State
Analysis: Detailed state agency budgets available online
The Associated Press
August 30, 2015 at 5:02 PM
JACKSON, Mississippi — For political junkies who can't get enough of the
legislative budgeting process or for average folks just curious about how
much money is being requested by Mississippi government agencies, the
website http://www.lbo.ms.gov is just the ticket.
http://www.gulflive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/08/analysis_detailed_state_agency.html#incart_river
National
Texas has mixed record on environmental cases against EPA
Austin American-Statesmen
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is accusing the Obama administration of
an illegal, green-cloaked plot to "to take over America's electrical grid"
through its newest proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-has-mixed-record-on-environmental-cases-agai/nnTGY/?icmp=statesman_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesmanpremium#4e5c4149.3554830.735840
Obama's Arctic Trip Comes as Climate Change Builds as 2016 Issue
WSJ
President Barack Obama's trip to Alaska's Arctic on Monday likely will
reverberate much farther south, on the 2016 presidential campaign trail,
where global warming is expected to emerge as a key issue.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-arctic-trip-comes-as-climate-change-builds-as-2016-issue-1440963782
Natural gas discovery could be largest ever
CNN
In what could be the largest natural gas discovery in history, Italian
energy company Eni says it has unearthed a "supergiant" gas field in the
Mediterranean Sea covering about 40 square miles.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/30/news/companies/eni-gas-field/index.html
Opinion
We must act now to secure the Gulf's future
Tallahassee Democrat
Last week, a federal-state council created by the RESTORE Act
released its Initial Funded Priorities List as part of the plan to
repair the damage done by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The
money for these initial projects will come from the 2013 settlement
with Transocean, the operator of the rig that caused the Gulf
disaster five years ago.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/opinion/2015/08/28/must-act-now-secure-gulfs-future/71328222/
Natural gas: U.S. producing more than ever
USA Today
The U.S. is producing more natural gas than ever in 2015, despite
low prices that make it increasingly difficult for companies to
spend money on drilling. In fact, the government's Energy
Information Administration forecasts a 5.4% increase in output this
year compared to 2014.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2015/08/30/loveless-gas-production/71320550/
Press Releases
CONCORDE Grant to Study Sub-surface Oil Exposure Pathways
HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) -The following is a news release from The University
of Southern Mississippi
After the Deepwater Horizon incident, the coastline oiling that occurred
raised questions about oil movement and impact. For example, before a
surface slick reached land, was there oil below the surface waters and how
might that affect coastal environments and organisms?
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative recently awarded CONCORDE a grant to
study nearshore currents and circulation flows and their potential role in
creating sub-surface oil exposure pathways.
CONCORDE is the acronym for the CONsortium for oil spill exposure pathways
in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems. Director Monty Graham with the
University of Southern Mississippi shared some thoughts about their
consortium's project that will examine the circulation of particle-rich
waters in river-dominated areas:
"The complex circulation that exists on surface nearshore waters may also
exist underneath the surface, providing oil exposure pathways to organisms
such as plankton and fish and crustacean larvae that live close to shore.
We will analyze the transition area where freshwater from inlets meet salt
water from further off shore."
Their study area includes the bird-foot delta, the part of Louisiana where
the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico, eastward to the
Alabama/Florida border, and southward close to the continental shelf break.
Likening the nearshore environment to a layered cake, Graham said that
waters come into the Gulf from multiple sources, creating below-surface
water masses of varying temperatures and salinities that move like rivers
traveling horizontally at different depths. CONCORDE investigators will
conduct experiments at "unprecedented scales" that will contribute to
high-resolution modeling of these fine-scale variabilities in their coastal
study area. Graham described the centimeter-scale resolution as a defining
niche or distinct aspect of their research that will account for coastal
circulation affected by river input:
"Data collected from shallow water columns are often very "noisy". But,
high biomass and plankton concentrations can be very important at these
scales. If concentrations of plankton are layered with oil-associated
particles, they could be exposure hot spots. To know where those hot spots
are, you have to get into the physics at this extraordinary detail."
The team will investigate the physical, geochemical, and biological
processes from the river to the open Gulf. Analyses of these processes will
improve knowledge about the vertical distribution of sub-surface water flow
that could transport oil and other pollutants into highly productive
coastal waters and estuaries. The group's research will have applications
beyond oil spill science, as Graham explained:
"Understanding coastal river-dominated waters and their complex
circulations will help us learn about larvae movement into and out of the
sound and passes. We'll learn about water exchange nearshore to offshore,
which will help us better understand the physical processes driving
hypoxia, nutrient dynamics, and populations of important natural
resources."
The team will have several data-collection efforts over the next three
years, including the AUV Jubilee held a few weeks ago, a two-vessel
expedition in October, and another expedition next spring.
Chemical tracers will help scientists identify waters that are coming from
the shelf, rivers, and ground water sources. There will be two modeling
components – one to help the team conduct adaptive sampling during field
campaigns and another that will create a four-dimensional synthesis model
to identify potential exposure pathways. This model will be portable to
future spill scenarios impacting similar river-dominated coastal
ecosystems.
The AUV Jubilee was a collaborative data collection event that will help
scientists understand more about variable coastal processes and help
determine the scales at which they need to sample. Autonomous Underwater
Vehicles (AUVs) collected physical data and identified patterns of sediment
and phytoplankton distribution. Other data collection methods included in
situ moorings, surface vehicles, remote sensing, and aerial surveys. Data
collected will be integrated in the National Glider Data Assembly Center.
During the fifteen-day October field campaign, the team will travel in
three main corridors – the Mississippi Sound, Mobile Bay, and east of
Mobile Bay – from nearshore to off shore, capturing different freshwater
outflow magnitudes. Graham described the Deep-focus Plankton Imager (DPI)
that they will use:
This high-resolution laser scans and builds a continuous image as it moves
through the water. We will used it from the shelf to the shore, painting a
picture of the whole water column to understand the horizontal and vertical
variability of microscopic plankton.
CONCORDE's outreach efforts emphasize building public trust in science,
something that Graham explained as being "near and dear to my heart." He
described his experiences during the oil spill in 2010:
"I've always thought that most people considered scientists as trustworthy,
like firemen and policemen. During the oil spill, there was a lot of
skepticism about what was being said. Some people began casting others as
'one of us' or 'one of them.' Some considered scientists using BP research
funds as 'one of them' and did not trust our work. I have made my career as
an unbiased scientist providing research for the good of this region. So
the relationship between the public, science, and trust became a very
interesting and personal issue for me."
The team has planned teacher professional development, interactions with
commercial fishing communities, and public seminars to help build public
trust in science.
There will be a social science component to explore the role of culture,
seeking input from local Vietnamese, Croatian, and African American
communities about their views of science. Then, the team will invite these
communities to engage in the scientific process. Graham described the
reasoning behind their outreach efforts:
"It's unraveling what people think about science and how it can be applied.
We're involving people from local communities in our missions so that the
science resonates with them. By getting instruments in their hands and
engaging them in our activities, hopefully they will find that science is
not mysterious and they can contribute to it. "
Graham anticipates that lessons learned from their outreach will help
scientists be more effective in public interactions the next time an
incident like an oil spill happens:
"We want the public to approach science with a sense of trust. This is
particularly important to communities that work on the coast and rely on
its resources – that they will consider research findings as reliable for
issues such as seafood and beach safety."
The CONCORDE team includes the University of Southern Mississippi (lead
institution), Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory, Mississippi State University,
the Naval Research Laboratory, Old Dominion University, Oregon State
University, and Rutgers University.
For more information about the CONCORDE program and people involved, click
here and visit the CONCORDE website.
Other GoMRI efforts that complement CONCORDE include the Sea Grant Oil
Spill Outreach Program working to make connections and build trust among
coastal residents and industries, as well as the CARTHE Surfzone Coastal
Oil Pathways Experiment in Florida researching complex near coastal
currents.
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent
research program established to study the effect, and the potential
associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public
health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection,
characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic
20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions
to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence
of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be
made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million
financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit
http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.
http://www.wdam.com/story/29920857/concorde-grant-to-study-sub-surface-oil-exposure-pathways
