Geoscience Policy Monthly Review
march 2015
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congress
Senate Energy and Natural Resources holds Arctic Opportunities Hearing
March 5, 2015
On March 5, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to evaluate opportunities for the United States to build on its status as an Arctic nation. Witnesses from the Alaskan State Legislature, the U.S. Navy, the academic community, and the commercial shipping industry gave testimony.
Admiral Robert Papp, Special Representative to the Arctic, highlighted the balance between security and environmental concerns struck by the U.S.’s proposed program for their Arctic Council chairmanship, which will take place from 2015 to 2017. Admiral Papp stated a need for investment in Arctic infrastructure, specifically icebreakers, ships specifically designed to operate in polar, icy conditions. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Angus King (I-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (D-AK) all agreed that icebreakers are vital to support U.S. leadership in the Arctic. Senator Murkowski pointed out that Russia has 29 icebreakers and India is building one while the U.S. has only two. Senator Murkowski stated that she will present a bill that supports better charting, ice forecasting, and creates weather stations and buoys for weather and ice tracking.
Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Cantwell, and King voiced support for U.S. ratification of the Law of the Sea treaty, an international agreement through the United Nations that establishes conventions governing the oceans including a process to recognize the extent of territorial waters and national claims to the continental shelf.
Alaskan representatives expressed concern regarding lack of fossil fuel energy development leading to an under-capacity of the Alaskan Pipeline. Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) both called out the irony of developing resources exposed by climate change that would only increase climate change and its damages.
Sources: United Nations
Updated 4/6/15
House passes two EPA reform bills
March 19, 2015
On March 18, the House passed Representative Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) Secret Science Reform Act of 2015 (H.R.1030). The bill would require all science used in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemaking to be “publicly available online in a manner that is sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results.” Democrats expressed concern over releasing scientific data pertaining to personal health information. They proposed an amendment to the bill to protect the privacy of public health study participants during the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee mark up; however, the amendment did not pass. While the bill is quite similar to H.R. 1422 passed by the House last year, the 2015 version includes an additional clause restricting the EPA to $1 million or less per year to carry out the requirements. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate found the legislation would cost $250 million a year for the EPA to implement, an average of $10,000-$30,000 per study used in the regulatory process. The bill would result in a 50 percent cut to EPA studies, though CBO said costs would likely lessen after the first few years. Democratic members of the House stated the bill would set EPA up for failure and called the bill an attack on the EPA’s ability to use science in forming regulations.
On March 17, the House passed another related bill, Representatives Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Collin Peterson’s (D-MN) EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act (H.R. 1029). This bill adds peer-review requirements for the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) and creates a quota for state and local officials on the panel, as well as allowing corporate interests to serve on the panel after disclosing their financial conflicts of interest. The bill also requires disclosure of the origin of grant money for academics on the SAB.
The White House has threatened to veto the bills, saying H.R. 1029 would be burdensome to the advisory board and H.R. 1030 imposes unnecessary and expensive requirements on the EPA. Two companion bills have been introduced in the Senate, Senator John Barrasso’s (R-WY) Secret Science Reform Act of 2015 (S. 544) and Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2015 (S. 543). Both bills are currently under review in the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Sources: Congress, E&E News
NOAA weather bill passes House Science, Space, and Technology Committee
March 25, 2015
On March 25, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee passed the Weather Research and Forecast Innovation Act of 2015 (H.R. 1561), which is similar to H.R. 2413 that passed in the House but not the Senate last year. The legislation authorizes $90.8 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) for weather laboratories and cooperative institutes as well as weather and air chemistry research programs that will support the bill requirements. The bill passed the committee with a few minor amendments, including changing a title from “warning improvement” to “forecast improvement” to prevent duplicative language and adding language emphasizing NOAA coordination with private and nonprofit sector emergency personnel as well as with federal, state, and tribal emergency personnel.
The bill urges NOAA to prioritize weather-related activities and directs OAR to focus on improving forecasting abilities in order to offer greater support to the National Weather Service (NWS). While the bill would continue the prohibition on NOAA commercializing its weather data, it authorizes NOAA to buy up to $9 million in weather data from other sources. The bill also allows NOAA to transport and load its instruments on private spacecraft.
Source: Congress, E&E News