been slow to prepare themselves for rising sea level from climate change, though Maryland has been in the forefront of states in grappling with the issue, a new report says. The report, published Tuesday as Senate leaders push climate legislation, summarizes the results of a $2 million federal effort to map the likelihood of shoreline protections if climate change raises sea level as predicted. The findings of the federal study were suppressed by the Bush administration, but the authors were allowed to air the outcome in “Environmental Research Letters,” a scholarly journal.
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EPA’s New Green Parking Lot Allows Scientists to Study Permeable Surfaces That May Help the Environment. — EPA News Release, October 2, 2009
Paved parking lots and driveways make our lives easier, but they often create an easy pathway for pollutants to reach underground water sources and alter the natural flow of water back into the ground. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a study that will investigate ways to reduce pollution that can run off paved surfaces and improve how water filters back into the ground. EPA is testing a variety of different permeable pavement materials and rain gardens in the parking lot at the agency’s Edison, N.J. facility, which houses offices and its laboratory. Most major sources of pollution going into our waterways are well-controlled, but pollution runoff from hard surfaces remains a complicated problem.
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Idaho Power proposes four route options for transmission line. — Debbie Raney, Burns Times-Herald, October 28, 2009
Over the next 20 years energy consumption in the United States is expected to increase by 0.5 percent. To keep ahead of the anticipated need, Idaho Power has proposed construction of a 500 kV transmission line from the Boardman Substation to a new substation in Melba, Idaho, called the Hemingway Substation. To initiate the proposed project, called the Boardman to Hemingway Project, Idaho Power has begun the siting process, which includes accepting public input. Before developing a route for the lines Idaho Power consideration must be given to the regulatory and engineering criteria, as well as community criteria. At this point, four basic route options have been mapped, with sub-options stemming from these.
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White House task force on oceans visiting Great Lakes for meeting on environmental restoration. — John Flesher, The Associated Press, October 29, 2009
A White House panel developing a strategy for managing oceans and their coastlines is including the Great Lakes in its plan, which will propose ways to protect the environment while preventing conflicts among users. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, which President Barack Obama established in June, convenes the last of six regional public meetings Thursday in Cleveland. It will be the only gathering devoted specifically to the Great Lakes.
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Chula Vista Leads Cities in Action on Climate Change: First San Diego County City to Participate in the Cool Planet Project & Receive Climate Action Leader Designation. — Reuters, October 29, 2009
The City of Chula Vista, by achieving outstanding energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, is the first city to join the Cool Planet Project, an energy efficiency and climate change mitigation program hosted by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and The Climate Registry. Through programs provided by SDG&E and sponsored by the California Public Utilities Commission, the City of Chula Vista installed energy efficiency projects on facilities throughout the city, reducing municipal energy use by more than 1.2 million kilowatt-hours and 50,000 therms — equivalent to removing over 200 cars from Chula Vista`s city streets annually.
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The EPA wants to put a time bomb in America’s gas tanks. — Andrew Morriss, MCT News Service, October 29, 2009
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is considering requiring use of a blend of ethanol and gasoline known as “E15.” This is a risky measure that threatens to damage our car engines and saddle car companies with soaring warranty costs. Corn-based ethanol, the type currently used in the United States, is a terrible transportation fuel whose production has serious environmental consequences and raises food prices for the world’s poor while delivering few net environmental benefits. Requiring higher blends of it to be put into engines not designed to handle those levels of the corrosive, water-attracting fuel without adequate testing is a gamble on a grand scale.
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Some Politicians Want It Both Ways on Environment. — Russ Harding, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, October 29, 2009
Politicians are often anxious to been seen as “green” as they support stringent environmental standards and mandates. Unfortunately, they often ignore the costs of those measures — that is, until those costs come home to roost in their own districts. Witness U.S. House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wis., who along with 98 other Democrats voted to protect agricultural and Great Lakes shipping interests from Environmental Protection Agency regulations as part of a deal to move a $32.24 billion natural resources funding bill.
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Kinnickinnic River Legacy Act cleanup sets stage for community revitalization. — EPA News Release, October 30, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office and state partner Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will celebrate the $22 million Great Lakes Legacy Act cleanup in Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River.
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Mountaintop removal mining protests going national. — Vicki Smith, The Associated Press, October 30, 2009
Activists with Mountain Justice, Rainforest Action Network and other groups planned protests at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters and across the country Friday to demand the end of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. An online map showed more than two dozen planned events from California to Maine, including demonstrations at a regional EPA office in Philadelphia and a New Jersey office of JPMorgan & Chase Co., a bank environmentalists say is the biggest financier of the destructive form of strip mining.
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Water crisis called worst in state’s history. — Heather Hackins, Chico Enterprise Record, October 30, 2009
The future of California will see a shift from water extraction to balancing the needs of the environment with the need for water reliability, said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. Quinn was among the many speakers Wednesday at the Sacramento Valley Forum. The event at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. was hosted by the Great Valley Center. “The resource is in a crisis like none of us have seen in the history of the state,” Quinn said.
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EPA double take: A request from Houston’s mayor spurs re-evaluation of toxic-emission rules. — The Houston Chronicle, October 2, 2009
White sent Environmental Protection Agency officials a 26-page letter in July 2008 contending that EPA regulations relied on erroneous data supplied by industry that drastically underreport actual levels of toxic emissions of chemicals such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene that can cause cancer. According to White, the actual levels of pollution could be 10 to 50 times higher, compounded by the fact that residents of east Harris County are exposed to discharges from five refineries. In the closing days of the Bush administration, outgoing EPA administrators rejected the mayor’s argument. Under President Barack Obama, the regulatory winds are shifting.
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Geothermal projects in southern Oregon gets $40 million in federal stimulus money. — The Associated Press, October 30, 2009
Nearly $40 million in stimulus spending is scheduled for geothermal projects in southern Oregon. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced the Energy Department grants Thursday.
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EU Reaches Climate-Change Financing Deal. — Frank James, NPR.org, October 31, 2009
In an effort to show unity as they approach global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, the European Union reached agreement Friday on how much would be needed to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gases enough to meet international goals. The EU member nations meeting in Brussels agreed that $148 billion would be required annually by 2020 to help developing countries.
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Sewer plants pollute water. — Perry Beeman and Chase Davis, Des Moines Register, November 1, 2009
Iowa’s outdated sewage treatment plants regularly dump excess pollution into rivers and streams that provide drinking water for up to 900,000 people and recreation for many more, a Des Moines Register analysis of state records shows. Some river stretches, including the Skunk River south of Ames and Mill Creek south of Milford, carry almost nothing but sewage during dry weather. Popular fishing streams, including French Creek and Clear Creek in northeast Iowa, carry too much bacteria to be safe for swimmers or kayakers at times. So do parts of the Des Moines, Raccoon and Little Sioux rivers.
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BLOGS
First Day of Senate Hearing on Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, October 27, 2009
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Federal Agencies Raise Alarm About Cruise Sewage. — Gene J. Kaprowski, Fred Felleman’s Marine Consulting and Photography, October 27, 2009
Raw sewage contains disease pathogens and toxins, impairs the respiratory functions in water life, and causes algae blooms. And cruise ships are dumping it just off shore, possibly washing up on the beach near where your family is vacationing.
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Second Day of Senate Hearings on Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, October 28, 2009
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The Case for Limiting Federal Preemption of State Environmental Regulations. — Brian T. Burgess, The Legal Workshop – New York University Law Review, October 28, 2009
States have exhibited leadership in environmental policy, addressing issues of national and global scope. But this leadership is threatened by federal ceiling preemption—federal laws that prevent states from adopting regulations that are stricter than federal standards.
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Federal Policy: Six Bills to Watch. — Ya-Ting Liu, Mobilizing the Region, October 28, 2009
While it remains unclear when Congress will make progress on the re-authorization of the federal transportation bill, here are six bills TSTC supports that are worth mentioning to your congressperson. All may move forward as standalone legislation, or get rolled into the broader re-authorization.
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Third Day of Hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, October 31, 2009
The Third Day of hearings seemed to focus more on economics and the timetable of the Bill, rather than the witnesses before them.
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10.31.09
Third Day of Hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act
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10.28.09
Second Day of Senate Hearings on Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act
Here is the Witness List along with links to their prepared testimony, where available. Analysis will follow.
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10.25.09
October 26, 2009 – Environmental Law Settlements, Decisions, Regulatory Actions and Lawsuit Filings
October 26, 2009 – A summary review of environmental law settlements, decisions, regulatory actions and lawsuits filed during the past week. These were all first posted, in abbreviated form, on http://twitter.com/smtaber. If you would like to receive this update in an e-mail delivered to your inbox every Monday, please send an e-mail to subscribe@taberlaw.com with the word “subscribe” in the subject line.
SETTLEMENTS
BASF Corporation Agrees to Clean Air Act Upgrades to Protect Stratospheric Ozone. —EPA News Release, October 19, 2009
BASF Corporation has agreed, under a Clean Air Act settlement filed today in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, to reduce the use of refrigerant chemicals that destroy the earth’s stratospheric ozone layer, the Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced.
The company will spend more than an estimated $250,000 to retrofit one refrigeration unit that currently uses such chemicals, replacing them with environmentally-friendly alternatives, and will either retrofit or retire two other units. BASF will also pay a civil penalty of $384,200 to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations.
Click Here.
Other Articles on the Same Topic:
BASF Corporation Agrees to Clean Air Act Upgrades to Protect Stratospheric Ozone. —Reuters, October 19, 2009 Click Here
Southeast Facilities Ordered to Comply with Clean Water Act; Penalties Total More Than $230,000. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued Consent Agreements and Final Orders (CA/FOs) against 17 entities throughout the Southeast from July 1, through September 30, 2009, for violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA). As part of the settlements, the responsible parties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee agreed to come into compliance and pay $231,200 in civil penalties.
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Central California company reports, corrects environmental violations. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a $34,050 settlement with an Escalon, Calif., company for failing to submit toxic chemical reports for its two manufacturing facilities, a violation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Hogan Manufacturing, Inc., a steel products manufacturer, failed to submit timely, complete and correct forms to the EPA and the state for the amounts of chromium and nickel processed at its 19527 S. McHenry Ave. and 1704 Coley St. facilities in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The company voluntarily disclosed the nine violations to the EPA within 21 days and promptly corrected them within 60 days.
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U.S. EPA settles for $15,600 with Behr Process for selling an unregistered pesticide. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement for $15,600 with Behr Process Corporation for the sale and distribution of an unregistered pesticide in violation of federal pesticide law. The EPA cited the Santa Ana, Calif.-based Behr Process Corporation for allegedly selling and distributing Behr No. 62 Interior & Exterior Multi-Surface Cleaner & Mildew Stain Remover with claims it removed algae and fungus. The EPA was made aware of the violation through a California Department of Pesticide Regulation retail inspection of Home Depot in Oxnard, California. The Arizona Department of Agriculture also found the product during a retail inspection of Home Depot in Surprise, Arizona.
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Claims About Keyboards Result in $205,000 Penalty for Samsung; Company Agrees to Stop Making Claims. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
When it publicized that its keyboards were antimicrobial and inhibited germs and bacteria, Samsung hadn’t registered its products with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and was found to be in violation of the federal pesticide law. As a result, Samsung has agreed to pay a fine and to stop making the claims. The claims made on the company’s labels and promotional material for netbook and notebook computer laptops would render the products pesticides, requiring registration by EPA.
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School Bus Company to Implement Nationwide Anti-Idling Program and Pay Penalties for Clean Air Act Violations – Public Health Benefits as Nation Recognizes School Bus Safety Week. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
As part of a settlement for clean air violations, school bus operator First Student will commit to reduce idling from its nationwide fleet of 50,000 school buses. The anti-idling measures are the result of an EPA enforcement action to address illegal idling at Connecticut and Rhode Island school bus lots. This nationwide effort will reduce school children’s exposure to diesel pollution and help clean the nation’s air. First Student, Inc. will also pay a fine of $128,000 and perform environmental projects valued at over $1 million.
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Five Cleveland companies agree to EPA orders to comply with federal rules to protect stratospheric ozone. —EPA News Release, October 121, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has issued administrative consent orders to five Cleveland, Ohio, scrap metal recycling companies – All City Recycling Inc., JBI Scrap Processors Inc., Brookside Auto Parts Inc., All Scrap Salvage Co. Inc., and Aetna Recycling. The companies agreed to comply with EPA regulations designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer at their scrap metal recycling facilities. The All City plant is at 17149 St. Clair Ave., the JBI plant is at 2925 E. 55th St., the Brookside plant is at 3979 Pearl Road, the All Scrap plant is at 3550 W. 140th St. and the Aetna plant is at 8300 Aetna Road.
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Milwaukee company agrees to EPA order; will comply with federal rules to protect stratospheric ozone. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has issued an administrative consent order to Midwest Iron and Metal to comply with EPA regulations designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. The order affects the company’s scrap metal recycling facility at 6760 N. Industrial Road, Milwaukee. Midwest Iron and Metal has agreed, among other things, to recover ozone-depleting refrigerants from each appliance and motor vehicle air conditioner that it accepts or to verify that refrigerants have been recovered according to EPA regulations. The company will keep a log of the details of refrigerant recovery.
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East Shoshone County Water District agrees to install filtration system, clean up mine adit and pay penalty to settle EPA Complaint. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
The East Shoshone County Water District (District) will complete a water filtration plant and distribution rehabilitation project, perform a $20,000 mine adit cleanup project and pay a $5,000 penalty to settle an EPA complaint about their failure to comply with a Safe Drinking Water Act Compliance Order issued in March of 2000.
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Ship Operator Pleads Guilty for Concealing Pollution from Oil Tanker. —Reuters, October 21, 2009
A Panamanian company that operated a 40,000-ton oil tanker ship that regularly made calls in multiple ports in Texas pleaded guilty today in federal court in Houston for deliberately concealing pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea, the Justice Department announced. Styga Compania Naviera S.A., the operator of the M/T Georgios M, pleaded guilty to three felony violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law.
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Toy’s Scrap and Salvage agrees to EPA order; will comply with federal rules to protect stratospheric ozone. —EPA News Release, October 22, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has issued an administrative consent order to Toy’s Scrap and Salvage Corp. to comply with EPA regulations designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. The order affects the company’s scrap metal recycling facility at 8010 Olson Drive, Eau Claire, Wis. Toy’s has agreed, among other things, to contract with third parties to properly recover any remaining ozone-depleting refrigerant from each small appliance and motor vehicle air conditioner it accepts or to verify that the refrigerant has been properly removed. The company will keep a log of the details of refrigerant recovery.
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Illinois company agrees to EPA order: will comply with federal rules to protect stratospheric ozone. —EPA News Release, October 22, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has issued an administrative consent order to Cleveland Corp. to comply with EPA regulations designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. The order affects the company’s scrap metal recycling facility at 42810 N. Green Bay Road, Zion, Ill. Cleveland Corp. has agreed, among other things, to recover ozone-depleting refrigerants from each appliance or motor vehicle air conditioner that it accepts or to verify that refrigerants have been recovered according to EPA regulations. The company will keep a log of the details of refrigerant recovery.
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EPA settles with Magnetic Inspection Laboratory on hazardous waste violations. —EPA News Release, October 22, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with Magnetic Inspection Laboratory Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill., for alleged violations of federal rules on hazardous waste. The company, a testing and metal coating business, has agreed to pay a penalty of $62,031 to settle the violations. Magnetic Inspection Laboratory, located at 1401 Greenleaf Ave., allegedly failed to label a tank and container, keep a container closed, train personnel and keep records, document daily tank inspections, install a leak detection system for its storage tank, have its storage tank assessed for structure integrity and maintain an adequate contingency plan.
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DECISIONS
NYC find Exxon liable in pollution lawsuit. — Thom Weidlich, Bloomberg News, October 19, 2009
Exxon Mobil Corp. was found liable for poisoning New York City water wells with a gasoline additive meant to improve air quality, in a trial in which the city seeks $250.5 million to treat the water. A federal jury in New York ruled in the city’s favor today. New York accused Exxon Mobil, the biggest U.S. oil company, of contaminating five wells in and near the Jamaica area of the borough of Queens with methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Exxon Found Liable for Fouling New York City Water With MTBE. — Thom Weidlich, Bloomberg News, October 20, 2009 Click Here
Courts Follow Landmark 2nd Circuit Ruling With 2 Greenhouse Gas Decisions. — Jennifer Koons, Greenwire in The New York Times, October 19, 2009
Less than a month after a federal appeals court in New York issued a historic ruling regarding citizen and government enforcement of greenhouse gas emissions, decisions in two similar cases have come down. Their divergent results could have immediate implications for future climate change lawsuits. “We now have rulings out of the 2nd Circuit and the 5th Circuit that, together, represent mounting legal authority that the Constitution is not a barrier to climate tort litigation,” said Bruce Myers, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law Institute. “In fairness to the district court, which came out a different way, it’s almost as if the lower courts — which have uniformly rejected these sorts of cases over the last several years — are insisting that they have a green light from the appeals courts upstairs before opening the courthouse doors to climate tort cases.”
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After Years in Court, Ohio Awarded $14.7M for Contaminated Hazardous Waste. —Associated Press, October 18, 2009
After a protracted legal battle, Ohio has been awarded a $14.7 million judgment against four defendants stemming from a hazardous waste treatment facility that was not shut down properly. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the property’s former and current owners did not properly close down the Dayton facility in 1995.
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EPA grants part of a citizen petition on BP’s air permit. —EPA News Release, October 19, 2009
In response to a citizen petition on Indiana’s air permit modification for BP’s Whiting Refinery, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has accepted some issues while denying others. In August 2008, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Hoosier Environmental Council, Save the Dunes and Sierra Club petitioned EPA to formally object to the state’s modification of BP’s operating permit for an expansion project to refine high-sulfur Canadian crude oil.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Copy of the EPA order with respect to the BP’s Whiting Refinery Clean Air Act permit — Click Here
Environmentalists vow to halt BP construction. —Gitte Laasby, Post-Tribune, October 21, 2009 Click Here
Rutherfordton fined $900 for Clean Water Act violation. — Citizen-Times, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has assessed a civil penalty of $900 on the Town of Rutherfordton for failing to comply with federal requirements for land disposal of biosolids. Rutherfordton was one of 17 entities throughout the Southeast that the EPA issued a consent order and final order against from July 1-Sept. 30 for violations of the Clean Water Act.
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Developers fined for stormwater runoff. —WRAL.com, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined two Triangle-area developers for violating the Clean Water Act. The violations stem from excessive stormwater runoff from their projects into nearby creeks. Runoff is a leading cause of pollution and sediment in nearly 40 percent of bodies of water nationwide that don’t meet water-quality standards, officials said.
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EPA fines Rhea over Roaring Creek. — Chattanooga Times Free Press, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued consent orders and fines to Rhea County and a contractor for exceeding a grading permit issued to help stop flooding on Roaring Creek. Rhea County and East Tennessee Grading were assessed fines of $2,500 each, according to a news release. They were cited for discharging material into wetland habitats.
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Sentencing hearing delayed for former Harlem water official. —Rob Pavey, August Chronicle, October 20, 2009
A sentencing hearing for a Harlem employee who pleaded guilty to federal Clean Water Act violations was postponed today and rescheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 1. Daniel Webster Cason, the city’s public works director, pleaded guilty in March to three of 11 charges for which he was indicted in 2008. He acknowledged that in January 2004 he used a portable pump to transfer wastewater from an oxidation pond at the plant into a nearby tributary of Euchee Creek—and later falsified water-quality records, all in violation of the Clean Water Act.
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EPA fines three Broward cities over water reports. — Jennifer Gollan, South Florida Sun Sentinel, October 20, 2009
The federal government has ordered Miramar, Cooper City and Pembroke Pines to pay a total of $9,500 in civil fines for violating the Clean Water Act. The cities were cited recently after failing to file sewage-disposal reports with the Environmental Protection Agency. The reports detail how the cities dispose of biosolids, a wastewater by-product that can be used as fertilizer after proper treatment. Using too much biosolid for fertilizer, however, can contaminate surfaces and groundwater with nitrate. That can expose people to unsafe levels of pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses. The cities have agreed to pay these civil penalties: $3,000 for Miramar; $3,200 for Cooper City, and $3,300 for Pembroke Pines. Officials in the cities say they’ve fixed the problem and sludge reports are sent to the federal government.
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EPA cites several Utah water systems. — Amy Joi O’Donoghue,Deseret News, October 20, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency issued administrative orders to five public water systems in Utah that were not complying with the nation’s Safe Drinking Water Act. Issued earlier this year, the orders require corrective actions on the part of the water systems, which had multiple violations. All systems have since submitted plans to come into compliance.
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Judge refuses to overturn permit for Kentucky power plant. —Associated Press, October 18, 2009
A judge turned down an attempt by the Sierra Club to overturn a state permit for a coal-fired power plant that began operating last spring near Maysville, according to a release Tuesday from the state Energy and Environment Cabinet. Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the state Division For Air Quality properly issued the permit to East Kentucky Power Cooperative for its Spurlock No. 4 unit.
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EPA fines Chelsea, Sheffield operations in water quality enforcement drive. — Thomas Spencer, The Birmingham News, October 21, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it had fined a local developer $20,000 and a public utility in Sheffield $900 as part of an effort regionally and nationally to warn of tighter enforcement of the national Clean Water Act. EPA fined Savannah Pointe Properties LLC of Chelsea for storm water runoff violations at its Savannah Pointe II subdivision. Sheffield Utilities was fined for failing to comply with regulations covering the disposal of solids left after wastewater is treated.
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Chaparral Energy, LLC, Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined Chaparral Energy, LLC, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, $10,900 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for a 6,500-gallon oil spill into Hay Creek, a tributary to the Arkansas River, and adjoining shorelines, in Osage County, Oklahoma, on March 29, 2009.
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Hunt Oil Company Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas, Texas, $7,150 for violating federal Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations outlined under the Clean Water Act. A federal inspection of an oil production facility, Central Tank Battery No. 18, located in Henderson County, Texas, on March 31, 2009, revealed the company failed to provide secondary containment for separation equipment in accordance with written procedures developed for the facility, and had failed to provide documentation of approval of their SPCC plan.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Hunt Oil responds to EPA fine. —Dallas Business Journal, October 22, 2009 Click Here
Spruce Mine update: Chambers grants stay of lawsuit. — Ken Ward, J., The Charleston Gazette, October 23, 2009
A bit of new out of federal court this afternoon … U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers has granted the federal government’s request to stay the legal proceedings concerning Arch Coal Inc.’s Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County. Chambers cited the move by the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to being the process of vetoing the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of this, the largest mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia history.
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Pennsylvania fines Cabot over drilling spills. —Jon Hurdle, Reuters, October 22, 2009
Pennsylvania has fined Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG.N) for three spills of a fluid used in natural gas drilling, amid concern about groundwater contamination, state regulators said on Thursday. Cabot spilled about 8,000 gallons of LGC-35, a lubricant, in the rural community of Dimock, Susquehanna County, on Sept. 16 and 22. Natural gas drillers use the chemical in a technique called hydraulic fracturing to obtain gas trapped in rock formations.
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Disney lawsuit still on docket. — Christopher Cadelago, Burbank Leader, October 23, 2009
A federal judge in Los Angeles refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. of polluting the surrounding area with chromium 6. U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson on Monday denied the company’s motion to dismiss the claims of Environmental World Watch and four residents who contend that the contamination violates the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
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REGULATORY ACTIONS
EPA Joins Vice President Biden and Other Federal Partners to Unveil Recovery Through Retrofit Report: The report puts EPA’s Energy Star program in a central role to boost energy savings for middle class Americans. —EPA News Release, October 19, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today joined the Office of the Vice President, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, White House Offices and other federal departments and agencies to announce the Recovery Through Retrofit report, a comprehensive roadmap to grow green job opportunities and boost energy savings by retrofitting homes while, at the same time, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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EPA Proposes to Extend the Stormwater Construction General Permit by One Year. —EPA News Release, October 19, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on extending the 2008 stormwater construction general permit by one year to June 30, 2011. The permit applies only where EPA is the permitting authority, which is in five states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Idaho and Alaska); Washington, D.C.; most territories; and most Indian country lands.
Click Here
City of Allentown, EPA Enter Sustainability Pact. —EPA News Release, October 19, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Allentown have announced an agreement to help the City prevent pollution, minimize waste, and conserve resources while saving money. The agreement recognizes actions that Allentown has already taken along the path toward sustainability and commits both the city and EPA to furthering that progress.
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EPA’s WaterSense Label Available for First Commercial Building Product. —EPA News Release, October 19, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its first WaterSense specification for a commercial building product. WaterSense labeled flushing urinals will use 50 percent less water than standard urinals, saving businesses 4,000 gallons of water per year for every model installed. While current federal standards set the maximum allowable flush volume at one gallon per flush, an estimated 7.8 million urinals in use today are older inefficient models. In addition to using no more than a half gallon per flush, urinals bearing the WaterSense label must meet EPA’s performance requirements, ensuring they work as well or better than standard models.
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Mine environmental impact statement postponed. — Inside Tucson Business, October 19, 2009
The Coronado National Forest will not release a draft next month as planned of an environmental impact statement to develop the Rosemont Copper Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. In making that announcement Oct. 14, Coronado Supervisor Jeanine Derby said no schedule has been developed for when the draft would be released.
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Report on Energy Star Lays Out Flaws, Highlighting Compact Fluorescents. — Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, October 19, 2009
The Energy Star program, run by the government, is supposed to bestow a seal of approval on consumer products that use less energy than competing models. But it has a number of flaws, as laid out in a new report released by the inspector general of the Energy Department, which administers the program with the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Study Finds Servers Waste $25B a Year. —Environmental Leader, October 19, 2009
One of the biggest causes of energy and information technology (IT) operational waste is millions of servers at the world’s largest IT departments that don’t do anything useful, according to a new global server study. As a result, U.S. businesses will need to consider making energy-efficient changes, including the implementation of power-saving tools, in the face of several pending global climate change policies and initiatives, including the U.S. climate bill, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s data center initiative and global climate talks in Copenhagen, according to study researchers.
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Obama signs executive order focused on agency sustainability goals. — Anne Marie Mohan, GreenerPackage.com, October 18, 2009
President Obama has signed Executive Order 13514 that sets sustainability goals for federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy, and economic performance. The order requires federal agencies to set a 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target within 90 days; increase energy efficiency; reduce fleet petroleum consumption; conserve water; reduce waste; support sustainable communities; and leverage federal purchasing power to promote environmentally responsible products and technologies.
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EPA offers approach to clean up area. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
After 25 years of methodically studying the underground contamination caused by the wood-treatment industry in northwest Gainesville, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a recommended approach to the area’s cleanup.
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EPA investigation into Atlanta lead smelter. — Alison Young, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 19, 2009
Federal officials say they’re examining an Atlanta site where a lead smelter operated for decades to see if the area poses any environmental dangers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Environmental Protection Agency has concerns about the northeast Atlanta site, where furnaces processed thousands of tons of lead each year beginning in 1934.
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New EPA rules halt building of chicken houses on Shore. — The Associated Press, October 19, 2009
New federal regulations have effectively shut down construction of new chicken houses on the Eastern Shore. The Environmental Protection Agency began regulating Maryland chicken farms in February. Since then, construction of new chicken houses has stalled. Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., says the new regulations effectively amount to a zero discharge policy. That means the farms would face stiff fines and criminal penalties if they allow any nutrients to enter waterways, regardless of what caused the runoff.
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ND health officials ID oil wastewater for deicing. — Associated Press, October 18, 2009
The state Health Department has identified two wells in the state’s oil patch where salty oil field wastewater can be used free as deicer on roads. The department halted the practice two years ago after environmental questions. Environmentalists are not convinced the water is safe and they say its use may break federal law. The state’s environmental health chief, Dave Glatt, says the wastewater it is no more harmful than commercial road salt.
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New EPA Information on Insect Repellents. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new Web page containing product information on certain skin-applied insect repellents. EPA’s goal is to provide the public with information on registered insect repellents and their effectiveness claims in a clear, consistent, and user-friendly format.
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Latest summary of EPA actions to ensure safe drinking water in Wyoming. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 issued 4 emergency administrative orders and 15 administrative orders, and settled 4 penalty actions against public water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in Wyoming and in Indian country in Wyoming from April 1 through September 30, 2009.
Click Here
Latest summary of EPA actions to ensure safe drinking water in Utah. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 issued 5 administrative orders and 6 notices of violation in Utah from April 1 through September 30, 2009, against public water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Although the State of Utah is authorized to implement the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA can take federal action against public water systems in the state that violate the act and its regulations. EPA issued administrative orders to Utah public water systems with multiple violations for which no State enforcement action was planned. An administrative order requires the public water system to comply with the drinking water regulations and includes action items for returning to compliance.
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Latest summary of EPA actions to ensure safe drinking water in Montana. —EPA News Release, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 issued 9 administrative orders and settled or litigated 3 penalty actions in Montana from April 1 through September 30, 2009, against public drinking water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). EPA also issued an emergency administrative order in Indian country in Montana. Although the State of Montana is authorized to implement the drinking water program under the Safe Drinking Water Act, except in Indian country areas, EPA retains authority to take federal action against public water systems in the state that violate the SDWA and its regulations. EPA and Montana have developed a joint work-share arrangement whereby EPA provides federal assistance with selected enforcement cases. EPA and Montana work together to identify the public water systems against which EPA will take federal action.
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EPA says La. meets air standards for fine particles. —theAdvocate.com, October 20, 2009
The Department of Environmental Quality recently received a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stating that the state meets “the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particles measured over a 24-hour period.”
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Shell Wins Offshore Drilling Rights in Alaska. — Jad Mouawad, The New York Times, October 20, 2009
After years of controversy and delays, a federal agency has given the green light to Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean. The decision on Monday by the Minerals Management Service clears one of the last big hurdles for the company to drill two exploration wells on two offshore lease areas in the Beaufort Sea. The company plans to do the drilling between July and October 2010 — the next open-water season when the sea-ice melts.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Federal Gov’t Approves New Drilling by Shell Off of Alaska . — Steven Zweig, heatingoil.com, October 22, 2009 Click Here
Environmental impact statement delayed. — Dick Kamp, Nogales International, October 20, 2009
Southern Arizona’s Democratic two congressional delegates want the head of the United States Department of Agriculture to consider a “no-action” alternative in an environmental impact statement that could lead to a decision to deny the proposed Augusta Resource Rosemont Mine. Meantime, the Coronado National Forest will not release a draft of the Mine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by November, as originally planned.
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Report says Birmingham has most soot-filled air in the South. — Thomas Spencer, The Birmingham News, October 21, 2009
A new report from the Southern Environmental Law Center singles out Birmingham for having the most soot-filled air in the South and calls for actions to decrease soot, ozone, mercury and carbon dioxide releases.
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Methane to Markets Partnership Spurs Global GHG Reductions. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a new report that shows the international Methane to Markets (M2M) Partnership has significantly reduced methane emissions. In 2008, U.S.-supported M2M projects delivered methane emissions reductions of more than 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, roughly the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 4.7 million passenger vehicles. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is more than 20 times as potent as CO2.
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Work Plan for Non Time-Critical Cleanup Alternatives for Restoration of the TVA Kingston Site Released for Public Review. —EPA News Release, October 21, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing today the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) work plan with the proposed alternatives for restoration of the areas impacted by the coal ash spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant (the Site) in Kingston, Tenn. The work plan addresses the remaining removal activities for the Site that are not considered time-critical activities according to EPA. It is open for public comment beginning today through November 20, 2009 at http://www.epakingstontva.com/.
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EPA to revisit tighter refinery emissions rules. — Matthew Tresaugue, Houston Chronicle, October 21, 2009
Federal environmental regulators will reopen the possibility of tighter controls for harmful emissions from refineries, tossing aside part of a last-minute decision by the Bush administration that concluded the potential health risks did not require additional rules. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s reversal comes in response to Houston Mayor Bill White, who argued that the January decision failed to fully consider the risk of cancer for those who live near a refinery emitting toxic chemicals, such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene.
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EPA Proposes Withdrawal of Bush-Era Air Toxics Assessment. — Robin Bravender, Greenwire in The New York Times, October 21, 2009
U.S. EPA has proposed withdrawing part of a George W. Bush-era air toxics regulation, saying the rule may not accurately characterize the risk posed by petroleum refinery emissions. The Obama administration last week proposed to withdraw the “residual risk” and technology review portions of the agency’s Jan. 16 amendment to the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants from refineries.
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EPA Prepares to test 67 chemicals in Tier 1 of Endocrine Disruption Program. — Doug Fratz, CSPA.org, October 21, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with its long-awaited Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) with its announcement of the 67 chemicals that will be tested in Tier 1 of the program and test orders for the 11 tests for each chemical. Notices were published in the Federal Register today here and here. The protocols for the 11 assays are expected to be posted next week under docket 2009-0634.
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EPA Move Strikes Angry Note Among Coal-Friendly Dems. — Mike Lillis, the Washington Independent, October 22, 2009
In the heart of coal country, a White House stab at environmental protection has struck an angry note with the powerful lawmakers of West Virginia.The Environmental Protection Agency last week threatened to revoke the permit for the largest mountaintop removal mine in all of Appalachia, citing the harmful effects the project would have on local water quality. It marks the first time since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 that the EPA has used its CWA authority to examine the environmental impacts of an existing coal-mining permit.
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EPA Proposes Tightening Standards for Lead-Safe Renovation Practices and Lead Paint Dust to Protect Children . —EPA News Release, October 22, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is marking National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by announcing several actions the agency proposes to take to prevent lead poisoning. Lead poisoning may cause a variety of adverse health effects, including brain and nervous system disorders, high blood pressure, and hypertension. Children six years old and under are most at risk.
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EPA reaches agreement with Arizona mining company to study uranium-tainted groundwater on Tohono O’odham. —EPA News Release, October 22, 2009
Cyprus Tohono Corporation, a former Phelps Dodge subsidiary, has agreed to fund an estimated $6 million groundwater investigation at the Cyprus Tohono Mine Site, a copper mine southwest of Casa Grande, Ariz. The agreement requires Cyprus to thoroughly investigate the groundwater and pay future oversight costs incurred by the EPA.
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Climate Change Adaptation: Strategic Federal Planning Could Help Government Officials Make More Informed Decisions. —GAO Report, October 21, 2009
GAO report on Climate Change Adaptation and Strategic Federal Planning in letter form to Rep. Edward Markey, as Chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Indpendence and Global Warming.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
“Building U.S. Resilience to Global Warming Impacts,” Oct. 22, 2009, Select Committee on Global Warming’s Hearing . — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law & Climate Change Law Blog, October 22, 2009 Click Here
Climate Change Adaptation: Information On Selected Federal Efforts To Adapt To A Changing Climate (GAO-10-114SP, October 7, 2009), an E-supplement to GAO-10-113. — GAO, October 21, 2009
GAO posts a 101 page “e-supplement” to its report on progress on adaptation to Climate Change in the US. Click Here
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Polar Bear Critical Habitat. —U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service News Release, October 22, 2009
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a proposal to designate critical habitat for the polar bear, and will open a 60-day public comment period on the measure. The critical habitat proposal identifies habitat in three separate areas or units: barrier island habitat, sea ice habitat and terrestrial denning habitat.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Federal government designates 200,000 sq. miles for polar bear habitat in Alaska. — Matthew Daly, Associated Press, October 22, 2009 Click Here
Alaska Vows To Fight Polar Bear Protection With Lawsuits, Disses Climate Change. —Rhishja Larson, EcoWorldly.com, October 23, 2009 Click Here
Milwaukee’s Moss-American Superfund Cleanup nears completion 20-year effort involved dredging, reroute of Little Menomonee River. —EPA News Release, October 23, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said today that cleanup of the Moss-American Superfund site in Milwaukee County, Wis., is nearly complete. The effort included significant dredging and the reroute of a portion of the Little Menomonee River.
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New rules will hurt Great Lakes shippers. —UPI.com, October 23, 2009
Clean air rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will cost Great Lakes shippers tens of millions of dollars a year, a trade group says. The Lake Carriers Association says the cost of the proposed new rules could force many members out of business, The Hill reported Friday. The EPA is scheduled to release a final version in December of new rules requiring all ships that operate in the Great Lakes to use cleaner fuels and modify engines to cut particulate nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide emissions.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
EPA proposal to cut Great Lakes ship emissions stirs the waters . — Kari Lydersen & Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, October 23, 2009 Click Here
Breaking news: EPA to regulate coal plant air toxics. — Ken Ward, Jr., The Charleston Gazette, October 23, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to adopt rules reducing toxic air pollution from the nation’s coal- and oil-burning power plants, by November 2011, according to a settlement agreement reached in a federal lawsuit brought against the agency by a coalition of public health and environmental groups.
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BLM Rounds Up 300 Wild Horses In Northern Wyoming. — The Associated Press, October 23, 2009
Federal officials captured and removed about 300 wild horses in northern Wyoming this week in a continuing effort to reduce the animals’ numbers to more manageable levels. Bureau of Land Management managers conducted the gathering operation in the remote Fifteenmile Herd Management Area near Worland. The 83,000-acre area is located within Washakie, Big Horn and Park counties in north central Wyoming and includes rolling hills, rugged canyons and badlands, and a portion of the Bobcat Draw Wilderness Area.
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Frisco battery recycler facing tougher lead pollution standards won’t add production. — Valerie Wigglesworth, the Dallas Morning News, October 24, 2009
Exide Technologies Inc. said Friday that it is withdrawing its request to increase production at its battery recycling plant in Frisco. The withdrawal came three days after the Frisco City Council voted unanimously to ask the company to withdraw the application with state regulators because of concerns related to toxic lead emissions. That vote Tuesday followed a Dallas Morning News story Sunday on the application as well as the expectation that the area around the plant would not meet the new, more stringent federal air-quality standards for lead – becoming the only area in the south-central U.S. falling short.
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Letter to EPA may bring help to St. Louis. — Linda Gittleman, Morning Sun, October 24, 2009
Momentum is building toward the day when St. Louis’s drinking water problem becomes history. The letter sent last month from Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Director Steven Chester to the Environmental Protection Agency has started something of a chain reaction. In that letter Chester urged the EPA to include a new water source in its anticipated cleanup of the Velsicol plant site – something that had never been done before. The cleanup is expected to cost several hundred million dollars and the city’s new water system is expected to cost nearly $50 million.
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E.P.A. Agrees to Deadline in ’11 for Setting Rules on Mercury Emissions. — Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times, October 23, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency, resolving a lawsuit aimed at cutting the flow of mercury and other toxic substances from coal- or oil-burning power plants, has agreed to develop standards by late 2011 for limiting such emissions. Environmental and public health groups that had sued the agency in pursuit of a deadline for issuing the standards said the agreement set the stage for closing longstanding gaps, which persisted through the Clinton and Bush administrations, in clean-air rules for power plants.
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At EPA clean cars hearing, Environment New Jersey urges Feds to deliver on Obama’s commitment for cleaner air. — Andy Lagomarsino, NewJerseyNewsroom.com, October 23, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation are holding a public hearing Friday in New York City on new proposed vehicle standards to reduce global warming pollution and improve fuel economy. The event is the second of three hearings around the country on the proposal. Environment New Jersey Field Director Doug O’Malley testified at the hearing.
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BLM seeks comments on proposed Pinedale Anticline condensate line. — Nick Snow, Oil & Gas Journal, October 23, 2009
The US Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a proposed 42-mile condensate pipeline from the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field to a terminal south of LaBarge, Wyo. BLM said Ultra Resources Inc., Houston, has proposed the 6-in. pipeline to fulfill a requirement in the supplemental environmental impact statement record of decision for the field that operators install a liquids gathering system to reduce truck traffic associated with production there within 2 years
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LAWSUITS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS FILED
Canton mill faces class action lawsuit. — Jon Ostendorff, Citizen-Times, October 19, 2009
A Tennessee attorney who has spent years suing the paper mill in Haywood County has asked a federal court to allow a class-action case worth at least $5 million against the company.Attorney Gordon Ball, in court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Asheville, says the mill, owned by Memphis, Tenn.-based Evergreen Packaging, dumps chemicals into the Pigeon River that have turned it brown, caused an odor and made it foam. He’s representing three landowners along the river in Clyde who say the pollution has hurt their quality of life and prevented them from using their property.
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Arkansas Supreme Court to Review Swepco Plant Case. — The Associated Press, October 22, 2009
The Arkansas Supreme Court said Thursday it will review a case involving Southwestern Electric Power Company’s planned coal-fired power plant in south Arkansas. The state Court of Appeals had overturned a permit that was issued by the Arkansas Public Service Commission for the $1.6 billion John W. Turk Jr. plant in Hempstead County. SWEPCO appealed that decision, and now the Arkansas Supreme Court is going to review the case.
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Energy Department Appeals Defeat in Computer Lab Lawsuit. — Richard Brennerman, The Berkeley Daily Planet, October 22, 2009
The battle over the supercomputing lab planned for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) shifted to a new venue Friday: the U.S. Court of Appeals. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) filed an appeal from the ruling of U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, who upheld the claims of Berkeley activists charging that the UC Board of Regents had erroneously approved the $133 million building project without conducting a federal environmental review.
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Feds to inspect Yakima Valley dairies. —The Associated Press, October 22, 2009
Federal regulators plan to inspect large dairies, feedlots and other operations in central Washington’s lower Yakima Valley that are suspected of discharging pollutants and causing groundwater contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it would pay unannounced visits to various operations. The agency has worked with several state agencies for the past 10 months to compile a report on the problem first reported in a series of stories in the Yakima Herald-Republic newspaper. The EPA says it will also begin sampling well water early next year in an effort to identify the sources of nitrate and bacterial pollution.
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New York Man Indicted for Clean Air Act Violations:18-Count Indictment Alleges Individuals Directed and Hid Illegal Asbestos Removal. —Department of Justice News Release, October 22, 2009
A federal grand jury in the Western District of New York, has returned a superseding indictment charging David Vega and Francis Rowe with committing violations of the Clean Air Act while they were project managers for Gordon-Smith Contracting, Inc., an asbestos removal company owned by Keith Gordon-Smith, the Justice Department announced.
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EPA Cites Unlawful Filling of Wetlands at Wicomoco County, Md. Housing Development Site. —EPA News Release, October 22, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cited a Millersville, Md. couple and a Millsboro, Del. real estate developer for unlawfully filling protected wetlands, a violation of the Clean Water Act. EPA cited Andrew and Yvette Hudyma and Mountaire Farms of Delaware for filling in a non-tidal wetland on a property located on the west side of Green Lewis Road, one-half mile from the intersection with New Hope Road, northeast of the town of Willards, Wicomoco County, Md. The site contains an unnamed ditch which flows to the Murray Branch, which flows to the Burnt Mill Branch, which flows to the Pocomoke River, which flows to the Chesapeake Bay.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Arundel couple accused of filling in wetlands. — Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, October 24, 2009 Click Here
Auto Dealers Challenge California’s Tailpipe Regulation. — Jim Motavalli, The New York Times, October 23, 2009
The National Automobile Dealers Association represents 17,000 car and truck dealers, whose interests have occasionally diverged from the carmakers (represented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers). This is quite apparent in their approach to the federal combined fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for vehicles announced by the Obama administration last May and set to go into effect in model year 2012. A public hearing on those standards will be held in New York on Friday.
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Suit seeks to block state plan for water use on north state rivers. — Dylan Darling, The Redding Record Searchlight, October 23, 2009
Commercial fishing groups and environmentalists teamed up to file a lawsuit Thursday challenging a state plan to balance fish and farming along two Northern California rivers. Represented by Earthjustice, an Oakland-based environmental law firm, Klamath Riverkeeper is leading the lawsuit against the California Department of Fish and Game. In the suit, the Orleans-based nonprofit watchdog group says the DFG’s watershedwide incidental take permits would allow farmers and ranchers to take more water from the already depleted Scott and Shasta rivers.
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US Federal mining and millsite claims war heats up again as Enviros look to reverse Bush-era rules. — Dorothy Kosich, Mineweb.com, October 21, 2009
It was déjà vu all over again as environmental groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C. to rescind federal mining regulations that have been the subject of lawsuits since the days of the Clinton Administration. The plaintiffs, mainly environmental NGOs, have asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to issue an order vacating and remanding the 2008 Mining Claim Rule and the 2003 Millsite Rule, and any policies or interpretations based on these rules.
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STATE & FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Cardin unveils federal Chesapeake Restoration bill. — Alex Dominguez, The Associated Press, October 19, 2009
Federal legislation to restore the Chesapeake Bay will create funding and incentives and mandate enforcement penalties if states don’t meet restoration goals, Sen. Ben Cardin said Monday. “This is a major moment,” said Cardin, the bill’s co-sponsor, as he outlined the measure on a sunny, blustery day on the shores of the bay at Sandy Point State Park.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Our Say: Any bay cleanup effort needs federal muscle. —The Capital, October 22, 2009
It was cold at Sandy Point State Park on Monday when U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin announced his legislative plan to jump-start stalled cleanup efforts for the Chesapeake Bay. It will be much colder in another place – one where the sign over the entrance advises new residents to “abandon all hope” – before bay-area states voluntarily meet long-range cleanup goals. Nothing important will happen unless the federal government is ready to step in and yank development permits or withhold aid if – or, more likely, when – states fail to meet their pollution-reduction goals. Cardin’s well-intentioned and useful legislation won’t alter that reality.
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Boxer climate change bill depends on state, not party interests. — Kitty Felde, Southern California Public Radio, October 20, 2009
Next week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee begins hearings on a climate change bill that’s co-authored by Barbara Boxer of California. The battle lines over the bill may be drawn along state, and not party, interests. Americans in different parts of the country rely on different energy sources to heat and cool their homes. Robert Simon, staff director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says that means a politician’s views on climate change are formed by geography more than by politics.
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Public Hearings Convene on First U.S. Greenhouse Gas Pollution Standards. —Reuters, October 20, 2009
Public hearings commence thisweek on the nation’s first greenhouse gas pollution standards. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) officials will hear public testimony on proposed new historic fuel economy benchmarks and national greenhouse gas emissions limits for passenger vehicles: October 21st in Detroit, October 23rd in New York City, and October 27th in Los Angeles. For more information on the public hearings, see http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regulations.htm .
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U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall speaks about clean water act. — Nick Rahall, Letter in Williamson Daily News, October 20, 2009
The Clean Water Act, for the most part, has served this Nation and its citizens well. But as we hold this hearing on The Clean Water Act After 37 Years, it is apparent that this law is still a study in perpetual motion. I was a Member of this Committee, as of course you were, Mr. Chairman, when we passed major amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 in the form of the Clean Water Act of 1977, and as well, the last time significant amendments were made by the Water Quality Act of 1987.
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EPA Ties Clean Water Enforcement Challenges Directly to Supreme Court Cases Administrator Jackson Reiterates Call for Legislative Solution. — Water Online, October 21, 2009
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson issued a Clean Water Act Enforcement Action Plan recently during a Congressional hearing on the Clean Water Act, which Congress passed to protect water quality throughout the United States. EPA’s plan directly connects declining enforcement of the law with two Supreme Court decisions that threaten to remove protections for 20 million acres of wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of streams across the country.
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Durbin Introduces Clean Cruise Ship Act to Protect Oceans, Marine Life and Great Lakes. — E-News Park Forest, October 21, 2009
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced legislation to protect the oceans and marine life by extending the Clean Water Act to appropriately regulate the millions of gallons of wastewater discharged in U.S. waters every day by cruise ships. Durbin’s bill, known as the Clean Cruise Ship Act would ban the release of raw, untreated sewage in U.S. waters, including the Great Lakes. Nearly identical legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives today by Representative Sam Farr (D-CA).
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Clean Cruise Ship Act Introduced to Stop Raw Sewage Dumping. — Environment News Service, October 22, 2009 Click Here
Governor signs bill clearing way for NFL stadium in Industry. — James Wagner, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, October 22, 2009
On the very hills where an NFL stadium could break ground as early as next year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday that cleared the way for its construction. The legislation ends over a year of delays for the project. It grants billionaire Edward Roski Jr.’s 75,000-seat Los Angeles Stadium complex final environmental approval by rendering a legal challenge against it moot.
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Of Climate Change and Nuclear Power. — Jim Witkin, The New York Times, October 23, 2009
Nuclear power should play an essential role in our efforts to mitigate climate change, argues Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and longtime environmental activist. Mr. Brand, a professed “eco-pragmatist,” makes the case for nuclear power in his latest book, “The Whole Earth Discipline,” where he draws on the work of several scientists, including Saul Griffith, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained material scientist and inventor.
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Roadless Rule Bill: the Timing is Right, so Just Pass It. — Bill Schneider, New West, October 22, 2009
Unnoticed by many, two members of Congress from Washington have decided it’s about time to do something to resolve the seemingly endless debate over the future of our last roadless lands. Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Jay Inslee, both Democrats, have re-introduced the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act (S.1738, H.R. 3563) to codify the Clinton-era Roadless Rule that has been on a legal roller coaster for the past nine years.
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Boxer Releases Chairman’s Mark of Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. —U.S. Committee on Environmenta & Public Works News Release, October 23, 2009
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today released the text of the Chairman’s Mark of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733). Senator Boxer said, “We’ve reached another milestone as we move to a clean energy future, creating millions of jobs and protecting our children from dangerous pollution. I look forward to the hearings and the markup as we move ahead to the next step.”
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EPA estimates Senate climate bill costs modest. — H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, October 23, 2009
An analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency says a proposed Senate bill to combat global warming would add around $100 a year to a typical household’s energy costs. The analysis released late Friday by Sen. Barbara Boxer’s office generally mirrors the cost projected by the EPA when it examined similar legislation passed last summer by the House.
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Republicans may delay climate bill markup. — Juliet Eilperin, the Washington Post, October 23, 2009
Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee may block a markup on the Democrats’ climate bill if they’re not satisfied they’ve gotten a sufficient analysis time to review the text in detail, according to the panel’s top Republican, Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.).
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GOP Senators Object to Including Global Warming in NEPA Regs. — Noelle Straub, Greenwire in The New York Times, October 23, 2009
Two of the Senate’s most prominent global warming skeptics are taking aim at a potential move by the Obama administration to include climate change as a factor in environmental reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
NM Ranchers Worry About Water Protection Proposal. — Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press, October 17, 2009
Thousands of miles of New Mexico rivers and streams would gain special protection under the federal Clean Water Act as part of a proposal being pushed by Gov. Bill Richardson and environmentalists. But ranchers worry the plan is a backdoor effort to stop grazing on public land.
State environment officials have spent more than two years refining a proposal to designate rivers and streams in wilderness areas across the state as so-called “outstanding national resource waters” to protect them from degradation.
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DOI Demonstrates Climate Change with ArcGIS Explorer. —Reuters, October 19, 2009
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently signed an order to establish a coordinated strategy within the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) to improve response to climate change. During the press conference announcing the order, DOI staff used ESRI geographic information system (GIS) technology to demonstrate the current and future impacts of global climate change.
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Energy Firms Find No Unity on Climate Bill. — John Broder & Jad Mouawad, Th New York Times, October 18, 2009
As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming, the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over policy decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades. Producers of natural gas are battling their erstwhile allies, the oil companies. Electrical utilities are fighting among themselves over the use of coal versus wind power or other renewable energy. Coal companies are battling natural gas firms over which should be used to produce electricity. And the renewable power industry is elbowing for advantage against all of them.
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Ventura Coastkeeper Expanding Water Testing. — Zeke Barlow, Ventura County Star, October 19, 2009
As the Clean Water Act turns 37 years old this week, Ventura Coastkeeper is celebrating by greatly expanding its water testing program in the county. “There wasn’t enough monitoring throughout Ventura County in all the watersheds,” said Jason A. Weiner, associate director for the group. “It is the only tool we have, as residents of the watersheds to which we all belong, to ensure that we can locate and stop pollution at its source.”
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Arch Coal, Manchin statements on Spruce Mine. — Ken Ward, Jr., The Charleston Gazette, October 19, 2009
Arch Coal Inc. apparently issued a statement late Friday about the U.S. EPA’s decision to begin proceedings to veto its Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W.Va., the largest mountaintop removal proposal in West Virginia history.
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San Diego sewage waiver casts pall over efforts to restore Ocean. — Doug Korthof, OpEdNews.com, October 18, 2009
Congress in 1972 passed the Clean Water Act (CWA), which has the intent of removing the deleterious effects of human waste on the environment. To make this real, the CWA cut through a lot of dissimulation about sewage treatment by establishing numerical standards for wastewater discharges: the famous “30-30″ standard of 30 mg/l of Biological Oxygen Demand (live fecal debris) and Total Suspended Solids (all fecal debris).
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Soot levels a new test for Ship Channel Readings exceeding federal limits could produce costly restrictions. — Matthew Tresaugue, Houston Chronicle, October 19, 2009
Houston, which was once synonymous with smog, could soon receive a sooty, black eye from federal regulators for another type of air pollution, one just as harmful as ozone, if not more so.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alerted state and local officials recently that the levels of tiny particles, commonly known as soot, along the heavily industrialized Ship Channel exceed federal limits.
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Ranchers worry about water protection proposal: Drive for designation also raises concerns from U.S. Forest Service. — Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press, October 18, 2009
Thousands of miles of New Mexico rivers and streams would gain special protection under the federal Clean Water Act as part of a proposal being pushed by Gov. Bill Richardson and environmentalists. But ranchers worry the plan is a backdoor effort to stop grazing on public land. State environment officials have spent more than two years refining a proposal to designate rivers and streams in wilderness areas across the state as so-called “outstanding national resource waters” to protect them from degradation.
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Treatment of marine transport unfair to truckers: CTA boss. —Today’s Trucking, October 19, 2009
Canadian officials are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide marine shippers safe harbor from strict new pollution rules — and that’s got the nation’s top trucking advocate steamed. One of the last major transport modes to come under North American clean air rules, lake freighters have been told by the EPA that they must wean themselves off of cheaper, dirty No. 6 “bunker” fuel by drastically reducing sulfur levels by 2015 and adopting engine emission controls by 2016.
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Two States, Two Paths to Clean Energy. — Kate Galbraith, The New York Times, October 20, 2009
As I wrote in Sunday’s Week in Review section, California and Texas have both emerged as leaders in renewable energy – but in completely different ways. Texans despise regulations, an attitude that has helped wind farms to flourish; California, by contrast, requires hefty environmental assessments for large projects – which helps explain why rooftop solar panels and energy efficiency have done so well (they do not need painstaking reviews).
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Aging Coal Plants Carry High Hidden Costs, Particularly to Health. — Stacy Morford, Solve Climate, October 20, 2009
A new study from the National Research Council holds a warning for lawmakers about the true costs of the nation’s aging power plants and the danger of grandfathering clauses.The council was asked by Congress to study the external costs of the most common types of energy production and use — costs that aren’t incorporated into the market price of energy or into government policies, such as damages to health, environment and infrastructure.
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Judge to the EPA: Don’t Write Rules with Shaky Legal Foundations. —The Heritage Foundation, October 20, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with micromanaging regulations that would regulate greenhouse gases and slow economic growth. However, one judge is warning the EPA not to overstep its legal authority. Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia told a forum:
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Tiny bat pits green against green: Wind farm could cut carbon, but could it also kill endangered species? — Maria Glod, The Washington Post, October 22, 2009
Workers atop mountain ridges are putting together 389-foot windmills with massive blades that will turn Appalachian breezes into energy. Retiree David Cowan is fighting to stop them. Because of the bats.
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Who Wants to Regulate and Shut Down CAFOs? — Gary H. Baise, Op-Ed in the Ohio Farmer, October 20, 2009
I wrote recently about attacks against animal agriculture. On Sept. 21, 2009, the United States Humane Society (HSUS) and other environmental organizations filed a petition with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to govern air pollution emissions from Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) utilizing a section of the Clean Air Act. I thought it would be interesting for many of you to have more information about the organizations behind the Sept. 21 petition to EPA. It is always helpful to know the background of your opposition, their true purpose, and also gauge their understanding of agricultural practices.
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Illinois waterways are among the most polluted in nation. — Joe Piaskowy, Medill Reports Chicago, October 21, 2009
Illinois streams, rivers and lakes are dirty. Really dirty. Nearly 9 million pounds of toxic waste dirty, an Illinois environmental group contends. According to a report released Wednesday by Environment Illinois, a statewide advocacy group, 8.8 million pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped into the state’s waterways in 2007.
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Millions Of Pounds Of Toxic Waste Ends Up In Our Water. — Angelica Alvarez, WMBD/WYZZ TV, October 21, 2009
Millions of pounds of toxic waste is being dumped into American waterways, including the Illinois River. A report from Environment Illinois shows industrial facilities are pumping toxic chemicals into our water every year. Spokespersons say the chemicals released into the rivers have been linked to cancer and many common developmental and reproductive disorders. They say although there’s been improvement over the years, the regulations for the Clean Water Act have not been heavily enforced.
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Detroit automakers: We can meet fuel standards. — Robert Snell, The Detroit News, October 21, 2009
Detroit’s Big Three automakers today reiterated their support for a federal regulation setting vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and urged the government to pursue a long-term strategy. The automakers are speaking at a public hearing held by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, who are getting feedback on proposed fuel economy benchmarks and national greenhouse gas emissions limits for passenger vehicles.
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Storm caused San Mateo County cities to spill untreated sewage into streets, creeks that lead to Bay. — Julia Scott, Contra Costa Times, October 21, 2009
A powerful rainstorm on Oct. 13 overwhelmed pipes and manholes in San Mateo, spilling 87,000 gallons of untreated human sewage into streets and creeks in violation of the federal Clean Water Act, records show. The rain entered broken sewage pipes and pushed human waste into the city’s sanitary sewer system, which flows directly to San Francisco Bay. Of the 87,000 gallons leaking out of the sewer system, 55,500 gallons flowed into creeks and into the Bay, according to records obtained from the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board, which regulates wastewater discharges.
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Group: Water pollution must be stopped. — Reid Forgrave, Des Moines Register, October 22, 2009
Nearly 3.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped into Iowa waterways by industrial facilities are causing many problems across the state: rashes on paddlers, rivers with a nasty stench, waters that aren’t fishable or swimmable, and possible long-term health risks. Some Iowa environmental groups on Wednesday encouraged state residents to pressure legislators to take water-quality problems more seriously.
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Over 230 Million Pounds of Toxics Discharged into American Waterways. —Environment America, October 21, 2009
Industrial facilities dumped 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals into America’s waterways, according to a report released today by Environment America: Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act. The report also finds that toxic chemicals were discharged in 1,900 waterways across all 50 states. “While nearly half of the rivers and lakes in the U.S. are considered too polluted for safe fishing or swimming, our report shows that polluters continue to use our waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic chemicals,” said Piper Crowell, Clean Water Advocate for Environment America.
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Cleaning the air at water’s expense? — The Baltimore Sun, October 22, 2009
Environmentalists worry that the push to clean Maryland’s air could wind up degrading the state’s waters.Under the state’s Healthy Air Act passed in 2006, coal-burning power plants are required to reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury, which impair our breathing, foul the Chesapeake Bay and make some fish unsafe to eat in large quantities. Beginning next year, the plants are supposed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by almost 70%, sulfure dioxide emissions by 80%, and mercury emissions by 80%.
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PSEG Nuclear, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Conduct the Scoping Process for Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1 and 2, and Hope Creek Generating Station. —Trading Markets.com, October 23, 2009
PSEG, LLC has submitted applications for renewal of Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-70, DPR-75, and NPF-57 for an additional 20 years of operation at the Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1 and 2 (SALEM) and Hope Creek Generating Station (HCGS). SALEM and HCGS are located in Salem County, New Jersey, approximately 8 miles southwest of Salem city limits.
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Scientists: Biofuel Laws May Harm Environment. — Richard Harris, NPR.com, October 23, 2009
On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to give a price tag for the Senate’s global warming bill. That will frame next week’s scheduled debate on the legislation. One key part of the climate bill has to do with fuels made from green plants. These can reduce the use of fossil fuels, and they also are a big draw for farm-state votes. But scientists writing in the current issue of Science magazine point out a huge error in existing biofuel laws that could actually make climate change worse. They say these rules inadvertently encourage deforestation, which in turn contributes to global warming.
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Fewer Americans Believe in Global Warming: Poll Finds 57 Percent Believe There is Strong Scientific Evidence – a Three-Year Low. — CBS News, October 22, 2009
The number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years, according to a survey released Thursday. The poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that only 57 percent believe there is strong scientific evidence the Earth has gotten hotter over the past few decades, and as a result, people are viewing the situation as less serious. That’s down from 77 percent in 2006, and 71 percent in April 2008.
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Explaining plummeting belief in anthropogenic climate change. — James Hrynyshyn, The Island of Doubt (blog), October 23, 2009
Both hypotheses are probably valid — to an extent. But I have simpler explanation. Here’s a couple of graphs will explain it. First, the average annual temperature of the United States, as generated by a nifty little online tool at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
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Study: Accounting error undermines climate change laws. — News At Princeton.com, October 22, 2009
An important but fixable error in legal accounting rules used to measure compliance with carbon limits for bioenergy could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging deforestation, according to a new study by 13 prominent scientists and land use experts published in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Science.
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South Florida counties to team up to combat climate change. — Curtis Morgan, Miami Herald, October 24, 2009
South Florida’s three largest counties have competed — for jobs, conventions, sports teams, cruise ships, federal funds and many other things — as much as they have cooperated over the years. But Friday, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, joined by Monroe, agreed that they share a large, looming problem they better start working on together fast: global warming, which brings with it the scary prospect of waves washing against abandoned beachside hotels before the century is up.
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Obama at M.I.T.: ‘Pessimism’ Holding Country Back From Addressing Climate Change. — Rachel Martin & Jordyn Phelps, ABC News, October 23, 2009
President Obama paid a visit to one of the country’s top research universities today to highlight his clean energy agenda. He toured the M.I.T. campus in Cambridge, Mass. and got a first-hand look at two research laboratories working on cutting edge energy technology and personal explanations from some of the school’s top scientists. After seeing a demonstration of a biological battery created without chemicals, the president turned to reporters and said, “Goodness, this is remarkable stuff!”
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BLOG
In One Week: Feds Protect Polar Bears and Offshore Drilling in Arctic. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law & Climate Change Law Blog, October 22, 2009
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had good news today, October 22, 2009, for the conservationists seeking to protect the Polar Bear. Shell’s plan is limited to the far western area of Camden Bay, including the use of one drillship with one tending ice management vessel. The two leases are about 16 and 23 miles north of Point Thompson, Alaska.” Right off the coast of the newly created Polar Bear habitat.
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“Building U.S. Resilience to Global Warming Impacts,” Oct. 22, 2009, Select Committee on Global Warming’s Hearing. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law & Climate Change Law Blog, October 22, 2009
The consequences of global warming in the United States will be significant even in the case of deep reductions in future heat-trapping emissions. The current and anticipated impacts — including sea level rise, more frequent heat waves, regional drought and flooding, and more intense tropical storms — pose a serious threat to our health, environment, economic well-being, and national security.
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10.22.09
In One Week: Feds Protect Polar Bears and Offshore Drilling in Arctic
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had good news today, October 22, 2009, for the conservationists seeking to protect the Polar Bear:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a proposal to designate critical habitat for the polar bear, and will open a 60-day public comment period on the measure. The critical habitat proposal identifies habitat in three separate areas or units: barrier island habitat, sea ice habitat and terrestrial denning habitat. . . . The total area proposed for designation would cover approximately 200,541 square miles and is found entirely within the lands and waters of the United States.
If you look at the maps provided by the FWS (click here for the maps – be patient they are large files), you will note on Map 4that there are substantial “denning habitats” and barrier islands near Point Thomson on Camden Bay.
Rewind about 48 hours and read the News Release that the Department for Interior’s Minerals Management Service sent out on October 19, 2009:
The two leases were obtained by Shell Offshore, Inc. during Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sales 195 and 202 in 2005 and 2007. The sales were included in the 2002-2007 five year oil and gas leasing program and are not affected by the recent court decision on the current leasing program, which sent the 2007-2012 program back to MMS for additional analysis under section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
And where are those leases that Shell Oil got? “Shell’s plan is limited to the far western area of Camden Bay, including the use of one drillship with one tending ice management vessel. The two leases are about 16 and 23 miles north of Point Thompson, Alaska.” Right off the coast of the newly created Polar Bear habitat.
“Building U.S. Resilience to Global Warming Impacts,” Oct. 22, 2009, Select Committee on Global Warming’s Hearing
The consequences of global warming in the United States will be significant even in the case of deep reductions in future heat-trapping emissions. The current and anticipated impacts — including sea level rise, more frequent heat waves, regional drought and flooding, and more intense tropical storms — pose a serious threat to our health, environment, economic well-being, and national security.
While Congress works to curb carbon pollution to avoid the worst effects of global warming, America must look at adaptation measures that will protect communities from harm caused by global warming that is already set to occur.
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D – Mass), is holding a hearing on October 22, 2009, entitled “Building U.S. Resilience to Global Warming Impacts. Chairman Markey states in his published opening remarks that:
In a new report that I requested, the Government Accountability Office assesses the current steps our country is taking to address the impacts of global warming. They find that federal efforts thus far have been largely ad hoc. To effectively address the impacts, we need a strategic plan that sets our priorities, improves the information available to decision-makers, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments.
With only four witnesses scheduled, John Stephenson, Natural Resources and Environment, Government Accountability Office, Eric Schwaab, Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Stephen Seidel, V.P. for Policy Analysis & Gen. Counsel, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Kenneth Green, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, the hearing has the potential to be dwarfed by the two days of hearings next week on the Boxer-Kerry Climate Change Bill over in the Senate.
The GAO is proposing that the U.S. government develop a “national strategic plan,” since it found that very little is being done, particularly at the federal level, in “adaptive” plans.
The plan should, among other things, (1) define federal priorities related to adaptation; (2) clarify roles, responsibilities, and working relationships among federal, state, and local governments; (3) identify mechanisms to increase the capacity of federal, state, and local agencies to incorporate information about current and potential climate change impacts into government decision making; (4) address how resources will be made available to implement the plan; and (5) build on and integrate ongoing federal planning efforts related to adaptation.
(Ed. Note: the GAO has now put on line an “e-supplement” to the Report that it issued at the Hearing this morning, which contains 101 pages of additional information supporting the Report’s findings).
Eric Schwaab, representing the State of Maryland, a state that is particularly effected by the impacts of Global Warming, stated that already
Maryland is currently losing approximately 580 acres per year to shore erosion; and alarmingly, thirteen, Chesapeake Bay islands once mapped on nautical charts have already disappeared beneath the water’s surface.
Mr. Schwaab, who correctly points out that the states are “at the front lines of planning for climate change,” ask for certain efforts to be made at the federal level to recognize the states’ efforts, provide for “intergovernmental coordination on adaptation,” and (of course) provide funding to states.
Stephen Seidel of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change offers four recommendations in developing a “federal adaptation program.” One, each Federal agency should develop a climate change “strategic plan” for what it needs to do to build greater resilience to climate change into its programs and mission. Two, Mr. Seidel suggests that the Federal government create a “National Climate Service” that would offer the “intergovernmental” support that Mr. Schwaab desired. Three, Mr. Seidel recommends that any adaptation program have the appropriate structure within the Executive branch. Finally, (and most importantly, since this is something that can be done relatively easily), the Federal government should mandate adaptation considerations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The final witness, Kenneth Green of the American Enterprise Institute suggests three things to “build U.S. resilience to global warming impacts. First, he recommends that the U.S. should shift its focus from mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions toward an adaptation agenda, since, as Mr. Green states, “we do not, at present, have the technologies needed to significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions without causing massive economic disruption, and without preventing the developing countries from developing, and lifting their billions of people out of squalor and poverty.” Second, Mr. Green suggests that the U.S. “remove the misguided incentives that lead people to live in climatically fragile areas such as the water’s edge, drought-prone locations, flood-prone locations, and so on.” Finally, he points out that the U.S. must look at its infrastructure: “another government action that leads people to live in harm’s way is the failure to build and price infrastructure so that it is both sustainable and resilient to change.”
With all of the hoopla about the Climate Change bill(s) and the potential failure of the world’s nation to reach any sort of agreement at Copenhagen, this seems to be an issue that should be rising up most people’s priority lists. How are we going to adapt to the changes that have already occurred and to those that we have predicted to occur, but lack the technology or the political will stop?
10.19.09
October 19, 2009 – Environmental Law Settlements, Decisions, Regulatory Actions and Lawsuit Filings
October 19, 2009 – A summary review of environmental law settlements, decisions, regulatory actions and lawsuits filed during the past week. These were all first posted, in abbreviated form, on http://twitter.com/smtaber.
SETTLEMENTS
Mosaic Gives Up Permit For Mulberry Acid Plant. — S.L. Frisbie, IV, The Polk County Democrat, October 10, 2009
Mosaic Fertilizer agreed this week to give up its permit for a now-closed sulfuric acid production plant in Mulberry in partial settlement of a Clean Air Act action filed in federal court in New Orleans. It did not, as the Associated Press erroneously reported, agree to close its Bartow chemical plant, which remains in operation. The confusion, according to Russell Schweiss, public affairs manager for Mosaic, came from a reference to the Mulberry plant as being “near Bartow.”
EPA Settles Underground Storage Tank Violations with Washington, D.C. Shopping Center. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
EPA has settled a violation of underground fuel storage tank regulations with East River Park Shopping Center, located at 3919 Benning Road, NE, Washington, D.C. East Park Shopping Center has agreed to pay a $5,142 civil penalty to settle an alleged violation of the federal regulations designed to prevent, detect, and control fuel leaks from underground storage tanks, or USTs.
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San Francisco Airport, Chevron, U.S. EPA Agree to $1M in Environmental Improvements at International Airport. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is entering into two related agreements with SFO Fuel and Chevron in order to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act at a large jet fuel storage facility located at the San Francisco International Airport. In 2008, SFO Fuel representatives contacted the EPA to self-report what they believed was inadequate secondary containment capacity, as required by the Clean Water Act. An EPA inspector performed an inspection at the facility and agreed that the facility had insufficient secondary containment capacity to prevent a catastrophic spill from potentially reaching waters of the San Francisco Bay.
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EPA Signs Agreement with Army Corps, Dept. of Energy to Ensure Cleanup of Middlesex, NJ Site. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
EPA has signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Department of Energy (DOE) covering federal facilities, which details responsibilities for the cleanup of a contaminated site in Middlesex, New Jersey. The federal facilities agreement specifies that USACE is responsible for cleaning up the site and DOE is responsible for long-term surveillance after the cleanup. The property was used by the Atomic Energy Commission as part of the nation’s early atomic energy program to handle various radioactive ores.
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EPA settles with pet products company for illegally selling, distributing pesticides to Tempe retailer. —EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
EPA recently fined Exotic Nutrition Pet Company, a distributor of pet products, to resolve the alleged sale and distribution of the unregistered pesticide Exotic Nutrition Kage-Care. Virginia-based Exotic Nutrition Pet Company sold the unregistered pesticide Exotic Nutrition Kage-Care to Tempe, Ariz., retailer, Pets, Inc. — a violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.
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Chattanooga Company Pleads Guilty To Environmental Crimes. —Cookeville Times, October 4, 2009
The owner of a Chattanooga, Tenn., salvage and demolition company, Watkins Street Project LLC, pleaded guilty in federal court in Chattanooga, Tenn., for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act and to defraud the United States. Gary Fillers of Chattanooga, Tenn., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Collier for the Eastern District of Tennessee to one criminal felony count for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act’s “work practice standards” related to the proper stripping, bagging, removal and disposal of asbestos.
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MFG Chemical Agrees to Pay Civil Penalty for Toxic Explosion at Georgia Plant. —Department of Justice Press Release, October 15, 2009
MFG Chemical Inc. has agreed to pay $270,000 in civil penalties to resolve claims resulting from a toxic release on April 12, 2004 of extremely hazardous chemicals at the company’s Dalton, Ga., plant, the Justice Department announced today. The toxic release resulted from a runaway reaction at the plant when MFG, upon its initial production run for triallyl cyanuarate, mixed allyl alcohol with other chemicals, leading to an extreme increase in temperature and causing an explosion that released toxic gases to the atmosphere.
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PennFuture Signs Federal Consent Decree with FirstEnergy to End Air Pollution from Bruce Mansfield Power Plant. —Reuters, October 15, 2009
Citizens for Pennsylvania`s Future (PennFuture) announced today it had reached a settlement with FirstEnergy for air pollution violations at its Bruce Mansfield plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The consent decree, filed with the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, creates a pathway to clean air that FirstEnergy must take to reduce both visible and microscopic air pollution from being released into the air, risking the health and property values of citizens living near the plant.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Power plant reaches settlement. —Paula Reed, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 16, 2009
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DECISIONS
EPA fines Firebird International Raceway $31,851 for hazardous waste violations. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
EPA fined Firebird International Raceway, a venue that hosts racing events, $31,851 for hazardous waste manifesting and reporting violations. In July 2006, EPA inspectors discovered four hazardous waste violations at the facility, located at 20000 Maricopa Rd. in Chandler, Arizona.
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U.S. EPA fines Stockton, Calif. company nearly 194,000 for toxic chemical release violations. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
EPA fined Valimet, Inc. $193,996 for failing to submit reports detailing the amount of aluminum dust and copper compounds processed at its facility, a violation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right –to-Know-Act. The EPA discovered during a routine inspection in April 2004 that Valimet, Inc., located at 431 Sperry Rd., processed more than 3 million pounds of aluminum (fume or dust) and more than 53,000 pounds of copper compounds annually between 2001 and 2005. Federal law requires facilities manufacturing or processing 25,000 pounds or more of aluminum (fume or dust) or copper compounds to report any release of these toxic chemicals on an annual basis to the EPA and the state.
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Sheridan Production Company, LLC, Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
EPA has fined the Sheridan Production Company, LLC, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, $3,000 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for a 1,000-gallon oil spill into Mill Creek and adjoining shorelines. Mill Creek enters Clear Boggy Creek, thence Muddy Boggy Creek, which drains into the Red River. The settlement required the Sheridan Production Company, LLC, to pay the civil fine, investigate the spill, clean up the spill and take corrective actions that will prevent future discharges.
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Utah Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Environmental, Other Crimes. —EPA News Release, October 14, 2009
Larkin Baggett, 54, formerly of Salt Lake City, Utah, was sentenced to 20 years in the U.S. District Court in Key West, Fla. jail today for illegally dumping pollutants in violation of federal clean water and hazardous waste regulations and for illegally possessing firearms and aggravated assault on law enforcement officers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced. This includes the maximum jail term for the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations. Last March, Baggett assaulted EPA and other law enforcement officers when they attempted to arrest him in Marathon, Fla.
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Oregon Contractor Fined Following Asbestos-Related Violations. —Mesothelioma News, October 14, 2009
In Brush Prairie, Oregon, a contractor has been fined $30,409 by state environmental regulators. The fines stem from allegations related to violating state asbestos handling regulations. Able Contractors Inc. has appealed the fine, according to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Bryan Smith.
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Judge overturns Mont. water rules for gas drilling. —Matthew Brown, Associated Press, October 14, 2009
In a judgment in that case issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne, Wyo., annulled the rules and sent them back to the EPA to reconsider. Brimmer wrote that the EPA had failed to give the water quality standards a full review when it approved them in 2003 and 2008. The lawsuit has pitted natural gas companies backed by the state of Wyoming against the EPA and Montana. The case represents one of several running skirmishes between Montana and Wyoming over the rivers that flow north across their shared border.
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Federal Court Dismisses Portion of Challenge to Highway Expansion in Sacred Sites Case. —EPA News Release, October 13, 2009
This case involves the U.S. Highway 26 Wildwood-Wemme highway widening project (”Wildwood-Wemme project” or “the project”) near Mt. Hood, Oregon, which was substantially completed in 2008. Plaintiffs consist of individuals and organizations who seek to preserve, protect, and rehabilitate Native American sacred and cultural sites and historical and archaeological resources in the lands surrounding Mount Hood. They allege that defendants United States Federal Highway Administration (”FHWA”), United States Bureau of Land Management (”BLM”), Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (”ACHP”), and Matthew Garrett, the Director of the Oregon Department of Transportation (”ODOT”), violated the National Historic Preservation Act (”NHPA”), 16 USC §§ 470-470x-6, National Environmental Policy Act (”NEPA”), 42 USC §§ 4321-4347, § 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act (”DTA”), 49 USC § 303, the public trust doctrine, the due process clause, and also committed a breach of fiduciary duty.
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U.S. EPA Orders Northern California Operator Cemex to Comply with Federal Clean Water Act Regulations. —EPA News Release, October 16, 2009
EPA has ordered Marina, Calif-based Cemex to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. Under federal law, sand and gravel mines are required to file for coverage under California’s General Industrial Activities Storm Water Permit. Cemex failed to file for coverage and therefore discharged storm water without authorization — a violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
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Ship Captain Sentenced to Six Months. — R.G. Edmonson, The Journal of Commerce, October 16, 2009
The captain of the M/V Theotokos was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison and four months community confinement after pleading guilty to one violation of environmental law and two violations of vessel safety laws in an October 2008 case. Panageotis Lekkas also was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine in a case that included charges of illegal discharge of oily waste and operating the ship without informing the Coast Guard of a broken rudder.
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2 dead fish cost Nami $50K. — Carl Keith Greene and Samantha Swindler, The Times Tribune, October 15, 2009
Nami Resources Company was fined $50,000 Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating the federal Clean Water and Endangered Species acts. In its guilty plea, entered in U.S. District Court in Lexington, the company admitted that in 2007 it discharged, without a permit, drilling and fracturing fluids into a Knox County water source.
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REGULATORY ACTIONS
Pennsylvania DEP releases Climate Change Action Plan. — Anya Litvak, Pittburgh Business Time, October 9, 2009
A decade from now, Pennsylvania should have its greenhouse gas emissions at 30 percent below 2000 levels, according to the Climate Change Action Plan released Friday by the Department of Environmental Protection. Actually, the state can go as low as 42 percent below, if the governor and Legislature heed the advice of the panel’s 52 recommendations. The Climate Change Advisory Committee is a consortium of about two dozen government, industry and environmental interests assembled by Act 70, the Pennsylvania Climate Change Act of 2008, and tasked with producing an action plan.
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Northwest Arkansas Leaders Want EPA Phosphorus Rule Delayed. — The Associated Press, October 10, 2009
Northwest Arkansas city officials have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to delay a new regulation that would implement a stricter standard for phosphorus discharges. Regional officials said the regulation — which is 10 times stricter than the current level — would require costly modifications at six wastewater treatment plants in the area. They visited Washington in recent days to meet with EPA officials and members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation.
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EPA Unhappy With DEQ’s Water Policy for the Cowboy State. — Mary Jo Johnson, Sheridan Media.com, October 12, 2009
EPA has weighed in on state water policy regulating groundwater pumped up during coalbed methane production, and the EPA says it appears the state is not following Clean Water Act law. The federal agency takes issue with the case-by-case approach of the state Department of Environmental Quality on whether it’s acceptable to dump the water on the surface.
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California Fights Shipping Pollution As International Shippers Push Back. — Janet Wilson, DC Bureau, October 12, 2009
As of July 1, any large vessel within 24 nautical miles of California’s ports must switch to somewhat cleaner fuel. Federal and international regulators are slowly following in California’s wake, proposing measures to clean up fuel and engines that if approved, would take effect between 2016 and 2030. But powerful international shippers have sued to overturn the California regulation, and out at sea the freighters will spew the same pollution skyward for years. It will drift hundreds of miles inland as a dirty haze, contributing to cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma and other illness. Public health experts in greater Los Angeles, which still endures the nation’s worst air pollution, say much more needs to be done, much faster.
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The Permit Process Under Review. — West Virginia Metro News, October 12, 2009
A public hearing in Charleston Tuesday will discuss two proposals surrounding Nationwide Permit 21. The permit under the Clean Water Act authorizes structures, work, and discharges associated with surface coal mining activities including valley fills. The proposals will discuss if permit 21 will be suspended in the near future so it can be modified to prohibit the practice of placing fill materials into the country’s water systems. Just last month, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency rescinded 79 mine permits issued by the Corps including 23 in West Virginia for further review.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Coal, Environmentalists Massing for Corps Hearings. — Occupational Health & Safety, October 13, 2009 Click Here
Corps defends its handling of mine hearing. — Ken ward, Jr., West Virginia Gazette-Mail, October 14, 2009 Click Here
Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, San Diego Air Pollution Control District. — Federal Register, October 13, 2009
EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the San Diego Air Pollution Control District portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from cold solvent cleaning and vapor degreasing operations. EPA is approving two local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).
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Soil Removal and Phase 2 Lead Sampling to Begin in Pittsburg, Kan. . — EPA News Release, October 14, 2009
EPA Region 7 and its contractors will start to excavate and remove lead-contaminated soils from approximately 30 properties in Pittsburg, Kan., beginning the week of October 26, 2009. The removal work, which will focus on properties with lead levels of 550 parts per million or greater, is expected to last for several months. As the soil removal work gets underway, EPA will also begin its Residential Lead Sampling Phase 2 activities in order to further define the extent of lead contamination in the Pittsburg community. Additional properties to the southeast, north and northeast of former smelter sites are expected to be sampled.
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EPA Administrator Announces Plan to Retool and Reinvigorate Clean Water Enforcement Program. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced today at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing that the agency is stepping up its efforts on Clean Water Act enforcement. The Clean Water Action Enforcement Plan is a first step in revamping the compliance and enforcement program. It seeks to improve the protection of our nation’s water quality, raise the bar in federal and state performance and enhance public transparency.
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Not all Alaska ports support limits on cruise ship emissions. — Erika Bolstad, McClatchy Newspapers, October 10, 2009
Some Alaska ports of call have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink – or at least slow down – its plans to impose stricter air quality requirements for cruise ships and other large oceangoing vessels. The EPA wants all large vessels to stop using so-called bunker fuel within 200 nautical miles of U.S. shorelines, saying that reducing air pollution from the dirty fuel could save the lives of 8,300 people each year, help an additional 3 million people avoid respiratory problems and clear hazy skies as far inland as the Grand Canyon.
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Pennsylvania DEP Wants EPA to Revoke Injection Permit. — Jessika Lewis, WBOY News, October 15, 2009
Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to revoke a permit a CONSOL subsidiary uses to inject water into the Morris Run Borehole at the defunct Blacksville No. 1 Mine. The EPA issued the Underground Injection Control permit to CNX Gas Company to allow it to dispose of up to 150,000 barrels a month of coal bed methane wastewater into the Blacksville No. 1, according to a letter the PA DEP sent to CONSOL. That water contains high levels of total dissolved solids and chlorides, which the PA DEP said could flow into the No. 2 Mine and discharge into the Dunkard Creek.
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Activists ask EPA for tougher pesticide rules. — Associated Press, October 13, 2009
A coalition of nonprofit groups is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to write stronger regulations to protect children from exposure to farm chemicals sprayed near thousands of schools. The petition was filed Wednesday by public interest law firms Earthjustice and Farmworker Justice. It requests that the agency set up no-spray buffer zones around schools, parks, hospitals and day-care centers for some of the most dangerous airborne pesticides.
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PA Plans to Develop Interim Preliminary Remediation Goals for Dioxin in Soil. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on a plan to develop interim preliminary remediation goals (PRGs) for dioxin in soil at contaminated sites. The plan includes a review of current dioxin cleanup guidance that has been established by the EPA, states and other countries, including the latest fully peer-reviewed dioxin toxicity assessments. EPA will release the draft interim PRGs for public comment in December 2009, and anticipates issuing the final interim PRGs in June 2010. EPA is currently undertaking a reassessment of dioxin, the results of which are expected to be released by the end of 2010.
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EPA Releases Updated Risk Analysis for Solvent-Contaminated Industrial Wipes. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on a revised risk analysis developed for the 2003 proposed Solvent-Contaminated Industrial Wipes Rule. The agency has revised the risk analysis in response to comments received when the rule was proposed. The rule is meant to improve the clarity and consistency of the regulations for wipes and reduce the cost of regulatory compliance, while maintaining the same level of protection for the environment.
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Second Phase of Cleanup Underway at the Gulf States Steel Site in Gadsden, Alabama. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
EPA’s Superfund removal action at the Gulf States Steel Site in Gadsden, Ala. is currently in the second phase of cleanup, which began in September 2009. The Phase II cleanup includes demolition of the power house and two slag piles on site. Further assessment of the facility during the initial phase of site activity led to a request for increased funding to perform an additional phase of work. A pilot study to assess the potential to recycle the slag pile materials is underway.
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EPA to weigh public comment on Indiana’s new wastewater permit for U.S. Steel Gary Works. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 today withdrew its earlier objections to a 2007 version of Indiana’s wastewater discharge permit for U.S. Steel’s Gary Works. EPA is withholding final judgment on the new draft permit until Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s 45-day comment period, including a Nov. 18 public hearing, is completed and all comments considered.
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EPA Extends Public Comment Period for Proposal to Put Newtown Creek on Nation’s Superfund List. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the period of time for community input on the proposal to add New York City’s Newtown Creek to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is EPA’s list of contaminated sites that warrant further investigation and long-term cleanup. The state of New York referred the site to EPA due to the complex nature of the contamination along the creek.
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EPA Adds Lower Boise River and Hem Creek to Idaho’s List of Impaired Waters. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added the Lower Boise River and Hem Creek to the State of Idaho’s List of Impaired Waters. Both of these waters have been on the state’s list in prior years until the State removed these two waters in 2008. According to Jim Werntz, Director of EPA’s Idaho State Office in Boise, Idaho’s impaired waters list helps focus attention and limited resources to improve and protect water quality.
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EPA Releases OMB Comments on Chemical Studies. — Matthew Madia, OMB Watch, October 15, 2009
As promised, the Environmental Protection Agency is releasing White House comments on EPA assessments of potentially toxic chemicals. Yesterday, EPA released the first batch of comments on four ongoing risk assessments. In May, EPA announced changes to its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a program that studies the health effects of chemicals and releases the findings on the EPA website. Under the new process, there are two opportunities for “interagency” review – that is, a chance for other government agencies, including the White House, to scrutinize and comment on EPA’s risk assessments.
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Momentum builds for tighter regulation of industrial chemicals. — Eartha Jane Melzer, the Michigan Messenger, October 14, 2009
Amid growing concerns about the health effects of chemical exposure, the Obama administration has laid out a plan to strengthen federal regulation of the chemical industry. In a Sept. 29 speech at the California Commonwealth Club, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Jackson called the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act an “inadequate tool” and presented a set of guidelines that she said should steer efforts to improve regulation of chemicals.
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EPA and MDEQ seek comment on proposed Dow Chemical Agreement; public meeting Nov. 5 . — EPA News Release, October 16, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said today that they are seeking comments from the public on a proposed agreement with the Dow Chemical Co. The agreement outlines the next steps in a comprehensive Superfund evaluation of dioxin contamination in the Tittabawassee River and Saginaw River and Bay and their floodplains. All three organizations have approved the proposed settlement. A public comment period runs Oct. 19 to Nov. 17. Click Here
Feds Order Do-over On Air Permit For Gas Field. — The Denver Post, October 15, 2009
Federal officials have ordered Colorado to redo an air permit for a natural gas compressor in Weld County. The Environmental Protection Agency issued an order this week, saying state regulators failed to adequately evaluate the overall impacts of pollution from the gas operations. The environmental group Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action challenged the permit, arguing the state should have considered the cumulative effects of the gas activities. The EPA has directed the state to do additional analysis for the permit in the next 90 days.
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LAWSUITS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS FILED
TRCP Advances Suit against BLM over Wyoming Energy Project. — AmmoLand.com, October 11, 2009
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today took an aggressive step forward in holding the federal government accountable for management commitments it made on a southwestern Wyoming energy project by filing a legal brief in a suit against the Department of the Interior. The sportsmen’s group asserts that the Bureau of Land Management has mishandled adaptive management on the Pinedale Anticline natural gas development project. The TRCP initially filed its lawsuit because the BLM formally adopted and then abandoned adaptive management plans intended to protect a host of species.
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Dupont Faces Lawsuit Over Water Supply Safety in S. Jersey. — Ian Bush, KYW Newsradio, October 12, 2009
A judge has ruled a class-action lawsuit can proceed against Dupont in South Jersey, where some believe their water has been tainted because of a chemical used to make non-stick Teflon cookware. The Environmental Protection Agency says there’s no reason for concern when using consumer products, like pans, made with perfluorooctanoic acid.
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ELPC and Allies Move to Join Federal Lawsuit Against Coal Plant Operator. — Environmental Law & Policy Center, October 12, 2009
ELPC and a coalition of health and environmental groups moved to join the federal lawsuit over pollution from the aging Illinois coal plants owned and operated by Midwest Generation, LLC. The coalition had signaled their intent to sue the company for violating the Clean Air Act this summer before the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), US Department of Justice (DOJ), and Illinois Attorney General stepped in and filed suit last month. The government suit supersedes the suit that the coalition had initiated, so the groups are moving to intervene in support of the new case.
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Feds fast track coal plant suit. — Robyn Monaghan, Chicago Page One Examiner, October 12, 2009
Health and environmental groups are looking to fast-track a federal pollution case against a Chicago area coal plant operator. The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), US Department of Justice (DOJ), and Illinois Attorney General stepped in and filed suit last month. The government suit supersedes the suit that the coalition of environmental groups had initiated, so the groups are moving in support of the new case against illegal air pollution from a fleet of six aging coal plants owned operated by Midwest Generation, LLC in Illinois.
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‘Good Samaritan’ legal battle pits greens against greens. — Katie Redding, The Colorado Independent, October 13, 2009
In the last 15 years, Washington lawmakers have introduced no fewer than 10 pieces of so-called Good Samaritan legislation — the majority of those laws introduced by Colorado legislators. The legislation is designed to provide legal protection for groups who take it upon themselves to clean up toxic waste. In Colorado, that means cleaning up acid mine drainage. Why has none of the legislation passed? Good Samaritan groups say the most stringent opponents include major environmental groups with Washington lobbyists.
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EPA issues $65,000 Complaint to Idaho Transportation Department and its Contractor for federal storm water violations in Sandpoint, ID. — EPA News Release, October 15, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and Parsons RCI, Inc. (Parsons, RCI) a Complaint seeking $65,000 in penalties for numerous storm water violations associated with a project near Sandpoint, ID. In the Complaint, EPA alleges that based on an inspection in early 2009, ITD and Parsons RCI were operators of the Sandpoint Byway construction site along US-95. EPA inspectors observed violations of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) Storm Water Construction General Permit.
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Environmental groups respond sharply to their ouster. — Carol Berry, Indian Country Today, October 11, 2009
The battle waged against a major coal company by Hopi and Navajo activists and against large environmental groups by tribal officials has, at least temporarily, intensified the conflict playing out in northern Arizona over the control, preservation and use of cultural and natural resources. On Sept. 28 the Hopi tribal council – its legitimacy challenged in political infighting – said the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council, National Parks Conservation Association, Grand Canyon Trust, and “on-reservation organizations sponsored by or affiliated with the groups, are no longer welcome on the reservation.”
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TVA’s Coal Ash Dumping Plan Sparks Health Concerns. — Sue Sturgis, Solve Climate, October 15, 2009
After a dam burst at its Kingston, Tenn., power plant last December and dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge into a nearby community and river, the federal Tennessee Valley Authority decided to change the way it stores its coal waste, transitioning from wet landfills like the one that failed to dry storage of ash. Now, a company is pushing a plan to use dry coal ash from the Kingston plant to fill an abandoned coal mine in Tennessee, but environmentalists are raising concerns about the proposal’s health risks.
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Looser EPA Regs Still Require Almost All Ethanol Producers to Get New CO2 Emissions Permits, Just in Time for Blog Action Day. — Margaret Smith, Green Is Good, October 15, 2009
Last week Wednesday, the EPA said that “nearly all” U.S. ethanol production facilities will qualify as “major emitters” of greenhouse gases and be required to obtain Title V permits under new EPA regulations. The proposal, titled the Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule (PSD), adds yet another dimension to the ongoing debate on biofuels and whether or not they should be considered a “green” alternative energy source to gasoline.
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Group appeals 1-73 path ruling. — Zane Wilson, The Sun News, October 14, 2009
A Virginia group that lost its lawsuit over a 72-mile section of Interstate 73 is appealing to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Virginians for Appropriate Roads, which sued over the determination of the route in 2007 and lost the case in August, will carry the issue to the next step, said spokeswoman Ann Rogers. “We have a bulletproof case that the state didn’t consider a reasonable alternative” as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, she said.
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Paper Plant Pollution Killed 4, Widows Say. — Tracey Dalzell Walsh, Courthouse News Service, October 16, 2009
Noxious pollution from an International Paper plant killed four people, the widows say in Federal Court. The widows say International Paper underreported its releases of dioxin and other poisons, lied about complying with state and federal laws, and polluted the area around its Prattville plant with carcinogenic chemicals for a decade. The widows say International Paper knew for nine years that its emissions could cause cancer to people who lived within 2 miles of the plant, and falsely claimed that it was complying with state and federal environmental laws.
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STATE & FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Yes We Can (Pass Climate Change Legislation) . — John Kerry & Lindsey Graham, The New York Times, October 10, 2009
Conventional wisdom suggests that the prospect of Congress passing a comprehensive climate change bill soon is rapidly approaching zero. The divisions in our country on how to deal with climate change are deep. Many Democrats insist on tough new standards for curtailing the carbon emissions that cause global warming. Many Republicans remain concerned about the cost to Americans relative to the environmental benefit and are adamant about breaking our addiction to foreign sources of oil.
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The Clean Water Act after 37 Years: Recommitting to the Protection of the Nation’s Waters. — U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, October 15, 2009
The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure met on Thursday, October 15, 2009, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office building to receive testimony regarding the Clean Water Act. The hearing’s focus was on the adequacy of state and Federal enforcement of the Clean Water Act. This oversight hearing was intended to investigate whether the states and EPA have effectively used the enforcement tools at their disposal in responding to violations of the Clean Water Act.
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State Senate’s vote backs Southern California stadium developers. — The Associated Press, October 914, 2009
The California Senate has voted to allow developers of a proposed 75,000-seat football stadium in the Southern California city of Industry an environmental exemption that allows construction to move forward. If signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bill that was approved Wednesday on a 21-14 vote, would nullify a lawsuit by residents in the neighboring city of Walnut, who claimed that Industry approved the project without sufficiently reviewing its environmental impact.
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Udall Sponsors Plan To Clean Up Old Mines. — Judith Kohler, The Associated Press, October 14, 2009
U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said Wednesday he’s sponsoring a bill to make it easier for conservation groups, states and others to clean up old abandoned mines by making sure they’re not held legally responsible for problems they didn’t cause. The Colorado Democrat that hard-rock mining has played a key role in the West and its economy. “But unfortunately, at the same time, we have a legacy of abandoned mines,” Udall said.
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Clean-air advocates battle Oberstar over Great Lakes pollution proposal. — Cynthia Dizikes, MinnPost.com, October 14, 2009
A battle over a proposal to regulate air pollution from ships is pitting clean-air advocates against industry groups and Midwestern lawmakers, including Minnesota’s Jim Oberstar, who claim the plan would further damage the recession-battered Great Lakes economy. “The EPA’s proposed emissions rule would effectively doom an entire class of vessels that serve our port and jeopardize the useful lives of another 20 bulk cargo carriers currently in operation on these waters,” wrote Gerald Walls, president of the Port of Duluth-Superior Propeller Club, in a recent letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
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OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
EPA Taking Heat Over Toxic Emissions from America’s Coal Plants. — Luanne Bradley, Eco Salon, October 9, 2009
America runs on coal. It creates half of our electricity. And the unclean technology producing this source may be killing our children, grandchildren and the future unborn, not to mention our natural environment. Is the fed sensing the urgency to limit the damage from this source we depend upon? Not according to three environmental groups looking for clean coal technology. They are planning to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for being blatantly lax in limiting toxic discharges from power plants that threaten the health of local communities exposed daily to the pollutants.
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EPA launches small business portal for environmental info. — Jeremy Armstrong, 123Print.com, October 9, 2009
Small enterprises seeking information about how their business affects the natural world – and what the government has to say about it – can look to a new Environmental Protection Agency-designed portal hosted on business.gov. The information on the site is aimed primarily at retailers, and details a number of pertinent environmental regulations as well as hints and tips for small businesses looking to become more environmentally friendly. The EPA focuses heavily on ways to reduce transportation-related environmental damage and details ways to ensure that companies buy and sell green products.
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FAA drops objections to NJ wetland restoration. — The Associated Press, October 16, 2009
The Federal Aviation Administration has dropped its objections to restore wetlands on a 250-acre site near Teterboro Airport. The government had feared the project would lead to planes hitting more migratory birds.
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‘We Have So Far to Go’ in Pollution Fight — EPA Air Chief. — Robin Bravender, Greenwire In the New York Times, October 12, 2009
As the Obama administration pushes forward on new rules to combat climate change, U.S. EPA’s new air chief insists that the agency will not neglect the host of conventional pollutants that damage air quality across the country. Speaking last week to the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee — a diverse group of stakeholders that offers advice on air policies — EPA Assistant Air Administrator Gina McCarthy offered a road map for where she intends to take her office. And while climate is a very large problem that will change the direction of EPA in many different ways, “it’s not all about climate,” she said.
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Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways. — Charles Duhigg, The New York Times, October 12, 2009
But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north.
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Pollution an enduring legacy at old missile sites. — Mea Gruver, The Associated Press, October 12, 2009
As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.
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The Clean Water Act after 37 Years: Recommitting to the Protection of the Nation’s Waters. — U.S. House of representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, October 15, 2009
The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure met on Thursday, October 15, 2009, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office building to receive testimony regarding the Clean Water Act. The hearing’s focus was on the adequacy of state and Federal enforcement of the Clean Water Act. This oversight hearing was intended to investigate whether the states and EPA have effectively used the enforcement tools at their disposal in responding to violations of the Clean Water Act.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
W.Va. reps press EPA on mountaintop mining permits. — The Associated Press, October 15, 2009 Click Here
Rahall uses Clean Water Act hearing to defend MT. — Ken Ward, Jr., The Charleston Gazette, October 15, 2009 Click Here
Committee Discusses Future of Clean Water: Full Clean Water Act protections must be restored. — Common Dreams.org, October 15, 2009 Click Here
Researchers determining the costs of climate change. — Dean Calbreath, San Diego Union Tribune, October 13, 2009
In an effort to pin down the costs of global climate change, one of the world’s largest insurers announced yesterday that its research network is joining with San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography to study the effect of changes in the weather and sea level. Under the arrangement, Scripps will provide climate research to the Willis Group of London and its clients in the insurance industry, which could use the data to assess their exposure to financial risks from rising sea levels or weather-related catastrophes.
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Obama EPA releases Bush-era global warming finding. — Dina Cappiello, The Assocaited Press, October 12, 2009
A controversial e-mail message buried by the Bush administration because of its conclusions on global warming surfaced Tuesday, nearly two years after it was first sent to the White House and never opened. The e-mail and the 28-page document attached to it, released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, show that back in December of 2007 the agency concluded that six gases linked to global warming pose dangers to public welfare, and wanted to take steps to regulate their release from automobiles and the burning of gasoline.
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Cap and Trade Program Lowers Smog Levels in Eastern United States/Market based program allows cost-effective reductions of harmful air pollution. — EPA News Release, October 14, 2009
EPA released a report showing that more than 103 million Americans breathe cleaner air thanks to a cap and trade program that reduces smog-forming emission of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx). The 2008 NOx Budget Trading Program Annual Report, covering 20 eastern states and the District of Columbia, shows the summertime NOx emissions from power plants and large industrial sources were down by 62 percent compared to year 2000 levels and 75 percent lower than in 1990.
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EPA Report: Clean Diesel Program Protects Health and the Environment, Saves Communities up to $1.4 Billion Health benefits, operating costs make clean diesel a cost-effective program to protect human health and the environment. — EPA News Release, October 14, 2009
The U.S. EPA today released a report to Congress detailing the health, environmental and economic benefits of the agency’s Diesel Emission Reduction Program. The program, funded at $50 million last year, allowed EPA to fund the purchase or retrofitting of 14,000 diesel-powered vehicles and pieces of equipment, preventing respiratory illnesses and saving money in communities nationwide.
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EPA Tells Congress that Clean Diesel Program Reduces Smog. — School Transportation News, October 14, 2009
A new report to Congress from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving the Clean Diesel Program a big thumbs up. According to the report, the program has reduced 46,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (a key contributor to elevated smog levels) and 2,200 tons of particulate matter over the lifetime of diesel vehicles, conserved 3.2 million gallons of fuel annually, and generated public health benefits between $500 million to $1.4 billion.
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Cap-and-Trade Would Slow Economy, CBO Chief Says. — Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, October 15, 2009
A House-passed bill that targets climate change through a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits would slow the nation’s economic growth slightly over the next few decades and would create “significant” job losses from fossil fuel industries as the country shifts to renewable energy, the head of the Congressional Budget Office told a Senate energy panel Wednesday.
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Gillibrand to discuss Tonawanda Coke with EPA. — The Buffalo News, October 14, 2009
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand plans to speak to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency later this week about dangerous levels of a carcinogen being emitted at Tonawanda Coke Corp. Gillibrand, D-N. Y., also wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in late July about her concerns.
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Clean Water Act: Longstanding Issues Impact EPA’s and States’ Enforcement Efforts. — Government Accountability Office, October 15, 2009
GAO issues report on the Clean Water Act: Longstanding Issues Impact EPA’s and State’s Enforcement Efforts
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Gas drilling in the air: Texas town study triggers debate. — Fritz Mayer, The River Reporter, October 15, 2009
While concern has been raised about the contamination of water supplies in connection with gas drilling, a recent study, commissioned by a town in Texas, shows that the air surrounding gas drilling activities may also be a cause for worry.
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EPA makes deal to protect UMW jobs at Hobet. — Ken Ward, Jr., The Charleston Gazette, October 18, 2009
If you missed it in today’s Gazette, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a tenative agreement with Patriot Coal’s Hobet Mining subsidiary that could protect hundreds of United Mine Worker of America jobs at the sprawling Hobet 21 mountaintop removal complex along the Boone-Lincoln county line in Southern West Virginia.
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Cleanup concerns persist after Marina Center EIR on development. — John Disrcoll, The Times-Standard, October 16, 2009
The Marina Center Environmental Impact Report’s look into contamination and the project’s potential effects on water quality hasn’t thoroughly satisfied some agencies or critics despite its wide-ranging analysis of the proposed development of the Balloon Track property in Eureka.
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BLOG
EPA’s Proposed Regulation of CO2 and Other GHG Emissions from Large Sources: “Absurd Results,” Indeed! — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law & Climate Change Law Blog, October 8, 2009
Last week, when the EPA proposed regulations that would require permits of sources with a potential to emit over 25,000 tons per year of six greenhouse gases, they knew they had a legal hurdle to overcome. As Marlo Lewis, a noted climate change skeptic, and Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute argued in a September 2, 2009, article that any exemption for smaller emitters of CO2 would be illegal.
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