Friday, May 10, 2024
Defense Environment Alert -- In an attempt to break a deadlock over cleanup issues at a Florida Air Force base, Environmental Protection Agency enforcement chief Cynthia Giles is offering the Air Force some flexibility to exclude certain operational ranges from a disputed enforceable cleanup accord for the base, provided the service finally concedes to signing the agreement.
Defense Environment Alert -- Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), a longtime advocate of limits on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, is pressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates to explain the Obama administration's recently announced plan to open new offshore areas for oil and natural gas leasing and its impact on military testing and training. Nelson is asking to meet with Gates soon to discuss the issue.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department has been slow to implement existing policy and requirements to incorporate the fully burdened cost of fuel (FBCF) into acquisition decisions because of the need to gain widespread acceptance of the idea within the military and demonstrate how to conduct the necessary analyses, a Pentagon acquisition official said last week.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Quadrennial Defense Review for the first time addresses climate change risks to the military, making commitments to back efforts "to assess, adapt to, and mitigate the impacts of climate change" and finds that changing weather patterns resulting in food and water scarcity will contribute to political instabilities and increased military conflict in certain parts of the world.
Defense Environment Alert -- Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn earlier this month named Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter to head up efforts to comply with a key executive order issued by President Obama requiring the Defense Department and other agencies to develop greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction targets, GHG inventories and a multiyear strategic sustainability plan.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department's chemical risk management office is eyeing potential changes to DOD's acquisition program that would analyze earlier in the acquisition process the human health and environmental risks of chemicals and substances used in weapon systems,
Defense Environment Alert -- The Pentagon's top installations and environment official is pushing the Defense Department to lead the way as a test bed for the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, saying better coordination is needed to further test out technologies coming out of Energy Department laboratories and universities.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department's long-term, defense-planning scenarios should more effectively consider energy-related issues, a DOD policy official told a Navy energy forum earlier this month.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Pentagon's readiness office is launching a preliminary study of the impact of climate change on the military's training ranges, with an eye toward developing a framework to adapt ranges to the possible consequences of global warming.
Defense Environment Alert -- Contrary to a congressionally mandated goal, the Defense Department predicts it will not have all of its cleanup remedies in place by the end of this fiscal year at Base Realignment and Closure sites contaminated with munitions, according to a new DOD report.
Defense Environment Alert -- Defense policy experts at progressive think thanks are creating a broad coalition of national-security and veterans groups as part of their effort to broaden support for a House-passed cap-and-trade climate change bill and expand political backing for the legislation within Congress.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Obama administration plans to eliminate one of the three politically appointed positions assigned to the Defense Department's installations and environment (I&E) office, according to informed sources.
Defense Environment Alert -- Defense officials carrying out the Quadrennial Defense Review may be urged to consider measures to promote adaptation to climate change, including military-to-military collaboration.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Pentagon's acquisition head last week signed off on a memo forcing the military to use substitutes in place of hexavalent chromium, an anti-corrosive, in new weapon systems and processes as well as in operation and maintenance activities, recognizing the increasing regulatory focus on the hazardous metal.
Defense Environment Alert -- An 11th-hour rule from the Bush administration on the harm the Navy is allowed to cause to marine mammals while using sonar off the East Coast will effectively be reexamined by the Obama administration, after hitting up against an order from President Obama's chief of staff to review regulations pushed forward at the end of Bush's term.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department has made progress in reporting to Congress on its plan for sustaining military ranges, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.
InsideEPA.com -- The Justice Department is backing EPA's authority to issue cleanup orders at Defense Department facilities -- a major defeat for DOD in its long-fought campaign challenging the agency's authority and a decision likely to force the military to clean up contaminated sites.
Defense Environment Alert -- Efforts are brewing to convince President-elect Barack Obama to reverse Bush administration policies that critics say favored the Defense Department in battles with environmental regulators.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department's environment and installations chief, Wayne Arny, last week internally announced a reorganization of his office, telling his senior staff the changes were needed to fix "misalignments" -- mismatches between certain jobs and the specific policy office they are located in.
Defense Environment Alert -- House Democrats are waiting for the next administration to resolve a long-running dispute over the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to enforce cleanup orders at Defense Department facilities after agency officials failed to provide satisfactory answers to their recent questions on the issue, according to a key House source.