By Matthew Tresaugue

Photo courtesy dabruins07

The World Series’ nickname is the Fall Classic, a nod to its place on the calendar. However, it will not feel like autumn tonight when my Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers open this year’s championship series at Dodger Stadium.

Forecasts call for the warmest World Series game on record, with the temperature expected to be 97 degrees when the first pitch is thrown at 5:08 p.m. Pacific time.

The current high came during the 2001 World Series, when the temperature was 94 degrees outside the domed stadium in Phoenix.

Southern California typically enjoys temperatures in the 60s this time of year. The National Weather Service attributes the unusual heat to a strong high pressure system and offshore winds.

I would like to think it is because the Astros arrived in Los Angeles as the hottest team in baseball.

The excessive heat, however, is the latest in a recent series of extreme weather events. Hurricanes swamped Houston, buzzed through Florida and decimated Puerto Rico and parts of the Caribbean. Wildfires raged all over the West, including parts of California. Temperatures reached triple-digits in the Pacific Northwest. What's more, the National Weather Service told the New York Times that temperatures on the East Coast have averaged between six and eight degrees above normal this month.

Science tells us that our climate is changing. Our ever-weirder weather is a reminder that we need to address climate change.

Otherwise the World Series could become the Hotumn Classic.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is a powerful engine for conservation. Now is the time to put it into overdrive.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is a powerful engine for conservation. Now is the time to put it into overdrive.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is a powerful engine for conservation. Now is the time to put it into overdrive.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is a powerful engine for conservation. Now is the time to put it into overdrive.

The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), formerly known as the Breaux Act, hosted a dedication ceremony commemorating seven Southeastern Louisiana coastal restoration projects. Created by Senator John Breaux in 1990, CWPPRA allows for the funds from five federal agencies to be paired with state of Louisiana funding through the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) in paying for coastal restoration projects. The five federal agencies that fund 85 percent of the cost per coastal project include U.S. ...

Read The Full Story

The post CWPPRA is Still Having a Big Impact appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), formerly known as the Breaux Act, hosted a dedication ceremony commemorating seven Southeastern Louisiana coastal restoration projects. Created by Senator John Breaux in 1990, CWPPRA allows for the funds from five federal agencies to be paired with state of Louisiana funding through the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) in paying for coastal restoration projects. The five federal agencies that fund 85 percent of the cost per coastal project include U.S. ...

Read The Full Story

The post CWPPRA is Still Having a Big Impact appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), formerly known as the Breaux Act, hosted a dedication ceremony commemorating seven Southeastern Louisiana coastal restoration projects. Created by Senator John Breaux in 1990, CWPPRA allows for the funds from five federal agencies to be paired with state of Louisiana funding through the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) in paying for coastal restoration projects. The five federal agencies that fund 85 percent of the cost per coastal project include U.S. ...

Read The Full Story

The post CWPPRA is Still Having a Big Impact appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

By Jon Goldstein

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from the Trump Administration to undercut these regulations and sell taxpayers short.

Here are three reasons communities and individuals from across the Mountain West are fighting to defend methane waste rules:

1. Westerners hate waste: $1.8 billion and counting. That’s the value of taxpayer-owned natural gas that has been wasted since 2013 when the BLM began developing a new set of standards to address this problem. The rules finalized last November would help cut that waste and recover millions more in tax and royalty revenues for the western communities faced with impacts from oil and gas development that need it most.

1. Westerners recognize a fair deal: Several western states—including Colorado and Wyoming— have begun to step up and address methane waste and pollution at the state level. But they can’t do it alone. Colorado’s has some of the best methane rules in the country, yet they can’t protect Coloradans from pollution blowing in from just across the border of New Mexico for instance, a fact that was highlighted at a recent science forum on the infamous Four Corners methane pollution hot spot. By addressing methane waste and pollution on federal and tribal lands across the country, the BLM rules are excellent complements to state level efforts. Additionally, due to tribal sovereignty, states cannot address regulatory issues on tribal lands, and the federal rules are needed for consistency. This is especially important in places like Utah's Uintah Basin, where oil and gas emissions, much of it on tribal lands, are leading to unhealthy smog pollution.

1. Westerners aren’t shy about fighting for what’s right: Forward thinking state leaders from across the Western region, like Attorneys General Hector Balderas of New Mexico and Xavier Becerra of California, are leading the legal charge to defend the BLM’s methane waste rule because they recognize the benefits to their states and constituents. And they are winning. Earlier in October a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s attempted abrupt suspension of protections that reduce the waste of natural gas on public and tribal lands was “arbitrary and capricious and in violation” of the law. This was after a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate in May also refused to overturn the BLM methane waste rule.

These reasons add up to tremendous grassroots support across the west for the BLM’s methane waste rule, resulting in hundreds of thousands of comments filed in their support, dozens of local elected leaders that have weighed in with BLM, and polling that has found a whopping 80% of westerners want these rules left on the books.

But unfortunately the fight continues. On the very same day that the court overturned his earlier attempt to suspend the waste rule, Zinke announced yet another attempt to let the oil and gas industry continue to waste taxpayer-owned natural gas resources. Tell him enough is enough, the BLM’s methane waste rule is the right policy for westerners and all Americans.

Image source: Max Pixel

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from […]

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from […]

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from […]

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from […]

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from […]

By Helen Takade-Heumacher

In August, I had the honor of being the co-organizer of a symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting titled “Ten Years of Science-Based management in U.S. Fisheries: Progress and the Road Ahead” with my colleague Jake Kritzer.  A distinguished group of eight speakers joined us to present papers on topics ranging from the evolution of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to the benefits that science-based management has yielded for Alaskan fisheries, and discuss how the Act has performed and how to tackle the challenges that remain with fisheries scientists and managers from across the country and globe.

Speakers included scientists, managers, and a commercial fisherman and covered a geographic range from Florida to Alaska.  Some of the speakers approached the subject with experience that extended back to well into the previous versions of the Act.

The consensus could be best summed up by one a point made by Dr. Mike Sissenwine, a council member of New England Fishery Management Council, early in his presentation: Science-based management has worked.

Overall, the group concluded that the current incarnation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act has greatly improved conservation outcomes.  Since the reauthorization, overfishing has decreased dramatically and a significant number of stocks have been rebuilt.

Our commercial fishing participant, Jason de la Cruz from Florida, noted that the current Act made him feel more confident about the basis of decisions and had led to increased opportunities to collaborate on science.  In Alaska, Diana Evans, deputy director for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, highlighted that fishermen and managers now look beyond the difficult task of setting annual catch limits to new management challenges like ecosystem-based fishery management that can be informed by innovative scientific tools being created for their Fishery Ecosystem Plan.

The group also identified challenges that still exist under the current legal framework.  The most commonly highlighted issue was scientific uncertainty.  Managers and scientists alike can struggle with this complicated and frustrating concept.  While there are ways to measure uncertainty, when dealing with complex systems it can be difficult or impossible to understand its causes.  When dealing with stock rebuilding, additional uncertainty around future conditions, including the impacts of climate change, adds to the challenge.

Fortunately speakers also offered potential solutions, including:

• Using ecosystem-based analytical tools to account for the complex interactions of different species and the effects of climate change. These tools can serve as the basis for ecosystem-based fishery management, which Alaskan fisheries have already identified as a priority; and
• More adaptive control rules, which adjust management consistent with changes in fishing mortality.  The result could be smaller and more frequent adjustments that prevent serious stock depletion and the need for severe reductions in catch.

Both of these solutions were also key recommendations emerging from a blue ribbon task force organized by the National Research Council, the outcomes of which were shared during the symposium by Dr. Pat Sullivan, one of the co-chairs.  These tools already exist and their wider use could bring significant benefits.

No one on the panel advocated for fundamental changes to the Act itself as a “solution.”  The speakers believed that the challenges that exist could be addressed within the confines of the current MSA.  Further progress may require scientific innovation, improving implementation, or new management strategies, but there are ways to address these challenges without walking back the legal structure that has brought us where we are.

In August, I had the honor of being the co-organizer of a symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting titled “Ten Years of Science-Based management in U.S. Fisheries: Progress and the Road Ahead” with my colleague Jake Kritzer.  A distinguished group of eight speakers joined us to present papers on topics ranging from the […]

The post Science-based management in U.S. fisheries: Progress and the road ahead appeared first on EDFish.

In August, I had the honor of being the co-organizer of a symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting titled “Ten Years of Science-Based management in U.S. Fisheries: Progress and the Road Ahead” with my colleague Jake Kritzer.  A distinguished group of eight speakers joined us to present papers on topics ranging from the […]

In August, I had the honor of being the co-organizer of a symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting titled “Ten Years of Science-Based management in U.S. Fisheries: Progress and the Road Ahead” with my colleague Jake Kritzer.  A distinguished group of eight speakers joined us to present papers on topics ranging from the […]

DOE’s proposal is irreconcilable with the design of organized wholesale energy markets.

DOE’s proposal is irreconcilable with the design of organized wholesale energy markets.