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EPA LOOKS TO LEAD ON LEAD: The Environmental Protection Agency wants to avoid another Flint, and it’s pointing to its new lead and copper rule as a major step to attack the root of the problem.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is unveiling the proposal during an event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, this afternoon.
The proposal could be a major step in reducing lead in drinking water across the country, especially if it prompts greater replacement of lead service lines. The EPA’s rule would be the first major overhaul of federal protections for lead in drinking water in two decades, and it is part of the Trump administration’s broader strategy to address lead poisoning launched last year.
“Our proposal would ensure that more water systems proactively take actions to prevent lead exposure, especially in schools, child care facilities, and the most at-risk communities,” Wheeler said in a statement.
Environmentalists, though, say the EPA’s proposal wouldn’t go far enough and could actually slow the replacement of lead service lines. And the agency hasn’t yet detailed how it would enforce the new regulation.
What the regulation would do: Wheeler said the EPA’s proposal targets lead in drinking water “by improving protocols for identifying lead, expanding sampling, and strengthening treatment requirements.”
Lead, a heavy metal that had been used for decades in pipes and paint, is known to cause learning disabilities, slower growth, and other health problems, particularly in children. Lead can get into communities’ drinking water supply when water isn’t treated properly and lead service pipes corrode.
The EPA, in its proposal, would require water systems to update a public inventory of where lead service lines are. Water systems would also have to address sources of lead if a home is found to have lead levels in its drinking water exceeding 15 parts per billion.
The EPA is also adding a new “trigger level” of 10 parts per billion, meaning water systems would have to start taking action sooner to treat sources of lead.
Will it prevent another Flint? The answer to that question comes down to how the EPA would enforce its new proposal, experts say.
Asking water systems to proactively act in “good faith” isn’t enough, Carl Reeverts, former deputy director of the EPA’s drinking water protection division, said, adding there should be consequences if a violation occurs. The EPA hasn’t yet said how it’s “going to make sure a water system complies with the requirements,” he said.
Replacing lead service lines is also incredibly expensive, and water systems would benefit from federal help to cover the cost, said Reeverts, who worked at the EPA for more than three decades.
Wheeler, in his statement, said the EPA intends to work with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure states and cities can tap into federal funding options to help replace lead service lines and conduct treatment.
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MICHAEL BLOOMBERG SAYS CITIES CAN HELP US MEET PARIS CLIMATE GOAL: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and eight other U.S. mayors released a policy “playbook” Thursday for how cities can cut emissions from the transportation and building sectors.
The mayors say if the largest 100 U.S. cities took these recommended actions, total combined emissions between them would fall 28.5%, helping the U.S. meet its Paris climate agreement goals. Bloomberg said 25 U.S. cities are already taking his proposed actions through his American Cities Climate Challenge, which his philanthropy has provided with $70 million in funding.
“Our Climate Action Playbook will help spread their successes to other cities across the U.S. and the world, drawing on the proven policies and programs that are reducing emissions, strengthening infrastructure, and improving public health,” Bloomberg said at the conclusion of the 2019 C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen.
Policies proposed by Bloomberg and the other mayors include implementing energy efficiency projects in municipal facilities; purchasing renewable energy to meet municipal electricity demand; installing electric vehicle charging at municipal parking lots; electrifying city buses; and implementing new financing programs for efficiency, renewables, and infrastructure that encourages private sector lending.
COAL INDUSTRY PICKS A FIGHT WITH NATURAL GAS OVER CLIMATE CHANGE: Increasing natural gas use is making tackling climate change harder, according to a new attack from — you guessed it — the coal industry.
Count on Coal, a project of the National Mining Association, released a blog post Wednesday arguing that “fuel switching” in the electricity sector from coal to natural gas is not sufficiently reducing emissions.
“Natural gas has firmly become a leading contributor to the challenge,” the blog post says.
This is ironic because coal, of course, is the dirtier fossil fuel, and gas replacing coal is the biggest contributor to U.S. emissions’ declines over the last decade.
Emissions technology is more important: But the coal industry says improvements in technologies such as carbon capture, which can be used on coal or natural gas plants and also in agriculture and industrial applications, are more important to reducing emissions than fuel switching.
“Fuel switching and targeting, and picking winners and losers was never the answer, regardless of how much natural gas boosters wanted it to be,” the post says. “The answer always has been – and remains – technology.”
The blog post notes that U.S. carbon emissions rose 3.4% in 2018 despite the closure of 40% of the nation’s coal fleet since 2010, and a near-record reduction in coal capacity last year. It cites research from the Rhodium Group showing increased power demand last year was met mostly by natural gas. Of course, if coal was the dominant source providing that power, emissions would have been even worse.
OIL INDUSTRY TO ‘VIGOROUSLY’ FIGHT TRUMP’S RFS CHANGES: The American Petroleum Institute rallied against the Trump administration’s recent moves to boost ethanol, vowing to “vigorously” fight what it deemed a politicized action to benefit Midwestern farmers.
“This is a political convenient departure from the previously balanced approach this administration has taken under the Renewable Fuel Standard,” Frank Macchiarola, API’s vice president of downstream and industry operations, said in a press call Thursday. “The only viable way forward is for this misguided policy to be withdrawn.”
The Trump administration lased week vowed to increase federal mandates for production of corn-based ethanol and biodiesel. The EPA is expected to issue a rulemaking in the coming weeks to formalize the proposed changes, which include expanding biofuel requirements so that more than 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol are blended into the nation’s fuel supply beginning in 2020, and expanding sales of E15.
EPA said it will continue to give economic hardship exception waivers to small refiners, but will also force large refiners to blend more biofuels to make up the difference.
Farmers’ anger has peaked over EPA’s generous use of these exemptions. API said it opposes EPA’s new plan for the exemptions.
“There is no logic in forcing competing refineries to bear the burden of decisions outside their control,” Macchiarola said.
INTERIOR MOVES TO EASE MINING OF MINERALS: The Interior Department wants to make it easier for mining companies to develop non-energy minerals on public lands.
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule Wednesday allowing for mining companies to pay lower royalty rates and other fees they provide to the federal government.
It would “streamline” the process by which producers of minerals such as soda ash, potash, phosphate, sodium, potassium, sulphur, and gilsonite could apply for a reduction in their royalty rate or rental fee. Those non-energy minerals are used in fertilizer, toothpaste, printing ink, cosmetics, and other everyday products.
Interior says the development of non-energy minerals on BLM lands contributed $13.4 billion to the national economy in fiscal 2017, and that its proposed rule would save the mining industry up to $5 million in regulatory costs over the next decade. The move is the latest by the Trump administration to highlight the U.S. dependence on imports for minerals from countries like China and Turkey, which it argues harms national security.
“It is critical that U.S. royalty rate policies do not put domestic non-energy mineral producers at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign competitors in a global economy,” said Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy, in a statement supporting the proposed rule.
LOCAL SOLAR PROGRAM HITS MILESTONE: More than 300 local governments have met the criteria for the national SolSmart program, which helps communities cut the cost of installing solar power, the program announced Thursday.
The 2016 program — funded by the Energy Department’s Solar Energy Technologies Office — targets “soft costs,” or non-hardware costs, of solar installations, by helping local governments navigate permitting, planning, and zoning requirements and improving financing mechanisms.
The Rundown
Bloomberg Backup power suppliers gain as California utilities kill lights
New York Times: Rich counties get more help to escape climate risk, new data show
Washington Post ‘Things are drying up’: On the Rio Grande, rising temperatures mean less water. Can farmers cope?
NBC News Kids take climate change fight to Alaska Supreme Court
New York Times The most detailed map of auto emissions in America
Calendar
THURSDAY | OCTOBER 10
House and Senate are out.
