http://www.wrppn.org/news/news1.cfm Western Regional Pollution Prevention Network pulls P2 headlines from national and regional media and provides links to the full text of the stories. http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=844 As U.S. EPA ramps up regulatory activities in climate change and other arenas, the agency may cut back some of its many voluntary programs in an effort to funnel resources toward regulations, a top official said this week. Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy, the agency's top air regulator, said her office would scrutinize where it is putting money and employees and consider shifting away from voluntary programs that proliferated in recent years. "I believe that we've made tremendous progress with the voluntary programs, but if we're going to begin to regulate more effectively, some of the voluntary programs may no longer be the priority issues and we may want to shift resources," McCarthy told a panel of EPA air quality advisers at a meeting in Arlington, Va., this week. "There are many areas where the past administrations have been less willing to move forward with regulatory requirements, and we are willing and they are the better strategy, so that means we need to relook at what we do," she said. McCarthy's comments come as the air office plows forward with initiatives to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and conventional air pollutants and in the wake of President Obama's proposal this week to trim EPA's fiscal 2011 budget by 3 percent from 2010 levels. Voluntary programs have proliferated across EPA's program offices, ranging from the well-known Energy Star program for household appliances to the lesser known Green Racing Initiative, which uses race cars to develop new energy efficiency measures for motor vehicles, and the Carpet America Recovery Effort, designed to increase carpet recycling and reuse. In 2008, the agency operated 46 voluntary programs, with about half of those run out of EPA's air office. While the George W. Bush administration championed such initiatives, the Obama EPA has sought to shift resources away from some of these programs as it takes on broad new regulatory initiatives. Just after taking office in March 2009, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson halted the National Environmental Performance Track Program, an initiative that rewarded corporations' voluntary pollution controls with reduced environmental inspections and less stringent regulation (Greenwire, March 16, 2009). The Bush administration had championed that program, but environmentalists denounced it as a public relations stunt. Environmentalists have applauded EPA's willingness to re-evaluate the usefulness of voluntary initiatives. John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called it "good management" to reconsider some of these initiatives. Although some of the programs can help fill regulatory gaps, others represent logical targets for elimination or contraction as EPA faces funding cuts. "It was very obvious to all observers that the Bush administration used voluntary programs as an excuse not to regulate and as an active tool to subvert regulations," Walke said in an interview. "And nowhere was that more clear than climate change." Now, Walke added, "EPA's attention is turning rightly toward regulation and mandatory reporting." Jeff Holmstead, former EPA air chief under the Bush administration, said he agreed that there are many voluntary programs at EPA that are of questionable value. "It's certainly sensible, especially given the need to reduce the size of government, to try to either eliminate or consolidate programs that have grown over time," he said. Still, Holmstead said, it would be a mistake for EPA to cut voluntary programs indiscriminately. "There are some voluntary programs that are quite successful," he said. "I hope they are successful in separating the wheat from the chaff." Holmstead disputed the notion that the Bush administration relied on or invested more in voluntary programs than any other administration, saying that officials under both Democratic and Republican administrations sought to start new programs in order to leave their mark on the agency. And once in place, those programs can be tough to cut. If the Obama administration tries to slash voluntary programs, "they will get pushback for almost anything they try to cut, because all of these programs have a constituency," Holmstead said. Some EPA voluntary programs seem safe for now, including the joint Energy Department-EPA Energy Star initiative. The program received a $2 million boost in Obama's proposed 2011 budget. "I don't want it to be a signal that we're disinvesting in our voluntary programs," McCarthy told the advisory panel, "but more of a signal that we have to look at the priorities ahead and see whether those voluntary programs should mature, whether they should change." Copyright 2010 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved. For more news on energy and the environment, Click on the Link: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=843 EPA is making $2 million available in 2010 to reduce pollution at the local level through the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program. This competitive grant program gives local communities a way to take action to reduce the toxic pollutants they face and the funding to address these risks. Applications for the CARE grants are due March 9, 2010. EPA will conduct three Webcasts to answer questions from prospective applicants about the application process on Feb. 2, 23, and 26 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CARE cooperative agreements are awarded at two levels. Level I awards range from $75,000 to $100,000, and Level II awards range from $150,000 to $300,000 each. To learn more about the CARE program, go to http://www.epa.gov/care/basic.htm#Description To apply, click on the link: Thu, 04 Feb 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=842 The nation's farmers got a big boost Wednesday when the Obama administration issued new biofuels guidelines that could open the way for large increases in the production of corn-based ethanol. The Environmental Protection Agency said new data showed that, even after taking into account increased fertilizer and land use, corn-based ethanol can yield significant climate benefits by displacing conventional gasoline or diesel fuel. Click on the link to read the complete article: Thu, 04 Feb 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=841 While I was out and about in Berkeley, a worker from my utility, PG&E, slipped in the side gate and gave my old gas and electric meter a digital upgrade. So-called smart meters allow the two-way transmission of electricity data and will eventually let me monitor and alter my energy consumption in near real-time. I'll be able to fire up an app on my iPhone and see, for instance, a spike in watts because my son has left the lights on in his room and a laptop plugged in. Click on the link to read the complete article: Thu, 04 Feb 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=840 Under the notion that one company's trash is another's treasure, a new Web site aims to help companies be rid of unused or discarded chemicals. The Chemical Recycling Solutions exchange site allows other companies to agree to take on unwanted chemicals, according to a press release. Posting unwanted chemicals is free, but registration is required. The site has listings for acids, bases, solvents, acrylics, paints, surfactants, inks, oils and greases. The site accepts out-of-date chemicals, as well. The site eventually will add an industry forum and tips for recycling chemicals. The Obama Administration has made a point of increased scrutiny over chemicals. For instance, the EPA has rejected the right of businesses to file a confidentiality claim, known as Confidential Business Information (CBI) on the identity of chemicals. The move is expected to increase the public's access to information on chemicals. Click on the link for additional information: Wed, 03 Feb 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=839 The Obama Administration today proposed a budget of $10 billion for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This budget heeds the president's call to streamline and find efficiencies in the agency's operations while supporting the seven priority areas EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson outlined to guide EPA's work. "To meet our environmental challenges and ensure fiscal responsibility, we're proposing targeted investments in core priorities. This budget cuts spending while promoting clean air, land and water, growing the green economy and strengthening enforcement," said Administrator Jackson. "The president's budget is focused on creating the conditions that help American families, communities and small businesses thrive. Clean air, clear water and green jobs are rebuilding the foundations for prosperity in communities across the country." Budget Highlights: Cleaning up communities: This budget includes $1.3 billion to address Superfund sites that may be releasing harmful or toxic substances into the surrounding community. Cleaning up these sites improves communities' health and allows for these properties to be used for economic development. In addition, $215 million is provided to clean up abandoned or underused industrial and commercial sites that are available for alternative uses but where redevelopment may be complicated by the presence of environmental contaminants. Revitalizing these once productive properties, known as brownfields, helps communities by removing blight, satisfying the growing demand for land, and enabling economic development. EPA will focus its efforts on area-wide planning and cleanups, especially in under-served and economically disadvantaged communities. This budget also offers $27 million for EPA's new Healthy Communities Initiative. This initiative will address community water priorities; promote clean, green, and healthy schools; improve air toxics monitoring in at-risk communities; and encourage sustainability by helping to ensure that policies and spending at the national level do not adversely affect the environment and public health or disproportionally harm disadvantaged communities. Improving Air Quality: In addition to the funding provided through the Healthy Communities Initiative, this budget includes $60 million to support state efforts to implement updated National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). EPA proposed stricter air quality standards for smog and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and will work with states to help them meet those standards in the years ahead. Building Strong State and Tribal Partnerships: This budget includes $1.3 billion for state and tribal grants. State and local governments are working diligently to implement new and expanded requirements under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. New and expanded requirements include implementation of updated NAAQS and addressing emerging water quality issues such as nutrient pollution. In addition to the $25 million for greenhouse gas permitting and $60 million to support state efforts to implement updated NAAQS, the $1.3 billion for state and tribal grants includes $45 million for states to enhance their water enforcement and permitting programs. In order to help tribes move forward with implementation of environmental programs, $30 million is budgeted for a new competitive Tribal Multi-media Implementation grant program. To further enhance tribal environmental management capabilities, this budget also includes an additional $9 million for Tribal General Assistance Program grants. Taking Action on Climate Change: This budget contains more than $43 million for additional efforts to address climate change and work toward a clean energy future. EPA will implement the greenhouse gas reporting rule; provide technical assistance to ensure that any permitting under the Clean Air Act will be manageable; perform regulatory work for the largest stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions; develop standards for mobile sources such as cars and trucks; and continue research of carbon capture and sequestration technologies. Protecting America's Waters: This budget broadens efforts to clean up America's great waterbodies. It provides $63 million for efforts to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay and $17 million for the Mississippi River Basin to respond to non-point source control recommendations of the Nutrients Innovation Task Group and implement recommendations outlined in the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Action Plan. This budget also invests $3.3 billion to maintain and improve outdated water infrastructure and keep our wastewater and drinking water clean and safe. This is in addition to $6 billion in funding provided to states through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Assuring the Safety of Chemicals: This budget calls for $56 million for chemical assessment and risk review to ensure that no unreasonable risks are posed by new or existing chemicals. This budget also invests $29 million (including $15 million in grants funding) in the continuing effort to eliminate childhood lead poisoning, and $6 million to support national efforts to mitigate exposure to high-risk legacy chemicals, such as mercury and asbestos. Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism and Working for Environmental Justice: This budget contains $8 million for environmental justice programs. It targets increased brownfields investments to under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and proposes $9 million for community water priorities in the Healthy Communities Initiative, funds that will help under-served communities restore urban waterways and address water quality challenges. EPA is committed to identifying and addressing the health and environmental burdens faced by communities disproportionately impacted by pollution. This commitment is fulfilled through the agency's efforts to give people a voice in decisions that impact their lives and to integrate environmental justice in EPA programs, policies and activities. For more information, click on the link: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=837 Federal agencies spent more than $1.7 billion last year on energy-efficiency projects, increasing their environmental spend by more than an 80 percent from 2008, reports Federal Times. About two-thirds of the investments were paid for with appropriated dollars, primarily from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with the remainder financed by private-sector financing arrangements, such as Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESCs), reports Federal Times. Under these programs, contractors pay for renovations upfront and are paid back over time with cost savings that result from reduced energy consumption, according to the article. Click on the link to read the complete article: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=838 Bolstering the global warming deal made at the Copenhagen talks in December, the Obama administration officially pledged that the United States would cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, reports the Baltimore Sun. President Barack Obama said at the Copenhagen talks that the U.S. would stick with its previously announced reduction targets of cutting GHG emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Click on the link to read the complete article: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=835 EPA has issued a long-awaited final stormwater rule, impacting nearly every construction and development project in the United States. The rule, published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2009, for the first time imposes an enforceable numeric limit on stormwater discharges from large construction sites, requires monitoring to ensure compliance with the numeric limit, and requires nearly all construction sites to implement a range of erosion and sediment controls and pollution prevention measures. While the non-numeric effluent limitations will apply to every construction site over one acre when the rule takes effect on February 1, 2010, the numeric limit and associated monitoring requirements applicable to large sites will be phased in over four years. Click on the link to read the article: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=836 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") has issued a Clean Water Act Enforcement Action Plan ("CWA Action Plan"), which promises to overhaul and increase federal and state water quality enforcement, particularly against concentrated animal feeding operations, industrial and construction sites, and municipal separate stormwater systems. The CWA Action Plan proposes (1) targeted enforcement at the most important water pollution problems, including both point and non-point pollution sources; (2) strengthened oversight of state water quality compliance and enforcement, including possible direct EPA action where state enforcement is perceived as lacking; and (3) improved transparency and accountability, including mandatory nationwide electronic reporting of water quality permit data and reports. EPA has not settled on particular targets, but is expected to focus on mining companies, large livestock farms, municipal wastewater treatment plants, and construction companies. Click on the link to read the complete article: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=834 New air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are expected to help limit exposure to smog produced by industrial plants and automobiles. The new one-hour standard for NO2 is set at 100 parts per billion, reports Reuters. The goal is to prevent short-term exposures in urban communities and areas near roadways, said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. The American Petroleum Institute accused the EPA of over-regulating air quality standards for political reasons, stating that "there is no significant evidence" that the new short-term standard is necessary to protect human health. The limits apply to communities of more than 500,000. The EPA will put smog monitors near roadways in such locations. Earlier this month, the EPA began considering a standard that would limit pollution concentrations in the range of 0.60 to 0.70 parts per million, as measured over an eight-hour period. That compares to 0.75 parts per million standard as applied by the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration directed the EPA to reconsider the smog rules in September. Regional efforts to reduce NO2 emissions appear to be working. In 2009, summertime nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and large industrial sources were down by 62 percent compared to year 2000 levels and 75 percent lower than in 1990 thanks to a cap-and-trade program in 20 eastern states and the District of Columbia, according to a report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Click on the link to read the article: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=833 Thousands of energy efficiency appliance rebates are available, including $300 million for state 'cash for appliances' programs. Find out about available cash rebates on new ENERGY STAR-qualified appliances. Please click on the link to learn more: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST http://www.wrppn.org/News/NewsItem.cfm?ID=831 EPA is strengthening its hazardous waste shipment regulations with other countries and internally. The new measures will increase the level of regulatory oversight, and provide stricter controls to ensure that procedures are done in an environmentally sound manner. EPA's new measures will make U.S. international shipment regulations more consistent with those of the international Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of which the U.S. is a member. This rule will become effective on July 7 in all states. For information on the final rule, click on the link: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 0:0:0 CST