{"id":17204,"date":"2014-10-08T16:58:25","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=10672"},"modified":"2014-10-08T16:58:25","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:58:25","slug":"esa-policy-news-october-8-obama-designates-worlds-largest-marine-reserve-science-committee-reviews-nsf-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2014\/10\/08\/esa-policy-news-october-8-obama-designates-worlds-largest-marine-reserve-science-committee-reviews-nsf-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA Policy News October 8: Obama designates world’s largest marine reserve, Science committee reviews NSF grants"},"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

WHITE HOUSE: OBAMA DESIGNATES WORLD\u2019S LARGEST MARINE RESERVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Sept. 25, President Obama signed a proclamation designating the largest marine reserve in the world off-limits to commercial resource extraction including fishing.<\/p>\n

The proclamation expands the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to an area 490,000 square miles, six times its current size and fully protects its deep coral reefs, seamounts, and marine ecosystems which are vulnerable to climate change impacts. The move is in line with the administration\u2019s broader National Ocean Policy and its Climate Action Plan.<\/p>\n

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

HOUSE: SCIENCE COMMITTEE CONTINUES EFFORTS TO REVIEW NSF GRANTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) continues to single out National Science Foundation (NSF) peer-reviewed research projects viewed as frivolous or wasteful.<\/p>\n

Through press releases and direct meetings with NSF officials, the chairman has sought to bring attention to dozens of grants he views as a misuse of taxpayer money. Chairman Smith has also used the legislative process to advance the issue. His bill, H.R. 4186, the Frontiers in Research, Science and Technology (FIRST) Act, includes language requiring the agency to specify how grants funded by the agency serve national economic and security interests.<\/p>\n

The effort has stirred partisan tensions among members of the traditionally bipartisan committee.\u00a0 On Sept. 30, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), issued a letter outlining the unprecedented nature of Chairman Smith\u2019s efforts. The letter is only the most recent instance of written correspondence between the two senior members of the committee over NSF\u2019s merit review process.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to read the Ranking Member Johnson letter.<\/p>\n

EPA: COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED FOR CLEAN WATER RULE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is extending its public comment period until Nov. 14 for its proposed rule clarifying federal jurisdiction of US waterways. This is the second time EPA has extended the rule\u2019s comment period.<\/p>\n

Recent US Supreme Court decisions, including\u00a0Rapanos v. United States<\/em>, have called into question the term \u201cnavigable waterway\u201d as defined under the Clean Water Act. The proposed EPA rule would clarify that narrower water bodies such as streams, wetlands and smaller rivers, are under the law\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Click this\u00a0link<\/a>\u00a0for additional information on the proposed Clean Water rule.<\/p>\n

HOUSE: CAFETERIAS INSTITUTE BAN ON POLYSTYRENE FOOD CONTAINERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The House cafeteria elected to stop serving food in polystyrene food containers following a letter from House Democrats urging a ban on the containers. The National Research Council\u00a0affirmed the listing of styrene<\/a>, the monomer used to create polystyrene packaging, as \u201creasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polystyrene was banned during the four-year period Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) served as Speaker of the House. Its use was reinstituted when republicans gained the House majority after the Nov. 2010-midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to view the House Democrats\u2019 letter.<\/p>\n

FWS: COMMENT PERIOD OPENS FOR PROPOSED BLACK PINESNAKE, FISHER LISTING<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing listing the black pinesnake (Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi<\/em>) and the fisher (Pekania pennanti<\/em>) as \u201cthreatened\u201d under the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n

The black pinesnake found in Mississippi and Alabama suffers from population loss caused by habitat degradation, fire suppression activities, road kills and intentional killing by humans. The West Coast population of the fisher, commonly known as a type of weasel, is threatened from habitat loss, rodent-killing pesticides and wildfires.<\/p>\n

Comments for the pinesnake listing are due by\u00a0Dec. 8, 2014.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Comments of the fisher listing are due by\u00a0Jan. 5, 2015<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to view the Federal Register notice for the black pinesnake.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to view the Federal Register notice for the West Coast fisher population.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/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 WHITE HOUSE: OBAMA DESIGNATES WORLD\u2019S LARGEST MARINE RESERVE On Sept. 25, President Obama signed a proclamation designating the largest marine reserve in the world off-limits to commercial resource extraction including fishing. The proclamation expands the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":10247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,91],"tags":[522,206,63,136,236,703,344,66,598,753],"class_list":["post-17204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","category-policy-news","tag-action-plan","tag-clean-water-act","tag-endangered-species","tag-endangered-species-act","tag-fish-and-wildlife-service","tag-fws","tag-national-research-council","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-public-comment","tag-wetlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17204","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=17204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}