State law requires the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District to publish a list each year of regulatory measures that may be considered for adoption or amendment during the upcoming calendar year. The District posted its list for 2014 on January 5, 2014, which can be seen below. Before adopting or amending any regulation, the District publishes a notice in a local newspaper and holds a hearing to accept comments from affected businesses and other interested parties.
Tags: Health & Safety, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, mact, Santa Barbara
In December we saw in this space that a US Environmental Protection Agency inventory showed solid reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in recent years. Now EPA has issued its annual Climate Protection Partnerships report, which contains more good news on the emissions front.
Tags: Audit Standards, Health & Safety, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, Oil & Gas, climate change
Effective November 21, 2013, EPA exempted 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (also known as HFO–1234yf) from the regulatory definition of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). This compound will not be counted as a VOC for entities using or producing HFO–1234yf in a product other than an aerosol coating, limiting the VOC emissions from a facility, or otherwise controlling the use of VOC for purposes related to attaining the ozone NAAQS. Emissions of this compound will not be considered in determining whether a proposed new or modified source triggers the applicability of Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) requirements, in areas where the PSD program is implemented by the EPA or a delegated state, local, or tribal agency. This action may also affect whether HFO–1234yf is considered a VOC for state regulatory purposes, depending on whether the state relies on the EPA’s regulatory definition of VOCs.
Tags: Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, Hazcom, Oil & Gas
Do you ever wonder whether auditing of greenhouse gas emissions is working? It may be a bit early in the game to say for sure, given that GHG emission tracking standards are a recent phenomenon. But an annual report compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may be a good gauge of trends in emission reductions, judging by its latest installment.
Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg
On October 28, British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington signed the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy, committing themselves to align efforts to control greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions to combat climate change, and to promote clean energy. The Action Plan is adopted under the aegis of the Pacific Coast Collaborative, which encompasses these four jurisdictions plus Alaska.
Tags: California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, climate change, Canadian
In late September 2013, California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) and the government of Quebec signed an agreement to harmonize and integrate their cap-and-trade programs for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. California’s GHG programs under AB 32 will be officially linked with Quebec’s programs beginning January 1, 2014.
Tags: Business & Legal, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, climate change, Canadian
The greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program overseen by California’s Air Resources Board (ARB), which began earlier this year, not only allows for use of approved offsets to meet a portion of an entity’s emission reduction requirements. Entities will soon also be able to comply with the program by participating in its counterpart in the Canadian province of Quebec. By January 1, 2014, ARB’s cap-and-trade program will be linked with Quebec’s. A press release from ARB sums up key features of the linkage:
Tags: Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg
Tags: Business & Legal, Environmental risks, Environmental, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, Oil & Gas
One small but critically important sub-category of chemical incidents consists of those that can produce mass casualties, usually when a cloud of toxic or superheated gases are spewed out by a fire or explosion. Given America’s fragmented approach to hazardous materials regulation, it’s no surprise that separate regulatory programs have grown up to address these concerns—leading inevitably to overlaps and gaps in coverage.
Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Health & Safety, OSHA, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, Hazcom
One of the Dodd-Frank Act’s many directives to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was to require annual disclosures by publicly listed “resource extraction issuers” of payments they make to the U.S. federal government or foreign governments, related to commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. SEC thought it met this directive when it issued Rule 13q-1 and associated Form SD in August 2012. However, on July 2, 2013 a federal judge decided that SEC misapplied its authority, and so vacated these provisions and remanded the issue to SEC to try again (American Petroleum Institute v. SEC). Since Dodd-Frank required issuer reporting to begin no less than one year after SEC issued rules, the issuer reporting requirement is now on hold—but the statutory requirement remains in place so further rulemaking should be expected.
Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, SEC, International, Health & Safety, Environmental, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, fracking, hydraulic fracking
