General
News
UPS Is Turning Trash Into Gas To Clean Up Its Emissions.
According to CNN, “One company’s trash is another company’s alternative fuel source. UPS (UPS) announced on Wednesday it’s buying 170
million gallons of renewable natural gas — a fuel that is produced naturally from bio sources like landfills, dairy farms and wastewater treatment facilities. The purchase, which UPS described as the largest of its kind in US history, will help the company
deliver its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of its ground fleet 12% by 2025. ‘Our customers want to ship more but with less impact,’ Mike Casteel, director of fleet procurement at UPS, told CNN Business. By switching to renewable natural gas, UPS estimates
its vehicles will reduce as much as 1.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2026. That’s the equivalent of removing more than a quarter million vehicles from the road. The move comes as shipping companies face tougher rules on truck pollution
from regulators in the United States and recently Europe.” [CNN, 5/22/19
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Methane In Atmosphere Is On The Rise. Scientists Say We Need To Cut Emissions.
According to KRCC, “Global methane in the atmosphere is on the rise again after a period of leveling off, but scientists tracking this
phenomenon at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, in Boulder haven’t quite figured out why. All agree the potent greenhouse gas has been rising in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. It began flattening out in the early
2000s, and then around 2007 it started climbing steeply again. It’s that resurgence that has scientists scratching their heads. ‘Our observations are giving us a strong hint that the recent change is a microbial change,’ said Lori Bruhwiler, a scientist with
NOAA. That means the source is natural, like the earth’s wetlands. It could also be human-caused sources like grazing livestock, rice farming or landfills. The question is: which is it? ‘You can look at what we know about the human sources and you can see
that some of it has to be coming from that,’ Bruhwiler said. She said if an ecosystem source like the earth’s wetlands is spiking in methane emissions, that could be nature responding in a feedback loop to climate change.” [KRCC,
5/23/19
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EPA Chief Floats Change To Methane Oversight.
According to E&E News, “EPA is considering a change to how oil and gas industry methane emissions are counted that could push them below
required reporting levels under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told an industry gathering yesterday the agency will assess whether the oil and gas sector should continue to be regulated as a single pollution source. He noted there are
‘significant differences’ between the production and processing corner of the industry and the transmission and storage of oil and gas. For the purpose of regulating potent greenhouse gas emissions, Wheeler said the agency might split the business into separate
categories. If it passed legal muster, the idea could divide industry methane emissions into smaller units that might not qualify for regulation. ‘With the sources split, it’s not clear whether the level of greenhouse gas emissions will be high enough to trigger
the significant attribution criteria, which are required to set emission standards under the Clean Air Act,’ Wheeler said at the U.S. Energy Association event.” [E&E News,
5/24/19
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Gas Rule In The Works Since 2011 Goes To White House.
According to E&E News, “A package of rules that federal pipeline safety regulators have been working on since a deadly 2010 natural gas
explosion has been sent to the White House. The rules would require more inspections of pipelines in less-populated areas while removing exemptions for testing gas lines built before 1970, among other changes (Energywire, March 18, 2016). The Trump administration’s
latest Unified Agenda indicates the final rule could be finished by December (Greenwire, May 22). Both industry and safety groups had been pushing for progress on the rule, which was prompted by a gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno,
Calif. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) began work on the rule in 2011. ‘When finalized, this rule will constitute the most significant enhancement to PHMSA natural gas transmission pipeline safety regulations since the federal
code was promulgated in 1970,’ said Don Santa, CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America. ‘We are proud to have worked for several years with a broad array of stakeholders, including safety and environmental advocates, to achieve consensus on
this important rule.’” [E&E News, 5/24/19
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Wheeler Weighing Options To Avoid Methane Rules For Oil, Gas.
According to Politico, “The Trump administration may be able to avoid regulating methane emissions from oil and gas production, EPA Administrator
Andrew Wheeler said on Thursday. EPA may split the industry up into multiple discrete sectors — such as production, processing, transmission and storage — rather than lumping those activities together for Clean Air Act accounting purposes, as has been the
case under previous administrations. The law requires regulations for any category of industrial activity that ‘contributes significantly’ to harmful air pollution, but it gives the administrator broad discretion over how to draw that line. ‘We will also assess
whether the entire oil and gas sector should be regulated as one source, given the significant differences between production and processing versus transmission and storage, or whether those should be split into separate sources,’ Wheeler told a gathering
of the U.S. Energy Association Thursday. ‘If the source was split, it is not clear the relevant greenhouse gas emissions would be high enough=)] to trigger the significant contribution criteria that is required under the Clean Air Act.’” [Politico,
5/23/19
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Cheney Bill Backs Trump Fight Against Leasing Moratorium.
According to E&E News, “Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney revived her bill to block future interruptions of federal coal leasing as the Trump administration works to avoid reinstating an Obama-era
moratorium. The Republican, whose state supplies about 40% of the nation’s coal, reintroduced her legislation requiring Congress to sign off on any attempt by the Interior Department to halt coal leasing (E&E Daily, March 31, 2017). H.R. 2910 arrived the same
day as Interior, at the order of a federal judge, released an environmental assessment justifying the cancellation of the Obama moratorium. ‘Unelected bureaucrats should not have the power to impose policies that disproportionately harm one state,’ Cheney
said in a statement. ‘The Obama Administration issued their moratorium without environmental justification, economic analysis, or state input.’ No coal has been leased in Wyoming since 2012, and a programmatic environmental impact statement for all coal leasing
was the goal of the Obama moratorium — reexamining the climate impacts and taxpayer return on investment. In April, a judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana ordered Interior to justify ending that review.” [E&E News,
5/23/19 (-)]
BLM 'Backdoor Leasing' Cheats Taxpayers — Report.
According to E&E News, “Nearly a quarter of all federal lands leased to the oil and gas industry in the past decade used a noncompetitive leasing process that returns less revenue
to taxpayers and locks up public lands for years, according to a report from a liberal-leaning government watchdog group. This has allowed smaller oil and gas companies and ‘speculators’ to snatch up millions of acres of public lands for about $1.50 an acre,
with an additional lease application fee of about $425, according to the report, released today by the Center for American Progress. ‘Noncompetitive leasing is an outdated, wasteful, and unnecessary program that shortchanges taxpayers and provides an avenue
for companies to game the system,’ the report concludes. An oil and gas industry trade group blasted the report, saying it’s filled with ‘misinformation.’ One of the report’s leading authors, Kate Kelly, CAP’s public lands director, is a former senior adviser
to President Obama’s Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. But Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) last month in a letter sent to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro requested that the Government Accountability Office ‘conduct a review’ of the Interior Department’s
noncompetitive leasing process for oil and gas resources.” [E&E News,
5/23/19 (=)]
Grijalva: 'Useful Excuse' Obscures Delay Of Leasing Proposal.
According to E&E News, “House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) accused the Interior Department today of political motivations in its decision to delay an offshore
drilling proposal, asserting the decision is aimed at ‘misleading coastal voters’ ahead of President Trump’s 2020 reelection bid. In a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Grijalva and other Democratic leaders requested that the agency turn over documents
related to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s plan for oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf — including communications involving the Republican National Committee, the White House and the Florida governor’s office. Bernhardt told the Natural
Resources panel last week he isn’t inclined to move ahead with the five-year plan in the wake of a March federal court decision that reinstated Obama-era prohibitions on leasing in parts of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans (E&E Daily, May 16). But Grijalva,
along with Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Chairwoman Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Chairman Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), questioned Bernhardt’s
motives.” [E&E News,
5/23/19 (=)]
Manchin Wary Of Chinese Investment In Appalachia.
According to E&E News, “Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is souring on a potential $80 billion Chinese investment in his home state’s natural
gas industry over fears the deal would take away domestic manufacturing and national security opportunities. The fear, Manchin told the U.S. Energy Association today during its annual policy meeting in Washington, is that China will use the investment to only
export key natural gas liquids while ignoring the potential for a petrochemical build-out in the Appalachian region — costing thousands of jobs. ‘If China’s intent is to remove butane, propane and ethane and export it, I’m against it because then there is
no storage hub, there is no new manufacturing base for us, there is no backup for the United States in term of energy policy,’ said Manchin, top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In a move originally hailed as a game-changing infusion
into the state’s industry, China Energy Investment Corp. announced in 2017 it would look to spend some $83.7 billion over the next 20 years in West Virginia through a memorandum of understanding with the state.” [E&E News,
5/23/19
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Chad Ellwood
Research Associate
202.448.2877 ext. 119