PRUITT AMENDS SAFETY RULES
WASHINGTON» Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt moved Thursday to rescind a series of safety measures proposed for chemical plants nationwide after a deadly blast at a Texas fertilizer plant.
Pruitt signed a significantly revised slate of rules from the Obama era on safety and risk management at 12,500 U.S. facilities, including chemical plants and refineries. A chemical manufacturing group welcomed the changes, while spokesman Alex Formuzis of the Environmental Working Group called them a “hollowing out” of the original safety upgrades.
The rules were prompted by a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, that killed 15 people. The blast ripped open a 90foot-wide crater and hurled debris for miles.
Pruitt’s changes eliminate several of the original requirements concerning safety training, accident prevention and accident investigations.
Church with $2,000 in gas driller’s stock wins methane vote.
A church with a minuscule stake in Range Resources has won shareholder approval of a resolution to force Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas driller to produce a report on its effort to scale back methane emissions.
The Unitarian Universalist Association, which owns Range stock valued at about $2,000, sought to force the energy giant to produce a report that “reviews the company’s policies, actions and plans related to methane emissions management.”
Range’s board opposed the measure, saying the Fort Worth, Texas-based company already discloses that information to stockholders as well as to federal and state environmental regulators. A board statement that urged shareholders to reject the proposal archly noted that it was “submitted on behalf of a stockholder who holds 130 shares.”
U.S. average mortgage rates at seven-year highs. WASHINGTON»
Long-term U.S. mortgage rates jumped this week, marking their highest levels in seven years amid the peak home buying season.
The benchmark 30year rate pushed toward the significant 5 percent level. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was 4.61 percent, up from 4.55 percent last week. The new average rate was the highest since May 19, 2011. By contrast, the 30-year rate averaged 4.02 percent a year ago.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans climbed to 4.08 percent from 4.01 percent last week.
Website flaw exposes real-time locations of U.S. cellphones.
A security researcher says a website flaw at a U.S. company could have allowed anyone to pinpoint the location of nearly any cellphone in the United States.
The lapse at LocationSmart, a company that gathers real-time data on cellular wireless devices, is the latest to highlight how little protection consumers have from trafficking in data about their location. LocationSmart says it has access to data on 95 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers.
Carnegie Mellon researcher Robert Xiao says LocationSmart took the flawed webpage offline Thursday, a day after he discovered the flaw and notified the company. LocationSmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment.