State
Giant rural brush fire now under control
WLBT
JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -Acres of trees and forest went up in flames Tuesday near Edwards in rural Hinds County. The fire was brought under control before nightfall but only after crews worked for hours to contain it.
http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/33585805/giant-rural-brush-fire-now-under-control
Pearl River County now under a burn ban
Picayune Item
It’s been close to two months without significant rainfall in this area, prompting the local Emergency Management office to issue a burn ban.
http://www.picayuneitem.com/2016/11/pearl-river-county-now-under-a-burn-ban/
It’s been 54 years and the harvest is promising, oystermen say
Sun Herald
OCEAN SPRINGS
Early reports from the Shearwater oyster reef were positive as 45 boats filled with oystermen tonged the water early Tuesday morning.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/jackson-county/article111775967.html
MCC eclipses $2 million in energy savings program
Meridian Star
Meridian Community College recently reached a major milestone in its energy conservation efforts, eclipsing the $2 million mark in cost savings, according to Scott Elliott, MCC president.
Regional
EPA proposes the Baton Rouge area be declared in compliance with ozone standards
The Advocate
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ready to declare the Baton Rouge area in compliance with federal ozone standards, the agency announced Tuesday, an achievement for the area's decades-long effort to hit tightening federal pollution targets.
Oil and Water: Video Catches Supervisors Dumping Oil in Gulf
WWL
HOUSTON — Evan Howington held his cellphone furtively in his lap and hit "record" on the video camera. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing, but he also couldn’t let his supervisors on the Uncle John oil rig see the shock on his face or the camera app activated on his phone.
Oil and Water: Whistleblower Says Feds Dropped the Ball
WWL
When Evan Howington and his attorney came to New Orleans in mid-2014 to meet with some government agents, they were armed with some of the most damning evidence imaginable of environmental crimes in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf of Mexico home to deadly ‘jacuzzi of despair’
Sun Herald
Scientists say they have found a lake at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but it may not be a conducive environment for most lifeforms.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/article111801067.html
How much will gas prices rise in the South?
AP
HELENA, Ala. (AP) — A deadly explosion that sparked a geyser of fire has shut down a vital pipeline supplying gasoline to millions of people across the Southeast, raising fears of another round of gas shortages and price increases after the pipeline’s second accident and shutdown in two months.
http://www.oxfordeagle.com/2016/11/01/how-much-will-gas-prices-rise-in-the-south/
National
Challengers say Obama water rule ‘destroys’ federal-state balance
The Hill
Groups opposing the Obama administration’s Clean Water Rule are charging in court briefs that the regulation is a massive and illegal power grab by the federal government to claim states’ authority.
Oil industry warns of late Obama regulation push
The Hill
The top oil and natural gas lobbying group on Tuesday warned the Obama administration to not over-regulate the industry on its way out of office next year.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/303779-oil-industry-warns-of-late-obama-regulation-push
EPA: Coal job loss analysis could take over two years
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could take more than two years to even plan for a court-mandated report on the job losses that its regulations have caused in coal and other industries.
House Republicans question VW settlement
The Hill
Two Republicans are probing the settlement agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Volkswagen in the wake of the automaker’s emissions scandal.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/303816-house-republicans-question-vw-settlement
Obama says Army Corps examining Dakota oil pipeline route
AP
BISMARCK, N.D.
President Barack Obama says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining whether the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline can be rerouted in southern North Dakota to alleviate the concerns of American Indians.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/business/technology/article111996522.html
State's top environmental officer to step down after 10 years on job
Union Leader
CONCORD — New Hampshire’s chief environmental officer for the past decade is stepping down.
Tom Burack, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services, has notified Gov. Maggie Hassan that he plans to resign in the near future.
http://www.unionleader.com/environment/States-top-environmental-officer-to-step-down-after-10-years-on-job-11022016
Opinion
Obama’s Electric Car Money Grab
The president can avoid Congress by using fines on private companies like Volkswagen to fund his pet projects.
WSJ
By WILLIAM YEATMAN
Nov. 1, 2016 7:11 p.m. ET
A federal judge last week approved a $14.7 billion settlement to partially resolve the legal fallout over Volkswagen’s installation of “defeat devices” designed to cheat air quality rules in more than 500,000 vehicles sold in the U.S.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-electric-car-money-grab-1478041904
The extreme unwisdom of burning forests for fuel
By Jane Maslow Cohen and Cindy E. Morris
The Hill
A bipartisan coalition in the U.S. Congress is pressing hard to advance a dangerously destructive environmental policy. It would require the Environmental Protection Agency to define biomass—energy obtained from wood-- as a carbon-neutral, renewable fuel, like solar power and wind. The EPA and its Science Advisory Board are opposed. They should be.
Press Releases
Biloxi Bay oyster reefs open for first time in 54 years
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. – One by one the trucks hauling boats and trailers pulled into the Ocean Springs Harbor before daylight Tuesday, fishermen eager to check in, put their boats in the water and motor out to oyster reefs that haven’t been harvested in 54 years.
When the sun came up just after 7 a.m., there were 45 boats in place with fishermen tonging and cleaning oysters a short time later.
By the end of the day, 46 boats were on the water, five recreational and 31 commercial. Together they harvested 441 sacks of oysters.
It was a special day for officials with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, one they have worked toward since 2014.
The reefs in Biloxi Bay were opened to tonging for the first time since 1964.
Joe Jewell grew up on The Point in Biloxi, and his family caught and sold seafood for a living. They harvested oysters in the winter and caught shrimp in the summer.
Jewell now is the director of MDMR’s Office of Marine Fisheries, and he said the reopening of oyster reefs in the Biloxi Bay is good for the area’s economy and its culture.
“From a historical standpoint, it’s a wonderful connection to our history,” he said. “Most families here have a connection to the seafood industry. This is how we built our seafood culture.”
Mother Nature has not been kind to the Coast’s oyster reefs in recent years. In 2004, fishermen harvested nearly 500,000 sacks of oysters. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the BP Oil Spill in 2010 and the opening of the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway in 2011, that number has dwindled to about 40,000 sacks of oysters a year.
In 2015, Gov. Phil Bryant formed the Governor’s Oyster Council on Restoration and Resiliency, a group that devised a plan to increase the number of oysters harvested each year and identified ways to reach Bryant’s goal of 1 million sacks per year by 2025.
One of those ways was opening reefs in Jackson County for harvesting and not just relying on tonging and dredging reefs in the western part of the Mississippi Sound, mainly in Pass Christian and Hancock County.
The Commission on Marine Resources opened those reefs Oct. 3, and they were closed Friday, Oct. 28 after fishermen took in just over 28,000 sacks of oysters.
Richard Gollott, who chairs the CMR and has served for 12 years, said he hopes there are enough oysters in the Biloxi Bay so that the season can remain open until Spring.
“I am elated that these reefs are open,” he said Tuesday. “It looks like these are premium oysters.”
Several generations of Gollott’s family have been in the seafood industry, and he said he’s been trying to get these reefs open since the 1970s.
“I want to thank Jamie Miller and the DMR staff who worked so hard to get this done,” Gollott said. “They met with the FDA and did what needed to be done.”
