With help from Eric Wolff, Gavin Bade and Zack Colman
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— The Trump administration released a rule limiting states’ ability to veto infrastructure projects over water quality concerns.
— EPA also finalized a rule that regulates emissions of ethylene oxide released from petrochemical facilities.
— A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to ensure the Pentagon is adequately preparing for the consequences of climate change.
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401 ERROR: The Trump administration finalized a rule Monday that takes aim at a powerful tool used by states to block new pipelines and coal export terminals. The move, cheered by GOP lawmakers and energy industry groups, follows a call from President Donald Trump to draft a rule after the Democratic governors of New York and Washington state used the Clean Water Act to stop energy infrastructure projects.
The final rule limits the types of issues that states can consider when using their authority under Section 401 of the CWA to block a federal permit and sets tight deadlines for them to do so, Pro’s Annie Snider reports. The rule — which closely aligns with a version proposed in August — also allows EPA to overrule a state’s permit denial if the agency decides the action was based on issues outside the scope of the state’s authority.
Blue states and environmental groups have for months been planning legal challenges to the rule, which they say conflicts directly with Supreme Court precedent supporting states’ authority under the 1972 water law. The rule will also have major implications for the relicensing of hydropower dams across the country.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chair John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) applauded the rule, which he said “will allow important energy infrastructure projects to get done faster.” Ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.) panned the regulation as flying “in the face of cooperative federalism” and against congressional intent.
— To the courts: Twenty-three state attorneys general, led by Washington’s Bob Ferguson, have already threatened to sue over the rule. They say the administration’s narrow focus on water quality conflicts with a 1994 Supreme Court decision in which justices ruled that that the Washington State Department of Ecology had the right, under the Clean Water Act, to impose conditions in its certification that required the dam owner to maintain minimum flows that were protective of salmon and steelhead.
EPA RELEASES FINAL CHEMICAL PLANT RULE: The Trump administration finalized a rule Monday requiring petrochemical facilities across the country to plug leaks of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing chemical. But the regulation (Reg. 2060-AT85) also allows emissions from the facilities to pose twice the health risk to local communities EPA typically considers acceptable, Annie reports. The final rule hews closely to the version proposed last year in calling for facility owners to upgrade storage tanks, process vents and leaking equipment — fixes that EPA said would reduce ethylene oxide emissions by 0.76 tons per year.
Emma Cheuse, an Earthjustice attorney who sued EPA to force the agency to issue the air rule, said in a statement that it was “tragic and wrong” that the final rule allows people in neighboring communities to be exposed to cancer risks as high as 200-in-1 million, double EPA’s benchmark for acceptable cancer risk.
Activists however notched a major win in that EPA decided to continue basing its evaluation of risks on the 2016 assessment by the agency’s Integrated Risk Information System that found ethylene oxide poses dangers at extremely low levels — an assessment that industry has fought vigorously.
PJM AFFIRMS PREFERRED AUCTION DATES: Grid operator PJM on Monday filed a second compliance proposal with FERC to implement the agency’s December 2019 order to limit the participation of renewable and nuclear energy in the 13-state market. The grid operator wrote that it stands by its proposal to hold its long-delayed capacity auction by March of next year, but said it would need FERC to approve this and an earlier compliance filing quickly to meet that timeline.
States with clean energy and nuclear supports have said that schedule does not give them enough time to consider proposals to pull out of the long-term capacity market. PJM proposed that any market exits be finalized by June 1, but Maryland, Illinois and New Jersey have said they are considering pulling out of the market.
ON THE CALENDAR: Under a settlement agreement with Waterkeeper Alliance and other groups filed Monday, EPA committed to meet a series of deadlines for evaluating new drinking water contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act and then making a formal decision on whether or not they warrant federal regulation, Annie reports for Pros. The Safe Drinking Water Act sets a five-year cycle for these steps, but EPA has regularly missed those deadlines.
NWF JOINS GOP GOVERNORS CALLING FOR RFS WAIVERS: The National Wildlife Federation believes EPA’s Andrew Wheeler should use the agency’s waiver authority to reduce blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The green group, one of a handful of enviros to engage in the biofuels program in recent years, said in a letter to Wheeler released Monday that because of environmental destruction they attribute to the program, they agree with the governors of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, that the RFS requirement, called the Renewable Volume Obligation, should be lowered. “Higher blends of ethanol necessitated by unrealistic RVOs diminish public health. In light of the clear and present danger to the environment, we join with the Governors of six states in asking for a waiver to the RVO,” NWF wrote.
LAWMAKERS AIM TO ATTACH CLIMATE CHANGE MEASURES TO NDAA: Bipartisan lawmakers, led by freshman Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), are pushing the Pentagon to take steps to lower the risks military bases face from water shortages and electrical grid vulnerabilities, Pro’s Connor O’Brien reports. Crow told POLITICO he aims to incorporate two draft bills into the annual National Defense Authorization Act, H.R. 6395 (116). The legislation, he said, would ensure that while the effects of climate change “make it harder for us to conduct operations, that we are addressing those threats and getting out in front of it.”
One of the bills would require the Defense secretary to review how the Pentagon evaluates water scarcity at bases and would task the Pentagon with assessing water scarcity at military installations every 10 years. The second bill would authorize $25 million for a two-year pilot program to mitigate vulnerabilities in electrical infrastructure on at least three military bases. It also would amend federal power law to permit the Energy Department to go after vulnerabilities and require the Comptroller General to assess the pilot program’s effectiveness.
BIPARTISAN LAWMAKERS QUESTION FERC, MICHIGAN ON FAILED DAM: A group of six lawmakers, led by the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote to FERC and Michigan environmental regulators on Monday questioning why a dam in the central part of the state that failed last month was allowed to keep operating for years.
After years of reports slamming the dam for violating safety standards, FERC revoked Edenville’s license to generate power in 2018, handing its jurisdiction over to state regulators. The lawmakers questioned why FERC let the dam operate in non-compliance for a decade before revoking the license, and why Michigan regulators found the dam in “fair structural condition” after a 2018 inspection, despite long-standing concerns the dam could not handle a multi-day rain event.
Three nearby dams — the Sanford, Secord, and Smallwood facilities — are still under FERC jurisdiction and “may present a similar threat to surrounding communities,” wrote the lawmakers, including Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.). Michigan Reps. Debbie Dingell (D) and Tim Walberg (R) also signed the letter, requesting a response from the agencies by June 15.
STATE OFFICIALS BACK FUND TO PLUG ORPHAN WELLS: State officials from North Dakota and New Mexico said federal funding for plugging tens of thousands of so-called orphan oil and gas wells would provide jobs to out-of-work energy service employees and reduce water and methane pollution. States have worried aloud that they lack adequate funding to plug and remediate such wells and that an oil market crunch will further exacerbate the problem if failing companies shirk cleanup duties.
The comments during a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources forum come as Democrats are looking for items to include in future coronavirus spending packages that could achieve both environmental and employment needs. New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich and Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Xochitl Torres Small on Monday said plugging orphan wells could accomplish those goals and called for new federal funding. Daniel Raimi, a senior associate for think tank Resources for the Future, said a $1.4 billion program could create 13,000 jobs. North Dakota Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms backed the concept, noting his state is already using CARES Act funding to put oil and gas workers in the field to plug wells.
COMING CLEAN: Crude oil refiner HollyFrontier will convert its Cheyenne, Wyo., refinery to renewable diesel production, it announced Monday. The company said the decision was driven by expected declines in free cash flow stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as its anticipated loss of EPA’s small refinery exemption. The company said it expects to spend between $125 million to $175 million to repurpose the refinery to produce about 90 million gallons per year of renewable diesel. The project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
“Demand for renewable diesel, as well as other lower carbon fuels, is growing and taking market share based on both consumer preferences and support from substantial federal and state government incentive programs,” Mike Jennings, HollyFrontier president and CEO, said in a statement. “This represents an exciting opportunity to enhance both the profitability and environmental footprint of HollyFrontier through organic investment.”
But the company is also reducing the refinery’s workforce, and will lay off about 200 employees over the next 18 months, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports. Barrasso, in a statement to ME, called the layoffs “heartbreaking.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hurt businesses all across our state, including oil refineries,” the Wyoming Republican said. “At the same time, EPA has failed to protect small refineries from unreasonable compliance costs under the Renewable Fuel Standard. … As I have told EPA countless times, relief from the RFS is critical to small refineries. EPA must provide that relief before any more jobs are lost.”
SCIENTISTS: MASS EXTINCTIONS ACCELERATING: Scientists warn that the sixth mass species extinction is human-caused and accelerating — representing a threat to civilization, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The analysis looked at 29,400 terrestrial vertebrate species and found 515 species are on the brink of extinction, with populations below 1,000. More than half of those species are estimated to have populations of 250 or fewer.
GARDEN STATE SETS TOUGH PFAS LIMIT: New Jersey adopted a rule on Monday setting some of the toughest limits in the U.S. for the amount of so-called forever chemicals in drinking water, Pro’s Samantha Maldonado reports. Under the rule — which the state Department of Environmental Protection formally adopted Monday — drinking water and groundwater in New Jersey can have a maximum contaminant level of 14 parts per trillion for PFOA and 13 parts per trillion for PFOS — much lower than the federal level of 70 parts per trillion for both PFOA and PFOS set by EPA. Under the rule, which was first proposed last April, New Jersey now also considers PFOS and PFAS hazardous substances.
— “As busy hurricane season looms, NOAA’s credibility has taken a hit, new emails show,” via The Washington Post.
— “U.S. ruling could mean a flood of new claims against Volkswagen,” via The New York Times.
— “Top business leaders call on Boris Johnson to set out green recovery plan,” via The Guardian.
— “Saudi Arabia, Russia inch toward deal on post-lockdown oil cuts,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— “VW preparing for mass-scale EV manufacturing: Roskill,” via S&P Global Platts.
— “How Amazon is bringing the Keystone XL pipeline online,” via OneZero.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
