Hill Heat

The Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials will hold a hearing on May 7, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The title of the hearing is “EPA’s RMP Rule: Failures to Protect the American People and American Manufacturing.”

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Gentner Drummond, Attorney General, State of Oklahoma, testifying the rules are “openly hostile to America’s oil and gas industry”
• Jatin Shah, Senior Principal Consultant, BakerRisk
• Richard Erstad, Vice President and General Counsel, Hawkins, Inc. on behalf of the Alliance of Chemical Distributors
• James “Jim” Savage, Legislative Representative, United Steelworkers International Union

In the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990, Congress consciously separated responsibilities at a plant using certain chemicals for activities before an accident and after an accident occurred, as well as those activities inside a plant fence line and outside of it. Section 304 of the CAA Amendments of 1990 directed Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take the lead on protecting workers within a facility’s fence line, thinking OSHA was best equipped to handle these issues. By contrast, Congress, in section 301 of the CAA Amendments of 1990, gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to protect the environment and human health beyond the fence-line.

Section 301 of the CAA Amendment of 1990, which created CAA section 112®, was intended to prevent the “unanticipated emission of a regulated substance or other extremely hazardous substance into the ambient air from a stationary source” and to minimize the consequences of those releases. Paragraph (7) of CAA section 112® grants the EPA the authority to issue accidental release prevention, detection, and correction requirements and guidance that has manufacturers prevent and manage those accidental risks through manufacturers’ risk management program (RMP) plans.

The EPA originally issued the RMP regulations in two stages: the list of hazardous substances and quantities in 1994 and the risk management requirements in 1996.10 Subsequently, and until 2017, the EPA modified the original RMP rules five times (twice in 1999, twice in 2000, and once in 2004).

On January 13, 2017, the EPA published amendments to the RMP rule (82 FR 4594). The 2017 amendments rule was prompted by E.O. 13650, “Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security,” which directed the EPA (and several other Federal agencies) to, among other things, modernize policies, regulations, and standards to enhance safety and security in chemical facilities. The 2017 amendments rule contained various new provisions applicable to RMP-regulated facilities. The 2017 amendments rule addressed prevention program elements for natural hazards, incident investigation root cause analysis, and third-party compliance audits; emergency response coordination with local responders (including emergency response exercises); and availability of information to the public. The EPA received three petitions for reconsideration of the 2017 amendments rule under CAA section 307(d)(7)(B). In December 2019, the EPA finalized revisions to the RMP regulations to reconsider the rule changes made in January 2017 (“2019 reconsideration rule”). The 2019 reconsideration rule rescinded certain information disclosure provisions of the 2017 amendments rule, removed safer technologies and alternative analysis (STAA) requirements added by the 2017 amendments rule, and modified some other provisions of the 2017 amendments rule. The rule changes made by the 2019 are the current RMP regulations until May 10, 2024. There are petitions for judicial review of both the 2017 amendments rule and the 2019 reconsideration rule. The 2019 reconsideration rule challenges are being held in abeyance. EPA has requested that the Court allow this to occur until the resolution of any legal challenges to 2024 RMP rule amendments or 30 days after the deadline to file such challenges if no challenges are filed. The case against the 2017 amendments rule is in abeyance pending resolution of the 2019 reconsideration rule case. As a result of the EPA review, on March 11, 2024, the EPA promulgated final regulations amending its RMP regulations. The revisions, which are scheduled to become effective on May 10, 2024, include several changes to the accident prevention program requirements for natural hazards, power loss, and STAA, as well as enhancements to the emergency response requirements, expansion of public availability of chemical hazard information, third-party audit and record-keeping requirements, and mandatory employee rights and participation.

The Biden administration is spending billions on the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy, even recently celebrating Hydrogen Day on October 8 (because hydrogen’s atomic weight is 1.008) to “mark a symbolic opportunity to celebrate hydrogen—clean hydrogen, specifically—and the crucial role this element plays in supporting a robust, equitable clean energy future for all Americans.”

“There’s a lot to like about hydrogen as a fuel source, climate journalists such as David Gelles gush.

The only problem is that “clean hydrogen,” also known as “green hydrogen”—that is, hydrogen gas generated using renewable electricity—isn’t particularly “clean” or “green,” although it’s less polluting than “gray” and “blue” hydrogen, produced from natural gas.

Unfortunately, even “green” hydrogen is a powerful greenhouse pollutant.

As an important paper from Environmental Defense Fund scientists Ilissa Ocko and Steven Hamburg explains, hydrogen is unavoidably leaky, because it’s such a small molecule, and like methane, has a high short-term warming effect. In fact, one of hydrogen’s main warming effects is to increase the atmospheric lifetime of methane. Methane breaks down in contact with the hydroxyl (OH) radical formed when ultraviolet light interacts with ozone (O₃) and water vapor (H₂O). Hydroxyl also reacts with hydrogen molecules (H₂), so significant hydrogen pollution means atmospheric methane doesn’t break down. Thus, Ocko and Hamburg find:

Hydrogen’s 100-year greenhouse warming potential (GWP) is twice as high as previously thought, and its 20-year GWP is 3 times higher than its 100-year GWP. Hydrogen’s maximum GWP occurs around 7 years after the initial pulse of emissions, with a range of 25 to 60 based on uncertainties, and a central estimate of 40.

In short, “green” hydrogen isn’t.

Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Supply Chains hearing: “Energy Independence: How Burdensome Regulations are Crushing Small Offshore Energy Producers”

Chair: Wesley Hunt (R-Texas)

Witnesses:

• Mike Minarovic, Chief Executive Officer, Arena Energy, LLC
• Paul Danos, Chairman of the Board, National Ocean Industries Association
• Alex Epstein, President, Center for Industrial Progress
• Kathleen Nisbet Moncy, Chief Operating Officer, Goose Point Oyster

Open Meeting

Commission meeting are held in Commission Meeting Room (Room 2C) at FERC Headquarters, 888 First St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426

Meeting agenda
Item No.	Docket No.	Company
ADMINISTRATIVE
A-1	AD23-1-000	Agency Administrative Matters
A-2	AD23-2-000	Customer Matters, Reliability, Security and Market Operations
ELECTRIC
E-1	RM22-14-000	Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements
E-2	RM22-19-001	Incentives for AdvancedCybersecurity Investment
E-3	ER22-2355-000	GridLiance Heartland LLC
E-4	ER22-2354-000	GridLiance High Plains LLC
E-5	ER22-2353-000	Florida Power & Light Company
E-6	ER22-2466-000	Cube Yadkin Transmission LLC
E-7	ER22-2358-001	Versant Power
E-8	ER22-2304-000	Nevada Power Company
E-9	ER22-2307-000	Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Company
E-10	ER21-2592-000	Pacific Gas and Electric Company
	ER21-2592-001
	EL23-24-000 (not consolidated)	CXA La Paloma, LLC v. California Independent System Operator Corporation
E-11	EL23-69-000	Secure-the-Grid Coalition
E-12	EL23-43-000	arGo Partners GP LLC
E-13	EL23-41-000	arGo Partners GP LLC
E-14	ER23-729-001	PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
	EL23-19-001
HYDRO
H-1	P-2290-124	Southern California Edison Company
H-2	P-14634-007	New England Hydropower Company, LLC
CERTIFICATES
C-1	CP22-25-000	Venture Global Calcasieu Pass, LLC
C-2	CP20-55-000	Port Arthur LNG Phase II, LLC and PALNG Common Facilities Company, LLC
C-3	CP22-2-000	Gas Transmission Northwest LLC
C-4	CP22-494-000	Boardwalk Storage Company, LLC
C-5	CP22-15-000	Texas Eastern Transmission, LP
C-6	CP22-466-000	WBI Energy Transmission, Inc.
C-7	CP22-138-000	Northern Natural Gas Company
C-8	CP22-461-000	Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC

EPA will hold a virtual public hearing on June 13, 14 and 15, 2023, to provide the public the opportunity to present comments and information regarding the Agency’s proposal for carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Hearing dates

• Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM Eastern Time
• Wednesday, June 14, 2023, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM Eastern Time
• Thursday, June 15, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Eastern Time

Register to speak by visiting this link

Registration closes June 6, 2023. Each speaker will have 4 minutes to speak.

Those who wish to listen but not speak at the hearing do not need to register. A link to view the hearing will be available here before the hearing begins.

EPA considers all comments equally, whether submitted in writing to the docket, or given orally at a public hearing. EPA will take written comment on the proposal until July 24, 2023.

Background:

EPA is proposing Clean Air Act standards and guidelines to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel-fired power plants based on cost-effective and available control technologies. The proposals would set limits for new gas-fired combustion turbines, existing coal, oil and gas-fired steam generating units, and certain existing gas-fired combustion turbines.

Consistent with EPA’s traditional approach to establishing pollution standards for power plants under section 111 of the Clean Air Act, the proposed standards are based on technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration/storage, low-GHG hydrogen co-firing, and natural gas co-firing, which can be applied directly to power plants that use fossil fuels to generate electricity.

As laid out in section 111 of the Clean Air Act, the proposed new source performance standards and emission guidelines reflect the application of the best system of emission reduction that, taking into account costs, energy requirements, and other statutory factors, is adequately demonstrated for the purpose of improving the emissions performance of the covered electric generating units.

Proposal and fact sheets

Hearing on the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Witness:

• David Maurstad, Assistant Administrator, Federal Insurance Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Hearing memo

Floods are the most common, most expensive, and most deadly natural disaster that communities across the United States experience. Reports reveal approximately 90 percent of all U.S. natural disasters also involve flooding from any number of sources, including inland flooding, flash floods, and flooding from seasonal storms.

While such events have long been a concern, recent experiences have shown that flooding has become both more frequent and severe. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) 50+ year old National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is by far the nation’s leading provider of flood insurance coverage, has experienced two of its top five, four of its top ten, and ten of its top 20 costliest flood events all in the last decade alone.

Previously, the NFIP dealt with only two $1+ billion flood events prior to its most costly flood, which was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since then, the NFIP has experienced eight $1+ billion flood events.

The NFIP’s last formal 5-year reauthorization expired at the end of September 2017. Since then, the NFIP has been subject to three brief lapses and 25 short-term extensions, nearly all of which have been enacted as a part of the congressional appropriations process and not through legislation initiated by the Financial Services Committee.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) presents findings of the new report from the Mindaroo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Public Health.

Please join for a briefing to review the findings of the new report on the impacts of plastics on human health. The authors of the report will describe the health and environmental implications of plastic at every stage of its lifecycle, including recommendations for the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty.

Thursday, April 27th, 2:00pm ET 406 Dirksen Senate Office Building

RSVP

On Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. PDT, at the World Ag Expo, 4500 S Laspina St # 214, Tulare, CA 93274, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold a legislative field hearing on the following bills:

• H.R. 215 (Rep. Valadao) “Working to Advance Tangible and Effective Reforms for California Act” or the “WATER for California Act”.
• H.R. 872 (Rep. Calvert) “Federally Integrated Species Health Act” or the “FISH Act”.

Hearing memo

Invited witnesses:

• Debra Haaland, Secretary, Department of the Interior (or their designees from the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
• Gina Raimondo, Secretary, Department of Commerce (or their designee from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
• Charlton Bonham, Director, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
• Tony DeGroot, Farmer, DG Bar Ranches, Hanford, California
• Aaron Fukuda, General Manager, Tulare Irrigation District, Tulare, California
• Jason Phillips, Chief Executive Officer, Friant Water Authority, Lindsay, California
• Jeff Sutton, General Manager, Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, Willows, California
• Chris White, Executive Director, San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority, Los Banos, California
• Additional witnesses TBA

H.R. 215, sponsored by the entire House California Republican delegation, extends West-wide water storage provisions such as Section 4007 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act (Subtitle J of Public Law 114-322) through December 31, 2028. Some of the projects authorized under these provisions include: Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project in California (additional 634,000 AF of storage), Sites Reservoir Storage Project in California (1.5 million AF of storage), Los Vaqueros Reservoir Phase 2 Expansion in California (additional 115,000 AF of storage), Cle Elum Pool Raise in Washington state (additional 14,600 AF of storage) and Anderson Ranch Dam Raise in Idaho (additional 29,000 AF of storage). The WIIN provision allows a non-governmental entity to request and be the non-federal partner for federally owned surface storage projects.

In addition, the bill would require the CVP and SWP to be operated consistent with the 2019 BiOps and Preferred Alternative, set during the Trump administration. The bill would allow for modification of CVP and SWP operations based on any agreement that is reached on a voluntary basis with CVP and SWP water contractors. It would also prohibit any water supply costs from being imposed on any entity due to agreements with other parties unless voluntarily agreed to.

In addition, the bill would require the federal government to provide the maximum amount of water practicable to CVP and SWP water contractors consistent with the 2019 BiOps. The bill includes safeguards for SWP water contractors. Specifically, if California reduces water supplies to SWP water contractors as a result of actions directed by H.R. 215, then any increase of water supplies received by CVP water contractors must be divided between the two projects. H.R. 215 would amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, P.L. 117-58) to make the Shasta Dam Raise eligible to receive water storage project funding in that law. IIJA included $1.15 billion for storage projects but made the Shasta Project ineligible. Lastly, it would direct the Secretary of the Interior to complete the fish, wildlife, and habitat restoration programs required under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA or P.L. 102-575) within 2 years of enactment of this Act.

H.R. 872, authored by Representative Calvert (R-CA), has six cosponsors: Reps. Jim Costa (DCA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Mike Simpson (RID) and Michelle Steele (R-CA). H.R. 872 would consolidate the ESA functions of NOAA and the Department of the Interior (Interior) relating to the conservation of anadromous and catadromous fish, making Interior solely responsible for managing these species. This legislation will allow one wildlife management agency (USFWS) to evaluate impacts on species interacting in a shared ecosystem and determine a holistic management approach.

Mighty Earth and The Sunrise Project host a media webinar which will explain the importance of addressing the climate and human rights impacts across auto supply chains and the likely impact the industry could have on curbing emissions.

Many of the big manufacturers are heavily promoting their electric vehicles (EVs), but green motoring means more than just going electric. New analysis for the industry evaluates 18 of the world’s leading automakers on their efforts to eliminate emissions, environmental harm, and human rights violations from their supply chains. It found that although several big brands are sourcing fossil-free aluminum and steel, over half have shown no progress on steel, the biggest industrial metal climate culprit. Worryingly, two thirds have no commitment to Indigenous or First Nation rights in their supply chains for aluminum, steel and lithium for electric batteries.

This timely online media event will explain the importance of addressing the climate and human rights impacts across auto supply chains and the likely impact the industry could have in curbing emissions. The webinar is geared towards both specialist and non-specialist media; panelists will explain the broader impact the auto industry could have on driving down global emissions if all components in the auto supply chain were sourced and manufactured sustainably.

In the second half of the session, panelists will take questions from the media. All discussions will be on the record.

Panelists:

• Jim Wormington, Human Rights Watch
• Kate R. Finn, First Peoples Worldwide
• Glenn Hurowitz, Mighty Earth
• Chris Alford, The Sunrise Project
• Laura Murphy, Sheffield Hallam University

On Wednesday, March 29, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ( FERC) is hosting a so-called Environmental Justice Forum throughout the day. Because we don’t think that the FERC forum will produce the results frontline advocates require nor was the event organized to ensure frontline and community-based organizations were truly respected, heard, and included, we’re hosting our own Peoples’ Environmental Justice Roundtable from 5-7p at Busboys & Poets, 450 K St NW, in Washington, DC and online to uplift the voices of communities that are impacted everyday by FERC’s decisions (food and music 5-6p, panel from 6-7p).

At the Peoples’ EJ Roundtable, we’ll spotlight the amazing work happening to challenge the rush to build new LNG and pipelines led by people from frontline communities who are building toward a future without LNG. Leaders will speak about their communities and will have space to reflect on what occurred during the day at the FERC event. Come enjoy great music, food, and conversation as we work toward a day where FERC is an agency that centers climate and environmental justice in its decision making.

Please join us to listen to and support our frontline leaders.

If your organization is interested in crossposting the livestream, please email [email protected]