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EEOC seeks sanctions in JBS USA discrimination case

Meat + Poultry | Posted on July 10, 2017

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a motion to impose sanctions against JBS USA, a unit of São Paulo, Brazil-based JBS SA, for losing or destroying evidence in a religious discrimination and retaliation case. In a statement, JBS USA denied any wrongdoing. “The company is confident that no documents relevant to the case have been lost or destroyed,” a spokesperson for the company said, “and its lawyers will be responding to the EEOC’s motion.”In the original lawsuit, which was filed in 2010, the EEOC claims JBS refused to allow Somali Muslim employees to pray according to their religious beliefs. The lawsuit also claims that the company retaliated against Muslim employees by disciplining them or firing them when they requested their evening break be moved so that they could break their fast and pray closer to sundown during Ramadan in 2008. Ramadan is a holy month in the Islamic faith which requires daytime fasting.Now, the agency is alleging that JBS USA lost or destroyed documents relevant to the long-running litigation.


EPA Sets 2018 Ethanol Volumes at Statutory Maximum

National Chicken Council | Posted on July 8, 2017

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday proposed once again to keep the mandated volume for conventional ethanol use for 2018 at the statutory maximum of 15 billion gallons. In proposing this level, EPA has breached the 10-percent blend wall and will continue to subsidize the over production of ethanol, far in excess of the statutory maximum, which will divert corn from America’s food and feed use to foreign energy markets. In crafting the Renewable Fuel Standard, Congress set a cap on conventional ethanol at 15 billion gallons to prevent ethanol production from artificially diverting too great a volume of corn from feed, food, and seed use to energy.  At the time Congress set this cap, ethanol exports were not envisioned. However, last year ethanol exports exceeded one billion gallons, diverting more corn away from domestic feed and food markets to foreign energy markets. “Ethanol exports add nothing to U.S. energy security and the RFS is not being administered in keeping with congressional intent,” said National Chicken Council President Mike Brown. “The RFS bureaucracy has taken on a life of its own and it is time for Congress to stop this runaway train. American chicken producers are only one drought, flood or freeze away from another crisis, while the ethanol industry is protected by federal mandates. The RFS has cost our members $60 billion more in feed costs since it was implemented. The RFS is broken. It is time for Congress to reform it.”


Iowa farmers and politicians 'disappointed' in EPA biofuel standard volume

KWQC | Posted on July 6, 2017

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today the proposed Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) for the 2018 conventional biofuels requirement at 15 billion gallons under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).The EPA lowered the amount of biofuel that must be used in the U.S. next year. It's the first ever reduction in volumes under the program. The EPA’s proposal would cut the “advanced biofuels” category from 4.28 billion gallons required in 2018 to 4.24 billion gallons, an important category that biodiesel helps fill.Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) released a statement saying, “I am disappointed biodiesel levels are not higher, but Iowa will continue working with the administration to increase marketplace opportunities for biodiesel." Governor Reynolds went on to say, “I am grateful this administration works for and with our state rather than against it.”Republican Senators Ernst and Grassley called the decision a 'mixed bag.' Senator Ernst saying, “While I am pleased the new administration has set the proposed volume requirements for conventional ethanol for 2018 at congressionally approved levels, I am disappointed that the 2019 biodiesel number was held constant, and would like to see it more accurately reflect current domestic usage and production capacity.


G20 public finance for fossil fuels 'is four times more than renewables'

The Guardian | Posted on July 6, 2017

The G20 nations provide four times more public financing to fossil fuels than to renewable energy, a report has revealed ahead of their summit in Hamburg, where Angela Merkel has said climate change will be at the heart of the agenda. The authors of the report accuse the G20 of “talking out of both sides of their mouths” and the summit faces the challenge of a sceptical US administration after Donald Trump pulled out of the global Paris agreement. The public finance comes in the form of soft loans and guarantees from governments, and, along with huge fossil fuel subsidies, makes coal, oil and gas plants cheaper and locks in carbon emissions for decades to come. But scientists calculate that to keep global warming below 2C, most fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground, requiring a major shift of investment to clean energy.


As coal dwindles, mining states trim safety inspections

My Blue Ridge Communications | Posted on July 6, 2017

Kathy Bartlett watched helplessly this spring as Kentucky lawmakers cut back on mine safety inspections and replaced them with coaching sessions on miners' safety habits. She knows more than most what's at stake.Bartlett's son, Rickey Thorpe, was crushed to death in a western Kentucky underground mine in 2015 when a coal-digging machine's 17-ton cutting head — propped up with wooden boards — gave out as he worked underneath it.Bartlett, who recently visited her son's grave on what would have been his 31st birthday, says that's why the state shouldn't reduce the number of traditional inspections."Them passing this (law), it's totally wrong," she said. "I was totally against it, but that's one person against thousands. Rick lost his life because there was things that wasn't done properly." State officials say they aren't easing up on enforcement. They say the new law, which takes effect Friday, puts officials in the mines more frequently to work with miners on safe working habits.Appalachian coal states like Kentucky have seen a slowdown in mining and are looking to trim the required number of annual inspections. West Virginia lawmakers considered scaling back mandatory inspections to one from four this year but backed off amid criticism.With Kentucky's law, passed by the Republican-controlled legislature, state officials can replace half of the six required inspections with "analyst visits" that focus on coaching. The law still allows for increased inspections if officials identify a problem.The reductions come as the Trump administration proposes cuts to the Department of Labor, which administers the federal mine safety program, even as Trump seeks to reinvigorate the coal industry. Federal inspectors are required by law to conduct four inspections a year on underground mines.In West Virginia, a backlash to the proposed state cutbacks may have caught lawmakers by surprise."Frankly I think the attempt to received national media attention in West Virginia, and I don't think those who were leading that charge were prepared for that," said Phil Smith, United Mine Workers of America spokesman.West Virginia recorded its fifth mining death June 13, surpassing last year's total of three. Nine coal miners have been killed this year nationwide. A record low of eight died in 2016.Smith said western mining states have all but eliminated state inspection programs; Illinois and Alabama have reduced theirs. Virginia requires two annual inspections on underground mines.State officials and industry advocates praise the new Kentucky law, saying it will put inspectors in the mine more frequently but alter their role. Inspectors on analyst visits can still write citations if they see violations.


California Supreme Court upholds cap-and-trade law

Reuters | Posted on July 6, 2017

The California Supreme Court refused to consider a challenge by business groups of the state's cap-and-trade law, a ruling that environmentalists hailed as ending a legal fight that had cast a cloud over the program. The state supreme court did not issue a written opinion on the program itself but declined take up the case on appeal from a lower court. California's program to cap emissions and trade carbon permits is a crucial component of a broader effort to reduce the state's output of heat-trapping greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the end of the decade. The carbon market sets a steadily declining cap on the state's carbon output and then sells or gives permits that businesses are required to submit every three years to the state to cover their emissions.


D.C. federal appeals court blocks Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to suspend Obama-era methane pollution rule

Pittsburgh Post Gazette | Posted on July 6, 2017

A federal appeals court in Washington ruled Monday that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped his authority in trying to delay implementation of a new rule requiring oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce methane leaks.In a split decision — the first major legal setback for Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator — the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the environmental agency to move forward with the Obama-era requirement that aims to reduce planet-warming emissions from oil and gas operations.The ruling signals that President Donald Trump’s plans to erase his predecessor’s environmental record are likely to face an uphill battle in the courts.


After $3 billion spent, Keystone XL can't get oil companies to sign on

Fox Business | Posted on July 6, 2017

Keystone XL is facing a new challenge: The oil producers and refiners the pipeline was originally meant to serve aren't interested in it anymore. Delayed for nearly a decade by protests and regulatory roadblocks, Keystone XL got the green light from President Donald Trump in March. But the pipeline's operator, TransCanada Corp., is struggling to line up customers to ship crude from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, say people familiar with the matter.TransCanada Chief Executive Russ Girling remains committed to completing Keystone XL and believes it will prove profitable in the long term, say two people familiar with his thinking. But it may be years before the company recoups its investment in the pipeline, these people say.TransCanada has spent $3 billion to date on Keystone XL, much of it on steel pipe, land rights and lobbying. Completed, the pipeline would travel 1,700 miles from Alberta to Steele City, Neb., where it would link up with existing pipelines that run to the Gulf Coast.


U.S. Rice Farmers Turn Sustainability into Carbon Credits, with Microsoft as First Buyer

Inside Climate News | Posted on July 6, 2017

Microsoft bought carbon offsets from rice farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi and California who had worked for the better part of the last 10 years to implement conservation measures on their farms. Through a complicated measurement and verification process, these conservation steps ultimately translated to carbon offsets purchased by the software giant. The transaction this month was the first of its kind and, in the complex and controversial world of carbon markets, it represents a milestone for agriculture."Now we know what it takes to do this," said Debbie Reed, director of the Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, a group that works with agricultural producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "It's not symbolic, so much as proof-of-concept."For years, researchers, advocacy groups and private-sector environment-focused investment groups have eyed agriculture's potential contribution in carbon markets to help address climate change. But carbon trading is complex under any circumstances, and particularly so when the entities generating the offsets grow rice or corn or raise cows. Measuring emissions—or, rather, emissions reductions—accurately and consistently from agricultural sources can be more complicated than for wind energy or solar power projects.


Trump vows to ‘unleash’ American energy but unveils only modest new steps

The Washington Post | Posted on July 5, 2017

President Trump vowed to “unleash American energy” on Thursday, pledging to bolster the ailing nuclear industry, open up new offshore areas for drilling, and help seal deals for oil pipelines and coal exports.Riding a wave of shale drilling that doubled the country’s total oil and gas production during the Obama administration, Trump said: “We’re here today to usher in a new American energy policy, one that unlocks millions and millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth.”But energy experts were not impressed with the measures Trump unveiled Thursday, saying they would have little effect.“We’re going to be an exporter,” he said. “We’re going to export energy all around the world, all around the globe.” And he celebrated “near limitless supplies of energy” in the United States, adding: “We are now on the cusp of a true energy revolution.”The United States exports liquefied natural gas (LNG) in tankers, natural gas through pipelines, and petroleum, though it remains a net importer of 4.8 million barrels a day of crude oil and refined petroleum products — about a quarter of total U.S. oil consumption.Trump said his administration would take steps to “to revive and expand our nuclear energy sector,” which he said “produces clean, renewable and emissions-free energy.”He didn’t describe those steps, saying that he awaits a “complete review.” But few expect the administration review to include a carbon tax, a policy that would greatly benefit nuclear energy and simultaneously acknowledge the problem of climate change.


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