Mediaboss Marketing

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- President Trump's administration has opened the door to industry-friendly changes to a sweeping plan imposed by his predecessor to protect a ground-dwelling bird across vast areas of the West.

Wildlife advocates warn that the proposed changes would undercut a hard-won struggle to protect the greater sage grouse.

Representatives of the ranching and energy industries cheered the policy shift as needed to give states flexibility.

A document outlining the recommended changes was released Monday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Play Video

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed that she received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over her vote on health care, saying t...

It recognized for the first time the importance of livestock grazing on sage grouse habitat, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

It also backed away from requirements to keep rangeland grasses and shrubs at a prescribed minimum height, which ranchers had complained was arbitrary.

"I was very pleased with what I saw there in terms of the tone," Magagna said.

The ground-dwelling sage grouse has lengthy, pointed tail feathers and is known for the male's elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound.

Millions of sage grouse once populated the West but development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires has reduced the bird's population to fewer than 500,000.

States affected by the conservation plan are California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Just how much Zinke intends to tinker with the plan that was years in the making remains to be seen.

It was hashed out under President Obama and unveiled in 2015 as a solution to keeping the sage grouse off the endangered species list following a decade-long population decline caused by disease and pressure on the birds' habitat from energy development, grazing and wildfires.

The proposed changes, the result of a 60-day review of the plan by Zinke's agency, could give states wiggle room in areas such as setting population goals for sage grouse and drawing boundaries of recognized sage grouse habitat.

Advocacy groups such as The Wilderness Society and National Wildlife Federation said the proposal was a backdoor attempt to allow unfettered oil and gas development that ignored previous scientific studies showing that drilling too close to sage grouse breeding areas would harm the birds.

"Wholesale changes to the plans are not necessary and could derail years of hard work," National Wildlife Federation President Collin O'Mara said in a statement. "We cannot fall victim to the false dichotomy that pits wildlife conservation against the administration's energy development goals."

The birds inhabit parts of 11 states including large swaths of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada - big ranching states that include areas with vast wind energy and gas drilling potential.

Wyoming has a larger number of greater sage grouse than any other state and keeping the bird off the endangered list remains a priority, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said.

"We've come a long ways to get to this point," Mead said. "As we make changes - and certainly I think there's room for improvement - we have to move cautiously because we don't want to get to the point where the bird is listed."

Wyoming officials are glad the Trump administration has been talking to them about sage grouse policy, and the proposed changes include improvements, Mead said.

Officials remain concerned, however, by how the administration wants to set population goals for sage grouse. The birds are difficult to count and their numbers can fluctuate significantly from year to year in response to weather patterns, Mead said.

"We want to move cautiously as to not disrupt the great work that has been done by so many over the many years," Mead said.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said Zinke's announcement marked an appropriate step toward giving the state more power to manage sage grouse. Idaho, along with Utah and Nevada, had filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama-era conservation plans for the birds.

"My staff and I stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the Department of the Interior to bring the federal plans into alignment with Idaho's science-based conservation plan," Otter said in a statement.

The proposed changes drew a muted reaction from some other Western governors who had been heavily involved in crafting conservation plans for the birds.

Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who co-chaired a federal-state sage grouse task force established in 2011, was still reviewing Zinke's announcement, according to spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.

Play Video

Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, and Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, discuss how their states are finding solutions to the many problems they face d...

In Nevada, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval didn't have any immediate comment. Sandoval had worked closely with former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to develop sage grouse protection plans for the state.

Sandoval, Mead and Hickenlooper met with Zinke in April and urged him to coordinate with states before changing the Obama-era plans.

Areas where sage grouse habitat and gas drilling overlap include the upper Green River Basin of western Wyoming, home of some of the biggest onshore natural gas fields in the U.S.

A third gas field, the Normally Pressured Lance field, could add another 3,500 wells in a 220-square-mile area. Drilling could begin next year if the U.S. Bureau of Land Management signs off.

Jonah Energy LLC recognizes the existence of sage grouse winter range in the southern part of its proposed gas field about 200 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, said Paul Ulrich, government affairs director at the Denver-based petroleum company.

"From our perspective, that definitely presents challenges but also provides an opportunity to do what we've done from day one, which is follow the science," he said.

Read more here:
Obama-era greater sage grouse protections face changes under Trump - CBS News

A federal court struck down a key piece of the Obama administration's climate agenda on Tuesday by saying the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to ban the use of certain chemicals used in air conditioners blamed for exacerbating global warming.

The EPA enacted the rule in question in 2015, responding to research showing hydroflourocarbons, or HFCs, contribute to climate change.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision said EPA does not have the authority to enact a 2015 rule-making ending the use of hydrofluorocarbons commonly found in spray cans, automobile air conditioners and refrigerators. The three-judge panel said that because HFCs are not ozone-depleting substances, the EPA could not use a section of the Clean Air Act targeting those chemicals to ban HFCs.

"Indeed, before 2015, EPA itself maintained that Section 612 did not grant authority to require replacement of nonozone-depleting substances such as HFCs," the court wrote.

"EPA's novel reading of Section 612 is inconsistent with the statute as written. Section 612 does not require (or give EPA authority to require) manufacturers to replace non-ozonedepleting substances such as HFCs," said the opinion, written by Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

The Obama administration issued the regulatory changes to correspond with the 1987 Montreal Protocol that sought to stop the depletion of the ozone layer by phasing out another chemical found in aerosols. The 2015 update was part of former President Barack Obama's climate change agenda due to the impact of HFCs on the climate.

"This ruling has significant implications for our industry and we will be monitoring the EPA's response closely," said Stephen Yurek, president and CEO of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, whose industry is directly affected by the regulations. "Despite the court's decision, our industry remains committed to ratification and implementation of the Kigali Amendment to globally phase down the use of HFC refrigerants."

Under the Kigali agreement, the U.S. and other countries agreed to phase out HFCs and use alternative chemicals over a number of years. The agreement was seen as an adjunct to the Paris climate change agreement.

The Trump EPA will have to decide whether it will appeal the court's Tuesday ruling, which was brought by HFC manufacturers Chemours Co. and Honeywell International. "We are reviewing the decision," said an EPA representative.

The Kigali Agreement and the HFC rule have not been a specific target of the Trump administration, and given that many appliance manufacturers support the regulations, President Trump may find little in the way of problems with the regulations.

But critics of the Kigali agreement are out there, and they undoubtedly will be pushing for Pruitt to allow the court decision to stick. Myron Ebell with the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute is one of those voices. He was Trump's EPA transition chief who helped ramp up the agency.

"CEI opposes the Kigali amendment because the purpose of the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna treaty is to protect the ozone layer," Ebell said in May. And the "Kigali amendment hijacks the Montreal Protocol and turns it into a global warming treaty."

View post:
Federal court strikes down EPA rule key to Obama's climate agenda - Washington Examiner

The campaign that ends on Tuesday has produced little evidence that Kenya has heeded his advice. In recent days, the campaign has been marked by a break-in at the vice presidents country estate, the killing and possible torture of a senior election official, and reports of plans to rig the vote for President Uhuru Kenyatta and stage an armed raid on one of the oppositions tallying centers. Talk of fake news has flavored the campaign debate as international observers, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, seek to ensure a fair vote.

Mr. Obama expressed disappointment in the campaign so far. In Kenyas election we have already seen too much incitement and appeals based on fear from all sides, he said. But I also know that the Kenyan people as a whole will be the losers if there is a descent into violence. You can make clear that you will reject those that want to deal in tribal and ethnic hatred.

A violent reaction seems like a real possibility given Kenyas recent history. After a disputed election in 2007 in which the opposition leader Raila Odinga lost, spasms of violence left at least 1,300 people dead and 600,000 displaced from their homes. In 2013, after Mr. Odinga lost again, this time to Mr. Kenyatta, he claimed he had been robbed of victory.

Mr. Odinga, a former prime minister, is running again, his fourth campaign for the presidency, and he and Mr. Kenyatta were virtually tied in recent polls. In a country riven by tribal rivalries, Mr. Kenyatta, 55, has the support of many Kikuyus and Kalenjins, while Mr. Odinga, 72, is strong among the Luos, Luhyas and Kambas.

Mr. Obama, whose father was Luo, urged Kenyans to put those divisions aside. The choices you make in the coming days can either set Kenya back or bring it together, he said. As a friend of the Kenyan people, I urge you to work for a future defined not by fear and division, but by unity and hope.

Analysts said many Kenyans would pay attention, even if there are limits to Mr. Obamas influence. Will Obamas statement shift behaviors in Kenya? No, said William M. Bellamy, a former ambassador to Kenya who is now a professor of international relations at Simmons College. But it provides a basis for judging the success or failure of these elections. The standard set by the president and international observers, he added, will have a big impact on how Kenyans themselves assess the validity of their elections.

The former presidents decision to speak out on Kenyas election was a striking departure from his general approach since leaving the White House. He has remained largely out of the issues in Washington as Mr. Trump seeks to unravel much of his predecessors legacy. Although Mr. Obama has issued written statements at critical moments in the debate over replacing his health care program, he has for the most part left it to his former advisers and other Democrats to wage a rear-guard battle on behalf of his programs and policies.

President Obama has a unique stature in Kenya and has issued similar statements about past Kenyan elections, said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a longtime foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama. The stakes are enormously high as there is a grave risk of violence and instability around the election, and its important for the Kenyan people to hear his voice at this pivotal moment.

Follow Peter Baker on Twitter @peterbakernyt

View post:
Obama Weighs In on Kenyan Election, Urging Calm - New York Times

Former President Barack Obama now has an Illinois holiday in his honor but state employees still have to go to work.

Former President Barack Obama now has a day commemorating his birth, but residents of the state where he began his political career shouldnt expect time off: Aug. 4 wont be a full-scale legal holiday.

Illinois will honor the 44th president on his birthday, after Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed the commemorative day into law on Friday. It goes into effect in 2018.

The Illinois House rejected a plan to make Obamas birthday a state holiday amid concerns about giving state employees another paid day off, the Associated Press said.

Obama was born in Hawaii but served as an Illinois state senator and was elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 2004. Earlier this year, Rauner said he thought it was awesome that Obama came from Illinois and that the state should celebrate it. On social media, others disagreed:

Hillary Clinton, Obamas fellow Democrat, won Illinois by 16 percentage points in last years presidential election. On Sunday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who was Obamas first White House chief of staff said the city would file a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administrations use of federal grant money as a way to force local authorities to cooperate with a crackdown on illegal immigration.

See the article here:
'Barack Obama Day' is the newest holiday in Illinois - MarketWatch

W

ASHINGTON Nearly all of the Obama administrations science staff has departed the White House since January, and the Trump administration has moved slowly to replace them. In the meantime, however, an unofficial shadow office, stocked with Obama loyalists, is quietly at work.

The network, described to STAT by officials from the previous administration who are involved, is informal yet organized, allowing for a far-reaching if largely inconspicuous effort to continue advocating for the Obama science agenda.

Participants have provided counsel to Democratic lawmakers and their staffs on Capitol Hill, and they have held group-wide strategy sessions much in the same fashion as they did when they worked out of a fourth-floor wing in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.

advertisement

At a time when the Trump administration has flouted the advice of the broader scientific community, they see themselves as filling a void within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which has been serving the president since 1976.

It is certainly true that MANY of the former OSTP staffers are working, in a variety of ways, to fill the void, John Holdren, who led Obamas OSTP and who has taken part in some of the new groups activities, wrote in an email to STAT. Me, too.

While Trump declared on Earth Day that rigorous science is critical, much of the scientific community began expressing alarm at the new administrations positions even before his inauguration, including Trumps comments on vaccine safety and his stated interest in rolling back steps to address climate change. President Obama, by contrast, was a self-described science geek.

In interviews, members of the new Obama group which numbers in the dozens said they have remained more engaged than they expected to before Trumps victory in November. Beyond fielding policy questions from congressional offices, they have consulted with scientific societies, and advised organizers of the March for Science, among other activists a few have even made those organizations their new professional homes.

They have also assisted in analyzing the impact of White House budget proposals which have outlined deep cuts to federal research agencies and the impact of policies including Trumps decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords.

Multiple Democratic congressional staffers said to STAT that they have remained in contact with former OSTP officials they had worked with during the previous administration.

For the most part, the members have kept in touch through a number of email lists and semi-frequent conference calls. But the networks infrastructure is robust; when first contacted for comment, Holdren referred STAT to Fae Jencks, the offices former director of public engagement, who he said has been coordinating communications among the OSTP diaspora.

Holdren declined a request for an interview. But former Obama staffers who have participated in the conference calls said he had stressed to them the importance of finding ways to tithe their time for outreach and engagement.

On a practical level, there are ethical and legal restrictions over what former science officials can do. And in a city where former White House staffers can easily fall into the trope of an oppositional shill for an out-of-power boss, many have also been wary of making too big a splash.

Ive tried to keep a low profile in terms of my volunteer policy work, said one former OSTP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If Im advocating for something as a former Obama official, it might not be particularly effective.

The conference calls have occasionally included a few Obama-era OSTP staffers who, at the time, were still working at the White House. Participants on the calls said those staffers were particularly careful about if and when they spoke.

Regardless of their current status, however, many members of the group say they are participating in the discussions out of a sense of necessity. There was no chance that this team was going to go work only in Silicon Valley or for lobbying firms, said the former staffer. A lot of people feel a sense of personal responsibility to use what we learned for the greater good at a time when the federal government is averse to things we think are really important.

He noted that under the Trump administration, the cavalry isnt coming.

Roughly 100 staff members from the Obama administration have left OSTP since January. The Trump administration has added only about 10 new members since then, according to an administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Even once a planned OSTP expansion is complete, the office will have roughly 60 employees, equivalent to its size under former President George W. Bush but a far cry from the 135 or so employed as recently as December.

The administration official said the office has received less attention as other power centers in the administration have emerged to lessen its role, especially on the technology side. One is the Office of American Innovation, run by the presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Another is 18F, the startup-inspired wing of the General Services Administration.

The offices slow growth stands in stark contrast with Obamas White House, which announced it would appoint Holdren as OSTP director and special assistant to the president for science in December 2008, a month before Obama took office. Trump, meanwhile, still has not appointed a top science adviser.

The offices most significant post-inauguration addition was that of Michael Kratsios who worked previously as chief of staff to Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley mogul who played a role in selecting Trumps health staff during the transition as its deputy chief technology officer. OSTP also recently hired its new legislative lead: Sean Bonyun, a longtime communications staffer for Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

But the pace of hiring has been too slow for the tastes of the recently departed staff. As Kei Koizumi, formerly the OSTPs assistant director for research and development, put it: Theres no new me.

Democrats on the Hill are less concerned with differences over science policy, one congressional aide said, than with an absence of engagement on science at the upper levels of the administration. That void has left lawmakers to lean on the former OSTP staffers.

Koizumi, who has since returned to a post at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, acknowledged that there are some aspects of my old job that I continue to do.

I get calls from congressional staff, wanting my insights on a bill that I was working on while I was there. And I think thats natural, he said. I expect thats going to taper down once there are people at OSTP who will pick up work on some of these bills and efforts.

But former insiders acknowledge this is not a typical transition.

I think there are just more instances in which there seems to be a willful disregard for the facts, said Tom Kalil, who served as OSTPs deputy director for technology and innovation and worked as a top science and technology adviser on former President Bill Clintons National Economic Council.

To Clinton alumni, Kalil said, the Bush administration took action on select issues that upset the scientific community for example, on the issue of embryonic stem cell research but didnt wage what now feels like a frontal attack on their field.

Many former OSTP staffers have banded together and lobbied the White House, directly and indirectly, to back off its decision to delay and likely scrap the International Entrepreneur Rule, which would have allowed many foreigners with financial support for new business ventures to enter the country. And many worked to highlight the real-world industry impact when Trump announced he was banning nearly all immigration from six majority-Muslim countries, a move roundly panned by the biotechnology industry.

Some have said that their exit from OSTP has actually set them free from the strictures of serving in the White House to share their own opinions perhaps more frankly than before and more free to workshop ideas with Hill aides without working through a legislative affairs office.

The projects they are working on include an initiative about women and minorities in STEM professions, advancing a framework for policy entrepreneurship a pet project of Kalils and keeping the country at large informed about the true impact of inattention to research and development.

More broadly, former OSTP staffers said they are simply worried about the future of science policy, noting that the Trump administration has proposed dramatically reducing available resources.

What policy process resulted in the Trump administration thinking the NIH needed less money? asked Kumar Garg, who spent eight years at OSTP and now works at the Society for Science and the Public. Was OSTP at the table?

The reality in which our economy grows is we produce products and services the rest of the world hasnt created yet, Kalil said. We have to come up with whats next.

Washington Correspondent

Lev Facher covers the politics of health, science, and medicine out of STAT's Washington bureau.

Trending

Doctors who attend lower-tier medical schools prescribe far more

Doctors who attend lower-tier medical schools prescribe far more opioids, study finds

Track authorities move to again bar women with naturally

Track authorities move to again bar women with naturally high testosterone from competing

Shkreli is convicted of fraud. Can pharma finally slam

Shkreli is convicted of fraud. Can pharma finally slam the door on him?

Recommended

Armed with science (and snark), a gynecologist takes on

Armed with science (and snark), a gynecologist takes on Trump, Goop, and all manner of bizarre

Senate approves key FDA legislation, sending bill to Trumps

Senate approves key FDA legislation, sending bill to Trumps desk

Senate approves right to try legislation barring federal intervention

Senate approves right to try legislation barring federal intervention in state laws

See the original post:
With Trump in the White House, Obama science experts operate shadow network to press their positions - STAT