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Bill introduced to stop use of federal funds to buy Chinese solar panels
From Business Standard
A group of Republican senators has introduced legislation to prohibit federal funds from being used to buy solar panels from companies based in China, allegedly using forced labor in Xinjiang.
The Keep China Out of Solar Energy Act’ requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to develop standards and guidelines to prohibit federal funds from being used to purchase solar panels manufactured or assembled by entities with ties to the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
It also requires the Comptroller of the US to submit to Congress a report on the amount of solar panels procured by federal departments and agencies from covered entities.
The bill requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to conduct an independent study of the domestic market of solar panel production and the global supply chain and workforce involved in solar panel production.
Beijing has made it clear that to do business in China, you must leave American values behind, Senator Marco Rubio said.
As the Chinese Communist Party is actively committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities, it forces American companies to look the other way while profiting from its egregious human rights violations, including forced labour, Rubio said.
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EPA dismisses dozens of key science advisers picked under Trump
The Biden administration says it needs to restore trust in the agency by “resetting” membership on two key science advisory panels
EPA Administrator Michael Regan is purging two scientific advisory committees of outside experts appointed by President Donald Trump. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
By Dino Grandoni Washington Post
March 31, 2021 at 11:33 a.m. EDT
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will purge more than 40 outside experts appointed by President Donald Trump from two key advisory panels, a move he says will help restore the role of science at the agency and reduce the heavy influence of industry over environmental regulations.
The unusual decision, announced Wednesday, will sweep away outside researchers picked under the previous administration whose expert advice helped the agency craft regulations related to air pollution, fracking and other issues.
Critics say that, under Trump, membership of the two panels — the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) — tilted too heavily toward regulated industries, and their positions sometimes contradicted scientific consensus.
“Science is back,” new EPA administrator says
The Biden administration said the move is one of several to reestablish scientific integrity across the federal government after what it characterizes as a concerted effort under the previous president to sideline or interfere with research on climate change, the novel coronavirus, and other issues.
“Resetting these two scientific advisory committees will ensure the agency receives the best possible scientific insight to support our work to protect human health and the environment,” Regan said in a statement.
Environmental advocates cheered the decision, saying thatremaking the composition of the panels is necessary after the Trump administration illegally barred academics who received EPA grants from serving on them.
Under Trump, the EPA had argued scientists who received research funding from the agency would not be able to offer impartial advice. But environmental and public health advocates, along with some former career officials within the agency, said the policy effectively elevated experts from industry while muzzling independent scientists.
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Court fight over Delaware River fracking ban heats up
| Lawmakers in the Pennsylvania Senate square off in federal court over the fracking ban approved by the Delaware River Basin Commission. |
By John L. Micek, Editor, Pennsylvania Capital-Star In a local story with national implications, Republicans and Democrats in the state Senate are waging legal war over a regional regulatory agency’s decision to impose a de facto moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin. On Monday, Senate Democrats announced they’d been granted a motion to intervene in the January lawsuit filed by Sens. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, and Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, along with the Senate Republican Caucus, challenging the Delaware River Basin Commission’s decade-old policy, arguing the agency had usurped the Legislature by imposing its moratorium. “My colleagues and I are participating in this lawsuit to preserve the authority of the Delaware River Basin Commission to protect the drinking water of more than 13 million individuals,” Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Bucks County Democrat whose district runs along the riverfront, said in a statement “Working within its authority, the DRBC has been taking critical steps to protect both the waterways in the Delaware River Basin and our land from the harmful effects of fracking.” Some background: After imposing its de facto moratorium in 2010, the commission voted Feb. 25 to formally ban fracking in the basin, StateImpact Pennsylvania, an environmental news outlet, reported at the time. All four of the commission’s member states: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, joined in the action. Read the full story |
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Important Updates on EPA’s TSCA New Chemicals Program
EPA News Release
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting an evaluation of its policies, guidance, templates, and regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) new chemicals program to ensure they adhere to statutory requirements, the Biden-Harris administration’s executive orders, and other directives. The agency has identified several instances where the approach for making determinations and managing risks associated with new chemicals can more closely align with the requirements of TSCA to ensure protections for human health and the environment, including the use of significant new use rules (SNURs) and assumptions related to worker exposures.
EPA remains committed to meeting statutory deadlines for review and determinations on new chemicals submissions under TSCA section 5 and will continue to engage with submitters to ensure the agency is moving as expeditiously as possible to come to a resolution on their submissions. Additionally, EPA will provide timely communication for any changes to stakeholders and the public through the normal distribution lists used to announce TSCA developments.
Use of SNURs
EPA will stop issuing determinations of “not likely to present an unreasonable risk” based on the existence of proposed SNURs. Rather than excluding reasonably foreseen conditions of use from EPA’s review of a new substance by means of a SNUR, Congress anticipated that EPA would review all conditions of use when making determinations on new chemicals and, where appropriate, issue orders to address potential risks. Going forward, when EPA’s review leads to a conclusion that one or more uses may present an unreasonable risk, or when EPA lacks the information needed to make a safety finding, the agency will issue an order to address those potential risks.
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As has been the long-standing practice, EPA intends to continue issuing SNURs following TSCA section 5(e) and 5(f) orders for new chemicals to ensure the requirements imposed on the submitter via an order apply to any person who manufacturers or processes the chemical in the future. This ensures that other manufacturers of the same new chemical substance are held to the same conditions as the submitter subject to the TSCA section 5(e) or 5(f) order. A SNUR requires manufacturers to submit a significant new use notification to EPA for assessment before the chemical substance can be manufactured or processed for the new use described in the SNUR.
Worker Exposures
EPA now intends to ensure necessary protections for workers identified in its review of new chemicals through regulatory means. Where EPA identifies a potential unreasonable risk to workers that could be addressed with appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and hazard communication, EPA will no longer assume that workers are adequately protected under OSHA’s worker protection standards and updated Safety Data Sheets (SDS). Instead, EPA will identify the absence of worker safeguards as “reasonably foreseen” conditions of use, and mandate necessary protections through a TSCA section 5(e) order, as appropriate.
Learn more about EPA’s TSCA new chemicals program.
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Electric car companies competing to score a battery breakthrough
GM is the latest company to team-up with a battery start-up in a bid to develop a solid-state vehicle battery.
Mark Reuss, General Motors president speaks at their Detroit- Hamtramck assembly plant on Jan. 27, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan. Credit: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
By Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News
Automakers are pairing off with battery companies to try to win the race to develop an electric vehicle battery that costs less and has a much longer range.
The quest is for a “solid-state” battery, a technology that uses a solid substance to transfer lithium ions in a form that weighs less and takes up less space than current batteries that use liquids and gels.
General Motors said last week that it has a development agreement with SolidEnergy Systems, or SES, of Singapore, a maker of solid-state batteries, that aims to produce a battery for electric cars by 2023 and have a version to sell to consumers by some later date. Volkswagen, Daimler and others also are betting on solid-state batteries.
The competition to develop a solid-state battery is about gaining an advantage in a fast-approaching era when many more consumers are going to be buying their first EVs, part of a transition from an auto industry that runs mostly on gasoline and diesel to one that runs mostly on electricity. Legacy automakers are hoping that their battery partners will give them an edge and help to close the gap with Tesla, the EV powerhouse that, notably, has not announced any solid-state plans.
“There are lots of approaches being taken that are trying to achieve the same goals: increasing energy density, lower cost and higher performance,” said James Frith, head of energy storage for BloombergNEF, about the solid-state race. “In essence, the question is really who can build these cells in a cost effective manner at scale first.”
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The switch to EVs is happening in large part because of policy changes to address climate change, like the much stricter emissions rules being implemented in the European Union. Automakers need to overhaul their lineups to meet emissions rules, and their businesses will depend on being able to produce EVs that people want to drive, which means extending battery ranges and reducing costs.
Volkswagen appears to have a head start, having worked for nearly a decade with QuantumScape of California on solid-state batteries, with plans to have a battery on the market by 2025.
This week, Volkswagen showed how far along it is with a “Power Day” news event that gave new details about its ramp-up of battery manufacturing and plans to develop charging stations and other infrastructure.
“Let me begin with the obvious: E-mobility has won the race,” said Herbert Diess, Volkswagen’s CEO at the Power Day event. “It is the only solution to reduce mobility emissions fast.”
Longer Range and Shorter Charging Time
Today, nearly all electric vehicles run on lithium-ion batteries in which lithium ions travel through a liquid or gel to discharge electricity.
In a solid-state design, a solid material replaces the liquid or gel. The material, sometimes ceramic, still allows the lithium to pass through. The solid takes up less space than the liquid, which leads to a battery that is smaller and lighter and can pack more energy into each unit of volume.
“Solid state batteries allow you to control what is happening inside a battery more carefully than when using liquid electrolytes,” said Frith.
The idea of a solid-state rechargeable battery is not new, but designers have run into problems with high costs and various technical challenges, like the tendency of solid-state batteries to expand and contract as they charge and discharge.
If QuantumScape, SES or any of the other developers of solid-state batteries can affordably mass produce the technology, the result would be a battery that has longer range and takes less time to recharge than today’s most common batteries. There also would be safety advantages, because solid-state batteries would be cooler and less flammable than some current lithium-ion designs.
The idea is that a battery with those qualities would be so desirable that consumers would eagerly leave behind their gasoline engines.
Techie Chic
Automakers are often putting their battery partners front and center in publicity about their technology plans, a sign that these industry giants want some of the sheen associated with technology start-ups.
General Motors President Mark Reuss announced last week that his company has a new partnership with SES to work on the Ultium system, GM’s name for its battery platform. The companies will jointly build a prototype assembly line in Woburn, Massachusetts, where SES has an office.
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“Affordability and range are two major barriers to mass EV adoption,” said Reuss. “With this next-generation Ultium chemistry, we believe we’re on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation improvement in energy density and cost. There’s even more room to improve in both categories, and we intend to innovate faster than any other company in this space.”
SES, founded in 2012 by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus, has a battery design that it says can hold 400 watt-hours per kilogram, which is much more than the 280 watt-hours per kilogram of the lithium-ion batteries in today’s EVs.
The test for GM and SES will be whether it can hit those numbers while mass-producing the batteries, and do so in a way that costs less than today’s batteries.
Needed: A Grand Slam
Volkswagen was early in pairing up with a solid-state battery company, QuantumScape, and it has the advantage of working with a partner that is getting positive attention from investors and the media for the promise of its technology.
One of the people singing the company’s praises is Paul Albertus, the former head of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, who now teaches at the University of Maryland.
“In my view, looking at the data QuantumScape has shared, they’re hitting a home run in terms of their performance data,” he said, in a December panel discussion of the technology, organized by QuantumScape. He has no financial relationship with the company. “At the same time they’re also clearly stating, and I think I agree with this, that they ultimately need to hit something like a grand slam in order to bring this technology to market as a compelling product.”
QuantumScape started in 2010, co-founded by three people from Stanford University. Volkswagen began working with QuantumScape in 2012 and in 2018 the German automaker became the battery-maker’s largest shareholder and the companies announced a plan to work together more closely.
Among the other automakers working closely with solid-state battery partners is Daimler AG, maker of the Mercedes-Benz brand, which is collaborating with Blue Solutions of France. Daimler has already deployed solid-state batteries from Blue Solutions in some buses, and had to issue a small recall this month because of short-circuiting. Daimler also has said it is working with Hydro-Quebec of Canada to develop solid-state batteries.
Ford and the BMW Group are both working with Solid Power of Colorado on solid-state batteries. Hyundai is an investor in Solid Power, but the South Korea-based automaker has said little about its solid-state battery plans.
Honda and Jaguar Land Rover, among other companies, are working with Ilika of the United Kingdom.
Some automakers are working on solid-state batteries using in-house designs. This includes Toyota, which has said it will introduce its battery and have it available on the market in the early 2020s. Nissan also is doing in-house work on solid-state batteries but hasn’t said much about it.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda spoke about next-generation EV technologies at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, saying that solid-state batteries would be “smaller, lighter, and most importantly, for both consumers and automakers, much more affordable.”
To illustrate what this could mean for range, QuantumScape has said that a solid-state design could mean that an EV that now has a range of 200 miles would have a range of 300 to 400 miles.
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