Oil industry says it will do methane reductions on its own

An oil well flares off excess methane in the desert east of Farmington, New Mexico. (Courtesy of Michael Eisenfeld)

An oil well flares off excess methane in the desert east of Farmington, New Mexico. (Michael Eisenfeld)

Dino Grandozi reports for The Washington Post:
Amid an effort by the Trump administration to ease rules on the oil and gas sector, 26 companies said they will take voluntary steps to ratchet down emissions on a potent greenhouse gas the Obama administration tried to regulate.

The week, the American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil and gas lobbying group in Washington, announced the launch of a program aimed at reducing emissions of methane from oil and natural gas production.
“The program overall is set up to continuously improve the environmental performance for onshore operators throughout the country through the process of learning, collaborating and taking action,” said Erik Milito, director of upstream and industry operations for API. “This is a very robust program.”
However, some environmental groups called the initiative, titled The Environmental Partnership, too little, too late given the industry’s embrace of Trump’s deregulatory agenda.
“It’s somewhat amazing that the industry hasn’t already put forward its own standard,” said Chase Huntley, director of energy and climate at The Wilderness Society.
Oil and gas firms participating in the program, which includes heavyweights like Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil onshore subsidiary XTO Energy, have agreed to cut pollution by monitoring and repairing leaks and replacing or retrofitting “high-bleed” pneumatic controllers, identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a top spot for the release of methane.”It’s a very targeted, surgical approach,” Milito said.
Methane is between 28 and 36 times more effective than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere over a 100-year time period, according to the EPA. The measures are also meant to curb the release of volatile organic compounds, which can act as a precursor to ground-level ozone, a component of smog linked to heart and lung problems.

The voluntary program, in which 23 of the top 40 U.S. natural gas producers by volume are participating, focuses on the process of producing natural gas, not the final product — that is, not on the amount of methane actually released into the atmosphere. Under the program, API will publicly report on its progress, with the first report coming in 2019.
Energy firms have a financial incentive to work together, as they are under this program, to capture as much methane as possible. Because methane is the main component of natural gas and can be burned for fuel, every molecule of methane emitted is lost energy — and lost revenue.
The Obama administration, through rules issued by the EPA and the Interior Department, attempted to rein in methane emissions. But Trump has put both agencies’ policies under review, a move API and other industry players welcomed.

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Pennsylvania, other states sue EPA over ozone deadline

Clairton Coke Works, near Pittsburgh. Photo: Reid R. Frazier

Clairton Coke Works, near Pittsburgh. Photo: Reid R. Frazier
Reid Frazier reports for StateImpact:
Pennsylvania is one of more than a dozen states suing the EPA for failing to enforce on an important air pollution regulation.
In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, Pennsylvania and 13 other states, plus the District of Columbia, say the EPA blew by an October 1 deadline to designate which parts of the country are failing to meet recently tightened federal standards for ozone, or ground level smog.
States use those designations to issue regulations on the amount of pollution that power plants, cars and factories can produce within their borders.
By not meeting the October 1 deadline, the agency was putting public health at risk, public health advocates said.
“The way it’s set up now, it’s going to further delay the actual beginning of the cleanup process for many of these communities, because they can’t start the planning until they know what areas are (over the EPA limit),” said Janice Nolen, Assistant Vice President of National Policy at the American Lung Association, one of several groups also suing the agency over the deadline. “The people of Pennsylvania are going to have to breathe higher ozone, longer than they need to.”
In 2015, EPA lowered its standard for ozone from 75 to 70 parts per billion (ppb). The agency had two years to determine which areas met that designation, and which didn’t.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sent the EPA a list of counties that failed the standard. They include five Philadelphia-area counties, plus Berks and Lebanon counties. Several counties in the Pittsburgh area, including Allegheny County, scored out at 70 parts per billion, just in the attainment zone.
The DEP, through a spokesman, declined comment.
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Phone calls to NJ lawmakers save Ed Lloyd’s Pinelands seat

Pinelands Preservation Alliance members outside the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting today in Trenton

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

The next time someone tells you that politicians don’t care what individual voters think, remember Ed Lloyd.


Ed LloydLloyd is the uber-enviro-lawyer-member of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission who opposed Gov. Chris Christie on a number of development issues and was about to pay the price by being replaced with a Christie appointment in the waning days of legislative session (and Christie’s term).


The Pinelands Preservation Alliance, fearing the loss of an advocate for their positions—especially after coming up short on several gas pipeline votes this year–went into high gear.

The group blasted out an e-bulletin urging immediate phone calls to member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who were scheduled to vote on Lloyd’s replacement today.

EnviroPolitics was the first media source to report yesterday that the committee had yanked the nomination hours before the vote.

[Pinelands greens rallying to save one of their champions]Two Democratic members of the committee confirmed the decision this morning before the committee met with posts on the Alliance’s Facebook page:





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Pinelands greens rallying to save one of their champions

Pinelands Commissioner Ed Lloyd

UPDATE: The nomination to replace Ed Lloyd has been pulled from tomorrow’s committee agenda. 


Environmental defenders of the New Jersey Pinelands have issued an emergency alert, urging phone calls to members of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee–and attendance at tomorrow’s  (Dec. 7)  meeting of the committee in Trenton.


Scheduled for action is a vote on a nominee to replace long-time Pinelands Commission member Ed Lloyd, a ‘Pinelands hero,” according to Pinelands Preservation Alliance Executive Director Carlton Montgomery.” 


Here’s what the Alliance has to say about the nomination:


Yesterday Governor Christie nominated Ed McGlinchey to replace longtime environmental stalwart Ed Lloyd as a gubernatorial representative on the Pinelands Commission. This is an extreme move by a lame duck governor to remove an environmental champion from the Commission.
Ed Lloyd has served on the Pinelands Commission as a gubernatorial appointee since 2002. He is an expert in environmental law, has testified before the U.S. Senate and House of Representative committees, serves on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Environmental Litigation, and sits on the Litigation Review Committee of the Environmental Defense Fund. Lloyd is a professor of Environmental Law at Columbia Law School, where he serves as the director of the Environmental Law Clinic. Prior to joining Columbia, Lloyd was the founding director of the Rutgers University Environmental Law Clinic. 

It is ludicrous to get rid of someone with a passion for public service and the skills to do the job.  This is political retribution for Mr. Lloyd’s staunch support of the rules that protect the Pinelands, which have, at times, put him at odds with the Governor. 

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EPA extending public comment deadline on PBT chemicals

EPA is extending until January 12, 2018, the public
comment period to receive information on the five
persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals
subject to section 6(h) of the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA).  The comments were previously due on
or before December 9, 2017.

EPA is interested in information from the public about
these chemicals, including uses, products containing these chemicals, exposed
populations, and alternatives to these chemicals. Information should be submitted
on or before January 12, 2018.

Please submit relevant information, identified by the docket identification (ID) number
associated with the relevant chemical:

  • Decabromodiphenyl ethers docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0724
  • Hexachlorobutadiene, docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0738
  • Pentachlorothiophenol, docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0739
  • Phenol, isopropylated, phosphate (3:1), docket ID number
    EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0730
  • 2,4,6-Tris(tert-butyl) phenol, docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0734 

For more information, please visit EPA’s Assessing and Managing Chemicals website
on the five PBTs at: https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/persistent-bioaccumulative-and-toxic-pbt-chemicals-under 


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Fed grant will help Jerseyans charge their e-cars at work


Nearly $10 million will be used to deploy electric-vehicle charging stations at workplaces, trimming emissions from refrigerated trucks

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

electric charging station

The state is using part of a $9.5 million federal grant to accelerate the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations at workplaces across New Jersey.
The U.S. Department of Transportation funding also is expected to provide money to reduce diesel emissions from refrigerated trucks unloading and loading shipments, as well as emissions from passenger ferries.
The programs, to be administered by the Departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation, are designed to curb air pollution that contributes to ground-level ozone (smog) and greenhouse-gas emissions.


Largest source of carbon pollution

The transportation sector is the biggest source of carbon pollution that contributes to global warming. Environmentalists and public health advocates have long criticized state efforts to deal with mobile air pollution and climate change as falling short of what is necessary.
The DEP said the infusion of federal funding for the projects would reduce chemicals and pollutants contributing to smog by 167 tons annually, the equivalent of removing 45,000 cars and tractor-trailers from the roads.
“Cars and trucks account for about 30 percent of ozone-forming precursors in New Jersey’s air,’’ said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin. “It is critical that we focus on reducing emissions from transportation to protect public health.’’
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