Friday, May 10, 2024
Defense Environment Alert -- A Defense Department official who oversees the military's program for destroying chemical weapons is advocating the program be accelerated to meet a 2017 destruction deadline, but the Pentagon will not decide until early next year whether to speed up the program, which is one of several options contained in a new DOD report to Congress on meeting the deadline.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department is pushing to complete a key environmental policy dealing with "mission sustainability" before the Bush administration ends, a defense source says, noting that the policy for dealing with potential conflicts between military installations and surrounding communities has long been in the works.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department is seeking help from private industry in addressing the effects -- many of them indirect -- of the European Union's far-reaching new chemical management program, which is expected to have a global impact on industry's use of toxic and hazardous substances.
Defense Environment Alert -- With last week's sudden resignation of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, the service loses its most senior advocate for the development of coal-to-liquids (CTL) as a potential alternative fuel source for its aircraft fleet.
Defense Environment Alert -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates is signaling his support -- via a boost in his department's fiscal year 2009 budget request -- for a recently passed congressional mandate that the United States destroy all its stockpiled chemical weapons by 2017, which will require the Pentagon to accelerate its current timeline by six years.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Navy plans to increase its annual funding for research into the effects of sonar to $18 million, according to a high-level Navy officer who says the service's use of 29 mitigation measures to prevent harm to marine mammals is working.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Army and Defense Department lack a consistent policy for addressing the mounting problem of waste and other environmental and sustainability issues during deployed operations at base camps -- including those in Iraq, according to a new Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI) study.
Defense Environment Alert -- A federal appeals court panel has accepted conditions sought by environmentalists in a major lawsuit and ordered a lower court to narrow an injunction to allow the Navy to proceed with training exercises that rely on mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar, provided additional mitigation measures are required.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Army is attempting to strike a deal with the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the reach of an enforcement cleanup order the agency issued in late August for a Maryland base.
Defense Environment Alert -- The House Energy and Commerce Committee is planning to question top military officials over the Air Force's resistance to signing enforceable Superfund cleanup accords drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency, even as service and agency officials continue a dispute over which version of the accord is adequate.
Defense Environment Alert -- Reiterating arguments first made five years ago, environmentalists are suing the Navy and federal marine regulators over a permit that will allow the service to use low-frequency active (LFA) sonar throughout much of the world's oceans, claiming the military's plan fails to sufficiently mitigate the potential harmful effects on marine mammals posed by the loud and far-reaching sound emitter.
Defense Environment Alert -- Environmentalists and the Navy will soon argue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit whether a lower court was correct in enjoining the Navy from using mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar off southern California.
Defense Environment Alert -- Provisions of a recently passed House energy bill, if adopted by the full Congress, would steer the Defense Department toward greater energy efficiency and would make federal agency greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions enforceable through the courts, potentially driving the military toward significant improvements in energy performance.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Navy last week rejected a high-ranking senator's request that the military quickly settle a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, instead filing an appeal to overturn a lower court ruling that temporarily halts the service's use of mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar in training exercises slated to take place off the Southern California coast.
Federal marine regulators are set to issue a final rule Aug. 21 that would effectively expand the Navy's authority to train with low frequency active (LFA) sonar in the world's oceans, despite heavy criticism from environmentalists over a similar draft rule.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Air Force to clean up two contaminated bases, signaling its rejection of a precedent-setting effort by the service's officials to convince the agency to use a controversial voluntary cleanup approach that critics have said would exempt the service from enforceable Superfund cleanup requirements.
Defense Environment Alert -- Major energy legislation approved by the Senate contains several key provisions that would affect the Defense Department, including a requirement that all new federal buildings ratchet down their reliance on fossil fuels and that the federal government consider expanding the use of energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) -- a popular contracting mechanism already used by DOD to make its facilities more energy efficient.
Defense Environment Alert -- The House Armed Services Committee is preparing to launch a probe of the military's cleanup programs, particularly its handling of the emerging contaminants perchlorate and trichloroethylene (TCE), Defense Environment Alert has learned.
Inside Green Business -- The fiscal year 2008 defense authorization bill passed by the House last week includes a provision crafted to harness the Defense Department's significant purchasing power as a way to boost the market for renewable energy generation, a significant addition to the growing number of government measures fostering the development of U.S. clean energy demand.
Defense Environment Alert -- House defense authorizers are calling for a Government Accountability Office probe of the impact on the environment of existing Pentagon environmental law exemptions -- venturing into an area that could spark jurisdictional fights with environment committees.