Marine Pollution Control8631 West Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48209 USA
313.849.2333 - 24/hour
11320 E Lakewood Blvd., #11
Holland, MI 49424
800-521-8232 – 24/Hour
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EPA Will Entertain Full Climate Debate, Including Endangerment Finding
Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt said that his agency will formulate the Clean Power Plan’s future in early 2018. And while Pruitt said that the agency would “replace” the proposal and not “repeal” it altogether, others are questioning his true intent.
That is because Pruitt also told lawmakers last week that he disagrees with the Endangerment Finding, which gets to the heart of EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 as an emission under the Clean Power Plan. The US Supreme Court has affirmed that right under the Endangerment Finding, although Pruitt said he intends to lead a national discussion on the data that the Obama EPA used to arrive at its conclusion that CO2 was a danger human health and the environment.
“They took work from the U.N. IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] … and adopted that as the core of the finding,” Pruitt told the House Energy and Commerce Committe. That, he continued, was a “breach of process.”
“I think one of the most important things we can do for the American people is provide that discussion, and it hasn’t happened,” Pruitt added. “As I indicated, the agency borrowed the work product of a third party. We have to ensure that discussion occurs.”
House Bill Extends Payments for Clean Ups of Contaminated Industrial Sites
The Trump administration may not be a fan of the US Environmental Protection Agency but it is supporting a House bill to extend until 2022 the payments to help clean up so-called “brownfields” sites. Such sites are industrial properties that have been contaminated and that would otherwise not have any future commercial or recreational use unless they are able to get restored.
To that end, the House voted last week 409 to 8 to authorize the funding to pay for those projects, which advocates say would lead to jobs and economic development — as opposed to having permanent blights in communities across the country. However, critics say that the $200 million annual allocations are a pittance of what is needed to make a real mark.
“EPA is committed to working with communities to redevelop Brownfields sites which have plagued their neighborhoods. EPA’s Assessment and Cleanup grants target communities that are economically disadvantaged and include places where environmental cleanup and new jobs are most needed,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
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Marine Pollution Control Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Detroit’s Marine Pollution Control (MPC), a prominent environmental services company, was started by accident—literally.
In August, 1967, long before oil spills had become much of a concern, the Ford Motor Company spilled about 20,000 gallons of waste oil into the Rouge River. Uncertain about what to do, Ford personnel met with Dave Usher who, at the time, was hauling waste oil from industrial sites. Could he clean it up? Usher did not hesitate: Sure, he could.
“I really had no idea about what to do,” said Usher. “But I bought some vacuum trucks and other equipment and did the job.”
And so, against the backdrop of the Detroit Uprising, Usher created MPC, the first oil spill cleanup company in the Great Lakes and one of the first in the nation. A Detroit native, Usher remains the company’s Chairman. Under his watch, MPC has assisted in cleanup of some of the largest oil spills in the world, including the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989.
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Businesses Ask EPA to Curb Clean Power Plan at Hearing
At the US Environmental Protection Agency’s only hearing to discuss the Clean Power Plan, the business community turned out and either asked for outright repeal or strict curbs on the proposal’s reach.
It’s an extension of the Trump administration’s outreach to businesses that it has said have been hurt the would-be regulation. The hearing was held in an area of the country loyal to Trump: West Virginia.
President Trump ran for office on a platform that said carbon restrictions are killing the coal industry, which is providing reliable and inexpensive fuel to the rest of the country. As a result, EPA Administrator Scott Pruit said in October that the Trump administration would seek to undo the Clean Power Plan.
“While ERCC believes that absent specific guidance in legislation from the U.S. Congress, market principles are the most sound basis upon which to proceed, we nevertheless support the process advanced by EPA,” Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council said at the EPA hearing in Charleston, WV, where this reporter attended.
“Federal guidance of sufficient flexibility, and limited to actions within the fenceline, can provide regulatory certainty, diminish frivolous litigation, and can aide in planning,” he added.
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745 oil spills reported in North Dakota in just one year
May 8, 2017
North Dakota, a state that was the forefront of national protests for months over environmental concerns stemming from the construction of a major pipeline, reported 745 oil spills since last May, according to the state’s Department of Health.
The oil and gas industry reported the spills, and the damages varied in each case. While some spills were in the 20-gallon range there were others that were much larger. KCET calculated that, on average, a spill occurred every 11 hours and 45 minutes. One spill coming from a pipeline in early December, went undetected until it was discovered by a local landowner. Originally estimates suggested around 176,000 gallons of crude oil leaked into the Ash Coulee creek, only hours away from Standing Rock, the central location for the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. However recent reports show that the spill was severely underestimated and that the total amount of oil spilled was actually three times greater — 529,830 gallons — making one of the largest oil spills in North Dakota history.