This May, the White House nominated Rick Spinrad to serve as Chief Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

On May 2, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced a proposal to strengthen the agency’s management direction for groundwater resources and other best management practices.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) provided notice of its plans to develop rules to control methane releases from mining operations on public lands in the April 29 edition of the Federal Register.

On April 18, the U.S. Department of State issued a notice granting more time for intra-agency review of the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on April 14 suggesting that delays in issuing yearly federal renewable fuel standards (RFS) leads to increased regulatory uncertainty and compliance costs for petroleum refiners.

On April 24, the National Science Board (NSB) released a press statement responding to the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act (H.R. 4186).

On March 26, President Obama met with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso at the EU-U.S. Summit in Brussels to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and Europe’s economic security with regard to recent events in Ukraine.

On March 20, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director John Holdren issued a memorandum requiring that federal scientific agencies create a draft scientific-collections management and public access policy.

On March 19, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) accepted the U.S. as a Candidate country to their global transparency standard for improving governance of natural resources.