Government Update
by Henry M. Wise, P.G. and Arlin Howles, P.G.
If you’d like the most up-to-date Texas rules, regulations, and governmental meeting information we direct you to the HGS website to review The Wise Report. This report, which comes out as needed, but not more often than once a week, offers the most up-to-date information that may be of interest to Texas geologists.
AGI Government Affairs Monthly Review (December 2012) Coast Guard and Defense Reauthorization Bills Passed in December
Congress sent the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-213) and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (H.R. 4310) to the President’s desk in December, 2012. The Coast Guard reauthorization act had passed the House in November, 2011 but was stuck in the Senate over disagreements on funding and the fate of the Polar Sea icebreaker. The defense authorization act authorizes $552.21 billion for defense programs and includes provisions related to rare earth materials.
The Coast Guard reauthorization act will require a business- case analysis for reactivating the Polar Sea icebreaker and temporarily prohibit its dismantling. The same day the bill was presented to the President for his signature, the Coast Guard reactivated its other heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, after a $56 million refurbishing in Seattle, Washington.
The reauthorization extends for one year an existing moratorium that prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and any state from issuing a requirement for vessels that are smaller than 79 feet to obtain permits for discharging engine fluids or certain wastewater.
The final defense authorization act was the product of a conference committee. The conferees stripped out a provision added in the Senate bill by Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Dean Heller (R-NV), and Jim Risch (R-ID) to make it official US policy to promote the domestic supply and production of materials necessary for economic growth and defense needs. They also stripped out a provision added by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) which would have required the Pentagon to prepare a report on the feasibility of recycling rare earth elements from fluorescent light bulbs. While the final version of the bill did not contain Casey’s original language, the conferees did ask for a similar report to be submitted to the House and Senate Armed Services committees. The conferees required the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for manufacturing and industrial base policy to “provide relevant policy guidance and oversight of matters that pertain to ensuring reliable resource availability of materials critical to national security.”
Senator Barbara Boxer to Begin Climate Change Caucus in 113th Congress
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced on December 11, 2012 that she intended to create a congressional caucus to address climate change.
Senator Boxer is the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and has been a long time advocate for action on climate change. In 2009, Boxer and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) that would create a cap and trade system to address greenhouse gas emissions, but the bill did not pass the Senate.
EPA and NOAA Administrators will Step Down in Early 2013
In December, 2012, Administrator Jane Lubchenco of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced their resignations. Lubchenco and Jackson have served as administrators of their agencies since their Senate confirmations in early 2009.
Lubchenco, who will step down in February, 2013, will return to the faculty of Oregon State University where she began teaching in 1977. Her resignation comes at a time when NOAA is experiencing shrinking budgets at the same time as ballooning costs for several satellites. NOAA is facing the possibility of a weather data gap due to the expected delays between the launch of the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) and the limited lifespan of the currently operating Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) satellite.
Jackson, who will resign after the President’s State of the Union speech, has not announced her plans after leaving the EPA. Major accomplishments during Jackson’s tenure include the first greenhouse gas regulations, new vehicle fuel economy standards, new air standards for industrial boilers, incinerators, and cement kilns.
NOAA Releases Sixth Annual Arctic Report Card
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its sixth annual “Arctic report card.” The “report card” tracks observations throughout the Arctic in the atmosphere, sea ice and ocean, the terrestrial cryosphere, and marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The report finds that even though the Arctic experienced a relatively “unremarkable year” for surface air temperatures, numerous record-breaking melting events occurred.
The report notes that record low snow extent occurred in June and record low sea ice extent occurred in September. NOAA reports the longest observed yet duration of melting on the Greenland ice sheet and that a rare, nearly ice sheet- wide melt event occurred in July. Below the tundra, record high permafrost temperatures were measured in northernmost Alaska in 2012.
Key Reports and Publications
***National Academy of Sciences (NAS)***
Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security
Though scientific evidence has shown that glaciers in South Asia’s Hindu Kush mountain range are retreating, the consequences for the region’s water supply are unclear, according to this report. The Hindu Kush mountain range’s river systems provide water for drinking, irrigation, and other uses for about 1.5 billion people. Glacial retreat could significantly impact regional water supplies. This report makes recommendations and sets guidelines for the future of climate change and water security in the Himalayan region.
***Government Accountability Office (GAO)***
Mineral Resources: Mineral Volume, Value, and Revenue
Congress asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review minerals extracted from federal lands and to provide information on the volume and dollar value of leasable minerals in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, amount the federal government collected for leasable minerals in royalties, rents, bonuses, and other revenue and how this amount was calculated, and availability of data on the volume and dollar value of hardrock minerals extracted from federal lands in fiscal years 2010 and 2011. Leasable minerals, including oil, gas, and coal, are available through leases requiring payment to the federal government and royalties are paid based on the value of the minerals extracted. Hardrock minerals are governed by the General Mining Act of 1872, which makes these minerals available to operators through a federal claim-patent system that provides the right to explore, extract, and develop the federal mineral deposit without having to pay a royalty.
GAO found that there were nearly 70 different types of leasable minerals extracted from federal lands and waters in FY2010- 2011 though their volume cannot be calculated because they use different units of measure. According to the Office of Natural Resource Revenue (ONRR), a new agency within the Department of the Interior (DOI) created after the breakup of the former Minerals Management Service, the total value of all leasable minerals extracted from federal lands and sold in FY 2010 and FY 2011 was $92.3 billion and $98.6 billion, respectively. The resulting revenue to the federal government from mineral leasing was $11.3 billion in FY 2010 and $11.4 billion in FY 2011.
GAO found that federal agencies do not generally collect data on the amount and value of hardrock minerals extracted from federal lands because there is no federal royalty that would necessitate doing so. DOI is working to implement an international initiative to promote openness and accountability in the oil, gas, and mining sectors called the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
James Webb Space Telescope: Actions Needed to Improve Cost Estimate and Oversight of Test and Integration
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) most expensive science projects and once deployed will be capable of detecting the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe. JWST’s instruments will work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range. NASA has spent significantly more money and time on the project than previously planned.
This report was requested by the conferees of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012 and assesses the extent to which NASA’s revised cost and schedule estimates are reliable based on best practices, the major risks and technological challenges JWST faces, and the extent to which NASA has improved oversight of JWST.