On February 14, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Amazon Services LLC (Amazon) entered into a Consent Agreement and Final Order (CAFO) whereby Amazon agreed to pay $1,215,700 in civil penalties for approximately four thousand alleged violations under Section 3 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) for the distribution of unregistered pesticide products. Amazon neither admitted nor denied the specific factual allegations, which...
Category: General
February 16, 2018
DOE Announces Release Of Peer Review Report
By Kathleen M. Roberts On February 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced the release of its 2017 Project Peer Review Report. The report contains recommendations provided during the March 2017 Project Peer Review. The biennial Peer Review process aims to gather feedback and recommendations from stakeholders on BETO’s research and development portfolio to help BETO identify the most efficient and effective ways to...
February 16, 2018
Congress Approves U.S. Blender’s Credit For 2017
By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. As explained in the notice issued by Neste, a member of the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG®), with President Trump’s signing of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (H.R. 1892), the blenders tax credit was extended retroactively for 2017. Qualified biofuel blenders are eligible for a tax credit of $1.00 per gallon of biodiesel or renewable diesel used in the blending process in 2017. The blenders tax credit was one of...
On February 12, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it has reached an agreement with Syngenta Seeds, LLC (Syngenta), a pesticide company in Hawaii, to resolve alleged violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) at its farm in Kekaha, Kauai. The settlement includes two penalty components: a $400,000 Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) for worker protection standard (WPS) training; and $150,000 as a civil penalty....
February 13, 2018
French NGO Claims Many Manufacturers Fail to Comply with Nano Labeling Requirement
UFC-Que Choisir, a French non-governmental organization (NGO), announced on January 23, 2018, that it filed complaints against nine manufacturers of food and cosmetic products for failure to comply with the requirement to report the presence of nanomaterials on the product label. UFC-Que Choisir states that its analysis covered 20 consumer products (seven food products, nine cosmetics, and four drugs) and targeted titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, iron oxide, zinc oxide, and carbon black. ...
The American Law Institute (ALI) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) presented “Environmental Law 2018,” a two day course for lawyers and environmental professionals covering key developments in our natural resources, climate, chemical, and endangered species law, as well as what is ahead from the Supreme Court and under the current Administration and Congress. Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner of Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), presented “TSCA, FIFRA, and Chemical...
On February 8, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is releasing a third alternative approach for assigning and applying unique identifiers (UID) to reconcile the competing requirements of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 14(g) for comment. 83 Fed. Reg. 5623. EPA’s first and second alternative approaches were released for comment in its notice on May 8, 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 21386). Under amended TSCA, EPA is required to develop...
February 9, 2018
Weekly Roundup of Other Biobased News
Business Insider, “U.S. EPA Hopes To Decide Soon On Ethanol Waiver: Administrator” Qantas, “World First US-Australia Biofuel Flight Takes Off” Centre for Process Innovation, “New Pilot Plant Converts Used Cooking Oil Into Biodiesel” University of Illinois, “New Study Shows Producers Where And How To Grow Cellulosic Biofuel Crops”
By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On January 25, 2018, Alberta Innovates announced the launch of the Bio-Resource Information Management System (BRIMS), which was developed in conjunction with Silvacom Ltd. BRIMS is a publicly available data and information management system that collates inventories from forestry, agriculture, and municipality sectors to create a centralized, comprehensive spatial warehouse of biomass, ecosystem services, and land-use data. Silvacom and Alberta...
February 9, 2018
Neste Renewable Fuels Reduces GHG Emissions By 8.3 Million Tons
By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On February 5, 2018, Neste, a member of BRAG, announced that the use of its renewable fuels in place of fossil fuels resulted in a reduction of 8.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The significant emission reduction is primarily attributed to Neste’s MY Renewable Diesel and Neste's increased production volumes at its three renewables-producing refineries. The reduction was calculated by comparing the lifecycle GHG...