State
Officials can’t say why 3 Coast kids died from DIPG. That’s not enough for their parents.
Sun Herald
State regulators have found no evidence — so far — to suggest pollutants are to blame for an elevated number of cases of a rare and deadly brain tumor in Ocean Springs children.
The investigation, however, is continuing.
“We have great sympathy for the families in Ocean Springs and their heartbreaking situations,” Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Robbie Wilbur said in response to a Sun Herald inquiry. “MDEQ is working in coordination with others doing what we can to find potential answers within our area of expertise and our role as a regulator.”
The last DIPG diagnosis came in February for Sophia Myers, prompting her parents and others to question why so many children in a small area would suffer from a cancer so rare it affects only between 300 and 400 children a year nationwide. Sophia Myers lost her battle with DIPG on Oct. 20. Parents of three children diagnosed with DIPG, a rare brain cancer, wonder if their proximity to the Ocean Springs community is a factor. Two of the three have died in the last eight years and the third is in hospice care.
All three families lived within a 25-mile radius at the time of their child’s diagnosis, and all three attended Ocean Springs schools.
They also played on the same beaches and swam in the same South Mississippi waterways.
There is no known cause or cure for DIPG, though Dr. Mark Kieran, director of pediatric neuro-oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, told the Sun Herald some studies are starting to suggest the original mutation that causes DIPG forms long before the baby is born. What causes the genetic mutation to form, however, is unknown, Kieran said. MSHD epidemiologist, Dr. Paul Byers, also noted that there are “no known environmental exposures, radiation sources or genetics related to the cause of DIPG.”
Monitoring continues
Ocean Springs is one of four cities in the heavily industrialized county of Jackson — the only Mississippi county to see a 50 percent increase in childhood cancer cases over a five-year period beginning in 2010, according to a statistical review by the National Cancer Institute.
The Sun Herald reached out to state lawmakers and state regulators to find out what, if any, investigation is under way to determine if Ocean Springs children are more at risk for developing DIPG.
Both MDEQ and the Mississippi State Department of Health, as well as Gov. Phil Bryant’s office and local legislators, confirmed an investigation.
Clay Chandler, Bryant’s spokesman, said both state agencies have found no evidence of any “imminent risk to public health and the environment,” in the city of just 18,000 residents.
But, Chandler said, the governor wants “this monitoring to continue” and has made a commitment to make available “every necessary resource so the public and environmental health and safety are secured.”
That provides little comfort to the families of three Ocean Springs children who have died from DIPG over an eight-year period.
“We appreciate that our state officials are taking this issue seriously,” Sophia Myers’ mother, Angel Myers, said. “However, having just recently acknowledged that they are looking into this, I can’t imagine a scenario where they’ve had enough time to complete an investigation or reach any conclusions. “My hope is that the incidence of DIPG and other pediatric cancers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast continue to get the attention they need,” she said. “Our kids deserve to have the state invest the necessary time and resources to ensure that they are safe from cancer causing agents in the environment. I understand the difficulty of this task, but we will hold our state officials’ feet to the fire.”
Angel Myers reacts to the federal budget proposal that included cuts in cancer research. Myers’ daughter, Sophia, was diagnosed with DIPG, a fatal brain cancer, in February and is now in hospice care.
The probe
An investigation began after the MSHD officials confirmed a doctor’s suspicion that a third case of DIPG in Ocean Springs over an eight-year period was elevated.
As part of the probe, the state agencies reported the three case to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC and ATSDR spokeswoman Bernadette Burden told the Sun Herald the agencies recorded the information on the three DIPG cases in Ocean Springs, but she said there is no active investigation into a potential cause for the elevated numbers.
The MSDH also planned to reach out to the Alabama State Department of Health and pediatric cancer specialists “to gain insight and additional information based on their expertise,” MSDH spokeswoman Liz Sharlot said.
Tyler and Salena Schoenberger talk about losing their son, Jaxon, to DIPG, a rare and inoperable brain cancer. Jaxon was the second child in Jackson County to be diagnosed and to die of DIPG.
The Health Department’s investigation has centered around a “literature and statistical review” of information about DIPG, the MSHD said, which says there is no known association between the rare cancer and “environmental contaminants, radiation sources or genetics related to the etiology of DIPG.”
In addition, Sharlot said, the MSDH reviewed the statistics available to them of the reported incidents of DIPG in Mississippi, Jackson County and Ocean Springs and elsewhere in the United States to determine if there was an excess number of DIPG cases in Ocean Springs.
“While an initial review of the data showed the occurrence of the three cases over an eight-year period among the small population in Ocean Springs was higher than what would be expected,” the numbers are still too low for officials to reach any conclusions about a possible cause for the increased numbers, MSHD officials said.
In addition, Sharlot pointed out, MSDH knew of “at least 30 cases” of DIPG throughout Mississippi in a similar time frame but those numbers still reflected the number of cases expected in the state based on an annual incident rate of 300 to 400 cases a year nationwide.
Angel Myers questions what was actually investigated.
“No one knows what causes DIPG,” she said. “To hear the government proclaim that there are no environmental causes for the DIPG cluster here in the Ocean Springs area seems irresponsible. They simply don’t know that.”
MDEQ investigated contaminants at 11 Ocean Springs facilities during probe into DIPG
Sun Herald
The state Department of Environmental Quality’s review of known contamination sites in Ocean Springs revealed no evidence of environmental factors “negatively” impacting residents there, according to MDEQ spokesman, Robbie Wilbur.
So far this year, MDEQ has investigated 11 facilities in Ocean Springs due to known or perceived contamination.
Of those 11 sites, Wilbur said, nine are no longer under investigation because the contamination at those facilities is now “above acceptable environmental limits or the contamination is contained and there is not an impact to the environment or people in the area,” Wilbur said,
The two other sites — the old Bausch & Lomb Ferson Optics property at the corner of Government Street and Pine Drive and Village Cleaners on U.S. 90 in Spring Plaza — remain under investigation. Both sites are currently in the the cleanup phase, Wilbur said, though neither is believed to have “contaminant plumes that cause any concern for contaminant exposure to the public.”
Village Cleaners has been the subject of a lawsuit tied to contamination. Records show the business reached a confidential settlement with the family who had purchased property adjacent to the business property.
An MDEQ review of the contaminated sites on record, Wilbur said, “found no evidence suggesting environmental factors are negatively impacting the citizens of Ocean Springs,” Wilbur said.
MDEQ has also investigated petroleum spills from underground storage tanks at three businesses in Ocean Springs, Wilbur said, though all three spills were below the state mandates for “corrective action” because there was “no threat to human health and the environment.”
The MDEQ investigation included a comprehensive review of bacteria and toxicity levels for surface water, sediment and fish data so far this year in Ocean Springs. The review, Wilbur said, showed no evidence of any threat to human health or the environment.
Sewer improvement project underway in Hattiesburg
WDAM
Three Hattiesburg neighborhoods will see improvements with their sewer systems in the next year.
Mayor Toby Barker announced the city's sewer improvement project on Thursday. Work has already begun on Duke Avenue in Ward 2, where Barker said there are chronic problems with collapse.
"On Duke Avenue and Corinne (Street), they're not only going to get a new sewer line that will set them up for success long term. They are also going to get their street paved after its done, so that's welcome news to this neighborhood," said Barker.
Council member Deborah Delgado, who represents Ward 2, said she had been pushing for the infrastructure improvements for years.
"I know that sometimes it takes a little time, but I'm glad to see it finally here and I'm thankful for the City of Hattiesburg," said Delgado.
The work at Duke Avenue is expected to be complete by the end of January. Crews with C.B. Developers, the company contracted for the work, will then move to Corinne Street and then to Dogwood Drive.
"In the case of Dogwood Drive, this is a part of the city that never had sewer service to begin with, so they had to treat their on site with a septic tank," Barker said. "So now, they will have sewer service to their homes. It represents progress to three streets in two different wards."
The announced cost for the project is $1,077,240.50. Mayor Barker said the funding was originally set aside for a new waste water treatment facility, but with permit requirements and a legal settlement, the money was shifted to the needs under the city roads right now.
"For so long the city did not put the necessary investment into upgrading their infrastructure," said Barker. "Over the last five years, you saw the past administration, the past city council get serious about infrastructure. We're planning on doing that in this administration when it comes to water and sewer and the streets."
Mayor Barker is asking for residents in these areas to be patient with crews as the improvements continue. The project is expected to be complete by August of 2018.
Hattiesburg officials announce $1 million sewer project
Hattiesburg American
It's going to take time — and patience — but some Hattiesburg residents will have new sewer lines in the coming months.
Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker announced a new sewer project Thursday morning that would span three wards, replacing old sewer lines in two neighborhoods and adding a sewer line in another where none previously existed.
The city is replacing old terracotta pipes on Duke Avenue and Corinne Street and installing a new line on Dogwood Drive.
The project is expected to be complete in August.
"This project, part of the ComSWIP efforts in recent years, will replace some of the oldest parts of our sewer system that were constantly failing and presenting continuous maintenance problems and provide sewer to a part of the city that currently does not have sewer service," Barker said.
The three segments of the project are expected to cost just more than $1 million, Barker said, which will be paid for out of the $25 million that initially was slated for building a new wastewater treatment facility that no longer is needed.
"That money can now be shifted toward projects such as this to address infrastructure needs that are currently under our streets," he said.
The work began three weeks ago in replacing sewer lines on Duke Avenue. Work is expected to be complete in January, followed by work on Corinne Street and finally Dogwood Drive.
But sewer installations need to settle for a few months before roads can be paved, so residents in the areas where work is being done will be inconvenienced for a long time.
"I'm asking you to continue to bear with us as we bring about the level of progress you have for years asked to see in this community," Ward 2 Councilwoman Deborah Delgado said of the Duke Avenue project. "We ask that you will continue to indulge us. We are going to get through with this as soon as possible."
City Engineer Lamar Rutland said plans for the project began several years ago and have been held over each year until now.
"We've identified some areas that were currently not being served by city services and the two other areas, just the age of this infrastructure, old clay pipes we've identified, they are reaching the end of their design life and we're working on replacing those," he said.
"We've hired engineers to go out. They've been in the houses. They've surveyed all these areas. They've had to take into account existing utilities in these areas to design these sewer lines to meet these grades."
Barker said neighborhood leaders and residents around Duke Avenue have been outspoken in encouraging the city to get sewer work started.
"These individuals have dealt with so much this year," he said. "We hope this is a welcome sign of progress for them."
Oil Spill
LSU gets millions in BP oil settlement money to study how to make drilling in Gulf safer
The Advocate
Louisiana researchers are getting the lion's share of $10.8 million of BP oil settlement money to figure out ways to make offshore drilling safer and prevent disasters like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine announced the distribution of the $10.8 million in awards on Thursday, with LSU engineering professor Wesley Williams claiming the largest share.
His $4.9 million project will study how to prevent oil rigs from accidentally tapping into underground pockets of natural gas. When the flammable gas gets into the pipes, it expands and can blow out the top, which may cause an explosion — the very thing that happened in the Deepwater incident, Williams said.
To protect the environment and the safety of workers, scientists want to figure out how to determine where natural gas pockets are and how to gradually release the gas. That way, Williams said, it can be flared off harmlessly instead of blowing up in an "uncontrolled explosion."
The university operates a mile deep test and training well at the Petroleum Engineering Research & Technology Transfer Lab near Alex Box Stadium. The equipment makes LSU uniquely positioned to undertake this type of study, Williams said. Researchers will inject controlled amounts of gas and fluids at the PERTT test site to study how to safely extract the liquids without causing dangerous gas leaks, he continued.
"It's a big issue for industry. ... We've been asked to do this kind of test multiple times from industry," the professor said.
While LSU is taking the lead on the study, they'll be joined by researchers from Texas A&M University and the energy company Weatherford.
The new projects are funded through the National Academies' Gulf Research Program, which received $500 million in legal payouts from BP and Transocean following the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The funds, which will be distributed over the course of 30 years until 2043, are to be used to study natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and health issues related to the Gulf.
Another LSU-led team received $2.6 million Thursday to figure out how best to stopper unused wells to prevent them from leaking.
"The project will develop and test new materials to improve or replace current materials used in the plugging and abandonment of wells and develop new methods for placing such materials," the National Academies wrote in a news release.
Other teams in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Mississippi will research how to detect underground gas, investigate how oil and gas workers communicate in high-stress situations, improve monitoring to detect spills faster and consider how to strengthen cement mixtures to minimize leaks.
"The greatest risk in offshore oil and gas operations is the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons and the threats such events pose to human health and safety, the environment and infrastructure, as evidenced by the Deepwater Horizon disaster," the National Academies wrote in the news release.
"Comprehensive awareness of the systemic vulnerabilities that can lead to uncontrolled hydrocarbon release during drilling, production or decommissioning activities of offshore oil and gas operations is essential to reducing existing risks and anticipating and avoiding new ones."
National
Pruitt: EPA to replace Obama climate rule
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is committing to pursue a replacement climate change rule for power plants after repealing the Obama administration’s regulation on the matter, agency head Scott Pruitttold a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel on Thursday. “We are going to be introducing a replacement rule too, in place of the Clean Power Plan,” Pruitt told Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) in response to questioning about the EPA’s plans to repeal the Obama rule. Pruitt has previously only committed to consider such a replacement rule. When the EPA proposed the repeal in October, it said it would soon seek formal comment on replacing the Clean Power Plan.
Numerous business groups opposed to the Obama rule have been pushing Pruitt to write a replacement. They’ve argued that a replacement would shield companies and the federal government from future litigation on climate and fulfill the EPA’s obligation to regulate power plants’ carbon dioxide.
But the Trump administration’s climate rule is likely to be far weaker than Obama’s, which sought a 32 percent reduction in the power sector’s carbon emissions.
Pruitt has taken the position that many of the provisions of Obama’s rule were illegal under the Clean Air Act, notably that it required emissions reductions based on a power utility’s ability to shift generationally away from coal plants and toward lower-emitting sources.
The Trump administration’s rule is also likely to let states decide their levels of emissions cuts, without the EPA dictating levels.
EPA head: Anti-greenhouse gas declaration involved 'breach of process'
The Hill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday the Obama administration erred when it formally declared greenhouse gases a dangerous pollutant worthy of regulations in 2009. Pruitt said former President Barack Obama’s EPA engaged in a “breach of process” when it relied on United Nations science for part of its endangerment funding for climate change-causing greenhouse gases. “There was breach of process that occurred in 2009 that many believe wasn’t handled the proper way,” Pruitt told a House Energy and Commerce Committee subpanel.
“But the Mass. v EPA decision, and the processes that followed involved both the Bush and Obama administration and that process, in 2009, I think, was short-shrifted.”
The Supreme Court’s Massachusetts v. EPA decision in 2007 determined that federal law had not declared greenhouse gases as dangerous enough to warrant regulations, and it directed the EPA to formally consider make such a conclusion.
Bush administration regulators put together a version of that endangerment finding, though it never took effect. Obama’s EPA concluded in April 2009 that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health, opening the door to future regulations. That endangerment finding is at the heart of EPA rules like the Clean Power Plan, the Obama-era regulation designed to slash pollution from power plants.
But even as Pruitt has tried to undo much of the Obama administration’s climate change agenda — including the power plant rule — he has not committed to revisiting or repealing the endangerment finding.
That's something conservatives have urged him to do. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) joined the calls on Thursday, telling Pruitt to “go back and revisit the finding document.” Pruitt also said Thursday he intends to announce his red team/blue team debate over climate science early next year.
Pruitt detailed plans this summer to conduct an internal debate over the validity of the scientific consensus behind climate change, which both he and President Trump have publicly doubted. “It is something that I hope to be able to do, and announce, sometime beginning part of next year at the latest,” he said.
“That would be a process that would be focused on objective, transparent, real-time review of questions of answers around this issue of CO2.”
California, 13 other states sue EPA over smog levels
SF Chronicle
California and 13 other states sued the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday for ignoring an Oct. 1 deadline to update the nation’s map of areas with unhealthy smog levels, saying the delay is endangering children and people who suffer from lung disease.
“Lives can be saved if the EPA implements these standards,” said state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose office filed the suit in federal court in San Francisco.
Environmental groups had filed a similar suit in the same court Monday. Becerra earlier sued the Trump administration on behalf of the state over the EPA’s loosened regulations of pesticides and emissions of planet-warming methane gas, and for delaying new motor vehicle fuel-economy standards.
The EPA declined to comment on Thursday’s suit.
The states, joined by the District of Columbia, said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is violating a law that requires the agency, every two years, to designate areas that exceed federal air-quality standards for ozone, the harmful gas produced in sunlight by pollutants from tailpipes and smokestacks. The federal Clean Air Act then requires state and local governments to take steps to meet the pollution standards.
The EPA last updated its smog map on Oct. 1, 2015, under President Barack Obama, and also toughened its standards by lowering the ozone level classified as unhealthy, an assessment it must perform every five years.
In California, the agency said, the reductions it was requiring would save between 115 and 218 lives each year, enable children to attend a cumulative 120,000 days of school they would otherwise have to miss in a year because of health problems and unclean air, and lead to as much as $1.3 billion a year in health-related savings.
The law required the EPA to issue a new map by Oct. 1, showing whether areas exceeded the pollution standard or caused others to violate it, but allowed the agency to postpone the deadline by a year if it lacked the information it needed.
Although the states have submitted all their pollution data to the EPA, the agency, now under Trump, announced in June that it was giving itself a one-year extension until October 2018, the states’ lawyers said. They said the EPA backed off of the extension when sued by the same group of states and environmental organizations, and committed itself to this year’s deadline but has not complied.
Instead, the EPA on Nov. 6 issued a partial list of areas that it said were not violating the ozone standards, and said it would announce the noncompliant areas “in a separate future action,” without setting a timetable. The areas it has not yet designated contain more than half the nation’s population and include densely populated regions with high ozone levels, the suit said.
By delaying the Clean Air Act’s requirements for measures to reduce smog in additional areas, the EPA’s inaction is causing “further harm to public health ... additional health care expenses,” and “premature deaths,” the suit said.
California and its local air districts are doing their best to control pollution, but “improvements become more difficult as the climate warms,” said Richard Corey, executive director of the state Air Resources Board. “The U.S. EPA has been illegally attempting to avoid its obligations on this critical matter for months, despite having everything it needs to keep making progress.”
EPA chief says public climate debate may be launched in January
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could launch a public debate about climate change as soon as January, Administrator Scott Pruitt said on Thursday, as the agency unwinds Obama-era initiatives to fight global warming.
The agency had been working over the past several months to set up a “red team, blue team” debate on the science relating to man-made climate change to give the public a “real-time review of questions and answers around this issue of CO2,” Pruitt said.
“We may be able to get there as early as January next year,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee during his first congressional hearing since taking office.
Pruitt and other senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration have repeatedly cast doubt on the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide (CO2) from human consumption of fossil fuels is driving climate change, triggering rising sea levels, droughts, and more frequent, powerful storms.
He has also moved to bar scientists from serving on independent agency advisory boards who have previous won EPA grants, a move critics say favors scientists who work with regulated industries. [L2N1N61SV]
“EPA has all the signs of an agency captured by industry,” U.S. Representative Paul Tonko of New York, the top Democrat on the House energy panel, said at the hearing.
An EPA official did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the selection of scientists.
The debate would come as the EPA proposes to rescind the Clean Power Plan, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s main climate change regulation that was aimed at reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
On Thursday, Pruitt said the agency planned to propose a “replacement” for the Obama-era rule. He previously only committed to considering a replacement.
But Pruitt has been under pressure from conservative climate change skeptics in Congress to go further and upend the scientific finding that CO2 endangers human health, which underpins all carbon regulation.
At the hearing, Pruitt said there was a “breach of process” under the Obama administration when it wrote its 2009 “endangerment finding” on CO2, because it cited the research of the United Nations climate science body.
“They took work from the U.N. IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] ... and adopted that as the core of the finding,” Pruitt said.
He did not say whether he planned to try to undo the finding, which legal experts have said would be legally complex.
Pruitt told Reuters in July the debate could be televised.
EPA chief defends spending on travel and soundproof booth
AP
Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt on Thursday defended his frequent taxpayer-funded travel and his purchase of a custom soundproof communications booth for his office, saying both were justified.
Pruitt made his first appearance before a House oversight subcommittee responsible for environmental issues since his confirmation to lead EPA in February. While his fellow Republicans largely used their time to praise Pruitt's leadership, Democrats pressed Pruitt on his proposed rollbacks of environmental regulations, his past statements denying carbon emissions are primarily to blame for climate change and his spending while in office. The former Oklahoma attorney general is under scrutiny after expense reports showed he often leaves Washington on Thursdays and Fridays for appearances in westward states before spending the weekend at his home in Tulsa and then returning to EPA headquarters on Mondays. The EPA's inspector general is currently investigating whether Pruitt's trips violate EPA's travel policies and procedures.
"Every trip I've taken to Oklahoma with respect to taxpayer expenses has been business related," Pruitt said, before giving examples of meetings and environmental issues in his home state that he said required his personal attention. "When I've traveled back to the state for personal reasons, I've paid for it. And that will bear out in the process."
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, asked about the nearly $25,000 he spent on a custom soundproof booth for making private phone calls in his office — something none of his predecessors had.
Pruitt said the booth serves as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, known as a SCIF, which typically are secure rooms used to house computers and equipment for communicating over classified government networks. Former EPA officials said that explanation doesn't make much sense.
There was already a SCIF at EPA headquarters in Washington where officials with the appropriate levels of security clearance can go to access classified information. EPA employees rarely deal with government secrets. The agency does occasionally receive, handle and store classified material because of its homeland security, emergency response and continuity missions. Pruitt said he needed the booth to have a secure phone line with which he could communicate with the White House, located just a few blocks away. "Cabinet level officials need to have access to secure communications," Pruitt said. "It's necessary for me to be able to do my job."
Committee Democrats also grilled Pruitt over what ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey called an "unprecedented assault on independent science" by purging academic experts from federal advisory boards and replacing them with industry representatives.
Pruitt in November appointed a new slate of members to 22 boards that provide input on issues such as drinking water standards and air pollution limits. For the chairmanship of EPA's Board of Scientific Counselors, he selected a former agency official who became an executive of a company that burns waste to generate electricity.
He also said he has barred from the boards current recipients of EPA grants or those in a position to benefit from them to avoid conflicts of interest. Twenty scientists on three committees have received $77 million in grants, which "causes a perception or appearance of a lack of independence in advising the agency on a host of issues," Pruitt told the subcommittee. Pruitt made no such prohibition for those who receive funding from industries regulated by EPA.
Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., asked for specific examples of an EPA grant recipient offering "conflicted advice." Pruitt said he could provide "many examples of scientists who received grants over a period of time that were substantial and it called into question that independence, and we addressed that through the policy that we implemented."
Tonko said Pruitt's EPA was ignoring scientific consensus through its downplaying of climate change and its approach to regulation and eroding staff morale by censoring experts.
"I believe EPA has all the signs of an agency captured by industry," he said.
Senate confirms two Interior, EPA nominees
The Hill
The Senate on Thursday confirmed two of President Trump’s environmental nominees. Joe Balash was confirmed as assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Interior Department, and Susan Bodine was confirmed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, which oversees enforcement of pollution laws.
Senators voted 61-38 to confirm Balash, a former Department of Natural Resources commissioner in Alaska, and he will serve as one of five assistant secretaries at Interior, overseeing land management and resource development issues.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), for whom Balash worked as chief of staff, called him “probably one of the most qualified people to hold this job in the entire country.” “It’s important to help manage resources we have in abundance, but also protect the environment,” Sullivan said.
“We all love our environment. ... We also have enormous opportunities for jobs and energy on public land, and what’s in all the federal statutes that Joe is going to be in charge of implementing is that you can do both.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) opposed the nomination, arguing Balash’s confirmation would put him in the position of reversing a federal decision relating to land ownership of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). While Balash was a Natural Resources commissioner, Alaska filed a claim asking for a transfer of 20,000 acres of ANWR from the federal government to the state. The Bureau of Land Management rejected the claim, but Cantwell worries Balash could overturn that decision now.
“He will be overseeing the Bureau of Land Management, he will exercise the secretary’s discretion in the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management,” she said. “He will be in a position of reversing the Bureau of Land Management’s decision.”
Bodine was confirmed by a voice vote.
Democrats had long objected to bringing Bodine’s nomination to the floor, arguing that the EPA was moving too slowly to respond to some of their oversight requests.
But Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said the EPA has begun to reply to those inquiries, clearing the way for the Senate to take up Bodine’s nomination. “I'm now satisfied with many of the responses they have sent so far, and I’m pleased we have seen real progress,” he said.
“I do not have, and I never had, an interest in delay for the sake of delay. ... The agency has done its part, and now we’re here today to do our part."
Most accurate climate change models predict the most alarming consequences, study finds
Washington Post
The climate change simulations that best capture current planetary conditions are also the ones that predict the most dire levels of human-driven warming, according to a statistical study released in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The study, by Patrick Brown and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California, examined the high-powered climate change simulations, or models, that researchers use to project the future of the planet based on the physical equations that govern the behavior of the atmosphere and oceans.
The researchers then looked at what the models that best captured current conditions high in the atmosphere predicted was coming. Those models generally predicted a higher level of warming than models that did not capture these conditions as well.
The study adds to a growing body of bad news about how human activity is changing the planet's climate and how dire those changes will be. But according to several outside scientists consulted by The Washington Post, while the research is well-executed and intriguing, it's also not yet definitive.
"The study is interesting and concerning, but the details need more investigation," said Ben Sanderson, a climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Brown and Caldeira are far from the first to study such models in a large group, but they did so with a twist.
In the past, it has been common to combine the results of dozens of these models, and so give a range for how much the planet might warm for a given level of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. That's the practice of the leading international climate science body, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Instead, Brown and Caldeira compared these models' performances with recent satellite observations of the actual atmosphere and, in particular, of the balance of incoming and outgoing radiation that ultimately determines the Earth's temperature. Then, they tried to determine which models performed better.
"We know enough about the climate system that it doesn't necessarily make sense to throw all the models in a pool and say, we're blind to which models might be good and which might be bad," said Brown, a postdoc at the Carnegie Institution.
The research found the models that do the best job capturing the Earth's actual "energy imbalance," as the authors put it, are also the ones that simulate more warming in the planet's future.
Under a high-warming scenario in which large emissions continue throughout the century, the models as a whole give a mean warming of 4.3 degrees Celsius (or 7.74 degrees Fahrenheit), plus or minus 0.7 degrees Celsius, for the period between 2081 and 2100, the study noted. But the best models, according to this test, gave an answer of 4.8 degrees Celsius (8.64 degrees Fahrenheit), plus or minus 0.4 degrees Celsius.
Overall, the change amounted to bumping up the projected warming by about 15 percent.
When it comes down to the question of why the finding emerged, it appears that much of the result had to do with the way different models handled one of the biggest uncertainties in how the planet will respond to climate change.
"This is really about the clouds," said Michael Winton, a leader in the climate model development team at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who discussed the study with The Post but was not involved in the research.
Clouds play a crucial role in the climate because among other roles, their light surfaces reflect incoming solar radiation back out to space. So if clouds change under global warming, that will in turn change the overall climate response.
How clouds might change is quite complex, however, and as the models are unable to fully capture this behavior due to the small scale on which it occurs, the programs instead tend to include statistically based assumptions about the behavior of clouds. This is called "parameterization."
But researchers aren't very confident that the parameterizations are right. "So what you're looking at is the behavior of what I would say is the weak link in the model," Winton said.
This is where the Brown and Caldeira study comes in, basically identifying models that, by virtue of this programming or other factors, seem to do a better job of representing the current behavior of clouds. However, Winton and two other scientists consulted by The Post all said they respected the study's attempt but weren't fully convinced.
Sanderson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research was concerned that the current study might find an effect that wasn't actually there, in part because models are not fully independent of one another - they tend to overlap in many areas.
"This approach is designed to find relationships between future temperatures and things we can observe today," he said. "The problem is we don't have enough models to be confident that the relationships are robust. The fact that models from different institutions share components makes this problem worse, and the authors haven't really addressed this fully."
"It's great that people are doing this well, and we should continue to do this kind of work - it's an important complement to assessments of sensitivity from other methods," added Gavin Schmidt, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "But we should always remember that it's the consilience of evidence in such a complex area that usually gives you robust predictions." Schmidt noted future models might make this current finding disappear - and also noted the increase in warming in the better models found in the study was relatively small.
Lead study author Brown argued, though, that the results have a major real-world implication: They could mean the world can emit even less carbon dioxide than we thought if it wants to hold warming below the widely accepted target of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). This would mean shrinking the "carbon budget."
The study "would imply that to stabilize temperature at 2 degrees Celsius, you'd have to have 15 percent less cumulative CO2 emissions," he said.
The world can ill afford that - as it is, it is very hard to see how even the current carbon budget can be met. The world is generally regarded as being off track when it comes to cutting its emissions, and with continuing economic growth, the challenge is enormous.
In this sense, that the new research will have to win acceptance may be at least a temporary reprieve for policymakers, who would be in a tough position indeed if it were shown to be definitively right.
Missouri Air Conservation Commission approves plan to show EPA that Jefferson County air is cleaner
KWMU
Jefferson County is one step closer to attaining the federal clean air standard for sulfur dioxide, a noxious gas that can cause asthma and respiratory illness.
The Missouri Air Conservation Commission on Thursday approved the state's recommendation to the Environmental Protection Agency that the county's sulfur dioxide levels are within the federal limit of 75 parts per billion.
The county exceeded the limit in 2013, largely due to the high amount of emissions from the Doe Run lead smelter in Herculaneum. This prompted the EPA to designate the county as "nonattainment" for sulfur dioxide. But the smelter has closed since, which caused emissions to drop significantly. That led state officials to ask the EPA to change the county's air status to "attainment."
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' data also measures emissions from prominent sources of sulfur dioxide emissions, including Ameren Missouri's Rush Island Energy Center. The data indicated that levels were well below the limit.
"We're interested in ensuring that the air quality is safe to breathe for our coworkers as well as the citizens of Missouri," said Steve Whitworth, senior director of environmental services at Ameren Missouri. "We'll continue to do our part to make sure that the air quality stays good in the area."
Ken Miller, an environmental scientist at the clinic, also is concerned that the MDNR's plan to change the county's air-quality status to meeting federal standards does little to address emissions coming from the Rush Island Energy Center.
"There's basically nothing in the plan that will ensure that sulfur dioxide levels are safe for people to breathe," Miller said. "If Ameren were to operate at their permitted limit or close to it, you'd probably get widespread nonattainment through the area."
It's now up to the EPA to accept or reject the MDNR's proposal. The agency's final decision may not come for some time, since its recommendation for the county will also involve a public comment period.
Outdoor-Recreation Companies Fight Trump on National Monuments
In battle over Utah sites, Patagonia and REI join usual coalition of conservation groups and Indian tribes
WSJ
In the West’s storied land battles, conservation groups and Indian tribes often team up to fight industries over policies they deem harmful to the environment. After President Donald Trump downsized two Utah national monuments this week, they were joined by one industry that’s on their side: the outdoor-recreation business.
Almost immediately after the president Monday reduced by two thirds the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, outdoor-apparel giant Patagonia Inc. posted a withering message on its website, “The President Stole Your Land,” and on Wednesday filed suit against the Trump administration as part of a coalition of environmental and other groups.
Another retailer, REI, posted the message, “We (heart) Our Public Lands —Despite the loss of millions of acres of protected land…” while vowing to ramp up its political outreach to better protect public lands. REI asked its customers to “join us in solidarity by changing your social profile pic to the We (heart) Our Public Lands photo.”
So far at least 1,300 employees of companies represented by the Outdoor Industry Association sent letters of protest to 426 members of Congress.
Earlier this year, Outdoor Retailer, an outdoor sports show operated by Emerald Expositions LLC of San Juan Capistrano, Calif. , moved its big trade show out of Salt Lake City for the first time in 20 years, to protest Utah’s efforts to get Mr. Trump to abolish Bears Ears. A spokesman for Patagonia said the company was too busy dealing with wildfires threatening its headquarters in Ventura, California, to comment.
Mr. Trump ordered reductions of Bears Ears, which was created last year by President Barack Obama and Grand Staircase-Escalante, which was designated by President Bill Clinton.
“Public lands are the backbone of the outdoor life we love, and they’re vital to the…outdoor industry,” said Rob Discher, spokesman for Kent, Wash.-based REI.
Supporters of the monuments—land and sea preserves that often limit or ban commercial or other activity that could potentially damage the environment—say the support of a big industry for their cause could be a game changer.
“It gives me hope, because those are large companies that support public lands and have the money that can get behind a lawsuit,” said JoAnne Rando-Moon, a 70-year-old assistant restaurant manager in Kanab, Utah, which has built a tourism business around visitation to the nearby Grand Staircase monument.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former Montana congressman, who recommended the monument changes, called the Patagonia claim about land theft “nefarious, false and a lie.”
Mr. Zinke said the lands being removed from monument status would remain under federal ownership and protection, and added the remaining monuments are larger than some national parks.
He said Patagonia and the other outdoor companies represent special interests that, he says, have tried to lock up too much federal land from public use.
Supporters of the president, including ranchers and most state and local Utah officials, had called the monuments’ creation a federal overreach that locked out some traditional uses of the land, including ranching and mining as well as limiting road access for activities such as ATV riding.
The outdoor industry depends on millions of people who bike, hike, ride horses and in other ways recreate on the U.S.’s vast public lands. They fear that reducing monuments opens the area to the potential of commercial mining and drilling, which would inhibit recreational uses of the land.
Mr. Zinke said shrinking the monuments isn’t meant to usher in mining, but allow multiple uses of the land.
Booming interest in outdoor recreation in recent decades has fueled one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S., accounting for about $900 billion in annual consumer spending and 7.6 million jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.
REI and others in the outdoor industry have tried to shape public policy in the past, such as lobbying for the formation of Bears Ears and other recent monuments. But this is the first time they have engaged in a public battle over a federal lands decision in such a big way, said Will Rogers, president and chief executive officer of the Trust for Public Land, a conservation group based in San Francisco.
“I think the industry has really come together and analyzed the impact of the public lands on their customers,” Mr. Rogers said.
The Big Ears monument had become a rallying point for conservationists in part because of its huge trove of Indian artifacts. It has attracted a broad coalition of support, including from local tribes that led the lobbying effort.
The industry started flexing its muscle last February, after the Utah legislature passed a resolution imploring the Trump administration to rescind the newly created Bears Ears monument.
After Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signed the resolution, Patagonia announced it was pulling out of the Outdoor Retailer show and the show itself decided to pull out of Utah after more companies expressed anger over the state’s move.
“That was a watershed moment,” said Amy Roberts, executive director of the Outdoor Industry Association based in Boulder, Colo. “We had a responsibility to defend the outdoors.”
Companies including Patagonia, REI and North Face joined a “monuments group” convened by the association to help defend the preserves. Among other things, the companies have helped publicize in social media and elsewhere what they consider the economic importance of national monuments.
They point to a study released last summer by Headwaters Economics found the Utah counties of Garfield and Kane neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante experienced double-digit jobs and population growth after the monument was created.
At the same time, monument critics say, many jobs were lost in ranching and other traditional industries. Mr. Zinke said recreation use will be enhanced by having smaller monuments.
“A monument,” he said in an interview, “is supposed to protect not prevent.”
Opinion
Think the BP money should be spent on the Coast? Here’s what you should do
Sun Herald
The Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce and the Coast legislative delegation need your help.
The 2018 legislative session will undoubtedly include bills and discussions dealing with the millions the state will receive from BP for the economic damages caused by the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. And you should be part of that discussion. Here’s how.
Stop by the Chamber’s office at 11975 Seaway Road in Gulfport and sign the One Coast, One Voice, One Future banner. They’ll take that banner and the message that the lion’s share of BP money should be spent on the Coast to the Coast Legislative Reception. The more names on that banner the better.
And, if you can, go to the Jackson Trade Mart at 5:30 p.m. on January 10 for that reception. There you’ll find lawmakers from all over the state. That’s the allure of Coast seafood.
John Hairston, chairman of the Gulf Coast Business Council and CEO of Hancock Holding Co., painted that not-so-rosy picture in October, telling Coast leaders that South Mississippi has 11,265 fewer jobs than it had before Hurricane Katrina. About a third of those jobs have been lost since the spill. The upstate legislators need to hear in person from those who have lost business, lost jobs or lost homes because of the economic damage inflicted by the spill.
Chamber members are going to stay the night in Jackson and flood the Capitol the next day. Please add to their numbers if you can. If you can’t, call friends and relatives throughout the state and enlist them in our fight, especially if they know their state representatives and senators. Have them explain the importance of a thriving Coast economy to the rest of the state.
Call, write and email state leaders. Remind them of their promise to South Mississippi, a promise that most of the money will come here.
And finally, contact your lawmakers. See them in person if possible. Let them know that you are paying attention, that you want them to get together, get on the same page and get to Jackson with a unified front.
As they have said over and over, they are outnumbered. They have to have the support of lawmakers throughout the state.
We do not know yet what the long-term effects will be from the millions of gallons of oil and dispersants that could be lurking in the Gulf. We can’t afford the Legislature to operate under the misconception that the Coast has been restored, that it would be OK to spend the money elsewhere. It’s up to all of us to make sure the Coast controls the BP story. And by controlling that story, controlling the BP money.
Ethanol Hostages on Capitol Hill
Energy policy favoritism imperils Trump’s nominees—again.
WSJ
Trump Administration’s nominees should enjoy an easy path to Senate confirmation, given GOP control of Congress and the White House. But the federal government’s warped ethanol policy is pitting corn-state Republicans against refinery-state Republicans, and the conflict has devolved into a hostage crisis involving several Trump nominees.
Republican farm-state Senators Joni Ernst, Deb Fischer and Chuck Grassley seized the first captives in October. Joining Democrats, they warned Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt not to reduce the standards for ethanol use. Unless Mr. Pruitt gave in to their demands, Mr. Grassley threatened to “hold up EPA nominees.” Those up for ransom included Bill Wehrum, then nominated to guide the EPA’s far-reaching actions under the Clean Air Act as head of the Office of Air and Radiation.
The Trump Administration buckled under pressure. Mr. Wehrum was confirmed, but the EPA announced last week that it would increase the 2018 biofuels requirements to 19.29 billion gallons. The agency has also agreed to retain its longstanding compliance-credit scheme. Under that system, most independent refiners can’t blend enough ethanol into their own fuel to meet the mandate, so they’re forced to buy “renewable identification numbers,” or RIN s.
In creating an artificial market for these credits, the federal government set up a system ripe for speculation and abuse. RIN prices have spiked from a few pennies to as much as $1.40 over the years, and refiners and their blue-collar workers remain at the mercy of blenders, third-party brokers and an unpredictable market for the credits.
HollyFrontier Corp oration, a Dallas-based independent refiner, now spends more than $300 million each year on RINs, roughly the equivalent of $10,000 per month per employee. The expense has forced the company to freeze hiring and defer capital expenditure and investment. “It’s totally unfair,” CEO George Damiris says, calling the credit scheme “a huge transfer of wealth.” Enter Sen. Ted Cruz, who wants corn-state Republicans to make concessions to ease the pain on his refining and manufacturing electorate. To force the issue, he has also taken a hostage: Bill Northey, the Trump Administration’s nominee for a senior Department of Agriculture post in which he would control some of the USDA’s grant money for biofuels infrastructure. Oh, and Mr. Northey would give up his post as Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, potentially freeing up the position for Mr. Grassley’s grandson, state legislator Pat Grassley.
Mr. Cruz’s hostage tactics have secured him a meeting with Mr. Trump and Mr. Pruitt. On Thursday Mr. Cruz and a few other refinery-state Senators will make the case for America’s independent refiners and manufacturers. These companies deserve at least as much consideration as the Trump Administration has given ethanol interests. The RINs regime has imperiled the jobs of many blue-collar union voters who swung for Mr. Trump in 2016.
This Senate hostage-taking is unfortunate, not least because it undermines the ability of the executive branch to govern. But this is what happens when politicians decide to favor certain industries like ethanol at the expense of others. The political and economic damage will grow as long as this policy continues.
Press Releases
Administrator Pruitt Meets with National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
12/07/2017
(photo includes MDEQ’s Melissa Collier)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt met with the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) to discuss Fiscal Year 2018 priorities including guidelines for meaningful public participation and EPA’s Superfund Task Force recommendations.
“Environmental justice dialogues are critical to improving environmental and public health outcomes,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “The Council gives a crucial voice to communities whose voices often aren’t heard. We need to be doing more to enhance the EPA’s efforts to partner with states, local communities and tribes to engage with communities across the country. I look forward to working with the Council to advance the Agency’s core mission and further this thoughtful dialogue.”
Established in 1993, NEJAC provides advice and recommendations about broad, cross-cutting issues related to environmental justice to the EPA Administrator. With members from academia, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, state and local governments, tribal governments and industry, the council provides a valuable forum for discussions about integrating environmental justice with other EPA priorities and initiatives.
During NEJAC’s tenure, it has issued 48 formal reports with 795 recommendations and letters of advice as well as nearly 40 resolutions to the Agency.
Administrator Pruitt will continue to work with the NEJAC to enhance individual and community participation in environmental decision-making and improve environmental and public health outcomes across the country.
U.S. Senate Confirms Susan Bodine to Lead EPA Enforcement Office
12/07/2017
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt praised the U.S. Senate’s action to confirm, by voice vote, Susan Bodine, to serve as the assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). Bodine’s confirmation to serve as the Agency’s lead enforcer is vital to Administrator Pruitt’s commitment to return the Agency to the rule of law and aggressively pursue those who violate environmental laws.
“Susan Bodine has dedicated her career to public service and improving human health and the environment,” said Administrator Scott Pruitt. “I want to thank Leader McConnell and Chairman Barrasso for continuing to provide leadership in helping shepherd Susan’s confirmation through the Senate. I look forward to working with Susan to ensure stakeholders across the country are in compliance with the law and that polluters continue to be held accountable.”
On July 17, 2017, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, led by U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), advanced Susan Bodine’s nomination out of committee.
National Academies’ Gulf Research Program Awards $10.8 Million to Address Systemic Risk in Offshore Oil and Gas Operations
WASHINGTON – The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced awards for six new projects totaling $10.8 million. All six projects involve research to develop new technologies, processes, or procedures that could result in improved understanding and management of systemic risk in offshore oil and gas operations.
The greatest risk in offshore oil and gas operations is the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons and the threats such events pose to human health and safety, the environment, and infrastructure, as evidenced by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Comprehensive awareness of the systemic vulnerabilities that can lead to uncontrolled hydrocarbon release during drilling, production, or decommissioning activities of offshore oil and gas operations is essential to reducing existing risks and anticipating and avoiding new ones.
“These projects address several facets of risk in offshore operations,” said Kelly Oskvig, program officer for the GRP’s Safer Offshore Energy Systems initiative. “This includes research on the problem of gas unloading within deepwater drilling risers, development of remote detection capabilities of hydrocarbon releases, design of improved cementing mixtures and better techniques for sealing wells, and development of tools to assist team decision-making in the offshore environment.”
The six projects were selected after an external peer-review process. These awards are part of the portfolio of Gulf Research Program funding opportunities outlined at http://www.national-academies.org/gulf/grants. Listed in alphabetical order by project title, the projects are:
Advanced Cement Characterization and Modeling to Evaluate Novel Additives to Improve Wellbore Integrity – $671,000
Project Director: Geir Hareland (Oklahoma State University)
Project Team Affiliation: Oklahoma State University
Cement is a major material component in the construction and sealing of hydrocarbon wells. Well leakage through cement is a problem that increases maintenance costs and poses threats to surrounding communities and the environment. This project aims to improve characterization and understanding of well cement mixtures to better predict leakage potential and investigate cement additives that could reduce leakage potential and improve wellbore integrity. This information will improve modeling capability of wellbore integrity and guide designs that can be used to reduce leakage.
Experiments on Multiphase Flow of Live Muds in a Full-Scale Wellbore with Distributed Sensing for Kick and Gas-in-riser Detection/Mitigation – $4,910,000
Project Director: Wesley Williams (Louisiana State University)
Project Team Affiliations: Louisiana State University in cooperation with Texas A&M University and Weatherford
Pressure barriers provide the primary means of preventing uncontrolled hydrocarbon releases in offshore wells. However, these barriers are only effective if they have been designed, properly operated, and maintained for the conditions of the environment in which they are employed. The project focuses on gaps in understanding about the behavior of riser gas under high temperature and pressure. Testing will be done using an existing well retrofitted with pressure and temperature sensors to produce data for validating and verifying riser gas models that inform design of pressure barriers and techniques for preventing uncontrolled hydrocarbon releases.
Hydrocarbon Influx Behavior within a Deepwater Marine Riser: Implications for Design and Operations – $1,200,000
Project Director: Ramanan Krishnamoorti (University of Houston)
Project Team Affiliations: University of Houston in cooperation with Mulberry Well Systems LLC
Formation and management of gas within deepwater marine drilling risers poses a variety of challenges and hazards for offshore energy operations. Uncontrolled riser gas build-up and release was a major component of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This project aims to improve understanding of riser gas formation and unloading (i.e., the processes involved in managing riser gas) through development, calibration, and implementation of modeling to describe the dynamics pertaining to riser gas under different situations and operating conditions and assessment of instrumentation that could be used to detect riser gas properties and behavior.
Mitigating Risks to Hydrocarbon Release through Integrative Advanced Materials for Wellbore Plugging and Remediation – $2,614,000
Project Director: Mileva Radonjic (Louisiana State University)
Project Team Affiliations: Louisiana State University in cooperation with SINTEF, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Texas at Austin
Leaky wellbores with inadequate well plugging materials can allow the release of hydrocarbons into the ocean at low rates for decades, resulting in cumulative damage to surrounding areas. The goal of this project is to advance capabilities for prevention and remediation of wellbore leakage in offshore hydrocarbon-producing wells. The project will develop and test new materials to improve or replace current materials used in the plugging and abandonment of wells and develop new methods for placing such materials.
Passive Acoustic Technique for Detecting, Locating, and Characterizing Hydrocarbon Leakages – $591,000
Project Director: Zhiqu Lu (University of Mississippi)
Project Team Affiliation: University of Mississippi
As offshore deepwater oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow and expand, the risk of underwater oil spills resulting from both natural events and human accidents also increases. Real-time monitoring could help provide early detection of spills that is critical for minimizing impact. Existing monitoring techniques have significant limitations and cannot achieve real-time monitoring. This project launches an effort to develop a functional real-time monitoring system that uses acoustic technologies to detect, locate, and characterize undersea hydrocarbon leakages over large areas in a cost-effective manner.
Unobtrusive Assessment of Macrocognition Processes in Team Decision Making – $788,000
Project Director: James Driskell (Florida Maxima Corporation)
Project Team Affiliations: Florida Maxima Corporation in cooperation with Institute for Energy Technology and University of Central Florida
Workers in the offshore oil and gas industry operate in high-stress situations where faulty communication or decision-making can have severe consequences. This project aims to develop a tool that passively monitors and assesses verbal output in real-time communications to provide information on the cognitive states of speakers. This information could help with detection of issues that could affect decision-making processes and inform intervention and mitigation efforts to address those issues.
The National Academies' Gulf Research Program is an independent, science-based program founded in 2013 as part of legal settlements with the companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. It seeks to enhance offshore energy system safety and protect human health and the environment by catalyzing advances in science, practice, and capacity to generate long-term benefits for the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation. The program has $500 million for use over 30 years to fund grants, fellowships, and other activities in the areas of research and development, education and training, and monitoring and synthesis. Visit www.national-academies.org/gulf to learn more.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit www.national-academies.org.
