{"id":10908,"date":"2015-01-28T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=10908"},"modified":"2015-01-28T17:21:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:21:00","slug":"esa-policy-news-01-28-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2015\/01\/28\/esa-policy-news-01-28-15\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA Policy News January 28: State of the Union, Senate votes on climate science, NMFS releases climate strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read the full Policy News\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

STATE OF THE UNION: OBAMA URGES ACTION ON CLIMATE, EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the wake of a mid-term election with considerably low voter turnout, President Obama\u2019s 2015 State of the Union address focused on issues that energized various Democratic constituencies. Central topics included income and gender inequality, educational opportunity and climate change.<\/p>\n

The president directly responded to the \u201cI\u2019m not a scientist\u201d refrain used by climate skeptics, saying \u201cWell, I\u2019m not a scientist, either.\u00a0But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities.\u00a0 And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we don\u2019t act forcefully, we\u2019ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Obama asked Congress to close tax loopholes and use the added revenue to help families pay for college as well as investing in infrastructure and research. The president also mentioned his plan to expand access to community college and called on Congress to pass legislation to reduce student debt.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to read the full State of the Union address. Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for more information on the president\u2019s community college proposal.<\/p>\n

HOUSE: SCIENCE COMMITTEE APPROVES NEW OVERSIGHT, SUBPOENA RULES<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan. 27, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee held a business meeting to adopt its rules and oversight plan for the 114th\u00a0Congress. The normally routine meeting became contentious as members adopted new rules that minority members cited as unprecedented.<\/p>\n

At issue were rules that allowed the chairman to issue unilateral subpoenas and shorten the notice time required before committee votes. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) stated the rule changes were necessary because the Obama administration has been slow to respond to information requests.<\/p>\n

Reciting several historical events where the committee exercised its investigative authority\u2014including the deadly Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters\u2014 Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) noted the chairmen at the time did not take action that suppressed the rights of members of either party who did not agree with him.<\/p>\n

The rules were approved along partisan lines. Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to view the full hearing.<\/p>\n

SENATE: LAWMAKERS AGREE CLIMATE IS CHANGING, DISPUTE HUMAN CONTRIBUTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the Senate debated a bill to expedite approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Democratic lawmakers sought votes to put their Republican colleagues on record regarding climate science.<\/p>\n

Senators adopted an amendment by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) by a vote of 98\u20131 that climate change is real and not a hoax. The lone Senator who voted against the amendment was Roger Wicker (R-MS).<\/p>\n

However, a second amendment by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), affirming \u201chuman activity significantly contributes to climate change\u201d fell short of the 60 votes it needed to win approval. The amendment failed largely along party lines by a vote of 50\u201349.<\/p>\n

Fifteen Republicans voted for a similar amendment that omitted the word \u201csignificantly\u201d offered by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) affirming that humans contribute to climate change.\u201d Joining the five Republicans who supported the Schatz amendment were Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Dean Heller (R-NV), John McCain (R-AZ), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mike Rounds (R-SD) Pat Toomey (R-PA). The amendment failed, supported by 59 Senators.<\/p>\n

INTERIOR: OBAMA TO PROTECT ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE FROM DRILLING<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan. 25, the Department of Interior announced a plan to protect 12.28 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas development.<\/p>\n

The administration would designate the selected area as \u201cwilderness,\u201d the highest level of protection available to federal lands. Only seven million acres of the refuge enjoy the wilderness designation. A permanent designation must be approved by Congress as a future administration could unilaterally rescind the administration\u2019s action in the interim.<\/p>\n

The expanded area would also encompass 1.5 million acres of the refuge\u2019s oil-rich fragile coastal plain, spurring the ire of businesses and Republican lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to view the full announcement.<\/p>\n

USGS: STUDY FINDS CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER IN ONE OUT OF FIVE WELLS<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new report from the United States Geological Survey found geologic and man-made contaminants that pose a threat to human health in one out of every five drinking water wells in the US.<\/p>\n

The study states that most were from geologic sources, including arsenic, manganese, radon, and uranium. Nitrate was the only man-made pollutant found at levels that pose a human-health risk in more than one percent of wells.<\/p>\n

The study noted that water irrigation activities can release natural and man-made contaminants into drinking water sources. Besides affecting private untreated drinking wells, groundwater contaminants can also affect streams and lakes, coastal waters and the aquatic ecosystems they encompass.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to view the report.<\/p>\n

FOREST SERVICE: FINAL RULE ISSUED ON SNOWMOBILE USE<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan. 27, The US Forest Service released the final policy rule for managing snowmobile and other \u201cover-snow\u201d vehicle use on national forests and grasslands as directed by a 2013 court order. Forty percent of national forests post rules for snowmobile use at heavily used areas, such as in ski areas.<\/p>\n

This new rule requires all national forest and grassland Forest Service managers to work with local communities to identify roads and trails for snowmobile use while also protecting water, soil and wildlife.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for additional information.<\/p>\n

NOAA: FISHERIES SERVICE RELEASES NEW CLIMATE STRATEGY<\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced a draft five-year plan for addressing climate change.<\/p>\n

The draft strategy is part of NMFS\u2019s \u201cproactive approach to collect and provide information on changing climate and ocean conditions to resource managers and affected sectors.\u201d The strategy seeks to address challenges that include rising sea levels, ocean warming and acidification. Key objectives of the strategy include building and maintaining the necessary \u201cscience infrastructure\u201d to fulfill agency mandates amid changing climate conditions and identifying and tracking marine ecosystem changes.<\/p>\n

Public comments on the strategy are due\u00a0Mar. 31, 2015.\u00a0Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for additional information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read the full Policy News\u00a0here.\u00a0 STATE OF THE UNION: OBAMA URGES ACTION ON CLIMATE, EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY In the wake of a mid-term election with considerably low voter turnout, President Obama\u2019s 2015 State of the Union address focused on issues that energized various Democratic constituencies. Central…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":10762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,91],"tags":[699,60,1086,134,1045,35,137,465,962,1146,1262,273,138,22],"class_list":["post-10908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","category-policy-news","tag-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-science","tag-congress","tag-drinking-water","tag-fisheries","tag-forest-service","tag-groundwater","tag-natural-resources","tag-snow","tag-united-states-geological-survey","tag-us-forest-service","tag-usgs","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}