International

Bloomberg
BNA * Environment
Reporter
VOL. 37, NO. 5 PAGES 277 - 344 FEBRUARY 26, 2014

HIGHLIGHTS BNA INSIGHTS

Belgium Provisionally Adopts Nanosubstance Reporting BIOCIDES: The European Union

Belgium will become the second European Union country to require manda Biocidal Products Regulation
tory reporting of substances containing nanomaterials if a provisional govern dramatically changes the way
ment decision is confirmed by the Belgian Council of State. The Belgian gov biocidal active substances and
ernment has agreed to establish a register of nanomaterials and to require products are regulated under
companies that sell substances containing nanomaterials to submit notifica European law. Companies
tions to the register starting Jan. 1, 2016. The obligation would be extended to exporting to the EU must ensure
chemical mixtures containing nanomaterials on Jan. 1, 2017. Page 293 that supply chains and product
designs are compliant with the
South Korea Unveils Enforcement Rules for Chemical Safety Legislation
regulation. This article by
Two key pieces of South Korean chemical safety legislation that were ap Andrew R. Bourne, Lara A. Hall
proved by the National Assembly in 2013 but faced prolonged government- and Lisa R. Burchi presents a
industry deliberations over implementation rules will be finalized as early as snapshot of industry norms and
April and take effect in 2015. Decree and rule provisions provide enforcement anticipates how standard prac
details for the law on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals and the re tices will be affected by the
vised Toxic Chemicals Control Act. Page 318
regulation. Page 333
Canada Proposes Toxic Designation For Petroleum Substances
Canada wants to designate 44 petroleum and refinery gas substances as toxic ALSO IN THE NEWS
based on their carcinogenicity. Environment Canada and Health Canada hope
to designate as toxic 40 site-restricted petroleum and refinery gas (PRG) sub
stances, and four industry-restricted PRG substances that are transported out CLIMATE CHANGE: Top Chinese
side the facilities where they are produced, but which do not reach the public leaders and U.S. Secretary of
market in their original form. Page 297 State John Kerry discuss actions
both countries could take to
EU Chemicals Agency Limits Read-Across Alternative to Animal Tests address climate change ahead of
Companies that want to use a read-across alternative to animal tests when a 2015 international conference
providing data about a substance under the European Union's REACH chemi in Paris, where both nations
cals law must rigorously justify their rationale on a case-by-case basis. The hope to complete an "ambi
ruling comes from the European Chemical Agency's (ECHA's) Board of Ap tious" international agreement.
peal, which rejected U.S. company Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc's ap Page 326
peal of a decision requiring it to carry out a series of animal and in-vitro tests
to provide data about vinyl 2-ethylhexanoate. Page 286
REFERENCE FILE
European Parliament Approves Car C02 Emissions Cut by 2021
The European Parliament confirms a deal with European Union member
states on a regulation that will limit carbon dioxide emissions from new pas FEBRUARY SUPPLEMENT: This
senger cars sold in the bloc to 95 grams per kilometer (152 grams per mile) on supplement includes four
average by 2021. Lawmakers in a European Parliament plenary session over revised European Union docu
whelmingly back the regulation, which will succeed a current regulation that ments, updated tables of con
limits Pnvate car carbon dioxide emissions to 135 g/km on average, phased in tents for the EU General and EU
between 2012 and 2015. Page 283 Waste tabs, four new documents
for Mexico, and updated pro
Nebraska Court Strikes Down Law Expediting Keystone XL Route file material for Denmark.
A Nebraska court strikes down legislation enacted in 2012 that paved the wav
tor state approval of a proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline The leg-

COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. INC. ISSN 0149-8738

278 (Vol. 37, No. 5)

HIGHLIGHTS International Environment Reporter

Chairman:
Continued from previous page Paul N. Wojcik
CEO and President:
Gregory C. McCaefery
islation created an expedited method for evaluating and approving proposed Vice President and Group Publisher.
pipeline routes through the state, vesting in the state Department of Environ Robert Smew
mental Quality and the governor the power to grant final approval. But the
court says the power to evaluate and approve oil pipeline routes falls within Director, EHS News: Larry Pearl
the constitutionally enumerated powers of the state Public Service Commis Managing Editor: Larry Pearl
sion. Page 304 Editors: Patricia Henry, Susan Mclnerney,
John Small, Frank White III
Washington State Breaks With Federal Regulators on Coal Export Plans Reporters: Anthony Adragna, Pat Rizzuto,
Dean Scott, Andrea Vittorio
The Washington Department of Ecology will conduct a detailed environmen
Reference File: Terence Hyland, Managing
tal analysis of cumulative and indirect impacts of a proposed coal export Editor; Editors: Rebecca S. Fribush,
facilityincluding greenhouse gas emissions from combustion of U.S. coal in Brigitta K. Robinson
Asia. Officials laid out the scope of the state environmental impact study for Indexing: J. Kelley Summers, Manager;
Millennium Bulk Terminals, one of three proposed coal export facilities in the Christine A. Cacic
Northwest that cumulatively would more than match the total of 107 million Correspondents: Paul Connolly, Chief; Rita
tons of coal exported from the U.S. in 2011. The proposals have sparked in M. McWilliams, Asst. Chief; Argentina,
David Haskel; Australia, Murray Griffin;
tense opposition from grassroots groups, tribes and environmental organiza Brazil, Michael Kepp; Canada, Jeremy
tions. Page 306 Hainsworth, Peter Menyasz; Chile, Tom
Azzopardi; China, Leslie Pappas, Michael
Standaert; Colombia, Mike Ceaser; Czech
Doctors Want Global Policies to Address Children's Brain Disorders Republic, Eva Munk; European Union,
Stephen Gardner; France, Rick Mitchell;
Industrial chemicals cause such a worldwide burden of cognitive disorders Germany, Jabeen Bhatti; Greece, Christine
that testing, regulation and other prevention strategies are needed, say two Pirovolakis; India, Amrit Dhillon, Madhur
Singh; Israel, Jenny David; Italy, Eric
physicians who have influenced international chemical policies. "Strong evi Lyman; Japan, Toshio Aritake; Kenya,
dence exists that industrial chemicals widely disseminated in the environment Wachira Kigotho; Mexico, Ivan Castano;
are important contributors to what we have called the global, silent pandemic New Zealand, Eduard Goldberg; Nordic
States, Marcus Hoy; Peru, Lucien
of neurodevelopmental toxicity," write Philippe Grandjean, an adjunct envi Chauvin; Poland, Bogdan Turek; Russia,
ronmental health professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Philip Sergei Blagov, Jenny Johnson; South
Korea, James Lim; Spain, Brett Allan
Landrigan, a pediatrician from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, in Lancet King; Switzerland, Daniel Pruzin; Taiwan,
Neurology. Page 332 Yu-Tzu Chiu; Thailand, Michael Mackey;
Turkey, Steve Dorsey United Arab
Emirates, Toula Murphy; United Kingdom,
U.S. Says Paris Climate Deal Should be 'Built to Last' Ali Qassim.
The U.S. says the global climate deal to be reached in Paris in 2015 should en
The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
sure that future changes don't require formally reopening the accord for more 1801 South Bell Street
rounds of multiyear negotiations. The U.S. was the first nation to submit to the Arlington, VA 22202-4501
UN its suggested outline of the global accord, which is to go into effect by the Telephone: (703) 341-3000
end of 2020 and is to require action on climate change from both developed Correspondence concerning editorial
and developing nations. Page 325 content should be directed to the
managing editor at the address
above or by e-mail at
EU Chemicals Agency Warns On 'Intermediate' Status Dossiers environmentalnewsQi bna.com.
For customer support, documents & research
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will continue to screen REACH reg call (800) 372-1033 or (703) 341-3000, or
istration dossiers that claim "intermediate" status, following an initial exer email customercareliibna.com.
cise that led to legally binding information requests and potential enforcement Copyright Policy: Authorization to
action against 46 registrants. ECHA says a program of checks on dossiers for photocopy selected pages for internal or
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Outside Events Could Drive UN Multilateral Climate Talks in 2014 http:/Avww.bna.com/corp/copyright or call
The latest round of United Nations negotiations on the 2015 global agreement (703) 341-3316.
on climate change begin March 10 in Bonn, a five-day set of talks that observ International Environment Reporter
ers say will be affected by events outside the UN process. Negotiators will try (ISSN: 0149-8738) is published biweekly
except Christmas week at Arlington, VA
to reach consensus on the scope of the 2015 accord and will look for ways to by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
motivate countries to take steps to reduce emissions and make adaptation ef POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
forts easier before 2020, when the 2015 treaty is scheduled to take effect. International Environment Reporter, BNA
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Among the issues to be discussed are the form of binding steps countries will Metro Ctr, Suite 250, Bethesda, MD 20814.
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verifying steps taken, technology transfer and finance-related issues. Page 325

2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738

In This Issue
Europe / Page 283
The Americas / Page 297
Asia/Pacific / Page 313
Middle East / Page 324
TOPICAL INDEX
AIR POLLUTION China to fight pollution with $1.65
billion fund, cut coal use, state council decides 314
Hong Kong shipping industry continues voluntary
action on lower sulfur fuels 323
India court orders governments to respond to report
on Delhi vehicular air pollution 321
Singapore plans to change two taxes to boost use of
cleaner-burning vehicles 322
AVIATION Sinopec obtains China's first license for
production of airline-grade biofuel 317
BIOTECHNOLOGY European Commission rejects
appeal by 12 nations to block new strain of corn 288
Use of modified crops shrinks in industrialized
n a t i o n s f o r fi r s t t i m e , r e p o r t s a y s 3 3 1
Russia nears creation of legal basis to support
b i o e n e r g y, g r e e n c h e m i s t r y i n d u s t r i e s 2 9 1
BUDGET Canadian federal budget increases pipeline
review agency funding, cuts offshore tariffs 299
Japan ministry proposes 11 percent cut in
environmental spending in fiscal 2014 319
CLIMATE CHANGE Climate expert says new Danish
law could face changes after 2015 elections 294
Environmental group: Italy on track to meet 2020
emissions reduction goals
European Parliament approves regulation to tighten
car carbon dioxide limit by 2021 283
International coalition asks oil, gas companies to
voluntarily cut methane leaks 330
Kerry says U.S. becoming world leader in emissions
s t a n d a r d s f o r c o a l - fi r e d p l a n t s 3 2 0
North American leaders pledge to work together to
curb climate change, emissions 303
Outside events could drive first UN multilateral
climate talks in 2014
Paris climate deal should be 'built to last,' U.S. says
in submission on 2015 negotiation 325
U.S., China discuss ways to reach 'ambitious'
climate change pact in 2015
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 279
International / Page 325
BNA Insights / Page 333
Journal / Page 340
Policy/Legal Roundup / Page 342
EMISSIONS TRADING EU countries give final
approval to emissions trading fix through 2020 283
Most Australian companies meet first-year carbon
price obligations 322
ENDANGERED SPECIES Canadian ministers acted
unlawfully on species protection plans, court rules 302
ENERGY Brazil wind developers expected to
welcome suspended rule at next energy auction 309
British Columbia may increase funding for
assessments of LNG, other projects 301
China tabs cities, provinces, industrial parks for
low-carbon, new-energy projects 314
Chinese-owned firm presses constitutional claim
before U.S. court in wind farm case 327
DOE approves license for liquefied natural gas
export terminal in Louisiana 308
EU officials say low U.S. energy prices might justify
German subsidies to industry 284
FERC approves expansion of Sabine Pass liquefied
natural gas export terminal 308
Israeli planning council approves few applications
to build wind farms 324
Nebraska court strikes down legislation that paved
way for Keystone XL route 304
Oregon regulators issue three permits for coal
export proposal 307
294
Washington state breaks with federal regulators to
analyze coal export plans 306
ENFORCEMENT Chile fines copper mine for
noncompliance with archaeological protection plan ... 311
Chile proposes $4 million fine against Kinross Gold
over license breaches 3 11
China vows greater enforcement push in
environmental protection effort 313
European Commission launches legal action against
325 U.K. over nitrogen dioxide pollution 292
Russian enforcement agency, courts taking tough
stance on industrial pollution 289
GENERAL POLICY China releases draft methods,
326 strategies for cleaner production in nine industries .... 313
BNA 2-26-14
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Two prominent doctors say global policies vital to

TOPICAL INDEX
Continued from previous page
China to standardize management of water, soil
conservation fees 316
Senate confirms U.S. environmental official 312
Water, air quality, EU enviromental talks among
priorities for Italy's new government 293
HAZMAT TRANSPORT Canada's railways apply
surcharges to crude oil transport in older tank cars .... 298
MARITIME AFFAIRS Canada eases rules for disposal
of dredged material
MINING Canada proposes rules to let gold mine use
more water bodies for waste disposal 302
Canada proposes to continue tax credits for mineral
exploration
MOTOR VEHICLES China to cut government
subsidies for buying alternative energy vehicles 315
NANOTECHNOLOGY Belgium provisionally adopts
nanosubstance reporting
NATURAL RESOURCES Swiss government proposes
to promote green economy, preserve resources 295
address children's brain disorders 332
TRADE Lawmakers press USTR on enforcement of
trans-Pacific pact's environment chapter 306
Solar unfair trade cases targeting China, Taiwan
move forward with ITC vote 326
U.S. trade representative announces public interest
trade advisory committee 328
WATER POLLUTION Swedish tests show drinking
water sources polluted by firefighting foam 295
U.S.-Mexico water, wastewater funds drop despite
w a t e r q u a l i t y, p u b l i c h e a l t h b e n e fi t s 3 0 3
312 WATER RESOURCES China expected to boost
spending to improve water quality 316
Dwindling water supplies challenge Brazilian
municipalities because of drought 310
300
BNA INSIGHTS
EUROPEAN UNION EU biocidal products regulation
293 and its impact on industry: A practical briefing .... 333
COUNTRY INDEX

OCEANS Canada boosts surveillance for offshore

pollution
RECYCLING Japan to set food waste reduction
targets for producers, restaurants, distributors 320
RENEWABLE ENERGY China pushes for dialogue on
trade of solar cells as U.S. continues probe 317
SOLID WASTE EU says package of waste proposals
could include plastic recycling targets 288
SUSTAINABIL1TY Podesta says corporate
sustainability important to post-2015 development
agenda
TOXIC SUBSTANCES Australia releases assessments
of chemicals' health, environmental risks 322
Canadian agencies propose toxic designation for 44
p e t r o l e u m , r e fi n e r y g a s s u b s t a n c e s 2 9 7
Canadian chemicals sector reports progress 312
Canadian government proposes designating
fracking component ethylbenzene as toxic 298
EU Chemicals Agency appeal board rejects
company plea on substance tests 286
EU Chemicals Agency gives final warnings for
dossiers claiming 'intermediate' status 285
EU Chemicals Agency to host online sessions 296
EU committee on consumer safety calls for
comments on nano silica in cosmetics 287
EU process under way for gathering data on
substitutes for hazardous biocidals 286
South Korea unveils enforcement rules for new
chemical safety legislation 318
312 AUSTRALIA Assessments of chemicals' health,
environmental risks released
Modified crops shrink in industrialized nations for
322
j
fi r s t t i m e , i n d u s t r y r e p o r t s a y s 3 3 1
Most companies meet first-year carbon price
obligations 322
BELGIUM Nation provisionally adopts
nanosubstance reporting; EU panel blocks label
exemption 293
329 BRAZIL Dwindling water supplies challenge
municipalities because of drought 310
Use of modified crops shrinks in industrialized
n a t i o n s f o r fi r s t t i m e , r e p o r t s a y s 3 3 1
Wind developers expected to welcome suspended
rule at next energy auction 309
CANADA Agencies propose toxic designation for 44
p e t r o l e u m , r e fi n e r y g a s s u b s t a n c e s 2 9 7
British Columbia may increase funding for
assessments of LNG, other projects 301
Chemicals sector reports progress 312
Continued tax credits proposed for mineral
exploration 300
Federal budget increases pipeline review agency
funding, cuts offshore tariffs 299
Government proposes designating tracking
component ethylbenzene as toxic
Ministers acted unlawfully on species protection
298 J
plans, court rules 302

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 (Vol. 37, No. 5) 281

Use of modified crops shrinks in industrialized Committee on consumer safety calls for comments
on nano silica in cosmetics 287
National railways apply surcharges to crude oil Countries give final approval to emissions trading
C n a t i o n s f o r fi r s t t i m e , r e p o r t s a y s 3 3 1
transport in older tank cars 298 fi x through 2020 283
North American leaders pledge to work together to EU says package of waste proposals could include
curb climate change, emissions 303 plastic recycling targets 288
Rules eased for disposal of dredged material 312 Officials say low U.S. energy prices might justify
German subsidies to industry 284
Rules proposed to let gold mine use more water
bodies for waste disposal 302 Parliament approves regulation to tighten car
carbon dioxide limit by 2021 283
Surveillance boosted for offshore pollution 312
Process under way for gathering data on substitutes
CHILE Copper mine fined for noncompliance with for hazardous biocidals 286
a r c h a e o l o g i c a l p r o t e c t i o n p l a n 3 11
GERMANY EU officials say low U.S. energy prices
Fine of $4 million proposed against Kinross Gold
might justify German subsidies to industry 284
over license breaches 3 11
Outside events could drive first UN multilateral
CHINA Chinese-owned firm presses constitutional climate talks in 2014 325
claim before U.S. court in wind farm case 327
HONG KONG Shipping industry continues voluntary
Cities, provinces, industrial parks tabbed for action on lower sulfur fuels 323
low-carbon, new-energy projects 314
INDIA Court orders governments to respond to
Country to fight pollution with $1.65 billion fund,
cut coal use, state council decides 314 report on Delhi vehicular air pollution 321

Dialogue sought on trade of solar cells as U.S. INDONESIA Kerry says U.S. becoming world leader
continues probe 317 in emissions standards for coal-fired plants 320
Draft methods, strategies released for cleaner ISRAEL Planning council approves few applications
production in nine industries 313 to build wind farms 324
Government subsidies for buying alternative energy ITALY Environmental group: Italy on track to meet
2020 emissions reduction goals 294
C v Greater
e h i c lenforcement
es t opush vowed
b e in environmental
cut 315 Water, air quality, EU enviromental talks among
protection effort 313 priorities for Italy's new government 293
Kerry says U.S. becoming world leader in emissions JAPAN Food waste reduction targets to be set for
s t a n d a r d s f o r c o a l - fi r e d p l a n t s 3 2 0
producers, restaurants, distributors 320
Management of water, soil conservation fees to be
standardized 31 g Ministry proposes 11 percent cut in environmental
spending in fi s c a l 2014 319
Nation expected to greatly boost spending to
improve water quality, protect resources 316 KOREA (SOUTH) Enforcement rules unveiled for new
chemical safety legislation 313
Sinopec obtains China's first license for production
of airline-grade biofuel 317 MEXICO North American leaders pledge to work
Solar unfair trade cases targeting China, Taiwan together to curb climate change, emissions 303
move forward with ITC vote 326 U.S.-Mexico water, wastewater funds drop despite
w a t e r q u a l i t y, p u b l i c h e a l t h b e n e fi t s 3 0 3
U.S., China discuss ways to reach 'ambitious'
climate change pact in 2015 326 NORWAY EU says package of waste proposals could
DENMARK Climate expert says new law could face include plastic recycling targets 288
changes after 2015 elections 294 RUSSIA Enforcement agency, courts seen taking
EUROPEAN UNION Belgium provisionally adopts tough stance on industrial pollution 289
nanosubstance reporting 293 Nation nears creation of legal basis to support
Chemicals agency appeal board rejects company b i o e n e r g y, g r e e n c h e m i s t r y i n d u s t r i e s 2 9 1
plea on substance tests 286 SINGAPORE City-state plans to change two taxes to
Chemicals agency gives final warnings for dossiers boost use of cleaner-burning vehicles 322
claiming'intermediate'status 285 SWEDEN Tests show drinking water sources
Chemicals agency to host online sessions 296 polluted by firefighting foam compounds 295
Commission launches legal action against U.K. over SWITZERLAND Government proposes to promote
._,- nitrogen dioxide pollution 292 g r e e n e c o n o m y, p r e s e r v e r e s o u r c e s 2 9 5
Commission rejects appeal by 12 nations to block
new strain of corn 2s TAIWAN China pushes for dialogue on trade of solar
cells as U.S. continues probe 3]7
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
BNA 2-26-14
282 (Vol. 37, No. 5)

Paris climate deal should be 'built to last,' U.S. says

COUNTRY INDEX
in submission on 2015 negotiation 325
Continued from previous page

Solar unfair trade cases targeting China, Taiwan

move forward with ITC vote 326 NOTICE
UNITED KINGDOM European Commission launches This issue of International Environment
legal action over nitrogen dioxide pollution 292 Reporter consists of two sections: Section 1, Cur
UNITED STATES EU officials say low U.S. energy rent Reports; Section 2, Reference File.
prices might justify German subsidies to industry 284
Kerry says U.S. becoming world leader in emissions
s t a n d a r d s f o r c o a l - fi r e d p l a n t s 3 2 0

2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738

Europe
Emissions Trading
EU Countries Give Final Approval
To Emissions Trading Fix Through 2020
tion Feb. 24 that reduces by 900 million the num
European
ber of carbon
Union member
permits tostates
be distributed
finalizedfrom
a regula
2014-
2016 to participants in the bloc's emissions trading sys
tem (ETS) and which reintroduces the allowances in
2019 and 2020.
The decision brings to an end a process that started
in November 2012 with the publication by the European
Commission, the EU's executive arm, of a plan to allow
intervention in the ETS and "backloading" of the 900
million allowances.
The commission argued that the measure was neces
sary to shore up the EU carbon price, which was too
low to encourage low-carbon investment by ETS par
ticipants (35 INER 1094, 11/20/12).
Backloading was intended to restore market confi
dence in the ETS while a longer-term reform of the sys
tem was proposed and considered. However, the back-
loading proposal proved controversial and was seen by
many EU lawmakers as unwarranted intervention in
the cap-and-trade market. The European Parliament re
jected the plan in April 2013, after which it was modi
fied and put forward again.
Formal Approval. EU ministers took the decision to fi
nally approve backloading as a formality without dis
cussion Feb. 24. According to the regulation approved
by ministers, the volume of carbon permits made avail
able to ETS participants in 2014 will be reduced by 400
million, followed by reductions of 300 million in 2015
and 200 million in 2016.
The volume of permits made available will then be in
creased by 300 million in 2019, and by 600 million in
2020, the final year of the current phase of the ETS.
Under the ETS, carbon allowances are either given to
market participants for free, or they must be purchased
at government-run auctions. Companies with too few
allowances to cover their greenhouse gas emissions
must obtain extra permits on the carbon market.
For the post-2020 period, the ETS will be reformed as
part of the discussions triggered by commission propos
als published in January, according to which the EU
should cut its emissions by 2030 by 40 percent relative
to 1990 (37 INER 146, 1/29/14).
Amendment Allowed Intervention. The regulation set
ting out details of the removals and additions of allow
ances was made possible by a separate legislative
amendment approved in December that gave the com
mission the authority to make a one-time intervention
in the ETS (37 INER 16, 1/1/14).
The low EU carbon price that necessitated the back-
loading measure was a consequence of a surplus of 2
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 283
billion allowances, according to commission estimates.
Prices have already risen from about 4 euros to more
than 7 euros ($5.49 to $ 9.61) in expectation of the final-
ization of the backloading plan.
The European Commission said in a statement Feb.
24 that it welcomed the endorsement of backloading by
EU member states and would publish information "in
the following days" on the carbon permit auctions that
will be affected by the measure.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The backloading regulation approved by EU ministers
Feb. 24 is available at http://bit.ly/lhhFYJM.
Climate Change
European Parliament Approves Regulation
To Tighten Car Carbon Dioxide Limit by 2021
deal with European Union member states on a
The regulation
European that
Parliament
will limit on
theFeb. 25 dioxide
carbon confirmed
emisa
sions from new passenger cars sold in the bloc to 95
grams per kilometer (152 grams per mile) on average
by 2021.
Lawmakers in a European Parliament plenary ses
sion in Strasbourg, France, voted 499-107, with nine ab
stentions, in favor of the regulation, which will succeed
the current standard, which limits private car carbon di
oxide emissions to 135 g/km on average, phased in be
tween 2012 and 2015 (Regulation (EC) 443/2009) (35
INER 677, 7/18/12).
The regulation has already been informally agreed to
among EU member states, represented in the EU Coun
cil, and approved by the European Parliament's envi
ronment committee. It will enter into force when ap
proved by EU member states at a forthcoming EU
Council meeting (37 INER 18, 1/1/14).
The EU's top climate official, Climate Action Com
missioner Connie Hedegaard, said in a statement that
the deal "gives the car industry planning certainty to
produce more fuel-efficient vehicles."
Hedegaard, who proposed the regulation in July
2012, said "the 95 gram target is achievable by employ
ing technologies available today." She said the Euro
pean Commission, the EU's executive arm, will "now
focus on the next step and come up with ideas for a
post-2020 target in the coming months."
Transitional Measures. Under the regulation, 95 per
cent of new passenger cars in the EU on average must
comply with the limit in 2020, and all must comply in
2021.
BNA 2-26-14
284 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
As a transitional measure, automakers will be able in
2020 to double-count very fuel-efficient vehicles (those
with emissions below 50 g/km) in the calculation of
their overall average emissions. The weighting will be
reduced in 2021 and 2022, and discontinued in 2023.
Should automakers fail to comply with the limit, they
will have to pay an "excess emissions premium" of 95
euros ($130.50) for every g/km per vehicle above 95
g/km. However, most automakers have already signifi
cantly cut their average emissions, and manufacturers
have the option to pool their emissions prior to calcula
tion of averages, so that higher-emitting vehicles are
not penalized.
The regulation also states that the European Com
mission should approve a new test procedure for ve
hicle emissions by 2017, because of concerns that cur
rent test procedures result in emissions ratings that are
unrealistic in real-world driving conditions.
Automakers on Track. Thomas Ulmer, a German
center-right lawmaker who was responsible for over
seeing the draft regulation through the European Par
liament, said that the emissions reduction to be
achieved by 2021 "represents a saving of 50 million
tonnes of C02 emissions per year," and "can help keep
Europe in the driver's seat when it comes to efficient
and innovative cars."
Greg Archer, clean vehicles manager for Transport &
Environment, an environmental advocacy group, called
the approved regulation "a good deal for the environ
ment, EU economy and driversreducing fuel use and
C02 emissions by 27 percent over six years."
"The regulation confirmed today calls for a 2025 tar
get, and new [vehicle emissions] test to be quickly in
troduced. The Commission must ensure that fierce op
position from carmakers does not delay their introduc
tion," Archer added.
According to figures published by the European En
vironment Agency (EEA) in October 2013, average
emissions of passenger cars sold in the EU in 2012, the
latest year for which data is available, stood at 132.2
g/km.
Automakers including Audi, BMW, Fiat, Ford, Peu
geot and Toyota in 2012 had already met their 2015 tar
get, while manufacturers including Daimler, GM,
Mazda and Volkswagen need to make further emission
cuts, according to the EEA figures.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The text approved by lawmakers Feb. 25 on passenger
car C02 emission limits for 2020 is available at http://
bit.ly/lmvjJ4R.
Energy
EU Officials Say Low U.S. Energy Prices
Might Justify German Subsidies to Industry
tor in determining whether the German govern
Lowment
energy
must
prices
significantly
in the U.S.
reduce
will and
be apossibly
decisiveeven
fac
pay back some of the approximately $7 billion in subsi
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
dies it provides to energy-intensive industries, say Eu
ropean Commission competition officials.
On an issue that has multiple policy implications, in
cluding trade, climate change, energy and competition
law, the commission is due in the coming months not
only to decide on to how to handle the highly sensitive
German energy subsidy issue but also lay down new
general guidelines that will steer the future of EU re
newable energy development.
Further impacting that future will be European Union
decisions on whether EU member states will have new
binding renewable energy targets.
But before the overall subsidy and renewable energy
decisions are taken in the coming months, European
Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia will have
to find a compromise with Germany in a decision that
is not only being watched closely in other EU member
states but also in the U.S.
Following a Feb. 17 meeting with German Vice Chan
cellor and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Almunia in
dicated he has begun to soften his previous position
that German or other EU-based energy-intensive indus
tries should not benefit from energy subsidies in order
to ensure fair competition in the EU single market.
'Most Important External Factor.' "External factors will
have to play a role in our decision," said Almunia. "And
the most important external factor we have to consider
is the fact that energy prices in the United States are
now as much as 30 percent less than those in Europe.
"We cannot ignore this," Almunia said. "Germany
has the strongest industries in the EU and wants to pro
mote renewables and this fits in with EU goals to re
duce carbon emissions."
The controversy in Germany stems from German en
ergy legislation known as Energiewende that poses tar
J
iffs on consumers and companies to finance guaranteed
"feed-in" tariffs for renewable energyprimarily wind,
but also solar. However, approximately 2,000 German
energy-intensive industries are exempted from the tar
iffs as their costs have risen dramatically with the Ger
man government's decision to phase out nuclear power
following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Ja
pan. These companies include two of the world's larg
est chemical companies, Bayer AG and BASF SE, as
well as industrial manufacturing giants Siemens AG
and ThyssenKrup AG.
In 2013, the commission launched a state aid investi
gation on the issue, which could conclude that the Ger
man companies currently receiving the aid will have to
pay money back. The German government recently an
nounced plans to change the Energiewende law but at
the same time announced that company energy exemp
tions for 2014 will be approximately $7 billion com
pared to $5.48 billion in 2013.
Sensitive Issue. Almunia took the unusual step of
traveling to Germany to help resolve an issue that has
become highly political. Gabriel, who recently took up
his position after his left-leaning Social Democratic
party joined a coalition government with Chancellor
Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, previously in
sisted the EU antitrust authority was trying to use the
issue to help other EU member state industries at Ger
many's expense. After the Feb. 17 meeting, rhetoric
from Gabriel was toned down but Almunia made it
clear he would not give sector-wide subsidy exemptions
as demanded by Germany.
 EUROPE
"In principle some industries can be exempt from
having to contribute to the funding of renewable ener
gies," Almunia said. "But it should be a minority of in
dustrial sectors not the whole sector."
Renewables Subsidies at Risk. Along with the policy
showdown between the commission and the German
government, the case has triggered an intense clash be
tween the EU renewable energy industry on one side,
and large German manufacturing companies along with
energy utilities in Germany and in other EU member
states on the other.
The companies and utilities want the commission to
lay down clear rules in April that end subsidies for the
renewable energya decision the wind and solar com
panies say would seriously erode investment in the sec
tor.
Parallel to the debate about subsidies for renewable
energy versus for energy-intensive industry costs is a
pending decision about EU goals for renewable energy
targets for 2030. The commission recently proposed a
27 percent increase for 2030 but did not set individual
member state targetsa decision rejected by the Euro
pean Parliament.
EU member states were due to address the issue Feb.
20-21, while EU leaders will follow up at a summit to
take place March 20-21.
LNG Exports Issue. The issue of low energy prices in
the U.S. and their impact on the competitiveness of the
EU economy, which will also be a theme at the upcom
ing summit, has a bearing on the prospective Transat
lantic Trade and Investment Partnership, as the EU is
insisting the U.S. allow for liquefied natural gas to be
exported to the EU.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht reiterated
this demand Feb. 18 after a TTIP "stock-taking" meet
ing in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Trade Representa
tive Mike Froman.
However, Almunia is also insisting that TTIP include
sector establishing rules for company subsidies, which
is another reason the upcoming decision about state aid
for German manufacturers will be highly charged.
By Joe Kirwin
To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Kirwin in
Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Heather Rothman at hrothman@bna.com
Toxic Substances
EU Chemicals Agency Gives Final Warnings
For Dossiers Claiming 'Intermediate' Status
tinue to screen REACH registration dossiers that
The claim
European
"intermediate"
Chemicals status,
Agency
following
(ECHA)
an initial
will conex
ercise that led to legally binding information requests
and potential enforcement action against 46 registrants
ECHA told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 21.
ECHA said a program of checks on dossiers for inter
mediates, which began in 2012, had still not produced
responses for 118 dossiers relating to 77 substances
submitted by the 46 registrants, and that formal notifi
cations would be sent to the companies obliging them
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 285
to update their dossiers or provide information within
one month.
In case they fail to do so, ECHA said it "will invite the
national enforcement authorities to take foWo'w-Yip ac
tions."
Intermediates are substances used only in the manu
facture of other substances. Information requirements
and registration fees for intermediates are less than for
standard substances under the European Union's
REACH law (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registra
tion, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals).
A large number of registration dossiers claiming in
termediate status for substances have also included us
age information that indicates non-intermediate use for
the substances.
In March 2013, ECHA said that an exercise to screen
2,388 dossiers found numerous, mainly minor, short
comings, and that most dossiers had been updated, in
cluding a number of updates to full registration status
(36 INER 396, 3/27/13)
Potential Breaches. ECHA said in a statement Feb. 14
that the 46 registrants for which no further information
had been received "may be in breach of the REACH
Regulation."
However, the overall outcome of the intermediates
screening exercise, which led to about 2,000 registra
tion dossiers being updated, was "a very encouraging
result both for improving the safe use of chemicals and
ensuring a level playing field on the European market,"
ECHA said.
The dossiers covered by the screening exercise were
those submitted by the first REACH registration dead
line of Nov. 30, 2010, which applied to substances
manufactured in, or imported into, the EU in annual
volumes of 1,000 metric tons or more, and to hazardous
substances at lower volumes.
However, ECHA told Bloomberg BNA by e-mail Feb.
21 that it was "also monitoring all other submitted in
termediate dossiers. Screening campaigns for these
dossiers, including those submitted for the 2013 dead
line, are scheduled to happen later in 2014 in case the
quality of the dossiers would justify such action."
The second REACH registration deadline of May 31,
2013, was for substances in the 100-1,000 ton range.
National Enforcement. ECHA added that the compa
nies and dossiers for which it had received no response
to its queries about intermediate status displayed no
particular pattern. "It seems to be a mix of different
cases," ECHA said.
ECHA has no direct enforcement powers under
REACH, but said that it would follow enforcement ac
tivities through its Forum for Exchange of Information
on Enforcement, which brings together enforcement
authorities from the EU's 28 member countries, and
non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
"ECHA has already discussed the screening of inter
mediate dossiers with the national enforcement au
thorities. As part of these discussions, the national en
forcement authorities and ECHA stay mutually in
formed," ECHA said.
Sanctions for breaches of REACH vary between EU
countries and include criminal sanctions in some coun
tries. Companies found not to be following the regula
tion could ultimately have their substance registration
numbers canceled, meaning it would be illegal for them
BNA 2-26-14
286 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
to continue to place the substance in question on the EU
market.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Information on requests to REACH registrants for fur
ther information about claimed intermediates is
available at http://bit.ly/lpl8xzi.
Toxic Substances
EU Chemicals Agency Appeal Board
Rejects Company Plea on Substance Tests
animal tests when providing data about a sub
stance as
Companies required aunder
proposing the European
read-across Union's
alternative
REACH chemicals law must rigorously justify their ra
tionale on a case-by-case basis, according to a decision
of the European Chemical Agency's (ECHA's) Board of
Appeal.
In the decision published Feb. 13 (Case A-006-2012),
the Board of Appeal rejected U.S. company Momentive
Specialty Chemicals Inc.'s appeal of an ECHA decision
requiring it to carry out a series of animal and in-vitro
tests to provide data about vinyl 2-ethylhexanoate,
which is used in a number of industrial applications, in
cluding the manufacture of rubber and plastic products.
Momentive claimed that the data could be provided
using "read-across" information based on two other
comparable vinyl esters. But ECHA said the structural
and toxicological similarity of the substances and vinyl
2-ethylhexanoate could not be established.
ECHA said in a statement that in rejecting Momen-
tive's argument, the Board of Appeal had decided that
"registrants have to show with clear reasoning and sup
porting data that the substances involved are structur
ally similar and are likely to have similar properties."
REACH (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registra
tion, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals) also
requires companies using read-across to "explain how
and why the similarity of properties is as a result of the
structural similarity," ECHA said.
According to the Board of Appeal decision, Momen
tive must provide the test data required by ECHA within
12 months.
Similar Cases. The case is similar to the rejection of
an appeal filed by Dow Benelux against an ECHA deci
sion requiring it to carry out animal tests to generate
substance data, rather than use a read-across approach.
The Board of Appeal's decision in that case was pub
lished in June 2013 (36 INER 876, 7/3/13).
However, in another case involving Honeywell Bel
gium, the ECHA Board of Appeal in April 2013 over
turned an ECHA decision requiring animal tests to be
carried out (36 INER 578, 5/8/13).
The chemicals industry has said that ECHA should be
more willing to allow non-animal test methods to pro
vide substance data, because alternative methods are
less expensive and can help fulfill a REACH objective of
minimizing animal testing (37 INER S-14, 1/1/14).
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
Under REACH, chemicals manufactured in, or im
ported into, the European Union above certain thresh
olds must be registered with ECHA, which can oblige
companies to generate additional substance data if it
considers the information provided inadequate to en
sure safe use of a substance.
Company Contrite. Momentive Specialty Chemicals
said in Feb. 14 a statement to Bloomberg BNA that it
"respects the decision of the European Chemicals
Agency's Board of Appeal and thanks the Board for its
consideration of the matter. We are committed to meet
ing our obligations under REACH, and will continue to
work closely with the authorities with respect to our
registrations."
The PETA International Science Consortium (PISC)
said in an email to Bloomberg BNA that the Board of
Appeal verdict was "disappointing" because "it may
discourage other chemical manufacturers from using
valid read-across arguments and could ultimately lead
to hundreds of thousands of additional animals being
to used."
"Although ECHA needs to be more accepting of read-
across arguments and alternative testing strategies the
outcome of this appeal clearly illustrates the need for
registrants to adequately justify their read-across argu
ments," PISC said.
PISC added that it had filed a complaint with the Eu
ropean Ombudsman "alleging that ECHA is failing to
ensure that animal testing is conducted only as a 'last
resort,' as stated in the REACH regulation."
A decision of the European Ombudsman in the Mo
mentive case is pending. The European Ombudsman in
vestigates complaints about maladministration by EU
institutions.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The ECHA Board of Appeal decision in case A-006-
2012 concerning Momentive Specialty Chemicals
is available at http://bit.ly/lnyXZ6U.
Toxic Substances
EU Process Under Way for Gathering
Data on Substitutes for Hazardous Biocidals
Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR, (EU) No. 528/
Anew2012)
process
for theintroduced by ofthe
authorization European
substances Union
in roden-
ticides, insecticides and similar products could discour
age the use of some chemicals even if they are ap
proved, according to a legal expert working on the
issue.
The regulation, finalized in 2012, introduced a re
quirement for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)
to start a 60-day public consultation for any biocidal
substance for which an authorization is sought, if that
substance meets certain hazard criteria included in the
regulation.
The aim of each consultation is to gather information
on any less-hazardous alternatives to the substance that
J>
might substitute for it in biocidal products. The require-
 EUROPE
ment to start a consultation is triggered if the assess
ment of the substance shows it to be a respiratory sen
C sitizer, if it potentially threatens human or animal
health even if very restrictive risk management mea
sures are in place or if it meets one of a number of other
criteria contained in Article 10(1) of the BPR.
Darren Abrahams, a partner with lawyers Steptoe &
Johnson, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 12 that the opening
of a consultation calling for information on potential
substitutes for a substance "is likely to bring about
changes in uses by businesses and consumerseven
before final decisions are made."
"This is one of the main reasons why EU legislators
and regulators favor this approach," Abrahams said.
Eight Consultations So Far. ECHA, which oversees the
BPR, has so far started eight consultations on potential
substitutes. Consultations on six substances
clothianidin, cybutryne, cyfluthrin, didecylmethylpo-
ly(oxyethyl) ammonium propionate, hexaflumuron and
N,N'-methylenebismorpholinewere opened Feb. 10
with an April 11 deadline for comments.
The first potential-substitutes consultation under the
BPR was for dinotefuran for use in insecticides. Dinote-
furan is a neonicotinoid insecticide produced by Ja
pan's Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
ECHA told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 12 that it received
no comments in response to the dinotefuran consulta
tion, which closed Jan. 28.
ECHA added that it had so far also received no com
ments on glutaraldehyde, for which a consultation was
started Dec. 17 and will close Feb. 15.
Glutaraldehyde is a disinfectant and preservative.
Under the EU's REACH regulation (Regulation No.
1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation, and authori
zation of chemicals), registrations for glutaraldehyde
have been issued to BASF and Dow Benelux, according
to the ECHA database of REACH registered substances.
'Impossible to Predict' Number. ECHA added that it
was "impossible to predict" the number of substances
per year for which a consultation will be started, but
that it expected a consultation to be triggered for about
half of the substances for which approval or reapproval
is requested under the BPR.
Under the BPR, assessments of biocidal substances
for which approval is sought are done by nominated EU
member nation authorities. For example, the assess
ment of dinotefuran was done by the United Kingdom,
and the assessment of glutaraldehyde was done by Fin
land.
Abrahams said that "what is being done under the
BPR mirrors what has been happening under REACH
with its Registry of Intentions and Candidate List of
SVHCs," or substances of very high concern.
Under REACH, substances can be identified as
SVHCs if they meet certain criteria. Listing of a sub
stance as an SVHC might trigger its prioritization for
further studies and consultations that could ultimately
result in its prohibition, or restriction of its uses.
"By the time a final formal decision is made, the mar
ket impact has already crystallized," Abrahams said.
He added that this "impact has been acknowledged
by the [EU] Court of Justice, in September 2013, when
it ruled that under REACH the mere act of ECHA iden
tifying a substance as an SVHC produces legal effects
vis-a-vis third parties, even prior to the formal inclusion
of that substance on the published Candidate List"
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 287
(Polyelectrolyte Producers Group and SNF SAS v.
ECHA, EU Court of Justice, No. C626/11 P, 09/26/13).
Approval Sought for Clothianidin. Clothianidin, one of
the substances on which ECHA started a consultation
Feb. 10, has already been assessed in the EU as hazard
ous to the health of bee colonies. A temporary ban on
pesticides containing the substance has been imposed,
along with three other neonicotinoid pesticides (36
INER 1167, 8/28/13).
An approval under the BPR for clothianidin is being
sought for use as an insecticide in animal housing. The
assessment of the substance, which is manufactured by
Bayer CropScience, is being done by Germany.
Under the BPR, approvals for substances that meet
Article 10(1) can be given for a maximum of seven
years, or five years if the substance meets more than
one of the Article 10(1) criteria.
The European Biocidal Products Forum, a sector
group within the European Chemical Industry Council
(CEFIC), was unable to provide comment to Bloomberg
BNA.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Consultations on potential candidates for substitution
under the BPR as available at http://bit.ly/leU5ft7.
Toxic Substances
EU Committee on Consumer Safety Calls
For Comments on Nano Silica in Cosmetics
sumer Safety (SCCS) has opened a consultation
The calling
European Union's Scientific
for comments Committee
through May onuse
31 on the Conof
the nano form of silica in cosmetics.
Responses to the consultation will feed into a scien
tific opinion to be prepared by the SCCS at the request
of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.
The opinion will assess the health risks posed by the
nano forms of silica, hydrated silica, silica sylilate and
silica dimethyl silylate.
In its request to the SCCS, the commission said that
nano silica ingredients were used in cosmetics applied
to the skin, and "concerns have been raised regarding
the potential for nanoparticles of silica to break out of
the agglomerates and enter cells."
Under the EU Cosmetics Regulation ((EC) No 1223/
2009), the notification and labeling of nanoscale ingre
dients in cosmetic products sold in the EU is required.
The commission said it had received 172 notifications of
various forms of silica in cosmetics (36 INER 950
7/17/13).
Broad Use of Substance. In an e-mailed statement to
Bloomberg BNA, the commission said that it had asked
the SCCS for an opinion "in light of the broad use made
of this substance in cosmetics."
"We will see at the end what the opinion looks like
and then judge what measures to take," the commission
added. "At this stage of the procedure, it is not possible
BNA 2-26-14
288 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
to confirm whether the commission will take any mea
sure regulating silica (nano) and when."
According to the REACH database of chemicals reg
istered in the EU, 125 registration numbers have been
issued to companies placing silicon dioxide (silica) on
the EU market, although these companies might not be
providing the nano form of silica.
Registrants include Akzo Nobel, BASF, Evonik, John
son Matthey, Solvay and Umicore. REACH stands for
the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemi
cals (Regulation No. 1907/2006).
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@)bna.com
The SCCS consultation on silica (nano) is available at
http://bit.ly/lfftD4T.
Biotechnology
European Commission Rejects Appeal
By 12 Nations to Block New Strain of Corn
the European Union of Monsanto Corp.'s geneti
On the daymodified
cally that new(GM)
data indicated
corn croptheMON
cultivation
810 inin
creased in 2013 by 15 percent frm the previous year, the
European Commission rejected a last-minute appeal by
12 EU member countries to block another GM corn
plant known as Pioneer 1507.
Responding Feb. 13 to a letter insisting that the Euro
pean Commission "cannot ignore the legal, political
and scientific objections" voiced by 19 EU member
states on Feb. 11 in a Council of Minister debate, Euro
pean Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said the plea
contained no new arguments.
He reiterated that the European Food and Safety Au
thority had issued six positive opinions on Pioneer
1507, which is a product of DuPont Co. and Dow
Chemical Co., and said that the European Court of Jus
tice had ordered the EU executive body to move on the
issue.
"The authorization request for the GM Pioneer 1507
corn has been pending for 13 years," Borg wrote in a
Feb. 13 letter sent in reply to the 12 EU member states,
a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg BNA. "The
Council of Ministers had the right, if it wanted to do so,
to block this request. It did not. On the contrary, it al
lowed the three months deadline to elapse. According
to the procedural rules agreed by the Council of Minis
ters and the European Parliament in such cases, the Eu
ropean Commission is required to adopt the proposal."
European Commission officials insist that EU mem
ber states should approve a pending proposal from
2010 that would give each EU national government the
right to ban GM crops for reasons other than human
health and environmental protection. A vote on the pro
posal is due in March.
However, that proposal is considered a violation of
World Trade Organization rules by some legal experts,
including those in the Council of Ministers.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT * 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
Increased Use of Modified Corn. According to Europa-
Bio, the leading European biotechnology trade group,
the new cultivation data indicating that farmers in
creased use of GM MON 810 by 15 percent in 2013
countered the viewpoint of many GM opponents that
there is no demand for Pioneer 1507.
J
"The evidence supports that there are farmers who
need, chose and use these products when they are avail
able and when democratic choices are guaranteed," Eu-
ropaBio Secretary General Nathalie Moll said in a Feb.
13 statement.
"There is a need for leadership by policy makers to
take decisions on products that some farmers would
choose if they had a choice," Moll said.
EuropaBio noted a report published Feb. 13 by the In
ternational Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech
Applications (ISAAA) indicating that Spain is by far the
leader in the use of MON 810, which received regula
tory approval in the EU in 1998.
"Since 1998, thanks to MON 810 cultivation, corn im
ports into Spain have reduced by more than 853,000
tons," said Moll.
Of the 338,296 acres of MON 810 planted in the EU
in 2013, more than 90 percent were planted in Spain,
according to the ISAAA. Other EU countries where the
GM corn crop was planted and harvested included the
Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia.
Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy
group opposed to GM crop cultivation in the EU, in
sisted the new ISAAA data should not be trusted.
"This report is largely funded by the biotech indus
try," Mute Schimpf, an official with Friends of the Earth
told Bloomberg BNA. "ISAAA figures are frequently in
flated and poorly referenced. The cultivation of GM
crops increases the use of week killers, harms the envi J
ronment and drives farmers into a system of corporate
control with patented seeds."
By Joe Kirwin
To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Kirwin in
Brussels at correspondents@)bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Heather Rothman at hrothman@bna.com
A link to the ISAAA study can be found at http://
www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/46/
executivesummary/default.asp.
Solid Waste
EU Says Package of Waste Proposals
Could Include Plastic Recycling Targets
agement legislation that are scheduled to be pub
lished to
Proposals by overhaul
the European Commission
European Union in May could
waste man
include targets for the recycling of plastic waste, a ban
on plastic waste going to landfills and measures to cut
the use of single-use and short-lived plastic products
such as packaging and carrier bags, a Commission offi
cial said Feb. 11.
Speaking in Brussels at a seminar organized by the
Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment and
think tank the European Policy Center, William Neale,
a member of the Cabinet of EU Environment Commis
JJ
sioner Janez Potocnik, said that plastic-waste targets
 EUROPE
could be aimed at bringing countries that are lagging on
plastic recycling up to the level of the countries that re
cycle most plastics, rather than a common target for all
v_ countries.
Neale said that some countries, such as Belgium and
Germany, have plastic recovery rates of up to 100 per
cent and send almost no waste to landfills, but in other
countries landfilling remains the norm.
"We need to seriously consider if we [should] have a
differentiated approach," Neale said. "We have to take
into account that some member states are further from
the goal."
He added that it would be "rather logical" to propose
different targets for different countries, with the overall
aim being for lagging countries to adopt the waste man
agement practices of countries with high recovery and
recycling rates.
The May proposals will be the culmination of a re
view of EU waste management legislation, currently be
ing carried out by the Commission, the EU's executive
arm. Plastic waste will be only one part of the propos
als, which also will take into account other waste
streams.
The commission published in March a consultation
paper to collect input into possible measures to control
plastic trash (36 INER 333, 3/13/13). The commission
also published a consultation paper on overall EU waste
targets (36 INER 723, 6/5/13) and a proposal to require
member countries to reduce the consumption of plastic
bags (36 INER 1600, 11/20/13).
Plastic Trash Consultation. Neale said that the plastic
trash consultation had produced a high level of re
I sponse, which had been "supportive" of measures, in
cluding a ban on sending plastic to landfills. There was
"pretty much universal support" for such a ban, Neale
said.
Other elements of the overall waste proposals relat
ing to plastics could include ecodesign measures requir
ing plastic products to be recyclable and measures tar
geted at plastic that is only used for a short time, in par
ticular packaging, Neale added.
The only current target in EU legislation specifically
related to plastics is included in the Packaging and
Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC), which included
a target of 22.5 percent for the recycling of plastic in
packaging waste that was to be achieved by EU coun
tries by the end of 2008.
About one-third of plastic in packaging waste in the
EU is recycled, and the May proposals are likely to in
clude a revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste
Directive.
Neale said that production and use of plastics has
skyrocketed. "In the last ten years, we've used about
the same amount of plastic as we did in the previous
century."
He added that a 60 percent reuse and recycling rate
for plastics was feasible, with the remainder potentially
being incinerated. "We need to work out how we can
make plastic work as part of a circular economy,"
Neale said.
European Plastics Group. However, Martin Engel-
mann of industry group PlasticsEurope said that the
best rate in Europe for recycling of all forms of plastic
waste is about 40 percent.
According to a PlasticsEurope report published in
January, the Netherlands has the highest plastics recy
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 289
cling rate at 50.6 percent, but this is for plastic packag
ing waste only. PlasticsEurope members include com
panies such as BASF, Dow Europe, SABIC Europe,
Solvay and Total Petrochemicals.
Tine Sundtoft, Norway's minister of climate and the
environment, speaking at the same seminar as Neale,
said that better management of plastic trash was neces
sary because it "has a clear negative effect on our ma
rine environment," and chemicals leaching from plastic
waste enter the bodies of humans and wildlife.
Substances such as phthalates, which are used as
softeners in plastics, but which are considered to be
endocrine-disrupting, should be eliminated from plas
tics because "plastics may contain hazardous sub
stances that cause problems for recycling," and "recy
cling may mean that we become even more exposed to
them," Sundtoft said.
Norway isn't an EU member but implements many
EU laws because it is a member of the European Eco
nomic Area, a free-trade area with the EU.
Neale said that eliminating toxic substances from
plastics could be done by designing-out the substances
from plastic products through ecodesign rules and that
the REACH chemicals law was "working rather well" in
identifying the most hazardous substances, such as
phthalates, and prohibiting their use in the EU.
Recommended Bans. Under REACH (Regulation No.
1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation, and authori
zation of chemicals), the European Chemicals Agency
(ECHA), which oversees the implementation of the law,
has so far recommended to the Commission that 43
substances be banned from use in the EU unless spe
cific continued-use authorizations are granted. ECHA
made its most recent recommendation Feb. 10 (37 INER
223, 2/12/14).
Piotr Barczak, waste and air quality project officer
with the European Environmental Bureau, a coalition of
environmental advocacy groups, said that REACH
works "gradually" and was "not effective enough" in
encouraging the phaseout of toxic substances from
plastics.
The commission should consider making it manda
tory for new plastics to be recyclable, which could in
clude a limitation on certain chemicals in their makeup,
Barczak said.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Hendersonatghenderson@bna.com
Information on the European Commission review of
waste policy and legislation is available at http://
ec.europa.eulenvironmentlwasteltarget_review.htm.
Enforcement
Russian Enforcement Agency, Courts Seen
Taking Tough Stance on Industrial Pollution
changing to reflect a greater concern with envi
Government
ronmentalenforcement
damage caused
and court
by industrial
practicesenter
are
prises in Russia, attorneys say.
BNA 2-26-14
290 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
The attorneys cited a spate of recent court rulings in
which companies received large penalties for pollution,
an enforcement agency that has been empowered to be
more effective and a new schedule of fines for air and
water pollution violations.
The tougher stance on environmental damages likely
reflects initial efforts to realize the Russian govern
ment's official policy goals to clean up past pollution
and make industry more environmentally responsible,
even as action has been stalled for nearly three years on
significant environmental legislation that would bring
reforms needed to fully realize the government's envi
ronmental objectives.
Russia in April 2012 issued Basic Principles of State
Environmental Development Policy through 2030,
which included increased liability for environmental of
fenses (35 INER 436, 5/9/12).
The Russian Supreme Court followed in October
2012 with revised guidelines on environmental cases
that told courts to pay heed to the constitutional right of
citizens to a clean environment and to information
about the environment (35 INER 1042, 11/7/12).
Rulings Against Companies. Companies in Russia are
now facing stricter enforcement as a result of those
policies.
"There were several court decisions recently in dif
ferent industriesin forestry, in oil. We have done re
search recently, and we have seen the courts making
rulings against enterprises even in the situation when
the enterprises took a lot of measures to compensate
the damage in kind," said Olga Kozyr, partner in King
& Spalding's Moscow office. "The amounts [of the rul
ings] are very big, actually."
For example, the Commercial Court of the Khanty-
Mansi Autonomous Region, Russia's biggest oil produc
ing area, ruled Feb. 11, that Yuganskneftegaz, Rosneft's
largest oil-producing enterprise, must pay a fine of 140
million rubles ($3.9 million) for an oil spill on 3.2 hect
ares (8 acres) of forest.
Kozyr also highlighted the Russian Supreme Com
mercial Court's ruling in May 2013 to uphold lower
courts' orders for Surgutneftegas to pay a penalty of 6.9
million rubles ($194,000) in damages for a spill of 6.8
tons of oil-containing liquid over 2.3 hectares (5.7
acres).
The court cited the law on Environmental Protection
in saying the responsible party has "a statutory duty of
reimbursement for the harm caused as a result of an oil
spill."
Another example is a second ruling by the Khanty-
Mansi Autonomous Region Commercial Court in July
2013. It ruled that Lukoil must pay 10.9 million rubles
($307,000) in penalties for damage to forests caused by
spillage of water used in oil production contaminated
with oil and chemicals that was over an area of 1.9 hect
ares, or about (2.7 acres).
Citing the Forest Code, the court found that "those
responsible for [following] forestry laws are obligated
not only to eliminate the manifest violations but also to
compensate for the damage to the forests."
Lukoil is facing another significant case, filed by
Rosprirodnadzor in the Federal Commercial Court of
the Volga-Vyatka Region, under which the agency is
seeking 615 million rubles ($17.3 million) in damages
for pollution of the soil in an oil-producing area. In a
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
Feb. 24 order, the court stayed the payment of the fine
until it considers the case.
Attorneys see these and other rulings since 2011 as a
reflection of how the Russian government and other au
thorities are taking environmental damage more seri J
ously.
"These court decisions mirror the general approach
and direction that the government is taking with respect
to environmental damage," said Jennifer Josefson, part
ner in King & Spalding's Global Transactions Practice
Group. "It is a trend."
Enforcement Agency Empowered. The court cases are
emerging from an empowered enforcement agency. A
reorganization of the Federal Service for Supervision in
the Use of Natural Resources, or Rosprironadzor, six
years ago centralized the agency's powers and made it
more effective, according to Kozyr.
At the same time, fines for environmental pollution
have increased substantially.
President Vladimir Putin signed laws in 2013 enact
ing new schedules of fines for air and water pollution
violations. For example, legal entities found in violation
of air emissions limits face fines of 180,000-250,000
rubles ($5,000-$7,000), up from 40,000-50,000 rubles
($1,120-$ 1,400).
The fines for legal entities for water pollution are
now up to 1 million rubles, and if the pollution contin
ues, from 700,000-1 million rubles ($19,600-$28,000), or
a ban on the business activity for 90 days. Overall, fines
have increased by five times during the past 6 years.
Donskoy said Feb. 10 that the government is now
working to increase payments for air emissions and wa
ter use under license agreements. Those payments have
not been indexed since 2004, he said, and the ministry
has proposed to the government to raise the rates by 2.3
J
times.
Waiting For Details of Proposed Legislation A tougher
stance by the government and courts on environmental
damage may indicate that legislation aimed at stimulat
ing a switch to advanced, less-polluting technologies
and increased recycling has the backing at higher lev
els of government needed to eventually make its way
through Parliament.
Indeed, the measures gained the support of state and
business officials at the end of 2013 (37 INER S-25,
1/1/14).
However, the draft versions of the legislation that are
currently before Parliament are likely to significantly
differ from the final versions, because the drafts have
been before the Parliament in some cases for three
years, according to the attorneys.
"I think these drafts are not far enough along in their
development for companies to get worried," Josefson
said. "If and as they progress, I'm sure companies and
law firms will be watching. When it gets to the stage
where they are getting to the final reading and it's clear
what the likely version is that is going to be adopted,
that's the stage you will see companies engage in dia
logue with the state in trying to determine how these
will affect projects going forward and their potential in
vestments."
The adoption of environmental legislation could
bring a large amount of uncertainty for companies op
erating in Russia, as the legislation leaves much of the
details of implementation to future regulation, accord
ing to Josefson.
 EUROPE
"All this legislation comes down to the details. Con
cepts at the high level may be good, but it's a question
about feasibility, enforceability and commerciality of
what they want to do. And it's the details of how they
want to do that, what the costs are going to be, and how
it's going to be feasible to implement such projects
and that it's transparent and clear to the companies that
want to invest and expand their projects in Russia. They
have to understand long term what the implications for
their projects are going to be," Josefson said.
The State Duma, or lower house of Parliament, will
hold a hearing March 4 on the various environmental
provisions awaiting legislative action.
By Jenny Johnson
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Jenny Johnson in St. Petersburg, Russia, at
correspondents@>bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Biotechnology
Russia Nears Creation of Legal Basis
To Support Bioenergy, Green Chemistry
mestic production and consumption of bioenergy
The andRussian
green government
chemistry bywants
approving
to encourage
a legal frame
do
work to create market mechanisms for attracting inter
national companies and financing to the Russian bio
technology sector.
Various draft legal documents are awaiting signature
or legislative action, with a key program from the Min
istry of Industry and Trade on formation of the biotech
industry expected to be signed by the end of March.
Another major initiative is the Ministry of Agriculture
draft legislation on developing the biofuel industry, re
leased in December 2013, which initially has been
scheduled to come into force in fall 2014. The program
is focused on production of biofuel from nonfood
sources and calls for 10 percent of motor fuel used in
Russia to be biofuel by 2020.
The government will allocate 500 million rubles
($14.4 million) in 2014 from the federal budget in sub
sidies to the forestry and chemical industries for proj
ects in industrial biotechnology, Prime Ministry Dmitry
Medvedev announced Feb. 4 at a meeting of the govern
ment's Council for the Modernization of the Economy
and Innovation. The meeting included the ministers of
trade, finance, energy, and agriculture, and officials
from several biotechnology firms
The subsidies were approved under an existing devel
opment plan that calls for growth in the biotechnology
sector to 1 percent of gross domestic product by 2020
(35 INER 437, 5/9/12).
Medvedev Notes Biotech Growth. The sector is being
targeted for development as a way to both help the en
vironment and create economic growth, according to
Medvedev.
"If this topic 5-7 years ago for world politicians
evoked skepticism and smirks, because it was needed
just to appease environmentalists or pay tribute to some
research, then today it is obvious that it is already a
business," Medvedev said at the meeting, according to
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 291
a transcript, noting that the global biotechnology mar
ket could reach $2 trillion by 2025.
Russia has a large potential for development of the
biotechnology sector, in part because of large forestry
and agriculture sectors, which now utilize about 28 per
cent of the waste produced, three times less than in the
U.S. and European Union, Denis Manturov, minister of
industry and trade, said at the meeting.
"Use of technologies connected to renewable raw
materials would enhance resource efficiency of produc
tion and resolve issues of recycling waste and, of
course, environmental problems," Manturov said.
Need For Market Mechanisms. The Ministry of Indus
try and Trade's key program on the biotechnology in
dustry will put in place the legal and technical founda
tions, standards and administrative measures needed to
support scientific research and stimulate the creation of
new biotechnology facilities, Manturov said.
He also suggested that a gradual transition to manda
tory recycling, mainly in the forestry sector, is needed
in addition to standards and regulations.
The government meeting on the biotechnology indus
try was of extreme importance for the sector, according
to Alina Osmakova, executive director of Biotech 2030,
a platform for the bioenergy and green chemistry sec
tor, where private ventures, research groups and educa
tional institutions interact among themselves and with
the government.
The program expected from the Ministry of Industry
and Trade reflects many suggestions of the industry
and "the intentions of the governmental institutions to
build a bio-economy in Russia," she said. So far there is
not a market for biopolymers and other products based
on renewable materials in Russia, mainly because the
appropriate legal basis does not exist, according to Os
makova.
For example, Renova Group of chemical companies
is considering a biopolymers project in Russia but is be
ing held back because of the lack of a regulatory base,
not for lack of finances, Osmakova said.
Localized Production Sought. Several major foreign
chemical companies, such as Dupont and Evonik Indus
tries, operate in Russia and have a substantial focus on
biotech "but so far, none of those companies have local
ized their production in Russia, even though many of
them have operated in Russia for 12 to 15 years . .. and
even though they are theoretically interested in doing
so. In this case, it is extremely important that the gov
ernment demonstrates its interest in development by
adopting the standards and technical regulations to cre
ate the market," Osmakova said.
"I am sure that localization would happen if the mar
ket mechanisms were created, because they are inter
ested in Russia as a huge market and also for its large
natural resource base," Osmakova said.
Localizing production is particularly important in the
context of biotechnology in Russia because of the desire
for technology transfer and because of the transporta
tion needs amid a large territory and dispersed agricul
tural and forestry waste production.
The plan to develop the biotechnology industry in
Russia is based on supporting pilot projects through
public-private partnerships.
"In Russia, such projects already existsome are
even operating on an advanced level of realizationand
it is important that the government continues to support
BNA 2-26-14
292 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
them through to commercialization," Osmakova said,
citing projects recycling forest and agricultural waste.
Bioenergy Sector May See Incentives. The Ministry of
Agriculture is pushing its plan to increase biofuel and
biomass production and consumption in Russia, and re
leased draft legislation in December that has been ini
tially scheduled to come into force in fall 2014. The
draft sets out the regulatory framework for develop
ment of production capacity and demand, in particular
for nonfood biomass such as forest and agricultural
waste.
The draft calls for 10 percent of motor fuel in Russia
to be biofuel by 2020.
However, the biofuels sector is dominated by the oil
and gas sector and needs a legal framework and gov
ernment support if it is to grow, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
"Russia is unlikely to develop ethanol for fuel until
the [government] has taken serious steps toward sup
porting the industry by developing the regulatory base
and policy measures to support local producers," the
USDA Global Agricultural Information Network said in
a July 5, 2013, biofuels update on Russia.
By Jenny Johnson
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Jenny Johnson in St. Petersburg, Russia, at
correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The Ministry of Agriculture's draft legislation on
expanding the biofuel and biomass sector is available,
in Russian, at http://bit.ly/lnZPAwr.
Enforcement
European Commission Launches Legal Action
Against U.K. Over Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution
ceedings against the British government for its per
The sistent
Europeanfailure
Commission
to meet thehas
European
launched
Union's
legalpollu
pro
tion limits for nitrogen dioxide.
The U.K. repeatedly has failed to submit air quality
improvement plans snowing how it intends to achieve
cuts in nitrogen dioxide by the required deadline of Jan
1., 2015, the EU's executive arm said in a Feb. 20 state
ment.
The EC said that it has sent the British government a
"Letter for Formal Notice" specifying that the U.K. has
breached nitrogen dioxide limit values in 16 of 43 geo
graphical zonesthe highest proportion within the re
gional bloc.
The U.K. is the first of the EU's 28 member states to
receive such a letter. It is the first step of the formal
five-stage-infraction process to enforce European laws,
and could lead to significant monetary penalties.
A 2013 ruling from the Supreme Court of the United
Kingdom, which found the U.K. to be in breach of Ar
ticle 13 of the EU Air Quality Directive, probably led the
EC to initiate legal proceedings with the U.K. ahead of
other countries, the activist group Clean Air in London
said in a Feb. 20 statement (36 INER 1045, 7/31/13).
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
U.K. Says Most States Breached Limits. John Levitt, a
spokesman for the Department for the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which oversees air
quality issues, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 20 that the
U.K. "is not alone" in violating the nitrogen dioxide
limit, as 20 other member states were in breach of EU
air quality limit values in 2012.
"The main reason for this is the failure of EU emis
sion standards for diesel cars to deliver the expected re
ductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides," he said, add
ing that DEFRA is supporting EC efforts to "rectify this
problem as soon as possible."
Levitt said DEFRA is committed to "ensure compli
ance as soon as possible and are investing in transport
initiatives to reduce local air pollution, especially in our
towns and cities," including London, which according
to the EC, has the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide of
any capital city in Europe.
DEFRA has been given two months to respond, and if
it continues to fail to satisfy the commission with a suf
ficiently robust action plan, the EC can send the govern
ment a final written warning known as a "reasoned
opinion," according to Clean Air in London.
Ultimately, the EC can refer the case to the Court of
Justice of the European Union, which already has been
asked to consider the case following the 2013 U.K. Su
preme Court case.
Levitt stressed that apart from nitrogen dioxide, the
U.K. meets EU air quality limit values for all air pollut
ants. More than two and a half years ago, DEFRA
launched a consultation to seek comments on how it
could meet the nitrogen dioxide limits (34 INER 609,
6/22/11).
Repeated Failures Charged. Clean Air in London said
that the U.K. has repeatedly violated the nitrogen diox
ide limit values set down by the EC, including taking no
action to comply by the initial deadline in 2010; failing
to apply for a time extension for 16 zones to 2015; fail
ing to produce either a national or a London plan to
comply with rules; and inadequately warning the public
about the dangers of N02.
Last December, the EC announced a Clean Air Policy
Package, which prioritized full compliance with air pol
lution laws throughout the EU by 2020 and reductions
of the most harmful emissions by 2030 (37 INER 12,
1/1/14).
"Some mistook [the EC's December announcement]
to mean infraction would begin not end in 2020 but to
day's news confirms they were wrong," Simon Birkett,
founder and director of Clean Air in London, said in a
prepared statement.
"This enforcement action against the U.K. is much
needed," he said. "Member states and cities need to un
derstand they will be paying fines (or perhaps ministers
and mayors should face jail?) from 2020 if they do not
comply with these public health laws."
By Au Qassim
To contact the reporter on this story: Ali Qassim in
London at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
 EUROPE
Nanotechnology
Belgium Provisionally Adopts Nanosubstance
Reporting; EU Panel Blocks Label Exemption
B elgium could become the second European Union
country to require mandatory reporting of sub
stances that contain nanomaterials, if a provi
sional government decision is confirmed by the Belgian
Council of State.
The Belgian government agreed Feb. 7 to establish a
register of nanomaterials and to require companies that
sell substances containing nanomaterials to submit no
tifications to the register, starting Jan. 1, 2016. The ob
ligation would be extended to chemical mixtures con
taining nanomaterials from Jan. 1, 2017.
The Belgian government said in a statement that the
register of substances would make it easier for health
authorities to react if a health risk is identified from a
particular nanomaterial, and to manage any worker
safety issues arising from use of substances containing
nanomaterials.
Sarah Delafortrie, a spokeswoman for the Chancel
lery of the Prime Minister, told Bloomberg BNA that the
decision had been sent to the Belgian Council of State
pending its final adoption. The Council of State has 30
days to "verify if texts are legally in order," but has no
power to modify the content of draft laws, Delafortrie
said.
Belgium Follows France. If the register decision is con
firmed, Belgium would follow France in creating a re
porting rule for nanomaterials.
Starting in 2013, companies and laboratories in
France were required to file information including the
identity, quantity and usage data for nanomaterial sub
stances manufactured, distributed or imported the pre
vious year (35 INER 808, 8/29/12).
The Belgian government statement said that a report
ing obligation for products containing nanomaterials
could also be considered, but this would be subject to
an evaluation of the register of nanomaterials in sub
stances and in mixtures.
When it held the rotating presidency of the Council of
the European Union in 2010, Belgium pushed for an
EU-wide register of nanomaterials. However, the Euro
pean Commission, the EU's executive arm, ultimately
opted for the establishment of a website linking to ex
isting sources of information on nanosubstances (37
INER 10, 1/1/14).
Nano Ingredient Labeling Exemption Blocked. Sepa
rately, the European Parliament's environment, public
health and food safety committee voted Feb. 12 to block
a draft European Commission regulation that would al
low an exemption to food labeling rules for some nano
ingredients.
According to a 2011 EU law on food labeling (Regu
lation (EU) No. 1169/2011), food containing engineered
nanomaterials should be clearly labeled as such, with
the word "nano" in brackets after any ingredient at
nanoscale. The commission proposed in December to
amend the regulation by exempting food additives from
this requirement.
However, committee lawmakers voted 31-23 with 2
abstentions to block the amending regulation.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 293
Carl Schlyter, a Swedish Green member of the Euro
pean Parliament who proposed the blocking measure,
said "consumers have the right to know and make their
own choices; they do not want the commission to do
that for them."
The environment, public health and food safety com
mittee's blocking vote is subject to ratification by the
full European Parliament, which was scheduled to vote
on the matter during a Feb. 24-27 session in Strasbourg,
France.
By Stephen Gardner
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Gard
ner in Brussels at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The draft European Parliament resolution blocking an
amendment to Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 on
information about engineered nanomaterials in food is
available at http://bit.ly/lgubliD.
General Policy
Water, Air Qualify, EU Enviromental Talks
Among Priorities for Italy's New Government
include improving the nation's water and air quality,
Italy's new environment
highlighting the country'sminister said
role in the his priorities
climate and en
ergy package of the European Union, and improving
waste disposal and recycling.
Gian Luca Galletti was named the new minister of en
vironment by Matteo Renzi, the former Florence mayor
who took the oath to become Italy's 63rd post-World
War II prime minister Feb. 22. The former minister of
environment, Andrea Orlando, was retained by Renzi
but has moved to the Ministry of Justice.
Galletti is a member of the UDC political party, a ju
nior member of the Renzi government coalition. There
is some speculation among political insiders that the se
lection of a small party with limited environmental cre
dentials could be a signal that environmental policy
would not be a high priority for the Renzi government.
For many years, the ministry was the possession of
the green party in Italy under center-left governments.
But with that party's declining support nationally, Gal
letti is the fourth consecutive minister from outside the
green party, which last held the post in 2008.
Still, Galletti listed an ambitious series of goals for his
ministry, which also include normalizing operations at
the polluting Ilva steel refinery in southern Italy, and
the clean disposal of the wreck of the Costa Concordia,
the mammoth cruise ship that capsized after running
aground off the shore of Tuscany two years ago.
Water and air quality, especially in urban areas, has
been worsening steadily in Italy over the past decade,
according to ISPRA, the ministry's technical wing.
The EU is in the process of passing a climate package
for 2030 and beyond, and a spokesman for Galletti's of
fice told Bloomberg BNA the minister intended for Italy
to play an active role in those talks.
The issue of waste disposal and recycling is seen as a
two-tier effort in Italycombating the so-called Eco-
Mafia, organized crime organizations working in the
waste disposal sector and illegally dumping wastes; and
BNA 2-26-14
294 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
improving public awareness campaigns to promote re
cycling, especially in the central and southern parts of
the country where recycling rates badly trail EU aver
ages.
By Eric J. Lyman
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric J. Lyman in
Rome at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Climate Change
Environmental Group: Italy on Track
To Meet 2020 Emissions Reduction Goals
emissions reductions under the European Union's
Italy
20-20-20
is on track
plan,toaccording
meet its target
to statistics
for greenhouse
from the Foun
gas
dation for Sustainable Development, an Italian environ
mental lobby organization.
The organization released its Climate Dossier 2014
publication Feb. 13, showing a dramatic 6 percent re
duction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2013 compared
to the previous year. The foundation's figures are not
the official figures that will be submitted to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in
ventories, but in the past the foundation's figures have
closely mirrored the Italian government's own statis
tics, which will be released later in the year.
The foundation's report is in line with much more
general estimates from Italy's National Statistics Insti
tute, ISTAT, which predicted lower greenhouse gas
emissions for Italy in 2013 because of reduced indus
trial output and a reduction in transportation as a result
of the country's economic slowdown.
But figures from the Foundation for Sustainable De
velopment, which attribute only about a third of the
overall reduction to the weak economy, are the most
comprehensive data yet from last year: It showed Italy
produced 435 million metric tons of C02 equivalents, a
reduction of 30 million metric tons from the levels at the
end of 2012, or about a 6 percent cut.
The decline is due to a year-on-year decrease of 5
percent in the use of oil, a 6 percent drop in natural gas
use, and a 14 percent decrease in the use of coal.
Kyoto Target Passed in 2012. The 26-page document
showed the overall emissions at the end of 2013 were at
least 7.8 percent below 1990 levels. At the end of 2012,
the foundation said that Italy's emissions of greenhouse
gases was 7 percent below 1990 levels, meaning it sur
passed its Kyoto Protocol-mandated target of reducing
emissions by an average of at least 6.5 percent com
pared to 1990 levels during the 2008-2012 period.
The new data from 2013 puts Italy on pace to reach
its 2020 emissions reduction target under the EU's 20-
20-20 plan, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emis
sions by 20 percent compared to 1990 levels and in
crease renewable energy to 20 percent of the bloc's to
tal energy mix by 2020. The foundation's statistics do
not focus on the renewable energy aspect of the pack
age, but it predicted Italy is on pace to reach its national
target of a 13 percent reduction in emissions compared
to 1990 levels, as stipulated under the plan's burden-
sharing component.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
Despite that, the foundation called for more ambi
tious greenhouse gas reduction targets to compensate
for future years when the Italian economy will presum
ably be stronger, and to promote the green economy
that it says will yield benefits beyond international
greenhouse gas emissions targets.
"Although the country has made considerable prog
ress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions ... it is nec
essary to do more to reduce emissions in a more sus
tainable fashion," said foundation President Edo Ron-
chi, pointing out that Italy is particularly susceptible to
extreme weather events and rising temperatures.
By Eric J. Lyman
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric J. Lyman in
Rome at correspondents@bna.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Climate Change
Climate Expert Says New Danish Law
Could Face Changes After 2015 Elections
that will become law in July, a climate expert at the
Following
Confederation
publicationofof Danish
details ofIndustry
a new climate
(DI) told
bill
Bloomberg BNA that the legislation could be revised af
ter a parliamentary election in 2015.
While the bill now has a political majority, Lars Bach
Jensen, a DI senior adviser in energy and climate
policy, noted that the nation's largest opposition party
was not among its backers..
"There will be national elections within 18 months, j
and all signs point towards a change of government,"
he said. "The major part of the right-leaning side of the
parliament did not support the new climate agreement.
In such matters there is normally a tradition for broad
parliamentary support, so such a rather narrow climate
deal is not normal. I think that it will have to be renego
tiated after next election."
Denmark's Climate, Energy and Building Ministry
announced Feb. 7 that agreement had been reached
with a number of minority parties on the content of the
bill, meaning that a parliamentary majority now exists
for its enactment.
However, the center-right Liberal Party, which
headed successive governments from 2001 to 2011, was
not among the signatories. In a Feb. 6 statement, the
party warned that the council's recommendations could
result in new taxes and other burdens on the agricul
ture, transport and construction sectors.
Independent Climate Council. In a Feb. 7 statement, the
ministry said the legislation includes the formation of
an independent Climate Council by Jan. 1, 2015. Con
sisting primarily of academic experts, the council will
monitor the effectiveness of initiatives and advise the
government on the easiest and most cost-effective ways
to meet its emission-reduction goals.
The council will provide reports and recommenda
tions to parliament annually. The government also will
report to parliament annually and will set new 10-year
national targets every five years.
All signatories agreed to support the government's
pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per-
 EUROPE
cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. However, the
new law will not make this or other targets legally bind
ing.
w In August 2013, a government working group pub
lished a large number of emission-reduction proposals,
including a general reduction in highway speed limits
and new mandatory isolation requirements for build
ings. These will be among proposals initially considered
by the council. But under the new legal framework, the
council must demonstrate that its recommendations
will not impact industrial competitiveness.
Bill a 'General Framework.' Describing the proposed
law as a "general framework, rather than a concrete
plan," Bach Jensen told Bloomberg BNA that his orga
nization had a fairly positive opinion of the bill.
The Confederation of Danish Industry hoped that all
initiatives would be "closely investigated and aligned,"
with the aim of improving industry competitiveness, he
said. "New taxes and economic burdens are not accept
able, but apart from that we are open to engage in con
structive dialogue."
"In our understanding, all concrete measures will
still have to be negotiated with parliament," Bach Jen
sen said. "The council can only recommend, not decide.
It will be the single-sector ministers in areas such as
transport and agriculture," who will be responsible for
establishing concrete measures, he said.
The bill, which has not yet been made public, is slated
to be presented to parliament on March 26, and will
likely become law shortly afterward.
By Marcus Hoy
To contact the reporter on this story: Marcus Hoy in
Copenhagen at correspondents@)bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The Feb 7 political agreement is available, in English,
at http://www.kebmin.dk/files/billeder/indhold/aftale_
klimalov_eng.pdf.
The emission-reduction proposals tabled in August
2013 are available, in Danish, at http://
www.kebmin.dk/sites/kebmin.dk/files/
virkemiddelkatalog_web.pdf.
Water Pollution
Swedish Tests Show Drinking Water Sources
Polluted by Firefighting Foam Compounds
polluted drinking water in locations near airports,
After a analysis
scientist atshowed
the Swedish
that Environmental
firefighting foam
Research
has
Institute (IVL) said the contamination is unlikely to re
sult in any legal action.
Karin Norstrom, who authored a December 2013 IVL
report, "Firefighting Foam as a Possible Polluter of
Drinking Water Sources," told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 20
that the use of aqueous film forming foams (AFFFs)
containing highly fluorinated substances was legal
when the contamination took place.
Long-term exposure to the observed contaminants,
which include PFAS (perfluoroalkyl sulfonate) and per-
fluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), is thought to trigger
health hazards in humans and wildlife.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 295
In a Feb. 17 statement, the institute said drinking wa
ter sources in three municipalities so far had been
found to be contaminated with PFAS. Since release of
the report, it said, follow-up tests had showed further
presence of PFAS.
Long-Term Exposure Risks. While short-term risks
were not great, the institute said long-term exposure
could cause health hazards. All municipalities that with
draw their drinking water from locations near fire drill
sites have been asked to investigate if the water they
use is polluted, the statement said. Soil conditions could
affect whether PFAS and related substances contami
nate the groundwater.
While foams containing PFAS are now banned in
Sweden, Norstrom told Bloomberg BNA they were le
gally used in fire-training exercises from around 1980
to 2003.
A ban was introduced in Sweden in June 2011, she
said.
Swedavia, a state-owned group that owns and oper
ates 10 airports across Sweden, now only uses fluorine-
free foams, Norstrom said. Communities that get their
drinking water from contaminated locations have al
ready been switched to safe sources, Norstrom said.
No offenders had been punished, and official sanc
tions were unlikely, she added. "It was legal to use
these foams at that time" she said.
In a Feb. 13 statement, Swedish Environment Minis
ter Lene Ek confirmed that widespread testing would
take place to gauge the scale of the problem.
By Marcus Hoy
To contact the reporter on this story: Marcus Hoy in
Copenhagen at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The report, "Firefighting Foam as a Possible Polluter
of Drinking Water Sources," is available, in Swed
ish, at http://www.kemi.se/Documents/Publikationer/
Trycksaker/PM/PM5-13.pdf
Natural Resources
Swiss Government Proposes to Promote
Green Economy, Preserve Resources
proposal that would incorporate green economy
The objectives
government of Switzerland has put law
forward a
in the country's framework on the
protection of the environment.
The proposal issued Feb. 12 by the Federal Council,
the Swiss government's executive arm, seeks to mini
mize the environmental impact of goods by reducing
the use of natural resources in production processes
and improving recycling of waste that is not already
subject to recovery efforts.
"The pressure Switzerland puts on natural resources
is too great and is manifest in phenomena such as cli
mate change, biodiversity loss, and the depletion of
available land," the Federal Council said.
"If resources such as water, soil, clean air, biodiver
sity, energy or metals were no longer available in suffi
cient quantity or quality, our economic system and the
quality of life population would be compromised," the
Federal Council added.
BNA 2-26-14
296 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
Under the proposal, the goal of sustainable use and
preservation of natural resources would be written into
Switzerland's Environmental Protection Act (EPA). The
proposal would incorporate new provisions promoting
the recycling and reuse of product materials currently
disposed with household waste, recovering phospho
rous in wastewater and waste animal feed, and increas
ing the use of recycled raw materials as well as reduc
ing the use of raw materials in production processes.
3.6 Million Tons of Household Waste. The Federal
Council noted that nearly 3.6 million tons of household
waste is produced in Switzerland each year, of which 30
to 50 percent is product packaging. To address this,
Swiss retailers will be encouraged to take voluntary
measures to ensure the recovery of packaging such as
cartons, plastic film and their containers, and drink
containers.
If these voluntary efforts do not achieve the desired
results, the proposal would give the Swiss government
the authority to impose obligatory recovery and recy
cling requirements for certain types of packaging.
The proposal would also lead to the elaboration of
sectoral agreements for reducing the environmental im
pact of goods from production to consumption. In an ef
fort to encourage producers to adopt more environmen
tally sustainable practices, the Swiss government also
would be given the authority to require firms to submit
reports for primary goods where production may con
tribute to the overexploitation or endangerment of
natural resources, such as for cotton, soybeans, palm oil
and cocoa, the Federal Council said.
And the Swiss government would have the right to
adopt measures on the marketing and sale of goods that
do not comply with requirements established in their
home country, such as the use of illegally harvested
wood.
Green Economy Initiative. The proposal is a response
to the green economy initiative backed by Swiss envi
ronmental groups. The government announced Oct. 11,
2013, that backers of the initiative, titled For a Sustain
able Economy Based on Efficient Management of Re
sources (Green Economy), had secured enough signa
tures to force a national vote on the issue.
The backers, which included the Swiss Green Party
and Greenpeace Switzerland, have proposed that the
Swiss Constitution be modified to incorporate sustain
able development and efficient resource management
objectives as national policy. They also want provisions
requiring Switzerland to reduce its ecological "foot
print" to ensure that, by 2050, national consumption
does not exceed global biocapacity on a per-capita ba
sis.
Under Swiss law, the Federal Council had the option
of putting forward its own counterproposal to the green
economy initiative for parliamentary approval, which it
elected to do, or recommend that Parliament reject the
initiative and allow the national referendum to proceed.
The Federal Council said that while it shared the ob
jectives of the initiative's backers, their goals were not
feasible. In particular, the Federal Council rejected the
idea of writing an ecological footprint reduction man
date into national law, describing the idea as "impracti
cal."
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
EUROPE
Flexible, Step-by-Step Approach. The amendments to
the EPA "seek to achieve the same objectives through
concrete and achievable measures," the Federal Coun
cil argued, adding that the government would take a
flexible, step-by-step approach toward achieving its ob
jectives.
Pascal Renaud of the Swiss Green Party told
Bloomberg BNA his group was disappointed that the
Federal Council proposal relied mainly on voluntary
measures to achieve the green economy goals, rather
than fixing binding requirements, particularly on the
need to reduce Switzerland's ecological footprint by
2050.
The Swiss Greens also believed the proposal needed
improved transparency requirements on the ecological
impact of products put on the market and minimum
green economy standards for companies.
And Karl Lanz, head of the infrastructure, energy,
and environment department for the Swiss business
federation, Economiesuisse, said his group was "skepti
cal" of the Federal Council's approach.
"The key for efficiency is innovation and
competitionnot state regulation," Lanz told
Bloomberg BNA. While Swiss business has "no prob
lem" with the green economy vision and targets set out
by the government, the degree of state intervention en
visaged "will not work and be a handicap to the Swiss
economy."
By Daniel Pruzin
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Pruzin in
Geneva at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
j
In Brief
EU Chemicals Agency to Host Online Sessions
The Helsinki-based European Chemicals Agency
(ECHA) has scheduled a pair of webinars in March on
aspects of the European Union's REACH chemicals leg
islation (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registration,
evaluation, and authorization of chemicals), and one
webinar on the bloc's Biocidal Products Regulation
(BPR, (EU) No. 528/2012). ECHA will host a webinar
March 5 on an update to its guidance for downstream
users of substances registered under REACH. Processes
under REACH, such as a decision to list a chemical as a
"substance of very high concern," might trigger obliga
tions for companies that use chemicals in their prod
ucts. ECHA will host a webinar March 31 on how to
submit information on nanomaterials in compliance
with REACH. Under REACH, nanomaterials are subject
to the same requirements as chemicals at standard
scale, but the obligation for registrants of substances to
provide sufficient information for risk assessments
should in principle cover risks arising specifically be
cause of the particular properties of nanosubstances. In
addition, ECHA will host a non-REACH webinar March
21 on the concept of "technical equivalence" under the
BPR. Information on ECHA webinars is available at
http://echa.europa.eu/support/training-materiaI/
webinars. *

The Americas
Toxic Substances
Canadian Agencies Propose Toxic Designation
For 44 Petroleum, Refinery Gas Substances
nate 44 petroleum and refinery gas substances as
The toxic
Canadian
basedgovernment
on their carcinogenicity
has proposed
andtoplans
desig
to
develop regulations or other measures to limit their re
leases to the environment.
Environment Canada and Health Canada proposed,
in a draft order published in the Feb. 15 issue of the
Canada Gazette, Part I, the designation of 40 site-
restricted petroleum and refinery gas (PRG) substances
as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection
Act (CEPA). The agencies published the final screening
assessments for the substances in June 2013 (36 INER
737, 6/5/13).
The departments proposed, in a separate draft order
published in the same issue of the Canada Gazette, des
ignation of four industry-restricted PRG substances that
are transported outside the facilities where they are
produced, but which do not reach the public market in
their original form (37 INER 169, 1/29/14).
The draft orders are open to public comment through
April 16, 2014.
The 40 substances, considered site-restricted because
they do not leave the facility where they are originally
processed, have been identified as carcinogens, the de
partments said in a regulatory impact analysis accom
panying the draft order. They form a group in Stream 1
of the Petroleum Sector Stream Approach under the
Canadian government's broader Chemicals Manage
ment Plan.
Unknown, Variable Composition. They are considered
to be of unknown or variable composition, as their com
position varies depending on the source of crude oil, bi
tumen or natural gas and the production process used.
The four industry-restricted PRG substances, which
were also determined through a screening assessment
to be carcinogens, form a group in Stream 2 of the Pe
troleum Sector Stream Approach.
In separate draft risk management approaches for
the two groups of substances, the departments pro
posed development of a regulation to require new prac
tices or technologies, or improved implementation of
measures already in place, to reduce fugitive emissions
of the substances from petroleum facilities such as re
fineries, upgraders, and natural gas processing facili
ties.
Fugitive emissions are those that escape during pro
cessing, including from compressor seals, processing
valves, flanges, pressure relief valve seals, storage
tanks, and loading operations.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is
reviewing the proposed draft orders but is generally
supportive of the federal Chemicals Management Plan
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 2 9 7
and efforts to reduce the potential risks to Canadians'
health and the environment through appropriate as
sessment and management of chemicals, Alex Fergu
son, the association's vice-president of policy and envi
ronment, said Feb. 18.
"Both the refining industry and upstream oil and gas
sector continue to show improvements in reducing fu
gitive emissions," Ferguson told Bloomberg BNA in an
e-mailed statement. "CAPP looks forward to receiving
more information from Environment Canada and the
federal government and will provide input into the pro
posed risk management plans during the public com
ment period."
Details of PRG Substances. The 40 site-restricted PRGs
are: catalytic polymerized naphtha fractionation stabi
lizer tail gas (petroleum); fuel gases; C2-C4, C3-rich hy
drocarbons; butane splitter overhead gases (petro
leum); C4-rich acid-free catalytic cracked gas oil depro-
panizer bottom gases (petroleum); C3-C5-rich catalytic
cracked naphtha debutanizer bottom gases (petro
leum); C3-rich acid-free catalytic cracked naphtha
depropanizer overhead gases (petroleum); C^Cs-rich
catalytic cracker gases (petroleum); C2-C4-rich catalytic
polymerized naphtha stabilizer overhead gases (petro
leum); catalytic reformed naphtha stripper overhead
gases (petroleum); deethanizer overhead gases (petro
leum); deisobutanizer tower overhead gases (petro
leum); gas concentration reabsorber distillation gases
(petroleum); hydrogen-rich gases (petroleum);
hydrogen-rich recycle gases (petroleum); hydrogen-
rich reformer make-up gases (petroleum); thermal
cracking distillation gases (petroleum); catalytic
cracker refractionation absorber tail gas (petroleum);
cracked distillate hydrotreater separator tail gas (petro
leum); C4-rich saturate gas plant mixed stream tail gas
(petroleum); vacuum residue thermal cracker tail gas
(petroleum); C3-C4-rich petroleum distillates hydrocar
bons; hydrocarbon-rich hydrocracking depropanizer
off gases (petroleum); light straight-run naphtha stabi
lizer off gases (petroleum); reformer effluent high-
pressure flash drum off gases (petroleum); CrC4 hy
drocarbons; CrC4 sweetened hydrocarbons; CrC3 hy
drocarbons; CrCr, wet gases (petroleum); fluidized
catalytic cracker overhead fractionater secondary ab
sorber off gases (petroleum); alkylation feed gases (pe
troleum); refinery gases petroleum products; refinery
gases (petroleum); hydrotreated sour kerosine depenta-
nizer stabilizer off gases (petroleum); crude oil fraction
ation off gases (petroleum); fluidized catalytic cracker
fractionation off gases (petroleum); heavy distillate hy
drotreater desulfurization stripper off gases (petro
leum); crude distillation preflash tower off gases (petro
leum); straight-run stabilizer off gases (petroleum); and
catalytic hydrodesulfurized naphtha separator tail
gases (petroleum).
The four industry-restricted PRG substances are:
C3-C4 gases (petroleum); C3-C4 isobutane-rich gases
(petroleum); C4-rich gases (petroleum); and C,-C4 hy-
BNA 2-26-14
298 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
drocarbons, debutanizer fraction. The substances are
not deemed an ecological risk, but can contain ethene,
which is considered to have significant acute toxicity ef
fects on organisms. Ethene's potential toxicity is being
addressed separately.
By Peter Menyasz
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Menyasz
in Ottawa at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson ghenderson@bna.com
The draft order on the 40 site-restricted substances is
available at http://bit.ly/lkTsSWL.
The draft risk management approach for those sub-
stances is available at http://bit.ly/lm7kGAg.
The draft order on the four industry-restricted sub-
stances is available at http://bit.ly/ldJqqlO.
The draft risk management approach for those sub-
stances is available at http://bit.ly/lcnvvLx.
Toxic Substances
Canadian Government Proposes Designating
Fracking Component Ethylbenzene as Toxic
nate as toxic the hydraulic fracturing fluid compo
The Canadian
nent ethylbenzene
government
and isproposed
considering
Feb.measures
8 to desig to
limit human exposure to it.
A screening assessment of ethylbenzene concluded
that it doesn't pose a significant environmental risk, but
its carcinogenic nature warrants the proposal to desig
nate it as toxic under Section 64 of the Canadian Envi
ronmental Protection Act (CEPA), Environment Canada
and Health Canada said in a draft notice published in
the Feb. 8 issue of the Canada Gazette, Part I.
In a draft risk management document, also published
Feb. 8, the departments proposed a goal of reducing hu
man exposure via inhalation to the extent possible. That
would be accomplished through a regulation or other
initiative to minimize releases from the indoor use of
consumer lacquers, stains, varnishes, and concrete
floor sealers, based on further discussions with indus
try, they said.
Hexachloroethane Poses No Risk. In a separate draft
notice, the departments concluded the flame retardant
hexachloroethane poses a risk to neither the environ
ment nor human health, so it doesn't meet CEPA toxic
ity criteria and requires no further action on the govern
ment's part.
The notices are open to public comment through
April 9.
Both substances had been identified as priorities for
assessment through the federal Chemicals Manage
ment Plan, ethylbenzene due to its significant potential
for human exposure and its classification by interna
tional organizations as a carcinogen and hexachloro
ethane due to its persistence, bioaccumulation, and in
herent toxicity to aquatic life, as well as its classification
as a potential carcinogen.
Ethylbenzene occurs naturally in crude oil and can be
a component of vehicle and aviation fuels, and also oc
curs naturally in some natural gas streams and as a re
sult of incomplete combustion of natural materials. It is
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
primarily used as a solvent component in paints, stains,
and automotive cleaners, and is synthetically produced
and used primarily in manufacturing styrene.
Use in Oil and Gas Industry. Ethylbenzene is also used
in the oil and gas industry, including as a surfactant in
J
hydraulic fracturing fluids, as an acid additive, and as a
non-emulsifier.
Based on the most recent data available, about
906,000 metric tons of ethylbenzene were produced in
Canada in 2003, and about 545 metric tons of the sub
stance were imported in 2009.
Hexachloroethane isn't known to occur naturally and
was previously imported into Canada for use as a
chemical intermediate, a flux agent in the manufacture
of aluminum alloys, a flame retardant in industrial lami
nating resins, and a reactant in military smoke ammu
nition.
The use of the substance is being phased out, both in
Canada and internationally, and only small quantities
continue to be imported and used in the manufacture of
aluminum alloys, the departments said.
By Peter Menyasz
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Menyasz
in Ottawa at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The draft notice on ethylbenzene is available at http://
bit.ly/LatbOe.
The draft risk management document for ethylben
zene is available at http://bit.ly/lkwtbql.
The draft notice on hexachloroethane is available at
http://bit.ly/IaFlDvv.
J
Hazmat Transport
Canada's National Railways Apply Surcharges
To Crude Oil Transport in Older Tank Cars
charges to shipments of crude oil in a bid to en
Canada's
couragenational railways
shippers to use have applied
tank cars new sur
that pose less
risk of environmental damage when accidents occur.
However, crude oil shippers suggested the higher
rates are intended to deflect attention from the rail
ways' lack of focus on the safety of oil shipments before
the July 2013 rail disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.
Eldon Fandrick, business development manager with
oil shipper Liquids in Motion Ltd., based in Leduc, Al
berta, said Feb. 19 the railways' decision to impose
higher rates on older-standard tank cars is part of pub
lic relations efforts in the wake of the disaster.
The Lac-Megantic accident, in which an unattended,
runaway train carrying crude oil derailed in the middle
of the small community, leveled its downtown area and
caused 47 deaths. Since the incident, Transport Canada
has taken a range of measures to promote increased
safety of rail transport of crude oil and other dangerous
goods.
"When it all boils down, you have these guys point
ing at rail cars, pointing the finger at everything but the
actual problem," Fandrick told Bloomberg BNA in a
J
telephone interview. "It's the railroads cutting corners.
 THE AMERICAS
They're doing it more and more. It's based on dollars
and cents and what they're doing for their investors."
Freight Train Staffing, Inspections. Railways have re
duced staffing of freight trains, and rail cars are only in
spected every 10 years, compared to annually for most
trucks used to transport crude oil, he said. The railways'
cost cutting is in response to changing economics, he
said.
When his family started Liquids in Motion about 18
years ago, there were more than 40 Class 1 railroads in
North America, but there are now only seven in
Canada, the United States, and Mexico, Fandrick said.
The railways are not disclosing the size of the sur
charge applied to older tank cars, but it is a very small
increase that will not significantly affect the safety of
crude oil shipments, Fandrick said.
But the railways are ready to do whatever is neces
sary to maintain their public image, Fandrick said.
"It's a joke," he said.
The situation demonstrates that government agen
cies have limited control over the railway sector, which
exercises significant political clout because of its strate
gic importance to the Canadian economy, he said. "The
railroads are stronger than any of our governments," he
said.
The oil companies who are the real customers af
fected by the freight rates charged by railways are re
luctant to talk about this issue, as they need to maintain
close relations with the railways and with governments,
Fandrick said.
Oil Company Responds. Major oil producer Cenovus
C Energy Inc., which has significant projects in Alberta's
oil sands region, is not concerned about the higher rail
rates for transport of crude oil, as rail shipments repre
sent only a small percentage of its shipments, company
spokeswoman Rhona DelFrari said Feb. 21.
Most of Cenovus' production is transported by pipe
line, and rail transport represents only about 10 percent
of total shipments, DelFrari told Bloomberg BNA in a
telephone interview.
The slightly higher rail rates aren't a major issue and
have not affected Cenovus' decisions on how to ship its
products, she said. "It comes down to, does it still make
financial sense?" she said.
Cenovus leases its rail cars and is moving to replace
them with newer, safer models as the leases expire,
DelFrari said. The company expects to add more than
800 of the newer tank cars in the coming years, she
said.
Railways Confirm Higher Rates. Canadian Pacific Rail
way Ltd. confirmed Feb. 14 that it has introduced
higher rates for crude oil shipments in any car other
than those considered the most safe. The initiative is
part of the railway's effort to encourage shippers to
work toward an upgraded tank car standard for crude-
by-rail shipments, CP Rail spokesman Ed Greenberg
told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail.
"Canadian Pacific believes upgraded tank cars are
the best investments to enhance safety and is encourag
ing the shipping industry, which supplies the cars, to
adopt safer tank car technologies as quickly as pos
sible," Greenberg said. "At the same time, our railroad
continues to urge for an immediate increase in federal
tank car safety standards, as this is the single most im
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 299
portant step in improving rail transport of dangerous
goods."
CP Rail officials have indicated their customers who
ship crude oil have been notified of the new rate struc
ture, which is to take effect in March for any tank cars
that do not meet the Association of American Railroads
CPC 1232 standard.
Canadian National Railway Co. had earlier confirmed
that it was applying higher rates for crude oil shipments
using the older DOT-111 standard cars in response to
the Lac-Megantic disaster (36 INER 1048, 7/31/13).
Tank Car Design Important. CN considers tank car de
sign one of the most important system issues arising
from the Lac-Megantic accident, Mark Hallman, the
railway's director of communications and public affairs,
said Feb. 13.
"CN has structured its rates to create an economic in
centive for customers to acquire, over time, more robust
tank cars that meet the higher safety standard of the
more recent CPC 1232 design," Hallman told
Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail, noting that specifics of
the railway's rate structure are confidential.
The issue of tank car robustness is central to the
safety of crude oil shipments, and the issue is being ad
dressed by the Association of American Railroads
(AAR), to which CN belongs, he said.
The U.S. association has recently recommended the
retrofitting or phaseout of the old DOT-111 tank cars
used to transport flammable liquids and introduction of
a reinforced standard for new cars, he said. "CN
strongly supports the AAR position," he said.
By Peter Menyasz
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Menyasz
in Ottawa at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Budget
Canadian Federal Budget Increases Pipeline
Review Agency Funding, Cuts Offshore Tariffs
ceive a C$28 million ($25.4 million) funding boost
Canada's
under National
the federal
Energy
budgetBoard
presented
(NEB)
in Parliament
would re
on Feb. 11. One of the board's principal duties is review
and approval of pipeline projects.
Additionally, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget
said the government will continue to develop detailed
responses to the recommendations made by the Tanker
Safety Expert Panel and the Special Representative on
West Coast Energy Infrastructure and will eliminate
tariffs on offshore oil drilling. The proposed budget will
now be considered by Canada's House of Commons.
Gillian McEachern, campaigns director of Environ
mental Defence, told Bloomberg BNA the budget con
tains no investment in energy efficiency or renewable
energy and fails to mention climate change even once.
The NEB money is earmarked for reviews of projects
such as TransCanada Pipelines Limited's Energy East
Pipeline Project, the budget says. If approved, the pipe
line would carry 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day
from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Eastern
Canada (37 INER 36, 1/1/14).
BNA 2-26-14
300 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
McEachern said the funding indicates the govern
ment is more interested in development than the envi
ronment. "We're further from reaching our targets,"
she said. "Where we're putting our money is making
the problem worse."
The budget said the NEB funding will be "fully cost-
recovered" from industry.
Offshore Drilling Tariffs. The budget also removes tar
iffs on mobile offshore drilling units, which had already
had temporary duty-free status. That change is ex
pected to lower business costs by $13 million annually,
improve global competitiveness of Canadian energy
projects and increase the potential for valuable re
source discoveries in Canada's Atlantic and Arctic off
shore areas, the budget said.
"It makes it cheaper to drill offshore," McEachern
said. "Given the need to face climate change, it's the
wrong way to go."
The budget provides for some tax incentives in the
area of emissions but does not go far enough as had
been promised in the past, McEachern said.
The environment minister had been expected to in
troduce draft regulations to limit greenhouse gas emis
sions from the oil and natural gas production sector, a
key element of the government's efforts to meet a com
mitment under the Copenhagen Accord to reduce emis
sions by 17 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 (37 INER
S-34, 1/1/14).
There was no mention of that in the budget. Accord
ing to the budget, under the capital cost allowance
(CCA) regime in the income tax system, Class 43.2 of
Schedule II to the Income Tax Regulations provides an
accelerated CCA rate (50 percent per year on a
declining-balance basis) for investment in specified
clean energy generation and energy conservation
equipment.
Waste Fuel Gasification. Budget 2014 proposed ex
panding Class 43.2 to include water-current energy
equipment and equipment used to gasify eligible waste
fuel for use in a broader range of applications.
"These measures will encourage investment in tech
nologies that can contribute to a reduction in emissions
of greenhouse gases and air pollutants, in support of
Canada's targets set out in the Federal Sustainable De
velopment Strategy," the budget said. "These measures
could also contribute to the diversification of Canada's
energy supply."
The changes will also include equipment used in gas
ification, the process to convert organic or fossil-based
materials into hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide to create producer gas or syngas.
Gasification equipment is eligible for inclusion in
Class 43.2 as "fuel upgrading equipment" when used in
an eligible cogeneration facility producing electricity
and heat or in an eligible waste-fueled thermal energy
facility producing heat, the budget said.
The budget proposes to expand Class 43.2 to include
property used to gasify eligible waste fuel for other ap
plications. Eligible property will include equipment
used primarily to produce producer gas, including re
lated piping, storage equipment, feeding equipment,
ash-handling equipment and equipment to remove non-
combustibles and contaminants from the producer gas.
Eligible property will not include buildings or other
structures, or heat rejection equipment. This measure
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
will apply to property acquired on or after Feb. 11 that
has not been used or acquired for use before that date.
McEachern said those incentives seemed more
geared to waste incineration than to clean energy devel
opment. Neither Canada's Pembina Institute energy
think-tank nor the Canadian Association of Petroleum
Producers (CAPP) was commenting on the budget.
"There isn't much in the way of specifics that impact
our industry," CAPP spokesman Tony McCallum told
Bloomberg BNA.
In other areas, the budget promised support but pro
vided no dollar figures. Those areas include:
Committing to respond to the recommendations
made by the Tanker Safety Expert Panel and the Spe
cial Representative on West Coast Energy Infrastruc
ture (37 INER S-30, 1/1/14);
Continuing to support the forestry, mineral explo
ration and agriculture sectors;
Investing new resources to protect Canada's natu
ral heritage; and
Encouraging additional donations of ecologically
sensitive land by doubling, for income tax purposes, the
carry-forward period for donations of such land.
By Jeremy Hainsworth
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hain
sworth in Vancouver at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The Canadian 2014 federal budget documents are
available at http://bit.ly/lbmTr3M.
Mining _
Canada Proposes to Continue Tax Credits
For Mineral Exploration, Budget Reveals
to extend a 15 percent mineral exploration tax
The credit
2014 for
federal
flow-through
budget plan
sharefor
investors
Canadaforproposes
an addi
tional year.
In 2012, more than 350 companies issued flow-
through shares with the benefit of the credit to more
than 30,000 individual investors, said the budget issued
Feb. 11. The credit is scheduled to expire March 31.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget said promot
ing the exploration of Canada's mineral resources by
junior exploration companies helps create jobs and eco
nomic development across the country (see related
story).
"The 15 percent Mineral Exploration Tax Credit
helps these companies raise capital by providing an in
centive to investors in flow-through shares issued to fi
nance mineral exploration," the budget document said.
"This credit is in addition to the deduction provided to
the investor for the exploration expenses 'flowed
through' by the company that issues the shares."
The budget said that since 2006, the credit has helped
junior mining companies raise more than C$5 billion
($4.5 billion) for exploration.
Credits to 30,000 Investors. In 2012, more than 350
companies issued flow-through shares with the benefit
of the credit to more than 30,000 individual investors,
J
the budget said.
THE AMERICAS
Association for Mineral Exploration BC Chairman
David McLelland welcomed the budget proposal.
"Many of our members are having difficulty raising
capital in these financially challenging times, and the
renewal is much appreciated," McLelland said in a Feb.
11 news release.
The association said the credit increases exploration
financing by providing individuals who invest in compa
nies that are exploring for minerals in Canada a 15 per
cent tax credit on eligible expenditures.
To support a vibrant mineral exploration sector, the
Canadian government first introduced the tax credit in
2000 for a five-year period, and extended it in 2006 for
another two years. It has since been extended on a
yearly basis, and was set to expire on March 31, 2014.
The government has proposed to extend the credit
for an additional year until March 31, 2015.
"In future budgets, we would further recommend
making the tax credit permanent to facilitate grassroots
exploration programs to aid in the discovery of new
mineral deposits while contributing to steady, high-
paying jobs in communities throughout the country,"
the budget document said.
British Columbia Row-Through Shares. British Colum
bia province Premier Christy Clark announced Jan. 27
a C$10 million ($9.1 million) extension of the province's
flow-through share tax credit program for 2014.
In a speech, Clark told Association for Mineral Explo
ration BC members the credit would help junior explo
ration companies attract investment to continue with
resource exploration and also to raise additional rev
enue for mineral exploration and development.
The association's president, Gavin Dirom, told
Bloomberg BNA the British Columbia credit would al
low industry to remain competitive on a global basis
and allow companies to attract further investment.
The 20 percent tax credit was introduced in 2001 to
promote grass-roots mineral exploration, as flow-
through shares allow exploration companies to pass eli
gible Canadian exploration expenses to investors,
Campbell said.
The budget has yet to pass in Canada's House of
Commons. The governing Conservative Party has a par
liamentary majority, so its passage is likely.
By Jeremy Hainsworth
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hain
sworth in Vancouver at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brett
Ferguson at bferguson@bna.com
Energy
British Columbia May Increase Funding
For Assessments of LNG, Other Projects
Office (EAO) will receive an additional C$9 million
The (US$8
Britishmillion)
Columbiaover Environmental Assessment
three years to handle assess
ments of resource development impacts of proposed
liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and pipelines, and
mining and other major projects, the province's minis
ter of finance said in the 2014 budget proposal an
nounced Feb. 18.
The budget also said assessment and regulatory pro
cess improvements are being introduced to ensure that
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 301
timelines are appropriate for both environmental pro
tection and economic development.
Industry observers are being cautious about the pro
cess changes, wondering what the government means
with a budget proposal to introduce modest fees in con
cert with the process improvements. No details on pos
sible fee were immediately available.
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark said Feb. 19
in a speech to the B.C. Chamber of Commerce that en
suring the environmental assessment process and re
gime must be worked on in conjunction with labor,
competitive taxation, infrastructure, education and la
bor issues.
"We have to make sure we meet the business case for
these investors from around the world," she said.
Environmental Framework for LNG. Clark said an envi
ronmental framework for the LNG industry would be
introduced "to make sure we have the cleanest LNG cli
mate anywhere on the planet." She gave no dates for
the introduction of that framework.
Overall, the budget provides C$29 million (US$26
million) over three years to support LNG development,
with incremental funding for the Ministries of Aborigi
nal Relations and Reconciliation; Environment; Forests,
Lands and Natural Resource Operations; and Natural
Gas Development to attract investment and support a
stable and predictable environment for investment de
cisions, the budget said.
"As well, the funding will facilitate coordinated and
timely processing with respect to the province's regula
tory and permitting requirements, and provide a strate
gic framework that benefits British Columbians while
ensuring ongoing environmental protection, manage
ment and stewardship," the budget said.
Funding is also being provided for LNG
development-related costs such as a government task
force to provide overall strategic policy direction and
engagement with LNG proponents and other stakehold
ers; aboriginal groups consultation and negotiations;
consultation with industry, community and other stake
holders; and activities related to land disposition, parks
and protected areas management, and environmental
stewardship.
In January, Clark asked for a review of the EAO to
ensure that economic development and environmental
protection objectives are in the desired balance (37
INER 237, 2/12/14).
A panel of senior provincial ministers said Sept. 18,
2013, that ministries are working collaboratively to en
sure streamlined approvals of resource projects for
products, particularly LNG, aimed for export to U.S,
and Asian markets (36 INER 1314, 9/25/13).
The proponents of LNG projects announced so far
are CNOOC Limited's wholly owned subsidiary Nexen
Energy ULC/ INPEX Corp./JGC Corp.; Quicksilver Re
sources Canada; Douglas Channel Energy Partnership/
Haisla Nation/Golar LNG; Apache Corp. and Chevron
Canada; Kitsault Energy Ltd.; Shell Canada and their
co-venture partnersKOGAS, Mitsubishi and Petro-
China; PETRONAS/Progress Energy/Japex, BG Group,
AltaGas Ltd. and Idemitsu Canada Corp.; Imperial Oil
and ExxonMobil Canada Ltd.; Woodfibre Natural Gas
Limited; and Woodside Energy Ltd.
A Dec. 16, 2013, provincial government news release
said if only five LNG facilities move forward, the cumu-
BNA 2-26-14
302 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
lative gross domestic product benefit to British Colum
bia could total C$1 trillion (US$900 billion) by 2046.
The provincial budget is likely to pass, owing to the
governing Liberal Parry's legislative majority.
By Jeremy Hainsworth
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hain
sworth in Vancouver at correspondents@)bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The British Columbia Budget 2014 is available at
http://bit.ly/lmunTNZ.
"LNG 101: A Guide to British Columbia's Liquefied
Natural Gas Sector" is available at http://bit.ly/
ldMWrWl.
Mining
Canada Proposes Rules to Let Gold Mine
Use More Water Bodies for Waste Disposal
published draft regulations to permit Detour Lake
Gold Department
Canada's Corp. to fill four minor bodies
of Fisheries of waterhas
and Oceans as
part of expanding tailings and waste rock disposal ar
eas at its Detour Lake Gold Mine in northern Ontario.
The Regulations Amending the Metal Mining Effluent
Regulations, issued Feb. 8 under the Fisheries Act,
implement the findings of an environmental assessment
of the gold mine's operation past 2019, when the capac
ity of its current tailings and waste rock disposal areas
will be reached, the department said in a regulatory im
pact analysis accompanying the draft regulations in the
Feb. 8 issue of the Canada Gazette, Part I.
"The Metal Mining Effluent Regulations include pro
visions to allow the use of natural, fish-frequented wa
ter bodies for mine waste disposal because, at some
sites, the disposal of mine waste in such water bodies
may be the preferred disposal option for pollution pre
vention and reduction of long-term environmental
risk," it said.
The draft regulations are open to public comment
through March 10.
An environmental assessment by the Canadian Envi
ronmental Assessment Agency concluded that, taking
into account mitigation measures proposed by Detour
Lake Gold, use of the four water bodies was the pre
ferred alternative for operation of the mine after the
current tailings and waste rock disposal areas are full,
it said.
New Fish Habitat. The mitigation measures include a
commitment to establish a new fish habitat that would
be larger than the habitat that will be destroyed, it said.
The Detour Lake Gold Mine is designed to process at
least 55,000 metric tons of ore per day and is expected
to operate through at least 2029 and generate at least
350 million metric tons of tailings and 960 million tons
of rock waste during its operating life.
By Peter Menyasz
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Menyasz
in Ottawa at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
The draft regulations are available at http://bit.ly/
UI6eBX.
Endangered Species
Canadian Ministers Acted Unlawfully
On Species Protection Plans, Court Rules
ronmental groups' applications in part that the Ca
A Federal
nadianCourt
government
of Canadashould
on Feb.
post14
recovery
grantedstrate
envi
gies for species identified as being endangered, threat
ened or extirpated as required under the country's
Species at Risk Act (Western Canada Wilderness Com
mittee v. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Federal
Court of Canada, No. T-1777-12, 2/14/14).
In four filing, the plaintiffs accused the government
of not having prepared recovery strategies for the Pa
cific humpback whale, Nechako white sturgeon,
marbled murrelet and Southern Mountain caribou.
Judge Anne L. Mactavish said the federal minister of
fisheries and oceans didn't comply with the statutory
timelines for the preparation and publication of recov
ery strategies for the white sturgeon, the Nechako River
population, the humpback whale, and the North Pacific
population.
Nor did the minister of the environment comply with
the statutory timelines for the preparation and publica
tion of recovery strategies for the marbled murrelet and
the woodland caribou, she ruled.
"This court therefore declares that the ministers
acted unlawfully in failing, within the statutory time _
frames, to post proposed recovery strategies for the
species at issue in these cases," Mactavish ruled.
The case was brought by environmental groups who
say the federal government has failed to meet its re
sponsibility under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to
prepare recovery strategies for endangered wildlife al
legedly threatened by a number of projects, including
the Northern Gateway oil pipeline (Western Canada
Wilderness Committee v. Minister of Fisheries and
Oceans, Federal Court of Canada, Consolidated Pro
ceedings T-l777-12, hearing 1/8/14; 37 INER 107,
1/15/14).
Declaratory Relief. The court said it was necessary
and appropriate to grant the applicants the declaratory
relief they sought, both as an expression of judicial dis
approval of the current situation and to encourage fu
ture compliance with the statute by the competent min
isters.
Since the suit was filed, the government has released
strategies.
Further, the judge said, many species are in a race
against time for survival.
"It is, moreover, apparent that the delay encountered
in these four cases are just the tip of the iceberg," Mac
tavish ruled. "This is clearly an enormous systemic
problem within the relevant Ministries, given the re
spondents' acknowledgement that there remain some
167 species at risk for which recovery strategies have
not yet been developed."
The legal group Ecojustice represented the groups.
Prior to the hearings, the groups said a humpback
strategy should have been before the Canadian Nation
THE AMERICAS
Energy Board (NEB) panel reviewing the Enbridge
Northern gateway pipeline proposal that tankers mov
ing to and from the oil pipeline shipping point threaten
the whales' habitat.
The Northern Gateway, the largest rival Canadian
pipeline to the delayed Keystone XL, was granted envi
ronmental approval with 209 conditions by the NEB af
ter an exhaustive and contentious consultation and re
view process, it was announced Dec. 19 (37 INER 35,
1/1/14).
Reaction to Decision. "We're pleased that the Court
has agreed that it's unacceptable for the federal govern
ment to continue to miss the mandatory deadlines set
out in the Species at Risk Act," Ecojustice staff lawyer
Sean Nixon said in a Feb. 14 news release. "That said,
it is disappointing that we had to resort to litigation yet
again to force the government to follow its own law."
The judge directed the parties to a case-management
conference to ensure all protection plans are dealt with.
By Jeremy Hainsworth
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hain
sworth in Vancouver at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The opinion of the Federal Court of Canada in West
ern Canada Wilderness Committee v. Minister of Fish
eries and Oceans is available at http://bit.ly/HXdaql.
Climate Change
North American Leaders Pledge to Work
Together to Curb Climate Change, Emissions
phen Harper and Mexican President Enrique Pena
President
Nieto cited
Obama,
a shared
Canadian
concernPrime
for addressing
Minister Ste
cli
mate change and pledged to work together to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions during a Feb. 19 summit of
North American leaders in Toluca, Mexico.
Obama said the three countries will work together to
adopt and meet new fuel efficiency standards for heavy-
duty trucks, and he said Harper agreed to work with the
U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We do have to point to the future and show leader
ship so that other countries who will be the main emit
ters fairly soonChina, India, other emerging
marketsso that they can look at what we're doing and
we have leverage over them in terms of them improving
their practices as well," Obama said.
Immediate action on climate change is necessary be
cause the effects already are being felt through events
like extreme weather, and climate change will have
devastating impacts on the economy and environment,
Obama said.
Climate change "has to affect all of our decisions at
this stage, because the science is irrefutable," Obama
said. "It has the potential of displacing people in ways
that we cannot currently fully anticipate, and will be ex
traordinarily costly."
Obama's comments on the need for international ac
tion come as senior administration officials have inten
sified their rhetoric on the issue in recent weeks. Secre
tary of State John F. Kerry touted the Obama adminis
tration's efforts to address climate change and
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 0 3
committed to further action on the issue with China
during a recent trip through Asia (see related story).
Energy Leaders Summit. The three North American
leaders also said their energy ministers will meet later
in 2014 to discuss opportunities and strategies for "en
ergy efficiency, infrastructure, innovation, renewable
energy, unconventional energy sources, energy trade,
and responsible resource development," according to a
joint statement following the summit.
Harper said the U.S. and Canada share "similar tar
gets at the international level" for greenhouse gas emis
sions reduction targets and said both nations "cooper
ate in several sectors in terms of emissions reductions."
Mexico, Canada and the U.S. also agreed to continue
work toward an "ambitious and inclusive" international
agreement on climate change in 2015 and vowed to con
tinue efforts to phase down the use of highly potent hy-
drofluorocarbons.
After the conclusion of the summit, Canadian Envi
ronment Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced $2.25
million (C$2.5 million) to establish the Canada-Mexico
Climate Change Cooperation Platform. The funds will
be used to assist in modelling, tracking and mitigating
the effects of climate change, according to Environment
Canada.
By Anthony Adragna
To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony
Adragna in Washington at aadragna@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The statement from President Obama, Prime Minister
Harper and President Nieto is available at http://
1.usa.gov/lbpQIpL.
Water Pollution
U.S.-Mexico Water, Wastewater Funds Drop
Despite Water Quality, Public Health Benefits
ment plant construction on the U.S.-Mexico bor
Program funding
der has for water
plummeted andyears,
in recent wastewater treat
despite signifi
cant opportunities for economic, public health and wa
ter quality benefits, according to a discussion paper
published Feb. 17 by the Global Water Forum.
Investments in a joint program, started in 1998 and
run by the Environmental Protection Agency and the
National Water Commission of Mexico, at one point
were at $100 million annually but have dropped in re
cent years to $5 million annually, said the paper, "Ad
dressing water and wastewater disparities on the
United States-Mexico border."
The Mexico Border Water Infrastructure Program of
fers grant assistance for the planning, development and
construction of water and wastewater treatment plants,
but more money must be invested to produce "large so
cial returns," the paper said.
Water and wastewater treatment plants are needed in
the region to resolve water quality, public health and
economic problems and therefore "warrant increased
public investment," the paper by Hiwot Gebremariam
said. For instance, the actual plants would prevent dis
charges of untreated sewage into water bodies and de
crease incidences of water- and food-borne illnesses,
BNA 2-26-14
304 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
which in U.S. border counties can be three to six times
higher than the U.S. average. Investments in these in
frastructure projects could also provide jobs and bolster
economic development in the region's poorer areas.
The region contains five of the 20 poorest U.S. counties,
the paper said.
These problems are fixable through public invest
ment, and fixing them would bolster trade opportunities
with Mexico, the U.S.'s second largest trade partner,
the paper said. Every dollar of public funds invested on
water and wastewater infrastructure yields $2.62 in eco
nomic output, the paper said. For every job created in
the water and wastewater industry, another 3.68 do
mestic jobs are created, it said.
Attracting Business, Labor, Innovation. "There is sig
nificant capacity to expand productivity and further de
velop the economic opportunities made available
through trade," the paper said. "Additional water infra
structure in particular would attract new businesses,
skilled labor, innovation, and tourism."
The Border Environment Cooperation Commission
and the North American Development Bank also coor
dinate with the EPA and Mexico's water commission on
the infrastructure program.
Gebremariam is an economics professor who special
izes in environmental science, is an EPA Oak Ridge In
stitute for Science and Education research participant
and provides support to the Mexico Border Water Infra
structure Program. The Global Water Forum is an ini
tiative of the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and
Transboundary Governance at the Australian National
University that aims to foster discussion of little-known
but important issues.
By Rachel Leven
To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Leven in
Washington at rleven@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The discussion paper "Addressing water and waste
water disparities on the United States-Mexico border"
is available at http://www.globalwaterforum.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/GWF-1407_Addressing-water-
and-wastewater-disparities-on-the-United-States%
E27o807o93Mexico-border.pdf.
Energy
Nebraska Court Strikes Down Legislation
That Paved Way for Keystone XL Route
enacted in 2012 that paved the way for state ap
A Nebraska
proval ofcourt Feb. 19route
a proposed struck down
for the legislation
Keystone XL
pipeline (Thomson v. Heineman, Neb. Dist. Ct, No. CI-
12-2060, 2/19/14).
The legislation (L.B. 1161) created an expedited
method for evaluating and approving proposed pipeline
routes through the state, vesting in the state Depart
ment of Environmental Quality and the governor the
power to grant final approval.
But the power to evaluate and approve oil pipeline
routes falls within the constitutionally enumerated pow
ers of the state Public Service Commission, the court
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
said. As a result, the bill violates the separation of pow
ers clause of the state constitution.
The Nebraska District Court granted the request of
the plaintiffs, three landowners whose land would be
affected by the pipeline along the proposed route, for an
J>
injunction barring the state from enforcing the provi
sions of L.B. 1161 and from taking any action pursuant
to Gov. Dave Heineman's (R) approval in January 2013
of a route for the pipeline.
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning (R) filed a
notice of appeal Feb. 19 contesting the ruling.
TransCanada Corp. seeks to build the pipeline to
transport crude oil from the Alberta oil sands region to
refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.
'Project at a Standstill.' In a statement, David Domina,
founder of the Domina Law Group PC LLO, who repre
sented the property owners filing the lawsuit, said, "Un
der the Court's ruling, TransCanada has no approved
route in Nebraska. TransCanada is not authorized to
condemn the property against Nebraska landowners.
The pipeline project is at standstill in this State."
Brian Jorde, a partner with Domina Law, told
Bloomberg BNA that the practical effect of the ruling
would be to stop the project in its tracks in Nebraska
and to throw up a "potentially huge roadblock" at the
federal level.
"The effect of this ruling is to bring things back to
square one in Nebraska," Jorde said. "There is no state
route. And that will impact what TransCanada has been
doing in the state as well as the process at the federal
level."
Governor: 'Terrible Decision.' Heineman, a supporter of
the project, said in a statement: "I'm pleased that Attor
ney General Bruning is appealing this decision. This is
an important issue for the state of Nebraska."
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), the leading House propo
nent for Keystone, called the court ruling a "terrible de
cision" that would harm the Nebraska economy and
lead to increased dependence on foreign oil. "I'm confi
dent that this decision will be overturned," he said in a
statement.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), the leading Keystone
proponent in the Senate, issued a statement saying
"Nebraska has to work through its process on this very
important energy project for America. We believe, how
ever, that the environmental concerns in Nebraska, and
in every other state through which the pipeline will
pass, have been addressed."
TransCanada called the ruling a "solvable problem"
and expressed confidence that it could overcome "this
latest hurdle."
"It is important to point out the judge's decision was
not based on the merits of the pipeline," TransCanada
said.
The final environmental review and Nebraska's De
partment of Environmental Quality both agree the lat
est route through Nebraska is the best one, the com
pany said.
"It is our view the current 90-day national interest de
termination process that is now underway should not
be impacted by this ruling," TransCanada said.
State Laws Challenged. The lawsuit challenges L.B.
1161, which was passed during the regular legislative
J>
session in 2012 to amend two pipeline-siting laws, L.B.
 THE AMERICAS
1 and L.B. 4, which had been passed by the Legislature
during a special session in the fall of 2011.
The 2011 bills were passed in a climate of contro
versy about the pipeline proposal and required the state
Department of Environmental Quality to study routes
around the environmentally sensitive Sandhills region.
Those bills also required DEQ to carry out its evaluation
in the context of a memorandum of understanding with
the Department of State, the lead federal agency in
volved in evaluating the project.
But after President Barack Obama denied a presiden
tial permit for the pipeline in January 2012, supporters
of the pipeline in the Nebraska Legislature brought for
ward L.B. 1161, which gave DEQ authority to continue
its site-evaluation work in the absence of a memoran
dum of understanding with the State Department.
The bill also created a new, expedited method of site
evaluation in addition to the system that had been cre
ated in the 2011 bills.
The 2011 bills had required carriers proposing to
construct a pipeline in the state to seek approval from
the Public Service Commission. But under L.B. 1161,
carriers were permitted to seek approval of a pipeline
route directly from the governor, following an environ
mental review by DEQ.
Public Service Commission's Authority. In a 50-page rul
ing, Judge Stephanie Stacy, Nebraska District Court,
Lancaster County, said that the lawsuit charged that
L.B. 1161 was unconstitutional on four grounds: that it
was an unconstitutional pledge of the state's credit, vio
lated the prohibition against special legislation, consti
tuted an unlawful delegation of authority and violated
the doctrine of separation of powers and the right to
due process.
Stacy turned back the first two of the plaintiffs' chal
lenges to the law but concluded that the bill did consti
tute an unlawful delegation of authority over common
carriers to the governor.
According to Stacy, the PSC was a regulatory body
created by the constitution with power to regulate com
mon carriers. That power could only be restricted by
the Legislature through "specific legislation," she said.
In addition, at the time L.B. 1161 was enacted, the
PSC had plenary jurisdiction over oil pipelines as com
mon carriers and had jurisdiction over pipeline carriers
pursuant to the 2011 bills, she said.
The plaintiffs argued that L.B. 1161 gave NDEQ and
the governor authority to evaluate and approve any
route for an oil pipeline in the state and in doing so
"completely divest[ed] the PSC of authority over the
routing decision of an entire class of common carriers
those oil pipelines which elect to submit an application
for evaluation by NDEQ and approval by the Gover
nor," she said.
State's Arguments. The state replied with two argu
ments: that siting decisions didn't fall within PSC's con
stitutionally prescribed powers and that the effect of
L.B. 1161 was to create a shared jurisdiction over pipe
line carriers, rather than completely divesting PSC of its
authority.
c As to the question of the whether siting decisions fall
within PSC's powers, Stacy said that case law showed
that decisions as to where a common carrier locates its
services did fall within PSC's authority to control com
mon carriers.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 0 5
Stacy also said that the "shared jurisdiction" scheme
created by L.B. 1161 failed the constitutional test be
cause it could permit carriers in some circumstances to
win approval of a route without ever appearing before
the PSC.
Divesting the PSC of such authority would be permit
ted only if the body exercising that authority were the
Legislature itself, not the governor or any other entity,
Stacy said.
Having found that the law was unconstitutional,
Stacy declined to evaluate the lawsuit's remaining chal
lenges to the bill.
Impact on Property Acquisition. The most important
impact of the ruling on TransCanada, in addition to pos
sibly forcing it to seek PSC approval for a route, will be
to slow its effort to acquire property for the route, Jorde
of Domina Law said.
The bill that was struck down in the ruling gave emi
nent domain powers to TransCanada to help it acquire
land and easements for the pipeline, Jorde said.
Now with its eminent domain powers curtailed as an
effect of the ruling, the company will likely find that its
powers of persuasion have diminished in its negotia
tions with landowners, he said.
"The company has not had to use eminent domain so
far, it appears, but it has been able to threaten to use
eminent domain, which can be pretty scary for some
landowners," he said. "Now that is gone, along with the
route itself."
Jorde said the company has already reached agree
ments with most of the landowners who were easy to
persuade. "The ones who are left are the holdouts, the
ones who didn't want to give up their land or grant
easements," he said. "And it's hard to see why that kind
of landowner would agree to anything now."
Year Delay Possible. As for the review process at the
federal level, Jorde said the uncertainty as to a route
through Nebraska could give the Obama administration
a clear reason to delay a permit decision for a year or
more.
"Our argument is that you can only determine if this
is in the national interest if you have a defined project,
including a route," Jorde said. "And now, with 250
miles of the route in question, how can you have a na
tional interest determination?"
Jorde added that the loss of a settled route through
Nebraska could also throw into question at least por
tions of the route through South Dakota and Kansas.
"If the connection points between the routes through
these states are shifted 40 or 50 miles, then what are
they going to do?" he said. "They'll have to come up
with new routes, and subject those new routes to fed
eral review. This is potentially a huge delay."
The State Department issued an overall favorable fi
nal environmental assessment Jan. 31 of the Keystone
project, and the department is conducting a public com
ment period that ends March 7 (37 INER 241, 2/12/14).
By Christopher Brown
With assistance from Lynn Garner
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Brown in
St. Louis at chrisbrown@bna.com and Lynn Garner in
Washington at lgarner@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
BNA 2-26-14
306 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
The opinion of the Nebraska District Court in Thom
son v. Heineman is available at http://op.bna.com/
env.nsf/r?Open=maln-9ggvyx.
Nebraska's notice of appeal can be found at http://
op.bna.com/der. nsf/r?Open=sbay-9ghvkj.
Tr a d e
Lawmakers Press USTR on Enforcement
Of Trans-Pacific Pact's Environment Chapter
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Peter A. DeFa-
A groupzio (D-Ore.),
of 122 House
sent a letter
lawmakers,
to U.S. spearheaded
Trade Represen
by
tative Michael Froman urging him to continue to push
for a fully enforceable environment chapter in the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations.
The lawmakers sent the letter as Froman and other
trade ministers of Pacific Rim countries prepared for
TPP talks Feb. 22-25 in Singapore.
Blumenauer is a member of the Ways and Means
Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade negotia
tions, and DeFazio is ranking member of the Commit
tee on Natural Resources.
"TPP must include new and robust commitments for
member countries to protect and conserve forests,
oceans, and wildlife and obligate member countries to
comply with both domestic environmental laws, not
derogating from those laws, and meet their commit
ments under multilateral environmental agreements
(MEAs)," the Feb. 20 letter said. "These commitments
must be strong, binding and enforceable, and subject to
the same dispute settlement procedures as the commer
cial chapters, including recourse to trade sanctions."
Since a 2007 bipartisan deal was struck, the environ
ment chapters of U.S. free trade agreements have been
legally enforceable and have included a list of environ
mental treaties, known as MEAs, that countries com
mitted to uphold. The Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna
Flora (CITES) is as an example of an agreement that all
the TPP countries have signed.
TPP trade officials and civil society groups have iden
tified the environment provisions as some of the most
contentious of the negotiations. The January leak of the
consolidated legal text on the environment and a re
lated report revealed that the U.S. proposal, which is
based on congressionally agreed-upon terms on issues
such as MEAs, faces broad opposition from other TPP
countries (37 INER 173, 1/29/14).
Froman Reiterates Demands. Froman said Feb. 18 in a
speech at the Center for American Progress that the
U.S. is working to set the world's highest standards in
the environmental chapters of our trade agreements.
"And as we do with labor provisions, we've insisted
that environmental commitments be in equal footing
with commercial obligations," he said. "Commitments
to protect endangered species, for example, must be
taken just as seriously as commitments to lower tariffs
and protect intellectual property rights."
The U.S. is asking its trading partners to commit to
effectively enforced environmental laws, including
those laws implementing multilateral environmental
agreements, and the administration is committed to
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT * 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
making sure our partners follow through, Froman said,
adding that the TPP is a chance to reach a "higher new
plane."
"Through our negotiations, we're seeking to address
conservation challenges particularly prevalent in the
j
Asia-Pacific region," he said. "Our TPP partners in
clude many biodiversity hotspots, some of which have
served as conduits for illegal trade and smuggling and
threatened animal, timber, plant and marine species."
He cited big leaf mahogany, tigers, sharks and chin
chillas, and noted that stronger legal frameworks and
enforcement will improve the chances that these spe
cies survive.
"When it comes to oceans, for decades, the WTO has
tried unsuccessfully to reach agreement to constrain
subsidies that encourage over-fishing and ruin our ma
rine life," he said. "TPP is a not-to-be-missed opportu
nity for a breakthrough on fishing subsidies, which will
be important in its own right, as well as a step towards
breaking international deadlock on this issue."
By Len Bracken
To contact the reporter on this story: Len Bracken in
Washington at lbracken@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Je
rome Ashton atjashton@bna.com
The Feb. 20 letter from House members to Froman is
available at http: I I op.bna.com/itr.nsf/r?Open=esin-
9ghns8.
Energy
Washington State Breaks With Federal
Regulators to Analyze Coal Export Plans
ington Department of Ecology said it would conduct
In aa detailed
decisiveenvironmental analysis
split with federal of cumulative
regulators, and
the Wash
indirect impacts of a proposed coal export facility
including greenhouse gas emissions from combustion
of U.S. coal in Asia.
In a Feb. 12 media briefing, Ecology officials laid out
the scope of the state environmental impact study for
Millennium Bulk Terminals, one of three proposed coal
export facilities in the Northwest that cumulatively
would more than match the total of 107 million tons of
coal exported from the U.S. in 2011.
The controversial proposals have sparked intense op
position from grassroots groups, tribes and environ
mental organizations; Ecology received 215,000 com
ments in the Millennium scoping process alone.
Ecology officials had planned to conduct a joint envi
ronmental impact statement with the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. But the two agencies parted ways last
year, when it became clear that there were stark differ
ences between corps plans to evaluate the projects
based on its narrow reading of the National Environ
mental Policy Act and how Ecology plans to proceed,
based on its broad reading of the State Environmental
Policy Act.
The corpswhich received extensive guidance from
the White House Council on Environmental Quality
has said it will not consider numerous cumulative and
indirect effects such as the combustion of U.S. coal
i>
abroad.
 THE AMERICAS
Ecology's announcement Feb. 12 enumerates a wide
range of effects it will analyze that the corps will not in
clude, including the cumulative impacts of Millennium
together with the two other proposed terminals.
In a related development, the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality issued three critical permits Feb.
11 to a company proposing to export up to 8.8 million
tons of coal annually from Columbia River ports (see re
lated story).
Analysis From Coal Mines to Port. Millennium is a proj
ect of Ambre Energy Ltd. with a 62 percent interest, and
Arch Coal Inc. with a 38 percent interest. The terminal
at the Port of Longview, Wash., about 63 miles from the
river's mouth, would be capable of shipping as much as
48.5 million tons of coal annually.
Upriver about 270 miles is another Ambre project
the proposed Morrow Pacific project that would ship as
much as 8.8 million tons of coal annually from the Coy
ote Island Terminal. It received three critical permits
Feb. 11 from Oregon regulators.
About 200 miles to the north near the Canadian bor
der is the site of the proposed Gateway Pacific Termi
nal, which would export up to 53 million tons of coal an
nually. SSA Marine, which calls itself the largest U.S.
terminal and stevedoring company, is behind the pro
posal to build Gateway. The Smith-Hemingway family
owns a 51 percent interest in parent company Carrix
Inc.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s BNSF Railway Co. would
haul coal to both terminals primarily from the federally
owned coal fields in the Powder River Basin in Montana
and Wyoming. Numerous communities along the route
C from the mines to the ports have expressed concerns
about a variety of impacts from the 1.5-miIe-long trains
including coal dust, noise and traffic problems from at-
grade crossings.
Ecology's Southwest Washington Region Director
Sally Toteff said the state would analyze the cumulative
impacts of all the rail transport "from the mine site to
the facility." Analysis of human health impacts would
be most detailed around the Millennium site, but also
include the entire rail route within the state.
State Will Look Beyond its Boundaries. Elaine Placido,
director of building and planning for Cowlitz County,
Wash., which encompasses the Millennium site, said:
"There may be comparable significant adverse environ
mental impacts outside of the state boundaries from
shipping and rail. A more general discussion of out-of-
state impacts will also be included," she said.
This reflects the ecology department's regulatory ap
proach for the coal-export proposals of analyzing
broad, cumulative and indirect effects. It contrasts
sharply with the corps, which has said it would focus on
direct effects at terminal sites.
The more site-specific approach of the corps was
guided through a series of meetings convened by the
White House Council on Environmental Quality.
According to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg BNA
through the Freedom of Information Act, a June 7,
2012, meeting by CEQ was called "to discuss the NEPA
roles and responsibilities of each agency as regards the
planned coal mining and export development in the Pa
cific Northwest."
Toteff said officials view the increase of 140 ship
transits a month on the Columbia River as "a poten
tially significant adverse impact." The EIS "will provide
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 307
a detailed assessment of cargo-ship impacts in the Co
lumbia River such as from air pollution or possible
spills, along with a more general discussion of impacts
in open ocean waters."
"The environmental impact study will contain an
evaluation of impacts associated with the project from
greenhouse gas emissions including those from termi
nal construction, terminal operation, rail and vessel
traffic, and also the end-use coal combustion," Toteff
said. "The EIS will evaluate what are the amounts of
greenhouse gases attributable to the project."
Attributing Climate Change to Coal. Toteff cited regula
tory authority under SEPA to look at impacts outside
Washington and quoted from the Washington Adminis
trative Code: "In assessing the significance of an im
pact, a lead agency shall not limit its consideration of a
proposal's impact only to those aspects within its juris
diction including local or state boundaries."
Ecology planner Diane Butorac gave the justification
for why the agency will evaluate greenhouse gas emis
sions in Asia from the burning of U.S. coal. "We know
that climate change has affected things like snowpack,
ocean acidification and wildfire season here in Wash
ington. That's why we are studying this question; to find
the answers to what are the attributable impacts from
combustion of coal."
By Paul Shukovsky
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Shukovsky
in Seattle at pshukovsky@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Heather Rothman at hrothman@bna.com
The Ecology Department's website on the Millennium
Terminal EIS is available at http://
www.millenniumbulkeiswa.gov/.
Energy
Oregon Regulators Issue Three Permits
For Coal Export Proposal, Add Review
issued three critical permits to a company propos
The ingOregon Department
to export of Environmental
up to 8.8 million Quality
tons of coal annually
from Columbia River ports but also added a new regu
latory hurdle.
DEQ granted air quality, stormwater and water qual
ity permits Feb. 11 to the Australian company, Ambre
Energy, which proposes building a transshipment stor
age facility at the Port of Morrow about 270 miles up-
river.
Ambre plans to transfer coal at the Port of Morrow to
barges that would take it down the Columbia to Port
Westward where it would be transferred to oceangoing
vessels bound for Asia.
DEQ spokeswoman Marcia Danab told Bloomberg
BNA Feb. 12 that after reviewing the comments, the
agency concluded that a 401 water quality certification
should be conducted. She said the agency will consult
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the matter.
"The proposed activities, including removing pilings
and replacing piling, can cause turbidity," Danab said.
"We have a standard for turbidity that is designed to
protect fish. That is one thing that we would be looking
BNA 2-26-14
308 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
at in a 401 review. We want to protect water quality dur
ing construction."
Ambre's facility, also known as the Coyote Island ter
minal, is one of three proposed coal export facilities in
the Northwest that would cumulatively more than
match the total of 107 million tons of coal exported
from the U.S. in 2011 (37 INER 81, 1/1/14).
The highly controversial proposal attracted concerted
opposition from grassroots groups, tribes and environ
mental organizations. DEQ spokesman Greg Svelund
told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 11 that the agency had re
ceived more than 16,500 comments on the Coyote Is
land project.
The DEQ issued an air contaminant discharge permit
intended to limit coal dust emissions. It includes re
quirements that Ambre use scrubbers and misting sys
tems to hold down the dust, Svelund said.
Water Pollution Control Permit. The agency also issued
a water pollution control facilities permit which re
quires Ambre to collect water from the misting and
scrubbing operations in a tank and recycle it for future
use on-site.
"There are no discharges to surface water or ground
water in this permit," he said.
The DEQ issued a general stormwater permit in
tended to limit and control stormwater runoff during
the construction process.
Ambre spokeswoman Liz Fuller told Bloomberg
BNA, "We were previously informed by DEQ that a 401
certification would not be necessary and are evaluating
the request. We will be in contact with DEQ and the
corps regarding the request."
Ambre still must obtain a Rivers and Harbors Act per
mit from the corps for construction of its on-water fa
cilities and a removal-fill permit from the Oregon De
partment of State Lands.
By Paul Shukovsky
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Shukovsky
in Seattle at pshukovsky@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Information on the Coyote Island terminal is available
at http://www.oregon.gov/DEQ/Pages/CoalExport.aspx.
Energy
FERC Approves Expansion of Sabine Pass
Liquefied Natural Gas Export Terminal
20 approved a capacity expansion for the new Sa
The bine
Federal
PassEnergy
liquefied
Regulatory
natural gas
Commission
export terminal
on Feb.
and
denied market-based rates for the reversed Seaway oil
pipeline.
The commission action reflects increased filings by
oil and natural gas companies seeking to capitalize on
the recent surge in domestic oil and gas production by
expanding the existing pipeline infrastructure and de
veloping new markets.
The Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export termi
nal, which is still under construction on the Louisiana
coast, will be allowed to increase production capacity
from 2.2 billion cubic feet per day to 2.76 billion cubic
feet per day.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT * 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
The FERC order notes that Sabine Pass, a subsidiary
of Cheniere Energy Inc. of Houston, will need to seek
approval from the Energy Department to export more
than 2.2 billion cubic feet per day.
The request to charge market-based rates on the Sea
J
way oil pipeline was denied because there is insufficient
data at present to justify a shift away from cost-based
rates that require tariff filings, the commission said.
The flow on Seaway, a joint venture of Enterprise
Products Partners LP and Enbridge Inc., was reversed
in 2012 so that crude oil could be transported from the
Cushing, Okla., oil pipeline hub to the refinery complex
near Houston.
Commissioners used the Seaway order to reaffirm
the FERC policy on market-based criteria for oil pipe
lines.
Disagreement on Security. The commissioners took ex
ception to highly publicized comments from former
FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff suggesting that the
electric grid is dangerously vulnerable to physical at
tacks.
They suggested Wellinghoff went too far in discuss
ing details a few weeks ago with the Wall Street Jour
nal of a shooting incident last year that damaged a ma
jor substation in northern California.
Commissioner Philip Moeller issued a statement say
ing Wellinghoff's sharing of specific details and the in
dustry's response could lead to "copycat attacks."
Commissioner John Norris said the focus on grid se
curity should be comprehensive in scope, including cy-
bersecurity threats, and not just focused on spending
more money on concrete walls and fences to protect
against an "isolated" physical attack.
Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFIeur announced an in
dustrywide technical conference April 1 to discuss "les
J
sons learned" from the severe winter experienced
across the country that has caused electricity and natu
ral gas price spikes and has threatened grid reliability.
Discussion topics are under consideration and will in
clude the natural gas delivery system, she said.
LaFIeur said FERC has acted to relieve propane
shortages and will continue to monitor the situation.
By Lynn Garner
To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Garner in
Washington at lgarner@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Heather Rothman at hrothman@bna.com
Energy
DOE Approves License for Liquefied
Natural Gas Export Terminal in Louisiana
cense for a proposed liquefied natural gas export
The terminal
Energy Department
to be built inhas
Cameron
approved
Parish,
an La.,
export
makli
ing the fifth new LNG export terminal to be approved
since 2011.
The Cameron LNG LLC facility received a conditional
authorization to export up to 1.7 billion cubic feet per
day of natural gas for 20 years to countries that don't
have free-trade agreements with the U.S. (FE Docket
No. 11-162-LNG) (DOE/FE Order 3391).
The license is conditional on completion of environ
J>
mental reviews and securing a site construction permit
THE AMERICAS
from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
which is a separate process.
The Cameron LNG project, sponsored by Sempra En
ergy of San Diego, Calif., would be built on the site of
an existing LNG import terminal in Cameron Parish
near Hackberry, La.
Cameron LNG LLC and Cameron Interstate Pipeline
LLC, both Sempra subsidiaries, are developing the proj
ect.
DOE said it conducted "an extensive, careful review"
of the Cameron LNG license application and concluded
that exports were "not inconsistent with the public in
terest."
DOE reiterated that it is processing almost two dozen
applications "on a case-by-case basis" but shed no light
on how fast it would act on the remaining license re
quests.
The first license for a major LNG export facility in the
U.S., excluding a small intermittent Alaska facility, was
approved in 2011 for the Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC
export terminal, which is under construction in Louisi
ana.
DOE approved three more licenses in 2013: Freeport
LNG Expansion LP, Lake Charles Exports LLC, and Do
minion Cove Point LNG LP.
DOE approved a sixth license in November for an ex
pansion of the new Freeport facility at the request of the
company.
Sen. Landrieu Pleased. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.),
chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Re
sources Committee, praised the decision and called on
DOE to act faster on remaining license requests.
"The approval of an export LNG facility in southwest
Louisiana is long overdue but a welcome addition to the
robust energy industry we are building in Louisiana,"
Landrieu said in a statement.
Landrieu said Sempra's Cameron Parish LNG facility
will create 3,000 construction jobs at its peak and 140
full-time jobs. The company will invest $9 billion to $10
billion in the state's economy to fully upgrade the facil
ity, she said.
By Lynn Garner
To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Garner in
Washington at lgarner@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Heather Rothman at hrothman@bna.com
The DOE application can be found at http://Lusa.gov/
ljOkCQW.
Energy
Brazil Wind Developers Expected to Welcome
Suspended Rule at Next Energy Auction
against a rule regulating wind power generated
Brazilian wind
energy theyfarm
say developers who
is too rigorous havewelcome
should lobbied
the suspension of the rule at the next government-held
energy auction June 6, an official at the government's
electricity regulator (Aneel) told Bloomberg BNA.
In Brazil's electronic energy auctions, developers of
fering future renewable and non-renewable power to
utilities at the lowest prices below a government-set
ceiling must sign 20- to 30-year contracts with the first
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 0 9
distributors that agree to buy the energy (37 INER 48,
1/1/14).
The next auction, on June 6, will offer 20-year con
tracts and require developers that sell specific mega
watt amounts of future energy to begin to deliver it by
2017.
A Mines and Energy Ministry (MME) measure (No.
34/2014), published Jan. 29, does not change the basic
auction rules. But the measure says that, at the next
auction, developers do not need to supply utilities with
1.5 times their guaranteed energy generation during
peak daily electricity consumption periods. Until now,
developers made such peak-period guarantees to utili
ties in auction contracts. If developers did not deliver
the guaranteed energy, they could be fined.
Peak Consumption Compliance. Wind farms generate
an average 40 percent of their installed capacity, their
guaranteed energy generation, and have, until now, had
to supply utilities with an average 60 percent of that
generating capacity during daily peak consumption pe
riods.
"At the next auction, the Mines and Energy Ministry
suspended the peak-period energy generation rules for
wind developers who successfully lobbied against them
by arguing that many of them produce the most of their
electricity outside of daily peak consumption periods,
usually between 5 P.M. and 8 P.M," Frederico Ro-
drigues, the head of market studies at Aneel, told
Bloomberg BNA Feb. 20. "That's because, in some
coastal regions, where wind farms are located, the wind
blows strongest in the early morning hours."
"Wind farms developers at the next energy auction
should welcome this rule suspension because it elimi
nates the risk of their being fined for not complying
with it," Rodrigues said.
He added that the MME would either maintain the
rule suspension or set definitive, less rigorous rules re
garding peak-period, guaranteed wind farm energy
generation for future auctions, and that the ministry
would only make this decision after public consulta
tions following the June 6 auction.
Elbia Melo, president of the National Association of
Wind Power Producers (Abeeolica), told Bloomberg
BNA Feb. 24, that "after the June 6 auction, we expect
the government to set a new, less rigorous rule for how
much guaranteed energy wind developers will have to
generate during daily peak electricity consumption pe
riods. Although it will be less that the 1.5 times their
guaranteed energy generation, how much less will only
be known when the new rule is issued."
Non-Wind Producers Less Susceptible. The new mea
sure maintains the rule that hydroelectric plants and
biomass-fueled thermoelectric plants, whose power
also will be sold at the June 6 auction, must continue to
supply utilities that buy the power with 1.5 times their
guaranteed energy generation during peak daily elec
tricity consumption periods, Rodrigues said. "They are
much less dependent on variable climatic conditions
than are wind farms."
Fossil-fueled thermoelectric plant developers, whose
energy is also sold at these auctions, have not had to
comply with the rules, because their energy generation
is not influenced by the weather and tends to be con
stant, he added.
Brazilian wind developers sold a record 4,667 mega
watts of wind energy at three government-held auctions
BNA 2-26-14
310 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
in 2013, mainly because of the lack of other types of re
newable and non-renewable energy available.
Among the biggest of the developers are CPFL Ren-
ovaveis, the renewable arm of a large, private Brazilian
energy generation and distribution company, and
Renova Energia, a Brazilian renewable energy pro
ducer.
Spain's Iberdrola, EDP of Portugal, the French/
Belgian Tractebel and Enel of Italy are foreign groups
that have developed and sold wind power at energy auc
tions, which began in 2009.
By Michael Kepp
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Kepp in
Rio de Janeiro at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The new wind energy measure (No. 34/2014) is avail
able, in Portuguese, at http://bit.ly/NeA9lG.
Water Resources
Dwindling Water Supplies Challenge
Brazilian Municipalities Because of Drought
them in the arid northeastern region, are facing
Some water
187 supply problems
Brazilian or thetowns,
cities and threat nearly
of them
allbeof
cause of a two-year drought, combined with an unusu
ally hot and dry summer, the Brazilian Association of
State Basic Sanitation Companies (AESBE) said.
In 67 towns, river-fed reservoirs are at such critically
low levels that water withdrawals from them have been
suspended, and trucks are delivering water to local resi
dents, the association said, citing information from
state-owned basic sanitation companies.
In addition, water companies are suspending deliver
ies to another 75 municipalities for several days to
maintain minimum permissible levels of water in the
reservoirs, which is usually 20 percent of capacity, ac
cording to AESBE.
In 34 other cities and towns, water companies are ra
tioning water in certain neighborhoods, for the same
reason, the association said.
Eleven other municipalities are in "alert" situations
and face water rationing if reservoir levels drop to mini
mum permissible levels, AESBE said.
Northeastern Region Most Affected. Cities and towns in
the northeastern region account for 98.3 percent of
those undergoing water supply problems, and some 6
million to 7 million people have been affected, the asso
ciation said.
"For the last two years, the northeastern region has
undergone the worst drought in 50 years, and the north
east, as well as the rest of Brazil, is undergoing the hot
test, driest summer in the last 70 years," Luiz Carlos
Aversa, executive secretary of AESBE, told Bloomberg
BNA.
"This has caused some reservoirs, nearly all in the
northeast region, to drop to the minimum permissible
levels needed to guarantee a year-round supply of wa
ter, requiring water companies begin to ration water to
entire cities and towns or to certain parts of them. This
has caused other northeastern reservoirs to drop just
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
below those levels, requiring water companies to use
water trucks to supply residents," Carlos Aversa said.
Twenty-five of the 67 northeastern towns being sup
plied by water trucks are in the arid interior of north
eastern Pernambuco state, among the worst hit by the
J
drought and hot summer, according to Contesa, the
state's water company.
"Around 80 percent of these 25 towns haven't had
rain needed to increase reservoir levels for around two
years. When it rains a bit, all the water is totally ab
sorbed by the sun-baked earth," Fernando Lobo, a inte
rior region director of Contesa, told Bloomberg BNA
Feb. 19. "So since early January, when summer tem
peratures soared, increasing water consumption, Con
tesa has supplied these 25 towns with water from water
trucks to keep critically-low levels of reservoirs from
dropping even further."
No Backup Reservoir. Carlos Aversa said northeastern
towns are particularly challenged by the drought and
dry, hot summer because most are supplied by only one
reservoir, and, unlike cities and towns elsewhere in Bra
zil, have no backup reservoirs.
"More affluent cities and towns elsewhere in Brazil,
especially in the industrialized south and southeastern
region, with better water-supply infrastructures, have
backup reservoirs," he added.
AESBE represents state-owned basic sanitation com
panies in all 26 Brazilian states, firms which account for
70 percent of all of the country's water/sewage treat
ment companies. Municipal governments own another
20 percent of the water and wastewater treatment com
panies, while the other 10 percent are privately owned.
"If you consider that 30 percent of all of Brazil's wa
ter companies are not AESBE members and don't re
port their water supply situation to us, I estimate that
close to 250 cities and towns in Brazil, with a population
of 8 to 9 million people, and nearly all of them in the
northeastern region, are facing water supply problems,
or the threat of them," Carlos Aversa said.
Sabesp, the state-owned water/sewage treatment
company of southeastern Sao state, whose Cantareira
system of five reservoirs provides water to 10 million of
the 20 million residents of the capital city of Sao Paulo
is facing critically low reservoir levels.
Financial Incentives. Sabesp is combatting that prob
lem with financial incentives, according to a company
statement.
Beginning Feb. 1, the company began offering all
residential, business and industrial users, supplied by
the Cantareira system, a 30 percent discount on their
water bills if they reduce water consumption by 20 per
cent of the average amount of water they used from
February 2013 through January of 2014.
As a result, by Feb. 18, the amount of water being
supplied by the Cantareira system, dropped by 2,120 li
ters a second, or enough to supply 600,000 people with
water, the statement said.
Some 24 percent of Sabesb's treated water gets lost
during distribution due to leakages or illegal siphoning,
a water loss that exacerbates the company's water sup
ply situation, a Sabesp spokeswoman told Bloomberg
BNA Feb. 19.
This is common throughout Brazil, Gesner Oliveira, a
former president of Sabesp and the president of Go As-
J>
sociados, a Sao Paulo-based basic sanitation and infra-
THE AMERICAS
structure consulting firm, told Bloomberg BNA in Feb
ruary.
He said 37 percent of all the water treated for drink
ing in Brazil is not paid for, either because it gets lost
during distribution due to leakages or illegal siphoning,
or it's under-measured, in part because residential and
commercial hydrometers have been adulterated.
By Michael Kepp
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Kepp in
Rio de Janeiro at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Enforcement
Chile Fines Copper Mine for Noncompliance
With Archaeological Protection Plan
intendencia del Medio Ambiente (SMA) has im
Chile's posedenvironmental enforcement
fines totaling more than agency Super-
$2.3 million on
Minera Los Pelambres, one of the countrys largest cop
per mines, over its failure to protect archaeological
items found near an operation in the northern Co-
quimbo region.
The fine is the third-largest ever imposed by SMA be
hind sanctions brought against mining companies Bar-
rick Gold ($16 million) and Kinross Gold ($4.5 million).
Minera Los Pelambres is owned by Antofagasta pic
and a consortium of Japanese investors.
According to SMA, which began inspections in early
2013, an environmental license granted to Pelambres
for a project to expand the capacity of the open-pit mine
included a series of measures to protect archaeological
sites in the area of its ore transport system and the El
Mauro tailings reservoir, which the company did not
fulfill.
The measures included requirements to:
build a rock art park on the Monte Aranda prop
erty to receive archaeological material rescued from
other sites;
prepare an exhibition room to display rural objects
gathered from the El Mauro and provide photography
to showcase the objects on display;
equip archaeological and historical rooms to dis
play archaeological samples from El Mauro and Monte
Aranda or organize an historical display during the con
struction phase of the project;
publish a book on local archaeology during the
construction of the project;
Republish a book on the Cuncumen Valley on the
excavation of burial sites and objects found through
thermo luminescence dating, incorporating the archae
ology and rock art from the Manque Valley; and
Provide catalogs, leaflets or other documents on
the archaeological and historical discoveries related to
the communities around the Pupio wetland during the
projects construction.
Breaches Considered Serious. Categorizing the
breaches as serious, the SMA fined Pelambres a total of
2,595 annual tax units, the equivalent to Chilean Peso
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 311
1.28 billion ($2.34 million), for its failure to fulfill the re
quirements of its environmental license.
In a statement issued Feb. 13, Pelambres said it be
lieved it had fulfilled its legal requirements through an
archaeological rescue program at El Mauro, the largest
ever undertaken in Chile, which cost $8 million to date
and involved the participation of 140 archaeologists.
"We consider this sanction to be unfair, excessive
and illegal. We are convinced we have acted in accor
dance with the law," Pelambres chairman Francisco
Veloso said.
The company noted that the opinions emitted by the
National Monuments Council, Coquimbo's Environ
mental Assessment Service and the State Defense
Council recognized there is no deadline to implement
the Monte Aranda Rock Art Park.
But the SMA said the measures undertaken since
2005 did not comply with the license and that no infor
mation has been provided on the conservation of rock
art stored at a temporary deposit at El Mauro. An in
spection found many of the pieces mishandled and that
one piece bearing petroglyphs had gone missing.
"There, therefore, exists a risk of loss or damage as
sociated with the intervened archaeological heritage,
given its fragile nature and considerable historic and
social value," the SMA said. The sanctions follow com
plaints made by Caimanes People's Defense Committee
and Patricio Bustamante, which have been in conflict
with Pelambres over the construction of the El Mauro
reservoir for almost a decade.
By Tom Azzopardi
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Azzopardi
in Santiago at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Enforcement
Chile Proposes $4 Million Fine Against
Kinross Gold Over License Breaches
del Medio Ambiente (SMA) has imposed fines to
Chile's environmental
taling more than $4 regulator
million on Superintedencia
mining company
Compania Minera Maricunga, a subsidiary of Canada's
Kinross Gold, over breaches of its environmental li
censes.
According to the ruling, published Feb. 10 on an SMA
website, the company has been charged on four counts
for breaches of the license for its Refugio gold mine op
eration in the northern region of Atacama and faces
fines totaling 5,122 annual tax units (the equivalent of
Chilean peso 2.51 billion or $4.53 million).
The investigation dates to January 2013 when Mari
cunga submitted an environmental impact declaration
for approval by regional authorities that identified a
number of breaches with the original environmental ap
proval granted to the Refugio mine in 2003 and subse
quent modifications.
The breaches included:
the failure to fully cover a conveyor belt for ore,
the failure to close and neutralize two early stages
of the leaching pile,
BNA 2-26-14
312 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
the lack of a roof and walls for the primary crusher
to prevent dust dispersion, and
the accumulation of unsorted scrap wood and
metal.
In addition, several non-approved modifications had
been made to the operations, including the expansion
of the mine camp to house more workers and the instal
lations of a reverse osmosis plant to treat water sup
plies.
Compliance Plan Rejected. After it was charged in Sep
tember 2013, Maricunga presented a compliance plan
to the SMA for approval, which was rejected.
The company was given five working days to refute
the charges. If Maricunga decides to pay the fine within
five working days, the sum will be reduced by 25 per
cent.
The fine is the second largest to be brought by the
SMA after a $16.4 million fine brought against fellow
Canadian gold producer Barrick Gold in May 2013 over
breaches at its Pascua Lama project, also in the region
of Atacama.
By Tom Azzopardi
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Azzopardi
in Santiago at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
In Brief
Canadian Chemicals Sector Reports Progress
Canada's chemicals sector has significantly reduced
emissions of toxins and other pollutants since the 1992
introduction of its Responsible Care program, the
Chemistry Industry Association of Canada said Feb. 19.
The association's member companies have reduced to
tal emissions from 260,000 metric tons in 1992 to 31,000
metric tons in 2012, the most recent year for which full
data are available, the association said in its annual
"Reducing Emissions" report. Industrywide emissions
of substances designated as toxic under the Canadian
Environmental Protection Act have decreased by 89
percent, and a unit of Canadian chemical product is
now manufactured with 88 percent fewer emissions
than in 1992, it said. The association's members include
Dow Chemical Canada ULC, EI Du Pont Canada Co.,
Imperial Oil, Methanex Corp. and Nova Chemicals
Corp. The "Reducing Emissions" report is available at
http://bit.ly/lnOtDxa.
Canada Eases Rules for Disposal of Dredged Material
Environment Canada published final regulatory
amendments Feb. 12 to ease requirements for major
natural resource project operators to dispose of
dredged waste in Canada's territorial waters. The Regu
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
THE AMERICAS
lations Amending the Disposal at Sea Regulations set
binding timelines on the permitting process for disposal
of dredged materials at sea and allow, for the first time,
renewal of permits, the department said in a regulatory
impact analysis published with the final regulations in
j
the Feb. 12 issue of the Canada Gazette, Part II. The
changes were published for comment in April 2013, but
no changes were made in response to the lone comment
received, the agency said ((36 INER 593, 5/8/13). Dis
posal at sea permits are issued to dredging and excava
tion companies under Section 127 of the Canadian En
vironmental Protection Act for disposal of dredged ma
terial from major resource development projects, as
well as to fish processors, port authorities, and small
craft harbors. The changes require Environment
Canada to approve or reject within 90 days applications
for new 12-month permits and within 45 days for re
newals. Canadian entities dispose of about 3 million to
4 million metric tons of material at sea annually, mostly
to keep shipping channels and harbors clear for naviga
tion. The regulations are available at http://bit.ly/
leYhbds.
Canada Boosts Surveillance for Offshore Pollution
Transport Canada will nearly double its aerial sur
veillance of Canada's offshore areas to detect pollution
from ships in Canadian waters, the department said
Feb. 19. Funding for the National Aerial Surveillance
Program will nearly double to C$47.6 million ($43.3
million) over the next five years, allowing for an in
crease in total surveillance hours flown to 3,750 hours
from 2,080 hours, the department said in a statement.
"There has been a noticeable decline in the number of
spills observed since the program was established in
1991," it said. The increased surveillance is part of the
World-Class Tanker System announced by the Cana
i
dian government in March 2013.
Senate Confirms U.S. Environmental Official
The Senate Feb. 12 confirmed Catherine Ann Novelli
as U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth,
energy, and the environment, a senior economic and
environment position at the State Department. Senate
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menen-
dez (D-N.J.) said just prior to the vote that Novelli will
bring "tremendous private sector skills" to the State
Department, where she will be tasked with advancing
environmental sustainability and what the chairman
termed "a changing energy landscape." The Senate
confirmed Novelli for the undersecretary position by
voice vote. She also was confirmed, by a vote of 97-0, as
U.S. alternate governor of the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development for a five-year term.
The IBRC is an arm of the World Bank that assists the
most creditworthy developing nations in reducing pov
erty and other needs. President Barack Obama an
nounced his intention to nominate Novellimost re
cently Apple's vice president of worldwide government
affairsin September. From 1991 to 2005, Novelli
served at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
J

- Asia&the Pacific
Enforcement
China Vows Greater Enforcement Push
In Environmental Protection Effort
preliminary environmental protection results for
China's
2013topandenvironmental
vowed greater officials
action in have
tackling
reviewed
air and
water pollution over the course of 2014, in particular
stepping up enforcement efforts and cracking down on
environmental crimes, according to statements made at
a press conference in Beijing.
Zhai Qing, vice minister of the Ministry of Environ
mental Protection (MEP), said the national Air Pollu
tion Prevention Action Plan issued in September 2013 is
in the process of being fully implemented and it is ex
pected that reductions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxide emissions will meet annual reduction targets.
Under the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015), China
has set goals for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 8
percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 10 percent,
compared to 2010 levels, while also aiming to reduce
levels of chemical oxygen demand in wastewater by 8
c percent and ammonia nitrogen discharge by 10 percent,
by 2015.
Zhai said that sulfur dioxide emissions, chemical
oxygen demand levels in wastewater and ammonia ni
trogen discharge reductions were all at around 7 per
cent three years into the plan, but there is "a lot of pres
sure" to meet the nitrogen oxide reduction targets.
Officials from the National Development and Reform
Commission also said in a briefing on Jan. 22 that meet
ing the nitrogen dioxide reduction goal by the end of
2015 may be difficult.
Policy Measures Under Review. Currently, a total of 22
policy measures related to air pollution control are be
ing reviewed by the State Council, according to Zhai,
with six related to adjustments in the energy structure,
including the expanded use of natural gas and use of
cleaner coal; 10 related to environmental pricing poli
cies, including taxes, resource pricing and environmen
tal investment; and six others related to environmental
standards and assessment measures.
Zhai said China still faces a severe situation in man
aging water pollution and that underground water pol
lution has not been controlled well. The MEP is work
ing on both a national Water Pollution Prevention and
Treatment Plan as well as a Soil Pollution Prevention
and Treatment Plan, but Zhai did not give a timeline for
when these would be finalized.
Water pollution treatment efforts in 2014 will focus
on treating severely polluted river systems and better
protecting rivers and lakes that have the best water
quality, according to Zhai.
Large, state-owned enterprises such as China Petro
leum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), PetroChina Co.
Ltd., and the China Huadian Corp. that were found to
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 1 3
have exceeded emissions standards and energy reduc
tion tasks in 2012 have rectified their problems, Zhai
said. He did not detail what punishments were incurred
from the infractions, other than saying they were "se
vere."
Reform of Environmental Protection. Also on Feb. 11, a
statement by MEP head Zhou Shengxian was posted on
the ministry website detailing urgent needs for reform
ing the environmental protection system that would
give the ministry a more unified system for monitoring
industrial pollution, greater transparency regarding the
release of that data, as well as more power for indepen
dent monitoring and law enforcement.
Zhou said the current system has dispersed authority
to such a degree that it hampers the ability of environ
mental protection bureaus and other agencies in en
forcing environmental regulations.
It is expected that amendments to the country's Envi
ronmental Protection Law will be passed at the forth
coming annual meetings of the National People's Con
gress (NPC) starting March 5. There have been expec
tations that further reforms of the functions of
ministries, some which were announced at the NPC
meetings in 2013, could be revealed, and that could give
the MEP more power to enforce laws, something Zhou
alluded to in his statement.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The MEP press conference transcript is available, in
Chinese, at http://bit.ly/lfcQyOA.
MEP minister Zhou Shengxian's statement on reforms
is available, in Chinese, at http://bit.ly/MIltsj.
General Policy
China Releases Draft Methods, Strategies
For Cleaner Production in Nine Industries
and strategies for ensuring cleaner and less pollut
Chinainghas releasedtechniques
drafts of for
evaluation methods
production nine industries for
public comment, according to a Feb. 17 announcement
from the National Development and Reform Commis
sion along with the Ministry of Environmental Protec
tion and the Ministry of Industry and Information Tech
nology.
The drafts cover such issues as evaluating energy
consumption, production facilities, techniques of pro
duction, pollutant levels, product features and uses,
management techniques, and resource utilization as
part of an overall process of quantifying and qualifying
the success of cleaner production strategies.
BNA 2-26-14
314 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
The drafts cover electroplating, yellow phosphorus,
flat glass, lead and zinc mining and production, biologi
cal products, recycled rubber, rare earth mining and
production, coal-fired electricity production and semi
conductor chip production. The public comment period
runs until March 15.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghendersonlpearl@bna.com
The NDRC statement on clean production evaluation
systems is available, in Chinese, at http://bit.ly/
IbXcNag.
Energy
China Tabs Cities, Provinces, Industrial Parks
For Low-Carbon, New-Energy Projects
low-carbon pilot areas and another 81 cities and
China has designated
eight industrial 42 cities as
parks andnew-energy-
provinces as
demonstration areas, according to recent announce
ments from the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Admin
istration (NEA).
On Feb. 14, the NDRC updated progress on its low-
carbon pilot program which was launched in 2010, stat
ing that through 2012, the 10 cities and provinces in the
first batch reduced their carbon intensity per unit of
gross domestic product on average by 9.2 percent com
pared to 2010 levels, greater than the national average
of 6.6 percent.
The NDRC statement said that pilot areas are estab
lishing peak emissions targets for their cities and prov
inces, with policies related to transforming the indus
trial structure, reducing coal consumption and reducing
the number of high-energy-consuming industries in
those areas as strategies to meet the peak goals.
As part of long-term climate change regulation, the
NDRC will develop two road maps, one for carbon
emissions goals through 2030 and another through
2050, and expects to implement further climate change
laws and regulations to support those plans, the an
nouncement said.
On Feb. 12, the NEA also released a document outlin
ing a policy of setting up new energy pilot cities and in
dustrial parks, along with a list of the 81 cities and eight
industrial parks chosen. It will require the areas to sub
mit their implementation plans to the agency to moni
tor their progress.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The NDRC announcement on low-carbon pilot areas
and strategies is available, in Chinese, at http://bit.ly/
lbciaal.
The 2010 list of the first batch of low-carbon pilot
areas is available, in Chinese, at http://bit.ly/lgbOGst.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
The second batch of low-carbon pilot areas,
announced at the end of 2012, is available, in Chinese,
at http://bit.ly/IKJPCL.
The NEA announcement on new energy pilot cities \^0/
and industrial parks is available, in Chinese, at http://
bit.ly/lcP8vSh.
Air Pollution
China to Fight Pollution With $1.65 Billion
Fund, Cut Coal Use, State Council Decides
fund to reduce air pollution in the country's larg
China estwill
cities,
set up
according
a 10 billion
to a release
yuan ($1.65
from abillion)
State
Council meeting at which Premier Li Keqiang presided.
The fund will aid in efforts to cut fossil fuel use and
control consumption of coal, the country's largest
source of energy, according to a statement posted on
the Chinese central government's website Feb. 11. The
statement did not give details.
Environmental concerns are the biggest source of un
rest in China, Chen Jiping, a former leading member of
the Communist Party's Committee of Political and Leg
islative Affairs, said last year. The nation is home to 16
of the 20 most-polluted cities on the planet, according
to World Bank estimates.
The Cabinet also announced subsidies, tax changes,
energy-efficiency standards and pollution controls
aimed at improving environmental quality. Efforts will
be focused on haze-prone large cities and particulate
matter from 2.5 micrometers, or PM-2.5, to 10 microm
eters in size to reduce the risk of cardiovascular ill
nesses.
China will reward leaders in efforts to improve en
ergy efficiency and cut emissions and promote the use
of "clean" coal, the State Council said. The country will
improve the subsidy policy for new-energy-vehicle pur
chases, it said.
Exposure to PM-2.5 pollution contributed to an esti
mated 8,572 premature deaths in Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou and Xi'an in 2012 and led to economic
losses of $1.08 billion, according to a December study
by Greenpeace and Peking University's School of Pub
lic Health.
By Ehren Goossens
To contact the reporter on this story: Ehren Goossens
in New York at egoossensl@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will
Wade at wwade4@bloomberg.net and Reed Landberg
at landberg@bloomberg.net
The statement posted on the website concerning the 10
billion yuan fund is available, in Chinese, at http://
www.gov.cn/ldhd/2014-02/12/content_2596070.htm.
The study by Greenpeace and Peking University
is available, in English, at http://www.greenpeace.org/
eastasia/press/releases/climate-energy/2012/air-
pollution-health-economic/.
2014 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with
permission.
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
Motor Vehicles
China to Cut Government Subsidies
For Buying Alternative Energy Vehicles
purchases of new energy vehicles over the next
Chinatwo willyears,
cut central
but less government
than previously
subsidies
expected,
toward
a no
tice issued by the State Council, the country's top
decision-making body, said.
In its Feb. 8 notice, the council said the subsidies for
new or alternative energy vehicleswhich include all-
electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell passenger
vehicleswill be cut by 5 percent in 2014 and by 10 per
cent in 2015, both compared to 2013 levels, instead of a
previously expected 10 percent and 20 percent cut, re
spectively.
Under policies released in September by the Ministry
of Finance (MOF), between 35,000 and 60,000 yuan
($5,775 and $9,900) in subsidies would be provided to
cover the costs of purchasing certain all-electric passen
ger vehicles, around 200,000 yuan ($33,000) for private
hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, and 3,000 yuan
($495) for most plug-in hybrids under a fuel-efficient
vehicles program(36 INER 1327, 9/25/13).
At the time, the MOF said that subsidies would be ad
justed downward by 10 percent and 20 percent for pri
vate passenger vehicles in 2014 and 2015.
In the latest update, the State Council said that subsi
dies would continue beyond 2015, but details will be re
leased at a later date.
The Beijing municipal Science and Technology Com
mission also issued a management measure on new en
ergy vehicles just prior to the Chinese New Year on Jan.
29, stating that purchases of new energy vehicles cov
ered under its local catalog will be qualified for subsi
dies up to the amount to match the national government
subsidies, effective from Jan. 1, 2014, and running
through Dec. 31, 2017, as part of efforts to combat air
pollution in the municipality.
20,000 Vehicles Targeted. The Beijing measure targets
a goal of 10,000 private alternative energy vehicles and
10,000 alternative energy vehicles purchased by gov
ernment departments or for public vehicle fleets by the
end of 2014, but so far only 1,771 applications have
been submitted for subsidies under the program, ac
cording to data on the website of the Beijing New En
ergy Vehicles Development Promotion Center.
The capital is also targeting the installation of around
1,000 charging stations by the end of 2014, according to
the announcement.
Dong Yang, vice director of the China Association of
Automobile Manufacturers, said in comments on the as
sociation's blog Feb. 7 that plans such as Beijing's may
be "inappropriate" because its forthcoming catalog will
favor locally produced alternative energy vehicles and
not those produced in other areas such as Shanghai or
Shenzhen.
Dong said that the Beijing catalog leaves out plug-in
hybrid vehicles, which aren't produced in Beijing, and
added such catalogs were leading to serious local pro
tectionism problems.
According to a report on the National Energy Admin
istration (NEA) website on Jan. 22, companies such as
BYD, a Shenzhen new energy vehicle and battery pro-
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 315
ducer, will have difficulties entering the market in Bei
jing because they are excluded from the catalog.
Another hurdle is that new energy vehicle buyers
aren't separated from the quota system for new vehicle
registrations in Beijing, which is meant to slow the in
crease in traditional fuel vehicles.
Consumer Wariness. A separate report on the NEA
website from Jan. 15 said that consumers are still wary
of alternative energy vehicles, citing their expense as
one of the main issues but also raising concerns that in
frastructure needed to support the vehicles isn't in
place and that companies producing such vehicles are
often not complying with Ministry of Industry and In
formation Technology regulations on standardizing
charging systems.
New energy vehicle development is considered one of
the several pillar strategic emerging industries that
China is attempting to develop under the 12th Five-Year
(2011-2015) Plan, and regions are ramping up construc
tion of industrial bases to produce such vehicles and
their components.
On Jan. 14, the Guangdong provincial government in
southern China, where Shenzhen is also located, an
nounced a second set of strategic industrial zones, with
19 chosen in this round, many of which are targeting
production of new energy vehicles and their compo
nents.
Local governments also have been folding new en
ergy vehicle promotion and use into air quality action
plans in recent months, with cities such as Shanghai,
Shenzhen, Tangshan, Harbin and Guiyang known to be
incorporating both policies. The city of Nanjing an
nounced in January that 7,500 such new energy ve
hicles would be purchased for government and public
transport fleets as part of action against severe air pol
lution.
Vehicle Demonstration Cities. A Feb. 10 notice on the
MOF website said that another round of new energy ve
hicle demonstration cities has been approved.
The cities include Shenyang in Liaoning province;
Changchun in Jilin province; the cities of Hohhot and
Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region; Har
bin in Heilongjiang province; Nanjing, Changzhou, Su-
zhou, Nantong, Yancheng and Yangzhou in Jiangsu
province; Zibo, Linyi, Weifang, and Liaocheng in Shan
dong province; Luzhou in Sichuan province; Guiyang,
Zunyi, Bijie, Anshun, Liupanshui and Qiandongnan in
Guizhou province; and Kunming, Lijiang, Yuxi and Dali
in Yunnan.
The MOF statement said that these localities will be
gin implementing their own local policies regarding
new energy vehicles to supplement the national poli
cies.
In a Feb. 10 joint announcement on the State Council
website, the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Fi
nance released updated subsidy policies on retiring
older heavy vehicles, with subsidies up to 18,000 yuan
($2,970) for those that retire trucks over 10 years old
and over 26,455 pounds available to those who turn
their trucks in to recycling companies during the 2014
calendar year.
The notice said that heavy-duty trucks include trucks,
vans, flatbed trucks, container trucks and dump trucks
but doesn't cover trailers or containers themselves.
By Michael Standaert
BNA 2-26-14
316 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The State Council notice on adjustments to the new
energy vehicle subsidy policy is available, in Chinese,
at http://bit.ly/lcrD3cP.
The Beijing new energy vehicle management policy is
available, in Chinese, at http://bitly/lmOCqR4.
The Ministry of Finance statement on further new
energy vehicle demonstration cities is available, in
Chinese, at http://bit.ly/lkxQ5gR.
The announcement on the Guangdong new strategic
industry bases is available, in Chinese, at: http:llbit.ly/
lltPUS.
General Policy
China to Standardize Management
Of Water, Soil Conservation Fees
sued a joint statement on implementing a fee sys
Several
temgovernment
for water andbodies
soil conservation
in China on that
Feb.will
20put
is
levies on certain activities.
The new system, which will take effect May 1, will in
clude construction and production activities in areas
prone to soil erosion and in specific water conservation
areas, for the extraction of earth, sand (excluding river
sand) and stone, production of brick, tile, porcelain and
lime, and the discharge of waste soil, rock and slag.
A statement from the Ministry of Finance (MOF),
along with the National Development and Reform Com
mission, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Peo
ple's Bank of China, indicated that detailed standards
for the fee system will be issued before the effective
implementation date.
The announcement did state that local water bureaus
will be in charge of imposing fines for companies that
refuse, delay or do not pay in full on their fees, with a
surcharge rate of 0.0005 percent per day and penalties
capped at up to three times the original fee.
The new fee structure will take the place of previous,
overlapping soil and water conservation fees, and is
meant to standardize management of such levies.
Guizhou Pushes Ahead on Soil Pollution. A Feb. 18
statement from the Ministry of Environmental Protec
tion (MEP) indicated that Guizhou province in south
western China has become the first province to finalize
a soil pollution, prevention and treatment action plan.
A national soil pollution, prevention and treatment
action plan is close to being finalized and could be
passed on the State Council for deliberation soon, a
Feb. 18 report from China Environmental News, a news
agency attached to the MEP, stated. The report indi
cated the ministry had recently held a special meeting
on the plan and expects that it will be released and
implemented later this year.
A total of 25 soil pollution investigation projects will
be conducted as part of the Guizhou plan, another eight
projects will be conducted for prevention of soil pollu
tion, 11 projects will focus on improving soil pollution
monitoring, 10 projects will be implemented to treat
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
polluted mining areas, and 23 demonstration projects
on soil pollution remediation will be conducted, accord
ing the MEP announcement.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gregory Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The Ministry of Finance statement on the water and
soil conservation fee measures is available, in Chi
nese, at http://bit.ly/lklHRn.
The MEP announcement on the Guizhou soil pollution
action plan is available, in Chinese, at http://bit.ly/
OrZDNq.
Water Resources
China Expected to Greatly Boost Spending
To Improve Water Quality, Protect Resources
the latter half of 2013, China's environmental au
Justthorities
as air pollution
are moving
wasforward
made with
public
plans
enemy
to push
No. 1
wain
ter to the top of that list, possibly backing those actions
with a huge boost in spending on implementation mea
sures.
China's Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)
has finalized a draft Water Pollution Prevention Plan
that focuses on improving water quality, maintaining
aquatic ecosystems, and protecting drinking water re
sources that has been passed on to the State Council for
further deliberation, according to a Feb. 18 notice
posted to the website of the Chinese Academy for Envi
ronmental Planning, an institute under the MEP.
Up to 2 trillion yuan ($329 billion) in spending in the
next few years could go toward implementing that plan
and other water resource management measures, a
Feb. 19 report from China Environmental News, a news
agency affiliated with the MEP, and other state-run me
dia sources indicated.
The water pollution plan is expected to include spe
cific measures on reducing the impacts from industrial
wastewater discharge, for managing urban wastewater
pollution, and for better management of rural water
sources and key drinking water resources around the
country, the report stated.
No Timelines for Release of Plan. No timelines for the
release of the plan have been given, though it is ex
pected to be finalized this year.
China's Ministry of Water Resources (MWR), along
with 10 other ministries and agencies, have also jointly
issued a plan for assessing the implementation of strict
water resources management measures first released in
2012, a statement from the ministry on Feb. 13 indi
cated.
The plan calls on water bureaus in the provinces to
further implement plans for stringent water resource
management measures that have been piloted in sev
eral regions of the country, based on "three red lines"
of improving water use efficiency, water resources de
velopment and protection, and water pollution controls.
MWR minister Chen Mingzhong said in statements
posted to the ministry website on Feb. 7 that major
 ASIA & THE PACIFIC
problems with implementation of the strict water man
agement measures so far have been weakness in water
quality monitoring and technical shortcomings for im
proving water use efficiency. The MWR will launch in
vestigations into the implementation of the plan start
ing in March, it has stated.
Along with these measures, the MWR is pushing for
national and regional water rights trading systems that
will be used for management water resource quotas,
and certain areas will be later chosen to trial these pi
lots.
In January, the National Development and Reform
Commission announced that a three-tiered progressive
pricing system for urban residential water resources
will be implemented by the end of 2015.
Companies Preparing. Debra Tan, head of China Wa
ter Risk, a nonprofit focusing on China water issues
based in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg BNA by phone on
Feb. 19 that many companies have already been prepar
ing, particularly in the past year, for forthcoming water
compliance issues related to water use efficiency, ex
pected increases in water prices, and increased drink
ing water standards.
Though the government has announced that residen
tial water prices will rise, industrial water prices are
"still a mystery" Tan said, but companies can and
should prepare for the eventual increases through
implementing further water efficiency measures that
can help in "mitigating against the price rise."
Local governments are also under pressure to con
form to new national drinking water standards that will
go into effect in 2015, which will further push invest
ments into water pollution prevention and treatment.
Over the next year, China Water Risk expects more
government action on water pollution not only to quell
public concerns, but to give a further boost to energy
savings and environmental protection industries, which
are strategic industries targeted for development under
the current 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), that there
will be more collaboration between ministries on water
issues, and that state-owned enterprises will lead the
way on water efficiency and wastewater discharge im
provements.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at lpearl@bna.com
Information on the finalization of a draft Water Pollu
tion Prevention Plan is available, in Chinese, at
http://bitly/lmspVy4.
The MWR announcement about implementation mea
sures for strict water management is available, in Chi
\_eS
nese, at http://bit.ly/lbki5BE.
China Water Risk's top trends for 2014 related to
China water issues is available at http://bit.ly/ljQ6ZY5.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 317
Renewable Energy
China Pushes for Dialogue on Trade
Of Solar Cells as U.S. Continues Probe
the U.S. International Trade Commission that U.S.
In response to a Feb.
industry is harmed by14 preliminary
dumping conclusion
and subsidy by
benefits
of some crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) products
from China and Taiwan imported into the U.S., China's
Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has issued a state
ment calling for "candid dialogue and consultations"
on the matter in order to "properly resolve trade dis
putes."
The Feb. 17 statement said the move by the U.S. has
"exacerbated trade friction" related to solar photovol
taic products and stated that the ITC has "failed to fully
and objectively consider the facts" related to U.S.
China solar PV trade.
The investigation into dumping and subsidies came
following a complaint lodged by U.S. solar industries
that said Chinese manufacturers were circumventing
previous anti-dumping and countervailing duties by
shifting some production to Taiwan, which was not cov
ered in a 2012 imposition of duties on Chinese photo
voltaic products (37 INER 199, 1/29/14).
The U.S. International Trade Administration is ex
pected to give preliminary determinations on the case
for countervailing duties at the end of March and for
anti-dumping duties by early June.
PCE Import Duties. Also on Feb. 17, MOFCOM an
nounced its preliminary decision to impose anti
dumping duties on imports of perchlorethylene (PCE),
also called tetrachloroethylene, from the European
Union and the U.S. (Notice No. 11).
The ruling imposes anti-dumping duties of 76.2 per
cent on imports of the chemical from U.S. companies
Occidental Chemical Corp., Axiall Corp., Dow Chemical
Co., PPG Industries Inc. and other unnamed companies.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The MOFCOM statement on the ITC preliminary find
ings on China and Taiwan solar PV products is
available, in Chinese, at http:llbit.ly/ljyLmIz.
Notice No. 11 on PCE anti-dumping duties is available,
in Chinese, at http://bit.ly/lhqPfSU.
Aviation
Sinopec Obtains China's First License
For Production of Airline-Grade Biofuel
B
eijing-based China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.,
also known as Sinopec Limited, has secured the
first license granted in China for producing
airline-grade biofuel by the Civil Aviation Administra
tion of China, signaling a possibly greater use of such
fuels as they are commercialized and produced on a
larger scale, a Feb. 16 notice from the State Council in
dicated.
BNA 2-26-14
318 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
The statement, attributed to the state-owned assets
regulatory commission, said Sinopec first started re
search on the fuel in 2009 and conducted a successful
test flight in April 2013 with cooperation from NYSE-
listed China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd., the Airbus
Group and the China National Aviation Fuel Group.
China is the fourth country beside France, Finland
and the U.S. to have conducted airworthiness assess
ments of biofuels, the statement said.
Dai Houliang, senior vice president of Sinopec, said
in the notice that the licensing is a breakthrough for
China's biofuel industry and that the company is seek
ing opportunities to work with foreign airlines on com
mercial uses of the biofuel.
Possible Key Milestone. "This could be a key mile
stone for greater implementation of biofuels, making
bunker [fuels] potentially greener," Deng Liangchun, a
senior program officer at World Wildlife Fund in Bei
jing focusing on the aviation industry, told Bloomberg
BNA in an e-mailed response to questions on Feb. 21.
"With this certification, Sinopec will be more ready to
promote a technology that is technically feasible to re
duce emissions. Of all major constraints for an emerg
ing technology, technical feasibility and economic effi
ciency are the most important two."
But Deng said he did not expect Chinese airlines to
be active in using the fuel because of the potential
costswhich he thought would be the biggest hurdle.
He also said there will need to be more regulatory pres
sure "either domestically or globally" or "enhanced
[corporate social responsibility] awareness from air
lines themselves" for the commercial use of such fuels
to be adopted.
"Regulatory pressure, in the form of more direct car
bon pricing from [emissions trading systems] taxes, or
in the form of greater emissions standards for bunker
fuels, have the potential to drive such a process," Deng
said.
"I doubt cost concerns can be easily addressed,"
Deng said, and added that a major concern in China is
balancing how to derive biofuels from crops while
maintaining food crop security. Further innovations will
be "needed to drive down the cost, either from innova
tion of technology or perhaps from the business
model," he said.
New Sinopec Department. Sinopec also recently set up
a department within the company to focus on control
ling airborne and wastewater emissions, for adopting
more environmentally friendly production techniques,
and for helping to mitigate environmental risks, with
around 22.87 billion yuan ($3.87 billion) expected to be
used to fund the department's activities, a Feb. 14 re
port from China Environment News, a news agency di
rectly under the Ministry of Environmental Protection
(MEP), indicated.
Lv Zhipeng, a spokesman for Sinopec, was quoted in
the report as saying the company had seen environmen
tal violations at some of its subsidiaries and was setting
up the department to try to better manage environmen
tal protection across the company.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
AS\A & THE PACIFIC
The statement on Sinopec being granted a license for
its airline biofuel is available, in Chinese, at http://
bit.ly/lhndg8U.
Toxic Substances
South Korea Unveils Enforcement Rules
For New Chemical Safety Legislation
islation that were approved by the National Assem
Two bly
key pieces
in 2013 of South
but Korean chemicalprolonged
encountered safety leg
government-industry deliberations over implementa
tion rules and regulations will be finalized as early as
April and enter into enforcement in 2015, the Ministry
of Environment said Feb. 18.
The ministry unveiled a set of decree and rule provi
sions that provides enforcement details for the newly
enacted law on the Registration and Evaluation of
Chemicals (Law No. 11789) and the revised Toxic
Chemicals Control Act (Act No. 11862).
This follow-up legislation of subordinate rules and
regulations does not require parliamentary approval,
while Cabinet approval is necessary after a 40-day pub
lic comment period closing March 31.
The REACH law, which is designed to overhaul South
Korea's chemical regulation in line with the European
Union's registration, evaluation, authorization and re
striction platform, has been a particular cause of con
cern for South Korean industries because of its stated
goal of "no data, no market" for some 15,000 chemical
substances believed to be in circulation domestically, as
well as for new substances.
j
Substantial Leeway for Businesses. The law's annual
tonnage threshold of one metric ton for existing sub
stances, which is the same as the EU registration trig
ger, remains unchanged, but enforcement rules offer
substantial leeway for businesses. Most notably, Article
9 requires the Environment Ministry to designate spe
cific registration chemicals once every three years.
Businesses will be allowed to manufacture or import
newly designated chemicals even without registration
during a three-year grace period after each designation.
"The difference between all chemicals and desig
nated chemicals has been frequently overlooked during
the interpretation of the law," Cho Eun-hee, director of
the Chemicals Management Division at the Environ
ment Ministry, told Bloomberg BNA, explaining why
the South Korean REACH law was viewed as regulatory
overkill by many critics at home and abroad.
The first list of designated chemicals is expected to
contain about 500 substances, according to the minis
try. By comparison, 6,545 substances have been regis
tered under the EU REACH as of December 2013.
Businesses manufacturing, importing or selling
chemical substances, designated or not, are still re
quired to report the previous year's handling volumes
to the ministry by April every year as raw data feeding
into the REACH system.
Laboratory chemicals used for research and develop
ment purposes are exempt from registration and low-
volume chemicals will be eligible for short-form regis
tration as well as expedited registration notification.
Trade secret protection also is written into the REACH
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
rules to allow businesses to withhold ingredient compo
sition, handling volumes and other sensitive informa
tion from registration. Foreign companies may appoint
a qualified representative to fulfill South Korean
REACH compliance on their behalf.
Toxic Chemicals Control Act Meanwhile, supporting
rules for the amendment of the Toxic Chemicals Con
trol Act set out technical procedures for the establish
ment of a Chemical Substance Oversight Committee
under the Environment Ministry and the introduction of
off-site consequence analysis at chemical companies
and factories.
Additional regulatory filing requirements will be im
posed for surveillance purposes on businesses handling
large amounts of toxic substances on display, in storage
or on the move. Sales-based statutory fines will be in
troduced against safety rule violations under the law as
a stiffer substitute for customary business suspension
orders. The maximum fine is set at 5 percent of sales.
By James Lim
To contact the reporter on this story: James Lim in
Seoul at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Texts of the enforcement decrees and enforcement
rules for Law on the Registration and Evaluation of
Chemicals and the revised Toxic Chemicals Con
trol Act are available, in Korean, at http://me.go.kr/
home/web/index.do?menu!d=68.
Budget
Japan Ministry Proposes 11 Percent Cut
In Environmental Spending in Fiscal 2014
1.7182 trillion yen ($17 billion) for environment
The protection-related
Japanese government hasin proposed
outlays to allocate
fiscal 2014, or 11.1
percent less than in fiscal 2013, the Ministry of the En
vironment announced Feb. 7.
The decrease reflects the progress of cleanup work in
the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and
nuclear power reactor disaster, the ministry said.
The amount represented 1.7 percent of the fiscal 2014
national budget of 95.8823 trillion yen ($960 billion).
The new fiscal year begins April 1.
The year-to-year environmental budget decrease was
the first since fiscal 2012, when Japan began increasing
outlays for the earthquake and Fukushima nuclear
power reactor cleanup, as well as for extending emer
gency aid to residents affected by the disaster, officials
of the ministry's Environmental Planning Division told
Bloomberg BNA Feb. 13.
The officials also said the fiscal 2014 budget was
likely to be increased because Japan traditionally com
piles a supplementary budget during a fiscal year.
Must Be Passed by Diet. The budget bill, now on the
Diet (parliament) floor, is expected to be passed by both
houses of the Diet by the end of March.
Koryo Onuma, a manager in charge of the planning
division's budget data compilation, said that in fiscal
2011, the environment-related budget outlay planned
for the year was 1.2 trillion yen but emphasized that
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 1 9
comparing the fiscal 2014 and 2011 figures is meaning
less because in fiscal 2012 and later fiscal years, spend
ing structures and policies were totally overhauled at
most ministries and agencies because of the 2011 disas
ter.
Even so, Onuma said it was his "feeling" that Japan's
environmental protection outlays as a whole have in
creased slightly over those years because of the need to
promote renewable energy, biodiversity, protection
against particulate matter and other air pollution, as
well as water and soil cleanup and pollution prevention.
Onuma predicted that Japan's environment-related
budget figures are likely to resume historical trends in
fiscal 2017 or 2018 because the earthquake and nuclear
disaster cleanup is expected to be completed around
that time.
Spending Breakdown. Under the budget announced by
the Ministry of the Environment, Japan would spend:
495.5 billion yen ($5 billion) for global-related pro
grams such as reforestation and renewable energy de
velopment, up from 491.6 billion yen ($4.9 billion) in
fiscal 2013;
137.9 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for biodiversity such
as for the maintenance of national parks and earth
quake and tsunami disaster reconstruction, down from
139.9 billion yen ($1.4 billion);
98.2 billion yen ($970 million) for promoting proj
ects to build communities with reduced pollution such
as those that are free of motor vehicles and air condi
tioning; subsidies to earthquake and nuclear radiation-
struck areas for waste disposal; and subsidies for build
ing facilities to store and process such waste, down
sharply from 193.6 billion yen ($1.9 billion);
92.3 billion yen ($930 million) for water and soil
environment protection, such as outlays for preventing
water contamination from radiation polluted water, up
from 71.2 billion yen ($720 million);
203.1 billion yen ($2 billion) for air quality im
provement and air pollution prevention, such as for
subsidies to promote vehicles powered by clean energy
like electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, and measures
to fight fine particulate matter (PM-2.5), down from
230.2 billion yen ($2 billion);
6.1 billion yen ($62 million) for programs to rein
force chemical substance regulations, food safety and
related experiments, down from 6.7 billion yen ($68
million);
556.8 billion yen ($5 billion) for fighting nuclear
radiation pollution of water, soil and other bodies of
materials, down from 698 billion yen ($6 billion); and
128.3 billion yen ($1 billion) for other environmen
tal outlays, up from 101.4 billion yen ($1 billion).
By Toshio Aritake
To contact the reporter on this story: Toshio Aritake
in Tokyo at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
More information on the fiscal 2014 budget is avail
able, in Japanese, at http://www.env.go.jp/press/
press.php?serial = 17719.
BNA 2-26-14
320 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
Recycling
Japan to Set Food Waste Reduction Targets
For Producers, Restaurants, Distributors
producers, processors and distributors, effective
Japan
Aprilwill
1, set food ofwaste
officials reduction
the Ministry targets for food
of Agriculture, For
estry and Fisheries and the Ministry of the Environment
told BNA.
"We think Japan can reduce food waste enormously
both by volume and yen terms by setting targets," said
Yusuke Takahashi, manager of the environment minis
try's Recycling Promotion Office.
The targets will be part of Japan's long-standing "re
duce, reuse and recycling" policy.
In 2011, Japan generated 19.96 million tons of food
waste, 85 percent of which was used as livestock feed
and fertilizers, a much higher ratio than in other devel
oped economies, officials of the ministries told BNA
Feb. 20.
The waste came primarily from food manufacturing
(16.58 million tons), wholesalers and retailers (1.49 mil
lion tons), and restaurants and other food services (1.88
million tons).
Targets for 23 Sectors. Targets would be set for 23
sectors out of 74 food-related industries, according to
the announcements. Meat packers, for example, would
be asked to keep waste generation at 113 kilograms per
million yen ($10,000) in sales. Other targets (per million
yen in sales) would include dairy producers, 108 kilo
grams; canners, 480 kilograms; restaurants serving
general dishes, 175 kilograms; fast food restaurants,
108 kilograms; and catering services, 184 kilograms.
The target for hotels would be 0.777 kilogram per guest.
The ministries are accepting public comments on the
proposed targets until March 15, and then plan to circu
late a government directive to encourage businesses to
meet the targets, Takahashi said. Businesses that over
shoot the targets would be subject to public disclosure
of their corporate names and other reprimands, he said.
Increase Sought for Biomass Energy. Japan also is en
couraging food businesses to lower the ratio of food
waste going to livestock feed and fertilizers, and in
crease the amount going to biomass energy sources.
Food waste has been used as animal food because it
contains water and is not easy to process, the officials
said.
Since 2011, the year of the earthquake and subse
quent nuclear radiation accident at the Fukushima Daii-
chi power plant, the government has increased its pro
motion of renewable energy generation, including bio
mass, as a means of compensating for energy supply
shortages caused by the shutdown of Japanese nuclear
reactors, the officials said.
By Toshio Aritake
To contact the reporter on this story: Toshio Aritake
in Tokyo at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
More information is available, in Japanese, at http://
search.e-gov.go.jp/servlet/Public?CLASSNAME=
PCMMSTDETAIL&id=550001885&Mode=0.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
Climate Change
Kerry Says U.S. Becoming World Leader
In Emissions Standards for Coal-Fired Plants
John Kerry touted President Barack Obama's ef
During forts
histovisit
cut to
U.S.
Indonesia,
greenhouse
U.S.gas
Secretary
emissions
of in
State
the
face of continued congressional inaction, including
pending Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse
gas limits for coal-fired power plants.
Speaking to reporters Feb. 17 in Jakarta, Kerry called
the EPA rules "some of the toughest standards in our
history" for such emissions.
"We have much tougher standards than other coun
tries in the rest of the world" in the works to cut such
emissions with the exception of those implemented in
Europe, the secretary said.
"So it is very difficult now in America to build a coal-
fire power plant without meeting very, very rigorous
standards," Kerry said.
While the EPA is moving forward on separate carbon
dioxide limits for new and existing power plants, they
are both years away from being finalized. Obama di
rected the agency to move forward initially to limit
emissions from new plants but gave no specific dead
line for finalizing them. He set a June 2015 timetable for
EPA to finalize regulatory guidelines for existing power
plants.
During the Asia trip, which included stops in South
Korea and China, Kerry repeatedly focused on the need
for global attention to climate change, particularly in
the run-up to the international climate talks in Paris in
2015, where nearly 200 nations are slated to finalize a
global climate accord.
Speaking alongside Indonesian Foreign Minister
Raden Mohammad Marty Muliana Natalegawa on Feb.
17, Kerry said Obama is doing "what Congress has
been unwilling to do" by using his executive branch au
thority to cut U.S. emissions, through means such as ve
hicle efficiency standards requiring auto manufacturers
to meet a corporate average fuel economy requirement
of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
In a separate speech in Jakarta on Feb. 16, Kerry said
the U.S. is "prepared to take the lead in bringing other
nations to the table" and added that he was making a
move at the State Department to ensure climate change
is put "front and center in all of our diplomatic efforts."
In the coming days, Kerry said he "will be instructing
all of the chiefs of our missions at American embassies
all over the world to make climate change a top priority
and to use all the tools of diplomacy that they have at
their disposal in order to help address this threat."
Developing Countries Urged to Act. Kerry also called on
Indonesia and other rapidly developing nations to take
more action to address greenhouse gas emissions, argu
ing that "this is not just about China and the United
States," which together emit roughly 40 percent of the
global total.
"It's about every country on Earth doing whatever it
can to pursue cleaner and healthier energy sources," he
said Feb. 16.
Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to climate im
pacts such as rising sea level, Kerry noted. A 1-meter
rise in sea level by 2100, Kerry said, is "enough to put
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
half of Jakarta underwater," displace hundreds of mil
lions of people worldwide, and put billions of dollars in
economic activity at risk.
"The answer is pretty simple: It's everyone's respon
sibility," Kerry said, including the U.S., which he ac
knowledged has "an obligation to contribute more to
the solution" given it is a top emitter. "But ultimately,
every nation on Earth has a responsibility to do its part"
to address what is truly a global problem, he said.
In a sense, Kerry said, climate change should be con
sidered in the top tier of global threats including prolif
eration of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and
poverty. "The reality is that climate change ranks right
up there with every single one of them" as a significant
global threat, he said.
Kerry in China. During two days of meeting in Beijing
on Feb. 14-15, Kerry focused on additional actions the
U.S. and China could take to address climate change.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing following the meetings,
he pointed to continued progress by a U.S.-China cli
mate change working group but challenged both na
tions to ratchet up their efforts in advance of the Paris
climate talks to be held in December 2015 (see related
story).
Kerry also said both nations need to "make good" on
a pledge by Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping to
cooperate in phasing down the use of hydrofluorocar-
bons (HFCs).
Both countries have increased their public coopera
tion on the issue over the past year. In April 2013, the
U.S. and China announced a working group to work to
gether on technology, research, conservation, and alter
native and renewable energy sources to combat climate
change. In June 2013, Obama and Xi announced an
agreement to phase out the use of HFCs in air condi
tioning and refrigeration units, and the leader reaf
firmed that commitment in a second statement in Sep
tember.
By Dean Scott and Anthony Adragna
To contact the reporter on this story: Dean Scott in
Washington at dscott@bna.com and Anthony Adragna
at aadragna@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry
Pearl at lpearl@bna.com
Air Pollution
India Court Orders Governments to Respond
To Report on Delhi Vehicular Air Pollution
eral and state governments to respond to a report
The Supreme Court actions
recommending of India to
oncurb
Feb.air
10pollution
orderedfrom
fed
vehicles in the Delhi area.
The court notices apply to the governments at the
center as well as the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
and Rajasthan, whose parts make up the National Capi
tal Region of Delhi, in a long-running case involving ve
hicular emissions and air pollution in Delhi (M.C.
Mehta v. Union of India, W.P. (C) No. 13029, 1985).
The court accepted a report submitted by the Envi
ronmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority
for the National Capital Region (EPCA), a body created
by the federal government in 1998 to monitor and con
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 321
trol pollution in Delhi, according to EPCA member Cen
tre for Science and Environment.
The report said Delhi's pollution levels have risen
alarmingly, after having dropped until the early 2000s,
and suggested broad-ranging measures to control it.
Suggested Measures. The governments concerned
now must respond on whether and how they will imple
ment these measures, which include:
nationwide implementation of Bharat Stage IV
emissions standards for combustion engines;
introduction of tighter auto emissions standards;
maintenance of an effective gap between diesel
and compressed natural gas (CNG) prices to discourage
use of diesel vehicles;
lowering of taxes on buses compared to personal
vehicles;
uniform vehicle tax measures across the National
Capital Region of Delhi;
effective increase in parking charges to discourage
use of personal vehicles;
increasing the number of public buses in Delhi;
creation of dedicated pedestrian and cycling lanes,
and
immediate introduction of daily health alerts on
air quality.
It was in the same case, first filed in 1985, that the Su
preme Court had ordered implementation of wide-
ranging measuresincreasing the number of public
buses, phasing out old vehicles, switching public trans
port buses and auto-rickshaws to CNG, setting up of
proper inspection and maintenance facilities for com
mercial vehicles and better air quality monitoring
which were eventually credited with reducing air pollu
tion in Delhi.
However, the EPCA report said, the gains made have
been lost and that this winter was the National Capital
Region's most polluted ever.
The National Capital Region of Delhi comprises the
capital city of New Delhi as well as several neighboring
cities, including Gurgaon and Noida.
If implemented, the actions recommended will have
far-reaching implications for oil marketing firms and
automobile manufacturers, as well as the fiscal and
public transport policies of the federal and state govern
ments concerned.
The next date for hearing the case is March 10.
By Madhur Singh
To contact the reporter on this story: Madhur Singh
in Chandigarh, India, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The EPCA report is available at http://cseindia.org/
userfileslEPCA_report.pdf.
The Supreme Court order will be available on the
court's website at http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/.
BNA 2-26-14
322 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
Emissions Trading
Most Australian Companies Meet
First-Year Carbon Price Obligations
place the nation's new carbon price scheme, all
Despite but the
six Australian
of 348 affected
government's
organizations
promise
mettotheir
re
first-year obligations to pay for emissions, new figures
show.
The Clean Energy Regulator, which administers the
carbon price scheme, released compliance data Feb. 14
for the 2012-13 financial year.
The former Labor government introduced the
scheme, but Prime Minister Tony Abbott has vowed to
replace it with a Direct Action policy that would distrib
ute government funds to organizations that offer to cut
emissions at the lowest cost.
The current Senate has so far stymied Abbott's ef
forts, but he is likely to have the numbers to pass repeal
legislation when new senators take office in July.
In an e-mailed statement, the Clean Energy Regulator
told Bloomberg BNA that organizations had provided
sufficient carbon units in 2012-13 to meet 99.6 percent
of their combined payment obligation.
In total, they handed in more than 284 million eligible
emissions units to pay for their 2012-13 emissions, it
said.
Australia had a carbon price of A$23 ($20.69) a met
ric ton in 2012-13, which this year has risen to A$24.15
($21.72).
Allocations of Free Units. However, large emitters that
trade internationally received significant allocations of
free units to protect their competitiveness, and the most
emissions-intensive coal-fired generators also received
assistance.
"Overall, the 2012-13 compliance year has gone ex
tremely well," said Ross Carter, executive general man
ager of the Clean Energy Regulator's reporting and car
bon markets division. "I have been pleased by liable en
tities' willingness to work positively and constructively
with us," he said in emailed comments. "I think this
was an impressive performance from the business com
munity."
If Abbott does succeed in steering repeal legislation
through the Senate later this year, he is likely to be re
liant on the support of senators from a party whose
leader owns one of the few companies that didn't meet
its payment obligations.
Clive Palmer owns Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd, which
owes the Clean Energy Regulator about A$8.44 million
($7.6 million). He is also leader of the Palmer United
Party, which will likely have two senators in the new
Senate.
The final makeup of the new Senate will depend on
whether the High Court orders a fresh election in West
ern Australia, after some votes were lost during a cru
cial recount.
By Murray Griffin
To contact the reporter on this story: Murray Griffin
in Melbourne at correspondents@bna.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
The complete carbon price scheme results for 2012-13
are available at http://bit.ly/losX9vO.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
Toxic Substances
Australian Regulator Releases Assessments
Of Chemicals' Health, Environmental Risks
j
assessments of the health risks of three chemicals
The and
Australian
the environmental
Departmentrisks
of Health
of two others.
has released
The department, under its National Industrial Chemi
cals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS), is
seeking comment by March 21 on the draft findings of
its latest 'tranche seven' review of previously unas-
sessed chemicals.
NICNAS follows a three-tiered assessment and pri
oritization process to determine which chemicals
should be scrutinized for possible environmental and
health impacts.
No chemicals underwent the most detailed level of
assessment, known as tier 3, during the tranche seven
process.
A total of 87 underwent a tier 2 assessment for pos
sible human health impacts.
In the case of nickel hydroxide and two benzidine
congeners, NICNAS has issued a draft recommendation
that Safe Work Australia consider whether current con
trols are adequate to minimize the risk to workers.
For a number of other chemicals undergoing tier 2
health assessment, NICNAS recommends either
amendment of the existing classification for worker
health and safety on the Hazardous Substances Infor
mation System or listing under the Poisons Standard.
Three chemicals underwent a tier 2 environmental
assessment.
In the case of two refrigerantspentafluorethane and J>
1,1,1,2 tetrafluoroethaneNICNAS has made a draft
recommendation that the federal environment depart
ment consider whether additional emission controls are
required under national ozone protection legislation.
By Murray Griffin
To contact the reporter on this story: Murray Griffin
in Melbourne at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Details of the tranche seven assessments are available
at http://www.nicnas.gov.au/chemical-informationl
imap-assessments/imap-assessments/public-comment.
Air Pollution
Singapore Plans to Change Two Taxes
To Boost Use of Cleaner-Burning Vehicles
related taxes to encourage use of cleaner-burning
Singapore willDeputy
vehicles, make Prime
changes to two
Minister andtransportation-
Finance Min
ister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in the Feb. 21
budget speech.
The Early Turnover program and the Carbon
Emissions-Based Vehicle Scheme are to be enhanced
and extended, he said.
Designed to encourage replacement of older com
mercial diesel vehicles to meet Euro V emissions stan
dards, the Early Turnover program allows lower, pro-
 ASIA & THE PACIFIC
rated Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums for re
placements as well as a bonus period based on the
current vehicle's remaining statutory life.
That program will be extended, although by how
much was not revealed.
The Euro V standards apply to emissions of nitrogen
oxides, total hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, particu
late matter and other pollutants.
"We will enhance the bonus COE period to further in-
centivize owners to replace their vehicles early," Shan-
mugaratnam said. "The Minister for the Environment
and Water Resources will announce more details" later.
The Carbon Emissions-Based Vehicle Scheme
(CEVS), which was started in 2013 to give rebates to
cars with low carbon dioxide emissions, is to be given
additional time, he said.
"I will extend CEVS by six months until 2015, with a
view towards continuing the scheme thereafter," Shan-
mugaratnam said.
Under CEVS, cars with low carbon emissions qualify
for significant rebates given as an offset against the ve
hicle's Additional Registration Fee (ARF). Cars with
high carbon emissions incur a corresponding registra
tion surcharge.
By Michael Mackey
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Mackey
in Bangkok at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Air Pollution
\Hp/
Hong Kong Shipping Industry Continues
Voluntary Action on Lower Sulfur Fuels
embers of Hong Kong's shipping associations
have renewed their pledge to switch to lower sul
fur fuels while at berth through the end of 2014
in order to give the government time to pass legislation
on mandatory fuel switching as well as time for greater
commitments from Guangdong province in mainland
China.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 323
Environmental authorities from the Hong Kong Spe
cial Administrative Region (HKSAR) welcomed the ex
tension of the voluntary Fair Winds Charter by the
Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association and the Hong
Kong Shipowners Association in a statement Feb. 14,
saying that it will "dovetail" with regulations that are
being drafted by the Environmental Protection Depart
ment to mandate that oceangoing vessels switch to
lower sulfur fuels at berth.
The Environmental Protection Department said the
legislation is expected to go before the Legislative
Council (LegCo) later this year and is tentatively ex
pected to go into force starting in 2015.
Hong Kong environmental authorities also are dis
cussing further marine emissions control measures in
the Pearl River Delta region that includes Guangdong
province. A regulation covering the use of lower-sulfur
fuels by smaller local vessels introduced to LegCo in
January is being reviewed.
The current Fair Winds Charter is a voluntary pro
gram initiated in 2011. Oceangoing vessels that signed
on to the charter agreed to switch to fuels with a sulfur
content of 0.5 percent or less while in Hong Kong wa
ters.
Roberto Giannetta, secretary general for the Hong
Kong Liner Shipping Association, said in a Feb. 12
statement that he hopes the extension of the charter
can lead to the establishment of "realistic, achievable
emissions reduction targets in the near future" related
to Hong Kong and Guangdong shipping emissions and
that this could eventually lead to a wider emissions con
trol area covering the ports in both regions.
Hong Kong-based policy think tank Civic Exchange
estimates that sulfur dioxide emissions from marine
sources were reduced by between 670 metric tons in
2011 and 890 metric tons in 2012 from the voluntary
fuel switching.
By Michael Standaert
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Stan
daert in Shenzhen, China, at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
More information on the Fair Winds Charter is avail
able at http://bit.ly/lkMWFjH.
BNA 2-26-14
324 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
Middle East
Energy
Israeli Planning Council Approves
Few Applications to Build Wind Farms
cently when the National Planning and Building
Israel's
Council
wind
decided
energyto industry
accept agot
professional
more badreport
newsrec re
ommending the approval of only 30 out of 160 propos
als to establish large wind farms in Israel.
The Feb. 4 decision came the day after Israel's Minis
terial Committee on Renewable Energy decided to shift
more than 11 percent of this year's quota for wind en
ergy production to photovoltaics (37 INER 257,
2/12/14).
"This is a case of the right hand not knowing what
the left hand is doing," Gadi Hareli, CEO of the Israel
Wind Energy Association (IsraWEA), told Bloomberg
BNA Feb. 16, since projects approved by the council al
ready exceed the quota by at least 60-150 megawatts.
"We need to be adding to the quota, not subtracting,"
he said, "and the government authorities I am in touch
with seem to support that."
Council Chairman Shuki Amrani, who is also acting
director-general of the Interior Ministry, said the deci
sion to erect wind turbines at 30 sites throughout Israel
will "encourage alternative and eco-friendly energy
production, save money and significantly reduce air
pollution."
An inter-ministerial team chose the sites in a "blind"
process that did not identify their private developers.
Team members rated each site based on criteria in
cluding complex size, land use and zoning, distance
from high-voltage electricity lines, road access, civilian
flight safety and sensitivity for bird migration, the re
port said.
The team then examined the overall mapping of proj
ects on a regional basis, considering their geographic
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
J
distribution, number, size, location and environmental
impact. The final decision also considered security and
defense issues, the report said.
The council also said it would be willing to consider
approving the construction of additional wind farms
once Israel's Meteorological Service can supply more
detailed maps of the country's wind patterns, and ac
cording to "information and experience accumulated"
until then.
'Something Is Wrong Here.' "But how can that possi
bly happen, if we're already over quota?" Hareli asked.
"Something is wrong here. The government is showing
a total lack of synchronization, and a dangerous lack of
long-term planning," he said, adding that "you can't
change 2014 decisions in 2014."
IsraWEA, a consortium of wind energy developers, is
pursuing a threefold campaign aimed at convincing the
Israeli government to:
plan for the long-term, with a target date of 2040,
address the long-term plan to "renewable, sustain
able energy solutions," and
stick to its existing commitments.
"Companies work according to a plan, and when that
plan changes every month, or in this case every day, the j>
government frightens the business sector, when it
should be reassuring it," Hareli said.
Setting the quota for wind energy production at two
gigawatts by 2040, he said, would put Israel on track to
meet 80 percent of its energy needs from wind and so
lar energy by 2040.
By Jenny David
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Jenny David in Jerusalem at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
J

International
Climate Change
Outside Events Could Drive First
UN Multilateral Climate Talks in 2014
the 2015 global agreement on climate change be
The ginslatestMarch
round10ofin United
Bonn, aNations
five-day negotiations on
set of talks that
observers say will be affected by events outside the UN
process.
Negotiators will try to reach consensus on the scope
of the 2015 accord and will be looking for ways to mo
tivate countries to take steps to reduce emissions and
make adaptation efforts easier before 2020, when the
2015 treaty is scheduled to take effect.
Among the issues to be discussed in Bonn are the
form of binding steps countries will agree to; the role of
forests in the new treaty; guidelines for measuring and
verifying steps taken; technology transfer, and finance-
related issues, according to a "scenario note" published
Feb. 21 by two co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group
on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.
But delegates said a series of outside issues could in
c
fluence the talks, including:
the EU's new 2030 target of reducing greenhouse
gas emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels;
the announcement that the U.S. and China will co
operate on addressing climate change-related issues;
fallout from a series of weather-related natural di
sasters, most notably typhoon Haiyan, which battered
the Philippines in November; and
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's declaration
that climate change is the "world's most fearsome"
weapon of mass destruction.
Delegates at the 2011 climate summit in South Africa
created the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Plat
form for Enhanced Action, better known as the ADP, to
work on the language for the global agreement slated to
be completed by 2015. But so far, the ADP track has
held only two official sessions.
Talks Usually 'Suspended.' Talks are usually "sus
pended" rather than "adjourned," so they can start
again without the administrative steps needed to begin
a new session.
That is what happened in Warsaw in November 2013,
after a lack of significant progress in the ADP talks. The
March 10 talks will be the fourth incarnation of the sec
ond session, which got under way in March 2013. But
because the new talks will be a continuation of the pre
vious three meetings of the ADP, it means delegates will
be able to hit the ground running in Bonn. The talks run
from March 10-14.
The next round of meetings, June 4-15 in Bonn, will
include talks within the Subsidiary Body for Implemen
tation and for Scientific and Technical Advice. At the
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 2 5
March talks, delegates could also decide whether to
hold a third set of intercessional talks, probably in Sep
tember or October, before the year-end summit that be
gins Dec. 1 in Lima, Peru.
By Eric J. Lyman
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric J. Lyman in
Rome at correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Climate Change
Paris Climate Deal Should Be 'Built to Last/
U.S. Says in Submission on 2015 Negotiation
2015 "should be built to last" by ensuring that fu
The ture
global
changes
climatedon't
dealrequire
to beformally
reachedreopening
in Paristhe
in
accord for yet more rounds of multiyear negotiations,
the U.S. said in a submission to the United Nations.
The U.S. was the first nation to submit its suggested
outline of the global accord, which is to go into effect by
the end of 2020 and is to require action on climate
change from both developed and developing nations.
The accord should be written in a flexible enough
way to ensure that "it does not have to be amended ev
ery time there are refinements" such as changes that
might be needed in the future on reporting of each na
tion's emissions, according to the Feb. 12 submission.
The submission also reiterated long-standing U.S. op
position to a "bifurcated approach" that would require
only developed nations to address climate changethe
approach used in the Kyoto Protocol that didn't impose
commitments on fast-developing China and India.
That approach "may have made sense in 1992" when
the world's nations first committed to address climate
change by signing the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change, according to the 11-page U.S. Submis
sion on Elements of the 2015 Agreement.
But distinctions between developed and rapidly de
veloping nations "are clearly not rational or workable
in the post-2020 era," the U.S. said. China today is the
world's top carbon dioxide emitter, releasing 2.6 billion
metric tons of carbon in 2012; the U.S. is second, emit
ting nearly 1.4 billion metric tons, according to a Dec. 3
WorldWatch Institute report (37 INER 64, 1/1/14).
Commitments Discussed. The U.S. and other nations
are submitting suggested elements of the accord to be
signed in Paris in late 2015 under a negotiating track
launched at the Durban, South Africa, talks in 2011.
Nearly 200 countries agreed in Durban to launch ne
gotiations toward a global climate accord that for the
first time would be "applicable to all parties." That
means developed and developing nations alike would
commit to actions under the global accord, although the
BNA 2-26-14
326 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
depth of those commitments could vary, the U.S. said in
its Feb. 12 submission.
The pledges put forth by each nation should take into
account "the factors it considers relevant," the U.S.
said, such as "national circumstances, capability, miti
gation opportunities [and] level of development."
One issue skirted in the U.S. submission is what legal
form the Paris agreement should take. The parties at
the 2011 South Africa talks kept their options open,
agreeing the post-2020 accord would be "a protocol, an
other legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal
force under the Convention."
The U.S. in its submission said it expected that "cer
tain elements" should be legally binding, such as emis
sions reporting requirements.
But for other areas, such as the precise commitments
each nation would make to address its emissions, the
U.S. listed options, which could include making them
legally binding but also might not.
By Dean Scott
To contact the reporter on this story: Dean Scott in
Washington at dscott@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry
Pearl at lpearl@bna.com
Submissions to the UNFCCC outlining suggested ele
ments for the post-2020 global accord are posted at
http://unfccc.int/bodies/awg/items/7398.php.
The U.S. submission is available at http://unfccc.int/
files/documentation/submissions_from_parties/adp/
application/pdf/u.s. submission_on_elements of the_
2105_agreement.pdf.
Climate Change
U.S., China Discuss Ways to Reach
'Ambitious' Climate Change Pact in 2015
John Kerry on Feb. 14 discussed potential addi
Top tional
Chinese
actions
leaders
both countries
and U.S.could
Secretary
take toof
address
State
climate change and meaningful targets for emissions
reductions ahead of a 2015 international conference in
Paris, where both nations hope to complete an "ambi
tious" international agreement on climate change.
Kerry, speaking to reporters in Beijing following the
meetings, praised the efforts of the U.S.-China climate
change working group but said both nations needed to
do more ahead of the 2015 international conference.
The secretary of state further called for both nations to
"make good" on a promise made by President Barack
Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping to phase
down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
"If we follow through on all of the fronts that are
available to us, we have an opportunity to make real
progress in the fight against climate change," Kerry
said.
Kerry said he held meetings with Xi, Premier Li Keq-
iang, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, and Foreign Minister
Wang Yi, among others.
President Xi promised his nation was committed to
taking action on climate change and vowed to "do
more" to address the issue, according to state-run news
agency Xinhua.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT ' 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
INTERNATIONAL
"It is not at others' demand but our own will," Xi said
according to Xinhua. "We have already taken many
measures and will do more in the future."
At a Feb. 13 briefing on Kerry's trip to Asia, a senior
State Department official said the issue of climate
change would be a "high" priority issue throughout the
six-day trip through South Korea, China and Indonesia.
"The Secretary is convinced that this is a critical area
for cooperation between the U.S. and China, particu
larly given that we are the world's two largest emitters
of carbon," the official said. "He will want to discuss
both practical steps that we can take as well as ways
that the U.S. and China can effectively cooperate as
part of the global effort."
Progress on addressing climate change will hinge on
the efforts of the United States and China, which ac
count for approximately 45 percent of global carbon di
oxide emissions, according to a 2013 European Com
mission report.
Year of Commitments. Both countries have increased
their public cooperation on the issue over the past year.
In April 2013, the U.S. and China announced a working
group to work together on technology, research, con
servation, and alternative and renewable energy
sources to combat climate change through "forceful"
action.
Then, in June 2013, Obama and Xi announced an
agreement to phase out the use of HFCs in air condi
tioning and refrigeration units, which they reaffirmed
in a second statement in September.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Gina McCarthy and China's Minister of Environmental
Protection Zhou Shengxian then reiterated their joint
commitment to reducing emissions from marine ves
sels, soil pollution, impacts from shale gas and mercury
pollution, according to a report issued by China follow
ing a December 2013 meeting. Both nations said they
"continue to deepen cooperation and enhance" trust on
environmental issues (37 INER 73, 1/1/14).
By Anthony Adragna
To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony
Adragna in Washington at aadragna@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Trade
Solar Unfair Trade Cases Targeting
China, Taiwan Move Forward With ITC Vote
and an antidumping case against Taiwan on crys
New talline
subsidysilicon
and antidumping
photovoltaic cases
solar against
products
China
will
move forward as a result of an affirmative International
Trade Commission preliminary ruling Feb. 14.
SolarWorld America Industries Inc., a large crystal
line silicon photovoltaic cell and module producer
based in Hillsboro, Ore., requested the investigations .
"Step by step, U.S. solar producers are returning to a
day when they no longer are forced to compete with the
government of China," Mukesh Dulani, president of So
larWorld, said in a statement welcoming the decision.
In a 4-0 affirmative ruling, the ITC found a "reason
j
able indication" that allegedly dumped and subsidized
 INTERNATIONAL
crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) products from
China and allegedly dumped PV products from Taiwan
are materially injuring the U.S. industry.
Chairman Irving A. Williamson and Commissioners
Dean A. Pinkert, David S. Johanson, and Meredith M.
Broadbent cast affirmative votes. Commissioners Shara
L. Aranoff and F. Scott Kieff didn't participate in the in
vestigations, according to an ITC press release.
If ultimately successful, the cases could result in stiff
duties on solar products imported from China and Tai
wan. The ITC preliminary ruling means that the Com
merce Department will continue to investigate the lev
els of dumping and of subsidization. Alleged dumping
margins are 165.04 for China and 75.68 percent for Tai
wan.
Preliminary Determinations. Unless statutory deadlines
are extended, Commerce is expected to make its pre
liminary countervailing duties determination on or
about March 26 and its preliminary antidumping duty
determinations on or about June 9, according to the
ITC.
The cases are SolarWorld's second foray into the ar
cane world of trade remedies. SolarWorld prevailed in
its previous unfair trade cases against modules and
cells from China, which ultimately resulted in duties as
high as 250 percent.
SolarWorld's current petition, filed Dec. 31, seeks to
close what SolarWorld said is a loophole in the earlier
trade relief.
SolarWorld charges that Chinese firms are evading
the duties by using cells made in third countries, includ
ing Taiwan, in modules made in China and then ex
ported to the U.S.
Under Commerce's scope ruling, solar cells and pan
els manufactured in China are covered, but cells manu
factured elsewhere and assembled into panels in China
aren't. This has allowed Chinese firms to evade the du
ties, SolarWorld said.
Petitioner's counsel Timothy Brightbill, of Wiley Rein
LLP, told Bloomberg BNA SolarWorld is pleased with
the ITC's ruling and looks forward to moving ahead
with the investigations. SolarWorld and the U.S. indus
try are ready to move back to a global solar market
place characterized by fair competition, he added.
Decision Said Expected. Richard Weiner, of Sidley
Austin LLP, counsel for Chinese respondents in the
probe, in an e-mailed statement said that the prelimi
nary ITC decision was "entirely expected" given that
"the ITC almost never derails an investigation at this
early phase."
"We remain convinced that fairly traded imported so
lar products from China and Taiwan are vital for
America to continue its shift away from fossil fuels and
that SolarWorld's marketplace failures are entirely of
its own making," Weiner said. "This investigation now
shifts to the U.S. Department of Commerce where we
will continue to oppose SolarWorld's efforts to close the
U.S. market, a market that, in any event, it has no hope
of supplying."
Chinese respondents in the probe include Trina Solar
Ltd. and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. Taiwan
ese respondents include Neo Solar Power, Gintech En
ergy Corp., Solartech Energy Corp. and Motech Solar.
The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing
(CASM) backs the petitions. CASM is a cross-section of
solar employers with 241 member organizations em
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 327
ploying about 18,350 Americans, according to Solar
World.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA),
which represents companies that manufacture, install
and develop solar systems, said that the pending trade
cases would raise the costs of solar power and would re
duce overall demand compared to other energy sources
such as natural gas and wind.
Commerce's Investigation. Commerce's launch of the
official investigation Jan. 23 came days after China gave
final determinations in anti-subsidy and antidumping
actions against U.S. and South Korean producers of
polysilicon materials often used in solar PV products.
According to a Commerce fact sheet, the investiga
tion doesn't include any products covered by the exist
ing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on so
lar products from China.
Commerce said the investigations cover crystalline
silicon photovoltaic cells and modules, laminates and/or
panels consisting of crystalline silicon photovoltaic
cells, whether partially or fully assembled into other
products, including building integrated materials.
Subject merchandise also includes modules, lami
nates and/or panels assembled in the subject country
consisting of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells that
are completed or partially manufactured within a cus
toms territory other than that subject country, using in
gots that are manufactured in the subject country, wa
fers that are manufactured in the subject country or
cells where the manufacturing process begins in the
subject country and is completed in a non-subject coun
try.
In a Feb. 5 letter to President Obama, SolarWorld AG
Chairman Frank Asbeck said, "Illegal trade practices
threaten to destroy any ongoing U.S. role in global so
lar industry competition. China is improperly seizing
control of an industry that the United States invented,
pioneered and grew."
China's practices have bankrupted dozens of well-
run solar manufacturers, Asbeck said, citing Sharp So
lar as the latest of these casualties.
By Rossella Brevetti
To contact the reporter on this story: Rossella Bre
vetti in Washington at rbrevetti@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Je
rome Ashton at jashton@bna.com
The ITC news release on the vote is available at http://
www.usitc.gov/press_room/news_release/2014/
er0214mml.htm.
SolarWorld's statement is available at http://
www.solarworld-usa.com/newsroomlnews-releasesl
news/2014/trade-vote-important-step-in-favor-of-us-
manufacturing.
Energy
Chinese-Owned Firm Presses Constitutional
Claim Before U.S. Court in Wind Farm Case
challenge to a presidential order directing a
A U.S.
Chinese-owned
district court's
firmrejection
to divest its
of interest
a constitutional
in a wind
farm project should be reversed, Chinese-owned Ralls
BNA 2-26-14
328 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
Corp. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit (Ralls Corp. v. Comm. on Foreign Inv.
in the U.S., D.C. Cir., No. 13-5315, brief filed 2/7/14).
"The government's denial of due process is as com
plete as its exercise of unilateral executive power is ex
ceptional," Ralls said in a brief filed Feb. 7.
Plaintiff-appellant Ralls entered into a transaction
with Teraa Energy USA Holding Corp. to acquire sev
eral wind farm projects located near a Naval installa
tion in Oregon.
After reviews by the Committee on Foreign Invest
ment in the United States (CFIUS), the Treasury De
partment on Sept. 28, 2012, announced a presidential
order prohibiting the acquisition and ownership of four
wind farm project companies by Ralls, its owners, its
subsidiaries and its affiliates .
A related presidential order under Section 721 of the
Defense Production Act of 1950 directed Ralls to divest
its interest in the project companies.
CFIUS conducts national security reviews of foreign
investment in the U.S. The Ralls case has been de
scribed as a "well-picked trial balloon" to test whether
a CFIUS order is subject to judicial review.
In the first of two opinions, the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia threw out the bulk of Ralls's
complaint on jurisdictional and mootness grounds.
The district court's second opinion rejected the con
stitutional claims, finding that Ralls was not deprived of
a protected property interest and, even if the court were
to find a protected property interest, Ralls received suf
ficient process before the deprivation took place.
National Security. "Both holdings are inconsistent
with well-established law and thus should be reversed,"
Ralls argued. Contrary to the district court's conclusion,
the possibility that the president might exercise author
ity under Section 721 to divest Ralls's property rights
does not mean the firm lacked protected property inter
ests, Ralls argued. The government has provided no ex
planation for its actions "other than incanting the
words 'national security,' " Ralls said.
According to Ralls, the district court also erred in
finding that Ralls had no constitutionally protected in
terests because it did not obtain a CFIUS determination
before completing the transaction.
"Whatever other risks Ralls assumed, the Constitu
tion does not force it to run the risk that its property
would be deprived without due process of law. Nor does
the availability of an earlier but equally procedurally
flawed opportunity to elicit a government veto some
how change the analysis," Ralls told the court. "And the
court's view that Section 721 gives the President 'abso
lute' discretion to prohibit a covered transaction and
places 'no conditions' on the President's authority sim
ply misreads the statute," Ralls stated.
Ralls was deprived of its protected property interest
without notice of the grounds for the government's ac
tions or an opportunity to rebut, the brief continued.
Further, Ralls said that its challenge to the CFIUS or
ders is not moot because CFIUS's actions are capable of
repetition yet evade review in that Ralls exists to iden
tify opportunities in the U.S. for development and con
struction of windfarms in which turbines made by Sany
Group will be used. Ralls will continue to pursue such
opportunities and each of these transactions will be
subject to CFIUS jurisdiction, Ralls told the court.
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
INTERNATIONAL
The government has argued that Ralls lacked any
property interest that could give rise to a constitutional
requirement that the president follow any particular
procedures in making his determination under Section
721. The government said that the acquisition was sub
ject to the Defense Production Act's terms committing
the decision to suspend or prohibit such an acquisition
entirely to the president's discretion.
The government's opening brief is due March 10.
By Rossella Brevetti
To contact the reporter on this story: Rossella Bre
vetti in Washington at rbrevetti@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Je
rome Ashton at jashton@bna.com
The brief filed Feb. 7 by Ralls Corp. in the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is avail
able at http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/
document/Rails Corporation_v_Committee_on_
Foreign_Invest_et_al_Docket_No_l/l.
Trade
U.S. Trade Representative Announces
Public Interest Trade Advisory Committee
nounced Feb. 18 the creation of a Public Interest
U.S. Trade
TradeAdvisory
Representative
CommitteeMichael
(PITAC) to
Froman
advise US-
an
TR's trade negotiators on issues that affect public
health, consumer protection and transparency.
The committee "will join the labor advisory commit
tee and the trade and environment policy advisory com
mittees to provide cross-cutting platforms for input in
the negotiations," Froman said at the Center for Ameri
can Progress.
He called on nongovernmental organizations, aca
demics and other public interest groups to submit can
didates to join the group.
Froman also said his office would soon provide the
public with an update on the status of Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) negotiations. A ministerial round of
TPP negotiations was scheduled for Feb. 22-25 in Sin
gapore.
"And ahead of the next [Transatlantic Trade and In
vestment Partnership] negotiating round, we'll release
a document that further describes our negotiating ob
jectives. And we'll provide written updates after each
round of [TTIP] negotiations," Froman said.
'Step in Right Direction.' Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called the establish
ment of the PITAC "a step in the right direction toward
making sure transparency, health and consumer inter
ests become central issues in the trade negotiation pro
cess."
"I am pleased that USTR is beginning to get the mes
sage that transparency and broader public participation
is in everyone's interest, and I look forward to continu
ing to work with Ambassador Froman to identify addi
tional steps the Administration can take to demonstrate
that transparency is a priority," Wyden said in a press
release.
Robert Weissman, president of the nonprofit con
sumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, however,
it
said that the new committee is merely a change in "op-
 INTERNATIONAL
tics" that does not sufficiently address "the closed,
special-access-for-industry process that guides U.S.
trade policymaking."
"Under current policiesand today's announcement
would not change this in material waysBig Business
has access to negotiating texts and special access to in
fluence trade negotiations. The public has zero access
to negotiating textseven though corporations and the
countries with whom the U.S. is negotiating doand is
therefore handcuffed in making meaningful sugges
tions," Weissman said in a press release.
Environment and Labor. Global trade can also be a
powerful tool to reduce global inequality and promote
environmental protection, Froman said in discussing
U.S. values driving trade policy
To that end, "in TPP we're seeking to include disci
plines requiring adherence to fundamental labor rights,
including the right to organize and to collectively bar
gain, protections from child and forced labor and em
ployment discrimination," Froman said. "We're press
ing them for regular consultative mechanisms and a
means for the public to raise labor concerns and de
mand action. And we're working to include new com
mitments to address trade in goods produced by forced
labor and regarding acceptable conditions of work."
Froman said that environmental commitments, like
those incurred through multilateral environmental
agreements like the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species, must be on the same footing as
parties' commercial obligations.
By Brian Flood
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Flood in
Washington at bflood@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Je
rome Ashton at jashton@bna.com
Froman's remarks are available at http://
www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/
2014/February/A-Values-Driven-Trade-Policy_
Remarks-by-USTR-Froman-at-Center-for-American-P.
The USTR fact sheet, Values Driving U.S. Policy, is
available at http: I I op.bna.com/itr.nsf/r?Open=bfld-
9gfudt.
Wyden's press release is available at http://
op.bna.com/itr.nsf/r?Open=bfld-9gfufh.
Sustainability
Podesta Says Corporate Sustainability
Important to Post-2015 Development Agenda
important part of the post-2015 development
Sustainability effortsoutlined
agenda being in the by
private sectorNations,
the United will be an
adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama said Feb. 18.
"We're trying to achieve an ambitious new set of
shared goals and realize a new global partnership
against what will be the very difficult impact of climate
change and increasingly extreme patterns of global
weather," John Podesta, a top White House adviser on
climate and energy policy, said at an event hosted by
the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The UN is developing a set of sustainable develop
ment goals (SDGs) that will succeed the current millen
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 329
nium development goals (MDGs) after they expire in
2015.
Podesta was part of a high-level UN panel charged
with making recommendations for the post-2015 devel
opment agenda.
The "Report of the Secretary-General's High-level
Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Develop
ment Agenda" was submitted to the United Nations in
May 2013.
More Efficient Production, Consumption. One way the
private sector can play a role in encouraging sustain
able development is through more efficient patterns of
production and consumption, Podesta said.
"Can we produce enough to meet the needs of an ex
panding population without doing irreparable harm to
the planet in the process?" he asked. "Can we produce
the same level of goods and services while bringing the
energy involved and the water involved in producing
those units, goods and services down? Can we find mar
ket mechanisms to account for and reduce pollution?"
"I would argue that the answer to that is yes, and I
would argue that there's a very good business case for
doing so," Podesta said.
Georg Kell, executive director of a corporate sustain
ability initiative called the UN Global Compact, said the
business case for private sector involvement in the post-
2015 development agenda is getting stronger, especially
when it comes to natural resources.
"It's become abundantly clear that for companies to
be long-term successful, these natural resource issues
are of vital interest," Kell said at the event. "They can
both be a threat but also an opportunity for connecting
markets."
Role for Business Seen. Ann Condon, who leads Gen
eral Electric's resource and environmental strategies,
agreed that the business community has a role to play
in decoupling economic growth from natural resource
use. Infrastructure is another area where businesses
can help advance sustainable development, she said.
"GE is essentially an infrastructure company" be
cause it builds aircraft engines, locomotives and other
pieces of infrastructure for modern energy systems in
particular, Condon said. "We view that [infrastructure]
as a really critical enabler for development."
Daniella Ballou-Aares, senior adviser for develop
ment to the U.S. secretary of state, also noted the need
for private sector investment in infrastructure as part of
the development agenda.
"But there's a more nuanced case to be made for
bringing business to the table" for investments in "core
sectors" that are critical to achieving the SDGs, includ
ing water and energy, she said at the event.
Along with water and energy, sanitation is also essen
tial to meeting many of the sustainable development
goals, according to UN General Assembly President
John Ashe.
"They are inextricably linked to climate change, agri
culture, food security, health, gender and education,
among others," Ashe said Feb. 18 as he opened a de
bate on the issue in New York. "So today, I ask you to
consider how we can develop a more integrated ap
proach to problem-solving so that we can best address
this development nexus."
BNA 2-26-14
330 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
Ashe said 783 million people live without clean water,
2.5 billion have no adequate sanitation and 1.4 billion
people are without access to electricity.
By Andrea Vittorio
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Vittorio
in Washington at avittorio@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry
Pearl at Ipearl@bna.com
The "Report of the Secretary-General's High-level
Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Develop
ment Agenda" is available at http://www.un.org/sg/
management/beyond2015.shtml.
Climate Change
International Coalition Asks Oil, Gas
Companies to Voluntarily Cut Methane Leaks
tive this year asking oil and gas companies to vol
An international coalition
untarily commit to make plans to launch
extensive an initiain
investments
plugging methane leaks throughout their infrastruc
ture.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalitionwhich includes
the U.S., Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, the
United Kingdom, Nigeria, Norway, and organizations
such as the World Bank and the UN Environment
Programis shaping the program as one of its main
priorities heading into its third year of advocacy. The
coalition seeks to demonstrate that its efforts are yield
ing major reductions in emissions that are contributing
to climate change.
Reducing methane emissions is an increasing focus
for governments seeking to slow atmospheric warming
in the near term, as the gas has a warming effect esti
mated between 25 to over 80 times greater than carbon
dioxide over a 20-year time frame.
The oil and gas industry is the second largest source
of anthropogenic methane emissions globally after ag
riculture, contributing an estimated 20 percent of global
methane emissions, according to UN estimates. But es
timates of the volume of methane being emitted from
various oil and gas operations very widely, and existing
estimates are disputed. For example, methane emitted
from the U.S. natural gas industry is 25 percent to 75
percent higher than EPA estimates, according to a
study published Feb. 13 by Stanford University.
Infrastructure Analysis Sought. The Climate and Clean
Air Coalition says that to reduce emissions, companies
must analyze infrastructure to find leaks at various
sources, like valves and compressors, and when leaks
are found, make repairs or apply relevant technologies.
The coalition is looking for companies to commit to sys
tematically checking equipment across all their partici
pating assets in various countries of their operation in
order to achieve "at scale" methane reductions, accord
ing to David Turk, deputy for initiatives in the U.S.
State Department's Office of the Special Envoy for Cli
mate Change. "While we hope a company will put all
their assets/operations into the Methane Partnership,
we provide some flexibility to exclude some assets if
needed."
"We've spent the last year and half now in very in
tense, rigorous discussions with a lot of industry play
2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
INTERNATIONAL
ers to try to develop both an initiative that was going to
be meaningful, that would actually achieve real-world
results at scale .. . and also a doable proposition from
the perspective of businesses and something that would
actually be implemented out in the real world," Turk
j
told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 14. "We are looking for a
critical mass of a handful of companies that would
agree to join this partnership at the start and build out
from there."
New Initiative Like 'Gas Star Plus.' The coalition's soon
to be unveiled Oil & Gas Methane Partnership has some
similarity to the EPA's previous voluntary program,
Natural Gas Star. That program helped identify cost-
effective reductions of methane. The new international
initiative could act like a "Gas Star plus," said Mark
Boling, president of V+ Development Solutions, a divi
sion of Southwestern Energy, which will participate in
the coalition partnership. Other companies willing to
participate have not yet been named.
"What we are trying to do now is share that knowl
edge and share those technologies with everyone
around the world, and say, 'Look, this has worked, this
is how they work . . . and also let's strive to innovate for
more solutions,' " Boling said.
Companies that join the partnership will agree to re
porting requirements and will fund the analysis of leaks
and technical upgrades themselves. They will have ac
cess to technical assistance from countries supporting
the initiative. Turk stressed the benefit to their reputa
tion that participating companies would receive.
Oil and gas companies, including British Gas, gath
ered with government officials, including from the EPA,
at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 24 to discuss re
ductions of methane. The coalition wanted to get seri
ous political commitments from companies to join the
coalition's upcoming initiative, and there "seems to be
a lot of enthusiasm about doing something," Turk said.
Focus on Practical Actions. The ability of the coalition
to attract international energy companies to join the ini
tiative and make the necessary investments would be a
boon for the cooperative framework among govern
ments, private companies, NGOs and international or
ganizations that the Climate and Clean Air Coalition
has championed. The group is focused on practical ac
tions that can quickly achieve big results in reducing
emissions, improving human health and increasing
food productivity, said Helena Molin Valdes, head of
the secretariat for the coalition.
"We really have achieved a lot in a short period of
time, despite difficult issues such as air pollution and
climate change at the international scale. This has been
a very helpful forum and coalition for many of the
policy makers that are part of it to set aside any differ
ences that they may have had in climate negotiations
and really look at practical issues that they can work on
together," Molin Valdes told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 14.
"Some people call it 'fresh air' in terms of collabora
tion."
For example, the group has worked with the EPA and
the Stockholm Environment Institute to develop emis
sions scenarios in Bangladesh, Columbia, Ghana and
Mexico that identify key ways to achieve major air qual
ity and climate pollutant reductions, Molin Valdes said.
Nigeria and three other countries are expected to take
up the tool this year. "The purpose of this exercise is to
 INTERNATIONAL
identify practical actions and the investment plans for
those actions," Molin Valdes said.
The coalition is working on an array of voluntary and
policy initiatives aimed at achieving reductions in short
lived climate forcers in sectors such as brick produc
tion, solid waste, agriculture, transportation and en
ergy. It also provides funding and support for imple
menting initiatives.
The coalition includes more than 30 countries, the
UNEP and other international institutions. Russia "has
taken the political decision to join," Molin Valdes said,
but a plan for the country's participation in the coali
tion's various programs is still being established.
Dispute Over Emissions Estimates. A wide range in
methane emissions estimates from the oil and gas in
dustry may be one stumbling block to broader partici
pation in the initiative. Some in the industry dispute
that it is responsible for significant emissions at all.
Methodologies for estimating methane are inconsistent
with each other, and more work is needed to improve
the estimates, the IPIECA, the global oil and gas indus
try association for environmental and social issues, said
in a Feb. 3 statement on short-lived climate pollutants.
IPIECA helped develop the methane initiative with the
coalition, according to a coalition statement.
"Emerging data suggests that methane emissions
from oil and gas production in the U.S. are on the order
of 0.5 percent of total production, which is much lower
than some estimates," the group said.
But the coalition initiative may be key to cutting
through the ongoing disputes over emissions estimates
to action on ensuring any leaks that do exist are
plugged, according to Boling.
"In my opinion, we're spending too much time trying
to decide what the real number is, when what we really
ought to be doing is putting our time and effort into em
ploying the practices necessary to drivewhatever the
number isdrive it down to as low as we can get it,"
Boling said.
The coalition plans to announce the Oil & Gas Meth
ane Partnership at the UN Secretary General's Climate
Summit in September in New York City.
By Jenny Johnson
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Jenny Johnson in St. Petersburg, Russia, at
correspondents@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg
Henderson at ghenderson@bna.com
Biotechnology
Modified Crops Shrink in Industrialized
Nations for First Time, Industry Report Says
alized nations for the first time since the technol
Genetically
ogy wasmodified crop plantings
commercialized in 1996,fell in industri
an industry re
port said.
Plantings in those countries fell about 2 percent to 81
million hectares (200 million acres) last year as Canada
sowed less modified canola and Australia cut back on
cotton, the International Service for the Acquisition of
N%p/
Agri-Biotech Applications said in a report Feb. 13.
"Growth is plateauing as far as the major industrial
countries are concerned," said Clive James, the report's
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 331
author and founder of Ithica, New York-based ISAAA.
The group is funded by governments, foundations and
companies, including Monsanto Co., the largest devel
oper of biotech crops.
"The major trend is going to be in the developing
countries, which for the second consecutive year
planted more than industrial countries," he said in an
interview.
The $15.6 billion modified-seed industry faces politi
cal opposition in the European Union, while the U.S., its
largest market, is almost saturated. In contrast, higher
plantings in Brazil helped to lift the global total by 3
percent to a record 175.2 million hectares.
Crops developed using biotechnology contain genes
from other species that bestow new traits, such as toler
ating herbicides or producing bug-killing proteins.
Brazil has led global gains in the cultivation of bio
tech crops for half a decade. That's partly because of its
fast-track regulatory approval system, James said.
Monsanto is counting on Latin America to drive sales
growth this decade. Its Intacta beans, designed to con
trol insects and introduced this year across 3 million
acres in Brazil, have a potential market of 100 million
acres, the St. Louis-based company has said.
U.S. Market. In the U.S., the leading market for modi
fied crops, plantings rose less than 1 percent to 70.1
million hectares last year amid a drop in modified cot
ton, according to James.
Modified plants accounted for 90 percent of U.S.
corn, while 93 percent of the soy crop was genetically
engineered.
Modified cotton fell to 90 percent of the U.S. crop,
from 94 percent a year earlier, according to Agriculture
Department data compiled by Bloomberg. Drought
prompted some farmers to switch to cheaper conven
tional seed on their least productive land, said Mark
Kelley, a cotton agronomist at Texas A&M University's
AgriLife Extension Service in Lubbock.
The decline in modified plantings in Canada was due
to an 800,000-hectare reduction in canola as farmers ro
tated more conventional wheat into their fields, while
lower overall cotton plantings in Australia reduced use
of biotech varieties there, James said.
Still, 96 percent of Canadian canola and more than 99
percent of Australian cotton were genetically modified,
he said.
The number of nations using the technology held
steady at 27 after Bangladesh farmers sowed insect-
resistant eggplant for the first time, James said. Further
growth may come from new engineered crops such as
potatoes that resist late blight and herbicide-tolerant
sugar cane, while China could soon authorize the plant
ing of engineered corn and eventually approve biotech
rice, he said.
By Jack Kaskey
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in
Houston atjkaskey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Si
mon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net
2014 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with
permission.
BNA 2-26-14
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Toxic Substances
Two Prominent Doctors Say Global Policies
Vital to Address Children's Brain Disorders
den of cognitive disorders that testing, regulation
Industrial
and other
chemicals
preventionarestrategies
causing such
are needed,
a globalwrote
bur
two physicians who have influenced chemical policies
in a Feb. 14 review article appearing in the Lancet Neu
rology.
"Strong evidence exists that industrial chemicals
widely disseminated in the environment are important
contributors to what we have called the global, silent
pandemic of neurodevelopmental toxicity," wrote
Philippe Grandjean, an adjunct environmental health
professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and
Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician from the Mt. Sinai
School of Medicine.
Previous research conducted by Grandjean on chil
dren in the Faroe Islands who were exposed to methyl-
mercury played an important role in the Environmental
Protection Agency's decision in the late 1990s to con
clude that mercury was more toxic than the agency pre
viously assumed.
Landrigan's lifetime focus on children is perhaps best
illustrated by a National Academies committee he led
that issued a report in 1993 called Pesticides in the Di
ets of Infants and Children. Recommendations from
that report are reflected in the Food Quality Protection
Act and the EPA's increased attention to fetal growth
and other periods of human development during which
the body may be particularly vulnerable.
A major U.S. chemicals trade association said the ar
ticle makes far-reaching and flawed extrapolations
without evidence to support the authors' claims.
"Such assertions do nothing to advance true scien
tific understanding and only create confusion and
alarm," the American Chemistry Council said in a state
ment provided to Bloomberg BNA.
Published Studies. Grandjean and Landrigan's paper
reviewed published clinical and epidemiological studies
examining the neurotoxicity of chemicals. They focused
on chemicals that affect the developing brain.
The list of recognized human neurotoxicants has ex
panded from 202 to 214 since 2006, Grandjean and
Landrigan wrote. Their latest paper updated a similar
article the two physicians published in 2006 in the Lan
cet .
"We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain
undiscovered," Grandjean and Landrigan wrote.
"In the same seven-year period, the number of
known developmental neurotoxicants has doubled from
six to 12," they added.
Chemicals or groups of chemicals they said were de
velopmental neurotoxicants in 2006 included arsenic
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INTERNATIONAL
and related compounds, lead, methylmercury, polychlo-
rinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toluene.
Newly identified developmental neurotoxicants in
clude chlorpyrifos, polybrominated diphenyl ethers
(PBDEs), DDT, fluoride, manganese and tetrachloro-
J
ethylene, Grandjean and Landrigan wrote.
Prevention Strategy Urged. Countries around the
world should adopt a three-pillared strategy to prevent
autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and
other cognitive impairments which are caused to some
extent by chemicals, they said. The strategy would con
sist of:
mandatory testing using existing and emerging
toxicity testing protocols;
assessments of new chemicals before they are
marketed to determine whether they affect the develop
ing brain; and
an international clearinghouse for neurotoxicity
similar to the International Agency for Research on
Cancer.
IARC, part of the World Health Organization, con
venes panels of epidemiologists, toxicologists and other
scientists to evaluate scientific literature and reach con
clusions about the human carcinogenicity of chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, viruses and other materials to which
people can be exposed.
Concerns Voiced. Both the American Chemistry Coun
cil, which represents large U.S. chemical manufactur
ers, and the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Af
filiates (SOCMA), which represents chemical compa
nies that make small batches of compounds, said the
physicians' article was flawed and inappropriately in
flated hazards.
J
"What is most concerning is that the authors focus
largely on chemicals and heavy metals that are well un
derstood to be inappropriate for children's exposure,
highly regulated and/or are restricted or being phased
out," the chemistry council said. "They then extrapo
late that similar conclusions should be applied to
chemicals that are more widely used in consumer prod
ucts without evidence to support their claims."
Dan Newton, senior manager of government affairs
at SOCMA, told Bloomberg BNA, "If all industrial
chemicals were tested like pharmaceuticals, as the au
thors suggested, the engine of innovation that has pro
vided America a quality of life much higher than most
nations would grind to a halt."
By Pat Rizzuto
To contact the reporter on this story: Pat Rizzuto in
Washington at prizzuto@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry
Pearl at lpearl@bna.com
The article, "Neurobehavioural Effects of Develop
mental Toxicity," is available at http://
www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/onlinefirst.
U
 ( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 3 3

BNA Insights
EUROPEAN UNION

BIOCIDAL PRODUCTS REGULATION

The European Union Biocidal Products Regulation dramatically changes the way biocidal
active substances and biocidal products are regulated under European law. This new regu
latory system is subtly different from those in other jurisdictions and EU neighboring coun
tries, and fundamentally redefines biocidal products and treated articles. Companies ex
porting to the EU as a component of their global business must ensure that their supply
chains and product designs are compliant with the regulation. This article presents a snap
shot of existing industry norms and anticipates how these standard practices will be af
fected by the regulation.

EU Biocidal Products Regulation and Its Impact on Industry: A Practical Briefing

c By Andrew R. Bourne, Lara A. Hall,

and Lisa R. Burchi
Regulation 528/2012, repeals and replaces the Bio
The new
cidal EU Biocidal
Products Products
Directive Regulation
(98/8/EC), which(BPR), EC
regulated
biocidal active substances and biocidal products in the
EU. The European Commission (EC) clarified many of
the BPR's new provisions to industry in the lead up to
adoption of the new regulation on Sept. 1, 2013.1 Issues
encountered by industry and regulators, and claimed to
discourage industry from developing new active sub
stances, have been addressed as key points in the new
1 European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/
chemicals/biocides/regulation/key-features_en.htm.
Andrew Bourne is a Regulatory Specialist
working in UK offices of The Acta Group,
Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.'s consulting affili
ate, and focusing on European biocidal and
plant protection issues. Lara Hall is a Staff
Scientist with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. with
significant expertise in EU biocides and US
pesticide submissions. Lisa Burchi is Of Coun
sel to Bergeson & Campbell, and works
extensively in FIFRA law, regulatory, and data
compensation issues.
This article does not represent the opinions of
Bloomberg BNA, which welcomes other points
of view.
regulation.2 Due to the scope of the changes, and de
spite the EC's efforts to address concerns and prepare
industry for these changes, some of the larger shifts in
regulation continue nonetheless to inspire industry con
cern.3 Under the BPR, all companies placing biocidal
active substances or biocidal products on the EU mar
ket must share proportionally the burden for pursuing
the approval or authorization process.'1 This may dras
tically increase the cost of bringing a biocidal product
to market in the EU. Although downstream users and
customers of such companies are not required to share
in these costs, the increases may ultimately be passed
on to downstream users via increased product and ac
tive substance costs.
Biocidal active substances and biocidal products are
defined as any neat (undiluted or unmixed) substance
or product (which may include articles) that exerts an
effect on harmful organisms. This "effect" is expan
sively defined to include anything, including destruc
tion, deterrence, rendering harmless or preventing the
action.5
Regulation of Biocidal Substances and
Biocidal Products
Both the BPD and BPR identify a long list of biocides
across 22 "Product Types" (PT) that are produced by a
2 Bergeson & Campbell PC, Revisions to Biocidal Product
Regulation in the European Union, July 19, 2012.
European Commission, DG Environment Control of
Treated Articles in the Biocides Products Regulation, ECHA
Biocides Stakeholders' Day, June 25, 2013,
4 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 95 (1)
5 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 3 (l)(a)

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334 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
variety of industry sectors and may not be considered
"biocidal" in other jurisdictions. The full list of Product
Types and their associated descriptions are listed in
Table 1 below.
The Product Type 6, "Preservatives for products dur
ing storage," offers a useful illustration of how the BPR
differs from biocidal regulations in other jurisdictions.
These biocidal active substances are added to products
purely for the purpose of 'in-can' or 'in-storage' preser
vation, and are often exempted from regulatory control
in other jurisdictions. Regulatory disconnects of this
type may often present unforeseen challenges and
regulatory issues for companies expanding into new
territories or product lines. To avoid this type of regula
tory pitfall, a search of the Product Type currently ap
proved for the active substance must be undertaken
prior to placing the biocidal product on the EU Member
State market.
Impact on Biocide Registrants and
Downstream Users
Industry sectors across the spectrum will be affected
by the BPR due to the scope of the Product Types, in
cluding but not limited to the new provisions for
"treated articles." Impacts may be solely financial in
nature, where companies will need to obtain authoriza
tion to refer to an existing approval or authorization to
continue marketing an existing product, or to launch
and support a new biocidal product. Some companies
may be impacted more extensively, requiring additional
resources and the need to address additional adminis
trative burdens. For example, companies wishing to
continue importing biocidal products or treated articles
that were not previously regulated will need to arrange
for authorization of the biocidal product, and in some
cases approval of the active substance for the corre
sponding Product Type for treated articles. This process
will take time and money, which must be carefully con
sidered and for which resources will need to be bud
geted.6 The most common impacts on industry are bro
ken down and discussed below.
Recognized Suppliers List. The creation and publica
tion of the "recognized suppliers list" is likely to be the
most significant impact on supply chains, both inside
and beyond the EU. This list comprises all suppliers of
biocidal active substances that have contributed to the
cost of the active substance approval and is made pub
licly available by the European Chemicals Agency
(ECHA). Commencing Sept. 1, 2015, only biocidal prod
ucts containing active substances supplied by a recog
nized supplier (on the recognized suppliers list) can be
legally placed on the EU market. Existing supply
chains will be impacted in the run up to Sept. 1, 2015,
as companies decide whether it is financially viable to
buy into approvals and continue EU supply chains.
Technical Equivalence. Access to an existing approval
or authorization (through a "Letter of Access" cost-
sharing agreement) is only granted where the identity
of the active substance is shown to be "technically
equivalent" to the active substance that has already
6 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 3 (l)(a)
7 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 95 (2) (3)
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BNA INSIGHTS
been assessed and approved.8 The technical equiva
lence assessment is conducted by ECHA in a two-tiered
process.9
The first tier consists of a basic comparison of the
physical and technical parameters of the reference sub
stance to the active substance being assessed. In most
cases, the assessment is expected to conclude with a de
cisive "yes" or "no" conclusion.
The second-tier assessment is conducted when the
Tier One evaluation results are inconclusive. This as
sessment is based on the toxicological and ecotoxico-
logical information available on the reference sub
stance and the active substance to be registered. Test
ing on vertebrate animals must not be conducted for the
sole purpose of technical equivalence.
The technical equivalence assessment is required
whenever there is a new source of an approved active
ingredient or when the manufacturing process or
manufacturing site of the active substance is changed.
Treated Articles. A new area of regulation covered by
the BPR is that of "treated articles." These are articles
such as wooden benches painted with a wood preserva
tive, and clothing treated with biocidal substances to re
duce microorganism growth or odor generation.10 Ar
ticles with multiple components become treated articles
when one or more components are treated with or in
corporate a biocidal active substancefor example, a
couch whose wooden frame has been treated with a
wood preservative.11
Companies supplying treated articles to the EU must
ensure that all biocidal active substances intentionally
incorporated into or used to treat the article, for the
purposes of control of harmful organisms, are approved
for the relevant PT.12 In the couch example above, the
active ingredients in the wood preservative would need
J
to be approved for Product Type 8, "Wood preserva
tives."
Ensuring Compliance
It is most cost- and time-effective for manufacturers
of biocidal products to ensure the biocidal active sub
stances they purchase have already been approved for
the relevant Product Type by their suppliers. This is
usually viewed as a first step in ensuring compliance
and essential to continue a commercial presence on the
EU market. Where the biocidal active substance sup
plier has ensured compliance, a certification or written
assurance that all biocidal substances and products are
approved or authorized should be provided. If this is not
forthcoming, or if the manufacturer/supplier does not
possess an approval for the substance and related use,
then the biocidal product manufacturer must determine
whether to change suppliers to a manufacturer that can
provide the approval, pursue the regulatory require
ments itself or stop manufacturing such products.
Formulation and manufacturing processes used by
manufacturers of biocidal products, in particular bio
cidal mixtures and preparations used for treatments,
8 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 64 (1)
9 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 54
10 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 3 (1)(1)
11 United Kingdom (UK) Health and Safety Executive
(HSE), http://www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/treated-articles.htm
12 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 58 (2)
 BNA INSIGHTS
Table 1
I Product Types Listed in Annex V of the BPR
Part 1 of 2
Product
Main Group 1: Disinfectants
These product types exclude cleaning products that are not intended to have a biocidal effect, including washing liquids,
powders, and similar products.
Product Type 1: Human Hygiene
Product Type 2: Disinfectants and
Algaecides Not Intended for Direct
Application to Humans or Animals
Product Type 3: Veterinary Hygiene
Product Type 4: Food and Feed Area
Product Type 5: Drinking Water
Main Group 2: Preservatives
Unless otherwise stated, these product-types include only products to prevent microbial and algal development.
Product Type 6: Preservatives for
Products during Storage
Product Type 7: Film Preservatives
Product Type 8: Wood Preservatives
Product Type 9: Fiber, Leather, Rubber,
and Polymerized Materials Preservatives
Product Type 10: Construction Material
Preservatives
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( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 ) 3 3 5
Descriptions
Products in this group are biocidal products used for human hygiene purposes, applied on or in
contact with human skin or scalps for the primary purpose of disinfecting the skin or scalp.
Products used for the disinfection of surfaces, materials, equipment, and furniture that are not
used for direct contact with food or feeding stuffs.
Usage areas include, inter alia, swimming pools, aquariums, bathing, and other waters; air
conditioning systems; and walls and floors in private, public, and industrial areas and in other
areas for professional activities.
Products used for disinfection of air, water not used for human or animal consumption, chemical
toilets, waste water, hospital waste, and soil.
Products used as algaecides for treatment of swimming pools, aquariums, and other waters and
for remedial treatment of construction materials.
Products used to be incorporated in textiles, tissues, masks, paints, and other articles or materials
with the purpose of producing treated articles with disinfecting properties.
Products used for veterinary hygiene purposes such as disinfectants, disinfecting soaps, oral or
corporal hygiene products, or with anti-microbial function.
Products used to disinfect the materials and surfaces associated with the housing or
transportation of animals.
Products used for the disinfection of equipment, containers, consumption utensils, surfaces, or
pipework associated with the production, transport, storage, or consumption of food or feed
(including drinking water) for humans and animals.
Products used to impregnate materials that may enter into contact with food.
Products used for the disinfection of drinking water for both humans and animals.
Products used for the preservation of manufactured products, other than foodstuffs, feedingstuffs,
cosmetics or medicinal products, or medical devices by the control of microbial deterioration to
ensure their shelf life.
Products used as preservatives for the storage or use of rodenticide, insecticide, or other baits.
Products used for the preservation of films or coatings by the control of microbial deterioration or
algal growth in order to protect the initial properties of the surface of materials or objects such as
paints, plastics, sealants, wall adhesives, binders, papers, art works.
Products used for the preservation of wood, from and including the saw-mill stage, or wood
products by the control of wood-destroying or wood-disfiguring organisms, including insects.
This product-type includes both preventive and curative products.
Products used for the preservation of fibrous or polymerized materials, such as leather, rubber, or
paper or textile products by the control of microbiological deterioration.
This product-type includes biocidal products that antagonize the settlement of micro-organisms
on the surface of materials and therefore hamper or prevent the development of odor and/or offer
other kinds of benefits.
Products used for the preservation of masonry, composite materials, or other construction
materials other than wood by the control of microbiological and algal attack.
A BNA Graphic/enve2g01
BNA 2-26-14
336 (Vol. 37, No. 5) BNA INSIGHTS

Table 1
Product Types Listed in Annex V of the BPR
Part 2 of 2
Product Type
J
Number and Na

Main Group 2: Preservatives

Unless otherwise stated, these product-types include only products to prevent microbial and algal development.

Product Type 11: Preservatives for Products used for the preservation of water or other liquids used in cooling and processing
Liquid-Cooling and Processing Systems systems by the control of harmful organisms such as microbes, algae, and mussels.
Products used for the disinfection of drinking water or of water for swimming pools are not
included in this product- type.

Product Type 12: Slimicides Products used for the prevention or control of slime growth on materials, equipment, and structures
used in industrial processes, e.g., on wood and paper pulp, porous sand strata in oil extraction.

Product Type 13: Working or Cutting Products to control microbial deterioration in fluids used for working or cutting metal, glass, or
Fluid Preservatives other materials.

Main Group 3: Pest Control

Product Type 14: Rodenticides Products used for the control of mice, rats, or other rodents, by means other than repulsion
or attraction.

Product Type 15: Avici des Products used for the control of birds, by means other than repulsion or attraction.

Product Type 16: Molluscicides, Products used for the control of molluscs, worms, and invertebrates not covered by other product-
Vermicides, and Products to Control types, by means other than repulsion or attraction.
Other Invertebrates

Product Type 17: Piscicides Products used for the control of fish, by means other than repulsion or attraction.

Product Type 18: Insecticides, Acaricides Products used for the control of arthropods (e.g., insects, arachnids, and crustaceans), by means
and Products to Control Other Arthropods other than repulsion or attraction. .

Product Type 19: Repellents Products used to control harmful organisms (invertebrates such as fleas; vertebrates such as birds,
and Attractants fish, rodents), by repelling or attracting, including those that are used for human or veterinary
hygiene either directly on the skin or indirectly in the environment of humans or animals.
Product Type 20: Control of Products used for the control of vertebrates other than those already covered by the other
Other Vertebrates product-types of this main group, by means other than repulsion or attraction.

Main Group 4: Other Biocidal Products

Product Type 21: Antifouling Products Products used to control the growth and settlement of fouling organisms (microbes and higher forms
of plant or animal spedes) on vessels, aquaculture equipment, or other structures used in water.

Product Type 22: Embalming and Products used for the disinfection and preservation of human or animal corpses, or parts thereof.
Taxidermist Fluids
A BNA Graphic/enve2g02

are typically considered confidential business informa
tion, and manufacturers are therefore reluctant to pro
vide this type of information to their customers. Where
this is the case, customers should seek a general certifi
cate of compliance for the product, stating that all bio
cidal active substances contained in the product are
suitably approved. Using this general certification, a
supplier may ensure compliance to a customer without
stating the specific chemical information. This type of
good faith arrangement allows customers to proceed
with biocides business and existing supply chains.
Whether a company can reasonably rely on such a
certification can depend on several factors (e.g., the size
and reputation of the company providing the certifica
tion, whether the company expresses a proficiency in
BPR requirements, the length and status of the working
relationship between the supplier and its customer). Al
though all entities legally placing an active substance
on the EU market will be listed on the recognized sup
pliers list (as above), this list may not be updated imme
diately, or the supplier may be using a representative
for the purposes of listing. Certification must therefore,
always be sought from the supplier as a first step in en
suring regulatory compliance.
To facilitate and expedite inspections by EU Member
State agencies, companies must maintain records (elec
tronic or hard copy) of manufacturing processes, qual
ity control and quality assurance for the manufacture of

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 BNA INSIGHTS
products and batches, and information on safety of
products (including any recall notices as applicable). As
a minimum, the following must be kept and recorded:13
Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and specification of ac
tive substances and other ingredients used in product
manufacture;
Records of substance or product manufacturing
operations;
Results of internal quality control; and
Identification of production batches.
For manufacturers of active substances or products,
retention of samples from production batches also must
be kept under appropriate storage conditions.14
There is currently a push from ECHA and EU Mem
ber State Competent Authorities (under inspection and
enforcement activities) for active substances and prod
ucts to be accompanied by a safety data sheet (SDS)
prepared in the format specified in Annex II of the EU
Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction
of Chemicals (REACH) regulation (1907/2006),
amended by EU regulation 453/2010, and mandated by
the BPR.15 Industry has been slow to implement this
mandatory format (based upon the 16 Section GHS
SDS), in part due to EU member states being slow to
agree to standardized guidance on SDS creation, and
providing conflicting SDS requirements for substances
placed upon their domestic markets. There remains a
degree of uncertainty in the EU as to enforcement ac
tions that may be taken for a substandard or misleading
SDS.16 SDSs must be provided to downstream users
free of charge, either at the time of supply or before
hand.17 Many companies prefer to provide the SDS in
electronic format. Importantly, however, many EU au
thorities have also expressed a wish to obtain a physi
cal hard copy of the SDS in the appropriate language to
accompany the shipment.
Enforcement, Penalties for Non-Compliance
Institution of BPR provisions is devolved to local and
national agencies in each EU member state, and is en
forced under national laws.18 Inspection and enforce
ment actions are handled differently by each Compe
tent Authority. For example, the UK has a fairly
straightforward approach to enforcement, relying more
on publicly naming entities believed to be noncompli-
ant, rather than assessing fines or suspending import
activities. This is not the case for all EU member states.
In the UK, the BPR provisions are enforced by two
agencies, with defined areas of expertise. The Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) inspects and enforces any
issues arising from the use of biocidal products, such as
undisclosed hazards, improper use information or fail
ure to meet approval or authorization provisions in the
BPR. The local Trading Standards office, on the other
hand, deals primarily with issues relating to retail avail
ability and advertising. The BPR is written into UK na-
13 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 65 (2)
14 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 65 (2).
15 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 70.
16 ECHA (2011) Results of the Forum coordinated REACH
c enforcement project on registration, pre-registration and
safety data sheets, European Chemicals Agency, November 29.
2011.
17 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 70
18 OJ L 167, 27.07.2012, Article 65
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(Vol. 37, No. 5) 337
tional law under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act
1974 (HASWA), in line with the Health and Safety (En
forcing Authority) Regulations 1998 (SI 1998 No 494).
Any breach of the BPR in the UK is enforced and pros
ecuted under HASWA by the HSE.19
Maximum penalties are set out in Regulation 32 of
The Biocidal Products and Chemicals (Appointment of
Authorities and Enforcement) Regulations 2013:20
(a) on summary conviction;
(i) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, impris
onment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine
not exceeding the statutory maximum (5000) or both;
(ii) in Scotland, imprisonment for a term not exceed
ing 12 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory
maximum (5000) or both; and
(b) on conviction or indictment; imprisonment for a
term not exceeding two years, or a fine or both.
Data Compensability Under BPR
Data protection periods under the BPR vary from five
to 15 years, depending on the use of the data (for ex
ample, new approval/authorization, renewal or amend
ment). In all cases the trigger for data protection peri
ods is "when [the data] are submitted for the first
time."21
The BPR does not include time periods for which data
are subject to "exclusive use," meaning that other inter
ested parties may seek to buy into approvals of active
substances, but only after they are made publicly avail
able. This differs from the previous directive and many
other regulatory regimes. For example, Section
3(c)(l)(F)(i) of the U.S. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) specifies the criteria un
der which data submitters can receive a 10-year period
of exclusive use for certain data submitted in support of
a registration for a new pesticide chemical or new uses
of an already registered pesticide. Under these provi
sions, no other registrant is authorized to use the sub
mitted data for the 10-year exclusive use period without
the explicit consent of the original registrant, thus ef
fectively creating a private monopoly during the period
of exclusivity. This contrasts dramatically with the BPR,
where registrants have a mandated duty to share infor
mation conducted for the purposes of the active sub
stance approval. The patent-like protection afforded to
registrations of new active substances and new biocidal
products under FIFRA is missing from the BPR and
thus may discourage companies from conducting the
necessary research and development activities neces
sary to keep the EU biocides market innovative and
buoyant.
Mandatory Data Sharing, Compensation
The BPR includes a procedure to ensure that compa
nies cannot duplicate tests that have already been per
formed on vertebrate animals. Instead, any applicant in
tending to perform a study involving vertebrates must
submit a written request to ECHA to determine whether
such a study has already been submitted. Although not
19 UK HSE,
enforcement.htm.
20 UK HSE,
http://www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/
http://www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/
enforcement.htm.
21 BPR, Article 60(1).
BNA 2-26-14
338 (Vol. 37, No. 5)
mandatory, an applicant also may submit a written re
quest to ECHA to determine whether any studies not in
volving vertebrates have been submitted.22 If such a
study exists, ECHA will provide the applicant with in
formation regarding the data submitter and owner.
If the data are still protected, the prospective appli
cant "shall, in the case of data involving tests on verte
brate; and may, in the case of data not involving tests
on vertebrates, request from the data owner all the sci
entific and technical data related to the tests and stud
ies concerned as well as the right to refer to these data
when submitting applications."23
The prospective applicant and data owner must make
every effort to reach an agreement on the sharing of the
results of the tests or studies requested by the prospec
tive applicant.24 The parties also may submit the matter
to an arbitration body and commit to accept the arbitra
tion order. Unlike the FIFRA counterpart, the BPR arbi
tration procedure appears to be a voluntary option
available to parties as an alternative to endeavoring to
negotiate and reach agreement. Although these proce
dures are not required for non-vertebrate studies, if an
applicant chooses to ask ECHA whether any non-
vertebrate studies have been submitted and such stud
ies exist, the parties must make "every effort" to reach
an agreement regarding non-vertebrate studies as well.
If an agreement is reached, the data owner will pro
vide the applicant with copies of the data at issue or
give permission to refer to the data as set forth in a Let
ter of Access (LoA). The LoA must include:25
(1) The name and contact details of the data owner
and beneficiary;
(2) The name of the active substance or biocidal
product for which access to the data is authorized;
(3) The date on which the LoA takes effect; and
(4) A list of the submitted data to which the LoA
grants citation rights.
If an LoA is later revoked, such revocation shall not
affect the validity of the authorization issued on the ba
sis of the LoA in question.
If no agreement is reached, the applicant must so in
form ECHA and, within 60 days of being so informed,
ECHA can give the applicant permission to refer to the
requested vertebrate studies, provided that the appli
cant demonstrates that every effort has been made to
reach an agreement and the prospective applicant has
paid the data owner a share of the costs incurred.26
This is similar to FIFRA to the extent that the Envi
ronmental Protection Agency is likewise allowed to rely
upon studies submitted to it even if no compensation
agreement has been reached. Compensation for data
sharing is to be determined in a fair, transparent, and
nondiscriminatory manner. Although the data owner
cannot refuse to accept any payment that is offered by
the applicant, such acceptance is without prejudice to
the data owner's right to have the proportionate share
of the cost determined by a national court. Thus, the
BPR provides for national courts, rather than arbitra
tion bodies, to determine compensation when there is a
dispute.27
22 BPR, Article 62(2).
23 BPR, Article 62(2).
u BPR Article 63(1).
25 BPR, Article 61(2).
26 BPR Article 63(3).
27 BPR, Article 63(4).
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BNA INSIGHTS
As noted above, under the BPR, companies must ob
tain authorization for the biocidal products and/or ap
proval for the biocidal substances for which they place
upon the EU market. Under the prior BPD scheme,
companies could market in the EU any active substance
-J
or product already approved or authorized, respec
tively.28 This means that the cost of placing biocidal ac
tive substances and biocidal products on the EU market
will increase due to the need for all entities to purchase
an LoA to cite the data contained in the existing ap
proval or authorization.
The LoA (the document that reflects the permission
to refer to a particular dossier and/or specific data ref
erenced therein) is estimated to be significant in cost
with a range of several thousands to several tens of
thousands Euros. In some exceptional cases (e.g., a
small number of data sharers, a high cost for data to
support the registration), the cost of the LoA may be
much higher, reaching several hundred thousand Eu
ros. The cost is calculated based on the cost of the data
incurred to support the authorization or approval,
which may include various sources of data, including
potential new testing. The data compensation scheme
can include additional costs that allow for inflation, risk
and administrative fees.29 The LoA fee can also include
compensation for the time spent on the authorization or
approval by the dossier owner, as well as an additional
charge for calculation of the LoA cost and any time
spent by the dossier owner for the BPR regulation ac
tivities. The total cost of producing the dossier and ob
taining the approval or authorization is then shared
among all potential registrants. The method of calculat
ing the total cost and individual LoA cost is varied as
J
particular data compensation schemes are not pre
scribed in the regulation. ECHA and the regulation do,
however, require that the LoA cost be determined in a
fair and transparent manner.31
Assistance With Compliance, Registration
Any company (either EU-based or not) that is not fa
miliar with the procedures for biocide registrations,
data development or data sharing negotiations, and the
administrative burdens placed on industry by the BPR,
is likely to contract out compliance and regulatory work
to consultants to fulfill their regulatory obligations.
Care must be taken in vetting potential service provid
ers to ensure not only a level of knowledge and experi
ence in the EU biocides regulation field, but also a level
of scientific competence. The implementation of
REACH over the past eight years has seen a boom in
consultants offering regulatory services. ECHA does
not endorse specific service providers for this type of
service, which can make the task of choosing a service
provider more difficult.32
28 OJ L 123, 16.02.1998, Article 3
29 Fleischer, M (2007) Testing Costs and Testing Capacity
According to the REACH Requirements Results of a Survey
of Independent and Corporate GLP Laboratories in the EU and
Switzerland, Journal of Business Chemistry, Vol. 4, Issue 3,
September
30 BPR,2007.
J
Article 60
31 BPR, Article 60
32 ECHA (2013) Legal notice, Version 4, Section 1.4 "Ac
creditations", May 29, 2013, http://echa.europa.eu/en/legal-
notice
BNA INSIGHTS
Future Developments, Amendments
Future amendments are likely to be more in the way
of fine-tuning the regulation and tightening up per
ceived loopholes, contradictions and areas of uncer
tainty rather than wholesale additions to the regulation.
This process has already begun, and proposed amend
ments to transitional provisions for treated articles and
active substances have been developed.33 The amend
ment removes "unintended market barriers" that were
accidentally created through the combined provisions
of the BPR.
BPR Article 2(5), which exempts food and feed used
as attractants or repellents, is expected to be amended
to clarify that food or feed used in biocidal products,
and sold as an attractant or repellent, is covered by the
provisions of the BPR. This amendment would require
any food or feed to be approved as an active substance,
33 EC (2013) Proposal for a regulation of the European Par
liament and of the council amending Regulation (EU) No 528/
2012 concerning the making available on the market and use
of biocidal products with regard to certain conditions for ac
cess to the market, 16.5.2013, 288 final.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738
(Vol. 37, No. 5) 339
and listed in the relevant annex of the BPR for the Prod
uct Type approved.34 This proposed amendment is cur
rently in the draft stage and is expected to be circulated
in early to mid 2014.
The European Economic and Social Committee pub
lished the opinion of the Rapporteur Pedro Narro re
garding certain conditions of access to the market un
der the BPR.35 Narro suggests several further areas of
refinement for the BPR, including that "the Commis
sion should assess whether the obligation to share data,
in addition to toxicological and ecotoxicological data, is
balanced and favours the development of new active
substances."36 This call for assessment is believed by
many to signal to the EC that compulsory sharing of
non-vertebrate studies is not in the interests of a varied
and buoyant EU biocides market, and may lead to a
proposal for amendment.
34 DG environment (2013) Note for discussion with compe
tent authorities for biocidal products, Interpretation of the pro
visions of Article 2 (5) (a) of Regulation (EU) number 528/2012,
Directorate A - Green Economy, Env.A3 - Chemicals, Decem
ber352013.
OJ C 341, 21.11.2013, pp. 44-46
36 OJ C 341, 21.11.2013, pp. 44-46
BNA 2-26-14
3 4 0 ( Vo l . 3 7 , N o . 5 )
Journal
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AM2014/ss.asp
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ergy; Sfax, Tunisia, http://www.icge.aiem-tn.org/
March 26-28, GLOBE 2014: 13th Biennial Conference
and Trade Fair on Business and the Environment; Van
couver. http://bit.ly/16QKsQS
March 27-29, Second International Conference on the
Design, Construction, Maintenance, Monitoring and
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April
April 2-3, Trees, People and the Built Environment II;
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April 2-3, One Hundred Years of Activated Sludge:
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May
May 7, ICERE 2014 International Conference on Envi
ronment and Renewable Energy; Paris, http://
energy.conference-site.com/
May 11-15, Society of Environmental Toxicology and
Chemistry (SETAC) Europe annual meeting http://
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May 11-16, Fifth International Congress on Arsenic in
the Environment (As2014) "As2014: One Century of the
Discovery of Arsenicosis in America (1914-2014)"; Bue
nos Aires, http://www.as2014.com.ar/home.html
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Environment; Athens. http://bit.ly/lcXT3sl
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Resources and Environmental Management; Antalya,
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May 14-16, 2014 3rd International Conference on Petro
leum Industry and Energy (ICPIE 2014); Gdansk, Po
land. http://www.icpie.org/
May 14-16, Second International Conference on Envi
ronmental and Economic Impact on Sustainable Devel J
opment; Ancona, Italy. http://bit.ly/154stKY
JOURNAL
May 14-17, Second International Conference on Envi
ronmental Science and Technology; Antalya, Turkey.
http://www.icoest.org/
May 22-23, International Conference on Renewable En
ergy Gas Technology; Malmo, Sweden, http://
regatec.org/
May 25-30, Global Environment Facility (GEF) 46th
council and assembly meetings; Cancun, Mexico, http://
www.thegef .org/gef/node/10134
May 27-28, 2014 International Conference on Environ
mental Engineering and Development (ICEED 2014);
Sydney, http://www.iceed.net/
May 28-29, Mexican International Renewable Energy
Congress; Anzures, Mexico. http://bit.ly/ldGbTRC
June
June 1-5, International Water Week; Singapore, http://
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June 2-5, Second International Conference on Corpo
rate Social Responsibility & Sustainable Development;
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June 8-12, International Conference on Clean Energy
2014; Istanbul, www.icce2014.net/icce2014/
June 12-15, ACSEE2014The Fourth Asian Confer
ence on Sustainability, Energy and the Environment;
Osaka, Japan, http://acsee.iafor.org
June 13-15, 20th International Interdisciplinary Confer
ence on the Environment; Denver. http://bit.ly/lbSyOpq
June 15-19, 21st World Petroleum Conference: Respon
sibly Energizing a Growing World; Moscow, http://
www.2 lwpc.com/
June 15-20, International Association for Hydrogen En
ergy's World Hydrogen Energy Conference; Gwangju,
South Korea, http://www.whec2014.com/
June 23-27, Open Science Conference "Future
OceansResearch for Marine Sustainability: Multiple
Stressors, Drivers, Challenges and Solutions;" Bergen,
Norway. http://bit.ly/17NRyux
June 23-27, Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and
Ecosystem Research Conference on the Future of
Oceans; Bergen, Norway. http://bit.ly/lePTHoV
June 27-28, Sixth International Conference on Climate
Change; Reykjavik, Iceland. http://bit.ly/14YgG0T
June 28-July 2, Fifth World Congress of Environmental
and Resource Economists; Istanbul. http://bit.Iy/
ld2K0p4
July
July 5-7, Sustainable Development Conference 2014:
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mental Protection; Bangkok. http://
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July 14-17, Second Annual International Conference on
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July 16-18, International Congress on Water, Waste
and Energy Management; Oporto, Portugal, http://
www.ewwm.net/
July 21-Aug. 1, Grand Renewable Energy 2014
(GRE2014) International ConferenceAdvanced Tech
nology Paths to Global Sustainability; Tokyo, http://
www.grand-re2014.org/eng-conf/
Aug. 31-Sept. 5, Dioxin 2014: 34th International Sym
posium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants;
Madrid, http://www.dioxin2014.org/
September
Sept. 1-5, 15th World Lake Conference (WLC15); Peru
gia, Italy, http://www.ilec.or.jp/en/
Sept. 7-10, Eurotox: 50th Congress of the European So
cieties of Toxicology; Edinburgh. http://
www.eurotox2014.com/
Sept. 11-13, Second International Conference Water on
Resources and Wetlands 2014; Tulcea, Romania, http://
limnology.ro/water2014.html
Sept. 14-18, Wetlands Biodiversity and Services: Tools
for Socio-Ecological Development; Huesca, Spain.
http://www.wetlands2014.eu
Sept 20-27, Ninth Conference on Sustainable Develop
ment of Energy, Water and Environment Systems
(SDEWES Conference); Venice, Italy, http://bit.ly/
18mipZU
Sept. 21-26, 2014 International Water Association
World Water Congress & Exhibition, "Shaping Our Wa
ter Future," Lisbon. http:/Avww.iwa20141isbon.org/
Sept. 23-25, Sustainable City 2014; Siena, Italy, http://
bit.ly/15BHcbO
Sept. 25-27, Fourth Low Carbon Earth Summit-2014;
Qingdao, China, http://www.lcesummit.com
October
Oct. 4-5, National Conference on Environment and Bio
diversity of India; New Delhi. http://
www.ebiconference.com
Oct. 5-8, International Conference on Contaminated
Land, Ecological Assessment and Remediation (CLEAR
-2014); Chuncheon, South Korea http://
www.clear2014.org/index2 .asp
Oct. 16-17, Fifth International Conference on the Con
structed Environment; Philadelphia, http://bit.ly/
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Oct. 20-24, Rotterdam Convention: 10th meeting of the
Chemical Review Committee; Geneva. http://chemicals-
l.iisd.org/events/
Oct. 27-31, Stockholm Convention: 10th meeting of the
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Review Commit
tee; Geneva, http://chemicals-l.iisd.org/events/
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342 (Vol. 37, No. 5)

Policy/Legal Roundup
Summary of Actions
This chart summarizes certain items covered in this issue of International Environment Reporter, including spe
cific policy and legal actions such as proposed and final regulations, legislation and litigation.
INTERNATIONAL
- ....-- - -. -
China
Renewable A U.S. district court's rejection of a The government's opening brief is
energy constitutional challenge to a presidential order due March 10.
directing a Chinese-owned firm to divest its
interest in a wind farm project should be
reversed, Chinese-owned Ralls Corp. told the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit on Feb. 7.
Renewable New subsidy and antidumping cases against Commerce Department is expected
energy China and an antidumping case against Taiwan to make preliminary countervailing
on crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar products duties determination about March 26
will move forward as a result of an affirmative and preliminary antidumping duty
International Trade Commission preliminary determinations about June 9.
ruling Feb. 14.
United States
Climate The global climate deal to be reached in Paris in Other nations will submit
Change 2015 "should be built to last" by ensuring that suggestions for outline of the global
future changes don't require formally reopening accord.
the accord for yet more rounds of multiyear
negotiations, the U.S. said in a Feb. 12
submission to the United Nations.

European Union
Toxic European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) starts
substances consultations on possible substitutes for six
biocidal substances.
Biotech corn The EU Council of Ministers votes to allow
Pioneer 1507 corn to become the second GM
crop to be cultivated in the EU.
Solid waste Forthcoming European Commission proposals to
revise EU waste legislation could include plastic
recycling targets and a landfill ban for plastic.
Toxic Companies proposing a read-across alternative
substances to animal tests when providing data about a
substance as required under the REACH
chemicals law must justify their rationale on a
case-by-case basis, according to a decision of
the European Chemical Agency's Board of
Appeal.
The consultations are open through
April 11.
EU environment ministers may
reconsider a pending proposal to
give EU member states the right to
ban GM crops for reasons other than
human health and environmental
protection.
The commission is scheduled to
publish the proposed waste
legislation revisions in May.
Momentive Specialty Chemicals
must provide test data required by
ECHA within 12 months.

2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738
 POLICY/LEGAL ROUNDUP (Vol. 37, No. 5) 343

EUROPE - Continued

Emissions European Union member states finalize a European Commission to publish

Trading regulation Feb. 24 that reduces by 900 million details of the amended auction
the number of carbon permits to be distributed schedule.
from 2014-2016 to participants in the bloc's
emissions trading system.
Belgium
The Belgian government agreed Feb. 7 to Belgian Council of State has 30 days
establish a register of nanomaterials and to to confirm the decision.
require companies that sell substances
Nano containing nanomaterials to submit notifications
materials to the register, starting Jan. 1, 2016. The
obligation would be extended to chemical
mixtures containing nanomaterials from Jan. 1,
2017.
United Kingdom
Air Pollution The European Commission has launched legal The U.K. Department for the
proceedings against the British government for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
its persistent failure to meet the European has two months to respond.
Union's pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide.
Switzerland
The government has put forward a proposal that Under the proposal, the goal of
would incorporate green economy objectives in sustainable use and preservation of
Natural
the country's framework law on the protection of natural resources would be written
resources the environment. into Switzerland's Environmental
Protection Act.

Canada
Toxic Environment Canada and Health Canada have The draft designation orders are
substances proposed the designation as toxic of 44 open to public comment through
petroleum and refinery gas substances on the April 16.
basis of their carcinogenicity.
Endangered A Federal Court of Canada on Feb. 14 grants The parties are to meet to ensure
species environmental groups' applications in part that protection plans are released.
the Canadian government should post recovery
strategies for species identified as being
endangered, threatened or extirpated.
Oil drilling The Canadian government proposed Feb. 8 to The notice is open to public
designate as toxic the hydraulic fracturing fluid comment through April 9.
component ethylbenzene and is considering
measures to limit human exposure to it.
Hazmat Canada's national railways have applied new New rate structure takes effect in
transport surcharges to shipments of crude oil in a bid to March.
encourage shippers to use tank cars that pose
less risk of environmental damage when
accidents occur.
Mining The Canadian government publishes draft The draft regulations are open to
regulations to address the ongoing operation of public comment through March 10.
the Detour Lake Gold Mine's tailings and waste
rock disposal areas.

Nfejas/

INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER ISSN 0149-8738 BNA 2-26-14

344 (Vol. 37, No. 5) POLICY/LEGAL ROUNDUP

AMERICAS - Continued

United States
Energy A Nebraska court Feb. 19 struck down
legislation enacted in 2012 that paved the way
for state approval of a proposed route for the
Keystone XL pipeline.
Nebraska Attorney General files
notice of appeal Feb. 19 contesting
the ruling.

South Korea
Toxic Ministry of Environment unveils set of decree Comment period closes March 31.
substances and rule provisions Feb. 18 that provides
enforcement details for the newly enacted law
on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals
and the revised Toxic Chemicals Control Act
China
General China releases for public comment drafts of Comment period runs until March
policy evaluation methods and strategies Feb. 17 for 15.
ensuring cleaner and less polluting production
techniques for nine industries.
General Several government bodies in China on Feb. 20 New system will take effect May 1.
policy issue a joint statement on implementing a fee
system for water and soil conservation that will
put levies on certain activities.
Alternative China will cut central government subsidies Subsidies will continue beyond 2015.
energy toward purchases of new energy vehicles over
the next two years, according to a notice issued
by the State Council.
Japan
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
and the Ministry of the Environment will set food Ministries are accepting public
Recycling waste reduction targets for food producers, comments on the proposed targets
processors and distributors in Japan, effective until March 15.
April 1.
India
Air pollution The Supreme Court of India on Feb. 10 orders Next hearing date is March 10.
federal and state governments to respond to a
report recommending actions to curb air
pollution from vehicles in the Delhi area.

2-26-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. INER ISSN 0149-8738