Friday, May 10, 2024
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department has named Roy Wuchitech, a Los Angeles attorney with a background in environmental law and base realignment and closure issues, to be its top environmental lawyer, according to a July 13 announcement from Wuchitech's law firm Sheppard Mul
Defense Environment Alert -- In a break with past years' policy, the Defense Department will not provide funds for EPA staff to oversee cleanups under the 2005 base realignment and closure round, despite recent EPA statements that the agency has been expecting the funds due to the increased workload associated with BRAC.
Defense Environment Alert -- A stakeholder group that includes EPA, state regulators and the Defense Department is in the early stages of developing principles to govern remediation at the thousands of munitions-contaminated sites that may require cleanup or other responses, after other efforts to address the sites, such as DOD's range cleanup rule, failed to gain broad support.
Inside Green Business -- Concerned about rising fuel prices, the Air Force has laid out an energy strategy designed to overhaul its aviation operations -- including the use of alternative fuels, improving aircraft technology, and reducing flight times by relying more on flight simulators, among other measures -- in an effort to reduce energy costs.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department and state regulators have come to an agreement on requirements for funding state regulatory oversight of military cleanups, although some states may opt out of the program because DOD won provisions forcing them to try to resolve disputes
Defense Environment Alert -- Senate authorizers are pushing the Defense Department to consider relying on coal gasification as an alternative power source to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign energy supplies.
Inside Green Business -- House Democrats last week failed in an effort to shift $300 million from the ballistic missile defense program to promote use of alternative fuels by the U.S. military as part of a strategy to reduce dependency on foreign oil and boost the nation's energy security.
Defense Environment Alert -- Army auditors are calling on the military to establish a full-time team to oversee the base closure process in Iraq -- which will likely include consideration of environmental and cleanup issues -- as the service moves to consolidate and shut down a significant number of facilities in the country, according to an Army audit obtained by Defense Environment Alert.
Defense Environment Alert -- Pentagon leaders may broaden their efforts to improve energy conservation and efficiency beyond their traditional emphasis on savings at installations to also focus on weapon systems.
Defense Environment Alert -- House and Senate lawmakers from Hawaii have introduced legislation they hope to attach to the upcoming defense authorization bill as a vehicle to underwrite a cleanup program to address chemical munitions dumped by the U.S. military off Hawaii prior to 1970, if such a program is needed, according to a spokesman for the House co-sponsor.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department is studying the impact on military test and training activities from various energy initiatives spurred by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and other initiatives to increase domestic energy supplies, informed sources say, with DOD seeking to ensure that new energy initiatives do not encroach on its test and training ranges.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department is defending itself against charges that its new cleanup and property disposal process for the 2005 base realignment and closure round focuses too much on saving DOD money and not enough on community input or cleanup, claiming the rule reflects statutory changes enacted since 1995, according to a final BRAC rule released last week.
Defense Environment Alert -- Environmentalists are charging that the Navy's expanded draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for training with low-frequency active sonar fails to correct legal violations a court cited in 2003 when it permanently enjoined the service's ability to use LFA throughout the world's oceans.
Defense Environment Alert -- As part of its fiscal year 2007 budget request, the Defense Department is seeking $1.4 billion for chemical weapons demilitarization, a slight increase from its FY-06 request.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Navy's long-held plans to build a massive, first-of-its-kind undersea training range off the East Coast may face delays, given a barrage of comments from states, federal environment officials and environmentalists calling the project's draft environmental impact study (EIS) deficient and demanding additional analysis.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Transportation Department will require the Pentagon over the next year to begin labeling as "radioactive" pallets of depleted uranium (DU) munitions that are transported by motor vehicle, rail freight or cargo vessel, ending the Defense Department's 19-year exemption to any such labeling requirement.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) has concluded it does not need to change its chemical weapons destruction practices after analyzing a study that identified a possible link between nerve agent exposure during the first Gulf War and brain cancer deaths.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Army expects to produce an interim report by the end of the month on the offshore dumping of chemical weapons by the military after World War II, according to a spokesman for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), whose office is closely monitoring the issue.
Defense Environment Alert -- In response to a court order, the Navy is proposing to restrict its use of the highly controversial low frequency active (LFA) sonar in more biologically sensitive geographical areas than it previously has proposed, according to a draft supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) the service released earlier this month.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Senate approved a measure earlier this month that pushes for prompt environmental cleanup at bases closing in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round, requiring the military and regulators to determine the environmental condition of those properties by mid-2007 and provide swift environmental response.