Bills Introduced – 07-14-15

There were 32 bills introduced in the House and Senate yesterday. Only two of those may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 3049 Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes. Rep. Aderholt, Robert B. [R-AL-4]

S 1763 A bill to require a study on the public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke, and for other purposes. Sen. Durbin, Richard [D-IL]

With the recent work of Billy Rios on cybersecurity in medical devices, I thought I would watch this spending bill (and more importantly the Committee Report) for indications that Congress has been paying attention. Don’t hold your breath.

S 1763 will probably be a companion bill to HR 2636, in any case it is almost certainly part of the limited congressional interest in this topic.

HR 2636 Introduced – Petroleum Coke

Last week Rep. Kelly (D,IL) introduced HR 2636, the Petroleum Coke Transparency and Public Health Protection Act. This bill would require a health and safety study of petroleum coke, a solid byproduct of the refining of heavy crude oil, and the subsequent development of regulations. This bill is related to HR 2298 and S 1388 introduced (and died) in the 113^th Congress.

In my earlier post on HR 2298 I had a fairly lengthy discussion about the issues surrounding petroleum coke. At that time this was mainly a Detroit, MI related issue, but the rise of petroleum coke piles on the Southside of Chicago have expanded the areas (and number of people) concerned about this issue. The EPA has taken some actions with regard to the dust issue in Chicago.

This version of the bill would require much the same type of study mentioned in the earlier bills and would require the results of the study to be posted on the HHS web site. Where this bill is different, however, it that it requires in §4 that the EPA would develop “rules concerning the storage and transportation of petroleum coke that ensure the protection of public and ecological health based upon the findings of the study”.

Moving Forward

Rep. Kelly is not on the Energy and Commerce Committee so it is unlikely that she has the pull to get that Committee to consider this bill. Since petroleum coke is a byproduct of heavy crude (read Canadian Tar Sands) refining there is likely to be serious Republican opposition to this bill based upon the appearance that it is an attack on the Keystone Pipeline.

Normally we might have seen this offered as an amendment to the LHHSE spending bill, but the inclusion of §4 would preclude that due to the House rules against legislating in a spending bill. Without that provision it might be successfully offered and passed.

S 1388 Introduced – Petroleum Coke Study

As I noted in an earlier post, Sen. Levin (D,MI) introduced S 1388, the Petroleum Coke Transparency and Public Health Study Act. This is not, as I suggested earlier, a companion bill to HR 2298. The general topic is the same, an HHS study about petroleum coke, but the tone and mandate are slightly different.

While the House bill requires an HHS study be published in 90 days on the “public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke” {§3}, the Senate bill is slightly more expansive, requiring:

• An analysis of the public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke {§3(a)(1)};

• An assessment of potential approaches and best practices for storing, transporting, and managing petroleum coke{§3(a)(2)}; and

• A quantitative analysis of current and projected domestic petroleum coke production and utilization locations{§3(a)(3)}.

There is also a requirement to use the “best available science” and to solicit “readily available information from appropriate State agencies, nonprofit entities, academic entities, and industry” {§3(b)}. It also provides the Secretary 180 days to submit the study results to Congress.

Section 4 of the Senate bill is slightly narrower in focus than the House bill. Where HR 2298 required the establishment of an HHS web site that included all of the available “federally conducted research related to the public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke”, the Senate bill only requires the publication of this new study on an HHS web site.

The Senate bill has a slight chance of making it to the floor for consideration and because of its more moderate tone might get enough votes to overcome the opposition of proponents of the Keystone Pipeline. If it does get through the Senate, the Republican leadership will never bring this bill to the floor because they would consider it an attack on that pipeline project.

HR 2298 Introduced – Chemical Safety

As I reported earlier Rep. Peters (D,MI) introduced HR 2298, the Petroleum Coke Transparency and Public Health Study Act. This bill would require a federal government “study on the public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke”.

Petroleum Coke

According to Wikipedia petroleum coke (or petcoke) is a solid byproduct of the oil refining process that can be used as either a fuel (in lieu of coal) or as an electrical anode in the production of aluminum or steel. Since petcoke is nearly pure carbon, when it is burned as a fuel it produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, roughly comparable to the amounts produced by various grades of coal.

There is currently a large supply of petcoke accumulating in Detroit, MI. It is being produced by the Marathon refinery from its processing of bitumen from the Alberta oil sands. Since the EPA is not currently allowing the burning of petcoke in coal fired power plants (according to Wikipedia), a large supply is accumulating in the Detroit area pending shipment to China and South America for use a fuel there.

In March 2000 the American Petroleum Institute submitted a test plan for petcoke to the EPA under the High Production Volume Challenge where industry has tests conducted on health and environmental effects of HPV chemicals. In December of that year the API responded to public comments on its test plan, justifying the additional testing that it planned on completing over and above what was considered necessary by the EPA and public commenters. The results of those tests were published in 2009.

90-day Study

Section 3 of this bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Administrator of the EPA, to “transmit to Congress the results of a study regarding the public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke” within 90 days of the passage of this bill. The only kind of scientific study that can be conducted within that time frame is a literature review.

Section 4 of the bill would require the Secretary to establish a web site where “the results of all federally conducted research related to the public health and environmental impacts of the production, transportation, storage, and use of petroleum coke” would be posted.

Moving Forward

It seems obvious that this bill, introduced by 5 Democratic members of the Michigan congressional delegation, was designed as a face saving measure to allow them to respond to the unsightly accumulation large piles in Detroit of this byproduct of the petroleum refinery process.

This bill has zero chance of being considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee given the Chairman’s vociferous support for the Keystone XL pipeline which is directly challenged in the Congressional Findings {§2(2)} portion of this bill. This is a good example of a piece of legislation that was designed for the local press and not the floor of Congress.