Saving Seafood

Trump Administration Lessens Clean Water Protections For Streams, Wetlands

January 24, 2020 — The Trump administration on Thursday finalized a significant cutback on water protections, a move critics say could make it easier for companies to pollute potential sources of drinking water.

Under the final rule, named “The Navigable Waters Protection Rule,” many streams, wetlands and other waterways will no longer qualify for federal protections against pollution under the Clean Water Act.

“After decades of constant litigation and uncertainty, the Trump administration’s navigable waters protection rule brings regulatory certainty to American farmers, landowners, businesses and the American public, and should significantly curtail the need to hire teams of attorneys to tell them how to use their own land,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said on a call with reporters. “Our rule protects the environment and our waterways while respecting the states and private property owners.”

The plan is a part of the Trump administration’s goal to repeal and replace a 2015 rule from the Obama administration that expanded the types of federally protected waterways. Republicans criticized the rule, saying it would regulate ditches and puddles. The regulation specifically exempted puddles, but the rhetoric reflected a larger concern about federal overreach among some farmers, businesses and landowners.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Seafood industry awaits details before celebrating ‘phase one’ US-China deal

January 17, 2020 — The US and China may have reached the interim trade agreement that loosely promises to commit China to purchasing more US seafood products, but the seafood industry is keeping its party hats and noisemakers in the drawer.

In a ceremony held Wednesday at the White House, US president Donald Trump and China vice premier Liu He signed the so-called “phase one” trade deal that has been described as hitting the pause button on a two-year trade war that has devastated the US agriculture and seafood industries.

The deal, which is expected to take effect in mid-February and spelled out in an 86-page document, commits China to buying $200 billion worth of additional US products, goods and services over the next two years, reducing the US’ bilateral trade deficit in goods, which hit $420 billion in 2018. It removes planned US tariffs on Chinese cellphones, toys and laptops, as well as halving the existing tariffs on approximately $120bn worth of Chinese goods, the Financial Times recounts.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

“Phase One” US-China trade deal signed at White House

January 15, 2020 — The so-called “Phase One” trade deal, which cancels current and proposed U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for structural economic reforms in China, was formally by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Wednesday, 15 January at the White House in Washington D.C.

The deal, which includes specific provisions pertaining to seafood, will go into effect in 30 days.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NEPA climate overhaul could unleash energy projects

January 8, 2020 — The White House is poised to exclude climate considerations from its controversial rewrite of rules surrounding the nation’s core environmental law.

The Council on Environmental Quality’s proposed changes to National Environmental Policy Act guidelines will likely emerge this week.

NEPA, signed into law by President Nixon, gives communities input and allows them to challenge federal decisions on projects like pipelines, highways and bridges. And it requires federal regulators to analyze a host of impacts.

The Trump plan is expected to “simplify the definition of environmental ‘effects’ and clarify that effects must be reasonably foreseeable and require a reasonably close causal relationship to the proposed action,” according to a draft White House memo obtained by E&E News.

In other words, the government could only study the impacts tied directly to a project — not how a project would add to a larger problem, something environmentalists have been clamoring for.

“No one pipeline causes climate change, so that wouldn’t be considered a reasonably close causal relationship,” explained Christy Goldfuss, a senior vice president at the left-leaning Center for American Progress (CAP). “I suspect that’s the intent.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Environmental groups file federal suit seeking green sea turtle habitat protections

January 8, 2020 — Three conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday, 8 January, against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, claiming it has not done enough to protect green sea turtle habitats across the country from a variety of threats.

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the Turtle Island Restoration Network, and Sea Turtle Oversight Protection claim NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined nearly four years ago that the turtles still required protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) because of threats from climate change and rising sea levels.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishing Money found for at-sea monitors

January 8, 2020 — In late December, on the doorstep to the Christmas holidays, New England’s groundfishermen received an early present.

As part of a $1.4 trillion spending package, the U.S. Senate passed a $79.4 billion appropriations bill that includes another $10.3 million for NOAA Fisheries — once again secured by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen — to fully fund at-sea monitoring in the Northeast groundfish fishery for the 2020 fishing season that begins May 1.

When President Donald Trump signed the bill into law the next day, the mandated shouldering of the full financial weight of at-sea monitoring by the groundfish industry — at a cost of up to $700 per day per vessel — had been deferred for at least another fishing season.

“This is obviously very good news for our commercial groundfishermen,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition. “At-sea monitoring has become such a huge financial issue for everyone in the fishery.”

It was the third consecutive year that Shaheen, a ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, bailed out the groundfish industry on at-sea monitoring. Shaheen secured the first $10.3 million in the 2018 appropriations process that fully funded at-sea monitoring during the current fishing season.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Controversial mining company coached Alaska’s governor to lobby White House

December 23, 2019 — A mining company secretly collaborated with the governor of Alaska to lobby the Trump administration to move forward with a mining project that Environmental Protection Agency scientists warned could devastate the world’s most valuable wild salmon habitat, according to newly released emails obtained by CNN.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office was given detailed talking points, ghostwritten letters and advice on lobbying strategies by Pebble Limited Partnership executives, emails show. Dunleavy and his office then used that material, sometimes adopting the company’s language word for word, in an effort that culminated in President Donald Trump promising favorable action on the mine, according to emails.

One striking example of the governor using Pebble’s language is an official letter Dunleavy sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in April about the length of a public comment period on the mine’s draft environment impact statement.

Read the full story at CNN

Neil Jacobs, meteorologist and acting head of NOAA during a turbulent time, nominated to lead the agency

December 19, 2019 — Less than a month after Barry Myers, the controversial pick to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, withdrew from consideration, President Trump has nominated acting administrator Neil Jacobs to lead the agency.

Jacobs, a meteorologist, has been the acting head of NOAA since 2018, but the agency has been without a permanent leader since Trump was inaugurated, the longest rudderless stretch in its history. The agency is tasked with a diverse range of duties, including forecasting the weather, conducting climate research, managing the nation’s fisheries and more.

Jacobs sailed through Senate confirmation to serve as the assistant secretary of commerce or, in his current official capacity, acting head of NOAA. However, to be confirmed as permanent NOAA administrator, he will require a new confirmation vote.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Committees Stuck in Neutral During January Impeachment Trial

December 19, 2019 — Don’t expect bill markups or votes on presidential nominees in January during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, the chairmen of Senate committees responsible for energy and environment legislation and related nominees said Dec. 18.

“It’s my understanding that committees are not going to be able to report to the floor bills during that period of time,” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters.

Still under discussion, Barrasso said, is whether committees during the impeachment trial are “going to be able to have hearings or not, on what topics, and what legislation we’ll be able to pursue.”

The House on Dec. 18 was debating two articles of impeachment against Trump, with final impeachment votes were scheduled in the evening.

Morning Hearings

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she expects the committee will be able to hold hearings in the morning up until about noon or so for days the Senate is in session in January.

“I don’t believe you can mark up bills” when the Senate is holding its impeachment trial, she said, though committees could continue to conduct oversight and hearings on both bills and nominees.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Environment