[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”SENATE ISSUES NONBINDING CALL FOR EMISSION CURBS”] After firmly rejecting an energy bill amendment that would set mandatory caps on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Senate agreed to a nonbinding resolution urging Congress to enact such market-based limits. Lawmakers in a 38-60 vote defeated a plan by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT)…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”HOUSE LIMITS FARM BILL CONSERVATION IN USDA BILL”] The House passed a nearly $17 billion fiscal year 2006 agriculture bill, providing over $2 billion for various conservation and environmental programs but still falling millions of dollars short of conservation levels set in the 2002 farm bill. The Senate is expected to take up its farm…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”SENATE PANEL APPROVES ENERGY BILL”] The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the energy bill, voting 21-1 to send the measure to the Senate floor. The bill is now headed for a near-certain floor fight over climate change, renewable energy, fuel efficiency, offshore oil and gas drilling, liquefied natural gas, electricity regulations and ethanol….
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”ESA SCIENTISTS PARTICIPATE IN CONGRESSIONAL VISITS DAY”] ESA scientists from West Virginia and Pennsylvania met with the congressional offices of their Senators and Representatives to emphasize the importance of funding basic research across scientific disciplines. The meetings formed part of Congressional Visits Day, a two-day annual event that brings scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, and technology…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”SENATE CONFIRMS JOHNSON AS HEAD OF EPA”] The Senate confirmed Stephen Johnson on April 29 as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 11th Administrator and the first career staff member to lead the agency. Johnson, the Acting Administrator, won the right to the post when the Senate voted to invoke cloture 61-37 and override a…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”GOP LAWMAKERS LAUNCH REVIEW OF NEPA”] Republicans on the House Resources Committee created a task force to investigate the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — the 35-year-old law that requires detailed assessments of proposed federal projects’ effects on natural resources. The task force’s launch follows years of complaints about the law from…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT ISSUES ‘STARK WARNING’”] Two-thirds of the world’s ecosystems are in danger of collapsing because the human race is living beyond its means, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a newly released United Nations Environment Program report. Backed by 1,360 scientists from around the world, the report warned that without substantial changes in…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”EPA SETS RULES TO CUT POWER PLANT POLLUTION”] The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized new standards requiring sharp reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-fired power plants over the next decade, fulfilling President Bush’s pledge to complete the rule if his proposed Clean Air Act overhaul failed on Capitol Hill. The EPA…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”BUSH PICKS STEPHEN JOHNSON TO HEAD EPA”] President Bush nominated Stephen L. Johnson, the Acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to take over the helm of the agency and promote his administration’s goal of rewriting the nation’s air pollution laws. Bush said that if Johnson is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT REFORM LEGISLATION BEING CRAFTED”] Four prominent Republican legislators from the House and Senate are working together to draft and introduce legislation this year that would revamp the 30-year-old Endangered Species Act. Senate Wildlife Subcommittee Chairman Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA), and Rep. Greg…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”A SNAPSHOT OF THE BUSH BUDGET PROPOSAL”] Cast against a backdrop of a record deficit and continued looming costs of war and national security priorities, President Bush on February 7, 2005 unveiled his budget proposal for fiscal year 2006. Noting close cooperation between the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”‘CLEAR SKIES’ INTRODUCED IN SENATE; HEARINGS HELD”] Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) and Senate EPW Clean Air and Climate Change Subcommittee Chairman George Voinovich (R-OH) reintroduced the Clear Skies bill with only minor technical changes compared with its most recent version from the 108th Congress. But because Clear Skies…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”ESA SCIENTISTS HOLD ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT DIALOGUES WITH HILL STAFF”] A panel of Ecological Society of America member scientists held a series of dialogues with key legislative staff on Endangered Species Act (E.S.A.) reforms likely to surface in the 109th Congress. The panel was made up of Society members Stan Temple from the University of…
[toggles title=”In This Issue”] [toggle title=”ADMINISTRATION OVERHAULS RULES FOR U.S. FORESTS”] The Bush administration has issued broad new rules overhauling the guidelines for managing the nation’s 155 national forests and making it easier for regional forest managers to decide whether to allow logging, drilling or off-road vehicles. The long-awaited rules relax longstanding provisions on environmental reviews and the protection of…