Tuesday, June 10, 2014

WIMS Environmental HotSheet 6/10/14

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National / International News

 

<> FACT SHEET: Supporting Western Governors As They Deal with Wildfire, Drought, and Other Climate Impacts - President Obama is committed to ensuring that his Administration is doing everything it can to help the farmers, ranchers, small businesses, and communities being impacted by wildfires, droughts, and other impacts of our. . .

<> USDA Releases State by State Impacts of Limited Wildfire Suppression In Recent Years - The U.S. Department of Agriculture released information showing how limited federal firefighting budgets have impacted states over the last two fiscal years (FYs 2012 and 2013).

<> WV AG Calls CO2 Proposed Rule legally flawed; urges the EPA to immediately withdraw - West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey sent a detailed letter to U.S. EPA outlining numerous and very specific legal objections to its plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions for existing power plants.

<> FDA and EPA issue draft updated advice for fish consumption - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued updated draft advice on. . .

<> C2ES examines options for a felexible, ambitious climate agreement - The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) new report examining options for the new international climate change agreement due next year in Paris: "Building Flexibility and Ambition into a 2015 Climate Agreement"

<> USDA Announces Funding Availability for Biomass Crops for Energy - WASHINGTON, June 9, 2014 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin accepting applications June 16 from energy facilities interested in receiving. . .

<> Power sector CO2 emissions sensitive to policy changes and natural gas supply - U.S. Energy Information Administration indicates that in 2012, almost 40% of total energy-related CO2 emissions resulted from electricity generation. About three-fourths of those power sector emissions occurred from burning coal. . .

<> Algal Biofuels Consortium Releases Groundbreaking Research Results - DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office webinar on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

<> Senators Release GAO Report Showing Legal Concerns Deals with Uranium Enriching Company - GAO report finds shuttered USEC facility received hundreds of millions worth of uranium while ignoring laws and losing taxpayer money

<> Energy Department Announces New Energy Efficiency Financing Publication Available through SEE Action Network - June 9, 2014. The State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network (SEE Action)

<> NASA Announces Briefing on New Mission to Track Global Carbon Dioxide - NASA will hold a media briefing at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 12, at the NASA Headquarters James E. Webb Auditorium in Washington to discuss the upcoming Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission.

<> NREL Finds Up to 6-cent per Kilowatt-Hour Extra Value with Concentrated Solar Power - Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) projects would add additional value of 5 or 6 cents per kilowatt hour to utility-scale solar energy in California where 33 percent renewables will be mandated in six years, a new report. . .

<> GAO-14-374, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education: Assessing the Relationship between Education and the Workforce, May 08, 2014 - What GAO Found Both the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees awarded and the number of jobs in STEM fields increased in recent years. The number of degrees awarded in STEM fields. . .

<> U.S. Senator Landrieu Bashes New Clean Air Act Protections While Visiting the Largest Source of Illegal Air Pollution in Louisiana - Devin Martin, with Sierra Club in Louisiana

 

U.S. Appeals Court Environmental Decisions

 

<> CTS Corp. v. Waldburger - 6/9/14. In the the U.S. Supreme Court, Docket No. 13-339. Appealed from the Fourth Circuit. The issue involved is whether the Fourth Circuit correctly interpreted the preemption provision of CERCLA to apply to state statutes of repose in addition to state statutes of limitations. In a complicated split decision the High Court ruled in part, "A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that §9658 does pre-empt statutes of repose. That holding was in error, and, for the reasons that follow, the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be reversed."

 

Federal Register Highlights 

The following is an alert of Environmental Federal Register announcements that may be of interest for: Tuesday, June 10, 2014.  (Click here to access today's complete Federal Register index with links to complete announcements).

 

1. Nothing We're Tracking Today (click for the complete Energy & EPA announcements)