The first day of trading in what will be by far the largest carbon market in China started briskly. The first trade on the China Emissions Exchange in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, was priced at 61 renminbi, or about $10, with the cement firm Hailuo buying 20,000 carbon permits from the new energy arm of the state-owned power producer Huadian Energy. Early trade volume in Guangdong’s carbon permit market is expected to be the world’s second largest in terms of carbon dioxide covered.
Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy, will spend an estimated $6.5 million to restore 27 sites damaged by unauthorized discharges of fill material into streams and wetlands and to implement a comprehensive plan to comply with federal and state water protection laws at the company’s natural gas extraction sites in West Virginia, many of which involve hydraulic fracturing operations. The company will also pay a civil penalty of $3.2 million, one of the largest ever levied by the federal government for violations of the Clean Water Act, according to the EPA.
EPA announced that AL Solutions, a West Virginia-based metal recycler, has agreed to implement extensive, company-wide safeguards to prevent future accidental releases of hazardous chemicals from its facilities, resolving alleged Clean Air Act violations stemming from an explosion at the company’s New Cumberland, W. Va., facility that killed three people.
The City of West Haven, Conn. will significantly reduce illegal discharges of raw sewage from the city's wastewater collection system. The agreement is between the EPA, the Department of Justice, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, and the City of West Haven. Under terms of the settlement, the city will reduce illegal raw sewage overflows from their wastewater collection system, which previously has been discharged to area waterways including New Haven Harbor and the Long Island Sound, in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. The city will also pay a fine of $125,000.
EPA awarded over $2.2 million in Diesel Emission Reduction Act grants to partners along the West Coast and Pacific Island Territories. The 14 grants are administered through the West Coast Collaborative, an EPA Region 9 and Region 10 public-private partnership aimed at reducing diesel emissions and leveraging an additional $6 million from public, private and nonprofit partners.
Separate settlements were reached by the EPA with two companies to resolve alleged violations of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act in Sandusky County, Ohio. Palmer Brothers failed to provide state and local authorities with required information about hazardous materials such as slag, cement and calcium chloride at the company’s Fremont facility. The firm agreed to pay a $12,574 administrative penalty and to spend more than $60,000 to reduce blowing dust (particulate matter) by nine tons annually. Revere Plastics failed to report releases of decabromodiphenyl oxide and antimony compounds that occurred from 2007 - 2010 at the company’s facility in Clyde. Revere agreed to pay a $118,750 administrative penalty.
Harbor Fuel, a facility that stores large amounts of fuel on Nantucket, has improved the facility’s oil spill prevention techniques and will acquire an emergency response spill trailer and other equipment/supplies that will help protect Nantucket’s unique and vulnerable environment from oil spills, under the terms of a settlement with EPA for allegedly failing to adequately prepare for potential oil spills at the facility as required by federal law.
The Interior Department is soliciting grant proposals from Indian tribes for projects to build tribal capacity for energy resource development under the Department's Tribal Energy Development Capacity grant program. Congress appropriates funds on a year-to-year basis for grants to Indian tribes for use in assessing, developing, and obtaining the managerial and technical capacity needed to develop energy resources on Indian land and properly account for energy resource production and revenues.
